The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. – Benjamin Franklin
– French polls ‘won’t deter Hollande’ (BBC News, Aug 31, 2013):
France’s President Francois Hollande has said he is considering military action against Syria following alleged chemical weapons attacks.
Along with the US President, Hollande has accused Syria of using chemical weapons near Damascus on 21 August.
France is seen as the main US ally – since the UK vote against military action – but an opinion poll suggested that 64% opposed the use of force.
– Nobel Peace Laureate Obama Plans War on Syria Based on Lies (Veterans Today, Aug 31, 2013):
In awarding its 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, Committee members turned truth on its head, saying:
Obama made “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”
He “created a new climate in international politics. Multinational diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions play.”
He envisions “a world without nuclear weapons.”
“Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.”
“Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future.”
“For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely the international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world’s leading spokesman.”
Fact check:
Read moreNobel Peace Laureate Obama Plans War On Syria Based On Lies (Veterans Today)
Bush’s Skull & Bones brother John Kerry bringing you some more BS you can believe in.
– Bilderberg 2012: Detailed Member Bios, UK Guardian’s Video Report
Goolsbee, Austan D. USA Professor of Economics, University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He is a member of the Skull and Bones Society as were John Kerry and George W Bush. He has been an Obama advisor since 2004. He was Chairman if Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors. He quit advising Obama because he can see where this economy is going.
John Kerry admitting Skull & Bones membership:
US Secretary of State John Kerry
– John Kerry’s Syrian Fable (Veterans Today, by Gordon Duff, Aug 31, 2013):
“In May, this year, Turkish police arrested “Syrian rebels” caught in the act of carrying weaponized Sarin gas to Syria. However, the source of the Sarin was never revealed, those arrested disappeared and nothing was mentioned again.”
Today we heard American Secretary of State John Kerry give his compelling case for war on Syria. His story was compelling, perhaps even theatrical. It also rang of fiction.
It was a convenient narrative about the Assad government, which is popular among the Syrian people, a government clearly winning against a brutal and unpopular foreign-dominated insurgency.
Real intelligence is a mosaic, each source graded as to historical reliability and import. When enough pieces don’t come together or an unwanted outcome results, intelligence “fusion centers” cut out “bad facts” and amplify or invent “good ones.”
Kerry’s intelligence on Syria’s alleged use of chemical weapons goes further, down the slippery slope of a detailed narrative, a “cooked” story, perfectly timed, containing the right anecdotal details, a classic “deception and cover” tale right out of the Mossad book of deception.
I can’t imagine how Kerry could keep a straight face; perhaps it is embalmed with Botox.
Behind the story
Read moreJohn Kerry’s Case For Syria Attack Fictitious (Veterans Today, By Gordon Duff)
FYI.
Related info:
– Don’t Show Obama This Report About Who Really Is Behind The Syrian Chemical Attacks
– Who Benefits From A War Between The United States And Syria? (Economic Collapse, Aug 30, 2013):
Someone wants to get the United States into a war with Syria very, very badly. Cui bono is an old Latin phrase that is still commonly used, and it roughly means “to whose benefit?” The key to figuring out who is really behind the push for war is to look at who will benefit from that war. If a full-blown war erupts between the United States and Syria, it will not be good for the United States, it will not be good for Israel, it will not be good for Syria, it will not be good for Iran and it will not be good for Hezbollah. The party that stands to benefit the most is Saudi Arabia, and they won’t even be doing any of the fighting. They have been pouring billions of dollars into the conflict in Syria, but so far they have not been successful in their attempts to overthrow the Assad regime. Now the Saudis are trying to play their trump card – the U.S. military. If the Saudis are successful, they will get to pit the two greatest long-term strategic enemies of Sunni Islam against each other – the U.S. and Israel on one side and Shia Islam on the other. In such a scenario, the more damage that both sides do to each other the happier the Sunnis will be.
There would be other winners from a U.S. war with Syria as well. For example, it is well-known that Qatar wants to run a natural gas pipeline out of the Persian Gulf, through Syria and into Europe. That is why Qatar has also been pouring billions of dollars into the civil war in Syria.
So if it is really Saudi Arabia and Qatar that want to overthrow the Assad regime, why does the United States have to do the fighting?
Read moreSo Who Benefits From A War Between The U.S. And Syria?
