Puppet MastersS


Propaganda

Propaganda pundit with double standards: Malcolm Rifkind

Malcolm Rifkind
The Guardian
Tue, 04 Mar 2014 12:35 UTC
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© Unknown
Those who do not learn the lessons of history will be destined to repeat them.

The Russian invasion of Crimea is not just a crisis for Ukraine. It is in danger of becoming as serious a crisis for the west as a whole, including the UKnited Kingdom. If Vladimir Putin succeeds in redrawing the map of Europe along ethnic lines, using military aggression to do so, we will have re-entered a phase of European history that we thought had ended in 1945.

It has been no secret that, since he came to power, Putin's strategic objective has been to reassert Russian control over its so-called near abroad. Since the days of Peter the Great, Russia has assumed that its own security has required it to control all the territory around its own borders.

Putin's objectives are not limited to Crimea. He has a passion to bring the whole of Ukraine under the ultimate authority of Moscow while acknowledging only its nominal independence.

But not just Ukraine. He finds equally unacceptable the independence of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. He showed, in 2008, similar contempt for the independence of Georgia.
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Dollar

Bankers' bonus cap architect says EU must sue UK (How about just arresting the fraudsters?)

Jennifer Rankin and Jill Treanor
The Guardian
Tue, 04 Mar 2014 13:48 UTC
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© AlamyThe UK government should be sued for allowing banks to sidestep new bonus caps, says one MEP.
One of the architects of the EU's cap on bankers' bonuses has called for the UK government to be sued for allowing banks to sidestep the new rules as two more high street banks were preparing to hand their bosses up to £1m in extra pay to avoid the clampdown.

Philippe Lamberts, the Belgian Green MEP who helped devise the restrictions, said it was clear the UK was failing to implement EU law and accused the coalition of having no interest in halting "absurd remuneration packages". He urged the European commission to take the UK to court for allowing bankers to bend the rules which limit bonuses to 100% of salary or 200% if shareholders approve.

His plea came as Barclays and the bailed-out Lloyds Banking Group are expected to reveal they are handing their bosses Antony Jenkins and António Horta-Osório new share awards, on top of their salaries, to prevent their overall pay falling as a result of the cap. The new pay deals could be announced as early as Wednesday.
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Sherlock

Olof Palme murder inquiry takes another twist with revoked alibi

Peter Walker
The Guardian
Thu, 27 Feb 2014 19:39 UTC
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© Conspiracion.orgOlof Palme
Sweden's national obsession with the unsolved 1986 murder of its then-prime minister Olof Palme - renewed this week by a revelation that novelist Stieg Larsson helped police with the investigation - has taken yet another twist after it emerged that a key suspect no longer has an alibi for the night in question.

Palme, a populist, leftwing politician whose views made him numerous enemies at home and abroad, was shot in February 1986 as he walked home with his wife from a cinema in Stockholm. Almost 30 years of inquiries has seen the focus fall on everyone from South African agents - Palme was a vocal critic of apartheid - to rogue Swedish spies.

On Tuesday a Swedish newspaper revealed that Larsson - the late author of the hugely successful Millennium trio of crime thrillers, and an expert on far-right groups - left 15 boxes of files connected to his own probe into the case. Larsson passed police the name of Bertil Wedin, a Swede with links to South African security services, as the man who organised the killing. Wedin, now living in northern Cyprus, denies this and police say he is not a suspect.

However, the newspaper given access to Larsson's files, Svenska Dagbladet, reported on Thursday that its own investigations had brought a new lead about another right-wing activist who was an associate of Wedin. Alf Enerström, a doctor and implacable rightwing opponent of Palme who spent time in a psychiatric hospital after shooting a policewoman, was investigated closely by police but always maintained that at the time of the killing he was at home with his then-partner - an account she backed up.

Comment: Some background on Palme and his murder:

Murdered Tetra Pak heiress Eva Rausing had information on murder of Swedish PM Olaf Palme
Olof Palme's Assassination (Operation Tree)

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Phoenix

Lighting the fires for chaos in Ukraine

Richard Rozoff
RIckRozoff.Wordpress.com
Mon, 03 Mar 2014 00:00 UTC
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© RickRozoff
A couple of people have wondered if I exaggerated the possibility of war with Russia over Ukraine. I don't think so - in fact I would suggest that the proxy war is already underway.

Two of the first things that happened following the US led coup d'etat in Ukraine was the "new government" declaring that the Russian language would be outlawed in the country (which has millions of Russians in it) and that the ban on Nazi symbols and ideology would be lifted. It cannot be said often enough that many of the violent agitators in Kiev were in fact the ultra-nationalist descendants of those Ukrainian Nazi sympathizers who supported Hitler's invasion of the former Soviet Union during WW II.

But there is even more. NSNBC International reports the following:

Being one of the most reliable sources of information about the activities of Turkey's intelligence service MIT and Turkey's armed forces, Aydinlik Daily quotes a "source that has spoken with the newspaper", alleging, that an intelligence unit linked to Turkey's intelligence service MIT has headed to the Ukrainian Autonomous Republic Crimea to provoke Crimean Turks to act against the ethnic Russian majority and Russian interests in the autonomous republic. The source reported that the deployment of the Turkish unit has been coordinated with both the USA and EU. Translated this essentially means that for all the moralistic talk coming from the Obama administration about how Russia should not be intervening in Crimea, the US-NATO are, and have been, deeply embedded in the drive to take over Ukraine.
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Take 2

Two Washington-based RT America 'defectors' in 2 days: Acts of conscience or coordinated propaganda stunt?

Jay Pinho
the first casualty
Thu, 06 Mar 2014 16:17 UTC
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At around 5 PM on Wednesday afternoon, RT (formerly Russia Today) anchor Liz Wahl decided to call it quits on-air, accusing the channel of "[whitewashing] the actions of Putin."

Wahl's announcement created quite the buzz in media circles. The New York Daily News, temporarily losing track of the date by several decades,declared: "A 'Russia Today' anchor broke through the Iron Curtain." The New York Times ran a piece headlined "Russian Channel's War Coverage Continues to Cost It Journalists." MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell dubbed Wahl "today's bravest person on TV." And Business Insider helpfully proclaimed: "Anchor For Russian Propaganda Channel Dramatically Quits In Protest Live On The Air."

Perhaps no one was more effusive in his praise for Wahl than James Kirchick, a contributor to The Daily Beast. In an "exclusive" post-resignation correspondence with Wahl, Kirchick reports that, as far back as last August, "Wahl felt morally compromised working for the network, she told me, but wasn't yet prepared to quit." (Wahl had first contacted Kirchick last year after he had taken a brief hiatus from agitating for whistleblower Chelsea Manning's execution in order to stage a bizarre one-man TV protest against Russia's undeniably pervasive homophobia - a stunt that lasted two minutes and was utterly unrelated to the panel on which he'd been asked to participate.)

Comment: As RT's statement points out, this is not exactly normal behaviour. In fact, the very fact that this NEVER happens can only mean it that was done to deliberately get at Russia, and that they were NOT 'acts of conscience.

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No Entry

Iran's Zarif: Israel lying about Gaza rocket ship


BBC News
Thu, 06 Mar 2014 14:30 UTC
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The Israeli military released pictures of the ship's cargo on its blog on Wednesday
Iran has rejected Israeli allegations that it was behind a shipment of Syrian-made rockets intended for Palestinian militants in Gaza.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif dismissed them as "failed lies".

He claimed they were published "just in time" for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference, which took place earlier this week.

On Wednesday, Israel's military said it had found the rockets on a ship it seized in the Red Sea off Sudan.

The Klos-C, a Panamanian-flagged vessel, is currently being escorted to the southern Israeli port of Eilat, and is expected to arrive on Saturday. Its 17-member crew were apparently unaware of their cargo.

Comment: Meanwhile:

'U.S. admits Mossad behind Iran scientists assassinations'
U.S. pushing Israel to stop assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists
Anti-Semitism comes full circle: Israeli Defence Forces unit led fascist militia in Kiev - How much involvement did Israel have in neo-Nazi coup d'état?
Amnesty International accuses Israeli psychopaths of war crimes

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Ambulance

NATO airstrike 'accidentally' kills 5 Afghan soldiers


RT
Thu, 06 Mar 2014 15:49 UTC
drone
© Reuters/US Air Force/Bobbi Zapka/
Five Afghan soldiers have been killed and 17 people wounded in an airstrike by the NATO-led force in Afghanistan in eastern Logar province.

The airstrike, one of the deadliest friendly fire incidents in recent years, occurred at about 3:30 am local time and seriously wounded a further eight soldiers, bringing the total number of injured people to 17.

Dead bodies and wounded personnel have been transferred from the Chark district of Logar province to Kabul, the Afghan defense ministry said in a statement. It added that a delegation has already been sent to investigate.

Coalition forces operating in Afghanistan have said in a statement that the bombing was an accident, but did not give any further details of what might have been the cause of the deadly error.

"We value the strong relationship with our Afghan partners, and we will determine what actions will be taken to ensure incidents like this do not happen again," the ISAF statement said, adding that they are conducting an investigation "to determine the circumstances that led to this unfortunate incident."
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Magnify

The bizarre story of the 'kidnapped' UN envoy in Crimea

Matthew R. Lee
Mashable
Wed, 05 Mar 2014 10:33 UTC
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© MYKHAILO MARKIV, POOL/ASSOCIATED PRESSUkraine's former President Viktor Yanukovych, left, greets United Nations Special Coordinator Robert Serry prior talks in Kiev, Ukraine, Wednesday, on Jan. 29, 2014.
News that United Nations envoy Robert Serry had been kidnapped or detained in Crimea spread through the UN press briefing room in New York on Wednesday morning, minutes before a previously scheduled telephone question and answer session with UN Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson from Kiev.

When Eliasson came on the line, he said Serry had just called him from a cafe in Crimea to say that he had been not kidnapped, but he unidentified men had threatened him. Some of them were armed.

According to Eliassion, when Serry came out of a naval headquarters building, he was accosted and told to go to the airport and leave Crimea, but he refused. Serry instead got in his car, but abandoned shortly after and set out on foot for his hotel. That's when he stopped at the cafe to call Eliasson. Eliasson said it is not clear if Serry's work in Ukraine, or at least the Crimea region, would continue.

Two hours later, the UN told correspondents that Serry was "taking a late flight out of Simferopol and will shortly return to Kiev to continue his mission, which was cut short by today's incident."
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USA

U.S. and Russia fail to reach Ukraine deal - Not a surprise, Russia is in the Right and the U.S.-EU won't admit it

Ian Traynor, Paul Lewis, and Kim Willsher
The Guardian
Wed, 05 Mar 2014 10:15 UTC
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John Kerry and Sergey Lavrov to resume talks on Thursday as pressure grows on EU to pass punitive measures against Moscow

The first western attempts to get Moscow to back down over its seizure of Crimea failed on Wednesday evening, putting pressure on the EU to resort to punitive action against the Kremlin at an emergency summit on Thursday.

Negotiations in Paris between John Kerry, the US secretary of state, and Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, broke up without agreement on Wednesday. The Americans and the Europeans hoped to persuade Moscow to open a dialogue with the new government in Kiev and also to withdraw its forces in Crimea to their bases and allow in international monitors.

But while Lavrov accused the Americans of tabling unacceptable ultimatums, Kerry said there were "a number of ideas " up for discussion. Both men are expected to resume negotiations in Rome on Thursday after consulting their respective presidents, Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin.

"Things have moved in a good direction," said Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister.
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Network

Ukraine crisis: No wonder Vladimir Putin says Crimea is Russian

Rodric Braithwaite
The Independent
Sat, 01 Mar 2014 00:00 UTC
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© Independent
Much recent comment on Ukraine in the British press has been marked by a barely forgivable ignorance about its history and politics, an overhasty willingness to put the blame for all its troubles on Vladimir Putin, and an almost total inability to suggest practical ways of bringing effective Western influence to bear on a solution.

So perhaps we should start with a short history lesson. A thousand years ago Kiev was the capital of an Orthodox Christian state called Rus with links reaching as far west as England. But Rus was swept away by the Tatars in the 13th century, leaving only a few principalities in the north, including an obscure town deep in the forests, called Moscow.

What became known as Ukraine - a Slav phrase meaning "borderlands" - was regularly fought over by Tatars, Poles, Lithuanians, Russians, Turks, Swedes and Cossacks. One large chunk, including Kiev itself, joined Russia in the 17th century. Galicia in the west fell to the Austrians in the following century, but was taken by Poland after the First World War, when the rest of Ukraine joined the Soviet Federation. Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin handed Galicia and its capital Lviv to Ukraine in 1945. All these changes were accompanied by much bloody fighting.

Ukraine's Crimean peninsula followed a different but equally tumultuous path. The seat of a powerful and predatory Tatar state, it was conquered and settled by the Russians in the 18th century. Stalin deported its Tatar minority in 1944 because, he said, they had collaborated with the Germans. They were later allowed to return. Crimea only became part of Ukraine in 1954, when Khrushchev gave it to Kiev as a present.

Comment: It looks as though Crimea is not going to allow its government or citizens to be manipulated and bullied by the Ukraine and the West. Good for them!

Agreement on cooperation between Republics of Tatarstan and Crimea signed in Simferopol
Crimea's Supreme Council makes decision to join Russia as federal subject
BREAKING! Crimean parliament votes to join Russia, hold referendum in 10 days on ratifying

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