Puppet MastersS


MIB

Tell me who your friends are: 'Mossad cooperates with Saudis, Bahrain'


PressTV
Sat, 08 Mar 2014 09:36 UTC
Image
Mossad has close cooperation with Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, Israeli military says.
Israel says its Mossad spying agency has close cooperation with Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

A report published on the Israeli military's official website said that other countries that cooperate with Tel Aviv are the United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan and the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The report claimed that Bahrain has been providing Israel with intelligence on Iranian and Palestinian organizations.

The report also highlights the growing secret cooperation with Saudi Arabia, claiming that Mossad has been in direct contact with Saudi intelligence about Iran's nuclear energy program.

The report says Tel Aviv has gathered intelligence on Iran through sources in Azerbaijan.
Read More...
Wall Street

Healthy economy requires fewer people working on Wall Street, making much less money

Les Leopold
Alternet
Wed, 05 Mar 2014 00:00 UTC
Image
© Wikimedia Commons/Lane Worthy
"I wish someone would give me one shred of neutral evidence that financial innovation has led to economic growth - one shred of evidence." - Paul Volker (2009)
All of us suspect the obvious - that Wall Street not only is too big to fail, but also just too damn big. But where's our evidence? It's one thing to direct our anger at financial elites and the top one percent. It's quite another to make a factual case that Wall Street, indeed, is much too big, and therefore should be radically reduced in size. So here's some data.

1. Explosion in Financial Sector Incomes But No Rise in Economic Growth

Check out this chart: Between WWII and 1980, the wages of financial workers were the same as those who worked in non-financial industries. Then the two lines split apart with Wall Street extracting an enormous premium. Do the financiers deserve it? And how would we know if they do or don't? The answer should depend on how much value the financial sector, in fact, produces for our economy. Is there a correlation between the explosion in Wall Street incomes and economic growth?

Yes, there is, but it's negative. As Wall Street wages rise, economic growth slows down.
1950s (1950-1959): 4.17 percent
1960s (1960-1969): 4.44 percent
1970s (1970-1979): 3.26 percent
1980s (1980-1989): 3.05 percent
1990s (1990-1999): 3.2 percent
2000s (2000-2009): 1.82 percent
[Source for these unemployment numbers ]
Read More...
War Whore

Pentagon chief: U.S. to increase military support to Poland and Baltic states


The Raw Story
Wed, 05 Mar 2014 11:11 UTC
Image
© Inquiry-mr.com
The United States plans to expand military cooperation with Poland and Baltic states to show "support" for its allies after Russia's intervention in Ukraine, Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel said Wednesday.

"This morning the Defense Department is pursuing measures to support our allies," including expanded aviation training in Poland and increasing the US role in NATO's air policing mission over Baltic countries, Hagel told lawmakers.

At the same hearing, General Martin Dempsey, the US military's top officer, said he had spoken to his Russian counterpart, General Valery Gerasimov, earlier Wednesday, urging "restraint."

Hagel also said NATO's top commander and head of the US European Command, General Philip Breedlove, planned to confer with Central and Eastern European defense chiefs.

"This is a time for wise, steady, and firm leadership," Hagel told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Comment: War Whores want your money: Military's top general propaganda on nation's defense

Read More...
Bad Guys

Shortsighted EU slaps initial sanctions on Russia

Mike Corder and Juergen Baetz
ABC News
Thu, 06 Mar 2014 10:30 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/Geert Vanden WijngaertBritish Prime Minister David Cameron speaks during a media conference at an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday, March 6, 2014
The European Union suspended talks with Russia on a wide-ranging economic pact and a visa agreement Thursday in response to its military incursion into Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, threatening tougher sanctions unless Moscow swiftly defuses the crisis.

The moves at an emergency EU summit came on the heels of visa and financial sanctions the Obama administration imposed on Russians and Ukrainians over the military incursion into Crimea.

EU President Herman Van Rompuy said further measures could include travel bans, asset freezes and the cancellation of an EU-Russia summit if Moscow does not quickly end its aggression and joins meaningful, multilateral talks within days to halt the crisis.

