Puppet MastersS


Megaphone

Former US Defense Secretary: Washington to blame for strained relations with Russia


RT
Thu, 10 Mar 2016 13:27 UTC
Former U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry
© Jim Bourg / ReutersFormer U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry
Consistent disregard of Russia's interests by the US, as well as Washington's dismissive attitude towards Moscow in the post-Cold War era, have led to strained relations between the two, former US Defense Secretary William Perry told the Guardian.

Perry, who served as defense secretary in Bill Clinton's administration from 1994 to 1997, said at a Guardian Live event in London on Wednesday that he believes significant improvements were achieved in relations between the US and Russia, including in the sphere of military cooperation, in the early years after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

However, that course eventually came to naught. Perry said that a complete lack of regard for Russia as a power or a dialogue partner from Washington officials played a crucial role in this reversal.

While criticizing Russia's current policy on Syria and Ukraine and blaming it for the current diplomatic crisis, Perry pointed out that, in earlier years, it was the United States' policy that "deserves much of the blame" for the eventual cooling of relations between Moscow and Washington.

Reckless expanding NATO, making plans to deploy a missile defense system in Eastern Europe, and supporting the so-called "color revolutions" in former Soviet republics were all steps in the wrong direction, which were all taken without ever even considering Russia's concerns, according to Perry.
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Star of David

Report finds almost 80% of European aid intended for Palestine ends up in Israeli coffers

Jonathan Cook
The National
Mon, 07 Mar 2016 13:18 UTC
palestine flea market
© AFP / MOHAMMED ABEDA Palestinian boy sits amidst used clothes and items at the weekly flea market in the Nusseirat refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, on February 29, 2016
Diplomats may have a reputation for greyness, obfuscation, even hypocrisy, but few have found themselves compared to a serial killer, let alone one who devours human flesh.

That honour befell Laars Faaborg-Andersen, the European Union's ambassador to Israel, last week when Jewish settlers launched a social media campaign casting him as Hannibal Lecter, the terrifying character from the film The Silence of the Lambs. An image of the Danish diplomat wearing Lecter's prison face mask was supposed to suggest that Europe needs similar muzzling.

The settlers' grievance relates to European aid, which has provided temporary shelter to Palestinian Bedouin families after the Israeli army demolished their homes in the occupied territories near Jerusalem. The emergency housing has helped them remain on land coveted by Israel and the settlers.

European officials, outraged by the Lecter comparison, have reminded Tel Aviv that, were it to abide by international law, Israel would be taking responsibility for these families' welfare.
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Star of David

Itching for war: Israeli troops deployment increased near Lebanon border


PressTV
Thu, 10 Mar 2016 13:01 UTC
Israeli troops patrolling
© APThis file photo shows Israeli troops patrolling near the village of Kfar Kila, Lebanon.
The Israeli army has heavily deployed troops and equipment along the Lebanese border and stepped up military activities there, a report from Beirut says.

For the second day on Wednesday, Israeli troops fired tear gas canisters at Lebanese herders and farmers working near the border with the occupied Palestinian territories, The Daily Star reported.

"We were proceeding with our lives normally and everyone was working their land. Then we saw the Israeli patrol and its members begin shooting tear gas at us," Mustafa Ahmad, one of the herders, said.

Comment: Part of a larger game?

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Top Secret

'Leaked' ISIS data could expose 22,000 terrorists from all over the world


RT
Thu, 10 Mar 2016 11:32 UTC
ISIS flag
© Stringer/Reuters

Comment: The powers-that-be never get tired of using fear to control the population. The timing of these 'leaked' documents is interesting. If these names are genuine, are some the West's mercenaries being hung out to dry now that they are soon to become obsolete?


A batch of leaked Islamic State documents with the names of some 22,000 militants from 51 countries has been passed to UK security services. The papers, which were obtained by Sky News via a defector, could expose terrorists planning attacks in Europe.

The files reportedly contain data on 22,000 Islamic State (IS, ISIS/ISIL) recruits from all over the world, including the UK and rest of Europe, the US, Canada, North Africa and Middle East.

The biggest chunk of the 1,736 files represents simple questionnaires which would-be terrorists had to fill out to be eligible to join the terror group. Each form consists of 23 personal questions resembling a typical job application form, apart from several points.

