Puppet MastersS


Quenelle - Golden

PBS report from 2017: 'Meet the Iran-backed militia that saved Iraq from ISIS'

PMU Iraq
The following American PBS TV report aired in December 2017. It explains exactly who the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) of Iraq are.

The group's Iraqi-Iranian deputy leader, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, was the other high-profile commander the US assassinated alongside Iranian general Qassem Soleimani at Baghdad Airport last week.

In this report, you'll learn that the PMU did almost all the actual fighting and dying to prevent Baghdad falling to ISIS in 2014-15. Without them, Iraq today would literally be 'Islamic State'.

PMU officers acknowledge that without Iranian support - which is primarily supplied to them in the form of advisors - they could not have succeeded in defending Iraq. Otherwise, the PMU are staffed by IRAQI patriots.

These are the 'terrorists' - engaged against ISIS near the Syrian border - who the US bombed on December 29th, killing 25 of them. These are the 'terrorists' who then protested the US assault by barricading the entrance to the US embassy in Baghdad (killing no one)...


Attention

Tom Luongo: Trump's point of no return

2fistflags
© Unknown
When I wrote that the coup against President Trump had morphed into a Civil War, I wasn't kidding. The sham impeachment created the perfect environment for the Democrats and Republicans to get something definitive from him by playing the House and the Senate off each other.

With the Senate Neocon Occupied Territory the escalation of belligerence since Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed through the impeachment vote has been serious.

First, there was the rider to the NDAA which upped the sanctions on everyone willing to work on Nordstream 2. Then Lindsey Graham pushed the frankly insane DASKA bill through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Pelosi forced her impeachment vote through the House on partisan lines. Then, clearly overstepping her authority, she refused to send the Articles to the Senate hoping to add a more serious charge, like Obstruction of Justice or Treason for laundering Russian money through Deutsche Bank.

It is under these circumstances we should view the events in Iraq over the last week, especially the killing of IRGC Quds Forces Commander Qassem Solemaini.

Because I've warned from the beginning of this impeachment, Trump was just 17 votes in the Senate away from conviction. And failure on his part to respond to an attack on our troops now or our soil, the embassy in Baghdad, would have been enough to turn that many against him and install Mike Pence.

Cards

Expert says Iran holds all cards in the coming ME conflict with US, unless Trump goes nuclear

Bombers/Fordow
© Reuters/US Air Gorce/AFP/Iranian Atomic Energy OrganisationTwo potential targets: USAF B-52 bombers at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar • Fordow Uranium Conversion Facility in Qom, Iran.
Iran has promised retaliation for the assassination of Qassem Suleimani. Donald Trump said this will lead to a disproportionate response from the US. One side can deliver on its threats, the other can't, unless it goes nuclear.

Iran means business

"Our reaction," Iranian general Hossein Dehghan said at the weekend, "will be wise, well considered and, in time, with decisive deterrent effect."

Dehghan also noted that Iran was not seeking a wider confrontation with the US.
"It was America that has started the war. Therefore, they should accept appropriate reactions to their actions. The only thing that can end this period of war is for the Americans to receive a blow that is equal to the blow they have inflicted."
Dehghan is no run-of-the-mill former Iranian general officer, but was one of the major decision makers within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) during the Iran-Iraq War, and later went on to command the IRGC Air Force, before eventually being appointed Iran's minister of defense. After stepping down from that position, Dehghan became a special advisor to the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic Ali Khamenei.

His words must be viewed as representing those of Khamenei himself.

Briefcase

Republican AGs: Bloomberg embeds anti-Trump attorneys in state offices to go after energy companies

MBloomberg
© Chesnot via Getty ImagesFormer New York mayor, presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg
Republican attorneys general are arguing that billionaire Michael Bloomberg is using his vast wealth to embed an army of lawyers into state offices for the purpose of taking on oil companies and President Donald Trump.

Bloomberg Philanthropies financed a group that is planting private attorneys into state attorneys general offices for the explicit purpose of pushing back against Trump's regulatory rollbacks.

"What's problematic is the arrangement through which a private organization or individual can promote an overtly political agenda by paying the salaries of government employees," Indiana Attorney General (AG) Curtis Hill, a Republican, told the Daily Caller News Foundation, citing a common criticism of New York University's State Energy and Environmental Impact Center (SEEIC).

Bloomberg's philanthropy supported the center with a $6 million grant. The NYU School of Law launched the group in 2017 to "identify and hire NYU Law Fellows who serve as special assistant attorneys general in state attorney general offices, focusing on clean energy, climate and environmental matters," according to the NYU Law website.

Bloomberg, a prominent Democratic donor and presidential contender in 2020, is effectively weaponizing attorneys general offices for his own purposes, Republicans say.

Comment: Another great Democratic choice for President of the USA. This one buys the justice system!


Arrow Up

Trump is escalating the US-Israeli war on Iran - here's why

Crowd Pic Soleimani
© Morteza Nikoubaz/SIPAAn Iranian man carries a portrait of Qasem Soleimani
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has praised the US attacks on Iraq that killed senior Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the leader of Iraqi militias that were instrumental in the defeat of ISIS - so-called Islamic State.

President Donald Trump "is worthy of full appreciation for acting with determination, strongly and swiftly," Netanyahu said Friday.

