Puppet Masters

Vladimir Putin, Syria's Pacifier-in-Chief

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
Wed, 23 Oct 2019 19:35 UTC

Russia-Turkey deal establishes 'safe zone' along Turkish border and there will be joint Russia-Turkey military patrols

Deal!

The negotiations in Sochi were long - over six hours - tense and tough. Two leaders in a room with their interpreters and several senior Turkish ministers close by if advice was needed. The stakes were immense: a road map to pacify northeast Syria, finally.

The press conference afterwards was somewhat awkward - riffing on generalities. But there's no question that in the end Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan managed the near-impossible.

The Russia-Turkey deal establishes a safe zone along the Syrian-Turkish border - something Erdogan had been gunning for since 2014. There will be joint Russia-Turkey military patrols. The Kurdish YPG (People's Protection Units), part of the rebranded, US-aligned Syrian Democratic Forces, will need to retreat and even disband, especially in the stretch between Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ayn, and they will have to abandon their much-cherished urban areas such as Kobane and Manbij. The Syrian Arab Army will be back in the whole northeast. And Syrian territorial integrity - a Putin imperative - will be preserved.

Comment: As we suspected, the Turkish 'invasion' of northeastern Syria last month was more like an incursion done with a view to stimulating Syrian-Kurdish cooperation, presenting Trump with a problem if American troops got caught in the crossfire.

Trump probably saw through the ruse, but to his credit he played along with it and spun US troops' withdrawal from the border region into a 'win' in terms of his electoral promise to 'end endless wars'.

Trump can claim all the credit if he wants, but everyone knows there's only one peacemaker...

Durham expands investigation into FBI misconduct based on new evidence

Gregg Re, Catherine Herridge
Fox News
Wed, 23 Oct 2019 19:19 UTC

© Juan Manuel Herrera/OAS via AP
This Nov. 12, 2014 photo made available by the Organization of American States shows Maltese academic Joseph Mifsud during a meeting in Washington. It was Mifsud who allegedly dropped the first hint that the Russians were interfering into the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

U.S. Attorney John Durham's investigation into the origins of the FBI's 2016 Russia probe has expanded based on new evidence uncovered during a recent trip to Rome with Attorney General Bill Barr, sources told Fox News on Tuesday.

The sources said Durham was "very interested" to question former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former CIA Director John Brennan, an anti-Trump critic who recently dismissed the idea.

The two Obama administration officials were at the helm when the unverified and largely discredited Steele dossier, written by British ex-spy Christopher Steele and funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee, was used to justify a secret surveillance warrant against former Trump adviser Carter Page.

Prospect of peace in the New Middle East thanks to Putin

Tom Luongo
tomluongo.me
Sat, 19 Oct 2019 00:00 UTC

Peace in the Middle East is coming at us fast and we're going to have Russian President Vladimir Putin to thank for it.

The howls of agony coming from U.S. and European foreign policy centers are deafening. Pat Buchanan lists them in his latest article which asks if Putin is now the new king of the Middle East:

"Donald Trump Has Handed Putin the Middle East on a Plate" was the title of a Telegraph column. "Putin Seizes on Trump's Syria Retreat to Cement Middle East Role," said the Financial Times. The U.S. press parroted the British: Putin is now the new master of the Mideast. And woe is us.

Remember that the epicenter of virulent anti-Russian, pro-Israeli sentiment doesn't begin with the Neocons along K-Street. It begins with the remnants of the British imperial class which still holds tremendous sway over British politics.

Think I'm wrong about that. Just look at Brexit.

Comment: See also Pat Buchanan's article: Is Putin the new 'King' of the Middle East?

OPCW skewed key evidence in Douma chemical incident towards a particular outcome, claims watchdog

RT
Wed, 23 Oct 2019 14:58 UTC

© Screengrab via Reuters
A scene at a Douma hospital that was used to push a claim of a chemical weapon attack by the Syrian government.

The international chemical weapons watchdog likely skewed its own investigation of the 2018 chemical weapons incident in Douma, Syria to come to a predetermined decision, a damning conclusion based on whistleblower testimony said.

The April 2018 incident in the Damascus suburb was quickly blamed on the Syrian government by the West. Within days, the US, the UK and France launched barrages of cruise missiles in retaliation. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the international chemical weapons watchdog, later backed the justification, all but pointing the finger at Syria in its final report, which was released in March.

Now a panel of experts says the report was based on a flawed conclusion and likely deliberately steered toward the West-favored outcome. The accusation is based on evidence and testimony of an OPCW investigator, who came forward with damning evidence that his own organization had breached its mission.

Comment: See also:

Report: Russia's role as Mideast power broker comes at US expense

Sputnik
Tue, 22 Oct 2019 18:16 UTC

Russian President Vladimir Putin's Tuesday meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan following the US withdrawal from northern Syria illustrates Russia's rise as a Mideast power-broker at the expense of the United States, the Soufan Group said in a report on Tuesday.

"President Putin has travelled to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and spoken with Turkish President Erdogan, Iranian President Hasan Rouhani and Israeli Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu. Unlike the United States, Russia maintains working relationships with nearly every actor involved in Syria, affording Moscow a level of influence that no other country has been able to achieve throughout the eight-year-long civil war".

Putin's scheduled meeting with Erdogan in the Black Sea resort town of Sochi on 22 October reflects the prospect of Russia and Syria working out a peace agreement while leaving the United States sidelined and marginalised, the report said.

