Puppet MastersS


Snakes in Suits

UNSC to discuss Iran after US calls to back anti-govt protests


RT
Thu, 04 Jan 2018 23:01 UTC
Nikki Haley
© Stephanie Keith / ReutersUS Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley
The United Nations has announced the UN Security Council will convene Friday to discuss the situation in the Middle East, following calls by the US to hold an emergency session on the protests in Iran.

On Tuesday, US Ambassador Haley called for urgent meetings in the UNSC and the UN Human Rights Council to back the anti-government protesters.

"The UN must speak out," Haley said at a news conference. "In the days ahead, we will be calling for an emergency session both here in New York and at the Human Rights Council in Geneva. We must not be silent. The people of Iran are crying out for freedom."

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump posted tweet after tweet slamming what he called the "brutal and corrupt" Tehran authorities.

Iran's Ambassador to the UN has snapped back at the attacks by US officials, accusing them of "grotesque" interference in his country's internal affairs, and of encouraging regime change.

Comment: The president has 'invaded Iran' by sitting in the Oval Office pushing buttons on a smart phone. Interesting how Trump is fighting fake charges of Russiagate and then pulls these stunts of interfering in Iran's business with its own people.

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Attention

Ryabkov: UNSC emergency meeting on Iran interferes with Iran's sovereignty


RT
Fri, 05 Jan 2018 12:48 UTC
Students tehran
© AFPIranian students run for cover from tear gas at the University of Tehran during a demonstration regarding economic problems.
Russia's deputy foreign minister has slammed the US for calling an emergency UN Security Council meeting following instability in Iran, accusing Washington of fomenting unrest and destabilizing the government. "The United States continues its policy of open and covert interference into the affairs of other states. Under the guise of concern about human rights and democracy, they shamelessly attack the sovereignty of other nations," top diplomat Sergey Ryabkov told Russia's Interfax news agency.

"It is in this light that we see America's initiative to summon a UN Security Council meeting on a strictly internal issue."

Ryabkov said that Tehran's claims that the United States is driving the deadly street demonstrations from abroad were "not unfounded" and added that Washington uses "any means available" to undermine hostile foreign governments.

The US called for Friday afternoon's emergency meeting in New York on Tuesday, although majority support from the 15-member UN Security Council may be required for the discussion to go ahead. No resolution has been put forward.


Comment: Bringing Iran under world scrutiny, cui bono? Is it a psychological posturing meant to bring about a negative response leading to real and actionable consequences?

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Attention

Forget about N. Korea: Russia is building EMP weapons

Michael Peck
The National Interest
Fri, 22 Dec 2017 00:00 UTC
EMP bubble
© tvtropes.orgArtist rendition of EMP blast
Amid all the recent fears about North Korea building an electromagnetic-pulse weapon that could disrupt America's electronic backbone, another potential threat has been ignored: Russia's new Alabuga EMP weapons program.

Russian media describes a program that appears to be aimed at developing tactical EMP weapons that would affect a small area, rather than strategic arms that would disable, say, a nation's entire electrical grid.

"One component of the program involves the development of an EMP missile that emits an electromagnetic pulse 200-300 meters above an enemy position by means of a high-frequency high-power electromagnetic field generator," according to an article in Rossiyskaya Gazeta and translated by the U.S. Army's Foreign Military Studies Office.
"This EMP would create an ultra high frequency (UHF) field of approximately 3.5 kilometers, not only disabling computers, radars, communications systems and precision weapons, but also making them unusable by damaging their electronic components. Although the system is nonlethal and causes no adverse effects to humans, the electromagnetic effects of the missile (up to 100 gigawatts) are reportedly comparable to a nuclear weapon."
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Arrow Down

Erdogan: Washington accords and ties to Turkey are losing validity


RT
Fri, 05 Jan 2018 07:25 UTC
Erdogan
© AFP/STR/Turkish Presidential Press Office
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said the world may be "doomed" if the conviction of a Turkish banker by a US court is how the US understands justice, and warned that US-Turkish ties and accords are "losing validity."

"The laws in our bilateral ties and the bilateral accords between us are losing their validity. I am saddened to say this, but this is how it will be from now on," the Turkish leader told reporters in Istanbul, before his official visit to France on Friday."If this is the US understanding of justice, then the world is doomed."

Erdogan was commenting on the conviction of a Turkish bank executive at majority state-owned Halkbank, Mehmet Hakan Atilla. On Wednesday, Manhattan Federal Court found Atilla guilty of five charges related to bank fraud and conspiracy to violate US sanctions law. The case is part of a wider US probe into an alleged Turkish conspiracy to evade US sanctions against Iran.


Comment: Turkey has one foot in the West and one foot on the doorstep of Russia, a pivotable barometer of 'advantages' or 'wrongs'. While playing each side to its benefit, Turkey unwittingly places itself in the crosshairs of increasingly opposing ideologies.

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Heart

Ankara wants to salvage relationship with Berlin as US ties disintegrate


RT
Fri, 05 Jan 2018 14:25 UTC
Erdomerk
© The Duran/KJN
Ankara wants to reverse the "spiral" of worsening relations between Turkey and Germany, Turkey's FM has stated. Melvut Cavusoglu's call for rapprochement with Berlin comes amid rapidly deteriorating relations with Washington.

In an op-ed published ahead of his Saturday meeting with German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, Cavusoglu wrote that "both sides have an interest in a new beginning" but a fresh start is only possible "if we break the current crisis spiral in our relationship." Cavusoglu also called on Berlin to help end the "standstill" in Turkey's European Union membership negotiations. Ankara and Berlin have long been at odds over Turkey's EU bid. In December, Gabriel said that he "can't imagine" Turkey becoming an EU member in "the next few years."

