The Entire United States is Now a War Zone: S.1867 Passes The Senate With Massive Support

Source: Activist Post
Madison Ruppert

This is one of the most tragic events I have written about since establishing End the Lie over eight months ago: the horrendous bill that would turn all of America into a battlefield and subject American citizens to indefinite military detention without charge or trial has passed the Senate.

To make matters even worse, only seven of our so-called representatives voted against the bill, proving once and for all (if anyone had any doubt remaining) that our government does not work for us in any way, shape, or form.

S.1867, or the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for the fiscal year of 2012, passed with a resounding 93-7 vote.

That’s right, 93 of our Senators voted to literally eviscerate what little rights were still protected after the PATRIOT Act was hastily pushed in the wake of the tragic events of September 11^th, 2001.

The NDAA cuts Pentagon spending by $43 billion from last year’s budget, a number so insignificant when compared to the $662 billion still (officially) allocated, it is almost laughable.

The bill also contained an amendment which enacts strict new sanctions on Iran’s Central Bank and any entities that do business with it, a move which will likely have brutal repercussions for the Iranian people – just like the sanctions on Iraq did.

Not a single Senator voted against this amendment, which was voted on soon before the entirety of S.1867 was passed, despite the hollow threats of a veto from the Obama White House.

Based simply on historical precedent, I trust Obama’s promises as much as I trust the homeless man who told me he was John F. Kennedy.

I wish that I could believe that the Obama administration would strike down this horrific bill but I would be quite ignorant and naïve if I did so.

Furthermore, the White House’s official statement doesn’t even say that they will veto the bill. In fact, it says, “the President’s senior advisers [will] recommend a veto.”

As Glenn Greenwald points out, the objection isn’t even about opposing the detention of accused terrorists without a trial, instead it is the contention that, “whether an accused Terrorist is put in military detention rather than civilian custody is for the President alone to decide.”

Obama’s opposition has nothing to do with the rule of law or protecting Americans, in fact, Senator Levin disclosed and Dave Kopel reported that, “it was the Obama administration which told Congress to remove the language in the original bill which exempted American citizens and lawful residents from the detention power”.

Russia Delivers Missiles to Syria, Says Report

Source: AFP / Now Lebanon

Russia has delivered supersonic cruise missiles to Syria despite the violence shaking the Arab country and Israel's furious condemnation of the deal, a news report said on Thursday.

"The Yakhont supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles have been delivered to Syria," a military source told the Interfax news agency without disclosing when the shipment was made.

Russia signed a contract reportedly worth at least $300 million (222 million euros) in 2007 to supply its traditional Arab world ally with a large shipment of the cruise missiles.

Reports said Russia intended to deliver 72 of the missiles to Syria in all.

The deal immediately angered Israel, which fears the weapons may fall into the hands of Hezbollah militants in neighboring Lebanon.

Russia has since also come under growing pressure from Washington, which wants all military sales to President Bashar al-Assad's regime halted because of his deadly crackdown on Syrian street protests.

But Moscow has defended Assad against global pressure and this week argued that its arms sales were permitted under international law and would continue.

Another Russian official told Interfax that the missiles, which operate as part of the Bastion mobile coastal defense system, "will be able to protect Syria's entire coast against a possible attack from the sea."

Each Bastion system is equipped with 36 cruise missiles as well as truck-mounted radar and other equipment.

It was not immediately clear how many of the missiles Russia has delivered to Syria so far.

East Jerusalem Palestinians Being Evicted From Their Homes

Source: The Independent

Catrina Stewart

A 60-year-old law is being used to evict Palestinian families and expand Jewish settlements in the coveted suburbs of East Jerusalem

At the top of a steep and ramshackle street in the Palestinian neighbourhood of Silwan, a rusty, battered gate opens into an unremarkable house. Less than a quarter mile away, though, stand the Al Aqsa mosque and the Wailing Wall, two of Jerusalem's most venerated holy sites, making it a very attractive piece of real estate indeed.

For Mohammed Sumarin, 52, whose late uncle owned this house, this is home. He was born here, raised here, and has never lived anywhere else. But now he faces losing his home of more than half a century to the Jewish National Fund (JNF), an Israeli charity that claims the house for its own and is battling to evict the family.

Silwan, sprawled along the southern flank of Jerusalem's Old City, is the politically sensitive epicentre of the struggle for East Jerusalem, coveted by Palestinians as the capital of their future state, and claimed by Israel, which annexed the eastern sector after the 1967 Six Day War, as an integral part of an undivided Jerusalem.

The evictions and demolitions of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem are widely seen as deliberately aiding Israeli settlers in staking the Jewish claim to the eastern part of the city to thwart a final peace agreement that could cleave the city in two.

For the past month, the Sumarins have been living with the knowledge that they would have to leave their home by the end of the month or face forcible eviction. "We are not living like human beings," Mr Sumarin, a severe diabetic who is bedridden for much of the day, says. "We cannot sleep at night. We live in fear. We expect them to come at any moment and throw us out."

