Puppet MastersS


Che Guevara

Best of the Web: Revolution of the Mind! Turks respond to government crackdown on protests by silently reading in Taksim Square

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© George Henton/Al JazeeraGeorge Orwell's dystopic novel Nineteen Eighty-Four centralises around a police state with total government surveillance.
After weeks of violent clashes between police and protesters across Turkey a new form of resistance has emerged - the "Standing Man".

Standing silently, and initially alone, Turkish performance artist Erdem Gunduz stood, with his hands in his pockets, facing the Ataturk Cultural Centre in Taksim Square, Istanbul, for eight hours.

With extraordinary speed, Gunduz become the latest symbol of the resistance movement. In days that followed, thousands of people would emulate his solitary act, standing silently, for minutes or hours, in places across Turkey.

The contrast with the images of tear gas clouds and water cannon could not have been greater. Faces obscured by masks and helmets were revealed to show expressions of quiet contemplation.

Violent scenes are still occurring around Turkey, including in Istanbul once again this past weekend, but the Standing Man protests continue unabated.

The following images explore one aspect of the protest in Taksim Square, ongoing since before the communal standing took off. Public reading and informal education has been notable since the earliest days of the protest, but has since merged with the Standing Man to form "The Taksim Square Book Club".

The chosen reading material of many of those who take their stand is reflective, in part, of the thoughtfulness of those who have chosen this motionless protest to express their discontent.

Comment: Let the elites eat data... while the people read books!

Imagine a sea of people reading Red Pill Press books...


Pyramid

Best of the Web: No need to pretend anymore: JP Morgan calls for authoritarian regimes in Europe

In a document released at the end of May, the American banking and investment giant JP Morgan Chase calls for the overturning of the bourgeois democratic constitutions established in a series of European countries after the Second World War and the installation of authoritarian regimes.

The 16-page document was produced by the Europe Economic Research group of JP Morgan and titled "The Euro Area Adjustment - About Half-Way There." The document begins by noting that the crisis in the euro zone has two dimensions.

revolution
Meanwhile, the people of countries like Turkey, Brazil, Greece, Spain and several others demand justice. Are those at the top in fear that they will soon demand their heads too? What will they try to do to avoid this scenario?
First, the paper argues, financial measures are necessary to ensure that major investment houses such as JP Morgan can continue to reap huge profits from their speculative activities in Europe. Second, the authors maintain, it is necessary to impose "political reforms" aimed at suppressing opposition to the massively unpopular austerity measures being carried out at the behest of the banks.

The report expresses satisfaction with the implementation of a number of financial mechanisms by the European Union to secure banking interests. In this respect, the study maintains, reform of the euro area is about halfway there. The report does, however, call for more action by the European Central Bank (ECB).

Comment:
"Political systems around the periphery typically display several of the following features: weak executives; weak central states relative to regions; constitutional protection of labour rights; consensus-building systems which foster political clientalism; and the right to protest if unwelcome changes are made to the political status quo. The shortcomings of this political legacy have been revealed by the crisis. "
Unbelievable! So, according to JP Morgan, the problem is not that they have the power to destroy the economies of the world in order to enrich the already obscenely rich members of the financial elite. The problem, you see, is that the masses still have a few rights here and there to protest the theft.

Thus is the thinking of psychopaths.

We wonder what this 'Let them eat cake' attitude will bring to the likes of JP Morgan. If history serves as an indicator, it might not be pretty. Then again, it is perhaps their fear of Madame Guillotine that encourages them to seek absolute power over the rest of us.


Eye 1

Best of the Web: Anti-empire report #118: Eavesdropping on the planet


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© rt.com
Edward Snowden


In the course of his professional life in the world of national security Edward Snowden must have gone through numerous probing interviews, lie detector examinations, and exceedingly detailed background checks, as well as filling out endless forms carefully designed to catch any kind of falsehood or inconsistency. The Washington Post (June 10) reported that "several officials said the CIA will now undoubtedly begin reviewing the process by which Snowden may have been hired, seeking to determine whether there were any missed signs that he might one day betray national secrets."

Yes, there was a sign they missed - Edward Snowden had something inside him shaped like a conscience, just waiting for a cause.

It was the same with me. I went to work at the State Department, planning to become a Foreign Service Officer, with the best - the most patriotic - of intentions, going to do my best to slay the beast of the International Communist Conspiracy. But then the horror, on a daily basis, of what the United States was doing to the people of Vietnam was brought home to me in every form of media; it was making me sick at heart. My conscience had found its cause, and nothing that I could have been asked in a pre-employment interview would have alerted my interrogators of the possible danger I posed because I didn't know of the danger myself. No questioning of my friends and relatives could have turned up the slightest hint of the radical anti-war activist I was to become. My friends and relatives were to be as surprised as I was to be. There was simply no way for the State Department security office to know that I should not be hired and given a Secret Clearance. 1

So what is a poor National Security State to do? Well, they might consider behaving themselves. Stop doing all the terrible things that grieve people like me and Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning and so many others. Stop the bombings, the invasions, the endless wars, the torture, the sanctions, the overthrows, the support of dictatorships, the unmitigated support of Israel; stop all the things that make the United States so hated, that create all the anti-American terrorists, that compel the National Security State - in pure self defense - to spy on the entire world.

Eye 2

UK COINTELPRO: Undercover police unit monitored 9,000 'domestic extremists', many with no criminal record

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© Paul Davey/ Paul Davey/Demotix/CorbisAnti-capitalists are just one of the groups the extremism unit monitors.
Officers familiar with workings of unit indicate that many of campaigners listed on database have no criminal record

A national police unit that uses undercover officers to spy on political groups is currently monitoring almost 9,000 people it has deemed "domestic extremists".

The National Domestic Extremism Unit is using surveillance techniques to monitor campaigners who are listed on the secret database, details of which have been disclosed to the Guardian after a freedom of information request.

A total of 8,931 individuals "have their own record" on a database kept by the unit, for which the Metropolitan police is the lead force. It currently uses surveillance techniques, including undercover police, paid informants and intercepts, against political campaigners from across the spectrum.

Senior officers familiar with the workings of the unit have indicated to the Guardian that many of the campaigners listed on the database have no criminal record.

As as Scotland Yard was battling to contain the fallout over the activities of a former undercover police officer who was asked to dig for "dirt" that would undermine the Stephen Lawrence campaign, evidence emerged that the main witness to his murder was also targeted.

Pirates

Qatar's love affair with Syria: U.S. client regime has spent $3 billion funnelling money to al-Qaeda-in-Syria

Leaders
© Asia Times Online
This is the ultimate "Friend of Syria". But what is Qatar really up to? Word in Doha is that Qatar may have spent as much as a staggering US$3 billion to make sure "Assad must go". Yet he hasn't gone anywhere. Even the Emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, deposed himself this week, to the benefit of his son, former "heir apparent" Tamim Bin Hamad al-Thani (see We are all Qataris now, Asia Times Online, June 26, 2013). But Bashar al-Assad stays put. What gives?

Qatar has spent a fortune weaponizing the myriad Syrian "rebel" factions, buying everything from stashes in Libya to new stuff in Croatia, flown as cargo and distributed by Turkish intelligence (there's an alternative weapons flow by Sunni Lebanese connected to the Saudis.) The chief weaponizer is a Qatari general.

Doha has dispatched Qatari Special Forces on the ground - just as in Libya - to advise "their" favorite batch of rebels. Crucially, these Special Forces are experienced instructors. They are not Qatari; they are Pakistani - as detailed in this must-read dossier.

It goes without saying that these Pakistanis hail from the same tradition of schooling of the mujahideen in the 1980s and the Taliban in the 1990s. We all know what came out of it. Asia Times Online has extensively reported that Syria is the new Afghanistan - but now with extra bonus jihadi gore, developed in the Iraq war, such as suicide bombing, beheading and intestine-eating.

It's no secret most of the rebels are mercenaries - usually paid $1,300 a month directly by the Qataris, with an extra $1,000 if they carry out a special ops. Quite a few have also developed a secondary career as YouTube videos uploaders, the weapon of choice in Arab networks (not to mention Western) to prove how "evil" the Assad regime is.

