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Anger at Americans' global surveillance program: NSA leak might lead to cancellation of Brazil state visit

Tim Johnson and Vinod Sreeharsha
McClatchy
Tue, 03 Sep 2013 11:59 UTC
Dilma Rousseff
© Marcello Casal Jr/Fama News/Abaca PressBrazilian President Dilma Rousseff
Revelations of a U.S. spy program that allegedly allows digital surveillance of the presidents of Brazil and Mexico have drawn cries of indignation and anger in both nations, but the fallout may be strongest for U.S.-Brazil relations.

At stake is whether Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff will cancel a planned state visit to Washington in October, the first offered by President Barack Obama this year, or will take action on digital security that may affect U.S. companies such as Google, Facebook and Yahoo.

Brazil's O Globo television network reported Sunday night that the National Security Agency had spied on the emails, telephone calls and text messages of Rousseff and President Enrique Pena Nieto of Mexico. The report was based on documents obtained by journalist Glenn Greenwald, who lives in Rio de Janeiro, from Edward Snowden, a fugitive former NSA contractor who's living in Moscow.

Comment:

Latin America condemns U.S. espionage at United Nations Security Council
Miranda's rights: how Europe can learn from Latin America's independence

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Cult

Hollande announces France will wait for UN report on chemical weapons in Syria


RFI
Fri, 06 Sep 2013 11:55 UTC
Hollande
© Reutesr/Kenzo TribouillardFrench President François Hollande
French President François Hollande said he is waiting for the report by UN inspectors on the use of chemical weapons in Syria.

"We will wait for the report from inspectors while we wait for the US Congress [to make a decision]" said Hollande at the end of the two-day G20 meeting in St Petersburg, Russia.

His announcement comes amidst efforts by France and the US to garner support to prepare for military action in Syria following the use of chemical weapons that killed more than 1400 people.

He added that the UN report will only confirm if chemical weapons were indeed used, but not who used them. Both Paris and Washington maintain they have proof that chemical weapons were used by Bashar al-Assad's regime.

The French president acknowledged that the G20 made evident the rift between the member states with regards to the use of chemical weapons in the Syria.

"The report by the UN inspectors should ideally be delivered as soon as possible, which would be much appreciated by everyone" added Hollande.
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Light Saber

American generals stand between war and peace

Wayne Madsen
Veterans Today
Wed, 04 Sep 2013 11:29 UTC
obama + Rhodes
© LibertyNews.comPresident Obama with his Deputy National Security Adviser Benjamin Rhodes planning the next bloodbath
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States, General Martin Dempsey, backed by his Joint Staff generals and admirals, stood between a hasty and knee-jerk President Obama who was intent on launching a military attack on Syria and a tenuous peace in the Middle East.

As of the evening of Friday, August 29, President Obama was on track to launch a sustained 72-hour cruise missile and drone attack on pre-selected air defense and other strategic military targets in Syria.

Obama had been convinced by his national security adviser Susan Rice, UN ambassador Samantha Power, and deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes, all «Responsibility to Protect» advocates, that he could trump congressional approval for his attack by claiming that humanitarian operations do not require approval under the War Powers Resolution or Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution.Rhodes, who lacks any military experience, as is also the case with Rice and Power, is in his position because of his family ties. Rhodes's brother, David Rhodes, formerly an executive with Fox News, is the president of CBS News. In addition, the brother of Obama's special adviser, Dr. Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, is Ben Sherwood, President of ABC News. Power is married to Obama's former «information czar» Cass Sunstein, who developed methods to combat information unfriendly to the president through campaigns of «cognitive dissonance».
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Gold Bar

Fort Knox vault: The biggest government lie in history?

Louis Basenese
Wall Street Daily
Tue, 16 Jul 2013 10:52 UTC
fort knox
What lies within the walls of Fort Knox?
Welcome to the world's most secure vault...

Completed in 1936, it's encased in 16,000 cubic feet of granite and 4,200 cubic yards of cement.

The vault door weighs an astounding 22 tons and is made of a 21-inch-thick material that's resistant to drills, torches and explosives.

It comes with a bombproof roof, too.

Additional layers of physical security include: video cameras, minefields, barbed wire, electric fences, armed guards - even unmarked Apache helicopter gunships.

Oh, and it's stationed on a 109,000-acre U.S. army post.

So what's inside?

Comment: Read also:

Revealed: why Gordon Brown sold Britain's gold at a knock-down price
Counterfeit gold bars discovered in New York City
Ron Paul calls Congressional Hearing to demand full audit of US gold

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Gold Coins

Flashback Revealed: Why Gordon Brown sold Britain's gold at a knock-down price

Thomas Pascoe
The Telegraph
Thu, 05 Jul 2012 10:40 UTC
gold bars
Britain's gold reserves were sold at a ludicrously low price
A great deal of Gordon Brown's economic strategy would strike a sane man as troubling. Not a great deal was mysterious. The orgy of consumption spending, frequent extensions of the cycle over which he would "borrow to invest", proclamations of the "end of boom and bust": these are part of the armoury of modern politicians, of all political hues.

One decision stands out as downright bizarre, however: the sale of the majority of Britain's gold reserves for prices between $256 and $296 an ounce, only to watch it soar so far as $1,615 per ounce today.

When Brown decided to dispose of almost 400 tonnes of gold between 1999 and 2002, he did two distinctly odd things.
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Megaphone

US State Department orders diplomats out of Lebanon


Press TV
Fri, 06 Sep 2013 10:39 UTC
Department of state
© Unknown
The US State Department on Friday ordered non- emergency embassy staff in the Lebanese capital Beirut to leave the country amid security concerns due to a possible US-led military strike on neighboring Syria.

The State Department warned Americans to avoid all travel to Lebanon due to what it described as the high risk of violence around Lebanon's border with Syria.

"The potential in Lebanon for a spontaneous upsurge in violence remains," the department said.

"The ongoing conflict in Syria has also resulted in numerous security incidents between the border regions between Lebanon and Syria and coincides with an increasing number of security incidents around the country."

The department also cautioned that "the ability of US government personnel to reach travelers or provide emergency services may be severely limited."
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Gold Bar

Flashback Counterfeit gold bars discovered in New York City

Vignesh Ramachandran
NBCNews.com
Wed, 19 Sep 2012 10:31 UTC
counterfeit gold bars
© Pascal Lauener / ReutersSophisticated counterfeit manufacturers purchase real gold bars like these, hollow them out and fill them with cheaper tungsten.
Jewelry merchants in New York City are finding out they have to be more careful that they're not inadvertently buying fake gold.

The issue of counterfeit gold is re-emerging after a reputable merchant in Manhattan discovered he'd bought $100,000 worth of fake gold bars, WNYW reported.

When merchant Ibrahim Fadl drilled into several of the gold bars he'd bought from a regular source, he discovered they were actually filled with gray tungsten.

Whoever is making the fake gold bars seems to be running a complex operation.

"I can't imagine how they cut the bar clean, and cut, and took everything inside out and left the shell to fit the tungsten in," Fadl told NY1 News.
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Propaganda

Why is the BBC banging the war drum in Syria? Just look who runs it!


Scriptonite Daily
Tue, 03 Sep 2013 09:37 UTC
who runs bbc
The BBC flagship news programmes, news channel, online news service and radio news outlets have spent several days in constant hysteria about the probability of a second vote on Syria, after parliament rejected military intervention last week. Why is the BBC obsessively attempting to answer a question only they are asking? A look at the interests and characters running the organisation help explain their seemingly rabid hunger for war.

Who Runs the BBC?

The BBC Trust is responsible for granting licenses to all BBC outlets and stations, managing value for money on license fee payments and 'the direction of BBC editorial and creative output'. The Trust consists of 12 Trustees and is headed by Lord Patten.
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Penis Pump

Saudis' big push to equip rebels before airstrikes

Hugh Tomlinson
The Times
Fri, 06 Sep 2013 07:30 UTC
Syrian refugees
© Galiya Gubaeva/UNHCRRefugees are pouring over the border into Iraqi Kurdistan

The CIA is supervising fresh weapons consignments from Saudi Arabia and other Arab states to Syria's rebels to help them to capitalise on a US bombing offensive that could start next week.

Free Syrian Army co-ordinators in the Gulf say they are in urgent talks with Arab states to secure fresh shipments of anti-tank weapons, surface-to-air missiles and conventional small arms. With American air cover, the rebels are intent on taking advantage of the first period of air superiority they have had during the 30-month conflict.

One Syrian opposition representative said: "We are talking to our Arab allies and working on the Syrian border to get this done. This is a one-off opportunity and we have to make it count."

Security sources in the Gulf confirmed the Saudi plans, which are being co-ordinated with Qatar, Turkey and Jordan and overseen by the CIA.

Comment: The autocratic and medieval great democratic kingdom of Saudi Arabia spreading death and destruction freedom and democracy to Syria along with its allies, the CIA, al-qaeda, al-nusra and a plethora of mercenary groups.

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Pumpkin

Putin is a tosser, says outspoken Tory MP in a tissy

Philippe Naughton, and Francis Elliott
The Times
Fri, 06 Sep 2013 07:07 UTC
Putin and Cameron
© Grigory Dukor/ReutersVladimir Putin welcomes David Cameron to the St Petersburg summit


A Tory MP was sticking to his guns today after calling President Putin a "tosser" during the G20 summit.

Henry Smith, the outspoken MP for Crawley, made the spectacularly undiplomatic comment on Twitter after reports that Mr Putin's spokesman had called Britain "just a small island" to which nobody paid any attention.

"Putin really is a tosser," he wrote.

Asked to defend the remark by his local newspaper, the Crawley News, Mr Smith explained that he had been constrained by Twitter's 140-character limit -- even though he actually had 115 characters left unused.

"Trying to get a serious point across in 140 characters is always a bit of a challenge," he said, "but I really think there is a serious point here, that the Putin regime in Russia breaches human rights in its own country and it is prolonging he suffering of the Syrian people by refusing to act.

"The way he is insulting our country at the G20 summit is unacceptable. He is just this absurd character who is responsible for some serious breaches of human rights.


Comment: Putin's crime is demanding evidence, so instead of looking a fool because no evidence is there, then better attack the person and resort to name calling.


Comment: And not to forget: A nation steep in war crimes and built on pillage from colonial rape and plunder. Something that only benefited the British aristocracy as the general population were kept the working poor.

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