Puppet MastersS

Snakes in Suits

Venezuelan right wing puts Chavez coup backer at head of Parliament, vows to rid Maduro from power

Julio Borges
© Reuters/Marco Bello
Venezuelan legislators appointed Thursday controversial right wing figure Julio Borges to head the National Assembly.

Borges has been a divisive figure in Venezuelan politics since supporting a failed 2002 coup against former socialist President Hugo Chavez, and for his ties with the US government.

Since being sworn in, Borges has stated he will seek new elections, while calling for the military to support opposition efforts to remove President Nicolas Maduro from power.

"Let's have elections ... this year: governors, mayors, the AN and also the presidency," he told El Nacional.

Comment: There is a lot of trouble brewing in Venezuela:


Arrow Up

Mission accomplished: Russia announces further troop pullouts in wake of successful ceasefire

Russian Federation soldiers
Ministry of defence of the Russian Federation.
Russia is starting to further reduce its military presence in Syria after completing a range of objectives and in the wake of the renewed ceasefire in the war-torn country, the Russian Armed Forces General Staff said Friday.

Russia started its anti-terrorist campaign in Syria in September, 2015, following a request by the Syrian government. A number of ceasefire attempts and peace talks have taken place between Syria's warring factions since then. A US-Russian-brokered partial ceasefire was first introduced in early 2016, but violence continued, especially in Aleppo. A second Russian-Turkish-backed ceasefire took effect after the fall of Aleppo's militant-held enclave just before the end of 2016.

The first scaling back of the Russian campaign took place in March, when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the withdrawal of the bulk of the country's air group from Syria, stating that the mission's aims had been achieved and a chance should be given to diplomacy. A limited force remained and has been active in assisting Syrian forces against terrorists in eastern Syria and in Aleppo.

Comment: More on the liberation of Aleppo:


Laptop

One more time: The DNC emails were leaked, NOT hacked

Obama Putin
© Chicago Tribune
DNC and Podesta emails were leaked, not hacked, op-ed writers say.

It has been several weeks since the New York Times reported that "overwhelming circumstantial evidence" led the CIA to believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin "deployed computer hackers" to help Donald Trump win the election. But the evidence released so far has been far from overwhelming.

The long anticipated Joint Analysis Report issued by the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI on Dec. 29 met widespread criticism in the technical community. Worse still, some of the advice it offered led to a very alarmist false alarm about supposed Russian hacking into a Vermont electric power station.

Advertised in advance as providing proof of Russian hacking, the report fell embarrassingly short of that goal. The thin gruel that it did contain was watered down further by the following unusual warning atop page 1:
"DISCLAIMER: This report is provided 'as is' for informational purposes only. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does not provide any warranties of any kind regarding any information contained within."
Also, curiously absent was any clear input from the CIA, NSA or Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. Reportedly, Mr. Clapper will get a chance tomorrow to brief an understandably skeptical Donald Trump, who has called the briefing delay "very strange," even suggesting that top intelligence officials "need more time to build a case."

Mr. Trump's skepticism is warranted not only by technical realities, but also by human ones, including the dramatis personae involved. Mr. Clapper has admitted giving Congress on March 12, 2013, false testimony regarding the extent of NSA collection of data on Americans. Four months later, after the Edward Snowden revelations, Mr. Clapper apologized to the Senate for testimony he admitted was "clearly erroneous." That he is a survivor was already apparent by the way he landed on his feet after the intelligence debacle on Iraq.

Comment: Julian Assange has been saying this from the beginning.


Arrow Up

French people paying more attention about situation in Aleppo - Lawmaker

Citizens at a yard of the Umayyad Mosque of Aleppo destroyed following military actions. The Umayyad Mosque was the largest and the oldest mosque of Aleppo
© Sputnik/ Timur AbdullaevCitizens at a yard of the Umayyad Mosque of Aleppo destroyed following military actions. The Umayyad Mosque was the largest and the oldest mosque of Aleppo
French people are now more interested in the reports of the people familiar with the situation in Aleppo from personal experience and are questioning the version of events that has been given to them for years, Nicolas Dhuicq, a lawmaker with The Republicans (LR) party, told Sputnik on Friday.

Three French lawmakers are currently on a visit to Syria and planning to spend the Orthodox Christmas weekend with Syrian Christians in Aleppo.

"The French understand that the version [of events in Aleppo]] that they have been given for years is not true to reality. So I think we can influence the public opinion positively," Dhuicq, a member of the French legislative defense committee, said.

The lawmaker added that the French were paying more and more attention to those who were familiar with the situation on the ground.

Comment: A lot of false information about the situation in the Syrian city of Aleppo exists, so French National Assembly members, who have traveled to Syria, want to learn directly from Aleppo residents what happened in the city, Thierry Mariani, a member of The Republicans (LR) party, told Sputnik on Friday.
"I think there is a lot of false information regarding Aleppo. Now that Aleppo is liberated, we want to learn directly from the city residents what has happened here in the last few months," Mariani said.



Snakes in Suits

Grasping for straw men? US knows which Russians provided hacked e-mails to WikiLeaks

Julian Assange
U.S. media are reporting that U.S. intelligence agencies have identified the Russians they say provided hacked e-mails to WikiLeaks in an effort to influence the November presidential election.

The Washington Post and Reuters reported on January 5 that the CIA has identified Russian officials who fed material hacked from the Democratic National Committee and party leaders to WikiLeaks at the direction of Russian President Vladimir Putin via third parties.

Reuters said the findings are contained in a secret briefing document intelligence agencies gave to President Barack Obama on January 5 and are scheduled to give to President-elect Donald Trump on January 6.

