Puppet MastersS


Gift

Russian ships deliver military equipment to Philippines

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Mon, 23 Oct 2017 23:32 UTC
Admiral Panteleyev in Manila
© UnknownAdmiral Panteleyev, a Russian anti-sub ship, prepares to dock in Manila
In the latest confirmation that President Rodrigo Duterte's threat to diversify the country's military ties away from the United States and toward China and Russia was not hollow, AP reports that three Russian navy ships arrived in the Philippines on Friday and two others are coming, to deliver donated military equipment in the country's third naval visit under Duterte, who as discussed previously, has launched a historic pivot in the country's geopolitical posture away from the US and toward regional Superpowers.

Three Russian antisubmarine ships docked in Manila on October 20 in time for Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu's upcoming visit to the country, said Rear Admiral E. Mikhailov, the task force commander.

Comment: See also:

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Caesar

Best of the Web: Putin speech at Valdai 2017: "The biggest mistake Russia ever made was to trust the US"

Andrey Babitsky
life.ru
Sun, 22 Oct 2017 16:08 UTC
Translated by Ollie Richardson and Angelina Siard
putin valdai 2017
Putin speaks, the people listen, Fake News Inc flees
From all the speeches of Vladimir Putin that I had the opportunity to hear and see, I would call his speech at the Valdai forum, including the answers to questions, the most anti-American, or even anti-Western, one. Describing the history of Russia's relations with America in the 1990's, the Russian President shared a story - striking in its detail - about how, in the framework of two agreements on nuclear arms control, experts from the United States were allowed into the most secret Russian facilities and into the offices in which they established themselves: the tables were decorated with little American table flags.

How did the Americans respond to our country's unprecedented level of openness? Vladimir Putin repeated several times that they considered it as a weakness. Russia started to burn weapons-grade plutonium in accordance with reached agreements, and the US, without letting us know, changed the obligations they undertook and refused to complete the construction of the plant for processing plutonium. It became known that they made a decision about its burial, which in general has no meaning, because it is always possible to dig up non-utilised plutonium from the burial ground and it will be again completely ready for use.


Comment: The general topic of the Valdai Club this year was Creative Destruction: Will a New World Order Emerge from the Current Conflicts, which tells you right away that 'alternative conferences' like these, which Putin got up and running after he was effectively blacklisted for that 2007 Munich conference speech, have their finger on the pulse of what is actually happening in our world: it is transforming, significantly.

This year the Valdai conference brought together over 130 participants from 33 countries, including from the US and Europe, but you wouldn't know that listening to Western media.

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Light Saber

Philippines victory: Duterte forces have destroyed ISIS in Marawi

Adam Garrie
TheDuran
Mon, 23 Oct 2017 19:25 UTC
Duterte
The Battle of Marawi has been won as President Rodrigo Duterte's war plan has worked.

Earlier this month, it was reported that over several scores of ISIS aligned terrorists of the illegal Maute Group remained in the besieged southern Philippine city of Marawi. Today, Philippines Defense Minister Delfin Lorenzana confirmed that "There are no more militants in Marawi".
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Black Cat

Uranium deal turns spotlight on Hillary Clinton but not the way she wanted

Ekaterina Blinova
Sputnik
Mon, 23 Oct 2017 20:54 UTC
hillaryclinton
© REUTERS/ Brian Snyder
Hillary and Bill Clinton could have been involved in "pay-to-play" schemes, while transferring money through their charity in a non-transparent manner, Wall Street analyst and investigative journalist Charles Ortel told Sputnik. The uranium deal may become the trigger for an all-out inquiry into the Clinton Foundation, he believes.

The Clintons' "modus operandi" is first, to lie under oath, and, second, to obstruct justice from within government and even from outside government, Wall Street analyst Charles Ortel told Sputnik, commenting on investigations launched by the Senate and the House of Representatives into the Obama-era uranium deal.

It was rumored that as secretary of state Hillary Clinton approved the agreement benefiting Russia in exchange for donations to the Clinton Foundation (CF) from Canadian mining industry leaders involved in the deal. Clinton refuted the claim that she helped support the donors' interests.
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Stormtrooper

Best of the Web: The mystery of the never-ending ISIS hordes - US mercenaries and Iraqi supply corridors

Ulson Gunnar
New Eastern Outlook
Sun, 22 Oct 2017 15:52 UTC
US mercenaries Syria
While the US and European media provided little explanation as to how militants from the self-titled Islamic State (IS) managed to appear, expand and then fight for years against the combined military power of Iraq, Syria, Iran and Russia, it was abundantly clear to many analysts that the IS organization was not only receiving state sponsorship, but it was receiving reinforcements, weapons and supplies from far beyond Syria's and Iraq's borders.

Maps of the conflict stretching over the last several years show clear corridors used to reinforce IS positions, leading primarily from Turkey's southern border and to a lesser extent, from Jordan's borders.

However, another possible vector may be desert highways in Iraq's western Anbar province where US military contractors are allegedly to "provide security" as well as build gas stations and rest areas. These highways contributed to the current conflict and still serve as a hotbed for state sponsored terrorism. Whether these US-controlled and improved highways pose a significant threat for a reorganized effort by the US and its regional allies to divide and destroy Iraq and Syria seems all but inevitable.
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Chess

Best of the Web: China-Russia alliance doesn't need to be a threat to the West

Gilbert Doctorow
Russia Insider
Sat, 21 Oct 2017 00:00 UTC
halfglobealliance
© Quora/KJNWhat will it be?
"I submit that all of the above is wrong and results not only from the limited knowledge of the real situation on the ground in these two countries but to a prejudicial mindset that does not want to get at the facts."

In this essay we will examine two aspects of the same issue: the strategic partnership between Russia and China which is fast becoming a foreign policy, commercial and military alliance.

The first question centers on the relationship itself, how solid is it, and in particular can this potential game changer in international relations be unwound, can Russia be drawn back into the orbit of the Western world. The second question is that given this partnership cum alliance, what kind of world order has taken shape in the past couple of decades? We know for certain that it is no longer an American led unipolar world. But is it de facto a multipolar world as so many of our commentators tell us, or are we witnessing a return to the bipolar world in the context of a New Cold War? These issues are of critical importance if we are to understand the times we are living in and formulate an effective and durable system of world governance.
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Bulb

CIA Director Pompeo: Russian meddling did not sway U.S. election

Warren Strobel
Reuters
Thu, 19 Oct 2017 20:20 UTC
pompeo
© REUTERS/Yuri GripasCIA Director Mike Pompeo attends the FDD National Security Summit in Washington, U.S., October 19, 2017.
CIA Director Mike Pompeo on Thursday said, apparently inaccurately, that U.S. intelligence agencies had concluded that Russian interference did not affect the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

In fact, U.S. intelligence agencies in January said that they had made no assessment one way or the other on the impact of Moscow's hacking and propaganda campaign but its report stated that Russia's aim was to try and help then-Republican candidate Donald Trump's election chances.

Pompeo, a former Republican congressman and Trump ally, was asked at an event in Washington if he could say with absolute certainty that the election results were not skewed as a result of Russian interference. Pompeo replied: "Yes. Intelligence community's assessment is that the Russian meddling that took place did not affect the outcome of the election."
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Binoculars

Russian spies targeted Hillary Clinton in "influence campaign" in 2009-2010

John Solomon and Alison Spann
The Hill
Sun, 22 Oct 2017 19:52 UTC
hillary clinton
As Hillary Clinton was beginning her job as President Obama's chief diplomat, federal agents observed as multiple arms of Vladimir Putin's machine unleashed an influence campaign designed to win access to the new secretary of State, her husband Bill Clinton and members of their inner circle, according to interviews and once-sealed FBI records.

Some of the activities FBI agents gathered evidence about in 2009 and 2010 were covert and illegal.


Comment: In other words, that would've been Medvedev's "machine". As much as the media in the West would love it to be true, Putin isn't responsible for everything.


A female Russian spy posing as an American accountant, for instance, used a false identity to burrow her way into the employ of a major Democratic donor in hopes of gaining intelligence on Hillary Clinton's department, records show. The spy was arrested and deported as she moved closer to getting inside the secretary's department, agents said.

Other activities were perfectly legal and sitting in plain view, such as when a subsidiary of Russia's state-controlled nuclear energy company hired a Washington firm to lobby the Obama administration. At the time it was hired, the firm was providing hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in pro bono support to Bill Clinton's global charitable initiative, and it legally helped the Russian company secure federal decisions that led to billions in new U.S. commercial nuclear business, records show.
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Cowboy Hat

T-Rex declares: 'There is a place for moderate Taliban in Afghan government'


Sputnik
Mon, 23 Oct 2017 20:55 UTC
Taliban
© RT.comThe Taliban
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters during an unannounced trip to Afghanistan on Monday that Washington thinks that moderate elements among the Taliban exist and they can be part of the country's government.
"There are, we believe, moderate voices among the Taliban, voices that do not want to continue to fight forever," Tillerson said. "So we are looking to engage with those voices and have them engage in a reconciliation process leading to a peace process and their full involvement and participation in the government. There's a place for them in the government if they're ready to come renouncing terrorism, renouncing violence and being committed to a stable, prosperous Afghanistan."
Tillerson pointed out, however, that the fight against the Taliban should continue "in order for them to understand they will never win a military victory."

Comment: US strategy (the real one, behind the BS) in Afghanistan:

An Empire of Chaos: The Real Reason the US is in Afghanistan

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Arrow Down

Pompeo's new rant demonstrates CIA is worse than North Korea

Adam Garrie
The Duran
Sun, 22 Oct 2017 17:32 UTC
KimPompeo
© Daily Express
North Korea has attempted to engage in dialogue with US allies, while Donald Trump's CIA director threatens an illegal assassination against the North Korean leader.

The question as to whether the DPRK is willing to engage in broad dialogue with potential international partners, has been answered. Last week, the DPRK sent an open letter to multiple governments, including the US ally, Australia, in which Pyongyang asked to form a united front against Donald Trump's aggressive stance towards Pyongyang. Australia, in taking an overly literal reading of North Korea's letter, threw away a chance to reply to Pyongyang. Had Australia engaged with Pyongyang, this would have literally been the beginning of dialogue between North Korea and a stanch US ally in the Pacific. The short-sighted attitude of the Canberra, demonstrates that when North Korea does reach out to countries in an unexpected way, this attempt to establish lines of dialogue is essentially met with a cynical and obstinate attitude that doesn't get anyone anywhere. Dialogue is never easy in such situations, but all countries owe it to the wider cause of world peace to try. Australia foolishly read North Korea's letter as a kind of 'geo-political prank', where in fact it was a thorny olive branch.

While North Korea has recently stated that they will not negotiate their nuclear programme until Pyongyang possesses the ability to strike all of the US mainland with nuclear missiles, the reality behind such dramatic remarks is far more mundane.

All negotiations in difficult situations have a cat and mouse element to them, with the roles of feline and rodent, often swapping by the day, if not by the hour. North Korea's actions are often far more reasonable than their words. The fact that the DPRK did reach out to a US ally, demonstrates that they are ready for dialogue now. The fault here, therefore lies with those who refused to respond.

Comment: Pompeo should never speak. Ever. He has yet to make a public statement that hasn't been damaging.

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