Puppet MastersS


Laptop

The Pentagon and its sockpuppets

Scott Horton
Harper's Magazine
Tue, 27 Dec 2011 11:35 UTC
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Dear Cosmos, please strike here, signed People of the World
An internal Department of Defense review has concluded that a Rumsfeld-era program under which retired military officers who appeared on American broadcast media were given special briefings and access was consistent with Pentagon rules. The New York Times reports:
The inquiry found that from 2002 to 2008, Mr. Rumsfeld's Pentagon organized 147 events for 74 military analysts. These included 22 meetings at the Pentagon, 114 conference calls with generals and senior Pentagon officials and 11 Pentagon-sponsored trips to Iraq and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Twenty of the events, according to a 35-page report of the inquiry's findings, involved Mr. Rumsfeld or the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff or both. One retired officer, the report said, recalled Mr. Rumsfeld telling him: "You guys influence a wide range of people. We'd like to be sure you have the facts."

The inspector general's investigation grappled with the question of whether the outreach constituted an earnest effort to inform the public or an improper campaign of news media manipulation. The inquiry confirmed that Mr. Rumsfeld's staff frequently provided military analysts with talking points before their network appearances. In some cases, the report said, military analysts "requested talking points on specific topics or issues." One military analyst described the talking points as "bullet points given for a political purpose." Another military analyst, the report said, told investigators that the outreach program's intent "was to move everyone's mouth on TV as a sock puppet."
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Oscar

SOTT Focus: Behind the Headlines: 'It's all a hoax!' Boston Bombings and "Crazy Conspiracy Theories"

Sott Editors
Sott.net
Sun, 26 May 2013 18:00 UTC
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Crisis actors faking injury at the Boston Bombings? No schoolchildren murdered at Sandy Hook? Holographic planes flew into the World Trade Center? "Where's all the blood?!" Conspiracy theorists come in for a lot of ridicule, often unfairly, but the alarmingly high number of hits and airtime some recent choice conspiracy theories have received has even us backing away slowly and wondering just what is going on.

On this week's show, we talked about the idea of "government actors" and "fakery" at "terror attacks", including the recent killing of a British soldier in Woolwich, London, which some claim was staged and no one really died "because there was not enough blood", echoing the claims made about Jeff Bauman at the Boston Marathon finish line.

Are such ideas deliberately promoted to sow disinformation and discredit, by association, anyone attempting to analyse the hard data?

Running Time: 01:47:00

Download: MP3

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Handcuffs

Watch out BitCoin users! 'Liberty Reserve' digital currency shut down by U.S. govt for 'money-laundering'

Dominic Rushe
The Guardian
Wed, 29 May 2013 09:23 UTC
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Federal prosecutors in New York shut down Costa Rica-based digital currency firm and claim it was the 'financial hub of the cyber-crime world'

Read the indictment here

Federal prosecutors in New York have accused a Costa Rica-based company and its founder of running a $6bn money-laundering scheme that became a "bank of choice for the criminal underworld".

Digital currency company Liberty Reserve was involved in one of the biggest money-laundering operations ever uncovered, according to an indictment on Tuesday by Preet Bharara, the US attorney for the southern district of New York.

Liberty was the "financial hub of the cyber-crime world", according to the indictment. It facilitated "a broad range of online criminal activity, including credit card fraud, identity theft, investment fraud, computer hacking, child pornography, and narcotics trafficking".

Comment: Assuming for a minute that Liberty Reserve really was used to mask and fund dirty deeds, are we to believe that the established Wall Street players have zero interest in protecting their control of the proceeds from drug-running, slave trade, child porn, ad nauseum?

Check out our radio show on BitCoin where we discussed how it will probably wind up as a sting operation:

SOTT Talk Radio show #14: Bitcoin, Gold and the Cashless Society

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Red Flag

Doomsday investors betting on market crash

Maureen Farrell
CNN
Fri, 24 May 2013 17:13 UTC
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Stocks have had a stellar year so far. In fact, the rally has gotten so heated that some investors are making bets on a big crash.

Universa Investments, which spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year buying crash protection, has attracted a record amount of money into its fund this quarter.

"People are starting to recognize that these market moves are unnatural and distorted," said Universa president and chief investment officer Mark Spitznagel, who declined to say how much is spent on crash protection, citing SEC rules.

Universa's view that a crash is coming is not widely held, making crash protection cheap, he said. Universa buys this protection in the form of options that generate huge returns when the stock market falls by more than 20%. Universa's adviser, economist and former derivative trader Nassim Taleb calls it 'black swan' hedging.

That's apropos considering Taleb coined the phrase 'black swan,' described as an unforeseen event that has an extreme impact, such as the 2008 financial crisis or Japan's 2011 nuclear disaster.

Spitznagel says he's pretty confident that the market will crash, or fall by more than 20%, in the next six months -- a year max.

Comment: Two 'great economic crises' ago, in the 17th century, speculators were strung up alongside the bankers...

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Stock Up

World stock markets to grind higher

Alanna Petroff
CNN
Mon, 27 May 2013 17:09 UTC
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Major European indexes, including London's FTSE 100, have made significant gains over the past few months but have not pushed nearly as high as Japan's Nikkei or U.S. benchmarks.
World stock markets look set to bump around awhile after last week's plunge in Japan before resuming a rally fueled by cheap central bank cash.

