Puppet MastersS


Binoculars

Putin warns Middle East terrorists recruit fighters from ex-Soviet states, seek to expand into other regions


RT
Tue, 20 Oct 2015 15:35 UTC
Putin
© Aleksey Nikolskyi / RIA Novosti Staying vigilant.
After securing a beachhead in Syria, the terrorists wish to destabilize whole new regions, widen their expansion and recruit more fighters, including from Russia and former Soviet republics, the Russian president said at a meeting with the country's military top brass.

The extremists from the Middle East "have been recruiting militants and continue doing so in many countries, unfortunately including Russia and CIS countries," Vladimir Putin said, adding that Moscow launched its air operation in Syria as a preventive action against Islamic State extremists.

Putin insisted that Russia's assistance to Syria fully complies with Moscow's military doctrine and international law.

Comment: Putin must remain vigilant, especially now that the US has been shamed in its fight against terrorism. US may lash out in dirty ways.

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Attention

Russian jets strike 60 ISIS targets in 55 sorties including 19 command posts in the past 24 hours


RT
Tue, 20 Oct 2015 15:14 UTC
russian air strikes
© Russian Defense Ministry / YouTube
The Russian Air Force has attacked 60 Islamic State targets in Syria in the past 24 hours, destroying 19 command posts, Russia's Defense Ministry said in a statement.

"In the past 24 hours, as a result of the strikes two ammunition warehouses, a plant producing ammunition and explosives, 30 firing positions and a machinery collection have been destroyed," the ministry's spokesman, Igor Konashenkov, said Tuesday.

The Su-24M, SU-25SM and SU-34 jets deployed for the mission have all returned to Russia's Khmeimim airbase in Latakia, he added.

The strikes hit targets associated with Islamic State and Al-Nusra in the provinces of Hama, Latakia, Damascus, Aleppo, Idlib and Deir al-Zor, Konashenkov said.

Comment: Playtime is over! Russia to increase missions in Syria to 300 a day

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Bad Guys

NATO to follow U.S. orders, keep troops in Afghanistan indefinitely to continue Russia provocation


Sputnik
Tue, 20 Oct 2015 15:13 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/ Maurizio Gambarini
Germany, Turkey and Italy will maintain their current troop levels in Afghanistan, NATO officials said on Monday after the United States announced that it will prolong its military presence there.

General Philip Breedlove, NATO's top commander in Europe, said he had assurances that NATO countries will continue alongside the nearly 10,000 US troops in Afghanistan. "Several of our largest contributors have already communicated with us that they will remain in their current posture," Breedlove told Reuters.

Germany, NATO's top contributor, has around 850 troops in Afghanistan, followed by Italy with 760 and about 500 for Turkey, according to the latest NATO data.

Comment: This comes on the heels of the U.S. changing its position on removing troops from Afghanistan by 2017, which incidentally only occurred after Russia's intervention in Syria and, most importantly, Afghanistan asked Russia for help fighting ISIS. Once the U.S. realized that Afghanistan may be cozying up to Russia, they immediately changed their plans to leave and told their NATO stooges to do the same. They also don't want their multi-billion dollar terrorist infrastructure to be lit up by Russian SU-25's like what's happening in Syria.

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Attention

Moscow protests incident with Swiss military jet: Excuses 'do not look convincing'


Sputnik
Tue, 20 Oct 2015 13:57 UTC
Image
© AFP 2015/ FABRICE COFFRINI
Moscow has voiced strong protest over a Monday's incident in French airspace involving a Swiss military jet and a Russian delegation plane heading to Geneva.

On Monday, Switzerland confirmed that its F/A-18 military aircraft had neared a plane with the Russian parliamentary delegation on board, but said that it had been performing standard verification procesures adding that "such checks were carried out hundreds of times a year.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that attempts of some Swiss authorities to present the air incident as a verification procedure does not look convincing.

Comment: A Swiss military jet nearly colliding with a plane carrying senior Russian lawmakers seems designed to send a message.

