Puppet MastersS


Snakes in Suits

Russia threatened to use tactical nukes? US commission produces wildest claims in push for military buildup

Tests of the Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile
© Federal State Unitary Enterprise / SputnikTests of the Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile.
The Helsinki Commission has gotten creative on the notorious "Russian threat," pinning the blame for the death of an OSCE observer in Ukraine on Moscow and claiming it threatened to use "tactical nuclear weapons" - all while calling for more arms and troops on the Russian border.

Members of the US government commission, officially known as the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), on Wednesday sat down in Washington, DC for a hearing aptly named "The Growing Russian Military Threat in Europe: Assessing and Addressing the Challenge."

The hearing focused around claims that Moscow "flagrantly violated commitments enshrined in the Helsinki Final Act relating to refraining from the threat or use of force against other states; refraining from violating other states' sovereignty, territorial integrity, or political independence; and respecting the right of every state to choose its own security alliances."

Yoda

Putin: Russia and China compared to the West is like stability and purpose versus conflict and chaos

putin xi
Russian President Putin is back in Russia after a lengthy and important visit to China which has received almost no reporting in the Western media.

Putin's trips to China - and Chinese President Xi Jinping's visits to Russia - have now become such regular events, and have become so routine, that they are now almost invisible.

As it happens Putin's latest visit to China, which not only involved detailed discussions with China's leaders on bilateral questions, but which was first and foremost undertaken in response to an invitation from China's leaders to Russia to participate in China's grandiose One Belt, One Road international forum, was highly important.

China's One Belt, One Road initiative is ultimately intended to link together the two parts of Eurasia into a single gigantic economic and transport bloc. The Chinese and the Russians are working on marrying it with Russia's Eurasian Economic Union into a single system of political and economic institutions as part of the 'Greater Eurasia Project'. Putin's visit to Beijing was undertaken as part of the detailed work of negotiating the various aspects of the project.

Blackbox

Was Russian ambassador Karlov killed because of his North Korean connections?

kárlov
Andrei Karlov was the Russian ambassador to Turkey. He was assassinated by the Turkish off-duty police officer Mevlut Mert Altintas on December 19, 2016 while opening a photograph exhibition in Turkey's capital Ankara.[1] Altintas was later killed in the exchange of fire with the Turkish police.

The Russian president Vladimir Putin called the assassination "an assault on Russia and Russian-Turkish relations ... [possibly] by destructive elements ... who found their way into social structures, including the law enforcement and the army." At the same time, Putin expressed his belief that it would not damage the Russian-Turkish ties because "we realize [their] importance and will make every effort to deepen them."[2]

The similar sentiment was expressed by Putin's Turkish counterpart, the president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who stated that "this is a provocation aimed at destroying the process of the normalization of relations between Turkey and Russia."[3]

And, indeed, there was no downturn in the relations between the two countries after the tragic incident. Turkey immediately made several symbolic steps to honor the memory of the murdered diplomat by, for instance, naming after him the Ankara street where the Russian embassy is located and the modern art center where he was killed. The Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stated at the time that Karlov's death was "a sad loss for both Turkey and Russia" and that he "felt joy" that the street naming initiative was speedily "implemented."[4]

Map

Peace in Syria: The West's greatest fear

Syrian flag
Syria's successes in ceasefire/amnesty agreements is a greater threat to the West's plans for regime change than military conquests, but which would the UN prefer?

Many people have noted how successes by the Syrian government in its war on foreign-backed terrorists are often followed by 'propaganda sabotage', ranging from claims like the latest one of a Syrian 'prisoner crematorium' to the actual staging of deal-breaking atrocities blamed on President Assad and his 'loyal forces'. Governments who are most closely supporting the terrorist armies and their official looking political representatives in Geneva, notably those of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, have been at the front line of this propaganda war, but increasingly they are now echoed by all the Western 'allies', media, NGOs and the UN.

Bullseye

Cyber attacks will usher in the 'great economic reset'

cyber grenade
The world has been stunned over the past few days by the advent of "Ransomware;" the use of sophisticated cyber attacks on vital systems in order to (supposedly) extort capital from target businesses and institutions. I am always highly suspicious whenever a large scale cyber incident occurs, primarily because the manner in which these events are explained to the public does not begin to cover certain important realities. For example, the mainstream media rarely if ever discusses the fact that many digital systems are deliberately designed to be vulnerable.

Software and internet corporate monoliths have long been cooperating with the NSA through programs like PRISM to provide government agencies backdoor access to computer systems worldwide. Edward Snowden vindicated numerous "conspiracy theorists" in 2013 with his comprehensive data dumps, exposing collusion between corporations and the NSA including Microsoft, Skype, Apple, Google, Facebook and Yahoo. And make no mistake, nothing has changed since then.

The level of collusion between major software developers and the establishment might be shocking to some, but it was rather well known to alternative analysts and researchers. The use of legislation like the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to skirt Constitutional protections within the 4th Amendment has been open policy for quite some time. It only made sense that government agencies and their corporate partners would use it as a rationale to develop vast protocols for invading people's privacy, including American citizens.

