Puppet MastersS


War Whore

Pentagon pledges to continue belligerent operations in South China Sea


RT
Mon, 28 May 2018 12:41 UTC
pentagon aerial photo
© Yuri Gripas / ReutersThe Pentagon is pictured in Washington DC on March 29, 2018.
The US Navy has pledged to continue regularly sending warships and jets to the South China Sea, openly defying China's accusations of violating its sovereignty.

American warships will continue to be deployed in the region "on an everyday basis," Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Logan told the Russian media on Sunday. He said that the US Navy operated strictly within the international rules, exercising the freedom of navigation.

The Pentagon statement contradicts strong words coming from Beijing. The Chinese Defense Ministry accused the US of "provocation" and infringing upon China's sovereignty by conducting operations near the disputed Paracel Islands.

Comment: Further reading: Two US warships enter disputed South China Sea waters, China slams move

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Megaphone

'Mr. Trump is destroying every enemy that was an enemy of our rise' - Louis Farrakhan

Thomas Lifson
American Thinker
Sat, 26 May 2018 00:01 UTC
Louis Farrakhan
Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam movement, appears to have changed his opinion of Donald Trump since two years ago, when he warned black Americans: "If Donald Trump becomes president, he will take America into the abyss of hell." Appearing on Chicago radio station WGCI, on a program titled "The Morning Takeover," he stated that it may not have been the intent of this administration to help, but that Trump is destroying the enemies of the Nation of Islam. Included in this group are the Department of Justice and the FBI.

Comment: This is actually at least the second time Farrakhan has praised Trump, (although both times it has been a rather left-handed compliment). There seems to be a trend in black Americans waking up to the fact that the Democrats have never really had their backs and they're looking for other options.

See also:

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Jet1

Russian Su-34 fighter jet spotted over Tripoli, Lebanon


South Front
Sun, 27 May 2018 08:29 UTC
Russian Su-34 fighter jet
Russian Su-34 fighter jet
On May 27, a Su-34 warplane of the Russian Aerospace Force Intercepted an F-16 warplane of the Israel Air Force over the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, according to several Lebanese sources. Reportedly, the Su-34 took off from Hmeimim airbase in the Syria coast.

Lebanese sources released a video showing the Russian Su-34 flying over Tripoli. However, no Israeli F-16 was spotted. This led many observers into doubting that the Su-34 was intercepting an Israeli warplane.


Comment: See also: Hezbollah leader Nasrallah says Israel enters Lebanese airspace every day

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Blackbox

Exiled Saudi prince calls for coup agaisnt MBS in bombshell interview

Whitney Webb
Mint Press News
Sat, 26 May 2018 00:00 UTC
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy
© Paul White | APSaudi Arabia ministers enter the Moncloa Palace for a ceremony presided by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, in Madrid, Spain, April 12, 2018
RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA - A shocking interview of an exiled Saudi prince calling for regime change in his home country has gone viral as in-fighting within the Saudi royal family and simmering domestic discontent with the current government's policies may have reached a breaking point.

Exiled Saudi Prince Khalid bin Farhan, in a videotaped appearance with Middle East Eye, called on two of his relatives in particular — Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz and Prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz - to launch a coup against the current ruler King Salman and, the real power behind him, the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, popularly referred to as MBS in Western media. According to Prince Khalid, who was granted political asylum by Germany in 2013, "99 percent of the members of the royal family, the security services and the army would stand behind them," were they to challenge the country's current rulers.

Both of the relatives named by Khalid have been influential in the Saudi government in the past. Ahmed bin Abdulaziz was longtime deputy minister of interior from 1975 to 2012 and briefly served as minister of interior in 2012, while Muqrin bin Abdulaziz was head of Saudi intelligence until 2012 and served briefly as crown prince in 2015 before resigning. He was replaced by Muhammad bin Nayef, who was dramatically ousted in June of last year by MBS — who since then has brought numerous "reforms" to the country, seeking to modernize it, while also cultivating a controversial alliance with his country's long-time enemy, Israel.

