Puppet MastersS


Bomb

60 killed, over 100 injured as five suicide car bombers detonated explosives at army base in Mali

A view of damage after a suicide car bomb attack on a military camp in Gao, Mali January 18, 2017 in this still image taken from video
© Reuters TV / ReutersA view of damage after a suicide car bomb attack on a military camp in Gao, Mali January 18, 2017 in this still image taken from video
Dozens of people have been killed and scores more wounded as five suicide car bombers detonated explosives at a military base in the city of Gao, northern Mali, according to a government statement cited by local state media.

On Wednesday, at around 9 am local time, a car packed with explosives entered a compound where a meeting of government and pro-government forces was taking place. Minutes later, the five occupants detonated the bomb.

The office of Mali's president late Wednesday put the provisional death toll at 60, with 115 wounded, AP reported. Al Mourabitoun, a militant group affiliated with al Qaeda, has claimed responsibility for the blast, the Mauritanian news agency Alakhbar reported.

President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has declared three days of national mourning in the aftermath of the attack, the worst to hit the Saharan country in years.



The Gao base houses the Joint Operational Mechanism for regional security, through which government forces and local militia coordinate joint patrols of the area. The area around the compound is supposed to be secure, with checkpoints manned by UN, French and Malian troops. The French President François Hollande even toured the base days earlier.

Document

Largest 2017 threat for Sweden is 'lone wolf' Islamist assaults - special security force report

Policeman next to police vehicle
© Emil Langvad / Reuters
Individual attacks performed by radicalized Islamists is considered the biggest threat in Sweden for 2017, according to country's special security force report.

The document was compiled by Nationellt Centrum För Terrorhotbedömning (NCT), a group consisting of staff from Sweden's security police.

The report named Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) the main threat, but notes that terrorist attacks are likely to be carried out by someone inspired by the terrorist groups' actions, rather than orchestrated by an organization.

"The biggest risk we're seeing is the individual player, who has been inspired and perhaps radicalized, almost on their own. In our view, that risk is greater than a major coordinated attack with several actors similar to Paris for example," Mats Sandberg, head of NCT, told Swedish public radio on Wednesday.

Attention

Chatham House warns: Trump's personality will have serious impact on foreign policy

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump
© Shannon Stapleton / ReutersU.S. President-elect Donald Trump
Donald Trump's "brash, thin-skinned" personality is likely to have serious impacts on allies and enemies alike, according to a report by UK think tank Chatham House.

The extensive study, 'America's International Role Under Donald Trump,' speculates on the impact Trump will have on the world when he takes office on Friday.

Its findings include concerns that Trump's "brash, unpredictable, contradictory and thin-skinned" character will affect how he and the US operates in the world.

The authors warn that the Republican's inward-looking views are likely to shape how he deals with, among other things, NATO.

"While he may not reject America's long-standing alliances and associated organizations, such as the US - Japan relationship and NATO, he is likely to offer them significantly less support than did previous presidents," the report suggests.

Comment: See also: Intelligence community is waging open warfare against Trump's foreign policy


Propaganda

Syria: The 'barrel bomb' farce - consign it to the propaganda graveyard

Barrel bomb

"Every time one of these barrels strikes, it is the seismological equivalent of a 7.6 magnitude earthquake, and it happens around 50 times a day. (In Syria)You can't dial 911. You can't dial the fire service. You can't call the local police department. They don't exist." ~ James Le Mesurier, British ex-military trainer of the NATO-state, multi-million-dollar-funded White Helmets, based in Gaziantep, Turkey.


In an interview with CNN in May 2015, this is the claim made by British mercenary trainer of the White Helmets to Dr Sanjay Gupta. Again, in June 2015, Le Mesurier made a similar claim to an audience during a speech at The Performance Theatre, Lisbon entitled very grandly, "Act 1: Witnesses to history in the making".

On the front page of the fraudulently named Syria Civil Defence aka the NATO state sponsored, White Helmets, there is the same claim made by the extensively discredited, Ammar Al Salmo, "leader" of the Syria Civil Defence in Aleppo:

Our Activities
Al Salmo's "evidence" was pivotal to the US alliance claims that, on 21st September 2016, Russian jets had targeted a humanitarian convoy to the west of Aleppo - Urum al Kubra, causing international outcry and almost precipitating a terrifying escalation of the conflict between Russia and the US on Syrian soil. Claims that were universally debunked, as were so many before them. Syricide on Twitter produced a video that demonstrates the grave anomalies in the Al Salmo report, that was used to trigger international outrage against Russia and the Syrian government.


In November 2016, Raed Saleh, president of the White Helmets and "humanitarian" poster boy for the international community supporting the terrorist support group, gave an acceptance speech for the Right Livelihood Award. During this speech, Saleh reinforced the barrel bomb/earthquake imagery and increased the magnitude to a whopping 8:0

The Right Livelihood Award
Here is the segment of the speech in which Saleh presents the barrel bomb case.


Just after the liberation of East Aleppo by the Syrian Arab Army and allies, BBC Radio 4 interviewed James Le Mesurier who trotted out the usual platitudes regarding his band of "selfless humanitarians", described, universally as "Nusra Front civil defence" by Syrian civilians freed from almost five years of Nusra Front-led terrorist and extremist imprisonment, supported by the interventionist alliance of the US, UK, EU, Gulf States, Turkey, Israel, Canada, Jordan & Australia & Co.

Snakes in Suits

Davos elite fret about inequality over vintage wine and canapés

Swiss special police forces take position next to a sign reading Davos
© AFP/ Fabrice Coffrini
You have perhaps noticed that in many countries, history-altering numbers of people have grown enraged at the economic elite and their tendency to hog the spoils of globalization. This wave of anger has delivered Donald J. Trump to the White House, sent Britain toward the exit of the European Union, and threatened the future of global trade.

The people gathered here this week in the Swiss Alps for the annual World Economic Forum have noticed this, too. They are the elite — heads of state, billionaire hedge fund managers, technology executives.

They are eager to talk about how to set things right, soothing the populist fury by making globalization a more lucrative proposition for the masses. Myriad panel discussions are focused on finding the best way to "reform capitalism," make globalization work and revive the middle class.


Comment: The elites need to keep the masses happy in their 'prison'. That way they can keep draining more resources.


Snakes in Suits

Obama's last White House news conference: US is 'strongest country... we're going to be OK'

Barack Obama
Just two days before vacating 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, President Barack Obama reiterated his clichés about US protecting small countries, blamed bad relations with Russia on Vladimir Putin, and called situation in Israel a threat to US national security.

The first question was about his decision to commute much of whistleblower Chelsea Manning's sentence.

Attention

Not helpful: Trump's UN pick Nikki Haley shows support for Israel and hard line on Russia

Nikki Haley
© Carlos Barria / Reuters
South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, nominated to be the new US ambassador to the UN, told the Senate she would "always stand by Israel" and took a hard line on Russia, clashing with positions taken by President-elect Donald Trump.

Haley's opening remarks at her confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee revolved around the recently adopted UN Security Council Resolution 2334 condemning Israeli settlements, which she blamed on the Obama administration's decision to forego the US veto.

"I will never abstain when the United Nations takes any action that comes in direct conflict with the interests and values of the United States," Haley told the lawmakers.

Comment: Samantha Powers was bad enough, now it looks like more of the same. Good grief.


Attention

Russian military again charges US with relocating ISIS from Iraq to Syria

ISIS fighters convoy
Russian military makes public complaint that ISIS attack on Deir Ezzor and ISIS threats against Palmyra are the result of the intentional relocation by the US of ISIS fighters from Mosul to Syria.

With Palmyra still under ISIS control, and with ISIS threatening to capture Deir Ezzor, the Russian military has once against blamed the military crisis in eastern Syria on the US.

The Russian military first did so in the immediate aftermath of the fall of Palmyra in December when it complained - rightly - that the reason ISIS was able to send troops to Palmyra from Mosul and Raqqa was because ISIS is under no real pressure there.

Comment: Rudskoi's full briefing, worth watching in full:


For more on the Deir Ezzor conflict: How the U.S. prepped the ground for ISIS' takeover of Deir Ezzor


Info

Syria rushes troops and top commander to Deir Ezzor under siege by ISIS

Syrian troops
As situation in eastern desert city of Deir Ezzor under attack from ISIS remains tense, Syria rushes reinforcements and a top commander to the town, with latest reports suggesting that further ISIS attacks have been repelled.

As the military crisis in Deir Ezzor continues, the Syrian army has rushed reinforcements to the besieged desert city by helicopter, and has sent one of its toughest and most capable commanders there.

This is General Mohammad Khaddour, who previously commanded the garrison at Deir Ezzor until he was reassigned elsewhere from there a year ago.

The very latest reports from the town suggest that the Syrian military has successfully held off further attacks by ISIS, but that with the town's vital airport still cut off from the rest of the garrison the situation remains tense.

2 + 2 = 4

Mississippi Attorney General sues Google for gathering personal data on students

Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood
© Alex Wong/Getty ImagesMississippi Attorney General Jim Hood (R) at a news conference in 2015.
Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood is sparring with Google once more.

Last year, Hood and Google wound down a court dispute over Hood's investigation into how Google handles certain kinds of online content, from illegal drug ads to pirated movies. E-mails from the 2014 Sony hack showed that Hood's investigation was spurred on, in part, by lobbyists from the Motion Picture Association of America.

Now Hood has a new bone to pick with the search giant. Yesterday, Hood filed a lawsuit (PDF) against Google in Lowndes County Chancery Court, saying that the company is gathering personal data on students who use Google's G Suite for Education, (previously called Google Apps for Education).

In a statement, Hood said that "due to the multitude of unclear statements provided by Google," his investigators don't know exactly what information is being collected.

"Through this lawsuit, we want to know the extent of Google's data mining and marketing of student information to third parties," Hood said. "I don't think there could be any motivation other than greed for a company to deliberately keep secret how it collects and uses student information."