Puppet MastersS


Eye 2

Shell continues spilling oil in North Sea despite efforts to improve

Terry Macalister
Guardian
Thu, 31 Jan 2013 15:16 UTC
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© Photograph: Royal Dutch Shell Ho/EPAShell's Gannet Alpha platform in the North Sea
Anglo-Dutch group has been responsible for over 20 pollution accidents in British waters over a six month period

Shell and other major companies are spilling crude, diesel or other contaminants into the North Sea on a daily basis despite the oil industry's efforts to improve its safety record.

On the day that Shell reported global annual profits of $27bn (£17 bn), government statistics revealed that the Anglo-Dutch group has been responsible for over 20 pollution accidents in British waters over a six-month period.

Shell said that "no spill is acceptable" and that it had been working hard to ensure its safety performance was improved by investing heavily in the maintenance of North Sea platforms.

But environmentalists said the latest spill statistics from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) meant Shell and others needed to be threatened with a ban and kept out of the most sensitive waters of the far north.
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Light Saber

CNN host smacks down Senator for linking assault weapons to 'black-on-black violence'

David Edwards
Raw Story
Thu, 31 Jan 2013 14:53 UTC
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CNN host Soledad O'Brien on Thursday scolded Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and told him he should know better than to try to link assault weapons to "black violence on blacks" because most recent mass killings had been carried out by white men.

Following National Rifle Association chief Wayne LaPierre's Wednesday testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee that he opposed universal background checks at gun shows, O'Brien asked Grassley why not support something that seemed like an obvious part of the solution.

Grassley argued that universal background checks would burden people trying to buy a gun on Sunday.

"Obviously we have some background checks, it's how encompassing do you do it?" he explained. "Do you do it for one father selling to a son or another relative or how do you cover everything? I think that's the issue. And also, the extent to which you have private sales on Sunday between relatives, and maybe you can't access the system all the time and as fast as you want to do it."

O'Brien pressed Grassley on why he opposed an assault weapons ban, when even the temporary 1994 ban had reduced the number of crimes involving those firearms by between 17 percent and 72 percent, according to a 2004 study by the University of Pennsylvania.
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Eye 1

North Dakota debates slew of 'draconian' anti-abortion bills

Karen McVeigh
Raw Story
Thu, 31 Jan 2013 14:48 UTC
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© Flickr/Beechwood Photograph
The state rated one of the worst for access to women's reproductive services, is debating introducing 'draconian' bills

A new front in the battle over abortion and reproductive rights has opened in North Dakota, where state lawmakers are holding hearings into a series of draconian anti-abortion bills.

The state, one of four in the US with only one abortion clinic, has already been rated as one of the worst for access to women's reproductive services, according to a report by Naral Pro-Choice America published last month.

Among the measures introduced by five proposed bills in the state include: defining a "person" as a fertilised human egg; enforcing penalties on physicians who perform abortions after a foetal heartbeat is detected; restricting abortions to women only in the event of a threat to life; and criminalising physicians who perform them.
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Yoda

Military judge orders government to stop censoring 9/11 hearings


Raw Story
Thu, 31 Jan 2013 14:35 UTC
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© AFP PhotoCourtroom drawing shows Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
A military judge ordered the US government Thursday to stop censoring September 11 pre-trial hearings from outside his courtroom.

Judge James Pohl said the government must "disconnect the outside feed or ability to suspend the broadcast" from outside his court.

Proceedings are heard in the press room, and in a room where human rights groups and victims families sit, with a 40 second delay. This is done so that a security officer sitting next to the judge can block anything deemed classified.

The ruling means classified information could still be blocked, but only by order of the judge and not from outside the courtroom.
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Star of David

Russia denounces Israeli strike on Syria as unprovoked attack on sovereign country


RT.com
Thu, 31 Jan 2013 14:06 UTC
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© Reuters
The Russian Foreign Ministry has issued a statement expressing deep concern over Israel's airstrike on Syria saying that it violates the UN Charter.

The Ministry website says; if this information is confirmed that would mean that we have to deal with unprovoked attacks on the territory of a sovereign state which is inadmissible, whatever objectives are declared as a justification.

Russian diplomats are taking urgent measures to clarify the situation and to establish the details of the incident.

Russia has again called upon the international community to stop the violence in Syria, prevent foreign intervention in the conflict, and assist the start of a nationwide dialogue based on the Geneva agreements.
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Stop

Russia temporarily bans U.S. meat imports


RT.com
Thu, 31 Jan 2013 14:03 UTC
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Russia has imposed a temporary ban on US meat starting in February. The restrictions were enacted after the US Veterinary Service failed to meet regulations for levels of ractopamine, which stimulates muscle tissue growth.

