Puppet MastersS


Red Flag

FM Lavrov: US troops integral to toppling Syrian govt.


Press TV
Fri, 29 Apr 2016 05:55 UTC
Mr. Lavrov
© AFPMr. Lavrov: A voice of truth, transparency and reason.
Russia says the US military intervention in Syria is illegal, ultimately aimed at toppling the government of President Bashar al-Assad. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has told Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter that the intervention without the authorization of the "legitimate" Syrian authorities was a "big mistake."

"I've told our American partners repeatedly that this is a big mistake. Just like they received approval from the Iraqi government, they should have obtained approval from Damascus or come to the UN Security Council," he said. "The fact that they went there illegally reflects, firstly, the arrogant stance that Syrian President Assad heads an illegitimate regime," Lavrov said in remarks published on Thursday. "And, secondly, in my opinion, the desire to keep their hands untied and be able to use the coalition to attack not only terrorist positions, but perhaps also the regime's forces later on in order to overthrow it, as it happened in Libya." Lavrov said Russia is "the only country engaged in anti-terrorism activities in Syria legally." Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov also said Friday that the deployment of US special forces to Syria without coordination with Damascus violates Syria's sovereignty.

Since September 2014, the US and some of its allies have been carrying out airstrikes against purported Daesh positions inside Syria. The Syrian government has charged that the airstrikes had targeted the country's infrastructure in many instances and done little to stop the advances of terrorists.

Comment: It was never really specified what 250 more US special forces troops to Syria were actually going to do there in addition to the 50 in residence. "Training," they say. Training whom for what? What can 300 "trainers" do that 50 can't?

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Document

Secret TTIP document leak: A farewell to European Union farmers & the approval of GMO food

War on Want
Global Research
Sun, 01 May 2016 21:18 UTC
TTIP leaks
© green.trendolizer.com
The massive leak of secret TTIP negotiating papers due out tomorrow (2 May) will reveal the true extent of the danger posed by the controversial EU-US deal, and early signs are that it will be even worse than already suspected. For the first time, we will be able to see in black and white exactly what the US negotiators are demanding of the EU, and what the European Commission is prepared to sacrifice in order to seal the deal. Here is a sneak preview of just three sections made available this evening - the texts in italics are from the leaked papers.

Comment: Greenpeace has released secret TTIP negotiation documents. They have done so to provide much needed transparency and trigger an informed debate on the treaty. You can download all the documents, as a whole and per chapter.
This treaty is threatening to have far reaching implications for the environment and the lives of more than 800 million citizens in the EU and US. Whether you care about environmental issues, animal welfare, labour rights or internet privacy, you should be concerned about what is in these leaked documents. They underline the strong objections civil society and millions of people around the world have voiced: TTIP is about a huge transfer of power from people to big business.


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Snakes in Suits

Sliding to dictatorship: Erdogan party strips power from Davutoglu


Sputnik
Mon, 02 May 2016 21:13 UTC
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
© AFP 2016/ TURKISH PRESIDENTIAL PRESS OFFICE / KAYHAN OZER
In the latest sign of Turkey's slide toward dictatorship, the ruling AK Party has taken steps to remove power from Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and to consolidate authority behind embattled President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

In recent weeks, the Turkish parliament has taken aggressive steps toward abandoning the country's secular constitution. If achieved, this would cement broader powers for an increasingly authoritarian Erdogan government.

"...The main speaker of parliament, from AKP, declared that in the new constitution, we don't need the principle of secularism and there should be, somehow, Islam inside the constitution," Turkish journalist Kemal Okuyan told Radio Sputnik's Loud & Clear last week.

"He declared their intention is to change Turkey into an Islamic state."
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Stormtrooper

Venezuela's US-backed opposition is collecting signatures for impeachment vote against Maduro


Sputnik
Mon, 02 May 2016 21:02 UTC
President Nicolas Maduro
© REUTERS/ Carlos Garcia Rawlins
Venezuela's opposition has submitted to the country's authorities a petition with signatures of 1.85 million nationals, almost 10 times more than required, in a bid to hold a referendum to remove President Nicolas Maduro from office, the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) opposition umbrella group said Monday.

In mid-March, the MUD coalition, which control's the country's parliament, approved the first reading of a draft law on holding a recall referendum to oust Maduro.

"We hand over to the CNE [Venezuela's National Electoral Council] 80 boxes each with 2,500 sheets for a total of 200,000 forms containing 1.85 million signatures," MUD Secretary-General Jesus Torrealba wrote on his official Twitter account.

Comment: This comes as no surprise - the 'Democratic Unity Roundtable' is a US-backed group.

'Impeachment', or 'negating the democratic vote', worked so well in Brazil, so why not try it elsewhere?

