Break the silence: a world war is beckoning
The Strangelove effect - or how we are hoodwinked into accepting a new world war
The forgotten coup - and how the godfather rules from Canberra to Kiev

To guarantee its survival, the analyst said, the Tel Aviv regime uses the United States as a tool to destabilize the Middle East. ● In an interview with Press TV on Monday, Kevin Barrett said Washington follows the “antiquated” policy of opposing public demands for democracy and freedom in the Middle East for fear that democratic moves would endanger the security of the Israeli regime. “That is the single biggest factor that is driving the US to become the enemies of the people of the region, because the moment the people of the region are empowered and prosperous and peaceful and democratic and stable, that is the end of the Zionist regime [of Israel],” Barrett stated.

At least 339 people were killed today and 91 more were wounded. This figure includes 200 militants that the Iraqi government says were killed in Anbar province. As in recent days, it is difficult to gauge which reports are complete exaggerations. Even removing the 200 killed in Anbar, well over a hundred people were killed in realistic attacks. The United States is sending 275 U.S. troops to Iraq, with the permission of the Iraqi government. The U.S. has already sent about 100 servicemembers to help security at the embassy in Baghdad. However, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is showing no signs of reconciliation with minority groups — which would gain him the full cooperation of the United States. Nor does it look likely that he will be replaced anytime soon.

McClatchy DC: ISIS claims control of government’s last outpost in northern Iraq; hundreds flee Tal Afar

Ecuador says US scientists have taken thousands of unauthorized blood samples from an indigenous group in the Amazon known for their unique genetic profile and disease immunity. ● Rene Ramirez, the head of Ecuador’s Higher Education and Science Ministry, said some 3,500 procedures were carried out in which blood was drawn without authorization from 600 members of the Huaorani indigenous community, living in the country’s Amazon basin region. Ramirez added that blood samples “were also taken from some people on more than one occasion.” Ecuador’s Higher Education and Science Ministry had previously released new details of a government investigation into the issue. In the initial report two years ago, members of the Huaorani community said that the US scientists deceived them into taking part in the sampling procedures between 1990 and 1991. The Huaorani people said they were told by the American researchers that the blood samples were for medical tests for them; however, they never received any results.

Another conspiracy "theory" becomes conspiracy "fact" as The FT reports "a cluster of central banking investors has become major players on world equity markets." The report, to be published this week by the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF), confirms $29.1tn in market investments, held by 400 public sector institutions in 162 countries, which "could potentially contribute to overheated asset prices." China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange has become “the world’s largest public sector holder of equities”, according to officials, and we suspect the Fed is close behind (courtesy of more levered positions at Citadel), as the world's banks try to diversify themselves and "counters the monopoly power of the dollar." Which leaves us wondering where are the central bank 13Fs? While most have assumed that this is likely, the recent exuberance in stocks has largely been laid at the foot of another irrational un-economic actor - the corporate buyback machine. However, as The FT reports, what we have speculated as fact for many years now (given the death cross of irrationality, plunging volumes, lack of engagement, and of course dwindling credibility of central planners)... is now fact...

PressTV: Jewish Bank Heist: Total US debt soars to $60 trillion

Under the guise of seeking higher inflation to “stimulate” the economy (and erode the value of people’s savings even more quickly), the European Central Bank (ECB) announced negative interest rates on deposits held at the bank — the first time a major monetary authority has ever set the rate below zero. If that proves to be not enough in its supposed battle against “deflation” or “not enough” inflation, the central planners at the eurozone central bank are threatening to do still more. Already, they are talking about potentially even starting up their own Federal Reserve-style “quantitative easing” gimmicks to gobble up real assets with fiat currency conjured out of thin air. Critics, though, are warning of disaster.

Long-suffering State Dept. spokesperson Jen Psaki endured another torrid press briefing as she was forced to defend some distinctly unsavory remarks by Ukrainian politicians and struggled with the differences between Iraq and Iran, as well as oil and gas. As usual, AP’s Matt Lee served as Psaki’s chief tormentor, bringing up last week’s protests outside the Russian embassy in Kiev, in which Ukraine’s acting Foreign Minister Andrey Deshchitsa addressed the anti-Russian mob by telling them that “Putin is a f**ker.” “These are officials you have supported, is this the kind of language you find acceptable?” Lee asked Psaki.

VoR: Psaki defends Ukranian FM unsavory remarks
VoR: There is no foreign minister in Ukraine anymore for Moscow- Vitaly Churkin
The Saker: Kindergarten? Nuthouse? Zoo? You pick!

Zac Corrigan ■ During the Obama administration, the Pentagon has been equipping US police departments across the country with a staggering amount of military weapons, combat vehicles, and other equipment, according to Pentagon data. [...] The domestic military ramp-up is far from being in proportion to any perceived threat to public safety. The Times notes that, “today, crime has fallen to its lowest levels in a generation... the number of domestic terrorist attacks has declined sharply from the 1960s and 1970s.” And yet, “police SWAT teams are now deployed tens of thousands of times each year, increasingly for routine jobs.” The war provisions must instead be seen in the context of growing social polarization in the United States and part of the preparations of the ruling class to use military repression against inevitable social upheavals. [...] Increasingly, the methods of imperialist war and military occupation, practiced by the United States with such bloody and disastrous results overseas, are now to be employed in the US. Whether in Iraq and Afghanistan or Los Angeles and Detroit, the purpose is the same: to protect the wealth and power of the corporate and financial oligarchy against an increasingly hostile population.