Welcome to Sott.net
Fri, 05 Nov 2021
The World for People who Think

Puppet Masters
Map

Bacon n Eggs

Russia extends counter-sanctions for another year

Russian President Vladimir Putin
© RIA Novosti / Michael Klimentyev
President Vladimir Putin has signed the order to extend Russian counter-measures in response to Western sanctions. The restrictions will be prolonged for a year starting from June 24, 2015.

"The government has addressed a letter to me asking to extend the measures that we had taken in response to the actions of our partners from several countries," Putin said. "Today, in accordance with this letter, I have signed a decree on extending certain special economic measures in order to ensure the safety of the Russian Federation," he said asking the government to prepare and publish a corresponding decree as soon as possible.

Comment: These counter-sanctions are going to hurt Europe. Maybe Putin should have a look at this article about the UN Charter enemy state status.


Chess

Russia isn't a pawn on the US chessboard

global chess
© ajedrez.chess.com
Your move...
In his speech at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, Putin identified the root cause of the rising tensions that have come to characterize relations between Russia and the West, responsible for hurtling the world toward another Cold War.

The hegemony long enjoyed by Washington, with the support of its allies, is now being challenged by a multipolar consensus around the world. In this multipolar world, every state enjoys parity, equal respect, and security under international law; and national sovereignty is returned to the status of an inalienable right, as enshrined in the UN Charter, rather than being a gift in the hands of the United States, the EU and NATO.

In response to a question on the deteriorating relations between Moscow and Washington, Russia's President Vladimir Putin said: "We do not act aggressively. We have started to defend our interests more persistently and consistently."

Comment: It is always when you think you own the game board, the checkmate is right around the corner.


Monkey Wrench

G-4 obstacle to Asian and European peace? UN Charter still designates Italy, Germany and Japan as enemy states

Image
The UN Charter still designates Italy, Germany and Japan as enemy states to the United Nations. In legal terms this means that any U.N. Member State can launch a "preemptive" military aggression against these nations without a declaration of war. Seldom discussed, this enemy State status is today, arguably, one of the greatest obstacles for a lasting peace in Asia and in Europe.

Since the end of WW II none of the G-4, that is China, UK, USA, and the USSR / Russia have taken steps to abolish the Enemy State Clause from the Charter of the United Nations. The UN Charter still designates Italy, Japan and Germany as enemy States to the United Nations. This fact is generally omitted from the public political discourse; that is, both in the G-4 nations as well as in Italy, Japan and Germany.

The implications and the lack of the sovereignty (e.g. the jus ad bellum) are, arguably, one of the greatest obstacles with regard to achieving a lasting Asian and European peace. A few examples should amply demonstrate why.

Comment: This UN Charter clause sure sheds some light on the geopolitical maneuverings we are witnessing.


Arrow Down

Pentagon rewrites 'Law of War' declaring 'belligerent' journalists as legitimate targets

The Pentagon
© Agence France-Presse
The Pentagon.
The Pentagon has released a book of instructions on the "law of war," detailing acceptable ways of killing the enemy. The manual also states that journalists can be labeled "unprivileged belligerents," an obscure term that replaced "enemy combatant."

The 1,176-page "Department of Defense Law of War Manual" explains that shooting, exploding, bombing, stabbing, or cutting the enemy are acceptable ways of getting the job done, but the use of poison or asphyxiating gases is not allowed.

Surprise attacks and killing retreating troops have also been given the green light.

But the lengthy manual doesn't only talk about protocol for those on the frontline. It also has an extensive section on journalists - including the fact that they can be labeled terrorists.

"In general, journalists are civilians. However, journalists may be members of the armed forces, persons authorized to accompany the armed forces, or unprivileged belligerents," the manual states.

The term "unprivileged belligerents" replaces the Bush-era term "unlawful enemy combatant."

Rocket

Timing is everything: Sirens in S. Israel as IDF reports rocket launch from Gaza Strip

Image
© Reuters / Amir Cohen
A rocket was launched from the Gaza Strip to southern Israel, the Israeli Defense Forces said on Tuesday. Sirens were heard in the kibbutzes of Zikim, Yad Mordechai and Karmia as well as the settlement of Netiv Haasara.

The Israeli Radio reported that the rocket landed in an open area between two towns.


Comment: Yup, just when the UN published a report, this happens. Coincidence?


Gear

Engines of domination: What governments have done

Image
A clip from the documentary Engines of Domination by Mark Corske and Lifting the Veil.

Political power - armed central authority, with states and war - is it really necessary for human society? Or is it a tool that ruling elites use to live at the expense of society? Engines of Domination offers a theory of political power as a tool for making tools of human beings.


Vader

Poroshenko admits overthrow of Yanukovych was a coup

Poroshenko
© РИА Новости. Евгений Коротенко
Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko requests the supreme court of Ukraine to declare that his predecessor, Viktor Yanukovych, was overthrown by an illegal operation; in other words, that the post-Yanukovych government, including Poroshenko's own Presidency, came into power from a coup, not from something democratic, not from any authentic constitutional process at all.

