Puppet MastersS


Evil Rays

How will Russia retaliate? By defeating NATO in Syria

Tony Cartalucci
New Eastern Outlook
Thu, 03 Dec 2015 17:53 UTC
s-400
Geopolitical analyst Christoph Germann posted a very subtle, almost unnoticed link in his Twitter feed in the immediate aftermath of the ambush of Russia's Su-24 near the Syrian-Turkish border by an alleged Turkish F-16.

It was a link to an article published just ahead of the incident titled, "US air force Gen Selva visits Ankara to discuss terror, Syria," which stated specifically (emphasis added):
Vice Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Paul J. Selva starts his visit to Ankara reportedly to discuss the fight against DAESH and Turkey's border security in the region,

Selva, an air force general and the nation's second-highest ranking military officer, is expected to commence his official talks with Turkish officials today and pay his first visit to Deputy Chief of Military General Staff Gen. Yaşar Güler.

During the meetings the officials are expected to discuss the Russian airstrikes on Turkmen-populated areas in Syria as well as other issues pertaining to the region.
It would seem that the US general would be either on hand, or having just concluded his business with his Turkish counterparts just as Turkey carried out what surely was a long-planned ambush of a Russian warplane near the Syrian-Turkish border, and in particular, precisely over the "Turkmen-populated areas in Syria."

Comment: This is something the American 'strategists' don't seem to get: that Russia can't be goaded, prodded or coerced into making decisions that would hinder the completion of their real goals. Putin seems to have the Midas touch in this regard: whatever the West throws at them, the Russians manage to turn it around in such a way that helps them, politically, economically, militarily.

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Jet1

US-Led coalition triples drone missions over Syria - Russian MoD


Sputnik News
Fri, 04 Dec 2015 22:22 UTC
The US-led coalition in Syria has deployed three times more drones in the past few days than before with up to fifty UAV's often up in the air at the same time, the Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said on Friday.

"Most of these drones are on reconnaissance missions over terrorist-held oilfields and could share the information with the public," Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov told reporters in Moscow.

Comment: Maybe the US-led coalition is surveying damage to their ISIS assets?

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Jet3

Russian warplanes hit 1,458 terrorist targets in Syria over past week


Sputnik
Fri, 04 Dec 2015 15:37 UTC
Russian Jet
© Sputnik/ Vladimir AstapkovichRussian Jet
Russian aviation has conducted 431 sorties and hit 1,458 terrorist targets in seven Syrian provinces over the past week, the Russian Defense Ministry said Friday.

"Over the past week (from November 26 to December 4), Russian aviation has carried out 431 sorties from the Hmeymim airbase and conducted pinpoint strikes on 1,458 terrorist targets in the provinces of Aleppo, Idlib, Latakia, Hama, Homs, Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa," the Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said.

Terrorist command centers, training camps, ammunition depots and strongholds have been destroyed by Russian airstrikes, Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said.
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Candle

A "master of political alchemy": Putin's speech points the way forward for Russia and the world

Translated for Fort Russ by J. Arnoldski
Fort Russ
Fri, 04 Dec 2015 17:20 UTC
Putin
Perhaps the main feature of today's address by Vladimir Putin was his emphasis on the fact that Russia and Russians need to change. The year 2015 is coming to a close, and this year was very important in terms of understanding who we are, where we are going, and what we want from the political leadership of our country.

After the momentous year of 2014, when the elite and the people together decided that it is time for the country to regain the status of a superpower, it was very important to ensure that we, the country, the people, and the political elite, are ready to pay for history. Independence, self-esteem, and the right to decide one's fate are very expensive. The calculation of our enemies was simple and pragmatic: the Russians, realizing that one can't lay on soft cushions for eternity, will prefer the dream of parmesan and black bread than being builders of a great empire. After all, the most recent incarnation of the Russian Empire was betrayed in exchange for jeans and Coca-Cola - well, what can be worse than parmesan?

This time, the script didn't work. Over the course of 2015, Russians have not repented of their choice, and the Russian managerial elite have finally consolidated themselves around the president. In word and deed, Russia has confirmed its application to participate in the redivision of the world order. The decision to return Crimea was made and secured. There is no turning back and it is possible to talk seriously about global stakes, goals, and methods of accomplishing them.

