Puppet MastersS


Cruise Missle

Biden makes clear case for NATO complicity - and Russia's right to retaliate over downing of IL-76

IL-76 debris field ukraine prisoners of war shot down
© Russian Investigative Committee/Handout via REUTERS/File PhotoA view of the crash site of the Russian Ilyushin Il-76 military transport plane near the village of Yablonovo in the Belgorod region, Russia, in this image published January 25, 2024.
Biden has made the case for Russia to directly hit American or NATO assets

Joe Biden is contending that the United States has the right to attack Iran as a result of the deadly strike on a U.S. base in Jordan which killed three American troops.

Biden is throwing rocks in a glass house if we then look at the case of the IL-76 shoot-down over Russia when 74 people were killed.

It is by no means clear if Iran was involved in the Jordan base raid. Tehran strongly denies it and even the Pentagon has admitted there is no evidence showing Iran had a hand in the drone attack.

Nevertheless, Biden has asserted Iran is to blame and that this gives the U.S. a right to respond militarily. If Biden can make that case, then the United States and its NATO allies should be held accountable for the shooting down of the IL-76 transport plane over Russia killing all onboard, according to the reasoning of none other than the US President.

Pirates

The border crisis is a Democrat-run protection racket aimed at the American public

illegal migrants mexico border
© Juan Manuel Blanco/EPA, via Shutterstock/FileA large group of migrants heading toward the United States in Tapachula, Mexico, on Sunday, December 24, 2023.
It's important for Americans to understand that the Democrat Party of today has abandoned all pretenses of traditional political engagement. Yes, there is a long history of brinksmanship in US politics, but we haven't seen this level of thirst for internal conflict since the Civil War. Leftists have deliberately created an environment in which any opposition to their policies is labeled "insurrection" and a "threat to democracy." They have adopted a zero tolerance mindset, justified in their own imaginations by a cult-like ideology of globalism and wokeness.

The way in which Democrats operate is highly reminiscent of communist regimes of the past. Honest debates about facts and logic are long gone. Their goal is to win at any cost, and winning means they become the de facto social and governmental arbiters of all they survey. Winning for them means the end of western civilization as we know it.

It's clear that their strategy is to use crisis events as leverage to negotiate more power and influence. They tried this method during the covid lockdowns. They tried it with the January 6th protests. They do it every time there's a debate over the debt ceiling. And now, they're trying to find a way to exploit the border crisis they created.

Mr. Potato

Indo-Pacific summit in Brussels: EU told 'double standards' for Ukraine and Gaza hurt relations with Indo-Pacific

Borrell
© CopyrightJosep Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, speaking during the European Union Indo-Pacific Ministerial Forum.
Several ministers from Global South nations accused the European Union of "double standards" on Friday over its contrasting policies towards Ukraine and Gaza.

Senior officials attending an Indo-Pacific summit in Brussels took aim at the EU's perceived inability to "underline the respect of international law in a consistent manner".

"No state is above the law," Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said in opening remarks at the event, urging European countries not to withdraw their support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which operates in Gaza.

"I appeal to all of you to listen to your heart and do the right thing, stop the atrocities in Gaza, in Palestine," she said, adding that "consistency with values and actions reflect sincerity of moral high ground ... it shows who we actually are".

Later, responding to questions from the South China Morning Post, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry echoed Marsudi's accusations.

"We represent the sentiment of the global south, that there's double standards when it comes to the Middle East. The conflict needs to be looked at on a merit-based order. There can't be double standards for what is happening in Ukraine and Middle East," Sabry said.


Comment: Another event where the EU showed their complete incompetence...and increasing irrelevance.


Comment:

Arnaud Bernard commented on Twitter about this meeting:
So the EU organized an "Indo-Pacific Ministerial Forum" in Brussels, meant to bring together foreign ministers of the EU with those of "Indo-Pacific" countries. BUT yet again they turned their own event into a display of geopolitical incompetence.

