Puppet MastersS


Red Flag

Russia puts military on high alert as Crimea protests turn deadly

Harriet Salem, Shaun Walker and Oksana Grytsenko
The Guardian
Wed, 26 Feb 2014 13:29 UTC
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© Unknown
The Kremlin ordered major military exercises on Wednesday as concerns about unrest in Ukraine's Crimean peninsula continued to grow and scuffles in the region left one person dead.

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, ordered an urgent drill of his country's armed forces in western Russia, in what appeared to be a display of sabre-rattling aimed at the new government in Kiev.

The US reacted in a strongly worded message, with the secretary of state, John Kerry, saying that any military intervention in Ukraine would be a "grave mistake".

"For a country that has spoken out so frequently ... against foreign intervention in Libya, in Syria, and elsewhere, it would be important for them to heed those warnings as they think about options in the sovereign nation of Ukraine," Kerry said last night.

Putin had earlier instructed his defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, to place Russia's military in a state of high alert for drills in the western military district, bordering Ukraine. The defence ministry denied the drills had anything to do with the political situation in Kiev, where the government of President Viktor Yanukovych was in effect toppled at the weekend.


Comment:
Baiting the Bear: US warns Russia it would be a 'grave mistake' to send its military into Ukraine‏
Russian ships arrive on Ukraine's Crimean coast

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Penis Pump

Latest Snowden revelations: Perverted UK and U.S. intel agencies spy on millions of innocent people through their webcams

Spencer Ackerman & James Ball
The Guardian
Thu, 27 Feb 2014 10:50 UTC
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Trust us, we're from the government...
  • Optic Nerve program collected Yahoo webcam images in bulk
  • 1.8m users targeted by UK agency in six-month period alone
  • Yahoo: 'A whole new level of violation of our users' privacy'
  • Material included large quantity of sexually explicit images
Britain's surveillance agency GCHQ, with aid from the US National Security Agency, intercepted and stored the webcam images of millions of internet users not suspected of wrongdoing, secret documents reveal.

GCHQ files dating between 2008 and 2010 explicitly state that a surveillance program codenamed Optic Nerve collected still images of Yahoo webcam chats in bulk and saved them to agency databases, regardless of whether individual users were an intelligence target or not.

In one six-month period in 2008 alone, the agency collected webcam imagery - including substantial quantities of sexually explicit communications - from more than 1.8 million Yahoo user accounts globally.

Yahoo reacted furiously to the webcam interception when approached by the Guardian. The company denied any prior knowledge of the program, accusing the agencies of "a whole new level of violation of our users' privacy".

Comment: When we consider this in light of the GCHQ's disgusting sexual practices and the fact that most Pentagon employees regularly watch child pornography...

Code breaker at GCHQ found in padlocked gym bag 'probably died by accident' (yeah right!)

Leading British opposition party politicians under investigation for channeling public funds to elite pedophile network

Sick elites: 5,200 Pentagon employees PURCHASED child pornography

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Dollar

Ukraine delays vote on new Government as Russia warns of default on bailout it granted in December

Daryna Krasnolutska, Kateryna Choursina and Ilya Arkhipov
SF Gate
Tue, 25 Feb 2014 09:51 UTC
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© UnknownActing President and Baptist Pastor Oleksandr Turchynov
Ukraine delayed selecting a national unity government as Russia warned of a possible default days after President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted.

Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov pushed back a parliamentary vote to Feb. 27 from today as he attempts to win agreement with protest leaders who orchestrated the revolt. He indicated yesterday that a new administration should be formed quickly to secure as much as $35 billion in financial aid.

"Ukraine's economy needs rescue and that adds pressure on the revolutionary political forces to create a truly national unity government," said Lilit Gevorgyan, senior economist at IHS Global Insight in London, said by e-mail. "The large bailout plan that Ukraine currently seeks won't be handed out by international donors to a weak and non-inclusive government."

With Yanukovych on the run after weeks of anti-government protests turned deadly, Ukraine's new leaders are grasping for a financial lifeline as Russia weighs the fate of a $15 billion bailout it granted in December. Russia's deputy finance minister said there's a high chance Ukraine will default. The U.S. and the European Union have pledged aid to the new administration.
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No Entry

Ban of Russian as an official language in Ukraine sparks concern among Russian and EU diplomats


RT
Thu, 27 Feb 2014 10:52 UTC
Rally in Crimea
© RIA Novosti / Taras LitvinenkoParticipants in a rally in front of Crimea's Supreme Council building in Simferopol.
Ukraine's swift abolition of the law allowing the country's regions to make Russian a second official language has worried European MPs and officials, and has been condemned outright as a "violation of ethnic minority rights" by Russian diplomats.

The European Parliament has approved a resolution on Ukraine, which among other things calls on the country's MPs and the new government to respect the rights of minorities, particularly when it comes to the use of languages.

Ukraine's new leaders should distance themselves from extremists and avoid any provocation that might fuel "separatist moves," MEPs said, the parliament's press service reported. MEPs said that the new government should respect the rights of minorities in Ukraine, including the right to use Russian and other minority languages.

The resolution, proposed by six political groups in the European Parliament, urges Ukraine to ensure that its new legislation complies with the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.

