Puppet MastersS


Bizarro Earth

On the threshold of a major regional reset, the Syria outcome will haunt those who started this war

Alastair Crooke
Strategic Culture Foundation
Mon, 14 Jan 2019 00:00 UTC
Globe ME
© Unknown
The Middle East is metamorphosing. New fault-lines are emerging, yet Trump's foreign policy 'hawks' still try to stage 'old movies' in a new 'theatre'.

The 'old movie' is for the US to 'stand up' Sunni, Arab states, and lead them towards confronting 'bad actor' Iran. 'Team Bolton' is reverting back to the old 1996 Clean Break script - as if nothing has changed. State Department officials have been briefing that Secretary Pompeo's address in Cairo on Thursday was " slated to tell his audience (although he may not name the former president), that Obama misled the people of the Middle East about the true source of terrorism, including what contributed to the rise of the Islamic State. Pompeo will insist that Iran, a country Obama tried to engage, is the real terrorist culprit. The speech's drafts also have Pompeo suggesting that Iran could learn from the Saudis about human rights, and the rule of law."

Well, at least that speech should raise a chuckle around the region. In practice however, the regional fault-line has moved on: It is no longer so much Iran. GCC States have a new agenda, and are now far more concerned to contain Turkey, and to put a halt to Turkish influence spreading throughout the Levant. GCC states fear that President Erdogan, given the emotional and psychological wave of antipathy unleashed by the Khashoggi murder, may be mobilising newly re-energised Muslim Brotherhood, Gulf networks. The aim being to leverage present Gulf economic woes, and the general hollowing out of any broader GCC 'vision', in order to undercut the rigid Gulf 'Arab system' (tribal monarchy). The Brotherhood favours a soft Islamist reform of the Gulf monarchies - along lines, such as that once advocated by Jamal Khashoggi.

Comment: Turkey plays both sides of the geo-political fence whenever it is convenient or a calculated advantage. Regardless of where Turkey lands in the grand scheme of things, its reputation predicts it isn't predictable, and its loyalty will be moment-to-moment. Israel's disregard of loyalties or cooperative circumstances - in order to further its own agenda - has become painfully obvious. It is cruising for an international bruising and the 'anti-Israel axis' may just provide it. The GCC are closing ranks.

Read More...
Snakes in Suits

William Barr's confirmation as new US Attorney General - Trump's plan or duped by the Deep State?

Larry Chin
Global Research
Mon, 14 Jan 2019 00:00 UTC
William Barr
© Tom Williams/Getty ImagesAttorney General William Barr
William Barr's confirmation to become Attorney General [took] place January 15-16, 2019. This article was originally published on December 12, 2018. The serious questions raised in the piece remain completely unanswered.

Why was Barr chosen, given his shocking and deeply criminal/cover-up kingpin background?

Was Trump duped by Deep State enemies, who have placed another predator into his administration with the power to destroy his presidency? Or has Trump co-opted and turned Barr, in the hopes that Barr will do Trump's bidding? Why would Barr ever turn against his own Deep State cronies?

Does Trump have a plan? With Barr in place, is Trump signaling to his enemies that "I now own the Deep State"? Or is Barr the Deep State's ultimate and final weapon against Trump, who remains surrounded by Bush/Clinton "swamp creatures" such as National Security Adviser John Bolton, who is one of Barr's many fellow Iran-Contra co-conspirators, Vice President Mike Pence (who is in ideal position for a coup against Trump, and remains very cozy with the Clintons, dozens of Obama appointees that remain in place, and Republican "Never Trumpers", all of whom continue to undermine Trump.

Pay careful attention to the confirmation "hearings". How many of the senators "questioning" Barr are themselves connected to the Bush/Clinton era criminal operations that Barr supervised as George H.W. Bush's attorney general?


