Puppet MastersS


Bad Guys

Terror attack in Pakistan leaves four women dead, 'Baluchistan Republican Army' claims responsibility

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© Ahmad Sidique/Xinhua Press/CorbisA man mourns after a suicide attack killed four women in Peshawar, Pakistan.
Police say attacker ran into home of Jan Mohammad Afridi in Peshawar and exchanged fire with police before explosion

A suicide bomber has blown himself up in the house of a pro-government tribal elder in the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar, killing four women, police say.

The attacker ran into the home of Jan Mohammad Afridi in the city's Chamkani area, chased by police.

Police surrounded the house and exchanged gunfire with the bomber. It was unclear whether the bomber detonated his explosives or if they were set off by police gunfire.

Half of Afridi's house was destroyed in the blast, and the bodies of four women were recovered from the rubble. Five others in the house, including a woman and two children, were wounded.

Afridi is a prominent member of the local peace committee, which opposes militants in the area.

Comment: Readers may wish to check the Baluch Republican Army's website. It's also worth noting that the website appears to be registered in Australia and is working from a server in Houston, Texas. So, as usual, all is not what it seems in this terrorist attack and the "army" that has taken responsibility for it.


Smoking

Brits ban subjects from smoking in their own cars

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© Clive Gee/PAUnder the proposal, the government will now have powers to introduce a new offence of exposing children to smoke in vehicles.
Shadow public health minister hails great victory for child health after vote which divided Conservative backbenchers

Smoking in cars carrying children is set to be banned after MPs overwhelmingly backed the plan in a free vote.

The House of Commons supported the plan, first put forward by Labour, despite the misgivings of some cabinet members, including Nick Clegg, over whether it will be too difficult to police.

Under the proposal the government will now have powers to introduce a new offence of exposing children to smoke in vehicles, with breaches of the law likely to incur a small fine.

David Cameron, who missed the vote, gave his personal backing to the idea, despite the government saying last week there was no need for the legislation.

"While he understands the concerns that some have expressed, his view is that the time for this kind of approach has come," the prime minister's spokesman said.

The shadow public health minister, Luciana Berger, who campaigned on the issue, said it was a "great victory for child health which will benefit hundreds of thousands of young people".

She added: "It is a matter of child protection, not adult choice. The will of parliament has been clearly expressed today and this must be respected. Ministers now have a duty to bring forward regulations so that we can make this measure a reality and put protections for children in place as soon as possible.

Vader

The Hillary Papers: 'closest friend' paints portrait of ruthless First Lady

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© AP
On May 12, 1992, Stan Greenberg and Celinda Lake, top pollsters for Bill Clinton's presidential campaign, issued a confidential memo. The memo's subject was "Research on Hillary Clinton."

Voters admired the strength of the Arkansas first couple, the pollsters wrote. However, "they also fear that only someone too politically ambitious, too strong, and too ruthless could survive such controversy so well."

Their conclusion: "What voters find slick in Bill Clinton, they find ruthless in Hillary."

The full memo is one of many previously unpublished documents contained in the archive of one of Hillary Clinton's best friends and advisers, documents that portray the former first lady, secretary of State, and potential 2016 presidential candidate as a strong, ambitious and ruthless Democratic operative.

The papers of Diane Blair, a political science professor Hillary Clinton described as her "closest friend" before Blair's death in 2000, record years of candid conversations with the Clintons on issues ranging from single-payer health care to Monica Lewinsky.

Snakes in Suits

NY Times editor who held Bush wiretapping story for a year now joining criminal justice nonprofit focusing on news coverage

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An editor who held back on reporting one of the most sweeping violations of American law in recent history is set to join a new nonprofit - focused on drawing attention to criminal justice and news media coverage in America.

The New York Times editor whose decision to hold a story revealing that President George W. Bush was eavesdropping on Americans' calls for more than a year will join a new nonprofit news site focused on the American criminal justice system.

