TRUTH HAS FALLEN & TAKEN LIBERTY WITH IT

Power Takeover: Are Smart Meters Part of the Largest Corporate Scam in History?
By Josh del Sol
Global Research, January 08, 2014

On January 17, 2008, President Barack Obama famously said, “Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.”[1]

It’s now clear that the so-called “smart” utility meter is the core culprit technology in the scheme to which Obama was referring.

But this is just the tip of the rather alarming iceberg unveiled in our new feature film Take Back Your Power (see trailer below)



(www.takebackyourpower.net).

Billions of tax dollars… no benefits?
European Commission wants another $700 Billion for smart grid upgrades. (scene from Take Back Your Power)In a time of economic crisis, the US government allocated $11 billion from taxpayer funds[2] from the 2009 bailout package to develop a “smart” grid, including “smart” meters for every home’s electricity, gas and water. And recently, the European Union has announced plans to spend a mind-numbing $700 billion on building out this centralized control grid.[3] The stated reasons for “smart” metering and grid technology:

- to save energy and thus aid the environment;
- to increase power reliability; and
- to give you more control of energy use in your own home.[4]

Toronto Hydro poll: 80% see increase in utility bills following smart meter install. (scene from Take Back Your Power)It is now easily demonstrated that all three of these claims are patently false. “Smart” meters and grids typically use more energy[5], they are extremely hackable[6] (making the entire power grid vulnerable[7]), and customers suffer increased utility bills virtually across the board immediately following a “smart” meter installation[8] – a fact even openly acknowledged now by some utilities.[9]

In the words of Dr. Timothy Schoechle, a leading digital technology engineer and author of Getting Smarter About The Smart Grid: “The smart meter is a canard—a story or a hoax based on specious and grandiose claims about energy benefits ostensibly derived from the promise of “two-way” communication with the customer… There is essentially no possibility that most smart meters or meter networks will lead to greater sustainability.”[10]
- Dr. Timothy Schoechle, “Getting Smarter About The Smart Grid“

Smart spy state
The Borg: The largest sector supporting CISPA was energy & utilities. (scene from Take Back Your Power)As if all this is not enough, “smart” meters – in combination of “smart” appliances also chronically transmitting low-level microwave radiation – are functionally designed to collect swaths of in-home private data on everyone. According to a US Congressional Research Service report,

“Police will have access to data that might be used to track residents’ daily lives and routines while in their homes, including their eating, sleeping, and showering habits, what appliances they use and when, and whether they prefer the television to the treadmill, among a host of other details.”[11]
- US Government Congressional Research Service report, “Smart Meter Data: Privacy and Cybersecurity”, 2012

But it gets worse. Utilities and public utilities commissions (such as California’s PUC) are actually encouraging the sale of this private data – everything you do in your own home – to 3rd-party corporate interests, for a profit.

“I support today’s decision because it adopts reasonable privacy and security rules and expands consumer and third-party access to electricity usage and pricing information. I hope this decision stimulates market interest in the data.”[12]
-Timothy Alan Simon, CPUC Commissioner

Former CIA Director David Patraeus: "We'll spy on you through your dishwasher." (scene from Take Back Your Power)And incredulously, even former CIA Director David Patraeus boasted (in Wired, March 2012) that government will be routinely spying on through their “smart” appliances[13]. Thus, with CISPA’s focus on legalizing private data transfer deals for corporations to government agencies, the primary motivation behind the push for such legislation starts to become clear.[14]

James Woolsey: "The so-called 'smart' grid as it is now, is actually a really, really stupid grid." (scene from Take Back Your Power)And not only would every detail of your life be tracked, but your access to electricity would be totally controlled: your appliances or entire home could be shut down at any time – without notice – by any utility, or government agency, or as another former CIA director James Woolsey stated, “a hacker on a cellphone in China.”[15]

Newsflash: the NSA phone spying scandal is just the tip of the globalist iceberg.

The good news: the “smart” plan of control and order-out-of-chaos cannot be achieved if enough people simply refuse to participate in this federally-sponsored voluntary microwave and surveillance program.

