06/30/14

Permalink Central Bank Analysts Say Stocks Are In 'Euphoric' Territory And We're Screwed When The Recession Hits

The Bank for International Settlements — the Swiss-based financial institution that acts as a counterparty to national central banks — has declared that stock markets are currently in a "euphoric" state and has urged central banks globally to begin tightening interest rate policies now while economies are growing rather than wait for another recession, when it will be too late. Those are scary words, coming from a set of economists whose job it is to monitor how capable central banks are of responding to economic conditions with flexible monetary policy. The subtext (and not-so-subtext) of BIS's annual report is that because many central banks have reduced interest rates to zero — the U.S. and Japan included — they are currently without weapons to boost the economy should another crisis hit. You can't go lower than zero, basically.

Paul Craig Roberts: A New Recession and a New World Devoid of Washington’s Arrogance?


Permalink Before Shooting in Iraq, a Warning on Blackwater

Blackwater’s top manager issued a threat: “that he could kill” the government’s chief investigator and “no one could or would do anything about it as we were in Iraq,” according to U.S. State Department reports. Just weeks before Blackwater guards fatally shot 17 civilians at Baghdad’s Nisour Square in 2007, the State Department began investigating the security contractor’s operations in Iraq. But the inquiry was abandoned after Blackwater’s top manager there issued a threat: “that he could kill” the government’s chief investigator and “no one could or would do anything about it as we were in Iraq,” according to department reports. American Embassy officials in Baghdad sided with Blackwater rather than the State Department investigators as a dispute over the probe escalated in August 2007, the previously undisclosed documents show. The officials told the investigators that they had disrupted the embassy’s relationship with the security contractor and ordered them to leave the country, according to the reports. After returning to Washington, the chief investigator wrote a scathing report to State Department officials documenting misconduct by Blackwater employees and warning that lax oversight of the company, which had a contract worth more than $1 billion to protect American diplomats, had created “an environment full of liability and negligence.”


Permalink Syrian UN Ambassador: "Constructive Chaos" at Work in the Middle East

The Permanent Representative of Syria to the United Nations Bashar Al-Jaafari says the recent developments in the Middle East, particularly the unrest in Syria and Iraq are part of a project to divide the Middle East. In an exclusive interview with Press TV, the Permanent Representative of Syria to the UN said that by taking part in Syria's presidential elections, the Syrians said "NO" to foreign interference in their country's internal affairs.

21st Century Wire: ISIS CRISIS: $500 Million Sought in ‘War Funds’ for Rebels in Western Proxy War & Israeli Oil Shipments


Permalink Ukrainian forces shell Slavyansk church during Sunday service

Ukrainian government forces have shelled a church in the city of Slavyansk in eastern Ukraine. An estimated 1,000 people were on the territory of the church during the shelling, which lasted for 30 minutes; however, none was killed, nor injured. Moreover, Ukrainian forces shelled the microdistrict of Artyom and the city's central marketplace, where several people died, the statement on the eparchy's website says. "The shelling began on Sunday morning at 6 am GMT during a liturgy. People were praying, when Ukrainian forces produced a first volley from Karachun hill. One woman was nearly beheaded by an explosion. We've buried her," archpriest Nikolay Fomenko said. Ukrainian government forces have launched an attack on the Cathedral church of St. Alexander Nevsky in Slovyansk, according to the local diocese.


Permalink Russia's top federal channel cameramen shot in E Ukraine

Another journalist killed; Russia's Channel One cameraman sustained a lethal abdominal wound in a trip to a military camp in Donetsk. This is the latest episode in a series of journalists being injured or killed in Ukraine. Overnight into Monday, June 30 four camera crews from Russia’s four different TV stations were attacked. MIR 24, LifeNews and Ren-TV journalists were lucky, Channel One lost a life. The trip to the military unit near Donetsk, where the operator for Russia’s top federal channel died, was organized by the press service of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR). During the attack the Ukrainian military gunned a bus with group of Russian Channel One journalists and mothers of enlisted soldiers. As a result, the team’s operator Anatoly Klyan was fatally wounded in the stomach and died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. The bus driver sustained a neck injury and at the expense of his own life managed to drive the vehicle away from fire and save his passengers. “Tonight, our colleague Anatoly Klyan, cameraman for the Channel One, died in Donetsk,” the TV channel's statement said. “The tragedy happened near one of army units, where the crew came to film a report. At the site, shots were unexpectedly fired from the side of the servicemen. Anatoly Klyan received a fatal gunshot wound to the abdomen. He was 68 years old.”

RT.com: Last word ‘camera’! Russian journalist killed in E. Ukraine working till dying breath
VoR: Ukranian forces attack journalists again - this time in Donetsk


Permalink Ethnic and cultural cleansing in Ukraine

While the president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, has just inked an agreement with the leaders of the Donbas People’s Republic, Andrew Korybko dwells on the reasons for the uprising: it is not simply a question of refusing to recognize the coup government in Kiev, but an attempt to ward off an official project entailing the ethnic cleansing of the Russian-speaking populations. On the centennial anniversary of “Russophilic” individuals (Rusyns) from modern-day Ukraine being sent to concentration camps, history appears set to once again repeat itself. The Ukrainian Defense Minister has publicly voiced his plan to corral the citizens of Donbass into special “filtration” camps prior to forcibly resettling them in different parts of Ukraine. A few days later, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yatsenyuk declared the pro-federalists in the East to be “subhuman”. This choice of words not only wasn’t condemned by Kiev’s American patrons, but was actually defended by State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki, who strangely said that Yatsenyuk “has consistently been in support of a peaceful resolution”. Raising concerns even higher that a full-fledged cleansing is being planned, Ukraine’s land agency said that it will be giving “free land” from the east to the military, Interior Ministry, and Special Services troops battling the federalists. With Ukraine on the verge of large-scale ethnic and cultural cleansing, it is little wonder at whose expense this Lebenstraum-like “free land” will be given.

Eric Zuesse: America Cleanses Southeastern Ukraine of Ethnic Russians
Oriental Review: Genocide in Novorossia and swan song of Ukrainian statehood


Permalink Top NSA Officials: U.S. Has Turned Into Stasi Germany or Soviet Union

Senior NSA executive Thomas Drake is an expert on spying in Stasi Germany … having studied it for years. Drake told Washington’s Blog that the U.S. has adopted the Stasi model: “Collect it all, know it all” [the NSA's model] is actually the Stasi model. It’s not just know everything; we have to be able to keep everything that we want to know, even if we don’t know it yet. It’s a collect it all first mentality … and then we’ll get to know it all. I call it “feeding the beast”. "I keep shuddering because I’m intimately familiar with the East German surveillance state mentality." A lieutenant colonel for the Stasi East German’s – based upon his experience – agrees. And German Chancellor Angela Merkel – who grew up in Stasi Germany – says the NSA is exactly the same. Top American constitutional experts also say that the Obama and Bush administration are worse than the Stasi East Germans.

PressTV: Israeli agencies facilitating 'police state tactics' in US: Analyst


Permalink Ukraine Gangster State Calls for 'Nuclear Strikes'

Parliament moves to quit Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty; Nazis 'regular reconnaissance visits to nuclear power stations'; Billionaire governor, whose Privatbank is top recipient of new IMF bailout, being placed on international wanted list for 'banned methods of warfare and aggravated murder'. Seek truth from facts with intelligence expert William Engdahl; economist Professor Michael Hudson; former US intelligence officer Scott Rickard; and the prosecutor who put Yulia Timoshenko's partner behind bars, Martha Boersch.


Permalink Elbit: Exporting Oppression from Palestine to Latin America

Scott Campbell As technology offers new possibilities for connection, it also offers new means to keep tabs on people. Surveillance has become seemingly ubiquitous, from the NSA reading emails to drones in the skies. As a nation that has for 66 years been ruling over an indigenous population by force, one of the main countries practicing surveillance is Israel. And it is the Israeli defense industry that has been reaping the profits off of the oppression and surveillance of the Palestinian people. One of the top occupation profiteers in Israel is the defense firm Elbit Systems. The largest non-governmental defense company in the country, its revenue stood at $2.83 billion in 2010. Using knowledge and expertise gained from assisting in the occupation of Palestine, Elbit has made millions exporting surveillance and defense materiel worldwide – and increasingly so to Latin America.


Permalink ISIS declares creation of Islamic state in Middle East, 'new era of international jihad'

ISIS jihadists have declared the captured territories from Iraq's Diyala province to Syria's Aleppo a new Islamic State - a ‘caliphate.' They removed 'Iraq and the Levant' from their name and urged other radical Sunni groups to pledge their allegiance. ISIS announced that it should now be called 'The Islamic State' and declared its chief, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as "the caliph" of the new state and "leader for Muslims everywhere," the radical Sunni militant group said in an audio recording distributed online on Sunday. This is the first time since the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1923 that a Caliph – which means a political successor to Prophet Muhammad – has been declared. The decision was made following the group’s Shura Council meeting on Sunday, according to ISIS spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani. The new Islamic State has marked its borders, spanning the territory captured by the group in a bloody rampage, from Iraq's volatile Diyala province to Syria's war-torn Aleppo. The jihadist group has also claimed that they are now a legitimate state.

ZeroHedge: ISIS Declares A Caliphate; Crucifies 9 Syrian Rebels For Being "Too Moderate"
RT.com: Israeli PM Netanyahu endorses Kurdish independence citing chaos in Iraq

Oded Yinon A Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties || Iraq, rich in oil on the one hand and internally torn on the other, is guaranteed as a candidate for Israel's targets. Its dissolution is even more important for us than that of Syria. Iraq is stronger than Syria. In the short run it is Iraqi power which constitutes the greatest threat to Israel. An Iraqi-Iranian war will tear Iraq apart and cause its downfall at home even before it is able to organize a struggle on a wide front against us. Every kind of inter-Arab confrontation will assist us in the short run and will shorten the way to the more important aim of breaking up Iraq into denominations as in Syria and in Lebanon. In Iraq, a division into provinces along ethnic/religious lines as in Syria during Ottoman times is possible. So, three (or more) states will exist around the three major cities: Basra, Baghdad and Mosul, and Shi'ite areas in the south will separate from the Sunni and Kurdish north. It is possible that the present Iranian-Iraqi confrontation will deepen this polarization. [Additional links here and here]


06/28/14

Permalink Blimp hovers over NSA building in protest

A California-based group that has been battling the National Security Agency for years in lawsuits flew a giant blimp over the NSA Data Center in Utah early Friday. Parker Higgen, of the San Francisco-based group Electronic Frontier Foundation, said that between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m., he — along with a pilot from Greenpeace — flew a blimp over the data center with a banner that stated: "NSA. Illegally spying below."


Permalink Peace Laureate asks for $65 billion in war funds

US President Barack Obama has asked Congress for more than $65 billion in war funds for the next fiscal year. The president sent lawmakers a series of budget amendments on Thursday requesting $58.6 billion to fund the war in Afghanistan and $7.3 billion for global “security programs” run by the State Department. The total includes new requests to support European security and a new counterterrorism fund to combat terrorists across the Middle East and Africa. Republicans in Congress insist there should be a debate on how the funds will be used and some lawmakers have indicated they will not rubber stamp the president’s request.


Permalink Right Sector fighters recruited into Ukrainian army battalion - Lugansk People's Republic

The radical organization Right Sector fighters are recruited into the Aydar battalion of the Ukrainian National Guard destroyed by the militia with its fighters, Chairman of the Supreme Council of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) Alexey Karyakin said at a press conference on Saturday. Aydar is one of the many "nominal" battalions of the Ukrainian law-enforcers that participated in the hostilities in the South-East of the country. According to a report by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, on June 17, the Aydar battalion without the consent of the command of the special operation decided to storm the militia in Lugansk, but was ambushed and suffered serious losses despite the received reinforcement. Ukrainian lawmaker admits half Azov battalion fighting in Donbass composed of criminals. Head of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic Valery Bolotov said that the militia had almost completely destroyed Aydar.

PressTV: US pushes Kiev to confront Moscow: Lavrov
VoR: Ukrainian troops ignore Poroshenko's statement on ceasefire - Lugansk People's Republic
The Saker: June 28th IRAQ SITREP by Mindfriedo
Clara Weiss: Kiev deploys fascists against political opponents


Permalink Israel tells U.S. it would act "to save Jordan from Islamists"

Israeli diplomats have told their American counterparts that Israel would be prepared to take military action to save the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan if it came under attack by jihadist militants, the Daily Beast reported on Saturday. The threat posed to Jordan by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) which has already taken over wide swathes of Iraq and Syria, is of deep concern to the Obama administration and was the subject of a confidential briefing by administration officials to senators last week, according to the online news site. The chief concern is that an attack on Jordan would inevitably "drag" Israel and possibly the United States into the fighting.


