Puppet MastersS


Black Cat

The Pentagon's $125 Billion Cover-Up

Miriam Pemberton
CounterPunch
Thu, 29 Dec 2016 22:27 UTC
Pentagon
The Pentagon
Let's say you ask somebody a question. They give you an answer you don't like, so you pretend you didn't hear it. Probably all of us would cop to something like this at some time in our imperfect pasts.

For most of us though, that pretending hasn't included trying to hide $125 billion.

The Pentagon has a little image problem: Google "Pentagon waste" and you get more than 500,000 hits, including stories about $600 toilet seats and $7,600 coffee makers. The finances of the largest agency in the federal government are so screwed up, it's the only one that still can't pass an audit.
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Document

US govt publishes proof of Russian govt hacking US election! (Includes disclaimer that it cannot stand behind any information disclosed therein)


RT
Thu, 29 Dec 2016 23:43 UTC
Russian hacking statement
© us-cert.gov
As the White House and Treasury Department announced new sanctions against Russia over the alleged hacking of US elections, the FBI and Homeland Security released a report that offered supposed proof amid an abundance of disclaimers.

Given the incongruous name of "Grizzly Steppe," the Joint Analysis Report (JAR) on "Russian malicious cyber activity" issued by the FBI and the DHS National Cybersecurity & Communications Integration Center (NCCIC) on Thursday begins with the following disclaimer:

"The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does not provide any warranties of any kind regarding any information contained within."
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Attention

SyriaGate: Syrian MP discusses NATO forces/weapons discovered in E. Aleppo - Investigation into Bulgarian arms begins

Manuel Ochsenreiter
Free West Media
Wed, 28 Dec 2016 21:12 UTC
Fares Shehabi
Fares Shehabi, Syrian MP.
Huge stockpiles of weaponry and ammunition, many with NATO markings, were discovered in East Aleppo when the Al-Nusra militants, a local branch of Al Qaida, were pushed out of the city by Syrian forces. The previous reports that NATO personnel were captured are now retracted, as they were allowed to leave with the militants on the buses provided according to the agreement, to spare NATO the embarrassment. FWM interviews the Syrian MP Fares Shehabi, an Aleppo resident himself. He calls the discoveries "SyriaGate".
Mr. Shehabi, European mainstream media and leading politicians are upset about the liberation of Aleppo by the Syrian Arab Army. They write reports about massacres committed by the army and horrified civilians in Aleppo...
It is the total opposite. The news in Europe is a real problem because they report exactly the opposite of the real facts in Syria. We were able to liberate around 100.000 civilians who were held hostage by terrorists in Aleppo. A lot of them were taken hostage for more than four years. These liberated civilians are happy now. The 1.5 million civilians who left Aleppo since 2012 are now able to come home again. This is a very positive and happy moment for Aleppo and Syria in general. We were able to celebrate Christmas in Aleppo for the first time since 4.5 years - we celebrate Christmas every day now in our city!

Comment: According to Jane's Defense:
A Bulgarian prosecutor is launching a probe into allegations published by Russian state-owned media that Bulgarian-made arms had been found in the Syrian city of Aleppo. No independent validation of Russia's claims had occurred at the time this article was published.

Russia, as reported by several news agencies on 28 December, claimed that Russian combat engineers working in Aleppo after Russian and Syrian government troops conquered the city this month uncovered a stockpile of Bulgarian arms. Those arms were joined with US and German arms, according to the reports.

Responding to the claims Bulgaria's foreign minister, Daniel Mitov, denied that the country had exported arms to Syria after that country's civil war began, according to a report from Bulgarian outlet the Sofia News Agency.


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Star of David

Netanyahu warned New Zealand that its support for UN resolution would be "declaration of war"

Peter Beaumont, Julian Borger and Kate Shuttleworth
The Guardian
Wed, 28 Dec 2016 21:00 UTC
netanyahu
Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly told New Zealand's foreign minister that support for a UN resolution condemning Israeli settlement-building in the occupied territories would be viewed as a "declaration of war".

According to reports in Israeli media, the Israeli PM called Murray McCully, the foreign minister of New Zealand, before Friday's resolution, which was co-sponsored by Wellington. Netanyahu told him: "This is a scandalous decision. I'm asking that you not support it and not promote it.

"If you continue to promote this resolution, from our point of view it will be a declaration of war. It will rupture the relations and there will be consequences. We'll recall our ambassador [from New Zealand] to Jerusalem."

McCully, however, refused to back down, telling Netanyahu: "This resolution conforms to our policy and we will move it forward."

A western diplomat confirmed that the call took place and described the conversation as "harsh".
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Star of David

Wake up Trump! Putting America First And Support For Israel Are Polar Opposite Ideas

Michael Scheuer
Non-Intervention.com
Wed, 28 Dec 2016 20:53 UTC
Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu
© ReutersDonald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu
Mr. Trump, stop being played as a dumb ass by Jewish-Americans. Every American soldier, Marine, and U.S. civilian who has died or been wounded or maimed since Osama bin Laden declared war on the United States in 1996 has been the victim — in significant part — of the record of slavish and largely unquestioning U.S. support for Israel's national security interests.

This kind of policy requires the utter abandonment of all the tenets inherent in the concept of America First. Together, your selection for ambassador to Israel — a supporter of West Bank settlements; that is, the brazen theft of Palestinian land — and your promise to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem will do four disastrous things: they will kill and maim more U.S. military personnel; decrease U.S. national security; prolong America's Islam war by decades; and irreparably rupture the trust of your political base's faith in your promise of putting America first. Proceed in the direction you are setting and you will be from the first day of your presidency nothing more than one more post-1945 U.S. president who is a slave to Israel's national security interests, and the hapless pawn of disloyal Jewish Americans, their organizations, and their journals.

The only obligation the United States has to Israel is to never stand in the way of that country's right to defend itself according to its own best lights. Building West Bank settlements, driving all Palestinians into Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, or Egypt, or making war on Iran and Hizballah are all decisions that can only be made by Israelis and their government.
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Vader

Liberal US media relishes Obama's coming 'retaliatory measures against Russia', despite zero evidence of 'election hacking'

Claire Bernish
The Free Thought Project
Wed, 28 Dec 2016 17:02 UTC
obama
According to the albeit dubious Washington Post, the Obama administration will soon announce retaliatory measures against Russia for the putative role it played installing Donald Trump in the White House.

Once again citing unnamed "U.S. officials," the Post reports the punitive moves "are expected to include covert action that will probably involve cyber-operations," and the public will learn precisely what's planned "as early as this week."

Of course, laughably unexplained by the Post is how these officials feel announcing covert actions to the public would be to the advantage of the administration — but the outlet has of late displayed a penchant for providing tangible information — including, most glaringly, on the topic of Russian interference in the U.S. election.

That Russian State actors meddled in the election — in particular, by hacking the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign chair John Podesta's emails to provide information to Wikileaks — has yet to be backed by even a shred of legitimate evidence.

In fact, the Post and New York Times published articles citing unnamed officials from the CIA, who ostensibly concluded Russia — and President Vladimir Putin, himself — 'hacked the election,' without providing the most basic explanation for how this was possible, who had done so, or why the hack was undertaken. Yet, countless left-leaning corporate presstitutes parroted the report as if it constituted established fact.

Comment: Update: Obama 'strikes back', adding sanctions and ejecting 35 Russian nationals from the US. The NY Times article doesn't even attempt to hide one of the purposes behind these impotent and petty measures:
The sanctions were also intended to box in President-elect Donald J. Trump. Mr. Trump has consistently cast doubt that the Russian government had anything to do with the hacking of the D.N.C. or other political institutions, saying American intelligence agencies could not be trusted and suggesting that the hacking could have been the work of a "400-pound guy" lying in his bed.

Mr. Trump will now have to decide whether to lift the sanctions on the Russian intelligence agencies when he takes office next month, with Republicans in Congress among those calling for a public investigation into Russia's actions. Should Mr. Trump do so, it would require him to effectively reject the findings of his intelligence agencies.
The PTB are trying to generate as many facts on the ground - i.e., put down as many obstacles to peace with Russia - as possible before Trump gets in. It's rather sad and pathetic how desperate the elites are to make sure the US and Russia remain in a perpetual state of war, whether hot or cold.

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Arrow Down

Why the West is helping ISIS spread hysteria post-Berlin attack

Tony Cartalucci
New Eastern Outlook
Thu, 29 Dec 2016 20:24 UTC
German Truck Bomb
© New Eastern Outlook
The Washington Post - among others - hit the ground running in the wake of an apparent terrorist attack in Germany's capital of Berlin before evidence was forthcoming and even before German police arrested a suspect.

A truck plowed into a crowded Christmas market, killing 12 and injuring many more in what resembled an attack in Nice, France where a truck likewise plowed into a crowd killing 86 and injuring hundreds more.

