Welcome to Sott.net
Thu, 21 Oct 2021
The World for People who Think

Puppet Masters
Map

People

Catalan MEPs ask for EU help against Spanish Army

Andrew Rettman
Euobserver
Sat, 27 Oct 2012 11:56 UTC
sagrada
© vgm8383
Barcelona - the MEPs' letter met with ridicule
Brussels - Four Catalan MEPs have asked the European Commission to tell Spain it cannot use military force to stop Catalonia from splitting away.

The deputies - centre-left MEP Maria Badia, Greens Ana Miranda and Raul Romeva i Rueda and Liberal Ramon Tremosa - wrote to EU justice commissioner Vivianne Reding on 22 October.

The letter says: "We are writing to you to convey our deep concern over a series of threats of the use of military force against the Catalan population ... In these circumstances, the European Union should intervene preventatively to guarantee that the resolution of the Catalan conflict be resolved in a peaceful, democratic manner."

It notes that politicians from the centre-right People's Party of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy have spoken of article 8 of Spain's constitution, which says the army can be used to protect Spanish sovereignty.

It adds the commission should: "Make a public statement insisting on the withdrawal from the public debate of any military threat or use of force as a way of resolving this political conflict."

The letter met with ridicule in Madrid.
      Read More...
Bomb

Bomb attached to bus kills 5 in Baghdad


The Daily Star
Sat, 27 Oct 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Mohammed Ameen
A general view shows Baghdad International Airport October 25, 2012.
Baghdad - Iraqi authorities say that a bomb attached to a bus carrying Iranian Shiite pilgrims has killed five people, including a woman, and wounded nine others.

Police officials say that the so-called sticky bomb hidden on the underside of the bus detonated Saturday morning. The Iranian pilgrims were heading to a Shiite shrine in Baghdad to mark the major Muslim holiday, the Eid al-Adha.

Medics in nearby hospitals confirmed the casualties. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Violence has ebbed across Iraq, but insurgents frequently attack security forces and civilians in an attempt to undermine the country's Shiite-led government.
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Syrian clashes break ceasefire


The Independent.ie
Fri, 26 Oct 2012 00:00 UTC

Two deadly car bombs and sporadic fighting have marred a shaky holiday truce in Syria, although thousands of protesters used the brief respite in the civil war to pour into the streets and demand president Bashar Assad's removal.

Chants of "Syria wants freedom!" rang out in the streets in the largest demonstrations in months, suggesting that a 19-month-old crackdown and sustained violence has not broken the spirit of those trying to rid the country of Assad's rule.

But even if a ceasefire holds for the intended four-day Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, it is unlikely to be a springboard for ending the conflict that has already claimed more than 35,000 lives.

A few hours after the truce took effect, a car bomb in a residential area of Damascus, near a housing complex for police, killed 10 people and wounded more than 30, Syrian state media said.
      Read More...
War Whore

Zionist lobbyist Patrick Clawson reveals more about US/Israel false flag attacks and shadow wars

Bob Tuskin, JG Vibes & Alex Thomas
Theintelhub.com
Tue, 23 Oct 2012 00:00 UTC
Patrick Clawson, Director of Research at Washington Institute Of Near East Policy (WINEP), was in the news last month for suggesting that a false flag attack should be used to incite a war with Iran and now, in a new exclusive interview, he candidly admits to the existence of "shadow wars" in the middle east and acknowledges the deep history of false flag attacks in western military culture.

In his most recent interview, Patrick Clawson was asked about his false flag comments by radio host Bob Tuskin.

He went on to make some very telling comments in reply to the questions.

At one point Tuskin asks "a lot of people are concerned that the other side striking first would be a manufactured incident and.... there is a good percentage of people who have looked at declassified government documents that show that this would be manifested through our own powers that shouldn't be".
      Read More...
Vader

Institutionalized state assassinations and the November 6 election

Bill Van Auken
World Socialist Web Site
Fri, 26 Oct 2012 20:09 UTC
Obama/drone
With barely a week and a half to go until the November 6 presidential elections, the entire spectrum of the American pseudo-left is exerting maximum efforts to turn out votes for Obama with the claim that the reelection of the incumbent Democrat would represent the "lesser of two evils."

If there was any need for a further refutation of this shabby political argument it has been provided in the form of the exposé run by the Washington Post this week on the Obama administration's institutionalization of assassinations orchestrated from the White House.

"Disposition Matrix," sounding like the title of a science fiction film, is the term crafted by Obama's intelligence and military advisers to describe a new system that is "codifying and streamlining" the extrajudicial killings that are being carried out on the orders of the US president on virtually a daily basis.

The media's bloodless reports referring to unmanned aircraft carrying out strikes against "compounds" and killing unnamed "militants" serve to mask the reality of US drone warfare, which in Pakistan alone has torn to pieces and incinerated thousands of civilians, men, women, children, while leaving entire communities in a permanent state of terror. An untold number more have been killed in Yemen and Somalia and no doubt elsewhere.
      Read More...
Pills

Wholesale murder of Africans: Most pharmaceuticals sent to Africa are fake

Craig Murray
craigmurray.org.uk
Fri, 26 Oct 2012 17:28 UTC
Image
Of 110 containers of pharmaceuticals entering West Africa searched in a special operation coordinated by the World Customs Organisation (WCO), 84 were found to contain fake pharmaceuticals. 82 million doses of fake medicine were confiscated which included anti-malarial and anti-HIV drugs and antibiotics.

