Puppet Masters

Delusional: Obama warns Putin to stop 'aggressive actions'

Telegraph, UK
Wed, 11 Feb 2015 22:26 UTC

President Barack Obama has warned Russia not to continue its "aggressive actions" in Ukraine as the repercussions will increase.

Comment: What is the word for 'repercussions' when the act leading to those 'repercussions' did not occur? Unilateral aggression based on false pretenses?

The White House said Mr Obama reiterated US support for Ukraine's sovereignty in his call with Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, and emphasised the importance of reaching a diplomatic resolution.

Comment: We guess 'supporting' a country's sovereignty is synonomous with violating it for the U.S. It is the U.S. that violated Ukraine's sovereignty when they sponsored the coup there in 2014.

"However, if Russia continues its aggressive actions in Ukraine, including by sending troops, weapons, and financing to support the separatists, the costs for Russia will rise," the White House said in a statement.

Comment: And yet the U.S. has been financing regime change, sending military aid, and is planning on sending lethal weaponry (if NATO isn't already) to Kiev. Double standard?

When "conspiracy theories" become reality: HSBC documents reveal criminal conspiracy of banks and governments

Andre Damon
Global Research
Wed, 11 Feb 2015 21:20 UTC

On Sunday, international news outlets the Guardian and Le Monde, working with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), published articles based on their analysis of leaked files showing that the Swiss private banking arm of HSBC, Europe's largest bank, functioned for years as a tax evasion and money laundering firm.

The company ran a branch that gave out "bricks" of hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash in foreign denominations and provided its wealthy clientele with advice on how to commit tax fraud, according to the reports.

These facts have for years been been in the possession of international financial regulators and governments throughout the world—including those of Britain, France and the United States—which systematically covered them up. Neither the bank, nor its executives, nor any of the clients that utilized its tax dodging services have been criminally prosecuted.

Comment: Given HSBC's track record so far, this really comes as no surprise:

Drug money banking, terror dealings exposed at HSBC

The Argentina headquarters of HSBC raided by tax officers

HSBC targets account of Syrian refugees in the UK

HSBC to pay $249 million fine for U.S. mortgage abuse

Putin, Poroshenko, Merkel and Hollande meet in Minsk to discuss Ukraine (VIDEO)

Sputnik
Wed, 11 Feb 2015 20:04 UTC

Leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France began on Wednesday much-anticipated talks on a peace plan that could end the deadly 10-month conflict in eastern Ukraine.

The summit follows recent contacts between Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande last week, as well as preparatory work by respective foreign ministers and a meeting of the Contact Group on Ukraine.

Before the summit began, Russian President Vladimir Putin shook hands with his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko and exchanged a few words, Rossiya-1 TV channel reports. Putin sat in front of Poroshenko, Hollande and Merkel sat on a sofa between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders.

At the same time, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov talked with his German colleague Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his French counterpart Laurent Fabius.

Earlier it was reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande, comprising the so-called Normandy quartet, have arrived in Minsk to hold talks on Ukrainian reconciliation.

Comment: Some live updates from RT:

16:32 GMT: Poroshenko has said he is "crossing his fingers" that today's meeting will be successful and enter the annuals of world diplomacy.

17:33 GMT: Negotiations have gotten underway in Independence Palace's Dipservice Hall, TASS news agency reports. Apart from the 'Normandy Four, 'representatives of the self-declared republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, Denis Pushilin and Vladislav Deinego, former Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma, Russian Ambassador to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov, and OSCE (the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) special representative Heidi Tagliavini will also take part in a separate closed-door contact group meeting.

17:43 GMT: The United Nations expects the Normandy Four negotiations in Minsk to result in a cessation of hostilities in the east of Ukraine, Stefan Dyuzharrik, a spokesman for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, has said. "We look forward to positive results," Dyuzharrik said. "We want to see a cessation of hostilities and to reach an agreement, which will be followed by all parties."

18:38 GMT: The Minsk talks have continued in an expanded format. Putin, Hollande, Merkel, and Poroshenko have been joined by their states' foreign ministers, Interfax-Ukraine reports.

18:38 GMT: All sides of the talks are "willing to reach positive results," Belarus Foreign Minister Vladimir Makey has said. "We have had an opportunity to speak to each of the sides and we see that each [of them] is willing to reach a positive result," he said, as quoted by RIA Novosti.

