Puppet MastersS


Stormtrooper

Brussels bombings: Daesh claims responsibility for terrorist attacks


Sputnik
Tue, 22 Mar 2016 14:55 UTC
brussels bombing
© REUTERS/ Francois Lenoir
Daesh terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the Brussels terrorist attacks.

Islamic jihadists have claimed responsibility for the deadly Brussels attack. Scores of people were killed and many others were injured when explosions shook Zaventem airport and the Maalbeek metro station in Brussels.

Earlier it was reported, that before explosions shooting was heard in the departures area of the airport, then someone shouted something in Arabic.

A series of blasts hit the Belgian capital earlier in the day, including two explosions in the Brussels Zaventem airport that left 14 people killed and 81 injured. At least 20 people were reportedly killed in explosions at the metro stations in central Brussels, 73 were injured.

​The blasts in Brussels come just days after Salah Abdeslam, the mastermind behind the November Paris Attacks, was arrested in Belgium.

Daesh (Islamic State/ISIL/ISIS) is outlawed in numerous countries across the world, including Russia.
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V

American Jews protest against Israeli regime at White House, AIPAC


Press TV
Mon, 21 Mar 2016 12:11 UTC
AIPAC
© REUTERSAmerican Israel Public Affairs Committee conference
A large number of Orthodox Jewish and pro-Palestinian activists have staged a demonstration in front of the White House against the Israeli regime. The protesters on Sunday called for the immediate termination of the Israeli entity and the return of the occupied territories to Palestinians.

There was another demonstration in Washington, DC. Activists gathered outside a building where an annual conference of a pro-Israel lobbying group was being held. The attendees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference had to stay in the building due to the protest outside. The demonstrators were outraged over America's financial and military support for Israel. They also called for an end to Israel's aggression against the Palestinians.

Israel faces deepening tension and isolation in its relations with the US and Europe over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's opposition to the formation of a Palestinian state. Nevertheless, America's support for Israel still has strong bipartisan backing in Congress, which is not likely to change. The US provides Israel with more than $3 billion in annual military aid as well as other forms of assistance. Netanyahu says that Israel wants more money to counter threats that will arise as a result of the Iran nuclear agreement, which the Israeli regime has fiercely opposed.


Comment: With the recent increase to Israeli military budget, the total cash outlay is $4.1B plus $500M missile program plus $1.2B in military equipment assets per year for 10 years, paid for by the American public (to murder Palestinians, destroy neighborhoods, build walls for urban prisons, rain down rockets and mortar--to prove Israel is safe) its consolation prize for the Iran Deal.


Meanwhile, Jewish religious leaders and rabbis are planning to boycott Donald Trump's speech to AIPAC, accusing the Republican frontrunner of encouraging "bigotry." Trump is scheduled to address the AIPAC conference on Monday night. Protesters are angry at the billionaire because he said recently that he wants to remain "neutral" about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict so he could broker a deal as president.


Comment: The long and horrific plight of the Palestinians is finally drawing a fragment of the attention it deserves inside the Jewish American community. It's well past due for the American wakeup call on the side of justice and humanity, two things Israel neither wants nor applies. Obviously, the US gov isn't going to do a dang thing with this, nor will the candidates for POTUS, so it is up to the people. American Orthodox Jews and rabbis lead these protests with "We have been fed a lie..." It's a beginning.

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Padlock

Analysts: Trump as president would be 'global risk' on par with jihadist terrorism


RT
Sat, 19 Mar 2016 15:40 UTC
Pathological dolt
© Chris Keane/Reuters
Donald Trump in the White House has been described as being on a par with the rising threat of "jihadi terrorism," according to the Economist Intelligence Unit.

In a ranking of the top ten threats to the global economy, the EIU classes the Republican hopeful if he wins the US presidential election as a "negative scenario" due to his "hostile attitude."


Although predicting Hillary Clinton as the likely winner of the election, the research firm outlines how a win for Trump, who they describe as a "political novice," could lead the US into a trade war due to his "alienation of Mexico and China," and "at the least scupper" the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

Ironically, many on the left who are opposed to Trump would also be against TPP, while his potential Democratic challenger, Hillary Clinton, supports the controversial trade deal.

If Bernie Sanders wins the Democratic nomination, both major candidates for president will be anti-TPP.

Pointing to Trump's "exceptionally right-wing stance" and "militaristic tendencies" towards the Middle East and his advocating killing families of terrorists, he is described as being "a potent recruitment tool for jihadi groups."