Comment: Waiting on Trump's tweet in 3...2...1...


Eagle

U.S. deploys hundreds of tanks to Germany to station on Russia's doorstep

us tank
© AFPU.S. military vehicles are unloaded from a transport ship in the harbor in Bremerhaven, Germany, on January 6.
Hundreds of U.S. tanks and other weaponry arrived by ship in Germany on January 6, the first wave of equipment to be deployed to Eastern Europe as part of NATO's push to beef up its presence in the region.

The equipment is set to be transported by rail and convoy to staging sites in Poland ahead of the arrival of U.S. military units to Eastern Europe.

Beginning next month, the American units and equipment will fan out across NATO members Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, and the Baltic states for training and maintenance.

The moves are aimed at reassuring U.S. allies following Russia's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and its backing of armed separatists in eastern Ukraine.


Comment: Pass the sick bag. People in the Baltics and E. Europe should either be insulted (for being portrayed as thin-skinned neurotics with paranoid delusions), or ashamed (for being thin-skinned neorotics with paranoid delusions).


Russia has condemned what it sees as an aggressive Western buildup in in the region, accusing NATO of destabilizing actions and stoking tensions near Russia's borders.

NATO insists the moves are strictly defensive in nature.

"The best way to maintain the peace is through preparation," U.S. Major General Timothy McGuire told reporters when asked if the action was intended to send a message to Russia.

Sherlock

Trump calls for investigation into top secret intel leaked to NBC

trump
© EVAN VUCCI/APPresident-elect Donald Trump wants to trim the country's top spy agencies, according to a report.
President-elect Donald Trump has called for a congressional investigation into an NBC News report featuring details from a classified intelligence report about alleged Russian computer hacking targeting U.S. elections.

Trump made the extraordinary call on January 6 shortly before his own scheduled briefing with top U.S. intelligence officials about the report.

"I am asking the chairs of the House and Senate committees to investigate top secret intelligence shared with NBC prior to me seeing it," Trump wrote on Twitter.


Comment: Contrary to what may readers of the MSM think, these types of "disclosures" from anonymous intelligence officials are often psyops directed at the American people. No accountability. No need for evidence. It's also illegal, but when did that ever stop the CIA? In this case, assuming the contents are as described, it still amounts to a politicized 'leak' designed to smear Trump, Russia, and the possibility of cooling the New Cold War tensions being stoked and provoked by the CIA and their allies.


Light Sabers

Russian senator: Trump's toughest battle may be with US media waging info-war against him

trump
© AP Photo/ Mark J. Terrill
The toughest battle Donald Trump may face is the one with US media "waging the info war against him", a Russian lawmaker wrote.

US future President Donald Trump may have to face the toughest battle of his presidency not fighting Daesh and negotiating with China, but handling the media at home, member of the Russian parliament's upper house Alexei Pushkov said Friday.

"Perhaps, Trump's main challenge will be not China, not North Korea, not even Daesh, but US media, which are still waging the info war against him," Pushkov wrote on his Twitter.

Trump's inauguration is set to take place on January 20.

The US president will assume the office amid mainstream media questioning his victory in November 8 election over US intelligence services' allegations that Russia may have meddled in the election to stack the odds in Trump's favor. Moscow has denied the accusations.

Megaphone

Ukrainian MoD: CrowdStrike is wrong, Russians did not hack Kiev's artillery

ukraine soldiers
© AFP 2016/ GENYA SAVILOV
Kiev seems to be breaking the mould. Claims that Russian hackers allegedly disabled most of the Ukrainian army's D-30 howitzers are false, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said Friday.

In late December, the US-based cybersecurity technology company CrowdStrike claimed that Russian intelligence infected an application used by Ukrainian forces to speed up howitzer fire with trojan malware between 2014 and 2016, covering the span of the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The firm, which has a history of accusing Russia of various hacking operations such as the recent compromising US Democratic Party leak, claimed that the cyberattack resulted in as much as 80 percent of Ukraine's howitzers being disabled.

"Due to various media reports that 80 percent of Ukrainian D-30 howitzers had been destroyed by a Russian hacker cyberattack, the army command of Ukraine's armed forces states that the given information is not true," the ministry said in a statement.

Ukraine's missile troops and artillery remain combat-ready, well-equipped and are able to carry out the necessary tasks, the statement added.

The Donbass conflict erupted in April 2014 as a local counter-reaction to the West-sponsored Maidan coup in Kiev that had toppled legitimate President Viktor Yanukovych in February. Residents of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions held independence referendums and proclaimed the People's Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. Kiev has since been conducting a military operation, encountering stiff local resistance.

Laptop

Best of the Web: New "Russian hacking" intel report: Still no evidence

russia hacking
After Hillary Clinton was defeated in the U.S. presidential election the relevant powers launched a campaign to delegitimize the President elect Donald Trump.

The ultimate aim of the cabal is to kick him out of office and have a reliable replacement, like the Vice-President elect Pence, take over. Should that not be possible it is hoped that the delegitimization will make it impossible for Trump to change major policy trajectories especially in foreign policy. A main issue here is the reorientation of the U.S. military complex and its NATO proxies from the war of terror towards a direct confrontation with main powers like Russia and China.

The cabal consists of President Obama, the defeated candidate Hillary Clinton, neoconservatves like the State Department's cookie dispenser Victoria Nuland, the Republican senators McCain and Lindsay and the military-industrial complex. (One of the few neocons planted near to Trump, former CIA director James Woolsey, threw the towel today and left the Trump transition team.)