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People 2

ISIS creates army of orphans, children vow revenge


RT
Sun, 01 May 2016 01:07 UTC
orphan army
© www.rt.comThe Syrian war...on the shoulders of children. Are we proud of this?
Numerous orphans who lost their parents due to foreign anti-terror intervention in Syria are becoming thirsty for revenge, a new ISIS propaganda video claims, showing a squad of well-equipped child soldiers preparing for battle.

The footage created by the jihadist group's media arm, Alhayat Center, starts off with a child walking across the ruins of a city destroyed during the Syrian conflict. Amid the scenes of destruction, the faces of Western leaders and politicians blend in with carefully drafted propaganda messages, accompanied by the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) nasheed tune sung in French.

The terror group vowed payback for the "massacre" perpetrated by the West against the self-proclaimed caliphate in the name of "so-called precious freedoms," the inserts read, reassuring followers that the extremist organization has enough means by which to defend their cause.

US President Barack Obama, Russian and French leaders Vladimir Putin and François Hollande, alongside Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad are shown in the video that vows vengeance. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his counterpart John Kerry are also seen in the footage, as examples of those who had committed crimes against ISIS.


Comment: The ISIS orphan propaganda film is here. The one above tells the story of recruiting orphans and "bought" children brainwashed to accept and integrate ISIS behavior or suffer mutilation. Children are indoctrinated by means of ingraining terror and masking trauma disguised as empowerment, sabotaging normal childhood development, learning to commit atrocities without guilt or conscience and being lead down a path from which they can never return...just like ISIS and those who created them. This legacy in a new generation ensures terrorism for decades to come. This is pure evil and ultimately whom do we have to thank for it?

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Sheriff

Canadian government calls for release of Ukrainian neo-fascist convicted of murdering two Russian journalists


Russian Congress of Canada
Fri, 29 Apr 2016 00:00 UTC
Nadezhda Savchenko
© Unknown
Stephane Dion, Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs, issued a statement on March 8 in which he called on Russia to immediately release from custody, the Ukrainian citizen arrested in the summer of 2014 in the midst of armed hostilities in Donbass. On March 22nd, a Russian court found Savchenko guilty of murder for the killing of two Russian citizens, both of whom were journalists, and one an ethnic Ukrainian. Savchenko was also found guilty of illegally crossing the border into the Russian Federation and of attempting to murder civilians. She was sentenced to a fine and to 22 years imprisonment. The verdict is already in force since Savchenko refused to appeal.

At the insistence of the Ukrainian lobby, some parliamentarians have, in the Canadian Parliament, repeatedly pressured the Cabinet of Prime Minister Trudeau with the subject of Savchenko (e.g., conservative MP James Bezan's oral question). On April 19th, 2016, the MP for Etobicoke Center, ON Borys Wrzesnewskyj, made yet another statement in Parliament in support of Savchenko. In this regard, we would like to highlight the details of the so-called "Savchenko case", which some parliamentarians call for the Canadian authorities to defend.

Comment: The Canadian government, together with the Ukrainian lobby in Canada, has vilified the Russian state and its government at every opportunity. Dancing to NATO's tune, funding Ukrainian neo-fascists is another speciality of the Canadian government. Their call for the pardon of Savchenko reveals their hand in supporting the West's 'strategy of tension' as it's being applied in Ukraine (or against Russia, depending on your perspective).

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Bomb

Death from the Sky: Searching for the truth about Kunduz (excerpts)

May Jeong
The Intercept
Thu, 28 Apr 2016 18:26 UTC
kunduz
© Andrew Quilty/OculiThe destroyed operating room of the MSF hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, Oct. 10, 2015.

Comment: For the whole article, go to The Intercept. As Jeong shows in her article, getting to the absolute documented truth about what happened is probably impossible. What is perfectly clear, however, is that the U.S. butchered 42 people in a hospital, and that their military actions in Afghanistan demonstrate that they don't really care when and if that happens.


When the Taliban overran Kunduz last September after a monthlong siege, the northern Afghan city became the first to fall to the insurgency since the war began in 2001. A week earlier, many Kunduz residents had left town to observe Eid al-Adha, the sacrificial feast honoring Abraham's act of submission to God. The heavy fighting sent the remaining Kunduzis fleeing as dead bodies littered the streets.

On Friday, October 2, the city lay quiet, with just one building lit up against the dark sky. Most other international organizations had evacuated when the fighting began, but the Kunduz Trauma Center run by Médecins Sans Frontières remained open throughout the battle for the city. It was one of the few buildings with a generator. Throughout the week, violence seemed to lap against the walls of the hospital without ever engulfing it. All around the 35,620-square-meter compound, the site of an old cotton factory, fighting ebbed and flowed. Doctors and nurses marked the intensity of battle by the freshly wounded who arrived at the gate. According to MSF, the hospital treated 376 emergency patients between September 28, when the city fell, and October 2.
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Pirates

Hoisted by his own petard: Kerry forced to 'negotiate' with allies to stop intermingling with al-Qaeda in Syria


Moon of Alabama
Mon, 02 May 2016 18:01 UTC
John Kerry

Comment: This is rich. Piece by piece the American propaganda and war machine is falling apart at the seams. Did Kerry and his band of village idiots really think they could not-so-covertly support Nusra (al-Qaeda in Syria), publicly vow to fight Nusra, then try to get away with saving their Nusrats from total obliteration by Syria/Russia/Iran/Hezbollah?!

