Puppet MastersS


Bad Guys

State Department claims US-backed forces have right to self-defense, but others do not


RT
Tue, 24 Nov 2015 20:46 UTC
Image
© Stringer / ReutersSyrian Turkmen fighters are seen with an anti-aircraft artillery weapon near the northern Syrian village of Yamadi, near the Turkish-Syrian border, Syria, November 24, 2015.
Turkey and the rebels it backs northern Syria had the right to defend themselves against Russian airstrikes, State Department spokesman told reporters. The rebels reportedly killed one Russian pilot who ejected from the jet hit by a Turkish missile.

During the regular press briefing, Mark Toner said the Syrian government did not have such a right, though.

When asked by RT's Gayane Chichakyan if the State Department considered the rebels who reportedly killed the Russian pilots "moderates," Toner replied:
"We've seen conflicting reports. One pilot may not have been killed. If these 'Turkomen' were actually being attacked by Russian strikes, they have every right to defend themselves."

Comment: What can we say? The utter stupidity coming from the State Department is so glaringly obvious, the US sponsors terrorism.

Read More...
Bullseye

Turkey enters the war on the side of ISIL, says VP of Italian Senate


Sputnik
Tue, 24 Nov 2015 20:34 UTC
Erdogan
© Reuters/ Umit Bektas
Turkey has entered the war on the side of the Islamic State, the Vice President of the Italian Senate Roberto Calderoli said after a Russian Su-24 jet was downed over Syria with an air-to-air missile launched by a Turkish F-16 fighter. On Tuesday morning a Russian Su-24M bomber jet crashed in Syria with two people aboard. Ankara claims Turkish F-16s shot down the plane because it violated the country's airspace. Contrary to Turkey's accusations, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the aircraft was 0.6 miles away from Turkey when it was shot down.
"Turkey has officially entered the war on the side of ISIL by downing at the order of [President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan a Russian aircraft which has participated in operations against Islamic terrorists in Syria," the leading member of the Northern League (Lega Nord) Party wrote on his Facebook page.
According to Calderoli, Turkey is a "'Trojan Horse' with which assistance the Islamic fundamentalism would like to take a clear shot at the West."
"Why is Turkey still in NATO after what happened? What else can be expected of the UN apart from taking a strong stand on ISIL and its allies?" Calderoli wondered.
The politician has also criticized Rome's official stance. "The Government [of Matteo Renzi] is on the wrong side with [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel, instead of taking the side of Putin in this war to defend our values, our freedom and our traditions," Calderoli wrote.

Comment: Indeed, Turkey is fighting for ISIL in more way than one, and they've just exposed themselves for the world to see.

Read More...
Pirates

South Front: Kiev sabotages power lines to Crimea, Russia obliterates Turkish-ISIS oil racket in Syraq


South Front
Tue, 24 Nov 2015 20:28 UTC
south front
Foreign Policy Diary - Ukraine Launches Energy War Against Crimea

Read More...
Bad Guys

One dead as Russian Mi-8 helicopter attacked during pilot rescue mission in Syria


Sputnik
Tue, 24 Nov 2015 19:50 UTC
Russian helicopter
© Sputnik/ Dmitriy Vinogradov
A Russian Mi-8 helicopter came under attack while conducting a search and rescue operation, searching for the crew of the downed Su-24 in Syria. One naval infantry soldier was reported killed, the helicopter destroyed by mortar fire.

The Russian General Staff said that two Mi-8s were involved in the operation to save the crew of the downed Su-24.

One helicopter was been shot down, its crew evacuated to the Russian base at Hmeymim.

"A search and rescue operation involving two Mi-8 helicopters was carried out, charged with evacuating the pilots from the landing site. During the operation, as a result of small-arms fire, one of the helicopters was damaged, and forced to make a landing on neutral territory. One naval infantry soldier was killed," Lieutenant-General Sergei Rudskoi, the head of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, told reporters on Tuesday.
Read More...
Bullseye

Erdogan's mafia racket exposed: Russian airstrikes obliterate 1,000 ISIS tankers smuggling stolen Syrian oil to Turkey


RT
Mon, 23 Nov 2015 07:25 UTC

Comment: This report published by RT yesterday takes on new significance in light of the Turkish military today shooting down a Russian plane involved in the (real) war on terrorism in Syria. Most of the oil in this 'ratline' is smuggled out of Syria into Turkey...


