Puppet MastersS


Star of David

Israel asks Russia to back redeployment of UN peacekeepers in illegally occupied Golan Heights


Sputnik
Thu, 17 Mar 2016 14:43 UTC
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin asked Russian President Vladimir Putin
© Sputnik/ Alexei Nikolsky
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin asked Russian President Vladimir Putin for his help to bring back UN peacekeepers to Israel's border with Syria in the Golan Heights and to boost the restoration of a demilitarized zone along the border during their talks in Moscow, Haaretz newspaper reported, citing a source from the Israeli delegation.

On Wednesday, Rivlin arrived in Moscow for a two-day visit. According to the Israeli newspaper, Syrian reconciliation was one of the central issues discussed at the meeting between the presidents.

"Rivlin told Putin that bringing back the (UNDOF) inspectors could be an opening toward restoring the situation on the Golan Heights border to what it had been before the Syrian civil war, which was much better than it is now," the source said, as quoted by the media outlet.

The Golan Heights is a disputed territory that was a part of Syria before Israel seized the area in 1967 during the Six-Day War.

Comment: Wow, asking the UN to help defend the Golan Heights that the UN declares is illegally occupied by Israel and then asking Russia to back this proposal is really mind boggling.

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Light Sabers

Pepe Escobar: The re-emergence of Lula da Silva in Brazil is a game changer

Pepe Escobar
RT
Wed, 16 Mar 2016 14:38 UTC
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff
© ReutersFormer president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff
Compared to the political/economic rollercoaster in Brazil, House of Cards is kindergarten play.

Only three days after massive street demonstrations calling for the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff, and less than two weeks after his legally dubious four-hour detention for questioning, former Brazilian President Lula is about to spectacularly re-enter the Brazilian government as a Minister, actually a Super-Minister.

This is Rousseff's one and only chess move left amidst an unprecedented political/economic crisis. Predictably, she will be accused on all fronts - from comprador elites to Wall Street - of having abdicated in favor of Lula, while Lula will be accused of hiding from the two-year-old Car Wash corruption investigation.

Lula and his protégé Dilma had two make-or-break, face-to-face meetings in Brasilia, Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, discussing the detailed terms of his re-entry. At first, Lula would only accept a post in government if he becomes Government Secretary - in charge of political articulation; he would then be part of the hardcore hub that really decides Brazilian policy.

But then, according to a government minister, who requested anonymity, surged the suggestion of Lula as Chief of Staff - the most important ministry post in Brazil.
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Info

Ukraine's presidential administration expects Yatsenyuk's resignation next week


ITAR-TASS
Thu, 17 Mar 2016 14:38 UTC
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk More: http://tass.ru/en/world/862986
Lawmakers may consider the issue of Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk's resignation at an extraordinary session of the parliament next week, a source in the presidential administration told the Ukrayinska Pravda newspaper on Thursday.

The discussion in the Verkhovna Rada is unlikely to be held this week as President Pyotr Poroshenko is paying a working visit to Brussels, the source said, adding that chances that the session could take place on Saturday were also slim.

"Most likely, such a meeting be held already next week," the source told the newspaper.
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Info

German Embassy in Ankara under heavy police guard amid heightened terror threat


Sputnik
Thu, 17 Mar 2016 14:34 UTC
Turkish special forces
© AFP 2016/ OZAN KOSE
There is a heavy police presence guarding the German embassy in the Turkish capital on Thursday due to the heightened threat of a terrorist attack.

According to the German Foreign Ministry, the German Embassy in Ankara, the Consulate General and the German school in Istanbul have remained closed on Thursday due to a perceived threat of a terrorist attack on the eve of the Navruz holiday, which is widely celebrated by Kurds.

"The German Embassy is not working today because of the threat of a terrorist attack. As far as I know, the other diplomatic missions in Ankara are working as normal," a police officer guarding the embassy told RIA Novosti.

The closure of the embassy follows a car bomb blast at a bus stop in central Ankara on Sunday, which claimed the lives of at least 37 people.

Comment: RT adds:
The closures of the consulate and school have been made following a warning that was "not conclusively verifiable," according to an email sent by the German consulate to its citizens, DPA reported. The email added that the facilities would be closed as a precaution on Thursday.
Is Turkey sending Germany a message - "make sure the refugee deal goes through, or else"?

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Boat

EU-Turkey migrant deal threatened as Cyprus and other members slam Ankara 'blackmail'


RT
Wed, 16 Mar 2016 15:52 UTC
refugees and line
© Alexandros Avramidis / ReutersA crossing...a lifeline to tomorrow.
A European plan to ease refugee crisis by sending migrants back to Turkey all at once was in serious trouble after Cyprus threatened to derail the deal ahead of Thursday's summit, and some EU countries accused Ankara of 'blackmailing' Brussels.

One day before the start of the next EU-Turkey summit on migration, European countries still face hurdles threatening to undermine the grand refugee deal. As the deal has to be approved by all 28 member states at the summit, EU President Donald Tusk warned on Tuesday that "hard work is ahead," meaning Brussels' uneasy talks with Cyprus. "I conveyed to President Tusk our position that the Republic of Cyprus does not intend to consent to the opening of any chapters if Turkey does not fulfill its obligations as described in the negotiating framework," the Cypriot president was quoted as saying by Reuters after a meeting with Tusk on Wednesday.

Cyprus became the most recent EU country to oppose the Turkey deal. President Nicos Anastasiades said Nicosia would not lift veto on Turkey's membership talks until Ankara fully recognized Cyprus as a state. In 1974, Turkey invaded the Northern Cyprus, and the two countries have suffered strained relations ever since. Anastasiades reiterated that he objected to the long-frozen Cyprus dispute being muted in light of the refugee crisis. "It is unwarranted, counter-productive - not to mention unacceptable - to shift the burden of responsibility for the migration crisis on my shoulders."

On Wednesday, Volkan Bozkir, Turkish minister for EU affairs, said Brussels must not allow the "caprice" of Cyprus to spoil a planned migrant deal, according to Reuters. "When a step has been taken towards a solution, when agreement has been reached on a package the whole structure should not be allowed to be ruined just because of the ... caprice of one EU member country." The atmosphere at the tomorrow's summit is expected to be resentful, as two countries, France and the Czech Republic, accused Ankara of 'blackmailing' Brussels.


Comment: There are numerous political steps and sidesteps, but the bigger and more treacherous steps are those of the migrants...especially coming to, or through, third-world problematic Turkey. Erdogan has put a qualifying price on every person entering its territory (offset by one leaving - zero sum) managing to make the refugees a profitable commodity bought and paid for by the EU. Shows his true regard for human suffering -- a good deal scheme to parlay into EU membership. EU should give a hard look and rethink taking this short-cut.

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Jet5

Putin: Russia can deploy forces back to Syria in a matter of hours if necessary


RT
Thu, 17 Mar 2016 10:48 UTC
Russian fighter jet
© Alexander Kondratyuk / Sputnik
While Russia is withdrawing most of its forces from Syria, they could be deployed there again in a matter of hours if such a need arises, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated. He added that the Russian bases in Syria are well-protected. "Of course, if such a need arises, Russia can, in several hours, build up its forces in Syria to a size capable of dealing with an escalating situation and use the entire range of means at its disposal," Putin said.

"We wouldn't like that. A military escalation is not our choice. We hope the parties involved would show common sense and that both the government and the opposition will stick to the peace process," he added. Putin was summarizing the results of the Russian five-month-long anti-terror campaign in Syria at a solemn ceremony in Moscow. The Russian president said Moscow was open in saying from the start of the operation that it was a limited campaign with a set deadline.

Comment: After five years of U.S.-led proxy war, followed five months of Russian military intervention, and now peace talks are underway. It's as simple as that.

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Propaganda

Debunking the Western propaganda surrounding blunt force death of RT founder

William Dunkerley
Russia Insider
Thu, 17 Mar 2016 03:13 UTC
The mysterious November 5, 2015 death in DC of a former Putin media minister has gone from strange to weird. Ever since Mikhail Lesin was discovered dead in his hotel room, imaginative theories have abounded about what happened. They've included:
  • Putin did it because Lesin knew too much.
    Mikhail Lesin
    © Sputnik/ Iliya Pitalev
  • The death was connected with his alleged role as a CIA informer.
  • His demise was related to a secret romantic tryst gone wrong.
  • Lesin's body was cremated to destroy evidence of what really happened.
  • He is not dead and has entered into a witness protection program.
  • Lesin simply hopped on a flight out of LA and left the country.
Mind you, no one has produced any substantiation for these allegations. But that hasn't stopped media organizations from reporting on them.

