Puppet MastersS


Bad Guys

UK to wage 'economic war' with Russia and expel Russian diplomats over Skripal poisoning


Sputnik & RT
Wed, 14 Mar 2018 15:45 UTC
UK flag Big Ben
© AP Photo/ Matt Dunham
A British government minister has revealed the kinds of measures London plans to take in connection with the poisoning of Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal. Prime Minister Theresa may plans to announce measures against Moscow on Wednesday afternoon, despite protests from Moscow that it has received no proof of Russian involvement in the Skripal case.

An anonymous minister has confirmed that London's response to the ex-spy's poisoning will be economic. "What happens will be an economic war, these will be economic measures," the source said, speaking to The Independent. Bragging about the size of the British economy compared to Russia's, the minister promised that the government would "do our bit to make [Russia's economy] smaller if they want to carry on like this."

"The message has to be economic, political and diplomatic," the minister stressed, noting that European countries must "behave within the rule of law and not like gangsters."


Comment: Behaving within the rule of law? Say, doesn't that mean relying on things like evidence rather than propagandist fantasies?

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Snakes in Suits

Snowden: New CIA boss wanted for arrest in Europe for ties to US torture programs

Inessa Sinchougova
Fort Russ News
Wed, 14 Mar 2018 14:38 UTC
Gina Haspel
© Fort Russ News
Former US intelligence officer, Edward Snowden, has stated that the new CIA director, Gina Haspel, will not be able to visit EU countries without the risk of being arrested.

He recalled that in June 2017 the European Center for Constitutional Rights and Human Rights asked the German authorities to issue an arrest warrant for Haspel, for torture of terror suspects. The reason for this was the case of Abu Zubaida, who was tortured 83 times in a secret CIA prison in Thailand.

According to media reports, Haspel led this secret prison in 2002. According to the international non-governmental organization Amnesty International, at least two people were abducted there, by US intelligence services.

According to Snowden, Haspel was a key link in the torture program and its legal cover. "Her name appears in a "top secret" file - where she demanded the destruction of records, so that Congress would not see them." It's incredible, " he wrote.
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Beaker

Spys, Salisbury, Porton Down, Sergi Skripal and Fourteen and a half certainties

John Helmer
Dance with Bears
Wed, 14 Mar 2018 13:33 UTC
Square Peg Round Hole
In cases like the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, the only way to proceed is by identifying the evidence which proves with certainty what happened; or failing that, proves with certainty what did not happen. Perpetrator, co-conspirators, method, motive, intention - all come later, if they come at all.

At the moment, according to police and government releases and the British state media, the crime scene in Salisbury is being combed by at least 250 police officers; with another 180 military personnel specializing in chemical warfare. Dozens more electronic surveillance and cyber-warfare agents are also engaged. The crime scene locations include the Skripal house; the cemetery graves of Skripal's wife and son; the Mill public house where Skripal and his daughter had a drink; the Zizzi restaurant where they ate before collapsing; and the public areas where they walked between house, pub, restaurant, the Maltings shopping precinct, and park bench.

Comment:

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Map

Erdogan: Afrin will soon be 'fully captured' by Turkey


RT
Wed, 14 Mar 2018 11:53 UTC
Turkey tanks army
© Emrah Oprukcu / Global Look Press
The Kurdish Syrian enclave of Afrin "will soon fall completely, God willing," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared in a speech. He added that he hopes it will happen by Wednesday evening.

The statement came as Erdogan addressed local administrators at the presidential compound in Ankara. He also said civilian residents of the area were being evacuated through humanitarian corridors organized by Turkey.

Ankara launched an operation in northwestern Syria two months ago after the US announced that it was planning to boost the predominantly-Kurdish militia force, SDF, with training and weapons. The militias played the role of the ground force for the US-led siege of Raqqa, the now-destroyed stronghold of the terrorist group Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS).

Comment: Syrian and Russian forces have offered their full support to the Kurds. That is, as long as they submit, as the citizens that they are, to the Syrian government. This is a far cry from the way the US used them and left them at the mercy of Turkey. South Front reports that the Kurds have begun handing over checkpoints to the Syrian Army in order to make good on the deal; however it is probably too late:



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Propaganda

Syrian filmmaker caught in a hoax? Or is the MSM just trying to get readers?

Seraphim Hanisch
The Duran
Sat, 10 Mar 2018 00:00 UTC
Recirculated news piece of little importance shows that the Mainstream Media is apparently desperate for some sort of material to spin in political ways
Need more sensationalism
© Unknown
The Washington Post reported on March 8th, 2018 that a filmmaker who emigrated to the United States from Syria had been involved in creating a film that would be on the order of Schindler's List for its portrayal of the terrible war and awful conditions in his homeland. It appeared, one night in Istanbul, that he was about to get a big break to help him make the movie. They were to meet someone, a businessman, who said he wanted to fund this project, called The Tunnel.

But then, as the director reached for the phone offered by the businessman, someone stabbed Bayazid, getting him in the shoulder through the passenger's side window. Mr. Bayazid said that his partner, a cinematographer who was with him, stepped on the gas and they raced to a hospital.

Comment: US establishment which had spent millions of tax dollars in investigating Trump over "Russian Collusion" fiction has no problem in using Hollywood or fake humanitarian organization called White Helmet. See also:

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Newspaper

Lavrov: "I simply don't have any normal terms left to describe all this"


TASS
Wed, 14 Mar 2018 11:21 UTC
The possibility of a new strike was stated in the UN Security Council by United States Permanent Representative Nikki Haley
Syria
© EPA-EFE/Mohammed Badra
The consequences of a new US strike on Syria, the possibility of which was stated in the UN Security Council by United States Permanent Representative Nikki Haley, will be very serious, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday.

"If a new strike of this kind takes place, the consequences will be very serious," Russia's top diplomat stressed.

"Mrs. Haley should understand that it is one thing to irresponsibly exploit the microphone in the UN Security Council and it is another thing when both the Russian and American militaries have communication channels and it is clearly stated via these channels what can be done and what must not be done," Lavrov said.

"The US-led coalition knows well about that," the Russian foreign minister said.
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Bullseye

Best of the Web: UK claims of Russian responsibility for Skripal poisoning discredited - govt-manufacturing propaganda operation against Russia

Nafeez Ahmed
Insurge Intelligence
Wed, 14 Mar 2018 09:34 UTC
salisbury cleanup
© Daniel Leal-Olivas / AFPMilitary personnel investigate the Novichok poisoning in Salisbury
On Monday, Prime Minister Theresa May announced that former Russian spy, Sergey Skripal and his daughter Yulia, were poisoned with "a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia" known as 'Novichok'.

The chemical agent was identified by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down. May referred to the British government's "knowledge that Russia has previously produced this agent and would still be capable of doing so" as a basis to conclude that Russia's culpability in the attack "is highly likely."

On these grounds, she claimed that only two scenarios are possible:
"Either this was a direct act by the Russian State against our country. Or the Russian government lost control of this potentially catastrophically damaging nerve agent and allowed it to get into the hands of others."
The British government's line has been chorused uncritically by the entire global press corps, with little scrutiny of its plausibility.

But there is a problem: far from offering a clear-cut evidence-trail to Vladimir Putin's chemical warfare labs, the use of Novichok in the nerve gas attack on UK soil points to a wider set of potential suspects, of which Russia is in fact the least likely.

Comment: See also:

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Bulb

Chris Steele admits he isn't sure the Trump 'golden showers' tape actually exists


The Daily Caller
Wed, 14 Mar 2018 09:23 UTC
Christopher Steele
© YouTube screen capture/CBS News'Former' British spy Christopher Steele
Christopher Steele is not convinced that the most salacious claim in his infamous dossier is accurate.

Steele's business partner at their private intelligence firm is even less certain, and the founder of Fusion GPS, the firm that commissioned the dossier, also has his doubts.

That's according to a deeply reported section of "Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump," a new book by veteran investigative reporters Michael Isikoff and David Corn.

"Steele's confidence in the sensational sex claim would fade over time," reads the book, which hit shelves Tuesday.

"As for the likelihood of the claim that prostitutes had urinated in Trump's presence, Steele would say to colleagues, 'It's fifty-fifty,'" it continues.

In his first memo for the dossier, dated June 20, 2016, Steele, a former MI6 officer, reported that a source inside Russia had received information that Trump took part in the tryst in 2013 while visiting Russia for the Miss Universe pageant. Steele's source told him that the Russian government has used the video to blackmail Trump.

The allegation is the most prominent allegation made in the so-called "dirty dossier," which was financed by the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee.

Steele's business partner, Christopher Burrows, immediately questioned Steele's report, according to the book.

Comment: This is a perfect case study in how the Russian collusion narrative grew wings and dive-bombed straight into the earholes and mushy minds of millions. A benign anecdote (someone offering Trump some prostitutes, which were turned down) transmogrifies into a tale of debauched orgies, which then gets peddled around as "supporting evidence" for other signs of collusion that are equally incredible. A ton of non-evidence is seen as evidence, but in reality, there was nothing there the whole time.

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Chess

The outcome of Eastern Ghouta as litmus test for the new US policy on Syria

Maxim A. Suchkov
Al-Monitor
Wed, 14 Mar 2018 09:51 UTC
Chief of the General Staff of Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov
© REUTERS/Maxim ShemetovChief of the General Staff of Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov arrives for the opening ceremony of the International Army Games 2017 in Alabino, outside Moscow, Russia, July 29, 2017
Moscow plans to respond to any US strike on Syria and will target any missiles and launchers involved in such an attack, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, the head of the Russian General Staff, warned Tuesday.

"The US seeks to use [any alleged] provocation ... as a pretext to strike government areas in Damascus," Gerasimov told state-operated news agency RIA.

"We have credible information that militants are now preparing to stage the use of chemical weapons on civilians by the Syrian government forces. For this goal, the militants have brought to eastern Ghouta people, including women, children and elders, from other areas. These people have to play victims of this staged chemical attack. The White Helmets with their cameramen are already there for live broadcasts," said Gerasimov.

He added that the Russian military has discovered a lab used for poisonous chemical production in the terrorist-freed town of Aftriss.
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USA

SOTT Focus: The Pentagon & Hollywood's Successful and Deadly Propaganda Alliance

Michael McCaffrey
RT
Wed, 14 Mar 2018 08:40 UTC
US militarism
The Pentagon helps Hollywood to make money and, in turn, Hollywood churns out effective propaganda for the brutal American war machine.

The US has the largest military budget in the world, spending over $611 billion - far larger than any other nation on Earth. The US military also has at their disposal the most successful propaganda apparatus the world has ever known... Hollywood.
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