CONTINUE: http://www.globalresearch.ca/power-takeover-are-smart-meters-part-of-the-largest-corporate-scam-in-history/5364238

Intelligence Committees Sponsored by Security Contractors
40 members of Congress have received sizable contributions from security and intelligence contractors, thus making the intelligence committees they sit on compromised.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiWuPGfB1lE

Unequivocal' cell phones cause cancer
Mobiles 'cooking the brain'; brain tumors become children's number one killer illness; and leaked industry memo admits 'wargaming' the science.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbpLD0xH0og

The Psychology of Being a “Non-Conspiracy Theorist”
Bernie Suarez
Sunday, January 19, 2014
Activist Post

There is a brand of people amongst us. They have no name but they exist. They are everywhere, at work, at home, at school, and in the streets, stores, and shopping malls. It is highly unlikely to not know someone who belongs in this category. It’s the so called non-conspiracy theorists. You know, the guy who tries to terminate conversations by alleging that you are nothing more than a “conspiracy theorist” and the information you share is false or not believable. Yes, that guy. Let’s meet face to face with your typical non-conspiracy theorist. We all know them, they often are the ones who hold the “conspiracy” verbal accusation as a valid logically defined argument in and of itself. The logic works like this:

Conspiracy theorist says: “You are claiming that fire alone can cause a building to self-implode, descend at free-fall speed into its own footprint? That’s physically impossible, what about Newton’s Laws and laws of thermal dynamics and such? “

Non-conspiracy theorist says: “No, you are wrong because you are a conspiracy theorist.”

And with that, often the non-conspiracy theorist will walk away. What’s happening? They had nothing to elaborate on, so the non-conspiracy theorist - whose thinking is engineered and controlled by government, mainstream media and Hollywood entertainment - resorted to a socially engineered answer. For this reason it is fascinating to explore the mindset and psychology of the individuals who take this position in place of a logical stance.

CONTINUE: http://www.activistpost.com/2014/01/the-psychology-of-being-non-conspiracy.html

Search Engine Manipulation. Google and YouTube Suppress Controversial 9/11 Truth?
By Elizabeth Woodworth
January 30, 2014

Introduction
With polls consistently showing that approximately 50% of Canadians and Americans doubt the official story of 9/11, the feat of keeping the lid on a public debate for over 12 years has been nothing short of miraculous.

This article presents a simple case study showing that this miracle is being performed with the assistance of Google and YouTube search engine interference

CONTINUE: http://www.globalresearch.ca/search-engine-manipulation-google-and-youtube-suppress-911-truth/5352982

America Is Running the World’s Largest Terrorist Operation Experts on the Left and the Right Agree
By Washington's Blog
Global Research, April 22, 2014

Chomsky: “Obama Is Running The Biggest Terrorist Operation That Exists”
Leading liberal Noam Chomsky  said yesterday: The Obama administration is dedicated to increasing terrorism. In fact, it’s doing it all over the world.  Obama is running the biggest terrorist operation that exists, maybe in history:  the drone assassination campaigns, which are just part of it [...] All of these operations, they are terror operations.

People hate the country that’s just terrorizing them.  That’s not a surprise. Just consider the way we react to acts of terror. That’s the way other people react to [American] acts of terror.

Chomsky is right.  Experts agrees that indiscriminate drone strikes are war crimes (more here and here).

The U.S. is not only killing people whose identity it doesn’t even know (more), but it is also  killing children.  And it is using the justifiably-vilified Al Qaeda tactic of killing people attending funerals of those killed – and targeting people attempting to rescue people who have been injured by – our previous strikes.

Chomsky has previously extensively documented U.S. terrorism.  As Wikipedia notes: Chomsky and Herman observed that terror was concentrated in the U.S. sphere of influence in the Third World, and documented terror carried out by U.S. client states in Latin America. They observed that of ten Latin American countries that had death squads, all were U.S. client states.

They concluded that the global rise in state terror was a result of U.S. foreign policy.

In 1991, a book edited by Alexander L. George [the Graham H. Stuart Professor of Political Science Emeritus at Stanford University] also argued that other Western powers sponsored terror in Third World countries. It concluded that the U.S. and its allies were the main supporters of terrorism throughout the world.

Indeed, the U.S. has created death squads in Latin America, Iraq and Syria.

The director of the National Security Agency under Ronald Reagan – Lt. General William Odom - noted: Because the United States itself has a long record of supporting terrorists and using terrorist tactics, the slogans of today’s war on terrorism merely makes the United States look hypocritical to the rest of the world.

