Puppet MastersS


Airplane

US Selling Combat Drones to Undisclosed Countries


Russia Today
Mon, 07 May 2012 00:00 UTC
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© Agence France-Presse/JungYeon-JeA man walks past a US Air Force Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle hanger during a preview day of the Seoul International Aerospace and Defense Exhibition at a military air base in Seongnam, south of Seoul, on October 17, 2011.
The unmanned aerial vehicle industry is expected to bring in billions for domestic drone makers over the next few years. Where are the robotic aircraft manufacturers sending their stealth spy plans though? They aren't saying.

The American Independent reports that Texas' Vanguard Defense Industries, a US Defense Department contractor that outfits the Pentagon with unmanned aerial drones, has inked agreements with several overseas governments. According to the Independent, Vanguard is expected to see most of their profits in the next year occur from selling airships to foreign nations. Just exactly who is on the receiving end - and to the tune of how many crafts - remains a mystery.

"I thought it was going to be a brutal process," Vanguard CEO Michael Buscher explains to The Independent in discussing how his company went about gaining US State Department approval. He says that he imagined the procedure to outfit foreign nations with the controversial aircraft would be difficult, but was surprised to see how easy it was to have Uncle Sam authorize his company to deal the drones overseas.

"It was well orchestrated and extremely thorough. But when you follow their guidelines and provide copious details, the process is not as burdensome as I would have thought," says Buscher.
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Laptop

Ron Paul Pleads with Supporters to Fight CISPA and Internet Censorship


Russia Today
Mon, 07 May 2012 00:00 UTC
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© Agence France-Presse/T.J. KirkpatrickRepublican Presidential hopeful U.S. Rep. Ron Paul
Presidential hopeful Ron Paul made a splash with supporters in California on Friday, and the impetus in a rowdy round of applause was something of serious concern with voters this election year: the Internet.

Addressing an audience at the University of California, San Diego late last week, Texas Congressman Ron Paul warmed up the crowd by starting off his speech attacking the ongoing attempts by the federal government to censor the Internet. Weeks earlier Congressman Paul publically renounced the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, or CISPA, but by the enthusiasm in which the lawmaker once again attacked the legislation, it seems clear that it is still a very pressing issue with the politician.

Congressman Paul began an address attended by an estimated 2,000 people on Friday by discussing the importance of the US Constitution's First Amendment. "Without the First Amendment it is very difficult for us to get our message out," said Paul, "but I want to make sure that the first amendment is protected on the Internet as well."

The congressman's call to stop online censorship was met with a rousing round of applause.

"Every once in a while there will be a court case and there will be some controversial language involved and the courts are supposed to decide, is it constitutional to say these controversial things? Well let me tell you, the First Amendment wasn't written so that you can talk about the weather," said Rep. Paul. "It was written so that you can talk about controversial things and even challenge our own government."
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Mr. Potato

Putin Inaugurated to Third Term as Russia's President


Los Angeles Times
Mon, 07 May 2012 09:53 UTC
Putin
© RIA Novosti
Moscow - Vladimir Putin was inaugurated Monday to his third term as Russia's president, extending the former KGB officer's 12-year grip on power that most observers considered uninterrupted despite the past four years he served as prime minister.

In the course of a solemn and elaborate ceremony in the Kremlin Grand Palace, the 59-year-old leader was sworn into office under the 1993 version of the Russian Constitution, which was amended by outgoing President Dmitry Medvedev to increase the term of presidency in Russia to six years.

Putin then quickly submitted Medvedev's name to the parliament as his candidate to be prime minister, a move that had been expected.

In the presence of about 3,000 Russian officials and dignitaries and a few foreign guests -- no leaders among them -- Putin gave an oath "to safeguard the rights and freedoms of man and citizen, to observe and protect the Constitution of the Russian Federation, to protect the sovereignty and independence, the safety and integrity of the state, to loyally serve the people."
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Eye 2

Flashback The 14 Most Corrupt Members of U.S. Congress in 2011

Jon Terbush
Business Insider
Thu, 22 Sep 2011 17:17 UTC
maxine waters
Between Chris Lee's Craigslist escapades and Anthony Weiner's sexting, Congress has seen some high-profile ethical lapses this year.

While Lee and Weiner's transgressions cost them their seats, some of their colleagues have had better luck weathering scandals - including bribery scandals, tax fraud, letting an aide who once stabbed his girlfriend handle "women's issues."

Their offenses are detailed in the seventh annual list of the most corrupt members of Congress, released by the government watchdog Citizen's For Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW)
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Star of David

Illinois Congressman Joe Walsh Endorses Apartheid, Ethnic Cleansing for Palestinians

Philip Weiss
MondoWeiss
Sat, 05 May 2012 16:48 UTC
Shocking to imagine that a Republican congressman is calling for Palestinians to have second-class citizenship in a land far away from ours, but here's Joe Walsh, whose district swings Democratic and includes a lot of Chicago's northwestern suburbs, doing that in the Washington Times:
Joe Walsh
© Flickr/ Gage SkidmoreRep. Joe Walsh (R-IL).
The only viable solution for the Middle East is a one-state solution: one contiguous Israeli state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. There will not and cannot be lasting peace in the Middle East until then...

