Puppet MastersS


Bomb

Anonymous phone calls, 'probably from abroad', threaten to blow up Putin's motorcade


RT
Sat, 18 Nov 2017 16:16 UTC
putin motorcade
© Sergey Guneev / Sputnik
Russian security services in St. Petersburg had to investigate dozens of bomb threats targeting President Vladimir Putin's motorcade on Friday after anonymous callers, possibly from abroad, claimed that explosives had been planted along its route.

"Telephone terrorists made prank phone calls all day long," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding that around 60 phone calls were received on Friday morning alone. The calls reported "50 or so bombs allegedly planted in various places, including ones located along the route of Putin's motorcade, or at the facilities in the neighborhood of the places he was expected to visit."

Comment: Now there's a frightening prospect.

As Putin would say though, "don't worry, be happy." Here he is addressing the World Festival of Youth and Students, held in Sochi in late October... in English!



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Newspaper

Investigative report reveals US coalition kills 31 times more Iraqi civilians than it claims


Sputnik
Fri, 17 Nov 2017 16:01 UTC
Iraqi soldier in Mosul
© AP Photo/ Maya Alleruzzo
Journalists have visited over 150 airstrike sites in Iraq.

The number of civilians killed by the US-led coalition's airstrikes against Daesh in Iraq is 31 times higher than it claims, The New York Times reported, citing its investigative report.


Comment: Amazing the NYT doing some real investigative reporting.


According to the international coalition's data, 89 of its more than 14,000 airstrikes, or one in every 157 strikes, resulted in civilian deaths in Iraq. However, the journalistic investigation, dubbed 'The Uncounted', revealed that the ratio of airstrikes carried out by the coalition's aircraft resulting in civilian deaths was one out of five.

According to the newspaper, the conclusions had been made after the journalists had visited more than 150 airstrike sites and the US air base in Qatar, from where the campaign is being directed, over the last 18 months.
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Star of David

Israeli official calls for new strategy to fight the BDS movement

Philip Weiss
Mondoweiss
Wed, 15 Nov 2017 14:09 UTC
Ron Brummer
Ron Brummer
A high official in the Israeli government says that the groups supporting BDS, or Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel, are doing a "great job," and Israel has to come up with more aggressive ways to counter them. "If you want to promote boycotts against Israel, be my guest, it's your right. But there will be a price tag," Ron Brummer said last week.

The new battlefield for BDS is in Europe, where companies are under growing pressure to divest from the West Bank, Brummer said. The best response is to put through anti-BDS legislation in American states (as state legislatures and governors have done in Texas, California, Maryland, New York, and other states), so that if a company boycotts the West Bank, it loses 10's of millions in U.S. contracts.

Comment: BDS is hitting the Israelis where it hurts and the old 'anti-Semite' line isn't working to silence Israeli critics. The new solution is to outright make it illegal, but that sounds like it's going to run into issues as well. Is the beginning of the end for Israel? For the sake of the Palestinians, we hope so.

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Bizarro Earth

It's everywhere: Russia-gate spreads to Europe

Robert Parry
Consortium News
Thu, 16 Nov 2017 15:43 UTC
British Prime Minister Theresa May
Ever since the U.S. government dangled $160 million last December to combat Russian propaganda and disinformation, obscure academics and eager think tanks have been lining up for a shot at the loot, an unseemly rush to profit that is spreading the Russia-gate hysteria beyond the United States to Europe.

Now, it seems that every development, which is unwelcomed by the Establishment - from Brexit to the Catalonia independence referendum - gets blamed on Russia! Russia! Russia!

The methodology of these "studies" is to find some Twitter accounts or Facebook pages somehow "linked" to Russia (although it's never exactly clear how that is determined) and complain about the "Russian-linked" comments on political developments in the West. The assumption is that the gullible people of the United States, United Kingdom and Catalonia were either waiting for some secret Kremlin guidance to decide how to vote or were easily duped.
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Propaganda

The Brexit 'conspiracy': A theory of the chattering classes that's harming British democracy

Brendan O'Neill
Russia Insider
Sat, 18 Nov 2017 09:02 UTC
Putin CameronBrexit
Imagine how entitled you would have to be, how utterly used to getting your own way on every political and social matter, to think that the only possible explanation for a large number of people disagreeing with you is that they'd been got at by Russia and its mind-meddling invaders of the internet.


Comment: The hysteria seems to spread from the US where they also thought the American people could be so easily swayed that a few twitter advertisements - most not even related the election at all - subverted the democratic process:

Yes, this is the latest elite Remainer cry. Blissfully unaware of how much they sound like political Veruca Salts, having spent 18 months boring the good people of Britain rigid with their foot-stomping and weeping, Remoaners are now landing squarely on the anti-Russia conspiracy theory as the explanation for why Brexit happened. It couldn't possibly be because they failed to convince people of the merits of the EU. It couldn't be because people disagree with them. No, it must be down to some foreign virus, messing with our grey matter and so frying our brains with EU-phobic propaganda that we all yelped 'Leave!' in unison like lemmings-cum-Manchurian-candidates. 'Yes, that's what it was', they tell themselves at night, as they wrap themselves in the comfort blanket of self-delusion.

Comment: Also See: As Brexit negotiations go nowhere, insults are flying

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Arrow Down

Ohio supreme court justice and governor hopeful faces backlash after boasting about his sexual conquests on Facebook


RT
Sat, 18 Nov 2017 14:24 UTC
Judge Bill O'Neill
© Ohio Progressive / WikipediaJudge Bill O'Neill
A Democrat running for governorship of Ohio is in hot water after revealing identifying details of his sexual conquests in a Facebook post. The politician said he was sexually intimate with "50 very attractive females" in his lifetime.

Bill O'Neill, a justice on the Ohio Supreme Court and one of the Democrats running for governor, published a Facebook post Friday morning claiming to have sex with "approximately 50 very attractive females."

Among the women mentioned were "a gorgeous secretary" to a senator and "a drop dead gorgeous redhead" working at Progressive Insurance in Cleveland. The hints at the women's identities were quickly edited out of the post, however.

Comment: The effects of postmodern liberal sexualization have produced crumbling societies in the West. The widespread sexual abuse scandals have been a predicable result, and it's also apparent it has led to a loss of dignity, respect and rational thought. Privacy and intimacy have been sacrificed in favor of crude exploitation. This obviously doesn't end well.

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Eye 2

Lebanon FM reveals US-backed terrorists attempting to intimidate country into cancelling Russian gas deal


Sputnik
Fri, 17 Nov 2017 14:57 UTC
Lebanon FM Reveals Attempt to Intimidate Country Into Canceling Russian Gas Deal
© Sputnik/ Alexey Kudenko
Lebanese Foreign Minister Geral Bassil has held a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

"We are about to sign our first contract on gas field exploration on the shelf with the participation of Russian companies. We are now seeing an attempt to make Lebanon leave this positive path," Geral Bassil said.

"A campaign to scare Lebanon, to create obstacles in its path with the use of terrorist forces under different pretexts is underway," the minister said, adding that "the campaign against Lebanon is being carried out by the same forces that support terrorists in Syria."


Comment: The very same US-sponsored terrorists which have just been defeated in Syria with cooperation from Russia:
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Dollars

US State Dept authorizes sale of $10.5bn missile defense system to Poland


RT
Sat, 18 Nov 2017 14:29 UTC
Patriot air and missile defense system
© Janek Skarzynsky / AFP
Poland is poised to buy four Patriot air and missile defense systems from the US, worth an estimated $10.5 billion. The NATO ally's defense minister says the country has been expanding their military to defend against Russia.

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency, the arm of the Pentagon that implements foreign arms sales, announced Friday that the State Department has approved a proposed deal between Poland and the US.

If the sale is finalized, Poland will join five other NATO members operating the Patriot system, including the United States, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and Greece. Raytheon, the prime contractor in the deal, says the Patriot systems they have built for 13 countries can be operated together in combat.

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency said the sale would provide allies with "modern systems that will enhance interoperability with US forces and increase security."

"This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States by helping to improve the security of a NATO ally which has been, and continues to be an important force for political stability and economic progress in Europe," the agency said in the announcement.


Comment: Well said announcement, it's a US objective, not necessarily a European one. But, putting missiles at borders doesn't create stability. And "economic progress" is for the US selling it's version of 'democracy'. Europe will not have "economic progress" by antagonizing a neighbor.

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Radar

Top US Air Force official concerned Turkey's purchase of S-400 may expose the F-35's vulnerabilities


RT
Fri, 17 Nov 2017 14:07 UTC
Russian S-400 Triumph missile system
© Sergey Malgavko / Sputnik
Turkey's purchase of the Russian S-400 anti-aircraft missile system is a "significant concern," a top US Air Force official said, adding that it could affect Ankara's operation of F-35 jets, some 100 of which Turkey is planning to buy.

Turkish Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli said earlier this week that Ankara had completed the purchase of S-400 surface-to-air missiles. "It is finished, the S-400 missiles have been bought. The rest is just details now," he said in televised comments, as quoted by Reuters.

The purchase is a major concern for the US, according to Heidi Grant, the deputy undersecretary of the Air Force for international affairs. Such concern comes as Turkey awaits the delivery of its first F-35s in 2018.

Defense News reported that analysts have expressed worry that Turkey operating both the F-35 and the S-400 could compromise the security of the F-35s, as the data collected by the S-400 may expose the F-35's vulnerabilities.
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Target

Russian strategic bombers continue to strike ISIS targets in south-east Syria for third day


RT
Sat, 18 Nov 2017 14:21 UTC
Russian Tu-22M3 bomber
© Ministry of defence of the Russian Federation / Sputnik
The Russian Air Force continues its efforts to help the Syrian government completely eliminate Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in Syria, with its long-range bombers having carried out a new successful airstrike on terrorists' positions.

Six Tu-22M3 strategic bombers, with air cover provided by Su-30 fighters, were on a mission in eastern Syria close to Iraq's border on Saturday, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

The Russian bombers targeted IS strongholds in an area near Abu Kamal in the Deir ez-Zor province. A number of terrorists were killed, while their armored vehicles and other weapons were destroyed, the Russian military announced.

"The elimination of all assigned targets has been confirmed through data recorders and with the help of special technical means," the ministry said in its statement. Upon completing the mission, all Russian jets returned to their bases, it added.
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