Puppet MastersS


Blackbox

Wife's dollar trade puts pressure on Swiss bank head

Silke Koltrowitz and Katie Reid
Reuters
Fri, 06 Jan 2012 08:03 UTC
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© REUTERS/Christian HartmannSwiss National Bank (SNB) Chairman Philipp Hildebrand in Zurich, December 16, 2010.
Swiss central bank head Philipp Hildebrand came under pressure on Wednesday following revelations of sensitively timed currency trades by his wife and the sacking of a whistleblower who passed details to the lawyer of a political adversary.

The employee of Bank Sarasin was fired for leaking data showing that Hildebrand's wife Kashya, a former trader who owns a Zurich art gallery, bought dollars three weeks before the central bank capped the Swiss franc. The case goes to the heart of Switzerland's bank secrecy.

Kashya told Swiss television she "felt good" about the deal last August that local tabloid Blick reported had yielded a 60,000 Swiss franc ($64,400) profit on a 500,000 franc trade.

"What motivated me to buy dollars was the fact that it was at a record low and was almost ridiculously cheap," she was quoted as saying on Swiss television. "As I have worked in the financial and banking industry for over 15 year and always observe the markets, I felt at ease with this transaction."
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Compass

Flashback Why Did Japan Attack Us?

Patrick J. Buchanan
The American Cause
Tue, 11 Dec 2001 12:21 UTC
Of all the days that will "live in infamy" in American history, two stand out: Sept. 11, 2001, and Dec. 7, 1941.
Image
© Unknown

But why did Japan, with a 10th of our industrial power, launch a sneak attack on the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor, an act of state terror that must ignite a war to the death it could not win? Were they insane? No, the Japanese were desperate.

To understand why Japan lashed out, we must go back to World War I. Japan had been our ally. But when she tried to collect her share of the booty at Versailles, she ran into an obdurate Woodrow Wilson.

Wilson rejected Japan's claim to German concessions in Shantung, home of Confucius, which Japan had captured at a price in blood. Tokyo threatened a walkout if denied what she had been promised by the British. "They are not bluffing," warned Wilson, as he capitulated. "We gave them what they should not have."

In 1921, at the Washington Naval Conference, the United States pressured the British to end their 20-year alliance with Japan. By appeasing the Americans, the British enraged and alienated a proud nation that had been a loyal friend.

Japan was now isolated, with Stalin's brooding empire to the north, a rising China to the east and, to the south, Western imperial powers that detested and distrusted her.
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Mr. Potato

Sarko Outrage At Being Called 'A Nasty Piece Of Work'


The Telegraph
Fri, 06 Jan 2012 04:39 UTC
Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande
© The TelegraphNicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande
French President Nicolas Sarkozy's party allies demanded a public apology from his main electoral opponent after he reportedly branded him a "nasty piece of work".

Francois Hollande, the opposition Socialist candidate currently on course to beat Mr Sarkozy in April's election, allegedly called the president a "sale mec", which roughly translates as a "nasty piece of work".

He made the remark in a supposedly off-the-record briefing for reporters on Tuesday, but a truncated version of his jibe was revealed in the daily Le Parisien.

Although dismissed as being taken out of context by the Socialist camp, a cohort of outraged Sarkozy allies seized on the "insult".

Dominique Dord, treasurer of Sarkozy's UMP party, described the reported comment as "revolting" and said that Mr Hollande should pull out of the presidential race, little more than 100 days before the election.

"We are all deeply shocked," said the head of Sarkozy's UMP party, Jean-Francois Cope.
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Top Secret

Defense, CIA to Investigate Access for Filmmakers to Info on Bin Laden Kill Mission


Fox News
Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
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© The Associated PressMay 1: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, along with with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Usama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House.
The Defense Department and CIA have agreed to investigate access to and possible release of classified information to Hollywood filmmakers on the killing of Usama bin Laden after a Republican lawmaker questioned the release of information into the May 1 raid in Pakistan.

Rep. Peter King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, asked for a review in August as to whether Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow was given access that King suggested could leave U.S. military secrets and personnel open either to leaks or worse. Bigelow and executive Mark Boal are working on a movie about the hunt for Bin Laden.

King said in a statement Thursday he was gratified that the two agencies had agreed to look into Bigelow's and Boal's access.

"Following a shockingly dismissive response to my request from White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, I am pleased that the inspectors general at DoD and the CIA agree with me that potential leaks to filmmakers are something worth investigating and taking action to address," King said.
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USA

US: Another Kennedy Set to Run for Congress


Agence France-Presse
Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
Joseph P Kennedy III
© The Associated Press/Getty Images/Darren McCollesterJoseph P Kennedy III, pictured in 2010
Joseph P. Kennedy III, a 31-year-old Massachusetts prosecutor, will run for Congress this year in a bid to resurrect the dynasty of America's most famous political family, reports said Thursday.

Kennedy is in the final stages of preparing a Congressional run, with hopes to succeed retiring Democratic Representative Barney Frank, the Boston Globe and Rhode Island Public Radio reported, quoting family and Democratic sources.

Should Kennedy win a seat in the House of Representatives, his family would return to national politics for the first time since Patrick Kennedy -- son of the clan's late patriarch Edward Kennedy -- left office early last year.

