Puppet MastersS


Attention

Europe: Refugees, women and children, have 'gone missing'


Sputnik
Wed, 01 Feb 2017 17:15 UTC
refugees
© AFP 2016/Armend NimaniWhere are they now?
At least 1,500 human trafficking cases have been registered in Syria in the past year, according to the country's Interior Ministry. Refugees who arrive in Europe are far from safe and they too fall victims to trafficking. Sputnik spoke about this with reporter Poppy Damon from The International Women's Initiative in an interview.

According to Damon when there are millions of people displaced, it is very likely that crime networks that already exist are going to use this situation in order to manipulate people who are vulnerable. "What we are seeing is that a lot of women and children who are in camps are being kidnapped or tricked into trafficking and then exported across international borders into Turkey, Lebanon and other places and what that means is that there are a lot of people who are untracked," she said.

She further said that people who arrive to countries like England, France and Sweden are then lost because there are trafficking gangs operating in those countries.

Talking about Syria she said that because of the scale of the conflict they are particularly vulnerable to problems as there are about 12 million people who are in need of humanitarian assistance in Syria and there are global networks involved in human trafficking who are exploiting this situation currently.

"There is a complete network of groups that are operating, so there are criminal gangs that are working but they are also funding groups like ISIS [Daesh in Arabic] and they are using it as a way of generating income. Even more worrying is that we see complicity among government officials in the corruption which would be necessary for them to operate," Damon said.

Comment: With a change in US strategy, a cutoff of funding and a partnering with Russia to eradicate ISIS, it would stand to reason ISIS will attempt to replenish its revenue through any means it can, such as human trafficking. See also:

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Bomb

OSCE monitor: Ukraine ceasefire violations in the thousands, inflict suffering on civilians


RT
Wed, 01 Feb 2017 22:30 UTC
tanks Ukraine
© YouTube
The violent escalation of the Ukrainian conflict in recent days has led to thousands of truce violations and "indiscriminate" shellings by both sides, Alexander Hug, the principal deputy chief monitor of the OSCE mission in Ukraine, told RT. The mission has registered an "uptick in violence starting from the early morning hours on Sunday", January 30, Hug said during an interview with RT, adding the OSCE experts have recorded "thousands" of instances of fire exchange and shellings.

The warring parties used various heavy artillery pieces, "including the most indiscriminate ones - the Grad systems," Hug said, referring to the Soviet-made BM-21 multiple rocket launchers.

The OSCE mission deputy head also stressed that the latest escalation of violence has led to the "severe suffering" of civilians caught in the area engulfed by hostilities. "Electricity in the area... is cut off and people are freezing there in their apartments. They have no heating, limited water supplies," he told RT.

Hug called on both sides "to show restraint and allow the repair crews to re-establish utility services." He also expressed regret that both the Ukrainian government forces and the rebels "are violating the Minsk Agreements in many aspects."


Comment: Interestingly this revival of hostilities came on the heels of a John McCain and Lindsey Graham visit to the Ukraine..."The dastardly duo made a trip to the Donbass front line just after the new year, where they gave incendiary speeches egging on Ukrainian troops to restart hostilities." What are the chances...

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Boat

Russian MoD Shoigu sees, controls NATO activities during Black Sea drills


Sputnik
Thu, 02 Feb 2017 13:09 UTC
Roman frigate
© AFP 2016/Daniel MihailescuRoman frigate on the Black Sea
The Russian Defense Ministry sees and controls everything that is taking place at the NATO drills in the Black Sea, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Wednesday.

The Sea Shield 2017 maritime drills with the participation of seven NATO member states and Ukraine are kicking off in the Black Sea on Wednesday.


Comment: The drills will include servicemen from Romania, Ukraine, the United States, Canada, Spain, Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece. Romania will provide 11 warships and four fighter jets, alongside six fighter jets and five provided by other members of the bloc.


"As you know, a large group has entered and continues entering the Black Sea for exercises. According to a decision of the General Staff and the head of the South Military District, all actions to control this group entering and its activities in the Black Sea have been taken. At present, we see and control everything that happens there," Shoigu said at a ministerial session.

The minister expressed hope that the exercises would take place in a "maximally secure environment" without any challenges for Russia.

"In any case, we are ready for such challenges," he added.

