Puppet MastersS


Bad Guys

Documents show U.S. ordered agents to delay Senate intern's arrest

Alicia A. Caldwell
The Province
Tue, 15 Jan 2013 16:00 UTC
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© AP Photo/Mel Evans, FileSen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J. speaking in Sayreville, N.J.
U.S. immigration agents were prepared to arrest an illegal immigrant and registered sex offender days before the November elections but were ordered by Washington to wait after officials warned of "significant interest" from Congress and news organizations because the suspect was a volunteer intern for a senator, according to internal agency documents provided to Congress.

The Homeland Security Department said last month, when The Associated Press first disclosed the delayed arrest of Luis Abrahan Sanchez Zavaleta, that AP's report was "categorically false."

Sanchez, 18, was an immigrant from Peru who entered the country on a now-expired visitor visa. He eventually was arrested at his home in New Jersey on Dec. 6. He has since been released from an immigration jail and is facing deportation. Sanchez has declined to speak to the AP.

After the AP story, which cited an unnamed U.S. official involved in the case, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee asked the Obama administration for details about the incident.
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Vader

France displays unhinged hypocrisy as bombs fall on Mali

Tony Cartalucci
Land Destroyer
Fri, 11 Jan 2013 14:52 UTC
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'Change', doublespeak for 'more of the same'
NATO funding, arming, & simultaneously fighting Al Qaeda from Mali to Syria.

A deluge of articles have been quickly put into circulation defending France's military intervention in the African nation of Mali. TIME's article, "The Crisis in Mali: Will French Intervention Stop the Islamist Advance?" decides that old tricks are the best tricks, and elects the tiresome "War on Terror" narrative.

TIME claims the intervention seeks to stop "Islamist" terrorists from overrunning both Africa and all of Europe. Specifically, the article states:
"...there is a (probably well-founded) fear in France that a radical Islamist Mali threatens France most of all, since most of the Islamists are French speakers and many have relatives in France. (Intelligence sources in Paris have told TIME that they've identified aspiring jihadis leaving France for northern Mali to train and fight.) Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), one of the three groups that make up the Malian Islamist alliance and which provides much of the leadership, has also designated France - the representative of Western power in the region - as a prime target for attack."
What TIME elects not to tell readers is that Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) is closely allied to the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) whom France intervened on behalf of during NATO's 2011 proxy-invasion of Libya - providing weapons, training, special forces and even aircraft to support them in the overthrow of Libya's government.
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USA

Best of the Web: U.S. government claims - just like the Nazis - that the truth is too complicated and dangerous to disclose to the public


Washington's Blog
Tue, 15 Jan 2013 14:27 UTC
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History Repeats ...

In the classic history of Nazi Germany, They Thought They Were Free, Milton Mayer writes:
"What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could not understand it, it could not be released because of national security. And their sense of identification with Hitler, their trust in him, made it easier to widen this gap and reassured those who would otherwise have worried about it.

"This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter.
Similarly, America has - little by little - gone from a nation of laws to a nation of powerful men making laws in secret. Indeed, even Congress doesn't know half of what others are doing.
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Megaphone

Court case draws Monsanto protesters to White House

Bill Lambrecht
Saint Louis Post Dispatch
Thu, 10 Jan 2013 13:17 UTC
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© nationofchange.org
An appeal by organic farmers to a court ruling last year turned into a wide-ranging protest this morning with speakers skewering Monsanto Co. for its policies and demanding labeling of genetically modified food.

About 200 people, many from organic seed companies, rallied in a park directly across from the White House on a crisp, cloudless day amid construction for festivities surrounding the second inauguration of President Barack Obama on Jan. 21.

Protesters announced that another rally will take place on Jan. 21 with a march on the National Mall demanding that Obama follow through with what they say was his promise in 2007 to seek labeling of food with genetically modified ingredients.

The protest suggested an uptick in efforts to demand labeling, which was defeated in a California ballot initiative in November. Creve Coeur-based Monsanto spent at least $8 million in an industry-wide effort to sink the California proposition.
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Eye 1

John Brennan: The New Normal

William Fisher
billfisher.blogspot.com
Tue, 15 Jan 2013 12:07 UTC
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I remember very clearly President Obama's second full day in office in 2009, when he signed the executive order calling for the closure of the detention camp at the United States Naval Station at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba,

The excitement was palpable. It was a huge first step toward the ending of what the New York Times called "the grim emblem of President George W. Bush's lawless policies of torture and detention."

Those policies were our response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11. At home, "middle-Eastern-looking men" were swept up and jailed with no charges and no access to lawyers. Abroad, in a dozen countries, "suspected terrorists" were tagged 'the worst of the worst', captured or kidnapped and shipped to GITMO. "High value suspects" were disappeared to a network of secret overseas prisons run by the CIA, where they were held incommunicado and subjected to so-called "enhanced interrogation" techniques, i.e. waterboarding and other forms of torture.

