Puppet Masters

Engine-maker Caterpillar accused of hiding $8 billion in Swiss tax havens

Raw Story
Tue, 01 Apr 2014 15:55 UTC

U.S. Senate investigators have accused heavy equipment giant Caterpillar of hiding $8 billion in profits offshore in Switzerland to avoid U.S. taxes.

In a report released late Monday, investigators said the company took advantage of a special corporate tax deal negotiated with Swiss authorities that allowed it to defer or avoid paying $2.4 billion in US taxes.

The report, released by Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said the company instead only had to pay Swiss authorities $55 million under the strategy.

"That tax strategy depends on the company making the case that its parts business is run out of Switzerland instead of the U.S. so it can justify sending 85 percent or more of the parts profits to Geneva," Levin said in a statement.

U.S. Defense Secretary favors ban of tobacco sales on all military bases and ships

Daniel Halper
The Weekly Standard
Tue, 01 Apr 2014 07:07 UTC

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is "looking" at banning the sale of tobacco at military installations. According to one military publication, Hagel appears to support it.

"As the Navy considers banning tobacco sales on all bases and ships, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel gave a strong endorsement of the review Monday, and suggested that he would be in favor of a ban," reports Stars and Stripes.

"I don't know if there's anybody in America who still thinks that tobacco is good for you," Stars and Stripes quotes Hagel as saying. "We don't allow smoking in any of our government buildings. Restaurants, states, [and] municipalities have pretty clear regulations on this. I think in reviewing any options that we have as to whether we in the military through commissaries [or] PXs sell or continue to sell tobacco is something we need to look at. And we are looking at it. And I think we owe it to our people."

Comment: Smoking is healthier than fascism, so Let's All Light Up!

Russian lawmakers: Draft legislation endorsed for satellite navigation hub in Nicaragua

RIA Novosti
Tue, 01 Apr 2014 13:31 UTC

Russian lawmakers have endorsed draft legislation to allow the country to set up a satellite navigation monitoring system in Nicaragua, a Cabinet committee said Tuesday.

"The agreement is aimed at creating an organizational and legal framework for mutually beneficial partnership between Russia and Nicaragua in terms of exploring and using space for peaceful purposes," the official statement explained.

Under the agreement, Russia would set up a network of land-based control stations in the Latin American country to monitor and augment the accuracy of navigation satellites in Earth orbit.

It is hoped the system will boost Russia's GLONASS satellite navigation system, the only current alternative to the US's Global Positioning System (GPS) to feature global coverage and comparable accuracy.

Delaware judge excuses wealthy child-rapist from prison because "he would not fare well"

Police State USA
Tue, 01 Apr 2014 12:47 UTC

A member of a billionaire family who received a felony for raping a child is dodging prison time because a judge says "he would not fare well" behind bars. The judge's preferential treatment exposes a glaring crack in the justice system.

Robert H. Richards IV admitted to both molesting his infant son and raping his daughter between the ages of 3-5. He ultimately plead guilty to a single count of fourth-degree rape in a deal struck with prosecutors. Richards is legally a rapist and is listed on the sex-offender registry.

He also happens to be fabulously wealthy, and apparently impervious to punishment. His family owns the du Pont chemical company and has a net worth in the billions. Richards is heir to the du Pont fortune. When not sexually-abusing innocent children, Richards lives in a multi-million dollar mansion, surviving off of the wealth amassed by his forebearers.

The Class C felony of which he was plead guilty to could have brought him up to 15 years in prison. Instead he will face zero years in prison, thanks to the suspicious leniency of his judge, Superior Court Judge Jan Jurden.

In her sentencing order, Judge Jurden wrote, "Defendant will not fare well in Level 5 setting." In Delaware, Level 5 refers to prison.

Ukraine crisis: NATO ministers to meet in Brussels

The Guardian
Tue, 01 Apr 2014 05:56 UTC

NATO foreign ministers are to meet to discuss the military alliance's response to the Ukraine crisis amid continued fears over Russia's territorial ambitions.

Training for Ukrainian forces and a more formal suspension of co-operation with Moscow are expected to be discussed at the Brussels meeting on Tuesday.

Hours before the meeting was due to start Ukraine's parliament approved by a 235-0 vote a series of joint military exercises with NATO countries that would put US troops in direct proximity to Russian forces in the annexed Crimea peninsula.

The exercises will see Ukraine conduct two sets of military exercises with the US this summer - Rapid Trident and Sea Breeze - that have prompted disquiet in Russia in previous years.

Ukraine is planning two additional manoeuvres with Poland as well as joint ground operations with Moldova and Romania.

Nigel Farage's appearances on Russia Today come under scrutiny

Patrick Wintour and Rowena Mason
The Guardian
Mon, 31 Mar 2014 16:37 UTC

© Ian West/AFP/Getty Images
Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, right, and Ukip leader Nigel Farage debating Britain's future in the EU last week.

