Puppet MastersS


Snakes in Suits

U.S. Senators call for resignation of FIFA head Sepp Blatter for supporting Russia 2018 World Cup

Raf Sanchez
The Telegraph
Tue, 26 May 2015 19:41 UTC
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© AFP
US senators are calling for Sepp Blatter to be ousted as the head of Fifa over his support for Russia's world cup despite Vladimir Putin's military intervention in Ukraine.

John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential candidate, and another senator wrote a letter to members of the Fifa Congress urging them to deny Mr Blatter a fifth-term as the head of football's global body.

"In light of President Blatter's continued support for Russia hosting the 2018 Fifa World Cup - despite Russia's ongoing violations of Ukraine's territorial integrity and other challenges to the post-WWII security architecture - we ask that you reconsider your support for President Blatter's fifth term as Fifa President," the senators wrote.

Mr McCain and Robert Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey, said that "allowing Russia to host the World Cup would bolster the Putin regime at a time when it should be condemned".


Comment: Interesting timing, this coming a day before the U.S. indicted 14 FIFA officials for corruption. Perhaps the Justice Department is less concerned about corruption, and more concerned with putting political pressure on FIFA to force them reopen bidding for the 2018 World Cup and remove Russia as the host country.

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Sherlock

Justice Dept. arrests 14 FIFA officials on charges of racketeering and corruption

Matt Apuzzo, Michael S. Schmidt, William K. Rashbum, and Sam Borden
NY Times
Wed, 27 May 2015 10:35 UTC
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United States law enforcement officials declared in forceful terms on Wednesday that their broad investigation of FIFA had only begun and pledged to rid the international soccer organization of systemic corruption.

The Justice Department, F.B.I. and I.R.S. described soccer's governing body in terms normally reserved for Mafia families and drug cartels, saying that top officials treated FIFA business decisions as chits to be traded for personal wealth. One soccer official took in more than $10 million in bribes, Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch said.

The schemes involving the fraud included the selection of South Africa as the host of the 2010 World Cup; the 2011 FIFA presidential elections; and several sports-marketing deals.

"These individuals and organizations engaged in bribery to decide who would televise games, where the games would be held, and who would run the organization overseeing organized soccer worldwide," said Ms. Lynch, who supervised the investigation from its earliest stages.

The Department of Justice indictment names 14 people on charges including racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy. In addition to senior soccer officials, the indictment also named sports-marketing executives from the United States and South America who are accused of paying more than $150 million in bribes and kickbacks in exchange for media deals associated with major soccer tournaments.

The soccer officials charged are Eduardo Li, Jeffrey Webb, Eugenio Figueredo, Jack Warner, Julio Rocha, Costas Takkas, Rafael Esquivel, José Maria Marin and Nicolás Leoz.

Comment: Why are they going after these folks? Because they refused to pull games out of Russia? While Russia is barely mentioned in the above NYT report, it is noteworthy that just yesterday elite hack Sen. John McCain and other senators called for FIFA President Sepp Blatter to be ousted for "supporting Russia's 2018 World Cup despite fighting in Ukraine".

Clearly the Western elites are displeased with FIFA not following the Western charge against Russia and are now playing the corrupt card against them, a card that could have been played at any point in the last 50 years. FIFA corruption has been an open secret for quite a long time, yet the American government was willing to look the other way. Besides, the American government going after FIFA for corruption is very much the pot calling the kettle black. It wasn't until FIFA stepped on the political toes of powerful Western institutions that they were called out for their indiscretions.

It's interesting that the man at the center, Sepp Blatter, has avoided indictment at this time. Perhaps the Americans are waiting to see if Blatter will give in to the political pressure to move the World Cup out of Russia and are offering to drop criminal charges if he acquiesces.

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Family

U.S.-backed ISIS offers cash, housing and honeymoon to fighters as incentive to fight America's wars for her


RT
Wed, 27 May 2015 19:04 UTC
isis
© Reuters
Islamic State fighters looking to tie the knot are in luck - the militants are offering its members a free honeymoon and $1,500 towards their first home. The extremists are also encouraging jihadists to start families, offering a generous $400 per child.

Speaking to AP via Skype, Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) fighter Abu Bilal al-Homsi talked about the perks he receives from the extremist group.

Homsi is given an allowance for his uniform and clothes, and some household cleaning supplies, as well as a monthly food basket worth $65. In addition, he and his wife each receive a stipend of around $50 each per month.

The group encourages its fighters to have children, offering a bonus of up to $400 per child. Foreign fighters are also given a one-time sum of $500 when they marry, which is aimed at helping them start a family.

There's an opportunity for even more cash, but it requires marrying someone with desirable skills.

Comment: This might actually be funny if it wasn't true. Oh, the lengths to which the U.S. intelligence apparatus will go to entice braindead patsies to join in their proxy war games!



Join ISIS now and get a cruise for free!

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Sheeple

The manipulation of populism by Hilary Clinton and the elites

Paul Street
ZNet
Tue, 12 May 2015 16:32 UTC
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Fifteen years ago, the then still left Christopher Hitchens published a short and pungent study of Bill and Hillary Clinton titled No One Left to Lie to: The Values of the Worst Family (Verso, 1999, 2000). The book's first chapter, titled "Triangulation," contained a memorable passage that summarized the duplicitous "essence of American politics" as "the manipulation of populism by elitism. That elite is most successful," Hitchens noted:
"which can claim the heartiest allegiance of the fickle crowd; can present itself as most 'in touch' with popular concerns; can anticipate the tides and pulses of public opinion; can, in short, be the least apparently 'elitist.' It is no great distance from Huey Long's robust cry of 'Every man a king' to the insipid 'inclusiveness' of [Bill Clinton's slogan] 'Putting People First,' but the smarter elite managers have learned in the interlude that solid, measurable pledges have to be distinguished by a reserve' tag that earmarks them for the bankrollers and backers. They have also learned that it can be imprudent to promise voters too much."
Later in the same chapter, Hitchens noted that "At all times," the Clinton administration's "retreat from egalitarian and even 'progressive' positions has been hedged by a bodyguard of political correctness."

Hitchens provided a useful take on the militantly corporatist, Wall Street-friendly core of the Clintons' first two terms in the White House. The "co-presidents" served the "bankrollers and backers" with such Big Business-pleasing policies as the regressive and anti-worker North American "Free Trade" (investor rights) Agreement (NAFTA), repeal of the New Deal's separation of commercial and investment banking, sponsorship of oligopolistic hyper-conglomeration in the mass media (the 1996 Telecommunications Act), and the non- and de-regulation of Wall Street's growing financial derivatives sector.

Bill Clinton apologized to corporations for the high U.S. taxes they supposedly endured. He warmed CEO hearts by proclaiming that "the era of big government is over" and pursuing a "balanced budget" even while tens of millions of Americans were still mired in poverty and economic inequality climbed towards "Second Gilded Age" levels. Clinton kept the gigantic Pentagon system of corporate welfare fully intact despite the disappearance of the Soviet nemesis that had provided the critical Cold War pretext for massive "defense" (Empire) spending. The Clintons did all this and more to satisfy the elite "donor class" that put them in power while claiming to speak and act on behalf of everyday working people and wrapping themselves in the outwardly progressive clothes of politically correct multicultural tolerance and diversity. Never mind the Clinton administration's vicious liquidation of the disproportionately Black, Latino/a, and Native American poor's entitlement to basic family cash assistance and its promotion and signing of legislation that accelerated the nation's epic mass hyper-incarceration of Blacks.
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Light Saber

Best of the Web: 3 years of confronting the Western Empire and its propaganda machine

Andre Vltchek
RT
Thu, 21 May 2015 16:15 UTC
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© Andre VltchekFrench military exercises over former colony Senegal
After my two days marathon discussion with Noam Chomsky, (at MIT in 2012), a bestselling book was born. Later this year a film will hit the cinemas.

