Puppet MastersS


Bomb

Bomb threat and evacuation in German town after cancellation of rally with Turkish minister


RT
Fri, 03 Mar 2017 14:24 UTC
bomb threat town hall Gaggenau, Germany
© Uli Deck / DPA / Global Look PressThe town hall in Gaggenau, Germany, 03 March 2017.
A bomb threat in the German town of Gaggenau has prompted an evacuation of the city hall, only a day after a Turkish minister's visit to the venue was canceled on "safety reasons."

Gaggenau Town Hall received a bomb threat on Friday afternoon, Michael Pfeiffer, the mayor, told N-TV. He added that the building had been evacuated, and the police were sent to look for a possible explosive device, which, according to his estimates, "could take hours."

The mayor told Bild later in the day that "we don't know how seriously we must treat this bomb threat." A town official also told the tabloid that the caller had linked his threat to the canceled visit of Bekir Bozdag, the Turkish justice minister who pulled out of his scheduled trip to Germany.
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Seismograph

Spy satellite launched aboard Atlas V rocket to conduct US intelligence missions


RT
Fri, 03 Mar 2017 15:07 UTC
rocket launch
© United Launch Alliance / YouTube
A rocket carrying a classified US spy satellite has successfully launched, kicking off a secret mission for US intelligence agencies.

On Wednesday, a two-stage United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket, carrying the classified NROL-79 satellite, took off from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in Southern California.

ULA, a Lockheed Martin - Boeing joint venture, built the Atlas V rocket to carry the confidential payload for the US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), a once-secret organization that oversees the US' constellation of spy satellites.
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Attention

Kremlin reports Syrian Army recaptures Palmyra, aided by Russian Air Force


RT
Thu, 02 Mar 2017 15:21 UTC
Syrian military tank
The Syrian military, backed by the Russian Air Force, has completed its operation to liberate the key city of Palmyra from militants, Kremlin has announced.

Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu has reported to the commander-in-chief, President Vladimir Putin, that the historic city in Syria's Homs province has been liberated, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said.

Syrian Army specialists have begun examining the historic part of Palmyra with the aim of demining the city, a RIA-Novosti correspondent reports.
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Radar

Liberation of Palmyra planned & conducted under guidance of Russian military advisers - MoD


RT
Fri, 03 Mar 2017 14:11 UTC
Syrian tank Palmyra
© Mikhail Alaeddin / Sputnik
The Syrian army's major offensive to retake the ancient city of Palmyra from Islamic State militants was planned and coordinated by Russian military advisers, Russia's General Staff said.

"The Syrian army's operation in Palmyra has been a remarkable success. It has been planned and carried out under the guidance of Russian military advisers," Sergey Rudskoy, chief of the General Staff's operations department, said on Friday.

Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) suffered heavy casualties, having lost over 1,000 militants killed or injured in action, along with 19 tanks, 37 armored fighting vehicles, 98 pickup trucks mounting heavy weaponry and 100 other combat vehicles, General Rudskoy added.

The Russian Air Force and Special Forces played a vital role in destroying IS positions outside Palmyra, he continued.
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Brain

US Congressman: No Russian involvement in US election, accusations all 'made-up'


Sputnik
Fri, 03 Mar 2017 13:39 UTC
Trump speech
© REUTERS/ Mike Segar
US Congressman Joe Wilson said Moscow has been groundlessly accused of meddling in the presidential election.

The accusations of Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 US election have been made up, US Congressman Joe Wilson told Sputnik on Thursday.

"I don't see Russia involvement in the election. That's made up," Wilson stated.

In February, US National Security Adviser Michael Flynn resigned amid media questioning his alleged ties to Kislyak, with whom he was purported to have discussed sanctions against Russia, a claim that Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov denied on Tuesday.

Comment: Further reading:

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Stock Up

Bitcoin value rallies over price of gold for first time


RT
Fri, 03 Mar 2017 13:58 UTC
bitcoin
© Jim Urquhart / Reuters
The price of bitcoin rallied to all-time highs on Friday, climbing above the price of one ounce of gold for the first time. The cryptocurrency was trading at $1,294, while a troy ounce of gold stood at $1,234.

