Puppet MastersS


Chess

US Wants Control over Iraqi-Syrian Borders


FARS
Thu, 15 Feb 2018 20:49 UTC
US President Donald Trump
© FNAThe US has deployed troops at the border between Iraq and Syria in a bid to cut off the link between the two Mideast nations, an Iraqi source said
The Arabic-language al-Mayadeen news channel quoted an informed Iraqi source as saying that the Americans want to remain in the Euphrates heights to establish a military link to the al-Tanf region.

He said the US has deployed at the border with Syria and established the al-Tanf base in a move to gain control over the highly sensitive border, saying that military equipment has been deployed at al-Tanf to cut the land route between Damascus-Baghdad to Beirut.


Comment: Doing a favor to Israel?


In relevant remarks on Wednesday, Syria's Permanent Representative to the UN Bashar al-Jaafari voiced concern about the US military deployment in his country.

He stressed that the Syrian people are the only ones to determine the future of their country, reaffirming Syria's commitment to the final statement of the Syrian National Dialogue Congress in Sochi.

Comment: The easiest way to supply Syrian Kurds with military equipment is through establishing full control over Iraqi-Syrian Border.

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Propaganda

Best of the Web: Reports about 'hundreds of Russians killed in US airstrikes in Syria' are fake news


South Front
Thu, 15 Feb 2018 18:33 UTC
bloomberg fake news
Fake news
Mainstream media outlets and social media are full of reports that on February 7th hundreds of Russian private military contractors (PMCs) died in US-led coalition airstrikes on pro-government forces in the province of Deir Ezzor. Various sources provide different numbers, but one of the most popular versions is that between 100 and 600 PMCs were killed.

So, what is going on?

On February 8, the US-led coalition released a statement saying that on February 7th it had struck "pro-regime forces" attacking "Syrian Democratic Forces headquarters" in the Euphrates Valley. According to local sources, the US strikes hit the positions of pro-government forces near the village of Khasham. The CONICO gas facility and the nearby Jafar oil field were reportedly the targets of the alleged attack.


Comment: Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova had this to say about it at her weekly press conference:
"The reports on the deaths of dozens, hundreds, of Russians is classic disinformation. Preliminary data shows the armed confrontation, the reasons of which are currently being investigated, could have resulted in the deaths of five people, presumably Russian citizens," adding that their citizenship still needs to be confirmed.
This Haaretz report provides further clues to what motivated this global spasm of fake news about US forces killing Russian ones:

fake news haaretz
Note the spin in the subheading: that Russian intervention in Syria is 'deeply unpopular at home' (it's not) - this is what the Western media is trying to do (make the war deeply unpopular for Russians), and thus somehow hurt Putin's chances at re-election this year.

The spur for this is likely Israeli rage at Syria shooting down its F-16.

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Footprints

'Creepy Clintonista' Cody Shearer hunting Europe for fabled Trump 'pee pee' tape

Aaron Klein
Breitbart
Mon, 12 Feb 2018 00:00 UTC
Shearer
© Screen ShotCody Shearer
Cody Shearer, a shadowy former tabloid journalist who has long been closely associated with various Clinton scandals, has been traveling across Europe for more than six months in an alleged effort to secure purported evidence of compromising material possessed by the Russians related to President Donald Trump, according to a new report.

There is no known evidence that any such anti-Trump "kompromat," or compromising material, actually exists. Much of the report focused on attempts to secure an alleged video of Trump engaged in sordid sexual acts with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel room in 2013 even though there has never been credible evidence presented to substantiate the existence of such a video.

National Review previously dubbed Shearer a "Creepy Clinton Confidante" and "The Strangest Character in Hillary's Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy."

The New York Times reported on Friday:
Cody Shearer, an American political operative with ties to the Democratic Party, has been crisscrossing Eastern Europe for more than six months to secure the purported kompromat from a different Russian, said people familiar with the efforts, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid damaging their relationship with him.

Reached by phone late last year, Mr. Shearer would say only that his work was "a big deal - you know what it is, and you shouldn't be asking about it." He then hung up.

Mr. Shearer's efforts grew out of work he first began during the 2016 campaign, when he compiled a pair of reports that, like the dossier, also included talk of a video and Russian payoffs to Trump associates. It is not clear what, if anything, Mr. Shearer has been able to purchase.

Comment: Shearer has tinkled all over Europe to flush out corroborating information on the fake Steele dossier, but alas the tank is empty. Time to zip it up and drop the lid.

