Puppet MastersS


Attention

Philippine security forces kill 54 Islamist militants in the south

Manuel Mogato
Reuters
Mon, 30 May 2016 14:09 UTC
Map of Jemaah Islamiyah operations
Philippine security forces killed 54 Islamist militants linked to the Jemaah Islamiyah group in a week-long air and ground offensive in the country's south, an army spokesman said on Monday. The fighting took place near the stronghold of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which signed a peace deal with the government in 2014 to end 45 years of conflict that killed 120,000 people and stunted growth in the resource-rich areas.

Major Filemon Tan said two soldiers were killed and nine wounded after air force planes dropped bombs on the militants' positions and ground troops pounded them with artillery fire, in the town of Butig in Lanao del Sur, from Tuesday.

"The artillery fire did more damage than the bombs," Tan added. "Our troops saw the enemies fall and, based on estimates, we killed 54. They beheaded two sawmill workers and toppled a power line in the area."

The fighting has displaced about 2,000 people from five villages in Butig, regional officials said.
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Network

Investing in information warfare to counter Western influence is no longer "optional"

Ulson Gunnar
New Eastern Outlook
Sun, 29 May 2016 15:34 UTC
mainstream news, MSM
Nations without information warfare capabilities in the 21st century are like nations without armies and navies in the 20th century. They are defenseless.

Imagine a nation without an army, a navy or an air force. What would its prospects be of defending itself against even moderate aggression? What if it had an army, even a formidable one, but was missing an air force and/or navy? Would its chances be any better?

Before the invention of human flight, war was fought in two dimensions by armies and navies upon the surface of the planet. With the introduction of aircraft to warfare, a new dimension was added. Nations that fell behind the curve building and rebuilding their air forces would find themselves consistently at a disadvantage. Those nations that stayed ahead of the curve would cite air power as key to their victories throughout recent history.
Today, undoubtedly, information warfare is no longer a novelty. It has been honed into a weapon of devastating effect able to confuse, divide and destroy nations in a dimension conventional warfare often cannot even reach.

The use of the Internet and information warfare soared to new heights during the Arab Spring. Hardly the spontaneous uprising it was portrayed as across the Western media, for years beforehand the US State Department together with tech-giants Google and Facebook prepared armies of information warriors to disrupt, divide, confuse and take over the information space in the respective nations the US targeted for regime change in 2011.

Like an air force entering undefended airspace, the US State Department's information warfare capabilities met little resistance and quickly overwhelmed and assumed control over information space in Libya, Egypt, Tunisia and Syria. Only Syria and Egypt's immense conventional military and political power prevented tragedies like that which unfolded in Libya from repeating itself elsewhere. However, it cannot be denied that across the region, information warfare was neglected and unnecessary leverage was conceded to the US amid a much larger theater of conflict.

Comment: See also:

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Vader

The Empire of Chaos: Target Russia, target China, target Iran

Pepe Escobar
Strategic Culture Foundation
Sat, 28 May 2016 12:31 UTC
Putin Xi Russia China Iran
Not a day goes by without US Think Tankland doing what it does best; pushing all sorts of scenarios for cold - and hot - war with Russia, plus myriad confrontations with China and Iran.

That fits into the Pentagon's Top Five existential threats to the US, where Russia and China sit at the very top and Iran is in fourth place - all ahead of "terrorism" of the phony Daesh "Caliphate" variety.

Here I have come up with some concise realpolitik facts to counterpunch the hysteria - stressing how the Russian hypersonic missile advantage renders useless the whole construct of NATO's paranoid rhetoric and bluster.

The US Aegis defense system has been transferred from ships to land. The Patriot missile defense system is worthless. Aegis is about 30% better than the THAAD system; it may be more effective but their range is also limited.

Aegis is not a threat at all to Russia - for now. Yet as the system is upgraded - and that may take years - it could cause Russia some serious concern, as Exceptionalistan is increasingly pushing them eastward, so near to Russia's borders.
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Bad Guys

Donbass law enforcement reports Kiev's shelling caused fire at DPR plant


TASS
Mon, 30 May 2016 11:25 UTC
Donbass fighter
© Mikhail Sokolov/TASS
Ukrainian forces' shelling attack has caused a fire at a plant in Dokuchayevsk, located 20 km south of Donetsk, a source in law enforcement agencies of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) told the Donetsk News Agency on Monday.

"Storage tanks in the territory of a stone dust plant caught fire as a result of the night shelling of Dokuchayevsk," the source said, without specifying information about possible casualties.

The DPR Defense Ministry reported earlier that the Ukrainian security forces opened fire on Dokuchayevsk on the night to May 30 using heavy artillery. In addition, 230 shells were fired from mortars by the Ukrainian side overnight on the DPR areas are adjacent to the contact line.

