Puppet MastersS


Take 2

Reddit heavily moderates Trump's AMA

Trump
© www.pbs.org
A Reddit "Ask Me Anything" featuring an unfiltered Trump had all the hallmarks to make an endlessly entertaining read, but an increase in "security measures" and censorship turned the chat into anything but.

Even before it kicked off, a Reddit moderator warned users that the session would be a little different/boring in order to discourage "troublemakers," defeating the entire purpose of an AMA.


"For this AMA we have temporarily taken extra security measures to keep our community free from troublemakers. We built the wall 10 ft taller, you might say," well at least they haven't lost all sense of humor.


Participants were warned that comments would only be accepted from established users and any comments from accounts less than 30 days old would be automatically deleted.

Comment: Reddit was acquired by Condé Nast and has since become a direct subsidiary of the parent company, Advance Publications - a mega grouping of news outlets, magazines and websites, ranking 44th largest company in the US. When it says "moderate," the subsidiary says "yes sir."


Clipboard

Russia issues wanted list of 260 suspected terrorists

terrorism montage
© www.dailybeast.com
Director of the Federal Security Service Alexander Bortnikov stated that Russia had issued the wanted list of 260 people, suspected in "terrorist activities," during the 15th meeting of heads of special services, security agencies and law enforcement organisations in St. Petersburg, Wednesday.

SOT, Alexander Bortnikov, Director of the Federal Security Service of Russia (Russian): "Today we receive confirmed information about the plans of gang leaders currently in hiding in a number of Middle East countries, to continue their terrorist activities and try to incite North Caucasus militant organisations, whose activities we have managed to suppress, disunite and mainly neutralise the key players. Being forced to operate from abroad, functionaries of international terrorist organisations learned to effectively and remotely control their terrorist networks. They use all available communication tools from contact agents to satellite communication systems, including the internet."

SOT, Alexander Bortnikov, Director of the Federal Security Service of Russia (Russian): "The gang leaders do not only recruit the militants, but also actively use encryption programs and popular instant messengers such as Telegram, WhatsApp, and Viber. They send their supporters detailed instructions for terrorist activities, tactics, specify the purpose of carrying out the terrorist attacks and also provide information about forms and methods of the security services' work."

SOT, Alexander Bortnikov, Director of the Federal Security Service of Russia (Russian): "In our opinion, the most important thing is to put professional interests in the first place without politicisation of the issues of combating international terrorism. We appeal to our partners to focus their attention on the investigation, detention and the extradition of terrorists to their countries, not to third parties. In that regard, I want to draw your attention to the fact that Russian enforcement authorities issued an international wanted list of more than 260 people, whose continued intensive organisation and preparatory work for the transfer of its terrorist activity to Russia and a number of other states."

Comment: A constructive and effective approach, applicable to a unified international effort to cut off the multiple heads of the snake. Want to bet on which countries choose not to step up? Could they be the same ones who support, fund and slither? Just a wild guess.


Megaphone

'Clinton Cash' author to RT: If Hillary becomes president she will increase fees for the family's speeches

clinton
Hillary Clinton's aspirations to become the next US president might not be based only on the desire to advance her political agenda. The author of the bestseller 'Clinton Cash' told RT she may also be seeking to increase fees for the family's speeches.

With the Clintons having already announced that they are going to carry on with their Clinton Foundation and "take large inflated speaking fees from overseas," the nation can expect that their paychecks will keep growing, Peter Schweizer, author and executive producer of the Clinton Cash documentary said.

"As an ex-president he [Bill Clinton] was making $175,000 a speech. She [Hillary Clinton] becomes secretary of state - literally overnight that triples. That will increase even more if she becomes president, so we are going to expect more of the same: larger flow of money, because, of course, when you are paying the spouse of the president you can expect more in return than when you're paying the spouse of the secretary of state," he suggested.

Syringe

Russian athletes tested twice as much as other countries, yet number of dopers relatively tiny

Yelena Isinbayeva
Yelena Isinbayeva tears up during her speech in the Kremlin, on 28 July 2016. Isinbayeva is two-time Olympic gold medalist and three-time world champion, and is generally considered the greatest female pole vaulter of all time.