Here in sub-Saharan Africa, over two children die every minute of malaria - which in 98% of cases can be cured with US $6 worth of genuine drugs. A spokesman for the WCO on BBC World Service radio last night said that the number of deaths caused directly by counterfeit medicine in Africa every year was in the hundreds of thousands. He called it "genocide".

I might not use that word, but it is beyond doubt true that supplying counterfeit drugs to Africa causes more deaths than narcotics, than the wars in Syria, Afghanistan and the rest of the Middle East combined, and several hundred times more deaths than terrorism.
      Read More...
Stormtrooper

Far right fascists 'infiltrated Greek police', used as agents provocateurs

Aris Chatzistefanou
The Guardian
Fri, 26 Oct 2012 17:14 UTC
Golden Dawn
© The Guardian
Officer says government has turned blind eye to fascists and far right may be being used to provoke clashes with demonstrators

A senior Greek police officer has claimed that the far-right Golden Dawn party has infiltrated the police at various levels. He has laid the blame on consecutive governments and the leadership of the police force for turning a blind eye to what he describes as "pockets of fascism".

Speaking to the Guardian on condition of anonymity, the officer said the Greek state had been fully aware of the activities of Golden Dawn for several years, with the National Intelligence Service and other security agencies monitoring it closely. The officer claimed police chiefs had had the opportunity to isolate and remove these small "pockets of fascism" in the force but decided not to. The state, he said, wanted to keep the fascist elements "in reserve" and use them for its own purposes.
      Read More...
Propaganda

'Freedom' of the press: Journalism in the Obama age shows the real media bias

Glenn Greenwald
The Guardian
Fri, 26 Oct 2012 17:00 UTC
Douglas Brinkley
© CNN
The Rolling Stone's Douglas Brinkley
A new Rolling Stone interview with the president shows subservience to power, not partisan favor, is what drives the press corps

Last month, Vanity Fair featured a major profile of President Obama by Michael Lewis, who was given what the New York Times called "rare" and "extraordinary access". Lewis "conducted multiple interviews with the president"; "rode in the official presidential limousine"; "was given a special lapel pin that identified him to the Secret Service as someone who was allowed to be in close proximity to the president"; and "flew with the president on several foreign and domestic trips" -- "not with the rest of the press corps in the back of Air Force One, but near the front." And, noted the Times, "the president even allowed Mr. Lewis to play on his basketball team."

But in exchange for such access, Lewis, unbeknownst to readers of his profile, had agreed to a journalistically corrupt practice - now banned by many large media outlets - whereby the only quotes he was permitted to use were ones the White House approved in advance. Unsurprisingly, the profile was pure hagiography that left Obama's most devoted media fans gushing with ecstacy.

Though I would have thought it impossible, Rolling Stone somehow just managed to top that profile when it comes to sycophantic, power-worshiping "journalism". This week, it features a cover story on Obama by its contributing editor, the historian Douglas Brinkley, largely based on a 45-minute interview in the Oval Office. The questions Brinkley posed are so vapid and reverent that it is hard to believe it's not satire.
      Read More...
Pistol

British oil executive shot dead in apparent professional hit in Brussels two weeks ago, Belgian authorities censored all press coverage until now


The Guardian
Fri, 26 Oct 2012 16:56 UTC
Image
© Steenpoel Golf Club/AP
ExxonMobil executive Nicholas Mockford (center)
Two men were spotted running away from scene of Nicholas Mockford's killing on 14 October, reports say

A British oil executive has been shot dead in front of his wife in Belgium.

Nicholas Mockford, 60, an executive for ExxonMobil, was shot three times as he left an Italian restaurant in a suburb of Brussels. His wife, Mary, was left beaten and covered in blood, cradling her husband and shouting for help.

Witnesses said they saw the couple walk across the street to their Lexus car before shots were fired. Reports suggest two men were spotted running away from the scene, one holding a motorcycle helmet.

The shooting is understood to have happened on 14 October, but the news has only now emerged after Belgian police imposed a reporting blackout.

The Daily Telegraph said police in Belgium were considering all possible motives for the shooting, including an attempted carjacking, although Mockford's car was not stolen.
      Read More...
Bad Guys

Get out of jail free: Silvio Berlusconi sentenced to four years in jail for tax fraud - but will serve none

Tom Kington
The Guardian
Fri, 26 Oct 2012 16:50 UTC
Silvio Berlusconi
© David Gadd/Allstar/Sportsphoto Ltd
Silvio Berlusconi and his co-defendants were also told to pay damages provisionally set at €10m.
Italian former prime minister, who also faces accusations of sex with underage prostitute, can appeal twice more against ruling

Silvio Berlusconi was sentenced to four years' jail by an Italian court on Friday at the end of a lengthy trial for tax fraud related to the acquisition of TV rights by his company Mediaset - but it remains unlikely he will ever see a prison cell.

Under the Italian legal system, the country's former prime minister will be entitled to two appeals before a definitive sentence. Berlusconi's sentence will also be reduced to one year under a 2006 measure that stripped three years off sentences for crimes committed before that date.
      Read More...
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts