Puppet MastersS


Star of David

What the media misses in the Syrian bloodbath: a 'thank you' to Hillary from Israel

Oded Yonin Greater israel
© WikipediaThe delusional "Greater Israel".
Wikileaks has released what may be the most under-reported story of the year in a year full of them, Hillary Clinton's uncanny fulfillment of Oded Yinon's plan for the Middle East according to Israel 30 years ago. This was summed up in Yinon's "A Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties." Yinon, an influential right-wing Israeli strategist, envisioned a Middle East riven with conflict between Arab tribes and religious denominations, unable to oppose Israeli ambitions for regional dominance. Yinon wrote:
"Iraq, rich in oil on the one hand and internally torn on the other, is guaranteed as a candidate for Israel's targets. Its dissolution is even more important for us than that of Syria. Iraq is stronger than Syria. In the short run it is Iraqi power which constitutes the greatest threat to Israel...Every kind of inter-Arab confrontation will assist us in the short run and will shorten the way to the more important aim of breaking up Iraq into denominations as in Syria and in Lebanon."
When former presidential candidate General Wes Clark shockingly proclaimed in 2011 that he had seen a memo emanating from the Bush defense department which revealed that the invasion of Iraq was only the beginning of a much more extensive program of "regime change" across the Middle East, one could not help but recall Yinon's desire to provoke "inter-Arab confrontation." Recalling a conversation with a Pentagon staffer before the invasion of Iraq, Clark told an audience:

Light Sabers

Damascus blasts Turkey's operation inside Syria's border as 'blatant violation of sovereignty'

jarablus attack
© Umit Bektas / ReutersSmoke rises from the Syrian border town of Jarablus as it is pictured from the Turkish town of Karkamis, in the southeastern Gaziantep province, Turkey, August 24, 2016.
Damascus denounced Turkey's joint military operation with the Syrian rebels aimed at re-taking the Syrian border town of Jarablus from Islamic State militants (IS, former ISIS/ISIL). Damascus said it considers Turkish troops' incursion into Syria a violation of its sovereignty.

Damascus condemned Turkish incursion into the Syrian territory after Turkey's tanks and Special Forces supported by the Turkish and US aircraft and Syrian rebels launched an offensive on the Syrian northern border town of Jarablus, calling it "a national security issue."

Syrian government officials said that any side willing to fight terrorism on the Syrian territory should cooperate with the authorities and the Syrian Army, "which has been fighting terrorism for over five years," as reported by SANA news agency.

Syrian government called the Turkish operation a "blatant violation of the sovereignty" of Syria, adding that "replacing" Islamic State with "other terrorist organizations backed directly by Turkey" cannot be regarded as a fight against terrorism.

"What is happening in Jarablus now isn't fighting terrorism as Turkey claims - rather it is replacing one type of terrorism with another," a Syrian government official told SANA and once again called on the UN to "put an end to this aggression" and to make Turkey and the US-led coalition fulfill the UN resolutions related to closing the borders and preventing the terrorists from receiving funding and support from abroad.

Play

South Front: Turkey 'intervenes' in Syria, China pledges its support to Damascus (VIDEO)

south front
Syrian War Report - August 24, 2016: Turkish Intervention Started


Comment: See also: Turkish tanks cross Syrian border in military op to retake city of Jarablus from ISIS with US air support - UPDATES


Eye 2

Consume anything besides mainstream media? American defense contractors think you've been brainwashed

americans brainwashed
© Charles Platiau / Reuters
According to the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), a Warsaw-based lobby group funded by defense contractors and the US government, the act of reading this article may mean you're unable to think for yourself.

A century ago, Edward Bernays, described as the "father of public relations" by The New York Times, helped sell the US intervention in the First World War by conjuring a campaign which insisted that America was "bringing democracy to all of Europe." The aftermath of the war didn't live up to the promise, but the success of the slogan changed approaches to foreign policy forever.

