Puppet MastersS


Bad Guys

The Paraguayan Coup: How agribusiness, landowners, media elite and the U.S. are paving the way for regional destabilization

Francesca Fiorentini
War Times
Wed, 04 Jul 2012 17:18 UTC
paraguay
It has been nearly two weeks since the parliament of Paraguay orchestrated an institutional coup that removed President Fernando Lugo from power and installed vice president Fernando Franco in his place, a mere 9 months before the next presidential elections.

Reading articles coming out of South America, I have been trying to wrap my head around not just what happened in Paraguay but what it could mean for the region. And I'm afraid it's not good. When one connects the dots - many of which require further investigation - it suddenly feels as though the gains that countries in the region have made toward multi-lateral cooperation in order to guarantee economic and political sovereignty and are dangerously vulnerable.

I have always been skeptical of claims by Hugo Chavez or even anti-militarist voices here in the region that believe that the U.S. has not let go of its plans for the region in its fulfillment of "Full Spectrum Dominance" - controlling natural resources indirectly through elite puppet governments and directly through the threat of military force. Between the U.S' refocus on the Middle East and the rise of left-leaning governments in Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina, Ecuador, and Uruguay, the idea of the region falling victim to the kinds of imperial/neoliberal bullying of the 70s, 80s, and 90s seemed both politically overblown and strategically unfeasible.

I am no longer so sure.
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Stormtrooper

Best of the Web: Pentagon's Mad Scientists Develop 'Non-Lethal' Weapon That Could Blast You Unconscious

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai
Wired
Tue, 10 Jul 2012 21:11 UTC
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© USMCU.S. Marines zap one another during a masochistic romp with stun guns.
Imagine a stun gun that doesn't just drop you to the floor, but renders you unconscious for several minutes. This tech is called a "nano-second electrical pulse," and the Pentagon believes it could be used in a gun that would hit targets with high voltages of electricity for an amazingly short amount of time - we're talking billionths of seconds here. That would make the enemy an easy capture. But today's stun guns are already linked to dozens, if not hundreds, of abusive incidents. What happens if they become even more powerful?

The stun gun is only one of several projects that the Department of Defense showcased at the Non-Lethal Weapons Industry Day in Quantico, Va. on June 22, an opportunity for the Pentagon to give a glimpse of the present and future of its weapons that are designed to injure, rather than kill.

The Joint Non Lethal Weapons Directorate, the Pentagon's agency responsible for these projects, has been working on these system for years, proposing all kinds of exotic and futuristic less-than-lethal alternatives to its deadly arsenal, including sticky foam guns, sonic cannons, and devices that could potentially create voices in the target's heads, mimicking the effects of schizophrenia.

Comment: Caveat Lector: Wired Magazine and Wired.com is owned by a company which produces drones and is heavily invested in facilitating the widespread use of domestic drones for spying on, tracking, arresting and ultimately eliminating American citizens.

Attack of the Drones

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Bad Guys

UK Minister: "Anyone Who Falsifies Market Indices Should Land in Jail"


MarketWatch
Mon, 09 Jul 2012 16:25 UTC
Barclays
© Reuters
The U.K. intends to take severe action against the illegal manipulation of market interest rates, German daily Handelsblatt reports Tuesday, citing an interview with Mark Hoban, the financial secretary to the Treasury. He said anyone who falsifies market indexes should land in jail, the newspaper reported.
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Arrow Down

USA - We Are Going Over the Fiscal Cliff

Amy Bingham
ABC News
Thu, 12 Jul 2012 10:45 UTC
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© pinoytutorial.comErskine Boyce Bowles
Three of the country's most prominent minds on U.S. budgetary problems issued a stark warning to lawmakers today as Congress approaches what many have called a "fiscal cliff" of tax hikes and spending cuts that are set to take effect Jan. 1.

Erskine Bowles, who served as President Clinton's chief of staff, former Sen. Alan Simpson and billionaire investor Warren Buffet all expressed pessimism as to whether Congress and President Obama could reach a compromise to reduce the debt and avoid another fiscal crisis, during an interview with CNBC Thursday morning.

While both Republicans and Democrats have said they do not want to let all the tax cuts expire and plan to stave off the bulk of the spending cuts, Bowles said partisan politics would likely thwart any deal to avoid the looming taxmageddon.

"I think if I had to tell you the probability, I'd say the chances are we are going over the fiscal cliff," Bowles said. "I hate to say it, but I think that's probably right."

Comment: This makes little sense, but the elite are going to protect their tax havens. The Bush Tax cuts reduced the taxes paid into the system by the rich. So actually letting them expire would increase the governments revenue. There may be an element of the tax cut that is helping lower income families at tax time, but the bulk of the tax cuts helped the rich.

Allowing the Bush Tax Cuts to expire helps the governments Revenue, accepting the spending cuts reduces government financial output. This combination of events might actually help increase the value of the dollar and get the United States budget out of the red and reduce the overall national debt.
Image
© isnichwahr.com

Perhaps what's really being said is: We're already over the financial cliff, but if we keep spending on social programs instead of reducing or stopping the spending on them, few will notice.. for now.

