Puppet MastersS


Mr. Potato

U.S. still taking credit for Russia's & Iraq's victories against ISIS


Sputnik
Fri, 08 Jan 2016 13:37 UTC
Russian warplane airstrikes
© Sputnik/ Dmitriy Vinogradov
Russia's counterterrorism operation in Syria has essentially made possible the achievements of the Iraqi forces in their fight against Daesh, political analyst Professor Stephen F. Cohen said during the John Batchelor Show.

This could sound surprising to some but consider this: Moscow's anti-Daesh campaign, according to Cohen, "has been denigrated and deleted in the US press coverage but it has been very-very successful." The analyst described Russia's contribution to the fight against Daesh as "tremendous."

Moscow has helped Damascus-led forces to strengthen their position so that they could tackle Daesh. The campaign has "also contributed to the wins (that the United States is boasting of) in Iraq," the analyst said, referring to the recent victory in Ramadi.

Comment: And this is why the US won the Liar's Award for 2015 - though German media came in a very close second:
The United States government can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but it cannot fool all of the people all of the time. That's why when State Department Spokesman John Kirby bragged up Washington's sordid achievements of 2015, even things that they never did, such as the declaration that the US brought "peace and security to Syria," everyone in the entire world raised eyebrows and said come again?

Writing in his laudatory year-in-review, Kirby further bragged of the US "stepping up to aid the Syrian people during their time of need," while taking credit for peace talks set for next month. Ironically, the peace talks are the fruit of a joint Russian-Iranian effort to get the opposition groups - not "moderate" terrorists - to talk with the Syrian government, something the War Party and its vassals had long resisted and openly opposed. Kirby's silly declaration notwithstanding, the War Party is no longer able to hide the bitter truth about the ongoing proxy war from hardcore thinkers:

Liar's Award for 2015: US brought peace to Syria!


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Snakes in Suits

Bill Clinton warned Tony Blair of Saddam Hussein 'nightmare' four years before Iraq War


RT
Fri, 08 Jan 2016 14:01 UTC
Bill Clinton and Tony Blair
© Lucas Jackson / Reuters
President Bill Clinton warned Prime Minister Tony Blair that Iraq could become a "nightmare" for the UK four years before Britain and the US invaded the country in search of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

Previously secret transcripts of phone calls between the two leaders reveal Clinton spoke to Blair extensively about Saddam Hussein's suspected chemical weapons and his violation of no-fly zones.

The documents published by the BBC following a Freedom of Information (FoI) request, also disclose the two leaders' mixed feelings about newly elected Russian President Vladimir Putin.

While Clinton initially lavished praise on Putin as someone with "enormous potential," he later expressed caution about the Russian leader, suggesting he would get "get squishy on democracy."
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Attention

No boots on the ground? Local report claims US troops deployed in Syria's Aleppo


FARS News Agency
Fri, 08 Jan 2016 13:53 UTC
US troops
US ground forces have been stationed in the surrounding areas of Tishrin Dam Northeast of Aleppo province after the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) seized full control of the dam from the ISIL nearly two weeks ago, media reports disclosed on Friday.

"US troops are presently in control of the Tishrin Dam," the Arabic service of Deutsche Welle news channel quoted Syria's Local Coordinating Committees as saying on Friday.

This is the first US deployment of ground forces in Syria after the crisis started in the country in March 2011.

The US deployment runs counter to President Obama's repeated claims that his country would have "no boots on the ground" in Iraq and Syria.
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Quenelle - Golden

German MP: West needs to put serious pressure on Erdoğan to end his deals with ISIS


Sputnik
Fri, 08 Jan 2016 13:29 UTC
German politician Sahra Wagenknecht
© AFP 2015/ CLEMENS BILAN
As long as the Turkish President pursues a policy that contributes to the prosperity of terrorists in the Middle East, a resolution on addressing the situation in the region would be extremely difficult, German politician Sahra Wagenknecht said.

Western countries should exert pressure on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and put an end to the secret relations of Ankara and Daesh (also known as Islamic State terrorist group), otherwise the conflict in Syria may escalate, Deputy Chairman of the Left Party Sahra Wagenknecht said in an interview with German magazine Spiegel.

"The escalation risks are extremely high," Wagenknecht said. "There are now 15 countries fighting in Syria, sometimes together, sometimes side by side, sometimes against each other. There is no common strategy," she added.

Comment: German MP Sahra Wagenknecht has a lot more to say in the following fascinating documentary:

World Order: New Russian documentary on US hegemony - Includes recent interviews with Vladimir Putin (EN SUBS)

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Bad Guys

Iran's media links Erdoğan to anti-Shiite executions, Turkey summons Iran's envoy in response


Sputnik
Fri, 08 Jan 2016 04:11 UTC
Turkey Erdogan
© AFP 2015/ OZAN KOSE
Turkey has summoned Iran's ambassador over the spread of reports by Iranian media drawing a connection between the visit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the capital of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, and the execution of a top Iranian Shiite Cleric by Saudi Arabia, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.

Erdogan visited Saudi Arabia on December 29-31, holding talks on the Syrian crisis with Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the King of Saudi Arabia.

"We strongly condemn the linking of our president's recent visit to Saudi Arabia to the executions sentenced in the country in stories published on media outlets linked to Iranian official bodies," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement, as quoted by The Daily Sabah on Thursday.

