Puppet MastersS


Dollar

Defying Trump? Shell signs deal to explore oil development in Iran


RFE/RL
Thu, 08 Dec 2016 23:15 UTC
An oil well on Iran's Azadegan oil field
An oil well on Iran's Azadegan oil field.
Iran and Shell signed a deal on December 7 to explore the development of three of Iran's biggest oil and gas fields, undeterred by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's vow to undo last year's nuclear deal that enabled Western companies to resume business with Iran.

Anglo-Dutch Shell is the largest oil company to wade back into Iran since the nuclear deal was signed. It follows France's Total, which last month signed a $4.8 billion deal to explore developing a large offshore gas field.

The latest deal opens the way for Shell to assess the production potential of the South Azadegan and Yadavaran oil fields, both in southwestern Iran near the Iraqi border, as well as an offshore gas field near Kish Island in the Gulf.
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Info

EU Parliament agrees on how to reintroduce visa requirements for Ukraine, Georgia and Kosovo


RT
Thu, 08 Dec 2016 23:06 UTC
EU passport control area
© Mihai Barbu / Reuters
The European Parliament and Council negotiators have agreed on measures to "faster and more easily" reimpose visa requirements for non-EU countries looking forward to visa-free travel with the EU.

The bloc's member states and the EU Commission struck the "informal deal" which specifies new rules for the reintroduction of a visa regime with a number of countries, the EU parliament said in its Thursday press release on the visa policy.

According to the document, visas will be reimposed "faster and more easily" should the bloc see "a substantial increase in the number of nationals [from a non-EU state]... refused entry or irregularly staying in the EU territory."
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Bad Guys

Source claims militants destroying northern Syrian towns in revenge for Aleppo losses


Sputnik
Thu, 08 Dec 2016 23:00 UTC
Syrian soldier in Aleppo
© REUTERS/ SANA
Militants from the Jabhat Fatah Al-Sham, formerly known as Nusra Front, terrorist group and their allies are destroying the northern Syrian towns, shelling them in response to their losses in the embattled Aleppo, a source in a local legislative body told RIA Novosti on Thursday.

The terrorists are attacking the towns of Foah and Kafraya that have been besieged for more than three years. About 20,000 civilians are still in the towns, while 2,000 people, including 400 children have been killed there since the beginning of the siege.

"As soon as militants started to suffer considerable losses in Aleppo, then hard days have come to Foah and Kafraya. Our aviation is conducting airstrikes on the militants' firing positions, but it is not sufficient. I think that Foah and Kafraya will be destroyed in the near future. Dozens of people have died in recent days," the source said.
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Jet2

Pentagon prepares deceiving response to Senate's F-35 concerns - report


RT
Thu, 08 Dec 2016 13:15 UTC
F-35 Lightning II
© Tom Reynolds / ReutersThe F-35 Lightning II, also known as the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), planes arrive at Edwards Air Force Base in California. File photo.
The Pentagon has reportedly been preparing a "misleading" response to the Senate's criticism of delays in the F-35's progress. An internal memo pointed at "prevarications" regarding the stealth combat aircraft's development timeframe.

"If not changed, the existing responses would at best be considered misleading and at worst, prevarications," the Pentagon's director of operational testing, Michael Gilmore, wrote in a memo obtained by Bloomberg.

The internal document appears to criticize the Pentagon's draft report, meant to be sent to Senator John McCain (R-Arizona), who questioned Defense Secretary Ash Carter on the progress setbacks facing the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II in early November.

"I am extremely disappointed to learn of yet another delay in the completion of the System Development and Demonstration (SDD) phase of the F-35 Joint Strike Program," Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman McCain wrote in a November 3 letter. He specifically asked the Defense Department "provide responses" to a total of 10 questions.

However, according to Gilmore's assessment, some answers the Pentagon drafted "ignore acknowledged facts, are ambiguous and misleading and if signed and sent as-is" could "generate substantial issues with ... Congress."

Comment: See also: Scandal management: Pentagon spends most of US gov't PR budget

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Vader

Obama grants waiver for military support of foreign fighters in Syria


RT
Thu, 08 Dec 2016 18:43 UTC
ISIL terrorists
© APISIL terrorists
President Barack Obama has ordered a waiver of restrictions on military aid for foreign forces and others in Syria, deeming it "essential to the national security interests" of the US to allow exceptions from provisions in the four-decades-old Arms Export Control Act.

A White House press release Thursday announced that foreign fighters in Syria supporting US special operations "to combat terrorism in Syria" would be excused from restrictions on military assistance.

