Puppet MastersS


Better Earth

The Valdai meeting: West Asia meets multipolarity

Pepe Escobar
Geopolitika.ru
Mon, 06 Mar 2023 00:00 UTC
Montage
© The CradleValdai Meeting/ Where West Asia meets multipolarity
At Russia's Valdai Club meeting - the east's answer to Davos - intellectuals and influencers gathered to frame West Asia's current and future developments.

The 12th "Middle East Conference" at the Valdai Club in Moscow offered a more than welcome cornucopia of views on interconnected troubles and tribulations affecting the region.

But first, an important word on terminology - as only one of Valdai's guests took the trouble to stress. This is not the "Middle East" - a reductionist, Orientalist notion devised by old colonials: at The Cradle we emphasize the region must be correctly described as West Asia.

Some of the region's trials and tribulations have been mapped by the official Valdai report, The Middle East and The Future of Polycentric World. But the intellectual and political clout of those in attendance can provide valuable anecdotal insights too. Here are a few of the major strands participants highlighted on regional developments, current and future:
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Snakes in Suits

McConnell's 'exhilarating' insurection

Julie Kelly
American Greatness
Thu, 28 Apr 2022 00:00 UTC
McConnellCapitol
© USA Today/Alex Slitz/Asliz@herald-leader.com/KJNRepublican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell • US Capitol January 6
A dirty little secret about January 6 — one of many — is that Democrats and establishment Republicans, not Trump supporters, wanted to shut down the official proceedings of that day.

Just as the first wave of protesters breached the building shortly after 2 p.m., congressional Republicans were poised to present evidence of rampant voting fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Ten incumbent and four newly-elected Republican senators planned to work with their House colleagues to demand the formation of an audit commission to investigate election "irregularities" in the 2020 election. Absent an audit, the group of senators, including Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) pledged to reject the Electoral College results from the disputed states.

The Hail Mary effort was doomed to fail; yet the American people would have heard hours of debate related to provable election fraud over the course of the day.

And no one opposed the effort more than ex-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
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Bad Guys

How could Western intelligence have got it wrong, again? They didn't. They had other purposes

Alastair Crooke
Strategic Culture Foundation
Mon, 06 Mar 2023 18:58 UTC
MI6 building
© Reuters/Toby MelvilleMI6 building in London • August 25, 2010
The West now faces the task of de-fusing the landmine of their own electorate's conviction of a Ukraine 'win', and of Russian humiliation.

Larry Johnson, an ex-CIA analyst, writes "I no longer hold clearances and have not had access to the classified intelligence assessments. However, I have heard that the finished intelligence being supplied to U.S. policymakers continues to declare that Russia is on the ropes - and their economy is crumbling. Also, analysts insist that the Ukrainians are beating the Russians".

Johnson responds that - lacking valid human sources - "western agencies are almost wholly dependent today on 'liaison reporting'" (i.e., from 'friendly' foreign intelligence services), without doing 'due diligence' by cross-checking discrepancies with other reporting.

In practice, this largely means western reporting simply replicates Kiev's PR line. But there does occur a huge problem when marrying Kiev's output (as Johnson says) to UK reports - for 'corroboration'.

The reality is UK reporting itself is also based on what Ukraine is saying. This is known as false collateral - i.e., when that which is used for corroboration and validation actually derives from the same single source. It becomes - deliberately - a propaganda multiplier.

In plain words however, all these points are 'red herrings'. Bluntly, so-called western 'Intelligence' is no longer the sincere attempt to understand a complex reality, but rather, it has become the tool to falsify a nuanced reality in order to attempt to manipulate the Russian psyche towards a collective defeatism (in respect not just to the Ukraine, but to the idea that Russia should remain as a sovereign whole).

And - to the extent that 'lies' are fabricated to accustom the Russian public to inevitable defeat - the obverse edge clearly is intended to train the western public towards the 'groupthink' that victory is inevitable. And that Russia is an 'unreformed evil Empire' which threatens all Europe.

This is no accident. It is highly purposeful. It is behavioural psychology at work. The 'head-spinning' disorientation created throughout the Covid pandemic; the constant rain of 'data-driven' model analysis, the labelling of anything critical of the 'uniform messaging' as anti-social disinformation - enabled western governments to persuade their citizens that 'lockdown' was the only rational answer to the virus. It was not true (as we now know), but the 'pilot' behavioural nudge-psychology trial worked better - better even than its own architects had imagined.
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Binoculars

The Latest on the Nord Stream Sabotage

Noah Carl
The Daily Sceptic
Wed, 08 Mar 2023 19:27 UTC
gas leak from the Nord Stream 2 pipeline
© Handout / Airbus DS 2022 via AFPA gas leak from the Nord Stream 2 pipeline taken on September 29, 2022
Yesterday evening, news that "pro-Ukraine saboteurs" may have been responsible for the Nord Stream sabotage was simultaneously reported by the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Times of London, and the German newspaper Die Zeit.

