Puppet MastersS


Attention

Trump Tower-connected Russian prosecutor dies in helicopter crash


RFE/RL
Fri, 05 Oct 2018 08:35 UTC
russia helicopter crash
The scene of the crash on October 3
A top Russian official accused of directing Natalya Veselnitskaya, the lawyer who met with senior officials of U.S. President Donald Trump's election campaign in Trump Tower in 2016, has died in a helicopter crash.

Russian media reported on October 4 that Russian Deputy Attorney General Saak Karapetyan died when his helicopter crashed into a forest during a flight in the Kostroma region, northeast of Moscow, on October 3.

Russian news agency Interfax reported that the wreckage of a helicopter carrying Karapetyan was found near the village of Vonyshevo. The pilot and a third man were also killed in the crash.

Karapetyan's links to Veselnitskaya emerged this year, when a case in Switzerland exposed the pair's operation to recruit a high-level law enforcement official who was supposed to be investigating the Swiss bank accounts of Russian oligarchs and mobsters.

The top investigator was fired for "unauthorized clandestine behavior" and allegations of bribery and breaching secrecy laws. Swiss authorities discovered that the officer -- who was identified only as Victor K. -- had met Karapetyan in Geneva and Zurich.


Comment: Could this have been an attempt to gather information related to Bill Browder and his fraudulent claims that Russian officials stole money using Browder's companies (when in fact it was Browder and his associates who stole the money and blamed it on Russians)? Browder is protected, and any attempts to expose his crimes end badly.

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Better Earth

Syria has reached a 'major understanding' with hostile Arab states - Assad


Sputnik
Thu, 04 Oct 2018 08:28 UTC
assad
© AP Photo / SANA
Most Gulf nations have actively sought to oust President Assad's government over the course of the multi-year conflict, providing opposition Islamist forces with arms and political support.

The Syrian government has reached a "major understanding" with hostile Arab states, President Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday, after receiving delegates from Gulf and Western countries over the past few months.

In an exclusive interview with Kuwait's Al-Shahed newspaper on Wednesday, his first with a Gulf media outlet since 2011, Assad suggested relations with hostile regional powers are gradually improving and could be normalized, as the Syrian Army continues to reclaim territory in the war-torn country.

Comment: The fact that Assad is taking the high road just goes to show that he has been victorious, and the Gulf states have failed. Now that their plot to destroy Assad and Syria has failed, they will simply try to pretend as if nothing happened and to get the best deal possible. And Assad will be fine with that - with some concessions. A normalization of relations is always better than war.

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Chess

Is China lined up to replace Russia as the US' default enemy?


RT
Thu, 04 Oct 2018 01:21 UTC
USA China
© Christian Ohde / Global Look Press
Recent provocations in the South China Sea follow rising tensions between the US and China, but with rivalry expanding into the economic and political spheres, it seems Beijing is now encroaching on Russia's top-villain status.

On Monday, the USS Decatur nearly collided with a Chinese destroyer sent to escort the US vessel operating in the South China Sea.

But naval maneuvers in the disputed waterway are just one element of the high stakes rivalry between Washington and Beijing. On the economic front, the Trump administration has slapped tariffs on $260 billion worth of Chinese goods and is now threatening to target practically all of China's exports to the US.

Comment: See also:

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Snakes in Suits

For once, I'm grateful for Trump

Bret Stephens
Opinion Columnist/The New York Times
Thu, 04 Oct 2018 23:49 UTC
Trump
© Al Drago for The New York TimesPresident Trump on the South Lawn of the White House on Monday.
In the president, one big bully stands up to others.

For the first time since Donald Trump entered the political fray, I find myself grateful that he's in it. I'm reluctant to admit it and astonished to say it, especially since the president mocked Christine Blasey Ford in his ugly and gratuitous way at a rally on Tuesday. Perhaps it's worth unpacking this admission for those who might be equally astonished to read it.

I'm grateful because Trump has not backed down in the face of the slipperiness, hypocrisy and dangerous standard-setting deployed by opponents of Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court. I'm grateful because ferocious and even crass obstinacy has its uses in life, and never more so than in the face of sly moral bullying. I'm grateful because he's a big fat hammer fending off a razor-sharp dagger.
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Snakes in Suits

Senator Grassley releases major statement upon reading FBI report on Kavanaugh

Frank
I Love My Freedom
Thu, 04 Oct 2018 00:00 UTC
Senator Chuck Grassley
© Getty ImagesSenator Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
The Senate Judiciary has received the FBI's report on Judge Brett Kavanaugh and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) is the first to respond, giving a very short statement on what he read.


Grassley didn't hold back. He made a three-word statement after reading the FBI's investigation into Judge Brett Kavanaugh and accusations that he participated in sexual misconduct after facing accusations from Christine Blasey Ford. Grassley kept it short and sweet, stating that there is "absolutely no corroboration" in regards to Ford's accusations against Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
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Light Saber

Putin heads to New Dehli to sign new $5 billion S-400 deal and meet PM Modi


RT
Thu, 04 Oct 2018 12:29 UTC
Vladimir Putin and Narendra Modi
© SputnikFILE PHOTO Vladimir Putin and Narendra Modi
Vladimir Putin heads to India for a two-day visit, during which he will meet PM Narendra Modi. All eyes will be on the $5-billion deal to purchase S-400s from Russia, which Delhi approved in defiance of a US threat of sanctions.

The Russian leader is due to arrive in India on Thursday. There won't be time for chit-chat, however, as Putin and Modi are set to discuss cooperation in the area of defense, according to the Kremlin. The leaders are due to sign over 20 documents.

Ambitious S-400 contract with Russia

Military cooperation between Russia and India has been heightened after New Delhi resisted pressure from the US and decided to purchase the S-400 Triumf complexes from Russia. The $5-billion deal to purchase the most sophisticated Russian aerial-defense system available on the market will be signed during Putin's visit to India, according to Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov.

Comment: See also:

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Bug

Concerned scientists sound alarm: US military plan to spread viruses using insects could create 'new class of biological weapon'

Josh Gabbatiss
The Independent
Thu, 04 Oct 2018 22:13 UTC
insect swarm
Agency says it is trying to genetically modify crops, but experts think this goal is 'simply not plausible'

Insects could be turned into "a new class of biological weapon" using new US military plans, experts have warned.

Bugs could be used to disperse genetically modified (GM) viruses to crops under the Insect Allies programme, according to a team that includes specialist scientists and lawyers.

Such action will have profound consequences and could pose a major threat to global biosecurity, they said.

However, the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), which is responsible for developing military technologies in the US, says it is merely trying to alter crops growing in fields by using viruses to transmit genetic changes to plants.
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Oscar

Method for dealing with Hollywood? Chinese movie star Fan Bingbing agrees (in principle) to clean up her act

Steve Rose
The Guardian
Thu, 04 Oct 2018 20:51 UTC
Three months ago, one of the country's best known actors went missing. Now, seemingly chastened, she has reappeared with a bill for £112m in unpaid taxes and fines
fan bingbing
© VCG/VCG via Getty Images
Imagine if Jennifer Lawrence or Scarlett Johansson went missing and nobody knew where they had gone - even three months later. That is what happened to Fan Bingbing.


Comment: They'd probably have fled to Canada. Hang on a minute; didn't they say they would do that if Trump got elected?


Fan is one of China's best known and highest-paid actors, thanks to a string of domestic hits such as Cell Phone and Double Xposure, and small roles in Iron Man 3 and X-Men: Days of Future Past. The 37-year-old was on the jury of the Cannes film festival last year, and is set to star in a new thriller opposite Jessica Chastain and Penelope Cruz.

