Puppet MastersS


Handcuffs

Puigdemont testifies before Belgian authorities over arrest warrant; Spain seeks his extradition

Sam Jones, Jennifer Rankin
The Guardian
Fri, 18 Oct 2019 07:32 UTC
Puigdemont
© europapressFormer Catalan president Carles Puigdemont
Carles Puigdemont, the former Catalan president sought by Spanish courts over his role in the region's failed independence bid, has been released on bail after testifying before judicial authorities in Belgium in response to the reactivation of an international arrest warrant against him this week.

News of his court appearance came as Catalonia prepared for a general strike and a huge demonstration in Barcelona after a fourth night of violent protests triggered by the jailing of nine pro-independence leaders by the Spanish supreme court on Monday.

Puigdemont, who led the region between January 2016 and October 2017, fled to Belgium to avoid arrest after being sacked by the Spanish government for staging an illegal referendum and making a unilateral declaration of independence two years ago.

In a statement, Puigdemont's office said: "[Carles] Puigdemont, accompanied by his lawyers, has appeared voluntarily before the Belgian authorities in response to the European arrest warrant issued by the Spanish supreme court."

Comment: See also:

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Beaker

Skripal Saga: Update on the inquest into the death of Dawn Sturgess

Rob Slane
The BlogMire
Thu, 17 Oct 2019 00:00 UTC

Comment: Fair play to Rob Slane for slugging it out with updates on the British govt's absolute cock-up of an investigation into 'the Skirpal Saga'.


Dawn Sturgess
© Daily MailDawn Sturgess
In my last post on the Salisbury and Amesbury "Novichok" cases, I said that it was my intention to move on from writing on the subject, unless any significant developments arose. That is still my intention, but as something has arisen that I believe is quite significant, I am returning to it in this piece.

Friday 18th October was scheduled to be the date of the Pre-Inquest Review (PIR) into the death of Dawn Sturgess, but it has been adjourned. Inquest adjournments are of course not uncommon, and according to the guidelines set out by the Crown Prosecution Service: "Inquests will, in most cases, remain adjourned whilst criminal proceedings are being considered."

However, not only is this now the fourth adjournment (the others being 18th July 2018, 16th January 2019, and 15th April 2019), but — as far as I have been able to establish — unlike the previous adjournments no new date has been made public.

But there is more. When contacted for details of the postponement and rescheduling, the Coroner's Office responded by saying that a press release had been sent to Counter Terrorism Command (CTC), which is a branch of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), headed by Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu. However, it seems that even though this press release was sent, CTC does not appear to have released it — at least nothing has appeared in the media regarding it, and there is nothing on the MPS website. All very odd!

Comment: See also:

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Bell

Plan B: UK govt launches Yellowhammer op as ministers prepare for potential no-deal Brexit


RT
Sun, 20 Oct 2019 19:20 UTC
Pro-Brexit demonstrators
© Global Look PressPro-Brexit demonstrators outside the UK Parliament.
Ministers are insisting that the UK will leave the European Union by the current Brexit deadline of October 31, despite the government being forced by parliament to ask the bloc for an extension.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson sent an unsigned letter requesting an extension after his Brexit strategy suffered a setback with a defeat in the House of Commons on Saturday.

European Council President Donald Tusk confirmed that he had received the letter and will start consulting EU leaders about "how to react."

Despite this, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and his fellow cabinet minister Michael Gove insisted on Sunday that the UK will leave the bloc by October 31.

Johnson's request was accompanied by a second letter, signed by the Prime Minister, saying he believed a delay would be a mistake. Gove told Sky News that the government still had "the means and ability" to leave on October 31.

Gove, who is in charge of no-deal planning, said that "the prime minister's determination is absolute" and the government's "determined policy" is to meet that deadline. "We know that the EU want us to leave, we know that we have a deal that allows us to leave," he said.

Comment: George Galloway comments:
By postponing a vote on Boris Johnson's Brexit deal, MPs have only complicated Britain's divorce from the EU, and in the case of Labour, stacked their own "electoral funeral pyres," former parliamentarian George Galloway told RT.

Opposition MPs and protesters in the streets of London celebrated the passing of the so-called Letwin amendment earlier on Saturday. The amendment to Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Brexit deal requires Johnson to seek an extension to the October 31 Brexit deadline from the EU, so that formal ratification legislation can be debated and passed in both Houses of Parliament.

For the 322 MPs who voted in favour of Letwin, their victory was "pyrrhic," Galloway told RT. The former lawmaker called the amendment a "childish, schoolboy jape" aimed at "frustrating the will of the British people," who simply want Britain's exit from the EU to be over and done with.

For Labour too, the decision to back an amendment authored by Tory MP Sir Oliver Letwin - an architect of Margaret Thatcher's much-maligned Poll Tax in the 1980s - "is now very clear for everyone to see," he continued.
...
"They said that Johnson wanted no deal, and then he got a deal," the former Scottish lawmaker said, referring to Remainers in parliament. "They said that they were holding out, because they could not countenance for a moment the threat to peace in Ireland, and then Ireland got behind the deal."

"Indeed, but for the backwoodsmen of the DUP, every party - including SInn Fein - are now fully behind the deal. Brussels and the EU are behind the deal."

With the tides in Johnson's favor, Galloway sees the British Parliament finding a way to pass the deal before October 31. Failing that, Remainers could be faced with the ironic result of leaving without a deal at all, "the very thing that today's parliamentary opposition always claimed they wanted least of all."
MPs had to be escorted by police to protect them from angry crowds (both pro- and anti-Brexit):



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Star of David

Jerusalem spooked by Moscow's growing influence in the Middle East

Raphael Ahren
Times of Israel
Fri, 18 Oct 2019 18:12 UTC
russian syrian military
© Maxime POPOV / AFPA picture taken during a guided tour with the Russian army shows Syrian elite soldiers taking part in an instruction session with Russian military trainers, on September 24, 2019, at an army base in Yafour, some 30 kilometers west of Damascus.
US President Donald Trump's newly announced withdrawal of nearly all US troops from northern Syria has cemented Russia's status as the predominant global military power actively engaged in the Middle East.

This week, Russian troops arrived at military bases in northern Syria that the American army had hastily left just days earlier, in what can be regarded as both a literal and figurative handover of regional hegemony.

Many officials in Jerusalem are deeply worried about being abandoned by their superpower ally, as the American decision to gradually disengage from this part of the world — which started under former US president Barack Obama — threatens to embolden Israel's enemies: Iran and its allies and proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Gaza and elsewhere.


Comment: It's incorrect to say that a slave can "abandon" its master. Better to tell the truth: a slave escapes its master's clutches.


What does Russia's takeover really mean for Israel? Some analysts are deeply concerned, fretting about the possibility that Moscow could use surface-to-air missiles against Israeli jets attacking Iranian targets in Syria, which would effectively end Jerusalem's campaign against Tehran's establishment of a military foothold near Israel's border.

Others see in Russia's new leadership role an opportunity, as it may make room for an Iranian-Israel modus vivendi that would prevent the shadow war between the two countries from escalating.

Comment: Good news is nice for a change.

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Map

Turkey will view protection of Kurdish units by Damascus as declaration of war


Sputnik
Sun, 20 Oct 2019 16:13 UTC
turkish military
© REUTERS / MURAD SEZER
The possible protection of the Kurdish units, operating in northern Syria, by Damascus will be regarded by Ankara as a declaration of war on Turkey, Yasin Aktay, an adviser of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, said on Saturday.

On October 9, Turkey began the Operation Peace Spring, stating it aimed to rid its southern border of the Kurdish militia, which it views as terrorists. Soon after that Damascus sent troops to the north to protect the Kurdish units.