Odom also said: By any measure the US has long used terrorism. In ‘78-79 the Senate was trying to pass a law against international terrorism – in every version they produced, the lawyers said the US would be in violation.

CONTINUE: http://www.globalresearch.ca/america-is-running-the-worlds-largest-terrorist-operation/5339835

Thank-you for your great posts, TRANCOSO! Keep up the good work! But just because the bad guys and gals are getting caught with their pants and skirts down -- doesn't mean they're going to stop fornicating!

New York Times Admits It Pushed Fabricated Evidence about Iraq, Syria and Ukraine - Mainstream Media Is Being Forced to Retract Its Propaganda More and More Quickly
By Washington's Blog
April 24, 2014

Why Everyone Should Occupy US 1% Corporate Media: They Lie
The New York Times pushed fabricated evidence in the run up to the Iraq war. A year later, the newspaper apologized for its inaccurate, one-sided coverage.

The U.S. and the New York Times pretended that Syria’s government was responsible for the chemical weapons attack … but that claim was debunked, and even the New York Times was forced to retract itseveral months later. (The alternative media, including Pulitzer prize winning reporter Seymour Hersh, has also pointed out that it was the Syrians rebels – with the help of the Turkish government – did it).

Then the U.S. and the New York Times pretended that they had proof that Russian soldiers were the mysterious “masked men” seizing government buildings in Russia. But a couple of days later, they were forced reporting from the alternative media – especially Robert Parry, winner of the George Polk Award for National Reporting – into retracting that claim, and admitting that their “proof” was almost as flimsy as proof of Saddam’s “weapons of mass destruction”.

It seems like the alternative media is forcing the New York Times to retract half-baked, pro-war, propaganda claims more and more quickly.

SOURCE: http://www.globalresearch.ca/new-york-times-admits-it-pushed-fabricated-evidence-about-iraq-syria-and-ukraine/5379049

Courageous LAPD Whistle-Blower Michael Ruppert Committed Suicide - Why?
By Dr. Gary G. Kohls
Global Research, April 23, 2014

I have had the utmost respect for Ruppert’s investigative journalism, warnings and calls to action ever since I saw “Collapse”.

Ruppert’s courageous whistle-blowing career – which evolved into an equally courageous investigative journalism career – started in Los Angeles as a narcotics officer with the LAPD and ended shortly thereafter when he uncovered and reported CIA drug-running (with complicity from his own police department). Ever since he has been a hated target of the CIA, FBI, Wall Street, the 1% and most of the leaders of US political parties, including all Republicans and the vast majority of Democrats.

One of the most important attributes about Ruppert was that he saw through 9/11/01 before most other skeptics.

Within a couple of months after 9/11, Ruppert published and  spoke out publicly against the White House’s provably false 9/11 conspiracy theories (ie, the theory that two jet planes and the subsequent low-heat office fires [impossibly] melted – and sectioned – scores of massive steel beams at multiple levels and simultaneously pulverized all the concrete and then, equally impossibly, caused the pan-caking, at free fall speeds, of three WTC towers 1, 2 and 7).


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQR2z4YCzDw.


CONTINUE: http://www.globalresearch.ca/911-truth-courageous-lapd-whistle-blower-michael-ruppert-committed-suicide-why/5378861

Ukraine - NY Times Publishes Fabricated Evidence
Photos purporting to show Russian Special Forces operating in Eastern Ukraine were in fact an amateur fabrication on behalf of the post-coup Kiev government.

Yet the New York Times blithely regurgitated them.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cc5hvKs2MqU

What if Centralized Secret Governance is Evil and Reprehensible?? What if Centralized Secret Governance is the Only Form of Governance Which Actually Works?? I keep modeling an idealistic United States of the Solar System -- yet I have not divorced this concept from some sort of Theocratic Guiding-Hand -- or some type of Solar System CEO. This passive study has been (and is) more disillusioning and upsetting than I could've possibly imagined just a few years ago. I doubt that I'd survive for more than a couple of days in the Centralized Solar System War Room which I suspect exists (and has existed for a very long time) -- if I were some variety of Token Nice-Guy Solar System Observer. I'm almost ready to check myself into the Bethesda Naval Hospital....