A) 7 foreign ministers of the EU simply didn't show up, including those of France and Germany. Which absolutely blows my mind: you invite some 50 foreign ministers to come from the other end of the planet for a "ministerial level" forum with you and you snub them! That's astoundingly disrespectful, and completely undermines the purpose of your own forum!


France is to play host to the Olympics in just a few months and to snub 50 countries in one go - by a no show - is quite a performance of olympic proportions though it wont win any medals by it.


B) The very concept of "Indo-Pacific" is actually insulting to the countries in the region because it's an arbitrary grouping, developed to fit Western strategic notions and objectives, that corresponds to no reality on the ground in terms of peoples and cultures. It's completely tone deaf.

C) They didn't invite China, by far the largest country in the region. Which is a very divisive and even hostile statement towards the region, to the effect of "we want to develop our relationship with you at the expense of your neighbor". It'd be like ASEAN organizing an ASEAN-EU summit and invite everyone except Germany: Germany would legitimately be like "yo, wtf?". To be clear I think it's fine for the EU to develop bilateral relations with other countries in the region - no issue with that - but why go out of your way to publicly insult the largest player in the region - and incidentally the EU's largest trading partner - in the process? That's just geopolitical malpractice.

D) Predictably, as the SCMP article highlights, what ended up happening during the forum and what observers will retain from it, is that the EU received an earful on their double standards with regards to Gaza. So for instance the Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi heavily implied in the forum's opening remarks that the EU was insincere and morally bankrupt: "I appeal to all of you to listen to your heart and do the right thing, stop the atrocities in Gaza, in Palestine... consistency with values and actions reflect sincerity of moral high ground ... it shows who we actually are". So far from bringing the EU closer to whatever the "Indo-Pacific" is, the summit highlighted the widening divisions between both.

So there you have it, EU "diplomacy" in all its splendor!
So the EU managed to snub all those whom they had invited by not all coming together and then on top of it they snub China by not inviting them. The way things are going, soon no one will be interested in what the EU garden club says and it will sink into irrelevance. The same goes for sports events, which will start to happen outside the existing politicised Western dominated institutions. The BRICS+ countries will lead the way to an alternative world.


Bizarro Earth

Brzezinski's barbaric dream: The Israeli-Gaza conflict is the beginning of a broader war, "spreading towards Iran" - Dr. Paul C. Roberts

Brzezinski
© HuffPostZbigniew Brzezinski
"According to the official version of history (said Brzezinski), CIA aid to the mujahideen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, on December 24, 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise; Indeed, it was July 2, 1979, that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention."
Le Nouvel Observateur
In a recent interview, Paul Craig Roberts, former economic adviser (US Department of the Treasury) to the late President Ronald Reagan, outlined, with astonishing foresight, the trajectory that the current Middle East crisis may follow, and his insight is both brilliant and terrifying. To paraphrase Roberts's analysis, the Israeli-Gaza conflict is merely the beginning of a widening conflict in the Middle East, spreading toward the neocon's main target, Iran.

Though Iran is extremely powerful now, the conflict will greatly weaken the country, making possible the West's stealthy infiltration of jihadists into the Central Asian countries which border Iran and extend to both the Russian borders and, indeed the Chinese border, with Xinjiang, bordering Kazakhstan. Though Roberts does not mention China, the logic of his thesis would extend to China.

The purpose of these jihadists, infiltrated into countries neighboring Russia, with large Islamic populations which have, historically lived in peace with citizens of very diverse ethnic and religious identities, including Russian, Catholic, Jewish citizens, often intermarrying, will be, as Brzezinski planned.

This purpose will be, (as superbly reported in Robert Dreyfuss's masterpiece, Devil's Game, How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam, Eyeing Moscow's Islamic 'Underbelly', to incite violent, extremist religious separatist movements, destabilizing these peaceful Central Asian countries, fomenting "color revolutions" (as was tried, but failed in Kazakhstan recently), and engineering bloody putsch in these countries - similar to the one incited in Ukraine in 2014 - with the ensuing devastating wars.