Spreading ISIS Propaganda

The Washington Post's article and others like it followed the self-proclaimed "Islamic State" (ISIS) allegedly taking credit for the incident. Undeterred by a lack of evidence, the Washington Post and other media outlets - eager to capitalize on the attack to further Western narratives - concluded that the attack was aimed at "sharpening the divide between Muslims and everyone else."

The Washington Post's article, "Truck attack may be part of ISIS strategy to sharpen divide between Muslims and others," would claim:
The claim on the official Amaq media channel was short and distressingly familiar: A "soldier of the Islamic State" was behind yet another attack on civilians in Europe, this time at a festive Christmas market in Berlin.

The accuracy of the claim remained in question Tuesday as German authorities searched for both a suspect and a motive behind the deadly truck assault on holiday revelers. But already it appeared that the attack had achieved one of the Islamic State's stated objectives: spreading fear and chaos in a Western country in hopes of sharpening the divide between Muslims and everyone else.
The Washington Post's "analysis" fails to explain why ISIS would target a nation so far playing only a minor role in anti-ISIS operations or the logic in provoking a wider divide between Muslims and the West. At one point, the Washington Post actually suggests ISIS may be trying to hinder the flow of refugees away from their territory toward nations like Germany with open-door policies welcoming them.

In reality, the Washington Post and the "experts" it interviewed are merely attempting to perpetuate the myth of what ISIS is and what its supposed objectives and motivations are.

Understanding what ISIS really is, and what it is truly being used for, goes far in explaining why the incident has been so eagerly promoted as a "terrorist attack," and why other incidents like it are likely to follow.
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Stock Up

Ruble hits 17-month high to Russians' delight and Kremlin's chagrin


RT
Thu, 29 Dec 2016 20:28 UTC
People skate at an ice rink in Moscow's Red Square
© Sergei Karpukhin / ReutersPeople skate at an ice rink on its first day of operation in front of GUM department store in Moscow's Red Square.
The Russian currency has strengthened to its highest level since July last year. While this is probably good news for people, it makes it more challenging for the government to balance the budget.

The ruble rose to 60.12 against the dollar and 62.70 against the euro. Since the beginning of the year the currency, mockingly called 'wooden' by Russians, has been one of the world's strongest-performing, up 17 percent against the greenback.

The trend is not all good news for the economy, as it hurts Russian manufacturers and exporters, warns Finance Minister Anton Siluanov.

"For our industry, which has already got used to the rate of 65 rubles for a dollar, further strengthening will lead to a decline in competitiveness. I think that further currency fluctuations, even if the ruble grows, is not good," he told Rossiya-24 TV channel.
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Blackbox

Why did Obama wait 8 years to take on Netanyahu?

Philip Weiss
Mondoweiss
Thu, 29 Dec 2016 20:00 UTC
Netanyahu and Obama
© Reuters
Yesterday was one of the most dispiriting days in the history of U.S. foreign policy. In a long valedictory speech, secretary of state John Kerry told Americans what was preventing peace in the Middle East: unending Jewish settlements in the fragment of historic Palestine that Palestinians accepted as theirs. The speech was more blunt than any earlier pronouncement from this administration about the end of the dream of a Palestinian state; afterward people praised Kerry's passion and personal engagement, and a leading editor said he should receive the Nobel Prize.

The speech was tragic for a simple reason. Everything Kerry said was known to him and President Obama eight years ago. The speech repeated warnings that President George H.W. Bush and his secretary of state made to the Israelis 25 years ago, when the illegal Jewish settlement project was a mere stripling of 25. And though the UN Security Council resolution of last week condemning settlements is a victory for Palestinians, and may well precipitate a crisis inside Israeli politics, it is not as if Obama succeeded in his 8-year quest to make a Palestinian state. No, he and Kerry failed.
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Map

There will be no partition of Syria

Sharmine Narwani
RT
Thu, 29 Dec 2016 19:37 UTC
Syrians celebrating
© Omar Sanadiki / Reuters
East Aleppo is liberated, and regime-change has lost its luster. It's no surprise Syria's foes are ready to promote the next big goal: partition. Like most Syrian conflict predictions, of which few have materialized, the 'partition' of Syria is not going to happen.

In February, when East Aleppo was still bulging with Western-trained, Al Qaeda-allied militants, Syrian President Bashar Assad was asked the question: "Do you think that you can regain control over all Syrian territory?"

Well, yes, said Assad: "This is a goal we are seeking to achieve without any hesitation. It makes no sense for us to say that we will give up any part."

Western politicians were having none of that.
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