Puppet MastersS


Bad Guys

US will continue bombing Manbij despite massive civilian casualties


South Front
Sun, 24 Jul 2016 12:23 UTC
Bombing Manbij
© www.theeventchronicle.comSyria appeals to UN after French & US airstrikes kill hundreds of civilians. Did they think the city was empty?
As expected, the first US-backed assault of a large Syrian city, Manbij, has turned into a "bloody meat grinder" that has been lasting already for 2 months. The US-led coalition launches mass airstrikes on residential areas and infrastructure, which have already led to the deaths of hundreds of civilians that was confirmed officially. Unofficially, the number of dead is likely to have exceeded up to one thousand. However, the US is not going to pause airstrikes in Syria.

At least 12 airstrikes has been launched by the US since the destruction in the village of Tokkhar. According to Syrian activists, at least 73 and as many as 125 civilians have been killed in contested northern city that has been hit in US-led effort against ISIS. The UK-based group AirWars, which tracks the airstrikes, provided the names of approximately 73 people, grouped by their families, whom local reporting indicated were dead in the airstrikes. Its tally of the dead ranges from 73 civilians to 203. The president of the Syrian National Coalition, Anas Alabdah, has called on the US to suspend its airstrikes until it performs a thorough investigation into the attack near Manbij.

However, when Army Colonel Christopher Garver, chief spokesman for the US military command in Iraq and Syria, was asked by the Guardian newspaper if the military will pause airstrikes, he replied: "No. Operations continue against Daesh."

Comment: Further reading:

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Bad Guys

In past month militant groups have lost 300 fighters in clashes at Aleppo City


South Front
Sun, 24 Jul 2016 12:18 UTC
Syrian rebels
© Ammar Abdullah / Reuters
During last 30 days, the joint forces of militant groups lost some 40 units of heavy military equipment and about 300 fighters in clashes at Aleppo city where the Syrian army cut off the strategic Castello Highway that leads to the militant-held areas of the city.

The most intense clashes were observed in the areas of Mallah Farm, Castello Highway, Handarat, al-Lairamoun and Bani Zeid north and northwest of Aleppo.

The Russian and Syrian air power played a crucial role in this clashes, destroying the militants' manpower and military equipment. Air strikes were observed at Kafr Hamra, Jandoul Roundabout, Shuqaif Industrial District, Shuqaif Bridge, al-Kindi District and Hraytan.
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Gold Seal

Gorbachev sends critical letter to IOC, calling blanket ban on Russian athletes "unacceptable"


RT
Sun, 24 Jul 2016 12:39 UTC
Mikhail Gorbachev
© Grigory Dukor / ReutersMikhail Gorbachev, former Soviet leader
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has sent a letter to the IOC criticizing its blanket ban on the entire Russian Olympic team. Gorbachev appealed on behalf of clean athletes, saying "the principle of collective punishment is unacceptable."

"I support the fight against banned substances in sports. It is an evil that needs to be eradicated. Athletes found guilty of using it should be barred from competing," Gorbachev wrote in a letter to International Olympic Committee (IOC) chair Thomas Bach.

The former president says he is "deeply distressed" that Russians were among those "willing to achieve victory at all costs." Gorbachev called for serious conclusions to be drawn and an independent investigation leading to appropriate measures to prevent such a situation from occurring in future.

Comment: The ban on all Russian athletes for the 2016 Rio Olympics has nothing to do with doping, and everything to do with politcizing sport and continuing with the US-led propaganda effort to demonize Russia. If all countries were banned from performing in the Olympics because a few of their athletes had used banned performance-enhancing substances, there would be no Olympics.

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Megaphone

Hungarian PM: EU is weak regional power, European political elites have failed the test


RT
Sun, 24 Jul 2016 12:23 UTC
Viktor Orban
© Kacper Pempel / ReutersHungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban
The deadly shooting rampage in Europe's leading nation, Germany, is a sign that Britain's exit from the EU has reduced the bloc to a weak regional player unable to achieve any goals or protect its citizens, Hungary's prime minister Viktor Orban said.

"Never before in my whole life I was as discouraged as after as the attack in Munich," in which a lone gunman killed 9 people and injured 27 others on Friday, Orban said, according to Agerpres news agency.

"In the last 30 or 40 years, we perceived the Germans as the guarantors of our democracy," Orban said. "But you see that the same thing that happened yesterday, a few days ago took place in Nice. It's now closing on us all, but even more serious is that this attack happened in Germany - the country which we consider to be our fulcrum. And this means that even in that country there's no absolute guarantee [of security] anymore."

The time has come to give up on the "idealization of Europe" and the "false self-esteem" because after Brexit the EU has lost its global role, the Hungarian PM said in a speech at a student summer camp at the Romanian town of Baile Tusnad on Saturday.

"Europe... is a regional player, who can't protect its borders and citizens as well as keep the people together," he said.
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Cell Phone

Controlling information: Telecommunications giant Verizon close to acquiring Yahoo!


