Puppet MastersS


Snakes in Suits

After 13 hours of contentious debate, US Senate passes McConnell impeachment rules

Dareh Gregorian
NBC News
Wed, 22 Jan 2020 01:51 UTC
pretrial McConnell
© Erin Schaff/The New York TimesSenator Mitch McConnell, prior to the start of impeachment trial against President Trump.
The Senate passed Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's resolution laying out a blueprint for President Donald Trump's impeachment trial along party lines early Wednesday after a day of back and forth between House prosecutors and attorneys for the White House.

The Republican majority had voted down several amendments proposed by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to subpoena documents and call witnesses.

The vote came just before 2 a.m. Wednesday after Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., one of the House impeachment managers, suggested that senators were voting for a "cover-up," which drew sharp responses from the president's legal counsel.

Chief Justice John Roberts admonished House managers and Trump's counsel "in equal terms to remember that they are addressing the world's greatest deliberative body. I do think those addressing the Senate should remember where they are."


Comment: See also:
Senate impeachment trial: Trump lawyers and Schiff go head-to-head accusing each other of obstruction





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Attention

Beirut: Hour of reckoning approaches as violent anti-gov protests ravage the city

Catherine Shakdam
RT
Mon, 20 Jan 2020 18:36 UTC
Beirut orange
© Reuters/Mohamed AzakirBeirut, Lebanon
As smoke rises over Lebanon's capital Beirut, scenes of utter chaos stand in sharp contrast to protesters' once-peaceful calls for reforms. With the Lebanese all but out of patience, the country now sits on the edge of civil war.

Hundreds were injured this weekend during violent clashes which pitted protesters against security forces in Beirut as Lebanon further slips into civil unrest, underpinned by calls for a complete institutional overhaul.

Months into an uprising which sought to unite a country otherwise defined along ethnic and sectarian lines, Lebanon - and more so its capital are now centre stage for violent confrontations between a system characterised by an antiquated neo-colonial worldview and the hopes of a people wishing to redefine their identity through national unity and cohesion.

At its heart, Lebanon's crisis is a great institutional shakedown of a system which, by the very nature of its structure, can no longer sustain the aspiration of its people - who do not wish to be boxed in on account of their faith, origins or even the expectations foreign powers may still hold in regards to their assumed political alliances.
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X

Rouhani: Iran will never seek nuclear weapons - with or without a deal

Oleg Burunov
Sputnik
Wed, 22 Jan 2020 14:31 UTC
Rouhani
© AP/Office of the Iranian PresidencyIran President Hassan Rouhani
Earlier this month, President Hassan Rouhani said that Tehran wants to stabilise the situation in the region and strengthen the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran nuclear deal.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has stated that Tehran would never look to obtain an atomic weapon, with or without the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), according to his website President.Ir.
"We have never sought nuclear weapons [...]. With or without the nuclear deal we will never seek nuclear weapon [...]. The European powers will be responsible for the consequences of violating the pact."
The statement comes a week after Rouhani rejected a proposal for a new "Trump deal" to resolve a nuclear spat as a "strange" offer, blaming the US President for his failure to deliver on promises.

Comment: Sputnik, 22/1/2020: Zarif clarifies warning on exit from non-proliferation treaty
On Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyyed Abbas Mousavi clarified Foreign Minister Javad Zarif's recent statement on the possibility of Tehran's exit from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the NPT.

"What Zarif stated in the Parliament was a part of provisions of a letter penned by the [Iranian] President Rouhani to the heads of 4+1 Group in May 2019 on announcing Iran's reducing of its commitments."

Rouhani warned that Iran will leave the NPT if the European Union (EU) takes Iran's nuclear case to the UN Security Council (UNSC)".

The Russian Foreign Ministry, in turn, said that the fact that Iran has abandoned its limitations under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) does not present any threat of nuclear weapons proliferation since the Islamic Republic has maintained contact with the IAEA.


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Star of David

Gantz: Annex Jordan Valley after elections; Netanyahu: Why not now?

Yumna Patel
Mondoweiss
Tue, 21 Jan 2020 00:00 UTC
Gantz
© Reuters Ammar AwadLeader of Blue and White Party Benny Gantz
Benny Gantz, the leader of the "centrist" Blue & White party and main challenger to the premiership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, vowed on Tuesday to annex the Jordan Valley if he wins the Israeli elections on March 2.

"We see this strip of land as an inseparable part of the State of Israel," Gantz said on a tour of the region, highlighting the Jordan Valley's strategic location as "Israel's eastern defensive barrier in any future conflict."

