Puppet MastersS


Radar

Seoul threatens to 'destroy North beyond recovery' if provoked


RT
Fri, 15 Sep 2017 11:41 UTC
South Korean troops fire Hyunmoo Missile
© ReutersSouth Korean troops fire Hyunmoo Missile into the waters of the East Sea at a military exercise in South Korea, September 15, 2017.
South Korea has been angered by Pyongyang's latest missile launch, with president Moon Jae-in warning that further provocations could result in complete destruction. He also ruled out the possibility of opening a dialogue with the belligerent North.

"In case North Korea undertakes provocations against us or our ally, we have the power to destroy (the North) beyond recovery," the South Korean leader said on Friday as cited by Yonhap news agency.

Moon was speaking after North Korea launched a missile earlier in the day that flew through Japanese airspace and landed in the Pacific Ocean some 2,000 km east of Japan. Seoul immediately convened a National Security Council (NSC) meeting, where Moon condemned the launch, saying the North had once again breached United Nations Security Council resolutions and "poses a grave challenge to the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula and the global community," according to RT's Ruptly news agency.

"I sternly condemn and express anger at this series of provocations by the North," Moon is quoted as saying by Yonhap.
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Ice Cube

Trump's condemnation of Susan Rice for unmasking aids is the 'tip of the iceberg'


RT
Fri, 15 Sep 2017 01:53 UTC
S.Rice
© Aaron P. Bernstein / ReutersFormer National Security Advisor Susan Rice
President Donald Trump has taken aim at former national security advisor Susan Rice for unmasking members of his campaign team, whose identities were concealed in surveillance reports. Trump ripped into Rice as he was leaving Florida Thursday, where he surveyed the damage of Hurricane Irma. He was asked about CNN reporting that she admitted to unmasking the identities of his top aides while tracking a foreign leader.

"She's not supposed to be doing that, and what she did was wrong. And we've been saying that, and that's just the tip of the iceberg," Trump said, according to the White House. "What she did was wrong. Not supposed to be doing that. You know it. The unmasking and the surveillance, and I heard she admitted that yesterday. Just not right."

Rice, who served as former President Barack Obama's national security adviser during his second term, unmasked the identities of individuals on then-candidate Trump's campaign team, in order to understand why the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was in New York last December, she told CNN Wednesday.

That account is at odds with Rice's initial response to unmasking and leaking claims brought forth by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-California) in late March.

Comment: The American system of justice seems to default to bias or 'blind eye' regarding certain political persons and crimes. Consider questions not asked, answers not given, interpretations managed. Standards that slip from the top, unaddressed, uncorrected, are those that most quickly bring a country to its knees. Trump is right to pursue the truth and identification of faulty (and 'defaulty') justice.

See also:

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USA

9/11 and the beginning of the end of the US Empire

Dahr Jamail
Truthout
Mon, 11 Sep 2017 00:44 UTC
twin towers
© Robert Giroux / Getty ImagesSmoke pours from the World Trade Center after it was hit by two hijacked passenger planes September 11, 2001, in New York City.
Today, it has been 16 years since the events of September 11, 2001, in the United States. Nearly 3,000 people died in the attacks, and more than 6,000 were injured in the spectacular violence across New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, DC.

The Bush/Cheney administration used these horrible events to justify projecting the US empire deeper into the Middle East by invading Iraq, as well as launching into war-torn Afghanistan. They also used the opportunity to pass the so-called PATRIOT act, which amounted to a vicious attack on civil liberties and human rights at home.

Any pretense that the US intended to seek justice or increase world stability via its so-called War on Terror has been dramatically overshadowed by increased global resentment toward the US, which has in fact generated more terror attacks around the world.

It is precisely this legacy that continues today: ongoing US military violence abroad, increased domestic surveillance and repression at home, and a world more violent and less safe for all.
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Document

Once again, China calls US bluff on North Korea

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Wed, 13 Sep 2017 23:47 UTC
UN Security Council meeting
The North Korean crisis took a further twist on Monday with a significant climbdown by the US at the UN Security Council and a further diplomatic victory by China.

This is not being widely reported in the West though some sections of the Western media have reported that the final draft of the Resolution that was voted on by the UN Security Council was 'watered down' by comparison with an earlier draft of the Resolution presented to the UN Security Council by the US because of Chinese and Russian pressure.

The US did indeed earlier present to the UN Security Council a draft Resolution, which called for a total stop of the supply of oil to North Korea and which imposed what would have amounted to a naval blockade of North Korea, with the UN navy authorised by the UN Security Council to stop and search any ship travelling to and from North Korea (the draft of the Resolution presented to the UN Security Council by the US contained the words "all necessary means" which the US would have taken as authorising the US navy to do this).

Moreover in the days before the vote US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin publicly threatened that the US would sanction any country which voted against the Resolution which had been proposed by the US and even said that an Executive Order to that effect had already been prepared and merely needed President Trump's signature.
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Attention

Pyongyang fires missile through Japan's airspace landing into Pacific Ocean


RT
Thu, 14 Sep 2017 23:42 UTC
N. Korea missile test
© KCNA / Reuters
North Korea has fired a ballistic missile, which reportedly passed through Japan's airspace near Hokkaido, triggering a public alert. It's believed to have fallen in the Pacific Ocean some 2,000 km east of the island.

"North Korea fired an unidentified missile eastward from the vicinity of Pyongyang this morning," the JCS said. The missile reached an altitude of 770 km and covered a distance of 3,700 km before falling into the ocean, according to South Korea's military.

The South Korean and US militaries are analyzing details of the launch, Reuters reports.

NHK Television urged residents in Hokkaido and Tohoku regions to take shelter as the projectile passed over Japanese airspace near Hokkaido at around 7.06am local time.
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Blackbox

"Enemies", not Bin Laden: Voltaire Networks says Trump banned cabinet from referencing Bush version of 9/11 during commemoration

Anoosha Boralessa (translator)
Voltaire Network
Thu, 14 Sep 2017 21:10 UTC
Donald Trump
© Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
President Donald Trump has forbidden members of his cabinet from making any reference whatsoever to the alleged "Islamist" conspirators, during the commemorations of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

At the time of the attacks, President George W. Bush had accused Osama Bin Laden and about 20 of his accomplices of organizing these attacks and thus getting the better of the world's number one army. President Bush proceeded to set up a Commission for a Presidential Inquiry. This Commission validated his (Bush's) version of events without first reviewing alternative interpretations of this event.

Following this, the US Ministry of Justice had gone on to accuse the Iraq of Saddam Hussein, then the Iran of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of organizing these events. In addition, actions are underway against the Saudi ally. However, these proceedings are still going-on and a final judgement has not been rendered in either case.

16 years post 9/11, the person presented by the Bush Administration as masterminding the attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, is still being detained at Guantanamo and is still waiting for his trial to begin.

On the evening of September 11, 2001, the real estate developer Donald Trump appeared on the TV channel New York 9, and revealed that the official narrative was physically untenable: it is materially impossible for two planes to manage to bring down the twin towers, much less a third tower. Over time, Trump's affirmation has been adopted by almost all physicists outside the United States.

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Info

Looking back: Whose Syrian war predictions actually came true? And who was dead wrong?

Gordon M. Hahn
Russian and Eurasian Politics
Thu, 14 Sep 2017 20:28 UTC
Russian soldier in Syria
© REUTERS/ Omar Sanadiki
As I noted two years ago just after Russia's military intervention into the Syrian civil war, Russian President Vladimir Putin had several motives in intervening:
  1. to preserve both the principle of state and UN sovereignty over Western interventionism and Russia's role in the Middle East and globally by ensuring Russia's say in the outcome of the Syrian war and crisis;
  2. to weaken the global jihadi revolutionary movement, which includes the Islamic State (IS), Al Qa'ida (AQ) and host of other jihadi groups, in order to reduce the likelihood of jihadi terrorism at home by the IS affiliate 'Vilaiyat Kavkaz Islamskogo Gosudarstvo' (the Caucasus Province of the Islamic State) or the AQ-allied Imarat Kavkaz (Caucasus Emirate); and
  3. to create a balance of power between the pro-Western and pro-Islamist Sunni regimes, on the one hand, and the Shi'a, on the other, in the Middle East.
When Russia military involvement in Syria got underway, US government, media, think tank and academic circles claimed Russia was not attacking and would not attack the Islamic State jihadists (ISIS). They went further and predicted Moscow's intervention was "doomed" to failure and become Putin's quagmire. The goal of the this strategic communication disinformation was to paint Moscow as unwilling to fight not just ISIS but other jihadi groups and to cover up Washington's support for non-ISIS, AQ-tied groups as well as the Muslim Brotherhood. Some US government-tied sources even claimed Moscow was supporting ISIS by facilitating the exodus of Islamists and jihadists from Russia to Syria.

Comment: These articles by Joe Quinn should be read along with Hahn's above: U.S. support for ISIS may not have been as overt or direct as their support for other terrorist groups, but covert and indirect support (along with a little overt support when necessary) is still support.

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Red Flag

Hillary's blame game: Clinton 'hurt' that Sanders 'dragged out nomination fight'

Dylan Stableford
Yahoo News
Tue, 12 Sep 2017 00:00 UTC
Sanders & Clinton
© Mike Segar / ReutersBernie Sanders & Hillary Clinton
Hillary Clinton says Bernie Sanders's reluctance to concede the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination before the party's convention was disrespectful, hurtful and stood in stark contrast to the way she handled her primary loss to Barack Obama in 2008.

"I had such a different experience in '08," Clinton said in an interview with the "Pod Save America" podcast that was posted on Tuesday. "Once it was over, it was over. And I quickly endorsed President Obama. I worked really hard to get him elected. I was still arguing with my supporters at the Denver convention, telling people, 'Don't be ridiculous. You've got to vote for Senator Obama, at the time.' And I was thrilled when he got elected."

"I didn't get anything like that respect from Sanders and his supporters," Clinton said. "And it hurt. You know, to have basically captured the nomination, ending up with more than 4 million votes than he had. And he dragged it out."

Comment: Delusional Hillary shows no signs of letting up on her serial hating spree, being unable or unwilling to take any responsibility for her own failings that led to her downfall. It's also quite telling that any mention of the fact that the Democratic party essentially STOLE the nomination from Sanders is completely avoided.

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Jet4

Russia deploys MiG-29SMT fighters to Syria - Deterring Israel?

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Thu, 14 Sep 2017 20:23 UTC
MiG-29SMT
MiG-29SMT
Russia air force deployment of advanced MiG fighter to Syria may precede its transfer to Syria's air force

The Russian Ministry of Defence has unexpectedly confirmed the deployment of MiG-29SMT fighters to Russia's Khmeimim air base in north east Syria.

The MiG-29SMT should not be confused with the new MiG-35, which has yet to enter service with the Russian Aerospace Forces, and which is an essentially new aircraft with new electronics and engines and a new airplane structure, though one which uses the old MiG-29's planform. By contrast the MiG-29SMT is essentially a heavily modernised MiG-29, an aircraft that entered service with the Russian air force in the 1980s.

It is nonetheless a potent aircraft which however is designed for air to air combat against enemy fighters rather than for strike roles or ground attack. In this it differs from the SU-35 and SU-30 fighters also deployed by the Russian Aerospace Forces to Syria, which though exceptionally effective air combat fighters are nonetheless true multirole fighters, which are also very effective when used for ground strikes.
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Arrow Down

US imposes new sanctions on Iranian companies and individuals


RT
Thu, 14 Sep 2017 17:58 UTC
Iran and US flags collage
The US Department of Treasury has imposed sanctions on a number of individuals and entities accused of aiding Iran's nuclear program or engaging in "malicious" cyber activity. On the list are two companies based in Ukraine.

The sanctions freeze any assets the individuals and companies may hold in the US and prohibit any US persons from doing business with them.

Khors Aircompany and Dart Airlines, based in Ukraine, were sanctioned for "aiding designated Iranian and Iraqi airlines through the provision of aircraft and services," Treasury said in a statement. The companies are said to have provided Iran with airplanes of US origin.

Comment: Yawn. It's much more likely that these sanctions are being used to maintain anti-Iranian sentiments than anything having to do with actual crimes. The fortunate thing is the US is distancing itself from so many countries with these sanctions that it is actually assisting in the establishment of an alternative economic environment that isn't submissive to US policy.

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