Puppet MastersS


Snakes in Suits

Leaked UN report blames US, EU sanctions for punishing Syrian civilians, stalling aid work and food shortages


RT
Sun, 02 Oct 2016 22:17 UTC
People inspect a damaged site after airstrikes on the rebel held Aleppo, Syria
© Abdalrhman Ismail / ReutersPeople inspect a damaged site after airstrikes on the rebel held Sheikh Fares neighbourhood of Aleppo, Syria October 1, 2016.
US and EU sanctions against Syria are punishing the population and make aid work in the war-torn country almost impossible, a leaked UN report and internal letters have revealed.

The restrictive measures contributed to the destabilization of every sector of the economy in Syria that used to be self-sufficient before the war began in 2011.

The country now heavily depends on aid, which is hard to deliver as sanctions make medicine, food, fuel, spare parts and other essentials unreachable, a 40-page UN report, cited by The Intercept, stressed.

The paper entitled 'Humanitarian Impact of Syria-Related Unilateral Restrictive Measures' was published in mid-May, but The Intercept got hold of it now, adding other materials on the issue.

The report blasted US and EU restrictions as "some of the most complicated and far-reaching sanctions regimes ever imposed."

Comment: Also in the report:
The EU lifts sanctions... on weapons

But while life-saving medical devices are kept out, weapons pour in. In 2013, the EU lifted its arms embargo on Syria for the express purpose of shipping weapons and other supplies to anti-government militants. At the time, an investigation by The Independent found that:
France was instrumental, alongside the UK, in lifting the EU arms embargo on Syria which would allow supplies to be sent to the rebels.
UN says the issue is too "politically sensitive"

The UN report stops short of directly condemning the Western sanctions regime on Syria. And the report's "Executive Summary" section contains a potential clue as to why the report had to be leaked instead of being made available through official channels for public debate and scrutiny:
discussion on whether unilateral measures are appropriate is a politically sensitive and highly emotive subject, and is therefore outside of the scope of this report.
In other words, the UN admits to engaging in self-censorship merely because the subject is too "highly emotive". Or perhaps the reality is that it would offend powerful UN member nations.


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Propaganda

Washington Post repeats - and ups - US threats: 'Putin is making a mistake in Syria — and Russia will pay the price'

Philip Gordon
The Washington Post
Wed, 28 Sep 2016 15:03 UTC
Vladimir Putin (R) shakes hands with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
© Alexey Druzhinyn/Pool via European Pressphoto AgencyRussian President Vladimir Putin (R) shakes hands with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Moscow on October 20, 2015.
One of Vice President Biden's favorite sayings on foreign policy is to never tell another man or woman what's in his or her interest. That is a good general rule; I heard him repeat the saying many times while I was working on Middle East policy in the White House. But when it comes to Russia's recent actions in Syria, I believe the rule needs to be broken. Russian President Vladimir Putin may fancy himself a master strategist, but in Syria he is making a mistake that will come back to haunt him — and Russia — for a long time to come.


Comment: What a load of BS - and just in the first paragraph! First, what Biden says in regards to his own intentions have nothing whatsoever to do with his actions. He is a messenger boy and profiteer of the US Empire. Period. Second, the author of this article is using this "critique" of Biden as a launching pad to once again parrot the not-so-veiled threat of US mouthpiece John Kirby which the Russians (and the rest of the thinking world) can see right through.


With the Sept. 12 U.S.-Russia cease-fire agreement, the Obama administration offered Putin a way forward that from a Russian perspective could only have been described as a clean win. If fully implemented, the agreement would have prevented regime change in Damascus — a major Putin redline — for the foreseeable future; boosted Russia's position as a major power in the Middle East; facilitated military and intelligence cooperation with the United States against terrorist groups; diminished a costly conflict; and secured Russia's Mediterranean base. From Moscow's perspective, that would not be a bad day's work.
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SOTT Logo Radio

SOTT Focus: Behind the Headlines: Russian military in Syria, one year on - and who shot down MH17? ‌‌


Sott.net
Sun, 02 Oct 2016 16:00 UTC
Vlad Putin
© The Awe Some Daily
‌On September 30th, 2015, the Russian air force, at the invitation of the Syrian government, began airstrikes against terrorist targets in Syria. It was a stunning intervention that sent terrorists scurrying, left Washington blind-sided, and immediately changed the balance-of-power in the Middle East and beyond.

This week we're looking back on a year of extraordinary events in Syria, across the Middle East and around the world, and the tense stand-off that has developed between the US and Russia as it appears to reach its peak. Is a nuclear war on the cards?

This week, the Dutch-led 'Joint Investigative Team' produced its 'final' report on the shooting down of MH17 over East Ukraine in July 2014. To the world's complete lack of amazement, the conclusion reached was that "Putin did it". We'll be discussing this latest farcical report and not only the complete lack of evidence it provides, but the fact that it actually disproves its own conclusion.

