Puppet Masters

Inside look at the secret plot to turn senior Venezuelan officials against Maduro

Anthony Faiola
ctpost.com
Mon, 13 May 2019 07:24 UTC

Late one night in April, a week before Venezuela's opposition launched its abortive uprising, four men sat on the terrace of the hillside compound in Caracas belonging to the chief justice of the country's Supreme Court. The dim lights of the capital twinkling below them, they sipped Fiji bottled water as they plotted the ouster of President Nicolás Maduro.

Maduro's spy chief, Gen. Christopher Figuera, and Cesar Omaña, a 39-year-old Venezuelan businessman based in Miami, were trying to seal a deal hashed out over weeks with Maikel Moreno, the chief justice, according to one of the participants in the meeting. Figuera and Omaña were part of the plan to force Maduro out, but they needed Moreno's help.

Moreno, sitting before an ashtray laden with the stubs of Cuban cigars, appeared to be having doubts. The 53-year-old jurist voiced concerns about Juan Guaidó, the U.S.-backed opposition leader who would become the nation's interim president if the plot succeeded.

Then, according to the participant, Moreno offered another candidate to "temporarily" lead the broken country - himself.

"In the end, he was trying to safeguard his own power play," one senior opposition figure said.

Comment: See also:

Putin to Pompeo: Time to restore US-Russia ties

RT
Tue, 14 May 2019 18:20 UTC

Russian President Vladimir Putin told US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that he had the impression President Donald Trump wanted to restore relations between the US and Russia after the Mueller inquiry exonerated him.

"As you know, just a few days ago, I had the pleasure of talking with the US president on the phone," Putin told Pompeo on Tuesday, as the two met in Sochi.

"I got the impression that the [US] president was inclined to re-establish Russian-American relations and contacts to resolve together the issues that are of mutual interest to us. For our part, we have more than once said that we would also like to fully restore relations, and we hope that now the conditions for that have been met."

Pompeo agreed that there are matters of mutual interest between the US and Russia, where both countries can work together productively.

The Russian president listed security issues, preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction, environmental issues and economic issues such as oil production as some of the areas of mutual interest.

All-out trade battle: Trump threatens tariffs on $300B of Chinese goods; Beijing calls for a 'people's war'

Alexandra Ma
Newstimes
Tue, 14 May 2019 07:24 UTC

The US-China trade war continues to heat up, with Beijing calling for a "people's war" against Washington and President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on another $300 billion worth of Chinese goods.

In a series of editorials and op-ed articles published Monday, Chinese state media slammed what it labeled the Trump administration's "greed and arrogance" and called for a "people's war" against it. Beijing's state-run media effectively serves as a mouthpiece for the Communist Party.

The nationalistic Global Times tabloid wrote in a Chinese-language editorial carried by Xinhua News Agency:

"The most important thing is that in the China-US trade war, the US side fights for greed and arrogance ... and morale will break at any point. The Chinese side is fighting back to protect its legitimate interests.

"The trade war in the US is the creation of one person and one administration, but it affects that country's entire population. In China, the entire country and all its people are being threatened. For us, this is a real 'people's war.'"

Comment: See also:

'No one in Europe' wants second Iraq: Austrian president slams 'provocative' US Iran policy

RT
Wed, 15 May 2019 19:42 UTC

Alexander van der Bellen, ruins of Saddam Hussein's palace

© (L) Reuters / Alexander Nemenov, (R) Reuters / Erik de Castro
(L) Austrian President Alexander van der Bellen; (R) Journalists look at the ruins of Saddam Hussein's palace in Iraq.

The US' reckless maximum pressure campaign against Tehran and nations dealing with it is deeply provocative and hurts international relations, Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen said, warning against a major "crisis."

Speaking at a joint press conference with the Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi on Wednesday, Van der Bellen slammed the US sanctions against Iran by saying that such policies "do not help international relations" and only erode the system of global treaties.

"The fact that the US withdrew from the Iranian nuclear deal undermines trust in this agreement in general," he told journalists.

It is particularly provocative that the US reimposed its sanctions against Iran after pulling out of the deal and threatened the companies, which continued to work with Tehran, with punishment.

The Austrian leader also admitted that Europe has so far failed to "come up with a mechanism that would help companies effectively circumvent" the US restrictions. He also said that creating such an instrument is a "very laborious" task.

Putin comments on Iranian nuclear deal: 'Russia is not a firefighting team, cannot save everything alone'

RT
Wed, 15 May 2019 17:17 UTC

© REUTERS/Tasnim News Agency
Iranians burn the picture of President Donald Trump during a protest against Trump's decision to walk out of a 2015 nuclear deal, in Tehran.

Moscow cannot save the Iranian nuclear deal from falling apart all by itself, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said, adding that the destruction of the agreement was triggered by the US, while Europe has failed to react.

While Moscow believes the deal - officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) - should be preserved, it can be saved only through the efforts of all its signees, Putin said during a press conference Wednesday after meeting Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen. "Russia is not a firefighting team, we cannot go around and save everything that does not fully depend on us," Russia's president stated.

He added that saying such an "undiplomatic thing might hurt the ears of our European friends." Putin squarely put the blame for the dismantling of the JCPOA on the US while blasting the EU's inability to actually do something about saving the deal.

"The Americans have withdrawn from the deal, the agreement is crumbling and European countries are unable to do anything to save it, unable to actually work with Iran and compensate for [its] economic losses."

China's nuclear option: Dump US bonds and cause absolute chaos in global markets

RT
Wed, 15 May 2019 13:02 UTC

The ongoing tit-for-tat tariff exchange between China and the US could push Beijing to strike back with the so-called 'nuclear option' - dumping its vast holdings of US Treasury bonds.

