Puppet MastersS


Nuke

Kay Bailey Hutchison: 'We'd take out Russia's nukes', claiming banned missiles are being developed


RT
Tue, 02 Oct 2018 16:44 UTC
Russian missile
© Russian Defense Ministry/SputnikTest launch of the Russian Burevestnik nuclear cruise missile.
The US would look into ways of "taking out" new Russian missiles if they become operational, the US envoy to NATO said, accusing Moscow of developing a weapon that "violates" the Soviet-US nuclear arms treaty.

US Ambassador to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison didn't miss an opportunity to fire a warning shot in the direction of Russia when accusing it of building new nuclear missiles that would allegedly be pointed at Europe. Should such missiles be completed, she said at the Tuesday briefing, "at that point, we would be looking at the capability to take out a [Russian] missile that could hit any of our countries."

Hutchison then doubled down on the threat, saying: "Counter measures [by the United States] would be to take out the missiles that are in development by Russia in violation of the treaty." She added: "They are on notice."

Hutchison was referring to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), which bans the use of all nuclear and conventional missiles, as well as their launchers, that have ranges of between 500km and 5,500km. The US has claimed that Moscow is not complying with the INF treaty, an accusation that Russia has repeatedly rejected.

Comment: How better to justify weapons sales and NATO participation than claiming infractions on an arms agreement by Russia.

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Nuke

Seoul assessment: North Korean arsenal may contain up to 60 nukes


RT
Tue, 02 Oct 2018 14:36 UTC
NKHwasong-15
© AFPNorth Korea's Hwasong-15 missile
North Korea may have obtained anything from 20 up to 60 nuclear weapons, a top South Korean official has revealed in what appears to be Seoul's first public assessment of its neighbor's stockpile.

The figures were outlined by Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon to the South Korean parliament on Monday, AP said. He was reportedly citing intelligence data in response to a lawmaker's question. South Korea's main spy agency, the National Intelligence Service, has not commented on the statement so far.

Earlier reports claimed that Pyongyang has weaponized enough plutonium for at least eight bombs. At the peak of tensions on the Korean Peninsula, the North boasted of having developed an advanced hydrogen bomb and intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the entire US mainland.

The assessment comes as the two Koreas try to mend their relations in the wake of historic bilateral summits. The latest meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and the South's Moon Jae-in in Pyongyang last September ended with "specific denuclearization steps" and Kim's consent to allow international observers oversee the dismantling of missile sites. Previously, North Korea invited a number of journalists to witness the destruction of its nuclear testing site at Punggye-ri.

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Arrow Up

Russian military death count in Syria reaches 112


RFE/RL
Tue, 02 Oct 2018 03:18 UTC
Colonel General Victor Bondarev
© Sergei Bobylyov/TASSColonel General Victor Bondarev
The Russian military has lost 112 personnel in the Syrian civil war over the past three years, according to a senior lawmaker who heads a defense committee in Russia's parliament.

Nearly half of the total were killed in two incidents: 15 personnel died when a reconnaissance plane was shot down last month and 39 died in a transport plane crash earlier this year, the lawmaker said on September 30, according to Russian news agencies.

"Currently the losses of our armed forces in Syria have amounted to 112 people, almost half of which were claimed by the An-26 [transport plane] catastrophe and the downed Il-20," Viktor Bondarev, the former commander of Russian Aerospace Forces and chairman of the Defense and Security Committee in the Federation Council, was quoted as saying.

Despite the growing death toll, Bondarev claimed it compares favorably with the thousands of Russians killed during its 1980s war in Afghanistan and with the thousands of Americans killed after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Regarding equipment, Russia has lost a total of eight planes, seven helicopters, and one or two armored vehicles, Bondarev was quoted as saying.

Comment: Russia fights a smart war - not willing to sacrifice its military under any circumstance - a prime consideration in handling conflict.

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Eagle

The stupid, rapaciously corrupt and evil US Empire is rapidly losing world respect

Robert Gore
Straight Line Logic
Mon, 24 Sep 2018 00:00 UTC
US flag
What happens when most of your military infrastructure is suddenly obsolete?

The emperor was the last to realize he was naked. This is not unusual, emperors are the last to find out anything. Who has the fortitude to tell them the truth, especially an upsetting truth? And so it is with the US's empire, the existence of which most of its citizens, media organs, and officials are unaware or won't acknowledge. The truth is, the American empire, acknowledged or not, is over. It will be years before that's accepted by the governing class. They'll never officially inform their subjects, who are stuck with the tab for its immensely wasteful spending.

