Puppet MastersS


Jet5

The fragmentation of Syria: US airstrikes over Deir ez-Zor 'mistakenly' supports Daesh

Christian Vaneste
Fort Russ/Boulevard Voltaire
Mon, 19 Sep 2016 16:34 UTC
Deir ez-Zor
Translated by Tom Winter

An event of unusual gravity just happened in Deir ez-Zor in Syria. This city is located northeast of the country near Iraq, in the desert zone held by the Islamic State which controls most of it along the Euphrates.

The airfield and neighborhoods that surround it form an enclave defended by the Syrian army.

The US Air Force has bombed the area killing 60 to 80 loyalist soldiers. Russia requested a meeting of the UN Security Council. The US military pleads "mistake." Their embarrassed explanations are very surprising. There were four strikes on target. The number of victims leaves little doubt about the power of the attack, which doubtless surprised the soldiers encircled by the jihadists.

Certainly, Americans, who have always preferred using their firepower -- overwhelming but sometimes approximate -- rather than risk the lives of their fighters, regularly commit blunders. But today's means of observation and intelligence, as well as the possibility of intervening in a very precise way with drones and missiles, as when they eliminate Islamic leaders, for example, arouse suspicions about a bombardment "by mistake" in a perimeter held since the beginning of the rebellion by the legal army.

Comment: See also: Russia-brokered ceasefire shattered as US airstrikes against Syrian Army in Deir ez-Zor leaves 80 soldiers dead, over 100 injured (UPDATES)

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Propaganda

Washington Post: First paper to call for prosecution of its own source

Glen Greenwald
The Intercept
Sun, 18 Sep 2016 14:33 UTC
Snowden
Three of the four media outlets that received and published large numbers of secret NSA documents provided by Edward Snowden — The Guardian, the New York Times, and The Intercept - - have called for the U.S. government to allow the NSA whistleblower to return to the U.S. with no charges. That's the normal course for a news organization, which owes its sources duties of protection, and which — by virtue of accepting the source's materials and then publishing them — implicitly declares the source's information to be in the public interest.

But not the Washington Post. In the face of a growing ACLU and Amnesty-led campaign to secure a pardon for Snowden, timed to this weekend's release of the Oliver Stone biopic "Snowden," the Post editorial page today not only argued in opposition to a pardon, but explicitly demanded that Snowden — the paper's own source — stand trial on espionage charges or, as a "second-best solution," accept "a measure of criminal responsibility for his excesses and the U.S. government offers a measure of leniency."
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Bad Guys

Ceasefire canceled? Syrian rebels unite with al-Nusra Front and preparing for offensive


Sputnik
Mon, 19 Sep 2016 14:49 UTC
Syrian rebel fighters
© AFP 2016/ FADI AL-HALABI
The Russian General Staff said Monday that US-backed Syrian rebels have not separated from terrorists, but united with al-Nusra Front and are preparing for an offensive.

The only parties adhering to the truce are Moscow and the Syrian government forces, while the United States and opposition groups it controls have not fulfilled a single obligation according to the Russia-US agreement, the General Staff said.

"The United States and so-called moderate opposition groups under its control have not fulfilled a single commitment taken on under the Geneva agreements. Above all, the moderate opposition has not been separated from al-Nusra Front [also known as Jabhat Fatah al Sham]," Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoy said at a briefing.
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Gold Coins

China continues to pare its holdings of U.S. treasuries as levels fall to lowest in three years

Scott Lanman
Bloomberg
Fri, 16 Sep 2016 19:09 UTC
china dumping US debt
China's holdings of U.S. Treasuries fell in July to the lowest level in more than three years, as the world's second-largest economy pares its foreign-exchange reserves to support the yuan.

The biggest foreign holder of U.S. government debt had $1.22 trillion in bonds, notes and bills in July, down $22 billion from the prior month, in the biggest drop since 2013, according to U.S. Treasury Department data released Friday in Washington and previous figures compiled by Bloomberg. The portfolio of Japan, the largest holder after China, rose $6.9 billion to $1.15 trillion. Saudi Arabia's holdings of Treasuries declined for a sixth straight month, to $96.5 billion.

Comment: China's golden strategy to end the tyranny of the dollar

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Bell

Pope Francis warns against corruption, says it is "more addictive than drugs"


RT
Mon, 19 Sep 2016 14:37 UTC
Pope Francis
© Osservatore Romano / ReutersPope Francis
It begins slowly, and then you start generating exploitation, poverty and suffering - Pope Francis warned saying corruption may become "more addictive than drugs."

"Some behave with corruption as with drugs: thinking they can use it and stop using it when they want," Francis said in his Angelus Address at St. Peter's Square, as quoted by Crux news site. "Little by little. Maybe one day a tip here, another day a bribe there, and so little by little he arrives to corruption," the pontiff also said, The Catholic News Agency reported Sunday. "Corruption produces addiction, and it generates poverty, exploitation, suffering. And how many victims there are in the world today!" he added.

Francis based his Sunday speech on Sunday's Gospel, the story of a bad steward who fakes documents of the debts owed to his employer in order to gain the friendship of those he assists. That is "not presented as a model to be imitated, but as an example of cunning."

Corruption is "a completely worldly and strongly sinful cleverness, which does a lot of bad," the pontiff said, calling the practice the path of sin, "even if it's the most comfortable one to go through." People can choose between two paths: "honesty and dishonest, fidelity and unfaithfulness, egoism and altruism, good and evil," the pontiff added.

Comment: Corruption comes in many forms, and only the most blatant is seen through bribes, favors, and backroom dealings. A more insidious corruption attacks the vulnerable and unprepared mind and comes through every sort of institution, to include the Catholic Church.

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Light Sabers

Cameron's attempts to stop Iraq War abuse inquiry overruled by UK attorney general


RT
Mon, 19 Sep 2016 14:49 UTC
british soldiers
© Paul Grover / ReutersBritish soldiers near Basra in southern Iraq, March 30, 2003 .
Efforts by former Prime Minister David Cameron to put a stop to the Iraq Historic Allegations Team's (IHAT) work were overruled by the UK's top lawyer, according to a Tory MP.

Former army officer and MP Johnny Mercer told the Telegraphhe had approached Cameron about the investigations - which critics claim are being used to persecute soldiers based on dubious evidence - in March, but was told nothing could be done.

Mercer, who sits on the Defence Select Committee, branded the government's inability to put a halt to the 2010 initiative "weak."

"I went to see the then prime minister in March and he told me he wanted to shut it down but he had been ordered by the attorney general that he couldn't," Mercer said.

Mercer then went to the attorney general, Jeremy Wright, who said it would be legally impossible to close down the investigations at that stage.
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Blackbox

Wait, she isn't president yet! Japanese Prime Minister to meet with Clinton to discuss international issues


Sputnik
Mon, 19 Sep 2016 14:43 UTC
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
© AP Photo/ Koji Sasahara
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who arrived in the United States to attend the UN General Assembly's session, plans to meet with US Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton later on Monday, local media reported.

According to the Kyodo news agency, citing sources in the Japanese diplomatic circles, the meeting will be held on Monday evening in one of New York's hotels, and will focus on the situation in the Asian region. In particular, the parties are expected to discuss North Korea's nuclear issue, as well as China's activities in the East China Sea.

In addition, the issue of the recent policy, led by the Japanese government, to boost the role of women in society is expected to be on the agenda. The 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly is held on September 13-26, 2016 in New York.
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Dollars

China to invest $450 billion in agriculture - and GMO's


RT
Mon, 19 Sep 2016 14:31 UTC
China ag
© Sheng Li / ReutersChangsha, Hunan province, China
Over the next four years the Chinese government will invest 3 trillion yuan ($450 billion) into developing the country's agriculture, the official state news agency Xinhua reports.

The state-run Agricultural Development Bank of China and the Ministry of Agriculture have agreed to protect national food security, develop China's seed industry and support the industry via overseas businesses, according to the agency.

Comment: Interesting development! Would raising the 'efficiency of Chinese agriculture' include becoming a GMO giant?
In November, China National Chemical Corporation (ChemChina) made a failed bid to buy the Swiss-based Syngenta, the world's largest crop chemical pesticide and herbicide producer with 19 percent of the world market. Syngenta is also one of the world's four giant GMO seed patent holders alongside Monsanto, DuPont and Dow, the "Four Horsemen of the GMO Apocalypse," as they are sometimes called. The takeover bid is no spur of the moment whim. It comes after Monsanto's takeover of Syngenta was rejected by the company earlier in 2015. On December 18, ChemChina revealed its seriousness when it made a second larger bid to take Syngenta and all its GMO and pesticide patents and production. The new offer, estimated worth $44 billion, would be the largest corporate takeover in China's history.

The actions of the Chinese leadership on this vital question of the future of the planet's food security are not owing to their ignorance of the issues of the GMO project. Around the time ChemChina launched its November bid for Syngenta, the Chinese government banned one the world's largest independent anti-GMO agriculture media sources, Sustainable Pulse. Though the ban was reportedly later lifted, it makes clear Beijing officials are very much aware of the issues around GMO. For more than twenty years since the US first commercialized GMO crops without independent health and safety testing by the US government, China has blocked development of GMO in China.


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Info

Future aid to Ukraine in jeopardy over Naftogaz gas monopoly government takeover


RT
Mon, 19 Sep 2016 14:30 UTC
headquarters of the Ukrainian national joint stock company NaftoGaz
© Valentyn Ogirenko / Reuters
Ukraine may lose hundreds of millions of dollars in aid after a surprise decision by the government to take direct control over the country's gas production and transportation company.

The takeover may be in violation of the $17.5 billion bailout deal with international creditors and comes just days after Kiev received a $1 billion tranche from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

"If all the facts we have learned from third parties are confirmed, we are very disturbed and this development is very serious," said Anton Usov, a spokesperson for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, quoted by the Financial Times.

According to the newspaper, another lender to Ukraine, the World Bank, is also concerned about the situation with Naftogaz.
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War Whore

Erdogan wants to expand 'safe zone' deeper into Syria


RT
Mon, 19 Sep 2016 14:24 UTC
Turkish soldiers
© Umit Bektas / ReutersTurkish soldiers on an armoured personnel carrier escort a military convoy on a main road in Karkamis on the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern Gaziantep province, Turkey, August 26, 2016.
Ankara may continue its operation against Islamic State deeper into Syria - to within just 50km of Aleppo, as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says the Turkish military plans to create a 5,000-sq-km safe zone within the country.

Erdogan says Turkey's operation in Syria, Euphrates Shield, which started on August 24, has cleared border regions from Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).

"As part of the Euphrates Shield operation, an area of 900 sq km has been cleared of terror so far. This area is pushing south," Erdogan said, as cited by Reuters.

Comment: Safe zone, or trafficking corridor for ISIS?

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