Puppet MastersS


Bizarro Earth

Saudi Arabia spends over $60bln in 9-Month aggressions on Yemen


Farsnews Agency
Sat, 05 Dec 2015 01:01 UTC
Shiek consultation
© Unknown
The Riyadh government's invasion of Yemen has cost the kingdom tens of billions of dollars and the lives of over 2,000 Saudi soldiers killed in combat with Yemeni army and popular forces over the past 9 months, a well-known source in the royal family disclosed on Friday.

"Saudi Arabia has spent over 200 billion Saudi rials (over $60 billion) for its aggression against Yemen in the past nine months," Mujtahid wrote in his latest tweets today.

Mujtahid is a Saudi political activist who is believed to be a member of or have a well-connected source in the royal family.

He noted that the Saudi army has lost over 2,000 Saudi soldiers in the war with Yemen, while over 4,850 more have been wounded.

"The daily cost of the war for Saudi Arabia is 750 million Saudi rials (over $200 million) which is spent on purchasing bullets and for logistics," Mujtahid said.

Comment: See also: Saudi Arabia to head UN Human Rights council

Saudi Warplanes Drop Cluster Bombs on Own Soil to Prevent Yemeni Forces' Advances

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Arrow Down

Hypocrisy: US demands Russia lift sanctions against Turkey.....While praising its own anti-Russian sanctions

red_odysseus
Russia Insider
Sat, 05 Dec 2015 00:54 UTC
Obama Sanctions
© red-odysseus.livejournal.com
I've long been accustomed to US double standards, but I can't remember when this happened on the same day and by the same agency, "the State Department".
"The coordinator of the US State Department for sanctions Daniel Fried said the United States and the European Union should keep the anti-Russian sanctions in force to ensure the fulfillment of the Minsk agreements on the Ukraine", reports Russian international news agency RIA Novosti.
On the other hand, it says the United States wants Russia to withdraw its trade restrictions against Turkey: "We would like to see the end of measures causing collateral damage - trade embargoes and so on".

US impudence is surprising for its frankness. Not only is it a one-sided interpretation and erroneous assessment of the facts. Depending on which countries are involved, with no shame, white is called black and black is called white. International law is close to being trampled in the dust, removing the obligation to couch distortions of reality in more or less truthful terms.
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Cardboard Box

Istanbul residents: 'Everyone knows what's going on' with Turkey-ISIS oil trade


RT
Thu, 03 Dec 2015 23:08 UTC
satellite image turkey isis oil
© Ministry of defence of the Russian Federation / SputnikConcentration of vehicles near Dortyol in Turkey
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has adamantly denied Russian accusations of Turkey's oil dealings with Islamic State, yet ordinary Turks question his words and are not surprised by the evidence presented by Moscow.

RT's Harry Fear has asked people on the streets of Istanbul what they make of the report presented by the Russian Defense Ministry, which claims Erdogan and his family benefit from oil products smuggled by Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) from Syrian and Iraqi territory. Erdogan earlier promised to step down if such claims are proven true.

Comment: Based on this and the evidence that Russia's provided linking Erdogan to the ISIS oil trade, what are Turkish citizens going to do about Erdogan and his resignation promise?

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Info

OPEC offers no limit to pump oil

Grant Smith Angelina Rascouet Wael Mahdi
Bloomberg
Fri, 04 Dec 2015 22:30 UTC
OPEC headquarters in Vienna
© Heinz-Peter Bader / ReutersOPEC headquarters in Vienna.
OPEC signaled no respite from the global oil glut that has driven prices to a six-year low.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will keep pumping about 31.5 million barrels a day, the group's President Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu said Friday after a meeting of ministers in Vienna. Members set aside their previous daily output target of 30 million barrels, a ceiling breached for 18 months. OPEC will wait until June to decide on a new limit, Secretary General Abdalla El-Badri said.

OPEC oil production chart
"Why should OPEC alone sacrifice its part in the market," Iraq's Oil Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi told reporters after the meeting. "Americans don't have any ceiling, Russians don't have any ceiling, why should OPEC have a ceiling?"

Comment: It's a free-for-all right now in the oil market. Every oil producing nation is on their own. As the global economy continues to falter, oil demand will probably decrease as well except maybe for heating: Winter is coming! Global warming - largest science scandal in US history

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X

Iraqi PM to US: Sending foreign combat troops will be considered a hostile act, will respond accordingly


RT
Fri, 04 Dec 2015 22:05 UTC
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi
© Kirill Kudryavtsev / ReutersIraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi
Iraq has not requested that any country send ground troops into its territory and will regard any such move as a "hostile act," the country's prime minister, Haider Al-Abadi, said in view of a US decision to deploy special forces in the country. Iraq "will consider any country sending ground combat forces a hostile act and will deal with it on this basis," Al-Abadi said in a statement published by the prime minister's office on Thursday, adding that "the Iraqi government is committed to not allowing the presence of any ground force on the land of Iraq."

"The Iraqi government confirms its firm and categorical rejection of any action of this kind issued by any country [that] violates our [Iraq's] national sovereignty,"Al-Abadi also said in the statement.

Baghdad "did not request any side... to send ground forces to Iraq," he added, thus refuting reports that the Iraqi government had called for deployment of foreign troops to help Iraqi forces fight Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS?ISIL). Iraq does not need any foreign forces from any state or international coalition, it only needs weapons, ammunition and training from its partners and allies in the fight against IS, the prime minister's statement says.

Al-Abadi's statement comes after the US announced plans to dispatch special forces to Iraq to fight Islamic State, both in Iraq and northern Syria. On November 24, a US Combined Joint Task Force spokesman, Colonel Steve Warren, said that about 100 Expeditionary Targeting Force personnel would be sent to Iraq with some US senators proposing tripling that number, AFP reports.

