Puppet MastersS


USA

Best of the Web: News from the Empire: Al Qaeda in Syria, Obama's Kill List, Chavez's defiance

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"Hi, we're the ones bringing democracy and freedom to Syria. Special thanks go to the CIA for these weapons, MI6 for the communications equipment and Mossad for the training (those weekends with you guys in Herzliya were awesome!)..."
The Southeast Asian country of Laos in the late 1950s and early 60s was a complex and confusing patchwork of civil conflicts, changes of government and switching loyalties. The CIA and the State Department alone could take credit for engineering coups at least once in each of the years 1958, 1959 and 1960. No study of Laos of this period appears to have had notable success in untangling the muddle of who exactly replaced whom, and when, and how, and why. After returning from Laos in 1961, American writer Norman Cousins stated that "if you want to get a sense of the universe unraveling, come to Laos. Complexity such as this has to be respected."1

Syria 2012 has produced its own tangled complexity. In the past 18 months it appears that at one time or another virtually every nation in the Middle East and North Africa as well as members of NATO and the European Union has been reported as aiding those seeking to overthrow the regime of Bashar al-Assad, while Russia, China, and several other countries are reported as aiding Assad. The Syrian leader, for his part, has consistently referred to those in combat against him as "terrorists", citing the repeated use of car bombs and suicide bombers. The West has treated this accusation with scorn, or has simply ignored it. But the evidence that Assad has had good reason for his stance has been accumulating for some time now, particularly of late. Here is a small sample from recent months:
  • "It is the sort of image that has become a staple of the Syrian revolution, a video of masked men calling themselves the Free Syrian Army and brandishing AK-47s - with one unsettling difference. In the background hang two flags of Al Qaeda, white Arabic writing on a black field ... The video, posted on YouTube, is one more bit of evidence that Al Qaeda and other Islamic extremists are doing their best to hijack the Syrian revolution." (New York Times, July 24, 2012)
  • A leading German newspaper reported that the German intelligence service, BND, had concluded that 95% of the Syrian rebels come from abroad and are likely to be members of al Qaeda. (Die Welt, September 30, 2012)
  • "A network of French Islamists behind a grenade attack on a kosher market outside Paris last month also planned to join jihadists fighting in Syria ... Two suspects were responsible for recruiting and dispatching people 'to carry out jihad in some countries - notably Syria'," a state prosecutor said. (Associated Press, October 11, 2012)
  • "Fighters from a shadowy militant group [Jabhat al-Nusra] with suspected links to al-Qaida joined Syrian rebels in seizing a government missile defense base in northern Syria on Friday, according to activists and amateur video. ...The videos show dozens of fighters inside the base near a radar tower, along with rows of large missiles, some on the backs of trucks." (Associated Press, October 12, 2012)
  • "In a videotape posted this week on militant forums, the Egyptian-born jihadist Ayman al-Zawahiri ... urged support for Syria's uprisings." (Associated Press, October 28, 2012)

Laptop

UK government think tank calls for infiltrating conspiracy websites

Furious that state involvement in major terror attacks is being exposed to a wider audience than ever before via the Internet, a UK think tank closely affiliated with the Downing Street has called for authorities to infiltrate conspiracy websites in an effort to "increase trust in the government".

"A Demos report published today, The Power of Unreason, argues that secrecy surrounding the investigation of events such as the 9/11 New York attacks and the 7/7 bombings in London merely adds weight to unsubstantiated claims that they were "inside jobs," reports the London Independent.

In other words, the fact that the overwhelming amount of evidence indicates that both 7/7 and 9/11 were "inside jobs" of one form or another, and that huge numbers of people are now aware of this via the increasing influence of the Internet, is hampering efforts to commit more acts of terror, therefore the government needs to change its strategy.

In the report, Demos, "recommends the Government fight back by infiltrating internet sites to dispute these theories." One of the tools Demos already employs to "fight back" against conspiracy theories is by labeling anyone who challenges the government's official story as an extremist or a terrorist recruiter.

Comment: The problem is compounded by the fact that many 'conspiracy websites' were set up for the very purpose of having something to attack.


USA

SOTT Focus: Hungry and Powerless in the Empire State

Hurricane Sandy has come and gone, and the people of the US East Coast, in particular those living on the NY and NJ coastlines and the people of NYC itself, are left to pick up the pieces.

