US Trying to Bring Veneuzuela Down / Biden Lobbying LatAm Countries, US Embassy Bribe, US Sanctions / Car Bomb

UNASUR to Review Evidence of US Interference in Venezuela Venezuela Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro met on Wednesday with Secretary General of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), Ernesto Samper. Published 4 February 2015 (1 hours 15 minutes ago) Speaking following their meeting in Caracas, the blocs chief thanked the Venezuelan president for his willingness to create dialogue with the opposition. Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro met with Secretary General of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), Ernesto Samper Wednesday in Caracas, asking the bloc's meditation on the interventionist actions carried out against the country by the United States. Maduro urged the United States to stop the aggressions and threats against Venezuela, saying his government is willing to initiate dialogue along with UNASUR in order to halt the violence in the South American country. Meanwhile the head of the regional bloc thanked Maduro for his willingness to ensure peace to Venezuela and said he will bring the evidence provided by the president's before UNASUR's Foreign Ministers Council. Samper also rejected any violent action threatening the country's stability and people. On Tuesday, Maduro said that he would seek to create a joint initiative between UNASUR and the Community of Latin American Nations (CELAC) in order to defend his country against interventionist measures carried out by the United States, which the leader maintains are aimed at toppling his government. The Venezuelan president said he had been told by other regional leader that U.S. Vice President Joe Biden had been telling other country’s to “isolate” Venezuela, adding that he had proof that the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela was attempting to bribe officials in order to turn against his government. The United States recently imposed new sanctions on the South American country, despite the unanimous declaration rejecting U.S. interference in the region at the recent CELAC Summit in Costa Rica. http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/UNASUR-to-Review-Evidence-of-US-Interference-in-Venezuela-20150204-0037.html SEE ALSO That article has been pulled & is a dead link, but this is still visible on the Google news feed search. Hey, I wonder if this is the CIA trying to knock off Maduro?  Or maybe it's just a warning?   Read the article via the cache the other day.  From recollection, the device was reportedly found in the petrol tank but wasn't properly hooked up to explode. COMMENT Trust Joe Biden to have a hand in this, like he's got a hand in Ukraine. Venezuela must be going down. Keep an eye on this.

CANADA: Unexpected Departure of John Baird from Govt & Conservative Party

John Baird, “Attack Dog” Who Changed Canada’s Diplomatic Image, Resigns TORONTO – Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird, head of Canadian diplomacy for the last four years, has resigned unexpectedly from his post after transforming the international image of his country. During the last 10 years in the federal parliament, and the previous decade in the parliament of Ontario province, Baird was known by opponents and supporters as one of the “attack dogs” of the Conservative Party. In the Canadian parliament on Tuesday, Baird referred to his fierce partisanship and ideological zeal as excesses of his youth that he “quickly learned.” The departure of Baird, 45, from both the government and the Conservative Party leaves Prime Minister Stephen Harper without one of his most faithful and reliable supporters. The unexpected and unexplained departure of Baird, along with the previously announced resignations of more than a dozen veteran Conservative members, increases the idea of losing elections this year is taking shape in the party. Finding a substitute as capable as Baird and who understands Harper’s diplomatic tact on issues like Iran, the Middle East and Russia is going to be a difficult task for the prime minister.  [LOL.  Diplomatic tact?  Baird had none.  Shouldn't be hard to replace him.] At present, Harper has been forced to appoint International Trade Minister Ed Fast as the interim foreign minister. Baird’s first portfolio in the Canadian government was as president of the treasury board, a powerful department responsible for the operation of the government and public officials. In 2007 he was appointed as the environment minister, one of the most challenging portfolios for Harper, who before coming to power had described the Kyoto Protocol on global warming as a “Socialist scheme” and, once in power, refused to accept climate change for years. But it was from his position as foreign minister since 2011 that he materialized the political ideology of Harper better and the Conservative movement in western Canada, viscerally opposed to the philosophy of liberal Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Baird imposed a harsh policy against Iran, a country that he described as the greatest “threat to the rest of the world,” by closing the Canadian embassy in Tehran. Russia also became one of his favorite targets of attack and on numerous occasions called Moscow and President Vladimir Putin “evil” on a par with Hitler’s regime, especially since the outbreak of the Ukraine conflict. He also criticized the anti-homosexual policies of African countries, Iran and Russia, while ignoring abuses committed against the same community by Canadian allies such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.   SOURCE http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=2372622&CategoryId=12395 COMMENT John Baird would have to be one of the most contemptible wankers in politics.  Good riddance, hopefully. This is HUGE.  Wonder what happened. Something's probably going on with the Conservatives in Canada ... or maybe Pitbull's 'diplomacy' is crap and they thought they'd better appoint somebody less damaging? .............................................................. Links Conservative Party of Canada - here. Ed Fast - here.