Comment: Dissident Saudi prince calls for coup, urges uncles to seize power

As commented in this prior article:
The question is: with corruption so rampant among the Saudi royal family, is there any other approach? Unless the entire system of government is reformed, it's just going to be one crook at the top or another.


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Gold Seal

How Bill Browder 'proved' Vladimir Putin's corruption

Alex Krainer
The Naked Hedgie
Sun, 27 May 2018 22:11 UTC
bill browder
Bill Browder, tried and convicted (in absentia) of defrauding the Russian state
Former hedge fund manager Bill Browder, the faux crusader for human rights, has made very serious claims of corruption against Vladimir Putin, claims which many media personalities in the West have treated as true and factual without ever challenging them. Browder presents these claims in his bestseller, Red Notice.

At first blush, they show Vladimir Putin in a very negative light that may shock the reader. A more careful scrutiny of Browder's case shows it to be a disingenuous, baseless smear, which further begs the question: if this is the best (worst) Browder can offer as proof against Putin, the ceaseless assertions of his corruption amount to what, exactly?

The following excerpt from my book (currently banned, but available here in electronic format) examines the merits of Bill Browder's assertions.
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Propaganda

The Wikileaks-ization of American media (or how the Kremlin hacked American journalism)

Jack Goldsmith
The Weekly Standard
Mon, 14 May 2018 11:32 UTC
Wikileak/MSM
© Unknown/VOA NewsTruly...there is no comparison!
Scott Shane had an interesting piece over the weekend in the New York Times on a topic I wrote about last year: What should journalists do when they receive "authentic and newsworthy" information from a foreign intelligence service? The question has become salient again because of Amy Chozick's worry that she was an "unwitting agent of Russian intelligence" due to her reporting about the Russia-hacked DNC emails in 2016. (Shane himself wrote in late 2016 that the Times had become "a de facto instrument of Russian intelligence.")

Shane suggests that the problem with the DNC leak stories was not their content, which "revealed true and important things, including the party leadership's hostility to Bernie Sanders's campaign and the texts of Mrs. Clinton's private speeches, which she had refused to release." The problem, rather, was that "Russian hackers chose not to deliver to American voters the same inside material from the Trump campaign," and thus "the tilt of the coverage was decided in Moscow." By counting on reporters to "follow their usual rules" of reporting truthful information in the public interest, Shane concludes, "the Kremlin hacked American journalism."

Shane's piece doesn't propose any fixes for this problem other than "extreme caution and extra transparency." It is hard to know how much more transparent the Times could have been beyond its practice of disclosing in its stories, when it knew, that WikiLeaks and Russia were the sources for the stolen information it reported and analyzed.

Comment: "the Kremlin hacked American journalism." Seriously? Can you spot the disconnects, the disavows and the persuasive, but unqualified scrub job? MSM at its 'selective' best.
How about this one:
NYTimes headline
© NYT
For another case-in-point see references to a NYT article here: Stephen Cohen: 'Suspicious contacts' echo of dark pasts

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Snakes in Suits

Adam Schiff may have just admitted the US has a secret indictment of Julian Assange

Max Blumenthal
Gray Zone
Sat, 26 May 2018 00:00 UTC
Adam Schiff
© UnknownRepresentative Adam Schiff
After Randy Credico offered Rep. Adam Schiff an interview with Assange, Schiff apparently revealed US plans to indict and extradite the Wikileaks founder

On May 23, activist and satirist Randy Credico met with the staff of Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee and de facto leader of the House's investigation into Russian meddling. Credico described the discussions to me hours after his meeting.

According to Credico, Schiff requested the interview after a brief chat with Schiff at the White House Press and Correspondents Association gala last month. An email from House Intelligence Committee senior counsel Shannon Green to Credico (below) demonstrates Schiff's interest in the encounter.
Mr.Credicomessage
May 8 email from House Intel Committee senior counsel Shannon Green to Randy Credico.
Schiff was interested exclusively in gathering evidence to bolster the Russiagate narrative of Credico as a secret liaison between Julian Assange, who has been branded without evidence by the CIA as a hostile foreign intelligence asset rather than a journalist, and former Trump campaign aide Roger Stone.