Comment: Further reading:
The Daily Beast speculates that the FBI and US intelligence were pressuring Lesin into "cooperation" to gain political leverage over Putin and Russia, using extrajudicial seizure of his US properties as a threat. Quote: "But having Lesin as an informant would been a big contribution to U.S. law enforcement and intelligence. And the information that Wicker and his staff, as well as human-rights groups and journalists, dug up on Lesin may have pushed him closer to the FBI's arms—and ultimately into the path of a killer."

Putting the pieces together, it is reasonable to assume the FBI or other U.S. intelligence operatives were present in the hotel room when Mikhail Lesin suffered the deadly trauma.

Did RT founder Lesin die during an FBI interrogation?


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Quenelle - Golden

Unlike the West, Russia did not intend to 'play games' with Syria


Sputnik
Thu, 17 Mar 2016 03:25 UTC
russia syria
© Sputnik/ Ramil Sitdikov
The withdrawal of Russia's military contingent from Syria showed that, unlike Western leaders, Russian President Vladimir Putin did not play "zero-sum games" and had a clearly defined strategy, which could eventually lead to a political settlement in the country, experts told Sputnik on Wednesday.

On Monday, Putin ordered Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to start withdrawal the Russian air group from Syria the following day as it had completed its assigned tasks.

Commenting on Putin's order, Faisal Devji, a New York-based historian from the University of Oxford, said that the crucial lesson to be learned from this decision was that the Russian leader did not believe in zero-sum games.

Comment: Further reading:
While the United States appears to be manipulating the Middle East for its own advantage, it may be inadvertently losing influence."Empires all go down the same path. They overreach themselves," Anderson says. "The main, interesting thing that seems to me to come out of the failure of the US in Syria is that they are losing Iraq also."

West's failure in Syria: 'Empires all go down the same path'


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Light Saber

Best of the Web: Corporate elites blackout Bernie - insult to injury after stealing Democratic election


Sputnik
Wed, 16 Mar 2016 22:12 UTC
Bernie Sanders
© MIchael Dwyer/Associated PressDemocratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during a town hall meeting at Nashua Community College in Nashua, N.H., Saturday, June 27, 2015
Tuesday night's US presidential primary election results were guaranteed weeks ago by a misinformation campaign, as early voting began in the key battleground states.

The outcome of Super Tuesday II, when US voters charged off to choose their nominee in the Republican and Democratic primary elections in five key battleground states, was already determined before the day began. That did not stop the pundits from setting the stage for an epic Sanders letdown following his improbable victory one week earlier in the Michigan race.

What pundits do not explain is that, in politics more than anything else, the process is what really matters. The process, the timeline, and early voting had decided the election long before the last voters trudged to the polls Tuesday evening.
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Hourglass

West's failure in Syria: 'Empires all go down the same path'


Sputnik
Tue, 15 Mar 2016 21:29 UTC
Abe on tilt
© www.salon.comAmerican empire...going, going...
As Russia begins to withdraw its military forces from Syria, Radio Sputnik's Loud & Clear spoke with writer and activist Dr. Tim Anderson to discuss the impact of Moscow's intervention.

"It was said from the beginning that the intervention would be until the mission was accomplished. In other words, it wasn't a US-type intervention where they'd stay for a decade," Dr. Anderson tells Loud & Clear host Brian Becker, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin's surprise order to begin withdrawing troops from Syria on Tuesday.

"So I think that that timing and the signals that it sends to the peace process, and the fact that [Russia] say[s] they have effectively broken the back of the terrorist groups in most of the key areas of Syria, that's what's significant." It's an important political statement.

As the new round of peace talks take place in Geneva, some have expressed concern that Russia's withdrawal could embolden Syrian opposition fighters, Anderson believes these groups to have been effectively worn down by Moscow's air campaign. "[The Syrian opposition's] logistics have been severely damaged. They have a lot of problems in Raqqa at the moment...The situation has changed quite dramatically on the ground," he says. "They are in disarray at the moment."

It's also worth noting that Russian airstrikes were operating in service of the Syrian Army on the ground. "Of course the Russian presence has been extremely important - bombardment almost every day for the last five and a half months, tremendous impact - but let's remember those mainly Syrian people on the ground that are carrying this war through," Anderson says.

Comment: The US started a nice little war...and everyone then went home. Well, that's the fantasy part, except for Russia. It is not a nice little war and it has proliferated to many countries like an out of control infection that overwhelms the organism until it dies. US Empire. What it sows for others, it also reaps for itself. It's a mere matter of time.

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