Comment: Iraq is making it perfectly clear to the US that their terrorist-sympathizing ground troops are being recognized for exactly who they are.

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Jet5

Iranian task force helped rescue downed Russian pilot, blocking Turkish blackmail plan


FARS News Agency
Thu, 26 Nov 2015 18:51 UTC

Comment: The stories we hear in the news about world events are often a mere fraction of what is really going on. If the account below is true, then it is possible that there was a lot more to the downing of the Russian jet by Turkey than is publicly acknowledged. Given how the events played out, Turkey's decision to down the jet does not make sense (suggesting possible NATO treachery). But perhaps things did not go according to plan: Iran, Syria and Russia may have stymied a plan that Turkey hoped to use to their own political advantage. If so, they are paying for it now.


soleimani
IRGC Qods Force Commander Major General Soleimani
Russian sources revealed on Thursday that the pilot of the Russian Su-24 jet that was shot down by Turkey over the Syrian airspace on Tuesday was rescued in an operation by Iran's globally renowned IRGC Qods Force Commander Major General Soleimani.

On Tuesday, a Russian Su-24 bomber jet crashed in Syria. Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the plane was downed by an air-to-air missile launched by a Turkish F-16 jet over Syrian territory, falling 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) from the Turkish border.

The crew of the plane ejected and one pilot was killed by fire from the ground, according to the Russian General Staff. The co-pilot Captain Konstantin Murahtin survived. But the story of how he survived in a land surrounded by various types of terrorist groups for tens of kilometers was unknown until today.
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Eye 1

Senate NSA bill would expand requirements of phone companies


RT
Fri, 04 Dec 2015 18:32 UTC
Angus Stanley King, an American politician and the junior United States Senator from the state of Maine (left). Tom Cotton, an American politician, the junior United States Senator from Arkansas, a member of the Republican Party (right)
© WikipediaThe perpetrators of this new bill: Angus Stanley King of Maine (left), and Tom Cotton of Arkansas
A new Senate bill would require phone companies to notify the government if a change is made in how customer records are stored. This comes as the NSA's bulk data collection expires but calls to increase surveillance intensify following recent attacks.

On Thursday, Angus King (I-Maine) and Senators Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) introduced the Private Sector Call Record Retention Act. This followed the expiration of the National Security Agency's (NSA) controversial bulk collection of millions of Americans' phone records.

Comment: What a load of baloney! So far the US efforts to stop ISIS terrorism has resulted in next to nothing compared to the huge damage inflicted on ISIS by Russia over the past month or so. If Russia can do it why can't the USA? The answer seems rather obvious.

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Bomb

German MP slams Berlin's military operation in Syria as 'lunacy'


Sputnik
Fri, 04 Dec 2015 18:11 UTC
A Luftwaffe (German Air Force), Panavia Tornado IDS aircraft
© WikipediaA Luftwaffe (German Air Force), Panavia Tornado IDS aircraft"
Sahra Wagenknecht, deputy chair of the German Die Linke (Left Party), criticized the government's decision to send a military party to battle Islamic State terrorists in Syria.

In an interview with Die Welt she said that the decision, agreed upon in Vienna, was "sheer lunacy" that could precipitate a Third World War.

"Germany is entering a big war with a huge potential for an escalation... If in Syria we are also going to fight Russia, the conflict may degenerate into WW3," Wagenknecht warned.

Comment: It will be interesting to see if Germany is only catering to NATO, or hedging its bets for a possible alliance with Russia.

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Evil Rays

How will Russia retaliate? By defeating NATO in Syria

Tony Cartalucci
New Eastern Outlook
Thu, 03 Dec 2015 17:53 UTC
s-400
Geopolitical analyst Christoph Germann posted a very subtle, almost unnoticed link in his Twitter feed in the immediate aftermath of the ambush of Russia's Su-24 near the Syrian-Turkish border by an alleged Turkish F-16.

It was a link to an article published just ahead of the incident titled, "US air force Gen Selva visits Ankara to discuss terror, Syria," which stated specifically (emphasis added):
Vice Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Paul J. Selva starts his visit to Ankara reportedly to discuss the fight against DAESH and Turkey's border security in the region,

Selva, an air force general and the nation's second-highest ranking military officer, is expected to commence his official talks with Turkish officials today and pay his first visit to Deputy Chief of Military General Staff Gen. Yaşar Güler.

During the meetings the officials are expected to discuss the Russian airstrikes on Turkmen-populated areas in Syria as well as other issues pertaining to the region.
It would seem that the US general would be either on hand, or having just concluded his business with his Turkish counterparts just as Turkey carried out what surely was a long-planned ambush of a Russian warplane near the Syrian-Turkish border, and in particular, precisely over the "Turkmen-populated areas in Syria."

Comment: This is something the American 'strategists' don't seem to get: that Russia can't be goaded, prodded or coerced into making decisions that would hinder the completion of their real goals. Putin seems to have the Midas touch in this regard: whatever the West throws at them, the Russians manage to turn it around in such a way that helps them, politically, economically, militarily.

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Jet1

US-Led coalition triples drone missions over Syria - Russian MoD


Sputnik News
Fri, 04 Dec 2015 22:22 UTC
The US-led coalition in Syria has deployed three times more drones in the past few days than before with up to fifty UAV's often up in the air at the same time, the Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said on Friday.

"Most of these drones are on reconnaissance missions over terrorist-held oilfields and could share the information with the public," Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov told reporters in Moscow.

Comment: Maybe the US-led coalition is surveying damage to their ISIS assets?

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