RT
Sun, 24 Jul 2016 14:53 UTC
Yahoo headquarters
© Kimberly White/RuetersA man drives a Mini Cooper with a Yahoo! logo in front of Yahoo! headquarters in Sunnyvale, California.
America's telecommunications company Verizon is in "one-on-one" talks with Yahoo after beating rival bidders for crippled internet giant, Bloomberg reported citing sources.

According to the sources, the companies may be ready to announce a deal in the coming days. However, it hasn't been finalized and may still fall apart.

If it goes ahead, Verizon could probably merge Yahoo's internet business with its own web search engine AOL.

Among the bidders interested in the company's core business were Japanese online retailer Rakuten, Yellow Pages owner YP (backed by AT&T), Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert, Vector Capital Management, private equity suitor TPG, and others.

Analysts expect the final bid in the range of $3.5 billion to $6 billion, to include Yahoo's land and patents.

This week Yahoo reported its quarterly earnings, again missing Wall Street estimates. Revenue (minus commissions paid to partners for web traffic) fell 19 percent in the second quarter to $1.31 billion. It is the sixth decline in the past seven periods.

Comment: From Wikipedia:
Yahoo! is the highest-read news and media website, with over 7 billion views per month, being the fourth most visited website globally, as of June 2015.According to news sources, roughly 700 million people visit Yahoo websites every month.Yahoo itself claims it attracts "more than half a billion consumers every month in more than 30 languages.


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Cow Skull

America's monster is coming to the EU: Imports of genetically modified Monsanto soybeans approved


RT
Sun, 24 Jul 2016 03:23 UTC
genetically modified soy beans
© Jim Young / Reuters Genetically modified FrankenSoy is coming to animal feeds.
The European Commission has approved the import and processing of Monsanto's Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans, after debates over glyphosate herbicide's safety delayed the introduction of genetically modified soybean variety for months. "Today the Commission authorized three GMOs for food/feed uses (soybean MON 87708 x MON 89788, soybean MON 87705 x MON 89788 and soybean FG 72), all of which have gone through a comprehensive authorization procedure, including a favorable scientific assessment by EFSA," the European Commission said in a statement Friday.

The new GMO crops - coupled with the dicamba/glyphosate cocktail - make up what Monsanto has dubbed the 'Roundup Ready Xtend crop system,' designed to trump super weeds that have evolved along with the company's glyphosate-based Roundup biocide. Dicamba was first approved in 1967 and has been linked to high rates of cancer and birth defects in the families of food growers, according to government and other scientific studies. Consumer, health, environmental, and farmer advocates have fiercely opposed the new Xtend system over health and environmental concerns.

Comment: People demonstrated in over 400 major cities across the world in May 2015 to tell the GMO giant they do not want its produce in their food.
See also:

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Bad Guys

Western media bashing of Erdogan won't affect Turkey's foreign policy


Moon of Alabama
Fri, 22 Jul 2016 00:00 UTC
Erdogan
There is currently a lot of Erdogan bashing in the U.S. and European media. It seems that the authors of the hostile pieces would have liked the coup to proceed. Why is a state of emergency and some restriction on human rights in Turkey of concern when the same measures, with less justification, were implemented in France without any protests? The French President Hollande just pushed a new labor law, which the population rejects, through parliament. This without any vote and by using some very murky constitutional provision that are only intended for emergency uses. Where is the protest in "western" media and governments against such undermining of democracy?

The coup in Turkey failed - so far. How that came to be - who planned it, how was it betrayed, why was it botched so very amateurishly - will continue to be puzzling. Some answers seem plausible but there remain many open questions.

But this is of mere historic interest. The Turkish public perceives it as a military coup against the people that thankfully failed. Erdogan (as much as I dislike him) rescued their democracy. That the Gülen movement, under the watch of the CIA, was involved is plausible enough to be taken as truth. Unlike "western" liberals assume, Gülen and his elitist, expensive schools are not liked in Turkey. The secularist see him as a dangerous conservative Islamist, the AKP followers as a deceitful, treacherous competition to their creed, ideals and heroes.
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Attention

Nice and then Munich: German journalist married to Israeli politician at scene of both attacks


Nice Matin
Sat, 23 Jul 2016 21:42 UTC
Richard Gutjahr
Richard Gutjahr, a "tragic coincidence"
An independent German journalist filmed the Nice attack on July 14th. Last night he happened to be in Munich, right outside the mall where the shooting, that left 9 dead and 27 injured, occurred.

It was a tragic coincidence. Richard Gutjahr was in Nice on July 14th and on the 22nd happened to be in Munich at the scene of another terror attack. It was the Bavarian independent journalist who filmed, from the balcony of his hotel, the now infamous video of the truck mounting the promenade des anglais.

Speaking to German newspaper Der Spiegel, Gutjahr said he spent "a long weekend" in Nice and wanted to "experience for the first time" the July 14th festivities in France.

