Welcome to Sott.net
Mon, 08 Nov 2021
The World for People who Think

Puppet Masters
Map

Eye 1

Russian deputy defense minister: 'US eyes encircling Russia with 400 anti-ballistic missiles'

Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile launch system
© Toru Hanai / Reuters
Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile launch system
While the West blames Moscow for a new arms race, the US is creeping to Russia's borders. A Russian defense official said some 400 anti-ballistic missiles will pop up on the country's doorstep as part of the US military buildup.

"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.

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


Info

Iraqi FM Ibrahim Jaafari says that Iraq 'will never allow US bases on its soil'

A US trooper
© Photo by AFP
A US trooper is seen in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, on June 21, 2017

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.

Comment: See also: Iraqi interest in purchasing Russian S-400 missile systems leads to threat of sanctions from US


Russian Flag

'Bring it on or swallow it whole' - Russian reactions to US media distorting Putin's words (VIDEO)

Bring it on

The Lady vs The Bitch
On March 1st, Russia's President Putin delivered his annual address to the Federal Assembly. In what was a 2 hour long presentation, inclusive of internal matters and economic issues, the US media picked up on a segment in which he unveiled a number of new Russian technologies in the nuclear sphere. He made it precisely clear, that the weapons were developed in response to the US unilateral withdrawal from the ABM Treaty 1972, which allowed it to place their "missile defense" systems in Europe, and new systems are due to be placed in Asia - thereby completely surrounding Russia from all sides.

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.


Comment: See also: US State Dept. spokesman snubs journalists during briefing: 'Oh, you're from Russian media? Next question!'


Radar

Target: Russia: NATO sprawl creeps into Eastern Europe - and there are no more illusions about its purpose

NATO in Eastern Europe
In the past, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) justified its militarization of large swaths of Eastern Europe by pointing to the omnipresent threat of terrorism, or some 'rogue' foreign state, inherently understood to be Iran. Today the mask has slipped and it is no longer denied that NATO's primary target is Russia.

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.

Attention

False flag snipers murdered 100s of protesters in 2014 Kiev riots to force coup (Russian TV news)

russian shrine
This has been public knowledge for about three years and widely discussed and proven in the alternative media, but for some reason Russian state television has chosen to start talking it up now.

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:


Rocket

US State Dept. approves $47M worth of anti-tank missiles to Ukraine

anti-tank missile
© Lucas Jackson / Reuters
Javelin Anti-tank missile
The US Department of State has signed off on the sale of Javelin anti-tank missiles to the government of Ukraine, the Pentagon has confirmed. The deal is valued at $47 million and needs congressional approval next.

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.

Briefcase

Police interrogate Netanyahu and his wife for corruption charges

Bibi & wife
© The Times of Israel
On the way to interrogation...
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's questioning is connected with two separate breaches of trust cases: one is code-named Case 3000 over allegations of bribes and the second one dubbed Case 4000 over suspicions of influencing media coverage in his favor.

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:


Attention

US empire acts like a desperate, cornered animal because that's what it is

Am. Eagle
© Bluestone Healthcare Services
I love Americans. I get friendly flak from some of my more jaded lefty readers whenever I say that, because having to deal with the flaws of one's own countrymen is a very different experience than appreciating them from afar, but I do. I insist that Americans are generally good-hearted human beings, who just happen to also have a lot of ideas swimming around in their heads which benefit their government's war machine and ruling oligarchs.

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.

Pistol

'Take the guns first': Has Trump stumbled on a reasonable idea for gun reform?

TrumpFeinsteinCornyn
© ABC News
President Donald Trump • Senators Cornyn and Feinstein
Yesterday, President Trump cause a big stir by appearing open to -- if not outright endorsing -- a number of dramatic gun control measures during a bipartisan White House meeting, drawing a rebuke from the NRA. Nobody was quite sure how to react. Democrats, accustomed to knee-jerk opposition, seemed astonished and even giddy. Stunned Republicans mumbled about 'concerns,' though precious few have outright rebuffed Trump's comments in the stark terms one would expect from a pro-gun rights party. Trump even ridiculed GOP representatives at the gathering as being 'petrified' of the NRA, adopting a left-wing attack line; it seems as though quite a few lawmakers are more fearful of crossing him than the Second Amendment advocacy group, even as he openly discusses vastly curtailing gun rights and civil liberties. This is undoubtedly true:

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


Russian Flag

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

Putin Speech
© screenshot
Does anyone in the West understand what the real point of Putin's comments about Russia's new weaponry?

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 Delivers Landmark 'State of The Union' Speech: Puts The Smack Down on US, Shows Off Latest Russian Nuclear Weapons