"If the Syrian regime [government troops] wants to enter Manbij, Ayn al-Arab [Kobani] and Qamishli to provide protection for the Kurdish People's Protection Units [YPG], that will be viewed by Turkey as the declaration of war and it [Damascus] will face a relevant response," Aktay said.

However, if the Syrian government provides Turkey with guarantees that the Kurdish units will not operate in the border area, Ankara may change its position on the Syrian government troops' advance to the northern part of the country, according to Aktay.

He added that the Turkish and other foreign troops would leave Syria after the establishment of peace and security across the country. "Turkey does not grab anyone's territories," Aktay added.

Comment: At least some of the Kurds actually seem receptive to the idea of pulling back from the border with Turkey:
A Syrian Kurdish militia leader has said his forces will withdraw from a border area in northeastern Syria to comply with a U.S.-brokered cease-fire deal if Turkish-led forces allow remaining Kurdish forces and civilians to leave an embattled city there.

The statement came with some reports alleging violations of a fragile truce along Turkey's border with Syria, two days after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed a temporary halt to fighting to allow Kurdish forces time to pull back from regions under assault in Ankara's military drive.

Redur Khalil of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which has been supplied U.S. weaponry in the fight against Islamic State (IS) militants in the region, said late on October 19 that SDF troops will move back 30 kilometers from the Turkish-Syrian border in a 120-kilometer stretch between Ras al-Ayn and Tal Aybad if the evacuations are permitted of those cities.

Even with its built-in contingency, the statement appeared to be the first public acknowledgement by the SDF that they might pull back.
The Turkish defense ministry says one more Turkish soldier has been wounded in fighting with the SDF. The Turks have also taken control of Ras al-Ayn after the SDF left the area. Meanwhile, restoration work is being carried out on the oil and gas fields in Raqqa/Hama/Homs.

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Star of David

War whore Pompeo soothes hysterical Israel: 'Iranian threat' gives 'fundamental right, even obligation' to bomb whomever it wants


RT
Sun, 20 Oct 2019 16:19 UTC
israel bomb gaza IDF
© Reuters / Mohammed SalemIsraeli aircraft bombs a multi-story building in Gaza City, August 9, 2018
Israel should not be constrained by international borders or laws if it feels under threat, and can always rely on US support, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said following his meeting with the Israeli PM and the chief of Mossad.

The US administration has always been "very clear" that it gives Israel a free rein in hunting down any purported sprouts of 'Iranian threat' in the region, using national security as an ultimate excuse, Pompeo said in an interview with Jerusalem Post.

Comment:

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Attention

Indian PM Modi warns Pakistan he's serious about using 100% of Indian river water


RT
Sat, 19 Oct 2019 03:02 UTC
hydropower project Chenab river India & Pakistan
© ReutersA hydropower project in the Chenab river, which flows through India & Pakistan
Indian PM Narendra Modi has warned Pakistan he means what he said about not wasting a single drop of 'Indian water', after Islamabad stated that any attempt to divert rivers would be viewed as an 'act of aggression.'

"Once I decide to do something, I always accomplish that," the PM told an election rally on Friday, slamming the opposition party for allowing a portion of India's river water to leave the country.
The water over which Haryana's farmers have the right will not flow to Pakistan now.
However, Pakistani Foreign Minister Muhammad Faisal had accused India of not just planning to utilize its water share to the max, but plotting to actually divert the rivers, and framed the PM's words as "another glaring example of the fact that the present government of India is bent upon making India an irresponsible and aggressive state that has no regard for human rights or international obligations." He stated that Pakistan has "exclusive rights" over three western rivers under the Indus Water Treaty.

Comment: Indian PM Modi: Our share of river waters will no more go to Pakistan

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Cow

Best of the Web: Why are Establishment Elites so Obsessively Anti-meat?

