Puppet MastersS


Binoculars

New Philippines president calls unilateral ceasefire on Asia's longest-running Communist insurgency

duterte philippines
Rodrigo Duterte, age 71, the Philippines' new president
Newly-elected Philippines president Rodrigo Roa Duterte, in his first state of the nation address (SONA), announced an immediate unilateral ceasefire with communist rebels who have been battling government forces since 1968.

Duterte's announcement comes as the Philippines government prepares to resume official peace talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines, National Democratic Party and the armed New People's Army in August, a move which may signal an end to Asia's longest running communist insurgency.

"To the CPP/NPA/NDF, let us end these decades of ambuscades and skirmishes. We are going nowhere. And it is getting bloodier by the day," Duterte said in his speech.

He also called on his "Muslim brothers" to end "centuries of mistrust and warfare", saying that "all of us want peace, not the peace of the dead but the peace of the living. Let me make this appeal to you: If we cannot, as yet, love one another, then in God's name, let us not hate each other too much," he said.

Comment: Duterte means business! He also said, soon after being elected in a landslide victory:
"I will be strict. I will be a dictator, no doubt about it. But only against forces of evil - criminality, drugs and corruption in government. If, after 6 months, there's been no change for the better, I will step down."
He also said more recently:
"It is not the Middle East that exported terrorism to America. America imported terrorism to the Middle East. They forced their way into Iraq and killed Saddam. Look at Iraq now. Look what happened to Libya. Look what happened to Syria."



Chess

Owen Smith claims: 'Corbyn doesn't get patriotism' - at the same time defends his links to a tax avoidance firm

Labour MP Owen Smith
© Geoff Caddick / AFPLabour MP Owen Smith
Labour leadership challenger Owen Smith MP claims Jeremy Corbyn does not "understand" patriotism. At the same time, Smith is defending himself against claims he took free advice from a firm linked to "industrial scale" tax avoidance.

The Rotherham MP told BBC Newsnight that Corbyn holds "liberal" ideas that are at odds with traditional Labour notions of nationhood, nationalism and patriotism.

Smith claimed Labour leader Corbyn's "metropolitan" perspective is not central to the Labour tradition.

The leadership challenger says he will keep NATO's target of spending 2 percent of GDP on defense, will ensure Trident nuclear weapons are renewed and is prepared to launch a nuclear strike if he becomes prime minister.

Gold Seal

If Russians were really behind DNC email leak, Putin should get Pulitzer

buchanan
Waving off the clerics who had come to administer last rites, Voltaire said: "All my life I have ever made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord, make my enemies look ridiculous.' And God granted it."

The tale of the thieved emails at the Democratic National Committee is just too good to be true.

For a year, 74-year-old socialist Bernie Sanders has been saying that, under DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the party has been undercutting his campaign and hauling water for Hillary Clinton.

From the 19,200 emails dumped the weekend before Clinton's coronation, it appears the old boy is not barking mad. The deck was stacked; the referees were in the tank; the game was rigged.

For four decades, some of us have wondered what Jim McCord, security man at CREEP, and his four Cubans were looking for in DNC Chair Larry O'Brien's office at the Watergate. Now it makes sense.

Comment: Buchanan must be one of Putin's useful idiot Kremlin trolls: Iran's on the right side of history: Pat Buchanan slams US warmongers for hyping bogus 'Iranian threat'


Document

After failed coup, U.S. State Dept. authorizes voluntary departure of staff family members

US embassy in Ankara
© Adem Altan / AFPUS embassy in Ankara
The US embassy in Ankara said on Tuesday that the State Department has allowed the family of staff members to leave the country at will. The statement comes amid a state of emergency imposed after the failed coup that took place on July 15.

The voluntary departure of employees' family members is being allowed by both the US embassy in Ankara and the US Consulate General in Istanbul.

"The Department of State made this decision following the July 15 attempted coup and subsequent declaration by the Turkish government of a 90-day State of Emergency," a security message published on the embassy's website on Tuesday states.

