Puppet MastersS


Airplane

Iran doubles down on 'human error' behind downing of Ukrainian passenger plane, blaming 'misaligned radar & inept operator'


RT
Sun, 12 Jul 2020 17:53 UTC
Ukrainian victims of the UIA flight 752
© Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via REUTERSA ceremony commemorating Ukrainian victims of the UIA flight 752.
A chain of errors made by the Iranian military resulted in the downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane in January, investigators have said. The tragic incident began with an air defense unit misaligning its radar by 107 degrees.

Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was shot down shortly after departing from Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran. An interim report by Iran's Civil Aviation Organization has outlined the chain of mistakes by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which resulted in the death of all 176 people on board the airliner.

The downing occurred amid a period of high tension between the US and Iran following the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in a US airstrike and Iran's retaliatory ballistic missile strikes against US military bases in Iraq. The Iranian military suspended regular procedures for managing air traffic in the country, which is ordinarily led by civilian authorities, and insisted that only aircraft cleared for flight by the military are allowed in Iranian airspace.

An air defense unit deployed near Tehran was relocated shortly before the incident, the Iranian investigators said. Once in its new location, however, it failed to properly adjust its radar station - which ended up being 107 degrees off. This was due to human error, the first of several that led to the tragic outcome, the report said.

Comment: Strange to see Iran doubling down on 'human error' when there are reasonable grounds for suspicion that the radar system of either the air defense system or the UA plane (or both) were interfered with.

Was Iranian Missile Operator Tricked Into Shooting Down The Ukrainian Airlines Plane Over Tehran?

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Star of David

Delusional Israeli UN ambassador nutjob says West Bank belongs to Israel because God says so in the Bible

Philip Weiss and James North
Mondoweiss
Sat, 11 Jul 2020 17:44 UTC
DANNY DANON
DANNY DANON, SPEAKING TO BBC JULY 10, 2020.
The outgoing Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, says the West Bank belongs to the Jews according to the Bible, which is the Jewish deed to the land. So the talk of annexation is wrong; the land already is the Jews' and the only question is whether to "extend sovereignty."

Danon said he speaks not as representative of just the government of Israel, but the Jewish people.

Danon explained to Stephen Sackur of the BBC yesterday that Israel did not "blink" at annexation on July 1. July 1 was not a deadline for an announcement; now the discussion begins.

Don't call it annexation; it's extending sovereignty to Judea and Samaria.
You cannot annex something that belongs to you. When you annex something you do it from a foreign territory. I do not know from whom we are annexing it . . . Now there is a discussion of applying sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria.
AIPAC has agreed to this euphemism. So has David Harris of the American Jewish Committee.

The decision may not be popular in Israel, but it's up to Netanyahu.
At the end of the day the decision will be made by the Israeli government, the elected government, whether we like it or do not like it. I want to bring you back to 2005 . . . when the government decided to pull out from Gaza and uproot the Jewish communities. Many Israelis were not happy about this decision, but once the government reaches a decision, we implement it . . .

On this issue the Prime Minister does not need the approval of Mr. Benny Gantz and his party, unlike every other decision in the unity government . . .
Though: "Any decision we will make will be coordinated with our allies in Washington."

Comment: God is not a real-estate agent.

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Attention

UN Security Council adopts Syria cross-border aid resolution, but won't address humanitarian costs of Syrian sanctions


RT
Sun, 12 Jul 2020 17:03 UTC
humanitarian aid militants
© Omar Haj Kadour / AFPMilitants stand near a convoy of vehicles carrying UN aid in Syria's Idlib, March 14, 2017
The UN Security Council has finally reached a compromise, agreeing to keep one checkpoint in militant-controlled Idlib open for aid deliveries from Turkey. After vetoing two initial drafts, Russia and China abstained from voting.

Seeking to limit the number of border crossings outside of Syrian government control, Russia vetoed two Western resolutions and had two counter-proposals fail over the past week. A deal was finally reached on Saturday night to keep just one checkpoint in militant-controlled territory open for the next 12 months - Bab Al-Hawa, which is used for over 80 percent of UN deliveries to northwestern Syria.

Comment: The hubris of the West, led by the neocons who still think they can shape the world is already in the process of backfiring. In the words of E.J. Magnier:
President Assad will work with Iran, Russia and China to secure his needs. Iran has defied US-European sanctions by sending oil tankers to Syria through the Straits of Gibraltar twice. Iran is building drug and medicine factories in Syria, and is also working on other projects that it shares with Russia and China. Syria is heading toward the east, not the west, since that it is the only remaining option left to it. This is the long-awaited dream of the "Axis of Resistance". Lebanon, Syria and Iraq are looking to Asia to reverse the US-European sanctions against them and their allies in the Middle East. By imposing further unaffordable sanctions on Syria, the US is helping the Levant come out of the US sphere of influence and presence.


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Light Sabers

Indian govt seeks stricter checks on Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, South Korea, ASEAN imports to prevent rerouted Chinese products

Kirtika Suneja
Economic Times
Mon, 06 Jul 2020 00:00 UTC
The ministry has requested the finance ministry to introduce stringent provisions related to rules of origin, to empower customs officers for checking the abuse of FTAs.
Chinese Imports to India Scrutiny
The commerce and industry ministry has sought stricter scrutiny of goods coming from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, South Korea and the Asean bloc, amid fears of Chinese imports increasingly being routed through these countries. It has pushed for fast tracking amendments to the customs law to tighten the rules to claim concessional benefits under India's free trade pacts, in line with the changes proposed in the budget this year.

The ministry has requested the finance ministry to introduce stringent provisions related to rules of origin, to empower customs officers for checking the abuse of FTAs.

Comment: The trade balance between India and China sits at $48.7 billion, in favor of China. India's attempt to reduce the trade balance over last few years only produced modest results.
India China trade and deficits
Despite the dangers of going out all out with such measures, it is easier said than done. The Modi govt seems to be planning to use the current crisis to reduce dependency on Chinese products, which contribute to 30% of India's trade deficit. Acuite rating agency estimates that India may reduce its trade deficit by $8.4 billion during FY22:
The rating agency analysed the current import portfolio from China and found 40 sub-sectors that have the potential to lower their import dependency on China.

These sectors contribute to $33.6 billion worth of imports from China and about 25% of these imports can be substituted by local manufacturing without any significant additional investments, Acuite said.

"This would have a positive cascading effect on the economy as equivalent quantum of revenues would not only be added to the turnover of domestic enterprises including MSMEs but is also likely to translate to benefits through forward and backward linkages, better economies of scale along with cost competitiveness and importantly, enhancing the scope of employment generation," Acuite said.
In order to substitute Chinese products, India has eased customs checks for US and South Korean companies. Chinese investments in India were $163 million in 2019, and Union minister Nitin Gadhkari even unwelcomed Chinese investment.
Chinese FDI in India
India's exports of spice to China slowed after its confrontation with Beijing in June. Even though both countries de-escalated the confrontation, it is likely that they will be watching each other like hawks.

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Bullseye

Kremlin: US-Russian relations 'remain at almost-bottom point,' unbefitting of leading nuclear powers


RT
Sun, 12 Jul 2020 13:35 UTC
US Capital and Kremlin
© REUTERS/Lucas Jackson / REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov
The "terrible" state of relations between the US and Russia is not what other nations expect from the two countries with the world's biggest nuclear arsenals, a Kremlin spokesman has said.

"Our relationship remains at almost-bottom point. The situation is terrible both in bilateral aspects and in terms of our responsibility for multilateral affairs, first of all, in arms control and strategic stability," Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with Russian TV.

He noted that "shy" expert contacts between the two nations have been failing to preserve strategic arms control agreements, like the now-defunct Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), which was scrapped on Washington's call last year.

The US has been working on dismantling arms control mechanisms for years. The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty was scrapped under George W. Bush, purportedly to protect the US and its allies from possible attacks by Iran and North Korea.

