Puppet Masters

Pakistan didn't violate the Geneva Convention, it instead confirmed its adherence

Andrew Korybko
Eurasia Future
Thu, 28 Feb 2019 00:00 UTC

After suffering a humiliating military defeat on the morning of 27 February when Pakistan shot down two of its MiGs that violated the country's airspace and even captured one of its pilots, India went wild trying to distract its population by switching the subject of discussion to allegations that Islamabad violated the Geneva Convention of 1949 by airing footage of the captured pilot, but in reality Pakistan actually confirmed its adherence to this cornerstone of international law and simultaneously contributed to de-escalating the worst military crisis with its nuclear-armed neighbor since their 1971 war almost half a century ago.

A Desperate Distraction To Cover Up A Military Defeat

"Pakistan Turned The Latest Bollywood 'Surgical Strike' Flick Into Reality" on the morning of 27 February after it upheld the rules-based international order centered on the UN Charter's principles about territorial integrity, sovereignty, and the right to defend oneself against aggression when it shot down two Indian MiGs that violated its airspace and even captured one of the pilots.

This came as a total shock for the Mainstream Media-indoctrinated Indian masses who had mostly been convinced up until that point that Prime Minister Modi had "succeeded" in "putting Pakistan in its place" after "surgically striking" it on the unsubstantiated pretext that Islamabad was involved in the Pulwama attack. As the clichéd saying goes, "the truth hurts", and the proverbial "bloody nose" that Pakistan gave India risked exposing the latter's government-driven narrative as nothing more than pre-election propaganda for the incumbent BJP, which is why the state swiftly moved to distract the population as soon as possible.

Comment: The three videos referenced in the article:

House Dems prepare case to request Trump's tax returns

Heidi Przybyla
NBC News
Fri, 01 Mar 2019 04:52 UTC

© Anna Moneymaker/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Rep. Richard Neal during a hearing with Robert Lighthizer in Washington, Feb. 27, 2019.

Democrats are crafting a request to send to the IRS and say they will "take all necessary steps" to obtain the president's returns.

The top tax-writing committee in the House is readying a request for years of President Donald Trump's personal tax returns that is expected to land at the Internal Revenue Service as early as the next few weeks, according to congressional aides involved in the process. And Democrats are prepared to "take all necessary steps," including litigation, in order to obtain them.

Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., has asked the committee's attorneys to prepare the request, according to two aides involved in the process. Neal has also contacted the chairs of several other House investigative committees, including Oversight and Government Reform, Financial Services, Intelligence and Judiciary, asking them to provide detailed arguments for why they need the president's tax returns to conduct their probes.

Comment: See also:

Kashmir crisis: Though tempers run high, India and Pakistan to avoid all-out war say analysts

RT
Fri, 01 Mar 2019 16:06 UTC

Despite growing tensions over Kashmir and cross-border skirmishes, the two nuclear-armed rivals don't want to take the conflict to a new stage, choosing instead to keep a safe distance from the point of no return, analysts told RT.

The simmering conflict between India and Pakistan returned to front-page news in late February when India launched air strikes on what it claimed was a terrorist training camp located in Pakistan after a deadly attack by a jihadist group, prompting Islamabad to retaliate.

Both countries scrambled jets and sent them into their neighbor's airspace. India said it hit one Pakistani jet, which fell on their side of the border. An Indian MiG-21 was shot down and its pilot captured, although returned later.

Comment: See also:

Trump, lambasting the media for twisting his words on Warmbier, issues non-apology

RT
Sat, 02 Mar 2019 00:35 UTC

President Donald Trump has scolded the media for "misrepresenting" his words on Otto Warmbier, a US student who died shortly after his release from a North Korean jail, saying that he still holds the reclusive nation responsible.

Trump faced massive backlash after he told a press conference in Hanoi, Vietnam on Thursday that he takes North Korean leader Kim Jong-un "on his word" that he had no prior knowledge about the Warmbier ordeal before the US negotiated the student's return.

"I don't think that the top leadership knew about it," Trump said, noting that Kim gained nothing from Warmbier's death. "I don't believe that he would have allowed that to happen. Just wasn't to his advantage to allow that to happen."

Mainstream media immediately jumped on the remark, accusing Trump of "absolving" the "brutal dictator" at the expense of an American citizen.

