Puppet MastersS


Eye 1

Did the FDA ban trans fat to benefit Monsanto and biotech?

Tara Dodrill
Off the Grid News
Sun, 15 Dec 2013 08:30 UTC
monsanto
The FDA trans fat ban may be more than simply a health-based initiative.

The proposed Food and Drug Administration rule would ban trans fats (partially hydrogenated oils - PHOs) in processed food. But the Alliance for Natural Health is but one food related organization that feels the FDA ban may actually have been crafted to benefit a new Monsanto GMO product.

According to the group, the government ban impacts not all trans fats - only the artificial ones that are created when vegetable oils and hydrogen are added during processing in order to make the product semi-solid. As it turns out, biotech companies are beginning to promote a GMO-laced soybean oil they say is healthier than oils that have trans fat.

The timing of the FDA trans fat ban is of particular interest to Monsanto and biotech industry watchers, the Alliance for Natural Health noted. The announcement reportedly comes at a time when banning PHOs would no longer irritate the biotech giants, which are also major election donors to both political parties. As previously reported by Off The Grid News, former Monsanto executives and attorneys now hold key positions within a host of federal agencies, including the FDA, USDA, and EPA.

Comment: For more information on GMO soy, check out:

The Dangers of Soy Are Real - and Much Worse Than You Might Think
Genetically Modified Soy: The Invisible Ingredient 'Poisoning' Children
Confused About Soy?: Soy Dangers Summarized
Soy Lecithin and the GMO Secret
Soy: Dark Side of a "Health Food"
Genetically Engineered Soybeans May Cause Allergies
Food Myths: Bamboozled By The Soy Hype
GMO soy repeatedly linked to sterility, infant mortality, birth defects
Beware: Genetically Modified Omega 3 Oils to Appear in Foods

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War Whore

While you are hungry.... Obama to holiday in Hawaii

Dave Boyer
The Washington Times
Fri, 13 Dec 2013 08:00 UTC
obama in hawaii
The majority of Americans won't see much of a holiday celebration this year, with the levels of unemployment, homelessness and poverty reaching unprecedented heights. But they will pay, through their taxes, for Obama's and family's luxurious vacation.
President Obama and his family will leave Washington Dec. 20 for a 17-day holiday vacation in Hawaii.

The White House announced Friday that the Obamas will depart next week after what is expected to be a light work schedule for the president in Washington.

The president and his family traditionally spend their Christmas break in a rented home on Oahu with spectacular ocean views.
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Eye 1

Obama's call to close Vatican embassy is 'slap in the face' to Roman Catholics

Cheryl K. Chumley
The Washington Times
Tue, 26 Nov 2013 00:00 UTC
obama vatican
© AP Photo/Alessandra TarantinoPeople crowd St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, on occasion of the celebration of the Easter mass Sunday, March 31, 2013. Pope Francis is celebrating his first Easter Sunday Mass as pontiff in St. Peter's Square, which is packed by joyous pilgrims, tourists and Romans.
The Obama administration, in what's been called an egregious slap in the face to the Vatican, has moved to shut down the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See - a free-standing facility - and relocate offices onto the grounds of the larger American Embassy in Italy.

The new offices will be in a separate building on the property, Breitbart reported.

And while U.S. officials are touting the relocation as a security measure that's a cautionary reaction to last year's attacks on America's facility in Benghazi, several former American envoys are raising the red flag.

It's a "massive downgrade of U.S.-Vatican ties," said former U.S. Ambassador James Nicholson in the National Catholic Reporter. "It's turning this embassy into a stepchild of the embassy to Italy. The Holy See is a pivot point for international affairs and a major listening post for the United States, and ... [it's] an insult to American Catholics and to the Vatican."

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Question

Flashback SOTT Focus: The Sandy Hook Massacre: Unanswered Questions

Joe Quinn and Niall Bradley
Sott.net
Mon, 07 Jan 2013 09:33 UTC

Comment: One year since the brutal slaying of 22 children and 6 of their teachers, these questions remain unanswered. US officials' response to our questions was made clear on November 25th this year when they indefinitely sealed the records of their investigations and declared the motive "unknown". As far as the US government is concerned, the Sandy Hook Massacre has now been consigned to history, the work of another 'crazed lone gunman'. As far as the truth is concerned, this horrific event remains an open wound that will never heal until justice has been served.


