Puppet MastersS


Bomb

Gee thanks! 'We bombed you to save you' says Stoltenberg on NATO's 1999 bombings in Serbia


RT
Sun, 07 Oct 2018 21:58 UTC
Pristina Yugoslavia
© Reuters/KJN
Although many people in Serbia hold "painful" memories of NATO's 1999 bombing of their country, it was, in fact, done precisely to protect them from their own government, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in Belgrade.

He was answering questions about the bombing and about the NATO campaign against the government of the former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, during a meeting with the students of Belgrade University.

"I stressed that we did this to protect civilians and to stop the Milosevic regime," Stoltenberg said, as quoted by the local media, claiming locals have poor memories of the events.


Comment: When did bombing civilians save anyone? Is this a standard protocol in the NATO playbook?

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X

Era of bank secrecy is over as Swiss begin sharing account data

Michael Shields
Reuters
Fri, 05 Oct 2018 06:03 UTC
Swiss NatlBank
© Florida Review Magazine
The era of mystery-cloaked numbered Swiss bank accounts has officially come to a close as Switzerland, the world's biggest center for managing offshore wealth, began automatically sharing client data with tax authorities in dozens of other countries.

The Federal Tax Administration (FTA) said on Friday it had for the first time exchanged financial account data at the end of September under global standards that aim to crack down on tax cheats.

Bank secrecy still exists in some areas - Swiss authorities cannot automatically see what citizens have in their domestic bank accounts, for example - but gone are the days when well-paid European professionals could stash wealth across the border and beyond the prying eyes of their tax man.

The initial exchange was supposed to be with European Union countries plus nine other jurisdictions: Australia, Canada, Guernsey, Iceland, Isle of Man, Japan, Jersey, Norway and South Korea. "Cyprus and Romania are currently excluded as they do not yet meet the international requirements on confidentiality and data security," the FTA said.
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No Entry

Idlib province: Russia and Turkey have determined borders of demilitarized zone


Sputnik
Mon, 08 Oct 2018 11:11 UTC
Idlib Province
© Sputnik/Iliya PitalevIdlib Province
Russia and Turkey have determined the borders of the demilitarized zone in Syria's Idlib, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin told Sputnik in an interview.

According to the diplomat, "The borders of the demilitarized zone have been already determined, [and] very good contacts, cooperation, ties have been established between the military of Turkey and Russia. They have already met more than once after signing the document," the deputy minister noted.

On September 17, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan met in the Russian resort city of Sochi and signed an agreement on setting up a 9-12 mile demilitarized zone in Idlib along the contact line of the armed opposition and the government forces by October 15.

The agreement was aimed at prevention of the possible offensive of the Syrian government's troops in the province of Idlib, which remains the last stronghold of insurgency.

Comment: The plan is to effect a smooth and safe transition. Will it work?
More from Sputnik:
The Syrian armed opposition has completed the withdrawal of heavy weaponry from the contact line in Syria's Idlib, Turkish media reported on Monday.

According to the Anadolu news agency, the withdrawal of weaponry has been carried out within the framework of the Russian-Turkish agreement on Idlib.


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Info

Brazil's right-wing Bolsonaro narrowly misses first round win in presidential election


RT
Mon, 08 Oct 2018 16:25 UTC
Brazilian elections
© Nacho Doce / Reuters
Brazilian right-wing candidate Jair Bolsonaro will head to the second round of the country's election, facing leftist candidate Fernando Haddad on October 28, after narrowly failing to secure fifty percent of first round votes.

At the conclusion of Sunday's election, Bolsonaro had gained 46.7 percent of the vote, with over 49 million Brazilians casting their ballots in his favor. The congressman now heads toward a second-round runoff against Haddad, the former Mayor of São Paulo, who gained 28.37 percent of the popular support, with over 30 million votes.

The 63-year-old conservative candidate, who had advocated a brutal crackdown on crime and graft ahead of the election, came ahead of his Workers Party rival, whose former leader President Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva was barred from running due to his 12-year jail sentence on corruption charges.

Comment: See also:

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Eye 1

'No plans' to fire Deputy AG Rosenstein - Trump says 'they have a very good relationship'


RT
Mon, 08 Oct 2018 15:38 UTC
Donald Trump and Rod Rosenstein.
© Saul Loeb and Brendan Smialowski / AFPDonald Trump and Rod Rosenstein.
President Trump told reporters that he has no plans to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, as the pair boarded Air Force One en route to Florida.

Trump said that he would be "talking on the plane" with Rosenstein, but added that the two "actually have a very good relationship," and "get along very well." When asked whether he had any plans of firing Rosenstein, Trump replied "No I don't, no."

Trump's comments came as himself and Rosenstein departed for the International Association of Chiefs of Police annual conference in Orlando, Florida, on Monday.

