Puppet MastersS


Bad Guys

White House 'perplexed' after Netanyahu cancels delegation to DC

John Kirby
© Evan Vucci / AP
The White House on Monday said it was puzzled by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to cancel a delegation meeting in Washington after the U.S. abstained from a U.N. Security Council vote calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.

"We're kind of perplexed by this," national security communications adviser John Kirby said when asked for President Biden's reaction to the decision.

When later asked for Biden's personal reaction, Kirby said he hasn't talked directly to the president. He added that Biden and Netanyahu hadn't spoken Monday.

Mr. Potato

Clueless Kamala Harris humiliated in Puerto Rico

kamala harris puerto rico
© Drew Angerer/AFP via Getty ImagesKamala misses the point in Puerto Rico
Started clapping along with a song that was a protest against her.

A video shows Vice President Kamala Harris clapping along with a song during her visit to Puerto Rico, before being told that the song is actually a protest against her.

Well, this is awkward.

Bad Guys

Moscow attack reminds us of the links between Islamists and Kiev's fundamentalist nationalists

The Wall Street Journal, Sudan, Kyiv troops Sudan
On March 22, 2024, a commando of four fighters attacked the audience of a rock concert at the Crocus City Hall in Krasnogorsk (a north-eastern suburb of Moscow), killing 133 people and wounding 140 others. It then set fire to the building.

The Russians stopped the terrorist commando as they tried to cross the Ukrainian border, while on the other side they were expected. They were identified as Tajiks. They confessed to having been recruited via the Internet to kill for money. They said they had had no contact with their employer. However, a business card in the name of Dmytro Yarosh was found on them. As Yarosh was founder of the Pravy Sektor militia, number 2 on the Ukrainian Security Council, and then advisor to the head of the armed forces, the Russian authorities immediately accused Ukraine. Yarosh denied his country's involvement [1]. Seven accomplices were also arrested.

The Russian anti-terrorist police tortured these terrorists and filmed their actions. Public television showed them and commented on them. Russian culture is both European and Asian. The Russian people feel no empathy for criminals.

Daesh claimed responsibility for the attack, cutting short accusations of a Russian false-flag operation. These terrorists were not fanatics, but professionals. They didn't immolate themselves in public, but fled, like those who attacked Paris and Saint-Denis, killing 130 people in 2015. So they didn't act out of hatred of Russia, but as part of a military operation whose strategic implications had been thought out in advance.

According to US National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson, Islamic State terrorists are solely responsible for this attack. Numerous commentators have denounced any amalgam between the Islamic organization and supporters of the Kiev government. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of reflexively attacking Ukraine. Yet Russian President Vladimir Putin has maintained his accusations exclusively against Kiev, ignoring Daesh.

Since 2014 and the overthrow of the elected Ukrainian president, we have regularly highlighted the links between integral nationalists and Islamists, and particularly the role of Dmytro Yarosh. The facts speak for themselves. We don't know whether or not the Ukrainians organized this attack, but it's clear that they knew the attackers very well: Ukrainian integral nationalists and jihadists have been fighting together for three quarters of a century.

Arrow Down

Trump NYC bond reduced to $175 million at 11th hour

trump lititia james fraud case
© ABC News/Screenshot/Brendan McDermid-Pool/Getty ImagesNew York Attorney General Letitia James said she is "prepared" to ask the judge to seize former President Trump's assets if he cannot pay the $354 million judgment handed down in his civil fraud case.
Update (1233ET): Following the appeals court decision reducing his bond, Trump posted on Truth Social that he will satisfy it.

"We will abide by the decision of the Appellate Division, and post either a bond, equivalent securities, or cash."


* * *

A New York court of appeals has significantly reduced the bond required to stop his properties from being seized by authorities from $454 million to $175 million, in order to appeal his New York civil fraud trial.

X

Zelensky fires security chief

Aleksey Danilov
© Aleksandr Gusev / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty ImagesFILE PHOTO: Aleksey Danilov.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky dismissed the head of the National Security and Defense Council (SNBO), Aleksey Danilov, on Tuesday. The security chief has been known to resort to combative and abrasive rhetoric.

The relevant decree has been published on the Ukrainian president's official website but provides no reason for the decision.

Aleksandr Litvinenko has since been named as the new SNBO chief. He has been at the helm of the Ukrainian foreign intelligence service since July 2021 and prior to that served as the deputy SNBO head.

Danilov has been known for harsh statements during his tenure. In late 2023, he insisted that all Ukrainians must "grow up" and fight, when commenting on Kiev's recruitment troubles.

At the time, he also said that Ukraine's planned mobilization drive would not last one day or one month, but that the whole process could take at least a year.

Comment: His lack of tact certainly makes asking for money for the Ukraine war effort more difficult. But is it so simple or is there more to it?


