Puppet MastersS


Vader

Israel and major weapons manufacturers cash in on EU military spending dressed up as research

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Fortress Europe, made in Israel
Great article by Andrew Rettman on EUObserver on the latest no-government-should-be-seen-without-one, public-money hoovering, military-industrial subsidies disguised as research fad: EU firms join gold rush on drones.

I did some work on this issue last year for Corporate Europe Observatory. Here's the gist:

The European Union's research and development grant scheme, the Seventh Framework Programme, commits €2.83 billion (5.6 percent of the total budget) to space and security research between 2007-2013. Much of this money is being spent on surveillance or even pseudo-military projects, though spending of EU research funds on weapons R&D is forbidden.

One of the most obvious pseudo-military projects, according to Ben Hayes of think tank the Transnational Institute, is TALOS (Transportable autonomous patrol for land border surveillance). TALOS is a Polish-led project to develop unmanned drones that can be used for border control. Among the project's deliverables are military-style land vehicles (similar to small tanks), which could be adapted to carry weapons. Demonstration videos showing how drones and "interceptors" can be used to catch illegal immigrants (with the accompaniment of pumping rock music) are available at http://talos-border.eu/

Comment: Austerity all round for EU citizens while their unelected leaders in Brussels throw money at the Israel Mafia and the MIC. Yes folks, welcome to 21st Century Democrazi.


Cult

Mystery of a Killer Cult

No one has been able to explain satisfactorily why more than 70 members of the predatory Order of the Solar Temple have been killed, or where millions of dollars have gone

The muscular man who landed at Montreal's Mirabel airport on Swissair Flight 138 from Zurich had little time to admire the glorious fall foliage in Canada's Laurentian hills. Joel Egger, a fanatical 34-year-old Swiss member of the secret Order of the Solar Temple, headed straight for a green chalet in nearby Morin Heights to rendezvous with Jerry and Colette Genoud, a Swiss couple who had moved to Quebec six weeks earlier, and Dominique Bellaton, mother of the Order's Cosmic Child, supposed to be a new Christ.

The next day, September 30, 1994, Nicky and Tony Dutoit arrived at the chalet with their infant son. Nicky, a cheerful British woman who used to make ceremonial capes for the Order, and Tony, a Swiss craftsman who served as general handyman, had left the cult three years before. But they still liked to see their old friend Bellaton.

Pistol

US: Michigan's Hostile Takeover

Michigan takeover tyranny
© Unknown
A new "emergency" law backed by right-wing think tanks is turning Michigan cities over to powerful managers who can sell off city hall, break union contracts, privatize services - and even fire elected officials.

When the city of Pontiac, Michigan, shut down its fire department last Christmas Eve, city councilman Kermit Williams learned about it in the morning paper. "Nobody reports to me anymore," Williams says. "It just gets reported in the press." This was just the latest in a series of radical changes in the city, where elected officials such as Williams have been replaced by a single person with unprecedented control over the city's operation and budget.



Gov. Rick Snyder put Louis Schimmel in charge of Pontiac last September, invoking Public Act 4, a recent law that lets the governor name appointees to take over financially troubled cities and enact drastic austerity measures. Under the law, passed last March, these emergency managers can nullify labor contracts, privatize public services, sell off city property, and even dismiss elected officials.

Schimmel got to work quickly, firing the city clerk, city attorney, and director of public works and outsourcing several city departments. City fire fighters were told that they would be fired if their department was not absorbed by Waterford Township's. Schimmel has proposed putting nearly every city property up for sale, including city hall, the police station, fire stations, water-pumping stations, the library, the golf course, and two cemeteries.

Williams and his six colleagues on city council have been stripped of their salary and official powers. "Nearly the whole city has been privatized," he laments.

Star of David

Washington's Ministry of Truth: Silencing the Critics

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In 2010 the FBI invaded the homes of peace activists in several states and seized personal possessions in what the FBI - the lead orchestrator of fake "terrorist plots" - called an investigation of "activities concerning the material support of terrorism."