Because contemporary American media had described German messaging as "propaganda" through the war, Bernays preferred the softer term - "PR." As it happens, almost 100 years on, the situation remains the same in the US: the bad guys use "propaganda,""disinformation" and "agitprop;" meanwhile, Uncle Sam uses "soft power,""promotion" and "the truth."

Their British allies go further with the myopia. You see, London employs a social media brigade known as "Facebook warriors." These guys allegedly battle opponents who are known as "Russian Trolls."

According to two Guardian reports, the British team consists of 1,000 well-paid professional soldiers and the ostensible Russian group is made up of a few dozen moderately-salaried temps. Yet, the supposed Russian variant is painted as a menace to the Free World and the British one as a bunch of jolly good folk.

Binoculars

Turkey takes Jarablus, Syria: Unipolar conspiracy or multipolar coordination?

syria
© Katehon
It's very fashionable nowadays for people to criticize the Kremlin for incompetency, and its recent history of controversial decisions coupled with the suspected liberal fifth-and-six-column infiltration of key national institutions gives plenty of ground for this, but sometimes people jump the gun, such as when accusing Russia of being 'duped' by Turkey. It's interesting that no such criticisms are publicly leveled against Iran despite Tehran bending over backwards to Ankara during and after the failed pro-US coup attempt against Erdogan, but double standards are the norm when people engage in diatribes, and it's always been the case that Russia has caught much more flak than anyone else whenever multipolar commentators critique their own camp.

This is the precisely the case with the news that Turkish forces have crossed into Syria, with the most common knee-jerk reaction being that President Putin was manipulated by Erdogan as part of some large-scale Machiavellian plot, though of course, without making any mention that this charge could more rightly be directed against the Ayatollah. Anyhow, the prevailing narrative among multipolar supporters appears to be one of grief and despair, with Facebookers pulling their hair out over how stupid Russia apparently was to trust Turkey and work on helping it pivot towards Eurasia. As popular and trendy as it may be for people to jump on the bandwagon and start railing against Russia, and for as 'healthy' as it is for people to let off some steam and vocally vent their frustrations every once in a while, there's actually countervailing evidence that Turkey's operation isn't a unipolar conspiracy but evidence of high-level multipolar coordination.

Comment: For updates on the Turkish invasion of Jarablus, see: Turkish tanks cross Syrian border in military op to retake city of Jarablus from ISIS with US air support - UPDATES


Megaphone

Best of the Web: French General: Syrian government unlikely to be behind 2013 Ghouta chemical weapon attack

damascus
© REUTERS/ Yaseen Al-Bushy
Syrian government forces are unlikely to be behind the 2013 Ghouta chemical attack, Francois Delattre, a French Army general and an analyst with the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (IRIS), told Sputnik on Wednesday.

Debates over the Ghouta attack incident resurfaced earlier in the day after Syria's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Bashar Jaafari said in an interview that the attack was organized by French intelligence in an effort to divert UN inspectors' attention from another incident caused by the opposition.

"I would prefer not to think that French special forces were involved in the chemical weapons operation, and even about them stating that [Syrian President] Bashar Assad used them in Ghouta. According to the information available, the weapons were inspected by UN experts and it was found that they were deployed in areas which Assad's forces could not have accessed by definition," Delattre said.

The international community has struggled to establish the side responsible for the attack, with the UN Security Council's Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM), set up in 2015, due to publish its findings by the end of August. Despite the lack of conclusive evidence, a number of governments, including France, the United Kingdom and the United States, were quick to blame the Syrian government for the incident.

