Puppet MastersS


Pistol

Arms sales to Libya is the least bad option

Andrew Korybko
The Duran
Sun, 29 May 2016 00:00 UTC
man and gun
© www.bgr.inEmerging weapons market in Libya piques international interest.
Let's start with the indisputable facts: the "Arab Spring" Colour Revolution created the pretext for NATO's 2011 War on Libya and the subsequent murder of Gaddafi. US foreign policy is fully responsible for all this and for the rise of terrorism in Libya and the present problem with Daesh in that country. Having got that out of the way, this article is not a polemic. It is an analysis of the reality that currently exists in Libya taking into consideration the geopolitical imperatives of all the sides.

The UN Security Council recently decided to relax the arms embargo on Libya. Why did that happen and why did Russia and China support it?

For starters, illegal arms have been pouring into Libya for years. It's just that they have not been going to the Libyan government. The arms embargo against Libya imposed by the UN Security Council is hurting the only forces that are legitimately capable of fighting terrorism in Libya, just as the unilateral Western embargo against Syria had been doing the same in Syria.

The UN Security Council's decision to relax the arms embargo on Libya does not provide for a full resumption of unrestricted weapons sales to Libya. Rather it permits "exceptions" to the embargo based on the Libyan authorities' requests individually assessed on an "as-needs" basis.

The West created this mess and now wants to profit by "fixing" it by selling weapons to the newly formed Government of National Accord (GNA). Of course it wants to do this for all the wrong reasons. The main reason - other than the publicly stated one of "fighting terrorism" - is to equip a new loyal proxy enforcer. However it is not guaranteed that will succeed. It is not impossible that the person chosen - CIA-linked General Haftar - might get a massive ego boost causing him to turn on his unipolar patrons, especially if he feels he can play them off against potential multipolar rivals like Russia and China. Already he is refusing to recognise the UN-approved government in Tripoli, so there's a chance he might one day "go rogue" and become the second most disruptive factor in Libya behind Daesh.

Comment: The US pattern of arms sales follows its pattern of destabilization...all the way to the bank. Can the US guarantee its arms will not be found in the hands of the terrorists? Or is this precisely the US intent? The fact that Moscow and Beijing will utilize the same 'carrot' poses an interesting dilemma: How do ANY of them guarantee their arms will be delivered to and used exclusively by the GNA? Libya is a potential powder keg with too many side-liners handing out matches!

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Footprints

Israeli deputy PM Ayoub Kara's secret visit to Aleppo


Press TV
Sun, 29 May 2016 09:46 UTC
Israeli medics
© unknownIsraeli forces treating a Takfiri terrorist they rescued from Syrian territory.
Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Ayoub Kara has acknowledged to have paid a clandestine visit to Syria's Aleppo, which is under the control of foreign-backed Takfiri terrorists. The Syrian army and its allies have been fighting to wrest control of the country's second city from terrorists who have reportedly received advanced weapons in recent weeks.

Kara
© www.presstv.irIsraeli Deputy Prime Minister Ayoub Kara
Kara did not say when his visit took place, saying "I won't get into it," the Israeli daily Haaretz reported. "Aleppo today is abandoned... Today when you enter it, you won't even think that it's Aleppo. It doesn't even remind you of Aleppo," he said instead.

Late last month, Syrian officials and locals confiscated a vehicle loaded with Israeli-manufactured weapons in the southern province of Suwayda. A military source told Syria's official news agency SANA that the vehicle was traveling from the eastern countryside of Dara'a to the desert region of Badiya. Anti-personnel landmines, RPG rounds and launchers, B9 shells, 120 mm, 80 mm and 60 mm mortars, grenades and 23 mm machine-gun rounds were among the confiscated weapons.

Syria says Israel and its Western and regional allies are aiding Takfiri terrorist groups operating inside the Arab country. The Syrian army has frequently said it had seized Israeli-made weapons and advanced military equipment from the foreign-backed militants.

Israel's Channel 2 television network recently reported that wounded militants are transferred quietly into the occupied territories for medication and that the number has surpassed 2,100 since 2011. In December 2015, Britain's English-language tabloid newspaper Daily Mail said Israel has saved the lives of over 2,000 Takfiri militants at the cost of about USD 13 million since 2013.

Comment: We must never forget Israel's role of infiltration and deception. It has maneuvered its way into the very soul and fiber of global societies and will use any and all means to achieve its aims. The Syrian war is one of Israel's armchair activities facilitated by its co-conspirators and protectors, the US and NATO.