It's quite satisfying to see the Americans hamstrung by their own propaganda. They are forced to choose between two unpalatable options: 1) admit their ongoing support for the very enemy they've professed to be at war with for over 15 years, 2) allow and even participate in the destruction of their very own proxy army of jihadi mercenaries in Syria. They should've seen it coming, but wishful thinking will get you every time.


U.S. Secretary of State is in Geneva today to renegotiate a cessation of hostilities between the Syrian government forces and the foreign-supported "rebels" in Syria. But there is something very curious going on with these negotiations. Kerry will neither talk with the Syrian government nor with the Russians. The Russian Foreign Minister is not even expected to come.

No, Kerry is negotiating with the U.S. allies Jordan and Saudi Arabia who support the same "rebels" that are opposed to the Syrian government that the U.S. itself supported all along. He now asks them to separate their proxy forces in Syria from the terrorist organization al-Qaeda/Jabhat al-Nusra.
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Eye 1

Mass surveillance breeds meekness, fear and self-censorship - Oxford study

Glenn Greenwald
The Intercept
Thu, 28 Apr 2016 15:28 UTC
world surveillance
A newly published study from Oxford's Jon Penney provides empirical evidence for a key argument long made by privacy advocates: that the mere existence of a surveillance state breeds fear and conformity and stifles free expression. Reporting on the study, the Washington Post this morning described this phenomenon: "If we think that authorities are watching our online actions, we might stop visiting certain websites or not say certain things just to avoid seeming suspicious."

The new study documents how, in the wake of the 2013 Snowden revelations (of which 87% of Americans were aware), there was "a 20 percent decline in page views on Wikipedia articles related to terrorism, including those that mentioned 'al-Qaeda,' "car bomb' or 'Taliban.'" People were afraid to read articles about those topics because of fear that doing so would bring them under a cloud of suspicion. The dangers of that dynamic were expressed well by Penney: "If people are spooked or deterred from learning about important policy matters like terrorism and national security, this is a real threat to proper democratic debate."

As the Post explains, several other studies have also demonstrated how mass surveillance crushes free expression and free thought. A 2015 study examined Google search data and demonstrated that, post-Snowden, "users were less likely to search using search terms that they believed might get them in trouble with the US government" and that these "results suggest that there is a chilling effect on search behavior from government surveillance on the Internet."

Comment: GG wrote above:
"...Oxford's Jon Penney provides empirical evidence for a key argument long made by privacy advocates: that the mere existence of a surveillance state breeds fear and conformity and stifles free expression."
That's not quite what the evidence shows, Glenn. What it shows is that MASS AWARENESS OF the existence of a surveillance state breeds fear and conformity and stifles free expression.

Small but crucial difference.

This awareness only came about when you and your buddies were roped into that 'NSA Leaks' stunt in 2013.

Think about it Glenn... They used you:

Mission Accomplished? Snowden 'NSA Leak' had 'chilling effect' that scared people away from learning truth about terrorism

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Propaganda

US media stirs the pot on Russia-US conflict which primes the public for NATO buildup in Baltic region


Sputnik
Mon, 02 May 2016 15:19 UTC
Russian jets
© Russian Defense Ministry
Media reports magnifying incidents with Russian and US military planes come amid news that NATO will deploy additional forces near the Russian border, a senior Russian lawmaker said Saturday. Earlier in the day, US media reported that NATO member states were preparing to deploy about 4,000 troops - four battalions — in the Baltic states and Poland as part of the Alliance's strategy of military buildup on the Russian border.

"Now it becomes completely clear why the United States needed a hype around the interception of a US spy plane over the Baltic Sea and the incident with the Donald Cook destroyer. This was information preparing for the additional placement of four battalions of NATO in the Baltic region," Franz Klintsevich, the first deputy chair of the upper-house Committee on Security and Defense, told RIA Novosti.

On April 13, the United States expressed concern after Russian Su-24 tactical bombers flew over the US guided missile destroyer Donald Cook in the Baltic Sea. On Friday, US media reported that a Russian Su-27 jet performed a "barrel-roll" over a US Air Force RC-135 reconnaissance plane in the Baltic Sea.

Comment: It appears the reports of Russian-US conflict have been greatly exaggerated for a particular and insidious purpose. The US has no business in the Baltic region and its hegemonic interests are unwelcome.

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