Puppet MastersS


Yoda

New Russian military base in Arctic almost complete


RT
Thu, 22 Oct 2015 17:43 UTC
Image
© Valeriy Melnikov / RIA Novosti
Russia has almost finished building a new jumbo Arctic military base on Kotelny Island, off the eastern Siberian coast. There was no such base there in Soviet times, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said.

"We are not keeping this a secret: we have practically built a base on the Novosibirsk Islands, the Island of Kotelny," said Shoigu. "This is a big military base, there was no such base there in the Soviet period."

Kotelny is the largest island in the Novosibirsk Archipelago, located in the Laptev Sea. Back in the Soviet days the military deployed an observation post and a radar station there. With the fall of the USSR, all the troops were eventually withdrawn leaving behind only a civilian meteorological station.

After decades of desolation, the former military base is being rebuilt. Engineers of the Russian Northern Fleet began construction works in 2013, cleaning up rusty barrels and broken vehicles abandoned on the island, and constructing among other things, a landing strip for supplies to be airlifted rather than air-dropped.
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Attention

Trying to save face? Pentagon could be planning massive new offensive in Iraq


Sputnik
Thu, 22 Oct 2015 17:28 UTC
USS Theodore Roosevelt
© AP Photo/ Marko Drobnjakovic
The Pentagon claims to have found a way to regain the initiative in the Middle East: it now wants to force ISIL to fight on several fronts by massively increasing US-led airstrikes and deploying more anti-tank weapons to Iraq.

"The US is rebooting its strategy in the war against Islamic State after months of stalemate and Russia's intervention in the Syrian conflict," reads an article in The Times of London.

"The Pentagon's plan, steered by General Joseph Dunford, America's top military commander, would force ISIS (ISIL) to fight on several fronts. It calls for coordinated offensives involving Syrian and Iraqi Kurdish forces, the Iraqi army and Iranian-backed Shia militias — which the US refuses to endorse. Ash Carter, the US defense secretary, and senior officials are expected to outline the strategy to Congress next week."

"Amid reports that the Kremlin has requested permission from Baghdad to begin airstrikes inside Iraq, General Dunford is plotting a massive increase in US-led airstrikes and the deployment of substantially more anti-tank weapons to regain the initiative."

Comment: Looks like the US is desperate to save face and looking for any way it can to partly redeem itself on the world stage. Fat chance of that ever happening though.

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Eye 2

New book by Dick Cheney reveals his psychopathic vision for America - war, torture and mass surveillance

Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame
The Washington Spectator
Thu, 22 Oct 2015 16:27 UTC
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© AFP Photo/Win Mcnamee
Exceptional is the new book from former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter, Liz, is not. It is nothing more than an unhinged rant that smacks of sedition.

"The children need to know the truth about who we are, what we've done, and why it is uniquely America's duty to be freedom's defender," the prologue proclaims. The book, however, is not about who we are but who Cheney wants us to become. It is a call for Americans to reject constitutional government and those values that have guided our nation for 227 years and replace it with imperial rule in the name of "freedom" - - even when that rule includes wars of choice, intrusive violations of our privacy and civil liberties, and of course, an aggressive regime of torture.

This review assumes that Exceptional represents Dick Cheney's ideas, and so we will refer to the author only in the singular. (To the extent the book reflects Liz's original thinking, consider it a mind meld.)

Part One begins with Uncle Dick recounting how "the American Century" has been marked by a fight that he and a few other white-hatted cowboys have waged to keep the world safe for "freedom." In Cheney's telling, pro-war and wartime leaders were strong and "right," and the others weak and feckless. World War II is reduced to: "We liberated millions and achieved the greatest victory in the history of mankind, for the good of all mankind. America - - the exceptional nation - - had become freedom's defender."

Comment: It should be disturbing to anyone with two neurons firing to be given an inside look into the dark, twisted, paranoid mind of Dick Cheney. He is the epitome of American imperial delusion, a man who should be in prison on war crimes but who walks around freely spouting evil in every direction.

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Arrow Down

US shale producers have $150bn in debt - prices too low to sustain production


RT
Thu, 22 Oct 2015 16:05 UTC
shale oil rosneft
© Aleksey Nikolskyi / RIA NovostiRosneft president and chairman of the board Igor Sechin
The break-even price for difficult to extract shale oil is $85-$98 a barrel, according to Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin, which is putting US producers deep in debt. "The total debt of only 25 companies engaged in the extraction of shale oil is about $150 billion," said Sechin speaking at the Eurasian Forum in Verona, Italy, TASS reports.

According Sechin it's the United States not to OPEC that controls the global oil market. "OPEC is no longer the regulator, its meeting on October 21 [with non-OPEC members] did not bring any decisions," according to Sechin.

Last week, the head of Russia's biggest oil company said Riyadh has been actively dumping and cutting prices to secure its share of the market and gain new ones. Some European countries are now buying Saudi oil for the first time.

Comment: Shale oil/gas was a boondoggle from the very start.

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Cowboy Hat

Putin: 'Syria can become a model for partners of how to solve problems that affect everyone'


RT
Thu, 22 Oct 2015 15:54 UTC
Image
© Anton Denisov / RIA Novosti President Vladimir Putin speaking at the closing plenary session of the International Valdai Discussion Club's 12th annual meeting in Sochi, October 22, 2015.
There can be no "moderate" terrorists, President Putin said, speaking about the situation in the Middle East at the Valdai discussion forum.

"Why play with words dividing terrorists into moderate and not moderate. What's the difference?" Putin told the forum.

A whole "snarl" of terrorist groups act in the region, who fight also against each other for "sources of income" and not for ideology, Putin said, adding that the weapons provided to "moderate" opposition in the region had ended up in the hands of terrorists.

Some countries are playing a double game, the Russian president said, adding that while they fight against terrorism they also "place figures on the board" in their own interests.

Saying that the efforts of the Russian military in Syria will positively affect the situation in the country, helping to provide conditions for political settlement, the Russian president also stressed that defeating terrorists will not solve all the problems in Syria.

Comment: Putin does it again with words of wisdom and displaying a new model of cooperation for the world to follow.

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Eye 2

The crazed and power-hungry neocons may bring nuclear annihilation to the world

Paul Craig Roberts
paulcraigroberts.org
Tue, 20 Oct 2015 15:16 UTC
nuclear explosion
As readers know, I have emphasized that the declared neoconservative intention of achieving global hegemony has resurrected the threat of nuclear armageddon as Russia and China are most definitely not going to submit, as every European country, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Colombia, and Japan have submitted, to being Washington's vassals.

The president of Russia and the president of China have made this completely clear.

If the arrogance, ignorance and incompetence of the Western political systems permit the continuation of the crazed, totally unrealistic, neoconservative agenda, the planet will die.

Ronald Reagan is the only US president during the era of nuclear weapons who was committed to removing them from all arsenals. I know because I was a part of his effort. If you can't believe me, ask Pat Buchanan who was with Reagan at Reykjavik. In previous columns on my website, I quoted Buchanan's response to my statements. Buchanan wrote to me that I was correct, that Reagan wanted rid of every nuclear weapon.
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Radar

Russian warplanes destroy 72 ISIL targets in last 24 hours


Sputnik
Thu, 22 Oct 2015 15:06 UTC
Image
© Sputnik/ Alexei Druzhinin
Terrorist targets have been destroyed in the Syrian provinces of Hama, Idlib, Latakia, Aleppo, Damascus, and Deir ez-Zor.

Russian warplanes have carried out 53 sorties in Syria over the past 24 hours destroying 72 ISIL targets, the Russian Defense Ministry's spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Wednesday in a televised interview from the Hmeymim airbase in Syria.

Russian Su-24 and Su-25SM combat aircraft have destroyed terrorist facilities in the Syrian provinces of Hama, Idlib, Latakia, Aleppo, Damascus, and Deir ez-Zor, he added.

The defense ministry spokesman denied reports that Russian warplanes use cluster munitions in civilian-populated areas in Syria.

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Bad Guys

French Parliament realize political dialogue with Assad is necessary, but hesitant to actually hold talks


Sputnik
Thu, 22 Oct 2015 12:55 UTC
Bashar al-Assad
© SANA / Reuters Syria's President Bashar al-Assad
Following the talks between Syrian and Russian presidents in Moscow, many French parliamentarians now seem to be ready for a political dialogue with Bashar Assad, although a personal meeting between the French and Syrian leaders is still unlikely, Jacques Myard, a member of the French National Assembly told RT France.

Many members of the French parliament now realize that President Assad must be included into a dialogue on a political solution to the military crisis in Syria, even though many French politicians have dismissed the option before, Jacques Myard said.

The politician acknowledged that the position of France regarding the ongoing conflict remains somewhat reticent, but many parliamentarians want to assess the reality on the ground and want to start discussing the matters with official Damascus.

