Puppet MastersS


Dominoes

Iranian Brigadier General: Sectarian policies will bury Saudi Arabia


Press TV
Thu, 07 Jan 2016 11:33 UTC
Salami
© www.presstv.irBrigadier General Hossein Salami • It is important what Iran and its experts think.
A senior Iranian commander says Saudi Arabia will collapse in the near future, unless it ends its sectarian policies in the region. "The policies of the Saudi regime will have a domino effect and they will be buried under the avalanche they have created," said Brigadier General Hossein Salami, the second-in-command of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), on Thursday. "If the Al Saud regime does not correct this path, it will collapse in the near future," Tasnim news agency quoted General Salami as saying.

On Saturday, Saudi Arabia announced the executions of top Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr and 46 others despite international calls for their release. This led angry protesters to held demonstrations in front of the Saudi embassy in Tehran and its consulate in the northeastern city of Mashhad, censuring the Al Saud regime for the killing of Nimr. Some people mounted the walls of the consulate in Mashhad while incendiary devices were hurled at the embassy in Tehran. Some 50 people were detained over the transgression.

Riyadh severed diplomatic relations with Tehran after the incident. General Salami described the kingdom's decision to sever ties with Tehran "irrational," adding that the violence in Iraq and Syria were the direct results of Saudi's sectarian policies in the region.

He also compared the policies of the Saudi regime with those of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein who was executed in 2006 during the US-led invasion of Iraq. The path the Saudi regime is taking is like the one Saddam took in the 1980s and 90s. He started a war with Iran, executed prominent clerics and top officials, suppressed dissidents and ended up having that miserable fate, Salami noted.

Comment: A fait accompli? A particular past and present always connect with a particular future (and this one does not look good). The time is running out for healthy change. Baring that, there will be no option but to accept the full bore of consequences.

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Bomb

At least 65 killed in deadliest bomb attack on Libya police training center


RT
Thu, 07 Jan 2016 13:33 UTC
Map of Libya
A truck rigged with explosives has crashed into a police training camp in Zliten, Libya, killing at least 65 people in the ensuing blast and injuring up to 100, according to hospital sources.

The explosion at the Libyan Interior Ministry training camp occurred at 8:00am local time. A truck drove through the gates of the facility as hundreds of cadets were gathering for a graduation ceremony.

Reportedly, the camp training coast guards accommodates up to 400 trainees. No group has so far claimed responsibility for the apparent terror attack.

The port of Zliten is about 160 kilometers to the east of the capital Tripoli.

Comment: More news on the Libyan crises: 'Pray for us': Libya issues 'cry for help' as Islamic State advances on oil fields

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Attention

More than 1,000 counterfeit life jackets found in raid on Turkish workshop staffed with Syrian children


RT
Thu, 07 Jan 2016 13:21 UTC
Turkey fake life vests
© SHaberTV / YouTube
Turkey's black market economy is benefiting from the mass influx of Syrian refugees, with a raid on a life jacket manufacturing facility revealing the use of child labor along with hundreds of dangerous poor-quality vests.

Two children were discovered working in an illegal clothing workshop during a police raid in Turkey's İzmir province. The operation also uncovered the opportunistic aspect of the blackmarket economy where illegal manufacturing facilities make and then sell low-quality equipment designed to save people's lives.
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Bomb

Saudi airstrikes hit the Iranian embassy in Yemen


RT
Thu, 07 Jan 2016 13:13 UTC
Iran embassy Sanaa Saudi Arabia
© Mohammed Huwais / AFPIranian embassy in Sanaa.
Iran has accused Saudi Arabia of using warplanes to attack the Iranian embassy in the Yemeni capital Sana'a. Some guards were reportedly wounded in the attack, according to state news channel IRIB.

The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen says it will investigate the accusation, according to coalition spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri, as cited by Reuters.

Asseri acknowledged that coalition jets carried out heavy airstrikes in Sana'a on Wednesday night, targeting missile launchers used by the Houthi militia. He added that the group has used civilian facilities, including abandoned embassies.

Comment: Also see: Saudis 'terrified' by Iran's rising influence, stoke Sunni-Shiite tensions in response

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Quenelle

Russian sanctions have had an immediate impact on Turkey's economy


Sputnik
Thu, 07 Jan 2016 04:13 UTC
Turkey Obama US
© AP Photo/ Emrah Gurel
Escalating tensions and trade conflicts across the Middle East are going to hit Turkey disproportionately hard, US experts told Sputnik.

In 2014, according to Turkish foreign trade statistics, exports to Russia were worth $5.9 billion while imports from Russia were worth $25.2 billion.

"Disruption of trade and joint ventures for long-lived infrastructure can be costly to both countries, but it looks like more harmful to Turkey," retired assistant professor of economics at Brown University Barry Friedman told Sputnik.

Turkey was particularly dependent on Russia for large and reliable oil and gas imports, Friedman pointed out.
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Quenelle - Golden

Too bad! Assad remaining in power will 'infuriate' Saudi Arabia & Turkey


Sputnik
Thu, 07 Jan 2016 04:02 UTC
Assad and first lady
The timetable for a Syrian political transition, which leaves President Bashar Assad in power for at least another year, will upset the United State's traditional Arab allies, former US Ambassador to Iraq James Jeffrey told Sputnik.

