Puppet MastersS

War Whore

Ukraine Army commander claims to be under pressure to use heavy caliber artillery in Donbass

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© AP Photo/ Efrem Lukatsky
According to the Ukrainian Armed Forces commander for Dzerzhynsk, commanders were under increasing pressure from personnel to bring forward heavy caliber artillery systems because the Donetsk People's Republic was using such systems.

Ukrainian frontline personnel insist on bringing forward heavy-caliber artillery systems in Donbass, the Ukrainian Armed Forces commander for government-controlled Dzerzhynsk told representatives of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM).

"He added that Ukrainian Armed Forces commanders were under increasing pressure from frontline personnel to bring forward heavy caliber artillery systems because the Donetsk People's Republic was using such systems with impunity," according to a report to the SMM published on May 25.

According to the commander, Ukrainian servicemen claim that fighters of the self-proclaimed DPR are using such weaponry.


Comment: Where is the proof the the fighters of the DPR are using such weaponry?


Eye 2

Ukraine army shelling in Donbass kills 3 civilians, including 11-year-old, news agency reports

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© RIA Novosti/Irina Gerashchenko
Three civilians, including a child, have reportedly been killed in eastern Ukraine after a shell fired by the Ukrainian military hit a residential area.

Three people, including an 11-year old girl, her father and one more civilian have died in the town of Gorlovka, the Donetsk news agency reported, citing senior rebel commander Eduard Basurin. Four more people have been injured, including one serviceman, Basurin said.

According to recent estimates by the UN human rights office, over 6,000 people have been killed and over 15,000 wounded in eastern Ukraine during a year of fighting. However, the real numbers could be much higher. At least one civilian was killed in Donetsk a week ago, after an army shell hit an apartment building amid intense fire on rebel positions.

Last week, the Ukrainian parliament approved a regulation that removed the obligation to protect certain human rights in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. Kiev says "anti-terrorist operations" in the area override their obligations in this regard.

The shelling comes amid a fragile ceasefire between Kiev and the Donbass rebels agreed in Minsk in February. Despite the agreements reached by the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany, then called the "last chance" to bring peace to Ukraine, violence in the region has continued.

Red Flag

Yeah right! Neocon think tank blames Snowden leaks for damaging spy agencies and aiding terrorists

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© Reuters / Mark Blinch
Edward Snowden's intelligence leaks damaged the security services' war on terror, crippled spy agencies, aided terrorists and failed to reveal evidence of mass surveillance, according to a radical neoconservative think-tank.

In a "major study," the Henry Jackson Society argues that far from informing the world's citizenry about the excesses of military and intelligence agencies, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden caused massive damage to the institutions charged with security.

Among the charges levied against Snowden, it is claimed several Al Qaeda-linked groups altered their security procedures, codes became harder to crack and technology firms became less willing to cooperate with spy agencies as a result of the leaks.

The report, 'Surveillance After Snowden', argues claims of the "mass surveillance of ordinary citizens or brazenly looking at their emails" are simply untrue.

Report author Robin Simcox argues that the relationship between public and agencies need to be reengineered to ensure a "greater societal acceptance" of spies work.


Comment: This "report" is just another propaganda piece against anyone who might consider blowing a whistle on the U.S.-led efforts to terrorize the world and continue with its surveillance state tactics unabated. It also attempts to change the narrative surrounding the Snowden leaks, mainly that Snowden exposed mass illegal surveillance on Americans via spy agencies. No matter how much these paid lobbyists try to lie their way through a report, it should be clear to anyone paying attention that the U.S. government is illegally infringing on Americans' right to privacy and that their actions have very little to do with terrorism. If the neocons want to blame someone for aiding terrorists, they should look into a mirror.


Snakes in Suits

Newly elected Polish president Duda is pro-Kiev but antagonistic towards EU

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© Reuters/Kacper PempelAndrzej Duda, Poland's president elect
Youthful energy and rhetoric for change have seen Andrzej Duda transformed from a virtual unknown to the rising star of Eastern European politics - but his presidency could set Poland against Russia and the EU.

On Sunday, 51.6 percent of the electorate cast their votes for Duda to replace the centrist incumbent Bronislaw Komorowski, with a turnout of 55.4 percent, according to the official results. Exit polls showed that over 60 percent of rural voters supported Duda, but only about 40 percent of those live in cities.

Like the last president from the Law and Justice party and Duda's idol, the late Lech Kaczynski, who held the office from 2005 to 2010, the new Polish leader won by appealing to voters from the traditional heartlands - Catholics, social conservatives, farmers, and those left behind by Poland's superficially stellar economic performance in the last decade.

His promises have been wildly populist: Duda said he would lower the retirement age, which rose to 67 in 2012, raise income tax brackets, and force banks to turn lucrative Swiss franc mortgages into manageable Polish zloty ones, costing them billions of dollars in profit.

Duda's critics have dismissed his proposals as contradictory, unfeasible, and even illegal. Indeed, as president he does not have the power to ride roughshod over prime ministerEwa Kopacz and parliament, which is dominated by her centrist Civic Platform party, at least until autumn's parliamentary election. His actual responsibilities for now will be mainly vetoing unacceptable legislation, and representing Poland at international meetings.

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© Reuters/Pawel KopczynskiAndrzej Duda (centre L), presidential candidate of the Law and Justice Party (PiS), poses for a picture with passerbys outside a subway station in central Warsaw, Poland May 25, 2015.

Comment: Like any newly elected politician, one has to take what they say during an election with a grain of salt. It will be his actions in office that will really show who he's beholden to.


Bad Guys

The potential powder keg of Transnistria

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© UnknownTransnistria is a potential powder keg
It's really deplorable how, over the last decades, we've all had to become students in a kind of "military geography", remembering the names of regions and provinces, of cities, towns, and villages because those have become a war zone, a battlefield, an area of instability, etc. Was it Mark Twain who said that "God created war so that Americans would learn geography"? Or is it, rather, the Devil that's giving us all those unwanted lessons?

A new international conflict seems to be brewing. Now it's Transnistria, a strip of land and a state, the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (Pridnestrovie), located to the East of the Dniester River, where it borders Ukraine. In 1990 the region declared its independence and broke away from Moldova, thereby getting tightly wedged between Moldova and Ukraine. To maintain peace and security in the area, a joint military command structure and a tri-lateral peacekeeping force, comprised of Russian, Moldovan, and Transnistrian units, were established in 1992, with 10 Ukrainian observers joining in 1998. Ukraine was also a party to a number of negotiating formats over Transnistria, including the latest one of 2006.

So far so good, but a few days ago Kiev scrapped its 1995 agreement with Russia on military transit to Transnistria via Ukraine. With Moldova not obliging too, what this means is that the Russian peacekeeping units are kind of trapped there. Time will show whether it's a "no in/no out" situation or a compromise is still possible, but the development seems to be extremely dangerous. To understand why this is so, here is a bit of history.

Comment: The citizens of Transnistria are no doubt aware of what has happened in Ukraine, where Washington has had its fingers in an ethnic cleansing. From the article, Moldova the next clash between the West and Russia? :
The problem is that Transnistria does not want to go along with Moldova's vision of the future.

Instead, it has expressed its desire to politically and economically integrate with Russia, and over 1000 Russian peacekeepers are currently stationed there.

Its Russian-speaking and Russian-friendly population fears cultural and ethnic cleansing if Moldova moves closer to the West, since nationalists have been agitating for supposed 'reunification' with cultural cousin Romania.



Bad Guys

Transnistria asks Putin for protection from external threats

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© Flickr/ Minamie's Photo

The representatives of 66 public organizations in the breakaway Transnistrian Moldovan Republic (TMR) decided at a Monday meeting to prepare an appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin asking him to protect the people of Transnistria if any external threat emerge.


The meeting participants decided to add to the text of the appeal before June 1 and then send it to Transnistria's President Yevgeny Shevchuk for him to hand it to Vladimir Putin.

"We would like to appeal to Vladimir Putin so that in case of an emergence of some threat to Transnistria he, being a guarantor of peace on the territory of Transnistria ... would take all the measures needed: political, diplomatic, economic, sanctional, and, of course, in case of a threat, other measures as well," the head of the National Union of Women of Transnistria, Tatyana Dolishnyaya said.

Comment: Transnistria's declaration of independence, and the Transnistria War of 1992, has left the area in a "frozen conflict" easily capable of being exploited by the West. Check out:


Eye 1

Hypocrite! 'US not engaged in major war': Obama Memorial Day remark slammed

Obama at memorial day service
© Reuters / Jonathan ErnstUS President Barack Obama bows his head after placing a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier during the Memorial Day observance at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia May 25, 2015
Barack Obama has made a speech, saying that this Memorial Day is the first in 14 years without major US war. Critics and social media users slammed him as hypocritical, saying the US remains involved in military conflicts and proxy wars.

"Today is the first Memorial Day in 14 years that the United States is not engaged in a major ground war," Obama said on Memorial Day, a US holiday for remembering those who died while serving in the country's armed forces.

He added that this Memorial Day is the first "since our war in Afghanistan came to an end," but admitted that about 10,000 US troops remain on a mission to train and assist Afghan forces, even though "Afghanistan remains a very dangerous place."

"And as so many families know, our troops continue to risk their lives for us," Obama said.

Obama also said that the wars which America waged were "for democracy, the peace we've laid to preserve it."


The statement by US president was met with strong criticism both from experts and social media users.