There is "no evidence" that Zelensky or his top generals were involved, the newspapers claimed. Nonetheless, "traces lead in the direction of Ukraine".

The two American newspapers simply referred to "intelligence reviewed by U.S. officials", details of which were not disclosed. In fact, the New York Times offered this hilariously obtuse observation: "The review of newly collected intelligence suggests [the saboteurs] were opponents of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia." Opponents of Vladimir Putin - you don't say!

The two European newspapers were slightly more forthcoming.

According to the Times, Scandinavian diplomats were told only a week after the attack took place that it had been carried out by "a private venture originating in Ukraine". The name of the "suspected private sponsor" is apparently known to intelligence officials, but was not revealed in the article.

The article did explain, however, that the operation involved "a yacht, elite divers, forged passports and the procurement of shaped explosive charges only available to the gas and oil industry". So perhaps our international man of mystery is an oligarch in the energy sector? (That would certainly answer the question of 'cui bono?')

Die Zeit's report furnished yet more details.

Comment: Ukraine denies the anonymous accusation, naturally. The Germans are saying it's no use speculating on such "hypothetical" scenarios. (You see? Business as usual as long as there is room for doubt.) As for the Kremlin, Peskov has labeled the reporting a diversion and a "coordinated media hoax."

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Eye 2

White House doubles down on Jan 6 lies, claims 'Tucker Carlson is not credible'

Hannah Nightingale
The Post Millennial
Wed, 08 Mar 2023 00:01 UTC
Karine Jean-Pierre Tucker Carlson
During Wednesday's White House press conference, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called Fox News' Tucker Carlson "not credible," citing his recent unveiling of previously unseen footage from the January 6, 2021 Capitol riots.

Responding to a reporter's request that she comment on Carlson's latest broadcasts, as well as comment on the ongoing lawsuit Dominion Voting Systems has brought against Fox News "which has turned up evidence that there may have been falsehoods in the in the reporting that they did around the election," Jean-Pierre said, "Tucker Carlson is not credible."


Comment: Both the American political apparatus and the MSM have more or less declared Tucker Carlson Public Enemy #1, and they're out for blood! Also from the Post Millennial:
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday agreed to go on Tucker Carlson's show, on the condition that he "admits" to "lying" about the 2020 elections and January 6, after his public meltdown over the Fox News host obtaining the footage from the Capitol protests that paints a different story than "insurrection."

"I was invited on Tucker Carlson's show," the New York senator wrote on Twitter. "I will agree to go on after Tucker Carlson admits to his viewers live on air that he has been lying to them about the 2020 elections and about what happened on January 6th."


... After beginning to air the footage on Monday night, Schumer went ballistic on the Senate floor and demanded that Fox News stop sharing the footage — which had previously only been available to the Jan. 6 Committee and law enforcement — with the public.

"Last night, millions of Americans tuned into one of the most shameful hours we have ever seen on cable television," Schumer said Tuesday. "With contempt for the facts, disregard for the risks, and knowing full well he was lying to his audience, Fox News host Tucker Carlson ran a segment last night arguing the January 6 Capitol attack was not a violent insurrection. By diving deep into the waters of conspiracy, and cherry picking from thousands of hours of footage, Mr. Carlson told the bold-faced lie that the Capitol attack, which we all saw with our own eyes, somehow, was not an attack at all."

"I, and so many others who were here in the Capitol, and millions and millions of Americans, are just furious," Schumer continued, before revealing that someone told him he was being targeted by rioters. "Let's get him!" Schumer remembers someone telling him a rioter said.

The Democratic senator went on to call for Carlson's censorship, saying that "Fox News should tell him not to" run another segment with more footage.

"Fox News, Rupert Murdoch, tell Carlson not to run a second segment of lies," he continued, calling on the owner of Fox Corporation. "You know it's a lie, you've admitted it's a lie. And Speaker McCarthy is every bit as culpable."

In the replies to his tweet to Carlson, former OANN host Liz Wheeler wrote, "As a U.S. Senator, you called for a journalist to be censored because he exposed your lies about Jan 6. It wasn't a deadly insurrection. Officer Sicknick wasn't murdered. Ray Epps lied under oath. No wonder 61 percent of Americans think Jan 6 was staged by feds. You should be ashamed."


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Info

Mitch McConnell rushed to hospital after falling at hotel


The Post Millennial
Thu, 09 Mar 2023 00:01 UTC
mitch mcconnell
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has been hospitalized in Washington, DC after a fall Wednesday night.

His spokesman David Popp told Fox News that McConnell, 81, was attending a private dinner at a hotel and tripped.

According to a statement from McConnell's team, "This evening, Leader McConnell tripped at a local hotel during a private dinner. He has been admitted to the hospital where he is receiving treatment."

