Puppet MastersS


Propaganda

UK's new 'fake news unit' seems like more fake news, says Labour MP


RT
Wed, 31 Jan 2018 15:59 UTC
media
© Kay Nietfeld / Reuters
The government's new 'fake news unit' has itself been branded 'fake news' and "nothing but spin" by Labour MP Tom Watson, as the government has been unable to provide even basic details of how it will work.

Downing Street last week announced the creation of a specialized government team dedicated to tackling fake news and spurious information.

Despite announcing the creation of the unit to the press, MPs have been unable to answer basic questions about how the unit would work.

In a series of parliamentary questions asked by Watson, ministers had no idea who would be in charge, where it would be based, what staff would be operating it, and what funds would be invested.
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Cards

SOTT Focus: Inconsistent US Response to Turkey's Attack on Kurdish Militias Confirms Failure of American Strategy in Syria

Andrés Perezalonso
Sott.net
Wed, 31 Jan 2018 12:49 UTC
Casualties Mount on Day Five of Turkey's Operation Olive Branch in North Syria
© AP Photo/ Lefteris Pitarakis
On January 19, Turkish forces began military action across their southern border with Syria in 'Operation Olive Branch'. They started by shelling Kurdish-held areas in Afrin, and soon followed with airstrikes and a ground incursion. This move came after Ankara's condemnation of the United States' intention to create a 'Border Security Force' of 30,000 men in northern Syria, formed out of Kurdish YPG/SDF fighters. This was the catalyst for the Turkish move, although it simply adds to Turkey's long-standing disapproval of the Americans' continuous supply of weapons and training to Kurdish militias, according to Turkey's former foreign minister, Yasar Yakis.

Judging by the Americans' inconsistent and uncommitted reaction to 'Olive Branch', Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's move caught the US by surprise. Having failed in the objective of toppling the Assad government by allowing proxy armies of mercenaries and jihadists to advance unchallenged, the second-best alternative for the US and allies was to play on the ambitions of the Kurds for an independent state of their own and seize a sizeable part of Syria's northeastern territory - the so-called 'Plan B' that would enable the permanent US (and perhaps Israeli) military presence in a subservient state of Kurdistan. The Border Security Force was an obvious step in this direction, and while there was nothing Syria could do about it without risking dire consequences, Turkey could.
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X

US fails again in anti-Russia crusade by impotently writing down names on 'shame list'

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Wed, 31 Jan 2018 15:58 UTC
Putin
Six months after President Trump very grudgingly signed into law a bipartisan bill voted for overwhelmingly seeking sanctions against US 'enemies' such as Russia and Iran, the Trump administration, as it was legally mandated to do, has produced its 'name and shame' list of prominent Russians.

The best thing that can be said about the list is that it is bizarre. The senior Russian government officials named in the list appear to have been indiscriminately chosen because they appear in the Kremlin's and the Russian government's directories of prominent officials. As for the wealthy individuals in the list, it seems that they have simply been transplanted onto the list from Forbes.

Some attempt does seem to have been made to keep certain Russian officials of actual or reputed pro-Western views off the list. Russia's Central Bank Chair Elvira Nabiullina is not on the list, and nor is the liberal former Finance Minister Alexey Kudrin. Unsurprisingly, neither is Anatoly Chubais, the ultra liberal Yeltsin official who masterminded Russia's disastrous and hugely corrupt privatisation drive in the 1990s.
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Rocket

Russian envoy to N. Korea: Pyongyang seriously boosted missile program in past year


RT
Wed, 31 Jan 2018 19:46 UTC
Launching a missile
© KCNA / ReutersLaunching a missile
Russia's ambassador to North Korea has warned that Pyongyang made significant progress in its missile program over the past year. Moscow is aware of North Korea's capabilities and is closely watching it, according to the diplomat.

While the first North Korean missiles obtained similar technologies that other countries had, their latest models were likely designed by themselves, the head of Russian mission in Pyongyang, Aleksandr Matsegora, said, citing Russian specialists. Meanwhile, Moscow is closely monitoring the situation in the country and knows the capabilities of the North Korean military.

"It can be said that the North Koreans have managed to achieve a serious improvement in their missile program over the past year," the diplomat told RIA Novosti in Tokyo on Wednesday.

Comment: See also:

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Vader

U.S. Special Ops Elite Commandos Deployed to 149 Countries in 2017

Nick Turse
Russia Insider
Wed, 31 Jan 2018 19:05 UTC
America's elite troops deployed to 149 nations in 2017
America's elite troops deployed to 149 nations in 2017
Turse has been doing the world an invaluable service by covering this for years, and knows his fact and figures. The latest outrage from a security state which is completely out of control.

"We don't know exactly where we're at in the world, militarily, and what we're doing," said Senator Lindsey Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, in October. That was in the wake of the combat deaths of four members of the Special Operations forces in the West African nation of Niger. Graham and other senators expressed shock about the deployment, but the global sweep of America's most elite forces is, at best, an open secret.

