Puppet MastersS


Pirates

ISIS-linked group in Syria brutally beheads man accused of 'sorcery'


RT
Tue, 27 Dec 2016 19:19 UTC
ISIS soldier
© Stringer / Reuters
Shocking images have emerged online purportedly showing an elderly man being publicly beheaded by Islamic State-affiliated militants in Syria for practicing 'sorcery'.

According to the independent Kurdish press agency ARA News, the execution was carried out in Syria's Daraa governorate by the Khalid Bin Al-Walid Army, a jihadist group operating in Syria under the banner of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).

The images, which were released on Tuesday, show the man being 'tried' by a militant-led court in a village. There another man, presumably a member of Islamic State's (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) religious police, reads out charges of 'sorcery' before a crowd, which includes several children.

Photos then show the prisoner blindfolded, bent over and about to be beheaded by a masked executioner.

The most gruesome of the photos shows the man with his severed head lying on his body.
Read More...
Star of David

Israel outraged at being condemned at the UN for ethnic cleansing of Palestinians

James Corbett
The Corbett Report
Tue, 27 Dec 2016 17:31 UTC
israel ethnic cleansing Palestine
From the way Israel is reacting you would think that someone had dropped a nuke on Tel Aviv.

Prime Minister Netanyahu summoned the US ambassador to deliver an official diplomatic protest.

He went public with his condemnation, too, calling the recent actions against Israel "reckless and destructive" and excoriating John Kerry and President Obama for their own part in this fiendish skullduggery.

He has ordered the Israeli diplomatic machinery to start curtailing their working ties with UN Security Council members, including minimizing diplomatic visits and denying foreign ambassadors access to the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

Not to be outdone, Rabbi Levi Shemtov, executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch, turned the National Hanukkah Menorah lighting ceremony in Washington on Sunday into a weapon of diplomacy when he squeezed in a not-so-subtle dig about the "darkness" of the UN Security Council's recent actions.

Even Newt Gingrich got in on the act, finding an excuse to blame the whole fiasco on (who else?) those dastardly Russkies.

So what unthinkable, egregious violation did the Security Council commit? Why, they dared to condemn ethnic cleansing, of course.
Read More...
Star of David

Trump as president will be a "different game" for US/Israeli relations


RT
Tue, 27 Dec 2016 17:50 UTC
trump netanyahu
© Kobi Gideon / ReutersIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) stands next to Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump during their meeting in New York, September 25, 2016
Once President-elect Donald Trump is in the White House, there will be a different game between the US and Israel. Nobody knows what kind of a game it will be, but it will be a different game, says Gideon Levy, a columnist for the Haaretz newspaper.

Tel Aviv's rage over a UN Security Council resolution calling for an end to Israeli settlements in occupied territories has been reiterated by the country's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who says that Israel cannot and will not accept it.

Netanyahu also commented on the resolution: "I ask those same countries that today wished us happy Hanukkah, how did they vote on the decision at the UN which says that this place, where we are celebrating Hanukkah, is occupied territory?"

The resolution was able to pass after the US, Israel's close ally, abstained from the vote with 14 countries voting in favor.

Israel is now taking various steps to demonstrate its discontent summoning the envoys of countries that supported the resolution and threatening to freeze aid for UN bodies.

It may even be waiting for Donald Trump to enter the White House, where the bilateral situation may change.
Read More...
Star of David

Israeli defense minister calls Paris peace summit a "scheme" designed to hurt Israel's reputation


RT
Tue, 27 Dec 2016 03:38 UTC
Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman
© Ronen Zvulun / ReutersIsraeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman
Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has lambasted the upcoming Middle East peace conference in Paris, labeling it a "scheme" designed to hurt Israel's reputation and likening it to the infamous trial of French Jewish officer Alfred Dreyfus.

Speaking in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, on Monday, Lieberman denounced the plans unveiled by the French foreign minister on Thursday to convene some 70 countries in Paris on January 15 for a peace conference devoted to the settlement of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Lieberman, who has repeatedly made headlines with his controversial statements, compared the conference to the historic trial of Alfred Dreyfus, a French artillery officer of Jewish heritage.

"There is only one difference between what they are planning in Paris [and the Dreyfus affair], last time there was only one Jew on the stand and now all of the people of Israel and the entire state of Israel," Lieberman said, Haaretz reported.

Comment: See also: Trump likely to abolish UNSC resolution on Israeli settlements in West Bank

Read More...
USA

Obama's legacy: Entire World 'disgusted' by his disastrous Foreign Policy

Matthew Allen
Russia Insider
Tue, 27 Dec 2016 18:38 UTC
obama
© White House photoThe Denier in Chief
Let us take a few moments to meditate on the last eight years.
  • The U.S. is still bogged down in Iraq.
  • The U.S. military is still protecting poppy fields in Afghanistan. It's been America's longest poppy field protection operation. And its longest war.
  • The first black president expanded AFRICOM and the shadow wars and classified drone operations in Africa.
  • He also destroyed Libya, the most prosperous, developed nation in North Africa. As expected, his justification for doing so was later revealed to be massive baloney bullshit
  • He "created a secret drones program to kill terrorist suspects worldwide without public acknowledgement or due process. Under his watch, the US has expanded the field of battle in the "war on terrorism" to a dozen countries and constructed institutions and routines of surveillance and assassination - such as the so-called 'disposition matrix' and 'Terror Tuesdays' that will have serious consequences beyond his presidency."
  • Then there's Ukraine. Don't even get us started.
  • The "Asia pivot" is also working out great. So glad that we're now provoking the Chinese in an ocean called the South China Sea.
  • And of course, there's Syria. The Obama administration's greatest, most moderate success.
  • In general, everything is terrible.