Bad Guys

Former U.S. General James Cartwright named in Stuxnet leak inquiry

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© Pablo Martinez Monsivais/APJames Cartwright as vice-chairman of the joint chiefs of staff in 2011.
Report says Cartwright, once the second-highest ranking US officer, is under investigation over Iran cyber attack leaks.


A retired US general, James Cartwright, is the target of a Justice Department investigation into the leaking of secret information about the Stuxnet virus attack on Iranian nuclear facilities in 2010, NBC News reported on Thursday, citing unidentified legal sources.

NBC said Cartwright, once the second highest ranking officer in the US military, was being investigated over the leaked information about the computer virus, which temporarily disabled 1,000 centrifuges used by Iran to enrich uranium, setting back its nuclear programme.

A "target" is someone a prosecutor or grand jury has substantial evidence linking to a crime and who is likely to be charged.

The Justice Department referred questions to the US attorney's office in Baltimore, where a spokeswoman, Marcia Murphy, declined to comment.

The New York Times published a detailed account of the Stuxnet program in June last year, in which it said President Barack Obama had decided to accelerate US cyber attacks, which began under George W Bush.

Propaganda

Best of the Web: Full Disclosure: What the media isn't telling you about Syrian 'Civil War'

New polls show that 80% Americans think it's a bad idea for the U.S. to intervene in Syria. Meanwhile, 300 U.S. Marines have been stationed along the Syria's southern border with Jordan. Is the U.S. about to become involved in Syria?

Answer: We already are.

Ben Swann presents Full Disclosure on Syria:


Top Secret

U.S. military's 'underground' warfare in Syria

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© UnknownThey have always been underground in a deep dark hole
Following the debacles and disasters in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military has actually adopted a new role to avoid direct engagement, like in Syria, to go underground and conduct secret operations, an analyst says.

"The decision to pull back on massive engagements of military force does not mean force is not going to be used. It just goes underground," Gordon Adams wrote on the website of Foreign Policy on Wednesday.

"Arguably, today the U.S. military is more involved than ever overseas, on a global basis, carrying out missions that extend well beyond classic military competencies," he added.

Adams said that the approach, described by the Pentagon and the White House as "building partner capacity" is a "stealthy" model which focuses on training and equipping the troops from other countries, allowing the US military to make smaller deployments to more countries across the world.

Comment: See ways the U.S. helps the Syrian Rebels murderous thugs here.


Gear

Swedish security service Säpo infiltrated country's left-wing party

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© Scanpix
The Swedish Security Service (Säpo) embedded a spy to monitor activities in the Left Party beginning in the 1980s, according to revelations in the Aftonbladet daily on Tuesday.

The newspaper reports that Säpo officer Hans-Erik Sjöholm infiltrated the party in the early 1980s tasked with keeping tabs on party members, including then party secretary, and later leader, Lars Ohly.

"Säpo really has no bloody business collecting information about a party secretary in the a Riksdag party, that is completely out of order. I am extremely surprised," Ohly said to Aftonbladet when told of the claims.

Sjöholm relates how he joined the party, then known as Left Party - the Communists (VPK), in the beginning of the 1980s and continued to report on members and from meetings over the following two decades.

Vader

Hysterical USA: 'Insider Threat' program forces U.S. Federal employees to spy on co-workers

US employees told to spy on coworkers
© Unknown
Government documents have revealed that the Obama administration is implementing a program that requires millions of federal employees to spy on their co-workers as part of a sweeping crackdown on security leaks across the U.S. government.

The program titled "Insider Threat" which has gone almost entirely unnoticed in the U.S. media also presses managers to punish employees who fail to report their suspicions, McClatchy reported Friday after obtaining the documents.

The program spans all federal agencies and mandates employees and their superiors to identify and report behaviors associated with someone who might leak sensitive government information.

Those who fail to expose "high-risk persons" face penalties that include criminal charges, according to the report.

The program was launched in October 2011 after Army Private Bradley Manning blew the whistle on U.S. war crimes, in the largest intelligence leak in U.S. history.

Comment: And so we see the real purpose of this contrived set of 'leaks': more fear, more paranoia, more suspicion, and more control of the population.See this SoTT Focus for more on the NSA-Snowden affair.