Puppet MastersS


Snakes in Suits

Saudi Finance Ministry ex-advisor claims Saudi Arabia on verge of collapse

Saudi royal
A senior economist and former special adviser to the Saudi ministry of finance underlined that the country is on the brink of collapse with the western countries merely looking at its "implosion".

The Huffington Post did publish an opinion piece last Sunday that said Saudi Arabia was on the brink of "implosion" due to its economic dependence on oil and its failure to implement political reforms. The article, titled "Last Tango in Riyadh," was written by Hossein Askari, an economist in the US and former special adviser to Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Finance.

"When it implodes, will the US and the UK come to the rescue of their Al-Saud clients? We believe not," wrote Askari. "The US and the others have made thousands of hollow speeches in support of human rights and representative governance, but they have continued to support their client as long as they buy arms and do their bidding."

Snakes in Suits

UN SC meeting cancelled due to US refusal to disclose details of Syria deal, fails to uphold truce

UN Security Council
© EPA/JASON SZEINES
The United States' refusal to disclose details of the bilateral agreement with Russia on Syria has not allowed to hold a UN Security Council meeting on Friday and threatens the adoption of the resolution in support for the deal, Vitaly Churkin, Russian Ambassador to UN, told journalists on Saturday.

"The United States is not prepared to share the document with the members of the Security Council, and not even describe them in detail," Churkin said. "When we agreed to do a briefing, at least you need to describe the content of the document. And in my mind, what we have been saying publicly and my foreign minister (Sergey Lavrov) has been saying publicly, we believe the document needs to be circulated. I mean, why make a secret of them? Those are things on which we are going to base our work if the whole thing is implemented," the diplomat said.

"So, it's another strange, strange attitude of the United States which does not make it possible to proceed with the briefing and also, I'm afraid, to proceed with the adoption of that resolution," he went on. "We believe that we cannot ask members of the (UN) SC to support something the content of which they don't know," he noted. "There is a number of documents there. There is a document which was negotiated on September 9 but as a package, there are a number of documents which were negotiated before, in July, and even before," Churkin explained.

Comment: Putin Reveals Why US is Against Making Deal With Russia on Syria Public
Russia has been urging the United States to disclose the details of the deal on Syria, which came into force on Monday. It aims to end violence in Syria and allow for relief aid deliveries.

"The only reason why they apparently don't want to make it public is because the international community, as well as American and Russian public will immediately find out who is not abiding by the deal," Putin said in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

"We agreed that al-Nusra Front should be distanced from the opposition and that their location should be disclosed as well as that of the so-called healthy [moderate] forces. What do we see instead? We see no separation of terrorists and healthy forces, but rather attempts by terrorists to regroup," he said.

"I wish we were honest with each other... And I do not quite understand, why we should conceal any of our agreements. Of course, we will not disclose them, until our US partners agree with it... I repeat that we have rather positive than negative attitude [to these agreements] and we hope the promises given by the US administration will be fulfilled."
Russia, US Agree Not to Disclose 2nd Part of Peace Deal on Syria So Far
Russia and the United States have reached an arrangement not to disclose the second part of the bilateral deal on the Syrian settlement so far, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said Saturday.

"The US asked us to keep these additional issues in secret so far. We are keeping the promise. We will see how the situation will develop given some parties to the negotiations are not aware of the details" Ushakov told reporters.

If the new ceasefire in Syria lasts for seven days, Russia and the United States will work together to establish a Joint Implementation Center and carry out joint airstrikes against terrorists in the war-torn country.
US & US-controlled forces haven't fulfilled any Syria ceasefire deal obligations - Russian Army
The US is still reluctant to take measures to force rebels under its control to implement the Syrian ceasefire, Russia's Defense Ministry said, adding that if things do not change, Washington will be the sole side responsible for the failure of the truce.

"After five days of the ceasefire, it has to be noted that only the Russian and Syrian sides have been fully implementing their commitments. On its own initiative, Russia prolonged the cessation of hostilities for 48 hours, and yesterday it was extended for another 72 hours," senior Russian General Staff official, Viktor Poznikhir, said at a briefing in Moscow.