On 2 July this year she posted details of a visit to a children's hospital in Tibet on Weibo (China's answer to Twitter). Then her account went dead, leaving her 63 million followers, and pretty much the rest of China, wondering where she had gone. Had Fan been abducted? Arrested? Was she just taking a career break? The questions piled up, then tipped over into conspiracy theory. There were baseless rumours she and husband Li Chen gambled away $12m (£9.2m) in three days in Las Vegas. That she was being held in a military prison in Beijing after having an affair with Chinese vice-president Wang Qishan. "Someone is trying to use Fan Bingbing to get to Wang Qishan," exiled businessman Guo Wengui told reporters. Fan strenuously denied the affair and was suing Guo at the time of her disappearance. Jackie Chan, who had starred with Fan in his 2016 movie Skiptrace, denied all knowledge of Fan's whereabouts.

Comment: More likely, it's that any amoral, pathological 'values' that rise to a level of social, economic or political power are seen as a threat to the stability of China. Be it in the education system, via the internet, the entertainment system, big business and, of course, politically.

China's actions are generally seen 'through a glass darkly' because it is in the opposite position the West finds itself in; fending off 'the craziness' lest it too become riddled with pathological influences and driven off a cliff.

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War Whore

SOTT Focus: Russiagate Hysteria is Fostering More Cold War Extremism And Crises

Stephen F. Cohen
The Nation
Wed, 03 Oct 2018 20:54 UTC
Overshadowed by the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings, US-Russian relations grow ever more perilous
russia hysteria usa
Russiagate, even though none of its core allegations have been proven, is now a central part of the new Cold War, severely limiting President Trump's ability to conduct crisis-negotiations with Moscow and further vilifying Russian President Putin for having ordered "an attack on America" during the 2016 presidential election. The New York Times and The Washington Post have been leading promoters of the Russiagate narrative even though several of its foundational elements have been seriously challenged, even discredited.

Nonetheless, both papers recently devoted thousands of words to retelling the same narrative, on September 20 and 23 respectively, along with its obvious fallacies. For example, Paul Manafort, during the crucial time he was advising then Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, was not "pro-Russian" but pro-European Union. And contrary to insinuations, General Michael Flynn did nothing wrong or unprecedented in having conversations with a representative of the Kremlin on behalf of President-elect Trump. Many other presidents-elect had instructed top aides to do the same. The epic retellings of the Russiagate narrative by both papers, at extraordinary length, were riddled with similar mistakes and unproven allegations. (Nonetheless, a prominent historian, albeit one seemingly little informed both about Russiagate documents and about Kremlin leadership, characterized the widely discredited anti-Trump Steele dossier - the source of many such allegations - as "increasingly plausible.")
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Eye 2

SOTT Focus: The Military-Industrial-Humanitarian Complex: Spreading Western Hegemony Under The Guise of Virtue

Tomasz Pierscionek
RT
Thu, 04 Oct 2018 19:43 UTC
humanitarian bombs
Shakespeare once wrote that the devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. Nowadays, we see the terms 'humanitarian' and 'democracy' abused to justify death and destruction.

Traditionally honorable words such as 'humanitarian' and 'democracy' have come to acquire a darker and more cynical meaning following their misappropriation to justify the invasion of sovereign nations and to promote the spread of Western military and cultural dominance across the globe. The mainstream media, alongside some human rights activists, assist these ventures by helping disseminate mistruths and by tapping into the emotions of fear, anger and revulsion to soften public opinion and make aggression against a sovereign state appear justified.

Running parallel to politicians' lies that Saddam Hussein possessed WMD deployable within 45 minutes, a strategy was deployed to shock and awe the public into accepting the invasion through attention-grabbing headlines crafted to abhor readers with 'evidence' of Saddam's butchery and to generate strong emotional reactions which would cause people to think with their hearts rather than their heads. One such story written by Labour MP Ann Clwyd, and published in The Times just two days before the US-led Coalition of the Willing began destroying Iraq, asserted that Saddam possessed a 'human-shredding machine' into which adversaries were fed feet first and turned into fish food. The article titled "See men shredded, then say you don't back war" had the double effect of causing a reader to feel revulsion and of making the anti-war lobby appear callous and indifferent to the plight of the Iraqi people. The existence of a human shredder was later challenged and such a machine is yet to be found.
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