Puppet Masters
"A large-scale effort is ongoing to encircle Russia with an anti-missile shield. Anti-missile defense sites have been already seat up on US soil in California and Alaska," Alexander Fomin, Russia's deputy defense minister, said on Friday in an interview with the Russia 24 TV channel. Washington has in fact long been expanding its anti-missile shield into Europe. In 2016, a $800 million ballistic defense site went into operation in Romania.
Last year, the US for the first time deployed the Patriot long-range anti-aircraft missiles to the Baltics to use them in large-scale NATO wargames in Lithuania.
Iraq says it will under no circumstances permit the United States to build permanent military bases on its soil, which would be a violation of its sovereignty.
"Baghdad firmly rejects the construction of US military bases on its soil," said Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim Jaafari at the end of an extended visit to Russia on Friday.
Iraq will "not stand on ceremony" when it comes to the protection of its sovereignty, he said.
He said that, back in 2014, when Baghdad asked for international help in fighting the Takfiri terrorist group of Daesh, it said the potential contribution had to meet the requirements of Iraq's sovereignty and independence.
Shortly after, US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert refused to discuss questions with Russian journalists present at the US State Department media briefing. In response, Russia's equivalent, Maria Zakharova, promised to segregate US journalists in Russia into "special seats", accusing the US State Department of a racist and outdated mentality.
But first, a trip down nightmare lane. The road to ruin - at least as far as US-Russia relations were concerned - began immediately following the 9/11 terror attacks. Three months after that fateful day, in December 2001, George W. Bush informed Vladimir Putin that the US was withdrawing from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, a strange move considering that the treaty had kept the peace between the nuclear superpowers since 1972. This geopolitical "mistake," as Putin rightly defined it, allowed the US to begin the process of deploying a missile defense system, smack on the border with Russia, allegedly to shield the continent against an attack by Iran. Never mind the fact that Tehran had absolutely no reason, not to mention the wherewithal, to carry out such a suicidal mission. But Washington has never been one to let facts get in the way of a forced move on the global chess board.
Partly it is because of a ratcheting up of tensions in Ukraine which look like they could break into a hot war, and Moscow's desire to deflect this possibility as much as possible.
This video is a hard-hitting recap of the known facts, with the latest revelations, from Russia's #1 anchor, Dmitry Kiselyov.
Comment: See also:
- Georgian snipers testify to being ordered by Maidan leaders to shoot at police and protesters, provoke attacks during Ukraine coup
- Stephen Cohen analyses four years of Ukraine and the myths of Maidan (PODCAST)
- Kiev's Maidan sniper trial gets serious: Defense to question Georgians who say opposition, U.S. Army paid snipers to "sow chaos"
- Italian TV documentary confirms: Maidan snipers worked for Ukrainian "opposition" - goal was to create chaos
- Former member of security services to Georgian ex-president Saakashvili reveals he was hired to be a sniper and "sow chaos" at Maidan in 2014
If approved by Congress, the deal would involve the sale of 210 missiles and 37 command units, Defense News reported, citing Pentagon sources. The Pentagon claims it will not affect the military balance in the region, where the Kiev government is locked in conflict with two regions in the east of the country. Kiev has been accusing Moscow of backing the rebels, to the point of officially designating Russia an "aggressor" state.
"The Javelin system will help Ukraine build its long-term defense capacity to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity in order to meet its national defense requirements," the Pentagon said in a statement.
This Friday morning began for the Israeli prime minister and his wife with the arrival of police forces, as the Jerusalem Post newspaper reports: Benjamin Netanyahu was questioned in his official residence in Jerusalem, his wife, Sara, was simultaneously testifying over her engagement in the "Bezeq affair," otherwise known as Case 4000 at the Israeli national police headquarters.
Case 4000 is connected with suspicions that while working as communications minister in 2014-2017, in addition to his prime ministerial post, that Netanyahu was helping the Bezeq group, controlled by Shaul Elovitch, in exchange for a beneficial image of Netanyahu and his policies in the media.
Sara Netanyahu, for her part, is suspected of communicating with Elovitch's wife, Iris, aiming to secure favorable coverage in another media outlet, Walla.
Comment: See also:
- Netanyahu's list of corruption scandals
- Crime Minister: Israeli protestors demand resignation of Netanyahu over corruption charges
- Netanyahu corruption investigation circles in: Seven more of PM's cronies brought up on charges
- Sara Netanyahu expected to be indicted for fraud in accepting over $110,000 in goods
Indeed, America itself could be described as one gigantic ongoing psyop infecting 323 million otherwise healthy homo sapiens. Propaganda is one of the most under-appreciated and overlooked aspects of human experience; the way those in power use media to manipulate how people think and vote affects every significant issue in a truly massive way, yet it rarely even comes up in conversation. Americans are some of the most aggressively propagandized people on our planet, and their mass media machine keeps acting stranger and stranger.
Comment: Information gathering. Trump, again, sussed out the Dems' threshold of support by suggesting an outcome they might agree with (to which he is not obligated to follow through) and in turn, the level of Republican push back.
See also: 'Take the guns first', Trump parts with Republicans over gun-control plan
The Guardian's coverage ("Putin threatens US arms race with new missiles declaration") shows us their masters see this as just another chance to cast Russia as a dangerous rogue state. The Times [the British daily] takes a similar line ("Putin unveils his super weapons to defy the West"). Elsewhere Putin's speech is not only misinterpreted it's also relegated to sidebars in favour of photos of snow (Telegraph), or dropped into the tiny print at the bottom of the page (New York Times).
The western press has basically opted out of analysing this, so let's do it for them. Why is Putin talking about the new generation of weapons? What does he hope to achieve?
First and foremost what Putin's speech - just as all his previous warnings - is ultimately intended to do is avert a pending worldwide catastrophe. The US political class is too fluoridated, too driven by ideologues, too crazy to understand MAD any more. And its current policy, in concert with the EU and NATO, is one of continued unremitting provocation toward Russia, presented through the subservient and frankly stupid corporate media as "responding" to Russian "aggression".















Comment: See also: Putin's clear message: West needs to stop provoking a war we don't want, no one can win