Comment: Another French General, Dominique Trinquand, hints that the Syrian opposition could have been behind the attack:
"There really were chemical weapons. The question is, what happened to these chemical weapons: whether they were completely destroyed, or the rebels were able to capture them and use them. And in this case the Syrian government would be primarily responsible for that because it had failed to keep it. And secondly, the responsibility, of course, also lies on those who had used chemical weapons, namely the opposition, if it was them who'd done it," he said.
But, the question then becomes, how did the Syrian opposition get access to chemical weapons. Gen. Trinquand seems to think the weapons would have been stolen from the Syrian government, but there isn't any proof of that. It could easily be claimed that the opposition was given chemical weapons by sources from the West and then used to attack and demonize Syria. The Syrian representative to the UN, Dr. Bashar al-Jaafari, has accused French Intelligence of being behind the attack:
"The use of chemical weapons in the Damascus area was meant to prevent Dr. Åke Sellström [the head of the weapons inspectors] from going to Aleppo because [France] knew who had used chemical weapons in Aleppo."
He elaborated on his accusations in an exclusive interview with Sputnik:
"The case with chemical weapons was initially fabricated to exert pressure on the Syrian government. After the first chemical gas attack on Khan al-Asal in Aleppo, I went to the Secretary-General (UN approx.) to request assistance to the Syrian government in investigation for answering if there actually was a chemical attack and who was behind it?"
[...]

"Three hours later after consultation with the countries of the UN Security Council, he came back to me and said, 'Tell your government that I will assist and sent a delegation of experts who will be engaged in investigating the chemical attack in Khan al-Asal.'"

However, according to Jaafrey, the Secretary-General added that he will not be able to assist in determining the party behind the attack.

"From that moment, it became clear that the UN Security Council members are interested in keeping the party behind the attacks unnamed due to certain political circumstances," Jaafrey said.
[...]
The purpose of the Huta attack was to distract from Khan al-Asal, to create obstacles to keep Selstrum from traveling there, as well as to focus everyone's attention on Damascus. The plan was a success, as Dr. Selstrum has not yet visited Khan al-Asal, according to Jaafrey.

"According to the French sources and according to the book 'Road to Damascus'the famous French journalists Georges Malbruno and Christian Shesno have documented evidence to prove the involvement of the former French Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, in the Eastern Guta tragedy near Damascus," Jaafrey told Sputnik.

"At the moment, we have sent hundreds of letters to the UN Security Council, the Commission of Inquiry under 1540 and to the mission of fact-finding and joint investigation. All of them were created after the incident in Khan al-Asal in the Eastern Guta and near Damascus. In our letters there was transparent information," the representative said.

However, the UN Security Council member states either ignored the data, or accused it of being unreliable. They did not pass the data to the media, nor did they mention it in their statements. "This was due to the fact that the party behind these chemical attacks has the support of these countries," Jaafrey said.
As we can see now, the chemical weapons attack in 2013 that was used by the West as a prime example to remove Assad from power was another false flag set up to further US imperial designs. There is no proof that Assad gassed his own people, while it's likely that the proxy army created by the West are the ones responsible.

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Sherlock

Best of the Web: Outright lying by UK govt: We know about Iraq, but what about Syria?

syria propaganda
British wars abroad have two enemies. First, the official enemy, portrayed as a monster whom we always battle with noble intentions. But second is the enemy within - us, the public. The danger posed by the public is that we may stop elites doing what they want, hence we are subject to state 'information operations' to convey messages and obscure facts, usually via compliant media organisations. Current British policy in Syria, which is having the effect of prolonging the terrible war by supporting forces fighting the regime, involves outright lying by ministers at a level similar to that over Iraq in 2002-3.

The British government is waging 'information warfare' by funding media operations for some Syrian rebel groups. The Ministry of Defence is hiring contractors to produce videos, photos, radio broadcasts and social media posts branded with the logos of rebel groups, to 'effectively run a press office for opposition fighters'. Materials are being circulated in the Arabic broadcast media and posted online with no indication of British government involvement.


Comment: Is it not possible these contractors might be spreading disinformation about Assad and his "attacks on civilians"??


But a key strand of government propaganda over Syria is often simply lying to parliament and the public. In July 2015, Defence Minister Earl Howe told Parliament that the government 'would seek further Parliamentary approval before UK aircraft conducted air strikes in Syria'. This was untrue - British aircraft were already secretly striking Islamic State targets in Syria as was revealed by human rights organisation Reprieve six days after Howe's statement. These air strikes, conducted by pilots embedded with US and Canadian forces, began months before Parliament voted in favour of them in December 2015.

