Puppet MastersS


Sherlock

Flashback In strange twist, Venezuela arrests '7 police agents' and rabbi's bodyguard in connection with Caracas synagogue attack

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Anti-Semitic graffiti sprayed on the walls of the Caracas synagogue
Venezuelan investigators on Sunday said seven police agents and four civilians were arrested in connection with an attack on a synagogue that sparked international condemnation.

The Venezuelan public prosecutor's office said the civilians included at least one security official from the synagogue and that all had been captured in raids over the weekend.

"These people were apprehended during raids carried out between Saturday and the early hours of Sunday in different parts of Caracas. They will all be charged by the Public Prosecutor's office," the office said in a statement.

Hardhat

Libya may halt pumping oil as violence intensifies

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© Reuters / Ismail Zitouny
Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) says it could suspend production at all its oilfields if the government fails to curb the rising number of attacks by militants.

The company is worried about the safety of its employees and the possibility staff might leave the extraction sites after repeated armed attacks. NOC wants the country's Defense Ministry to protect the oil pumping facilities.

"If these incidents continue, National Oil Corp will regrettably be forced to stop all operations at all fields in order to preserve the lives of employees," the company warned on its website.

Comment: This is the direct result of NATO interference in Libya. Instead of peace and democracy, they have chaos.


Dollar

Congress planning to let Homeland Security funding lapse

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© Reuters / Kevork Djansezian
In a move that could have ramifications for domestic anti-terrorism efforts, US House Speaker John Boehner said he would let funding for the Department of Homeland Security lapse on Feb. 27 in order to reverse Obama's immigration reform actions.

House Republicans have passed a Homeland Security appropriations bill, but it is contingent upon defunding Obama's 2012 and 2014 executive orders that negated the threat of deportation for an estimated five million undocumented immigrants seeking refuge in the United States.

In the Senate, Democrats have blocked the House funding bill three times, calling for "clean" DHS-funding legislation that would maintain Obama's immigration orders. Obama, meanwhile, has threatened to veto the House measure.

"Senate Democrats are the ones standing in the way," Speaker Boehner told Fox News on Sunday. "They're the ones jeopardizing funding."

Would he let the department's funding expire? "Certainly," Boehner answered. "The House has acted. We've done our job."
.@SpeakerBoehner on #DHS Funding: 'It's Up to Senate Democrats to Get Their Act Together' http://t.co/TlVWJU37WC pic.twitter.com/qSwsxsU7xe

— FoxNewsInsider (@FoxNewsInsider) February 15, 2015
In the Senate, however, Republicans do not seem as headstrong about playing with DHS funding to defeat the immigration orders.

"The American people did not give us majority to have a fight between House and Senate Republicans," Arizona Sen. John McCain said on NBC's 'Meet the Press,' in reference to last November's midterm election. "They want things done. You cannot cut funding from the Department of Homeland Security. We need to sit down and work this thing out."

Stormtrooper

The West needs wise leaders to counter Washington war-hawks

Minsk peace talks
© Reuters / Mykola LazarenkoBelarus' President Alexander Lukashenko (R), Russia's President Vladimir Putin (2nd L), Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko (C, front), Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel (2nd R) and France's President Francois Hollande (front L) walk as they take part in peace talks on resolving the Ukrainian crisis in Minsk, February 11, 2015.
The guns in Ukraine have not cooled down yet but the Minsk 2 peace accord is already being predictably assailed in Washington by liberal and conservative hawks alike.

Headlines like "Vlad Putin Wins Again," "The new Ukrainian peace deal may be worse than no deal at all," or "Why Is Putin Smiling About Ukraine?" and the likes are all over the US media.

Never mind that the Minsk Agreement offers at least a brief, fragile window of opportunity for the world to step back from the brink of a nuclear confrontation that would destroy the entire northern hemisphere of the earth. If nothing else, at least it could save some Ukrainian lives. But who cares?

Such negative reactions from US policymakers and media are understandable since the whole Ukrainian mess was concocted to fulfill the ultimate goal of Russia's geopolitical weakening and Putin's regime change under the noble banner of spreading freedom and democracy. So far this goal is far from an achievement so why give peace a chance?

The saddest part of this story is that such a policy totally contradicts US long-term strategic security interests by turning a potential important ally into adversary.

It did not have to be that way. After the collapse of Communism and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, both Russian elites and the overwhelming majority of the Russian people were ready to join the family of the Western alliance. It was President George Herbert Walker Bush who talked in 1990 about a "Europe whole and free," and the new "security arch from Vancouver to Vladivostok."

