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Light Sabers

Russian President Putin rejects US's Syria chemical use claim, demands proof

Moscow rally syria
© AFP(Andrey Smirnov, File)A rally outside the US embassy in Moscow in support of the Syrian regime.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday dismissed claims that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons, demanding that the United States provide proof rather than taking rash action.

Speaking after the United States released an intelligence report, Putin rejected US use of intercepts of Syrian communications as evidence, saying that they could not be used to take "fundamental decisions" like using military force on Syria.

And he rubbished the notion that the Syrian army used chemical weapons, saying to do so would defy "common sense."

"Syrian government troops are on the offensive and have surrounded the opposition in several regions," he said in the Far Eastern city of Vladivostok.

"In these conditions, to give a trump card to those who are calling for a military intervention is utter nonsense."

Russia, Syria's vocal and powerful ally, has vowed to block any action against the regime of Syria's Bashar Assad in the UN Security Council, where it is a permanent member.

Putin said he was sure the alleged attack was "nothing but a provocation" by those who want to drag other countries into the Syrian conflict, and demanded proof this was not the case.

"Regarding the position of our American colleagues, friends, who affirm that government troops used weapons of mass destruction, in this case chemical weapons, and say that they have proof, well, let them show it to the United Nations inspectors and the Security Council," he said.

Saying that such evidence is classified "does not stand up to criticism" and disrespects other countries, Putin said. "If there is evidence, it must be presented. If they don't show it, that means there is none."

Red Flag

More 'leaks' via Ed Snowden: NSA conducted 231 cyber-ops against 'evil regimes' in 2011

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Yes, it's Captain America, the NSA's top secret agent.
US intelligence carried out 231 offensive cyber-ops in 2011, nearly three-quarters of them against key targets such as Iran, Russia, China and N. Korea, as well as nuclear proliferation, a classified report obtained by The Washington Post says.

The "most challenging targets" also include suspected terrorists "in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Iraq, Somalia, and other extremist safe havens," according to one list of priorities. US budget documents describe the attacks as "active defense."

Some cyber-operations reportedly feature what one budget document calls "field operations" organized "to physically place hardware implants or software modifications" with the help of CIA operatives or clandestine military forces.

An implant is often coded in software by an NSA group called Tailored Access Operations, which builds attack tools that are custom-fitted to their targets, The Washington Post reports, adding that this year TAO is working on implants that "can identify select voice conversations of interest within a target network and exfiltrate select cuts," one budget document says.

Comment: Once again we have the strong impression that these 'leaks' are boasting of U.S. achievements, not exposing its dirty laundry.

The two opening paragraphs in particular...
US intelligence carried out 231 offensive cyber-ops in 2011, nearly three-quarters of them against key targets such as Iran, Russia, China and N. Korea, as well as nuclear proliferation, a classified report obtained by The Washington Post says.

The "most challenging targets" also include suspected terrorists "in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Iraq, Somalia, and other extremist safe havens," according to one list of priorities. US budget documents describe the attacks as "active defense."
...sit neatly with U.S. propaganda about an 'Axis of Evil', a 'War on Terror' and a 'Clash of Civilizations'.

How is this in any way damaging or embarrassing to the U.S. national security state? It's basically the NSA - speaking through Snowden - showing off its programs, capabilities and global reach.

These 'leaks' are, substantially, 'spooky fluff', intended to portray the NSA chiefs and the high priests in the Cult of Intelligence as kick-ass awesome, like they are in the movies, and nothing like the downright pernicious scumbags they truly are.


Yoda

Ron Paul: Why are we on the side of Al Qaeda in Syria?

In the following interview with Fox News, Congressman Ron Paul introduces some common sense to the endless lies broadcast on U.S. mainstream media regarding the alleged chemical weapons attack in Damascus last week and the 'U.S. response'.


Wall Street

Syria, financial scams and the destruction of your standard of living

Commentary from Karl Denninger

Karl Denninger was one of the founding forces behind the Tea Party.

He quit a month later after it became clear that it has been taken over by partisan Republican...can I use the word?...I guess I'll just say "operatives."

Denninger is one of the very few people I know who is able to to see the connections between America's collapsing business culture, Fed and Big Bank fraud, and the US government lust for power overseas.

He's generally not a dove, but as you can see he is 100% against a military attack on Syria for completely rational and unemotional reasons.

This is one you can play for your friends who think "we have to do something."

Denninger: "Trying to goad somebody else into doing your dirty work for you is a time-honored tactic of war!... Remember Benghazi, anybody? What were we doing there? We were selling weapons to a bunch of extremists!"

Che Guevara

Best of the Web: People of the world are fighting back against 'Coalition of the Killing'

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© Reuters / Olivia HarrisProtestors demonstrate against potential strikes on the Syrian government, at Trafalgar Square in central London August 31, 2013.
The United States of America stands exposed in the eyes of the entire world as the number-one terrorist threat to the future of humanity. Many have known this fact already, but now it is universally clear.

As the US prepares to launch an overt war on Syria (the covert war has been raging for 30 months), the vast majority of humanity can finally see through all its decades of pretense and conceit as the world's model of democracy and international law. And what they see is the ugly opposite. The US is a terrorist state that holds international law, democracy and human rights in utter contempt. It is ready, as it always has been, to kill countless civilians for its selfish political ambitions. That is the conventional definition of "terrorism".

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad made a profound point recently when he said that his country has faced aggression for more than two years, but only now is the real enemy revealing itself - the US and its minions. But the US terrorist state is not just being called out over Syria. It is being revealed as the enemy to the entire world.

