Puppet MastersS


Stormtrooper

Pakistan begins long-awaited offensive to root out militants from border region

 Pakistani troops training
© Anjum Naveed/APPakistani troops training in the tribal region along the Afghan border. The army said it has launched a 'comprehensive operation' against foreign and local militants in North Waziristan.
Up to 30,000 troops thought to be involved in operation to destroy bases of terrorist groups operating from North Waziristan


A long-awaited military campaign to destroy militant safe havens in a Taliban-dominated part of Pakistan's borderlands began , years after the US first demanded action.

The army said it had launched a "comprehensive operation against foreign and local terrorists who are hiding in sanctuaries in North Waziristan", the troubled tribal region that has served as a staging area for attacks across Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Military sources said as many as 30,000 troops could be involved in the operation to secure the border region, which the army believes must be completed before the end of Nato combat operations this year in Afghanistan.

An official statement said "Operation Zarb-e-Azb" had been launched "on the directions of the government", but the decision follows months of public controversy over the issue, with leading politicians arguing any attempt to seize control of the area would provoke a violent backlash by the Pakistani Taliban in the country's cities.

Pakistan's prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, had instead tried to negotiate a peace deal with militants, something most experts said had no chance of success given the record of militants breaking ceasefires.

Sharif's obstinacy in the face of army demands for North Waziristan to be dealt with before summer has exacerbated tensions between Pakistan's civilian and military leaderships, who have clashed over the treason trial of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf.

The military statement said the country could not afford to wait any longer. "Using North Waziristan as a base, these terrorists had waged a war against the state of Pakistan and had been disrupting our national life in all its dimensions, stunting our economic growth and causing enormous loss of life and property," it said.

Eye 2

Obama's enforcer: Eric Holder's tenure

Image
Attorney General Eric Holder's Justice Department gave bad advice to President Obama and the Pentagon in the controversial Bergdahl prisoner trade that the president could ignore federal law requiring prior notification to Congress. This is just the latest example of how Holder helps the administration ignore the rule of law and crafts his "legal" opinions based on the desired political outcome, not the actual state of the law.

Under Eric Holder, the Justice Department has stood the old Ronald Reagan maxim "trust but verify" on its head and adopted a "trust and we won't let you verify" approach to its activities.

Even Jill Abramson, the former executive editor of the New York Times, has said that "the Obama administration has moved beyond protecting government secrets to threatening fundamental freedoms of the press to gather news."

How much is the Justice Department's uncooperative and secretive approach the product of Eric Holder's management style and how much is in response to President Obama's wishes? We would argue that the most likely explanation is that a president almost always appoints the attorney general he's most comfortable with, someone who will watch his back on institutional issues and vigorously pursue his enforcement priorities. In Eric Holder, Barack Obama has found both a kindred spirit and a heat shield against criticism that would often be directed at the White House. And Holder has made it clear that he is "part of the president's team."

Comment: There is something seriously wrong with the current U.S. political system when psychopathic creatures like Eric Holder hold positions of power. The con-job called politics is highly attractive to those with psychopathic traits:
"Politics is a dog-eat-dog world. Not only must politicians be relatively thick-skinned to handle attacks on their character, they must be capable of dishing it out in return. Psychopaths lie with ease; they do not have any moral scruples when it comes to character assassination, empty promises, shameless self-promotion, cutthroat tactics, and using any means to justify the end. These qualities give them the leading edge over their more honest (and often naive) competition.

Politics is little different than any other con-job. In a Ponzi scheme, for example, the con artist targets members of an identifiable group, whether religious, racial or age-based. Regardless of whether or not the scammer is a member of the target group he pretends to represent the group. While political psychopaths are instrumental in the rise of totalitarian political groups, they play an equally important role in apparently Democratic governments. Their use of a party mask (no pun intended!) is so common that it can easily be called their primary modus operandi."

But why would a psychopath enter politics in the first place? Simply ask the question, "Who is the most powerful person in the world?" and many will answer: 'the President'. Psychopaths seek positions of power and influence, and politics offers publicity, prestige, and other perks. It also provides positions of ultimate authority over military, industry, and entire populations. In a world where psychopaths are understandably viewed as morally repulsive, often finding themselves at home in the criminal world, politics offers an opportunity to create a new world, to be free from the ridiculous (in their minds) moral and legal rules of society.
Ponerology 101: The Political Psychopath


USA

One-trick pony: Obama "considering" airstrikes, despite previous failure in Iraq

obama
© Kevin Lamarque/ReutersPresident Barack Obama delivered a statement on the situation in Iraq from the White House lawn.
As its citizens brace for all-out civil war in Iraq, President Obama at noon on Friday updated his administration's assessment of the highly volatile situation in Iraq by confirming he was not contemplating putting U.S. troops back on the ground in Iraq, but that his national security team is considering various military and political options which could include airstrikes.

The government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been increasingly public in its request for additional U.S. assistance in the fight against the Sunni militia known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) that has claimed large swaths of territory in the country in recent days.

"We will not be sending US troops back into combat but I have asked my national security team to arrange a number of options," said Obama on the south lawn of the White House. "I will be reviewing those options in the days ahead."

Comment: This crisis may be more than just 'blowback': Whatever the case may be, the U.S. 'War Department' is out of control. As things heat up on the big blue marble, it looks as if the Empire is getting of whiff of its own precarious position -- an utter failure in diplomacy, a worldwide bully whose dominance is being questioned by countries like Russia, in a state of moral stupor, with an economy on the brink of collapse, an overstretched military -- and flailing about in one last (?) death spasm of faux machismo 'full-spectrum dominance'.


Eye 1

Manufactured terror: New study reveals FBI set up terrorism-related prosecutions

FBI terror
© AFP / Anne-Christine PoujoulatThe FBI: proudly manufacturing terrorism for decades!
Nearly 95 per cent of terrorist arrests have been the result of FBI foiling its own entrapment plots as a part of the so-called post-9/11 War on Terror, a new study revealed.

According to the report entitled 'Inventing Terrorists: The Lawfare of Preemptive Prosecution', the majority of arrests involved the unjust prosecution of targeted Muslim Americans.

The 175-page study by Muslim advocacy group SALAM analyzes 399 individuals in cases included on the list of the US Department of Justice from 2001 to 2010.

"According to this study's classification, the number of preemptive prosecution cases is 289 out of 399, or 72.4 percent. The number of elements of preemptive prosecution cases is 87 out of 399, or 21.8 percent. Combining preemptive prosecution cases and elements of preemptive prosecution cases, the total number of such cases on the DOJ list is 376, or 94.2 percent," the report concluded.


Comment: Modus operandi: kill people in false flag operations to justify a war on terror, then use the war on terror to justify cracking down on dissent. All pathocracies are the same...


Newspaper

'Lack of major wars may be hurting economic growth', says the New York Times

US economy down
© Unknown

It is no secret that as the Fed's centrally-planned New Normal has unfolded, one after another central-planner and virtually all economists, have been caught wrong-footed with their constant predictions of an "imminent" economic surge, any minute now, and always just around the corner. And yet, nearly six years after Lehman, five years after the end of the last "recession" (even as the depression for most rages on), America is about to have its worst quarter in decades (excluding the great financial crisis), with a -2% collapse in GDP, which has been blamed on... the weather.

That's right: economists are the only people who will look anyone in the eye, and suggest that it was harsh weather that smashed global trade, pounded retail sales (in the process freezing the internet because people it was so cold nobody shopped online), and even with soaring utility usage and the Obamacare induced capital misallocation still led to world's largest economy to a 5% plunge from initial estimates for 3% growth in Q1. In other words, a delta of hundreds of billion in "growth lost or uncreated" due to, well, snow in the winter.

Arrow Down

Bye bye diplomacy: Ukrainian FM chants 'Putin - f**ker' at vandalized Russian embassy in Kiev

Ukrainian FM Andrey Deshchitsa
© Youtube
In an incident that may be a first in diplomatic history, Kiev's top diplomat publicly 'effed' the head of another state. Foreign Minister Andrey Deshchitsa chanted "Putin's a f**ker" with a cheering crowd that earlier vandalized the Russian embassy.

Deshchitsa arrived at the scene of the heated protest - which involved overturning cars belonging to embassy staff, the desecration of a Russian flag and pelting the building with firecrackers and paint - in an apparent attempt to defuse the crowd.

He confronted some of the protesters - or rather sided with them. Footage of the encounter shows the minister saying he is all for the protest and its goals.

"I would stand up here with you can say, Russia, get out of Ukraine," he said. "Putin's a f**ker, right!"