Jet2

US coalition jets strike Syrian government convoy in Southern Syria

US Special Forces
© Provided to BuzzFeed News
With most expecting Trump to strike North Korea as part of his next foreign military adventure-cum-distraction from the chaos in D.C., the president once again surprised everyone by pulling a lighting bolt, striking twice in one month in the same place.

According to Reuters coalition jets have struck an Assad convoy in Southern Syria; near Tanf where US and British special operations forces have been training Syrian rebel fighters near the border with Iraq and Jordan. A US-led coalition spokesperson has confirmed that coalition strikes in southern Syria struck Syrian government militia "after it moved against US-backed forces in Syria."

Reuters cited a US official as saying that the strikes occurred after "warning shots by U.S. aircraft meant to disuade the [Syrian army's] fighters."

It is unclear yet whether the strikes have killed any Syrian soldiers or pro-government militia fighters as there has been no official comment from Damascus so far. The Pentagon has released no official statement as well.

Document

Mike Flynn refuses to honor Senate subpoena for documents

Mike Flynn
Just a few short days after receiving a subpoena from the Senate Intelligence Committee, requesting documents relevant to the Committee's investigation into Russian interference with the 2016 election, AP reports that Senator Burr, the top Republican on the committee, says that Michael Flynn's lawyers say he will not honor subpoena.

Last week, in a joint statement from Committee chair Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and ranking member Mark Warner (D-Va.) the committee disclosed that it had first requested the documents in an April 28 letter to Flynn, but he "declined" to cooperate with the request.
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence today issued a subpoena for former National Security Advisor Lieutenant General Michael Flynn. The subpoena requests documents relevant to the Committee's investigation into Russian interference with the 2016 election. The Committee first requested these documents in an April 28, 2017 letter to Lieutenant General Flynn, but he declined, through counsel, to cooperate with the Committee's request.
CNN also reported that the FBI had also issued subpoenas relating to Flynn's business records, so the ousted National Security Adviser is now at the center of both investigations, although as disclosed, he did not comply with the committee's earlier request.

And today we get confirmation from Senator Burr, via AP, that Michael Flynn's lawyers say he will not honor subpoena.

Info

US conducts drill aimed at destroying N. Korean weapons of mass destruction

Devil Brigade 1st Armored Brigade Combat team
© Devil Brigade 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team / Flickr
American soldiers stationed in South Korea have completed the 'Warrior Strike 7' exercise, which includes a ship-to-shore air assault from a South Korean warship, according to the US Army.

The exercise took place at Camp Stanley in Euijeongbu, South Korea, and the Rodriguez Live Fire Complex near the border with North Korea, according to a Tuesday Facebook post by the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division.

The post also stated that the drill involved ship-to-shore air assault from the South Korean naval vessel Dokdo.

Megaphone

Here we go again: State Department's latest holocaust claims against Assad based on old, debunked propaganda

USA propaganda
As the propaganda coming from Washington regresses to an even more infantile level each year, so does the danger of that propaganda being used to justify a greater American military involvement in the Syrian crisis which Washington itself created. Always ready to invoke the memories of Adolf Hitler, Nazis, and the Holocaust at every opportunity, the U.S. State Department is now claiming that not only is Bashar al-Assad controlling massive prisons where mostly innocent civilians are starved and tortured, but that he is operating crematoriums where the bodies of victims are destroyed, thus cheating the moral West out of having any actual evidence of Assad's "crimes against humanity."

This new round of propaganda is based upon the debunked Amnesty International report released in February, 2017, entitled "Human Slaughterhouse: Mass Hangings And Extermination At Sednaya Prison, Syria." The report contained great writing but it was totally devoid of actual evidence. In fact, the only evidence contained in those pages was satellite photos that showed a building that AM claimed was a prison. The photos thus showed the same thing that any American could have provided had they taken a picture of an American public school.

Still, the propaganda report was full of accounts gathered from "survivors" who themselves had been terrorist fighters or affiliated with terrorist groups and from other anti-Syrian pro-terrorist NGOs. This and the satellite photos were all they were able to produce. Now, however, the U.S. has more to add to the story - crematoriums. With Americans so seemingly impervious to subtlety, the Washington Post saw fit to point out the obvious - that the State Department briefing was "accusations of mass murder and incinerated bodies, evoking the Holocaust."

Comment: See also:


Target

Charles Shoebridge: 'South Koreans fear THAAD will make them more of a target'

A Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor (R) is seen in Seongju, South Korea
© Lee Jong-hyeon / Reuters A Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor (R) is seen in Seongju, South Korea
Suggestions the US could be asked to remove its THAAD missile system from South Korea may come as a shock to many that rushed it through thinking that once it is there, it would be accepted, explains security analyst Charles Shoebridge.

South Korea may send a recently installed and controversial missile defense system back to the US, "if it has not properly undergone domestic legal procedures," according to Woo Won-shik, the floor leader of the ruling Democratic Party.

The THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) system was deployed in the country last year as part of a deal agreed by the former US and South Korean leaders to counter the threat from Pyongyang.

But since South Korea's new president took office this month the device has become a major source of contention.

Things escalated when President Trump made a new call for Seoul to contribute $1 billion to the project.