Puppet MastersS


Better Earth

EU left Italy 'alone' to fight coronavirus but China and Russia sent help - ex-FM Frattini


RT
Tue, 24 Mar 2020 08:02 UTC
coronavirus
© Reuters / Flavio Lo ScalzoFILE PHOTO.
The EU's initial response to the massive outbreak of coronavirus in Italy was largely "inadequate," and a lack of European solidarity opened the doors for Russia and China, former Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told RT.

The new epicenter of the dreaded pandemic, Italy, has been struggling to stop the spread of Covid-19 for weeks now. The disease has already killed more than six thousand people in the country, with over 60 thousand people infected.

EU tried to pin the blame on Italy

The EU clearly underestimated the virus, blaming the outbreak in Italy on its national healthcare system flaws, according to the two-time foreign minister and OSCE representative. As a result, Brussels, which preaches pan-European solidarity, failed to act when this solidarity was needed in the face of a crisis that eventually affected the entire bloc.

Comment: Cuba also sent help - as it often does:


Meanwhile Poland hindered aid getting to Italy:


See also:

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Pirates

US-backed troops release over 80 ISIS terrorists in Syria

Drago Bosnic
Fort Russ
Mon, 23 Mar 2020 10:16 UTC
kurds
The so-called Kurdish Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (NES) supported by the US has freed over 80 Islamic State terrorists from prisons, a London-based media reported. It is presumed the US-backed forces were "instructed to do so".

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) website affiliated to the dissidents reported on Sunday that the NES has released the Islamic State terrorists who were all Syrian nationals residing in Raqqa, Hasaka and Deir Ez-Zor. It said some of the freed terrorists had not yet ended their prison terms, adding that the move has infuriated residents of the Kurdish-ruled regions.

According to the report, people are concerned that the freedom of the terrorists would pave the ground for them to rejoin the Islamic State. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) had also last year accused the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) of cooperation with ISIS troops in northeastern Syria, saying that the Kurdish-majority militia group had helped ISIS head to become a major trader in Raqqa province.

It reported that Islamic State's most notorious commander in Raqqa had turned into the most influential trader in the province and in charge of development projects in Raqqa. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) noted that the Islamic State emir had secured the release of Islamic State's jailed commanders to join him in "carrying out reconstruction projects".

Comment: See also: New evidence points to US terrorist ties

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Eye 2

Flashback New Fort Detrick BioDefense laboratory may reflect a Bush germ war effort

Sherwood Ross
Global Research
Mon, 05 Feb 2007 07:20 UTC
fort detrick
Although no foreign power has threatened a bioterror attack against America, since 9/11 the Bush administration has allocated a stunning $43-billion to "defend" against one. Critics are now saying, however, Bush's newest "biodefense" initiative is both offensive and illegal.

The latest development, according to the Associated Press, is that the U.S. Army is replacing its Military Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md., "with a new laboratory that would be a component of a biodefense campus operated by several agencies." The Army told AP the laboratory is intended to continue research that is only meant for defense against biological threats.

But University of Illinois international law professor Francis Boyle charged the Fort Detrick work will include "acquiring, growing, modifying, storing, packaging and dispersing classical, emerging and genetically engineered pathogens." Those activities, as well as planned study of the properties of pathogens when weaponized, "are unmistakable hallmarks of an offensive weapons program."
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Bad Guys

Flashback Best of the Web: The Pentagon's alarming project: Avian Flu Biowar Vaccine

F. William Engdahl
Global Research
Thu, 14 Aug 2008 07:07 UTC
chickens
There is alarming evidence accumulated by serious scientific sources that the US Government is about to or already has 'weaponized' Avian Flu. If the reports are accurate, this could unleash a new pandemic on the planet that could be more devastating than the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic which killed an estimated 30 million people worldwide before it eventually died out. Pentagon and NIH experiments with remains in frozen state of the 1918 virus are the height of scientific folly. Is the United States about to unleash a new racially selective pandemic through the process of mandatory vaccination with an alleged vaccine "against" Avian Flu?

There is reason to believe that sections of the international pharmaceutical industry cartel are acting in concert with the US Government to develop a genetically modified H5N1 virus substance that could unleash a man-made pandemic, perhaps more deadly than the 1918 'Spanish Influenza' pandemic claiming up to 30 million lives.1

Rima E. Laibow, MD, head of the Natural Solutions Foundation, a citizen watchdog group monitoring the pharmaceutical industry states, "Our best intelligence estimate is that pandemic Avian Flu has already been created through genetic engineering in the United States, fusing the deadly genome of the 1918 Pandemic, misnamed the 'Spanish Flu', with the DNA of the innocuous H5N1 virus in a growth medium of human kidney cells, according to the National Institutes of Health and the vaccine's manufacturer. Some virologists believe that this would insure that the man-made mutant virus recognizes human cells and knows how to invade them." 2
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Eye 2

Mafia: US government threatens families of Int'l Criminal Court staff if they try Americans for war crimes

Ben Norton
The Grayzone
Fri, 20 Mar 2020 00:00 UTC
Pompeo
The International Criminal Court approved an investigation into US war crimes in Afghanistan. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo responded by threatening to punish family members of ICC staff.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has threatened the family members of International Criminal Court staff, vowing that Washington will take punitive action against them if the court tries American soldiers for war crimes.

Pompeo also announced an intensification of unilateral US sanctions on Iran and Syria, which are illegal under international law, and which are undermining the countries' attempts to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

In March 2019, the Pompeo State Department threatened to revoke or deny visas to any International Criminal Court (ICC) personnel investigating crimes committed by American forces.

