Puppet MastersS


War Whore

Pentagon chief: U.S. to increase military support to Poland and Baltic states


The Raw Story
Wed, 05 Mar 2014 11:11 UTC
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© Inquiry-mr.com
The United States plans to expand military cooperation with Poland and Baltic states to show "support" for its allies after Russia's intervention in Ukraine, Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel said Wednesday.

"This morning the Defense Department is pursuing measures to support our allies," including expanded aviation training in Poland and increasing the US role in NATO's air policing mission over Baltic countries, Hagel told lawmakers.

At the same hearing, General Martin Dempsey, the US military's top officer, said he had spoken to his Russian counterpart, General Valery Gerasimov, earlier Wednesday, urging "restraint."

Hagel also said NATO's top commander and head of the US European Command, General Philip Breedlove, planned to confer with Central and Eastern European defense chiefs.

"This is a time for wise, steady, and firm leadership," Hagel told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Comment: War Whores want your money: Military's top general propaganda on nation's defense

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Bad Guys

Shortsighted EU slaps initial sanctions on Russia

Mike Corder and Juergen Baetz
ABC News
Thu, 06 Mar 2014 10:30 UTC
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© AP Photo/Geert Vanden WijngaertBritish Prime Minister David Cameron speaks during a media conference at an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday, March 6, 2014
The European Union suspended talks with Russia on a wide-ranging economic pact and a visa agreement Thursday in response to its military incursion into Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, threatening tougher sanctions unless Moscow swiftly defuses the crisis.

The moves at an emergency EU summit came on the heels of visa and financial sanctions the Obama administration imposed on Russians and Ukrainians over the military incursion into Crimea.

EU President Herman Van Rompuy said further measures could include travel bans, asset freezes and the cancellation of an EU-Russia summit if Moscow does not quickly end its aggression and joins meaningful, multilateral talks within days to halt the crisis.

"We are in close coordination with the United States on this," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said. "We cannot go back to business as usual" with Russia, she added.

However, the EU's latest sanctions appeared weak compared to the U.S. ones and to what some more hawkish EU countries wanted, particularly those bordering Russia. Poland's leader noted the resistance to penalizing Moscow remains fairly high among some members of the 28-nation bloc because of Europe's close proximity, energy dependence and trade ties to Russia.
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Question

'Ask Zelda', the NSA's equivalent of 'Dear Abby'

Peter Maass
The Intercept
Fri, 07 Mar 2014 08:06 UTC
spying
© unknown
What if the National Security Agency had its own advice columnist? What would the eavesdroppers ask about?

You don't need to guess. An NSA official, writing under the pen name "Zelda," has actually served at the agency as a Dear Abby for spies. Her "Ask Zelda!" columns, distributed on the agency's intranet and accessible only to those with the proper security clearance, are among the documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. The columns are often amusing - topics include co-workers falling asleep on the job, sodas being stolen from shared fridges, supervisors not responding to emails, and office-mates who smell bad. But one of the most intriguing involves a letter from an NSA staffer who complains that his (or her) boss is spying on employees.

In the letter, which Zelda published in a column on September 9, 2011, the employee calls himself "Silenced in SID" - referring to the Signals Intelligence Directorate, the heart of the NSA's surveillance operations. Zelda's column, headlined "Watching Every Word in Snitch City," offers an ironic insight into a spy agency where the spies apparently resent being spied upon.
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USA

Will Obama declare Martial Law before 2016?


The Traders Wire
Tue, 04 Mar 2014 00:00 UTC
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© Unknown
If you're like me you are paying attention to what is transpiring within our government. Many senior General officers are being fired (or "retired early"). Homeland Security, the Internal Revenue Service, the Social Security Administration and several other federal agencies are soliciting for hollow point ammunition on the pretext it will be used for "target practice." Why does the Social Security Administration need hollow point ammo for target practice, you may ask? They don't, but since the information about DHS soliciting for millions of rounds has some people alarmed, the government has decided to spread-out the purchases amongst other agencies as not to alarm the civilian population. This also coincides with foreign troops (Russian) practicing crowd control maneuvers on American soil. There has been an American "practice town" built for just this purpose. I could site more instances regarding FEMA camps and even the American 3rd Infantry Division's new mission, but you get the idea, right?

