Puppet Masters

Pepe Escobar: NATO's wet dream in Crimea

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times Online
Fri, 28 Feb 2014 08:55 UTC

Time waits for no one, but apparently will wait for Crimea. The speaker of the Crimean parliament, Vladimir Konstantinov, has confirmed there will be a referendum on greater autonomy from Ukraine on May 25.

Until then, Crimea will be as hot and steamy as carnival in Rio - because Crimea is all about Sevastopol, the port of call for the Russian Black Sea fleet.

If the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is a bull, this is the red flag to end all red flags. Even if you're deep in alcohol nirvana dancin' your troubles away at carnival in Rio - or New Orleans, or Venice, or Trinidad and Tobago - your brain will have registered that NATO's ultimate wet dream is to command a Western puppet Ukrainian government to kick the Russian navy out of its base in Sevastopol. The negotiated lease applies until 2042. Threats and rumors of reneging it have already emerged.

The absolute majority of the Crimean peninsula is populated by Russian speakers. Very few Ukrainians live there. In 1954, it took only 15 minutes for Ukrainian Nikita Krushchev - he of the banging shoe at the UN floor - to give Crimea as a free gift to Ukraine (then part of the USSR). In Russia, Crimea is perceived as Russian. Nothing will change that fact.

Sanctimonious scumbags: West demonizes Russia doing everything to avoid conflict in Ukraine

Eric Draitser
RT
Fri, 28 Feb 2014 05:25 UTC

© AFP/Vasily Batanov
This picture taken on February 27, 2014 shows a placard reading "Crimea is Russia" on a barricade at the entrance of the Crimean parliament in Simferopol.

It is pure hypocrisy for the same Western powers fomenting the chaos in Ukraine to brandish the idea that Russia should be chided for some kind of military intervention that has not happened, political analyst Eric Draitser told RT.

RT: Russia has held snap military drills in the region bordering Ukraine. This does give the EU grounds to be reasonably concerned, doesn't it?

Eric Draitser: Well it should not necessarily give them concern considering that it was the EU, the United States and NATO powers were first at instigating the unrest in Kiev and in Ukraine more generally. We have seen that the unrest has been sponsored by the US. We know of course that Victoria Nuland and some of the figures in Germany who have been backing Klitschko and Yatsenyuk, they were exacerbating the situation, fomenting from the very beginning. So now in response to the unrest through the country, particularly in response from these probing attacks that we have seen since the takeover of Kiev, extending into the Eastern portion of the country.

You have seen regions in Ukraine, such as Crimea and elsewhere, calling on Russia to come and to protect the citizens. Now what Russia is doing in response is certainly not an intervention, not by any stretch of the imagination. What we have seen rather is putting military on high alert just like they did in 2008 in response to provocative attacks from Georgia.

Is the US backing neo-Nazis in Ukraine?

Max Blumenthal
Salon.com
Tue, 25 Feb 2014 14:15 UTC

As the Euromaidan protests in the Ukrainian capitol of Kiev culminated this week, displays of open fascism and neo-Nazi extremism became too glaring to ignore. Since demonstrators filled the downtown square to battle Ukrainian riot police and demand the ouster of the corruption-stained, pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovich, it has been filled with far-right streetfighting men pledging to defend their country's ethnic purity.

White supremacist banners and Confederate flags were draped inside Kiev's occupied City Hall, and demonstrators have hoisted Nazi SS and white power symbols over a toppled memorial to V.I. Lenin. After Yanukovich fled his palatial estate by helicopter, EuroMaidan protesters destroyed a memorial to Ukrainians who died battling German occupation during World War II. Sieg heil salutes and the Nazi Wolfsangel symbol have become an increasingly common site in Maidan Square, and neo-Nazi forces have established "autonomous zones" in and around Kiev.

An Anarchist group called AntiFascist Union Ukraine attempted to join the Euromaidan demonstrations but found it difficult to avoid threats of violence and imprecations from the gangs of neo-Nazis roving the square. "They called the Anarchists things like Jews, blacks, Communists," one of its members said. "There weren't even any Communists, that was just an insult."

"There are lots of Nationalists here, including Nazis," the anti-fascist continued. "They came from all over Ukraine, and they make up about 30% of protesters."

Comment: Seeking out, aligning with and empowering the scummiest elements in every country on Earth... ah, it's the American Way.

U.S.Hypocrisy: Scoundrel media Putin bashing

Stephen Lendman
sjlendman.blogspot.fr
Wed, 26 Feb 2014 05:35 UTC

It's relentless. It never quits. It's for any reason or none at all. Cold War geopolitics never ended.

Since Soviet Russia's 1991 dissolution, Western policy remained hard-wired in place.

Putin defends Russian sovereignty. He opposes US imperial lawlessness. Washington considers him public enemy number one. At stake is world peace.

A previous article discussed Stephen Cohen. He's a Russian expert. He discussed scoundrel media practice. It's longstanding. It's "pervasive," said Cohen. It's reprehensible.

"(E)ssential facts and context" are suppressed. Managed news misinformation substitutes. It's no less ideologically driven than during the Cold War days, Cohen explained.

Putin is viciously demonized. Facts are conveniently twisted. Truth is nowhere in sight.

Cohen sees a "new Cold War divide between West and East" unfolding. Imagine a possible hot one following.

Imagine what could imperil humanity. Imagine the damn fool in the White House risking it.

Washington Post editors are neocon extremists. They endorse confrontation. They bash Putin relentlessly. They invent reasons to do so.

NSA robots are 'collecting' your data - Eavesdropping by algorithm is still eavesdropping‏

Bruce Schneier
The Guardian
Thu, 27 Feb 2014 08:39 UTC

© Kai Pfaffenbach / Reuters
‘Worrying about a computer reading your email,’ a Google executive likes to say, ‘is like worrying about your dog seeing you naked’. So what happens when spy agency algorithms with naked photos of you become ‘useful to the analyst’?

Increasingly, we are watched not by people but by algorithms. Amazon and Netflix track the books we buy and the movies we stream, and suggest other books and movies based on our habits. Google and Facebook watch what we do and what we say, and show us advertisements based on our behavior. Google even modifies our web search results based on our previous behavior. Smartphone navigation apps watch us as we drive, and update suggested route information based on traffic congestion. And the National Security Agency, of course, monitors our phone calls, emails and locations, then uses that information to try to identify terrorists.

Documents provided by Edwards Snowden and revealed by the Guardian today show that the UK spy agency GHCQ, with help from the NSA, has been collecting millions of webcam images from innocent Yahoo users. And that speaks to a key distinction in the age of algorithmic surveillance: is it really okay for a computer to monitor you online, and for that data collection and analysis only to count as a potential privacy invasion when a person sees it? I say it's not, and the latest Snowden leaks only make more clear how important this distinction is.

Geopolitical dimensions of the coup in Ukraine, and why fascist militias are necessary for Western powers

Peter Schwarz
World Socialist Web Site
Thu, 27 Feb 2014 15:02 UTC

"When the Soviet Union was collapsing in late 1991, Dick wanted to see the dismantlement not only of the Soviet Union and the Russian empire but of Russia itself, so it could never again be a threat to the rest of the world," wrote former US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in his recently published memoirs. Gates was referring to the then-Secretary of Defense, and later US Vice President, Dick Cheney.

The statement sheds light on the geopolitical dimensions of the recent putsch in Ukraine. What is at stake is not so much domestic issues - and not at all the fight against corruption and democracy - but rather an international struggle for power and influence that stretches back a quarter of a century.

Ukraine was a playbook CIA coup d'état according to Prof Francis Boyle

John Robles and Francis Boyle
The Voice of Russia
Fri, 28 Feb 2014 05:05 UTC

The very first act of the western-backed insurrectionists which represent a small percentage of the population and have managed to overthrow the government was to attempt rob Russian speakers in Ukraine of their language.

This denial by the Bandera nazi [sic] extremists and the illegitimate power in Kiev of a basic human rights for a huge percentage of the population runs contrary to international law and the European Convention of Human Rights to which Ukraine is a signatory.

