Puppet MastersS


Bad Guys

Islamic State: US-Saudi plague reaches Indonesia?

Tony Cartalucci
New Eastern Outlook
Sat, 16 Jan 2016 15:06 UTC
Jakarta terror attacks
ISIS attacks conveniently mesh with Washington's growing frustration with Jakarta and its expanding ties with China. Coordinated bombings and mass shootings struck Indonesia's capital of Jakarta on Thursday leaving several dead and many more wounded. The pattern matched that of attacks carried out last year in Paris, France, where known terrorists Western intelligence agencies were tracking, some for years, were somehow allowed to mobilize large caches of weapons in Belgium and execute their coordinated mass murder with virtually no effort to stop them ahead of the attacks.

The so-called "Islamic State in Iraq and Syria" quickly claimed responsibility for the attack and the Western media has begun stoking fears that the terrorist organization has now spread to Southeast Asia.
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Snakes in Suits

The ascendancy of sociopaths in U.S. governance

Doug Casey
International Man
Sat, 16 Jan 2016 14:03 UTC
Psychopaths
© SOTT.net
An International Man lives and does business wherever he finds conditions most advantageous, regardless of arbitrary borders. He's diversified globally, with passports from multiple countries, assets in several jurisdictions, and his residence in yet another. He doesn't depend absolutely on any country and regards all of them as competitors for his capital and expertise.

Living as an international man has always been an interesting possibility. But few Americans opted for it, since the U.S. used to reward those who settled in and put down roots. In fact, it rewarded them better than any other country in the world, so there was no pressing reason to become an international man.
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Stock Down

Venezuela's Maduro declares 60-day 'state of economic emergency' as fascist counter-revolution sweeps Latin America


Sputnik International
Fri, 15 Jan 2016 20:16 UTC
Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro
© Carlos Garcia Rawlins/ReutersVenezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro gestures before his state of the nation address to the National Assembly in Caracas on Friday when declared a national economic emergency

The president of Venezuela has declared a state of economic emergency for sixty days.

President of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro has signed a decree on a state of economic emergency to address the protection of social rights amid the grave economic crisis in the Latin American country, local media said Friday.

"The state of economic emergency was declared throughout the national territory in accordance with the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and its legal system, for a period of sixty (60) days", the text of the decree published in the Gaceta Oficial says.

Maduro said earlier this month that the measures would be aimed at increasing the fundamental indicators of production, product distribution, commercialization and price controls.

The announcement came two days after Venezuela's oil price had dropped to $24 a barrel, the lowest mark in 12 years. Up to 96 percent of Venezuela's budget depends on oil revenues, which has a negative impact on the socio-economic situation in the country.

Comment: Maduro specifically said:
"Washington is activating measures at the request of Venezuela's fascist right, who are emboldened by the coup in Brazil," Maduro said during a Friday night broadcast on state television.
Death of Chavismo in Venezuela: Election of right-wingers heralds privatization, pillage and pro-Americanism

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Newspaper

Jordan 'turns from US & Israel' by setting up anti-ISIS war room with Russia


Sputnik
Sat, 16 Jan 2016 05:28 UTC
Jordan ISIS Daesh
© AFP 2016/ GEORGE OURFALIAN
Jordan has set up a joint war room with Russia to carry out coordinated anti-Daesh (ISIL) military operations in Syria, indicating a turn by the country from its US, Saudi Arabia and Israeli allies, in the face of the increasing volatility of the entire Middle East region.

The move by Jordanian King Abdullah II to establish a shared war room with Russian forces will radically change how political decisions are made and how intelligence is shared in the region, Israeli military and intelligence sources told military intelligence commentary website Debka.

Previously, Jordan fought the Syrian President Bashar Assad from a command center shared with the US, Saudi Arabia and Israel, located north of the country's capital of Amman.

Comment: Further reading: Libya: The Western Coalition/ISIS's new front

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Play

South Front: Syrian Air Force flies joint sorties with Russians, Egypt joins Saudi Arabia's dirty war in Yemen


South Front
Fri, 15 Jan 2016 04:26 UTC
south front
International Military Review - Syria (Jan.15)

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Stock Down

Investors robbed of $2.3 trillion in stock market crash

Matt Krantz
USA Today
Fri, 15 Jan 2016 19:22 UTC
NYSE
© EPATraders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) at the start of the trading day in New York.
The stock market rout is starting to get really expensive — destroying $2.3 trillion from the market's top last year and $1.5 trillion in net wealth just this year.

The giant companies that predominantly populate the Standard & Poor's 500 have fallen an average of 8.9% this year — which, when translated into dollars, is real money. Real big money. The S&P 500 is down 8% this year already — including another 2.2% Friday — in what's been the worst start to a year ever. Since the market peak on May 21, 2015, the market has declined 11.7%.

Latest on markets:

The biggest wealth destroyers in the S&P 500 from the high have been gadget makerApple (AAPL), pipeline company Kinder Morgan (KMI) and corporate software company Oracle (ORCL) — crushing $218 billion, $63.5 billion and $49.8 billion in market value, respectively, from the May 21, 2015, top.

S&P 500 Stocks That Destroyed The Most Shareholder Wealth From The May 21, 2015, Top

Company, Symbol, % lost from high, $ market value erased from the high ($ billions)

Apple, AAPL, -26%, -$218

Kinder Morgan, KMI, -69.5%, -$63.5

Oracle, ORCL, -22.8%, -$49.8

Walmart, WMT, -18.7%, -$47.3

Berkshire Hathaway, BRKA, -12.7%, -$45.6

Source: S&P Capital IQ, USA Today

This year, most of the money is being shredded by the giant companies that many U.S. investors loaded up on during the bull, including gadget maker Apple, online retailerAmazon.com (AMZN) and online advertising firm Alphabet (GOOGL).

Comment: SOTT Talk Radio: Interview with 'Web of Debt' author Ellen Brown - How the banking system controls the world

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Boat

"How dare they put their waters around our ships!" U.S. media slams non-existent Iranian 'aggression'

Glenn Greenwald
MintPress News
Wed, 13 Jan 2016 23:15 UTC
us sailors
"Hey, this isn't so bad..."
Even when the White House was saying they did not yet regard the Iranian conduct as an act of aggression, American journalists were insisting that it was.

News broke last night, hours before President Obama's State of the Union address, that two U.S. Navy ships "in the Persian Gulf" were "seized" by Iran, and the 10 sailors on board were "arrested." The Iranian government quickly said, and even the U.S. government itself seemed to acknowledge, that these ships had entered Iranian waters without permission, and were thus inside Iranian territory when detained. CNN's Barbara Starr, as she always does, immediately went on-air with Wolf Blitzer to read what U.S. officials told her to say: "We are told that right now, what the U.S. thinks may have happened, is that one of these small boats experienced a mechanical problem . . . perhaps beginning to drift . . . it was at that point, the theory goes right now, that they drifted into Iranian territorial waters."

It goes without saying that every country has the right to patrol and defend its territorial waters and to intercept other nations' military boats that enter without permission. Indeed, the White House itself last night was clear that, in its view, this was "not a hostile act by Iran" and that Iran had given assurances that the sailors would be promptly released. And this morning they were released, exactly as Iran promised they would be, after Iran said it determined the trespassing was accidental and the U.S. apologized and promised no future transgressions.

Comment: Greenwald has a knack for clearly and effectively exposing blatant hypocrisy. His last comment shouldn't be forgotten. The U.S. doesn't need state-run TV. Its only nominally independent MSM does the job of its government more than adequately.

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Propaganda

U.S. starves Syria, media covers it up by blaming Assad

Margaret Kimberley
Black Agenda Report
Tue, 12 Jan 2016 23:02 UTC
madaya
Aid from the Syrian government reaches Madaya on Thursday, January 14.
In preparation for talks on Syria this month, the U.S. corporate media is pretending to be concerned about the Syrians of Madaya, caught between the lines of a war deliberately begun by the United States and its allies. "Every time a president says that Saddam must go or Gaddafi must go or Assad must go a new terror is created for unfortunate people in a far away place." Madaya is one of those many, many places plunged into misery by the U.S.

The degree to which the American corporate media will cover up for American foreign policy atrocities knows no bounds. The country's leading newspapers and broadcasters have supported every official lie from Lyndon Johnson's Gulf of Tonkin resolution in Vietnam to George W. Bush's claim of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. News reports concerning areas suffering from American interventions should be taken with a great deal of skepticism. In light of the past history of propaganda, the context of recent stories about the people of Madaya, Syria should be closely scrutinized.

The American plan for regime change in Syria has killed 250,000 people and displaced 9 million more. There would be no bullets, bombs or sieges absent the United States and the rest of NATO, Saudi Arabia and Turkey attempting to overthrow the Bashar al-Assad government. All of the people who drowned in the Mediterranean as they tried to flee bloodshed were killed by the United States. The towns and cities that have been destroyed by warring armies were in fact destroyed by the United States. Absent American action, none of the other parties would have taken on this project

Comment: Further reading:

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Colosseum

Libya: The Western Coalition/ISIS's new front

Martin Berger
New Eastern Outlook
Tue, 12 Jan 2016 22:39 UTC
isis libya
It's clear now that Russian and Western air strikes against ISIL (Islamic State) militants in Syria and Iraq in recent months have inflicted huge human and financial losses upon it. Under these circumstances the Islamic State is desperately looking for new Muslim countries to operate in. The Islamic State leadership is seeking ways to compensate for the financial losses it has suffered, and establish new backup outposts outside the Middle East. That is why ISIL has been fairly active in plans to take control of Libya, which is particularly rich in "black gold", as well as Afghanistan, which is home to a profitable narcotics market.

Some may wonder about the staggering progress ISIL has been able to achieve in Libya, but it's hardly a surprise to experts, since in recent years thousands of citizens of this country left their homeland to join Islamist groups in Syria and Iraq. Approximately one thousand of these hardened fighters have already returned to Libya to join the local ISIL forces. It should be noted that Libyan Islamists were responsible for some key operations in Syria and Iraq. In particular, they were part of Al-Battar battalion, known for its constant suicide attacks, ruthless extermination of the local population and the brutal suppression of the uprising in Deir ez-Zor.

Therefore the warning that was voiced on December 1, 2015 by UN observers that Libya is turning into a key stronghold of ISIL, while being in the immediate vicinity of coastlines of the EU, may truly reflect the extent of ISIL expansion.

Comment: The nightmare is far from over for Libya... See also: Western media AWOL as 'Islamic State' regroups in Libya: Interview with James & Joanne Moriarty

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Black Cat 2

Wheeling and dealing: Putin invites Qatari leader to Moscow as MidEast diplomacy intensifies


RT
Fri, 15 Jan 2016 20:47 UTC
Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani
© Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah / ReutersQatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.
The Emir of Qatar is set to arrive in the Russian capital early next week to hold talks on the current situation in the Middle East and North Africa. The high-level negotiations will also focus on energy issues at a time of falling global oil and gas prices.

Qatari emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani's first official visit to Russia on January 18-19 has been organized at the behest of President Vladimir Putin, who will meet the Qatari leader on Monday, January 18.

"The talks will focus primarily on comprehensive development of trade and economy, investment, energy sector, and humanitarian cooperation between Russia and Qatar. The two leaders will have a detailed exchange of views on current international affairs, particularly the situation in the Middle East and North Africa," the Kremlin's official website reports.
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