Puppet MastersS


Bad Guys

Top Jabhet Fateh al-Sham commander killed by drone strike in Syria

Zen Adra
Al Masdar News
Mon, 03 Oct 2016 16:01 UTC
Ahmad Salamah Mabrouk, aka Abu al-Faraj al-Massri
Senior commander of Jabhet Fateh al-Sham (formerly Al-Nusra Front) was killed by a missile fired from a drone - believed to be affiliated with the US-led coalition - in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib.

Ahmad Salamah Mabrouk, aka Abu al-Faraj al-Massri, was killed along with two of his companions when a missile hit their car in a village near Jisr al-Shogour.

Al-Marsi appeared in a video recording next to al-Nusra chief in Syria, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, when the group changed its name to Jabhet Fateh al-Sham last August.

Al-Nusra-led Jaish al-Fateh has taken over Idlib in major offensive last year.

Comment: Is the US trying to make a positive impression?

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Bad Guys

Ahead of US Mosul offensive, ISIL arrests over 250 civilians and children for fear of popular uprising


FARS News Agency
Mon, 03 Oct 2016 15:46 UTC
ISIL militant with flag
The ISIL terrorists went on a house-to-house search in different parts of Mosul and arrested tens of Iraqi civilians, including children, after charging them with spying for the government.

"Over 250 Iraqi youth, children and elderly people were arrested in al-Hamrat, al-Eqtesadeen, Moshirfeh and al-Havi districts of Mosul city," a local source said on Monday.

The source reiterated that arresting a large number of civilians by the ISIL comes as the terrorist group is terrified of an impending popular uprising.

On Sunday, informed local sources in Nineveh province disclosed that the ISIL had blocked the roads leading to Wadi al-Hajr district in the Southern part of the city of Mosul and set up military outposts after the M resistance movement (an opponent group of the ISIL) increased its activities in the region.

The ISIL's intensified security measures came after the letter M appeared on all walls of al-Hajr district. M stands for the Arabic word 'Moqavamah' or 'Resistance' in English.

The ISIL terrorists are very much fearful of people's uprising in areas under their control in Mosul city.

Comment: Meanwhile Daesh's top leader has been poisoned - allegedly: Daesh jihadist ringleader Baghdadi suffering from poisoning attempt in Iraq

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Георгиевская ленточка

Showing off the skillz: Russia, China release stunning video of joint naval drills

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Fri, 30 Sep 2016 15:37 UTC
Russia China joint naval drills
© XinhuaChinese sailors welcome the Russian Navy destroyer Admiral Tributs (564) in Zhanjiang, China on Sept. 12, 2016.
Message sent?

Helicopters and warships dominated the South China Sea, as Russia and China continued their joint eight-day naval exercises, dubbed Joint Sea 2016.

A total of 18 ships and supply vessels, 21 aircraft and over 250 service personnel took part in the Joint Sea 2016 naval drills on September 12-19 in the South China Sea.

Does this look like Russia and China are sending a message?
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Bad Guys

Daesh jihadist ringleader Baghdadi suffering from poisoning attempt in Iraq


Sputnik
Mon, 03 Oct 2016 15:25 UTC
Abu Bakr Baghdadi painting
© Flickr/ Thierry Ehrmann
The top jihadist has been poisoned, the Iraqi Media News Agency said.

Daesh jihadist group ringleader, Abu Bakr Baghdadi, was poisoned together with three other commanders of the group in Iraq's northwestern Nineveh Province, local media reported Monday, citing a source. "There were intelligence reports that Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and three leading commanders consumed food containing poison," the source in the Nineveh Province was quoted as saying by the Iraqi Media News Agency.

The source noted that the militants are "suffering from severe poisoning", and had been taken under strict supervision to an unknown location.

Comment: This jihadist was American made and now poisoned ahead of a U.S. Mosul offensive. Of course, there are reports he was killed in Syria - but that hasn't stopped guys like Baghdadi in the past! They're just as scary from beyond the grave.

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Eye 2

Killary Clinton wanted drone attack on Julian Assange


RT
Mon, 03 Oct 2016 15:12 UTC
Julian Assange and Hillary Clinton
© Reuters
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton reportedly wanted to drone Wikileaks founder Julian Assange when she was secretary of state.

According to True Pundit, Clinton and the state department were under pressure to silence Assange and Wikileaks in the months before the whistleblowing site released a massive dump of 250,000 diplomatic cables from 1966 up to 2010, dubbed CableGate.

"Can't we just drone this guy?" Clinton asked, according to unidentified state department sources.

Published by True Pundit on Sunday, Wikileaks posted a link to the story on their official Twitter account on Monday, along with a screenshot of the article.
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Green Light

Bernie continues to stand by Killary, urges 'basement dwellers' to vote for her after leaked tape surfaces


RT
Mon, 03 Oct 2016 15:05 UTC
U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton listens as U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders
© Brian Snyder / Reuters
Bernie Sanders has admitted that a leaked tape in which Hillary Clinton criticized his supporters as "basement dwellers" and "baristas" bothers him, but still insists his backers should vote for the Democratic candidate over Donald Trump.

When asked by CNN's 'State of the Union' program whether Clinton's leaked comments from a February fundraiser bother him, Sanders said, "of course it does, but we are in the middle of a campaign...if you go to some of the statements I made about Hillary Clinton, we have real differences."

The 49-minute tape was purportedly found in a hacked email of a Clinton campaign staffer and given to the Washington Free Beacon, which published the story last week.

In the audio, Clinton described Sanders' supporters as youngsters "living in their parents' basement."


Comment: More audio here: Sorry, Sanders supporters: Hacked fundraiser recording reveals Killary's wet blanket attitude towards disillusioned millennials

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Snakes in Suits

German politician Peter Ramsauer accuses US of waging 'economic war' against Deutsche Bank


RT
Mon, 03 Oct 2016 14:08 UTC
Deutsche Bank building
© Ralph Orlowski / Reuters
Washington has a "long tradition" of waging trade wars, if they are favorable to the US economy, and the Deutsche Bank case is an example of that, said the German parliament's economics committee chairman Peter Ramsauer in an interview with Welt am Sonntag.

According to the German politician, the threat to force Deutsche Bank to pay a $14 billion fine over its mortgage-backed securities business before the 2008 global crisis "has the characteristics of an economic war." "Extortionate damages claims" in the case are an example of that, said Ramsauer.

Another German politician, Merkel ally and MEP Markus Ferber has suggested the Deutsche Bank investigation is a "tit for tat response" from the US Department of Justice after Brussels imposed a record €13 billion penalty against Apple's tax misdoings in Europe.

Comment: This all happened before in 2014 against France's BNP Paribas bank: BNP Paribas agrees to record $8.8bn settlement for US sanctions violations as blackmail for Paris to cancel Russia deal fails

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Gold Coins

Ruble at 11 month high fuels hedge fund interest


RT
Mon, 03 Oct 2016 14:03 UTC
Ruble coins
© Vladimir Trefilov / Sputnik
US Hedge funds continue to bet on further improvement in the ruble, signifying a belief the Russian currency may extend its recent gains.

In the week through September 27, investors acquired another 1,425 contracts for the ruble against the dollar, according to the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

The bet on the ruble is at a historic high of 24,052 contracts. The number of ruble short positions fell by almost 50 percent to 3,013.

On Monday, the Russian currency showed its best performance against the US dollar since October last year, trading at 62.24 against the greenback. The ruble was also trading below 70 against the euro for first time since July.
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Propaganda

Special interest groups create the "good", the "bad" and the "compelling" stories - the media's only job is to tell them

Bernhard
Moon of Alabama
Mon, 03 Oct 2016 02:50 UTC
propaganda neocons media spin
A thoughtful analysis by Amanda Taub of the New York Times describes why some wars get more "western" public attention than others:
Conflicts gain sustained American attention only when they provide a compelling story line that appeals to both the public and political actors, and for reasons beyond the human toll. That often requires some combination of immediate relevance to American interests, resonance with American political debates or cultural issues, and, perhaps most of all, an emotionally engaging frame of clearly identifiable good guys and bad guys.
...
Yemen's death toll is lower than Syria's, and although Al Qaeda does operate there, Yemen's conflict has not had the kind of impact on American and European interests that Syria's has. There is no obvious good-versus-evil story to tell there: The country is being torn apart by a variety of warring factions on the ground and pummeled from the air by Saudi Arabia, an American ally. There is no camera-ready villain for Americans to root against.
Those are good observations. But they themselves are part of the process they describe. They artificially create "good" and "bad" and are driven by "interests". (Side note: I doubt the sweeping claim "Yemen's death toll is lower than Syria's". The famine in northwest Yemen is very severe. The number of dead is simply not known yet but like in the hundred-thousands.)

Reporting does not depend on the existence of good and bad or the existence of a compelling story. Such thinking is just idealized nonsense. It is the media that creates the (often artificial) sides of a war on behalf of the interests. Good and bad are not inherent, they are constructs. A real compelling story is not needed. One can be created any time though it will likely not be a true one.
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Bad Guys

One year after US airstrike on MSF facility in Afghanistan hospitals are still part of the battlefield


RT
Mon, 03 Oct 2016 09:38 UTC

One year ago, an MSF hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan was hit by over 200 shells during an infamous US airstrike which killed 42 people including three children. Medical facilities continue to be "part of the battlefield," according to Doctors Without Borders.

Speaking to reporters in Kabul on the anniversary of the deadly Kunduz strike, MSF president Meinie Nicolai said the organization has "recorded 77 attacks against medical facilities operated or supported by MSF in Syria and Yemen."


Calling the situation "unprecedented," Nicolai said that "hospitals are now part of the battlefield," AFP reported. Most of the facilities, according to Nicolai, are targeted "in the name of war against terrorism." She noted that attacks against civilian medical centers and ambulances are "systematic" in Syria.

Comment: See also:

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