Puppet MastersS


Radar

Blimplike surveillance craft set to deploy over Maryland heighten privacy concerns

Craig Timberg
The Washington Post
Wed, 22 Jan 2014 00:00 UTC
Image
© Before it's news
They will look like two giant white blimps floating high above I-95 in Maryland, perhaps en route to a football game somewhere along the bustling Eastern Seaboard. But their mission will have nothing to do with sports and everything to do with war.

The aerostats - that is the term for lighter-than-air craft that are tethered to the ground - are to be set aloft on Army-owned land about 45 miles northeast of Washington, near Aberdeen Proving Ground, for a three-year test slated to start in October. From a vantage of 10,000 feet, they will cast a vast radar net from Raleigh, N.C., to Boston and out to Lake Erie, with the goal of detecting cruise missiles or enemy aircraft so they could be intercepted before reaching the capital.

Aerostats deployed by the military at U.S. bases in Iraq and Afghanistan typically carried powerful surveillance cameras as well, to track the movements of suspected insurgents and even U.S. soldiers. When Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales murdered 16 civilians in Kandahar in March 2012, an aerostat above his base captured video of him returning from the slaughter in the early-morning darkness with a rifle in his hand and a shawl over his shoulders.

Defense contractor Raytheon last year touted an exercise in which it outfitted the aerostats planned for deployment in suburban Baltimore with one of the company's most powerful high-altitude surveillance systems, capable of spotting individual people and vehicles from a distance of many miles.
Read More...
Crusader

Britain entering first world war was 'biggest error in modern history'

Maev Kennedy
The Guardian
Wed, 29 Jan 2014 10:44 UTC
Image
© Christian Sinibaldi for the GuardianNiall Ferguson said arguments about honour resonated now as in 1914, 'but you can pay too high a price for upholding the notion of honour'.
Historian Niall Ferguson says Britain could have lived with German victory and should have stayed out of war

Britain could have lived with a German victory in the first world war, and should have stayed out of the conflict in 1914, according to the historian Niall Ferguson, who described the intervention as "the biggest error in modern history".

In an interview with BBC History Magazine, Ferguson said there had been no immediate threat to Britain, which could have faced a Germany-dominated Europe at a later date on its own terms, instead of rushing in unprepared, which led to catastrophic costs.

"Britain could indeed have lived with a German victory. What's more, it would have been in Britain's interests to stay out in 1914," he said before a documentary based on his book The Pity of War, which will be screened by BBC2 as part of the broadcaster's centenary season.

The Laurence A Tisch professor of history at Harvard University rejected the idea that Britain was forced to act in 1914 to secure its borders and the Channel ports. "This argument, which is very seductive, has one massive flaw in it, which is that Britain tolerated exactly that situation happening when Napoleon overran the European continent, and did not immediately send land forces to Europe. It wasn't until the peninsular war that Britain actually deployed ground forces against Napoleon. So strategically, if Britain had not gone to war in 1914, it would still have had the option to intervene later, just as it had the option to intervene after the revolutionary wars had been under way for some time."

It was remarkable, he said, that Britain intervened on land so early in 1914, when quite unprepared.
Read More...
Chess

Ukraine parliament offering protest amnesty deal

Oksana Grytsenko
The Guardian
Wed, 29 Jan 2014 10:39 UTC
Image
© Alexander Koerner/Getty ImagesAnti-government protesters warm themselves by a fire in Kiev: temperatures in the Ukrainian capital have fallen to -20C at night.
Opposition parties did not support offer of amnesty to arrested protesters in exchange for end of Kiev occupations

Ukraine's parliament approved a law on Wednesday that would grant an amnesty to arrested protesters but - to the opposition's fury - depended on the demonstrators vacating all occupied government buildings.

After 12 hours of negotiations the amnesty was agreed by 232 votes from pro-government members amid applause from the ruling party and angry shouts of "Shame!" from the opposition.

Protesters are holding three administrative buildings in Kiev, including the building housing the city administration.

Yuri Miroshnychenko, President Viktor Yanukovych's representative in parliament, said the protesters would now have to leave the buildings. But he insisted the opposition headquarters in Trade Union House, as well as Independence Square and Khreschatyk Street, where the protest camp is located, would not be touched.
Read More...
V

Bahrain regime forces attack protesters in Abu Saiba


Press TV
Sat, 01 Feb 2014 10:19 UTC
UK arms sales to Bahrain
© UnknownWhile people in Bahrain have demonstrated peacefully for more than 2 years, the West have done everything possible to suppress the people of Bahrain, including selling arms to the regime and being silent about torture, death and arrest of protesters. Very different voices come from the West, when it concerns Syria or Ukraine.
Bahraini police have clashed with anti-regime protesters during demonstrations against the dissolution of a popular Shia clerical council.

Regime forces on Friday used tear gas to disperse protesters in the village of Abu Saiba, west of the capital, Manama.

Earlier in the day, a major demonstration was held to condemn a controversial ruling by a Bahraini court that disbanded the Islamic Scholars Council of Bahrain.

The verdict against the clerical body came in a lawsuit filed by Bahrain's Justice Ministry, which accused the organization of 'promoting sectarianism.'

Human rights groups say it was part of efforts by the Al Khalifa regime to silence the voice of dissent.

Following the court ruling, Bahrain's main opposition movement, al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, also censured the move and stated the "regime has declared war on Shias."

Comment: There has not been ANY support from the West or the EU for the peaceful protesters in Bahrain. It is simply ignored and instead the West have been selling weapons to Saudi Arabia to suppress the people of Bahrain. A stark contrast to the West and their meddling in the affairs in Ukraine.

Read More...
Target

Flashback IMF sponsored "Democracy" in the Ukraine

Prof Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research
Sun, 28 Nov 2004 10:12 UTC
Image
There is an ongoing and deliberate attempt by foreign powers to spearhead the destabilization of Ukraine including its state structure.

There is a long history of colored revolutions in Ukraine going back to the 1990s.

The protest movement in Kiev bears a marked resemblance to the "Orange Revolution" of 2004 which was supported covertly by Washington. The 2004 "Orange Revolution" led to the ousting of the pro-Russian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, spearheading into power the Western proxy government of President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Julia Tymoshenko.

Once more Viktor Yanukovitch is the target of a carefully staged "pro-EU protest movement". The latter was launched following president Yanukovitch's decision to cancel the "association agreement" with the EU.

The mechanisms of interference are in some regards different to those of 2004. The protests are supported directly by Brussels and Berlin (with EU officials actively involved) rather than by Washington:
"The right-wing parties leading the protests in coordination with EU officials and politicians had called for a "million man march." Ultimately, some 250,000 to 300,000 people gathered on Maïdan (Independence) Square. It was the largest protest in Kiev since the 2004 "color revolution" organized by US and European imperialism - the so-called Orange Revolution that ousted the pro-Russian Yanukovich and brought the pro-Western tandem of President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Julia Tymoshenko to power.

Evgenia Tymoshenko, the daughter of former prime minister and billionaire natural gas magnate Julia Tymoshenko, whom Yanukovich has jailed, read a message from her mother calling for Yanukovich's "immediate" ouster. (See Alex Lantier, December 8, 2013)
The following article first published in November 2004, focuses on the October-November 2004 "Orange Revolution" directed against then prime minister Viktor Yanukovich, while also providing details on the insidious role of the IMF and the World Bank in imposing the neoliberal economic policy agenda on behalf of the "Washington Consensus".

Michel Chossudovsky, December 2013
Read More...
Bullseye

Russia raps EU, US for fueling violence in Ukraine


Press TV
Sat, 01 Feb 2014 10:03 UTC
Sergei Lavrov
© UnknownLavrov blasts the West for fueling the violence in Ukraine
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has described West's interpretation of freedom in Ukraine as "strange," accusing the EU of fueling anti-government protests.

"What does the inciting of street protests, which are growing increasingly violent, have to do with promoting democratic principles?" Lavrov asked a panel discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany.

Lavrov slammed the European Union and the United States for failing to condemn those who seize buildings, attack police and use racist slogans in anti-government protests in Ukraine.
"Why do we not hear statements of condemnation toward those who seize government buildings, attack and burn police officers, and voice racist slogans? Why do senior European politicians de facto encourage such actions, while at home they swiftly and harshly act to stop any impingement on the letter of the law?" asked the Russian Foreign Minister.
Read More...
Pyramid

American pharaoh in Egypt: Military junta leader al-Sisi

Karl Vick
TIME
Mon, 27 Jan 2014 00:00 UTC
Image
© Mohamed Abd El Ghany / ReutersA poster of Egyptian army chief General Abdul Fattah al-Sisi being held during a protest at Tahrir Square in Cairo on Jan. 25, 2014, to celebrate the third anniversary of the country's uprising against former President Hosni Mubarak
The prospect of Abdul Fattah al-Sisi becoming Egypt's President offers, at the minimum, the virtue of clarity. The Egyptian military, which on Monday "mandated" its Chief of Staff to stand for President, has never actually been out of power in the Land of the Pharaohs. Al-Sisi became its public face only on July 3 last year, the day the career soldier stepped before a microphone and announced the removal of the only freely elected government in the nation's thousands-year-old history.

The ecstatic cheers that greeted the announcement spoke volumes about Egypt's disenchantment with the clannish and tin-eared Muslim Brotherhood administration that al-Sisi sent packing. The adulation also demonstrated the comfort level of many ordinary Egyptians for being ruled by men in uniform. In many countries where a military coup has taken place, the etiquette calls for a firm suggestion that the top brass, having performed a distasteful but necessary duty, leave the field of politics and "go back to their barracks." In Egypt, the cry being heard after al-Sisi's nomination was: "The military and the people are one hand."
Read More...
Snakes in Suits

Bailout architect runs for California governor; world laughs

Matt Taibbi
Reader Supported News
Fri, 24 Jan 2014 00:00 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Lamarque
I want to apologize for this space being blank for quite some time. I actually spent the bulk of the last two days on a long blog post about the "Dr. V." story in Grantland. But then I got all the way to the end, and realized I was completely wrong about the entire thing.

So, I spiked my own piece. Now I've been in Talk Radio-style "This is totally dead air, Barry" territory for about two weeks. I could swear I saw a cobweb when I logged on this morning.

So thank God for Neel Kashkari, and the news that this goofball footnote caricature of the bailout era has decided to run for Governor of California. Never in history has there been an easier subject for a blog post.

If you don't remember Kashkari's name, you might be excused - he was actually better known, in his 15 minutes of fame five years ago, as "The 35 year-old dingbat from Goldman someone put in charge of handing out $700 billion bailout dollars."

Now you remember. That guy! Neel Kashkari when he first entered the world of politics was a line item, usually the last entry in a list of ex-Goldman employees handed prominent government and/or regulatory positions, as in, ". . . and, lastly, Neel Kashkari, the heretofore unknown Goldman banker put in charge of the TARP bailout program . . ."

Kashkari was not just a former Goldman banker handed a high government post - he was a former Goldman banker handed a high government post by a former Goldman banker, in this case former Goldman CEO and then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson.
Read More...
Dollars

Flashback Carbon trading: Where greed is green

James Kanter
The New York Times
Wed, 20 Jun 2007 00:00 UTC
Image
© IndependentFinancial district buildings in the City of London.
Seeking to match a desire to make money with his environmental instincts, Louis Redshaw, a former electricity trader, met with five top investment banks to propose trading carbon dioxide. Only one, Barclays Capital, was interested in his proposition.

Three years later, the situation has turned around entirely, and carbon experts like Redshaw, 34, are among the rising stars in the City of London financial district. Managing emissions is one of the fastest-growing segments in financial services, and companies are scrambling for talent. Their goal: a slice of a market now worth about $30 billion, but which could grow to $1 trillion within a decade.

"Carbon will be the world's biggest commodity market, and it could become the world's biggest market overall," said Redshaw, the head of environmental markets at Barclays Capital. But he said that in his current job, unlike some of his previous ones, including a stint as a British power trader at Enron, "I don't have to compromise on anything when I get out of bed in the morning."

If greed is suddenly good for the environment, then the seedbed for this vast new financial experiment is London. A report released Tuesday by International Financial Services London, a company promoting British-based financial services, said that British companies were the leading global investors in carbon projects and that more carbon was traded in London than in any other city.
Read More...
Evil Rays

Navy Yard shooter Alexis passed psychological assessment weeks before shooting despite glaringly obvious signs he was subject to Mind Control

Kevin Freking
Huffington Post
Sat, 01 Feb 2014 08:44 UTC
Image
Alexis, not in his right mind
The gunman who killed 12 people in last year's rampage at Washington's Navy Yard convinced Veterans Affairs doctors before the shootings that he had no mental health issues despite disturbing problems and encounters with police during the same period, according to a review by The Associated Press of his confidential medical files.

Just weeks before the shootings, a doctor searching for the source of the gunman's insomnia noted that the patient worked for the Defense Department but wrote hauntingly "no problem there."

The AP obtained more than 100 pages of treatment and disability claims evaluation records for Aaron Alexis, spanning more than two years. They show Alexis complaining of minor physical ailments, including foot and knee injuries, slight hearing loss and later insomnia, but resolutely denying any mental health issues. He directly denied suffering from stress or depression or having suicidal or homicidal thoughts when the VA's medical team asked him about it just three weeks before the shootings, even though he privately wrote during the same period that he was being afflicted by ultra-low frequency radio waves for months.

The dichotomy between Alexis' apparently even-keeled interactions with his doctors and the torment he was experiencing outside the hospitals is the center of debate about whether the Veterans Affairs Department could have better recognized the need to intervene in his life with mental health care before the shootings.


Comment: See also:

Washington Navy Yard Shooting: What's The Point?

Navy Yard: Swat team 'stood down' at mass shooting scene

Navy Yard shooting: Capitol Police tactical team called back to Hill

Emergency responders say that radios failed during Navy Yard attack

Read More...