Puppet MastersS


Star of David

Flashback Report finds 85 percent of Palestinians killed by Israel in 2015 were extra-judicially executed

dead palestinian
The Detainees and Ex-Detainees Committee, said in a report published on Sunday, that 85 percent of Palestinians who were killed by Israel since the beginning of 2015; 179 Palestinians, were killed in extrajudicial field executions.

It maintained that Israeli forces executed Palestinians in 'cold-blood' and on the grounds of mere suspicion, maintaining that forces acted as both judges and executioners. The committee noted that based on a series of documented and publicized incidents, the majority of Palestinians, who assaulted Israelis or were suspected of doing so, were executed by Israeli forces despite that fact that they posed no immediate danger to the latter's lives, stressing that forces could have restrained and detained them instead.

The committee added that a large number of Palestinians were left to bleed to death, without providing them with the necessary first aid, or even allowing Palestinian ambulances' access to them.

It said that the majority of killed Palestinians were shot from a very close range with the intention to kill.

It described Israeli politicians' calls to kill Palestinians instead of detaining them, as a 'war crime', and intentional extrajudicial murders; which it affirmed, violates principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the four Geneva Conventions, and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

Cowboy Hat

Jeremy Corbyn's older brother says Trump was exposing political hypocrisy with Britain First retweets

Jeremy Corbyn Brother Piers Corbyn.
© Andrew Parsons / Global Look PressJeremy Corbyn Brother Piers Corbyn.
Jeremy Corbyn's brother has waded in on Donald Trump and Theresa May's Britain First Twitter spat. The black sheep of the Labour leader's red flock has defended the US President's right to repost Islamophobic videos.

Piers Corbyn also re-posted a message from a former far-right British National Party (BNP) activist, while insisting Trump was making a valid political point. His rant was sparked by the escalating row between Washington and London, which kicked off when Trump retweeted three videos from Britain First deputy leader Jayda Fransen.

May said Trump was "wrong" and that Britain would not hesitate to tell him so. When Trump heard the response from Downing Street, he tweeted (the wrong) Theresa May to tell her to focus on "extremist terrorism" in the UK, and not his social media.

Comment: This is typical Trump: make a valid point in such a controversial manner that by focussing on the way in which Trump made the point, the media have no choice but to bring attention to the point Trump was trying to make. In this case: the utter barbarity of fanatical Islamists. There's really no arguing that point, no matter how much many in the media try to ignore it.


MIB

Obama-appointed federal inspector directly threatened by Clinton campaign for whistle-blowing about Killary's private server

Charles McCullough III
Charles McCullough III
An Obama appointed government watchdog central to the Hillary Clinton email investigation says that he, his family and his office faced an 'intense backlash' from Clinton allies, who threatened him over findings that Clinton mishandled classified information.

Former Inspector General Charles McCullough III told Fox News Chief Intel correspondent Catherine Herridge that he was under intense pressure from senior officials on the left - with one Clinton campaign official threatening that he and another government investigator would be immediately fired under a Hillary Clinton presidency:
"It was told in no uncertain terms, by a source directly from the campaign, that we would be the first two to be fired - with [Clinton's] administration. That that was definitely going to happen." -Charles McCullough III
As a refresher, over 2,100 classified emails were sent over Clinton's personal server, which was used exclusively for government business. Despite this, former FBI Director James Comey - who had drafted Clinton's exoneration letter months before reviewing evidence in the case - recommended that the DOJ not prosecute the case.

Megaphone

Nikki Haley is "no diplomat, just a bull in a china shop"

nikki haley
© Lucas Jackson / Reuters
Washington is doing everything possible to kill off any possibilities of diplomacy on the Korean nuclear problem, says Gregory Elich, from the Korea Policy Institute. The US UN envoy acts like a bull in a china shop, adds Daniel McAdams of the Ron Paul Institute.

The US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has called for the complete isolation of North Korea, including cutting all trade links. She was speaking at an emergency Security Council session, following Pyongyang's latest ballistic missile test. Haley said North Korea is pushing the world closer to war.

RT asked Gregory Elich, Advisory Board member at the Korea Policy Institute whether the US diplomat has a point.

Attention

Sarah Sanders defends Trump's anti-Islamist tweets: 'The threat is real, Trump's goal is to promote strong national security'

Sarah Sanders Trump anti-islamist tweets
© AP / Alex Bandon
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders defended President Trump on Wednesday after he shared a series of unverified videos that allegedly portrayed Muslims beating and harassing non-Muslim individuals.

At least one of the videos was later described as "fake" by a Dutch news outlet. Sanders said that didn't matter.

"Whether it's a real video, the threat is real," Sanders told reporters. "[Trump's] goal is to promote strong border security and strong national security."

Sanders continued, criticizing reporters for pressing her on whether Trump should verify the content of videos before sharing them with his 43 million followers on Twitter.

"I'm not talking about the nature of the video. I think you're focusing on the wrong thing," she said. "The threat is real, and that's what the president is talking about."

Comment: Trump retweets anti-Islamist tweets from far-right Britain First leader - world goes crazy in response


Stormtrooper

Lessons unlearned: Ukrainian troops violate ceasefire, get stuck in new "cauldron"

Ukranian soldier in trench
© European Press AgencyUkrainian soldier in WWI-style trench
The Ukrainian Armed Forces, having violated the Minsk Agreements and seized the villages of Gladosovo and Metallist [earlier Travnevoe was reported as captured - J.A.] in the neutral zone in Donbass, have apparently celebrated too early.

According to the war correspondent of the Ministry of Defense of the Donetsk People's Republic, Mikhail Andronik, Ukrainian troops have effectively caught themselves in a new "cauldron" like back in Debaltsevo.

Stock Up

Russia moves to prolong oil production cuts, market responds favorably

OPEC's logo
© Heinz-Peter Bader / ReutersA man fixes a sign with OPEC's logo next to its headquarter's entrance before a meeting of OPEC oil ministers in Vienna, Austria, November 29, 2017.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-OPEC producers led by Russia have decided to prolong oil output cuts until the end of 2018. The move is an attempt to reduce global oversupply and prop up crude prices.

US WTI blend was trading 32 cents up at $57.71 per barrel. Brent crude was up 43 cents at $63.06. Both benchmarks were trading near 30-month highs.

The move was widely expected by the market. Besides extending the existing cuts, OPEC also decided to cap the combined output of Nigeria and Libya at 2017 levels below 2.8 million barrels per day.

Comment: What is unsaid here is that there has been a US effort to keep oil prices down, namely to negatively impact Russia. Yet, Russia has positioned itself well enough to counter such measures through a very different set of behaviors than how the US acts on the world stage.


Star of David

Forget Russia's few hundred thousand for Twitter ads - Take a look at Israel's multi-millions spent interfering in US elections

Netanyahu
© HispanTV
While the American media and Washington are expending substantial energy on the alleged Russian interference in the United States political theatre during the 2016 election cycle, another nation and its American promoters that invest substantially in Washington generally fly under the radar when it comes to political influence-peddling.

According to Open Secrets, the pro-Israel "industry" has made the following political contributions since 1990:

USA

Pentagon not surprisingly backtracks on pledge to ban dangerously old cluster bombs

cluster bombs
© U.S. Air Force
The Pentagon has postponed indefinitely a ban on older generations of cluster bombs that was set to take effect in 2019. In its place, a vague policy designed to keep "legitimate weapons with clear military utility" in use.

Cluster bombs are anti-personnel and anti-vehicle weapons launched from aircraft or artillery that disperse as many as several hundred bomblets over a large area. The munitions sometimes fail to detonate on impact and continue to pose mortal danger to civilians for years after conflicts end.

The Department of Defense said it will not meet a January 1 2019 deadline, set in 2008 by the George W. Bush administration, for cluster bomb technology to meet a performance standard of failing to detonate 1 percent or less of the time.

"We cannot risk mission failure or accept the potential of increased military and civilian casualties by forfeiting the best available capabilities," the Pentagon said in a statement about delaying the ban, according to Reuters.

Vader

Niger approves deployment of armed US drones to operate in combat missions

US drone
© U.S. Air Force / ReutersUS drone
Armed American drones will soon begin flying over Niger following approval of their use by the West African nation. The move marks a significant expansion of the US military's footprint in this part of Africa, where its reach has so far been limited.

The government of Niger has permitted the Pentagon to operate armed drones out of the country's capital, Niamey, defense officials said on Thursday, according to the New York Times. The newspaper cited a memorandum of understanding signed earlier this week by the US African Command (AFRICOM) and the West African nation.

The memorandum calls for the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to be armed by the AFRICOM initially. The drones will eventually be re-deployed to a Nigerien air base in Agadez, along with 500 US troops.

Comment: See also: Niger ready to host U.S. drone base