Puppet MastersS


Eagle

Austria: The abyss of chaotic tyranny? "Parliaments only serve to ratify what the dictators decide"

Peter Koenig
Global Research
Mon, 06 Dec 2021 00:00 UTC
Interior Minister, Karl Nehammer
The new face of tyranny in Austria: Interior Minister, Karl Nehammer
Austria's politics are in disarray, to say the least. They may be entering "dangerous waters".

On 9 October 2021 Austria's Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (35) resigned from his chancellor position, but said he would remain in politics as a member of Parliament. The media said he was involved in "financial scandals". His friend and party ally (the conservative ÖVP - Austrian Peoples Party), then Foreign Minister, Alexander Schallenberg, took over as chancellor. Yesterday, 2 December - just two months after taking office, he resigned, but said he would remain in the post until his party agrees on a new leader.

Just hours earlier, Schallenberg's predecessor and People's Party leader Kurz said he was leaving politics altogether and would officially step down as party chair on Friday, 3 December. He cited family reasons. Mr. Kurz's wife just had a baby, and he wanted enjoy being a dad. Schallenberg too, mentioned family reasons.

"Family reasons" are always good reasons to escape politically sensitive jobs. Nobody can or dares to ask personal questions. Mr. Kurz was also said to have already a lucrative private sector job lined up.

What could possibly be complementary reasons? Maybe conscience, ethics? Or Fear? Austria was the first country to announce the most severe and drastic covid measures, including compulsory "vaccination" - forcing the public to take the untested gene-therapy jab (or worse), as of 1 February 2022.
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Fire

Israel launches rare airstrikes on Syrian port close to Russian airbase


Zerohedge
Tue, 07 Dec 2021 19:05 UTC
Latakia port
Shortly after 1am local time Israeli warplanes mounted a large-scale missile strike on Syria's key port of Latakia, igniting large fires as shipping containers were engulfed.

International reports underscored that "It was a rare attack on the city's port, a vital facility where much of Syria's imports are brought into the war-torn country." Indeed it was the first such known attack on Latakia's main port throughout the conflict which began over a decade ago.

Syrian state TV said at least five explosions were heard, with circulating social media videos from the site showing high-reaching flames.

The Israeli government didn't comment in the immediate aftermath, but its media is calling the attack a "gamechanger" in terms of drastically shifting the rules of engagement towards civilian ports. Over the course of prior years, Damascus International Airport has been struck several times. Typically the Israelis claim to be acting against Iranian weapons shipments.

Regional Al-Mayadeen media described that "A military source said in a statement to SANA that at around 1.32 a.m. today, the Israeli enemy carried out an air attack with several missiles from the direction of the Mediterranean, southwest of Latakia, targeting the container yard in the commercial port of Latakia."
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Bullseye

Best of the Web: Pope Francis compares EU's attempt to discourage use of word 'Christmas' to secular dictatorships like Nazism


Catholic News Agency
Mon, 06 Dec 2021 08:45 UTC
Pope Francis
© Vatican Media.Pope Francis speaks during an in-flight press conference on the journey from Athens to Rome, Dec. 6, 2021.
Pope Francis said on Monday that a withdrawn document discouraging European Commission staff from using the word "Christmas" was an "anachronism."

The pope was asked to comment on the 32-page internal document, called "#UnionOfEquality. European Commission Guidelines for Inclusive Communication," during his in-flight press conference en route from Greece to Italy on Dec. 6.

He noted that a series of ideologies had attempted to pull up Europe's Christian roots.

"You refer to the European Union document on Christmas... this is an anachronism," he said.

Comment: Over the years, Pope Francis has been a bit hit and miss, but his comments above reveal that he has some idea of the nefarious agenda afoot on our planet, and he is willing to, sometimes, speak out against it:

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Bad Guys

Whistleblower condemns UK Foreign Office over chaotic Kabul evacuation

Patrick Wintour
The Guardian
Tue, 07 Dec 2021 00:01 UTC
afghanistan kabul evacuation
© Akhter Gulfam/EPAAfghans struggle to reach foreign forces to show their credentials to flee the country outside Kabul airport on 26 August 2021.
Tens of thousands of Afghans were unable to access UK help following the fall of Kabul because of turmoil and confusion in the Foreign Office, according to a devastating account by a whistleblower.

A former diplomat has claimed bureaucratic chaos, ministerial intervention, lack of planning and a short-hours culture in the department led to "people being left to die at the hands of the Taliban".


Comment: Whilst it's likely that some Aghans who aided the US in its war on Afghanistan will have been killed, the Taliban did announce an amnesty, and since the departure of the Western forces, the mainstream media haven't reported a significant number of deaths at 'the hands of the Taliban'.


The evidence of Raphael Marshall was deemed so serious that an internal inquiry was launched when he presented his account to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) permanent secretary, Sir Phillip Barton, at the end of August.

Comment: It should actually come as no surprise that the evacuation was given such scant resources and little attention till the last minute, because when did the West ever care about the welfare of Afghans? And for more on the Kabul evacuation chaos, check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: Kabul Chaos Biden's Bay of Pigs?



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Sheriff

Putin announces military partnership between Russia and India


RT
Mon, 06 Dec 2021 17:02 UTC
Modi Putin
© Getty Images Sonu MehtaIndian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting at Hyderabad House, on December 6, 2021 in New Delhi, India.
Russia and India have plans to work together across a range of military matters, including joint exercises, President Vladimir Putin revealed on Monday.

His comments came during a meeting with Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, in New Delhi to discuss the long-term partnership of their nations in a number of spheres, including energy, space travel, Covid-19 vaccine production, and medicine. Putin opened the discussions by explaining that the countries were planning to "develop relations in the international arena, as well as directly in the military sphere."

"We are conducting joint military exercises, in both Indian territory and Russian territory," he said. "We thank you for your attention to this component of our work. And we plan to work more in this direction."

Comment: See also:

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Display

First images released from crucial Putin & Biden summit


RT
Tue, 07 Dec 2021 15:55 UTC
Putin Biden
© kremlin.ruUS President Joe Biden • Russian President Vladimir Putin • Video Summit
Talks have begun between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his American counterpart Joe Biden, with the pair expected to discuss a range of issues, including how to de-escalate a worsening standoff over Ukraine.

Speaking via a secure video link on Tuesday, Biden told Putin that "we didn't get to see one another at the G20 - I hope next time we meet we do it in person." The Russian president only spoke virtually at the October meeting of world leaders, the Kremlin then citing the worsening Covid-19 pandemic in the country.

Following the televised introductions, the pair are due to hold talks in private, with Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, saying the discussion will go on "for as long as it takes." A number of areas are understood to be on the agenda, including US fears that Russia is preparing an invasion of neighboring Ukraine, which Moscow has consistently denied.
Speaking in advance of the meeting, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said that
"contact is badly needed, we have multiplying problems. There is no progression on bilateral affairs, which are more and more spiraling into a phase of acute crisis."

Comment: Progress comes with a price not many are ready and willing to pay.
A video conference between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Joe Biden has ended after just over two hours.

A White House readout of the call said Biden voiced "deep concerns" of the US over Russia's "escalation of forces surrounding Ukraine" and threatened "strong economic and other measures in the event of military escalation." Ransomware and "regional issues such as Iran" were also brought up.

Biden is expected to contact Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, as well as the leaders of UK, France, Germany and Italy after his conversation with Putin, according to the White House. His national security adviser Jake Sullivan is scheduled to brief reporters on the call later in the day.
Here's Trump's prediction of the Putin-Biden meeting:
Trump protested that the upcoming meeting between Biden and Putin would not be "a fair match for our country," claiming:
"This is not a match that should even be allowed. The New England Patriots playing your high school football team - that's what you have right now."
On being asked about Biden's scheduled virtual meeting with Putin on Tuesday, during which the two will reportedly discuss Ukraine, Trump tore into the Biden administration and praised his own record of dealing with world leaders.


"We never had any problem. Nobody was tougher on Russia than I was. And I liked Putin - got along with him very well," Trump said on Newsmax's Spicer & Co, before boasting of his administration's opposition to Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline across Europe.
"I got along with Putin, but I was tough with Putin - tougher than anybody ever. And tougher than anybody on China. I got along great with Kim Jong-un, I got along great with President Xi of China, and I got along well with Putin, but I was tough with all of them."


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X

Oppose this evil, or all that was once great and good in this world will be gone

Rob Slane
The BlogMire
Sun, 05 Dec 2021 00:00 UTC
Hobbiton
© demilkedHobbiton
Without any shadow of doubt, we have entered one of the darkest periods in history. Just last week, following the example of other Governments, Frau Merkel announced the segregation of 12 million Untermenshcen, describing it as an "act of national solidarity". Remarkable for many reasons, not least of which the language being eerily reminiscent of the Tag der Nationalen Solidarität (Day of National Solidarity), which was instituted by Frau Merkel's most infamous predecessor back in 1934. Meanwhile in Australia, along with the internment camps they have built there, the authorities in the Northern Territories are now subjecting the Aboriginal folk to the kind of treatment we had all been taught could never happen in a so-called democracy, but this has elicited not a peep from the kinds of people who've spent the last few years tearing down statues of people they claim did some of the things to indigenous people that are now being done to indigenous people. It is of course much easier to attack people who have been dead 200 years than find the courage you don't have to deal with the sins and evils of the day.
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Propaganda

To deny the "lab leak" COVID theory, the NYT and WPost use dubious and conflicted sources

Glenn Greenwald
greenwald.substack.com
Sun, 05 Dec 2021 00:00 UTC
Peter Daszak
© WikipediaPeter Daszak, President of EcoHeath Alliance, speaking in 2017
A bizarre and abrupt reversal by scientists regarding COVID's origins, along with clear conflicts of interest, create serious doubts about their integrity. Yet major news outlets keep relying on them.

That COVID-19 infected humanity due to a zoonotic leap from a "wet market" in Wuhan — rather than a leak from a lab in the same Chinese city — was declared unquestionable truth at the start of the pandemic. For a full year, anyone dissenting from this narrative was deemed so irresponsible that they were banned from large social media platforms, accused of spreading "disinformation." No debate about COVID's origins was permitted. It had been settled by The Science™. Every rational person who believed in science, by definition, immediately accepted at the start of the pandemic that COVID made a natural leap from bats or pangolins; that it may have escaped from a lab in Wuhan which just so happens to gather, study and manipulate novel coronaviruses in bats was officially declared a deranged conspiracy theory.
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Document

Papers reveal what CIA did to captives in Afghanistan

Kit Klarenberg
RT
Tue, 07 Dec 2021 16:50 UTC
CIA logo
© Adapted/Wikimedia
New published documents have shed fresh light on the CIA's detention and interrogation program in Afghanistan, describing in alarming detail some of the extreme techniques used by officers that resulted in deaths in captivity.

In a recent legal filing, the lawyers of Abu Zubaydah - the Guantánamo Bay detainee almost tortured to death by the CIA, held without charge by the US for nearly 20 years - urged that their client be released, given Washington's wars in Afghanistan and with Al-Qaeda are finally over.

Writing to a DC district court, they argued that these developments meant there was no legal justification for keeping him captive, and he must be immediately discharged. What the petition omits to mention, however, is that Zubaydah's detention was, from day one, intended to be permanent in order to keep the CIA's criminal maltreatment secret and ensure his abusers were insulated from prosecution in perpetuity.
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Arrow Down

Berlin dismisses Tehran's proposals on nuclear talks as unacceptable


RFE/RL
Tue, 07 Dec 2021 13:19 UTC
Negotiations Vienna
© ReutersNegotiations to revive Iran's nuclear program in Vienna
Germany's Foreign Ministry has said that it does not consider Iran's proposals regarding its nuclear program acceptable and expects Tehran to return to international negotiations with "realistic" bargaining positions.

A ministry spokeswoman said on December 6:
"We reviewed the proposals...carefully and thoroughly, and concluded that Iran violated almost all compromises found previously in months of hard negotiations. The proposals were not a basis for a successful end to talks."
Negotiations in Vienna aimed a resurrecting the stalled 2015 nuclear deal got off to a rocky start last week.

The United States, which left the agreement in 2018 but which is open to rejoining the pact under President Joe Biden, accused Iran of not being seriously interested in a new deal.

Comment: Iran had this to say about the negotiations:
Iran's lead negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani has said Iran expects further talks on its basis of its draft proposals, which require lifting US 'maximum pressure' sanctions levied since the US left the JCPOA, before Iran reciprocates. Bagheri Kani said this would clear the way for Iran to scale back steps taken extending its nuclear program since 2019.

The German foreign ministry spokeswoman said it was unacceptable for Iran to continue such nuclear activities while talks continued, and that while Berlin remained "committed to the diplomatic path...the window of opportunity is closing more and more." It was not clear whether the German reaction to the Iranian proposals reflected a common position of the 'E3,' the three western European JCPOA powers, who have generally coordinated their approach.

A senior Iranian official said Sunday that a US reluctance to lift sanctions imposed on Iran since 2018 was the main challenge in reviving the JCPOA.

With JCPOA opponents in the US demanding a 'plan B,' Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that the US would pursue other options over Iran diplomacy failed.

In a call for military action Monday, Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli prime minister and JCPOA critic, tweeted that Israel should "act independently against Iran's nuclear program...without any 'heads-up'..."

Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Monday Iran had no 'plan B' to pursue "simultaneously as we negotiate." He spoke after meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad in Tehran.

Iran has said it expects talks in Vienna to resume once details are agreed with Enrique Mora, the EU official chairing the talks. Amir-Abdollahian flatly rejected claims, attributed by Axios to a "US source" with supposed knowledge of an Israeli intelligence briefing, that Iran "could take that dramatic step soon" of enriching uranium to 90 percent "in an attempt to gain leverage in the Vienna talks."

Under the JCPOA, Iran enriched to 3.67 percent, but increased to 20 percent February and subsequently to 60 percent after attacks on its nuclear facilities widely attributed to Israel.


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