Warmbier's parents have also poured fuel on the fire online, blaming the North Korean leader for their son's death and seemingly reprimanding Trump for his reluctance to do the same.

In a series of tweets on Friday, Trump blamed the media for putting him in the crosshairs.

Comment: See also:

US notifies Turkey of its plans to withdraw troops from Syria by summer

Sputnik
Sat, 02 Mar 2019 02:50 UTC

Washington has informed Ankara about its intention to pull out US troops from Syria by the summer of this year, noting, however, that the schedule can be adjusted depending on the situation on the ground, Turkish media reported on Friday.

According to the Anadolu news agency, Washington made the announcement during the meeting of the Turkey-US joint working group aimed at coordinating the US troop withdrawal from Syria. The meeting was focused on the situation in the northern Syrian city of Manbij and Syrian territories to the east of the Euphrates River, the media outlet specified.

The Turkish side firmly opposed a possible transfer of former US bases to militants from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), listed as a terror group by Turkey, after the US withdrawal, saying that they either must be destroyed or handed over to the Turkish military, the news agency added.

Ankara also reportedly informed the US side that if Washington withdrew troops without a mutual agreement with Turkey in line with its security concerns, it would reserve its right to self-defense.

Comment: See also:

Russia's Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is 70% complete

RT
Sat, 02 Mar 2019 09:17 UTC

© 5Pipelay vessel Pioneering Spirit in the Gulf of Finland Nord Stream 2 AG
Pipelay vessel Pioneering Spirit in the Gulf of Finland

More than 800km of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline has already been laid under the Baltic Sea, the project's operator announced. The gas pipeline is scheduled to be fully finished by the end of this year.

Some 400km of pipes along the 1,200km route were laid along the seabed since the beginning of the year. In January, the Nord Stream 2 operator reported that 400km of the line had been completed by the end of 2018.

"We have a complex, non-linear schedule for laying the twin Nord Stream 2 pipelines, taking into account the environmental requirements and using a large number of vessels for the implementation of various activities," Nord Stream 2's Chief Project Officer Henning Kothe said on Friday. He added that the works are progressing according to the schedule, which will [guarantee] the gas pipeline completed by the end of 2019 as the company earlier promised.

Over 1,000 people are currently working on some 20 vessels for the project in the Baltic Sea. However, the heavy lift and pipe lay vessel 'Pioneering Spirit,' the world's largest of its kind, will temporarily be used in another project in the North Sea. The construction vessel is set to continue laying the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in around one month.

Comment: See also:

Pepe Escobar: Kashmir, Korea, Venezuela, Iran - Hot, cold, hybrid war

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
Thu, 28 Feb 2019 12:00 UTC

Turning and turning in a widening gyre, the geopolitics of the young 21st century resembles a psychedelic mandala conceived by Yama, the Lord of Death.

Kim Jong Un, chairman of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, fresh from a 70-hour train journey, meets in prosperous, communist Hanoi with fellow Nobel Peace Prize contender Donald Trump under the benevolent gaze of Uncle Ho.

This very sentence, if announced not long ago, would have elicited transcontinental howls of derision.

Chairman Kim, owner of a small nuclear arsenal, is deemed worthy of dialogue by the hyperpower while the nuclear-deprived leadership in Iran is not, even as the hyperpower ditched a multilateral, UN-approved, working nuclear deal.

In parallel, the hottest border in Asia reveals itself not to be the DMZ between the Koreas, but once again the Line of Control between nuclear powers India and Pakistan in Kashmir.

Comment: See also:

And check out SOTT radio's:

Michelle Malkin excoriates abuse of US immigration system at CPAC meeting - slams both political parties

Michelle Moons
Breitbart News
Fri, 01 Mar 2019 20:16 UTC

Conservative powerhouse Michelle Malkin took aim directly from the CPAC main stage Friday, at the lack of immigration focus while delivering fuel for the fight against longstanding abuses of the American immigration system.

"The most important issue we face is immigration and we need to be talking about it for more than one panel for 20 minutes," Malkin charged from the CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) stage. "My first CPAC in 2002 was to talk about my very first book Invasion which exposed how border failures and systemic non-enforcement of our visa program rules created the national security crisis that led to 9/11."