Comment: More from Newsweek:
McConnell's injury is the latest incident of a Senate member requiring hospital treatment. Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, 89, was taken to hospital last week to be treated for shingles, with Pennsylvania's John Fetterman, 53, who suffered a stroke during his campaign in 2022, currently being treated for clinical depression.

No other details about McConnell's fall have been released, including how long he is expected to remain in the hospital.

McConnell was dining at the Waldorf Astoria when he fell, according to a tweet from John Bresnahan, co-founder of political daily Punchbowl News, who first reported on the news.

The Senate minority leader, a survivor of childhood polio, is one of oldest lawmakers currently serving in the Senate.
It's interesting that this comes about right after McConnell stood alongside Democrat Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in condemning Tucker Carlson for releasing January 6th footage to the public, asserting his membership to the UniParty.







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Airplane

Ex-official in Clinton and Obama White Houses dies in air turbulence incident

Edwin Ross
The Guardian
Tue, 07 Mar 2023 14:38 UTC
Dana Hyde
© Millennium Challenge CorporationDana Hyde was 55.
Dana Hyde, 55, was flying from Maryland to New England and suffered blunt-force injuries from violent turbulence.

A former official in the Bill Clinton and Barack Obama White Houses died last Friday after the private business jet that the prominent Washington attorney was on experienced stability issues and encountered severe turbulence mid-flight.

The National Transportation Safety Board has since started investigating "a reported trim issue that occurred prior to the in-flight upset" that affected the plane's altitude control and may have caused the instability.
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Folder

House intel committee OKs bill to declassify COVID-19 origin report

Caitlin Doornbos
New York Post
Tue, 07 Mar 2023 20:35 UTC
The House Intelligence Committee
© CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty ImagesThe House Intelligence Committee passed its version of a Senate-approved bill that would force the Biden administration to declassify information about the origins of COVID-19.
The House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday passed its version of a Senate-approved bill that would force the Biden administration to declassify information about the coronavirus' origins — including its ties to a Chinese lab.

Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines would be required to declassify "any and all information relating to potential links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology" and COVID-19, as well as "make available to the public as much information as possible" regarding the virus' origin, according to the bill.

The committee approved the legislation with a bipartisan voice vote Tuesday in which no one dissented. It will now go to the House floor for a vote, then to President Biden's desk for his signature.

Comment: It seems as though this "search for truth," no matter how sincere, is doomed to failure since it firmly adheres to the assumption that China is responsible for the origin of Covid-19. Whether or not China was ground zero, assuming they're to blame is a self-limiting perspective. Without looking at the Fort Detrick connection and the American's presence at the Wuhan Military Games, any 'revelations' will be a partial truth at best.

See also:

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Bomb

Yacht allegedly used in Nord Stream bombing searched - official


RT
Wed, 08 Mar 2023 03:47 UTC
thank you usa nord stream
German authorities searched a boat in January which they suspect transported explosives ahead of the bombing of the Nord Stream pipelines in September last year, the country's Prosecutor's Office said on Wednesday.

A spokesperson for the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office confirmed that a search had taken place earlier this year, adding that authorities were still evaluating the items seized. The identities of the people allegedly associated with the rental of the vessel, as well as their potential motives, remained unclear, the official added, as quoted by German media.

On Tuesday, German state broadcaster ARD, SWR radio and Die Zeit newspaper claimed that investigators looking into the incident had found that the yacht reportedly used in the attack belonged to a Polish company "apparently owned by two Ukrainians."

According to Die Zeit, a "secret operation" to destroy the pipelines was undertaken by a team of six people - five men and one woman. Their nationalities are unknown, the paper said, as they used forged passports to rent the ship. The publication also stated that authorities had reviewed information which may have suggested that a "pro-Ukrainian group" was responsible.

Comment: This smells like a diversion from the more likely scenario, as reported by Sy Hersh (and refined by John Helmer), that it was a Western intel operation. This is the cover story.

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Pirates

Australia has been selling China 'doped' gold for years, could be forced to return up to $9 billion, Perth Mint also faces separate fraud investigations

Brett Lackey
Daily Mail
Tue, 07 Mar 2023 17:15 UTC
gold australia
© Facebook/Perth MintDemand for the precious metal, which is considered a safe haven in times of financial or political turmoil, has been growing
Up to $9billion worth of gold that the Perth Mint sold to China could be recalled after it was discovered some bars were diluted with other metals.

The WA government-owned mint, which is the largest refiner of newly mined gold in the world, started 'doping' its gold in 2018 - a process which involves mixing in silver or copper while still keeping the purity above 99.99 per cent.

While the product met widely accepted standards on the global gold market, up to 100 tonnes of bullion shipped to China potentially falls short of the more stringent standards of the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE).

Some of the gold the SGE tested from Perth Mint exceeded the allowable silver content.

Comment: See also: Central banks buy gold at fastest pace in 55 years as nations prepare to ditch the dollar

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