Waiting in the wings is Himnuta, the shadowy arm of the JNF, which declares itself the owner of the house. Himnuta, unlike the Fund, seeks to acquire property across the Green Line. Israeli and Palestinian activists fear that if Himnuta gets hold of the house, it will, as it has many times before, lease the house to El'ad, an extreme religious settler group that has established a bible-inspired archaeological park in the area and covets this neighbourhood for the Jews.

Draconian EPA Regulations To Cause Rolling Blackouts

Source: Prison Planet
Paul Joseph Watson

The cost of complying with draconian new EPA rules on carbon emissions will force coal plants in Texas to close and increase the likelihood of rolling blackouts, as the Obama administration’s vow to “bankrupt” the coal industry takes full effect.

When rolling blackouts hit Texas at the start of the year, we wrote a series of articles pointing out that President Barack Obama’s promise to “bankrupt” the coal industry, in the form of draconian EPA regulations that would cause older power plants to close, had contributed to the power outages. Several of these articles were picked up by the likes of the Drudge Report and Fox News, stoking a wider controversy.

In response, the White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer claimed in a blog post that appeared on WhiteHouse.gov that the story came from a “questionable” source and was “unquestionably false.” We then issued a rebuttal documenting how the blackouts were caused by a maxed-out power grid and not by “mechanical failures” as Pfeiffer claimed in his article.

Ten months down the line and the Austin-American Statesman reports today that, “Texas could face power shortages as soon as next year as aging plants are mothballed in response to new environmental standards, according to the state’s grid operator and the organization that monitors the U.S. power grids for the federal government.”

In other words, ourselves and other critics who warned that the EPA’s draconian eco-regulations would cause rolling blackouts, after being attacked by the White House, have been proven completely accurate.

“Already Dallas-based Luminant Generation Co., Texas’ largest electricity generator, has announced it intends to idle two coal-fired generating units as part of a plan to comply with the rule,” reports the Houston Chronicle.

Inadequate supply of power is being greatly exacerbated by coal and natural gas plants being shut down because they cannot afford the crippling EPA regulation fees, which will lead to “power shortages as soon as next year”.

“The report by the North American Electric Reliability Corp. found that many older power plants in Texas will be retired rather than retrofitted to meet new federal emission standards,” reports the Statesman, closures that have been welcomed by the likes of the Clean Energy Group consortium, whose agenda is to promote the vehemently discredited pseudo-science of man-made global warming.

Why Moscow Doesn't Trust Wasington On Missile Defense: Marching Towards a Pre-Emptive Nuclear War?

Source: Global Research
F. William Engdahl

Most in the civilized world are blissfully unaware that we are marching ineluctably towards an increasingly likely pre-emptive nuclear war. No, it's not at all about Iran and Israel. It's about the decision of Washington and the Pentagon to push Moscow up against the wall with what is euphemistically called Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD). 

On November 23, a normally low-keyed Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told the world in clear terms that Russia was prepared to deploy its missiles on the border to the EU between Poland and Lithuania, and possibly in the south near Georgia and NATO member Turkey to counter the advanced construction process of the US ballistic missile defense shield: "The Russian Federation will deploy in the west and the south of the country modern weapons systems that could be used to destroy the European component of the US missile defense," he announced on Russian television. "One of these steps could be the deployment of the Iskander missile systems in Kaliningrad."1 Those would be theatre ballistic missile systems. The latest version of Iskander, the Iskander-K, whose details remain top secret, reportedly has a range up to 2000 km and carries cruise missiles and a target accuracy to 7 meters or less. 

Medvedev declared he has ordered the Russian defense ministry to "immediately" put radar systems in Kaliningrad that warn of incoming missile attacks on a state of combat readiness. He called for extending the targeting range of Russia's strategic nuclear missile forces and re-equipping Russia's nuclear arsenal with new warheads capable of piercing the US/NATO defense shield due to become operational in six years, by 2018. Medvedev also threatened to pull Russia out of the New START missile reduction treaty if the United States moves as announced. 

Medvedev then correctly pointed to the inevitable link between “defensive” missiles and “offensive” missiles: “Given the intrinsic link between strategic offensive and defensive arms, conditions for our withdrawal from the New Start treaty could also arise,” he said.2 

The Russian President didn’t mince words: “I have ordered the armed forces to develop measures to ensure, if necessary, that we can destroy the command and control systems” of the US shield, Medvedev said. “These measures are appropriate, effective and low-cost.” Russia has repeatedly warned that the US BMD global shield is designed to destabilize the nuclear balance and risks provoking a new arms race. The Russian President said that rather than take the Russian concerns seriously, Washington has instead been “accelerating” its BMD development.3 

Turkey: War on Syria 'An Option'

Source: Press TV

Amid already deadly violence in Syria, Turkey has raised the prospect of military option in its southern neighbor, while Russia has called on 'warmongering' countries to show restraint over the matter.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told Turkey's Kanal 24 on Tuesday that application of military force remained an option if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad failed to curb the unrest in his country, Reuters reported.

"Turkey is ready for any scenario," he said.

However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said it was time to stop issuing Damascus ultimatums.

He blamed armed groups for provocations in Syria.

Russia joined China in October to veto a United Nations Security Council resolution drawn up by France, Britain, Germany, and Portugal, which had threatened military action and sanctions against Damascus.

