Puppet MastersS


Snakes in Suits

John McCain's non-profit took $1 Million from Saudi Arabia

John McCain
© AP Photo/ Matt York
The contribution came as President Obama attempted to negotiate the nuclear agreement with Iran, Saudi's regional adversary, raising concerns that a foreign government influenced internal US policy.

A new scandal has erupted involving US Senator John McCain of Arizona — his nonprofit organization, the McCain Institute for International Leadership, received a $1 million donation from the repressive government of Saudi Arabia in 2014. The news is likely to impact his closely contested US Senate race against Arizona Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick, a race that pollsters say is within the margin of error.

US federal law strictly bans foreign contributions to electoral campaigns, but the restriction does not apply to nonprofits engaged in policy even those organizations bearing the name of a sitting lawmaker. Although likely not a technical violation of the law, McCain's foundation is interconnected with his reelection campaign, the candidate's fundraiser is listed as the contact person for the foundation.

Campaign ethics organizations argue that this contribution is merely an end around allowing the Saudi government to make a large contribution in hopes of influencing policy.

"Foreign governments are prohibited from financing candidate campaigns and political parties," Craig Holman of the watchdog organization Public Citizen, said. "Funding the lawmakers' nonprofit organizations is the next best thing."

Bad Guys

Cold blooded killers: Turkey accused of shooting unarmed refugees along Syrian border

turkish soldier turkey border
© Ammar Abdullah / Reuters A Turkish soldier standing guard is seen from the Syrian town of Khirbet Al-Joz at the Turkish-Syrian border, in Latakia countryside
Those guilty of shooting refugees on the Turkish-Syrian border should face swift justice if supporting evidence is found, Moscow said, following recent allegations against Turkey. The EU also warned it will be raising the matter with Ankara.

"We have been seeing reports in the media regarding the matter, which we will treat with the utmost seriousness," said Ministry of Foreign Affairs human rights chief Konstantin Dolgov. "If confirmed, a very thorough, most likely international investigation will be in order, to bring to justice those guilty of such a crime," Dolgov said.

"This should apply to all other grave human rights violations carried out by the Turkish side on its territory in the military operations against the Kurds, which includes fighting on Syria's sovereign territory," he added.

Comment: It's fairly obvious that Turkey, far from providing a safe haven for refugees, will continue to exploit them for its own interests.


Airplane

DEA and Pentagon spent $86mn on drug plane that never flew

DEA/Pentagon ATR 42-500
© OIGThe "unflyable" DEA/Pentagon ATR 42-500 sits inside a hangar in Delaware, in this undated photo from the DOJ Inspector-General's audit
It was supposed to fly over Afghanistan and look for drug-producing sites, but the airplane the DEA and the Pentagon spent nearly $90 million never left its hangar. Seven years since it was bought, the plane is still unable to fly and may never do so.

An audit by the Department of Justice's Inspector-General (OIG) discovered the money pit in a Dover, Delaware hangar, "in an un-flyable state," its modifications never completed. The inspectors described the program as an "ineffective and wasteful use of government resources."

"Even though collectively the DEA and DOD have spent more than $86 million on the Global Discovery program, we found that, over seven years after the aircraft was purchased for the program, the aircraft remains inoperable, resting on jacks, and has never actually flown in Afghanistan," said the DOJ audit, published Wednesday.

Comment: It's likely the DEA had no intention of actually getting this plane off the ground, because if it did it's job of locating drug-producing sites then it would have found some things that would be hard to explain to the American people:


Георгиевская ленточка

Russian MOD reveals Palmyra op details: City fully retaken, all 4000 Daeshbags killed

palmyra
Implementation of measures aimed at ceasing fire in the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic has been continued since February 27, 2016 within the bilateral joint Russian-American agreement.

Despite rear ceasefire violations, combat actions in most territories of the Homs, Hama and Aleppo provinces have been finished. Such situation allowed civilians to return to their houses.

Owing to truce agreement signed with opposition armed formations, the government troops intensified fighting against ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist groupings.

Formations and units of the Syrian Armed Forces as well as militia detachments and formations of the patriotic opposition have been regrouped since the early March for conducting offensive on ISIS terrorist groupings near Tadmur (Palmyra, Homs province).
Unique footage: Mi-28N launches guided antitank missile near Palmyra

Comment: Further reading: Syrian forces clear ISIS out of Palmyra - RT reports from 'Pearl of the Desert' (VIDEOS)


Colosseum

RT discovers Daesh "Dept. of Artifacts" uses Turkey to smuggle stolen antiques

artifacts isis
© RT
A new trove of documents, obtained by an RT Documentary crew who recently uncovered details of illicit ISIS oil business with Turkey, sheds light on jihadists' lucrative trade of looted antiquities along their well-established oil and weapons transit routes.

There is no official accounting that would illustrate the true scale of looting being undertaken in Syria, a land once rich with cultural treasures. However, there is no doubt that since radical Islamists established a foothold in the region under raging civil war, pieces of the world's global heritage have ended up in the hands of terrorists.

