Puppet MastersS


USA

US Marines deliberately shoot dead four-year-old Afghan boy in 'peaceful' Helmand

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Psychopathic child killers
US troops in Afghanistan have shot and killed a young child in Helmand province, leading to a fresh rebuke from President Karzai just as America is trying to persuade him to allow Western forces to stay in the country after the end of this year.

As the stand-off over a long-term security pact continues, The Times has learnt that the boy, aged about 4, was fatally wounded after an incident involving US Marines in Nad-e Ali district on Tuesday.

It was unclear what led to the shooting. Civilians are often caught in the cross-fire between insurgents and foreign troops but there were claims last night that the area was peaceful and the only shots fired were at the child.

Officials from the Kabul headquarters of the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force confirmed that the child had been killed and said the incident was under investigation.

Heart - Black

GWB scandal: Christie 'stunned by abject stupidity,' fires aide for engineered GWB traffic jams. Sidesteps criticism, says 'I Am Not A Bully'

Gov. Chris Christie apologized Thursday for the "abject stupidity" of his staff, insisting he had no idea anyone around him had engineered traffic jams as retribution against the mayor of Fort Lee.


Christie said he fired Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Anne Kelly "because she lied to me" when he demanded weeks ago that anyone who knew anything about the episode come forward.

The governor arrived at Fort Lee's municipal building shortly after 4 p.m. to apologize in person to Mayor Mark Sokolich. Christie met with Sokolich, the mayor's wife and son for about 40 minutes, CBS 2′s Tony Aiello reported.

Bad Guys

GWB scandal: How Chris Christie Can Save His Career: Transparency and accountability

Chris Christie
© Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
Transparency and accountability would transcend politics of today.

Since 1992, when Bill Clinton moderated the Democratic Party's image by criticizing a hip-hop artist for her racially incendiary comments, politicians have searched for their "Sister Souljah moment" - when a candidate takes what appears to be a brave stand against extremes in their party.

In 2000, George W. Bush caricaturized conservative jurist Robert Bork in an attempt to appear more compassionate than the GOP brand. That same year, Republican presidential candidate John McCain demonized the far right's "agents of intolerance." Eight years later, Sen. Barack Obama distanced himself from his own pastor, calling Jeremiah Wright's racially charged comments "a bunch of rants that aren't grounded in the truth."

The sordid George Washington Bridge scandal offers Chris Christie two choices: Continue to deny, deflect and dissemble in a manner that is so common in the politics of today, and most recently exhibited by President Obama during a spate of controversies in 2013; or ... pull a Super Sister Souljah.

Heart - Black

Christie GWB scandal: Woman dies after slow EMS response. Staffers shut lanes at GWB in apparent act of political retribution


The governor said all he can do now is apologize.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said the reports that a 91-year-old woman died due to an EMS delay caused by traffic from the closure of four lanes on the George Washington Bridge last September were "awful."

On Thursday, Christie said he had no knowledge of a staffer's plan to shut down lanes on the heavily trafficked bridge - in an apparent act of political retribution - after emails emerged showing top aides were involved in the lane closures.

Heart - Black

Christie GWB scandal: Woman dies after EMS responses delayed by GWB lane closures in Fort Lee

GWB
© Google MapsFrom Sept. 9-12, 2013, local access to the George Washington Bridge toll plaza from Fort Lee was changed from three lanes to one lane. This caused extensive traffic problems in Fort Lee that lasted until noon.
Emergency responders were delayed in attending to four medical situations - including one in which a 91-year-old woman lay unconscious - due to traffic gridlock caused by unannounced closures of access lanes to the George Washington Bridge, according to the head of the borough's EMS department.

The woman later died, borough records show.

In at least two of those instances, response time doubled, noted EMS coordinator Paul Favia, who documented those cases in a Sept. 10 letter to Mayor Mark Sokolich, which The Record obtained.

No Entry

UPDATE! French appeals court overturns lower court's revocation of government's ban on Dieudonné's stand-up comedy tour... minutes before first show due to commence

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Top French court upholds original ban on Dieudonné M'bala M'bala after lower court ruled performance could go ahead


A top French court has upheld a ban on the opening night show of Dieudonné M'bala M'bala, a comedian who is known by his stage name Dieudonné and whom the government accuses of insulting the memory of Holocaust victims, according to the text of its ruling.

