Puppet MastersS


Star of David

UN Sides with Israel Against Its Victims, Flotilla Massacre Report Whitewashes Strangulation of Gaza

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© ReutersHumanitarian activists from many countries, wearing life jackets, hold a news conference on board the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, before they were gunned down by Israeli butchers. The UN apparently doesn't give a damn about human rights.
Report backs Israel's right to defend itself but says assault on pro-Palestinian flotilla was 'excessive and unreasonable'

A United Nations investigation has backed Israel's naval blockade of Gaza as legal but said its military assault on a flotilla of pro-Palestinian activists last year, in which nine Turks were killed, was "excessive and unreasonable".

The report notes that Israel has not satisfactorily explained how it is that most of the dead were shot multiple times, including in the back, and at close range. But it also said the organisers of the flotilla acted "recklessly" in attempting to breach the blockade.

The report is expected to be released on Friday after months of delay because of a dispute between Israel and Turkey over its contents and Ankara's demand for an apology from Israel for the deaths of its citizens.

War Whore

Sarkozy Hopes Libya Can Boost France's Reputation - As Well As His Own

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© Reuters
The French president intends France to succeed in Libya where the US failed in Iraq

Libya is Nicolas Sarkozy's date with history. Behind the scenes of the Paris conference on Tripoli's future, the president was said to be revelling in his new French nickname, "Sarkozy the Libyan". In France, the intervention has been dubbed "Sarkozy's war", delighting him. By taking a leading role, the deeply unpopular leader hopes with one swoop to save the badly tarnished image of French policy in the Arab world, prove that France matters on the global stage and save his re-election battle for 2012.

Elysée observers say not since the cold war has a French leader made an international conflict such a personal obsession, poring over maps and plans, having the last word on arming rebel fighters. Many sensed a personal battle against his one-time friend turned enemy, Colonel Gaddafi. Sarkozy was desperate to undo the ill-effects of a disastrous state visit to Paris in 2007 in which Gaddafi made Sarkozy look ridiculous. The two men both claimed to have key insight into each others' personality - deeming each other utterly "mad". Privately, Sarkozy vowed to force Gaddafi "to his knees". But publicly, he hoped to rescue an election promise which had become utterly discredited: that France would be a global human rights defender, "on the side of the oppressed". He cited the massacres of Srebrenica or Rwanda as examples of what he wanted to avoid by protecting the Libyan people.

Cult

It's The Oil, Stupid: Anglo-Saxon Oil Cartel (and France) Conspired to Carve Up Libya's Oil Pie BEFORE Invasion

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© Veterans Today
Rebel leaders dismiss suggestions that firm promises have been made, but supportive countries look set to benefit

The starting pistol has been fired on bids by Britain and other western powers to secure a slice of the oil prize in Libya when France said it was "fair and logical" for its companies to benefit.

Alain Juppé, the French foreign minister, planted his flag in the sand as the Guardian was told that BP was already holding private talks with members of Libya's interim government.

Libya is a vital energy producer, and BP had previously committed itself to spending more than $1bn on exploration plans under Muammar Gaddafi's government.

Shell was also becoming active before the civil war broke out, as was Total of France, but the conflict over the past few months has brought the country's existing oil production of 1.6m barrels a day - 2% of the world's total - to a halt.

War Whore

It's The Oil, Stupid: British Government Admits Designs on Libyan Oil Precede Invasion

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"So we arm the rebels and direct them to do our bidding... et voila!" 'Development' Minister Alan Duncan is the delighted psychopath on the right.
International development minister took part in meetings between officials and firm for which he had acted as a consultant

The government has admitted that the international development minister, Alan Duncan, took part in meetings between officials operating a Whitehall cell to control the Libyan oil market and Vitol - a company for which Duncan has previously acted as a consultant.

The "Libyan oil cell" involved a group of officials working in the Foreign Office since May waging a quiet campaign against Muammar Gaddafi's regime by controlling the flow of oil in the country.

It is said to have played a discreet but crucial role in the campaign in Libya by helping to enforce the sanctions regime to prevent Gaddafi importing and exporting oil while allowing oil to reach the rebels in the east. That oil came via one company, Vitol.

Star of David

Turkey expels Israeli diplomats after UN report

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Friday Israel's diplomatic presence in Turkey was being cut to second secretary level, effectively expelling Israeli diplomats in protest over an Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound ship that killed nine Turks.

"Turkey-Israel diplomatic relations have been reduced to a second secretary level. All personnel above the second secretary level will return to their countries by Wednesday at the latest," Davutoglu told a news conference. Israel's ambassador Gabby Levy was currently in Israel and cancelled plans to return to Turkey on Thursday.

