Puppet MastersS


Brick Wall

Turkey begins building border wall with Iran


RT
Wed, 09 Aug 2017 19:00 UTC
A Turkish soldier
© Murad Sezer / ReutersA Turkish soldier patrols along a wall on the border line between Turkey and Syria
Turkey has begun construction of a wall along the border with Iran in a bid to crack down on smuggling and terrorism, following the building of a similar barrier already standing on the border with Syria.

Suleyman Elban, the governor of Agri province, visited the wall on Tuesday together with a local police chief and gendarmerie commander before meeting with the area's border guards, the Dogan news agency reported.

The 2-meter-wide, 3-meter-high barrier is being built out of portable blocks and is aimed at boosting Turkey's security by keeping out smugglers and stopping infiltration by Kurdish militants.

Comment: See also: Turkey plans to build wall on Iranian border to block PKK access

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2 + 2 = 4

North Korea's strategy: Rational player pretending to be irrational

George Friedman, Mauldin Economics
Business Insider
Wed, 09 Aug 2017 16:40 UTC
north korea military officers
© Damir Sagolj/Reuters
To understand North Korean strategy today, we must first understand the implications of its geography.

Korea is a peninsula jutting southward from Manchuria surrounded by the Yellow and Japan seas. It shares an 880-mile border with China and has a 30-mile frontier with Russia.

Korea's northeastern border is about 70 miles from Vladivostok, Russia's major eastern port. The southeast corner juts to within 100 miles of Japan to its south, and the peninsula's southwest shore angles westward only about 300 miles from Shanghai.

Editor's note: This article was originally written in 2016.

Comment: Kind of puts Trump's statements into perspective. While we may not know what Trump's end game is (or even if he has one!), it looks like the bluffer nation has met the bluffer president. Got any guesses on where it goes from there?

See also:

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Jet2

Dozens reported killed in US airstrike on Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units - Update


Sputnik
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 14:34 UTC
Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units (PMU)
© AFP 2017/ Achilleas Zavallis
The US air force has carried out an airstrike on an Iraqi militia unit called Seyid Suheda, which belongs to Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units (PMU). The airstrike took place in Anbar province, close to Iraq's border with Syria, Rudaw reports.

According to reports, 35 fighters were killed and 25 were injured in the airstrike on Monday night. PMU commanders are reportedly among the dead.

PMU commander Ali Hasim Huseyni confirmed the incident in conversation with Sputnik Turkiye.

"US planes bombed fighters of the Seyid Suheda unit. The wounded have been taken to various hospitals in Iraq for treatment. Some of them are in a serious condition. The region in which they were attacked is located on the Iraqi-Syrian border, 20 km from the city of El Baac. We strongly condemn this deliberate attack."

Comment: The US-led coalition has not conducted any attack against the Sayed Al-Shuhada Brigade, a government-backed Iraqi Shia militia group, in Anbar province on the Syrian-Iraqi border, the Iraqi Army said in a statement on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the Sayed Al-Shuhada Brigade, a branch of the Iraqi People's Mobilization Forces (PMF, also referred as Hashd al-Shaabi), blamed the US-led coalition for an airstrike that killed and injured large numbers of its fighters on the Iraqi-Syrian border on Monday.

"The Iraqi Joint Operations Command denies claims of an attack on Hashd al-Shaabi fighters in the western part of Anbar province. The events reported by the media occurred beyond the territory of Iraq and had no impact on Hashd al-Shaabi fighters or representatives of any other group that belongs to the Iraqi Armed Forces," the press service of the Iraqi Army wrote on its Facebook page.

On Tuesday, spokesman for the US-led coalition US Army Col. Ryan Dillon said that there had been no coalition strikes in that region at that time.


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Arrow Up

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says Indonesia joins Russia in fight against ISIS

Translated by Samer Hussein
Fort Russ News / Breakingnews.sy
Wed, 09 Aug 2017 18:40 UTC
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that threat posed by the terrorist organization ISIS has not yet disappeared as its terrorists are now spread throughout the world, including areas close to Russia and Indonesia.

"We are concerned about the situation in the Middle East and North Africa", Lavrov was heard saying at a press conference, held after bilateral talks with his Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi in the Indonesian capital city of Jakarta on Wednesday.

"Although there has been some progress in finding a solution to the crisis in Syria and combating terrorism, ISIS as such has not disappeared and its elements have spread all over the world, including areas close to the Russian and Indonesian borders" Lavrov also said, adding that Moscow and Jakarta have agreed to establish private communication channels between the security and intelligence services of both countries, with an attempt to combat ISIS.

Comment: See also: Sanctions workaround: Indonesia barters coffee, tea and palm oil in exchange for Russian fighter jets

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Bulb

McCain and Feinstein respond to Trump's "fire and fury" threat with...calls for restraint

Carlos Garcia
The Blaze
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 15:52 UTC
feinstein mccain
© YouTubeSens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) push back against President Donald Trump's threat of "fire and fury" against North Korea.
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump's issued a fiery warning to North Korea that many interpreted as a threat of nuclear strike. Senators from both sides of the aisle were not enthused with the statement.

Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) released statements saying Trump's threat was counter-productive to progress.


"Isolating the North Koreans has not halted their pursuit of nuclear weapons." Feinstein said. "And President Trump is not helping the situation with his bombastic comments. There is no question that North Korea is seeking to add a nuclear warhead to an ICBM capable of reaching the United States.

"What this tells me is that our policy of isolating North Korea has not worked," she said. "The United States must quickly engage North Korea in a high-level dialogue without any preconditions. Hopefully, Secretary [Rex] Tillerson is already discussing the possibility of reopening talks with our Asian partners during his current trip."

Comment: That's one way to get your opponents to be reasonable: be so over the top that they call for you to actually do the right thing. Then, when you do the right thing, they can't complain because you're only agreeing with them. It might work for North Korea, but such a gambit is unlikely to work with Russia. Morons like Feinstein and McCain would probably cheer on calls for a nuclear war with a country that actually COULD destroy the U.S. if seriously provoked.

Shillary Clinton, in contrast, thought Trump was being too easy on North Korea a year ago. Maybe she's happy now, too? (Sidebar: just imagine if this "woman" was in the White House!)
Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton will slam Republican Donald Trump for being too friendly with North Korea and too harsh on European allies during a foreign policy speech in California on Thursday, designed to paint the billionaire businessman as unfit for the White House.
Tillerson, at least, seems to be trying to calm the storm regarding North Korea. See also:

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Attention

Exposed: National Security Advisor McMaster, a globalist puppet for Soros

Jay Syrmopoulos
The Free Thought Project
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 00:00 UTC
SorosTrumpMcMaster
© The Free Thought Project
Stunning news out of Israel has revealed that National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster is working as an inside operative for globalist billionaire George Soros, according to numerous domestic and foreign intelligence sources.

"I have confirmed from sources from inside the White House, the Israeli government and Israeli intelligence that the Israelis have intercepted email communications from General McMaster to George Soros, informing him of everything that's going on inside the White House," reported long time political operative Roger Stone. "...I have double checked this with two different sources very high up in Israeli intelligence, and I actually expect the Israeli ambassador to the US to confirm this."


Comment: Is Roger Stone a credible source?


Interestingly, when Trump visited Israel on his first overseas trip, McMasters was curiously excluded from the meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his national security team, which broke from standard protocol.

According to Kafe Knesset, Trump met with Netanyahu, starting with a one-on-one meeting. The forum was soon expanded by several advisors on each side, including Jared Kushner, Jason Greenblatt and Ambassador David Friedman on the U.S. side, according to Israeli officials. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was later invited into the meeting, per an official, but "McMaster sat outside the King David room during the course of the entire meeting."


Comment: So what do we really have here: Dueling global elitism between Soros and Israel? Israel is the multi-generational global sneak attack. It doesn't want to end up second to the likes of adversary George Soros. McMaster having one of Trump's ears, and Netanyahu having the other, forces the issue on who "has control of the USA". For Trump: Neither of these are good sources of unbiased information, nor where he should want to take America.

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Windsock

Tillerson on the North Korea threat: 'Americans should sleep well at night'


RT
Wed, 09 Aug 2017 12:42 UTC
tillerson
© KURV.com
North Korea poses no "imminent threat" to the US and "Americans should sleep well at night," US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said. His statement comes as both countries exchange strong words, raising concerns over possible military confrontation.

Secretary of State Tillerson spoke to reporters before landing at a US airbase in Guam, which Pyongyang earlier vowed to hit with a medium-range ballistic missile.

