Puppet MastersS


Pistol

Dozens of guns and over 20,000 rounds of ammo seized from 2 Britons in Greece near Turkey border


RT
Sun, 14 Feb 2016 16:50 UTC
Picture of rounds of ammunition
© Jaime Saldarriaga / Reuters
Greece's coast guard has reportedly arrested two "heavily armed" British men carrying more than a dozen guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition from Turkey, a top security official said.

A high-ranking security official told AP that the suspects were both Iraqi-born British subjects in their 20s. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the ongoing investigation.

The two were arrested Saturday night by coast guard officers near the port of the Greek city of Alexandroupolis, off the Turkish border.
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SOTT Logo Radio

SOTT Focus: Behind the Headlines: Objectivity in a subjective world - Truth versus Lies


Sott.net
Sun, 14 Feb 2016 17:00 UTC
Sott Talk Radio logo
This week on Behind the Headlines, Joe, Niall, Harrison and Bahar will be discussing the role of morality in politics (or rather, the lack of it), and will continue a discussion begun on the Truth Perspective show: the value of objectivity in a world gone mad.

What is truth and why is it important? What does it mean to 'be objective'? If people's beliefs about the world shape their individual experiences, and ultimately co-create the world they share with others, then a world saturated with lies, (apparently) harmless myths and dangerous narratives leads people to create a world in which they (and most others) are hopelessly miserable.

Is there a solution to this profound problem? What if people changed their beliefs? Would this create a happier, more stable world, at least for those who changed? But on what basis should people change their beliefs? And why bother if the only apparent change in the external world is that it keeps getting worse?

Join us this Sunday February 14th from 12-2pm EST / 6-8pm CET / 5-7pm UTC as we get to the heart of the matter at the eleventh hour for modern civilization.



Running Time: 02:06:00

Download: MP3

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War Whore

Syrian army positions targeted by Turkish shelling: Damascus confirms


RT
Sun, 14 Feb 2016 11:54 UTC
Turkey shelling Syria
© Stringer / Reuters
The Syrian government has confirmed that its army positions were targeted by Turkish shelling on Saturday, which also hit the positions of the Syrian Kurdish militias in the northern Aleppo province. Turkish shelling reportedly continued Sunday. The Syrian government has condemned the Turkish shelling of Syrian territory and described it as direct support for "terrorist" groups, Syrian state media reported Sunday, citing a letter to the United Nations. "Turkish artillery shelled Syrian territory, targeting Syrian Kurdish positions and the positions of the Syrian Arab Army," SANA news agency reported citing the letter.

Damascus sent the letter in response to Saturday's Turkish shelling of areas north of Aleppo recently captured by a Kurdish-backed alliance. In the letter the Syrian government condemned statements by Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu as "blatant interference" in Syrian affairs. Turkish military sources told Anadolu Agency that the shelling was continuing Sunday and several positions of YPG - the military wing of the Kurdish Democratic Union (PYD) - have been destroyed. The militias reportedly suffered a number of casualties, the sources added. The US has called on its NATO ally Turkey to cease artillery fire against Kurdish positions in Syria's territory, referring to Saturday's shelling. The US State Department pointed out the two sides have to join forces to combat Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).


Comment: Russia, Syria, Iran, Iraq, plus Hezbollah are hard at work to seal the Syria/Turkey border against any manifestation of the Jihadi Highway, which was Erdogan's dream. As soon as the Syria/Turkey border is sealed - with crucial input by the YPG Kurds - the march to Raqqa will be inevitable. No wonder Turkey is absolutely desperate.

See also:

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Bad Guys

Best of the Web: Western imperialism: European wealth is built on death, destruction, and theft

Andre Vltchek
Counter Punch
Fri, 05 Feb 2016 00:00 UTC
what soldiers think sacrifice is death destruction

(Speech given in Rome at the Italian Parliament on January 29, 2016)

Friends and Comrades, it is a great honor to be standing here - at the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Parliament.

One year ago I was driving through the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, monitoring the situation in the refugee camps there. Winter was approaching and the mountains on the Lebanese - Syrian border were covered by snow. It was cold, very cold.

Some 20 minutes, after leaving Baalbek, I spotted an extremely humble makeshift refugee camp, growing literally from the road, in the middle of nowhere.

I stopped. Together with my interpreter, I walked inside and engaged several people in conversation.

The situation was desperate. Children were hungry and could not register for schools through the UNHCR or through the Lebanese government, which, by that time, had almost collapsed. Many electronic food cards that were issued to the migrants did not function. Work permits were not offered, and without proper paperwork, local social services could not be used. In brief: a total disaster.

Comment: Without recognizing psychopathy, pathological mentalities, and the role it plays in imperialism, this cycle of death and destruction will continue on. See more:

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Bad Guys

'There is no justice here' - Russian pilot jailed in US tells of kidnap, torture & lies


RT
Fri, 12 Feb 2016 10:37 UTC
Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko
© Sputnik
Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who is serving a 20-year sentence in the US for alleged drug trafficking, has told reporters about numerous violations of his rights and "deliberate attempts to kill him" through cruel conditions and poor medical treatment.

"I would like to disclose what is going on, because I am tired of fighting the lawlessness that I experience here. There is no justice here, only lies that I cannot refute in time," Yaroshenko told Russian daily Izvestia.

"Everything that the American side is doing is absolute lies. We have repeatedly caught them lying, but it turned out that such things are legal here. Prosecutors are lying right in the court hall and the judge is backing them, says that this is all normal. They don't even bother to refute that they are lying. Earlier they claimed that they had never tortured or beaten me, but now they admit it," the pilot told reporters. "They just say that this is no big deal for them - to beat or torture someone," he added.

Comment: Torture: Russian pilot in US jail in 'pain shock' after surgery without his consent

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Info

Neocon desperation to rescue al-Qaeda in Syria

Daniel McAdams
Ron Paul Institute
Thu, 11 Feb 2016 00:00 UTC
Dennis Ross

Reading Dennis Ross and David Ignatius is a good reminder that the neocons live in a different world than the rest of us. They do not conform their analysis to reality, but rather they conform reality to their view of the world. Where most people would be encouraged to read that Aleppo in Syria was about to be liberated from its 3.5 year occupation by al-Qaeda's Syrian franchise, the neocons see a disaster.

On the brink of al-Qaeda's defeat in Aleppo, the Washington Post's Ignatius is furious that, "President Obama won't approve military tactics that could actually shift the balance." Yes, he wants to shift the balance toward al-Qaeda because like the other neocons he is so invested in the idea of regime change in Syria that he would even prefer turning the country into another Libya than to see government forces defeat his jihadist insurgents. Failing to "shift the balance" toward al-Qaeda fighters in Aleppo only brings "greater misery for the Syrian people," in the world of Ignatius.

Ignatius's Washington Post, which has never seen a potential war it did not want to see turned into an actual war, thinks it a tragedy that the Syrian army's advance on al-Qaeda occupied Aleppo has "cut off all vital routes of supply from Turkey to the rebel-held areas of the city." Those would be Turkish supplies in support of al-Qaeda and ISIS rebels, but the Post is too deceptive to mention that fact.

Comment: Perhaps Turkey's most recent attack of Syria is a hint of Ross's threats: Hot for war: Turkey shells Kurdish targets in northern Syria

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Snakes in Suits

US can't win in Syria so they've resorted to drowning the world in propaganda instead


Sputnik
Sat, 13 Feb 2016 22:22 UTC
US intelligence
© AFP 2016/ NICHOLAS KAMM / AFP POOL
The success of the ongoing Russian airborne campaign in Syria has prompted Washington to launch an information war against Moscow.

While Moscow proposed that all warring sides in Syria declare a ceasefire starting on March 1, the US continues to insist on an immediate cessation of hostilities, claiming that Moscow is stalling in order to allow the Syrian army to complete its ongoing offensive.

Also, on February 10 US warplanes carried out an airstrike against the Syrian city of Aleppo, with Washington immediately blaming Russia for the deed.

Comment: The more blatant the lies become the more the US has to spend in order to get anyone to actually believe any of them.