Comment: See also: Zakharova telling it like it is: Entire world 'disgusted by Obama administration's foreign policy'

Read More...
Quenelle

Iranian President Rouhani orders to prepare road map on developing relations with Azerbaijan


Sputnik
Tue, 27 Dec 2016 18:19 UTC
Baku
© Sputnik/ MURAD ORUJOVBaku
Earlier in the day, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev held a meeting with the Iranian delegation headed by Vaezi.

"Mahmoud Vaezi noted that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had ordered to prepare the road map on the development of relations with Azerbaijan, which would also contain the recommendations of the Azerbaijani president. During the meeting, the sides discussed the prospects of the bilateral relations," Aliyev's press service said citing the Iranian minister.

Relations between Iran and Azerbaijan have been improving since Rouhani became Iranian president in 2013. In an effort to boost relations and regional trade, both countries are taking part in the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) planned to link India, Iran, the Caucasus and Russia via a rail and shipping route.
Read More...
Stock Up

Growth in Chinese economy a reassuring sign for vulnerable global economy


RT
Tue, 27 Dec 2016 17:16 UTC
great wall china
© David Gray / ReutersA section of the Great Wall of China
The world's second-largest economy will meet its growth targets of 6.5 to 7 percent this year, China's state news agency Xinhua reported. The country's stable growth is a reassuring sign for a "weak and vulnerable" global economy, it added.

Maintaining stable growth won't be easy for China in 2017, Xinhua said, "given persistently weak external demand, ongoing deleveraging and capacity-reduction pressure, and a slowing property sector."

But unlike other countries, China has the flexibility to beat off sharp economic decline as it restructures its economy toward consumption and services, according to the agency.

Statistics showed China's GDP witnessed a 6.7 percent increase in all three quarters of 2016. The country's industrial development, consumption, and investment maintained stable growth in October- November, with a rapid rise in the service industry.

Despite experts' concerns, Chinese officials are confident in the country's economy, saying the positive trends of this year will continue into next year.
Read More...
Chess

Trump Commerce Secretary: Brexit is opportunity to take business away from London


RT
Tue, 27 Dec 2016 17:12 UTC
trump wilber ross
© Mike Segar / ReutersDonald Trump and Wilbur Ross
Donald Trump's pick for commerce secretary Wilbur Ross has urged countries to take advantage of Britain while it is in the process of leaving the European Union, reports The Times.

According to the paper, Ross told Cypriot financiers they should strike during this "period of confusion" to take business away from the City. Brexit is a "God-given opportunity" for Britain's competitors like Frankfurt and Dublin, he said.

The daily says Ross made the remarks before the US presidential election and being picked by Trump.

"I recommend that Cyprus should adopt and immediately announce even more liberal financial service policies than it already has so that it can try to take advantage of the inevitable relocations that will occur during the period of confusion," Ross said, according to The Times.
Read More...
Stock Down

Iranian rial plummets to record low despite record oil output


RT
Tue, 27 Dec 2016 16:48 UTC
Iranian rials
© Mushtaq Muhammed / Reuters
The Iranian rial has plummeted to a record low against the US dollar, continuing a six-month decline that has seen the currency fall nearly 19 percent, despite the lifting of sanctions.

This week the currency has dropped to 41,600 rials to the dollar, its lowest point ever, further extending the gap with the official government rate fixed at 32,300.

The slide has accelerated since the victory of Donald Trump in the US election. He has pledged to renegotiate the Iranian nuclear deal with world powers. At the same time, the country's economy has not yet seen the benefits of sanctions being lifted.

"Surely this negatively impacts people's lives. Lots of foreign goods are imported into our country and many of the things people need come from abroad. It also has a very negative psychological effect on the people," said a Tehran resident as quoted by CNBC.
Read More...
Attention

Russia, China, and Pakistan warn the Islamic State is growing in Afghanistan

Peter Hobson
Reuters
Tue, 27 Dec 2016 16:23 UTC
Islamic State jihadist
© Stringer / Reuters
Russia, China and Pakistan warned on Tuesday that the influence of Islamic State (IS) was growing in Afghanistan and that the security situation there was deteriorating. Representatives from the three countries, meeting in Moscow, also agreed to invite the Afghan government to such talks in the future, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

"(The three countries) expressed particular concern about the rising activity in the country of extremist groups including the Afghan branch of IS," ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters after the meeting.

The United States, which still has nearly 10,000 troops in Afghanistan more than 15 years after the Islamist Taliban were toppled by U.S.-backed Afghan forces, was not invited to the Moscow talks. The gathering, the third in a series of consultations between Russia, China and Pakistan that has so far excluded Kabul, is likely to deepen worries in Washington that it is being sidelined in negotiations over Afghanistan's future.


Comment: Of course the US is being sidelined. You don't invite terrorist sponsors to the table for a discussion on how to defeat terrorists.

Read More...