Chilled meat will be prohibited from February 4, and frozen meat imports will be banned starting on February 11. According to Russia's Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance, the US ignored numerous requests from the Russian regulative body, and refused to support its products with documentation confirming the absence of ractopamine.
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Rocket

'Israeli airstrike intended to stop Syrian scientific military research'


RT.com
Thu, 31 Jan 2013 13:56 UTC
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Though Israel has not yet claimed responsibility for an airstrike targeting a military site near Damascus, experts believe that Tel Aviv aimed to further destabilize Syria and undermine its military capabilities.

Initial reports suggested that Israel conducted an airstrike on a convoy carrying sophisticated weaponry that was preparing to cross the Syria-Lebanon border. Israeli officials said the vehicles may have contained chemical weapons and Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles intended for Hezbollah in Lebanon.

"This episode boils down to a warning by Israel to Syria and Hezbollah not to engage in the transfer of sensitive weapons," a regional security source told Reuters.

But the latest reports from Syria suggest that the airstrike hit the Jamraya research center in the suburbs of Damascus, far from the Lebanese border. An anonymous diplomatic source told Reuters that chemical weapons may be stored at the center, and that the vehicles in Hezbollah convoy were unlikely to be carrying such arms.
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Bad Guys

Canadian Special Forces on ground in Mali to protect 'assets'


CBC News
Mon, 28 Jan 2013 17:13 UTC
Mali Children
© Jerome Delay/Associated PressChildren cheer foreign visitors arriving in the streets of Gao, Northern Mali on Monday. French and Malian troops are moving through areas in Mali's north previously controlled by al-Qaeda-linked insurgents.
Harper tells MPs Parliament will be consulted on 'any further steps'

Canadian special forces are on the ground inside the troubled West African country of Mali to protect Canadian assets there, CBC News has learned.

The special forces are not there to train Malian troops - and they are not involved in any combat role, as the government has repeatedly stressed and Prime Minister Stephen Harper repeated again Monday in the House of Commons.

The Department of National Defence would not confirm or deny the special forces are in Mali due to issues of security of personnel.

But a spokesperson for Foreign Affairs told CBC News, "Steps have been taken to ensure our mission and Canadian personnel are protected."

Comment: The following article (Hat tip Cryptogon) from CBC News tells us exactly what it is the Canadians are so keen to 'protect': What Canada Is Doing in Mali:
Canadian bilateral trade with Mali doesn't amount to much. In 2011, we exported about $26 million worth of goods to Mali, most of that machinery and equipment. Imports from Mali came to less than $1 million.

But Canadian investment in Mali amounts to considerably more - in the hundreds of millions. And the bulk of that investment can be summed up in one word: gold.

About a dozen Canadian gold miners are actively producing and exploring in Mali. Rich veins of gold were discovered in the country's southwest region in the late 1980s.

The biggest Canadian company there, Toronto-based Iamgold Corp., operates two joint ventures with South Africa-based AngloGold Ashanti and the Malian government.


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Eye 2

'U.S. has militarily coerced Middle Eastern political outcomes since the Cold War'


RT.com
Thu, 31 Jan 2013 11:47 UTC
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Hillary and Flynt Leverett
Though Washington tries to engineer Middle Eastern politics by influencing economies, Iran has never given in to such pressure, Middle East experts Hillary and Flynt Leverett told RT. Iran's concerns deserve fair consideration, they argue.

The Leveretts acted were analysts in both the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, and are two of America's most informed Middle East experts. Their new book, 'Going to Tehran: Why the United States Must Come to Terms with the Islamic Republic of Iran,' offers a way out of the current diplomatic crisis facing the two countries.

RT: Washington seems to be very happy with the sanctions. They are crippling the Iranian economy. Why should they change policies now? Why should they come to terms with Iran?

Hillary Leverett: Sanctions are not going to work. Sanctions have not worked. We've seen sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic of Iran for 32 years. We saw crippling sanctions imposed on Iran during their 8 year war on Iraq from 1980 to 1988. We saw at that time half their GDP was erased, half of it. And still the Islamic Republic of Iran did not surrender to hostile foreign powers. The idea that now the sanctions are going to force the Islamic Republic of Iran to surrender to what it sees as hostile foreign powers and their demands, there's no basis for that in the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran. And, frankly, there's no basis for that anywhere. The United States imposed crippling sanctions, for example, on Saddam Hussein's Iraq for over a decade, killing over a million people, half of them children, and even then Saddam Hussein's government did not implode and it did not concede to the demands of hostile foreign powers. It took a massive US land invasion to do that.
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Pistol

Arkansas lawmakers push for concealed guns in churches


RT.com
Thu, 31 Jan 2013 11:45 UTC
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© Reuters/Lucy Nicholson
Legislators in the US state of Arkansas approved by a wide margin Monday a measure that would allow churchgoers to bring concealed guns to their place of worship. The bill cites "personal security" as its impetus.

The Arkansas State Senate voted 28-4 to pass the Church Protection Act of 2013, penned by Republican State Senator Bryan King.
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