Puppet MastersS


Pistol

Eastern Europe weapon sales allowed to 'Syrian mercenaries' but says no to hosting refugees


Sputnik
Tue, 02 Aug 2016 14:26 UTC
Mercenaries and gun
© sputniknews,comAl-Nusra Front jihadists, conveniently armed and ready.
Eastern and Central European states have sold weapons worth $1.3 million to the Middle East, with some arms shipments ending in the hands of "Syrian mercenaries," including al-Nusra Front and Daesh, but these countries have refused to welcome refugees fleeing violence that they have helped to fuel, Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten (DWN) asserted.

According to a report unveiled last week, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Serbia and Romania sold weapons primarily to Saudi Arabia, but also to Jordan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Turkey. Some of these armaments were then transferred to armed opposition and Islamist groups fighting in Syria and Yemen, two countries that have been ravaged by foreign-sponsored wars.

The research was conducted by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). Their findings cover shipments made since 2012.

This business is so lucrative that Eastern and Central European states approved arms export licenses "despite ample evidence that weapons are being diverted to Syrian and other armed groups accused of widespread human rights abuses and atrocities," researchers observed.These licenses are supposed to guarantee where weapons end up and do not allow arms re-transfer to third parties. Yet this is exactly what has happened.

Comment: All arrows point to the US as having a massive role in arms reaching Western-backed militants and Daesh terrorists in Syria and elsewhere. The US is the world's largest arms producer and exporter. According to international law, these arms sales are illegal. They can't be sold or transferred if they are to be used to systematically violate human rights. And, legalities ignored, parlayed they are.

See also: Amnesty researcher says U.S. 'definitely involved' in illegal $1.3bln arms diversion to Middle East conflict

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Bomb

For the record: Daesh, al-Nusra Front commit more than 100 terrorist acts in 2 months near Aleppo


Sputnik
Mon, 01 Aug 2016 18:17 UTC
shelling Aleppo
© sputniknews.com
The Daesh and the Jabhat Fatah Al-Sham (al-Nusra Front) terrorist groups carried out over 100 terrorist attacks around the Syrian city of Aleppo in the past two months, the Russian General Staff said Monday. "Over the past week, four terrorist attacks were carried out with 11 suicide bombers, killing over 250 people and wounding about 900," Chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoy told reporters.

Rudskoy said Jabhat Fatah Al-Sham, previously known as al-Nusra Front, attempted to launch an offensive southwest of Aleppo by deploying up to 5,000 militants on Sunday. "The attack was preceded by the suicide bombers detonating four fighting vehicles filled with explosives on government troop positions," the official added.

Militants have shelled the Syrian city of Aleppo 30 times in less than a week, killing 42 civilians and wounding 98 others, the Russian General Staff said. "Residential areas continue to be shelled from regions under the control of terrorist groups. Only since July 28 with the use of mortars and multiple rocket launcher systems, Aleppo neighborhoods where civilians live have been shelled over 30 times. As a result of the shelling, 42 civilians were killed and 98 were wounded," Rudskoy told reporters.

Russian Defense Ministry Fully Supports UN Proposals on Humanitarian Operation in Aleppo

"The Russian Defense Ministry has closely studied the proposals of UN Special Envoy for Syria de Mistura on improving the modalities of the Russia-Syrian humanitarian operation in Aleppo and fully supports them," Rudskoy told journalists.

On Thursday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that Moscow and Damascus had launched a joint large-scale humanitarian relief operation in Aleppo, establishing three corridors for civilians and one for militants wishing to lay down arms. He said Russia offered international organizations working in Syria to join this operation.

On Friday, de Mistura called on Russia to leave humanitarian corridors in Syria to the UN surveillance.
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Snakes in Suits

Richard Hanna becomes first-ever sitting Republican to endorse Democratic presidential nominee


RT
Tue, 02 Aug 2016 19:49 UTC
Rep. Richard Hanna
© ReutersRep. Richard Hanna said he would vote for Clinton
Richard Hanna has become the first sitting Republican to support the Democratic presidential nominee. Hanna said he would vote for Hillary Clinton because Donald Trump is "unfit to serve our party".

In an editorial published on Syracuse.com, Hanna, New York's 22nd Congressional District representative, said that he never expected to fully agree with the Republican nominee, but that a potential president should "display those qualities I have preached to my two children: kindness, honesty, dignity, compassion and respect."


Comment: If that's what he's looking for in a presidential candidate, then he shouldn't able to support Killary either, as she has none of those attributes.


The congressman explained that he "did not expect perfection" but would "require more than the embodiment of at least a short list of the seven deadly sins." Hanna has held his seat in New York, where Clinton served as senator, since 2013 and plans to retire when his current term is over.

"He is unfit to serve our party and cannot lead this country," the 65-year-old said of Trump.
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Bulb

Hungarian Foreign Minister: Not realistic that Russia would attack any NATO state


RT
Tue, 02 Aug 2016 19:30 UTC
Peter Szijjarto
© Laszlo Balogh / ReutersHungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto
Claims that Russia is preparing to invade one of its NATO-member neighbors run counter to reality, Hungary's foreign minister believes, despite what other states in the bloc think of the issue.

"I don't think it is a realistic assumption today that Russia would attack any NATO member state," Reuters quoted Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto as saying in an interview with national news portal Index.hu.

"This is not how we feel about Russia. I don't think Russia would pose an existential threat to us," Szijjarto said, adding that he respects that every alliance member's individual perception of Russia could vary.

The NATO summit held in the Polish capital Warsaw in early July made public the fact that NATO perceives Russia to be a bigger threat than terrorist group Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).
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Star of David

Armed Israeli border police officers caught on video bullying 8-year-old girl and confiscating her bike


RT
Tue, 02 Aug 2016 18:59 UTC
idf bully girl
© btselem / YouTube
Two armed Israeli officers appeared to bully an 8-year-old Palestinian girl by confiscating her bike while she was playing with her siblings in the West Bank city of Hebron.

The video, which was secretly filmed on July 25 by a volunteer for Israeli human rights group B'tselem, shows Anwar Burqan playing on her bike as she is approached by the two officers.

The first armed officer is seen running up to the girl on Al-Ibrahimi Street, which leads to the Tomb of the Patriarchs and the Ibrahimi Mosque - both are holy sites for Jews and Muslims.

He holds down her bike with his foot as he shouts for her to go home in time for his colleague to arrive with a large assault rifle in his hand, B'tselem reports. The little girl then runs away screaming and crying.

Moments later, the pair are seen throwing the bike into a bush before walking away.

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Light Sabers

Obama calls Trump unfit and unprepared to be president, calls on GOP to withdraw support


RT
Tue, 02 Aug 2016 18:41 UTC
obama
© Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
President Barack Obama launched his harshest attack to date on Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, declaring him "unfit" and "woefully unprepared" to hold the office, and calling on the GOP leaders to withdraw support from the candidate.

The president made the remarks Tuesday, during a White House news conference with Lee Hsien Loong, the prime minister of Singapore, who is on a state visit to Washington.

"The Republican nominee is unfit to serve as president," Obama said. "He keeps on proving it."

"The notion that he would attack a Gold Star family that made such extraordinary sacrifices on behalf of our country, the fact that he doesn't appear to have basic knowledge of critical issues in Europe, the Middle East, in Asia, means that he's woefully unprepared to do this job," the president added.
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Chess

Turkey and Russian relations after the coup attempt: Friends but not allies

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Tue, 02 Aug 2016 17:58 UTC
erdogan putin
© Umit Bektas/Reuters Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at a news conference at the Presidential Palace in Ankara December 1, 2014.
Turkey's ongoing rapprochement with Russia will intensify following the failed coup attempt. However it is very unlikely to lead to Turkey formally quitting NATO.

The pending summit between President Erdogan of Turkey and President Putin of Russia is increasing speculation of an eastward pivot by Turkey away from its traditional alliance with the US towards Russia and the Eurasian powers.