"I hereby determine that the transaction, encompassing the provision of defense articles and services to foreign forces, irregular forces, groups, or individuals engaged in supporting or facilitating ongoing U.S. military operations to counter terrorism in Syria, is essential to the national security interests of the United States," President Obama affirmed in the presidential determination and waiver.


Comment: So in essence, based on the wording, the Obama administration is granting military aid to anyone and everyone, at its own whim. According to Wikipedia's page regarding the AECA, "The AECA requires that each nation that receives a shipment of arms from the United States must certify that the weapons are used for internal security and legitimate self-defense, and that their use does not lead to an escalation of conflict." So we see that this waiver lets the military aid wander way outside the confinement of "nations" out into the hands of anyone the US sees as needing military aid - for example, possibly terrorist forces (sometimes referred to as "rebel forces" by various talking headings in Western governments and media) who are fighting against democratically elected Bashar Assad's government in Syria.


Comment: As if US weapons don't ever fall into the hands of anyone in the vicinity of those weapons (and in case you didn't know already, that sort of "oopsie" happened with an alarming frequency in recent history). Interesting that this comes right as the world's biggest hostage crisis comes to an end. It's also interesting that this comes right as Obama is headed out the door of his presidency - just in the nick of time to let a bunch of weaponry to be "legally" given to US-backed terrorist forces since Trump enters office on January 20th, 2017 and might put an end to such "aid" ?

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People

Populism: A movement against the global elites

Charles Hugh Smith
Of Two Minds
Thu, 08 Dec 2016 22:25 UTC
populism
If you want to understand today's populism, don't look to the mainstream media's comically buffoonish propaganda blaming the Russians: look at the four issues listed below.

One of the most disturbing failures of the mainstream media in this election cycle was its complete lack of historical context for Trump's brand of populism.If you consumed the mainstream media's coverage of the campaign and election, you noted their obsession with speech acts (as opposed to concrete actions), personalities and conspiracy theories pinning American populism on Russian propaganda.

The mainstream media dismisses populism by pushing two absurdly ignorant narratives:

1. Populism (we're told) always leads to authoritarian rules and/or fascism (i.e. Nazism). All populist movements are therefore tarred with the Nazism brush: no good could possibly come from Populist movements because they always lead to fascism.

This is convenient for the apologists of the embattled status quo, but it's utterly false:America's enormous populist movements have never led to fascism.

2. Since the status quo is wonderful and America's economy is strong, dissent or populism cannot be home-grown--it must be the work of the Devil, in the guise of "foreign propaganda."
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Info

Troubled waters: Trump, Taiwan and Beijing

Dr. Binoy Kampmark
Global Research
Tue, 06 Dec 2016 20:37 UTC
Trump characture with US flags
There was much tittering in the US-China fraternity over the casual, yet infuriating engagement US President elect Donald Trump had with Taiwan's President, Tsai Ing-wen. A reading of the reactions suggested meltdown, a terrifying, imminent apocalypse. An outrageous booboo, or an typically uncharacteristic move hardly worth a mention?

There are no covering laws on this, though international relations theorists attempt, desperately, to push the illusion that there are such magical rules. Be careful of the hidden laws; do not violate the cast iron protocols. If breached, a storm will be unleashed. In some ways, the absence of such governing guidelines makes diplomacy tantalisingly innovative, at points, and dangerous, at others.

With the sediment of international relations suspended after Trump's victory, the fear about the brittleness in the US-China relationship is all too clear. This is a relationship of suspicion and wantonness, of acquisitiveness and desperation. Political ideologues have, for several generations, held sway in both Beijing and Washington. Suddenly, the ideological caravan has been ambushed, and currently lies in flames.

Comment: Also see: The rules of the Trump game

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Briefcase

US Court of Appeal, Ninth Circuit confirms judges to hear argument on legality of Iraq War


Witness Iraq
Mon, 05 Dec 2016 00:00 UTC
GWBush and friends
© Evan Vucci/AP
Today the United States Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit confirmed that Circuit Judges Susan Graber and Andrew Hurwitz, as well as District Court Judge Richard Boulware (sitting by designation) will hear oral argument on December 12, 2016, in Saleh v. Bush.

Saleh v. Bush involves claims by an Iraqi woman, Sundus Shaker Saleh, that former President George W. Bush and other high ranking Bush-era officials broke the law when they planned and waged the Iraq War. Saleh alleges that former Bush Administration leaders committed the crime of aggression when they planned and executed the Iraq War, a war crime that was called the "supreme international crime" at the Nuremberg Trials in 1946.

Saleh is appealing the immunity provided to the Defendants by the district court in December 2014.