Killing Net Neutrality: New Law to Create Corporate-Controlled “Toll-Roads” on the Internet - Critics of the new rules say that this could be the moment the internet as we know it will die if the people do not rise to its defense
By Jon Queally
April 25, 2014

Defenders of an open, innovative and fair internet are up in arms Thursday after learning the Federal Communications Commission is about to issue new rule proposals that will kill the online principle known as “net neutrality.”

The death of net neutrality — which has governed the equal treatment of content since the internet was created — will create, say critics, a tiered internet that allows major internet service providers like Comcast and Verizon to cut special and lucrative deals with content providers who can afford to pay for special “fast lanes.” The result will be an internet that will incentive slower traffic by ISPs and the creation of privatized, corporate-controlled “toll-roads” that will come to dominate a once fair and free environment.

“If it goes forward, this capitulation will represent Washington at its worst.”
—Todd O’Boyle, Common Cause

As reported by various outlets, the new rules have been circulated by FCC chairman Tom Wheeler to the other members of the commission and will be officially announced on Thursday.

“With this proposal, the FCC is aiding and abetting the largest ISPs in their efforts to destroy the open Internet,” said Craig Aaron, president of the media advocacy group Free Press. “Giving ISPs the green light to implement pay-for-priority schemes will be a disaster for startups, nonprofits and everyday Internet users who cannot afford these unnecessary tolls. These users will all be pushed onto the Internet dirt road, while deep pocketed Internet companies enjoy the benefits of the newly created fast lanes.”

Chairman Wheeler defended the new proposals and denied the rule changes were an attack on the open internet, but Aaron rejected those claims and said that trying to argue these new rules protect net neutrality is an insult.

“This is not Net Neutrality,” he stated. “It’s an insult to those who care about preserving the open Internet to pretend otherwise. The FCC had an opportunity to reverse its failures and pursue real Net Neutrality by reclassifying broadband under the law. Instead, in a moment of political cowardice and extreme shortsightedness, it has chosen this convoluted path that won’t protect Internet users.”

CONTINUE: http://www.globalresearch.ca/killing-net-neutrality-new-law-to-create-corporate-controlled-toll-roads-on-the-internet/5379189

Suspicious Deaths of Bankers Are Now Classified as “Trade Secrets” According to Federal Regulator
By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
Global Research, April 29, 2014
wallstreetonparade.com

It doesn’t get any more Orwellian than this: Wall Street mega banks crash the U.S. financial system in 2008. Hundreds of thousands of financial industry workers lose their jobs.

Then, beginning late last year, a rash of suspicious deaths start to occur among current and former bank employees.  

Next we learn that four of the Wall Street mega banks likely hold over $680 billion face amount of life insurance on their workers, payable to the banks, not the families.

We ask their Federal regulator for the details of this life insurance under a Freedom of Information Act request and we’re told the information constitutes “trade secrets.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the life expectancy of a 25 year old male with a Bachelor’s degree or higher as of 2006 was 81 years of age. But in the past five months, five highly educated JPMorgan male employees in their 30s and one former employee aged 28, have died under suspicious circumstances, including three of whom allegedly leaped off buildings – a statistical rarity even during the height of the financial crisis in 2008.

There is one other major obstacle to brushing away these deaths as random occurrences – they are not happening at JPMorgan’s closest peer bank – Citigroup. Both JPMorgan and Citigroup are global financial institutions with both commercial banking and investment banking operations. Their employee counts are similar – 260,000 employees for JPMorgan versus 251,000 for Citigroup.

Both JPMorgan and Citigroup also own massive amounts of bank-owned life insurance (BOLI), a controversial practice that pays the corporation when a current or former employee dies. (In the case of former employees, the banks conduct regular “death sweeps” of public records using former employees’ Social Security numbers to learn if a former employee has died and then submits a request for payment of the death benefit to the insurance company.)

Wall Street On Parade carefully researched public death announcements over the past 12 months which named the decedent as a current or former employee of Citigroup or its commercial banking unit, Citibank. We found no data suggesting Citigroup was experiencing the same rash of deaths of young men in their 30s as JPMorgan Chase. Nor did we discover any press reports of leaps from buildings among Citigroup’s workers.

Given the above set of facts, on March 21 of this year, we wrote to the regulator of national banks, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), seeking the following information under the Freedom of Information Act (See OCC Response to Wall Street On Parade’s Request for Banker Death Information): The number of deaths from 2008 through March 21, 2014 on which JPMorgan Chase collected death benefits; the total face amount of BOLI life insurance in force at JPMorgan; the total number of former and current employees of JPMorgan Chase who are insured under these policies; any peer studies showing the same data comparing JPMorgan Chase with Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup.