"We are in close coordination with the United States on this," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said. "We cannot go back to business as usual" with Russia, she added.

However, the EU's latest sanctions appeared weak compared to the U.S. ones and to what some more hawkish EU countries wanted, particularly those bordering Russia. Poland's leader noted the resistance to penalizing Moscow remains fairly high among some members of the 28-nation bloc because of Europe's close proximity, energy dependence and trade ties to Russia.
Read More...
Question

'Ask Zelda', the NSA's equivalent of 'Dear Abby'

Peter Maass
The Intercept
Fri, 07 Mar 2014 08:06 UTC
spying
© unknown
What if the National Security Agency had its own advice columnist? What would the eavesdroppers ask about?

You don't need to guess. An NSA official, writing under the pen name "Zelda," has actually served at the agency as a Dear Abby for spies. Her "Ask Zelda!" columns, distributed on the agency's intranet and accessible only to those with the proper security clearance, are among the documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. The columns are often amusing - topics include co-workers falling asleep on the job, sodas being stolen from shared fridges, supervisors not responding to emails, and office-mates who smell bad. But one of the most intriguing involves a letter from an NSA staffer who complains that his (or her) boss is spying on employees.

In the letter, which Zelda published in a column on September 9, 2011, the employee calls himself "Silenced in SID" - referring to the Signals Intelligence Directorate, the heart of the NSA's surveillance operations. Zelda's column, headlined "Watching Every Word in Snitch City," offers an ironic insight into a spy agency where the spies apparently resent being spied upon.
Read More...
USA

Will Obama declare Martial Law before 2016?


The Traders Wire
Tue, 04 Mar 2014 00:00 UTC
Image
© Unknown
If you're like me you are paying attention to what is transpiring within our government. Many senior General officers are being fired (or "retired early"). Homeland Security, the Internal Revenue Service, the Social Security Administration and several other federal agencies are soliciting for hollow point ammunition on the pretext it will be used for "target practice." Why does the Social Security Administration need hollow point ammo for target practice, you may ask? They don't, but since the information about DHS soliciting for millions of rounds has some people alarmed, the government has decided to spread-out the purchases amongst other agencies as not to alarm the civilian population. This also coincides with foreign troops (Russian) practicing crowd control maneuvers on American soil. There has been an American "practice town" built for just this purpose. I could site more instances regarding FEMA camps and even the American 3rd Infantry Division's new mission, but you get the idea, right?

Barack Hussein Obama is making power grabs more and more; and is openly circumventing the Congress to consolidate more power to the office of the president. This should have some people very alarmed.

I have received information about railroad tracks for military use only set up at these FEMA camps, in fact, empty boxcars that would deliver human cargo. Are you starting to get the picture yet?
Read More...
USA

Obama can't spell... But he can sure spend your money

Jeff Crouere
Finance Townhall
Sat, 08 Mar 2014 09:25 UTC
Image
© Unknown
It has been another disastrous week for President Obama. In a new Fox News poll, the President's approval rating is at 38 percent, the lowest score of his presidency. Americans are unhappy with his handling of the economy, healthcare, and foreign policy. In effect, people are dissatisfied with his entire agenda because nothing is working.

The economy is still in the doldrums and job creation is very weak. The unemployment rate moved up to 6.7 percent in February, but the real situation is much worse as millions of Americans have become despondent and left the workforce.

The President's signature program, Obamacare, is a disaster that continues to unfold. In a new survey of uninsured people, we learned that only 10 percent will sign up for a private plan available under the new marketplaces. This low number is a clear indication that Obamacare, which was billed as a way to reduce the number of uninsured in the country, is failing.

In the Ukraine, Vladimir Putin is strengthening his grip on Crimea, despite the President's warnings. Compared to Putin, Obama looks weak and indecisive. Whether the issue is Syria, missile defense or the Ukrainian crisis, Putin seems to outmaneuver the President each time.

