Puppet MastersS


Jet3

Russia's air force pounds jihadists in Syria's Dara'a city (video)

Adam Gerrie
The Duran
Sun, 16 Apr 2017 14:16 UTC
Russian jets
While US airstrikes have decreased since the missile attack on Shayrat air base, Russia continues to assist Syria in its war against terrorism.

A terrorist offensive in Dara'a has been thwarted thanks to bombings by the Russian Air Force.

While US air strikes have been markedly down since Russia suspended the so-called flight safety memorandum in the aftermath of America's attack on Syria's Shayrat air base, Russian fighters and bombers continue to aid the Syrian Arab Army as they prepare for a large counter-offensive aimed at securing Dara'a from its current Salifist occupiers.
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Alarm Clock

SOTT Focus: No 'Red Lines' After US-Backed Terrorists Massacre Idlib's Foua Civilians

Eva Bartlett
Sott.net
Sun, 16 Apr 2017 14:35 UTC
Bus bombing Syria
© U-NewsPhoto of US-backed terrorist bus bombing against civilians in Syria
There are apparently no 'red lines' when it comes to the documented terrorism of death squads in Syria, be they the Free Syrian Army (FSA, who committed some of the most heinous massacres of Syrian civilians in 2011, in 2012, in 2013...), Nour al-Din al-Zenki child-beheaders, or Jaysh al-Islam (with their love of caging civilians to use as human shields and firing mortars on civilian areas of Damascus and outskirts).

On the afternoon of April 15, terrorist factions attacked buses carrying civilians from the long-besieged western Syria villages of Kafraya and Foua. Thus far, the death toll is reported to be at least 100, with some estimating a much higher number. Earlier Sputnik reported:
"The number of victims [in the explosion] is at least 70; over 130 are injured. It is difficult to say as there are many burnt bodies and body parts around the damaged buses," noting that "hit the Rashidin area on Aleppo's outskirts. The bus was waiting for entering the city of Aleppo."

"The blast supposedly was caused by a suicide attacker who detonated an explosive device. The car with the attacker approached the buses disguised as a vehicle transporting food."
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Bad Guys

MIT Professor eviscerates White Helmets 'evidence' of Syrian chemical weapons attack

George Washington
Zero Hedge
Sun, 16 Apr 2017 11:54 UTC
syrian chemical attack children free thought project truth-o-meter
Preface: We spoke for quite a while with Dr. Postol by phone, and find him to be an ethical, honest, patriotic American man. He's made some interesting discoveries debunking the Syrian chemical weapons propaganda, and so we're helping to spread his findings.
By Theodore A. Postol, professor emeritus of science, technology, and national security policy at MIT. Postol's main expertise is in ballistic missiles. He has a substantial background in air dispersal, including how toxic plumes move in the air. Postol has taught courses on weapons of mass destruction - including chemical and biological threats - at MIT. Before joining MIT, Postol worked as an analyst at the Office of Technology Assessment, as a science and policy adviser to the chief of naval operations, and as a researcher at Argonne National Laboratory. He also helped build a program at Stanford University to train mid-career scientists to study weapons technology in relation to defense and arms control policy. Postol is a highly-decorated scientist, receiving the Leo Szilard Prize from the American Physical Society, the Hilliard Roderick Prize from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Richard L. Garwin Award from the Federation of American Scientists.
This is my third report assessing the White House intelligence Report of April 11, 2017. My first report was titled A Quick Turnaround Assessment of the White House Intelligence Report Issued on April 11, 2017 about the Nerve Agent Attack in Khan Shaykhun, Syria and my second report was an Addendum to the first report.
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Bad Guys

Media, political establishment treat dropping of biggest bomb since Hiroshima as nonevent

Barry Grey
World Socialist Web Site
Sat, 15 Apr 2017 00:00 UTC
Afghanistan MOAB
On Thursday, the United States military dropped the biggest bomb since the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II. Twenty-four hours later, this development—by any standard a major world event—was being treated by the American and European media as insignificant.

Nor was concern expressed over the extraordinary manner in which the momentous decision to use the 22,000-pound Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB) was made. On Thursday, US President Trump indicated that he was not asked to sign off on the bombing of the remote province of Afghanistan bordering Pakistan. On Friday, the US commander in Afghanistan said the decision to deploy the weapon was his.

By the time of the US network news broadcasts Friday evening, there was virtually no mention of the dropping of the "mother of all bombs." That such an event is either praised or treated with indifference is a sure sign that the use of such weapons—and worse—is the "new normal," to be treated as part of the ordinary operations of American imperialism all over the world.

Comment: While an argument can be made for the position that Trump's domestic policies are not "social attacks" per se, it is certainly true that the recent aggressions are probably quelling some of the anti-Trump rhetoric among his political enemies. Question is: are these a clever (if violent) ruse on the part of Trump - or an indication of his capitulation to the Deep State?

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Light Saber

Switzerland's lower house lawmakers roll back anti-BDS law

Adri Nieuwhof
Electronic Intifada
Fri, 14 Apr 2017 12:15 UTC
BDS Israel Gaza
© BDS Switzerland/FacebookActivists displayed the names of Palestinian children killed during Israel’s summer 2014 attack on Gaza in cities across Switzerland, September 2015.
Swiss lawmakers are rolling back a measure targeting the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign for Palestinian rights.

On 8 March, the National Council, the lower house of the Swiss parliament, passed an anti-BDS bill put forward by the right-wing People's Party.

But now the foreign affairs committee of the upper house, the Council of States, has stripped all references to BDS and the Middle East from the text. The upper house will debate the amended measure in May.

The motion passed by the lower house urges the government to ban any funding to nongovernmental groups "implicated in racism, anti-semitism, incitement to hatred or BDS campaigns."

Last month, Palestinians protested against the measure outside the Swiss diplomatic mission in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.

NGO Monitor, a far-right group that targets and smears supporters of Palestinian rights, welcomed the March vote and claimed credit for "providing details on the Swiss government's funding of organizations that propagate anti-peace, anti-normalization, BDS and one-state policies."

Comment: Israel would not be fighting the BDS movement so ferociously if it were not working.

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Magnify

Errors in US report on chemical attack in Syria found by MIT professor


PressTV
Sun, 16 Apr 2017 01:13 UTC
Syrian sarin cleanup
© AFPA Syrian man collects samples from the site of a suspected toxic gas attack in Khan Shaykhun, in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, on April 5, 2017. A US expert insists the inadequate clothing of the men inspecting the alleged attack proves that there could not have been a poisonous gas attack.
A US-based expert and MIT professor has effectively demonstrated that the site of the alleged chemical attack in the Syrian town of Khan Shaykhun was tampered with, insisting that the US intelligence report blaming the Syrian government for the attack "cannot be true."

In a six-page addendum written in reaction to the US government report on the incident, MIT Professor of Technology and National Security Policy Theodore Postol examined photographs of the the alleged attack site and concluded that the report endorsed by the White House "could not be true," RT reported on Saturday, noting that Postol had shared his findings with the Russia-based news outlet.

Postol stated that his data "unambiguously shows that the assumption in the WHR (White House report) that there was no tampering with the alleged site of the sarin release is not correct. This egregious error raises questions about every other claim in the WHR."

Postol further insisted that such assumption was "totally unjustified," and "no competent intelligence analyst would have agreed that this assumption was valid."

By implication, he added that the report was not reviewed and released by competent intelligence experts - "unless they were motivated by factors other than concerns about the accuracy of the report."

Comment: See also:

White House claims on Syria chemical attack weaken under scrutiny
The Syria strikes: A conspiracy theory

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Propaganda

For the third straight month US killed more civilians in Syria than the number SOHR made up for Russia

Marko Marjanović
Russia Insider
Sat, 15 Apr 2017 00:00 UTC
Why are we pretending casualty numbers given for US and Russian airstrikes by staunchly oppositionist groups are equally credible?
Syria Bombings
© Unknown
According to Airwars.com just in the month of March US jets have killed between 1,800 and 3,500 civilians in Syria and Iraq. That is a staggering number. So staggering that Airwars notes they have "not been seen" since "the worst Russia's brutal air campaign in 2016".

Indeed, Airwars claims that for three months in a row now the US has killed more civilians in Syria and Iraq than the Russians have.

Except here is a problem. While the number for innocents killed by US bombs is an interesting and valuable information, the comparison with the Russians is not.
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Megaphone

Anti-Assad? You are supporting the murder of Christians

Abed L. Azab
Haaretz
Sat, 15 Apr 2017 00:00 UTC
Whoever fights Assad wants to remove Christianity from the Middle East, and the hands of those who support Saudi Arabia or Qatar are covered with the blood of Coptic worshippers
Egyptian with cross made of palm leave
© MOHAMED EL-SHAHED/AFPAn Egyptian raises a cross made of palm leaves as he is being lifted outside the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate in Alexandria after a bomb blast struck worshippers on April 9, 2017.
Jews in Israel are supporting the murder of Coptic Christians and Christians in the Middle East in general - and not just the killings that occurred in Egypt last Sunday. Anyone attacking Syrian President Bashar Assad is encouraging the murder of Christians in the Middle East and the entire world.

It should be clear to all that the atrocities committed by Islamic State against the Yazidis and any other non-Sunni Muslim minority it can get its murderous hands on will only be a prologue compared to what we should expect if Assad falls - which I hope never happens.
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Rocket

North Korea's missile launch attempt 'presumed to have failed'


RT
Sat, 15 Apr 2017 23:52 UTC
North Korea military parade
© Sue-Lin Wong / Reuters
North Korea has tried, but allegedly failed, to conduct a new missile launch, according to South Korea's Joint Chief of Staff and US Pacific Command. The alleged botched launch comes amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula and a day after Pyongyang showcased its new sea based and intercontinental missiles.

"The communist state attempted to launch an unidentified missile from the port city of Sinpo on its east coast in the morning and the launch is presumed to have failed," the South Korean military said, according to Yonhap news.

The attempted missile launch has also been detected by the US military, which said it "blew up almost immediately" after the launch at 9:21pm GMT.

"US Pacific Command detected and tracked what we assess was a North Korean missile launch at 11:21 a.m. Hawaii time April 15. The launch of the ballistic missile occurred near Sinpo," US Pacific Command spokesman Commander David Benham said. "The missile blew up almost immediately. The type of missile is still being assessed."

Comment: North Korea refuses to confirm nor deny apparent missile test
The statement said that a missile test is North Korea's 'sovereign right', but declined to state whether one occurred this morning.

Russian journalists have received a statement from North Korea's Foreign Ministry regarding the country's supposedly failed missile test from early this morning.

The statement reads,
"There was a question concerning claims of our recent missile launch, but officially it has not been announced. Even if it look place, it's a normal process in the course of improving the ability of our country's nuclear deterrent forces, there is nothing surprising in it. Such things are not necessarily published in press".
The statement continued,
"Kim Jong Un in his New Year's speech indicated that the preparation of the test launches of ballistic missiles is already at the perfect stage, and we have repeatedly announced that at any time when our leader Kim Jong Un decides, we can then take such measures. Measures to enhance the nuclear armed forces are self-defence measures of our country and efforts to ensure peace and security on the Korean Peninsula. They are the legitimate rights of a sovereign state".


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Newspaper

Kremlin refuses to publish the details of Putin-Tillerson meeting, confirms hotline remains suspended

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Sat, 15 Apr 2017 21:53 UTC
Russia confirms hotline with US military in Syria remains suspended as Kremlin refuses to publish summary of meeting between Putin and Tillerson suggesting a fraught and difficult meeting with hard words exchanged.
Putin- Tillerson
© Unknown
The Russian authorities have quietly confirmed today what we said previously: the hotline between the US and Russian militaries in Syria is still suspended despite previous claims that the Russians had agreed to reinstate it.

This comes shortly after the tripartite conference of the Russian, Iranian and Syrian foreign ministers in Moscow, at which they all three warned the US against launching any further strikes against the Syrian military.

The question of the reinstatement of the hotline is highly sensitive because of the extent to which its suspension is interfering with the US conduct of its operations in Syria against ISIS. I have discussed this previously at length.

Comment: See also:

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