X

Czech PM says no to accepting 'large Muslim community'

 Czech Republic no muslims EU
© Agence France-PresseThe Czech Republic staunchly opposes the contested EU quota system devised to distribute refugees across the bloc according to Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka
Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said Tuesday he does not want a "large Muslim community" and that each EU member should be able to choose how many migrants to accept.

"We don't have a large Muslim community here," Sobotka said of the estimated 10,000 to 20,000 Muslims who live in the Central European country of 10.5 million people.

"And to be honest, we don't want a large Muslim community to form here, given the problems we're seeing," Sobotka told the Pravo daily.

Sobotka spoke ahead of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's visit to Prague on Thursday, saying their "views diverge" on how to solve Europe's migrant crisis.

Merkel has urged countries to take in a greater share of refugees, while the Czech Republic staunchly opposes the contested EU quota system devised to distribute refugees across the bloc.

"I've been convinced since the start of the migration debate that the member states need to have sovereignty regarding the choice of the number of refugees (to welcome)," Sobotka said.

Comment: Yet another fracture point in the EU. Smaller EU member countries on the front lines of the refugee wave resent the imposition of the quota system, when they are not financially able to afford screen or look after a large number of refugees.


Cut

Normandy 4 now 3: Poroshenko excluded from Donbass discussion

Merkel, Putin, Hollande
© sputniknews.comAnd then there were three: Merkel, Putin, Hollande
Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and French President Francois Hollande will meet in September in China within the framework of the G20 summit to discuss Ukraine. This agreement was reached today during a telephone conversation, the official site of the Kremlin reports.

"Vladimir Putin drew his partners' attention to the gross provocations by the Ukrainian side, which sent a group of saboteurs to the territory of the Russian Federation in Crimea to carry out terrorist attacks in early August. Kiev's tendency towards such types of military operations is detrimental to the Minsk Process and cooperation in the framework of the Normandy Format," the report reads.

Earlier it was assumed that the Normandy Quartet would meet at the summit in China and, as usual, include the leaders of Russia, Germany, France, and Ukraine. However, following Ukrainian saboteurs foray across the Russian border into Crimea which killed two Russian soldiers, Vladimir Putin stated that he sees no sense in meeting in the Normandy Four format.

As has been reported, the leaders discussed the prospects of continuing the Minsk process during today's telephone conversation. "The importance of legislatively consolidating a special status for Donbass, constitutional reforms, amnesties, and the organization of local elections were stressed. All of these issues should have been agreed upon by the Contact Group [in Minsk] where Kiev has the opportunity to hold direct dialogue with Donetsk and Lugansk," the official statement says.

Comment: Putin may want an undivided table. Eliminating Ukraine ensures rapt attention by Merkel and Hollande. Putin again gains points.


Handcuffs

Turkey files formal request with US State Dept. to extradite Gulen

Gulen
© Charles Mostoller / ReutersUS-based cleric Fethullah Gulen
Turkey has formally requested the US to extradite Fethullah Gulen, a cleric that Ankara accuses of orchestrating the failed coup. The State Department has confirmed it received the request, but said it is not related to the coup. "We can confirm now that Turkey has requested the extradition of Mr. Gulen, but I wouldn't characterize the request as relating to the coup attempt. In fact, they don't relate to the 2016 attempted coup," department spokesperson Mark Toner told reporters Tuesday.

Stressing that he shared that information with "some hesitation," Toner refused to elaborate on the details of the extradition request. He said that he does not "have specifics" of the possible reasons, but that it is "obviously related to other reasons for which they want him extradited for."

Toner also refused to say whether or not the formal request meant that the US had started Gulen's extradition process. "I don't want to necessarily wave a red flag that the process has started," he said. "My understanding is that [...] we're now in the stage where we're considering the merits of the request."

Comment: Is Gulen an asset the US is willing to hand over to pacify Turkey, or is it one that has continuing usefulness in-house and proves damning if relinquished?

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