Barack Hussein Obama is making power grabs more and more; and is openly circumventing the Congress to consolidate more power to the office of the president. This should have some people very alarmed.

I have received information about railroad tracks for military use only set up at these FEMA camps, in fact, empty boxcars that would deliver human cargo. Are you starting to get the picture yet?
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USA

Obama can't spell... But he can sure spend your money

Jeff Crouere
Finance Townhall
Sat, 08 Mar 2014 09:25 UTC
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© Unknown
It has been another disastrous week for President Obama. In a new Fox News poll, the President's approval rating is at 38 percent, the lowest score of his presidency. Americans are unhappy with his handling of the economy, healthcare, and foreign policy. In effect, people are dissatisfied with his entire agenda because nothing is working.

The economy is still in the doldrums and job creation is very weak. The unemployment rate moved up to 6.7 percent in February, but the real situation is much worse as millions of Americans have become despondent and left the workforce.

The President's signature program, Obamacare, is a disaster that continues to unfold. In a new survey of uninsured people, we learned that only 10 percent will sign up for a private plan available under the new marketplaces. This low number is a clear indication that Obamacare, which was billed as a way to reduce the number of uninsured in the country, is failing.

In the Ukraine, Vladimir Putin is strengthening his grip on Crimea, despite the President's warnings. Compared to Putin, Obama looks weak and indecisive. Whether the issue is Syria, missile defense or the Ukrainian crisis, Putin seems to outmaneuver the President each time.

After such a tough week, it was no surprise that the President wanted to relax and forget about his troubles last night. He hosted a White House celebration for the legendary women of soul music. Unfortunately, during his introduction of Aretha Franklin, the President misspelled the word "respect."
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USA

SOTT Focus: Imperial Hubris: Ukraine as a 'regime change' too far for the American Empire

Joe Quinn
Sott.net
Sat, 08 Mar 2014 05:44 UTC
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Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. He is the great and powerful OZ!
All anti-imperialists that have been secretly longing for the day when the last great Empire of our 'modern' era would finally do what all the 'best' Empires have done - overextend itself in both reach and hubris for all to see and usher in its collapse - should be looking at the situation in Ukraine with hope and expectation.

Well, maybe I'm getting a little carried away there, but the US-Ukraine-Russia debacle does seem to be presenting 'we the people' with a rare opportunity to see the great American Empire as the monolithic edifice, composed largely of lies, propaganda, rhetoric, fear and public credulity that it is. There is, perhaps, a chance to see that the emperor really is naked, and that our overblown overlords and their "greatest democracy on earth" exist and persist only because we all believe their carefully crafted lies served up to us in the yellow journalism of the Empire's fourth estate, the mainstream media.

As the empire fades and the hubris of its leaders increases however, it seems even those carefully crafted lies aren't having the desired effect. This week, both Obama and John Kerry exposed America's vaunted 'exceptionalism' as being based on exceptional dishonesty when they made statements about Russian intervention in Ukraine. The funny thing is, both Obama and Kerry were actually trying to do the opposite - present themselves as paragons of righteousness. Apparently the Neocons from whom they take their orders failed to mention to these two spokesmen for Empire that 'chutzpah' should never be pushed too far, lest you expose your unmitigated effrontery and impudence for all the world to see.
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USA

Flashback Best of the Web: RT exposes the hypocrisy of U.S. intervention in Ukraine and elsewhere: Ukraine 'revolution' followed leaked CIA regime change manual to the letter


RT
Sun, 29 Dec 2013 05:21 UTC
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America's crusade for total world domination
Happy Xmas Ukraine! Openly pro-Nazi rioters ripping up paving stones for weapons and driving bulldozers at people get sweets from America's Asst. Secretary of State, the surprisingly long list of countries where the US attempts regime change under cover of 'human rights'; and George Clooney becomes the Pentagon's sexy new weapon.

