Puppet MastersS


Radar

Blackwater founder Erik Prince pushes to privatize Afghanistan war amid strategy impasse


RT
Sat, 12 Aug 2017 11:55 UTC
Erik Prince
© Larry Downing / Reuters
The White House has reviewed a proposal to outsource the job of training and assisting Afghan forces to private contractors, said Erik Prince, founder of the private security firm formerly called Blackwater.

In several recent op-eds, the Blackwater founder suggested "restructuring" America's presence in Afghanistan by replacing US troops training and assisting Afghan security units with private contractors on a long-term basis.

Prince's new security company, Frontier Services Group, will bid for the government contract should the Trump administration take up his Afghanistan proposal, he told C-SPAN on Friday.

"I was asked by the folks at the White House to elaborate on the op-ed I wrote to the Wall Street Journal," Prince said. He did not say whether the White House gave him an answer.

Having fought the US for over 15 years, "the Taliban now are at their best," Prince told C-SPAN. America's conventional army is losing to guys "in pickup trucks and flip-flops," he added.
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Radar

Of course: US-South Korea drills to go ahead despite spike in tension with North


RT
Sat, 12 Aug 2017 11:42 UTC
U.S. army soldiers take part in U.S.-South Korea joint river-crossing exercise near demilitarized zone separating two Koreas in Yeoncheon
© Kim Hong-Ji / Reuters
Joint US and South Korean military drills will go ahead as planned later in August despite a spike in tensions in the region, officials in Seoul said, as Donald Trump continues to threaten the use of force to make North Korea curb its missile program.

The 'Ulchi-Freedom Guardian' exercises are held annually and cause outrage from North Korea, with Pyongyang calling them preparation for war.

The 2017 wargames were planned before the outbreak of the current crisis and won't be rescheduled, military officials in the South Korean capital, Seoul, told AP.

The drills, which are to take place between August 21 and 31, will begin without delay, the unnamed officials said on Friday, without elaborating.

Some 40,000 American and South Korean troops as well as civilians, training civil defense response, will participate in the exercises on land, air and sea, according to the US State Department.
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Attention

Spreading democracy: Trump warns Venezuela of US 'military option,' Caracas calls it 'crazy'


RT
Sat, 12 Aug 2017 11:28 UTC
US soldiers
© Mario Tama / Reuters
The crisis in Venezuela could prompt a US military response, President Donald Trump has told reporters. The Pentagon, however, has reportedly not been directed on any such plans.

On Friday, Trump appeared outside his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, alongside Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, where he told reporters that he had "many options" for responding to the Venezuelan crisis.

"The people are suffering and they are dying. We have many options for Venezuela including a possible military option if necessary," Trump said, according to Reuters.

Trump called Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro a "dictator" and blamed him for the humanitarian situation in the country.
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Bad Guys

The real story of that Lynch-Clinton tarmac meeting gets even stranger

Jazz Shaw
HotAir
Thu, 10 Aug 2017 08:01 UTC
lortta_lynch
When we last checked in on newly released information regarding that infamous tarmac meeting between then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Bill Clinton, we learned that the media wasn't terribly interested in discussing the matter any more than absolutely necessary. But as reporters continue to dig through the trove of Justice Department emails obtained by the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, we find out that there were some people who were very interested in talking. The people in question would be Lynch's staff and they were having a flurry of discussions with none other than the folks at James Comey's office.
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Clock

It's Crunch-Time for The Deep State vs. Donald Trump - And Trump is Losing

Tom Luongo
Halsey News
Thu, 10 Aug 2017 00:00 UTC
Trump Deep State
I've made few bones about how disappointed I've been with Donald Trump in recent weeks over his handling of major foreign policy issues. It's not like I don't realize what is being done to him or how hard his political opponents are pushing for his removal from office.

I do, fully.

In fact, from the beginning I wanted Trump to go on offense. Playing nice with vipers only gets you bit. And, I feel now that Trump went into the White House a little naïve about how fully arrayed against him the establishment in "Mordor-on-the-Potomac" was. (H/T Lew Rockwell)

Now, however, it's clear that he does and the question on everyone's mind is whether he has enough wiggle room to extricate himself from the noose they are dropping around his neck.

I'm not here to tell you that I think he does.
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Info

China and North Korea: A complex relationship

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Fri, 11 Aug 2017 20:38 UTC
China and N. Korea leaders
North Korea - far from being a Chinese "attack dog" or satellite is a vehemently independent country, which China is trying to rein in. US threats are simply making that more difficult.

As China makes no effort to hide its growing exasperation with both Washington and Pyongyang, now is perhaps a good moment to discuss the complex relationship between China and North Korea.

Korea borders China and relations between China and Korea have an exceptionally long history, to the very start of the Korean state at roughly the time the Roman empire was forming in Europe. Any visitor to Korea - North or South - cannot fail but notice the huge and deep influence of Chinese culture on Korea. By comparison US influence in South Korea seems ephemeral.

This long interaction has not however always been happy with the Koreans - a proud and passionate people - often allied to China, but also sometimes resisting Chinese attempts to dominate them.

Comment: The US is obviously not interested in reduced tensions on the Korean peninsula. They want missiles pointed at China and these tensions provide the pretext to do so.

For more analysis on North Korea: Avoiding nuclear war: Why Kim Jong-Un's strategy makes sense

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Snakes in Suits

Democrats turn their backs on Debbie Wasserman Schultz over IT aide scandal and 'negative reputation'

Sarah Taylor
The Blaze
Thu, 10 Aug 2017 20:48 UTC
Debbie Wasserman Schultz
© Alex Wong/Getty Images
Some members of the Democratic National Committee have former DNC chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) in their sights, and it all seems to be a result of her fired - and arrested - former IT aide, Imran Awan.

Nikki Barnes, a progressive DNC member from Wasserman Schultz's own state of Florida, told Politico that the DNC wishes Wasserman Schultz "would go away" along with her "negative stories."

"We wish she would go away and stop being so public by doubling down on negative stories," Barnes told Politico.

Barnes said that the DNC was in "shambles" while Wasserman Schultz was chair, and claimed that Wasserman Schultz's defense that her former information technology aide was arrested because of racial profiling doesn't add up.

"None of this makes sense," Barnes said. "It doesn't sound like racial profiling ... there must have been something for her."
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Target

Lavrov cautions US-led coalition may keep al-Nusra safe for later use against Assad


Sputnik
Fri, 11 Aug 2017 20:31 UTC
Sergei Lavrov
© Sputnik/ Vitaliy Belousov
According to the Russian foreign minister, some members of the US-led coalition are interested in preserving the Jabhat Fatah al-Sham for later use against Assad.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday said that some members of the US-led coalition against Daesh are interested in preserving the Jabhat Fatah al-Sham terrorist group (outlawed in Russia) for later use in the fight against Damascus.

"I have an ambivalent attitude to how the coalition works... We have no doubt that the coalition is determined to firmly eradicate the so-called 'Islamic State,' and all actions of the coalition are aimed at bleeding this group... Here we have absolutely common goals. As for Jabhat al-Nusra [common name of Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, formerly known as Nusra Front], it is a somewhat different animal, as they say, it opposes the Islamic State [Daesh], but, like the IS, it is also in the list of terrorist organizations approved by the UN Security Council. But [there is] a lot of evidence that some external players, maybe they are being silently encouraged by the US, take care of Jabhat al-Nusra... There is a suspicion that they keep it safe, so that when the IS is crushed, then they use Nusra, very combat-ready group, to fight against the Syrian government," Lavrov said while speaking at a young experts' forum.
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Info

Tillerson allegedly urged Iraqi Kurdistan president to delay independence vote


Sputnik
Fri, 11 Aug 2017 20:21 UTC
Iraqi Kurdistan soldiers at checkpoint
© Sputnik/ Dmitriy Vinogradov
US State Secretary Rex Tillerson has asked Iraqi Kurdistan's President Masoud Barzani in a telephone conversation to postpone holding the region's independence referendum, which is scheduled to take place in September.

On June 7, Barzani announced his intention to hold a referendum on the independence of the autonomous region of Kurdistan from Iraq on September 25, a decision which has been criticized by Baghdad.

"The US Secretary of State... also stated he would rather see the referendum in Kurdistan to be postponed, and he reiterated his support for dialogue and negotiation between the [Kurdistan] Region and Baghdad... On the issue of postponing the referendum President Barzani said to the US Secretary of State that the kind of coexistence that the Kurdistan Region had worked for with the state of Iraq in the past and over various stages was not implemented, and that is why the people of Kurdistan have decided to take their own path," the Kurdish Presidency said in a statement as quoted by Rudaw broadcaster.

Comment: Some background on the Kurdish question: Pawns in regional power struggles: The myth of the moderate Kurdish rebel

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Info

Nothing to lose: Venezuela's Maduro says 'Mr. Donald Trump, here is my hand'

Fabiola Sanchez
AP
Fri, 11 Aug 2017 20:01 UTC
Venezuela anti-government protesters
Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro said he wants a meeting with President Donald Trump, the same man he ridicules as a crass imperial magnate, as the U.S. weighs slapping crippling economic sanctions on his socialist administration.

In a lengthy address Thursday to members of a new, all-powerful constitutional assembly, Maduro instructed Venezuela's foreign minister to approach the United States about arranging a telephone conversation or meeting with Trump at next month's United Nations General Assembly.

"Mr. Donald Trump, here is my hand," the socialist president said, adding that he wants as strong a relationship with the U.S. as he has with Russia.
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