Syria has been experiencing unrest ever since mid-March, with demonstrations being held both against and in support of Assad's government.

Hundreds of people, many of whom members of the Syrian security forces, have been killed during the unrest.

The Syrian government says outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorists are the driving factor behind the turmoil and deadly violence, while the opposition accuses the security forces of being behind the killings.

The Syrian government also says that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country and that the security forces have been given clear instructions not to harm civilians.

In September, the Syria Steps news website said Syrian cyber specialists had uncovered an anti-Damascus agreement struck between Turkey and France.

In line with the deal, Turkey would facilitate implementation of France's strategic plans in the Middle East, especially in Syria, Israel, and Lebanon.

The report noted that, in line with the accord, Ankara would help deposing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad by reinforcing the Syrian opposition among other things. Paris would instead ease Turkey's accession to the European Union before the end of 2012.

Germany and France Push for Fiscal Union

Source: AFP

German Chancellor Angela Merkel kicked off a crunch week of talks on saving the euro by laying out a vision Friday for a “fiscal union” in Europe, ahead of a pivotal summit of EU leaders.

A day after French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that Europe needed to be “refounded” in response to a crisis that has threatened the very existence of the EU, Merkel insisted that progress had been made.

Speaking in a hotly awaited speech in the German parliament, Merkel said Europe was “on the verge” of creating what she called a “stability union” for the 17-nation eurozone, with greater budgetary discipline and control.

“Anyone who had said a few months ago that we, at the end of 2011, would be taking very serious and concrete steps toward a European stability union, a European fiscal union, toward introducing (budgetary) intervention in Europe would have been considered crazy,” she said.

She said she would be holding talks with “almost everyone” in the run-up to a summit in Brussels next Friday that many commentators have dubbed the last chance to save the single currency, introduced with such euphoria a decade ago.

And she confirmed she would be heading to Paris for talks with Sarkozy on Monday to thrash out a joint Franco-German position on changing the EU founding texts ahead of the summit.

Highlighting the challenges that face Europe’s leaders, around 17,000 people demonstrated in Athens on Thursday in a bid to force the new government to abandon austerity measures.

The sixth general strike this year in Greece shut down public services and crippled train and ferry services.

Have You Heard About The 16 Trillion Dollar Bailout The Federal Reserve Handed To The Too Big To Fail Banks?

Source: The Economic Collapse

What you are about to read should absolutely astound you.  During the last financial crisis, the Federal Reserve secretly conducted the biggest bailout in the history of the world, and the Fed fought in court for several years to keep it a secret.  Do you remember the TARP bailout?  The American people were absolutely outraged that the federal government spent 700 billion dollars bailing out the "too big to fail" banks.  Well, that bailout was pocket change compared to what the Federal Reserve did.  As you will see documented below, the Federal Reserve actually handed more than 16 trillion dollars in nearly interest-free money to the "too big to fail" banks between 2007 and 2010.  So have you heard about this on the nightly news?  Probably not.  Lately Bloomberg has been reporting on some of this, but even they are not giving people the whole picture.  The American people need to be told about this 16 trillion dollar bailout, because it is a perfect example of why the Federal Reserve needs to be shut down.  The Federal Reserve has been actively picking "winners" and "losers" in the financial system, and it turns out that the "friends" of the Fed always get bailed out and always end up among the "winners".  This is not how a free market system is supposed to work.

According to the limited GAO audit of the Federal Reserve that was mandated by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the grand total of all the secret bailouts conducted by the Federal Reserve during the last financial crisis comes to a whopping $16.1 trillion.

That is an astonishing amount of money.

Keep in mind that the GDP of the United States for the entire year of 2010 was only 14.58 trillion dollars.

The total U.S. national debt is only a bit above 15 trillion dollars right now.

So 16 trillion dollars is an almost inconceivable amount of money.

But some other dollar figures have been thrown around lately regarding these secret Federal Reserve bailouts.  Let's take a look at them and see what they mean.

US Terror Drones Kill 11 More in Somalia

Source: Press TV

At least 11 people have been killed after US assassination drones launched aerial attacks in southern Somalia near the border with Kenya, Press TV reports.

Somali tribal elders, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Press TV that the remote-controlled aerial vehicles fired several missiles at Bilis Qooqaani town, which is located 448 kilometers (278 miles) southwest of the Somali capital Mogadishu, on Thursday morning.

They added that over 50 people were also injured in the strikes.

Somalia is the sixth country where the United States has used assassination drones to launch deadly missile strikes.

The US military has also used drones in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Iraq, and Yemen.

On October 28, the United States admitted to flying the terror aircraft from a base in Ethiopia.

"The US has unarmed and unmanned aircraft at a facility there (Ethiopia) to be used only for surveillance as part of a broad, sustained integrated campaign to counter terrorism," said Pentagon spokesman Captain John Kirby.

The confirmation appeared a day after The Washington Post revealed in a report that the US flies “armed” drones from an airfield in Ethiopia's southern city of Arba Minch.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

Strategically located in the Horn of Africa, Somalia remains one of the countries generating the highest number of refugees and internally displaced persons in the world.

