Puppet MastersS

Pistol

British oil executive shot dead in apparent professional hit in Brussels two weeks ago, Belgian authorities censored all press coverage until now

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© Steenpoel Golf Club/APExxonMobil executive Nicholas Mockford (center)
Two men were spotted running away from scene of Nicholas Mockford's killing on 14 October, reports say

A British oil executive has been shot dead in front of his wife in Belgium.

Nicholas Mockford, 60, an executive for ExxonMobil, was shot three times as he left an Italian restaurant in a suburb of Brussels. His wife, Mary, was left beaten and covered in blood, cradling her husband and shouting for help.

Witnesses said they saw the couple walk across the street to their Lexus car before shots were fired. Reports suggest two men were spotted running away from the scene, one holding a motorcycle helmet.

The shooting is understood to have happened on 14 October, but the news has only now emerged after Belgian police imposed a reporting blackout.

The Daily Telegraph said police in Belgium were considering all possible motives for the shooting, including an attempted carjacking, although Mockford's car was not stolen.

Bad Guys

Get out of jail free: Silvio Berlusconi sentenced to four years in jail for tax fraud - but will serve none

Silvio Berlusconi
© David Gadd/Allstar/Sportsphoto LtdSilvio Berlusconi and his co-defendants were also told to pay damages provisionally set at โ‚ฌ10m.
Italian former prime minister, who also faces accusations of sex with underage prostitute, can appeal twice more against ruling

Silvio Berlusconi was sentenced to four years' jail by an Italian court on Friday at the end of a lengthy trial for tax fraud related to the acquisition of TV rights by his company Mediaset - but it remains unlikely he will ever see a prison cell.

Under the Italian legal system, the country's former prime minister will be entitled to two appeals before a definitive sentence. Berlusconi's sentence will also be reduced to one year under a 2006 measure that stripped three years off sentences for crimes committed before that date.

Cult

Jimmy Savile scandal exposes pedophile network at heart of British establishment

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UK Foreign Secretary William Hague, responsible for MI6, with mega-predator Jimmy Savile
The BBC stopped an investigation, by Newsnight, into allegations that BBC TV entertainer Sir Jimmy Savile sexually abused a teenage girl at the BBC's Television Centre.

BBC shelved Jimmy Savile sex abuse investigation 'to protect its own reputation'

A woman told Newsnight that Savile molested her when she was 14 or 15.

Newsnight found several women who said that Savile groomed and abused teenagers.

Newsnight was told of claims that two other TV celebrities, still alive, sexually abused girls at Television Centre in the 1970s.

The BBC bosses ordered that the investigation be dropped.

Eye 1

Secret Service officer charged with sexually assaulting teenager

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© Screenshot from YouTube user InteractiveHealingHector Reynaldo Cuellar.
An US Secret Service agent assigned to protect the residence of Vice President Joe Biden was arrested by authorities this week and charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old female family member.

Hector Reynaldo Cuellar, of Woodbridge, Virginia was picked up by police on Monday following a law enforcement probe that investigated accusations that the man sexually assaulted the girl several times between August and October of this year, Fox News reports.

The US Secret Service has offered little comment on the arrest, but has issued a statement to Fox confirming the agency has been made aware of the charges. Cuellar, the statement reads, "has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of judicial action."

Folder

United Nations to begin investigating U.S. drone strike targeted kills

drones espรญasโ€Ž
© hispantv.com
The White House defends the deaths of civilians they've caused with drone strikes overseas, but as the number of casualties created by the remote-control murder machines perpetually soar, the United Nations says they will soon start an investigation.

Ben Emmerson, the UN special rapporteur on counter-terror operations, told an audience at Harvard law school this week that a sub-section of the international organization will begin focusing next year on the Obama administration's extrajudicial killings of suspected insurgents and the innocent civilians all too often executed in the process.

Speaking before a room of students Thursday afternoon in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Emmerson told the crowd that he will be launching "an investigation unit within the special procedures of the [UN] Human Rights Council to inquire into individual drone attacks."

According to Emmerson, the probe will be spearheaded by himself and Christof Heyns, the UN's special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.

Bomb

At least 41 dead in Afghan "suicide attack" during Eid prayers

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© Agence France-PresseThe last suicide attack in Maymana city of Faryab province, north of Kabul occurred on April 4, 2012.
At least 41 people were killed and 50 more injured after a suicide bomber attacked a mosque in Afghanistan's northern city of Maymana, local officials reported. Worshipers had gathered at the mosque to celebrate the Eid al-Adha Islamic holiday.

"Our latest death toll shows 41 deaths, and that might rise," Deputy provincial governor Abdul Satar Barez told AFP, adding that five children were among the dead.

The bomber was reportedly wearing a police uniform when he detonated his explosives in front of the Mosque.

Local authorities said that there were several police officers amoung the dead. The provincial governor and police chief were in attendance at the prayer service, and were reportedly nearly killed.

"There was blood and dead bodies everywhere,'' Khaled, a doctor in the mosque at the time of the attack told AFP. "It was a massacre."

Bomb

Propaganda Alert! Benghazi consulate attack suspect killed in Egypt, security source says

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© Str/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesA vehicle in flames inside the US consulate compound in Benghazi, Libya after the attack of 11 September.
Source says Karim Ahmed Essam el-Azizi was killed by bomb which he attempted to use against security forces in raid.

