Puppet MastersS


Question

Israel rattled by mysterious Australian prisoner


Times of Oman
Tue, 12 Feb 2013 22:17 UTC
Prisoner X
© The Age
Jerusalem: An Australian man committed suicide in a high-security Israeli jail in 2010 after being held for months in great secrecy, Australia's ABC channel said on Tuesday, throwing new light on a case that has rattled Israel.

The unsourced ABC story named the man, known previously only as "prisoner x", as Ben Zygier. It added that it "understood" the 34-year-old from Melbourne had been previously recruited by the Israeli spy agency Mossad.

There was no official comment on the story in Israel.

However, within hours of the report surfacing, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office summoned Israeli editors to ask them not to publish a story "that is very embarrassing to a certain government agency", Israel's Haaretz newspaper said.

"The emergency meeting was called following a broadcast outside Israel regarding the incident in question," Haaretz said, giving no further information.

Shortly afterwards, all reference to the Australian report vanished from Israeli news sites - including Haaretz itself.

Such a gag order is highly unusual in Israel, where state military censors normally allow local media to quote foreign sources on controversial incidents - such as an alleged attack on Syria last month by the Israeli airforce.
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Newspaper

16 Anti-Gay Politicians Caught Being Gay


Ranker
Tue, 12 Feb 2013 10:23 UTC
Caleb Hesse
Caleb Hesse
Caleb Hesse

First grade teacher and volunteer youth leader Caleb Douglas Hesse has been a longtime anti-gay activist and even donated to Prop 8 in California to ban gay marriage. In August 2012, he confessed to sexually abusing "numerous underage boys," usually during overnight trips with the Evangelical Free Church youth group in Yucca Valley, CA. Investigators believe Hesse's inappropriate contact with young boys may have spanned up to three decades, occurring in "the early 1980s and as recently as a week ago."

[Ed. Note: Some readers have noted that there is a difference between homosexuality and pedophilia. Very true. The people on this list were caught in homosexual acts (characterized by a tendency to direct sexual desire toward another of the same sex). Pedophilia is a condition in which persons are attracted to children. That distinction is clear.]

Comment: As a general rule of thumb, we can say that the more vocal and insistent the politician's anti-gay stance is, the more likely it is that they are "in the closet". The same would hold true for anyone in the public eye.

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USA

Officials able to eavesdrop on private conversations between 9/11 suspects and their lawyers in court: expert witness


Raw Story
Tue, 12 Feb 2013 18:09 UTC
Image
© AFP Photo
The United States was capable of eavesdropping on what were thought to be private conversations in court between the suspected plotters of 9/11 and their lawyers, a witness testified Tuesday.

Maurice Elkins, director of courtroom technology at the US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay on the southeastern tip of Cuba, said 32 microphones had monitored such legal hearings, until changes were made on Monday.

Even whispered conversations, spoken in "a very, very low tone," could be picked up on an unfiltered audio feed being handled by a government agency, he said, confirming defense lawyers' worst fears.

Their contention that client-attorney privilege could have been breached by such arrangements dominated the second day of the latest pre-trial hearing.

Elkins's admission came during questioning from James Connell, the attorney for one of the five men accused of orchestrating the September 11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people and led to US-backed wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The unfiltered circuit was controlled by computer software that recorded everything said in court, Elkins said, unlike the "filtered circuit" relied on by journalists who cover the proceedings from behind a glass screen.
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Eye 2

Former Utah city councilman charged after shooting a second dog while intoxicated

Megan Carpentier
Raw Story
Tue, 12 Feb 2013 18:06 UTC
Image
© Shutterstock
Former Tabiona, Utah city councilman Rickey Evin Wilberg was charged yesterday with possession of a firearm by a restricted person, possession of drugs and drug paraphernalia, intoxication and discharge of a firearm after he was arrested on February 6, 2013 in the shooting of his dog.

Michael McFall of the Salt Lake Tribune reported that someone in the area heard gunfire and called 911, and Wilberg allegedly told the responding officers that he'd shot his dog twice. Officers then reportedly noticed a marijuana pipe and that Wilberg smelled of alcohol, and said that, upon request, Wilberg showed them his marijuana in a prescription bottle and was arrested.
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Eye 1

Nevada state senator booted from legislature after threatening his wife

Stephen C. Webster
Raw Story
Tue, 12 Feb 2013 17:59 UTC
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Las Vegas Democratic Assemblyman Steven Brooks, 40, is not welcome in the state legislature anymore following his arrest Sunday for allegedly threatening his wife.

Brooks was arrested January 19 on a felony charge after allegedly threatening Assembly Democratic Speaker Marilyn Kirkpatrick, then detained by police several days later on a domestic disturbance call at his grandmother's home.

An investigation was launched at that point and lawmakers began moving forward with plans to bar him from the legislature, and he was kicked out of the Democratic caucus.
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Hiliter

Republican-backed for-profit school caught deleting bad student grades

David Edwards
Raw Story
Tue, 12 Feb 2013 17:54 UTC
Image
A for-profit school that was hyped by Republican lawmakers as a solution to Tennessee's education problems recently admitted deleting bad grades to "more accurately recognize students' current progress."

