Puppet MastersS


Snakes in Suits

See how well that works out: Some US sanctions against Russia to remain until Crimea returns to Ukraine


Sputnik
Fri, 30 Oct 2015 14:31 UTC
John Tefft
© Sputnik/ Sergey Guneev
Washington is prepared to lift some sanctions imposed against Russia if the Minsk agreements are fulfilled, but will not lift all of them as long as the Crimean Peninsula remains part of Russia, US Ambassador to Russia John Tefft said Friday.

"We have said numerous times that when the Minsk agreements are completely fulfilled, some of the sanctions would be lifted. Sanctions in line with Crimea will continue to be in place for as long as the occupation continues," Tefft wrote in Russian on the VKontakte social network.

Crimea voted to secede from Ukraine and rejoin Russia in a March 2014 referendum, with over 96 percent of voters backing the move.

Comment: The US 'special' ambassador to Russia is still espousing the Western view of Crimea as being illegally annexed and 'occupied'. The US has no intentions of easing the sanctions on Russia and will find any reason to continue to do so.

More about John Tefft:

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Megaphone

Iran Foreign Ministry: The US creation and support of terrorist groups has led to critical conditions in the Middle East


FARS News Agency
Tue, 27 Oct 2015 14:17 UTC
Marzieh Afkham
© APIran's foreign ministry spokesperson Marzieh Afkham.
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham lashed out at the statements of her US counterpart John Kirby, and called on Washington to stop supporting terrorists instead of deciding for others. Afkham's statements came in reaction to Kirby's statements who said "Iran's role in the Syrian conflict, including its support for Assad and Lebanon's Hezbollah, has been unhelpful."
"The seriousness and resoluteness of the Islamic Republic of Iran in fighting terrorism is fully clear and Iran acts according to its responsibilities and the regional interests, while playing its role in the region and it does not allow anyone to designate duties for Iran," the spokeswoman said. Afkham pointed to Kirby's statements, and said, "These repetitious statements run counter to the existing realities; the blame-game is the root the problems of the region."
She reiterated that the serious and real problem of the Syrian crisis is the result of the military intervention and the double-standard policies of the US and its allies and their instrumental use of the terrorists, and stressed that the US should, rather, stop its military approach and its supportive policy of terrorist-nurturing if it means to go after political solutions in Syria.
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MIB

Spy games: German investigation blows wide open huge scale of NSA European spy-ops


Sputnik
Fri, 30 Oct 2015 14:20 UTC
Anti-survailance campaigners
© Flickr/ Campact
A special investigation into the extent of mass surveillance carried out by the US National Security Agency (NSA) within Germany has unveiled a huge list of targets wanted by the US agency, including many European governments and companies.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is under enormous pressure to reveal how much she knew about the country's co-operation with the US National Security Agency in spying on industrial and diplomatic targets.

In an effort to distance herself from the spying scandal after it was alleged she knew about her own government's co-operation with the NSA, despite publicly criticizing it, she called for an independent inquiry under leading judge Kurt Graulich who was called on to scrutinize a list of targets handed to the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) by the US.

Comment: Spying has always been a part of this world we live in. It is good to have some transparency of their activities so people understand just how prolific spying really is.

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Dollar Gold

Pepe Escobar: As the Empire barks and the caravan passes

Pepe Escobar
Sputnik
Fri, 30 Oct 2015 14:10 UTC
Spratly islands
© AFP 2015/ ROLEX DELA PENA / POOL
The US Navy chose a jolly good way to celebrate the week when the Beijing leadership was discussing the road map for China to become "moderately prosperous society" by 2020.

They launched a military provocation in the South China Sea. Or, according to Pentagonese newspeak, they "challenged" Chinese "claims" in the "contested waters".

The proverbial Empire of Chaos lackeys — Australia, Japan, Philippines — endorsed it. Indonesia, in a sober assessment, essentially branded it a needless provocation.
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Vader

Bank looting, oil sales drive up to $1.5Bln in Islamic State revenue


Sputnik
Thu, 29 Oct 2015 12:45 UTC
ISIL
The Islamic State (ISIL) has derived up to $1.5 billion in revenue from looting banks and illicit oil proceeds, a Treasury Department spokesperson told Sputnik on Thursday.

"Our most recent estimates that we can provide publicly are between $500 million and $1 billion in seized bank assets, based on 2014 data," the official said. "Earlier this year, ISIL made about $40 million in one month from the sale of oil...that equals close to $500 million a year."

Earlier in the day, Iraqi's Oil Ministry told Sputnik that the ISIL has cost the nation's oil industry up to 400,000 barrels of oil every day and billions of dollars by selling oil abroad at low prices on the black market.

