Puppet MastersS


Pirates

Amazon makes billions from British customers, pays pennies in tax

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Amazon paid just £1.8m in corporation tax in the UK despite racking up a pre-tax profit of £74m on £3.35bn sales in 2011, according to figures the web giant wanted to keep secret.

MPs probing the company's minuscule corporation tax bill demanded to see Amazon's profit numbers as well as its sales performance, and published the details despite the company labelling them "non-public" and "confidential".

Amazon added its LoveFilm operation and "other business activities" to its UK sales, amassing a total of £3.35bn in 2011, up from the £2.91bn it had earlier admitted for the year, but its pre-tax profits were just £74m.

However, Amazon didn't even pay corporation tax on this figure in Blighty: instead it footed the tax bill for just its Amazon.co.uk Ltd subsidiary, which manages its warehouses, bringing its corporate tax payment to a bargain-basement £1.8m.

Colosseum

The End of Jewish Power

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Israel suffered a humiliating defeat at The UN yesterday. The nations of the world stood up and said NO to the Jewish state - NO to Israeli occupation, NO to Israeli human rights abuse, NO to Jewish racism. In effect, they stood up and confessed to serious Zio-fatigue.

Despite Jewish success in constantly reminding Europeans of their tormented past, Europe yesterday delivered itself of its guilt and Israel's European allies such as Germany, France, Britain and Italy also delivered a clear messages to Israel - they are right out of patience. This is a very good news indeed.

But interestingly, this united opposition to Israel is not in response the Israeli strength. On the contrary, it is actually a reaction to Israeli weakness. In the last few months we have seen the complete and final eradication of the famed Israeli power of deterrence. For months, Israel gave the impression that it was ready and willing to attack Iran nuclear facilities, only to have to admit, even to itself, that it lacked both the means and guts to do so. Israel then launched a lethal attack on the people of Gaza. It called up 75.000 IDF reservists, only to find out that it didn't have the stomach to face Palestinian resistance.

So, just as Israel is learning to admit to its own cowardice, the rest of the world is at last finding the courage to realise that it can well do without a Jewish state that is nothing but trouble and a grave threat to world peace.

In spite of the powerful Jewish lobby, the Zionist-controlled media and Wall Street, the Jewish state and its Zionist backers have proved to be impotent. It may have the desire, the hope and even the pathos, but it just ain't stiff enough to deliver.

Che Guevara

Irish socialist leader arrested then released without charge

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A leading member of republican socialist group éirigí was among four people brought before the Special Criminal Court last night charged with possessing weapons and ammunition.

Ursula Shannon, Inglewood Crescent, Clonsilla, and three men were charged with possessing two handguns and ammunition at Tullybeg, Rahan, Co Offaly on Tuesday night.

Éirígí general secretary Breandán Mac Cionnaith released a statement confirming "Ursula Ní Shionnain" is a member.

The party would not take steps to distance itself from Ms Shannon, he said.

"However," he added, "I have no doubt that some of the more sensationalist media outlets will try to exploit Ursula's arrest to insinuate all sorts of conspiracy theories and to engage in McCarthy-like 'reds under the beds' hysteria against éirígí. That, of course, will be nothing new."

War Whore

Ben Swann: "No Country Would Tolerate Missiles From Outside Borders" U.S. Hypocrisy?

Ben Swann takes a look at the statement last week by President Obama that "No country would tolerate missiles being fired from outside their borders". We compare the numbers on U.S drone strikes in Yemen and Pakistan.


Light Sabers

Iran supports oppressed people of Gaza

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© UnknownBrigadier General Hossein Salami
Lieutenant Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General Hossein Salami reiterated Iran's support for the innocent and oppressed people of Gaza, and warned the Israeli leaders against any new incursion into the region.

Salami said the Islamic Iran is supporter of Gaza's innocent and oppressed people, and the victory of Palestinians against Israel in Gaza is a sign of Iran's support and power against the Israeli leaders' crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza.

He warned the Israeli leaders against aggression on Gaza and killing defenseless people living in the Palestinian territories.

He said that the Israeli leaders saw strength of the Islamic army which could create an incredible victory in Gaza in line with the Islamic Awakening movements in the region.

Donut

United Nations threatens Colorado, Washington state over marijuana decriminalization laws

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Likely empowered by a U.S. administration that favors the kind of nanny state politics a ruling global entity would no doubt embrace, the head of the United Nations' International Narcotics Control Board feels comfortable telling federal officials they should move to challenge measures in Colorado and Washington that decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana for adults 21 and over.

Raymond Yans lectured the voter-approved measures - part of the United States' democratic process, something most UN member countries are not familiar with - send "a wrong message to the rest of the nation and it sends a wrong message abroad."

In an interview with The Associated Press, Yans said he would like to see Attorney General Eric Holder "take all necessary measures" to ensure that marijuana possession remains illegal throughout the United States.

Evil Rays

Internet shut down in Syria: But who did it?

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© AkamaiAkami confirms traffic flow to Syria effectively ended at 10:30 AM eastern time
Syria has reportedly cut off all access to the Internet according to Akami and web monitoring firm Renesys. In a short blog post, Renesys said that "all 84 of Syria's IP address blocks have become unreachable, effectively removing the country from the Internet. Monitoring firm Akamai has also confirmed that no traffic is getting in or out of Syria. The BBC is reporting the mobile service has also been cut off.

A Google Transparency Report page shows that Google traffic to Syria appears to have been cut off Thursday morning.

Deposed Egyptian president Hasni Mubarak famously cut off Internet and mobile phone service in Egypt at the height of the Arab Spring demonstrations that led to his ouster. Although he was successful in getting the Egyptian carriers to cooperate, some Egyptians still managed to get online by making international data calls from old-fashioned telephone modem lines.

Comment: There is no way currently of telling if this is an internal kill switch act or the act of an external force within or outside of Syria causing this.

On the balance of probabilities, however, it's probably best to assume that the Western proxy army in Syria is responsible for this move in anticipation of ramping up their attacks against Syrian civilians.

Syrian government working to repair communications, claims Western-backed terrorists responsible for shutting down Internet


War Whore

Anti-drone activists could get 7 years for 'irritating' US air force colonel

Judge's signed protection order against peaceful protest called an 'escalation' and an 'absurd' threat to free speech

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© (Ellen M. Blalock / The Post-Standard) Clare Grady (hands up) and her sister, Mary Anne Flores-Grady (on the left) are being arrested for protesting against drones, at the Thompson Road entrance to the New York Air National Guard.
A local judge in upstate New York has signed an order of protection for a US Air Force colonel that could make it a crime, punishable by up to seven years in prison, for anti-drone activists to continue their weekly peace vigil outside or near the gates of the Hancock Air National Guard base there.

How will they know if they've broken the rules of the order? Apparently, if one specific military officer at the base finds their protest or direct actions 'irritating' personally.

Specifically troubling to the activists is that Colonel Earl A Evans, a commander at the base who filed the request for the order, is someone the activists have not once targeted directly. Though the order 'bans them specifically from approaching the home, school or workplace' of Evans, none of the activists even seemed to know who he is.

USA

The Humiliation of Bradley Manning

protester marching in support of Pvt. Bradley Manning
© bradleymanning.orgA protester marching in support of Pvt. Bradley Manning.
The pre-trial hearing on Pvt. Bradley Manning's court martial for leaking classified documents about U.S. government wrongdoing has turned up evidence that even Manning's Marine jailers were worried about the controversy over his degrading treatment in their custody, reports ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern.

It is a bitter irony that Army Pvt. Bradley Manning, whose conscience compelled him to leak evidence about the U.S. military brass ignoring evidence of torture in Iraq, was himself the victim of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment while other military officers privately took note but did nothing.

That was one of the revelations at Manning's pre-trial hearing at Ft. Meade, Maryland, on Tuesday, as Manning's defense counsel David Coombs used e-mail exchanges to show Marine officers grousing that the Marines had been left holding the bag on Manning's detention at their base in Quantico, Virginia, though he was an Army soldier.

At Quantico, Manning, who is accused of giving hundreds of thousands of pages of classified material to WikiLeaks, was subjected to harsh treatment. He was locked in a 6-foot-by-8-foot cell for 23 hours a day and was kept naked for long periods. His incarceration led the UN Rapporteur for Torture to complain that Manning was being subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

MIB

CIA faces lawsuit over scientist's 1950s death

CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia
© Dennis Brack/EPA/CorbisCIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
Bioweapons expert fell from hotel room window nine days after being given LSD in a drink without his knowledge

The family of a US government scientist who fell to his death from a New York hotel window six decades ago have launched a lawsuit for damages against the CIA, alleging the agency was involved in his murder and a subsequent cover-up.

In one of the most notorious cases in the organisation's history, bioweapons expert Frank Olson died in 1953, nine days after he was given LSD by agency officials without his knowledge.

In the lawsuit, filed in the US district court in Washington on Wednesday, Olson's sons Eric and Nils claim their father was murdered after he witnessed extreme interrogations in which the CIA killed suspects using the biological agents he had developed.

The CIA has long denied any foul play, though it was forced to admit in 1975, more than 20 years after the death, that the scientist had been given LSD in a spiked glass of Cointreau. The agency, which originally told the family the death was a result of job-induced stress, has since maintained that it was a drug-induced suicide.