Puppet MastersS


Bad Guys

Flashback George W. Bush Cancels Visit to Swiss Charity Gala over Fears he Could be Arrested on Torture Charges

George W. Bush
© PAChange of plan: George W. Bush has cancelled a visit to Geneva for a charity gala over fears he could be arrested on torture charges
Former U.S. President George W. Bush has cancelled a visit to Switzerland over fears he could have been arrested on torture charges.

Mr Bush was due to be the keynote speaker at a Jewish charity gala in Geneva on February 12.

But pressure has been building on the Swiss government to arrest him and open a criminal investigation if he enters the country.

Criminal complaints against Mr Bush alleging torture have been lodged in Geneva, court officials said.

Human rights groups said they had intended to submit a 2,500-page case against him in the Swiss city tomorrow for alleged mistreatment of suspected militants at Guantanamo Bay.

Left-wing groups have also called for a protest on the day of his visit, leading organisers at Keren Hayesod's annual dinner to cancel Mr Bush's participation on security grounds.

Brick Wall

S.1867: Just another brick in the police state wall

police state
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I am sometimes baffled by how quickly many people quickly assume that because they were not personally named in some piece of legislation, that somehow the provisions of that legislation do not and could not apply to them. Having spent a great deal of time over the years dissecting legislative
language, backtracking changes to code & title and the ever popular "redefinition of terms" used to change the entire common understanding of what a word or phrase means within these tortured constructs called legislation, I know better.

My recent article on S.1867 elicited comments to the effect that a few commenters had read the bill and that I was simply being inflammatory and emotional. Yes.....of course....that must be it.

Lest anyone forget:

Stormtrooper

America's Police State and the Forgotten Oath

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"Protect and Defend" along with "Foreign and Domestic," America's Betrayal

What is an oath? An oath is a promise. Those taking an oath are selected, we are told, on the basis of public trust, that they are of sufficient character that the oath they take will be the oath they keep.

Sometimes the oathtaker is elected, sometimes chosen, sometimes the position of authority and public trust was not one sought but one "thrust" upon that "oathkeeper" out of economic necessity.

What Americans have learned is that those who take oaths and those who keep them are seldom the same folks. "Oaths" seem to come with more than a bit of "wiggle-room."

Here is what an oath sounds like to a citizen:
"I (state your name) promise to protect and defend the constitution of the United States and to perform my duties with honor....."
This could be a judge, a soldier, a dog warden, even a police officer. The problem of late has been that those who take oaths seem to have held what we term "mental reservations and evasions" while taking their oaths.

They think they swore to "weasel word" oaths.
"I, (state your name or alias), promise to protect and defend my own ass and screw the rest of you...."

USA

SOTT Focus: The Return of the Great Depression and The Establishment of a Police State

fight the empire state
© unknownHistory repeats? In an early show of totalitarian force, officers of the New York Bureau of Investigation -- the “Black Police” -- march down 14th Street in August of 1938, shortly after being recruited from the state’s penitentiaries.
"True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made." - Franklin D. Roosevelt
The United States is transitioning to the days of the Great Depression. The Great Depression of the 1930s was defined as "Great" because it affected so many places in the world. Considering the state of world economics today, this description is not far from what is happening now, especially in EU and North America. I'm going to be speaking mostly about what's happening to the US economy rather than worldwide. I will assume that if you're reading this, you by now realize that the state of the economy in the US is dire. But if you haven't yet, let's review some key issues: The above points are just some of the things going on right now that immediately affect a vast number of Americans, and this is just the beginning: I read something the other day that made me realize that things have gone from bad to worse and there is no more denying it.

Target

BP Says Halliburton Destroyed Gulf Spill Evidence

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BP Plc accused Halliburton Co of destroying evidence that the oilfield services company did inadequate cement work on the Gulf of Mexico oil well that blew out last year, and asked a federal judge to punish Halliburton.

The accusation, in a BP court filing, raises the stakes ahead of a trial, expected in late February, to assign blame and damages for the April 2010 blowout of the Macondo well, which triggered the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

Citing recent depositions and Halliburton's own documents, BP said Halliburton "intentionally" destroyed the results of slurry testing for the well, in part to "eliminate any risk that this evidence would be used against it at trial."

The oil company also said Halliburton appeared to have lost computer evidence showing how the cement performed, with Halliburton maintaining that the information is simply "gone."

Sun

Climategate II: More Smoking Guns From The Global Warming Establishment

polar bear on ice
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A new release of incriminating e-mail exchanges between leading climate scientists that is now being termed "Climategate II" actually represents but another episode in a continuing scandal that has been taking place for decades. This fraud of massive scope and consequence has served as the basis for arguably the greatest regulatory overreach of all time.