Earlier this year before that same Senate committee -- though Graham was not in attendance -- General Raymond Thomas, the chief of U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM), offered some clues about the planetwide reach of America's most elite troops. "We operate and fight in every corner of the world," he boasted. "Rather than a mere 'break-glass-in-case-of-war' force, we are now proactively engaged across the 'battle space' of the Geographic Combatant Commands... providing key integrating and enabling capabilities to support their campaigns and operations."

In 2017, U.S. Special Operations forces, including Navy SEALs and Army Green Berets, deployed to 149 countries around the world, according to figures provided to TomDispatch by U.S. Special Operations Command. That's about 75% of the nations on the planet and represents a jump from the 138 countries that saw such deployments in 2016 under the Obama administration. It's also a jump of nearly 150% from the last days of George W. Bush's White House. This record-setting number of deployments comes as American commandos are battling a plethora of terror groups in quasi-wars that stretch from Africa and the Middle East to Asia.
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USA

Key takeaways from Trump's first State of the Union address


RT
Wed, 31 Jan 2018 10:41 UTC
Trump SOTU 2018
© Win McNameeU.S. President Trump delivers first State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress in Washington.
President Donald Trump has delivered his first State of the Union address to Congress, lauding his administration's accomplishments over the last year and outlining his vision for "building a safe, strong, and proud America."

Trump started his speech with naming the hardships the country went through in 2017, from hurricanes to fires to the Las Vegas shooting and talked about the need of unity.

"I call upon all of us to set aside our differences, to seek out common ground and to summon the unity we need to deliver for the people," he said.


Comment: See also:

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Document

Senior FBI officials report 'no factual inaccuracies' in FISA abuse memo

Rusty
The Political Insider
Tue, 30 Jan 2018 15:21 UTC
FBI Sign
Another Democrat talking point bites the dust.

Top lawmakers on the left have been denouncing a controversial memo, one which purportedly details alleged FISA court abuses under the Barack Obama Administration, repeatedly arguing that the memo is nothing more than a made-up Republican document.

In fact, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi believes the memo is simply false information, a claim she made fourteen separate times in a recent CNN interview.

Meanwhile, Rep. Adam Schiff dismissed the document as a 'Republican spin memo.'

Comment: Release the memo already! Well, Trump says he's going to do it, but for now we'll just have to wait in see. In the meantime:

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Megaphone

CNN once again proves its bias by distorting responses to Russian FM's speech at Syrian National Congress

Inessa Sinchougova
Fort Russ News
Tue, 30 Jan 2018 00:00 UTC
CNN distorts sochi talks syria
510 journalists have been accredited for the unprecedented Sochi Syrian National Dialogue conference, taking place on 30th January; 78 TV channels, 38 press agencies from 27 countries - and CNN still manages to lie and distort in their usual style.

The opening speech by Russia's Foreign Minister veered off script somewhat, when attendees expressed pro and anti-Russian sentiment as Sergey Lavrov took the floor. CNN covers only one side of the argument.


Comment: See also: 'Long live Russia, long live friendship': Praise & heckling as Russian FM speaks at Syrian National Congress in Sochi

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Pirates

Weaponized 'women's rights': CIA propaganda arm now runs headscarf campaign against Iran

b
Moon of Alabama
Tue, 30 Jan 2018 13:12 UTC
Iran mission center
A U.S. government funded public relation campaign tries to incite women in Iran to break the law. The reporting of the campaign in western media is unproportionate to its effects in Iran. The professional propagandist who runs the campaign on behalf of the U.S. government is introduced as ordinary "women's rights activist". The larger propaganda scheme and the U.S. government influence in it are willfully ignored.

In June 2017 the CIA created a new "mission center" for attacking Iran:
The Iran Mission Center will bring together analysts, operations personnel and specialists from across the CIA to bring to bear the range of the agency's capabilities, including covert action, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
The first visible results of the new center's work was the hijacking of economic protests in Iran at the end of last year. The slogans and symbols used and the specific western media support lets one assume that exile MEK terrorists and monarchist organizations were involved in the affair. The demonstrations immediately turned violent and lost all public backing. They petered out, as predicted, within a few days.


Comment: Indeed. See:


Comment: Once again the idea of 'women's rights' (aka feminism) have been weaponized by the forces of empire in the interests of 'equality' and 'freedom and democracy'.

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USA

Ron Paul gives Trump's SOTU a dressing down

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Wed, 31 Jan 2018 16:05 UTC
Ron Paul Trump
Champion of freedom and liberty, Dr. Ron Paul, decided to grade President Donald Trump's speech last night, in real time. The final result of his series of tweets is nothing short of incredible and highlights how blinded some have become to the grandiose persona of The Donald - ignoring all his broken promises and audaciously excusing his championing of the police and warfare states.

When I saw the following tweet in my Twitter feed last night, I got giddy like a kid on Christmas as I know that Ron Paul is the one person who refuses to compromise on principle and is unafraid of backlash for calling out the hypocrisy and warmongering of the establishment - including Trump.

While applause rang out during the speech, those of us who are able to see through the lies saw the dog and pony show for what it is-a glorification of war and the fleecing of American people.
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