Puppet MastersS


Cow

Syrian defense expert: Turkey just following U.S. orders


Sputnik
Tue, 16 Feb 2016 19:29 UTC
turkish army
© AFP 2016/ BULENT KILICThe Turkish army takes position on the border with Syria.
Turkey should not be treated as a nation capable of carrying out independent policies, Syrian defense expert Hassan al-Hassan told RIA Novosti.

Instead, "Ankara should be seen as America's Turkish project, which is aimed at creating controlled chaos in the region," the retired general noted, adding that Washington, for instance, gave the nod to Turkey to shell Syria.

The US, according to al-Hassan, is upholding instability in the Middle East by simultaneously helping the Kurds, the Turks and the Saudis. Washington first launched this campaign in Tunisia and is now focused on Syria, he added, apparently referring to the so-called Arab Spring uprisings.

"I am convinced that the United States is deliberately dragging Turkey into the war... the same way that Washington convinced other countries to take part in conducting airstrikes in Syria," the expert observed.

Comment: Further reading: The U.S. and their village of idiots in Turkey and the Gulf States are responsible for this chaos. Their reaction to the success of the Syrian/Russian offensive is disturbing, but predictable. They have no desire to stop Daesh or other terror groups, and they will lie, murder and provoke in order to stop Syria from cleansing itself of their proxy terrorists once and for all. Will the world wake up to see that the West is lying through its teeth, defaming the only groups actually fighting terrorism? Doesn't look likely.

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Jet2

Crone Merkel calls for no-fly zone in northern Syria


RT
Tue, 16 Feb 2016 19:55 UTC
Russian Sukhoi Su-24
© Dmitriy Vinogradov / SputnikRussian Sukhoi Su-24 frontline bomber takes off from the Hemeimeem airbase in the Latakia province, Syria
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has backed the controversial idea of imposing a no-fly zone over northern Syria to alleviate the refugee crisis as the country plays along with Ankara's demands for the creation of a "buffer area" along its border.

"In the current situation it would be helpful, if there could be such an area, where none of the parties are allowed to launch aerial attacks, that is to say, a kind of no-fly zone," Merkel told the daily Stuttgarter Zeitung, when asked by the publication about opening up areas to host refugees.

Echoing a long-standing call from Turkey to establish a no-fly zone over parts of Syria, Merkel stressed that while it is impossible to negotiate with terrorists from Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), she said it would be helpful if the "anti-Assad coalition and the Assad-supporters ... come to an agreement."


Comment: Merkel the crone should realize that agreeing with anything Erdogan thinks is a sign of withering cognition.


Berlin's rhetoric, which has been aimed at appeasing Turkey for months, goes against NATO policy. The body turned down the no-fly zone proposal as late as last week.
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Yoda

Zakharova: Syria talks in Munich a huge step forward, Turkey's Syria policy a road to nowhere


RT
Tue, 16 Feb 2016 19:42 UTC
Zakharova
The agreements reached by the International Syria Support Group in Munich, in spite of "unacceptable" provocations by Ankara and "ambiguous" US policies, have become an "important step" to peace in Syria, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson told RT.

Maria Zakharova called the agreement on the nationwide cessation of hostilities one of the most significant results of the ISSG meeting in Munich. In an exclusive interview with RT she also welcomed the creation of "two special groups for resolving two problems" - delivering humanitarian aid and negotiating a ceasefire in Syria.

The Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson stressed that Russia was ready to cease fire even before the Munich meeting but other countries from the ISSG "were not so enthusiastic about cessation of hostilities or ceasefire."

Establishing a direct dialogue between the militaries of all countries belonging to the ISSG was also crucially important for the peace process in Syria, she emphasized. It was Russia's goal to make the militaries "talk directly, share real information about terrorists about everything that is going on the ground," Zakharova told RT.

"So this time, fortunately, everybody agreed [on that] and put it on the paper, so this is ... a huge step forward, this brings us real understanding," she added.

