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Snakes in Suits

German MPs lash out at Foreign Minister's plans to attend Saudi Arabia festival

German Foreign Minister  Frank-Walter Steinmeier
© AFP 2015/ TOBIAS SCHWARZ
German MPs lashed out at the country's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier over his plans to attend a cultural festival in Saudi Arabia, according to the German newspaper Die Welt.

A decision by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier to attend a cultural festival in Saudi Arabia infuriated German lawmakers, the Die Welt newspaper reported. The festival is due to take place in Janadriyah, about 42 km northeast of the capital Riyadh, in February.

Among those who expressed their dissatisfaction with the move was Norbert Rottgen, chairman of the German parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee.

"In light of the mass executions in Saudi Arabia, I believe that [the German FM] taking part in the Janadriyah Festival is irrelevant," Rottgen said.

Comment: If it was Saudi Arabia's plan to isolate Iran through these executions it looks like its plans are backfiring. Also see:
Riyadh's execution of Shiite Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr was timed to coincide with the expected lifting of anti-Iranian sanctions and the rejuvenation of the Syrian peace process. [...]

The timing of this provocation couldn't be more suspect, since it convincingly appears as though the Saudis staged it at precisely the moment when Iran was expected to be reintegrated into the global economy. The UNSC sanctions are widely expected to be lifted by the end of the month or early February, and it looks like Saudi Arabia wants to spoil the event by provoking an anti-Iranian maelstrom that puts pressure on the EU to reconsider its planned energy and infrastructure investments in the country.

Ultimately, France and Germany's economic engagement with Iran will come down to whether or not the US gives them the approval to proceed at their expected pace, and considering how successful Washington was in forcing Brussels to cut its preexisting and very profitable ties with Moscow, it can't be precluded that it could do the same in obstructing unestablished and still forthcoming deals with Tehran.

'Suspicious timing': The geopolitics behind Saudi Arabia's recent executions & provocations



Bomb

Syrian Army makes significant gains against ISIS terrorists in Homs

Syria
© Sputnik/ Mikhail Voskresenskiy
The Syrian army and allied forces have made significant gains against Daesh (ISIL/ISIS) terrorists in Homs province, Iran's Fars news reported on Saturday.

Government forces carried out several offensives on Daesh positions in the province, shelling and storming their strongholds.

They attacked the terrorists in the al-Dowah region west of Palmyra, and close to the towns of Tir Ma'ala, Quaryatayn (south of Homs), Talbiseh (north of Homs) and near the village of Maksar al-Hassaan in the east of the province. The army reported a heavy death toll among the terrorists.

Comment: Also see: Russia's military delivers nearly 14,000 tons of cargo to Syria's Hmeimim airbase


Attention

Turkey faces trial in Europe for brutally killing 200 civilians & displacing 100,000 more

Turkey Kurds
© REUTERS/ Murad Sezer
Human rights activists are concerned about the grave humanitarian situation in besieged Kurdish towns of southeastern Turkey. Ankara is to face a trial in Strasbourg over its security forces' operation which is due to be over by the end of January.

Schools remain closed in areas under curfews, civilian death toll along with the number of displaced people rises as bloody clashes between government forces and local youth resistance continue across major Kurdish towns in Turkey's southeast, according to multiple reports.

Ozturk Turkdogan, a prominent Turkish human rights activist expressed grave concern about the current situation, in which civilians, including women and children, are being killed every day, he claimed, while the government is preventing human rights activists from visiting the areas under blockade.

Comment: Turkey's current leadership says that they have an 'obligation, responsibility and right to provide security and comfort' to their citizens even as they bomb, humiliate, and terrorize thousands of them. This is criminal madness, and, as a remedy, these criminals should see the inside of the justice system.

Also see: Turkey's terror state: 150 civilians dead in one week as Erdogan promises to 'annihilate' more


Bad Guys

NATO special forces invade Libya AGAIN after destroying country; Western media AWOL

NATO mercenaries in Libya

The 'right to protect' never ends...
NATO members are conducting ground operations in Libya — but you're not supposed to know

One of the major advantages of being a NATO member is that you are allowed to conduct military operations in any country of your choosing, with minimal (or no) news coverage and absolutely zero debate.

