Puppet MastersS


Radar

Russia announces tests of hypersonic Zircon anti-ship missile in warning to US

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Sat, 15 Apr 2017 14:50 UTC
Russian hypersonic Zircon anti-ship missile
Russia announces test of hypersonic Zircon anti-ship missile as warning to US following US navy deployments against Syria and North Korea.

It is probably no coincidence that as international tensions have ratcheted up following on the US missile strike on Syria and the US military deployments around North Korea, that Russia has announced that its new hypersonic Zircon anti-ship missile has achieved speeds of Mach 8 in tests.

This claim appears in an article carried by the official Russian news agency TASS.
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Bulb

Lavrov urges international investigations into Syrian gas attack allegations


RT
Sat, 15 Apr 2017 14:49 UTC
Syrian missile attack
© Mikhail Voskresenskiy / ReutersAftermath of the US missile attack on a Syrian military airbase.
Inspectors should be urgently sent to both Syria's Idlib province and the Shayrat Airbase to conduct an unbiased investigation into the alleged use of chemical weapons, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.

Russia will call on both the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the UN to investigate, Lavrov said after meeting with his Qatari counterpart in Moscow.

"We think that it is absolutely necessary to conduct a thorough, objective, professional, and unbiased investigation. We will insist that the OPCW and the UN in New York urgently send inspectors both to the site of incident and the airfield itself, where, according to Western experts, the munitions were loaded with chemicals."
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Attention

AP anonymous source: ISIS launched gas attack in liberated area of Mosul


RT
Sat, 15 Apr 2017 14:42 UTC
General view of destroyed buildings in Mosul
© Marko Djurica / Reuters
Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) has fired a rocket loaded with chlorine in western Mosul, Iraq, hitting several soldiers with the gas, according to an AP report.

The attack occurred in an area of western Mosul that has been recently liberated from the militants by US-backed Iraqi forces, AP reported on Saturday, citing an Iraqi military officer who spoke on condition of anonymity.

A rocket loaded with chlorine was allegedly fired by IS the night before in the al-Abar neighborhood, the source, who was not authorized to release information, added.

At least seven soldiers reportedly suffered breathing problems and were treated at a nearby field clinic.
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Attention

Fierce battle for Mosul: House-to-house fighting, 400K civilians trapped

Ricky Twisdale
The Duran
Sat, 15 Apr 2017 14:36 UTC
Iraqi troops in Mosul
As the Iraqi army closes in on the core of the city of Mosul, desperate terrorist resistance meets them at every turn.

While most of the mainstream media's focus remains on Syria and on Bashar al-Assad's and Vladimir Putin's alleged "crimes" there - mostly staged false-flags and manufactured propaganda on social media - there is a genuine humanitarian crisis unfolding in the Iraqi city of Mosul.

The Iraqi army, with US and other western advisors and aided by significant air support, are pushing onto the heart of the embattled city - the biggest stronghold of ISIS in Iraq.

Iraqi commanders report desperate house-to-house and street-by-street fighting with ISIS fanatics as they close in on the city's Great Mosque, where the group's apparent leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed a caliphate 3 years ago.

Around 400,000 people remain trapped in Mosul, according to reports.
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Wolf

Raytheon lobbyist Ed Rogers has free rein to push for war in WaPo editorials


Mint Press News
Fri, 14 Apr 2017 14:04 UTC
Raytheon Ed Rogers
© CNBC
Raytheon lobbyist and Washington Post contributor Ed Rogers appears on CBNC (screenshot).
The Washington Post has given Ed Rogers, top lobbyist for Raytheon, an outlet for his blatantly pro-war editorials. The Post has failed to disclose Roger's ties to the weapons manufacturer - whose missiles were used in last week's strike against Syria - generating yet another conflict of interest for the CIA-funded and Bezos-owned paper

The Washington Post, the capital's paper of record, is at again - pushing war propaganda and failing to disclose glaring conflict of interests within the paper, particularly regarding one of its contributors whose ties to the nation's largest weapons manufacturers have been conveniently omitted from his WaPo editorials.

As Media Matters reported, WaPo contributor Ed Rogers has been given free range to praise and push for more military action against the Syrian government, all while failing to disclose that Rogers doubles as a lobbyist for defense contractor Raytheon, the very company that manufactured the Tomahawk missiles used in last week's strike.

Comment: WaPo is there whenever the CIA needs them. But Jeff Bezos is a good capitalist too:

The Washington Post actually takes Russian government money

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Snakes in Suits

'CIA chief Pompeo treats American people as enemies'


RT
Fri, 14 Apr 2017 14:11 UTC
Wikileaks on computer screen
© Jens Bьttner / Global Look Press
The Trump administration doesn't want Americans to access the truth about what's happening in Syria or North Korea, that's why the CIA is trying to demonize WikiLeaks which consistently brings truth to the people, says Arvin Vohra of the Libertarian Party.

The CIA Director Mike Pompeo has called the WikiLeaks organization "a hostile intelligence service."
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Gear

Play the game - or else: Congressman says corruption in D.C. is 'worse than you think'

Rachel del Guidice
The Daily Signal
Fri, 14 Apr 2017 14:03 UTC
Rep. Ken Buck.
© Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/NewscomRep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., just released a new book detailing government corruption, entitled, “Drain the Swamp: How Washington Corruption is Worse Than You Think.”
Corruption on Capitol Hill is "worse than you think," according to Colorado Rep. Ken Buck.

"When you first get here, you think that you are in some sort of fairy-tale novel," Buck, a Republican, said. "They wine and dine you and they show you just exactly what it's like if you play the game. It's a wonderful life."

Things quickly change, however, if "you don't play the game."

"If you don't play the game ... it becomes a much less conformable existence here," Buck said.

Buck, who has served Colorado's 4th Congressional District since 2015, also previewed his new book, "Drain the Swamp: How Washington Corruption is Worse Than You Think," which was published on Tuesday.
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Chess

Why the U.S. can't bomb North Korea like it did Syria

Catherine Wong
SCMP
Sat, 15 Apr 2017 13:55 UTC
north korea nukes
Treaties, uncertainties over Pyongyang's nuclear readiness, and the sheer scale of armaments on both sides maintain a delicate truce on the Korean peninsula

Even though the administration has indicated that military option is among the options under review, there are many signs that North Korea is not Syria - as military action against the former carries far greater risks.

Comment: Further reading: Why North Korea needs its nukes - and how they would give them up
North Korea is understandably nervous each and every time the U.S. and South Korea launch their very large yearly maneuvers and openly train for invading North Korea and for killing its government and people. The maneuvers have large negative impacts on North Korea's economy.

North Korea justifies its nuclear program as the economically optimal way to respond to these maneuvers.


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Bad Guys

Gorbachev: New arms race underway between Russia & the West


RFE/RL
Sat, 15 Apr 2017 13:55 UTC
Mikhail Gorbachev
© Vasily Maximov—AFP/Getty Images
Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, called on the West to "restore trust" with Russia and warned that the two old adversaries are moving toward a renewed state of Cold War.

"All the indications of a Cold War are there," he said in an interview with German newspaper Bild on April 14. "The language of politicians and the top-level military personnel is becoming increasingly militant. Military doctrines are formulated increasingly harshly. The media picks up on all of this and adds fuel to the fire. The relationship between the big powers continues to worsen."

A new arms race between Russia and the West is already under way, Gorbachev said.

Comment: Further reading: US aims to financially break Russia with arms race
During the Reagan presidency, the US embarked on a surge in military spending which inevitably induced the Soviet Union to respond likewise. Both countries incurred massive financial problems owing to the accelerated arms race. In the case of the Soviet Union, the unsustainable arms expenditures led to the collapse of its economy, and consequently its political system dissolved in 1991.

However, in the case of the US, it could postpone financial and political disaster because the American dollar as the top international reserve currency allowed Washington to simply keep printing dollars and pile up a mountain of debt. A quarter of a century after the official end of the Cold War, the US stands out as the biggest debtor nation on the planet with a total of $20 trillion in arrears. A day of reckoning is long overdue. [...]

Russian President Vladimir Putin is therefore prudent when he said this week that he would not allow his country to once again become embroiled in any arms race with the US. One suspects that Putin and his advisors have studied history well and understand that such an arms race - if precipitated - would lead to much more grievous economic and political problems for Moscow than it would for Washington; simply because of the peculiarity of US dollar being unfairly privileged by the global financial system.


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Info

Lavrov meets with Qatari counterpart in Moscow on Saturday


Sputnik
Sat, 15 Apr 2017 13:48 UTC
Qatar's Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
© Sputnik/ Eugene OdinokovQatar's Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will discuss with his Qatari counterpart on Saturday the situation in Syria, military as well as political, and prospects "for promoting a political process with constructive international assistance."

Lavrov will hold talks with his Qatari counterpart, Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Thani, in the Russian capital on Saturday.

"During their meeting in Moscow, the foreign ministers of Russia and Qatar will compare views on key issues in the Middle East with a focus on settlement options for regional crises and firm resistance to international terrorism. The ministers will exchange opinions on a wide range of current regional and international issues, as well as bilateral relations," the statement published by the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
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