Puppet MastersS


Star of David

Israel gives demonstration of how to create a Palestinian heroine

Shlomi Eldar
Al-Monitor
Fri, 26 Jan 2018 16:51 UTC
Ahed Tamimi
Palestinian teenager Ahed Tamimi enters a military courtroom escorted by Israeli security personnel at Ofer Prison, Ramallah, West Bank, Jan. 15, 2018.
By arresting Ahed Tamimi for slapping an IDF soldier, Israel turned her into a symbol of Palestinian resistance to the occupation.

Thirty-nine days have passed since Nariman Tamimi uploaded a video documenting her daughter Ahed and a relative slapping Israeli soldiers in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh on Dec. 18. The footage went viral on social networks and was broadcast by TV stations around the world. The video's life span was expected to be short, like that of many other videos in the past. The soldiers who were hit did not allow themselves to be dragged into provocative countermeasures, so the event remained a small news item even though the incident was well-covered.

"If we would have arrested them, the results would have been worse, and who knows how it would have ended," explained one of the soldiers, whose name was not divulged, during an investigation of the episode. The soldiers didn't lose any sleep over the incident, and they didn't feel humiliated or ridiculed by the brief confrontation.
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Book 2

Book review: "Orders to Kill" is just another evidence-free bash-Putin free-for-all

Paul Robinson
Irrussianality
Sun, 28 Jan 2018 16:51 UTC
Putin Russian economy
In her latest book, Orders to Kill: The Putin Regime and Political Murder, Amy Knight wishes to convince us 'how scary and unpredictable Russia has become.' (p. 3) To this end, her book recounts multiples instances in which, she alleges, the 'Putin regime' has orchestrated the murder both of ordinary Russian citizens and of prominent political opponents. Knight is a respectable author whose 1993 biography of Beria I found quite informative. In Orders to Kill, however, she has abandoned academic neutrality in favour of political activism. The result is far from satisfactory.

Knight argues that 'Russia has become a huge threat to the United States and its allies.' (p. 7) The reason for this is the purportedly murderous nature of the Russian state and its leader, Vladimir Putin. Early on, though, Knight reveals a weakness in her argument. 'I do not claim to have definitive proof of the complicity of Putin and his allies,' she writes (p. 6) 'but these many crimes form a familiar pattern.' So, she doesn't actually have any strong evidence to support her thesis; she just thinks that there's a 'pattern'. But she never explores alternative explanations for the 'pattern', nor does she consider the possibility that there isn't really a pattern at all. Instead, Orders to Kill constitutes an extended attempt to squeeze all the cases studied into a predetermined system. This is a decidedly flawed methodology.
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Cross

Israeli parliament applauds Pence speech, but misses his point: Abraham is father of us all, not just the Jews

Amit Gvaryahu
Haaretz
Sat, 27 Jan 2018 16:26 UTC
pence israel
© THOMAS COEX/AFPU.S. Vice President Mike Pence visits the Western Wall in Jerusalem, January 23, 2018.
When Mike Pence addressed Israel's parliament this week, his speech was liberally seasoned with scripture. His Bible was on his lips when he asked all present to pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalms 122:6). He invoked Abraham and the promise that he would be the "father of many nations", (Genesis 17:4), and he said the establishment of Israel was the fulfilment of a messianic promise (Isaiah 66:8).

Two significant references, however, were lost on the majority of Jews who heard the speech.

Pence explained that, "It was here, in Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah, that Abraham offered up his son, Isaac, and was credited with righteousness for his faith in God." Rabbinic Jewish and Christian traditions place the binding of Isaac, on a mountain in the Land of Moriah, "the land that I will show you," in Jerusalem. Genesis 22, which tells the story of this "offering", has nothing to say about "faith."

So where did Pence's framing come from, that this was an act of faith?

In Genesis 15 Abraham is distressed that he still has no children in his old age. God takes him outside and says that he will have as many descendants as the stars in the night sky. Abraham then "had faith in the Lord, and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness."

Joshua Blachorsky, a doctoral candidate at New York University's Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, has noted that this verse was central to the thought and work of the apostle Paul, who in his letter to the Romans, chapter 4, uses this verse to explain that Abraham was considered "righteous," worthy of salvation, not because of his observance of the commandments ("works") or his circumcision, the act by which he entered into a divine covenant, but because of his faith.
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Info

US will resume accepting refugees from 11 high-risk countries - with extra vetting

Yeganeh Torbati
Reuters
Mon, 29 Jan 2018 16:07 UTC
Kirstjen Nielsen
The United States will resume admissions for refugees from 11 countries identified as presenting a high security risk, but with extra vetting for these mostly Middle Eastern and African nations, senior U.S. officials said on Monday.

The changes came after a 90-day review of refugee admissions from Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Mali, North Korea, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen by the State Department, Department of Homeland Security and intelligence agencies.

The new rules are the latest changes to the U.S. refugee program made by the administration of President Donald Trump to address what it sees as national security issues.

Some of the administration's actions, including an executive order to temporarily ban all refugees, have sparked lengthy court battles. Refugee advocates have said they see the administration's actions as intended to reduce the number of refugees, particularly those from Muslim countries.