The spokesperson added that the ISIL also pulls in hundreds of millions of dollars per year from extortion-related activities, the sale of antiquities, kidnapping for ransom and foreign donations.

Comment: Well, if the Counter ISIL Finance Group's (CFIG) job is to disrupt ISIL sources of revenue, at 1.5Bln, they haven't been doing a very good job.

Watch: At the 2:38 mark Putin begins to imply that the US is indeed behind ISIS and may benefit from the oil obtained illicitly by ISIS.



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Map

Thanks, America! Nusra/ISIS attack on Syrian govt supply route made possible due to lack of U.S. air strikes


Moon of Alabama
Fri, 30 Oct 2015 13:17 UTC
isis
ISIS nutjob, after a semi-successful joint assault with Al-Nusra on a government-held supply line. Couldn't have done it without the U.S.
During the last days a large attack on the Syrian government supply line to Aleppo city was carried out by Jabhat al-Nusra (aka al-Qaeda in Syria) and the Islamic State seemingly in coordination with the U.S. military.

aleppo
During September the U.S. anti-IS coalition carried out an average of 4.2 airstrikes on IS in predominately east Syria. This after an average of 6.8 per day in August. The rate in October was about the same as in September until Thursday October 22. Then, according to the U.S. Military Times, the strike rate decreased markedly:
~4 strikes per day up to Oct 20
4 - Oct 20 Tuesday
8 - Oct 21 Wednesday
1 - Oct 22 Thursday
0 - Oct 23 Friday
0 - Oct 24 Saturday
0 - Oct 26 Sunday
1 - Oct 27 Monday
0 - Oct 28 Tuesday
0 - Oct 29 Wednesday
Islamic State used the lull in airstrikes in east Syria to move hundreds of fighters and heavy equipment towards the supply line that connects Damascus with the government held areas (green) of Aleppo.

Comment: Curious? Not so much: The myth of "moderate terrorists": Deconstructing the NATO narrative on Syria

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Attention

Over 200 Chechen militants executed by ISIL after fleeing war in Raqqa


FARS News Agency
Fri, 30 Oct 2015 13:05 UTC
Islamic militants
Over 200 militants from Chechnya and the Central Asian countries were executed by the ISIL after they tried to defect and join the Al-Nusra Front, the Arabic-language Russiya al-Youm quoted a former ISIL commander who recently defected the terrorist group as saying.

He said that the defectors were headed to a natural hole in the ground in the countryside of al-Raqqa where they were murdered and their bodies dumped.

"Another 21 militants of Caucasian nationalities were gunned down by ISIL in August after they left their guard posts," the defector commander said.

He noted that the 21 were executed militants with heavy machineguns before they could escape the battle over Aleppo's military airport.

Comment: So the head-choppers are killing themselves in desperation. That should help the Syrian war effort.

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TV

South Front: U.S. asks for war with China, ISIS ups the ante in Aleppo, India and Pakistan to join SCO (VIDEOS)


South Front
Fri, 30 Oct 2015 13:00 UTC
south front
  • Neo-nazi volunteer battalions out of control, ignoring ceasefire in East Ukraine
  • Kiev refuses to streamline disengagement line crossing
  • Australia pays people smugglers not to bring refugees to New Zealand
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Bad Guys

The Terrorism Act: Death to freedom of speech

Peter Nicholls
RT
Thu, 29 Oct 2015 10:13 UTC
Image
© Reuters

Police have used the Terrorism Act to seize the laptop of a BBC journalist, who had previously worked on stories concerning British jihadist fighters.

Secunder Kermani, who started working at the BBC's flagship Newsnight show in 2014, was targeted by police under a judge approved order.

Officers wanted to read communications between Kermani and an individual who had previously appeared on Newsnight, and who claimed to be a member of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).

Comment: The first video above poses an important question. How can a government declare a war on terror and simultaneously act in such a way that incites the very thing they wish to eradicate?

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Handcuffs

Authoritarianism in action: Teenagers face 4 years in prison for ripping up posters of Turkish president


RT
Fri, 30 Oct 2015 12:39 UTC
Recep Tayyip Erdogan
I'll huff and I'll puff ...
Two Turkish boys, aged 12 and 13, could spend four years behind bars for "insulting" President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Prosecutors accuse them of ripping up posters of the Turkish leader, while the boys' lawyer says the charges themselves violate the law.

"There was no premeditation to insult the president. Also, they were unaware the face on the banners was the president himself," Ismail Korkmaz, the teenagers' lawyer, told RT.

The kids themselves say they just wanted to sell the paper.

"Tearing a banner is just a minor offense and should be subject to the law of misdemeanor, but even that law prohibits the punishment of children under 15 years old," the lawyer said.

Comment: The face of authoritarianism. Erdogan wants to win the elections at any price. This US ally is not the face of democracy and freedom.

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