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Gold Seal

German general: No peace in Syria without Russia, Turkish intervention has potential for global catastrophe


Sputnik
Tue, 16 Feb 2016 18:43 UTC
Syrians
© Sputnik/ Ali Abrahim
Moscow has developed a plan that will bring an end to the brutal struggle which has cost hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced millions more in Syria; however, the West should ensure that Turkey won't undermine all efforts to resolve the crisis, former chairman of the NATO Military Committee Harald Kujat said.

Western countries should have a more objective attitude towards Russia's role in Syria and abandon their prejudices, German General Kujat argued.

Like all other parties involved, Russia has its own strategic interests in the region, but it does not mean that the government's northern ally should only be viewed only in a negative light. According to a former NATO representative, Western countries should give up their traditional thinking, according to which every Kremlin decision poses a "terrible threat" to the world.
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Bulb

Czech president: EU should remove anti-Russian sanctions as soon as possible


Sputnik
Tue, 16 Feb 2016 18:33 UTC
Czech President Milos Zeman
© AP Photo/ Thibault CamusCzech President Milos Zeman
The European Union should remove sanctions from Russia not in distant future but as soon as possible, Czech President Milos Zeman said.

Zeman has repeatedly called for the sanctions removal and reiterated that the restrictions would be short-term.

"I have always been against [sanctions]. [The European Union] not only should not prolong [the sanctions], but it should not have introduced [them]. [The sanctions] have to be canceled now, not in the future," Zeman told the Russian Izvestia newspaper in an interview.

The president added that Russia and its partners should persuade the bloc of the necessity to remove the restrictions.

Relations between Russia and European Union deteriorated amid a 2014 crisis in Ukraine. The bloc and its allies have introduced several rounds of anti-Russia sanctions, accusing Moscow of meddling in the Ukrainian conflict.

Comment: If it weren't for the EU bowing to the demands of the US, there never would have been sanctions against Russia introduced in the first place. How long before Europe gets sick of being told what to do and ends the foolish sanctions?

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House

Where will Islamic State find a safe house now that it is being driven from Syria?

Ulson Gunnar
New Eastern Outlook
Tue, 16 Feb 2016 00:00 UTC
ISIS safe house
Every villain needs a safe house and the Islamic State (IS) is no exception. Luckily for IS, it has two, possibly three waiting for it, all of them courtesy of NATO and in particular the United States.

The war in Syria has been going particularly poor for IS. With Russian air power cutting their supply lines with Turkey and the Syrian Arab Army closing in, it may soon be time for them to shop for a new home.

If the war is going bad for IS, it is going even worse for the supporting powers that have armed and funded them. To understand where IS might go next, one must first fully understand those supporting powers behind them. The premeditated creation of IS and revelations of the identity of their supporters were divulged in a Department of Intelligence Agency (DIA) memo first published in 2012.

It admitted:
If the situation unravels there is the possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist principality in eastern Syria (Hasaka and Der Zor), and this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime, which is considered the strategic depth of the Shia expansion (Iraq and Iran).

Comment: IS is on the run, but Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the U.S. seem committed to protecting their favorite proxy barbarians if recent events are any indication. And so IS may be induced to stay and slog it out with the forces of Assad and Russia.

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War Whore

NATO using refugee crisis as cover for full-on war mobilization in Mediterranean

Finian Cunningham
Strategic Culture Foundation
Mon, 15 Feb 2016 17:33 UTC
nato warships
The US-led NATO alliance is dispatching warships to the Mediterranean to allegedly help ease Europe's refugee crisis. However, a closer look at the naval vessels in the NATO mission shows that this is no refugee rescue attempt - but rather a full-on war mobilization.

The timing comes just as US-Russian diplomatic talks on the Syrian crisis reach a make-or-break moment, suggesting that NATO is preparing military action in league with Turkey in order to salvage the covert war for regime change in Syria.

That war has seen rapidly mounting losses for the United States and its allies who have been fueling clandestine proxy militias to topple the Assad government since March 2011. Those losses have escalated since Russia began its aerial bombing campaign four months ago to help stabilize the allied Syrian state of President Bashar al-Assad.

