Puppet MastersS


Attention

Moscow: NATO's 'force projection' at Russian borders puts European security at risk, "won't stay unanswered"


RT
Fri, 28 Oct 2016 00:56 UTC
US destroyer, Istanbul
© Murad Sezer / ReutersNavy destroyer USS Carney, in the Bosphorus on route to the Black Sea, Istanbul, Turkey.
NATO's activities are clearly aimed at "military force projection" in the Black Sea and Eastern Europe and have no "anti-terrorism value" whatsoever, according to Russia's Permanent Representative to the alliance, who promised the moves won't stay unanswered.

The biggest military buildup along Russia's borders since the Cold War by the supposedly defensive alliance is not bolstering European security, but is instead creating additional "obvious risks" for it, Aleksandr Grushko said on Thursday, following the Wednesday meeting of the alliance's defense ministers in Brussels.

"Military specialists from the alliance's member states are implementing the decisions of the Warsaw summit [in July] and are fulfilling their confrontational schemes of military planning and military preparations in the territories along our borders," the Russian diplomat said. "Thus, as part of reinforcing the so-called eastern flank of the alliance, it is forming battalion-level reinforced multinational contingents which will be deployed in the Baltic countries and Poland in early 2017. Moreover, they consider deployment of some 'framework' brigade in Romania, and some specific options for enlarging NATO's presence in the Black Sea."

Such actions put at risk the viability of Russia-NATO Founding Act, according to Grushko. "NATO and primarily the United States are actively reclaiming the aquatorium of the Black Sea with their multifunctional combat platforms having a serious offensive and anti-missile potential," while "intimidating the public with movements of Russian ships in the international waters," said Grushko.

Comment: Hysteria or pragmatism...act of aggression or practice drills...bombs of diplomacy or humanitarian ceasefire...war without peace or peace without war. Intentions lead to actions lead to consequences we can live with or not live with. What'll it be?

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Fire

Pipeline blast halts gas flow from Iran to Turkey


RT
Fri, 28 Oct 2016 06:09 UTC
Turkey pipeline explosion
© 04servan / Instagram
Gas flow from Iran to Turkey has been halted after a huge explosion rocked a pipeline in eastern Turkey, an Iranian official told Tasnim news agency, as cited by Reuters. "Iran's gas flow to Turkey has temporarily stopped because of a blast by some opposition groups inside Turkey around 1830 GMT on Thursday night," Majid Aghai, an official from the Iranian Interior Ministry, said.

Earlier reports in the Turkish media emerged, saying that a huge blast hit a pipeline in the town of Dogubayazit in Agrı Province in eastern Turkey, bordering Iran. Following the explosion, a fire broke out on the pipeline, TGRT Haber newspaper said, adding that the flames reached up to 50 meters. No property has been damaged, Turkish media reports, adding that there have not been reports of any deaths or injuries so far.

The authorities have reportedly launched an investigation into the incident. According to the Turkish Cumhuriyet newspaper, possible causes of the blast include sabotage. Some Turkish media said, citing sources, that militants from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were behind the incident.
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Star of David

British House of Lords event: Jews to blame for Holocaust


RT
Thu, 27 Oct 2016 10:39 UTC
Holocaust museum
© Pop ChassidHall of Names, Jerusalem
Israel has condemned a "shameful" event hosted by the British House of Lords in which Jews were blamed for the Holocaust and Israel was compared to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL). The session marked the launch of the Balfour Apology Campaign ahead of the Balfour Declaration centenary. The 1917 declaration pledged British support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. A spokesperson for the Israeli embassy said the gathering "gave voice to racist tropes against Jews and Israelis alike."

According to the Times, an audience member was applauded after suggesting Hitler only decided to kill Jews after being provoked by anti-German protests led by a rabbi, Stephen Wise, in New York. "[He] made the boycott on Germany, the economic boycott... which antagonized Hitler, over the edge, to then want to systematically kill Jews wherever he could find them."


Comment: "Rabbi Wise was a consultant to Roosevelt and Wilson. He, and a small cadre of other manipulators, advocated arming the Jews and strengthening Palestine with guns, tanks and planes, playing one Western power against another to achieve their aims. He helped instigate the idea of a 'pogrom against Jews' by inflating small incidents of minor injuries into 'a massacre.'"--Douglas Reed, The Controversy of Zion, p. 320-321.


The speaker also said Rabbi Wise told the New York Times in 1905 there were "6 million bleeding and suffering reasons to justify Zionism." This quote is often used by Holocaust deniers to suggest the figure of 6 million Jews later killed by the Nazis was a myth.
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Bullseye

Pentagon tallies between 800-900 ISIS fighters died in Mosul battle


RT
Thu, 27 Oct 2016 22:03 UTC
tanks Mosul battle
© twitterThe Battle for Mosul
Iraqi security forces have killed up to 900 Islamic State fighters since launching their offensive to recapture Mosul, backed by US-led air strikes. About 25,000 Iraqi forces are leading the offensive from the south, east and north to liberate Mosul from under IS control. They are joined by federal police, Kurdish forces, Sunni tribal fighters and state-sanctioned Shiite militias.

"Just in operations over the last week and a half associated with Mosul, we estimated they've [Iraqi security forces] probably killed about 800-900 Islamic State fighters," General Joseph Votel, head of the US military's Central Command, told Agence France-Presse. Votel arrived at the Qayyarah Airfield West, a new joint US-Iraqi logistics base outside of Mosul, on Wednesday.

US officials estimate 3,500 up to 5,000 Islamic State (IS formerly ISIS/ISIL) fighters are believed to be in Mosul with an additional 2,000 in surrounding areas. Commanders warned that securing the city could take weeks, if not months.

Mosul is Iraq's second largest city with more than a million inhabitants. Over 100,000 residents have fled since the offence began on October 17, with Shia-led government forces assisted by 100 US military personnel, who are advising commanders and directing coalition air strikes. The UN refugee agency foresees an additional 700,000 civilians fleeing the city.

Comment: Do we even dare believe these numbers, especially from US Central Command? Could 900 be a realistic IS body count or could it be a calculated number to legitimize its fake bombing raids while IS fades out of Iraq and reappears in Syria? One hopes it is the former, but instinct and US coalition pattern suggest it could be otherwise.

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Chess

Germany preparing deployment of tanks, infantrymen, to Russian border


RT
Thu, 27 Oct 2016 22:15 UTC
German tank
© Michaela Rehle / ReutersLeopard 2A7 tank
Germany is preparing to deploy its most modern 'Leopard 2' tanks and more than 600 infantrymen to Lithuania as it joins NATO's biggest military buildup since the Cold War, German media reported citing the defense ministry. The plans to deploy [not] infantry and tanks to the NATO member state bordering Russia were announced by the German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen at a two-day meeting of the alliance's defense ministers in Brussels.

Deployment of "heavy weaponry" was then confirmed to the German daily Die Welt by a defense ministry spokesman, who said that tanks will be only part of the military equipment that Germany is going to deploy to the Baltic State. A NATO battalion under German command will be stationed in Lithuania in February. The battalion's personnel will amount to 1,000 soldiers, with from 450 to 650 of them coming from Germany and the rest being deployed by France, Belgium and Croatia.

According to the German daily Der Tagesspiegel, this will be an autonomous combat-ready unit equipped with tanks and armored vehicles that will also have snipers, engineering troops, military medics and even military police. The battalion will be fully operational starting from June 2017, German media reported.

The decision to send tanks alongside with the infantry to Lithuania should "send a clear signal" that Germany takes security concerns of the eastern NATO members "seriously," von der Leyen said during the ministers' meeting in Brussels. "It should send a clear signal that an attack on any NATO member state would be regarded as an attack on all 28 members [of the bloc]," she said, as cited by Der Tagesspiegel. At the same time, she stressed that the deployment of German forces on the Russian border was a "strictly measured" step that has exclusively "defensive" purposes, as reported by Die Welt.

Comment: And what specifically are the Russian actions these NATO forces are hastily defending against? FYI to NATO: A defensive move is "circling the wagons", not circling another country.

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Bad Guys

Syrian "Rebels" Kill Civilians in Aleppo Counteroffensive; Russia Hosts Syrian, Iranian Ministers


RFE/RL
Fri, 28 Oct 2016 19:04 UTC
Syrian Army Aleppo
© AFPSyrian government forces patrol the outskirts of embattled Syrian city of Aleppo earlier this week.
Syrian activists say rebel fighters have launched a large-scale offensive in Aleppo, trying to break the government's siege of opposition-held, eastern districts.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based organization with extensive on-the-ground contacts, said more than 15 civilians had been killed and 100 wounded by rebel shelling.


Comment: Propaganda spin cycle: 'Syrian Observatory for Human Rights' is funded by US and UK governments


State media reported that five civilians were killed and the Syrian Army said its forces had repelled the attacks.

"The Syrian Army and its allies are in control on the ground and armed groups were not able to change the map," the statement said.

Once Syria's biggest city, Aleppo has become the main battlefield between President Bashar al-Assad's forces, backed by Iran, Russia, and Shi'ite militias, and Sunni rebels, which includes groups supported by Turkey, Persian Gulf states, and the United States.


Comment: The Syrian and Iraqi wars: Washington's myth of Sunni/Shia sectarianism


The fighting on October 28 came as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with his counterparts from Syria and Iran to discuss the Syrian conflict.

Lavrov said the Moscow meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif was an effort to "hammer out a constructive solution" to the Syrian crisis.

Comment: War crime: U.S.-backed terrorists kill 6 civilians, 71 wounded in Aleppo

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Attention

Pro-U.S. elite out of control after Venezuelan referendum denied due to signature drive fraud

Andrew Cawthorne
Yahoo! News / Reuters
Thu, 27 Oct 2016 18:55 UTC
Leiders Venezuela Maduro, Chávez, Bolivar
In a curious convergence of events on the same day last week, four Venezuelan provincial courts issued identical rulings, state governors quickly hit Twitter to celebrate, then the election board emailed a short but bombshell statement.

Opposition hopes for a referendum to recall President Nicolas Maduro were dashed, on grounds of fraud in an initial signature drive. The vote was off.

For many in the opposition, that settled a years-old debate about the nature of Venezuela's socialist government, uniting them in conviction they are now fighting a dictatorship.


Comment: When the pro-Western, elite class of an anti-imperialist nation starts calling its leader a "dictator", you can be sure it means nothing of the sort. The signature drive was fraudulent. Ergo, a referendum based on fraud would be just as fraudulent. That is not dictatorship - it is common sense, and the rule of law. Get over it.


Their new militancy heightens the risk of unrest as the South American OPEC member of 30 million people grapples with a dangerous economic and political crisis.


Comment: A political crisis that wouldn't exist if not for stubborn American resistance to Chavez and Maduro's commitment to Venezuelan sovereignty.


Comment: Further reading on the recent attempts to bring down Maduro, and Chavez's legacy:

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Die

AI system predicts Trump will win election, is more popular than Obama in 2008

Arjun Kharpal
CNBC
Fri, 28 Oct 2016 19:22 UTC
Clintrump
© AZCentral.com
An artificial intelligence system that correctly predicted the last three U.S. presidential elections puts Republican nominee Donald Trump ahead of Democrat rival Hillary Clinton in the race for the White House.

MogIA was developed by Sanjiv Rai, founder of Indian start-up Genic.ai. It takes in 20 million data points from public platforms including Google, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in the U.S. and then analyzes the information to create predictions.

The AI system was created in 2004, so it has been getting smarter all the time. It had already correctly predicted the results of the Democratic and Republican Primaries.

Data such as engagement with tweets or Facebook Live videos have been taken into account. The result is that Trump has overtaken the engagement numbers of Barack Obama's peak in 2008 — the year he was elected president — by 25 percent.

Rai said that his AI system shows that the candidate in each election who had leading engagement data ended up winning the election.

"If Trump loses, it will defy the data trend for the first time in the last 12 years since Internet engagement began in full earnest," Rai wrote in a report sent to CNBC.
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Chess

Russia's EEU to start talks with Israel on free trade zone


RT
Fri, 28 Oct 2016 19:03 UTC
Port of Haifa Israel trade
© Ronen Zvulun / ReutersCranes are seen at the port of the northern city of Haifa, Israel
The Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) will soon start talks with Israel on creating a free trade zone, said Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

"Before the end of the year the first round of talks [on a free trade area creation] is scheduled with Israel. Negotiations are to start with Serbia and a number of other states," Medvedev said during a meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council.

According to the EEU Commission's Minister of Trade Veronika Nikishina, Israel may sign a deal in 2017. Israeli Minister Zeev Elkin said last December the country wants a free trade agreement with the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union as soon as possible. In February, Russian Deputy Agriculture Minister Sergey Levin said Moscow and Tel Aviv were planning the agreement in the near future as they "aim at maximizing cooperation in terms of agriculture and new technologies; as well as creation of joint ventures."

Comment: Of course, many of the rabid 'anti-globalists' will use this to 'prove' that Russia is no different from the West. As the point was made in SOTT's comments on Nuclear war scare is about preserving the dollar and US hegemony, Russia has to strategically work within the global system, and cannot succeed in its many pursuits by just skirting along the edges of global economic power. See the linked article for elaboration.

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Light Sabers

Trump criticizes Killary for "speaking very badly" of Putin


RFE/RL
Fri, 28 Oct 2016 19:14 UTC
Hillary and Trump
© Reuters
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has criticized Democratic rival Hillary Clinton for speaking "very badly" of Russian President Vladimir Putin, remarks that follow Clinton's recent allegations that the Kremlin is trying to tilt the election in her opponent's favor.

Noting Russia's nuclear capability, Trump told a rally in Springfield, Ohio, on October 27 that Clinton is unwise to criticize the Russian leader so harshly and that Washington and Moscow would benefit from closer ties.

"She speaks very badly of Putin, and I don't think that's smart," Trump told the crowd.

He accused Clinton, who has suggested Putin considers Trump a potential Russian "puppet" in the White House, of "trying to get votes" with her stinging criticism of the Russian president.

"How do you speak so badly of somebody? I mean, how are they ever going to get along? Wouldn't it be great if we actually got along with Russia and other countries?" Trump asked, drawing cheers from the crowd of thousands.


Comment: This is likely the very same opinion that many Americans have towards Russia as well. What Killary and the rest of the psychopaths in power don't realize is that having someone like Trump as their opposition,who is speaking directly to Americans and apparently wants to give them what they want, is very bad for their chances of staying power.

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