White Phosphorus Attack on Donetsk

Civilian victim of white phosphorus attack on Donetsk Ukraine [by Ukraine government forces]  Source: https://twitter.com/rubenglez/status/562032371437142016/photo/1 "Ukrainian artillery is shelling Donetsk with white phosphorus munition."  Source:  https://twitter.com/sbobkov/status/562357560213131264/photo/1

Psycho-bibi or Bibi-sitter?

Beyond Bottle-gate: The top 11 scandals that have touched Benjamin and Sara Netanyahu By Haaretz | Feb. 2, 2015 11) Bibi-gate: Netanyahu's first major scandal of his political career emerged in 1993, when he admitted on television to having an extramarital affair with Ruth Bar, a media adviser he had hired to help him in 1992's Likud party primary. Netanyahu asserted that an anonymous person had called Sara and threatened that a secret videotape portraying Netanyahu in compromising sexual positions with another woman would be released if he did not withdraw his candidacy for the Likud leadership. The affair blew over, and Netanyahu won the election. It was not Netanyahu's first extramarital affair. He had started an affair during his first marriage to Miriam Weizman with Fleur Cates, a British woman he met while in the United States, who became his second wife.  http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/1.640386 COMMENT Wow, I had no idea Netanyahu was onto marriage No. 3, so I thought I'd check it out. And then I found this: Netanyahu’s women and the making of Psychobibi http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/netanyahus-women/ Psycho-bibi, LOL.  That's quite a contrast with the trusted babysitter advert running in Israel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0CzqrB7aQgs I'm a sucker, cos he does sound rather vulnerable in the 'Psyco-bibi' article. Anyway, that was a bit of fun.