Comment: While the leaders of some EU countries are trying to diffuse the crisis, they are still under the influence of the US, who will continue to do anything necessary to further their agenda of global domination. Intervention by more experienced and sane leaders in the West might help, but only if they had enough power to bring about a change in US strategy. It is also questionable how many of those leaders mentioned above have any real desire for lasting peace.

Warmonger George Soros on Ukraine: A fascinating insight into the deranged thinking of the Western Empire builders (with commentary)


Eye 2

MI5 being investigated for covering up child sex abuse in Northern Ireland

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© Crown Copyright 2011. Licensed under the Open Government Licence
British intelligence agency MI5 faces allegations it covered up child sex abuse at a care home in east Belfast for decades to protect its intelligence operations, Northern Ireland's high court will hear on Tuesday.

Victims of child sex abuse which took place in Kincora Boys' Home throughout the 1970s are pursuing a full independent inquiry into the matter.

If successful, the victims' legal challenge will result in a robust inquiry that compels key witnesses to testify. MI5 would also be forced to supply investigators with vital documents.

The Belfast-based court case is the first to address the British state's alleged links to the notorious care home in the 1970s. It begins on Tuesday, and is expected to continue throughout the week.
"One of the biggest scandals of our time" says Amnesty; MI5 & claims of complicity in sexual abuse of children http://t.co/59EPHQiUUp

— vikram dodd (@VikramDodd) February 15, 2015
Former Kincora residents are calling for a full, independent inquiry into the British state's collusion in the abuse, similar to the inquiry set up to investigate Westminster child abuse, chaired by judge Lowell Goddard.

Goddard was recently appointed by Home Secretary Theresa May as the new head of Britain's Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. May has conceded allegations of state involvement in the pedophile ring that infiltrated Kincora Boys' Home should be investigated.

She agreed in January that Britain's Official Secrets Act should be waived to allow ex-military intelligence officers to come forward with evidence.

Comment: The pedophile ring in the UK appears to reach to the highest levels of government:


Bad Guys

Dream on, Yats! Ukraine plans to ditch its reliance on Russian gas completely

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Comment: If Ukraine wants to be reliant upon itself and Europe for gas, Russia should go right ahead and oblige them by turning off the gas going to Ukraine. Let Ukraine see what life is like without support from Mother Russia.


Ukraine is ready to do away with supplies of Russian gas by increasing domestic oil and gas exploration and getting more from Europe, said Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk.

"We have proved that we are able to get rid of Russian gas dependence," Yatsenyuk said in an interview to the Ukrainian 1+1 channel on Sunday. He said that in 2013 Ukraine bought 95 percent of its gas from Russia. In 2014 that was reduced to just 33 percent, with the rest supplied from Europe.

"We almost passed the winter. Few had hoped that we would pass it. I said it wouldn't be warm, but we wouldn't freeze," he said. "After all, it was warm and we didn't freeze," Yatsenyuk said.

The prime minister called for increased domestic production of oil and gas and the implementation of reforms in the energy sector that will help Ukraine reduce its dependence on Russian gas.

According to the state-run gas supply and transit company Ukrtransgaz, the country imported 5.1 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas from Europe in 2014, which is 59 percent more than in 2013.

The increase was due to the new Voyany-Uzhgorod pipeline opening in September 2014, which allowed Slovakia to supply 3.6 bcm, Poland 0.9 bcm, and Hungary 0.6 billion cubic meters. In 2014 Ukraine saved about $1.5 billion by buying cheaper European hydrocarbons. Imports from Russia decreased 80 percent in 2014 falling to 14.5 billion cubic meters.

Pistol

The big lie: U.S. has supplied weapons to Kiev from the start

ukraine troops
© REUTERS/Gleb Garanich
President Obama is still considering arming Ukraine in case the latest ceasefire is breached and the conflict escalates; but political analyst Stephen Lendman told Sputnik in an exclusive interview that the US leader is lying, and that the US has been supplying arms to Kiev from the very start of the military operation.

The ceasefire between Kiev forces and independence supporters of Donetsk and Luhansk is generally holding, shelling in Donbas has stopped as the truce came in force on midnight, a spokesperson at the Kiev special operations headquarters said Sunday.

But a day earlier Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and US President Barack Obama, during a meeting by phone, agreed on the further coordination of efforts in the case that the ceasefire fails and the Ukrainian conflict escalates.

Comment: It's all right, Russia made them do it! Lendman is in his 80s. And he's not kidding when he says the lies are the most outrageous in his lifetime.


USA

Best of the Web: Leader of Islamic State is fictional character whose voice is played by an actor, says U.S. military

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Comment: Although this article appeared in 2007, it is quite apt today as the Islamic State is being touted as the next big terrorist organization that requires U.S. intervention all around the world to combat.