This delightful perk is more or less written into NATO's charter. And it's been an especially perky perk with regards to Libya —once the richest, most developed nation in North Africa; now a moon crater.

NATO's "no fly zone" was actually a highly coordinated air and ground campaign to topple (and ultimately murder) Gaddafi. The power vacuum created by the complete destruction of Libya has created a "democracy" plagued by warring tribes and general anarchy, in which the NATO-backed "legitimate" government is not even in control of Tripoli.

Comment: The US and NATO's war of aggression against Libya destroyed a thriving and peaceful country and turned it into a hell on earth. See more: Taking all this information into context, we can see that Hillary Clinton, who undoubtedly knew all of these things, shows her true colors in the below video as she laughs about murdering the benevolent and beloved leader of a country and sentencing its citizens to death and suffering:




Footprints

German mission: Dispatch troops to train Libyan army

German troops
© AFP
German troops ready to take off from Bundeswehr airbase in Jagel, northern Germany.
Germany plans to dispatch a military contingent to a location near Libya with the alleged mission of training the African country's army, a report says. Germany's Der Spiegel daily reported on Saturday that Berlin mulls sending more than 100 troops for the purported training mission.

"According to internal (government) plans German soldiers could, along with Italian colleagues, within months begin training the Libyan armed forces," the news magazine said, adding, "This would involve 150-200 Bundeswehr (German armed forces) troops."

Officials in Germany's Defense Ministry have yet to comment on the issue, although the report comes one day after the European Union, the body in which Germany has effectively the final say on security and defense cases, urged rival administrations in Libya to back a unity government, as demanded by the United Nations.


Comment: The EU has pledged 100M Euros to install a Libyan "unity" government.


Libya has been in chaos four years after dictator Muammar Gaddafi was toppled and later killed in October 2011. The internationally recognized government, based in Tobruk, eastern Libya, has been vying to recapture the capital, Tripoli, from the militants of the Libya Dawn movement. Takfiri groups, including Daesh terrorists, are also operating in Libya. There are fears of a spillover of violence into Europe.

Comment: A couple hundred armed German troops and "Italian colleagues" to train Libyan troops to fight Daesh...what does this signify? The EU is afraid. With Libya currently an ISIS-designated safe haven, complete with oil fields and facilities, the Islamic State and other hellacious factions are at EU's doorstep. For as long as it will take for the finagling Western cabal to infiltrate and dictate the new Libyan state, ISIS and cohorts will have a home base, protected and provided for by their creators. Europe is buying time. This black hole is on trajectory to get bigger.


Newspaper

Six big stories the mainstream media don't want you to know about

media
You might have heard about a few of them, but not as much as you should. Here's our pick of the last 12 month's top news stories, all pretty much ignored by the corporate press.

Whistleblowers, Ecocide, top secret trade deals, and shady ties between the Islamic State and the West's closest allies...here are a few hot topics the mainstream media barely covered in 2015.

SOTT Logo Radio

The Truth Perspective: The controlled demolition of Europe and the world

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Broadcasting from deep in the heart of the American Empire, join your host Harrison Koehli, and fellow Sott.net editors, as they discuss everything from current events and the latest machinations and manipulations of the global elite to history, science, and religion, and how it all fits together.

2016 hasn't had an auspicious start, from the New Year's Eve assaults in Cologne, Germany, to the DOW's worst first week in nearly a decade. In Cologne reports say a 1000-strong mob of 'migrants' caused mayhem, sexually assaulting at least 100 women in the streets. What does this event mean, and what does it portend for the future? Join us as we discuss this and other news from the new year.

The Truth Perspective is brought to you by the SOTT Radio Network and SOTT.net, your one-stop source for independent, unbiased, alternative news and commentary on world events.

