Puppet MastersS


Handcuffs

Best of the Web: How Congress is Signing its own Arrest Warrants in the NDAA Citizen Arrest Bill

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I never thought I would have to write this: but - incredibly - Congress has now passed the National Defense Appropriations Act, with Amendment 1031, which allows for the military detention of American citizens. The amendment is so loosely worded that any American citizen could be held without due process. The language of this bill can be read to assure Americans that they can challenge their detention - but most people do not realize what this means: at Guantanamo and in other military prisons, one's lawyer's calls are monitored, witnesses for one's defense are not allowed to testify, and one can be forced into nudity and isolation. Incredibly, ninety-three Senators voted to support this bill and now most of Congress: a roster of names that will live in infamy in the history of our nation, and never be expunged from the dark column of the history books.

They may have supported this bill because - although it's hard to believe - they think the military will only arrest active members of Al Qaida; or maybe, less naively, they believe that 'at most', low-level dissenting figures, activists, or troublesome protesters might be subjected to military arrest. But they are forgetting something critical: history shows that those who signed this bill will soon be subject to arrest themselves

Dominoes

'Pentagon created Arab Spring over decade ago'

The Arab Spring uprisings were arguably the most significant events of the last 12 months. Protests are still raging across the region, even after regimes were toppled. Journalist and author F. William Engdahl gives his view on the Arab world in 2012.


Star of David

Israel v. Palestine in 2012

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Palestinians have endured decades of ruthless occupation. World leaders decline support. They're left largely on their own despite growing millions globally supporting them.

Life in occupied Palestine is harsh and repressive. On December 26, Jerusalem's mayor, Nir Barakat, delivered another blow. The Municipality will classify 70,000 Israeli Arab citizens non-residents and involuntarily transfer them to West Bank locations.

At issue is entirely Judaizing Jerusalem through forced ethnic cleansing to facilitate escalated settlement construction. It's also part of creating a greater Jerusalem and preventing a two-state solution.

Two new Haaretz reports are also significant heading into 2012, one by writer Barak Ravid.

After refusing peace negotiations with Israel unless illegal settlement construction stops, he said:
"The Palestinian leadership submitted a proposal to renew peace talks with Israel that drops their longstanding demand that Israel ceases all West Bank settlement construction, a top Israeli official said on Wednesday."

Star of David

Israel vs the New York Times: Who's the Semite?

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Bashar Assad, an actual Semite, leader of the Free Socialist Arab Republic of Syria, who is currently under tremendous pressure from Ashkenazi Jews (anti-Semites) from Tel-Aviv and New York
Don Quixote devoted himself to tilting at windmills: In his imagination he viewed them as a menacing, monstrous enemy that must be destroyed. He is considered a romantic figure, a hero willing to sacrifice his life for the sake of his love and ideas. Yet with all this romance, people sometimes forget that Don Quixote did not fight real monsters, but rather, figments of his imagination. He was a hero, but a pathetic one.

In mid December, Ron Dermer, a senior advisor to Israel's prime minister, sent a letter to one of the New York Times' editors. The letter was polite and bordered on flattery, yet it was meant to serve as a declaration of war.

The New York Times offered Netanyahu the opportunity to write an opinion piece. Dermer declined the offer on Netanyahu's behalf. The explanation given: Last May, the newspaper published, without qualifications, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' distorted version regarding the historical events that preceded the State of Israel's inception.

Comment: Most Jews really are 'anti-Semitic' because they are not real semites - their Arab cousins are descendants of the Semitic people. Coupled with their brethren in the US, real anti-Semites have been imposing their final solution on the Semites since 9/11, targeting Iraqis, Lebanese, Palestinians, Libyans and now Syrians.

Read Secret History of the World and 9/11 The Ultimate Truth to find out more.


USA

US: Santorum Says He Would Bomb Iran's Nuclear Plants

Rick Santorum
© unknownRick Santorum
Rick Santorum said today that would be in favor of launching airstrikes against Iranian nuclear facilities.

"We will degrade those facilities through airstrikes, and make it very public that we are doing that," Santorum said on Meet the Press.

Iran announced today that it had created the country's first nuclear fuel rod, a key component in a reactor that can also be used to produce weapons grade uranium.

