Puppet MastersS


Snakes in Suits

Neocon think tank being paid by Japan to spread anti-Chinese propaganda


Sputnik
Wed, 01 Feb 2017 17:37 UTC
chinese new year celebration
© REUTERS/ Jason Lee
The Henry Jackson Society (HJS), a neoconservative UK think tank, is being paid a monthly stipend by the Japanese embassy in London to spread anti-Chinese propaganda - and an academic who has investigated the group has told Sputnik such operations are very much the organization's reason for being.

Media investigations suggest the HJS is paid a total of US$12,500 per month to spread anti-Chinese propaganda, via the conduit of public figures such as former British Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind.

Rifkind confirmed he had been approached by HJS in August 2016, and asked to put his name to an article titled, "How China could switch off Britain's lights in a crisis," which criticized Hinkley C, a UK-Chinese nuclear power station.

The piece claimed there may be a risk of the station having cyber-backdoors built into it by the Chinese, which could present a risk to UK national security. However, Mr. Rifkind claimed he was unaware of the funding HJS received from the Japanese embassy, and said the think tank should have informed him.
Read More...
Light Sabers

Experts: Decoding Russia's MH17 data could take minutes if Netherlands works directly with Russia


Sputnik
Wed, 01 Feb 2017 17:31 UTC
jit mh17 investigation
© Sputnik/ Vitaliy Belouso
Decoding and analyzing primary radar data provided by Russia to the Netherlands for the investigation of the flight MH17 crash in eastern Ukraine could take just minutes or hours if the data format is unconventional, experts told Sputnik.

The flight MH17 crashed in eastern Ukraine in July 2014 while flying to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam. All 298 passengers and crew aboard the aircraft died in the incident. The Ukrainian government forces and the local militias traded accusations regarding the incident, which occurred at the time of heavy fighting in the region.

The Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT) tasked with probing the crash announced in September that the MH17 airliner was allegedly downed by a Buk missile system, which they claimed had been brought from Russia and consequently returned there.

The Russian Defense Ministry cast doubt on the conclusions of the investigators, saying that no Russian missile systems, including Buk, have crossed the Russian-Ukrainian border at the time of the incident.

Comment: See also:

Read More...
Jet2

UK Home Secretary ignores 15 years of Western bombing, says Trump's travel ban is "propaganda opportunity" for ISIS


RT
Wed, 01 Feb 2017 17:03 UTC
Terrorist jihadi ISIS al Nusra al sham
© Stringer / Reuters
US President Donald Trump's travel ban threatens to become a "propaganda opportunity" for Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd told MPs.

While giving evidence before the Home Affairs Select Committee, Rudd said although the move does not amount to a "Muslim ban," people would "draw their own conclusions" about the nations that had been picked.

The seven mainly-Muslim countries covered by Trump's ban are Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

"The sources of terrorism are not to be found in the sources where the president is necessarily looking for them," she told MPs.

Responding to fears that IS may try to portray the ban as a sign of Islamophobia in the West, Rudd acknowledged the terrorist group would "use any opportunity they can to make difficulties, to create the environment they want to radicalize people, to bring them over to their side.

"It's a propaganda opportunity for them, potentially," she added.

Comment: Rudd's assertion is utterly ridiculous. ISIS wouldn't exist without the decade-plus bombing of over half a dozen different Muslim countries, and it wouldn't have flourished without Western support and aid. So please, enough with the hypocrisy.

Read More...
Arrow Down

Pepe Escobar - Are Saudi jihadis entitled to a "safe zone"?

Pepe Escobar
Sputnik News
Wed, 01 Feb 2017 17:18 UTC
Trump
© Reuters/Jonathan ErnstRepublican presidential nominee Donald Trump holds a campaign rally in Grand Junction, Colorado, US October 18, 2016.
Straight after the "extreme vetting" blitzkrieg - which, technically, is not a "Muslim ban" - President Trump called the lucidity-impaired King Salman of Saudi Arabia and "requested, and the king agreed to support" (in the words of the White House), safe zones in Syria and Yemen.

No wonder serial eyebrows were raised facing the prospect of a Trump/House of Saud alliance in Syria — which the Saudis have been destroying for years via weaponizing/cash support for "rebels" - and Yemen - which the Saudis have been bombing in an unwinnable war.

Trump and King Salman did not exchange a single word on the "Muslim ban". And why should they? Saudi Arabia is mercifully excluded from the "Muslim ban".

The official White House statement did mention a Saudi request for Trump to lead "an effort" not only to "defeat terrorism" but also to improve the Middle East socially and economically. This could be easily interpreted as the House of Saud asking Trump to lead the Arab world. It will be no doubt exciting to monitor how the pan-Arab street will manifest its "approval".

As for the safe zones, everyone is waiting for the Trump-ordered Pentagon assessment, to be led by "Mad Dog" Mattis, on how they would be enforced. Drones? Multiple Black Hawk patrols? Squadrons of fighter jets? Boots on the ground?

Certified jihadis with Saudi passports, meanwhile, enthusiastically turbo-charge their celebrations.
Read More...
Newspaper

Trump Administration freezes out CNN from interviews and staff appearances

Alexander Christoforou
The Duran
Wed, 01 Feb 2017 17:14 UTC
cnn news
Trump has taken the war against CNN "fake news" to the next level.

Politico is reporting that the Trump White House will not allow its staff and surrogates to appear on CNN, and will instead go to "places where we think it makes sense to promote our agenda.

Well, it's official...according to a note from Politico, the White House has confirmed that surrogates of the Trump administration will no longer appear on CNN and will opt to go to "places where we think it makes sense to promote our agenda."
Read More...
Handcuffs

'Criminals aren't humanity': Philippines shrugs off Amnesty International's 'war on drugs' report


RT
Wed, 01 Feb 2017 17:01 UTC
police operation in Manila
© Damir Sagolj / ReutersA body is taken out of a house where two men were killed during a drugs related police operation in Manila, Philippines October 19, 2016.
The Philippines has dismissed a report released by Amnesty International on Wednesday, which says the president's anti-drug campaign may constitute crimes against humanity, arguing that criminals "are not humanity."

When asked about the Amnesty report which expresses "deep concern" about President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre was quick to state that the campaign in no way represented crimes against humanity, despite the insinuations of the human rights organization.

"The criminals, the drug lords, drug pushers, they are not humanity. They are not humanity," Aguirre told reporters on Wednesday, as quoted by AFP.
Read More...
Attention

Panicking Tusk looking in all the wrong places for EU threats, it is because Europeans don't believe in the EU anymore


RT
Wed, 01 Feb 2017 16:45 UTC
Donald Tusk
© Ints Kalnins / Reuters
EU citizens are the most taxed in the world, they see inflation eating their savings; they are unhappy, Luc Rivet, Editor in Chief, Le Peuple magazine, told RT. Mischael Modrikamen, Belgian lawyer and 'People's Party' leader, also contributed his thoughts.

On Tuesday, the President of the European Council Donald Tusk described US President Donald Trump as one of the external threats to the EU, along with China, Russia, and radical Islam.
Read More...
X

Trump's trade chief, Peter Navarro, brands Germany a 'currency manipulator,' says TTIP is dead

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Wed, 01 Feb 2017 00:00 UTC
Peter Navarro
© BloombergPeter Navarro, Chief Trade Advisor
Peter Navarro, Donald Trump's chief trade adviser, says euro is an 'implicit Deutsche Mark' through which Germany exploits its trade competitors. Peter Navarro, the head of President Trump's new National Trade Council, is accusing Germany of 'currency manipulation' and is saying that TTIP is dead.

Navarro is being quoted by the Financial Times as calling the euro an "implicit Deutsche Mark" whose low valuation is giving Germany an unfair trade advantage against its competitors - including the US. On that basis he says that the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership ("TTIP") currently under negotiation between the US and the EU, is unrealisable.

According to the Financial Times this is what Navarro said:
A big obstacle to viewing TTIP as a bilateral deal is Germany, which continues to exploit other countries in the EU as well as the US with an 'implicit Deutsche Mark' that is grossly undervalued. The German structural imbalance in trade with the rest of the EU and the US underscores the economic heterogeneity [diversity] within the EU — ergo, this is a multilateral deal in bilateral dress.
These comments will fuel even more concern in Germany at the direction the Trump administration is taking.

Comment: Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, has listed the US and Donald Trump as an 'existential threat' to the EU. Inequality has been discovered! The bandaid has been ripped off. It is classic EU outing the blame to all but themselves instead of looking to Brussels, the seat of EU fumbling and chaos, and Germany, the seat of currency manipulation.

Read More...
Pistol

Amnesty International claims Duterte's anti-drug campaign is a 'crime against humanity'


RT
Tue, 31 Jan 2017 22:31 UTC
body bag
© Damir Sagolj / ReutersManilla: Body is removed from a house where two men were killed during a drugs-related police operation.
Officials involved in the Philippines' war on drugs, launched by President Rodrigo Duterte last year, are targeting innocents, faking evidence, and profiting from murder as they carry out thousands of extrajudicial killings, says advocacy group Amnesty International.

"Amnesty is deeply concerned that the deliberate and widespread killings of alleged drug offenders, which appear to be systematic, planned and organized by the authorities, may constitute crimes against humanity," says a newly-published report.

Citing police statistics, the NGO says over 7,000 people have been killed by the authorities or unidentified armed groups since Duterte assumed his post in June last year.

According to Amnesty, which studied a subset of over 30 fatal cases, the scenario detailed in official documents is usually "startlingly similar." Police claim they were attempting to detain a suspect, either at home or in the middle of a set-up deal, and then say that he attempted to resist by pulling a weapon, at which point he is gunned down. Over 2,500 suspects, and 35 officers have been killed in such operations.


Comment: Duterte's drug mandate has become a flimsy justification to outright kill people. If what Amnesty says is true, why would anyone implement this kind of policy with no strict oversight in place to keep the guilty separated from the innocent and his enforcers in line...unless this is Duterte's way of powering up his presidency. Unfortunately, allowing his police to 'get away with murder' gives them lucrative power and leverage. Without correction, things will stay the same or escalate. With correction, Duterte may find himself at their mercy. A trap.

Read More...
Pills

President Trump presses big pharma to increase US production & cut drug prices


RT
Wed, 01 Feb 2017 16:43 UTC
US President Donald Trump meets with Pharma industry
© Yuri Gripas / ReutersUS President Donald Trump meets with Pharma industry representatives at the White House in Washington, January 31, 2017
US President Donald Trump met with leaders of the pharmaceutical industry on Tuesday, calling on them to bring production back to the United States, promising to cut corporate taxes and reduce regulation.

Meeting in the Oval Office with the big pharma executives from Amgen, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Celgene, Eli Lilly, and Novartis, Trump said they had done a "terrific job over the years" but that prices for drugs must come down.

"So you have to get your companies back here. We have to make products... We have to get rid of a tremendous number of regulations," he said.

The president pointed out that competition in the drug market had dissipated, thanks to sluggish approval prices and an overbearing regulatory system. Trump vowed to lower the costs of prescription drugs in the country by increasing competition.
Read More...