Puppet MastersS


Che Guevara

Muammar al Gaddafi and Western Duplicitous Bastards

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Unsconscious looking-glass resentment once made Richard Nixon's Chief of Staff Alexander Haig call British Foreign Secretary Lord Carrington a "duplicitous bastard". The sick irony of Haig's petulant blart is that US foreign policy has always been one of deceitful cunning, evil mass-murder and global criminality, notoriously exemplified by President Nixon and Henry Kissinger. It continues unchanged with plutocrat-catamite Barack Obama.

Svelte houseboy-President Obama rents out his duplicitous-bastard talents to help corrupt Western corporate elites and their allies pauperize their own peoples and plunder vulnerable countries like Libya. Obama sells his crimes as promoting democracy and prosperity. His weird-familiar Hillary Clinton and her depleted-uranium blasted-heath sisters, Samantha Power and Susan Rice, provide back up.

These serial-child-killers try hard to outdo Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright, who notoriously argued that 500,000 needlessly dead Iraqi children represented "a price worth paying". They work overtime to hubble-bubble, toil-and-trouble virtual pretexts for diplomatic, economic and military aggression against countries the Western political and corporate elites want to control. Once the supreme war crime is consummated, their financial, military-industrial and other corporate carpet-bagger partners move in.

The New York Times' Scott Shane recently reported how Western multinational buzzard-corporations are now swooping on Libya while the country is still in conflict with its cities ruined and tens of thousands dead. Shane writes, "Entrepreneurs are abuzz about the business potential of a country with huge needs and the oil to pay for them, plus the competitive advantage of Libyan gratitude toward the United States and its NATO partners. A week before Colonel Qaddafi's death on Oct. 20, a delegation from 80 French companies arrived in Tripoli to meet officials of the Transitional National Council, the interim government. Last week, the new British defense minister, Philip Hammond, urged British companies to "pack their suitcases" and head to Tripoli. "

Black Cat

Authoritarian Follower: Kirk Cameron Finally Weighs in on How Gays Will Destroy Civilization

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'80s sitcom heartthrob turned evangelical Kirk Cameron made his stance on gay rights, and gays in general, crystal clear in an interview with CNN's Piers Morgan last night. Survey says: definitely not pro! After Morgan broached the topic, Cameron deflected by making reference to Christine O'Donnell's gay-marriage-induced walkout of last summer, but the Growing Pains star eventually shared his views:
"I believe marriage was defined by God. Marriage is almost as old as dirt, and it was defined in the Garden between Adam and Eve. One man, one woman for life till death do you part. So I would never attempt to try to redefine marriage. And I don't think anyone else should either. So do I support the idea of gay marriage? No, I don't."

Comment: According to Bob Altemeyer, in his book The Authoritarians :

"Authoritarians are highly submissive to established authority, aggressive in the name of that authority, and conventional to the point of insisting everyone should behave as their authorities decide. They are fearful and self-righteous and have a lot of hostility in them that they readily direct toward various outgroups. They are easily incited, easily led, rather un-inclined to think for themselves, largely impervious to facts and reason, and rely instead on social support to maintain their beliefs. They bring strong loyalty to their in-groups, have thick-walled, highly compartmentalized minds, use lots of double standards in their judgments, are surprisingly unprincipled at times, and are often hypocrites. But they are also Teflon-coated when it comes to guilt. They are blind to themselves, ethnocentric and prejudiced, and as close-minded as they are narrow-minded."


Coffee

FBI Director fails to answer over killing of Americans on US soil

FBI Director Robert Mueller repeatedly defers to Justice Dept. when questioned over killing Americans on U.S. soil.


Comment: As SOTT has been highlighting for years, all of the pieces have been slowly moving into place. It is now 'lawful' to detain US citizens without charge, indefinitely, and if that doesn't do the job simply label a person as a threat and murder them - wherever they are in the world.

But of course, the Justice Department can't imagine a scenario in which that would happen, so go back to sleep, nothing to see here.


Handcuffs

Private prison contracts aim for 90% guaranteed occupancy rate - for at least 20 years

Harley Lappin
© M. Spencer Green / APFederal Bureau of Prisons director Harley Lappin


(Washington) - At a time when states are struggling to reduce bloated prison populations and tight budgets, a private prison management company is offering to buy prisons in exchange for various considerations, including a controversial guarantee that the governments maintain a 90% occupancy rate for at least 20 years.

The $250 million proposal, circulated by the Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America to prison officials in 48 states, has been blasted by some state officials who suggest such a program could pressure criminal justice officials to seek harsher sentences to maintain the contractually required occupancy rates.

"You don't want a prison system operating with the goal of maximizing profits," says Texas state Sen. John Whitmire, a Houston Democrat and advocate for reducing prison populations through less costly diversion programs. "The only thing worse is that this seeks to take advantage of some states' troubled financial position."

Dollar

EU hypocrisy! £1 billion in arms sales to Greece

Greece austerity
© GettyAfter EU demands for greater austerity, as Greece debt has deepened despite multi-billion bailouts, Greek social spending has been cut by nine per cent while military budgets have risen, by as much as 18 per cent
European Union countries have been accused of hypocrisy over imposing savage austerity measures on Greece while at the same time selling the highly indebted country over £1 billion of arms.

New official figures show that bailouts and an EU austerity programme aimed at reducing Greek living standards by 30 per cent have not dented lucrative arms sales to Greece.

In 2010, as Greece was plunged into crisis and the EU began a scheduled £200 billion in aid payments, European countries continued to sell aircraft, tanks, artillery and submarines to the Greek military.

