Puppet MastersS


Rocket

In swipe at US, New Delhi says foreign nations must 'respect' its decision to purchase Russian S-400 systems


RT
Fri, 29 Nov 2019 22:35 UTC
s-400 russia
© REUTERS/Vitaly Nevar/File Photo
The decision to purchase Russian S-400 systems was based solely on the merit of the military hardware, India's foreign minister has said, stressing that national security will never be undermined by objections from foreign states.


Comment: That's the problem, and that's why the U.S. is so upset: the S-400 is better than the American equivalent, and can be successfully used against American aggression. That's bad for (military) business.


Despite pressure from Washington to abandon the deal, India is set to procure five S-400 anti-air batteries as part of a $5.4 billion arms sale with Moscow. Speaking on Thursday to India's upper house, the Council of States, External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar stressed that New Delhi had made the merits of the purchase "very clear," and that national security cannot be endangered by objections from foreign states.
We will not be influenced by other countries on what we do in terms of our national security and defense. If we have committed to the S-400 agreement, which we have, then other countries need to respect that decision
The S-400 is Russia's most advanced long-range air defense system, designed to intercept enemy aircraft and missiles. Washington has threatened to impose sanctions on India and other countries that buy Russian military hardware.

Although the weapons deal has been a point of contention with Washington, Jaishankar said that India enjoys a "durable relationship" with the United States that goes across party divides.

Comment: See also:

Read More...
Arrow Up

Scottish National Party on course for election landslide

Dan Vevers
STV
Fri, 29 Nov 2019 20:07 UTC
scottish national party
© GettyAn Ipsos MORI survey found 44% of voters will pick Nicola Sturgeon's party on December 12. SNP: Support for independence at 50%, according to STV poll.
The SNP are set to make major gains in next month's general election, an STV News poll has found, with the party surging at the expense of both Labour and the Conservatives.

An Ipsos MORI survey for STV gives Nicola Sturgeon's party an 18-point lead over their nearest rival, the Conservatives - on 44% to the Tories' 26%.

With two weeks to go until December 12, it is the largest lead given to the SNP in any Scottish poll since the campaign proper began.

The Ipsos MORI poll draws a stark contrast among Scottish voters compared to the rest of the UK, suggesting the Tories could lose half their Scottish seats next month even as they seemingly cruise toward an overall majority UK government.

Comment: See also:

Read More...
USA

Trump's secret war-zone trip: US president spends Thanksgiving with troops at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan

Anita Kumar
Politico
Thu, 28 Nov 2019 07:32 UTC
Trump Ghani Troops
© Alex Brandon/APPresident Donald Trump with Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani addresses members of the military during a surprise Thanksgiving Day visit on Thursday at Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan.
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE — President Donald Trump started his day like so many others at his south Florida resort: a relaxing round of golf, a few sharp tweets and then a White House announcement that he'd be staying in for the evening.

But this particular Wednesday — the night before Thanksgiving — ended with Trump escaping Mar-a-Lago without the usual presidential motorcade spectacle, boarding a military transport to Washington and then embarking on a 13-hour Air Force One flight into the heart of America's longest war.

It was a journey shrouded in more secrecy than usual even for a presidential trip into a war zone. And it merged the made-for-TV drama Trump savors with a military display he loves: the U.S. commander-in-chief on Thanksgiving, less than a year from the next election, surrounded by cheering troops in Afghanistan.

For a president who at times seems to be at war with his own military leaders, it was a celebration of America's troops that a small circle of aides planned carefully for weeks to prevent leaks that could scuttle the dangerous trip.

"It's a long flight," Trump joked after serving turkey in a cafeteria here on Thanksgiving night. "But we love it."
Trump Ghani
© Alex Brandon/APUS President Donald Trump and Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani

Comment: RT, 28/11/2019: Trump to substantially reduce troop numbers
President Donald Trump has said that the United States is "substantially" reducing its presence in Afghanistan, that his long-promised withdrawal from the country is underway. 2,000 of the roughly 14,000 troops there had already been pulled out. In August, Trump said that he wished to reduce troop numbers in the country to 8,600, with those remaining to focus on counterterrorism operations.

Speaking to troops at Bagram Airfield on Thursday, Trump said that the militants "want to make a deal" with the US and Afghan governments.