The OCC responded politely by letter dated April 18, after first calling a few days earlier to inform us that we would be getting nothing under the sunshine law request. (On Wall Street, sunshine routinely means dark curtain.) The OCC letter advised that documents relevant to our request were being withheld on the basis that they are “privileged or contains trade secrets, or commercial or financial information, furnished in confidence, that relates to the business, personal, or financial affairs of any person,” or  relate to “a record contained in or related to an examination.”

CONTINUE: http://www.globalresearch.ca/suspicious-deaths-of-bankers-are-now-classified-as-trade-secrets/5379644

[quote="TRANCOSO"]Suspicious Deaths of Bankers Are Now Classified as “Trade Secrets” According to Federal Regulator
By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
Global Research, April 29, 2014
wallstreetonparade.com

It doesn’t get any more Orwellian than this: Wall Street mega banks crash the U.S. financial system in 2008. Hundreds of thousands of financial industry workers lose their jobs.

Then, beginning late last year, a rash of suspicious deaths start to occur among current and former bank employees.  

Next we learn that four of the Wall Street mega banks likely hold over $680 billion face amount of life insurance on their workers, payable to the banks, not the families.

We ask their Federal regulator for the details of this life insurance under a Freedom of Information Act request and we’re told the information constitutes “trade secrets.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the life expectancy of a 25 year old male with a Bachelor’s degree or higher as of 2006 was 81 years of age. But in the past five months, five highly educated JPMorgan male employees in their 30s and one former employee aged 28, have died under suspicious circumstances, including three of whom allegedly leaped off buildings – a statistical rarity even during the height of the financial crisis in 2008.

There is one other major obstacle to brushing away these deaths as random occurrences – they are not happening at JPMorgan’s closest peer bank – Citigroup. Both JPMorgan and Citigroup are global financial institutions with both commercial banking and investment banking operations. Their employee counts are similar – 260,000 employees for JPMorgan versus 251,000 for Citigroup.

Both JPMorgan and Citigroup also own massive amounts of bank-owned life insurance (BOLI), a controversial practice that pays the corporation when a current or former employee dies. (In the case of former employees, the banks conduct regular “death sweeps” of public records using former employees’ Social Security numbers to learn if a former employee has died and then submits a request for payment of the death benefit to the insurance company.)

____________

Just goes to show you better not work for JP Morgan or Citigroup. So friggin unbelievable that these suckers get to collect deceased death benefits rather then have it go to the families. The only difference between the two is that Citigroup is not actively pursuing your demise...does that mean they get five gold stars as opposed to two?

___________________
  

Gangster State America – Where Is America’s Democracy?
By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts
May 07, 2014
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/ 7 May 2014

Anyone who looks carefully behind the veil of words cannot find democracy in America. For years I have been writing that the US government is no longer accountable to law or to the people (see, for example, my book, How America Was Lost). The Constitution has been set aside, and the executive branch is degenerating into Caesarism.

Government is used to impose agendas that result from the symbiotic relationship between the neoconservative ideology of US world hegemony and the economic interests of powerful private interest groups, such as Wall Street, the military/security complex, the Israel Lobby, agribusiness, and extractive industries (energy, mining, and timber). Dollar imperialism, threats, bribes, and wars are means by which US hegemony is extended. These agendas are pursued without the knowledge or approval of the American people and in spite of their opposition.

Professor Martin Gilens at Princeton University and Professor Benjamin Page of Northwestern University have examined American governance and have concluded that the US is an oligarchy ruled by powerful rich private interest groups and that the US government has only a superficial resemblance to a democracy. Their analysis is forthcoming in publication in the journal, Perspectives on Politics.

Their conclusions are striking:

“The central point that emerges from our research is that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on US government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence.”

“When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites and/or with organized interests, they generally lose.”

“In the United States, our findings indicate that the majority does not rule – at least not in the causal sense of actually determining policy outcomes.”

“The preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.”

