Puppet MastersS


Attention

Public buses across country quietly adding microphones to record passenger conversations

Kim Zetter
Wired.com
Tue, 11 Dec 2012 13:03 UTC
Security Camera
© Oran Viriyincy/Flickr
Transit authorities in cities across the country are quietly installing microphone-enabled surveillance systems on public buses that would give them the ability to record and store private conversations, according to documents obtained by a news outlet.

The systems are being installed in San Francisco, Baltimore, and other cities with funding from the Department of Homeland Security in some cases, according to the Daily, which obtained copies of contracts, procurement requests, specs and other documents.

The use of the equipment raises serious questions about eavesdropping without a warrant, particularly since recordings of passengers could be obtained and used by law enforcement agencies.

It also raises questions about security, since the IP audio-video systems can be accessed remotely via a built-in web server (.pdf), and can be combined with GPS data to track the movement of buses and passengers throughout the city.

According to the product pamphlet for the RoadRecorder 7000 system made by SafetyVision (.pdf), "Remote connectivity to the RoadRecorder 7000 NVR can be established via the Gigabit Ethernet port or the built-in 3G modem. A robust software ecosystem including LiveTrax vehicle tracking and video streaming service combined with SafetyNet central management system allows authorized users to check health status, create custom alerts, track vehicles, automate event downloads and much more."
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Cult

U.S. intelligence agencies report radical changes ahead

Nicole Gaouette
Bloomberg
Mon, 10 Dec 2012 07:51 UTC
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© Nana Buxani/BloombergA pond is dried up due to an El Nino-induced drought, in Jones, Isabela province, the Philippines.
New technologies, dwindling resources and explosive population growth in the next 18 years will alter the global balance of power and trigger radical economic and political changes at a speed unprecedented in modern history, says a new report by the U.S. intelligence community.

The 140-page report released today by the National Intelligence Council lays out dangers and opportunities for nations, economies, investors, political systems and leaders due to four "megatrends" that government intelligence analysts say are transforming the world.

Those major trends are the end of U.S. global dominance, the rising power of individuals against states, a rising middle class whose demands challenge governments, and a Gordian knot of water, food and energy shortages, according to the analysts.
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Pistol

'U.S. to send sophisticated arms to militants in Syria'


Press TV
Tue, 11 Dec 2012 06:47 UTC
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File photo
The United States is reportedly planning to send sophisticated weapons to foreign-sponsored militants fighting the Syrian government.

Washington has already admitted to providing logistical and communication assistance to militants in Syria, but now there are reports of a covert US plan to practically arm them.

The recent reports said a wide range of modern weapons would be sent to Syria through Washington's regional allies, such as Turkey, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.

According to diplomatic sources, Americans have bought some of the weapons, including Russian-made Strela 2 missiles, from the stockpiles of slain Libyan dictator Muammar Ghaddafi. Strela 2 or SA-7 is a man-portable, shoulder-fired, low-altitude surface-to-air missile system.
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Handcuffs

The Unsilenced Voice of a 'Long-Distance Revolutionary'

Chris Hedges
Truthdig
Sun, 09 Dec 2012 05:41 UTC
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Poster for “Long Distance Revolutionary: A Journey with Mumia Abu-Jamal.”
I am sitting in the visiting area of the SCI Mahanoy prison in Frackville, Pa., on a rainy, cold Friday morning with Mumia Abu-Jamal, America's most famous political prisoner and one of its few authentic revolutionaries. He is hunched forward on the gray plastic table, his dreadlocks cascading down the sides of his face, in a room that looks like a high school cafeteria. He is talking intently about the nature of empire, which he is currently reading voraciously about, and effective forms of resistance to tyranny throughout history. Small children, visiting their fathers or brothers, race around the floor, wail or clamber on the plastic chairs. Abu-Jamal, like the other prisoners in the room, is wearing a brown jumpsuit bearing the letters DOC - for Department of Corrections.

