Puppet MastersS


Bad Guys

No surprise: Israel and US 'boycott' UN session on Gaza conflict


RT
Mon, 23 Mar 2015 22:57 UTC
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© Reuters/Ibraheem Abu MustafaA Palestinian woman sits near her house, that witnesses said was destroyed by Israeli shelling during a 50-day war last summer, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
Israeli and American representatives were conspicuously absent from the UN Human Rights Council session on the Palestinian territories on Monday. The session aimed to look into the Gaza conflict which killed 2,200 people in 50 days in 2014.

"I note the representative of Israel is not present," Council President Joachim Ruecher said as the session kicked off Monday in Geneva.

Tel Aviv refused to comment as to why its representatives did not take part.

The US, however, said that one of the points on the UN session agenda - concerning human rights violations against the Palestinians - lacked legitimacy.

"Our non-participation in this debate underscores our position that Item 7 lacks legitimacy, as it did last year when we also refrained from speaking. The United States strongly and unequivocally opposes the very existence of Agenda Item 7 and any HRC resolutions that come from it," Keith Harper, US ambassador to the Council, said in a statement.

He added that the United States remains "deeply troubled" by the item directed against Israel "and by the many repetitive and one-sided resolutions under that agenda item. No other nation has an entire agenda item set aside to deal with it."


Comment: It is so obvious what is going on in Gaza that it boggles the mind why the US pretends not to see it.


Comment: It seems the US has to support Israel on this human rights abuse issue because it is also guilty of spreading death and destruction all around the world.

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Arrow Down

Competition between terrorist organizations raises threat level in France


RT
Mon, 23 Mar 2015 22:40 UTC
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© Reuters/Christian HartmannMember of the French GIPN intervention police forces.
French security officials have warned more jihadist attacks are expected in the country as the level of terrorist threat has "reached a level without precedent." Counter-terrorism officials described the threat as "permanent".

"Not one day goes by without an alert, the discovery of a network trying to send people to Syria or Iraq, or an intervention (by the security services)," a high-level official from the Defense Ministry of France told AFP on condition of anonymity.

According to the source, there are currently around 4,000 people who are "identified or suspected of evil intentions" in France.

These aren't just amateurs, they include some highly educated people - "pros, not drop-outs," he added.

Comment: Now al-Qaeda and IS are competing with each other for attention! If that message doesn't freeze you in fear, what will they think of next?

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Wine

Oligarch infighting: Kolomoisky given 24 hours to disarm his private army after storming gas giant's HQ


RT
Mon, 23 Mar 2015 21:36 UTC
kolomoisky
The Ukrainian government has given the private army of billionaire Dnepropetrovsk governor Igor Kolomoysky a day to lay down their weapons, after they occupied and erected a fence around the headquarters of the national oil company.


Comment: Ahh, Ukraine. Bastion of Western values and democracy. Where rich oligarchs parade around with private armies, living by the rule of the gun.


"We won't have armed personal security forces of businessmen and politicians on the streets of our cities. This applies to every single one of them," Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said on his Facebook page.

"All security forces have 24 hours to comply with the letter of the law."

President Petro Poroshenko has also dispatched two battalions of the elite National Guard to Dnepropetrovsk, to diffuse "rising tension in the region."


Comment: Interesting developments, to say the least. Kolomoisky apparently also called for recognizing DPR and LPR and financially federalizing Ukraine, leaving 90% of tax revenues in the east. US Ambassador Pyatt reprimanded K's "jungle law" politics (oh really, Pyatt, what would you call Maidan?!). So what's going on? There were rumors earlier this year that Kolomoisky might hedge his bets by siding with the 'winner' (i.e., NAF and RF) and thus retain his ungodly hoard of money and influence. Has he seen the writing on the wall for Kiev? Will this lead to a second Maidan, with open war on the streets, as Oleg Tsarev is predicting? (Remember, he's the guy that predicted the first one!)

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Eye 1

Assault on Canadian democracy - Stephen Harper terrorizing Canada with odious Secret Police Act

Murray Dobbin
Counterpunch
Fri, 20 Mar 2015 21:26 UTC
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The Harper government's pursuit of its odious Secret Police Act (C51) is just another chapter in the most through-going, and massive social engineering project in the history of the country. Social engineering used to be one of the favourite phrases of the right in its attack on social programs - accusing both liberal-minded politicians and meddling bureaucrats with manufacturing the welfare state. They conveniently ignored the fact that there was huge popular demand and support for activist government.

