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Kazakh President Nazarbaev says Poroshenko seeking compromise on Donbass


Radio Free Europe
Tue, 16 Aug 2016 19:30 UTC
Putin Kazakstan
© Sputnik
Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) meets with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev in Sochi on August 16.
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev says Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is "inclined to finding compromises" to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine between Kyiv and Russia-backed separatists.

At the meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi on August 16, Nazarbaev said Poroshenko had told him by phone "recently" that the Ukrainian parliament "has been hindering the adoption of the legislation defining the status" of districts in Ukraine's eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk controlled by the separatists.

For his part, Putin thanked Nazarbaev for his role as a mediator in improving Russia's relations with Turkey and expressed the hope that declining trade between Russia and Kazakhstan will increase.

Nazarbaev said he plans to meet with Putin at least more five times before the end of the year.

The Sochi trip is Nazarbaev's 19th visit to Russia since 2012.

Comment: Kazakhstan is aware of the possibility of destabilizing elements that could soon come to it if the extremists of Ukraine and other areas are not stopped. It has taken Putin's example (likely with his approval) in positioning itself as another mediating element in a fraught region.

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Jet5

Russian heavy bombers deployed to Iran: Sign of Russia's full support for Iran ahead of U.S. elections, deterrent against Western aggression

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Tue, 16 Aug 2016 19:32 UTC
russian bombers
Whilst the true state of relations between Turkey and Russia remains murky, the alignment of Russia with the other great Central Asian power - Iran - is intensifying.

News came today that heavy TU-22M3 Russian bombers together with SU-34s are operating against Jihadi targets in Syria from a base in Hamadan in Iran.

This is primarily a political not a military act. TU-22M3s have the range to strike anywhere in Syria from their bases in southern Russia and have repeatedly shown their capacity to do so. There is no operational reason for them to fly to Syria from Hamadan. That Russia has chosen to fly its TU-22M3s out of Hamadan is therefore a political statement by Russia that Russia and Iran are military allies in the joint fight against Islamist terrorism in Syria.

Comment: The U.S. military announced that the Russians informed them about the strikes beforehand - no surprise this time, like the Caspian Sea launch last year. However, when asked how much advance notice was given, Col. Garver replied: "it was not a lot of time, but it was enough." Ha!

Iranian experts say this move will make the liberation of Aleppo more effective; Iran and Russia's cooperation has "reached a new level. ... Iran has given its consent to Russian bombers to use the Iranian airfield and its entire infrastructure to attack positions of Daesh in Syria." Contra Mercouris above, "Such a tactical move will improve the speed and accuracy of carrying out military operations against the terrorists in Syria by shortening the distance and flight time, which will give more opportunities to the Russian air forces." Russian military experts concur.

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Chess

Projecting evil: The CIA's long history of inane anti-Russian propaganda

Wayne Madsen
The Intrepid Report
Tue, 16 Aug 2016 00:00 UTC
CIA bomb
© www.namebase.org
Former Central Intelligence Agency Acting Director Michael Morell has claimed that the GOP presidential nominee is an unwitting intelligence agent for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Former CIA and National Security Agency director Michael Hayden believes Trump is not hostile enough against Russia. The Democratic Party and the Hillary Clinton campaign, in concert with the FBI, have accused Russia of being behind computer break-ins of the computers of the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign.

The media will not call these charges for what they really are: unfounded kooky conspiracy theories. Of course, when the CIA, NSA, and FBI proffer conspiracy tales, they are not deemed as such by the corporate media, which has, for 70 years, echoed an endless stream of inane propaganda stories from the padded rooms of Langley, Virginia. The soundproofing of some conferences rooms at CIA headquarters actually make them appear "padded."

Obama administration and intelligence agencies alternate between blaming cyber-attacks in the United States on, depending what day it is, Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea. Never blamed is poor U.S. computer and network security, especially that brought about by inherently insecure "cloud computing." Even the CIA has opened up insecure doors into highly-classified U.S. intelligence networks by outsourcing its cloud services to Amazon, whose owner, Jeff Bezos, owns The Washington Post. No wonder the Post likes to blame all the computer security hacking on Russia, China, and the rest. Bezos's paper has no interest in blaming the true culprits, cloud services firms like Amazon, for U.S. hacking debacles.
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USA

Rudy Giuliani breaks THE golden rule of 9/11: Never forget


RT
Tue, 16 Aug 2016 18:57 UTC
Rudy Giuliani
© Mike Segar / Reuters
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
Speaking at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania, when he made an alarming flub. As the mayor of New York City from 1994 until 2001, it was odd when he suggested that no terrorist attack had occurred prior to Obama's presidency.

Giuliani was meant to introduce Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in Youngstown, Pennsylvania on Monday. Instead, he introduced the first blunder of the week for the Republican campaign.

"Under those eight years, before Obama came along, we didn't have any successful radical Islamic terrorist attack inside the United States," the man once known as America's Mayor said.

Those terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 that hit Washington, DC, New York City and a failed attack that resulted in a plane crash in a Pennsylvania field? Apparently Giuliani forgot all about them.

Comment: At least Giuliani got one thing right. Muslims, radical or otherwise didn't attack the US on 9/11. A failing memory can sometimes allow the truth to slip out.

Perhaps the same questions being asked about Killary's health could be asked about Rudy's? There are many slips and stumbles even in such a short clip. Funny how the whole neocon cabal seem to be going downhill physically.

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Attention

Rampaging South Sudan troops raped foreigners and killed local journalist

Jason Patinkin
AP
Mon, 15 Aug 2016 18:25 UTC
United Nations base in South Sudan's capital Juba
© AP Photo/Jason Patinkin, File
The soldier pointed his AK-47 at the female aid worker and gave her a choice.

"Either you have sex with me, or we make every man here rape you and then we shoot you in the head," she remembers him saying.

She didn't really have a choice. By the end of the evening, she had been raped by 15 South Sudanese soldiers.

On July 11, South Sudanese troops, fresh from winning a battle in the capital, Juba, over opposition forces, went on a nearly four-hour rampage through a residential compound popular with foreigners, in one of the worst targeted attacks on aid workers in South Sudan's three-year civil war. They shot dead a local journalist while forcing the foreigners to watch, raped several foreign women, singled out Americans, beat and robbed people and carried out mock executions, several witnesses told The Associated Press.

For hours throughout the assault, the U.N. peacekeeping force stationed less than a mile away refused to respond to desperate calls for help. Neither did embassies, including the U.S. Embassy.
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Chess

Theresa May pens groveling letter to suspicious China over stalled Hinkley nuclear plant deal


RT
Tue, 16 Aug 2016 18:35 UTC
China flag
© Toby Melville / Reuters
British Prime Minister Theresa May has been forced to write a letter to the Chinese government to placate their suspicions over the stalled Hinkley Point nuclear power station deal.

The letter follows a period of tensions over the future of the £18 billion (US$23.4 billlion) arrangement after UK spies warned Chinese investment in British nuclear power could compromise national security.

If it goes ahead, the deal would see two nuclear reactors built for the Somerset plant by the French company EDF. These would be part-funded by China General Nuclear Power.


The hand-written letter was delivered by trade minister Alok Sharma amid fears that May's step away from former PM David Cameron's policy of courting the Chinese could spook the Asian powerhouse.

In response to the delay, China warned against a "suspicious approach" by the UK and urged fulfillment of the deal.
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Info

Defeating Daesh is worth far more than the return of Iran's $400 million

Caleb Maupin
New Eastern Outlook
Tue, 16 Aug 2016 18:00 UTC
Iran Revolutionary Guards
When I was in Tehran last November, I had the honor and privilege of visiting a graveyard where Iranians who had lost their lives on the battlefield fighting against ISIL were being buried. Though saddened by their loss, the families at the ceremonies were jubilant, joyfully praising God and celebrating their fallen relatives as martyrs in a battle to defend their homeland. Despite the fact that I am a non-Muslim, Christian, and a citizen of the United States, they happily embraced me, and allowed me to observe the mourning of their beloved relatives. Many of them pointed out to me that although the United States and Iran have many points of dispute, when it comes to ISIL, we are on the same page. Americans and Iranians both want ISIL to be destroyed.