Eight days later, on Friday night, he was in Munich, his place of residence. But bizarrely, on that evening, he found himself outside the very same shopping mall where another 'mass terror attack' was unfolding before his eyes.
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Jet2

Is a secret deal underway for Russia's supersonic MIG-29M?


Sputnik
Sat, 23 Jul 2016 19:18 UTC
Russian Mig-29m / M2
© Wikipedia
The International Business Times reports that Russia has undertaken a flurry of MiG-29M fighter jet construction producing as many as 46 new supersonic aircraft leading to speculation that a secretive deal to sell the 1616MPH (2600kmh) warplanes.

Moscow has provided no official confirmation about which country, if any, has signed a contract to acquire the fighter jet that analysts estimate is worth upwards of $2 billion although qualified speculation suggests that the purchaser may be the Egyptian government.

The belief that the Egyptian government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is the buyer is predicated upon an Egyptian media report that the country's minister of military production traveled to Moscow in March to discuss military cooperation. Russia has also looked in recent years to China, India, and Iran as potential markets for its military hardware.
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Bulb

Savchenko touched by sanity? Says 'Ukrainians should apologize to the residents of Donbass', 'amnesty given to both sides'


Fort Russ
Fri, 22 Jul 2016 00:00 UTC
Nadzhda Savchenko
Nadzhda Savchenko
Rusvesna ("Russian Spring")

Translated from Russian by Tom Winter

People's Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada Nadzhda Savchenko, who until recently was the "chief Ukrainian heroine" and the personification of the "fight against the aggressor Russia" has made a new high-profile statement that her radical siblings are unlikely to be able to forgive.

In a broadcast on Ukrainian television channels, she said that Ukrainians should apologize to the residents of Donbass.

"We may have to do it. It is not possible, but precisely. We have to learn to ask for forgiveness and to forgive, otherwise the world will not," she suddenly said.

Moreover, she added, she was ready to personally apologize to the mothers of Donbass, who lost sons in the course of the so-called ATO.

Comment: It was only two months ago that Nadzhda Savchenko appeared, by all objective reason, to be so virulently 'pro-Kiev' so as to seem out of her mind. So why say these very conciliatory and peace-based statements now? Has she been touched by an angel? Religious conversion? Taken her new-found responsibility as the People's Deputy to heart and seen the light of reason? Or is this some kind of elaborate con?

See the following to get a sense of just how strange this conversion seems! But more recently: Kiev's sainted war hero Savchenko keeps calling for peace with the DPR and LPR

Regardless for the reasons of her conversion, it seems that the backlash against Savchenko and her statements have already begun in earnest.

From the Seattle Times:
Nadiya Savchenko, the military pilot who became a national hero when she was jailed in Russia, faced a backlash Friday for saying reconciliation was the only solution to conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Savchenko's comments irked many Ukrainian politicians, with some calling her a traitor.

"We are not going to ask occupying forces and terrorists for forgiveness," said Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the interior minister. "Now I know: it was Putin who planted her in the minds of Ukrainians as a Trojan horse."

Speaking on Ukraine's Channel 5, Savchenko said late Thursday that Ukrainians "need to ask for forgiveness" or there will be no end to the conflict in eastern Ukraine which has claimed more than 9,400 lives and displaced over a million people since it erupted in April 2014.

Savchenko fought on the government side in the war with Russia-backed rebels and was captured in June 2014. She was then put on trial in Russia for involvement in the deaths of two journalists and spent two years in prison before she was pardoned by Russian President Vladimir Putin and returned home to a hero's welcome in May this year.

"We need to ask for forgiveness and forgive otherwise we will never get peace," she said. "The mother on the other side who lost her only son, I'm ready to ask her to forgive me."

Fighting which has killed civilians on both sides of conflict has led Ukrainians there to call for an all-out war.

While in prison in Russia, Savchenko became the face of Ukrainian nationalism as she condemned her captors and the entire Russian state for meddling into Ukraine's affairs. She became member of parliament, and came to disagree with her nationalist supporters who advocate more force.

A government-connected spin doctor invoked the name of Alexander Zakharchenko, the Russian-backed separatist leader, to condemn Savchenko.

"It's a shame Zakharchenko is married," Taras Berezovets tweeted. "He and Nadezhda Savchenko would make a great couple.

Well-known columnist Vitaly Portnikov said on Friday in a blog post on Newsru.ua that Savchenko's remarks deflect public attention from the fact that Russia has been fomenting unrest in the east.

"It was Russia that came to our land, it was its soldiers and mercenaries who triggered fighting on our territory. And it's not us who should apologize to the residents of Donetsk and Luhansk," Portnikov said. "The only thing we're guilty of is that we have not liberated the land from the hordes of the enemy."

A recent survey by the Sofiya polling agency showed Savchenko get nearly 11 percent of the vote if she was to run for president, compared to 13 percent for front-runner Yulia Tymoshenko. President Petro Poroshenko's rating was 11 percent. Over 2,000 people were polled in late June-early July this survey with the margin of error 2.2 percent.


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