Puppet MastersS


Rocket

DIA report warns: Pyongyang has warhead 'small enough to fit in a missile'


RT
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 22:44 UTC
rocket
© KCNA/Reuters
North Korea has successfully developed a nuclear warhead small enough to fit inside a missile, a new US defense report warns.

"The intelligence community assess North Korea has produced nuclear weapons for ballistic missile delivery, to include delivery by ICBM-class missiles," a DIA report read, according to reporters at the Washington Post who have seen the document.

The warning from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) comes just hours after Pyongyang threatened "physical action" in response to sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council over the weekend.

The analysis also puts North Korea's arsenal at 60 nuclear weapons, more than previously thought but a figure still being debated among experts.

The report comes just as Japan issued its own assessment of North Korea's nuclear capabilities on Tuesday.

Less certain than the DIA report, a defense white paper commissioned by the Japanese government only went as far as saying that Pyongyang may be capable of miniaturizing a nuclear warhead.

The secretive state announced that it had successfully tested the smaller design last year, but there has been no independent evidence to support the claim.

Comment: Time warps: "Years away..." "Stockpile now..." Who knows what, when or where.

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Stormtrooper

Turkey possible 'go ahead' for Afrin offensive if it provides needed influence Idlib, Deir ez-Zor


Sputnik
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 21:58 UTC
kurds
© youtube.comKurds
Turkey seems to be planning an advance on the Kurdish YPG militia in northwestern Syria, and could get the go-ahead from Damascus in return for reigning in anti-government fighters in Idlib or elsewhere in Syria, Turkish journalist Bora Bayraktar told Sputnik.

Turkey has strengthened its military presence on its border with Syria and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to take military action against emboldened Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, who are receiving support from the US in their fight against Daesh in Raqqa.

Erdogan views the YPG, which controls part of Syria's border with Turkey, as an extension of the Kurdish PKK, a Marxist insurgent group which has operated in Turkey for decades and is also considered a terrorist organization by the US and EU.

In recent weeks, there have been exchanges of rocket and artillery fire at Syria's northwestern border between Turkish forces and YPG fighters.

Having reinforced the border with more tanks and artillery, Erdogan told a crowd in Turkey's eastern town of Malatya on Saturday, "We will not leave the separatist organization in peace in both Iraq and Syria."

Comment: So far Erdogan's plan hasn't been given a go-ahead. If it does, it may not be fair to the YPG, but one might say nothing in war is.

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Briefcase

Sean Hannity's upcoming lawsuit over Obama Administration's illegal NSA unmasking, if it happened

Joshua Caplan
Gateway Pundit
Mon, 07 Aug 2017 03:27 UTC
Hannity Obama
© Politico
FOX News host Sean Hannity has come under heavy fire from the likes of Media Matters. This hasn't stopped the conservative media figure from fighting a battle on another front. Hannity says he is prepared to sue the Obama administration if it is revealed he was subject to illegal NSA 'unmasking.'


Comment: Well, hmmmm! Was Hannity or was Hannity not a victim of unmasking?

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Star of David

Debunking the 2 claims Israel is always whining about: Anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism, and BDS unfairly singles out Israel

Donald Johnson
Mondoweiss
Wed, 09 Aug 2017 16:00 UTC
BSDS Israel demostration
© MondoweissDemonstration in Support of the Right to Boycott and BDS, Albany N.Y. June 15, 2016
There are two claims one commonly hears from people opposed to any serious action taken in favor of Palestinian rights.

The first is that old standby, that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism. This claim is meant to intimidate; the intent is to prevent the root of the problem from being discussed. One starts off privileging the Zionist position as unassailably correct and then one can discuss to what extent Palestinians have rights that can be granted after negotiation.

The second claim is closely related: Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) unfairly singles out Israel and therefore (you guessed it) is anti-Semitic.

It is possible and maybe even useful to write long detailed rebuttals of both these charges, but it would probably be more useful to keep them short. A long rebuttal to a blunt one-sentence false accusation might actually make it seem like it had merit. So here are the short ones.

Is anti-Zionism a form of anti-Semitism? If it were, then that would mean all Palestinians were morally obligated to endorse their own ethnic cleansing. That is the only logical conclusion. Not only are Palestinians being asked to accept that they can never go back to their homes and villages, but they are implicitly being asked to bless the ideology that justified their ethnic cleansing- or else they are anti-semites. That is nakedly racist.

You can go on from there and go into whatever details you want, but that is all the argument you need.
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Star of David

Noam Chomsky on BDS: Israel would go so far as to use nuclear weapons to prevent Palestinian 'right of return'

Philip Weiss
Mondoweiss
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 00:00 UTC
Noam Chomsky
© YouTubeNoam Chomsky, being interviewed by Douglas Richardson of the Association of American Geographers, in April 2017 in Boston.
In April, Noam Chomsky spoke at length on his opposition to the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) campaign and said that advocating for the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes in Israel is "not a... moral position."

BDS campaigners create false hope because return will never happen, Chomsky said; Israel would would use nuclear weapons to prevent the return of the Palestinian refugees, if it came to it:
"If there ever were serious support [for the right of return], Israel would go all out- using nuclear weapons, anything else- to prevent it. So it's not going to happen."
We are continually told that Iran and North Korea cannot be trusted with the bomb. What does it say about Israeli leadership and political beliefs that the most prominent leftwing scholar in the U.S. says they would deploy nuclear weapons to defy global pressure re return of refugees?
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Eye 2

Kissinger gives warning that destroying Isis could lead to 'Iranian radical empire'

Shehab Kahn
The Independent
Wed, 09 Aug 2017 15:10 UTC
Kissinger
© European Press Agency'The enemy of your enemy may also be your enemy,' says Henry Kissinger EPA
'Most non-Isis powers - including Shia Iran and the leading Sunni states - agree on the need to destroy it. But which entity is supposed to inherit its territory?'

Henry Kissinger has warned that destroying Isis could lead to an "Iranian radical empire".

The former diplomat has suggested that once Isis is defeated, if Iran occupies the free territory, the result could lead to the emergence of a new empire.

The 94-year-old, who was the Secretary of State under President Richard Nixon, also spoke about the complications of taking sides in Middle Eastern conflicts.

Comment: What the evil old geezer doesn't mention is that a 'radical Iranian empire' would spell the end of the Saudis, the petrodollar and Murika. Is that such a bad thing? Most of the Middle East wouldn't think so, excepting the Zio-nazis.

Is it even a realistic expectation? Iran has shown no more inclination to empire building than Russia. A more likely scenario is that sovereign countries would align with Iran politically and economically as the ASEAN group has with Russia, in pursuit of a common good. That's a long way from an 'Iranian radical empire'. But to non-reality-based Western eyes, it amounts to the same thing.

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Eagle

The Empire strikes again: Destructive and dishonest neocolonialism makes a play for Venezuela

Neil Clark
RT
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 17:36 UTC
roadblock Venezuela
© Marco Bello / ReutersDemonstrators prepare a roadblock at a rally during a strike called to protest against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas, Venezuela July 27, 2017
This month sees some significant anniversaries in the struggle against old-style colonialism. The trouble is that colonialism didn't go away after countries in the developing world formally achieved their independence from Europe's 'Great Powers.'

It was replaced by a new form which proved to be more destructive and immeasurably more dishonest than what went before.

At least the British Empire - which at its peak covered almost a quarter of the world's land surface, acknowledged it was an Empire.

Today's more shadowy Empire of Globalized Monopoly Finance-Capital does no such thing. Entire countries, such as Yugoslavia, Libya, and Iraq, are destroyed for not toeing the line, while those which continue to defy the neocon/neoliberal elites, such as Venezuela, are under a state of permanent siege.
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USA

Trump's North Korea Saber Rattling Designed to Drum Up Business For U.S. Weapons Manufacturers


RT.com
Wed, 09 Aug 2017 12:27 UTC
Lockheed Martin

Comment: Trump's bluster over N. Korea is just that, designed to drum up some business for defense contractors at the expense of the American taxpayer. Trump's recent statements about N. Korea were therefore made while he was wearing his 'marketing manager for Lockheed Martin' hat.


The Pentagon's top weapons supplier, Lockheed Martin, says that customers' requests for missile defense systems are rising, and North Korea's continued threats as well as the US reaction may be responsible.

Acquiring missile defense systems is at the top of some countries' to-do list, as interest has risen over the last 12 to 18 months, the vice president of Lockheed's Air and Missile Defense business, Tim Cahill, told Reuters.
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Star of David

Anti-Semitism factory? Israeli teen charged with making over 100 bomb threats against American Jewish sites was hired to do so on 'dark web'


RT
Wed, 09 Aug 2017 12:02 UTC
Michael Kadar
© AFP/GettyMichael Kadar, 18, has been charged in Israel with making hoax bomb threats against mainly Jewish institutions in the US. His mother said in his defense that he "is both autistic and has a brain tumor."
Federal authorities believe the American-Israeli teen charged with making more than 100 bomb threats to Jewish community centers (JCCs) in the US was selling his services on the dark web for as little as $30 a job.

Michael Ron David Kadar, 19, was arrested in Mar ch and later charged in Israel with 28 counts of threatening calls and false information. Israeli prosecutors said he was behind more than 100 bomb threats to JCCs and more than 2,000 threatening calls to schools, airports, police stations, malls and other targets over a span of two years.

According to a newly unsealed search warrant, Israeli National Police found a 128GB thumb drive attached to Kadar's computer in his room that allegedly contained "files indicating Kadar's knowledge of and involvement in the threatening email and telephone call scheme."

Along with recordings of threatening phone calls and screenshots of threatening emails, police found a text file copied from a vendor listing page, where Kadar allegedly made a business of making bomb threats on the dark web.

Comment: Who might have had an interest in hiring him to do this? Did he come up with this idea by himself? Or was he encouraged to do it?

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Bad Guys

Debbie Wasserman Schultz pressured Congressional bank to give illicit loan to Imran Awan and wife

Investigative Bureau
True Pundint
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 18:37 UTC
debbie_wasserman_schultz
Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz pressured officials at the Congressional Federal Credit Union to write a loan to a husband and wife from Pakistan now charged and accused of bank fraud, according to federal law enforcement sources.

Wasserman Schultz, who was the leader of the Democratic National Committee at the time, intervened in the loan process to help guarantee Imran Awan and wife Hina Alvi a $165,000 loan which the couple quickly wired to Pakistan far from the reach of US regulators, FBI sources confirm. Imran was arrested on bank fraud charges in July while attempting to flee to Pakistan. His wife fled the country to Pakistan in March after the FBI caught her at Dulles International Airport with undocumented cash. She was suspected of bank fraud by the FBI who allowed her to leave the country anyway.

Awan, until his arrest, was employed as the IT specialist for Wasserman Schultz and dozens of other congressional Democrats since 2004. His wife was also on the congressional payroll. The Congressional Federal Credit Union is not open to the public but is normally reserved for Congress and members of their staffs.
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