Puppet MastersS


Better Earth

Best of the Web: Argentinian President joins 12 other world leaders and 167 ministers denouncing prosecution of Julian Assange

Mohamed Elmaazi
Sputnik
Mon, 21 Sep 2020 07:30 UTC
President Alberto Fernández of Argentina
© Flickr / Santiago SitoPresident Alberto Fernández of Argentina
Over 167 notable ministers, heads of state and parliamentarians have added their names to the growing list of those calling for an end to the prosecution of WikiLeaks publisher and award-winning journalist Julian Assange.

President Alberto Fernández of Argentina and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro Moros have joined 11 former presidents from 11 different countries in endorsing an open letter blasting the prosecution of WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange. The letter describes the 17 Espionage Act charges against Mr Assange as violating "the right to freedom of expression, freedom of the press and the right to know".

Campaign group Lawyers for Assange organised the letter, which was originally published on 14 August, and had the support of over 189 jurists, lawyers, academics and lawyers associations before this latest set of endorsements. The letter, which is addressed to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson along with other high ranking cabinet members, echoes the assessment of the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, saying that:

Comment: See also:

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Briefcase

Finally! Senate Homeland Security Committee approves subpoenas for Obama officials as part of Russia probe

Brooke Singman
Fox News
Wed, 16 Sep 2020 17:01 UTC
Comey Brennan Clapper
© UnknownJames Comey • John Brennan • James Clapper
Includes John Brennan, James Clapper and James Comey

The Senate Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday voted to authorize subpoenas for former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former FBI Director James Comey, and other Obama administration officials as part of its broad review into the origins of the Russia investigation.

The committee on Wednesday held a business meeting to authorize committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., to issue notices for taking depositions, subpoenas, for records, and subpoenas for testimony to individuals relating to the panel's "Crossfire Hurricane" investigation, the Justice Department inspector general's review of that investigation, and the "unmasking" of U.S. persons affiliated with the 2016 Trump campaign, transition team and the Trump administration.

The committee voted 8-6 to authorize the subpoenas.
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Sheriff

WHO thanks Russia for developing "safe and effective" vaccine


Sputnik
Mon, 21 Sep 2020 11:02 UTC
sputnik vaccine
© AP Photo / Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr
The first officially registered vaccine against COVID-19, developed by the Gamaleya Scientific Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, is now undergoing Phase 3 trials involving around 2,000 people around the world.

"The WHO greatly appreciates the efforts that the Russian Federation has made to develop a vaccine against COVID-19, namely Sputnik V. Once again I want to thank Russia for its excellent efforts to create a safe and effective vaccine", Regional Director for Europe at the WHO Hans Kluge said after a meeting with Russian Minister of Health Mikhail Murashko.

He also stressed that Russia had helped him to provide aid to Central Asian countries amid the pandemic and had generally shown its commitment to global solidarity.

Comment: It's worth first noting that the need to take any coronavirus vaccine is likely completely unnecessary for everyone, even the minuscule percentage of people at risk.

That said, the situation reflects the state of the world quite aptly, because, while Russia developed its vaccine in record time, the West is halting their coronavirus vaccine trials amidst 'serious concerns' - except in the developing world where they're willing to experiment on the populace like disposable guinea pigs - and polls of the public show that they (quite rightly) don't trust the West's attempts at a vaccine nor are a large majority willing to - voluntarily - take it.

See also: And check out SOTT radio's:

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Biohazard

US-based 'creator of Novichok' apologizes to Navalny, but Russian scientists say he wasn't even involved in poison's development


RT
Mon, 21 Sep 2020 17:35 UTC
charite navalny
© Sputnik / Alexei VitvitskiyThe building of the Charite clinic in Berlin, where Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny is being treated
US-based chemist and independence campaigner for Tatarstan Vil Mirzayanov has 'apologized' to Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny, saying he considers himself indirectly responsible for his high-profile alleged poisoning.

Mirzayanov, who left Russia in the mid-1990s, has frequently claimed that he was one of the developers of Novichok. This has been rejected by other scientists known to have been on the team which created the lethal substance. In 1992, Mirzayanov leaked the structure of the poison, which resulted in Russian authorities charging him with treason, in a case that later collapsed.

