Puppet MastersS


Bomb

Al Qaeda kills 34 civilians in twin bomb attack on Damascus

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© AFPWednesday's attacks were the fourth time Jaramana was targeted by the West's Al Qaeda agents since August
Two explosions in eastern Damascus have left at least 34 dead, according to Syrian hospital officials.

The state-run SANA news agency said two cars packed with explosives detonated early on Wednesday morning in the capital's eastern Jaramana district, populated mostly by the Christian and Druze minorities.

Among the dead were 10 unidentified bodies, according to SANA. Another 83 people were reported be injured.

Al Jazeera's Rula Amin, reporting from Beirut, said: "When people gathered to try to rescue those injured in the first explosion, another big explosion took place."

Local residents said the series of bomb attacks took place at 6:30am (04:30 GMT) in a location where forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, are stationed to defend the area against the armed opposition.

Star of David

Yasser Arafat exhumed and reburied in six-hour night mission

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© Abbas Momani/AFP/Getty ImagesYasser Arafat's mausoleum, where tarpaulin obscured the entrance during his exhumation.
Yasser Arafat was buried eight years ago to a chorus of gunfire before a crowd of thousands amid the rubble of his Ramallah headquarters. Yesterday, the gravediggers who came to disinter him slipped in under cover of darkness. For hours they hacked through the several metres of concrete that were supposed to ensure that no one could ever desecrate his body. The Palestinian leadership had the Israelis in mind when it buried the old revolutionary so deep and secure.

Eight years after his death, it was Arafat's widow, Suha, who had him brought up again as part of a French murder investigation into whether he was slowly killed by a radioactive poison, polonium-210 - the same substance used to murder the former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006 - after it was detected on his clothes earlier this year.

The plan had been to move Arafat's corpse to a mosque for religious rites to be observed before samples were taken by rival teams of scientists hired by Suha and the Palestinian Authority, who are deeply distrustful of each other. After that, there was to be a reburial with full military honours.

Comment: Did the Mossad Murder Arafat?


Star of David

Brzezinski to U.S.: Stop following Israel on Iran like a stupid mule

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Leading US strategist Zbigniew Brzezinski, unofficial dean of the realist school of American foreign policy experts, has drawn an unflattering picture of US-Israel relations.

In a speech to the National Iranian American Council, Brzezinski said, "I don't think there is an implicit obligation for the United States to follow like a stupid mule whatever the Israelis do. If they decide to start a war, simply on the assumption that we'll automatically be drawn into it, I think it is the obligation of friendship to say, 'you're not going to be making national decision for us.' I think that the United States has the right to have its own national security policy."

By denying any US "obligation" to "follow like a stupid mule whatever the Israelis do," Brzezinski accurately implied that this is exactly what the US has been doing up until now. And by plaintively opining that "the United States has the right to have its own national security policy," the former National Security Adviser underlined the fact that since the assassination of John F. Kennedy, who secretly went to war with Ben Gurion in a doomed effort to abort the Israeli nuclear weapons program, the US has not enjoyed that right.

Comment: The American mule is not "finally waking up." At best, the US elite is just doing what appears to have been planned all along, to cut their Israeli counterparts loose.


People

6 chilling testimonies from occupied Palestine

Smoke rises following an Israeli attack in Gaza City
© AP/Adel HanaSmoke rises following an Israeli attack in Gaza City.
Israeli veterans speak out about the realities of their country's military policies in Gaza and other territories

This piece originally appeared on TomDispatch.

"There is no country on Earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders," President Barack Obama said at a press conference last week. He drew on this general observation in order to justify Operation Pillar of Defense, Israel's most recent military campaign in the Gaza Strip. In describing the situation this way, he assumes, like many others, that Gaza is a political entity external and independent of Israel. This is not so. It is true that Israel officially disengaged from the Gaza Strip in August 2005, withdrawing its ground troops and evacuating the Israeli settlements there. But despite the absence of a permanent ground presence, Israel has maintained a crushing control over Gaza from that moment until today.

The testimonies of Israeli army veterans expose the truth of that "disengagement." Before Operation Pillar of Defense, after all, Israel launched Operations Summer Rains and Autumn Clouds in 2006, and Hot Winter and Cast Lead in 2008 - all involving ground invasions. In one testimony, a veteran speaks of "a battalion operation" in Gaza that lasted for five months, where the soldiers were ordered to shoot "to draw out terrorists" so they "could kill a few."

Israeli naval blockades stop Gazans from fishing, a main source of food in the Strip. Air blockades prevent freedom of movement. Israel does not allow building materials into the area, forbids exports to the West Bank and Israel, and (other than emergency humanitarian cases) prohibits movement between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. It controls the Palestinian economy by periodically withholding import taxes. Its restrictions have impeded the expansion and upgrading of the Strip's woeful sewage infrastructure, which could render life in Gaza untenable within a decade. The blocking of seawater desalination has turned the water supply into a health hazard. Israel has repeatedly demolished small power plants in Gaza, ensuring that the Strip would have to continue to rely on the Israeli electricity supply. Daily power shortages have been the norm for several years now. Israel's presence is felt everywhere, militarily and otherwise.

By relying on factual misconceptions, political leaders, deliberately or not, conceal information that is critical to our understanding of events. Among the people best qualified to correct those misconceptions are the individuals who have been charged with executing a state's policies - in this case, Israeli soldiers themselves, an authoritative source of information about their government's actions. I am a veteran of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), and I know that our first-hand experiences refute the assumption, accepted by many, including President Obama, that Gaza is an independent political entity that exists wholly outside Israel. If Gaza is outside Israel, how come we were stationed there? If Gaza is outside Israel, how come we control it? Oded Na'aman

[The testimonies by Israeli veterans that follow are taken from 145 collected by the nongovernmental organization Breaking the Silence and published in Our Harsh Logic: Israeli Soldiers' Testimonies From the Occupied Territories, 2000-2010. Those in the book represent every division in the IDF and all locations in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.]

MIB

Propaganda Alert: Diagram suggests Iran working on nuclear bomb

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© Associated PressThe undated diagram that was given to the AP by officials of a country critical of Iran's atomic program allegedly calculating the explosive force of a nuclear weapon - a key step in developing such arms. The diagram shows a bell curve and has variables of time in micro-seconds and power and energy, both in kilotons - the traditional measurement of the energy output, and hence the destructive power of nuclear weapons.
Iranian scientists have run computer simulations for a nuclear weapon that would produce more than triple the explosive force of the World War II bomb that destroyed Hiroshima, according to a diagram obtained by The Associated Press.

The diagram was leaked by officials from a country critical of Iran's atomic program to bolster their arguments that Iran's nuclear program must be halted before it produces a weapon. The officials provided the diagram only on condition that they and their country not be named.

The International Atomic Energy Agency - the Vienna-based U.N. nuclear watchdog - reported last year that it had obtained diagrams indicating that Iran was calculating the "nuclear explosive yield" of potential weapons. A senior diplomat who is considered neutral on the issue confirmed that the graph obtained by the AP was indeed one of those cited by the IAEA in that report. He spoke only on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue.

The IAEA report mentioning the diagrams last year did not give details of what they showed. But the diagram seen by the AP shows a bell curve - with variables of time in micro-seconds, and power and energy both in kilotons - the traditional measurement of the energy output, and hence the destructive power of nuclear weapons. The curve peaks at just above 50 kilotons at around 2 microseconds, reflecting the full force of the weapon being modeled.

Comment: "The diagram has a caption in Farsi..." yet the image itself is in English.


Bomb

Explosion destroys part of Egypt's intelligence building in Sinai

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© AFP Egyptian security forces stand by their Armored Personnel Carriers ahead of a military operation in the northern Sinai peninsula.
Witnesses from the Egyptian town of Rafah in Sinai said that a very strong explosion occurred Saturday evening in the Egyptian military facility belonging to the Egyptian border guards, which is still under construction. It is located behind the Rafah Central Hospital, where smoke and fire were seen while the explosion rocked Rafah.

A senior military Egyptian source said the explosion led to destroying part of the intelligence building in the Egyptian city of Rafah near Gaza, the MENA news agency reported. According to the same source, large numbers of security forces were deployed at the scene of the explosion, and the area has been sealed due to a search for possible explosives.

The source did not mention any details about possible victims, saying only that this incident will increase the determination of the army and the police to continue their war against terrorism.

Stormtrooper

Saudi terrorists top list of hunted rebels in Syria

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© Unknown
Saudi Arabia topped the list of the foreign countries with the highest number of terrorist nationals killed in clashes with the Syrian army, media reports revealed on Tuesday.

The list, submitted to the United Nations by the Syrian mission to the international body last month, indicates that most of the Saudi nationals killed in Syria are members of al-Qaeda, Arabic-language al-Watan newspaper quoted an informed Syrian source as saying.

According to the list, a majority of the terrorists have been killed in Aleppo, Homs, Idlib, and Deir al-Zour provinces.

Moreover, most terrorists have been Takfiri members of al-Qaeda, who had crossed into Syria via Turkish borders.

Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Qatar, and Lebanon followed Saudi Arabia in the list of the countries which have the highest number of terrorist elements in Syria.

Non-Arab countries included Afghanistan, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Chad.

USA

François Hollande wants to sponsor Islamic emirates

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© Présidence de la République - Laurent Bienvennec On 17 November, François Hollande welcomed at the Elysée Palace a delegation from the Syrian National Coalition headed by Sheikh Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib. Backing subversive or terrorist activities by armed groups bent on toppling the regime of another State through violence constitutes a crime according to the United Nations Charter and the Declaration on Principles of International Law.
France claims to be at the forefront of the fight for freedom in Syria. In fact, she brazenly violates the basic principles of international law to fulfill her dream of re-colonization of a country she held from 1923 to 1944. This ambition has led her to support the creation of Islamic Emirates at the risk of opening the door to a world confrontation.

In his speech at the General Assembly of the United Nations on the 25th September, French President François Hollande confirmed his conviction that regime change in Syria was "certain", and that Paris would therefore recognise "the interim government representing the new Syria as soon as it is formed." He also imagined he would be able to choose it himself, by invoking the authority of the National Council, a puppet organisation created by the DGSE1 and financed by Qatar.

However, the United States very quickly regained control. State Secretary Hillary Clinton denounced the representativity of the National Council, which she said was composed of people "who have not been to Syria for 20, 30, or 40 years", and organised its sabotage. During the Doha Round meeting, which took place on the 11th November under the auspices of the Arab League, US ambassador Robert Ford absorbed the National Council into the National Coalition, which is placed directly under his control. Naturally, that did nothing to improve the knowledge of Syria for those who hadn't been there for "20, 30, or 40 years", but it was enough to modify the judgement of the State Department - since these people now take their orders directly from Washington, they are considered legitimate.

Bad Guys

No conscience: Americans living in Israel sue U.S. government

Two dozen American citizens living in Israel filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government over its funding to the Palestinian Authority and other groups operating in the West Bank and Gaza.

The lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court for Washington, alleges that the U.S. State Department, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, violated the Anti-Terrorism Act and disregarded the congressional safeguards and reporting requirements that are attached to American aid to the Palestinian Authority.

Thus, according to the lawsuit, federal money has fallen into the hands of Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Palestinian Liberation Organization and other supporters of terrorism against civilians who live in Israel.

Successive U.S. administrations have gone on record as saying that controls are in place to keep funds from reaching terrorists.

Che Guevara

Bradley Manning to testify at his pretrial hearing

Bradley Manning
© unknownPfc. Bradley Manning
The soldier has not spoken publicly in two years.

Pfc. Bradley Manning will testify at his Fort Meade pretrial hearing Tuesday - it will be the accused whistleblower's first public speaking appearance since 2010.

Manning is expected to speak about his treatment at the Marine Corps brig in Quantico as his attorney David Coombs aims to show that his detainment constituted illegal pretrial punishment, such that Manning's charges should be reduced or dismissed. Coombs has described his client's first months in the brig as "the functional equivalent of solitary confinement" - confined to a 6-by-8-foot cell, with no window or natural light, for more than 23 hours each day.

Via the Baltimore Sun:
He was awakened at 5 a.m. each morning and required to remain awake until 10 p.m., according to his lawyers. He was not permitted to lie on his bed or lean against the cell wall. He was not allowed to exercise in his cell.

Guards were required to check on his well-being every five minutes. If they could not see him - if he was asleep under his blanket or turned to the wall - they would wake him.

His lawyers contend that those and other "egregious" conditions at the base near Washington amounted to illegal pretrial punishment.

In court papers, lawyer David Coombs said commanders kept Manning in maximum-security custody and on prevention-of-injury status - under which he was not allowed a regular blanket or pillow, and forced to undergo the regular guard checks - in spite of a favorable security assessment and the recommendations of brig psychiatrists.
At least two military psychiatrists are likely to testify Tuesday that they recommended on numerous occasions that Manning be taken off the "prevention of injury" order. Quantico commanders in charge of the brig during the nine months in which Manning was held there are also believed to be testifying today.