Puppet MastersS


Rocket

Raytheon wins $1.2 billion surface-to-air missile order for Ukraine

Jen Judson
Defense News
Thu, 01 Dec 2022 07:45 UTC
NASAMS
© UnknownA Norwegian soldier fuels up a vehicle carrying radar to a NASAMS air-defense system during winter exercise Joint Viking 2017 in Finnmark, Norway.
The U.S. Army awarded Raytheon Missiles and Defense a contract worth as much as $1.2 billion to deliver six National Advanced Surface to Air Missile System batteries for Ukraine.

The contract is part of the fifth Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative package and includes training and logistical support to Ukraine's military and security forces, the Army said in a a Nov. 30 statement.

Raytheon, the world's second-largest defense contractor, won a contract in August to deliver to NASAMS batteries to Ukraine as part of the third USAI package. The new contract is a follow-on.

The first two NASAMS batteries, capable of firing AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles, have been delivered and deployed and "have successfully demonstrated the effectiveness of the systems against the threat," according to the Army.
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Question

Why is Nature praising the use of propaganda during the pandemic and calling for more?

Dr. Gary Sidley
Daily Sceptic
Tue, 15 Nov 2022 07:00 UTC
masked walker
Throughout the Covid era, those expressing views at odds with the dominant narrative were often subjected to unprecedented levels of censorship and psychological manipulation. Academic journals played a significant role in this silencing of alternative voices by, for example, ignoring the work of established scholars, perpetuating bias, rejecting research papers that reached conclusions inconsistent with mainstream views, and demonstrating a financial motivation to only publish studies favourable to the pharmaceutical industry. As a consequence of this partiality, the perceived scientific integrity of academic periodicals has suffered considerable damage. Alas, a recent article in the once highly respected Nature journal will have done nothing to improve the credibility of the academic press.

The article, titled "Mastering the art of persuasion during a pandemic", is a supplementary 'outlook' piece written by Elizabeth Svoboda, a Californian science journalist. Drawing on the perspectives of a cluster of social science experts, Svoboda lauds the importance of health policymakers deploying "effective communication strategies" so as to ensure that the populace do the right things when faced with the next global pandemic. She asserts that a range of behavioural science strategies, or "nudges", will be of central importance in enhancing compliance with public health restrictions when the next novel respiratory virus emerges over the horizon. The article, however, is riddled with highly questionable assumptions and ideological biases.

Comment: Bottom line (literally): All we need to know is who funded the article.

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Arrow Down

Germany's 'genocide' resolution is shameful - former Russian president


RT
Thu, 01 Dec 2022 16:40 UTC
Medvedev
© Alexey Nikolsky/Sputnik/AFPDeputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev
Germany has no right to lecture Russia on humanism and the 1930s famine in the USSR, given the atrocities that Nazi troops committed on Soviet soil during WWII, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday.

The German parliament on Wednesday designated the Stalin-era wave of mass hunger - which Kiev calls the "Holodomor" - as genocide. Speaking at the office of the ruling United Russia party, which he chairs, Medvedev unleashed a scathing rebuke of German lawmakers. Medvedev, referring to the mass atrocities committed by Nazi troops between 1941 and 1945 on Soviet territory, said:
"Germans are now teaching us about humanism. Let them remember their own history, what they did on our nation's territory. They are telling us about the 'Holodomor', about something else. It's a shame to listen to all this coming from the lips of high-ranking officials, they should repent for three generations to come."
On Wednesday, the German parliament adopted a resolution declaring that the 1930s Soviet famine a "genocide" against the Ukrainian people. However, as the Russian Foreign Ministry pointed out, the document ignored the fact that a "terrible famine was running rampant not only in Ukraine, but across the entire nation, claiming millions of lives."
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Dollar

U.S. State Department approves potential anti-drone system sale to Qatar for $1 billion

Kanishka Singh
Reuters
Tue, 29 Nov 2022 07:50 UTC
Sheik/Biden
© Reuters/Leah MillisQatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani • U.S. President Joe Biden
Oval Office • Washington, DC • January 31, 2022
The U.S. State Department has approved the potential sale of an anti-drone system to Qatar in a deal valued at $1 billion, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.

The principal contractors will be Raytheon Technologies Corp (RTX.N), SRC and Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC.N), the Pentagon said in a statement. It added that the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of the possible sale on Tuesday.

The potential sale approval comes after U.S. President Joe Biden, earlier this year, designated Qatar as a major non-NATO ally of the United States, granting special status to a key friend in a turbulent region.
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Chess

Why is Russia set to tolerate Turkey's attempt to launch a 'small, victorious war' in Syria?

David Narmania
RT
Thu, 01 Dec 2022 18:15 UTC
Erdogan Putin
© Sputnik / Vyacheslav ProkofyevTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin
Earlier this week, Reuters quoted senior officials in Ankara as saying that the Turkish army had completed preparations for a ground incursion in Syria.

"It won't take long for the operation to begin," one of the agency's sources was quoted as saying in the article. "It depends only on the president giving the word."

Strictly speaking, news of Türkiye's potential offensive is a bit delayed. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced plans for it back in May, when it was supposed to start any day, but never did. The main goal Ankara has declared is to fight against Kurdish self-defense units, which, according to the Turkish side, are a very serious security threat.

However, in six months of waiting for strikes against the Syrian Kurds, Türkiye has managed to conduct a ground operation against the Iraqi Kurds and even almost started a war with Greece and Cyprus (the probability of this is certainly low, but in 2022 such scenarios are not impossible.)
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Snakes in Suits

Best of the Web: Nuclear war risks, Pope's 'unchristian' remarks, and 'lies' about Ukraine talks: Key points from Lavrov's press conference


RT
Thu, 01 Dec 2022 18:05 UTC
Lavrov
© RuptlyRussian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov gives a press conference on European security issues in Moscow, December 1, 2022.
The US is pursuing geostrategic goals without regard for the risk of nuclear escalation amid the ongoing Ukraine conflict, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday during a press conference. Moscow is nonetheless ready for dialogue with Washington or any other party that wishes to engage, he added.

Lavrov also explained Russia's choice of strike targets in Ukraine, and touched on recent comments by the Pope, which Moscow has branded as an "insinuation."

Here's a recap of the main points from Lavrov's video-link press conference.
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Nuke

EU calling for international tribunals in Ukraine for alleged Russian war crimes

Clandestine
Clandestine's Newsletter / Substack
Thu, 01 Dec 2022 17:58 UTC
EU Flags
© Clandestine’s Newsletter
HUGE developments on the world stage, as the member Nations of the EU are pushing to create a "specialized court" for "International Tribunals", backed by the UN, to be held in Ukraine, to prosecute Russian military and political leaders for "starting the war" in Ukraine.1

This comes in response to Russia's push at the Ninth Review Conference of the BWC, to makes changes to the UN Security Council to address the US/NATO biological military research being conducted in Ukraine. Russia have no way to hold the US accountable via BWC investigation, due to diplomatic immunity held by the United States as one of the 5 permanent seats on the UN Security Council.
Bioweapons Conference
© Clandestine’s Newsletter
Now, the irony is, the West are trying to use the UN to investigate Russia, but the West are unable to do so because Russia is ALSO one of the 5 permanent seats on the UN Security Council. The actions today by the EU show that the West are looking to circumvent the rules of the UN so that Russia cannot veto an investigation. The same rules of International Law that Russia have been following, the West don't want to follow them in return.

Russia responded today with a statement from Ambassador Gatilov, from the Ninth Review Conference of the BWC in Geneva.

See statement below:
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Bad Guys

Warsaw plans to annex parts of Ukraine says Russian intelligence director


RT
Thu, 01 Dec 2022 17:57 UTC
Lvov, Ukraine
© Getty Images / venuestockAerial view of the city of Lvov, Ukraine
Warsaw is preparing to make an official claim on parts of Western Ukraine and President Andrzej Duda has already instructed the "relevant services" to come up with a justifiable basis for the move, according to the director of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergey Naryshkin.

In an interview with RIA Novosti published on Wednesday, the spy chief claimed Russia had received intel suggesting that Warsaw plans to submit weighty restitution demands to Kiev for the 1943 Volhynia massacres.

The brutal attacks saw some 100,000 Poles murdered by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UIA).

According to Naryshkin, Warsaw plans present the claim as an "initiative from below" by seeking out descendants of the people who suffered at the hands of Ukrainian nationalists living in Poland. The country's leadership has also allegedly instructed Polish media outlets to "warm the public up" to the idea that here's a need to "collect Polish lands," the intelligence chief added.
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Map

Putin's remedy: A fragmented, toothless Ukraine separated by a 100 kilometer-wide no-man's-land

Mike Whitney
The Unz Review
Tue, 29 Nov 2022 00:00 UTC
Map from John Helmer
Map from John Helmer
"It seems probable that Russia will impose a solution. If, as expected, it becomes clear that the West can't or won't negotiate, it will behoove Russia to implement a maximalist solution. Or alternatively, Russia "bargains" by showing that it can create a dead zone in Western Ukraine as big as it likes. If Ukraine and its US minders don't come to their senses, that dead zone will be awfully big." Yves Smith, Naked Capitalism
How does this end?

How does Russia create a "neutral" Ukraine that isn't armed-to-the-teeth by Moscow's enemies? How do they prevent Kiev from conducting joint-military drills with NATO or placing missile sites on Russia's border? How do they stop the Ukrainian Army from shelling ethnic Russians in the east or training far-right paramilitaries to kill as many Russians as possible? How does Putin change Ukraine into a good neighbor that doesn't pose a security threat and that doesn't fuel anti-Russian hatred and bigotry? And, finally, how does one resolve the conflict peacefully if one side refuses to negotiate with the other? Check out this clip from an article at Mint News:
"Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday signed a decree formally announcing the "impossible" prospect of peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russian President Vladimir Putin...

"He (Putin) does not know what dignity and honesty are. Therefore, we are ready for dialogue with Russia, but with another president of Russia," Zelensky said on Friday. (Mint News)
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Eye 1

US may have illegally interfered in Hungarian election

Noah Carl
The Daily Sceptic
Thu, 01 Dec 2022 07:00 UTC
hungary parliament
Very few people outside Hungary speak Hungarian, so practically all of the day-to-day news from that country passes us by. But an interesting scandal has been developing there over the last few months, which arguably merits wider attention.

As you may remember, Hungary held an election earlier this year, which was won decisively by Viktor Orbán's Fidez Party. Their main opposition was the Everybody's Hungary Movement, led by Péter Márki-Zay.

Several organisations criticised the elections on the grounds that the incumbent, Viktor Orbán, used elements of the state apparatus to promote his own party. For example, the OSCE described the elections as "well-run" and "competitive", while noting that they were "marred by the pervasive overlapping of government and ruling coalition's messaging".
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