Subpoenas were issued to compel antiwar protestors to testify before grand juries as prosecutors set about building their case that opposing Washington's wars of aggression constitutes giving aid and comfort to terrorists. The purpose of the raids and grand jury subpoenas was to chill the anti-war movement into inaction.

Last week in one fell swoop the last two remaining critics of Washington/Tel Aviv imperialism were removed from the mainstream media. Judge Napolitano's popular program, Freedom Watch, was cancelled by Fox TV, and Pat Buchanan was fired by MSNBC. Both pundits had wide followings and were appreciated for speaking frankly.

Many suspect that the Israel Lobby used its clout with TV advertisers to silence critics of the Israeli government's efforts to lead Washington to war with Iran. Regardless, the point before us is that the voice of the mainstream media is now uniform. Americans hear one voice, one message, and the message is propaganda. Dissent is tolerated only on such issues as to whether employer-paid health benefits should pay for contraceptive devices. Constitutional rights have been replaced with rights to free condoms.

USA

The Glorification of our Serial Killers: The United States and Its Dark Passenger

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© Christian Weber/Showtime
Part 1:

I could have been a vicious raving monster who killed and killed and left towers of rotting flesh in my wake. Instead, here I was on the side of truth, justice and the American way. Still a monster, of course, but I cleaned up nicely afterward, and I was OUR monster, dressed in red, white and blue 100 percent synthetic virtue.


-Jeff Lindsay, Dearly Devoted Dexter

I teach creative writing in a maximum security prison in Philadelphia. During the week I scour two thrift shops for 35-cent paperbacks that I haul in to stock a small lending library I created for inmates. Amazingly, the prison had no library.

In the process of collecting used books, I've surveyed the crime, mystery and noir genre of popular fiction. I collect some books for myself and have read many in part or end to end. The range of quality in such a genre runs from garbage to genius.

I'm a Vietnam veteran and a veteran anti-war activist who follows the US war news closely. The psychological and mythic forces of Eros and Thanatos (Death) interest me and how they play out in popular culture. Freud in Civilization and Its Discontents writes about "the struggle between Eros and Death, between the instinct of life and the instinct of destruction." Eros is the force that brings humans together and Thanatos is the force that drives us apart. "This struggle is what all life essentially consists of," Freud writes.

The other day I picked up Jeff Lindsay's second book in the Dexter series - Dearly Devoted Dexter - about a Miami police department forensic expert by day and psychopathic killer by night. Lindsay's Dexter novels have spun off into a popular Showtime TV series. The Miami Herald called the book about a lovable serial killer "A macabre work of art."

House

Palestine: Israel Approves 500 New Illegal West Bank Homes

For Palestinians, Israeli settlements are the very crux of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
© Gallo/Getty ImagesFor Palestinians, Israeli settlements are the very crux of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
An Israeli committee approved on Wednesday the construction of 500 new illegal homes in the West Bank settlement of Shilo and retroactively legalize more than 200 already built without permits, a spokesman said.

The committee, which falls under the auspices of the defense ministry, approved "construction of 500 units," civil administration spokesman Guy Inbar told AFP.

He also confirmed reports that more than 200 homes which were built without a permit, some in the nearby settler outpost of Shvut Rachel, would be legalised.

Israel has sped up expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory in defiance of international law, which considers such construction illegal.

A Palestinian official said the move was a "very serious development" and warned the Palestinian Authority would not enter negotiations while Israel's "destructive" policies continued.

Che Guevara

Israel Capitulates: Palestinian Hunger Striker Khader Adnan Avoids Death by Starvation

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© Carlos Latuff
The human rights victory draws sharp attention to Israel's politics.

International media attention over the hunger strike of a Palestinian father named Khader Adnan, has opened the world's eyes once again to the Jewish state's unbalanced sense of political justice.

After refusing food for more than 66 days, Mr. Adnan's attorneys finally reached an agreement with the Israeli government, and unless these officials have any other tricks up their sleeves, he will be released on 17 April, which ironically, is 'Prisoner's Day' in Palestine; all the while never having been charged.