Gantz added that while Netanyahu seeks to unilaterally annex the Jordan Valley, which accounts for one-third of the occupied West Bank, he would do so "in coordination with the international community."

With the exception of the current US administration, the consensus among the international community is that Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories is illegal.

Gantz went on to say he was "looking forward" to the release of U.S. President Donald Trump's peace plan, saying "I hope that President Trump will hurry and release his plan."

Comment: Sputnik, 21/1/2020: Change of mind or tactic? Gantz 'hopes Trump releases peace plan soon'
Previously, Benny Gantz had opposed the publication of Trump's peace plan during the campaign, describing it as 'outright intervention' in the Israeli election.

Mr Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed to annex the Jordan Valley after he is re-elected and a new cabinet is formed. He claimed he would have achieved this goal already if not for the attorney general's ruling that his transition government does not currently have the authority to do so.

Israelis will go to the polls on 2 March.
See also:

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No Entry

Trump may expand travel bans in upcoming days

Nahal Toosi, Anita Kumar
Politico
Tue, 21 Jan 2020 04:20 UTC
TrumpPassport
© KY3US President Donald Trump
President Donald Trump may expand his controversial travel ban with an announcement expected as early as Monday, the three-year anniversary of the original order, which targeted several majority-Muslim nations.

The list of countries is not yet final and could be changed, but nations under consideration for new restrictions include Belarus, Myanmar (also known as Burma), Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania, according to two people familiar with the matter.

A draft being considered by the Trump administration would place immigration restrictions on the additional seven countries, but not necessarily completely ban all citizens of those nations from entering the United States. The restrictions could apply only to certain government officials, for instance, or certain types of visas.

Nonetheless, any new restrictions are likely to strain ties with the affected countries, some of which assist the U.S. on issues like fighting terrorism, and some of which Washington has been trying to court for strategic reasons.

Comment: See also:
Supreme Court allows full enforcement of Trump travel ban

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Nuke

Woops! Atomic error! IAF F-35 accidentally revealed its location over secret Israeli nuclear facility


Sputnik
Wed, 22 Jan 2020 22:00 UTC
Israeli F-35
© AP/Ariel SchalitIsraeli F-35
An Israeli F-35 stealth aircraft revealed to the world both its own location and that of Israel's primary nuclear facility on Monday when it turned on a publicly viewable transponder signal.

Deep in the Negev desert of southern Israel lies the Shimon Peres Nuclear Research Center, also called the Dimona reactor, the center of Israel's nuclear research and weapons programs. While its location isn't exactly top secret, it's impossible for civilians to get close to it; the Israel Defense Forces have even been known to shoot down their own planes when they don't have permission to fly over Dimona.

However, while one Israeli Air Force F-35I "Adir" stealth fighter flying over Dimona on Monday wasn't at risk of being shot down, it did drop its ghostly act for about 20 minutes when it turned on a publicly viewable transponder signal, causing it to appear on civilian radars.
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Water

Guantanamo Bay: CIA waterboarding developer in legal battle defends torture


Sputnik
Wed, 22 Jan 2020 06:32 UTC
H2Oboarding
© Still from The Stuff of Life
A private contractor for the CIA who played a key role in developing so-called "waterboarding" interrogation techniques that have been condemned as torture faced the beginning of a week of questioning by lawyers at the US detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Washington Post reported.

James Mitchell was quizzed by defence lawyers representing five detainees at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay prison camp, including Khaled Shaikh Mohammad, who is accused of being the architect of the hijack plot on 11 September 2001, that killed almost 3.000 Americans, the report said on Tuesday.

The five are to face a war crimes trial a year from now at Guantanamo Bay and could face the death penalty if convicted. They claim the evidence they gave against themselves to the FBI was tainted because they had been coerced by CIA interrogators using the techniques of Mitchell, a former US Air Force psychologist, the report noted.

Comment: See also:

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Attention

Best of the Web: Pentagon INCREASES number of injuries from Iranian airstrikes on US base in Iraq, but won't say by how many, and warns 'there may be more'

Lolita C. Baldor and Robert Burns
Associated Press
Wed, 22 Jan 2020 19:36 UTC

Comment: First they said there were 'zero casualties'. Then early reports about some 200 injured US troops being flown to Israel for treatment were retracted. Then they admitted 11 casualties. Now, two weeks later, they've increased that number 'by a few', with 'more potentially to come'...


assad airbase iraq
© Sergey Ponomarev / The New York TimesUnited States military personnel inspecting damage at Ain Al-Assad Air Base on January 9th.
Additional U.S. troops have been flown out of Iraq for closer evaluation of potential concussion injuries from the Iranian missile attack of Jan. 8, U.S. defense officials said Tuesday.

