Puppet MastersS


Pistol

A message from Timoshenko? Poroshenko's chief of regional campaign office found dead with bullet to the head

Petr Poroshenko
© RIA Novosti/ Mikhail VoskresenskiyPoroshenko grew up in Vinnitsa and now his chief campaign manager there has been killed.
Head of Petr Poroshenko's campaign office in one of the districts of Ukraine's Vinnitsa region of was found dead on Thursday, according to Interfax.

The man's body with a gunshot wound to the head was found in his own car on one of the city of Nemirov's streets around 12.30 pm local time on June 5, according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Comment: So is this the work of Timoshenko, the gas queen? She did threaten with a third revolution if she didn't get elected as president: Psychopathic Timoshenko eyes third revolution in Ukraine if she loses

And there is this about the voting in Vinnitsa, which happens to be the place where Poroshenko grew up:
According to the press-center of Batkivshchyna Party led by Yulia Timoshenko, in the Vinnitsa region the number of ballots frequently exceeded many times the number of voters registered at this or that polling station.



Eye 1

Governments have direct access to telcos' infrastructure, Vodafone reveals

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© AFP Photo / Thomas Coex
Government intelligence agencies have direct access to telecommunication companies' infrastructure which allows them to spy and record phone calls leaving no paper trail, the UK's largest mobile phone company Vodafone has revealed.

The British operator said wires have been attached to its phone networks in some of the 29 countries in which it operates in Europe, as well as around the world, the Guardian reported. Governments similarly connect to other telecom groups, reportedly allowing them to listen to or record live conversations. In some cases, the surveillance agencies can also track the whereabouts of a customer.

"For governments to access phone calls at the flick of a switch is unprecedented and terrifying," Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti told the Guardian. "Snowden revealed the internet was already treated as fair game. Bluster that all is well is wearing pretty thin - our analogue laws need a digital overhaul."

Chess

New regional alliance? Why is Russia lifting embargo on military supplies to Pakistan?

Russia supplies to pakistan
© RIA Novosti / Sergey Kuznecov
Russia has just announced a hugely strategic decision that may alter the regional power matrix and bug India at a time when the just-installed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was looking to deepen ties with Moscow.

Sergey Chemezov, head of Russian state-run technologies corporation Rostec, announced on Monday that Russia has lifted an embargo on supplying weapons and military hardware to Pakistan. He also said that Moscow is negotiating the delivery of several Mi-25 helicopter gunships to Islamabad. "The decision was taken and we are negotiating the delivery of helicopters," the Voice of Russia quoted Chemezov as saying.

Comment: The timing of Russia's decision coincides with India's new Prime Minister Narendra Modi announcing his country's new foreign policy.
Decoding Narendra Modi's foreign policy: Focus economy, no lobbying for UNSC seat and drop NAM

After an impressive diplomatic start with neighbours last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's foreign policy will be driven by economic growth, with focus on the East and deep Southwards rather than fixating on the West and overtly remaining Pakistan centric. Experts, who have interacted with the new Prime Minister on the issue, believe Japan is emerging as a thrust area, but not at the cost of China, which will also find due place.
Although India's Congress party, which ruled most part of post-independent India, looked to the West for financial investment and trade, it maintained a cosy relationship with Russia.


Question

Flashback The Truth about Tiananmen Square protest is that it was a CIA-backed revolution

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The iconic photo of the "tank man", taken by Jeff Widener of the Associated Press, which consecrated the account of the Tiananmen events peddled by the Western media, portraying them as a massacre of peaceful demonstrators.
I've heard from several Chinese American friends (now US citizens), who lived in China in 1989, that the student leaders behind the Tiananmen Square protest/massacre (April 14 to June 4, 1989) were supported by the CIA.

Oh, come on, I thought, another conspiracy theory!

However, my curiosity was stirred, so I spent hours hunting the internet for clues that this might be true. I discovered several coincidences that raised an eyebrow.

The U.S. Ambassador in China at the time, James Lilley (April 20, 1989 to 1991), was a former CIA operative who worked in Asia and helped insert CIA agents into China. President H. W. Bush served as Chief of the U.S. Liaison Office in Beijing (1974 - 1976) , then went to serve as Director of the CIA (1976 - 1977).

