Puppet MastersS


V

Few options for Brazil leader in face of protests

Image
© APA protestor shouts during an anti-government protest in Rio de Janeiro's sister city, Niteroi, Brazil
With massive protests by middle-class Brazilians demanding wholesale government reforms, people all over this continent-sized country have reached a verdict on the streets and online: "The giant has awakened".

President Dilma Rousseff has tried to placate the crowds by supporting their right to protest, and the Sao Paulo municipal government has rescinded the 10-cent hike in bus and subway fares that sparked the demonstrations in the first place. But as the protests grow even bigger, with two major marches called for Thursday (local time), the Brazilian government seems at a loss over how to address the sweeping demands of its people.

Protesters have presented the government with myriad demands and a growing list of complaints: It can't provide its citizens with basic security, officials are corrupt and inefficient, traffic is bottlenecked on pot-holed streets, and even cellphones don't work. And the investment that should be going into health care and education are pouring into soccer stadiums and airports instead.

Rousseff's response has been little more than rhetoric. She hasn't formed any emergency committees to deal with the crisis or offered grand gestures or fresh ideas.

And that has further angered Brazilians such as Rosana Reis, a 51-year-old nurse who like millions in the middle class is feeling the pinch of high taxes and perennially poor public services while the country spends billions of dollars to host next year's World Cup and the 2016 Olympics.

Arrow Down

NSA deletes fact sheet on NSA spying after Senate points out it's actually NSA lying

NSA Logo
© PCWorld

The joke around the NSA used to be that the acronym stood for "No Such Agency" as its very existence was denied for years. While the NSA is now very official, it's still probably the most secretive agency out there. That's to be somewhat expected, given its mission, but it appears that when it needs to be transparent, it doesn't do very well at all. We noted yesterday that Senators Ron Wyden and Mark Udall had called the NSA out for flat out lying on a "fact sheet" the agency had posted about its section 702 surveillance efforts.

The NSA's response? They quietly deleted the pdf document from their website. Because it's not like the internet notices when you suddenly delete the document you put out to defend your overreaching surveillance techniques... You'd think that, of any agency out there, the NSA would recognize the most that simply deleting something on your local computers doesn't make it actually disappear from the world. But, here's the best part:
Separately Tuesday, another NSA official said the removal of the fact sheets and letter from the senators were unrelated.
Ah, yeah, I'm sure it had absolutely nothing to do with that whatsoever...

In more "unrelated" news, NSA boss, General Keith Alexander has also admitted that perhaps the fact sheet wasn't fully accurate:
"After reviewing your letter, I agree that the fact sheet that the National Security Agency posted on its website on 18 June 2013 could have more precisely described the requirements for collection under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act."
Oh, I'm sure that the original wording was fairly "precise." It's just that it was precisely misleading, which is the sort of precision that the NSA seems to specialize in when it comes to any sort of public discussion.

Handcuffs

Best of the Web: Not Prepared: 17 signs that most Americans will be wiped out by the coming Economic Collapse

Image
The vast majority of Americans are going to be absolutely blindsided by what is coming. They don't understand how our financial system works, they don't understand how vulnerable it is, and most of them blindly trust that our leaders know exactly what they are doing and that they will be able to fix our problems. As a result, most Americans are simply not prepared for the massive storm that is heading our way.

Most American families are living paycheck to paycheck, most of them are not storing up emergency food and supplies, and only a very small percentage of them are buying gold and silver for investment purposes. They seem to have forgotten what happened back in 2008. When the financial markets crashed, millions of Americans lost their jobs. Because most of them were living on the financial edge, millions of them also lost their homes.

Unfortunately, most Americans seem convinced that it will not happen again. Right now we seem to be living in a "hope bubble" and people have become very complacent. For a while there, being a "prepper" was very trendy, but now concern about a coming economic crisis seems to have subsided. What a tragic mistake.

Eye 1

Best of the Web: Booz Allen Hamilton: Far worse than Blackwater

Image
Let's take another trip down the rabbit hole, shall we?

Lost in the Edward Snowden debate is a critical look at his former employer, the company doing the spying on Americans in the first place: Booz Allen Hamilton.

Booz Allen Hamilton is a government contractor, with 99% of its revenue coming from the US government. Not only does it receive money from the NSA, but also the US Army, US Navy, US Air Force, US Marine Corps, Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and ... the IRS. In addition, Booz Allen is heavily connected to the CIA.

Among the individuals involved in running the company, we have:

James Clapper - current Director of National Intelligence (DNI), head of NSA, the man who lied to Congress about the fact that NSA is actively spying on Americans, is a former executive

Mike McConnell - a current executive of the company, had Clapper's job (DNI) during George W. Bush's administration (keep it in the family, eh?) -- he worked for Booz Allen before Bush, then worked for Bush, then back to Booz Allen after Bush

James Woolsey - former CIA Director, current executive (see Jan Helfeld's interview of Mr. Woolsey where it becomes clear that Woolsey has no interest in discussing principles, only war)

Melissa Hathaway - former executive, also worked for McConnell during the Bush administration

Ian Brzezinski - former executive, son of Zbigniew Brzezinski, co-founder of the Trilateral Commission with David Rockefeller, central figure in the NWO crowd, and mastermind of Operation Cyclone

Vader

Flashback Former CIA Director says U.S. economic spying targets "European bribery"

Image
Former United States Central Intelligence Agency director James Woolsey confirmed in Washington this week that the US steals economic secrets "with espionage, with communications [intelligence], with reconnaissance satellites", and that there was now "some increased emphasis" on economic intelligence.

