Puppet MastersS


Dollars

The Clinton-Kremlin Connection: How Killary funneled millions from Russia's 'Silicon Valley'

Fred Barnes
The Weekly Standard
Sun, 31 Jul 2016 09:52 UTC
Killary
A program overseen by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as part of the "reset" with Russia wound up enhancing Russia's military technology and funneling millions of dollar to the Clinton Foundation, according to a new report by investigative journalist Peter Schweizer and the Government Accountability Institute he heads.

The report says both the U.S. Army and the Federal Bureau of Investigation found that the program, intended to support Russia's version of Silicon Valley, was exploited to improve Russia's military capability.

The "innovation city" of Skolkovo on the outskirts of Moscow was center of the program. Its stated purpose was "identifying areas of cooperation and pursuing joint projects and actions that strengthen strategic stability, international security, economic well-being, and the development of ties between the American and Russian people."

Instead, the FBI warned several American technology companies in 2014 that Skolkovo "may be a means for the Russian government to access our nation's sensitive or classified research development facilities and dual-use technologies with military and commercial application." Indeed, it was.

Comment: See also: 'Clinton Cash' author to RT: If Hillary becomes president she will increase fees for the family's speeches The hypocrisy of this creature knows no bounds. Her campaign is making hay on the allegation that Trump is somehow in bed with the Russians. And yet Clinton's ties with Russia have been much closer. No one is calling her a Kremlin puppet, though.

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Bizarro Earth

World order 2035: US could lose edge for global dominance to Russia or China according to DTIC


RT
Sat, 30 Jul 2016 14:30 UTC
Red capital
© sputniknews.comRed is the new red, white & blue.
By 2035, the US could find itself in an environment where Russia or China may match or even exceed the West's military and economic might in some areas, taking advantage of a "disordered and contested world," the Pentagon's research unit said. In just 20 years, the US and its allies will live in a world where shaping a global order the way they have since the end of the Cold War would be increasingly difficult, if not impossible, Pentagon's research division, the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC), warned in a new foresight report.

The future world order will see a number of states with the political will, economic capacity, and military capabilities to compel change at the expense of others," reads the paper entitled The Joint Force in a Contested and Disordered World. "Rising powers including for example, China, Russia, India, Iran, or Brazil have increasingly expressed dissatisfaction with their roles, access, and authorities within the current international system," it states.

"Russia will modernize its land, air, and sea-based intercontinental nuclear forces" and make use of deterrent operations such as "snap nuclear exercises, bomber flights, and strategic reconnaissance overflights into US territory," the Pentagon's researchers predict.

The report admits Russia and China are among countries dissatisfied "with the current Western-derived notion of international order." Russia, China, India, and others, labeled "revisionist states" in the report, would promote alternate international alliances, while the West's shrinking resources would also have an impact on Washington's dominance across the globe.

Comment: US global aspirations: The writing is on the wall, also, apparently, on the page.

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Nuke

UK goes offline last minute in Hinkley Point nuclear deal, Beijing decries 'suspicious approach'


RT
Mon, 01 Aug 2016 11:12 UTC
Hinkley Point UK
© www.ft.com
Theresa May's government has backtracked just hours before signing a deal for a China-backed nuclear power station. Beijing state media says the UK is acting irrationally by delaying the project, jeopardizing the hard-won 'Golden Era' of China-UK ties.The US$24 billion deal, with France's EDF as producer of two nuclear reactors and China's General Nuclear Power Corp as principle investor, has been put on hold, despite Britain having abandoned coal as a source of electricity production.

A comment from China's official Xinhua agency says that while Beijing understands and respects Britain's decision to reconsider the deal, it cannot understand the "suspicious approach that comes from nowhere to Chinese investment in making the postponement."

China's Foreign Ministry said Monday that there is a hope that a decision on the Hinkley Point nuclear plant deal can be made as soon as possible in order to guarantee its smooth implementation, Reuters reports. "I would like to stress that this project was agreed upon by China, Britain and France in the spirit of mutual benefit and cooperation, and win-win cooperation, and has always had the strong support of Britain and France," ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying Hua told Reuters.

Xinhua says that the project is set to create thousands of local jobs and replace the coal power generating facilities outgoing by 2025. Hinkley Point is predicted to produce up to 7 percent of all electric power generated in the UK daily.

