Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Friday 24 January 2014

The European Union Times


Posted: 23 Jan 2014 01:52 PM PST

A new Federal Security Services (FSB) report circulating in the Kremlin today claims that the first expulsion of an American journalist from Russia since the end of the Cold War was “directly related” to this reporters “association” with an Obama regime related “kill squad” made up of foreign mercenaries funded by Saudi Arabia intending to assassinate Edward Snowden.
According to this report, David Satter [photo top left], a veteran Moscow correspondent who has been reporting from Russia since the 1970s, and who worked for the US-Congress funded radio station and internet news service Radio Free Europe (RFE) in Moscow, was denied reentry into Russia last month after he traveled to Kiev, Ukraine, where the FSB reports he met with Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operatives “closely associated” with Caucasus Region terror groups funded and controlled by the director general of the General Intelligence Presidency (GIP) Prince Bandar bin Sultan.

Critical to note, this report says, is that Prince Bandar had previously (August, 2013) threatened President Putin that unless Russia renounced its support for Syria, Chechen terror groups under his (Bandar’s) control would conduct attacks on Russian soil in order to disrupt, if not cancel, the upcoming Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.
Transcripts released from Putin’s meeting with Prince Bandar revealed that he said: “I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics next year” and that “the Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us.”
Bandar further stated to Putin, this report says, that Chechen terrorists currently in Syria were a tool that could be used at will and that he was speaking with the full backing of the US government.

Most shocking in this report, however, is the FSB detailing how Satter traveled to Kiev and met with Obama regime CIA operatives to provide them with “logistical information” related to Moscow’s transportation systems and security operations which, in turn, the CIA was intending to provide to one of Prince Bandar’s terror groups for the express purpose of “finding and eliminating” Snowden.
As to Satter’s motive(s) for becoming involved in the plot to assassinate Snowden, this report continues, involves his position as a senior fellow at the highly influential Washington D.C. based Hudson Institute think tank which in 2010 held an event in which former CIA Director General Michael Hayden called the Obama regime’s dedication to ferreting out and locking up truthtellers (i.e. whistleblowers) a “positive step” that has “begun to chip away at the notion that there are no sanctions” for revealing classified information.
With Snowden now being declared by the Obama regime to be “the most wanted man earth” for his obtaining nearly two million highly classified top-secret documents from the United States Department of Defense (DOD) run National Security Agency-Central Security Service (NSA/CSS), FSB intelligence analysts in this report say, this new alliance between the staunchly right-wing Hudson Institute (said to have done more to shape the way Americans react to political and social events, think, vote and generally conduct themselves than any other organization) and the staunchly left-wing Obama regime shows the “clear and growing” fear the elite American political class have should more Snowden documents be released.

While just this morning, this report says, the US Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, which the US Congress made an independent agency in 2007 and only recently became fully operational, concluded that the NSA’s program revealed by Snowden to collect bulk phone call records has provided only “minimal” benefits in counterterrorism efforts, is illegal and should be shut down, the Obama regimes US Justice Department nevertheless filed criminal charges against their government’s biggest security background-checking agency for granting Snowden his clearance.
Further to be noted, this report concludes, is that the FSB was contacted by Snowden’s attorney, Anatoly Kucherena, this past week requesting more security for Snowden due to the increasing number of death threats coming against him from the Obama regime, including a US intelligence officer describing in detail to the BuzzFeed News Service how he would assassinate Snowden:
“We would end it very quickly… Just casually walking on the streets of Moscow, coming back from buying his groceries. Going back to his flat and he is casually poked by a passerby. He thinks nothing of it at the time starts to feel a little woozy and thinks it’s a parasite from the local water. He goes home very innocently and next thing you know he dies in the shower.”
Though not mentioned in this FSB report, it is important to note that this past week some members of the US Congress alleged that Snowden was a “Russian spy,” a claim Snowden said was “absurd” and eerily similar to the same smear claims made against the Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg by the Nixon administration in the 1970’s.
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Posted: 23 Jan 2014 01:34 PM PST

