Puppet Masters

An Israeli expert examines the Skripal case: 'Stupidity on stupidity'

News Front Information Agency
Fri, 28 Sep 2018 21:12 UTC

A profusion of suspects in the Skripal case.

An Israeli expert on international terrorism, writer Alexander Brass, shared his view on the case of the Skripals poisoning in Salisbury. Brass draws parallels between the work of the special services of Israel and Russia - he believes that if to compare the British version with the practice of the special agents, then the absurdity becomes obvious.

"Alexander, so what, in your opinion, happened in Salisbury?"

"There was a rough provocation by the British special services. In my opinion, this is obvious".

Why do you think so?

There's a lot of stupidity on stupidity. The story with Petrov and Boshirov does not hold up any professional peer review. According to the Brits, the Skripals were poisoned by GRU agents (this is what the department is called, although this is now the Main Directorate of the RF General Staff).

I want to explain how the special services work. If you need someone to eliminate, then this is a very serious operation, which is being prepared for a long time. A very significant material and human resource is allocated. We are talking about dozens of employees. On the territory of this state, an "advanced command post" is being created.

Comment: Even if the Russians had no desire to eliminate Sergei Skripal there were others who had plausible motives.

Moscow: Naval blockade of Russia by US would be 'a declaration of war'

RT
Sun, 30 Sep 2018 17:29 UTC

Attempts to use the US Navy to block Russia's trade would amount to a declaration of war, a high-ranking senator commented on the US internal secretary's idea of impeding Russia's energy trade through a blockade.

"A US blockade of Russia would be equal to a declaration of war under international law," said the head of the Russian Senate's Information Policy Committee, Aleksey Pushkov, commenting on a report that US Internal Secretary Ryan Zinke suggested the US could use the navy to block Russian energy from hitting Middle East markets.

Pushkov also called Zinke's claim that trade expansion is the real reason behind Russia's involvement in Syria "absolute nonsense."

US plans thwarted in Syria - Assad government now to be made 'as miserable as possible' with sanctions

Paul Antonopoulos
Fort Russ News
Sun, 30 Sep 2018 20:33 UTC

Assad isn't going anywhere, so the U.S threatens 'sanctions'

The United States, along with its allies, will implement a "strategy of isolation" in Syria if President Bashar Assad maintains the political process aimed at ending the war in Syria, an American diplomat was quoted as saying.

US Special Representative for Syria Jim Jeffrey said Washington would work with countries in Europe, Asia and the Middle East to impose tough international sanctions on Syria if Damascus did not want to cooperate to change the constitution before the elections.

"If the regime does that, we believe that then we can go after it the way we went after Iran before 2015 - with really tough international sanctions," Jeffrey said, referring to secondary sanctions against Tehran for its nuclear program.

In addition, the diplomat assured that not even the UN Security Council could contain this plan of the United States.

Comment: Those first in line to help rebuild Syria will care little for the blustering US. They will not only make billions, but will cement Syria's place in the New Silk Road. The US has shot itself in the foot again.

Doggie diplomacy: Kim gifts pair of N. Korean pooches to S. Korea's Moon as countries mend relations

RT
Sun, 30 Sep 2018 13:23 UTC

Two white indigenous hunting dogs from North Korea arrived in the South as a gift from Kim Jong-un to his counterpart Moon Jae-in. The present comes as the two countries are attempting to mend their relations.

Pictures of the two canines of Pungsan breed were published by the Blue House on Sunday. The dogs - male Songkang and female Gomi - were offered to Moon during the inter-Korean meeting in Pyongyang earlier this month.

The new pets were picked up at the truce village of Panmunjom, the place of the historic April inter-Korean summit, with three kilograms of food to help them settle in on Thursday.

Iran releases footage of its speedboats harassing USS Theodore Roosevelt in Hormuz Strait back in March

RT
Sun, 30 Sep 2018 16:11 UTC

Iranian TV aired footage showing a March encounter when the USS Theodore Roosevelt was shadowed by a pack of fast attack craft apparently manned by the Islamic Republic's elite Revolutionary Guards.