A December email obtained by WTVF showed that Tennessee Virtual Academy's vice principal instructed middle school teachers to delete "failing grades" from October and September.

"After ... looking at so many failing grades, we need to make some changes before the holidays," the email says, adding that each teacher needed to "take out the October and September progress [reports]; delete it so that all that is showing is November progress."

"If you have given an assignment and most of your students failed that assignment, then you need to take that grade out."

Democratic state Rep. Gloria Johnson said she was horrified because the school's instructions amounted to cheating.
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Snakes in Suits

Rubio one of 22 male GOP senators to vote against Violence Against Women Act

David Ferguson
Raw Story
Tue, 12 Feb 2013 17:50 UTC
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The U.S Senate has renewed the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), with 78 votes in favor and 22 against. According to Think Progress, all of the 22 votes against renewing the Act were Republican men, including rising GOP star, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R).

Republicans had threatened to obstruct VAWA, which is renewed every five years, over new provisions that would enshrine protections for LGBT people, immigrants and women on Native American reservations into the law. House Republicans proposed their own, watered down version of the legislation in 2012, but the House and Senate, unable to reconcile their versions of the legislation, allowed the VAWA to expire for the first time since its inception.

The VAWA was first passed in 1994 to address violence against women through stiffer sentences for violent perpetrators, guaranteeing women access to civil proceedings should prosecutors decline to press charges in a domestic violence case and by otherwise buttressing protections for women within the law. It was renewed without controversy in 2000 and 2005, but came up against Republican resistance this year.
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Bad Guys

Anti-fracking activists sue New York town for banning them from council meetings

Stephen C. Webster
Raw Story
Tue, 12 Feb 2013 17:45 UTC
Image
© Flickr user Credo Action
Opponents of natural gas fracturing in Sanford, New York filed a lawsuit Monday against the town council, alleging that officials silenced them in violation of their First Amendment rights.

The city, like many across the state, has become a hotbed of anti-fracking activism as Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) debates whether to lift a statewide ban on the natural gas extraction technique, which scientists say can cause earthquakes and has led to polluted well water in some areas.

The council in Sanford was sued after members shut down public comment in September, following weeks of meetings packed with supporters and opponents of fracking, according to The Associated Press.
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Eye 2

Monsanto sued small famers to protect seed patents, report says

Paul Harris
Guardian
Tue, 12 Feb 2013 16:29 UTC
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© AFP/Getty ImagesOver 53% of the world's commercial seed market is controlled by just three firms – Monsanto, DuPont and Syngenta.
Agricultural giant has won more than $23m from its targets, but one case is being heard at Supreme Court this month

The agricultural giant Monsanto has sued hundreds of small farmers in the United States in recent years in attempts to protect its patent rights on genetically engineered seeds that it produces and sells, a new report said on Tuesday.

The study, produced jointly by the Center for Food Safety and the Save Our Seeds campaigning groups, has outlined what it says is a concerted effort by the multinational to dominate the seeds industry in the US and prevent farmers from replanting crops they have produced from Monsanto seeds.

In its report, called Seed Giants vs US Farmers, the CFS said it had tracked numerous law suits that Monsanto had brought against farmers and found some 142 patent infringement suits against 410 farmers and 56 small businesses in more than 27 states. In total the firm has won more than $23m from its targets, the report said.

However, one of those suits, against Indiana soybean farmer Vernon Hugh Bowman, is a potentially landmark patent case that could have wide implications for genetic engineering and who controls patents on living organisms. The CFS and SOS are both supporting Bowman in the case, which will be heard in the Supreme Court later this month.
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Question

Nearly 450 British military drones lost in Iraq and Afghanistan

Nick Hopkins
Guardian
Tue, 12 Feb 2013 16:26 UTC
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© ReutersA tiny Black Hornet Nano unmanned air vehicle (UAV), is launched from a compound in Afghanistan.
Ministry of Defence releases figures for crashes, breakdowns and missing vehicles, including loss of half of Hermes 450 fleet

Almost 450 drones operated by the British military have crashed, broken down or been lost in action during operations in Afghanistan and Iraq over the last five years, figures reveal.

The Ministry of Defence has disclosed for the first time the five Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) systems used in the conflicts and the number that have perished due to pilot error, technical faults or the undesirability of retrieving them from hostile areas.

The figures highlight the military's increasing reliance on technologies that are regarded as a way of minimising risks to frontline troops. Officials say the UAVs have operated for thousands of hours on sensitive operations.

But the disclosure has also raised concerns among campaigners about their reliability. They say that some of the smaller drones, which are more prone to crashes, are similar to those already being flown in UK airspace.

"The drone industry constantly talks up the supposed economic benefits of unmanned drones, but it is the civil liberties and safety implications that need real attention," said Chris Cole, who set up watchdog website Drone Wars UK.
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