Pirates

Russian embassy in Kiev attacked: Protesters throw stones, firecrackers, Molotov cocktails - West blocks UN condemnation

Russian embassy in Kiev attacked
© Reuters / Valentyn OgirenkoPro-Ukrainian people overturn a car during a rally in front of the Russian embassy in Kiev June 14, 2014
A few hundred Ukrainian protesters rallying at the Russian embassy in Kiev have overturned several diplomatic cars and piled up tires to block entry into the building. They have also and thrown stones, smoke grenades, eggs, and paint at the premises.

Police stood idly by as the anti-Moscow crowd blockaded the site, expressing its anger over the Russian government's alleged involvement in the Ukrainian crisis.

The protesters have thrown a Molotov cocktail at the embassy, causing a minor fire which has been extinguished. As of midnight local time, the situation had calmed down. However, protesters still remain at the site.


Green Light

Propaganda? U.S. claims Russia sent tanks to separatists in Ukraine

russia satellite photo
© NATOA satellite photograph taken on Wednesday that NATO officials said shows 10 Russian tanks in a staging area on the Russian side of the border with Ukraine. At bottom left, the officials said, are three tanks loaded onto heavy equipment transporters, the primary method of moving tanks over road networks.
The State Department said Friday that Russia had sent tanks and other heavy weapons to separatists in Ukraine, supporting accusations Thursday by the Ukrainian government.

A convoy of three T-64 tanks, several BM-21 multiple rocket launchers and other military vehicles crossed the border near the Ukrainian town of Snizhne, State Department officials said. The Ukrainian Army reported Friday that it had destroyed two of the tanks and several other vehicles in the convoy.

"This is unacceptable," said Marie Harf, the deputy State Department spokeswoman. "A failure by Russia to de-escalate this situation will lead to additional costs."

Comment: The Western media is still parroting the threadbare propaganda line that Russia is at fault for east Ukraine's unwillingness to support a fascist, racist, prostitute government in Kiev. Russia is not engaging in provocation; the West is. Russia is not responsible for the civil war and unrest; the West is. Russia is doing all it can to deal with Western provocation, but her options are running out. Even if Russia IS supplying the independents in SE Ukraine, it's the least they can do. They need all the help they can get to protect themselves from the terrorist government in Kiev. But so far, all we have are "he said, she said" claims and conjecture, along with a provocative but totally inconclusive satellite image. Show us the PROOF.


Dollars

No deal reached in Russia-Ukraine-EU gas talks in Kiev

russian gas
© AFP Photo/Alexander Zobin
Three-party gas talks will continue in Kiev on Sunday morning, after Gazprom and Naftogaz failed to reach a deal on Saturday, Ukrainian Energy Minister Yury Prodan said.

Both sides made their proposals today, but no compromise was found, Prodan told reporters, adding that European Commissioner for Energy Gunter Oettinger advised for talks to resume on Sunday morning.

Before the talks, Gazprom spokesman Sergey Kuprianov told ITAR-TASS: "We are prepared to seek compromise, but pressuring us is useless. Our stance on the accumulated load of problems has been voiced many times."

The meeting in the Ukrainian capital was attended by representatives from the European Commission, which is trying to mediate the gas negotiations.

The previous round of talks over the price of Russian gas for Ukraine failed to reach a solution to the standing Ukrainian $1.95 billion gas debt. Ukraine have not been paying for most of the gas supplied by Russia this year and demands that the contract on the deliveries be amended.

Comment: We won't know until Monday, but at present it's looking like Ukraine is either being willfully stubborn, to their own detriment, or simply following orders. Russia is making reasonable demands, and even willing to compromise, but Kiev is shooting itself in the collective foot.


War Whore

Washington's Iraq "Victory"

isis3feb
A Tree Is Known by Its Fruit: USA's legacy in Iraq
The citizens of the United States still do not know why their government destroyed Iraq. "National Security" will prevent them from ever knowing. "National Security" is the cloak behind which hides the crimes of the US government.

George Herbert Walker Bush, a former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency who became President courtesy of being picked as Ronald Reagan's Vice President, was the last restrained US President. When Bush the First attacked Iraq it was a limited operation, the goal of which was to evict Saddam Hussein from his annexation of Kuwait.

Kuwait was once a part of Iraq, but a Western colonial power created new political boundaries, as the Soviet Communist Party did in Ukraine. Kuwait emerged from Iraq as a small, independent oil kingdom.