Puppet MastersS


Bomb

Six points regarding the US' attempt to destroy Syria

Joseph Szot
Russia Insider
Mon, 17 Oct 2016 00:00 UTC
Homs: Before and After
© PinterestHoms: Before and After
1) Syria was one of the most well run, stable, Arab countries in the world, with decent living standards. It had no record of human rights violations or mass beheadings every year like our good ally Saudi Arabia.

2) Assad is the recognized legitimate leader of Syria by the whole world.

3) There was no unrest in Syria until a country 8,000 miles away decided they didn't like Assad - who the hell knows why. Just a guess: Assad wasn't going to let said country steal Syrian resources for pennies on the dollar. Said country was not Russia but the USA. No little non-nuclear armed country can refuse these type of American "requests" - there will be consequences. The consequence for Syria was the funding of a rebel insurgency.

4) That actions like this violate international law means nothing to the USA, especially when their "request" (demand) for access to cheap resources is turned down.


Comment: In this case, pictures speak louder than words to convey the devastation left behind and the ongoing atrocities suffered by the Syrian people.

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Snakes in Suits

Emails leaked, not hacked: Clinton engages in Russia-bashing anyway


RT
Tue, 18 Oct 2016 18:42 UTC
Hillary Clinton and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders
© Brian Snyder / Reuters
The story has nothing to do with the content of Clinton's hacked emails, which show she stole the nomination from Bernie Sanders. The main story was submerged in this outcry against Russia, former CIA officer Ray McGovern told RT.

During a news conference at the 2016 BRICS summit for five major emerging economies, Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed Washington's latest threat to launch a cyber-attack against Russia based on unsubstantiated claims that Russia had somehow interfered in the 2016 presidential election, which is already being called the most scandal-filled contest in American political history.

Putin added that US intelligence could be keeping tabs on all journalists.

RT spoke with former CIA officer Ray McGovern for his views on the situation.
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Info

BRICS playing the long game, one step at a time

Pepe Escobar
RT
Tue, 18 Oct 2016 18:25 UTC
BRICSin Benaulim, in the western state of Goa, India
© Danish Siddiqui / Reuters
The narrative concerning BRICS in the Beltway/Wall Street axis predictably spans two vectors; the five-member emerging power group - over 22 percent of global GDP, over 40 percent of global population - is either 'in crisis' or dismissed as irrelevant.

This is the Goa Declaration, summarizing the results of the annual BRICS meeting held this past weekend in India. Apparently there's not much that meets the eye. Yet President Putin once again stressed the context; this is a long-term project, a "key element" in the embryonic multipolar world, driven by nations that don't accept "power pressure" and attempted "targeting of sovereignty" by the usual suspects.

Economically, prospects for the BRICS are not as dire as a year ago. The medium-term scenario spells out stability in commodity prices. Even the IMF - always not to be fully trusted - bets on Russia growing 1.1 percent in 2017 (after a 3.7 percent recession in 2015) while Brazil might grow 0.5 percent.

Always looking at The Big Picture, Putin put on a brave face - stressing BRICS integration via more than 30 ministry-level teams working on common political, economic, humanitarian, security and social projects, as well as major advances such as the New Development Bank (NDB) and the proposed, $200 billion BRICS reserve currency mechanism.
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Propaganda

Western doublethink on Aleppo and Mosul obscures terror complicity

Finian Cunningham
RT
Tue, 18 Oct 2016 18:08 UTC
Syria destroyed buildings
© SANA / Reuters
The Syrian and Iraqi cities of Aleppo and Mosul have strikingly similar situations - yet the Western media perform a complete mental flip over the respective conflicts.

Consecutive reports in news broadcasts set new standards of doublethink by presenting the battles underway in each city as diametrically opposite, when in fact they're the same. Both are crucial sites for the defeat of illegally armed insurgents.

Aleppo and Mosul, each located far north in neighboring Arab countries, are the second major cities after their respective capitals of Damascus and Baghdad. Both were important industrial hubs before being seized by internationally blacklisted terror groups.
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Snakes in Suits

Desperate EU to push through Canadian trade deal despite Belgium split


RT
Tue, 18 Oct 2016 17:57 UTC
A tractor outside the Walloon regional parliament
© Francois Lenoir / ReutersA tractor outside the Walloon regional parliament.
The free trade pact between the European Union and Canada is likely to be sealed next week despite opposition from the Belgian region of Wallonia, according to European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom as quoted by AFP.

"I am not sure we will be able to make a decision today, but hopefully we'll move forward and can make a decision very soon," the commissioner said.

Last week, the French-speaking Belgian region voted against the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).


Comment: Listening to the people? Belgium's Wallonia region rejects EU-Canada free trade agreement


Despite the full support of Belgium's federal government, Brussels cannot back the agreement without the backing of all seven regional, linguistic and federal entities.

CETA needs to get unanimous support from all the EU's 28 member states before it can be signed on October 27.

Comment: As usual with the EU, none of this is voted on by the people: Europeans Take To Streets To Protest TTIP, CETA Trade Agreements

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Info

Yemen 72 hour ceasefire set to begin Wednesday


RT
Tue, 18 Oct 2016 17:43 UTC
Yemen destruction
© Abduljabbar Zeyad / Reuters
A 72-hour ceasefire will begin in Yemen on Wednesday night, a UN envoy has announced. It comes amid an 18-month battle between Houthi rebels and the Yemeni government, which has led to the deaths of up to 10,000 people.

UN Special Envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said in a Monday statement that all parties have agreed to the ceasefire, which will begin at 11:59pm local time (20:59 GMT) on Wednesday. It will last for a period of 72 hours and will be subject to renewal.

Yemeni Foreign Minister Abdel-Malek al-Mekhlafi also announced that President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi had "agreed to a 72-hour ceasefire to be extended if the other party adheres to it, activates the DCC [De-escalation and Coordination Committee] and lifts the siege of Taiz."
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Snakes in Suits

Theresa May to face MPs: Did PM help cover up sex abuse inquiry chief's 'incompetence'?


RT
Tue, 18 Oct 2016 17:18 UTC
Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May
© Toby Melville / Reuters
Prime Minister Theresa May will be challenged in Parliament over whether she helped cover up the failings of Dame Lowell Goddard, who allegedly made racist remarks and often flew into rages while heading the UK's biggest public inquiry.

May is under mounting pressure to disclose what she was told of serious concerns about the conduct and competence of Goddard, the New Zealander judge who quit abruptly from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse in August.

Labour MP Lisa Nandy has been awarded the second question at PMQs on Wednesday, and is expected to use it to push May to explain when she was first made aware of the allegations against Goddard, according to the Times.

Whitehall officials are accused of covering up the allegations of misconduct, because Goddard's "catastrophic" leadership was not ended despite the submission of several alleged warnings about her behavior.
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Chess

Lavrov doesn't believe decision to freeze RT accounts in UK was made by bank


RT
Tue, 18 Oct 2016 18:34 UTC
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
© Grigoriy Sisoev / ReutersRussian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
The decision by a majority-British government-owned bank to stop servicing RT UK's accounts could not have been taken by the institution independently, Russia's foreign minister says. The British government denies any involvement in the situation.

NatWest bank, part of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, informed that it intends to stop servicing RT UK and that the decision was not subject to discussion. Commenting on the accounts closure on Tuesday, Sergey Lavrov insisted that the decision had not been taken by the bank independently.

"It's as clear as day that this decision was not made by the bank. And not any other bank - banks don't make such decisions on their own," he said. "I believe an old saying is appropriate here: don't treat others the way you don't wish to be treated yourself."

The minister didn't elaborate on possible retaliation for RT accounts closure. The Russian Foreign Ministry earlier described as "squeezing alternative voices out of UK media space" by the UK government and said it was a violation of British commitments to preserve press freedoms under the Helsinki Accord of 1975.


Comment: See also: Royal Bank of Scotland Group blocks RT's UK bank accounts

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Attention

Defiant Trump: 'I would consider meeting Putin before inauguration'


RFE/RL
Tue, 18 Oct 2016 17:05 UTC
Donald Trump
© ReutersRepublican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump reacts to cheers from supporters as he departs a campaign rally in Lakeland, Florida, on October 12.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump says if he's elected, he would consider meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin before the inauguration in January.

Trump's comments on October 17, on a conservative radio talk show, were the latest remarks drawing attention to his affinity to the Russian leader, whose government has been accused of interfering in the U.S. election.

Trump has said in the past he admires Putin and has lamented the dangerous state of tensions between Washington and Moscow.

"The problem is Putin has no respect for Obama at all," he told host Michael Savage. "You have potentially a really catastrophic situation here. I'll be honest with you," he continued. "If I win on November 8, I could see myself meeting with Putin and meeting with Russia prior to the start of the administration."
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Propaganda

Kremlin official: Reports of "KGB revival" are hogwash


RT
Tue, 18 Oct 2016 16:41 UTC
Dzerzhinsky Square kgb
© Vladimir Fedorenko / SputnikLubyanka Square (Dzerzhinsky Square in 1926 through 1990). In the center -- the Felix Dzerzhinsky monument (sculptor Vuchetich). In the background -- the U.S.S.R. State Security Committee building.
Former head of the Russian presidential administration Sergey Ivanov says media reports about plans to merge all of the country's security agencies into one are untrue and most likely a hoax concocted by reporters to boost their popularity.

"I can say with all certainty - this is a classic example of an invented fake that was first launched and then discussed at length. This is what I call making news when they have no real news," Ivanov said in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper when reporters asked him about the allegations made by popular business daily Kommersant in mid-September.

Back then, Kommersant predicted that before the presidential elections in 2018 Russia will get a new Ministry for State Security, or MGB - an agency uniting the currently independent Federal Security Committee (FSB), Federal Bodyguard Service (FSO) and Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).

Comment: See:

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