Puppet MastersS


Radar

Washington's bipartisan torpedo against the agreement for withdrawal from Afghanistan

Manlio Dinucci
Global Research
Fri, 10 Jul 2020 00:00 UTC
soldiers in Afghanistan
Hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties, over 2,400 US soldiers killed (plus an unknown number of wounded), about 1,000 billion dollars spent: this is the budget summary of 19 years of US war in Afghanistan, to which the cost for NATO allies (including Italy) and others, who joined the US in the war, is added.

Bankruptcy budget for the USA also from a political-military point of view: most of the territory is now controlled by the Taliban or disputed between them and the Governmental Forces supported by NATO.

After lengthy negotiations, the Trump administration concluded an agreement with the Taliban last February against this background, which provides for the reduction of the number of US troops in Afghanistan from 8,600 to 4,500 in exchange for a series of guarantees. This does not mean the end of the US military intervention in Afghanistan, which continues with Special Forces, drones and bombers.

The deal, however, would pave the way for a de-escalation of the armed conflict. A few months after signing, however, the agreement was broken: not by Afghan Taliban but by US Democrats.

Comment: See also: And let's not forget Afghanistan's biggest cash crop: Opium production in Afghanistan up 50-fold since US Invasion

Read More...
Bad Guys

Is the US planning to invade Venezuela through Colombia?

Lucas Leiroz
InfoBrics
Fri, 10 Jul 2020 00:00 UTC
Colombian troops
Colombia is under a pro-Washington government. The country's current president, Iván Duque Márquez, has been noted for a series of policies of alignment with the United States, continuing the legacy of his predecessor, former president Juan Manuel Santos, who has made Colombia a NATO's "global partner", allowing the country to participate in joint military operations of the Western military alliance. In general, the long scenario of crises and tensions in Colombia, marked by drug trafficking and the conflict between criminal factions and rebel parties, has driven its governments towards a policy of alignment with Washington in exchange for security, which has increased in recent years.

However, not all Colombian politicians approve these measures. Recently, the leftist senator Iván Cepeda asked Colombian Congressional President Lidio García to convene a session to investigate and legally control the government in its collaboration with the constant arrival of American soldiers in the country. According to Cepeda, the presence of these military personnel is hostile to Colombia, deeply affecting the maintenance of national sovereignty.

Comment: See also:

Read More...
Light Sabers

Culture war in the West: Trump threatens to defund universities for 'Radical Left Indoctrination'


RT
Fri, 10 Jul 2020 20:25 UTC
trump
© Reuters / Kevin Lamarque
President Donald Trump has announced that the Treasury Department will examine the tax-exempt status of the US' universities and schools, accusing them of indoctrinating children with "Radical Left" ideology.

"Too many Universities and School Systems are about Radical Left Indoctrination, not Education," Trump tweeted on Friday. "Therefore, I am telling the Treasury Department to re-examine their Tax-Exempt Status and/or funding, which will be taken away if this Propaganda or Act Against Public Policy continues."

It is unclear to what extent the Treasury would be able to prove a difference between "indoctrination" and "education," and the IRS - which would be tasked with conducting such a probe - is prohibited by federal law from targeting organizations "based on their ideological beliefs."

That university professors lean left is not shocking news. A 2018 study said that Democrat professors outnumber their Republican colleagues on campus ten to one, or 13 to one if military colleges aren't counted. On the streets, university professors are far more often seen marching with Antifa than the Proud Boys.
Read More...
Stop

On Ukrainian sabotage efforts in Crimea, Biden allegedly tells Poroshenko 'it can't come close to happening again'


RT
Thu, 09 Jul 2020 15:52 UTC
PoroshenkoBIden
© Reuters/Gleb Garanich/Scott Olson/Getty ImagesFormer Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko • Former US VP Joe Biden
Petro Poroshenko acknowledged that Ukraine carried out a sabotage operation in Crimea but promised it would never happen again, in what appears to be a 2016 phone call with the then-US Vice President Joe Biden.

Released by Ukrainian MP Andrii Derkach, the recording, allegedly from August 19, 2016, begins with 'Biden' expressing frustration over "Ukrainian intelligence operations" which occurred earlier that month in Crimea.

Derkach previously disclosed a batch of audio recordings of what sounded like Biden and Poroshenko discussing a range of topics. The leaked tapes have been interpreted by some as proof of corruption.

In the new recording, the alleged Biden reminds the alleged Poroshenko that the United States had previously disapproved of a Ukrainian plan to "sabotage military targets inside Russian territory." He then chides Poroshenko, stressing that "military and sabotage operations" should not be used against Moscow.

"Every time the CIA screws up in the United States, it's the president's responsibility. Period," Biden says.