In a remarkable document, which is not posted at the English version of the website of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, but which is widely reported outside the United States, including Russia, Poroshenko, in Ukrainian (not in English), has petitioned the Constitutional Court of Ukraine (as it is being widely quoted in English):

"I ask the court to acknowledge that the law 'on the removal of the presidential title from Viktor Yanukovych' as unconstitutional."

I had previously reported, and here will excerpt, Poroshenko's having himself admitted prior to 26 February 2014, to the EU's investigator, and right after the February 22nd overthrow of Yanukovych, that the overthrow was a coup, and that it was even a false-flag operation, in which the snipers, who were dressed as if they were Ukrainian Security Bureau troops, were actually not, and that, as the EU's investigator put his finding to the EU's chief of foreign affairs Catherine Ashton [and with my explanatory annotations here]:
"the same oligarch [Poroshenko — and so when he became President he already knew this] told that well, all the evidence shows that the people who were killed by snipers, from both sides, among policemen and people from the streets, [this will shock Ashton, who had just said that Yanukovych had masterminded the killings] that they were the same snipers, killing people from both sides [so, Poroshenko himself knows that his regime is based on a false-flag U.S.-controlled coup d'etat against his predecessor]. ... Behind the snipers, it was not Yanukovych, but it was somebody from the new coalition."

Comment: Very interesting turn of events if true!


Attention

The Pentagon goes nuclear on Russia

Missiles
© Reuters/Hamad I Mohammed
We all remember how, in early June, President Putin announced that Russia would deploy more than 40 new ICBMs "able to overcome even the most technically advanced anti-missile defense systems."

Oh dear; the Pentagon and their European minions have been freaking out on overdrive ever since.

First was NATO Secretary-General, Norwegian figurehead Jens Stoltenberg, who condemned it as "nuclear saber rattling."

Then there's Lt. Gen. Stephen Wilson, the head of US Global Air Strike Command - as in the man responsible for US ICBMs and nuclear bombers - at a recent briefing in London; "[They've] annexed a country, changing international borders, raising rhetoric unlike we've heard since the cold war times..."

That set up the stage for the required Nazi parallel; "Some of the actions by Russia recently we haven't seen since the 1930s, when whole countries were annexed and borders were changed by decree."

At His Masters Voice's command, the EU duly extended economic sanctions against Russia.And right on cue, Pentagon supremo Ashton Carter, out of Berlin, declared that NATO must stand up against - what else - "Russian aggression" and "their attempts to re-establish a Soviet-era sphere of influence."

Bets are off on what this huffin' and puffin' is all about. It could be about Russia daring to build a whole country close to so many NATO bases. It could be about a bunch of nutters itching to start a war on European soil to ultimately "liberate" all that precious oil, gas and minerals from Russia and the Central Asian "stans".

Unfortunately, the whole thing is deadly serious.

Eye 1

GCHQ ruled guilty of illegal spying on human rights groups

GCHQ
© twitter.com
Her Majesty's Government's Signal Intelligence site, otherwise known as Government Communications Headquarters
Two human rights groups were spied on illegally by British security agency GCHQ, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) has ruled after the groups lodged formal complaints.

GCHQ was found guilty of keeping hold of emails for longer than is legally permissible and violated its own internal procedures, the IPT ruled. The IPT, however, ruled that the initial interception of mail from both the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights and the South African non-profit Legal Resources Centre was legal.

"The tribunal is concerned that steps should be taken to ensure that neither of the breaches of procedure referred to in this determination occurs again," the IPT ruling said. "For the avoidance of doubt, the tribunal makes it clear that it will be making a closed report to the prime minister."


Comment: A closed report? Why not an open report? Now they respect privacy? Of course, it is theirs...


Their case was brought to the tribunal following NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden's revelations of mass surveillance practices by US and UK authorities.

Comment: May the evil eye of the borg never be allowed to cast its gaze upon you and assimilate your information! Beware resistance is futile. The IPT ruling in favor of the NGOs may just be an act of throwing scraps to appease the mounting outrage.


Георгиевская ленточка

Russia trade minister: Sanctions have created favorable conditions for Russian industry

Image
© Kremlin
Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov
The sanctions have multiple advantages for Russia, as they motivate companies to turn to domestically produced goods and boost the economy, Russian Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov told RT.

"I don't want to sound cynical, but since I'm in charge of the real sector of the economy, in charge of the Russian industry, I can say we've actually benefited in more ways than one from sanctions imposed last year," said Manturov at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum (SPIEF), adding that before the sanctions were put into effect Russian companies paid less attention to domestic products.

"...now sanctions provided them [companies and consumers - Ed.] with additional motivation, and they are turning to Russian companies. This generates demand for the Russian industry. So, to me, this was an advantage, in a sense," he added.

Although it became harder to attract funds from Western markets because of the limitations, they, in turn, stimulate Russian banks and the Central Bank to lower interest rates and to provide loans on a competitive basis for Russian companies, Manturov said.