Puppet MastersS


Eye 1

ISIS to launch 'blitzkrieg' in Libya - former CIA Director


Sputnik
Wed, 13 Jan 2016 13:47 UTC
ISIS
© AP Photo/ File
Daesh militants are expanding their territory in Libya. They may repeat the same kind of "blitzkrieg" that the world saw in Iraq, Michael Morrell, former acting director of the CIA, said.

Militants of the Daesh terrorist group may push a "blitzkrieg" in Libya, the same way they did in Iraq in 2014, Michael Morrell, former acting director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), said.

"They are currently expanding that territory and foreign fighters are beginning to go to Libya to fight with the ISIS [Daesh] group there. I would not be surprised if we woke up one morning and ISIS [Daesh] in Libya had grabbed a large part of Libyan territory. The same kind of blitzkrieg on a smaller scale that we saw in Iraq," Morrell testified before the House Armed Service Committee.

Comment: The fact that ISIS' paymasters are 'predicting' it means that, unfortunately, SOTT editors' and the Moriartys' predictions are coming true:
The nightmare is not over for Libya. In fact, it may only have just begun.

Western media AWOL as 'Islamic State' regroups in Libya: Interview with James & Joanne Moriarty


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Mr. Potato

Poland trying to build a 'unified front' against Brussels & Russia - but it's not working


Sputnik
Wed, 13 Jan 2016 13:56 UTC
Poland
© Sputnik/ Anton Denisov
Poland's new leadership is courting Central and Eastern European countries in order to present a united front on Brussels and Moscow, but Warsaw's efforts will have a limited impact since the region is too diverse in terms of its political and economic aspirations to form a cohesive bloc, Stratfor asserted.

Poland views Hungary, Romania, Lithuania and Slovakia as its key partners but, ironically, "the common interests that bind Warsaw with one potential ally distance it from another," the Texas-based think tank noted.

Take European integration, for instance. The policies of the Law and Justice party, led by former Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, reflect disenchantment with the EU and the idea of an ever greater union - a sentiment that Hungary shares and Lithuania does not.

Comment: It looks like Poland's new leadership are basing their international relations on NATO's anti-Russian, anti-Muslim hysteria - and surprise - it's not working out for 'em. Also see:

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Bomb

North Korea says: Our H-bomb can wipe out the whole US at once


RT
Wed, 13 Jan 2016 08:41 UTC
Kim Jong Un
© Reuters North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
North Korea claims it's ready to detonate its H-bomb capable of wiping out the whole of the US "all at once." The comments come amid increased week-long tensions on the Korean Peninsula following Pyongyang's claim about its latest underground nuclear test. "The scientists and technicians of the DPRK - Democratic People's Republic of Korea - are in high spirit to detonate H-bombs ... capable of wiping out the whole territory of the US all at once," North Korean KCNA news agency said.

Along with the 'wiping-out-US' comments, Pyongyang added that the test "was neither to 'threaten' anyone nor to 'provoke' someone for a certain purpose." "It was a process indispensable for carrying out the WPK's - Workers' Party of North Korea - line on simultaneously carrying out the economic construction and the building of nuclear force to cope with the US ever-more undisguised hostile policy toward the DPRK," the agency said.

Comment: Ron Paul spoke about the hype that has been created over North Korea's nuclear program:
"Once this news is out there, propaganda machine starts working and these issues are hyped up. There are some people out there, some interested parties who have strong links to the media; they have strong links with the banking system and the military and when there are overthrow of governments I don't think even the president knows what is going on."

Ron Paul said that it seems like these people have the control of the propaganda machine and these stories are used as a propaganda tool to serve someone's personal interest.
See also:

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Chess

Update: Iran captured 2 US Navy boats that were illegally entering Iranian waters

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Wed, 13 Jan 2016 04:49 UTC
Iran Putin
© Unknown

Update: Iran plans to return the crewmen to a ship from the USS Truman carrier strike group on Wednesday.

So we suppose we can just call the sailors "State of the Union hostages". The rationale for waiting until tomorrow (i.e. until after Obama's speech): it's safer to carry out the exchange in daylight, according to an unnamed US official.

In short, the Ayatollah has just pulled off one epic publicity stunt.

Tensions were already running high between Tehran and Washington in the wake of Iran's move to test-fire a next generation surface-to-surface ballistic missile with the range to hit Israel.

And then the IRGC conducted a live-fire rocket test within 1,500 yards of a US aircraft carrier in the Strait of Hormuz.

Now, in a further escalation, Iran has reportedly seized two US Navy ships.

Comment: Iran has drawn a line in the sand - they are serious about defending their territory. And yet the US media treats them as though they're the aggressor. How would the US react if Russian or Iranian ships continued to trespass onto American territory? They'd be howling for sanctions & the war hawks would be demanding troops on the ground!

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Chess

The world is witnessing the next stage in the war for the Middle East

F. William Engdahl
New Eastern Outlook
Wed, 13 Jan 2016 05:07 UTC
Cameron Saudi Arabia
© Unknown
We're about to be plunged into a new oil war in the Middle East, this one with a possible nuclear dimension. Wars for control of oil have been instigated for more than a century since the dawn of the petroleum era around the time of the First World War. This war for control of oil, however, promises to be of a scale that will change world politics in a spectacular and highly destructive manner. It is on one level, a Saudi war to redraw the national borders of the infamous Anglo-French Sykes-Picot carve up of the bankrupt Ottoman Turkish Empire of 1916. This war has as its foolish goal bringing the oil fields and pipeline routes of Iraq and Syria, and perhaps more of the region, under direct Saudi control, with Qatar and Erdogan's Turkey as Riyadh's partners in crime. Unfortunately, as in all wars, there will be no winners.

The EU will be a major loser as will the present citizens of Iraq and Syria, as well as the Kurdish Turkish population for starters. Erdogan's Turkish "sultanate" will be destroyed at a great cost, as will King Salman's pre-feudal Kingdom as an influence in world power games.

It's necessary to look more closely at the elements and key players preparing this new war, a war which it is likely will not last beyond perhaps the summer of 2016.

Comment: Though this analysis may be an accurate portrayal of Saudi Arabia's, Turkey's, and Washington's plans, there is many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip. After all, the Russian coalition is no doubt well aware of the duplicity involved in this 'political transition' and 'ceasefire'.

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TV

CCTV images of Salah Abdeslam released by media


RT
Mon, 11 Jan 2016 19:00 UTC
Salah Abdeslam
© BFMTV / YouTube
CCTV images showing main suspect behind deadly Paris attacks in November have been released by French BFM TV. Salah Abdeslam captured by cameras the next day after the assaults, looks relaxed, with his hands in his pockets.

The pictures of prime terror suspect were taken at a petrol station on the Belgium border at 9:30am local time on November 14, just a day after one of the deadliest attacks in France.

Both Abdeslam and his friend Hamza Attou look at ease, the images show. Attou was later detained and charged for "assisting in terrorist activity" for driving Abdeslam to Belgium.

Their relaxed mood can be explained by the fact that media hadn't yet released the photos of Abdeslam and he had not been named the major suspect in the Paris attacks. The pair might have also been high, as Attou's lawyer said that they had smoked a cannabis joint.

Comment: Perhaps their nonchalance could also be explained by a lack of involvement in the Paris attacks.

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Vader

ISIS introduces Jihadi John version 2.0

Ulson Gunnar
New Eastern Outlook
Sun, 10 Jan 2016 19:02 UTC
Jihadi John version 2.0
It didn't take long for IS (Islamic State) to find a new cartoon-style villain to fill the shoes of Mohammed "Jihadi John" Emwazi. The masked villain often appeared in high-value productions, narrating them with a perfect British accent, as the enemies of IS were slain in increasingly elaborate and equally gruesome manners.

Just as Jihadi John's villainy reached a crescendo, the US claimed it targeted and killed him in a drone strike. Nothing resembling actual confirmation was produced afterward, and many questioned the value or impact of eliminating what was for all intents and purposes merely a figurehead.

