Puppet Masters

Trump Orders Syria Troop Pull-Out & Hollywood 'Liberals' Go Bananas

Neil Clark
RT
Thu, 20 Dec 2018 15:52 UTC

The announcement by President Trump that US troops would be leaving Syria has been met with anger not just by neocons, but by Hollywood 'liberals' too. Aren't progressives supposed to oppose wars and illegal occupations?

Of course, we have to be cautious. Trump's announcement of a troop withdrawal from Syria, for now at least, is just words. We need to see evidence of soldiers leaving before we start to celebrate. We need to read the small print with a large Sherlock Holmes-style magnifying glass.

Even so, it's a positive development as it marks a further winding down of the conflict. Some though don't see it that way.

Twitter locks @WikiLeaks and several other WikiLeaks staff accounts

Caitlin Johnstone
Medium
Fri, 21 Dec 2018 08:17 UTC

Note: This article has been updated. See below.

WikiLeaks staff are unable to access or post from the organization's primary Twitter account or other accounts used by its staff and legal team, according to WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson.

"These accounts are locked @wikileaks @assangedefence @wltaskforce @assangelegal and cannot be accessed," Hrafnsson recently tweeted. "They also seem to have been shadow banned. Should we be worried in these critical times?"

"To clarify, these accounts cannot be accessed and new tweets posted," Hrafnsson added. "Attempts to get this fixed through normal methods, when tech error have happened, have not worked. No replies to DM´s addressed to people who should be worried that accounts with 6 mill followers are frozen."

Comment: See also:

Amazon error allowed Alexa user to eavesdrop on another home

Arno Schuetze, Keith Weir
Reuters
Thu, 20 Dec 2018 19:27 UTC

A user of Amazon's Alexa voice assistant in Germany got access to more than a thousand recordings from another user because of "a human error" by the company.

The customer had asked to listen back to recordings of his own activities made by Alexa but he was also able to access 1,700 audio files from a stranger when Amazon sent him a link, German trade publication c't reported.

"This unfortunate case was the result of a human error and an isolated single case," an Amazon spokesman said on Thursday.

The EU must ditch neoliberalism - or Europe's people will ditch the EU

John Wight
RT
Tue, 18 Dec 2018 15:22 UTC

We live in a world fashioned by Washington, and as 2019 approaches the dire consequences remain woefully evident.

In 1948 US State Department mandarin George Kennan - the man credited with devising the policy of containment vis-à-vis the Soviet Union at the end of WWII, - laid bare the focus of US foreign policy in the postwar period:

"We have about 50 percent of the world's wealth, but only 6.3 percent of its population...Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern or relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity. To do so, we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and daydreamings...We are going to have to deal in straight power concepts."

The "pattern of relationships" advocated by Kennan is embodied in the panoply of international institutions that have governed our world and dominated the planet's economic, geopolitical, and military architecture in the seven decades since.

The World Bank and the IMF came out of the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944, along with the establishment of the dollar as the world's primary international reserve currency.

Burying the axe of war: Arab nations begin recognizing Assad's leadership after success against ISIS

Elijah J Magnier
ejmagnier
Wed, 19 Dec 2018 00:00 UTC

Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir made a historical visit to Syria, the first for an Arab leader since war was imposed on Syria in 2011. El-Bashir landed onboard a Russian airplane at Damascus airport, an indication of Moscow's efforts to bring Syria back into the Arab - and international - fold. During seven years of war, Sudan never closed its embassy in Damascus.

El-Bashir was not traveling alone. Sudan would not take such a huge step without the support of its allies. The Sudanese president is a close partner of Saudi Arabia and the Emirates in their destructive war on Yemen. The purpose of his visit is to lay down the road to Damascus for more Arab leaders, who are expected to pay tribute to president Bashar al-Assad in 2019. Their goal is to elbow aside the Islamic Republic of Iran, the only Islamic country omnipresent with friendly forces on the Damascus scene.

This is not the first contact between Arab countries and Syria since 2011: Egypt maintained its close diplomatic-political-security relationship with Syria throughout the years of war. Bahrein, the Emirates, Oman, Lebanon and Jordan are present today in Syria. On the western front, Italy is preparing to re-open its embassy, while Germany and France were not absent in recent years.

The arrival of el-Bashir onboard a Russian plane indicates the determination of President Vladimir Putin to sew a spider's web of relationships between the Middle East, the West and Syria. Putin aims to see Syria resume diplomatic relations with Arab and other countries. Russia and Syria dismiss the conditions the US is seeking to impose for reconstruction of the country and would like to see its unwelcome forces leave the Levant.

Troop withdrawal from Syria appears underway as Pentagon official says it would happen 'quickly'

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Wed, 19 Dec 2018 23:23 UTC

A troop withdrawal appears already underway after a Pentagon official said it would happen "quickly".

White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders has issued a formal statement on troop withdrawal from Syria: "We have started returning United States troops home as we transition to the next phase of this campaign."

Moments after President Trump confirmed reports of US pullout via Twitter saying "We have defeated ISIS in Syria," Pentagon officials said the president "ordered full US troop withdrawal from Syria," and that this will be "rapid" - apparently already beginning, per a Reuters breaking report: "All U.S. State Department personnel are being evacuated from Syria within 24 hours - official."

Comment: Putin is understandably dubious: Putin: The 'US is right to leave Syria, but no signs of pullout - remember Afghanistan'

See also:

Israel uses 'attacks' as an excuse to expand illegal settlements

Kamel Hawwash
TRT World
Wed, 19 Dec 2018 20:53 UTC

Illegal settlement building is increasingly becoming a favoured collective punishment against Palestinians.