"We are pleased that the Ninth Circuit will hear argument. To my knowledge, this is the first time a court will entertain arguments that the Iraq War was illegal under domestic and international law," Saleh's attorney D. Inder Comar, legal director at Comar LLP, said. "This is also the first time since World War II that a court is being asked to scrutinize whether the war itself was an illegal act of aggression — a special war crime that was defined at the Nuremberg Trials in 1946." Comar is handling Saleh's case pro bono.

CrossTalk with Peter Lavelle - September 30, 2013


Comment: The Justice Department lawyers argued that the case came under the Federal Tort Claims Act (Westfall Act) because the Bushies had acted within the "scope of their employment" in bringing about the war. Saleh's response stated it wasn't covered by that law because the president was pursuing a private ideological agenda that he had displayed in 1998, long before taking office in 2001. In addition, the Iraq War was not US self-defense and lacked appropriate authorization by the United Nations, categorizing it a "crime of aggression" under international law. If Saleh wins, it would mean the president of the United States is not above the law, does not get a free pass.

UPDATE:
9th Circuit hears oral argument in Saleh V. Bush, et al.
December 12, 2016 was a historic day, marking the first time that a U.S. court heard argument related to the actions of senior Bush-era officials who were responsible for the planning and waging of the Iraq War.

Circuit court judges Andrew Hurwitz and Susan Graber and District Court judge Richard Boulware (sitting by designation on the 9th Circuit), heard argument that the immunity granted to former President George W. Bush and other officials by the federal district court related to their conduct in waging the Iraq War should be overturned. This immunity was provided in December 2014, resulting in the current appeal.

The judges spent most of oral argument focusing on the nature of the domestic immunity, questioning both counsel for the Iraqi plaintiff, Sundus Saleh, as well as counsel for the United States about where immunity ends for government officials.

The judges will issue their opinion as to whether the immunity should be overturned in the coming weeks.


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Arrow Up

Parliament votes to back Brexit and trigger Article 50 by March 31, 2017


RT
Wed, 07 Dec 2016 19:52 UTC
Brits and signs
© Fox News
British MPs have voted in favor of government plans to trigger Article 50 by March 31, 2017, meaning Britain will formally initiate the process of leaving the EU before that date. MPs voted 461 to 89 in favor of the motion on Wednesday.

The vote came following a motion from the Labour party, which stated that it is "parliament's responsibility to properly scrutinise the Government while respecting the decision of the British people to leave the European Union," adding that there "should be no disclosure of material that could be reasonably judged to damage the UK in any negotiations to depart from the European Union after Article 50 has been triggered."

Added to the motion was a government amendment stating that parliament "recognises that this House should respect the wishes of the United Kingdom as expressed in the referendum on 23 June; and further calls on the Government to invoke Article 50 by 31 March 2017."

Comment: Well now, the UK is beginning to come to grips with the popular vote to Leave and warding off those who would prolong triggering Article 50 as long as possible. As of now, there will be no second referendum nor input from the public constituency that voted Remain. It is a fallacy to expect any such action or maneuvers as 'tyranny of the majority' since the commoners (yea or nay) do not get to decide Article 50 terms.

See also:

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X

Greece refuses to extradite 3 Turkish servicemen, Ankara demands explanation


Sputnik
Thu, 08 Dec 2016 07:40 UTC
Bosphorus Bridge surrender
© Getty ImagesUp to 100 rebel soldiers surrendered on Bosphorus Bridge after their failed uprising.
Ankara disagreed with the decision of the Greek Court to extradite solely three out of eight Turkish servicemen, suspected of having links with July's coup, and insists on full extradition, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Wednesday. On Tuesday, the Court of Appeal in Athens decided to extradite three out of eight Turkish soldiers, who fled from Turkey by helicopter the day after the coup attempt.

On Monday, the Court ruled out extradition of three other Turkish servicemen with judges and a prosecutor having decided that the lives of the Turkish officers would be under threat in case of extradition. The future of the remaining two Turkish soldiers is yet to be decided.

"Why did it happen like that? We need to see the reason behind it. We are closely following the issue. Our expectation is that all of them would be extradited [to Turkey]," Cavusoglu said, as quoted by the Anadolu news agency.

All eight Turkish servicemen have denied their involvement in the coup attempt, but said they face prosecution in Turkey due to the government's post-coup crackdown. Ankara has repeatedly demanded their extradition.

On July 15, a military coup attempt took place in Turkey. Ankara accused Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen, who has been living in the US state of Pennsylvania since 1999, and his followers of playing a key role in the coup. Since July, Turkey has arrested hundreds of military personnel, activists and journalists

Comment: Erdogan is bent on a complete coup purge and unlikely to be discerning in circumstances or intent. He lives and operates from a ruthless and authoritarian end of the spectrum where moderation and filters rarely apply. Returning these soldiers to Turkey would likely end up in their demise.

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