Seek truth from facts with Humanitarian Imperialism author Jean Bricmont, UN Human Rights Rapporteur Richard Falk, political analyst Richard Becker, Asia Times' Pepe Escobar, On Immoral Interventionism author Gilad Atzmon, and 'worth 500,000 dead kids' Madeleine Albright.


Transcript below:
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Propaganda

Pusillanimous Politics: U.S. Senators cry for Russia to be kicked out of 2018 World Cup

Martin Pengelly
The Guardian
Fri, 07 Mar 2014 12:32 UTC
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© Mikhail Klimentyev/Ria Novosti/Kremlin Pool/EPAFifa president Sepp Blatter, left, and Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller, right, exchange documents as Russian President Vladimir Putin and sports minister Vitaly Mutko applaud. Gazprom will sponsor the 2018 World Cup.

Two US senators have written to Fifa, the governing body of world football, to request that Russia be banned from the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and stripped of the right to host the 2018 tournament, over its invasion of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula.

The US and the European Union have imposed economic sanctions on the government of President Vladimir Putin, in response to the occupation of Ukrainian military bases and transport and infrastructure facilities which began last week.

In their letter to the Fifa chairman, Sepp Blatter, Mark Kirk of Illinois and Dan Coates of Indiana, both Republicans, cite the exclusion of Yugoslavia from the 1992 European Championship and 1994 World Cup and say: "Since Russia has similarly displayed a brazen disrespect for fundamental principles of Fifa and international law, [we] hope you will agree that it doesn't deserve the honour of either hosting the World Cup or participating in one.

Comment: Yet more sophomoric, unimpressive drivel from US politicians. Now they want to exclude the unpopular kid from their football game!

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Brick Wall

Apartheid wall in Arizona? Israeli company contracted to build U.S.-Mexico border fence

Aaron Cantú
AlterNet
Fri, 07 Mar 2014 21:07 UTC
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© Shutterstock/Ryan Rodrick Beiler
This week, the Israeli company Elbit Systems Ltd. announced that its subsidiary won a contract from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Customs and Border Protection to produce and install surveillance systems along the U.S.-Mexico border. The company is famous for providing "intrusion detection systems" and other infastructure support for the Israeli West Bank barrier.

The subsidiary was awarded a $145 million contract for a project called the Integrated Fixed Tower (IFT), which is to be built on the Mexico-Arizona border over the next year. The contract also guarantees eight years of infrastructure support from Elbit Systems.
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Snakes in Suits

Dumbcluck Kerry says 'Crimea is Ukraine' after Crimean lawmakers vote to join Russia


Global Post
Thu, 06 Mar 2014 19:17 UTC
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© AFP Photo/Alberto PizzoliUS Secretary of State John Kerry at the end of the meeting on Libya, in Rome on March 6, 2014
US Secretary of State John Kerry insisted Thursday that "Crimea is Ukraine", after pro-Moscow lawmakers on the tense peninsula voted to have their region become part of Russia.

"Crimea is part of the Ukraine. Crimea is Ukraine. We support the territorial integrity of Ukraine, and the government of Ukraine needs to be involved in any decision" on whether the peninsula would split off, he told journalists in Rome.

"It's my understanding that the constitution of Ukraine requires an all-Ukraine referendum. Every part of Ukraine, all Ukrainians, would have to be part of a referendum," he said.

His comments came after US President Barack Obama warned that a referendum in Crimea on joining Russia would violate Ukrainian sovereignty and international law.

However, Kerry said the United States' priority was to "continue the intense discussions with both sides in order to try to normalize and end this crisis".
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