The Shadow War in Syria

Source: Asia Times
Pepe Escobar

Target Syria - the strategic prize that outstrips Libya. The stage is set. The stakes couldn't be higher. Libya 2.0 equals Syria? It's more like Libya 2.0 remix. With the same R2P (''responsibility to protect'') rationale - starring civilians bombed into ''democracy''. But with no UN Security Council resolution (Russia and China will veto it). Instead, Turkey shines, fanning the flames of civil war.

US Secretary of State Hillary ''we came, we saw, he died'' Clinton set the scene on Indonesian TV a few weeks ago, when she prophesied there would be ''a civil war'' in Syria, with a well financed and ''well-armed opposition'' crammed with army deserters.

Now it's up to NATOGCC to make it happen. NATOGCC is of course the now fully accomplished symbiosis between selected North Atlantic Treaty Organization members such as Britain and France and selected petromonarchies of the Gulf Cooperation Council, aka the Gulf Counter-revolution Club, such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). 

So feel free to bask in the glow of yet another mercenary paradise.

Funny Money, Syria Psiphon, DeCONtamination - New World Next Week

Source: Corbett Report and Media Monarchy
James Corbett and James Evan Pilato


Welcome back to http://NewWorldNextWeek.com -- the video series from Corbett Report and Media Monarchy that covers some of the most important developments in alternative news and open source intelligence. This week:

Corbett Report Radio - The Next False Flag: A Scenario

Source: Corbett Report
James Corbett

For years now, the politicians have been hyping the cyberterror threat. Now the USAF is claiming that insurgents have hacked into their predator drone communications, and even installed keyloggers on the control equipment. Are these threats real, or are we being prepped for a pre-planned event? Join us tonight on Corbett Report Radio as we ponder the preparatory phases of the next false flag.

 

Works Cited:

Declassified Memo Hinted of 1941 Hawaii Attack
Cyber weaknesses should deter US from waging war
McCain Proposes Panel to Probe Government Cyberattacks
NCIS: Los Angeles – Predator
American Dad – Home Adrone
Beavis and Butt-Head – Drones
Iranian Plot, Fast and Furious, Drone Virus – New World Next Week
CIA used pirated, inaccurate software to target drone attacks: lawsuit

New Documents Expose Police Spying at G20

Source: Global Research and Corbett Report
James Corbett


TRANSCRIPT AND SOURCES:

Documents released under the Access to Information Act in Canada earlier this month reveal what Canadian activists have long known: that a massive RCMP-led intelligence dragnet worked for 18 months to infiltrate, surveil, and ultimately arrest activists across the country for their participation in Vancouver Olympic and Toronto G20 activism.

The Rockefeller World, Council on Foreign Relations and The Trilateral Commission

Source: Boiling Frogs Post

Andrew Gavin Marshall

‘The Ultimate Networking & Socializing institution among the American elite’

 

 

The following is a sneak peak from a chapter in Andrew Gavin Marshall’s upcoming book funded through The People’s Book Project.

It is quite apparent in the history of America from the late 19^th century and into the 20^th century, that the Rockefeller family has wielded massive influence in shaping the socio-political economic landscape of society. However, up until the first half of the 20^th century came to a close, there were several other large dominant families with whom the Rockefellers shared power and purpose, notably among them, the Morgans. As the century progressed, their interests aligned further still, and following World War II, the Rockefellers became the dominant group in America, and arguably, the world. Of course, there was the well-established business links between the major families emerging out of the American Industrial Revolution going into the 20^th century, followed with the establishment of the major foundations designed to engage in social engineering. It was with the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) that the changing dynamics of the Morgan-Rockefeller clan became most apparent.

As discussed earlier in this book, the Council on Foreign Relations is the ultimate networking and socializing institution among the American elite. The influence of the CFR is unparalleled among other think tanks. One study revealed that between 1945 and 1972, roughly 45% of the top foreign policy officials who served in the United States government were also members of the Council, leading one prominent member to once state that membership in the Council is essentially a “rite of passage” for being a member of the foreign policy establishment. One Council member, Theodore White, explained that the Council’s “roster of members has for a generation, under Republican and Democratic administrations alike, been the chief recruiting ground for Cabinet-level officials in Washington.”[1]

The CIA, as previously examined, is also no stranger to this network, since more often than not in the first several decades of the existence of the Agency, its leaders were drawn from Council membership, such as Allen Dulles, John A. McCone, Richard Helms, William Colby, and George H.W. Bush. As some researchers have examined:

The influential but private Council, composed of several hundred of the country’s top political, military, business, and academic leaders has long been the CIA’s principal “constituency” in the American public. When the agency has needed prominent citizens to front for its proprietary (cover) companies or for other special assistance, it has often turned to Council members.[2]

Roughly 42% of the top foreign policy positions in the Truman administration were filled by Council members, with 40% in the Eisenhower administration, 51% of the Kennedy administration, and 57% of the Johnson administration, many of whom were holdovers from the Kennedy administration.[3] 

The Council has had and continues to have enormous influence in the mainstream media, through which it is able to propagate its ideology, advance its agendas, and conceal its influence. In 1972, three out of ten directors and five out of nine executives of the New York Times were Council members. In the same year, one out of four editorial executives and four of nine directors of the Washington Post were also Council members, including its President, Katharine Graham, as well as the Vice-President Osborn Elliott, who was also editor-in-chief of Newsweek. Of both Time Magazine and Newsweek, almost half of their directors in 1972 were also Council members.[4]

Do Not Be Deceived: S. 1867 Is The Most Dangerous Bill Since The Patriot Act

Source: Activist Post
Madison Ruppert

Recently I reported on the highly controversial bill S. 1253, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for the fiscal year of 2012 which was introduced back in June.

