New World Next Week - 10/20/11

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:

Killing Gaddafi Spares ICC Embarrassment for US & Britain

Source: Prison Planet.com
Paul Joseph Watson

The death of Muammar Gaddafi, killed by NATO and US-backed rebels, will be hailed by western powers, not merely because they have now seized control of another oil-rich country under the dubious auspices of the “Arab Spring,” but because Gaddafi will be prevented from exposing western support for Al-Qaeda terrorists under the glare of a UN International Criminal Court trial.

Initial reports suggest that Gaddafi attempted to flee the town of Sirte but his convoy was bombed by NATO warplanes. Rebels then captured and killed the former Libyan leader by putting a bullet through his head.

The former Libyan leader’s untimely death conveniently avoids the embarrassment of having to put him in front of a United Nations tribunal at the Hague.

America’s Secret Empire of Drone Bases: Its Full Extent Revealed for the First Time

Source: AlterNet.org
Nick Turse

A ground-breaking investigation examines the most secret aspect of America's shadowy drone wars and maps out a world of hidden bases dotting the globe.

They increasingly dot the planet.  There’s a facility outside Las Vegas where “pilots” work in climate-controlled trailers, another at a dusty camp in Africa formerly used by the French Foreign Legion, a third at a big air base in Afghanistan where Air Force personnel sit in front of multiple computer screens, and a fourth that almost no one talks about at an air base in the United Arab Emirates. 
 

And that leaves at least 56 more such facilities to mention in an expanding American empire of unmanned drone bases being set up worldwide.  Despite frequent news reports on the drone assassination campaign launched in support of America’s ever-widening undeclared wars and a spate of stories on drone bases in Africa and the Middle East, most of these facilities have remained unnoted, uncounted, and remarkably anonymous -- until now.  

US Begins Huge Military Maneuvers Aimed at Iran

Source: Global Research.ca
Paul Joseph Watson

Battle-ready troops on standby as tensions rise following dubious assassination plot

The United States will this week commence huge military maneuvers aimed at Iran, with a massive air fleet patrolling middle eastern skies ready to land at any time, in response to Iran's involvement in an alleged assassination plot that experts have labeled dubious, amidst fears that US and Israeli targets could be hit by attacks.

As we reported last week, during US Defense Secretary Leon Panettas October 3 Tel Aviv visit, Israeli hawks attempted to persuade Panetta to give the green light for a military strike on Iran. Within ten days, details of an alleged assassination plot against a Saudi ambassador emerged and the foiled attack was blamed on Iran. Innumerable experts immediately voiced their doubts about the authenticity of the plot, with 21-year CIA veteran Robert Baer labeling the story a truly awful Hollywood script.

Brainwashing America, Pentagon-style!

Source: RT

The Pentagon is about to crank the propaganda machine up to 11. According to a new report, the Department of Defense is attempting to find out what makes a person easily influenced in hopes of swaying them towards supporting their own causes.

In a report published this week by Wired.com’s Danger Room, they reveal that Pentagon researchers working in its DARPA division has begun work on a program called Narrative Networks. Under this initiative, scientists in the high-techh Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency are scanning brain patterns and other body functions to see how stories shape the minds of audiences, and who is most vulnerable to be swayed by persuasion. From there, the DoD can counter brainwashed terrorists with an agenda of their own.

Or, perhaps, brainwash anyone they chose.

US Judges Rule Government is Above the Law

TRANSCRIPT AND SOURCES:  GRTV.ca and Corbett Report

U.S. Officials Peddle False Intel to Support Terror Plot Claims

Source: Global Research.ca
Gareth Porter

WASHINGTON, Oct 17, 2011 (IPS) - Officials of the Barack Obama administration have aggressively leaked information supposedly based on classified intelligence in recent days to bolster its allegation that two higher-ranking officials from Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were involved in a plot to assassinate Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir in Washington, D.C.

The media stories generated by the leaks helped divert press attention from the fact that there is no verifiable evidence of any official Iranian involvement in the alleged assassination plan, contrary to the broad claim being made by the administration.

Drone strike killed Americans

Source: RT

Miscommunication between military personnel is the reason the Pentagon is giving for a drone airstrike carried out by the American military in April that resulted in the death of two US servicemen.

