Puppet MastersS


Binoculars

Iraqi MP: Israeli intel forces spotted amongst US troops in Iraq


FARS News Agency
Wed, 09 Jan 2019 02:12 UTC
US in Iraq again
© Reuters/Ammar AwadUS military returning to Iraq
A senior Iraqi lawmaker disclosed that Israel's intelligence forces have arrived in Baghdad along with the US troops, media reports said.

"Israel's intelligence forces have been witnessed patrolling with the US troops in Baghdad," the Arabic-language al-Maloumeh news website quoted member of the Iraqi Parliament's National Security and Defense Committee Karim Alivi Javish as saying.

Alivi Javish reiterated that the Iraqi Parliament's National and Defense Committee will probe the US troops' presence in the Iraqi capital. A report said last Friday that the US troops patrolled together with Baghdad Operations Commander patrolled in the Iraqi capital.

In a relevant development on Sunday, the Iraqi sources reported that Washington has deployed large groups of soldiers in Western Iraq a number of its military forces who were earlier stationed in Syria.

The sources were quoted by Russia's RT news channel as saying that dozens of US troops stationed in Syria have relocated to Ein al-Assad base in al-Anbar province in Western Iraq.
"Reports that the US forces who have left Syria are now stationed in Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan region are not all true. A major part of these forces have gone to Ein al-Assad base in al-Anbar province and a number of others have been deployed in the military bases in other Iraqi provinces."
According to the sources, the US forces are still stationed at the Iraqi-Syrian borders and have not left Syria completely.

Comment: The time to kick the US and Israel out is now, before they are entrenched and create yet another mess.

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Mr. Potato

Ayatollah Khamenei: Washington officials are first-class idiots


Tehran Times
Wed, 09 Jan 2019 00:00 UTC
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
© MEHR news agencyAyatollah Ali Khamenei
The Leader of the Islamic Revolution said on Wednesday that some U.S. officials are "first-class idiots", questioning the sensibility of their failing plots against Iran. Addressing a large gathering of people from the central holy city of Qom, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the 1979 Islamic Revolution is the main reason behind Washington's deep and lasting hostility toward Iran.

In particular he pointed to a U.S. statesman's promise, in a gathering of "terrorists and thugs" months ago, that they would celebrate New Year 2019 in Tehran. He compared the calculation ability of the U.S. statesmen to former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein who had hoped to conquer Tehran within a week at the beginning of his invasion of Iran in September 1980.

The Leader said the Americans speak gleefully of "strongest sanctions in history" against Iran, "but the Iranian nation will, God willing, make them suffer an unprecedented defeat in history."

He urged steadfastness in the face of the U.S. and Europe's "militarism, bluster, and idle talk," saying, "Neither their threats, nor their words and promises, and not even their signatures are creditworthy."
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Star of David

Gaza: Hamas arrests 45 Israeli spies and collaborators linked to botched IDF raid


RT
Wed, 09 Jan 2019 00:03 UTC
Hamas-run prison in Gaza City
© Reuters/Mohammed SalemHamas-run prison in Gaza City
Dozens of Palestinians, said to have been recruited by Israel, have been arrested by Gaza's Hamas leadership after a botched IDF covert mission in the territory in November, which led to heavy gunfire battles and a tense standoff.

"The security services were able to arrest 45 agents after the security incident east of Khan Yunis last November and they are under investigation," Hamas' interior ministry spokesman Iyad al-Bozum said in a statement, without specifying if those detained had any direct role to play in the Israeli incursion into the Southern Gaza strip on November 11.

The arrested alleged Israeli agents had reportedly been recruited by Israel over the phone and social media, often through the use of blackmail. While Hamas has managed to arrest "many spies" over the years, the Israelis continue to recruit Palestinian agents to "help them commit crimes against our people," the Hamas spokesman said, appealing to those who are being coerced by the IDF to turn themselves in.

