Puppet MastersS


Question

Coincidence? CIA hawk called for 'painful blow' to Putin a week prior to assassination of Ambassador

michael morrell cia
Michael Morrell
On the evening of Monday the 19th of December, a day before Russia, Turkey and Iran were scheduled to meet in Moscow to discuss the Syrian conflict, the Russian Ambassador to Turkey, Andrey Karlov, was assassinated while speaking at an art exhibition in Ankara. The assailant has been identified as Mevlut Mert Altıntas, a 22-year-old off-duty Turkish police officer, who reportedly had just returned to duty last month after being suspended over suspected knowledge of the failed July coup attempt.

Video footage of the attack shows Altintas shouting 'Allahu Akbar' moments after shooting Karlov, in addition to yelling: "Don't forget Aleppo; don't forget Syria!" According to certain pro-government newspapers in Turkey, Altıntas may have had ties to the Gülen movement, a movement led by the US-based cleric, Fethullah Gülen. The CIA has been intimately connected to the Gülen movement for years, as the author F. William Engdahl has extensively documented.

Comment:


Pistol

The West directed killer's hand in assassination of Russian ambassador

brutal slaying of Russian ambassador Andrey Karlov
The brutal slaying of Russian ambassador Andrey Karlov in Ankara sent shockwaves around the world. Condemnations were issued by Washington and European states of the act of terrorism by a gunman who shot Karlov in the back while he was speaking at a photo gallery in the Turkish capital.

The White House condemned what it called a "heinous attack", while the European Union's foreign policy chief Federica Morgherini vowed solidarity with Russia in the aftermath of the killing.

One headline read: 'EU, US Shocked by killing of Russian ambassador in Turkey'.

Given the months of relentless and unwarranted vilification of Russia by the US and EU over the Syrian conflict, the phrase "crocodile tears" comes to mind on hearing their condemnations in regard to the murdered ambassador.

Eye 2

Defeated in Syria, NATO is now ramping up Ukraine project

ukraine soldiers
© Anatolii Stepano/Agence France-PressUkrainian servicemen walks in the yard of a destroyed building in the Pisky village near Donetsk on October 26, 2015
A surge in military attacks this week by NATO-backed Kiev regime forces on the breakaway eastern Ukraine regions is no mere coincidence. It is the reaction to events in Syria by the US-led military alliance in its hybrid warfare against Russia.

Hundreds of ceasefire breaches by troops belonging to the Ukraine Armed Forces (UAF) are being reported in the separatist self-declared republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. Over the past few days, several towns and villages have come under intense shelling from artillery, rockets and mortars in stark violation of the Minsk agreement.

That agreement was brokered by Russia, Germany and France during 2014 and 2015, and was meant to facilitate a political settlement between the Western-backed Kiev regime, which came to power in a coup d'état in February 2014, and the breakaway provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk, which refused to recognize the legitimacy of the usurper Kiev cabal.

Houses, schools and water treatment plants have been hit as the UAF and associated Neo-Nazi militias move heavy weaponry close to the so-called contact lines. All indications suggest that the NATO-backed Kiev regime is mobilizing for a renewed offensive on the mainly ethnic Russian Donbas region comprising the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics.

So far, the militia of the DPR and LPR have repelled the offensive, with dozens of casualties reportedly suffered by the Kiev regime's military.


Top Secret

Snowden on House Intelligence report: Exonerating, no evidence of foreign influence, or harm

Edward Snowden
© Brendan McDermid/Reuters
Edward Snowden has reacted to a damning House Intelligence report analyzing his life and possible motives for revealing NSA surveillance.

The 37-page review with 237 footnotes goes through some episodes of Snowden's focusing on his incompetencies and disagreements with supervisors.

The report describes him as "a serial exaggerator and fabricator" and "poor student". The report by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence was announced in September, right before the premiere of Oliver Stone's Snowden movie. Only the highlights were released to the public at the time, and Snowden likewise challenged them. The full report was published on Thursday, after it went through the redaction and declassification process.

The report accuses Snowden of causing "tremendous damage to national security" by making the information he shared with the public available to "Russian, Chinese, Iranian and North Korean government intelligence services; any terrorist with internet access."

As of June 2016, the Pentagon had identified 13 "high-risk issues"among the 1.5 million documents Snowden accessed, the report said, adding that if Russian or Chinese governments had access to eight of those issues - redacted in full - "American troops will be at greater risk in any future conflict."

Comment: See also: Mission Accomplished? Snowden 'NSA Leak' had 'chilling effect' that scared people away from learning truth about terrorism


Jet3

Major fail: US airstrikes in Afghanistan hit wedding procession and houses killing civilians

Afghan security force
© AP Photo/ Rahmat Gul
Recent activities of the US Air Force in Afghanistan's central Oruzgan province resulted in deaths of civilians as US aircraft had attacked houses and weddings, Abdullah Barakzay, a member of the Afghanistan parliament, told Sputnik on Thursday.

He added that US and Afghan aircraft had also attacked a residential house in Tarinkot, killing two and injuring five more on Saturday.

"In the Nachin Voleh district near the city of Tarinkot, which is a regional capital of the Oruzgan province, the US Air Force in cooperation with the Afghan Air Force carried airstrikes against wedding cars that had resulted in the civilian deaths," Barakzay said, speaking about an airstrike that took place on Sunday.

Comment: Another major failure of the vaunted precise US airstrikes.


Jet1

Since start of Syria operations, Russian jets launched 71,000 strikes eliminating 35,000 terrorists

Russian SU-25 jets
© Sputnik/ Dmitry Vinogradov
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that since the start of Russia's aerial campaign in Syria, Russian warplanes have launched 71,000 airstrikes and eliminated 35,000 terrorists.

The Russian Aerospace Forces have destroyed over 700 terrorist training camps in Syria during its campaign, Shoigu said.

"Since the start of the operation, Russian jets have conducted 17,800 sorties, launching 71,000 strikes on terrorists' infrastructure, eliminating 725 training camps, 405 plants producing ammunition, 1,500 pieces of terrorists' military equipment, 35,000 militants, including 204 field commanders," Shoigu said.

Some 9,000 militants have laid down arms in Syria, the Russian defense minister said.

Monkey Wrench

Trillion-dollar money pit: Simple adjustment to loose bracket could have prevented F-35 going up in flames

F-35
© Flickr/ US Air Force
It is an increasingly unpopular fighter plane that can go up in flames due to a loose bracket, and with the $1.45 trillion the US is expected to pour into the F-35 program over the course of its life, America could forgive every penny of its crippling student loan debt.

Officials have finally pinned down the root cause of a fire on an F-35B during flight tests at a Marine Corps base in Beaufort, South Carolina, at the end of October. An unsecured bracket in the weapons bay allowed electrical wires to shake free, leading to a spark near hydraulic lines and flammable components on the plane, Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan said in a recent news conference.

"It had passed its previous inspection, but the bracket still became dislodged," Bogdan said, adding that flight crews knew about the issue "long before" the October fire. Astonishingly, modified brackets have not been replaced on all F-35Bs, and pilots must be wary of a heightened risk of fire when flying the aircraft, according to Bogdan.

Comment: America could forgive every penny of its crippling student loan debt spent on this money pit.


Dollar

Trump, Boeing and Lockheed Martin CEOs meet to negotiate US contracts - will they discuss how much they've ripped off the US taxpayer?

Air Force One.
© Kevin Lamarque / ReutersAir Force One.
Dennis Muilenburg, CEO of Boeing, and Marillyn Hewson, CEO of Lockheed Martin, arrived at President-elect Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort to discuss government contracts following tweets Trump posted about the two major defense contractors.

On December 6, Trump tweeted that the cost of Boeing building the new Air Force One fleet was too expensive and that he was going to "cancel order!"

The multibillion-dollar contract with Boeing, which would facilitate the replacement of two 26-year-old 747 jumbo jets nearing the end of their 30-year lifespan, was approved by the undersecretary of defense in September 2015.

Wreath

History-making campaign manager Conway lands role of counselor to the President

KellyAnne Conway with Donald Trump
© Mike Segars/ReutersU.S. President-elect Donald Trump and his campaign manager Kellyanne Conway greet supporters during his election night rally in Manhattan, New York, U.S., November 9, 2016.
Donald Trump named his former campaign manager Kellyanne Conway as counselor to the president on Thursday.

"Kellyanne Conway has been a trusted adviser and strategist who played a crucial role in my victory," Trump said in a statement. "She is a tireless and tenacious advocate of my agenda and has amazing insights on how to effectively communicate our message. I am pleased that she will be part of my senior team in the West Wing."

"Conway has been serving as a senior member of the president-elect's transition team and previously served as this campaign manager of his successful run for the presidency," a statement from Trump's transition team read.

Conway, a former law clerk and pollster, is credited with being the first woman to run a successful presidential campaign. She previously worked for Newt Gingrich and Vice President-elect Mike Pence, and appeared on various news networks as a commentator.

While she originally endorsed Republican candidate Ted Cruz, and described Trump as someone who "literally bulldozed over the little guy to get his way," she became the billionaire real estate mogul's campaign manager in August after Cruz left the race.

Info

Duterte vows to ban online gambling in Philippines, move could increase tourism business

Rodrigo Duterte
© Ezra Acayan / Reuters
Populist Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced on Thursday he will put an end to the country's booming online gaming industry.

He said it while presenting a budget for 2017 without giving the scope or timing of the ban.

"I am ordering the closure of all online gaming (firms). All of them. They have no use," local media Inquirer quoted Duterte as saying.