Puppet MastersS


Rocket

N. Korea to produce nuclear warhead ICBM by end of 2017


RT
Sun, 08 Jan 2017 10:52 UTC
missile
© KCNA / ReutersTest launch medium long-range ballistic rocket Hwasong-10.
Pyongyang aims to develop a nuclear warhead placed on an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of hitting the US by the end of 2017 or early 2018, a former N. Korean diplomat said. Earlier, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un announced in his New Year's message that preparations for a test-launch of ICBMs were in the 'final stage.'

"North Korea has set the goal of developing miniaturized nuclear weapons that can fit atop a missile capable of reaching the US by the end of 2017 or early 2018 as it takes into account political transitions in South Korea and the US," Thae Yong-ho, former North Korean diplomat who defected in July and currently lives in London, told Yonhap. He said that a lot will depend on Seoul and Washington's response.

"Kim's message indicates that North Korea has completed the development of mid-range missiles with only [tests of] ICBMs being left. It throws questions to Seoul and Washington over what they will do," Thae said. Thae Yong-ho was North Korea's deputy ambassador to the United Kingdom prior to defecting with his wife and two sons to South Korea in 2016.

Later on Sunday, North Korea claimed it could test launch an ICBM at any time from any location. "The ICBM will be launched anytime and anywhere determined by the supreme headquarters of the DPRK [the Democratic People's Republic of Korea]," a Foreign Ministry spokesman said, as cited by KCNA news agency.

Comment: Regardless that the THAAD missile system is really aimed at Russia and China and is ineffective for countering N. Korean assaults, N. Korea has a legitimate stake in upping the game. When the US threatens other countries with bases, troops, equipment, weaponry, drills and patrols, others are mandated to counter with protective and aggressive upgrades in response. It becomes a spiral with no end. Until it does. Reboot humanity, lesson not learned.

See also: Pyongyang's threat of ICBM rocket test launch: Trump declares 'Won't happen!'

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Whistle

Bahrain: Repression, theocratic supremacism exposed

Catherine Shakdam
RT
Sun, 08 Jan 2017 11:35 UTC
Bahrain flag, Arab Spring
© Asharq Al-Awsat / Paul HansenThe epicenter of the Bahraini 'Arab Spring' uprising was the Pearl Roundabout in the middle of the capital Manama. The security forces of the regime, with the help of Saudi military personnel brutally quelled the demonstrations, killing many.
The human rights black hole no one wants to talk about for fear of exposing imperialism fingerprints, Bahrain has died a thousand oppressions under the unrepentant gaze of western capitalism - the monarchy to be sustained so that a region could be tamed.

Bahrain has officially gone backwards in its reform process. In a last-ditch attempt to crackdown on the opposition, the al-Khalifa monarchy has now chosen to tighten its grip on the kingdom by giving its security apparatus exceptional powers against all dissidents. The term 'dissident' here applies to whoever imagines oneself free.

On January 5, Bahrain's public prosecutor, Ahmed al-Dosari, announced in a decree that officers, non-commissioned officers and members of the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom's domestic spy service, the National Security Agency, were granted arrest powers "limited" to terrorism cases, the state-run Bahrain News Agency reported.

While it is likely Bahrain's run-in with brutal oppression and unpalatable barbarism has escaped your news feed, that is unfortunate because for five long years the kingdom island has burnt under the fire of theocratism, failing to manifest into political reality a people's democratic dream. Bahrain is simply too much of a geopolitical pressure point for our western capitals to consider losing it to political self-determination.

The reason is that Bahrain offers an invaluable military vantage point against the rising might of the Axis of Resistance, this grand monster western imperialism fears more than the plague itself since it speaks of liberation and socio-political empowerment. And then of course there is this little thing we call the 'World Oil Route'.

Comment: Layers upon layers hide the swamp underneath the geo-political situation present today in countries like Bahrain and others under the influence of ME royalty and Western hegemony. We must always determine cui bono, who benefits, to stay the course in determining motive, method and culpability among the influential and hidden movers and shakers. All too evident are the victims.

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Camcorder

Israeli diplomat recorded plotting 'take-down' of UK MPs

Ian Cobain, Ewen MacAskill
The Guardian
Sat, 07 Jan 2017 17:50 UTC
Shai Masot
© al JazeeraIsraeli embassy official Shai Masot discussing 'taking down' pro-Palestinian MPs at a restaurant in London in October.
An Israeli embassy official has been caught on camera in an undercover sting plotting to "take down" MPs regarded as hostile, including foreign office minister Sir Alan Duncan, an outspoken supporter of a Palestinian state.

In an extraordinary breach of diplomatic protocol, Shai Masot, who describes himself as an officer in the Israel Defence Forces and is serving as a senior political officer at the London embassy, was recorded by an ­undercover reporter from al-Jazeera's investigative unit speaking about a number of British MPs.

