Puppet MastersS


Bad Guys

Ousting of Libyan PM Ali Zeidan brings threat of civil war thanks to US "regime change"‏

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© Esam Omran Al-Fetori/REUTERSRebels at Es Sider port in Ras Lanuf, Libya.
The ousting of Libya's prime minister, who fled to Europe this week, has triggered fighting between eastern and western regions that threatens to divide the country.

Ali Zeidan, a popular figure with western diplomats, was sacked by the Islamist-led congress on Tuesday after failing to prevent a North Korean tanker loading oil from a port controlled by rebels in the eastern region of Cyrenaica.

Fearing arrest following his dismissal, Zeidan made a late-night escape from Tripoli aboard a private jet, leaving behind a fractured government and a country in turmoil, fighting over its rich oil resources.

Radar

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370: Conflicting claims in the media

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© He Jingjia/REXDirector general of Malaysia's department of civil aviation Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, left, and acting transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein face the press.
The search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 - and the 239 people onboard - has been marked by media coverage rife with rumors, false reports, ambiguous information and a general lack of clarity about what we know and which leads are more substantial than others.

The confusion has in part been due to the number of factors at play: the 12 nations participating in the search; the menagerie of officials telling stories that don't necessarily align; the complicated way airlines run systems and safeguards; the complicated way in which airplanes function; the vast area in question; the fallibility of search technology; and, finally, the inevitable torrent of speculation by all parties, including the public.

Penis Pump

Poland wants fracking gas fast and offer tax incentives to spur shale investment

Drilling rig in Poland
© Reuters / Kacper PempelA drilling rig is seen at sunset at Grabowiec 6 near the village of Lesniowice, southeast Poland
The Polish government said it will offer 6-year tax breaks for shale gas companies in an effort to fast track investment and exploration. The announcement comes as energy tension with Russia run high over Ukraine.

The new tax break is aimed at helping Poland attract foreign companies to explore and invest in the country's shale oil reserves, believed to be the largest in Europe, according to data by the US Energy Information Administration.

The tax break will be "a huge incentive" to get investors interested and on the ground, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Tuesday, adding that by 2020 taxes "shouldn't exceed 40 percent of extraction income."

Between 2020-2029, the new incentives will contribute up to $5 billion in revenue, according to Tusk.

The proposal will be sent to parliament within two weeks, and the prime minister hopes it will pass without any hiccups.

Earlier in February, Poland ditched plans to use a state company to explore for shale gas, instead deciding to auction off licenses to foreign companies. Exxon Mobil and Marathon Oil are both interested in the country's shale industry. Some state-controlled companies have also won licenses for exploration.

Maciej Grabowski, Poland's environment minister, expects the country's first commercial shale gas well to be drilled this year, and hopes to have over 200 wells in the next few years. The country wants to become an exporter, and not an importer of natural gas.

Comment: Poland has done their bit to stoke the fires of war in Ukraine and if the gas will be turned off now during a "gas war", then will only have themselves to blame.
For more on fracking:
Doctors call on President Obama for more regulation on fracking
Study says fracking chemicals interfere with endocrine functions, linked to heightened risks of cancer, low fertility rates and decreased sperm quality
New study links fracking to birth defects in heavily drilled Colorado
Opposed to fracking? Then the corporatocracy considers you to be a terrorist
Europe to ditch climate protection goals - make way for fracking
Investigation confirms evils of fracking
EPA will let frackers keep on dumping chemicals into the sea


Wolf

Ex-Ukraine security chief claims foreign mercenaries took part in Maidan violence

mercenaries Maiden Ukraine
© Agence France-Press / Sergei Supinsky
There is no doubt there were mercenaries at Maidan, the former head of Ukraine's security service, Aleksandr Yakimenko, says.

The violence on Maidan which caused almost 100 deaths was organized by some opposition leaders who poured Western money and resources into the coup, Yakimenko told the Russia-1 TV channel. Now Major General Alexander Yakimenko is in the top five of Maidan's hit list. He made it to that list while he was still in his office in Kiev.

