Puppet MastersS


Chess

Syrian peace plan: Russia humiliates, US seethes

Alexander Mercouris
Russia Insider
Mon, 29 Feb 2016 00:00 UTC
putin and military
© www.politico.comPresident Putin and his military strategize Mark Toner's suggestion of how to "put up."
Public comments confirm reports of furious rows and recriminations between US officials at the way Russia has outplayed US in Syria. A very well sourced article, which has recently appeared in The Wall Street Journal (attached below), shows the extent of the policy disarray in Washington following the US-Russian "cessation of hostilities" agreement. It seems there has been a massive row.

The heads of the US military and the CIA are clearly furious at the way in which they feel the US has been humiliated, and in a series of angry meetings in the White House they have made their feelings known. Though they rationalise their anger with talk about how Russia cannot be trusted, and how US allies in the regions like the Turks and the Saudis feel betrayed, that is what it amounts to.

These recriminations have slipped into the open, as shown by the recent angry comments of Mark Toner, the US State Department's deputy spokesman, who in exceptionally crude and undiplomatic language called on Russia in Syria "to put up or shut up".

These comments have provoked a stern rebuke from Maria Zakharova, the Russian Foreign Ministry's formidable spokeswoman...


Comment: "So, Mark, until Russia 'does not shut up,' you have a chance to find out what is really going on in Syria," - Maria Zakharova


...whilst Alexey Pushkov, the Chairman of the State Duma's committee for foreign affairs, has twisted the knife by Tweeting that "A deputy spokesman of the U.S. Department of State has broken down - frayed nerves. In the United States lots of people regard the ceasefire in Syria as a defeat: the papers are indignant and the neoconservatives are shocked."

The difficulty the US hardliners face is that for all the brave talk of a Plan B they have no realistic alternative to offer.

Comment: The US infighting is just revving up and it seems there are many positions in the mix. It does not bode well for any administration to be so fragmented and multi-polarized when it may trigger an epic consequence such as WWIII. Will Russia have the restraint and wisdom to handle the US/Western tantrums and shine a light on this dark shadow? Or will the US hardliners/war mongers/Israeli neocons gain traction and push us globally off the edge in revenge. It depends on a well-devised, high-minded and solid strategy to restore global sanity and trust, not the muscle tactics of the radical few.

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Bad Guys

The US seeks deployment of land-based artillery near South China Sea


Sputnik
Wed, 24 Feb 2016 18:03 UTC
South China Sea
© Sputnik
With tensions escalating in the South China Sea, the US Army is discussing the possibility of sending mobile artillery units to the region. Over the weekend, US President Barack Obama stated that his administration would continue to challenge Beijing's territorial claims in the South China Sea.

"We think China is resorting to the old style of might makes right, as opposed to working through international law and international norms to establish claims and to resolve disputes," Obama said in an interview with Channel News Asia.

The US and its Pacific allies have accused China of building artificial islands on top of sensitive marine habitats to establish an air defense zone in the highly contested waterway. China maintains it has every right to build within what it considers to be its own territory, and has stated that the islands will be used primarily for humanitarian purposes. Beijing has accused Washington of stirring unrest in the region, and new information of additional behind-the-scenes machinations have come to light.
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Question

Propaganda? Capture of US sailors by Iran due to crew errors


RT
Wed, 02 Mar 2016 18:03 UTC
us sailors iran
© Iran's revolutionary guards website/AFPUS sailors being apprehended by Iran's Revolutionary Guards after investigations showed their patrol boats had entered Iranian waters unintentionally
The incident in January which saw 10 US sailors detained by Iran's naval guards was caused by repeated crew errors, Foreign Policy magazine has revealed. The sailors had never traveled such distances before, got lost with GPS and their engine broke down.

The 10 US sailors on two small riverine armed craft were detained in mid-January by naval units from Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps off Farsi Island in the Persian Gulf. The humiliating scene with American navy members kneeling in surrender on deck was filmed by the Iranians and quickly made headlines across the world.

Coming just days before a historic nuclear agreement with Iran, the incident could have rapidly escalated into an international crisis - but it also raised questions about the US Navy's capabilities and its readiness to operate in uneasy Gulf waters.

The fiasco can be put down to a number of reasons, according to an ongoing Navy internal investigation. Several people - including from the White House, congressional officials, and others familiar with the details - shared information with Foreign Policy on condition of anonymity.

Comment: It's also possible that this crew was part of a clandestine operation aimed at penetrating Iranian waters and gaining intelligence, and that the story that was fed to Foreign Policy magazine is a lie. It's not often that the US military willingly admits to incompetence as an excuse.