– Contamination levels skyrocket at Fukushima plant, up nearly 2,000% — NHK: Quadrillions of becquerels already released; “Gov’t needs to take charge entirely” (VIDEO) (ENENews, Aug 31, 2013):
Kyodo News, September 1, 2013: Very high radiation levels were observed Saturday at three tanks and one of the pipes connecting them at the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, pointing to the possibility that radioactive water may have newly leaked, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said. The radiation readings were from 70 to 1,800 millisieverts per hour […]
JIJI PRESS, Aug. 31, 2013: Saturday’s highest reading [of 1,800 millisieverts per hour] was measured at one of the two tanks, with the radiation level jumping from 100 millisieverts.
CBS News, Aug. 28, 2013 (Emphasis Added): “What’s important is not the number itself but to give a basic idea about the extent of the problem,” authority chairman Shunichi Tanaka said […] Tanaka said there is a much larger ongoing problem at the plant: massive amounts of contaminated ground water reaching the sea. But that problem cannot even be rated under the IAEA’s International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale because it is unknown exactly how much ground water is escaping, how contaminated it is and what effect it is having on the sea and marine products. […] “I’m baffled,” he said.
WSJ, Aug. 28, 2013: “It could be much more or much less,” [Shunichi Tanaka, chairman of the Nuclear Regulation Authority] added, saying that Tepco calculated the amount based on the assumption that the tank had been full. […] A Tepco spokeswoman said “it’s true that we calculated 300 tons. We cannot say whether we will or we won’t change it later.”
NHK, Aug. 30, 2013: Major leak […] releasing several quadrillion becquerels of radioactive particles […] the government needs to take charge entirely.
See also:
– Fukushima radiation levels 18 times higher than previously thought (Guardian, Sep 1, 2013):
“We think that contaminated water management by your company has completely fallen apart,” Hiroshi Kishi, chairman of the Japan Fisheries Co-operative, told Tepco’s president, Naomi Hirose, during a meeting in Tokyo last week.
“This has dealt an immeasurable blow to the future of Japan’s fishing industry, and we are extremely concerned.”
H/t reader M.G.:
“Radiation levels at 18X more than estimated.
From the UK Guardian, Sunday
The article says it ruins the fishing industry for Japan…..
WTF?? What about the rest of the world?
This is what happens when corporations are allowed to operate in a monopoly (TEPCO controls 96% of Japan’s power grid) and have no oversight.”
More pics & info here:
– And Now, It’s Golfing Time (Or Putin +1, Obama 0) (ZeroHedge, Aug 31, 2013)
– ?Brzezinski: ‘Global Political Awakening’ Making Syrian War Difficult (Storyleak, Aug 29, 2013):
During a short interview with Germany’s DW News last Monday, former US National Security Adviser and Trilateral Commission co-founder Zbigniew Brzezinski commented on the growing inefficiency of war due to the increased political knowledge of the public.
“Given the contemporary reality of what I have called in my writings ‘Global Political Awakening,’ a policy of force based primarily on Western and in some cases former colonial powers does not seem to me a very promising avenue to an eventual solution to the regional problem,” said Brzezinski, referring to the situation in Syria.
Despite Brzezinski’s noted long-term relationship with Obama which included a top foreign policy adviser position, Brzezinski denied any specific knowledge of his plans regarding Syria, saying that if the administration has a strategy, it’s a “very well-kept secret.”
Obama’s Middle Eastern strategy has been a mere continuation of the policies seen under Bush, exemplified by former four star general and NATO commander Wesley Clark’s admission of the Bush-era Pentagon plan to overthrow several countries including Libya and Syria.
Read moreZbigniew Brzezinski: ‘Global Political Awakening’ Making Syrian War Difficult
– Unidentified Navy Officer Sums It Up (ZeroHedge, Aug 31, 2013):
Presented with no comment…
whether or not this is a real member of the US armed forces is unknown but we suspect it sums up many of their perspectives as Obama punts to Congress.
… because he can!
– After Syria statement, Obama golfs (Politico, Aug 31, 2013):
Right after shipping responsibility for authorizing an attack on Syria, President Barack Obama returned to his comfort zone: The golf course.
Obama’s motorcade left the White House at 2:30 p.m., about 30 minutes after completing his statement.