A Libyan militant suspected by Egypt of involvement in last month's attack on the US consulate in Libya has been killed in a raid by Egyptian security forces in Cairo, according to security officials. The Libyan was killed on Wednesday in a raid that targeted him and other militants with suspected links to al-Qaida in Cairo's eastern district of Nasr City, the official said. Four Egyptian militants were detained in the operation, he added.

The Libyan, identified as Karim Ahmed Essam el-Azizi, was killed by a bomb he had tried to use against the security forces during the raid, the security official said. It was not immediately clear what role Azizi had played in the assault on the US consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi on 11 September, in which the ambassador, Chris Stevens, and three other Americans were killed.

Comment: Benghazi Attacks, Political Theatre and Wild Speculations


Bad Guys

'Hypocrisy' of police violence in Nobel-winning EU

A study into the way austerity protests have been policed reveals a bleak picture of human rights in the EU that jars with the award of the Nobel Peace Prize, says Amnesty
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Over the last couple of weeks, European Union leaders have been basking in the glow of their recent Nobel Peace Prize. There is some credence to the award - since its formation after the Second World War the EU has made notable progress on human rights across the continent and promoted peace and democracy, as the Nobel committee noted.

Yet just two weeks on, Amnesty International has revealed a staggering hypocrisy that perhaps the award-givers should have taken into consideration. A new hard-hitting briefing on the policing of austerity protests in the EU paints a very bleak picture of human rights in the continent.

Concentrating on Greece, Romania and Spain, it shows how protesters have been beaten and kicked, sprayed with tear gas, and shot at and wounded with rubber bullets by police officers. The abuses have gone un-investigated and unpunished - hardly the behaviour of an organisation worthy of winning the Nobel. If the EU truly wants to justify its award then it needs to get to grips with its police services.

There is no doubt that this is a testing time. As austerity measures begin to hit hard over the forthcoming months, we will see more protests. The EU needs to step up to the mark and ensure the way these demonstrations are policed does not lead to a new wave of violence. Yes, the police are responsible for public safety and law and order. However, they must also ensure that everyone within their territories can enjoy the right to peaceful assembly.

Comment: The hypocrisy of the EU receiving the Nobel Peace Prize goes far beyond police brutality during austerity protests in Europe.

War Is Peace: European Union Wins 2012 Nobel Peace Prize


Whistle

Flashback Israel "Wiped off The Map": The rumor of the century, fabricated by the U.S. media to justify an all out war on Iran

Global Research Editor's Note

The following text by Arash Norouzi first published by the Mossadegh Project and Global Research in January 2007 confirms that the alleged "Wiped Off the Map" statement by Iran's president was never made.

The rumor was fabricated by the American media with a view to discrediting Iran's head of state and providing a justification for waging an all out war on Iran. the article provides of media manipulation and "propaganda in action".

Iran is blamed for refusing to abide by the "reasonable demands" of "the international community".

Realities are twisted and turned upside down. Iran is being accused of wanting to start a war. Inherent in US military doctrine, the victims of war are heralded as the aggressor.

The threat to global security comes from the US-NATO-Israel military alliance, which is now threatening Iran with a pre-emptive attack with nuclear warheads.

If Iran is attacked, we are potentially in a World War III scenario.

It is essential to dispel the fabrications of the Western media.

Iran does not constitute a threat to to Global Security.

Iran does not possess a nuclear weapons program. Iran does not constitute a threat to Israel.

Michel Chossudovsky, 25 September 2010
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Wiped Off The Map: The Rumor of the Century

by Arash Norouzi
Global Research, January 20, 2007
The Mossadegh Project

Across the world, a dangerous rumor has spread that could have catastrophic implications. According to legend, Iran's President has threatened to destroy Israel, or, to quote the misquote, "Israel must be wiped off the map". Contrary to popular belief, this statement was never made, as the following article will prove.

Background:

On Tuesday, October 25th, 2005 at the Ministry of Interior conference hall in Tehran, newly elected Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivered a speech at a program, reportedly attended by thousands, titled "The World Without Zionism". Large posters surrounding him displayed this title prominently in English, obviously for the benefit of the international press. Below the poster's title was a slick graphic depicting an hour glass containing planet Earth at its top. Two small round orbs representing the United States and Israel are shown falling through the hour glass' narrow neck and crashing to the bottom.

Before we get to the infamous remark, it's important to note that the "quote" in question was itself a quote - they are the words of the late Ayatollah Khomeini, the father of the Islamic Revolution. Although he quoted Khomeini to affirm his own position on Zionism, the actual words belong to Khomeini and not Ahmadinejad. Thus, Ahmadinejad has essentially been credited (or blamed) for a quote that is not only unoriginal, but represents a viewpoint already in place well before he ever took office.

Cowboy Hat

Good Old Southern Democracy: Texas threatens to arrest international monitors sent to watch U.S. election

Greg Abbott
© AFP Photo / Brendan SmialowskiTexas Attorney General Greg Abbott.
A handful of international election monitors have touched down in the US to swing by polling places next month when voters cast ballots for the president, but officials in the state of Texas have issued them a warning: you're not welcome.

State Attorney General Greg Abbott has sent a scathing letter to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, threatening to arrest any of the election auditors that have been dispatched to America to ensure that voters won't be disenfranchised, discriminated against or intimidated when they take to the polls on November 6.