The Department "advises US citizens to reconsider travel to Turkey at this time."

"During this period, US citizens in Turkey may see an increase in police or military activities and restrictions on movement," a memo emailed to US citizens residing in Turkey states.

Comment: Further reading:


Attention

Chutzpah: Killary hires disgraced DNC chair for own campaign

Hillary
© State of the Nation
A spectacular implosion has beset the Democratic Party following the Wikileaks release of memos and emails proving, well, just about every accusation from independent media and Sanders supporters made throughout the past year — many of which had been mocked publicly as conspiracies by party insiders.

In the latest jaw-dropper over the nearly 20,000-document leak deserving of the title, DNC-Gate, already-loathed Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz — shamed into resignation from decisive evidence of party collusion with corporate presstitutes against Sanders, among multiple other once-conspiracieshas been dutifully scooped up in an act of mordant hubris by none other than her teflon idol, Hillary Clinton.

Comment: Birds of a feather! Hillary has no shame, no scruples, no conscience. Either way the public votes - Hillary or Drumpf - it looks like they'll get the candidate they deserve.

Speaking of Sanders, something odd happened after his speech at the DNC:
Following a speech given in Philadelphia to Democratic National Convention delegates by Bernie Sanders, his wife, Jane, was caught on a hot mic, saying, "They don't know your name is being put in nomination. That's the concern."

The comment came just after Sanders told delegates on Monday that in order to defeat Donald Trump, "we have got to elect Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine."
What's up with that?


Propaganda

Turkish govt demands apology, retraction of false NBC news report on Erdogan seeking asylum in Germany

msnbc
#ConfrontNBC
Turkey asked on Monday for an apology from U.S.-based cable channel NBC News for its claim about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's whereabouts during the coup attempt in Turkey last Friday. The report by the channel, attributed to a senior U.S. defense official, falsely stated that Erdoğan refused landing rights in Istanbul and was seeking asylum in Germany.

Erdoğan proved the report wrong by arriving in Istanbul the night of the coup and giving a subsequent televised speech on the failed attempt.


The Turkish Embassy in Washington said in a letter that false reporting in such sensitive times for Turkey was a highly irresponsible act and further increased the already high amount of misinformation. The letter which was addressed to NBC News and producer Kyle Griffin, added: "It is outrageous that such important and sensitive information about the well-being of the Turkish President was handled in such an unprofessional way and was divulged without properly checking its validity and the credibility of the source."

Comment: See also: Media watchdog site Newsbud demands public retraction from NBC for unethical false reporting - Erdogan did NOT seek asylum in Germany


Heart - Black

Australian 'Abu Ghraib' horror story: Children teargassed, stripped naked, hooded, strapped to chairs at detention center

Teen boy hooded and strapped
© AFPThis frame grab from Australian Broadcasting Corporation's (ABC) Four Corners program broadcast in Australia on July 25, 2016 and released on July 26, 2016 allegedly shows a teenage boy hooded and strapped into a chair at a youth detention centre in the Northern Territory city of Darwin.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has launched an inquiry following a video broadcast on national TV which showed children being teargassed and strapped to chairs at a detention center that has been likened to Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay.

The footage, aired by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), showed CCTV video of children being detained at the Don Dale Youth Detention Center in Darwin, in the far north of the country.

The grim images show officers grabbing the neck of a boy named Dylan Voller and throwing him to the ground. He is then subsequently stripped naked. Another video shows Voller being teargassed by correctional officers, who just seconds before can be heard saying they wanted to "pulverize" him. Voller suffered some of this abuse when he was just 13. He was on the receiving end of violence for over four years.

"Like all Australians, I've been deeply shocked - shocked and appalled by the images of [the] mistreatment of children," Turnbull said, as quoted by Reuters.

Warning: Graphic Content:


Comment: See also:

Psychopathy in action: The 'atrocity' of Australia's detention regime: "The worst I've seen" - trauma expert


Attention

Hollande vows 'to wage war' against Daesh after priest killing

President Francois Hollande
© BBC
President Francois Hollande has said that France would fight the so-called Islamic State group "by all means".

