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NATO warmongers planning to step up anti-Russian aggression in Eastern Europe

Johannes Stern
World Socialist Web Site
Thu, 05 Feb 2015 21:05 UTC
Image

Barack Obama and Estonian Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas
NATO defense ministers are meeting in Brussels today to consolidate the military alliance against Russia, increasing the risk of a direct military confrontation between nuclear-armed powers.

NATO sources have revealed plans to establish a long-term presence in Eastern Europe, according to a report in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAS). So-called NATO "Force Integration Units" will be established in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria. There are also plans to deploy such a unit in Hungary at a later time.

The units will consist of 40 soldiers each. They will be tasked with preparing exercises for a new NATO rapid response force and coordinating military activities in emergencies. Germany, which is spearheading the operation this year, intends to deploy a total of 25 soldiers within the units.

The ground troops of the rapid response force are to consist of a brigade of some 5,000 soldiers. The goal is for their most flexible units to have the capability to move to a new location within 48 hours. The entire brigade will be trained and equipped to be able to move to a new location within a week. The leadership of the operation will rotate yearly between NATO member countries.

According to the FAS, NATO defense ministers have already decided on the equipment to be provided during the "test phase," which is to last until the beginning of next year. Starting in April, a company of German paratroopers will supplement American units that have been stationed in the Baltic States and Poland since last year.

Two weeks ago, the FAS revealed that NATO defense ministers will convene the Nuclear Planning Group (NPG) at the beginning of today's meeting to discuss "the nuclear threat scenario from Russia in the past few months."


Comment: Russia is not a nuclear threat. It's the U.S./NATO/EU that are aggressively surrounding Russia, not the other way around. They are the ones who are discussing military strategy against Russia. The bullies are working hard to try and figure out a way to stop Russia from furthering strengthening itself through economic and political alliances and turn it into a puppet state like it has Ukraine.

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Stock Down

Conspiracy! Saudi oil used to manipulate Russian support of Syria's Assad

Mark Mazzetti, Eric Schmitt and David D. Kirkpatrick
New York Times
Tue, 03 Feb 2015 00:32 UTC
Image
© Rob Griffith
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, left, and King Salman of Saudi Arabia, then the crown prince, at a session of the G20 summit talks in November in Brisbane, Australia.
Saudi Arabia has been trying to pressure President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to abandon his support for President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, using its dominance of the global oil markets at a time when the Russian government is reeling from the effects of plummeting oil prices.


Comment: Wow, mainstream press reporting on a "conspiracy"?


Saudi Arabia and Russia have had numerous discussions over the past several months that have yet to produce a significant breakthrough, according to American and Saudi officials. It is unclear how explicitly Saudi officials have linked oil to the issue of Syria during the talks, but Saudi officials say - and they have told the United States - that they think they have some leverage over Mr. Putin because of their ability to reduce the supply of oil and possibly drive up prices.

"If oil can serve to bring peace in Syria, I don't see how Saudi Arabia would back away from trying to reach a deal," a Saudi diplomat said. An array of diplomatic, intelligence and political officials from the United States and the Middle East spoke on the condition of anonymity to adhere to protocols of diplomacy.

Comment: Despite the claims that the oil price drop is due to natural supply and demand forces, this NY Times piece suggests that geopolitics are more likely the reason for the oil price manipulation.

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Blackbox

Who is behind the Islamic State?

Prem Shankar Jha
Tehelka
Wed, 03 Sep 2014 23:20 UTC
The violent rise of the Islamic State and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is a classic case of the dog biting its master.
isis guy
© AP
Two-and-a-half months after the latest avatar of a long-existent Islamist army, the Islamic State (formerly Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), cut into Iraq, its ranks swelled to some 30,000 fighters in Iraq and 50,000 in Syria. It has entrenched itself in Mosul, Tikrit, Fallujah and Ramadi in northern Iraq, captured the Baiji oilfield, overran and lost the Mosul dam, and has been generally murdering and pillaging on a scale that has not been seen since Pope Innocent III's 20-year-long crusade against the 'heretical' Cathars of southern France in 1209 AD.

One man could have broken the IS long before it went berserk - US President Barack Obama. Until almost up to the minute that the IS beheaded its second American news reporter, Steven Sotloff, (allegedly on 2 September), the most powerful man in the world was dithering.

