Puppet MastersS


Bad Guys

Iranian protests signify deep state's unfinished business

Deepstate
© usdefensewatch.com
Protests have been reported across several cities in Iran over the last several days of December 2017. Protesters allegedly decry Iran's economy as well as the nation's involvement in nearby Syria.

The Western media has attempted to cultivate two narratives - one focused on portraying the protests as widespread, spontaneous, and having focused first on "economic grievances" before becoming political - another narrative openly admitting to US involvement and praising US President Donald Trump for "standing up" to the "Iranian regime."

Of course, neither narrative is even remotely grounded in reality.

US Meddling in Iran Stretches Back Decades

US regime-change operations targeting Iran stretch back decades and have continued within a singular geopolitical strategy, regardless of who has occupied the White House, including under the more recent US administrations of George Bush, Barack Obama, and now Donald Trump.

While pro-war circles in the US claim the 1979 Iranian Revolution was an instance of Iran drawing first blood, the revolution was in fact a direct response to then already decades of US meddling in Iran stretching back as early as 1953 with the US Central Intelligence Agency's Operation AJAX.

Comment: See also:


Telephone

N. Korea calls S. Korea on cross-border hotline, first contact in two years

Communications hotline
© ReutersS. Korean official at direct communications hotline with N. Korea.
North Korea was first to use a border hotline with the South which resumed operation after an exchange of messages between Pyongyang and Seoul. Officials reportedly spoke for 20 minutes to make sure that the line works.

South and North Korea made their first contact at the border village of Panmunjom via a communication channel which Pyongyang ordered brought back online earlier on Wednesday, Yonhap reported. South Korea's unification ministry said that "A North Korean official first contacted the South side via the channel."

Future discussions will focus on sending North Korean athletes to the PyeongChang Winter Olympics which will kick off in South Korea next month, according to the statement issued by an unnamed Northern official.

The North will open dialogue at 7:00am GMT (3:00 pm Pyongyang time) at the shared border village of Panmunjom, the statement said as cited by Yonhap.

Kim Jong-un had said he was open to talks with Seoul in his New Year address, saying the two Koreas should "lower the military tensions on the Korean Peninsula to create a peaceful environment. "Kim added that efforts should be made by "both the North and the South."

Comment: More attempts at communication, without the US, may begin to pave the way to an improved relationship for NK/SK and a change in international dynamics.


Footprints

China amassing troops, tanks to N. Korea border 'prep for war'

Chinese military transport
© Daily NKChinese military heading north to the North Korea border.
A dramatic influx of Chinese tanks, soldiers, and military trucks has been reported in the Chinese border province of Jilin, which shares a border with North Korea, according to reports from the Daily NK.

The reports indicate that China's People Liberation Army (PLA) forces have been building up military assets around the Tumen River in Yanji city, Jilin province. "There were so many soldiers in the car that there was a lot of traffic. I have not seen so many soldiers trucking to Yanji so far," a source told the Daily NK.

Another source said, "Chinese troops are gathering around the Yalu and Tumen rivers. It is also heard that the tanks are moving to the North and the Chinese border."

Comment: See also: South Korean media: 'China has deployed 150,000 troops to North Korea border'


Chart Pie

Nix the single market! Britain could join despised TPP instead

TPPprotest signs
© Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
Britain could join the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to kick-start exports after Brexit. If the unusual move goes ahead, the UK would be the first member without borders on the Pacific Ocean or South China Sea.

The proposal is being developed by Liam Fox's Department for International Trade. The group lost the United States, its largest member, when President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement last year. The 11 remaining members, which include Japan, Canada and Australia, agreed in November to continue with a successor deal.

Trade minister Greg Hands told the Financial Times there is no geographical restriction on Britain joining trade groups. "Nothing is excluded in all of this," he said. "With these kind of plurilateral relationships, there doesn't have to be any geographical restriction."


Comment: The 'special interests' TPP is no 'silk road'.


Nuke

'Mine's bigger', Trump dares Kim Jong-un to compare nuclear buttons

Trumpfinger
© Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images / AFP
President Donald Trump has fired off a tweet against North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un, claiming to have a "more powerful" nuclear weapons launcher.

Trump's tweet, amid a barrage of angry posts, is a belated response to Kim's New Year speech, in which the North Korean leader claimed, "The entire United States is within range of our nuclear weapons, and a nuclear button is always on my desk."

"This is reality, not a threat," Kim said, adding that "these weapons will be used only if our security is threatened."

Trump tweeted in return that not only is his own "Nuclear Button" bigger and better, but it actually works. He sarcastically pleaded Tuesday night for "someone from his depleted and food starved regime" to "please inform" Kim of those claims.


Comment: Sarcasm is not an acceptable nor dignified form of diplomacy, especially when the stakes are this high and the consequence of a 'goaded response' comes in the form of nuclear war.


Jet3

'Afghan-US airstrike attack on ISIS' kills at least 1 civilian, 13 disfigured

USAF F-15
© Josh Smith / ReutersUSAF F-15 Fighting Falcon
At least one civilian was killed and 13 others wounded in joint Afghan-US airstrikes against Islamic State in the Nangarhar province on January 1. Witnesses say the death toll is higher.

The Afghan military conducted their operation against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in Nangarhar and Jawzjan province backed by Afghan and US-led air forces. "During the airstrikes, 13 civilians were wounded including women and children and one other was killed" in Nangarhar's Haska Mina district, Attaullah Khogyani the provincial governor's spokesman said.