A year later, on March 5, 2020, the ICC took a defiant step forward, officially approving an investigation into allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the US military and CIA in Afghanistan.

Pompeo responded by angrily condemning the court and its proceedings. His broadside was an apparent attempt at discrediting the institution, which the US government is not a party to.


Comment: Nor is Israel a part of the ICC. Imagine that.


Comment: If Pompeo sounds like a despicable mafia boss, well, that's because he's acting like one: "You talk to the police and we're gonna hurt your family and break some legs!"

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Light Sabers

Democrats block SECOND attempt to pass coronavirus stimulus in US Senate


RT
Mon, 23 Mar 2020 03:01 UTC
The Peace Monument
© REUTERS/Kevin LamarqueThe Peace Monument
Senate Democrats have blocked for the second time the procedural vote on the stimulus bill, intended to help the US workers and companies shut down over the Covid-19 pandemic.

The motion to invoke cloture - limiting the debate - failed to get the necessary three-fifths of the senators present to agree, with 49 votes for and 46 against on Monday afternoon.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell denounced the "absolutely mindless obstruction" by the Democrats, accusing them of "fiddling around with Senate procedure" while the economy floundered and businesses shut down due to pandemic lockdowns across the US.

"The American people have had enough of this nonsense," McConnell thundered on the Senate floor.
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Eye 1

'Travel papers' and the Pandemic Patriot Act 2.0

Daisy Luther
Activist Post
Sun, 22 Mar 2020 02:04 UTC
papers please corona
Did you ever think we'd reach the point in the United States where you had to have papers to freely travel from one place to another? It appears we're at the point.

The MTA issued "travel papers" to their workers

On March 17th, a few days before New York issued a shelter in place order, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority issued "travel papers" to their employees to prepare for a potential coronavirus curfew. The NY Daily News reports:
If non-emergency travel is restricted, workers can show law enforcement officials the letter if they're stopped on the way to work.

"This letter along with current New York CIty Transit identification identifies this individual as an essential employee who is required to travel during the curfew imposed due to the Coronavirus emergency," states the letter, which is signed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Police Department's acting chief Joseph McGrann. "Please give this individual due consideration during this crisis."

MTA spokeswoman Abbey Collins said the letter was distributed on Monday to a "limited number of NYCT bus employees living in New Jersey" because the state's Gov. Murphy suggested imposing a statewide curfew between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. (source)
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Snakes in Suits

Stop the coronavirus corporate coup

Matt Stoller
mattstoller.substack.com
Sat, 21 Mar 2020 01:54 UTC
pelosi and mcconnell
Hi,

Welcome to BIG, a newsletter about the politics of monopoly. This is a special edition. I need you to take this newsletter and repost it, forward it, and contact anyone you know in politics. Here's why.

Congressional leaders are likely to put a very ugly deal in front of the American people, and if it passes, America may be unrecognizable after this pandemic. But there is a way to stop it, if people on the populist left and people on the populist right work together.

Here's the situation. Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer, and the Trump administration is negotiating a bailout package to address the coronavirus crisis. There's been a lot of chatter about the need to support workers as the economy goes into a freeze. This is happening around the world; the British government, for instance, is willing to pay 80% of worker wages during this downturn for those affected by the crisis.
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Chess

US slashes aid to Afghanistan by $1bn 'IMMEDIATELY', touts more cuts as Taliban 'peace deal' on brink of collapse


RT
Tue, 24 Mar 2020 01:45 UTC
pompeo and ghani
© Reuters / Afghan Presidential Palace HandoutAfghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani (R) meets with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
Washington will cut aid to Afghanistan by $1 billion starting immediately, after failing to resolve a fierce dispute between rival Afghan leaders, the State Department said, noting the US military withdrawal would continue.

Lamenting the failure of Afghan leaders to agree on an "inclusive government," Pompeo said the feud between President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah had "harmed US-Afghan relations," adding that Washington would review cooperation with the country and make significant cuts to US aid.

"Because this leadership failure poses a direct threat to US national interests, effective immediately, the US government will initiate a review of the scope of our cooperation with Afghanistan," he said in a statement on Monday after an unannounced trip to Kabul.
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War Whore

Best of the Web: From cluster bombs to toxic waste: Saudi Arabia is creating the next Fallujah in Yemen thanks to American weapons

Ahmed Abdulkareem
MintPress News
Fri, 20 Mar 2020 01:14 UTC
unexploded ordinance
© YEMACA collection of unexploded ordnance recovered by the UNDP's YEMAC project in Yemen
As the world's focus turns to the rapidly-spreading COVID-19 pandemic, Yemenis are reeling from their own brewing tragedy, contending with the thousands of cluster bombs, landmines and other exploded munitions that now litter their homeland. Just yesterday, a young child was killed and another was injured in the al-Ghail district of al-Jawf when a landmine left by the Saudi military exploded, witnesses told MintPress. Outraged and terrified by the presence of these unexploded ordnances, Ahmed Sharif, a father of 9 who owns a farm in the district called the unexploded ordnances "a significant threat to our children."

Earlier this week, thousands of cluster bombs containing between dozens and hundreds of smaller submunitions were dropped by air and scattered indiscriminately over large areas near Ahmed's farm. A large number of those munitions failed to explode on impact, creating a new threat to residents already reeling from 5 years of war, famine and an economic blockade. The use, production, sale, and transfer of cluster munitions is prohibited under the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, an international agreement recognized by over 100 countries, but rejected by Saudi Arabia and the United States.
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