Read More...
Folder

Leaked: A trove of Biden financial records, courtesy of Ukraine parliament member, leads to Kolomoysky

Eric Zuesse
Sott.net
Wed, 27 Nov 2019 00:00 UTC
Zlochevsky/Kolomoysky
© SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty/SputnikMykola Zlochevsky • Igor Kolomoysky
On Wednesday, November 20th, Russia's Tass news agency headlined "Joe Biden's son and his partners received $16.5 million from Burisma — Ukrainian MP", and reported:
The Ukrainian Office of the Prosecutor General has drawn up an indictment against the owner of the Burisma Holdings energy company, ex-Ecology Minister Nikolai Zlochevsky, that contains information that the son of former US Vice President Joe Biden, Hunter, as a Burisma board member along with his partners, received $16.5 million for their services, Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada MP from the ruling Servant of the People party Alexander Dubinsky told a press conference on Wednesday, citing the investigation's materials. According to him, the money came from duplicitous criminal activity.
Another Rada member, Andreii Derkach, had earlier posted, to Facebook, on November 11th, what he alleges to be photos of bank statements and other financial records documenting the flows of money from Ukraine into the partnership that Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden and his friend the Yale college roommate of John Kerry's stepson Christopher Hines, Devon Archer, had set up. The partnership, Rosemont Seneca Boa, is associated with their Rosemont Seneca Partners LLC.
Read More...
Attention

Best of the Web: 'They're killing us like dogs.' The massacre in Bolivia

Medea Benjamin
MintPress News
Fri, 22 Nov 2019 00:00 UTC
Mourners carry the coffins
© Natacha Pisarenko/APMourners carry the coffins that contain thre remains of people killed by security forces in El Alto, outskirts of La Paz, Bolivia, November 21, 2019.
I am writing from Bolivia just days after witnessing the November 19 military massacre at the Senkata gas plant in the indigenous city of El Alto, and the tear-gassing of a peaceful funeral procession on November 21 to commemorate the dead. These are examples, unfortunately, of the modus operandi of the de facto government that seized control in a coup that forced Evo Morales out of power.

The coup has spawned massive protests, with blockades set up around the country as part of a national strike calling for the resignation of this new government. One well-organized blockade is in El Alto, where residents set up barriers surrounding the Senkata gas plant, stopping tankers from leaving the plant and cutting off La Paz's main source of gasoline.

Determined to break the blockade, the government sent in helicopters, tanks and heavily armed soldiers in the evening of November 18. The next day, mayhem broke out when the soldiers began teargassing residents, then shooting into the crowd. I arrived just after the shooting. The furious residents took me to local clinics where the wounded were taken. I saw the doctors and nurses desperately trying to save lives, carrying out emergency surgeries in difficult conditions with a shortage of medical equipment. I saw five dead bodies and dozens of people with bullet wounds. Some had just been walking to work when they were struck by bullets. A grieving mother whose son was shot cried out between sobs: "They're killing us like dogs." In the end, there were 8 confirmed dead.

Comment:


See also:

Read More...
Snakes in Suits

Gormless Gove: 'Corbyn too soft on Putin' - 'Russia has grotesque influence in UK'


RT
Fri, 29 Nov 2019 18:00 UTC

Comment: There's only one grotesque thing here, and it's not Putin or Russia.


Michael Gove
© Reuters/Peter NichollsMichael Gove speaks at a news conference in London
Tory Party minister Michael Gove has accused Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn of failing "to stand up to Vladimir Putin," even as his own boss Boris Johnson said he's seen "no evidence" of Russian interference in the UK.

Weakness before Putin is an insult slung by lawmakers on both sides of the Atlantic, and Gove deployed it again on Friday, telling RT that he thinks Jeremy Corbyn has "failed to stand up to Vladimir Putin," demonstrating that he "won't stand up for Britain."

Citing the still-unproven Skripal affair as an example of "Russian interference in the most grotesque way," Gove blasted Corbyn for not jumping on the bandwagon and condemning Putin for the incident. Establishment UK officials assumed Russian involvement in the poisoning from the outset, and used the assumption as a pretext for sanctions and a sharp decline in diplomacy, when they expelled over 20 Russian diplomats last March.

Read More...
Star of David

Interim FM Longaric: Bolivia resumes diplomatic relations with Israel


Sputnik
Thu, 28 Nov 2019 23:57 UTC
Bolivia-Israel
© BtNews.OnlineBolivia restores relations with Israel
Bolivia's interim Foreign Minister Karen Longaric on Thursday announced the resumption of diplomatic relations with Israel following an 11-year break. "We plan to resume diplomatic relations with Israel," Longaric said at a press conference as quoted by Milenio news outlet.

In 2009, then-President Evo Morales severed diplomatic ties with the Middle East country in response to Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip. The ex-president then called Israel a terrorist state.

According to Longaric, relations will resume "taking into account respect for state sovereignty and they will be sincere and aimed at mutually beneficial cooperation".

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz has welcomed the news. "The ouster of President Morales, who is hostile to Israel, and his replacement with the government friendly to Israel, allow to develop the process," Katz said on Twitter.

