Puppet MastersS


Newspaper

Hosni Mubarak to be freed as Army tightens its grip on Egypt

Hamza Hendawi
IndependentMail.com
Mon, 19 Aug 2013 19:40 UTC
Mubarak
© Associated Press/Amir NabilEgyptian President Hosni Mubarak sits during his meeting with Emirates foreign minister, not pictured, at the Presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt.
Jailed ex-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak could be released later this week, judicial officials said Monday, a move that would fuel the unrest roiling the country after the autocratic leader's successor was removed in a military coup.

Underscoring the growing anger over Mohammed Morsi's ouster, suspected Islamic militants ambushed two minibuses carrying off-duty policemen in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, forcing the men to lie on the sand and shooting 25 of them dead.

The brazen daylight attack raised fears that the strategic desert region bordering Israel and the Gaza Strip could be plunged into insurgency.

The 25 were given a funeral with full military honors after a plane brought their bodies to an air base in eastern Cairo. Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim, who is in charge of the police, and the army's Chief of Staff, Gen. Sobhi Saleh, led the funeral.
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Handcuffs

Pervez Musharraf indicted over Benazir Bhutto murder

Jon Boone
The Guardian
Tue, 20 Aug 2013 19:22 UTC

Pakistan's former military leader Pervez Musharraf was formally charged by a court on Tuesday with murdering Benazir Bhutto, the ex-prime minister who was assassinated at a political campaign rally in 2007.

Musharraf was indicted during a short hearing at a court in the city of Rawalpindi, a move that adds to the problems facing the former president who returned from self-exile in March only to be entangled in three legal cases, barred from contesting elections and put under house arrest.

Public prosecutor Mohammad Azhar told reporters that the 70-year-old retired general was charged with murder, conspiracy to murder and facilitation of murder during a short hearing.

Comment: Read also the SOTT focus from December 27 2007, the day Benazir Bhutto was murdered: Benazir Bhutto - A Warning To Us All

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Pistol

Feeling safer yet? TSA to purchase 3.5 million rounds of ammunition


Press TV
Tue, 20 Aug 2013 17:08 UTC
ammunition
© Unknown
The Transportation Security Administration is set to purchase 3.5 million .357 SIG caliber bullets, enough for its agents to fire 9,400 rounds a day, every day of the year.

According to a solicitation issued by the agency on August 16, the TSA is looking to buy "3,454,000 rounds of .347 SIG Caliber Training Ammunition."

Although TSA agents in airports are currently unarmed, last month the TSA announced its plan to hire the use of a firing range within a 20 mile radius of LaGuardia Airport in order to train TSA workers.
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Attention

Biting our tongues doesn't keep us safe ... It only Increases danger in the long run


Washington Blog
Tue, 20 Aug 2013 13:30 UTC
Martin Niemöller
© niemoellerschule.deMartin Niemöller.
First They Came ...

Preface: German pastor Martin Niemöller initially supported Hitler. But he later opposed him, and was imprisoned in the Dachau concentration camp for years.

Niemöller learned the hard way that keep your head down doesn't keep one out of trouble ... in the long run, it increases the danger to all of us.

Niemöller wrote a brilliant poem - First They Came - about the manner in which Germans allowed Nazi abuses by failing to protest the abuse of "others" ... first gypsies, gays, communists, and Jews, then Catholics ... and eventually everyone.

This is my modern interpretation of Niemöller's poem ...
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Briefcase

British Government facing legal action over David Miranda detention


C4 News
Tue, 20 Aug 2013 12:59 UTC
Alan Rusbridger, Edward Snowden and David Miranda
© C4 NewsAlan Rusbridger, Edward Snowden and David Miranda
Home Secretary Theresa May says she was briefed ahead of the possible detention of David Miranda, the partner of a Guardian journalist, at Heathrow airport.