The botched IDF mission in Khan Yunis, in which a Hamas commander was killed along with an Israeli lieutenant colonel, initially led to a shootout between the Israeli soldiers and Hamas operatives but quickly escalated into a cross-border battle, described as the most intense since 2014.

Comment: See also:

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No Entry

Best of the Web: Beyond Kafka: How Youtube & Facebook Keep Purging Speeches of Hassan Nasrallah

Sayed Hasan
Resistance News
Wed, 09 Jan 2019 20:08 UTC
Hassan Nasrallah is persona non grata on Social Networks, where Anti-Zionism is the ultimate thoughtcrime

With a comment from Norman Finkelstein
nasrallah
Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Lebanese anti-US-Israel resistance group Hezbollah
The guillotine's blade fell again, one year later. On December 2017 already, my 5-years-old Youtube channel Sayed Hasan, mainly translating speeches from Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, was completely removed by Youtube, along with its 10,000 subscribers, +6 millions views and +400 subtitled videos of anti-Zionist & anti-Imperialist content. I then denounced this censorship in detail in my article Kafka 2.0: How Youtube's Political Censorship is Exercised. And just around New Year's Eve 2019, the +6000 Subscribed Facebook Page Resistance News Unfiltered, along with all its similar content, got deleted without explanation. The only thing left online is a cache view of the page dating back from this summer, in French.
resistance news facebook
I had created this Page at the beginning of 2018, since no other place can compete with Youtube and its near-monopoly on video content, in order to reach a broader audience. But it was deleted without explanation by Facebook short of its first anniversary. I can't even know the precise date of termination. Youtube did at least bother to send emails notifying of the removal of a video or of a whole channel, but Facebook has only internal notifications for posts removals. Here is how it happened.
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Bad Guys

Best of the Web: The UK Government Manufacture of False Sexual Allegations Against Threats to the State

Craig Murray
craigmurray.co.uk
Wed, 09 Jan 2019 18:21 UTC
believe women
I want to give you a concrete example of how the UK government deliberately sets out to manufacture false sexual allegations against people it considers a threat. I do so to educate those who view this concept as an unthinkable "conspiracy theory". I write of a case of which I have expert knowledge; it is my own case.

I became an "enemy of the state" when, as British Ambassador, I protested against UK and US complicity in torture and extraordinary rendition in Uzbekistan. As detailed in Murder in Samarkand, I very quickly found myself suspended and subject to civil service investigation of disciplinary allegations against me, the worst of which was that I extorted sex from visa applicants. Blair's No. 10 quickly leaked this allegation against me to the Daily Mail.

I was in a state of complete shock. I had no idea at all what could have led to such allegations. The Kafkaesque nightmare deepened when I was presented with the evidence against me.
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Bad Guys

US sets dangerous precedent after snatching Chinese executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver

Tony Cartalucci
New Eastern Outlook
Wed, 09 Jan 2019 17:51 UTC
huawei
Claiming that prominent Chinese telecommunications company Huawei had violated US sanctions on Iran - Canada was requested to arrest and hand over Huawei Chief Financial Officer, Meng Wanzhou, who was transferring planes in Vancouver.

The arrest was described even by the Washington Post as "unusual" in its article titled, "Arrest of Huawei executive triggers stock market turmoil and unsettles U.S.-China trade talks."

The article would also claim:
Meng was arrested on a U.S. extradition warrant because Huawei is suspected of evading American sanctions on Iran, according to multiple news reports. U.S. prosecutors have been investigating since 2016 whether Huawei violated U.S. export and sanctions laws by shipping U.S.-origin products to Iran.
The arrest, on the same day President Trump and China's President Xi Jinping met for dinner in Buenos Aires for trade and national-security talks, is being viewed in China as politically motivated.
And very clearly the move made against Huawei - along with a barrage of similar legal moves made to cripple rising Chinese companies competing against their waning US counterparts - is politically motivated - as are the sanctions the US has imposed on Iran in the first place.

