Puppet MastersS


Laptop

Emails reveal close Google relationship with NSA

Jason Leopold
Al Jazeera America
Tue, 06 May 2014 15:19 UTC
alexander page brin
© (l. to r.): Loeb / AFP / Getty; Ramson / PolarisFrom left: NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander; Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin
Email exchanges between National Security Agency Director Gen. Keith Alexander and Google executives Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt suggest a far cozier working relationship between some tech firms and the U.S. government than was implied by Silicon Valley brass after last year's revelations about NSA spying.

Disclosures by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden about the agency's vast capability for spying on Americans' electronic communications prompted a number of tech executives whose firms cooperated with the government to insist they had done so only when compelled by a court of law.

But Al Jazeera has obtained two sets of email communications dating from a year before Snowden became a household name that suggest not all cooperation was under pressure.

On the morning of June 28, 2012, an email from Alexander invited Schmidt to attend a four-hour-long "classified threat briefing" on Aug. 8 at a "secure facility in proximity to the San Jose, CA airport."

"The meeting discussion will be topic-specific, and decision-oriented, with a focus on Mobility Threats and Security," Alexander wrote in the email, obtained under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, the first of dozens of communications between the NSA chief and Silicon Valley executives that the agency plans to turn over.
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Attention

Putin warns of growing militant nationalism, Nazi ideology in Europe - passes anti-fascism laws


RIA Novosti
Thu, 08 May 2014 15:09 UTC
putin
© RIA Novosti/Alexey Nikolsky
Militant nationalism, which has led to the appearance of Nazi ideology, is raising its head in Europe, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday.

"Here and there militant nationalism is again raising its head, the same kind that brought on the appearance of Nazi ideology," Putin said during a meeting with the leaders of Armenia, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Belarus.

On Monday, Putin signed a bill making attempts to "whitewash Nazism" punishable with hefty fines and prison sentences. The law is based on the results of the Nuremberg Trials held by the Allies in 1945-1949, which convicted most surviving Nazi leaders of war crimes, denounced fascism and proclaimed most Nazi organizations as criminal.

The law provides for a monetary penalty of up to 500,000 rubles ($14,000) or a jail term of up to 5 years as punishment for rehabilitating fascism and spreading false information about the Soviet Union's actions during World War II.

Publicly desecrating symbols of Russian military glory or spreading information disrespecting public holidays related to the country's defense will be punishable by a fine of up to 300,000 rubles ($8,400) or community service for up to a year.

The Soviet Union's role in the Allied victory in World War II is an important component of many Russians' sense of pride and patriotism, with spectacular anniversary parades and ceremonies held each year on May 9.

Pro-federalization supporters have called Ukrainian nationalists, who have protested and fought against federalists in the country's east since the ousting of President Viktor Yanukovych and deadly riots in Kiev, followers of Nazi ideology. Europe has been supporting Ukraine's so-called Euromaidan activists, who wish to see Ukraine become part of the EU.
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Evil Rays

Russian aircraft carrier sails into English Channel - NOT unusual

Ben Farmer
The Telegraph
Thu, 08 May 2014 15:02 UTC
dragon
© CrownHMS Dragon (foreground), a Type 45 Royal Navy destroyer, escorting the Admiral Kuznetsov in the English Channel. The Russian warships are expected to head into the North Sea and back to Russia.
A Russian aircraft carrier task group has sailed into the English Channel under escort by a Royal Navy warship.

HMS Dragon met the Russian warships in the south western approaches to the Channel on Wednesday and is shadowing them as they are expected to head into the North Sea and back to Russia.

The heavy carrier Admiral Kuznetsov is accompanied by the nuclear-powered Kirov class cruiser Peter the Great and several support ships after a five-month mission to the Mediterranean.

Naval sources said it was not unusual for Russian warships to pass through the channel and the Kuznetsov was also escorted past British waters on its way out in December when it passed Scotland heading south.

Capt Vadim Serga, spokesman for the Russian Northern Fleet, said: "The cruiser has accomplished its mission within the Navy task force in the Mediterranean and headed for Severomorsk. The aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov is expected to return to base by late May."

The Russian ships have spent months training in the Mediterranean, where the Kuznetsov's Sukhoi Su-33 fighters and Kamov Ka-27 helicopters carried out more than 350 practice sorties. The ships also took part in missile and artillery firing drills.

A Royal Navy spokesman said: "We can confirm that HMS Dragon was activated as the fleet-ready escort vessel. She met the task group centred around the Admiral Kuznetsov."

