Puppet MastersS


Rocket

INF treaty is about Europe's safety, not America's; US left it to get new missiles says Russian envoy


RT
Sun, 10 Feb 2019 20:52 UTC
Flag Missile
© Reuters/US Navy/Ford Williams
The INF Treaty that Washington abandoned was aimed at primarily providing security for Europe, not the US, the Russian envoy to the US said, explaining the US move was driven by a desire to get new missiles.

"The INF Treaty is dealing with the security of the European countries and the Russian Federation, not with the security of the US," Russia's ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, told RT, adding that Washington has apparently not been very interested in preserving the agreement, which it began to see as a limitation on its own military capabilities.

Washington confirmed its withdrawal from the treaty, signed by the US and the USSR back in 1987, earlier this year and Moscow said it would also quit in a mirror response. The pact banned nuclear-armed and conventional land-launched missiles with a range between 500 and 5,500km.



Comment: Any new treaty necessitates inclusion of all countries that have reached a designated level of capability and armament - no longer exclusively applicable to Russia and the USA. That said, the lure to create new weapons of mass destruction and feed the MIC are compelling reasons for the US to initiate an exit.

See also:

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Airplane

Pompeo's Central Europe trip to focus on Russia, China influence


RFE/RL
Mon, 11 Feb 2019 15:16 UTC
PompeoBudapest
© Hungarian Foreign Ministry/EPA EFEUS Secretary of State Pompeo arrives in Budapest February 11, 2019.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has arrived in Hungary at the start of a five-country European tour that administration officials say will focus on opposition to the growing influence of Russia and China in Central Europe.

Pompeo met in Budapest with Hungary's right-wing populist prime minister, Viktor Orban, and other senior officials to stress the importance of promoting democracy and the rule of law. Washington sees those issues as key to countering Russian and Chinese moves to sow discord in the European Union and NATO, according to U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Ahead of the talks, the officials said that Pompeo was to specifically point to Central Europe's reliance on Russian energy and the presence of the Chinese telecom firm Huawei, particularly in Hungary. U.S. officials are concerned by Huawei's expansion in Europe, especially in NATO member states where they believe the Chinese firm poses significant information-security threats.

Comment: What kind of 'democracy' and 'whose rule of law'? Certainly two concepts by which the US no longer abides.

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Arrow Up

Flashback Former US President Jimmy Carter: Venezuelan electoral system 'best in the world'

Ewan Robertson
Venezuelanalysis.com
Sat, 22 Sep 2012 08:39 UTC
JimmyCarter
© POLITICUSUSA.COMFormer US President Jimmy Carter
Former US President Jimmy Carter has declared that Venezuela's electoral system is the best in the world.

Speaking at an annual event last week in Atlanta for his Carter Centre foundation, the politician-turned philanthropist stated, "As a matter of fact, of the 92 elections that we've monitored, I would say the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world."

Venezuela has developed a fully automated touch-screen voting system, which now uses thumbprint recognition technology and prints off a receipt to confirm voters' choices.

In the context of the Carter Centre's work monitoring electoral processes around the globe, Carter also disclosed his opinion that in the US "we have one of the worst election processes in the world, and it's almost entirely because of the excessive influx of money," he said referring to lack of controls over private campaign donations.

Comment: All the more reason to question the US stance against Venezuelan elections and Maduro's governance as a means to its own ends. See also:

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Brick Wall

Trump: Democrats want a shutdown to 'change the subject' from scandals

Mark Moore
New York Post
Sun, 10 Feb 2019 12:52 UTC
Trump
© Jonathan Ernst/ReutersPresident Donald Trump
President Trump on Sunday accused Democrats of trying to scuttle bipartisan talks on the wall and border security because they want another government shutdown to change the "subject."

The president wrote on Twitter about the talks:
"It was a very bad week for the Democrats, with the GREAT economic numbers, The Virginia disaster and the State of the Union address. Now, with the terrible offers being made by them to the Border Committee, I actually believe they want a Shutdown. They want a new subject!"
He also suggested that Democrats on the congressional committee made up of House and Senate members have been told not to forge an agreement.
"I don't think the Dems on the Border Committee are being allowed by their leaders to make a deal. They are offering very little money for the desperately needed Border Wall & now, out of the blue, want a cap on convicted violent felons to be held in detention!" he said.
Trump has demanded $5.7 billion to fund his border wall, but lawmakers have floated an amount between $1.3 billion and $2 billion. Democrats are also seeking to put a limit [on] funding for detention beds for people in custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Comment: Dems know that by not funding real problems that increase to disasters, history will attribute the 'failure to act' to the president and his administration. The government shutdown(s) will be recorded likewise.

See also:

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Arrow Up

Japan: Tokyo to boost energy ties with Moscow despite sanctions against Russia


RT
Mon, 11 Feb 2019 09:10 UTC
Russian Tanker
© AFP/Mikhail Mordasov
Amid growing uncertainties on the global oil market, Japan is looking to boost its energy cooperation with Russia, and international sanctions on Moscow don't prohibit cooperation. That's according to Japan's Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Hiroshige Seko in a written interview with S&P Global Platts published on Friday.

Japan, which relies almost exclusively on imports of crude oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) to meet its demand for those products, sees the benefit of shorter travel times and safer routes for deliveries from Russia's Far East, amid increased uncertainties in the global oil market with the US sanctions on Iran, according to Seko. Seko told Platts:
"Imports of Russian crude oil and LNG do not go through any chokepoints such as the Strait of Hormuz. Therefore they are important for the diversification of Japan's energy import sources, and I hope that Russia will play an even larger role. I would like to continue working to expand our cooperation."
Currently, Japan relies heavily on imports from the Middle East, with cargoes having to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has threatened to block numerous times over the past few years.