The incredible image below that was posted on Twitter, expresses in visual terms, the story of dedicated, political hunger. This is not the 'power-hungry' political aspiration we know so well in America, but a political act where the desire to refrain from eating itself... is what becomes insatiable. This act of sacrifice, almost always conducted behind bars, has moved mountains, ending suffering and strife on a wide scale. Starvation for the benefit of others is the act of Khader Adnan.

How does it feel to live in a country that supports rules in another country, that Hitler would be proud of? What country you say...? Sadly, the answer is Israel.

Mail

Canada: U.S. Law Panel Urges Harper to Avoid 'Costly Failure' of Mandatory Minimum Pot Punishments

Stephen Harper
© Reuters/Chris WattieStephen Harper
A high-profile group of current and former U.S. law enforcement officials has sent a letter to the Harper government with a surprising message: Take it from us, the war on drugs has been a "costly failure."

The officials are urging the Canadian government to reconsider mandatory minimum sentences for "minor" marijuana offences under its "tough-on-crime bill" and said a better approach would be to legalize marijuana under a policy of taxation and regulation.

"We are ... extremely concerned that Canada is implementing mandatory minimum sentencing legislation for minor marijuana-related offences similar to those that have been such costly failures in the United States," the letter reads. "These policies have bankrupted state budgets as limited tax dollars pay to imprison non-violent drug offenders at record rates instead of programs that can actually improve community safety."

The letter was signed by more than two dozen current and former judges, police officers, special agents, drug investigators and other members of the advocacy group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.

Newspaper

UK: Tony Blair's Wife Cherie Sues News Corp., Convicted Phone-Hacker Mulcaire

Tony Balir, Cherie Blair
© unknownTony Blair with wife Cherie Blair
Former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair's wife Cherie sued News Corp. (NWSA) and a former private investigator for its now-defunct News of the World tabloid for hacking into her phone.

The lawsuit, filed Feb. 21 against the company's U.K. unit and Glenn Mulcaire, comes as News Corp. prepares for the first civil trial over the scandal, scheduled to start next week in London. The company has already settled phone-hacking claims by Blair's former press chief, Alastair Campbell, and former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.

News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch shuttered the News of the World in July in a bid to contain public anger after it was revealed the tabloid hacked into the voice mails of a murdered schoolgirl. While most of the current lawsuits have settled, the company may face claims by more than 800 possible victims identified by police.

"If it is true that a former prime minister's family have been targeted by Rupert Murdoch's hackers, then it is clearly a significant moment in the scandal," Tom Watson, a Labour Party lawmaker who is on a parliamentary committee investigating the scandal, said in an e-mail.

A message left with the press office of News Corp.'s U.K. unit, News International, wasn't immediately returned. Mulcaire's lawyer, Sarah Webb, didn't immediately return a call seeking comment. Mulcaire was jailed in 2007 for hacking phones of members of Britain's royal family.

Bomb

Journalists Among Dozens Killed as Bombing Continues in Syrian city of Homs

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© unknown French photographer Remi Ochlik and American journalist Marie Colvin were killed in Homs, activists and a French government spokeswoman said.
Syrian forces continued to bombard the city of Homs on Wednesday, as international outrage at the growing death toll increased pressure on the government of President Bashar al-Assad ahead of a meeting of world leaders Friday to discuss the crisis.

Ignoring the International Committee of the Red Cross's call for daily two-hour cease-fires to allow medicine and food into civilian areas that are increasingly deprived of basic supplies, Syrian authorities defiantly asserted Wednesday that terrorist groups and sanctions were responsible for any lack of medical care.

Among dozens of people reported killed Wednesday in Homs, a center of opposition to Assad and a target of intermittent heavy artillery fire for almost three weeks, were journalist Marie Colvin of Britain's Sunday Times and photojournalist Remi Ochlik from France.

The two, who had traveled into Syria without official permission, were killed and three other reporters were injured when a hail of missiles hit the house in which they were working Wednesday morning. Their deaths came less than a week after the demise of award-winning New York Times correspondent Anthony Shadid, from an apparent asthma attack, in northern Syria and a little more than a month after French journalist Gilles Jacquier died in violence in Homs.

Comment: To get a better picture of what's really going on in Syria, please read the Sott Focus "Syria's Bloody CIA Revolution - A Distraction?"