Investors had a rude awakening last Thursday as the Nikkei index plunged by over 7% in its worst day for two years, leaving some wondering whether the surge in global equities was now over after such a significant pullback.

"This is a classic holiday market reversal," said Neil Shah, a director at London's Edison Investment.

When investors and traders return to their desks after the long weekend in the U.S. and the U.K., stocks would continue moving higher, he said.

Japan, where the benchmark Nikkei index has rallied by more than 70% in less than 12 months, could see a more substantial correction before turning higher again.

"I expect another 5% to 10% downside before another march upwards," said Nick Beecroft, senior market analyst at Saxo Capital Markets.

The Nikkei fell again on Monday, dropping 3% as a firmer yen weighed on the shares of exporters. But other Asian markets gained ground, as did major indexes in Europe.

Central banks, including the Bank of Japan, have been a big driver of the bull market in stocks. With inflation under control and no sign of an acceleration in global growth, there's little chance they'll start turning off the easy money tap any time soon.
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Vader

IRS role in Obamacare

Jeanne Sahadi
CNN
Tue, 28 May 2013 17:00 UTC
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In the wake of the Tea Party targeting scandal, Republicans say the IRS should hit the brakes on implementing Obamacare provisions. But the IRS has a central role in making sure the new law works.
The IRS has a big target on its back these days. Its leaders have been pummeled on Capitol Hill over inappropriate targeting of Tea Party groups applying for tax-exempt status.

And some Republicans say they want the IRS to stop issuing and enforcing rules related to Obamacare at least until a federal investigation of the case is over.

Republicans have tried repeatedly to repeal the Affordable Care Act. And it's unclear whether the IRS scandal will let them slow-walk the law's implementation.

Regardless, the push adds to the pressure the IRS is under to help ensure that the law's implementation will not be a "train wreck," as some have contended it could be.

This much is known for sure: The IRS is charged with playing a key role in implementing health reform.
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Bad Guys

African Union accuses ICC of 'hunting' Africans


BBC
Tue, 28 May 2013 16:56 UTC
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© AFP PhotoKenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta won elections in March
The African Union (AU) has accused the International Criminal Court (ICC) of "hunting" Africans because of their race.

It was opposed to the ICC trying Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta on charges of crimes against humanity, said Ethiopia's Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.

The AU would raise its concerns with the UN, he added.

Mr Kenyatta, who was elected in March, is due to be tried in July.

He denies the charges, which arise from accusations that he fuelled violence after disputed elections in 2007.
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Chess

Saudi king appoints his son national guard minister


Associated Press
Mon, 27 May 2013 16:48 UTC
Mitab
© Unknown
Saudi Arabia's king has converted the national guard command into the National Guard Ministry and appointed his son Mitab, the commander of the guard, as National Guard Minister.

The national guard serves as an elite force to protect the regime.

A royal decree issued Monday gave no reasons for the move. It was not clear what changes this would make on the ground.
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Propaganda

U.S. civil liberties going backwards: Obama's using 1917 Espionage Act to go after reporters

Michael Barone
National Review
Mon, 27 May 2013 16:31 UTC
President Woodrow Wilson
© UnknownPresident Woodrow Wilson
The president uses the overly broad and little-used WWI-era law to go after reporters.

There is one problem with the entirely justified if self-interested media squawking about the Justice Department's snooping into the phone records of multiple Associated Press reporters and Fox News's James Rosen.

The problem is that what the AP reporters and Rosen did arguably violates the letter of the law.

The search warrant in the Rosen case cites Section 793(d) of Title 18 of the U.S. Code. Section 793(d) says that a person lawfully in possession of information that the government has classified as secret who turns it over to someone not lawfully entitled to posses it has committed a crime. That might cover Rosen's source.

Section 793(g) is a conspiracy count that says that anyone who conspires to help the source do that has committed the same crime. That would be the reporter.

It sounds as though this law criminalizes a lot of journalism. You might wonder how such a law ever got passed and why, for the last 90 years, it has very seldom produced prosecutions and investigations of journalists.
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Sherlock

The Sharyl Attkisson approach to journalism

Dylan Byers
Politico
Fri, 24 May 2013 16:13 UTC
Attkisson
© CBS PhotoProducers at CBS News once nicknamed Attkisson 'Pit Bull.'
Sharyl Attkisson has problems.

The Obama administration won't answer the CBS News correspondent's questions because her investigations - into Benghazi, Fast and Furious, Solyndra - often reflect negatively on it. Some colleagues at CBS News, where she has worked for two decades and earned multiple Emmy awards, dismiss her work because they perceive a political agenda. And now, she says, someone may have hacked into her computers.

Attkisson's one piece of solace may come from finally gaining some like-minded colleagues in the media. For years, Attkisson has been one of the few mainstream reporters pursuing critical stories about the Obama administration. Today, as "scandal season" takes hold in Washington, she has seen her longstanding skepticism of the White House and the Justice Department become the conventional attitude among a formerly deferential Beltway press corps.
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