Puppet MastersS


Question

Benghazi Demonstration: He says, She Says, Who Says?

Catherine Herridge, James Rosen and Pamela Browne
FOX News
Mon, 17 Sep 2012 00:00 UTC
Benghazi
© FOX NewsLibyan guard stands watch at U.S. Consulate in Benghazi
An intelligence source on the ground in Libya told Fox News that there was no demonstration outside the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi prior to last week's attack -- challenging the Obama administration's claims that the assault grew out of a "spontaneous" protest against an anti-Islam film.

"There was no protest and the attacks were not spontaneous," the source said, adding the attack "was planning and had nothing to do with the movie."

The source said the assault came with no warning at about 9:35 p.m. local time, and included fire from more than two locations. The assault included RPG's and mortar fire, the source said, and consisted of two waves.

The account backs up claims by a purported Libyan security guard who told McClatchy Newspapers late last week that the area was quiet before the attack.

"There wasn't a single ant outside," the unnamed guard, who was being treated in a hospital, said in the interview.
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Chess

Media Circus Surprise!: Fox News Critical of Republican Mitt Romney

News Hounds
Opposing Views
Sun, 16 Sep 2012 16:16 UTC
Romney
While Fox News still can't seem to say enough bad things about President Obama, they haven't exactly been uncritical of Mitt Romney lately. In fact, the criticism of Romney has been downright jaw-dropping considering where it's come from.

On today's Fox News Sunday, the panel was unanimously critical of Romney, including host Chris Wallace, an obvious Romney supporter - or at least he plays one on TV. Yet, as the panel criticized Romney for not being clear enough on what actual policy alternatives he'd enact and not discussing Afghanistan during the convention, Wallace noted that Romney is "losing ground," "not campaigning with a bold agenda" and asked - with obvious disapproval - why Romney had "absolutely no plans" to give a major foreign policy speech before the debates.
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Bad Guys

Protecting your right to free speech - as long as you're 'one of us' that is.

Glenn Greenwald
The Guardian
Sun, 16 Sep 2012 15:29 UTC
Hillary Clinton
© Alex Brandon/AP Secretary of state Hillary Clinton speaks about the anti-US protests happening in the Middle East.
Nothing tests one's intellectual honesty and ability to apply principles consistently more than free speech controversies. It is exceedingly easy to invoke free speech values in defense of political views you like. It is exceedingly difficult to invoke them in defense of views you loathe. But the true test for determining the authenticity of one's belief in free speech is whether one does the latter, not the former.

The anti-US protests sweeping the Muslim world have presented a perfect challenge to test the free speech convictions of both the American right and the Democratic party version of the left. Neither is faring particularly well.
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Cut

Billions to be Automatically Slashed From U.S. Budgets

Jason Mick
Daily Tech
Mon, 17 Sep 2012 15:08 UTC
Budget Puzzle
© St. Anthony's San FranciscoIf politicians can't agree on the U.S. budget for 2013, an automatic budget with large mandatory cuts drops into place.
Cuts will affect startups, universities, and various government labs

Whether you're developing a cure for cancer, or dreaming up solutions to put a human on Mars, there's a chance that you could be out of a job next year.
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Laptop

US Role In Cyber War With Iran May Be Larger Than Suspected

Michael Harper
RedOrbit
Mon, 17 Sep 2012 14:23 UTC
Cyber War
© Photos.com
Earlier this year, the Iranian nuclear program was attacked by a powerful and targeted form of cyber weaponry known as the Stuxnet Trojan. Then in May, a cyber-surveillance tool called Flame was uncovered and was later called "the most sophisticated cyber weapon yet unleashed" by researchers at Kaspersky Labs.

It was later discovered that US military and intelligence agencies - including the CIA and NSA - had worked together with the Israeli military to craft this malicious software in an attempt to impede Iran's nuclear plans.

Today, Reuters reports that researchers have discovered three more computer viruses in the wild which were developed by the US military possibly for purposes of espionage and cyber warfare.

These new findings are another indication that the US government plans to continue its pursuit of cyber warfare as an extension of national security, particularly where matters in the Middle East are concerned.

Researchers from both Symantec Corp and Kaspersky Labs have say that they've found evidence indicating that those behind the Flame project have also collaborated on at least three other pieces of malware which, though identified, have not yet been classified.

These researchers found this information as the result of intensive forensic investigation of the control servers used in Flame. These servers were hidden to appear as publishing platforms for a service called "Newsforyou." Later, the servers were programmed to erase any digital footprint that it may have left behind, making tracing this tool extremely difficult.

According to the Kaspersky Labs blog post, the creators of this malware designed the UI to look as bland and boring as possible, so as to make it appear "generic and unpretentious."
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Handcuffs

White House Demands Military Prisons for Americans Under NDAA


RT.com
Mon, 17 Sep 2012 13:07 UTC
Image
The White House has asked the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals to place an emergency stay on a ruling made last week by a federal judge so that the president's power to indefinitely detain Americans without charge is reaffirmed immediately.

On Wednesday, September 12, US District Court Judge Katherine Forrest made permanent a temporary injunction she issued in May that bars the federal government from abiding by the indefinite detention provision in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, or NDAA. Judge Forrest ruled that a clause that gives the government the power to arrest US citizens suspected of maintaining alliances with terrorists and hold them without due process violated the Constitution and that the White House would be stripped of that ability immediately.

