Puppet Masters

Denmark suspends future weapon sales to Saudi Arabia in response to Khashoggi murder and Yemen 'concerns'

Stine Jacobsen
Reuters
Mon, 19 Nov 2018 12:00 UTC

Denmark has suspended future approvals of weapons and military equipment exports to Saudi Arabia in response to the killing of a dissident Saudi journalist and the kingdom's role in the conflict in Yemen, the Danish Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

Germany has already suspended issuing future weapons export licenses and has moved to halt all arms sales, while France said on Monday said it will decide soon on sanctions over Khashoggi's killing at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last month.

Saudi Arabia is one of the world's biggest weapons importers. It heads a military coalition fighting in a civil war in Yemen in which tens of thousands of people have died and caused a major humanitarian catastrophe.

Comment: Saudi war crimes: 85,000 children under the age of five have starved to death in Yemen

Comment: It's quite telling of the priorities of those involved in the Saudi-led Western-backed war on Yemen - which has been going on for 3 years - that it took the murder of a high profile journalist before any government even thought to reconsider their position:

And check out SOTT radio's:

The upcoming bankruptcy of the American Empire

Hunter Derensis
The American Conservative
Tue, 20 Nov 2018 00:00 UTC

Better to bring the troops home on our terms than wait for a debt crisis to do it for us. The chickens are coming home to roost. It's only a question of when.

Herbert Stein was chair of the Council of Economic Advisors under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford and is the father of the more well known Ben Stein. In 1976, he propounded what he called "Stein's Law": if something cannot go on forever, it will stop. Stein was referring to economic trends, but the same law applies just as much to foreign policy and the concept of empire.

Stein's Law at first glance might seem like a banal platitude. But we should be fully cognizant of its implications: an unsustainable system must have an end. The American empire is internally flawed, a fact that anti-imperialists both left and right should appreciate.

The United States' national debt is approaching $22 trillion with a current federal budget deficit of over $800 billion. As Senator Rand Paul often points out, bankruptcy is the Sword of Damocles hanging perilously close to Uncle Sam's neck. Outside of a handful of libertarian gadflies in Congress such as Paul, there is no serious political movement to curb the country's wayward spending. It would take some upset of multiple times greater magnitude than Donald Trump's 2016 victory to alter this course.

Comment: As countries find other ways to trade than a dependency on the dollar, the process of US financial disintegration increases at an even greater pace.

Brexit: Future relations between the UK and EU agreed 'in principle'

Joe Murphy, Patrick Grafton-Green
Evening Standard
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 00:00 UTC

A draft agreement on Britain's future trade and security relationship with the European Union after Brexit was finally agreed by negotiators today.

A 26-page text of the political declaration, which is due to be formally signed at a summit on Sunday, was leaked from the EU showing agreement in a series of areas.

In a tweet confirming that a deal was ready to be signed off, European Council president Donald Tusk said:

"I have just sent to EU27 a draft Political Declaration on the Future Relationship between the EU and UK. The Commission President has informed me that it has been agreed at negotiators' level and agreed in principle at political level, subject to the endorsement of the Leaders."

The Prime Minister later stood outside No 10's front door and hailed it as "the right deal for Britain".

"It delivers on the vote of the referendum," said Mrs May. "It brings back control of our money, our borders and our laws." She said she was "confident" that it would be agreed - even by Spain.

The pound surged after Mr Tusk said the draft agreement had been reached.

Prime Minister Theresa May is due to address the Commons on Brexit on Thursday at 2.30pm. The text has been shared with the 27 other governments of the EU.

Comment: Will May's partial success with the EU leadership change the political climate in the UK to one of review, negotiation and acceptance? Or is the UK at such odds none of this makes a big difference? See also:

Erdogan, MbS, Islamic leadership and the cost of silence

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
Wed, 21 Nov 2018 01:57 UTC

It was packaged as a stark, graphic message, echoing across Eurasia: Presidents Erdogan and Putin, in a packed hall in Istanbul on Monday, surrounded by notables, celebrating completion of the 930 kilometer-long offshore section of the TurkStream gas pipeline across the bottom of the Black Sea.