Running Time: 01:52:12

Download: MP3

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USA

A moribund democracy is installing Hillary by force

Richard Behan
Oped News
Sun, 02 Oct 2016 15:40 UTC
Killary and Debbie
© Mark Wilson/Getty Images North AmericaFormer US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (R) gets a hug from DNC Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL before speaking at the Democratic National Committee's Women's Leadership Forum, September 19, 2014 in Washington, DC. The Womens Leadership Forum is holding their 21st annual National Issues Conference a the Marriot Marquis Hotel.
The Democratic National Committee tilted the primary season to favor Hillary Clinton. This might be seen merely as a slight aberration, a negligible prank in the messy world of politics. It was not an aberration.

Unless the nation lapses into lunacy on November 8, Hillary Clinton will be our next president. The prospect raises an alarming question we've never before confronted.

How can a thriving democracy conceivably elect a president who is dishonest and untrustworthy in the minds of 59% of the people? A woman shown to be a felon but not prosecuted for want of precedent?

A woman who lies and contradicts herself, documented in video clips? A bold hypocrite who solicits and accepts hundreds of millions in campaign contributions from Wall Street banks, the armaments industry, and Big Pharma, and claims to abhor Citizens United which enables her to do so?

The answer: we live in a moribund democracy, not a thriving one. A conjunction of corporate political power and immense wealth is forcibly installing a president. We haven't confronted this before, either. We will cast our ritual ballots in November, but not in a free election: the Democratic nominee was imposed upon us by the corporate and the wealthy.

No, we have not been finessed by a patrician coup d'etat nor a secret cabal in sinister conspiracy. Instead we are victimized by systemic corruption in five institutions of public practice, and it is subverting our democracy.

Of immediate concern is the corruption in the Democratic Party. Directly violating the requirement for strict neutrality throughout the primaries, the Democratic National Committee intervened in the process at every opportunity, handicapping the Sanders campaign to assure Hillary Clinton's nomination. The effort was covert, but it was suspected, finally exposed, and ultimately successful.

This was the engine of coercion, the denial of democracy, and the reason we will likely suffer a president unworthy of our trust. The corruption was not an aberration, nor was it unique and isolated: it flourished in a matrix of decadent institutions in which democracy cannot survive.
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Document

The leaked Montenegrin government files: NATO split over expansion, U.S. and Germany pushing the anti-Russian agenda

Filip Kovacevic
Newsbud
Thu, 29 Sep 2016 20:26 UTC
nato expansion
Map of NATO's expansion
Part I: A Rift Within NATO Confirmed

In April 2015, Marko Milačić, a well-known Montenegrin journalist and then the director of the Movement for Neutrality of Montenegro, obtained a set of confidential Montenegrin government files focusing on the issues surrounding Montenegro's membership in NATO.1 While the leaking of these files caused quite a commotion within the corrupt Montenegrin ruling circles and was widely reported in the Montenegrin media, not much of the scandal trickled down into the international arena. The actual content of the files has remained virtually unknown to the English-speaking audience, even though they contain very important insider's view of the functioning of the U.S., European, and NATO institutions as well as the private thinking of several political figures in the key leadership positions.

I have set out to remedy this situation as I have recently received the files from Milačić. I plan to present and discuss their content in the series of articles of which this is the first one. This is the first time that the files are analyzed in detail in English.

There is no reason to doubt the authenticity of the files because they contain the government filing numbers, the official government stamp, and the signatures of the relevant officials. In addition, as soon as the Montenegrin daily newspaper Dan began publishing news reports on the files, the government launched an in-depth investigation and threatened heavy sanctions against those who leaked the files.2 However, the investigation led nowhere and, remaining true to journalistic ethics and professionalism even under intense pressure, Milačić never revealed the name(s) of his source(s).
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Attention

Former Israeli spy chief likens Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti to Mandela

Philip Weiss
Mondoweiss
Sun, 02 Oct 2016 19:39 UTC
Imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti grafitti
Imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti
A few months ago former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy shocked Israel in an Al Jazeera interview, saying that the occupation generates Palestinian violence, and Benjamin Netanyahu was misusing the Holocaust to try to deny that reality; and now Haaretz has gotten Halevy to extend his analysis in a stunning interview of 5000 words with Dalia Karpel.

The most important moment in the interview comes when Halevy likens imprisoned Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti to Nelson Mandela as a former terrorist whom the country must negotiate with in order to make peace: i.e., the man Israel calls a terrorist really is the other side's freedom fighter, and - Israel is practicing apartheid. Barghouti, 57, was imprisoned in 2002 and charged with directing the Second Intifada.

As you read Halevy's comments, consider, that none of this analysis has ever been in the American press, though Palestinians offer it all the time; and that the American press is doing nothing to support Haaretz in its effort to reform Israeli society, even as the newspaper executives receive death threats for their work.
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Star of David

Jews may leave Europe if Islamic terrorism, anti-Semitism not stopped, top rabbi warns MEPs


RT
Sun, 02 Oct 2016 15:04 UTC
Jews
© Andrew Winning / Reuters
Islamist terror attacks, the rise of the far-right and Britain's decision to quit the EU may create such destabilizing conditions that the very survival of Jews in Europe would be impossible, a high-ranking rabbi told the European Parliament.

The head of Conference of European Rabbis and chief rabbi of Moscow, Pinchas Goldschmidt, told the MEPs that the European Jews feel as if they are standing on train tracks with "trains coming at each other with ever increasing speed."

"One train is the train of radical Islam and Islamic terrorism ... the other train is the anti-Semitism of old Europe, the extreme right," he explained, as quoted by the Independent.

Goldschmidt said that radical Islam and far-right anti-Semitism represent "existential threats for European Jews," adding that "both trains have to be halted before it's too late."

According to the statistics voiced Tuesday by Martin Schultz, the president of the European Parliament, "every fifth Jew in Europe has experienced verbal or physical violence," while "the Jewish population in Europe has decreased from almost four million in 1945 to barely more than one million today."

"The question that Jews ask themselves, not only as Jews but as Europeans, does Europe in its present form have a future after the [terrorist] attacks in Paris, in Brussels, in Copenhagen, and after Brexit?" the rabbi said in his speech before the European parliament on Tuesday.

Comment: A lack of action from European governments to protect Jews in Europe has contributed to their decision to organize the training, first in Prague, and later in other European countries. "We've urged the European countries to do something and we did not get a real response from them," Margolin said, adding all Jewish institutions in Europe should be protected by police 24 hours a day.

See also: Prague: Attacks spur European rabbis to train in self-defense

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Bad Guys

Throwing their precious lives away: Turkistan Islamic Party in Syria shows more 'little jihadists'

Caleb Weiss
The Long War Journal
Thu, 29 Sep 2016 19:00 UTC
Children jihadists as seen in the video
Children jihadists as seen in the video
The Turkistan Islamic Party in Syria (TIP), an al Qaeda-linked Uighur jihadist group, has released a new video showing celebrations for the Muslim holiday Eid al Adha. Part of the video is dedicated to what it refers to as "little jihadists," or children members of the group.

Most of the video includes small clips and photos from the Eid al Adha celebrations, combat footage from recent battles, and some of its killed fighters. Around halfway through the video, children are shown posing with AK-47 assault rifles, pistols, and attending Sharia classes. Many of the children are boys, but some girls are also seen with weapons in the video. It was a release similar to a video from last September, but that video also showed the children partaking in weapons training. (See LWJ report, Uighur jihadist group in Syria advertises 'little jihadists'.)

Last July, the group first publicized a training camp in Idlib. Earlier this year, TIP-affiliated Twitter accounts published photos showing children attending a military training camp somewhere in northwestern Syria.

While the TIP has been active in Syria, the organization's core leadership is based in Afghanistan and Pakistan and operates in those countries as well as in China. The TIP has also advertised camps for children in the Afghan-Pakistan region.
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Jet5

Look out jihadists: Russia beefing up its air force in Syria

Dmitry Solovyov
Reuters
Sun, 02 Oct 2016 18:38 UTC
Russian SU-25 jets
© Sputnik/ Dmitriy Vinogradov
Russia has reinforced its air base in Syria with several bombers and is ready to send ground attack aircraft as it intensifies support for Syrian government troops after the collapse of a ceasefire plan, Russia's Izvestia daily reported on Friday.

A group of Su-24 and Su-34 frontline bombers have already arrived at the Hmeymim base, Izvestia wrote, quoting an unnamed military official. "If need be, the air force group will be (further) built up within two to three days," he said.

"Su-25 ground attack fighters designated to be sent to Hmeymim have already been selected in their units and their crews are on a stand-by, awaiting orders from their commanders."

Russia's defense ministry did not immediately respond to a request from Reuters for comment.

Comment: Looks like Russia is reinvigorating its terrorist offensive since it is unlikely a ceasefire deal with the US is forthcoming.

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Pistol

Duterte tells critics he'd be 'happy to slaughter' drug addicts like Hitler massacred Jews - apologizes (UPDATE)


RT
Fri, 30 Sep 2016 15:05 UTC
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte
© Lean Daval Jr / ReutersPhilippines President Rodrigo Duterte gestures during a news conference upon his arrival from a state visit in Vietnam at the International Airport in Davao city, Philippines September 30, 2016.
Tired of critics portraying him as a "cousin of Hitler," Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte said he would be "happy" if his brutal campaign against drugs was as effective as the infamous Nazi leader's holocaust against the Jews.

"Hitler massacred three million Jews. Now, there are three million drug addicts...I'd be happy to slaughter them," Duterte said on Friday, speaking upon his arrival in Davao City, on the southern island of Mindanao.

"If Germany had Hitler, the Philippines would have...," he said, pausing to point to himself. "You know my victims. I would like [them] to be all criminals to finish the problem of my country and save the next generation from perdition."

Comment: Update (Oct. 2):

Duterte - known for his over-the-top and somewhat inflammatory speech - has apologized for this latest headline-grabber:
"I would like to make it now, here and now, that there was never an intention on my part to derogate the memory of the six million Jews murdered," he said Sunday in a speech at a festival carried live on television.

"The reference to me was, I was supposedly Hitler, who killed many people.

"I apologize profoundly and deeply to the Jewish community... it was never my intention, but the problem was I was criticized, using Hitler comparing to me," he added.


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