Puppet MastersS


Vader

Libya in anarchy two years after NATO Humanitarian Liberation

Libyan thugs
© Unknown

In 2011 when Muhammar Qaddafi refused to leave quietly as ruler of Libya, the Obama Administration, hiding behind the skirts of the French, launched a ferocious bombing campaign and a "No Fly" zone over the country to aid the so-called fighters for democracy. The US lied to Russia and China with help of the (US-friendly) Gulf Cooperation Council about the Security Council Resolution on Libya and used it to illegally justify the war. The doctrine, "responsibility to protect" was used instead, the same doctrine Obama wants to use in Syria. It's useful to look at Libya two years after the NATO humanitarian intervention.

Nuke

New leaks reported at Japan's Fukushima plant

Fukushima nuclear staff
© EPAStaff of Japan's nuclear regulator near storage tanks for radioactive water at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant.
New radioactive water leaks have been reported at Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant.

The operator of the plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), said on Thursday that Japanese technicians found the new leak of radioactive water in one of the storage tanks of the broken nuclear power station late on Wednesday.

TEPCO added that that contaminated water may have flown into the Pacific Ocean.
The contaminated water "went into the drain and we cannot deny the possibility of it having reached the ocean," said TEPCO official Masayuki Ono on Thursday.
TEPCO said 430 liters (100 gallons) of the toxic water had leaked from the 450-ton tank because of recent heavy rainfall.

"Workers were storing water very close to tanks' capacity because of the volume of typhoon rainfall," Ono said. "As a result, the water overflowed and leaked outside the gutter."

The incident is another setback for the troubled clean-up process at the crippled nuclear power plant.

Bad Guys

Gunmen attack Russian embassy in Libya's Tripoli

Attack on Russian embassy in Libya
© RuptlyVideo still from Ruptly’s exclusive footage shows the Russian Embassy in Tripoli, Libya after an attack by unknown militants on October 2, 2013.
The Russian embassy in Tripoli, Libya, came under fire and there were attempts to get into Russia's diplomatic compound, Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. One of the attackers was killed.

"There has been an incident in Tripoli tonight, in which there was shelling and attempts to enter the territory of the Russian embassy in this country," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Aleksandr Lukashevich told RT.

Libyan authorities say one assailant was killed. Four others were injured, AP reported. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, there were no injuries among embassy staff.

The ITAR-TASS news agency's witnesses said attackers tore down a Russian flag. The situation was soon brought under control and there are currently no intruders on Russia's embassy territory.

According to reports, around 10 attackers drove to the embassy in two cars. Libyan News Agency (LANA) reports that they first opened fire on a parked diplomatic vehicle.

A video still from Ruptly's exclusive footage shows a car burning in an almost deserted street outside the embassy.

USA

Washington: insanity made simple

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What is going on in Washington, why are the Republicans in Congress acting in what would appear to be such a suicidal fashion?

I think I have found the answer in Mark Leibovich's "This Town", a book which I have mentioned repeatedly in recent posts.

Cutting directly to the chase: what Leibovich makes clear is that being a senator or congressman, instead of being the high point of person's career, is merely the necessary qualification, or apprenticeship, for moving up to become a millionaire lobbyist. Really it is that simple. It is called the "revolving door".

In short, not to worry, if any elected representative should happen to commit political "suicide" in a way that pleases the money, he will soon reincarnate as a successful lobbyist.

Handcuffs

FBI seizes 'Silk Road' black market domain, arrests owner

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© Reuters / Thomas Peter
Authorities have arrested a man in San Francisco, California accused of operating an underground website that allowed users to purchase guns and drugs from around the world using encrypted, digital currency.

Ross William Ulbricht, a 29-year-old graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Materials Science and Engineering known by the online alias "Dread Pirate Roberts," was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday for his alleged involvement in the Silk Road online marketplace, according to court papers published this week.

The Silk Road website was shut down following Ulbricht's arrest on Tuesday.

A sealed complaint dated September 27 was unearthed by security researcher Brian Krebs, in which Ulbricht is accused of narcotics trafficking conspiracy, computer hacking conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and more.

Complaint, courtesy of Brian Krebs


USA

If It Happened There ... the Government Shutdown

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This is the first installment of "If It Happened There," a regular feature in which American events are described using the tropes and tone normally employed by the American media to describe events in other countries.

Washington, United States - The typical signs of state failure aren't evident on the streets of this sleepy capital city. Beret-wearing colonels have not yet taken to the airwaves to declare martial law. Money-changers are not yet buying stacks of useless greenbacks on the street.

But the pleasant autumn weather disguises a government teetering on the brink. Because, at midnight Monday night, the government of this intensely proud and nationalistic people will shut down, a drastic sign of political dysfunction in this moribund republic.

