Puppet MastersS


Attention

Russian MoD criticizes Red Cross' cynical statement on shelling of hospital in Aleppo


RT
Tue, 06 Dec 2016 11:13 UTC
Militants shell Russian hospital in Aleppo
© RT
The Russian Defense Ministry has criticized the International Committee of the Red Cross for failing to recognize and condemn a deadly attack on a Russian mobile hospital in Aleppo as the "cold-blooded murder" of medical staff.

On Monday, a mortar shell fired by militants directly hit the reception ward of a Russian mobile military hospital set up in Aleppo, killing two Russian medical staff and wounding another, according to reports.

Several Syrians were also injured in the attacks after about 11 shells landed on the territory of the Russian hospital, the Russian Reconciliation Center in Syria said earlier. An RT Arabic reporter was also injured in the leg by the subsequent shelling of the site.


Following the tragedy, RT requested comments on the shelling from several international organizations, including the Red Cross, which works as the Red Crescent in some part of Syria.

In response to a request from RT, ICRC failed to condemn the attack on the medical facility. It instead said that the bombing of the hospital indicated that "all sides to the conflict in Syria are failing in their duties to respect and protect healthcare workers, patients, and hospitals, and to distinguish between them and military objectives."

Upon hearing the ICRC reaction Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov expressed outrage. The Russian Defense Ministry, the general said, hoped for the NGO to condemn the attack but instead, the ICRC just produced a cynical comment.

We received "cynical comments, not worthy of the high status of the International Committee of the Red Cross," that showed "indifference to the murder of Russian doctors in Aleppo," Konashenkov said.

Comment: See also: Update: The head of the ICRC delegation in Moscow told Sputnik, "We take these incidents extremely seriously and follow them up directly with whoever is responsible, as part of our confidential dialogue with all sides":
"Attacking hospitals is unacceptable. Attacking medical personnel and sick and wounded is forbidden under international humanitarian law. Sadly, this is not the first time that hospitals have come under attack in Syria, and this is not the first time that medical personnel's need for protection has been violated. It again shows that there is no respect for the special status of the medical mission, whether they are civilian or run by the military or non-state armed groups. These kinds of attacks should not be happening, regardless of who is responsible," he added.
An MSF director released a statement to Sputnik, saying:
We deeply regret the loss of health staff while carrying out their medical work. Such killings are devastating for the families, but also have an impact on the medical care available to communities at their time of greatest need ... It is clear that shelling medics and their patients is completely unacceptable, and, whether done in a targeted or an indiscriminate attack, is a violation of the rules of war.
The UK Foreign Office also released a somewhat half-hearted condemnation of "any violence on civilians or medical facilities".

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Chess

Foreign Minister Lavrov: US withdraws Aleppo proposals, says no consultations yet


RT
Tue, 06 Dec 2016 10:40 UTC
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (L) and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (R) attend a bilateral meeting in Rome, Italy December 2, 2016
© Gregorio Borgia / ReutersRussian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (L) and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (R) attend a bilateral meeting in Rome, Italy December 2, 2016
Just as the US and Russia were preparing to discuss a solution for Aleppo, which was to involve free passage for all rebels from the part of the city still under their control, Washington abruptly withdrew its own proposal, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

According to Lavrov, the Americans are currently working on an alternative plan for the city. He said the Wednesday consultations are canceled at this point.

"They have withdrawn their document and have a new one. Our initial impression is that this new document backtracks, and is an attempt to buy time for the militants, allow them to catch their breath and resupply," Lavrov said.

Comment: See also:

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Attention

Putin approves Russia's information security doctrine


RT
Tue, 06 Dec 2016 09:12 UTC
Russian President Vladimir Putin
© Alexey Druzhinin / SputnikRussian President Vladimir Putin
The need for a new edition of Moscow's doctrine on information security is the result of foreign states intensifying their efforts in information and psychological operations to affect Russia's internal affairs, their bias against Russia, and cyber-attacks against its key infrastructure, the document says.

The doctrine states that the limitless flow of information has a negative impact on international security, as it can be employed to pursue geopolitical and military goals, thus favoring organized crime, extremists, and terrorists.

One of the main aspects that affects information security is the build-up in "capacities to influence information infrastructure by a number of countries in pursuit of military objectives."

Notably, intelligence agencies of certain countries launch information and psychological operations to destabilize societies in various regions, thus undermining sovereignty and the territorial integrity of other states. These operations, coupled with the widespread use of information technologies, may involve faith- and ethnicity-based organizations, as well as human rights groups.

In turn, terrorist and extremist groups make use of psychological operations to stir up ethnic and religious discord, intensify tensions in societies, propagate extreme views, and recruit new followers.

Comment: Further reading:

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Snakes in Suits

How to keep lying with a straight face: NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg at Oxford

Professor Filip Kovacevic
Newsbud
Mon, 05 Dec 2016 00:16 UTC
NATO
© AFP 2016/ Geoges Gobet
In light of the recent setbacks plaguing the Atlanticist project in Europe, the most visible of which so far have been the referendum victory of the pro-Brexit forces in the U.K. and the election of a pro-Russian president in Bulgaria, it has apparently been decided at NATO headquarters (and seconded by the Washington NATO overseers) that the top NATO bureaucrats have to take a more active part in the public relations (propaganda) campaigns. As a result, the recent three-day visit of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to London was planned in such a way as to include an opportunity to address a less restrictive audience than the usual diplomatic and military crowd. The venue chosen was the Oxford Union Society, one of the oldest debating societies in the world with a tradition of inviting well-known personalities from all walks of life to address its members.[1]

The problem with giving NATO chief Stoltenberg a more prominent public speaking role is that he is an uncharismatic, boring speaker, a muddled thinker, and his command of English language is not particularly good. All these failings were in full evidence during his address to the Oxford Union Society on November 24, 2016.

In addition to that and, more importantly, Stoltenberg's address was a heavy brew of typical NATO misinformation, disinformation, partial truths, and outright lies.[2] As a specimen par excellence of NATO grand narrative, the address, in my opinion, deserves to be deconstructed in detail and exposed for what it is: a dangerous rhetorical weapon for amplifying false consciousness and taking the world in the wrong direction - toward chaos, misery and war, and not toward stability, prosperity, and peace as Stoltenberg claimed.
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Attention

No condemnation: Moscow slams West for staying silent on bombing of Russian hospital


RT
Tue, 06 Dec 2016 00:01 UTC
Russian mobile hospital bombed
© Lizzie Phelan / Twitter
The Russian Foreign Ministry has criticized western leaders after none appeared to condemn the shelling of a mobile Russian hospital by militants in Syria. The ministry said that at least two Russian medics died.

"On December 5, a Russian military medic died as a mortar shell fired by militants directly hit the reception ward of a Russian mobile military hospital set up in Aleppo. Two medical specialists were also severely injured and one of them later died," the ministry said.

"However, no words of condemnation can be heard from western capitals," it added, criticizing western governments for their "politicized approach" to the assessment of the situation in Syria.

"We call on our partners to abandon the politicized approach and finally join the counter-terrorist efforts in Syria as well as the search for a political solution to the Syrian crisis" instead of waging a smear campaign in the media, the ministry said in its statement.


Comment: Russian MoD reports 2 paramedics killed, 1 more injured in militant attack on hospital in Aleppo


Comment: Why was the Russian hospital bombed? Terror at Work: Terrorists Bombs, Western Military Coordinates Kill Russian Paramedic in Aleppo

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Snakes in Suits

New White House report reveals spread of war on Al-Qaeda to six new countries


RT
Mon, 05 Dec 2016 23:51 UTC
Barack Obama
© Kevin Lamarque / Reuters Obama offers no evidence for Russian hacking claims
A White House report on efforts to target so-called extremists abroad shows a broadening use of war powers in the fight against Al-Qaeda, beyond military operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.

The 60-page report shows deployments in over half a dozen new areas - including Somalia, Yemen, Jordan, Niger, Cameroon, Central Africa, the Red Sea, Somalia and South Sudan - with troops on the ground, regular air strikes, and surveillance efforts, all in the name of counterterrorism.

