Puppet MastersS


Rocket

Iran Plans New Maneuvers in Hormuz Strait in February


Reuters
Fri, 06 Jan 2012 04:15 UTC
Iran announced plans on Friday to hold new naval exercises in the Strait of Hormuz next month, the latest in a series of forceful gestures in the world's most important oil shipping lane at a time when new sanctions threaten Tehran's exports.
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© Reuters/Hamed Jafarnejad/Fars NewsIran's Navy Commander Habibulah Sayari points at a map during a news conference in Tehran December 22, 2011.

Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi, naval commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, said the exercises in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz in February would be different from previous exercises, but gave no further details, according to remarks reported by the semi-official Fars news agency.

"Today the Islamic Republic of Iran has full domination over the region and controls all movements within it," he said.

Iran held a 10-day drill which ended on Monday in the strait, which leads out of the Gulf and provides the main export route for the Middle East's oil.

Iranian officials have threatened in recent weeks to block the strait if new sanctions harm Tehran's oil exports, and this week threatened to take action if the United States sails an aircraft carrier through it.
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Chart Pie

Iran's Currency Crash a Blow to Ahmadinejad

Roshanak Taghavi
The Christian Science Monitor
Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
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© The Associated Press/Vahid SalemiA currency exchange bureau worker counts US dollars, as Iranian bank notes are seen at right in Tehran.
The Iranian currency - the rial - has been essential in shoring up a view of Iran as strong and independent in recent years. Now it's collapsing on President Ahmadinejad's watch.

As Iran experiences new, harsh US and international economic sanctions over its nuclear program - a program considered by much of the country as a matter of national pride - a stable currency has become a national security priority.

"Even though it's not necessarily good for the economy, amidst sanctions a stable currency creates an illusion of strength," says a veteran analyst in Tehran. "It reflects how nonvulnerable the Iranian economy is to sanctions."

But in the past week Iran's currency - the rial - dropped almost 30 percent after President Obama approved new sanctions targeting Iran's Central Bank. The rial has since rebounded significantly from a low of 17,800 rials to the dollar on Monday. However the Central Bank has tried to introduce a cap on the market rate of 14,000 rials to the dollar, and the government announced that anyone caught selling rials at a higher rate would be arrested.
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War Whore

Thousands of US troops deploying to Israel


RT News
Thu, 05 Jan 2012 10:26 UTC
Without much media attention, thousands of American troops are being deployed to Israel, and Iranian officials believe that this is the latest and most blatant warning that the US will soon be attacking Tehran.

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© Reuters / Nir Elias
Tensions between nations have been high in recent months and have only worsened in the weeks since early December when Iran hijacked and recovered an American drone aircraft. Many have speculated that a back-and-forth between the two countries will soon escalate Iran and the US into an all-out war, and that event might occur sooner than thought.

Under the Austere Challenge 12 drill scheduled for an undisclosed time during the next few weeks, the Israeli military will together with America host the largest-ever joint missile drill by the two countries. Following the installation of American troops near Iran's neighboring Strait of Hormuz and the reinforcing of nearby nations with US weapons, Tehran authorities are considering this not a test but the start of something much bigger.
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MIB

CNN drops news feed on anti-war Soldier


Brasscheck TV
Wed, 04 Jan 2012 08:51 UTC
Oops! Back to you Wolf...

Here's an interesting view from a uniformed soldier that you generally wouldn't hear on the lame stream news.

"Well, I think it would be even more dangerous to start nit-picking wars with other countries. Someone like Iran... Israel is more than capable... "

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Blackbox

Wife's dollar trade puts pressure on Swiss bank head

Silke Koltrowitz and Katie Reid
Reuters
Fri, 06 Jan 2012 08:03 UTC
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© REUTERS/Christian HartmannSwiss National Bank (SNB) Chairman Philipp Hildebrand in Zurich, December 16, 2010.
Swiss central bank head Philipp Hildebrand came under pressure on Wednesday following revelations of sensitively timed currency trades by his wife and the sacking of a whistleblower who passed details to the lawyer of a political adversary.

The employee of Bank Sarasin was fired for leaking data showing that Hildebrand's wife Kashya, a former trader who owns a Zurich art gallery, bought dollars three weeks before the central bank capped the Swiss franc. The case goes to the heart of Switzerland's bank secrecy.

Kashya told Swiss television she "felt good" about the deal last August that local tabloid Blick reported had yielded a 60,000 Swiss franc ($64,400) profit on a 500,000 franc trade.

"What motivated me to buy dollars was the fact that it was at a record low and was almost ridiculously cheap," she was quoted as saying on Swiss television. "As I have worked in the financial and banking industry for over 15 year and always observe the markets, I felt at ease with this transaction."
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Compass

Flashback Why Did Japan Attack Us?

