Puppet MastersS


Pirates

Mali: Macron announces military's first drone strike as operations deliver 'heavy blow' to Islamist group

Macron
© Reuters/Luc GnagoFrench President Emmanuel Macron during visit to Ivory Coast
France's military has said it carried out a drone strike for the first time, during operations in Mali in which 40 alleged terrorists were killed.

On Saturday, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, announced that French forces had "neutralised" 33 jihadists in the central Malian region of Mopti, in an operation that had started the previous night.

In a statement on Monday, the French military command said the drone strike took place during a follow-up operation on Saturday in which a further seven jihadist fighters were killed.

As French commandos were searching the combat zone in Ouagadou forest, 90 miles from the town of Mopti, "they were attacked by a group of terrorists on motorbikes", the statement said. A Reaper drone and a French Mirage 2000 patrol opened fire to support the ground troops.

"This is the first operational strike by an armed drone," the statement said, confirming an earlier report published in the specialist blog Le Mamouth.

Comment: The Guardian, 21/19/2019 French forces in Mali focus on jihadist threat
Macron tweeted that he was "proud of our soldiers who protect us". Two Malian gendarmes also were rescued in the operation, he said. The militants have since regrouped and pushed further into central Mali, where Saturday morning's operation was carried out.



Russian Flag

Pompeo announces John Sullivan as new US ambassador to Russia

John Sullivan
© AP/Natacha PisarenkoJohn Sullivan, US Ambassador to Russia
John Sullivan has been sworn in as the new United States Ambassador to Russia, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement on Monday.

On 12 December, the US Senate confirmed Sullivan to be the next US envoy to Russia in a 70-22 vote. Sullivan, who previously served as deputy secretary of state, will replace Jon Hunstman who completed his tenure in Moscow on 3 October.

"I'm confident John will effectively lead the effort to strengthen cooperation and build a constructive relationship with Russia", Pompeo said in a tweet.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during his recent visit to the United States characterised Sullivan as being a highly professional diplomat and said Moscow would be happy to cooperate with him.

Cross

Israel's other ethnic cleansing project: Palestinian Christians

The Holy Sepulchre
© Picture-Alliance/Marius BeckerThe Holy Sepulchre is one of Christianity's most sacred sites
Palestine's Christian population is dwindling at an alarming rate. The world's most ancient Christian community is moving elsewhere. And the reason for this is Israel.

Christian leaders from Palestine and South Africa sounded the alarm at a conference in Johannesburg on October 15. Their gathering was titled: "The Holy Land: A Palestinian Christian Perspective".

One major issue that highlighted itself at the meetings is the rapidly declining number of Palestinian Christians in Palestine.

There are varied estimates on how many Palestinian Christians are still living in Palestine today, compared with the period before 1948 when the state of Israel was established atop Palestinian towns and villages. Regardless of the source of the various studies, there is near consensus that the number of Christian inhabitants of Palestine has dropped by nearly ten-fold in the last 70 years.

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Star of David

Will the ICC actually hold Israel to account over war crimes?

ICC court house
© WikipediaBuilding of the International Criminal Court
Why does Israel consider itself to be above the law? And why do supporters of the Zionist state look the other way when its war crimes raise their ugly head? Accusations followed by routine denials are the norm now that the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor has announced that she wants to open an investigation into charges of war crimes committed by Israel against Palestinians; the cyclical farce of denying not only the charges but also that the court has any jurisdiction continues.

Instead of trying to sweep the issue under the carpet, though, isn't it time to listen to the evidence from Palestinians who have suffered under one of the most brutal military occupations of the past 100 years? They are, after all, entitled to the same human rights that those who defend Israel so vigorously take for granted, and what better way to prove this than through the ICC?

Comment: Hamas has also expressed support for the ICC charges, even though it has been named as a subject of that same inquiry. They know a real investigation will properly paint their actions as legitimate resistance to an illegal occupation. It might even expose the fact that Israel itself raised up the organization as a counterweight to the Palestinian Authority.




Rocket

Russia will closely monitor new US missile deployments in Europe & Asia-Pacific - Putin

missile
© Ford Williams/U.S. Navy
Moscow will monitor the potential deployment of American short- and intermediate-range missiles in various parts of the world, Vladimir Putin has told the military.

The US has effectively dismantled the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty this year, Putin said at an annual gathering of the Defense Ministry board, which gives new reasons for Russia to be vigilant. The treaty in question banned land-based ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and missile launchers with ranges of up to 5,500km (3,418 miles).
Therefore, we have to monitor possible deployment of American missiles of this class in various parts of the world, first of all Europe and Asia-Pacific
While keeping an eye on these developments, Moscow also needs to "analyze potential military threats and determine measures for the use and further improvement of the armed forces."