In December, the UN-sponsored International Syria Support Group (ISSG) reached an agreement on a timetable for a Syrian political transition. The agreement calls for an opening of talks between the Syrian government and the opposition, and sets a date of May 2017 for official elections.

"[The United States] is going to try to shoehorn the Sunni-Arab world into a [Syrian] deal that leaves Assad in power... and that is just going to further infuriate the Saudis, the Turks, and everybody else, and further drive the region into total chaos," Jeffrey said Wednesday of US strong-arm tactics with its Arab allies.

Comment: The U.S. and its lackeys are furious that democracy is prevailing in Syria.

Also see: Al-Jazeera censors its own damning article on Saudi Arabia

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Dollars

TREASON! Bibi bribed GOP senator $1M to kill the Iran Deal


Press TV
Thu, 07 Jan 2016 03:24 UTC
Sen. Tom Cotton
© www.senateconservatives.comSenator Tom Cotton
A Republican lawmaker at the US Senate was bribed one million dollars by Israel to try sabotaging negotiations between Tehran and the world powers, including the United States.

The name of Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) emerged on news outlet on Wednesday after a report revealed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had bribed the choosy lawmakers of the Republican Party so as to kill the accord.

Cotton received $960,250 from the Emergency Committee for Israel, a right-wing political advocacy organization based in the United States, for his senatorial campaign.

As the negotiations were continuing in March 2015, the freshman senator spearheaded an open letter, signed by 47 Republican lawmakers, to warn Iran that a GOP president would not remain committed to any agreement with Tehran.

"I'm pretty sure Bill Kristol (the owner of the Emergency Committee for Israel) did write this letter," American geopolitical commentator Dean Henderson told Press TV at the time. Kristol has been notorious for backing Israel and as a leading proponent of US military intervention in Muslim countries, including the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, in order to further the Zionist interests.

Comment: "Money don't buy you love..." Will be interesting to find out the total price tag of this fiasco.

See also: Israel and House Republicans faced with news of damning wiretaps

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Propaganda

Al-Jazeera censors its own damning article on Saudi Arabia

Michael Krieger
Liberty Blitzkrieg
Tue, 05 Jan 2016 12:55 UTC
Barbaric Saudis
On December 3rd, a month before Saudi Arabia carried out it largest mass execution since 1980 — subsequently setting the region on fire — Arjun Sethi wrote an article for Al-Jazeera titled: Saudi Arabia Uses Terrorism As An Excuse for Human Rights Abuses. According to Cora Currier at the Intercept:
Al Jazeera's headquarters in Qatar appear to have blocked the article outside of the United States because it is critical of an ally of Qatar.
Naturally, this makes you want to drop everything and read it. So here are some excerpts courtesy of the Intercept:
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Bomb

'Pray for us': Libya issues 'cry for help' as Islamic State advances on oil fields

Tyler Durden
Zerohedge
Wed, 06 Jan 2016 21:37 UTC
Libya map
"We are helpless and not being able to do anything against this deliberate destruction to the oil installations. NOC urges all faithful and honorable people of this homeland to hurry to rescue what is left from our resources before it is too late."
That's from Libya's National Oil Corp and as you might have guessed, it references the seizure of state oil assets by Islamic State, whose influence in the country has grown over the past year amid the power vacuum the West created by engineering the demise of Moammar Qaddafi.

The latest attacks occurred in Es Sider, a large oil port that's been closed for at least a year.

Seven guards were killed on Monday in suicide bombings while two more lost their lives on Tuesday as ISIS attacked checkpoints some 20 miles from the port. "Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, Libya's biggest oil ports, have been closed since December 2014," Reuters notes. "They are located between the city of Sirte, which is controlled by Islamic State, and the eastern city of Benghazi."

Comment: For an insightful interview on the Libyan situation: Western media AWOL as 'Islamic State' regroups in Libya: Interview with James & Joanne Moriarty

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Colosseum

Colonization 3.0: Italy and UK to occupy Libya, again

Brandon Turbeville
Activist Post
Tue, 05 Jan 2016 20:48 UTC
endless war
© Anthony FredaAnthony Freda “Endless War”
As time passes over the foreign policy of Western nations, the façade of promoting "freedom" and "democracy" passes with it. Even with well-established propaganda mechanisms in place to convince the Western public that NATO involvement in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) serves a noble purpose, there are breaks in the wall of nonsense that passes for official explanations and mainstream media reporting that document the NATO march of terror across the world that is currently underway.

In this case, the lie is that a direct Western presence in Libya is anything other than a return to open colonialism by the very powers who perpetrated it in years past on the very same territory.

The latest crack in the façade (for those paying attention), is the deployment of a joint British-Italian force consisting of 6,000 soldiers to Libya under the guise of defeating ISIS.

It is estimated that there are around 4,000 ISIS fighters present in Libya at the moment and that these fighters pose a significant threat to the national security of European nations as well as a number of oil fields located in Libya.

Comment: The purpose of invading Libya was never humanitarian in nature. This latest development is a win-win scenario for the war-mongers in the West. If they manage to get control of the oil field, it's a great opportunity to gain oil access and strategic footing, as Turbeville points out. But if they don't, they can always provide covert assistance to their ISIS tools, like the U.S. and its allies have been doing for ISIS in Syria and Iraq. If ISIS falls in those two nations, Libya looks like the perfect 'Plan B'. Never let a good mercenary force go to waste!

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