Puppet MastersS


Pirates

Daesh uses residents as human shields as Iraqi government forces advance in Mosul


Sputnik
Sun, 02 Apr 2017 20:48 UTC
A boy rides his bike past destroyed cars and houses in a neighborhood recently liberated by Iraqi security forces, on the western side of Mosul, Iraq, Sunday, March 19, 2017
© AP Photo/ Felipe DanaA boy rides his bike past destroyed cars and houses in a neighborhood recently liberated by Iraqi security forces, on the western side of Mosul, Iraq, Sunday, March 19, 2017
Daesh (ISIS/ISIL) fighters are terrorizing residents in Mosul, preventing them from fleeing areas under jihadist control and forcing them into buildings under attack from government forces and the US-led coalition, the city's residents told RIA Novosti.

Civilians trying to flee terrorist-held areas are regarded as "defectors," by Daesh, who shoot them in the back as they flee.

"We lived on the outskirts of the city and when government forces approached our district, Daesh came to us and demanded that we move to the center of the city. They brought us here by force in order to use us as human shields," Vaad Abbasi, an elderly Mosul resident, told RIA Novosti.

He said that terrorist snipers often fill buildings with innocents before using the windows to fire at Iraqi helicopters and ground forces.

Comment: Nineveh province, where the city of Mosul is located, was the most affected region with with 541 casualties (367 killed, 174 injured) followed by Baghdad with 84 killed and 246 injured respectively.
"The terrorists have used every possible wicked way to inflict casualties on civilians. Two car bombs killed or wounded many in the Baghdad area last month. In western Mosul, Daesh terrorists [Islamic State, outlawed in Russia] have forcibly transferred civilians, holding them as human shields as they retreated or at strategic locations in densely populated areas. In cases, Daesh has placed civilians in booby-trapped buildings that its terrorists used to launch attacks on government forces, shot at civilians attempting to flee to Iraqi security lines or deliberately shelled civilian areas," Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) for Iraq, Mr. Jan Kubis said, commenting on the figures.
Russian Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov pointed out on Sunday differences between the Russian operation in Syria's Aleppo and the US-led coalition's operation in Mosul, saying that Russia did not use the Aerospace Forces and focused on humanitarian issues.
"The Russian Aerospace Forces were not used in Aleppo at all. The attention focused on the work of humanitarian corridors as well as delivering and providing humanitarian aid for local residents. In Mosul, according to the coalition's spokesman Joseph Scrocca, despite civilian casualties, the coalition is not going to retreat even when fighting becomes heavy," Konashenkov said.

He added that it is impossible to speak about humanitarian aspects of the US-led coalition's operation in Mosul.


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Bad Guys

Former NATO Air Warfare Planner: 'We Allow Killings of Civilian Population'


Sputnik
Sun, 02 Apr 2017 20:30 UTC
US-led coalition denies involvement in Daquq airstrikes against civilians
© AP Photo/ Bram JanssenUS-led coalition denies involvement in Daquq airstrikes against civilians
In an interview with Sputnik Germany, former fighter pilot and NATO air warfare planner Ulrich Scholz revealed that airstrikes in conflict zones often take place even when the military staff knows in advance that they will lead to casualties among civilians.

But the most cynical thing is that there are so-called legal advisors who check every potential goal of the international anti-Daesh coalition to determine how many civilians might be killed due to the bombing. The advisors are usually representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or other federal government officials and lawyers.

"They say that it is allowed to kill up to 10 people. This is called minimizing civilian casualties," Scholz told Sputnik Germany. "Thus, we accept collateral damage. We allow the killings of the civilian population," he added.

Comment: See also: Winning hearts and minds: US airstrikes in Raqqa take civilian toll again

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USA

Scraping the bottom of the barrel: The sleazy origins of Russia-gate

Robert Parry
Consortium News
Wed, 29 Mar 2017 16:31 UTC
hillary
Former Secretary of State and failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
An irony of the escalating hysteria about the Trump camp's contacts with Russians is that one presidential campaign in 2016 did exploit political dirt that supposedly came from the Kremlin and other Russian sources. Friends of that political campaign paid for this anonymous hearsay material, shared it with American journalists and urged them to publish it to gain an electoral advantage. But this campaign was not Donald Trump's; it was Hillary Clinton's.

And, awareness of this activity doesn't require you to spin conspiracy theories about what may or may not have been said during some seemingly innocuous conversation. In this case, you have open admissions about how these Russian/Kremlin claims were used.

Indeed, you have the words of Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee, in his opening statement at last week's public hearing on so-called "Russia-gate." Schiff's seamless 15-minute narrative of the Trump campaign's alleged collaboration with Russia followed the script prepared by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele who was hired as an opposition researcher last June to dig up derogatory information on Donald Trump.

Steele, who had worked for Britain's MI-6 in Russia, said he tapped into ex-colleagues and unnamed sources inside Russia, including leadership figures in the Kremlin, to piece together a series of sensational reports that became the basis of the current congressional and FBI investigations into Trump's alleged ties to Moscow.
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Bullseye

Zakharova tells the US State Department, BBC where to go ... [Video]

Translation: Inessa Sinchougova
Fort Russ News
Sun, 02 Apr 2017 17:23 UTC
Maria Zakharova
Maria Zakharova, Russia's Foreign Affairs Spokesperson, has come out in sharp criticism over a BBC article, published by a certain Paul Wood on 30 March 2017. In the article titled "Trump Russia dossier key claim verified" - Wood asserts that a key Russian diplomat, Mikhail Kalugin, has been verified to have been a Russian spy, and not a simple diplomat.

"If anyone looks like a harmless economist, rather than a tough, arrogant KGB man, it is the bland-faced Kalugin." - writes Wood.

"In addition, State Department staff who dealt with Russia, did not come across Kalugin, as would have been expected with a simple diplomat." "Nobody had met him ...it's classic. Just classic [of Russian intelligence]."
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SOTT Logo Radio

SOTT Focus: Behind the Headlines: A Tale of Two Governments: Trump vs 'the Intel Community'


Sott.net
Sun, 02 Apr 2017 16:00 UTC
CNN Trump
© CNNWhat CNN sees...
Trump was elected on the basis of turning the US ship of state around: no more senseless wars, no more regime change operations, no more pay-to-play politics, and no more gutting the real US economy to feed the fake one. In short, 'draining the swamp' that is Washington, DC, and reversing US economic decline.

What we've instead seen under a Trump administration is more militarism overseas and legislative crises on the domestic front, all shrouded by a "vortex" (CNN's term) of "questions and tension at the White House" as Trump's agenda is lens-distorted by an entirely fictional 'Russian scandal'.

The so-called 'intelligence community' - really, a cabal of ruthlessly psychopathic 'reality-creators' with complete disregard for facts - effectively holds Trump hostage via the media. And that, in itself, points to something unprecedented: the degree to which the media - in the US and across 'Westernia' - is aligned with the cabal against Trump.

Day after day, on issue after issue, from giving public speeches to meeting foreign leaders, the media twists everything Trump's administration says or attempts to do. The White House attempts to communicate with the public via social media and daily email newsletters, but even in this medium it is drowned out by media distortion.

This week we go Behind the Headlines to find out what's really going on in Trumpland, and probably much more. Join your hosts at 6pm CET 12 noon EST for our usual lively discussion.

Running Time: 01:50:09

Download: MP3

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Propaganda

Iraqi WMDs anyone? Fake news Washington Post makes unfounded claims of Iranian supplies to insurgencies


Moon of Alabama
Sun, 02 Apr 2017 15:27 UTC
fake news
The Washington Post falls back into its 2005 mode of blaming Iran for the capabilities of a local insurgency. This time it is not Iraq where Iran is allegedly providing to insurgents, but Bahrain.

