Wednesday, 22 May 2013
'Syrian Soaring Sectarianism & Division Used to Target Iran'
Hezbollah militants have joined forces with pro-Assad troops in the fearce fight for control of a rebel stronghold on Syria's border with Lebanon. The town of Qusair is considered a key entry point for smuggling arms into Syria. Middle East expert Tariq Ali believes the recent escalation of sectarian violence in the region is being used by the West to target Iran.
There's geopolitics at play here. The two reasons for the conflict are to stop Syria becoming an energy hub in the Eastern Mediterranean and also to destroy support for Hezbollah that defeated an Israeli attempt to invade Lebanon in recent years. The war is a direct result of Western intervention. Without the West's support there would be no conflict.
[Posted at the SpookyWeather blog, May 22nd, 2013.]
British MP Galloway: FSA Cannibalism is a Turning Point, Cameron Insane for Supporting Extremists
British MP George Galloway gave his opinion about the latest incident where Abu Saqqar, a commander in one of the earliest "Free Syrian Army" (FSA) brigades, the al-Farouq Brigade, ate the heart and liver of a dead Syrian soldier. He also questions PM David Cameron's mental condition by supporting those militants, whom Galloway refers to as "savages and barbarians".
[Posted at the SpookyWeather blog, May 22nd, 2013.]
Iran Demands Clear Accusations Before IAEA Inspection
Iran's ambassador to Russia says his country would be ready to allow more inspections of one of its nuclear facilities, but only after a special protocol is signed. Tehran claims its notorious Parchin site is a conventional army base, but the UN's nuclear watchdog believes it has carried out covert atomic bomb research. Political analyst Seyed Mohammad Marandi takls to RT from the Iranian capital.
Related Info:
[Posted at the SpookyWeather blog, May 22nd, 2013.]
Al Jazeera Management Orders Joseph Massad Article Pulled in Act of Pro-Israel Censorship
In an unprecedented act of political censorship Al Jazeera English has deleted an article by noted Columbia University Professor Joseph Massad after coming under intense criticism from Zionists in recent days.
Massad told The Electronic Intifada that he had “received confirmation” from his editor at Al Jazeera English that “management pulled the article.” The Electronic Intifada was able to independently confirm that the article was pulled.
The piece, “The Last of the Semites,” published on 14 May, was taken down from the main Al Jazeera English site this morning – the link now redirects to Al Jazeera’s main page. It has also disappeared from Massad’s personal page on the Al Jazeera website.
The article had been one of the most viewed and emailed articles on the site and had been tweeted hundreds of times.
Al Jazeera has yet to offer any public explanation for its action.
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/al-jazeera-management-orders-joseph-massad-article-pulled-act-pro-israel
There is some history to Al Jazeera operating as an untrustworthy mainstream media source.
[Posted at the SpookyWeather blog, May 22nd, 2013.]
Freedom of the Press a Threat to National Security?
Last week news broke that the Deparment of Justice secretly obtained phone records of journalists at the Associated Press, but new information has emerged that this wasn't the first case of the government spying on media outlets. The latest Justice Department scandal has gained much attention, but will the DOJ call it quits? Josh Gerstein, White House reporter for Poltico, gives us his take on the latest news.
Although much of the corporate media is already under control via owner and editorial direction it seems that further monitoring and intimidation is being pushed by the Government - especially in light of recent Obama scandals starting from the Fast and Furious gun running corruption to the recent Benghazi murders.
[Posted at the SpookyWeather blog, May 22nd, 2013.]
Tuesday, 21 May 2013
Why Was a Sunday Times Report on US Government Ties to al-Qaeda Chief Spiked?
In interviews with this author in early March, Edmonds claimed that Ayman al-Zawahiri, current head of al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden’s deputy at the time, had innumerable, regular meetings at the U.S. embassy in Baku, Azerbaijan, with U.S. military and intelligence officials between 1997 and 2001, as part of an operation known as ‘Gladio B’. Al-Zawahiri, she charged, as well as various members of the bin Laden family and other mujahideen, were transported on NATO planes to various parts of Central Asia and the Balkans to participate in Pentagon-backed destabilisation operations.