The testimonies of only three "informants" in relation to Russian doping are not subject to any court decisions. Furthermore, upon studying the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) records (available online) it becomes evident that the Russian team was tested twice as many times as any other, and still turned up only a 0.91% positive result.


Comment: According to WADA's own records, Russia still had fewer dopers than Belgium, South Africa, India, Korea, Sweden, France, Poland, Norway, and Spain (among others), and just slightly more than Australia and Canada. Telling, no?

Don't miss: Cultural warfare: US attempt to ban Russia from Olympics for 'cheating' is rank hypocrisy


Attention

Turkey names second American coup plotter, CIA's Henri Barkey, held secret meeting in Istanbul on night of coup

barkey
Henri J. Barkey, former CIA personnel and the current Director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, known as the policy maker for U.S. authority, was the second top American figure who orchestrated the coup attempt in Turkey.

According to Istanbul Police's Intelligence, Counter Terror, Cyber Crime and Criminal Units, Barkey was holding a meeting with 17 top figures, most of them foreign nationals, at a hotel on Istanbul's Princes Island on July 15, the day of the failed coup attempt in Turkey.

Barkey was staying in the Splendid Hotel, which was used as a British Military Headquarters during the days of occupation in 1919, between July 15 and 17.

According to the hotel management, Barkey had held a meeting that lasted hours in a special room.

Comment: For some very interesting speculation and allegations regarding the coup, see: Erdogan owes his life to Putin, who prevented US-led coup in Turkey. Also see: More from Yeni Safak:
The United States Army, one of the architects of the recent Turkey coup plot, would have built a new military base at the zero point of the Turkey-Syria border, if coup plotters were successful in overtaking the power of the military, intelligence, police security, legislative and judiciary institutions in Turkey. ...

Sources close to the investigators of the failed coup attempt said the CIA established a special team with the code name of "Safari" to operate the coup plot process. General John F. Campbell, a former US commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), organized meetings and preparations that lasted over eight-and-half-a-months before the Turkey coup. Campbell was the head of the Turkey leg of the "Safari" special team established by CIA for commanding junta in Turkey. Though Campbell formally retired from his post in March this year, he has been running the U.S. military's secret agenda in Turkey. He was commissioned to lead the Turkey operation for an extra two years, the sources said. Campbell was working as the middle man / mediator between parties. He held several meetings both with the Junta in Turkey and CIA authorities in the U.S.

According to military sources, the coup plotters agreed to allow the U.S. authority to stablish a U.S. military base at the Turkey-Syria border. The new military base would have been furnished with more advanced technology, making it more capable of extensive tasks than the İncirlik airbase in the southeastern province of Adana.

Putschist also promised to upset the balances in the area by blocking Russia in a military and economic manner after establishing a coup regime in Turkey in the second half of 2016. According to the plan, Turkey would have been designed by the U.S. and the country would have been under Washington's full control. If they had failed to take full control, then the second plan would have been implemented: turning Turkey into a new Syria. Moreover, the Syrian opposition group would have also been re-structured according to the U.S. directions, and the FETÖ junta would have been handling them, if the coup in Turkey had succeeded.



Chess

Russian and Chinese navies to hold joint drills in South China Sea

chinese naval vessel
© Stringer / Reuters
China and Russia will hold naval drills in the South China Sea in September, the Chinese Defense Ministry told a news conference on Thursday, adding they are designed to strengthen cooperation between the two countries and were not aimed at raising tensions.

"This is a routine exercise between the two armed forces, aimed at strengthening the developing China-Russia strategic cooperative partnership," China's Defense Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun told a news conference, as cited by Reuters.

He also added that the exercise is "not directed against third parties."

China Military Online published material earlier in July that the 'Joint Sea' naval exercise was due to be undertaken in September. The operation was first conducted in 2012, and has subsequently become an annual event for Russia and China.

Last year, 22 vessels, 20 aircraft, 40 armored vehicles, and 500 marines from Russia and China took part in the drills in the Sea of Japan, off the coast of Vladivostok in Russia's Far East.

Bad Guys

Abu Ghraib torture company re-hired for Syria: How ISIS will benefit

CACI International Inc
During the occupation of Iraq U.S. intelligence and military services contracted CACI International Inc, a U.S. company in Virginia, to provide "intelligence services" in Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. CACI employees were directly involved in torturing Iraqi prisoners.