The EIU notes that if Trump does make it to the Oval Office, the "innate hostility" within the Republican party, combined with the "inevitable virulent Democratic opposition," would see his "more radical policies" blocked in Congress and "internal bickering" undermining the"coherence of domestic and foreign policy making."

Trump's election equates to "the rising threat of jihadi terrorism," although it is outranked by five other "negative scenarios."


Comment: If the ultimate goal of the PTB is to drive the U.S. into the ground, Trump fits the bill quite nicely.

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Red Flag

Less than a week before Brussels bombings, Erdogan warns of the possibility


Sputnik
Tue, 22 Mar 2016 14:35 UTC
Erdogan
© Reuters/Umit Bektas
Less than a week before the terrorist attacks in Brussels, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned of possible bombings in European cities, including Brussels.
"There is no reason why the bomb that exploded in Ankara could not explode in Brussels, or in any other European city," Erdogan declared during a ceremony commemorating the 101st anniversary of the Battle of Gallipoli in the coastal town of Canakkale on March 18.
It should be noted that Erdogan's statement followed the deadly terrorist act of March 13, when a car bomb exploded at a bus stop near Ankara's central Kizilay Square, leaving 37 dead and over 120 injured. The Turkish head of state blamed Kurdish radicals for the attack and berated European leaders for their refusal to recognize certain Kurdish organizations as terrorist groups.
"The snakes you are sleeping with can bite you at any time," Erdogan added.
On Tuesday, March 22, the city of Brussels - capital of Belgium and administrative center for both NATO and the EU - was hit by a series of explosions, including two blasts in Brussels Airport in Zaventem, Belgium that left 13 people dead and over 35 injured. An additional 15 people were killed in Tuesday's explosion at the Maalbeek metro station in central Brussels, local media reported.

Comment: Erdogan slaughters Turkish civilians in Ankara and takes immediate vengeance on the Kurds

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Attention

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls declares Europe is in a state of war


Sputnik
Tue, 22 Mar 2016 12:27 UTC
French police
© REUTERS/ Eric Gaillard
The French prime minister has declared that Europe is currently in a state of war.

France has mobilized additional 1600 police officers, gendarmes to ensure security following the Brussels attacks.

"Europe is in a state of war. The terror threat remains on the highest level," Valls said at a government meeting.

A total of 400 additional police officers will boost security in the greater Paris area, and military patrols will be refocused on public transport sites.

Earlier France has closed its border with Belgium.
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Control Panel

A first: Highest level terror alert in Belgium, borders to France, Netherlands reported closed


RT
Tue, 22 Mar 2016 11:40 UTC
Brussels Belgium
© Google Maps
For the first time in the country's history, Belgium raises the terror threat to the highest "fourth" level, the country's prime minister said. Borders with France and Netherlands have reportedly also been closed.

"The whole country is now on the highest alert, at Level 4," PM Charles Michel said. This means that borders may be closed, transport systems could be shut down, and schools and other public facilities could also be closed.

What we know so far about the Brussels attacks:

Brussels' Zaventem Airport has been closed and all flights have been canceled.

So far, 13 people have been confirmed killed at the airport and 35 more injured, while 15 people lost their lives in the Metro bombings at Maelbeek station.

Eurostar international trains have all been canceled along with all other trains to and from Brussels.

The Brussels-South railway station is being evacuated.

Belgium is sending 225 extra troops to Brussels following the explosions.

Although there have been reports that the border between France and Belgium has been closed...

Other social media reports suggest otherwise.

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Chess

Russia reports 'systematic ceasefire violations' by US-backed rebels in Syria, will begin bombing violators

Joshua Grimes
Russia Insider
Tue, 22 Mar 2016 09:22 UTC
russia syria
© Sputnik/ Ramil Sitdikov
Russians are saying that since February 25 they have been trying to get US' practical cooperation on sustaining the cesefire regime (proclaimed Feb 22) in Syria, but that the Americans have not moved a finger in that direction.

Moreover the Russians are adding that if US does not show interest in helping out, they will have no choice but to resort to dropping bombs on violators:
Russia is ready to unilaterally use military force starting March 22 against the armed groups, systematically violating Syria's ceasefire, if it gets no US response to its proposals on controlling the ceasefire regime, head of the Main Operations Directorate of the Russian General Staff Sergei Rudskoi said on Monday.

He said that Russia had sent the corresponding proposals on February 25.

"If the Russian Federation gets no response from the United States to these proposals, it will proceed starting March 22 to unilateral application of the rules specified in the Agreement," Rudskoi said.
American media has interpreted this as a Russian "threat" but really it is a Russian explanation of what they'll do and why.

Comment: Further reading: U.S. unwilling to cooperate with Russia on Syrian ceasefire violation protocol, Russia will unilaterally monitor ceasefire from now on

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Propaganda

Psychopathic projection: Media accuses Putin of trying to 'regime-change' Merkel

Matthew Dal Santo
The Nation
Tue, 22 Mar 2016 09:17 UTC
anti-russian propaganda
James Carden recently reported in these pages on Washington's powerful bastions of resistance to a pragmatic rapprochement with Russia over Syria. Europe's own brand of neocons are in agitation on the other side of the Atlantic too. Earlier in March, The Guardian reported that Jānis Sārts, director of NATO's Strategic Communications Center of Excellence in Latvia, "believed there was now evidence" that Russia was "trying to topple Angela Merkel by waging an information war designed to stir up anger in Germany over refugees."

What that evidence was, the paper didn't say, knowingly stating instead that Sārts "has access to intelligence briefings." But lack of evidence did little to prevent Europe's most widely read English-language daily from reporting, as more or less unquestioned fact, Moscow's angling for regime change in Berlin. Russia, it quoted Sārts as saying, is "establishing a network that can be controlled. You can use it as they have tried to do in Germany...to undercut political processes in a very serious way...and create a momentum where there is political change in Germany."

The accusation seems to be that Russia is capitalizing on domestic opposition to Merkel's open-door immigration policies by directing funds to the contrarian Alternativ für Deutschland (AfD) party, whose support has surged as disenchantment with Merkel has grown (as seen in its success in recent state elections).

Comment: An excellent analysis. After all, it wasn't Russian networks that hunted Merkel down over the hyped up 'rapefugee' hysteria. It wasn't Russian intelligence agencies that burrowed deep into the German state in order to blackmail and control their most important officials. All along it has been the work of the US. This is well established fact. So, when the West accuses Russia of something 'evil', you can bet the house that it's the US who's doing it.

Further reading:

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Eye 1

Belgian government declares Brussels airport explosions to be terror attacks


Sputnik
Tue, 22 Mar 2016 09:35 UTC
Brussels airport
© AP Photo/ Daniela Schwarzer
According to an official communique from the Belgian government, the Brussels airport explosions are being considered a terrorist attack.

At least 10 people were killed and 30 injured in twin explosions at Zaventem airport in Brussels.

People evacuated after the station filled with smoke, according to eyewitnesses.

​​The blasts in Brussels come just days after Salah Abdeslam, the mastermind behind the November Paris Attacks, was arrested in Belgium.

Comment: The Maalbeek metro station, close to the EU Commission and the Council of the European Union, was also hit, sending a very loud message to European elite. On a related note, these attacks come shortly after the US urged Belgium to increase its bombing campaign in Syria:
"There are MPs who want to go further, e.g. in Libya. We must start a debate on all these topics: on where and how we shall combat IS."
In the end this is yet another tragedy that the world can thank the US and its disastrous 'war on terror' for.

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USA

A critical examination of Hillary Clinton's nightmare neoliberalism and American exceptionalism

Patrick L. Smith
Salon
Mon, 21 Mar 2016 14:55 UTC
Hillary Clinton Putin
© AP/Reuters/Rainier Ehrhardt/Photo montage by Salon
American foreign policy has not worked for decades. Hillary believes all of its myths to her core. This is scary.

Much mail arrived after the column published in this space last Sunday, wherein I examined the likely character of a Clinton II foreign policy—dangerous to Americans and all others—and the flaccid logic common among those planning to vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton come November. All but one of the letters were from women. They all said, one way or another, "I can't vote for her, but now what? Where does this leave me?"

A novelist friend of discerning, historically informed judgment telephoned. "O.K., but what is it you propose we think about when we think about American foreign policy?" he asked. "What makes Hillary Clinton dangerous? What should we want as an alternative, what work toward, what support?"

All good questions. I thank those who took the trouble to pose them. And having made the case that Clinton's record on the foreign side renders her undeserving even of critical support or the support of those who judge her the least evil offered by what we pretend is our political process, I owe these questions answers.
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