Puppet MastersS


Yoda

The importance of Putin's remarks on Judo to understanding the man and his goals

William Wedin
Russia Insider
Fri, 24 Jun 2016 01:51 UTC
judo_putin
Judo Master Vladimir Putin Speaking to a boy with an injured hand
Putin: "A world where the primary value is not physical force, but human qualities. The Judo school is a school of mutual assistance and cooperation. Self-confidence, vigor, purposefulness, respect for elders, teammates and opponents are highly valued there... This sport makes our life more humane; brings people together; and gives us powerful, positive emotions."

On the eve of his 56th birthday on October 7, 2008, Vladimir Putin put out an instructional Judo video for beginners, entitled, Let's Learn Judo with Vladimir Putin, with introductory remarks by himself, as seen at the end of this article--clad in black shirt and pants, his thumbs pressed tightly together, a bust of Judo's founder,Kanō Jigorō (family name first in Japanese), beside him.

Of course, CNN had to mock Putin's "almost-Ninja-like" attire. From there it went on to trash all those macho campaign images of Putin the likes of which CNN had so admired in all those fake-brush-clearing, sock-in-flight-suit photos of Bush. Never mind that Putin is an 8th degree, red-and-white-belt dan in Judo--one of the few in the world and the highest Judo-ranked politician on the planet. Whereas Bush sold his movie-set cowboy ranch and moved back to a gated-community suburb of Dallas within a month after leaving the Presidency, the cowboy show now over.

Putin, by contrast, is like the ruble--backed by solid gold.

In his Introductory Remarks, Putin states that in his childhood (at age 13, to be exact) he was "lucky enough" to find the world of Judo:
[A] world of courage, sincerity and generosity. A world where the primary value is not physical force, but human qualities. The Judo school is a school of mutual assistance and cooperation. Self-confidence, vigor, purposefulness, respect for elders, teammates and opponents are highly valued there... This sport makes our life more humane; brings people together; and gives us powerful, positive emotions.
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Star of David

Israel driving out Negev's Bedouin Palestinians through home demolitions

Ben White
Middle East Monitor
Thu, 23 Jun 2016 15:25 UTC
Israel house demolitions Bedouins
© APAPalestinian look on as Israeli forces demolish homes in Hebron, Occupied West Bank.
A new report has revealed how 2,752 structures were demolished in Bedouin Palestinian communities in the Negev over the last three years, part of what human rights activists have described as an ongoing, concerted campaign of displacement by Israeli authorities.

'Enforcing Distress: House Demolition Policy in the Bedouin Community in the Negev', published by the Negev Coexistence Forum (NCF), sets out to reveal "the ways in which the [Israeli] state utilizes enforcement in order to displace citizens from their lands."

The NCF, established in 1997, describes itself as "a group of concerned Arab and Jewish residents of the Negev...to provide a framework for Jewish- Arab collaborative efforts in the struggle for civil equality and the advancement of mutual tolerance and coexistence."

982 structures were demolished in 2015, down from 1,073 in 2014, but a significant increase from 2013's figure of 697 structures. Over the three years, more than 50 percent of the structures were demolished by their owners, while Israeli authorities directly carried out 1,041 demolitions.

Not only do many Bedouin Palestinian citizens choose to demolish their own structure before the state does so, but during 2014-'15, some 211 structures were demolished before an order had even been issued. These 'demolitions without warrant' follow "pressure" by inspectors on the owners.
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Better Earth

Chinese Xinhua News Agency interviews Russian President Putin


Kremlin.ru
Fri, 17 Jun 2016 19:42 UTC
putin
© Kremlin.ruInterview with Xinhua news agency. With Xinhua General Director Cai Mingzhao.

Comment: It's not so much the content of this interview that is informative; it's the worldview that Putin embodies, and the vision he presents of how nations can and should interact. Whether or not it will ever be achieved is open, but one thing is for sure: the alternative (American hegemony) will only end in complete disaster.


In the run-up to his visit to the People's Republic of China, Vladimir Putin gave an interview to Chinese news agency Xinhua. The interview was recorded on June 17 on the sidelines of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum.

President of Xinhua News Agency Cai Mingzhao: Mr. President,

I am greatly honored and pleased to have this opportunity to interview you in your hometown prior to your visit to the People's Republic of China.

First of all, I would like to express on behalf of the Xinhua Agency our sincere respect.

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Thank you.

Cai Mingzhao: With your - and President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping's active involvement and support Chinese-Russian relations have already reached an extremely high level.

I would like to ask you some questions, if I may.
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Eye 2

Sold their souls: CIA psychologists admit they were paid $81 million to create and administer post-9/11 torture program


RT
Thu, 23 Jun 2016 19:38 UTC
waterboarding
© Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
Two former CIA psychologists have partially admitted to having advised torture and inhumane treatment for detainees, including those leading to fatalities. Over the course of some eight years, the CIA paid them $81 million for creating a torture program.

Both James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen admitted "in part" that they produced a document for the CIA called "Recognizing and Developing Countermeasures to Al-Qaeda Resistance to Interrogation Techniques: A Resistance Training Perspective."

A 2015 lawsuit filed on behalf of three defendants accused both Mitchell and Jessen of designing, implementing and personally administering torture at a so-called CIA "black site."

In their response to the case, the two psychologists admitted the CIA "sought and secured authorization" for what was later named "The Enhanced Interrogated Technique."

Having denied any knowledge about two of the suing defendants ‒ Suleiman Abdullah Salim and Mohamed Ahmed Ben Soud ‒ Jessen and Mitchell partially admitted their roles in the fates of Abu Zubaydah and Gul Rahman. The latter froze to death in a CIA secret prison in Afghanistan in 2002 after being doused in water and left in a cage semi-naked in freezing temperatures.
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Yoda

Putin on China-Russia mutual partnership: "The collaboration contributes to the stability of world affairs"


RT
Thu, 23 Jun 2016 19:29 UTC
putin xi
© Sergey Guneev / Sputnik
The level of mutual trust in Sino-Russian relations has created grounds for comprehensive partnership and strategic collaboration between the two nations in technical, economic, and political spheres, Russia's President Vladimir Putin told Xinhua.

Praising the unprecedented current level of trust between Beijing and Moscow, Putin said the phase of "strategic cooperation" doesn't fully describe the scale of partnership between the states.

"To say we have strategic cooperation is not enough anymore" Putin told Xinhua. "This is why we have started talking about a comprehensive partnership and strategic collaboration. 'Comprehensive' means that we work virtually on all major avenues; 'strategic' means that we attach enormous inter‑governmental importance to this work."

Noting that Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping "devotes much of his personal attention" to the development of Russia-China relations, Putin called his counterpart a "good friend and a reliable partner."

The collaboration in international affairs between the two nations, Putin noted, "contributes to the stability of world affairs," where Russian and Chinese views "are either very similar or coincide."

Comment: See also: "Russia and China are hated because they are protecting humanity from Western terror" - Interview with Andre Vltchek

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Light Saber

Zakharova: Moscow will respond in kind to US travel restrictions on Russian diplomats


RT
Thu, 23 Jun 2016 19:25 UTC
Maria Zakharova
© Mikhail Voskresenskiy / SputnikThe Russian Ministry's spokesperson Maria Zakharova briefing journalists on current political affairs
Moscow will respond to the proposed travel restrictions on Russian diplomats in the US, Maria Zakharova, Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, has said.

"The US authorities have taken a course towards the tightening of the existing notification regime that existed for decades for the trips of Russian junior and medium-level diplomatic staff to distances of 25 miles (40km) away from the center of the city in which the relevant representative office is located," Zakharova said on Thursday.

"If Washington really decides to break the existing agreements, we'll naturally act in a mirror-like manner and impose similar restrictions on US diplomats in Russia," the spokeswoman said.

Zakharova added that the employees of the Russian diplomatic missions "are subject to regular provocations by the US intelligence agencies as they face obstacles in the implementation of official contacts and other restrictions."
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Attention

NATO - The source of Europe's instability and its insecurity agenda

Finian Cunningham
RT
Thu, 23 Jun 2016 19:12 UTC
President Vladimir Putin
© Aleksey Nikolskyi/Sputnik June 22, 2016. President Vladimir Putin, center, speaks at a State Duma plenary meeting.
Russia's repeated - and rebuffed - calls for security cooperation proves it is not Russia, but NATO which is the source of Europe's instability and geopolitical tension.

Not for the first time, President Putin this week sought to allay fears that Russia presents a security threat to Europe and the US. He was speaking on the 75th anniversary of Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941.

Putin boldly referred to historical similarities. He pointed to how the US-led NATO military alliance is increasingly aggressive towards Russia, with the stinging implication this development by the supposedly "freedom and democracy promoting" alliance takes its precedence from the Third Reich and Operation Barbarossa.

The fact that NATO just completed its biggest-ever maneuvers in Poland this month - Operation Anaconda involved 31,000 troops - simulating an attack on Russia is not without dark historical resonance.

Putin also said the serious security threat posed by terrorism required a collective, international response. But he added that Russia's repeated calls for collective action have been rebuffed by Western countries. He lamented the Western attitude of maintaining "bloc-like" security policies - as manifested in the form of NATO - instead of forming an international security body. And Putin compared the complacency of Western nations today on the question of cooperating in the defeat of terrorism to a similar indifference among Western states during the 1930s towards the rise of Nazi Germany.

The Russian leader told lawmakers in the State Duma: "NATO is stepping up its aggressive rhetoric and its aggressive actions close to our borders... In these conditions we are obliged to dedicate special attention to resolving tasks connected with heightening the defense capabilities of our country."

While Russia is beefing up its defense capabilities, Moscow's emphasis is unmistakably on diplomacy, dialogue and cooperation - not as a partner with NATO but as a member of a genuinely multilateral security organization.

The world needs a "modern, non-bloc collective security system," said Putin. "Russia is open to discuss this crucial issue and has more than once shown its readiness for dialogue, but, just as it happened on the eve of World War Two, we do not see a positive reaction in response."

So, if the United States and its European allies are decidedly reluctant to refashion a new international security arrangement, what does that mean?
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Blackbox

Dumb move: Norway plans to deploy troops to Syria; no one thinks it's a good idea


Sputnik
Thu, 23 Jun 2016 18:11 UTC
norway troops
© AP Photo/ Matt Dunham
The Norwegian parliament has given a surprising go-ahead to send troops to join the international fight against Daesh, but it has already spurred mixed reactions from both the Norwegian public and the political establishment.

Many believed that the controversial decision to send Norwegian troops to Syria would not be discussed in parliament until Autumn. However, Defense Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide called for "greater progress in the fight against Daesh."

"Since the very beginning of the fight against Daesh, were already moving into the phase where involvement inside Syria could become relevant," Ine Eriksen Søreide said as quoted by the Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang. "We believe that the decision is based on international law and is rooted in a UN resolution from the Security Council," the defense minister said.


Comment: You believe wrongly, Ine.


The decision to send solders to Syria has already triggered criticism.
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Bomb

The price of greed and complacency: London sold fake bomb detectors, got people killed

Tony Cartalucci
Land Destroyer Report
Thu, 23 Jun 2016 17:37 UTC
gt200
Thousands of brave police and soldiers like those pictured above, had their lives knowingly placed in danger by the British government who mobilized its various departments, the military, and even its diplomats to promote and sell the GT200 "bomb detector" that quite literally did nothing.
The UK proves that power and profits come before the lives of even its own allies' soldiers and police.

The GT200 is an otherwise useless plastic box that does nothing with equally useless "sensor cards" that serve no discernible function.

Despite this fact, UK-based Global Technical and an array of salesmen ranging from experts in the British military serving as equipment export support teams, to British ambassadors, to even the British government's Department of Trade and Industry (now renamed the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills) peddled the useless item as a "bomb detector," putting lives at risk in the nations they were peddled in, and even costing the lives of hundreds including dead police and soldiers in both Iraq and Thailand.

In Thailand, amid the wake of the scandal, US and British backed media services have attempted to capitalize on the political fallout, laying the blame squarely on the Thai government, never mentioning the central role of the British government in promoting the useless and ultimately deadly device.

Comment: This is one reason why the image of "the West" as a major military power is a joke. After generations of global supremacy and hegemony, they seem to think they are invincible and can do whatever they want. Not facing any real military threat, they create garbage that they proceed to sell for obscene amounts of money. This is what happens when the military and security of a nation become a corporation: profits trump functionality. It's also what happens when psychopaths run the show: actual talent and innovation is strangled, which results in poor products but massive profit.

And yet, despite these problems, the West is actively provoking confrontation with Russia, perhaps firm in the belief that Russia can't or won't do anything about it. Well, they're likely wrong about that too: Don't get any big ideas, NATO: Russian air defense can repel "all current and future threats"

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Bell

Iran says they warned Russia that the U.S. would never accept peace - now it's time for total cooperation, more troops

Ali Hashem
Al-Monitor
Mon, 20 Jun 2016 16:41 UTC
damascus
© REUTERS/SANASyria's President Bashar al-Assad (center R) meets Rear Adm. Ali Shamkhani (center L), Iran's Supreme National Security Council director, in Damascus, Sept. 30, 2014.
For Iran, the ongoing war in Syria is no longer a matter of regional security. The conflict now has direct effects and implications for Iran's national security. This perspective is clear in the daily statements coming from Tehran, from the images of slain Iranian soldiers and high-ranking officers laid to rest in the Iranian capital and most recently the appointment of Rear Adm. Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, as military and security coordinator of the joint cooperation group on Syria with Moscow and Damascus.

Shamkhani's appointment came in the wake of the recent summit that brought together the defense ministers of Syria, Iran and Russia in Tehran. It was clear from the meeting that the three countries are keen to boost their cooperation after having suffered some major setbacks in past weeks. These losses have been blamed on a lack of coordination and major differences over objectives, according to a Syrian official who spoke to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. The Syrian official said, "Russia, as a major world power, was looking at the scene from its position ... and thought that giving peace a chance should have saved a lot of lives. The other side — the United States, mainly — wasn't serious about its commitments. Therefore, the attacks by militants were more brutal than before and this caused some losses in the field."

Comment: See also: Syria, Iran, Russia defense ministers meet in Tehran to plan Syrian war endgame. If recent reports are true, the SAA is suffering major setbacks in its advance to Raqqa. Hopefully this renewed cooperation between Iran, Syria and Russia will bear fruit there and in Aleppo, not to mention Deir Ezzor.

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