Brandon Smith
Alt-Market.com
Fri, 18 Oct 2019 00:00 UTC
elites against meat
Ruling oligarchies have always tried to restrict meat consumption by the "peasant class" whenever possible.
I don't know how many people have noticed this, but in the past three months it has been impossible for a person to throw a beef burger patty in any direction on the compass without hitting a news article on the "destructive effects" of the meat industry in terms of "climate change". There's also been endless mainstream articles on the supposedly vast health benefits of a vegetarian or vegan diet. This narrative has culminated in a tidal wave of stories about vegetable-based meat companies like Beyond Meat and their rise to stock market stardom. The word on the street is, meat based diets are going the way of the Dodo, and soon, by environmental necessity, we will ALL be vegetarians.

For at least the past ten years the United Nations has been aggressively promoting the concept of a meat free world, based on claims that accelerated land use and greenhouse gas emissions are killing the Earth. In the west, militant leftists with dreams of a socialist Utopia have adopted a kind of manifesto in the Green New Deal, and an integral part of their agenda is the end to the availability of meat to the common man (it's interesting the Green New Deal agenda matches almost perfectly with the UN's Agenda 21 and Agenda 2030). Some of these elitists have argued in favor of heavy taxation on meat products to reduce public consumption; others have argued for an outright ban.

The problem with this dietary revolution is that it is based primarily on junk science and cherry-picked data, along with outright lies and propaganda. The majority of studies and articles covering this issue are decidedly biased, left leaning and collectivist in nature. Now, I plan to touch on this issue, but what I really want to focus on is the "WHY" of the matter - Why are the elites targeting human meat consumption, and why are they willing to lie about its effects in order to get us to abandon our burgers and steaks? What is the real agenda here...?

Comment: See also:

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Mr. Potato

'Russians will have a fight on their hands!': Alaska governor vows to thwart 'independence referendum & annexation' in prank call


RT
Sun, 20 Oct 2019 00:00 UTC
Grizzly bears
© Naomi Boak / National Park Service / handout via ReutersGrizzly bears search for migrating salmon to help fatten up for the winter hibernation in Katmai National Park, Alaska, US (soon Russia?)
Governor Mike Dunleavy said he was aware of Moscow's plan to stage an independence referendum to reclaim Alaska, and promised to arrange a gold nugget for the visiting Ukrainian leader, in a phone call with Russian pranksters.

The governor seemed honored to receive such a 'high-profile' call from none other than Ukrainian prime minister and the country's ambassador to the US. Unsurprisingly, the key topic of the conversation was the omnipresent 'Russian threat.'

The two pranksters informed Dunleavy of a sinister plan, masterminded by the Kremlin, to reclaim Alaska. They explained that Moscow believes it had only temporary rented Alaska to the US back in 1876, and now - especially since the state has a maritime border with Russia, while being separated from the rest of the American territory by Canada - wants its land back.

Comment: See also: Russian Trolls Strike Again! Regime Change Operator Elliot Abrams Blabs US Venezuela Plans in Prank Call

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Chess

Democratic takeover? Tulsi Gabbard supported by candidates Yang and Williamson as Killary backs out of event Tulsi will be headlining

Keith Griffith, Mary Kekatos & Emily Goodin
Daily Mail, UK
Sat, 19 Oct 2019 23:27 UTC
tulsi and hillary
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has received support from two of her opponents in the Democratic presidential primary after Hillary Clinton accused her of being a 'Russian asset.'

Marianne Williamson and Andrew Yang were the only two out of the Democratic field to take Gabbard's side in the growing feud, as the rest of the candidates remained silent on Clinton's accusations.

'Tulsi Gabbard deserves much more respect and thanks than this. She literally just got back from serving our country abroad,' Yang wrote in a tweet, referring to combat veteran Gabbard's continued service as a Major in the Army reserve.

Williamson, an author who did not make the party's cut for the most recent debate, chimed in: 'The Democratic establishment has got to stop smearing women it finds inconvenient!'

'The character assassination of women who don't toe the party line will backfire,' she continued, telling Gabbard, 'You deserve respect and you have mine.'
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