Puppet MastersS


Question

Sarcasm or revelation? Duterte seemingly admits to authorizing extrajudicial killings in war on drugs


RT
Fri, 28 Sep 2018 14:29 UTC
protests against duterte
© Ammar Awad / Reuters
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has seemingly admitted to authorizing extrajudicial killings as part of his war on drugs. The indirect concession was made as Duterte fended off criticism of his leadership.

"I told the military, what is my fault? Did I steal even one peso? My only sin is the extrajudicial killings," he stated during a speech at the presidential palace on Thursday.

Previously, Duterte claimed that the thousands of extrajudicial killings carried out alongside the administration's war on illegal drugs were not state sanctioned, and blamed ninja cops involved in drug operations as potentially responsible.

Duterte did not elaborate on his statement but the unexpected revelation could bolster the ongoing preliminary investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) into the deaths. The preliminary examination will determine if a full-blown investigation should follow. Former Solicitor General Florin Hilbay called on the ICC to take note of Duterte's latest remarks.

Comment: Duterte defiantly withdraws Philippines from ICC as international tribunal probes his 'war on drugs'

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Russian Flag

How dare they! Russia depriving US of excuses to keep occupying southern Syrian desert


Russia Insider
Fri, 28 Sep 2018 10:00 UTC
US occupation Syria
Russia has successfully negotiated the withdrawal of one of only two last remaining US-sponsored rebel groups in al-Tanf and is now in talks to relocate the 60,000 refugees in the nearby Rukban refugee camp -- to their pre-war homes, now largely held by the Syrian government. This is bigger news than you would think. Aside from the refugee camp and the scores (or at most a hundred or two) remaining Syrian "rebels" (since they're salaried by a foreign power "mercenaries" might be more appropriate) the 55km area around the US base at al-Tanf is completely unpopulated. Should the US occupation zone in the south lose the last of its actual Syrians, the US will have no excuse left to keep occupying the place -- albeit which isn't a guarantee of a withdrawal either.

Comment: Unsurprisingly, the masters of chaos won't be leaving soon....Bolton moves the goalposts: US to remain in Syria 'as long as Iranians are there'

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Bad Guys

Pompeo returns to fiery rhetoric against North Korea, says sanctions must 'continue vigorously'


RT
Thu, 27 Sep 2018 20:01 UTC
Pompeo UN
© Brendan McDermid / ReutersUS Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks to the UN Security Council on September 27, 2018.
Stern US rhetoric has again been heard at the UN General Assembly, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warning that North Korean sanctions must "continue vigorously," while threatening Pyongyang with "isolation" if it misbehaves.

Speaking at the United Nations Security Council on Thursday, Pompeo said that if Pyongyang strays from the path of diplomacy and denuclearization, it will "inevitably lead to ever-increasing isolation and pressure."

He went on to stress that the enforcement of sanctions against North Korea "must continue vigorously and without fail until we realize the fully, final, verified denuclearization."
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Display

GOP senators' personal data flashed on Wikipedia, House inside job suspected


RT
Fri, 28 Sep 2018 13:24 UTC
Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, Orrin Hatch, Charles Grassley
© Win McNamee / ReutersSenate Judiciary Committee members (L-R) Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA)
The home addresses of Republican Senators Lindsey Graham, Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee, all sitting on the Judiciary Committee, briefly appeared on Wikipedia. The edits were allegedly made from Capitol Hill.

The pages of the three Republican Senators were edited as they were attending a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing to listen to testimony from SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her in the 1980s.

The edits, which were promptly removed by Wikipedia, contained the lawmakers' apparent home and DC addresses, home and cell phone numbers and personal email addresses. The changes have been tracked to two IPs, 143.231.249.130 and 143.231.249.136. Both are associated with the US House of Representatives according to the free IP address database.
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Megaphone

Afghans protest 'achievements' of government after airstrikes kill 24 people in 5 days


RT
Fri, 28 Sep 2018 12:47 UTC
Afghan child with gun
© Omar Sobhani / Reuters
FILE PHOTO
As the Taliban continues to gain ground in Afghanistan, the US and local forces have stepped up their bombing campaign, causing a spike in civilian casualties. Fed up with the carnage, Afghans hit the streets to protest.

Angry crowds took to the streets of the Afghan city of Kunduz on Wednesday, protesting airstrikes by the government and the US-led military coalition. People carried bodies of civilians killed in a recent aerial attack.
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Propaganda

Bellingcat claims Boshirov was really Anatoly Chepiga - but Chepiga's commander says otherwise


Sputnik
Fri, 28 Sep 2018 11:14 UTC
Ruslan Boshirov
© REUTERS / Metroplitan Police
Alexander Borzhko, the former commander of Anatoly Chepiga, a cadet of the Far East Marshal K. Rokossovsky Military Command Academy, called Friday media reports alleging that the cadet was Ruslan Boshirov were "schizophrenia."

"In 2001, I graduated a cadet whose surname was Chepiga. Personally, I am a serviceman and can tell you that media reports of his alleged involvement in the Skripal case look like mild schizophrenia. The Far East Marshal K. Rokossovsky Military Command Academy trained military officers for combat duties, Chepiga did fight in Chechnya, but he was not trained for intelligence missions," Borzhko, who is also the regional head of the Volunteer Society for Cooperation with the Army, Aviation, and Navy, stated.

The comment referred to the Wednesday's publication by UK-based investigative blogger group Bellingcat, in cooperation with the Insider Russia website, claiming that Boshirov, a suspect in the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, was "in fact" a military intelligence colonel called Anatoly Chepiga. The outlet also alleged that the division in which Chepiga served played an important role in the Second Chechen War. According to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, the news about the alleged identity of Ruslan Boshirov is nothing but fake news aimed at diverting public attention from what happened in Salisbury.

Comment: Craig Murray weighed in on Bellingcat's latest joke of a 'bombshell':
The evidence mounts that Russia is not telling the truth about "Boshirov" and "Petrov". If those were real identities, they would have been substantiated in depth by now. As we know of Yulia Skripal's boyfriend, cat, cousin and grandmother, real depth on the lives and milieu of "Boshirov" and "Petrov" would be got out. It is plainly in the interests of Russia's state and its oligarchy to establish that they truly exist, and concern for the privacy of individuals would be outweighed by that. The rights of the individual are not prioritised over the state interest in Russia.

But equally the identification of "Boshirov" with "Colonel Chepiga" is a nonsense.

The problem is with Bellingcat's methodology. They did not start with any prior intelligence that "Chepiga" is "Boshirov". They rather allegedly searched databases of GRU operatives of about the right age, then trawled photos in yearbooks of them until they found one that looked a bit like "Boshirov". And guess what? It looks a bit like "Boshirov". If you ignore the substantially different skull shape and nose. [...]

Betaface.com, which runs industry standard software, gives the faces an 83% similarity, putting the probability of them being the same person at 2.8%.

By comparison it gives me a 72% identity with Chepiga and a 2.1% chance of being him.
Their methodology amounted to looking through yearbooks until they found someone who looked like Boshirov - just more buffoonery from the NATO trolls at Bellingcat.

Also see:

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Piggy Bank

EU donates $118mln to UN Palestinian aid agency after US cuts funding


Sputnik
Fri, 28 Sep 2018 11:14 UTC
Palestine UN aid
© AFP 2018 / RAMI AL-SAYED
The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has received $118 million in emergency funds from various nations to maintain basic services for millions of Palestinian refugees to the end of 2018, Jordan Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told a press conference on Thursday.

The 28-nation European Union, Japan, Germany, Sweden and Turkey were major contributors among those providing the $118 million to help make good the removal of $300 million earlier this month by the US government, Safadi told reporters at United Nations headquarters in New York.

The extra funding was raised at a meeting on the sidelines of the current UN General Assembly and to maintain vital services for millions of refugees, UNRWA Commissioner-General Pierre Krahenbuhl told the press conference.

Comment: Also see: There is a deeper, more evil agenda afoot as the US cuts UNRWA aid to Palestinian refugees

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Treasure Chest

Turkish FM says Ankara will 'revive ancient Silk Road' by boosting trade with China


RT
Fri, 28 Sep 2018 11:14 UTC
camels Middle East desert Silk Road
© Zahid Hussein / Reuters
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Ankara hopes to expand cooperation with China in trade, energy and the fight against terrorism.

The minister, who was meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, stressed that "Turkey attaches great importance to relations with China." Wang Yi, in turn, said Beijing is ready to promote mutually-beneficial cooperation.

On Thursday, deputy governor of Istanbul Ismail Gultekin said the two countries have developed commercial and cultural relations for many years through the historical Silk Road and established close ties.

Comment: Further reading:

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Black Cat

Sergei Skripal wasn't just a British spy - did work for 4 Western intel agencies


Sputnik
Fri, 28 Sep 2018 10:50 UTC
skripal
© Voice of America
The drama surrounding the attempted murder of Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal escalated this week after UK authorities threatened to introduce new forms of economic pressure on Moscow over the poisoning. Moscow maintains that it had nothing to do with the attack on Skripal, and has said it has information proving one of the suspects is a civilian.

Skripal worked for the intelligence services of four different alliance countries, Focus magazine has reported, citing a source in NATO's Allied Command Counter Intelligence (ACCI).

According to the German publication, during this time, Skripal exposed several active Russian military intelligence (GRU) spies.

The magazine noted that Skripal travelled to Prague in 2012 together with MI6 agents to inform the local intelligence agencies of an active Russian spy network. Skripal is said to have known some of these Russian spies from during his service in the GRU.

Furthermore, the magazine claims that in 2016, information provided by Skripal to Estonian security services enabled them uncover three 'Russian spies', including an ethnic Russian officer in the Estonian army and his father.

It's also alleged that Skripal provided information to Spain's National Intelligence Center.

Comment: See also: Putin's novichok, meet Occam's razor - the simplest solutions to the Salisbury-Skripal saga

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Info

Australian Government Gives No Comment on Trump Campaign Spying Accusations

Sara Carter
SaraACarter.com
Thu, 27 Sep 2018 10:07 UTC
Alexander Downer
Alexander Downer
The Australian government would not comment on accusations made by former Trump campaign volunteer George Papadopoulos that its former Ambassador to Great Britain may have been spying on him during a May 2016 meeting in London. The meeting - according to the FBI - was the impetus to launch its July 2016 "Crossfire Hurricane" investigation into the Trump campaign and its alleged ties to Russia.

In a statement to SaraACarter.com and Fox News, a Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesperson would not address allegations suggesting former Australian Ambassador Alexander Downer was recording or spying on Papadopolous when the two met a London wine bar in May, 2016.

"The Australian Government does not comment on matters relevant to active investigations," said the spokesperson.

Papadopoulos told SaraACarter.com and Fox News Tuesday night that the "British government at the highest levels were constantly asking to meet with me, including Tobias Ellwood who was right under Boris Johnson."
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