Permalink Put Ultraviolet Dye In London Water Cannons To Track Protesters, Police Bosses Urge

Police commissioners have urged the Met to put ultraviolet dye in its new water cannon in order to track people hit by the weapons, Boris Johnson’s policing boss has said. Stephen Greenhalgh, Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, told members of the London Assembly that police and crime commissioners from around the country had advocated the use of “SmartWater” in the crowd control weapon. The substance would remain invisible until those hit by the water had an ultra-violet light shone on them, at which point it would glow fluorescent yellow and identify them as having been at a protest or other public order situation. SmartWater is normally used to invisibly mark valuable belongings such as laptops so that the police can trace their owners if they are ever stolen, and also to permanently stain the clothes of people involved in burglaries. Greenhalgh said there was a “range of views” among police commissioners about the plans to purchase the weapons.


Permalink Blackwater mercenaries on trial in US court for 2007 Iraq massacre

Nearly seven years later, four former mercenaries of Blackwater Worldwide are on trial in US court on charges stemming from a September 2007 attack that left 14 Iraqis dead and wounded 18 others in Baghdad’s Nisour Square. In the trial that began June 11 in US District Court in Washington, DC, Nicholas Slatten is accused of first-degree murder, and Dustin Heard, Evan Liberty and Paul Slough are on trial for voluntary manslaughter, attempted manslaughter and gun charges. If convicted, Slatten could be sentenced to life in prison, while the other defendants face a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years if convicted of the gun charge and at least one other charge. The former Blackwater guards have pled not guilty to all charges. The US Justice Department dropped charges against a fifth guard and a sixth reached a plea deal.


Permalink Bill Clinton Was Paid $105 Million For 542 Speeches Since 2001

In Hillary Clinton's attempt to seem "one of the people", she made the public relations debacle of portraying herself as "dead broke" at the time she and Bill Clinton left the White House. Of course, the reason this attempt at populist pandering backfired (certainly not helped by her daughter's just as mistimed quote that she "Was Curious If She Could Care About Money And Couldn't", an expected outcome considering such boondoggles as a $600,000 NBC job for doing, well, something, and being married to a hedge fund manager) is because as is well-known, even the least educated American, the bulk of wealth American president families accrue is not while in office but after, when they hit the speaking/book publishing circuit. This is just what WaPo found when it conducted a review of the Clintons’ federal financial disclosure: it found that Bill was paid $104.9 million for delivering 542 speeches around the world between January 2001 and January 2013, when Hillary left her job as secretary of state.


06/27/14

Permalink Spying Together: Germany's Deep Cooperation with the NSA

Cooperation between Germany's foreign intelligence service, the BND, and America's NSA is deeper than previously believed. German agents appear to have crossed into constitutionally questionable territory. Three months before Edward Snowden shocked the world with his revelations, members of NSA's "Special Source Operations department" sat down for a weekly meeting at their headquarters in the US state of Maryland. The group, considered internally to be particularly efficient, has several tasks, one of which is overseeing the intelligence agency's delicate relationship with large telecommunications firms. It is the department that Snowden referred to as the "crown jewels" of the NSA. At this particular meeting, one significant slip-up was on the meeting agenda. On March 14, 2013, an SSO member had reported a potentially damaging incident. "Commercial consortium personnel" had apparently discovered the program "Wharpdrive," for which SSO had tapped a fiber-optic cable. "Witting partner personnel have removed the evidence," he explained further, "and a plausible cover story was provided." According to an internal NSA document to which SPIEGEL has access, a team was quietly put together to to reinstall the program. The NSA, apparently, did not perform the highly sensitive operation on its own. All signs indicate that the agency had help from Germany's Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), the country's foreign intelligence agency. The code name Wharpdrive appears in a paper drafted in preparation for a BND delegation's visit to NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, and which instructs NSA leaders to "thank the BND for their assistance with the trilateral program." It also makes clear that the German agency plays a leadership role in the Wharpdrive program, with the NSA providing only technical assistance.

