Puppet MastersS


Blackbox

Did Al Qaeda fool the White House again?

Robert Parry
Consortium News
Fri, 14 Apr 2017 15:40 UTC
Donald Trump
© Flickr Gage Skidmore
In Official Washington, words rarely mean what they say. For instance, if a U.S. government official voices "high confidence" in a supposed "intelligence assessment," that usually means "we don't have any real evidence, but we figure that if we say 'high confidence' enough that no one will dare challenge us."

It's also true that after a U.S. President or another senior official jumps to a conclusion that is not supported by evidence, the ranks of government careerists will close around him or her, making any serious or objective investigation almost impossible. Plus, if the dubious allegations are directed at some "enemy" state, then the mainstream media also will suppress skepticism. Prestigious "news" outlets will run "fact checks" filled with words in capital letters: "MISLEADING"; "FALSE"; or maybe "FAKE NEWS."
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Jet5

US ex-commander Lippold: 'No talk after Syria strike would've been detrimental to US & Russia'


RT
Sun, 16 Apr 2017 12:43 UTC
us tomahawk missiles launch syria
© U.S. Navy / Reuters
RT spoke to Kirk Lippold, once the commanding officer of the USS Cole, who explained why the US-Russia meeting after the strikes in Syria was essential and what he thinks the aim of the latest steps by the Trump administration in the Middle East was.

Lippold, who commanded the USS Cole destroyer in 2000 when it was attacked by Al-Qaeda suicide bombers, spoke about the recent meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. The official was in fact very hopeful about how the meeting went and what the outcome could be.
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SOTT Logo Radio

SOTT Focus: The Truth Perspective: Interview with Gordon M. Hahn: Revolution, regime change and jihad


Sott.net
Sun, 16 Apr 2017 16:00 UTC
gordon hahn
The recent terror attack in St. Petersburg, Russia, is nothing new. Russia has been waging a war on Islamic terrorism for the last 20 years. What started as a homegrown Chechen separatist movement was quickly hijacked by elements of the so-called global Islamist jihad - veterans of the Afghan-Arab mujahedin and affiliates of al-Qaeda. While many commentators in the West were happy to write off the Chechen terrorists as "freedom fighters", Gordon Hahn was one of the first in the West to sound the alarm in his book Russia's Islamic Threat. His predictions came true when former "President of Ichkeria" Dokka Umarov founded the Caucasus Emirate in 2007, the subject of his next book, The Caucasus Emirate Mujahedin. After the creation of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, most of the CE's fighters defected to join the Islamic State's jihad, where many have met their fate.

Today on the Truth Perspective, we interview Dr. Hahn about his work on Russia's Islamic threat, as well as his research on regime change and revolution. We'll also discuss ideas from his first book, Russia's Revolution from Above: Reform, Transition, and Revolution in the Fall of the Soviet Communist Regime, and his upcoming book Ukraine Over the Edge: Russia, the West and the "New Cold War". You can read his work on his Russian and Eurasian Politics blog at Gordonhahn.com.

Running Time: 01:38:25

Download: MP3


Here's the transcript of the show:
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Chess

Election interference! German president warns French against Le Pen, fears Frexit


RT
Sun, 16 Apr 2017 11:08 UTC
woman in front of Marine Le Pen election poster
© Emmanuel Foudrot / Reuters
The German President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, has urged the French electorate to be responsible and not to vote for the "populist and nationalist" candidate in the upcoming presidential election out of fears that Marine Le Pen will stage Frexit, shattering one of the pillars of EU stability.

"Don't listen to the siren songs of those who promise you a great French future after getting rid of all that is part of France today — guaranteeing European stability and being a pillar of the European Union," Steinmeier told French newspaper Ouest-France and Germany's Funke Mediengruppe in response to a question about the possibility of Le Pen securing the election.

Comment: Perhaps French voters don't want to end up like the PIIGS in the EU, since that hasn't turned out so well for them.

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Binoculars

Rachel Maddow sees a "Russia Connection" lurking around every corner

Aaron Maté
The Intercept
Wed, 12 Apr 2017 15:28 UTC
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow
One day after her network joined the rest of corporate media in cheering for President Trump's missile attack on Syria, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow was back to regular business: seeing Russian collaboration with Trump at work.

It's "impossible," fellow anchor Lawrence O'Donnell told Maddow on April 7, to rule out that "Vladimir Putin orchestrated what happened in Syria this week - so that his friend in the White House could have a big night with missiles and all of the praise he's picked up over the past 24 hours."

