Puppet MastersS


Vader

SOTT EXCLUSIVE: Hell-fire continues in Gaza as Israel justifies the unjustifiable

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© Wissam NassarThe mother of Hatem Salem, who was killed just for being a Palestinian, cries next to his body in Al-Shifa Hospital's morgue, July 9, 2014.
As attacks by Israeli forces on Gaza continue, the Palestinian people are braced for another hellish experience. Already exhausted by decades of brutal occupation and 'Operation Cast Lead' in 2009, 'Operation Pillar of Cloud' in 2012, and now 'Operation Protective Edge', 1.7 million Palestinians are trapped in the open-air prison of Gaza, from which there is no escape.

To date, over 100 Palestinians have been murdered and over 600 hundred injured in the current round of slaughter, most of them children, women and the elderly.

The cowardly Israelis are using drones to rack up yet more 'collateral damage'. To date no one has been killed by the fireworks aimed at Israeli settlements. Meanwhile, riots have erupted in the West Bank between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers.

Egypt has opened its border with Gaza to allow in the most severely wounded. Israeli has vowed it won't stop until Hamas stops igniting fireworks. Israel has promised more to come, and will respond to Hamas firework "with all the power" at its disposal.

Here's a recent report by Harry Fear for RT:


Rainbow

Building alliances! Putin makes unplanned stopover in Nicaragua

Putin
© RIA Novosti, Alexei Nikolsky
Russian President Vladimir Putin has changed the schedule of his Latin American tour and arrived in Nicaragua for a brief working visit. Russia, Cuba sign package of cooperation documents in energy sector

On his way from Cuba to Argentina on Saturday, the Russian leader decided to make a stopover in Managua, where he had been officially invited earlier.

At the Managua airport, he was welcomed by Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.

'Much is yet to be done to develop our relations, especially in the area of economy, but we have good base for that," Putin said, adding that Russia and Nicaragua had long-standing good relations. "We admire out [edit:your] personal courage and the courage of your people," he told Ortega.

The Russian leader reminded that the year 2014 is a jubilee one for Russia and Nicaragua, which established diplomatic relations 70 years ago.

The Nicaraguan leader called Putin's visit to his country a historic event. "This is the first-ever visit by the Russian president to Nicaragua, and we are very happy to welcome you here," he said.

Comment: Bypassing US control: Grand $40 billion project of Atlantic-Pacific Nicaragua Canal finally completed


Stormtrooper

US "moderate" militant factions join ISIL in Syria

Syrian militants
© Unknown
Several militant factions affiliated with what the West calls moderate rebel groups have pledged allegiance to ISIL Takfiri terrorists.

Reports say hundreds of foreign-backed militants including a 1000-strong brigade from the so-called Sham Army have defected to the notorious group in recent days.

The defectors travelled from their base in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib to the ISIL stronghold city of Raqqa last weekend.

In addition, several brigades affiliated with the Western-sponsored Free Syrian Army have pledged allegiance to ISIL in the east of the country.

The defections raise questions about the US military support for groups it classifies as moderate militants.

On July 8, the Saudi daily Akkaz confirmed in a report that the foreign-backed militants have received the second batch of US-made anti-tank missiles.

The Takfiri militants have reportedly received TOW anti-tank rockets in the strategic Qalamoun region.


Comment: The US is funding and arming terrorists! Can it be any clearer?


Comment: The US is the master of chaos and destruction.


Bad Guys

Best of the Web: IDF's Gaza assault is to control Palestinian gas, avert Israeli energy crisis

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© Khalil Hamra/APA Palestinian boy plays in the rubble of a house destroyed in an Israeli air strike on Beit Hanoun, Gaza.
Yesterday, Israeli defence minister and former Israeli Defence Force (IDF) chief of staff Moshe Ya'alon announced that Operation Protective Edge marks the beginning of a protracted assault on Hamas. The operation "won't end in just a few days," he said, adding that "we are preparing to expand the operation by all means standing at our disposal so as to continue striking Hamas."

This morning, he said:
"We continue with strikes that draw a very heavy price from Hamas. We are destroying weapons, terror infrastructures, command and control systems, Hamas institutions, regime buildings, the houses of terrorists, and killing terrorists of various ranks of command... The campaign against Hamas will expand in the coming days, and the price the organization will pay will be very heavy."