The exact number of troops flown to Germany was not immediately clear, but officials said it was a small number. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because some details were still being sorted out. Last week, 11 U.S. service members were flown from Iraq to U.S. medical facilities in Germany and Kuwait for further evaluation of concussion-like symptoms.

Navy Capt. Bill Urban, spokesman for U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations across the Middle East, confirmed the additional evacuations but did not say how many were included.

"As medical treatment and evaluations in theater continue, additional service members have been identified as having potential injuries," Urban said Tuesday evening. "These service members — out of an abundance of caution — have been transported to Landstuhl, Germany, for further evaluations and necessary treatment on an outpatient basis. Given the nature of injuries already noted, it is possible additional injuries may be identified in the future."

Comment: This all looks real dodgy. And notice how LOADED Pentagon spokespersons' statements are with newspeak. What does all that jargon even mean?

Their tight control of information coming out of the targeted airbase just goes to show how politically important the perception of infallibility is to the US military.

See also:

Pentagon admits there WERE U.S. casualties from Iranian airstrikes, but 'only 11 injuries'

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Pistol

Best of the Web: Hybrid war: Masked gunmen assassinate regional Basij commander - described as 'Soleimani ally' - in southwest Iran


Al Jazeera
Wed, 22 Jan 2020 19:04 UTC
Abdolhossein Mojaddami
Abdolhossein Mojaddami
Masked gunmen on Wednesday ambushed and killed the local commander of a paramilitary security force in southwest Iran, an associate of Iran's top general recently killed in an American drone strike in Baghdad.

The slain commander, Abdolhossein Mojaddami, headed the Basij forces, a paramilitary wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) used for internal security and other tasks, in the town of Darkhoein.

He was shot in front of his home in the town in the country's oil-rich Khuzestan province, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Two gunmen on a motorcycle - armed with an assault rifle and a hunting rifle - ambushed Mojaddami, IRNA said. Other Iranian media said the gunmen's faces were covered with masks and that four shots were fired.

Comment: Mystery 'motorcycle assassins' in Iran reminds of Iranian scientists working on the country's nuclear energy program being taken out by assassins on motorcycles about a decade ago.

From 2012...
U.S. officials tell NBC News: 'Israel teams with terror group to kill Iran's nuclear scientists'

The attacks, which have killed five Iranian nuclear scientists since 2007 and may have destroyed a missile research and development site, have been carried out in dramatic fashion, with motorcycle-borne assailants often attaching small magnetic bombs to the exterior of the victims' cars.


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USA

Laying the groundwork for the next US civil war

John W. Whitehead
The Rutherford Institute
Wed, 22 Jan 2020 18:40 UTC
"Pity the nation oh pity the people
who allow their rights to erode
and their freedoms to be washed away..."
— Lawrence Ferlinghetti, poet
US Civil War
© SkyMinds
And so it continues.

This impeachment fiasco is merely the latest in a never-ending series of distractions, distortions, and political theater aimed at diverting the public's attention from the sinister advances of the American Police State.

Don't allow yourselves to be distracted, diverted or mesmerized by the cheap theater tricks.

This impeachment spectacle is Shakespearean in its scope: full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Nothing is the key word here.

Despite the wall-to-wall media coverage, nothing will change.

Mark my words: the government will remain as corrupt and self-serving as ever, dominated by two political factions that pretend to be at odds with each other all the while moving in lockstep to maintain the status quo.

So President Trump's legal team can grandstand all they want about the impeachment trial being "an affront to the Constitution" and "a dangerous perversion of the Constitution," but that's just smoke and mirrors.

You know what is really "an affront to the Constitution"? The U.S. government.

We've been losing our freedoms so incrementally for so long — sold to us in the name of national security and global peace, maintained by way of martial law disguised as law and order, and enforced by a standing army of militarized police and a political elite determined to maintain their powers at all costs — that it's hard to pinpoint exactly when it all started going downhill, but we're certainly on that downward trajectory now, and things are moving fast.

The republic has fallen.

The Deep State's plot to take over America has succeeded.

The American system of representative government has been overthrown by a profit-driven, militaristic, corporate oligarchy bent on total control and global domination through the imposition of martial law here at home and by fomenting wars abroad.

Even now, we are being pushed and prodded towards a civil war, not because the American people are so divided but because that's how corrupt governments control a populace (i.e., divide and conquer).

These are dangerous times.
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