Puppet Masters
On Thursday, the Russian-language edition of the Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency news service unceremoniously reported that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had met with Mustafa Dzhemilev, one of the key organizers of the so-called 'food' and 'electricity' blockades of Crimea.
Erdogan and Dzhemilev, a Ukrainian lawmaker and key figure of the Mejlis movement, which claims to represent the Crimean Tatar community, met in a hotel in the southern Turkish city of Konya, speaking for about 40 minutes, Anadolu Agency reported. Deputy Prime Minister Yalcin Akdogan was also said to be in attendance.
"We welcome support from Russia in fighting terrorism," the agency quotes Hafter as telling reporters after his meeting with United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) Chief Martin Kobler in the city of Marj, Northeastern Libya.
The military leader assured that if Russia proposes a plan for fighting terrorism in Libya, Tripoli will cooperate with Moscow, adding that "Russians are serious in [the] fight against terrorists".
Update: CISA is now the law: OBAMA SIGNS SPENDING, TAX BILL THAT REPEALS OIL EXPORT BAN
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Back in 2014, civil liberties and privacy advocates were up in arms when the government tried to quietly push through the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, or CISA, a law which would allow federal agencies - including the NSA - to share cybersecurity, and really any information with private corporations "notwithstanding any other provision of law." The most vocal complaint involved CISA's information-sharing channel, which was ostensibly created for responding quickly to hacks and breaches, and which provided a loophole in privacy laws that enabled intelligence and law enforcement surveillance without a warrant.
Ironically, in its earlier version, CISA had drawn the opposition of tech firms including Apple, Twitter, Reddit, as well as the Business Software Alliance, the Computer and Communications Industry Association and many others including countless politicians and, most amusingly, the White House itself.
In April, a coalition of 55 civil liberties groups and security experts signed onto an open letter opposing it. In July, the Department of Homeland Security itself warned that the bill could overwhelm the agency with data of "dubious value" at the same time as it "sweep[s] away privacy protections." Most notably, the biggest aggregator of online private content, Facebook, vehemently opposed the legislation however a month ago it was "surprisingly" revealed that Zuckerberg had been quietly on the side of the NSA all along as we reported in "Facebook Caught Secretly Lobbying For Privacy-Destroying "Cyber-Security" Bill."
Even Snowden chimed in:
Comment: Yet another "win" for those that would seek to wed corporate interests with those of the national security surveillance state - in other words, fascism. So much for the recent court rulings that deemed such powers unconstitutional.
See also:
- NSA's bulk phone data collection ruled unconstitutional, 'almost Orwellian,' by federal judge
- Ex-MI5 agent: US Freedom Act is a 'surveillance act in disguise'
- NSA surveillance is not used for 'finding terrorists' at all, so what exactly IS it used for then?
Watch it, below...
"My attitude to this organization is special - I see it as a cancerous tumor on the whole European continent. It would only be for the better if this organization is dissolved," Naryshkin said during a meeting with Serbian lawmakers on Thursday.
This dissolution could be conducted in several stages, the Duma speaker suggested. "First of all, the USA should be excluded from the bloc and after this it would be possible to painlessly disband the whole organization," he said. "This would be a good step towards greater security and stability on the whole European continent."
Comment: Yet another step towards 'plausibly deniable' covert aggression aimed towards Russia. Naryshkin sees things as they are, not as the mouthpieces for Western hegemony would like him and others to think.
Frankly, my father did not even like to touch on the subject of the war. It was more like I was simply nearby when the adults were discussing or recalling things among themselves. All my knowledge about the war - about what happened to my family - arose out of those overheard conversations between adults. Still, there were times when they spoke to me directly.
My father was a sailor. He was called up in 1939 and served in a submarine squadron in Sevastopol. On his return, he worked in a factory in Peterhof where he lived with my mother. I think they even built some kind of little house there.
