Puppet MastersS


Cow Skull

Iraqi Air Force reports top ISIS commander killed in Anbar airstrike


RT
Sun, 10 Jan 2016 09:38 UTC
Dead IS members
© Rodi Said/Reuters
The second top deputy of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and chief of staff of Islamic State's Military Council was killed in an airstrike, the Iraqi Air Force has claimed.

The airstrike allegedly took place in western Anbar province, east of the town of Haditha.

The deceased commander is reported to have been Assi Ali Mohammed Nasser al-Obeidi. He was formerly a colonel in the Iraqi Republican Guards during the reign of Saddam Hussein. He spent some years in American prisons before joining Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).

Al-Obeidi became acquainted with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the current IS leader, in Camp Bucca prison. The Americans released al-Baghdadi from Camp Bucca in 2009, while al-Obeidi was transferred to the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, from which he escaped in 2013. He became a top IS commander and went under the name of "Abu Omar al-Obeidi."

Al-Obeidi hailed from the small town of Hawija to the west from Kirkuk. His last post was chief of staff of Islamic State's Military Council. Al-Obeidi adds to the long list of top rank IS commanders reported to have been eliminated by the Iraqi Army in recent months. They include al-Baghdadi's top deputy Abu Ali al-Anbari and the head of IS' intelligence committee Abu Hassan al-Sahabi.

As recently as Friday, January 8, the Iraqi Defense Ministry announced: "ISIL Spokesman Abu Mohammad al-Adnani was killed during the terrorist group's offensive at the town of Barwani in Iraq's Western territories," although the terrorist group is yet to make any official statement on al-Adnani's death.

In October 2015, a convoy of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was targeted by an Iraqi Air Force airstrike, also in western Anbar province bordering Syria. It was heading to Al-Karable to attend a meeting with other IS commanders. The airstrike reportedly killed dozens of jihadists who were accompanying the IS leader. Al-Baghdadi was wounded himself and evacuated to safety to undergo medical treatment.

Comment: Another one bites the dust!

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

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USA

The US Government is the most complete criminal organization in human history

Paul Craig Roberts
paulcraigroberts.org
Sat, 09 Jan 2016 18:19 UTC
US Capitol
© Wikimedia Commons
Unique among the countries on earth, the US government insists that its laws and dictates take precedence over the sovereignty of nations. Washington asserts the power of US courts over foreign nationals and claims extra-territorial jurisdiction of US courts over foreign activities of which Washington or American interest groups disapprove. Perhaps the worst results of Washington's disregard for the sovereignty of countries is the power Washington has exercised over foreign nationals solely on the basis of terrorism charges devoid of any evidence.

Consider a few examples. Washington first forced the Swiss government to violate its own banking laws. Then Washington forced Switzerland to repeal its bank secrecy laws. Allegedly, Switzerland is a democracy, but the country's laws are determined in Washington by people not elected by the Swiss to represent them.

Consider the "soccer scandal" that Washington concocted, apparently for the purpose of embarrassing Russia. The soccer organization's home is Switzerland, but this did not stop Washington from sending FBI agents into Switzerland to arrest Swiss citizens. Try to imagine Switzerland sending Swiss federal agents into the US to arrest Americans.

Consider the $9 billion fine that Washington imposed on a French bank for failure to fully comply with Washington's sanctions against Iran. This assertion of Washington's control over a foreign financial institution is even more audaciously illegal in view of the fact that the sanctions Washington imposed on Iran and requires other sovereign countries to obey are themselves strictly illegal. Indeed, in this case we have a case of triple illegality as the sanctions were imposed on the basis of concocted and fabricated charges that were lies.
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Star of David

100 days of Israeli extrajudicial executions and brutal intimidation


Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor
Sat, 09 Jan 2016 00:00 UTC
death squad
© AFPIsraeli death squad steps over a Palestinian man after killing him in the center of the Israeli-occupied city of al-Khalil (Hebron), October 29, 2015.
1 October 2015 - 8 January 2016

Executive Summary

It has been 100 days since grassroots, mostly youth-led protests broke out in Jerusalem, in reaction to increasing Israeli incursions into and restrictions on Islam's Al-Aqsa Mosque. Since then, mass protests and individual attacks have spread across the West Bank and into Gaza and communities of Palestinian Israelis.

The story told primarily by the international media is one of Palestinian stabbers and Israeli retaliation in self-defense. However, as the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor documents in this 100-day report, proven Palestinian attacks are relatively small in number and often committed by lone youth, while the number of arrests, harassment and executions committed by Israeli forces are increasingly excessive and disproportionate.

As such, the behavior of the Israeli military constitutes violations of international law, and thus Euro-Med demands that the United Nations and other international bodies, as well as governments doing business with Israel, act now to pressure Israeli authorities to stop the abuse of human rights and end the root cause of the unrest: its decades-long occupation of the Palestinian territories.

Comment: There is no stopping Israeli atrocities if there is no one committing to stopping them.

