Puppet MastersS


Star of David

Cynthia McKinney, Interviewed on Press TV: Every Incoming Member of Congress Must Sign Pledge of Allegiance to Israel

In this edition of Face to Face, Marzieh Hashemi interviews Cynthia McKinney; Former US Congresswoman and former presidential candidate for Green Party.

Yoda

Former US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney Blasts Obama On Libyan TV

Image
A former U.S. congresswoman slammed U.S. policy on Libyan state TV late Saturday and stressed the "last thing we need to do is spend money on death, destruction and war."

The station is fiercely loyal to Moammar Gadhafi and her interview was spliced with what appeared to be rallies in support of the embattled Libyan leader.

"I think that it's very important that people understand what is happening here. And it's important that people all over the world see the truth. And that is why I am here ... to understand the truth," former Rep. Cynthia McKinney said during a live interview.

She said she was invited to Libya by the "nongovernmental organization for fact-finding," adding that she intends to bring more people to the country soon so that "they too can understand."

NATO warplanes have been pounding military targets since March after the U.N. Security Council approved a resolution to protect civilians by any means necessary as Gadhafi's forces try to quash a nearly three-month revolt against the leader's roughly 42 years of rule.

Gadhafi's government has repeatedly urged the international community to send fact-finding teams to Libya to report what's happening on the ground.

Rocket

NATO Air Strike Kills Civilians, Afghans Say Most Children


An air strike by NATO-led troops in southern Afghanistan killed at least nine civilians, NATO and Afghan officials said on Sunday, and many of the victims were children.

It was one of the deadliest foreign assaults on civilians in Afghanistan in months.

The mistaken killing of civilians by foreign forces, usually during air strikes or night-time raids, is a major source of friction between President Hamid Karzai and his Western backers.

It has complicated efforts to win support from ordinary Afghans for an increasingly unpopular war.

The commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in southwestern Afghanistan apologized for the deaths of nine civilians, saying troops had unwittingly targeted a home because insurgents were using it as a base.

"Unfortunately, the compound the insurgents purposefully occupied was later discovered to house innocent civilians," Major General John Toolan said in a statement.

"While I know there is no price on human life we will ensure that we make amends with the families in accordance with Afghan culture," he added.

The governor of Helmand province, where the air strike was called in, said the bomb killed 14 civilians, two of them women and the remainder children. Bereaved relatives brought the bodies of young children to the provincial capital to protest.

ISAF did not give the ages of the civilians it said died.

Cult

In France, If You Know What's Good For You, You'll Shut The Hell Up

Image
© UMP PhotosLuc Ferry
The Dominique Strauss-Kahn affair is sending seismic waves throughout France. The self-imposed cone of silence in the French media is leading to a lot of soul-searching and self-questioning.

Already, another minister has been accused of sexual harrassment and forced to resign, perhaps the first time we can remember of a sex scandal adversely affecting a French politician's career.

But an even more stunning situation is the media firestorm surrounding Luc Ferry, a philosopher and former government heavyweight.

On a live evening talk-show, when asked about whether politician sex scandals are hush-hushed, Luc Ferry said that, as government minister, he was told of another, former government minister who was caught in Morocco in an orgy with "little boys," and that the affair was hushed up. He was told, Ferry says, by "authorities at the highest level of the State, including the prime minister."

Star of David

Israel finalizes purchase of sixth German-made submarine

Image
© Tomer Appelbaum One of the Israeli (pirate) navy’s Dolphin submarines off the Israeli coast in 2008.
Price negotiations had balked last year when Berlin, beset by budgetary constraints, would not sell the submarine with the deep discount provided for the first three vessels of the Dolphin fleet.

Israel has finalized the purchase of a sixth submarine from Germany, with payment to be spread over several years, an Israeli official said on Thursday.

The proposed expansion of the diesel-powered Dolphin submarine fleet, considered Israel's vanguard against foes like Iran, had been held up by wrangling with Berlin over the $500 million to $700 million price tag.