Bill Keller, who served as the executive editor of the paper from 2003-2011 and received a Pulitzer Prize for reporting in Moscow earlier in his career, will join several other journalists who have announced they will start their own news services this year. Glenn Greenwald, known for revealing NSA secrets in The Guardian, Der Spiegel and other papers, opened his own shop, The Intercept, today.

Keller, 65, had the final word in the Times' decision to hold its groundbreaking electronic eavesdropping story, "Bush Lets U.S. Spy On Callers Without Courts," which the paper finally published in December of 2005. Notably, the paper held the story through the course of an entire presidential election, where then-President George W. Bush was re-elected by a narrow margin.

Eagle

The Franco-American Alliance: U.S. and France's new terror tango

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France is emerging as the new partner-in-crime in support of America's imperialist machinations across the globe.

Up until recently, that thuggish role was filled by British in what was euphemistically referred to as the "special Anglo-American relation". Now the French are taking over from the British as the "oldest ally."

French leader Francois Hollande is currently on a three-day visit to the US, greeted by President Barack Obama with full military honors and a 21-gun salute. "France and US enjoy renewed alliance," reports the Washington Post.

The American president has gone out of his way to emphasize historical links between the two countries, with the opening visit for the two leaders taking place at Thomas Jefferson's estate in Charlottesville, Virginia.


Comment: Monticello, Jefferson's slave plantation, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is indeed the ideal meeting place for these two leaders of regimes bombing the natives into submission in Africa today.


Jefferson was the US envoy to France leading up to the French revolution in 1795, before he went on to become the third president of the US following its war of independence from the British Crown.

Comment: See also:

US Military Intervention in Africa: The East African Response Force, A Creation of the Pentagon


Arrow Down

Nicole Miller CEO tells the poor in the U.S. to stop whining

Bud Konheim
© Business Insider, AustraliaBud Konheim
The following clip from CNBC of Nicole Miller's CEO Bud Konheim is absolutely disgusting. Then again, this simply continues the recent trend of wealthy people coming on financial outlets and telling the poor how they are supposed to feel.

Rather than me rewriting what I already wrote on this topic, I encourage you to read my very well received post from last week:

An Open Letter to Sam Zell: Why Your Statements are Delusional and Dangerous.

This is how I ended that article:
I don't think you're a bad guy with evil intent. I think you are a money obsessed financier who hasn't taken the time to actually understand what is really going on within your own country because you have your head so far up your own ass. It's hard for anyone to actually look at themselves in the mirror and be honest about themselves and the myths they create. However, history shows us that when decadent plutocrats are unable to do so, we end up with disastrous situations. Situations which are often times violent and result in despotism. A situation I desperately hope to avoid, and I truly hope you and others like you recognize your error before it is too late.
While the CNBC clip below is priceless, equally disturbing are the results from CNBC readers to the poll question:

Megaphone

Food fight turns on local rights

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© store.coupstreet.com
What started out as an effort to keep genetically modified crops out of Benton County appears to be morphing into a fight over community versus corporate rights. It's also part of broader argument that's playing out in other jurisdictions around the state and around the country.

Corvallis-area organic farmers Harry MacCormack, Clint Lindsey and Dana Allen filed paperwork in 2012 for an initiative petition to create the Benton County Local Food System Ordinance. The effort hit several legal roadblocks along the way, with the county clerk ruling three times that the proposed ballot measure did not meet all the legal requirements to be approved for circulation.

But on Jan. 31 the group won a partial victory in Benton County Circuit Court when Judge Locke Williams ruled that the measure had passed the single subject test. Williams is expected to rule soon on a second question regarding the full text of the measure.

If Williams signs off on that issue, the petitioners and their group, the Benton County Community Rights Coalition, could begin gathering signatures to place the initiative on the November ballot.

The measure, if approved, would ban the planting of genetically modified organisms, known as GMOs, or the patenting of seeds anywhere in Benton County.

Eye 1

EU spending over $400m on secret drone project

Drone
© AFP Photo / Robert MacPherson

The EU is investing hundreds of millions of taxpayer euros in the development of surveillance drones without political oversight, a report claims. The authors of the document warn the EU is secretly encouraging "the further militarization" of the region.

