Puppet MastersS


Vader

IDF chief orders surprise Golan Heights drill

Yoav Zitun
Ynet
Wed, 19 Sep 2012 05:11 UTC
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© IDF Spokesperson's OfficeGantz during army drill
Live-fire exercise meant to test readiness, fitness of a number of units specializing in offensive firepower; army says drill does not suggest change in alert level.

Amid Israeli threats to attack Iran's nuclear installations and fears of a retaliatory strike by the Ayatollah regime in Tehran, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz ordered a number of units to conduct an unplanned exercise early Wednesday to test the army's readiness and alert level.

Forces from the Central and Northern Commands, Air Force and other units are taking part in the drill. A large number of regular army and reserve soldiers received surprising telephone calls from their units overnight Wednesday, ordering them to attend the exercise.

The IDF Spokesperson's Unit said Gantz wants to test the readiness and fitness of a number of units specializing in offensive firepower, particularly the Artillery Corps. During the exercise, which is simulating a surprise war in the Golan Heights, Central Command forces will be flown by choppers to the Golan Heights to take part in a live-fire drill in the afternoon.
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Vader

Historian likens Israel to Aboriginal dispossession

Jen Rosenberg
The Sydney Morning Herald
Wed, 19 Sep 2012 05:07 UTC
If the creation of the state of Israel was akin to the ethnic cleansing of the resident Palestinians, does the establishment of colonial Australia amount to the same thing for the indigenous population?

This is the hypothesis put to Professor Ilan Pappe, an Israeli historian who is no stranger to controversy and unpopular arguments, on his latest tour of Australia.

"I think it's a very very fair comparison," he says. "Both societies are settler colonial societies, dispossessing the indigenous people."

Professor Pappe has earned disfavour in Israel, where his credibility is questioned for his view that the Palestinians were forced from their land and did not give it up willingly in 1948 when the state of Israel was created as a homeland for Jews.

He and other "new historians" cite evidence from Israeli and British documents declassified in the '80s as showing detailed planning to expel or repel 700,000 Palestinians, who have remained refugees from their homeland. The premise of Terra Nullius, in which European settlers viewed Australia as an unoccupied space, is similar to the idea that the Palestinians willingly gave up their land.
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USA

Obama Wins Right to Indefinitely Detain US Citizens Under NDAA


RT
Tue, 18 Sep 2012 00:00 UTC
Obama, police state
A lone appeals judge bowed down to the Obama administration late Monday and reauthorized the White House's ability to indefinitely detain American citizens without charge or due process.

Last week, a federal judge ruled that an temporary injunction on section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 must be made permanent, essentially barring the White House from ever enforcing a clause in the NDAA that can let them put any US citizen behind bars indefinitely over mere allegations of terrorist associations. On Monday, the US Justice Department asked for an emergency stay on that order, and hours later US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Judge Raymond Lohier agreed to intervene and place a hold on the injunction.

The stay will remain in effect until at least September 28, when a three-judge appeals court panel is expected to begin addressing the issue.

On December 31, 2011, US President Barack Obama signed the NDAA into law, even though he insisted on accompanying that authorization with a statement explaining his hesitance to essentially eliminate habeas corpus for the American people.

"The fact that I support this bill as a whole does not mean I agree with everything in it," President Obama wrote. "In particular, I have signed this bill despite having serious reservations with certain provisions that regulate the detention, interrogation, and prosecution of suspected terrorists."
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V

Mask ban bill nears final stage in House of Commons

Laura Payton
CBC News
Tue, 18 Sep 2012 01:31 UTC
Debate on committee report starts today, bill heads to Senate next
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© Graham Hughes/Canadian PressMasked protesters take part in an anti-capitalist demonstration in Montreal, Tuesday, May 1, 2012.
A bill that would make it illegal to wear a mask during a violent demonstration is nearing its final hurdle in the House of Commons, with just two hours of debate left.

Bill C-309 would make it a crime for people rioting or at an unlawful protest to conceal their identities. It's already illegal to wear a disguise when committing an indictable, or more serious, offence, which includes rioting. Unlawful protests, however, don't fall under that law because they're classified as a summary conviction, or less serious, offence.

An unlawful assembly is a gathering that causes fear. It's up to city officials to decide what constitutes a riot.