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are playing at Fort Belvoir, Va., along with White House trip director Marvin Nicholson and Walter Nicholson, according to the White House.
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during President Reagan’s first term. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal. He has held numerous academic appointments, including the William E. Simon Chair, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University, and Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University.
– Obama Reveals His Dictatorship (Paul Craig Roberts, Aug 31, 2013):
Obama Reveals His Dictatorship
the isolation of AmericaPaul Craig Roberts
Washington preens itself on being “the world’s greatest democracy.” Washington uses the claim that it is spreading democracy as a justification for its naked aggression–a clear and unambiguous war crime–against other countries. Washington cloaks its illegality in democratic rhetoric despite the obvious fact that its wars are not a consequence of democratic decision.
– Big Sis Says Cyber Attack WILL Bring Down Power Grid: ‘When Not If’ (Activist Post, Aug 30, 2013)
Flashback:
– Law Professor: Counter Terrorism Czar Told Me There Is Going To Be An i-9/11 And An i-Patriot Act;
Lawrence Lessig, a respected Law Professor from Stanford University told an audience at this years Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference in Half Moon Bay, California, that “There’s going to be an i-9/11 event” which will act as a catalyst for a radical reworking of the law pertaining to the internet.
…
– Russia Restructures Cyprus Debt; Cyprus Prohibits US Strikes On Syria (ZeroHedge, Aug 31, 2013):
Yesterday afternoon, Russia agreed to restructure Cyprus’ EUR 2.5 billion loan terms to a much more affordable 2.5% semi-annual coupon through 2016 and a principal re-payment over the following four years. While probably still out of reach for the desparate economy, it was a positive step. Of course, this ‘offer’ by Russia has its quid pro quo. This morning, Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides has stated that Cyprus territory will not be used to launch military strikes against Syria, as “Cyprus wants to live up to its responsibility as a shelter if needed for nationals of friendly countries who evacuate from Middle East”. It would appear Obama’s influence is fading everywhere…
Cyprus is located ~183 nautical miles west of Syria and is the EU member nearest to Syria.
Read moreRussia Restructures Cyprus Debt; Cyprus Prohibits US Military Strikes On Syria
– What To Expect During The Next Stage Of Collapse (Alt-Market, Aug 29, 2013):
For years now at Alt-Market (and Neithercorp.us) I have carefully outlined the most likely path of collapse to take place within the U.S., and a vital part of that analysis included economic destabilization caused by a loss of the dollar’s world reserve status and petro-status. I have also always made clear that this fiscal crisis event would not occur in the midst of a political vacuum. The central banks and international financiers that created our ongoing and developing disaster are NOT going to allow the destruction of the American economy, the dollar, or global markets without a cover event designed to hide their culpability. They need something big. Something so big that the average citizen is overwhelmed with fear and confusion. A smoke and mirrors magic trick so raw and soul shattering it leaves the very population of the Earth mesmerized and helpless to understand the root of the nightmare before them. The elites need a fabricated Apocalypse.
Related info:
– Don’t Show Obama This Report About Who Really Is Behind The Syrian Chemical Attacks
– U.S. Finally Admits What Ron Paul Said: ‘Nobody Knows Who Set Off The Gas’
– Evidence: Syria Sarin Gas Attack Work Of U.S. Allies, Not Assad
Oh, and by the way, Obama …
‘The U.S. is a Republic, NOT a Democracy!’ (Ron Paul)
… even if you and your puppet masters (which happen to be exactly the same people that control the Bushs, the Clintons etc.) would like us to believe otherwise.
And we all know exactly why!
“Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms.”
– Aristotle“The Council on Foreign Relations is ‘the establishment.’ Not only does it have influence and power in key decision-making positions at the highest levels of government to apply pressure from above, but it also announces and uses individuals and groups to bring pressure from below, to justify the high level decisions for converting the U.S. from a sovereign Constitutional Republic into a servile member state of a one-world dictatorship.“
– Former Congressman John Rarick 1971
Again, the U.S. is a Republic, …
“I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country; corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in High Places will follow, and the Money Power of the Country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the People, until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. “
– Abraham LincolnThe deliberations of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 were held in strict secrecy. Consequently, anxious citizens gathered outside Independence Hall when the proceedings ended in order to learn what had been produced behind closed doors. The answer was provided immediately. A Mrs. Powel of Philadelphia asked Benjamin Franklin, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” With no hesitation whatsoever, Benjamin Franklin responded, “A republic, if you can keep it.”
