Puppet MastersS


Jet5

Pentagon expands air base in Northern Syria for use in battle for Raqqa

SDF soldiers
© REUTERS/ Rodi Said
The US military has expanded an air base near the city of Kobani, Syria, to assist in the fight to liberate Raqqa from the Daesh terrorist group.

The base is located about 90 miles north of Daesh's self-proclaimed Syrian capital of Raqqa. It gives the US an additional location from which to launch aircraft to support the efforts of anti-Daesh forces to retake the city.

Col. John Thomas, spokesman for US Central Command, said that the importance of the Kobani base cannot be overestimated, as, just like the Qayyarah West Airfield used a staging base for operations in Mosul, it is "out of enemy range but close to the fight."

As the headquarters for US-led coalition operations to recapture Raqqa, it enables the delivery of essential supplies and equipment.

Document

Judicial Watch obtains 695 pages of Obama IRS scandal documents

IRS building
© Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
The conservative think tank, Judicial Watch, has obtained and released nearly 700 pages of Obama IRS Scandal documents that show officials used "inappropriate political labels" to screen applications from conservative tax-exempt organizations.

The documents were made available following a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch in 2015.

The FOIA request was made following a scandal in 2013, that revealed the US Internal Revenue Service had selected political groups applying for tax-exempt status for intensive scrutiny based on their names or political themes. The revelation led to wide condemnation of the agency and prompted several investigation, including an FBI order by the US Attorney General Eric Holder.

Rocket

'Threat to planes and ships': Japan fumes as North Korea test-launches another ballistic missile

North Korea missiles
© KCNA / Reuters
North Korea has reportedly test-fired a middle-range ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan, drawing strong condemnation from its neighbors, Japan and South Korea. The launch comes as the US-China summit is about to kick off in Florida.

The South Korean military defined the type of missile as a "KN-15 medium-range ballistic missile" or Pukguksong-2, the South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JSC) said in a statement to Yonhap. The launch was performed at about 6.42 am local time from the area near the North Korean seaside town of Sinpo in the South Hamgyong Province, it said. The missile covered the distance of about 60 km within nine minutes of its flight before it landed into the Sea of Japan, without incurring any damage and short of reaching Japan's exclusive economic zone.

It is too early to say if the launch was a success or a failure, the military said.

Light Saber

Hungary approves law that could force Soros-financed university out of the country

hungary protests closure soros-funded university
© Laszlo Balogh / Reuters Demonstrators hold up banners during a rally in Budapest, Hungary, April 4, 2017 protesting the closure of a Soros-funded university.
Hungary has approved a new law that could force a George Soros-financed university out of the country, despite widespread protests against the bill in Budapest.

The Central European University (CEU), founded by the US billionaire investor in 1991, is the only international college in the country with no overseas affiliate. The ruling Fidesz party's new higher education bill would require institutions funded by foreign investment to also host students at a home nation campus.

The bill also states that certain universities could be blocked from issuing foreign diplomas to Hungarian residents.

The government says the law is designed to address the administrative shortcomings of foreign universities, according to Reuters. Last week, Prime Minister Viktor Orban accused the CEU of violating regulations in awarding diplomas, which the college denies.

Comment:


Bad Guys

Medvedev slams organizers of illegal anti-corruption protests for using minors to further selfish political interests

Corruption protests Moscow March 2017
© Maxim Shemetov / Reuters Moscow police detained over 500 people in the capital for violating public order and public protest laws after an illegal rally where over 8,000 people gathered.
The organizers of illegal protests in Russia pursued selfish political interests and didn't hesitate to make minors hostages of their political program by persuading them to come out onto the streets, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said.

During a visit to a meat processing plant in Russia's Tambov Region on Tuesday, Medvedev was asked to comment on a recent video posted online by opposition activist Aleksey Navalny and his team, in which the PM is accused of corruption.

The clip was heavily promoted on social media and eventually was used as the justification for unsanctioned protests in Moscow and other Russian cities in late March.

Such videos are being ordered by "people with very specific political goals," said Medvedev, who has previously denied all corruption accusations.

"They are, of course, trying to show that the government is behaving badly, and that they are better than the others," he said.

Comment: Putin also had some choice words regarding Navalny's call for protests:
Putin said that fighting corruption is necessary, but organizing an "Arab Spring" or another "color revolution" in the country is not, because this ends badly and has nothing to do with fighting corruption.

For the record, nowhere - literally nowhere - where local "Navalny's" have won and seized power, including by using anti-corruption slogans, has corruption become any less. A paradox, is it not? There's only more corruption, poverty and social inequality.
...

Putin outlined the government's clear, rational, and coherent position. First of all, the government is fighting corruption and will continue to do so. This is a special message for those who were too busy in recent months to notice the several governors and even federal minister arrested, not to mention high-profile cases in the Ministry of Culture. Secondly, the government will not allow anyone to use the theme of fighting corruption to break the country.



Jet2

Breaking News: Rebel warehouse with chem weapons hit by Syrian airstrike in Idlib - Russian MOD

A MiG-23 aircraft of the Syrian Air Force lands at the Hama airbase near the city of Hama, Syria's Hama Province
© Sputnik/ Dmitriy Vinogradov
The Syrian Air Force has destroyed a warehouse in Idlib province, where ammunition dump containing chemical weapons was being produced by militants before being delivered to Iraq, the Russian Defense Ministry spokesman has said.

The strike, which was launched midday Tuesday, targeted a major rebel ammunition depot east of the town of Khan Sheikhoun, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major-General Igor Konashenkov said in a statement.

The warehouse was used to both produce and store shells containing toxic gas, Konashenkov said. The shells were delivered to Iraq and repeatedly used there, he added, pointing out that both Iraq and international organizations have confirmed the use of such weapons by militants.

The same chemical munitions were used by militants in Aleppo, where Russian military experts took samples in late 2016, Konashenkov said.

The Defense Ministry has confirmed this information as "fully objective and verified," Konashenkov added.

According to the statement, Khan Sheikhoun civilians, who recently suffered a chemical attack, displayed identical symptoms to those of Aleppo chemical attack victims.

Bad Guys

If terrorists targeted Russia, who's behind the terrorists?

St. Petersburg' Metro Blast
© New Eastern Outlook
Eleven have been killed and dozens more injured in what is an apparent terrorist attack on St. Petersburg's metro system. Western analysts are assigning possible blame for the attack on either terrorists operating from Russia's Chechnya region, or possibly terrorist groups affiliated with fronts fighting in Syria.

Western analysts are also attempting to cement a narrative that downplays the significance of the attacks and instead attempts to leverage them politically against Moscow. A piece in the Sydney Morning Herald titled, "Fears of a Putin crackdown after terror attack on St Petersburg metro," would attempt to claim:
So who is to blame? No one has said officially. The BBC's Frank Gardner says suspicions will centre around Chechen nationalists or an Islamic State inspired group wanting payback for Putin's airstrikes in Syria. Or it could be a combination of both.

Putin has in the past justified crackdowns on civilian protests by citing the terror threat. But will he this time, and will it work?

At least one pro-Kremlin commentator has linked the attack to the recent mass demonstrations organised by Putin's political opponent.
Yet, in reality, the demonstrations and the terrorist groups being implicated both share a significant common denominator - both are openly long-term recipients of US-European aid, with the latter group also receiving significant material support from US-European allies in the Persian Gulf, primarily Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

US-European support for foreign-funded organizations posing as "nongovernmental organizations" (NGOs) running parallel efforts with terrorist organizations undermining Moscow's control over Chechnya have been ongoing for decades.

Rocket

Stating the obvious: Nuclear disarmament hindered by US position on missile defense - Russian envoy

Russia missile
© Grigoriy Sisoev / ReutersAn Iskander-M missile system.
Russia remains committed to nuclear disarmament but progress is impossible without US cooperation in areas such as limiting the deployment of global missile defense systems, the acting Russian envoy to the United Nations has said.

Speaking at the latest session of the UN Commission for Disarmament, Pyotr Ilyichev said that "Russia fully shared the noble objective of building a nuclear-free world" and has repeatedly confirmed its commitment with real action.

In particular, Russia has been conducting an unprecedented reduction of its nuclear arsenal in several stages that over the past 20 years, and is also moving towards the full-scale fulfillment of the Russia-US treaty on strategic offensive weapons.

"Any further progress in the sphere of nuclear disarmament is impossible without some serious preparatory work. This process must be based on the basic principle of strengthening the strategic stability, the equal and inseparable security for all nations without any exceptions," the envoy noted.

Speaking of particular examples of actions that hinder nuclear disarmament, Ilyichev mentioned the "worrying situation caused by unilateral and unprovoked deployment of the elements of the US global anti-missile defense system in various regions of the world."

Comment: Anyone with any ability to connect the dots could see that the US wasn't putting anti-missiles defense systems in Eastern Europe because of any threat from Iran. The US is doing so as one aspect of trying to box Russia in in terms of the US being able to have a preemptive first strike nuclear option against Russia. Yes, those calling the shots in the US are that unhinged and dangerous! They have no real interest in disarmament and peace.

They have pushed the Cold War 2.0 out into the open since Russia started to block them in Syria a few years ago, yet it has been long in the making. A couple reasons being strategic resources and energy transport and the West needing an additional enemy to point at to justify outrageous expenditures on the military and weapons systems. Peace is not profitable for the MIC and fear of the enemy over there enables those in control to solidify and justify their positions.


Clipboard

State Department withdraws financial backing for UN Population Fund

Trump signing orders
The State Department said on Monday it was ending U.S. funding for the United Nations Population Fund, the international body's agency focused on family planning as well as maternal and child health in more than 150 countries.

In a letter to U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, the State Department said it was dropping the funding because the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) "supports, or participates in the management of, a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization."


Comment: The UN certainly doesn't refer to their programs as 'involutary' but they are extremely interested in population control.
So all over the globe, family planning programs are being pushed and funded by the United Nations. In many UN-funded family planning facilities all over the planet sterilizations are being offered for free.

The United Nations seems absolutely obsessed with population issues. In particular, they seem quite determined to get women in poorer countries to have less children. For example, the March 2009 U.N. Population Division policy brief began with the following statement....

What would it take to accelerate fertility decline in the least developed countries?
Not to mention their very suspicious tetanus vaccination programs.

UN organizations sterilizing millions of girls & women under cover of an anti-tetanus vaccination program in Kenya


The cut marks U.S. President Donald Trump's first move to curtail funding for the United Nations and is likely to raise further questions about how deep those cuts will eventually go throughout the organization, where the United States is the top donor.

It comes after Trump in January reinstated the so-called Mexico City Policy that withholds U.S. funding for international organizations that perform abortions or provide information about abortion.

Propaganda

Not taking the bait: Sean Spicer ignores false flag chemical attack in Syria

Sean Spicer
© Kevin Lamarque / ReutersWhite House spokesman Sean Spicer
Hours after an apparently self-evident false flag chemical attack in Idlib, Sean Spicer affirmed that it is no longer US policy to remove President Bashar al-Assad from power.

Spicer said, "There is not a fundamental option of regime change as there has been in the past".

The White House Press Secretary continued,
"We would look rather silly not acknowledging the political realities that exist in Syria, and now what we need to do...is do what we can to empower the people of Syria to find a different way"
This represents a clear departure from the Obama administration which seemed to double-down on calls for regime change when ever a fake news report attributing atrocities to either Syrian or Russian forces came out in the mainstream media.

The fundamental reasons why the report of a Syrian chemical attack is fake news are laid out in full in an initial debunking report from The Duran.