Comment: Russian ships have been sailing in international waters for years. The only reason this is news is because the presstitute media are drumming up anti-Russian sentiment in the masses.

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Handcuffs

Sex, flies and videotape: the secret lives of Harun Yahya

Halil Arda
Rationalist.org.uk
Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:53 UTC
Adnan Oktar
Muslim creationist, cult leader, Dawkins' nemesis, messiah. Halil Arda tracks down the real Harun Yahya

Inspired by the high profile of its Christian American counterpart, Muslim creationism is becoming increasingly visible and confident. On scores of websites and in dozens of books with titles like The Evolution Deceit and The Dark Face of Darwinism, a new and well-funded version of evolution-denialism, carefully calibrated to exploit the current fashion for religiously inspired attacks on scientific orthodoxy and "militant" atheism, seems to have found its voice. In a recent interview with The Times Richard Dawkins himself recognises the impact of this new phenomenon: "There has been a sharp upturn in hostility to teaching evolution in the classroom and it's mostly coming from Islamic students."

The patron saint of this new movement, the ubiquitous "expert" cited and referenced by those eager to demonstrate the superiority of "Koranic science" over "the evolution lie", is the larger-than-life figure of Harun Yahya.

Comment: Meet the bizarre Islamic sex cult propelling Turkey towards a neo-Ottoman 'Turkish Islamic Union'

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Top Secret

Senate drops from intelligence bill requirement to report on drone use

Mark Mazzetti
The New York Times
Mon, 28 Apr 2014 12:28 UTC
Image
© Namatullah Karyab/AFP/Getty ImagesAn Afghan boy wounded in a US drone strike in Kunar province last year that left 10 civilians, including five children, dead.
The Senate has quietly stripped a provision from an intelligence bill that would have required President Obama to make public each year the number of people killed or injured in targeted killing operations in Pakistan and other countries where the United States uses lethal force.

The move highlights the continued resistance inside the government about making these operations, primarily carried out using armed drones, more accountable to public scrutiny. In a letter to the Senate earlier this month, James R. Clapper, the director of national intelligence, expressed concern that a public report would undermine the effectiveness of the operations.

The provision, passed by the Senate Intelligence Committee last year as part of its authorization bill, required Mr. Obama to make public an annual report on "the total number of combatants killed or injured during the preceding year by the use of targeted lethal force outside the United States by remotely piloted aircraft." The provision was the same for civilians killed or injured. But officials said that the provision encountered almost immediate resistance both from intelligence officials and Republican lawmakers, some who have fought against any changes to the way the targeted killing program has been managed.
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Health

Obamacare killing one-doctor medical practices

Dan Swain
The San Diego Union-Tribune
Mon, 28 Apr 2014 16:02 UTC
Image
© Peggy Peattie/Union-TribubeDr. Doug Moir fills out a patient’s medical history on the computer after her visit. Moir has less time for patients since electronic health record software became federally mandated.
Despite the predictions of fortune tellers in politics and think tanks, we won't know for years whether the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, will ultimately leave people sicker or healthier, richer or poorer.

Yet already the law, coming on top of previous legislation, is speeding the demise of an American small-business institution; the one-doctor medical practice.

Their problems began in the late 1990s. Government cost controls steadily eroded revenues while simultaneously boosting costs, by stacking on requirements for paperwork and accounting.

Some doctors adapted by figuring out ways to see more patients. Others just accepted falling incomes.

Now federal health care policy has delivered a major blow to productivity.
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Star of David

Ted Cruz: John Kerry should resign: 'has proven himself unsuitable for the position he holds'

Elahe Izadi
National Journal
Mon, 28 Apr 2014 11:58 UTC
Image
© UnknownSenator Ted Cruz his new boss, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Sen. Ted Cruz wants Secretary of State John Kerry to resign over his comment that without a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israel risks becoming an "apartheid state."

The Texas Republican, who's possibly running for president in 2016, took to the Senate floor Monday to call for Kerry to step down.

"Sadly, it is my belief that Secretary Kerry has proven himself unsuitable for the position he holds," Cruz said. "Therefore, before any further harm is done to our national security interests and to our critical alliance with the nation of Israel, that John Jerry should offer President Obama his resignation and the president should accept it."

Comment: Looks like Israel has another lackey!

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Gift

Beware of USAID agency bearing gifts

Linda S. Heard
Special to Gulf News
Mon, 21 Apr 2014 20:00 UTC
Image
© christophgermann.blogspot.com
USAID's so-called 'democracy promotion programs' are designed to foment dissent against governments unfriendly to Washington.