Marine Staff Sgt. Jeremy Smith, 26, and Navy hospital staffer Benjamin D. Rast, 23, were both killed by an unmanned US aircraft back in April, which RT reported at the time was the first occurrence of a friendly fire death caused by American drones. Now following an investigation out of the Department of Defense, it has been revealed that the two men lost their lives because those commanding the craft assumed the men to be Taliban fighters, even though air force analysts weren’t certain.

Why America is Getting Involved in African Civil War

Last week the White House announced that 100 American combat troops would be deployed to central Africa. Their mission would be training and advising forces that are in conflict with the Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army. Some think the US is only asking for trouble getting involved in the ethnic war that has been going on for decades. Pepe Escobar, a correspondent for Asia Times, helps us understand why now.

Source: Asia Times Online
Pepe Escobar

The mineral rush in Africa is already one of the great resource wars of the 21st century. China is ahead, followed by companies from India, Australia, South Africa and Russia (which, for instance, has set up a fresh gold refinery in Kampala). The West is lagging behind. The name of the game for the US and the Europeans is to pull no punches to undermine China's myriad commercial deals all across Africa. 

Corporate-Fascists Clamor for Iran War

From: Land Destroyer Report
Tony Cartalucci

Unelected corporate-funded policy makers constitute the greatest threat to US national security.

While US politicians grapple over the credibility of using the US DEA's bomb plot to assassinate a Saudi ambassador as a pretext to escalate tensions with Iran, America's unelected, corporate-funded policy makers have already announced their long, foregone conclusion. The DEA's entrapment case is decidedly to be used as a pretext for war with Iran.

The Foreign Policy Institute (FPI), just one such unelected, corporate-funded think tank, has released two statements calling on President Obama to use force against Iran. FPI director William Kristol states:

"It’s long since been time for the United States to speak to this regime in the language it understands—force.
 

And now we have an engraved invitation to do so. The plot to kill the Saudi ambassador was a lemon. Statesmanship involves turning lemons into lemonade.

So we can stop talking. Instead, we can follow the rat lines in Iraq and Afghanistan back to their sources, and destroy them. We can strike at the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and weaken them. And we can hit the regime’s nuclear weapons program, and set it back."

Likewise, FPI's executive director Jamie Fly claims, in tandem with Kristol's unqualified, corporate-funded opinion, "It is time to take military action against the Iranian government elements that support terrorism and its nuclear program. More diplomacy is not an adequate response."

Image: Just a sampling of Wall Street-London corporate-funded think tanks. Those that believe America's policy is created within the offices of our elected legislatures will be sadly disappointed to know that it is in fact produced by these unelected, nebulous private institutions. Despite the different logos and rhetoric wielded by each of these institutions, they consist of the same members and same corporate-financier sponsors and merely specialize in executing different aspects of the corporate-financier agenda. For more information, please see "Naming Names." (click on image to enlarge)

The CIA and the Drug Trade - EyeOpener Report

From: Boiling Frogs Post
James Corbett
 

Watch Full Video

Transcript and Sources:

The cultivation of what we know today as the opium poppy goes back to the beginnings of recorded history, when the Sumerians in ancient Mesopotamia cultivated what they referred to as Hul Gil, or the “joy plant.” The practice was passed down through the Assyrians to the Babylonians and from there to the Egyptians, by which time the opium trade had begun to to fluorish and was fast becoming the lynchpin of international trade across the Mediterranean into Europe.

Indeed, as far back as one cares to go, control of the international opium trade has been a key factor in the rise and fall of empires.

China Reacts to US' anit-Iran Claim

From: Press TV

The Chinese government has reacted to the recent US allegation that Iran was involved in a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington, Press TV reports.

NYPD Arrests People for Attempting to Close Citibank Accounts

From: End The Lie
Madison Ruppert

If nothing else, we can at least thank the New York Police Department for continually proving themselves to be the servants not of the public – as their job description would have you believe – but of the banking elite.

The NYPD confirmed that 24 people in total were arrested at Citibank earlier today.  All of those arrested have been charged with criminal trespass, while two activists were also charged with resisting arrest. Many of those arrested went to the bank to close their accounts in a coordinated effort.

Occupy Wall Street Wrapping the Planet

From: RT

All over the globe people are rising up and demanding their rights in a worldwide rally of discontent as protests inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement spread around the world on Saturday.

­The website for the international movement says 951 cities in 87 countries are ready to “Unite for Global Change” – the official slogan of the rally.

“It’s time for us to unite. It’s time for them to listen. People of the world, rise up!” calls the site.

Megatsunami 2011 Watch: Real Threat or Predictive Programming?