Noam and I discussed Western imperialism, and the terror it has been spreading around the world. After WWII, at least 50 million lives were lost. Lives of those whom Orwell used to call "unpeople"; lives brutally interrupted as a result of Western-led and orchestrated wars, invasions, coups and proxy-conflicts.

We discussed at length the Western propaganda, which, for centuries, worked extremely hard to justify everything from the colonialist insanity, to supremacist and exceptionalist theories.

After my encounter with Chomsky, I decided to dedicate at least two years of my life to visiting most parts of the world, where the Empire had been striking; where it was attempting to bulldoze all opposition that was standing on its way to the absolute control over the planet.

My goal was Quixotic - a monster, 1000-page book, exposing and confronting techniques and dogmas utilized by the Empire in all corners of the globe, for purposes of destabilizing "rebellious" nations, overthrowing "unruly" governments, or simply grabbing natural resources.
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Megaphone

Putin: Russia facing aggressive resistance in arms trade


RT
Mon, 25 May 2015 15:51 UTC
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© RIA Novosti / Aleksey Nikolsky
Russia is facing increasing and aggressive resistance from other countries in the arms trade, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

He called on Russian manufacturers to deepen military and technical collaboration with the country's allies and strategic partners.

"Of course, we have to work in a complex situation," Putin said during a meeting of the Commission for Military and Technical Cooperation on Monday, according to Tass. "We're confronted ever more frequently with the attempt of direct counteraction and sometimes these attempts go beyond the framework of competitive struggle and are of an openly aggressive nature. And perhaps political instruments are also used as camouflaged means of competitive struggle."

The president urged Russian firms to consistently implement import substitution programs in the defense sector. He also called for Russia to enter new markets.
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Star of David

Flashback U.S. puppet Saudi Arabia financing Israel's weapons build-up against Iran

Richard Silverstein
richardsilverstein.com
Sat, 08 Mar 2014 15:08 UTC
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Over the past months, the level of intense cooperation between Israel and Saudi Arabia in targeting Iran has become clear. I've posted here about secret meetingsbetween top Israeli and Saudi intelligence figures which have allowed coordination of the campaigns involving both Syria and Iran. But Shalom Yerushalmi, writing in Maariv, dropped an even more amazing bombshell. Saudi Arabia isn't just coordinating its own intelligence efforts with Israel.

It's actually financing a good deal of Israel's very expensive campaign against Iran. As you know, this has involved massive sabotage against IRG missile bases, the assassination of five nuclear scientists, the creation of a series of computer cyberweapons like Stuxnet and Flame. It may also conceivably involve an entire class of electronic and conventional weapons that could be used in a full-scale attack on Iran. Who knows, this might even include the sorts of bunker buster bombs only the U.S. currently has access to, which could penetrate the Fordo facility.

It might include scores more super-tankers which could provide the fuel necessary for Israeli planes to make it to Iran and return. All of this is expensive. Very expensive. We can see just how expensive by examining Barry Lando's October 2012 investigative piece also based on Israeli sources which says the Saudi funding may exceed $1-billion:
A friend, with good sources in the Israeli government, claims that the head of Israel's Mossad has made several trips to deal with his counterparts in Saudi Arabia—one of the results: an agreement that the Saudis would bankroll the series of assassinations of several of Iran's top nuclear experts that have occurred over the past couple of years. The amount involved, my friend claims, was $1 billion dollars. A sum, he says, the Saudis considered cheap for the damage done to Iran's nuclear program.
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Star of David

Here we go again, Israeli jets strike Gaza 'terror infrastructure' after rocket attack


RT
Wed, 27 May 2015 13:01 UTC
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© Reuters/Baz Ratner
The Israeli military has launched airstrikes on what it called the "terror infrastructure" in Gaza, following an earlier rocket attack on Israeli territory which the IDF blames on Hamas.