Mr Miranda was held for almost nine hours at Heathrow, as he travelled from Germany to Brazil where he lives with Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who reported on leaks from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Theresa May revealed she was briefed about the "possibility" that he might be detained. She said it was right for police to act as they see fit to prevent terrorism, and it was not for her to tell police who they should or should not stop at ports, or who they should arrest.
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Megaphone

Watchdogs blast David Miranda treatment, harassment and intimidation

Mackenzie Weinger
Politico
Mon, 19 Aug 2013 12:41 UTC
Glenn Greenwald, David Miranda
© Ricardo Moraes/ReutersJournalist Glenn Greenwald, left, walks with his partner, David Miranda, in Rio de Janeiro's International Airport. U.K. authorities detained Miranda Sunday as he passed through London's Heathrow Airport. Greenwald has close links to Edward Snowden, the former U.S. spy agency contractor who has been granted asylum by Russia
Media watchdogs and observers on Monday widely blasted the detention of David Miranda, the partner of The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald, as "disturbing" and an "attempt at pure intimidation."

Miranda, a Brazilian citizen, was held for nine hours Sunday at London Heathrow Airport and questioned under Britain's Terrorism Act, a move that many media critics decried in columns and statements on Monday. Miranda, 28, lives in Rio de Janiero with Greenwald and was passing through London's Heathrow airport after spending the week in Berlin with documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras, who has been working with Greenwald to release information leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. The Guardian paid for Miranda's flights, the paper reported.
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Attention

U.S. had advance notice of Britain's plan to detain reporter Glenn Greenwald's partner

Billy Kenber and Karla Adam,
Washington Post
Tue, 20 Aug 2013 12:36 UTC
Glenn Greenwald, David Miranda
© Ricardo Moraes/ReutersJournalist Glenn Greenwald, left, walks with his partner, David Miranda, in Rio de Janeiro's International Airport. U.K. authorities detained Miranda Sunday as he passed through London's Heathrow Airport. Greenwald has close links to Edward Snowden, the former U.S. spy agency contractor who has been granted asylum by Russia
U.S. officials on Monday distanced themselves from the decision of British authorities to detain the Brazilian partner of Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who has exposed details of National Security Agency surveillance programs, amid questions over the documents officials may have confiscated.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters that U.S. officials had received a "heads-up" that London police would detain David Miranda on Sunday, but he said the U.S. government did not request Miranda's detention, calling it "a law enforcement action" taken by the British government.
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Top Secret

British government claims Greenwald's partner David Miranda had 'highly sensitive stolen information that would help terrorism

Nicholas Watt
The Guardian
Tue, 20 Aug 2013 11:52 UTC
David Miranda
© The GuardianDavid Miranda
Home Office claims nine-hour detention of Guardian journalist's partner was justified to protect public from threat of terrorism

The government has embarked on an aggressive offensive to justify the detention of David Miranda by suggesting that the partner of the Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald possessed "highly sensitive stolen information that would help terrorism".

Amid calls from across the political spectrum for a fuller explanation of the treatment of Miranda at Heathrow after a detailed statement from the White House, the Home Office made clear that his nine-hour detention was fully justified on the grounds that he was carrying leaked documents.

A Home Office spokesperson said: "The government and the police have a duty to protect the public and our national security. If the police believe that an individual is in possession of highly sensitive stolen information that would help terrorism, then they should act and the law provides them with a framework to do that. Those who oppose this sort of action need to think about what they are condoning. This is an ongoing police inquiry so will not comment on the specifics."
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Play

California vice mayor: You can't take God out of education

Eric W. Dolan
The Raw Story
Mon, 19 Aug 2013 11:41 UTC
Ken Weir
© 23ABC NewsKen Weir
State lawmakers, city officials, parents and pastors gathered in Bakersfield, California on Sunday to participate in a "School Prayer Day" event.

About one hundred people took park in the event at the Bakersfield Liberty Bell, according to 23ABC News.

Bakersfield vice mayor Ken Weir also attended the event.

"A lot of forces are trying to separate God from our school, but I think it's time we realize you can't take God out of education, " Weir said.
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Play

Cenk Uygur calls out TIME magazine reporter for supporting drone strike on Julian Assange

Eric W. Dolan
The Raw Story
Mon, 19 Aug 2013 11:26 UTC
The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur on Monday blasted a TIME magazine reporter who said he couldn't "wait to write a defense of the drone strike that takes out" Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

Michael Grunwald made the comment Saturday on Twitter, sparking a huge backlash. Grunwald later deleted the message and apologized, describing it as "dumb."

Uygur said Grunwald was simply an authoritarian. Rather than questioning the government's actions in regards to drone strikes, Grunwald simply accepted whatever the government said.

Watch video, uploaded to YouTube, below:

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