Q: How did you manage to escape?

Aleksandr Yakimenko: I am a Security Service officer.

Q: Where did those snipers come from?

mercenaries Maiden Ukraine 3
© Agence France-Press/ Sergei Supinsky
AY: First shots were fired from the Philharmonic building. Maidan Commandant Parubiy was in charge of the building. On February 20, this building was used as a base by the snipers and people with automatic weapons. They basically covered those who were attacking the demoralized policemen running in panic, hunted down like animals. They were followed by armed people with different kinds of weapons. At that point, somebody opened fire at those who attacked the police, and some of them were killed. All this fire was coming from the Philharmonic building. After this first round of fire, about 20 people came out of this building - this was witnessed by many. These people wore special combat clothes and carried sniper rifle cases, as well as AKMs with scopes. There were witnesses, and not just our operatives, but also Maidan activists from Svoboda, Right Sector, Batkivshchyna, and UDAR.

The snipers split into two groups - 10 men each. The Security Service lost track of one of the groups. The other group took a position at the Ukraine hotel. Killings continued. In the beginning, when the shots were scattered, I was asked by Right Sector and Svoboda to mobilize a Special Forces unit and remove the snipers from the buildings.

Stormtrooper

Ukraine: How to Hide a Nazi Army

neo-nazis ukraine
Blanket denials have been made across the Western media regarding the presence of Neo-Nazis among the ranks of "Euromaidan" mobs that had rioted in Kiev for months before finally executing a coup, ousting the democratically elected government of Ukranian President Viktor Yanukovych. A prime example of this was the Daily Beast's article, "Putin's Crimea Propaganda Machine," which disingenuously twists reality by stating:
And of course, Crimea's streets are not full of Neo-Nazis, because the population of eastern Ukraine wholly rejects the abhorrent ideology of the "Euromaidan's" Nazi vanguard, and backs Russian forces who have been permanently stationed there for years under treaty and as a consequence, have deterred any abusive incursions by the far-right into the region.
Still, the impression the Daily Beast would like to get across to readers is that the concept of Neo-Nazis leading the so-called "revolution" in Kiev, is absurd. In fact, the truth that Kiev's Independence Square was full of Nazis, was right under the nose of the entire world - with a handful of Western journalists even admitting as much.

Eye 1

What's Sauce for the goose dept.: Feinstein: CIA searched Intelligence Committee computers

A behind-the-scenes battle between the CIA and Congress erupted in public Tuesday as the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee accused the agency of breaking laws and breaching constitutional principles in an alleged effort to undermine the panel's multi-year investigation of a controversial interrogation program.

Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) accused the CIA of ­secretly removing documents, searching computers used by the committee and attempting to intimidate congressional investigators by requesting an FBI inquiry of their conduct - charges that CIA Director John Brennan disputed within hours of her appearance on the Senate floor.


Senate Intelligence Chair Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) accused the CIA of breaking the law by searching her committee's computers. The Post's Karen Tumulty, Scott Wilson, Terence Samuel and Adam Goldman explain the impact in Washington.

. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) questioned whether a CIA search of congressional records might have undermined government oversight during a Senate floor speech Tuesday.

Feinstein described the escalating conflict as a "defining moment" for Congress's role in overseeing the nation's intelligence agencies and cited "grave concerns" that the CIA had "violated the separation-of-powers principles embodied in the United States Constitution."

War Whore

War Whore: Chairman of Joint Chiefs: U.S. ready for "military response" in Ukraine

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With diplomacy having failed miserably to resolve the Russian annexation of Crimea, and soon East Ukraine (and with John Kerry in charge of it, was there ever any doubt), the US is moving to the heavy artillery.

First, moments ago, the US DOE announced in a shocking announcement that it would proceed with the first draw down and sale of crude from the US strategic petroleum reserve, the first since June 2011, in what it said was a "test sale to check the operational capabilities of system infrastructure", but is really just a shot across the bow at Putin for whom high commodity prices are orders of magnitude more important than how the Russian stock market performs.

And now, as Bloomberg just reported, the US has escalated even further, citing the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, who "has claimed that in the case of an escalation of unrest in Crimea, the U.S. Army is ready to back up Ukraine and its allies in Europe with military actions."

So much for those peaceful hour long phone calls between Obama and Putin.

Chess

Russia hints it will accept annexation as Crimean referendum nears

Pro-Ukrainian demonstrators
© David Mdzinarishvili/ReutersPro-Ukrainian demonstrators react as an armored military vehicle, believed to be Russian, passes by outside the Crimean city of Simferopol today.
Russia's parliament is reportedly preparing legislation to make it easier for breakaway states to willingly join Russia - even as the legality of Crimean secession remains in doubt.

The prospects for a diplomatic solution to what some are calling Europe's worst crisis of the 21st century are growing dimmer by the day, with less than a week to go before Crimeans are set to vote on whether to leave Ukraine and join Russia.

The Mar. 16 referendum would offer Crimeans the option of either becoming part of Russia, or declaring their territory an independent state that's still formally part of Ukraine. But Crimea's pro-Russian legislature is already preparing a "roadmap" for joining Russia, including adopting the Russian rouble, dropping Ukrainian as an official language, and moving their clocks two hours forward to Moscow time.

Now Russia is signaling that it might be willing to take the unprecedented and politically explosive step of admitting Crimea into Russia, perhaps as an "autonomous republic" as it was in Ukraine.

If Russia did annex Crimea, it could mean a significant escalation of the crisis. In the past, Russia has supported breakaway territories such as Transnistria in Moldova and Nagorno Karabakh in Azerbaijan. Following its brief war with Georgia in 2008, Russia recognized the independence of two Georgian territories, Akhazia and South Ossetia, sundering a sovereign country. Western powers did something similar in 2008 by granting independence to Kosovo, which had been wrested from Serbia by NATO in a 1999 war.

USA

By demanding Russia interfere in Crimea, Obama regime's hypocrisy sets new world record

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From the moment that Washington launched its orchestrated coup in Kiev, Washington has been accusing Russia of "intervening in Ukraine." This propaganda ploy succeeded. The Western presstitute media reported (nonexistent) Russian intervention to the exclusion of coverage of Washington's obvious intervention.

Having falsely accused Russia of invading Crimea, the Obama regime now demands that Russia interfere in Crimea and prevent the referendum set for next Sunday. Unless Russia uses force to prevent the people of Crimea from exercising their right of self-determination, John Kerry declared that the Obama regime will not discuss the Ukrainian situation with Russia.

So, Kerry has given Russia the green light to send in troops to prevent Crimean self-determination.

The presstitute Western media has not noticed that out of one corner of his mouth Kerry denounces Russia for intervening and out of the other corner of his mouth Kerry demands that Russia intervene in behalf of Washington's interest and suppress Crimean self-determination.

What is the point of such an absurd demand on Russia?

Bulb

Crimea vs. Quebec: The legal right to a referendum on self-determination

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There has been a great hue and cry by the USA, Ukraine and other countries about the supposed illegality of the proposed referendum by Crimea on its future political status. They indignantly proclaim that this is a violation of international law.

Amazingly, have Obama and the leaders of these other countries never heard of the situation in Canada with regard to Quebec? Quebec, as a province of Canada, has held two referenda (1980 and 1995) on the matter of independence from Canada . . . and a third referendum may be in the works in the near future.

Quebec never had to get permission from Canada's federal government to hold a referendum, and no one ever questioned the legality of Quebec's referendum.

Crimea is an autonomous region within Ukraine and seems to have the same rights as a Canadian province. So if it is perfectly legal for a province such as Quebec to hold a referendum on independence, why would it not be legal for Crimea to do the same? At no time did the USA object to Quebec holding a referendum on independence, so why the big brouhaha over Crimea? Moreover, what business would it be for the USA to have such objections - for Quebec or Crimea?

The UN charter gives people the right to self-determination and by virtue of that right they are free to determine their political status. Quebec in Canada has exercised that right, and there should be no reason why Crimea could not do the same.