Immigration was a defining issue in the 2016 election that saw the American people make Donald Trump President of the United States. Malkin hailed President Donald Trump "as he battles the Beltway swamp, the deep state, the administrative state, and the fake news fourth estate. But there is no sugarcoating America's long-term forecast."

US envoy to Venezuela and convicted felon Abrams confirms plans to hold direct talks with Russia

TASS
Sat, 02 Mar 2019 19:47 UTC

US Special Representative for Venezuela Elliott Abrams confirmed on Friday US plans to hold direct talks with the Russian side.

"Yes, there are conversations, obviously constantly between the United States and Russia on a variety of issues including this one [Venezuela]," the diplomat said, noting that he takes part in these talks.

The special envoy noted that on Thursday he had "a very nice conversation" with Russia's UN Envoy Vasily Nebenzya prior to the UN Security Council's session on Venezuela.

Comment: Time and time again Russia in recent years has given individuals following world events the ability to see the lawlessness of the actions of the United States. They have pointing toward the direction of the importance of international law and the rule of law in the conduct between nations mostly in response to the United States' total disregard for such things. In the process of doing so, the United States has been exposed for all to see as a nation with the characteristics of a bully, a liar and a murderer. Convicted felon Abrams' involvement in the openly acknowledged attempted coup in Venezuela is a sign in itself of just how far the United States has strayed. One must wonder what the leaders of Russia actually think of those they are forced to interact with.

From the New York Times in 1991:

"Mr. Abrams stands convicted of two misdemeanors, violations of the contempt of Congress law. Its felony counterpart would have been perjury, but the charges employ the euphemism that he "withheld" information when he told two Congressional committees something other than what he knew. What he "withheld" were the facts that the Reagan Administration was hip-deep in the contra arms supply business and that Mr. Abrams had solicited $10 million in purported contra aid from the Sultan of Brunei.

Few members of the Iran-contra crew more symbolized the lawlessness of the Reagan Administration than Mr. Abrams. His guilty pleas, and whatever help he can give to ferreting out other offenses, are as welcome as they are late."

Netanyahu cries leftist conspiracy over decision to indict him for bribery and corruption

Yumna Patel
Mondoweiss
Fri, 01 Mar 2019 12:00 UTC

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be indicted for bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three separate cases, pending a hearing.

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit announced his decision on Thursday after two years of investigations and months of speculation as to whether he would pursue charges prior to April 9 elections.

When Netanyahu first called for snap elections last December, it was widely believed that his decision was made in attempts to get ahead of any indictment announcements that could potentially hurt his prospects of winning.

The premier's legal team had previously pressured Mandelblit to delay his announcement until after the elections, to which the Attorney General responded saying postponing his recommendations would "be a violation of the principle of equality before the law" and "is not in keeping with the public's right to know."

Comment: It seems Netanyahu's time may be up. But you can bet another head will emerge from the hydra to take up where he leaves off:

I have a different definition for the "global commons". It is in the definition of "the commons" definition in the link provided below. Here is a...

Buffalo_Ken

Biden the child-killer. Think of the children, vaxxers, think of the children.

hobnyeba

Thanks, all, for great comments and links. Lots to think about.

ReRan

I ran a search on "Archbishop Viganò" for the last week - just 22,500 results and obviously nothing MSM related Even this SOTT article makes it to...

HashAttack2

Great interview with Professor Petrovsky, a very brave soul ! He is clear and concise from a Vaccine researcher /producer point of view and calls...

Gator

Puppet Masters

Pakistan didn't violate the Geneva Convention, it instead confirmed its adherence

House Dems prepare case to request Trump's tax returns

Kashmir crisis: Though tempers run high, India and Pakistan to avoid all-out war say analysts

Trump, lambasting the media for twisting his words on Warmbier, issues non-apology

US notifies Turkey of its plans to withdraw troops from Syria by summer

Russia's Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is 70% complete

Pepe Escobar: Kashmir, Korea, Venezuela, Iran - Hot, cold, hybrid war

Michelle Malkin excoriates abuse of US immigration system at CPAC meeting - slams both political parties

US envoy to Venezuela and convicted felon Abrams confirms plans to hold direct talks with Russia

Netanyahu cries leftist conspiracy over decision to indict him for bribery and corruption

Latest News

Picture of the Day

Quote of the Day

Recent Comments

Quantum Quirk

Contact Us