Comment: The problem here seems to be two fold: The first is that there is a rabid anti-Russian sentiment in Washington that refuses to think and act rationally and responsibly as Peskov would seem to suggest (albeit diplomatically). This same sentiment is, ultimately, so belligerent, aggressive and self-destructive that it is incapable of seeing beyond its very short-sighted goals towards world hegemony - which includes subjecting Russia to its political and economic whims.

The second problem is that these same insane forces in the US effectively prevent Trump from meeting with his Russian counterparts without the shrill cries of "Russian collusion," or "Trump is Putin's puppet" - or other such nonsense that all too many still seem to buy into! It's bad enough that Trump's geopolitical negotiating skills leave a lot to be desired (even if his aims may ultimately be constructive). But to have a hystericized political class and its lapdog corporate media crying foul whenever Trump makes overtures towards bridge-building makes his job 10 times more difficult.

See also:

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Magnify

Israel's new UK ambassador will expose delusions of Britain's Jewish leaders

Jonathan Cook
Middle East Eye
Fri, 10 Jul 2020 09:31 UTC
Tzipi Hotovely
© AFPIsraeli politician Tzipi Hotovely speaks near the Ariel settlement in the occupied West Bank in 2015
With Corbyn the bogeyman gone, Tzipi Hotovely will finally force Britain's liberal Jews to confront truths about Israel they long ago buried

After years of successfully drawing attention away from Israel's intensifying crimes against the Palestinian people by citing a supposedly growing "antisemitism crisis" in Britain's Labour Party, Jewish community leaders in the UK are exasperated to find themselves unexpectedly on the defensive.

Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pulled the rug out from under leading British Jewish organisations by appointing Tzipi Hotovely as Israel's next ambassador to the UK. She is expected to take up her position in the summer.

Recently made Israel's first settlements minister, Hotovely does not appear to have a diplomatic bone in her body. She is a rising star in Netanyahu's Likud Party - and at the heart of the Israeli far-right's ascendancy over the past decade.

Comment: See also:

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Attention

Pelosi wants a law to prevent Trump from exercising his constitutional pardon power

Anthony Leonardi
Washington Examiner
Sat, 11 Jul 2020 03:09 UTC
pelosi, trump
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said there should be a law to curb President Trump's pardon power.

During an interview with CNN host Anderson Cooper, Pelosi called Trump's commutation of former aide Roger Stone "appalling." The California Democrat also said she recommends passing a law that would prevent the president from exercising his constitutional power if the person being pardoned is politically connected to him.

"For the president to be able to issue a pardon on the basis of a crime that the person committed assisting the president is ridiculous, and there ought to be a law," Pelosi began. "And I'm recommending that we pass a law that presidents cannot issue a pardon if the crime that the person is in jail for is one that is caused by protecting the president, which this was. It's appalling."

The power to pardon is an explicitly noted presidential power in Article II of the Constitution. "He shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment," the Constitution reads. To alter presidential pardon power would likely require an amendment to the Constitution itself.

Comment: Pelosi only intends to limit Trump's powers - any law would be quickly rescinded if a Democrat was in power: Democrats attack Trump's pardon of Joe Arpaio but forget their pardons of terrorists and traitors
Let's take a walk down memory lane, shall we?

President Bill Clinton pardoned not one, but 16 members of the dangerous terrorist organization Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional (spanish for "Armed Forces of National Liberation"). Among the FBI's most wanted, the group was responsible for the 1975 bombing of a New York City restaurant where prominent businessmen dined, as well as NYPD police headquarters on New Year's Eve in 1982, and other incidents that terrorized the nation.

Always up to the task of shameless political posturing, Clinton pardoned some of his political donors. Marc Rich was wanted for $47 million in back taxes and 51 counts of tax fraud, in addition to his suspected activity in an Iraqi "oil for food" kickback scheme where the U.S. government suspected he served as the middle man for the illicit sale of 4 million barrels of oil.[..]