During the review period, which lasted from late October to last week, admissions of refugees from those countries dropped sharply, according to a Reuters analysis of State Department data.
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Info

McCabe resignation prompts media speculation split: CNN blames Trump, Fox cites memo revelations


RT
Tue, 30 Jan 2018 15:49 UTC
us capitol
© Global Look Press
Political pundits are spinning the news of FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe's departure from the agency. Some sources claim he was forced out by Trump, others say it was a personal decision.

McCabe, 49, who has in the past been the source of acrimony for Trump, announced that he was going on "terminal leave" on Monday. The move has attracted heated speculation as the FBI top official was not expected to leave his post until spring.

There are conflicting versions regarding the surprise departure, with the Republicans and Democrats - both locked in a political fight over the ongoing 'Russiagate' investigation, as well as the possible release of a Republican memo that may reflect poorly on the FBI - attempting to spin the news to their favor.

Comment: Fox sounds more credible. Here's Tucker Carlson's segment on the news:


And more:


See also:

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Dominoes

'Shocked to his core': FBI Director Wray blown away after viewing contents of FISA memo, source says


RT
Tue, 30 Jan 2018 14:59 UTC
FBI symbol
© Yuri Gripas / AFP
FBI Director Christopher Wray was "shocked to his core" after viewing a four-page FISA memo, a source told Fox News' Sean Hannity. The next day, he reportedly asked Deputy Director Andrew McCabe to resign.

"A source of mine told me tonight that when Wray read this, it 'shocked him to his core,'" Hannity said during an on-air discussion with journalist Sara Carter on Monday. Wray reportedly reviewed the memo on Sunday, just one day before McCabe was asked to step down.

The four-page memo by House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) reportedly accuses the FBI of abusing FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) warrants to spy on Donald Trump's campaign. Reports have emerged that McCabe is guilty of asking FBI agents to tamper with witness interviews.

"There's indicators right now that McCabe may have asked FBI agents to actually change their 302s - those are the interviews with witness," Carter said, adding that such a move would be obstruction of justice.

Comment: See also: Ignoring DOJ warning, Trump tells Sessions he wants FISA memo released

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Display

Putin warns of dangers caused by internet anonymity, advises protection from 'destructive forces'


RT
Tue, 30 Jan 2018 13:34 UTC
Internet atonymity
© Vladimir Trefilov / Sputnik
Vladimir Putin has described anonymity as a part of internet democracy, but noted that society has the right to defend itself from destructive forces that could use this feature for dangerous purposes.

"On one hand, anonymity on the internet must be a good thing - this is democracy - but on the other hand, this causes a lot of problems because no one knows who hides behind internet nicknames," Putin said at a meeting with trustees involved in his election campaign on Tuesday.

"Really, today is not 1937, everyone may say whatever they like, especially on the internet," he added. The Russian leader expressed his opinion that society has the right to protect its members from "destructive forces."

"We have already introduced certain restrictions in response to the propaganda of suicide, pedophilia and terrorism. Still, people keep watching things on the internet, they see what happens in the US, and after that we have crimes committed in our schools. There are no grounds for these crimes, they have just seen what happened there," Putin noted.
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Vader

The US has military bases in 80 countries. They should all be closed down

Alice Slater
The Nation
Wed, 24 Jan 2018 15:16 UTC
protest US military okinawa
© Reuters / Issei KatoPeople protest the planned relocation of a US military base in Japan to Okinawa's Henoko coast on April 17, 2015.
US bases are wreaking havoc to the health and well-being of communities across the world.

On the weekend of Martin Luther King Day, Baltimore University fittingly hosted more than 200 activists in the peace, environment, and social-justice movements to launch a timely new initiative, the Coalition Against US Foreign Military Bases. Ajamu Baraka, Green Party vice-presidential candidate and co-founder of the Black Alliance for Peace, opened the meeting reminding us that Reverend King, in his historic anti-war speech more than 50 years ago at Riverside Church in New York, called the government of the United States "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today" adding that "the war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit," while warning that "a nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death." Taking on the very nature of capitalism, King further insisted that
We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.
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Russian Flag

Meet one of Putin's most trusted aides - an in-depth interview with Dmitry Peskov (VIDEO)


Russia Insider
Tue, 30 Jan 2018 13:49 UTC
Peskov Putin
A favorite target of Russia's liberals, Peskov has been at the President's side since 2000, and is among his most trusted aides - a remarkable run

A long, personal interview with Putin's press secretary.

Transcript below:
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No Entry

Pentagon bans release of data on Afghanistan War


RT
Tue, 30 Jan 2018 14:46 UTC
US soldiers
© Reuters
The Pentagon has restricted the release of crucial information on progress being made in the war in Afghanistan, the US government's top watchdog said. The move comes amid a spike of attacks by the insurgents.

The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) releases a quarterly report which includes unclassified information on the amount of territory controlled or influenced by the Taliban and the Afghan government.

However, SIGAR has now been told by the Pentagon not to release such information. For the first time since 2009, the US military has also classified the actual and authorized total troop numbers and attrition rate for the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF).
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