He claimed that economic spying was justified because European companies had a "national culture" of bribery and were the "principle offenders from the point of view of paying bribes in major international contracts in the world".

Responding to the European Parliament report on interception capabilities and the Echelon satellite surveillance system, Woolsey said that the "Interception Capabilities 2000" report which had been presented to the parliament's Citizens' Rights Committee on 23 February, was "intellectually honest". In two cases cited in the report, "the fact [is] that the subject of American intelligence collection was bribery."

"That's correct", he told a packed audience of foreign press journalists:
"We have spied on that in the past. I hope ... that the United States government continues to spy on bribery."

Bad Guys

Flashback Ruby Ridge carved niche in history

Image
© Spokesman-Review
Ruby Ridge.

Who would have thought 20 years ago this week that those two words would become an icon, a reference point in American culture?

More than a deadly siege in North Idaho that claimed the lives of a mother, her son and a federal marshal, the standoff at Ruby Ridge became a rallying point for the extremist movement and made Randy Weaver, the white supremacist at the center of the event, a hero to those groups. It also changed the way federal law enforcement handles standoffs with fugitives.

Historians and extremism experts offer varying assessments of the 11-day siege that was named Ruby Ridge after a mountain crest near Naples, Idaho, not far from the hand-built cabin of Weaver and his family.

It took years, including a congressional hearing in 1995, to sort out the sequence of events, and there are still points of disagreement.

But almost everyone - from anti-government activists and racists to academics and historians - agrees that Ruby Ridge was a big deal, with lasting impacts.

Star of David

Men built X-ray gun to shoot Israel opponents - FBI

Image
© Skip Dickstein/AP/Albany Times UnionEric J Feight, one of two men charged with building an X-ray weapon to fire at opponents of Israel.
Industrial mechanic and engineer were caught in sting after tip-off from Ku Klux Klan, investigators say as duo are charged

The FBI has charged two men with making a portable X-ray weapon that they intended to use to secretly sicken opponents of Israel.

An indictment charges 49-year-old Glendon Scott Crawford and 54-year-old Eric J Feight with conspiracy to provide support to terrorists with the weapon.

Investigators have said Crawford approached Jewish organisations in 2012 looking for funding and people to help him with technology that could be used to surreptitiously deliver damaging and even lethal doses of radiation against those he considered enemies of Israel. He and Feight assembled the mobile device, which was to be controlled remotely, but it was inoperable and nobody was hurt, authorities said.

"Crawford has specifically identified Muslims and several other individuals/groups as targets," investigator Geoffrey Kent said in a court affidavit. According to the indictment Crawford also travelled to North Carolina in October to solicit money for the weapon from a ranking member of the Ku Klux Klan, who informed the FBI. Crawford claimed to be a member.

The men appeared separately on Wednesday in federal court and were ordered detained until detention hearings Thursday. They could face up to 15 years in prison.

Comment: Check out these SOTT articles for further reading on Israeli weapons specialization and skullduggery:

http://www.sott.net/article/212776-Ethnic-specific-weapons-The-real-story-behind-the-murder-of-Dr-David-Kelly
http://www.sott.net/article/125018-Litvinenko-By-Way-Of-Deception-Part-1


MIB

Russia's 9/11 and the rise to power of Vladimir Putin: 1999 FSB false flag bombings

While many look to Vladimir Putin and a strong Russia as a counterweight to U.S. imperialism, people also tend to forget that Russia's eternal leader came to power on the back of false-flag bombings carried out in September 1999 by his colleagues at the FSB (KGB).


Comment: See also:

Assassination of Russia (Blowing up Russia)

Vlad's Empire: The Putin System (Documentary)


Vader

Vlad's Empire: The Putin System (Documentary)

CBC's "The Passionate Eye" presents The Putin System - a point-of-view documentary that presents an ominous view of what Putin is willing to do to ensure Russia regains its position on the world stage.

The Putin System chronicles the remarkable life of Putin, a tough, young leader who is not afraid to make harsh decisions and holds a secret purpose-to restore the old Russia of his dreams.

The Putin System is directed by Jean-Michel Carré in association with Jill Emery for the French production company Les Films Grain De Sable.


Comment: Putin did indeed change the constitution in 2008 and five years on, he remains firmly in control of Russia.

FSB Apartment Bombing False Flag Attack

Moscow Subway Bombings Kill 38 in Deadliest Attacks Since 2004

'Caucasian Mujahadeen' Claims Nevsky Express Bombing

Prominent Russian reporter shot to death

Kremlin to blame for Beslan deaths, claims Russian MP

Beslan victims' relatives allege cover-up


Laptop

Reporter Michael Hastings sent panicky email hours before sudden car crash death

Image
© Supplied. US reporter Michael Hasting says he was "onto a big story".
American journalist Michael Hastings told colleagues he suspected he was being investigated by the FBI just hours before he was killed in a fiery car crash in Los Angeles.