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OPCW cannot be influenced by outside actors


RT
Mon, 27 Jan 2020 12:13 UTC
OPCW
© Sputnik International
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) needs to salvage its reputation after whistleblowers offered credible evidence of deceitful reporting on the Douma incident, a former head of UK commandos has said.

The international chemical weapons watchdog is under increasing pressure to come clean about how it prepared its report into the April 2018 incident in the Damascus suburb. Several scientists from the watchdog blew the whistle, alleging that the findings by inspectors who went on a fact-finding mission to Syria had been distorted or ignored by the OPCW's management, which was more concerned with putting the blame on the Syrian government than with uncovering the truth.

John Taylor Holmes, a retired major general who served as a director of special forces, was on a panel of experts which heard testimony from one of the whistleblowers, identified as 'Alex.' The general said the evidence provided by the scientist and the rest of the team "was very convincing".


Comment: See also:

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Airplane

Libya: Tripoli government claims it downed Haftar's drone; not ours say his forces 'must be your own'


RT
Tue, 28 Jan 2020 13:43 UTC
2 drones
© Reuters/Pascal Rossignol/Petro Poroshenko via Global Look PressTop: Wing Loong UAV • Bottom: Bayraktar TB2 UAV
The UN-recognized Libyan government said it downed a drone operated by the UAE on behalf of Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar. But his forces said Tripoli must have shot down its own aircraft.

Photos of the drone wreckage, as well as the presumed moment of its downing near the northwestern city of Misrata, have been circulating online, but its ownership remains disputed. The Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) said the drone was operated by the United Arab Emirates, the allies of Haftar. But his Libyan National Army (LNA) said the aircraft was not theirs and presumably belonged to Turkey, the ally of the GNA.

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Stock Down

Government's £46 MILLION 'Get ready for Brexit' campaign last year had NO impact - Whitehall watchdog

Jack Maidment
Daily Mail
Tue, 28 Jan 2020 10:53 UTC
get ready for brexit
The NAO said that the government adverts were widely seen but had little impact on improving preparedness
The government's multi million-pound 'get ready for Brexit' information campaign had little impact on the UK's level of preparedness for leaving the European Union, a Whitehall spending watchdog has found.

Ministers spent an estimated £46 million on the campaign ahead of Britain's expected split from Brussels at the end of last October.

The campaign was finally halted on October 28 - three days before the UK was supposed to leave - after the EU granted another extension and Brexit was delayed to the end of January.

The National Audit Office said that it was not clear that the campaign had resulted in the public being significantly better-prepared.

Comment: What do politicians care about wasting tax payers money on a fruitless campaign based on a promise they'll never deliver? And check out SOTT radio's:

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Bad Guys

Truth & Irony: Consortium News vs Chrystia Freeland and her Nazi grandfather's scheme for Ukraine

John Helmer
Dances with Bears
Sun, 26 Jan 2020 19:07 UTC
irony steam irons
The truth is that Consortium News trusted a Russian entity named the Strategic Culture Foundation and a Ukrainian reporter called Arina Tsukanova for a story published on February 27, 2017, about Chrystia Freeland's grandfather Mikhail Chomiak, a propagandist and spy for the German Army who advocated and assisted in the murder of the Jews, Poles and Russians during World War II, and took his reward by stealing Jewish property - a publishing company, office, apartment, antique furniture, and limousine.

The story about Freeland and the ethnic cleansing of Ukraine on which Freeland agrees, still, with Chomiak, was the truth. It's also a truth she tries to escape by blaming the Russian state or Kremlin propaganda for repeating. Repeating doesn't turn the truth into a lie, though as Joseph Goebbels advised, repeating the lie helps.

The point isn't that Freeland is culpable in her grandfather's sins. Her sin is hiding them, and her reason for doing so. She agrees with Chomiak on turning Ukraine into the Greater Galicia was Adolf Hitler's objective to achieve between 1939 to 1945: that's to say, cleanse the territory of Jews, Poles and Russians by killing them all. Chomiak succeeded with the first two; he was then employed by the US Army on the third. Freeland is keeping the plan in the family; they now have the Canadian government behind them. Demonizing Russians is part of the same plan as it was in Chomiak's day.
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Snakes in Suits

Head of Russia's largest political party expelled after threatening journalists & humiliating local firefighter

Jonny Tickle
RT
Tue, 28 Jan 2020 13:44 UTC
Mikhail Ignatiev
© Global Look Press / Komsomolskaya Pravda
Russia's largest political party has expelled the long-time leader of the Chuvash Republic following a series of gaffes which caused national outrage.

Mikhail Ignatiev had run Chuvashia, in the Volga region, for almost a decade before a video of him taunting a local firefighter went viral across the country.

It followed earlier comments in which he suggested that journalists who criticize the authorities be "wiped out."

The party's General Council secretary, Andrey Turchak, announced the decision after a meeting of its Presidium.

Comment: Making a fireman jump for the keys to a new vehicle is difficult to misconstrue. After having been in power for 10 years who knows what else this man has gotten up to. Good riddance.