Dollars

Major billionaire Republican donors rallied to aid Trump in paying $454 million bond

Donald Trump
© AP Photo / Butch Dill2024 Presidential candidate Donald Trump
Major Republican donors rallied up to assist former president Donald Trump in covering a hefty $454 million bond required in a civil fraud case ahead of the deadline on March 25, sources told the news agency, Reuters.

What is Trump's civil fraud case about?

Trump is facing a New York civil case where he was found liable for inflating his net worth to obtain better loan and insurance terms, resulting in a massive judgment against him.

Billionaires who rallied to support Trump

Billionaire hedge fund founder John Paulson and oil magnate Harold Hamm are among the prominent figures involved in this effort. They were seeking financial aid to help Trump pay the bond amount. Reuters reported that a donor offered more than $10 million towards the bond over the weekend, but was later told it was not necessary.

Black Magic

Kiev's SBU chief hints at assassinations, boasts of terror attacks on Russian infrastructure, during interview on Ukrainian TV

The head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Vasyl Malyuk
© publicistjournalist.comThe head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Vasyl Malyuk
The head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Vasyl Malyuk, has pointed to his agency's involvement in the murders and assassination attempts on a number of politicians and public figures, the Ukrainian TV channel ICTV reported live.

In an interview with the TV channel, Malyuk said:
In no way will we officially recognise this, but at the same time I will tell you individual details.
Malyuk said that the explosive-filled statue, which killed military officer Vladlen Tatarsky, contained 400 grams of thermobar, 800 grams of plastid was used in the attempted assassination of LPR [Luhansk People's Republic] Prosecutor General Sergey Gorenko, and former Rada MP Illia Kyva was shot dead with a 9×19 calibre pistol. Malyuk noted:
For a long time they thought a missile flew into [Gorenko's] window, 800 grams of plastic was there.

Comment: The interview:


RT provides further details of the Kiev-juntas attacks on Russian infrastructure:
Ukrainian security service boasts about attacks on Russian oil refineries

In a statement on Monday, Vasily Malyuk said transport and oil infrastructure are among "the most painful points" that his agency "hits daily" amid the hostilities with Moscow.

The sites are "legitimate targets" because they "work for the Russian military industrial complex," the senior official claimed, adding that Ukrainian strikes can happen "even where they are least expected."

A series of Ukrainian drone attacks have targeted Russian oil sites since mid-January, in some cases causing disruption at the facilities.


The attacks against Russian infrastructure, which has been ongoing since the start of the SMO - if not before - run into the hundreds, so much so that Wikipedia has give them their own page: Russian mystery fires (2022-present)

See also: Massive explosion at Russia's Voktinsk munitions factory


The Financial Times claimed last week that US officials have urged Kiev to halt the strikes over concerns that they could cause shortages on the global energy market. In particular, the White House is concerned that a hike in gas prices in the US could undermine President Joe Biden's chances of reelection in November, according to the report.

The Ukrainian government has denied being pressured by the Americans. Mikhail Podoliak, a senior aide to President Vladimir Zelensky, branded the FT report "fictitious information" in an interview last Friday.

Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy infrastructure are lawful and necessary to undermine its military, he insisted, while claiming that Moscow's attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure are "genocidal" in intent. Nobody can "dictate to Ukraine the conditions on how to prosecute this war," Podoliak added.


Up until recently, Russia was extremely restrained and focused its attacks on primarily military infrastructure - as is evidenced by the incredibly low civilian death toll - however, with the Moscow terror attack, it's likely that will change somewhat: Swathes of Ukraine go dark after Russia pummels energy infrastructure


The White House reiterated its policy not to encourage Ukraine to deliver strikes inside Russia when asked about the FT report by the Ukrainian branch of state-funded news outlet Voice of America.


This is no different to how The White House asks Israel, nicely, to try not to genocide Gazans; all the while it sends Tel Aviv bombs and billions of dollars.


The Russian military resumed massive long-range strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure last week after a months-long pause. Ukrainian officials said a barrage on Friday caused the most significant damage to the power grid thus far in the armed conflict.

Moscow added several Ukrainian energy facilities to the list of targets it considers legitimate in October 2022. President Vladimir Putin said at the time that the shift in military tactics was justified by the Ukrainian bombing of the Crimean Bridge earlier that month. The attack involved a powerful explosive device being smuggled inside a truck and detonated on the bridge, killing the driver and four other civilians.
This Ukrainian man complains how those paraded around Ukraine as heroes weren't fighting on the front line but were instead involved in terrorism:


See also: US, UK and Ukraine could be behind Moscow terror attack - FSB chief


Attention

The Nuland - Budanov - Tajik - Crocus connection

Wicked Witch
© Public Domain
Let's start with the possible chain of events that may have led to the Crocus terror attack. This is as explosive as it gets. Intel sources in Moscow discreetly confirm this is one of the FSB's prime lines of investigation.