That was the so-called golden age of capitalism and it wasn't just because of expanding government services. It was so-called because of a much broader and well-informed citizen engagement - both through social movements and as individual citizens. The level of trust in government was much higher than it is today. And absent from the picture were the factors that today dominate the political conversation: fear and economic insecurity.

Exactly how historians will describe this period in Canadian history is anyone's guess but one approach could be to look upon the Harper era as an experiment in revealing how vulnerable democracies are to political sociopaths bold enough and ruthless enough to bend or break every rule and tradition on which democracy's foundation rests.

It's not just the institutions that are vulnerable though they certainly are. It's a familiar list including Harper's bullying of Governor General Michaelle Jean to force the proroguing of the House, his guide book on how to make parliamentary committees ineffective, the use of robo-calls and other election dirty tricks, his attempt to break the rules in appointing a Supreme Court Judge and his neutering the House of Commons question period through a deliberate strategy of refusing to answer questions - a practice that institutionalizes a contempt for Parliament that spreads outward to the general public. At a certain point it doesn't matter who is responsible - the institution itself becomes risible and irrelevant to ordinary citizens. Which is, of course, exactly what Harper intends.
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Clock

Kiev threatens to cut off Russian gas imports starting April 1


RT
Mon, 23 Mar 2015 21:26 UTC
gas
© Reuters / Laszlo Balogh
Kiev said it will stop importing Russian gas from next Wednesday if Gazprom doesn't offer it a better price, according to the country's Energy Minister Vladimir Demchishin. Halting supplies through Ukraine could put Europe's energy security in limbo.

"It is necessary to buy Russian gas at the moment, but buying at a higher price than we can buy from Europe makes no sense," Demchishin said Monday, as quoted by TASS.

Similar claims have been made by Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk.

Last week, Ukraine Finance Minister Natalia Yaresko said gas imports from the EU would be $50 cheaper per 1,000 cubic meters.

Russian Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak said the price Ukraine would pay for gas starting April 1 could be $348, according to preliminary calculations. Under the current 'winter plan' Russia sells gas to Ukraine at $378 per 1,000 cubic meters, but it only after receiving prepayment from Kiev.

Comment: Kiev isn't really in a position to make threats like this. What do they say about biting the hand that feeds?

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Eye 2

Flashback New details on CIA role in 1953 Iran coup - Historical model of regime change?

Malcolm Byrne
The National Security Archive
Mon, 19 Aug 2013 20:39 UTC
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The 1953 coup remains a topic of global interest because so much about it is still under intense debate. Even fundamental questions — who hatched the plot, who ultimately carried it out, who supported it inside Iran, and how did it succeed — are in dispute.[1]

The issue is more than academic. Political partisans on all sides, including the Iranian government, regularly invoke the coup to argue whether Iran or foreign powers are primarily responsible for the country's historical trajectory, whether the United States can be trusted to respect Iran's sovereignty, or whether Washington needs to apologize for its prior interference before better relations can occur.

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© Ali RahnemThis map shows the disposition of bands of "ruffians," paid to demonstrate by coup organizers, early on August 19, 1953. The bands gathered in the bazaar and other sections of southern Tehran, then moved north through the capital. Thug leaders' names appear at left, along with the estimated size of their groups, and their targets.
The 1953 coup remains a topic of global interest because so much about it is still under intense debate. Even fundamental questions — who hatched the plot, who ultimately carried it out, who supported it inside Iran, and how did it succeed — are in dispute.[1]

The issue is more than academic. Political partisans on all sides, including the Iranian government, regularly invoke the coup to argue whether Iran or foreign powers are primarily responsible for the country's historical trajectory, whether the United States can be trusted to respect Iran's sovereignty, or whether Washington needs to apologize for its prior interference before better relations can occur.

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© Ali RahnemaPro-Shah police, military units and undercover agents became engaged in the coup starting mid-morning August 19
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Sherlock

Crimea one year later - The difference between NATO invasions and Russian interventions

Tony Cartalucci
New Eastern Outlook
Sun, 22 Mar 2015 20:03 UTC
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NATO calls Crimea "invaded" and "occupied." NATO has taught the world well what invasion and occupation really looks like, and Crimea isn't it. In 2001, NATO invaded and began the occupation of the South-Central Asian country of Afghanistan. The invasion and occupation has left tens of thousands dead, many more displaced, and has resulted in continued chaos and violence up until and including present day. Throughout the conflict, revelations of abuses, mass murder, and other atrocities including systematic torture have been exposed, perpetrated by invading NATO forces and their Afghan collaborators.