After attracting the attention of world public opinion in 2013 with the legalization of marijuana, the Uruguayan government intends to continue its reform agenda on contentious issues. In his last year in office, Uruguay President José Mujica is expected to approve new controversial projects such as the ban on “happy hour”.
In his last year in office, Uruguay President José Mujica is expected to approve new controversial projects such as the ban on “happy hour”. By the end of his term, President Mujica also wants to restrict the purchase of land by foreign companies.
After attracting the attention of world public opinion in 2013 with the legalization of marijuana, the Uruguayan government intends to continue its reform agenda on contentious issues. The two main priorities of the coalition José Mujica this year are the media regulation and sale of alcoholic beverages.
Among the proposals are the increased control over advertising and point of sale of alcohol. Government legislators want to ban, for example, the holding of “happy hour” situations where drinks are sold at lower prices.
“Uruguay needs regulation because alcohol is a legal drug that causes most accidents. Your salespeople want to convince us that it is a refreshing drink and is associated with beautiful women, “argued Senator Ernesto Agazzi.
“Some interests will be affected, but it is a growing problem. There are huge numbers of young people who drink occasionally or frequently. With this measure, we would be completing the triad of regulations, because we’ve done it with marijuana and tobacco,” said Senator Luis Gallo.
As occurred in the past with the marijuana issue last year, media regulation and alcoholic beverages have earned the strong repudiation of the opposition. However, the Mujica government has enough lawmakers to push such measures through.
Other pro-government projects to be discussed in 2014 are limiting the purchase of land by foreign companies and the law of criminal liability of the employer.
Yet in 2014, in October, Uruguay will host live elections that will define the successor of Mujica. The favorite in the election is exactly the predecessor of the current President, Tabaré Vázquez of the same political party.
According to some lawmakers and experts, being an election year may hinder the adoption of all these projects, but the coalition hopes to streamline at least the media regulation and beverages.
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Posted: 23 Jan 2014 01:22 PM PST

A new Gallup poll indicates that more Americans are hacked off with the US system of government than at any time since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
Sixty Five percent of voters indicated that they were dissatisfied with the effectiveness of government, an increase of five points on last year, and a new high above the 2012 figure of 64 percent.
The record high is a full 42 percent higher than it was at the height of the Patriotism infused year of 2002, following the 9/11 attacks, when dissatisfaction with government stood at just 23 percent.
The figures show that in just 12 years, dissatisfaction with the government has soared from fewer than one in four Americans to almost two-thirds.
The poll also noted that the same amount of Americans are unhappy with the size and power that the Federal government now has.


Just one week before the scheduled State of the Union address, two thirds of Americans believe that the government has grown too big and become too powerful. In the last nine years, the trend has jumped from an even 50 percent split to a sixty-six percent majority. Between 2008, when Obama was inaugurated, to 2011, the measure of dissatisfied Americans jumped by a full 10 percent.
Gallup also notes that “even a slight majority of those in his [Obama's] own party are generally dissatisfied with how government is working.”
A separate Gallup poll earlier this month also found that the top problem facing the country according to voters is dysfunctional government. A similar AP survey found that a whopping 70 percent of Americans have absolutely “no faith” in government to make progress on key issues.
Prominent PR firm Edelman also discovered that trust in government has hit an all time low following the NSA spying scandal.
A new USA TODAY/Pew Research Center poll shows that an overwhelming majority of Americans who paid any attention to the president’s promises to reign in the NSA last Friday do not believe it will do anything to protect them from continued government surveillance.
Only half of the respondents said they had paid any attention to what Obama said during the speech, yet of the half who did, 73 percent of them think his promises of reform will amount to nothing.
By nearly 3-1, 70%-26%, Americans say they shouldn’t have to give up privacy and freedom in order to be safe from terrorism.
The Pew poll also noted that 53 percent of respondents disapprove of the government’s bulk collection of Internet and telephone metadata. This majority equates to three in four Americans who do not believe Obama will do anything to protect their privacy. The Pew poll tallies with majority opposition to NSA spying found in recent Washington Post (66%) and AP (60%) polls.
Along with record low approval ratings for Congress, collectively these figures show that a bigger majority of Americans than ever before are disgusted with their government and have no faith that it can function in their interest.
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Posted: 23 Jan 2014 01:04 PM PST
NASA’s Dawn spacecraft heads toward the dwarf planet Ceres as seen in this undated artist’s conception released January 22, 2014.
The dwarf planet Ceres, which is the biggest object in the asteroid belt lying between Mars and Jupiter, is spewing water vapor into space from its ice-covered surface, scientists say.
Researchers detected plumes of water vapor, which periodically gushes from Ceres, via using the European Space Agency’s Herschel infrared space telescope. The discovery was reported on Wednesday in the journal Nature.
“This is the first time water vapor has been unequivocally detected on Ceres or any other object in the asteroid belt and provides proof that Ceres has an icy surface and an atmosphere,” said Michael Kuppers of the European Space Agency (ESA).
The plumes of water vapor are believed to be coming from dark colored areas on Ceres’ surface. However, scientists are not sure what causes them.
One idea is that the sun sometimes warms parts of the icy surface enough that water vapor appears.
“Another possibility is that there is still some energy in the interior of Ceres, and this energy would make the water vent out in a similar way as for geysers on Earth, only that with the low pressure at the surface of the asteroid, what comes out would be a vapor and not a liquid,” Kuppers added.
Researchers believe that Ceres has rock in its interior and is covered with a mantle of ice that, if thawed, would provide more fresh water than is found on Earth.
Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi first discovered Ceres in 1801, over a century before the discovery of the more well-known dwarf planet Pluto in 1930.
Ceres measures 950 kilometers (590 miles) in diameter, which is less than a third of the size of the moon.
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Posted: 23 Jan 2014 12:51 PM PST