CONTINUE: http://www.globalresearch.ca/gangster-state-america-where-is-americas-democracy/5381001

Save the Internet! Prevent Mega-corporations from Destroying Internet Freedom
By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers
May 05, 2014
popularresistance.org

To ensure the Internet is open to all on an equal basis we must act now to prevent mega-corporations from destroying Internet Freedom

Update: Actions every day starting on Wednesday, May 7th, at noon and 5 pm. To Save The Internet, we are building a People’s Firewall against the FCC’s proposed rule that will create a ‘pay to play’ Internet by ending net neutrality. The FCC is located at 445 12th Street, SW, Washington, DC 20554.

If we act NOW, we can ensure a free, open and equal Internet for the 21st Century. On Wednesday, May 15 the FCC will vote on a proposal to end net neutrality and impose class-based Internet discrimination, but we have the power to stop them.

To ensure the Internet we want, we must take action today; and people need to plan to come to Washington, DC beginning next Wednesday to join in a series of escalating protests that will undermine the legitimacy of the FCC leadership and force them to pay attention to the public interest rather than the interests of mega-corporations.

Already more than a million people have written the FCC in favor of net neutrality and the Commissioners are receiving more than 100 calls per day from citizens. They know the public wants a free, open and equal Internet. Now we have to show them we will revolt if it is taken away from us.

The proposal by Obama appointee, Tom Wheeler , a long-time industry lobbyist and Internet profiteer, will put in place a pay-to-play Internet where the wealthiest will have superior service to the rest of us, where big corporations will have faster websites than independent sites and where free speech is stifled by money. The Internet has become the great democratizer of media where independent and social media have flourished and allowed people to create an alternative to the concentrated corporate media. We will not let Wheeler undermine media democratization and turn most of us into second-class Internet citizens.

This is an issue that affects all of us – Internet news sites like this one and other independent media, advocacy websites, community radio, social media, blogging sites and you, who are reading this article on the Internet. Democratized communication depends on the Internet being free and open to all on an equal basis. Wheeler’s proposal will undermine open communication and free speech on the Internet.

CONTINUE: http://www.globalresearch.ca/save-the-internet-prevent-mega-corporations-from-destroying-internet-freedom/5380465

I continue to be interested in the relationship between Freedom and Rebellion. I continue to lean toward Responsible-Freedom and Responsible-Enterprise. I continue to contemplate the relationship between Divine-Sovereignty and Human Responsible-Freedom. I continue to be interested in the hypothetical superimposition of Rome, England, America, the UN, and the Moon -- as crazy as that sounds!! I continue to be interested in the relationship between Heaven and Earth. Where does academic-freedom end?? I continue to lean toward evolutionary-change rather than revolutionary-change.

How Washington Uses Social Media to Topple Governments and Manipulate Public Opinion
By Global Research News
Global Research, May 11, 2014
StormCloudGathering


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqUztAX7ozw

The U.S. government’s latest attempt to topple Cuba using social media is just the tip of the iceberg, but what’s really interesting is how connects to the Ukrainian crisis.

Transcript
The U.S. government’s latest attempt to topple Cuba using social media is just the tip of the iceberg, but what’s really interesting is how connects to the Ukrainian crisis.

On April 2nd the Associated Press released an report exposing how the U.S. government recently attempted to topple the Cuban government yet again. This time the plot hinged on the creation of a communications network called “ZunZuneo” which was essentially a primitive version of Twitter. The plan, which was cooked up by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.S. State Department, was to build up a large following of users and then push them towards revolt. The network was built using shell companies and financed through a foreign bank to hide their connection to Washington. The Obama administration defended the program saying that it “had disclosed the initiative to Congress”.

Of course we all know that attempting to topple a foreign government is perfectly fine as long as you let congress know a bit in advance.

As shocking and absurd as these revelations may be to the general public, the truth of the matter is that this is just the tip of the iceberg. The U.S. government and its allies have been using the internet as a covert weapon for some time now. Much of the evidence of these activities got mainstream coverage, but the corporate media is very careful not to refer to that evidence in the context of current events.

So let’s connect a few dots here.

In 2011 it came to light that the U.S. military had developed a ‘sock puppet’ software for creating and managing fake online identities. These sock puppet accounts were to be used to spread propaganda on social media sites, forums and blogs. The software which was described as an “online persona management service” allows one soldier to control up to 10 separate identities based all over the world. When this program was exposed the U.S. government claimed that the program was never used on English speaking audiences. Considering that these are the same people who swore up and down that the NSA surveillance program never targeted U.S. citizens, we can take that with a grain of salt, but it’s worth noting that they explicitly acknowledged in their statement that the program was intended for covert operations in foreign countries.