Comment: See video below for the full confirmation hearing of William Barr for US Attorney General. See also:


Read More...
Attention

#Resistance heroes? An ex-FBI official says bureau attempted to keep 'progressives out of office'


RT
Sun, 20 Jan 2019 13:20 UTC
FBI agent
© Reuters/Sergio Flores
For liberals swept away by Russiagate mania, the FBI is worshipped as a fearless protector of democracy. According to a former FBI official, however, the bureau has actively worked to keep "progressives" out of office.

Terry Turchie, a former deputy assistant director of the FBI's Counterterrorism Division, appeared on Fox News host Tucker Carlson's program to discuss congressional investigations into Donald Trump's alleged ties to Russia. Criticizing the Democrat-controlled House for seizing on factually dubious news reports about Trump's alleged Kremlin collusion, Turchie nonchalantly disclosed that part of his "mission" at the FBI was to try to keep "progressives" and "socialists" out of office.
"The electorate in some places is putting more and progressives and self-described socialists in positions," Turchie told Carlson. "And, ironically, years ago - when I first got into the FBI - one of the missions of the FBI in its counterintelligence efforts was to try to keep these people out of office."

Comment: The FBI mandate? ...an interesting and controversial question in the grand schemes at hand. Was it set up to be a covert shaper, diffuser, director of perceptions related to the status quo? Let's see:
The FBI's mandate is established in Title 28 of the United States Code (U.S. Code), Section 533, which authorizes the Attorney General to "appoint officials to detect and prosecute crimes against the United States." Other federal statutes give the FBI the authority and responsibility to investigate specific crimes. Currently, the FBI's top priorities are:
  1. Protect the United States from terrorist attacks,
  2. Protect the United States against foreign intelligence operations and espionage,
  3. Protect the United States against cyber-based attacks and high-technology crimes,
  4. Combat public corruption at all levels,
  5. Protect civil rights,
  6. Combat transnational/national criminal organizations and enterprises,
  7. Combat major white-collar crime,
  8. Combat significant violent crime,
  9. Support federal, state, local and international partners, and
  10. Upgrade technology to enable, and further, the successful performances of its missions as stated above.


Read More...
Jet5

Russian military jets collide over Sea of Japan


RFE/RL
Fri, 18 Jan 2019 19:49 UTC
Russian jets
The Russian Defense Ministry says that two Su-34 jets were performing training flights when they came into contact.
Two Russian jets have collided in midair in the Far East, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

In a statement on January 18, the Russian military said that two Su-34 jets were performing training flights when they came into contact about 35 kilometers from the shore in the Sea of Japan.

Both crews ejected from their aircraft but it was not immediately clear where they were. Rescue crews have been dispatched to the area. There was no immediate information about the fate of the jets.

The Russian military said the fighter jets were not carrying missiles.
Read More...
Bad Guys

US sends warship to the Black Sea in effort to provoke Russia


RFE/RL
Sun, 20 Jan 2019 19:39 UTC
USS Donald Cook
The guided-missile destroyer USS Donald Cook in the Mediterranean Sea on December 15, 2014.
The U.S. Navy says the USS Donald Cook is heading to the Black Sea to conduct maritime security operations and enhance maritime stability with NATO allies in the region.

The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer was navigating the Dardanelles Strait in Turkey on January 19 as it headed north toward the Black Sea, the U.S. Navy said in a statement.

"The U.S. Navy routinely operates in the Black Sea consistent with the Montreux Convention and international law," the statement said.

It did not say when it expected the ship to reach the Black Sea, but the TASS news agency quoted the Russian Defense Ministry's Defense Control Center as saying it is "tracking the movements" of the Donald Cook, which according to international convention may stay in the Black Sea for no longer than 21 days.

Comment: More from RT:
[Deployment of the Donald Cook] is the second such deployment in less than two weeks as, earlier in January, the Whidbey Island-class dock landing ship USS Fort McHenry was deployed to the Black Sea where its crew trained together with the sailors of the Romanian Navy. The US Navy statement said that the US military vessels' "routine" deployment to the Black Sea is in full accordance with the international law.

