Puppet MastersS


Handcuffs

Venezuela's former intelligence chief arrested in connection with armed attacks on public institutions


teleSUR
Tue, 13 Mar 2018 17:54 UTC
Miguel Rodriguez Torres
© ReutersFormer Venezuela's Interior and Justice Minister and intelligence service head Miguel Rodriguez Torres talks to the media during a news conference in Caracas, Venezuela June 27, 2017.
"He has been captured and handed over to the justice system," read a statement from Venezuela's communications ministry.

Venezuelan security forces on Tuesday detained Miguel Rodriguez Torres, a former interior minister and intelligence chief who officials say was connected to armed attacks on public institutions last year.

The former official was apprehended as part of an operation to dismantle "aggressive and violent plans" against the government, according to a statement from Venezuela's communications ministry.

"He has been captured and handed over to the justice system," read the statement.
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Chess

British government seeks urgent UN Security Council meeting over Salisbury spy attack


RT
Wed, 14 Mar 2018 19:03 UTC
UN Security Council
© Mike Segar / ReutersUN Security Council
The British government is seeking an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council to update members about the attack on former double agent Sergei Skripal.

Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found slumped on a bench in Salisbury on March 3. British authorities claim both were poisoned with a Soviet-engineered nerve agent called Novichok. Both remain in critical condition in hospital.


Comment: Further reading:

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Stock Up

Venezula seeks to ditch US dollar in trade with India


teleSUR
Wed, 14 Mar 2018 18:05 UTC
Jorge Arreaza
© ReutersVenezuela's Foreign Affairs Minister Jorge Arreaza addresses the media during a news conference in Caracas
Venezuela, which has similar arrangements with Turkey, China, and Russia, offered the proposal to India in the light of the recent U.S.-imposed sanctions.

During a recent visit to India, Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Jorge Arreaza, said the South American country was interested in conducting transactions with the Indian government and business sector using India's national currency, the Indian Rupee (INR), instead of the U.S. Dollar.

"We don't want to use the dollar at all," Arreazasaid, according to the Times of India, an Indian daily. "We want to import technology, food products, and medicines by paying (Indian) rupees and they will pay us (Venezuela) not in (US) dollars but in Rupees."
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Bad Guys

'Legitimate target': Turkish airstrikes kill 8 pro-Syrian gov't forces near Afrin - Government forces shell Turkish troops in response to airstrike - Update


Sputnik
Wed, 14 Mar 2018 10:30 UTC
The main entrance to Afrin
© AFP 2018/ George OURFALIANThe main entrance to the city of Afrin, along Syria's northern border with Turkey
After pro-Syrian government militia joined the battle in Afrin on behalf of the Kurds, Ankara slammed the move, saying that the fighters had become Turkey's "legitimate target." Damascus has dubbed the Turkish campaign as "aggression," however, refrained from sending armed forces to the area.

Three Turkish air strikes hit Syrian government forces checkpoint on road to Afrin, killing eight fighters and wounding six, according to a source. Damascus have yet to confirm the information.

On February 22, the Syrian pro-government forces entered Afrin to support the Kurds being attacked by the Turkish army and the FSA, as part of Ankara's Olive Branch Operation launched on January 20. The residents of the city greeted the pro-Damascus forces.

Comment: Turkish warplanes have unexpectedly struck a government-controlled Shiite-majority town and military checkpoint area in the northern countryside of Aleppo province amid an intensified air campaign over northwest Syria.
According to a statement released by local pro-government activists, Turkish aircraft bombed the town of Nubl an unspecified number of times. Early reports say that at least three civilians were killed in the strikes.
Update: A local government militia reportedly shelled Turkish forces in the town of Marea in northern Syria today, in retaliation to an airstrike on a checkpoint, which killed eight of their combatants near Afrin.
Another six militiamen were injured in the airstrike by a Turkish warplane. It's unclear if the subsequent artillery fire resulted in the death of any Turkish servicemen or Turkey-backed militants.
A pro-Syrian government militia has attempted to revenge comrades killed in a Turkish airstrike against their positions in the northwest Syrian region of Afrin.
The Turkish airstrike hit the Iranian-organized National Defense Forces (NDF) who are made up of local Syrians and usually act as a defensive force rather than offensive, as reported earlier by FRN. A total of eight NDF fighters were martyred in the attack.

The NDF in response has just fired dozens of rockets and mortars at Olive Branch forces.


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Eye 1

'Godmother of torture should be in dock at The Hague, not directing CIA', says whistleblower


RT
Wed, 14 Mar 2018 17:21 UTC
Gina Haspel
© CIA / ReutersGina Haspel, a veteran CIA clandestine officer picked by U.S. President Donald Trump to head the Central Intelligence Agency.
Donald Trump won't get alternative viewpoints by surrounding himself with 'yes men' and 'yes women,' and that is the mark of a failing presidency, former CIA analyst and whistleblower John Kiriakou told RT.

Trump fired US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday, making him the first to fall in Washington after the president promised a shake-up last week, saying he was seeking perfection in his administration.

The newly appointed US Secretary of State is Mike Pompeo, former director of the CIA, although Rex Tillerson will remain in office until the end of this month and will then effectively step away from politics. Gina Haspel was nominated to succeed Mike Pompeo as CIA director.
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Rocket

Trump announces plan for 'space force,' recognizes space as a 'war-fighting domain'


RT
Wed, 14 Mar 2018 08:24 UTC
X-37 Orbital Test Vehicle
© NASA Handout / ReutersAn artist's rendering of the X-37 Orbital Test Vehicle
US President Donald Trump has floated the creation of a Space Force, a new military branch to utilize outer space as a "war domain," just like land, air or sea. Apart from that, he promised the Americans will soon reach Mars.

Speaking to a crowd of Marines at Miramar Air Station in San Diego, California, Trump said his administration may consider establishing what he termed the "Space Force." The new arm of the US military would operate just like the Army or Air Force, only in outer space.

"My new national strategy for space recognizes that space is a war-fighting domain, just like the land, air and sea. We may even have a Space Force. We have the Air Force. We will have a Space Force," Trump said, as quoted by AP.

Noting that many service members, including sailors, airmen and marines, had become astronauts in the past, Trump said the military "will be vital to ensuring America continues to lead the way into the stars."
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Bad Guys

UK to wage 'economic war' with Russia and expel Russian diplomats over Skripal poisoning


Sputnik & RT
Wed, 14 Mar 2018 15:45 UTC
UK flag Big Ben
© AP Photo/ Matt Dunham
A British government minister has revealed the kinds of measures London plans to take in connection with the poisoning of Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal. Prime Minister Theresa may plans to announce measures against Moscow on Wednesday afternoon, despite protests from Moscow that it has received no proof of Russian involvement in the Skripal case.

An anonymous minister has confirmed that London's response to the ex-spy's poisoning will be economic. "What happens will be an economic war, these will be economic measures," the source said, speaking to The Independent. Bragging about the size of the British economy compared to Russia's, the minister promised that the government would "do our bit to make [Russia's economy] smaller if they want to carry on like this."

"The message has to be economic, political and diplomatic," the minister stressed, noting that European countries must "behave within the rule of law and not like gangsters."


Comment: Behaving within the rule of law? Say, doesn't that mean relying on things like evidence rather than propagandist fantasies?

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Snakes in Suits

Snowden: New CIA boss wanted for arrest in Europe for ties to US torture programs

Inessa Sinchougova
Fort Russ News
Wed, 14 Mar 2018 14:38 UTC
Gina Haspel
© Fort Russ News
Former US intelligence officer, Edward Snowden, has stated that the new CIA director, Gina Haspel, will not be able to visit EU countries without the risk of being arrested.

He recalled that in June 2017 the European Center for Constitutional Rights and Human Rights asked the German authorities to issue an arrest warrant for Haspel, for torture of terror suspects. The reason for this was the case of Abu Zubaida, who was tortured 83 times in a secret CIA prison in Thailand.

According to media reports, Haspel led this secret prison in 2002. According to the international non-governmental organization Amnesty International, at least two people were abducted there, by US intelligence services.

According to Snowden, Haspel was a key link in the torture program and its legal cover. "Her name appears in a "top secret" file - where she demanded the destruction of records, so that Congress would not see them." It's incredible, " he wrote.
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Beaker

Spys, Salisbury, Porton Down, Sergi Skripal and Fourteen and a half certainties

John Helmer
Dance with Bears
Wed, 14 Mar 2018 13:33 UTC
Square Peg Round Hole
In cases like the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, the only way to proceed is by identifying the evidence which proves with certainty what happened; or failing that, proves with certainty what did not happen. Perpetrator, co-conspirators, method, motive, intention - all come later, if they come at all.

At the moment, according to police and government releases and the British state media, the crime scene in Salisbury is being combed by at least 250 police officers; with another 180 military personnel specializing in chemical warfare. Dozens more electronic surveillance and cyber-warfare agents are also engaged. The crime scene locations include the Skripal house; the cemetery graves of Skripal's wife and son; the Mill public house where Skripal and his daughter had a drink; the Zizzi restaurant where they ate before collapsing; and the public areas where they walked between house, pub, restaurant, the Maltings shopping precinct, and park bench.

Comment:

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Map

Erdogan: Afrin will soon be 'fully captured' by Turkey


RT
Wed, 14 Mar 2018 11:53 UTC
Turkey tanks army
© Emrah Oprukcu / Global Look Press
The Kurdish Syrian enclave of Afrin "will soon fall completely, God willing," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared in a speech. He added that he hopes it will happen by Wednesday evening.

The statement came as Erdogan addressed local administrators at the presidential compound in Ankara. He also said civilian residents of the area were being evacuated through humanitarian corridors organized by Turkey.

Ankara launched an operation in northwestern Syria two months ago after the US announced that it was planning to boost the predominantly-Kurdish militia force, SDF, with training and weapons. The militias played the role of the ground force for the US-led siege of Raqqa, the now-destroyed stronghold of the terrorist group Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS).

Comment: Syrian and Russian forces have offered their full support to the Kurds. That is, as long as they submit, as the citizens that they are, to the Syrian government. This is a far cry from the way the US used them and left them at the mercy of Turkey. South Front reports that the Kurds have begun handing over checkpoints to the Syrian Army in order to make good on the deal; however it is probably too late:



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