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Star of David

Netanyahu's government may be near collapse


The Jerusalem Post
Sat, 28 May 2016 00:14 UTC
Netanyahu
© REUTERSWill the Knesset kiss Netanyahu good-bye?
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government may be on the verge of collapse according to Israel's Channel 10. In a report Friday night, the TV station quoted unnamed "party leaders" saying that Netanyahu's surprise move to bring the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party into the coalition may be backfiring on him.

In the past eight days, two ministers have resigned: Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, of Likud, following reports that he would be replaced with the hawkish Avigdor Liberman, and Environmental Minister Avi Gabai of Kulanu. Both harshly criticized Netanyahu in their resignation announcements.

Gabai, who resigned Friday, said Israel's increasingly "extremist" government was leading Israel on a path to destruction and that he "found it difficult" to be part of Netanyahu's government for several reasons, including how it "totally upset the relationship with the world's most important power - the one safeguarding our security interests," referring to the United States."

Relations between Likud and Jewish Home are also "in real crisis," the report also said

The report also said Finance Minister and Kulanu leader Moshe Kahlon is working to persuade the center-left Zionist Union to renew talks with Netanyahu about joining the coalition, while Yaalon "has already begun preparing the organizational infrastructure" for a potential return to politics.

Comment: Wishful thinking for better (or worse)...or the devil you know.

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No Entry

Cultural war against Russia: Pole vault champion says Russian athletes being targeted in 'doping scandal'


RT
Mon, 30 May 2016 10:17 UTC
Yelena Isinbayeva
© Grigoriy Sisoev / RIA Novosti Yelena Isinbayeva
Two-time Olympic gold medalist Yelena Isinbayeva, speaking exclusively to RT, has said she is frustrated by Russia's ongoing athletics ban and has pledged to take her case to the International Court of Human Rights to fight to compete in Rio this summer.

A doping scandal is threatening to prevent Russia's participation in the Olympic Games in Brazil this summer, but pole vault champion Isinbayeva feels let down by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).

The 33-year-old stated that she should not be punished for the actions of her compatriots.

"I want the IAAF council and WADA [the World Anti-Doping Agency] to hear one thing - they have to deal with each case individually," she said.


Comment: This is blatant cultural war against Russia. Until such a time when truly international institutions - and not Western-controlled ones - exist, there will there be nothing resembling fairness and justice in this world.

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Pirates

The Clinton crime family: Will it ever be brought to justice?

Stephen Lendman
Global Research
Mon, 30 May 2016 04:08 UTC
HIllary Clinton
Hillary vulnerable to indictment on federal racketeering charges

The Bill and Hillary crime family long ago should have been held accountable for high crimes against peace and numerous others. Hillary is the most recklessly dangerous presidential aspirant in US history, supporting endless imperial wars and state terror, once saying "(w)hat do we have NATO for if not to defend our way of life." She endorses first-strike nuclear weapons use, calling them peacekeeping deterrents, mindless of their power to destroy life on earth.

She's militantly anti-Russia, earlier compared the nation to Nazi Germany, Putin to Hitler, claiming "he doesn't have a soul," has revanchist aims, wanting Russian greatness restored - all of the above a perversion of truth, not to mention a pretext to wage war on Russia.

The so-called Clinton Foundation is a suspected criminal enterprise, masquerading as a charitable NGO. It promotes Big Lies about "improving global health, increasing opportunity for women and girls, reducing childhood obesity and preventable diseases, (as well as) creating economic opportunity and growth..."

Film producer Frank Huguenard believes Hillary Clinton faces impending federal racketeering charges under the 1970 Racketeering Influence and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). Enacted to fight organized and white collar crime, racketeering is defined to include fraud, bribery, money laundering, embezzlement, drugs trafficking, murder, and various other offenses under the Federal criminal code (Title 18), even acts of terrorism.
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Bad Guys

'Somebody' leaks internal European Commission emails critical of favorable TTIP terms for US corporations - US then criticizes EU for 'going public'!


RT
Mon, 30 May 2016 03:53 UTC
TTIP London
© Kai Pfaffenbach / Reuters
As the US and EU continue to secretly debate the controversial Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), talks aren't only taking place behind closed doors. Frustrations are also being aired online, according to emails obtained by Politico.

An email sent on Friday and obtained by the website shows the European Commission warning the 28 EU ambassadors in Brussels that there will be no TTIP deal unless Washington changes its approach to negotiations.


Comment: Who's leaking internal EC comms? Who has the means? Who has the motive?


The document focuses on agriculture, one of the most contentious of the 27 chapters currently under negotiation in TTIP talks.

The email expresses the Commission's concern that "the EU has not seen substantial progress in areas of significant importance to EU agriculture, such as geographical indications, wine and non-tariff barriers."

It goes on to state that "the US Administration does not yet seem to be in a place where it can reciprocate the EU's efforts in TTIP and to start delivering on matters of EU interest."