The camera, said to be installed on a nearby Iranian vessel, captures the USS Roosevelt, a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, as well as her escort ship traversing waters of the Straits of Hormuz. Multiple Revolutionary Guard speedboats are seen closing in on the US carrier while an American helicopter is seen cruising over the area.

Some activity may be spotted on Roosevelt's upper deck, with another helicopter preparing to take off. The video was part of an Iranian documentary on the encounter that took place on March 21 in Persian Gulf waters.

Comment: See also:

Iran, Israel exchange barbs during UNGA debates with Syria at heart of discord

Sputnik News
Sun, 30 Sep 2018 00:00 UTC

Syria remains at the heart of escalating tensions between Israel and Iran, and the exchange of accusations between the two nations during the week of the General Debate of the 73rd UN General Assembly (UNGA) clearly indicates that these sharp disagreements show no sign of abating, experts told Sputnik.

On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used the UN platform to announce that his country allegedly discovered Iran's second secret atomic warehouse used to store nuclear-related material.

The claims met a swift and harsh response from Tehran. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif noted that these "revelations" had been meant to obfuscate what he called the fact that Israel was the only country with "secret" and "undeclared" nuclear weapons program, calling on Tel Aviv to disclose it to international inspectors.

Comment: See also:

Killing with kindness, Duterte's popularity rises in wake of Trillanes' arrest

Adam Garrie
Eurasia Future
Sat, 29 Sep 2018 00:00 UTC

While Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's detractors have stated that the arrest of the mutinous Senator Antonio Trillanes was something amounting to the "death of democracy" in The Philippines, the actual democratic populace of the country has rendered the opposite verdict. While Duterte has remained highly popular across multiple opinion polls from the time of his election in the summer of 2016 up until the present day, new figures show that his numbers have only go up since the arrest of Trillances was re-ordered in connection with the disgraced hothead's anti-national activities during the Presidency of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

According to the Inquirer, a publication not known for taking a positive view of Duterte,

"In survey conducted from Sept. 15 to 23, about 70 percent of adult Filipinos were satisfied, 16 percent were dissatisfied while 14 percent were undecided. This was five points higher than the June 2018 survey result showing only 65 percent were satisfied. Meanwhile, 20 percent were dissatisfied and 15 percent were undecided last June 2018".

In this sense, far from even needing to attack democratic institutions as his opponents accuse him of doing, democracy is in reality Duterte's best friend. His popularity remains such that the kinds of crackdowns necessary to pursue and enact the rule of a genuinely unpopular autocrat are simply not needed as Duterte is perfectly capable of commanding a genuine and incredibly consistent democratic mandate without resorting to any political extremes.

Comment: See also:

Trump to FBI: Reopen investigation into SC nominee Kavanaugh, you have one week

RT
Fri, 28 Sep 2018 21:03 UTC

© Mike Blake/Reuters
Demonstrators protest the Senate Judiciary committee's vote on President Trump's U.S. Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh, in Los Angeles, California, U.S., September 28, 2018.

President Donald Trump has given the FBI one week to conduct an investigation of the allegations that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted a woman in 1980s.

"I've ordered the FBI to conduct a supplemental investigation to update Judge Kavanaugh's file. As the Senate has requested, this update must be limited in scope and completed in less than one week," Trump said in a statement.

Kavanaugh has pledged to cooperate with the probe. "I've done everything they have requested and will continue to cooperate," he said in a statement carried by the White House. He noted that since his nomination he has been interviewed by the FBI and had his background checked "directly with the Senate." Referring to his testimony at the Thursday hearing, he stressed that he was transparent and answered questions "about every topic the Senators and their counsel asked me."

Trump's decision comes after Senate Judiciary Committee voted along party lines in favor of the nomination of Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court after emotional testimonies from the judge and his accuser Dr. Christine Blasey Ford.

Comment: See also:

Supplying S-300 systems to Syria - What does that mean?

Salman Rafi Sheikh
New Eastern Outlook
Sun, 30 Sep 2018 00:00 UTC

The accidental downing of a Russian military plane by the Syrian air defence system is no longer accidental because of the fact the Russian authorities believe that the incident occurred due to the activity of a third party, Israel. The incident itself notwithstanding, the developments following it have also confirmed how Russia sees this incident as a spoiler activity, aimed at inciting military confrontation, not with the Russians necessarily, but with the Syrians, or may be its purpose was just to frighten the Iranians and the Hezbollah. Whatever the intention, the Russian investigation has concluded that Israel was in violation of the 2015 Russian-Israeli agreement and that, as the Russian Ministry of Defence said in its press briefing, Israel perhaps "has no appreciation for the level of relations with Russia." What the briefing shows is the eroding trust between the two countries, and the developments following this erosion, i.e., the Russian decision to supply advance air defence system to Syria, only indicate that the Russians don't think that such incidents will never occur in future if things are left unchanged; hence, the decision to change things in Syria.

Comment: Employing the S-300s is perhaps one of the smartest moves in this conflict. It certainly appears to be a significant and timely game-changer.

Kremlin: No info in records about a decorated Colonel Chepiga implicated by Bellingcat in Skripal case

RT
Fri, 28 Sep 2018 12:20 UTC

Russian records have neither information about a Colonel Anatoly Chepiga nor about such a person being awarded the highest national merit, said a Kremlin spokesman. A report by Bellingcat said the man is a Skripal case suspect.

Bellingcat is a controvercial UK-based group which is connected to projects financed by NATO and known mostly for compiling various public data to back various accusations against Russia.

The group this week said they conclusively identified Ruslan Bosharov, one of the two men accused in Britain of poisoning former double agent Sergei Skripal in March, as Anatoly Chepiga, a commando colonel, who has the merit of 'Hero of Russia' among his decorations. According to the Kremlin, there are no records of a person with that name receiving the award.

"We have checked. I have no information about a man with that name being awarded," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.

Comment: Proof? Not even close.

More from Sputnik:

The spokesman [Dmitry Peskov] went on saying that it was hard to understand which of the news stories emerging from the Skripal investigation were true or false.

"The Kremlin does not want to keep addressing this issue, all the more so, having the media as a partner. All of these arguments - who looks like whom and so on - you know, in Red Square ... there are ten Stalins and 15 Lenins running, and all are extremely similar to the original," Peskov told reporters.

He noted that many news stories had appeared in the UK and other media outlets in recent months, saying, "No one can figure out which of these news stories are false and which are true."

The official stated the Kremlin did not want to engage in stirring up the issue of "investigations" into the identities of Skripal poisoning suspects Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov with the media. He reiterated Moscow's stance, saying that Russian intelligence services need original materials on the Skripal case to assist London and participate in the investigation.

.. .. Ernesto Guido, you know much that his hidden! [Link]

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Puppet Masters

An Israeli expert examines the Skripal case: 'Stupidity on stupidity'

Moscow: Naval blockade of Russia by US would be 'a declaration of war'

US plans thwarted in Syria - Assad government now to be made 'as miserable as possible' with sanctions

Doggie diplomacy: Kim gifts pair of N. Korean pooches to S. Korea's Moon as countries mend relations

Iran releases footage of its speedboats harassing USS Theodore Roosevelt in Hormuz Strait back in March

Iran, Israel exchange barbs during UNGA debates with Syria at heart of discord

Killing with kindness, Duterte's popularity rises in wake of Trillanes' arrest

Trump to FBI: Reopen investigation into SC nominee Kavanaugh, you have one week

Supplying S-300 systems to Syria - What does that mean?

Kremlin: No info in records about a decorated Colonel Chepiga implicated by Bellingcat in Skripal case

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