According to two Sunday Times journalists speaking on condition of anonymity, this and related revelations had been confirmed by senior Pentagon and MI6 officials as part of a four-part investigative series that were supposed to run in 2008. The Sunday Times journalists described how the story was inexplicably dropped under the pressure of undisclosed “interest groups”, which, they suggest, were associated with the U.S. State Department.
Shooting the Messenger
Described by the American Civil Liberties Union as the “most gagged person in the history of the United States of America,” Edmonds studied criminal justice, psychology and public policy at George Washington and George Mason universities. Two weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, her fluency in Turkish, Farsi and Azerbaijani earned her an FBI contract at the Washington DC field office. She was tasked with translating highly classified intelligence from operations against terrorism suspects in and outside the U.S..
In the course of her work, Edmonds became privy to evidence that U.S. military and intelligence agencies were collaborating with Islamist militants affiliated with al-Qaeda, the very forces blamed for the 9/11 attacks – and that officials in the FBI were covering up the evidence. When Edmonds complained to her superiors, her family was threatened by one of the subjects of her complaint, and she was fired. Her accusations of espionage against her FBI colleagues were eventually investigated by the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General, which did not give details about the allegations as they remained classified.
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Other intelligence experts agree that Edmonds had stumbled upon a criminal conspiracy at the heart of the American judicial system. In her memoirs, she recounts that FBI Special Agent Gilbert Graham, who also worked in the Washington field office on counter-intelligence operations, told her over a coffee how he “ran background checks on federal judges” in the “early nineties for the bureau… If we came up with shit – skeletons in their closets – the Justice Department kept it in their pantry to be used against them in the future or to get them to do what they want in certain cases – cases like yours.”A redacted version of Graham’s classified protected disclosure to the Justice Department regarding these allegations, released in 2007, refers to the FBI’s “abuse of authority” by conducting illegal wiretapping to obtain information on U.S. public officials.
Incubating Terror
Five years ago, Edmonds revealed to the Sunday Times that an unidentified senior U.S. State Department official was on the payroll of Turkish agents in Washington, passing on nuclear and military secrets. “He was aiding foreign operatives against U.S. interests by passing them highly classified information, not only from the State Department but also from the Pentagon, in exchange for money, position and political objectives”, Edmonds told the paper. She reported coming across this information when listening to suppressed phone calls recorded by FBI surveillance, marked by her colleague Melek Can Dickerson as “not pertinent”.
In the Sunday Times exposé, Edmonds described a parallel organisation in Israel cooperating with the Turks on illegal weapons sales and technology transfers. Between them, Israel and Turkey operated a range of front companies incorporated in the U.S. with active “moles in sensitive military and nuclear institutions”, supported by U.S. officials, in order to sell secrets to the highest bidder. One of the buyers was Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) – which often used its Turkish allies, according to the Times, “as a conduit… because they were less likely to attract suspicion.”
The Pakistani operation was, the paper reported, “led by General Mahmoud Ahmad, then the ISI chief” from 1999 to 2001, when the agency helped train, supply and coordinate the Afghan Taliban and gave sanctuary to their Arab allies brought together in the coalition named al-Qaeda. Ahmad, as the Times noted, “was accused [by the FBI] of sanctioning a $100,000 wire payment to Mohammed Atta, one of the 9/11 hijackers, immediately before the attacks.”
According to Indian intelligence officials, they had assisted the FBI in “tracing and establishing” the financial trail between the General and the chief hijacker. The discovery was, they allege, the real reason behind the General’s sudden retirement in October 2001. The Pakistani daily, The News, reported on 10th September 2001 that the ISI chief held several “mysterious meetings at the Pentagon and National Security Council” that week, including with CIA director George Tenet.
