Puppet MastersS


Snakes in Suits

Rupert Murdoch sat in on Michael Gove's Donald Trump interview


RT
Thu, 09 Feb 2017 20:28 UTC
U.S. President Donald Trump (R) speaks to media mogul Rupert Murdoch
© Carlo Allegri / ReutersU.S. President Donald Trump (R) speaks to media mogul Rupert Murdoch
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch secretly sat in on British politician Michael Gove's interview with US President Donald Trump, according to an exclusive report by the Financial Times.

Gove scored a coup for the Murdoch-owned British newspaper the Times when he secured the first UK interview with Trump since his election victory.

The Tory MP and former cabinet minister interviewed the US president at Trump Tower in Manhattan. According to the FT, the report failed to mention that Murdoch himself was present during the interview.

Two people have since confirmed the media mogul was in the room, according to the FT, despite him not appearing in any publicity photos of the event.
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Camcorder

Syrian President Assad to Belgian Media: US-Russia cooperation could benefit Syria & wider world


SANA
Thu, 09 Feb 2017 19:28 UTC
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
President Bashar al-Assad stressed that Syria is owned by the Syrians and that the peace is two things: fighting terrorists and terrorism, stopping the flowing of terrorism, every kind of logistical support. Second, dialogue between the Syrians to decide the future of their country and the whole political system.
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Chess

House of Commons passes bill giving PM power to start EU withdrawal


RT
Thu, 09 Feb 2017 19:04 UTC
brexit sign
© Global Look Press via ZUMA Press
The Brexit bill allowing the UK government to begin the formal process of leaving the European Union has passed the final stages in the House of Commons leaving Britain potentially just one month away from triggering Article 50.

The European Union (Notice of Withdrawal) Bill sailed through an initial vote last week by a margin of 498 to 114. It past its final Commons test on Wednesday night, by 494 votes to 122, keeping the government's March timetable to trigger Brexit talks on track. The bill must now be approved by the House of Lords before it becomes law.


Comment: The House of Lords will be facing a great deal of pressure to pass the bill, as a source has said that the Lords can either pass the bill or face being abolished. The Brexit secretary is adding pressure to force the Lords to conform:
Following Wednesday night's vote, Brexit secretary David Davis called on peers to do their "patriotic duty." He told unelected peers not to try and change the simple two-clause bill as it was passed by MPs unamended and "reflected the will of the people."

Davis says the government had seen a series of attempts to alter the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill before MPs overwhelmingly voted in favor of passing it unchanged.

Asked by Sky whether the House of Lords would face recriminations if it amended the bill, he said: "The simple thing is the Lords is a very important institution.

"I expect it to do its job and to do its patriotic duty and actually give us the right to go on and negotiate that new relationship [with the EU]."

Speaking on the BBC's Newsnight program, Tory MP Suella Fernandes said a refusal to pass the bill would "call into question the position of the House of Lords."

The vote came after three days of debate in which pro-EU MPs tried to pass amendments guaranteeing Parliament a bigger role in the negotiations with the bloc, in attempts to prevent a 'hard Brexit' in which Britain would lose access to the EU single market.

The amendments were defeated, but the government promised lawmakers on Tuesday they would get a vote on an exit deal before it is finalized by the EU.
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Take 2

UK Channel 4's 'debunking' of Eva Bartlett's on-the-ground reporting from Aleppo is more fake news

Tim Hayward
timhayward.wordpress.com
Mon, 06 Feb 2017 00:00 UTC
moderate rebels
© AFP"We're here to bring you freedom and democracy."
Difficulties faced news organisations attempting to cover events in the war in Syria, particularly in the eastern part of Aleppo when under siege. Western journalists had stopped even trying to enter that area for fear of being kidnapped, or worse, at the hands of one or other of the armed factions holding the area. International relief agencies and NGO's were not to be found on the ground either, for the same reasons.

This is one of the two main problems for media coverage of Syria that Eva Bartlett highlighted at a UN press conference in November 2016 when talking about her first hand experience of conditions in Aleppo.[1] Asked by a journalist from a mainstream publication why she seemed to be challenging "all these absolutely document-able facts that we've seen from the ground", she pointed out that he was referring to a hearsay narrative, not facts, because "sources on the ground? You don't have them."

Channel 4 News editor Ben de Pear had earlier in 2016 grappled with this problem, of "safe access denied to objective independent journalists from outside", and had devised a strategy for circumventing it. He commissioned coverage from a Syrian woman called Wa'ad Alkateab who could move safely in the opposition-held area. She went on to make a series of films - Inside Aleppo - that, thanks to the prominence Channel 4 gave them, became influential in forming public opinion about the circumstances in Aleppo.
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USA

Best of the Web: Pepe Escobar: Will Trump embody the Bannon doctrine?

Pepe Escobar
Sputnik News
Thu, 09 Feb 2017 18:39 UTC
Steve Bannon
© AP Photo/Evan VucciBannon's demotion coincided with Trump's total abandonment of his principles.
Amidst the deep recesses of Trumpology - the new discipline crammed with "experts" trying to decode the new American presidency - it has become fashionable to deride Chief White House strategist Steve Bannon as a Jurassic Park-style sociopathic swamp creature, a "quasi-fascist" comparable to Islamofascists.

(Even though Bannon only metaphorically qualifies as a head-chopper.)

Dismissing Bannon as a sort of 21st century remixed Machiavelli/Richelieu in cargo pants and dodgy ties amounts to a juvenile cheap shot. Kelyanne Conway may be a "knife fighter with words"; Jared Kushner may have taken the D-train from Manhattan real estate deals to shadow Secretary of State sitting in the situation room. But the man to study in excruciating detail has got to be Bannon, who eats history and political theory essays for breakfast. Dismiss him at one's own peril.

The post-truth Machiavelli behind the most powerful of Princes sees our current geopolitical juncture as the ultimate battle between Good and Evil (no, Nietzsche's verdict, for him, does not apply.) "Good" in our case is Christian civilization and its history of two millennia - with a possible place of honor for the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution.

In contraposition, "evil" portends a cast of "existential threat" characters - from technocrats/post-modernity elites/ secularists (the enemy within) to Islam (the enemy at large). Even China, due to atheist Confucianism, might be portrayed as "evil".

So the stakes are clear-cut. Nuance is for traitors. And the only path to victory, according to the Bannon doctrine, is a devastating Shock and Awe against the "system". I have previously referred to Bannon's Leninist approach on how to capture and maintain power and destroy the old order. Yet what's coming is more like Lenin meets Apocalypse Now.
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Eagle

What's behind National Security Adviser Gen. Flynn hatred of Iran?

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Thu, 09 Feb 2017 17:15 UTC
Michael Flynn national security advisor White House
© Andrew Harrer/BloombergMichael Flynn, U.S. national security advisor, arrives to a swearing in ceremony of White House senior staff.
In an interview last year with Al-Jazeera General Flynn indicated that he bears a massive grudge against Iran for its actions in Afghanistan and Iraq during the Bush administration's wars there.

As the Trump administration makes its first positive signal towards calming relations with China, it continues its relentless drumbeat of hostility towards Iran.

This begs the question of why an administration which appears otherwise committed to pulling back from international conflicts so that it can focus its energies on defeating Jihadi terrorism and ISIS is so fixed in its hostility to Iran?

In an earlier article I discussed how the system of alliances Iran has created to protect itself from the sort of attack Saddam Hussein launched against it in 1980 is all but guaranteed to provoke US hostility.

Comment: Further justifying a hatred of Iran on the part of the likes of Flynn is the fact that Iranians hold a massive grudge against the U.S. - with good reason - and are more than vocal about it. As Mike Whitney put it recently:
It's worth noting that the Shah was installed in a CIA coup that triggered a nearly 40-year reign of terror for which the US is entirely responsible. ...

This is America's legacy in Iran: "Whipping, beating, electric shocks, extraction of teeth, boiling water pumped into the rectum, and rape." This is how the exceptional nation exported democracy to Iran.
And the proxy war continues between the two nations: Iran war rhetoric and the 'Trump-ordered' dawn raid in Yemen: WWIII isn't 'coming' - It's happening NOW

The only solution in such a situation (or at least the first step in that direction) would be for a disinterested third-party to help negotiate relations on a new footing. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem likely given the emotion and egos involved.

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Bad Guys

'US has a lot of killers': Why Trump was castigated for telling the truth

Robert Parry
Consortium News
Thu, 09 Feb 2017 18:03 UTC
Bill O' Reilly: Medijske agencije naredile zaposlenima da unište Trumpa

Exclusive: President Trump says much that is untrue, but he draws some of Official Washington's greatest opprobrium when he speaks the truth, such as noting that senior U.S. officials have done a lot of killing, writes Robert Parry.

Gaining acceptance in Official Washington is a lot like getting admittance into a secret society's inner sanctum by uttering some nonsensical password. In Washington to show you belong, you must express views that are patently untrue or blatantly hypocritical.

For instance, you might be called upon to say that "Iran is the principal source of terrorism" when that title clearly belongs to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf state allies that have funded Al Qaeda, the Taliban and the Islamic State. But truth has no particularly value in Official Washington; adherence to "group think" is what's important.

Comment: Trump is an outsider, and it certainly looks as though the 'insiders' are having their way with him. See:

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Snakes in Suits

Republicans 'besieged' as DCCC & Bob Creamer incite protests in Illinois


Illinois Review
Thu, 09 Feb 2017 18:03 UTC
Bob Robert Creamer
Robert Creamer
Republican members of Congress that represent districts where Hillary Clinton won in 2016 now are being targeted by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. In Illinois, the DCCC has honed in on Congressman Peter Roskam (IL-06) and downstate Congressman Rodney Davis (IL-13), who have both suddenly been besieged by a growing number of angry protesters.

Roskam was first met at his office with angry protesters, then at a Republican township meeting in Palatine last Saturday.
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Bad Guys

Why did the CIA Director visit Turkey?


Sputnik
Thu, 09 Feb 2017 18:03 UTC
Mike Pompeo testifies at the Senate
© Carlos Barria/ReutersRepresentative Mike Pompeo (R-KS) testifies before a Senate Intelligence hearing on his nomination of to be become director of the CIA at Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., January 12, 2017.
CIA director Mike Pompeo is reported to have arrived in Ankara to meet with Turkish authorities, with the Syrian crisis and joint anti-Daesh activities expected to be high on the agenda. Defense analyst Koray Gurbuz told Sputnik Turkey that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan should not agree to Washington's proposals, calling them "a trap."

Gurbuz, an expert at the Bilkent University and the former Chairman of the Turkish Veterans Council, suggested that Pompeo and Turkish authorities will also discuss Washington's support to the Syrian Kurds and the extradition of reclusive Islamic cleric Fethullah Gülen, whom Erdogan has blamed for the botched attempt to remove him from power. The unsuccessful military coup shook Ankara and Istanbul on July 16, 2016.

"US President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan covered these issues during a telephone conversation held on Tuesday," he said. "Turkey has been engaged in a fierce fight with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Ankara views the Democratic Union Party (PYD) as its offshoot in Syria. Americans have provided weapons [to the PYD]. They have de facto 'deceived' Ankara."

The PYD, a leading Kurdish political party in northern Syria, and its armed wing, known as People's Protection Units (YPG), have been one of Washington's key allies on the ground. The YPG are part of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which have been instrumental in liberating the cities of al-Shaddadi, Manbij and Tel Abyad.

Comment: Pompeo's business in Turkey likely has a lot to do with this:
What is unfolding in Yemen - and Syria, and Iraq, and elsewhere - is that the US is gradually being forced out of the Middle East, thanks to a set of coordinated moves by Russia, China and Iran. Envisioning 'World War III' as a 'grand spectacle' between great powers that ends in nuclear holocaust keeps people in fear and 'on side', distracting them from the ugly business of divvying up the planet's natural (including human) resources, and the real day-to-day horrors this brings to places like Yemen and Libya and Syria. It's not winner-takes-all 'world war'; it's risk-assessed proxy warfare. Non-western countries have learned the (until recently) hidden rules of the game; and they're in the process of applying those rules to turn the tables on the Empire.

Iran war rhetoric and the 'Trump-ordered' dawn raid in Yemen: WWIII isn't 'coming' - It's happening NOW


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Chess

Trump signs 3 executive orders to targeting drug cartels and crimes against law enforcement


RT
Thu, 09 Feb 2017 18:05 UTC
trump executive orders
© Kevin Lamarque / ReutersAttorney General Jeff Sessions hands President Donald Trump executive orders
President Donald Trump has signed three new executive orders aimed at targeting drug cartels, creating a task force to reduce crime and stopping crimes against law enforcement officers. The move came after Jeff Sessions was sworn in as attorney general.

In his first act as head of the Department of Justice, Sessions presented the three executive orders to Trump.

"I'm signing three executive actions today designed to restore safety in America," Trump said. "Very important. All very important."

During the swearing-in ceremony, Sessions said rising crime was a "dangerous, permanent trend" in the US and promised to "end this lawlessness" of illegal immigration.

The White House did not provide copies of the executive orders, nor was there any explanation given regarding what they would do. Trump only listed their titles: "Enforcing federal law with respect to the transnational criminal organizations and preventing international trafficking," "Task force on crime reduction and public safety" and "Preventing violence against federal, state, tribal and local law enforcement officials."

The president signed the orders in the Oval Office, as Vice President Mike Pence, Sessions and the attorney general's wife looked on.
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