This bill was replaced by the one introduced on the 15^th of November, S. 1867. Today Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky and Senator John McCain of Arizona faced off on the floor of the Senate over a proposed amendment to S. 1867.

The minimal coverage this bill is getting in the corporate-controlled establishment media, especially when it comes to the massive danger it poses to everything America was built upon, is nothing short of deplorable.

This amendment would, according to Senator Paul, put “every single American citizen at risk.” Paul rightly pointed out that if the amendment were to pass, “the terrorists have won.”

I couldn’t agree more and this is the major fact that McCain and far too many others in Washington seem to miss. Or, equally likely, McCain and others are well aware of the erosion of civil liberties and have no interest in stopping it.

After all, it isn’t the sycophantic corrupt politicians in Washington that have to endure being groped by TSA goons or surreptitiously blasted with X-Rays by a passing DHS van; it is everyday Americans like you and me that are subjected to such absurd “counterterrorism” measures.

John McCain is a man who revels in death and suffering in true sociopathic style: joking about bombing Iran, calling for military operations in Syria, and supporting the murderous and thoroughly racist al Qaeda-affiliated Libyan rebels.

McCain is the epitome of Washington doublethink: in Libya, al Qaeda is good. Yet, is al Qaeda still the biggest threat to humanity, so much so that it justifies turning the entire world into a theater of war in which all rights are suspended in the name of the war on terror?

Senator Paul argued against the amendment to S. 1867 that McCain co-sponsored by saying, “Should we err today and remove some of the most important checks on state power in the name of fighting terrorism, well then the terrorists have won. [D]etaining American citizens without a court trial is not American.”

Unfortunately, the PATRIOT Act has already removed “some of the most important checks on state power in the name of fighting terrorism,” but there are very few politicians who will put their careers on their line in saying this fact.

Chinese Government Official: 'US Threat To Pakistan Is Threat To China'

Source: Prison Planet
Paul Joseph Watson & Yi Han

The Chinese military has staged a massive wargame exercise near Pakistan in response to a build-up of U.S. troops in the region as a top Chinese government official warned that any threat to Pakistan would be taken as a direct threat to China.

Citing a report by China’s Central Television, Junshijia reports that an unnamed government official warned, “Any threat to Pakistan is a threat to China,” in response to increasing hostility directed towards Pakistan by both the US and NATO in the aftermath of a NATO bombing that killed 26 Pakistani soldiers last week.

Pakistan responded to the airstrike by sealing its border with Afghanistan, preventing supplies from reaching the US-occupied country.

According to the report, the United States is massing troops on Pakistan’s border in an act of aggression that China sees as a direct threat to its close alliance with the country. In response, China recently sent large numbers of Second Artillery PLA troops armed with sophisticated DF-21C and short-range DF-11A tactical missiles to China’s northwestern plateau near Pakistan for a huge military exercise designed to reflect China’s “attitude towards the US threat to Pakistan.”

The drill ran from the 14-27 of November and included Pakistani troops. It was also reported by numerous other Chinese news sources (1,2,3).

The report strongly emphasizes the Chinese position that its alliance with Pakistan represents a “brotherhood,” and that “China will never be in peace if Pakistan is lost.”

“Militarily, China will be conducting massive and heavy equipment desert warfare in Pakistan on the 16th,” states the translated report. “America has always desired Pakistan, especially in recent years. As the U.S. war in Afghanistan deepens, and military actions against Iran’s determination become stronger, (the threat of ) confrontation with China increases, Pakistan is the place for America to gain military advantage strategically and geographically.”

China Won't Hesitate To Protect Iran, Even If It Means World War III

Source: NTDTV

Infowars Interviews General Hamid Gul

Source: Infowars
Alex Jones

On the Wednesday November 30 edition of the Alex Jones Show, Alex talks with retired Pakistani Army three-star general Hamid Gul about the situation in Pakistan following NATO airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. Pakistan has also issued a demand that the U.S. stop running drone strikes out of the Shamsi airbase located in the Balochistan province. Gul served as the Director General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Nigel Farage: This is How Dictatorship Begins

Source: Byoblu
Claudio Messoru

UKIP Leader Nigel Farage MEP is interviewed by Claudio Messoru of Byoblu.com (Italy)

Syria: NATO Genocide Approaches

Source: Land Destroyer Report
Tony Cartalucci

Blatant lies told by alleged "human rights activists" led to ignominious NATO-sanctioned brutality and ultimately brought BP, Shell, Total-sponsored Petroleum Institute representative, Abdurrahim el-Keib, into power in Libya. Now, these same corporate-financier interests, through their same networks of propaganda, duplicity and deception, are laying the ground work for a repeat performance in Syria.

