Pirates and Emperors

Cyber thieves steal $45 million from debit card companies in a matter of hours

"Cyber thieves around the world stole $45 million by hacking into debit card companies, scrapping withdrawal limits and helping themselves from cash machines, US authorities said Thursday. The massive heist unfolded 'in a matter of hours,' said the US prosecutor’s office for Brooklyn, New York. Prosecutors unveiled charges against eight people accused of forming the New York cell of the plot, which stretched across 26 countries. In their case, they allegedly lifted $2.8 million in cash and now face charges of conspiracy to commit access device fraud and money laundering." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCyber thieves steal $45 million from debit card companies in a matter of hours

Fred Reed: Terrorism in Boston

"The return on investment is phenomenal. For example, the attack on New York cost perhaps several hundred thousand dollars. Yet it drew the US into multiple drawn-out, losing wars costing hundreds of billions of dollars, and transformed America from a reasonably free country into a rapidly deepening Orwellian gloom. A tiny input, a stunningly large effect. If terrorism were a hedge fund, it would be the hottest buy on the planet. It is truly slick. The terrorists don’t do serious damage to the attacked country. They stimulate the victim society to damage itself." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFred Reed: Terrorism in Boston

Cowardice Redefined: The New Face of American Serial Killers

"A little after 10:00 p.m., and a serial killer is getting ready to make his move. He has watched and waited for this moment for some time. He watches his victim get out of a cab and dig in his pockets for money. Two of his children run out to the porch to greet their daddy. The killer presses a button and watches as the victim, the taxi driver and the two children are vaporized. Other people in the house, the man's wife, parents and three other children are badly injured and burnt by the high explosive. The house next door partially collapses, killing an elderly woman and injuring her grandson. But this is just the beginning." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCowardice Redefined: The New Face of American Serial Killers

When Homeland Security Theater goes Off-Script

"The FBI, whose chief occupation since 2002 has been the manufacture of ersatz terrorism plots, induced Tounisi into an act described as providing 'material aid' to a foreign terrorist group. If he is convicted, he will be found guilty of carrying out the Obama administration's official policy without official permission. He is not the only American presently facing the prospect of imprisonment on this charge. The administration has filed felony charges against a US Army Veteran from Arizona named Eric Harroun, who traveled to Syria to join the fight against Assad." Continue reading →

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After Boston: Arrest Kerry and the Neo-Cons!

"The perpetrators are said to be radical Chechen Muslim extremists. The same types the US has just announced it is stepping up funding to in Syria, to the tune of $130 million. In fact, the Chechen extremists feel such a strong kinship with the US-allied insurgents in Syria, that many of them have made the trip to Syria to fight alongside their fellow Jihadis. Secretary of State John Kerry, who announced the increasing support for the Syrian rebels, should be indefinitely detained by the US government without charge or trial for 'substantially support(ing)...associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAfter Boston: Arrest Kerry and the Neo-Cons!

David Koresh’s Revenge: Waco and 20 Years of State Terror

"About once a day police kill an American, often a marginalized person like the homeless Kelly Thomas, beaten in July 2011 by five officers in Southern California, dying of complications five days later. Or they are veterans like Jose Guerena, at whom Tuscon police fired 71 rounds in the middle of the night in May 2011 – innocent of any crime, just in his own house at the wrong time. The state saves most of its killing for abroad, where killing is its very policy. And now, thanks to the war on terror, Obama calls America his battlefield and the world his jurisdiction. He has made it official doctrine that the president can order anyone’s death." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDavid Koresh’s Revenge: Waco and 20 Years of State Terror

Glenn Greenwald: The Boston bombing produces familiar and revealing reactions

"Regardless of your views of justification and intent: whatever rage you're feeling toward the perpetrator of this Boston attack, that's the rage in sustained form that people across the world feel toward the US for killing innocent people in their countries. Whatever sadness you feel for yesterday's victims, the same level of sadness is warranted for the innocent people whose lives are ended by American bombs. However profound a loss you recognize the parents and family members of these victims to have suffered, that's the same loss experienced by victims of US violence." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGlenn Greenwald: The Boston bombing produces familiar and revealing reactions

Glenn Greenwald: The Boston bombing produces familiar and revealing reactions

"Regardless of your views of justification and intent: whatever rage you're feeling toward the perpetrator of this Boston attack, that's the rage in sustained form that people across the world feel toward the US for killing innocent people in their countries. Whatever sadness you feel for yesterday's victims, the same level of sadness is warranted for the innocent people whose lives are ended by American bombs. However profound a loss you recognize the parents and family members of these victims to have suffered, that's the same loss experienced by victims of US violence." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGlenn Greenwald: The Boston bombing produces familiar and revealing reactions

Bank of Cyprus head fired under bailout deal

"The chief executive of the Bank of Cyprus, the island’s biggest lender, has been sacked by the central bank governor as part of an international bailout deal, state media said on Wednesday. Yiannis Kypri was fired on the instructions of the so-called troika of the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, the Cyprus News Agency (CNA) reported. It said his departure was ordered as part of the restructuring of the Bank of Cyprus under the bailout deal, which involves the bank absorbing the remains of Laiki, the second biggest bank in Cyprus that has been wound down." Continue reading →

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US Army vet charged with fighting alongside al-Qaida against Syrian government

"A U.S. Army veteran, who boasted on Facebook of his military adventures with Syrian rebels, was charged Thursday with firing rocket propelled grenades as part of an attack led by an al-Qaida group against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. According to an FBI affidavit, Harroun, who served three years in the Army before being medically discharged, was engaged in military action in Syria, siding with rebel forces against the Syrian government, from January to March of this year. Harroun is not charged with providing material support to a terrorist group, but instead conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction outside the U.S." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingUS Army vet charged with fighting alongside al-Qaida against Syrian government