The following video is in English.


Comment: Give a listen to the video. Check out the dynamics between Biden and Poroshenko.

Read More...
Cardboard Box

Best of the Web: Pandora's box? US Supreme Court rules half of Oklahoma is 'Indian country'. Manhattan next?


RT
Thu, 09 Jul 2020 22:21 UTC
Indian looking at teepees
© Reuters/Stephanie Keith
While critics of US President Donald Trump gloated over the Supreme Court ruling in the matter of his taxes, another verdict returning much of Oklahoma to the Creek Nation has far bigger implications for the country down the line.

"On the far end of the Trail of Tears was a promise," Justice Neil Gorsuch - a Trump appointee presumed to be a conservative textualist - declared at the start of the majority opinion in McGirt v Oklahoma, referring to the removal of Native Americans that began in 1831.

Gorsuch sided with the four liberal justices in ruling that a large portion of Oklahoma was in fact "Indian country" for the purpose of criminal law. The 1866 treaty made with the Creek - now Muscogee - still applied, even if the state has exercised jurisdiction there for over a century, they said.

"Because Congress has not said otherwise, we hold the government to its word," Gorsuch wrote.


Comment: So... a 'conservative' Supreme Court just ruled that half of the state of Oklahoma is no longer Oklahoma... so that a convicted pedophile can get a re-trial?

What a plant Gorsuch turned out to be.

Read More...
SOTT Logo

US slaps sanctions on Chinese officials for 'horrific abuse of Uyghurs and ethnic Kazakhs'


RFE/RL
Thu, 09 Jul 2020 18:14 UTC
crowd in China
© ET
The United States has imposed sanctions on senior Chinese officials for "horrific and systematic" human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim minority groups in the western Xinjiang region. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on July 9:
"The United States will not stand idly by as the Chinese Communist Party carries out human rights abuses targeting Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and members of other minority groups in Xinjiang, to include forced labor, arbitrary mass detention, and forced population control, and attempts to erase their culture and Muslim faith,"
Three Chinese officials will be denied U.S. visas and have their U.S.-based assets frozen.

The three include Chen Quanguo, the Chinese Communist Party chief for the Xinjiang region and alleged architect of repression against religious and ethnic minorities. The other two targeted are Zhu Hailun, a former chief of Xinjiang's political and legal committee, and Wang Mingshan, the head of regional security.

The U.S. Treasury also sanctioned a fourth person, Huo Liujun, a former security official in Xinjiang.

These U.S. designations and visa restrictions are part of an intensifying effort to pressure China over gross human rights abuses reported in the Xinjiang region, where Beijing is accused of placing more than 1 million Uyghurs and members of other mostly Muslim ethnic groups in internment camps and prisons where they are subjected to ideological discipline, forced to denounce their religion and language, and physically abused since early 2017. China says the camps are reeducation and training centers needed to combat separatist terrorism and extremism.

Comment: The US uses human rights as a wedge or retaliation for self-serving purposes. This particular attack comes days after China imposed visa restrictions on particular US individuals.
As a result of the US move, the Chinese officials and their immediate family members are ineligible for entry into America. It is now a crime in the US to conduct financial transactions with all of them, and they will have their US-based assets frozen.

"The United States is taking action today against the horrific and systematic abuses in Xinjiang and calls on all nations who share our concerns about the CCP's attacks on human rights and fundamental freedoms to join us in condemning this behaviour," Pompeo said.

In a separate statement, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the US is committed to using the full breadth of its financial powers to hold human rights abusers accountable in Xinjiang and across the world.

Chen is the highest-ranking Chinese official ever to be hit by US sanctions and previously charged in Tibet. Previously, Chen oversaw extensive abuses in Tibetan areas.


Read More...
Rocket

Lavrov says nuclear confrontation increases with US' race for global domination: 'They want to win'


RT
Fri, 10 Jul 2020 09:55 UTC
Minuteman III
© Global Look Press/USAFUnarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile
Washington is escalating the risk of a nuclear standoff among the world's major powers in an effort to win back global domination, and brushing aside the last arms control pacts still standing, Russia's chief diplomat has warned. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told an audience at the high-profile Primakov Readings forum on Friday:
"I agree that the nuclear risks have increased substantially in the recent past. The reasons for that are obvious. The US wants to regain global dominance and achieve victory in what they call a great power competition."
Lavrov said Washington refuses the notion of "strategic stability" and calls it "strategic rivalry" instead. "They want to win," he added.

We are particularly worried about the US' biennial refusal to reaffirm a fundamental principle: the premise that there can be no winners in a nuclear war, and, therefore, it should never be unleashed.

