Puppet Masters
Obviously this is yet another serious escalation in the continually mounting series of steps that have been taken into a new cold war between the planet's two nuclear superpowers. Had a report been leaked to Russian media from anonymous Kremlin officials that Moscow was escalating its cyber-aggressions against America's energy grid, this would doubtless be labeled an act of war by the political/media class of the US and its allies with demands for immediate retaliation.
To put this in perspective, The New York Times reported last year that the Pentagon was pushing for the US Nuclear Posture Review to include the strategy of retaliating against serious Russian cyberattacks on American power grids with nuclear weapons.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani walk as they attend a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of Heads of State in Bishkek on June 14, 2019.
With the dogs of war on full alert, something extraordinary happened at the 19th summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) late last week in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
Virtually unknown across the West, the SCO is the foremost Eurasian political, economic and security alliance. It's not a Eurasian NATO. It's not planning any humanitarian imperialist adventures. A single picture in Bishkek tells a quite significant story, as we see China's Xi, Russia's Putin, India's Modi and Pakistan's Imran Khan aligned with the leaders of four Central Asian "stans".
These leaders represent the current eight members of the SCO. Then there are four observer states - Afghanistan, Belarus, Mongolia and, crucially, Iran - plus six dialogue partners: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and, crucially, Turkey.
Modi's announcement of bilateral meetings at the upcoming summit shows great promise as the previous meeting he held with Xi Jinping in Wuhan in 2018 was a leading factor behind the diffusing of tensions being cooked up between both governments by Anglo-American manipulation, and which many were fearing could lead to war.
This could be all part of a plan, however, to "test the resilience of U.S. exporters", according to multinational investment banking corporation Citigroup Inc. as reported by Bloomberg. In a report released earlier this month, Ed Morse and other bank analysts from Citigroup opined that Russia has kept pumping gas into Europe in lieu of letting gas prices return to a higher price point because Putin's administration is "testing the response of the global gas market in a low price environment, especially U.S. LNG export elasticity."
Comment: In the winter of 2018 winters the UK ran out of natural gas, Russia rescued them, but in the meantime prices rocketed 400%, and so one wonders whether this year, amidst the glut, European gas suppliers will pass on these savings to the citizens, many who struggle to heat their homes as it is. As for how it'll affect the US, well, they better get used to it because with the Nord Stream gas pipelines this scenario will be even easier to implement:
- Russian led Nord Stream 2 project may save the EU €8 billion annually
- Germany now admits it needs a heck of a lot more from Russia than Nordstream 2
- Russia to launch Nord Stream 2 despite Danish hurdles & US threats to derail project

The military action under consideration would be an aerial bombardment of an Iranian facility linked to its nuclear program, the officials further claimed.
Diplomatic sources at the UN headquarters in New York revealed to Maariv that they are assessing the United States' plans to carry out a tactical assault on Iran in response to the tanker attack in the Persian Gulf on Thursday.
According to the officials, since Friday, the White House has been holding incessant discussions involving senior military commanders, Pentagon representatives and advisers to President Donald Trump.
The military action under consideration would be an aerial bombardment of an Iranian facility linked to its nuclear program, the officials further claimed.
"The bombing will be massive but will be limited to a specific target," said a Western diplomat.
This, we are told, is the extent of Putin's wealth.
In the book, "Russia's Crony Capitalism: The Path from Market Economy to Kleptocracy," Aslund estimates that through the practice of "crony capitalism," Putin has amassed a net worth between $100 billion and $160 billion, which would make him richer than the officially wealthiest man in the world, Amazon owner Jeff Bezos.(Love that "net" - sounds so precise.) Pfeh! says Browder: a measly one hundred - try two hundred billion! Nah! A trivial seventy billion says somebody else. Why not eleventy-seven squintillion? Net.
