Puppet MastersS


Putin

Moscow opens criminal case over Putin warrant


RT
Mon, 20 Mar 2023 12:00 UTC
ICC building
© Vincent Isore/MAGO/Global Look PressThe International Criminal Court, The Hague, Netherlands
Russia's investigative committee says the ICC's top prosecutor and its judges acted "illegally"...

The International Criminal Court's (ICC) principal prosecutor and the judges who issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin have become the targets of a criminal case, Russia's Investigative Committee announced on Monday.

In a Telegram post, the committee said that it had opened cases against ICC prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan, as well as judges Tomoko Akane, Rosario Salvatore Aitala and Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godinez.

Khan sent a petition on February 22 to the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber to obtain warrants for the arrest of Putin and Russia's commissioner for children's rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, whom he accused of being responsible for the "illegal deportation of children from Ukraine." His petition was approved by the aforementioned judges. Moscow regards the evacuation as providing the safety of civilians from territories at risk of attacks by Ukrainian troops.

Comment: The ICC is ineffective and full of deficiencies, unable to investigate or enforce its rulings:
The biggest demonstration of the ICC's impotence was its failed attempt to investigate war crimes committed by US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, Medvedev stated.

Washington derailed the court's probe. John Bolton, the national security adviser under then-President Donald Trump, mused at the time that "for all intents and purposes, the ICC is already dead," so Washington will allow it to "die on its own."

Last week's decision by the ICC's Pre-Trial Chamber to go after the leader of another nuclear power that likewise refused to recognize its jurisdiction is obviously just for show, Medvedev said, adding that this will only serve to eradicate whatever trust in international institutions remains.

Nations ignore rulings that they perceive as inherently unjust and prefer to make direct agreements between each other, while "stupid decisions of the UN and other structures come apart at the seams."

Medvedev added that one could "imagine a situation" in which the building of the ICC in The Hague could be struck by a Russian hypersonic missile. "This court is just a puny international organization, not a NATO nation's people. They would not dare to start a war over it. No one would even be sorry about it."
Russia is 'unfazed' by Putin's arrest warrant:
The Russian leadership has taken note of the arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin announced by the International Criminal Court (ICC) last week but is not worried by it, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov has said. It is just one of many attacks on Russia and its leader, he explained.
"We take notice [of such things], but if we were to take to heart every hostile action, certainly nothing good would come out of it. We are unfazed and will keep working."
The court acts on the authority of the Rome Statute, an international treaty that Russia never ratified and from which it fully withdrew in 2016. Several other major world powers, including the US, China, and India, do not recognize the ICC either. Washington infamously derailed the court's attempt to investigate war crimes allegedly committed in Iraq and Afghanistan by US troops and their allies under President Donald Trump.

The Russian government dismissed the arrest warrant as irrelevant. Former President Dmitry Medvedev, who currently serves as deputy chair of the National Security Council, called the court earlier on Monday a "puny international organization."


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Syringe

Japanese officials urge government to tell the truth about 210,000 excess deaths following vaccine mandates - highest number since WWII

Jim Hoft
The Gateway Pundit
Thu, 16 Mar 2023 07:15 UTC
Japanese accusation
The Government of Japan is urged to tell the truth about the huge number of vaccine injuries and excess deaths during a hearing.

Japanese lawmaker Mr. Yanagase Hirofumi, a Japanese politician who is a member of the House of Councillors of Japan, accused the Japanese government of covering up COVID-19 mRNA vaccine injuries and deaths.

Below is the transcript of Mr. Hirofumi's speech:
"The number of deaths in Japan has been on the rise continuously. As you can see from this panel, the dramatic increase in the number of deaths is quite obvious. Last year, the number of deaths in 2022, exceeded 1.58 million, the highest number since World War II.
Compared to 2021, the number of deaths has increased by more than 140,000.

Compared to 2020, the number of deaths has increased by a staggering number of 210,000.
Covid didn't cause so many more deaths. There must be factors (like vaccines). I wonder how the government is analyzing this problem?
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Briefcase

Trump indictment delayed, "surprise witness" to testify on Monday

Clayton Keirns
Trending Politics
Sun, 19 Mar 2023 18:57 UTC
donald trump
© AFP / Alex WongFormer US President Donald Trump addresses the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
According to Business Insider sources, a possible Trump indictment is on hold until a final "surprise witness" can testify before the Grand Jury on Monday.

Here's the report from Business Insider:
Not so fast. A New York grand jury will hear a final surprise witness on Monday and won't vote on Trump indictment until it's over.

"There is one more witness," a source with knowledge of the investigation told Insider on Saturday night. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to divulge details of the grand jury proceedings.

The source declined to identify the witness, whose testimony will cap a two-month grand jury presentation by prosecutors under District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

A separate source, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, told Insider that the witness is not Allen Weisselberg, Trump's former CFO, who is serving a five-month sentence for admittedly masterminding a payroll tax-dodge scheme at the Trump Organization.

Comment: 'This is a flawed case': Legal expert pours cold water on NY DA's rumored plan to indict Trump as he explains why prosecution would likely fail

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Mail

Saudi king invites Iranian president to Riyadh - official


RT
Sun, 19 Mar 2023 15:26 UTC
Salman
© AP/Bandar AljaloudKing Salman of Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia's King Salman has invited Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi to a meeting in Riyadh, Raisi's deputy chief of staff said on Sunday. Planning is also underway for a meeting between the two countries' foreign ministers, after a Chinese-mediated deal restored diplomatic relations following a seven-year rift.

Salman extended the invitation in a letter to Raisi, Deputy Chief of Staff Mohammad Jamshidi wrote on Twitter on Sunday. "Welcoming this invitation, the president emphasized Iran's readiness to strengthen cooperation," Jamshidi added. In a follow-up tweet in English, Jamshidi stated that Salman referred to Saudi Arabia and Iran as "brotherly countries" in his letter.

Saudi Arabia and Iran announced last week that they would restore diplomatic ties and commit to "non-interference" in each other's internal affairs, in a landmark deal brokered by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Preparations have been underway to reopen embassies in Riyadh and Tehran, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told Tehran's state media on Sunday.
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Attention

Operation Babylift and the hypocrisy of the International Criminal Court

Kurt Nimmo
Substack
Sun, 19 Mar 2023 20:06 UTC
Compare Putin's supposed abduction of Ukrainian children to an organized mass kidnapping of Vietnamese children.
Ops Babylift
© Substack
In the "collective West," hypocrisy rules the narrative, most recently in regard to the ICC and the "kidnapped" children of Ukraine.

In America, the scurrilous neocon and warmonger propagandist Max Boot weighed in on the meaningless and unenforcible decision to arrest President Putin. Boot's argument is delusional, but then neocons thrive on lies and delusions.

Propaganda, pure and simple. Boot is an accessory to mass murder, having advocated the invasion of Iraq, the slaughter of over a million Iraqis, and the engineered destruction of their country.
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Info

Best of the Web: Ellen Brown: The Looming Quadrillion Dollar Derivatives Tsunami

Ellen Brown
Scheerpost
Sun, 12 Mar 2023 00:00 UTC
Sillicon valley bank
On Friday, March 10, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapsed and was taken over by federal regulators. SVB was the 16th largest bank in the country and its bankruptcy was the second largest in U.S. history, following Washington Mutual in 2008. Despite its size, SVB was not a "systemically important financial institution" (SIFI) as defined in the Dodd-Frank Act, which requires insolvent SIFIs to "bail in" the money of their creditors to recapitalize themselves.

Technically, the cutoff for SIFIs is $250 billion in assets. However, the reason they are called "systemically important" is not their asset size but the fact that their failure could bring down the whole financial system. That designation comes chiefly from their exposure to derivatives, the global casino that is so highly interconnected that it is a "house of cards." Pull out one card and the whole house collapses. SVB held $27.7 billion in derivatives, no small sum, but it is only .05% of the $55,387 billion ($55.387 trillion) held by JPMorgan, the largest U.S. derivatives bank.

SVB could be the canary in the coal mine foreshadowing the fate of other over-extended banks, but its collapse is not the sort of "systemic risk" predicted to trigger "contagion." As reported by CNN:
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Laptop

Hunter Biden files countersuit against laptop repairman John Paul Mac Isaac, alleging privacy violations

Timothy H.J. Nerozzi , David Spunt , Bill Mears
Fox News
Fri, 17 Mar 2023 10:52 UTC
john paul mac isaac
© Fox News DigitalJohn Paul Mac Isaac, owner of the Delaware computer repair shop Hunter Biden abandoned his laptop at in 2019.
The president's son claims that repair shop owner John Paul Mac Issac illicitly distributed his personal data.

Hunter Biden has filed a countersuit against John Paul Mac Isaac, the computer repair shop owner who turned a laptop belonging to the president's son over to authorities and members of the press.

The lawsuit claims that Isaac illicitly distributed Hunter Biden's personal data and accuses him of six counts of invasion of privacy.

Comment: See also:

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Wolf

China, Russia 'deploying space weapons to attack US satellites', Space Force chief claims following $3.7 billion budget increase

Bill Gertz
The Washington Times
Tue, 14 Mar 2023 00:59 UTC
Chance Saltzman
© AP Photo/Alex BrandonU.S. Space Force Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, Chief of Space Operations, speaks during a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces to examine United States Space Force programs in review of the Fiscal Year 2024 Defense Authorization Request, Tuesday, March 14, 2023, in Washington.
China's military has deployed 347 satellites, including 35 launched in the past six months, to target U.S. forces in a future conflict, the commander of the Space Force told a Senate hearing on Tuesday.

Space Force Gen. B. Chance Saltzman said Russia is also testing and deploying orbital anti-satellite weapons, extensive cyber capabilities and land-based anti-satellite missiles, electronic jammers and lasers.

China's more advanced space warfare weapons pose "the most immediate threat" to attacks in space, while less-capable Russian space assets also pose "an acute threat" of attacks or disruptions on U.S. satellites.


Comment: Is this rhetoric part of the pivot from the West's war against Russia in Ukraine, to the obvious new front against China?


Comment: OK, so the chief's performance was, at least in part, to justify draining the taxpayer of even more US funny money?

Much of the above probably reveals more about what the US is up to - as well as its pathological paranoia - but it's also reasonable to suppose that Russia and China have been working diligently to counter any possible US offensive; that's in addition, and probably secondary, to them becoming world leaders in space innovation and exploration: See also: Watch Russian military put another top secret "inspection" satellite into orbit

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Better Earth

Putin welcomes China's 'constructive role' in solving Ukraine crisis


Reuters
Sun, 19 Mar 2023 10:11 UTC
putin xi jinping
© Sputnik/Sergey Bobylev/Pool via REUTERSRussian President Vladimir Putin speaks with Chinese President Xi Jinping before an extended-format meeting of heads of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit (SCO) member states in Samarkand, Uzbekistan September 16, 2022.
Vladimir Putin has welcomed China's willingness to play a "constructive role" in solving in what he called the Ukraine "crisis", in an article released on the eve of a visit by his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.

In what the Kremlin said was an article written for a Chinese newspaper on Sunday, the Russian president called Xi his "good old friend" and said Russia had high hopes for his visit, the Chinese leader's first to Russia since Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine last year.

Xi's visit comes just days after the international criminal court (ICC) in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Putin for overseeing the abduction of Ukrainian children. Neither China nor Russia are members of the court or recognise its jurisdiction.


Comment: And the ICC wasn't recognized by the US when it threatened to investigate its soldiers war crimes. Nor does it seem to have issued any other arrest warrants for the relentless and heinous criminality committed by the West and its allies - such as Israel - so why would anyone take anything it says seriously now?

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Magnify

South Africa to deploy military ahead of 'nationwide shutdown' by unions & protest organisations demanding President's resignation

Veronica Mokhoali
Eyewitness News
Fri, 17 Mar 2023 12:00 UTC
President Cyril Ramaphosa
FILE PHOTO: President Cyril Ramaphosa. Among the reasons for Monday’s expected nationwide protest is a call for Ramaphosa’s resignation, but the president said that the only way that would happen was through a vote, not a government overthrow.
Among the reasons for Monday's expected nationwide protest is a call for Ramaphosa's resignation, but the president said that the only way that would happen was through a vote, not a government overthrow.

President Cyril Ramaphosa issued a stern warning to the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and other organisations involved in the planned national shutdown that disorder and anarchy would not be tolerated.

The EFF is expected to lead a nationwide protest on Monday, with the South African federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) also joining.

Comment: On Monday 20th March, The Zimbabwe Mail reports:
Parliament Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and National Council of Provinces chairperson Amos Masondo have confirmed that they received a letter from the head of state that thousands of soldiers have been deployed across the country before the shutdown.

The government has taken a step of sending soldiers to various parts of the country to avoid any damage to infrastructure and other key installations.

Parliament said President Cyril Ramaphosa told the two presiding officers that more than 3 400 soldiers had been deployed from this weekend until April 17.

When riots happened in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng the government sent in soldiers.

The government is expected to spend over R166 million for the deployment of the army for the period set out by the president.

Ramaphosa's deployment of the army was to ensure that citizens were protected against any violence after threats were made, Vincent Magwenya, the president's spokesperson, said.

"The correspondence to the presiding officers, dated March 17, indicated that 3 474 members of the SANDF have been deployed, effective from March 17 to April 17. The employment is in line with section 201(2) of the Constitution and section 19 of the Defence Act. An amount of R166 562 058 is expected to be incurred for this deployment," said Parliament.






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