The Israeli ambassador, Mark Regev, apologised to Duncan on Friday. An Israeli spokesman said Regev made clear that "the embassy considered the remarks completely ­unacceptable". The Israeli embassy said Masot "will be ending his term of employment with the embassy shortly". Masot declined to comment or to elaborate on what he meant when he said he wanted to "take down" a number of MPs.

Masot had been speaking to Maria Strizzolo, a civil servant who was formerly an aide to another Conservative minister. Also present was a man they knew as Robin, whom they believed to be working for Labour Friends of Israel, a pressure group. In fact, Robin was an undercover reporter.

Strizzolo, discussing with Masot how to discredit MPs, said: "Well, you know, if you look hard enough, I'm sure that there is something that they're trying to hide." Later she added: "A little scandal, maybe."


Comment: If not direct, verbal admittance with exploratory intent, the chatter was at least a running topic of concern/sarcasm over several conversations. It doesn't take much to go from 'smoking fun' to 'smoking gun' for someone with IDF background and an Israeli agenda.

From the Independent on potential target Duncan:
Sir Alan [Duncan] sparked criticism from prominent pro-Israel groups in 2014, when he described settlement building in the Occupied Palestinian Territories as an "ever-deepening stain on the face of the globe". The former International Development Secretary also equated the situation in the divided West Bank city of Hebron to "apartheid".


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Bullseye

Extended state of emergency costs 6,000 more Turks their jobs


RT
Sat, 07 Jan 2017 06:27 UTC
Erdogan point
© EurActiv.comExtended state of emergency, extended fate of elimination
After extending its state of emergency this week, Turkey has issued three decrees that have resulted in the dismissal of over 6,000 state and private sector employees. The new rules also allow the government to tighten control over the internet. The new decrees, numbered 679, 680, and 681, published late Friday in the Official Gazette, appear to be aimed at alleged members of the Fethullah Organization (FETO), which Ankara blames for the failed coup attempt on July 15.
According to the new decrees, 149 members of the navy, 164 from the air force, and 838 civil servants from the Ministry of Health have been dismissed from their jobs. Also, 1,699 employees have been dismissed in the Ministry of Justice, including eight members of the Council of State and one from the Supreme Electoral Council.

In addition, 2,687 police officers, including 53 high-ranked commissioners and 919 chief officers, have been removed from the Security General Directorate. Besides government institutions, 649 people have been dismissed from universities, and 83 associations shut down. To deal with the alleged overseas threat, four military attaches posted in Turkish diplomatic missions in the US, Russia, Italy, and the Netherlands have been fired.
Under the new set of laws, Turkish citizens who reside abroad have 90 days to return to Turkey after receiving a judicial summons. Failure to return within that time frame could result in loss of citizenship.

The new decrees also expand government powers to tighten control over the internet. Police are now authorized to access the identity information of internet users.

Comment: Paranoia Power Purge: True to form, Erdogan is wasting no time in broadening his circle of elimination, trying to excise any and all that might pose a threat or question his authority. He has an extended three months, and then what...another? At least the 11 banished newspapers are being allowed back in circulation, but under whose rules?

See also: Turkey: Lawmakers to vote on an emergency state extension

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Bizarro Earth

Propaganda alert! Europe between a "rock and a hard place" w/ Trump and Putin

Natalie Nougayrède
The Guardian
Sat, 07 Jan 2017 17:21 UTC
Trump Putin
European capitals have been busy sending discreet emissaries to New York to sound out Donald Trump's intentions. Angela Merkel, who on 9 November delivered a blunt warning to the US president-elect, sent her close adviser Christoph Heusgen to meet General Michael Flynn, the new national security adviser, in late December. François Hollande, who commented during Trump's campaign that it made him want to "throw up", sent his diplomatic adviser, Jacques Audibert. Now Theresa May has announced that she will travel to Washington to meet Trump directly in the spring. But European leaders are still at a loss as to what to expect from the man - hardly surprising when major foreign policy pronouncements are made via Twitter. "We're in another world" one German official recently told me, after pointing to how closely Merkel had worked with Obama on Ukraine and other issues.

Everything that is mind-boggling and distressing about Trump for liberal Americans is even more so for democratic Europeans, and that's because of the angst attached to geopolitics. With Trump about to settle in the White House and Putin gloating in the Kremlin, two illiberals who like zero-sum games, Europe finds itself dramatically caught between a rock and a hard place.

The rock is Trump's propensity to disparage alliances and show sympathy for illiberal European politicians. The hard place is Putin's expectation that more, not fewer, opportunities lie ahead to further his foreign policy goals - not least a rewriting of Europe's architecture, to Russia's benefit. Noises in central Europe that Trump will be keenly interested in the region because his wife was born in Slovenia smack of either irony or despair.


Comment: For the spineless tools in European government, yes, we imagine it does feel like a rock and a hard place. For anyone with a brain, however, it's more like a breath of fresh air.