Der Spiegel: New NSA Revelations: Inside Snowden's Germany File
Der Spiegel: Abbreviations Explained: How to Read the NSA Documents
Der Spiegel: Documents Reveal Top NSA Hacking Unit [12/29/2013]
Ulrich Rippert: The return of the state secret police in Germany


Permalink WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to release files on 50 countries

Julian Assange is promising another massive leak of information affecting 50 countries on Thursday to mark his two years holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. On the eve of that anniversary, the Australian editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks invited the world’s media to dial in to the embassy so he could download. In his conference call late on Wednesday night, Australian time, Assange called former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr a liar; he chastised US President Barack Obama; he revealed he had done more kilometres than he could count on his cross-trainer; and he spoke of his pride in WikiLeaks’ “state-of-the-art” technical clout which had allowed him – while confined in his diplomatic refuge – to “manage” the evacuation of American intelligence whistleblower Edward Snowden from Hong Kong during “the largest ever intelligence manhunt the world has ever seen”.


Permalink The open source revolution is coming and it will conquer the 1% - ex CIA spy

The man who trained more than 66 countries in open source methods calls for re-invention of intelligence to re-engineer Earth. Robert David Steele, former Marine, CIA case officer, and US co-founder of the US Marine Corps intelligence activity, is a man on a mission. But it's a mission that frightens the US intelligence establishment to its core. With 18 years experience working across the US intelligence community, followed by 20 more years in commercial intelligence and training, Steele's exemplary career has spanned almost all areas of both the clandestine world. Steele started off as a Marine Corps infantry and intelligence officer. After four years on active duty, he joined the CIA for about a decade before co-founding the Marine Corps Intelligence Activity, where he was deputy director. Widely recognised as the leader of the Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) paradigm, Steele went on to write the handbooks on OSINT for NATO, the US Defense Intelligence Agency and the U.S. Special Operations Forces. In passing, he personally trained 7,500 officers from over 66 countries.


Permalink Iraq: ISIS Execution Site Located

Analysis of photographs and satellite imagery strongly indicates that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) conducted mass executions in Tikrit after seizing control of the city on June 11, 2014. The analysis suggests that ISIS killed between 160 and 190 men in at least two locations between June 11 and 14. The number of victims may well be much higher, but the difficulty of locating bodies and accessing the area has prevented a full investigation, Human Rights Watch said. On June 12, ISIS claimed to have executed 1,700 “Shi’a members of the army” in Tikrit. Two days later, it posted to a website photographs with groups of apparently executed men. On June 22, Iraq’s human rights minister announced that ISIS had executed 175 Iraqi Air Force recruits in Tikrit. “The photos and satellite images from Tikrit provide strong evidence of a horrible war crime that needs further investigation,” said Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director. “ISIS apparently executed at the very least 160 people in Tikrit.”


Permalink Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia sign EU Association Agreements

Association Agreement with the European Union envisages bringing the legislatures of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia in line with the EU norms and creating a free trade zone. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Georgia's Prime Minister Irakly Garibashvili and Moldova's Prime Minister Iurie Leancã have signed their respective Association Agreements with the EU. Association Agreement with the European Union envisages bringing the legislatures of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia in line with the EU norms and creating a free trade zone. However, the agreement does not make the three countries the members of the EU yet. The document will come into effect after it is ratified by all EU member countries.


Permalink One More Proof that the US is Controlled by the Dark Side

Reporting that the Obama Administration's 'legal' memo justification for the assassination of US citizens cites Israeli law is getting a lot of publicity. But only in the alternative media. The zionist controlled mainstream puppets do not want everyone to know this so it's up to us to point it out to all we know. It's one example. There are many more. As part of the great taboo, mentioning this or anything negative about Israel or something about the inordinate jewish influence over US policies may get you labeled anti-semitic. I just call it being anti-criminal.


Permalink Obama Asks For $500 Million To Equip Syrian Rebels As The ISIS Juggernaut In Iraq Spreads

It is going from bad to worse for the Iraqi government, whose armed forces according to at least one unconfirmed media report, have suffered major losses. Perhaps confirming this, is the report from Reuters that overnight ISIS continued it southern creep toward Baghdad, and has now reached a town that is just an hour from Baghdad which is home to four natural gas fields on Thursday, "another gain by Sunni insurgents who have swiftly taken large areas to the north and west of the Iraqi capital."


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