Puppet MastersS


Boat

EU parliament chief: Estimated 30M Africans to arrive in EU next 10 years


RT
Wed, 29 Mar 2017 14:57 UTC
African refugees
© Zohra Bensemra / ReutersVision of the future?
Protracted violence, civil wars and poverty may force up to 30 million Africans to come to Europe within the next 10 years, posing new security challenges to the continent, says the newly-appointed president of the European Parliament.

Europe must now tackle two greatest challenges, namely, terrorism and migration, with both phenomena being interconnected, Antonio Tajani, an Italian politician appointed president of the European Parliament in January, told Die Welt.

"The so-called Islamic State [IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL] seeks to embed terrorists with refugees," he said. "They explain them that it's now quite easy to carry out an attack in a European state using a knife or a car." Unless defeated militarily, IS "will do everything to confront Europe as their number one enemy," Tajani argued, adding, terrorists "are coming to the European Union via all routes," particularly through the Balkans.

However, even more significant challenges lie ahead, Tajani continued, listing increasing calamity in Africa as the primary cause for concern. "Africa finds itself in a dire situation - agriculture shrinks because of desertification, Nigeria and Niger are suffering from poverty, and Somalia is marred by chaos and civil war," Tajani stated. "If we fail to resolve the central problems of African nations, 10, 20 or even 30 million migrants will come to the European Union in the next 10 years."

To prevent this scenario from happening, Europe must pour billions worth of investments and "develop a long-term strategy," Tajani said. Otherwise, "Africa risks becoming a Chinese colony, but the Chinese need only natural resources, they're not interested in stability."

Comment: What goes around comes around - have to meddle, have to mitigate. Additionally, the EU is concerned with any upcoming Chinese presence in Africa, hence the new Marshall Plan and economic development proposals. Presumably the Marshall Plan for Africa is a version of the US' European Recovery Program from 1948.

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Colosseum

State Department suspends press briefings - journos frustrated with Tillerson style


RT
Tue, 28 Mar 2017 22:39 UTC
State Department press conference
© Chip Somodevilla / Agence France-Press
The US Department of State is off the air again as it seeks a permanent spokesperson. Gone are the daily press briefings of the Obama era, leaving many reporters at Foggy Bottom frustrated by Rex Tillerson's corporate management style.

Tillerson, a former Exxon Mobile chief executive, took only one reporter along on his first trip to Asia earlier this month. During the first six weeks of the Trump administration, the State Department didn't hold a single on-camera press briefing, only restarting the practice on March 7.

Acting spokesman Mark Toner delivered on-camera briefings twice a week for two weeks, alternating them with on-the-record telephone briefings. Toner, a foreign service professional, is now being transferred to another post, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The State Department said it would not hold video briefings for at least two weeks, but would brief reporters intermittently on specific topics. Monday's background briefing was about Tillerson's upcoming trip to Turkey.
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Ice Cube

Russian President Vladimir Putin tours desolate northern archipelago amid international Arctic summit


RT
Wed, 29 Mar 2017 19:05 UTC
Vladimir Putin and Sergei Shoigu
© Alexei Druzhinin / Sputnik
The Russian president is touring Franz Josef Land, a desolate archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, to inspect the environmental cleanup effort conducted there. A day later he is to take part in an international conference on Arctic development hosted by Russia.

Vladimir Putin landed on Wednesday on Alexandra Land, the westernmost island of the archipelago, lying some 1,000km north of mainland Russia near the Barents Sea. He is touring the desolate part of the country to inspect the progress in cleaning up waste left behind by Soviet expeditions and military deployments in the past.

Franz Josef Land was chosen for the cleanup in 2010 as a pilot project of a larger Russian effort to reverse environmental damage in the Arctic region. Estimates said there were some 90,000 tons of broken equipment, used supply containers, old fuel and other products of human presence scattered across the group's almost 200 islands.

Alexandra Land currently hosts a meteorological station, a small airfield and a military radar station. The Defense Ministry is investing into a larger installation on the island, which would include a larger and more technologically-advanced airfield, where fighter jets and tanker planes would be deployed.

The visit coincides with the opening of an international forum on Arctic development, which is taking place in Arkhangelsk. Putin is to arrive in the northern city to take part in the second day of the two-day event on Thursday. Over 2,400 delegates are taking part in the high-profile gathering, which is focusing on the prospects of developing the inhospitable region.

Comment: Russia plans to build 1st-ever civilian nuclear-powered submarine for Arctic prospecting
Russia has a project for a nuclear-propelled submarine, which would carry seismological equipment instead of missiles, an advanced research official said. The vessel would be used to explore the Arctic's mineral riches.

The project of the first-ever nuclear sub for civilian use was revealed by Viktor Litvinenko, head of a project group at the Advanced Research Fund, a state agency with close ties to the military.

"It would be a civilian nuclear submarine, but instead of missile launchers it would have tubes with a robotic submersible, which would conduct seismic prospecting, search for minerals," he told RIA Novosti on Wednesday.

The preliminary specifications of the vessel as voiced by Litvinenko are 135.5 meters long, 14.4 meters wide, 12.6 knots submerged speed and a test depth of up to 400 meters, roughly equivalent to Borey-class submarines. The submarine would have a crew of 40 and be capable of diving on missions lasting up to 90 days, he added.

The project is currently in its early design stage, the official said.

Advanced navies use nuclear submarines for long missions that require them to spend months submerged. It allows them to hide from enemy reconnaissance and ensure that a retaliation nuclear strike would be delivered in case of a global nuclear war, thus deterring such a development.

No civilian submarines use nuclear power plants, but Russia famously has a fleet of nuclear-propelled icebreakers, which it uses in the Arctic region. While requiring significant investment and technological expertise, such ships do not require regular refuel like traditional vessels, allowing long autonomous missions in the region, famous for its unpredictable weather.


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Star of David

'Bible, not Google' gives Israel right to land, claims Israeli communications minister


RT
Wed, 29 Mar 2017 18:41 UTC
Jewish men Israel
© Hazem Bader / AFP
Israel's communications minister says the Bible is enough to prove that his country has legitimate land claims, despite what Google or Wikipedia say. The remarks were made during an event supporting West Bank settlements.

"Defense is important and security is important but the most important thing is the moral claim of Israel and we are committed to living in our regional land, land that was given to us not by Google or Wikipedia but by the Bible," Tzachi Hanegbi said at the Washington event, titled 'Celebrate 50 years of Rejuvenation in Judea and Samaria.'

"...And this is the right, which we are going to demand our right forever and ever," Hanegbi continued, as quoted by Arutz Sheva.

Comment: See also: Deconstructing the Foundational Myths of Israel

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Bad Guys

Al Qaeda's rebranding only serves the US' imperial agenda

Tony Cartalucci
New Eastern Outlook
Wed, 29 Mar 2017 18:05 UTC
al Qaeda ISIS terrorist
© AP Photo/ Hani Mohammed
The RAND Corporation's recent piece titled, "Al Qaeda in Syria Can Change Its Name, but Not Its Stripes," all but admits what was already suspected about designated terrorist groups operating in Syria - that they are undergoing a transition in an attempt by their state sponsors to bolster their legitimacy and spare them from liquidation amid the shifting tides on the battlefield.

The piece, written by Colin Clarke described by the RAND Corporation as a "political scientist at the RAND Corporation and an associate fellow at the International Center for Counter Terrorism," states:
Following recent infighting with other Syrian rebel groups in the northwestern part of the country, al Qaeda in Syria appears to have recognized the need to secure legitimacy and present itself to the civilian population it seeks to influence as an authentically Syrian entity.
However, this is not simply Al Qaeda's objective - this is the objective of the United States itself as well as the Persian Gulf states it funnels money and arms through, fueling Syria's destructive conflict since 2011.

Comment: Perhaps, with an increasingly official US military presence in Syria, it now behooves Western 'think tanks' to acknowledge al Qaeda as justification for further intervention.

Further reading: Syria: US intervention is 'violation of international law, an 'act of war'

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Eye 2

David Rockefeller: One Head of a Globalist Hydra

Ekaterina Blinova
Sputnik
Wed, 29 Mar 2017 18:05 UTC
David Rockefeller
© FP 2017/ STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN
Billionaire David Rockefeller's death has prompted some observers to assume that the US establishment's globalist concept has lost some wind. However, geopolitical analyst Gilbert Mercier explained in an interview with Sputnik why it's too early to jump to conclusions.

The passing of David Rockefeller, the patriarch of the famous banking clan, has prompted a lively debate over the future of the Rockefeller family and the globalist agenda in general.

According to Professor Valentin Katasonov of the Moscow State Institute for International Relations (MGIMO), it is possible that the billionaire's death will sap the influential financial group's strength.
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Laptop

US hackers target Czech Republic President by installing child pornography files on his computer

Alex Christoforou
The Duran
Wed, 29 Mar 2017 18:07 UTC
Milos Zeman
Russia hacking zero evidence. US hacking, evidence.

Czech news Právo is reporting that a computer belonging to the president of the Czech Republic, Milos Zeman, was hacked Monday, resulting in the installation of content containing child pornography.

On the US hacker attack, the Czech president stated...
"I turned on my computer and looked in disbelief for about 10 seconds at what was happening, before I realized that it was a hacker attack."
We are certain that the Czech Republic or the EU, will find a way to blame the US hacker attack on Russian hackers.
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Attention

Russian General: US trying to destroy Syria's critical infrastructure and complicate reconstruction

RI Staff
Russia Insider
Wed, 29 Mar 2017 17:48 UTC
Syrian dam damaged US airstrikes
Lieutenant General Sergei Rudskoi of the Russian military's General Staff said on Tuesday that U.S.-led coalition airstrikes were intentionally targeting critical infrastructure in Syria — which could lead to major ecological and humanitarian catastrophes.

According to General Rudskoi,
[The U.S.-led coalition is] trying to "completely destroy critical infrastructure in Syria and complicate post-war reconstruction as much as possible."

He added that US-led military aircraft had destroyed four bridges over the Euphrates River in Syria and hit the Tabqa Dam that lies 40 kilometers west of Daesh's main stronghold of Raqqah.

Rudskoi further warned that the collapse of the dam, most commonly known as the Euphrates Dam, would create an "ecological catastrophe" and lead to "numerous" civilian deaths.
The United States denies that it targeted the dam, but evidence suggests that the control rooms as well as other parts of the dam have been completely destroyed or damaged.
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Star of David

Israel's scheme to profit from the Syrian war - without costing it a cent

Whitney Webb
Mint Press News
Tue, 28 Mar 2017 17:39 UTC
druze rally golan heights
© Oded Balilty/Associated PressDruse participate in a rally, demanding the return of the Golan Heights, taken by Israel in 1967, close to the Syrian border in Buqata in the Golan Heights, Sunday, Feb. 14, 2016. The annual demonstration is in protest of the 1981 Israeli law in which the Jewish state annexed the strategic plateau it captured from Syria during 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
Israel has revealed a new plan to help rebuild war-torn Syria - with the ultimate goal of securing massive stores of natural resources. The plan would rely on significant investment from the U.S., a financial burden that will likely fall hardest on the shoulders of the American public

When the United States or any other nation disposed to foreign interventionism is forced to justify an invasion, the term "nation-building" is often used prominently in their defense, along with often dubious claims of humanitarianism. While the phrase "nation-building" serves as a useful euphemism - implying that the destructive force of war can actually be something constructive - it is, in practice, nothing more than an updated moniker for neocolonialism.

This is especially obvious when you consider that nation-building has less to do with actually physically rebuilding a nation state and more to do with restoring "order" to dysfunctional or failed states - an order defined by the invading nation. But as history has shown, the dysfunction that is used to justify nation-building within a particular country is often brought about by the very entity that seeks to do the "rebuilding."

Comment: Israel may find its plans aren't as easy to realize as it seems to think. Psychopaths can turn violent when they run up against reality.

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Magnify

As ISIS's caliphate shrinks, Syrian anger grows

Robert Fisk
Counterpunch
Mon, 27 Mar 2017 17:45 UTC
Syria map
It must be the most beautiful front line in the world. Turn right at the ancient city of Qatna, drive east for 40 miles and you'll come to a village called Telwared, the "Hill of Roses". There are fields of yellow flowers, sheep and cattle and almond orchards and an old T-62 tank and then a series of largely empty, slightly sinister two-storey houses and a row of gentle hills to the south. That's where Isis holds its ground, an ideology quite divorced from all this beauty and bright sky and sunlight.

They're just the other side of the low mountain range to the south which stretches all the way across to Palmyra. But it's difficult to shrug off the lethargy. Surely the old shepherd sitting with his back to the road, two cows tethered beside him, isn't worried about the war. Can the children playing with their mother behind a red-painted house have the slightest idea why there's a Syrian army checkpoint down the road at Jibl Jarrah, the very last bit of territory before the forward troops of the shrinking Isis caliphate?

The great geopolitical battles in Iraq seem far away until you notice the contrails sweeping the skies far above Jibl Jarrah and the military map in the local company headquarters which depicts three bleak grey and black circles to the right. "South al-Mushairfeh, east Habra, west Habra" are written in them. Isis holds these villages to this day.
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