Puppet MastersS


Footprints

Ron Paul: The Iraqi people have spoken, time for US to move out


RT
Wed, 07 Mar 2018 21:41 UTC
flag strip
© YouTube
Speaking to RT, former US congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul said that "enough is enough" for the American military presence in the Middle East.

"I wish the American people would wake up and say 'enough is enough,'" said the 82-year-old Republican maverick, days after NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg announced that the alliance's forces will remain in the country despite a parliamentary ruling in Baghdad calling for the withdrawal of all foreign troops, claiming NATO forces will "not stay longer than necessary." A long-time critic of US foreign policy and interventionism as well as an opponent of the Iraq War, Ron Paul told RT that maintaining the American presence in the region was a bad idea.

"Their definition of 'necessary' is a lot different from other people's. The people of Iraq have spoken, their legislative body have voted and said we ought to leave, and I think that's a grand idea," Paul said.


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Attention

'Something broken in the US State Dept?' Russian Embassy perplexed by Nauert's 'Twitter' eruption


RT
Thu, 08 Mar 2018 04:18 UTC
HeatherNauert
© Alex Wroblewski / AFPSpokesperson Heather Nauert
The Russian Embassy in Washington DC believes that something might be "broken" in the US State Department, given the recent barrage of tweets targeting Moscow by spokesperson Heather Nauert.

Over the last 24 hours, Heather Nauert has unleashed a massive anti-Russian campaign on Twitter:
Blaming Russia for civilian casualties in Syria; praising the controversial Oscar-winning 'Icarus' documentary for exposing Putin's "disregard for international rules"; and glorifying Ukraine for its sacrifice to "ensure reliable gas delivery to European customers" in the face of Gazprom aggression.
While anti-Russian rhetoric coming out of Washington is nothing new, the latest Twitter spasm has raised eyebrows at the Russian embassy in the US. "We always assumed that Heather Nauert closely follows events in the world and inside the State Department. However, in the last couple of days, something seems to have broken in her department," the embassy said, in a statement to RT.
"We hear a stream of 'fake news' - about Russia's atrocities against the peaceful population of East Ghouta, about the gas 'heroism' of [Ukrainian President] Poroshenko, and sincere joy over the Oscar award to the story about the inventor of an alcohol doping-cocktail."
The embassy has been particularly concerned by the "disinformation" surrounding a possible meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his US counterpart Rex Tillerson.
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Snakes in Suits

US congressmen want a 'foreign agent' tag for Al Jazeera for digging into pro-Israel lobby


RT
Wed, 07 Mar 2018 16:14 UTC
Al Jazeera Foreign Agent
© Al Jazeera
A group of congressmen has called for Al Jazeera to be designated a "foreign agent" for its "anti-American and anti-Semitic broadcasts." This coincided with reports the TV network was releasing a film on the US pro-Israel lobby.

A bipartisan group of US lawmakers have sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, urging him to scrutinize Al Jazeera for what they said was undermining American interests. The Qatari government-funded news network, the letter asserted, has a record of "radical anti-American, anti-Semitic, anti-Israel broadcasts."

The letter, signed by Ted Cruz, Josh Gottheimer, Lee Zeldin and others, claims Al Jazeera's coverage also favors State Department-designated terrorist organizations, including Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, as well as Al-Nusra Front. The Americans "deserve to know whether the information and news media they consume is impartial, or if it is deceptive propaganda pushed by foreign nations," it urges.


Comment: Well, yes indeed Americans do. Would any US politician, given the past year of partisan political turmoil and slanderous press coverage, be objective enough to make that determination?


The call to label Al Jazeera comes amid reports that the Qatari broadcaster is about to release an investigation disclosing lobbying groups either serving Israeli interests or trying to silence pro-Palestinian advocates in the US.

Comment: If Americans pay attention, signs are all around that the US propaganda machine is pumping bias and narratives through their own MSM sources. When faced with inconvenient truths or different perspectives, foreign media have been cherrypicked and made to register as foreign agents, as was recently the case with RT and Sputnik. See also:

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Handcuffs

Every investigative trail leads back to the Clinton Crime Family

Jim Hoft
Source
Tue, 06 Mar 2018 20:08 UTC
On February 5th this story broke by Ryan Saavedra at The Daily Wire:
clinton foundation crimes
© The Daily Wire

On Monday The Hill reported that Alexander Downer is a former Clinton associate.

Comment: So the initial whisper that kicked off the whole #Russiagate fiasco came from a Killary donor. This just keeps getting better and better. How many lives have been destroyed (starting with Michael Flynn) because of this harpy's unlimited greed and ambition? Time to lock Killary and co. up!

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Stormtrooper

Senior British diplomat working at firm behind multi-million pound Saudi PR offensive


RT
Wed, 07 Mar 2018 19:44 UTC
Mohammad bin Salman Theresa May Avaaz protest
© Henry Nicholls / ReutersActivists from Avaaz stage a protest timed to coincide with the visit by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman outside the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain, March 7, 2018
A UK diplomat is working for the firm behind a multimillion pound Saudi PR drive while still employed by the Foreign Office, it has been revealed. It comes as Saudi Arabia's powerful Crown Prince prepares for his trip to Britain.

Jolyon Welsh, whose Foreign Office roles have included deputy head of Middle East, was given special unpaid leave in 2014 to become a senior director of Consulum, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. The communications firm was founded by former executives from Bell Pottinger, the agency that collapsed last year after a scandal over a campaign for South Africa's Gupta family.

Consulum's client list includes Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, widely known as MBS. He is Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, whose state visit to the UK starts this Wednesday amid controversy over his country's military campaign in Yemen. Saudi-led coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians and, at one point, sealed off the state to humanitarian access.
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Eye 2

Netanyahu in DC: I don't want Palestinian 'subjects' but the West Bank will remain under Israeli military control

Allison Deger
Mondoweiss
Thu, 08 Mar 2018 20:19 UTC
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and David Rubenstein
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an interview with David Rubenstein at the Economic Club in Washington DC
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today that he wants the West Bank to remain under Israeli's military control and does not want the Palestinians living there to become citizens or "subjects" of Israel, revealing an apparent hope to annex the occupied Palestinian territory while leaving its residents stateless. The remarks, made in an interview with David Rubenstein at the Economic Club in Washington DC, signal that Netanyahu has no intention of negotiating in talks that would conclude in Palestinian statehood. Yet the prime minister stopped short of explicitly calling for an official takeover of Palestinian lands in the form of a "one-state solution."

"I think most Israelis would favor a situation where we could separate from the Palestinians. I don't want the Palestinians as citizens of Israel and I don't want them as subjects of Israel," he explained, "So I want a solution when they have all the powers they need to govern themselves, but none of the powers that would threaten us. What that means is that whatever the solution is, the area west of the Jordan, that includes the Palestinian areas, would be militarily under Israel. The security, the overriding security and responsibility would be Israel's."

Netanyahu gave an example of where Israel could benefit from preventing the Palestinians from gaining security control over the West Bank: Ben-Gurion Airport, which "is about 10 seconds away from the West Bank."

Comment: This piece of 'subject' should be put in jail as soon as possible.

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Gear

Turkish FM Cavusoglu: Ankara considers joint op with Baghdad against Iraqi Kurds


RT
Thu, 08 Mar 2018 18:57 UTC
Vehicles of Kurdish Peshmarga Forces
© Azad Lashkari / ReutersVehicles of Kurdish Peshmarga Forces are seen near Altun Kupri between Kirkuk and Erbil, Iraq
Ankara and Baghdad may carry out a joint military operation against Iraqi Kurds after the May election in Iraq, the Turkish foreign minister said.

Speaking to CNN Turk, Mevlut Cavusoglu also said that Ankara's own operation against Syrian Kurdish militias in the Afrin region would be completed by May.

Kurdish militias in Iraq and Syria were allied with the US-led coalition, which rallied them for operations targeting the jihadist forces of the terrorist group, Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS). In Syria, the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces, which are dominated by Kurdish YPG militias, were the primary ground force in the siege of the IS stronghold of Raqqa.

Comment: Speaking to reporters on his flight from Germany to Austria, Çavuşoğlu said the joint cross-border operation with Iraq may start after Iraq holds parliamentary elections scheduled for May 2018, signaling Turkish troops may move to northern Iraq following the ongoing operation.
"Even if the Afrin operation has not yet been completed, we have the capacity to carry out both operations simultaneously," Çavuşoğlu said.
...