Some of the IS application forms appear to have been published by Zaman Al Wasl, a Syrian pro-opposition news site. The documents are penned in Arabic and stamped with IS logos.


According to Zaman Al Wasl, the majority of IS recruits are from Arab countries, with Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt accounting for two-thirds of the jihadists. Up to 25 percent of the fighters are allegedly Saudis. The group's "foreign" (non-Arab) recruits are topped by Turks, with French nationals coming second. The site claims that only 1.7 percent of IS recruits are Syrians, and just 1.2 percent are Iraqis. Separately, it speculates that Iraqis and Jordanians form the "backbone" of IS forces only in Iraqi regions such as Mosul and Ramadi.

Newcomers were requested to name a person who recommended them as reliable candidates - a kind of 'reference check.' The recommendation clause will likely become the subject of a particularly careful examination by security services, to which Sky has forwarded the documents.

Comment: See also:

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Evil Rays

Secret electromagnetic warfare testing on public in Washington State by US Navy

Claire Bernish
Activist Post
Wed, 09 Mar 2016 05:11 UTC
EMF Testing
© Activist Post
Exposure to electromagnetic frequency radiation has been shown by medical studies and the Navy to cause numerous health problems, including corneal damage, tubular degeneration of testicles, brain heating, sterility, altered penile function, death, cranial nerve disorders, seizures, convulsions, depression, insomnia, chest pain, and sparking between dental fillings. And that list is far from complete.

That being said, electromagnetic warfare testing and training has been covertly conducted by the U.S. Navy on public roads in Washington State — for over five years.

An exclusive report from Truthout divulged the secretive EMF testing, discovered through a number of Freedom of Information Act requests coupled with contradictory and fumbling public statements by the Navy and Forest Service.
"An email thread between the Navy and US Forest Service between 2010 and 2012, recently obtained via [FOIA] request filed by Oregon-based author and activist Carol Van Strum in November 2014, revealed that the Navy has likely been driving mobile electromagnetic warfare emitters and conducting electromagnetic warfare training in the Olympic National Forest and on public roads on Washington's Olympic Peninsula since 2010," reported Truthout's Dahr Jamail.
Alarmingly, without public notification or even cautionary boundary warnings in place to prevent accidental exposure, the Navy's EMF testing has taken place in public areas and popular tourist destinations for five years. This vastly contradicts its proposed electromagnetic warfare training plans, ostensibly set to begin this year, which have stirred enormous controversy.

Besides those harmful effects on humans, there are potentially "large-scale negative impacts" on avian, aquatic, reptilian, and other biota in the environmentally sensitive area which includes Hoh Rainforest.
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Bad Guys

The Washington Post's 'fairy tale' version of US military campaign in Syria


Moon of Alabama
Thu, 10 Mar 2016 04:44 UTC
antenna lies propaganda media
© Flickr/ fliegender
The public relation functionary for the CIA, the Pentagon, Israel and the Saudis - David Ignatius of the Washington Post - forgot to take his meds. Thus he experienced an outbreak of acute delusions:
The campaign in eastern Syria is directed by about 50 U.S. Special Operations forces now on the ground there, joined by about 20 French and perhaps a dozen British commandos. They're working with about 40,000 Syrian Kurdish and Arab fighters dubbed the Syrian Democratic Forces; all but about 7,000 are from the Syrian Kurdish militia known as the YPG.
Those numbers are waaay off. The more realistic numbers are some 10,000 YPG and some 1,000 Arabs. Even those numbers include lots of village guards that can not be counted on as soldiers. The core forces are in the low thousands.
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Propaganda

Really? Western media blames 'assassination of Russian spy chief' for tensions between Turkey & Russia

Federico Pieraccini
Russia Insider
Thu, 10 Mar 2016 04:32 UTC
Igor Sergun
Igor Sergun, Former Director of GRU, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation
The death of the powerful GRU (Russian military intelligence service) commander Igor Sergun is back in the news courtesy of The Jerusalem Post citing a Lebanese report. As if we haven't had enough of wild conspiracy theories peddled by Stratfor and Financial Times, it's now time to listen to the trusty "unnamed London-based diplomat". How convenient!

The anonymous source starts off his rant with:
[I cannot] "rule out that his death could have been the result of a complicated intelligence security operation in which several Arab and Middle Eastern intelligence actors may have participated. Moscow must have discovered some clues to this matter."
In other words no sooner than he opens his mouth it becomes a guessing game: "Could", "May", "Must have".

Comment: The cause of tensions between Russia and Turkey could more realistically be blamed on Turkey's shooting down Russian aircraft, mocking their grief, and then repeatedly bombing Russia's allies.

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Binoculars

Kurdish military finds no evidence of the death of "the Chechen" ISIS commander


Sputnik
Thu, 10 Mar 2016 02:49 UTC
jet moon
© AFP 2016/ Aris Messinis
Kurdish militias have seen no evidence of the death of one of the leaders of Daesh terrorist group Abu Omar al-Shishani, a defense official in Syria's Kurdish province of Hasakah, Nasser Haj Mansour, said Wednesday. Earlier on Wednesday, Washington notified Tbilisi about the possible elimination of Syrian-based Georgian national al-Shishani in a US-led coalition airstrike. The attack reportedly took place on Friday near the northeastern Syrian town of al-Shaddadi.

"We cleared al-Shaddadi and the surrounding areas from Daesh militants, but so far we have seen no evidence of his [al-Shishani's] death and we have no proof that he was present here at all," Mansour told RIA Novosti.

According to Mansour, the media has exaggerated the real role and weight of Al-Shishani in the terrorist organization. Al-Shishani, known as Omar "the Chechen," has been serving as an Daesh commander in Syria. Daesh is outlawed in many countries, including Russia and the United States. The US-led coalition of over 60 nations has been carrying out airstrikes against the Daesh, first in Iraq and later Syria since 2014 — albeit without the approval of the Syrian government or the UN Security Council.
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Wolf

Cruz in the Oval Office is more dangerous than offensive Trump

Steven Rosenfeld
AlterNet
Mon, 07 Mar 2016 02:00 UTC
ted cruz
© TedCruz.org"Ted Cruz is a conniving, uncompromising, power-hungry demagogue whose policies would serve the richest Americans."
As the 2016 primary season continues, the notion that Ted Cruz might be the Republican Party's last best chance to save itself from Donald Trump's takeover is a spectacle all by itself. Cruz, the most mistrusted and reviled Republican senator, a serial liar who led the 2013 government shutdown and called Majority Leader Mitch McConnell a fraud on the Senate floor, is now the party's great savior?

It may be that Republicans would prefer the right-wing devil they know rather than the one they do not. Their fears of Trump resemble wide swings of a pendulum. On some issues it's his ugly, bigoted and juvenile rhetoric and strongman posturing that repulses. On the other extreme lurks a sneaking suspicion among GOP luminaries that he might be too liberal and malleable, not just unpredictable, for conservatives to stomach.

Trump is the more offensive presidential candidate, but Cruz is far more dangerous. As Eugene Robinson, a Washington Post columnist, wrote in December, "If Ted Cruz is the Republican Party's cure for Donald Trump, the antidote may be worse than the poison."

That verdict is not unique. Cruz is not just a serial exaggerator and liar. He's a conniving, uncompromising, power-hungry demagogue whose antics and beliefs would be right at home in the crusades of Sen. Joseph McCarthy's 1950s America, many campaign fact-checking websites, longtime politicos and pundits have warily noted.

Comment: It's remarkable how so many observations of Ted Cruz coincide with the definition of psychopathy, especially the talent for brazen lying.

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Snakes in Suits

Colonialism? Meet the American who may soon be Ukraine's Prime Minister


Sputnik
Thu, 10 Mar 2016 01:58 UTC
Natalie Jaresko
© Flickr/ U.S. Embassy Kyiv Ukraine
A cast of colorfully corrupt characters, Including former Georgian puppet leader Saakashvili, are involved in the blatant US takeover of a country on Russia's doorstep, one geopolitical analyst told Sputnik.

​The US colonial experiment in Eastern Europe has taken on a new urgency this week with speculation that an American citizen, Natalie Jaresko, will be announced as the next Prime Minister of Ukraine. Geopolitical analyst Daniel McAdams, of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, discusses the developments with Loud & Clear's Brian Becker.
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