The Ukrainian Parliament (Verkhovna Rada) abolished the 2012 law "On State Language Policy" the day after it voted to dismiss President Viktor Yanukovich. The law allowed the country's regions to use more official languages in addition to Ukrainian if they were spoken by over 10 percent of the local population. Thirteen out of Ukraine's 27 regions, primarily in Eastern Ukraine, then adopted Russian as a second official language. Two Western regions introduced Romanian and Hungarian as official languages.
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Magnify

Businesses dealing in bitcoins subpoenaed by U.S. prosecutors


The Guardian
Wed, 26 Feb 2014 10:39 UTC
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© Andy Clark/ReutersSigns on a window advertise a bitcoin ATM machine that has been installed in a cofee shop.
New York attorney subpoenas companies, including shuttered MtGox, as Japanese regulators question bitcoin's legality

Manhattan US attorney Preet Bharara's office is seeking information from businesses dealing in bitcoin on how some of them handled cyber-attacks that hamstrung several exchanges in recent weeks, a source familiar with the probe told Reuters on Wednesday.

Subpoenas have been sent to numerous businesses, including MtGox, once the largest bitcoin exchange, as well as other firms that did business with the Tokyo-based company, the source said.

Prosecutors want to know more about the nature of the cyber-attacks on MtGox and other exchanges and how those exchanges dealt with them. MtGox halted customer withdrawals on 7 February in response to what it termed unusual activity, and on Tuesday the exchange went dark, leaving customers unable to recover their funds.
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Display

How the Government manipulates your thoughts online

Abby Martin
RT America
Thu, 27 Feb 2014 09:28 UTC
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Abby Martin talks about journalist Glenn Greenwald's report regarding the intelligence community's use of subversive and manipulative online tactics to destroy the reputations of businesses and individuals.


Comment: See also: How covert agents infiltrate the internet to manipulate, deceive, and destroy reputations

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Alarm Clock

Hyde Park bomb ruling leaves Northern Ireland government at risk of collapse

Henry McDonald
The Guardian
Wed, 26 Feb 2014 09:11 UTC
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© Mark Thomas/RexJohn Downey, who was accused of the 1982 Hyde Park bombing, walked free on Tuesday.
First minister says he will resign unless there is judicial review into decision to free John Downey

Ministers were working frantically on Wednesday night to save Northern Ireland's power-sharing settlement after the first minister, Peter Robinson, threatened to resign following the collapse of the Hyde Park bombing trial. The crisis deepened after Robinson gave the government less than a day to respond to the controversy over secret amnesties for fugitives.

Robinson also called for an emergency debate on the issue in the Northern Ireland Assembly on Friday. He said he was consulting with other parties about a motion in the Stormont parliament.

After talks with Northern Ireland secretary Theresa Villiers at Hillsborough Castle on Wednesday night, Robinson also claimed that some of the 187 IRA "on-the-runs" wanted by police for past Troubles-related crimes had been given royal pardons, effectively granting them amnesties.
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Snakes in Suits

These Corporations are the Real Welfare Queens


youtube.com
Tue, 25 Feb 2014 09:04 UTC
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Abby Martin remarks on a recent report by GoodJobsFirst.org which exposes the absurd amount of taxpayer money used to provide some of the wealthiest companies in the US with corporate welfare.


Source: RT

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Heart

President Hugo Chavez: A 21st Century Renaissance Man

Prof. James Petras
Global Research
Mon, 18 Mar 2013 09:25 UTC
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Introduction

President Hugo Chavez was unique in multiple areas of political, social and economic life. He made significant contributions to the advancement of humanity. The depth, scope and popularity of his accomplishments mark President Chavez as the 'Renaissance President of the 21st Century'.

Many writers have noted one or another of his historic contributions highlighting his anti-poverty legislation, his success in winning popular elections with resounding majorities and his promotion of universal free public education and health coverage for all Venezuelans.

In this essay we will highlight the unique world-historic contributions that President Chavez made in the spheres of political economy, ethics and international law and in redefining relations between political leaders and citizens. We shall start with his enduring contribution to the development of civic culture in Venezuela and beyond.
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Magnify

Oxford historian: 'West plays with fire to drive the Russian naval base out of Crimea'


RT
Thu, 27 Feb 2014 06:36 UTC
Rally in Crimea
© Reuters / Baz RatnerAn ethnic Russian Ukrainian holds a Russian flag as Crimean Tatars rally near the Crimean parliament building in Simferopol February 26, 2014.
Crimea's ethnic composition and Western policy towards Ukraine could create a Kosovo-like scenario where the majority of Russian speaking residents would claim independence which could lead to violence on the ground, Oxford historian Mark Almond told RT.

RT: If the EU and the US are concerned about doing what people on the Maidan want, why are they ignoring what people in Crimea want?

Mark Almond: Well one would have thought so if you're going to listen to the crowd on the street on the square and there are many squares where there're crowds including Simferopol and Sevastopol. The basic problem of course is what the Americans, particularly the lead military power in NATO want, is to eventually ease the Russian navy out of its base, out of its lease in Sevastopol in the Crimea. And so of course the fact that the great majority of people in Crimea not only 60 per cent that are actually Russian but many of the rest who speak Russian as their everyday language is something that the EU and NATO countries want to ignore. Of course if you have any kind of push to create a crisis, I'm afraid our democratic basis as in Kosovo where the great majority, where the great majority of Albanians wanted to be independent from Serbia, you would create a Kosovo crisis in Crimea. But of course strangely enough Washington and Brussels suddenly aren't terribly interested in this. I myself think that creating a crisis is not a good idea, but nonetheless they seem to be bent on pushing to increase tension between people on the Peninsula. And of course there is a risk of violence against either ethnic Russians, civilians that are there or against the sailors and soldiers on the base.
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