Several of the GOP candidates have expressed increased concerns over Iran's nuclear program after the International Atomic Energy Agency released a report that says Iran is making progress.

Nuke

First Nuclear Fuel Rod Tested in Iran

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© unknown
Scientists and researchers at the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran have successfully tested the first domestically produced nuclear fuel rod containing natural uranium, Iranian news agencies reported on Sunday.

According to the reports, the first nuclear fuel rod was loaded into the core of the Tehran research reactor as part of an experiment to test its performance in operation.

Now Iran should convert fuel rods into fuel plates to power the Tehran research reactor, which produces radioisotopes for cancer treatment.

Iran has constructed an advanced plant at the Isfahan nuclear facility for manufacturing nuclear fuel plates. With the construction of the plant, Iran is now among the few countries that can manufacture both nuclear fuel rods and plates.

Rocket

Iran Says it Has Successfully Tested Missiles in Gulf Drill

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© Amir Kholousi / ISNAIn this image made available by the Iranian Students News Agency, an Iranian navy vessel launches a missile during a drill at the sea of Oman, on Sunday, Jan. 1, 2012.
Iran has claimed to have successfully tested a new medium-range ground-to-air missile during naval exercises in the Gulf, amid rising tensions over the country's nuclear programme.

State news agency Irna yesterday quoted Iran's naval commander, Mahmoud Mousavi, as saying the missile was equipped with the latest technology and intelligent systems.

The missile test was made during 10 days of naval exercises to the east of the Straits of Hormuz, the narrowest section of the Gulf, which Iran has threatened to close in the event of western sanctions on its oil exports.

The exercises come a few weeks before EU foreign ministers meet to consider further sanctions, possibly including an oil embargo against Tehran, after an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report in November confirmed western allegations that Iran had worked on nuclear weapons designs, at least until 2003, and may have carried out experiments more recently.

Vader

Obama Crowned Himself on New Year's Eve

Obama
© unknown

These were among the complaints registered the last time this nation had a king:
"He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
"He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
"He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
"He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
"He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
"He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
"He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
"For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
"For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
"For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
"For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
"He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation."
To prevent the U.S. government from behaving like a king, the drafters of the U.S. Constitution empowered an elected legislature to write every law, to declare every war, and to remove its executive from office. To further prevent the abuse of individuals' rights, those authors wrote into the Constitution, even prior to the Bill of Rights, the right to habeas corpus and the right never to be punished for treason unless convicted in an open court on the testimony of at least two witnesses to an overt act of war or assistance of an enemy.

Info

France's Future Hangs in Balance in 2012: Sarkozy

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© Agence France-PresseA tv grab taken from French TV channel TF1.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned on Saturday that the country's future hung in the balance in 2012 amid the eurozone debt crisis but said ratings agencies would not decide French policy.

"France's destiny could once again be tipped" in 2012, Sarkozy said in a televised New Year's address. "Emerging from the crisis, building a new model for growth, giving birth to a new Europe -- these are some of the challenges that await us."

"This crisis... probably the most serious since World War II, this crisis is not over," Sarkozy said.

"Yet there are reasons for hope... We must, we can keep confidence in the future," he said.

The speech was Sarkozy's last New Year's address before France heads to the polls for the first round of a presidential election in April.

"What is happening in the world announces that 2012 will be a year full of risks but also full of possibilities. Full of hope, if we know how to face the challenges. Full of dangers, if we stand still," Sarkozy said.

Bizarro Earth

Italian President Urges Sacrifices to Save Economy

Giorgio Napolitano
© Agence France-PresseItaly's President Giorgio Napolitano
President Giorgio Napolitano on Saturday called on Italians to make sacrifices to prevent the "financial collapse of Italy".

"Sacrifices are necessary to ensure the future of young people, it's our objective and a commitment we cannot avoid," he said in a New Year's speech to the nation.

The eurozone's third largest economy, Italy sparked fears in 2011 that its toxic mix of low growth, high debt and spiralling borrowing costs could force it to seek a bailout like fellow eurozone members Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

"No-one, no social group, can today avoid the commitment to contribute to the clean up of public finances in order to prevent the financial collapse of Italy," he said.