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Cow

SOTT Focus: 'Liberal' British Newspaper The Guardian Exposes Itself (again) as Propaganda Wing of Fascist British Government

Joe Quinn
Sott.net
Sun, 10 Jan 2016 18:05 UTC
media
A headline, from today, on the British Guardian newspaper's web site:
Murder in Istanbul: Kremlin's hand suspected in shooting of Chechen
'Oh, those terrible Russians and that ruthless Putin are up to their old extrajudicial murder tricks again! Will they never learn about real democracy! At least we, the great Western public (and therefore representatives of the 'global community'), are holding them to account as best we can by imposing 'sanctions' and hysterically demonizing them every time they fly a plane near Scotland.'

The above reflects, more or less, the thoughts that would have rattled around the, largely empty, vessel that is the cranium of the average Western citizen, as he or she read the above Guardian headline. And what else can we expect when such pernicious propaganda is catapulted at them on a daily basis?

Look at that headline again: "Murder". Well, right there you have the judgement... MURDER! And who did? The KREMLIN! Who else! And the victim? A CHECHEN! Oh dear Lord! Those poor chech-y people who have, for decades, if I vaguely remember, been trying to tear themselves away from the greedy grasp of the new Russian/Soviet Empire! There's no need to read any further, we have all the information we need!
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Document

Flashback Best of the Web: Vladimir Putin's first paper as president: 'Russia at the Turn of the Millennium' - A Strategy for Russia's Revival

Vladimir Putin
Sott.net
Fri, 31 Dec 1999 18:39 UTC

Comment: The following essay by Vladimir Putin first appeared on the website of the Government of the Russian Federation on December 31st, 1999, when Putin was prime minister and had just been named acting president of Russia by the departing Boris Yeltsin.

While it was obviously too early to specify the steps Russia would take to come back from the brink of collapse, it did recognise where Russia was at that point, and outlined the broad strokes of what might be considered Putin's 'strategy' - pragmatic reform, selectively assessed and implemented, and based on the world as it is, not on 'the world according to ideology'.

At that point, Putin had had relatively little experience in politics, much less as an administrator or civil servant. It is remarkable for someone without the maturity earned from decades of experience in government to produce such a document immediately after landing a job he was neither anticipating nor wanted.

Remarkably, Putin estimated back then that it would take Russia 15 years to get back on its feet...


putin yeltsin
Humankind is witnessing two major events: the new millennium and the 2000th anniversary of Christianity. I think that the general interest and attention paid to these two events is more profound than the usual celebration of red-letter dates.

New Possibilities, New Problems

It may be a coincidence - but then again, it may not be - that the beginning of the new millennium coincides with the dramatic turn in world developments in the past 20-30 years. I mean the deep and rapid changes in humankind's whole way of life related to the formation of what we call the post-industrial society. Here are its main features:
  • Changes in the economic structure of society, with the diminishing importance of material production and the growing importance of secondary and tertiary sectors.
  • Consistent renewal and quick introduction of novel technologies and the growing output of science-intensive production.
  • Landslide developments in information science and telecommunications.
  • Priority attention to management and the improvement systems of organisation and guidance in all spheres of human endeavour.
  • And lastly, human leadership. It is the individual and his or her high standards of education, professional training, business and social activity that are becoming the guiding force of progress today.
A new type of society develops slowly enough for careful politicians, statesmen, scientists, and all those who use their brains, to notice two issues of concern.

Comment: New Year address by Vladimir Putin, December 31, 1999 (with English subtitles):



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Magnify

South Front International Military Reports: Russia, North Korea, China and Middle East


South Front
Sun, 10 Jan 2016 00:00 UTC
south front
Russia Defense Report (Jan. 10): Caspian Fleet
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Eye 2

Anti-Assad propaganda: Lebanese family reveals child 'starved by Syrian army' is their healthy daughter!

Rudy Panko
Russia Insider
Sun, 10 Jan 2016 13:32 UTC
propaganda
© Unknown
A viral photo depicting a "malnourished Syrian child" being "starved" by the "evil Syrian army" is a bona fide fraud. The details, via Lebanon's Daily Star ('Starving Syria child' revealed as south Lebanon girl):
The family of a south Lebanon girl depicted in a photo that went viral alleging to show a starving child from a besieged Syrian border town has expressed anger over the incident.

"They took it too far this time," Rosine Mazeh, the grandmother of 7-year-old Marianna Mazeh, told Al-Jadeed from their village of Tay Filsey in a report broadcast Saturday.
Anti Assad propaganda starving girl
© UnknownNeither of these pictures are from Madaya
She said the photo of her smiling brown-haired, blue-eyed granddaughter was originally posted to Facebook three years ago and had been doctored several times in the past by individuals promoting different causes.

Most recently, the photo was circulated in a side-by-side with images depicting a skeletal figure said to be suffering from malnutrition as a result of a Syrian army siege in the town of Madaya, located several kilometers east of Lebanon's border.