From: CyberSpaceWar.com

Is the unstable flank of Cumbre Viega volcano in the Canary Islands ready to plunge into the ocean? The hype is at a crescendo about an imminent mega-tsunami resulting from a landside into 4,000 feet of water. The heightened concern is due to 9,300 tremors experienced in the Canary Islands since July. A tsunami threat to the East Coast of the United States is well-known as reported in a 2004 Rense article. The threat is real but timing seems convenient for a desperate oligarch class? Media hype only builds expectations of tragedy for the East Coast! Is it predictive programming? 

Dubious "Iranian" Terror Plot May Be Used as Pretext for War with Iran

From: PrisonPlanet.com
Paul Joseph Watson

The already dubious "Iranian" terror plot to assassinate a Saudi ambassador and blow up the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Washington, continues to unravel into farce with the revelation that the so called "mastermind" behind the plot is a failed used car salesman described by those who know him as a "joke".

While The Justice Department is hyping the notion that 56-year-old Iranian-born U.S. citizen Manssor Arbabsiar was participating in a dastardly Iranian plot to kill Saudi Arabia's U.S. ambassador, details have emerged that make the already farcical case look like a badly scripted comedy.

New World Next Week - Iranian Plot, Fast and Furious, Drone Virus

Welcome back to New World Next Week - the video series from Corbett Report and Media Monarchy that covers some of the most important developments in alternative news and open-source intelligence.

Will U.S. Exploit Dubious Terror Case and Attack Iran?

From: Infowars

Kurt Nimmo

The Obama administration plans to use an unproven accusation leveled against Iran to mount a new international sanctions campaign and possibly attack the country. 

On Tuesday, the Justice Department announced it had uncovered a plot by Iran to enlist a member of a Mexican drug cartel to kill Saudi Arabia's envoy in Washington, D.C. The FBI and the DEA uncovered the plot, according to officials. The FBI has a long track record of using informers and agents provocateurs to entrap dupes who are then described as dangerous terrorists. 

Iranian Terror Plot: Fake, Fake, Fake

From: Antiwar.com
Justin Raimondo

Fake, fake, fake – I’m talking about the latest anti-Iranian propaganda coming out of Washington, which claims the Iranian Revolutionary Guards were involved in a “plot” to take out the Saudi ambassador to the US and blow up both the Saudi and Israeli embassies. The narrative reads like a formulaic melodrama: two Iranians, one a naturalized US citizen, purportedly approached someone they thought was a member of a Mexican drug cartel – according to the indictment [.pdf], it was a “sophisticated” drug cartel, not the plebeian sort – and proposed paying him $1.5 million to murder Adel al Jubeir, the Kingdom’s ambassador in Washington – oh, and by the way, the Iranians supposedly said, “Are you guys any good with explosives?”

The key to understanding just how fake this story is can be found in the New York Times report, which informs us: “For the entire operation, the government’s confidential sources were monitored and guided by federal law enforcement agents, Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District, said in the news conference. ‘So no explosives were actually ever placed anywhere,’ he said, ‘and no one was actually in ever in any danger.’” 
 
Translation: the whole thing is phony from beginning to end.

Fed Insider Cain Caught in Brazen Debate Lie

From: Prison Planet.com
Paul Joseph Watson

Establishment favorite and former Federal Reserve insider Herman Cain brazenly lied during last night’s Republican debate when he denied that he had opposed an audit of the Fed, a claim that was proven false within hours by Ron Paul’s campaign team.

Pointing out that the majority of Americans want to see a full audit of the Federal Reserve, Congressman Ron Paul asked Cain if he stood by his position that it would be frivolous to audit the Fed on a regular basis, as well as his characterization of those who are calling for such measures as ignorant.

Cain responded by claiming he never dismissed Ron Paul or his supporters as “ignorant” for asking about the Federal Reserve, and that the error was down to Paul believing what he read on the Internet. Technically Cain is correct, because he didn’t call Ron Paul supporters “ignorant,” worse still, in his own book Cain dismissed them as “stupid” and ludicrously suggested that the Paul campaign was deliberately sending out supporters to harass Cain with questions about the Federal Reserve.

Cain brazenly lied in the next breath when he claimed, “I do not object to the Federal Reserve being audited, I simply said if someone wants to initiate that action go right ahead, it doesn’t bother me,” adding that he had been “misrepresented” and didn’t have a problem with the Fed being audited, before robotically repeating his “9,9,9″ tax hike agenda.