Puppet MastersS


Bullseye

Boris Johnson backs out of Russia trip and gets trolled by the Russian Embassy


RT
Sun, 09 Apr 2017 16:50 UTC
Boris Johnson
© Alessandro Bianchi / ReutersBritain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson
The Russian Embassy in the UK has come up with a "soft power response" to the British Foreign Secretary's decision not to travel to Moscow, citing "developments in Syria."

The last-minute cancellation, which has been described as "absurd" by the Russian Foreign Ministry, inspired the Russian diplomatic mission in London to play some Tchaikovsky for Boris.

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Newspaper

About-face: Trump is being lauded with bipartisan and media praise following Syrian bombing

Glenn Greenwald
The Intercept
Sun, 09 Apr 2017 16:12 UTC
missile attack
© Ford Williams/U.S. Navy/Getty Images
IN EVERY TYPE of government, nothing unites people behind the leader more quickly, reflexively or reliably than war. Donald Trump now sees how true that is, as the same establishment leaders in U.S. politics and media who have spent months denouncing him as a mentally unstable and inept authoritarian and unprecedented threat to democracy are standing and applauding him as he launches bombs at Syrian government targets.

Trump, on Thursday night, ordered an attack that the Pentagon said included the launching of 59 Tomahawk missiles which "targeted aircraft, hardened aircraft shelters, petroleum and logistical storage, ammunition supply bunkers, air defense systems, and radars." The governor of Homs, the Syrian province where the attack occurred, said early this morning that the bombs killed seven civilians and wounded nine.

The Pentagon's statement said the attack was "in retaliation for the regime of Bashar Assad using nerve agents to attack his own people." Both Syria and Russia vehemently deny that the Syrian military used chemical weapons.

When asked about this yesterday by the Globe and Mail's Joanna Slater, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged an investigation to determine what actually happened before any action was contemplated, citing what he called "continuing questions about who is responsible":
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Bad Guys

Rewriting history: Politifact retracts story that US got chemical weapons out of Syria in 2014

Jack Burns
The Free Thought Project
Sun, 09 Apr 2017 08:12 UTC
syrian chemical attack children free thought project truth-o-meter
The United States, under the direction of President Donald Trump, attacked Syria directly for the first time since the Obama administration decided it was time for a regime change in Syria. Fifty-nine cruise missiles were used to target an airfield in the Syrian Idlib Province the U.S. says was used to stage a chemical weapons attack against innocent Syrian men, women, and children. While there appears to be evidence a chemical attack took place, there are conflicting reports as to who is responsible. Now, those organizations who declared chemical weapons were removed from Syria back in 2014, are retracting their stories.

Politifact retracted a story it published in 2014 titled, "Kerry: We got '100 percent' of chemical weapons out of Syria." John Kerry, then Secretary of State, told NBC's Meet The Press on July 20th, 2014, "we struck a deal where we got 100 percent of the chemical weapons out."

Comment: The "Assad used chemical weapons against his own people" is a nonsensical repeat of the original Iraq story that Bush and the neocons used to justify the illegal invasion of Iraq along with the subsequent slaughter of millions of Iraqis. Is history repeating? For more info:

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War Whore

Defence companies stocks soar after Trump's war crime

Adam Garrie
The Duran
Sat, 08 Apr 2017 16:12 UTC
military industrial complex flag
Raytheon, the makers of the missiles used in the illegal attack, saw their numbers rise throughout the day.

While those who invest in morality and justice called Donald Trump a war criminal and condemned his illegal attack on Syria, those with vested interests in the military-industrial complex were celebrating as the stock market showed defence companies increasing their share prices.

The American company Raytheon, manufactures the Tomahawk Cruise Missiles used in Trump's attack on Syria.
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Rocket

A counter-productive and murderous gesture: Tillerson's and McMaster's reason for Syrian missile strike

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Sun, 09 Apr 2017 16:00 UTC
Tillerson and McMaster
Tillerson and McMaster explain missile strike as a gesture, which however is more likely to enrage and provoke Moscow than deter Damascus.

The US missile strike on Syria's Sharyat air base provides a good opportunity to compare the sharply different approaches the US and the Russia have to the use of force.

The Russians use force sparingly as an instrument of state policy to advance what they see as their national interests. Every Russian military endeavour since the end of the Second Word War has been judged and carried out to further some concrete objective of the Russian state.
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Candle

Putin offers condolences to Egyptian president after blast in Tanta


TASS
Sun, 09 Apr 2017 16:03 UTC
Reports say about 21 killed in the blast in Tanta's church on Sunday

Putin
© Alexei Nikolsky/Russian Presidential Press and Information Office/TASS
Russia's President Vladimir Putin offered condolences to Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi after the terrorist attack in Tanta on Sunday.

"The crime, committed on the religious holiday, strikes with cruelty and cynicism. Clearly, the terrorists seek not only intimidating people, but also showing discord between representatives of various faiths. However, I am convinced, they would not achieve the goals. By acting together, shoulder to shoulder with other responsible members of the international community, our countries would be able to repel for terrorist forces, to eradicate their unhuman ideology," the telegram reads.
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Bullseye

Ecuadorean president calls out US hacker for election interference


teleSUR
Thu, 06 Apr 2017 16:02 UTC
Rafael Correa
© ReutersEcuadorean President Rafael Correa
Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa described the attack as "a plan of the right wing to generate chaos and not accept their blunt defeat," on Twitter.

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa on Thursday accused U.S.-based hackers of attacking the National Electoral Council, CNE, website in an attempt to undermine the country's recent second-round presidential election.

The CNE's website, which provided real-time information on last Sunday's presidential vote, was temporarily shut down at 6:45 p.m. local time, just as exit polls came to a close. Websites belonging to Correa's Alianza Pais party and Ecuador's national emergency service were also shut down.

Correa said it was "suspicious" that prior to the shutdown, exit polls favored right-wing banker candidate Guillermo Lasso, and that once the CNE site was restored after 18 minutes, official results showed President-elect Lenin Moreno as the clear winner.

On Twitter, he described the attack as "a plan of the right-wing to generate chaos and not accept their blunt defeat." Correa, however, also made clear that the attack on the CNE's website in no way affected the results of the election and does not invalidate Moreno's victory.
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War Whore

The war machine continues: US planning on 'regime change' in Syria - Haley

RI Staff
Russia Insider
Sun, 09 Apr 2017 08:52 UTC
UN ambassador Nikki Haley
Colin Powell with a wig
US ambassador to UN says removing Assad and "Iranian influence" from Syria are top US priorities

Removing Assad is now a "priority" for the United States, according to US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley.

Comment: What a difference a day makes:

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War Whore

Trump, Syria and 'Wagging the Dog'

Robert Parry
Consortium News
Sun, 09 Apr 2017 15:48 UTC
missile target
© Navy photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Ford WilliamsThe guided-missile destroyer USS Porter conducts strike operations while in the Mediterranean Sea, April 7, 2017.
Just two days after news broke of an alleged poison-gas attack in northern Syria, President Trump brushed aside advice from some U.S. intelligence analysts doubting the Syrian regime's guilt and launched a lethal retaliatory missile strike against a Syrian airfield.

Trump immediately won plaudits from Official Washington, especially from neoconservatives who have been trying to wrestle control of his foreign policy away from his nationalist and personal advisers since the days after his surprise victory on Nov. 8.

There is also an internal dispute over the intelligence. On Thursday night, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the U.S. intelligence community assessed with a "high degree of confidence" that the Syrian government had dropped a poison gas bomb on civilians in Idlib province.

But a number of intelligence sources have made contradictory assessments, saying the preponderance of evidence suggests that Al Qaeda-affiliated rebels were at fault, either by orchestrating an intentional release of a chemical agent as a provocation or by possessing containers of poison gas that ruptured during a conventional bombing raid.

One intelligence source told me that the most likely scenario was a staged event by the rebels intended to force Trump to reverse a policy, announced only days earlier, that the U.S. government would no longer seek "regime change" in Syria and would focus on attacking the common enemy, Islamic terror groups that represent the core of the rebel forces.
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Airplane

Belgium Temporarily Halts Flights Over Syria Because of Suspension of Air Safety Memorandum


Sputnik
Sun, 09 Apr 2017 02:42 UTC
Belgium halts flights
© AFP 2017/ YORICK JANSENS / BELGA
The Belgian Air Force temporarily suspended flights over Syria, where the country is taking part in the US-led military operation against the Daesh terrorist group, because of the suspension of the memorandum of understanding on air safety over Syria by Russia, the Premiere radio broadcaster reported on Saturday.
Belgium's Defense Ministry spokesperson did not confirm that the decision was linked to suspension of the memorandum, pointing out that the flights "were halted until the new instructions," according to other media reports.
Russia suspended the memorandum of understanding on air safety over Syria with the United States on Friday following the deadly US missile attack on the Sha'irat airfield.

Comment:
The open Syrian, Iranian and Russian response will be an intensification of the operations in Idleb. They will smash the "rebels" there by air and push more troops into that direction. The Russian organized flight coordination over Syria has been called off. Belgium already said its airforce will no longer take part in any U.S. "coalition" operation over Syria. Others will follow that example. An asymmetric response elsewhere will follow later. U.S. forces in the wider region better watch their backs.
See also: Trump Productions: The Khan Sheikoun Show

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