Comment: Previously:

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Satellite

Russian space chief Rogozin blames Trump-Congress rivalry for cancelled NASA visit


RFE/RL
Wed, 09 Jan 2019 17:53 UTC
rogozin
© Yury Kochetkov / AFPRoskosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin speaks with the media in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on October 11, 2018.
The head of Russia's Roskosmos space agency, an official who has been targeted by U.S. and European Union sanctions, has criticized President Donald Trump and U.S. lawmakers over the cancellation of his planned visit to NASA facilities in the United States.

Dmitry Rogozin on January 9 said the cancellation of his visit was "an episode of the confrontation between Trump and Congress." He compared the situation to a U.S. TV soap opera.

"This is an element of the rivalry between the Congress and Trump," Rogozin said in an interview with Rossia 24 TV on January 9. "In this particular case, we have turned out to be a victim of this rivalry."

NASA announced on January 4 that Rogozin's visit was being canceled following critical press reports and calls by U.S. lawmakers not to allow the blacklisted Russian into the United States.

Roskosmos said in a statement on January 9 that it was not giving up on cooperation with NASA.

"We are fulfilling all our obligations under the contracts signed with NASA, and we hope for further cooperation," the statement said.

Comment: See also:

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X

Bully tactics: US threatens sanctions against Nord Stream 2 contractors because Russia


RT
Wed, 09 Jan 2019 17:35 UTC
Allseas
© Allseas
The US may slap penalties on two European contractors laying the pipeline for the Russian-led Nord Stream 2. The political pressure is still extremely high over the project, which Moscow defines as purely economic.

Swiss-based Allseas Group and Italian Saipem may face US sanctions over firms participating in the highly debated project on behalf of its operating company, Gazprom-owned Nord Stream 2 AG, sources in the German federal government told Handelsblatt.

Allseas will reportedly lay over 90 percent of the controversial pipeline, while Saipem already completed its part of the work.

Nord Stream 2 is being implemented by Russian energy giant Gazprom in close partnership with German oil and gas firms Wintershall and Uniper, French multinational Engie, British-Dutch energy corporation Royal Dutch Shell, and Austrian energy company OMV.

The Trump administration has repeatedly expressed its disapproval of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, pledging to impose secondary penalties on European companies working with the Gazprom-led enterprise. On Monday, US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell told the media that the firms working on the pipeline "are always in danger, because sanctions are always possible."
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Megaphone

Moscow warns Washington 'hotheads' against military intervention in Venezuela

Paul Antonopoulos
Fort Russ
Wed, 09 Jan 2019 17:30 UTC
Putin Maduro
© Sputnik / Aleksey Nikolskyi
Moscow warns "several hotheads" in Washington of resorting to military force in Venezuela, said the 9th Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.

"I view the attempts by the US to consolidate the anti-Chavez front [against Venezuela] from Latin American states with anxiety and concern, this is an alarming trend," Ryabkov stressed.

According to the Russian diplomat, even Latin American governments with a very critical position on Caracas exclude the possibility of military intervention in Venezuelan affairs.
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Quenelle

"World domination": Russian Deputy FM doubts full US withdrawal from Syria


Sputnik
Wed, 09 Jan 2019 09:18 UTC
Syria US
© Reuters/Rosi Saud
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Wednesday it was hard to believe that the United States would pull out of Syria completely under the current circumstances, given the strong position of those who support the continued US military presence in the Arab Republic.

"I believe the positions of those who want to maintain US military presence in Syria - illegal, breaching the international law - are quite strong in Washington... I cannot imagine that the United States will fully and indisputably leave Syria in terms of physical military presence in the current situation where Washington is locked in unstoppable contest for world domination and driven to be present everywhere and resolve issues only on its own conditions," the diplomat told reporters.

The contacts on Syria between Russia and the United States do not stop even if they are not always announced, there are no long pauses in the talks, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Wednesday.

Comment: He has every reason to be skeptical: Putin: The 'US is right to leave Syria, but no signs of pullout - remember Afghanistan'

See also:

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