"Such a rosy prospect underpins the program's win-win nature and dispels the groundlessness and sci-fi scent of fears over "China planting back-doors" during program construction to control the critical infrastructure," Xinhua wrote, recalling Britain's vaunted business openness and free trade economy.

Comment: The unknowns for UK are: the highly complex and unproven new nuclear technology, similar tech is years behind schedule in Finland and France and over budget, EDF has indecision problems, it will be the most expensive power station ever built, alternate sources are advancing in capability and are quicker fixes, conventional energy prices are falling.

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Eye 1

Khizr Khan, father of slain soldier in Iraq, tricked into Trump smear at DNC

Charles Hurt
The Hill
Sun, 31 Jul 2016 04:13 UTC
Khizr Khan & wife
© www.nydailynews.comEmotional speech by Khizr Khan, trashes Trump's immigration policies.
Khizr Khan is a fine American and the father of a true American patriot. But now he is also everything that is wrong with American politics today. It is not entirely his fault, though he has only himself to blame for allowing his dead son to be used for the most hideous of purposes and dragged through the gutter of nasty and dishonest partisan politics.

Khan and his wife took to the stage at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia last week to deliver an impassioned rebuke of Donald J.Trump that was universally celebrated by the media. Even Republican politicos swooned at the gambit. The Clinton campaign trotted out the Muslim couple because their son, Captain Humayun Khan, was killed by a car bomb in 2004 while guarding a base in Iraq.

"If it was up to Donald Trump, he never would have been in America," said Khan, sliding easily into the political tradition of lying and distorting the position of one's opponent. "Donald Trump consistently smears the character of Muslims," he went on. "He disrespects other minorities, women, judges, even his own party leadership. He vows to build walls and ban us from this country."

Despite all efforts by the media to distort Trump's position about "banning" Muslims, he has made perfectly clear time and again that he does not want to ban all Muslims. He wants to simply perform thorough and complete background checks on all immigrants coming from countries presently in the grips of violent Islamic terrorism.

Comment: Well, golly, what's a lying, cheating, felonious presidential candidate to do if she can't usurp a needless heroic sacrifice for manipulative, political gain at a rigged convention in front of millions of viewers? It's just not fair.

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Bell

Aleppo terrorists on the ropes; Syrian food and meds flowing in to civilians

Canthama
Syrian Perspective
Mon, 01 Aug 2016 18:35 UTC
syria
Aleppo: During military offensives it is quite hard to find balance in news reports regarding what is really happening on the ground. The fact is that this latest terrorist offensive to retake strategic routes into Aleppo has a very large media-multi-grouping involved. It has been planned and widely promoted for at least one week. A cautionary warning to our readers is that terrorist supporters are disseminating easy, meaningless gains, as part of their disinformation campaign.

There were several reports of terrorist troops being pulled back from Hama, Homs and Lattakia to mass near Aleppo. It is an estimated 5,000-8,000, but this is completely unconfirmed and nearly impossible to double check; but, due to the initial intensity of the attack, the number 5,000, at a minimum, is very likely.

The main Terrorist's groups involved so far with a roughly mixed bag of 50/50% Syrians and foreigners, are:
  • Nusra/Jabhat Fateh Al-Shaam/Alqaeda
  • Suqoor Al-Jabal
  • Ahraar Al-Shaam
  • Faylaq Al-Shaam
  • Ajnaad Al-Shaam
  • Liwaa' Al-Haq
  • Jaysh Al-Sunna
  • Turkistan Islamic Party (Uighur jihadists from China)
The main target area the terrorists struck yesterday is by far the narrowest part of West Aleppo, with possible flanks to be protected due to the loss of Khaan Toumaan and its environs 2 months ago.

Comment: Russian aerospace forces are assisting the Syrian army in repelling the latest wave of terrorist attacks around Aleppo:
The Russian Aerospace Forces are actively supporting the Syrian government armed forces in repelling enemy attacks by delivering selective strikes on militants and avoiding populated areas, the Russian General staff said Monday. Rudskoy noted that, unlike the US-led anti-Daesh coalition active near Manbij, Russian aircraft do their utmost to avoid collateral civilian damage by not targeting populated areas within city limits. ... "Together with the Syrian army troops and the national militia, with the support of Russian aviation, a militant attack was repelled at 4 a.m. today. More than 800 militants were killed, and 14 tanks, 10 infantry fighting vehicles, and more than 60 vehicles with mounted weapons destroyed," Chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoy. ... "...the terrorists executed four people attempting to exit through the humanitarian corridors yesterday in the eastern part of Aleppo," he said.
Contrary to the Western propaganda, the humanitarian corridors are working despite the terrorists' refusal to allow civilian hostages to leave the besieged area:
Today, 324 civilians, including 76 children left the eastern districts of Aleppo to the humanitarian points, 82 militants laid down their arms and are now passing the amnesty procedure. Currently, the Syrian command established contact and negotiating the cessation of resistance with a number of units from the so-called moderate opposition.


