Puppet MastersS


War Whore

U.S. military failed to recapture seized nuclear weapon in test attack

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© Reuters / Joe Skipper
Guards at a US nuclear missile base failed last summer drill, which was meant to test their ability to withstand a hostile takeover, reports AP citing an internal review. US Air Force called it a "critical deficiency."

In the drill the security team of the 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana was required to respond to a simulated capture of a Minuteman 3 nuclear missile silo. The guards had to recapture the seized nuclear weapon in the silo, but failed to do so, the report obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request indicated.

The partially censored document cited a failure to take "all lawful actions necessary to immediately regain control of nuclear weapons," without specifying those actions. The scenario, under which a hostile force, possibly terrorist, would seize a nuclear missile silo aiming to capture the missile warhead is called 'Empty Quiver', and the internal report said the security team demonstrated called a "critical deficiency," in failing to properly respond to it.

Folder

Lawmakers warn Russian banks against giving up data under US FATCA

Russian bank facade
© www.free-bullion-investment-guide.comThe Central Bank of Russia, Moscow

The head of the Lower House financial markets committee said that until Russia passes a law, any report to US tax authorities about a client accounts in Russian banks would be considered a violation of bank secrecy.


MP Natalya Burykina (United Russia) added that bank employees who permit it could face criminal prosecution. She also said that if the United States applies sanctions to Russian banks for refusing to comply with the requirements of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), Russia would reciprocate with similar sanctions.

Under current Russian law, the illegal collection of data that falls under the definition of commercial, tax or bank secrets is punished by fines of up to 80,000 rubles (about $2,285), or up to two years behind bars. Illegal disclosure or use of such information without the consent of its owner can be punished by up to 200,000 rubles in fines ($5700), a prison term of up to 3 years, and a 30-year ban on occupying certain official or commercial posts.

The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act was passed in the United States in 2010 and will come into force on July 1 this year. It requires foreign financial institutions to report to the US tax authorities about their American clients and even persons who are connected with US citizens or suspected of being such. The non-compliant banks outside the US can face punishment - US entities making payments to such institutions are required to withhold 30% of the gross sum.

Comment: FATCA, spawn of a clueless congress, demands ALL foreign financial institutions comply with unreasonable IRS requirements at their own expense and in violation of local privacy laws. The cost for this massive bureaucracy overreach is estimated in the billions of dollars and poses a direct financial and legal threat to both U.S. and foreign financial institutions, banking markets, international transactions, the U.S. financial industry, and U.S. companies abroad. Due to the complicated and tedious requirements, U.S. citizens living in other countries are losing jobs, banking accounts, pension funds, insurance contracts, and are being turned away as clients and business associates. In addition, FATCA will financially impact citizens at home since it doesn't pay for itself. This boondoggle is creating serious backlash for the U.S. economy and goodwill abroad.


Radar

Saber rattling: U.S. tests cornerstone of European antimissile shield

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© lockheedmartin.com
The US has successfully test-fired Aegis Ashore, the land-based version of the naval antiballistic missile system, which is to be deployed in Eastern Europe starting next year despite Moscow's objections.

The US Missile Defense Agency and the Navy have for the first time test-fired the land-based version of Aegis BMD on Tuesday, with engineers from Lockheed Martin, producer of the system, participating in the test. A Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) Block IB was fired from an installation on Kauai, Hawaii, and successfully hit a simulated target. The test was aimed at verifying safe launch and fly-out of the missile from the launch facility.

The US plans to conduct a test with a real target next year before a scheduled deployment of Aegis Ashore in Romania. A second similar system is to be deployed in Poland in 2018.

The systems are meant to intercept ballistic and cruise missiles mid-course. The US insists they are needed to protect America's Eastern European allies from possible missile attack by North Korea and Iran, but Russia is certain that they are aimed at weakening its nuclear deterrence capability.

Eye 1

NSA spies on OSCE HQ in Vienna

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© AFP Photo / Dieter Nagl
Among the many targets for the UN National Security Agency's electronic surveillance is the Vienna-based headquarters of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Austrian media reported.

The OSCE is mentioned among the targets for NSA in the National Intelligence Priorities Framework (NIPF), a confidential document outlining intelligence gathering priorities, reported on Wednesday Austrian newspaper Die Presse. It cites German journalist Holger Stark with Der Spiegel magazine, who has access to NSA documents leaked by Edward Snowden.

The NIPF update from April 9, 2013, lists OSCE's foreign policy as a Level 4 point of interest for the US and its involvement in arms trade control as a Level 3 point of interest, Stark told the newspaper. Level 3 information is considered important enough by the US intelligence community to make its way to the US secretaries of defense and state, he added.

Stormtrooper

Rick Rozoff on NATO: 'Defense pact', or Evil Alliance?

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As Ukraine remains on a knife-edge of military tension, the NATO forces continue their Eastern European expansion and military provocations. In this must-listen interview, Rick Rozoff of Stop NATO International breaks down the history of NATO's global partnership program, its decades-long build-up in Eastern Europe, the people and organizations in whom the fate of the world is increasingly hanging in the balance, and the small glimmer of hope that an informed, galvanized public can derail this headlong rush to war.


Sources

Quenelle - Golden

Russia Today hits back at Prince Charles' Putin-Hitler comparison: 'If anyone knows real Nazis, it's the Royal Family'

RT Newsreader
© The Independent, UKThe news channel suggested that the Royal Family should 'should take a look at their ties' before Prince Charles meets with Putin next month
A Russian news programme has launched a scathing attack on the British Royal Family after Prince Charles compared Vladimir Putin's actions in Ukraine to those of Adolf Hitler during the Second World War.

The Kremlin-backed Russia Today (RT) suggested that the Royal Family should look at their own Nazi connections before disparaging the Russian leader.

Senior political correspondent Anissa Naouai said: "Russia has asked for an explanation although I'm not sure why because if anyone knows real Nazis it's the Royal Family."

The news anchor then proceeded to lead viewers through a somewhat bizarre family tree, highlighting links between the Windsors and Nazi figures.

Ms Naouai began with the wife of Edward VIII - the Queen's uncle - saying that Wallis Simpson "hung out with Hitler", before noting that the Duke of Edinburgh's sister, Sophie, was married to an SS officer.

She then offered up photographs of Prince Harry dressed up as a Nazi while attending a fancy dress party in 2005 - a move that landed him in hot water back in the UK.

Ms Naouai conceded: "The Royal Family should take a look at their ties before Putin and Charles meet in a couple of weeks to commemorate defeating Nazis in World War Two. That could be awkward."

Light Sabers

Pepe Escobar on the complexity behind Thailand's umpteenth coup d'etat

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Asia Times correspondent Pepe Escobar explains the military coup in Thailand: Bangkok elites, militaries and former PM in a power struggle. Pepe calls it a 'soft coup' but warns of what might happen next.


Arrow Down

The war on America's military veterans, waged with SWAT teams, surveillance and neglect

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them." - John F. Kennedy
Veterans Day Flag
© thompsonblogs.org
Just in time for Memorial Day, we're once again being treated to a generous serving of praise and grandstanding by politicians and corporations eager to go on record as being supportive of our veterans. Patriotic platitudes aside, however, America has done a deplorable job of caring for her veterans. We erect monuments for those who die while serving in the military, yet for those who return home, there's little honor to be found.

Despite the fact that the U.S. boasts more than 23 million veterans who have served in World War II through Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan, the plight of veterans today is deplorable, with large numbers of them impoverished, unemployed, traumatized mentally and physically, struggling with depression, thoughts of suicide, and marital stress, homeless (a third of all homeless Americans are veterans), subjected to sub-par treatment at clinics and hospitals, and left to molder while their paperwork piles up within Veterans Administration (VA) offices.

According to the National Veterans Foundation, the VA has had a backlog of as many as 1.2 million unprocessed claims in recent years, in addition to the fraud and mismanagement within the VA and its network of offices across the country, and secret lists containing thousands of names of veterans who were forced to wait months just to see a doctor.

While President Obama has now declared that he "will not stand" for the mistreatment of veterans under his watch, the time for words is long past. As Slate political correspondent John Dickerson observed, these inexcusable delays represent "a failure of one of the most basic transactions government is supposed to perform: keeping a promise to those who were asked to protect our very form of government."

Rocket

US launches spy satellite after being warned against using Russian rocket engine

The US has launched a military satellite into orbit using an Atlas 5 rocket with a Russian-made engine. Following warnings that non-civilian launches may force Russia to ban delivery, the US Senate approved $100mn in funding to create a US equivalent.

Five minutes into the successful flight, the command center at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station stopped its video feed to disguise the classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).

Powering the 10th Atlas 5 with a cargo from the NRO, for the first four minutes of journey, was a Russian RD-180 liquid-fueled engine.

The two-thrust chamber liquid oxygen/kerosene design was created by NPO Energomash located in Khimky, Russia. US aerospace manufacturer Pratt & Whitney financed the venture to develop RD-180 for the Atlas program.


The​ engine is capable of producing almost one million pounds of thrust and is "throttled up and down to ease the stresses the rocket experiences throughout the launch," Space.com says.

"All across the government we thought it was an excellent idea for a variety of reasons to bring in Russian engines, not least because we wanted to understand the technology of a clearly superior engine, and learn how to build it ourselves, and one of the absolute constraints on approval of the deal that the policy-levels of government is that we would learn how to coproduce the engine," Mike Griffin, the former NASA administrator who participated in US Defense Department study on replacing the RD-180 told Space.com

Gold Coins

Russia, China banking deal to exclude dollar in transactions - Symbolic blow to dollar

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© Unknown
During Putin's two day visit in Shanghai, Russia and China took another small step to undermine U.S. monetary hegemony when Russia's second biggest financial institution, VTB, signed a deal with the Bank of China to bypass the dollar and pay each other in domestic currencies.

Many experts are referring to the move as symbolic. The banking deal is very small in the scheme of things, however it is a signal of intent. Both China and Russia are looking to a future where the U.S. dollar is no longer the world reserve currency, and they aren't content to wait for that future to arrive. They are working to help it along.