There is a good reason why: because the IS cannot be defeated without denying it a safe haven in Syria - and this, as General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, pointed out on 21 August, cannot be done without the cooperation of the Syrian government. Placed in an uncomfortable position - Iran has long been the US government's resident bugbear - Obama is unwilling to concede this, not only because it would be an admission of the monumental folly of his stance on Syria, but also because it would have him locking horns with Israel. Trying to keep it light, Gen Dempsey then told reporters on 24 August on his way to Afghanistan that he believed that the IS was primarily "a regional threat".

Comment: So is there more to the story behind ISIS than meets the eye? At the very least, the U.S.'s actions would seem to suggest so. See: U.S. continues to airdrop weapons and aid to ISIS - a group they're allegedly fighting

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Stormtrooper

1,000 Israeli settlers invade al-Aqsa Mosque in January


Press TV
Wed, 04 Feb 2015 15:51 UTC
Image

Israeli security forces storming al-Aqsa Mosque
Approximately one thousand Israeli settlers in January alone have invaded the holy al-Aqsa Mosque Compound in East Jerusalem al-Quds.

Some 965 Israeli settlers accompanied by Israeli security forces stormed the holy Islamic site in January, said the al-Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage.

Israel continues to restrict the movement of Palestinian worshipers to the al-Aqsa Mosque. The invasion has led to many conflicts between Palestinian worshipers and Israelis.

Comment: The Torah states explicitly: "Do not wrong a stranger who resides with you in your land. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens: you shall love the stranger as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God" (Lev. 19:33-34).

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Document

Ukraine video updates: DPR says Ukraine planning terror attack in Debaltsevo

South Front and Kazzura
YouTube
Wed, 04 Feb 2015 22:46 UTC
basurin
In the clip below, DPR Deputy of Defense Eduard Basurin announces plans for a Ukrainian 'false flag' in the region of Debaltsevo sometime in the next few days, to coincide with the Munich Security Conference on 6-8 February (this weekend).

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Yoda

Russian oligarchs receive Putin's ultimatum: Voluntarily structure your business to support the country or face losing it

Crimson Alter
FortRuss
Wed, 04 Feb 2015 16:14 UTC
Putin Russian economy oligarchs
© BBC
2015: The Apocalypse or the Renaissance of the Russian economy?

Reading endless stories of schizo-patriots and liberals that the Russian economy will soon experience a complete collapse, would be very amusing if these stories, shaped exactly by the manuals of Rand Corporation, did not get on the nerves of real Russians. We all have a difficult year ahead, and to live with an eye on a "total collapse, looming on the horizon," described by the gloom-and-doom prophets of all colors, - is a dubious pleasure. To live in constant fear that "the oligarchs will overthrow Putin, knock him out with a snuff-box, and the time will come to go out to the Patriotic Maidan to save Moscow", is simply impossible. It is impossible not to notice that this psychosis is created skillfully and the main card of the manipulators is based on the hope that the audience will not notice those facts that clearly indicate that the situation is moving in a completely different direction.


Comment: Indeed. RAND Corporation perfected the blueprint of the "color revolution".

Briefly, this scenario can be formulated as follows: subjugation of the oligarchy plus full state capitalism. About this, as a terrible disaster for the Russian economy, talks German Gref. Actually, this is not a disaster, but a renaissance.

In the working plan of the structure of the Russian economy, the Kremlin decided to take into account the positive and negative experience of the crisis of 2008 with amendments to current geopolitical realities. By all indications, at the famous meeting with Russian business leaders, Putin gave the oligarchs a choice: work for the country (dedollarization, participation in support of the ruble, the transfer of control over enterprises into the Russian jurisdiction, and so on) or the state will 'deal' with them and take the property.

Comment: Putin doesn't seek to limit the activity of Russia's business class. He wants to see it expand. What will not be tolerated is the exploitation of Russia's resources for the enrichment of a few. It's heartening to see a country with leaders who understand that the activity of each citizen should contribute to the benefit of all. What a concept!

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Footprints

Why Belarus and Kazakhstan pretend to be neutral on Ukraine

Joaquin Flores
Fort Russ
Wed, 04 Feb 2015 22:08 UTC

Comment: Flores provides some interesting background information on Belarus's stance in the Ukraine conflict, and how it might fit into the bigger picture. Check out these links for more relevant info:

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko
© Michail Metsel/TASS
Our own team analyst Joaquin Flores explains why Belarus and Kazakhstan pretend to be neutral.