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Mail

Russia-NATO partnership? Invitation to military experts for talks


RT
Mon, 01 Aug 2016 12:21 UTC
Antonov
© tass.ruDeputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov
Russia has proposed to NATO a "positive program" for developing relations, aimed at decreasing tensions between Moscow and the US-led military bloc, Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said. "NATO's military experts have been invited to Moscow in September for consultations concerning military and political situation in Europe," Antonov said in a statement to the media. Russia is ready for a constructive dialogue with NATO despite differences in approach to the reasons and consequences of the decisions made at the bloc's summit in Warsaw in July, Antonov stressed.

During the gathering in the Polish capital, NATO member states labeled Moscow "a source of instability" and ordered an increased military presence near Russian borders. The decisions made at the summit have been thoroughly analyzed by Russian experts, Antonov said.

One of the issues to be discussed in September is military flights over the Baltic Sea. According to Antonov, Russia is "considering the option of performing military flights over the Baltic only with ID transponders on," but only if NATO does the same.

NATO's military attaches have been informed of Moscow's offer to review the earlier existing military programs in the format of Russia-NATO Council, Antonov said. He noted that the renewal of the Cooperative Airspace initiative between NATO and Russia would be especially useful in the current situation. Antonov said NATO states' military attaches will also be invited as observers to Russian Army's Kavkaz-2016 drills, which are planned for September. "Russia's Defense Ministry proposed to start exchanging assessments at a military level regarding the terrorist threat, primarily to counter the spread of IS [Islamic State, formerly ISIS/ISIL] and other terrorist organizations," he said.

"Russia is also ready for cooperation to avoid incidents at sea and in the air, based on bilateral agreements and consultations with the defense ministries of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Sweden and Finland to address mutual concerns over military activities in the border areas," Antonov said.

Comment: Another smart move by Russia. It thinks before it acts. Will NATO members be receptive or still mesmerized by the US' cloak of fear and insanity? And, what will the US perpetrate to keep these meetings from happening?

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Red Flag

Hillary will order a policy "re-set," deliver Syria to the jihadists

Daniel McAdams
Ron Paul Institute
Fri, 29 Jul 2016 00:00 UTC
Hil and reset
© www.zimbio.comDon't you touch that button!!!
According to Hillary Clinton's foreign policy advisor, Jeremy Bash, if Clinton is elected she will order a "re-set" of US policy toward Syria to emphasize the "murderous" nature of the Assad regime. As the Telegraph reports, Hillary Clinton will breathe new life into the "Assad must go" camp. She will likely launch a full-scale US invasion of Syria. Said Bash:
A Clinton administration will not shrink from making clear to the world exactly what the Assad regime is. It is a murderous regime that violates human rights; that has violated international law; used chemical weapons against his own people; has killed hundreds of thousands of people, including tens of thousands of children.

Comment: No it is not. But it's a better description of the "American regime" for the past few decades.


Of course claims that Assad used chemical weapons on his own people is the long since disproven neocon cri de guerre to push Obama into an attack on the Syrian government. The 2013 gas attack near Ghouta was likely a provocation by the rebels hoping to draw the US directly into their fight. This "he gassed his own people" line is the Syrian version of Saddam's "WMDs," a lie repeated ad infinitum to make the case for war.

As far as violating international law, the entire two year US intervention in Syria is in clear violation of international law. The US has no legal right to bomb Syria.

Clinton's advisor informs us that as president his boss would involve the US in everyone else's affairs: "Mrs Clinton believes that problems around the world can more easily be solved when America is involved and in each of those problems or crisis," he told the Telegraph

If Hillary becomes president and gets her way with a Syria "re-set" the prime beneficiary will be radical Islamists. There literally is no secular, moderate opposition to the Assad government.

Comment: Mr. Bash describes a foreign policy more hawkish than that of the current administration. He said there were a "lot of clues" to how Mrs. Clinton will behave as commander-in-chief from her time as secretary of state. During that time she "championed the intervention in Libya" and "advocated the arming of Syrian rebels against the regime." A Clinton administration would seek to bring "moral clarity" to the US strategy on the Syrian crises.

Hard to even imagine the words "moral clarity" and "Clinton" in the same sentence (BTW: a phrase right out of the neocon PNAC plan). She is a psychopath hell-bent on sending the US, and all it touches, into a darkness from which it will never return.

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Snakes in Suits

Samantha Power outraged Syria wants to save civilians in Aleppo

Ricky Twisdale
Russia Insider
Mon, 01 Aug 2016 18:24 UTC
Samantha Power
© FacebookSamantha Power claims that Russia is responsible for the horrors that have descended upon Syria
Fresh on the heals of her shameful UN security council performance, US ambassador Samantha Power is embarrassing herself and the United States with her comments on Syria yet again.

The Syrian delegation to the UN sent a letter to the president of the security council, informing him of their plans to create safe zones so the population of Aleppo, which is currently under siege, could withdraw safely.

You would think no nation could find fault with this development. But no...Samantha Power finds it "chilling".
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Attention

Chinese media targets Australia in South China Sea dispute


Sputnik
Sun, 31 Jul 2016 18:17 UTC
aircraft carrier
© AP Photo/ Zha Chunming
The state-run Global Times issued a scathing editorial calling for war between Beijing and Canberra if Australia continues to meddle in the South China Sea dispute.

Chinese state-run media declared Australia "an ideal target for China to warn and strike" if it ventured into the contested South China Sea in a scathing call for war laced with insults against the country.

The Global Times, known for a hardline nationalist editorial line, blasted Canberra on Saturday, in an opinion piece titled "'Paper Cat' Australia Will Learn its Lesson," for supporting the July 12 ruling by the international arbitration tribunal at The Hague countering Beijing's historical claims to the South China Sea.

Beijing denounced the decision and has refused to abide by the tribunal's findings arguing that the court lacked requisite jurisdiction because China never submitted to bilateral arbitration - a position supported by legal scholars who argue that the Philippines unilateral call for judgment was not binding.

Comment: From Pepe Escobar's recent Escalating activities in South China Sea - Is war inevitable?:
For Beijing, it's crystal clear; the eastern seaboard must be protected at all costs - because they are the entry and exit point of China's global supply chains. Yet as Beijing improves its military sophistication, the hegemon - or exceptionalist - machine gets itchier and itchier. Because the whole ingrained exceptionalist worldview can only conceive it as a "threat" by a peer competitor.


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People 2

IOC defies attempt to ban entire Russian Olympic team

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Mon, 01 Aug 2016 17:58 UTC
IOC Rio Olympics Russia doping
Despite the grossly unfair treatment of Russian athletes the most important fact about the doping scandal is that an attempt to expel a whole country from the Olympic movement has been defeated.

There is understandable anger and bewilderment in Russia at the announcement by the IOC that Russian athletes who have been cleared to compete at the Olympic Games in Rio by their own sports federations must now also pass a separate check by a 3 person IOC panel. It must indeed seem to the Russians that they are being asked to play against a constantly shifting set of goal posts.

I should say that the IOC decision is not actually unexpected and does not actually represent a retreat from its original decision. However it is understandable that there is anger about it in Russia, and about the fact that whilst Russian athletes with completely clean records who have had the misfortune of merely been named in ways that might even theoretically connect them to doping are being banned from Rio, athletes from other countries who have actually been caught doping are being allowed to compete there.

I agree that this is all outrageous. Indeed one of the most ugly aspects of this whole affair is the cruel bullying and mistreatment of young athletes who have done nothing wrong, simply because they happen to be Russian. It goes without saying that the training programmes of even those Russian athletes who do finally get to Rio have been badly disrupted, and their chances of winning medals must now be seriously diminished. Russians must prepare themselves for a drastically reduced medal haul from these Games.

Comment: The Olympic Games has been a political tool ever since its inception. The attempt to ban an entire team because the country they come from is unacceptable to the elite is just the latest use of this tool. An athlete's inside view of the "Olympic Movement":

Why the Olympics are a lot like 'The Hunger Games'

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