Puppet MastersS


Propaganda

UK lays waste to £2bn on propagandist 'cyber-defense' campaign against Russia


RT
Tue, 14 Feb 2017 17:50 UTC
data information computer hacking cybersecurity
© Global Look Press via ZUMA Press
The British government has shelled out almost £2 billion on bolstering its cyber-defenses while accusing Russia of launching hacking campaigns against its networks.

Queen Elizabeth II officially launched the new National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) on Tuesday, amid renewed hyperbole about Russian hackers and Kremlin threats to Britain's national security.

The new initiative aims to prevent and battle any future cyber attacks and to make the UK the safest place to work online.

Following the launch, Britain's political parties accused Russia of launching cyber attacks against them during the 2015 general election.

Newly appointed NCSC boss Ciaran Martin said "informal" talks had been held with several political groups who had asked the unit to help them protect sensitive information.

Comment: The West is up in arms over their lies falling apart at the seams. Because they apparently have no ability to question their tactics as self-destructive, the truth needs be be identified as 'weapon' used against them.

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Megaphone

'Amateurish': Russian MoD blasts Human Rights Watch claims Syrian government used chemical weapons


Sputnik
Tue, 14 Feb 2017 17:35 UTC
chemical attack simulation
© AFP 2016/ JM LOPEZ
Human Rights Watch's claims that the Syrian government troops used chemical weapons are amateurish, the Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday.

The HRW's new report states that the Syrian Army used chemical weapons in opposition-controlled areas at least eight times in 2016.

"Such reports, drafted by amateurs, citing data from social networks and stories by unknown anonymous eyewitnesses by phone, destroy the already controversial reputation of Human Rights Watch," ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov told reporters.

He stressed that in case the watchdog really wanted to examine the issue of chemical weapons in Syria, it should have started with mustard gas use by militants in September 2016 in the village of Marat-Um-Haouch.

"This crime has real witnesses, including Russian and foreign journalists, there are real victims with specific names, real weapons with traces of mustard gas and soil samples that were discovered," Konashenkov said.
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Bad Guys

ISIS appeals to idea of 'judgment day' to recruit foreign fighters


Sputnik
Tue, 14 Feb 2017 16:57 UTC
ISIS IS
© Reuters
Daesh uses the idea of a last opportunity to engage in jihad before Judgement Day as a propaganda tool to recruit foreign fighters, White House Deputy Assistant to the President Sebastian Gorka said at a panel discussion on information warfare hosted by the Heritage Foundation.

Gorka explained that in Islam the last jihad before judgment day will occur in the territory of al-Sham, meaning greater Syria.

"[T]hey are sending a very powerful message...there will be no more opportunities for you to save your soul because look at where we are, greater Syria," Gorka stated on Monday.
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Rocket

North Korea says missile launch 'self-defense', Washington calls for collective response


RT
Tue, 14 Feb 2017 17:25 UTC
North Korea missile
© KCNA / Reuters
Washington has called for a collective action in response to North Korea's latest ballistic missile test. Pyongyang considers its nuclear and missile programs necessary for protecting itself from the US.

"All efforts to advance North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile capabilities must cease," said Robert Wood, US Ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament.

"If ever there were a situation that called for international collective action to ensure our mutual security, it is this," Wood said as cited by Reuters.

Donald Trump denounced the missile launch at a press conference on Monday.

"Obviously North Korea is a big, big problem and we will deal with that very strongly," he said.
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Handcuffs

Turkish forces detain French national suspected of organizing Istanbul New Year attack


Sputnik
Tue, 14 Feb 2017 16:57 UTC
turkish police, news agency seized turkey
© Murad Sezer / Reuters
The suspected organizer of the Reina nightclub attack in Istanbul during New Year celebrations has been detained.

A.S., the French national of Turkish origin, was detained in Istanbul. He has been wanted for alleged links to the outlawed Daesh terrorist group. A.S. rent one of the flats where the perpetrator of the attack, Abdulkadir Masharipov was hiding from police.

The Reina nightclub was attacked during New Year celebrations by a man carrying a Kalashnikov assault rifle. Thirty-nine people were killed, 69 wounded. Daesh claimed responsibility for the attack.

Comment: This man is part of a 'sophisticated' network that allowed an Uzbekistan-born Abdulgadir Masharipov to train in Afghanistan and get transported to Turkey before carrying out this heinous assault. Turkish forces have since rapidly increased their crackdown on these entrenched jihadi networks, with the first months of February seeing more than 1,400 extremists detained.

Further reading: Istanbul shooter caught alive by Turkish police - admits to planning the attack in interrogation (UPDATE)

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Info

Flynn resignation: Logan Act excuse concocted - Obama violated it multiple times; most likely reasons are FBI investigation, Flynn's personality

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Tue, 14 Feb 2017 16:28 UTC
Michael Flynn
© Carlos Barria / ReutersGen. Michael Flynn (C)
The scandal that has ousted General Michael Flynn from the post of National Security Adviser is absurd and concocted. Though there were probably other reasons for his going - including his apparently poor performance in the post of National Security Adviser - his resignation is nonetheless a heavy blow for President Trump.

General Michael Flynn's resignation as National Security Adviser is by far the biggest blow President Trump has suffered since his inauguration.

As I have written previously, this is a completely concocted scandal. The most General Flynn is accused of is telling Russian ambassador Kislyak that Russia should not overreact to the sanctions President Obama imposed on Russia during the height of the Clinton leaks hysteria in December. Even the 'anonymous officials' who claim to have seen the transcript of the tapes of his conversations with Kislyak admit that he did not tell Kislyak that President Trump would cancel the sanctions. Instead all Flynn did was call for was restraint.

I cannot see how this could possibly have threatened US national security. Nor do I see how - just three weeks before Donald Trump's inauguration - it could be considered to be 'undermining' President Obama's foreign policy, which Donald Trump was publicly criticising anyway.

It seems that back in January that was also the FBI's view, and that it was reporting that after checking the transcripts of Flynn's telephone conversations with Kislyak, it could find nothing illicit in them. That is obviously right, and in any sane world that would have been the end of the whole affair.

Comment: See also:
  • National Security Advisor Flynn fired after just one month in office, supposedly for 'speaking with Russian ambassador to US'


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Pistol

Turkish police increase security operations against jihadi networks


al-Monitor
Tue, 14 Feb 2017 16:57 UTC
Turkey Turkish forces police Istanbul nightclub New Year Eve
© REUTERS/Osman OrsalPolice secure the area around an Istanbul nightclub following a New Year's Eve gun attack, Turkey, Jan. 1, 2017.
Turkish security forces in 2016 detained 2,936 people on charges of being violent Salafi jihadis. So far this year, the pace of security operations against Salafi networks is much faster.

On Feb. 5-6, in 29 cities including Ankara and Istanbul and especially in provinces close to the Syrian border, 820 people were detained on charges of being Islamic State (IS) militants or sympathizers. With this roundup, the number of accused extremist Salafists detained in the first 40 days of 2017 is now about 1,400 — almost half of the total detained in all of 2016. Among the detainees are many illegal Syrian, Central Asian and Uighur immigrants.

What's behind this unusual pace of Turkish security forces targeting violent Salafi networks in 2017, after they truncated local networks of Salafists made up of Turkish nationals in 2016?

Comment: Turkish forces have also been focusing on Fethullah Gulen 's organization in their round-up:
According to the Hurriyet newspaper, 792 suspects are believed to be members of the Fethullah Gulen Terrorist Organization (FETO), which is accused by Ankara of being behind the July 15 military coup attempt, 520 - of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), 45 — of Islamic State terrorist organization (ISIL or Daesh), and 6 - of other banned leftist terrorist groups. Out of them, a total of 147 FETO and 26 PKK alleged members have been arrested so far.


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Info

US sends admiral to launch massive Cobra Gold war games in Thailand


RT
Tue, 14 Feb 2017 17:11 UTC
multilateral military exercise known as Cobra Gold
© Chaiwat Subprasom / ReutersSoldiers from different Asia-Pacific countries attend the opening ceremony of the multilateral military exercise known as Cobra Gold, Thailand February 14, 2017.
Admiral Harry Harris, the highest-ranking US military commander to visit Thailand since a coup in 2014 placed it under military rule, has arrived to launch a joint annual military exercise, the biggest of its kind in the region.

Harris, the chief of US Pacific Command, launched the Cobra Gold exercise at a ceremony at the Sattahip Royal Thai Marine Corps on Tuesday. The multinational drill involves 29 nations, although only the US and hosting Thailand have significant forces involved - some 3,600 and 4,350 respectively.

Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, India and China sent smaller delegations, with Beijing participating only in one of the three planned phases, the civilian assistance exercise. The Chinese military were first invited to the Cobra Gold exercise in 2015.

Comment: Challenges for Thailand: New global rules in 2017: A challenge for Thailand and the World

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Binoculars

CIA files reveal agency spent years using psychics to gain intelligence on Iran

Justin Gardner
The Free Thought Project
Tue, 14 Feb 2017 16:59 UTC
psychic spies
In January, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) bowed to public pressure and published millions of once-classified documents online, so people could browse them "from the comfort of your own home." On the face of it, this is a win for transparency, but in classic bureaucratic fashion, the documents say a lot without really telling us anything useful.

They are more like an amusing trip through the eccentricities and failures of a spy agency that gained immense power after WWII through virtually unlimited funding and little oversight. Assassinations, coups, drug running, torture, and economic sabotage are not the subject of these documents, but there is plenty about UFOs, a Penthouse interview that never happened, various banal diagrams, and psychics.

That last subject is interesting in light of America's tumultuous history with Iran, beginning in 1953 when the US and UK overthrew the democratically elected Mossadegh government, installing a puppet dictator to serve western interests.

US intelligence agencies and the Pentagon got their first chance to use the psychic program, initiated in 1975, after Iranian revolutionaries seized the U.S. embassy and took 52 US personnel hostage.

Comment: See also:

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Chess

DOJ urges Seattle's federal judge to postpone further action on Trump's travel ban


RT
Tue, 14 Feb 2017 16:57 UTC
US Department of Justice
© Getty Images
The US Department of Justice has urged the federal judge in Seattle - who blocked President Donald Trump's travel ban from seven Muslim-majority countries - not to conduct any further proceedings until an appeals court reviews the lawsuit.

In their memorandum filed on Monday, the DOJ requested that US District Court Judge James Robart halt any further legal proceedings before it is decided whether a larger set of judges should be used to reconsider the decision.
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