Puppet MastersS


Star of David

Making believe Israel is innocent of apartheid

Lawrence Davidson
Consortium News
Fri, 24 Mar 2017 15:40 UTC
Israel apartheid
Without doubt Israel practices apartheid toward Palestinians who are broadly denied human rights, but Israel's political clout is such that the reality must be denied at the U.N. and in the U.S., as Lawrence Davidson explains.

On March 15, the United Nations' Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) published a report on Israeli practices and policies toward the Palestinians. Using international law as its comparative criterion, the report came to a "definitive conclusion" that "Israel is guilty of Apartheid practices."

The term Apartheid was not used in the report merely in a "pejorative" way. It was used as a descriptor of fact based on the evidence and the accepted legal meaning of the term.
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X

Saudi Arabia closes 226 bank accounts on suspicion of sponsoring terrorism


Sputnik
Fri, 24 Mar 2017 15:48 UTC
Saudi Arabia
© Reuters/ Khalil Ashaw
The ministry also pointed out that 117 nationals of different countries were charged with sponsoring terrorism in Saudi Arabia.

"Saudi Arabia is fighting against IS [the Daesh terrorist group, outlawed in numerous countries], making efforts to combat its financing. At least 226 bank accounts have been closed on suspicion of sponsoring terrorism," the ministry wrote on Twitter.

​The representatives of Saudi Arabia, the United States and Italy headed the working group for combating the Daesh financing on the sidelines of the ministerial meeting of anti-Daesh coalition member countries, which took place in Washington earlier this week.

On March 16, Saudi Minister of Defense Mohammed bin Salman said the country was ready to take any actions to eliminate terrorism in the Middle East.

Comment: Why all of the sudden is Saudi Arabia interested in making it look like the kingdom is actually combating terrorism? The world knows it has played one of the greatest roles in financing and spreading terrorism. While this news blip is likely more about appearances, the question remains what has pushed them in this direction.

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Stock Down

Former Ukraine minister Natalie Jaresko named to manage Puerto Rico's financial crisis


RFE/RL
Fri, 24 Mar 2017 15:27 UTC
Natalie Jaresko
© AFPFormer Ukrainian Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko
A U.S. board overseeing the finances of the bankrupt territory of Puerto Rico announced that it is hiring Ukraine's former finance minister to steer the Caribbean island out of crisis.

Natalie Jaresko served at a critical time in Ukraine's history from 2014 to 2016 as it faced a deep recession and insolvency.

"Ukraine's situation three years ago -- like Puerto Rico's today -- was near catastrophic, but she worked with stakeholders to bring needed reforms that restored confidence, economic vitality, and reinvestment in the country and its citizens. That's exactly what Puerto Rico needs today," said board chairman Jose Carrion.

Jaresko was born in Chicago to Ukrainian immigrants and previously worked for the U.S. State Department and the Horizon Capital fund.
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Heart - Black

Ukraine hiding 30,000+ losses in Donbass according to military expert

J. Arnoldski
Fort Russ
Fri, 24 Mar 2017 15:24 UTC
Ukraine troops
On Monday, March 20th, Ukraine's official defense ministry spokesman, Andrey Lysenko, claimed that only 2,629 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and 9,453 wounded since the beginning of the war against Donbass.According to Russian analyst and military specialist Alexander Khrolenko, Kiev is dramatically understating its real losses and covering up Ukraine's progressive disintegration as a state.

According to official UN figures, the total number of casualties in the war in East Ukraine amounts to 32,856, or 10,056 killed and 22,800 wounded. Meanwhile, German intelligence estimated in only 2015 that dozens of thousands of Ukrainian troops had been killed, the total number of civilian and military casualties in the conflict reaching up to 50,000.

The understating of losses not only fails to match up to other international estimates, but it contradicts Ukraine's own figures on equipment and vehicle losses. Khrolenko mentions Ukraine's Apostrof's report that "the Ukrainian army has lost more than 300 tanks, more than half of armored fighting vehicles, as well as 50% of artillery systems." After the Battle of Ilovaysk, Khrolenko recalls, Ukrainian President Poroshenko himself spoke of "60-65% of military equipment on the front lines in the conflict zone destroyed."
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Eye 1

House intel chair admits he doesn't know 'for sure' if Trump team was surveilled, apologized to committee members


RT
Fri, 24 Mar 2017 04:05 UTC
House Intelligence Committee ranking Democrat Adam Schiff
© Jim Bourg / ReutersHouse Intelligence Committee ranking Democrat Adam Schiff (D-CA)
One day after announcing that he had found evidence that members of President Donald Trump's transition team were subjects of surveillance, the head of the House Intelligence Committee has reportedly apologized for those claims.

