Kenny's Sideshow: JFK and His Boy ■ In the 1973 film Executive Action there's the line "The Plan is perfectly plain, two terms for JFK, two for Bobby and two for Ted." That idea would be the culmination of Joe Kennedy Sr.'s dream. Joe Jr., the first born who was groomed to lead the Kennedy political dynasty didn't make it back from WWII so it was left to the less well prepared JFK and the younger ones. Future generations would be encouraged to continue the tradition as time went on. But a funny thing happened on the way to Camelot.

"The very word "secrecy" is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it. Even today, there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed society by imitating its arbitrary restrictions. Even today, there is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it. And there is very grave danger that an announced need for increased security will be seized upon those anxious to expand its meaning to the very limits of official censorship and concealment. That I do not intend to permit to the extent that it is in my control. And no official of my Administration, whether his rank is high or low, civilian or military, should interpret my words here tonight as an excuse to censor the news, to stifle dissent, to cover up our mistakes or to withhold from the press and the public the facts they deserve to know."

"Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried, not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed. It conducts the Cold War, in short, with a war-time discipline no democracy would ever hope or wish to match.

"For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence--on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations."

Rediff India Abroad: Israel killed JFK,says Vanunu
Rense: More Evidence Mossad Killed JFK Over Israeli Nukes

The UN has apparently been considering a proposal pushed by Brazil and Germany, to clarify that basic offline rights to privacy should apply to online information and activities as well. The proposal is targeted at attempts by governments -- mainly the US -- to ignore privacy issues in spying on people around the globe. Not surprisingly, the US is (quietly) working hard to stop this plan.

Just hours after a promise not to launch any more drone strikes against Pakistan for the duration of their peace talks with the Taliban, a US drone pounded a religious school in Hangu.

The attack killed eight people, including three teachers and five students. A number of others were wounded in the attack, and drones continued to loom overhead after the attack.

It’s noteworthy for a lot of reasons, and not just that it broke yet another promise. Hangu is not in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), where US drone strikes have almost exclusively hit, but is in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwah (KP) Province. Hitting a proper province is much more controversial within Pakistan, and a major backlash is expected on a national level. But that may pale in comparison to the backlash on a provincial level, as the KP Province is ruled by Pakistani Tehreek-e Insaf (PTI), an anti-drone party ruled by Imran Khan which had threatened to blockade the NATO supply route through its province into occupied Afghanistan if the drone strikes didn’t end. They gave an initial deadline of November 20… the day of the latest attack, so it will likely be interpreted locally as timed explicitly to spite them.

The deadline had been moved back to November 23 but the attack is almost certain to spark an enormous response, and will oblige the PTI to at least attempt such a blockade to retain its credibility. It will also add to pressure on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who has been facing growing criticism for his inability to stop the strikes, a key promise of his campaign.

France demanded Thursday that the United States and its allies show “firmness” in negotiating with Iran, injecting new uncertainty into the high-stakes talks to curb Iran’s nuclear program, which earlier had appeared to be on the verge of agreement. | Echoing his statement of two weeks ago, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said in a television interview that agreement with Iran “can only be possible based on firmness.” He said Iran had failed to accept an offer drafted by the United States, France and four other countries after France’s last intervention and added: “I hope they will accept it.” Two weeks ago, Fabius said in a radio interview that the agreement must be “serious and credible” and France would not play a “fool’s game.” His statement appeared to take a slice at the Obama administration, which had a key role in drafting the accord.

Kumaran Ira: In Israel, French President Hollande takes bellicose stance against Iran ■ Last week, Fabius called for aggressive US intervention in the Middle East, criticizing Washington’s foreign policy after it retreated from launching war against Syria and decided to negotiate with Iran. In a speech to mark the 40th anniversary of the formation of the French Policy Planning Staff, Fabius said: “The United States seems no longer to wish to become absorbed by crises that do not align with its new vision of its national interest.” He criticized Washington’s “non-response” in Syria—that is, the Obama administration’s decision to postpone war with Syria. Fabius said, “An American disengagement [from the Middle East], given the role of the United States, is a disengagement, period. This can leave major crises ‘up to themselves.’”