See also:

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Mr. Potato

'Makes a lot of sense': White House to unveil 'deal of the century' Mid-East peace plan as Trump receives Netanyahu


RT
Mon, 27 Jan 2020 18:11 UTC
Netanyahu Trump
© Reuters / Kevin Lamarque
US President Donald Trump has said that the White House will unveil its long-awaited and long-delayed Middle East peace plan on Tuesday. Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu is already in DC, but no Palestinian envoy is present.

Trump made the remark as he received Netanyahu, who is in Washington for the release of the plan dubbed the "deal of the century."

Trump said the plan "makes a lot of sense" for everybody and is "good for" Palestinians — but reports suggest that the plan is unlikely to offer the prospect of statehood to Palestine. Adding to the sense that the deal will offer more to Israel, is the fact that no Palestinian representative from Gaza or the West Bank was invited to the unveiling.

The deal has even reportedly been rejected by the head of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), Mahmoud Abbas, who according to AFP turned down an offer from Trump to discuss the plan.


Comment: More on the Palestinian National Authority's response to the 'deal'.
The head of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), Mahmoud Abbas, has turned down an offer from US President Donald Trump to discuss his "deal of the century" peace plan, AFP reported, citing anonymous Palestinian officials. The sources say that the Trump administration has made several attempts to reach Abbas in recent months, including via third-parties, but to no avail.

According to one of the news agency's sources, the PNA leader is not planning to discuss any plan until a two state-solution envisaging the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel is recognised by the US. This goes in line with earlier PNA fears that Trump's deal seeks to bury its dreams of establishing a Palestinian state.

Palestinian leaders have claimed that they have not been invited to Washington for any discussions of the peace plan, according to Reuters.

[...] Trump is also planning to discuss the deal with the Israeli prime minister's main political rival, head of the Blue and White Alliance Benny Gantz, on 27 January.

The imminent publication of the plan has not been well received by the PNA. One of its lawmakers and former chief negotiator during the 1990s, Saeb Erekat, warned on 26 January that the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) could withdraw from the Oslo Accords, which saw the organisation denounce the use of violence against Israel and recognise its right to exist.

Deal of the Century About to Be Released

The release of Trump's peace plan, dubbed the "deal of the century", has been postponed on several occasions, with the president's adviser, Kushner, revealing only the economic portion of it in June 2019. According to it, the US suggests investing $50 billion in the Palestinian territories and neighbouring Arab states to resurrect the local economy and build a transport line between the Gaza Strip and the PNA-controlled parts of the West Bank.

The political part of the deal remains unknown, including whether or not it involves the creation of a Palestinian state, something that the PNA requires from any peace deal. Some media reports have claimed that the draft deal includes the establishment of a Palestinian state, but without its own military and without its capital in Jerusalem.

The deal has already been denounced by two major negotiating parties, the PNA and Hamas, who stated that the US is not fit to be a mediator after it allegedly showed bias towards Israel with its decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state.



Comment: Jordan's King Abdullah II also weighed in on the unrealistic Israel-pandering 'deal':
[...]

Jordan's King Abdullah II has publicly spoken against Donald Trump's "Deal of the Century" aiming to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying proposals that come at his country's "expense" would be rejected, Israeli channel Kan 11 News reported.
"Our position is perfectly well-known. We will not accept proposals that come at our expense", King Abdullah II reportedly said on Sunday during a conference in Jordanian's Aqaba city.
Meanwhile, Kan 11 News argued that some officials in Gulf states were not rejecting Trump's plan outright, even if it does not potentially include the creation of a Palestinian state along pre-1967 borders, stressing that it was time to "hear new ideas" now.

[...]

It is unclear so far whether the plan will include a provision to create a Palestinian state according the region's pre-1967 borders, but some reports and leaks to the media suggest that the deal could consolidate Israel's control over one-third of the West Bank settlements, as well as to establish an army-less Palestinian state, however these claims have yet to be confirmed.

So far, the deal has been denounced by officials from the Palestinian Authority (PA), including a diplomat Saeb Erekat, who reportedly slammed the plan as something that would potentially endorse the Palestinian territory's "permanent occupation".

Jordan's Position on PA

Jordan and Egypt are the only two Arab states that have peace treaties with Israel, but according to King Abdullah II's November remarks, Jordanian-Israeli relations are now at their lowest, following Netanyahu's pledges to annex the Jordan Valley.

There are many Jordanians of Palestinian origin, as many resided within the Kingdom in the aftermath of the Arab-Israeli Six-Day War in 1967 and many are still considered refugees. There have been increased calls for Jordan to create a confederation with the PA or recognise the Kingdom as a Palestinian state, but they have been repeatedly rejected by King Abdullah II who stressed to the Jordanian Parliament in 2014 that "Jordan is Jordan" and "Palestine is Palestine", while also supporting a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
And in an attempt to hedge his political bet on Netanyahu, Trump also reached out to Israel's opposition leader Benny Gantz:
US President Donald Trump is going to ask Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his main political rival, Blue and White Alliance leader Benny Gantz, to work together on the implementation of his "deal of the century" peace plan during meetings with the politicians on 27 and 28 January, the Jerusalem Post online media outlet reported citing an anonymous source. The POTUS is expected to meet with each of the Israeli politicians separately.

