Puppet MastersS


USA

Russian expert claims US forces are training terrorists at 19 sites in Syria


PressTV
Thu, 21 Jun 2018 16:07 UTC
tanf rebel
In this file picture, a US-backed Takfiri militant mans a heavy automatic machine gun (L) next to an American soldier as they take their positions at the al-Tanf border crossing between Syria and Iraq.
A military expert at a diplomatic school run by the Russian Foreign Ministry says the Pentagon is training dozens of Takfiri terrorists at 19 military camps inside war-ravaged Syria.

Vladimir Kuzin with the prestigious Moscow State Institute of International Relations said the camps were receiving weapons, munitions, fuel, food and other supplies from 22 US military bases outside Syria, and that Americans were training terrorists at their al-Tanf military base in the south of Syria, RT Arabic television news network reported.

He added that the US military had closed the airspace over this region within a radius of 50 kilometers, without obtaining any approval from the Damascus government.

Kuzin then pointed out that Washington's military and technical support to terrorist and armed groups was in contravention of the UN Charter, and contradicted agreements to stop the escalation of the Syrian crisis.

He stressed that Washington supported militants in a bid to maintain its influence in the political and military arenas of Syria.

Comment: Al-Tanf in particular has been a sticking point in the recently begun offensive on the rebels in Daraa and on the Golan 'border'. The U.S. would not give up control of the Tanf region even though Iran and Hezbollah would've kept out of Daraa if they had agreed to get out. Those must be some valuable terrorists the Americans are protecting there...

See also:

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Jet1

Why is the CIA's intel on the Taliban so consistently wrong? Because they're making it up, along with their Afghan sources

Andrew Korybko
Eurasia Future
Fri, 22 Jun 2018 15:50 UTC
Taliban
The CIA is deliberately passing along faulty anti-Taliban HUMINT in order to deceive American decision makers and indefinitely perpetuate the Hybrid War of Terror on the Golden Ring, something that some in the US leadership may not even realize they're participating in after having been manipulated to these ends by their chief intelligence agency.

The American public has continually been fed the narrative that the War on Afghanistan is "almost over", and that all that's needed is to put in "a little more effort" in order to break the backs of the Taliban and bring peace to the country. This storyline has been recycled for 17 years already in various forms and media, but it's nevertheless always proven to be wrong. It's not so much that every individual in this narrative pipeline from the ground-up is "in on it", but just that the perception management system is being manipulated by the primary first-level set of actors who contribute into it, namely the CIA and its on-the-ground human intelligence sources (HUMINT).

Deceptive Sources

The Afghan mentality is very unique and has evolved over the centuries in response to continuous military threats from the outside world, leading to its people developing an ingrained intuition that predisposes them to deception for defensive purposes. It's all but impossible for any foreigner, even those in the region, to understand their psyche because of how conditioned it is by local factors during an individual's entire life cycle, especially over the past 40 years of incessant conflict, though these very same people are the "trust-worthy" sources that the CIA depends on for information about the latest developments in the War on Afghanistan and for evaluating the US' progress in that campaign.
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Bulb

FBI may have meddled with Mike Flynn case evidence to change the outcome of prosecution - US congressman


RT
Fri, 22 Jun 2018 15:08 UTC
Former US National Security Adviser Michael Flynn
© Jonathan Ernst / ReutersFormer US National Security Adviser Michael Flynn departs after a plea hearing at a District Court in Washington, December 2017.
US congressman Mark Meadows has suggested that the FBI may have meddled with evidence in the case against Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Emphasizing that justice should be restored, the Conservative Rep. disclosed that there is proof that the FBI secretly changed 302 witness forms that were used as evidence in the Flynn case to increase the chances of his prosecution.

"Justice should be meted out evenly, and yet we're finding that evidence could have been tampered with," Meadows commented in an interview for Hill.TV.

Meadows provided no direct justifications, yet during the interview he explained "I brought this up with the Inspector General the other day. Some of those key witness will be asked to appear before House Oversight".
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Red Flag

Poking the tiger: Congressman proposes US recognition of Taiwan as a 'sovereign and independent country'


RT
Fri, 22 Jun 2018 13:22 UTC
Taiwan US
© Tyrone Siu / Reuters
A California congressman has put forth a resolution proposing that the US recognize the island of Taiwan as a "sovereign and independent country." The move is sure to anger China, which considers Taiwan to be a rogue province.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-California) submitted a 'sense of Congress' resolution to the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday, urging the US to declare the 'One China' policy "effectively obsolete" and recognize the "obvious reality" that Taiwan has been an independent country for over 50 years.

The US should also "aggressively support Taiwan's full participation in the United Nations and any other international organizations of which the United States is a member, and for which statehood is a requirement for membership," says the resolution, which was posted on the website of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA).

The government in Taipei welcomed Rohrabacher's proposal. Regine Chen, a senior official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Focus Taiwan news channel that Taipei will "continue to work closely with our friends in the US Congress over the latest developments regarding the proposal."

Rohrabacher's initiative comes just a week after the US-funded American Institute of Taiwan (AIT) unveiled its new $256 million headquarters in Taipei, over Chinese protests. The US-based nonprofit acts as a de facto embassy of Washington on the disputed island.

Comment: See also:

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Russian Flag

The UK's anti-Russian propaganda is self-destructing as the World Cup carries on


Free West Media
Thu, 21 Jun 2018 12:47 UTC
The World Cup in Russia is turning out to be a stunning success and a PR disaster for Britain's anti-Russian cohorts. Even BBC sports journalists and pundits are ignoring propaganda narratives and going off-message to enthuse about everything Russian, especially the welcome they are receiving.

Volgograd Stadium
© WikipediaVolgograd Stadium
"Fans are having the time of their lives and telling their British relatives and friends back home they are missing something special. They describe amazing chance encounters and magical atmospheres. In bars, on the streets, something is happening and it is all good," one British soccer fan told FWM.

"It's all about Russian people getting together with people from all over the world and getting along perfectly. Sport fans have travelled to Russia to see their teams and British sports journalists have not had the full self-censorship training."

The Soccer World Cup is currently being held in 11 cities in European Russia.

Two notorious anti-Russian "journalists" Shaun Walker and Luke Harding from the Guardian have been trying to keep up the Russia-bashing while UK sports journalists like Barney Ronay, from the same paper, are destroying their efforts.

Comment: So much for the scare mongering. Try as they might, there really isn't much the mainstream media can do except dig their graves deeper because by the end of it, there will be many 'on-the-ground' reports from all around the world that will counter their fake narratives. See also:

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Broom

Europe's populist wave may sweep Angela Merkel next

Doug Bandow
The American Conservative
Thu, 21 Jun 2018 11:46 UTC
angela merkel
© AFP 2018 / Tobias SCHWARZ
Europe's populist wave is still building-and it could claim the German chancellor next.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel could be out of a job and her country headed towards elections barely 100 days after the formation of her new government, which took six months to form. It would be a performance worthy of, well, Italy, and all because the stolid, reliable Bavarian conservatives who spent years acting as a doormat for her chancellorship turned into raging populists. They now demand that Berlin bar entry of foreign migrants from other European Union states. A majority of Germans are in agreement.

That makes even less realistic French President Emmanuel Macron's proposed "reforms" that would shift even more power to Brussels. Berlin had already largely demurred from Macron's plan, offering a basket of half-measures in response. "Solidarity must never lead to a debt union," Merkel explained. Now Macron, who vanquished the National Front's Marine Le Pen in last year's presidential race, will have to adapt to a Europe that is moving sharply away from him.

For instance, the United Kingdom continues to stagger towards Brexit, under Theresa May's desultory premiership. The EU remains a populist foil in Greece, which, under the left-wing Syriza government, is imposing another round of pension cuts to satisfy EU creditors. Hungary's populist Viktor Orbán, a former liberal, was reelected two months ago with an overwhelming parliamentary majority.

Comment: More:

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Violin

Jean Claude-Juncker says EU is getting ready for no-deal on Brexit

Daniel Boffey
Guardian
Fri, 22 Jun 2018 11:02 UTC
Juncker Varadkar
© Brian Lawless/PAJuncker with Leo Varadkar, the taoiseach of Ireland, in Dublin on Thursday.


European commission president says bloc must prepare for worst outcome

The EU needs to be realistic about the dangerous state of the Brexit negotiations and is preparing to deploy its trillion-pound budget to cushion the bloc from the prospect of a no-deal scenario, the European commission president has warned.

With the two sides still far apart on the "hardest issues", just days from a crunch leaders' summit in Brussels, Jean-Claude Juncker told the Irish parliament on Thursday he was stepping up preparations for a breakdown in talks, and even drafting plans aimed at keeping the peace in Northern Ireland.

The problem of avoiding a hard border with the Republic - said by the Irish taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, to be akin to a "riddle wrapped in an enigma" - is threatening to thwart all attempts to make progress on a wider deal.

With Theresa May refusing to countenance what Juncker described as the bloc's "bespoke and workable solution", of the Northern Ireland effectively staying in the customs union and single market, it was crucial for the 27 EU member states to prepare for the worst outcome, the commission president said.

Comment: A week ago: Theresa May faces Parliamentary rebellion for amendment effectively nullifying Brexit

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Gold Bar

World in transition: Russia invests in gold after dumping half its US treasury holdings


RT
Thu, 21 Jun 2018 15:34 UTC
gold russia
© Ilya Naymushin / Reuters
US sanctions have forced Russia to look at ways of securing its foreign reserves. In recent years, Moscow has increased purchases of physical gold and dramatically reduced its share of US debt bonds.

The political standoff started in 2014, shortly after the conflict in Ukraine and the referendum in Crimea in favor of joining Russia. Several rounds of US sanctions followed, with the latest affecting major Russian companies and individuals who run them.

In April, Russia sold half of its US sovereign debt bonds, getting rid of nearly $47 billion worth of securities, according to US Treasury data released last week. The sell-off is a signal that Russia's financial regulators are diversifying the country's foreign exchange reserves, say analysts at the Copenhagen-based Danske Bank.

Comment: The trade war the US initiated, as well as its belligerence on the geopolitical stage and its failing economy, leaves Russia and China with little option but to invest in a stable market and potential currency for trade, while also providing leverage against the US: Also check out SOTTs': Behind the Headlines: Trump Ditches Europe, Europe Bluffs, Russia and China Carry on With Eurasian Integration



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Jet5

At least eight people killed as US-led coalition strikes Syria's Deir ez-Zor


RT
Fri, 22 Jun 2018 08:29 UTC
A pair of US Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles
© US Air Force / ReutersA pair of US Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles
At least eight people have been killed in Syria following an airstrike by the US-led coalition in Deir ez-Zor province, according to state-run television.

The airstrike, which targeted the village of al-Shaafa, also destroyed a number of houses, as well as infrastructure, according to SANA.

It comes as the US State Department said it was "deeply troubled by reports of increasing Syrian regime operations" in southwestern Syria on Thursday, after the government moved to regain control of rebel-held areas.

Comment: At least one Syrian soldier was killed in a US-led coalition airstrike on Syrian army positions in the east of Homs province on Thursday, a Syrian field commander told Sputnik.
"The combat planes belonging to the coalition led by the United States, attacked the army position in Jabal Ghurab, some 150 kilometers [93 miles] east of Palmyra near the border with Iraq," the commander said.

"One serviceman was killed and several others wounded," he added.

According to a Syrian field commander, the sudden US-led coalition air assault occured after Syrian forces responded to an open fire from three coalition's vehicles, moving towards positions of governmental forces.
See also: Syria state media says US-led coalition strikes Syrian army positions in Deir ez-Zor, Pentagon denies report

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Attention

Canadian Liberal caucus member exposes himself as a hateful bigot after news broke of US child migrant crisis

Bryan Passifiume
Toronto Sun
Fri, 22 Jun 2018 03:56 UTC
Mary Elyas
There's the two lovebirds.
A federal Liberal riding association chair is under fire for a vitriolic Facebook rant which calls for supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump to be separated from their children and exiled to detention camps.

In the now-deleted exchange on his personal Facebook page, Mark Elyas - the Liberal Party of Canada's riding chair for Vancouver-East - reacted angrily towards critics on social media who expressed displeasure at him posting an anti-Donald Trump Youtube video on his Facebook page, entitled "Mr. President, F- You!"

Comment: If those who support the current Liberal ideology see authoritarians, fascists, bigots and racists around every corner, they need not look any further then their own backyard.

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