Also see: Swiss MOD admits sending military jet but denies it avoided collision with Russian diplomatic flight

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Eye 1

British Muslim communities accuse David Cameron of treating them as 'aliens to be bashed from time to time for political gains'

Matt Dathan
The independent, UK
Mon, 19 Oct 2015 12:55 UTC
David Cameron and Theresa May
© Steve Parsons / ReutersBritain's Prime Minister David Cameron and Home Secretary Theresa May.
David Cameron has been accused of treating Muslims as "aliens to be bashed from time to time for political gains" with his new counter-extremism strategy, which he set out on a visit to Luton on Monday.

The Prime Minister vowed to "aggressively" pursue radical preachers as he announced measures to treat people convicted of terrorism or extremism like sex offenders who will be automatically barred from working with children and vulnerable people.

However the Ramadhan Foundation said Mr Cameron's latest measures, which include giving powers to police to shut down mosques where extremist meetings take place, withdraw passports from teenagers and ban extremists from the internet, would not succeed because of "little support from the Muslim community".

Its chief executive, Mohammed Shafiq, dismissed Mr Cameron's new approach as a "PR exercise".

In a scathing attack on the Government's plans, he said: "What we require now is for British Muslims to be engaged without prejudice and a new approach adopted that will see Muslims as equal citizens and not some sort of aliens to be bashed from time to time for political gains.

"Today's counter extremism announcement by the Government is a missed opportunity to really engage the Muslim community and work in partnership against terrorism and extremism."

The new plans announced by Mr Cameron on Monday will introduce the ability to ban radical preachers from posting material online, while powers for parents to withdraw passports from their children will be extended to all youngsters under the age of 18. In July he announced plans to apply it to children under 16.

Comment: If the British Government were really sincere in combating 'extremism' and stopping it "right where it starts", they ought to look first at their poisonous foreign policy. As a Kremlin official noted last year, "First of all we must talk about the sharp surge of religious extremism that is largely a consequence of the, diplomatically speaking, shortsighted policy of a number of Western countries."

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Compass

Real change? Canada's Trudeau topples PM Harper in shock election win

Randall Palmer and Rod Nickel
Reuters
Tue, 20 Oct 2015 13:20 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Chris Wattie
Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau gives his victory speech after Canada's federal election in Montreal, Quebec, October 19, 2015.
Canada's Liberal leader Justin Trudeau rode a late surge to a stunning majority election victory on Monday, toppling Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservatives with a promise of change and returning a touch of glamour, youth and charisma to Ottawa.

Harper conceded defeat and the Conservative party announced his resignation, ending a nine-year run in power and the 56-year-old's brand of fiscal and cultural conservatism that voters appeared to sour on.

The Liberals seized a Parliamentary majority, a turn in political fortunes that smashed the record for the number of seats gained from one election to the next. The center-left Liberals had been a distant third place party before this election.

"My friends, we beat fear with hope. We beat cynicism with hard work. We beat negative, divisive politics with a positive vision that brings Canadians together," Trudeau, 43, told a crowd of cheering supporters in Montreal.

"This is what positive politics can do."

Comment: Trudeau seems to be saying the right things but will he act on those promises and if so, will he be allowed to do so?

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Attention

Risk of instability in Saudi Arabia a rising storm


Sputnik
Tue, 20 Oct 2015 12:58 UTC
Saudi Arabia
© AP Photo/ Hasan Jamali
A black hole that has opened up in the region after the US fiasco in Iraq and overthrow of Saddam Hussain is apparently beginning to drag down Saudi Arabia.

In the last few months the debates about the future of the Saudi regime have been gaining momentum. Saudi Arabia is the world's largest oil exporter and one of the leading consumers of high-tech weapons of the US. If the Saudi regime falls, the oil markets will turn over upside down, and Saudi weapons will disperse throughout the world, Ergin Yıldızoğlu wrote.