Comment: Iran's onto your sleazy games, Erdoğan - and so is the rest of the thinking world:
Curiously, Turkish President Erdogan paid a visit to the Kingdom right before the unannounced execution and shortly after the terrorist gathering, so connecting the anti-Syrian plot points, it looks like the Turkey-Saudi-Qatari bloc of destabilizers plans to undermine both the Geneva intra-Syrian and Vienna extra-Syrian peace talks. As regards the former, they may now order their radical Islamist proxies into making unreasonable demands in order to sabotage the dialogue process, and per the latter, they might threaten to temporarily suspend their participation if Iran isn't kicked out.

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


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Bad Guys

Best of the Web: 'Suspicious timing': The geopolitics behind Saudi Arabia's recent executions & provocations

Andrew Korybko
Sputnik
Fri, 08 Jan 2016 04:18 UTC
Saudi executions protests
© REUTERS/ Thaier Al-Sudani
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.

Saudi Arabia just beheaded a prominent anti-government activist and Shiite cleric, Nimr al-Nimr, on trumped-up charges of "terrorism", executing him alongside suspected al Qaeda fighters. The message Riyadh sent was simple enough — Shiite activists are equivalent to terrorists in the Kingdom's calculus, and this predictably engendered outrage all across the world, especially in majority-Shiite Iran. The resultant protests, some of which regretfully turned violent and targeted Saudi diplomatic facilities, were cited as 'proof' of Iran's 'aggression' against Saudi Arabia and became the publicly presentable reason for why Riyadh cut off all diplomatic and economic ties with Tehran.

Suspicious Timing

Sanctions Removal

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.

Comment: For more on the struggle between these two diametrically opposed 'world orders,' check out:

World Order: New Russian documentary on US hegemony - Includes recent interviews with Vladimir Putin (EN SUBS)

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Stock Down

Desperate for money? Saudi Arabia's largest state-owned oil company may go public for first time


Sputnik
Fri, 08 Jan 2016 03:56 UTC
Saudi oil Aramco
© John Moore/Associated Press
In the latest sign of Saudi Arabia's attempt to grapple with stagnating oil prices, the nation's largest, state-owned oil company may soon go public.

For decades, Saudi Aramco has maintained control of the kingdom's oil supply. The state-owned behemoth - in fact, the largest energy company in the world - is worth an estimated "trillions of dollars," according to officials speaking to the Economist.

It is, unequivocally, the principle source of the Gulf nation's wealth.

But according to the Economist, Saudi Arabia's deputy crown prince, Muhammad bin Salman, has indicated that the government may sell off shares in Aramco for the first time in the company's existence.

Comment: Also see: China, oil and markets are all one story

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Star of David

NGO accuses Israel of covertly planning to restart 'frozen' West Bank settlement project

Inna Lazareva
The Telegraph
Tue, 29 Dec 2015 03:07 UTC
illegal settlers E1 west bank bedouins
© Agence France-Presse
Right-wing Israelis march from the Jewish settlement of Maale Adumim to the E1 area
Peace Now says Israel is still pursuing plans to construct houses in the controversial E1 area despite halting the project amid international protest

An Israeli NGO has claimed the government has been working quietly to advance plans for the future construction of more than 8,000 settler homes in the West Bank area known as E1, despite an official freeze on the controversial project.

Peace Now said it obtained documents from the Housing Ministry which indicate that while no construction has yet been approved, Israel has not shelved its plans and has continued to hire architects for the scheme, which drew international protest including from the UK.

The NGO said it had obtained the documents through a freedom of information request after a lengthy legal battle.

Comment: Israel will say the right things to blunt criticism of its psychopathic drive for a "pure, Greater Israel", but her actions betray her every time.

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Rocket

Sanctions apply only when they suit Western interests: Washington lifts ban on Russian rocket engines

Ulson Gunnar
New Eastern Outlook
Thu, 07 Jan 2016 00:00 UTC
russian rockets
Washington, who leveled widespread sanctions against Russia in an increasingly tenuous bid to isolate and undermine the stability of Moscow, has found itself humiliated and backtracking as it lifts bans on Russia's RD-180 rocket engines.

And even as Washington does so, the US media finds itself still painting Russia as a villain even as the US finds itself forced to buy rockets from a nation it claims invaded Crimea, is fostering a "hybrid war" in eastern Ukraine, and is bombing US-backed "rebels" in Syria. It is worth mentioning that Russia's RD-180 rocket engines, possessing unparalleled performance US firms have yet to match, will be used to launch payloads into Earth orbit for the US Department of Defense.
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Dollars

Continuing decline of the Petrodollar: Iran and India to trade oil in Rupees

Rudy Panko
Russia Insider
Wed, 06 Jan 2016 00:00 UTC
iran flag oil well india petrodollar
Iran is interested in closer cooperation with BRICS, the Eurasian Economic Union, and the SCO

It's no longer idle talk: Countries are ditching the dollar

Iran and India have announced that they intend to settle all outstanding crude oil payments in rupees, as part of a joint strategy to dump the dollar and trade instead in national currencies. The Indian Express reports:

Comment: Trading oil in US dollars is one of the few things that has kept the dollar from completely collapsing, especially amidst the large quantity of fiat dollar printing "Quantitative Easing" that's been done over the years. The days are numbered for the US petrodollar:

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