Speaking to TV Rain, Mirzayanov said that he was part of the group behind the military-grade poison, which Germany claims has been found in the activist's body. He also asserted that Navalny's symptoms are typical of those experienced by people who have experienced exposure to Novichok.

"All the symptoms are similar," Mirzayanov said. "Navalny will have to be patient. But in the end, he should recover."

As none of Navalny's associates were infected, the former scientist believes that the poison must have entered his body through his digestive tract.

However, according to Leonid Rink, a man commonly referred to in Russian media as the creator of Novichok, Mirzayanov was not involved in the development of the poison and is not an expert on its symptoms.

Comment: Meanwhile, Navalny gets sillier by the day (maybe it's a novichok symptom?). First he claims that Novichok was found "in and on" his body. Never mind that no one who came in contact with him showed any symptoms whatsoever. He's also demanding that the clothes he was wearing when he fell ill be sent to him in Germany. He calls the clothing a "very important" and "crucial piece of evidence." He claims that a criminal investigation hasn't been launched, and a 30-day deadline has expired, therefore he wants his clothes back.
"I demand that my clothes be carefully packed in a plastic bag and returned to me," the 44-year-old politician and corruption investigator wrote.
But Russian police say the inquiry is still ongoing. Evidence has already been illegally secreted out of Russia, destroying its usefulness in any investigation and muddying the chain of custody.

Here's what's probably going on here. There never was any novichok. Thus there is no novichok on the clothes. But if they are sent to Navalny, the clothes will be sent to the same military lab that tested his blood. Novichok will then be miraculously found on the clothes. It's no wonder Russia will not allow additional evidence of the case to be allowed out of the country.

See also:

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Fire

AG Barr to officially designate 3 US cities as 'anarchist jurisdictions,' report says

Ryan Saavedra
The Daily Wire
Mon, 21 Sep 2020 17:19 UTC
barr
© CHIP SOMODEVILLA/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Attorney General William Barr has reportedly designated three U.S. cities — all controlled by Democrats — as "anarchist jurisdictions" that are being targeted to be defunded by the federal government for failing to stop violent rioters and for defunding law enforcement departments.

The New York Post reported that Barr signed off on designating New York City, Portland, and Seattle as "anarchist jurisdictions."

"When state and local leaders impede their own law-enforcement officers and agencies from doing their jobs, it endangers innocent citizens who deserve to be protected, including those who are trying to peacefully assemble and protest," Barr is expected to say in a statement on Monday. "We cannot allow federal tax dollars to be wasted when the safety of the citizenry hangs in the balance. It is my hope that the cities identified by the Department of Justice today will reverse course and become serious about performing the basic function of government and start protecting their own citizens."

"My Administration will do everything in its power to prevent weak mayors and lawless cities from taking Federal dollars while they let anarchists harm people, burn buildings, and ruin lives and businesses," Trump tweeted late on Wednesday. "We're putting them on notice today."


Trump's tweet followed a report from The New York Post that stated that the administration was targeting New York City, Portland, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.

Comment: The Democrats' relationship with the likes of BLM and Antifa is a jackals' wedding (copulate once, then tear each other apart). They provide cover for the radicals for their own ends, not realizing or caring that they will be eaten. And the radicals accept such tactical support, not realizing or caring that the Dems are just using them, and are more than willing to discard them when they have outlived their usefulness. Both are reprehensible (much like the CIA's relationship with Islamic terrorists in Libya and Syria).

Here's Cuomo's and De Blasio's responses:
"I understand the politics, but when you try to manipulate and distort government agencies to play politics, which is what the Trump administration has done from day one ... this is more of the same," Cuomo said on a conference call with reporters. "The president can't supersede the law and say I'm going to make those funds basically discretionary funds, which is what he would have to do."

"If they actually do this, we will challenge it legally, and they will lose once again," he added.
...
"I was out in Elmhurst Queens this morning, I saw peace, tranquility, I saw people going about their business, people excited that it's the first day of school - I saw anything but anarchy. This is just another one of President Trump's games," De Blasio said at his daily news conference. "It's insulting to the people of New York City and his effort to withhold our funding is unconstitutional."
"Nothing to see here, folks!"

