Puppet MastersS


Better Earth

The Russia-Turkey-Iran triangle is gaining traction

M K Bhadrakumar
Indian Punchline
Fri, 25 Aug 2017 15:04 UTC
Russia Turkey Iran flags
The geopolitics of the Middle East is witnessing a tectonic shift with the emergence of a Turkish-Iranian axis that would have seemed unbelievable until recently. The 3-day visit by Iran's chief of general staff General Mohammad Hossein Bagheri to Turkey last week was the first such event in Iran-Turkey relations since the Iranian Revolution in 1979. During Bagheri's visit, the two countries signed a military agreement on August 17.Turkish President Recep Erdogan disclosed on Monday that he held discussions with Bagheri on possible joint Turkish-Iranian military actions against Kurdish militants.

"Joint action against terrorist groups that have become a threat is always on the agenda. This issue has been discussed between the two military chiefs, and I discussed (with Bagheri) more broadly how this should be carried out," Erdogan said. Turkey and Iran have strong convergence in preventing the emergence of an independent Kurdish entity in the region in Iraq or Syria. Both countries are battling Kurdish separatist groups within their own borders.

What lends urgency for the two countries to cooperate is their shared suspicion that the US and Israel are possibly stepping up their longstanding project to establish an independent Kurdistan in the region, with an ulterior agenda to create for the long-term an exclusive preserve for pushing their interests on the regional map. The US has refused to pay heed to Turkey's concerns and has armed and equipped the Kurdish militants in northern Syria. The US Special Forces and Kurdish militia are jointly conducting the on-going offensive on Raqqa, which used to be the capital of the ISIS. Washington spurned a Turkish offer to undertake the operations on Raqqa, an Arab Sunni region, and instead preferred the non-Arab Kurdish militia as its ally.

The US objective seems to be to seize control of the oil fields in the region adjacent to Raqqa, which would ensure the economic viability of a Kurdistan entity in northern Syria. Turkey fears that the next step by the US would be to launch operations in northern Syria along Turkey's borders with a view to carve out a contiguous Kurdistan, which would have access to the Eastern Mediterranean. Turkey rightly apprehends that a Kurdistan as next-door neighbour would put intolerable strain on its integrity and stability.
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Vader

U.S. military generals: Truth and Lives vs. Career and Fame

Ray McGovern
Consortium News
Sun, 20 Aug 2017 15:44 UTC
John Kelly and Donald Trump
© Joshua Roberts / ReutersPresident Trump with White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, a retired Marine general.
As President Trump considers sending more troops to Afghanistan, it's worth recalling the modern U.S. dynamic of politicians and generals making misguided judgments about war.

Fifty years ago, I could have tried to stop the Vietnam War, but lacked the courage. On Aug. 20, 1967, we at CIA received a cable from Saigon containing documentary proof that the U.S. commander, Gen. William Westmoreland, and his deputy, Gen. Creighton Abrams, were lying about their "success" in fighting the Vietnamese Communists. I live with regret that I did not blow the whistle on that when I could have.

(I wrote about this two years ago: "The Lasting Pain from Vietnam Silence," republished below.)

Why raise this now? Because President Donald Trump has surrounded himself with starry-eyed generals (or generals with their eyes focused on their careers). And he seems to have little inkling that they got their multiple stars under a system where the Army motto "Duty, Honor, Country" can now be considered as "quaint" and "obsolete" as the Bush-Cheney administration deemed the Geneva Conventions.

All too often, the number of ribbons and merit badges festooned on the breasts of U.S. generals these days (think of the be-medaled Gen. David Petraeus, for example) is in direct proportion to the lies they have told in saluting smartly and abetting the unrealistic expectations of their political masters (and thus winning yet another star).

In my apologia that follows, the concentration is on the crimes of Westmoreland and the generations of careerist generals who aped him. There is not enough space to describe (or even list) those sycophantic officers here.
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Chess

What Netanyahu Tried To Negotiate With Putin In Sochi


Sputnik
Fri, 25 Aug 2017 16:21 UTC
putin netanyahu
© Sputnik/ Aleksey Nikolskyi
On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to Russia's resort of Sochi for a three-hour conversation with President Putin. Some experts suggested that they talked about Syria and Iran, however renowned geopolitical expert and author William Engdahl explained to Sputnik Radio what was actually on the agenda.

The meeting was Benjamin Netanyahu's fourth visit to Russia over the past sixteen months.

"In my view, the meeting between the Israeli Prime Minister and Vladimir Putin is a vain attempt by Netanyahu to create a de-facto recognition of the illegal Israeli (and it is illegal by the UN mandates and international law) occupation of the Golan Heights by Israeli Defense Forces," William Engdahl told Sputnik.
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Map

Syria expands territorial control fourfold in two years with Russian Aerospace help


Sputnik
Fri, 25 Aug 2017 15:51 UTC
Russian Aerospace pilots
© Sputnik/ Dmitriy Vinogradov
The Russian Aerospace Forces' campaign in Syria has helped expand the government's territorial control fourfold to over 30,000 square miles, the Russian General Staff said Friday.

During the Russian Aerospace Forces operation, the territory controlled by government troops grew from 19,000 to 78,000 square kilometers, Main Operational Directorate of the Russian General Staff chief Col. Gen. Sergey Rudskoy said.

Since the start of the campaign in September 2015, the Russian Aerospace Forces have carried out a total of 90,000 strikes on terrorists in Syria Rudskoy added while speaking at an Army-2017 forum roundtable,

"In total, since the beginning of the military operation, the Aerospace Forces have carried out more than 28,000 sorties and conducted some 90,000 airstrikes."
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Light Sabers

Merkel: Germany will not automatically side with US in N. Korea conflict


RT
Fri, 25 Aug 2017 15:41 UTC
trump merkel
© Patrik Stollarz / AFP
Berlin will not "automatically" side with the US should it face an armed conflict with North Korea, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said. Merkel believes the North Korean crisis cannot be resolved through military means.

The German chancellor was speaking at the 'Deutschland Live' event organized by national newspaper Handelsblatt, where the ongoing North Korean crisis was among the key topics addressed.

When asked about the worst-case scenario, namely an armed conflict between Washington and Pyongyang, Merkel said that Germany would not necessarily back America.

"No, not automatically. I do not see any military solution to [the crisis with] North Korea. I think it is wrong," Merkel said.
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Snakes in Suits

Rachel Maddow approves of Trump's strategy in Afghanistan to steal its resources while his core supporters voice their outrage

Alex Christoforou
The Duran
Fri, 25 Aug 2017 15:27 UTC
Rachel Maddow
During his Afghanistan "new strategy speech, President Trump bluntly said what no other US president has ever dared to say...that America will plunder Afghanistan to offset the cost of the US invasion of Afghanistan.

Aside from the always lucrative heroin industry in Afghanistan, many minerals are awaiting US extraction and export.

Specifically Trump noted...
In this struggle, the heaviest burden will continue to be borne by the good people of Afghanistan and their courageous armed forces. As the prime minister of Afghanistan has promised, we are going to participate in economic development to help defray the cost of this war to us.
Predictably, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow (and much of the liberal left mainstream media) have no problem with Trump's military surge in Afghanistan, and are actually quite supportive of his 'endless war' policy shift.

Funny how the liberal left media blasts President Trump for anything he says or does, except for when the POTUS promotes war.


Comment: While Trump's new Afghan strategy is making him strange bedfellows with the previously antagonistic liberal media, his core supporters are voicing their outrage at the new Afghanistan surge. Progressive commentator Jimmy Dore, who was actually aligned with Trump's non-interventionist campaign stance, points out the foreign policy divide between Trump and his core supporters:



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Cult

MSNBC's delusional thinking: The Alt-Right has been 'co-opted by Russian Intelligence'


Russia Insider
Fri, 25 Aug 2017 15:12 UTC
Politcon attendees
MSNBC's 'expert' Malcolm Nance (right), yucking it up at Politicon 2017
This one is a doozy

The Russia-baiting industry is still firing on all cylinders in the USA-despite the fact that the Russiagate charges seem to have collapsed. At least the usual tub-thumpers have been unusually quiet the past couple of weeks.

Nonetheless, people are making money on this dog, so a few days ago MSNBC managed to jam it into the hysteria over Charlottesville.


Comment: Truth will out! CNN commentator caught on camera admitting Russiagate is a big 'nothing-burger' - UPDATE


The obliging tool, one of the most egregious performers cashing in on this ugly show, was Malcolm Nance, a former military expert on Russian espionage, or so he claims.

He's written a whole book about it called: The Plot to Hack America: How Putin's Cyberspies and WikiLeaks Tried to Steal the 2016 Election. The book has its very own exhaustive Wikileaks page.

Comment:

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Wall Street

Qatar banks under Arab boycott seek Asian and European funding


RT
Fri, 25 Aug 2017 14:47 UTC
Qatar bank
© Naseem Zeitoon / Reuters
Hit by Doha's ongoing standoff with neighboring Gulf countries, Qatari banks have turned to Asia and Europe for financing as clients from other Arab states started pulling billions of dollars from their accounts.

According to the Qatari central bank, the crisis has led to an outflow of around $7.5 billion in foreign customer deposits and a further $15 billion in foreign interbank deposits and borrowings.

Sources told Reuters that Qatar National Bank (QNB) had held talks, arranged by banks including Standard Chartered, with investors in Taiwan about a private placement of so-called Formosa bonds. It is debt issued in Taiwan but denominated in currencies other than the Taiwan dollar.

"We have several proposals for a Formosa issue from several international banks dealing in that part of the world," a spokesman for QNB told Reuters, adding that nothing had yet been agreed.

QNB is the Middle East's largest bank, and is considering private placements in other Asian markets, one of the sources said.
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Star of David

Israel not the safest place? As many as 1 million Israelis vote with their feet and move to the U.S.

Philip Weiss
Mondoweiss
Thu, 24 Aug 2017 14:55 UTC
promotion jews move to israel
© Nefesh b'NefeshA promotion by Nefesh b'Nefesh, an Israeli group that promotes aliyah, or Jews moving to Israel.
"Can Israel bring home its 1 million US Expats?" was the headline on an article in the Jerusalem Post 3 weeks ago; and it has gotten very little attention, though the article states bluntly that as many as 1 million Israelis are now living in the U.S.

"[B]etween 750,000 and 1 million Israelis live in the country," says Israel's US Embassy, though others put the figure as low as 200,000.

If you walk around the Upper West Side, you know something's up, from the Hebrew you can hear on Broadway; but this is an important story for two reasons, demographic and spiritual.

First, Israel has long claimed to be a majority Jewish state (as if that justifies Jews' higher status). Right now the numbers of Jews and Palestinians between the river and the sea are said to be equal, 6.5 million to 6.5 million. If 1 million Jews are living outside the country- and the Post article refers to the expats as "Jews" - that means it's likely that there are more Palestinians than Jews in the lands over which Israel is exercising sovereignty.

That would mean a Jewish minority ruling a non-Jewish majority under the aegis of "the Jewish state": which just seals the deal on the contested "apartheid" label.
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Snakes in Suits

Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel pledged no Turkey in EU under Erdogan


RT
Fri, 25 Aug 2017 14:43 UTC
Angela Merkel and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
© Bernd Von Jutrczenka / Reuters
As long as Recep Tayyip Erdogan is president, Turkey will not become a member of the EU, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel pledged on Thursday - the latest in a verbal tit-for-tat between the two.

"It is clear that in this state, Turkey will never become a member of the EU," Gabriel told the newspaper Bild on Thursday. "It's not because we don't want them but because the Turkish government and Erdogan are moving fast away from everything that Europe stands for."

Earlier this week, Gabriel said at an election campaign rally that the majority of Turks were "democratically minded" and did not support Erdogan.

Gabriel's Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, said the German minister "crossed the line" with his comments and that his "populist remarks" would not bring him any benefit.
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