Abu-Jamal was transferred in January to the general prison population after nearly 30 years in solitary confinement on death row and was permitted physical contact with his wife, children and other visitors for the first time in three decades. He had been sentenced to death in 1982 for the Dec. 9, 1981, killing of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. His sentence was recently amended to life without parole. The misconduct of the judge, flagrant irregularities in his trial and tainted evidence have been criticized by numerous human rights organizations, including Amnesty International.
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Star of David

Israel caught propagating fake intel on Iranian nuclear programme

Julian Borger
The Guardian
Tue, 11 Dec 2012 05:03 UTC
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Western officials believe Israel may have leaked information from IAEA investigation in bid to raise global pressure on Tehran

Israel is suspected of carrying out a series of leaks implicating Iran in nuclear weapons experiments in an attempt to raise international pressure on Tehran and halt its programme.

Western diplomats believe the leaks may have backfired, compromising a UN-sanctioned investigation into Iran's past nuclear activities and current aspirations.

The latest leak, published by the Associated Press (AP), purported to be an Iranian diagram showing the physics of a nuclear blast, but scientists quickly pointed out an elementary mistake that cast doubt on its significance and authenticity. An article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists declared: "This diagram does nothing more than indicate either slipshod analysis or an amateurish hoax."

The leaked diagram raised questions about an investigation being carried out by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors after it emerged that it formed part of a file of intelligence on alleged Iranian nuclear weapons work held by the agency.
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MIB

Still America's poodle: British military plans to provide its Syrian 'rebels' with air support (if U.S. says it's ok)

Richard Norton-Taylor
The Guardian
Tue, 11 Dec 2012 04:51 UTC
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Let's kill more brown people to protect out economic interests!
Cameron asks military chiefs to draw up plans for maritime or air support to rebels - but UK 'will act only if US does'

Britain's military chiefs have drawn up contingency plans to provide Syrian rebels with maritime, and possibly air, power in response to a request from David Cameron, senior defence sources said on Monday night.

However, they said the UK would act only if the US did so and made it clear that British chiefs of staffs are seriously worried about the consequences of intervening in the Syrian crisis.

Military sources have privately been expressing growing concern about pressure from Downing Street.

Officials compared it to the pressure applied by Cameron before Britain and France took the lead in the campaign of air strikes on Libya early last year.

Comment: "A coherent programme built on respect for human rights and ethnic tolerance."

That's rich coming from a regime that is conservatively estimated to have directly or indirectly killed between 7.5 and 11.5 million people around the world from WWII to 2004 [see Unpeople: Britain's Secret Human Rights Abuses by Mark Curtis].

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MIB

Mali prime minister resigns hours after army arrest: Prelude to Western intervention?


The Guardian
Tue, 11 Dec 2012 04:28 UTC
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School of the Americas-trained Captain Sanogo is back in charge in Mali
Cheik Modibo Diarra was arrested at his home around 10pm on Monday by soldiers loyal to Captain Amadou Haya Sanogo

Mali's prime minister resigned on state television in a broadcast at 4am local time on Tuesday, hours after soldiers who led a recent coup burst into his home and arrested him.

Cheik Modibo Diarra appeared somber in his national address, saying: "Our country is living through a period of crisis. Men and women who are worried about the future of our nation are hoping for peace.

"It's for this reason that I, Cheik Modibo Diarra, am resigning along with my entire government on this day, Tuesday, 11 December, 2012. I apologise before the entire population of Mali."

A police officer and an intelligence official confirmed that the 60-year-old Diarra had been arrested at his private residence at around 10pm on Monday by soldiers loyal to Captain Amadou Haya Sanogo, the leader of the country's recent coup.

Comment: Doing the CIA's bidding: France and Germany to expand NATO's North African war front to Mali by sending drones, arms and agents 'in fight against al-Qaida-backed insurgents'

Destabilization of Africa: Coup in Mali
Captain Amadou Sanogo: Power is his Middle Name

Think Africa Press, 29 March 2012

[...]

Captain Sanogo, 39 (or 40 by some accounts), was working as an army English instructor prior to the coup. He had earlier served on the training staff at the Ecole Militaire Inter-Armes in Koulikoro, Mali's officer training school, but was dismissed last October along with the rest of the staff after a hazing incident that left five officer candidates dead. (Sanongo himself was not present on the day of the incident.)

In an interview with a Malian newspaper, Sanogo said he began his army career as an enlisted man, attending training at the US Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia, before receiving infantry and English language training at Fort Benning, Georgia. He subsequently was promoted to the rank of lieutenant and attended further US-based training.