Along with oil smuggling, a lucrative trade in antiquities has become ISIS's source of income to support its devastating operations, many of which leveled unique historic sites such as Palmyra. Artifacts, some worth thousands of dollars apiece, have been turning up in antique markets from eastern Europe to the US.


Comment: RT's previous coverage on the documents substantiating Turkey's involvement in the oil trade: Busted! RT films trove of ISIS docs detailing illegal oil trade with Turkey


Target

Turkish intel report: ISIS plans attacks on Jewish schools in Turkey

jewish scholar
© Yonathan Weitzman / Reuters
Islamic State jihadists are nursing plans to stage attacks specifically targeting Jewish children's institutions in Turkey, Sky News reports citing an intelligence source.

Last week, the arrest of six Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) undercover agents in Gaziantep, southern Turkey, allegedly exposed a new terror plot. IS operatives revealed the terror group plans to stage a series of attacks targeting young Jewish people in Turkey, Sky News says in an exclusive report, citing an unnamed intelligence source.

The source claims kindergartens, schools and youth centers, attached to religious institutions, such as Istanbul's synagogue in Beyoglu, are at risk.

"This is a more than credible threat. This is an active plot," the source said, stressing that the schedule for the attack as yet remains unknown. "It could be in the next 24 hours or next few days," the source said, adding, "undercover and other covert counter-terror measures" are already being implemented "around the clock."

"In light of these circumstances, extraordinary security measures are being taken above and beyond the high alert level already put in place by the Turkish police, as well as vigilance within the Jewish community," the intelligence source said.

Comment: It is despicable to use children as a mechanism to ratchet up public fear in order to manipulate behavior and achieve a specific result. Without any history of doing so, it is unlikely ISIS is targeting Jews. That leaves us with Erdogan--and what he has to gain. Think attention and US cooperation. (Obama decided against meeting Erdogan in Washington later this week.)


Pistol

Jean Charles de Menezes family loses European court fight - British regime gets away with murder, again

jean-charles de menezes
Jean-Charles de Menezes
The family of Jean Charles de Menezes has lost a human rights challenge over the decision not to charge any UK police officer for his fatal shooting.

The Brazilian was killed at London's Stockwell Tube in 2005 by police who mistook him for a terror suspect.

The decision that there was not enough evidence to prosecute anyone did not breach human rights laws, judges said.

His family, who had argued that the bar for prosecution should be lower, said they were "deeply disappointed".

Mr de Menezes, an electrician who was 27, was followed and shot in the head by police marksmen who mistook him for a suicide bomber.

Comment: We're not at all surprised by this. The individuals that are selected for the CO19 military-intelligence unit are mostly trigger-happy psychos. Immediately after executing de Menezes with SEVEN bullets to the head at close range, and then lying about the details, the psychopath responsible was given a job training British sky marshals.

As Lobaczewski writes in Political Ponerology:
In a pathocracy, all leadership positions, (down to village headman and community cooperative managers, not to mention the directors of police units, and special services police personnel, and activists in the pathocratic party) must be filled by individuals with corresponding psychological deviations, which are inherited as a rule.



Document

The rewriting of history: Poland set to demolish 500 Soviet monuments

Poland Prepares to Demolish Remaining Soviet Monuments to WWII Liberation
© UnknownPoland Prepares to Demolish Remaining Soviet Monuments to WWII Liberation

The Polish government plans to demolish about 500 Soviet monuments throughout the country, head of the Institute of National Remembrance Lukasz Kaminsky said in an interview with online portal Onet.pl, the RBC news website reported Thursday.

Kaminsky — whose institute is responsible for investigating crimes against the Polish nation — said that plans for the demolition of the monuments, would be sent to local authorities in the coming weeks.

These monuments should have been demolished in the early 1990s, he said, and called the preservation of the monuments "a fatal mistake."

Comment: When it comes to what was said above concerning the removal of the monuments "in the coming weeks", this is happening right now. Please read and share a recent related direct letter and plea from the Russian community in Canada to Andrzej Duda, President of the Republic of Poland (and the National Assembly of Poland). As egregious and disrespectful as this gets, history is being rewritten all over the world in subtle ways, and in not so subtle ways.

Soviet WWII Monument being destroyed in Poland
© Unknown
RCC Statement on Dismantling of World War II Soviet Army memorials in Poland

Toronto, April 19th, 2016

Andrzej Duda

President of the Republic of Poland

Dear President Duda,

The Russian Congress of Canada is deeply concerned about the Polish authorities' initiative to dismantle more than five hundred monuments to Soviet soldiers who lost their lives during the liberation of Poland from the Nazi troops during World War II.

With deep regret, we have witnessed the continued efforts by Polish authorities to rewrite history in favour of a fleeting, present-day political moment. A campaign has been unleashed against the memory of the people who fulfilled their sacred duty and gave all they had - their lives - for the liberation of the Polish people from the Nazi invaders. We would like to remind you that about 600,000 Soviet soldiers perished during the liberation of Poland. These 600,000 Soviet people, representatives of all of the nations that comprised the Soviet Union, did not return home from this brutal war. They were survived by their families, their loved ones, and by their orphaned children. The war was a great tragedy for our people, touching every Soviet family, and still affects each and every one of us. We still mourn our losses, in every corner of the world we live in today.