In a presidential memorandum released on Monday, the White House said US military operations are grounded in the October 7, 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), by which Congress approved military operations and counterterrorism combat operations against Al-Qaeda. Since August 2014, those have expanded to include operations against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), which was "formerly known as Al-Qaeda in Iraq."
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Newspaper

Website labeled 'fake news' threatens to sue Washington Post for defamation

Rachel Stoltzfooz
Daily Caller
Mon, 05 Dec 2016 23:48 UTC
Washington Post HQ
One of the websites The Washington Post labeled "fake news" in a November story demanded a retraction and threatened the paper with a defamation lawsuit in a demand letter Sunday.

A lawyer for Naked Capitalism accuses [The Washington Post ] of running a debunked list of "fake news" sites in the "sensational" story compiled by a dubious team of researchers, without substantiating their claims or giving Naked Capitalism a chance to respond to the allegation. The Washington Post's actions constitute defamation, the lawyer writes in the letter published Monday.

Comment: Could there be a class action suit coming? Oh that'd be funny!

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Info

Libya interview 1: Saif Qaddafi is free!

Hugo Turner
Anti- Imperialist U
Sun, 04 Dec 2016 22:41 UTC
Saif Qaddafi
HT: Since last we spoke, Saif Qaddafi was finally freed. What does this mean for Libya?

AV: On June 27, Saif Qaddafi's defense team held a press conference at The Hague where they outlined the facts of Saif's case within the context of what had happened to Libya during the 2011 war, asserting that their client's imprisonment had been motivated by political revenge, not by crimes committed. They asserted it was his right under international law to defend his country. They discussed the passage of the Amnesty Law by the House of Representatives (based in Tobruk) and that this law applied to Saif Al Islam.

The legal team included Khaled al Zaidi from Libya, Marcel Ceccaldi from France, Karim Khan from England and Haemala Alejandra from Malaysia.

Comment: With Libya now under military rule, is it time for Saif to step up? Also read:

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Bomb

Ministry: Calls to stop operation in Aleppo look like attempt to shelter terrorists


TASS
Mon, 05 Dec 2016 22:17 UTC
War torn Syria
© AP Photo/Hassan Ammar War torn Syria
London's and Paris' calls to stop the operation in Eastern Aleppo look like an attempt to shelter and spare terrorists they are 'overseeing' who are suffering defeat, the Russian foreign ministry said on Monday.

"Growing calls from a number of Western capitals to stop the counter-terrorist operation in Eastern Aleppo seem to be a desperate attempt to shelter and save terrorists and extremists they are 'overseeing,' or those who stop at nothing to reach their ill goals, who are now suffering defeat," the ministry said. "It is they who continue to use civilians as a human shield, to shell and mine civil infrastructure, humanitarian corridors."
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Question

Was 11/8 a new 9/11? Tom Engelhardt jumps on the hysterical anti-Trump bandwagon

Tom Engelhardt
TomDispatch
Thu, 01 Dec 2016 21:39 UTC
trump
For decades, Washington had a habit of using the Central Intelligence Agency to deep-six governments of the people, by the people, and for the people that weren't to its taste and replacing them with governments of the [take your choice: military junta, shah, autocrat, dictator] across the planet.

There was the infamous 1953 CIA- and British-organized coup that toppled the democratic Iranian government of Mohammad Mosadegh and put the Shah (and his secret police, the SAVAK) in power. There was the 1954 CIA coup against the government of Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala that installed the military dictatorship of Carlos Castillo Armas; there was the CIA's move to make Ngo Dinh Diem the head of South Vietnam, also in 1954, and the CIA-Belgian plot to assassinate the Congo's first elected prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, in 1961 that led, in the end, to the military dictatorship of Mobutu Sese Seko; there was the 1964 CIA-backed military coup in Brazil that overthrew elected president Jango Goulart and brought to power a military junta; and, of course, the first 9/11 (September 11, 1973) when the democratically elected socialist president of Chile, Salvador Allende, was overthrown and killed in a U.S.-backed military coup. Well, you get the idea.

In this way, Washington repeatedly worked its will as the leader of what was then called "the Free World." Although such operations were carried out on the sly, when they were revealed, Americans, proud of their own democratic traditions, generally remained unfazed by what the CIA had done to democracies (and other kinds of governments) abroad in their name. If Washington repeatedly empowered regimes of a sort Americans would have found unacceptable for ourselves, it wasn't something that most of us spent a whole lot of time fretting about in the context of the Cold War.
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