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Vader

Turkey's imperialistic destabilization in Syria is a violation of international law


Sputnik
Tue, 23 Feb 2016 17:39 UTC
Syria
© East News/ AP
Turkey has the right to conduct military operations in Syria and elsewhere to protect itself from the threat of terrorism. That's what Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a conference on Saturday at an event celebrating the inclusion of Turkey's southeastern province of Gaziantep on the list of UNESCO's Creative Cities Network.

Speaking at the event, Erdogan also stressed that Ankara's position had "absolutely nothing to do with the sovereignty rights of the states that can't control their territorial integrity." He argued that it, on the contrary, showed Turkey's will to protect its sovereignty rights.

Erdogan's latest comments come after the international community slammed Ankara over its shelling of YPG forces in northern Syria. Catherine Shakdam, Director of Programs for the Shafaqna Institute for Middle Eastern Studies spoke to Sputnik in an exclusive interview saying that Turkey's policy in Syria is aimed only at protecting Erdogan's personal interests.

"By interest I mean Daesh radicals and other groups which are creating chaos in Syria. He is not trying to defeat or combat terrorism but actually he is trying to weild terror as a weapon of mass destabilization in Syria because he is trying to recreate the Ottoman Empire, maybe not in the way it used to be but to create colonies of countries that would heed to the will of Ankara and that is the new reality that we are living in today."
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Pirates

OFAC: Uncle Sam's global financial shake-down agent

Wayne Madsen
Strategic Culture Foundation
Sat, 20 Feb 2016 14:43 UTC
OFAC sanctions
Office of Foreign Assets Control - US financial muscle
Nothing says globalization more than the US Department of Treasury's dubious Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). This international financial collection agency has become a "hard power" arm of America's neoconservative foreign policy, an agency that seeks to shake down money and other assets from foreign officials and businessmen who dare challenge the supremacy of the United States.

The placement of a number of pro-Israeli neoconservatives at the helm of OFAC has also made the office a virtual tool of Israeli foreign policy and intelligence. OFAC has been at the forefront of prosecuting Americans and others for violating sanctions against Iran, Bashar al-Assad's government of Syria, Lebanon's Hezbollah political party, Hamas in Palestine, Muammar Gaddafi's government of Libya, Saddam Hussein's Iraq, the government of Omar al-Bashir of Sudan, and other foes of Israel. However, none of these Israeli targets are necessarily enemies of the United States.

OFAC was born as the Treasury Department's Division of Foreign Assets Control in 1950 during the throes of the early Cold War era when the Harry Truman administration wanted to prosecute companies and individuals conducting business with mainland China and North Korea in violation of American economic sanctions. In 1962, the division became the present Office of Foreign Assets Control.

Continuing as a tool of Cold War economic warfare, OFAC turned its attention on those who violated the economic embargo of Cuba, particularly American tourists who decided to avail themselves of the island nation's plentiful sunshine, clean beaches, and excellent cigars and rum. As late as 2007, OFAC vigorously pursued a Spanish travel company and its website for "helping Americans evade restrictions on travel to Cuba".

Comment: More evidence that the US is actually being run by oligarchs for their own benefit.

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Dollar

'Supreme Leader' Trump and the Mullahs of Wall Street

Finian Cunningham
American Herald Tribune
Tue, 01 Mar 2016 17:17 UTC
Supreme Leader Trump
Shocking as it may seem, Iran's recent elections compare favorably against the super-rich, warmongering auction that passes for American "democracy".

If reality-TV supremo Donald Trump ever makes it into the White House, he says that torture of terror suspects and shoot-to-kill of their family members will be turbo-charged under his command. The capricious demagoguery of this guy is truly sinister. And all the other gung-ho contenders are hardly any different.

Trump's brazen disregard for international law and gung-ho militarism has even alarmed former CIA director Michael Hayden. That's saying something when even a shady organization like the CIA is disconcerted by Trump.

But the fact is that Trump is only able to take a run at becoming US president because of his supposed vast individual wealth. His fortune was made from the kind of wheeler-dealer property capitalism that has bankrupted millions of American families and made Wall Street banks and financiers obscenely rich.

Comment: This is what most of all Trump supporters just don't understand since their support of him is more likened to choosing a favorite football team than a leader of millions. But even being the "elected" leader of the United States is a big misnomer. Trump is a brand, a flavor, and a style of bluster that people identify with and can get behind. At the end of the day, whether it is Trump or Clinton (probably Clinton) who wins, it is just as Cunningham says "like all the other politician-puppets, [he or she] will do as he [or she] is told". They probably won't even require being told too much since they are already on board with so much of how the power game is played.

Geeze, why didn't Trump just stick to his highest destiny:



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Heart - Black

Germany suggests it may turn away refugees at the border if EU can't agree on refugee strategy


RT
Wed, 02 Mar 2016 17:34 UTC
refugees in line
© Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters
Germany, the ultimate destination for most refugees, may soon start turning them away at its borders, if the number of entries does not drop. The Interior Minister had reportedly sent a strong message to the EU that the "time of waving the issue through is over."

While chancellor Angela Merkel maintains she wants to keep Europe's borders open, plans leaked to the Welt am Sonntag newspaper suggest that her own government is drawing up far more radical measures.

Sources close to Thomas de Maiziere, the Interior Minister in Merkel's government, told Welt am Sonntag that he had ordered his staff to draft plans to seal the country's borders. The alleged plans, according to the newspaper are meant to turn asylum seekers away at Germany's borders.

The measure might be enforced in "next weeks" if the number of refugees crossing EU-Turkish borders does not reduce dramatically."For de Maiziere, the time of waving the refugees through is over,"the sources said.

Such a radical measure is a direct threat to Brussels, the newspaper notes, stressing the decision to draft a roadmap for border closure could not be that of de Maziere's office alone. The order must have come from chancellor's office too.
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Bullseye

Pepe Escobar: Why the elections in Iran were a huge success

Pepe Escobar
RT
Wed, 02 Mar 2016 17:28 UTC
iran voters
© Raheb Homavandi / Reuters
It's no less than extraordinary that in last weekend's elections in Iran, Team Rouhani's opponents - especially the anti-nuclear deal hardliners - were giving a resounding "shellacking" (Obama's term) in Tehran.

They virtually vanished as representatives of the capital, not only at the Majlis (Parliament), but also at the slightly Orwellian-denominated 88-member Assembly of Experts, which will choose the next Supreme Leader and currently oversees Ayatollah Khamenei.

There's simply no ultra-conservative/hardliner featured among the 30 elected parliamentarian members in Tehran (their leader, Gholam Ali Adel, clocked at 31st). The winners were provided by the so-called 'List of Hope'; that's how former President Mohammad Khatami defined the pro-reform candidates.

Yes, never underestimate the wisdom of Iranian voters.
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Magnify

Despite what Western propaganda tells you, democracy is thriving in Iran

Catherine Shakdam
RT
Wed, 02 Mar 2016 17:18 UTC
iranian voters at polls
© Raheb Homavandi / ReutersAn Iranian woman holding her daughter casts her ballot during elections for the parliament and Assembly of Experts, which has the power to appoint and dismiss the supreme leader, in Tehran February 26, 2016
Forget the green movement, forget dissent, and calls for violence, Iranians today are expressing their yearning for change through the ballot box, confident that reforms will be debated, legislated and implemented in line with the general will.

Much can be said of the Islamic Republic's resilience in the face of adversity, whether it be political, economic or ideological. Rooted in religious tradition, and a faith whose strength too few observers have bothered to recognize (for it disturbs their own sense of political righteousness, and I would say republican correctness), Iran stands as a mirror of its people - the alliance of the religious and the worldly, a covenant of sort in between divine law and man-made laws.

Whether Western capitals are willing to admit it or not, Iran stands a democracy - maybe not a perfect one (what nation could claim such a feat), but a democracy nevertheless; one which through the decades has proven a rampart against many great attacks, and many great machinations (Iraq, US sanctions, oil embargo, worldwide defamation... the list goes on).

History will certainly remember how the Iranian nation was robbed decades of freedom for colonialists imagined Iran's riches belonged to the British Crown, and not its people. If not for the United Kingdom and the United States, Iran would have been spared the indignity of the Pahlavi House... hundreds and thousands of lives would have been spared the injustice of imperialism.

Comment: See also:

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Radar

NATO heightens threat of war with Russia by starting new operation in Aegean Sea

Johannes Stern
World Socialist Web Site
Mon, 29 Feb 2016 00:00 UTC
NATO Aegean Sea
A NATO convoy under German leadership is to begin operations in the Aegean Sea in the next few days, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said Thursday.

The official goal of the mission is the complete closure of the Aegean to refugees, militarily strengthening "Fortress Europe" against refugees from the war zones in the Middle East. The dispatch of warships to the strategic Aegean Sea also heightens the risk of NATO intervention in the Syrian civil war and war with Russia.

Stoltenberg said in a press release that the goal of NATO was "the disruption of the routes used by smugglers and for illegal migration in the Aegean." He boasted that the ships of the Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 (SNMG 2) had already arrived in the mission area 48 hours after the decision of NATO defence ministers was taken two weeks ago. Now it was a matter of collectively finding "solutions" for the "crisis."

By "solutions" of the refugee crisis, Stoltenberg and NATO mean the military strengthening of the Greek and Turkish coast guard and the European border protection agency Frontex in order to detect and stop refugee boats, also possibly forcing them back.

Comment: Empire is preparing for its last hoorah. No one who's been following the situation in Ukraine, and now Syria, really believes that any amount of diplomatic meetings and agreements will stop the mad drives of the U.S. towards world domination. And the only force that stands at the ready to resist the mad drive is Russia.

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