A long-awaited U.N. report on the raid, made public on Thursday, declared that Israel's naval blockade of the Gaza Strip was legal, but that the Jewish state used unreasonable force.

Control Panel

US Department of Homeland Security warns of planned Anonymous attacks

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Bulletin from feds highlights group's Occupy Wall Street, Operation Facebook, Project Mayhem campaigns

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security today issued a somewhat unusual bulletin warning the security community about the planned activities of hacking collective Anonymous over the next few months.

The bulletin, issued by the DHS National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC), warns financial services companies especially to be on the lookout for attempts by Anonymous to "solicit ideologically dissatisfied, sympathetic employees" to their cause.

Anonymous has recently used Twitter to try and persuade dissatisfied employees within the financial sector to give them information and access. Though such attempts appear to have been largely unsuccessful so far, "unwilling coercion through embarrassment or blackmail may be a risk to personnel," the bulletin warned.

Robot

Revealed: Fake Facebook Identity Used By Military Contractors Plotting To Hack Progressive Organizations

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Corporate hacker Aaron Barr draws inspiration from Maxim magazine for his fake persona army.
Earlier this year, ThinkProgress obtained 75,000 private emails from the defense contractor HBGary Federal via the hacktivist group called Anonymous. The emails led to two shocking revelations. First, that an assortment of private military firms collectively called "Team Themis" had been tapped by Bank of America to conduct a cyber war against reporters sympathetically covering the Wikileaks revelations. And second, that late in 2010, the same set of firms began work separately for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a Republican-aligned corporate lobbying group, to develop a similar campaign of sabotage against progressive organizations, including the SEIU and ThinkProgress.

In presentations obtained by ThinkProgress from the e-mail dump detailing the tactics potentially used against progressives, HBGary Federal floated the idea of using "fake insider personas" to infiltrate left-leaning groups critical of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's policies. As HBGary Federal executive Aaron Barr described in several emails, his firm could work with partner companies Palantir and Berico Technologies to manipulate fake online identities, using networks like Facebook, to gain access to private information from his targets. Other presentations are more specific and describe efforts to use social media to hack computers and find vulnerabilities among even the families of people who work at organizations critical of the Chamber.

Gear

Files show MI6, CIA ties to Libya: reports

Files found in Tripoli show strong cooperation between US and British intelligence agencies and Muammar Gaddafi's government, including shipping terror suspects to Libya for interrogation, media reports say.

The Central Intelligence Agency, under the administration of then-president George W. Bush, brought terror suspects to Libya and suggested questions Libyan interrogators should ask them, The Wall Street Journal said on Friday, citing documents found at the headquarters of Libya's External Security agency.

Meanwhile, British daily The Independent said the secret documents also show that Britain passed details of exiled opponents to Gaddafi's spies.

Dollar

U.S. Debt Held by Public Tops $10T for 1st Time - Up 59 Percent Under Obama

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© The Associated Press/Evan VucciPresident Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner
At the close of business on Aug. 31--for the first time in the history of the country--the publicly held debt of the federal government topped $10 trillion, according to data released by the U.S. Treasury Department at 4:00 p.m. yesterday.

During Obama's presidency, debt held by the public has now increased by $3.71694 trillion--or almost 59 percent from the $6.3073 trillion in debt held by the public that the government owed to its creditors on Jan. 20, 2009, when Obama was inaugurated.

Also, according to the most recent reports available from the Treasury and the Federal Reserve, approximately $6.1 trillion of that debt - or about 61 percent of it - is owned by foreign interests (led by the Chinese and the Japanese) and by the Federal Reserve.

At the close of business on Aug. 30, as reported by the Treasury Department's Bureau of the Public Debt, the federal government's debt held by the public equaled $9,990,126,772,846.86. By the close of business on Aug. 31, it was $10,024,253,354,407.07.

The Treasury divides the debt of the U.S. government into two general categories: "debt held by the public" and "intragovermental" debt.

Bad Guys

Is the Obama Administration Putting Corporate Profits Above Public Health?

One reason I supported President Obama is because he said we must protect clean air, water and lands. But what good is it to say the right thing unless you act on it?

Since early August, three administration decisions -- on Arctic drilling, the Keystone XL pipeline and the ozone that causes smog -- have all favored dirty industry over public health and a clean environment. Like so many others, I'm beginning to wonder just where the man stands


Comment: Beginning to wonder? Would say that is long over due.


For months, the Environmental Protection Agency has been poised to issue new ozone rules to reduce the smog that causes asthma attacks and other respiratory ills. We badly need these new standards, which the EPA estimates could prevent 12,000 premature deaths a year.

On Friday, though, the White House put the new rules on ice. The result: these vital protections will be delayed until at least 2013 - conveniently after next year's presidential election.