The congressional hopeful, son of former representative Joseph P. Kennedy II and grandson of the assassinated Robert F. Kennedy, is an assistant district attorney in Middlesex county.
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Vader

Obama: The US Can No Longer Fight the World's Battles

Rupert Cornwell
The Independent
Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
Obama
© unknown
President plans to cut half a million troops and says US can't afford to wage two wars at once

The mighty American military machine that has for so long secured the country's status as the world's only superpower will have to be drastically reduced, Barack Obama warned yesterday as he set out a radical but more modest new set of priorities for the Pentagon over the next decade.

After the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that defined the first decade of the 21st century, Mr Obama's blueprint for the military's future acknowledged that America will no longer have the resources to conduct two such major operations simultaneously.

Instead, the US military will lose up to half a million troops and will focus on countering terrorism and meeting the new challenges of an emergent Asia dominated by China. America, the President said, was "turning the page on a decade of war" and now faced "a moment of transition". The country's armed forces would in future be leaner but, Mr Obama pointedly warned both friends and foes, sufficient to preserve US military superiority over any rival - "agile, flexible and ready for the full range of contingencies and threats".
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Info

Egypt Prosecutor Demands Death Sentence for Mubarak

Samer al-Atrush
Agence France-Presse
Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
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© Agence France-PresseOusted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak is wheeled on a stretcher into court for his murder trial in Cairo today
The prosecution in Hosni Mubarak's trial delivered an emotional appeal to the court on Thursday to sentence the fallen Egyptian dictator to hang for the killings of protesters during the revolt that overthrew him.

Wrapping up their closing arguments, prosecutors said Mubarak, who lay on a stretcher in the defendants' cage, should be executed for ordering the demonstrators' deaths.

"The law punishes premeditated murder with execution. The prosecution demands the maximum punishment," Mustafa Khater told the presiding judge, Ahmed Refaat.

"The souls of the dead, martyrs, are asking where is the judge on earth, the just judge, who will listen to our complaints, who will punish the oppressors? Punishing the defendants will give each his right," Khater said in his closing arguments.

"The prosecution and Egyptian society expect the truth, that all are equal before the law, and that Egyptian blood is no longer cheap."
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Bizarro Earth

US: Fracking will poison New York's drinking water, critics warn

Karen McVeigh
Guardian
Thu, 05 Jan 2012 16:08 UTC
fracking
© Steve Karnowski/APFracking involves drilling into hard shale rocks to shatter them and release the natural gas inside.

Opponents of controversial gas drilling method condemn plan as environmental agency sounds alarm bells over staffing levels

A former staffer at a state government agency responsible for regulating hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has warned that allowing the controversial gas drilling method in New York would lead to contamination of the state's aquifers and would poison its drinking water.

These stark warnings, issued by Paul Hetzler in a letter to an upstate newspaper, came as a current employee and union representative at the Department for Environmental Conservation (DEC) sounded alarm bells over the under-staffed agency's ability to monitor the industry and to deal with any emergencies if the plan goes ahead.
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Bad Guys

Argentina - GSK Fined Over Illegal Vaccine Experiments Killing 14 Babies

Anthony Gucciardi
Natural Society
Thu, 05 Jan 2012 13:10 UTC
Vaccine Deaths
© Natural Society

Vaccine and drug giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has been fined 400,000 pesos (around the equivalent of $93,000) by an Argentinian judge for killing 14 babies during illegal lab vaccine trials that were conducted between 2007 and 2008. In addition to killing the children and experimenting with human beings, the judge asserted that the corporation actually falsified parental authorizations so that babies could participate without legitimate parental permission.

Judge Marcelo Aguinsky made the decision after a report was released on the subject by the National Administration of Medicine, Food and Technology (ANMAT in Spanish). Since 2007, 15,000 children below the age of one from Mendoza, San Juan, and Santiago del Estero have been participating in the illegal research. These babies were recruited by GSK from poor families that attended public hospitals. It was found that of the 14 baby deaths, 7 died in Santiago del Estero; 5 in Mendoza; and 2 in San Juan.

GSK Recruited Doctors, Pressured Illiterate Parents into Signing Over Children

Currently, it is unknown how many babies suffered serious side effects, adverse reactions, or if this is truly the total death count. As with many other vaccinations such as Gardasil, the official death count continues to rise as leaked reports from the FDA and elsewhere continue to surface.

One pediatrician working at the public hospital when GSK began recruiting babies for their illegal human trials said that not only did GSK force illiterate parents into handing over their children, but they also 'recruited' several doctors working at the hospital into their cause.
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Bomb

Iraq blasts kill at least 72, raise specter of civil war


MSNBC
Thu, 05 Jan 2012 09:00 UTC
'People have real fears that the cycle of violence might be revived in this country,' Baghdad resident says
Image
© Unknown

Baghdad - A wave of bombings targeting Shiites in Iraq killed 72 people on Thursday, deepening sectarian tensions that exploded just after the last American troops left the country in mid-December.

The coordinated attacks targeting Shiites bore the hallmarks of Sunni insurgents linked to al-Qaida, although there was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The bombings began early in the morning when explosions struck two Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad, killing at least 27 people.

A few hours later, a suicide attack hit Shiite pilgrims heading to the holy Shiite city of Karbala, killing 45, said provincial official Quosay al-Abadi. The explosions took place near Nasiriyah, about 200 miles southeast of Baghdad. Hospital officials confirmed the causalities.

The blasts occurred in the run-up to Arbaeen, a Shiite holy day which marks the end of 40 days of mourning that follow the anniversary of the death of Imam Hussein, a revered Shiite figure.

Comment: About "the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein."



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