Puppet MastersS


Dollar

U.S. Spinning Itself Into a Deficit Panic: Four Spending Myths That Could Wreck Our World

Mattea Kramer
TomDispatch
Tue, 17 Jul 2012 17:37 UTC
You couldn't make this stuff up: thanks to Harold Rogers, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, and the power of "earmarks," the Army has bought $6.5 million worth of "leakproof" drip pans "to catch transmission fluid on Black Hawk helicopters," reports the New York Times. Those pans were purchased from a company called Phoenix Products, whose owners, coincidentally, are contributors to the congressman's political committee (and other Republican causes). Oh, and according to the Times, "the company has paid at least $600,000 since 2005 to a Washington lobbying firm, Martin Fisher Thompson & Associates, to represent its interests on federal contracting issues." Anyway, do the math and you end up with a $17,000 Army drip pan -- and there's one tiny catch: another company sells a comparable drip pan for about $2,500.

Is anybody shocked? This, after all, is the world of the U.S. military, which has been right up there with the 1% this last decade when it comes to garnering and squandering riches. It's been ever more flush, while the taxpayers whose dollars it's been raking in have done ever less well. And symbolic as those drip pans may be, they aren't even a drip in the bucket of Pentagon expenses when you start looking at the big-ticket items.
Read More...
Arrow Down

Greed! Israel takes over 2 offshore Egyptian gas wells, geologist says


Press TV
Tue, 17 Jul 2012 13:11 UTC
gas drilling rig
A natural gas drilling rig (file photo)
Egyptian geologist Khaled Odeh says Israel has taken over two natural gas wells located in Egypt's territorial waters.

Odeh said in Cairo on Monday that the wells are located in the Mediterranean Sea between Egypt and Cyprus, IRNA reported.

He added that Israel took advantage of Egyptian officials' inaction and started drilling operations in the area in April 2012.

Odeh also stated that the wells are over gas fields containing about $100 billion worth of gas reserves.

One of the wells is 19 kilometers north of the Egyptian city of Damietta and 235 kilometers west of Haifa in the occupied Palestinian territories, and the other well is 114 kilometers north of Damietta and 237 kilometers from the shores of Palestine.
Read More...
Eye 1

Exporting pathology: TSA security agents to be deployed in UK airports for Olympics


RT
Tue, 17 Jul 2012 16:39 UTC
TSA
© Reuters / Jason Reed
The US Transport Security Administration has reportedly prepared its personnel to be deployed in UK airports for the Olympic Games. The US agents will apply their skills to help their UK colleagues bolster security during the event.

­TSA personnel are to arrive at UK air hubs a week before and stay a week after the London Olympics, according to a newly reached agreement between UK's Department of Transport and the US Transportation Security Administration, Sky News reports.

"This is an added security layer that has been done to help boost and aid the American airlines in particular that fly in and out of the likes of Heathrow and other airports," says Sky's correspondent.

Comment: With gropers at airports and soldiers and tanks on the streets we wonder what sort enjoyment will people attending the Olympics get.

Read More...
Handcuffs

Executive at Europe's biggest bank resigns before US Senate following revelations of laundering billions for drug cartels and terrorists

Dominic Rushe
The Guardian
Tue, 17 Jul 2012 15:16 UTC
Bank faces massive fines from US justice department for lapses that resulted in laundering money to drug cartels and terrorists

Image
© Gary Cameron/ReutersCongress: 'Do you swear to tell nothing but lies, so help you god?'

HSBC executives aka Banksters: 'We swear!'

There's something inherently antiquated about the idea of putting psychopathic banking executives through the motions of swearing an oath to tell the truth.
Executives with Europe's biggest bank, HSBC, were subjected to a humiliating onslaught from US senators on Tuesday over revelations that staff at its global subsidiaries laundered billions of dollars for drug cartels, terrorists and pariah states.

Lawmakers hammered the British-based bank over the scandal, demanding to know how and why its affiliates had exposed it to the proceeds of drug trafficking and terrorist financing in a "pervasively polluted" culture that persisted for years.

A report compiled for the committee detailed how HSBC's subsidiaries transported billions of dollars of cash in armoured vehicles, cleared suspicious travellers' cheques worth billions, and allowed Mexican drug lords buy to planes with money laundered through Cayman Islands accounts.

Other subsidiaries moved money from Iran, Syria and other countries on US sanctions lists, and helped a Saudi bank linked to al-Qaida to shift money to the US.

Comment: So the pretence of tackling organised crime aka the banking system continues. The banks own the government which is in permanent debt to them so don't expect anything but more of the same to result from this.

Read More...
Attention

Push to Rid Universities of Alternative Medicine

Julia Medew
The Age, Australia
Tue, 17 Jul 2012 14:47 UTC
Homeopathy Vials
© John McNamaraHomeopathy is one of the 'Friends of Science in Medicine''s targets.
A row has erupted within the Australian medical community over ways to handle the growth in alternative and complementary medicine, with claims that some doctors are exploiting their power and trying to censor others.

A group of high-profile scientists, dubbed ''Friends of Science in Medicine'', has been calling for universities to dump courses on ''pseudo sciences'' that they say are not supported by valid scientific research.

The targets include homeopathy, naturopathy, iridology and chiropractic and osteopathy courses, although they acknowledge the last two have evidence for musculo-skeletal treatments.

Led by John Dwyer, emeritus professor of medicine at the University of New South Wales, the group has also been campaigning for the federal government and health insurance providers to stop funding complementary and alternative medicine unless evidence is found to back them.