"We are confronted with a group, Daesh, which has declared war on us," Hollande said, using an alternative name for Isis. "We have to wage war, by every means, (but through) upholding the law, which is because we are a democracy."

Hollande said the assailants "claimed to be from Daesh" and branded the assault as a "vile terrorist attack". "The Catholic community has been hit, but it is all of the French public which is concerned," Hollande said.

He called for national unity in the face of terrorism, urging the French people to "create a solid bloc that no-one can split".

He was speaking after two attackers entered a church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray in a suburb of Rouen in northern France and killed a priest.

Bomb

Churkin: Reported deadly bombing in Manbij, Syria, US completely silent

Manbij tragedy
© fredonialeader.comNATO, US: Not worth mentioning.
The US-led anti-terror coalition in Syria has been "astonishingly" silent about recent reports claiming dozens of civilian casualties in Manbij were caused by its airstrikes, Russia's UN Ambassador said, expressing fears that the probe could be scuttled. Speaking at the UN Security Council meeting on Monday, Vitaly Churkin said that, while Moscow has been "extremely worried" by the reports of civilian deaths in northern Syria, delegations from the Western countries"astonishingly... did not say a word" regarding the matter during the meeting.

Pointing out that an investigation into civilian casualties caused by NATO bombings in Libya has not been forthcoming even five years on, Churkin said no "promises of investigation" on the Manjib deaths were necessary. "I'm sure the American military already very well know the state of affairs," the UN Ambassador said.

After Churkin's speech, US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power said that Washington would "carefully and thoroughly review any and all credible information we can gather about the incident, including information from organizations within Syria that document harm to civilians." Saying that "the United States goes to extraordinary lengths to reduce the risk of non-combatant casualties," the US official instead accused both Damascus and Moscow of striking "hospitals, clinics and medical personnel" in Syria.

Churkin said his US counterpart's surprising reference to the role of civil organizations in investigating the deaths in Aleppo province made him believe that the truth would probably never be known and "everything [could be] swept under the carpet.""So are there no American drones, no American- and their allies' special forces in Syria, no satellite intelligence capabilities of the US, no videos which are being made by all modern fighter jets when conducting a strike? I would not want to believe that the military condition of the US-led coalition is so poor," Churkin told the Security Council meeting, adding that Russia's Defense Ministry "instantly" conducts investigations when accusations against Moscow emerge - and makes all of the evidence public.

Comment: Owning up...is apparently hard to do. Exceptionalism.


Bad Guys

Latest terror attacks prove that US has turned Europe into a time bomb

jihadi terrorist US flag
Several attacks of migrants from the Middle East have shaken Germany and France during the last week. July 18 17-year-old Afghan teen, armed with an ax attacked the train passengers in Würzburg in Bavaria. As it turned out, the young man was placed in a foster home, but came under the influence of propaganda ISIS. Then, on July 22 migrants from Iran Ali Sonboly shot in Munich adolescents of Turkish and Albanian origin, and then shot himself. A total of 10 people were killed. 24 July 21-year-old refugee from Syria in the German city of Reutlingen (Baden-Württemberg) attacked with a machete a pregnant female kebab vendor. A woman was killed, 5 others wounded. Finally, in the evening July 24 in Ansbach (Bavaria) Syrian refugee blew himself up. 12 people were injured. Today, July 26 a priest has been killed in an attack by two armed men at his church near Rouen in northern France. Attackers armed with knives took hostages during morning Mass.

All of these attacks are attributed several factors: criminals turned out to be migrants, all of them had psychological problems, some drank and used drugs. All the German crimes were committed in South Germany (Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg), which witnessed the greatest influx of migrants last year during a crisis with Syrian refugies. Attacks have taken place with a very short interval, but no obvious connection is not visible among the actual perpetrators.

It is worth noting that the attack took place immediately after the terrorist attack in Nice in France. At the same time ISIS intensified terrorist activities around the world. Only as a result of the recent explosion 80 people were killed in Kabul.