US President Donald Trump added fuel to the fire on Tuesday, cautioning North Korea against making any more threats to the US.

Trump pledged that if the North Korean government continues with their threats, they "will be met with fire, fury and frankly power, the likes of which the world has never seen before."

"What the president is doing is sending a strong message to North Korea in language that Kim Jong-un would understand, because he doesn't seem to understand diplomatic language," Tillerson said. "I think the president just wanted to be clear to the North Korean regime on the US' unquestionable ability to defend itself... and its allies."

"Americans should sleep well at night," he added.

Comment: Winks, yes. Worries, no? Tillerson's short interview is worth the listen.

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Briefcase

Russian lawyer Veselnitskaya: 'Story of my meeting with Trump, Jr. manipulated'


RT
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 21:08 UTC
NataliaDonaldJr
© The Last RefugeNatalia Veselnitskaya • Donald Trump, Jr.
Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya told RT that the US media manipulated the story about her meeting with Donald Trump Jr, and accused investor Bill Browder - convicted in Russia for tax fraud - of running a disinformation campaign in the US.

The current president's son and several other members of the Trump presidential campaign met with Veselnitskaya in June 2016, after a music promoter told them she could provide damaging information on the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, according to emails published by Trump Jr. last month.

Last week, Special Counsel Robert Mueller reportedly impanelled a grand jury, which could allow his team to issue subpoenas, compel witnesses to testify and seek indictments. The June 2016 meeting was one of the things brought up in the reports.

"I don't know what exactly Mr. Mueller is going to investigate regarding my meeting with his president's son, I can only say what I know - that my meeting was determined by my duties as a lawyer," Veselnitskaya told RT. "I was defending a Russian citizen in the United States of America. If it turns out that defending a Russian citizen in the US is a crime - in that case, there IS a subject for Mr. Mueller's investigation."

Veselnitskaya said she believed that the media was colluding with certain interests to help push the narrative of "Russian collusion" with the Trump campaign.


Comment: See also:

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Rocket

DIA report warns: Pyongyang has warhead 'small enough to fit in a missile'


RT
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 22:44 UTC
rocket
© KCNA/Reuters
North Korea has successfully developed a nuclear warhead small enough to fit inside a missile, a new US defense report warns.

"The intelligence community assess North Korea has produced nuclear weapons for ballistic missile delivery, to include delivery by ICBM-class missiles," a DIA report read, according to reporters at the Washington Post who have seen the document.

The warning from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) comes just hours after Pyongyang threatened "physical action" in response to sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council over the weekend.

The analysis also puts North Korea's arsenal at 60 nuclear weapons, more than previously thought but a figure still being debated among experts.

The report comes just as Japan issued its own assessment of North Korea's nuclear capabilities on Tuesday.

Less certain than the DIA report, a defense white paper commissioned by the Japanese government only went as far as saying that Pyongyang may be capable of miniaturizing a nuclear warhead.

The secretive state announced that it had successfully tested the smaller design last year, but there has been no independent evidence to support the claim.

Comment: Time warps: "Years away..." "Stockpile now..." Who knows what, when or where.

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Stormtrooper

Turkey possible 'go ahead' for Afrin offensive if it provides needed influence Idlib, Deir ez-Zor


Sputnik
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 21:58 UTC
kurds
© youtube.comKurds
Turkey seems to be planning an advance on the Kurdish YPG militia in northwestern Syria, and could get the go-ahead from Damascus in return for reigning in anti-government fighters in Idlib or elsewhere in Syria, Turkish journalist Bora Bayraktar told Sputnik.

Turkey has strengthened its military presence on its border with Syria and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to take military action against emboldened Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, who are receiving support from the US in their fight against Daesh in Raqqa.

Erdogan views the YPG, which controls part of Syria's border with Turkey, as an extension of the Kurdish PKK, a Marxist insurgent group which has operated in Turkey for decades and is also considered a terrorist organization by the US and EU.

In recent weeks, there have been exchanges of rocket and artillery fire at Syria's northwestern border between Turkish forces and YPG fighters.

Having reinforced the border with more tanks and artillery, Erdogan told a crowd in Turkey's eastern town of Malatya on Saturday, "We will not leave the separatist organization in peace in both Iraq and Syria."

Comment: So far Erdogan's plan hasn't been given a go-ahead. If it does, it may not be fair to the YPG, but one might say nothing in war is.

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