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Arrow Up

Wikileaks Offers $20,000 Reward For Info On Obama Admin Destroying Records


The Antimedia
Wed, 04 Jan 2017 18:06 UTC
Assange Obama
WikiLeaks is offering a $20,000 reward to anyone who exposes the destruction of "significant records" by a member of the Obama administration. In a tweet on Tuesday evening, Wikileaks said "We are issuing a US$20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest or exposure of any Obama admin agent destroying significant records," however, it has not explicitly alleged that the administration is suspected of inappropriately eradicating material.
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War Whore

'Dumbest fighter program ever conceived': Defense analyst calls on Trump to cancel $trillion disaster F-35


Sputnik
Sun, 08 Jan 2017 19:01 UTC
F35 plane
© Flickr/ Gonzalo Alonso
US President-elect Donald Trump should cancel the "irredeemable" Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, defense analyst Mike Fredenburg wrote for the National Review, calling the ill-fated fifth-generation combat aircraft "the dumbest fighter program ever conceived."

The Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program "showcases all that is wrong about our military's vendor-dominated, crony-capitalist procurement system," he said. "Unless dealt with decisively, its massive cost and its lack of capability will have a dramatically negative impact on our military's effectiveness for decades to come."

Fredenburg, who holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering and a Masters in production operations management, maintained that "fatal mistakes," which have crippled the most expansive aircraft in the Pentagon's procurement history, were made during the conceptual design process more than two decades ago. These flaws, including intractable weight and heat issues, cannot be fixed, meaning that the program is unlikely to deliver the plane it has promised.

Comment: What a tremendous waste of resources this fighter jet has been:

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Snakes in Suits

Democrats wage anti-Trump "witch hunt" for their own gain

Michael Goodwin
New York Post
Sun, 08 Jan 2017 05:28 UTC
Trump
© Getty Images
This is a first: Donald Trump is guilty of an understatement, of making a molehill out of a mountain. He called the Washington furor over Russian hacking a "witch hunt"when it is actually far more sinister and dangerous.

Witch hunts end. The Washington mob aims to make sure the election never ends and that Trump can never govern.

There are no modern precedents to the scandalous attempts to smear and undermine the president-elect. Nearly nine weeks after his victory and less than two weeks before he takes the oath, the voter-nullification plot is growing more vile.

It began when the Clinton campaign and her donors tried to overturn results in key states, then tried to steal the election outright by intimidating electors of the Electoral College.

When all that failed, the establishment forces that opposed Trump all along — the Obama White House, members of both parties, the Democratic media and Big Government activists — switched their goal to thwarting his presidency. One example: They aim to deny confirmation to as many as eight Cabinet picks.

Comment: See also: Is Trump only sane voice in DC on Russian hacking fiction?

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Dollars

Conservatives are voting to increase the debt by $9 trillion - what are they thinking?

David Lightman
The Sacramento Bee
Fri, 06 Jan 2017 17:41 UTC
politicans
© Carolyn Kaster APSen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, pauses to talk with media as he leaves Trump Tower, Nov. 15, 2016, in New York.
Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio have been adamant - the federal debt is way too high and has got to be tamed fast.

Cruz, a Republican from Texas, helped lead the 2013 fight against raising the debt limit, a fight that resulted in a partial government shutdown. Rubio, a Republican from Florida, in announcing his plans for this year, said Tuesday that "one major thing that will cost us jobs and hamstring our economy is our rising debt."

So why did they and 49 other Senate Republicans vote this week to consider a measure that says the "appropriate levels of the public debt" would rise from the current $20 trillion to $29.1 trillion in 10 years? And predict deficits of $1 trillion by the end of that period?

Because, they said, it's the first procedural step in repealing Obamacare. And they insisted the number is meaningless.

"The resolution is designed for one purpose only, to serve as a vehicle to repeal Obamacare," said Cruz.
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USA

US ruling power in deep trouble

Finian Cunningham
Sputnik News
Sun, 08 Jan 2017 17:19 UTC
Barack Obama
© AFP 2016/Saul LoebUS President Barack Obama leaves after speaking about the possible government shutdown during a budget showdown with Congress in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC, September 30, 2013.
US ruling power is in deep trouble because there are growing signs that the mass of citizens are no longer beholden to the supposed authority residing in Washington.

Once the legitimacy of would-be authorities begins to collapse in the eyes of the people, then profound political change is in the offing, as history shows us through countless empires that came and went - often ignominiously.

The so-called American Deep State comprising the military-intelligence apparatus and its operatives in the political and media establishment has put its credibility on the line over allegations of Russian interference in the US elections.

Those allegations are threadbare, indeed baseless, despite concerted, overweening attempts by the Deep State to conjure up something of substance.

The latest high-level intelligence report from the CIA, NSA, FBI and other US spy agencies on alleged Russian cyber hacking may have "wowed" President Barack Obama, various members of Congress and the corporate-controlled news media.

Not so for ordinary Americans. Among rank-and-file citizens the reaction has been underwhelming to say the least. And that should be a matter of anxiety for the ruling establishment. If the people can no longer be commanded, then the whole foundation for power begins to erode like a sandcastle.

As a New York Times report put it: "What's the big deal? asks Trump's supporters on Russian hacking report".
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