Puppet MastersS


Megaphone

Chinese hold anti-censorship protest outside newspaper

James Pomfret
Reuters
Mon, 07 Jan 2013 17:11 UTC
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© REUTERS/James PomfretDemonstrators gather along a street near the headquarters of Southern Weekly newspaper in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, January 7, 2013.
Hundreds of supporters of one of China's most liberal newspapers demonstrated outside its headquarters on Monday, backing a strike by journalists against interference by the provincial propaganda chief.

The rare anti-censorship protest happened in Guangzhou, capital of wealthy Guangdong, China's most liberal province and birthplace of the reforms, begun three decades ago, that propelled China to become the world's second-largest economy.

The outcry began late last week when reporters at the influential Southern Weekly newspaper accused censors of replacing an original New Year's letter to readers that called for a constitutional government with another piece lauding the party's achievements.

Police allowed the demonstration, suggesting the Guangdong government, led by newly appointed Hu Chunhua, a rising political star, may want to tread carefully in tackling public discontent over censorship.

The protesters, many of them youths, held signs with slogans such as "Freedom of expression is not a crime," and "Chinese people want freedom". Others made speeches defending the paper an laid chrysanthemums, a flower used in Chinese funerals, to symbolically mourn the death of press freedom.
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Cult

Gerard Depardieu meets Putin, receives Russian passport


BBC
Mon, 07 Jan 2013 16:14 UTC
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© ReutersGerard Depardieu and Vladimir Putin met in the Russian resort of Sochi
French actor Gerard Depardieu has met President Vladimir Putin and has been handed his new Russian passport.

The actor had announced he was seeking Russian citizenship after the French government criticised his decision to move abroad to avoid higher taxes.

Mr Depardieu met Mr Putin in Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi.

Mr Depardieu was then given his new passport, although the president's spokesman said Mr Putin did not hand it over personally.

Mr Depardieu and Mr Putin shook hands and hugged each other at the meeting in Sochi.

The actor was later invited to set up home in the central Russian region of Mordovia, known for its Stalin-era prison camps.

Local governor Vladimir Volkov said Mr Depardieu could choose an apartment or a place to build a house, Interfax news agency reported.

After arriving in Mordovia's main city of Saransk, the actor showed of his new passport, saying: "I am very happy, it's very beautiful here. Beautiful and soulful people live here."

Earlier this week, Mr Putin signed the decree granting Russian citizenship to Mr Depardieu.
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Apple Green

Why China's explosive economic growth could trigger a global food crisis

Prasanth Aby Thomas
International Business Times
Sun, 23 Dec 2012 15:50 UTC
food shopping
© Unknown
As the global population heads towards a projected 9.1 billion by 2050, the availability and cost of food are likely to pose major challenges for countries around the world.

World food prices and the cost of grain increased by 7 percent and 12 percent respectively over the year to the end of 2012. This has happened without any major food crisis or panic policies on the part of major food grain producers.


Comment: But the author omits to mention the obvious link to commodity traders artificially pushing up prices for profit.

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V

Red Cross chief: 'Britain could face more riots'


BBC
Mon, 07 Jan 2013 16:09 UTC
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The Head of the International Committee of the Red Cross has warned that Britain could face further riots as a result of the economic crisis.

Yves Daccord also said he believes there is the prospect of further violence throughout Europe, drawing parallels with the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.
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Vader

Obama nominates psychopathic drone strike programme mastermind as next CIA director

Toby Harnden
The Mail Online
Mon, 07 Jan 2013 15:58 UTC
  • John Brennan is behind programme that has carried out over 300 remote strikes against terrorist targets, killing some 2,500 people
  • Drawn fire from Democrats for connection to 'torture' techniques such as waterboarding under Bush administration
  • Also criticised for wrongly stating bin Laden was armed and had used his wife as a human shield in a briefing following the historic SEAL Team Six raid
  • Nominated after David Petraeus quit following revelations of his clandestine affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell
John Brennan
© GettyPraise: Despite his controversial past, Obama set out his respect for John Brennan at a press conference today as one of America's most talented intelligence officials

Comment: Maybe General Petraeus was ousted because he just wasn't psychopathic enough?

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Snakes in Suits

Microsoft signs 3-year, $617 million deal with the DoD

Steven Loeb
vator.tv
Fri, 04 Jan 2013 15:37 UTC
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Deal will bring Windows 8 to 75% of the Department of Defense employees.

I'm sure you've been hearing that sales of Windows 8 have been slow and/or disappointing since its release in late October. Some blame it on the hardware, while others are saying that sales was actually meeting, admittedly lowered, expectations. After scoring gigantic win on Friday, though, I'm pretty sure Microsoft will have put any of those fears to rest.

The Defense Department has awarded a three-year, $617 million joint enterprise license agreement for Microsoft products, it was announced Friday.

The net new contract was awarded to Insight Public Sector, a division of Insight Enterprises, one of the largest global Microsoft Large Account Resellers, Microsoft wrote on its blog, and the deal will cover nearly 75% of all Department of Defense personnel. Microsoft called it "the most comprehensive licensing agreement" it has ever established with the DoD.

As part of the deal, the U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force and Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) will be given access to the most recent versions of Microsoft products, including Microsoft Office 2013, SharePoint 2013 Enterprise and Windows 8.

The new SharePoint 2013 Enterprise, Microsoft says, "will unlock new levels of cross-agency information sharing through improved enterprise search and social communications features while powering advanced business intelligence and reporting capabilities," while the Department of Defense will use Windows 8 "to empower productivity from any location, and any supported device, while taking advantage of enhanced security."
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Target

U.S. drone attacks 'counter-productive', former Obama security adviser claims

Nick Hopkins
Guardian
Mon, 07 Jan 2013 11:56 UTC
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© Photograph: ReutersThe aftermath of a US drone strike in Yemen in September. The US claimed the attack killed six Islamist militants but the Yemeni government said the target was missed and 13 civilians were killed.
US reliance on drones to target terrorists undermines rule of law, is ineffective and has strategic drawbacks, argues Michael Boyle.

The United States' use of drones is counter-productive, less effective than the White House claims, and is "encouraging a new arms race that will empower current and future rivals and lay the foundations for an international system that is increasingly violent", according to a study by one of President Obama's former security advisers.

Michael Boyle, who was on Obama's counter-terrorism group in the run-up to his election in 2008, said the US administration's growing reliance on drone technology was having "adverse strategic effects that have not been properly weighed against the tactical gains associated with killing terrorists".

Civilian casualties were likely to be far higher than had been acknowledged, he said.

In an article for the Chatham House journal International Affairs, Boyle said the conventional wisdom over the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) needed to be challenged.

He said there was an urgent need for greater transparency because most Americans remained "unaware of the scale of the drone programme ... and the destruction it has caused in their name".
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Padlock

Prison reform controversy: China may close notorious labor camps


RT.com
Mon, 07 Jan 2013 10:31 UTC
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© AFP PhotoPicture dated 12 June 1986, shows the "Re-education through labor" camp of Tuanhe near Beijing
Beijing has announced it will halt China's widely criticized labor camp practices, state media reported, quoting China's chief of security. However, the announcement was removed shortly after it was made and was followed by a report promising reform.

The ruling Communist Party will "stop the use" of the "reform through labor" system, and will pass new regulations in March, state TV network CCTV quoted Meng Jianzhu, Secretary of Central Politics and Law Commission, as saying.

The announcement was removed shortly after it appeared, and was followed by a contradictory report by official state news agency Xinhua, which said the system will undergo unspecified changes.

China's labor camp system, which began in the 1950s, allows police to imprison petty criminals into labor camps for up to four years without trial. The camps operate outside these Chinese legal system, giving police unchecked power to issue and set sentences.

The four-year prison terms for labor camp prisoners are often longer than many formal criminal sentences, China Daily reported.
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USA

Bolivia slams U.S. over 'irrefutable evidence' of meddling


RT.com
Mon, 07 Jan 2013 10:25 UTC
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© AFP Photo / Lluis GeneBolivia's President Evo Morales
Bolivia has "concrete evidence" that the US is plotting to destabilize the Latin American nation, Minister Juan Ramon Quintana said. Proof of US "harassment" of the Bolivian government will be handed over to President Obama, he added.

The Bolivian government is "scrupulously following" US activity in Bolivia, Minister for the Bolivian Presidency Quintana said in a press conference.

"There is so much evidence to hand over to the President of the USA to say to him: Stop harassing the Bolivian government, stop politically cornering and ambushing us!" Quintana stressed. He added that investigations into drug-trafficking and human rights abuses would reveal a "permanent battle" waged by the US to impede progress in Bolivia.

"In the offensive against the government there are no visible subjects... What we're seeing are the political machinations of the US Embassy," which seeks to damage the image of the Bolivian government, Quintana said.

The country's US ambassador was ejected in 2008 after being accused of plotting against the Bolivian government by President Evo Morales. The US quickly followed suit, removing its Bolivian ambassador.

A charge d'affaires now heads the American Embassy in La Paz; both nations signed a deal in 2011 that would pave the way for the reinstatement of the ambassadors. However, diplomatic relations between the two countries have yet to be normalized.
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Cowboy Hat

Counterterror adviser to be named chief of C.I.A.

Scott Shane
NY Times
Mon, 07 Jan 2013 10:19 UTC
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© Charles Dharapak/Associated PressJohn O. Brennan in October 2010.
President Obama will announce on Monday that John O. Brennan, his counterterrorism adviser and a career Central Intelligence Agency officer, is his choice to head the agency, two months after David H. Petraeus stepped down after admitting an extramarital affair, a spokesman for the National Security Council said.

Mr. Brennan's nomination will be announced at 1 p.m. along with that of Chuck Hagel, the former maverick Republican senator from Nebraska, whom the president has chosen for secretary of defense, said the spokesman, Thomas Vietor.

In Mr. Obama's first term, Mr. Brennan, 57, has played a central role in the oversight of Mr. Obama's use of targeted killing of suspected terrorists using drones in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. He has become one of the president's most trusted advisers, and administration officials had said that the C.I.A. job was his for the asking.

The president had considered naming Mr. Brennan to head the C.I.A. when he took office in 2009. But some human rights advocates protested, claiming that as a top agency official under President George W. Bush, Mr. Brennan had supported, or at least had failed to stop, the use of interrogation techniques like waterboarding that are widely considered to be torture.
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