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Boko Haram renamed 'Islamic State in West Africa'


Sputnik
Fri, 24 Apr 2015 15:26 UTC
Image
Boko Haram has reportedly taken a new name "Islamic State in West Africa" and published new pictures of its members.

Earlier, the group announced its loyalty with the notorious terrorist group "The Islamic State" (ISIL), responsible for violence and atrocities in Syria and Iraq.

ISIL supported the decision of Boko Haram and urged its members to extend their activities to West Africa.

Boko Haram has carried out numerous terrorist attacks on religious and political organizations as well as civilians. The group has killed more than 5,000 people since 2009.

Comment: Boko Haram will serve America the Islamic State well.

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Gold Bar

What is the truth about central bank gold holdings?

Lawrence Williams
Mineweb
Thu, 23 Apr 2015 00:00 UTC
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There is little or no transparency in the way central banks report national gold reserves to the IMF.


Comment: If gold is such the "barbarous relic", why is there so much secrecy regarding its ownership and distribution among the world's countries and central banks?


China has 1,054.1 tonnes of gold in its official reserves. Yeah right! The USA has 8,133.5 tonnes in its reserves - the world's largest. But forgive me if I treat this figure, and those reported by some other central banks, with about as much skepticism as I treat the official Chinese figure. Much is made of the fact that China has not updated its official reserve figure since 2009 - but then the US has not updated its figure for nearly 40 years. Something similar applies to many other central banks which report identical gold volumes year in, year out.

Comment: It may be that the world's financial elite (and central banks) are well aware of the coming world financial reset and the important role that gold will play. This might explain secretive redistribution of the world's gold reserves.

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Treasure Chest

Terrorism conveniently strikes Macedonia just as Russian 'Balkan Stream' project gains traction

Andrew Korybko
Sputnik
Wed, 22 Apr 2015 12:30 UTC
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© AFP 2015/ ROBERT ATANASOVSKI
At the exact same time that Greece has received a guarantee for billions of cubic meters' worth of Russian gas, Macedonia is being rocked by the threat of a renewed Albanian insurgency designed to offset Moscow's pipeline plans.

Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller announced that Russia will guarantee 47 billion cubic meters of gas a year to Greece via the Turkish Stream, which would then go onwards to supply the European market. While it's not yet specified exactly which path the pipeline will take from Greece to the EU, it's more than likely that it'll go through Macedonia en route to the former South Stream's envisioned Serbian hub, and thenceforth through Hungary, Austria, and beyond, just like Russia originally anticipated last year. There's one major obstacle to that strategy, however, and it's that the US is attempting to transform its failed Color Revolution in Macedonia into an Unconventional War to neutralize this geostrategic route, utilizing the specter of an Albanian terrorist campaign modeled off the Syrian template to achieve its destructive goals.

From Color Revolution to Unconventional War

In the years since the War on Yugoslavia, the US has perfected and patterned a novel method of regime change that proceeds according to pre-established escalation checkpoints. Washington first issues either a direct or implicit/covert ultimatum to the targeted government, the rejection of which serves as the 'dog whistle' for activating the dormant Color Revolution social infrastructure present in the country. Should that plan come to fail, then some of the associated destabilizing actors are transitioned into launching an Unconventional War. The final step, should that fail and a Great Power doesn't diplomatically intervene (as Russia did with Syria in September 2013), is to repeat the Libyan Scenario of a conventional intervention that leaves no doubt as to the success of its regime change odds.

Adapting this template for the Macedonian application, it can be seen how the country has thus far successfully repelled the Color Revolution attempt by Zoran Zaev, which in turn led to concrete Russian investment in the country's pipeline infrastructure that set the stage for the Putin-Tsipras agreement earlier this month. Now that the Balkan Stream pipeline plans are rapidly gaining traction, the US realized that it needs to act quickly to in order to sabotage them, hence the sudden reemergence of Albanian terrorism in Macedonia. While this problem was previously so serious as to push the country near civil war in 2001, it's generally subsided since then, with only a handful of extremists unhappy with the generous Ochrid Agreements that guaranteed the Albanian minority vast political and social rights. Nonetheless, that hasn't stopped the country of Albania, the US' regional Lead From Behind proxy, from threatening regional destabilization in order to create Greater Albania.

Comment: It should be obvious by now that many of the so-called democracy hating terrorists are nothing but foot soldiers of the Western Empire, conveniently popping up in places where their creators need them.

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Star of David

US to deliver F-35 jets to Israel to maintain military edge


RT
Fri, 24 Apr 2015 12:43 UTC
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© Flickr/U.S. Navy photo courtesy Lockheed Martin/Released
US Vice President Joe Biden said that Israel will be getting a shipment of the United States' new F-35 fighter jet so that its military can retain its "qualitative edge" in the Middle East.

Biden made the announcement in Washington, DC while giving a speech during a celebration of Israel's Independence Day, Reuters reported. The relationship between Israel and the US has been strained over the past few years due to disagreements about Jewish settlements in Palestinian territories and Iran's nuclear program, but the two nations continue to maintain strong military ties.

"Next year we will deliver to Israel the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, our finest, making Israel the only country in the Middle East to have this fifth-generation aircraft," Biden said.

Comment: The self-proclaimed Zionist Joe Biden is only too happy to broker this deal with Israel.

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Airplane

Dutch forensic expert fired for exposing photos of MH17 victims


RT
Fri, 24 Apr 2015 12:19 UTC
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© Reuters / Maxim Zmeyev
Members of the Ukrainian Emergency Ministry carry a body at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 July 19, 2014.
A senior Dutch forensic expert involved into the investigation of the MH17 plane crash has been dismissed, with further sanctions against him considered after he showed images of plane crash victims to his students.

Professor George Maat, who was involved in MH17 victim identification "has been suspended from his work and we'll see if other measures need to be taken," Thomas Aling, spokesman for the Dutch national forensics investigation team LTFO, told AFP on Thursday. He added that the expert was apparently fired for showing "photos that cannot be shown at a public meeting."

The photos exposure became "shameful and very shocking for victims' relatives, this adds to the grief," said the deputy head of the MH17 Air Disaster Association, Evert van Zijtveld.
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Eye 1

UK politician Greville Janner excused from prosecution of 22 sexual offenses against 9 children after timely onset of 'dementia'

Allison Pearson
The Telegraph
Wed, 22 Apr 2015 01:30 UTC
Greville Janner
© Heathcliff O'Malley
Labour Lord Greville Janner
As Oskar Groening, the so-called Accountant of Auschwitz, goes on trial at the age of 93 for his complicity in war crimes, the 86-year-old Labour peer Greville Janner is excused prosecution for 22 alleged sexual offences against nine boys in his Leicestershire constituency, from the 1960s to the 1980s, because he is suffering from "severe dementia".

How terribly convenient. Powerful elderly men have form when it comes to losing their memory when there are things it would not be helpful to remember. Think of Ernest Saunders. In 1991, a consultant psychiatrist told the Court of Appeal that Saunders, formerly the chief executive of Guinness, was unable to recall three numbers backwards or use a door.

Saunders had been jailed for five years in 1990 for financial wrongdoing. His lawyers contested the sentence, saying that a term of incarceration would only exacerbate the pre-senile dementia of which poor Ernest was displaying the early symptoms.

Saunders shuffled about looking like the simpleton played by Peter Sellers in Being There. His sentence was duly cut in half and he served only 10 months.


One evening, not long afterwards, Himself and I were wandering down St James's when who should we see, across the street, but one Ernest Saunders. Dressed in a smart suit, he was getting money out of a cashpoint. With that public spiritedness for which your columnist is renowned, I shouted: "Having any problems remembering your pin number, Ernest?"

Comment: How incredibly absurd and disgusting the Western 'justice system' has become. Our world has degenerated to such a low point that outrageous stories like this are commonplace, just a drop in the bucket. Such incomprehensible evil appears so vast and seemingly impenetrable that it's easy to feel hopeless in it's wake. But those who do have a conscience carry a responsibility to see this world as it is, to witness and acknowledge the horrors that monsters like Janner commit. In doing so we might add just a little humanity to the vacancy.

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Eye 2

Walled off: In non-rebel eastern Ukraine, frustrations mount with Kiev

Fred Weir
Christian Science Monitor
Wed, 22 Apr 2015 22:26 UTC
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© Fred Weir/The Christian Science Monitor
Col. Alexander Kruk, commander of Kharkiv region border guards, stands amid a completed section of the planned border wall. On one side, barbed-wire topped fence, watchtowers with cameras and motion detectors. On the other, berms and tank traps to slow down invading forces.

He says it will stop smugglers, illegal immigrants, subversives and, in a pinch, slow down an armored assault for a few minutes. "It's a border. It has to be defended, doesn't it?" he says.
It's been nicknamed the "Great Wall of Ukraine." Its planned combination of barbed-wire fences, watchtowers, berms, and tank traps along Ukraine's 1,300-mile border with Russia look like something you'd find on one of Israel's borders with its hostile neighbors.

If it's ever completed, the wall will seal a frontier that, until last year, had always been wide open. Inaugurating construction here last fall, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk indicated that much more than just a physical barrier was intended. "This will be the eastern border of Europe," he said.

But in nearby Kharkiv, an overwhelmingly Russian-speaking city of one-and-a-half million, mention of the wall is mostly greeted with snorts of irritation. The idea of splitting permanently and irrevocably from Russia wins virtually no acceptance. Many people here have family and friends in Russia, the local economy is heavily dependent on trade with Russia, and some say they just can't wrap their heads around the idea of a frontier being there in the first place.

Comment: It is sad to see the people of Kharkiv in such a confused state with no outlet to live their life as it once was.

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Cowboy Hat

Russia and Argentina seal energy package, $3 billion in deals


RT
Thu, 23 Apr 2015 20:38 UTC
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© RIA Novosti / Alexey Druzhinin
Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner seen during the ceremony of signing joint documents on the results of Russian-Argentinian talks in the Kremlin, April 23, 2015.
Russia plans to invest $2 billion in Argentinian nuclear power plants, and Russia's Gazprom has signed a deal to explore oil and gas fields in Argentina, a project worth another $1 billion.

Argentinian President Cristina de Kirchner and Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a renewed energy pact at a news conference in Moscow on Thursday.

Russia's state nuclear energy company, Rosatom, said it will provide funds to build a sixth reactor at the Atucha nuclear power plant in Buenos Aires province.

"The amount of Russian investment is about $1.9 billion," Putin said.

Comment: The US won't be pleased but shouldn't be surprised. Great Britain will also raise their eyebrows over the Falkland Islands.

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Pistol

SOTT Exclusive: U.S. troops and mercs bringing glory to Ukraine, protecting Poroshenko from his own troops

Harrison Koehli
Sott.net
Thu, 23 Apr 2015 17:05 UTC
poroshenko
About 250 US troops are now in western Ukraine for the purpose of 'training' Kiev's poorly trained, demoralized, and significantly reduced 'reserve' of cannon fodder for US perfidy and belligerence. President Petro "PeePee" Poroshenko had this to say: "My decision, as the commander-in-chief, to build a new quality army, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, is beginning to become a reality with the help of our American partners." Yep, that's right. Until now your army has been anything but 'quality' - evidenced by the fact that both Minsk agreements only came about because your joke of an armed forces got themselves surrounded by the ex-miners and laborers making up the bulk of the militias in Donetsk and Lugansk. In fact, the most effective Ukrainian fighters have been the nationalistic, fascist, Bandera-worshiping nutjobs in the nazi volunteer battalions.

The Americans plan to stay for the next six months, understandably angering the Russians. Who can blame them? While they are constantly, and falsely, accused of sending troops into east Ukraine - and sanctioned based on these false claims, not to mention demonized in the Western press - the U.S. sends troops there, no doubt to prolong the conflict, and no one so much as raises an eyebrow. Oh, America, you 'exceptional nation', you! How dare anyone presume - even if only in your sick, fantasy version of reality - to usurp your monopoly on foreign interference, violent proxy warfare and all-around thuggery.

But Donetsk and Lugansk may not have to worry too much about a revived, "quality" Ukrainian Armed Forces. Just take a look at the quality and level of training they're receiving from the American 'experts':

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Chess

Senator Warren challenges Obama administration to make secretive terms of TPP trade agreement public

Jon Queally
Common Dreams
Thu, 23 Apr 2015 00:00 UTC
Elizabeth Warren TPP
© MSNBC
President Obama and top Republicans pushing hardest for TPP are saying people should just take their word that it would be a good deal, explained Sen. Warren on The Rachel Maddow Show on Wednesday evening. "I just don't think that's reasonable."
Senator explains that real reason TPP remains so secret, even as Congress begins voting on measures to ram it through, is because 'if the American people saw what was in it, they would be opposed to it.'

Prove it. Let the American voters, the press, and the global public see and read the fine print of this so-called "free trade" deal.

That's the basic message contained in a new statement released by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) after President Obama said earlier this week that she and other opponents of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) were "wrong" when it came to their objections to the pending 12-nation agreement.

Comment: The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement is being negotiated in total secrecy by 12 countries. Despite the wide-ranging effects on the global population, few people have access to the full text of the draft agreement and the public, who it will affect most, have none at all. The secrecy surrounding the terms is a broad hint that the beneficiaries of this agreement will primarily be transnational corporations and the majority of the global population may well suffer from its effects.

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