Puppet MastersS


USA

U.S. military has detained hundreds of Afghan teens during war, report says


Guardian
Sat, 08 Dec 2012 09:48 UTC
Parwan detention facility near Bagram north of Kabul, Afghanistan
© David Guttenfelder/APUS military personnel stands on a guard tower at the Parwan detention facility near Bagram north of Kabul, Afghanistan.
More than 200 teenagers were captured for a year at a time, characterised as 'enemy combatants' in US report to UN

The US military has detained more than 200 Afghan teenagers who were captured in the war for about a year at a time at a military prison next to Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, the United States has told the United Nations.

The State Department characterized the detainees held since 2008 as "enemy combatants" in a report sent every four years to the United Nations in Geneva updating US compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The US military had held them "to prevent a combatant from returning to the battlefield", the report said.

A few are still confined at the detention facility in Parwan, which will be turned over to the Afghan government, it said. "Many of them have been released or transferred to the Afghan government," said the report, distributed this week.

Most of the juvenile Afghan detainees were about 16 years old, but their age was not usually determined until after capture, the US report said.
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Nuke

U.S. nuclear test condemned by Iran, Japan


RT.com
Sat, 08 Dec 2012 22:22 UTC
Iran has strongly condemned the US for carrying out a nuclear test in Nevada this week, saying the move threatens world peace and shows a hypocritical set of double standards set by Washington when it comes to nuclear research.

­The Iranian Foreign Ministry said the Wednesday detonation proves that US foreign policy relies heavily on the use of nuclear weapons, disregarding UN calls for global disarmament, PressTV reports.

The experiment also drew criticism from Japan, with Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui wondering why the Obama administration carried out the test, despite saying he would "seek a nuclear-free world."

The test proves that the US "could use nuclear weapons anytime," said Hirotami Yamada, who heads the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Survivors Council.

On Friday it was announced that the Nevada National Security Site had successfully detonated plutonium in a deep shaft Wednesday to test the safety and effectiveness of US nuclear weapons, National Nuclear Security Administration officials said.
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Vader

Best of the Web: Syria, Bashar al-Assad, and the truth about chemical weapons and who may or may not have them

Robert Fisk
The Independent, UK
Sat, 08 Dec 2012 09:25 UTC
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© REUTERS/Muhammad Al-Ibraheem/Shaam News NetworkSwathes of modern secular Syria lies in ruins following a two-year long dirty war conducted by Western-backed Al Qaeda against the Syrian people. Here buildings are destroyed in the centre of Homs, October 25, 2012.
Bashar's father Hafez al-Assad was brutal but never used chemical arms. And do you know which was the first army to use gas in the Middle East?

The bigger the lie the more people will believe it. We all know who said that - but it still works. Bashar al-Assad has chemical weapons. He may use them against his own Syrian people. If he does, the West will respond. We heard all this stuff last year - and Assad's regime repeatedly said that if - if - it had chemical weapons, it would never use them against Syrians.

But now Washington is playing the same gas-chanty all over again. Bashar has chemical weapons. He may use them against his own people. And if he does...

Well if he does, Obama and Madame Clinton and Nato will be very, very angry. But over the past week, all the usual pseudo-experts who couldn't find Syria on a map have been warning us again of the mustard gas, chemical agents, biological agents that Syria might possess - and might use. And the sources? The same fantasy specialists who didn't warn us about 9/11 but insisted that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction in 2003: "unnamed military intelligence sources". Henceforth to be acronymed as UMIS.
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Bad Guys

NATO attacked Afghan health clinic in serious war crime

John Glaser
AntiWar.com
Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:00 UTC
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US-led NATO forces attacked a health clinic in Afghanistan, stormed the building, damaged equipment, detained those inside and turned it into a temporary jail and military base, in a grave violation of the laws of war.

The incident occurred in October in Wardak province, according to the aid group that runs the clinic, the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan.

"The soldiers knocked down a wall to enter the building, damaged doors, windows, examination beds and other equipment, and detained clinical staff and civilians inside," reports the Guardian's Emma Graham-Harrison from Kabul. "And for the next two and a half days they brought dozens, maybe hundreds of prisoners through the clinic, using it as a jail, logistics hub and for mortar fire, contravening the Geneva conventions, which protect medical centres."

"The protection of medical persons and facilities, and respect for their neutrality was one of the founding principles of international humanitarian law," Erica Gaston, a human rights lawyer and senior program officer at the US Institute of Peace, told the Guardian.
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Stock Down

U.S. economic crisis fuels military intervention in Syria

Danny Schechter
Press TV
Fri, 07 Dec 2012 00:00 UTC
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Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke speaks at the Economic Club of New York on November 20, 2012 in New York City. In his address he urged Congress to act to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff" of severe budget cuts and tax hikes in 2013.
The US economy is sluggish with fears of a new recession. The Democrats and Republicans once more cannot agree on what to do about the alleged "fiscal cliff" that threatens to further unravel the economy, even as analysts say that the whole notion of going over the "cliff " has been fabricated by the right to force more cuts in social benefits.

Consumer confidence is dipping in this festive season of global shopping---not a good sign, since consumption and spending at the malls is an economic driver with 70% of economic activity based on getting consumers to buy even when it means they must go deeper and deeper in debt using credit cards and loans.

What can the Obama government do? The political stalemate has blocked new jobs and stimulus programs so reliance on Federal Reserve Bank interventions has grown, but they are not printing enough money to turn things around.

This is what's behind the pressure for new wars that primes the spending pump with national security always used as the pretext. Largely unreported has been a quite escalation of selling arms and advanced weaponry, using threats from terrorists and Iran as the way to get a nervous public on board.

The White House has dipped into the Bush Administration Iraq playbook to seek out a new threat that can justify intervention. Non-Existent WMDs were used then to prepare the political/psychological conditions for the taking on Saddam Hussein. Now, the danger of Syria's alleged use of "chemical weapons" is being trotted out and reinforced daily in briefings happily carried on our media.
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Star of David

Man caught pimping students to pay for their education turns out to be IT consultant with Top Secret British military clearance


The Independent, UK
Fri, 07 Dec 2012 16:21 UTC
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Mark Lancaster
'Assessor' for SponsoraScholar.co.uk Mark Lancaster worked on massive overhaul of the British military computer network

The man revealed by The Independent to be running a website offering to pay the tuition fees of female students in return for sex can today be named as a highly paid computer consultant who claims to have top-level Ministry of Defence security clearance and access to top secret material.

Mark Lancaster, 39, who presented himself as an "assessor" for the SponsorAScholar.co.uk website, has worked as a contractor on a massive overhaul of the IT network used by UK armed forces, military sources confirmed last night. He is also thought to have worked on computer systems used by British forces during the invasion of Iraq.

The Independent this week tracked down the married father-of-two to his £460,000 home on the edge of the South Downs national park in Hampshire after he was filmed asking an undercover reporter to undergo a "practical assessment" with him to prove the "level of intimacy" she could provide for the website's claimed clients.
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Pirates

'Pirates of the Caribbean' franchise funded by British investors trying to avoid paying taxes

Oliver Wright
The Independent, UK
Fri, 07 Dec 2012 16:06 UTC
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Tim Levy, Director of Future Capital Partners
Revelation emerged in testimony to the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee

The blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise was partly bankrolled by rich British investors trying to avoid paying tax, it has been revealed.

Members of a legal tax avoidance scheme used a loophole in legislation, designed to increase investment in making British films, to buy the world distribution rights to two of the hit Hollywood movies which already been made.

It was suggested that they were then able to write-off their investment against British tax liabilities - potentially resulting the taxpayer subsidising the American film.

The revelation emerged in testimony to the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee as part of its on-going inquiry into tax avoidance schemes.
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Nuke

U.S. conducts atomic test amid global urge for nuclear disarmament


Press TV
Fri, 07 Dec 2012 00:00 UTC
The US has conducted a nuclear test in Nevada to examine the effectiveness of its atomic weapons stockpile amid the growing global urge for nuclear disarmament.
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nuclear weapon test
The US Energy Department announced that the Wednesday nuclear test was aimed at providing "crucial information to maintain the safety and effectiveness of the nation's nuclear weapons."

The subcritical experiment, known as Pollux, was conducted by the staff from the Nevada National Security Site, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories.

Subcritical nuclear tests examine the behavior of plutonium when shocked by forces produced by chemical high explosives.
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Stormtrooper

Foreign intervention to further endanger security in Syria


Fars News Agency
Fri, 07 Dec 2012 10:53 UTC
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© Unknown
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir Abdollahian lashed out at certain countries for supplying military aid to the Syrian rebels, and voiced Iran's steadfast opposition to foreign military intervention in Syria.

Speaking on Thursday, Amir Abdollahian reaffirmed Iran's support for a political solution to the Syria unrest and warned that foreign interference could further endanger security in Syria and the region.

As regards reports that Syria might have plans to use chemical weapons during the ongoing turmoil in the country, the Iranian official said certain countries bring up such allegations to achieve their vicious objectives.

He said that Syria will neither use chemical weapons nor allow "foreign-backed irresponsible" militants to possibly use such weapons.

Syria is past the period of security crisis but certain parties send weapons into this country and allege that Syria might use chemical weapons in a bid to pursue specific objectives, Amir Abdollahian added.

His remarks came a few days after US President Barack Obama claimed that Syria intends to use chemical weapons against the militants and warned against the consequences of such a move.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen also warned on Tuesday that any use of chemical weapons by Syria's government against gunmen would prompt an immediate military response.

Damascus has strongly rejected the allegations.

Comment: The potential of a false flag attack is high. Will the US, UK or Israel provide the catalyst to create war with Syria, launching their own chemical weapons and then blame Syria?

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Stormtrooper

Blackwater becomes new landlord in Afghanistan for U.S. Special Forces


RT
Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:00 UTC
blackwater chopper scan 2005
© AFP/GETTYArmed members of Blackwater scan Baghdad from a helicopter in 2005
As President Obama insists on a speedy end to the war in Afghanistan, his administration has other plans. A facility owned by the private security force once known as Blackwater has been awarded a $22 million contract to house US troops through 2015.

The private military company Academi - formerly Blackwater and, more recently, Xe - is the proud winner of a no-bid contract that will keep them profiting off Uncle Sam's wars for the next few years. Under a deal first reported by Wired.com's Danger Room, Academi will assist the recently created US Special Operations Joint Task Force - Afghanistan with housing facilities and office space on their massive 10-acre compound in Kabul named Camp Integrity.

According to Danger Room reporter Spencer Ackerman, Academi won the rights to lease Camp Integrity to the special ops team through May 2015, providing accommodations for some 7,000 elite troops.

US Pres. Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have both insisted in recent weeks that the United States' war in Afghanistan will end by 2014 and all combatant forces will be removed. Despite a deadline firmly in place, though, the Pentagon has plans to keep upwards of 10,000 troops overseas in order to conduct so-called training and counterterrorism operations for the unforeseeable future. Now thanks to Academi, thousands troops within those Special Operations Forces will be provided a place to stay on their privately-owned and operated facility.

"We've seen these kind of close, intertwined relationships in the field between the public and private forces before," Peter Singer, a scholar at the Brookings Institution, explains to Ackerman. "The US military and the CIA, reportedly, have hired these companies to do everything from building bases, running the facilities and logistics, to serving as the guard forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan. You get to a certain point where you wonder where the US military and private military roles begin and end. But to me, the interesting question is what have we actually learned from these past experiences?"
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