Right now, 250,000 people in lower Manhattan are without power. The prognosis for reconnection is not good. As the sea poured over the banks of the East River near the ConEd electricity substation on 13th Street, the transformer blew in spectacular fashion.


With the underground circuitry still under water, those 1/4 million people are looking at 10 days without power, despite promises that it would take just three days. Among the powerless are many elderly and disabled people on medication. Brooklyn resident Jonathan Maimon provided the following report on the situation in his area:
Virtually every retailer, restaurant and grocery store south of 38th street is CLOSED....There is no food, other than what you have in your refrigerator....

There is no running water or flushing toilets for people living in the Jacob Riis Houses and surrounding NYCHA buildings on the Lower East Side. In my estimate, this is roughly 20,000 people....

I did not witness a single Red Cross Truck or FEMA Vehicle or in lower Manhattan. Recall the assistance these agencies provided after 9/11 - this is NOT HAPPENING. There are bound to be hundreds of elderly people, rich and poor, who live on the upper floors of buildings with elevators that are now disabled. IF POWER IS NOT RESTORED, THIS WILL MOVE FROM BEING AN ECONOMIC DISASTER TO A HUMANITARIAN DISASTER.
At times like these, before, during and after a natural disaster, the most politicians seem able to do is to point out the obvious and try to create the impression that it is they who are mostly responsible for 'getting the country back on its feet'. Obviously, this is bullshit. It's the ordinary people of any society or country that drive the bulldozers, manually pick up the pieces, rebuild homes and fix damaged infrastructure. Yet politicians would like us all to believe that, without their leadership, nothing would get done. Obviously, this is more bullshit. Yet people believe it, mainly because the media provides them with images of presidents taking to the skies to survey the scenery and polls stating that x% of people think that the president or mayor "did a good job" in "dealing with the crisis". They do a good job at capitalizing on a crisis, but that's about it.

The truth of the matter is that, more often than not, in exercising their power in such situations, politicians tend to impede the most effective, efficient and humane response to a disaster. The reason is clear: politicians do not, and never have, worked in the public interest. They have their own vested interests and those of their corporate cronies that always come first.

USA

Navy SEALs and other US security personel conduct drill, organised by DHS, complete with actors dressed as 'Muslim zombies'

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This is not a drill. Well, yes, it is, kind of... just what is the US government up to with all this zombie madness? Are they REALLY expecting a zombie apocalypse??
The Taliban IED exploding in the faces of the U.S. soldiers wasn't the surprise. It was the zombie assault that came afterwards.

The War on Terror and the Zombie War on Humanity met Halloween night as an American patrol confronted IEDs, wounded civilians and waves of zombies. The setting was the parking lot of the HALO Corporation's counter-terrorism conference in San Diego, and the soldiers and zombies came from Strategic Operations, a private company that uses Hollywood special effects and actors to train U.S. soldiers.

But as you can see from the video, this wasn't training Marines how to make friends with Afghan villagers. The scenario starts with an American VIP - the dude in the black shirt and sunglasses - visiting a village (Strategic Operations describes it as a Third World village, but the keffiyeh/shemagh scarf worn by the village elder suggests Iraq or Afghanistan). He is escorted by a Personal Security Detail of American soldiers. As the team prepares to leave the village, they are attacked by insurgents driving a truck carrying an IED. The soldiers destroy the vehicle and detonate the IED.


Comment: We too thought this had to be a joke, but it looks like it was conducted in all seriousness. Here's more from Fox News:
Zombies attack VIP in California

By Allison Barrie

Zombies captured a VIP and a quick reaction team rescued a downed pilot, all while drug criminals launched an attack on a resort island off the coast of California.

Has the apocalypse finally come to the Golden State?

No, but law enforcement sure has.

A Halloween-themed five-day counter-terrorism training event, held by the Halo Corp. and funded in part by DHS, bookends Halloween this year. The event gave more than 1,000 military personnel as well as federal, state and local law enforcement hands-on experience with threats rooted in reality -- all save for those zombies, of course.

"This is a very real exercise; this is not some type of big costume party," Brad Barker, president of Halo Corp., told the Associated Press. "Everything that will be simulated at this event has already happened, it just hasn't happened all at once on the same night. But the training is very real, it just happens to be the bad guys we're having a little fun with."
Zombies! Everywhere!

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) pioneered the use of zombies for emergency preparedness, to great success.