"Truth wears no mask, bows at no human shrine, seeks neither place not applause, she only asks a hearing." - Carl A. Wickland

Image
When 20 children and 6 adults were murdered in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre we, like most other people, were shocked and horrified at what appeared to be an act of senseless brutality. When a person experiences the tragic and untimely loss of a loved one, particularly in unusual or apparently inexplicable circumstances, the initial intense feelings of grief usually give way to a desire to understand HOW and WHY the tragedy occurred, in an effort to make sense of it and achieve some kind of 'closure'. This is a very normal and natural human reaction. We have an innate need to understand the world around us and how things 'work'. In our modern, technological world, most of what we understand about our world and how it works is provided to us by some authority or other. And most of us accept the conclusion of those authorities as being true. In some cases, those explanations are true.

In relation to the Sandy Hook massacre; while the HOW of the attack has been explained, as yet, there seem to be few authoritative answers as to WHY the massacre occurred. That is to say, WHY a lone gunman decided to walk into a school and murder 20 children and 6 adults. At this point, three weeks after the event, it seems that the world will ultimately have to accept the narrative that a lone, disturbed individual murdered those children because he was, well, disturbed. Specifically, it is claimed that Lanza had 'Asperger's Syndrome', yet according to experts, people with this condition do not run a higher risk of killing others or themselves and indeed that they 'rarely harm others'. The 'disturbed individual' answer is, therefore, a rather unsatisfactory one, but it's an answer nonetheless.

Comment: See also:

Sandy Hook hoaxes and the terror of the situation

SOTT Talk Radio: The Sandy Hook Massacre, What Really Happened?

Armed man caught in woods behind Sandy Hook school was "off-duty tactical squad police officer from another town"

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No Entry

Oxford invites Michael Savage to debate Snowden affair - but he has been banned from entering UK


WND.com
Fri, 13 Dec 2013 06:33 UTC
banned in england
The famed Oxford Union in England has invited talk-radio host Michael Savage to participate in a debate on whether or not fugitive National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden should be called a hero.

There's only one hitch, as Savage pointed out in his reply to the invitation from the Oxford Union's Charles Vaughn.

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Vader

US officials to meet their Al Qaeda commanders in coming days to discuss progress in Syria


Gulf Today
Sun, 15 Dec 2013 05:34 UTC
Image
'Durka, durka - Mohammed jihad'
Syrian rebel commanders from the Islamic Front which seized control of bases belonging to Western-backed rebels last week are due to hold talks with US officials in Turkey in coming days, rebel and opposition sources said on Saturday.

The expected contacts between Washington and the radical fighters reflect the extent to which the Islamic Front alliance has eclipsed the more moderate Free Syrian Army brigades - which Western and Arab powers tried in vain to build into a force able to topple President Bashar Al Assad. The talks could also decide the future direction of the Islamic Front, which is engaged in a standoff with yet more radical Sunni Muslim fighters from the Al Qaeda-linked Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

A rebel fighter with the Islamic Front said he expected the talks in Turkey to discuss whether the United States would help arm the front and assign to it responsibility for maintaining order in the rebel-held areas of northern Syria.
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Red Flag

Another FBI patsy? U.S. aviation worker arrested in FBI sting operation trying to set off car bomb in Kansas airport

Heather Saul
The Independent
Sat, 14 Dec 2013 00:00 UTC
Image
Terry Lee Loewen
An American avionics technician was arrested on Friday as part of an FBI sting after he drove a vehicle loaded with what he thought were explosives to a Wichita airport.

Authorities said the planned assault by Terry Lee Loewen at Wichita's Mid-Continent Regional airport was to demonstrate his support for al-Qa'ida.

Loewen, 58, who worked at the airport for Hawker Beechcraft, was arrested before dawn as he tried to drive into the tarmac. The materials in the car were inert, and no one at the airport was in any immediate danger, authorities said.

Loewen planned to die in the explosion in his quest to become a martyr in a jihad against America, according to court documents.

Police said they had been investigating Loewen, of Wichita, for approximately six months after he made statements online about wanting to commit "violent jihad" against the United States, US Attorney Barry Grissom said. Eventually, an undercover FBI agent befriended Loewen, striking up conversations about terrorism and Loewen's admiration for those who plotted violence against American interests.

