Puppet Masters
The perpetrators were arrested in an apartment in central Moscow, the National Anti-Terrorist Committee said in a press release.
The operation was carried out as part of a series of criminal investigations resulting in the arrest of an unspecified number of people.
"In the flat, where the gunmen were hiding out, a self-made explosive device has been found and defused," said Andrey Chatskiy, spokesman for the National Anti-Terrorism Committee's information center.
"The establishment of CIPS is an important milestone in yuan internationalization, providing the infrastructure that will connect global yuan users through one single system," Helen Wong, greater China chief executive at HSBC, was cited as saying by the Financial Times.
CIPS will accept payments in cross-border trade, direct investments, financing and personal remittances. The system is open for operations 11 hours a day. The first CIPS transaction was completed by Standard Chartered Bank for Sweden's IKEA.
Nineteen banks have been authorized to use CIPS; eight of them are Chinese subsidiaries of foreign banks, including Citi, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and ANZ.
- US admits disconnect amongst intelligence, policy and operations--CIA declines comment
- Obama slow to recognize and respond to signs of trouble
- US claims failure to read implications of Russian air strikes on ISIS locations
"We were getting the word the Russians were asking for inordinate overflights," a senior Obama administration official said, referring to reports from U.S. allies receiving the requests. Russia was seeking clearance for not only cargo planes but also "fighter aircraft and bombers" that Syrian pilots had never been trained to fly, the official said. "It was clear that something pretty big was up."
But despite that early suspicion — which only intensified as Russia then deployed fighter jets and teams of military advisers — the United States seemed to be caught flat-footed by the barrage of airstrikes that Moscow launched last week.
Comment: Yes, the US was caught flat-footed, in fact it recoiled for days. Why? Hubris, underestimation, out-foxed, out-played, shock and gobsmackery. For the US administration, it is a reality changer. See also:
In one week Russia has destroyed 40% of ISIL's infrastructure
In the two weeks since Russia began bombing ISIS positions in Syria from its airbase in Latakia, the mainstream media, both in the West and in Russia, has crafted a narrative about why this is happening. The Western narrative is that Russia is attempting to support the Assad government. The Russian perspective is that the West has not been effective in defeating the terror group and therefore the Russian military was required to get the job done. While both of these narratives describe basic truths of the situation, the true implications of, and background to Russia's moves in Syria are completely edited out and hidden from the global public record.
Suffice to say that the actions of the Russian government and military over the past few years have massive ramifications for the current world order. It is not an exaggeration to say that the world as we have all know it for 100+ years is on the brink of a profound change. Want to know what that change will involve, and how?
Join your hosts this Sunday Oct. 11th 2015, 2-4pm EST - 8-10pm CET, for the inside scoop that you won't hear anywhere else.
Running Time: 02:17:00
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Over the last 24 hours Russian aircraft have attacked terrorist positions in the Hama, Idlib, Latakia and Raqqa provinces of Syria. In total, 64 sorties targeted 63 Islamic State installations, among them 53 fortified zones, 7 arms depots, 4 training camps and a command post.
The airstrikes were carried out by Sukhoi Su24M and Su-34 bombers and Su-25SM assault aircraft, with Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets ensuring air escort for the assault groups.
The Deputy Chief of Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency, Oleg Storchevoy, sent a letter to Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu, the head of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), after becoming acquainted with a draft of the final report by the Dutch Safety Board (DSB), which is heading the probe. This was revealed by Malaysian newspaper the New Straits Times on Sunday.
The letter, received by the ICAO on September 16, states that the DSB ignored "comprehensive information" provided by the Russian side and relating to the downing of the Boeing 777 over war-torn Eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, the media report said. In the letter, Storchevoy said that, in conducting its investigation, the DSB had violated the principle of "sequence of conclusions," one of the most fundamental rules when conducting probes into air crashes.
Comment: We should see this report soon and it will most likely expose the ineptness of the Dutch investigative team and how the report matches the West's narrative to blame Russia and E. Ukraine. Can the UN aviation agency make any difference? Its statements could certainly thwart the next move the West wants to make: set up a Lockerbie-style tribunal with UN approval:
Sott Exclusive: Dutch government pursuing Lockerbie-style tribunal to prosecute Russia for MH17
Comment: This is a great example of the pathological thinking typical among American authoritarians: arrogant, ideological, and totally divorced from objective reality. It's no wonder the American empire is breathing its dying breaths.
Putin is no chess master. He overstretched and misstepped in Syria, and U.S. would be wiser to wait him out than chase him out.
With each Russian escalatory step in Syria, the situation only seems to get worse. Critics pile on, citing it as an example of President Barack Obama's "failed" foreign policy, calling for Obama to "do something" — confront Moscow, punish it for its reckless behavior, reassert leadership. But what would that something be?
Across the political spectrum, there are calls for a more muscular U.S. approach in Syria. Some are talking of proxy battles, while others are calling it a new Cold War and declaring a need to act tough to restore American credibility. But before the U.S. tumbles into something, it's worth taking a step back and asking what Russian President Vladimir Putin aims to get out of this, and whether, if measured by his own goals, this brazen military intervention will work. I think the answer is no - which should guide how the U.S. should respond.
The latest revelation of this plan comes from Canada, where it's been revealed that Chief of the Defence, Staff Gen. Tom Lawson and the former chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, once discussed a plan to fully integrate the militaries of the US and Canada. On the surface this doesn't sound too surprising, since these forces have been frequently deployed together overseas in recent years. And under NORAD, the Air Forces of both nations are already operating under the same command structure for the most part.
Monsanto's long, noisy attempt to buy up rival pesticide giant Syngenta crumbled into dust last month. And Wednesday, Monsanto reported quarterly revenues and profits that sharply underperformed Wall Street expectations. For good measure, it also sharply lowered its profit projections for the year ahead.
Comment: Looks like 'A new wave of bad press' for Monsanto! Hopefully the biotech giant will crash and burn!
In other words, he was saying that Moscow is not (as it claims) really focusing on ISIL and the al-Nusra Front but on the anti-regime opposition in general, which supposedly includes "moderates."
Never mind that Obama himself as well as Joseph Biden have on occasion pooh-poohed the existence of a moderate armed opposition that controls territory in Syria. Didn't Biden say last year at Harvard that "there was no moderate middle [in Syria] because the moderate middle are made up of shop-keepers, not soldiers"?
Comment: Conclusion: Its no accident that US intervention always makes the situation far worse than better in a given country.















Comment: Slowly but surely, the dollar will lose its primacy in the world economic system. It is inevitable when a country relies entirely on military adventures to prop up its economy.