December 4, 2023. Former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen Mark Milley, only 3 months after his retirement, tells CIA mouthpiece The Washington Post: "There should be no Russian who goes to sleep without wondering if they're going to get their throat slit in the middle of the night (...) You gotta get back there and create a campaign behind the lines."

January 4, 2024: In an interview with ABC News, "spy chief" Kyrylo Budanov lays down the road map: strikes "deeper and deeper" into Russia.

January 31: Victoria Nuland travels to Kiev and meets Budanov. Then, in a dodgy press conference at night in the middle of an empty street, she promises "nasty surprises" to Putin: code for asymmetric war.

February 22: Nuland shows up at a Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) event and doubles down on the "nasty surprises" and asymmetric war. That may be interpreted as the definitive signal for Budanov to start deploying dirty ops.

February 25: The New York Times publishes a story about CIA cells in Ukraine: nothing that Russian intel does not already know.

Then, a lull until March 5 - when crucial shadow play may have been in effect. Privileged scenario: Nuland was a key dirty ops plotter alongside the CIA and the Ukrainian GUR (Budanov). Rival Deep State factions got hold of it and maneuvered to "terminate" her one way or another - because Russian intel would have inevitably connected the dots.

Yet Nuland, in fact, is not "retired" yet; she's still presented as Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs and showed up recently in Rome for a G7-related meeting, although her new job, in theory, seems to be at Columbia University (a Hillary Clinton maneuver).

Meanwhile, the assets for a major "nasty surprise" are already in place, in the dark, and totally off radar. The op cannot be called off.

March 5: Little Blinken formally announces Nuland's "retirement".

March 7: At least one Tajik among the four-member terror commando visits the Crocus venue and has his photo taken.

March 7-8 at night: U.S. and British embassies simultaneously announce a possible terror attack on Moscow, telling their nationals to avoid "concerts" and gatherings within the next two days.

March 9: Massively popular Russian patriotic singer Shaman performs at Crocus. That may have been the carefully chosen occasion targeted for the "nasty surprise" - as it falls only a few days before the presidential elections, from March 15 to 17. But security at Crocus was massive, so the op is postponed.

March 22: The Crocus City Hall terror attack.

Black Magic

EU's Borrell admits EU, US 'can't afford for Russia to win Ukraine war', our 'interests will be damaged'

Josep Borrell
© Russian Foreign Ministry/TASSJosep Borrell considers that if Russia wins, "US and European interests will be damaged"EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell
The European Union is supporting Ukraine based on its own interests rather than out of love for the Ukrainian people, top EU diplomat Josep Borrell told CNN.

"We cannot afford for Russia to win this war. Otherwise, US and European interests will be damaged. It's not a matter of generosity alone; it's not a matter of support for Ukraine because we love the Ukrainian people. It is in our own interests, and it is also in the interests of the US as a global player, the one who has to be perceived as a reliable partner and a security provider to the allies. This is why we call on the US to open and approve the supplementary budget," he pointed out.


Comment: Indeed; because the West as the unipolar 'security provider' has been well and truly refuted with its failing proxy war in Ukraine.

It's also about time that a top official acknowledged that the 500,000+ dead Ukrainians were sacrificed primarily for the interests of those in the West.


Borrell added that the EU was making every possible effort "to support Ukraine more and quicker."

Comment: The terrorist's massacre in Moscow has further demonstrated just how desperate the West is, and how vicious it will be in its attempts to maintain its precarious position on the global stage: US, UK and Ukraine could be behind Moscow terror attack - FSB chief




Bullseye

Best of the Web: US, UK and Ukraine could be behind Moscow terror attack - FSB chief

crocus moscow
© Maxim Blinov / SputnikCrocus concert hall, March 22nd 2024. 139 people died and around 200 were injured in last Friday's Crocus City Hall massacre.
The US, UK and Ukraine may have been behind last Friday's terrorist attack on a concert venue in a suburb of Moscow, which claimed lives of 139 people and left around 200 injured, according to the head of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB).

Aleksandr Bortnikov told reporters on Tuesday that the authorities are currently trying to establish the identity of everyone involved in the attack, both inside and outside Russia.

When asked whether the US, Britain and Ukraine could be behind the terrorist attack, the FSB chief responded: "We think that this is so. In any case, we are now talking about the information that we have. This is general information, but they [investigators] also have concrete results."


Comment: An official statement as significant as this will likely have been sanctioned from higher up, and it will be supported by irrefutable proof which will be shared at what Russia considers to be the most appropriate time.


Comment: Whilst the hegemon and its vassals will undoubtedly seek to refute or bury such an announcement - they already tried to distance their involvement by claiming, less than an hour after the attack, that ISIS was responsible - it's possible that this can be considered yet another a significant marker in what is a rapidly escalating situation: The following tweets highlight the likely involvement of the West and Ukraine in the Moscow terrorist attack: