Puppet MastersS

Bad Guys

Armenia, Azerbaijan say Nagorno-Karabakh truce fails to hold

Vladimir Isachenkov
Stars and Stripes
Sat, 10 Oct 2020 01:00 UTC
separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh
© APEduard Chechyan gestures in the yard of his apartment building, destroyed by shelling by Azerbaijan's artillery, during a military conflict in Stepanakert, the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Saturday, Oct. 10, 2020.
Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to a Russia-brokered cease-fire in Nagorno-Karabakh starting Saturday but immediately accused each other of derailing the deal intended to end the worst outbreak of hostilities in the separatist region in more than a quarter-century.

The two sides traded blame for breaking the truce that took effect at noon with new attacks, and Azerbaijan's top diplomat said the truce never entered force.

The cease-fire announcement came overnight after 10 hours of talks in Moscow sponsored by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The deal stipulated that the cease-fire should pave the way for talks on settling the conflict.

If the truce holds, it would mark a major diplomatic coup for Russia, which has a security pact with Armenia but also cultivated warm ties with Azerbaijan. But the agreement was immediately challenged by mutual claims of violations.

Comment: For some historical background of the conflict, see the SOTT Focus:

Armenia vs Azerbaijan, East vs West: Nagorno-Karabakh crisis and the NATO-Israeli connection

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Magnify

Kyrgyzstan lawmakers approve new Prime Minister days after he was sprung from jail


RFE/RL
Sat, 10 Oct 2020 06:33 UTC
Japarov
Kyrgyz deputies voted to make Sadyr Japarov the country's prime minister on October 10.
Kyrgyzstan's divided parliament has controversially appointed Sadyr Japarov as new prime minister, just days after the convicted kidnapper was sprung from prison during turmoil over the Central Asian country's disputed parliamentary elections.

Political unrest has gripped Kyrgyzstan since a parliamentary election on October 4 was tainted by allegations of vote-buying and fraud that benefited status quo parties, sparking angry street protests that resulted in the Central Elections Commission canceling the results and rival political forces vying for control.

The October 10 vote to approve Japarov came a day after embattled President Sooronbai Jeenbekov declared a state of emergency and put troops on the streets of the capital in response to unrest and violence during a week of whipsaw political developments.

Comment: See also:

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Info

'If you don't, I won't forget it': Trump's threat to Bill Barr to charge Joe Biden and Obama over spygate - and he wants Hillary Clinton indicted too

Geoff Earle
Daily Mail
Thu, 08 Oct 2020 21:46 UTC
trump white house lawn
Afghan militant group says CBS misrepresented its words
President Donald Trump said in a televised interview that he has spoken to Attorney General Bill Barr about the high-stakes Durham probe and received assurances the government has 'plenty' of evidence to bring charges against his main political rivals.

He made the extraordinary statement - which if accurate would be a breach of normal firewalls between prosecutors and the executive in a politically charged investigation - in an appearance on the Fox Business Network, where he also pronounced himself cured of the coronavirus.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond when asked to confirm the president's characterization of his conversation with Barr.

Comment: See also:

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Eye 2

'Russia hoax' was lie created by Hillary Clinton and one of the dirtiest political tricks ever

Gregg Jarrett
Fox News
Thu, 08 Oct 2020 06:43 UTC
JohnBrennan
© Viral News NowFormer CIA Director John Brennan
For Hillary Clinton, inventing the lie was easy. Spreading the lie was even easier. For President Trump, uncovering the truth has been hard. The truth always has its enemies.

This is the maxim - and chilling lesson - of the Russia hoax.

Newly declassified handwritten notes authored by former CIA Director John Brennan show that on July 28, 2016, he briefed President Barack Obama on intelligence evidence that Clinton had approved a plan to vilify Trump with false accusations that he was colluding with Russia. She did it, the intel concluded, to distract from her own damaging email scandal.

It was an audacious plot put in motion by one of Clinton's foreign policy advisers and then sanctioned by the then-Democrat presidential candidate on July 26. But the genesis of the smear came from Clinton herself.

For months, she had peppered her campaign speeches with increasingly venomous accusations that her opponent was a Kremlin asset and a "puppet of Putin." There was not a shred of plausible evidence. It was a shameless lie drawn from the insidious depths of Clinton's fictive imagination. It was magnificently devious and classic Clinton.

Comment: See also:

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Piggy Bank

Pelosis invest big in CrowdStrike, Democrat-connected linchpin of Russia probe

Aaron Matรฉ
RealClear Investigations
Fri, 09 Oct 2020 00:00 UTC
Nancy Pelosi
The cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike rose to global prominence in mid-June 2016 when it publicly accused Russia of hacking the Democratic National Committee and stealing its data. The previously unknown company's explosive allegation set off a seismic chain of events that engulfs U.S. national politics to this day. The Hillary Clinton campaign seized on CrowdStrike's claim by accusing Russia of meddling in the election to help Donald Trump. U.S. intelligence officials would soon also endorse CrowdStrike's allegation and pursue what amounted to a multi-year, all-consuming investigation of Russian interference and Trump's potential complicity.

With the next presidential election now in its final weeks, the Democrats' national leader, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and her husband, Paul Pelosi, are endorsing the publicly traded firm in a different way. Recent financial disclosure filings show the couple have invested up to $1 million in CrowdStrike Holdings. The Pelosis purchased the stock at a share price of $129.25 on Sept. 3. At the time of this article's publication, the price has risen to $142.97.

Comment: See also:

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Bullseye

Trump reacts to Pelosi's 25th Amendment commission with claim of a hidden plot: 'It's to replace Joe Biden with Kamala Harris'!


RT
Fri, 09 Oct 2020 16:02 UTC
HarrisBiden
© Reuters/Kevin Lamarque/KJNVP Candidate Kamala Harris โ€ข Former VP Joe Biden
Soon after Rep. Nancy Pelosi introduced a commission that would allow Congress to remove a mentally unfit president, Donald Trump tweeted a claim its ulterior motive is to replace Democratic candidate Joe Biden with Kamala Harris.

Instead, the commission is needed to give "some comfort to people" about government stability, Pelosi (D-California) insisted.

Some, however, were not convinced the commission is meant as just an additional safety mechanism in the time of the Covid-19 pandemic. Pelosi's assurance the legislation wasn't about Trump has quickly sparked a theory that such a commission could be used to replace 77-year-old Joe Biden - whose own mental stability has been steadily questioned - should he win the election next month.

President Trump himself floated that theory on Twitter shortly after Pelosi's announcement. Trump wrote:

Comment: Quote from Pelosi: "the commission is needed to give some comfort to people about government stability." These are prize words - given the unrelenting lies, subterfuge and antagonism by the Democrats, intel agencies and MSM of the past four years. If Trump and Gingrich are right, her plan works double-fold to remove the next elected president, be it Biden - a mentally incompetent criminal, or President Trump. It's a grand power play.

See also:

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Footprints

House Dems' stimulus bill includes checks for illegal immigrants and protections from deportations and UPDATE

Adam Shaw
Fox News
Wed, 30 Sep 2020 00:00 UTC
US Capitol
© wpvi
A stimulus package proposed by Democrats in the House of Representatives includes a number of items that will benefit illegal immigrants -- including an expansion of stimulus checks and protections from deportations for illegal immigrants in certain "essential" jobs.

The $2.2 trillion bill includes language that allows some illegal immigrants -- who are "engaged in essential critical infrastructure labor or services in the United States" -- to be placed into "a period of deferred action" and authorized to work if they meet certain conditions.

It also grants protections to those employers who hire those undocumented immigrants, ordering that "the hiring, employment or continued employment" of the defined group is not in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act. That lasts until 90 days after the public health emergency is ended.


Comment: The dickering goes on. Perhaps the following will 'stimulate' an agreement:

UPDATE 9/10/2020: Mnuchin to Pelosi: White House new offer of $1.8T coronavirus relief package
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has been the chief White House and Republican negotiator with Pelosi. They are expected to talk Friday about the new proposal, which is significantly more than the roughly $1 trillion previously offered.