According to the United Nations General Assembly Declaration of Principles of International Law and under the terms of the United Nations Charter, effectively the Russia population have a right to secede from Ukraine. In an interview with the Voice of Russia Harvard Professor Francis Boyle says that there is no real government in Ukraine right now, and called it a gang of neo-Nazis, fascists and rightist thugs. There is clear cut discrimination against Russians in Ukraine with public demands in Kiev that Russians be killed. According to Professor Boyle what happened in Kiev was a playbook coup d'état by the CIA. Victoria Nuland, the Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs, working with the US Ambassador, were instrumental in carrying out the coup d'état, as it has been proven they were working with "the brown shirts": Svoboda, the right sector, the Bandera Nazis and skinheads.

Ukraine interior minister accuses Russia of 'military invasion' as Crimea airports are seized

Heather Saul
The Independent
Fri, 28 Feb 2014 04:34 UTC

Russian military forces are blocking an airport in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol in Crimea near the Russian naval base in an "armed invasion", Ukraine's interior minister has said.

Arsen Avakov said in a Facebook post that the Belbek international airport in Sevastopol is blocked by military units of the Russian navy. Mr Avakov described the blockade as a "military invasion and occupation."

Mr Avakov described the Sevastopol blockade as "an armed provocation" and said: "I consider what has happened to be a military invasion and occupation in violation of all international agreements and norms."

But Russia's Black Sea Fleet has denied its forces were involved in a seizure or blockade of the airport, according to the Interfax news agency.

Amnesty International accuses Israeli psychopaths of war crimes

The Guardian
Thu, 27 Feb 2014 03:16 UTC

Israeli forces are using excessive, reckless violence in the occupied West Bank, killing dozens of Palestinians over the past three years in what might constitute a war crime, Amnesty International said.

In a report entitled Trigger Happy, the human rights group accused Israel of allowing its soldiers to act with virtual impunity and called for an independent review of the deaths.

The Israeli army dismissed the allegations, saying security forces had seen a "substantial increase" in Palestinian violence and Amnesty had revealed a "complete lack of understanding" about the difficulties soldiers faced.

Ukraine's 'treasury empty' - economy in free fall

RT
Thu, 27 Feb 2014 15:35 UTC

Ukraine's new Prime Minister, opposition leader Arseny Yatsenyuk, has promised the government would do its best to avoid a default, a difficult task as the country's treasury is empty and the economy is in disarray.

Yatsenyuk says he expects an EU/IMF economic stabilization package soon, but didn't give any specifics on timing.

Strengthening ties with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund will remain a priority as Ukraine rebuilds, Yatsenyuk said on Thursday in Kiev, Itar-Itass reported.

Yatsenyuk said negotiations with Russia would continue, and he considers the neighboring country "a partner".

The IMF failed to come through with a loan of $10-15 billion last August, and it remains to be seen what offer they will come up with for the new government. But in December Ukraine signed a $15 billion loan deal with Russia. The first $3 billion was paid to Ukraine in December, but the second installment of $2 billion, is postponed until Moscow deems Ukraine has formed a legitimate government.

A Fox News host (Lisa Booth) asking some of the right questions (nothing new if you're not new to the ranks of SOTTypes though). Her spiel begins...

Animanarchy

I've got a LOT of rope. Just let me know.

DeliciousTears

Brand new JP Sears video. Spiritual People Then vs Now: [Link]

Animanarchy

Well, if anyone would know a 'rigger', it's Obomber. The democratic party is filled with riggers, as the last 'election' amply demonstrated.......

Winston Smith

Government, aided by mainstream media: lie upon lie upon lie....

ReRan

Puppet Masters

Pepe Escobar: NATO's wet dream in Crimea

Sanctimonious scumbags: West demonizes Russia doing everything to avoid conflict in Ukraine

Is the US backing neo-Nazis in Ukraine?

U.S.Hypocrisy: Scoundrel media Putin bashing

NSA robots are 'collecting' your data - Eavesdropping by algorithm is still eavesdropping‏

Geopolitical dimensions of the coup in Ukraine, and why fascist militias are necessary for Western powers

Ukraine was a playbook CIA coup d'état according to Prof Francis Boyle

Ukraine interior minister accuses Russia of 'military invasion' as Crimea airports are seized

Amnesty International accuses Israeli psychopaths of war crimes

Ukraine's 'treasury empty' - economy in free fall

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