Puppet MastersS


Whistle

Flashback Ex-Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman speaks out on Karl Rove, witch hunt hours before returning to jail


Demoracy Now
Tue, 11 Sep 2012 13:27 UTC
Don Siegelman, the former governor of Alabama, returns to federal prison today to resume his six-and-a-half-year sentence on a controversial bribery conviction that has been compared to a political witch hunt. Siegelman and his supporters say he was the target of a plot, in part orchestrated by former Bush administration deputy Karl Rove, for belonging to the Democratic Party in a state with a Republican majority.

"No one wants to go to prison for something that is not a crime, and especially one orchestrated by Karl Rove," Siegelman said. "Everyone remembers the eight U.S. attorneys who were fired by Rove during the Bush administration because they would not pursue political prosecutions. Well, the U.S. attorney in Alabama, appointed by Bush, vetted by Rove, pursued a political prosecution." Siegelman has already served over nine months in prison, one month in solitary confinement and three weeks in a maximum security prison. Hours before he reports back to prison to resume his sentence, Siegelman joins us from a hotel room in New Orleans. [includes rush transcript]

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Handcuffs

Flashback Don Siegelman, former Alabama Governor, reports to federal prison


Huffington Post
Tue, 11 Sep 2012 13:24 UTC
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Former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman has reported to a minimum security federal prison in southwest Louisiana to serve his sentence for bribery.

U.S. Bureau of Prisons spokesman Chris Burke says the 66-year-old turned himself in at the federal prison at Oakdale, La. shortly before 2 p.m. on Tuesday.
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Bizarro Earth

North Korean cannibalism fears amid claims starving people forced to desperate measures

Rob Williams
The Independent
Mon, 28 Jan 2013 13:18 UTC
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The reports come as sanctions against the country are tightened against the backdrop of angry rhetoric over missile testing

Reports from inside the secretive famine-hit pariah state, North Korea, claim a man has been executed after murdering his two children for food.

The grim suggestion that North Koreans are turning to cannibalism were reported by the Asia Press, and published in the Sunday Times.

They claim a 'hidden famine' in the farming provinces of North and South Hwanghae has killed 10,000 people, and there are fears that cannibalism is spreading throughout the country.

The reports come as sanctions are tightened against the backdrop of angry rhetoric over missile testing.
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Safe

Former Michigan Supreme Court Justice Diane Hathaway pleads guilty to bank fraud


Associated Press
Tue, 29 Jan 2013 12:59 UTC
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© APMichigan Supreme Court Justice Diane Hathaway
A former Michigan Supreme Court justice pleaded guilty to bank fraud Tuesday for concealing assets, including a debt-free Florida home, while urging a bank to let her unload a Michigan house in a short sale, claiming financial hardship.

Diane Hathaway could face up to 18 months in prison under the terms of her deal with federal prosecutors. But her attorney, Steve Fishman, said after the hearing that he will ask a judge to sentence her to probation.

Hathaway, who resigned from the state's highest court last week, left the courthouse without commenting. U.S. District Judge John Corbett O'Meara had allowed her to answer "yes" to a series of questions about her misdeeds that were read by Fishman.

Fishman told reporters that her crime was "dumb. It made no sense." He believes the bank, ING Direct, would have allowed the short sale even if Hathaway had disclosed everything.
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Evil Rays

Egypt's armed forces chief warns unrest could cause collapse of state

Patrick Kingsley
Guardian
Tue, 29 Jan 2013 10:49 UTC
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© Photograph: AFP/Getty ImagesGeneral Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said the army would remain a 'solid and cohesive block' on which the state could rely
General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's comments spark fears military might once again intervene in day-to-day governance of Egypt

In an ominous warning, the head of Egypt's armed forces has said that continuing civil unrest may soon cause the collapse of the Egyptian state.

Parts of Egypt are in turmoil following five days of rioting in which 52 people have been killed and more than 1,000 injured after protests against President Mohamed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood and police brutality turned violent. The unrest comes two years after the start of the 2011 revolution that toppled the former dictator Hosni Mubarak.

General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's comments have sparked fears that the military might once again intervene in the day-to-day governance of Egypt, a country effectively ruled for most of the past century by army officers.
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Eye 2

Former senior Ukraine policeman gets life for journalist's murder


RT.com
Tue, 29 Jan 2013 10:30 UTC
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© RIA Novosti / Grigoriy VasilenkoFormer General Aleksei Pukach of the Interior Ministry, charged with Ukrainian journalist Georgy Gongadze murder, seen listening to the reading of his sentence at the Pechersky district court, Kiev
Aleksey Pukach pleaded guilty to killing reporter Georgiy Gongadze in 2000 on the orders of then Interior Minister Yuri Kravchenko.

On Tuesday the Pechory district court in the Ukrainian capital Kiev ruled Pukach was guilty of Gongadze's murder and sentenced the former police general to life in prison.

Gongadze's case touches upon the highest echelons of power in Ukraine and triggered the events that led to the so called Orange Revolution in 2004.

Soon after the journalist's beheaded body was found in a forest near Kiev in 2000 an agent of the Ukrainian President's security service, Nikolay Melnichenko leaked a number of audio recordings claiming that Leonid Kuchma, who was president at that time, asked police commanders "to sort Gongadze out". The recordings were one of the most powerful tools used by the opposition in the ousting of Kuchma in 2004, dubbed by the media as the Orange Revolution.
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Bad Guys

Britain to send forces to Mali as part of EU mission


RT.com
Tue, 29 Jan 2013 10:28 UTC
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© Guardian
Downing Street has said that the British government will dispatch 350 troops to Mali to aid French troops stationed in the country's north, as part of a UK mission to train local forces and engage in "force protection."

British representatives are attending a meeting in Brussels on Tuesday to discuss the provision of troops as part of an EU mission to the African country. The EU estimates that 500 supplementary troops will be sent to Mali, some 350 of which will be British. This will include approximately 40 military advisers who will train soldiers in Mali and 200 British soldiers to be sent to neighboring African countries.

An ECOWAS (Economic Community Of West African States) force of West African troops - about 7,500 of them - are also coming into Mali to take over some garrison duties, and steadily take over the fighting role from the French.

The budget for the campaign, which has been set at around $950m will be financed through an international donors' conference based in Ethiopia.
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V

Belgian police fire water cannons to disperse striking ArcelorMittal workers


RT.com
Tue, 29 Jan 2013 10:25 UTC
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© APA man falls as police fire water cannons at the anti-austerity protesters.
Water cannons have been used against stone-throwing demonstrators in the Belgian city of Namur, as thousands rallied against the closure of a factory that will put an end to 1,300 jobs.

Dozens of riot police were deployed to quell the tensions.

Many protesters are wearing respirators to protect themselves against the police crackdown.
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Bizarro Earth

Dumbing down the masses: J.D. Salinger and Harper Lee to be replaced by Invasive Plant Inventory in U.S. school curriculum


RT.com
Tue, 29 Jan 2013 10:19 UTC
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J.D. Salinger
A new curriculum for public schools across the United States will soon make it mandatory for at least 70 percent of all assigned books to be works of non-fiction, eliminating classic works that have influenced great thinkers for centuries.

By 2014, schools in 46 out of 50 states will have adopted this new curriculum, which favors "informational texts" approved by the Common Core State Standards to prepare students for the workplace.

Suggested books included works by the Environmental Protection Agency, like the Recommended Levels of Insulation, as well as the Invasive Plant Inventory by California's Invasive Plant Council.

While the new curriculum might provide practical information, it would also deprive students of classic literary works that have long been a part of the American culture. In studying the role of fiction in education, scientists have recently learned that fictional narratives develop human social and emotional life, giving students the ability to better understand people, the New York Times reports.
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Bizarro Earth

Senator John McCain: 'We've got to use drones' to secure the U.S.-Mexico border

Arturo Garcia
Raw Story
Tue, 29 Jan 2013 09:48 UTC
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An hour after expanding on a bipartisan immigration proposal on Monday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) called for an increase in security technology at the U.S.-Mexico border, including unmanned drones in a Fox News interview.

"We have to use a lot of high-tech - we've got to use drones," McCain told "Your World with Caputo" guest host Eric Bolling. "We've got to do a lot of things to get that border secure, but that must be done."

According to The Hill, the plan, crafted by McCain and seven other U.S. senators, calls for border security standards to be set by a group of officials from border states, who would have the ability to stall a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants if they are not satisfied by security efforts.

The extra technology, McCain said, would also help protect U.S. personnel.
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