Puppet MastersS


Attention

Ottawa examines claim Saudi Arabia used Canadian-made weapons against own citizens


RT
Tue, 01 Aug 2017 12:10 UTC
Canadian transport
© Terradyne Armored Vehicles / FacebookTerradyne Armored Vehicle: Gurkha
Ottawa said it is investigating local media reports claiming that Saudi Arabia deployed Canadian-made combat hardware against its own civilians. Opposition and human rights groups are calling on the government to suspend arms exports to Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia launched a military operation against suspected militants in Shia-dominated Awamiya in the Eastern Province in May. The ongoing mission has resulted in casualties, both among police and local residents, Reuters reports, citing witnesses and activists.

Reports that Saudi Arabia is using Canadian-produced military vehicles against its own citizens later emerged in the Globe and Mail newspaper in July. The Canadian outlet claimed that photos and video distributed on social media pointed to the use of the country's equipment in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province.

Mark Hiznay, associate director of the arms division of Human Rights Watch, confirmed to the Globe and Mail that the vehicles in the pictures are Gurkha Armored Vehicles, built by Ontario-based Terradyne Armored Vehicles.

Comment: Integrity versus money. You can control to whom you sell something. You can't control how and for what purpose it is used.

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Telephone

US VP Pence and Venezuela's Leopoldo Lopez phone conversation

Rachel Roothroyd-Rojas
Venezuelanalysis
Sun, 30 Jul 2017 01:06 UTC
Leopoldo Lopez
© La Voz de MichoacánVice President Mike Pence • Leopoldo Lopez
US Vice-President Mike Pence had a telephone conversation with the convicted right-wing Venezuelan politician Leopoldo Lopez Friday, the White House has confirmed.

In an official press release, the office of the Vice-President said that the two politicians talked about the "dire situation" in Venezuela, while Pence expressed solidarity with the Venezuelan people on behalf of the Trump administration.

Right-wing leader Lopez is a controversial figure in Venezuela. In 2015 he was given a 13-year nine month jail sentence for his role in leading violent anti-government protests the previous year which led to the deaths of 43 people. He was released on house arrest in July 2017 on health grounds, but has since called for more protests to remove the elected leftist government from office.

During Friday's conversation, the VP also went on to "praise Mr. López for his courage and outspoken defense of Venezuelan democracy" and reiterated several recent demands of the US government, including "free and fair elections" and the cancellation of elections this Sunday to choose delegates to the National Constituent Assembly. Those elected to the assembly will be responsible rewriting the country's 1999 Constitution.

The constitutional initiative was put forward by the national government as a way to bring peace to the polarised country, where violent anti-government unrest has raged for almost four months, costing the lives of 115 people to date. Nonetheless the opposition has boycotted the initiative as "unconstitutional" and vowed to disrupt the vote.

Both the US and Canada have also strongly opposed the constitutional rewrite. On Wednesday, the US Treasury Department moved to sanction 13 high ranking officials in the Venezuelan government and military, citing opposition to Sunday's ANC elections.

Comment: A 'telling' conversation between Pence and Lopez. Washington is removing relatives of its diplomats - what does that say to you about the times ahead in Venezuela and the US's culpability for what unfolds?

See also:

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Cow Skull

US accuses Russia of arming Taliban - but it's US-supplied weapons that are in evidence

Marko Marjanović
Russia Insider
Tue, 01 Aug 2017 00:00 UTC
Taliban
The Pentagon needs to sweep in front of its own doorstep first
Russia is not an arms supplier for the Taliban, but the US is

Last week the CNN published a surreal story where it rolled out half a dozen battered AK-47s as "exclusive" evidence that Russia "may be arming the Taliban".

Except of course the AK-47 is the most common combat rifle on the planet, and Afghanistan has been awash in them since at least the early 1980s when the US flooded the country with Soviet-made arms it purchased from Egypt.

In fact, using CNN's logic there is far more proof that the US is arming the Taliban. At this point in time, the Taliban are awash in state of the art US-made weapons. They're packing the M4 and M16 standard US rifles issued to regular US infantry, the FN SCAR rifle in use by US Special Forces, and besides that, night vision optics, laser scopes, and even up-armored Humvees, which are a Taliban favorite for their suicide car bomb attacks.

Comment: For more on just why we're seeing these absurd accusations:
The US' latest disinformation offensive against Russia is aimed at manipulating Trump into dispatching more uniformed troops to Afghanistan instead of going through with Bannon's PMC proposal, as both factions fight for control over who will receive the profitable right to ensure security for future American mining operations.

International media lit up in feverish speculation earlier this week after unsubstantiated reports emerged once again that Russia is supposedly arming the Taliban. Moscow struck back at these accusations by decrying them as baseless and part of a US disinformation campaign, which they are, but a few more words need to be offered about this provocative episode in order to place it into its proper context.

The US is aghast that Russia has taken the lead in organizing the Moscow peace process for Afghanistan, which has already seen three meetings hosted in the Russian capital involving all of the war-torn country's regional stakeholders.

Granted, there's still a lot of work that needs to be done before this framework can yield anything resembling tangible results, but it's nevertheless a constructive step in the right direction and presents a multipolar alternative to the previously American-dominated initiatives on this issue.

Importantly, Russia's policy has recently evolved to the point where Moscow has come to regard the Taliban as an indispensable party to reaching a political solution to the War on Afghanistan, and this is largely due to the group's effective anti-terrorist fight against Daesh.

Russia has been warning for the past couple years about the "Islamic State's" creeping infiltration into the Afghan battlespace, and the organization's spate of attacks there over the past year have vindicated everything that Moscow was concerned about it and given its peace efforts a renewed impetus.


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Green Light

Germany seeks EU countermeasures against US 'illegal' Russia sanctions


Tasnim News Agency
Mon, 31 Jul 2017 15:34 UTC
Brigitte Zypries
German Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy, Brigitte Zypries
New sanctions against Russia proposed by US lawmakers and which could harm European firms violate international law and the European Commission should consider counter-measures, the German economy minister was quoted on Monday as saying.

"We consider this as being against international law, plain and simple," Brigitte Zypries told the Funke Mediengruppe newspaper chain. "Of course we don't want a trade war. But it is important the European Commission now looks into countermeasures," she added, Reuters reported.

The German government and business leaders have said the new sanctions passed this month by the US House of Representatives could prevent German companies from working on pipeline projects that they say are essential to Germany's energy security.

Comment: The US keeps pushing and pushing its insane anti-Russian agenda, and Europe has followed in tow to their own detriment. It appears Germany may be reaching their breaking point.

See:
Washington pushes harder against Moscow
US new anti-Russian sanctions point a dagger at the heart of Europe

And check out Behind the Headlines Sunday show where the the issue was also discussed: The Fall of Western Society and American Isolationism

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Target

The Trump Tweet that is shaking the War Party

David Stockman
AntiWar.com
Mon, 31 Jul 2017 15:12 UTC
Trump John McCain
Donald Trump (L); John McCain (R)
Most of the Donald's tweets amount to street brawling with his political enemies, but occasionally one of them slices through Imperial Washington's sanctimonious cant. Indeed, Monday evening's 140 characters of solid cut right to the bone:
The Amazon Washington Post fabricated the facts on my ending massive, dangerous, and wasteful payments to Syrian rebels fighting Assad.....
Needless to say, we are referencing not the dig at the empire of Bezos, but the characterization of Washington's anti-Assad policy as "massive, dangerous and wasteful".

No stouter blow to the neocon/Deep State "regime change" folly has ever been issued by an elected public official. Yet there it is - the self-composed words of the man in the Oval Office. It makes you even want to buy some Twitter stock!
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Alarm Clock

U.S. considers sending arms and supplies to Kiev regime, Russia warns against it

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Tue, 01 Aug 2017 00:00 UTC
Kurt Volker
Sputnik reports Russia again warns Washington against arms supplies to US as Pentagon reported to be mulling the idea.

The Russian government has according to Sputnik issued a public warning against any thought by the Western powers - notably the US - sending weapons to Ukraine.

The suggestion that weapons might be sent to Ukraine has been repeatedly floated in the US, where it was part of the Republican Party platform in last year's election until Donald Trump famously removed it.

Comment: Kurt Volker: another walking-talking automaton for the war-thirsty U.S. Deep State. There seems to be a limitless supply of such stupid bureaucrats who are ready and willing to foster more chaos and carnage for a paycheck.

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Vader

Killary's own words reveal the huge part she played in her downfall - Book review of "How I Lost By Hillary Clinton"

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Mon, 31 Jul 2017 15:12 UTC
Killary
© Recode / YouTubeKillary still at it...
The single biggest mystery of the 2016 election is why anyone was surprised that Hillary Clinton lost.

Even from faraway London it was obvious to me that she was a terrible candidate who the American people didn't like and didn't trust but who the US political elite - which in this context also means the US media - was trying to force on the American people against their wishes.

Unsurprisingly this provoked a reaction, which is why Hillary Clinton lost.

There is no reason to introduce meddling by Russia or the ham fisted and misunderstood interventions of James Comey to explain this.

A book - How I Lost By Hillary Clinton - with a foreword by Julian Assange and introduced and annotated by Joe Lauria (a contributor to The Duran) sets this all out in a way that makes it all perfectly clear.

Comment: It should be obvious to anyone with two firing neurons that Killary was a terrible candidate, with elitist attitudes and opinions, who the American people mistrusted and disliked.

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Chess

Kelly has approval of both parties, but bringing order to the West Wing is the bigger task ahead

Vivian Salama and Jill Colvin
Associated Press
Tue, 01 Aug 2017 15:10 UTC
John Kelly
© Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Associated PressWhite House Chief of Staff John Kelly appears at event where President Donald Trump was to bestow the Medal of Honor to retired Army medic James McCloughan during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Monday, July 31, 2017.
Raised voices could be heard through the thick door to the Oval Office as John Kelly - then secretary of Homeland Security - offered some tough talk to President Donald Trump.

Kelly, a whip-cracking retired general who was sworn in as White House chief of staff on Monday, had demanded to speak to the president alone after Trump complained loudly that the U.S. was admitting travelers from countries he viewed as high risk.

Kelly first tried to explain to Trump that the admissions were standard - some people had legitimate reasons to visit the country - but the president insisted that it was making him look bad, according to an administration official familiar with the exchange about a month ago.

Kelly then demanded that other advisers leave the room so he could speak to the president frankly. Trump refused at first, but agreed when Kelly insisted.

It was an early indication that Kelly, a decorated retired Marine general who served three tours in Iraq, is not afraid to stand up to his commander-in-chief.

Comment:

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Vader

Patrick Buchanan wonders, "Shall we fight them all?"

Patrick J. Buchanan
World News Daily
Tue, 01 Aug 2017 14:54 UTC
Supreme leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong-un
© KCNA / ReutersSupreme leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong-un
'President Trump may need those transgender troops'

Saturday, Kim Jong-un tested an ICBM of sufficient range to hit the U.S. mainland. He is now working on its accuracy and a nuclear warhead small enough to fit atop that missile that can survive re-entry.

Unless we believe Kim is a suicidal madman, his goal seems clear. He wants what every nuclear power wants - the ability to strike his enemy's homeland with horrific impact, in order to deter that enemy.

Kim wants his regime recognized and respected, and the U.S., which carpet-bombed the North from 1950-1953, out of Korea.

Where does this leave us? Says Cliff Kupchan of the Eurasia Group, "The U.S. is on the verge of a binary choice: either accept North Korea into the nuclear club or conduct a military strike that would entail enormous civilian casualties."
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Sherlock

Democratic IT hacker Imran Awan is now blessed with a high-powered Clinton attorney

Alex Christoforou
The Duran
Tue, 01 Aug 2017 14:42 UTC
wasserman schultz
Debbie Wasserman Schultz's IT specialist could very well bring down the entire fake news Russia story that Hillary Clinton and her campaign staff put together in the run up to their election defeat to Donald Trump.

This would explain why this Pakistani "hacker", who is now under arrest for bank fraud charges while attempting to flee the United States, has been curiously blessed with high powered Clinton attorneys.

The rapidly growing scandal is seeing zero airtime on mainstream media.
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