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Vader

Ignoring UN, Washington unilaterally declares sanctions on Iran are back in effect

Francesco Fontemaggi and Philippe Rater
Times of Israel
Mon, 21 Sep 2020 15:46 UTC
pompeo covid mask flag
© Mike Segar/Pool via APUS Secretary of State Mike Pompeo departs a meeting with members of the UN Security Council about Iran's alleged non-compliance with a nuclear deal at the United Nation in New York, August 20, 2020.
The United States unilaterally proclaimed on Saturday that UN sanctions against Iran are back in force and promised to punish those who violate them, in a move that risks increasing Washington's isolation but also international tensions.

"Today, the United States welcomes the return of virtually all previously terminated UN sanctions on the Islamic Republic of Iran," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.

According to him, the measures were "back in effect" from 8:00 p.m. Washington time.

Comment: UN member states pulled together to defy Washington:
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wrote in a letter quoted by the Associated Press that "there would appear to be uncertainty" regarding US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's Saturday announcement of restoration of "virtually all" UN sanctions against Iran.

Guterres noted in the letter that "the Security Council has taken no action subsequent to the receipt of the letter of the US secretary of state, neither have any of its members or its president."

However, even Washington's own NATO allies the UK, France and Germany have strongly opposed the move in a letter to the UN Security Council cited by AFP, saying that "any decision or action taken with a view to re-installing [the sanctions] would be incapable of legal effect."

Iranian President Hassan Rouhan commented on Washington's bluster:
"America is approaching a certain defeat in its sanctions move ... It faced defeat and negative response from the international community. We will never yield to US pressure and Iran will give a crushing response to America's bullying," the Iranian leader said on Sunday. The fact that Washington's European partners have reacted negatively to the unilateral move shows that "American pressure in the political and legal sectors has failed," he added.
He also reminded the US that its circle of allies may be shrinking more rapidly than it understands:
Majid Takht-Ravanchi, the Iranian envoy to the United Nations, issued a scathing retort to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's announcement late on Saturday that Washington intends to reintroduce most of the UN sanctions against Tehran lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JPCOA) was aimed at placing restrictions on Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. It was signed by Iran, the US, Russia, China, the UK, Germany and France.

Noting that the United States is no longer a signatory, the Iranian diplomat argued that Washington's claim of "snapback" sanctions under the JCPOA is "null & void." In a tweet, he described the US' self-declared 'deadline' for triggering the sanctions as "illegal & false," noting that by acting alone Washington was "swimming against [international] currents" and risking "more isolation" on the global stage.
Iran's defiance has not left it unscathed:
The Iranian rial hit a fresh low against the US dollar on Sunday, shortly after Washington unilaterally restored sweeping sanctions on Tehran, despite opposition from the international community and its own allies.

The dollar was selling for as much as 273,000 rials on the unofficial market, according to Iranian foreign exchange site Bonbast.com. Iran's currency dropped by two percent against the US dollar in 24 hours - the second time in a week it has reached new lows. The rial has lost nearly half its value this year, and has depreciated most significantly since June.

The Iranian economy lost the bulk of its revenues when the US turned up the heat on its "maximum pressure" campaign against the Islamic Republic, after it withdrew from the landmark nuclear deal in 2018. The Trump administration has been trying to choke off Iranian oil sector, ending waivers for buyers of Iranian crude and threatening to sanction anyone who makes such purchases.


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2 + 2 = 4

Best of the Web: Can't we put these power-mad clowns of the Johnson junta in a nice rest home?

Peter Hitchens
Daily Mail
Sat, 19 Sep 2020 22:01 UTC
Boris Johnson
Months ago, I predicted that we would all come to hate the narrow, bossed-about new life the Government wants to force us to live. I was wrong.

Most people have far too readily accepted limits to their lives which the world's tyrannies would once have hesitated to impose on their citizens.

Well, have you had enough yet? Because the Johnson Junta has only one tool in its box. That tool is restriction.

And it has only one aim, one that has never been achieved by any state in the history of the world - the total suppression of a coronavirus. Who would have thought that the rule of clowns would be so unfunny?