Comment: Talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place. Of course talks remain unlikely due to the fact that they are very'politically incorrect'. After all, it was only January of this year when France experienced the Hebdo shootings - a false-flag aimed at corralling France (and the West in general) back into the US and Israel's pro-terrorist arms:
The timing of the attacks is curious, some might even say convenient, or worse. To demonstrate why, take a look at this sequence of events, keeping in mind the propensity of Mossad (and other intelligence agencies) for carrying out terror attacks and framing Muslims for them.
  • November 23: Israeli PM Netanyahu warns France that French recognition of Palestinian statehood would be a "grave mistake".
  • December 2: France's Lower House of Parliament votes in favor of recognizing Palestine.
  • December 6: Hollande unexpectedly meets Putin in Moscow, defying the anti-Russia brigade.
  • December 20: Burundi-born Frenchman attacks police station in Tours with knife, shouting "Allahu Akbar", injuring three before being shot dead.
  • December 22: Driver shouting "Allahu Akbar" runs down pedestrians in five parts of Dijon, injuring 13.
  • December 31: France votes in favor of Palestinian Statehood
  • January 5: Hollande urges for an end to sanctions on Russia, defying the anti-Russia brigade once again.
  • January 5: Saudi crown prince meets the French defense minister in Riyadh.
  • January 5: ISIS attacks a Saudi border post for the first time, suggesting the terrorists intend to spread the chaos into Saudi Arabia.
  • January 6: The French military announces it is sending an aircraft carrier to the Gulf to fight ISIS in Iraq.
  • January 6: France warns Palestinians: Don't resubmit UN statehood bid.
  • January 7: Amchai Stein, the deputy editor of Israeli IBA Channel 1, just happens to be at the scene of the Charlie Hebdo attacks and posts photos of the shooting on Twitter.
  • January 10: Announcement of a video released by ISIS 'days ago', with a French jihadist calling for fellow jihadis to tear down France.
Funny how those dastardly terrorists never seem to get what they want, right? Syria is bombed, so they kill a bunch of people thinking that will stay the West's mighty hand, but the West just gets angry and keeps on bombing! Who could foresee such an illogical outcome?

Charlie Hebdo: France's 9/11


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War Whore

Empire of whiners: US and Turkey criticize Assad visit to Moscow


RT
Thu, 22 Oct 2015 01:02 UTC
Image
© RIA Novosti / ReutersRussian President Vladimir Putin (R) and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad enter a hall during a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, October 20, 2015
The US and Turkey, two of the Syrian President Bashar Assad's key opponents, have not cheered his visit to Moscow, with the White House slamming it as a "red carpet welcome." Russian and Syrian leaders were meeting for crisis consultations and planning.

The White House criticized the way the Syrian leader was received, saying it resembled a "red carpet welcome." In that same statement, the US also accused Assad of using chemical weapons against his own people and questioned Russia's interests in a political transition of power in Syria.

"We view the red carpet welcome for Assad, who has used chemical weapons against his own people, at odds with the stated goal by the Russians for a political transition in Syria," White House spokesman Eric Schultz said.


Comment: There is absolutely no proof that Assad ever used chemical weapons. It's rather pathetic that the US is still pushing that ridiculous lie. There is, however, evidence that the US planned a chemical attack in Syria and blamed it on Assad:

Assad has stressed on multiple occasions in the past that Western claims that his government had used chemical weapons against the Syrian population are "an insult to common sense" and "nonsense."
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Bomb

Russian official: Anti-ISIL airstrikes must be combined with Syrian and Kurdish forces on the ground


Sputnik
Thu, 22 Oct 2015 12:52 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/ Alexander Kots
Anti-ISIL airstrikes will not be successful without a ground operation, Kremlin Chief of Staff said Thursday.

The ground operation against Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria must be carried out by the Syrian Army and Kurdish forces, Chief of Staff of Russian President's executive office Sergei Ivanov said Thursday.

According to Ivanov, anti-ISIL airstrikes will not be successful without a ground operation.

"No matter how much you bomb, without a ground operation airstrikes will not be successful. We saw this from the beginning and originally planned our actions with the understanding that our strikes will be coordinated with Syria's Armed Forces," he said. "In fact, [we are willing to work] with anyone who wants to counter terrorists, who cut off people's heads, rape women among other things."

Comment: Also see: The hidden history of Syria's 'civil' war - why the mainstream view is a lie

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