The two-state solution can never work when one of the domains, the Palestinian state, does not even acknowledge the other state's (Israel's) right to exist and has as its entire purpose in life wiping Israel off the face of the earth. Never will peace come when one side possesses such hate and routinely expresses that hate through violence and blood. It is time to let go of the two-state-solution insanity and adopt the only solution that will bring true peace to the Middle East: a single Israeli state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

This solution is the best for everyone, especially the Palestinians. They will trade their two corrupt and inept governments and societies for a stable, free and prosperous one. Those Palestinians who wish to may leave their Fatah- and Hamas-created slums and move to the original Palestinian state: Jordan.

Comment: We note that congressman Joe Walsh was named in 2011 by Citizen's For Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) as being among their list of 'The 14 Most Corrupt Members of Congress', for 'Neglecting to pay child support; inaccurately reporting his assets and liabilities in filing statements; inaccurately reporting campaign loans.' Sound like the kind of guy capable of reaching out to feel the suffering of others?

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Vader

Perpetuating the 'War on Terror' to Feed the War Machine: Secret US program has been releasing high-level insurgents for years

Kevin Sieff
Washington Post
Mon, 07 May 2012 16:50 UTC
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Clinton in the Graveyard of Empires
Kabul - The United States has for several years been secretly releasing high-level detainees from a military prison in Afghanistan as part of negotiations with insurgent groups, a bold effort to quell violence but one that U.S. officials acknowledge poses substantial risks.

As the United States has unsuccessfully pursued a peace deal with the Taliban, the "strategic release" program has quietly served as a live diplomatic channel, allowing American officials to use prisoners as bargaining chips in restive provinces where military power has reached its limits.

But the releases are an inherent gamble: The freed detainees are often notorious fighters who would not be released under the traditional legal system for military prisoners in Afghanistan. They must promise to give up violence - and U.S. officials warn them that if they are caught attacking American troops, they will be detained once again.
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Stormtrooper

300 detained in Egypt following protest outside Defence Ministry

Sarah El Deeb
Globe and Mail
Sat, 05 May 2012 16:33 UTC
Protesters
© Amr Abdallah Dalsh/ReutersProtesters throw stones at army soldiers during clashes at Abbasiya square near Egypt's Defence Ministry in Cairo May 4, 2012.
Military prosecutors ordered the detention of 300 protesters on accusations of attacking troops and disrupting public order during violent clashes outside Egypt's Defence Ministry, a prosecution official said Saturday.

The Friday clashes were some of the worst near the headquarters of the country's ruling generals, and come just three weeks before Egyptians are to head to the polls to vote in a landmark presidential election to see who will head Egypt after the ouster of Hosni Mubarak last year.
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Bad Guys

Pakistan 'a failed state', US Congressman tells Pakistani Prime Minister

Press Trust of India
NDTV
Sat, 05 May 2012 16:26 UTC
congressman dana
Influential American Congressman Dana Rohrabacher has told Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani that his country is a failed state.

"It is becoming increasingly clear to Members of the US Congress that Pakistan is a failed state and no amount of US aid money will ever change that," Mr Rohrabacher wrote in a letter to Gilani.
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Rocket

Drone Wars: John Brennan - Tell the Whole Truth About CIA Strikes


Just Foreign Policy
Wed, 02 May 2012 16:04 UTC
Drone strike
White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan has publicly acknowledged the Obama administration's use of drone strikes against suspected terrorists in countries with which the United States is not at war. But Brennan didn't tell the whole truth about the CIA drone strikes. Brennan claimed that "the United States government conducts targeted strikes against specific al-Qaeda terrorists." What Brennan didn't say was that the CIA has launched drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen without knowing who would be killed, against people who are not on any list of "suspected terrorists."

Comment: The U.S. aim with its increasing drone strikes grows more obvious by the day, that aim is not the pursuit of the ubiquitous al-Qaeda™ boogeyman as is fed to the media. It seems clear the aim is to win influence by helping client regimes in the region to eliminate any source of opposition, all under the guise of 'the war of terror'.

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Handcuffs

Best of the Web: The People's Bishop

Chris Hedges
Truthdig
Mon, 07 May 2012 13:33 UTC
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© AP/Stephanie KeithPolice arrest retired Episcopal Bishop George Packard during an Occupy demonstration in December. Packard was among those trying to access a vacant lot owned by Trinity Episcopal Church in lower Manhattan.
Retired Episcopal Bishop George Packard was arrested in Vietnam Veterans Memorial Plaza in New York City last Tuesday night as he participated in the May 1 Occupy demonstrations. He and 15 other military veterans were taken into custody after they linked arms to hold the plaza against a police attempt to clear it. There were protesters behind them who, perhaps because of confusion, perhaps because of miscommunication or perhaps they were unwilling to risk arrest, melted into the urban landscape. But those in the thin line from Veterans for Peace, of which the bishop is a member, stood their ground. They were handcuffed, herded into a paddy wagon and taken to jail.

It was Packard's second arrest as part of the Occupy protests. Last Dec. 17 he was arrested when he leapt over a fence in his flowing bishop's robe to spearhead an attempt to occupy a vacant lot owned by Trinity Church in lower Manhattan. The December action by the Occupy movement was a response to the New York City Police Department's storming and eradication of the encampment in Zuccotti Park. Packard will appear in court in June to face the trespassing charge that resulted. Now, because of this second arrest, he faces the possibility of three months in jail.
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