Puppet MastersS


Rocket

Experts suspect of Iran-North Korea military cooperation

Lucas Tomlinson / Jennifer Griffin
Fox News
Fri, 05 May 2017 19:54 UTC
N.Korea missiles
© Sputnik / Illiya Pitalev
When Iran attempted to launch a cruise missile from a "midget" submarine earlier this week, Pentagon officials saw more evidence of North Korean influence in the Islamic Republic - with intelligence reports saying the submarine was based on a Pyongyang design, the same type that sank a South Korean warship in 2010.

According to U.S. defense officials, Iran was attempting to launch a Jask-2 cruise missile underwater for the first time, but the launch failed. Nonproliferation experts have long suspected North Korea and Iran are sharing expertise when it comes to their rogue missile programs.

"The very first missiles we saw in Iran were simply copies of North Korean missiles," said Jeffrey Lewis, a missile proliferation expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. "Over the years, we've seen photographs of North Korean and Iranian officials in each other's countries, and we've seen all kinds of common hardware."

When Iran tested a ballistic missile in late January, the Pentagon said it was based on a North Korean design. Last summer, Iran conducted another missile launch similar to a North Korean Musudan, the most advanced missile Pyongyang has successful tested to date.
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Attention

Best of the Web: These five countries have historically been the aggressor - NOT Russia

Adam Garrie
The Duran
Fri, 05 May 2017 17:59 UTC
US A-bomb nuclear explosion
Here are some crimes against humanity committed by the 'civilized west'.

Angela Merkel's recent visit to Russia where the German Chancellor met with President Putin and attempted to lecture Russia, is emblematic of the hypocrisy of historically aggressive nations lecturing a Russian state whose many wars have been limited to defending itself against invasions.

Russian territory of course expanded over the centuries, but Russia never had the overseas and outwardly aggressive empires of the following countries.

Furthermore, Russia never committed the crimes against humanity that the following five nations did.
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Butterfly

Cindy Sheehan interview with Eva Bartlett: Myth-busting lies about Syria

Eva Bartlett
In Gaza
Thu, 27 Apr 2017 19:58 UTC
Eva Bartlett
© Eva Bartlett
U.S. Empire myth-busting in Syria with Eva Bartlett.

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Snakes in Suits

Tillerson warns ASEAN nations should crack down on N. Korean nuclear aspirations


RT
Fri, 05 May 2017 17:39 UTC
N. Korea military drill
© ReutersA military drill marking the 85th anniversary of the establishment of the Korean People's Army (KPA).
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has pressed Southeast Asian states to prevent North Korea's embassies from pursuing alleged commercial activities that go beyond "diplomatic needs" and may aid its "nuclear aspirations."

Seeking to enforce sanctions against North Korea, Tillerson urged foreign ministers of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to curb diplomatic ties with Pyongyang "so that North Korea does not gain benefit from its diplomatic channels for its nuclear and missile aspirations," senior State Department official Patrick Murphy said on Thursday, as cited by AP.


Comment: So diplomacy is out the window?!

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Laptop

The Weiner laptop: If Huma forwarded classified info, yes, she committed a crime

Matt Vespa
Townhall
Thu, 04 May 2017 17:25 UTC
blumenthal
Well, FBI Director James Comey revealed an interesting during his testimony yesterday on the Hill when he said that top Clinton aide Huma Abedin was forwarding emails with classified information to the laptop belonging to her husband, Anthony Weiner. This was detailed in Comey's answer as to why he decided to inform Congress so close to Election Day that they had found more emails that turned out to be on that laptop that may be pertinent to the Clinton email probe. Weiner and Abedin shared the device as well (via WaPo) [emphasis mine]:
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Info

The future of Islam in Western Europe? Look to Russia

The Saker
The Saker
Fri, 05 May 2017 16:49 UTC
cathedral mosque moscow
Thousands of Muslims pray at the recently renovated and expanded Cathedral Mosque in Moscow. Can you imagine this scene ever taking place in Washington, DC?
With the upcoming French Presidential election in France the topic of Islam in Europe has again become central to the political discourse. This is nothing new: we also saw that in the UK, in Holland, in Austria and even in Switzerland, where the Muslim communities were banned - by popular referendum - from building minarets (even though only four minarets existed in Switzerland before that referendum). Tensions between Muslims and non-Muslims are clearly on the rise, not only due to some more or less racist or anti-immigrant feelings in the general population, but also due to the often appalling behavior of some refugees from Muslim countries (assaults, rapes, hooliganism) and even some Muslim communities in Europe (advocacy for terrorism, attempts to impose Sharia law). Before the situation gets better (assuming it ever will), it will most likely get worse, much worse.

So what are the options here?

First, let's agree with Otto von Bismark's wise words that "politics is the art of the possible". Those Europeans who think that they will simply expel all Muslims from Europe or somehow manage to eliminate Islam from Europe are deluded. Likewise, those (rather few) Muslims who want to create some kind of Caliphate in Europe are no less deluded. In fact, all those who offer simple, straightforward "solutions" to the current crisis would be well advised to study some Hegelian dialectics to understand that the outcome of this crisis will not be the return to a status quo ante or the creation of an absolutely new reality.

