Puppet MastersS


Biohazard

Inside Porton Down, the shady UK chemical weapons lab that developed VX, used innocent civilians as guinea pigs

Anna Verdon
UK Mirror
Thu, 15 Mar 2018 10:39 UTC
Porton Down
© Getty Images Europe
It is one of Britain's most secretive sites, remaining shrouded in mystery for more than 100 years.

But this week Porton Down found itself at the centre of one of the biggest diplomatic crises the UK has faced in recent years.

The top secret defence base in Wiltshire was instrumental in helping identify the nerve agent used to poison a former Russian spy in Salisbury.

Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with a weapons grade nerve agent in the city last week, leaving them fighting for their lives in hospital.

And, not only have scientists from the specialist laboratory been at the centre of a clean-up operation following the attack, but its helped identify Russia as the source of the poison.

Comment: There's likely much more to Porton Down's involvement in the Skripal poisoning and propaganda narrative than the two points mentioned in the article above. See also:

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Bad Guys

May to "consider next steps" after Moscow announces expulsion of British diplomats


RT
Sat, 17 Mar 2018 20:00 UTC
A British flag flies near the United Kingdom's embassy in Moscow.
© David Mdzinarishvili / ReutersA British flag flies near the United Kingdom's embassy in Moscow.
The UK will consider its next steps in response to Russia's expulsion of 23 diplomats, British Prime Minister Theresa May has announced. It comes amid London's allegations that Russia was behind the poisoning of Sergei Skripal.

"In light of their (Russia's) previous behaviour, we anticipated a response of this kind and we will consider our next steps in the coming days, alongside our allies and partners," May said while speaking at the Conservative Spring Forum in London on Saturday. "But Russia's response doesn't change the facts of the matter - the attempted assassination of two people on British soil, for which there is no alternative conclusion other than that the Russian State was culpable."


Comment: MI5 Poisons Another Russian Asset to Smear Putin in Ongoing Propaganda War


She went on to state that "it is Russia that is in flagrant breach of international law and the Chemical Weapons Convention." She also reiterated her desire to "dismantle" the so-called Russian spy network operating out of the UK, and to suspend all planned contact between London and Moscow. "We will never tolerate a threat to the life of British citizens and others on British soil from the Russian Government," she said.

Comment: See Also:

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Attention

Russian Central Election Commission comes under cyberattack soon after voting began


RT
Sun, 18 Mar 2018 09:25 UTC
The Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation
© Kirill Kallinikov / SputnikThe Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation
There is an ongoing cyberattack on Russia's Central Election Commission, targeting its information center, the body's secretary has said. The commission's website earlier came under a DDoS attack from 15 countries.

"We are registering what is in fact a cyberattack on our information center," the commission's secretary, Maya Grishina, said.

The commission's website was also attacked soon after voting began. A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack peaked between 2am and 5am on Sunday, chairperson Ella Pamfilova said.

Comment: See Also:

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TV

Russian TV analyzes the Putin/Kelly interview: How the bear owned the blonde

Michael Bateman
Russia Insider
Thu, 15 Mar 2018 10:17 UTC
megyn kelly
What a difference an editor makes. NBC chopped and snipped away at Kelly's Putin interview, publishing all of 20 minutes of the 1.5 hour interview, rendering it almost unrecognizable.

Witness the power of alternative media - it can beat the giants. Russia Insight YouTube channel put the full, unedited 1.5 hours on their channel, and it got twice as many views (300k) as the 20 minutes that NBC put up. (170k)

Here is a Russian TV report on the interview, which shows again and again how Putin clearly dominated the conversation, ridiculing Kelly's RussiaGate delusions.


Full transcript follows below:

Comment: See also: Putin vs Megyn Kelly round 2: Full text of NBC's extensive interview (with VIDEO)

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Better Earth

Polish president compares EU membership to occupation: Foreign control, no sovereignty

Tariq Tahir
Daily Mail, UK
Wed, 14 Mar 2018 09:57 UTC
Andrzej Duda
© AP
Polish President Andrzej Duda has likened Poland's membership of the European Union to the successive occupations of the country by Russia, Austria and Prussia.

His nation which joined the EU in 2004, is the top beneficiary of funds from Brussels, netting some €10 billion a year (£8.8 billion).

But today the president said as during the years of occupation between 1795 and 1918, 'in faraway capitals, they make decisions for us - and in reality we are working on behalf of others.'

Duda was speaking at an event in southwestern Poland marking 100 years since the country's sovereignty was restored following World War I.

'We have today a sovereign and independent Poland where I believe we will live better and better. Talk about it to your children.'

To people who say the European Union is more important than Poland, Duda said 'everyone should remember the 123 years of partitions' when the country answered to occupying powers.

Comment: Duda is right about being occupied. And it's not just Poland. The only truly sovereign countries - or at least those attempting to be sovereign - are the ones currently demonized by the occupying powers. Hungary, Poland, North Korea, Iran, China, and most significantly, Russia. The problem is, without a big stick, most nations don't have a choice. It's a matter of "obey or be destroyed". You need allies in such a case, lest you suffer the fate of Libya.

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Newspaper

US officials: Saudi crown prince has hidden his mother from his father, the king

Carol E. Lee and Courtney Kube
NBC News
Thu, 15 Mar 2018 00:00 UTC
rump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
© Nicholas Kamm / AFP - Getty Images file
When Saudi Arabia's crown prince visits the White House next week, he's expected to be welcomed as a reformer who's expanded women's rights in one of the most restrictive countries in the world, allowing them to drive and attend sports events.

Yet there is one Saudi woman whom U.S. officials say has not benefited from the prince's rise: his own mother. Fourteen current and former senior U.S. officials told NBC News that intelligence shows Prince Mohammed bin Salman - often referred to by his initials MBS - blocked his mother from seeing his father, King Salman, more than two years ago and has kept her away from him as the young prince rapidly amassed power.

Prince Mohammed, a key ally of the Trump White House, has concocted various explanations of his mother's whereabouts over the years, such as that she's out of the country receiving medical treatment, so King Salman would not know his son has been behind her continued absence, the current and former officials said.
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Black Cat

The real 'Russia collusion' story - a chronicle

Michael Doran
National Review
Tue, 13 Mar 2018 18:08 UTC
U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton
© Brian Snyder / Reuters
In a textbook example of denial and projection, Trump foes in and out of government wove a sinister yarn meant to take him down.

Barack Obama keeps a close watch on his emotions. "I loved Spock," he wrote in February 2015 in a presidential statement eulogizing Leonard Nimoy. Growing up in Hawaii, the young man who would later be called "No-Drama Obama" felt a special affinity for the Vulcan first officer of the U.S.S. Enterprise. "Long before being nerdy was cool, there was Leonard Nimoy," the eulogy continued. "Leonard was Spock. Cool, logical, big-eared and level-headed."

It is the rare occasion when Obama lets his Spock mask slip. But November 2, 2016, was just such a moment. Six days before the presidential election, when addressing the Congressional Black Caucus, he stressed that the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, threatened hard-won achievements of blacks: tolerance, justice, good schools, ending mass incarceration - even democracy itself. "There is one candidate who will advance those things," he said, his voice swelling with emotion. "And there's another candidate whose defining principle, the central theme of his candidacy, is opposition to all that we've done."
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Eye 2

Washington dusts off the "just following orders" torture defense for CIA director-designate "Bloody Gina" Haspel

Jon Schwarz
The Intercept
Thu, 15 Mar 2018 20:51 UTC
gina haspel cia
"Bloody Gina"
During the Nuremberg Trials after World War II, several Nazis, including top German generals Alfred Jodl and Wilhelm Keitel, claimed they were not guilty of the tribunal's charges because they had been acting at the directive of their superiors.

Ever since, this justification has been popularly known as the "Nuremberg defense," in which the accused states they were "only following orders."

The Nuremberg judges rejected the Nuremberg defense, and both Jodl and Keitel were hanged. The United Nations International Law Commission later codified the underlying principle from Nuremberg as "the fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him."

This is likely the most famous declaration in the history of international law and is as settled as anything possibly can be.

Comment: No clearer indication that the Deep State has co-opted Trump than paving the way to bring back the worst excesses of the Bush years.

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Target

New sanctions and accusations as US 'gets tougher' on Russia

Josh Lederman, Matthew Lee
AP
Fri, 16 Mar 2018 00:00 UTC
Russiasanctionsball
© KatehonThe Political Wrecking Ball
In its toughest challenge to Russia to date, the Trump administration accused Moscow on Thursday of an elaborate plot to penetrate America's electric grid, factories, water supply and even air travel through cyber hacking. The U.S. also hit targeted Russians with sanctions for alleged election meddling for the first time since President Donald Trump took office.

The list of Russians being punished includes all 13 indicted last month by special counsel Robert Mueller, a tacit acknowledgement by the administration that at least some of Mueller's Russia-related probe has merit.

Trump has repeatedly sought to discredit Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the presidential election, but the sanctions appeared to rely on the special counsel's legal conclusions in deciding who should be named. The sanctions freeze any assets the individuals may have in U.S. jurisdictions and bar Americans from doing business with them.

The named Russians - 19 in all - are unlikely to have any assets in the United States that would be covered, making the move largely symbolic. But it could help inoculate the president from persistent claims he's afraid or unwilling to stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin or to fight back against efforts to undermine America's democracy and domestic affairs.
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Arrow Down

Washington wrecks cybersecurity talks with Russia

Arkady Savitsky
Strategic Culture Foundation
Sat, 17 Mar 2018 00:00 UTC
Cybersecurity
© linkedin.com/KJN
Cybersecurity (CS) is the latest frontier in warfare. Much has been said about the need to work out certain rules to prevent an "unfettered arms race" and "combat operations" in this domain. Last year, Russia and the US agreed to discuss these issues and form a working group. The need for a joint approach to the problem during a telephone exchange between the two presidents. US pundits have discussed it in depth.

Many hopes were pinned on these Russia-US cyber talks. If they could get off the ground, they would be viewed as a light at the end of the tunnel. Negotiations over strategies in regard to this "fifth domain" might expand to also include land, air, sea, and space. It took a lot of effort to reach an agreement to hold a dialog on February 27-28 in Geneva. Experts had been impatiently waiting for the two powers to address this burning issue.

The whole world heard National Security Advisor H. R. McMaster claiming at the Munich Security Conference in February that the US was ready for such talks. Russia had initiated the efforts to reach an agreement aimed at restricting military operations in cyberspace. The 17-member Russian delegation arrived in Switzerland ready to roll up their sleeves, buckle down, and work hard to tackle the issue and get something accomplished, but Washington torpedoed the consultations. It informed Moscow that its delegation was not coming. It was a last-minute pull out.

Comment: Something to hide? A country to snub? Forgot to put fuel in the plane? At least there would be information to glean from such a meeting had the US shown the courtesy of attendance.

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