Xymphora: Étrange, indeed ■ It appears that the authorities picked a guy who complained about French Zionist neocolonialism, obtained his DNA from where his ratting 'friend', who had been watching him for 13 years, sheltered him, drugged him, and scattered his anarchist writings around (note the change in the story to back off the claim that the writings attempted to explain the attacks, and to remove the specific claim that the alleged shooter had spoken to the informant about the shootings - it is a common technique in conspiracies to release the original story with very specific claims of guilt, thus imprinting the idea in the minds of the public, and then quietly back off the specific claims so that nobody can challenge them later). I suspect that three separate French government agents were involved in the three separate attacks, none of them Abdelhakim Dekhar. Commentators have noticed that Abdelhakim Dekhar does not resemble the shooter in the slightest. And what is a leftie doing shooting up the offices of Libération? But he does have an evocative name. This essentially homeless and probably crazy patsy - but with a useful history and evocative name - managed to ditch all the clothing evidence which connected him to the various crimes for which he will be punished so that French Zio-colonialism may continue.

Secretary of State John Kerry announced on Wednesday that the United States and Afghanistan had finalized the wording of a bilateral security agreement that would allow for a lasting American troop presence through 2024 and set the stage for billions of dollars of international assistance to keep flowing to the government in Kabul. The deal, which will now be presented for approval by an Afghan grand council of elders starting on Thursday, came after days of brinkmanship by Afghan officials and two direct calls from Mr. Kerry to President Hamid Karzai, including one on Wednesday before the announcement. Just the day before, a senior aide to Mr. Karzai had said the Afghan leader would not approve an agreement unless President Obama sent a letter acknowledging American military mistakes during the 12-year war. But on Wednesday, Mr. Kerry emphatically insisted that a deal was reached with no American apology forthcoming. “President Karzai didn’t ask for an apology. There was no discussion of an apology,” Mr. Kerry said. “I mean, it’s just not even on the table.”

AllGov: Troops Stay 10 More Years and Allowed to Raid Afghan Homes if Obama Apologizes

After watching this video, you'll never buy angora again. ● The undercover footage, shot by PETA Asia, found horrific routine cruelty to angora rabbits, whose long, soft fur is often used in sweaters and accessories. The investigator filmed workers who were violently ripping the fur from the animals' sensitive skin as they screamed at the top of their lungs in pain. After this terrifying and barbaric ordeal, which the rabbits endure every three months, many of them appeared to go into shock, lying motionless inside their tiny, filthy cages, with no solid flooring or bedding, and without the vital companionship of other rabbits. After two to five years, those who have survived are hung upside down, their throats are slit, and their bodies are sold. Rabbits who have their fur cut or sheared also suffer: During the cutting process, their front and back legs are tightly tethered—a terrifying experience for any prey animal—and the sharp cutting tools inevitably wound them as they struggle desperately to escape. Ninety percent of angora fur comes from China, where there are no penalties for abuse of animals on farms and no standards to regulate the treatment of the animals. When you buy a sweater, hat, or other product that contains angora, the angora fur most likely originated in China, even if the finished product was assembled elsewhere.

China’s central bank has said it no longer sees any benefit in increasing its $3.66 trillion foreign currency reserves – already the world’s largest. China will cap its purchases of US dollars in an effort to limit the depreciation of the yuan. ● “It’s no longer in China’s favor to accumulate foreign-exchange reserves,” Bloomberg quoted Yi Gang, a deputy governor at the central bank as saying Tuesday. Decreasing the influence of the dollar and other currencies is a step closer to reaching China’s 2015 goal to “float” its currency and according to the People’s Bank of China will help the everyday Chinese citizen. Between July and September 2013 China’s increased its foreign – currency holdings by $166 billion, boosting it to the world’s highest of $3.66 trillion. This is also more that the Gross domestic product of Germany – the Europe’s biggest economy, Bloomberg reports. This will “basically” end the interference of foreign currency in the Chinese market, and widen the yuan’s daily trading range.

The US Dollar Is Now Collapsing And It Will Eventually Lose The Reserve Status Of The World

Michael Krieger: Blogger “Mish” is Fined 8,000 Euros by France for Freedom of Speech ■ Well if this isn’t one of the more ridiculous things I have read in a while, I don’t know what is. Many of my readers are probably familiar with Mike “Mish” Shedlock, who writes a very popular economics/finance blog. He has a habit of doing what I like best, challenging propaganda, engaging in critical thought and a fearlessness when it comes to saying what he believes. It appears that such behavior is frowned upon by French banksters and their minions in government. Incredibly, Mish was fined 8,000 euros for quoting a French blogger’s analysis of Societe Generale’s leverage ratio. He was also summoned to appear in front of a tribunal in France. Expect more of this sort of thing as the status quo loses more and more credibility and struggles to censor alternative narratives of what is actually happening.