Comment: Further reading: Declassified CIA docs: U.S. has been supporting Ukrainian neo-Nazis for over 60 years

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Bad Guys

Plan B in Syria: Why the US is unwilling to free Raqqa with Russia's Help


Sputnik
Mon, 30 May 2016 11:30 UTC
sdf raqqa
Driving Daesh out of Raqqa has long been viewed as the key step needed to destroy the brutal group and its terror caliphate, yet the US has not been eager to accept Russia's offer to help with the upcoming offensive. Washington's stance raises questions as to what its true goals in Syria are, Analysts Michael Hughes and Patrick Henningsen asserted.

"I think [the Americans] made a commitment to not coordinate with the Russians militarily because it is politically not feasible for them," Michael Hughes told RT. "The US certainly isn't eager to cooperate. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov put that offer out there and it just seems logical for them to run with that if [Daesh] was truly their priority. And that's the question."

Patrick Henningsen shared this sentiment, saying that the US could indeed have an ulterior motive in Syria and this is why it does not want Russia or Damascus to assist with the operation.

"The US seems to be very intent on controlling the outcome of what happens in Raqqa in building the 'Arab militia forces' or 'friendly Arab forces' on the ground, but all the while completely ignoring the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and the government forces," he said.

Comment: Further reading: Pepe Escobar: Beware what you wish for because Russia is ready for war

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Snakes in Suits

Is Hillary going to be indicted on federal racketeering charges?

Frank Huguenard (Facebook)
Global Research
Mon, 30 May 2016 08:42 UTC
hillary in orange

This article was first published by The Huffington Post. The author of the article is distinguished film producer Frank Huguenard

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hillary-clinton-to-be-indicted-on-federal-racketeering_us_574af94be4b0009f3d848d20

Since its posting on the Huffington Post, the article has been removed. The above link leads to an error message.The text below is the original post, which appears on Frank Huguenard's Facebook page.

The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) is a United States Federal Law passed in 1970 that was designed to provide a tool for law enforcement agencies to fight organized crime. RICO allows prosecution and punishment for alleged racketeering activity that has been executed as part of an ongoing criminal enterprise.

Activity considered to be racketeering may include bribery, counterfeiting, money laundering, embezzlement, illegal gambling, kidnapping, murder, drug trafficking, slavery, and a host of other nefarious business practices.

James Comey and The FBI will present a recommendation to Loretta Lynch, Attorney General of the Department of Justice, that includes a cogent argument that the Clinton Foundation is an ongoing criminal enterprise engaged in money laundering and soliciting bribes in exchange for political, policy and legislative favors to individuals, corporations and even governments both foreign and domestic.

Comment: The most interesting thing about this is the question: why are they going for her? Hillary has seemed to be the establishment favourite since this campaign started and the FBI, being very much part of the establishment, would not go after 'one of their own' without good reason.

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Star of David

Support grows for BDS campaign as several European governments state it is a "legitimate viewpoint"


Sputnik
Sun, 29 May 2016 04:17 UTC
ireland palestine solidarity
© REUTERS/ Cathal McNaughtonIrish Solidarity with Palestine
Ireland is the latest of several European countries to give legitimacy to the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel's treatment of Palestinians.

"While the Government does not itself support such a policy, it is a legitimate political viewpoint," said Charles Flanagan, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade of the small island nation, in parliament on Thursday.

"I do not agree with attempts to demonise those who advocate this policy or to equate them with violent terrorists. I am not aware of any credible allegation that the individual in question has had any involvement in violence," he continued.

Comment: The BDS movement's time is coming. Israel is finding it more and more difficult to hide its crimes against humanity.

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Eye 2

Enemies? Saudi Arabia is building an embassy in Israel


Voltaire
Mon, 30 May 2016 04:04 UTC
Israel saudi arabia flags
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has begun the construction of a gigantic embassy in Israel, probably the most important in Tel-Aviv.

Officially, the two states do not maintain diplomatic relations because of the expulsion by Israel of the majority of its Palestinian population in 1948 (al-Nakba).

However, the Quincy Pact, signed between President Roosevelt and King Abdelaziz in 1945, and renewed by President Bush and King Fahd in 2005, stipulates amongst other things that the Kingdom would not oppose the Jewish homeland in Palestine (future state of Israel) [1].

It was not the United States, but King Abdallah who financed the Israeli operation Cast Lead against the Gaza Strip in 2008-09 [2]. This rapprochement put an end to the "Periphery doctrine" according to which Tel-Aviv sought to unify the non-Arab actors in the region (Iran, Turkey, Ethiopia) against the Arab countries.

