Puppet MastersS


Bad Guys

Is it time for Obama to exchange his Nobel Peace Prize for an Emmy?

Obama
© GreenMedInfo
Politics is the entertainment division of the military industrial complex ~ Frank Zappa
Recently, Maria Rodale, the CEO of the publishing company Rodale, Inc., wrote an open letter to President Obama regarding Syria, urging him to reconsider his position to press for a military strike against Syria.

While there is nothing unusual about Maria's anti-war sentiment, with a recent Washington/ABC poll finding nearly six in 10 Americans oppose military action as a response to the Syrian government's alleged use of chemical weapons, her reference to biotech companies like Monsanto poisoning our children and environment with the president's support and encouragement, and her claim that the viral Facebook meme below contributed to her realization, caused the mainstream media to fume with reactionary waves of criticism and character assault.

All of this, of course, distracts from the underlying context of the coming war in Syria, which is a war (like most wars in modern history) spurred by the geopolitical machinations of 'resource procurement,' and which like most wars, are many years in the making. All else, as Frank Zappa pointed out, has strictly entertainment value.

Bad Guys

Manipulated by power: The New York Times and manufacturing of the appearance of consent

New York Times
© Wikipedia
The government is manipulating facts. There's no credible evidence on Syria. Why is the Times pretending otherwise?

The conflict between democracy at home and empire abroad has beset this nation since the Spanish-American War, a brief interlude of imperial display in the spring of 1898. Empire did not win merely the day: It won the century, the one America named after itself.

Anyone who doubts the thesis can consider it at intimate range as the Obama administration prepares to send missiles into Syria. What we witness in Washington now is no more or less than a scratchy rerun. We must be thankful there is still any such conflict between democrats and those given to imperial reach, however feebly the fight gets fought. It is better than nothing - if marginally, under the circumstances.

President Obama's announcement last weekend that he would submit his decision to attack Syrian military installations to Congress has been called numerous things. It was surprising. (We have an imperial presidency. Why ask for congressional assent?) It was politically daring. (What if Congress says no?) It was the democratic thing. ("We act better when we are unified," as Secretary of State Kerry has put it often this week.)

Can something be quaint and frightening at the same time? The thought tempts. The incessant murmurs of patriotism in Washington this week will comfort a few foolish hearts, but they are part of what makes the current scene in our capital disturbing. Cast Obama's plans for Syria in history and you see how America the ever-changing nation does not change. We have a government manipulating facts. We have hypocrisy of motive: Humanitarian compassion is not the issue; the issues are vanity and the projection of power. We have perniciously misbehaving media, the clerks of the political class at this point (if ever they were other).

This is 1898 redux. Good historians eventually nailed the poseurs, weaklings and paranoids who then pretended to heroism. So take heart: The bunch prescribing cruise missiles for Basahr al-Assad will someday get their revisionists, too.

There is one quite essential difference between our moment and the days when Teddy Roosevelt charged up hills in Cuba. A century and a bit ago Americans were jingoists almost (not quite) to a one. It did not take much other than a few shrieking newspapers, salivating along with TR for brown people's blood. (It was precisely so.) There was consensus - conjured, yes, but not with much exertion.

Now there is no consensus.

Chess

Russia sends more warships to eastern Mediterranean near Syria

Russian navy ship
© UnknownA Russian warship sails through the Bosporus in Istanbul, Turkey, on September 5, 2013.
The Russian navy has sent four more ships to the eastern Mediterranean, near the Syrian coast, as the United States considers launching a military offensive against the Arab country.

The SSV-201 Priazovye reconnaissance ship, escorted by two landing ships, Minsk and Novocherkassk, had already passed through Turkey's Bosphorus Strait, Russia's Interfax news agency quoted a source from the Saint Petersburg-based central naval command as saying on Friday.

Attention

Putin: Syria chemical attack is 'rebels' provocation in hope of intervention'

Vladimir Putin
© AFP PhotoRussia’s President Vladimir Putin gestures during a press conference at the end of the G20 summit on September 6, 2013 in Saint Petersburg
The alleged chemical weapons use in Syria is a provocation carried out by the rebels to attract a foreign-led strike, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the G20 summit.

There was no 50/50 split of opinion on the notion of a military strike against the Syrian President Bashar Assad, Putin stressed refuting earlier assumptions.

Only Turkey, Canada, Saudi Arabia and France joined the US push for intervention, he said, adding that the UK Prime Minister's position was not supported by his citizens.

Russia, China, India, Indonesia, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa and Italy were among the major world's economies clearly opposed to military intervention.

President Putin said the G20 nations spent the "entire" Thursday evening discussing the Syrian crisis, which was followed by Putin's bilateral meeting with UK Prime Minister David Cameron that lasted till 3am Moscow time.

Russia "will help Syria" in the event of a military strike, Putin stressed as he responded to a reporter's question at the summit.

"Will we help Syria? We will. And we are already helping, we send arms, we cooperate in the economics sphere, we hope to expand our cooperation in the humanitarian sphere, which includes sending humanitarian aid to support those people - the civilians - who have found themselves in a very dire situation in this country," Putin said.