Idlib, Syria: Assad visits frontline, vows to retake all Syrian land (photos)

RT
Wed, 23 Oct 2019 00:36 UTC

Syrian President Bashar Assad has visited the frontline in the Idlib province - the last major stronghold of the militants. He then sent a clear message to Ankara that the Damascus intends to regain all of its land.

Assad made the surprise visit to the frontline on Tuesday. He met the troops west of the town of Khan Sheikhoun, recently liberated by the Syrian Arab Army.

Despite vows to end 'endless wars,' about 200K US troops remain deployed around the globe

The Straits Times
Tue, 22 Oct 2019 09:11 UTC

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly promised to end what he calls America's "endless wars", fulfilling a promise he made during the campaign.

No wars have ended, though, and more troops have deployed to the Middle East in recent months than have come home. Mr Trump is not so much ending wars, as he is moving troops from one conflict to another.

Tens of thousands of US troops remain deployed all over the world, some in war zones such as Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq and - even still - Syria. And the United States maintains even more troops overseas in large legacy missions far from the wars following the Sept 11 attacks, in such allied lands as Germany, South Korea and Japan.

Although deployment numbers fluctuate daily, based on the needs of commanders, shifting missions and the military's ability to shift large numbers of personnel by transport planes and warships, a rough estimate is that 200,000 troops are deployed overseas today.

Jordan's King Abdullah rejects Pelosi and Schiff by endorsing Trumps withdrawal from Syria

Tore
Loomered
Wed, 23 Oct 2019 18:56 UTC

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and disgraced lying Congressman Adam Schiff met with King Abdullah of Jordan, only to find out that the King of Jordan agrees with President Trump's Syria withdrawal, as well as his support for maintaining the Syrian border, Assad's government, and Russia's reinforcement. I guess they are not ready for prime time players.

This last minute fishing expedition had two stops: Jordan to see a King, and Afghanistan to meet with the Taliban. This alleged bipartisan delegation lead by Pelosi and Schiff is really not bipartisan. Thornberry is the only Republican representative that joined the Pelosi - Schiff fishing expedition. He is not running for re-election. Like all compromised FAKE GOP, corrupt RINOs, he decided to step down rather than be called out.

Bernie Sanders pledges to end practice of prosecuting whistleblowers under Espionage Act

Ryan Grim
The Intercept
Tue, 22 Oct 2019 18:57 UTC

As president, Bernie Sanders would end the practice of using the controversial Espionage Act to prosecute government whistleblowers, the Vermont senator told The Intercept in an interview on Saturday ahead of a major rally in New York.

The century-old law had largely gone out of fashion until it was deployed heavily by the Obama administration, which prosecuted eight people accused of leaking to the media under the Espionage Act, more than all previous presidents combined. President Donald Trump is on pace to break Barack Obama's record if he gets a second term: He has prosecuted eight such whistleblowers, five of them using the Espionage Act, according to the Press Freedom Tracker.

Asked if it is appropriate to prosecute whistleblowers using the Espionage Act, Sanders said, "Of course not."

John Pilger interview with RT UK: British judge's treatment of Assange 'disgraceful, a 1950s showtrial'

RT
Wed, 23 Oct 2019 18:38 UTC

Veteran British journalist John Pilger has blasted the "atrocious" and "appalling" treatment of Julian Assange by a judge who decided this week to reject the whistleblower's request to delay his upcoming US extradition hearing.

"To say it is surreal is not enough, it is simply appalling," Pilger, who was present in the courtroom on Monday, told RT's Going Underground. Pilger accused District Judge Vanessa Baraitser of using "disgraceful" and "dictatorial gestures" toward Assange and said she was clearly biased in favor of the attorney acting on behalf of the US government.

"Her bias was incandescent," Pilger said, adding: "I've never seen anything like this. It belonged in a show trial in the 1950s... Moscow, Prague, you name it."

New Lt. Governor of Virginia Winsome Sears: "We're going to have safer neighborhoods, safer communities, and our children are going to get a good...

parzival

Bill Gates is going to be the one with the uncertain future,,, * New Lt. Governor of Virginia Winsome Sears: "We're going to have safer...

parzival

The more we hear about adverse affects the more we will merely shrug. It's a catch 22. Is that an asteroid trail in the photo?

sass

Welcome to the new normal. The more sensory exposure we have about such things, the less it is an issue.

sass

more misbehaving phuqqin' jewzskies starring on the sott; speaks for itself

Jibrish

Puppet Masters

Vladimir Putin, Syria's Pacifier-in-Chief

Durham expands investigation into FBI misconduct based on new evidence

Prospect of peace in the New Middle East thanks to Putin

OPCW skewed key evidence in Douma chemical incident towards a particular outcome, claims watchdog

Report: Russia's role as Mideast power broker comes at US expense

Idlib, Syria: Assad visits frontline, vows to retake all Syrian land (photos)

Despite vows to end 'endless wars,' about 200K US troops remain deployed around the globe

Jordan's King Abdullah rejects Pelosi and Schiff by endorsing Trumps withdrawal from Syria

Bernie Sanders pledges to end practice of prosecuting whistleblowers under Espionage Act

John Pilger interview with RT UK: British judge's treatment of Assange 'disgraceful, a 1950s showtrial'

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