Comment: Psychopaths have a way of finding each other and forming alliances of convenience. It will last until there is a greater gain in breaking it. Either way common people suffer.

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Red Flag

SOTT Focus: Putin gives grave warning to Romania and Poland against installing NATO's ABM missiles, "no one is listening"

Eric Zuesse
Sott.net
Sun, 29 May 2016 00:00 UTC
BMD Romania
On Friday, May 27th, Russia's President Vladimir Putin again said that American President Barack Obama lies when saying that the reason America's anti-ballistic missile ("ABM") or Ballistic Missile Defense ("BMD") system is being installed in Romania, and will soon be installed in Poland, is to protect Europe from Iranian missiles that don't even exist and that Obama himself says won't exist because of Obama's deal with Iran. Putin is saying: I know that you are lying there, not being honest. You're aiming to disable our retaliatory capacity here, not Iran's. I'm not so dumb as to believe so transparent a lie as your assurances that this is about Iran, not about Russia.

Putin says that ABMs such as America is installing, disable a country's (in this case, Russia's) ability to retaliate against a blitz invasion — something increasingly likely from NATO now as NATO has extended right up to Russia's very borders — and that Russia will not allow this disabling of Russia's retaliatory forces.

He said that "NATO fends us off with vague statements that this is no threat to Russia ... that the whole project began as a preventive measure against Iran's nuclear program. Where is that program now? It doesn't exist. ... We have been saying since the early 2000s that we will have to react somehow to your moves to undermine international security. No one is listening to us."

In other words, he is saying that the West is ignoring Russia's words, and that therefore Russia will, if this continues, respond by eliminating the ABM sites before they become fully operational. To do otherwise than to eliminate any fully operational ABM system on or near Russia's borders would be to leave the Russian people vulnerable to a blitz attack by NATO, and this will not be permitted.
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Heart - Black

Flashback Whom will we honor Memorial Day?

Howard Zinn
Boston Globe
Wed, 02 Jun 1976 00:40 UTC

Comment: "Memorial Day will be celebrated ... by the usual betrayal of the dead, by the hypocritical patriotism of the politicians and contractors preparing for more wars, more graves to receive more flowers on future Memorial Days. The memory of the dead deserves a different dedication. To peace, to defiance of governments.

In 1974, I was invited by Tom Winship, the editor of the Boston Globe, who had been bold enough in 1971 to print part of the top secret Pentagon Papers on the history of the Vietnam War, to write a bi-weekly column for the op-ed page of the newspaper. I did that for about a year and a half. The column below appeared June 2, 1976, in connection with that year's Memorial Day. After it appeared, my column was canceled." -- Howard Zinn


CIA-backed South Vietnamese forces follow after terrified children, including 9-year-old Kim Phuc, center, as they run down Route 1 near Trang Bang after an aerial napalm attack on suspected Viet Cong hiding places on June 8, 1972
CIA-backed South Vietnamese forces follow after terrified children, including 9-year-old Kim Phuc, center, as they run down Route 1 near Trang Bang after an aerial napalm attack on suspected Viet Cong hiding places on June 8, 1972.
Memorial Day will be celebrated as usual, by high-speed collisions of automobiles and bodies strewn on highways and the sound of ambulance sirens throughout the land.

It will also be celebrated by the display of flags, the sound of bugles and drums, by parades and speeches and unthinking applause.

It will be celebrated by giant corporations, which make guns, bombs, fighter planes, aircraft carriers and an endless assortment of military junk and which await the $100 billion in contracts to be approved soon by Congress and the President.

There was a young woman in New Hampshire who refused to allow her husband, killed in Vietnam, to be given a military burial. She rejected the hollow ceremony ordered by those who sent him and 50,000 others to their deaths. Her courage should be cherished on Memorial Day. There were the B52 pilots who refused to fly those last vicious raids of Nixon's and Kissinger's war. Have any of the great universities, so quick to give honorary degrees to God-knows-whom, thought to honor those men at this Commencement time, on this Memorial Day?

U.S. Army helicopters pour machine gun fire into tree line to cover the advance of South Vietnamese ground troops in an attack on a Viet Cong camp near the Cambodian border, in March 1965 during the Vietnam War.
© AP/Horst FaasU.S. Army helicopters pour machine gun fire into tree line to cover the advance of South Vietnamese ground troops in an attack on a Viet Cong camp near the Cambodian border, in March 1965 during the Vietnam War.

Comment: Not much has truly changed since 1976, except that the west's quest for war, genocide, all-around destruction, and imperialism has become much more overt and deadly.

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