But the group - backed by renowned biologist Sir Gustav Nossal and cervical cancer vaccine creator Ian Frazer - faced criticism this week from a handful of doctors who say they are exploiting their positions in the community and engaging in censorship.

In an article published in the Medical Journal of Australia, professor of medicine at Monash University Paul Komesaroff and bone marrow transplant physician Ian Kerridge accused the group of exceeding ''the boundaries of reasoned debate'' and risked ''compromising the values (they) claim to support''.
Read More...
Blackbox

Is Eurozone crisis spreading to Germany? Investor confidence declines for 3rd consecutive month

Eva Kuehnen and Sakari Suoninen
Reuters
Tue, 17 Jul 2012 14:44 UTC
German analyst and investor sentiment dropped for a third consecutive month in July, a survey showed on Tuesday, providing further evidence that the euro zone crisis is taking its toll on morale in Europe's largest economy.

But the ZEW think tank, which conducts the monthly poll, said expectations may have now hit bottom and that the outlook for the rest of the year should prove stable.

The main reading from the ZEW poll of economic sentiment slid to -19.6 from -16.9 in June, coming in slightly above the median forecast in a Reuters poll of 38 economists for a drop to -20.0.

The index measuring current conditions fell to 21.1, the lowest level since June 2010, and compared with 33.2 last month.

"The latest stock market stabilisation, the ECB's rate cut, the weaker euro exchange rate and lower oil prices have all not succeeded in brightening up German investors," said ING economist Carsten Brzeski.
Read More...
Footprints

U.S. Navy attack "threatens regional security": Iran foreign ministry

Marcus George
Reuters
Tue, 17 Jul 2012 13:51 UTC
Iran on Tuesday criticized the actions of a U.S. navy ship that shot at an approaching fishing boat off the United Arab Emirates, saying the incident showed foreign forces threatened regional security.

One Indian national was killed and three others injured on Monday when the U.S. refueling ship, the USNS Rappahannock, opened fire on a small motor boat which U.S. officials said ignored repeated warnings to halt its approach.

The United States has been building up its presence in the Gulf as Washington seeks to ramp up pressure on Iran over its nuclear program which it suspects is aimed at producing nuclear bombs. Tehran denies the accusation.

"We have announced time and again that the presence of foreign forces can be a threat to regional security," Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said during a news conference broadcast on state television.

"Certainly regional countries with the help of one another can provide security in the best possible way. If they join hands, with their defensive capabilities, they don't need the presence of foreign forces. Anywhere where you see insecurity we have always seen the hand of foreign forces there."
Read More...
Bizarro Earth

New Gaddafi Video? Footage Purportedly Shows Late Libyan Leader After His Death (GRAPHIC)


Huffington Post
Mon, 16 Jul 2012 04:16 UTC
A YouTube upload purporting to show new footage from after Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi's violent death last October has surfaced, allegedly providing a clearer view of the late dictator's bloodied body.

Activist Sami al-Hamwi (@HamaEcho) tweeted a link to the video, remarking that someone should show the footage to Syrian president Bashar Assad as a reminder of what befell another Middle East dictator.

Previous footage posted shortly after Gaddafi's death last year showed him on his knees, seemingly alive. In the clearer footage below, Gaddafi's shirtless body appears to be transported by a group of men in the back of a van.

Muammar Gaddafi ruled Libya for almost 42 years, gaining a reputation as a colorful character and merciless dictator.

WARNING: Video below contains extremely graphic content. The footage below could not be independently verified and it's unclear why the video was only released now.


Comment: Gaddafi's killing may be a war crime: International Criminal Court

Read More...
Blackbox

India fishermen deny US ship warned them in UAE shooting


BBC News
Tue, 17 Jul 2012 11:26 UTC
Image
© UnknownMuthu Muniraj was shot in the legs when the USNS Rappahannock opened fire
Indian fishermen injured when their boat was shot at by a US Navy ship off the coast of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) say they received no warnings before they came under fire.

One fisherman was killed and three others injured when the USNS Rappahannock raked the small boat with machinegun fire near Dubai on Monday.

The US Navy says the boat approached at speed and ignored repeated warnings.

Indian and US officials have launched investigations into the incident.

The shooting comes as the US expands its military presence in the Gulf, ramping up pressure on Iran over its nuclear programme.
Read More...
Dollar

Blackwater Was Illegally Paid Millions in Taxpayer Money


RT
Mon, 16 Jul 2012 00:00 UTC
Blackwater
© unknown
For half a decade, American taxpayers unknowingly spent millions of dollars every year to fund private security agency Blackwater's so-called "democracy building" missions in Iraq.

A new report completed by the US State Department and the Broadcasting Board of Governors Office of Inspector General shines light on a travesty involving the massive misuse of public funds.

Between 2004 and 2009, millions of dollars in taxpayer monies could have been saved had the International Republican Institute - a bipartisan, nonprofit organization chaired by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) - used their federal funding more efficiently. Instead, however, the IRI handed over massive sums of money to the Blackwater security group so that they could send armed guards to Iraq.

While Blackwater's presence overseas has not gone unnoticed, the latest report shows that contract were made without the IRI considering any competitors' bids and in the end cost millions of extra dollars, all the while funding the same agency proved responsible for the massacre of Iraqi civilians.

The unclassified report, dated June 2012, describes how the IRI used $103.7 million in federal grants during fiscal years 2004-2010 to conduct democracy-building programs throughout Iraq. In only a few pages, CPA Clarke Leiper, PLLC, explains - along with the guidance of the Office of Inspector General - how millions of dollars was mismanaged by making payments to Blackwater without seeking outside bids.
Read More...