Patrick J. Buchanan
The American Cause
Tue, 11 Dec 2001 12:21 UTC
Of all the days that will "live in infamy" in American history, two stand out: Sept. 11, 2001, and Dec. 7, 1941.
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© Unknown

But why did Japan, with a 10th of our industrial power, launch a sneak attack on the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor, an act of state terror that must ignite a war to the death it could not win? Were they insane? No, the Japanese were desperate.

To understand why Japan lashed out, we must go back to World War I. Japan had been our ally. But when she tried to collect her share of the booty at Versailles, she ran into an obdurate Woodrow Wilson.

Wilson rejected Japan's claim to German concessions in Shantung, home of Confucius, which Japan had captured at a price in blood. Tokyo threatened a walkout if denied what she had been promised by the British. "They are not bluffing," warned Wilson, as he capitulated. "We gave them what they should not have."

In 1921, at the Washington Naval Conference, the United States pressured the British to end their 20-year alliance with Japan. By appeasing the Americans, the British enraged and alienated a proud nation that had been a loyal friend.

Japan was now isolated, with Stalin's brooding empire to the north, a rising China to the east and, to the south, Western imperial powers that detested and distrusted her.
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Mr. Potato

Sarko Outrage At Being Called 'A Nasty Piece Of Work'


The Telegraph
Fri, 06 Jan 2012 04:39 UTC
Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande
© The TelegraphNicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande
French President Nicolas Sarkozy's party allies demanded a public apology from his main electoral opponent after he reportedly branded him a "nasty piece of work".

Francois Hollande, the opposition Socialist candidate currently on course to beat Mr Sarkozy in April's election, allegedly called the president a "sale mec", which roughly translates as a "nasty piece of work".

He made the remark in a supposedly off-the-record briefing for reporters on Tuesday, but a truncated version of his jibe was revealed in the daily Le Parisien.

Although dismissed as being taken out of context by the Socialist camp, a cohort of outraged Sarkozy allies seized on the "insult".

Dominique Dord, treasurer of Sarkozy's UMP party, described the reported comment as "revolting" and said that Mr Hollande should pull out of the presidential race, little more than 100 days before the election.

"We are all deeply shocked," said the head of Sarkozy's UMP party, Jean-Francois Cope.
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Top Secret

Defense, CIA to Investigate Access for Filmmakers to Info on Bin Laden Kill Mission


Fox News
Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
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© The Associated PressMay 1: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, along with with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Usama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House.
The Defense Department and CIA have agreed to investigate access to and possible release of classified information to Hollywood filmmakers on the killing of Usama bin Laden after a Republican lawmaker questioned the release of information into the May 1 raid in Pakistan.

Rep. Peter King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, asked for a review in August as to whether Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow was given access that King suggested could leave U.S. military secrets and personnel open either to leaks or worse. Bigelow and executive Mark Boal are working on a movie about the hunt for Bin Laden.

King said in a statement Thursday he was gratified that the two agencies had agreed to look into Bigelow's and Boal's access.

"Following a shockingly dismissive response to my request from White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, I am pleased that the inspectors general at DoD and the CIA agree with me that potential leaks to filmmakers are something worth investigating and taking action to address," King said.
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USA

US: Another Kennedy Set to Run for Congress


Agence France-Presse
Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
Joseph P Kennedy III
© The Associated Press/Getty Images/Darren McCollesterJoseph P Kennedy III, pictured in 2010
Joseph P. Kennedy III, a 31-year-old Massachusetts prosecutor, will run for Congress this year in a bid to resurrect the dynasty of America's most famous political family, reports said Thursday.

Kennedy is in the final stages of preparing a Congressional run, with hopes to succeed retiring Democratic Representative Barney Frank, the Boston Globe and Rhode Island Public Radio reported, quoting family and Democratic sources.

Should Kennedy win a seat in the House of Representatives, his family would return to national politics for the first time since Patrick Kennedy -- son of the clan's late patriarch Edward Kennedy -- left office early last year.

The congressional hopeful, son of former representative Joseph P. Kennedy II and grandson of the assassinated Robert F. Kennedy, is an assistant district attorney in Middlesex county.
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Vader

Obama: The US Can No Longer Fight the World's Battles

Rupert Cornwell
The Independent
Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
Obama
© unknown
President plans to cut half a million troops and says US can't afford to wage two wars at once

The mighty American military machine that has for so long secured the country's status as the world's only superpower will have to be drastically reduced, Barack Obama warned yesterday as he set out a radical but more modest new set of priorities for the Pentagon over the next decade.

After the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that defined the first decade of the 21st century, Mr Obama's blueprint for the military's future acknowledged that America will no longer have the resources to conduct two such major operations simultaneously.

Instead, the US military will lose up to half a million troops and will focus on countering terrorism and meeting the new challenges of an emergent Asia dominated by China. America, the President said, was "turning the page on a decade of war" and now faced "a moment of transition". The country's armed forces would in future be leaner but, Mr Obama pointedly warned both friends and foes, sufficient to preserve US military superiority over any rival - "agile, flexible and ready for the full range of contingencies and threats".
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