This is no less than a key landmark in that fraught terrain I named 'Pipelineistan' in the early 2000s. It was built by Gazprom in only two and a half years despite facing massive pressure from Washington, which had already managed to derail TurkStream's predecessor, South Stream.

TurkStream is projected as two lines, each capable of delivering 15.75 billion cubic meters of gas a year. The first will supply the Turkish market. The second will run 180 km to Turkey's western borderlands and supply south and southeast Europe, with first deliveries expected by the end of next year. Potential customers include Greece, Italy, Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary.

Call it the Gazprom double down. Nord Stream 1 and 2 supply northern Europe while TurkStream supplies southern Europe. Pipelines are steel umbilical cords. They represent liquid connectivity at its best while conclusively decreasing risks of geopolitical friction.

Turkey is already being supplied by Russian gas via Blue Stream and the Trans-Balkan pipeline. Significantly, Turkey is Gazprom's second largest export market after China.

Comment: Burying Saudi Arabia and assuming Islamic leadership? Washington will have none of that!
See also: Russia's major leap in the European gas war

A 'mission accomplished'? Study reveals number of Sunni terrorists has quadrupled from 9/11

RT
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 17:27 UTC

Despite Washington's extremely costly worldwide 'War on Terror', nearly four times as many Sunni Islamic militants are operating around the world today as on September 11, 2001, a new study has found.

As many as 230,000 jihadists are spread across 70 countries, with the largest concentrations of terrorists located in Syria, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington DC think tank.

The shocking reported spike in the number of Sunni jihadists worldwide raises serious questions about the effectiveness of the US-led Global War on Terrorism, which was launched in the wake of the deadly attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

US taxpayers have already forked over a mind-melting $5.9 trillion to fund the massive and increasingly secretive war - but the noble pursuit of eradicating terrorism has apparently had the opposite effect. Ironically, the think tank has called for the US to double-down, arguing that withdrawing forces from Africa and the Middle East would only embolden terrorist groups.

Comment: The study: A Report of the CSIS Transnational Threats Project, is comprehensive, informative and worth a gander.

The focus is on precision: Putin urges ramp-up of production of 'smart' missiles and artillery shells

RT
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 15:19 UTC

Russia must ramp up production of high-precision missiles and artillery shells, President Vladimir Putin said. Smart munitions can do the job more effectively than their "dumb" counterparts - and even save on the costs.

"We definitely need, not the notorious 'slugs', but 'smart' and highly precise munitions instead, which expand the capabilities of both existing and prospective weapon systems, and, I stress, can save funds considerably," Putin said on Thursday, speaking at a meeting with industry representatives and top military officers.

Russian munitions plants make a wide variety of products which must satisfy the defensive needs of the country both in quantity and quality. High-precision munitions actually save the defense budget, as their usage allows to be done what earlier "could have been achieved only by expensive weapon systems," Putin stated.

Comment: The future of weapons and armaments is already in Russia's hands.

Russian senators propose change of doctrine for Russia to respond with nukes to any 'strategic strike'

RT
Wed, 21 Nov 2018 17:54 UTC

Russia should be allowed to use its nuclear arsenal in response to a non-nuclear strike with a strategic weapon, Russian senators believe. Their recommendation is to amend Russia's nuclear posture accordingly.

A suggestion to make the Russian nuclear doctrine more flexible was one of the recommendations backed by the upper chamber of the Russian parliament late on Wednesday.

The senators said the Russian National Security Council should prepare and propose an amendment on the nuclear doctrine, which would allow "taking a decision to retaliate in case of enemy use of hypersonic and other strategic conventional weapons" against Russia, reported RIA Novosti.

Russian nuclear doctrine was last reviewed in 2014, when the current escalation of tensions with the West was just unfolding.

