Puppet MastersS


Dollar

Max Keiser: Greek economy destroyed by Weapon of Economic Warfare

Greece is being pressured to give all control of the Greek budget to the European Union, which it says threatens its national sovereignty. Behind it all is a network of interlinked private financial interests which is using banking instruments to terrorise whole populations into submission.


USA

National Security Letters: Eviscerating the constitution since 1978

The passage of the Patriot Act in October 2001 is by now an all-too-familiar story. The American people, already suffering from the trauma of 9/11, were pushed into outright panic by the anthrax attacks, a series of anthrax-laced mailings that killed five, injured 17 and shut down congress for the first time in modern history. The Act itself was introduced on a Tuesday and signed into law on Friday, before anyone had read let alone understood the sweeping changes it would introduce to American law.

One of those changes were amendments to a little-known and little-used FBI instrument called National Security Letters.

Find out more about how the US government keeps its opposition silent with these constitution-destroying investigative tools on this week's edition of The Eyeopener.


Laptop

Social Media "Tactical Intelligence Collection": Spying and Propaganda using Facebook, Twitter

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A new study by the Mediterranean Council for Intelligence Studies' (MCIS) 2012 Intelligence Studies Yearbook points to the use of social media as "the new cutting edge in open-source tactical intelligence collection". IntelNews.org's Joseph Fitsanakis, who co-authored the study, reports:
We explain that Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and a host of other social networking platforms are increasingly viewed by intelligence agencies as invaluable channels of information acquisition. We base our findings on three recent case studies, which we believe highlight the intelligence function of social networking. (Joseph Fitsanakis, Research: Spies increasingly using Facebook, Twitter to gather data, intelNews.org, February 13, 2012)
What the study fails to mention, however, is the use of social media by intelligence agencies for other purposes. The study leads us to believe that social media is solely an intelligence gathering tool, when in fact, a number of reports have shown that it is used for propaganda including the creation of fake identities in support of covert operations. Those practices are discussed in Army of Fake Social Media Friends to Promote Propaganda, Social Media: Air Force ordered software to manage army of Fake Virtual People and Pentagon Seeks to Manipulate Social Media for Propaganda Purposes, published on Global Research in 2011.

USA

Al-CIAda? 'US in bed with Al-Qaeda to oust Assad'

The majority of the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution this week, calling on Syria's President to end the oppostion crackdown, and give up power. Russia and China are against the move, and want the rebels to also lay down weapons and join talks.It's a year since the uprising started and Damascus is vowing to reform, even as the killing continues. And a top U.S. intelligence chief has admitted that Al-Qaeda could be operating in Syria. That's led political analyst Kamel Wazne to conclude that Washington is getting friendly with terrorists.


Light Sabers

Escobar: Al-Qaeda agents worm into Syrian rebel army

The EU states are calling for creating humanitarian corridors in Syria, which some fear could open the door to foreign intervention. But Asia Times correspondent Pepe Escobar says it's already underway.


Pistol

Russian activist Alexey Navalny's dark side ignored by Western media

Russian blogger Alexey Navalny has been heaped in global praise for his anti-corruption campaigning, being compared by some to Wikileaks' Julian Assange. But if abroad he's seen as a harsh critic of Vladimir Putin, back home, he's just as well known for his radical, nationalist views...


Airplane

'Underwear bomber' Abdulmutallab handed life sentence

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© Jerry Lemenu/APPatsy Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in a courtroom drawing.
Judge orders life in prison for Nigerian who pleaded guilty to trying to blow up plane bound for Detroit in 2009

A US federal judge has ordered life in prison for a Nigerian man who turned away from a privileged life and tried to blow up an international airplane with nearly 300 people during a suicide mission for al-Qaida.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was the same defiant man who four months ago pleaded guilty to all charges related to the attempted destruction of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 with a bomb in his underwear on Christmas 2009. He seemed to relish his mandatory sentence and defended his actions as rooted in the Qu'ran.