Image
© Russian Defence Ministry / AFP Explosions after airstrikes carried out by Russian Air Force on an Islamic State training camp in the Syrian province of Idlib.
Russian airstrikes have torched more than 1,000 tankers taking stolen crude oil to Islamic State refineries. This blow against the jihadists comes as the Russian Air Force has hit 472 terrorist targets in two days in Syria, making 141 sorties. All Russian aircraft have successfully returned to the Khmeimim airbase near Latakia, Major General Igor Konashenkov, spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, said in a daily briefing. In the last two days, Russian warplanes have been conducting active supplemental reconnaissance, inflicting pinpoint airstrikes on newly exposed targets, he added.

"Russian bombers taking off from the Khmeimim airbase flew on combat missions to destroy tanker convoys and oil refineries in the areas of oilfields in the north and east of Syria," Konashenkov said. "A major oil depot was destroyed 15 kilometers southwest of the city of Raqqa." Russian airplanes have destroyed over 1,000 ISIS tankers with crude oil in the last five days, Konashenkov added. Sukhoi Su-34 bombers also hit a terrorist-controlled oil refinery some 50 kilometers south of Raqqa, the unrecognized capital of the Islamic State terrorists.


Russia began counterterrorist operation in Syria on September 30, after Moscow received an official request from Syrian President Bashar Assad. Initially, the military operation was conducted by a task force of more than 50 aircraft and helicopters, including the Sukhoi Su-34 and Su-24M bombers, Su-25 attack aircraft, Su-30SM fighters and Mil Mi-8 and Mi-24 helicopters.Last week, a decision was made to bolster the strike group with 37 new planes, including long-range aircraft carrying out sorties from Russian airfields.

Comment: The U.S. recently claimed to have hit Islamic State oil tankers in Syria... a claim they backed up by claiming RUSSIAN footage of tankers being destroyed as their own.

Meanwhile, Kuwait just arrested a gang that was smuggling weapons from the Ukraine to the Islamic State.

Also, new research reveals extensive cooperation between NATO member and U.S. ally Turkey and the Islamic State: the U.S. is asking for more cooperation with Turkey to shuffle more weapons into the Syria conflict and thereby, inevitably, also to the Islamic State. Some other U.S. allies are likewise deeply involved in financing and equipping ISIS.

Read More...
Airplane

Best of the Web: Stephen Lendman: 'Inconceivable that Turkey acted independently - Washington complicit in downing Russian jet?'

Stephen Lendman
Global Research
Tue, 24 Nov 2015 19:27 UTC
Image
Turkish-NATO military shoots down a Russian Su-24 jet inside Syria, 24 November 2015
Both countries are NATO allies, united against Assad, wanting him toppled, actively complicit in supporting and using ISIS, as well as other terrorist groups as proxy foot soldiers in the war Obama launched in March 2011.

It's inconceivable Turkey acted on its own, independent of US-dominated NATO. Its action is a major geopolitical incident - a premeditated act of war against Russia in Syrian airspace.

Ankara claiming the aircraft entered Turkish airspace, ignoring multiple warnings, has the distinct aroma of a bald-faced lie to cover up a hostile act.

Erdogan's recklessness has ruptured Turkish/Russian relations, at least for the time being. Sergey Lavrov cancelled his scheduled Wednesday trip to Istanbul, saying "(a) decision has been made to cancel the meeting at the level of Russian and Turkish foreign ministers..."

He urged Russian citizens to avoid visiting Turkey, leaving themselves vulnerable to terrorism, adding:
"It's necessary to emphasize that the terror threats with their roots in Turkey have been aggravated. And that's true even if we don't take into account what happened today. We estimate the threats to be no less than in Egypt."
Russia's state tourism agency Rostourism recommended suspending tour package sales to Turkey. Moscow-based Natalie tours already did so.

Putin minced no words blasting Erdogan, saying:
"(t)his incident stands out against the usual fight against terrorism.Our troops are fighting heroically against terrorists, risking their lives. But the loss we suffered today came from a stab in the back delivered by accomplices of the terrorists."
He also warned of grave consequences for Russian-Turkish relations.

Comment: The fallout from this insane act could well have far-reaching consequences for the Empire. If the Washington elite thinks this will magically provide it with leverage at the Vienna talks on Syria's future, or help it eke out a piece of northern Syria in which to provide a 'safe zone' for its head-choppers and heart-eaters, it's very much mistaken.

Russia, in the meantime, is nothing if not cautious. It can absorb this asymmetrical attack - albeit one that was done through conventional means of warfare - and essentially continue its mission in Syria as before. The writing is still on the wall for ISIS and the 'moderate head-choppers' in Syria.

In the meantime, Turkey has completely exposed itself as a funder and facilitator of 'Islamic' terrorism, and a dire fate awaits that double-dealing war criminal, the 'neo-Ottoman Sultan', Recep Erdogan.