Further reading: 'We need more lies!' - Obama's new budget calls for massive increase in propaganda spending

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Alarm Clock

Race to Raqqa intensifying: Anti-Assad regimes about to join proxy war in Syria directly


Moon of Alabama
Sat, 13 Feb 2016 18:37 UTC
This is a look at the larger picture of forces developing around Syria. Several foreign armies are aggregating at the Syrian borders with the intent to invade Syria and to occupy its eastern part. But before we dive into that, a short look at the curious situation developing in the north-west.

Near Azaz the U.S. ally Turkey is currently shelling (video) the U.S. ally YPG which is fighting the CIA-supported FSA.

azaz
© AFPThe situation in February.
The Syrian-Kurdish YPG troops were heavily supported by the U.S. in their fight against the Islamic State in north-eastern Syria. Under U.S. tutelage they united with Arab anti-IS fighters under the label Syrian Democratic Forces.

Comment: Further reading:

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Jet4

Kurds, Arab forces recapture Syrian air base, backed by Russian airstrikes


Yahoo News
Thu, 11 Feb 2016 00:00 UTC
airstrike
© twitter.comArtillery striking Minnigh Air base
Kurdish and Arab forces backed by Russian air strikes captured a strategic air base and the adjacent town in northern Syria from rival anti-government factions, a monitoring group said Thursday.

The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and Arab allies on Wednesday night expelled Islamist and other rebel fighters from Minnigh air base and the adjacent town, north of Syria's second city Aleppo, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. "The takeover of Minnigh air base and the adjacent town overnight was backed by at least 30 Russian air strikes," said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman. "There's some coordination between the Kurds and the Russians in Afrin region," he told AFP.

The advance comes after days of fierce clashes that saw YPG forces advance east from the Kurdish stronghold of Afrin and take over a series of villages before reaching Minnigh. "With the defeat at Minnigh, Islamist fighters lost the only military airport they held in Aleppo province," Abdel Rahman said earlier. "Minnigh airport lies between two key roads that lead from Aleppo city to Azaz" to the north, giving Kurdish fighters a strategic launching pad for offensives against jihadists further east," he said.

Government forces lost control of the Minnigh airport in August 2013, two years after the uprising in Syria first erupted. Rebel groups are facing a dual advance by both Kurdish forces coming from the west and regime troops -- backed by a barrage of Russian air strikes -- pressing an offensive north from Aleppo city.

More than 500 people have been killed since the government began its Aleppo assault on February 1, the Observatory said Wednesday. YPG forces regularly clash with Islamist and jihadist fighters in northern Syria, but its most active front is further east against the Islamic State jihadist group. Arab rebel groups have accused Kurdish fighters of ethnically cleansing towns to carve out autonomous Kurdish territories, a claim the YPG has fiercely denied.

More than 260,000 people have been killed and half the population displaced in Syria's complex, multi-front war over the past five years.
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Stormtrooper

Best of the Web: George Soros: A psychopath's psychopath

Sam Gerrans
RT
Sat, 13 Feb 2016 19:46 UTC
Georges Soros, Chairman of Soros Fund Management
© Charles Platiau / ReutersGeorges Soros, Chairman of Soros Fund Management
According to Soros, Russia's strategy is to "avoid collapse by making the EU implode first - by exacerbating the migration crisis and stoking Islamophobia".

On February 11, the Guardian ran an article by George Soros which had run a day earlier here entitled "Putin is a bigger threat to Europe's existence than Isis."

After a quick check of my vital signs, I confirmed that I was indeed awake and the article was real and in the Guardian not The Onion. Before I look at the tissue of untruths which make up the substance of Soros' article, a few general words about psychopaths are in order.

I have met a few psychopaths in my life - a pernicious but small-time example is a real-estate "salesman" in Spain who cost my family a great deal of time and money. The real problem with psychopaths - big-time and small-time - is not primarily that they do bad things, but that we - non-psychopaths - are ill-prepared to deal with the fundamental difference between us and them.

We - people with operational consciences - think (wrongly) that everyone is like us. We are shackled to the assumption that just because we would not do unspeakably evil things - or would be unable to live with ourselves if we did - all other people work the same way.

They do not.

Comment: For more on the problem of psychopathy see : Ponerology 101: Lobaczewski and the origins of Political Ponerology

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