Comment: Apparently innocent families are terrorists.


But in 2007, a year before Operation Cast Lead, Ya'alon's concerns focused on the 1.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas discovered in 2000 off the Gaza coast, valued at $4 billion. Ya'alon dismissed the notion that "Gaza gas can be a key driver of an economically more viable Palestinian state" as "misguided."

Mr. Potato

Best of the Web: Pepe Escobar: Watch this caliph rip

Caliph
© Unknown
So The Caliph is now a global superstar. Ever since Dr Ibrahim al-Badri of Samarra, a minor Sunni cleric who impersonates neo-medieval Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, showed up in the stone pulpit of a Mosul mosque at the start of Ramadan, he's been on a roll.

He fully advertised his piece of transnational real estate - from the suburbs of Aleppo to Mosul (and promised more takeovers). He cut his own video - essentially his own, a monotone rap, dressed in trademark Men in Black regalia. He eliminated the competition, essentially by killing them all. He exalted the mujahid, inviting them to follow jihad in the name of Allah. He condemned miscreants and hypocrites, exalting the "victory of Muslims" from "the West to the East".

Modestly sporting a US$7,000 watch (or Chinese replica) and asking for "corrections" in his behavior, The Caliph announced that his Islamic State (IS) business, former ISIS, is not only about the Levant. Want an IS passport? Just ask The Caliph.

He firmly set his sights on conquering Rome (Saracens sacked St Peter's in 846); "You will conquer Rome and will be masters of the world." It won't happen before Sunday though, so Pope Francis can watch Argentina against Germany in peace without fear of decapitation.

Comment: It's a big tell-tale sign that this latest incarnation of the Islamic bogeyman has nothing to say about Israel's ethnic cleansing in Gaza. He obviously wouldn't want to hurt the feelings of his masters and get in the way of their fun.


Stormtrooper

Mafia rule! Blackwater awarded over $1bn from State Dept. since threat on investigator's life

Blackwater in Iraq
© AFP Photo / Ahmad AL-RubayeUS taxpayer funded Blackwater goons in Iraq.
The US State Department has allocated more than a billion dollars in contracts to the security firm Blackwater and its later manifestations since a top official for the company threatened a government investigator's life in 2007.

The Huffington Post reported that the notorious security contractor Blackwater, its subsequent incarnations, and its subsidiaries have received more than $1.3 billion since the fall of 2007 for training and operations the world over.

In August 2007, State Department investigator Jean C. Richter said a Blackwater project manager, Daniel Carroll, told Richter"that he could kill me at that very moment and no one could or would do anything about it as we were in Iraq," where the investigator was observing - and criticizing - the company's operations. The New York Times reported the details of the threat last month.

Richter and his partner in the probe were later asked by officials at the American embassy in Baghdad to leave. The next month, Blackwater guards infamously shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians at Nisour Square. The incident sparked outrage with American presence in Iraq among the local population. The US is currently trying to prosecute four of the five guards involved in the incident after a first failed attempt to do it in 2009.

Comment: Psychopaths rule and protect each other. The rule of law is only to be applied to the lesser people like you and me, who of course are meant to pay for the crimes of the ruling elite.

Rule of the jungle: How Blackwater survived Iraq probes of being "Above the Law" - by threatening to kill investigators


Eye 2

Meet the Muslim-American leaders the FBI and NSA have been spying on

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The National Security Agency and FBI have covertly monitored the emails of prominent Muslim-Americans - including a political candidate and several civil rights activists, academics, and lawyers - under secretive procedures intended to target terrorists and foreign spies.

According to documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the list of Americans monitored by their own government includes:

- Faisal Gill, a longtime Republican Party operative and one-time candidate for public office who held a top-secret security clearance and served in the Department of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush;

- Asim Ghafoor, a prominent attorney who has represented clients in terrorism-related cases;

- Hooshang Amirahmadi, an Iranian-American professor of international relations at Rutgers University;

- Agha Saeed, a former political science professor at California State University who champions Muslim civil liberties and Palestinian rights;

- Nihad Awad, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim civil rights organization in the country.