Comment: Wearechange.org attended a protest against the war on Syria in Times Square, NYC. Here's what the American people think about bombing another country back to the stone age:




Light Saber

Best of the Web: Putin: U.S. should present Syria evidence to U.N. Security Council, but it won't because it's 'secret' - and it's secret because it doesn't exist

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© RIA Novosti / Aleksey NikolskyiRussian President Vladimir Putin: "This is my 'you've-got-to-be-kidding-me' face."
Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared 'utter nonsense' the idea that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons on its own people and called on the US to present its supposed evidence to the UN Security Council.

Putin has further called the Western tactic a 'provocation.'

Washington has been basing its proposed strategy of an attack on Syria on the premise that President Bashar Assad's government forces have used chemical agents, while Russia finds the accusations unacceptable and the idea of performing a military strike on the country even more so. Especially as it would constitute a violation of international law, if carried out without the approval of the UN Security Council.

Further to this, Putin told Obama that he should consider what the potential fallout from a military strike would be and to take into consideration the suffering of innocent civilians.

The Russian president has expressed certainty that the strategy for a military intervention in Syria is a contingency measure from outside and a direct response to the Syrian government's recent combat successes, coupled with the rebels' retreat from long-held positions.


Comment: The "intercepted communications", by the way, came via Israel's equivalent of the NSA... Israel has already bombed Syrian military installations so it's not exactly an impartial observer in all of this.


Sherlock

5 possible repercussions of a U.S. military strike on Syria

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© Khaled al-Hariri/ReutersAmmunition is seen at an area controlled by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad at the front line during clashes with opposition fighters during a guided tour by the Syrian Army in the Damascus suburb of Jobar, Aug. 24, 2013.
A U.S. missile strike on Syria could trigger an explosive chain reaction involving from Syria or its allies like Hezbollah and Iran, and the blowback could hit U.S. targets or Israel, experts told ABCNews.com.

Or Syria might simply stop using chemical weapons and there is no retaliation at all.

Gauging the ripple effect of a U.S. strike on Syria is part of the calculations of the Obama administration, but it is an imprecise science.

"When you do a military strike it often has ramifications you don't anticipate," said Dan Byman, a senior fellow of foreign policy at Brookings Institute.

Here are five scenarios the the U.S. could face in coming weeks.

1. Syria Will Try to Retaliate

Syria has already made bold threats toward the U.S. and its allies, specifically Israel, about retaliation for any U.S. intervention in Syria's civil war.

"If Damascus comes under attack, Tel Aviv will be targeted and a full-scale war against Syria will actually issue a licence for attacking Israel," Iran's Fars News Agency quoted a Syrian military official as saying. "If Syria is attacked, Israel will also be set on fire and such an attack will, in turn, engage Syria's neighbors."

War Whore

French military 'ready' for action against Syria

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The head of the Western-backed Syrian opposition says that the British parliament's failure to endorse military action in Syria isn't enough to hold back strikes by other allies.

Ahmad al-Jarba said on France-Inter radio on Friday that he wasn't surprised by the vote that effectively removes Britain from a coalition of Western allies looking to punish Bashar Assad with military strikes for his regime's alleged responsibility in an apparent Aug. 21 chemical attack.

Mr. Potato

Obama stands alone on Syria: America totally discredited

Obama embarrassed
© The Telegraph
A foolish President Obama and moronic Secretary of State Kerry have handed the United States government its worst diplomatic defeat in history and destroyed the credibility of the Office of the President, the Department of State, and the entire executive branch.

Intoxicated with hubris from past successful lies and deceptions used to destroy Iraq and Libya, Obama thought the US "superpower," the "exceptional" and "indispensable" country, could pull it off again, this time in Syria.

But the rest of the world has learned to avoid Washington's rush to war when there is no evidence. A foolish Obama was pushed far out on the limb by an incompetent and untrustworthy National Security Advisor, Susan Rice, and the pack of neoconservatives that support her, and the British Parliament cut the limb off.

What kind of fool would put himself in that vulnerable position?

Dollar

40% of top-paid CEOs busted, bailed out or booted, study says

CEO's
© Associated PressRichard Fuld of Lehman Brothers was among corporate America's 25 highest-paid CEOs for eight years until his firm went belly-up in 2008. He is shown testifying before the House financial services committee in 2010.
A new report from the Institute for Policy Studies points to a weak link between performance and pay among some of the highest-paid CEOs of American companies, and urges the U.S. government to push through laws that would bring chief executive pay under closer scrutiny.

The report, titled "Executive Excess 2013," found that since the 2008 financial crisis, 40 per cent of the highest-paid CEOs in the U.S. had been either "bailed out, booted, or busted" - that is, worked for companies bailed out by taxpayers, had been fired or had been arrested for illegal activities

"We think the study really undercuts this whole idea of pay for performance," said Sarah Anderson, co-author of the Executive Excess Report, said in an interview from Washington, D.C.

"We have a corporate culture that really encourages risky behaviour that is dangerous for both shareholders and taxpayers. I think it's widely acknowledged that the executive CEO compensation structure for Wall Street bankers was a factor that got us into this crisis," she told CBC News.

The breakdown:
  • About 22 per cent of U.S. companies with the highest-paid CEOs received taxpayer bailouts after the 2008 financial crash.
  • Eight per cent of highly paid CEOs were fired for poor performance but received golden parachutes valued, on average, at $48 million US.
  • Another eight per cent of highly paid CEOs ran afoul of the law and paid fraud-related fines or settlements.