Puppet MastersS


Chess

The political prospects for China's 'Great Silk Road' revival

Vladimir Terehov
New Eastern Outlook
Tue, 02 May 2017 00:00 UTC
China new silk road, One belt one road
April 18 of this year, the Chinese Foreign Ministry published a list of 28 leaders of states, whom the head of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping has invited to participate in the forum on the implementation of his own initiative to revive the 'Great Silk Road' (GSR), which will be held May 14-15 in Beijing.

In addition to them, about 200 official representatives from more than 100 countries of the world, the UN Secretary General, the heads of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are invited to the event. In total, 1,200 people are included in the list of forum participants.

On the same day, at a briefing on this occasion, Foreign Minister Wang Yi made a speech. Both the list of invited state leaders and the related appearance of a high-ranking Chinese official allow us some preliminary thoughts on the forthcoming forum.

First, attention is drawn to its scale, as well as the caliber of the participants and guests. That once again and most clearly illustrates the key feature of the new geopolitical game, caused by the occupation of the PRC of one of the privileged places at the global gaming table.

Secondly, Beijing's claims designated a few months ago in Davos to "pick up" the banner of economic globalization, which, it seems, is falling out of the hands of the former "standard-bearer", that is, Washington, are confirmed.

Comment: China's 'One Belt One Road' is a New Geopolitical Paradigm

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Arrow Up

Nigel Farage pledges full support to Le Pen


RT
Thu, 04 May 2017 11:49 UTC
Farage Le Pen
© ReutersEx-UKIP leader Nigel Farage and French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen.
Ex-UKIP leader Nigel Farage has come out in full support of far-right French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen. In a column for the Telegraph, Farage said he would welcome Le Pen as the new president, despite his long-standing concerns about the Front National (FN), of which she was leader before deciding to run as an independent. Farage said he would welcome the independent candidate, who is competing against Emmanuel Macron, leader of the centrist political party En March!

The Brexiteer, who currently hosts a radio show on LBC, said he would welcome her especially in light of her clear willingness to seal a trade deal with a post-Brexit UK. "From a UK perspective, as we enter tough negotiations, what is best for our country?" Farage asked.

He said Macron, on the other hand, is a mere "cardboard cut-out creation of the political class." "I have no doubt that a Le Pen victory would give the EU an even bigger headache than the UK voting for Brexit, which is why the European Commission is openly backing Macron. "Her victory would take much of the pressure off our negotiations. She will put France first and take her country out of the euro, which has damaged their competitiveness."

Comment: The UK and France will be better off relation-wise with a Le Pen victory.

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Gold Seal

Seeing the light: Belgian MP slams sanctions after seeing 'Russia feeding the hungry' in Aleppo


Sputnik
Thu, 04 May 2017 20:18 UTC
evacuated Syrians receiving aid
© REUTERS/ Omar Sanadik
Belgian lawmakers visited on Monday the Jibreen refugee camp in the Syrian Aleppo and hailed the humanitarian assistance provided by Russia there, Frank Creyelman of the the right-wing Vlaams Belang party said.

"I expected to see Aleppo in ruins, and that there is not a single survivor here. This is according to our media. Instead, I can see how Russia does the work which should be done by the European countries, for example, feeding the hungry children," Creyelman said.

He added that the anti-Russia sanctions must be lifted as Moscow providing help in the country should not suffer itself.

"We need to lift the sanctions, not only against the Syrian government, but also against Russia. Because your country, which has been providing humanitarian aid here, suffers from the European sanctions itself," the lawmaker said.
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Bad Guys

ISIL executes more of its own members in Deir Ezzur on treason charges as tensions rise among terrorist groups


FARS News Agency
Wed, 03 May 2017 20:11 UTC
ISIL member
Local sources confirmed on Wednesday that the ISIL terrorist group has executed 10 of its own militants on charges of carrying out anti-ISIL activities in Southeastern Deir Ezzur.

The sources said that the ISIL fire squad gunned down 10 of its own fighters in the town of al-Mayadeen on charges of treason.

Local sources reported on Tuesday that a large number of civilians took to the streets in a town near Deir Ezzur Province's border with Iraq, and clashed with the ISIL terrorists.

The sources said that a large number of people in the town of Albu Kamal along the Euphrates River attacked one of the checkpoints of ISIL Hasaba (security-monitoring) forces, setting fire at two of their vehicles.

The sources added that the ISIL started arresting people following the clashes.
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Arrow Up

US contingency of 200 soldiers and military advisors arrive at Syria-Iraq borders


FARS News Agency
Wed, 03 May 2017 05:15 UTC
US soldiers
© bbc.com
200 US soldiers and military advisors along with their equipment arrived in Simalka cross border between the Iraqi Kurdistan region and Northeastern Syria. According to al-Mayadeen, the US forces were equipped with different weapons, ammunition, military vehicles and personnel carriers.

The US claims that its forces are missioned with supporting the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Media sources disclosed in March that the US Army has deployed more forces and military equipment in the countryside of the town of Manbij in Northeastern Aleppo.

The Arabic desk of Sky News reported that Washington has deployed 200 fresh soldiers in al-Asaliyeh village North of Manbij town, adding that the total number of the US soldiers deployed in Manbij now stands at 700.

Other media activists reported that almost 40 military and armored vehicles of the US army have arrived near Manbij.
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Rocket

Could North Korea be the diversion for US-Jordan invasion of Syria?

Mike Whitney
CounterPunch
Wed, 03 May 2017 00:00 UTC
Guns and USFlag
© National VanguardOn to North Korea...(Pssst: Syria-Jordan).
"Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad said that his country has information that Jordan is planning to send its troops into southern Syria in cooperation with the United States....'Jordan is not an independent country. Whatever the United States wants, it will happen,' said Assad." — Middle East Monitor
"In the event of a de-facto partition of Syria, the US and its allies will get a strategically important region. It is through Deir Ezzor that the proposed gas pipeline from Qatar is supposed to run....The Deir Ezzor province is also home to Syria's largest oil deposit, the Al-Omar. ...the city and the province are of particular value since the deposits there contain the highly valuable light sweet crude usable in the production of gasoline and diesel fuel." — South Front
The United States is not going to launch a preemptive attack on North Korea. The risks far outweigh the rewards and, besides, the US has no intention of getting bogged down in a conflict that doesn't advance its geopolitical objectives. The saber-rattling is just an attempt to divert attention from the Syria-Jordan border where the US and Jordan are massing troops and equipment for an invasion of Syria. That's what's really going on. The Korean fiasco is a smokescreen.

True, the Trump administration is milking the situation for all its worth, but that doesn't mean that they want a war with the North. That's not it at all. Washington wants to deploy its controversial THAAD anti-missile system to South Korea, but it needs a pretext to do so. Hence, the ominous threat of an "unstable, nuclear-armed North Korea", that's all the justification Washington needed to get its new weapons system deployed. Mission Accomplished.

Comment: The old bait and switch...well, sort of...or more of a "look there not here." This works best if no one suspects the alternative priority. But we do. A calculation of how much energy is being put into looking the other way indicates a major operation needing lead time before countering home and global opposition to the plan.

See also:

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Cell Phone

Another mole surfacing? FBI's court filing reveals grand jury targeted Killary's Blackberry emails

Tom Fitton
Breitbart
Tue, 02 May 2017 00:00 UTC
Hillary C
© Consortium NewsMole whacker Killary Clinton
Just when you think we have learned most of what there is to learn about Hillary Clinton's emails, a new mole pops up out of the hole.

Last week, Judicial Watch released State Department documents including a declaration from FBI Special Agent E.W. Priestap, the supervisor of the agency's investigation into Hillary Clinton's email activities, stating that the former secretary of state was the subject of a grand jury investigation related to her BlackBerry email accounts.

The declaration was produced in response to Judicial Watch's lawsuit seeking to force Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to take steps to "recover emails of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton" and other U.S. Department of State employees (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. Rex Tillerson (No. 1:15-cv-00785)). We originally filed the lawsuit against then-Secretary of State John Kerry. The Trump State Department filing includes details of the agency's continuing and shameful refusal to refer the Clinton email issue to the Justice Department, as the law requires.

In the filing, Priestap declares under penalty of perjury that the FBI "obtained Grand Jury subpoenas related to the Blackberry e-mail accounts, which produced no responsive materials, as the requested data was outside the retention time utilized by those providers."

Comment: Can this woman remain untouchable indefinitely? What is her leverage?