It was just recently revealed that the UN Human Rights Council report regarding Syrian "crimes against humanity" was actually co-authored by Karen Koning AbuZayd, a director of the US Washington-based corporate think-tank, Middle East Policy Council, that includes Exxon men, CIA agents, US military and government representatives, and even the president of the US-Qatar Business Council, which includes amongst its membership, AlJazeera, Chevron, Exxon, munitions manufacturer Raytheon (who supplied the opening salvos during NATO's operations against Libya), and Boeing. The conflict of interest is so monumental it is only outdone by the corporate media's eager acceptance of the report and their complete negligence in airing the compromised backgrounds of those responsible for compiling it.

The UN report itself (.pdf) contained no verifiable evidence, but rather hearsay accounts recorded in Geneva by alleged "victims" "witnesses," and "defectors," put forth by "all interested persons and organizations." In other words, it was an open invitation for Syria's enemies to paint whatever image of the ruling government they pleased. While critics claim this is due to the Syrian government's lack of cooperation with the UN, it is more likely that the UN itself, with a proven track record of doing so in Iraq, the Ivory Coast, and most recently Libya, is merely complicit in providing "window dressing" for Wall Street and London's otherwise naked military conquests.

How to Start the War

And it is through this purposefully distorted lens that calls for military intervention are being made. After months of denying the opposition was armed, the Wall Street-funded think-tank Council on Foreign Relations now openly claims that not only are the "protesters" armed, but there is a resistance army of "15,000." The CFR claims this "Free Syrian Army" is requesting weapons and air support. It has already been revealed that weapons are freely flowing over Syria's borders from foreign-supporters, most notably, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, and now even as far as Libya. The CFR report then goes on to explore the options available to NATO for facilitating "regime change" including the use of "overhead surveillance assets, logistical enablers, peacekeepers, armed drones, combat aircraft, ground troops," and "smuggled weapons."

Of course the number of Syrian defectors are as baseless as the UN human rights report. However, even the claim of a large, armed militant force operating inside of Syria directly contradicts the West's concurrent narrative that Syria's military is running rampant over defenseless civilians. With an army of "15,000 defectors" attempting to seize the nation by force with the help of foreign money, weapons, and diplomatic support, one finds it difficult to believe the Syrian government would instead be spending its time "massacring civilians." Just as in Libya, or any number of nations where foreign-backed "revolutions" have been attempted or achieved, Western-enabled violence is always a predetermined part of the equation, fully provisioned ahead of time with the subsequent violence cloaked behind tales of one-sided brutality aimed at the targeted regime.

Corbett Report Interviews Bob Chapman

Source: Corbett Report
James Corbett

In this week’s conversation with regular guest Bob Chapman of The International Forecaster, we discuss: rumours of the Fed’s new QE3 are sending the DOW higher, even as the printing press threaten to devalue the dollar even more; the Eurozone crisis continues apace, with nothing likely to help but a complete reset of the banking system; Chavez repatriates Venezuela’s gold, and much more.

TSA Whistleblower: Feds Covered-Up Sexual Assault

Source: Infowars
Paul Joseph Watson

The Transportation Security Administration has found itself embroiled in yet another scandal after a TSA whistleblower accused the federal agency of covering up her sexual assault at the hands of a TSA investigator by forcing her to sign a false disavowal.

“Nilda C. Marugame, a TSA worker at Lihue airport, sued the TSA’s governmental parent, the Department of Homeland Security, in Federal Court. Marugame claims a TSA investigator (TSI) “sexually assaulted her” on Aug. 26, 2009,” reports Courthouse News Service.

When Marugame subsequently attempted to notify the Assistant Federal Security Director about the incident, she was immediately suspended for three days and then coerced into signing a statement that erroneously characterized the sexual advances as being consensual.

“She says she is “at least the third woman to report unwelcome sexual advances” from the same man, and that all of his victims were retaliated against with suspension or threats of termination,” states the report.

While all three women were punished for complaining about the assaults, no action was taken against the perpetrator, according to the case.

Marugame is currently trying to sue the TSA in federal court for lost wages resulting from her suspension and damages pertaining to the sexual assault.

Of course, the fact that the agency tasked with fondling travelers, including children, is constantly embroiled in sexual assault and rape cases, illustrates perfectly why it should be abolished.

As we have laboriously documented, sexual deviancy is so prevalent within the TSA that it’s almost become a prerequisite to get the job. Indeed, a prank caller who pretended to be a sex pervert phoned the TSA about applying for a job and was treated seriously by a TSA staffer.

In Modern America, Questioning War is Considered Terrorism

Source: Washington's Blog

I noted last year:

According to the Department of Justice’s Inspector General (via AP), the FBI spied on an anti-war rally in Pittsburgh sponsored by a nonviolent anti-war and anti-discrimination group, pretending it was preventing terrorism:

The FBI gave inaccurate information to Congress and the public when it claimed a possible terrorism link to justify surveilling an anti-war rally in Pittsburgh, the Justice Department’s inspector general said Monday in a report on the bureau’s scrutiny of domestic activist groups.

Inspector General Glenn Fine said the FBI had no reason to expect that anyone of interest in a terrorism investigation would be present at the 2002 event sponsored by the Thomas Merton Center, a nonviolent anti-war and anti-discrimination group.