Four targets identified as being part of the terror infrastructure were hit in the southern part of the Gaza strip, The Jerusalem Post reported citing an IDF spokesperson. There were no reports of any casualties or damage.


Comment: Here we go again, Israel itching for another fight.

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Beaker

Two tons of IS drugs, including Captagon, seized in Western Syria, NATO connection


Focus Information Agency
Mon, 25 May 2015 11:04 UTC
fearless
© tuttoilresto.altervista.org"Getting tough" is easier than we think.
General Directorate of Ports in the Syrian coastal province of Latakia seized about two tons of narcotics near the beach of Cape of Ras al-Bassit, local media reported, as cited by Prensa Latina.The confiscated drugs, which was floating in the sea in leather bags, consisted of more than 800 kilograms of hashish paste and nearly six million tablets of Captagon, the drug of choice by the members of the terrorist group Islamic State (IS).

The general director of Ports of Latakia, Maitham al-Yousuf, told reporters that the stash was spotted on Saturday by a patrol that ran along the beach, about 400 kilometers northwest of the capital. For his part, Latakia Governor Ibrahim Khader al-Salem accused the countries that sponsor terrorism against Syria of being responsible for the drug.

"It is a desperate attempt at destabilizing national security and sabotaging the minds of young people by preventing them from exercising their normal life and trying to continue their education," said the governor.

white pills
© english.farsnews.comCaptagon
According to experts, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) began production of Captagon in 2011 in a laboratory in Bulgaria and it is now [also] manufactured elsewhere in the world.

Part of the profits from the illegal trade in Captagon, experts say, is used to finance armed extremist groups that are trying to overthrow the Syrian government led by President Bashar al-Assad.

Captagon, the drug used by the jihadists with the Islamic State to get tough and fearless.

Comment: Captagon (Fenetylline hydrochloride) is an amphetamine that causes euphoria and numbs the pain. Mixed with other drugs like hashish, it constitutes the basic feed ration for the jihadists. Combatants neither feel their own suffering nor the suffering they inflict on others. Therefore, they can commit all sorts of atrocities, laughing. Manufactured in 2011 by NATO in a laboratory in Bulgaria, Captagon is now manufactured throughout the Middle East, including the Syrian territory. - Captagon is jihadists' main weapon

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Network

Iran claims thwarting of US cyber attack on oil ministry


RT
Wed, 27 May 2015 00:25 UTC
Cyber warfare
© Reuters/Kacper Pempel
Iranian security experts have thwarted an industrial espionage attempt on Islamic Republic's oil ministry, cyber police chief announced, claiming the attack originated in the US.

Speaking at a cyber crime forum in Tehran on Tuesday, the head of Iran's Cyber Police (FATA) Brigadier General Seyed Kamal Hadianfar announced that Cyber Attacks Emergency Center had defended the oil ministry against hackers. The alleged attack took place during a four-day holiday on March 21-24.

"These hackers were from the US" Hadianfar said, as cited by FARS news agency. "The IP address for these hackers was in America."

The chief of cyber police said that Tehran had already informed Washington via an official letter and issued an "international judicial order" as FATA passed the issue to the foreign ministry.

FATA discovers, identifies and solves some 90 percent of Internet crimes committed against Iran, Iran's Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said speaking at the same event. "Iran has had a low number of cyber crimes as compared to other countries despite the presence of over 46 million Internet users in the country," the minister added.

The cyber standoff between Iran and the US has been widely reported over recent years. Both US and Tehran have accused each other of cybercrimes aimed at strategic sectors of the government and the economy.

Comment: Several months ago Admiral Mike Rogers, the director of the U.S. National Security Agency warned:
China and "probably one or two" other countries have the ability to invade and possibly shut down computer systems of U.S. power utilities, aviation networks and financial companies
How long until these cyber attacks really begin escalating, as geo-political maneuvering intensifies?

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