Our Common Enemy

It should be universally understood that the foreign enemy that poses the greatest direct threat to the safety of the US public at this time is the entity known as Deash, sometimes called ISIL, or ISIS. This organization has openly stated that its intention is to kill Americans. Recently in Orlando, an individual who swore allegiance to ISIL opened fire in a nightclub and killed scores of innocent people. In European cities like Belgium, Nice, and Paris, hundreds innocent people have been slaughtered by this bloodthirsty organization of Wahhabi fanatics.

While Americans can sleep peacefully, knowing that the headquarters of ISIL are on the other side of the planet, Iranians know that ISIL's nest and international base of operations is not too far from their borders.
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Snakes in Suits

SOTT Exclusive: CNN's latest anti-Putin 'hit piece' is a complete farce

Corey Schink
Sott.net
Tue, 16 Aug 2016 17:30 UTC
anti-putin propaganda
© Metro (UK)
What passes for 'objective information' in the Western media
Much of the West has been informed that Russia is responsible for the migrant crisis, for corruption of the Olympic games, for meddling in American democracy, for killing Syrians, and whatever else crosses the disturbed minds of the Western criminal elite. And, of course, point by point they are all lies. CNN delivered their 'lite' version of the West's paranoid hate-propaganda this week when on August 9th they published an interview with 'Platon,' the man who took the picture of Putin for his Time Magazine special:

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Snakes in Suits

Pentagon says US not fighting against al-Nusra Front in Syria, only Daesh


Sputnik
Tue, 16 Aug 2016 17:08 UTC
al-Nusra Front fighters
© AFP 2016/ Fadi al-Halabi / AMC
The US-led coalition is combating only Daesh terrorist group in Syria, Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Christopher Garver told reporters on Tuesday.

He also said Pentagon refuses to confirm whether Russia hits al-Nusra Front terrorists' targets in the country.

When asked whether he can confirm that Russia hits Nusra Front in Syria, Garver said, "No, we're not watching that. I'm not going to confirm that. The coalition is fighting Daesh."

"We certainly know that al-Nusra, or whatever they are calling themselves today, are operating there, but they are not who we are fighting. We are fighting against Daesh," the spokesman added.
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Stop

The new cold war: A neocon hold-over that Russia wants no part in

The Z Man
The Z Blog
Thu, 11 Aug 2016 16:50 UTC
cold war
© Flickr/ mikytex
One of the more curious parts of the American presidential campaign is the furious side battle over how to deal with the Russians. Many Republicans have adopted the neo-conservative line that Putin is some combination of Stalin, Hitler and that third grade bully who put gum in their hair. They are incapable of seeing Putin as anything but an inhuman evil. This says more about the Republican-aligned publications and think tanks, which have come to be dominated by the neo-cons, than anything else.

Trump has taken a less provocative stance than most Republicans so that has all the professional loonies out howling in the streets. Part of this is simply due to the anti-Trump virus that has infected Official Conservatism, but it also reveals something about the political class. While neo-cons have always had greater influence over the Republicans, they currently dominate the foreign policy establishment. It was under Obama, after all, that Victoria Nuland helped throw the Ukraine into turmoil.

The puzzle is why the neo-cons have an obsession with the Russians. The Cold War has been over for a long time and the Russians are not much of a threat to anyone. They have a lot of nukes, but what reason would they have to nuke anyone? The Russian ruling class is living like Saudi Royals, mostly from selling natural resources to the Europeans. They control roughly 40% of the natural gas supply to Europe and that accounts for 68% of Russian exports. That means the Russians are in no hurry to stop selling gas to the rest of Europe.
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