The U.S. army recently contracted CACI for "intelligence analysis services" in Syria. The Syrian government has not invited or otherwise allowed U.S. military or its contractors to enter the country. Any such activities infringes on Syria's sovereignty and are thereby in violation of international law.

The re-engagement of such a controversial company for services in the area boosts the recruitment appeal of the Islamic State.

A recent U.S. Department of Defense Contracts Press Announcement (Release No: CR-143-16, July 27, 2016) lists under the rubric "Army":
"Six3 Intelligence Solutions Inc., McLean, Virginia, was awarded a $ 9,578,964 modification (P00001) to contract W564KV-16-C-0058 for intelligence analysis services. Work will be performed in Germany, Italy, and Syria, with an estimated completion date of June 29, 2017."

Handcuffs

Police state soon? Merkel announces major increase in security forces after terror attacks

Angela Merkel
© AFP 2016/ Odd Andersen
German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced on Thursday an increase in the number of security forces in Germany and across Europe after a string of Islamist attacks in the region.

"We have already considerably increased the number of security jobs across Germany but also in the [European] Union," Merkel said at the annual press conference.

The chancellor said this was part of the ongoing effort to prevent terror attacks in Europe, alongside with the creation of an anti-terror center inside European police Europol.

She added that German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere was asked to carry out a deep analysis of the situation and come up with more security proposals. "The federal interior minister will make proposals together with his regional colleagues," she said.

Black Magic

Death-eater Samantha Power excuses U.S. war crimes in Syria at UN - Churkin blasts her

samantha power
This isn't Woodstock, Samantha, it's the UN.
Samantha Power would not explain how US planes mistakenly bombed hundreds of civilians, but whined about 'civil society' groups. Yet she and Obama are total failures at advancing human rights they claim to champion


Samantha Power is a typical hanger-on of the soon to be gone Obama administration.

Like Obama himself, and democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, she is ostensibly a left-wing socialist, fighter for minority and women's rights, and anti-war, i.e. a "progressive."

Yet for the last 4 years as ambassador to the UN, she has unwaveringly defended every violent act of aggression and destabilization abroad which her weak-willed boss Barack (which ironically means "peace") signed off on.

She did what US representatives do best at the last meeting of the UN security council - obfuscate. But Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin wasn't having it.


Comment: Churkin's response is right on target. Power blames the lack of access of Syrian 'civil society groups' to investigate the U.S. massacre of civilians in Manbij. Newsflash, you power-mad harpy, Manbij is occupied by ISIS, which your government was happy to let loose destroying Syria for the past several years. Now your people - including U.S. special forces - have the town entirely surrounded. Your Kurdish/Arab allies control the entire surrounding region. You should be tried for war crimes, not let free to voice your disgusting lies and propaganda lines from the UN.


Info

Major reshuffle: Putin replaces heads of Russian regions and federal agencies

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Head of the Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography Igor Vasilyev
© Michael Klimentyev / Sputnik
In a single day, the Russian President Vladimir Putin has replaced several governors and regional representatives, as well as one ambassador, also merging the Crimean Federal District with the larger Southern Federal District.

The order released on Thursday transforms the Crimean Federal District and the Southern Federal District into a united Southern Federal District. It expands the role of the current presidential representative for the Southern Federal District to cover the amalgamated territory.

The former representative for the Crimean Federal District, Oleg Belaventsev, was appointed to the same position in North Caucasus Federal District, replacing Sergey Melikov. Meanwhile Melikov takes up the post of first deputy head of the Russian National Guard (Rosgvardiya) - the federal law enforcement agency formed in April this year.

Senator for the Crimean Republic Sergey Tsekov told RIA Novosti that the merger was a pre-planned move, as the Crimean Federal District was created purely to allow for the smooth transition of the region into the Russian Federation.

The governor of the Russian Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, Nikolay Tsukanov, was reassigned as representative to the Northwestern Federal District. The head of the regional branch of the Federal Security Service (FSB), Evgeny Zinishev, was appointed acting governor in Tsukanov's absence.

Former Northwestern representative Vladimir Bulavin was appointed head of the Federal Customs Service to replace Andrey Belyaninov, who resigned on Thursday after investigators searched his home as part of a major smuggling case in which Belyaninov is a witness.