Puppet MastersS


Brick Wall

US Jewish leaders criticise Israeli West Bank report that denies occupation

Amy Teibel
The Independent
Mon, 16 Jul 2012 18:04 UTC
Dozens of American Jewish leaders and scholars have made a rare appeal to Isreali Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, asking him to make sure his government rejects a controversial report that denies Israel is occupying the West Bank.

In a letter to Netanyahu, more than 40 prominent Jewish figures predicted the report authored by former Supreme Court Justice Edmond Levy would tarnish Israel's image and jeopardize prospects for peace with the Palestinians.

"We recognize and regret that the Palestinian Authority has abdicated leadership by not returning to the negotiating table," they wrote in the letter, obtained today by The Associated Press. "Nonetheless, our great fear is that the Levy Report will not strengthen Israel's position in this conflict, but rather, add fuel to those who seek to delegitimize Israel's right to exist."

Comment:
"The question is whether or not it is wise for Israel at this particular juncture to take a stand which would appear to most people to be the equivalent of annexing the West Bank," making Israel appear to be the obstructionist party in peace efforts, Gordis told The Associated Press.
Oh, maybe it would appear that they are annexing the West Bank because that is precisely what they are doing? Isn't the whole point of the illegal settlements to steal the land one small piece at a time until it becomes impossible for Palestinians to make any claims that can be realistically fulfilled?

Notice that the concern of these US Jewish leaders is entirely about the reputation of Israel, and has absolutely nothing to do with justice or recognizing the right of the Palestinian people to have a homeland.

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Bad Guys

Paraguay 'Coup' an Outside job?


RT
Fri, 13 Jul 2012 17:05 UTC
The democratically-elected leader of Paraguay was voted out of power by a mostly right-wing parliament after a brief trial. Many believe it was a coup, largely orchestrated from outside, while the president's successor is trying to validate the move.


­The ousting of President Fernando Lugo triggered domestic outrage as well as criticism from Paraguay's neighbors. Latin American free trade groups Mercosur and Unasur have suspended the country's membership, increasing its international isolation.
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Whistle

Former Monsanto Employee Exposes Fraud

Sarah Damian
Common Dreams
Sat, 14 Jul 2012 16:15 UTC
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© commondreams.org
This week the Food Nation Radio Network interviewed former Monsanto employee Kirk Azevedo about his concerns with the leading biotech company's practices, a timely interview as the battle over genetically engineered (GE) food regulation continues on a state, national, and international scale.

Azevedo graduated with a biochemistry degree from California Polytechnic State University and started working for the chemical industry doing research on Bt (or Bacillus thuringiensis) pesticides. Around 1996, he became a local market manager for Monsanto, serving as a facilitator for GE crops for the western states. He explained to Food Nation Radio how he had assumed that California cotton that was genetically engineered for herbicide resistance could be marketed as conventional California cotton (to get the California premium) since the only difference between the two, he believed, was the gene Monsanto wanted in the crop. However, one of Monsanto's Ph.D. researchers informed Azevedo that "there's actually other proteins that are being produced, not just the one we want, as a byproduct of genetic engineering process." This concerned Azevedo, who had also been studying protein diseases (including prion diseases such as mad cow disease) and knew proteins could be toxic. When he told his colleague they needed to destroy the seeds from the GE crop so that they aren't fed to cattle, the other researcher said that Monsanto isn't going to stop doing what it's been doing everywhere else.

Azevedo recalls his disillusionment:
I saw what was really the fraud associated with genetic engineering: My impression, and I think most people's impression with genetically engineered foods and crops and other things is that it's just like putting one gene in there and that one gene is expressed. If that was the case, well then that's not so bad. But in reality, the process of genetic engineering changes the cell in such a way that it's unknown what the effects are going to be.
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Boat

U.S. Navy Fires on Fishing Boat Near UAE; 1 Killed

Amena Bakr and Phil Stewart
Reuters
Mon, 16 Jul 2012 02:40 UTC
One person was killed and three others injured on Monday when a U.S. Navy ship fired at an approaching fishing boat off the United Arab Emirates, but officials did not immediately blame terrorism or cite an Iran-link to the still-murky incident.

Image
© Reuters/MC3 Cale Hatch/US Navy/HandoutThe U.S. Navy supply ship USNS Rappahannock maintains station as it prepares a replenishment at sea in this U.S. Navy photo handout photo taken in the South China Sea March 21, 2012.
Why the boat approached the U.S. refuel ling ship, the USNS Rappahannock, was still unclear, U.S. officials said. But the U.S. Navy said the small motor boat ignored repeated warnings to halt its approach before a security team fired rounds from a .50-caliber machine gun.

Even small boats dwarfed by the size of the U.S. vessel can still pose a threat. Two suicide bombers rammed an explosives-laden boat into the USS Cole in 2000, blowing a massive hole in its side and killing 17 U.S. sailors.

But the incident was also reminder of how quickly a confrontation can turn deadly in the Gulf, where tensions with Iran have triggered military buildup by the United States and its allies.

Those killed and injured in Monday's incident were not Iranians and it was unclear whether the incident may have been a mere misunderstanding. The UAE state news agency, quoting a government official, identified all of the dead and wounded as Indian nationals.

The shooting took place in the waters near the UAE port of Jebel Ali, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command said in a statement.

"The U.S. crew repeatedly attempted to warn the vessel's operators to turn away from their deliberate approach," it said, adding the incident was under investigation.
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Footprints

Bill Gates donates £6.4m grant to British scientists for GM crops


Dailymail
Mon, 16 Jul 2012 13:25 UTC
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© APLarge investment: The Gates Foundation has donated a £6.4million grant to develop genetically modified crops in the UK.
British scientists have won a £6.4million grant from Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates to develop genetically modified crops. The Gates Foundation's donation is one of the largest single investments to the GM project in the UK.