Source
… if we can keep it.
– Obama Saying the U.S WILL STRIKE Syria because it is a National Security Issue, but will get Congressional Approval – Assad committed the Chemical Attack (Sherrie Questioning All, Aug 31, 2013):
Obama is saying the U.S. will strike Syria. But he did just say he will go ahead and get Congressional Approval for the war. He proclaimed he didn’t need Congress’s approval but will go ahead and get it.
He spewed a lot of rhetoric full of LIES! He forgot to mention how many times the U.S. has poisoned others and murdered others through chemical and biological weapons. He didn’t mention the depleted uranium we have spread around Iraq. The poisons that are sprayed in our air every day with chemtrails, poison of our water with fluoride and our food with GMO.
He didn’t mention how Israel uses chemical weapons and murders people all the time.
What an absolute Bullshit speech!
Here is his speech.
… every time he opens his mouth.
See also:
– Congress putting the brakes on Obama (Veterans Today, Aug 30, 2013):
Dear all, now is the time to grab your telephone pitch forks and get those calls in to the White house, your Congressman and both Senators. Give them congrats or spanking accordingly. They need to be shocked when they get back after Labor Day if they don’t get called back anyway. A debate will give us more time to find more holes in their bogus gassing scam and expose them enough to demand an investigation now for treason for ‘someone’ attempting to launch the country into a military endeavor where their is not threat…
– Obama urges military action against Syria, but will seek Congress’ OK (CNN, Aug 31, 2013):
U.S. President Barack Obama said Saturday that the United States “should take military action against Syrian targets” over its alleged use of chemical weapons, but added that he will seek congressional authorization for the move.In a televised address from the White House Rose Garden, the president appealed for congressional leaders to consider their responsibilities and values in debating U.S. military action over Syria’s alleged chemical weapons use. “Today I’m asking Congress to send a message to the world that we are united as one nation,” he said.
Read moreBREAKING NEWS: Obama Will Seek Congress’ OK On Military Strike Against Syria
– 25 Quotes About The Coming War With Syria That Every American Should See (Economic Collapse, Aug 29, 2013):
If Barack Obama is going to attack Syria, he is going to do it without the support of the American people, without the approval of Congress, without the approval of the United Nations, and without the help of the British. Now that the British Parliament has voted against a military strike, the Obama administration is saying that it may take “unilateral action” against Syria. But what good would “a shot across Syria’s bow” actually do? A “limited strike” is not going to bring down the Assad regime and it is certainly not going to end the bloody civil war that has been raging inside Syria. Even if the U.S. eventually removed Assad, the al-Qaeda affiliated rebels that would take power would almost certainly be even worse than Assad. Even in the midst of this bloody civil war, the rebels have taken the time and the effort to massacre entire Christian villages. Why is Barack Obama so obsessed with helping such monsters? There is no good outcome in Syria. The Assad regime is absolutely horrible and the rebels are even worse. Why would we want the U.S. military to get involved in such a mess?
Read more25 QUOTES About The Coming War With Syria That Every American Should See
– India Moves to Ban Gmail (Liberty Blitzkrieg, Aug 31, 2013):
The fallout from the Snowden revelations continue. While India has already been attempting to fight economic reality with import duties on gold in an desperate move to reduce buying, they are now also trying to take further control of their technology infrastructure. Although this may appear to be a good thing on the surface, perhaps it is merely a move to further consolidate their own domestic snooping powers, which we already know they are trying to do.
In the latest news, it is being reported that the government will soon ask its employees to stop using Google’s Gmail due to the presence of the company’s servers within the U.S.
More from The Times of India:
BANGALORE/NEW DELHI: The government will soon ask all its employees to stop using Google’s Gmail for official communication, a move intended to increase security ofconfidential government information after revelations of widespread cyberspying by the US.
A senior official in the ministry of communications and information technology said the government plans to send a formal notification to nearly 5 lakh employees barring them from email service providers such as Gmail that have their servers in the US, and instead asking them to stick to the official email service provided by India’s National Informatics Centre.
