Puppet MastersS


Heart - Black

Torture Team: President Bush Should be Criminally Investigated for War Crimes

After the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the US has come under intense scrutiny for its use of 'enhanced interrogation techniques' that many experts have called torture. Now there are calls to bring those responsible in the US government to justice.


Philippe Sands is a Professor of Law at University College, London. In his new book Torture Team, Sands explores the legality and ramifications of the US program of state-sponsored torture behind closed doors at Guantanamo Bay. In an RT interview, Sands discusses the possibility of one day bringing those responsible to justice.

Chess

Francis Boyle Says Iran Should Sue Over US Threats

iran leader
Professor Francis A. Boyle has made a proposal to the Government of Iran that it sue the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Israel and other European States over the current crisis in the Persian Gulf that creates an imminent threat of igniting World War III.

Professor Boyle said, "If Obama attacks Iran, he could set off World War III. I want to stop that."

It is his hope and expectation that such lawsuits would result in the World Court issuing temporary restraining orders against these states to cease and desist from committing all threats and aggressive military actions against Iran and to negotiate with Iran in good faith over the dispute concerning nuclear re-processing.

Dollar

Why is Nobody (in the US) Freaking Out About the LIBOR Banking Scandal?

Image
© (Oli Scarff/Getty Images)Barclays bank.
The LIBOR manipulation story has exploded into a major scandal overseas. The CEO of Barclays, Bob Diamond, has resigned in disgrace; his was the first of what will undoubtedly be many major banks to walk the regulatory plank for fixing the interbank exchange rate. The Labor party is demanding a sweeping criminal investigation. Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, responded the way a real public official should (i.e. not like Ben Bernanke), blasting the banks:
It is time to do something about the banking system...Many people in the banking industry are hardworking and feel badly let down by some of their colleagues and leaders. It goes to the culture and the structure of banks: the excessive compensation, the shoddy treatment of customers, the deceitful manipulation of a key interest rate, and today, news of yet another mis-selling scandal.
The furor is over revelations that Barclays, the Royal Bank of Scotland, and other banks were monkeying with at least $10 trillion in loans (The Wall Street Journal is calculating that that LIBOR affects $800 trillion worth of contracts).

Bizarro Earth

Police May be Arresting Marginal Terror Suspects to Clear Decks for Olympics Says Watchdog

Image
© UPPA
David Anderson QC, the independent reviewer of terror laws
Police may be targeting "marginal" terror suspects in a bid to "clear the decks" ahead of the Olympics, the terrorism watchdog said on Sunday.

David Anderson QC, the independent reviewer of terror legislation, said this summer's Games are a "major target" and police may be intervening in cases earlier than they would normally.

His comments follow a series of arrests by counter-terrorism officers in recent weeks.

Last month two Muslim converts were arrested on suspicion of plotting an attack against the Olympic canoeing venue. They were later released without charge.

And last week 14 people were arrested in two separate counter-terrorism operations against suspected Islamist plots.

Whitehall and security sources have previously suggested the threshold for assessing the potential risk of suspects is likely to be lower in the run up to the Olympics.

Attention

The Drowning Pool

Psychopaths
© Signs of the Times
News that that a swarm of termites deep inside the British banking system have been fiddling the interbank interest rates (LIBOR) for years in order to systematically vacuum a few billion pence off the exchange floors for themselves is the latest blow to the credibility of the global money system - and probably a fine overture to a looming climactic implosion of the gigantic, creaking, smoldering, reeking, duck-taped edifice of broken promises, booby-trapped hedge obligations, counterparty follies, central bank euchres, sovereign flim-flams, and countless chicanes too various, dark, and deep to smoke out.

Next, we'll probably hear that Lloyd Blankfein over at Goldman Sachs has been tinkering with the rotation of the earth in order to gain a few micro-milliseconds of advantage in his firm's high frequency trading rackets. After all, back in 2008 Lloyd himself claimed to be "doing God's work."

In short, world banking is now hopelessly pranged, and I am not at all sure the project of civilization (modern edition) can continue by other means. The impairments of capital formation are now so profound that no one and nothing can be trusted. Not only are all bets off, but nobody will want to make any new bets - and by that I mean venture to invest accumulated wealth (capital) in some useful project designed to sustain human well-being. What remains is just the desperate hoarding of whatever remains in assets uncontaminated by the pledges of others to pony up.

All this points to a dangerous new period of political history, a deadly Hobbesian scramble to evade the falling timber in a burning house as the rudiments of a worldwide social contract go up in flames. Such is the importance of legitimacy: the basic condition for governance, especially among supposedly free people. You can meddle in a lot of distributory issues - who gets what - but when you mess with the most basic operations of money to the extent that no one is sure what it's really worth, or what it represents, then you are deeply undermining society. This is now the condition that is set to blow up republics.

Reality dislikes fraud and accounting tricks. Reality is serious about settling scores. Reality eventually intervenes and puts an end to monkey business. What will it be this time?

Vader

Mission Accomplished: South Sudan faces economic disaster as cost of independence bites

Image
© Fabio Bucciarelli/LUZphotoA crowd wait at the Turalei refugee camp for the arrival of a medical team from Italian NGO Comitato Collaborazione Medica (CCM). Since 'independence' a year ago, thousands of people living in Sudan have been forced to cross the border into South Sudan because of conflict.
One year after the euphoria of independence, South Sudan faces economic disaster that could reverse recent development gains after it shut down oil production in a dispute over pipeline fees with Sudan.