This smart strategy was underpinned by the truism that if you are prepared for a zombie apocalypse, then you will be ready to deal with any hurricane, earthquake pandemic or terrorist coming your way.
The mix of first responders in a controlled environment will foster improved command and control across communities in the event of a terrorist incident, Barker told FoxNews.com.

"If they don't get the right information to the right guy, then people can die," he said.

HALO specializes in training military, federal, and state agencies in emergency response, security, force-protection and disaster management.

Strategic Operations Inc., known for hyper-realistic combat trauma training, is collaborating on the exercise to provide hyper realistic battlefield conditions to produce an immersive training environment.

For the sixth such training event, the company constructed a village on the 44-acre Paradise Point resort island and exploited "Hollywood magic" to provide participants with state of the art structures, pyrotechnic battlefield effects, medical special effects, vehicles and blank-firing weapons.

Training is intended to inoculate against stress and increase situational awareness for military and law enforcement personnel, all to improve performance and save lives.

Despite the zombies, Barker said the training will have "nothing from the neighborhood of make believe." He noted the training incorporates lessons learned from real disasters and terror events from Iraq and Afghanistan to Mumbai attacks.

Cyber terrorism has been increasingly recognized as a serious threat, one this exercise will incorporate as well -- with an unconventional spin.

At the Halo event, participants' cellphones and e-mail accounts were hacked.

Imagine sitting in Starbucks and suddenly finding all of your private text messages on the screen of a stranger's laptop sitting next to you.

Hacking into phones in a classroom setting may underscore just how easy it is for a hostile force to compromise personal information.

"First we give them the doom and gloom...there is no Santa," Barker said. "Then we allow them to spend the rest of the day applying new techniques, challenging them where outcomes are hardly certain."

UTM/ Phoenix will present several close quarters battle training scenarios including a gun battle station, active threats like bombers, and environments where use of force is required.

Participants will also be challenged throughout the week with three large scale scenarios.

In the first, a downed pilot was trapped in the village. Former Navy SEALs called the "elite frogs" acted as an airborne quick reaction force -- parachuting onto HALO island to extract the pilot.

The opposition force fired rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire at them, but the quick reaction force fought its way into the village located the pilot, administered aid and transported him to safety.

On Wednesday, HALO summit participants had to contend with a herd of zombies.

For the zombie exercise, the team used "The Walking Dead" make-up and actors.

In this case, Barker says the zombies were intended to personify a hazardous environment and introduce the challenge of contending with the irrational with whom there is no negotiation.

The VIP and his personal security detail were trapped in a village surrounded by zombies. After the he met with local officials, the team began to depart, but a zombie-driven truck with an improvised explosive device arrived, wounding the VIP.

The team conveyed the VIP through town while taking small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades from the enemy. Two members of the team were bitten by zombies, and during the firefight the team was forced to shoot zombies several times before they were killed for good.

Today, a MEDCAP mission in a remote village will come under attack by drug criminals and a quick reaction force must subdue them.

Throughout the HALO event, participants trained with the latest military and law enforcement gear, from tactical terrain and armored vehicles to air and water drones. They also tried out surveillance technologies, night vision and thermal imaging gear.

Zombies? Drug lords? Downed pilots? Counter-terrorism training doesn't need to be a snooze-fest to be effective.
They can't be serious, can they?

Then there's this:

Feds vs. Zombies: CDC officially denies 'Zombie Apocalypse'


Cupcake Choco

Best of the Web: GMO Foods: Science, PR, and Public Backlash


Dollars

Two women claim Sen. Bob Menendez paid them for sex in the Dominican Republic


Two women from the Dominican Republic told The Daily Caller that Democratic New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez paid them for sex earlier this year.

In interviews, the two women said they met Menendez around Easter at Casa de Campo, an expensive 7,000-acre resort in the Dominican Republic. They claimed Menendez agreed to pay them $500 for sex acts, but in the end they each received only $100.

The women spoke through a translator in the company of their attorney, Melanio Figueroa. Both asked that their identities remain obscured for fear of reprisals in the Dominican Republic.

When shown a photograph of Sen. Menendez, the women said they recognized him as the man with whom they'd had sexual relations at Casa de Campo this spring. Both said they were brought to the resort with the understanding they would be paid for sex.

Neither knew the identity of the man at the time. Both claimed to recognize him later as Sen. Menendez.

"He called him[self] 'Bob,'" said one.