In an interview with this author in March, Edmonds raised the question of whether U.S. officials’ liaisons with an espionage network overseen by Ahmad, and the FBI’s suppression of related intelligence, played a role in facilitating the attacks.
“Following 9/11, a number of the foreign operatives were taken in for questioning by the FBI on suspicion that they knew about or somehow aided the attacks”, reported the Sunday Times. The paper related that according to Edmonds, the senior State Department official received a call from a foreign agent under FBI surveillance asking for help to “get them out of the U.S. because we can’t afford for them to spill the beans.” The official promised “he would ‘take care of it’.”
Edmonds told this author that high-level corruption compromised the ability of the U.S. intelligence community to pursue ongoing investigations of those planning the 9/11 attacks. “It was precisely those militants that were incubated by some of America’s key allies”, she said. Corruption helped guarantee Congressional silence when that incubation strategy backfired in the form of 9/11. “Both Republican and Democratic representatives in the House and Senate came up in FBI counterintelligence investigations for taking bribes from foreign agents”, she said.
http://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/whistleblower-al-qaeda-chief-u-s-asset/
In other interviews Edmonds states that US intelligence was working with Osama Bin Laden before and AFTER the attacks of 911. These attacks created a never ending 'War on Terror' that gave licence for US intervention overseas while providing a massive boost to the military-intelligence-police state-complex.
[Posted at the SpookyWeather blog, May 21st, 2013.]
'Neo-Ottomanism Driven Turkey Does NATO's Job, Adds Fuel to Syrian Fire'
Turkish police have fired gas at protesters in a town near the Syrian border - which was the scene of a deadly double car bombing a week ago. The unrest follows similar clashes in Istanbul and Ankara. Demonstrators are angry over Turkey's support for the Syrian rebels, which they say is putting Turks in the firing line. Journalist Manuel Ochsenreiter, who's covered the Syrian crisis extensively, says Ankara's aggravating the conflict.
As things stand support for the Syrian rebels is support for extremism. Without Western backing there would be no war in Syria.
The propagandists pushing this war must know that their game is up. Too many people can see through the charade. The BRICS countries should make demands upon the West to stop fuelling the fighting.
[Posted at the SpookyWeather blog, May 21st, 2013.]
Germany Bans Monsanto's Maize
The German Minister for Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, Ilse Aigner, said "I have come to the conclusion that there are legitimate grounds to accept that genetically modified corn from the MON810 strain constitutes a danger to the environment."
MON810 is mostly cultivated in the EU for animal feed - and is now due for re-authorisation under EU rules after the expiry of its ten-year license. Besides Germany, five countries have already banned the planting of it: France, Greece, Austria, Hungary and most recently, Luxembourg.
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/features/germany-bans-monsanto-s-maize/
[Posted at the SpookyWeather blog, May 21st, 2013.]
Monday, 20 May 2013
Syria, Gas and China
The conflict in Syria has insistently been tied to the interests of Iran and, to a lesser degree, to Russia. Little, however, has been said about China. Beijing has a major stake in the entire Syrian venture, based on its thirst for energy. The Chinese, along with the Indians, have made investments in the Syrian energy sector. They will also be the main benefactors of Syria’s share of Eastern Mediterranean natural gas exports in the future.
In 2007, after the Turkmenbashi Agreement was signed, through a tripartite agreement between the republics of Turkmenistan, Russia, and Kazakhstan, and the Caspian Sea Summit was held in Tehran, between the Republic of Azerbaijan, Iran, and the former three, it became clear that “[a] Eurasian-based counter-alliance, built around the nucleus of a Chinese-Russian-Iranian coalition [made a] war against Iran an unpalatable option that could turn the globe inside-out” (Nazemroaya 2007). What was not too clear was that “[a]cross Eurasia strategic energy corridors [were] being developed” (Ibid.). It should be noted that “the leaders of Turkmenistan, Russia, and Kazakhstan also planned the inclusion of an Iranian energy route, from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf, as an extension of the Turkmenbashi Agreement” (Ibid.).
Iran began constructing an enormous liquid natural gas (LNG) plant, complete with storage facilities and loading terminals, in 2007. The location of the LGN processing plant has been in Port Tombak, off the coast of the Persian Gulf. The LGN plant was made with China in mind, and an agreement with the Chinese was made for future LGN exports.
In the same year, Syria was also a part of the broader Eurasian energy strategy that united Iran, Russia, and China (Ibid.). This is why both Iran and Russia were involved in natural gas projects and exploration in both Lebanon and Syria. The positions and interests of Tehran and Moscow and their relationship to Syria can be summarized in the following passage:
Russia and Iran are also the nations with the largest natural gas reserves in the world. This is in addition to the following facts; Iran also exerts influence over the Straits of Hormuz; both Russia and Iran control the export of Central Asian energy to global markets; and Syria is the lynchpin for an Eastern Mediterranean energy corridor. Iran, Russia, and Syria will now exercise a great deal of control and influence over these energy corridors and by extension the nations that are dependent on them in the European continent. This is another reason why Russia has built military facilities on the Mediterranean shores of Syria. The Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline will also further strengthen this position globally (Ibid.).
http://www.rys2sense.com/anti-neocons/viewtopic.php?f=114&t=32045
This is an excellent essay and helps explain why Saudi Arabia and Qatar might want to see Syria destroyed - because it is a serious future rival in the energy market (read further at the link to get an outline of the situation).
[Posted at the SpookyWeather blog, May 20th, 2013.]
If You Want to Go to Heaven, You Had Better Get Busy Overthrowing Syria — Paul Craig Roberts
Washington’s eleven years of illegal aggression against Muslim countries–war crimes according to the Nuremberg trials of Nazis–have resulted in civilian deaths far in excess of military casualties and in a domestic American police state that has destroyed the rule of law and the constitutional protections of US citizens. Washington and its presstitutes have emphasized that these costs are necessary to save Americans from al-Qaeda terrorists, none of whom have ever been apprehended in the United States.
Having listened to the propaganda line pumped out by Washington and its Ministry of Propaganda for eleven years, imagine my astonishment when I saw two juxtaposed headlines: “Al-Nusra pledges allegiance to al-Qaeda” (BBC) and “Move to Widen Help for Syrian Rebels Gains Speed in West” (NY Times). Al-Nusra is the main military component of the “Syrian rebels,” and it has allied itself with our mortal enemy–Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda.
Wait a minute! Our government told us for eleven years that we blew trillions of dollars on wars to protect Americans from al-Qaeda, endangering Social Security, Medicare, the social safety net, the dollar’s exchange value, the credit rating of the US Treasury, and our civil liberties in order to save America from al-Qaeda terrorists. So why is Washington now supporting al-Qaeda’s overthrow of the secular, non-Islamist government in Syria which has never ever done anything whatsoever to Americans!?
The New York Times presstitutes, Michael R. Gordon and Mark Landler, elevated the terrorist al-Qaeda organization to the status of “the Syrian opposition.” At a lunch meeting hosted by Washington’s puppet, British Foreign Secretary William Hague, and US Secretary of State John Kerry, “the Syrian opposition,” aka al-Qaeda, requested antiaircraft and antitank weapons. A senior Washington official said: “Our assistance has been on an upward trajectory, and the president (Obama) has directed his national security team to identify additional measures so that we can increase assistance.”
US Secretary of State John Kerry announced a $123 million “defense aid package” to “the Syrian opposition” that now includes al-Qaeda. Washington had already sent $117 million in “food and medical supplies” to “the Syrian opposition,” and ordered its Middle Eastern puppets to send arms. Note the Orwellian language: support for an outside terrorist force seeking to destroy a government and a people is called a “defense aid package.”