The Israeli media source claims that by having both Netanyahu and Gantz on board, the White House hopes to give the peace plan some momentum from its start. Trump also set a six-month deadline for the deal's implementation by the two politicians, if they decide to accept it, the source added.
And Gantz, really not much different than Netanyahu in his hegemonic and destructive ambitions, says he like what he sees:
Gantz hailed the United States' Mideast peace plan as a historic milestone and pledged to work on its implementation after winning the upcoming elections.
"The [US] president's peace plan is a significant and historic milestone indeed", Gantz told reporters in Washington. "Immediately after the election, I will work toward implementing it from within a stable functioning Israeli government in tandem with the other countries in our region".


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Eagle

NATO's upcoming 'Defender-Europe 2020' war games targeted against Russia

Paul Antonopoulos
BRICS
Mon, 27 Jan 2020 00:00 UTC
NATO exercises
Last week NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg explained why the U.S. are strengthening their military presence in Europe. The reason is unsurprisingly to pressurize and intimidate Russia, but also against China and the so-called fight against terrorism. Stoltenberg explained that there are now more U.S. soldiers in EU Member States, more than ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. In the coming months, the Defender-Europe 2020 exercises, the largest of its kind in the last 25 years, will begin. And with this exercise, U.S. troop numbers will only increase in Europe with another 20,000 troops and officers arriving.

Germany will be the logistics center for the Defender-Europe 2020 exercise in March and by the end of January, thousands of U.S. soldiers will not only arrive in Germany, but also in Belgium, France and the Netherlands. The military drill will take place in Germany, Poland, Georgia and the Baltic States with the participation of 18 NATO countries, cover 4,000 kilometers of convoy routes and rely on 10 European countries to host exercise activities. The U.S. will send a total of 37,000 soldiers and officers to the exercise with the total number of troops to exceed 40,000 people.

Comment: More on the most power-mad, belligerent, dogmatic, aggressive and destructive fighting force in the entire world:

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MIB

Trump-Russia dossier was 'FABRICATION,' colleague & spy expert Nigel West revealed... YEARS ago


RT
Tue, 28 Jan 2020 15:40 UTC
Nigel West UK steel dossier espionage expert
Nigel West
One of Britain's leading experts on espionage, Nigel West, was hired to examine the dossier written by his friend Christopher Steele. He concluded it was rubbish. So why did it take almost three years for his story to come out?

Steele's scandalous document, which claimed extensive ties between the then-US President-elect Donald Trump and the Kremlin, was published by BuzzFeed in January 2017 and quickly became the cornerstone of 'Russiagate.' Media talking heads insisted that much of it had been corroborated. In fact, nothing was.

West, hired to examine the dossier back in 2017, quickly concluded that "there is... a strong possibility that all Steele's material has been fabricated," according to the Sunday Times.

Comment: Looks like Trump was right again.

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Chess

Dems clamor for Bolton impeachment testimony as strategically 'leaked' manuscript claims Trump-Ukraine quid-pro-quo


RT
Mon, 27 Jan 2020 21:39 UTC
bolton trump
© Reuters / Leah MillisJohn Bolton
Ex-National Security Adviser John Bolton's book claims Donald Trump admitted a Ukraine quid-pro-quo, prompting Democrats to declare it's game-over for the US president, as his supporters dismiss it as yet another nothingburger.

Democrats have renewed their demands for Bolton to testify in the Senate impeachment trial after a manuscript of the inveterate hawk's new tell-all book on his time in the White House asserted Trump had told Bolton the administration should keep sitting on $391 million in military aid to Ukraine until Kiev reopened an investigation of Burisma Holdings, the natural gas firm tied to former vice president and Democratic presidential frontrunner Joe Biden's son.

Trump has flatly denied the claim, accusing his former security council chief of lying to sell books and observing that Bolton "never complained about this at the time of his very public termination" in a tweet on Monday. The president reminded his detractors that he "released the military aid to Ukraine without any conditions or investigations - and far ahead of schedule" and begged them, once again, to read the transcripts of his calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Comment: Those same Democrats refused to let the administration call witnesses during the House sessions. Seems a bit hypocritical now to be demanding more.

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USA

SOTT Focus: Ignoring the Elephant at Gitmo: Yet Another 9/11 Crime

Kevin Ryan
OffGuardian
Tue, 28 Jan 2020 14:16 UTC
Guantanamo bay detainee torture
The dubious legal proceedings at the Guantanomo Bay (Gitmo) prison camp continue to promote the idea of justice for victims of 9/11. Unfortunately, these proceedings do not represent an administration of law but an unstated claim that the Global War on Terror is above the law. More importantly, the Gitmo antics have one obvious objective — to perpetuate willful ignorance of the 9/11 crimes.

There is a dangerous elephant in the Gitmo courtroom, however, and if it ever gets reported it could bring down the terror-torture house of cards.

Reporters covering Gitmo continue to call it a trial but it is not a trial, it is a "military tribunal." They continue to call the site "Camp Justice" when justice is as far from the prison camp as it has ever been from any human endeavor. What they don't do is think critically about the information they are parroting from court sources.
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