It is not the habit of the US to look for just, substantial and robust pretexts for war once the decision to go to war has been taken. Recent events - the sabotage acts at al-Fujairah (the Emirates), the attack on Aramco pipeline, the attacks on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman, and the US Central Command video purporting to show Iranian boat personnel removing an unexploded Limpet mine from Kokuka Courageous - have already given the US ample pretexts for war, if the US were looking for war. If this were the case, President Donald Trump would have already ordered his military to conduct precision missile strikes similar to the attack he ordered against Syria or at least a punitive airstrike together with his close European partners. Or perhaps even prepared his army to go to war as George W. Bush did with Iraq in 2003.
The reason Trump has refrained from launching any order for attack is that he is aware that a military operation against Iran will be anything but a walk in the park. The consequences of such an attack are unpredictable and its outcome will certainly not be to his obvious advantage.
Comment: See also:
- Busted: Arrests made as Iran reportedly breaks up 'large' CIA-run cyber-espionage network
- Iran reminds world of US history of false-flag ops, questions tanker attacks - 'Is it diplomacy, Mr Pompeo?'
- UK Royal Marines Reportedly Deployed to Gulf in Wake of Tanker Attacks Blamed on Iran
- Elijah Magnier: Expect more attacks in the Strait of Hormuz
Last week, Donald Trump pinned the blame for the attack on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman squarely on Iran. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has been running around provoking Iran in word and deed for months, called the attacks an "unacceptable escalation of tension." The so-called proof came in the form of a grainy video that presented more questions than answers.
Comment: See also:
- Lunatic neocon John Bolton is steering Trump into war with Iran
- Paul Craig Roberts: Trump is being set-up for war with Iran
- The untold story of John Bolton's role in US-Israeli strategy to start war with Iran
- 'Strongest sanctions in history': State Secretary Pompeo issues 12 demands to Iran, vows 'unprecedented pressure'
- Pompeo elevation suggests a 'neocon lock' on Trump's foreign policy
- 'Lured into war'? Iranian FM warns Trump could be duped into crisis by hawkish 'B-team'
- 6 Signs the U.S. May Be Headed for War in Iran
The New York Times Thursday morning has bad news for one of its favorite anonymous sources, former CIA Director John Brennan.
The Times reports that the Justice Department plans to interview senior CIA officers to focus on the allegation that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian intelligence to intervene in the 2016 election to help Donald J. Trump. DOJ investigators will be looking for evidence to support that remarkable claim that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's final report failed to establish.
Despite the collusion conspiracy theory having been put to rest, many Americans, including members of Congress, right and left, continue to accept the evidence-impoverished, media-cum-"former-intelligence-officer" meme that the Kremlin interfered massively in the 2016 presidential election.
One cannot escape the analogy with the fraudulent evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. As in 2002 and 2003, when the mania for the invasion of Iraq mounted, Establishment media have simply regurgitated what intelligence sources like Brennan told them about Russia-gate. No one batted an eye when Brennan told a House committee in May 2017, "I don't do evidence."
Comment: More from Ray McGovern:
- Ray McGovern: Former CIA chief Brennan running scared
- We are all still waiting for evidence of a Russian hack
- Trump has taken hard aim at Russiagate 'ringleader' Brennan - will the Deep State protect him?
- Ray McGovern: Unaccountable media is faced with dilemma in next phase of Deep State-gate
- Don't hold your breath! Justice Dept likely to slow-walk declassification
A collection of 190 transcripts of speeches on ICE's website was deleted on Jan. 18 and late in the evening on Jan. 19, 2017, according to research conducted by the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan organization that advocates for government transparency. Statements made by high-ranking ICE officials regarding controversial immigration topics such as sanctuary cities, E-Verify, treatment of detainees, and other issues were included in the reported deletions.
"With a couple of clicks of a mouse, access to a federal government web resource containing 12 years of primary source materials on ICE's history was lost," the Sunlight Foundation wrote, noting that archived speeches dating back from 2004 were among those deleted.













Comment: See also: "The bombing will be massive": US planning a 'tactical assault' in Iran - UN officials