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Snakes in Suits

Violence in Venezuela fueled by foreign governments and biased coverage


RT
Thu, 04 May 2017 05:26 UTC
Venezuela crowd
© Christian Veron / ReutersPolice fire water cannon after being pelted with smoke bombs.
The portrayal of the anti-government protests in Venezuela by some media and foreign powers as a all-out civil war not only distorts reality but also hinders attempts to reconcile with the opposition, Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez told RT Spanish.

At the emergency meeting of Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), called by Venezuela and held in San Salvador on May 2, representatives of 26 countries looked into the unravelling economic and political crisis in Venezuela. While no statement was issued in its aftermath, as seven countries of the 33-member bloc were not in attendance, Rodriguez described it as a "historic meeting" at which "the truth of Venezuela reached the background of Latin America and the Caribbean."

In an interview to RT Spanish before the meeting, the minister argued that media and foreign governments have been intentionally blowing the situation with an ongoing standoff between the government in Caracas and opposition out of proportion.

Comment: Violence 'by the numbers'...reminiscent of past uprisings triggered and fueled by behind-the-scenes regime change, documented and distorted by puppet media. Standard Western protocol...again?

More from RT (May 3, 2017):
Opposition supporters gathered on Wednesday to protest President Nicolas Maduro's decision to call a Constituent Assembly, which they claim is a loophole to avoid elections and stay in power.

"This constituent assembly seeks to impose a Cuban electoral model," said opposition lawmaker Jorge Millan, according to Reuters. "We Venezuelans are not going to allow fraud," he added.

Maduro on his part maintains that the Constituent Assembly is an attempt to find a way out of the political turmoil sweeping the country.

"I convoke the original constituent power to achieve the peace needed by the Republic, defeat the fascist coup, and let the sovereign people impose peace, harmony and true national dialogue," the leader said in a televised address on Monday, May 1, the holiday celebrated around the world as International Workers' Day.

The Constituent Assembly is expected to be a 500-member body, comprised largely of ordinary people, and designed to guide Venezuela out of the crisis and put an end to the ongoing violence. In mid-April, Maduro blamed the United States for "financing and leading all the violent acts" in Venezuela, AP reported. The US government supports "neo-Nazi groups" who stand behind the violence, the president said.


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Stop

Putin tells Merkel Ukraine's Minsk peace process all but dead

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Wed, 03 May 2017 00:00 UTC
Merk and Put
© DawnThe story is written on her face.
Russian President Vladimir Putin used his press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to make some of his harshest comments for some time about the situation in Ukraine, and to pronounce the Minsk process which is supposed to lead to a Ukrainian peace settlement all but dead. He also came close to blaming Merkel for its failure.

In doing so President Putin, whilst continuing to give lip-service to the Minsk Agreement, all but admitted that the chance of it ever being implemented has gone
"I am absolutely convinced that the current Kiev authorities quite possibly missed the chance to implement the Minsk Agreements at a moment when they had significant domestic political opportunities. Now there are fewer - the opportunities at the highest levels of government are much more limited now due to a whole range of circumstances, including the economic and domestic political situation."
Note Putin's use in this paragraph of the expression "current Kiev authorities" to refer to the present Ukrainian government. This expression not only calls into question the Ukrainian government's legitimacy. It also casts doubt on whether it will be in power for very long. As it happens at no point in the entire press conference did Putin use the expression "Ukrainian government" or refer to President Poroshenko whether by name or by the title of "President of Ukraine".

Comment: The future of Ukraine does not look particularly good at this point in time and there are more than enough reasons to expect further disintegration and upheaval. If the West comes to its rescue, it will likely make the process more muddled and prolonged. A failed policy, no matter how much energy is put into it, remains a failed policy.

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Attention

US troops could remain in Iraq after ISIS is defeated


RT
Thu, 04 May 2017 18:43 UTC
U.S. soldiers
© Stephen Kalin / Reuters
US President Donald Trump and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi are discussing keeping American troops in the country even after Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) is defeated, according to officials from Washington and Baghdad.

The officials told AP, however, that discussions were ongoing and that nothing had been finalized.

The talks involve US Defense Secretary James Mattis and Iraqi officials discussing "what the long-term US presence would look like," according to the Military Times.

AP reported that officials said there is an "understanding on both sides that it would be in the long-term interest of each to have the continued presence [of US troops].... both understand it would be mutually beneficial."
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