The Pentagon is ramping up its strike capabilities after withdrawal from the INF, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said at the same event. The US military will soon be able to scramble nuclear-armed bombers in just 24 hours, reducing the readiness time from the previous ten days.

Aside from that, the Baltic countries witnessed the construction of US early-warning radars capable of scanning Russian airspace within 450km, the minister said. Meanwhile, NATO holds "up to forty explicitly anti-Russian large-scale drills."

Fire

Pelosi's botched impeachment ploy will help Trump towards victory

pink impeachment sign
And so it came to pass, that in the deep state's frenzy of electoral desperation, the 'impeachment' card was played. The hammer has fallen. Nearly the entirety of the legacy media news cycle has been dedicated to the details, and not really pertinent details, but the sorts of details which presume the validity of the charges against Trump in the first place. Yes, they all beg the question. What's forgotten here is that the use of this process along clearly partisan lines, and more - towards clearly partisan aims - is a very serious symptom of the larger undoing of any semblance of stability in the US government.

The fact that the impeachment is dead in the water, by Pelosi's own admission, is evident in Trump's being adamant that indeed it must be sent to the Senate - where he knows he'll be exonerated. But even if it doesn't go to the Senate, what we're left with still appears as a loss for Democrats. Both places are his briar patch. This makes all of this a win-win for team Trump.

Chess

Trump's 'pro-European' Nordstream 2 sanctions are an obvious market grab. But does Europe have the guts to resist?

nord stream 2
© REUTERS/Axel Schmidt
Trump hits Nordstream 2 firms with sanctions on pretense of protecting European interests from Russia as Germany and EU say 'keep out of it.' But does Europe have the power to shake them off?

If the Nordstream 2 pipeline proposed to carry cheese from Switzerland to Germany, and Donald Trump thought that by interfering he could lift America from sixth place on the list of world cheese exporters to higher up the rankings, making him a hero of US dairy farmers, he would be in there meddling, bad-mouthing and doing all he could to scupper the project.

So it should be no surprise that he has announced US sanctions against those responsible for building the 1,225 km pipeline from Kingisepp in Russia to Greifswald in Germany.

Because at the heart of his decision to wade into what is in the main a Russo-German project is that it excludes the US entirely from this deal and simultaneously impacts on its ability to flog its liquified natural gas (LNG) to European countries. It also gives Trump a chance to test the temperature in Europe to see who's on-side and who's not as he heads into 2020.The US has been working at this for some time.

Snakes in Suits

Hunter Biden denies Ukraine money laundering allegations

hunter biden
Update: Biden has denied the allegations against him and asked the court to strike the filing from the record, claiming the allegations were improperly filed, and may constitute "redundant, immaterial, impertinent or scandalous" material, and that it was a "scheme by a non-party simply to make scandalous allegations in the pending suit to gain some quick media attention."

Biden also asked for attorney's fees and costs to address the allegations.

Judge Don McSpadden only agreed that it was improperly filed, striking the evidence on a technicality "as it was not filed in any acceptable manner to this court."

Radar

You better watch out... US military tracks Santa and North Korean 'gifts'

santa
© Reuters; Reuters/Gary Hershorn
With much of the world awaiting North Korea's promised "Christmas gift" for the US, NORAD is busy tracking both missile tests and Santa's journey around the world. Let's hope the two don't get mixed up, netizens joked.

'Tis the season to be on the lookout for intercontinental ballistic missiles. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un promised a "Christmas gift" for the United States earlier this month, should Washington not back down from its demand for him to abandon his nuclear program. Resurrecting the nickname "Rocket Man" for Kim, US President Donald Trump has refused to give in and it remains to be seen whether Kim will play Santa and deliver the explosive "gift" he promised.

With Christmas just hours away, meme-makers and Twitter commenters poked fun at Kim's threat.

Star of David

​​Israel accused of covering up torture in prison

israel prison meggido
© TwitterMegiddo prison in Israel
Addameer (Arabic for conscience) Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association condemned the statement issued by the Israeli Public Security Agency (Shabak) on Wednesday, regarding "the files of several prisoners who were subjected to brutal investigation and torture in the Israeli investigation centres."

It also condemned the inclusion of the name of MP Khalida Jarrar in the case that the Shabak revealed on Wednesday, which held her responsible for an operation the occupation claims that members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine carried out and led to the killing of a settler. The Association considered that this inclusion has political purposes, "as the included information about Khalida in the statement conflicts with the indictment issued against her in the military court," according to Addameer.

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