Comment: For more on this story: The collapse of Saudi Arabia is inevitable

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Bullseye

'New jungle' grows: Shocking images show migrant camp in French port Calais, mayor considers calling in army


RT
Tue, 20 Oct 2015 01:42 UTC
Image
© Denis Charlet / AFPAn aerial picture taken on October 8, 2015 shows the "New Jungle" migrants camp where some 3,500 people live while they attempt to enter Britain, near the port of Calais, northern France.
Aerial images of France's 'New Jungle' refugee camp show the surging number of people currently living in makeshift tents in the port of Calais hoping to move on to the UK. Meanwhile, the city's mayor is considering calling in the army to maintain order.

Comment: Read more:
  • Banksy's Dismaland will be stripped for parts to provide shelter to refugees in France

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Eye 1

The killing of Serena Shim and the 'suicide' of former BBC journalist Jacky Sutton


The Burning Blogger of Bedlam
Tue, 20 Oct 2015 10:13 UTC
Serena Shim
© Twitter/Hamid FarajollahiReporter and mother of two, Serena Shim was killed in Turkey - "the largest prison for journalists". She had expressed fears for her own safety
Exactly a year ago - on October 19th, 2014 - the journalist Serena Shim was killed after reporting from Kobani in Syria as a war correspondent. Her death was almost certainly the work of the Turkish intelligence community. It's a rather remarkable, and depressing, 'coincidence' that just as I was sitting down to put together a post in tribute to her, I've just come across news that another journalist and activist, Jacky Sutton, has just been found dead in Turkey - exactly a year to the date of Serena Shim's suspicious death.

Former BBC journalist, Jacky Sutton (aged 50) is reported to have been found dead in a toilet in Istanbul's main airport. The British journalist (pictured below), who had been working as Iraq director for the Institute of War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), was in Turkey en route to Irbil in Northern Iraq. Turkish sources have allegedly suggested that she has killed herself after missing a flight connection - a rather poor, even insulting, suggestion, which colleagues of Ms Sutton are dismissing. In her role as acting Iraq head of the (London-based) IWPR, Jackie Sutton's role has been to support local journalism in countries affected by war and crisis. As The Guardian notes, the organisation's previous Iraq director, Ammar Al Shahbander, was killed in a car-bomb in Baghdad on 2nd May this year. It is claimed the British woman's body has been found hanging from boot laces.

Sudipto Mukerjee, a director with the UN Development Programme, has said, according to The Independent; "Very difficult to believe that my colleague in Iraq, staffer and seasoned traveller Jacky Sutton committed suicide." Ms Sutton had, among other things, previously worked for the BBC World Service, reporting from Africa, the Middle East and London.

Comment: See also: At this point, we just don't know what Sutton may or may not have known that would cause Turkish intelligence to want to assassinate her. Her NGO, IWPR, is headed by former Financial Times chairman David Bell, Christiane "Let's bomb Syria!" Amanpour, MSM mainstay Anne "Putin invaded Crimea!" Applebaum, among others. Interesting bedfellows, to say the least.

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Light Saber

Playtime is over! Russia to increase missions in Syria to 300 a day

Rudy Panko
Russian Insider
Tue, 20 Oct 2015 03:02 UTC
russia jet syria
A 'moderate' rebel's worst nightmare
Moscow plans a huge surge in military operations in Syria, according to reports.

Russia has been flying around 50 missions a day on average in Syria. Soon this number will be closer to 300, according to reports in the British press. The Independent reports:
Russia aims to increase its aerial missions over Syria to 300 a day, sources close to the country's operations have reportedly said.

President Vladimir Putin said the country is currently flying around 50 missions a day on average in Syria.

Operation sources, however, say the aim is to increase this figure to between 200 and 300 a day, according to The Sunday Times.

The construction of a new airstrip as part of preparations for the surge in missions is also reportedly under way.

Russia has deployed a range of bombers, jets, fighters and helicopters in its bid to probe rebel forces in Syria, including Su-24M and Su-34 bombers and Su-30CM fighters.

The source told the newspaper proposed targets were chosen by the Syrians, then passed on for verification by Russian drones.

"They are extremely concerned about the image of Russia's military actions here," the source told The Sunday Times.
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