While the move would be partly self-defeating for China, it would also have devastating consequences for global financial markets, Sourabh Gupta, a senior fellow at the Institute for China-America Studies in Washington told RT.

"In that case, there would be absolute chaos in global currency markets, and thereafter in global equity markets," he said, adding that with regards to interest rates "after significant initial volatility, the effects would be somewhat muted." The concern though is with financial market sentiment, not specifically interest rates, Gupta said.

China currently owns $1.13 trillion in US Treasuries. That's a fraction of the total $22 trillion in US debt outstanding but 17.7 percent of the various securities held by foreign governments, according to data from the Treasury and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. Beijing has been pulling back from its role in the US bond market, having cut holdings nearly four percent over the past 12 months, but it still takes the top spot among America's foreign creditors.

'Attack Iran to get reelected': Twitter discovers Trump 'warned' of Iran conflict plot - but Obama's

RT
Wed, 15 May 2019 19:36 UTC

As tensions ratchet up between Washington and Tehran, the internet is taking a moment to appreciate the irony of some of President Donald Trump's old tweets warning that Barack Obama was stoking war on Iran to stay in office.

Some of Trump's tweets from Obama's first term are coming back to haunt him again in light of the eerie similarities between the warnings and the current aggressive moves by his own administration.

Tucker Carlson: A war with Iran would be 'like Christmas' for John Bolton

RT
Wed, 15 May 2019 14:13 UTC

© AFP/Yuri Kadobnov; Reuters/Adam Ploessl; Reuters/US Navy/Grant G. Grady
National Security Advisor John Bolton and his wish list

Fox News host Tucker Carlson blasted National Security Advisor John Bolton for his apparent love of violent global conflict, saying that for him war with Iran would be like "Christmas, Thanksgiving and his birthday" in one.

"Mercifully John Bolton doesn't command the military," Carlson said bitingly - however, the question of how strong his influence on President Donald Trump's foreign policy remains.

Although President Trump was elected in part based on his turn-away from the traditional neo-con interventionist outlook, his national security advisor pick has been as hawkish as ever since assuming office last year.

Envoy Hadi: Baghdad refuses Washington the use of its territory in war against Iran

RT
Wed, 15 May 2019 15:21 UTC

Iraq does not want a "devastating" new war in the Middle East and will not allow the US to use its territory for military action against neighboring Iran, Baghdad's ambassador to Moscow has said.

"Iraq is a sovereign nation. We will not let [the US] to use our territory," Haidar Mansour Hadi, the Iraqi envoy to Russia, told journalists at a press conference in Moscow when asked about Iraq's stance on the rising tensions in the region, fuelled by the feud between Washington and Tehran.

The ambassador expressed his hope that "nothing will happen" eventually, adding that his nation "does not want a new devastating war in the region." He also said that Baghdad could try to use its close ties with both the US and Iran to ease tensions.

"Iraq made it clear that we want to be part of a solution and not part of the problem."

Netherlands joins Germany: Halts Iraq training mission over security threat

RT
Wed, 15 May 2019 12:51 UTC

The Netherlands has followed Germany in suspending its mission in Iraq amid heightening tensions between the US and Iraq's neighbor, Iran.

The Netherlands decided to halt the mission which provided assistance to the Iraqi authorities because of a security threat, the Dutch ANP news agency said. The Dutch Defense Ministry confirmed the suspension of the mission to the media. The ministry's spokesperson told ANP that withdrawal of Dutch forces from the area is "currently not discussed."

Around 50 Dutch soldiers train Kurdish forces in Iraq's northern city of Erbil, others are stationed in Baghdad. According to some reports, the decision to suspend the training mission was taken by the commander of the international coalition which currently operates in Iraq. The report gave no details about the alleged danger. The Dutch military take part in a training mission, alongside other foreign nations, including Germany.

The German Defense Ministry has earlier announced that it halted its mission aimed at training the Iraqi soldiers, citing increasing tensions on the ground. The developments came after Washington ordered all the non-essential personnel of the American embassy in Bagdad and a consulate in Erbil to leave Iraq as soon as possible.

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

ReRan

Now i show that the above article is showing active 25 minutes ago which makes me wonder if Sahib ( Charitarth Ahlawat) jumped the gun on the...

Rowan Cocoan

Barclays was beautiful! The Next Day city workers did their thing! NYC finally woke their asses up! The demonstration follows a mob of...

Nada

I see a new market for fake IDs, this time claiming age of 17.

Yupo

Slappy looks old...I guess selling your soul to the devil has consequences...

Bezel Bub

Puppet Masters

Inside look at the secret plot to turn senior Venezuelan officials against Maduro

Putin to Pompeo: Time to restore US-Russia ties

All-out trade battle: Trump threatens tariffs on $300B of Chinese goods; Beijing calls for a 'people's war'

'No one in Europe' wants second Iraq: Austrian president slams 'provocative' US Iran policy

Putin comments on Iranian nuclear deal: 'Russia is not a firefighting team, cannot save everything alone'

China's nuclear option: Dump US bonds and cause absolute chaos in global markets

'Attack Iran to get reelected': Twitter discovers Trump 'warned' of Iran conflict plot - but Obama's

Tucker Carlson: A war with Iran would be 'like Christmas' for John Bolton

Envoy Hadi: Baghdad refuses Washington the use of its territory in war against Iran

Netherlands joins Germany: Halts Iraq training mission over security threat

Latest News

Picture of the Day

Quote of the Day

Recent Comments

Quantum Quirk

Contact Us