Puppet Masters

Pepe Escobar: Brazilian democracy thrown to the dogs

Pepe Escobar
Strategic Culture Foundation
Thu, 31 Mar 2016 20:01 UTC

The "lowly crooks" of Brazil

It took only 3 minutes for a bunch of lowly crooks - more known for excelling in corruption than competent administration - to (literally) throw young but vibrant Brazilian democracy to the dogs.

With no votes counted, so traitors would not be publicly identified, the centrist Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro or PMDB) in Brazil abandoned the coalition that supports President Dilma Rousseff in power in Brasilia, thus increasing the chances of a - Kafkaesque - impeachment drive against Rousseff being approved in April.

The PMDB is Brazil's largest party - accounting for 69 out of 513 members of Parliament. In the short term, the party will be contributing for one of its own, current vice-president Michel Temer, 75, a not exactly brilliant constitutionalist lawyer, to ascend to the presidency until the next elections in 2018, thus fulfilling the white coup/regime change scenario dreamed about by the proponents of Hybrid War in Brazil and their lowly vassals.

The Brazilian Constitution allows for impeachment; but in Rousseff's case, no undisputable «crime of responsibility» has been proven. The alleged accusations - centered on embezzling of public debt and fiscal mismanagement - are essentially bogus.

It gets worse; this undisguised white coup/regime change process will run in parallel to a dirty deal preventing the leader of the lower house in Brasilia, notorious crook Eduardo Cunha, from being thrown out of office for corruption. Cunha would simply 'resign' - under the assumption that the new Temer administration would need to articulate a new majority in Parliament.

Comment: More information on this soft coup by the corrupt elite of Brazil:

ISIS booted out of Syria: Is Lebanon next in line to be 'handed over' to them?

Andre Vltchek
New Eastern Outlook
Sat, 02 Apr 2016 21:08 UTC

Members of the Lebanese military

Now that the Syrian armed forces have liberated Palmyra, President al Assad has thanked Vladimir Putin and the Russian people for the substantial support they provided to his country. Side by side, Syria and Russia have been fighting against the ISIS and other terrorist groups operating in the region - mainly the implants from the staunch allies of the West: Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey.

After recent victories in Syria, the myth of invincibility of the terrorism has collapsed, smashed to pieces. It has become clear that if fought honestly and with full determination, even the most fanatical ones can be defeated.

It has also become obvious that the West has very little interest in defeating these groups. First: they were invented in the Western capitals, at least conceptually. Second: they serve numerous purposes and in many different parts of the world; they brutalize rebellious countries in the Middle East, and they are spreading fear and frustration amongst the European citizens thus justifying increasing 'defense' and intelligence budgets, as well as grotesque surveillance measures.

It is so obvious that the West is unhappy about the marvelous success of both the Syrian and Russian forces in the Middle East. And it still does all it can to undermine it, and it is belittling and even smearing it using its propaganda apparatus.

Comment: Fortunately, Russia and also Iran, appear to be on top of Lebanon's predicament.

Building bridges: More countries look to align with Russia in battle against terrorism after NATO's incompetence in Middle East

Federico Pieraccini
Russia Insider
Sat, 02 Apr 2016 12:45 UTC

animation hands cooperation russia india

The wide display of technology and firepower shown in Syria has encouraged building cooperation and buying weapons from Moscow

With ISIS and Al Nusra on the run thanks to the combined capabilities of the Russian air force and Syrian Arab Army, terrorist organizations are moving to reallocate forces, continue propaganda and recruitment, as well as to spread chaos.

One of the most important factors that makes Islamic State (IS) so successful is the capability to franchise, replicate and expand its symbols. In recent weeks we have come to know that Jemaah Islamiyah, maybe the most infamous islamic group in South Asia, has practically created a joint venture of terror, rebranding its labels with that of IS. This is just the beginning as more and more small groups taking up the black flag of IS and declaring allegiance to Al-Baghdadi or whoever is in charge of that jihadi galaxy.

Comment: Considering the role that NATO and western partners have played in the formation of ISIS, who wouldn't want to align with Russia? See more: Is ISIS a creation of the US government? Do large hairy mammals relieve themselves in the woods?

