Puppet MastersS


Attention

West Mosul trap: Iraqi forces retake 2 districts, up to 800,000 civilians caught in battle zone


RT
Sun, 26 Feb 2017 22:07 UTC
Displaced Iraqis in western Mosul, Iraq February 26, 2017
© Alaa Al-Marjani / ReutersDisplaced Iraqis in western Mosul, Iraq February 26, 2017.
Iraqi police commandos have captured two neighborhoods in west Mosul on Sunday amid fierce clashes with Islamic State militants. The advance is ongoing amid UN concerns that the assault could force up to 400,000 civilians to flee, if they manage it.

RUPTLY's new footage from Mosul shows displaced residents from the western Maamoun district arriving at the government-controlled al-Jadaa camp in Mosul, Sunday, as Iraqi forces push deeper into the city.

About 1,000 civilians, predominantly women and children, left Mosul on Saturday and were taken to humanitarian camps located to the south of the city, according to Reuters.
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SOTT Logo S

SOTT Focus: That Time Hitler Gave a Speech on Blacks in Germany

Harrison Koehli
Sott.net
Sat, 25 Feb 2017 20:26 UTC
hitler speech
On March 5, 1933, just over a month after gaining office as Chancellor of Germany, Adolf Hitler gave a frighteningly dark speech on race relations in Germany. Here's what he had to say:
My fellow Germans, ... I am very grateful for the many wonderful opportunities to honor African-German heroes, faith leaders, entrepreneurs and the many others who changed the course of our nation. We are blessed by the lives and examples of those who have made this nation a beacon of freedom, talent, and unbreakable German spirit.

This week I had the privilege of visiting the national museum of African-German history and culture right here in Berlin. It's a new, beautiful ... museum that serves as a shining example of African-Germans' incredible contributions to our culture, our society, and our history. It also tells of the great struggle for freedom and equality that prevailed against the sins of slavery and the injustice of discrimination.

The work and love of the people who helped create such a masterpiece is a testament to the legacy of so many leaders and honors. I left that museum confident that together Germany can overcome any challenge. ... Today and every day I pledge to continue the march towards justice and freedom for all so that every German no matter his background, no matter her background, has the chance to climb that great ladder of success.
Chilling stuff.
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Bad Guys

SANA reports militants shell Damascus and suburbs, 1 killed and 14 injured


RT
Sun, 26 Feb 2017 22:03 UTC
Shelled buildings in Damascus
© Bassam Khabieh / Reuters File photo
One woman was killed and 17 people were injured after terrorists shelled the Syrian capital, Damascus, and its suburbs, as well as areas in southern and southwestern Syria, the country's SANA news agency reports.

Four people have suffered injuries in Damascus' al-Mazzeh neighborhood, southwest of the city center, after terrorists showered the area with rockets.

One woman fell victim to the shelling, SANA cited a police source as saying.

Another 10 people were injured after militants hit the northeastern Harasta neighborhood with rockets.
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Jet5

Road to cooperation with Russia? US to send F-35s to MidEast to fight ISIS in 'not too distant future'


RT
Sun, 26 Feb 2017 01:17 UTC
U.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning II
© Daniel Hughes / ReutersU.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning II
The US Air Force is mulling deploying F-35 fighter jets to the Middle East to step up efforts in battling Islamic State (IS, former ISIS/ISIL) terrorists sometime in the future, although the specific date is not set yet.

The deployment could take place in "not so distant future," General Herbert J. "Hawk" Carlisle, the outgoing head of the Air Combat Command, told journalists on Friday in Washington, DC. He also stressed that the Air Force is already discussing the first deployment of the new aircraft to the Central Command.

"It would deploy as an asset for the [Combined Forces Air Component commander] at Al Udeid [Qatar], so he would use it as he would see fit, and I would certainly expect it to participate in operations just like the F-22 is today," he said, as cited by Military.com.
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Chess

The Saker: An interesting week for Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump

The Saker
The Saker
Sun, 26 Feb 2017 00:00 UTC
putin and trump
Putin's latest move

I don't follow the western corporate media so I don't really know how much coverage this development has received in the West, but in Russia and the Ukraine the big news is the decision by Russia to begin recognizing official Novorussian documents such as passports, driver licenses, school and college diplomas, etc. The Russians were pretty specific in the way the made the announcement. They said that it was a temporary measure dictated by humanitarian considerations. They have a point. Until now, the residents of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics had to travel to the Nazi-occupied Ukraine to try to get their documents. Which, considering how the Ukronazis consider anybody from the Donbass was not only futile, but sometimes dangerous. This decision makes perfect sense practically. But, of course, it has a far-reaching symbolic dimension too. The timing is also crucial: by recognizing the documents issued by the DNR and LNR authorities, the Russians have de facto "semi-recognized" the authorities which issued them and that is just a fairly short step away from recognizing these republics.
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Pistol

CIA's pause in arms program has Syrian rebels worried

Dan Wright
Shadow Proof
Fri, 24 Feb 2017 00:00 UTC
rebel training
© Reuters/Ammar AbdullahRebel fighters in military training, Idlib province, Syria.
Since at least 2012, the United States has been supporting armed groups trying to overthrow the government of Bashar al-Assad. It has always been a difficult alliance because many of the rebel groups have ties to Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. The program has principally been run by the CIA.

In 2013, President Barack Obama waived a provision of the Arms Export Control Act that prevented arming terrorist organizations in order to arm Syrian rebels. Nonetheless, the weapons fell into Al Qaeda's hands, first by accident, then on purpose after some marketing.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump repeatedly bashed the program and said, "We have no idea who these people are." He suggested the government was arming people who may see the U.S. as an enemy.

A recent pause in the program has many rebels worried that the CIA has gotten new orders from President Trump. According to Reuters, the program has been frozen since January after one rebel faction known as the Free Syrian Army (FSA) came under attack by the more dominant Al Qaeda-linked group Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (formerly known as the Al Nusra Front).

Comment: Taking away weapons is a precursor to weeding out the rebel factions and correcting the trajectory of US involvement in the Syrian conflict. Trump needs a "tremendous plan" and swift execution while he still has momentum to shock and awe the CIA. The CIA has not told its rebels the extent of the ban, suggesting it is holding out on both Trump and its proxies.

See also:

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Umbrella

Make America British again: Queen Mum may bring former colony into Commonwealth


RT
Fri, 24 Feb 2017 17:06 UTC
Queen Mum
© Eddie Mulholland / ReutersQueen Mum
As a former British colony, the US could be the next "associate member" of the Commonwealth - thanks to President Donald Trump's reported love of the UK and Queen Elizabeth II. The plan, which is reportedly being backed by the Queen, is for the Commonwealth Society to open a branch in the US, according to The Telegraph. "The UK rather left this treasure in the attic, and forgot about it because people were so glued to Brussels," said Michael Lake, the director of the Royal Commonwealth Society.

The move comes amid efforts to use the Commonwealth as a platform to develop international relations in a number of areas, such as foreign policy and trade. Lake said that the move had been encouraged by Trump and the 'Bad Boys of Brexit' - a title given to former UKIP leader Nigel Farage and his followers by UKIP donor Arron Banks.

Back in December, Lake said in a letter to Trump that the move would allow the UK and US to "find imaginative ways" to collaborate. The letter was delivered to Trump by Farage, who has reportedly encouraged the move in talks with senior aides and the President's chief strategist Steve Bannon, as he believes the Commonwealth's principles would suit Trump's foreign policy outlook.

Comment: "We have adopted a policy of getting branches of the Commonwealth in non-commonwealth countries." Sounds a bit...invasive, crafty, imperial? If the principals and principles remain the same, it doesn't matter what you call it or how it is defined -- it is ultimately an ex-empire with a new guise to anchor itself, unite its dutiful "children" around it and rise again.

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Binoculars

Britain's new watchdog: UK terror threat highest level since '70s


RT
Sun, 26 Feb 2017 15:31 UTC
Max Hill
© The TelegraphTerror Chief Max Hill
The UK is at its highest risk of a terror attack since the IRA bombing campaign of the 1970s, according to Britain's new watchdog for terrorism laws.

Max Hill, a new independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, said that radical Islamists were actively targeting UK cities and that there is an "enormous ongoing risk which none of us can ignore." "So I think that there is undoubtedly significant ongoing risk which is at least as great as the threat to London in the Seventies when the IRA were active on the mainland," Hill is cited as saying in an interview with Telegraph.

Speaking in his first major interview since his appointment, Hill said he was increasingly concerned that the imminent return of hundreds of native Britons, who left the country to fight for the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), may stir radical ideologies. "It's an enormous concern that large numbers - we know this means at least hundreds of British citizens who have left this country in order to fight - are now returning or may be about to return," Hill said.

Comment: Other pertinent content from the Telegraph interview:
Is Mr Hill prepared to stand his ground? "I have never been an employee of Government," he notes, adding: "I won't have any hesitation in expressing and maintaining my view."

Despite the threat Mr Hill - whose role is to scrutinise government legislation - opposes "draconian" measures that would imperil free speech online. He declines to back extra laws to force Facebook, Twitter and other social media giants to take down extremist content, proposing instead more international co-operation between governments.

Mr. Hill's views and concerns:

Expressed "enormous concern" at the imminent return of hundreds of British jihadists who have been fighting for Isil in Syria;

Warned that British teenagers as young as 14 are being radicalised by extremist videos and hate speech online;

Promised to stand up to Theresa May if he believes her administration's policies will harm British society;

Defended ministers who approved a reported £1 million compensation payment to Ronald Fiddler, the Guantanamo Bay detainee who this month carried out a suicide bomb attack in Iraq;

Pledged to review Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures amid concerns they are an "extraordinarily serious infringement" on freedom. [TPIMs, a form of control order that can restrict a person's movement or financial activity. He calls the orders an "extraordinarily serious infringement" on people's lives and, while careful to insist they remain "necessary", appears to caution their use.]


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Attention

Trump tells FBI: Find leakers now!

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Fri, 24 Feb 2017 00:00 UTC
Trump and tweet
© CBS News
US President Trump is piling the pressure on to the FBI to find the leakers from within the US intelligence community who brought down General Flynn and who have been trying to destabilise his administration. In two toughly worded tweets he has taunted the FBI for failing to track the leakers previously, both under his administration and during previous administrations. [tweeted message above]

The background to these tweets is that there is almost certainly growing shock and dismay within the US intelligence community that the President is treating the leaks as a criminal matter. As Trump himself says in his tweets, members of the US intelligence community have been leaking information to the media for years, and have got into the habit of thinking they can do so with impunity. Moreover there is no doubt that the Obama administration actually encouraged them to leak as part of its system of news management.

This President is different and - as I have written previously - the leakers have put themselves in his power by crossing over into outright illegality in their campaign to bring down General Flynn. That the FBI is for its part horrified at being ordered to carry out the leak investigation is completely unsurprising since - as Trump says in his tweets - some of the leakers who were involved in bringing down General Flynn almost certainly belong to the FBI.

Comment: When you command a clean house, you also have to take out the garbage.

See also:

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Attention

Deliberate deception: No amount of UN propaganda qualifies as humanitarian aid

Jean Perrier
New Eastern Outlook
Sun, 26 Feb 2017 00:00 UTC
US ammunition
While Russia supplies humanitarian aid to Syria, the US sends weapons to terrorists.
Last month, Helsinki hosted an international conference on the humanitarian situation in Syria, resulting in the launch of a regional refugee plan for the next two years, focused on assisting Syria's neighboring states in dealing with the refuge crisis. In accordance with this plan, UN officials seek 4.6 billion dollars worth of humanitarian aid to provide relief both to the Syrian refugees and the communities that provide them shelter. A spokesman for UN Secretary General Stefan Dyuzharrik emphasized the fact that the funds are going to help some 4.7 million refugees from Syria and 4.4 million people who assist them in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt. At the same time, as it's been noted by Dyuzharrik, these funds are not meant to provide assistance to 13.5 million people in Syria itself.

So who is going provide those peaceful Syrians, who neither have the capacity nor the money to leave the country, with humanitarian aid?

According to UN estimates, out of more than 13.5 million Syrians that have found themselves in dire need of humanitarian assistance, some 6.3 million people are internally displaced persons, while another 5 million live in remote areas and destroyed cities with no infrastructure to support them.

Unfortunately, one is forced to admit that the absolute majority of Western countries are reluctant to provide any form of assistance to the Syrian population, who have witnessed their everyday life consumed by the the war. In particular, a full month has passed after the complete liberation of Aleppo, but no international humanitarian organization has made a single step to provide real assistance to the civilian population of the city.
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