But, according to Poznikhir, it is very different on the American side as "the US and the so-called moderate groups under their control didn't fulfill a single commitment undertaken in the framework of the Geneva arrangements."

The Russian official pointed out that "the main priority of the Russian-American agreements of September was the division of territories controlled by IS (Islamic State, formerly ISIS/ISIL), Jabhat al-Nusra, and the areas controlled by the 'moderate opposition,' as well the separation of the 'moderate opposition' from Jabhat al-Nusra."

Such a division is essential for the implementation of the ceasefire in Syria because "without it, the hands of the government forces are tied. They can't fight the terrorists without knowing which of them joined the truce and who didn't," he explained.

Numerous Russian appeals to the American side remain unanswered, which "raises doubts over the US's ability to influence opposition groups under their control and their willingness to further ensure the implementation of the Geneva agreements.

"Russia is making every possible effort to hold off government troops from the use of force in return [to opposition attacks]. If the US does not implement the necessary measures to fulfill their obligations under the September 9 agreements, the responsibility for the failure of the ceasefire will be solely America's," Poznikhir said.



Chess

SOTT Exclusive: US-Russia brokered Syrian ceasefire in context

Kerry and Lavrov
Kerry and Lavrov
Carl von Clausewitz once coined the aphorism that "War is the continuation of politics by other means." The US has turned that on its head - making politics the continuation of war by any means possible. We see it in abundance in their 'ceasefire agreements' from Donbass to Aleppo.

On the 13th of September a new ceasefire went into effect in Syria. The ceasefire itself has been shrouded in mystery, its terms remain unreleased and only a few scraps of information have been released to the public. As Paul Mansfield wrote in a recent SOTT Focus, Russia and the US are alleged to have agreed to begin joint strikes against the al Nusra terrorist group in Syria following 7 days of a nationwide ceasefire. Already this plan has begun falling apart. Russia has exposed the US for neglecting its role in separating 'legitimate opposition' from al Nusra. Since this is exactly what happened during the last Syrian ceasefire we shouldn't be surprised.

But in the end, by bending to Russia's political savvy, the West continues to lose its mask of sanity.

Yoda

Putin: Syria terrorists using ceasefire to regroup

syria shelling terrorists
© Alaa Al-Faqir / ReutersSmoke rises due to shelling on the rebel controlled town of Jubata al-Khashab, in Quneitra countryside, Syria September 15, 2016
Terrorists groups, which Russia expected to be separated from 'moderate rebels' with US help, and be subject to joint US-Russian attacks, are instead using the ongoing ceasefire to regroup, the Russian president said.

"We agreed that the Al-Nusra Front and the likes of it would be separated from the so-called healthy opposition factions, and we would be shown where the latter are located. But what we see today is not separation of the healthy part of the opposition and the terrorists. We see terrorist forces trying to regroup." Vladimir Putin told journalists on Saturday.

Moscow and Washington agreed last week to use their influence on the Syrian government and the so-called moderate rebel forces respectively to establish a ceasefire in the war-torn country. While violence diminished, progress is undermined by violations.

Russia has repeatedly complained that the US is failing to keep its part of the bargain and stop the mingling of armed groups, which genuinely want peace in Syria, and those which want the hostilities to continue.

USA

Blowback: US commandos enter Syrian town, get forced out by American-backed FSA rebels

US special operations forces in Syria
© DELIL SOULEIMAN / AFP
"Five or six" US special forces troops had to withdraw from the town of al-Rai on Syria's border with Turkey, after allies from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) had driven them out, calling them "infidels" and "crusaders," several media outlets have reported.

The Turkish military, which last month openly crossed the Syrian border to fight against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), has admitted that US soldiers are providing a supporting and coordinating role in the operation being carried out between the Syrian towns of Azaz and al-Rai, Reuters reports.

A video posted on Twitter on Friday evening showed that they were not welcome in al-Rai.

The footage shows a group of agitated men, gathered in the town square, shouting anti-American slogans in Arabic, as a cavalcade of vehicles passes by.

The chants include: "Down with America," "Get out you dogs," and "They are coming to Syria to occupy it." Voices in the background call them "infidels" and "crusaders," while one man says "We will not fight alongside you."

Display

FBI working very hard to find evidence that doesn't exist of Russian hackers

hackers
© Dado Ruvic / Reuters
The FBI is boosting its efforts to uncover evidence that would allow the Justice Department to launch a criminal case against Russian hackers allegedly trying to meddle with the upcoming US presidential election, Reuters reports citing officials.

Washington sees legal action as the best response to increasing attempts to hack US political parties and political figures, which Washington believes were carried out by Russia.

"Doing nothing is not an option, because that would telegraph weakness and just encourage the Russians to do more meddling, but retaliating in kind carries substantial risks," an unnamed official in the US administration told Reuters.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest confirmed Thursday that gathering evidence would be no easy task for the FBI. "We're in unexplored territory here, and the president is quite interested in trying to establish international norms," Earnest said.

"I'll let the FBI speak to what evidence they have amassed, but I think they're also cognizant of the fact that as soon as they make a declaration like that, most people are going to understandably be interested in seeing that evidence. And some of that evidence may not be something we want to show," he said.


Comment: They don't want to show the evidence because it doesn't exist. Has the government ever given a good reason why they don't want to show evidence, other than the banal "national security concerns?"


Rocket

Tension grows between North and South Korea: US Empire is the real enemy of both

THAAD missile
THAAD missile defense system
Warring hotspots all over the world are flaring up in 2016 in what amounts to preparation for World War III between the military forces of the US led Western Empire against the forces of the Eastern axis led by Russia and China joined by Iran and North Korea. Let's be clear - the globalists are the puppet masters behind the Western forces intentionally provoking catastrophic world war. We live in a time when the earth's ruling elite has willfully created this foreboding, seemingly suicidal endgame scenario, using US Empire to prod, orchestrate, and push the world into two enemy camps in a West vs. East showdown. Global war timed with the inevitable collapse of their Ponzi-schemed global economy will open the floodgate to unbridled tyranny brought on by their long plotted one world government. The systematic destruction of the West and its First World affluence is but part of this sinister scheme to destabilize every region on the planet in order to engineer such dire, devastating conditions that the surviving global masses will automatically seek refuge and protection from deep state's one world governance as their only means of staying alive. Meticulously creating the conditions most ripe for war, ecological degradation leading to disease and famine ensures that the elite's eugenics depopulation agenda will leave a slave class of a half to one billion people on earth to serve the diabolical ruling class.

Thus as the only means of escaping this horrific outcome, it's extremely important to expose this nightmarish globalist agenda that's using the US Empire-NATO war machine to aggressively provoke rising world tensions and hostilities as precipitating pre-WWIII events. Per last year's UN Global Trends Report, at near 60 million, 2014 saw more people being displaced around the world than any previous time in recorded history. The elite's carefully engineered global hotspots cover every corner of the globe, from the US-induced political and economic unrest creating havoc now in Brazil and Venezuela; a stepped up war in Ukraine flanked by the built-up deployment of hostile NATO troops at the Russian border; ongoing war with no end in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Yemen, and prewar skirmishes, flare-ups and small scale wars in Somalia, Pakistan, Nagorno-Karabakh, South Sudan, Burundi and Central African Republic all the way eastward to the rising tensions in the South China Sea and the Korean Peninsula as well as stretching northward to the Arctic Circle, the West's push for confrontation, aggression and domination against the Eastern alliance is making global war eminent and virtually unavoidable.

Padlock

Locked out: Third party candidates Jill Stein and Gary Johnson excluded from first presidential debate

election debate Stein Johnson
© ReutersGreen Party presidential candidate Jill Stein (L) and Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson.
The Commission on Presidential Debates have confirmed Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson and Green Party nominee Jill Stein will not share the stage with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump for the highly anticipated first presidential debate.

The third-party candidates didn't register enough support in various polls to qualify, the commission said Friday.

There is a 15 percent polling average threshold the commission sets, based on five polls of its choosing. Clinton averaged 43 percent, and Donald Trump 40.4 percent. Johnson averaged 8.4 percent, while Stein was trailing at 3.2 percent, according to the Associated Press.

Three televised presidential debates, starting with one on September 26 at Hofstra University in New York, will feature the presidential nominees from the Republican and Democratic parties, as has been the case since 1992.

But there is still a chance for the two long shots in the second and third presidential debates, if they can reach the 15 percent standard.

Stormtrooper

Georgia: Pushing the NATO thorn into Russia's southern flank

Saakashvili Bush Georfia NATO base
© NATO
Mikheil Saakashvili, President of Georgia and U.S. President George Bush at a NATO meeting.
In pursuit of a new Cold War with Russia, Official Washington wants to expand NATO into the ex-Soviet republic of Georgia, creating the potential for nuclear war to protect a sometimes reckless "ally"

A Republican leader calling for a new military base in Georgia is hardly newsworthy — the state already has more than a dozen such installations. But when it's the speaker of parliament in the country of Georgia, who belongs to that nation's Republican Party calling for a U.S. military base on Russia's southern border, and for a constitutional amendment to guarantee his country's commitment to NATO, that should raise some eyebrows.

Although major U.S. papers didn't report that news this month, it reflects another escalation of NATO's dangerous confrontation with Moscow. Eight years ago, Georgia's intense campaign to join NATO — combined with its reckless aggression against the breakaway territory of South Ossetia — helped spark a brief but bloody war with Vladimir Putin's Russia.

Today, the U.S.-led military alliance is once again promoting its expansion plans in Georgia and other countries on Russia's periphery as if the Cold War had never ended.

Question

The CIA setting Hillary up for the purpose of blaming it on Russia?

Hillary Clinton
© Reuters/Lucas JacksonU.S. presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton participates in a discussion in a classroom at New Hampshire Technical Institute while campaigning for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination in Concord, New Hampshire, April 21, 2015
The US Central Intelligence Agency and its media outlets started the conspiracy - so let's turn the tables on them. Could the CIA be setting Hillary Clinton up in a false flag hit for the purpose of blaming it on Russia?

This week saw the Washington Post newspaper float a bizarre theory that Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton may have been poisoned by Russian agents on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Post quoted a renowned US sports-injury doctor as saying that Putin or Republican candidate Donald Trump, working in league, may have induced Clinton's recent bout of ill health.

And the doctor recommended that the Clinton campaign team get a toxicological analysis of her blood carried out, on the suspicion that she may have been poisoned.

For several months now, the 68-year-old former senator's health has been the subject of intense public speculation, not least fanned by her Republican rival Donald Trump.

Apparent facial seizures while addressing public platforms and coughing spasms in front of media reporters culminated last Sunday at a New York event commemorating the 9/11 terror attacks, when Clinton was videoed collapsing on a sidewalk as aides bundled her limp body into the back of a van.

Clinton's campaign team later said she was suffering from pneumonia, which forced her to take three days off from political rallying this week. She has since resumed the stumps, having apparently made a recovery.

However, after weeks of dismissing claims about Clinton's ill-health as wild conjecture, the Washington Post then gives vent to the even wilder notion that the Democrat candidate has been poisoned by Russian agents.

The Post, on one hand, half-acknowledges that the "theory" is far-fetched. Yet, the newspaper - one of America's top publications - also sneakily adds credence by going on in the same article to reiterate baseless British claims that Russia's Putin ordered the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexander Livitnenko while he was living in exile in London in 2006.

Livitnenko's death from Polonium poisoning was more likely caused by shady rivals in the criminal underworld. There is no evidence that Russian state agents were involved in his demise. But the claims have provided Western media with plenty of material to continue demonizing Moscow and Vladimir Putin in particular, as the Washington Post article demonstrates.