Comment: NATO is once again playing games by flaunting itself in the face of Russia. Would the US be comfortable with a similar drill by the Russians in the Gulf of Mexico? Or in the English Channel? It is not about Russian aggression; it is about escalation of tensions by NATO until they can declare 'foul' and legitimize a war.

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Airplane

Air France Union: Employees urged to boycott US flights after Trump order


Sputnik
Thu, 02 Feb 2017 00:46 UTC
Air France
© Sputnik International
France's hardline trade union has called on its members to rise up against new rules enforced by an immigration-related executive order issued by US President Donald Trump last week.

France's national trade union The General Confederation of Labour (GCL) at Air France is urging its members to boycott US-bound flights in protest of Trump's "Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States" executive order.

Last week the US President signed an executive order temporarily suspending immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries: Iraq, Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Libya and Yemen. The order also suspends the entry of Syrian refugees into the country and halts all refugee resettlement in the US for 120 days, as the administration reviews the vetting process.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said in a statement regarding the order that the way the implementation — without prior coordination or warning — is causing confusion among airlines and travelers. The association's members complained that they have struggled to put into practice unclear requirements, faced implementation costs, and were concerned about potential fines for non-compliance.

Comment: Perhaps the sooner the review and changes are made, the better all around.

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Briefcase

Lawsuits are piling up against Trump's travel ban and anti-sanctuary city executive orders


RT
Wed, 01 Feb 2017 05:09 UTC
SF attorney and mayor
© Kate Munsch / ReutersSan Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera and Mayor Ed Lee
Four states are suing over President Donald Trump's executive order restricting US entry, as is the city of Boston, while other lawsuits were filed in Colorado and Texas. At the same time, San Francisco is challenging the constitutionality of his sanctuary cities order.

On Tuesday, Massachusetts, New York, Virginia and Washington all separately challenged the executive order that the Trump administration says will protect the US from "radical Islamic terrorists," but which the states say is actually a violation of religious freedom, Reuters reported.

The order, signed last Friday, puts a 90-day pause on US entry for those with passports from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, while also halting for 120 days, the resettlement of refugees program and barring any Syrian refugees indefinitely.

New York joined the ACLU's lawsuit, which was the first against Trump's order temporarily prohibiting US entry, filed on behalf of Hameed Khalid Darweesh and Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi; both Iraqis detained at JFK International Airport on Saturday. Virginia joined with the suit brought Monday by the Council on American Islamic Relations on behalf of 27 people.


Comment: Instead of being part of the solution, the American knee-jerk reaction is to sue someone.

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Info

Lawyer claims charges on ex-FSB and Kaspersky staff with treason 'in interests of US', Moscow denies DNC/Podesta connection


RT
Wed, 01 Feb 2017 16:12 UTC
Kaspersky Lab
© Sergei Karpukhin / Reuters
Two senior FSB officers and a high-level manager of Russia's leading cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab are facing official charges of treason in the interests of the US, a lawyer representing one of the defendants has confirmed to Interfax.

Ruslan Stoyanov, head of Kaspersky Lab's computer incidents investigations unit, Sergey Mikhailov, a senior Russian FSB officer, and his deputy Dmitry Dokuchayev are accused of "treason in favor of the US," lawyer Ivan Pavlov said on Wednesday, as cited by Interfax.

Pavlov chose not to disclose which of the defendants he represents, adding, however, that his client denies all charges.

Comment: More from The Duran:
Reports circulate in Moscow that detained cyber spies are being charged with passing on information to the CIA, strengthening suspicions that Moscow arrests are connected to the Clinton leaks scandal.

Suspicions that the arrests of alleged cyber spies that have been taking place in Moscow since the middle of December are in some way connected to the US intelligence community's allegations of Russian hacking of the DNC and Podesta have received more support from a report by the Russian news agency Interfax that Sergey Mikhailov - a former FSB officer - and Dmitry Dokuchaev - now also revealed to be an FSB officer and apparently Mikhailov's deputy - are being charged with passing on information to the CIA.

Interfax is a highly reliable news agency, and information it provides can usually be considered trustworthy. Probably the information about the charges against Mikhailov and Dokuchaev were intentionally provided to Interfax for publication by the FSB.

To add spice to the story, Russian media reports are apparently claiming that the FSB has found up to $12 million in cash stashed away in various hiding places in Mikhailov's home and dacha. If so then that would suggest that he was a longstanding CIA agent working for pay.