Before the flurry of activity around the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh dominated headlines, Trump was due to meet with Rosenstein two weeks ago, following a New York Times report that Rosenstein had suggested wearing a wire to gather evidence against Trump and remove him from office for being unfit.
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Biohazard

CCTV released by Met does NOT show Petrov and Boshirov "in the vicinity" of Skripal's house

Rob Slane
The Blogmire
Sun, 07 Oct 2018 08:35 UTC
petrov boshirov
The images and timeline released by the Metropolitan Police on September 5th, when they formally accused two men of the attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal, contain a number of problems and oddities. These include:
  • The fact that very few of the images have the original timestamps on them, but rather have the Metropolitan Police's own timings.
  • The fact that there is an unaccounted for, yet vital, 42 minutes between the image of the men at the entrance to Summerlock Approach (said to be 13:08), and the image of the men at the train station (said to be at 13:50:56). Why is this vital? Because it not only takes just 5 minutes, rather than 42 to get from the one location to the other, but also because it potentially places the men within a few minutes walk of Sergei and Yulia Skripal within that 42 minute timeframe.
  • The fact that only stills were released, rather than actual footage (public appeals for witnesses involving CCTV usually show actual footage - why not in this case?).
But there is one crucial image which I would like to focus your attention on: CCTV Image 5 (at the top of this piece). This is one of the few pictures that is properly timestamped (11:58:48), although I have to say I'm highly sceptical that the two men could have got to that location by that time, given that The Met says they were at the station at 11:48:20. It takes over 12 minutes at a quick walk, and so unless they ran some of the way (and neither picture gives the impression that they are in a particular hurry), I think it highly likely that one or other of these times is incorrect.

The reason this image is particularly crucial is that it is the only image shown to the public, which can be said to connect the men (albeit extremely tenuously) to the claim made against them by the Met. None of the other images do this at all.
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Pirates

Is Erdogan in the process of backstabbing Putin with NATO's Takfiris in Idlib?

Ronald Thomas West
Fort Russ
Fri, 05 Oct 2018 11:03 UTC
ISIS Turkey
© REUTERS/ Stringer


Please allow me to introduce myself
I'm a man of wealth and taste
I've been around for a long, long year
Stole many a man's soul to waste... - Richards/Jagger

Beelzebub, than whom, Satan excepted, none higher sat - Milton
It wasn't at all long ago*

✓ Turkey's intelligence chief, Hakan Fidan, named as member of terror group linked to al-Qaeda and ISIS.
✓ Turkish intelligence directly supplied military aid to ISIS for years.
✓ Turkish government siphoned military supplies to ISIS through humanitarian relief agency.
✓ ISIS fighters, including al-Baghadi's deputy, received free medical treatment in Turkey and "protection" from Turkish police.
✓ Head of ISIS in Turkey received "24/7 protection" under the personal order of President Erdogan.
✓ Turkish police investigations into ISIS are being systematically quashed.
✓ ISIS oil is sold with complicity of authorities in Turkey and Kurdish region of northern Iraq.
✓ NATO affirms Turkey's role as ally in war on ISIS.

Comment: Time will tell of course, but considering Erdogan's infamous habit of playing for any and/or all sides as it suits him, it is certainly a plausible hypothesis.

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Handcuffs

Interpol director Meng Hongwei resigns after Beijing confirms he's under investigation for corruption


RT
Mon, 08 Oct 2018 11:11 UTC
INTERPOL President Meng Hongwei
© ReutersINTERPOL President Meng Hongwei
Interpol director Meng Hongwei, who has been missing since late September and has now resigned, is under investigation by China's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, Beijing has confirmed.

France said late on Sunday that it had received Meng's resignation as president of Interpol, with immediate effect.

South Korean official Kim Jong Yang has been assigned as Interpol's acting president until the appointment of a new head to the international police body, at a summit in Dubai on November 18-21.

Comment: They sure don't mess around in China. If you're wanted for corruption, it doesn't matter who you are.

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Eye 1

Moscow asks UK to clarify media reports of 'upcoming' cyber-war against Russia


RT
Mon, 08 Oct 2018 11:11 UTC
computer hacker digital code
© Michael Weber / Global Look Press
The UK military is war-gaming a cyber-strike on Russia, in a scenario where Libya's oil reserves are seized and a refugee crisis ensues, British media said. It wasn't a tabloid report, so Russia's Embassy asked for clarification.

The Sunday Times cited anonymous senior security sources, who said that London was concerned by the capability gap between the British and Russian militaries. The lack of conventional weapons makes a nuclear strike just about the only possible response by London to a Russian aggression, the report said.

"This is why cyber is so important; you can go on the offensive and turn off the lights in Moscow to tell them that they are not doing the right things," a source told the paper.
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Light Sabers

"King, we're protecting you": Saudi Arabia tells Trump no more oil

Ellen R. Wald
Forbes
Mon, 08 Oct 2018 08:14 UTC
trump mbs
© Reuters/ Jonathan ErnstUS President Donald Trump wants to get out of Syria 'very soon' but Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is anxious for US troops to remain. The two leaders met at the White House in Washington on March 20, 2018.
Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman responded publicly to President Donald Trump's recent spate of Tweets and statements concerning oil. While the President has been asking for Saudi Arabia to increase oil production to flood the market and keep prices down, the prince said no. This is a risk for Saudi Arabia, because Saudi Arabia has always depended a great deal on the United States --even its currency is pegged directly to the U.S. dollar--and the Trump administration has shown that it will take a hard stance on economic issues even with its closest allies.

This week, oil prices reached highs not seen in four years. The international benchmark, Brent, hit $86 per barrel and the U.S. benchmark, WTI jumped to over $76 per barrel. U.S. President Donald Trump has been unrelenting in his public and private pressure on OPEC and Saudi Arabia to produce more oil and lower prices. After all, from his perspective, the increase in prices is a result of his new sanctions against Iran - which Saudi Arabia fully supports - and therefore, Saudi Arabia should deploy its spare capacity to ensure that American consumers don't face undue pain at the pump.

Comment: Are the Saudis trying to remind Trump that he needs them just as much as they need the US? (talk about a deal with the devil) If so, Trump only has himself to blame with his bizarre attempts to sanction the planet:

See also:

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