Why did President H. W. Bush replace Winston Lord as ambassador to China (1985-1989) during the early days of the Tiananmen Square incident with a former CIA agent? After all, Lord spoke some Chinese and was a key figure in the restoration of relations between the US and China in 1972. Wasn't he the best man for the job during a crisis like this?

Bad Guys

Best of the Web: What if Russia directly intervened in the Donbass, and then what?

putin poroshenko
Putin and Poroshenko.
It has been my recurrent effort on this blog to try to explain the likely reasons why Russia has not intervened so far in the war between Banderastan and Novorossia. I notice that those who see signs of "betrayal" or "sellout" by Putin are long on accusations but very short on specifics. Unlike the excellent article which I recently posted as a "must read", the folks who are busy accusing Putin of betrayal stop at the very short term: send guns, send men, impose a no-fly zone, strike this or that unit, etc. Fine. And then what? It is that "then what?" which our armchair patriots systematically shy away from. Besides "then what?" the other issue which these armchair strategists shy away from is "what if?". What if the Bandera freaks really open up with everything they have, out of spite or out of retaliation, and what if they really flatten Kramatorsk, Slaviansk or an entire neighborhood of Donetsk? What if the dead at this point turn from tens or hundreds into the many thousands? Those who mistakenly believe that the junta forces have already used "massive artillery strikes" should look up the concept "огневой вал" which is often translated as "artillery barrage" which, while not incorrect, does not even begin to convey the meaning that it has in Russian military doctrine. Rather than to give figures, just take a look at these:


Megaphone

Venezuela demands U.S. explain role in plot to assassinate President Maduro

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© Reuters/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has alleged US involvement in a plot to oust his government and assassinate him. The South American leader said there are hundreds of emails that prove members of the State Department were part of the conspiracy.

Venezuela has opened an investigation into a supposed plot to overthrow the government and assassinate President Maduro, reports Venezuelan state news broadcaster TeleSur. Authorities have alleged the plot was hatched by members of the Venezuelan far right with the support of the US State Department.

"We will ask the State Department for an explanation of the evidence that implicates high-level functionaries in a plan to assassinate the president of the Bolivarian Republic," said Maduro during his weekly radio show 'En Contacto con Maduro'.

Maduro went on to say the investigation had revealed new information about the plan to oust the Venezuelan government. He alleged that the plot not only threatened his life, but also the foundations of the Venezuelan constitution.

Comment: See also:

CIA and FBI Had Planned to Assassinate Hugo Chávez

Chavez: Another CIA assassination victim


Dominoes

The military industrial complex and the age of climate warfare: It's ready, are you?

Statue of liberty, gun and planes
© www.activistpost.com"Oh say can you see, by the dawn's early light..."
During his speech at West Point Military Academy earlier this week, President Barack Obama described climate change as a "creeping national security crisis" that will require the armed forces to "respond to refugee flows, natural disasters, and conflicts over water and food."

The speech emphasised that US foreign policy in the 21st century is increasingly being honed in recognition of heightened risks of social, political and economic upheaval around the world due the impacts of global warming.

A more detailed insight into US military planning could be seen in the report published a couple of weeks earlier by the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA) Military Advisory Board, written and endorsed by a dozen or so senior retired US generals. Describing climate change as not just a "threat multiplier," but now - even worse - a "catalyst for conflict", the study concluded that environmental impacts from climate change in coming decades:".... will aggravate stressors abroad, such as poverty, environmental degradation, political instability and social tensions - conditions that can enable terrorist activity and other forms of violence."

Comment: "Enemies" are convenient and lucrative. Climate change is just the latest concocted exploitation in a long line of "money-spinning for greed and profit" agendas by the war-planners and the arms industry. The goals are always the same: to further political interests, plunder natural resources and cash in - - while remaining unaccountable for killing innocent populations and inflicting mass destruction in brazen defiance of the Constitution and international law. At what point do we, the bag-holders, stop rationalizing away imperialism and stop justifying the wars that feed and grow this monster? Read Obama's words...it is a blatant set-up!


Bad Guys

Hillary Clinton and the weaponization of the State Department

Hillary Clinton
© Unknown
On May 23, 2012, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton went to the Special Operations Forces Industry Conference (SOFIC) trade show in Tampa, Florida to share her vision of "smart power" and to explain the State Department's crucial role in extending the reach and efficacy of America's growing "international counterterrorism network."

