Puppet MastersS


Bullseye

The focus is on precision: Putin urges ramp-up of production of 'smart' missiles and artillery shells


RT
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 15:19 UTC
Krasnopol laser-guided artillery shell
© YouTube/Russia's Defense MinistryKrasnopol laser-guided artillery shell hits a group of militants in Syria.
Russia must ramp up production of high-precision missiles and artillery shells, President Vladimir Putin said. Smart munitions can do the job more effectively than their "dumb" counterparts - and even save on the costs.

"We definitely need, not the notorious 'slugs', but 'smart' and highly precise munitions instead, which expand the capabilities of both existing and prospective weapon systems, and, I stress, can save funds considerably," Putin said on Thursday, speaking at a meeting with industry representatives and top military officers.

Russian munitions plants make a wide variety of products which must satisfy the defensive needs of the country both in quantity and quality. High-precision munitions actually save the defense budget, as their usage allows to be done what earlier "could have been achieved only by expensive weapon systems," Putin stated.
Krasnopol shell
© Wikipedia/Mike1979 RussiaKrasnopol Shell

Comment: The future of weapons and armaments is already in Russia's hands.

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Nuke

Russian senators propose change of doctrine for Russia to respond with nukes to any 'strategic strike'


RT
Wed, 21 Nov 2018 17:54 UTC
Iskander-M launcher
© .Sputnik/Ramil SidrikovAn Iskander-M launcher capable of shooting short-range nuclear-tipped missiles.
Russia should be allowed to use its nuclear arsenal in response to a non-nuclear strike with a strategic weapon, Russian senators believe. Their recommendation is to amend Russia's nuclear posture accordingly.

A suggestion to make the Russian nuclear doctrine more flexible was one of the recommendations backed by the upper chamber of the Russian parliament late on Wednesday.

The senators said the Russian National Security Council should prepare and propose an amendment on the nuclear doctrine, which would allow "taking a decision to retaliate in case of enemy use of hypersonic and other strategic conventional weapons" against Russia, reported RIA Novosti.

Russian nuclear doctrine was last reviewed in 2014, when the current escalation of tensions with the West was just unfolding.

It allows the armed forces to deploy nuclear weapons on two scenarios. One is in response to a strike with a nuclear weapon or another weapon of mass destruction against Russia or one of its allies. Another is when a nuclear strike is necessary to prevent a conventional attack threatening the existence of Russia as a sovereign state.

Comment: Nuclear liberties? Sure, let's all vote for that.

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Attention

Commander warns US targets are within Iranian missile strike range


RT
Wed, 21 Nov 2018 23:40 UTC
Iran missile
© Reuters/Raheb Homavandi
Iranian missiles can now reach numerous US military targets throughout the Middle East, including aircraft carriers and military bases, a Revolutionary Guard commander has warned.

"They are within our reach and we can hit them if they make a move" said Amirali Hajizadeh, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's Airspace Division, according to Iran's Tasnim news agency. Iran's bold rhetoric reflects the severe and escalating level of tension between the two countries, as pointed words increasingly turn into pointed weapons.

Iranian missiles can allegedly now hit targets at distances of 450 miles (700 km), significantly bolstering the country's defensive capability.

Dozens of US bases surround the Islamic Republic in nearly every country on the nation's border, particularly on the coast of the Persian gulf in neighboring Saudi Arabia.

Comment: Trapped? The US, Israel - and now Iran - have created the circumstances they purport to guard against.

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Pirates

Al-Qaeda in Syria is assisted by the Dutch government

Paul Antonopoulos
FRN
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 00:00 UTC
Al-Qaeda Syria
© mintpressnews.comAl-Qaeda in Syria
In a major revelation which FRN has confirmed, the Dutch government has engaged in assistance to terrorist groups in Syria, such as Al-Qaeda, that has been used for military purposes, although the government has claimed otherwise, a joint investigation of the Dutch daily Trouw and Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS) has revealed.

The Trouw newspaper reported late on Wednesday that the Dutch government had issued documents proving that the groups used "almost all equipment" provided by the government in its military operations. The documents were allegedly published at the request of the Dutch media, but were unavailable for public viewing shortly after publication.

The documents also revealed the previously hidden names of two jihadist groups that received assistance from the Dutch government. According to the Trouw-NOS investigation, the terrorist groups used cars offered by the Dutch government in attacks, as well as laptops, to set targets.

Comment: The Netherlands' complicity in supporting terrorism is not an exception. As to whether it falls under military or non-military...it is still assistance!

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Whistle

SOTT Focus: The US Deep State vs Julian Assange

Ryan Jones
Sott.net
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 21:38 UTC
Ecuadorians protest over Assange
On Friday November 16th 2018, the US deep state's #2 "paper of record", The New York Times (second only to The Washington Post), announced that the US Department of Justice had secretly filed criminal charges against Julian Assange, founder of the world-famous media organisation Wikileaks, a specialist in publishing 'leaked' documents provided unofficially (and often illegally) by whistleblowers in high-profile corporations, organisations and governments.