– Meanwhile In Fukushima: Multiple Leaks, Radiation Soars To 1.8 Sieverts/hr (ZeroHedge Aug 31, 2013):
Remember when we said Tepco has lost all control of Fukushima? We weren’t joking.
#TEPCO: “It can’t be denied” there could be several fresh radioactive water leaks at #Fukushima-1. Doses up to 1800 mSv/hr detected on site.
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) August 31, 2013
Kyodo: #TEPCO says very high radiation levels Sat. at #Fukushima-1 NPP tanks & a connecting pipe may indicate fresh radioactive water leak.
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) August 31, 2013
Perhaps the above, together with the terminal demographic social collapse, coupled with Abe’s monetary experiment which will end in currency collapse, explains why for Japanese society, for which pretty much nothing matters anymore as a “happy ending” is out of picture, Syria is merely an opportunity to rerun the more glorious moments of WW II:
- JAPAN EYES BACKING POSSIBLE U.S. INTERVENTION IN SYRIA: NIKKEI.
Unclear if Manchuria is next.
* * *
As posted here over a week ago, this is what is really going on:
Read moreFukushima: Multiple Leaks, Radiation Soars To 1.8 SIEVERTS PER HOUR, Totally Out Of Control
And as you can see, the U.S. government told the Washington Post what to print and what not.
Another important & transparent leak you can believe in.
What real NSA whistleblower would trust the Washington Post anyway???
“There is no such thing, at this date of the world’s history, in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar weekly salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone. The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth; to lie outright; to pervert; to vilify; to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independent press? We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities, and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes.”
– John Swinton, former New York Times Chief of Staff
– New Snowden Leak Reports ‘Groundbreaking’ NSA Crypto-Cracking (Wired, Aug 29, 2013):
The latest published leak from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden lays bare classified details of the U.S. government’s $52.6 billion intelligence budget, and makes the first reference in any of the Snowden documents to a “groundbreaking” U.S. encryption-breaking effort targeted squarely at internet traffic.
Snowden, currently living in Russia under a one-year grant of asylum, passed The Washington Post the 178-page intelligence community budget request for fiscal year 2013. Among the surprises reported by Post writers Barton Gellman and Greg Miller is that the CIA receives more money than the NSA: $14.7 billion for the CIA, versus $10.8 billion for the NSA. Until this morning it’s generally been believed that the geeky NSA, with its basements full of supercomputers, dwarfed its human-oriented counterparts.
The Post published only 43 pages from the document, consisting of charts, tables and a 5-page summary written by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. The Post said it withheld the rest, and kept some information out of its reporting, in consultation with the Obama administration to protect U.S. intelligence sources and methods.
Read moreNew Snowden Leak Reports ‘Groundbreaking’ NSA Crypto-Cracking
Here is another quote:
“Fluoride causes more human cancer, and causes it faster, than any other chemical.”
– Dean Burk, Chief Chemist Emeritus, US National Cancer Institute
YouTube Added: 04.02.2012
Description:
“When you have power you don’t have to tell the truth. That’s a rule that’s been working in this world for generations. And there are a great many people who don’t tell the truth when they are in power in administrative positions.”
—Dr. Dean Burk former head of National Cancer Institute ResearchThis interview was recorded live in Holland in the 1970?s, and as a result of it being broadcast, 100,000 people took to the streets and had fluoride removed immediately.
In Dr. Dean Burk’s own words; “this amounts to public murder on a grand scale, it is a public crime, it would be, to put fluoride in the drinking water of people”.Dr. Dean Burk co-authored one of the most frequently cited papers in the history of biochemistry, “The Determination of Enzyme Dissociation Constants,” published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society in 1934.
In 1937, Dean became a co-founder of the US National Cancer Institute (NCI), and headed its Cytochemistry department for over three decades.
– Don’t Show Obama This Report About Who Really Is Behind The Syrian Chemical Attacks (ZeroHedge, Aug 30, 2013):
As we showed mere days ago, it appears the truth of who the real puppet-master in the Middle-East is becoming plainer to see. The incredibly frank discussion between Saudi’s spy-chief Prince Bandar and Russia’s Putin exposed a much deeper plot is afoot and the following details from the actual people on the ground in the chemically-attacked region of Syria suggest Obama is playing right into the Saudi’s plan. While Obama is ‘certain’ that the chemical attacks took place on al-Assad’s orders, as MPN reports, “from numerous interviews with doctors, Ghouta residents, rebel fighters and their families, a different picture emerges. Many believe that certain rebels received chemical weapons via the Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, and were responsible for carrying out the dealing gas attack.”