Old and debunked claims are hauled up and propaganda from the U.S. proxy Sunni dictatorship is cited as "evidence". It is a top-right front-page story in the Sunday edition and thereby "important". It is also fake news.
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Star of David

Israel's dilemma: Hezbollah's role in Syria

John Wight
RT
Sun, 02 Apr 2017 15:10 UTC
soldier with gun
© Ali Hashisho / Reuters
Most serious analysts credit the role of Hezbollah in the Syrian conflict as having been indispensable in turning the tide of the war in favor of the government in recent years, even though it is a role that has gone largely unrecognized.

It is a lack of recognition that begs the question - why? Is it because of a stubborn reluctance in various quarters to regard Hezbollah as anything other than a terrorist organization, one that belongs in the same box as ISIS or Al-Nusra? But then surely such a categorization makes no sense, considering the number of fighters the Lebanese resistance movement has lost in combat against both of those groups.

In his book, The Battle for Syria, Christopher Phillips writes, "Given Hezbollah's reputation as the most impressive military force in the Arab world, [the group's involvement in the conflict] sapped rebel morale and boosted the regime. By offering expertise that Assad lacked, such as light infantry and urban warfare expertise, training, or directing military tactics, from 2013 the Party of God [Hezbollah] became a vital component of Assad's forces and greatly shaped the conflict."
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Magnify

Report finds billions in EU funding of NGOs lacks transparency and supports questionable groups


RT
Sun, 02 Apr 2017 15:09 UTC
eu flag
© Francois Lenoir / Reuters
The European Parliament lacks transparency in the funding of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that received hundreds of millions in donations from Brussels in 2015, the author of a report focusing on the issue warns, according to Spiegel.

An estimated €1.2 billion ($1.28 billion) was paid by the EU to NGOs in 2015, with parts of transactions lacking clarity or apparently landing in the hands of organizations with goals contrary to the bloc's desired aims, the news outlet says.

"Transparency does not seem to be one of the EU Commission's priorities when it comes to granting EU funding," EU Commissioner Markus Pieper (CDU), author of a report on the financing of non-governmental organizations, told Der Spiegel.

The EU Commission has financially supported numerous NGOs for years. Funding went to a range of groups working on environmental protection and social issues. For example, Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) is receiving subsidies from Brussels amounting to €521,834 for a campaign to be run from 2016 to 2019, according to Volksfreund.de.

"In the interests of taxpayers, the transparency of the cash flow needs to improve," Pieper says.
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Vader

Don't look now: Killary's back

Ben Kanisar and Amie Parnes
The Hill
Sun, 02 Apr 2017 14:54 UTC
reptile hillary clinton
Hillary Clinton is moving back into the spotlight as the vanquished Democratic presidential nominee seeks to carve out her role during the Trump administration.

It's a step she's taking cautiously after stepping away from the political arena for roughly two months at the urging of her friends and associates. During that time, she emerged in public only for an occasional speech or college appearance.

But March represented a turning point as Clinton ratcheted up her opposition to Trump on Twitter and made three public speeches.

Comment: Humanity would be for the better if Killary crawled back into her hole.

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2 + 2 = 4

No more maidans: Russia will not allow Belarus to be ripped out of Its orbit


Sputnik
Sun, 02 Apr 2017 14:25 UTC
Belarus
© Sputnik/ Viktor Tolochko
Speaking to Sputnik Belarus, Russian Ambassador to Belarus Alexander Surikov said that Western powers haven't been able to tear Belarus away from its special relationship with Russia, but that this hasn't stopped them from trying. Moscow is monitoring the situation, and taking steps to prevent Belarus from being ripped out of its orbit, he added.

In an exclusive interview for Sputnik Belarus ahead of Russia-Belarus Unity Day, a holiday marked April 2 to celebrate the creation of the Russian-Belarusian Union State in 1996, the ambassador confirmed that Moscow is fully aware of the West's machinations to try to turn Minsk against Russia.
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