A report entitled 'Eurodrones Inc.' published by rights group Statewatch describes how the EU is channeling taxpayers' money into surveillance drone projects without their knowledge.

"More than 315 million euro ($430 million) has so far been spent in EU research funding on drone technology or drones geared towards a specific purpose such as policing or border control,"
writes the report.

However, the document points out that the research funding is largely "invisible" to the people and parliaments of Europe and lacks the proper political oversight. According to the report this was achieved by a secret budget line that was included in new EU legislation on air traffic control for this year.

The report describes a 20-year roadmap that aims to introduce surveillance drones into EU airspace and highlights that this plan is being shaped by "thinly accountable officials" and representatives of large corporations.

Eye 2

Bob Jones University stifled sex abuse claims: 'If you report it, you hurt the body of Christ'

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“They said if you report it, you hurt the body of Christ.”
A conservative Christian university abruptly dismissed the consulting firm it had hired to look into its handling of sexual assault investigations.

Until recently, students at Bob Jones University who sought counseling for sex abuse were told not to report their claims because turning in a fellow fundamentalist would damage Jesus Christ, reported the New York Times.

Most of the students reported sex abuse that happened when they were children but sought help later, as college students, and administrators branded the victims as liars and sinners, the paper reported.

"The person who supposedly counseled me told me if I reported (another fundamentalist Christian) to the police, I was damaging the cause of Christ, and I would be responsible for the abuser going to hell," said Catherine Harris, who attended the university in the 1980s. "He said all of my problems were as a result of my actions in the abuse, which mostly took place before I was 12, and I should just forgive the abuser."

Another former student said when she accused a graduate student of sexual assault in the 1990s, investigators asked what she had been wearing tightly fitted clothing and urged her to keep quiet to protect her reputation.

Che Guevara

Yemenis mark third anniversary of revolution calling for govt. resignation

Yemen protest
© ReutersPro-democracy protesters look on during a demonstration to mark the anniversary of an uprising against former president Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sanaa. February 8, 2014.

Tens of thousands of people have held a demonstration in the Yemeni capital Sana'a, calling for the resignation of the government, Press TV reports.


The protest march was held on Tuesday to mark the third anniversary of the start of the 2011 revolution that forced longtime dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh to quit in early 2012.

The protesters demanded the implementation of the goals of the revolution, vowing to continue protests until their demands are met.

Saleh, who ruled Yemen for 33 years, stepped down in February 2012 under a US-backed power transfer deal in return for immunity, after a year of mass street demonstrations demanding his ouster.

His vice president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, replaced him on February 25, 2012 following a single-candidate presidential election backed by the United States and Saudi Arabia.

Comment: The US supported the old dictator and after a brutal crackdown supported the transition to another US-puppet dictator, while the old dictator got immunity from prosecution.

No Mrs. Nuland handing out cookies to the protesters and egging them on. No McCain supporting the peoples wish for democracy and calling for an overthrow of the old regime. No EU and US delegation holding meetings with the opposition parties. In this case the US have actively participated in the suppression of the people of Yemen by calling them Al-Qaeda allies and sending drones to bomb them into silence.

U.S. drone strike kills 15 on way to wedding in Yemen
US bombs Yemen without warning
Propaganda Alert! Yemen on 'high alert' over warning of imminent al-Qaida attack
CIA using Saudi base for drone assassinations in Yemen
From Laos to Yemen to Pakistan: Jeremy Scahill & Noam Chomsky on secret U.S. dirty wars
17 killed as U.S.-backed Yemen army clash with tribesmen
Nobel Peace Laureate Obama Bombs Yemen Hours After Winning Reelection
Propaganda Alert! Death Toll Rises to 20 in Yemen's Suspected al-Qaida Attack on Intelligence Building
Yemen government forces push back against 'al Qaeda'
Yemen Protests: Evidence Snipers Shot to Kill
Dozens murdered everyday in CIA's dirty war in Yemen
Axis of Evil drone strikes have killed over 130 in Yemen in recent weeks - Has President Saleh been ousted?