Live every Saturday from 2-4pm EST / 11am-1pm PST / 8-10pm CET.

Running Time: 01:07:00

Download: MP3


Quenelle - Golden

'Community of Destiny': Russia & China take huge steps towards breaking the US' stranglehold on oil prices

Putin in Syria
© Unknown
Somebody means business.


Russia has just taken significant steps that will break the present Wall Street oil price monopoly, at least for a huge part of the world oil market. The move is part of a longer-term strategy of decoupling Russia's economy and especially its very significant export of oil, from the US dollar, today the Achilles Heel of the Russian economy.


Later in November the Russian Energy Ministry has announced that it will begin test-trading of a new Russian oil benchmark. While this might sound like small beer to many, it's huge. If successful, and there is no reason why it won't be, the Russian crude oil benchmark futures contract traded on Russian exchanges, will price oil in rubles and no longer in US dollars. It is part of a de-dollarization move that Russia, China and a growing number of other countries have quietly begun.

The setting of an oil benchmark price is at the heart of the method used by major Wall Street banks to control world oil prices. Oil is the world's largest commodity in dollar terms. Today, the price of Russian crude oil is referenced to what is called the Brent price. The problem is that the Brent field, along with other major North Sea oil fields is in major decline, meaning that Wall Street can use a vanishing benchmark to leverage control over vastly larger oil volumes. The other problem is that the Brent contract is controlled essentially by Wall Street and the derivatives manipulations of banks like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JP MorganChase and Citibank.

Comment: In 2015 Russia put Washington's imperial conquests in a major bind, and woke much of the globe up to the West's genocide in the Middle East and North Africa. And in 2016 the push to end Washington's stranglehold on the world continues. Buckle in!

Also see:


Windsock

Haves or Have-nots: New US House bill undermines Obama, JCPOA

Boroujerdi
© www.islamicinvitationturkey.com
Chairman of the Iranian Parliament's Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy, Alaeddin Boroujerdi
A senior Iranian lawmaker says possible adoption of new sanctions against Iran by the US will harm a nuclear agreement reached between Tehran and the P5+1 group of countries last July.

The US is creating obstacles in the way of implementing the nuclear agreement, dubbed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), to express its dissatisfaction with its absence in Iran's markets, Chairman of the Iranian Parliament (Majlis) Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, said on Friday. The US sought to advance its own economic interests in the JCPOA but we are witnessing in practice that the United States has been denied the chance for presence in Iran's markets, Boroujerdi added.

In a letter to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on October 21, 2015, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei enumerated certain points on the implementation of the JCPOA and issued directives to be heeded in that regard, among them the government's duty to check the imports of goods from the US.

Congress to vote on fresh new sanctions

The Foreign Affairs Committee in the US House of Representatives on Thursday approved a bill that would limit President Barack Obama's ability to lift anti-Iran sanctions as stipulated in the JCPOA. The bill is designed to prevent the removal of certain Iranian individuals and financial institutions from the US Treasury Department's sanctions list, until Obama assures Congress that they were not involved in Iran's ballistic missiles program or alleged terrorist activities.

Comment: According to the US House of Reprehensibles: Iran is guilty until proven innocent.

See also: Russia: Iran's missile program no basis for new US sanctions


Snakes in Suits

Britain is complicit in U.S. and Saudi's high crimes against Yemen

Yemen
© Unknown
Make no mistake. Yemen is Obama's war, planned, orchestrated and initiated in Washington, using Riyadh and other rogue regional states to do his dirty work.

On January 7, Britain's Sky News headlined "Exclusive: UK Helping Saudi's Yemen Campaign" - allied with Washington, complicit in high crimes against peace.

Yemenis are being mass slaughtered, civilians harmed most, indiscriminately targeted.

Britain already supplies Riyadh with terror weapons. "Sky sources confirmed that six (UK) experts are working with Saudi targeteers who select locations for attack" - including residential areas, schools, hospitals, refugee camps, food storage areas, mosques and other nonmilitary sites.

Comment: For more examples of this blatant criminality, see: