Puppet MastersS


Heart - Black

Robert Gates: Israel an ungrateful ally

Unlikely partners. Netanyahu and Obama
© APUnlikely partners. Netanyahu and Obama

Former US secretary of defense says Prime Minister Netanyahu's policies isolating Israel on a global level

Washington - Former US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates blasted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying that his policies were ungrateful towards the US and were isolating Israel on a global level.

Gates' harsh words were said during a meeting of the National Security Council Principals Committee, Bloomberg's Jeffrey Goldber reported Tuesday.

Gates believes Netanyahu's government has offered the Obama administration "nothing in return" for its generous security aid, which includes access to top-quality weapons, assistance in developing missile-defense systems and high-level intelligence sharing.

The former defense secretary said that not only is Netanyahu ungrateful, but his polices were "endangering his country by refusing to grapple with Israel's growing isolation and with the demographic challenges it faces if it keeps control of the West Bank."

Star of David

CIA Asset Susan Lindauer blows the whistle on 9/11, Iraq

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Susan Lindauer, author of Extreme Prejudice, is the first CIA asset to have spoken out, under her own name and for the record, on Israeli complicity in 9/11, the controlled demolition of the World Trade Center, and the specific, detailed foreknowledge of the time, target, and means of the 9/11 attacks held throughout the months prior to 9/11 by the CIA in general and Lindauer's CIA handler, Richard Fuisz, in particular. She has also exposed her first-hand knowledge of pre-war intelligence and negotiations showing that Iraq was willing to give the US "anything it asked" and that the war was therefore--from the perspective of US interests--not only utterly unnecessary, but wildly counterproductive. Lindauer's evidence points strongly to 9/11 being a coup d'etat by hard-line Zionists determined to steer the US into a self-destructive war on Israel's enemies.

Listen to my complete interview with Susan Lindauer here. Below is a transcript of the first half of the interview.


Comment: While we need to look at with skepticism anything that someone who "used to" work with the CIA tells us, there are some new angles here. At the very least what some faction in Spookland wants us to think is a datapoint in itself. And Kevin Barrett's questions address directly what Susan Lindauer seemed reluctant to: Israel's role in planning 9/11.


War Whore

Israeli warplanes bomb Gaza Strip

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© unknownIsraeli warplanes
Israeli warplanes have bombed central Gaza Strip, despite a ceasefire agreement between Tel Aviv and the democratically-elected Hamas government in the blockaded territory.

There has been no immediate report of casualties from Gaza following the overnight attack, AFP reported on Tuesday.

On August 22, a ceasefire was agreed to by Hamas and Tel Aviv, but it has not stopped the Israeli regime from launching further deadly airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, leading to more Palestinian casualties.

Israel has increased its attacks on the Palestinian territory in recent months, killing and wounding scores of individuals in the impoverished Gaza.

Chart Pie

Obama's Approval Rate Hits Record Low

Obama
© unknown
A new poll shows that US President Barack Obama's approval rating has hit a record low as there seems to be no end in sight to the economic crisis in the United States.

The poll, jointly conducted by Washington Post and ABC News, found that 53 percent of Americans disapprove of Obama's job performance and 77 percent think the country is on the wrong track.

The survey, which was published on Monday, also illustrated that 35 percent of Americans believe they have become worse off financially under Obama's presidency.

The poll also found that a majority of Americans were angry with Republicans and they had lost their confidence in the Republican-dominated US Congress.

Arrow Down

Sources: Obama Administration to Drop Troop Levels in Iraq to 3,000


The Obama administration has decided to drop the number of U.S. troops in Iraq at the end of the year down to 3,000, marking a major downgrade in force strength, multiple sources familiar with the inner workings and decisions on U.S. troop movements in Iraq told Fox News.

Senior commanders are said to be livid at the decision, which has already been signed off by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

Panetta, touring sites Tuesday in advance of the Sept. 11 10th commemoration, insisted "no decision has been made" on the number of troops to stay in Iraq.

"That obviously will be the subject of negotiations with the Iraqis and as a result of those negotiations. As I said no decision has been made of what the number will be," he said.

Currently, about 45,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Iraq. The generals on the ground had requested that the number of troops remaining in Iraq at the end of the year reach about 27,000. But, there was major pushback about "the cost and the political optics" of that decision that the number was then reduced to 10,000.

X

New Evidence Links Cisco to Jailing and Torture of Chinese

Liu Xiaobo and his wife Liu Xia
Nobel Peace Prize 2010 winner Liu Xiaobo is serving an 11-year sentence. Here he is pictured with his wife Liu Xia.
A human rights group suing Cisco for aiding the tracking and torture of people in China claims it has new evidence proving the tech giant tailored its technology to specifically enable these abuses.

If accepted by the court, the revelations, including that Cisco trained Chinese officials in how to surveil net users, could prove damning for the company, which has always claimed it has done no more than sell stock standard technology to the regime.

The Human Rights Law Foundation, based in Washington, filed its suit against Cisco in May under a law that allows US companies to be sued for violations of human rights committed abroad.

The suit accuses Cisco, one of the world's largest technology companies, of aiding the Chinese government in monitoring and jailing members of the banned Falun Gong by helping to develop the "Golden Shield Project".

Gear

"With Immediate Effect"

Gold bullion
© WordPress

Holy Red Screen, Batman! If you haven't seen the news, the Swiss National Bank has just announced that it is putting a ceiling on the franc's appreciation against the euro... effectively abandoning its economic sovereignty and putting its future in the hands of woefully corrupt and incompetent bureaucrats.

On the news, the franc fell off a cliff, dropping almost 10% INSTANTLY. Gold priced in Swiss francs jumped from 1497 to 1620 per troy ounce, all in about 45 seconds.

Precious metals are now all alone as the only forms of sound money that are truly safe havens.

Just 6-weeks ago on July 27th, in a letter entitled "Should I buy gold at its all-time high", I wrote:

"Even stronger currencies like the Swiss franc have limits to their appreciation. At some point, the Swiss National Bank will impose capital controls to thwart the rise of its currency. . . [Y]ou'll probably feel like a sucker for not buying gold at $1600 when you still had the chance."

Since then gold has soared roughly 20%, and as of this morning, the SNB has imposed capital controls to thwart the rise of its currency.

This is just the beginning.

Pistol

Obama Orders Sweeping Sanctions & Regime Change in Syria Without Congress

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© Unknown
Once again President Obama has used the authority vested in him in the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the National Emergencies Act to impose sweeping sanctions against a sovereign nation without Congressional approval.

On August 18th, 2011, Obama signed Executive Order 13582: Blocking Property of the Government of Syria and Prohibiting Certain Transactions With Respect to Syria, which authorizes the seizure of all Syrian-owned property and interests in property in the United States. It also bans exports of U.S. services to Syria, the import of petroleum from Syria, and any new investment in Syria or those who support them.

The following actions are now prohibited:
(a) new investment in Syria by a United States person, wherever located;

(b) the exportation, reexportation, sale, or supply, directly or indirectly, from the United States, or by a United States person, wherever located, of any services to Syria;

(c) the importation into the United States of petroleum or petroleum products of Syrian origin;

(d) any transaction or dealing by a United States person, wherever located, including purchasing, selling, transporting, swapping, brokering, approving, financing, facilitating, or guaranteeing, in or related to petroleum or petroleum products of Syrian origin; and

(e) any approval, financing, facilitation, or guarantee by a United States person, wherever located, of a transaction by a foreign person where the transaction by that foreign person would be prohibited by this section if performed by a United States person or within the United States.

MIB

Gibson Guitar raid part of government effort to extinguish American workforce, outsource remaining jobs to foreign countries

Gibson guitars

As a followup to our report about the US government's recent illegal raid of Gibson Guitars Corp., a major US based manufacturer of musical instruments, Gibson's CEO Henry Juszkiewicz has openly announced that the US government actually advised him in a pleading that if he simply were to move his workforce to Madagascar, he could avoid his current quandary entirely.

This shocking, written admission by government agents, which was expounded upon by Juszkiewicz himself during a recent interview on KMJ AM's The Chris Daniel Show, clearly illustrates what the federal government is up to these days. By targeting a US-based company with a US-based labor force -- which is an amazing rarity in today's globalized world, by the way -- for no legitimate or legal reason, it is obvious that an ulterior motive is at work.

"Mr. Juszkiewicz, did an agent of the US government suggest to you that your problems would go away if you used Madagascar labor instead of American labor?" Daniel is quoted as asking Juszkiewicz in a recent Redstate report. After responding that the suggestion was, indeed, made in a written pleading, Juszkiewicz confirmed insinuations by the government that if Gibson would simply outsource its labor force, Juszkiewicz's problems would "go away."

R2-D2

Best of the Web: David Seaton: Will This All End with a Bang or a Whimper?

U.S. corporate profits and efficiency are getting absurd. On Friday we saw record quarterly profits of $1,450 billion, making up a record share of GDP at 10.1%. We're also at record corporate efficiency of $15,278.72 -- up 22.3% from last year (...). That last one says it all. Rampant job cuts and salary cuts, with new responsibilities for old workers, during the recession turned corporations into profit-making machines. Stimulative policies from the government and the Federal Reserve helped plenty. New technology also helps with efficiency. Unfortunately there are no signs that corporations are turning revenue into jobs. Business Insider

Employment

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The problem with US manufacturing is not that it has been shrinking - despite the "offshoring" of textile and electronics manufacturing to China, US manufacturing output rose by 3.9 per cent a year between 1997 and 2007. However productivity grew 6.8 per cent annually in the same period, so millions of jobs were lost. If manufacturing carries along the same path, McKinsey estimates that it could shed another 2.3m jobs by 2020, while the economy needs to create 21m more jobs to return to full employment. The mini-recovery in manufacturing jobs - 164,000 were added in the six months to April - recently stalled. John Gapper - Financial Times

Over time, advanced economies will need to invest in human capital, skills and social safety nets to increase productivity and enable workers to compete, be flexible and thrive in a globalized economy. The alternative is - like in the 1930s - unending stagnation, depression, currency and trade wars, capital controls, financial crisis, sovereign insolvencies, and massive social and political instability. Nouriel Roubini - Project Syndicate