Comment: Since the attacks of September 11, the FBI has brought approximately 500 terror cases to trail. Of these cases, 150 people have been involved in sting operations in which the FBI has supplied suspects with materials to act out plans of terror. The FBI has been heavily criticized for preying on individuals who are on the fringes of society. See:
Fake Terror and the War for Your Mind
Inside the FBI's 'Terror factory': Manufacturing the 'War on Terror'
The FBI's 'Islamic Terrorism' Fraud

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Compass

Meet the new boss, same as the old: South African government excluded Desmond Tutu from Mandela funeral

David Smith and Daniel Howden
The Guardian
Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00 UTC
South Africa's ruling party lambasted for not inviting retired archbishop and old Mandela ally turned fierce government critic
Tutu & Mandela
© UnknownArchbishop Desmond Tutu with Nelson Mandela. Both men were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Retired archbishop Desmond Tutu, one of the most prominent figures in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, has been excluded from the funeral of Nelson Mandela on Sunday in what has been described as a politically motivated snub.

Critics accused the governing African National Congress (ANC) of looking petty by apparently failing to invite Tutu, one of the most vocal campaigners for Mandela's release from jail during white minority rule.

An estimated 5,000 guests including Prince Charles, Malawian president Joyce Banda and various other dignitaries will attend the state funeral in Qunu, the village where Mandela grew up in Eastern Cape province. Tutu's daughter Mpho, chief executive of the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation, said on Friday: "The archbishop is not an accredited clergyperson for the event and will thus not be attending." His office declined to comment further.
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Eye 1

Chutzpah! U.S. government's 'review' of NSA activities recommends leaving spying program unchanged

Spencer Ackerman
The Guardian
Fri, 13 Dec 2013 10:54 UTC
obama
© Rex FeaturesBarack Obama ordered the review of NSA surveillance in the wake of the Edward Snowden disclosures.
- Panel to propose bulk surveillance continue - with some curbs
- Adviser calls apparent decision to leave core intact 'shameful'

A participant in a White House-sponsored review of surveillance activities described as "shameful" an apparent decision to leave most of the National Security Agency's controversial bulk spying intact.

Sascha Meinrath, director of the Open Technology Institute, said Friday that the review panel he advised is at risk of missing an opportunity to restore confidence in US surveillance practices.

"The review group was searching for ways to make the most modest pivot necessary to continue business as usual," Meinrath said.

Headed by the CIA's former deputy director, Michael Morrell, the review is expected to deliver its report to President Barack Obama on Sunday, the White House confirmed, although it is less clear when and how substantially its report will be available to the public.

National security council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said she would have no further comment "on a report that is not yet final and hasn't yet been submitted to the White House".

Should the review group's report resemble descriptions that leaked late Thursday, the report "does nothing to alter the lack of trust the global populace has for what the US is doing, and nothing to restore our reputation as an ethical internet steward," said Meinrath, who met with the advisory panel and White House officials twice to discuss the bulk surveillance programs that have sparked international outrage.
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Folder

Officials Say U.S. May Never Know Extent of Snowden's Leaks

Mark Mazzetti, Michael S. Schmidt
The New York Times
Sat, 14 Dec 2013 00:00 UTC
snowden
© Kin Cheung/APEdward Snowden
American intelligence and law enforcement investigators have concluded that they may never know the entirety of what the former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden extracted from classified government computers before leaving the United States, according to senior government officials.

Investigators remain in the dark about the extent of the data breach partly because the N.S.A. facility in Hawaii where Mr. Snowden worked - unlike other N.S.A. facilities - was not equipped with up-to-date software that allows the spy agency to monitor which corners of its vast computer landscape its employees are navigating at any given time.

Six months since the investigation began, officials said Mr. Snowden had further covered his tracks by logging into classified systems using the passwords of other security agency employees, as well as by hacking firewalls installed to limit access to certain parts of the system.

"They've spent hundreds and hundreds of man-hours trying to reconstruct everything he has gotten, and they still don't know all of what he took," a senior administration official said. "I know that seems crazy, but everything with this is crazy."

Comment: Here again we see more of the same 'ole 'business as usual', with another ongoing example of the government investigating itself. Look how well that's worked out with regard to 9/11.

How much truth can the American people, or anyone, for that matter, expect to emerge from such 'investigation'?

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