After such a tough week, it was no surprise that the President wanted to relax and forget about his troubles last night. He hosted a White House celebration for the legendary women of soul music. Unfortunately, during his introduction of Aretha Franklin, the President misspelled the word "respect."
Read More...
USA

SOTT Focus: Imperial Hubris: Ukraine as a 'regime change' too far for the American Empire

Joe Quinn
Sott.net
Sat, 08 Mar 2014 05:44 UTC
Image
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. He is the great and powerful OZ!
All anti-imperialists that have been secretly longing for the day when the last great Empire of our 'modern' era would finally do what all the 'best' Empires have done - overextend itself in both reach and hubris for all to see and usher in its collapse - should be looking at the situation in Ukraine with hope and expectation.

Well, maybe I'm getting a little carried away there, but the US-Ukraine-Russia debacle does seem to be presenting 'we the people' with a rare opportunity to see the great American Empire as the monolithic edifice, composed largely of lies, propaganda, rhetoric, fear and public credulity that it is. There is, perhaps, a chance to see that the emperor really is naked, and that our overblown overlords and their "greatest democracy on earth" exist and persist only because we all believe their carefully crafted lies served up to us in the yellow journalism of the Empire's fourth estate, the mainstream media.

As the empire fades and the hubris of its leaders increases however, it seems even those carefully crafted lies aren't having the desired effect. This week, both Obama and John Kerry exposed America's vaunted 'exceptionalism' as being based on exceptional dishonesty when they made statements about Russian intervention in Ukraine. The funny thing is, both Obama and Kerry were actually trying to do the opposite - present themselves as paragons of righteousness. Apparently the Neocons from whom they take their orders failed to mention to these two spokesmen for Empire that 'chutzpah' should never be pushed too far, lest you expose your unmitigated effrontery and impudence for all the world to see.
Read More...
USA

Flashback Best of the Web: RT exposes the hypocrisy of U.S. intervention in Ukraine and elsewhere: Ukraine 'revolution' followed leaked CIA regime change manual to the letter


RT
Sun, 29 Dec 2013 05:21 UTC
Image
America's crusade for total world domination
Happy Xmas Ukraine! Openly pro-Nazi rioters ripping up paving stones for weapons and driving bulldozers at people get sweets from America's Asst. Secretary of State, the surprisingly long list of countries where the US attempts regime change under cover of 'human rights'; and George Clooney becomes the Pentagon's sexy new weapon.

Seek truth from facts with Humanitarian Imperialism author Jean Bricmont, UN Human Rights Rapporteur Richard Falk, political analyst Richard Becker, Asia Times' Pepe Escobar, On Immoral Interventionism author Gilad Atzmon, and 'worth 500,000 dead kids' Madeleine Albright.


Transcript below:
Read More...
Propaganda

Pusillanimous Politics: U.S. Senators cry for Russia to be kicked out of 2018 World Cup

Martin Pengelly
The Guardian
Fri, 07 Mar 2014 12:32 UTC
Image
© Mikhail Klimentyev/Ria Novosti/Kremlin Pool/EPAFifa president Sepp Blatter, left, and Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller, right, exchange documents as Russian President Vladimir Putin and sports minister Vitaly Mutko applaud. Gazprom will sponsor the 2018 World Cup.

Two US senators have written to Fifa, the governing body of world football, to request that Russia be banned from the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and stripped of the right to host the 2018 tournament, over its invasion of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula.

The US and the European Union have imposed economic sanctions on the government of President Vladimir Putin, in response to the occupation of Ukrainian military bases and transport and infrastructure facilities which began last week.

In their letter to the Fifa chairman, Sepp Blatter, Mark Kirk of Illinois and Dan Coates of Indiana, both Republicans, cite the exclusion of Yugoslavia from the 1992 European Championship and 1994 World Cup and say: "Since Russia has similarly displayed a brazen disrespect for fundamental principles of Fifa and international law, [we] hope you will agree that it doesn't deserve the honour of either hosting the World Cup or participating in one.

Comment: Yet more sophomoric, unimpressive drivel from US politicians. Now they want to exclude the unpopular kid from their football game!

Read More...