Puppet MastersS


Airplane

Possible fire on board EgyptAir MS804 flight before crash - black box data


RT
Thu, 30 Jun 2016 15:10 UTC
EgyptAir MS804
© Christian Hartmann / Reuters
Data retrieved from the crashed EgyptAir flight recorders has confirmed reports suggesting that the plane caught on fire before disappearing from radars and plunging into the Mediterranean, killing 66 passengers in May, investigators said.

"Recorded data is showing consistency with ACARS [Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System] messages of lavatory and avionics smoke," the aircraft investigation committee reported after it embarked on examining the contents of one of two black boxes retrieved from the Mediterranean.

The heat damage incurred to the debris and the signs of soot on the wreckage is another evidence in support of the fire on board version, the committee added.

In May, France's Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis [BEA] for civil aviation safety confirmed the ACARS had sent a series of messengers indicating smoke in the lavatory and avionics bay.

The experts hope the black box's data will shed the light on the sequence of events preceding the crash as it appears to record the flight in full.
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Bad Guys

Obama quietly approved thousands of offshore fracking permits in Gulf of Mexico


RT
Thu, 30 Jun 2016 14:58 UTC
offshore drilling
© Sean Gardner / Reuters
The Obama administration has granted hundreds of offshore fracking permits in the Gulf of Mexico, allowing dangerous fracking chemicals to pollute the Gulf, documents reveal.

Truthout reports the Center for Biological Diversity uncovered documents that reveal the administration approved over 1,200 offshore fracking applications between 2010 and 2014, which took place in hundreds of wells in the Gulf of Mexico, including within the habitat of loggerhead turtles. The administration allowed oil companies to dump over 76 billion gallons of wastewater into the Gulf waters in 2014 alone, the CBD's press release states.

"The Obama administration is essentially letting oil companies frack at will in Gulf ecosystems and dump billions of gallons of oil waste into coastal waters," said Kristen Monsell, a CBD lawyer. "Every offshore frack increases the risk to wildlife and coastal communities, yet federal officials have been just rubber-stamping this toxic practice in the Gulf of Mexico for years."

Truthout reports that the documents also show offshore fracking is being permitted without conducting analysis of the risk to the environment. Over 300 exclusions were issued to exempt drilling plans from environmental reviews, echoing the 2010 revelations that BP's Deepwater Horizon rig received such exemptions in the lead up to the worst oil spill in US history.
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Snakes in Suits

Killary super-PAC took $200k in illegal donations from federal contractor


RT
Wed, 29 Jun 2016 14:46 UTC
clinton
© Lucas Jackson / Reuters
One federal contractor has donated $200,000 to a super-PAC backing Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, in clear violation of a 1971 law banning such contributions. Donald Trump may also be in trouble for soliciting funds from foreigners.

Priorities USA, a super-PAC backing the presumptive Democratic nominee, received two donations of $100,000 each from Suffolk Construction, The Hill reported Wednesday. The Boston-based company had multiple contracts with the federal government at the time, making the donations illegal under a 1971 law.

A search of USASpending.gov found $976,560 worth of contracts between Suffolk Construction and the Department of Defense, for construction and maintenance projects at the US Military Academy in West Point, New York and a US Navy base in Newport, Rhode Island, The Hill reported. In 2015, the company also donated $10,000 to Right to Rise, a super-PAC that supported Jeb Bush's presidential bid on the Republican side.

Suffolk Construction has annual revenue of $2 billion, and has received $169.7 million in federal contracts since 2008, The Hill reported, noting that the company declined multiple requests for comment.
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Info

Assad: Western officials in secret talks with Syrian leadership so as not to upset the US


Sputnik
Thu, 30 Jun 2016 13:15 UTC
President Bashar Assad
© Sputnik/ Mikhail Voskresenskiy
According to the Syrian president, Western officials are in secret talks with the leadership of Syria, repeating what the US want them to say.

