Puppet Masters
These campaigns actively exploited the religious factor in an attempt to undermine and discredit traditional religious systems. In the case of the Middle East, the target is Sunni Islam. It is being targeted by instigating various Islamic sects. In Eastern and Southeastern Europe, various artificial schismatic groups are used to combat the canonical Orthodox Church. In both cases, foreign powers have also been exploiting and supporting exotic sects, new-age-style beliefs and other "neo-liberal" constructs.
On May 24, U.S. Ambassador to Greece Geoffrey Pyatt met with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople to discuss the upcoming visit of the patriarch to Washington and the role of Constantinople in Ukraine and "across the wider Orthodox world".

QUELUZ, PORTUGAL - DECEMBER 05: The President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping and Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa.
Known as "Panda" bonds, that's yuan-denominated debt issued by a foreign sovereign issuer, the sale will take place Wednesday and Thursday. The southern European country announced last week its intention to sell 2 billion yuan ($289 million) worth of bonds with a maturity of three years.
These Panda bonds will not be the first in the European Union, with Poland issuing government bonds on the Chinese market in 2016 and Hungary in 2018.
Portugal's Finance Minister Mario Centeno told CNBC that the issuance is a "positive step in managing Portugal's external debt in the medium term."
Comment: And the slow but steady shift to the East continues:
- Italy will be first G7 nation to support China's One Belt One Road program
- Switzerland to sign on to China's One Belt One Road
- EU election results show people are 'fed up with fake democracy'
- Far from quiet on the US vs Russia-China front

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad says the probe into the MH17 plane tragedy seems to be concentrated on trying to pin it on the Russians and this is not a neutral kind of examination.
He said Malaysia accepted the investigation report of Holland but only up to the point where the plane was brought down by a missile made by Russia.
Mahathir said while the government agreed that the plane was brought down by a Russian missile, it cannot be certain that the missile was launched by Russia.
"The US is something else, too bossy. Their lieutenants talk like generals. That's why I don't listen to them. They do not have a word of honor," Duterte said in Tokyo, Japan on Thursday, recalling how Washington halted the planned sale of 26,000 assault rifles for the Philippines' national police in 2016.
The US State Department's refusal to sell assault rifles to Manila, under the pretext of concerns about the country's human rights record amid its ongoing war on drugs, has forced Duterte to seek new suppliers - namely, China and Russia. After receiving the arms shipments from both countries, Manila expressed interest in further diversifying its supplies and is considering the purchase of patrol boats, armored vehicles and even submarines.
"In the Far East, if you want to come together, we should start with a common trading currency, not to be used locally but for the purpose of settling of trade," Mahathir said at the Nikkei Future of Asia conference in Japan, suggesting the currency be "based on gold because gold is much more stable" and warning that promoting any one country's currency over others would result in conflict. Exchange rates would be based on the country's economic performance and not subject to the volatility of forex markets.
"Currency trading is not something that is healthy because it is not about the performance of countries but about manipulation," Mahathir added. The gold-backed currency would not be used within any one country, but would help protect regional trading from predatory speculators - and from the vicissitudes of the dollar, which he said unfairly held the rest of the world hostage.
Rep. Doug Collins (R-Georgia) substantiated his suspicion in a letter (pdf) to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, whose office released a summary showing that someone with the same title as Strzok-Deputy Assistant Director (DAD)-leaked sealed court information in violation of federal law, maintained contacts with dozens of reporters, and accepted a gift from a reporter in violation of FBI policy and federal statutes.
"While the DAD is not named in the Summary, there are several indications the DAD in question is former FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok," Collins wrote.
He points out that Horowitz's report on the Clinton-email investigation, dubbed the Midyear investigation by the FBI, shows that Strzok forwarded an email from his FBI account to his personal account about a proposed search warrant the Clinton-email investigators were seeking on the laptop of Anthony Weiner, the husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin. That email included information that was filed under seal with a federal court in the Southern District of New York, according to the report.
The German government has signalled during months-long secret talks with the US that it would be prepared to take part in securing a safe zone in northern Syria, Spiegel reports. According to the outlet, Berlin has suggested that the mission of the German Armed Forces, Bundeswehr, in Jordan could be extended for this purpose.
The mandate for a German deployment called "Camp Sonic" to remain at a Jordanian Air Force base in order to counter Daesh expires in October. It includes specially equipped "Tornado" jets that are assisting the US-led anti-Daesh coalition with reconnaissance and aerial refuelling over Syria. However, as the German outlet points out, it is still unclear what assistance the German Air Force can provide for the safe zone.