It allows the armed forces to deploy nuclear weapons on two scenarios. One is in response to a strike with a nuclear weapon or another weapon of mass destruction against Russia or one of its allies. Another is when a nuclear strike is necessary to prevent a conventional attack threatening the existence of Russia as a sovereign state.

Comment: Nuclear liberties? Sure, let's all vote for that.

Commander warns US targets are within Iranian missile strike range

RT
Wed, 21 Nov 2018 23:40 UTC

Iranian missiles can now reach numerous US military targets throughout the Middle East, including aircraft carriers and military bases, a Revolutionary Guard commander has warned.

"They are within our reach and we can hit them if they make a move" said Amirali Hajizadeh, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's Airspace Division, according to Iran's Tasnim news agency. Iran's bold rhetoric reflects the severe and escalating level of tension between the two countries, as pointed words increasingly turn into pointed weapons.

Iranian missiles can allegedly now hit targets at distances of 450 miles (700 km), significantly bolstering the country's defensive capability.

Dozens of US bases surround the Islamic Republic in nearly every country on the nation's border, particularly on the coast of the Persian gulf in neighboring Saudi Arabia.

Comment: Trapped? The US, Israel - and now Iran - have created the circumstances they purport to guard against.

Al-Qaeda in Syria is assisted by the Dutch government

Paul Antonopoulos
FRN
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 00:00 UTC

In a major revelation which FRN has confirmed, the Dutch government has engaged in assistance to terrorist groups in Syria, such as Al-Qaeda, that has been used for military purposes, although the government has claimed otherwise, a joint investigation of the Dutch daily Trouw and Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS) has revealed.

The Trouw newspaper reported late on Wednesday that the Dutch government had issued documents proving that the groups used "almost all equipment" provided by the government in its military operations. The documents were allegedly published at the request of the Dutch media, but were unavailable for public viewing shortly after publication.

The documents also revealed the previously hidden names of two jihadist groups that received assistance from the Dutch government. According to the Trouw-NOS investigation, the terrorist groups used cars offered by the Dutch government in attacks, as well as laptops, to set targets.

Comment: The Netherlands' complicity in supporting terrorism is not an exception. As to whether it falls under military or non-military...it is still assistance!

The US Deep State vs Julian Assange

Ryan Jones
Sott.net
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 21:38 UTC

On Friday November 16th 2018, the US deep state's #2 "paper of record", The New York Times (second only to The Washington Post), announced that the US Department of Justice had secretly filed criminal charges against Julian Assange, founder of the world-famous media organisation Wikileaks, a specialist in publishing 'leaked' documents provided unofficially (and often illegally) by whistleblowers in high-profile corporations, organisations and governments.

For the last 6 years, Assange, an Australian citizen, has been locked up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London after he was granted political asylum by Ecuador in 2012. His reason for requesting asylum was to evade extradition to the United States via Sweden, which had attempted to do so based on trumped-up accusations of "rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion", accusations that were eventually downgraded to "consensual sex without a condom" before being dropped completely by the Swedish government. Text messages by the women in question revealed they "did not want to file any charges against Assange but that the police were keen on getting a grip on him," with one writing that "it was the police who made up the charges". No charges were ever brought by the Swedish police against Assange, who cooperated whole-heartedly with the investigation wherever possible.

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Winternights3

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Puppet Masters

Denmark suspends future weapon sales to Saudi Arabia in response to Khashoggi murder and Yemen 'concerns'

The upcoming bankruptcy of the American Empire

Brexit: Future relations between the UK and EU agreed 'in principle'

Erdogan, MbS, Islamic leadership and the cost of silence

A 'mission accomplished'? Study reveals number of Sunni terrorists has quadrupled from 9/11

The focus is on precision: Putin urges ramp-up of production of 'smart' missiles and artillery shells

Russian senators propose change of doctrine for Russia to respond with nukes to any 'strategic strike'

Commander warns US targets are within Iranian missile strike range

Al-Qaeda in Syria is assisted by the Dutch government

The US Deep State vs Julian Assange

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