Putin very clearly outlined that we live in a time of the creation of new trading blocs and the development of new breakthrough technologies, and the position of Russia in the context of these processes will determine its future place in the global division of labor. Occupying a decent place in the world of the future is the main challenge for our country.
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Bullseye

Pepe Escobar: How Russia is shattering the Turkish game in Syria

Pepe Escobar
Counterpunch
Thu, 03 Dec 2015 17:22 UTC
Putin in sunglasses
Master of the Global Chess Board
So why did Washington take virtually forever to not really acknowledge ISIS/ISIL/Daesh is selling stolen Syrian oil that will eventually find is way to Turkey?

Because the priority all along was to allow the CIA - in the shadows - to run a "rat line" weaponizing a gaggle of invisible "moderate rebels".

As much as Daesh - at least up to now - the Barzani mob in Iraqi Kurdistan was never under Washington's watch. The oil operation the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) runs to Turkey is virtually illegal; stolen state-owned oil as far as Baghdad is concerned.

Daesh stolen oil can't flow through Damascus-controlled territory. Can't flow though Shi'ite-dominated Iraq. Can't go east to Iran. It's Turkey or nothing. Turkey is the easternmost arm of NATO. The US and NATO "support" Turkey. So a case can be made that the US and NATO ultimately support Daesh.

What's certain is that illegal Daesh oil and illegal KRG oil fit the same pattern; energy interests by the usual suspects playing a very long game.

What these interests are focused on is to control every possible oil asset in Iraqi Kurdistan and then in "liberated" Syria. It's crucial to know that Tony "Deepwater Horizon" Hayward is running Ug Genel, whose top priority is to control oil fields that were first stolen from Baghdad, and will eventually be stolen from Iraqi Kurds.

And then, there's the Turkmen powder keg.

The key reason why Washington always solemnly ignored Ankara's array of shady deals in Syria, through its fifth column Turkmen jihadis, is because a key CIA "rat line" runs exactly through the region known as Turkmen Mountain.

These Turkmen supplied by Ankara's "humanitarian" convoys got American TOW-2As for their role in preserving prime weaponizing/ smuggling routes. Their advisers, predictably, are Xe/Academi types, formerly Blackwater. Russia happened to identify the whole scam and started bombing the Turkmen. Thus the downing of the Su-24.

Comment: Russia versus NATO's Gladio 2.0: Turkish jihad from China to Syria

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Jet4

Several terrorist leaders in Syria killed by Russian Air Force over past week


RT
Fri, 04 Dec 2015 15:55 UTC
Russian Tupoljev TU-22
© Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation / Reuters A still image taken from video footage, released by Russia's Defence Ministry on November 20, 2015, shows Russian Tupolev TU-22 long-range strategic bombers conducting an airstrike at an unknown location in Syria.
Several terrorist leaders have been killed in Russian airstrikes in Syria over the past week, the Defense Ministry said. In Latakia province, a dugout with the leader of a large terror group named Abu Abdu and several other field commanders has been destroyed, General-Major Igor Konashenkov, a Defense Ministry spokesman, told a media briefing on Friday.

"Also during the week, several [terrorist] leaders were eliminated near the village of el-Latamna in Hama province," he added. Illegal oil trade by the terrorists was also targeted by the Russian Air Force, with Konashenkov speaking of "12 oil pump stations, eight oil fields and refineries, and over 170 oil tanker trucks" being destroyed over the past seven days.


"Over the past week, between November 26 and December 4, Russian aircraft have performed 431 sorties from the Khmeimim airbase [in Syria's Latakia province] and carried out 1,458 pinpoint airstrikes against terrorist facilities in the provinces of Aleppo, Idlib, Latakia, Hama, Homs, Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa," he said. According to Konashenkov, terrorist command centers, strongholds, militant training camps and arms depots were targeted. "I want to emphasize that all our bomber and attack planes received cover from Su-30 [fighter jets]," he stressed. The measure was implemented after the downing of a Russian Su-24 bomber by the Turkish Air Force on November 24.

Comment: The Russian airstrikes in Syria already halved the Islamic State's income a day from illegal oil trade. Bilal Erdogan, the son of Sultan Erdogan, desperately needs new oil smuggling routes and tankers. Russia is watching their every move. The Erdogan family mob was branded as "criminals", with Moscow presenting only an appetizer of all the evidence it has in store.

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War Whore

U.S. Department of Defense opens all combat roles to women - 'no exceptions'

Phil Stewart and David Alexander
Raw Story
Thu, 03 Dec 2015 14:57 UTC
Ashton Carter
© AFP/Saul LoebUS Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter
Women can compete for all U.S. military jobs, including front-line combat posts, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Thursday, overriding Marine Corps objections in a historic move to strike down gender barriers in the armed services."As long as they qualify and meet the standards, women will now be able to contribute to our mission in ways they could not before," Carter told a Pentagon news conference.