In the same year, France concluded a £662 million military aircraft deal with Greece, a lucrative deal for the French arms industry that will be underwritten by EU bail-out funds.

Official German trade figures showed that in 2010 Germany, which has demanded draconian cuts to Greek social welfare spending, sold weaponry, including a submarine, worth £336 million to the impoverished southern Mediterranean country.

In October 2011, as the EU negotiated a second bail-out for Greece, Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor and Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President told the Greek government that all existing arms contracts must be honoured.

Rocket

US Offered Israel Advanced Weaponry in Exchange for Delaying Iran Attack

Netanyahu bully
© Unknown
The US offered to give Israel advanced weaponry -- including bunker-busting bombs and refueling planes -- in exchange for Israel's agreement not to attack Iranian nuclear sites, Israeli newspaper Maariv reported Thursday.

President Obama reportedly made the offer during Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington this week.

Under the proposed deal, Israel would not attack Iran until 2013, after US elections in November this year. The newspaper cited unnamed Western diplomatic and intelligence sources.

Netanyahu said Monday that sanctions against Iran had not worked, adding that "none of us can afford to wait much longer" in taking action against Iran's controversial nuclear program.

However, Netanyahu told FOX News Channel on Wednesday that he did not think war with Iran was inevitable. He added that the only way to deter Tehran was to advocate carrying out a serious military strike against the Islamic Republic.

"The paradox is that if they actually believe that they are going to face the military option, then you probably will not need the military option," Netanyahu said.

No Entry

Huffington Post Caught Censoring Again, This Time On Syria

Let me be clear that this blogpost is not about sour grapes.

But the media cacophony on Syria has just become too shrill - reporters, too reluctant to raise obvious questions - to just sit back and let this one slide.

Especially when it is taking place under my nose at the place I have blogged for two and a half years. There's no other way to look at this: by refusing to publish all but one of my seven Syria articles, AOL-Huffington Post is censoring a viewpoint that challenges the dominant narratives on Syria in the mainstream media.

As all my articles were published without controversy in the period prior to AOL's purchase of the Huffington Post in early 2011, I can only surmise that AOL has established a new "editorial policy." In lieu of feedback from my editors as to why these articles remain unpublished, it isn't hard to conclude that the new company has altered course, and is more comfortable only nipping at the edges of the more irreverent blogosphere.

I have been blogging for the Huffington Post since September 2009, shortly after returning from a summer research tour through the Levant. Hanna Ingber, who recruited me as a blogger, was the founding World Editor of the Huffington Post. Hanna, who has since left the company, was particularly keen to have me write about my meetings and interviews with resistance groups Hezbollah and Hamas. I thought that was pretty ballsy for a US publication, online or not, and happily committed myself to bringing a fresh perspective on Mideast affairs to the pages of the Huffington Post.

Info

Pakistan Charges bin Laden's Wives

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© Getty ImagesThe ID card of one of Osama bin Laden's wives
Islamabad - Pakistan has charged Osama bin Laden's three widows with illegally entering and living in the country, the interior minister said Thursday.

The three women have been in Pakistani detention since May last year, when U.S. commandos raided the house where they, bin Laden and several of their children were staying. The commandos shot and killed bin Laden, and then buried his body at sea.

Rehman said the three had been charged in court, but he did not say when. It was unclear if they had a lawyer.

He said their children were free to leave Pakistan, but could stay with their mothers for the duration of the trial.

A Pakistani legal expert contacted about the case, Hashmat Habib, said the maximum punishment the women could receive was five years in jail. One of their relatives has reportedly visited Pakistan recently to urge authorities to let them leave the country. The decision to charge them could be a formal part of that process.

MIB

"Anonymous" Hurt by Arrests but Hard to Kill

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© Reuters/Yves Herman A protester wearing a Guy Fawkes mask, symbolic of the hacktivist group "Anonymous", takes part in a protest in central Brussels January 28, 2012.
UK: London - In turning one of its best-known hackers into an informant and breaking open the highest profile elements of the "Anonymous" movement, authorities have dealt a serious blow to a group they found a growing irritant.

But as the broader "Anonymous" label - complete with its iconic Guy Fawkes mask imagery - is used by ever more disparate causes worldwide, it may be all but impossible to shut it down for good.

U.S. authorities revealed on Wednesday that leading Anonymous hacker "Sabu" - real name Hector Xavier Monsegur, aged 28 - had been arrested last June in his apartment in a Manhattan housing complex.

According to a newly released court transcript, he agreed to cooperate with authorities in return for likely leniency - helping U.S. prosecutors bring charges against five more men, including two in Britain and two in Ireland. All had also been previously arrested.

"Sabu was seen as a leader," said Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer of Finnish security firm f-secure. "Just yesterday people were looking up to him... it's a very serious blow. It's probably not going to be the end of Anonymous but it's going to take a while for them to recover, particularly from the paranoia."

Laptop

Hackers Group Anonymous Take Down Vatican Website

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The Italian branch of the hackers group Anonymous took down the Vatican's website on Wednesday, saying it was an attack on the Roman Catholic Church's scandals and conservative doctrine.

The Vatican website www.vatican.va was inaccessible. A spokesman said he could not confirm that the crash was the work of the hackers group but said technicians were working to bring it back up.

A statement on the Italian website of the loosely-knit cyber-activists group accused the Church of being responsible for a long list of misdeeds throughout history, including the selling of indulgences in the 16th century and burning heretics during the Inquisition.