If only Israel was as creative in seeking peace with the Palestinians as it is in finding different ways to punish them.

A policy of dehumanisation that aims to present Palestinians to the world as sub-human, violent and not worthy of achieving the inalienable rights that they crave and which international law provides them with. The very same people that lived in harmony as Jews, Christians and Muslims prior the creation of Israel are now extremist, anti-Semites who raise their children to hate and to kill or maim Jews. They have no right to the homeland they are from, they are not worthy of an independent state or a share of Jerusalem, which Israel claims to be its eternal, undivided, capital.

The security of Israel and Israelis is sacrosanct, while even areas where security was assigned to the Palestinians under the Oslo Accords can be breached by Israeli troops at any time, to abduct wanted Palestinians - adults or children - and to demolish homes and businesses.

Putin: The 'US is right to leave Syria, but no signs of pullout - remember Afghanistan'

RT
Thu, 20 Dec 2018 11:24 UTC

Vladimir Putin thinks the US is right to withdraw its troops from Syria, but has expressed uncertainty about Washington's announcement, noting that the US military has remained in Afghanistan for seventeen years.

Speaking with journalists during an annual Q&A session, Russia's president said that American troops have no legal basis for operating in Syria, and if Washington was serious about pulling out its forces, it would be the right decision. Putin noted that the US has announced its "withdrawal" from Afghanistan on numerous occasions, and yet still remains the in country after seventeen years.

"Concerning the pullout of US troops [from Syria], I don't know what that is. The US has been in Afghanistan for 17 years already, and almost every year they say that they're pulling their troops out. But they're still present there.

"We don't see any signs of US troops' pullout, but we don't rule out the possibility. All the more so because we're going the way of a political solution."

He went on to applaud Russian and American military specialists for overcoming their differences in Syria and coordinating anti-terrorism operations in the country.

Comment: See also:

Tensions rising in Russia-Israel relations over Hamas, Ukraine

Press TV
Wed, 19 Dec 2018 07:16 UTC

Fresh tensions have broken out in ties between Moscow and Tel Aviv, already entangled in a row over the downing of a Russian aircraft in Syria, this time over the Palestine issue and the Ukraine conflict.

Recently, the Gaza-based Palestinian resistance movement Hamas said that its Political Bureau Head Ismail Haniyeh would travel to Moscow in late December upon an official invitation from the Russian Foreign Ministry. During the visit, Haniyeh would discuss bilateral relations and the political developments in Palestine with the Russian leadership, Hamas added.

Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad Maliki has also been invited to Moscow, but it is still not clear whether he would sit down with Haniyeh.

The invitation extended to Haniyeh has infuriated the Tel Aviv regime, with Channel 10 reporting on Tuesday that Israel's Ambassador to Moscow Gary Koren had sent a sharp protest to Russian officials over the issue. Separately, senior Israeli officials have confirmed that a similar protest was conveyed to the Russian Embassy in the occupied territories.

Russian officials, however, have rejected the complaints, arguing that Israel is itself holding talks with Hamas, albeit indirectly.

Comment: Spoiled child Israel is scrambling. It can't afford to be out of favor with Russia.

Is Sergey Kislyak the center to the set-up of Michael Flynn?

Julie Kelly
American Greatness
Mon, 17 Dec 2018 00:00 UTC

During an unhinged, fact-free meltdown on Fox News, anchor Shepard Smith wrongly accused Lt. General Michael Flynn of calling the Russians after sanctions against that country were announced in December 2016. "So the U.S. places sanctions on Russia, Michael Flynn calls Russia, Michael Flynn lies about calling Russia, and tells others to lie for him about calling Russia," Smith ranted on Friday.

Aside from noting that the U.S. placed sanctions on Russia, Smith is flat-out wrong. The truth, according to the charging document filed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, is that Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak called Flynn on December 28, 2016, the very same day the sanctions were publicized. So as pundits and a federal judge take a closer look at the circumstances surrounding Flynn's fateful January 2017 interview with the FBI, it's important to take another step back in time and scrutinize the calls that landed Flynn in legal trouble.

Further, who is Sergey Kislyak? Why does he figure so prominently not just in the Flynn matter but also the recusal of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the framing of Trump campaign volunteer Carter Page, and yet unsubstantiated accusations against Trump' son-in-law Jared Kushner? His longtime ties to the Obama White House may offer some clues-and raise legitimate questions about whether Kislyak himself was a central player in the set-up of Michael Flynn.

Comment: A stretch? A deliberate overlook? Remember who the target is. Is there an impetus/benefit for implicating the Trump administration in the Russiagate scenario if arrows point to Kislyak, not Flynn - the first to fall?

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Puppet Masters

Trump Orders Syria Troop Pull-Out & Hollywood 'Liberals' Go Bananas

Twitter locks @WikiLeaks and several other WikiLeaks staff accounts

Amazon error allowed Alexa user to eavesdrop on another home

The EU must ditch neoliberalism - or Europe's people will ditch the EU

Burying the axe of war: Arab nations begin recognizing Assad's leadership after success against ISIS

Troop withdrawal from Syria appears underway as Pentagon official says it would happen 'quickly'

Israel uses 'attacks' as an excuse to expand illegal settlements

Putin: The 'US is right to leave Syria, but no signs of pullout - remember Afghanistan'

Tensions rising in Russia-Israel relations over Hamas, Ukraine

Is Sergey Kislyak the center to the set-up of Michael Flynn?

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