(Credico, an erstwhile associate of Stone and fervent advocate for Assange's freedom, was subpoenaed last November by Schiff. He invoked the Fifth Amendment at the time).

But once Credico arrived in Schiff's office, he sent the congressman's staff in an unexpected - and politically inconvenient - direction.
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Attention

Hezbollah leader Nasrallah says Israel enters Lebanese airspace every day


Sputnik
Sat, 26 May 2018 11:41 UTC
Sheik Hassan Nasrallah
© AP Photo/Bilal HusseinSheik Hassan Nasrallah
In a speech, marking 18 years since Israeli forces withdrew from southern Lebanon, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah reportedly said that the movement doesn't seek war with the Jewish state, but would "assuredly win" if a war were to break out.

Several Israeli media outlets have reported that Nasrallah said that "every day the Israeli enemy enters our airspace," while speaking about Tel Aviv's alleged Friday's overnight attack on Syria from Lebanese airspace.

The Hezbollah leader's comments came shortly after a Syrian conflict-monitoring group claimed that Israel carried out strikes against the Dabaa airbase in central Syria. According to the group, sounds of blasts were heard near the military airport, which is located about 20 kilometers southwest of Homs province.

Syrian state media SANA reported, citing a military source, that Syrian air defenses had intercepted a "missile aggression" on a military airfield in Homs province. Some Lebanese media outlets reported that several Israeli warplanes were seen flying in Lebanon's airspace.

On Wednesday night, Israel Television News showed pictures of an Israeli F-35 stealth fighter flying over Beirut after the country's Air Force Commander Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin had said that the Jewish state had become the first country in the world to carry out an "operational attack" with the new fifth-generation fighter jet.

Comment: See also: Syrian air defense intercepts Israeli missile strike on airport near Homs

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Sherlock

Stephen Cohen: 'Suspicious contacts' echo of dark pasts


RT
Fri, 25 May 2018 15:44 UTC
Stephen Cohen
© RT
McCarthyism and firsthand recollections of Soviet surveillance practices.

Stephen F. Cohen, professor emeritus of Russian studies and politics at NYU and Princeton, and John Batchelor continue their (usually) weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War.

Cohen has several reactions to the recent revelation that a longtime CIA-FBI "informant," professor emeritus Stefan Halper, had been dispatched to "interact" with several members of Donald Trump's campaign organization in 2016. He discusses each of them:

1. In February, Cohen asked if "Russiagate" was largely "Intelgate," pointing to the roles then known to have been played by CIA Director John Brennan and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. The revelation about Halper, essentially an Intel undercover operative, is further evidence that US intelligence agencies were deeply involved in the origins and promotion of Russiagate allegations of "collusion" between Trump and the Kremlin. (We do not know if others were deployed covertly to "investigate" the Trump campaign, what the two agencies did with Halper's information, or whether he was connected in any way to UK intelligence officer Christopher Steele and his "dossier.")
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Attention

US warns Assad: Grave consequences if he retakes SW Syria

Richard Silverstein
Tikun Olam
Sat, 26 May 2018 00:00 UTC
US Tank
© Rodi Said/Reuters
The U.S. has engaged in yet another extraordinary breach of all previous foreign policy norms by (not so) tacitly threatening Syria's Pres. Assad with severe consequences if he commences an expected offensive in the southwest to retake territory long-ceded to al-Nusra Islamist rebels allied with Israel. Keep in mind that whatever we may think of Assad (not much), he is the recognized ruler of Syria. His forces have recently retaken large swaths of territory formerly held by Islamist rebels. In other words, he rules Syria. The idea that a foreign power would tell such a figure that he may not take control of his own territory is astonishing by almost any measure.

Add to this that our country is implicitly weighing in on this matter on behalf of our vassal state (or are we the vassals?), Israel; and you have one strange set of circumstances - and dangerous ones at that.

Comment: Do we really want to set up a potential direct confrontation between U.S. and Russian forces? That would depend upon whom you asked. It is the Americans' horror, but manipulating the Syrian scenario to confront Russia and Iran - quite the neocon/Israeli dream.

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