Ukraine Watch...

[Tarrel]

I know this business is no laughing matter, but here is Dmitri Orlov's humour at its absolute driest:

http://cluborlov.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07 ... .html#more

But in the case of flight MH17, the false flag theory rests on an untenable assumption: that the Ukrainians, if tasked with shooting it down, would in fact succeed in shooting it down. All previous evidence illustrates that when Ukrainians want to shoot down a plane, they may succeed in shooting down a nursery school, a maternity ward, an apartment building full of elderly Ukrainians, but never a plane. Conversely, if Ukrainians set out to destroy a maternity ward or a kindergarten (as they are known to sometimes do) odds are that they will hit a Boeing.

Ukrainians excell at robbing, selling out, dismantling and destroying their own country; but achieving a specific, precise result as part of a highly coordinated mission? Not so much. Case in point: some Australian and Dutch troops wanted to go and maintain security at the crash site, but couldn't, because the Ukrainians chose the occasion of their arrival to attack some neighboring towns and villages. You'd think that they would treat the opportunity to get some NATO boots on the ground as a Godsend, and act accordingly, but such rational behavior would be, you know, un-Ukrainian. The proper thing for them to do is to go and strafe some nearby village, and get themselves ambushed and slaughtered to a man by an angry babushka with a Kalashnikov.

[Little John]

Thanks for that Tarrel. I need a bloody laugh at the moment.

[raspberry-blower]

Latest from Automatic Earth: There's a war going on already in Europe

As for economic sanctions, Russia is not that vulnerable. While the US tries to break the bond between Russia and Europe, Russia can try the same for the bond between US and EU. What’s more, Putin knows the ‘leadership’ in Brussels is not overly competent, and dreams away in grand visions of power, of an equal partnership with their American friends. Vladimir V. knows the US has no intention of granting Brussels any such power.

The sanctions will eventually lead to either a break between US and EU -because European business interests get hurt too much -, or – more likely for now – it will lead to $200 a barrel oil, huge increases in EU heating costs and a sharp dip in the euro that will make that $200 a lot more still.

Putin’s fine either way. Sell 50% less to Europe at 100% higher prices, why not? Let’s see EU member Slovakia send Russian gas back to Ukraine – or however that reverse flow is supposed to work -. Putin can simply cut overall gas delivery to Europe by 25%, and 50% if they try it again. There’s no love lost between Putin and Europe in the aftermath of the crash and the things that have been said about him.

The new round of sanctions are going to be seriously counter-productive - particularly for Europe.

Meanwhile the thing that really gets my heckles up about this:

Note: Holland announced today that 195 of the 298 people who died in the MH17 crash had the Dutch nationality; some had dual citizenship. The one person they added to the list was a 2-year old girl. Isn’t that just the saddest thing on the planet? And then the US and EU have the audacity to play a propaganda war over that, blaming people for killing that little girl without any proof? Also, finally, 12 days after the crash, the Dutch government is calling on Ukraine to stop the fighting on the crash site and let forensic experts do their job. President Poroshenko has promised for while that they would. But nothing changed. There are still dozens of bodies and body parts decomposing in the fields. Best remember who your friends are. Same question again: who’s commanding that army?

But hey, stock markets are up … What more can we ask for?

[another_exlurker]

Statement by the President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy and the President of the European Commission in the name of the European Union on the agreed additional restrictive measures against Russia.

www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_Data ... 144158.pdf

It's an impressive piece of hypocrisy.

[RenewableCandy]

He doesn't like Ukranians a lot does he ?

Well here's a true story about Ukranians:

a very distant rel-by-adoption of marvellous other 1/2 (a widow with a son) owns and lives in 1/2 of an inherited house, which is makeshiftedly and very inconveniently boarded up through the middle by the person who owns the other 1/2. This person is a relative of said widow, who has lain claim to the boarded-up 1/2 following an inheritance dispute.

The boarder-upper is 80, with no other living rels, and he lives alone. Elsewhere. In other words, were he in posession of an iota of nous he could get the boards taken down, and let the widow and son live in the whole house for some kind of rent, which he could use to supplement his vanishingly-small Ukrainian pension.

The son, btw, is in poor health because Mum was preggers when Chernobyl blew its top. The only good thing in this whole sorry tale is that he has apparently obtained a written exemption from call-up.

[Little John]

Statement by the President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy and the President of the European Commission in the name of the European Union on the agreed additional restrictive measures against Russia.

www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_Data ... 144158.pdf

It's an impressive piece of hypocrisy.

It's not just hypocrisy, It's downright lies. The Dutch were not stopped from coming to the crash site by the rebels. They were stopped at the airport by Kiev forces. Only after several days of the bodies lying in the fields and decomposing with no immediate prospect of Kiev allowing the Dutch to come to the site did the rebels organise a refrigerated set of carriages to hold the bodies. At which point, of course, the Dutch were allowed through. Accompanied by howls from the US and assorted cronies that the rebels had stopped them coming to the site.

Meanwhile crash site investigators still cannot properly inspect the site due to ongoing bombardment of the area and, in particular, the crash site by the Kiev forces.