The surveillance was “an ill-conceived project on a slow work day,” the IG stated in a study of several FBI domestic terrorism probes of people affiliated with organizations such as Greenpeace and the Catholic Worker.

Earlier, in statements to Congress and in a press release, the FBI had described the surveillance as related to a terrorism investigation.

***

The FBI has broad definitions that enable it to classify matters as domestic terrorism that actually are trespassing or vandalism, the inspector general said.

Regarding the Pittsburgh rally, controversy erupted in 2006 over whether the FBI had spied on protesters at the event several years earlier because of their anti-war views.

Promoters of peace in Maryland, Minneapolis, Chicago and elsewhere were also considered potential terrorists, as was an individual Quaker peace activist.

The Inspector General’s report confirms that – at least in some instances – anti-war views were specifically targeted:

The report concluded that, while the FBI probes were not generally predicated simply on the views of the targets, at least one FBI field office was focused on a group “as a result of its anti-war views.” It also found that “FBI agents and supervisors sometimes provided the [Office of the Inspector General] with speculative, after-the-fact rationalizations for their prior decisions to open investigations that we did not find persuasive.”

In addition, anti-war websites like AntiWar.com are listed on various terrorist watchlists: see number 16 here, and number 37 here.
AntiWar’s sin? It is (according to the watchlists):

Secret App On Millions of Phones Logs Key Taps

Source: The Register
Dan Goodin

An Android app developer has published what he says is conclusive proof that millions of smartphones are secretly monitoring the key presses, geographic locations, and received messages of its users.

In a YouTube video posted on Monday, Trevor Eckhart showed how software from a Silicon Valley company known as Carrier IQ recorded in real time the keys he pressed into a stock EVO handset, which he had reset to factory settings just prior to the demonstration. Using a packet sniffer while his device was in airplane mode, he demonstrated how each numeric tap and every received text message is logged by the software.

Ironically, he says, the Carrier IQ software recorded the “hello world” dispatch even before it was displayed on his handset.

Eckhart then connected the device to a Wi-Fi network and pointed his browser at Google. Even though he denied the search giant's request that he share his physical location, the Carrier IQ software recorded it. The secret app then recorded the precise input of his search query – again, “hello world” – even though he typed it into a page that uses the SSL, or secure sockets layer, protocol to encrypt data sent between the device and the servers.

“We can see that Carrier IQ is querying these strings over my wireless network [with] no 3G connectivity and it is reading HTTPS,” the 25-year-old Eckhart says.

The European Central Bank Fiddles While Rome Burns

Source: Global Research
Ellen Brown

“To some people, the European Central Bank seems like a fire department that is letting the house burn down to teach the children not to play with matches.”               

So wrote Jack Ewing in the New York Times last week.  He went on:

“The E.C.B. has a fire hose — its ability to print money. But the bank is refusing to train it on the euro zone’s debt crisis.

“The flames climbed higher Friday after the Italian Treasury had to pay an interest rate of 6.5 percent on a new issue of six-month bills . . . the highest interest rate Italy has had to pay to sell such debt since August 1997 . . . .

“But there is no sign the E.C.B. plans a major response, like buying large quantities of the country’s bonds to bring down its borrowing costs.”  

Why not?  According to the November 28^th Wall Street Journal, “The ECB has long worried that buying government bonds in big enough amounts to bring down countries' borrowing costs would make it easier for national politicians to delay the budget austerity and economic overhauls that are needed.” 

As with the manufactured debt ceiling crisis in the United States, the E.C.B. is withholding relief in order to extort austerity measures from member governments—and the threat seems to be working.  The same authors write:     

“Euro-zone leaders are negotiating a potentially groundbreaking fiscal pact . . . [that] would make budget discipline legally binding and enforceable by European authorities. . . . European officials hope a new agreement, which would aim to shrink the excessive public debt that helped spark the crisis, would persuade the European Central Bank to undertake more drastic action to reverse the recent selloff in euro-zone debt markets.”

The Eurozone appears to be in the process of being “structurally readjusted” – the same process imposed earlier by the IMF on Third World countries.  Structural demands routinely include harsh austerity measures, government cutbacks, privatization, and the disempowerment of national central banks, so that there is no national entity capable of creating and controlling the money supply on behalf of the people.  The latter result has officially been achieved in the Eurozone, which is now dependent on the E.C.B. as the sole lender of last resort and printer of new euros.

Federal Reserve Bleeds The Dollar To Keep Europe on Life Support For Another Week

Source: Business Insider
Joe Weisenthal

MARKETS SURGE AS FED/ECB/BOJ/BOE/SNB/BOC ANNOUNCE COORDINATED INTERVENTION

All the world's central banks have just announced a big coordinated intervention to lower swap rates.

What does that mean?

Basically this: European banks have been parched for liquidity, and need access to dollars. The ECB can't supply them dollars unless it borrows them from the Fed.

Essentially today's action makes it easier for the ECB and thus European banks to borrow dollars.

It's not a solution to the euro crisis by any means; it just means that the most acute liquidity problems will be mitigated for now.

The market is loving the news.