Earlier, four passengers and a crew member aboard Flight 253 told US district judge Nancy Edmunds that the event forever changed their lives.

Abdulmutallab looked uninterested during their remarks he rarely looked up while seated just a few feet away, wearing a white skull cap and an oversized prison T-shirt.

Comment: Interesting that US attorney Kurt Haskell was not called to testify. Abdulmutallab was clearly a patsy. How else could a man with no passport be led onto a plane into the US by two agents?

Haskell Blows Whistle on Underwear Bomber, Government Op

The Underwear Bomber - Crushing Freedom With Phony Arab Terrorism

Underwear Bomber Redux - Was Mutallab An Israeli "Secret Weapon"?

"Underwear Bomber" Could Not Have Blown Up Plane


War Whore

Britain leads dash to explore for oil in war-torn Somalia

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Western oil exploration techniques in the 21st century
Government offers humanitarian aid and security assistance in the hope of a stake in country's future energy industry

Britain is involved in a secret high-stakes dash for oil in Somalia, with the government offering humanitarian aid and security assistance in the hope of a stake in the beleaguered country's future energy industry.

Riven by two decades of conflict that have seen the emergence of a dangerous Islamic insurgency, Somalia is routinely described as the world's most comprehensively "failed" state, as well as one of its poorest. Its coastline has become a haven for pirates preying on international shipping in the Indian Ocean.

David Cameron last week hosted an international conference on Somalia, pledging more aid, financial help and measures to tackle terrorism. The summit followed a surprise visit by the foreign secretary, William Hague, to Mogadishu, the Somali capital, where he talked about "the beginnings of an opportunity'' to rebuild the country.

Comment: Just as it did in Libya, the UK will first join the US in bombing Somalia to make it safe for further oil exploitation:

Somalia: UK weighs up air strikes against rebels


Bad Guys

No surprises as Silvio Berlusconi bribery case thrown out of court

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© Associated PressSilvio Berlusconi (right) was accused of paying $600,000 to British lawyer David Mills (left) for his court evidence during two trials in the 1990s.
Judges rule that statute of limitations has run out on case involving payment of $600,000 to British lawyer David Mills

Silvio Berlusconi's trial for bribing the British lawyer David Mills has failed to reach a verdict after judges ruled that the statute of limitations has run out on the case.

Prosecutors had requested that the former Italian prime minister serve five years for allegedly paying $600,000 (£380,000) to Mills, the estranged husband of former Labour cabinet minister Tessa Jowell, to withhold evidence on his behalf in two trials in the 1990s. Berlusconi denied the charges.

Mills was convicted in 2009 on bribery charges, but his conviction was overturned by Italy's highest court after the statute of limitations expired.

Disputes between prosecutors and defence lawyers over exactly when Berlusconi's charges would time out arose after repeated delays in hearings due to his obligations as prime minister and after an immunity law he passed temporarily stopped the five-year trial.

Arrow Down

Taliban Militants Say They Shot Down U.S. Drone

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© Reuters/US Air Force/Airman Julianne ShowalterAn MQ-1B Predator from the 46th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron takes off from Balad Air Base in Iraq, in this file photograph taken on June 12, 2008.
Peshwar, Pakistan - A U.S. drone crashed on Saturday in North Waziristan, not far from the Afghan border, Pakistan intelligence officials said, while Taliban militants said they had shot it down.

Taliban militants led by Hafiz Gul Bahadur said they had collected wreckage of the destroyed drone and would provide its pictures to the media on Sunday.

"The drone today in Machikhel was flying at low altitude and our fighters fired at and shot it down," a local commander of the Taliban said. "We have trained people for such type of job."

It is impossible to verify the militants' account and a U.S. official in Washington denied the Taliban had shot down the drone and declined further comment. The CIA, which runs the drone campaign, also declined to comment.

Pakistani security officials said they did not know what caused the drone to crash.