18:47 GMT: President Poroshenko left the room where talks between the leaders have been taking place. He continued to the second floor of the palace, but was back in about 15 minutes.

19:13 GMT: The four leaders are planning to sign a joint declaration on the implementation of the Minsk agreement, a source in the Belarusian capital has told Interfax-Ukraine. "The signing of a joint declaration on the implementation of the Minsk agreements is planned," the source said.

It is also expected that a tripartite contact group in Minsk will agree on implementation plan for the Minsk agreements. "It is expected that the leaders of the 'Normandy format' will support this plan," he added.

Obama: 'We have to twist arms when countries don't do what we need them to'

RT
Wed, 11 Feb 2015 13:07 UTC

President Barack Obama has said the reality of "American leadership" at times entails "twisting the arms" of states which "don't do what we need them to do," and that the US relied on its military strength and other leverage to achieve its goals.

In a broad-ranging interview with Vox, which Obama himself described as a venue "for the brainiac-nerd types," the US president both denied the efficacy of a purely "realist" foreign policy but also arguing that at times the US, which has a defense budget that exceeds the next 10 countries combined, needed to rely on its military muscle and other levers of power.

Lauding the rule-based system to emerge in the post-World War II era, Obama admitted it wasn't perfect, but argued "the UN, the IMF, and a whole host of treaties and rules and norms that were established really helped to stabilize the world in ways that it wouldn't otherwise be."

Comment: And so the mask is finally removed and the US government is revealed as the elitist, arrogant, aggressor nation that it has always been. Note at minute 9.20 that Obama claims that "we're the largest most powerful country on earth". "Largest"? Really? Is Obama so deluded that he now thinks that the USA is bigger than Russia, a country that has almost twice the landmass of the USA?

Litvinenko police interviews undermine legal case: He drank poison 'by chance'

John Davison
Exaro
Thu, 12 Feb 2015 01:42 UTC

Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko gave interviews to police on his deathbed that undermine the official story of how he was killed.

While in intensive care, Litvinenko gave an account to two detectives from Scotland Yard of how, by chance, he came to drink a few sips of green tea, which police believe was laced with radioactive polonium.

Police say that Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun, working for Russian intelligence, met Litvinenko just over eight years ago at a hotel bar in London's Mayfair to poison him with polonium-210, slipped into the tea.

But Litvinenko described in his own words how the final meeting with his alleged murderers was a hit-and-miss, even casual, encounter rather than a carefully crafted assassination.

Comment: So who killed Litvinenko? See Just in time! Litvinenko public inquiry begins and the links there for more clues. Hint: it probably ain't Russia.

Russia will help Egypt build 'a whole new nuclear power industry'

RT
Tue, 10 Feb 2015 00:31 UTC

© RIA Novosti/Michael Klimentyev
February 10, 2015. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi make a joint statement following the Russian-Egyptian talks in Cairo.

Russia will contribute to building "a whole new nuclear power industry" in Egypt, President Vladimir Putin has announced as the two countries have signed a number of agreements after a meeting in Cairo.

The leaders of Russia and Egypt have signed "a memorandum of understanding to build the first nuclear plant in [the northern city of] El-Dabaa," Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al Sisi has told reporters at a news conference at Cairo's Al Qubba presidential palace.

Russia would contribute not only to the construction of a nuclear power plant, but also staff and scientific research, President Putin said.

"We discussed today the possibility of cooperation in nuclear power engineering," Putin said. "If final decisions are made, they will relate not only to the construction of a nuclear power plant but also to the creation of a whole new nuclear power industry in Egypt."

If successful, the project could cover the Egypt's necessity for electric energy, Sisi said.

"Russia has a significant experience that it could share with Cairo, and for that Egypt would be very thankful," he said. "Also, [a nuclear plant] will cover the Egypt's necessity for electricity."

Comment: Uh oh, will Israel and US complain about Egypt's nuclear energy program?

Passport or Real I.D. will be required for domestic US travel

Wendy McElroy
Safe Haven
Tue, 10 Feb 2015 12:21 UTC

Precedents exist for requiring citizens to produce special ID for domestic travel; they include Nazi Germany, apartheid South Africa and Russia (both Imperial and Soviet).

Over the Christmas season, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) quietly announced that America was walking down that path. By 2016, all domestic air travel will require either a traditional passport or a federally-compliant ID card called "Real ID." State driver's licenses will no longer allow Americans access to domestic flights, as they do now. Real ID will constitute an internal passport. (The drop-date date is commonly reported as January.)