The John Innes Centre in Norwich will use the fund to cultivate corn, wheat and rice capable of taking nitrogen from the air, meaning they need little or no fertiliser.

It is claimed the work will benefit struggling maize farmers in sub-Saharan Africa who cannot afford to treat their crops.

Comment: For a more in depth look at GM crops and how dangerous they are for our health and wellness read the following articles:

Genetically Modified Crops Cause Liver and Kidney Damage

The Public is Proved Right: GM crops are no panacea

Exposed: the great GM crops myth

GM crops 'may give lower yields'

Latest GMO Research: Decreased Fertility, Immunological Alterations and Allergies

Chinese consumers wary of GMO food: Greenpeace

The GM genocide: Thousands of Indian farmers are committing suicide after using genetically modified crops

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Bad Guys

Chart Shows The Bilderberg Group's Connection To Everything In The World

Ashley Lutz
Business Insider
Mon, 16 Jul 2012 07:57 UTC
The Bilderberg Group is 120-140 powerful people who meet each year to discuss policy. The meetings are closed to the public.

This graph we found on Facebook shows the members' connections to a ton of corporations, charities, policy groups and media. Everyone from Eric Schmidt to George Soros is a member. There are tons of conspiracy theories about the group, including that they control the world economy.

We took the findings with a grain of salt--after all, it's easy to trace an individual to a corporation and the graph doesn't specify what influence the member wielded.

But perhaps it's a compelling argument for why the meetings should be public.

Comment: What neither the chart nor Business Insider explain is that the vast majority of these companies and front organisations are cross-owned by the same few tiny clusters of shareholders.

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Footprints

6 Corporations Control 90% Of The Media In America

Ashley Lutz
Business Insider
Mon, 16 Jul 2012 07:49 UTC
This infographic created by Jason at Frugal Dad shows that almost all media comes from the same six sources.

That's consolidated from 50 companies back in 1983.

NOTE: This infographic is from last year and is missing some key transactions. GE does not own NBC (or Comcast or any media) anymore. So that 6th company is now Comcast. And Time Warner doesn't own AOL, so Huffington Post isn't affiliated with them.
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Dollar

From Iceland to Ireland: Two paths to financial recovery?

Dan Hind
Al Jazeera
Mon, 16 Jul 2012 07:30 UTC
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© UnknownDue to public pressure, Icelandic prime minister Geir Haarde (R) was tried and convicted for negligence because of his role in the economic crisis [EPA].
London, United Kingdom - This is a tale of two countries. One of them, Iceland, has a population of around 320,000 people. That's about as many people as live in Lubbock, Texas. The other, the Republic of Ireland, is a fair bit bigger, with a population of 4.6 million. That's about as many as live in South Carolina.

In the years before 2008, both countries had been hosts to unsustainable real estate and consumer booms. And in both countries a lightly regulated financial sector ran out of control. Iceland's big three banks - Glitnir, Kaupthing and Landsbanki - had lent out more than US $200 billion, eleven times the country's GDP. Ireland's banks were holding assets of around seven times GDP on their books. Much of the money had been lent abroad.

When the financial crisis hit in the last months of 2008 the two countries reacted very differently. Iceland's former prime minister, Davio Oddsson, explained that the recently privatised banks had been 'a little heedless' and the state wasn't going to bail them out. Domestic deposits were protected but the government refused to take responsibility for vast bulk of the losses. In Ireland, on the other hand, the government transformed a banking crisis into a sovereign debt crisis. Politicians decided that the banks were too big to fail and spared no expense in their efforts to save them.
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2 + 2 = 4

The Illusion of Choice

Ashley Lutz
Articles.businessinsider.com
Wed, 25 Apr 2012 06:39 UTC
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© Reddit
A chart we found on Reddit.com today shows that most products we buy are controlled by just a few companies. It's called "The Illusion of Choice."

Ever wonder why you can't get a Coke at Taco Bell? It's because Yum! Brands was created as a spin-off of Pepsi--and has a lifetime contract with the soda-maker.
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Megaphone

Best of the Web: The Syrian opposition: who's doing the talking?

Charlie Skelton
The Guardian
Thu, 12 Jul 2012 02:10 UTC
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© ReutersThe director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdulrahman, speaks on the phone in his home in Coventry on December 6, 2011.

The media have been too passive when it comes to Syrian opposition sources, without scrutinising their backgrounds and their political connections. Time for a closer look ...

A nightmare is unfolding across Syria, in the homes of al-Heffa and the streets of Houla. And we all know how the story ends: with thousands of soldiers and civilians killed, towns and families destroyed, and President Assad beaten to death in a ditch.

This is the story of the Syrian war, but there is another story to be told. A tale less bloody, but nevertheless important. This is a story about the storytellers: the spokespeople, the "experts on Syria", the "democracy activists". The statement makers. The people who "urge" and "warn" and "call for action".

It's a tale about some of the most quoted members of the Syrian opposition and their connection to the Anglo-American opposition creation business. The mainstream news media have, in the main, been remarkably passive when it comes to Syrian sources: billing them simply as "official spokesmen" or "pro-democracy campaigners" without, for the most part, scrutinising their statements, their backgrounds or their political connections.

Comment: NATO preparing vast disinformation campaign against Syria

Syria's Bloody CIA Revolution - A Distraction?

NATO's 'Civil War' Machine Rolls Into Syria

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