The email, written from the office of European Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan, was agreed upon by several Commission departments, and President Jean-Claude Juncker's office was aware of it being sent to the EU ambassadors, according to separate emails seen by Politico.

Comment: Here we see what the Americans' surveillance infrastructure is primarily for: corporate and inter-state espionage and blackmail.

TTIP (and TPP)'s function is to cement US hegemony... forever more.

More information:

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X

Subliminal message: British voters in the EU referendum 'told to vote for Remain in postal vote guide'

Christopher Hope
The Telegraph
Mon, 30 May 2016 02:03 UTC
UK How to Vote By Post guide
© Henry Michallat/Henry Michallat
Voters are being sent postal ballots with a guide that strongly suggests they should vote to for Britain to remain in the European Union, prompting furious complaints from anti-EU campaigners.

Voters in Bristol who have registered to vote by post have received a "how to vote by post" form as part of their voting packs which were sent out at the end of last week.

The step by step guide includes advice to "read the instructions carefully, then complete your ballot paper" above an image showing a pencil in a hand ticking a box to "remain a member of the European Union".
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Snakes in Suits

Another one bites the dust: Brazil's anti-corruption minister quits over leaked recordings

Anthony Boadle and Lisandra Paraguassu
Reuters
Tue, 31 May 2016 00:06 UTC
Fabiano Silveira
Brazil's Transparency Minister Fabiano Silveira resigned on Monday after leaked recordings suggested he tried to derail a sprawling corruption probe, the latest cabinet casualty impacting interim President Michel Temer's administration.

Silveira, the man Temer tasked with fighting corruption since he took office on May 12, announced his plans to step down in a letter, according to the presidential palace's media office. No replacement for Silveira has yet been named.

Silveira and Senate President Renan Calheiros became the latest officials ensnared by leaked recordings secretly made by a former oil industry executive as part of a plea bargain. The same tapes led to the resignation last week of Romero Jucá, whom Temer had named as planning minister.
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Arrow Down

The US and the EU support a psychopathic dictator

Brian Cloughley
Strategic Culture Org
Mon, 30 May 2016 21:45 UTC
Recep Erdogan
© Strategic Culture Org
On May 6 a court in Istanbul, acting on the orders of Turkey's President Recep Erdogan, sentenced the editor of the Cumhuriyet newspaper to five years and ten months in prison for publishing a report about illegal provision of weapons to Islamist terrorists in Syria by Turkey's secret service. His bureau chief got five years.

Two weeks later Istanbul was host to the World Humanitarian Summit, which was held "to stand up for our common humanity and take action to prevent and reduce human suffering". Attendance included 65 heads of state. It was the usual total waste of time (Oxfam called it «an expensive talking shop» and those who refused to be there included President Putin and the global medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières), but the point is that a humanitarian conference should never have been held in Turkey, which is being transformed into a dictatorship by a president who is well-described by Professor Alan Sked of the London School of Economics as "a volatile, unstable, highly authoritarian personality".

The professor went on to observe that Erdogan "has pursued a civil war in his own country and has clamped down on the opposition and social media at will. Thousands have been imprisoned for merely criticising him. He has ordered the shooting down of a Russian warplane, and his country has been accused by Russia of trafficking secretly in oil with Isis. He cannot be trusted..."

Erdogan is a bigoted thug, yet the international community rushed to his country to hold a humanitarian conference and foreign heads of state flock to press his hand in friendship. He is treated with deference around the world and there can be no public criticism of him in the many countries that have laws prohibiting disparagement of heads of state and holding defamation and insult of their leaders to be a criminal offence punishable by imprisonment.
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Attention

Syria warned Germany about Paris attackers, no one took them seriously

Manuel Bewarder, Florian Flade, Tom Winter (translator)
Die Welt / Fort Russ
Thu, 19 May 2016 19:24 UTC
assad
Note: This Die Welt write-up first presents Assad just as the US State Department, or even Senator McCain would. But there was a surprise...

The secret journeys of the BND to Damascus and the Syrian dictator are counted as illegal. Yet European intelligence services are once again seeking contact with his regime. Even the Federal Intelligence Service. Bashar Assad, our enemy and helper?

It is a dilemma. How to deal with Bashar al-Assad? An outlaw dictator who is responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people. Who massacred his his people for years with poison gas and barrel bombs. Who has forced millions of people to flee. Meanwhile his fall has become increasingly unlikely through the backup from Moscow and Tehran.

Angela Merkel (CDU) embarked a few months on a surprising new tone when she spoke about the war in Syria. "There have to be talks with many players," said the Chancellor with a view to a possible end to the crisis. "This includes Assad."
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