Puppet MastersS


Bizarro Earth

Thousands of migrants try to cross border to Europe as Erdogan says Turkey will no longer 'close the gates'


Breitbart
Sat, 29 Feb 2020 12:00 UTC
migrant turkey
© AFPTurkey says up to 30,000 could cross into the EU in the coming days
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday that his country's borders with Europe were open, as thousands of migrants gathered at the frontier with Greece.

Migrants played a cat-and-mouse game with Greek border patrols throughout the night and into Saturday, with some cutting holes in the fence only to be turned back by tear gas and stun grenades. Greek authorities also fired tear gas to repulse attempts by the crowd to push through the border.

The move by Turkey to open its border, first announced Thursday, was seen in Greece as a deliberate attempt to pressure European countries. It comes as tensions ratcheted up between Turkey and Syria. More than 55 Turkish troops have been killed since Turkey began sending further reinforcements into areas of northwest Syria under the control of rebels, which are backed by Turkey.

Comment: The BBC reports:
The number is expected to hit 25,000 to 30,000 in the coming days, he said.

Turkey could no longer deal with the amount of people fleeing Syria's civil war, he added.

Turkey continued retaliatory strikes on Saturday, killing 26 Syrian government troops with drone strikes, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group.

Syria, supported by Russia, has been trying to retake Idlib from jihadist groups and Turkish-backed rebel factions.

"We said months ago that if it goes on like this, we will have to open the doors. They did not believe us, but we opened the doors yesterday," President Erdogan said in Istanbul on Saturday.

He said that some 18,000 refugees had "pressed on the gates and crossed" into Europe by Saturday morning. He did not provide evidence of these numbers.

"We will not close these doors in the coming period and this will continue. Why? The European Union needs to keep its promises. We don't have to take care of this many refugees, to feed them," he said.

Brussels had not given full financial aid agreed in the 2018 Turkey-EU refugee deal, he said.

Greece said it had averted more than 4,000 attempts to cross into the country. There were further clashes between migrants and Greek police on Saturday.


The Turkish president also said that he had asked Russian President Vladimir Putin - a close ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad - to stand aside and let Turkey "do what is necessary" with the Syrian government by itself.



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Cloud Grey

Pope Francis cancels third day of events amid claims it's coronavirus

Jon Levine
New York Post
Wed, 29 Apr 2020 09:15 UTC
Pope Francis
Vatican confirms Pope Francis and two aides test positive for Coronavirus
Pope Francis has canceled a third day of scheduled events to recuperate from an undisclosed illness.

The 83-year-old pontiff will skip two official audiences at the Apostolic Palace. One would have been with a team of bioethicists and another with the Catholic "Legion of Christ."

Francis is working from the Vatican's Santa Marta hotel during his recovery, papal officials said, who noted he continues to attend Mass each morning.

The Vatican has not provided any details about his illness, calling it only a "slight indisposition."

Comment: Meanwhile MCM News alleges that the Vatican has confirmed the Pope has tested positively for Coronavirus:
The Vatican has confirmed in a statement that Pope Francis and two of his aides have tested positive for the novel Coronavirus.

The three new cases add up to the over 400 cases confirmed in Italy under a week.

Pope Francis missed a planned Mass with clergy in Rome yesterday after showing Coronavirus-like symptoms.

The Vatican had earlier said the pontiff, 83, had a slight indisposition and could proceed with the rest of his planned work today.

The pope was seen coughing and blowing his nose during the Asha Wednesday Mass.

Yesterday, he told well-wishers: 'I wish, again, to express my closeness to those who are ill with coronavirus and to health-care workers who are caring for them'

Francis had been scheduled to go to the St John Lateran basilica to meet with Rome clergy and celebrate a penitential Mass at the start of Lent.

The Argentine pope has generally good health he lost part of one lung as a young man because of respiratory illness and suffers from sciatica, which makes walking difficult.
See also: Secretive military base outside Paris hit by coronavirus, Europe banning mass gatherings

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Camcorder

Bloomberg defends Muslim surveillance program: 'We're supposed to do that'

Michael Arria
Mondoweiss
Fri, 28 Feb 2020 06:55 UTC
Michael Bloomberg
© Gage SkidmoreFormer Mayor Michael Bloomberg speaking with attendees at the Presidential Gun Sense Forum hosted by Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines, Iowa.
In an interview with PBS Newshour last night, former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg defended the Muslim surveillance program that the city implemented after the 9/11 attacks.

