Puppet Masters
1. He stole the presidency in 2000. People may forget that Republicans in Florida purged more than 50,000 African-American voters before Election Day, and then went to the Supreme Court where the GOP-appointed majority stopped a recount that would have awarded the presidency to Vice-President Al Gore if all votes were counted. National news organizations verified that outcome long after Bush had been sworn in.
2. Bush's lies started in that race. Bush ran for office claiming he was a "uniter, not a divider." Even though he received fewer popular votes than Gore, he quickly claimed he had the mandate from the American public to push his right-wing agenda.
3. He covered up his past. He was a party boy, the scion of a powerful political family who got away with being a deserter during the Vietnam War. He was reportedly AWOL for over a year from his assigned unit, the Texas Air National Guard, which other military outfits called the "Champagne Division."
4. He loved the death penalty. As Texas governor from 1995-2000, he signed the most execution orders of any governor in U.S. history—152 people, including the mentally ill and women who were domestic abuse victims. He spared one man's life, a serial killer.
The extremists from the Middle East "have been recruiting militants and continue doing so in many countries, unfortunately including Russia and CIS countries," Vladimir Putin said, adding that Moscow launched its air operation in Syria as a preventive action against Islamic State extremists.
Putin insisted that Russia's assistance to Syria fully complies with Moscow's military doctrine and international law.
Comment: Putin must remain vigilant, especially now that the US has been shamed in its fight against terrorism. US may lash out in dirty ways.
"In the past 24 hours, as a result of the strikes two ammunition warehouses, a plant producing ammunition and explosives, 30 firing positions and a machinery collection have been destroyed," the ministry's spokesman, Igor Konashenkov, said Tuesday.
The Su-24M, SU-25SM and SU-34 jets deployed for the mission have all returned to Russia's Khmeimim airbase in Latakia, he added.
The strikes hit targets associated with Islamic State and Al-Nusra in the provinces of Hama, Latakia, Damascus, Aleppo, Idlib and Deir al-Zor, Konashenkov said.
General Philip Breedlove, NATO's top commander in Europe, said he had assurances that NATO countries will continue alongside the nearly 10,000 US troops in Afghanistan. "Several of our largest contributors have already communicated with us that they will remain in their current posture," Breedlove told Reuters.
Germany, NATO's top contributor, has around 850 troops in Afghanistan, followed by Italy with 760 and about 500 for Turkey, according to the latest NATO data.
Comment: This comes on the heels of the U.S. changing its position on removing troops from Afghanistan by 2017, which incidentally only occurred after Russia's intervention in Syria and, most importantly, Afghanistan asked Russia for help fighting ISIS. Once the U.S. realized that Afghanistan may be cozying up to Russia, they immediately changed their plans to leave and told their NATO stooges to do the same. They also don't want their multi-billion dollar terrorist infrastructure to be lit up by Russian SU-25's like what's happening in Syria.
On Monday, Switzerland confirmed that its F/A-18 military aircraft had neared a plane with the Russian parliamentary delegation on board, but said that it had been performing standard verification procesures adding that "such checks were carried out hundreds of times a year.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that attempts of some Swiss authorities to present the air incident as a verification procedure does not look convincing.
Comment: A Swiss military jet nearly colliding with a plane carrying senior Russian lawmakers seems designed to send a message.
Also see: Swiss MOD admits sending military jet but denies it avoided collision with Russian diplomatic flight
The Prime Minister vowed to "aggressively" pursue radical preachers as he announced measures to treat people convicted of terrorism or extremism like sex offenders who will be automatically barred from working with children and vulnerable people.
However the Ramadhan Foundation said Mr Cameron's latest measures, which include giving powers to police to shut down mosques where extremist meetings take place, withdraw passports from teenagers and ban extremists from the internet, would not succeed because of "little support from the Muslim community".
Its chief executive, Mohammed Shafiq, dismissed Mr Cameron's new approach as a "PR exercise".
In a scathing attack on the Government's plans, he said: "What we require now is for British Muslims to be engaged without prejudice and a new approach adopted that will see Muslims as equal citizens and not some sort of aliens to be bashed from time to time for political gains.
"Today's counter extremism announcement by the Government is a missed opportunity to really engage the Muslim community and work in partnership against terrorism and extremism."
The new plans announced by Mr Cameron on Monday will introduce the ability to ban radical preachers from posting material online, while powers for parents to withdraw passports from their children will be extended to all youngsters under the age of 18. In July he announced plans to apply it to children under 16.
Comment: If the British Government were really sincere in combating 'extremism' and stopping it "right where it starts", they ought to look first at their poisonous foreign policy. As a Kremlin official noted last year, "First of all we must talk about the sharp surge of religious extremism that is largely a consequence of the, diplomatically speaking, shortsighted policy of a number of Western countries."

Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau gives his victory speech after Canada's federal election in Montreal, Quebec, October 19, 2015.
Harper conceded defeat and the Conservative party announced his resignation, ending a nine-year run in power and the 56-year-old's brand of fiscal and cultural conservatism that voters appeared to sour on.
The Liberals seized a Parliamentary majority, a turn in political fortunes that smashed the record for the number of seats gained from one election to the next. The center-left Liberals had been a distant third place party before this election.
"My friends, we beat fear with hope. We beat cynicism with hard work. We beat negative, divisive politics with a positive vision that brings Canadians together," Trudeau, 43, told a crowd of cheering supporters in Montreal.
"This is what positive politics can do."
Comment: Trudeau seems to be saying the right things but will he act on those promises and if so, will he be allowed to do so?
In the last few months the debates about the future of the Saudi regime have been gaining momentum. Saudi Arabia is the world's largest oil exporter and one of the leading consumers of high-tech weapons of the US. If the Saudi regime falls, the oil markets will turn over upside down, and Saudi weapons will disperse throughout the world, Ergin Yıldızoğlu wrote.

Reporter and mother of two, Serena Shim was killed in Turkey - "the largest prison for journalists". She had expressed fears for her own safety
Former BBC journalist, Jacky Sutton (aged 50) is reported to have been found dead in a toilet in Istanbul's main airport. The British journalist (pictured below), who had been working as Iraq director for the Institute of War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), was in Turkey en route to Irbil in Northern Iraq. Turkish sources have allegedly suggested that she has killed herself after missing a flight connection - a rather poor, even insulting, suggestion, which colleagues of Ms Sutton are dismissing. In her role as acting Iraq head of the (London-based) IWPR, Jackie Sutton's role has been to support local journalism in countries affected by war and crisis. As The Guardian notes, the organisation's previous Iraq director, Ammar Al Shahbander, was killed in a car-bomb in Baghdad on 2nd May this year. It is claimed the British woman's body has been found hanging from boot laces.
Sudipto Mukerjee, a director with the UN Development Programme, has said, according to The Independent; "Very difficult to believe that my colleague in Iraq, staffer and seasoned traveller Jacky Sutton committed suicide." Ms Sutton had, among other things, previously worked for the BBC World Service, reporting from Africa, the Middle East and London.
Comment: See also:
- Western intel op? Press TV reporter killed after reporting that ISIS terrorists are entering Syria from Turkey as 'undercover NGO activists'
- Suicide or murder? BBC journalist found hanged at Istanbul airport













Comment: Apparently the American people learned nothing under either of the Bushes. Obama's list is likely to be even longer.