Puppet MastersS


Boat

Russian DM Shoigu: 'We don't need aircraft carriers, we need weapons to sink them with'

USS Ronald Reagan
© Liang Yingfei/Caixin Media/ReutersUSS Ronald Reagan leaves Victoria Harbour
The US may have a military budget that far exceeds that of Russia, but it doesn't matter since the Russian military is there to defend the country, not attack other nations, the Russian defense minister said.

Russia's military budget received a hike a few years ago for a massive rearmament program, but has been rolled back in recent years. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimated Russia to be the world's sixth biggest defense spender in 2018, behind the US, China, Saudi Arabia, India, and France. Meanwhile, the Pentagon has been showered with money under the Trump administration, dwarfing other nations' military budgets.

But the man in charge of the Russian Defense Ministry says his fellow Russians have no reasons to worry, because their taxpayer rubles are well spent. Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu told a Russian newspaper:
"The US spends huge amounts of money on private military contractors, on aircraft carriers. Well, does Russia really need five to ten aircraft carrier strike groups, considering that we do not intend to attack anyone? We need the means we could use against the enemy's carrier strike groups should our country come under attack. They are far less costly and more efficient."

MIB

Projection! Times claim MI6 fears Russia has 'kompromat' on Prince Andrew over Epstein scandal

PrinceANdrew
© Toby Melville/ReutersYor 'avin a larf!
As Britain's Prince Andrew remains a key figure in the Epstein abuse scandal, the Times UK has added their own favorite twist to the story - Russians might be involved.

The British royal is at the center of ongoing sex abuse accusations concerning Jeffrey Epstein, with one of the late billionaire's accusers alleging that Andrew participated in the exploitation of her when she was a teenager.

Virginia Giuffre has repeatedly claimed that convicted sex offender Epstein ordered her to have sex with his friends, including the prince. Photographs have long circulated showing Andrew with his arm around the then-17-year-old girl at a house in London. The royal has denied "any form of sexual contact or relationship" with Giuffre.

Comment: The British media!

In reality, it is THEY who have acquired and actively used, for over a decade now, 'kompromat' against Prince Andrew.

The Daily Mail recently published footage of Andrew answering the front door to Epstein's mansion, with hotties coming and going. Who filmed this footage? Who sat on it for 9 years? Who chose to publish it now? And why?


Hiliter

Deal signed with El Salvador to repatriate transient migrants seeking asylum in the US

Hill and McAleeman sign agreement
© Lapronsa grafica.comEl Salvador Foreign Affairs Minister Alexandra Hill • Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleeman
The Trump administration signed an asylum agreement Friday with El Salvador, giving the U.S. the right to repatriate migrants who cross through El Salvador to reach the U.S. and who then request asylum here.

Officials hope the agreement, along with a similar one signed with Guatemala over the summer, will change the incentives that have spurred this year's illegal immigration surge at the border.

Most asylum-seekers have bogus claims and won't win their cases, but under the current system, many of them were allowed to remain in the U.S. while they argued their case — giving them a foothold here. Officials believe that if they can block those bogus asylum-seekers from reaching U.S. territory in the first place, it will reduce the overall flow.

Acting U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan signed the agreement in Washington with Alexandra Hill, El Salvador's foreign minister. "We are talking about giving them secure alternatives and increasing legal alternatives to safe migration," Ms. Hill said.

The deal would apply to people from countries other than El Salvador who traverse the country en route to the U.S. to claim asylum. The U.S. says if they are truly asylum-seekers they should apply in the first safe country they come to, and should not be allowed to pick and choose their final destination. "Individuals crossing El Salvador should be able to seek protection there," Mr. McAleenan said.

Comment: See also:
'It is our fault': El Salvador president says his country is to blame for migrant deaths in Rio Grande


Boat

Iran: UK-flagged tanker Stena Impero soon to be released

Stena Impero
© File Photo/Reuters/WANAStena Impero
A British-flagged tanker detained by Iran in mid-July will be released soon, according to a Fars news report citing an Iranian maritime official.

"After the issuing of the ruling for the end of detention of the English tanker Stena Impero this vessel will soon, and after the passing of 65 days, begin its movement from the port of Bandar Abbas toward international waters," said Allahmorad Afifipour, the head of the Ports and Maritime Organization of Iran in Hormozgan Province.

The vessel, registered in Britain but owned by Swedish logistics firm Stena Bulk, is one of the ships at the center of a terse diplomatic row between London and Tehran.

Comment: See also:


Star of David

Netanyahu or Gantz? 'Kingmaker' Lieberman refuses to choose, leaving Israel in limbo

gantz netanyahu
© Reuters / Baz Ratner / FileBenny Gantz (L) and Benjamin Netanyahu (C) are pictured together.
Uncertainty is growing in Israel after the indecisive parliamentary election, as Avigdor Lieberman, who leads a party which has a key position in forming a coalition, refused to endorse either leading candidate for PM.

Two-day consultations between Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and leaders of political parties kicked off on Sunday. The president will have to decide who he entrusts with the mandate to form a ruling coalition.

Still, the two leaders of the Knesset election, incumbent PM Benjamin Netanyahu and head of the Blue and White alliance Benny Gantz, do not have a clear path to achieve a majority. Their parties scored 31 and 33 seats respectively, which falls far below the required 61-seat majority - and Gantz has already rebuffed Netanyahu's calls for a "unity government."