States in central Asia fear the impact of a new Cold War on integration plans.
Kazakhs fear impacts of new 'cold war', but Putin is adamant Eurasian integration will go ahead
The ongoing, laborious and crucial interconnection of the New Silk Roads, or Belt and Road Initiative and the Eurasia Economic Union was at the center of the debates. Kazakhstan is a pivotal member of both the BRI and EAEU.
As Valdai Club top analyst Yaroslav Lissovolik told me, there was much discussion "on the state of play in emerging markets in light of the developments associated with the US-China trade stand-off." What emerged was the necessity of embracing "open regionalism" as a factor to neutralize "the negative protectionist trends in the global economy."
Comment: See also:
- 'Clash of Civilizations' or Crisis of Civilization?
- NATO 'Deep State' And Israeli Interests Served by Ousting of Austrian Government
- Trump attacks Military Industrial Complex and calls for infrastructure investments in the Middle East
- Iran squeezed between imperial psychos and European cowards
Kim Hyok-chol, North Korea's special envoy to the US who acted as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's counterpart in discussions prior to the failed Hanoi summit between the two nations, has been dead for months, reported South Korean newspaper The Chosun Ilbo Friday.
"Kim Hyok-chol was investigated and executed at Mirim Airport with four foreign ministry officials in March", an anonymous North Korean source revealed, according to TheChosun Ilbo.
Comment: There is no reason to believe that these claims of execution and reeducation of officials are true - although this kind of propaganda may have gained some traction in times gone by. If Kim Jong-Un had any issue with his officials he would simply fire them, if they'd broken the law he'd jail them. It's notable that this particular news outlets from the South would be so willing to publish unsubstantiated and even provably false claims. As for the summit, it failed because some in the US intended for it to fail: How Trump sabotaged the North Korea summit to appease the hawks and lied about Kim's terms
See also:
- Rogue States: US steals North Korea's 2nd largest bulk carrier ship in another act of gunboat diplomacy
- Here's why US-North Korea talks will continue to fail
- Two Koreas raise yellow flags at guard posts along fortified border
War with Russia could easily break out if the US insists on pursuing the policy of "demonization" that birthed Russiagate instead of returning to detente and cooperation, New York University professor emeritus of Russian history Stephen Cohen argues on Chris Hedges' On Contact. While NATO deliberately antagonized post-Soviet Russia by expanding up to its borders, the US deployed missile defense systems along those borders after scrapping an arms treaty, leaving President Vladimir Putin devoid of "illusions" about the goodwill of the West - but armed with "nuclear missiles that can evade and elude any missile defense system."
"Now is the time for a serious, new arms control agreement. What do we get? Russiagate instead."












Comment: Ideally the dark players would like to usurp religion, but they'll settle for outright chaos and the rupture of over a millenia of tradition:
- Far from quiet on the US vs Russia-China front
- A 'global conspiracy' undermines Orthodox world - Patriarch Kirill
- Faith, power, money: How Western meddling is corrupting Ukraine's Orthodox Church
- Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill: 'Western laws now clash with moral nature of man'
- Russia: The last keeper of European culture, Christian values and truly European civilisation
- Thank God for western values: The debt of the West to Christianity
Also check out SOTT radio's: The Truth Perspective: The Stoic Roots of Christianity: Self-Transcendence Through Meaning and Responsibility