Read More...
Pistol

New hostage situation reported in N. France, several suffer 'gunshot wounds'


RT
Tue, 24 Nov 2015 19:31 UTC
Map of France
A hostage situation has been reported in the northern French town of Roubaix. Several people have sustained gunshot wounds, Reuters reported citing medical sources.

The area has been cordoned off by police, RTL reported, adding that gunfire can be heard.

La Voix du Nord newspaper says the hostage takers are armed with Kalashnikovs. Witnesses told the daily that the incident occurred at around 7:00pm local time at a gas station.
Read More...
Airplane

Dubai Deputy Police Chief: Mossad likely behind Sinai crash


The Arab Source
Mon, 23 Nov 2015 19:36 UTC
Dhahi Khalfan Tamim
Lt Gen Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, Chief of Dubai Police.
Deputy Chief of Dubai's Police Force Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan said Israeli spy agency, Mossad, has most likely been behind the downing of the Russian passenger plane that crashed in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula earlier in October. "There is a strong possibility that Israel's intelligence has been involved in the terrorist bombing which brought down the Russian Airbus A321 in Egypt in October," Khalfan wrote on his Twitter account on Sunday.

He pointed to the close cooperation between Egypt and Russia, and said Israel cannot undermine the ties between Moscow and Cairo through such actions. "The Russian and Egyptian presidents have agreed on the construction of a nuclear power plant by Russia in Egypt."
Read More...
Snakes in Suits

Loose cannon: Erdogan's desperation to bring the focus in Syria back to Assad part of the reason for shooting down Russian jet fighter

Ranj Alaaldin
The Independent
Tue, 24 Nov 2015 19:29 UTC
Image
© EPA/Haberturk TV ChannelA still image from video footage shown on Turkish TV shows the plane with a burning trail.
Turkey is getting desperate. Under President Recep Tayip Erdogan and his party, the Justice and Development Party (AKP), its policies toward the conflict in Syria over the past four years have been misguided and costly. When conflict broke out in 2011, Ankara mistakenly under-estimated the strength of the Assad regime and supported hardline Islamist groups seeking its downfall. In the process, Turkey also marginalised the Kurds and alienated regional powers like Iran.

Four years on, Assad looks set to hold onto power and his regime will be a central part of a transition plan, one that foreign powers were negotiating last weekend. Turkey's regional rival, Iran, is a key player which can no longer be ignored by the West. Not only does the pro-Assad alliance now have Russian support firmly on its side, but the international community is no longer focused on defeating the regime - instead, it is concerned with defeating jihadist groups like Isis.

The shift in focus is a significant drawback for Erdogan. Years of support for, and investment in, Islamic fundamentalist groups like Jabhat al-Nusra (Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria) and Ahrar al-Sham are about to go to waste. Ankara has played a significant role in allowing Isis and other jihadists to flourish in Syria and the region. Turkey has acquiesced to jihadist groups entering Syria via Turkey as well as their use of Turkey as a transit point for smuggling arms and funds into Syria.
Read More...
Propaganda

Turkey makes preposterous claim that it didn't know the SU-24 warplane it shot down belonged to Russia


Sputnik
Tue, 24 Nov 2015 19:13 UTC
Russian warplane
© Sputnik/ Dmitriy Vinogradov
According to Turkey's letter to the United Nation's Security Council regarding its shooting down of a Russian bomber, the Turkish military did not know the nationality of the plane.
"This morning (24 November) 2 SU-24 planes, the nationality of which are unknown have approached Turkish national airspace in Yayladaga/Hatay region," the letter reads, drafted for the UN Security Council by the Turkish Ambassador.
Earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended the military's actions as being "fully in line with Turkey's rules of engagement," and claimed "all efforts to avoid" the incident had been made.
"We did not want this situation to happen, but everybody has to respect Turkey's right to defend its borders," Erdogan said after a security meeting.
On Tuesday, Turkish F-16s shot down a Russian Su-24 Fencer which they claim had violated Turkish airspace. Russia has maintained that its aircraft never entered Turkey — a fact confirmed by Syrian air defense command — and were conducting legitimate operations over Syria, where Moscow has been targeting the self-proclaimed Islamic State terrorist group. Russian President Vladimir Putin called the incident a "stab in the back, carried out against us by accomplices of terrorists."

Comment: Yeah, right! Like there are so many countries flying Russian Su-24 warplanes that it was just so confusing for Turkey! Obama has joined in the absurdity by saying, "Turkey has the right to defend its country and its airspace." Let's get this straight: Turkey shot down a Russian jet, not the other way around!

Read More...