Puppet MastersS


Biohazard

'No way' nerve agent could escape UK lab? Russia demands full disclosure on Porton Down toxin research


RT
Sun, 25 Mar 2018 16:18 UTC
Porton Down Defence Science and Technology Laboratory
© Peter Nicholls / Reuters
Porton Down lab claims no toxins could have escaped it's "four walls," but has never denied the possession of the nerve agent used on the Skripals, the Russian Embassy said, urging the UK to disclose its chemical warfare program.

The origin of the mysterious nerve agent, used on March 4 to poison former Russian double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, has been the main point of contention in the unraveling international scandal. While Britain claims that the alleged A-234 nerve agent - also known as Novichok - was a Soviet development and thus could only have been used by Russia, Moscow contends that the chemical has since been studied by numerous parties and could have been re-engineered elsewhere, including in the UK itself.

Last week, in an interview with the BBC, Russia's ambassador to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, noted that a secret military research lab at Porton Down, which is located roughly seven miles from the scene of the incident, could have manufactured the deadly agent. Among its other military-related research, the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) specializes in Chemical, Biological and Radiological warfare.
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Info

Ex-Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont detained in Germany for rebellion and sedition


RT
Sun, 25 Mar 2018 16:05 UTC
Carles Puigdemont
© Reuters
Carles Puigdemont has been detained in Germany, according to the former Catalan president's lawyer.

An arrest warrant had been issued for Puigdemont in Finland after the former president visited the country for talks with lawmakers. He was returning to Belgium, where he lives in self-imposed exile, when he was detained by German authorities after crossing the border from Denmark.

"First Minister Carles Puigdemont has been detained in Germany when he was crossing the border from Denmark," Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas, Puigdemont's lawyer, tweeted Sunday. Puigdemont is now said to be in a police station awaiting his legal team. German police have confirmed the arrest. It is unclear where Puigdemont is being held.
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Map

Erdogan: Iraq's Sinjar and Syria's Tal Rifaat next targets of Turkish military op


RT
Sun, 25 Mar 2018 15:54 UTC
Tayyip Erdogan
© Umit Bektas / Reuters
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced the launch of a new military operation against Kurdish militants in Iraqi Sinjar. He also vowed to take over the Kurdish-controlled town of Tal Rifaat in northern Aleppo, Syria.

"We've eliminated 3,747 terrorists [in Syria's Afrin]," Erdogan said on Sunday, adding that Ankara has now begun an operation against the Kurdish militants in Iraq's Sinjar.

"Remember, I told you we'd get them. They will flee, we will chase; the work will not end with Afrin. The PKK went to Sinjar - 'We'll go there as well,' I said. Operations there began," the president declared.

Ankara's operation 'Olive Branch,' targeting Kurdish militias in Syria's Afrin region, has nearly realized its goals, according to Erdogan. "We will take control of the Tal Rifaat town shortly and thus achieve the goals of the operation," he said. Tal Rifaat is the last stronghold in the Afrin region held by the Kurdish militias.

Comment: More from Southfront:



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SOTT Logo Radio

SOTT Focus: Behind the Headlines: Facebook and Cambridge Analytica - Trump Dumped - Skripal Saga


Sott.net
Sun, 25 Mar 2018 16:00 UTC
cambridge analytica
A steady trickle of mainstream punditry about the evils of social media in recent months last week became a flood of criticism, targeting Facebook in particular. High-profile exposés of Anglo-American market research firm Cambridge Analytica had instant impact, kicking off a viral #DeleteFacebook campaign. But the chattering classes loved social media until recently. Why the sudden change of heart?

The Trump Train lost many of its passengers before now, but the US president's signing last week of a gargantuan $1.3 trillion budget that includes no Mexican wall and lots of funding for Democrats' favorite projects has enraged what remained of his base. On the foreign front, Trump finally fired H.R. McMaster... only to replace him with John Bolton. Trump now has a bona fide neo-con National Security Advisor!

The UK government still has zero evidence to support its wild conspiracy theory that the Kremlin poisoned a former Russian spy in southern England earlier this month. In fact, recent developments in this saga only buttress the case that this 'chemical terrorist attack' was a false-flag operation conducted by British security services.

Join us later today - from 12-1:30pm EST / 4-5:30pm UTC / 6-7:30pm CET - as we go Behind the Headlines of the Western Propaganda Factory.

Running Time: 01:40:05

Download: MP3

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Info

Egyptian presidential hopeful: US triggered Arab Spring, destabilized Middle East


Sputnik
Sun, 25 Mar 2018 15:48 UTC
Arab flags in Cairo
© REUTERS/ Mohamed Abd El Ghany
The United States intentionally destabilized the Middle East by triggering the "Arab spring" in 2011 Egyptian presidential hopeful Moussa Mostafa Moussa, the leader of the liberal Ghad Party, told Sputnik.

"The 'Arab spring' has resulted in a catastrophe in the region. This huge US project was implemented by the team [of former US Secretary of State] Condoleezza Rice. Its aim was to overthrow the leadership of all the Arab countries and to divide the states into smaller countries," the leader of the liberal Ghad Party said.

Egyptian presidential hopeful Mostafa Moussa has also mentioned, that he hoped for the further enhancement of ties between Russia and Egypt.

"I am happy that in recent times there's been a rapprochement with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Today I do not see any difference between Russian and US capabilities. I see that Russia is a great country... I hope for the further enhancement of relations between Moscow and Cairo," the candidate said.
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USA

US Empire's structural features: Global Imperialism and Internal Colonialism

James Petras
the Jame Petras website
Tue, 20 Mar 2018 00:00 UTC
US empire
© The Hawaii Independent
The dynamic of contemporary US imperialism is built around two structural features: the drive toward global military expansion, conquest and occupation backed by the intensification of exploitation of domestic labor and pillage of the domestic economy.

In this paper, we will challenge the notion that overseas economic exploitation has transferred income to 'buy-off' the domestic working and middle classes, in the course of consolidating imperial hegemony.

We will argue that the empire is no longer based on robust overseas growth but rather the empire today is a costly and declining proposition.

Comment: Trump signs $1.3 TRILLION spending bill - No longer resembles man who was elected president

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Vader

War-loving, Muslim-hating John Bolton feels entitled to give 'pieces' of Palestine to Jordan and Egypt

Philip Weiss
Modoweiss
Fri, 23 Mar 2018 14:52 UTC
bolton
© Tasos Katopodis/Getty ImagesUS Ambassador to United Nations John Bolton speaks at the National Oversight and Government Reform Committee on moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem on Capitol Hill on November 8, 2017 in Washington, DC.
The appointment of John Bolton to be Donald Trump's national security adviser represents the neoconservative restoration, firmly ending the chapter in which Trump claimed to be a non-interventionist. Even Never-Trump neocons are happy today. The intemperate and Islamophobic Bolton is fiercely opposed to the Iran Deal, is militantly opposed to Russian influence in the Middle East, has called for declaring war against Iran and North Korea, and has pronounced the two-state solution dead.

Many today fear that Trump will give us another war. Senator Ed Markey:
John Bolton supports proactively bombing Iran and conducting a first strike on North Korea without provocation. Appointing him to be Nat Sec Advisor is a grave danger to the American people and a clear message from @realDonaldTrump that he is gearing up for military conflict.
Bolton is surely realistic in stating the end of the two-state solution. Though his solution to the Israel Palestine conflict is not. It is for pieces of the West Bank to be deeded to Jordan and Gaza to be deeded to Egypt, on the theory that Palestine is "bits and pieces" of the former Ottoman Empire. Neither Egypt or Jordan has accepted such a proposal; and of course Palestinians have said such an outcome is out of the question.

Comment: Trump's been trumped as his cabinet is re-stocked with lunatic neocons.

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USA

$1.3 trillion spending bill: How Trump delivered... on Obama promises

Haley Britzky
Axios
Sat, 24 Mar 2018 15:02 UTC
Donald Trump
© Cheriss May / NurPhoto via Getty Images
The $1.3 trillion spending deal that President Trump signed on Friday expands many of President Obama's priorities, despite his previous proposals to do the exact opposite, Politico's Michael Grunwald notes.

The big picture: Most of Congress didn't really read it; Trump threatened to veto the bill yesterday, and ended up signing it anyway. He said he would never sign a bill like that again, but it was too late: a White House official told Axios' Mike Allen that Trump's signing led to "the hardest I've ever seen the base turn on Trump over anything."

Comment: Another sign that Trump is not really in charge?

More on the spending bill:

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USA

Trump's conflict between his words and deeds towards Russia

Paul Craig Roberts
Paul Craig Roberts Institute for Political Economy
Sun, 25 Mar 2018 14:46 UTC
trump
© Unknown
President Trump (belatedly) congratulated Russian President Putin on his smashing reelection and said, again, that he favored getting along with Russia. Yet, how can Trump mean it when he follows up by appointing John Bolton, America's most notorious warmonger, National Security Adviser? It makes no sense.

Bolton is the third national security adviser in 14 months. To Bolton, getting along with Russia requires Russia to be a US puppet state such as the UK, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, Japan, and all the rest. In other words, accept Washington's hegemony or we will bomb you into the stone age.

Comment: The only way to make sense of this is to realize that Trump is not really in charge. He may personally want peace with Russia, but the US bureaucratic apparatus (aka the Deep State) are on their way to war. The signs are not looking good, and a number of analysts have been commenting on this recently. For example:

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Newspaper

Russian embassy spokesperson: Reaction at UK's Porton Down proves it develops toxic chemicals


TASS
Sun, 25 Mar 2018 14:51 UTC
The Russian embassy's press secretary reminded that UK's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson hinted the UK had such samples
Russian Embassy
© EPA-EFE/ANDY RAIN
A statement by Chief Executive of the British military laboratory Porton Down Gary Aitkenhead confirms that the facility is engaged in developing toxic chemicals, a spokesperson for the Russian embassy in London said on Saturday.

Earlier, Aitkenhead said, "We would not be allowed to operate if we had lack of control that could result in anything leaving the four walls of our facility here."
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