For more than a year, the leader of one the most notorious insurgent groups in Iraq was said to be a mysterious Iraqi named Abdullah Rashid al-Baghdadi.

As the titular head of the Islamic State in Iraq, an organization publicly backed by Al Qaeda, Baghdadi issued a steady stream of incendiary pronouncements. Despite claims by Iraqi officials that he had been killed in May, Baghdadi appeared to have persevered unscathed.

On Wednesday, a senior American military spokesman provided a new explanation for Baghdadi's ability to escape attack: He never existed.

Brigadier General Kevin Bergner, the chief American military spokesman, said the elusive Baghdadi was actually a fictional character whose audio-taped declarations were provided by an elderly actor named Abu Adullah al-Naima.

Comment: Fascinating, isn't it?

It's as if they had a plot line involving an 'Islamic State led by al-Baghdadi' waiting in the wings, but decided against using it at the time.

7 years later, an 'Islamic State led by al-Baghdadi' is justifying US intervention from Morocco to Pakistan.

Is this one equally fictional?

There are real people doing really horrible things in Muslim countries - most of them from Europe and Saudi Arabia - but the idea that they're part of some 'cohesive enemy threatening Western civilization' is clearly fictional.

Remember what former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said before his untimely death: 'al Qaeda' was a database of Western intelligence informants...


Brick Wall

Croatia's gloom and doom: Criminal enterprise HDZ' takes over presidency

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© NEWS.CNKolinda Grabar Kitarović officially became Croatia’s fourth elected president after being inaugurated at a ceremony in St. Mark’s Square in Zagreb at noon on Sunday.
The inauguration ceremony for newly elected president of Croatia, who ran on HDZ - the Croatian Democratic Union's political party ticket, is scheduled for February 15. There is no reason for celebration. Croatia's brave Judge Calic issued guilty verdicts against HDZ party, former Prime Minister Sanader and four of his close allies on charges of corruption on March 11, 2014 . HDZ's appeal process may drag on until after the next parliamentary election, scheduled for the end of 2015.

According to BBC, "Prosecutors accused Sanader of "masterminding" a scheme to divert money from state-run firms and institutions during his two terms in office between 2003 to 2009, making illegal financial gains for the HDZ and himself." For Sanader, this was the second trial - he is already serving a 10-year jail sentence after being convicted for taking millions of dollars of bribes from energy company MOL and Hypo Alpe Adria Bank.

Comment: While Croatian media are currently busy speculating whether or not the new Croatian president belongs to the women's masonic lodge, Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic has first denied her involvement with the Trilateral Commission but then eventually admitted her involvement, with a caveat: "Trilateral Commission has nothing to do with freemasonry".

What we know for sure is that Ms. Grabar Kitarovic has been on NATO's payroll from 4 July 2011 - 2 October 2014 as the Assistant Secretary General of NATO for Public Diplomacy.

Putting it mildly, it seems highly inappropriate that someone with such a Curriculum Vitae would be even considered for presidential elections in any independent state. Or perhaps not - if we consider Croatia as effectively being a NATO puppet state. It seems Kolinda's true agenda is to continue the legacy of her party founder, Franjo Tudjman, who has paved the way for pillage and plunder of Croatia's natural resources while its people are barely surviving on the brink of existence.


Bomb

ISIS beheads 21 Christian Copts, Egypt eyes revenge

isis
© Reuters / Stringer
Egypt's President Abdel el-Sisi said Cairo "reserves the right to respond in any way" to the killing of 21 Copts by Islamic State militants. The extremist group has released a graphic video showing the beheadings of the Copts that were kidnapped in Libya.

Sisi warned that Cairo would choose the "necessary means and timing to avenge the criminal killings" as he spoke on state television in the wake of the surfaced footage of the brutal executions.

The Copts - native Christians of Egypt - are shown in the video dressed in orange jumpsuits with their hands tied behind their backs, while being walked along the seaside by jihadists dressed in black. The Egyptian men are then forced to kneel before being beheaded.

Several very graphic images of the killings appeared on Twitter. RT will not run the images, believing it is unethical to publish the footage or pictures of atrocities committed by terrorists even if they cannot be immediately verified.

Comment: Would this atrocity have been committed if the U.S. hadn't led the crusade to oust Gaddafi and have him murdered in cold blood, or engage in similar endeavors in Syria? Unlikely. Speaking of the U.S., their official response has been to "explicitly blame" IS terrorists for this "wanton killing of innocents". That is rich, coming from a nation that has been an exceptional leader in that department for decades.