Puppet MastersS


Binoculars

Chasing ghosts: Finland drops depth charges warning suspected foreign sub


RT
Tue, 28 Apr 2015 15:37 UTC
Image
© Reuters / Jussi Nukari / LehtikuvaFinnish Border Guard boats patrol the waters near Helsinki, April 28, 2015.
The Finnish military used hand-held underwater depth charges as a warning against what could be an unidentified foreign submarine in waters near the capital Helsinki, amid growing tensions with neighboring Russia.

The Finnish Navy first detected an unidentified underwater object on Monday. Surface ships were dispatched to the area for a search operation. More contacts were made throughout Monday night and into Tuesday, at which point the military decided to use depth charges about the size of hand grenades.

"The bombs are not intended to damage the target, the purpose is to let the target know that it has been noticed," Commodore Olavi Jantunen told the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper, as cited by Reuters. According to the Defense Ministry, it rarely resorts to using such charges.

Comment: It seems like Finland and Sweden are being 'scared' to move closer to NATO.

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Eye 1

US accuses Moscow of failing to comply with Nuclear Forces Treaty, forgets its own history


Sputnik News
Tue, 28 Apr 2015 15:13 UTC
Accusing Moscow of failing to comply with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, the United States is trying to present Russia as a violator of international obligations, the head of the Department for Non-Proliferation and Arms Control of the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

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© AP Photo / Dmitry Lovetsky
Earlier on Monday, US Secretary of State John Kerry called on Russia to follow its nuclear obligations, accusing it of failing to comply with the INF.

"Today, the US side voiced new allegations regarding violations of the INF treaty, refusing, or, more likely, being unable to support these allegations with concrete facts," Mikhail Ulyanov said Monday.

Comment: The track record looks pretty bad indeed, and this isn't the only time Washington has paraded this lie out for the Western media to taunt Russia with. See also:
  • United States circumvented laws to help Japan accumulate tons of plutonium
  • Lavrov: US placed tactical nuclear weapons in five European countries, violated Non-Proliferation Treaty
  • Bear baiting again: Russia responds to US claims it breached nuclear missiles treaty


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Arrow Down

Lavrov: US placed tactical nuclear weapons in five European countries, violated Non-Proliferation Treaty


Sputnik News
Wed, 22 Apr 2015 15:19 UTC
US is compromising the Non-Proliferation Treaty by placing its tactical nuclear weapons in five European countries, Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday.

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© AP Photo / Pavel Golovkin
The United States is breaching the Non-Proliferation Treaty by placing its tactical nuclear weapons in the territories of five European countries, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday.

"The Americans are breaching the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons because they have placed their tactical nuclear weapons in the territories of five countries in Europe," Lavrov said during an interview to Russian radio stations Sputnik, Ekho Moskvy, and Govorit Moskva.

Comment: The Washington elite have had a great time throwing mud at Russia while they themselves are guilty of heinous crimes. But they truly do believe they can contain the rise of China and Russia while their country collapses under the weight of their psychopathic exploitation and negligence. Also see:

  • Washington choreographing all-out war with Russia?
  • US ready to use nuclear weapons to defend Japan
  • Ask not how the US can contain China, but how China can contain the US


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Boat

US cargo vessel seized by Iran, Navy denies confrontation reports


CNBC
Tue, 28 Apr 2015 14:55 UTC
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© Reuters / Stringer
A U.S. vessel has been fired on and steered to the Bandar Abbas port by Iran on Tuesday, according to reports by the Saudi news network, Al Arabiya. Iran's Fars News Agency also reported that an "American trade vessel" had been confiscated.

Senior U.S. Navy officials told NBC News there had not been any confrontation between Iran's Revolutionary Guard and any Navy ships, however.

The cargo ship is reported to have 34 crew members aboard and was steered to the port which is located off the southern coast of Iran, as per Al Arabiya.

It is not clear yet what type of cargo the ship was carrying.

Comment: Sparks starting to fly.

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Gold Seal

Understanding the suffering that war brings

David Swanson
Washington's Blog
Sat, 25 Apr 2015 00:00 UTC
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© Sipa USA / RexA seriously wounded boy waits to be treated in Aleppo, Syria in one of the city's last standing hospitals

Remarks at Houston Peace and Justice Center Conference on April 25, 2015.

I hope to be brief enough to leave lots of time for questions after I talk.

I know that most of you are probably exceptions to what I'm about to say, because I suspect that most of you came here voluntarily. If you're here on duty for the FBI, raise your hand.

You may all be the exceptions, but most people in the United States have no idea of the suffering that war brings.

War brings suffering first through the wasting of some $2 trillion every year, roughly half of it by the U.S. government alone, but much of the weaponry purchased with the other $1 trillion, spent by other governments, is U.S.-made weaponry. Never mind what the money is spent on. It could be dumped in a hole and burned and we'd all be better off, but the most suffering is caused by what it's not spent on.

Comment: Sadly, it seems like only once the Western world is suffering under the brutality of its own governments, en masse, will it begin to understand something of what other peoples of the world have been undergoing.