Khogyani justified the loss of life by saying that "ISIS militants used civilian's houses as strongholds." The spokesman added that "over 60 ISIS militants were killed" in air and ground operations by "Afghan-foreign" forces in different parts of Haska Mina.

The civilians wounded in the airstrikes were taken to a hospital in Jalalabad. RT's Ruptly video agency visited the facility Tuesday, where relatives described the horrific injuries suffered by their loved ones, saying "some of them lost their legs and some sustained deep injuries."


Comment: Something missing in their training? Can't tell a civilian from an ISIS militant? Discrimination to save the innocent not a priority? Everyone is expendable, even children? Sixteen years...and the US hasn't learned a thing.


Dominoes

Paul Manafort sues Robert Mueller and DOJ over Russiagate investigation

Paul Manafort
© Joshua Roberts / ReutersPaul Manafort, former campaign chairman for U.S. President Donald Trump
Lobbyist Paul Manafort has filed a lawsuit against special counsel Robert Mueller and the US Department of Justice over his indictment, saying it violates the scope of Mueller's investigation into the 2016 election.

Manafort, who ran Donald Trump's presidential campaign between March and August of 2016, was indicted in October 2017 on 12 counts of money laundering, violating foreign agent laws, false statements, and "conspiracy against the United States." None of the charges are related to his work on Trump's campaign or alleged collusion with Russia, which Mueller was appointed to investigate.

In a civil lawsuit filed Wednesday in a federal court in Washington, DC, Manafort names Mueller and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein as the defendants.

Bulb

Senator Richard H. Black supports Saif al Islam Ghadafi for President of Libya, shows respect for Libyan people's wishes

Black and Assad
Virginia State Senator, Richard H. Black, is a strong patriot and veteran. He is a man who has taken his personal time to understand the conflicts in North Africa and the Middle East. Senator Black traveled to Syria to meet with President Assad so that he could understand the truth about what was happening in Syria. He has spoken with leaders in the legitimately elected government of Tobruk, Libya and with Libyan tribal leaders. He is a man who searches for and recognizes the truth.

Colonel Richard H. "Dick" Black (USA Ret.) now standing state Senator in Virginia's 13th district for the Republican Party, is a war hero, having flown 269 combat helicopter missions in Vietnam and earning a purple heart. He gained his JD in law after Viet Nam and later headed the Army's Criminal Law Division at the Pentagon where he was tasked to develop the foundation for the ICC (International Criminal Court). He has stated that in it's original format the ICC would have created justice for the world, but unfortunately, the documents were sent to the US State Department where it was rewritten and turned into the political tool that it is today.

Senator Black is a passionate humanitarian and has spent his life fighting for justice. He has a profound interest in foreign and military affairs and stands alone in his ability to take whatever measures needed to find the real truth. Dr. Saif al Islam Ghadafi could not get an endorsement from a more honorable man. http://www.senatorblack.com/home/bio.aspx

Comment: In the current US political climate, State Senator Black's acts of integrity are, unfortunately, the exception - and not the rule. Notice the objective and rational positions he has taken on the following issues: and see the new SOTT Focus: Save the Libyan Slaves! How the Road to Hell is Paved with Liberal Intentions


Arrow Up

Pepe Escobar - Why there won't be a revolution in Iran

Lone Protestor
© AFPAn Iranian woman raises her fist through the smoke of tear gas at the University of Tehran.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani did the right thing going on television and at least acknowledging popular anger over hard economic times. Inflation is high at 12% but down from 40% at the start of Rouhani's first term. And the recent increase in fuel and food prices by up to 40% has hardly helped.

That was part of Team Rouhani's 2018 budget, which cuts subsidies for the poor - a key feature of the previous Ahmadinejad administration.

Then there is youth unemployment, which hovers around the 30% mark. Similar figures recently came out of Spain, a member of the European Union. Of course, that explains why the bulk of the protesters are under 25 from working class backgrounds.

What Rouhani should have explained to Iranians in detail is the direct consequences of hard economic times and United States sanctions, which are affecting the country.

These were coupled with financial threats against western firms now back in business, or at least contemplating opening up operations, in Iran.

Rouhani did promise after signing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran nuclear deal, in the Austrian capital of Vienna in 2015 that it would lead to more jobs and stimulate the economy.

While that has not been the case, legitimate protests singling out economic problems have never gone away. In fact, they have been part of the Iranian picture for decades.

Cards

SOTT Focus: Trump's Jerusalem Card and the 'Obama-Hezbollah' Scandal

trump aipac
Shortly before Christmas, a pronounced belch of methane erupted from the Washington Swamp with the 'revelation' that Obama had put the kibosh on a decade-long US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) investigation into a global cocaine racket allegedly run by none other than Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary-General of the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah. The goal of the Obama administration was to 'appease' the Iranians and secure the 'Iran nuke deal' in early 2016.

Although US media stopped short of suggesting that the former US president did so because he's an inveterate commie Muslim at heart, that sentiment was certainly in the air as the New York Post thundered about the "deafening media silence" following the 'revelation' and Bloomberg bellowed about Obama peddling in "alternative facts". If nothing else, the episode represented a brief but jarring turnaround in media fortunes for the globalists' favorite liberal.