The Russian-speaking community of Canada, representing all peoples that historically inhabited Russia, including the period of the Soviet Union, is deeply shocked by such callous and short-sighted acts by the Polish Government. This will cause irreparable damage to the complicated history of Polish-Russian relations. We see it as a deliberate attempt to distort history, to erase from Polish people's memory the common heroic past in which Soviet and Polish soldiers fought shoulder to shoulder against Nazism and defeated it.

It should be noted that actions such as the dismantling of historical monuments of World War II (which Russian and other former Soviet people call The Great Patriotic War) encourage radical elements to vandalize and desecrate monuments from the Soviet era. Regrettably, the dismantling of monuments to the Red Army soldiers are occurring throughout Poland. It is very unfortunate that in 2015 alone, there were more than 30 incidents of desecration and demolition. For example, the monument to Army General Ivan Chernyakhovsky has been dismantled in the town of Pieniężno, north of Warsaw. General Chernyakhovsky was twice awarded Hero of the Soviet Union and was mortally wounded during the liberation of the city of Mehlsack (now Pieniężno). We want to remind you that the monument was included in the register of the 1994 Polish-Russian intergovernmental agreement on preserving graves and other important sites of remembrance.

Such provocative actions are offensive to the historical memory of all peoples from former Soviet Union both at home and around the world. First and foremost though, they are offensive to the tragic and heroic pages of the history of Poland, when her people, her soldiers fought shoulder to shoulder with the Soviet troops for the liberation of their homeland. For the sake of the future generations of both our nations, we will do our best to appeal to the Polish people to condemn these reckless actions and calls for the destruction of our shared history and ask them to help support the preservation of the monuments to fallen Soviet soldiers.

We fully support the statement made by the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova on the matter: "Such intentions indicate that Warsaw refuses to listen to repeatedly addressed pleas to be reasonable, demonstrate civilized thinking and common human decency and stop the 'war on monuments', which only aims to erase from the Polish people's memory the fact that they were rescued by the Red Army from the total annihilation by Hitler's Nazis."

The governments of Poland and Russia should seek rapprochement and cooperation in respecting and honoring their fallen warriors in the common struggle against Nazism. We are certain that is what the majority of Polish society wants as well. Canadians of Polish and Russian origin and other nationalities from former Soviet Union, living side by side in our new country, find more ways of cooperating rather than disagreeing. We would like to see the same friendship and cooperation between our historical homelands.

The Russian Congress of Canada calls upon the Polish Government to exercise common sense and make efforts to end the policy of dismantling monuments and memorials to fallen Soviet soldiers, which is "contrary to all conceivable ideas of modern civilization" (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, 2016).

Alla Suvorova

President of the Russian Congress of Canada



Map

Pepe Escobar: All quiet on the Eurasian front

White House
© pixabay
So now Iran is back to being demonized by the West as "provocative" and "destabilizing". How come? Wasn't the nuclear deal supposed to have brought Iran back to the Western-concocted "concert of nations"?

Iran will once again be discussed at the UN Security Council. The reason: recent ballistic missile tests, which according to the West, are "capable of delivering nuclear weapons" - an alleged violation of the 2015 UN Security Council Resolution 2231.

This is bogus. Tehran did test-launch ballistic missiles in early March. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei stressed missiles were key to Iran's future defense. Ballistic missiles have nothing to do with Iran's nuclear program; and yet Washington kept bringing it to the table during the manufactured nuclear crisis.

Russia knows it, of course. The head of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Department for Non-Proliferation and Arms Control, Mikhail Ulyanov, once again had to go on the record saying the ballistic missile tests did not breach the UNSC resolution.

What else is new? Nothing. Washington will keep pressure on Tehran for a fundamental reason; the US did not get the natural gas commitments they were expecting after the nuclear deal. Iran privileges selling natural gas to Asian - and European - customers. Eurasian integration is the key.

Hearts

50th humanitarian aid convoy rolls into Donbass as Moscow marks 1.5 years keeping 5 million Ukrainians alive

russia aid convoy
© Graham Phillips
Russia's emergencies ministry has sent yet another humanitarian convoy to Donbass. This latest convoy is the 50th to deliver aid to the besieged population. The convoy is made up of about 90 trucks carrying more than 1,100 tons of food products, textbooks, and articles of daily necessity.

"The convoy will break in two before the state border. One convoy will go to the Donetsk border checkpoint, the other - to the Matveyev Kurgan checkpoint," the ministry press service said, adding that the trucks will be checked at the border checkpoints by Russian and Ukrainian customs and border officers in the presence of monitors from the OCSE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) mission.

Since mid-August 2014, the Russian emergencies ministry has delivered more than 59,000 tons of humanitarian aid, of which about 43,000 tons were food products, to the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.