Several other photos circulating on social media and picked up by some international news agencies that alleged to show starvation from the town have also been revealed as fakes.

Comment: This propaganda has really gone too far. Is anyone still buying this nonsense? If NATO has their way in Syria children will suffer even worse fates than starvation. For a hint of what they have in mind just look at what they're doing to Libya:
Much of Sirte's population of 300,000 either succumbed to genocide or fled during and after the violent 2011 coup and NATO bombardment in Libya (told fully in horrific detail for the first time here). By mid-2012, about 70% of the population had returned to Sirte, then spent three years attempting to rebuild until, in February 2015, 'ISIS' terrorists appeared out of nowhere - in a fleet of brand, spanking new Toyota pick-ups - and commenced a siege of the city.

In August 2015, ISIS brutally quelled a rebellion by citizens who took up arms to try to push the terrorists away from their city. Desperate, the Council of Deputies (one of Libya's two 'legitimate' governments - three if you include ISIS) formally requested support from the Arab League in the form of airstrikes against the terrorists.

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


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2 + 2 = 4

Former CIA officer: Putin's offer of Russian-US cooperation 'should not be refused'


Sputnik
Sun, 10 Jan 2016 11:05 UTC
Moscow Kremlin
© Sputnik/ Natalia Seliverstova
Many US officials obstinately refuse to understand the benefits from Russian-US cooperation and they willfully try to tarnish Russia's image, according to former CIA officer Philip Giraldi.

A whole array of US experts and officials create and use Russia's hostile image in order to hold down their jobs, former CIA officer Philip Giraldi, who is now executive director of the Council for the National Interest, said in his article published by the opinion journal American Conservative.

He said that when in Moscow, he often met ordinary Russians who asked him why Washington hates Russians so much and "why does the American press seemingly have nothing good to say about them?"

Comment: Also see:
By flouting the Charter and waging war without the sanction of the UN Security Council, starting with the NATO attack on Serbia in 1999 and continuing with the invasion of Iraq in 2003 up to its illegal bombings in Syria today, the United States and its NATO allies have shaken the foundations of international law.

World Order: Hearing the Russian perspective


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Snakes in Suits

German MPs lash out at Foreign Minister's plans to attend Saudi Arabia festival


Sputnik
Sun, 10 Jan 2016 11:13 UTC
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier
© AFP 2015/ TOBIAS SCHWARZ
German MPs lashed out at the country's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier over his plans to attend a cultural festival in Saudi Arabia, according to the German newspaper Die Welt.

A decision by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier to attend a cultural festival in Saudi Arabia infuriated German lawmakers, the Die Welt newspaper reported. The festival is due to take place in Janadriyah, about 42 km northeast of the capital Riyadh, in February.

Among those who expressed their dissatisfaction with the move was Norbert Rottgen, chairman of the German parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee.

"In light of the mass executions in Saudi Arabia, I believe that [the German FM] taking part in the Janadriyah Festival is irrelevant," Rottgen said.

Comment: If it was Saudi Arabia's plan to isolate Iran through these executions it looks like its plans are backfiring. Also see:
Riyadh's execution of Shiite Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr was timed to coincide with the expected lifting of anti-Iranian sanctions and the rejuvenation of the Syrian peace process. [...]

The timing of this provocation couldn't be more suspect, since it convincingly appears as though the Saudis staged it at precisely the moment when Iran was expected to be reintegrated into the global economy. The UNSC sanctions are widely expected to be lifted by the end of the month or early February, and it looks like Saudi Arabia wants to spoil the event by provoking an anti-Iranian maelstrom that puts pressure on the EU to reconsider its planned energy and infrastructure investments in the country.

Ultimately, France and Germany's economic engagement with Iran will come down to whether or not the US gives them the approval to proceed at their expected pace, and considering how successful Washington was in forcing Brussels to cut its preexisting and very profitable ties with Moscow, it can't be precluded that it could do the same in obstructing unestablished and still forthcoming deals with Tehran.

'Suspicious timing': The geopolitics behind Saudi Arabia's recent executions & provocations


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Bomb

Syrian Army makes significant gains against ISIS terrorists in Homs


Sputnik
Sun, 10 Jan 2016 10:55 UTC
Syria
© Sputnik/ Mikhail Voskresenskiy
The Syrian army and allied forces have made significant gains against Daesh (ISIL/ISIS) terrorists in Homs province, Iran's Fars news reported on Saturday.

Government forces carried out several offensives on Daesh positions in the province, shelling and storming their strongholds.

They attacked the terrorists in the al-Dowah region west of Palmyra, and close to the towns of Tir Ma'ala, Quaryatayn (south of Homs), Talbiseh (north of Homs) and near the village of Maksar al-Hassaan in the east of the province. The army reported a heavy death toll among the terrorists.

Comment: Also see: Russia's military delivers nearly 14,000 tons of cargo to Syria's Hmeimim airbase

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