We are being directly and unadulteratedly lied to by our media on a massive scale not seen in my lifetime.

[Tarrel]

Then there's this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9-8KvtfjZA

US Officials: Ukraine military fired short-range ballistic missiles at rebels.

The interesting thing about this is the video is an extract from a CNN mainstream news report.

US officials are holding this information fairly tightly right now because they are in an awkward position. These are, you know, the supposed "good guys" firing these missiles.

Could the web of misinformation be starting to unravel when even an organisation like CNN starts to question the narrative?

[emordnilap]

And yet the oil price has been remarkably stable over the last year

The price is too low for the desired tera-profits of recent past and too high for the mass of the population, who have their hands full trying to shovel their money upwards by other means. So, stable price.

[raspberry-blower]

We are being directly and unadulteratedly lied to by our media on a massive scale not seen in my lifetime.

Yes and quite a few haven woken up and smelt the BS.
Here's Paul Craig Roberts on The Latest US Government Hoax

The anti-Russian propaganda campaign being conducted by Washington follows in the footsteps of the campaigns conducted against Saddam Hussein, Gaddafi, Assad, and Iran. Washington’s campaign of lies against Russia proves the absence of integrity in the US government and is reckless as it can lead to war.

Peter Duveen, who commented on my article exposing the State Department hoax, explained that having foreknowledge of news events that Washington orchestrates allows Washington to control the explanation before any evidence is available. By the time evidence is gathered, the narrative is established and the evidence ignored:

“Part of the US propaganda mill’s effort is into forming the conversation. Once certain narratives take hold, true or untrue, they edge out other narratives. So the effort is to get control of the narrative, to form the conversation with whatever materials, usually false, are available. Then, of course, the false information will be referenced as true, and the direction of the narrative will be fixed. The narrative being lowered into place, for example, is that Russia was somehow responsible for the downing of Flight 17. With the help of the media, the hope is that the narrative will gain momentum. Eventually, if it catches properly, it will be impossible to question, just as people are considered freaks who question the official narrative of 9-11. That is why the narratives are introduced as quickly as possible. Thus, we saw how quickly it was announced that Flight 17 was brought down by a surface to air missile. That would lead me to believe that it was actually not brought down by a surface to air missile. So also with this incredibly amateurish effort regarding Russian shelling of Ukrainian positions. Russian reaction is never obtained in the articles about it, and it is no longer mentioned that Russian territory has been shelled by the Ukrainian military.”

It's just that these narratives - whether it be Saddam's WMDs or Assad's s alledged use of chemical weapons in East Ghouta amongst others have turned out to be false.
What is the purpose of all this? Paul Craig Roberts again: War is Coming

The extraordinary propaganda being conducted against Russia by the US and UK governments and Ministries of Propaganda, a.k.a., the “Western media,” have the purpose of driving the world to war that no one can win. European governments need to rouse themselves from insouciance, because Europe will be the first to be vaporized due to the US missile bases that Europe hosts to guarantee its “security.”

As reported by Tyler Durden of Zero Hedge, the Russian response to the extra-legal ruling of a corrupt court in the Netherlands, which had no jurisdiction over the case on which it ruled, awarding $50 billion dollars from the Russian government to shareholders of Yukos, a corrupt entity that was looting Russia and evading taxes, is telling. Asked what Russia would do about the ruling, an advisor to President Putin replied, “There is a war coming in Europe.” Do you really think this ruling matters?”

Also worth reading is The Emperor's Rage: Let Chaos Envelope the World

At the center of chaos, the wild-eyed President Obama strikes blindly, oblivious of the consequences, willing to risk a financial debacle or a nuclear war. He enforces sanctions against Iran; imposes sanctions on Russia; sets up missile bases five launch minutes from Moscow; sends killer drones against Pakistan, Yemen and Afghanistan; arms mercenaries in Syria; trains and equips Kurds in Iraq and pays for Israel’s savagery against Gaza.

Nothing works.

The Chaos President is blind to the fact that starving one’s adversaries does not secure submission: it unites them to resist.

At the root of all this, a chronic failure to understand even the basic principles of Sun Tzu's The Art of War..

[Little John]

War is coming. Western Europe needs to wake up, find some balls and stand up to the Yanks. We are on the wrong side. In any conflict with China and Russia, the Yanks would let us burn by taking the brunt of any initial conflict outbreak.

[another_exlurker]

War is coming. Western Europe needs to wake up, find some balls and stand up to the Yanks. We are on the wrong side. In any conflict with China and Russia, the Yanks would let us burn by taking the brunt of any initial conflict outbreak.

Hasn't that always been the plan? Let the Russian (Chinese) forces tire themselves out defeating the European (Asian) forces and the the USA can come "riding to the rescue".

[Lord Beria3]

The madness continues...

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/07 ... e-j31.html

In a memorandum to President Barack Obama, a group called Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) has demanded that any actual evidence of Russian involvement in the downing of Malaysia flight MH17 over Ukraine is made public.

The memorandum was prepared by the VIPS Steering Group, headed by William Binney, the former Technical Director, World Geopolitical & Military Analysis of the National Security Agency and including some senior NSA, CIA, State Department and military personnel with “a cumulative total of 260 years in various parts of US intelligence.”