Congressman Devin Nunes (R-California) allegedly apologized to committee members during a closed-door meeting Thursday, explaining that he did not know "for sure" if the claims he made Wednesday were true, according to a spokesman, ABC News reported.

"He'll have to get all the documents he requested from the [intelligence community] about this before he knows for sure," Nunes' spokesman Jack Langer said.


Comment: See also:

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Stormtrooper

Defense Dept. officials - US troops to stay in Iraq after fight against ISIS ends


RT
Fri, 24 Mar 2017 15:18 UTC
U.S. soldiers Mosul
© Ammar Awad / ReutersU.S. soldiers gather near military vehicles at an army base in Karamless town, east of Mosul
American troops will apparently remain in Iraq even when the fight against Islamic State has ended, according to Pentagon officials, including US Defense Secretary James Mattis, who said that keeping soldiers on the ground is in America's "national interest."

The US Defense Department's top officials expressed their desire to keep US troops in Iraq at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Wednesday.

Mattis made it clear that US involvement will not end when Mosul is finally captured from Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).

"I believe it's in our national interest that we keep Iraqi security forces in a position to keep our mutual enemies on their back foot," he said, as quoted by the Military Times.
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Megaphone

Erdogan: If you call me a dictator, I will call you Nazis


RT
Fri, 24 Mar 2017 15:11 UTC
Tayyip Erdogan
© Murad Sezer / ReutersTurkish President Tayyip Erdogan
In a tit-for-tat war of words, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he won't turn the other cheek and promised to keep calling European leaders "Nazis" as long as they keep calling him a "dictator."

"How does that work, you have the right to call Erdogan a 'dictator' but Erdogan doesn't have the right to call you 'fascist' and 'Nazi?'" he said in an interview with CNN-Turk and Kanal D television channels.

"They accuse me then they speak of Erdogan as a 'dictator,'" he said, referring to himself in the third person, as cited by AFP.
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Pistol

Several injured and 6 servicemen killed, in militants' attack on base in Chechnya


RT
Fri, 24 Mar 2017 15:04 UTC
Russian National Guard
© Evgeny Epanchintsev / Sputnik
Six Russian servicemen have been killed and several more injured in a militant attack on a Russian National Guard base in the Chechen Republic.

The incident took place near the Chechen village of Naurskaya, 70 kilometers north-west of Grozny.

According to a statement posted on the Russian National Guard website, "around 2:30am on March 24 a group of armed militants attempted to enter the territory of one of the military camps of the Russian National Guard."

The militant group was spotted by an army detachment, which confronted it. Six attackers were killed. At the same time, six servicemen died in the shootout too while several more were wounded.

The National Guard says the militants took advantage of the thick morning fog for the attack.
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Newspaper

Hollande rejects claim he orchestrated media leaks to derail Fillon's campaign


RT
Fri, 24 Mar 2017 14:57 UTC
Francois Hollande and Francois Fillon
© French President Francois Hollande (L) and Francois Fillon (R) Christophe Petit / ReutersFrench President Francois Hollande (L) and Francois Fillon (R)
Fillon, who accused him of ordering leaks of compromising materials about Fillon's wife getting a "fictitious" job as a parliamentary aide.

Fillon has seen his ratings plummet since the revelation by satirical French magazine Le Canard Enchainé in January that his wife, Penelope Fillon, has received some 700,000 euros ($757,000) over 15 years allegedly working as his parliamentary assistant. The report came under heightened media scrutiny and allegations of a fictitious character were put forward, eventually prompting a formal investigation into purported fraud.

Earlier this week, reports emerged that the investigation has been broadened with Fillon now facing allegations of "aggravated fraud, forgery and use of forgeries," with the latest additions to the case relating to him reportedly falsifying documents to prove his wife's employment.
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Info

Russia insists on reinstatement of full PACE participation rights - senator


RT
Fri, 24 Mar 2017 14:51 UTC
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
© Frederick Florin / AFP
If Russia's powers in PACE are not restored in full, Moscow may resign its membership in the Council of Europe, according to deputy head of the upper house's International Relations Committee.

"We have outlined our position at the recent session of PACE's permanent committee in Madrid. It is absolutely obvious and it is that the situation in which Russia remains a member of the Council of Europe but takes no part in the work of its Parliamentary Assembly is absolutely absurd," Vladimir Lukin was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti. "This is like being a little pregnant, this situation must be corrected."

The senator also said that if PACE fails to return the Russian delegation its full rights in all spheres of decision-making in the nearest future Russia would face "a very serious dilemma": either quit the Council of Europe altogether or tell its partners that such situation cannot last any longer.
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