Bitcoin's rally was attributed to high demand in China despite the country's central bank restricting bitcoin exchange operations. It was the best-performing 'currency' in 2016, more than doubling in value on the year.
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Caesar

The Major Achievements of Putin's Third Term


Sputnik
Fri, 03 Mar 2017 13:39 UTC
Putin holding gold
With only one year left until the end of Vladimir Putin's third presidential term, Sputnik sat down with a number of Russian political analysts to talk about the Russian president's major achievements throughout his latest presidency and his possible steps in the year to come.

The third presidential term of the Russian leader will be remembered for his successes in the foreign policy arena and for a number of unsolved issues in the country's domestic issues, namely in its economy, Russian political analysts told Sputnik.

Among President Putin's major achievements, they noted the breakdown of the US monopoly to interpret international law at its own discretion. In addition, they said that the Russian leader is now perceived around the world as a value-oriented politician from the conservative wing.
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Eye 1

TSA at 'risk of being sued' for hindering oversight officials & targeting whistleblowers


RT
Fri, 03 Mar 2017 13:39 UTC
House Committeee Oversight Government Reform Chairman Jason Chaffetz
© Jonathan Ernst / ReutersChairman Jason Chaffetz
Like most Americans, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform isn't happy with the TSA. The acting administrator of the Transportation Security Administration was found to be unnecessarily secretive and now risks being sued.

A tense meeting between the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the TSA revealed that the most frustrating aspects of the federal agency went far beyond taking shoes off for screenings.

TSA acting administrator, Huban Gowadia, was asked to provide hundreds of pages of documents to the committee. However, Gowadia testified that "unwritten" rules from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) prevented her from providing the information to the committee. This was disputed by the DHS, who told a very different story about the TSA's resistance to share information.

Comment: There's something very rotten at the core of the TSA, and it's been there since the beginning. Check out:

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Chess

Turkish minister cancels German visit after he's denied chance to rally support for expansion of Erdogan's powers


RT
Fri, 03 Mar 2017 13:39 UTC
Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag Tayyip Erdogan Turkey
© Murad Sezer / ReutersTurkish President Tayyip Erdogan (R) is pictured with Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag
Turkey's justice minister has pulled out of a scheduled visit to Germany, after a small town in Baden-Wurttemberg denied him the chance to canvass his countrymen ahead of a controversial referendum. Ankara has also summoned the German ambassador.

Bekir Bozdag was due to give a speech in the southwestern town of Gaggenau on Thursday in favor of a 'Yes' vote in the April referendum that will ask Turks if they want to massively expand the powers of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

But just hours before the event - organized by the Union of European Turkish Democrats (UETD), a group close to Erdogan, was due to get underway - Gaggenau withdrew the permit, citing security concerns. It also listed concerns over potential overflows inside its town hall and the parking lot outside.

Comment: Further reading: Nostalgia & 'soft power' in Turkey's neo-Ottoman blueprint
Neo-Ottomanism builds off of the historical memory of the Ottoman Caliphate, a period of time which has become very popular to reminisce about in Turkish society and which also has its fair share of admirers among some of the more religiously focused Arabs all throughout MENA. While some people such as the Syrians, especially the secular ones, view the Ottoman centuries as almost half a millennium of occupation (just like their Serbian counterparts do in the Balkans), there are still many others which interpret it very differently and see it as a high point in their history. These very religious individuals are much more loyal to the concept of the Ummah - especially its political-administrative embodiment as the former Turkish-led Ottoman Caliphate - than they are to their respective countries, and it's from this large proportion of the masses that Erdogan seeks to cull his international supporters.


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Briefcase

Here's why Jeff Sessions was right to recuse himself

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Thu, 02 Mar 2017 13:38 UTC
Jeff Sessions
© Yuri Gripas / ReutersU.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions
Though there is no evidence Jeff Sessions did anything wrong he was right to recuse himself from an investigation in which however inappropriately he is now a subject.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions's decision to recuse himself from the FBI investigation into the Trump campaign's alleged contacts with the Russians was absolutely correct.

There are numerous precedents for an Attorney General to recuse him or herself from an investigation. Doing so is the proper way to avoid even the appearance of impropriety.

Following the accusations made against Sessions, it is a virtual certainty that he will at some point have to be interviewed by the FBI about his meetings with Russian ambassador Kislyak. Though this interview will come up with nothing - because there is nothing to come up with - quite obviously Sessions cannot be both the subject of an investigation and the person the investigation reports to.
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