Puppet MastersS


Radar

Fragile peace: N. Korea threatens to produce nukes again if US sanctions remain


RT
Sat, 03 Nov 2018 13:50 UTC
North Korea Military parade
© Reuters / Damir Sagolj
Pyongyang may resume building up its nuclear arsenals if Washington's economic sanctions remain in place, the reclusive state has said amid diplomatic bargaining over the future of Korean peace talks.

"If the US keeps behaving arrogant without showing any change in its stand," North Korea may restart building up nuclear forces while also pushing for economic development, Pyongyang has said on Friday evening in a statement released by its state-run news agency.

North Korea is widely thought to have obtained enough weapons-grade plutonium to weaponize dozens of warheads. South Korea believes its northern neighbor may have developed 20 to 60 nuclear weapons, according to intelligence data cited by a top official in Seoul.
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Light Sabers

Erdogan says 'highest levels' of Saudi gov't sanctioned Khashoggi murder


RT
Sat, 03 Nov 2018 11:30 UTC
Erdogan Mohammed Bin Salman MBS
© AFP Photo / Turkish Presidential Press Service
The killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi was sanctioned at the "highest levels" of the Saudi government, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, trying to play kingmaker in Riyadh and bolster his credentials in the West.

"We know that the order to kill Khashoggi came from the highest levels of the Saudi government," the Turkish leader wrotein a surprise contribution to Friday's Washington Post, vowing to "reveal the identities of the puppet masters" behind the murder.

"No one should dare to commit such acts on the soil of a NATO ally again," Erdogan wrote dramatically. "Had this atrocity taken place in the United States or elsewhere, authorities in those countries would have gotten to the bottom of what happened. It would be out of the question for us to act any other way," he added, noting that Ankara has already "moved heaven and earth to shed light on all aspects of this case."

Comment: Also see:

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Snakes in Suits

Harry Reid can't stop lying about his stance on immigration

Becket Adams
Washington Examiner
Sat, 03 Nov 2018 11:30 UTC
Harry Reid
© AP Photo/Sait Serkan Gurbuz.,FileHarry Reid: Brennan gave this top Senate Democrat an irregular individual briefing, putting the collusion narrative in motion.
Harry Reid lies even when he tells the truth.

The retired senator surfaced Wednesday to respond to President Trump, who shared a 25-year-old video this week showing the former Nevada lawmaker saying "no sane country" would offer birthright citizenship as "a reward for being an illegal immigrant."

Reid's decades-old remarks were made in the context of championing his Immigration Stabilization Act of 1993, which promised to "curb criminal activity by aliens, to defend against acts of international terrorism, to protect American workers from unfair labor competition, and to relieve pressure on public services by strengthening border security and stabilizing immigration into the United States."
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Newspaper

Armenia's PM tells US that it will maintain "special relations" with Iran regardless of sanctions


RFE/RL
Fri, 02 Nov 2018 16:28 UTC
armenia pm nikol pashnian john bolton
Acting Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (right) with U.S. national-security adviser John Bolton in Yerevan on October 25
Acting Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian says he made clear to U.S. national-security adviser John Bolton last week that Armenia will pursue its national interests and maintain "special relations" with its neighbor Iran.

Addressing the Armenian parliament on November 1, Pashinian said he told Bolton when he visited Yerevan last week that Armenia is a landlocked nation that does not have diplomatic relations with either neighboring Turkey or Azerbaijan, so it must retain "special relations" with its other two neighbors -- Iran and Georgia -- which he said are Armenia's only "gateways" to the outside world.

"I reaffirm the position that we should have special relations with Iran and Georgia that would be as far outside geopolitical influences as possible. This position was very clearly formulated also during my meeting with Mr. Bolton, and I think that the position of Armenia was clear, comprehensible, and even acceptable to representatives of the U.S. delegation," the Armenian leader said.

Comment: And as way for the threat to be even close to workable, the US and OPEC flood oil market ahead of midterms and Iran sanctions

See also:

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Oil Well

US and OPEC flood oil market ahead of midterms and Iran sanctions

Nick Cunningham
OilPrice.com
Thu, 01 Nov 2018 19:00 UTC
oil pump
© Reuters / Christian Hartmann
OPEC and the U.S. are together adding enormous volumes of new supply, which together have softened the oil market.

In October, OPEC hiked oil production to the highest level since 2016, back before the oil production cuts went into effect, according to a recent Reuters survey. The higher output, led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, come just as Iranian oil is going offline. Also, Libya saw a sharp rebound in production, although the country is not part of the OPEC+ production cuts.


Comment: Stalling: US needs 'handful more weeks' to decide sanctioning Saudi Arabia for Khashoggi murder


The 15 countries in OPEC produced an average 33.31 million barrels per day in October, the highest since December 2016. That was also up 390,000 bpd from September. "Oil producers appear to be successfully offsetting the supply outages from Iran and Venezuela," said Carsten Fritsch of Commerzbank.

Russia, which is not part of OPEC but part of the OPEC+ coalition, continues to produce at post-Soviet record highs.

Iran lost 100,000 bpd in October, due to buyers cutting back as U.S. sanctions near, but the losses were more modest than many analysts had expected. In fact, despite the hardline rhetoric from Washington, the U.S. is poised to grant waivers to several countries that are unable to cut their imports of Iranian oil to zero.

Comment: This news should help the Donald in the short term:

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Eagle

'Troika of tyranny'!? US greatly expands sanctions of Venezuela, warns Cuba and Nicaragua - 'you're next!'


RT
Fri, 02 Nov 2018 01:05 UTC
Maduro
© Reuters / Handout
The US is slapping far-reaching sanctions on Venezuela in its bid to re-assert hemispheric dominance over what National Security Advisor Bolton dubbed a "Troika of tyranny" in a groan-worthy throwback to Bush's "axis of evil."

Trump has authorized even stricter sanctions against Venezuela, ostensibly targeting the country's gold sector but actually going after anyone and everyone deemed "to have directly or indirectly engaged" in "deceptive practices or corruption" relating to the Venezuelan government by the Secretary of State. Without defining any of those terms, the administration has written itself a blank check to wage economic warfare against the already-suffering nation.


Comment: You'd think by now the US would have learned that its punitive and prejudicial sanctions not only do not work (as far as attempting to bend a given government to its will) - but actually strengthen the resolve and determination of those nations that seek to be a sovereign and functioning part of a multi-polar world:

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Biohazard

Genetically engineered viruses have become the next generation of weaponry for the US

Tomasz Pierscionek
RT
Thu, 01 Nov 2018 10:22 UTC
biological warfare
© Global Look Press / Alexander Heinl
Many technologies have dual use potential and can be applied to either civilian or defense projects, depending on the intent of those in charge.

German rocket technology led to the creation of V2 ballistic missiles in WW2 and later enabled the US to launch space exploration missions in the latter half of the 20th century. The technology also helped the US develop its own ballistic missile program.

Nowadays, US scientists at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) are working on a project called Insect Allies which will use insects to infect crops with genetically modified viruses that edit the crops' genetic profile to make them more resilient against disease, as well as natural and manufactured threats to the food supply. It is not clear how the insects' flight paths would be controlled to ensure they only infect designated targets.

Comment: In fact, the research phase of biological warfare has already advanced to the testing phase. The implications are not only ominous for Russia and for China, but for the whole world. See:

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Hammer

Best of the Web: Who is really 'undermining' American democracy?

Stephen F. Cohen
The Nation
Wed, 31 Oct 2018 00:00 UTC
Ballot box icecrack
© Karen Norris, The Christian Science Monitor
Stephen F. Cohen, professor emeritus of Russian studies and politics at NYU and Princeton, and John Batchelor continue their (usually) weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. (Previous installments, now in their fifth year, are at TheNation.com.)

Summarizing one of the themes in his new book, War with Russia? From Putin and Ukraine To Trump and Russiagate, Cohen argues that Russiagate allegations of Kremlin attempts to "undermine American democracy" may themselves erode confidence in those institutions...
Ever since Russiagate allegations began to appear more than two years ago, their core narrative has revolved around purported Kremlin attempts to "interfere" in the 2016 US presidential election on behalf of then-candidate Donald Trump. In recent months, a number of leading American media outlets have taken that argument even further, suggesting that Putin's Kremlin actually put Trump in the White House and now is similarly trying to affect the November 6 midterm elections, particularly House contests, on behalf of Trump and the Republican Party. According to a page-one New York Times "report," for example, Putin's agents "are engaging in an elaborate campaign of 'information warfare' to interfere with the American midterm elections."
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Rocket

US boasts interception of medium-range ballistic missile banned by treaty


RT
Fri, 02 Nov 2018 05:07 UTC
Missile launch
© Missile Defense AgencyA medium-range ballistic target missile launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility, October 26.
The US Missile Defense Agency has been practicing shooting down a land-based medium-range ballistic missile, just as Washington prepares for its withdrawal from the cornerstone INF nuclear non-proliferation agreement.

Less than a week after President Donald Trump announced his plans to withdraw the US from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), the US Navy has conducted a successful test of its Aegis Combat System by firing and intercepting a "medium-range ballistic missile," which is technically banned by the INF treaty.

Footage of the test shows USS John Finn tracking, engaging and shooting down a medium-range ballistic missile fired from the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii using SM-3 Block IIA.


Comment: See also:

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Calendar

Stalling: US needs 'handful more weeks' to decide sanctioning Saudi Arabia for Khashoggi murder


RT
Fri, 02 Nov 2018 04:54 UTC
Pompeo MbS
© Reuters/Leah MillisSec of State Pompeo • Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
The US will need a "handful more weeks" to decide if Saudi Arabia should be somehow sanctioned for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, Mike Pompeo has said, noting that Riyadh remains a "great partner" serving US national security.

Exactly one month after the disappearance and the subsequent murder of the Washington Post columnist inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, the US has yet to issue the "severe punishment" that Donald Trump had promised if the regime's involvement in the journalist's death were confirmed. And even though Riyadh already confirmed that the journalist was indeed killed and his body 'disappeared,' the US administration is still trying to determine individual figures it could blame and punish.

The US is "reviewing putting sanctions on the individuals that we have been able to identify to date that ... were engaged in that murder," Pompeo told KMOX radio in St. Louis, according to Reuters. "It'll take us probably a handful more weeks before we have enough evidence to actually put those sanctions in place, but I think we'll be able to get there."

In Khashoggi's case there already appears to be plenty of evidence to establish the guilty party in his murder. Ankara maintains that there is strong proof that the killing of the Saudi journalist at the Saudi consulate on October 2 came as a result of a pre-planned operation by a squad of hitmen rather than a spontaneous fist-fight incident, as claimed by Riyadh.

Comment: Perhaps the sanction capital of the world forgot Khashoggi is not a US citizen. And, as for the empire, neither partnerships nor foes are easy to give up. Damn confusing when they cross over the lines of demarcation!

See also:

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