Puppet MastersS


Attention

OPCW concerned ISIS chemical attacks could be carried out outside Syria

ISIS militants
© AFP
Islamic State militants who know how to use chemical weapons may apply their skills outside of Syria, a top global chemical weapons watchdog official told media.

"It seems that one of the dangers that we need to face and have a response for - since Islamic State has learnt how to make mustard gas - is that sadly one of the people who learnt how to do it comes back to one of our countries and helps carry out an attack like this," Philippe Denier, director at the verification division of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), told a defense conference in Paris on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

Colosseum

Damascus grants Moscow priority and favourable terms on reconstruction contracts

syria damage
© Abdalrhman Ismail / Reuters
Syria has offered Russia priority in contracts for the war-torn country's reconstruction, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem confirmed as Russian Deputy PM Dmitry Rogozin visits Syria.

"The issue on the table was how to strengthen Russian economic interests here for a long time. It means the potential participation in major projects aimed at restoring the Syrian economy, as well as energy sector, ports, and other large-scale infrastructure projects," Rogozin said, as cited by TASS.

During his visit, the Russian deputy prime minister also met with the Syrian President Bashar Assad, who guaranteed Damascus would create the most favorable conditions for Syria-based Russian projects, as cited by RIA Novosti.

Comment: The seeds of a new Eurasian order are potentially being sown in the wake of the destruction that Syria has faced. No doubt this will be a real reconstruction, unlike the wasteful farcical projects in Iraq ran by Halliburton and the like, which were simply another way to loot from American tax payers.


Biohazard

Biological Weapons Convention: US consistently violates terms

biohazard
Conflict broke out on the floor of the Biological Weapons Convention in Geneva on the third day of the three week long meeting, with the growing division between Russia and her allies on the one hand and the US and hers on the other, evidencing in verbal accusations launched by both sectors.

Russia exerted her "right of reply" to respond to statements made by the US and Sweden which implicated Syrian forces in the use of chemical weapons in that war torn country.

According to the spokesperson for the Russian Federation, such accusations were not only "off topic" at a meeting devoted to biological—not chemical—weapons but were also patently false.

More likely, asserted the Russian spokesman, was that US-affiliated "jihadists" used chlorine gas and attempted to pin this on the embattled Assad regime. The US, he declared, is known to be supporting terrorist groups such as Al Nusra in that region.

Not to be left out in the cold, the US-connected Ukrainian spokesperson also defended the US's assertions. The representative from Syria also weighed in, stating he had no problem being referred to as "Bashar al Assad's delegate"—apparently intended as a slur against the delegate—and spoke in support of the current regime in Syria.

I think of this conference at the United Nations as Ground Zero. Every five years, there is a Review Conference of the Biological Weapons in Geneva, Switzerland. For three weeks, delegates from over a hundred and seventy nations meet to discuss the latest advances in biological weapons—whose got 'em, who might have 'em and what to do to protect a vulnerable world from their proliferation and deployment.

Comment: See also:


Sheriff

Top German court demands "effective protection" for Snowden to testify in Berlin case against NSA espionage

Edward Snowden
© Marcos Brindicci / ReutersEdward Snowden
A top German appeals court has ruled that the government must "establish preconditions" for US whistleblower Edward Snowden to come to Berlin, in order for him to testify before a parliamentary committee investigating NSA surveillance in Germany.

The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) ruling, made on November 11 but only announced on Monday, came after the Greens and the Left Party requested that the former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor be questioned by German MPs. Snowden is wanted by the US on espionage charges.

So far, the federal government has blocked calls by the opposition to bring Snowden to Berlin, saying it cannot guarantee his safety, the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported.

The chances of bringing Snowden to Berlin as a witness, so that he can detail what he knows about the NSA in Germany, have now increased, the newspaper reported.

The Federal Court of Justice has ruled that the government needs, among other formalities, to provide "effective protection" for the witness and "immediately establish the preconditions for interrogation of the witness in Germany."

Comment: So, the German government fears diplomatic problems with the US, and doesn't want to reveal the details of their participation with the NSA in their spying operation of government officials, including three chancellors. Germany needs to grow a spine. It's pathetically obvious who is calling the shots in Germany.


Bad Guys

Ukraine's Minister of Culture says Donbass residents are genetically unfit

Evgeny Nishchuk
© ReutersEvgeny Nishchuk
Residents of Ukraine's east lack the genetics necessary to be part of Ukrainian culture, according to the country's Minister of Culture. The comment was quickly picked up by the opposition, who are now urging the minister to resign.

"Speaking about genetics, Zaporozhye and the Donbass [region]... they are imported cities. There is no genetics there," Evgeny Nishchuk said on Monday in an interview with local local TV channel ICTV when asked why Ukrainian culture is spreading so slowly.

The comment was quickly noticed both inside and outside Ukraine.

The Opposition Bloc party forwarded a plea to the Ukrainian parliament to make Nishchuk give up his office, saying that "societies based on ethnical segregation have long been outdated" and "he would be punished for this kind of comments in a civilized society."

"The minister points to ethnically unclean people who are, however, still providing for Ukraine's economics and national budget," the party's statement said.

Comment: Aren't Ministers of Culture supposed to promote cultural expression? Guess not.
Victims of ethnic cleansing in Donbass sue Kiev in European Court


Gold Bar

Russia gold buying in October was biggest monthly allocation since 1998

Putin holding gold bar
© Reuters / Alexsey Druginyn
Russia gold buying accelerated in October with the Russian central bank buying a very large 48 metric tonnes or 1.3 million ounces of gold bullion.

This is the largest addition of gold to the Russian monetary reserves since 1998 and could be seen as a parting 'gift' by Prime Minister Putin to his rival ex-President Obama.

The Russian central bank gold purchase is the biggest monthly gold purchase of this millennium.

Concerns about systemic risk, currency wars and the devaluation of the dollar, euro and other major currencies has led to ongoing diversification into gold bullion purchases by large creditor nation central banks such as Russia and China.

Comment: Vladimir Putin certainly knows that the question about the financial house of cards is not 'is it going to collapse?' but 'when is it going to collapse?' Therefore, he wisely leads Russia to invest in one of the few assets that hold value throughout major crises. The cherry on the pie is that after a currency collapse, a gold-backed currency might emerge. If this happens, the largest gold holders will have decision power.


Headphones

'Trump can be charming': NYT Trump audio interview exposes media contempt, hint of smugness

Trump meeting with NYT
© Hiroko Masuike/NYT
The NYT liberal elite sat down with Trump and his team. The audio tape can be found at the NYT web site here.

One NYT reporter comments on the interview, noting...
It did leave me worrying more about corruption than gross incompetence, and I would prefer corruption to gross incompetence.

Which explains why the liberal left and NYT had absolutely no problem with Hillary Clinton's extensive corruption. Via the NYT:
The interview with Donald J. Trump is on. Then, abruptly, it's off. What's that? Oh, it's back on again.

So here we are, in a boardroom at The New York Times, over a lunch of salmon and steak, sitting around a giant wooden table with the president elect, posing questions to a man who has mocked, maligned and threatened us for the past two years.

What actually happened in that room, when Mr. Trump sat down with the editors, reporters and columnists for The Times on Tuesday? How did it feel? What did we learn about him? And why, after all the taunts and outbursts, was Mr. Trump so civil toward us — nice, even?

Comment: Full transcript of the NYT interview available here.


Arrow Down

Minsk meeting being held to determine status of Donetsk and Lugansk, don't expect much

Ukraine Belarus
A meeting of the contact group on the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis is going to be held today in Minsk.

Steinmeier's formula

The primary issue of this meeting is going to be the consideration of Steinmeier's formula, which determines a special status for Donetsk and Lugansk and, after the publication of the election results in these regions, potential transfer to self-government. Moreover, the officials of these republics say that, without agreement on this matter, it is impossible to solve any other problems.

Meanwhile, Kiev is delaying decision-making on this issue. The talks are going very slowly and unproductively.

Provocations

In addition, Kiev is continuing provocations against Russia. Despite the fact that Russia is not a party to the conflict and does not participate in these talks, Kiev's provocations negatively affect the credibility of Ukraine and do not help the course of the group's work.

Just recently, Kiev sent several groups of spies and saboteurs to Russia and kidnapped two Russian citizens. Now they are being detained with the possibility of ransom, which suggests that all of this was started for the sole purpose of at least slightly improving Ukraine's deplorable financial condition.

Recycle

'Alt-right' movement is mainstream media myth

Alt-right Trump
© TheDuran
Far from Donald Trump being a member of the 'alt-rIght', the movement itself exists only in the minds of the mainstream media and a few pundits, who have taken the insult and turned it into a term of endearment

In his closed-door meeting with the New York Times, Donald Trump was repeatedly asked about any possible connections he may or may not have with the so-called 'Alt-Right'.

First of all, I do not acknowledge there is a movement called the 'Alt-Right'. There is no such party, no such manifesto to which the name is ascribed, no NGO, no lobbying group and it has no physical headquarters. When one types in www.altright.com, one finds a website under construction, weeks after Donald Trump's election.

'Alt-Right' is simply a new way for the old, dying liberal establishment to slander traditional conservatives who do not fit the neo-con/neo-lib mould of the Bushes, Obamas, Sarzozys, Camerons and Merkels of the world.

As I have said countless times, Donald Trump is an old fashioned conservative Republican in the model of Robert Taft. It is true that Trump's industrial and economic policies have a hint of socialism about them. Indeed, Taft himself was accused of having socialist sympathies by follow Republicans skeptical of funding public works programmes for the needy which Taft tended to support.

Info

Putin on French presidential hopeful Fillon: 'Tough, but decent and real professional'

Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (L) and his French counterpart Francois Fillon
© Natalia Kolesnikova / Reuters
Russian President Vladimir Putin has commented on the recent win of France's Francois Fillon in the first round of the center-right party's presidential primary, saying that his "personal relations" with Fillon have shown the politician to be a "decent man."

"We worked together with Francois when he headed the French government, and I chaired the [Russian] government ... we had a lot of meetings, and have developed certain personal relations, very kind ones," Putin told reporters on Wednesday.

The French presidential hopeful, whose convincing win in the Sunday primary took many by surprise, is "very much different" from world politicians, Putin said.