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Be a Proud American. We are doing our duty to our rightful hegemony over the world and to Israel, which has purchased our government. It is our right to be the hegemonic power on the planet earth, and that includes the Mediterranean Sea. Therefore it is Washington’s right to overthrow Syria in order to get rid of the Russian naval base there. The Romans would never have put up with a foreign power having a naval base in the Mediterranean, and we can do no less, unless we are some kind of pansy state afraid of our own shadow. The Mediterranean was mare nostrum–our sea–for the Romans. Now it is our sea, and by god we are going to claim it by overthrowing Syria.
Israel, of course, was given the rights to “Greater Israel” by God himself–who am I to question the Christian Zionist preachers who are growing fat on Israeli money–and part of “Greater Israel” is the river in southern Lebanon that supplies precious water.
Hizbollah, provisioned by Syria and Iran has prevented Israel from confiscating southern Lebanon in order to acquire the water rights that God gave them. Therefore, to fulfill our obligations as Israel’s puppet, we are required to destroy both Syria and Iran so that Hizbollah is isolated and out of the way and “Greater Israel” can be created.
http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/2013/05/17/if-you-want-to-go-to-heaven-you-had-better-get-busy-overthrowing-syria-paul-craig-roberts/
There are multiple reasons for various States to want Syria destroyed. One of them is to stop energy deals going through with Iraq and Iran, and the other is to eliminate all threats to Israel. Iraq was one such country that posed a 'threat' on both these points and it was destroyed thanks to the plotting of the neoconservatives that controlled the White house during the Bush Administration. Nothing has changed.
[Posted at the SpookyWeather blog, May 20th, 2013.]
Gerald Celente - Trends In The News - "Leading Into Disaster"
"Barack Obama's "American" values, The Associated Press reports that the Obama Administration seized phone records... "war time sex slaves were necessary" says Japanese mayor! NO OUTRAGE?!"
Celente is on fire in this one. He's right about being angry. The corrupt can only prosper when good people do and say nothing.
[Posted at the SpookyWeather blog, May 20th, 2013.]
Because it can Never be Repeated Enough: 9/11 Experiments: Collapse vs. Demolition
Any theory that does not match experiment is wrong. It doesn't matter what the computer models predict, how much funding is behind it, what the experts say, or what everyone "thinks". Nothing can fool the laws of physics.
Remember: Only the truth about 911 will stop the endless War on Terror.
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[Posted at the SpookyWeather blog, May 20th, 2013.]
Meteor Causes Biggest Lunar Explosion Ever Recorded (We Need to Revisit Apollo!)
NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office witnessed the most powerful meteor strike on the moon ever recorded since the program began eight years ago.
On March 17, a meteor travelling at 90,000 kilometres per hour struck the Moon resulting in an explosion equal to five tons of TNT.
“It exploded in a flash nearly 10 times as bright as anything we’ve ever seen before”, said Bill Cooke, head of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office. ‘‘Anyone looking at the moon at the moment of impact could have seen the explosion, no telescope required. For about one second the impact site was glowing like a fourth-magnitude star.’’
The meteoroid weighed 88-pound (40 kg) and was 0.3 to 0.4 metres wide. Scientists estimated that the impact crater could be as wide as 66 feet (20 meters).
The lunar meteor strike might not have been an isolated event, as a large number of meteors were observed in Earth’s skies on the same night.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=IYloGuUZCFM
We need to revisit the Apollo sites with rovers to see the sort of damage caused to the equipment over the last 40 years. If humans are to travel in space for long durations away from the Earth's atmosphere, and potentially build bases, we need to see what has happened to Apollo rather than just create models of likely damage.
Not all the Apollo sites need be visited. Apollo 11 could be preserved intact while other locations could be monitored. NASA, the Russians or the Chinese should initiate a mission or two.
[Posted at the SpookyWeather blog, May 20th, 2013.]