The narrative for public consumption is well-known and quite clear – it was all as-Assad’s fault. And yet…
Read moreDon’t Show Obama This Report About Who Really Is Behind The Syrian Chemical Attacks
Is France also ready for ‘a Putin response’?
– Hollande Undeterred By UK Shock: “France Will Participate. It Is Ready” For Syrian Attack (ZeroHedge, Aug 30, 2013):
The Germans “haven’t considered any military participation… and are still not doing so.” The Brits unexpectedly voted ‘not’ to join Obama in an attack on Syria , with Cameron adding that he didn’t think “it’s a question of having to aplogize” to Obama. But Obama can rest assured as the French remains undeterred. After France refused to join the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, but was quickly aided by the US in the military intervention against Islamist militants in Mali earlier this year, Hollande is vehement of the need to “punish” Damascus, “France will participate. It is ready.” Sounds like a resounding ‘we’re in,’ right? It seems Hollande is dead set on lower French unemployment… by making every jobless person a soldier in Syria (packing at least one backup white flag of surrender). But, don’t get too excited since, with lukewarm public support, Hollande has said he will summon the French parliament to vote on the debate… on September 4th (no rush…).
France is prepared to take action against Syria despite the vote against military intervention by Britain, its closest European military ally, French president François Hollande has said.
“The chemical massacre in Damascus cannot remain unpunished. If not, it would risk an escalation that would trivialise the use of these weapons and would threaten other countries,” said Mr Hollande.
He said he did not favour a military operation to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad but a deterrent strike to punish “a monstrous violation of human rights”.
Read moreHollande Undeterred By UK Shock: ‘France Will Participate. It Is Ready’ For Syrian Attack
– As Syria distracts, here’s what else is happening while no one is looking… (Sovereign Man, Aug 29, 2013):
By Simon Black
As everyone is now completely distracted with the looming prospect of yet another illegal war to be waged by the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, let’s look at a few other things going on while no one is looking.
Gun control
Today, the Obama administration announced fresh measures to restrict the availability of firearms in the Land of the Free.
This time around, they want to ban the re-importation of firearms that have been exported from the US to allied nations. They also want to raise the bar on federal background checks.
But rather than go through Congress, the Obama administration is simply going to create a new ‘rule’.
Read moreAs Syria Distracts, Here’s What Else Is Happening While No One Is Looking …
… but hey, let’s give them some more billions every year:
PDF: U.S. Foreign Aid To Israel (Congessional Research Service, Aug 11, 2013):
Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign assistance since World War II.
To date, the United States has provided Israel $118 billion (current, or non-inflation-adjusted, dollars) in
bilateral assistance.Almost all U.S. bilateral aid to Israel is in the form of military assistance, although in the past Israel also received significant economic assistance.
In 2007, the Bush Administration and the Israeli government agreed to a 10-year, $30 billion military aid package spanning from Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 to Fiscal Year 2018.
During his March 2013 visit to Israel, President Obama pledged that the United States would continue to provide Israel with multi-year commitments of military aid subject to the approval of Congress.
Flashback:
– Ron Paul Fights To End Military Aid For Israel
– Leaked documents reveal US sees Israel as a spying threat (Video) (The Hill, Aug 29, 2013):
The Obama administration views Israel as one of the top spying threats facing its intelligence services, leaked documents reveal.
A secret budget request obtained byThe Washington Post from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden lumps Israel alongside U.S. foes Iran and Cuba as “key targets” for U.S. counterintelligence efforts. The document suggests Israel does not believe U.S. assurances that its interests are aligned with Israel’s on crucial issues such as Iran and peace talks with the Palestinians.
“To further safeguard our classified networks, we continue to strengthen insider threat detection capabilities across the Community,” reads the FY 2013 congressional budget justification for intelligence programs. “In addition, we are investing in target surveillance and offensive CI [counterintelligence] against key targets, such as China, Russia, Iran, Israel, Pakistan and Cuba.”The White House and the Israeli Embassy did not respond to requests for comment.