An internal passport refers to an identity document that people must produce to move from place to place within national borders. It allows a government to monitor the movement of its own people and to control that movement by granting or denying ID. In the past, governments have used internal passports to isolate 'undesirables', to regulate economic opportunities, to reap personal data, to intimidate and command obedience, and to segregate categories of people (like Jews) for political purposes. It allows a government to bind anyone it chooses to his or her place of birth.

The upcoming Real ID requirement targets only air travel. But that's how it begins - with airports.

Comment: See also: New US regs say passengers cannot fly without biometric ID card

Aerial photos of ports show what the Pacific Maritime Association doesn't want the public to see

Longshore & Shipping News
Tue, 10 Feb 2015 19:40 UTC

The following photographs show, as ILWU International President Bob McEllrath said in a recent news release, that there are acres of asphalt waiting for the containers that sit on dozens of ships waiting to be unloaded at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, and sufficient space for thousands of containers on the docks.

The PMA has told the media that the ports are too full to receive cargo, but the photos tell another story. And though the docks are clear, the transportation chain (intermodal squeeze from export energy trains and chassis shortage) remains congested due to factors outside of the scope of the ILWU.

Photos taken Saturday, Feb. 6, 2015, at LB 94 and LBCT, by a team of longshore workers: Pilot Rollo Hartstrom from Local 13, and photographer Bill Kirk from Local 94

NATO and Nazism: Global hegemony in the guise of "collective defense"

Tony Cartalucci
New Eastern Outlook
Tue, 10 Feb 2015 00:00 UTC

Chief among the stated reasons the United States has decided to arbitrate the future of Ukraine for its citizens, is the grave danger Russia allegedly poses not only to Kiev, but to Europe and the rest of the world. This despite the fact that it was the US which facilitated violent protests that eventually overthrew the elected government of Ukraine in 2013-2014 in the first place, leading directly to the war now unfolding in the heart of Eastern Europe.

It was not long ago that another ambitious power cited Russia as a threat and invoked "collective defense" to justify what would become a contest between nations leaving tens of millions dead and entire countries in ruins. Nazi Germany's leader, Adolf Hitler would claim regarding his decision to invade Russia that:

The purpose of this front is no longer the protection of the individual nations, but rather the safety of Europe, and therefore the salvation of everyone.

I have therefore decided today once again to put the fate of Germany and the future of the German Reich and our people in the hands of our soldiers.

Sounding eerily familiar are US and NATO justifications for their continued expansion east and escalations made against Russia today. And also like that other ambitious power, the United States has waged wars all across the planet, far from Russia's borders and with little to do with Russia's interests beyond its borders, long before it turned its sights on Moscow.

Since World War II, the United States has invaded, bombed, and/or occupied the Korean Peninsula, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Somalia, Lebanon, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria. Some of these nations have been attacked by the US more than once. In many more countries the US has facilitated the violent overthrow of various governments, particularly in South America and the Middle East, first through the use of its Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), then through more veiled organizations like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). It has troops stationed in over a hundred nations around the world, occupying hundreds of military installations.

Comment: What's left out of this article is that the NATO/U.S. agenda in Ukraine could not have been implemented without the support of various neo-Nazi parties there, ie. Right Sector, Svoboda - that had a direct and immediate part in bringing about the events of the Maidan coup. This is one of several BIG lies - by omission in Western media organs - that just doesn't get figured into the calculus of the average person, who has little to no idea of what's actually going on there. And yet it is the West that is quite often comparing Russian President Vladimir Putin to Hitler when it is the U.S. that is propping up and supporting Nazis in Ukraine. You can't make this shit up.

In a speech given in 1941 (video below), where Hitler explains his reasons for invading the Soviet Union/Russia he calmly uses rationalizations, justifications and fabricated narratives to account for Germany's military aggression. As one commentator to the video correctly noted:

Hitler had already outlined his policy of Lebensraum as far back as 1933 to his military so the idea that he attacked Russia to prevent them attacking Germany is just a bald faced lie. He planned expansion in the East and in fact had developed and spoken about the policy in the early twenties.

Keep this clearly in mind when you listen to or, better yet, read the following speech (if you want to avoid having to hear Hitler's abhorrent voice). Also keep in mind that NATO's geo-strategic creep towards Russia has been occurring for more than twenty years - and years after the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. In sum, the idea of 'Russian aggression' is as much a construct of lies now as it was then.