Only hours after Judge Forrest issued last week's ruling, the Obama administration threatened to appeal the decision, and on Monday morning they followed through.
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Vader

Protecting Americans from the encroachment of true democracy: Mass arrests of Occupy Wall Street protesters on one-year anniversary of movement's birth

Matt Williams
The Guardian
Mon, 17 Sep 2012 02:28 UTC
Image
© Julie Dermansky/Corbis"Sir, we are confiscating your sign because it is illegal to think and promote certain thoughts and ideas in this country." NYPD Blueshirts confiscate an illegal banner during an illegal protest, before arresting the protesters who were carrying it on Broadway.
Police in New York have made "multiple" arrests during marches and protests ushering in the first anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Around 300 people were estimated to have taken part in a rally Saturday, which saw activists head towards Zuccotti Park - the lower Manhattan site which served as base camp for months of demonstration.

It was part of three days of action celebrating the anti-capitalist movement, which burst into life a year ago but has long since seen its momentum wane.

The main anniversary event will take place on Monday, when activists are expected to attempt to surround the New York Stock Exchange and disrupt morning rush hour traffic in Manhattan's financial district.
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Light Sabers

Iran confirms it has forces in Syria and will take military action if pushed

Ian Black
The Guardian
Mon, 17 Sep 2012 02:17 UTC
Image
Iran's Revolutionary Guards
Iran has confirmed for the first time that forces from its revolutionary guards corps (IRGC) are in Syria helping Bashar al-Assad's government crush rebels, and warned that it would get involved militarily if its Arab ally came under attack.

In a clear public signal of Tehran's continuing support for Assad, the commander of the Islamic republic's elite military formation said that a number of members of the IRGC's Qods force were in Syria, though General Mohammad Ali Jafari gave no further details and claimed this did not constitute "a military presence".

It was a surprisingly candid response to persistent claims by western countries, the Syrian opposition and Israel that Iran is actively helping the regime in the 18th month of a bloody war. Lakhdar Brahimi, the veteran Algerian diplomat who replaced Kofi Annan as UN envoy to Syria earlier this month, met Assad in Damascus on Saturday but warned afterwards that any progress would be slow and halting given the yawning gap between government and opposition. "The crisis is dangerous and getting worse, and it is a threat to the Syrian people, the region and the world," said Brahimi.

Comment: [...] "the autocratic regime of Bashar al-Assad"... so says a man convicted of raping, torturing and pillaging his own people.

Speaking of funnelling arms and ammunition to Syrian fighters...

It's official: British and US intelligence is directing al-Qaeda operations in Syria

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Vader

Pacifying the natives: US defence secretary sends elite forces to demolish Middle East protests

Matt Williams
The Guardian
Sun, 16 Sep 2012 02:10 UTC
Image
US 'Defense' Secretary and former CIA chief Leon Panetta. The US is once again preparing to counter the revolutionary movements in the Middle East in a last-ditch effort to prevent the spread of true freedom and democracy.
Defence secretary Leon Panetta said Sunday that the US was still on standby to deploy elite forces to protect American interests in cities caught up in a wave of Muslim protest, but that the level of violence appears to be levelling off.

The Pentagon had already sent troops to "a number of areas in the region to be prepared to respond to any requests that we receive to be able to protect our personnel and our American property", he said.

But Panetta declined to provide more details on reports that the military may be moving additional forces so they can respond to unrest in any of a number of cities of concern to the US.

"I think our approach right now is to not do anything until we've been requested to do it by the state department," Panetta told reporters travelling with him to Asia. But he noted that "I think that we have to continue to be very vigilant because I suspect that ... these demonstrations are likely to continue over the next few days, if not longer."
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Attention

Right-wing terrorist organization worked within US Army

Ed Hightower
World Socialist Web Site
Sat, 15 Sep 2012 23:04 UTC
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Isaac Aguigui, insets from top: Anthony Peden, Christopher Salmon, and Michael Burnett
On Monday prosecutors in Liberty County, Georgia indicted five men for illegal gang activity including burglaries, thefts and car break-ins, alleging they were all part of a militia group calling itself FEAR, or, Forever Enduring, Always Ready. In August, prosecutors indicted three other men, including purported FEAR leader Isaac Aguigui, for the murder of a former member and his girlfriend last December, allegedly out of concern that the couple would reveal the group's existence and its plans.

One of the accused in the murders, Army private Michael Burnett, 26, pleaded guilty to two charges of manslaughter in order to avoid the death penalty. Burnett testified at a court hearing in August that Aguigui, a private at Fort Stewart, Sergeant Anthony Peden and Private Christopher Salmon led former soldier Michael Roark, 19, and his girlfriend, 17-year-old Tiffany York, into a secluded woodland area near the Fort and shot them execution style. Roark had recently left the Army. Aguigui and his cohorts were concerned that he and York would expose their terrorist plots and FEAR's existence at Fort Stewart, Burnett said.

He said that Aguigui introduced him to "the manuscript ... a book about true patriots," and said that FEAR wanted to "give the government back to the people." According to prosecutor Isabel Pauley, Aguigui sought to recruit soldiers who were disillusioned or in trouble, showing them an article about a video game where soldiers take over the government and gauging their reaction before encouraging them to join. Aguigui called this process "the awakening."
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