Pirates

Max Keiser on JP Morgan scandal: Feds said 'commit all fraud you need as long as you support the US dollar'

Dollars, Geld, Budget
The US authorities were aware that three JP Morgan traders were manipulating precious metals markets from the start and intentionally "looked the other way," Max Keiser believes.

"Eric Holder, who was attorney general under [former US President Barack] Obama when this first came to light, said that market manipulation and fraud were important for the American economy and that he, as the attorney general, could not prosecute," the host of RT's Keiser Report says, calling the JP Morgan fraudsters and the likes "too big to jail."
And that too-big-to-jail was part of the legal landscape for America, and bankers were getting a green light to commit massive fraud.
The fact that precious metals traders at JP Morgan made millions through fraudulent trades, operating a criminal conspiracy to manipulate prices called 'spoofing', has been an open secret for years, with Max himself describing the scheme back in 2011.

Light Saber

Gowdy: Adam Schiff 'deeply partisan,' and 'leaking like a sieve'

schiff gowdy
© Fox NewsRep. Trey Gowdy, R-SC and Adam Schiff, D-Calif.
Former South Carolina Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy told America's Newsroom on Friday that people have stopped sharing information with the House Intelligence Committee because its chairman, Adam Schiff, D-Calif., is the most "deeply partisan" member.

"When you put someone who is wrong as often as Adam Schiff is wrong and is as deeply partisan as he is, in charge of the intelligence committee, then no, you're not going to share confidential information because Adam leaks like a sieve," Gowdy said.

A whistleblower complaint that reportedly involved allegations President Trump made a troubling and unspecified "promise" to a foreign leader touched off a Washington firestorm Thursday, as the intelligence community's top watchdog was questioned by Congress on the matter and the president adamantly denied the accusations.

Comment: Subsequent speculation seems to be that Trump discussed several different matters with Ukraine President Zelansky, including corrupt Joe Biden strong-arming his son into a Ukrainian gas company board post, then threatening Ukraine with pulling U.S. aid if they didn't stop an investigation into the matter.


Red Flag

Julian Assange is 'the great unmentionable' as Australian PM wines and dines with Trump

assange
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison is in the United States over the coming eight days and will be feted by President Donald Trump and other representatives of his right-wing administration.

Morrison will be the first Australian prime minister to be treated to a state dinner by the US president in over a decade. He will also appear at various public events alongside Trump and other senior representatives of the administration. They will discuss Australia's stepped-up role in the US confrontation with China and Washington's advanced preparations for a war of aggression against Iran, along with how to best advance the interests of the corporate and financial elite of both countries.

The fate of Julian Assange, however an Australian citizen and journalist imprisoned in the United Kingdom at the behest of the Trump administration for exposing American war crimes, will not feature among Morrison's scripted talking points.

Jennifer Robinson, one of Assange's Australian lawyers, yesterday told the Special Broadcasting Corporation: "Prime Minister Morrison ought to be raising with President Trump his concern about an Australian citizen facing extradition to the United States for publishing truthful information."

Robinson's call will be ignored. Morrison last year rejected appeals from Pamela Anderson for his government to intervene in defence of Assange, instead directing frat-boy "humour" at the actress. When a reporter asked Morrison if he had raised the issue of Assange at the G20 summit in June, he simply responded with a smirk.

Morrison's refusal to defend the persecuted Australian publisher is of a piece with the abandonment of Assange by the entire political and media establishment as it has aligned ever more closely with US imperialism.

Comment: Having been denied bail, Julian waits in prison for his US extradition hearings next year. To add insult to injury, the UK has decided to make his confinement even more tortuous by holding him in conditions 'worse than accused terrorists' to obstruct his ability to fight extradition. Grayzone's Aaron Maté discusses the situation with Kristinn Hrafnsson, editor-in-chief of Wikileaks:




Black Magic

How the UK Security Services neutralised the country's leading liberal newspaper

Guardian
© EPA/FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGAThe offices of the Guardian newspaper in London, England, 20 August 2013.

The Guardian, Britain's leading liberal newspaper with a global reputation for independent and critical journalism, has been successfully targeted by security agencies to neutralise its adversarial reporting of the 'security state', according to newly released documents and evidence from former and current Guardian journalists.

The UK security services targeted The Guardian after the newspaper started publishing the contents of secret US government documents leaked by National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden in June 2013.

Snowden's bombshell revelations continued for months and were the largest-ever leak of classified material covering the NSA and its UK equivalent, the Government Communications Headquarters. They revealed programmes of mass surveillance operated by both agencies.

According to minutes of meetings of the UK's Defence and Security Media Advisory Committee, the revelations caused alarm in the British security services and Ministry of Defence.

Comment: See also:


Snakes in Suits

Academic cesspool: NYC's Fordham University is an incubator for Deep State crooks and initiatives

Fordham University
What a cesspool Fordham University in New York City has become. It's the alma mater of Deep State crooks John Brennan and Jerrold Nadler and more. It also is where Deep State initiatives are conceived.

We first noticed Fordham University's connections with the corrupt actors in the Deep State when observing a recent article at the Atlantic. In the piece Mr. Bruce Green, who is a professor at Fordham University, says this -
Bruce Green comments Fordham Univ
Fordham University has many far left positions. They have a video stating that they still believe Christine Blasey Ford's accounts of being groped 30 years ago by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh (even though she can't remember the day, place or age she was when this occurred and has no witnesses and threatened the woman who was allegedly with her to lie)...

Comment: To be fair, Fordham has no monopoly on producing far-left ideologues - that's fairly standard in academia today. They may just produce more aristocrats ready to assume power and lead their minions in less 'elite' institutions.