Pope Francis has proclaimed the internet a “gift from God,” lauding its ability to connect disparate groups and foster communication across religious, economic, and political divides. The comments were part of his message for World Communications Day.
“A culture of encounter demands that we be ready not only to give, but also to receive,” read the pontiff’s statement.
He outlined ways in which the world we are living in is “growing smaller” and edging towards the “unity of the human family.” He added that the digital world is not “a network of wires,” but rather “a network of people.”
“Media can help us greatly in this, especially nowadays, when the networks of human communication have made unprecedented advances. The internet, in particular, offers immense possibilities for encounter and solidarity. This is something truly good, a gift from God,” he stated.
Pope Francis has bolstered his progressive, modern image since assuming his role – a photo of him posing with young fans in a “selfie” went viral last year. He has also received praise for leading a more humble lifestyle than his predecessors. However, his statements on atheism and homosexuality have roused more conservative Catholics.
He also incited controversy after calling abortion “horrific” and part of a “throwaway culture” in his State of the World address in mid-January.
Pope Francis equally noted some downsides to the information age on Thursday, despite declaring that the information age was a godsend. “The speed with which information is communicated exceeds our capacity for reflection and judgment, and this does not make for more balanced and proper forms of self-expression,” he noted.
His comments seem to fall in sharp contrast to his predecessor, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger – later Pope Benedict CXVI – who instructed the young in 2011 that they should beware of the virtual world. He claimed that teenagers were “in danger of alienation and detachment from reality by excessive use of digital media.”
While Benedict himself has also made calls for further interreligious dialogue in the past, the issue of whether the Catholic Church alone holds the “fullness of the means of salvation” continues to hang over the Vatican.
“To [have a] dialogue means to believe that the ‘other’ has something worthwhile to say, and to entertain his or her point of view and perspective,” Francis wrote. “Engaging in dialogue does not mean renouncing our own ideas and traditions, but the pretence that they alone are valid and absolute.”
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Posted: 22 Jan 2014 02:59 PM PST

US army’s humanoid robot Petman by Boston Dynamics and funded by DARPA.
An all-out drone war seems inevitable given the rapid rate at which battlefield technology is advancing in this day and age, but a United States Army commander expects an arsenal of robotic warriors could be but a few years away.
Gen. Robert Cone, the chief of the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command, said during a recent symposium that he thinks there’s a chance the size of the military’s brigade combats teams will shrink by a quarter in the coming years from 4,000 total troops down to 3,000. Picking up the slack, he said, could be a fleet of robotic killing machines akin to the ground versions of the unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, increasingly used by the world’s armies.
The Military Times’ Paul McLeary was the first to report this week on remarks that Cone, a four-star general, made during the Army Aviation Symposium January 15 in Arilington, Virginia.
“I’ve got clear guidance to think about what if you could robotically perform some of the tasks in terms of maneuverability, in terms of the future of the force,” Cone told his crowd, according to McLeary, adding that he also has “clear guidance to rethink” the size of those infantry squads, which currently are manned by nine troops apiece.
Brigade combat teams are the smallest units of decent size that can be sent into war on their own, Popular Science acknowledged. Even if they are limited to just nine troops apiece, however, trimming their size by a quarter and tacking on still in-the-works robotics could give those brigades unmatched ability on the battlefield.
“If the Army can reduce number of people in squads, it can reduce the total manpower everywhere, and it can acquire vehicles that are both smaller and cheaper,” Kelsey Atherton wrote for PopSci. “In order to reduce manpower without reducing fighting ability, the Army will need to make sure that Brigades have everything they need to be just effective.”
According to Gen. Cone, that could be just a couple of years away and exactly what’s needed.
“Don’t you think 3,000 people is probably enough probably to get by” with increased technological capabilities, he said during last week’s symposium.
As RT has reported extensively in the past, the Pentagon has for years now been tinkering with robotic warriors made to someday replace real life soldiers on the battlefield of the future. Some of those drone troops have already undergone extensive testing, and Cone suggests that they could soon come into good use as the military considers further scale backs amidst sequester-induced spending cuts.
According to McLeary, the general said he envisions “a smaller, more lethal, deployable and agile force” in the Army’s future. The Military Times reported that the Army is on track to cut its number of soldiers by 60,000 before 2015 is over, and then could trim just as much by 2019 to bring the total number of troops — human troops — to 420,000.
“When you see the success, frankly, that the Navy has had in terms of lowering the numbers of people on ships, are there functions in the brigade that we could automate — robots or manned/unmanned teaming — and lower the number of people that are involved given the fact that people are our major cost,” he said.
Last May, the US Navy unveiled a first-of-its-kind fleet for the military branch that relies on both manned and unmanned vehicles to accompany warships into battle. Then in November, a US Navy drone crashed into a battleship and caused roughly $30 million in damages.
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Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 13:09