Continuing, the Russian FM suggested Washington wants to dismantle the entire arms control mechanism.
Read More...
Fire

US-Israeli cyberwarfare? Series of 'explosions & power outages' reported near Tehran


RT
Thu, 09 Jul 2020 22:44 UTC
medical clinic explosion
© Tasnim/handout via ReuterFirefighters inspect the site of an explosion at a medical clinic in the north of the Iranian capital Tehran, Iran, June 30, 2020.
A series of explosions have rocked the outskirts of the Iranian capital Tehran, as well as the cities of Garmdareh and Quds, Iranian media reported amid speculation that missile depots were the intended target.

Citing social media, the official news agency IRIB reported an explosion in western Tehran in the early hours of Friday local time. More explosions were reported in Garmdareh and Quds, the Mehr News Agency added.

The Saudi-based Al-Arabiya television reported that the explosion took place in missile depots of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), southwest of Tehran. Iranian officials have neither confirmed nor denied that claim as of yet.

Friday morning's explosions are the latest in a string of mysterious incidents at industrial facilities, research laboratories, ammunition depots and even the Natanz nuclear research facility. While there has been rampant speculation that these might have resulted from Israeli sabotage or cyber attacks, the official Tehran has not openly assigned blame, while Tel Aviv has issued carefully worded statements neither confirming nor denying involvement.

Comment: The likelihood, of a short time-framed cluster of explosions as merely random incidents, stretches logic. Whatever they are, there can be no doubt they produce a particular 'on edge' reaction within the city. Combined with the perpetuated Covid scare, who might this benefit?

See also: UPDATE 10/7/2020: No blasts occurred says the governor of Tehran province, even though news outlets reported the activity - was it truly a mistake or could it be a coverup?
The governor of Tehran province dispelled speculation of explosions that reportedly rocked the neighboring cities of Qods and Garmdareh, adding to a growing mystery over incidents that have hit Iran's key sites in recent weeks.

Leyla Vaseghi, governor of Tehran Province, told local IRNA news agency that the reports of explosions "were not true," but confirmed there has been a power outage - although it didn't last long. According to Vaseghi, the power went off for "a few minutes" and involved a hospital in Quds, a city of roughly 229,000 inhabitants named after Jerusalem.


Read More...
Dollars

Professional propagandist Christopher Steele ordered to pay damages over 'inaccurate' dossier claims

Gregg Re
Fox News
Fri, 10 Jul 2020 18:51 UTC
Christopher Steele
© YouTube screen capture/CBS News'Former' British spy Christopher Steele
British ex-spy Christopher Steele must pay damages to two Alfa Bank partners for publishing "inaccurate or misleading" material in his infamous dossier, including claims the banks funneled "illicit cash" to Russian President Vladimir Putin, a British court ruled Wednesday.

Orbis Business Intelligence was ordered to pay 18,000 English pounds, or nearly $23,000, each to Petr Aven and Mikhail Fridman for violating Britain's Data Protection Act of 1998 and "for the loss of autonomy, distress and reputational damage caused by the breaches of duty," the court said. The decision, authored by Justice Mark Warby of the High Court of England and Wales, was Steele's first major court loss.

"This allegation [about the Putin payments] clearly called for closer attention, a more enquiring approach and more energetic checking," Warby wrote. "Orbis failed to take reasonable steps in this regard, and to that extent, a breach of the Fourth Principle is established."

The "Fourth Principle" refers to a portion of the law penalizing the dissemination of inaccurate information.
Read More...
Eye 2

How many ways can Israel wage war on Iran before the media reports Israel is waging war on Iran?

Ted Snider
Mondoweiss
Thu, 09 Jul 2020 12:00 UTC
Natanz
Satellite images of Natanz nuclear plant. Pics: Google (before) and Iran International (after)
Israel just bombed Iran. And no one noticed.

On July 2, 2020, two explosions erupted in Iran, and both seem to have been ignited by Israel. Neither explosion attracted much reporting, and what reporting there has been remains thin and confused.

The first report came out on the afternoon of July 3. The Jerusalem Post picked up a story from Kuwait's Al-Jarida, reporting that a fire had broken out at Iran's civilian Natanz nuclear enrichment site. The Kuwaiti report says that an unnamed senior source informed them that the fire was caused by an Israeli cyber attack. They suggest that Iran will need about two months to recover from the attack. Iranian officials have since confirmed that, though none of the underground centrifuges were damaged, the above ground damage is extensive, and that their centrifuge program has been substantially set back.

The second attack exploded near Parchin, at a site claimed to be a missile production facility. Citing the same Kuwaiti paper, The Times of Israel attributed the Parchin explosion to missiles dropped by Israeli F-35 stealth fighters.

Comment: See also: Trump reaps the whirlwind with China/Iran mega deal

Read More...