The minister's statement came after the Turkish General Chief of Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar met with his Iraqi counterpart Gen. Othman al-Ghanimi in Baghdad on March 1.

After Akar was received by Iraqi Defense Minister Erfan al-Hiyali at the Defense Ministry building in Baghdad, the three reportedly discussed regional security and means of enhancing bilateral military relations.

"Turkey and Iraq have been facing the same risks and threats that generated from the latest regional situations," said Akar.

"We would like to boost our relations and collaborate over the war against terrorism and border security," he added.

"This visit will be beneficial for the people on both sides," Ghanimi said.
See also: US Wants Control over Iraqi-Syrian Borders

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Vader

U.S. Army analysis: Strategy to 'dethrone' Putin for oil pipelines might provoke WW3

Nafeez Ahmed
Medium
Wed, 07 Mar 2018 16:33 UTC
Nato soldiers poland
© Janek Skarzynski / Agence France-Presse /Getty ImagesFrench soldiers unload tanks from a train in northern Poland for a NATO military exercise
A US Army document concedes the real interests driving US military strategy toward Russia: dominating oil pipeline routes, accessing the vast natural resources of Central Asia, and enforcing the expansion of American capitalism worldwide.

The Russians are coming. They hacked our elections. They are lurking behind numerous alternative political movements and news outlets. Such is the overwhelming chorus from traditional reporting on Russia, which sees the United States as being under threat from fanatical Russian expansionism - expansionism which has gone so far as to interfere dramatically in the 2016 Presidential elections.
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Pirates

Russian MoD: E. Ghouta militants attack civilian convoy of 300 families, at least 3 cars burnt


RT
Thu, 08 Mar 2018 18:43 UTC
Eastern Ghouta
© AFPEastern Ghouta
Militants entrenched in the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta have attacked a convoy of civilians trying to exit Ghouta, and shelled the area where their relatives and journalists had been waiting, Russian military said.

The armed groups fired on a civilian convoy of some 300 families, who were attempting to leave Eastern Ghouta via a humanitarian corridor, spokesman for the Russian Center for Reconciliation in Syria, Major General Vladimir Zolotukhin, told journalists on Thursday. The convoy came under fire just a kilometer away from the exit, where relatives of the Eastern Ghouta residents were waiting with journalists. It was not immediately clear whether there were casualties in the attack, but at least three cars were reportedly destroyed as a result of the shelling.

The militants then opened mortar fire on the exit area. No one was injured in the second attack, as civilians and journalists in the area were all immediately evacuated.

Comment: Local residents of Eastern Ghouta are sending messages to the Center for the Reconciliation of the Opposing Sides in Syria, telling about their readiness to leave the area but militants' leaders are taking all efforts to prevent their exit, Center Representative Major General Vladimir Zolotukhin said on Thursday.
'For this purpose, the illegal armed formations have intensified repressive measures against the population and increased the intensity of shelling the checkpoint near the town of El-Vafidin. The fire is delivered also during humanitarian pauses, due to which no one has been able to leave the exclave towards the checkpoint at the current moment," the general said.

The situation in the area remains complex and tense, he added.
See also: Phone discussion between Putin and Erdogan over tense situation in Eastern Ghouta

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Newspaper

Pentagon 'disappointed' by Putin's revelation of new Russian nuclear deterrent


RT
Thu, 08 Mar 2018 00:00 UTC
General John Hyten
© Yuri Gripas / ReutersCommander of the US Strategic Command, General John Hyten
Top Pentagon officials have told US lawmakers that they were "disappointed" by Putin's public announcement of Russia's unmatched missile capability, lamenting that he will use it to further "intimidate" the US and its allies.

"I think the statements made by Russian president Putin while not surprising were nonetheless disappointing. While we have been aware of the development of Russia's capabilities and watching with concern some of the development that has occurred in terms of Russia's doctrine and exercise program, it is nonetheless disappointing to see that the president of the Russian Federation chose to feature these capabilities in a way that he did," Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, John Rood, told the House Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, in a discussion on US Strategic Forces Posture and the Fiscal Year 2019 Budget Request.

Commander of the US Strategic Command, General John Hyten, added that "Putin's statements are not surprising and only reinforce Russia's commitment to develop weapons designed to intimidate and coerce the US and its allies."

Comment: See also:

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