Puppet MastersS


Jet3

'Tremendous cost': $379bn F-35 project in doubt as Trump asks to 'price-out' cheaper F-18s


RT
Fri, 23 Dec 2016 17:17 UTC
fourth U.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning II
© Daniel Hughes / U.S. Air Force / Handout via Reuter
US President-elect Donald Trump signaled that he might dump the controversial F-35 program after asking Boeing to cost up its cheaper and older F-18 Super Hornet jets.

The US President-elect slammed the huge cost of Lockheed Martin's F-35 stealth fighter jet, saying in a tweet that he asked Boeing, the manufacturer of the F-18, to offer a lower price for the "comparable" aircraft.

The problem is, these are two very different aircraft, which means that it might be quite a difficult request for Boeing or the military to pull off.
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Bad Guys

ISIS' unspeakable barbarism humiliates Erdogan, delivers Turkey to Russia and Iran

Adam Hill
Russia Insider
Fri, 23 Dec 2016 17:02 UTC
ISIS ready to burn Turkish soldiers
There are two things everyone should know about ISIS by now. One is that these guys can fight. Turkish military has lost 16 dead in just recent fighting for the Syrian city of al-Bab. ISIS has also managed to capture one 65 ton German-made Leopard 2 tank along with two Turkish soldiers.

The other thing everyone should know by now is that they are pure scum. Having captured the two Turkish soldiers they filmed and published the footage of the pair being humiliated and then burned alive.

Those who have seen the video say it is one of the most disturbing from ISIS yet.

Turkish authorities are so horrified by the video they have blocked Twitter, YouTube and Facebook access throughout the country.

Needless to say ISIS has just made a mortal enemy in Turkish president Erdogan. Reputedly a volatile man this is a humiliation he will not easily forget.
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Eye 1

Plot to overthrow the 4th Amendment? Yahoo caught working with secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court

Jack Burns
The Free Thought Project
Fri, 23 Dec 2016 16:36 UTC
spying
© WND.com
Americans interested in their privacy rights and rights to unreasonable searches and seizures, afforded to them under the U.S. Constitution's 4th Amendment, may want to invest heavily in effective data encryption software, because if the government has its way, those rights, especially as it pertains to data, will be infringed upon. And Yahoo is facilitating it.

To simplify the matter for understanding, Robert Litt, general counsel of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), told Reuters, "Computerized scanning of communications in the same way that your email service provider scans looking for viruses - that should not be considered a search requiring a warrant for Fourth Amendment purposes."

In other words, the feds want to search through everyone's email and they admittedly don't believe their request to do so is unreasonable, nor do they believe it is an infringement upon your 4th Amendment rights because a computer is doing it, not a live body.
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Dominoes

Beijing fires trade warning after Trump appoints China hawk

Tom Mitchell and Demetri Sevastopulo
Financial Times
Thu, 22 Dec 2016 16:46 UTC
Peter Navarro
© Bloomberg
China has warned Donald Trump that "co-operation is the only correct choice" after the US president-elect tapped a China hawk to run a new White House trade policy office.

The appointment of Peter Navarro, a campaign adviser, to a formal White House post shocked Chinese officials and scholars who had hoped that Mr. Trump would tone down his anti-Beijing rhetoric after assuming office.

Mr. Navarro, a Harvard-trained economist and University of California Irvine professor, is the author of Death by China and other books that paint the country as America's most dangerous adversary.

"Chinese officials had hoped that, as a businessman, Trump would be open to negotiating deals," said Zhu Ning, a finance professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing. "But they have been surprised by his decision to appoint such a hawk to a key post."

Comment: More on Peter Navarro:

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Attention

Russia and Syria avert a false flag "Srebrenica" in Aleppo - at least for now

Stephen Karganovic
The Saker
Fri, 23 Dec 2016 16:30 UTC
aleppo srebrenica
© Amel Emric/Associated PressVictim of western propaganda
Is it finally the demise of the "men and boys" mantra?

Well, so far at least. Shocking as it may appear in the midst of the rejoicing that the terrorist occupation of Eastern Aleppo and the agony of tens of thousands of its helpless inhabitants are finally over, accumulated evidence suggests that the vengeful Empire was (and possibly still is) entirely prepared to inflict a "Srebrenica" style mass catastrophe as its parting shot.

Abundant political noise emanating from Western - mainly British - sources ahead of the downfall of the, until not long ago, seemingly impregnable terrorist stronghold in Aleppo suggests that an operational plan for a replay of Srebrenica was indeed hatched. It should have turned the military defeat of Western proxies into a resounding propaganda victory for their sponsors by staging in Aleppo a massive killing operation of civilians and blaming it on the Syrian government and its Russian allies.

The direct attempt at the beginning of December to extend the lifespan of the Aleppo terrorist enclave by putting it under UN authority mirrored what successfully had been accomplished in Srebrenica in April of 1993. The presence of "peacekeepers" and "observers" in such situations (Kosovo, 1999, also comes to mind) lends itself perfectly to the infiltration of intelligence personnel, who set the stage for what is to follow. However, the attempt to negate the successful advance of the Syrian army and to ensure that a "protected" enemy enclave would be ensconced in its rear, to serve as a launching pad for military and propaganda operations (as was done with Srebrenica during the war in Bosnia), this time failed dismally. The geopolitical relationship of forces has changed significantly since 1993, as evidenced by the Russian and Chinese vetoes that frustrated this time the repetition of the Srebrenica template.
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Arrow Down

How the Jihadis in Aleppo brought about their defeat

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Thu, 22 Dec 2016 16:37 UTC
Jihadis in Aleppo
Though the greatest credit for the Syrian army's victory must go to the soldiers of the Syrian army and to the people of Aleppo, the fanaticism and intransigence of the Jihadis in Aleppo, and the intransigence of their Western backers, contributed significantly to their "total defeat" and the Syrian army's victory.

As 'the Great Battle of Aleppo' had ended in total Jihadi defeat, I find myself looking back to an article I wrote for The Duran on 30th July 2016, just after the Syrian army cut the Castello road, the main supply route of the Jihadis to Turkey.

In that article I pointed that the reason the Jihadis had got themselves trapped in eastern Aleppo was first and foremost their own intransigence.
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Red Flag

Trump and Putin call for reinforcement of country's nuclear arsenals mere hours apart

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Thu, 22 Dec 2016 16:50 UTC
russia nuke
In a curious convergence of superpower opinions, earlier on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin called for the country to reinforce its military nuclear potential. In a speech that recapped military activities in 2016, Putin said the army's preparedness has "considerably increased" and called for continued improvement that would ensure it can "neutralise any military threat".

"We need to strengthen the military potential of strategic nuclear forces, especially with missile complexes that can reliably penetrate any existing and prospective missile defence systems," the Russian president said.

He added that Russia "must carefully monitor any changes in the balance of power and in the political-military situation in the world, especially along Russian borders, and quickly adapt plans for neutralising threats to our country."

Fast forward a few hours, when just before noon Eastern, Trump again took to Twitter and the president elect echoed virtually every word Putin said earlier, stating "The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes."

Aside from this being one of the very first actual policy recommendations proposed by Trump, the fact that suddenly both Putin and Trump are calling for a re-escalation of the nuclear arms race at a time when Russia and the US under an allegedly Russian-friendly Trump administration, are expected to restore relations and find a common dialogue, makes us rather nervous especially since with both countries' arsenals already vastly greater than any other, potential third power in the nuclear arms race, the implied message is that both superpowers are squarely looking at each other when calling for more nuclear weapons.
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Attention

Putin ally claims Russian ambassador 'killed by NATO country's secret service'

Joey Millar
Express
Mon, 19 Dec 2016 20:11 UTC
Putin and Andrei Karlov,
© GETTY / TWITTER
Frants Klintsevich claimed a NATO state's secret service could be behind today's attack
The secret services of a NATO country is "highly likely" to have been behind today's assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey, an ally of Vladimir Putin has claimed.

Senator Frants Klintsevich said the cold-blooded killing of Andrei Karlov, who died after being shot five times in the back, was a "planned action".

He continued: "Everyone knew that he was going to attend this photo exhibition.

"It can be ISIS, or the Kurdish army which tries to hurt Erdogan.

"But may be - and it is highly likely - that representatives of foreign NATO secret services are behind it."

Comment: Also see updates on this story: Russian ambassador in Ankara shot dead in gun attack (Updates)

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Yoda

Putin's year-end Q&A session: US election, Syria, Ambassador's assassination and more


RT
Fri, 23 Dec 2016 16:35 UTC
putin
© Sergei Karpukhin / ReutersRussian President Vladimir Putin attends his annual end-of-year news conference in Moscow, Russia, December 23, 2016
Allegations of personal involvement in the Democrats' electoral defeats in the US, the threat of a nuclear arms race, and the potential for a Syria ceasefire - all of these were among the issues that came up at Russian President Vladimir Putin's annual media conference.

This year was Putin's 15th question and answer session with journalists from Russia and leading international outlets. As in the past, it focused on domestic economic and political problems, but journalists also asked about Russia's role in global affairs.

Democrats should learn to lose with grace

Putin reiterated his denial of interfering with the US presidential election, saying that the Democratic Party just wanted to blame all their failures on somebody else.

"The Democratic Party lost not only the presidential election, but also elections in the Congress, where the Republicans now have a majority. Was that my doing too?" the Russian president asked. "Everything points to systematic problems in the current administration."

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Handcuffs

Germany arrests two men suspected of plotting mall terrorism attack


RT
Fri, 23 Dec 2016 15:53 UTC
shopping center in Oberhausen, Germany
© Woeiman / YouTube
German authorities have arrested two brothers from Kosovo on suspicion of planning an attack on a shopping center in northwestern Germany, police revealed.

"The 28- and 31-year-old brothers born in Kosovo are suspected of having prepared a possible attack in the shopping center in Oberhausen," Essen police said in a statement.

The two suspects were detained early Friday morning following a special forces raid on their residence. Authorities said that they are now in the process of determining "how far preparations had been made and whether other persons were involved."
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