Camcorder

Court OKs warrantless use of hidden surveillance cameras

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© AlamyObsessive surveillance: A huge number of CCTV cameras are in public places
In latest case to test how technological developments alter Americans' privacy, federal court sides with Justice Department on police use of concealed surveillance cameras on private property.

Police are allowed in some circumstances to install hidden surveillance cameras on private property without obtaining a search warrant, a federal judge said yesterday.

CNET has learned that U.S. District Judge William Griesbach ruled that it was reasonable for Drug Enforcement Administration agents to enter rural property without permission -- and without a warrant -- to install multiple "covert digital surveillance cameras" in hopes of uncovering evidence that 30 to 40 marijuana plants were being grown.

This is the latest case to highlight how advances in technology are causing the legal system to rethink how Americans' privacy rights are protected by law. In January, the Supreme Court rejected warrantless GPS tracking after previously rejecting warrantless thermal imaging, but it has not yet ruled on warrantless cell phone tracking or warrantless use of surveillance cameras placed on private property without permission.

Yesterday Griesbach adopted a recommendation by U.S. Magistrate Judge William Callahan dated October 9. That recommendation said that the DEA's warrantless surveillance did not violate the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and requires that warrants describe the place that's being searched.

"The Supreme Court has upheld the use of technology as a substitute for ordinary police surveillance," Callahan wrote.

Snakes in Suits

Secret Service agent kills self amid affair probe

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A senior Secret Service agent who was being investigated by the government for failing to disclose a long-standing relationship with a foreign citizen killed himself last week in Washington, people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.

Rafael Prieto, a married father assigned to the security detail for President Barack Obama, had acknowledged to U.S. investigators that he had been having an affair for years with a woman from Mexico, these people said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss Prieto's death or the investigation. Prieto's relationship was revealed to Secret Service investigators by an agent who had been entangled in the Colombian prostitution scandal earlier this year, these people say. That agent was concerned that the Secret Service wasn't enforcing its rules consistently.

Secret Service rules require that employees with a security clearance notify the agency about any relationship with a foreign citizen to ensure that the person is not a risk to national security. There is no evidence that Prieto's relationship posed any security threat. Failing to disclose such a relationship would be a violation of the agency's administrative rules, not a crime.

Prieto was serving on the protective detail for Obama, though he was not on duty at the time of his suicide. As recently as 2009, he was identified as the resident agent in charge at the Secret Service's office in White Plains, N.Y. He had worked for the Secret Service for 22 years. He was 47, according to public records.

Monkey Wrench

UAW files charges against Romney on his auto bail-out profiteering

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© Unknown
Broke ethics law hiding millions, say good government groups

For Mitt Romney, it's one scary Halloween. The Presidential candidate has just learned that tomorrow afternoon he will charged with violating the federal Ethics in Government law by improperly concealing his multi-million dollar windfall from the auto industry bail-out.

At a press conference in Toledo, Bob King, President of the United Automobile Workers, will announce that his union and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) have filed a formal complaint with the US Office of Government Ethics in Washington stating that Gov. Romney improperly hid a profit of $15.3 million to $115.0 million in Ann Romney's so-called "blind" trust.

The union chief says, "The American people have a right to know about Gov. Romney's potential conflicts of interest, such as the profits his family made from the auto rescue," "It's time for Gov. Romney to disclose or divest."

"While Romney was opposing the rescue of one of the nation's most important manufacturing sectors, he was building his fortunes with his Delphi investor group, making his fortunes off the misfortunes of others," King added.

Star of David

Israel warned by US it will be on its own if Iran attacked

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© Reuters / Baz Ratner
A military strike on Iran by way of Israel could still occur at a moment's notice, but the US is now warning its allies that any action overseas would jeopardize America's ability to assist in a Middle East war.

Although US President Barack Obama and his challenger Mitt Romney both say the next administration will be aligned with any Israeli efforts to prevent Iran from procuring a nuclear weapon, any unilateral strike on the Islamic Republic could prevent America from offering its service in the event of a war.

The United States currently has military bases across much of the world, including key stations in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. Should Israel decide to strike Iran, instability in the region is expected to become rampant and American officials fear they won't be able to rely on troops stationed overseas to come to their ally's aid.

"The Gulf states' one great fear is Iran going nuclear. The other is a regional war that would destabilize them," a source in the region tells the UK's Guardian. "They might support a massive war against Iran, but they know they are not going to get that, and they know a limited strike is not worth it, as it will not destroy the program and only make Iran angrier."