Last May, MPs on the House justice committee increased the penalty in the bill to 10 years for rioters who conceal their faces and five years for those at an unlawful protest. The maximum sentence for rioting is two years.
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USA

Appeals Court Kowtows to Obama Administration, Tentatively Blocks Indefinite Detention Ruling

Madison Ruppert
Activist Post
Tue, 18 Sep 2012 23:33 UTC
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© Chuck Kennedy
As I reported yesterday, the Obama administration snapped into action in their effort to overturn the decision of Judge Katherine Forrest which blocked the indefinite detention provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (NDAA).

In a disturbing yet not all too surprising move, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals quickly stepped in and gave Obama exactly what he wanted in striking down Judge Forrest's ruling that the White House claims is "dangerous" and a threat to national security.

Judge Raymond Lohier granted an interim stay based on the emergency petition (PDF courtesy of Threat Level) filed by the Obama administration yesterday; and as you can see in the one page decision (PDF courtesy of Threat Level), the decision took less than 24 hours.

One would think that a longer period of deliberation would be required to come to a decision allowing the Obama administration to continue to operate in direct conflict with the Constitution of the United States of America, but apparently that was not the case.

I must wonder if that could have anything to do with the fact that Judge Raymond Lohier was nominated for the position by Barack Obama himself in 2010. After all, Obama said Lohier has "an unwavering commitment to fairness and judicial integrity," according to a White House press release.
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Eye 1

Best of the Web: Are You Seeing What I'm Seeing?

Jim Quinn
The Burning Platform
Mon, 17 Sep 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
Is it just me, or are the signs of consumer collapse as clear as a Lowes parking lot on a Saturday afternoon? Sometimes I wonder if I'm just seeing the world through my pessimistic lens, skewing my point of view. My daily commute through West Philadelphia is not very enlightening, as the squalor, filth and lack of legal commerce remain consistent from year to year. This community is sustained by taxpayer subsidized low income housing, taxpayer subsidized food stamps, welfare payments, and illegal drug dealing. The dependency attitude, lifestyles of slothfulness and total lack of commerce has remained constant for decades in West Philly. It is on the weekends, cruising around a once thriving suburbia, where you perceive the persistent deterioration and decay of our debt fixated consumer spending based society.

The last two weekends I've needed to travel the highways of Montgomery County, PA going to a family party and purchasing a garbage disposal for my sink at my local Lowes store. Montgomery County is the typical white upper middle class suburb, with tracts of McMansions dotting the landscape. The population of 800,000 is spread over a 500 square mile area. Over 81% of the population is white, with the 9% black population confined to the urban enclaves of Norristown and Pottstown.

The median age is 38 and the median household income is $75,000, 50% above the national average. The employers are well diversified with an even distribution between education, health care, manufacturing, retail, professional services, finance and real estate. The median home price is $300,000, also 50% above the national average. The county leans Democrat, with Obama winning 60% of the vote in 2008. The 300,000 households were occupied by college educated white collar professionals. From a strictly demographic standpoint, Montgomery County appears to be a prosperous flourishing community where the residents are living lives of relative affluence. But, if you look closer and connect the dots, you see fissures in this façade of affluence that spread more expansively by the day. The cheap oil based, automobile dependent, mall centric, suburban sprawl, sanctuary of consumerism lifestyle is showing distinct signs of erosion. The clues are there for all to see and portend a bleak future for those mentally trapped in the delusions of a debt dependent suburban oasis of retail outlets, chain restaurants, office parks and enclaves of cookie cutter McMansions. An unsustainable paradigm can't be sustained.

Comment: Please see: Social Harmony in Times of Global Dischord

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Boat

UK Joins Persian Gulf Naval War Games in Warning to Tehran

Umberto Bacchi
International Business Times
Tue, 18 Sep 2012 05:42 UTC
Image
© ReutersThirty countries have participated in a naval exercise in the Gulf
Three British warships joins 30-nation minesweep exercise, seen by military analysts as warning to Tehran to toe the line

British warships have joined a major naval exercise in the Persian Gulf as tensions between Israel and Iran over Tehran's nuclear power programme increase.

British forces are taking part in a joint operation conducted by the navies of more than 30 countries to sweep the area - a major transit point of maritime trade - clean of mines.

"The UK is committed to a standing presence in the Gulf to ensure freedom of navigation in international waters such as the Straits of Hormuz," said defence secretary Philip Hammond.