Empires are built on military strength. The American empire was no exception. Many Americans still think the US military enjoys the dominance it had back in 1946, a notion Vladimir Putin buried March 1. On that date he announced new weaponry which will render our naval surface fleet, ground forces, worldwide bases, and antiballistic systems obsolete (see here, here, and here). The US military leadership has grudgingly acknowledged many of Putin's claims.
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Eye 2

War crimes in LNR and DNR - The Unannounced War

GH Eliason
The Saker
Tue, 02 Oct 2018 17:59 UTC
donbass war crimes
On September 28th, Lugansk Peoples Republic (LNR)Deputy Foreign Minister Anna Soroka and Andrey Chernov gave a presentation unveiling a photo album entitled Unanounced war. This collection of 150 images details the war crimes by the Ukrainian government during the war from 2014-2018.

Over the last 4 years, many journalists including myself reported on the war crimes committed by Ukrainian punisher battalions and sometimes the Ukrainian army. These war crimes are privately funded by Ukrainian Diaspora groupsled primarily by US and Canadian citizens.

The Ukrainian punisher battalions and Ukrainian volunteer battalions take pride in the fact there is no need to hide any of Ukraine's crimes from the West's prying eyes.
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Dominoes

The case against Kavanaugh is collapsing

David French
National Review
Mon, 01 Oct 2018 17:52 UTC
kavanaugh
© Jim Bourg/Reuters
There is entirely insufficient evidence to prove even one of the terrible allegations against President Trump's Supreme Court nominee.

A very strange thing happened over the weekend: If you follow Twitter closely, you'll notice that the debate over Brett Kavanaugh moved significantly from the central question of last Thursday's hearing - did he commit sexual assault? - to a raging debate over whether he lied about high-school slang, college drinking, and inside jokes, and whether he was just too "angry" to be a Supreme Court judge.

This torrent of commentary (most of it silly, including competing, furious arguments about how people described anal sex in 1982) obscures an important development: The sexual-assault claims against Kavanaugh are in a state of collapse.
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Chess

Analyst: Iran capable of bringing financial collapse to the West by cutting off access to Strait of Hormuz


PressTV
Tue, 02 Oct 2018 17:41 UTC
Hormuz
The Islamic Republic of Iran is capable of bringing about the financial collapse of the West by blockading and cutting off the world's energy supplies, according to E. Michael Jones, an American scholar and political analyst.

"If there is one country that is capable of blockading and cutting off the world's energy supplies, it is Iran, because Iran can cut off the Strait Hormuz. If Iran does that, it will bring about the financial collapse of the West," Jones told Press TV on Monday.

The analyst also said that the United States and Britain are no longer capable of imposing an economic blockade on Russia or any other powerful country.
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Russian Flag

Putin supports plan to de-dollarize Russian economy


RT
Tue, 02 Oct 2018 16:51 UTC
dollar and ruble
© Alexandr Demyanchuk / Sputnik
Russian President Vladimir Putin supports weaning the country's financial sector off the US dollar, VTB Bank head Andrey Kostin told RIA Novosti. He added the move doesn't mean the complete phasing-out of the American currency.

The idea of de-dollarizing the Russian economy has been actively discussed in the country lately due to the tightening of US sanctions.

In July, Kostin, who is president and chairman of the management board of Russia's second largest bank VTB, submitted a suite of proposals to move away from the greenback and further promote the Russian ruble in international settlements. His plan consists of four major steps.

First, it assumes an accelerated transition to payments in other currencies when carrying out export-import transactions with foreign countries. The alternative currencies include the euro, Chinese yuan and the ruble.
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Bad Guys

Trump spars with 'loco' media over trade, Kavanaugh - comments 'I know you're not thinking, you never do'


RT
Mon, 01 Oct 2018 16:42 UTC
Trump not thinking
© Kevin Lamarque / ReutersUS President Donald Trump
Eager to promote his new trade deal with Canada and Mexico, US President Donald Trump got a little salty when reporters insisted on asking about Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh instead.

During the White House press conference on Monday, Trump insisted on answering questions about the trade deal before addressing the Kavanaugh confirmation controversy. When ABC's Cecilia Vega tried to bring up the judge, this exchange ensued.


"She's shocked that I picked her. It's like in a state of shock," Trump comments.

"I'm not, thank you Mr. President," says Vega, standing up.

"That's OK, I know you're not thinking, you never do," the president retorts.

"I'm sorry?" says Vega.

"No, go ahead. Go ahead," says Trump.
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Stock Down

Erdogan charges the US has lost credibility by engaging in trade war with the world


RT
Mon, 01 Oct 2018 20:16 UTC
erdogan
© Umit Bektas / ReutersTurkish President Tayyip Erdogan
The US has lost its credibility since Donald Trump unleashed a global trade war, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, slamming Washington for sanctioning Turkey and trying to isolate Iran.

"The US has embarked on a false path of solving political problems not through negotiations, but through the language of blackmail and threats," Erdogan told the Turkish parliament on Monday.

He said that Washington has "lost its credibility engaging in a trade war with the world" after Turkey, Russia, China, Iran and other countries were recently hit by American sanctions.

Comment: Turkey is in an interesting position as a NATO member and the host of one of the largest airbases in the NATO system. It will be interesting to see if Erdogan will leverage that fact.

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