See also:

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Bizarro Earth

The Deep State...it's very real

Robert W. Merry
The National Interest
Mon, 12 Feb 2018 00:00 UTC
deepstate
© usdefensewatch.com
OF COURSE there's a Deep State. Why wouldn't there be? Even a cursory understanding of human nature tells us that power corrupts, as Lord Acton put it; that, when power is concentrated and entrenched, it will be abused; that, when it is concentrated and entrenched in secrecy, it will be abused in secret.That's the Deep State.

James Burnham saw it coming. The American philosopher and political theorist (1905-87), first a Trotskyist, then a leading conservative intellectual, wrote in 1941 that the great political development of the age was not the battle between communism and capitalism. Rather, it was the rise of a new "managerial" class gaining dominance in business, finance, organized labor and government. This gathering managerial revolution, as he called it, would be resisted, but it would be impervious to adversarial counteractions. As the managerial elites gained more and more power, exercised often in subtle and stealthy ways, they would exercise that power to embed themselves further into the folds of American society and to protect themselves from those who might want to bust them up.

Nowhere is this managerial elite more entrenched, more powerful and more shrouded in secrecy than in what Dwight Eisenhower called the military-industrial complex, augmented by intelligence and law-enforcement agencies. That's where America's relentless drive for global hegemony meshes with defense manufacturers only too willing to provide the tools of dominance.
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Bug

Soros whines at 'toxic, personal criticism' against him, considers 'Brexit a tragic mistake'

Paul Bois
The Daily Wire
Mon, 12 Feb 2018 00:00 UTC
Soros headline
© The Daily Telegraph
Leftist billionaire George Soros complained that his feelings were hurt this weekend because people have been rightly calling him out for undermining democracy and all things decent.

NBC News reports that the man synonymous with breaking the bank of England is now "defending his right to donate hundreds of thousands of pounds to a pro-European Union campaign aimed at stopping the U.K. leaving the political and economic bloc."

In 2016, the people of England spoke loudly and clearly, voting to leave the European Union, and yet, George Soros has no respect for that. Instead, the champagne socialist donated a (small) portion of his wealth ($550,000) to the anti-Brexit Best for Britain campaign.

At least two U.K. newspapers have publicly called out George Soros as a foreign interloper with a "secret plot to thwart Brexit."

"Butt out, Mr Soros. You can keep your tainted money," said the Daily Mail.

Comment: Apparently for Soros, money can't buy him love. A master player and global orchestrator, Soros has become a financial mover, shaker and shaper of societal frameworks all over the world through his own actions and those of his fake humanitarian NGOs. If you can find his fingerprint, there is a certainty of manipulation and deceit. See also:

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Mail

Best of the Web: Taliban publishes unprecedented open letter to US govt: 'Your new president's strategy isn't working. Let's start peace talks'


RT
Thu, 15 Feb 2018 09:28 UTC
Afghan Security Forces
© ReutersAfghan Security Forces in skirmish with Taliban.
The Taliban has published a letter slamming the US president's new Afghan strategy. It urges Americans and their elected representatives to lobby Donald Trump to choose negotiations, not escalation, in war-torn Afghanistan.

The 10-page letter released by Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid makes use of statistics and figures in an attempt to sway the "American people" and "peace-loving congressmen" to pressure the White House into peace talks with the group - a move which Trump has publicly opposed.

Citing the "3,546 American and foreign soldiers" killed and the "87 percent rise" in heroin production in 2017, the letter argues that "if the policy of using force is continued for another one hundred years, the outcome will be the same ... as you have observed over the last six months since the initiation of Trump's new strategy."

Comment: Talk is cheap, but wars sell weapons. Maybe next year...

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Arrow Up

Pence: Prospects raised for talks with N. Korea but sanctions must go on


RT
Thu, 15 Feb 2018 01:59 UTC
PenceMoon
© REUTERS/Kim Hee-chul/Pool/ReutersUS Vice President Mike Pence • S. Korea President Moon Jae-in
US Vice President Mike Pence says Washington is open to talks with North Korea. Even though he emphasized talks are not negotiations, it shows the US has changed its attitude.
"We want to make sure North Korea understands us, and if there's an opportunity for talks that can communicate the fixed policy of the United States of America to them, the president has made it clear he always believes in talking. But talking is not negotiation - talking is understanding one another," Pence said on Wednesday.
The idea on meeting with North Korea has been rejected by Washington for months, as the New York Times reported.

Pence's decision comes at a time of increasing rapprochement between Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) leadership and South Korean president Moon Jae-In, after DPRK senior advisor Kim Yo-Jong invited Moon for further talk on the sidelines of the 2018 Winter Olympics, currently being held in PyeongChang, South Korea. The decision was considered a victory for thawing relations between the Koreas.


Comment: 'Diplomacy', with North Korea, is being served up cold and rigid. The longer Kim waits, the stronger his capabilities and offensive position. Kim may be willing to further sacrifice the welfare of his people under sanctions for his nuclear program. So far that seems to be the case. Are either of these scenarios in the US' best negotiation interest?

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Info

US-backed Kurdish forces withdraw from Deir Ezzor as tensions raise possibility for clashes with Syrian army


FARS
Thu, 15 Feb 2018 20:29 UTC
Turkish forces
© FNAThe Syrian army has sent a large number of forces and military equipment to Eastern Deir Ezzur after the recent US attacks on its positions in the region, field sources said, adding that tensions have raised the possibility of clashes between the army forces and Kurdish militants backed by Washington
The sources reported on Thursday that the Syrian army has dispatched a large number of forces and military equipment to Wadi al-Forat region in Deir Ezzur.

They added that the Syrian army soldiers have strengthened their positions in the region, patrolling the Western banks of the Euphrates river.

Certain field sources also confirmed that the US-backed Kurds are on alert and have reinforced their positions, adding that there is a high possibility for clashes between them and the Syrian army.

Comment: Military (proper) and military analyst sources note that Syrian Kurdish forces of the People's Protection Units (YPG) have mostly withdrawn from areas controlled by the US-led coalition in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor province, handing over control to another coalition partner militia known as the Deir Ezzor Military Council (DMC).
Following major military and diplomatic pressures imposed by Ankara against Kurdish paramilitary groups in Syria, US-backed YPG has withdrawn the main part of it forces in the country's east towards the embattled region of Afrin where the Turkish Army is leading an operation against the YPG and to the southern border with Turkey in provinces of Raqqa and Hasakah were the Turkish Army is threatening new operations.


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Blackbox

Was the DNC even hacked? It's looking less likely every day as Russiagate narrative crumbles

Jordan Schachtel
Conservative Review
Wed, 14 Feb 2018 18:42 UTC
hillary clinton
© Gage Skidmore | Wikipedia
Prior to the publication of the infamous Trump-Russia dossier, the DNC server intrusion and the Podesta email account "hack" were put forward as the first pieces of evidence that Russia was running a weaponized cyber campaign to support then-candidate Trump. But what if these hacking allegations are entirely baseless, just like the "salacious and unverified" allegations in the infamous dossier?

At the tail end of the 2016 presidential election season, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) spun the mainstream media into a frenzy by announcing that its servers had been hacked. The supposedly shocking news came just months after the Gmail account of Hillary Clinton campaign chief John Podesta was "hacked," resulting in his emails falling into the hands of WikiLeaks. Shortly thereafter, most of the media reported as fact the DNC's determination that "the Russians" were responsible for the hacking of both the DNC and the Podesta email account.


Since then, many in the media have long concluded, based on the word of a political organization, that Vladimir Putin's Russia was all in on then-candidate Trump's electoral ambitions. This of course proved the wild conspiracies in the "Trump-Russia" dossier, too, they rationalized.

Comment: Every single Russiagate accusation has been hot air. The whole fiasco has been one big case study in mass hysteria: a massively hyped "crime" for which there is absolutely no evidence, but which everyone seemingly "knows" happened. Not one of the U.S.'s greater moments, that's for sure.

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Bad Guys

Syria's UN Envoy Bashar Jaafari Says That US-Led Coalition 'Deliberately' Destroyed 90% of Raqqa


Sputnik
Thu, 15 Feb 2018 19:35 UTC
SDF fighter
© AFP 2018/ DELIL SOULEIMANA fighter from the Syrian Forces, inspects a military vehicle supplied by the US-led coalition, as they gather near a village north-east of Raqqa
The US-led Coalition to defeat the Daesh terrorist group (banned in Russia) has intentionally destroyed 90 percent of Syria's town of Raqqa, Syrian permanent representative to the United Nations Bashar Jaafari told the UN Security Council on Wednesday.

"This coalition has deliberately destroyed 90 percent of the city of Raqqa," Jaafari said. "This coalition has not felt to uphold its commitment to neutralize the mines left behind by Daesh."

The statement follows the February 12 press release by the advocacy group Human Rights Watch, saying that landmines planted by the Daesh terrorist group in the Syrian city of Raqqa have killed or wounded hundreds of civilians, including more than 150 children.

Comment: See also:

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