"What a joke. Of course the US is still at war,"wrote Brian Fernandes, a user on Facebook.

"The US still has troops in Afghanistan and plans to keep them there for years. And they have fomented wars in Ukraine, Africa, Syria, and now Yemen. The US is the most barbaric war-mongering nation on Earth," added another, Richard Tina.

Book

Putin signs bill on 'undesirable foreign groups' into law

Russian President Vladimir Putin
© RIA Novosti / Sergey GuneevRussian President Vladimir Putin
The Russian president has signed a bill banning the activities of foreign groups that pose a threat to national security or defense capability, and to punish those who continue to cooperate with such groups.

The bill, initially drafted by two opposition MPs, was passed by both chambers of the Russian parliament last week. It tasks the Prosecutor General's Office and the Foreign Ministry with creating a proscribed list of "undesirable foreign organizations" and to outlaw their activities in the country. The main criterion for putting a foreign or international NGO on the list is a "threat to the constitutional order and defense capability, or the security of the Russian state."

Once the group is recognized as undesirable, all its assets in Russia must be frozen, its offices closed and distribution of any of its information materials must be banned.

If the group does not comply with the ban, its leaders and members would face punishments ranging from administrative fines to prison sentences of up to six years for repeated and aggravated offenses. Russian citizens and organizations that continue to work with banned groups would face administrative fines only.

Airplane

Fighter jets scramble following at least 6 reports of threats to passenger planes inbound to the United States

Air France Flight 22
Air France Flight 22, from Charles De Gaulle Airport, was escorted by fighter jets to JFK airport after an anonymous threat was made against the flight.
At least six flights were impacted by threats at airports in New York, New Jersey and Boston today, according to airlines and law enforcement.

JFK Airport:

An Air France plane was escorted to JFK Airport in New York City this morning after an anonymous threat was made against the flight, law enforcement officials told ABC News. The FBI said the plane has since been checked and cleared with "no incidents or hazards reported on board the flight by either the passengers or its crew."

Authorities said that the decision to have the plane escorted by two fighter jets was done "out of an abundance of caution" after the Maryland State Police McHenry Barrack, in Garrett County, received an anonymous call of a "chemical weapons threat" aboard Air France Flight 22, which was en route from Paris to the New York City airport.

The tip was called in at 6:45 a.m. on an untraceable line and the caller did not identify himself, a senior federal official told ABC News. Two F-15 planes were scrambled and followed the plane into U.S. airspace, but they flew in a way so that the passengers and crew would not be able to see the military planes, sources said.

Comment: This whole scenario of threats to these passenger planes is suspicious. It is convenient to those in power that this is happening and the call of the tip for Air France Flight 22 was done "on an untraceable line." Who would have thought in this day and age of NSA mass surveillance that such a thing was possible? How do they explain this? Who do you think really made the call? Who benefits? Why is it convenient and the whole thing suspect, because the Patriot Act extension in the United States is being opposed and hampered. Everyone needs a good scare provided by those in power in order to realize why we need them, unencumbered access to everyone's communications and data by the NSA and of course the draconian Patriot Act.


Black Magic

U.S. admits to backing 'questionable actors' (i.e. Al Qaeda/ISIS) in Syria

syria militant
Mindless U.S.-backed puppet troll in Syria.
Taking advantage of a Syrian military stretched thin to protect everywhere at the same time, high concentrations of well-coordinated Al Qaeda forces, based in NATO-member Turkey as well as in US-allies Jordan and Saudi Arabia, have attacked across several fronts. The tactical and strategic gains are minimal compared to the initial stages of the West's proxy war against Syria beginning in 2011, but the Western media is intentionally fanning the flames of hysteria specifically to break both support for Syria from abroad, and fracture resistance from within.

This latest attempt to overwhelm the Syrian people, its government, and its armed forces comes with several shocking revelations. Previously, veteran award-winning journalists foretold the coming conflict in Syria, warning how the US, Saudi Arabia, and Israel were openly planning to use Al Qaeda as a proxy force to overthrow Syria first, then Iran and how it would unfold into a cataclysmic sectarian war. There were also signed and dated policy papers advocating the use of terrorism and the provocation of war to directly target Iran after Syria and Hezbollah had been sufficiently weakened.

However, now, there is a US Department of Defense (DoD) document confirming without doubt that the so-called "Syrian opposition" is Al Qaeda, including the so-called "Islamic State" (ISIS), and that the opposition's supporters - the West, Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar - specifically sought to establish safe havens in Iraq and eastern Syria, precisely where ISIS is now based.

Comment: That's the American empire for you. They not only support terrorists, foment violence and war in foreign countries; they are fairly open about it. And there's nothing anyone can do about it. The media certainly won't admit they're soulless tools of their lords and masters. That's psychopathic hubris for you.