CONTINUE: http://www.globalresearch.ca/how-washington-uses-social-media-to-topple-governments-and-manipulate-public-opinion/5381683

The World According to TIME Magazine. Mouthpiece of the US State Department
By Tony Cartalucci
May 10, 2014

TIME Magazine echos Wall Street and Washington – so when it speaks, readers must listen in that context. Nothing shows the link between TIME’s biased, intentionally misleading propaganda and the agenda of the corporate-financier elite that rule America better than the fact that its last managing editor left in 2013 to join the US State Department. Politico would report in its article, “Richard Stengel leaving Time for State Department,” that: Richard Stengel, the top editor of Time magazine for the past seven years, is planning to step down as managing editor for a new job at the U.S. Department of State, sources familiar with the situation tell POLITICO and Capital New York.

With this revolving door spinning between TIME’s editorial board and the US State Department in mind, readers must understand that what TIME publishes isn’t reality, but rather “reality” according to what suits US interests, and more specifically, Wall Street and Washington’s interests.

It is then no surprise to open up its most recent issue covering what it calls “The 100 Most Influential People” and find the likes of Hillary Clinton heaping on praise for John Kerry, or Madeleine Albright condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin. It is the US State Department’s version of the Oscars, an annual ritual centered around self-aggrandizement and the reinforcement of the West’s perceived worldview.

CONTINUE: http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-world-according-to-time-magazine-mouthpiece-of-the-us-state-department/5381647

The Criminalization of Political Opposition in America
By Patrick Martin
May 12, 2014

“While the current rash of anti-democratic measures largely targets non-citizens, mainly of Middle-Eastern descent, they constitute a fundamental attack on the basic rights of the entire population. These attacks will be extended to American citizens, especially those who oppose the government’s policies, sooner rather than later.”

So declared the World Socialist Web Site more than a dozen years ago, commenting on the passage of the Patriot Act and establishment of military tribunals by the Bush administration. The actions of the Obama administration, whose “anti-terror” policies represent an escalation of the assault on democratic rights under Bush, fully vindicate this warning.

The past month has brought the criminalization of political dissent in the United States to a new stage, with the May 5 conviction of 25-year-old Cecily McMillan for assaulting a policeman during the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York City, and the April 25 sentencing of three anti-NATO protesters to long prison terms for taking part in discussions about violence initiated by two Chicago police infiltrators.

The circumstances of both cases are outrageous, with severe penalties being imposed on individuals who are not criminals, but political opponents of the policies of the Obama administration and corporate America, for which they have become victims of police violence and provocation. The cases involve people who took part in peaceful, legal protests in New York City and Chicago, only to be framed up and convicted on felony charges.

Cecily McMillan faces a jail term of up to seven years in prison because she inadvertently elbowed a New York City cop as he was manhandling her during the police operation that broke up a demonstration in Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park on March 17, 2012. This occurred at the tail end of the Occupy Wall Street protests against corporate greed and social inequality. Sentencing is set for May 19.

The trial judge barred presentation of evidence on McMillan’s injuries while allowing the prosecution to show an anonymous, grainy YouTube video of the incident, which, according to the prosecution, supported the police version of events. So flagrant is the injustice in McMillan’s case that nine of the twelve jurors who convicted her wrote to the judge asking that the she be given probation rather than a prison sentence.

In the NATO 3 case, the victims of government frame-up are three young men, Brian Church, 22, Brent Betterly, 26, and Jared Chase, 28. They were sentenced to five, six and eight years in prison respectively. Their “crime” was to be taken in by two undercover cops who engaged them in drunken discussions prior to a May, 2012 demonstration at a NATO summit in Chicago about throwing Molotov cocktails into police stations, an Obama election campaign office, and the home of Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

The three were induced to fill with gasoline some of the bottles they had emptied of beer, but none of the alleged weapons ever left the apartment in which they were staying. No evidence was presented that the three actually planned to go through with the attacks. That, however, did not stop the prosecution from branding them as terrorists and seeking convictions for violating an Illinois state law modeled on the federal Patriot Act. A local jury acquitted them of the terror charges, but convicted them of lesser counts of possession of incendiary devices — the beer bottles — for which they received substantial prison terms.