This speculation is undoubtedly correct for the short term. However it remains far from clear how far that pivot will go and how successful it will be.
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Megaphone

Ex-Turkish army chief: CIA was also behind failed coup attempt in Turkey


Hurriyet Daily News
Tue, 02 Aug 2016 18:28 UTC
İlker Başbuğ
© DHA photo
Turkey's former army chief, İlker Başbuğ, has commented on the July 15 failed coup attempt, believed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to have been masterminded by the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), saying the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was also behind it.

"There was foreign support in this uprising. It's against its nature if there isn't. Where does [U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah] Gülen live? In the U.S. Who gives him the opportunities? The CIA," Başbuğ told private broadcaster CNN Türk on Aug. 1, as he added that the CIA planned to use FETÖ in order to harm the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK).

"Does Gülen have a residence permit in the U.S. for nothing? Did you think that the intelligence wouldn't use him?" he asked.

Saying that FETÖ members who infiltrated into the TSK didn't act alone while carrying out the attempt, Başbuğ noted the ones who directed them from the outside had their own intentions.

"Did they [FETÖ members inside the TSK] have their own unique aims and intentions? The ones orchestrating this movement had those aims," he also said.

Comment: The ex-Turkish general is saying what Erdogan has been hesitant to say but alluded to when he said that "foreign powers" were behind the coup attempt and that the script for the coup was "written abroad", clearly referring to Western efforts to displace him.

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Airplane Paper

Ex OSCE VP: Su-24 shoot-down may have been NATO, not Erdogan

Tom Winter (translator)
Fort Russ / Sputnik
Fri, 29 Jul 2016 18:31 UTC
sputnik
[Note: There is an English Sputnik version of this story; it presents the Su-24 background, and much less from Mr. Wimmer, with a link to this source. This is a translation of the source.]

The upcoming visit of Turkish President Erdogan to Russia would have been unthinkable a few weeks ago. The shooting down of a Russian fighter jet by Turkey resulted in a diplomatic ice age.

But Willy Wimmer, former Vice President of the OSCE, now expresses the suspicion that the Russian jet was shot down with the help of NATO.

Mr. Wimmer, what brings you to the monstrous presumption that the the shooting down of the Russian fighter jet in November 2015 was done at least with the knowledge of NATO?

According to my findings both an American, and a Saudi AWACS machine were involved. You don't just bring down aircraft such as this Russian fighter out of the sky. You have to be guided to it. And that is only possible with AWACS.

Comment: We said it here first. See Joe Quinn's Always the last to know: Did Turkish government find out about shoot-down of Russian jet after the fact?

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Cross

Putin's soft power: A possible Orthodox Church alliance in the Balkans?

Filip Kovacevic
Boiling Frogs Post
Mon, 01 Aug 2016 18:12 UTC
putin
© Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via APPutin visits Athos in May 2016.

Comment: As Kovacevic writes further on in the article, "Geopolitically speaking, this may be the most dramatic event since the collapse of the Soviet Union and it is likely to have long-term consequences that will affect not only the balance of power in the Balkans and the Middle East, but also in Europe and Eurasia in general." Definitely something to keep an eye on.


The Christian church split in 1054 into the Western and Eastern branch. The Western branch with its center in Rome came to be known as the Catholic church (further splitting during the Protestant Reformation several centuries later). The Eastern branch with its center in Constantinople (Istanbul) was not able to maintain unity as long as the Western branch. Already with the fall of Byzantium and the conquests by the Ottoman Turks, it split into more than a dozen churches tied to the particular monarchs and nations. The Eastern equivalent of the pope, the ecumenical patriarch, remained a politically weak figure.

The same situation persists to this day. The leaders of the national Orthodox churches, 14 in number, are much more powerful in influencing the domestic and foreign policy agenda of their respective countries than the current ecumenical patriarch, Bartholomew I.[1]

Since the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the unshackling of religious expression in the former Soviet political space, the Russian Orthodox church has tried to assert its authority within the community of Orthodox churches. Though this process already started during the last years of the tenure of the patriarch Alexy II (1990-2008), it attained its full public expression in the current mandate of Alexy II's successor, Kirill I. It has closely matched the strengthening of the Russian state and its geopolitical position in the world engineered since mid-2000s by Vladimir Putin.
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