After a meeting with NATO ministers in Brussels on Thursday, the alliance's Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced that «without delay» the Standing Maritime Group 2 would be dispatched and «will be tasked to conduct reconnaissance, monitoring and surveillance of the illegal [refugee smuggling] crossings in the Aegean Sea in cooperation with relevant authorities».
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Vader

More Americans concerned US military no longer #1


RT
Tue, 16 Feb 2016 14:12 UTC
US Air Force
Americans are increasingly unsure if the US is the world's top military power, according to a new poll. A rising number of Americans say the US spends too little on the military, even as the Pentagon budget is greater than the next seven nations combined.

Americans are evenly split, 49 percent to 49 percent, over whether the US military is clearly the "No.1 in the world militarily," according to a new Gallup poll. This is a marked difference from 2015, when 59 percent of respondents said the US was top dog, as opposed to 38 percent who disagreed.

Gallup said the 49 percent percent who see the US as No. 1 is the lowest it has recorded since first asking the question in 1994.
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Safe

Putin's stellar economic performance for Russia

Eric Zuesse
Sott.net
Tue, 16 Feb 2016 16:32 UTC
Putin nett
© Mikhail Klimentyev/ Getty
Despite Barack Obama's economic sanctions against Russia, and the plunge in oil prices that King Saud agreed to with Obama's Secretary of State John Kerry on 11 September 2014, the economic damages that the U.S. and Sauds have aimed against a particular oil-and-gas giant, Russia, have hit mostly elsewhere — at least till now.


Comment: Breaking news: Russia and Saudi Arabia agree to freeze oil production output
The world's two biggest crude producers say they won't increase oil output. Along with Russia and Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Venezuela have agreed to freeze production at January levels, according to Russia's Energy Ministry. ... Saudi Arabia has insisted it won't cut production unless major producers outside the cartel cooperate. Russian Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak has said cooperation is possible if other producers joined in.

However, the CEO of Russia's biggest oil producer Rosneft Igor Sechin said last week that his company would defend traditional markets and raised doubts about production cuts. "Tell me who is supposed to cut? Will Saudi Arabia cut production? Will Iran cut production? Will Mexico cut production? Will Brazil cut production? Who is going to cut?" asked Sechin.

This has been happening while simultaneously Obama's violent February 2014 coup overthrowing Ukraine's democratically elected pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych (and the head of the 'private CIA' firm Stratfor calls it "the most blatant coup in history") has caused Ukraine's economy to plunge even further than Russia's, and corruption in Ukraine to soar even higher than it was before America's overthrow of that country's final freely elected government, so that Ukraine's economy has actually been harmed far more than Russia's was by Obama's coup in Ukraine and Obama's subsequent economic sanctions against Russia (sanctions that are based on clear and demonstrable Obama lies but that continue as if they weren't).
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Megaphone

Russian Ministry of Defense: Russia has no ship in Caspian Sea capable of hitting Syrian hospital


RT
Tue, 16 Feb 2016 16:54 UTC
Russia Ministry of Defense emblem
© Natalia Seliverstova / SputnikEmblem on the fence of the building of the Russian Defense Ministry on Frunzenskaya Embankment in Moscow
Russia has no ships in the Caspian Sea fleet that could have hit the Syrian hospital in Idlib province with a ballistic missile, the Russian Ministry of Defense said in a statement, responding to accusations leveled by Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu.

"The Caspian Sea fleet has no ships capable of launches of ballistic missiles," MoD spokesman Igor Konashenkov told reporters on Tuesday. On Monday, during a visit to Kiev, Turkish PM Davutoglu said Russia had launched a ballistic missile from the Caspian Sea and hit a medical facility in the city of Idlib in northwestern Syria.


Comment: See:

He reiterated that the Russian Air Force carries out strikes targeting terrorists only after repeated checks of received data, and following coordination with partners to exclude the risk of hitting civilians.


Comment: That's far more surveillance and care taken than by the West, who indiscriminately bomb civilian structures, which is why it's very likely that it was the West or one of its proxies that is bombing Syrian cities.


Konashenkov said the reports from Turkey on hospitals being hit were fakes.
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