"All of the people came from the same place and all that came were from a place they happened to be one religion. And if they'd been another religion, we would've done the same thing," Bloomberg told PBS anchor Judy Woodruff, "It does not, incidentally, mean that all Muslims are terrorists or all terrorists are Muslim. But, the people that flew those airplanes came from the Middle East and some of the imams were urging more of the same."

Comment: See also:

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Attention

Breaking ranks: Greece reportedly vetoes NATO statement in support of Turkey amid Syria escalation


Sputnik
Sat, 29 Feb 2020 21:46 UTC
turkish troops turkey Idlib syria
© Reuters / Khalil AshawiTurkish military vehicles are seen in Hazano near Idlib, Syria, February 11, 2020.
The move comes amid a deterioration of stability in Syria's Idlib, where 33 Turkish soldiers were killed and over 30 injured in an airstrike on Thursday. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has blamed Russian forces for the attack.

The Permanent Mission of Greece to NATO on Friday evening vetoed a statement that the alliance was preparing to make in support of Ankara, following the recent killing of 33 Turkish troops, Greek newspaper Vima reported, citing information from Greek sources.

According to the newspaper, the foreign minister of Greece, Nikos Dendias, issued direct instructions to representatives to use a veto if the text of the joint statement does not include a Greek proposal to refer to compliance with the March 2016 EU-Turkey declaration on refugees and migrants.

Comment: NATO has waffled on its support for Turkey's military actions in Syria. It needs Turkey for its strategic location in the geopolitical area, but does not want to be dragged into a direct confrontation with Russia, should those two countries' relations go permanently south. Erdogan has already unsuccessfully demanded that NATO support its incursions into a sovereign Syria, using the pretext of Article 5 of the alliance. All throughout the conflict has been playing both sides of the fence depending on who he feels with advance his pipe-dream of a restored Ottoman Empire.

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Bullseye

Best of the Web: Europe & US use Russia-Poland discord to their advantage, first post-Cold War Polish leader Walesa tells RT


RT
Sat, 29 Feb 2020 21:44 UTC
Lech Walesa
© Reuters / Kacper PempelFormer Polish President Lech Walesa
Poland and Russia must lay "old ghosts to rest" as the US exploits their bitter strife to its own advantage, former Polish President Lech Walesa - who led the fight against Communist rule - told RT.

Moscow and Warsaw need to bury the hatchet and sort out their troubled shared history as part of an open and honest dialogue instead, Walesa believes, adding that the endless quarrels that have lasted for decades have so far led the two neighbors nowhere.

"We can't change history," the former president told RT. Still, Walesa - whose Solidarity trade union movement led the struggle against the Communist rule and Soviet influence in his homeland in the 1980s - said it is high time the two nations laid "the old ghosts to rest" and started cooperating.

"We have this trail of mutual grievances, and until we deal with that we won't arrive at a compromise," he said, adding that the two nations are now engaged in a "useless struggle."

Comment: Walesa is spot-on. The West uses countries like Poland as pawns in their game of imperial chess. Any country that takes the US by their word in a diplomatic sense is probably laughed at behind closed doors by American leaders.

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Light Saber

CPAC: Nunes maintains Mike Flynn 'targeted' because he wanted to 'empty intelligence swamp'

Edwin Mora
Breitbart
Fri, 28 Feb 2020 21:35 UTC
Devin nunes cpac
© CPAC 2020Devin Nunes speaks at a CPAC 2020 event.
Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) on Friday vowed to hold people "accountable" for spying on the Trump campaign in 2016, saying GOP lawmakers will do everything in their power to provide the U.S. Department of Justice with the evidence needed to convict anyone responsible.

A December 2019 report from Michael Horowitz, the inspector general (OIG) at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), found that the FBI lied to obtain Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) wiretaps that enabled the federal investigation into Trump's presidential campaign.

The comments of Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, came during an event at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Friday titled, "The Coup: Spygate."

Comment:

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Megaphone

Tulsi Gabbard to MSM: Stop referring to Al-Qaeda in Syria's Idlib as 'rebels' to make them seem like 'freedom fighters'


RT
Sat, 29 Feb 2020 21:32 UTC
Turkish-backed militants
© AFP / Omar Haj KadourTurkish-backed militants fire their anti-aircraft gun in Idlib
The US media and officials who stubbornly keep referring to armed groups dominated by an Al-Qaeda offshoot in Syria's Idlib province as 'rebels' only disgrace themselves and their country, US Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard has said.

Gabbard, who is one of the Democratic Party contenders in the 2020 presidential race, castigated American mainstream media and Trump administration officials for a consistent effort to whitewash the extremists entrenched in the north-western province of Idlib - Syria's last major stronghold of anti-government forces. Such actions betray the memory of the 9/11 terrorist attack, one of the worst tragedies in modern American history, she said.
The corporate media needs to stop referring to Al-Qaeda and their affiliated groups in Idlib as 'rebels' in a deceptive effort to make them seem like freedom fighters. I and thousands of Americans enlisted after Al-Qaeda's attack on 9/11. The media and the Trump administration's continued labelling of these terrorists as 'rebels' is a disgrace and dishonor for all our men and women in uniform and our entire country.
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Yoda

Pepe Escobar: 'Julian Assange is a spy at the service of the people'

Pepe Escobar
Consortium News
Thu, 27 Feb 2020 12:00 UTC
assange glass box dock hearing
© Le Grand Soir/UnknownJulian Assange is unable to participate in his own trial by being confined to a spot reserved for only the most dangerous offenders.
By offering asylum to the persecuted publisher of WikiLeaks, France's Macron would enhance his status in myriad European latitudes and all across the Global South, writes Pepe Escobar.
It's quite fitting that the - imperially pre-determined - judicial fate of Julian Assange is being played out in Britain, the home of George Orwell.

As chronicled by the painful, searing reports of Ambassador Craig Murray, what's taking place in Woolwich Crown Court is a sub-Orwellian farce with Conradian overtones: the horror...the horror..., remixed for the Raging Twenties. The heart of our moral darkness is not in the Congo: it's in a dingy courtroom attached to a prison, presided by a lowly imperial lackey.

In one of Michel Onfray's books published last year, "Theorie de la Dictature" (Robert Laffont) - the top dissident, politically incorrect French philosopher starts exactly from Orwell to examine the key features of a new-look dictatorship. He tracks seven paths of destruction: to destroy freedom, impoverish language, abolish truth, suppress history, deny nature, propagate hate, and aspire to empire.

Comment: See also:

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Newspaper

Secretive military base outside Paris hit by coronavirus, Europe banning mass gatherings


RT
Sat, 29 Feb 2020 01:52 UTC
Creil
© Reuters / Christian HartmannFILE PHOTO. View of the main entrance of Creil's hospital, where people tested positive for coronavirus have been treated.
Several people stationed at the 110 Creil air base outside Paris have fallen ill with coronavirus, the French military confirmed, with the base effectively being placed on lockdown.

Defense Minister Florence Parly confirmed on Friday that a number of coronavirus cases have been registered at the military facility, located to the north of the French capital. While Parly did not provide the exact tally, earlier reports by local media suggested that at least four people, including a civilian employee, had contracted the virus.

An "epidemiological investigation" into the outbreak is now underway, Parly said, while all mass activities, as well as trips to and from the facility, have been suspended. Precautionary measures are also being undertaken at other military installations.

Comment: See also: Don't buy China's story: Clues that coronavirus may have leaked from a lab

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Bad Guys

Said the fly to the elephant: 'Get out of the way, let us deal with Assad regime', Erdogan says he told Putin regarding Idlib, Syria


RT
Sat, 29 Feb 2020 19:52 UTC
erdogan
© Presidential Press Office / Handout via REUTERSTurkish President Tayyip Erdogan
As tensions in Idlib province reach the boiling point, Turkey has asked Russia to let it fight the Syrian government face-to-face, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan revealed.

Erdogan asked Putin "to get out of the way" and let the Turkish troops deal with Syrian President Bashar Assad, the Turkish leader told his AK Party on Saturday.

Erdogan was explaining to lawmakers his government's handling of the escalation in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib, where Turkish and Syrian troops have engaged in several clashes over the past weeks. The hostilities have all but ruined Turkey's 2018 agreement with Russia on de-escalating the violence in the area, which remains the last major stronghold of anti-government forces in Syria.

Describing his phone conversation with Putin, Erdogan said if Russia's interest in Syria was to keep a military presence there, Turkey, a NATO member, does not object to it.
I asked Mr Putin: What's your business there? If you establish a base, do so but get out of our way and leave us face to face with the regime.

Comment: What are the Turks up to? Is this naked imperialism, pure and simple? It sure looks like it. Meanwhile, their belligerence abroad is causing conflict closer to home - a brawl broke out among Turkish MPs several days after Erdogan's troops (apparently) took Turkey to the brink of open war with Syria/Iran/Russia:


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