Puppet MastersS


Vader

Donald Trump's "Russian connections" are a dangerous, distracting side show when Killary has plans for war in Syria

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Wed, 03 Aug 2016 18:39 UTC
hillary war syria
© The Duran
As Hillary Clinton's advisers plan for war in Syria, the media and political class talk about Trump's non-existent Russian links.

To an outsider, US elections can seem like surreal affairs. As Hillary Clinton's supporters openly plan war in Syria the media and political class froths over a mythical connection between Donald Trump and Russia.

Over the last week the big foreign policy story in the US election has been Donald Trump's supposed connection to Russia, and Russia's supposed role in the DNC emails leak. This is absurd. There is no evidence Donald Trump has any important connection to Russia or is in any way a Russian agent. As an international businessman he has obviously had the odd dealings with Russian businessmen but on any objective assessment his financial involvement in Russia has been slight. He has no big investments there, owns no big properties in Moscow, has built no "Trump Towers" in Moscow or St. Petersburg, and owns no large hotels there.

Far too much is being made of the fact that some Russian and Ukrainian money may have found its way into Trump's businesses. The reality is that investment by Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs in the New York property market in which Trump is a major player has been huge. By way of example the Russian - Ukrainian billionaire oligarch Leonid Blavatnik owns a $77 million apartment in the ultra-elite apartment building at 834 Fifth Avenue. The penthouse in the same building was formerly owned by Trump's prime media tormentor Rupert Murdoch (it now belongs to Murdoch's ex-wife Wendi Deng).
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Eye 1

Companies that peddle surveillance tech to help spy on public exposed in new database


RT
Wed, 03 Aug 2016 18:35 UTC
surveillance tech
© Reuters
Corporations that develop technology used to spy on citizens are being added to a new searchable database compiled by human rights NGO Privacy International (PI).

PI has developed the Surveillance Industry Index database in conjunction with software group Transparency Toolkit. It contains details of more than 500 surveillance technology firms around the world and more than 1,500 brochures advertising their products.

The database also contains 600 reports by specialists on where the technology has been exported to, government licenses and technical details.

"We've been researching the global surveillance industry since 2010. The industry is opaque by design - they don't want to be held accountable for the actions they take," PI advocacy officer Matthew Rice told the International Business Times on Wednesday.
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Handcuffs

Cleaning house: Ex-mayor gets 12 years in central Russia bribery scandal


RT
Wed, 03 Aug 2016 18:19 UTC
russian mayor bribery charges
© Alexander Vilf / SputnikFormer Yaroslavl Mayor Yevgeny Urlashov (right), charged with accepting a bribe, at a haring in the Basmanny District Court which considers extending his detention.
A district court in the central Russian city of Yaroslavl has sentenced former mayor Evgeny Urlashov to 12.5 years in prison for extorting a multimillion-ruble bribe from a street cleaning company.

The court also sentenced Urlashov's former aide, Aleksey Lopatin, to seven years, but fully acquitted the former mayor's deputy, Dmitry Donskov, who had also faced charges within the same case.

The court also ordered the former mayor to pay a fine of 60 million rubles (about US$900,000 at current rates).

Urlashov's case dates back to July 2013, when he was detained and charged with attempted large-scale bribery. Four more people - local civil servants and managers of municipal companies - were implicated in the case. Urlashov had worked as Yaroslavl mayor for about a year before his detention.

According to investigators, a group of Yaroslavl city officials headed by Urlashov attempted to extort a bribe from a local businessman who was working on a city contract. The mayor and his aides reportedly wanted a kickback of 45 million rubles (over $1.2 million at that time) from the cleaning company, threatening not to accept the work and delay payment if their demands were not met.
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Heart - Black

UK Home Office rules refugee detainees can be held in solitary confinement against medical advice


RT
Wed, 03 Aug 2016 18:12 UTC
uk protesters
Detainees held at Britain's already controversial immigration detention centers can be put in solitary confinement against medical advice and without explanation, staff are being told in new Home Office guidelines.

A draft of the new rules, seen by the Independent, advises detention center personnel that any detainee believed to be "stubborn, unmanageable or disobedient" may be held in solitary confinement for up to two hours without being given a reason for the sanction.

Detainees may be ordered to stay in solitary confinement for two weeks or longer if authorization is given by senior management. Staff are instructed to "consider" medical advice in cases where solitary confinement may be "seriously detrimental to a detainee's health or is life threatening," however they may choose to disregard the advice so long as they "clearly explain the rationale," the paper reports.

Rights group Liberty slammed the government for the new rules, saying it "should be ashamed at its failure to afford even the most basic dignity and security to those within its care."
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Yoda

Putin's star rising in the Middle East


Middle East Briefing
Wed, 03 Aug 2016 17:48 UTC
Putin
Just three or four years ago, no one was talking seriously about a role for Russia in the Middle East. It is indeed amazing how Vladimir Putin, with minimum investment, has achieved all this in such a short time. He is now publicly invited by Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir to enter the region through the widest gate now available: Saudi Arabia. He will have an extremely important meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in August. He is considered by Iran as a close ally. And he is the guarantor of the Assad regime, and seen as a close friend in Cairo.

It is unquestionably an impressive record. But how could the Russian President accumulate all these gains in such a short period of time and with a small fraction of what George W. Bush and Dick Cheney spent on the catastrophic invasion of Iraq? And does the rising star of Putin in the Middle East show us that what we are actually seeing is the beginning of the end of the West's "special role" in the region, which started over a century ago with the "Arab Revolution" of 1916 and the British-French colonial rule over that part of the world?