These frame-ups follow a pattern that has now become familiar, where individuals are targeted either because they are politically active or vulnerable to provocation, and prosecuted for actions that are either fabricated out of whole cloth, or would never have occurred in the absence of incitement by police agents.

Among the most prominent recent cases:

CONTINUE: http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-criminalization-of-political-opposition-in-america/5381926

There are no Neo-Nazis in Ukraine! - How the Western Media Deciphers the Neo-Nazi Code
By Prof Michel Chossudovsky
May 12, 2014

According to the Western media, its all part of “a relentless Kremlin-driven propaganda offensive that uses World War II-era terms and imagery”.

Moscow is accused of using the words Nazi and Fascist to describe a pro-Western government in Kiev, which is indelibly committed to the tenets of “real democracy”.

In Odessa, on May 2nd, Neo-Nazi thugs set fire to the city’s Trade Union building leading to countless deaths of innocent civilians who were burnt alive within the building. This diabolical and criminal undertaking was part of a carefully planned paramilitary operation, which was barely acknowledged by the mainstream media.

The Western media blamed the Odessa tragedy on pro-Russian rebels. The criminal actions undertaken by Neo-Nazi Brown shirts were not mentioned. The atrocities were blamed on Moscow.

In the media’s coverage of unfolding atrocities directed against civilians in Eastern Ukraine, the words Nazi, Fascist or Neo-Nazi are a taboo. They have been eliminated from the anthology of investigative reporting. The Right Sector militia are casually referred to by the Western media as “patriots”, “Ultra-conservatives” and “freedom fighters”, despite the fact that they visibly display Nazi insignia and openly pledge their allegiance to the memory of Stepan Bandera and Adolf Hitler.

CONTINUE: http://www.globalresearch.ca/how-the-western-media-decyphers-the-neo-nazi-code/5381849

How Five American Companies Control What You Think
By Eric Sommer
May 15, 2014
RT Op-Edge 14 May 2014

Heavy distortions and suppression of information regarding current Ukrainian events are appearing in US media.

You might wonder how so many different news sources could all completely avoid mentioning that the US government is consciously supporting two radical far-right parties, Svoboda and Right Sector, which are in control of key positions in the coup-installed new ‘government’ of the Ukraine. You might also wonder why almost all the US mass media news sources could conceal – with vague phrases like”the sequence of events is not clear’ and similar techniques – the role of these extremist organization in murdering dozens of unarmed civilians in the past few days in southeastern Ukraine.

The explanation is surprisingly simple: There aren’t numerous US mass media news sources at all; there are just five. Five giant corporations control 90 percent of US mass media. And direct links connect all five of these media conglomerates to the political establishment and the economic and political power-elites of the United States.

These five conglomerates are Time Warner, Disney, Murdochs’ News Corporation, Bertelsmann of Germany, and Viacom (formerly CBS). Their control spans most of the newspapers, magazines, books, radio and TV stations, movie studios, and much of the web news content of the United States. These conglomerates are in large measure responsible for inculcating the social, political, economic, and moral values of both adults and children in the United States.

It was not always like this. Immediately after World War II three out of four US newspapers were independently owned. But the media-control numbers have been shrinking ever since then due to mergers, acquisitions, and other processes. By 1983, 50 corporations controlled 90 percent of US media. But today just five giant conglomerates control 90 percent of what most Americans read, watch, and listen to.

It is notable and should be emphasized that all the five major media conglomerates are corporate members of the Council on Foreign relations. This organization is a US think-tank whose members have been instrumental in formulating US government policies resulting in sanctions, destabilization efforts, and outright military attacks on nations which have never attacked the US.

The Council’s members’ activities helped to promote the Iraq war, the bombings of Serbia and Libya, and the recent overthrow of the elected government of the Ukraine. The promotion of these policies by the media conglomerates which belong to the Council has been key to preparing the American public to accept these policies.

The media conglomerates’ fellow members of the Council on Foreign relations include a large number of large corporations, powerful CEO’s, and present and former government officials. One prominent member is former US National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, whose doctrine calling for US control of the Eurasian landmass, which includes Russia and China, is one of the guiding elements in US foreign policy.

CONTINUE: http://www.globalresearch.ca/how-five-american-companies-control-what-you-think/5382407