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TV

Ukraine crisis news: Kiev provides no humanitarian corridor but bombs hospital instead


South Front
Wed, 04 Feb 2015 21:50 UTC
Uglegorsk civilians
© Twitter
Civilians being rescued from the warzone in Uglegorsk by the militsia, who unilaterally provided a humitarian corridor. And they didn't have kind words for Poroshenko!
  • Militsia provides humanitarian corridor for civilians in war zone, whereas Kiev rejects it
  • Kiev bombs hospital and kindergarden in Donetsk
  • Novorossia uses fighter jet to bomb Kiev forces

A video translated into English and uploaded by Kazzura shows the evacuation:

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Vader

Same old CIA dirty tactics? Fomenting covert war in Venezuela

Eva Golinger
Counterpunch
Mon, 02 Feb 2015 00:00 UTC
Venezuela Protest Jan 2015
© Screenshot YouTube
There is a coup underway in Venezuela. The pieces are all falling into place like a bad CIA movie. At every turn a new traitor is revealed, a betrayal is born, full of promises to reveal the smoking gun that will justify the unjustifiable. Infiltrations are rampant, rumors spread like wildfire, and the panic mentality threatens to overcome logic. Headlines scream danger, crisis and imminent demise, while the usual suspects declare covert war on a people whose only crime is being gatekeeper to the largest pot of black gold in the world.

This week, as the New York Times showcased an editorial degrading and ridiculing Venezuelan President Maduro, labeling him "erratic and despotic" ("Mr. Maduro in his Labyrinth", NYT January 26, 2015), another newspaper across the Atlantic headlined a hack piece accusing the President of Venezuela's National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, and the most powerful political figure in the country after Maduro, of being a narcotics kingpin ("The head of security of the number two Chavista defects to the U.S. and accuses him of drug trafficking", ABC, January 27, 2015). The accusations stem from a former Venezuelan presidential guard officer, Leasmy Salazar, who served under President Chavez and was recruited by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), now becoming the new "golden child" in Washington's war on Venezuela.

Comment: President Maduro well knows who is behind the plans to promote a coup in his country. As Oliver Stone comments, the US has a history of attempting to destabilize Venezuela:
They have seen this movie before. In 2002, the Bush administration "provided training, institution building, and other support to individuals and organizations understood to be actively involved in the military coup" that briefly overthrew then-President Hugo Chávez, according to the State Department. After the coup failed, Washington stepped up funding to opposition groups, which has continued to this day.
See also:

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Bullseye

Atrocities in Ukraine: Shedding light on the excuse of ignorance

Aeneas Georg
Sott.net
Tue, 03 Feb 2015 12:46 UTC
Albert Einstein quote
© Unknown
Wherever atrocities happen it is a crime. Wherever atrocities happen AND the media remains silent it is not only a crime, but also a dark spot on the conscience of humanity. As Hitchcock showed in the documentary of the Holocaust and the Nazi concentration camps, the people living near these camps claimed to be unaware of the atrocities being committed in their midst. Information was available, but as Harrison Koehli wrote in his article, a number of social conformity biases take effect. This causes unpleasant events to be explained away and compartmentalized in a dark corner of the brain. It is one of the characteristics of authoritarian followers, as Bob Altemeyer has shown in his studies. Today, even more so than in the 1930's, the information is only a Google search away. Yet, in all fairness, the signal to noise ratio is probably the same as in the '30s, especially given that the vast majority of the media is owned by just six corporations who do not appear to have the interests of humanity at heart.

One example is Ukraine. The tragedy in Ukraine has now been ongoing for more than a year. The Western media has, throughout the entire sequence of events, been accusing Russia of starting the conflict by invading Ukraine. Sanctions upon sanctions have been heaped on Russia based on those accusations, which in both the Russian and alternative media have been exposed as falsehoods. Yet everything that contradicts the official Western line has been labelled Russian propaganda and the statements coming from the Western installed puppets in Kiev taken as unquestionable facts.

But the truth is slowly emerging, even from statements made by Western and Ukrainian leaders. Below is a list of statements made in recent days which contradict the official Western government and media narrative for the last year and highlight the truth of most of the claims made by Russian and alternative media over the same time period.
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