It has been used to justify the EPA's demands that restrict carbon dioxide and other "greenhouse gas" emissions from stationary sources they attribute to causing climate change. Included are electrical power generation facilities, iron and steel mills, pulp and paper mills, cement production, and the construction industry.

The EPA's "Endangerment Finding" applied to support these actions was based upon politically-manipulated human-caused climate warming conclusions issued by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that were even at odds with findings of its own internal study on the matter. That EPA report stated "given the downward trend in temperatures since 1998 (which some think will continue until at least 2030), there is no particular reason to rush into decisions based upon a scientific hypothesis that does not appear to explain most of the available data."

Cut

Pay Freeze for Queen in UK Austerity Measures


In a sign of dire economic times across the pond, Buckingham Palace is now doing some budget busting, with the queen herself due for a pay freeze and Prince Charles set to foot the bill for some major expenses.

Queen Elizabeth II will see six consecutive years of frozen pay, as new austerity measures in the U.K. have cut funding for the royal household.

Taxpayer funding for royal travel and royal palaces has also been put on the chopping block, so British taxpayers will no longer foot the bill for Prince William and Kate Middleton's travels and security. The tab for the duke and duchess of Cambridge's expenses will now be picked up by Prince Charles. The new measures also will lead to fewer royal parties and events, and no repairs for the royal palaces.

Bad Guys

Has the War with Iran Already Begun?

The evidence of an extensive Western covert program against Tehran, and Iranian retaliation, is now too obvious to ignore
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© UPI/Maryam RahmanianIranian soldiers march during the annual military parade on September 22, 2011 in front of the mausoleum of the Iran's late leader Ayatollah Khomeini in Tehran,Iran. The parade marks the beginning of the 1980-1988 war between Iran and Iraq.

Two incidents that occurred on Sunday - Iran's claim of a shoot-down of a U.S. drone, and an explosion outside the British embassy in Bahrain - may have been unrelated. But they appear to add to growing evidence that an escalating covert war by the West is under way against Iran, and that Tehran is retaliating with greater intensity than ever.

Asked whether the United States, in cooperation with Israel, was now engaged in a covert war against Iran's nuclear program that may include the Stuxnet virus, the blowing-up of facilities and the assassination or kidnapping of scientists, one recently retired U.S. official privy to up-to-date intelligence would not deny it.

"It's safe to say the Israelis are very active," the official said, adding about U.S. efforts: "Everything that [GOP presidential candidate] Mitt Romney said we should be doing - tough sanctions, covert action and pressuring the international community -- are all of the things we are actually doing." Though the activities are classified, a senior Obama administration official also would not deny that such a program was under way. He indicated that the U.S. was not involved in every action, referring to recent alleged explosions at Isfahan and elsewhere. But, he added: "I wouldn't assume that everything we do is coordinated."

Airplane

The Pentagon Is Offering Free Military Hardware To Every Police Department In The US

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The US military has some of the most advanced killing equipment in the world that allows it to invade almost wherever it likes at will.

We produce so much military equipment that inventories of military robots, M-16 assault rifles, helicopters, armored vehicles, and grenade launchers eventually start to pile up and it turns [out] a lot of these weapons are going straight to American police forces to be used against US citizens.

Benjamin Carlson at The Daily reports on a little known endeavor called the "1033 Program" that gave more than $500 million of military gear to US police in 2011 alone.

1033 was passed by Congress in 1997 to help law-enforcement fight terrorism and drugs, but despite a 40 year low in violent crime, police are snapping up hardware like never before. While this years staggering take topped the charts, next years orders are up 400 percent over the same period.

This upswing coincides with an increasingly military-like style of law-enforcement most recently seen in the Occupy Wall Street crackdowns.

MIB

US: Supreme Court Will Hear Secret Service Agents' Immunity Claims Over Arrest at Cheney Event

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© duilawyersusa.com
Washington - The Supreme Court said Monday it will hear an appeal from Secret Service agents who say they should be shielded from a lawsuit over their arrest of a Colorado man who confronted Vice President Dick Cheney.

The justices will review a federal appeals court decision to allow Steven Howards of Golden, Colo., to pursue his claim that the arrest violated his free speech rights. Howards was detained by Cheney's security detail in 2006 after he told Cheney of his opposition to the war in Iraq.

Howards also touched Cheney on the shoulder, then denied doing so under questioning. Appellate judges in Denver said the inconsistency gave the agents reason to arrest Howards.

Even so, the appeals court said Howards could sue the agents for violating his rights - an unusual twist that the agents and the Obama administration said conflicts with other appeals court decisions and previous high court rulings in similar cases.

Justice Elena Kagan is not taking part in the case, probably because she worked on it while serving in the Justice Department.