Puppet MastersS


Stormtrooper

Ex-US defense secretary Perry says Russia 'no threat,' NATO expansion 'dilutes effectiveness' of bloc


RT
Sat, 17 Feb 2018 18:37 UTC
US troops latvia
© Ints Kalnins / Reuters / FileUS navy amphibious assault vehicles near Ventspils, Latvia.
NATO's rapid expansion has not necessarily strengthened the alliance and the US should rethink its hostility towards Russia, former US Secretary of Defense William Perry said on RT's SophieCo program.

Perry, who has previously stated that NATO's eastward expansion during his tenure as defense secretary was a mistake and largely responsible for the current confrontation between Moscow and Washington, told RT's Sophie Shevardnadze that he was sceptical that incorporating Macedonia or Montenegro into NATO would benefit the "defensive" alliance.

"You can argue that you dilute the effectiveness of the organization if you get too many countries in it. So I think we're probably either in the end or very nearly to the end of the expansion," Perry said. He added that he was almost certain that NATO has abandoned any ideas of expanding to Ukraine. Urging Washington and Moscow to "stop seeing the worst" in each other, Perry told Shevardnadze that he "doesn't see Russia as posing a threat to the US and threatening a war with the US."

Comment: Why is it that common sense regarding a situation is only expressed after one is no longer in a governmental position to do something about it?

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Safe

DOJ official Bruce Ohr failed to disclose wife's Fusion GPS payments to ethics officials

Luke Rosiak
The Daily Caller
Wed, 14 Feb 2018 18:22 UTC
Bruce Ohr
© Youtube screen grabJustice Department official Bruce Ohr.
Bruce Ohr, the Department of Justice official who brought opposition research on President Donald Trump to the FBI, did not disclose that Fusion GPS, which performed that research at the Democratic National Committee's behest, was paying his wife, and did not obtain a conflict of interest waiver from his superiors at the Justice Department, documents obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation show.

The omission may explain why Ohr was demoted from his post as associate deputy attorney general after the relationship between Fusion GPS and his wife emerged and Fusion founder Glenn Simpson acknowledged meeting with Ohr. Willfully falsifying government ethics forms can carry a penalty of jail time, if convicted.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) hired Fusion GPS to gather and disseminate damning info about Trump, and they in turn paid Nellie Ohr, a former CIA employee with expertise in Russia, for an unknown role related to the "dossier." Bruce Ohr then brought the information to the FBI, kicking off a probe and a media firestorm.
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Quenelle - Golden

SOTT Focus: Disastrous Winter Olympics For the USA, May Lose South Korea to Peace

Niall Bradley
Sott.net
Sat, 17 Feb 2018 18:55 UTC
mike pence winter olympics
'You have good time, Mike?'... 'I'd rather be in Israel.'
I must confess some measure of schadenfreude at the sight of beady-eyed US Vice-president Mike Pence squirming through his 'protocol headache' at the opening ceremony of the winter Olympics in South Korea last week. There he was, the distinguished emissary of South Korea's 'protector', a representative of the Exceptional Nation, eclipsed by the surprise inclusion of a representative of 'the enemy'. And at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics, no less! Who politicizes sporting and cultural events like that? It's outrageous!

The irony, no doubt, was completely lost on the Americans. After provoking Russia into responding to a military attack launched by that nutcase Saakashvili during the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, then trying their level best to scare people away from participating in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, then pressuring international sporting bodies to ban Russian athletes from the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, then doing likewise to cast Russians as untermensch at the current winter games, there's some poetic justice in seeing the US deep state's manipulation of the cultural sphere bite it in the rear.
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Snakes in Suits

Master manipulator Soros calls for EU to 'protect society' from social media


Westmonster
Fri, 16 Feb 2018 00:00 UTC
Soros
Billionaire globalist George Soros has called for the European Union to regulate Facebook and Google because he believes people are being "manipulated". Nothing to do with pro-Brexit and Eurosceptic movements across the world utilising social media to reach a wide audience, of course!

In an article published on the Guardian website, Soros refers to the companies as a "public menace" which regulators need "to protect society against them".

Soros also says Facebook "interferes with the functioning of democracy and the integrity of elections" because he claims people "can be easily manipulated".

"This danger does not loom only in the future; it played an important role in the 2016 US presidential election," he writes.

Comment: Soros himself could well be described as a public menace: And Breitbart weighs in:
[...]
Mr. Soros has a cosy relationship with the EU's unelected leaders, meeting with them 11 times since the Brexit vote. Prime Minister Theresa May, in contrast, has had just three meetings in that period.

Just over a week ago, it was revealed Mr. Soros had quietly pumped half a million pounds into groups trying to block Brexit and overthrow the Tory government.

In the Guardian article, he wrote that social media can "influence how people think and behave without them even being aware of it" and "this interferes with the functioning of democracy and the integrity of elections".

Due to social media use, he claimed people are losing "freedom of mind", adding: "This danger does not loom only in the future; it played an important role in the 2016 US presidential election."

"President Donald Trump would like to establish his own mafia-style state," he said, claiming the President was part of the same problem as North Korean Dictator Kim Jong-un.

"In the US, regulators are not strong enough to stand up to the monopolies' political influence. The EU is better positioned, because it doesn't have any platform giants of its own," he continued.

"The EU commissioner for competition Margrethe Vestager is the champion of the European approach," he added, praising the bureaucrat who recently visited Communist Cuba without condemning human rights abuses in the nation.

Mr. Soros, who has been convicted of insider trading, is also suspected of attempting to interfere in U.S. elections, and his name came up around 60 times in emails released by WikiLeaks relating to the recent presidential race.


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Brain

Lavrov on Mueller indictment: 'Until there are facts, it's all just blather'


RT
Sat, 17 Feb 2018 14:46 UTC
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov talks at the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, February 17, 2018
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov talks at the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, February 17, 2018
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has again dismissed claims of Russian meddling in the US election, saying that until facts are presented by Washington, they are nothing but "blather."

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Saturday, he said that "Until we see facts, everything else will be just blather." When asked to comment on the indictment of Russian nationals and companies in the US over alleged meddling in the 2016 US election, the foreign minister answered: "You know, I have no reaction at all because one can publish anything he wants. We see how accusations, statements, statements are multiplying."

On Friday, a US federal grand jury indicted 13 Russian nationals and three entities accused of interfering in the 2016 election and political processes. According to the indictment, those people were "supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump... and disparaging Hillary Clinton" as they staged political rallies and bought political advertising, while posing as grassroots entities.

Comment: The Russia election meddling accusations have been absurd from the get-go. They'll always be blather and we'll never see facts supporting the accusations because they simply don't exist.

The good news, at least, is that people are becoming more and more aware that the mainstream media is lying to them and that this entire charade is a witch hunt conducted by the deep state.

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Blackbox

Can Israel digest Putin's grand bargain?

Alastair Crooke
Strategic Culture Foundation
Sat, 17 Feb 2018 13:52 UTC
Netanyahu and Putin
"Israel is climbing up a high horse," Alex Fishman (the veteran Israeli Defence Correspondent) wrote in the Hebrew daily, Yedioth Ahronoth, last month, "and is approaching with giant steps a 'war of choice': Without mincing words, it's an initiated war in Lebanon." In Fishman's article, he notes: "Classical deterrence is when you threaten an enemy not to harm you in your territory, but here, Israel demands that the enemy refrain from doing something in its own territory, otherwise Israel will harm it. From a historical perspective and from the perspective of international legitimacy, the chances of this threat being accepted as valid, leading to the cessation of enemy activities in its own territory, are slim."

Ben Caspit also wrote about a fair prospect of a "war of choice," whilst a Haaretz editorial - explains Professor Idan Landau in an Israeli news blog - noted: "The Israeli government therefore owes Israeli citizens a precise, pertinent and persuasive explanation as to why a missile factory in Lebanon has changed the strategic balance to the extent that it requires going to war. It must present assessments to the Israeli public as to the expected number of casualties, damage to civilian infrastructure and the economic cost of going to war, as compared with the danger that construction of the missile factory constitutes."

We live dangerous times in the Middle East today - both in the immediate present, and in the mid-term, too.
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Eye 2

US embassy officials suffered "widespread brain network dysfunction" after mystery "high pitched noise" in Cuba

Katie Leach
Washington Examiner
Thu, 15 Feb 2018 12:00 UTC
US embassy in Cuba
© Alexandre Meneghini / ReutersUS embassy, Cuba
More than two dozen U.S. personnel appeared to have suffered "widespread brain network dysfunction" while working at the U.S. embassy in Cuba, according to a new medical report.

The Journal of the American Medical Association published a report Wednesday detailing what they call a "neurotrauma from a nonnatural source" experienced by Americans while in Havana.

According to the U.S. State Department, 24 Americans experienced these mysterious "health attacks" which has left medical officials baffled for more than a year now. After the incidents, the U.S. withdrew most of their diplomats and officials out of Havana.

Comment: Considering the US' history with all kinds of covert weapons and warfare against other nations and those of its own people, including in its own government, there is a strong likelihood the source of the attack came from within:

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Attention

Hezbollah can retaliate against Israeli offshore oil and gas operations


RT
Sat, 17 Feb 2018 14:10 UTC
Israeli gas platform
© Amir Cohen / ReutersAn Israeli gas platform is seen in the back as a sailor in the Israeli navy stands aboard a patrol boat in the Mediterranean sea some 15 miles (24 km) west of the port city of Ashdod February 25, 2013.
Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has threatened to attack Israel's offshore oil and gas exploration and drilling operations in yet another escalation in the two countries' increasingly hostile war of words.

During a televised address in Beirut on Friday, Nasrallah said Hezbollah could "disable [Israel's offshore oil installations] within hours."

"If you prevent us, we prevent you; if you open fire at us, we will open fire," he added during a ceremony commemorating the death of Imad Mughniyeh, the party's former military commander who was assassinated in Damascus in 2008.
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Light Sabers

Indictment of 13 Russians for social media ads reveals how desperate Mueller is


RT
Sat, 17 Feb 2018 13:16 UTC
Trump Clinton
© Shannon Stapleton / Reuters
The indictment of 13 Russian nationals over alleged meddling in US elections describes methods allegedly used by the defendants. Some of them are truly strange, suggesting cartoon villainy rather than a master plot.

According to the indictment, the parties in question formulated a number of plans to support the campaign of President Donald Trump and disparage former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Their plans included political rallies and posing as grassroots groups. However, the examples provided in the document raise questions about how they could have ever been effective in swaying the election.

In a nutshell, the plan was to hold rallies for and against both Clinton and Trump and to promote social media groups focusing on political and social issues.

Comment: Further reading:

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Info

Russia's UK ambassador reveals Boris Johnson refused Moscow sit-down to discuss allegations of Brexit vote meddling


RT
Sat, 17 Feb 2018 13:40 UTC
Boris Johnson
© Stefan Rousseau / Reuters
The Russian Embassy has called out Boris Johnson over accusations made in UK parliament that Russians meddled in the EU referendum. Boris was allegedly invited to discuss the allegations during his trip to Moscow, but refused.

The Russian Ambassador to the UK, Alexander Yakovenko, told RT's Going Underground program that the foreign secretary was asked to sit down with Russian officials to discuss claims that Russia interfered in the 2016 EU referendum.

Yakovenko told host Afshin Rattansi that the foreign secretary's response was a flat-out "No".

When asked about the UK allegations into vote tampering, Yakovenko's answer was simple: "No - and I'll tell you why - because there are no facts."

"What is interesting...Boris Johnson was in Moscow on the 22nd of December and we discussed this problem," Yakovenko said.
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