Comment: Joe Quinn's take on the same topic: The Muzzies Are Coming! Adopt a Refugee!

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Radar

Savchenko's radical idea: We will blackmail the US by siding with Russia

Politnavigator - translated by Inessa Sinchougova
Fort Russ News
Fri, 05 May 2017 16:47 UTC
Trump, Putin, and Savchenko
Ukraine should start to blackmail the United States - if Washington is to reduce aid to Kiev, as is anticipated in 2018 by almost 70%. The blackmail can be carried out by siding with Russia, says ex- military pilot turned politician, Nadejda Savchenko. This was said on the TV channel of the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament)

The US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has recently stated that the American taxpayer should not be interested in what is happening in Ukraine.

"If you are not interested in what is happening in Ukraine, then we will strengthen Russia, and it will become a powerful enemy against you. These are the elements of political blackmail. It twists and turns - if you do not want to support us, we will support your enemy, and we will be friends with your enemy against you" - said Savchenko.

Comment: Would anyone in Kiev listen to this? Ukraine needs Russia more than the US or the EU.

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Snakes in Suits

Zimbabwe president Mugabe: 'We're not fragile like US, which went on its knees to China'


RT
Fri, 05 May 2017 16:30 UTC
Robert Mugabe
© Rogan Ward / Reuters
Robert Mugabe, the 93-year-old leader of Zimbabwe who is seeking reelection next year, has rejected the view that his country is in economic turmoil. Mugabe instead claims Zimbabwe is the second most developed nation in Africa, while calling the US "fragile."

"Zimbabwe is not a fragile state, it is one of the most highly developed countries, second after South Africa," he said at the World Economic Forum for Africa.

"You cannot even talk about us as a 'fragile state' from an economic point of view."

"I can call America fragile, they went on their knees to China," he added.


Comment: Mugabe isn't the only Zimbabwean criticizing US: 'Go hang on a banana tree': Zimbabwe official tells US embassy to buzz off over human rights concerns

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Attention

Turkey: US State Department exposes fraudulent diversion of humanitarian aid


Sputnik
Fri, 05 May 2017 00:04 UTC
humanitarian aid
© Anadolu AgencyFILE PHOTO: Humanitarian aid
A US State Department probe exposed abuses in the handling of humanitarian aid between Turkish vendors and procurement staff from four non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in southeastern Turkey, Lead Inspector General for Overseas Contingency Operations said in a report to US Congress.

"An investigation into bid rigging, collusion, bribery, and kickbacks between Turkish vendors and procurement staff from four NGOs in southeastern Turkey [was conducted]," the report, which covers the period from April to June 2016, stated on Thursday.

The probe exposed Turkish vendors working with NGO contractors to divert cross-border humanitarian assistance to Syria's internally displaced population, the Inspector General added.

"Program suspensions, debarment or suspension of vendors and individuals, and employee terminations had a great impact on the Syria assistance program," the Inspector General said. "[These resulted] in partial program suspensions associated with awards valued at over $305 million."

Some 6.5 million people, including 2.8 million children, are internally displaced in Syria, according to a report published by the United Nations Refugee Agency. Syria is home to the largest displaced population in the world.

Comment: Likely this didn't begin just last week, last month or last year. Someone is benefitting and it isn't the Syrians.

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Cross

Trump signs order to allow political speech in church, lawsuit threatened


RT
Thu, 04 May 2017 20:21 UTC
Trump and nun
© APTNPresident Donald Trump shakes hands with a nun of the Little Sisters of The Poor during a National Day of Prayer event at the Rose Garden of the White House.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on the National Day of Prayer, seeking to circumvent a decades-old law prohibiting political speech in places of worship and build on contraception coverage exemptions. Civil rights groups promised to sue.

The executive order will "prevent the Johnson Amendment from interfering with your First Amendment rights" and "directs the IRS not to unfairly target churches and religious organizations for political speech. No one should be censoring sermons or targeting pastors," Trump said to a standing ovation. It also directs the Department of Justice "to develop new rules to ensure these religious protections are afforded to all Americans."

"Our founding fathers believed that religious liberty was so fundamental that they enshrined it in the very first amendment of our great and beloved Constitution," Trump said. "Yet for too long, the federal government has used the power of the state as a weapon against people of faith, bullying and even punishing Americans for following their religious beliefs. That's been happening. No American should be forced to choose between the dictates of the federal government and the tenets of their faith," Trump said.


Comment: There will likely always be someone or some group that feels pinched where liberties and rights are concerned. Whether this executive order makes it to the finish line and is enacted, or whether it is shot down by the congress or in a court of law, there is still the desire by this president to recalibrate the interpretation to enforce, clarify or broaden the rights of the people, especially involving the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Having said that, every action has two or more arguable sides, and that will be the debate going forward.

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