Puppet MastersS

Bad Guys

US to expand drone hits with secret new bases

Daniel Howden
The Independent
Fri, 23 Sep 2011 20:52 UTC
Washington's decision to develop new bases will greatly expand the drone's strike range
© GETTYWashington's decision to develop new bases will greatly expand the drone's strike range

'Ring of steel' around terror groups revealed in leaked cables

The US is building a ring of secret military bases in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian peninsula as it steps up the use of unmanned drone aircraft to strike at groups linked to al-Qa'ida.

A base has been built on the Indian Ocean island chain of the Seychelles, according to leaked diplomatic cables. Another is being established in Ethiopia, The Washington Post reported.

The US has been launching assassination missions in Somalia targeting the Islamic militant group al-Shabaab, which publicly supports al-Qa'ida, for some time. Washington already has a base in neighbouring Djibouti. Drones were used in two days of attacks near the Shabaab-controlled port city of Kismayo in southern Somalia last week. Unconfirmed reports suggest that up to 26 people were killed.
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Bad Guys

US: Exxon Mobil To Restart Montana Pipeline

Matthew Brown
Huffington Post
Fri, 23 Sep 2011 18:18 UTC
Billings - A failed Exxon Mobil pipeline that spilled an estimated 42,000 gallons of oil into the Yellowstone River was expected to restart operations on Saturday after federal officials approved repairs meant to prevent another accident.






A quarter-mile segment of the 12-inch pipeline was replaced by drilling a new passage an estimated 60 to 70 feet beneath the riverbed. That change makes it far less likely that the Silvertip pipeline will fail a second time, Montana Department of Environmental Quality Director Richard Opper said.

"There were a lot of eyes on this from our federal partners," Opper said of repairs to the line. "It was done right. It's a lot safer pipeline now, at least crossing the river."

The 20-year-old line broke near Laurel on July 1 after flooding scoured the river bottom and exposed the pipe, which had been buried just five feet deep in some areas. Released oil fouled dozens of miles of riverbank, contaminated crops and pastureland and was blamed for killing birds, reptiles and other wildlife.
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Coffee

Global Shares Fall Sharply on Economy Fears


BBC News
Thu, 22 Sep 2011 16:31 UTC
traders
© Reuters
World stock markets have dropped sharply after a series of grim warnings over prospects for the global economy.

Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund, said the economic situation was entering a "dangerous place".

Earlier, the president of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, said the world's economy was "in a danger zone".

The comments came after the Federal Reserve warned that the US economy faced "significant downside risks".

In Europe, the UK FTSE 100 closed down 4.7%, while France's Cac 40 fell 5.25% and Germany's Dax ended 5% lower. In the US, the Dow Jones was 4.3% in afternoon trading.

Comment: Seems the time is now ripe to push the global economy over the edge. Markets and individuals will mechanically react to what they hear coming from Lagarde, Zoellick, Geithner and the like. Their unified scripted message of "danger" perfectly timed to create a definite effect - such words are not used by chance. And you can be sure that the desired effect in this case is one that serves purely the interests of the bankers.

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Syringe

For-Profit Company Oversaw Davis's Execution, Had Prompted Complaint for Illegal Purchase of Lethal Injection Drugs


AlterNet
Thu, 22 Sep 2011 15:56 UTC
The tragic debacle that has been the Troy Davis execution has another dimension to it beyond racism, classism, and the miscarriage of justice in a flawed system. That dimension is capitalism: specifically, the corporatization of the prison-industrial complex. If you've noticed some angry tweets directed at @correcthealth in the past day, that's because "CorrectHealth" is the Orwellian-named "medical company" that, according to the ACLU, "oversees all executions in Georgia" including last night's. It is a for-profit company that stands to make a pile money off of every execution.
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Bad Guys

China Headed for a "Class War"?

Justin Rohrlich
Minyanville
Thu, 22 Sep 2011 14:16 UTC
Us versus Them
© Minyanville

While "conspicuous luxury consumption may not be on its deathbed quite yet in China," Avery Booker of Jing Daily suggests that "social tensions" over a widening wealth gap "may ultimately put the last nails in bling's coffin."