Other senior Israeli politicians, including supposed opposition leaders, lauded the American attack. Among them, Amir Peretz, head of the ostensibly center-left Labor-Gesher party, said Soleimani "deserved to die" and thanked Trump. Peretz's hatred of Iran is perhaps understandable. He was defense minister during Israel's 2006 invasion of Lebanon, in which that country's resistance - supported by Iran - dealt Israel a humiliating defeat.

Yossi Melman, a veteran analyst of Israeli intelligence, called the US escalation "good news for Israel" because it draws the United States even further into Israel's attacks on Iran and its interests.

In an initial response, Iran's foreign minister Javad Zarif lauded Soleimani as the head of "the most effective force" in fighting ISIS and al-Qaida, and termed his killing an act of "international terrorism."
There is, no doubt, great satisfaction in Israel and among its most fanatical supporters at a move that ratchets the situation towards even more catastrophic violence.

No Entry

Graham's ultimatum to Pelosi: Send articles to the Senate or be removed from impeachment process

Graham
© aba imageSenator Lindsey Graham
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., insisted Sunday that if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi does not deliver articles of impeachment against President Trump to the Senate by the end of the week, the Senate should "take matters in our own hands."

Graham accused Pelosi of playing political games and trying to exert control over the Senate trial by keeping it from starting. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., recognized Friday on the Senate floor the chamber's rules prevented him from doing anything until Pelosi does her part, but Graham proposed a solution that could remove what McConnell has called an "impasse" in the process.

"What I would do, if she continues to refuse to send the articles as required by the Constitution, I would work with Senator McConnell to change the rules of the Senate so we could start the trial without her, if necessary," Graham proposed on Sunday Morning Futures. When asked how long he would wait before taking this step, Graham replied, "Days, not weeks."

Comment: See also:


Post-It Note

Trump: Tweets are 'notification' to Congress, promises 'disproportionate' response to Iran in an attack

TrumpFlag
© Real IranUS President Donald Trump
The US President Donald Trump has literally said that his Twitter posts should be seen as "notification to the United States Congress" - in another tweet no less - as he vowed to "strike back" should Iran target any American.

The president minced no words as he continued to threaten Tehran with a swift and potentially devastating response as the two nations have found themselves on the brink of a military conflict after the US killed a top Iranian commander on a direct order from the White House.

This time, however, he did not just issue another threat but also said that the US Congress should follow his Twitter to keep up with the latest developments of this potentially explosive situation.

Bad Guys

Fragmentation in the 'Axis of Resistance' led to Soleimani's death

Soleimani coffin funeral
© Twitter/HamidhaiderIranian general Qasem Soleimani's body was laid across a row of four seats on a passenger jet as he received a hero’s tour of Iran.
It was not the US decision to fire missiles against the IRGC commander Brigadier General Qassem Soleimani that killed the Iranian officer and his companions in Baghdad. Yes, of course, the order that was given to launch missiles from the two drones (which destroyed the two cars carrying Sardar Soleimani and his companion the Iraqi commander in al-Hashd al-Shaabi Jamal Jaafar Al-Tamimi aka Abu Mahdi al-Muhandes and burned their bodies in the vehicle) came from US command and control. However, the reason President Donald Trump made this decision derives from the weakness of the "axis of resistance", which has completely retreated from the level of performance that Iran believed it was capable of after decades of work to strengthen this "axis".

A close companion of Major General Qassim Soleimani, to whom he spoke hours before boarding the plane that took him from Damascus to Baghdad, told me:
"The nobleman died. Palestine above all has lost Hajj Qassem (Soleimani). He was the "King" of the Axis of the Resistance and its leader. He was assassinated and this is exactly what he was hoping to reach in this life (Martyrdom). However, this axis will live and will not die. No doubt, the Axis of the Resistance needs to review its policy and regenerate itself to correct its path. This was what Hajj Qassim was complaining about and planning to work on and strategizing about in his last hours. "

Bad Guys

Venezuela parliament speaker election: Chaos inside & outside, Guaido accused of provocation after he was 'denied' entry

guaido
Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido has been accused of pulling a PR stunt after a dramatic video showed him mounting a fence to enter the parliament, as it voted to replace him as the head of the legislature.

The opposition-led National Assembly changed guard on Sunday, with the majority of lawmakers electing Luis Parra, an MP from the centrist Justice First, a party in opposition to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's United Socialist Party (PSUV).

One of the absentees was US-backed opposition figurehead Juan Guaido, the now ex-leader of the National Assembly, who proclaimed himself the country's 'interim president' a year ago.

Megaphone

Moscow: Iran's rollback on 2015 deal commitments poses no risk of nuclear arms proliferation

nuclear centrifuges
© AFP / Atomic Energy Organization of Iran
Blaming Tehran for its decision not to adhere to the 2015 nuclear deal won't work, as it's a direct consequence of the US's withdrawal from the pact and increased sanctions pressure on Iran, the Foreign Ministry said.

The rollback on uranium enrichment constraints detailed in the landmark international agreement "in itself poses no threat in terms of proliferation of nuclear weapons," the ministry said in a statement.

The fact that Iran is acting in "close cooperation and under supervision" of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) should eliminate all concerns, it added.