The analysts warn Obama that “US–Russian tensions are building in a precarious way over Ukraine, and we are far from certain that your advisers fully appreciate the danger of escalation.”

The memorandum speaks for sections of the intelligence apparatus that are concerned that the behavior of the Obama administration threatens not only to provoke war, but to discredit the American state both internationally and at home.

“Twelve days after the shoot-down of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17, your administration still has issued no coordinated intelligence assessment summarizing what evidence exists to determine who was responsible—much less to convincingly support repeated claims that the plane was downed by a Russian-supplied missile in the hands of Ukrainian separatists,” the memorandum states. “Your administration has not provided any satellite imagery showing that the separatists had such weaponry… Washington’s credibility, and your own, will continue to erode, should you be unwilling—or unable—to present more tangible evidence behind administration claims.”

The analysts say they are “troubled by the amateurish manner in which fuzzy and flimsy evidence has been served up—some of it via ‘social media’. As intelligence professionals we are embarrassed by the unprofessional use of partial intelligence information.”

The evidence released to date on MH17 “does not bear close scrutiny,” the memorandum states. “t does not permit a judgment as to which side is lying about the shoot-down of Flight 17.”

This is good news... looks like elements of the American national security establishment are moving against the neo-con factions agitating for economic sanctions and risk war with Russia.

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/07 ... s-j30.html

Are you ready for war—including possibly nuclear war—between the United States, Europe, and Russia? That is the question that everyone should be asking him- or herself in light of the developments since the destruction of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17.

The crisis provoked by American and European charges of Russian responsibility for the shooting down of flight MH17 has brought the world the closest it has been to global war since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. But the situation today may be even more dangerous. A half century ago, the Kennedy administration—haunted by fears that miscalculations on either side could precipitate a nuclear exchange—sought to keep the lines of communications open and avoid the demonization of Soviet leaders.

Today, on the other hand, the CIA is directing an incendiary propaganda campaign against Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, a campaign that seems intent on provoking a direct military confrontation with the country with the second largest nuclear arsenal in the world. There is no question that the CIA is mobilizing all the resources and assets it commands—within governments, the media, and among academics—in a carefully orchestrated campaign aimed at polluting public opinion with anti-Russian hysteria.

As of now, there is nothing approaching a definitive explanation of the chain of events that led to the destruction of MH17. Despite all the massive surveillance technology at its disposal, upon which it lavishes tens of billions of dollars annually, the US intelligence agencies have not produced a shred of hard evidence to back up the accusations of Russian responsibility.

The only rational conclusion is that the Americans, backed by Dave "I don't want to start WW3" Cameron is clearly prepared to risk that possibility to achieve their geopolitical gains. This is total madness. And the grim irony is that we are on the bring of the 100 year anniversary of WW1.

I am sure that saner forces will prevail (Merkel is the only stateswoman around who may arrange a deal with Putin) and even Obama seems loathed to start another military adventure in Ukraine.

[raspberry-blower]

The video report deleted by the BBC

This really does underline the bias and propaganda in the editing department of the BBC..

[Little John]

EU quietly lifts the ban on supplying Kiev with weapons and technology

http://rt.com/news/177552-eu-kiev-weapons-export/

The European Union has “quietly” agreed to lift restrictions supplying Kiev with military technology and equipment which can be used for the “repression” in the country, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

"During a recent meeting of the Council of Europe in Brussels, leaders of EU member states agreed 'on the quiet' to remove restrictions on exports to Kiev of equipment that could be used for internal repression," the ministry said in a statement on its website. "Exports of military technologies and equipment were also allowed."

Moscow slammed the move as "contradicting the rules of military technologies and ammunition exports which have been earlier applied by the EU" and also "pierced" by double standards.

So, in the absence of any evidence whatsoever presented publicly of direct Russian militarily interference in a conflict in Ukraine, the EU and the USA are firing out sanctions left, right and centre whilst simultaneously directly militarily interfering in that same conflict. As I've said a number of times recently, you really couldn't make this shit up.

And all of the above in the context, lest we forget, of an agreement made between Russia and the West, that the West would not build up it's military capability directly on the border with Russia. An agreement already broken some time ago with intercontinental missile and military bases in Poland An agreement that also specifically included direct mention of the Ukraine.

We're on the wrong f***ing side.

[another_exlurker]

Cameron's stepped up the willy-waving:

"In Afghanistan, our combat mission is coming to an end. To the east, Russia has ripped up the rulebook with its illegal annexation of Crimea and aggressive destabilisation of Ukraine. To the south, an arc of instability spreads from north Africa and the Sahel, to Syria, Iraq and the wider Middle East."

What illegal annexation of Crimea?

That "aggressive destabilisation of Ukraine" was caused by Washington/EU and the neo-Nazis in Kiev.

"Six months into the Russia-Ukraine crisis we must agree on long-term measures to strengthen our ability to respond quickly to any threat, to reassure those allies who fear for their own country's security and to deter any Russian aggression," he writes.

What Russian aggression? The most aggressive country on the planet is America.

Original article.