CIA 'K-9 test' gone wrong or something else?

Dave Lindorff
This Can't Be Happening!
Sat, 02 Apr 2016 12:15 UTC

© This Can't Be Happening!.
Alert Virginia school district mechanic found C-4 explosive package planted on school bus in CIA "test".

What on earth was the CIA doing putting plastic high explosive charges on schoolbuses and in hidden places in a Virginia public school in a "test" of K-9 dogs reportedly belonging to the Agency itself?

The story of the secret "test" broke because an alert mechanic doing a routing check on one of the Loudon County School District's schoolbuses found a package of what turned out to be plastic explosive, packed in plastic-wrapped "shaped-charge" packages, down in among some of the rubber hoses and electric wires around the engine.

It had allegedly "fallen" from where it had originally been placed and was missed by the dogs and their handlers, and remained where it was stuck for two days, while the bus delivered some 26 young children to and from school on eight bus runs totaling 145 miles of driving.

I called the CIA's "public information" office on Friday to ask for clarification as to why the CIA, which does not have a domestic policing function, would be operating, and testing, a K-9 bomb-detecting unit, given that such tasks in the US would appropriately be handled either by state and local police agencies, or by the FBI or the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF). The office, though it was mid-day, was not answering its phones, and only had a voice mail recording, on which I identified myself as a reporter, left my contact information and requested a response on deadline. No surprise: I was not called back with an answer, and do not anticipate receiving one from an agency that is infamous for its secrecy. (The standard CIA response in my experience, when I've received one at all, is: "We have no response to that question.")

Still, even for a notoriously opaque and obtuse government agency, this is a truly bizarre incident that cries out for answers.

Trying to make nice? Turkey to restore Russian monument in Istanbul

Sputnik
Sat, 02 Apr 2016 17:19 UTC

The Turkish government has agreed to restore the historic San Stefano Russian monument in Istanbul, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

According to the newspaper, the Turkish parliament's national defense commission said it would build the monument to commemorate fallen Russian soldiers in return for the construction of five similar monuments in Russia.

The agreement was initially discussed in 2012 and now it would be brought back up at the Turkish parliament. According to the 2012 document, the two countries decided to honor soldiers who died during historic wars on each other's soil.

Comment: This comes after further Russian revelations of Turkish collusion with Daesh. Is Turkey finally trying to make nice in order to avoid the inevitable fallout? After all, it looks as if their U.S. patron is willing to abandon the Erdogan regime to whatever fate meets it.

Turkey also recently arrested the alleged killer of the Russian Su-24 pilot on unrelated charges. Turkey has yet to apologize, but is this too a subtle overture, a way of mending bridges without explicit saying so?

The Truth Perspective: Interview with Henning Melber: Dag Hammarskjold, why he died and why it matters

Sott.net
Sat, 02 Apr 2016 18:00 UTC

On the night of September 17, 1961, the second Secretary General of the United Nations, Dag Hammarskjold, was flying to a meeting in Northern Rhodesia to negotiate a possible resolution to the conflict in the newly independent Republic of the Congo. His flight never reached his final destination. The next day, the site of its crash was discovered just miles from the airport. 15 passengers, including Hammarskjold, were dead, and the only survivor died soon after. Written off as the result of pilot error by the official Rhodesian inquiry, the UN's own investigation did not come to any definite conclusions. Now, over 50 years later, new evidence has come to light that raises the distinct possibility that Hammarskjold's plane was attacked. The publication of Dr. Susan Williams's book Who Killed Hammarskjold? prompted an independent commission and UN resolutions aimed at finding the truth, but some major powers - the U.S. and UK - are blocking access to key documents.

On this episode of the Truth Perspective, we discussed this evidence, Secretary General Hammarskjold, the circumstances of his death, and why it matters today. Joining us was Dr. Henning Melber, Director Emeritus and Senior Advisor of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation in Uppsala; Senior Advisor to the Nordic Africa Institute; Extraordinary Professor at the Department of Political Sciences/University of Pretoria and the Centre for Africa Studies at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein; and Senior Research Fellow with the Institute for Commonwealth Studies at the University of London. He has published several books, including Peace Diplomacy, Global Justice and International Agency: Rethinking Human Security and Ethics in the Spirit of Dag Hammarskjöld.

Running Time: 02:04:51

Download: OGG, MP3

Listen live, chat, and call in to future shows on the SOTT Radio Network!

Pentagon at it again - enrolls 'dozens' of Syrian rebels in 'new' training program after failed attempt

RT
Sat, 02 Apr 2016 03:36 UTC

The US is training "dozens" of rebels to battle Islamic State in Syria, in the hope of fixing mistakes that swamped the Pentagon's previous multimillion dollar effort, when most of the equipment and recruits were lost or ended up on the side of terrorists.

"Dozens of people are now being trained," US Army Colonel Steve Warren, a Baghdad-based spokesman for the US-led coalition, confirmed to reporters. "It's still relatively small as we see if this works," he said, while refusing to comment on the scale of the program.

Comment: Well now, that sounds like they know what they're doing! (This time.) "Dozens?" Wow.

Warren provided neither a definite figure for the number of individuals in training nor their location. Citing an unnamed source, Reuters reported that it had been taking place in Turkey, just as with America's previous attempt to bolster the so-called moderate Syrian opposition. "A training and equipping program that we are now doing that is based on the lessons that we learned from our ill-fated train and equip program of 2015," Warren said.

The US previously failed in its an attempt to train and equip rebels, having to stop the program following a scandal, when it was revealed that one group of trainees had surrendered one quarter of its US-supplied weapons, ammunition, and vehicles to the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front in exchange for safe passage.

Comment: The US has better success at devising a patsy for its failures or to cover its ASSets when a particular lie or subterfuge is exposed. We should assume the equipment arrived where it was designated to go, no matter who implemented the plan. It was only a scandal because it was discovered.

Originally, the Pentagon's program was intended to graduate 3,000 well prepared New Syrian Forces fighters in 2015, and 5,000 annually afterwards, allegedly to combat Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL). On that, the Department of Defense spent reportedly nearly $400 million, which equaled roughly $2 million per fighter - a figure that the Pentagon denied.

Comment: Couldn't a military computer model have figured most of this out before they spent the $400M at $2M per fighter and risked looking incompetent? Just asking...because here they go again! Replacing those ISIS fighters.

Spying in St Louis: US spy agency to build new HQ in Missouri city

RT
Sat, 02 Apr 2016 16:33 UTC

A US spy agency's new $1.7 billion western headquarters will be constructed in St Louis, Missouri, where the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has had its offices for 70 years.

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) hopes to build its new western HQ in north St Louis, where it was offered free land on the site of the failed Pruitt-Igoe public housing complex.

The failed projects were demolished in the 70s, when many African-Americans residents moved to nearby Ferguson, now infamous as the city where teenager Michael Brown was shot by police officer Darren Wilson in 2014.

Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner had hoped to entice the spy agency to the Prairie State by also offering free land, but the spy agency chose to remain in St Louis.

The competition between the two states has drawn attention to the government spying agency which has enjoyed a far lower profile than that of the NSA, the CIA and other elements of the US's large intelligence apparatus.

State Department suspends review into 'top secret' Clinton emails

Matthew Lee
AP
Sat, 02 Apr 2016 16:39 UTC

BOLO: presidential candidate, armed and considered extremely dangerous, known to cackle with creepy laughter at inappropriate times.

The State Department has suspended its internal review into whether former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton or her top aides mishandled emails containing information now deemed 'top secret."

Spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said Friday the department had paused the review to avoid interfering with an ongoing FBI investigation into Clinton's use of a private server while she was America's top diplomat. She said the decision was made after the department sought the FBI's advice on how to proceed with the review and received word that it should follow its standard practice. Trudeau said the department's standard practice is to place internal reviews "on hold while there is an ongoing law enforcement investigation underway."

An FBI spokeswoman declined to comment.

"Of course, we do not want our internal review to complicate or impede the progress of their ongoing law enforcement investigation," Trudeau told reporters. "Therefore, the State Department at this time is not moving forward with our internal review." Trudeau said the department would "reassess next steps" in the internal review process once the FBI completes its probe.

Comment: Hopefully the FBI won't back down.