The effort by Congress to pass another bipartisan relief bill that Trump will sign has essentially stalled since May when House Democrats passed their version, worth about $3 trillion. Last week, they passed a $2.2 trillion version.

The president has offered his approval on the new deal, tweeting Friday morning, "Covid Relief Negotiations are moving along. Go Big!"
See also:

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Brain

'Imagine': Ex-CIA director Brennan dreams of Navalny becoming president of Russia and befriending Joe Biden


RT
Fri, 09 Oct 2020 20:19 UTC
BrennanNavalny
© Reuters/Kevin Lamarque/YouTube - vDud/screenshotFormer CIA Director John Brennan โ€ข Activist Alexey Navalny
Apparently ditching all tradecraft, former CIA chief and godfather of Russiagate John Brennan "imagined" Joe Biden in the White House and Alexey Navalny in the Kremlin as part of a (partisan) birthday tribute to John Lennon.

"Imagine prospects for world peace, prosperity, and security if Joe Biden were president of the United States and Alexei Navalny the president of Russia," Brennan tweeted on Friday, above the lyrics to the cult song 'Imagine,' on the occasion of Lennon's 80th birthday.

"We'll soon be halfway there," he added.
Brennan tweet

Comment: "Imagine" if Brennan were to fess up...now that would be 'a dreamer come true'!

See also:

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Star of David

No big surprise: Israel to massively expand settlements after UAE normalization

Tamara Nassar
The Electronic Intifada
Fri, 09 Oct 2020 00:00 UTC
Efrat
© Mosab ShawerAPA imagesEfrat settlement
Israel is moving ahead with thousands of new settlement units in the occupied West Bank. This represents a dramatic expansion of Israel's settler-colonial efforts: "isolated" settlements outside the large blocs already eyed for Israeli annexation under President Donald Trump's so-called "Peace to Prosperity" plan.
About 350 units will be added to each of the Beit El settlement, north of the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, the Geva Binyamin settlement, northeast of occupied East Jerusalem, and the Nili settlement, in the central West Bank. Almost 1,000 new housing units are set to be approved in the so-called Har Gilo settlement, sandwiched between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Israel is also advancing plans for almost 700 new housing units in Eli settlement in the central West Bank. Construction has already started and some units are being approved retroactively. Another 140 housing units will added in Shiloh, a settlement between the Palestinian villages of Jalud and Quryut, which have filed legal challenges to the construction.
The Civil Administration - the bureaucratic arm of Israel's military occupation - is expected to give the final green light for 2,500 units on Monday and initial approvals for thousands more. All of Israel's settlements are illegal under international law and settlement construction in occupied territory is a war crime. However, Israel's expansion of settlements beyond the so-called blocs signals a new confidence that it will face no consequences whatsoever for its actions.
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Russian Flag

Russia's strategic intervention in Syria five years on - An 'unpardonable blow' to the US empire


Strategic Culture Foundation
Fri, 09 Oct 2020 00:00 UTC
Putin war room
Five years ago this month, Russia began conducting fateful military operations in Syria at the request of the government in Damascus. It was a momentous "turning point," as noted by Syria's President Assad this week, whose nation is slowly rising from the ashes of war.

More than salvaging Syria from a nearly decade-long war - vitally important though that was - Russia's pivotal intervention also marked the strategic setback for a Western-backed campaign of regime change and wanton illegal war-making across the Middle East and North Africa.

That decisive blow against the presumed hegemony of the United States and its NATO allies is no doubt a factor in the seeming relentless efforts by the West to isolate and smear Russia with sanctions and other provocations, efforts that continue unabated to the present day.

Russia's intervention was a principled response to aid an historic ally, the Syrian Arab Republic. The Levantine nation was at the time already assailed for four years by an array of illegally armed militant groups which were threatening to over-run the country. These groups comprised hundreds of thousands of mercenaries from dozens of countries and were lionized in Western media as "rebels" in a deceptive propaganda cover for the fact that they were in reality hardcore terrorists slaughtering their way to Damascus. These "rebels" beloved by Western governments and media carried out beheadings and other unspeakable atrocities against civilians.

Comment: See: Defence Minister Shoigu: Russian servicemen killed over 133,000 militants in Syria

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