Western governments are in secret negotiations with the leadership in Syria and echo the United States' anti-government stance out of fear of upsetting Washington, the Arab republic's President Bashar Assad said Thursday.

"They attack us politically and then they send officials to deal with us under the table, especially the security, including your [the Australian] government," Assad said in an interview with Australia's SBS News scheduled to air Friday.

Assad argued in the excerpt that most western officials "don't want to upset the United States" and "only repeat what the United States want them to say."
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Light Saber

Zakharova: Russian diplomats constantly facing provocations from FBI and CIA, not the other way around


RT
Thu, 30 Jun 2016 13:13 UTC
russian embassy
© Larry Downing / ReutersRussian Embassy in Washington
It's the Russian diplomats who are being pressured, not the other way around, the Foreign Ministry said, blasting a Washington Post article that claimed Russia harasses US diplomatic staff at home and all across Europe.

"The Washington Post has published an article on alleged harassment of US diplomats in Russia and in other countries. But, on the contrary, the pressure is increasing on Russian diplomats," Maria Zakharova, Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said Tuesday.

According to the spokeswoman, Washington is "constantly coming up with new restrictions against our diplomats, who constantly face provocations from the FBI and the CIA."

She stressed that "unacceptable measures" are being applied against them, including "psychological pressure in the presence of their families."

"There even had been cases when such actions were carried out in the presence of pregnant wives of our diplomats," she added.

"Instead of receiving our signal, identifying the problem and creating conditions to improve our relations, they (the US) flip everything upside down" by releasing the publication, she added.
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Star of David

Elizabeth Warren: Israeli apologist defends shelling of Gaza schools and hospitals

Ryan Grim
The Huffington Post
Thu, 28 Aug 2014 19:00 UTC
Elizabeth Warren
© Huffington PostElizabeth Warren
The Israeli military has the right to attack Palestinian hospitals and schools in self defense if Hamas has put rocket launchers next to them, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said last week at a local town hall, according to the Cape Cod Times.

Warren, in defending her vote to send funds to Israel in the middle of its war with Hamas, said she thinks civilian casualties are the "last thing Israel wants."

"But when Hamas puts its rocket launchers next to hospitals, next to schools, they're using their civilian population to protect their military assets. And I believe Israel has a right, at that point, to defend itself," she said.

Israeli tanks shelled schools and hospitals during the most recent conflict in Gaza. The Israeli government claimed at the time that rockets and militants had been located nearby. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency condemned militants for hiding rockets in two schools, and also sharply criticized Israeli attacks on other schools.

Comment: Israel's track record proves indisputably that it does not care for civilians despite what Warren thinks:

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Quenelle

Iraqi forces destroy major ISIS convoy as it flees Fallujah


South Front
Thu, 30 Jun 2016 12:20 UTC
Iraq military helicopter army
© An Iraqi military helicopter during the operation
Iraqi forces are engaging fleeing ISIS terrorists after a series of air strikes by the Iraqi Air Force.

Iraqi forces - the Iraqi Air Force, the Iraqi Army and the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units - have reportedly destroyed a major ISIS convoy, fleeing the areas near the recenlty liberated city of Fallujah to Syria. According to pro-government sources, the Iraqi Air Force has destroyed up to 120 ISIS vehicles that were moving to Syria through the province of Anbar.

Comment: This is a fitting end to the US' terrorist scum in Fallujah, who occupied and terrorized the city for two years. But their reign wouldn't have been possible without the 'shock and awe' of the US military which caused untold amounts of carnage to the city, and which led to the rise of ISIS. Tragically, Fallujah has been a 'poster child' for US war crimes in Iraq.

Also see:

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Stock Up

Greater Eurasia Project: Putin outlines grand economic strategy at SPIEF 2016

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Thu, 30 Jun 2016 12:10 UTC
Vladimir Putin
© UnknownPutin at St Petersburg International Economic Forum
Putin uses SPIEF 2016 to outline a gigantic project to unite the whole Eurasian continent and pleads with the Europeans to take part.

The main theme of SPIEF 2016 was that it provided the Russians with an opportunity to explain their foreign policy to the Europeans.

One of the most sterile debates that goes on in certain sections of the Anglophone media is on whether Putin is a strategist or just a tactician. There are any number of articles that debate the question with the answer usually given that he is just a tactician.

The correct answer to the question is that Putin or more correctly the Russian leadership most definitely do have a strategy, though the Anglophone media commentators who debate the question can be forgiven for always giving the wrong answer because - as their articles all too clearly show - they haven't the least idea of what this strategy actually is. This is very surprising because Putin has explained it on many occasions. With large numbers of Europeans in the audience at SPIEF 2016 he took the opportunity to do so again, emphasising this time the key role Europe - and specifically the European Union - plays in it.


Comment: They don't have an idea because they are paid not to have an idea. Instead they are paid to fantasize, projecting NATO's malevolent ambitions onto Russia in order to justify the West's massive military build-up.

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Crusader

Putin warns rivalry for world's resources increasing, some try to disregard all rules


RT
Thu, 30 Jun 2016 12:20 UTC
Russian President Vladimir Putin
© Sergey Guneev
The world is seeing ever-stronger competition for resources, and some players try to disregard all the rules, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said, adding that potential for conflict is growing worldwide.

The situation across the world is becoming less predictable, Putin said at a meeting with Russian ambassadors and permanent representatives abroad.

According to the Russian president, the actions of NATO are aimed at upsetting the balance of power, but Russia "will not succumb to this militaristic craze."

"We are noticing persistent efforts by certain partners to maintain a monopoly on geopolitical dominance. They use their centuries of experience in suppressing, weakening, pitting their rivals against each other, as well as modern political, economic, financial, and informational methods," he said.
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Bomb

State terrorism by any other name: US's long history of bombing other countries


WilliamBlum.org
Thu, 30 Jun 2016 00:00 UTC
Shock and Awe
'Shock and Awe' in Iraq, 2003
It is a scandal in contemporary international law, don't forget, that while "wanton destruction of towns, cities and villages" is a war crime of long standing, the bombing of cities from airplanes goes not only unpunished but virtually unaccused. Air bombardment is state terrorism, the terrorism of the rich. It has burned up and blasted apart more innocents in the past six decades than have all the antistate terrorists who ever lived. Something has benumbed our consciousness against this reality. In the United States we would not consider for the presidency a man who had once thrown a bomb into a crowded restaurant, but we are happy to elect a man who once dropped bombs from airplanes that destroyed not only restaurants but the buildings that contained them and the neighborhoods that surrounded them. I went to Iraq after the Gulf war and saw for myself what the bombs did; "wanton destruction" is just the term for it. - C. Douglas Lummis, political scientist
The above was written in 1994, before the wanton destruction generated by the bombing of Yugoslavia, another in a long list of countries the United States has bombarded since the end of World War II, which is presented below.

There appears to be something about launching bombs or missiles from afar onto cities and people that appeals to American military and political leaders. In part it has to do with a conscious desire to not risk American lives in ground combat. And in part, perhaps not entirely conscious, it has to do with not wishing to look upon the gory remains of the victims, allowing American GIs and TV viewers at home to cling to their warm fuzzy feelings about themselves, their government, and their marvelous "family values". Washington officials are careful to distinguish between the explosives the US drops from the sky and "weapons of mass destruction" (WMD), which only the officially-designated enemies (ODE) are depraved enough to use. The US government speaks sternly of WMD, defining them as nuclear, chemical and biological in nature, and "indiscriminate" (meaning their use can't be limited to military objectives), as opposed to the likes of American "precision" cruise missiles. This is indeed a shaky semantic leg to stand on, given the well-known extremely extensive damage to non-military targets, including numerous residences, schools and hospitals, even from American "smart" bombs, in almost all of the bombings listed below.
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