Preying on people's minds in Juba is the thought that the government is about to run out of money - shutting down vital services in an already impoverished country. A few months ago, some thought the government would run out of cash to pay teachers and health workers as early as August; now the prediction is September or the end of the year.

Khartoum is feeling the economic and political heat as well. Taking a leaf out of South Sudan's book, Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, is cutting the number of cabinet posts from 31 to 26. However, other austerity measures - a rise in transport costs and a doubling of fuel and food prices following cuts in subsidies - have provoked demonstrations and calls for Bashir to step down.

Analysts say the calamitous economic situation in both countries could force Juba and Khartoum - with prodding from outside, particularly the US and China - to cut a deal to start the oil flowing again.

Comment: Some 'independence' that is when you're utterly dependent on the NGOs set up by the same vested Western interests that destroyed your country.

The 'humanitarian crisis in Darfur', orchestrated by the US, served as a prelude to the dismemberment of Sudan to punish the government of El-Bashir for daring to conclude oil deals with the Chinese to the detriment of Western companies.


Chess

German Secret Service Protected Neo-Nazi Group With Help From Political Parties

Image
© ReutersHeinz Fromm, head of Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution
More facts are continually emerging demonstrating the links between the German domestic intelligence service (Office for the Protection of the Constitution - VS) and neo-Nazi terrorists. Yet under conditions where broad layers of the population fear the emergence of a new version of the Gestapo, the German Left Party is explicitly defending the secret service and calling for structural changes aimed at optimizing its activities.

Late last year media reports revealed that a neo-fascist organization called the National Socialist Underground (NSU) had been operating in Germany since 2000 and was responsible for at least nine racially motivated murders as well as the killing of a policewoman.

The investigation showed that the VS had been informed about the activities of the NSU from the start and indicated that the intelligence service was deliberately protecting NSU members from prosecution. The VS had installed undercover agents in the periphery of the organization, yet it ignored evidence linking NSU members to bomb-making operations and helped at least one NSU terrorist obtain a new passport.

Eye 1

Creating bogus enemies to justify Internet control: CIA, NSA most probably infiltrated Microsoft to write malware

Image
The news gives a whole new meaning to Intel's motto...
Did spies posing as Microsofties write malware in Redmond? How do you spell 'phooey' in C#?

A leading security researcher has suggested Microsoft's core Windows and application development programming teams have been infiltrated by covert programmer/operatives from U.S. intelligence agencies.

If it were true it would be another exciting twist to the stories of international espionage, sabotage and murder that surround Stuxnet, Duqu and Flame, the most successful cyberwar weapons deployed so far, with the possible exception of Windows itself.

Nevertheless, according to Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer of antivirus and security software vendor F-Secure, the scenario that would make it simplest for programmers employed by U.S. intelligence agencies to create the Stuxnet, Duqu and Flame viruses and compromise Microsoft protocols to the extent they could disguise downloads to Flame as patches through Windows Update is that Microsoft has been infiltrated by members of the U.S. intelligence community.

No Entry

Internet Blackout Arrives For Thousands as FBI shuts down Internet users infected by US counter-cyberintelligence operation

Image
Who needs a 'conspiracy theory' when the government is run by psychopaths?
Users Whose Computers Infected With DNSChanger Won't Be Able To Access Web

Having trouble getting online? Some may find their smartphones working overtime because the family computer couldn't seem to connect to the Internet Monday morning. You may be one of thousands across the United States who waited too long or simply didn't believe the warnings, and your Internet may have shut down just after midnight because of malware that took over computers around the world more than a year ago.

At 12:01 a.m. EDT, the FBI turned off the Internet servers that were functioning as a temporary safety net to keep infected computers online for the past eight months. The court order the agency had gotten to keep the servers running expired, and it was not renewed. Now, if your computer is infected, your only hope is your Internet service provider's help desk.

Comment: Just a 'conspiracy theory'?

Social Media "Tactical Intelligence Collection": Spying and Propaganda using Facebook, Twitter
America's Spy State: How the Telecoms Sell Out Your Privacy
STOP SOPA: Piracy distributors are SOPA Promoters
US intelligence agencies using Microsoft to disseminate lethal computer virus


Robot

US intelligence agencies using Microsoft to disseminate lethal computer virus

Image
Yes, and the cyber threats come from the Pentagon, the CIA and the NSA
US government officials could be working under cover at Microsoft to help the country's cyber-espionage programme, according to one leading security expert.

The warning comes in the wake of the Flame virus that targeted key computers in the Middle East, and in part used confidential Microsoft certificates in order to access machines.

According to Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at security firm F-Secure, the claim is a logical conclusion to a series of recent discoveries and disclosures linking the US government to 2010's Stuxnet attack on Iran and ties between Stuxnet and the recent Flame attack.

"The announcement that links Flame to Stuxnet and the conclusive proof that Stuxnet was a US tool means that Flame is also linked to the US government," Hypponen said.

Comment: This is what US Counter-cyberintelligence was set up to do. Like 'international terrorists' are blamed for terrorism by the very same agencies that created, trained, directed and funded said 'terrorists', 'international hackers' are really the same intelligence agencies doing the same thing in the cyber-domain.

Cyberwar: US and Israel Created Stuxnet, Lost Control of It