When war broke out he was working in a military company, which entitled him to an exemption from conscription. However, he applied first to join the party and then again to be sent to the front. He was dispatched to a NKVD sabotage squad. It was a small contingent of 28 people who were sent into the nearby rear to carry out acts of sabotage - blowing up bridges, railway tracks, etc. Almost immediately they ran into an ambush - someone betrayed them. They entered a certain village, then left it, and when they returned some time later the Nazis were already waiting for them. They were chased through the woods. My father survived by hiding in a swamp where he spent hours under water breathing through a reed. I remember this from his story. He said that while he was in the swamp breathing through the reed, he could hear the German soldiers passing by, just a few steps away from him, and how the dogs were yapping...
All but one of the world's 10 biggest arms producers have contributed to Clinton's previous campaigns, giving her — along with the top Republican receiver Ted Cruz — a significant margin over the other candidates.
The numbers, collected by the Federal Election Commission and compiled by Open Secrets, also reveal that Rand Paul and Bernie Sanders make the list of top 20 senators and top six presidential candidates to receive money from arms and defense companies.
Most of the funding is channeled through Political Action Committees, which have no limits to how much they donate. About 18 percent comes from individual contributions, totaling almost US$10 million between all of the companies.
Comment: Those donations come with conditions. Killary has to promise to continue bombing countries, civilians, and vital infrastructure. She is the perfect stooge for the military-industrial complex, since she has shown every willingness to do exactly those things. The US military in her hands is a scary notion, but really anyone who is elected president signs up for the exact same thing. Either you continue the foreign policy of destroying foreign nations in the name of US hegemonic control, or you'll be replaced by someone who will.
"They [Turkish authorities] thought that we would turn tail and run! No, Russia is not that country. We have increased our presence in Syria, have increased the number of combat aircraft deployed there. There was no Russian air defense system there - now there's the S-400. If before, Turkey had constantly violated Syrian airspace, let them try it now."
Following the incident involving the Russian Su-24M bomber which was shot down by a Turkish F-16 over Syria on the Turkish border, Russia deployed its latest anti-aircraft missile system - the S-400 to Syria, also deploying the missile cruiser Moskva and the submarine Rostov-on-Don off the shores of Syria in the Mediterranean.
The S-400 Triumf (NATO reporting name SA-21 Growler) is Russia's next-generation air defense system, carrying three different types of missiles capable of destroying aerial targets at short-to-extremely long range.
In late November, the S-400 systems were deployed at the Hmeimim airbase near the Syrian port city of Latakia to protect anti-terror operations by Russia's Aerospace Forces. The decision was made one day after Turkey shot down a Russian Su-24 aircraft.
The results of the investigation, led by a joint US-South Korean group, contradict previous statements by the Pentagon that anthrax was tested only once at an American military base outside Seoul.
It's been revealed the United States Forces Korea (USFK) imported and tested anthrax samples 15 times at Yongsan Garrison, in the center of Seoul, between 2009 and 2014. This is in addition to the only exercise admitted by the US in May 2015.
Back then, USFK command said it used anthrax samples only once, claiming they were "accidentally" shipped to the US Osan airbase outside Seoul, exposing 22 lab personnel to the deadly agent. None of the workers exposed was eventually infected.
Comment: Here's a nice side benefit of being an American puppet state - you get to be test tube pin cushions for US chemical weapons.
"In any case the downed Russian Su-24 bomber jet was of no threat to Turkey and its citizens," Sergei Dronov said. "At present we can say that we have all the necessary info at our disposal: we do have proof that the Russian Su-24 did not violate the Turkish air space."
He also added that Russian bomber jet's flight data recorder is currently in condition found at crash site. "We have not done anything with the black boxes yet. The flight data recorder remains in its initial condition," Dronov assured at a briefing in Moscow.
The Russian Su-24 bomber was brought down over Syria on November 24 by an air-to-air missile fired from the Turkish F-16 fighter in response to an alleged violation of Turkish airspace. Both Russian and Syrian defense officials confirmed that the Su-24 never crossed into Turkish airspace.
In response to the incident, Moscow introduced a set of measures against Ankara. The measures, which ban or restrict the activities of Turkish organizations in Russia and prohibit Russian employers to hire Turkish citizens, are due to take effect from January 1, 2016.














Comment: There is little chance Russia will become involved in Libya without a formal government in place.