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Dollars

Shell directs EU institutions in renewable energy farce


RT
Mon, 27 Apr 2015 03:18 UTC
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© Reuters / Arnd Wiegmann
Energy giant Shell lobbied to have renewable energy targets reduced in the run up to an EU-wide agreement on curbing carbon emissions, new documents reveal.

The agreement in question was brokered by EU states in October 2014 at the 2030 climate talks.

After the deal was announced, then-European Commission (EC) president, Jose Manuel Barroso, said it signaled real progress for the fight against climate change.

However, documents released to the Guardian under Freedom of Information (FoI) indicate a core section of the deal was put forward by a Shell lobbyist as early as 2011.

As the 2030 climate talks came to a close, EU leaders finally backed a 40 percent overall target for the bloc's cuts to emissions.

Throughout the course of negotiations, member states differed on how they felt emissions could be curbed. Britain and other leading EU states resisted the prospect of binding targets for individual states on renewable energy and energy efficiency and the proposal was scrapped from the deal.

But renewable energy advocates say this marked a missed opportunity to show global investors that the EU embraces clean energy.

Comment: The game has been rigged from all sides. Oil barons could obviously care less about the people while the whole carbon emission gambit is a complete farce. Answers aren't going to be found in global warming activism or related 'research'. It's a dead end, and we've been deceived in thinking it addresses the real problems we're facing to begin with.

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Георгиевская ленточка

Chinese Honor Guard arrives in Moscow for the first time ever to participate in Victory Day parade


Sputnik
Sun, 26 Apr 2015 03:06 UTC
Chinese Honor Guard
© AFP 2015/ Frederic J. Brown
The Chinese army's Honor Guard has arrived in Moscow for the first time ever in what the country's ambassador calls a new stage in inter-military ties.

The Chinese army's Honor Guard arrived in Moscow on Saturday to participate in the May 9 Victory Day parade.

This is the first time that China is sending its Honor Guard to take part in a parade on Red Square. The 110 Guards of Honor are based in Beijing's Capital Garrison and report directly to the Chinese General Staff.
"This is an important event for inter-army exchange between Russia and China this year, and will assist in making the two countries' inter-military cooperation enter a new stage of development," China's Ambassador to Russia Li Hui previously told Xinhua.

Ambassador Li added that the guard's arrival shows the high level of strategic cooperation between Russia and China, as well as the peculiar character of their relationship.

Ten countries have so far announced that they will have their military participate in the May 9 parade, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.

War veterans from the former Soviet Union as well as other countries will also take part in the parade.
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Nuke

Iran seeks nuclear-free Middle East and insists Israel 'give up the bomb'


RT
Mon, 27 Apr 2015 23:55 UTC
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© Reuters / Mike Segar
Iran has demanded that Israel give up its "nuclear weapons", as it spoke on behalf of the 120-nation Non-Aligned Movement. Iran's Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif said the bloc also wants a nuclear free-zone in the Middle East.

Mohammad Javad Zarif was speaking at the United Nations for the non-aligned group of countries. Israel has never admitted or denied the widespread assumption it has nuclear weapons. However, Zarif says Israel's assumed nuclear arsenal was a threat to regional security.

The Iranian Foreign Minister said the non-aligned movement regards Israel's nuclear program as, "a serious and continuing threat to the security of neighboring and other states, and condemned Israel for continuing to develop and stockpile nuclear arsenals," according to Reuters.

Comment: Iran has every right to call out Israel however the UN won't do anything about it.

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Stock Down

Incredibly bizarre, investers take on debt as an investment

Secular Investor Blog
Zero Hedge
Sun, 26 Apr 2015 00:00 UTC
black-hole
Negative Interest Rates: The Black Hole of The Financial System
A black swan event is a metaphor for an enormous problem that develops underneath the surface and then suddenly puts the whole financial system at risk. The financial crisis of 2008 was a black swan event, for example, that slowly developed in the US real estate market where excess had ruled in the years before.

Today, market conditions are ideal for a new black swan event to develop. An event like this takes people by surprise, because it matures under the radar in places where no one is looking. Today, for example, everyone is afraid of deflation. That means that everyone is also trying to prepare for deflation.

Comment: Also see Era of negative interest rates has begun and Financial market manipulation.As the noose tightens, cash might not be an option Banks increasingly refuse cash withdrawals.

Could this really happen?
Spain's Bankinter, which sold mortgages pegged to Swiss Libor, told CNN it couldn't pay interest on a loan (go figure!) so instead reduced the principal for some of its customers.


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Bomb

US ready to use nuclear weapons to defend Japan


Sputnik
Mon, 27 Apr 2015 20:28 UTC
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© Flickr
The United States is ready to use all military options, including nuclear weapons, to defend its Japanese ally.
"Central to this is the ironclad US commitment to the defense of Japan, through the full range of US military capabilities, including nuclear and conventional."
The US Navy base in Yokosuka will station more ballistic missile defense warships by 2017 and receive an advanced nuclear-powered supercarrier in 2015, according to a joint US-Japan statement issued on Monday.
"The Ministers [Japan's Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, Defense Minister Gen Nakatani] welcomed US plans to deploy additional Aegis ships to Yokosuka Naval Base by 2017, as well as the swap-out of the aircraft carrier USS George Washington with the more advanced USS Ronald Reagan later this year."

Comment: The war machine

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