Puppet MastersS


Sherlock

Asylum fraud: AfD wants Merkel's open door policy probed in parliament


RT
Fri, 01 Jun 2018 09:33 UTC
Migrants from Syria and Iraq take selfies with German Chancellor Angela Merkel
© Fabrizio Bensch / ReutersMigrants from Syria and Iraq take selfies with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on September 10, 2015
The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is pushing for a parliamentary inquiry into Chancellor Angela Merkel's migrant policy. It comes amid reports of asylum fraud at migration offices across the country.

The party filed the motion for the inquiry, which would require 25 percent support of lawmakers, on Thursday. AfD co-leader Alexander Gauland said it would rally other parties for their support.

The probe should include the years starting with 2014 and particular point of interest would be the question on what precautions the German government had taken to deal with the migration influx. AfD also wants to know what "legal grounds" allowed Merkel and Co to let refugees in.

Comment: See also: Enough is enough: German AfD party sues Merkel amid open-door policy toward migrants

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Radar

'We are there. Nothing has changed': US warns against attacking its troops after Assad says they'll leave Syria 'one way or another'


RT
Fri, 01 Jun 2018 09:05 UTC
US forces setting up a new base in Manbij
© Rodi Said / ReutersUS forces setting up a new base in Manbij, Syria, May 8, 2018
US troops are not leaving Syria and any attempt to remove them by force will be met with an armed response, a top Pentagon official said, reacting to Syrian President Bashar Assad's RT interview.

"Any interested party in Syria should understand that attacking US forces or our coalition partners will be a bad policy,"Director of Joint Staff Lieutenant General Kenneth McKenzie said at the Pentagon press briefing on Thursday.

Over 2,000 US troops in Syria are embedded with the SDF in the northeast as well as in the enclave of At-Tanf in the south, along the Jordanian border. McKenzie said the US troops and their local militia allies were staying in Tanf, quashing rumors of their impending withdrawal.

Comment: See also: President Bashar al-Assad: 'We were close to direct conflict between Russia and US inside Syria'

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Map

Russia reportedly working on deal with Israel for S. Syria - but Syria will regain it either way

Elijah J. Magnier
ejmagnier.com
Thu, 31 May 2018 22:38 UTC
isis police
Hisba (islamic Police) of Jiash Khaled Bin al-Waleed in Hawd al-Yarmouk (Quneitra) during this month of Ramadan.
Russia has decided to engage in a dialogue with Israel for the return of the southern part of Syria under the control of the central government in Damascus despite the US-Russia-Israel-Jordan de-confliction deal agreed months ago. Moscow is still negotiating details of the deal with Damascus and Tehran to make sure its main allies won't reject it and impose on Israel their own will.

Well informed sources following up the details of the Moscow-Tel Aviv negotiation informed me that some details are not yet fully mature due to Israel's fear of the return of Syrian allies (Iran and Hezbollah) to the Syrian-Israel borders, better known as the 1974 demarcation line agreed following the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

According to these sources, the decision has been made to eliminate the presence of ISIS where around 1,500 militants are present in 8 main villages in the Quneitra border area with Jordan, Israel and Syria, under the name of Jaish Khaled Bin al-Waleed. These will also have the possibility to be transported by buses to the north where, close to al-Sukhna, there is still an ISIS pocket fully surrounded by the Syrian Army and its allies which is, at this moment, the theatre of ongoing military operations to eliminate what remained of the terrorist group. Another ISIS pocket is still active under the US occupation forces' protection in Deir-Ezzour and al-Hasaka provinces north-east Syria.

Comment: Is Israel's main concern really the presence of Iran and Hezbollah in the south? Or is that just an excuse to continue to attack Syria? Either way, it is Israel's stated fear - so they can't help but lose face if they reject a deal that gives them exactly what they profess to want. As Magnier points out, Iran and Hezbollah don't need to be in the south. The Syrian army and militias can do whatever they need to do on their own. So basically, Israel is in a corner. They don't have many options.

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Brick Wall

Macron says Trump's decision to impose tariffs on EU closed doors to other talks


RT
Thu, 31 May 2018 20:57 UTC
Macron
© Philippe Wojazer / ReutersSoyboy Macron is upset
France's President Emmanuel Macron slammed the US move to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, Mexico and the European Union, calling the decision "unlawful" and a "mistake."

The decision on tariffs made by the US President Donald Trump closed doors to the talks with Washington on other issues, Macron said as cited by Reuters.

"This decision is not only unlawful but it is a mistake in many respects," Macron said. "Economic nationalism leads to war."

The French president also announced telephone talks with his US counterpart, expected to take place later on Thursday.

Comment: The target countries are not taking this lightly:

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USA

SOTT Focus: Ron Paul: Accidental Isolationism? America's Incredible Shrinking Influence

Ron Paul
Ron Paul Institute
Mon, 28 May 2018 00:00 UTC
putin petersburg
Europe - Eurasia - Asia
Just two weeks after President Trump pulled the US from the Iran nuclear agreement, his Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, issued 12 demands to Iran that could never be satisfied. Pompeo knew his demands would be impossible to meet. They were designed that way. Just like Austria-Hungary's ultimatum to Serbia in July, 1914, that led to the beginning of World War I. And just like the impossible demands made of Milosevic in 1999 and of Saddam Hussein in 1991 and 2003, and so many other times when Washington wanted war. These impossible demands are tools of war rather than steps toward peace.

Secretary Pompeo raged at Iran. The mainstream news media raged at Iran. Trump raged at Iran. But then a strange thing happened: nothing. The Iranians announced that they remained committed to diplomacy and would continue to uphold their end of the nuclear agreement if the Europeans and other partners were willing to do the same. Iranian and European officials then sought out contacts in defiance of Washington in hopes of preserving mutually-beneficial emerging commercial relations.

Washington responded to the European snub by threatening secondary sanctions on European companies that continued doing business with an Iran that had repeatedly been found in compliance with its end of the bargain. Any independent European relationship with Iran would be punished, Washington threatened. But then, again, very little happened.

Comment: Short, sweet and to the point.

Ron Paul is the president Americans should have had but couldn't have because normal folk need not apply.

No matter; Trump's bellicosity - whether he intends it or not - is bringing about Ron Paul's vision for America: a return to isolationism, aka 'Being a Normal Country'.

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Light Sabers

Forget WW3, it's Trade Wars! Canada retaliates against US tariffs with some of its own

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Thu, 31 May 2018 19:37 UTC
And so, the trade wars have begun...

Justin Trudeau
In slightly more than a strongly-worded email Canadian PM Justin Turdeau exclaimed his indignance at the Trump administration's decision to impose tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum imports, saying it is an "affront":
"Let me be clear, these tariffs are totally unacceptable,"
Trudeau said "Canada is a secure supplier" of metals to the U.S. military, and the idea of a security threat "is inconceivable." He called the tariffs "punitive" noting that US has a $2billion steel trade surplus with Canada.

Comment: Not sure if Canada can do all that much to hurt the US' pocket considering its weak dollar and economy. China however, is another matter. See also:

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Mr. Potato

News flash: The real revolution has nothing to do with Donald Trump

Caitlin Johnstone
Medium
Wed, 30 May 2018 00:00 UTC
Casino
© Trendolizer
It's been a weird last couple of days. I wrote an article about WikiLeaks' dismissal of "QAnon", the anonymous 8chan poster that hundreds of thousands of conspiracy newbies believe is sharing secret, coded information about Donald Trump's heroic war against the US deep state.

Ever since I hit publish I've been getting a bunch of angry Q enthusiasts in my social media notifications accusing me of being a shill for the establishment. Because I don't believe someone who says that we should all trust the President of the United States. Blind faith in the executive branch of the US government is anti-establishment now.

As bizarre as these interactions have been, they are still vastly more pleasant than my typical interactions with the faction I see as QAnon's mirror image, the Russiagaters. Though enthusiasts of the Russiagate conspiracy theory are far more nasty and vituperative than the Q crowd, there are many similarities. Like QAnon, Russiagate is fueled by about ten percent information and ninety percent desperate need to believe. Like QAnon, Russiagate is so thinly substantiated it doesn't begin to look legitimate until you've spent weeks crawling down the rabbit holes of its bulletproof echo chambers and squinting just right at everything you see until it feels true. Like QAnon, the evangelists of Russiagate center their revolutionary sentiment around President Donald Trump. Like QAnon, they shouldn't.
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USA

On the Korean Peninsula, the biggest violator of human rights isn't N. Korea

Joseph Essertier
Truthout
Tue, 29 May 2018 00:00 UTC
Blow up train
© US Army Miitary History InstituteUS armed forces target rail cars south of Wonsan, North Korea in 1950.
On February 22, 2018, at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Vice President Mike Pence described North Korea as "the most tyrannical and oppressive regime on the planet, an evil family clique that brutalizes, subjugates, starves and imprisons its 25 million people."

As a rare, concrete example of North Korea's "horrendous human rights abuses and crimes against humanity," Pence trotted out the tragic case of Otto Warmbier, who suffered a "severe neurological injury" of unknown cause, according to the coroner in Ohio, and died at the age of 22 after being released by North Korea's government.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in has said that, in his estimation, the government in the North bears a "heavy responsibility" for the process that led to Warmbier's death, but President Moon also warns, "We cannot know for sure that North Korea killed Mr. Warmbier." Pence and the man he calls the "Leader of the Free World" (i.e., Donald Trump), on the other hand, know for sure that Pyongyang killed Warmbier. Somehow, they just know it.

Comment: That many countries around the globe have, for various reasons, gone to war - killed innocent people, perpetrated atrocities and never looked back, never made restitution, never reflected on acts of annihilation - is not specific to the US. It is consistent with the US and doesn't excuse it from its actions or responsibilities. See also:

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Attention

Israel is in 'panic' after losing 'dear' ISIS and Al-Nusra terrorists in Syria says Assad


RT
Thu, 31 May 2018 07:11 UTC
Assad
© AFP/Middle East EyeSyrian President Bashar Assad
Striking targets in Syria and threatening to assassinate the leader on the pretext of fighting Iranian influence is a sign that Israel is in "panic" after losing its "dear" terrorist assets, President Bashar Assad told RT.

Over the last couple of months, Israel has intensified its bombing of military infrastructure in Syria, arguing that the Iranian presence in the Arab Republic jeopardizes its own national security. However, Israel's justification for its air strikes based on alleged Iranian assets is a "lie," Assad told RT's Murad Gazdiev in an exclusive interview.

"We don't have Iranian troops," Assad said. "We always said that we have Iranian officers, but they work with our army, we don't have [Iranian] troops."

Some Israeli politicians have threatened to "liquidate" Assad and topple his government if Iran continues to operate in Syria and transfer weapons to the Lebanese Hezbollah. The Syrian president, however, has made it clear that he is not afraid of the threat.
"The Israelis have been assassinating, killing, occupying for decades now, for around seven decades, in this region, but usually they do all this without threatening. Now, why do they threaten in this way? This is panic, this is a kind of hysterical feeling because they are losing the 'dear ones,' the dear ones Al-Nusra and ISIS, that's why Israel is panicking recently, and we understand their feeling," Assad said.
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Bizarro Earth

Cycle of lies: The West's role as judge and hangman

Thierry Meyssan
Voltairenet.org
Tue, 01 May 2018 00:00 UTC
UncleSamHanging man
© Getty Images
When they want to condemn a suspect, the Western powers accuse him of all sorts of crimes until they're ready to pronounce sentence. Truth and Justice have no say in the matter, the only thing that counts is their power.

Let's take another look at the accusation of the use of chemical weapons in Syria. Thierry Meyssan reminds us that although that particular case is only a few years old, the principle of claiming that Syria is guilty has been established for more than two thousand years.

The Western powers claim that a "civil war" began in Syria in 2011. However, the US Congress adopted, and then President George W. Bush signed, a declaration of war against Syria and Lebanon, in 2003, the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act [1].

After the vain attempt in 2004 by Secretary of State Colin Powell to transform the Arab League into a regional tribunal (the Tunis summit), Western aggression began with the assassination of Lebanese ex-Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, in 2005.
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