Japanese companies are also interested in taking part in planned LNG projects in Russia, including Arctic LNG 2, Baltic LNG, and the third train at Sakhalin, the Japanese minister said, noting that if Japanese firms secure participation, Japan could boost its LNG imports from Russia in the future.
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Map

Netherlands to recognize Gaza Strip, West Bank as birthplaces


Aljazeera
Mon, 11 Feb 2019 00:00 UTC
Netherlands
© Koen van Weel/EPA.jpgBefore the new ruling Palestinians in the Netherlands had the option to list their birthplace as Israel or unknown.
Netherlands will allow those born after May 15, 1948 to use occupied Palestinian territories as official place of birth.

The Dutch government has announced it will start to recognise the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as official birthplaces for Palestinians who were born in the country after the establishment of Israel.

While the Netherlands does not yet recognise the State of Palestine, it will recognise those Palestinian territories as the origin of birth for those born after May 15, 1948 when the British Mandate officially ended. The announcement was made by Dutch State Secretary Raymond Knops at The Hague.

According to an Interior Ministry release published on Saturday, Knops said the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank would be added to the list of territories that the Dutch civil registry accepts.

Comment: Next to the least they could do? But more than most.

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Pirates

ISIS fighters fleeing YPG in Syria - dressed as women


Sputnik
Mon, 11 Feb 2019 20:33 UTC
isis
© YouTube/SDF Press Center
Earlier, the US-backed Kurdish YPG militia announced that they were mopping up the last remnants of the Daesh (ISIS) terrorist group on Syrian territory.

Daesh fighters are resorting to increasingly desperate measures to disguise themselves in an attempt to escape Kurdish fighters in southeast Syria, an unnamed YPG commander has told the Daily Star.

"You think of it, they do it," the commander said. "It's crazy right now, they're really desperate. They are trying to blend in because there are so many [civilians]," he added.

Earlier, the Syrian Democratic Forces, the umbrella organisation which includes the YPG, reported that over 20,000 civilians had fled the area in recent days amid the battle between terrorists and the militia.

The YPG commander confirmed that fighters "have been trying to escape in women's clothes," explaining that "some of them dress as women because we don't ask the women to raise their hijab."

Other jihadists resorted to posing as members of civilian families, the commander said. "They go into random families and scare them."

Comment: ISIS now holds only one village. It will be only a matter of days before the SDF kills or captures the last of the ISIS members who haven't already fled their failed Caliphate. And just in time for the U.S. military to get out of Syria.

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Lemon

Ukraine's embassy throws hissy fit after Times calls Ukrainian conflict 'civil war': 'Correct immediately!'


RT
Mon, 11 Feb 2019 19:35 UTC
Ukrainian Army soldiers
© SputnikUkrainian Army soldiers are seen in the Eastern Ukraine on February 7, 2019.
The Times has annoyed Kiev after describing the prolonged conflict in Ukraine as a "civil war." Ukraine's embassy in the UK rushed to slam the paper and remind the world that Kiev supposedly fights "Russian aggression."

"Correct article immediately!" the embassy demanded in a scathing tweet, accusing one of the leading British newspapers of inexcusable political amnesia. "It is unfortunate we have to remind The Times... that there is no civil war in Ukraine but a direct Russian aggression," the tweet said.

The Ukrainian diplomats did not just stop there and also claimed that courageous Ukrainian soldiers, who have been allegedly repelling nothing less than an outright invasion by the big scary Russians, are now still fighting a staggering 40,000 members of the Russian army. They never bothered to provide proof to substantiate their claims, though.

Comment: "If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck" etc. Citizens from west Ukraine have been sent to subdue citizens from east Ukraine who refused to accept a usurping US-appointed leader is the very definition of a civil war, all embassy statements to the contrary.

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Snakes in Suits

A dummy's guide to decoding imperial doublespeak about Syria

Peter Ford
21st Century Wire
Wed, 06 Feb 2019 00:00 UTC
doublespeak
The prospect of US withdrawal from Syria has taken the use of doublespeak by frothing neocons and their liberal interventionist fellow travellers to a new level.

Here to help the confused observer is a glossary of some of the most frequently used key terms and their true meanings, along with guidance on usages deemed taboo in Western policy-making and media circles.

Entrenched. As in: 'We have to stop Iran getting more entrenched in Syria'. Meaning: 'Supportive'. Without Iran and Hizbollah helping Syria government forces ISIS and Al Qaida would be ruling the roost in Syria today. Do not say: 'Israel is becoming more and more entrenched in the West Bank and Golan'.

Forward deployment. 'US troops are in forward deployment in the Al Tanf enclave on the Syria - Iraq border'. Meaning: Occupation. The US troops have no mandate to be there, not even the approval of the US Congress.
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Bad Guys

UK defense chief: We must be ready to use 'hard power' against Moscow and Beijing


RT
Mon, 11 Feb 2019 13:33 UTC
Gavin Williamson
Gavin Williamson: Numbskull
The UK must be ready to use 'hard power' against Russia and China, defense chief Gavin Williamson has said. The remark has raised eyebrows in Moscow, which calls it "irrelevant" to reality and aimed at securing a larger budget.

The UK needs to strengthen its "lethality" and must be ready to "use hard power" to uphold it interests against nations like Russia and China, Secretary of State for Defense Gavin Williamson said on Monday.

Delivering a speech at the Royal United Services Institute in London, he accused "resurgent" Moscow of boosting its "military arsenal" to bring former Soviet states like Georgia and Ukraine "back into its orbit."
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