Puppet MastersS


Bomb

Daesh launched chemical attack on northern Iraqi town: Local official


Press TV
Sun, 08 May 2016 00:00 UTC
Takfiri fighters
© ReutersThis file photo shows members of the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group in an undisclosed location in Iraq.
Daesh terrorists have reportedly used internationally-banned chemical weapons in their recent offensive against a Shia Turkmen-populated town in Iraq's northern province of Kirkuk.

Head of the Iraqi Turkmen Front, Arshad Salihi, said in a statement on Friday that the extremists lobbed a barrage of mortar rounds, which contained chemical agents, on the town of Tuz Khurmatu, situated 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) south of oil-rich city of Kirkuk, on March 9.

Three civilians lost their lives in the attack and hundreds more suffered injuries.

"Daesh has materials to produce these kinds of prohibited weapons [...] and has also experts to produce these weapons," Salihi said.

Director General of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Ahmet Uzumcu said on Tuesday that fact-finding teams from The Hague-based watchdog have discovered evidence suggesting the use of sulphur mustard in Daesh attacks against areas in Iraq and neighboring Syria.

Comment: See also:

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Document

John Doe's manifesto: Panama papers whistleblower speaks out on income inequality & corruption


RT
Sun, 08 May 2016 12:14 UTC
whistle blower agent
© Yuriko Nakao / Reuters
The whistleblower behind the leak of the Panama Papers has spoken out in a manifesto that calls income inequality "one of the defining issues of our time" and reveals how large media organizations and Wikileaks weren't allegedly interested in the leak.

The treatise entitled "John Doe's Manifesto" was published in Süddeutsche Zeitung on Friday. It starts by dubbing income inequality as one of the "defining issues of our time," while asserting that the Panama Papers provide the answer to why inequality has increased, claiming that corruption is to blame.

John Doe accuses Mossack Fonseca of using "its influence to write and bend laws worldwide to favour the interests of criminals over a period of decades," alleging that it "actually did knowingly violate myriad laws worldwide, repeatedly." He maintains "publicly they plead ignorance, but the documents show detailed knowledge and deliberate wrongdoing."

The source denies being a spy or working for any government, explaining that he decided to share the information because he "understood enough about their contents to realize the scale of the injustices they described."


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Info

Kim Jong-un announces North Korea to 'normalize relations with hostile states,' won't launch nuke strike first


RT
Sun, 08 May 2016 12:12 UTC
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watches the ballistic rocket launch
© KCNA / Reuters
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has announced that Pyongyang will seek to normalize relations with states "hostile" towards it. Kim also claimed the North will adhere to the principles of nuclear non-proliferation and would never attack first.

While addressing the Congress of the ruling Workers' Party (WPK), Kim stated that North Korea would not resort to the use of nuclear weapons unless the country's sovereignty was challenged.

Pyongyang "will improve and normalize the relations with those countries which respect the sovereignty of the DPRK and are friendly towards it, though they had been hostile toward it in the past," official North Korean KCNA news agency quoted Kim as saying.

"As a responsible nuclear weapons state, our Republic will not use a nuclear weapon unless its sovereignty is encroached upon by any aggressive hostile forces with nukes," the statement said, as quoted by Reuters.
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Brick Wall

Russian FM spokeswoman calls for heeding Syrian government's demands


Syrian Arab News Agency
Sun, 08 May 2016 11:35 UTC
Zakharova
© Unknown
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called on Friday for heeding the demands of the legitimate government in Syria regarding closing the Turkish border and preventing the flow of terrorists into Syria.

In an interview with SANA reporter in Moscow, Zakharova said that there are steps and efforts taken to launch the peace process and to eliminate terrorists. But on the other hand, she added, this route via the Turkish border is a constant reminder that it is impossible to progress in the peaceful efforts as long as it exists.

Zakharova affirmed that there is a fierce media campaign currently waged by the West in order to retain its positions and support those forces it funded which are not interested in the political process which, if sabotaged now, will have dire consequences.

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Russia: Camp for displaced in Idleb targeted by rocket launchers used by al- Nusra

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Rocket

Russia: Camp for displaced in Idleb targeted by rocket launchers used by al-Nusra


Syrian Arab News Agency
Sun, 08 May 2016 11:25 UTC
Russian Defense ministry
© Unknown
Moscow, SANA-Russian Defense Ministry announced on Friday that the nature of the damage caused in the aftermath of a recent attack against a camp for the displaced in Idleb countryside indicates that the camp was been shelled with rocket launchers which are often used by Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist organization in the area.

In a press conference, the Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said that photos published on social media sites show that "there are no shell craters from aircraft ammunition and other traces of airstrikes."

"Judging by the nature of destruction seen on photos and videos, the camp in Idleb could have been either intentionally or by mistake struck from multiple rocket launchers, which are now often used by al-Nusra Front terrorists in the area," Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said.

Comment: See also:

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Bad Guys

The fate of modern nations: Accept American hegemony or prepare for war

Paul Craig Roberts
Sputnik
Sun, 08 May 2016 03:34 UTC
Patrik Bjukenen: SAD i NATO odbacile rusku ruku prijateljstva, danas optužuju Rusiju za odbijanje saradnje
On September 19, 2000, going on 16 years ago, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of the London Telegraph reported:
"Declassified American government documents show that the US intelligence community ran a campaign in the Fifties and Sixties to build momentum for a united Europe. It funded and directed the European federalist movement.
"The documents confirm suspicions voiced at the time that America was working aggressively behind the scenes to push Britain into a European state. One memorandum, dated July 26, 1950, gives instructions for a campaign to promote a fully fledged European parliament. It is signed by Gen. William J. Donovan, head of the American wartime Office of Strategic Services, precursor of the CIA."

The documents show that the European Union was a creature of the CIA.
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Bad Guys

Al-Nusra continues bombing Aleppo, hits district and airfield


Sputnik
Sun, 08 May 2016 03:21 UTC
Syria Aleppo
© REUTERS/ Hosam Katan/File Photo
The Russian reconciliation center reported that al-Nusra Front jihadist group has continued fighting near the Syrian city of Aleppo.

Al-Nusra Front jihadist group has continued fighting near the Syrian city of Aleppo, shelling its district and an airfield, the Russian reconciliation center said in an information bulletin on Saturday.

"Militants of Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist grouping have continued conducting warfare near Aleppo. Within last 24 hours, they have performed 2 shellings with multiple launch rocket systems against Sheikh Maqsood and al-Nairab airfield. Terrorists took efforts to launch offensive on Sheikh Maqsood from Ashrafiyah," the bulletin, posted by the Russian Defense Ministry, said.

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Chess

Putin is playing geopolitical energy chess with Netanyahu

F. William Engdahl
New Eastern Outlook
Wed, 04 May 2016 18:55 UTC
putin netanyahu
On April 21 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew to Moscow for closed door talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The media reported that the talks were over the situation in Syria, a theme where Moscow has made certain a regular hotline dialogue exists to avoid potential military clashes. It seems, however, that the two discussed quite another issue - potential Russian involvement in developing Israel's giant offshore Leviathan gas field in the Eastern Mediterranean. Were the two to strike a deal, the geopolitical implications could be enormous for Putin and Russia's strategic role in the Middle East as well as for the future of the US influence in the region.

Israeli press reported the Netanyahu-Putin talks as being about "coordination between forces in skies above war-torn country, status of Golan Heights..."

According to Russian state media reports, however, in addition, Netanyahu and Putin discussed the potential role of Russia's state-owned Gazprom, the world's largest natural gas producer and marketer, as a possible stakeholder in Israel's Leviathan natural gas field. Russian involvement in the stalled Israeli gas development would reduce financial risk for Israeli offshore gas operations and increase the gas fields' security, as Russian allies like Hezbollah in Lebanon or Iran would not dare target Russian joint ventures.

If the Russian reports are accurate, it could portend a major new step in Putin energy geopolitics in the Middle East, one which could give Washington a major defeat in her increasingly inept moves to control the world's center of oil and gas.
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Gold Seal

Obama's legacy will be his utter failure in the Middle East

Seymour M. Hersh
Harper's Magazine
Mon, 02 May 2016 18:42 UTC
obama bush
From Seymour Hersh's The Killing of Osama bin Laden, published in April by Verso Books. Read Hersh's interview about the book on Alternet.

It's now evident, fifteen years after the 9/11 attacks, that Obama's foreign policy has maintained many of the core elements of the global war on terror initiated by his predecessor—assassinations, drone attacks, heavy reliance on special forces, covert operations, and, in the case of Afghanistan, the continued use of American ground forces in combat. And, as in the years of Bush and Cheney, there has been no progress, let alone victory, in the fight against terrorism.

The Islamic State has succeeded Al Qaeda as the United States' most feared terrorist enemy, one that now reaches deep into Africa and sends shockwaves into Western Europe and America. Obama still views Russia, a nation with the same international terrorist enemies as Washington, as an evil empire that must be confronted rather than as an ally.

Since 9/11 I have had access to some of the thinking inside the White House on the war on terror. I learned early in the Obama presidency that he was prepared to walk away from first principles. His first public act as president took place on January 22, 2009, two days after his inauguration, when he announced that he was returning the nation to the "moral high ground" by signing an executive order calling for the closing, "as soon as practical," of Guantánamo. As of this writing, that has yet to happen, and more than ninety prisoners continue to fester there, with no due process and no accountability, to America's shame.[Ed. note: The number of Guantánamo detainees has since fallen to eighty.]
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Arrow Up

Noam Chomsky predicted the rise of Trump six years ago

Jake Johnson
Common Dreams
Fri, 06 May 2016 17:31 UTC
Donald Trump
© Michael Vadon/flickr/cc
In an interview with Chris Hedges in 2010, Noam Chomsky, the world-renowned linguist and dissident intellectual, remarked that he has "never seen anything like this."

By this, he meant the state of American society, relative to the time in which he was raised — the Depression years — and to the tumultuous state of Europe during that same period.

"It is very similar to late Weimar Germany," Chomsky said. "The parallels are striking. There was also tremendous disillusionment with the parliamentary system. The most striking fact about Weimar was not that the Nazis managed to destroy the Social Democrats and the Communists but that the traditional parties, the Conservative and Liberal parties, were hated and disappeared. It left a vacuum which the Nazis very cleverly and intelligently managed to take over."

Comment: Adolf Hitler had the effect of rallying large numbers of the population who were disillusioned and previously uninterested in politics. This is precisely where Donald Trump is having the biggest impact in his campaign. Depending on what kind of puppet the real controllers of America want in the White House, Trump's election would be perfectly plausible.

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