Maddow concurred, suggesting that only the FBI's ongoing probe into Trump's alleged collusion with Russian electoral interference will determine the truth. "Maybe eventually we'll get an answer to that from [FBI Director] Jim Comey," Maddow said.
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Bullseye

China slams Trump on North Korea

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Sun, 16 Apr 2017 14:49 UTC
kim n.korea nuclear test
China says Donald Trump's threats against North Korea are more likely to encourage its nuclear program than deter it.

President Trump's hopes that by ramping up talk of war with North Korea he might force China to ramp up pressure on that country has suffered a blow today in the form of a strongly critical editorial of his whole foreign policy stance in the Chinese English language daily the Global Times.

As I have pointed out on numerous occasions, though the Global Times is nominally an independent newspaper, in reality it was launched under the auspices of the People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Central Committee of Communist Party of China. Global Times therefore closely reflects the actual thinking of China's government. However because it is one step away from the Chinese leadership, Global Times is able to express the Chinese's leadership's views in a more forthright way than more 'official' media outlets such as the People's Daily and Xinhua can.
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Map

US army makes largest deployment of troops to Somalia since 'Black Hawk Down'


RT
Sun, 16 Apr 2017 14:52 UTC
US soldiers
© Kacper Pempel / Reuters
The US army has deployed dozens of troops to Somalia to train forces fighting Al-Shabab Islamist militant group in the largest deployment of troops to the country since 1993, when 18 US soldiers died in a battle dramatized in the movie Black Hawk Down.

A US military official told Voice of America that the team will train-and-equip Somali and AMISOM (African Union Mission in Somalia) forces, with the mission expected to last until the end of September.

"United States Africa Command will conduct various security cooperation and/or security force assistance events in Somalia in order to assist our allies and partners," US Africa Command spokesman Pat Barnes told the government funded Voice of America.
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Info

US says consensus reached with China to stop North Korea missile tests


RFE/RL
Sun, 16 Apr 2017 14:38 UTC
North Korea military parade
© Korean Central Television / RT
U.S. national security adviser H.R. McMaster says there is now an "international consensus," including "China and the Chinese leadership," that North Korea's missile tests cannot be allowed to continue.

McMaster made the remarks in Kabul after the U.S. military announced that North Korea had failed in another attempt to test a missile early on April 16.

The U.S. Pacific Command said it detected the failed missile launch just hours before U.S. Vice President Mike Pence landed in Seoul on an official visit to South Korea.

It said the missile "blew up almost immediately" after the attempted launch.
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Snakes in Suits

Trump dumps campaign pledges, goes ballistic in Syria and Afghanistan

Robert Bridge
RT
Sun, 16 Apr 2017 14:14 UTC
Donald Trump
© Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
Today, many erstwhile Trump supporters are suffering shell-shock after the Republican leader, who pledged like a populist on the campaign trail to scale back the US military's overseas footprint, instead took US aggression to the next insane level.

In the dead heat of the 2016 Presidential Campaign, I, like millions of other Americans, were willing to overlook the seedier side of Donald "Grab them by the p*ssy" Trump because the Maverick of Manhattan had promised to sell us the one thing we all desperately craved: a healthy dose of sanity injected into US foreign policy. This would start the process, we fantasized, of rolling back US military adventures that the country can no longer afford both morally and physically. This was all part of Trump's grand "America First" campaign, which appears to be heading to the trash pile of broken presidential mottos, alongside "Hope and Change" and "Mission Accomplished."
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Life Preserver

Thousands of migrants coming from Libya rescued from Mediterranean Sea


RT
Sun, 16 Apr 2017 14:24 UTC
libyan refugees
© Darrin Zammit Lupi / Reuters1,000 people were believed to still be in the water as night fell on Saturday.
At least 3,000 people were rescued Saturday attempting to cross the Mediterranean from Libya, as the influx of new arrivals making the arduous journey to Europe's doorstep increases during warmer months.

The rescue brings the total number of migrants helped in the past week in the central Mediterranean up to around 5,600, after 2,600 migrants were picked up by the Italian Coast Guard, the Italian and British Navies, merchant ships, and vessels operated by non-government organizations.

Jugend Rette, a German NGO involved in the rescuing of migrants, told AFP that good spring weather has led to increased numbers of people attempting the dangerous crossing in recent days, Deutsche Welle reports.

"We have never had to deal with so many people at the same time," said Pauline Schmidt, spokesperson for Jugend Rette.
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