Nigel Farage's near monthly appearances on state-owned Russia Today have come under scrutiny after his expression of admiration for Vladimir Putin this week.

In one of his 17 appearances on the channel seen by the Guardian and transmitted since December 2010, he claims Europe is governed not by elected democracies but instead "by the worst people we have seen in Europe since 1945".

The Ukip leader has appeared so frequently that he is cited in literature for the TV station Russia Today as one of their special and "endlessly quotable" British guests. "He has been known far longer to the RT audience than most of the British electorate," Russia Today claims.

The Ukip leader did not issue a word of criticism of Russian democracy in any of the Russia Today interviews viewed by the Guardian. Last August he told the channel that British intervention in Libya and Syria would go ahead regardless of any vote in the UN, and said he was still not sure President Bashar al-Assad had used chemical weapons.

Economic Shock Doctrine: IMF to accelerate Ukraine's economic collapse?

Patrick L Young
RT.com
Mon, 31 Mar 2014 07:25 UTC

Will Maidan optimism be extinguished as the citizens of Ukraine realize their economic plight means considerable imminent hardship?

Ukraine is bankrupt. It has wavered on the cusp for some time. However, it is about to suffer the cruelest indignity: discovering that Western politicians who promised prosperity have been encouraging the IMF to deliver a leveraged poisoned chalice.

Maidan dreams are turning abruptly into a nightmare as coup gives way to penury. Siren voices from the West have lured the Ukrainian economic ship on to the rocks with the IMF about to launch a lifeboat - replete with economic subjugation as bondholders get paid and citizens suffer.

Greek authorities ban protests in central Athens, but demonstrations are planned outside the prohibited areas

Press TV
Tue, 01 Apr 2014 06:45 UTC

People demonstrate outside the Greek parliament in Athens on March 30, 2014

Greek authorities have banned demonstrations in many areas of central Athens amid meetings of finance ministers of the European Union.

The meetings, scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, will discuss Greece's austerity program and market reforms demanded under the terms of the government's international bailouts.

Labor unions and leftwing groups have called for three separate demonstrations Tuesday outside the prohibited areas.

UN ends 15 years of history with Sierra Leone

Famagusta Gazette
Tue, 01 Apr 2014 06:14 UTC

The United Nations is leaving Sierra Leone, once home to the largest peacekeeping force in the history of the organization, after 15 years of engagement.

More than 17,000 "blue helmets" were deployed at the height of Sierra Leone's civil war to disarm rebel militias and return this West African nation to stability.

31 March 2014 marks the official end of the UN Integrated Peace building Office in Sierra Leone (UNIPSIL), the third and final phase of the UN involvement in the country.

Comment: UN 'peacekeepers' also engaged in sexual abuse and exploitation of children in the African country, but we don't expect this to be mentioned in an article that brags about UN's good deeds.

For more about Sierra Leone's recent history, read:

Would The Real War Criminals Please Stand Up

Glen Greenwald criticizes NSA for staged leaks

RT
Mon, 31 Mar 2014 16:35 UTC

Reeling from the leak of classified data, NSA officials have anticipated future leaks by sometimes announcing them to the media preemptively, a minimization tactic according to one of the journalists still holding the intel agency's documents.

Glenn Greenwald, formerly of The Guardian and now of First Look Media, penned a column Monday criticizing both US National Security Agency brass and what he sees as complicit reporters for their role in repeating unverified claims about the intelligence agency.

The outspoken columnist ripped outgoing NSA Director General Keith Alexander, who will be replaced at the top of the agency soon, for trying to prey on the public's emotions.

Comment: For more reading on this subject, check out:
About that 'greatest whistleblower ever': Ellsberg, Snowden, and the Secret Team

Winternights3 There's probs a good connection! Just think about it.

sbc

Moving the goalposts. and people are too shit stupid to notice or care

sbc

Hang em... All the jab pushers. At this point they are trying very hard to continue blatant bullshit lies in a bid for total societal control

sbc

It was interesting when the brothers (their family owns the dealerships/service center that were vandalized - something of like 130+ cars burned...

Scoot Over

I ain't going to watch any more than I didn't watch the OJ trial, which ended exactly as I predicted. The thing is that the state should have...

Rowan Cocoan

Puppet Masters

Engine-maker Caterpillar accused of hiding $8 billion in Swiss tax havens

U.S. Defense Secretary favors ban of tobacco sales on all military bases and ships

Russian lawmakers: Draft legislation endorsed for satellite navigation hub in Nicaragua

Delaware judge excuses wealthy child-rapist from prison because "he would not fare well"

Ukraine crisis: NATO ministers to meet in Brussels

Nigel Farage's appearances on Russia Today come under scrutiny

Economic Shock Doctrine: IMF to accelerate Ukraine's economic collapse?

Greek authorities ban protests in central Athens, but demonstrations are planned outside the prohibited areas

UN ends 15 years of history with Sierra Leone

Glen Greenwald criticizes NSA for staged leaks

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