But it now looks as if this will go on for ever, unless we can somehow lead these people away to secluded rest homes where kindly nurses can indulge their wild power-fantasies with soothing repetitions of 'Yes, dear', cold compresses and cups of Ovaltine. It is certainly increasingly dangerous for them to be out and about.

Take the Health Secretary, Mr Matthew Hancock. I know I have laughed at him in the past as a sort of crazy prep-school headmaster raging at his tiny pupils. But for goodness sake, the man is a Cabinet Minister, and he has real power over us.

Comment: UK citizens are being relentlessly gaslit by their elected, and non-elected officials, everyday. Normal (and healthy) people there, and in dozens of other countries are being fed lies that are literally stealing the income and well-being of many - all to serve an agenda that will further make life intolerable - and people existing in open air prisons, courtesy of their governments. BoJo and his circle are just among the most obvious and stupid regarding how they're going about it.

See also:

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Info

MP Ben Bradley: Why I refuse to take part in the Orwellian 're-education' courses on 'unconscious bias' that tell ordinary people they are racists

Ben Bradley
Daily Mail
Mon, 21 Sep 2020 12:13 UTC
unconscious bias training session
The Mail on Sunday revealed a few weeks ago that the company that has been recruited to run these Unconscious Bias lessons uses a blue puppet called 'UB', who looks like the Cookie Monster (file image, above), in their training sessions, which makes me think of it as some kind of primary school assembly.
Imagine being called in to the boss's office tomorrow morning, a bit nervous and unsure what it is you've done wrong, and being told you've been reported by a colleague.

You've been caught saying that you disagree with the idea that Black Lives Matter is helping to deal with racism, that in fact you don't believe Britain is a racist country. And now you're to be 're-educated'. You're going on a course...

It sounds like something from Orwell's 1984, yet hundreds of thousands if not millions of people in workplaces around the UK have been ordered to attend special training sessions of this sort.

Comment: See also:

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Bullseye

Occupying Palestine is rotting Israel from inside - no Gulf peace deal can hide that

Raja Shehadeh
The Guardian
Thu, 17 Sep 2020 11:05 UTC
Hebron
© Abed Al Hashlamoun/EPAPalestinians and Israeli soldiers during protests against an agreement between Israel and the UAE in the West Bank city of Hebron, September 2020.
More than a quarter of a century after Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat shook hands on the White House lawn, Israel has managed to turn its occupation of Palestinian territory from a burden into an asset. What was for so long a liability - the flagrant violation of international law - has now become a valued commodity. Understanding this development is key to explaining why the Israelis are making peace with two distant Gulf states but not their closest neighbours, the Palestinians - without whom there can be no real peace.

Israel has learned in recent years how to manage the occupation in perpetuity with minimal cost. But from the very beginning of the occupation in June 1967, Israel has been unwilling to recognise the Palestinian nation or cede control of the Palestinian territory occupied in order to make peace.

The evidence to support this claim is easily found in Israel's own archives. Two days after the occupation began, Israel passed military order number three, which referred to the fourth Geneva convention relative to the protection of civilian persons in time of war - mandating that military courts apply the provisions of the convention to their proceedings. Four months later, this portion of the order was deleted.

Comment: See also:

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Wolf

Strzok interviews reveal FBI's long fall from grace

Adam Mill
American Greatness
Tue, 15 Sep 2020 20:47 UTC
Strzok oath congress
© Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesFired FBI agent Peter Strzok
Can constitutional democracy continue to coexist with a lawless secret police that targets innocent people?

By his smartly dressed appearance, one would never know Peter Strzok wasn't still a senior FBI agent. He looked to be straight out of central casting as he began his Meet the Press interview on Sunday with this book-promoting slander, "I think it is clear, I believed at the time in 2016, and I continue to believe, that Donald Trump is compromised by the Russians. And when I say that, I mean that they hold leverage over him that makes him incapable of placing the national interests, the national security ahead of his own."

Nothing is more sleazy and corrupt than a current or former FBI agent implicitly claiming to have access to secret evidence of a target's guilt when the time to produce such evidence has long since passed.
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