Sunday, 19 May 2013
Jon Stewart Obama Should Have Used Prince Harry as a Shield
Stewart Slams Obama Again: You can't keep saying you found out about news at the same time as us! Jon Stewart is at it again, finally making the observation that Obama "claims" he doesn't know about a problem with his administration until he hears about it in the press. Either he is the most uninformed president or he is the most incompetent "leader", letting all of his underlings make all of the important decision while leaving him to party at the White House and play golf all on the tax payers' many, many, many dimes.
The sort of scandals we are seeing here, and definitely the cover-ups, point to a corrupt administration, not simply an incompetent one. Stewart even mentions the drone war that is killing dozens more civilians that 'terrorists' - with the consent of the the Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Please recall that Obama has not prosecuted bankers or torturers when there is clear evidence to do so. The arrows all point towards corruption. This Administration is a heinous continuation of the George W. Bush stain.
Related News:
Obama White House Just Caught In HUGE Lie/Contradiction
So please now consider this reader – the Attorney General of the United States of America publicly informs the media that there was such a significant threat to American security that it required the Department of Justice to revoke the First Amendment rights of a significant media source.
And yet, despite that significant threat to American security, the White House then indicates Barack Obama HAD NO KNOWLEDGE OF THAT THREAT or the attempt to remedy that threat. That he in fact just learned of his own Department of Justice’s potentially illegal actions against the Associated Press.
NO WAY.
The Obama White House is placing lies atop lies now at such a pace they cannot even coordinate them on a daily basis.
Either Barack Obama did in fact know of his DOJ’s actions against the media, and then had his administration lie about it, or he has an administration that does not even bother to inform him of a significant threat to the United States.
http://www.pakalertpress.com/2013/05/17/breaking-obama-white-house-just-caught-in-huge-liecontradiction-see-proof-here/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+pakalert+%28Pak+Alert+Press%29
[Posted at the SpookyWeather blog, May 19th, 2013.]
Abu Ghraib Torture House
Abby Martin goes over the horrors of the torture that occurred at the US run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, from sexual humiliation to physical abuse, and highlights how the real criminals who implemented these policies are walking free.
War criminals like Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld are still on the loose ....
[Posted at the SpookyWeather blog, May 19th, 2013.]
'Turkey Brought War to Doorstep by Supporting Syrian Rebels'
Turkish police have fired tear gas at protesters in a town near the Syrian border - which was the scene of a deadly double car bombing a week ago. The unrest follows similar clashes in Istanbul and Ankara. Demonstrators are angry over Turkey's support for the Syrian rebels, which they say is putting Turks in the firing line.
[Posted at the SpookyWeather blog, May 19th, 2013.]
Keiser Report (E446): Whimsical Price Tyranny
In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert examine stories about those who, using spoof trades, bogus securities and fictitious capital, steal real wealth and income. They discuss how it is that every benchmark index is rigged and introduce the concept of the 'bonus benchmark.' In the second half, Max talks to Dr. Michael Hudson, author of The Bubble and Beyond, about debt and wage deflation and about the intersection of interest rates and wages going back to David Ricardo when wages were measured against the price of bread to today when they are measured against the price of debt.
[Posted at the SpookyWeather blog, May 19th, 2013.]
Saturday, 18 May 2013
Can You Speak Japanese? - Questions For Corbett #005
In this edition of the ongoing Questions For Corbett podcast series, James answers your questions on credit unions, radiation maps, OPPT-IN and more, including his Japanese abilities (or lack thereof).
Some really excellent thoughts from James Corbett.
I like where he says: "It's about the information, not the people". He's looking at specific information and analysis, not a dogmatic adherence to any person. It's all about spending a bit of time doing research and checking the facts.
[Posted at the SpookyWeather blog, May 18th, 2013.]
RECAP: Americans Chained by Illusion
Abby Martin takes a look back at philosopher Plato's the 'Allegory of the Cave' and its application to today's society.
[Posted at the SpookyWeather blog, May 18th, 2013.]
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