Long before Clinton, President Jimmy Carter pardoned three members of a terrorist gang who shot 30 rounds from the visitor's balcony into the chamber of the House of Representatives in a suspected attempt to mass-murder members of Congress.[..]

During his final week in office, Obama also commuted the sentences of more than 1,700 prisoners in two batches of clemency grants; 504 of his pardons were for inmates serving life sentences including armed robbers and drug dealers who had convictions for the distribution of cocaine, methamphetamine, marijuana, and heroin.


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Eagle

Trump demands extradition of former MI6 officer Christopher Steele over Russia dossier

Oliver O'Connell
Independent, UK
Sat, 11 Jul 2020 20:40 UTC
Christopher Steele
Christopher Steele
Donald Trump has demanded the extradition of Christopher Steele, the British former MI6 officer who compiled the infamous dossier on the President's ties with Russia.

On Saturday morning, the President tweeted: "This man should be extradited, tried, and thrown into jail. A sick lier [sic] who was paid by Crooked Hillary & the DNC!"

Mr Trump shared a news report from Wednesday regarding a British court ruling that the former British spy had violated a data privacy law by failing to check information on the President's Russia connections.

A few minutes later, Mr Trump wrote: "Bring back Steele!!!", and retweeting a link to a book on the Russia investigation by Fox News legal and political analyst Gregg Jarrett.

Earlier this week, the UK High Court ordered Mr Steele to pay damages of $23,000 each to two Russian businessmen that he claimed had made payoffs to Vladimir Putin in the 1990s.

Judge Mark Warby said that Mr Steele had not take reasonable steps to verify the allegations.

Mr Steele had accused Petr Aven and Mikhail Fridman of facilitating the transfer of large amounts of money to Mr Putin when he was deputy mayor of St Petersburg.

In addition to Mr Steele and Russia, the President began the weekend with a stream of tweets touching on a number of topics.


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Jet1

Iran to contribute to security of Syrian skies amid continuing Israeli air strikes


Sputnik
Sat, 11 Jul 2020 04:45 UTC
Syria Iran talks
© REUTERS / HANDOUT
Iran will help Syria strengthen its air defence as part of an agreement between the two states signed on Wednesday. The agreement was signed by Iran's Chief of the Armed Forces General Staff, Major General Mohammad Bagheri, and Syrian Minister of Defence Ali Abdullah Ayyub.

The agreement provides for the strengthening of military ties, as well as enhancing constant coordination between the parties. Moreover, Bagheri said that Iran's strengthening of Syria's air defence was aimed at increasing the pace of defence cooperation between the two countries.

Does this mean an increase in Iran's military presence in the country? How will this affect relations with other countries and regions, as well as the withdrawal of foreign forces from Syria?

What should be expected from Israel? Could this affect Russian-Syrian defence contracts and military-technical cooperation? Sputnik talked to Boris Dolgov, a senior researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, to find out.
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Dollar Gold

The Chinese want the Yuan to beat the dollar in the digital field

Valentin Katasonov
The Stalker Zone
Sat, 11 Jul 2020 00:00 UTC
Yuan
China is half a step away from launching the digital yuan into mass circulation.

Beijing has long harboured plans to make the yuan a global currency. Formally, the Chinese monetary unit received this status five years ago, when the IMF Board of Directors voted for it. On October 1st 2016, the decision came into force, and since then the yuan has been included in the basket of currencies used to calculate the SDR rate ("special drawing rights", a virtual currency unit issued by the IMF). In this basket, there were five currencies, and the yuan immediately took third place in terms of weight after the US dollar and the euro, ahead of the British pound and the Japanese yen. However, the yuan still has a very modest position in the global economy and international finance.

At the end of Q1 2020, the share of the Chinese yuan in the total foreign exchange reserves of all IMF member countries was only 2.02%, compared to 61.99% for the US dollar and 20.05% for the euro. And other currencies included in the SDR basket have more weight: the Japanese yen - 5.70%, the British pound - 4.43%.
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