"They'll be allowed to drive tanks, fire mortars, and lead infantry soldiers into combat. They'll be able to serve as Army Rangers and Green Berets, Navy SEALS, Marine Corps infantry, Air Force parajumpers and everything else that was previously open only to men," he said.

Carter said the opening to women would take place following a 30-day waiting period required by law, after which women will be integrated into new roles in a "deliberate and methodical manner." During the waiting period, the military services will finalize plans for integrating women into the new positions, he said.

The move comes nearly three years after the Pentagon first eliminated its ban on women serving in front-line combat roles and began a process that would let women compete for 220,000 additional military jobs. Then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta lifted a ban in force in 2013 on women in front-line combat roles, a restriction seen as increasingly out of place during a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan in which women were increasingly in harm's way.

Women represented about 2 percent of U.S. casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, with some 300,000 deploying to the conflict zones. Carter said most of the services favored opening all jobs to women, but the Marine Corps had sought a partial exception for roles such as infantry, machine gunner, fire support reconnaissance and others.

Comment: More cannon fodder for the Pentagon.

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Tornado2

Uruguay meets 95% of its electricity needs from renewable energy sources

Jonathan Watts
The Guardian
Fri, 04 Dec 2015 16:23 UTC
Wind farm Uruguay
© Vice NewsClean, green and... German?
As the world gathers in Paris for the daunting task of switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy, one small country on the other side of the Atlantic is making that transition look childishly simple and affordable.

In less than 10 years, Uruguay has slashed its carbon footprint without government subsidies or higher consumer costs, according to the country's head of climate change policy, Ramón Méndez.

In fact, he says that now that renewables provide 94.5% of the country's electricity, prices are lower than in the past relative to inflation. There are also fewer power cuts because a diverse energy mix means greater resilience to droughts.

It was a very different story just 15 years ago. Back at the turn of the century oil accounted for 27% of Uruguay's imports and a new pipeline was just about to begin supplying gas from Argentina.

Comment: While Uruguay's shift to 'clean energy' is being held up at the UN climate change conference in Paris as the model to follow, note that foreign - in this case, German - energy companies control what is effectively a giant wind farm. Note also that this means the population of this small country pay the highest prices in Latin America for their energy.

While it's great to become independent of Big Oil, it comes at the cost of remaining dependent on other Western firms, which is ultimately what these 'climate change conferences' are about: lobbying/business events for Western-controlled multinationals.

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Vader

Lebanese politician: Turkey main sponsor of terrorists in Syria


Farsnews Agency
Fri, 04 Dec 2015 06:07 UTC
President of Turkey
"Turkey is the main sponsor of terrorism in the region."
The fight against international terrorism should start with pressuring Turkey, now the main sponsor for militants groups in Syria, leader of the Lebanese orthodox party Masarik Roderick Khoury said.

"Turkey is the first and main power which funds and supplies weapons to terrorist groups. We believe the fight against terrorism should begin with pressuring Turkey. Now," Khoury said at a press conference in Moscow, Sputnik reported.

"The name of the real leader of the terrorists is Tayyip Erdogan (Turkish President). The others like Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (ISIL leader) and al-Qaeda are just his servants. Al-Nusra Front also carries out orders from Turkey," he pointed out.

According to him, there is real evidence to the allegations. Khoury said that after the city of Kassab, near Lattakia, was liberated from terrorists Turkish ambulance vehicles, clothes and weapons were found there.

Khoury added that when the terrorists take Syrian or Lebanese hostages they only can be released after negotiations with Turkey.
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Rocket

Israel possibly trained against Russian S-300 air defense system in Greece

Dan Williams and Karolina Tagaris
Reuters
Fri, 04 Dec 2015 16:25 UTC
S-300
Israel has quietly tested ways of defeating an advanced air-defense system that Russia has deployed in the Middle East and that could limit Israel's ability to strike in Syria or Iran, military and diplomatic sources said.

The sources said a Russian S-300 anti-aircraft system, sold to Cyprus 18 years ago but now located on the Greek island of Crete, had been activated during joint drills between the Greek and Israeli air forces in April-May this year.

The activation allowed Israel's warplanes to test how the S-300's lock-on system works, gathering data on its powerful tracking radar and how it might be blinded or bluffed.
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