"Disruption to sailing in the strait would threaten regional and economic growth. Any attempt by Iran to do this would be illegal and unsuccessful."

The show of strength in exercises that include naval deployment by Saudi Arabia, the US and France was designed to warn off Tehran from contemplating disrupting trade routes in the ongoing diplomatic poker game over its nuclear ambitions and Israel's threat of a strike.

The Strait of Hormuz between Iran and Oman is one of the most heavily used trade waterways in the world. Some 35 percent of the world's oil shipments - about 18 million barrels a day - pass through the 21-mile-wide channel.
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Eye 1

China Hints at Lenient Sentence Against Corrupt Ex-police Chief


CBC News
Tue, 18 Sep 2012 09:12 UTC
Wang Lijun
© The Associated PressWang Lijun
Trial of Wang Lijun in Chengdu city's intermediate court concludes without verdict

China signalled Tuesday it will be lenient with an ex-police chief enmeshed in a political scandal roiling the country's leadership, saying he co-operated with investigators who brought down a top Chinese politician's wife for the murder of a British businessman.

Wang Lijun's trial in Chengdu city's Intermediate Court concluded Tuesday without a verdict after two half-day sessions that were closed to the foreign media. Afterward, a court spokesman summarized the proceedings for reporters, saying Wang initially covered up the murder of Briton Neil Heywood.

But, the spokesman said, Wang later turned himself in and provided information to investigators that led to a murder conviction against Heywood's business associate Gu Kailai, the wife of Chongqing Communist Party chief Bo Xilai. She received a suspended death sentence.

The proceedings bring Chinese leaders a step closer to resolving the scandal that exposed seamy infighting and buffeted a delicate transfer of power to new leaders expected to take place next month.
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Bomb

Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Predicts Israeli Attack on Iran on September 25th-26th

Dominique de Kevelioc de Bailleul
Market Daily News
Tue, 18 Sep 2012 16:08 UTC
Israel atacaría por sorpresa
© RT
Speaking with Infowars' Alex Jones, former Assistant Deputy Secretary of State Dr. Steve Pieczenik says Israel plans to attack Iran before the U.S. elections of Nov. 6., and, that an attack on Iran will assuredly kickoff WWIII, according to him.

Moreover, Pieczenik, a man whose career inspired the character Jack Ryan of the Tom Clancy book series, says the 'October Surprise' will not take place in October. Instead, the big surprise will come earlier, in late September.

Dr. Pieczenik says the specific date of the strike on Iran is Sept. 25th or 26th, Yom Kippur - the Jewish holiday, which commences in the year 2012 at sundown on the 25th, and ends at nightfall, the following day.

"It [an Israeli attack on Iran] could be earlier than October, because we have Yom Kippur. And I predicted on your radio show, and I predicted to our national security people, privately, that Benjamin Bibi Netanyahu would start something on Rosh Hashanah," says Pieczenick.

"This [prediction] was over a year ago, and I said it on your radio show. He was as predictable as a clock, and the Israelis will be very predictable, on Yom Kippur," he adds.

Pieczenik says it's clear to him that Israeli prime minister Bibi Netanyahu has already planned to attack Iran and has been desperately trying to enlist the U.S. to back him up. But, with or without U.S. direct help, Pieczenik is certain that Israel will attack Iran.

Comment: We don't usually publish predictions as specific as this one because they have a tendency to be wrong. However, this one is interesting because of Pieczenik's background, as well as his comments on 9-11 and on the killing of the American ambassador in Libya. His biography appears on his website:
Dr. Steve Pieczenik is a critically acclaimed author of psycho-political thrillers and the co-creator of the New York Times best-selling "Tom Clancy's Op-Center" and "Tom Clancy's Net Force" book series. He is also one of the world's most experienced international crisis managers and hostage negotiators. His novels are based on his twenty years experience in resolving international crises for five U.S. administrations.

Dr. Pieczenik received his B.A. from Cornell University,trained in Psychiatry at Harvard and has both an M.D. from Cornell University Medical College and a Ph.D. in International Relations from M.I.T.