There is no such thing as a free lunch, as states that are recipients of western aid understand only too well. The naive may believe that foreign aid is a tool to help developing countries; skeptics are convinced it's a quid pro quo enabling wealthy powers to exercise geopolitical policy objectives. In a documentary, filmmaker John Pilger made the case that the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are "The New Rulers of the World" on behalf of their largest donor countries - the US, the UK, Germany, France and Japan. But some less powerful nations are alleging that one agency - the US Agency for International Development (USAID) - is acting as a front for the CIA.

When the Bolivian President Evo Morales expelled and shutdown USAID in his country last year for alleged attempts to undermine his leftist government, he wasn't being paranoid after all. As a recent expose by the Associated Press shows USAID's so-called "democracy promotion programs" are designed to foment dissent against governments unfriendly to Washington.

"In a number of countries, including Venezuela and Bolivia, USAID is acting more as an agency involved in covert action, like the CIA, than as an aid or development agency," asserted Mark Weisbrot, an economist with a Washington-based think tank, the Centre for Economic and Policy Research.

In the late 70s, under the headline "Police program is called CIA cover" the New York Times revealed that the USAID police training initiative facilitated the CIA to "plant men with local police in sensitive places around the world" as well as recruit "prime candidates for enrollment as CIA employees."

Comment: When the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was created under the leadership of President John F. Kennedy, it brought together several existing foreign assistance organizations and programs. According to USAID's own history, 50 years later and after several transformations and calls for reform, the agency "began rebuilding with an eye to getting the most bang out of its funding allocations." As a tool for the CIA, Kennedy would be appalled.

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Pirates

Remember Abu Hamza, the one-eyed, hook-handed, firebrand preacher from Finsbury Park Mosque? Turns out he has always worked for the British government


RT
Fri, 09 May 2014 09:00 UTC
Image
"It's a war, innit? All's fair in war, right? So wha' if this geezah's actually one of ours? Serves you righ' for bein' fooled!"
The notorious Islamic radical preacher Abu Hamza secretly worked for British intelligence, his lawyer told a US court during trial on multiple terrorism-related charges. Theories exist that in exchange MI5 had allowed him to preach his message.

The arguments presented by the defense are in stark contrast to the image of Hamza established over more than ten years. Taking the stand on Wednesday, the preacher flatly denied any association with Al Qaeda or other terror groups.

With a hook for a hand, and notorious for his hate-filled speeches outside London's Finsbury Park Mosque, Abu Hamza is intensely disliked by the US government. He stands accused of multiple counts of terrorism, including the plot to organize a Jihadi training camp in the state of Oregon and advocating violence in Afghanistan in 2001. He is further accused of 11 other counts in relation to the taking of 16 hostages in Yemen in 1998.

After spending in excess of £1 million of taxpayer money on trying Hamza in the UK for more than eight years, the British finally extradited him to the US in 2012 after he served six years back in the UK for inciting hatred and advocating murder. In America, he was to face much more serious charges of funneling money and recruits to Al Qaeda elements in Afghanistan, the plot to set up an extremist training camp in the US and involvement in a situation in Yemen that ended in hostages and three dead Britons.

Comment: Indeed, he was in it for the money and the day he could ditch the ridiculous costume and stop playing a role for his employer.

That's the War on Terror for you folks, a lie from start to finish.

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Red Flag

Russia marks 69th anniversary of defeat of Nazism with spectacular Red Square military parade (VIDEO full ceremony)


RT
Fri, 09 May 2014 08:58 UTC
Image
© RIA Novosti/Grigory SysoevT 90 tanks during the V-Day Parade on Red Square, Moscow.
Russia has celebrated the 69th anniversary of Victory over Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War (WWII) with a traditional May 9 military parade on Moscow's Red Square, which featured 11,000 troops, 149 military vehicles and 69 warplanes.

The clock on the Kremlin's Spasskaya tower rang its chimes at 10:00 AM Moscow time to signal the start of the Victory Day parade.

The right to bring out the official flag of the Russian Federation and the Victory banner this year went to the servicemen of the Preobrazhensky regiment, which has been carrying the honor guard service in Red Square for over 55 years.

The original Victory Banner is the red flag, which was mounted by Soviet troops atop the Reichstag building in Berlin on May 9, 1945 as a symbol of victory over the Nazis.

After Russia's defense minister, Sergey Shoigu, inspected the servicemen gathered for the parade, he reported to the commander-in-chief of the Russian armed forces, the country's president, Vladimir Putin.


Comment: Yesterday, May 8th 2014, the Russian military filmed and broadcast an intensive series of missile drills:



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