CIA & US-Allied Intelligence - Lies, Propaganda, in-house plants & push to war

Editor of major newspaper says he planted stories for CIA By Ralph Lopez     Jan 26, 2015 in World  Becoming the first credentialed, well-known media insider to step forward and state publicly that he was secretly a "propagandist," an editor of a major German daily has said that he personally planted stories for the CIA.  Saying he believes a medical condition gives him only a few years to live, and that he is filled with remorse, Dr. Udo Ulfkotte, the editor of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, one of Germany's largest newspapers, said in an interview that he accepted news stories written and given to him by the CIA and published them under his own name. Ulfkotte said the aim of much of the deception was to drive nations toward war.  Dr. Ulfkotte says the corruption of journalists and major news outlets by the CIA is routine, accepted, and widespread in the western media, and that journalists who do not comply either cannot get jobs at any news organization, or find their careers cut short.  Dr. Ulfkotte is the author of a book currently available only in German, "Bought Journalists" (Kopp 2014.) Aged 55, he was also once an advisor to the government of German Chancellor Helmet Kohl.  The book has become a bestseller in Germany but, in a bizarre twist which Ulfkotte says characterizes the disconnect caused by CIA control of the western media, the book cannot be reported on.  Ulfkotte says: ""No German mainstream journalist is allowed to report about [my] book. Otherwise he or she will be sacked. So we have a bestseller now that no German journalist is allowed to write or talk about."" Among the stories Ulfkotte says he was ordered to plant in his newspaper over the years was a story that Libyan President Moammar Gaddafi was building poison gas factories in 2011. Ulfkotte also says he was an eyewitness to Saddam Hussein's use of poison gas against Iranians in the war between Iran and Iraq, but that the editors he worked for at the time were not interested, because Iraq was a US ally at the time.  Ulfkotte says he is better positioned to come forward than many journalists because he does not have children who could be threatened. Ulfkotte told the Russian newspaper Russian Insider (RI):  ""When I told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Ulfkotte's nwspaper) that I would publish the book, their lawyers sent me a letter threatening with all legal consequences if I would publish any names or secrets – but I don’t mind. You see, I don’t have children to take care of. And you must know I was severely injured during the gas attack I witnessed in Iran in 1988. I'm the sole German survivor from a German poison gas attack. I’m still suffering from this. I’ve had three heart attacks. I don’t expect to live for more than a few years."" Ulfkotte says that remorse of having "lied" to mass audiences over the years drove him to come forward. He told RI that he was:  ""taught to lie, to betray and not to tell the truth to the public."" Ulfkotte says:  ""I'm ashamed I was part of it. Unfortunately I cannot reverse this.""  Among the admissions that Ulfkotte makes in the interview are putting his own name to articles completely written by intelligence agencies. He said:  ""I ended up publishing articles under my own name written by agents of the CIA and other intelligence services, especially the German secret service.""  Ulfkotte detailed the pattern of cajolery and outright bribery used by the CIA and other US-allied intelligence agencies, for the purpose of advancing political agendas. Ulfkotte said:  ""once you're connected, you make friends with selected Americans. You think they are your friends and you start cooperating. They work on your ego, make you feel like you're important. And one day one of them will ask you 'Will you do me this favor'...""  Ulfkotte noted that a journalists on international press trips paid for by organizations close to the government are unlikely to submit a storyline not favorable to the sponsor.  Of the gassing of Iranians he had witnessed in the Eighties, Ulfkoppe said:  ""they asked me to hand over the photo's that I had made to the German association of chemical companies in Frankfurt, Verband der Chemischen Industrie. This poison gas that had killed so many Iranians was made in Germany.""  In an interview with Russia Today, Ulfkotte said that it was "not right" what he had done, and that his fear was that politicians were actively driving the world toward war:  ""it is not right what I have done in the past, to manipulate people, to make propaganda against Russia, and it is not right what my colleagues do, and have done in the past, because they are bribed to betray the people not only in Germany, all over Europe. … I am very fearful of a new war in Europe, and I don’t like to have this situation again, because war is never coming from itself, there is always people who push for war, and this is not only politicians, it is journalists too. … We have betrayed our readers, just to push for war. … I don’t want this anymore, I’m fed up with this propaganda. We live in a banana republic, and not in a democratic country where we have press freedom...""  In his book "The CIA and the Media," Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein quotes William B. Bader, former CIA intelligence officer, in his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Baeder said:  ""There is quite an incredible spread of relationships. You don’t need to manipulate Time magazine, for example, because there are [Central Intelligence] Agency people at the management level.""  Bernstein writes:  ""The Agency’s relationship with the Times was by far its most valuable among newspapers, according to CIA officials. From 1950 to 1966, about ten CIA employees were provided Times cover under arrangements approved by the newspaper’s late publisher, Arthur Hays Sulzberger. The cover arrangements were part of a general Times policy—set by Sulzberger—to provide assistance to the CIA whenever possible.""  Ulfkotte was on the staff of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation from 1999 to 2003, according to his Wikipedia entry. He won the civic prize from the Annette Barthelt Foundation in 2003. http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/world/editor-of-major-german-newspaper-says-he-planted-stories-for-cia/article/424470 COMMENT So much for the 'free press'. The world's a corrupt cesspit ... and we're all doomed.  Look-Ups Arthur Hays Sulzberger publisher of The New York Times from 1935 to 1961 anti Zionism & anti Jewish state supporter of the American Council for Judaism, founded in June 1942 to oppose Zionism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Hays_Sulzberger Operation Mockingbird commencing 1950s, CIA campaign to influence media CIA "recruited leading American journalists into a network to help present the CIA's views, and funded some student and cultural organizations, and magazines as fronts. As it developed, it also worked to influence foreign media and political campaigns, in addition to activities by other operating units of the CIA." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird Udo Ulfkotte German journalist formerly an editor for one of Germany's main dailies, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) an advisor to the Kohl government 1986-1998 [Disclosed that]   CIA and German intelligence (BND) bribe journalists in Germany to write pro-NATO propaganda articles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udo_Ulfkotte Looks like Operation Mockingbird has never really ended.

Israel & ICC

Israel’s attempt to undercut ICC is world’s worst tribute to Auschwitz liberation Why is the Jewish state seeking to unhinge the sole international body that's out to fulfill the promise of 'Never Again'?  By Jess Salomon    | Feb. 2, 2015 | 7:58 PM It is hard to imagine a less fitting tribute to the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz than Israel’s international lobbying effort to cut funding to the International Criminal Court, an institution whose mandate is to hold individuals accountable for crimes such as, you guessed it, genocide. Yet, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, it was revealed that a number of the ICC's top donors will reject Israel’s lobbying efforts to dent funding to the court, which is currently running on a very tight budget to deal with cases involving a Ugandan commander of the rebel Lord Resistance Army (that’s Kony’s gang), Congolese rebel commanders, and the former president of Côte d’Ivoire, among others. The states who said they would reject Israel's efforts to effectively cripple the court include Canada, a steadfast Israeli ally, and Germany, which, given its history, stated that it “couldn’t imagine” cutting funding. [ ...] ... Moreover, the ICC statute contains an essential jurisdictional safeguard in that it is complimentary to national jurisdictions. The ICC can only prosecute in cases where a member state has proven itself unwilling or unable to genuinely carry out the investigation or prosecution. It’s not like a team of international lawyers is about to swoop into Israel to kidnap her soldiers before she's had a chance to deal with them herself. Israel’s request that states stop funding the ICC – funds it needs to pay its staff – comes on the heels of her punishing the Palestinians for submitting to the court’s jurisdiction by holding back Palestinian tax dollars that the Palestinian Authority needs to pay its civil servants. (Well, at least Israel hasn't built a settlement on the court’s property.) Palestine should be lauded for taking the unilateral action of submitting itself to the ICC’s jurisdiction, for it represents a desire to peacefully address crimes committed on its territory by all parties. One of the major reasons to hold individual people accountable is to avoid assigning collective guilt – that is, to the Palestinian or Israeli people on the whole – and thereby stop a cycle of violent retribution by one group against another. Israel’s go-to argument is of course that international institutions are biased and politicized and, so, it chooses to boycott and obstruct them. But the ICC isn’t a political body, no matter what Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman claims. It isn’t even a part of the UN system. There have, however, been times when states made the court’s work next-to impossible, such as when the prosecutor was forced to drop charges against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta due a lack of evidence that was caused by Kenya’s obstruction, but that doesn’t seem to be Israel’s genuine concern. Rather, it seems that Israel is the one attempting to politicize the court. [ ...] EXTRACTS ONLY - FULL @ SOURCE http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.640409 COMMENT Another good article. This one is written by: Jess Salomon is a former UN war crimes lawyer from Montreal, Canada, who is now a stand-up comic. Wow, that's some career change. Anyway, this is a bit more on Israel and its lobbying against ICC.

USG - Google Investigation of WikiLeaks Staff - Broad Attack on Free Speech & Free Press

Google, gag orders and WikiLeaks: who’s lying? Jeff John Roberts    Feb. 2, 2015 - 6:26 AM PST The political fallout of WikiLeaks has passed, but the fury of law enforcement has not. More than four years after the organization published a trove of U.S. diplomatic cables, federal agents continue to wage a secret legal campaign to put the screws to those responsible. This month, a new twist to the story emerged as lawyers for WikiLeaks accused Google of betraying its users by secretly turning over their communications to the Justice Department. Google shot back that it did all that it could, but the government stifled the company with gag orders. The dispute suggests someone is not telling the truth but, at a deeper level, points to the problem of secret rabbit holes in the U.S. justice system that obscure the existence of criminal investigations. [ ... ] ... the biggest liar in the Google-WikiLeaks affair: the U.S. government, which claims that national security requires it to disregard even the most basic principles of procedural justice by scrubbing the very existence of certain dockets — including ones that appear to have no obvious tie to security. Keep in mind that the secret court orders related to the Google-WikiLeaks conflict are not about disrupting potential terrorist plots. Instead, they represent a process for the Justice Department to search the correspondence of people who consider themselves to be journalists, and to use gag orders to ensure it takes years to learn a search has taken place at all. This is just the latest spread of a shadow justice system that serves to breed paranoia and distrust. Whether you believe Google or WikiLeaks, their current dispute wouldn’t exist in the first place if the Justice Department scaled back its use of secret investigations. “Central to this whole question, is not just Google, but the federal government,” Ratner said. “This entire investigation, including the search warrants, is a broad attack on free speech and free press. It should have never begun, and certainly should have ended long ago.” EXTRACT ONLY - FULL @ SOURCE https://gigaom.com/2015/02/02/google-gag-orders-and-wikileaks-whos-lying/ COMMENT An example of the US government misusing the law to target and punish foreign journalists exercising free speech and freedom of press. PS   The impact of US secret investigations campaign against these journalists would have an implication for all journalists, including Americans.