The administration of George W. Bush found a seemingly endless trove of abuses. The abused found the courthouse doors locked. By invoking the so- called State Secrets Privilege, the government found a way to kill lawsuits brought by alleged victims of Bush's anti-terrorism campaign. To date, not a single plaintiff in any of these lawsuits has had his day in a U.S. court.
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Cowboy Hat

Documents reveal U.S. sells arms to Bahrain's anti-democracy government crackdown

Pro Publica
Raw Story
Tue, 15 Jan 2013 11:45 UTC
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© AFP Photo
Despite Bahrain's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, the U.S. has continued to provide weapons and maintenance to the small Mideast nation.

Defense Department documents released to ProPublica give the fullest picture yet of the arms sales: The list includes ammunition, combat vehicle parts, communications equipment, Blackhawk helicopters, and an unidentified missile system. (Read the documents.)

The documents, which were provided in response to a Freedom of Information Act request and cover a yearlong period ending in February 2012, still leave many questions unanswered. It's not clear whether in each case the arms listed have been delivered. And some entries that only cite the names of weapons may in fact refer to maintenance or spare parts.

Defense Department spokesman Paul Ebner declined to offer any more detail. "We won't get into specifics in any of these because of the security of Bahrain," said Ebner.

While the U.S. has maintained it is selling Bahrain arms only for external defense, human rights advocates say the documents raise questions about items that could be used against civilian protesters.
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Bomb

Blast at Syrian university causes unknown number of casualities


news.com.au
Tue, 15 Jan 2013 11:29 UTC
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© Picture: Edlib News Network, ENN Source: APA Syrian rebel inspects the rubble of damaged buildings due to government airstikes, in Bensh, Idlib Province. In a separate incident, a large explosion struck the main university in Aleppo yesterday causing an unknown number of casualties.
A LARGE explosion has struck the main university in the northern city of Aleppo, causing an unknown number of casualties, activists and Syrian state TV said.

It was not immediately clear what caused the blast at Aleppo University, which was in session yesterday. There were also conflicting reports about which part of the campus was hit.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of activists around the country, said 15 people were killed and "tens" wounded in two explosions near the university's dorms, but said it was not clear whether the blasts were the result of shells or bombs.

State TV didn't offer any details about the explosion or specify the number of victims. However, a Syrian government official in Damascus said two rockets hit the university's Information Technology Academy. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said the two rockets were fired from a rebel-held area in Aleppo.
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Pistol

New York seals 1st state gun laws since Newtown massacre

Michael Gormley
seattlepi.com
Tue, 15 Jan 2013 11:24 UTC
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© Photo: Mike GrollNew York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, center, speaks during a news conference announcing an agreement with legislative leaders on New York's Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act in the Red Room at the Capitol on Monday, Jan. 14, 2013, in Albany, N.Y. Also pictured are Secretary to the Governor Larry Schwartz, left, and Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy.
New York lawmakers agreed to pass the toughest gun control law in the nation and the first since the Newtown, Conn., school shooting, calling for a stricter assault weapons ban and provisions to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill who make threats.

"This is a scourge on society," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday night, six days after making gun control a centerpiece of his agenda in his State of the State address. The bipartisan effort was fueled by the Newtown tragedy that took the lives of 20 first graders and six educators. "At what point do you say, 'No more innocent loss of life'?"

The measure also calls for restrictions on ammunition and the sale of guns. It is expected to pass Tuesday.

"This is not about taking anyone's rights away," said Sen. Jeffrey Klein, a Bronx Democrat. "It's about a safe society ... today we are setting the mark for the rest of the county to do what's right."
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Star of David

Israel recruits 'army of bloggers' to combat anti-Zionist Web sites

Cnaan Liphshiz
Haaretz
Tue, 15 Jan 2013 10:44 UTC
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Israelis who speak a second language to represent Israel on 'problematic' Websites in new Absorption Ministry program.

The Immigrant Absorption Ministry announced on Sunday it was setting up an "army of bloggers," to be made up of Israelis who speak a second language, to represent Israel in "anti-Zionist blogs" in English, French, Spanish and German.

The program's first volunteer was Sandrine Pitousi, 31, from Kfar Maimon, situated five kilometers from Gaza. "I heard about the project over the radio and decided to join because I'm living in the middle of the conflict," she said.

Before hanging up the phone prematurely following a Color Red rocket alert, Pitousi, who immigrated to Israel from France in 1993, said she had some experience with public relations from managing a production company.
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Handcuffs

Pakistan Supreme Court orders arrest of PM Raja Pervez Ashraf


BBC
Tue, 15 Jan 2013 10:30 UTC
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The BBC's Orla Guerin in Islamabad says there were euphoric scenes when people learned of the court ruling, with men "crying and kissing the ground"
Pakistan's Supreme Court has ordered the arrest of PM Raja Pervez Ashraf and 15 others over corruption allegations, raising fears of a political crisis just months ahead of an election.

Mr Ashraf denies accepting bribes when approving power generation projects as minister for water and power in 2010.

Analysts say that the move is unlikely to lead to his immediate removal.

It comes as a populist cleric led thousands of protesters in Islamabad, demanding the government resign.

Television images showed demonstrators, led by Tahirul Qadri, celebrating and triumphantly applauding as news broke of the court's order.

The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says it may just be a coincidence - but to many observers the timing of the move bolsters allegations that the cleric is backed by elements of the judiciary and military.
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