The war has also resulted in the use of armed drone aircraft which regularly kill men, women, and children indiscriminately along the Afghan-Pakistani border - a campaign of mass murder ongoing for nearly as long as the conflict has raged.

In 2003, NATO-members joined the United States in the invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq. An estimated 1 million people would lose their lives, including thousands of Western troops. For nearly a decade the United State occupied Iraq, and during its attempts to prop up a suitable client regime, laid waste to the nation. American forces in their bid to exercise control over the Iraqi population would conduct sweeping assaults on entire cities. The city of Fallujah would be leveled nearly to the ground, twice.

The US also maintained prison camps across the entire nation. Some vast and spanning, others dark and secret, including the infamous Abu Ghraib prison and the atrocities carried out there. In addition to Western armed forces, a significant number of paid mercenaries participated in both the occupation and the atrocities carried out during it, including the mass killing of civilians resulting in criminal cases still reverberating through Western legal systems and undermining Western credibility worldwide.


Comment: It is important to remember that the U.S. is engaged in a propaganda war against Russia. Part of that battle is spreading the lie that Russia "invaded and occupied" Crimea even though the reality is that the people of Crimea chose to annex themselves from Ukraine. The people of Iraq and Afghanistan were never given that choice.

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Mr. Potato

Government propaganda, automated bots, and Internet trolls - The battle to control public opinion and manipulate social media


Washington's Blog
Mon, 23 Mar 2015 19:34 UTC
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Rampant Disinformation

NATO has announced that it is launching an "information war" against Russia. The UK publicly announced a battalion of keyboard warriors to spread disinformation.

It's well-documented that the West has long used false propaganda to sway public opinion. Western military and intelligence services manipulate social media to counter criticism of Western policies.

Such manipulation includes flooding social media with comments supporting the government and large corporations, using armies of sock puppets, i.e. fake social media identities. See this, this, this, this and this.

In 2013, the American Congress repealed the formal ban against the deployment of propaganda against U.S. citizens living on American soil. So there's even less to constrain propaganda than before.
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Cards

Russia puts Northern Fleet on full alert amid NATO war games

Eliott C. McLaughlin
CNN
Tue, 17 Mar 2015 18:08 UTC
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As the U.S. and several Eastern European NATO countries conduct a series of military exercises near Russia's border, Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his Northern Fleet "to full alert in a snap combat readiness exercise" in the Arctic, state-run media reported Monday.

At least one Russian leader described the drill as routine and unrelated to the "international situation."

The fleet got its orders at 8 a.m. Monday, according to Sputnik, launching a land, sea and air drill that will involve 38,000 troops, 41 ships, 15 submarines and 110 aircraft.

"The main task of the (combat readiness drill) is to assess the armed forces from the Northern Fleet's capabilities in fulfilling tasks in providing military security of the Russian Federation in the Arctic region," Russian Defense Minister Gen. Sergey Shoigu told the media outlet. "New challenges and threats of military security demand the further heightening of military capabilities of the armed forces and special attention will be paid to the state of the newly formed strategic merging (of forces) in the North."

The drills will run through Friday, Sputnik reported.
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Bad Guys

Best of the Web: Kiev's poison pill for Minsk 2.0

Robert Parry
Consortium News
Thu, 19 Mar 2015 17:53 UTC
yats ashton
The Ukraine government's latest maneuver - undermining the Minsk-2 agreement with a requirement for a rebel surrender - is likely to drive the country back into a full-scale civil war and push the U.S. and Russia closer to a nuclear showdown, reports Robert Parry.

By adding a poison pill to legislation implementing the latest Minsk agreement, the Ukrainian government has effectively guaranteed a resumption of the civil war, which U.S. hardliners and the mainstream U.S. media will no doubt blame on ethnic Russian rebels and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The U.S. media has focused on the so-called Minsk-2 agreement's cease-fire component, first claiming it was being sabotaged by the rebels and Russia but now acknowledging that it is shaky but relatively successful. But the larger point of Minsk-2 was that it would provide for a political settlement of the civil war by arranging talks between Kiev and authorities in the east that would lead to giving those areas extensive self-rule by the end of 2015.

But the implementing law that emerged this week from the Ukrainian parliament in Kiev inserted a clause requiring the rebels to first surrender to the Ukrainian government and then letting Kiev organize elections before a federalized structure is determined.

Comment: It couldn't be clearer that it is Kiev that wants war. They will not negotiate. They will not cease fire. They will not remove all their heavy weaponry. They will not grant any reasonable level of self-government. They are the Israel of Eastern Europe. The fact that Western politicians and media continue to blame Russia and Putin is completely insane. How far the West has fallen...

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