Briefcase

Putin accused Kerry of lying about al-Qaida's involvement in Syria at the G-20 summit

Hours before President Obama arrived here to lobby world leaders to support a planned military strike against Syria, the Pentagon had to clarify Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel's assertion that Russia provided chemical weapons to Syria and Russia President Vladimir Putin accused Secretary of State John Kerry of lying about al Qaeda's links to Syrian rebels.

Obama will seek more certain footing in the city that Peter the Great founded in 1703 and that is hosting its second global economic summit in seven years.

All five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council -- the U.S., Great Britain, France, China and Russia -- are attending the summit. Upon Putin's arrival Thursday, he and Obama shared a brief handshake and exchanged smiles during their only scheduled meeting during the summit. After Russia granted NSA leaker Edward Snowden asylum in July, Obama canceled a planned bilateral meeting with Putin that was to take place during Obama's visit to Russia.


Play

CBS laments Pope's 'religious street protest' is anti-Obama, pro-Putin

On Friday's CBS This Morning, Mark Phillips all but hinted that Pope Francis had "taken sides" with Russia's Vladimir Putin and against President Obama in the international debate over military strikes in Syria. Phillips proposed that the Pope's letter to Putin "must have been music to the Russian president's ears."

The journalist also turned to a "Vatican historian" who once publicly attacked Francis' predecessor, Benedict XVI, as a "dictator", and likened him to Islamists. He also labeled the Pope's upcoming prayer and fasting vigil for peace in Syria a "religious street protest." [audio available here;]


Phillips led his report by noting that "popes have urged peace before. Remember, John Paul II was firmly against the Gulf War. This pope, Francis, is now actively arguing against military action against Syria. And the question is, does it matter?"

Stop

Pope Tweets against Syria strike, writes Putin, plans Saturday vigil

Pope Francis
© Stefano Rellandini / ReutersPope Francis greets Catholic faithful during his arrival at Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, July 25, 2013.
Pope Francis has written a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, host of the G-20 summit that President Obama is attending, urging world leaders to oppose a military intervention in Syria.

"To the leaders present, to each and every one, I make a heartfelt appeal for them to help find ways to overcome the conflicting positions and to lay aside the futile pursuit of a military solution," the Pope urged. "Rather, let there be a renewed commitment to seek, with courage and determination, a peaceful solution through dialogue and negotiation of the parties, unanimously supported by the international community."

The move is the latest in a series of efforts by the Holy See to prevent military action in the already civil-war torn region. On Sunday, the Pope declared in his Angelus teaching that Saturday Sept. 7 would be an day of fasting and prayer for peace in Syria. The prayer rally will take place in St. Peter's Square from 7 p.m. to midnight, on the vigil of the birth of Mary, the Queen of Peace. "Let us ask Mary to help us to respond to violence, to conflict and to war, with the power of dialogue, reconciliation and love," the Pope asked people around the world. "She is our mother: may she help us to find peace; all of us are her children!"

Stop

Obama may abandon Syria strike if Congress rejects authorization request

Obama
© n/a
President Barack Obama hinted Friday that he might not strike Syria if Congress rejects his authorization request.

"I'm not itching for military action... and if there are good ideas that are worth pursuing, then I'm going to be open to them," he told one reporter who asked if he was seeking alternatives to a missile strike.

"Are we on a fast track to military action as soon as Congress renders its judgment one way or the other?" the reporter asked Obama, during his morning press conference in St. Petersburg, Russia.

"Some in Congress have suggested giving the Syrian regime 45 days to sign the Chemical Weapons Convention, get rid of its chemical stockpiles, do something that would enhance the international sense of accountability for Syria, but delay military action," the reporter asked.

Stop

House could delay vote on Syria intervention by a week

The House could push back a vote on a resolution authorizing military strikes on Syria by as long as a week, according to a memo Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) sent to Republican lawmakers Friday.

"Understanding that there are differing opinions on both sides of the aisle, it is up to President Obama to make the case to Congress and to the American people that this is the right course of action," Cantor wrote in a memo outlining the House GOP's fall agenda. "Members should expect a robust debate and vote on an authorization of use of military force pertaining to Syria in the next two weeks."


Eye 1

New report reveals how the NSA has been able to crack online encryption

National Security Agency
© NSA / ReutersThe National Security Agency headquarters building in Fort Meade, Md.
A new round of disclosures from the former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden has revealed the intelligence agency's ultimate goal: undo Internet privacy as we know it. According to some 50,000 leaked documents provided to the Guardian, ProPublica, and The New York Times, the NSA has circumvented or cracked some of the most widely used encryption software in its effort to monitor global communications. Still, documents reveal, some encryption systems continue to stymie the agency, and the NSA, according to the Times, is working toward a future in which it can "decode, in real time, all of the information flying over the world's fiber optic cables and through its Internet hubs."

The document dump unveils some of the U.S. and its allies' most closely guarded state secrets - whereas highly classified information is often disseminated on a "need to know" basis, "there will be NO 'need to know,'" with respect to the highly-classied program known as Bullrun, according to one document quoted by the Times.

"This is the golden age of spying," one former NSA analyst told the Times. Here are five things you need to know about Snowden's latest leak.