Comment: From our archives in 2010:

Israeli cabinet's guilt trip to Germany: Merkel 'donates' nuclear submarine to Netanyahu

Israel Stations Nuclear Missile Subs Off Iran


Smoking

US: Cigar shop smoking ban snuffed out of workplace smoking bill

man smoking
© AP Photo/ Ross D. Franklin, File.A man smokes in 2007 in a a Phoenix cigar shop.
A provision to ban lighting up at cigar and tobacco shops has been snuffed out of a Senate bill targeting exemptions to the state's 1994 workplace smoking ban.

Senate Bill 575, by Democratic Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, would add sites such as hotel and motel lobbies and banquet rooms, warehouse facilities, employee break rooms and small and owner-operated businesses to the list of smoke-free zones.

The measure originally targeted cigar and tobacco retailers and lounges. But DeSaulnier decided to cut that provision from the bill this week after facing stiff opposition from shop owners and stogie lovers, including an international trade association based in Georgia, which argued such a ban would unfairly hurt their business and undermine their ability to serve their customers who come to the sites to smoke.

Cult

France probes ex-minister's child orgy claim

Image
© UnknownEx-minister Luc Ferry is now being questioned by French police about his claim that another former minister organized orgies "with little boys" in Morocco.
Paris - The French prosecutor's office opened a preliminary investigation Wednesday after a former government minister alleged that another ex-minister had participated in an orgy with young boys in Morocco.

Former Education Minister Luc Ferry will likely be questioned after alleging during a television show that another minister was caught at an orgy in Marrakech, a judicial official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity since she wasn't authorized to speak publicly.

The preliminary investigation is aimed at seeking more precise information from Ferry, the official said.

In France, a preliminary investigation is conducted to see if a case should be pursued.

Chess

Dispute Grows as Egyptian Gas Is Still Not Flowing to Israel

Egypt gass explosion
© European Pressphoto AgencyExplosions damaged an Egyptian natural gas pipeline in February, above, and April. Despite successful repairs, deliveries to Israel have not resumed.
More than a month after saboteurs blew up an Egyptian pipeline supplying natural gas to Israel, the line is repaired but gas is not flowing and foreign shareholders of the company suspect politics to be the reason. They are threatening legal action against Egypt.

American and Thai shareholders in the pipeline have demanded urgent consultations to avoid resorting to binding arbitration based on trade treaties. One letter to Egyptian ministries from an American company with an Israeli chairman threatens a lawsuit of $8 billion.

Attention

E. Coli + Germany + Bio Weapon

Image
© Miller and Hanley
There seems to be an incredibly deadly strain of the E-coli bacteria in Germany at the moment.

It is a very virulent strain, and according to some doctors and researchers, the most virulent they have ever seen.
"Helge Karch, the director of the RKI's EHEC consulting laboratory at the Münster University Hospital in western Germany, has devoted almost his entire life as a researcher to EHEC bacteria.

"But I've never encountered something like this," he says.
The bacterium that is currently being experienced in Germany is an enterohemorrhagic strain of the bacterium Escherichia coli (EHEC), a close relative of harmless intestinal bacteria, but one that produces the dangerous Shiga toxin. All it takes is about 100 bacteria -- which isn't much in the world of bacteria, which are normally counted by the millions -- to become infected. After an incubation period of two to 10 days, patients experience watery or bloody diarrhea.

Comment: Along this line of thinking, readers might be interested in reading this.


Bell

Wall Street Baffled by Slowing US Economy, Low Yields: Trader

Wall Street is having a hard time figuring out what to do now that the U.S. economy appears to be sputtering and yields are so low, Peter Yastrow, market strategist for Yastrow Origer, told CNBC.


"What we've got right now is almost near panic going on with money managers and people who are responsible for money," he said. "They can not find a yield and you just don't want to be putting your money into commodities or things that are punts that might work out or they might not depending on what happens with the economy.