The Russian Navy dispatched a patrol vessel to monitor the actions of the US destroyer as it entered the Black Sea waters, the Defense Ministry said in a statement. It also used additional "electronic and technical means" to monitor the situation. Under the international law, the US ships are allowed to stay in the waters of the Black Sea for no more than 21 days, the ministry said.

Six American military vessels carried out missions in the area in 2018, including the guided-missile destroyers USS Ross, USS Carney and USS Porter as well as the command ship USS Mount Whitney, the dock landing ship USS Oak Hill and the expeditionary fast transport USNS Carson City.


Read More...
Magnify

Kennedy and King families call for Congress to reopen assassination probes


Who.What.Why
Sat, 19 Jan 2019 00:00 UTC
Truth and Reconcilition probes Kennedy King assassinations
After five decades, the mysteries behind the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X may finally get the scrutiny they deserve.

A group consisting of relatives of the Kennedy and King families, as well as their confidantes and other prominent voices, is calling for a Truth and Reconciliation Committee to get to the bottom of these tragic murders.

Over the decades, those in power, whether in government, media, or academia, have contended that all of these murders were simply the result of lone-wolf actors: There was "no collusion," and please don't mention that other "C" word - conspiracy.

But parallel to these affirmations, an ever-growing group of dissenters has pointed out the inconsistencies in the official narratives. They have demonstrated that those events could not have unfolded the way we've been taught on TV and in standard textbooks. Indeed, the evidence of a deeper and darker story is so compelling that one must begin to ask why those in power are not investigating further?

Comment: There are few documentaries in existence today that have followed the murders of all three of these beacons of hope, JFK, MLK and RFK, like Evidence of Revision. The vignette footage used in this film reveals the terror and manipulation that underpinned society at that time. Much has been forgotten and yet it still haunts the very fabric of Western civilization today.
Evidence of Revision is a six-part documentary containing historical, original news footage revealing that the most seminal events in recent American history have been deeply and purposefully misrepresented to the public. Footage and interviews provide an in-depth exploration of events ranging from the Kennedy assassinations to the Jonestown massacre, and all that lies between.

The footprints left in this archival footage reveal the coordinated, clandestine sculpting of the America we know today. Evidence of Revision proves once and for all that history has been revised, even as it was written!
See also:

Read More...
Star of David

Israeli news reports says Hezbollah began digging tunnels to Israel before 2006 war - IDF has no comment


Sputnik
Fri, 18 Jan 2019 05:56 UTC
hezbollah tunnels
© REUTERS / Ronen ZvulunAn Israeli soldier lowers a camera down an Israeli-dug hole into a cross-border tunnel dug from Lebanon into Israel, as seen on the Israeli side of the border, near the town of Metula December 19, 2018
Though it was only in December 2018 that Israel initiated an operation to find and destroy all of them.

Before the 2006 war started, despite claims by Israel's military that the construction only started a few years ago, according to a report by i24 News citing the Channel 13 news network.

The report says then-head of the Israel Defence Forces' (IDF) Northern Command Benny Gantz was informed about the inception of the tunnels by his advisor Col. Yossi Langotsky back in 2005. However, the military apparently neglected the warning at the time.

Comment: Looks like the vaunted IDF screwed up big-time and is now in damage control mode.

Read More...
Eye 1

Vatican knew of promoted Argentine bishop's "naked selfies"


AP
Sun, 20 Jan 2019 12:00 UTC
Oran Gustavo Zanchetta
© AP Photo/Javier CorbalanIn this Aug. 26, 2016 photo, former Bishop of Oran Gustavo Zanchetta participates in negotiations with border workers in Oran, Salta, Argentina. In August 2017, Pope Francis accepted Zanchetta's resignation after priests in the remote northern Argentine diocese of Oran rebelled under his authoritarian rule and sent reports to the Vatican embassy in May or June of 2017 alleging abuse of power and sexual abuses with adult seminarians, the former vicar said.
The Vatican received information in 2015 and 2017 that an Argentine bishop close to Pope Francis had taken naked selfies, exhibited "obscene" behavior and had been accused of misconduct with seminarians, his former vicar general told The Associated Press, undermining Vatican claims that allegations of sexual abuse were only made a few months ago.

Francis accepted Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta's resignation in August 2017, after priests in the remote northern Argentine diocese of Oran complained about his authoritarian rule and a former vicar, seminary rector and another prelate provided reports to the Vatican alleging abuses of power, inappropriate behavior and sexual harassment of adult seminarians, said the former vicar, the Rev. Juan Jose Manzano.

The scandal over Zanchetta, 54, is the latest to implicate Francis as he and the Catholic hierarchy as a whole face an unprecedented crisis of confidence over their mishandling of cases of clergy sexual abuse of minors and misconduct with adults. Francis has summoned church leaders to a summit next month to chart the course forward for the universal church, but his own actions in individual cases are increasingly in the spotlight.

Comment: Covering up the abuse of clergy is par for the course at the Vatican, and, while it's perpetrated by clergy at all levels, criminality by those in the highest positions are extraordinarily common:

Read More...
Pirates

Scott Ritter: ISIS needs US presence in Syria to survive

Scott Ritter
The American Conservative
Fri, 18 Jan 2019 16:49 UTC
manbij
"No war is over until the enemy says it's over," James Mattis, the former Marine Corps General and recently resigned secretary of state, is quoted as saying. "We may think it over, we may declare it over, but in fact, the enemy gets a vote." Mattis's statement was made in 2012, well before President Donald Trump, in a surprise announcement on December 19, declared victory over the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, better known as ISIS.

"We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency," the president wrote. He later expanded on that sentiment in a video message, posted on Twitter. "Our boys, our young men and women, are coming home now," Trump noted. "We won."

But a recent attack on U.S. forces in Syria, carried out by a suicide bomber which ISIS claimed was operating on its behalf, has led to an outpouring of criticism of Trump's precipitous decision. "ISIS has claimed credit for killing American troops in Syria today," Senator Marco Rubio tweeted in the aftermath of the attack. "If true, it is a tragic reminder that ISIS not been defeated and is transforming into a dangerous insurgency. This is no time to retreat from the fight against ISIS. Will only embolden & strengthen them."

While Mattis's words were a cautionary warning about premature celebration, Rubio's sentiments, along with those who share his point of view, miss the point of the ISIS attack altogether. The U.S. was on the verge of withdrawing from Syria, something Rubio and others believe would give ISIS a victory. Why, then, would ISIS attack American forces in such a high-profile manner, creating the condition for a reversal of Trump's decision and keeping the U.S. military in Syria for the foreseeable future?

Comment: See also: Manbij False-Flag: The Empire Devours Its Own Soldiers

Read More...
Handcuffs

Desperate Netanyahu says criminal indictment against him would be win for 'the Left and media'


Sputnik
Sun, 20 Jan 2019 16:32 UTC
netanyahu
© AP Photo / Ariel Schalit
Case 4000 pertains to corruption allegations against Benjamin Netanyahu, with suspicions that he assisted the Bezeq group, controlled by Shaul Elovitch, in exchange for favourable media coverage, while working as communications minister in 2014-2017, in addition to his prime ministerial post.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has hit out at Attorney General (AG) Avichai Mandleblit for recommending his indictment over the corruption case. Specifically, the PM described the move as a surrender to the media and the Left, Haaretz reports.

The newspaper referred to a short video published on Netanyahu's Facebook page on Saturday, which opens with claims of "the left and the media" pursuing "Mandelblit for three years to indict [Netanyahu] at any cost".

The footage, which also shows a spate of protests near Mendelblit's house, ends with: "Will they succeed?"

Also on Saturday, Netanyahu lambasted Mandelblit's move to give an interview to the Israel Television News Company, saying that "the decision to cooperate with such a program, at such a time, is unprecedented in the history of Israeli law and raises serious question marks".


Comment: Which is quite hilarious coming from Netanyahu, himself a criminal.


Comment: See also: Lock him up: Israeli AG advises Netanyahu be indicted over corruption case

Read More...