As no one could see that the invasion of Iraq in 2003, a move of sheer arrogance of power, would lead to all that, no one can yet place the current developments within a clear historic perspective. But it is interesting to see how the manifestation of power in Iraq in 2003 led to the advance of one strategic adversary of the West, Vladimir Putin, to moving into what had remained a Western-controlled region for over 100 years.
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Play

South Front: A look at Russia's Sukhoi jets, heavy clashes in Aleppo, rebels use chemical weapons (VIDEOS)


South Front
Wed, 03 Aug 2016 17:23 UTC
south front
Syrian War Report - August 3, 2016: Heavy Clashes in Aleppo City

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Eye 2

Human rights groups blast Australian government for "deliberately inflicting suffering and abuse" on refugees


RT
Wed, 03 Aug 2016 17:46 UTC
protesters
© Amnesty International
Human rights groups have blasted the Australian government for its treatment of refugees who were sent to the Pacific island of Nauru, saying few other countries go to such lengths to deliberately inflict suffering on those seeking refuge and freedom.

Around 1,200 men, women and children who tried to reach Australia by boat were forcibly settled on the island nation of Nauru, where they have been subjected to "severe abuse, inhumane treatment, and neglect" according to Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International.

"Australia's policy of exiling asylum seekers who arrive by boat is cruel in the extreme," said Senior Director for Research at Amnesty Anna Neistat, who managed to visit the island for 12 days in July and speak to 84 refugees and asylum seekers from Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, Bangladesh, Kuwait and Afghanistan.

To put media off, or to make life as difficult as possible for them to visit the island, the Nauru authorities charge $5,800 for a journalist visa application, which is nonrefundable.

"Few other countries go to such lengths to deliberately inflict suffering on people seeking safety and freedom," she added.
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Vader

Terrorists called 'moderate rebels' used toxic gas in recent Aleppo attack in Syria: Russian military report


RT
Wed, 03 Aug 2016 17:05 UTC
Aleppo gas attack
© Abdalrhman Ismail / Reuters
Syrian fighters from a rebel group considered 'moderate' by Washington are responsible for using toxic gas shells that killed seven and injured 23 in Aleppo on Tuesday, according to a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense. "On August 2, 2016 at 19 hours 05 minutes militants from the Harakat Nour al-Din al-Zenki group, considered by Washington as 'moderate opposition', launched poisonous materials from the Sukkari district towards the eastern part of Aleppo," the ministry said.

It added that the territory is under rebel control and that shells were fired towards "the residential area" of the Salah-Eddin district. Moscow informed Washington of the use of toxic shells on Monday, Lieutenant-General Sergey Chvarkov, head of the Russian Reconciliation Center in Syria, said. In the statement, the official added that terrorists in the area are hampering the efforts of locals trying to flee the embattled eastern parts of the city.

Comment: There are multiple possible sources where that gas could have come from:
The main foreign support group for the Syrian Islamists, Jabhat al Nusra, were reported to have seized a chemical factory near Aleppo in December 2012 (Gerard Direct 2012). Then in March the Syrian Government complained to the UN that sarin gas had been used in a major battle with the Islamists at Khan al Assal, west of Aleppo.
See also:

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Dominoes

Pepe Escobar: Say hello to China's New Silk Roads partnership with SE Asia

Pepe Escobar
RT
Wed, 03 Aug 2016 16:42 UTC
high speed rail
© Jason Lee / Reuters
It's not only China vs. the US in the South China Sea. Few in the West realize that two completely different, intersecting stories are developing in maritime and mainland Southeast Asia.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague denied China's historic rights to waters in the South China Sea within its nine-dash line; it also ruled that the Spratly Islands are not islands, but "rocks"; thus they cannot generate 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zones (EEZs).

These decisions were taken in accordance with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Now comes the real nitty-gritty - which is a mix of diplomatic ballet and classic Beijing opera.

The framework under which Beijing is ready to negotiate is somewhat detailed here. But the problem at the starting gate is that Beijing stipulates - as a precondition to any negotiation with the Philippines - that The Hague's decision should not be discussed. Chinese nationalism has been deeply wounded in The Hague, and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) knows it will be very hard to tame it.
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Attention

"Because 9/11": U.S. bombing Libya again, using 9/11 as justification

Edward Curtin
Global Research
Wed, 03 Aug 2016 17:17 UTC
Libya destroyed
© AP Photo/ Manu Brabo
In a previous article (published on July 29) I focussed on Hilary Clinton's involvement in the destruction of Libya in 2011. (Happy Fifth Anniversary, Hillary Clinton, You've Destroyed Libya... We Await Your Next War) In that piece I wrote that Libya had disappeared from mainstream media coverage, but that it will reappear if US/NATO forces decide to bomb again. I suggested that such bombing may be fast approaching.

That bombing has arrived quicker than I thought; it commenced on Monday, August 1, and some MSM have reported it, although not prominently. The prime minister of Libya's western-backed government based in Tripoli, Fayez Serraj, said that he requested that the US assist his troops by bombing Islamic State forces in Sirte, Libya's main petrochemical port, where the Tripoli government's soldiers are engaged in a ground offensive to retake Sirte from ISIL.

Comment: For American war whores, 9/11 is the gift that keeps on giving.

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