Light Sabers

Israel vs. Hezbollah: A new war will consume the entire Middle East

target
© jalaa marey/AFPIsraeli soldier wears a patch on the back of his flack jacket showing Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as a target
The Lebanese Shiite group has a long and bloody history with the Jewish state, and now, both sides' restraint is at an end...

Since the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the start of the IDF ground operation in Gaza, it has been repeatedly reported that one of the potential participants in an open confrontation with Israel could be the Lebanese Shiite paramilitary group and political party, Hezbollah. In January, there were even more statements by officials about the likelihood of a military clash on Israel's northern border.

Thus, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on January 8 that his country is ready to go to war with the Lebanese group. However, he still believes that it is better to resolve the conflict peacefully. Netanyahu made his statement following a visit to the town of Kiryat Shmona, after it was hit by a Hezbollah anti-tank missile. The locality in northern Israel is regularly shelled by the organization.

Later, on January 17, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Commander-in-Chief Herzi Halevy said that the likelihood of a full-scale military operation in Lebanon has now drastically increased. The Times of Israel quoted him as saying:
"I don't know when a war will happen in the north. What I can say is that the likelihood of this happening in the coming months is now much higher than in the past."
Halevy made the statement while speaking to soldiers in northern Israel at maneuvers simulating an IDF offensive in Lebanon. He noted that troops are "building up readiness for battles in Lebanon."

Comment: The Middle East is walking on eggshells. It only takes one to break.


Warning

Best of the Web: Brace for impact

twostep
© Erin Shaff/NYTUS President Joe Biden two-stepin' in S. Carolina
"It's not enough to say it's nuts, you have to explain why it's so nuts." - Terrance McKenna
"Joe Biden's" victory dance in South Carolina — down on the ol' Democratic Party Plantation, where they grows votes — didn't last long. By Sunday, a rogue satellite named Tucker Carlson was spotted orbiting over Russia, Russia, Russia, a country you have to say three times so that people get how serious it is. Carlson threatens to actually sit down in the same room with Putin, Putin, Putin — the antithesis of "Joe Biden," since Putin actually operates as head-of-state — and convey Mr. P's thoughts and opinions to the citizens of America via the rascally social media platform called "X."

Do you realize the danger of exposing Americans to what this Putin might say? Hearing him express his thoughts about the world situation in a leisurely format — which Putin does regularly among his own people (I've seen him do it!) — is liable to inform Americans that their own political leadership is a party of mental illness.

Even without this new provocation of a Carlson / Putin colloquy, folks in the land of the free and the home of the brave have begun to grok just how insane things have gone under "Joe Biden" blobism. And that darn conversation comes just egg-zackly at the moment when our Senate is attempting to package a bill tying a $60-billion taxpayer gift to Ukraine with a "border security" law that will forbid more than 8,500 foreigners on any given day to enter the USA illegally. Sweet deal, huh? Er. . . maybe not. On the House side of Congress, Speaker Mike Johnson says, "No way, José."

Quenelle

Slovakia implements criminal law reforms to the ire of eurocrats in Brussels

slovakia europe eu
© Shutterstock/Alexandros Michailidis"The aim of this assignment is to ensure the effective communication between the Ministry of Justice and the European institutions," the ministry stated in regards to Pirošíková's new role in Brussels.
Prime Minister Robert Fico's government is sending a specially commissioned envoy to explain the government's actions in the area of the rule of law to the EU institutions, but the envoy, who in past claimed vaccines against COVID-19 were biological weapons, is sparking controversy.

Marica Pirošíková, the country's former representative before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), will be going to Brussels to defend Slovakia's stance regarding a controversial criminal code reform.

"The aim of this assignment is to ensure the effective communication between the Ministry of Justice and the European institutions," the ministry stated in regards to Pirošíková's new role in Brussels.

Fico's government continues to work towards passing legislation that would dissolve the anti-corruption Special Prosecutor's Office, possibly dismantle the National Crime Agency (NAKA) which investigates particularly serious crimes, reduce penalties, including those for corruption, and curtail the whistleblowers' rights.


Comment: Considering Fico's other statements that expose the insidious corruption of the establishment, it would be reasonable to presume that his intention is to breakup compromised and corrupt institutions.


Comment: PM Fico and Slovakia are proving to be one country worth keeping an eye on: See also: Biden, Clinton, Rockefeller, Soros are financing US biowarfare projects, Ukrainian documents reveal - Russian Defense Ministry


TV

Malaysia's PM blames US & Israel's killing in 'open air prison' Gaza for Red Sea shipping crisis

Anwar Ibrahim Malaysian
The Malaysian Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, affirmed that the navigation issue in the Red Sea did not originate with Yemen but rather with the aggression against Gaza.
The Malaysian Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, affirmed that the navigation issue in the Red Sea did not originate with Yemen but rather with the aggression against Gaza.

He stressed the necessity of halting the aggression against the people of Gaza as the only solution to cease all forms of escalation, instead of resorting to aggression against Yemen.

In an interview with Al Jazeera on Friday, Anwar Ibrahim stated that Washington must stop the killing in Gaza.

Comment: This isn't the first instance of Malaysia's Prime Minister speaking the facts; which also explains the US and Israel's desire to oust him: MH370: Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim says government purposefully concealing information


Chess

Senior anti-terror resistance leader assassinated by unknown gunmen in southern Iraq

Naji al-Ka’abi
© UnknownNaji al-Ka’abi, a high-profile member of the Iraqi anti-terror Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq resistance group, was gunned down by unknown assailants in Maysan, southeastern Iraq, on February 4, 2024. (File photo via social media)
A high-profile member of the Iraqi anti-terror Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq resistance group has been fatally shot by unidentified assailants in the southeastern province of Maysan.

A security source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Iraq's Shafaq News Agency that two gunmen ambushed Naji al-Ka'abi, better known by the nom de guerre Abu Ali al-Ka'abi, and opened fire at him as he was driving a car along a road in the al-Askari district of the province late on Sunday.

The armed men then fled the scene on a motorbike, and a search is underway to hunt them down.

Comment: This news comes at the same time as ISIS exploits US strikes to attack Iraqi forces in Anbar

Going back through old headlines, there was:

2020: US tightens security in Baghdad Green Zone amid Pentagon plans to attack PMU militia
2020: Israeli strikes on Syria kill several Iraqi PMU fighters
2017: Meet the multi-confessional IRAQI (not Iranian) Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) that liberated Iraq from ISIS
2017: Dozens reported killed in US airstrike on Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units - Update
2017: Iraqi commander: US forces evacuated ISIL commanders from Western Mosul
2017: Iraqi popular forces commander claims US forces trying to evacuate ISIL commanders from Tal Afar
2017: Syriana Analysis: An alliance of convenience - why Israel supports ISIS
2016: Syrian analyst claims Mossad training special spies to assassinate resistance leaders
2016: Israeli intel chief: ISIS defeat will put Israel in 'hard position' - Israel to do "all we can" to avoid it
2015: Truth teller? Sudan's President says CIA and Mossad 'stand behind' Isis and Boko Haram

Given the current situation, whom among the Puppet Masters might have a plausible motive to pull the strings for the ambush and assassination of "Naji al-Ka'abi, better known by the nom de guerre Abu Ali al-Ka'abi"?


Bad Guys

ISIS exploits US strikes to attack Iraqi forces in Anbar

Iraqi security forces in Rutba, Iraq
© AFPIraqi security forces in Rutba, Iraq
The Iraqi army and the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMU) clashed with ISIS militants in western Anbar governorate on 3 February, an Iraqi security source told Al-Mayadeen.

The Iraqi Al-Nujaba satellite channel said that ISIS took advantage of the US bombing of targets in Iraq and Syria by launching an attack on the army and the PMU forces in the area of ​​Kilometer 160 on the Al-Sakkar highway near the town of Rutba in Anbar.

The US has occupied the nearby Al-Tanf Base on the Syrian side of the border since 2015 and has used it to arm and train ISIS militants.

Comment: See also: