Puppet MastersS


Snakes in Suits

Georgia looking to investigate Istanbul bomber's alleged links to Saakashvili

Istanbul airport attack
© REUTERS/ Murad Sezer
Georgia confirmed on Monday that the alleged terrorist behind the recent suicide bombing attack in Istanbul, was backed by former Georgian President.

Georgia's minister of Internally Displaced Persons from the occupied territories, accommodation and refugees confirmed on Monday that Akhmed Chatayev, the alleged mastermind behind the recent suicide bombing attack in Istanbul, was backed by former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, adding that Tbilisi may open an investigation into the issue.

Comment: For more interesting connections of Akhmed Chatayev:


Info

Juncker may be under pressure to resign as EU splits over Brexit response

Jean-Claude Juncker
© REUTERS/ Vincent Kessler
A growing rift is developing within the EU amid reports European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker is under pressure from German officials to resign following the British exit from the EU.

The pressure on Juncker comes as member states remain divided on whether to accelerate EU integration or take a more pragmatic approach to centralizing power in the wake of the UK's referendum decision.

As debate continues on the EU's future in the face of growing Euroskepticism, a German government minister told the Sunday Times newspaper that German Chancellor Angela Merkel had come to view Juncker as "part of the problem" with the EU.

​"Juncker has time and again acted against the common interest, and his reaction to the British referendum has been very damaging," the source said.

Info

Putin confirms Russia ready to assist Iraq in fight against terrorism

Vladimir Putin
© Sputnik/ Sergey Guneev
Russian President Vladimir Putin condemns the recent attacks in Baghdad and confirms Moscow's readiness to assist Iraq's leadership and people in the fight against terrorism, the Kremlin press service said Monday.

"The Russian president strongly condemned this barbaric crime, which serves as another evidence of the inhuman nature of terrorism, and expressed confidence in the need for the entire international community to join forces in order to effectively combat this evil. The Russian President confirmed the Russian side's readiness to continue supporting the leadership and the people of friendly Iraq on the counterterrorism front," the press service said in a statement.

Bad Guys

Ukrainian General Prosecutor releases Aidar commander, despite long list of crimes

Aidar soldier
© East News/ Sergii Kharchenko/NurPhoto/Sipa USASoldier in Aidar Battalion
After the Pechersk court arrested the commander of the "Aidar" battalion Valentin Likholit for 2 months, with the call sign "Batya", on the suspicion of organising a gang and robbery, his associates and MPs have blocked the building of the Pechersk district court and did not allow Likholit to be moved in order to jail him. As a result, the Prosecutor General's office went back on their word. Prosecutor General Yury Lutsenko personally arrived at the court of appeals and supported the requirements of the protection of Likholit for his release. And that's what was done.

The behavior of Lutsenko has caused great confusion in public Prosecutor's circles, because Likholit was accused of committing very serious crimes. Moreover, the Prosecutor General's office posted on its website a detailed list of his serious crimes to justify the preventive measure of his arrest. "Strana" has published the full text of the document.

Valentin Likholit's measure of restraint (arrest) is based on the proof that was received during trials on other cases concerning the events of not only 2014 but also 2015.

Attention

Did Labour MPs launch Corbyn coup to rescue Blair from Iraq war crimes charge?

Tony Blair
© Jeff J Mitchell / Reuters
Scottish MP Alex Salmond says the coup against Jeremy Corbyn was launched by a core of right-wing Labour MPs because they fear the anti-war leader will seek the impeachment of Tony Blair after the Chilcot report is published on Wednesday.

In an op-ed for the Herald Scotland newspaper, former Scottish National Party (SNP) leader Salmond said he hopes Sir John Chilcot's Iraq war probe will result in Blair stranding trial.

In a few revealing paragraphs, however, Salmond mulls the obsession of Labour MPs with forcing current leader Corbyn's resignation.

Star of David

Israel approves 800 settler homes in response to teen killing

East Jerusalem
© Ronen Zvulun / Reuters
A massive construction of homes in East Jerusalem and the surrounding area has been approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The new construction is being seen as a form of retaliation for attacks by Palestinians.

On Sunday, Netanyahu and his freshly-appointed defense minister, Avigdor Lieberman, signed off on plans for putting up 560 new housing units in Ma'ale Adumim, a West Bank settlement right outside the capital, according to the Jerusalem Post. Around 140 homes more were approved for the Jewish East Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramot and other 100 for the Har Homa neighborhood, in southeast Jerusalem.

The permit was also issued for 600 homes in the Arab neighborhood of Beit Safafa. The decision, however, came under fire from local Israeli authorities, with the minister for Jerusalem affairs, Zeev Elkin, calling it one-sided and demanding new units also be approved for the Israeli neighborhood of Givat Hamatos which borders on Beit Safara.

"Those who want to maintain a Jewish majority in the capital cannot promote construction for the Arab population only," he said, as cited by the Times of Israel. Ministers have been urging Netanyahu to ramp up West Bank construction as one of the retaliatory measures to a recent killing which occurred in the Israeli settlement Kiryat Arba in the occupied West Bank, Haaretz reported.

Info

Brexit supporter Nigel Farage resigns as UK Independence Party leader again

Nigel Farage
© Phil Noble / Reuters
Brexit campaigner and MEP Nigel Farage has announced he is stepping down as leader of UKIP.

"I have never been and I have never wanted to be a career politician," he said in a speech on Monday morning.

"I couldn't possibly achieve more than we managed to achieve in the referendum. So I think it's right that I should stand aside as leader of UKIP."

Now that, as he sees it, he has his country back, Farage said he is ready to get "his life back."


Comment: A bit premature to say he has his country back!


Binoculars

Lying harpy! After FBI grilling, Killary calls husband's chat with Attorney General 'chance meeting'

Killary
© Jonathan Alcorn/ReutersLying harpy
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said her husband Bill's meeting with US Attorney General Loretta Lynch at Phoenix, Arizona's Sky Harbor Airport was not related to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's email probe and was nothing more than a "chance meeting at an airport tarmac."

Clinton made the comments during her first media interview since being interrogated by the FBI for more than three hours on Saturday.

The former secretary of state spoke with NBC's Chuck Todd on Meet the Press over the phone, telling him firstly she had been "eager" for the FBI interrogation and was "pleased to have the opportunity to assist the department in bringing its review to a conclusion."

The FBI grilling came more than a year after Clinton admitted using a private email server for official emails, hundreds of which were classified, during her time as America's top diplomat.

Clinton refused to comment, however, on news reports that a decision not to file charges against her would be announced in the coming weeks: "I am not going to comment... I have no knowledge of any timeline - this is entirely up to the department."


Cowboy Hat

Canadian Foreign Policy: Wage same anti-Russia war as Washington and London

Ukraine General, Stepan Poltorak and Canadian Defense Minister, Mr. Harjit Singh Sajjan
Canadian Defense Minister Harjit Singh Sajjan and his Ukrainian counterpart, General of the Army of Ukraine Stepan Poltorak Photos: Mil.gov.ua
Canada's warmongering Defence Minister, Harjit Sajjan, recently announced an increased Canadian presence in NATO, predicated on the narrative that Russia "annexed the Crimean Peninsula in Ukraine and backed pro-Russian separatist forces in that country's eastern region."

Presumably his "Assad must go" narrative about Syria is wearing thin. After all, NATO member Turkey is a training ground for ISIS, a transit point for terrorists entering Syria, and, like the Canadian government, all of NATO, the Gulf monarchies, Wahhabi Saudi Arabia, and apartheid Israel, a staunch supporter of the terrorists; plus, it has also been long established that there are no "moderates."

Presumably, too, Sajjan needs to rebrand and recycle the "threat" narrative, and the "NATO are the good guys" meme, so he is now reintroducing Russia as a threat.

Corporate media presstitutes, naturally, are all too willing to go along for the ride, even though reality and solid evidence contradicts the Western narrative.

Arrow Up

United Ireland? - Northern Irish want out after Brexit

UK and Northern Ireland Flags
© Associated Press Photo/Tim IrelandThe flag of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, top, and the flag of England fly above a souvenir stand on Westminster Bridge following yesterday's EU referendum result, London, Saturday, June 25, 2016. Britain voted to leave the European Union after a bitterly divisive referendum campaign.
Renewed calls for Irish unity are receiving mass public approval as the UK is in danger of losing more than one province in the wake of their decision to abandon Europe.

The residents of Northern Ireland are lining the streets of Belfast to receive Irish passports and Catholic nationalists once relegated to the backbench of public opinion are now proudly calling for a united Ireland in the wake of the ill-fated Brexit vote that may see a complete unravelling of the United Kingdom.

Northern Ireland, like neighboring Scotland, voted to stay in the European Union with 56 percent in favor despite Britain as a whole voting in favor of leaving the political-economic bloc.

The chasm in national vision between the various parts of the United Kingdom are beginning to push even Protestant unionists who have long stood against Irish reunification to call for an exit from Britain's reach.

"I was always a 'small u' unionist. But I could not in all good conscience say I could vote for Northern Ireland to remain a member of the United Kingdom," said Christopher Woodhouse, a 25-year-old from Belfast. "I am softening to the idea of Irish unity, purely on economic issues. I am a European."

For years, a vast majority of Northern Ireland's residents - many Catholics and virtually all Protestants - favored remaining part of the United Kingdom citing the economic stability compared to joining hands with their southern kin.

The fallout from Britain's June 23 vote trounced that tried-and-true status quo calculation sending world markets reeling and erasing trillions of dollars in British wealth overnight while many wonder just what the next shoe to drop will be.

"People are saying for the first time in their life they would vote for united Ireland, having never contemplated it before," said Steven Agnew, the leader of Northern Ireland's Green Party.

The decision by many of Northern Ireland's residents to embrace unification is not based on ethnic pride, but rather on the economic calamity that looks to punish the UK's most impoverished province more than any other.

Northern Ireland's largest financial institution, Ulster Bank, is already warning that the uncertainty surrounding the terms of Brexit are hindering foreign direct investment into Northern Ireland and look likely to trigger a recession and a surge in unemployment.