Writing that "it is not the time for bullhorn diplomacy," Cavusoglu hinted that Ankara may be willing to review legal proceedings against several Turkish-German nationals, including a journalist, who have been detained on terrorism-related charges.

Ankara has made visible efforts in recent weeks to breathe new life into German-Turkish relations, which have suffered considerably over the last year. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters in late December that he considers German Chancellor Angela Merkel an "old friend," despite previously accusing her of employing "Nazi practices" against Turkish citizens and his own government.

Comment: The Ankara Shuffle: A different day, a different allegiance.

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Bad Guys

Erdogan denounces 'US chain of plots against Turkish government and economy'


PressTV
Fri, 05 Jan 2018 18:33 UTC
Erdogan
© Citimonline.com
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has slammed the United States for the conviction of a top Turkish banker in a US trial, saying Washington is hatching a "chain of plots" against Ankara.

A US federal court on Wednesday convicted an executive of Turkey's majority state-owned Halkbank - Mehmet Hakan Atilla - for allegedly evading sanctions imposed against Iran.

"If this is the US understanding of justice, then the world is doomed. There can be no such understanding of justice," Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul on Friday, reacting to the conviction.

Comment: Some might say Erdogan is paranoid about the US plotting against him. Others might say he's not paranoid if they really are after him.

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Pirates

Tony Blair calls on EU countries to deal with Muslim migration issues, neglecting his role in creating the problem


RT
Fri, 05 Jan 2018 16:33 UTC
Tony Blair
© REUTERS/Clodagh KilcoyneBritain's former Prime Minister Tony Blair.
More countries could break away from the EU in a wave of populist revolts, says Tony Blair. The former UK PM has called on EU countries to "seize the moment" and to deal with underlying Muslim migration issues.

Blair told German newspaper Die Welt that the same migration concerns that sparked Brexit aren't issues faced solely by the UK, and other EU countries could face backlashes down the line.

"Let's be clear: the anxieties of the British people that led to Brexit are not confined to Britain," he said.

"With strong leadership we would seize the moment of Brexit also to deal with those underlying issues which are not only the preoccupation of the British people but are the preoccupation right across Europe. Because otherwise, this populism will get fueled."

Comment: Tony Blair along with Hillary Clinton deserve some sort of award for being the most persistent loathsome has-beens who just will not go away.

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Red Flag

America's Stasi: Why the US law enforcement empire resembles secret police in a dictatorship

Philip M. Giraldi
Strategic Culture Foundation
Thu, 14 Dec 2017 00:00 UTC
US police swat team
Secret police are characteristic of dictatorships, or so goes the conventional thinking on the subject. Police in democracies operate for the most part transparently and within a set of rules and guidelines that limits their ability to gratuitously punish citizens who have done nothing wrong. If a policeman operating under rule-of-law steps out of line, he can be held accountable. That is also conventional thinking.

But what happens when an ostensibly "democratic" police force becomes corrupted and starts doing things that are outside its zone of responsibility, and does so to benefit a political relationship that will in turn protect those who have broken the law under cover of carrying out their official duties? That is the characteristic of what we have been calling a "deep state," where forces drawn generally from the political class and security services conspire together to control what the public is allowed to know while also manipulating nuisances like elections to make sure that the "correct" outcome emerges.

Comment: See also:

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Rocket

Unidentified US government source claims North Korea hit one of their own cities in failed ballistic missile test


Sputnik
Fri, 05 Jan 2018 17:09 UTC
Missile test
© Reuters/ KCNA
An allegedly unsuccessful test of a North Korean ballistic missile that exploded over a densely populated area has raised concerns about the possibility of similar accidents happening over the country's capital Pyongyang or other populated areas, The Diplomat has reported.

The Hwasong-12/KN17 intermediate-range ballistic missile reportedly failed minutes after it was launched on April 29, 2017 and crashed in the North Korean city of Tokchon with a population of about 240,000, causing "considerable damage to a complex of industrial or agricultural buildings," the Tokyo-based international news magazine wrote, citing a source in the US government with knowledge of North Korean weapons programs.

According to The Diplomat, the missile never flew higher than 70 kilometers as its first stage engines shut down just minutes into the flight.

Comment: Given that the alleged incident occurred roughly eight months ago, it's highly likely that there is a good deal of propaganda in this story. Last week the US produced rare satellite imagery of Chinese ships selling oil to North Korea. With this 'incident', the public is merely provided with an image of google maps from Newsweek:

Tokchon missile failure
© Screenshot/ Google MapsThis screenshot from Google Maps shows the complex allegedly damaged by North Korea’s failed missile test launch on April 29. From the images alone, it is impossible to verify if any casualties resulted from the missile crash.


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Chess

Trump Executive Order could mean Killary's goose is cooked

Zach Haller
Medium
Sun, 31 Dec 2017 17:13 UTC
Hillary Clinton
© blazingcatfur.ca
The devil in the detail of Trump's Executive Order makes one thing clear: Clinton's in deep.

On December 21, 2017, President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order that would strike fear in the hearts of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and every corrupt actor in their international cabal that coalesced behind closed doors in an effort to install Hillary Clinton as President in 2016. The EO follows news of an FEC complaint blasting the money laundering scheme devised as part of the covert arrangements Clinton, Obama, the Democratic Party, big media, and big tech used to undermine democracy in 2016.

In Executive Order Blocking the Property of Persons Involved in Serious Human Rights Abuse or Corruption, Trump's administration threw down a gauntlet in drastically expanding punishments for the world's most crooked politicians and human rights abusers.
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