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Book

Tehran Abuzz as Book Says Israel Killed 5 Scientists

Artin Afkhami
New York Times
Thu, 12 Jul 2012 10:36 UTC
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© Morteza Nikoubazl/ReutersIranians carried portraits of the nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, who was killed in a bomb blast in January.
The latest literary sensation in Tehran is a thriller about Iran's nuclear program that is laden with espionage, cunning and political murder. But its authors are not former Iranian intelligence operatives or Iranian military fiction writers. They are not the Iranian equivalent of Tom Clancy.

The book, Spies Against Armageddon: Inside Israel's Secret Wars, has set off a buzz among both government and opposition news media inside Iran for the assertion by its authors - Yossi Melman, widely regarded as a leading Israeli military and intelligence journalist, and Dan Raviv, a CBS national political correspondent - that five Iranian nuclear scientists killed in the past five years were all assassinated by operatives, most likely of Persian Jewish heritage, employed by Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied it is responsible for the assassinations.

Iranian news sources view the book, published Monday in English by Levant Books, a small company in Sea Cliff, N.Y., as an Israeli-written work exposing something the Israeli authorities do not want the world to know.
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Dollar

LIBOR scandal set to rock U.S. as experts warn it could be 'the biggest consumer fraud in history'

James Nye
Daily Mail
Thu, 12 Jul 2012 10:20 UTC
Image
© ReutersTraders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York: It is alleged that the level of interest rate manipulation by the world's largest banks could have fraudulently affected billions of people across the world
As the investigation into the LIBOR interest rate-rigging in the United Kingdom becomes a financial scandal of tsunami-like proportions, some analysts are openly wondering whether 16 of the world's largest banks have perpetrated the biggest fraud in history.

With the public coming round to the global significance of banks potentially colluding like a cartel to favourably set the LIBOR, those same analysts predict lawsuits worth tens of billions being brought against the Western world's largest financial institutions by average consumers.

Early analysis suggests that for a period of several years before and after the 2008 financial crisis, the London interbank offered rate (LIBOR) was manipulated to such an extent that a family with a $100,000 mortgage would have been $50 to $100 worse off a month because of the fixing.

As the fallout from Barclay's $453 million fine for admitting influencing the LIBOR hits the U.S., Europe and Japan, banks such as Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, HSBC and Deutsche Bank have admitted they are now under investigation for interest rate manipulation.

Economist and financial analysts are predicting that as the scale of the potential fraud becomes clear, the fines and litigation that engulfs the banking sector could dwarf the penalty handed to Barclay's and even herald further, more stringent regulation on Wall Street and multinational banks.
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Footprints

Putin sends warships to boost Syria


The Sunday Morning Herald
Thu, 12 Jul 2012 09:04 UTC
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© ReutersRussia's President Vladimir Putin.
Russia has sent a flotilla of warships to its naval base in a key Syrian port in an apparent show of support for President Bashar al-Assad in what would be the largest display of Russian military power in the region since the Syrian conflict began almost 17 months ago.

Two destroyers and three amphibious landing vessels carrying marines set sail from Russian bases in the Arctic and the Black Sea, according to Russian military sources.

The development appeared intended to underline Russia's effort to position itself as an increasingly decisive broker in resolving the anti-government uprising in Syria, Russia's last ally in the Middle East and where Russia has its only foreign military base outside the former Soviet Union.

The move follows Russia's announcement earlier this week that it was halting new shipments of weapons to the Syrian military until the conflict settled down.
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Chess

Russian Navy Ready to Break Syria Blockade Says Arms Agency


Ria Novosti
Wed, 11 Jul 2012 08:57 UTC
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© RIA Novosti, Sergey EshenkoThe Russian cargo ship Alaed.
Russian Navy warships will be sent to defend Russian merchant shipping in the event of a blockade due to the situation in Syria, the deputy head of Russia's military technical cooperation agency said at the Farnborough air show in Britain on Wednesday.

"The fleet will be sent on task to guarantee the safety of our ships, to prevent anyone interfering with them in the event of a blockade. I remind you, there are no limits," Vyacheslav Dzirkaln said, when asked about the navy's actions in the event of a blockade.
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Footprints

US Congress says acting Palestinian Authority chief Abbas is 'corrupt'


Press TV
Thu, 12 Jul 2012 08:44 UTC
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© UnknownActing Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas.
The US Congress has made allegations of corruption against acting Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas, accusing him of taking advantage of his position.

The House Subcommittee on the Middle East held a hearing on the issue on July 10 titled "Chronic Kleptocracy: Corruption within the Palestinian Political Establishment."
The chairman of the committee, Ohio Congressman Steve Chabot, said that Abbas has reportedly taken advantage of his position to "line his own pockets as well as those of his... sons."
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Footprints

Corruption Charges Fuel Move to Cut US Aid to PA

Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Israel National News
Thu, 12 Jul 2012 08:36 UTC
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© Flash 90Mahmoud Abbas.
The Palestinian Authority said the Obama administration has warned it will cut aid if it goes to the United Nations again for recognition. In Congress, opposition to aiding the Palestinian Authority was fueled by charges that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has "lined his pockets."

Khaled Mesmar, a Palestinian Authority official of the Political Committee of the Palestinian National Council, admitted on Tuesday that the United States has "threatened to cut off financial aid to the Palestinian Liberation Office in Washington if the Palestinian leadership submitted another membership bid to the United Nations."

He said the threat was delivered through official channels during a recent visit to Ramallah by an American envoy.
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