It should be stressed that as of now there is no official confirmation of these claims, or that Mikhailov and Dokuchaev provided the CIA with information about the Russian hacking claims. Even if they did, and even if the information they provided was the source of some of the claims of a Russian role in the leaking of the DNC and Podesta emails to Wikileaks, it doesn't mean that what they told the CIA about Russian intelligence's supposed role in passing on the DNC and Podesta emails to Wikileaks is true.

To add to the mystery, the Russian media has been full of reports that the arrests are in some way connected to a group of hackers called Shaltai-Boltai, who have supposedly been busy hacking the Russian government.

There is far too little information currently available to comment about this. It could be that the claims about the alleged connection to the Shaltai-Boltai group are a smokescreen put up by the FSB to conceal the direction of its investigation. Alternatively Shaltai-Boltai might have been a CIA front to conceal a US cyber operation in Russia. If I had to guess, I would say the second is more likely to be true.

As I said in previous report, clearly something is going on, but given the lack of detail, and given the strong possibility of disinformation, it is essential not to assume too hastily that anything which appears in the media is true.
Also see: Update: The Duran's Alexander Mercouris adds today:
In light of what Peskov has said, any further speculation that the individuals who have been arrested were involved in hacking Podesta and the DNC is obviously wrong, and should be ignored.

It is now confirmed that - as I have been saying all along - the individuals have been arrested for passing on information to a foreign power, which - as I also speculated - is confirmed to be the US. The official Russian news agency TASS quotes a lawyer familiar with the case as follows
No CIA is mentioned in the case. It is only the country that is mentioned. Yes, the talk is about America, not about the CIA (bold italics added)
This is not a denial that the CIA was the US agency with which the arrested individuals are supposed to have been in contact. All that the lawyer is saying is that the CIA is not referred to in the charges. However he explicitly confirms that the country with which the arrested individuals were in contact was the US.

Lastly the lawyer has poured cold water over the claims that the individuals arrested had some connection to the Shaltai Boltai group
The lawyer rejected media reports that leader of the Shaltay Boltay hacker group Vladimir Anikeyev was among the suspects in the criminal case. "It does not follow from official documents that Anikeyev and the Shaltay Boltay group are mentioned in this criminal case," the lawyer said, declining to disclose other details of the case.
It seems as if the Russian media talk about the Shalta-Boltai group was all wrong. Conceivably it was disinformation deliberately spread by the FSB to conceal the actual direction of the inquiry. More likely it was simply someone's mistaken guess.

Whilst this information has finally resolved some of the mysteries about the case - we now know definitely that at least two FSB officers and a cyber specialist have been arrested in Moscow charged with passing on secrets to the US - the theory that these individuals were a source for the US intelligence community's claims about Russian interference in the US election remains for the moment speculation.

We will no doubt find out more shortly even though what is clearly shaping up to be a major spy trial will be held in private, as such trials usually are in most countries, not just in Russia.


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Light Sabers

Adviser to Khamenei responds to White House putting Iran on notice: "Threatening Iran is useless"


RT
Thu, 02 Feb 2017 18:30 UTC
missile launch
© Sepah News / AFP
Iran will not bow to US threats, the foreign policy adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's said in response to statements made by the White House, following Iran's recent ballistic missile test.

Speaking to reporters, Ali Akbar Velayati, the Ayatollah's foreign policy adviser, said that Iran would continue building its defensive capabilities regardless of any warnings from Washington.

"This is not the first time that an inexperienced person has threatened Iran," Velayati told Fars News Agency, without naming anyone specific. "The American government will understand that threatening Iran is useless."

"Iran does not need permission from any country to defend itself," he added.

On Monday, US officials told Fox News that Iran had tested a Khorramshahr medium-range ballistic missile, which flew 600 miles before exploding.
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Telephone

Scott Adams on the freak-out over Trump's 'heated' calls with Mexican, Australian leaders

Scott Adams
Scott Adams' Blog
Thu, 02 Feb 2017 18:20 UTC
trump bannon flynn turnbull
© Pete Marovich/Pool photo via European Pressphoto AgencyPresident Trump speaks on the phone with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in the Oval Office on Jan. 28, 2017.
Today's news will be all about President Trump's tense phone calls with the leaders of Australia and Mexico. The popular spin is that the president was rude and aggressive with both of them. Very unpresidential, say the critics. Maybe he is crazy! And orange! Chaos! Chaos! Chaos!

Another spin on the same observations is that both Australia and Mexico required their leaders to "stand up" to President Trump in a more aggressive way than you would expect with a normal president. I didn't hear the details of the calls, but I have to think they were lecturing him, or talking down to him, or generally being dicks because that's what their countries required of them in this situation. Trump just showed them what that strategy buys them.

If you see one phone call as an event that stands alone, you're missing the story arc. Everything is an ongoing negotiation with Trump. Australia and Mexico just had to sleep on the idea that their relationship with the United States is worse today than yesterday. And it sends a signal to other leaders that lecturing President Trump with an eye toward grandstanding or embarrassing him isn't the strongest strategy. He probably needed to make that point one way or another. That's done. Now let's see if the next foreign leader decides to lecture him or not. I'm thinking no.

There will be plenty of breathless commentary today about the end of civil diplomacy. What we don't know is how it all turns out. Don't judge a book by the first sentence. The fun is just starting.

Just to be clear, I'm sure the new administration is making plenty of rookie errors. It's not all brilliant persuasion. But don't assume you can tell them apart with limited information.

Comment: See:

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Telephone

Bad media! Downright lie! Mexico denies Trump threatened to send military to chase 'bad hombres'


RT
Thu, 02 Feb 2017 09:17 UTC
Trump phone
© Fortune
After the AP and Mexican media reported that Trump had threatened to send the US military to chase "bad hombres" out of Mexico in a phone call with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, the Mexican government has slammed the claim as "a downright lie."

The statement "did not happen during that call," the Mexican government said on Twitter. "I know it with absolute certainty, there was no threat. The things that have been said are nonsense and a downright lie," Peña Nieto's spokesman, Eduardo Sanchez, said in a radio interview. Mexico's foreign relations department slammed the report, saying its allegations were "based on absolute falsehoods" and "do not correspond to the reality at all."

"The tone was constructive and it was agreed by the presidents to continue working and that the teams will continue to meet frequently to construct an agreement that is positive for Mexico and for the United States," the department added, as cited by AP.

The White House has refused to comment, instead pointing to a joint statement regarding the call that appeared on Friday. The two leaders reportedly spoke about the need to "work together to stop drug cartels, drug trafficking and illegal guns and arms sales." At a press conference with UK Prime Minister Theresa May last week, Trump also described his call with Pena Nieto as "friendly."

Comment: The US-Mexican border has been a topic of contention for centuries. It is not something Trump has just trumped up.

The White House added their own clarification:
President Donald Trump warned in a phone call with his Mexican counterpart that he was ready to send U.S. troops to stop "bad hombres down there" unless the Mexican military does more to control them — comments the White House described as "lighthearted."

The White House said Thursday that the comments, in an excerpt obtained by The Associated Press from a transcript of the hourlong conversation, were "part of a discussion about how the United States and Mexico could work collaboratively to combat drug cartels and other criminal elements, and make the border more secure."


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Chess

Pepe Escobar: Game-changers ahead on the Maritime Silk Road - Indian cooperation and competition with China

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
Thu, 02 Feb 2017 18:14 UTC
gwadar port
© AFP/Aamir QureshiA Pakistani Naval guard wards off troublemakers at Gwadar port
From the Bab al-Mandab to the strait of Malacca, from the strait of Hormuz to the strait of Lombok, all the way to the key logistical hub of Diego Garcia 2,500 miles southeast of Hormuz, the question pops up: How will the unpredictable new normal in Washington - which is not exactly China-friendly - affect the wider Indian Ocean?

At play are way more than key chokepoints in an area that straddles naval supply chains and through which also flows almost 40% of the oil that powers Asian-Pacific economies. This is about the future of the Maritime Silk Road, a key component of the Chinese One Belt, One Road (OBOR), and thus about how Big Power politics will unfold in a key realm of the Rimland.

India imports almost 80% of its energy from the Middle East via the Indian Ocean. Thus, for Delhi, protection of supply chains must be the norm, as in the current drive to develop three carrier battle groups and at least 160 naval vessels, including submarines, before 2022. That also implies boosting a cooperation agreement with the nations bordering the strait of Malacca - Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia - and developing military infrastructure in the Andaman and Nicobar islands.

China for its part advances a relentless economic / infrastructural drive from Myanmar to Pakistan, from Bangladesh to the Maldives, from Sri Lanka to Djibouti - a counterbalance to the impossibility of fully implementing "escape from Malacca", the complex, multi-pronged Beijing strategy for diversifying energy supplies.
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