The capital's rival clans find themselves at an impasse, unable to agree on a measure that will allow the American state to carry out its most basic functions. While the factions have come close to such a shutdown before, opponents of President Barack Obama's embattled regime now appear prepared to allow the government to be shuttered over opposition to a controversial plan intended to bring the nation's health care system in line with international standards.

Black Cat

Instant Karma? 143-year-old 'Antideficiency Act' law stirs fears among administration officials during shutdown

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Administration officials now live in fear of a 19th-century law that could get them fired, penalized or even imprisoned if they make the wrong choices while the government is shut down. The law is the Antideficiency Act, passed by Congress in 1870 (and amended several times), which prohibits the government from incurring any monetary obligation for which the Congress has not appropriated funds.

In shutting down the government, most memos cite the law as the reason. The Government Accountability Office says employees who violate the Antideficiency Act may be subject to disciplinary action, suspension and even "fines, imprisonment, or both."

CNBC has learned that in several executive branch departments, high-level staff members review individual decisions about what government activities to allow for fear of running afoul of the Antideficiency Act. One White House official said he has advised his employees not to check their email or cellphones. Under the act, even volunteering for government service is expressly prohibited.

In a memo to his department employees today, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew cited the law as the reason for reduced staffing.

"For the duration of this impasse, as required by the Antideficiency Act and directed by OMB, the Department will be required to operate with only the minimal staffing level necessary to execute only certain legally exempted activities," Lew wrote.

Bad Guys

Best of the Web: IPCC climate: A product of lies, damn lies and statistics built on inadequate data

If you torture the data enough, nature will always confess - Ronald Coase.
Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable. - Anonymous.
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Climatology is the study of average weather over time or in a region. It is very different than Climate Science, which is the study by specialists of individual components of the complex system that is weather. Each part is usually studied independent of the entire system and even how it interacts or influences the larger system. A supposed link between the parts is the use of statistics. Climatology has suffered from a pronounced form of the average versus the discrete problem from the early 1980s when computer modelers began to dominate the science. Climatology was doomed to failure from then on, only accelerated by its hijacking for a political agenda. I witnessed a good example early at a conference in Edmonton on Prairie Climate predictions and the implications for agriculture.

It was dominated by the keynote speaker, a climate modeler, Michael Schlesinger. His presentation compared five major global models and their results. He claimed that because they all showed warming they were valid. Of course they did because they were programmed to that general result. The problem is they varied enormously over vast regions. For example, one showed North America cooling another showed it warming. The audience was looking for information adequate for planning and became agitated, especially in the question period. It peaked when someone asked about the accuracy of his warmer and drier prediction for Alberta. The answer was 50%. The person replied that is useless, my Minister needs 95%. The shouting intensified.

Eye 1

Best of the Web: From NSA spying and VIPR sweeps to domestic drones: A round-up of the police state programs NOT affected by a Government shutdown

drones USA
© Salon
Like clockwork, we've ticked back to the annual government shutdown scare that invariably dominates news headlines and sends stocks seesawing for a few scant weeks until, at the very last moment, the nation is miraculously pulled from the brink of disaster. It's always an entertaining show, with both Republicans and Democrats doing their best to one-up each other with heartbreaking anecdotes about the millions who will suffer in the event of a government shutdown and showy bravado over the need for greater fiscal stewardship, while conveniently failing to rein in two of the biggest drains on our budget - namely, the military and surveillance industrial complexes.

Indeed, while a government shutdown will inevitably impact everything from Head Start, and key welfare services to national museums and IRS audits, the one area not impacted in the least will be the police/surveillance state and its various militarized agencies, spying programs and personnel. Incredibly, although more than 800,000 government workers could find themselves without paychecks or with reduced (or for members of the military, delayed) paychecks, President Obama and Congress will still get paid on time.

Take a look at the programs and policies that will not be affected by a government shutdown, and you'll get a clearer sense of the government's priorities - priorities which, as I point out in my new book, A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, have little to do with serving taxpayers and everything to do with maintaining power and control, while being sold to the public under the guise of national security.

Bad Guys

U.S. Budget talks fail: government shuts down for 1st time in 17 years


The US federal government is partially shutting down after the Congress failed to fund its work amid a Republican drive to defund the Obamacare healthcare program. President Obama addressed to US troops to boost their confidence amid the crisis.

The Congress left the government without funding as competing spending measures bounced back and forth between the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and Democratic-led Senate late into Monday night.

The partial shutdown will leave some essential government functions, including national security and public safety, intact. It's not clear how long the situation will continue, with lawmakers expected to take a further vote in a matter of hours.

If the shutdown persists, it will affect an estimated 800,000 of public workers, who will be forced into unpaid leave as the government would be unable to fund their employment. National parks and most federal offices are closed, as is almost all of NASA, except for Mission Control in Houston.