Heart - Black

Growing Gaza death toll leaves psychopath Netanyahu unrepentant

Gaza funeral
© Getty ImagesRelatives and friends of al-Hajj family gather in a mosque to pray over the bodies of the eight family members during their funeral.
The Israeli PM said that, in spite of the mounting death toll, air strikes would continue. "I am not speaking with anyone about a ceasefire. That is not under consideration," he said.

The deadliest Israeli strike yesterday killed eight members of the al-Haj family in Khan Yunis refugee camp in the southern part of the Strip.

Mahmoud al-Haj, 57, died along with his wife Basma and three sons and three daughters, including Fatma, 12. There were 23 people injured.

Late on Wednesday night, the Israeli air force struck a beach café in Khan Yunis, where dozens of Palestinians were gathered to watch the World Cup. Nine people died.

According to the al-Mezan human rights group, more than 76 Palestinians, including 20 children and 10 women have died since Israel's Operation Protective Edge was launched on Tuesday with the stated objectives of halting Hamas-led rocket fire from Gaza to Israel and dealing a severe blow to the Islamist group.

Hamas kept up its rocket barrages yesterday, targeting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in addition to southern Israel. A Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, said it was ready to "fight to the end".

There have been no Israeli fatalities or serious injuries in the violence.

Pistol

Albuquerque police purchase 350 AR-15 rifles despite widespread protests over excessive force and reprimands from DOJ

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© AFP/Karen BleierAn AR-15 rifle
The Albuquerque (New Mexico) Police Department has ordered a cache of high-powered rifles despite reprimands from the US Department of Justice, as well as widespread community protests, over the department's recent record of excessive force.

Albuquerque police have called on a local vendor to supply 350 AR-15 rifles, according to KOB-TV, which cost approximately $1,000 each. The contract calls for the rifles to arrive over the next two years. Subsequent quantities of 50 rifles are part of the deal, if the department deems them necessary.

An AR-15 was used to kill James Boyd, a homeless man who was gunned down by the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) in March. APD approached Boyd because he was camping in a mountain area outside the city.

Video footage of the shooting quickly went viral, inciting mass demonstrations in the city and pleas with police to institute training programs that would better prepare officers for confronting the mentally ill.


Comment: Calling the police these days (for any reason) is bad idea:
"Horror stories of police murdering, beating, raping and plundering citizens are daily news in a cities large and small. One city, Albuquerque, NM is now murdering more people per capita than NYPD during arrests, yet NYC is 14 times more populated.

According to sources [1,2]:

The APD routinely kills more suspects per capita than the NYPD, which serves a metro area 16 times the size of Albuquerque and has 34,000 officers to the APD's 1,000. Since 2010, the APD has been involved in 37 shootings in which 23 people died. Between 2010 and March 2012, the APD was involved in 18 fatal shootings to the NYPD's 22 in the same time period. No officer involved in any of the cases has been prosecuted or even fired, despite a body trail that suggests a department with wildly inappropriate use-of-force." [1]"
Police are more dangerous to citizens than criminals

Listen to a recent SOTT Blog Talk Radio show where the editors discuss the excessive brutality and militarization of the police force.


Take 2

Recovered Nixon tapes reveals paranoia, misogyny, and homophobia in Nixon and closest aides

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© POLARIS
OVAL TEAM: President Richard Nixon with National-Security Adviser Henry Kissinger (right) and Kissinger’s deputy, Alexander M. Haig Jr., 1972.
In an adaptation from their forthcoming book, Vanity Fair contributing editor Douglas Brinkley and historian Luke A. Nichter draw on 3,700 hours of President Nixon's White House tapes to convey the inner workings of Nixon's action-packed first term. Over the last several years, the tapes - many of which were muffled and, at times, indecipherable - have been cleaned up, pored over, and painstakingly transcribed.

The result - excerpted below - includes conversations with Nixon's national-security adviser Henry Kissinger, Chief of Staff Bob Haldeman, and chief domestic aide John Ehrlichman is a verbatim narrative of a pivotal period in Nixon's presidency that portrays him as a geopolitical strategist, a crisis manager, and a duplicitous paranoid.