Comment: See also:

Read More...
Question

Assad doubts Al-Baghdadi's death: 'Important to know if it really took place'


RT
Thu, 28 Nov 2019 10:42 UTC
Baghdadi's compound
© U.S. DOD/Handout via ReutersAbu Bakr al-Baghdadi's compound before and after an air strike
Islamic State was actually a US creation which they have never fought against for real, the Syrian President claimed, which makes him doubt the much-talked about killing of the group's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Less than a month ago, Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) confirmed the loss of its longtime chief, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and tapped his successor - but Bashar Assad thinks that even if he was killed, the reasons might not be that transparent. "Did it really happen? I do not know. That does not mean he was not killed, but if he was, it's not because he was a terrorist."

Reiterating his previous doubts about al-Baghdadi's death in a US-led operation in late October, Assad told France's Paris Match magazine the terrorist group was "manufactured by the Americans" and that its leader was "part of the comedy."

"The most important [thing] is whether al-Baghdadi was really killed, and whether this beautiful comedy presented by the Americans really took place," the Syrian President said.

Comment: RT, 28/11/2019: 'Can you imagine Syrian troops coming to France without an invitation?'
There's no major difference between supporting terrorism on Syrian soil and sending troops there without formal approval from its government, Bashar Assad said as he lambasted France's role in Syria's civil war.

Syria has "come a long way" toward defeating much of the terrorist insurgency on its soil, but pockets of resistance still remain as jihadists are receiving support from Turkey and Western countries, Bashar Assad told Paris Match magazine, singling out the US, the UK and "especially France." The French intervention amounted to an "occupation."
"Do you frankly think that we can send Syrian forces to fight terrorism in France without being invited by the French government? International law governs the behavior of states in the world, not [their] intentions. There is not a big difference between supporting terrorism and deploying the military to occupy a country."
Assad said Syria can handle the war without any backing from the West. "We can manage our own business ... But we want to come back to a world order that is no longer respected, because chaos reigns," he concluded.
See also: Assad doubts ISIS leader's death: 'Americans will respawn al-Baghdadi' like Bin Laden

Read More...
Bad Guys

No jurisdiction? Scotland Yard forced to explain why it dropped sex trafficking probe into Epstein & Prince Andrew


RT
Fri, 29 Nov 2019 19:23 UTC
prince andrew
© Reuters / Andrew Winning / Shannon Stapleton / David Mirzoeff
The Met had to give an explanation for why it stopped investigating allegations of sex trafficking against Jeffrey Epstein after a woman who claims she was forced to have sex with the Duke of York accused the police of corruption.

Virginia Giuffre is pictured in a now-notorious photo of Prince Andrew with his hand around her bare waist, with Epstein and the Duke's 'friend' Ghislaine Maxwell in the background. Then a teenager, she claims to have had sex with the royal at least three times back in 2001.

Some 14 years later, she brought her story to the Metropolitan Police Service, only to see the probe dropped rather quickly. "At first the Scotland Yard told me they were going to forensically examine [Ghislaine Maxwell's] house in London - next thing I hear, just like the FBI, they were not allowed to pursue the investigation. Corruption in the highelevels (sic) of gov," Giuffre wrote on Twitter this week.

The Met confirmed on Thursday that they had indeed launched a probe, interviewed Guiffe, got advice from the Crown Prosecution Service, and decided the case was out of their jurisdiction to proceed with a full criminal investigation.
We therefore concluded that the MPS (Metropolitan Police Service) was not the appropriate authority to conduct enquiries in these circumstances.
"It was clear that any investigation into human trafficking would be largely focused on activities and relationships outside the UK," Commander for Specialist Crime Alex Murray said, noting that Scotland Yard once again reviewed its position in 2019 and it remained unchanged.

Giuffre in the meantime doubled down on her accusations against Prince Andrew in the upcoming interview with the BBC, as the Duke of York faces a growing backlash following his own train-wreck interview with Newsnight about his friendship with the US financier.
He knows what happened, I know what happened, and there's only one of us telling the truth.
Read More...
Biohazard

'We didn't forget how to negotiate': US, Russia agree on adding Novichok & NATO-made chemicals to OPCW blacklists


RT
Fri, 29 Nov 2019 19:17 UTC
hazard
© Global Look Press / ZUMAPRESS.com / Vyacheslav Madiyevskyy
A Russian envoy rejoiced at a diplomatic breakthrough that allowed the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to make history by drastically expanding its blacklist of the world's deadliest toxins.

Members of The Hague-based OPCW have unanimously backed amending the entity's lists of banned nerve agents for the first time since 1997.

One amendment, proposed by the US, the Netherlands and Canada, extended the ban on the notorious Novichok - a colloquial term for a group of deadly chemicals once developed by the USSR. The other one, put forward by Russia, took aim at a toxin that was designed and studied by NATO's secretive labs during the Cold War.

"Fixing the problem with the lists was a positive thing," commented Alexander Shulgin, Russia's envoy to the OPCW. "Russia and the United States have finally shown that our delegations have not forgotten how to negotiate," he added.
Read More...