US futures had been down by 0.5% at one point this morning, and now the Dow is up 400 points.

Note that there are some other bullish things going on today. China lowered its Reserve Requirement Ratio also this morning, and we got a strong ADP jobs report.

So, lots of bullish action going on.

Here's the full announcement from the ECB.

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Corbett Report Interviews Dan Dicks

Source: Corbett Report
James Corbett

Dan Dicks of PressForTruth.ca joins us once again to discuss a new report from the CBC, “G20 case reveals ‘largest ever’ police spy operation“, which reveals some of the newly-released documents proving that the RCMP were involved in spying, surveillance and undercover skullduggery in the run-up and the aftermath of the Toronto G20 in what is being described as one of the largest domestic intelligence operations in Candian history. We discuss Dicks’ own documentary about the G20, Into The Fire, and how these documents confirm what we already knew about the encroaching Canadian police state.

Double Standards: US Condemns Attack On British Embasy In Iran

Source: Prison Planet
Kurt Nimmo

The United States has condemned the storming of the British embassy in Iran. Obama’s press secretary issued the following statement:

The United States condemns in the strongest terms the storming of the British Embassy in Tehran. Iran has a responsibility to protect the diplomatic missions present in its country and the personnel stationed at them. We urge Iran to fully respect its international obligations, to condemn the incident, to prosecute the offenders, and to ensure that no further such incidents take place either at the British Embassy or any other mission in Iran. Our State Department is in close contact with the British government and we stand ready to support our allies at this difficult time.

Iran has reportedly reacted to the storming of the embassy in Tehran by arresting a number of protesters. The Iran foreign ministry has issued a statement saying it regrets the attack and that it is committed to the safety of diplomats. 

British officials had earlier talked with the Iranian charge in London and urged Iranian authorities to “act with utmost urgency to ensure the situation is brought under control and to protect our diplomatic compound, as they are obliged to do under international law,” according to a report posted on The Telegraph website. 

International law, however, is only followed by Britain and the United States when politically advantageous. 

For instance, the U.S. violated international law in 2007 when it raided the Iranian Liaison Office in Arbil, Iraq, which was at the time in the process of becoming accredited as an officially recognized consulate. 

The U.S. insisted the office was being used by Iranian Revolutionary Guards as a local headquarters. However, both Iranian and Kurdish Autonomous Region officials said it was a diplomatic mission in the city of Arbil located in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Following the raid, the U.S. illegally detained a number of Iranian diplomats for a period of two and a half years. It had kidnapped the officials after failing to grab the deputy head of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council, Mohammed Jafari, and chief of intelligence of the IRGC, General Manuchehr Frouzandeh. Both were on an official visit to Iraq in an effort to improve bilateral security. They met the Iraqi president Jalal Talabani. 

Greece Is Under Economic Occupation

Source: RT

The austerity measures imposed on Greece by the EU will lead to a disintegration of social guarantees and the clearance sale of public property, argues filmmaker Aris Hatzistefanou, the director of Debtocracy documentary on the Greek debt crisis.

­The director of the documentary says “We wanted to explain that what happened in Greece is actually the same with what happened in Portugal, in Ireland or in Spain.”

“We are not lazy people who spend more than we earn,” he says.

“It is a structural problem of the world’s financial system and at the same time a structural problem of the Eurozone,” the filmmaker shares.

“The Eurozone is a system that creates deficit and debt on the European periphery while at the same time creating surpluses to the European core,” Hatzistefanou says.

The filmmaker claims that if several years ago nobody talked about this, now about 35 per cent of Greeks want to leave the Eurozone.

Greece is aware it is just impossible to pay a €360 billion debt so it is going to default, believes Aris Hatzistefanou, and in order to prevent the capital to leave the country the banking system should be nationalized, he says.

The few families that own the Greek economy and media have realized that foreign banks might come and take control of the country so these families do not want the IMF to come to Athens rescue, the filmmaker states.

In turn, the people of Greece have realized that the government has been lying to them and the austerity measures already taken cannot save the situation because deeper reforms and more radical measures are needed.

Aris Hatzistefanou stresses that Greek nationals are being blackmailed on a daily basis, being told if they do not accept the EU and the IMF conditions and austerity measures – “there will be hell”.

Greece has become a tax haven for a few [rich] and a tax hell for the majority of the population,” he says. 

“The Greek people are losing the rights gained in the 20th century.”

The humanitarian organizations that used to work in Africa are now coming to Athens to help people because a humanitarian crisis is on its way and that fact gives the right idea about the ongoing situation in Greece.

The next step for living under economic occupation Greece will be a massive privatization of public property and complete destruction of the social system, all this imposed by Brussels, Berlin and the Greek government, Aris Hatzistefanou states.

“They will try to sell off everything.”

“The Eurozone is on the brink of collapse either way so Greece should leave Eurozone,” argues Hatzistefanou.

“AT first we believed that the EU will be not only an economic and monetary union, but also a political union of the people,” says filmmaker, recalling the dictatorship period Greece passed and the Greek dream of peace and security within the EU. But it turned out later that “The EU and especially the Eurozone, is just a monetary union, a tool in the hands of foreign banks and corporations to ease their work and help to take control over the population of the European periphery.”