Puppet MastersS


Pistol

President of Mali answers Macron's plea for 'applause' of French military: 'Your soldiers, not jihadis, killed my men in military raid'

French soldiers Mali
© ReutersFrench soldiers of the 13th engineering regiment inspect the perimeter of a touareg home near Tin Hama, Mali, October 20, 2017.
Up to 11 captive Malian soldiers were killed in a French military raid in Mali, its president said, refuting the claim they were jihadists. It comes days after the France's Emmanuel Macron said African countries should "applaud" the French troops stationed there.

The jihadist group targeted in the operation was the first to report the results of the botched raid which took place on October 23. Out of 15 people killed in the raid, carried out by the French military, 11 turned out to be Malian soldiers captured by the militants. While the French General Staff dismissed the group's account as "propaganda," Mali has confirmed the operation was a tragic blunder.

Malian President Ibrahim Boubakar Keita on Sunday reiterated that "a lot of hostages" were killed in the operation, speaking to the Jeune Afrique magazine. While he did not mention the exact number of victims, the jihadists previously recorded footage with an "appeal" of eleven Malian army hostages said to have been killed in the raid.

Mr. Potato

Luke Harding's 'Russiagate' book provides no evidence and lacks logic

Luke Harding with some of his heroes and best friends ... he keeps writing about how wonderful they are ... (Pussy Riot) Russia
Harding with some of his heroes and best friends ... he keeps writing about how wonderful they are ... (Pussy Riot)
I wish I could say that this book was a joke ... Unfortunately, Harding is deadly serious and I suspect that a lot of uncritical readers will soak it all up ... So, I end on a word of warning ...

The investigation into suspected collusion between US President Donald Trump and the Russian government has claimed its first three victims: one (Paul Manafort) for completely unconnected money laundering charges, and two (George Papadopoulos and Michael Flynn) for lying to investigators about things which were not themselves criminal, and which are therefore crimes which would never have happened had there never been an investigation.

To date, the evidence of direct collusion between Trump and the Russians is looking a little thin, to say the least. Now, into this maelstrom steps Guardian reporter Luke Harding with his book Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russian Helped Donald Trump Win.


MIB

Clinton gets special treatment by the FBI

Hillary prison
Florida congressman Matt Gaetz was on Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle" explaining that evidence shows the FBI did indeed give Hillary Clinton special treatment.

While Michael Flynn is indicted for lying about what he told Israeli and Russian Ambassadors during the Trump transition in December, 2016...Hillary Clinton gets off without so much as a slap on the wrist for destroying 30,000 plus government emails...and of course lying about it.

Let's not forget the secret Bill Clinton-Loretta Lynch Phoenix airport tarmac meeting which lead to the FBI letting Hillary completely off the hook.

Double standards in how the justice system is dealing with Michael Flynn and how it dealt with Hillary Clinton.


Judicial Watch is releasing 29 pages of documents that show the FBI fiercely worked to hide the meeting from the public sphere.

Comment: Those details may never see the light of day. See also:


Chess

Irish PM: Theresa May 'abandoned North Ireland Brexit deal'

Leo Varadkar  Simon Coveney
© Clodagh Kilcoyne / Reuters 217Prime Minister (Taoisaech) of Ireland Leo Varadkar looks on as Deputy Prime Minister (Tanaiste) Simon Coveney speaks during a press conference at Government buildings in Dublin, Ireland, December 4, 2017.
The United Kingdom has gone back on a deal with Ireland, the Irish Taoiseach has suggested. Ireland's leader Leo Varadkar said the UK had met a Brexit agreement that satisfied the concerns of his people, and was "surprised and disappointed" when it fell through.

On Monday, Ireland's deputy prime minister, Simon Coveney, told public broadcaster RTE that they hope to release a"positive statement" to the Irish people.

"We hope to be in place in just over an hour's time that the Taoiseach will be able to make a positive statement to the country," he said. "Certainly, the indications we have is that we are in a much better place than we have been in Brexit negotiations to date."

Comment: May has reportedly folded to Varadkar's demands, agreeing on no hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. However, as RT reports:
Ireland is holding out for an assurance that it will have "regulatory convergence" with Northern Ireland, effectively meaning the border would move to the Irish Sea.

However, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), on which May relies for her Parliamentary majority, says it will not accept anything that is similar to staying in the customs union or the single market. One government source said there was "absolutely no prospect" of ministers going against the DUP's wishes, adding, "The things that the Irish government wants us to sign up to are things that no British government could sign up to." [...]

Government sources are highly pessimistic about the prospect of a breakthrough, according to the Telegraph, leaving the entire Brexit timetable in jeopardy.
Further reading:


Vader

Washington urges Pakistan to 'redouble' counter-terrorism efforts - or let CIA do it

U.S. Department of Defense
© U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) / Facebook
Washington has urged Islamabad to "redouble" its efforts in fighting terrorists. And while Pakistan insists that "no safe heavens" exist in the Central Asian country, the CIA over the weekend vowed to fight terrorism with or without Islamabad.

On Monday, US Defense Secretary James Mattis arrived in Pakistan, seeking to convince Islamabad to get onboard with the Trump administration's "Afghanistan strategy." In a speech in August, President Donald Trump slammed Pakistan for "sheltering terrorists" and threatened to reduce the aid to the country if it continues to "harbor criminals and terrorists." While Islamabad has repeatedly rejected such accusations, on Monday Mattis once again called on Pakistan to do more to fight jihadists.

"The Secretary reiterated that Pakistan must redouble its efforts to confront militants and terrorists operating within the country," the Pentagon said in a statement after Mattis met with a number of Pakistani officials, including Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Defense Minister Khuram Dastgir.

Newspaper

Russia's Justice Ministry designates nine mass media outlets as foreign agents

Among them are Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Russia’s Justice Ministry
© Artyom Geodakyan/TASSRussia’s Justice Ministry
Russia's Justice Ministry has designated nine mass media outlets as foreign agents, the press service told TASS on Tuesday.

The media, which perform the functions of foreign agents, are Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Current Time TV, the Tatar-Bashkir service of Radio Liberty (Azatliq Radiosi), Sibir. Realii, regional project Idel. Realii, Factograf project, Kavkaz. Realii and Krym. Realii, the ministry said.

Comment:


Star of David

How Israel uses the holocaust to deflect from its own damning similarities with the Nazi regime

© David Sheen"Death to Arabs" graffiti on an apartment building across from a school
'Write and Record' were the last words of Jewish historian Simon Dubnow as he was murdered by the Nazis in the Riga ghetto on December 8th 1941. It is an injunction we should take to heart and add a third imperative - we should Write, Record and Compare.

If there is one thing that Zionists hate, it is when analogies are made between Israel, Zionism and the Nazis or conclusions are drawn from the Holocaust. It is a cast iron rule, that only the Zionist movement is entitled to compare or equate its opponents with the Nazis.

This Zionist attitude is backed up by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism, which was adopted by the governments of 31 countries, including the anti-Semitic governments of Poland and Hungary, in May 2016. According to the IHRA, anti-Semitism 'could, taking into account the overall context, include... drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.' The IHRA definition of anti-Semitism is almost identical to the EUMC Working Definition on Anti-Semitism which was dropped by the EU's Fundamental Rights Agency in 2013.


Attention

Prosecutors say Manafort worked on op-ed with Russian while out on bail

PManafort
© Reuters
Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was ghostwriting an op-ed while out on bail last month with a Russian who has ties to the Russian intelligence service, Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Muller's team said Monday.

In a new filing Monday afternoon, Mueller's investigators said Manafort was working on an editorial in English as late as last Thursday and that it related to his political work for Ukraine, which factored into his money-laundering and foreign lobbying criminal charges.

The filing asks for the court to revisit a bail agreement Mueller's office and Manafort's lawyers made jointly last week. The court had not yet approved a change to his $10 million unsecured bail and house arrest.

Comment: See also:


Fire

They doth protest too much: Holder, Comey fire back at Trump's FBI slam

holder comey
Former Attorney General Eric Holder and ex-FBI Director James Comey fired back Sunday at President Trump, who claimed the FBI's reputation is in "tatters" after its handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation.

"Nope. Not letting this go. The FBI's reputation is not in 'tatters,'" Holder, who served as attorney general under President Obama, tweeted. "It's composed of the same dedicated men and women who have always worked there and who do a great, apolitical job."


Holder added, "You'll find integrity and honesty at FBI headquarters and not at 1600 Penn Ave right now," referring to the White House.


Comment: Yea right.


Comment: Could it be because of their double standards? Clinton aides went unpunished after making false statements to anti-Trump FBI supervisor


Megaphone

Media admits: Trump 'not shy' about talking to press, more accessible than Obama

Trump talking to press
© AP Photo/Susan WalshPresident Donald Trump speaks to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Monday, Dec. 4, 2017, before heading to Utah.
The editor of the Washington Post revealed an inside Washington secret Monday about President Trump: He is far more accessible to reporters than former President Obama.

Comment: Trump has had a contentious relationship with the press for his entire political career. And yet he remains more accessible to the press than the previous administration despite the constant attacks. He's also far more accessible to his constituents with his unbelievably popular Twitter feed. See also: