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India scrambles jets to border forcing Pakistan's to retreat in latest incident


Sputnik
Mon, 01 Apr 2019 18:11 UTC
Su-30MKI
© AFP 2019 / DIBYANGSHU SARKAR
The Indian Air Force (IAF) detected four Pakistani F-16 fighter jets and an armed drone near the international border with Pakistan on Monday morning in the Khemkaran sector of Punjab.
Defence sources told Sputnik that the IAF scrambled Su-30MKI and Mirage 2000 jets to intercept Pakistani warplanes, forcing them to return to their airspace immediately.

"Indian radars detected the movement of the four Pakistani F-16 fighter jets at around 0300 hrs local time on Monday, in response; the Indian Air Force scrambled its Sukhoi Su-30MKI and Mirage-2000 fighter jets immediately," source added.

The Indian Army and the IAF have remained on high alert after Indian intelligence warned about a possible deployment of armed drones and increased activities of the PAF along the international border since mid-March.

Comment: See also:

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Red Flag

Guaido ready to enact grassroots uprising straight out of US regime-change operations manual

Whitney Webb
MintPress News
Fri, 29 Mar 2019 00:00 UTC
Juan Guaido
© Natacha Pisarenko/AP
Pretender Juan Guaido
With its hands tied when it comes to military intervention, only covert actions - such as those described in the RED Team document - are likely to be enacted by the U.S. government, at least at this stage of its ongoing "regime change" effort in Venezuela.

Juan Guaidó, the self-proclaimed "interim president of Venezuela" who is supported by the United States government, recently announced coming "tactical actions" that will be taken by his supporters starting April 6 as part of "Operation Freedom," an alleged grassroots effort to overthrow Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

That operation, according to Guaidó, will be led by "Freedom and Aid Committees" that in turn create "freedom cells" throughout the country - "cells" that will spring to action when Guaidó gives the signal on April 6 and launch large-scale community protests. Guaidó's stated plan involves the Venezuelan military then taking his side, but his insistence that "all options are still on the table" (i.e., foreign military intervention) reveals his impatience with the military, which has continued to stay loyal to Maduro throughout Guaidó's "interim presidency."

Comment: As revealed above, the machinations of the US/CIA playbook for Venezuela are clear and the timetable of this conspiracy - to eliminate and replace its legitimate government - is ticking. Current news, however, indicates Venezuelan supporters of regime change have been significantly absent in recent rallies. A boding of things not to come? That would be a welcome and unexpected twist.

See also:

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USA

Muellergate and the Discreet Lies of the Bourgeoisie

Craig Murray
craigmurray.org.uk
Tue, 02 Apr 2019 20:34 UTC
Russiagate cartoon
This cartoon seems to me very apposite. The capacity of the mainstream media repeatedly to promote the myth that Russia caused Clinton's defeat, while never mentioning what the information was that had been so damaging to Hillary, should be alarming to anybody under the illusion that we have a working "free media". There are literally hundreds of thousands of mainstream media articles and broadcasts, from every single one of the very biggest names in the Western media, which were predicated on the complete nonsense that Russia had conspired to install Donald Trump as President of the United States.

I genuinely have never quite understood whether the journalists who wrote this guff believed it, whether they were cynically pumping out propaganda and taking their pay cheque, or whether they just did their "job" and chose to avoid asking themselves whether they were producing truth or lies.
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Laptop

How American hackers helped UAE spy on Al Jazeera, BBC

Joel Schectman and Christopher Bing
Reuters
Tue, 02 Apr 2019 19:09 UTC
al jazera doha hq
© Reuters/Naseem Zeitoon
A UAE-backed spying mission targeted the host of an Al Jazeera program called “The Opposite Direction,” which gave voice to pressing issues of the day. Here, the company’s Doha headquarters.
A group of American hackers who once worked for U.S. intelligence agencies helped the United Arab Emirates spy on a BBC host, the chairman of Al Jazeera and other prominent Arab media figures during a tense 2017 confrontation pitting the UAE and its allies against the Gulf state of Qatar.

The American operatives worked for Project Raven, a secret Emirati intelligence program that spied on dissidents, militants and political opponents of the UAE monarchy. A Reuters investigation in January revealed Project Raven's existence and inner workings, including the fact that it surveilled a British activist and several unnamed U.S. journalists.

The Raven operatives - who included at least nine former employees of the U.S. National Security Agency and the U.S. military - found themselves thrust into the thick of a high-stakes dispute among America's Gulf allies. The Americans' role in the UAE-Qatar imbroglio highlights how former U.S. intelligence officials have become key players in the cyber wars of other nations, with little oversight from Washington.

The crisis erupted in the spring of 2017, when the UAE and allies - including Saudi Arabia and Egypt - accused Qatar of sowing unrest in the Middle East through its support of media outlets and political groups. The UAE camp demanded Qatar take a series of actions, including shuttering the Qatar-funded Al Jazeera satellite television network, withdrawing funding from other media outlets Doha supports, and cracking down on the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic movement some Arab governments regard as a threat.

Comment: See also:

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USA

Americans are stranded in the Twilight Zone

John W. Whitehead
The Rutherford Institute
Tue, 02 Apr 2019 19:15 UTC
"We're developing a new citizenry. One that will be very selective about cereals and automobiles, but won't be able to think."-Rod Serling
Twilight Zone
© Pinterest
Have you noticed how much life increasingly feels like an episode of The Twilight Zone?

Only instead of Rod Serling's imaginary "land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas," we're trapped in a topsy-turvy, all-too-real land of corruption, brutality and lies, where freedom, justice and integrity play second fiddle to political ambition, corporate greed, and bureaucratic tyranny.

It's not merely that life in the American Police State is more brutal, or more unjust, or even more corrupt. It's getting more idiotic, more perverse, and more outlandish by the day.

Somewhere over the course of the past 240-plus years, democracy has given way to idiocracy, and representative government has given way to a kleptocracy (a government ruled by thieves) and a kakistocracy (a government run by unprincipled career politicians, corporations and thieves that panders to the worst vices in our nature and has little regard for the rights of American citizens).

Examples abound.
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Bad Guys

India claims 7 Pakistani military posts destroyed in latest Kashmir flare-up


RT
Tue, 02 Apr 2019 18:40 UTC
Indian Army
© AFP / Rakesh Bakshi
Seven Pakistani military outposts across Kashmir's Line of Control were destroyed as retaliation for recent cross-border shelling, Indian officials have said. Pakistan confirmed three of its soldiers were killed in the fighting.

The attack on Pakistani military positions comes a day after three people were reportedly killed and two dozen others were injured by Pakistani shelling targeting forward areas along the Line of Control (LoC). India claims it neutralized seven military posts in Rakhchikri and Rawalakote, in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) of Pakistan acknowledged on Tuesday that three soldiers were killed by "unprovoked fire" from the Indian side. The agency claimed that Pakistan's army had "responded effectively" to the attack and had inflicted casualties, but did not provide further details.

Comment: The Pakistani Army reports three of their troops were killed in 'unprovoked fire':
"Unprovoked fire" coming from India's side of the division line in Kashmir killed three Pakistani troops and injured one, the army has said, adding their forces have "responded effectively," inflicting casualties to Indian forces.


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Bad Guys

Sniff, touch & run: Will Democrats survive own #MeToo moral hype in 'Creepy Joe Biden' scandal?

Alex Benley
RT
Tue, 02 Apr 2019 18:19 UTC
creepy Joe Biden
© Global Look Press / Louis Brems
Joe Biden kisses the cheek of Chandra Kurylo of Davenport
When a Republican faces #MeToo-style accusations, be it President Trump or Judge Kavanaugh, Dems are usually the first to condemn. But when men among their own ranks come under fire, they water down the scandal or find a pretext.

When two women offered their revelations of a 'gross' encounter with Joe Biden in a protest against the double standards and hypocrisy among some Democrats concerning women's rights, the MSM was quick to downplay their outrage by calling the former vice president "affectionate," and a "fingertip politician," "a holdover from a different time," (WaPo) or flip the frame like MSNBC's Morning Joe hosts by labeling Lucy Flores a "huge Bernie person."

"This affectionate and sometimes intimate physical style is one of the former vice president's trademarks, a defining feature of the warm and upbeat persona he has built during more than four decades in the national spotlight," said the liberal leaning, pro-Democrat Washington Post.


Comment: Something tells us that an "intimate physical style" that creeps out the majority of the population shouldn't be a defining feature of a presidential candidate, yet here is WaPo actually writing and defending Creepy Joe Biden

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Light Sabers

Netanyahu slams watchdog report of fake account network sharing Likud propaganda


Sputnik
Mon, 01 Apr 2019 15:21 UTC
netanyahu
© Reuters/Atef Safadi
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
After an Israeli political watchdog reported a network of fake Twitter accounts sharing pro-Likud material on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired back, saying they weren't bots but very real Likud supporters. The flap, however, raises important questions about how the social media giant enforces its terms of use.

Israeli independent watchdog organization Big Bots Project published a 36-page report Monday detailing a network of hundreds of accounts it says are fake or may be fake that appear to be coordinating the sharing of pro-Netanyahu posts.

According to Big Bots founders Noam Rotem and Yuval Adam, the report identifies 154 accounts with fake names and another 400 suspected of being fake, and says they appear to be operated by people, not bots. Their posts, all in Hebrew, have reached of 2.5 million people in a country of roughly 8.7 million, the New York Times, which received an advance copy of the report on Sunday, notes.

Comment: There seems to be a whole lot going on here to sow confusion. It appears the powers that be in Israel want war-criminal Benny Gantz in power, and a bit of chaos and confusion is needed to unseat Netanyahu.

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Snakes in Suits

Ukraine election: As Zelensky tops the poll, the West's Poroshenko gamble fizzles

Bryan MacDonald
RT
Mon, 01 Apr 2019 15:55 UTC
Zelensky/Poroshenko
© Europost/Business Recorder
Comic Vladimir Zelensky • President Petro Poroshenko
TV comic Vladimir Zelensky has won 30 percent of the vote in the first round of Ukraine's presidential election. He'll face the beleaguered Western-backed president, Petro Poroshenko, in a run-off.

Forget geopolitics for a moment. Because, for those on the ground who did the heavy lifting, Ukraine's 2013/14 Euromaidan was about removing the corrupt post-Soviet elite. Thus, it always seemed bizarre that the chief political beneficiary was a billionaire who'd served as a minister in the two detested previous administrations.

Make no mistake, the original Maidan protesters believed their efforts would sweep away the old ruling class. And they fell for promises of swift Western integration and pledges of reviving an impoverished economy. Instead, it all rapidly turned cynical and they got a US-imposed interim administration. Washington's point-woman Victoria Nuland declared "Yats is the guy," and Arseniy Yatsenyuk quickly became caretaker PM.

Soon after, the West backed Petro Poroshenko in a presidential election which amounted to a showdown with ex-PM Yulia Tymoshenko, which the former easily won.

So, if Euromaidan was a revolution, its result was strange. Something akin to Marie Antoinette's baker taking over France in 1793.

Here we are five years later and just 9 percent of Ukrainians have confidence in their government. Which is the lowest mark on the planet. And down from 24 percent during the tail-end of the Yanukovich era. Meanwhile, average wages have fallen to US$320 a month, deaths far exceed births, taxes have increased, and gas prices have risen dramatically.
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Bulb

Moscow would like to see party of peace in power in Ukraine


Sputnik
Tue, 02 Apr 2019 16:28 UTC
Ukraine
© Sputnik / Stringer
Kremlin believes it is yet too early to comment on the results of the Ukrainian presidential election or congratulate any of the candidates on getting into the second round of the race, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday.

"The election in Ukraine is not over yet. There will be the second round. So, it's too early to draw conclusions. We need to wait... As long as the election is not finished, it would be wrong to congratulate [anyone] on getting into the second round," the spokesman said.

"Of course, we would like to see that Ukraine is governed by a party seeking a step-by-step settlement in Ukraine's southeast in accordance with the existing agreements, rather than a party of war," the spokesman added.

The Kremlin has no stand on Russian lawmakers' suggestion not to recognise the Ukrainian presidential election, Peskov said on Monday, stressing that this was the lawmakers' own initiative.
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