"In education, recruitment, employment and various other sectors, the pattern of power-retention by the powerful is solidifying, yet the rights of the lower classes often suffer encroachment," Dai Zhiyong of Southern Weekend newspaper wrote last year. "The hardening of the hierarchy is right before our eyes. The channel of upward mobility for the lower classes is narrowing by the day."

And though Forbes says that "financial turmoil gripping the world has had little effect on wealth in China, where an ongoing economic boom keeps creating new U.S. dollar billionaires," Taiwan's Want China Times says "the rich in China are ... vulnerable to threats, physical violence and blackmail."

Is China ready to boil over?

"The Gini coefficient in China has been continuously rising after it reached the alarming 0.4-level 10 years ago," researcher Chang Xiuze told the Economic Information Daily in 2010. With 0.5 being the point at which income inequality is thought to lead to social unrest, China is dangerously close the the precipice.

And Jonathan Manthorpe of the Vancouver Sun notes that rank-and-file Chinese "are not responding meekly to revived servitude," creating a "seething undercurrent of discontent" and leading to an estimated 180,000 "strikes, demonstrations, and riots involving over 1,000 people," or, 493 each day, taking place around the country last year.
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Gear

Yahoo! Appears To Be Censoring Email Messages About Wall Street Protests

Lee Fang
ThinkProgress
Tue, 20 Sep 2011 12:50 UTC
Image
© UnknownYahoo blocks users from sending e-mails about the OccupyWallSt.org website with a message claiming "suspicious activity"
Yahoo! blocks users from sending e-mails about the Occupy Wall Street website with a message claiming "suspicious activity"

Thinking about e-mailing your friends and neighbors about the protests against Wall Street happening right now? If you have a Yahoo e-mail account, think again. ThinkProgress has reviewed claims that Yahoo is censoring e-mails relating to the protest and found that after several attempts on multiple accounts, we too were prevented from sending messages about the "Occupy Wall Street" demonstrations.

Over the weekend, thousands gathered for a "Tahrir Square"-style protest of Wall Street's domination of American politics. The protesters, organized online and by organizations like Adbusters, have called their effort "Occupy Wall Street" and have set up the website: Occupy Wall Street. However, several YouTube users posted videos of themselves trying to email a message inviting their friends to visit the Occupy Wall St campaign website, only to be blocked repeatedly by Yahoo. View a video of ThinkProgress making the attempt with the same blocked message experienced by others
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Arrow Down

US: Recession's second act would be worse than the first

John W. Schoen
Bottom Line / MSNBC
Thu, 22 Sep 2011 13:40 UTC
Fresh evidence of a global economic slowdown has raised fears that governments around the world may be powerless to reverse it. If the world does fall into back into recession, it could be much harder to escape than the contraction that ended in 2009.

With banks still recovering from a decade-long credit bubble, governments slashing spending to cope with unsustainable debt, and unemployment at levels not seen in decades, a new recession would be "disastrous," according to Roger Altman, a senior Treasury official in the Clinton administration.

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Arrow Down

"Dangerous New Phase" of the World Economy - IMF Downgrades US Outlook


MSNBC
Thu, 22 Sep 2011 13:18 UTC
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Blackbox

US: Woman's afro prompts TSA pat-down

Susy Solis
NBCDFW.com / MSNBC
Thu, 22 Sep 2011 13:04 UTC
Is it possible to hide weapons in your hair?

The Transportation Security Administration thinks so.

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MIB

UK: Lloyd's of London Pulls Deposits From Banks on Debt Crisis

Kevin Crowley and Jeff Black
Bloomberg
Wed, 21 Sep 2011 18:45 UTC
Lloyd's of london
Lloyds of London

Lloyd's of London, concerned European governments may be unable to support lenders in a worsening debt crisis, has pulled deposits in some peripheral economies as the European Central Bank provided dollars to one euro-area institution.

"There are a lot of banks who, because of the uncertainty around Europe, the market has stopped using to place deposits with," Luke Savage, finance director of the world's oldest insurance market, said today in a phone interview. "If you're worried the government itself might be at risk, then you're certainly worried the banks could be taken down with them."

European banks and their regulators are trying to reassure investors and customers that lenders have enough capital to withstand a default by Greece and slowing economic growth caused by governments' austerity measures. Siemens AG, European's biggest engineering company, withdrew short-term deposits from Societe Generale SA, France's second-largest bank, in July, a person with knowledge of the matter said yesterday.
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