He was the first psychiatrist ever to receive a PhD. focusing on international relations, and is the only psychiatrist to ever have served as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State. He served four presidents as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State under Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Bush Sr. and was a Senior Policy Planner under president Reagan. Dr. Pieczenik worked directly with, and reported directly to, Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger, Cyrus Vance, George Schultz and James Baker, as well as the respective White Houses. Dr. Pieczenik was drafted into the Vietnam War. He was assigned in the Public Health Services with the rank of Navy Captain (0-6) to run three psychiatric wards at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, D.C., including a ward where serial killers were housed. He was subsequently offered a promotion to Rear Admiral (0-7), which he refused on the grounds that he felt honored enough to serve his country, did not want to take a pension and wished to return to civilian life to follow his passions as a physician, entrepreneur and novelist.

Dr. Pieczenik was the principal International Crisis Manager and Hostage Negotiator under Secretaries Kissinger and Vance. During this time he developed conflict resolution techniques that were instrumental in saving over five hundred hostages in different terrorist episodes, including the Hanafi Moslem Siege in Washington, DC, the TWA Croatian Hijacking, the Aldo Moro Kidnapping, the JRA Hijacking, the PLO Hijacking, and many other incidents involving terrorists such as Idi Amin, Muammar Quaddafi, Carlos, FARC, Abu Nidal and Saddam Hussein. Based on these experiences, Dr. Pieczenik, along with other senior officials at the State Department developed the mandate to create Delta Force and other quick-strike special forces units that could be used in future hostage situations and international crises. Dr. Pieczenik resigned over President Carter's handling of the Iran Hostage siege. He was recruited by Dr. Richard Solomon to the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, CA to develop the strategy and tactics using the principals of psychological warfare to dismantle the Soviet Union without the use of military force.

He was subsequently recruited into the Reagan Policy Planning Staff at the State Department. While at the State Department, Dr. Pieczenik was tasked with creating and implementing regime change in Panama to overthrow General Manuel Noriega. As a result, General Noriega repeatedly accused Dr. Pieczenik in the Panamanian newspaper, La Critica, of being an "assassin" and neutralizing several of Noriega's associates. This is a charge Dr. Pieczenik neither confirms nor denies.

Dr. Pieczenik helped develop negotiation strategies for major U.S.- Soviet arms control summits under the Reagan administration. He was also involved in advising senior officials on important psycho-political dynamics and conflict mediation strategies for President Carter's successful Camp David Peace Conference. In 1991, Dr. Pieczenik was a chief architect of the Cambodian Peace Conference in Paris.

He has worked with Dr. Richard Solomon to develop the theoretical basis for the Chinese Negotiating Behavioral Strategy, a classic in transcultural negotiations.

Dr. Pieczenik continues to volunteer his time and expertise as a consultant to the Department of Defense. He does not accept any remuneration for his services. He felt honored to work for his country that adopted him as a refugee and saved his family from extermination in the Holocaust. He has made it his life-long commitment to work to protect and preserve America's liberties and freedoms, even when it meant going against the president of the United States and the very organizations with which he was working. To this day he still strongly believes in the integrity of the Office of the Presidency and the Republic, both of which must be bereft of corruption, deception, betrayal, collusion and crony capitalism by any and all parties, including financial, political, medical, pharmaceutical and academic special interests. His basic belief is that no one person is indispensable to the viability of State.

Dr. Pieczenik has started several successful companies, employing his methodologies in various industries, including investment banking, publishing, television/film and medicine. He has been directly involved as an Angel Investor with starting twenty-eight companies.


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Handcuffs

Judge rules Police can now enforce Arizona immigration law SB 1070


ABC15.com
Tue, 18 Sep 2012 15:49 UTC
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© ABC15
A judge has ruled that police in Arizona can immediately start enforcing the most contentious section of the state's immigration law, marking the first time officers can carry out a requirement that officers, while enforcing other laws, question the immigration status of those suspected of being in the country illegally.

The decision on Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton is the latest milestone in a two-year legal battle over the requirement. It culminated in a U.S. Supreme Court decision in June that upheld the provision on the grounds that it doesn't conflict with federal law.

Opponents who call the requirement the "show me your papers" provision responded to the Supreme Court decision by asking Bolton to block the requirement on different grounds, arguing that it would lead to systematic racial profiling and unreasonably long detentions of Latinos if it's enforced.

Other less controversial parts of the law have been in effect since July 2010, such as minor changes to the state's 2005 immigrant smuggling law and a ban on state and local government agencies from restricting the enforcement of federal immigration law. But those provisions have gotten little, if any, use since they were put into effect.
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