Puppet MastersS


Chess

New sanctions against Russia? Bring it on!

us capitol building
© REUTERS/ Shannon Stapleton
So the American bully wants to slap more sanctions on Russia over alleged misdeeds. This is blatant temper tantrums by a frustrated US trying to get "its way or no way".

It's so absurd. The biggest rogue nation on Earth, illegally bombing and killing civilians in several countries simultaneously, covertly arming terrorist proxies in the Middle East, and a rampant subversive interferer in foreign elections around the world, has the audacity to lecture others about probity, resorting to financial arm twisting that makes a mockery of international laws and trade rules.

Well, after all, the Americans do always declare themselves to be "exceptional". Never a truer word was spoken, albeit inadvertently.

This week, the US House of Representatives voted overwhelming to approve tougher new sanctions on Russia. The Senate is expected to rubber-stamp the bill and then President Trump will most probably sign into law. He is becoming a lame duck president due to the rampant Russophobia in the US.

Network

Pepe Escobar: China's Silk Road Confronts India's Self-Serving Nationalism

Modi Xi China India
© AFP 2017/ Prakash Singh
So, once again it's down to a face-off in the Himalayas. Beijing builds a road in the disputed territory of Doklam (if you're Indian) or Donglang (if you're Chinese), in the tri-junction of Sikkim, Tibet and Bhutan, and all hell breaks loose. Or does it?

The Global Times blames it on an upsurge of Hindu nationalist fervor, but selected Indian officials prefer to privilege ongoing quiet diplomacy. After all, when Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Astana last month, they struck a gentleman's agreement; this dispute is not supposed to escalate, and there's got to be a mutually face saving solution.

The tri-junction drama is actually a minor tremor in the much larger picture of the ongoing geopolitical tectonic shift in Eurasia. The major subplot occurs in the conjunction between the inexorable momentum of the New Silk Roads, aka China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy's push, these past nine years, to assert itself as a major naval power in the Indian Ocean.

Comment: India is behaving like a SJW in Eurasian geopolitics. Their hurt feelings and long-standing, myopic focus to their 'cause' (the Kashmir dispute) are preventing them from seeing the bigger picture. India needs to get over itself for the sake of its people and the future of Eurasia.


Piggy Bank

Pay up: EU court obliges Ukraine to pay Eurobond debt to Russia

kiev
© Sputnik
The High Court of London has bound Ukraine to pay £2.8 million ($3.6 million) to Russia as compensation for legal costs related to Kiev's Eurobond debt, the Russian Finance Ministry announced on Wednesday.

According to a statement on its website, Ukraine has been ordered: "to compensate a portion of costs related to legal proceedings to Russia in the amount of £2.8 million, with 50 percent to be paid by the debtor at the latest of September 20, 2017."

In March, the court ruled Ukraine failed to offer a "justifiable" or court-ready defense for not paying back the $3 billion lent by Russia in 2013 during the presidency of Viktor Yanukovich. The financial aid from Russia to Ukraine came in the form of a Eurobond governed by English law.

The court has ruled Kiev must pay Moscow the par value of Eurobonds, the coupon payment of $75 million and penalty interest on those amounts.

Evil Rays

Winning hearts and minds: Kiev cuts electricity supply to Donetsk

electric lines
© Reuters
Ukraine's state power company says it has terminated electricity supplies to the parts of the Donetsk region that are controlled by Russia-backed separatists.

Vsevolod Kovalchuk, acting head of the power distributor Ukrenergo, said on Facebook on July 26 that "the power supply to the districts in the Donetsk region that are temporarily not controlled [by the government] was cut" overnight.

According to Kovalchuk, the districts controlled by pro-Russia separatists in the region stopped receiving energy produced by power stations located in Kyiv-controlled regions of Ukraine.

Earlier in April, Ukraine cut electricity supplies to the districts controlled by Moscow-backed separatists in another eastern region, Luhansk.

War Whore

CIA Director admits to working with Mexico and Colombia to overthrow Maduro government in Venezuela

venezuela protests
© REUTERS/ Ueslei Marcelino
US Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo has admitted the US is working to change the elected government of Venezuela, and collaborating with Colombia and Mexico to do so. While it's the first public acknowledgement of US meddling in the embattled country, Latin American political analysts likely won't be surprised.

Speaking at a Q&A session at the Aspen Institute think tank's annual security forum, Pompeo said he was "very hopeful" of a "transition" in Venezuela.

"I was in Mexico City and Bogota a week before last talking about this, trying to help them understand [what] they might do so they can get a better outcome for their part of the world and our part of the world. I'm always careful when we talk about South and Central America and the CIA, but suffice to say, we're very hopeful there can be a transition in Venezuela and we [are] doing [our] best to understand the dynamic there, so that we can communicate to our State Department and to others," he said.

Chess

Turkish security expert Abdullah Ağar: Turkey needs Russian S-400 system as shield against 'Western plan' in Mideast

S-400 air defense system
© Sputnik/ Sergey MalgavkRussia's S-400 air defense system
Russia and Turkey are currently at the final stage of negotiations on the delivery of the Russian-made S-400 missile defense system to Ankara. According to Turkish security expert Abdullah Ağar, the deal indicates a major shift in Turkey's policy.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday that there is no reason for Washington to be concerned over the Ankara-Moscow talks on the delivery of the S-400 system.
"Why should this be a concern? Each country should take certain measures to ensure its security. How many times have we talked with America, but it did not work out, so like it or not, we began to make plans about the S-400," Erdogan said at a press conference in Ankara.
The United States recently signaled that Turkey buying the S-400 from Russia would become a major concern for Washington.
"There was a media report that was incorrect. They have not bought the S-400 air defense system from Russia. That would be a concern, were they to do that, but they have not done that," Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford said Saturday at a security forum in Colorado.

Comment: See also: Turkey in 'final stage' of buying Russian S-400 anti-missile system


Umbrella

False Russian meddling is Watergate-worthy, but real Israeli meddling is hunky-dory

under umbrella
© wire AP
The investigation of Russia's meddling in our politics dominates the liberal press; and for my part, I believe everything The New York Times and MSNBC are suspicioning about Donald Trump and the Russians. I bet that the Russians have something on Trump personally, possibly involving money or sex; and that the Russians meddled in our election. (Not that the meddling changed the outcome; no, Hillary Clinton did a great job of losing it on her own.)

But as someone who focuses on Israel policy, what stands out to me is that conduct that is Watergate-worthy when it comes to Russia is hunky-dory when it comes to Israel. Just yesterday, for instance, Trump adviser Jared Kushner was on the hot seat in Congress over his contacts with a Russian official last year. But no one has a hearing about the fact that Kushner's family, out of devotion to Israel, financed illegal Israeli settlements that have undermined the two-state solution, thereby nullifying longtime U.S. policy. I think that's a real problem. MSNBC doesn't.

Just in the last week there have been two other expressions of Israel's active interests in our politics that the liberal media have failed to say boo about.

First, there's the Israel Anti-Boycott Act in the House and Senate. Israel regards the Boycott movement (BDS) as an existential threat; and so the Israel lobby group AIPAC produced legislation that scores of Senators and Congresspeople, including many liberal heroes, signed on to that trashes the First Amendment by making it a possible crime to support boycott of Israel. By the way, AIPAC has a mission to insure that there is "no daylight" between the Israeli government and the U.S. government. In the 1960s despite the best efforts of Senator Fulbright, AIPAC escaped designation as an agent of a foreign government. That ought to be a scandal, but everyone walks on by.

Then there's Israel's unhappiness with the Syrian ceasefire deal that Donald Trump reached with Russia. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu says that the deal fails to limit Iran's presence in Syria or to prevent weapons getting to Israel's enemy, Hezbollah; and Israel supporters in the U.S. duly echoed Netanyahu's view.

Comment: "This is unbelievable! Trump Administration ignored Israel's security concerns in making the Syrian deal with Putin." All wars are not about Israel...or are they?

For more wool being pulled over American eyes, see also:


Rocket

North Korea: Attempt to topple Kim and US will receive 'Merciless blow with nuclear hammer'

PompeoKim
© America's Freedom Fighters/The Japan TimesCia Director Pompeo • Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un
Responding to CIA chief Mike Pompeo's remark last week that North Koreans would be better off without Kim Jong-un, Pyongyang warned it would not hesitate to launch a nuclear strike at "the heart of the US" if Washington ventures to remove him.

Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum on Thursday, Pompeo argued that "from the administration's perspective" it would be desirable to "separate" Kim from the nuclear capacity of the rogue state, calling the authoritarian leader "the thing that is the most dangerous" about the North Korean situation.


Comment: With comments like that, one could point to pompous Pompeo as the second most dangerous 'thing'.


"The North Korean people I'm sure are lovely people and would love to see him go," CNN quoted Pompeo as saying.

While Pompeo appeared to soften the statement, saying that he was not supporting regime change in North Korea, but merely the separation of "that regime from this system," the North Korean authorities were up in arms over what they denounced as Pompeo's "reckless remarks."

Saying that the CIA director's comments "have gone over the line," North Korea's foreign minister said in a statement Tuesday that it would "preemptively annihilate those countries and entities" by all possible "kinds of strike means, including the nuclear ones," if there is imminent danger to their leader's well-being, the statement, circulated by Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency.

Comment: KCNA Watch offers the North Korean full response, July 25, 2017, by a spokesman of the DPRK Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
On July 20, the U.S. CIA Director Pompeo mentioned impertinently, at a security forum hosted by a civilian organization, about the "removal of the supreme leadership" of the DPRK, saying that what is most dangerous about the north Korean nuclear issue is the character who holds the control over the nuclear weapons and that the intelligence community and the Department of Defense are figuring out the way to separate the weapons from someone who might well have intent to use them.

Although his reckless remarks are just balderdash of a guy who has become so angrily desperate due to the ever-increasing nuclear strike capability of the DPRK, they have gone over the line, and it has now become clear that the ultimate aim of the Trump administration's hostile policy towards the DPRK is the "regime change" in the DPRK.

That the person who is supposed to be in charge of all foreign intelligence in the U.S., harbors an illusion that it could separate our army and people from our supreme leadership is an expression of his illiteracy about the DPRK and an explicit illustration of incompetence of the U.S. intelligence community.

The successive U.S. administrations could not but fail in the DPRK-U.S. confrontation. That is also attributable to the "merits" of such stupid intelligence community of the U.S.

Our army and people have never thought about their destiny and future separated from their supreme leadership. The first and foremost mission of our revolutionary armed forces with the nuclear force as their backbone is to defend the leader at the cost of their lives.

The DPRK legally stipulates that if the supreme dignity of the DPRK is threatened, it must preemptively annihilate those countries and entities that are directly or indirectly involved in it, by mobilizing all kinds of strike means including the nuclear ones.

We will find out and smash all those who intend to do something against our supreme leadership, wherever they are. This is an immutable and indomitable will of the army and people of the DPRK.

We once again felt deep in our hearts from the reckless remarks of the CIA director how just it was that we have achieved the great historic cause of completing the nuclear force by overcoming all difficulties and trials.

Should the U.S. dare to show even the slightest sign of attempt to remove our supreme leadership, we will strike a merciless blow at the heart of the U.S. with our powerful nuclear hammer, honed and hardened over time.

The likes of Pompeo will bitterly experience the catastrophic and miserable consequences caused by having dared to shake their little fists at the supreme leadership, our eternal sun and everything of life for our nation.
So far, the caliber of the rhetoric is keeping all parties on edge and in the game.


Dominoes

CIA Chief Pompeo: China tops Russia and Iran as America's biggest long-term threat to domination

pompeo
© when the news stopsWe're not really into facts, folks.
CIA Director Mike Pompeo sees China rather than Russia or Iran as the biggest threat to America's dominant position in the world. Beijing merited its position on the US spymaster's threat list due to its stronger economy and population, he said.

Speaking to the Washington Free Beacon, Pompeo marked terrorism and North Korea as the biggest short-term threats to US security interests, but selected China, Russia and Iran as mid-to-long-term concerns. "It's hard to pick between China, Russia and Iran to be honest with you. I guess if I had to pick one with a nose above the others, I'd probably pick China," he told Bill Gertz, the Beacon's senior editor and national security reporter.

"They have a real economy that they have built, unlike Russia that lives and dies on how many barrels of oil they can pluck out of the ground. And Iran that is similarly very single sector derivative and not to the scale of China population-wise," he explained.

Pompeo added that Beijing's defense strategy is based on confronting the US and its capabilities. "They are probably trying either to steal our stuff or make sure they can defeat it. And most often both," he said. "I think it's very clear when they think about their place in the world, they measure their success in placing themselves in the world where they want to be vis-à-vis the United States and not as against anyone else."

Comment: If the US is in such jeopardy, it is likely not from Trump but alarmists such as Pompeo who's command of intelligence includes making stuff up as he goes:
Pompeo: I guess..., It's hard to pick..., I'd probably pick..., They are probably trying..., and most often both..., when they think about..., trying to steal our stuff...,when they think..., they see themselves..., a kind of anti-Russia hysteria, decades-old challenge ... to counter supposed attempts to influence... (and so on). "We have an obligation to push back, defeat it, to work to make it painful for them so that they'll reduce the magnitude of what they're doing,"
You have to actually be threatened to claim a threat. A glass looked through distortedly and darkly.


Document

State Department's annual report: Settlements and 'lack of hope' spur Palestinian violence

T and Abbas
© Thomas Corex/AFPUS President Donald Trump and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at the presidential palace in the West Bank city of Bethlehem.
A new US State Department report says a myriad of Israeli policies - such as continued settlement building and aggressive military operations in the West Bank - are driving Palestinian terrorism, while the Palestinian Authority is making substantial efforts to halt such violence.

The report, an annual assessment of worldwide terrorism published this month, detailed a number Palestinian attacks against Israelis in 2016, including through rockets launched from Gaza, gunmen opening fire on civilians in Tel Aviv and numerous stabbing attacks.

"Israel again faced terrorist threats from Palestinian terrorists from Gaza and the West Bank," said the report, titled Country Reports on Terrorism 2016. "Since 2015, a series of lone-offender attacks by Palestinians in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank has increased tensions between Israel and the Palestinians."

But it also said that Israel was, in part, spurring these attacks through actions that create a "lack of hope" for Palestinians and motivates them to carry out acts of terror. "Continued drivers of violence included a lack of hope in achieving Palestinian statehood, Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank, settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, the perception that the Israeli government was changing the status quo on the Haram Al Sharif/Temple Mount, and IDF tactics that the Palestinians considered overly aggressive," the report said.

That kind of diagnosis is unusual for US President Donald Trump's administration, which has been reluctant to criticize Israel, let alone suggest it is partly responsible for Palestinian terror.

Comment: Israel only wants one version of 'balanced narrative' -- one completely in its favor.