As described in both the New York Times and the Washington Post, Sanogo attended the Defense Language Institute (Lackland Air Force Base, Texas) and gained intelligence training at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. Sanogo also claims to have undergone US-sponsored counterterrorism and crisis response training in Morocco and elsewhere on the African continent.

Sanogo's experience in the US appears to have left its mark on him. Since the coup, Sanogo has appeared with a US Marine Corps 'eagle, globe and anchor' pinned prominently above the right breast pocket of his fatigues, as shown in the image below from March 22, the day after the coup, on Africable TV.

[...]


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Light Sabers

HSBC to pay £1.2bn over Mexico scandal

Jill Treanor & Dominic Rushe
The Guardian
Mon, 10 Dec 2012 20:00 UTC
News of bank's agreement comes hours after Standard Chartered admitted settlement with US regulator over Iran
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© Andrew Burton/Getty ImagesHSBC expected to admit it has settled allegations of running money for Mexican drug barons.

HSBC is expected to admit on Tuesday it has settled allegations of running money for Mexican drug barons for a larger than expected $1.9bn (£1.2bn), barely 24 hours after close rival Standard Chartered admitted paying $670m (£415m) in penalties to US regulators to settle allegations it broke sanctions on Iran.

The $1.9bn that HSBC will pay to the US authorities exceeds the $1.5bn it had warned it could cost to settle the allegations raised in a damning US Senate report in the summer which came amid a wave of scandals to hit the banking sector.

HSBC is expected to confirm it has struck the agreement which has already led to the departure of compliance head David Bagley and put pressure on former chairman Lord Green, now a trade minister.

The bank is expected to admit violating US laws meant to prohibit money laundering including the Bank Secrecy Act and the Trading with the Enemy Act. The deal is expected to include a settlement with the powerful Manhattan district attorney's office and a deferred prosecution agreement with both the Justice department and Treasury department.

Comment: Though the charges are not for money laundering, how much more than the 1.2 billion dollars was made? The point being, for example, if the bank made $320 billion in profit, "for the fine related to drug allegations," than wouldn't charging the bank around $500 billion dollars be more of a punishment for the crime?

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Folder

Strauss-Kahn settles maid's suit, ending New York legal saga

Chris Dolmetsch
Bloomberg
Mon, 10 Dec 2012 01:19 UTC
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Nafissatou Diallo
© Reuters / Todd Heisler/Pool (L) and Shannon Stapleton (R)Former International Monetary Fund (IMF) Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn (L) and Nafissatou Diallo are seen in this combination photo.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by the maid who accused him of trying to rape her, resolving a legal saga that ended his term as head of the International Monetary Fund and derailed a potential French presidential bid.

Lawyers for Strauss-Kahn and the hotel maid, Nafissatou Diallo, told New York State Supreme Court Justice Douglas McKeon in the Bronx today that they have reached an agreement to end the suit, which accused the former IMF head of "violent and deplorable acts" during an encounter at the Sofitel in midtown Manhattan.
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Stock Up

Iran blames NATO for Increasing drug production, trafficking in Afghanistan


Fars News Agency
Mon, 10 Dec 2012 21:34 UTC
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© Unknown
Iran on Monday once again lambasted the NATO forces in Afghanistan for increasing drug cultivation, production and trafficking in Afghanistan, saying almost all the world opium production is done in front of the eyes of the foreign troops in Afghanistan.

Deputy Head of Iran's Anti-Narcotics Headquarters Babak Dinparast on Monday deplored the weak performance of NATO and US forces in Afghanistan in combating narcotics.

He referred to the seizure of 12 tons of narcotics in Eastern Iran in recent days, and said, "These seizures have been made as we are witnessing production of 95 percent of the world's opium in Afghanistan despite the presence (of the forces) of 48 countries in there."

Dinparast further reminded that war on narcotics was one of the reasons mentioned by the US-led western countries for their 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, while their soldiers have refused to take any measure to help combat drugs in practice.

Comment: It seems Iran is overlooking the obvious. The drug problem was intended to increase, thus "Afghanistan [heroin/opium production] has undergone a 40-fold increase" since the US led invasion there.

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