Critics say the comic's trademark straight-arm gesture is a Nazi salute in reverse. Dieudonné, 46, says it is anti-Zionist and anti-establishment, but not antisemitic. He has been repeatedly fined for hate speech.

The French interior minister, Manuel Valls, had been leading the effort to stop the comedian's national tour but a lower court overturned the ban earlier on Thursday. Valls immediately appealed against the ruling.

Judges in the Council of State, France's highest administrative court, decided on Thursday to maintain the ban on the comedian performing the first night of his national tour in the western city of Nantes, despite a challenge by his lawyers saying his freedom of expression had been breached.

Source: Reuters

Comment: Further Updates

***

18:45 CET

French riot police are positioned at the Conseil d'État at the Palais du Justice in Paris in anticipation of supporters of Dieudonné protesting there.

20:00 CET

It's interesting to note that the Council of State is France's Supreme Court, but unlike the Supreme Court in the US, where permanent members adjudicate cases that bring up constitutional issues, France's Supreme Court has several functions, including as 'legal advisor' to the government. In this role, it is presided over by the Prime Minister, the Vice-President and other members of the government.

In upholding the French government's ban, the Conseil d'État functioned as an appellate court, and was composed of just one judge, Bernard Stirn, great-grand-nephew of Alfred Dreyfus.

20:10 CET

According to Dieudonné's Facebook page, this decision has been handed down at the very last minute. Thousands of spectators are already at the venue, Dieudonné is inside and has asked to be allowed outside to address the crowd but the police won't let him. The authorities are requesting that people return to their homes and Dieudonné has also pleaded with them to remain calm and sing the Marseillaise...

20:20 CET

Dieudonné is now also asking that people to return to their homes following reports that violence has broken out...

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Spoiling for a fight: The French govt mobilized hundreds of militarized police to 'ensure' public order
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Thousands of spectators were disappointed to learn that the French govt has no sense of humor
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20:30 CET

In another Facebook update, Dieudonné has again asked people to calmly leave the scene, explaining that a violent confrontation is what the government is looking for:
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22:30 CET

Dieudonné fans left the Zenith arena in Nantes peacefully, chanting the Marseillaise. The comedian is set to release a video message via his YouTube channel tomorrow, 10th January 2013.



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Dieudonne's friend and colleague, French Jewish comedian 'Jacky', explains the situation to the waiting fans.



Arrow Down

Military interventions are ordered by Corporates not politicians/Governments

It is time the world realized that the West's politicians are mere political stooges placed as nominees for elections by a handful of global corporates and a transnational ruling class who use them to invisibly rule the world.
"Corporations have taken over the government and turned it against its own people." Ralph Nader
US Marines
© Wikimedia Commons

'Direct investment' has been redefined and it is this direct directive by corporates that has forced Western political leaders to advocate military interventions of the immoral and unethical nature we see unfolding before us. All these compilations of war crimes, abuses etc are nothing but a sham to give a touch of 'we did justice' to the injustice taking place. The fact is military interventions are happening primarily for the economic interests of not the country invading by the corporate lobbyists who are waiting to land and plunder invaded nations. It is not foreign invasion it is corporate invasion that is taking place and national leaders/governments are getting eliminated for standing in the way of that quest.

Iraq was a neoliberal invasion - so too have been all the countries that have fallen before and after Iraq. If it is not oil, it is some other 'monetary' interest that leads to the declaration of 'war' without any provocation. What happens thereafter is removal of restrictions to foreign ownership and trade, contracts given to foreign corporations to develop this that and the other. The smokescreens are 'production sharing agreements' where governments own the oil but the development of the oil field, the pumping, refining, shipping are all done by the foreign companies. It is simply draining out everything that should belong to the country and its people.

American corporates NOT America or its people have secured the world's second largest oil reserves which belonged to Iraq! This was why Bush immediately announced after the invasion of a Middle East Free Trade Area to spread the economic invasion to the rest of the region by 2013. That has happened through the Arab Springs! When Bush said he would 'counter terror with trade' it was a giveaway. The war plan was prepared by US consultancy firm Bearing Point Inc - which received $250millon contract to make Iraq's economic infrastructure!

The plan was to fire entire Iraqi military (500,000), so that many of these jobless would take to guns and start an insurgency, which happened according to plan. 120,000 of Iraq's senior bureaucrats were fired throughout government, schools and even hospitals, new laws reduced taxes on all corporations by 25% to open up for foreign investment and these firms were allowed to own 100% of Iraqi businesses as opposed to partnership framework, corporates could send their entire profits home without investing a cent in Iraq. More than 150 US companies won contracts in Iraq worth over $50billion. There was no law to state foreign companies had to hire Iraqis - so these firms imported foreign workers! What resulted were the Iraqis turning against the new invaders who came in as 'liberators'. Whats more new laws entitled foreigners to buy land in Iraq that are now exclusive holiday homes for foreigners - is it difficult to picture what Iraq would look like in time to come?

Che Guevara

French court overturns government's ban on comedian Dieudonne's sold-out tour

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Une quenelle pour Manuel Valls
A French court has overturned a ban on a show by controversial comic Dieudonne M'bala M'bala due to be performed on Thursday night.

The show in the city of Nantes will open Dieudonne's tour.

He has seven convictions for anti-Semitic hate speech and was recently recorded making anti-Semitic remarks about a Jewish journalist.

Interior Minister Manuel Valls has said he will appeal to the Council of State, France's highest administrative court.

The court's decision "has not exhausted legal options" in the case, Mr Valls said. The Council of State is reportedly due to give a decision at 17:00 on Thursday (16:00 GMT), with the possibility that the show may yet be prevented from going ahead.

Comment: Dieudonné's lawyer: "It's a victory for Dieudonné, he will perform tonight - January 9th 2014 - in Nantes."




Light Sabers

Greece begins EU presidency - Criticizes austerity, spending cuts and fiscal policy of Berlin and Brussels

Greece EU presidency
© Alkis Konstantinidis/EPAGreece has begun its six-month presidency of the European Union. Finance minister Yannis Stournaras said Greece does not want to have any more fiscal conditionality
Greece kicked off six months in charge of the European Union on Wednesday declaring that the imposition of austerity, spending cuts and fiscal policy by Berlin and Brussels could no longer be tolerated.

Coinciding with a growing backlash across the EU against the austerity policies mainly scripted in Berlin, the start of Greece's EU presidency reinforced the isolation of German chancellor Angela Merkel, who has dominated the policy response to the EU crisis for the past four years.

Following four years at the sharpest end of Europe's debt and currency crisis and €250bn in bailout funds, the Greek government declared enough was enough.

Evil Rays

Jacob Appelbaum: Everyone knows the NSA is spying on everyone, but did you know they conduct targeted beaming?

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Jacob Appelbaum
Security researcher Jacob Appelbaum revealed what he calls "wrist-slitting depressing" details about the National Security Agency's spy programs at a computer conference in Germany on Monday where he presented previously unpublished NSA files.

Appelbaum is among the small group of experts, activists and journalists who have seen classified United States intelligence documents taken earlier this year by former contractor Edward Snowden, and previously he represented transparency group WikiLeaks at an American hacker conference in 2010. Those conditions alone should suffice in proving to most anybody that Appelbaum has been around more than his fair share of sensitive information, and during his presentation at the thirtieth annual Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg on Monday he spilled his guts about some of the shadiest spy tactics seen yet through leaked documents.

Presenting in-tandem with the publishing of an article in Germany's Der Spiegel magazine, Appelbaum explained to the audience of his hour-long "To Protect and Infect" address early Monday that the NSA has secretly sabotaged US businesses by covertly - and perhaps sometimes with the cooperation of the tech industry - coming up with ways to exploit vulnerabilities in the products sold by major American companies, including Dell and Apple, among others.

Comment: If you want to skip the details about how they're spying/storing data, fast-forward to the 5-10 mins in the video, where you'll learn what 'conspiracy theorists' have been saying for decades.

Next time someone hits you with, 'that's crazy tin-foil hat talk!', send them a link to this article.

See also:

Snowden ally Applebaum says his Berlin apartment subject to raids