Instead of actually identifying and dismantling IS on the battlefield, the US appears to be faux-fighting the organization in a public relations campaign mimicking the simplistic narratives children might see during a G.I Joe episode on Saturday morning:
"The bad guy died, we are winning."
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Light Saber

Russia will NOT sell electricity to Ukraine, cites breach of previous contract regarding Crimea


Fort Russ
Tue, 12 Jan 2016 03:47 UTC
electricity transmission tower
Russia will not renew a contract for electricity supplies to the Ukraine after their refusal to allow the purchase of Ukrainian energy for Crimea, wrote the newspaper "Kommersant" on Tuesday, with reference to the representatives of the Russian Ministry of Energy.

A one-year contract for supplies of Russian electricity to Ukraine entered into force on 30 December 2014. The parties also agreed to ensure an uninterrupted power supply of Crimea. Both contracts — for the supply of electricity from Ukraine to Crimea from Russia to Ukraine terminated on 1st January 2016.

"Russia will not negotiate for the supply of electricity from Russia to Ukraine. It will not renew it, as initially it was linked to the contract for the supply of electricity from Ukraine in Crimea", — quotes the site from the representative of the Ministry of Energy.

The contract with Kiev on the supply of electricity in the Crimea expired on 31 December 2015. Meanwhile, Russia has not agreed to the proposal of Kiev to include in the new contract wording that Crimea is the territory of Ukraine. A specially conducted poll suggested 93% of Crimeans are against such a text. The "Kommersant" source in the industry explained that after the publication of the survey results, the government decided not to raise the issue of a contract extension.

Translated by Ollie Richardson for Fort Russ

Via RIA

Comment: More information:

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Heart - Black

Extortion? Danish MPs gain majority support for bill stripping refugees of cash, valuables for asylum


RT
Wed, 13 Jan 2016 03:36 UTC
asylum seekers syria refugees
© Johan Nilsson / Reuters
Denmark has moved forward with a controversial plan to seize refugees' cash and jewelry in return for living in asylum centers. The bill has gained a parliamentary majority, implying it should win in an upcoming vote despite heavy criticism by the UN.

"We want to limit the inflow," Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen, whose right-wing Venstre party is behind the plan, told reporters on Tuesday.

The country's far-right Danish People's Party (DPP), the Liberal Alliance, and the Conservative People's Party have reached an agreement on the bill, meaning it enjoys the support of the majority of the parties in the Danish parliament.

Three smaller left-wing parties - the Red Green Alliance, the Socialist People's Party and The Alternative - have maintained their opposition to the draft.

With two weeks left until a January 26 vote, the Parliament will begin a series of debates on the bill on Wednesday.

Proposed in late 2015, the bill would allow Danish authorities to strip migrants of cash and any individual items whose combined value exceeds 10,000 kroner (1,340 euros, $1,450). Lawmakers have raised the limit to $1,450 since its last consideration in mid-December, bringing it in line with Denmark's existing law, which requires Danes to sell all of their valuables in order to apply for unemployment benefits.
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Handcuffs

How corrupt is the US? Private prison system as extraordinary example

Eric Zuesse
Strategic Culture Foundation
Tue, 12 Jan 2016 02:29 UTC
US Liberty cartoon
Incarceration rates don't necessarily correlate with corruption, but they do reflect the extent to which a given nation's government is (by means of its laws and its enforcement of those laws) at war against its own population; and, so, technically speaking, it's supposed to reflect the prevalence of law-breaking within that nation. After all, by definition, people are presumed to be in prison for law-breaking, irrespective of whether the given nation's laws are just - and, if they're not just, then this fact reflects even more strongly that the nation itself is corrupt. So, a high incarceration-rate does strongly tend to go along with a nation's being highly corrupt, in more than merely a technical sense.

Out of the world's 223 countries, the US has the world's second-highest incarceration rate: 698 per 100,000, just behind #1 Seychelles, with 799 per 100,000. Seychelles doesn't even have as many as 100,000 people (but only 90,024 - as many people as are in the city of Temple Texas). By contrast, the US has 322,369,319; so, the US is surely the global leader in imprisonment. And, furthermore, #3, St. Kitts and Nevis, with an incarceration-rate of 607 per 100,000, has only 54,961 people (as many people as are in the city of Columbus Indiana). The only other country that might actually be close to the US in imprisoning its own people is North Korea, which could even beat out the US there, but wouldn't likely beat tiny Seychelles: North Korea is estimated to have "600-800 people incarcerated per 100,000", and a total population of 24,895,000.
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