First, there is such a thing as a "Special Operations Forces Industry Conference trade show." Without some keen reporting by David Axe of Wired, that peculiar get-together might've flown completely under the radar - much like the shadowy "industry" it both supports and feeds off of like a sleek, camouflaged lamprey attached to a taxpayer-fattened shark.

Second, "special operations" have officially metastasized into a full-fledged industry. United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) is located at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa and, therefore, conveniently located near the special operations trade show, which happened again this year at the Tampa Convention Center. The theme was "Strengthening the Global SOF Network" and the 600,000-square-foot facility was filled with targets of opportunity for well-connected and well-heeled defense contractors.

According to the SOFIC website, this year's conference afforded attendees "the opportunity to engage with USSOCOM Program Executive Officers, Science and Technology Managers, Office of Small Business Programs and Technology & Industry Liaison Office representatives, and other acquisition experts who will identify top priorities, business opportunities, and interests as they relate to USSOCOM acquisition programs."

Third, Hillary's widely-ignored speech marked a radical departure from the widely-held perception that the State Department's diplomatic mission endures as an institutional alternative to the Pentagon's military planning. Instead, Secretary Clinton celebrated the transformation of Foggy Bottom into a full partner with the Pentagon's ever-widening efforts around the globe, touting both the role of diplomats in paving the way for shadowy special ops in so-called "hot spots" and the State Department's "hand-in-glove" coordination with Special Forces in places like Pakistan and Yemen.

Finally, with little fanfare or coverage, America's lead diplomat stood before the shadow war industry and itemized the integration of the State Department's planning and personnel with the Pentagon's global counter-terrorism campaign which, she told the special operations industry, happen "in one form or another in more than 100 countries around the world."

Yoda

'Bon appétit,' Putin tells hypocritical G7 leaders dishing the dirt on Russia in Brussels

 A G7 leaders meeting
© Reuters / Yves HermanA G7 leaders meeting at European Council headquarters in Brussels June 4, 2014
President Putin wished "bon appétit" to G7 leaders who patronized Russia - excluded from the club over Ukraine - and set conditions it has to meet to restore ties with the West. Otherwise, Obama and his allies threatened, more sanctions would follow.

On Thursday, as the G7 summit was wrapping up in Brussels, Vladimir Putin was asked to comment on what he thinks about the western leaders holding their gathering without Russia. The only comment that followed was: "I want to wish them, 'Bon appétit.'"

This week's summit of the world's leading industrialized nations became the first in 17 years when Russia was not participating. That comes as the US "mobilized the international community," as President Barack Obama earlier put it, "to isolate Russia" over the Ukraine crisis.

Originally, the summit was to take place in Russia's Sochi, but the plan was canceled after Crimea reunited with Russia - a move that infuriated the West, labeling it an "illegal annexation" of territory.

Despite being uninvited, Moscow got its fair share of judgments and accusations thrown at it during the gathering. The G7 leaders wagged their fingers at Russia, warning that more sanctions would follow unless it helps to deescalate the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.

Arrow Down

British taxpayers in line to lose their entire £45bn stake due to RBS 'black hole'

An explosive book says the failure of Gordon Brown and David Cameron to reform the bank after it received a mammoth taxpayers' bailout leaves it vulnerable
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© IndependentTanking bank: Book claims RBS sponsored motor sport because Fred Goodwin is a fan.
British taxpayers risk losing their entire £45bn stake in Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) which is in grave danger of failing within 10 years, according to an explosive new book.

A new study of the disgraced bank, which brought the UK to the brink of financial ruin, reveals RBS still has a £100bn "black hole" in its finances due to "five broad areas of alleged criminality and wrongdoing".

They include the mis-selling of financial products such as payment protection insurance, the alleged duping of investors who were persuaded to plough more than £12bn into RBS shares just before the banking crash in 2008, further fallout from the Libor scandal, and current criminal investigations into the manipulation of the £3trn-a-day foreign exchange markets.

Comment:
Bailed-out and nationalized Royal Bank of Scotland to ignore EU caps on bonuses and pay executives 200% salary bonuses, despite 2013 company profit loss of £8 billion