For the last 6 years, Assange, an Australian citizen, has been locked up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London after he was granted political asylum by Ecuador in 2012. His reason for requesting asylum was to evade extradition to the United States via Sweden, which had attempted to do so based on trumped-up accusations of "rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion", accusations that were eventually downgraded to "consensual sex without a condom" before being dropped completely by the Swedish government. Text messages by the women in question revealed they "did not want to file any charges against Assange but that the police were keen on getting a grip on him," with one writing that "it was the police who made up the charges". No charges were ever brought by the Swedish police against Assange, who cooperated whole-heartedly with the investigation wherever possible.
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Tornado2

Death of GRU chief and Russian hero Igor Korobov sends Western media and pundits into tailspin of conspiracy theories


RT
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 20:01 UTC
korobov and shoigu
The death of Igor Korobov, who led Russia's top military intelligence agency, has sent conspiracy mongers into overdrive. Unwilling to believe the 62 year-old died of cancer, they are filling in the gaps with their own theories.

Korobov died "after a long and serious illness," the Defense Ministry announced on Thursday. Various sources have informed media outlets that this illness was cancer. There had also been rumors of illness circulating in Russian media in recent months.

As the news broke, however, Western media, journalists and pundits wasted no time in deciding that this explanation for Korobov's death simply could not be true. Generously, many began to offer up their own suspicions as alternative possibilities - and they pulled no punches.

While most headlines in Western media included some form of implication that not all was as it seems, true to form, the UK tabloids took things up a notch. The Sun's headline screamed "SPYMASTER DEAD" amid "suspicion he was assassinated for botching Skripal poisoning enraging Putin."
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Stop

Denmark suspends weapons exports to Saudi Arabia in response to Khashoggi murder and Yemen concerns


CNBC
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 19:57 UTC
Khashoggi
© Middle East Monitor | ReutersSaudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi
Denmark has suspended future approvals of weapons and military equipment exports to Saudi Arabia in response to the killing of a dissident Saudi journalist and the kingdom's role in the conflict in Yemen, the Danish Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

Germany has already suspended issuing future weapons export licences and has moved to halt all arms sales, while France said on Monday said it will decide soon on sanctions over Khashoggi's killing at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last month.

Saudi Arabia is one of the world's biggest weapons importers. It heads a military coalition fighting in a civil war in Yemen in which tens of thousands of people have died and caused a major humanitarian catastrophe.
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Eye 1

Facebook executive admits hiring firm that linked critics to Soros

Steven Overly
Politico
Wed, 21 Nov 2018 19:53 UTC
facebook
© Alexander Koerner/Getty Image
Facebook's outgoing policy chief took the blame Wednesday night for hiring a consulting firm to investigate and peddle negative stories about the company's critics, including by linking them to liberal philanthropist George Soros.

The blog post by the executive, Elliot Schrage, landed on the eve of the Thanksgiving weekend, and appeared aimed at absolving CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg of responsibility for a lobbying campaign that sparked accusations that Facebook was fueling anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

"I believe it would be irresponsible and unprofessional for us not to understand the backgrounds and potential conflicts of interest of our critics," wrote Schrage, Facebook's outgoing head of communications and policy. "This work is also useful to help respond to unfair claims where Facebook has been singled out for criticism, and to positively distinguish us from competitors."
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Star of David

Israel plans to engulf the Old City with a 50km settlement belt around Jerusalem - force Palestinians from their homes


Palestine News Network
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 19:09 UTC
view jerusalem
© nathan-miller.comView of Jerusalem from the Tower of David
Israel is planning to build a settlement belt around the occupied city of Jerusalem to increase the Jewish population density at the expense of Jerusalemites within the "Holy Basin" project, experts on Jerusalem affairs said.

In the second and third legislative readings, the Israeli Knesset approved a bill allowing the construction of houses and residential units in areas that had recently been deemed national parks in Jerusalem.


Comment: Creating Jewish "National parks" are one way Palestinians are blocked from utilizing their land and usually a prelude to losing it.
By designating large areas of land as legally protected open space, they say, Israeli authorities stop Palestinian communities from expanding. Doing so prevents both demographic increases of the city's Arab population, and maintains Jewish-Israeli contiguity between Jerusalem and the settlements of the West Bank.

This law, according to Jerusalemites, allows the Elad settlement association to build within public parks near Al Aqsa Mosque, which is called the "City of David" National Park, in the Silwan neighborhood.
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Light Sabers

MI6 battling to stop Donald Trump releasing classified Russia probe documents

George Martin
Daily Mail
Wed, 21 Nov 2018 18:24 UTC
mi6 intelligence
© Reuters / Andrew Winning
MI6 is locked in a secret battle with US President Donald Trump to persuade him not to disclose documents linked to the Russian election-meddling probe - it has been revealed.

Intelligence sources on both sides of the Atlantic told the Telegraph that spy bosses in London were frantically appealing to Trump not to make the classified documents public.

The President's aides have reportedly hit back with questions over why Britain wants the documents to be kept secret.

But authorities in the UK say they have 'genuine concern' about sources being exposed if classified parts of the wiretap request were made public.

Other sources also said MI6 was concerned the publication of the documents would set a 'dangerous precedent' for the release of top secret information, and may dissuade future sources from coming forward.
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