Puppet MastersS


Russian Flag

Putin hails Russian spies for thwarting over 60 terror attacks in Russia on 100th anniversary of creation of Bolshevik secret police


Japan Times
Thu, 21 Dec 2017 16:27 UTC
putin
© MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV / SPUTNIK / KREMLIN POOL PHOTO / VIA AP
President Vladimir Putin hailed Russian spies on their professional holiday Wednesday, saying they have thwarted more than 60 terror attacks in Russia this year.

In a Kremlin speech marking the 100th anniversary of the creation of the Bolshevik secret police, the Cheka, Putin emphasized that it and Soviet-era successor agencies such as the KGB were an "inalienable part of our history."

Putin served with the KGB for 16 years and briefly headed the main state security agency that followed it, the Federal Security Service, or FSB, before his ascent to the presidency. He said in his speech that "no matter how the times were changing, the majority of people who chose that difficult profession were true patriots and defenders of the state."

Earlier Wednesday, Maria Alekhina, a member of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot, was detained after she unfurled a banner that read "Happy Birthday, Hangmen!" outside the Moscow headquarters of the FSB.
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TV

A tale of two girls: Contrast between Ahed Tamimi and Bana al-Abed highlights Western media bias


RT
Fri, 22 Dec 2017 16:07 UTC
Ahed Tamimi
© Ahmad Gharabli / AFPIsrael is scared of a girl: Palestinian Ahed Tamimi (R) appears at a military court at the Israeli-run Ofer prison in the West Bank village of Betunia on December 20, 2017
Comparing western media coverage of two Middle Eastern girls - one from the occupied West Bank and one from eastern Aleppo - reveals the media is beholden to the imperatives of US foreign policy.

On Monday night, Israeli forces arrested Ahed Tamimi, a 17-year-old girl Palestinian girl. She now sits in a military prison awaiting judgement. But if you're watching US mainstream media, you wouldn't know it. That's because the coverage of Tamimi - or lack thereof - is in stark contrast to the case of Bana al-Abed, an eight-year-old Syrian girl who became an almost overnight media sensation in October 2016.

Ahed Tamimi is from the hamlet of Nabi Saleh, one of a handful of West Bank villages which stages weekly demonstrations against Israel's 50-year occupation. Every Friday, dozens of villagers are joined by international solidarity activists as they attempt to march towards the spring that Israeli forces confiscated for a neighboring settlement. They are invariably stopped by heavily armed Israeli soldiers who employ a variety of tactics to suppress the marchers, injuring and occasionally killing them. Israeli soldiers frequently target the village with collective punishment measures.

Comment: More evidence right there of a powerful Zionist lobby controlling Western governments.

We don't know how or when, but this is all going to end very badly for Israel.

Free Ahed Tamimi.

For more on her arrest, see here:

The IDF vs The Teenage Girl: Palestinian Activist Ahed Tamimi Arrested For Slapping Soldiers Who Shot Boy

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MIB

Ukies lose the plot: Ukrainian interpreter arrested on Russian spying charges

Luke Harding
The Guardian
Thu, 21 Dec 2017 16:27 UTC
Stanislav Yezhov
© Musienko Vladislav/UnianStanislav Yezhov stands between Volodymyr Groysman and Theresa May in July 2017
An interpreter for Ukraine's prime minister who was photographed with Theresa May inside Downing Street has been arrested on suspicion of working as a Russian spy.

Ukraine's SBU security service arrested Stanislav Yezhov on Wednesday evening in the capital, Kiev. Video showed two officers leading him away. Yezhov had worked "for the enemy state [Russia] for a long time," the prime minister, Volodymyr Groysman, declared on his Facebook page.

The arrest is embarrassing for the Ukrainian authorities. Yezhov was based inside the cabinet of ministers and had regular high-level access to sensitive information. He traveled on high-profile trips to the west, including to London and Washington.

The alleged Russian spy visited Downing Street in July when Groysman held talks with the prime minister.

Comment: This is laughably absurd. The Russians have no need of spying on the Ukies to collect information about the 'activities of Ukrainian government s

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Propaganda

SOTT Focus: Manufacturing Dissent: The Guardian sez Russia Behind 'Online Conspiracy Theory About White Helmets'

Beau Christensen
Sott.net
Fri, 22 Dec 2017 17:05 UTC
white helmets syria
On Monday a senior Guardian 'technology reporter' named Olivia Solon published the findings of her investigation into how it came to pass that 'conspiracy theories' about the White Helmets 'Syrian civil defense' organization actually being a terrorist group managed to dominate online discussion. The result was an incredible hit-piece against alternative media sites - particularly 21st Century Wire, which published original research by journalist Vanessa Beeley - whose work has done much to expose Western lies about the war in Syria. And it's all ultimately Russia's fault, of course...
How Syria's White Helmets became victims of an online propaganda machine

The Russia-backed campaign to link the volunteer rescuers with al-Qaida exposes how conspiracy theories take root: 'It's like a factory'
Reading just the headline and sub-headline, you've already caught the gist of it. Solon constructs a tale about a grand conspiracy involving "anti-imperialist activists, conspiracy theorists and trolls with the support of the Russian government" to account for why people believe the alternative (and largely accurate) narrative about the White Helmets over the official, Western narrative that the White Helmets are actually 'white knights saving Syrians from their evil government'.
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Bullseye

RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan ridicules "false and obsolete" intel report which forced RT America to register as foreign agent


RT
Fri, 22 Dec 2017 15:48 UTC
congressional inquiry
© Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
The US Department of Justice based its decision to demand RT America register as a foreign agent on the intelligence community's report accusing RT of influencing the 2016 election, a DOJ official said.

The report, issued by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) in January 2017, "was certainly relevant to our decision to examine them more recently," National Security Division Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Hickey told reporters on Thursday. He cited no other factors that contributed to the decision.

"Thank you DOJ for finally confirming what many have suspected, about how the sausage is made: RT America was forced to register as a foreign agent at least partially on the basis of a report filled with false facts, obsolete data and blatant errors," said RT's editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan.
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Info

The changing situation in Libya: Marshal Khalifa Haftar goes on the offensive

Alexander Orlov
New Eastern Outlook
Thu, 21 Dec 2017 15:15 UTC
Khalifa Haftar
On 18 December, the Supreme Commander of the Libyan Army, Marshal Khalifa Haftar announced the expiration of the Skhirat Agreement on the subject of national reconciliation, signed on 17 Dec 2015 under the auspices of the United Nations. One of its participants was the government of Fayez al-Sarraj, which lacked support from Parliament and the Libyan armed forces. The agreement, signed in Morocco, was renewable only once and provided for the formation of a government and was agreed to by all parties for a period of one year.

Despite the fact that F. al-Sarraj's government's term ended on December 17, the UN Security Council stressed that the Skhirat Agreement should remain the only method of resolution of the current crisis in Libya until the general election next year. In a speech on television, which took less than seven minutes, Haftar said: "the legality of this so-called political agreement has expired along with all the structures created with it. The armed forces will not follow the orders of any party that has not received its legitimacy from the Libyan people." The Field Marshal stressed that supreme command of the Libyan armed forces is in direct communication with the international community to resolve the Libyan situation and offers its vision of the political process and the holding of a general election. In this way, Haftar confirmed that henceforth, the government of F. al-Sarraj is illegal, having lost the two-year legitimacy it received in accordance with the Skhirat Agreement and that now all power has passed into the hands of the military. This means that the commander of the Libyan army is willing to go into an armed conflict with al-Sarraj if he decides to resist.
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Eye 2

When the hustlers came calling - How the US swindled Russia in the early 1990s

Eric Zuesse
Strategic Culture Foundation
Tue, 19 Dec 2017 14:00 UTC
Bush Clinton
The Hucksters - Bush 1 and Clinton
Due to a historic data-dump on December 10th, the biggest swindle that occurred in the 20th Century (or perhaps ever) is now proven as a historical fact; and this swindle was done by the US Government, against the Government and people of Russia, and it continues today and keeps getting worse under every US President. It was secretly started by US President George Herbert Walker Bush on the night of 24 February 1990; and, unless it becomes publicly recognized and repudiated so that it can stop, a nuclear war between the US and all of NATO on one side, versus Russia on the other, is inevitable unless Russia capitulates before then, which would be vastly less likely than such a world-ending nuclear war now is.

This swindle has finally been displayed beyond question, by this, the first-ever complete release of the evidence. It demonstrates beyond any reasonable doubt (as you'll verify yourself from the evidence here), that US President G.H.W. Bush (and his team) lied through their teeth to Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev (and his team) to end the Cold War on Russia's side, when the US team were secretly determined never to end it on the US-and-NATO side until Russia itself is conquered. And this swindle continues today, and keeps getting worse and worse for Russians.

Comment: The record itself speaks to the duplicity of the U.S. Now we live in the world the psychopaths secretly foisted on us. Fortunately for the world, Putin and his team are doing their level best to nullify the results of the deception, not by meeting it head on, but by bypassing it, and befriending all those countries who would work towards mutual cooperation and benefit.

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Chess

What is Trump's plan? Approval of lethal arms to Ukraine a sideways move to nowhere

Jim Jatras
RT
Fri, 22 Dec 2017 14:46 UTC
Ukrainian servicemen
© Gleb Garanich / Reuters
The Washington Post reports President Donald Trump has approved providing lethal weapons to Ukraine's armed forces.

Specifically, according to the report, the decision opens the door for delivery of items like Model M107A1 sniper systems and ammunition, plus associated parts and equipment, with a value of $41.5 million. At the same time, presidential approval is reportedly still being withheld from providing Javelin man-held anti-tank missiles, which Kiev also wants.

The decision to provide lethal "defensive" weapons comports with repeated Congressional authorizations, passed with overwhelming bipartisan support since 2014. While former President Barack Obama declined to act on those authorities, President Trump evidently has now done so.

With regard to the domestic political purposes of the decision, it seems to be another Trump effort to appear wisely Solomonic by "splitting the baby": look "strong" by making a muscular judgment but don't go all the way. It's the same ploy he used in recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital (but not yet moving the US embassy, which he could easily do by switching the plaques of the US Consulate General in West Jerusalem with the current embassy in Tel Aviv) and by "de-certifying" the Iran deal (but not pulling the US out of it, yet).
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Snowflake Cold

Slovakia seizes gas headed to Ukraine for non-payment of 2007 debt


RT
Fri, 22 Dec 2017 14:31 UTC
gas meter
© Gleb Garanich / Reuters
A court in Slovakia has arrested gas supplies destined for Ukraine over an unpaid debt dating back a decade. Slovakia is Ukraine's largest gas supplier since Ukraine stopped buying gas directly from Russia.

Kiev's debt dates back to 2007 after it failed to pay an Italian supplier for gas. When Ukraine was unable to pay the $21 million owed, the Italian company went to the European Arbitration Court in Stockholm, which ordered the arrest of gas supplies bound for Ukraine's state gas monopoly Naftogaz, according to Ukrainian media.

Comment: All of Kiev's shenanigans to avoid dealing with Russia is coming back to bite the politicians and the general population will suffer.

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Chart Pie

'Not the world's gendarme': Putin will scale down Russia's military spending


RT
Fri, 22 Dec 2017 14:20 UTC
Russia's Parachute Troops
© Alexey Kudenko / Sputnik
Moscow will not engage in an exhausting arms race, and the country's military spending will gradually decrease as Russia does not seek a role as the "world gendarme," President Vladimir Putin said.

Moscow is not seeking to get involved in a "pointless" new arms race, and will stick to "smart decisions" to strengthen its defensive capabilities, Putin said on Friday during an annual extended meeting of the Defense Ministry board.

"Intelligence, brains, discipline and organization" must be the cornerstones of the country's military doctrine, the Russian leader said.
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