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Media and Democrats lament Trump's firing of war hawk John Bolton, others see potential for peace


RT
Tue, 10 Sep 2019 20:54 UTC
CodePink
© Twitter/CodePinkWhile these antiwar activists from CodePink did not appear saddened by Bolton's exit, some in the US establishment have been wringing their hands.
Within hours of his firing by President Donald Trump, the hawkish national security adviser John Bolton was embraced by mainstream media outlets and even some Democrats, even if only as an excuse to criticize the White House.

Trump announced Bolton's ouster via Twitter on Tuesday morning, stunning even those in Washington who have reported on the possibility of such a move for months. As the shock wore off, however, reporters and lawmakers figured they would offer their thoughts - which, unsurprisingly, went along the usual lines.

"Can't wait for the Resistance, led by Maddow & O'Donnell & Hayes, to embrace John Bolton as their hero,"quipped commentator George Szamuely. While the trio he named have so far been silent, their colleague "Morning Joe" Scarborough chimed in along those very lines.

Comment: The Washington Examiner reports:
'Not going quietly': Internet howls over Trump firing of John Bolton

Voices across social media erupted in a chorus of criticism and praise for President Trump after he announced that national security adviser John Bolton had been terminated from his post at the White House.

Bolton, the fourth individual to hold and be subsequently terminated from that position, was also on the receiving end of encouragement and sharp criticism after news of his departure went public.

"I'm very, very unhappy to hear that he is leaving," said GOP Utah Sen. Mitt Romney. "It's a huge loss for the andministration [sic] and for the nation."

A tweet from Nicholas Fandos from the New York Times reported that when asked about who could be a good replacement for Bolton, Romney responded, "John Bolton."


"John Bolton is a brilliant man with decades of experience in foreign policy," Romney continued. "His point of view was not always the same everybody else in the room. That's why you wanted him there. The fact that he was a contrarian from time to time was an asset, not a liability."

Other Republican members of Congress saw things differently and praised Trump for his choice to remove Bolton. "I commend @realDonaldTrump for this necessary action," said Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. "The President has great instincts on foreign policy and ending our endless wars. He should be served by those who share those views."

Paul had previously been critical of Bolton, saying in 2016, "I am a no on John Bolton for ANY position in the State Departement [sic] and will work to defeat his nomination to any post."

Others on Twitter had a lighter reaction after hearing Tuesday's news. Many compared Bolton to mustachioed Simpsons character Ned Flanders. "Unreal he fired Bolton just before Movemeber," one user said of Bolton's trademark facial hair.


Other media heavyweights lamented the departure of Bolton as a weakening on foreign policy by the Trump administration. "This is terrible for the White House," Ben Shapiro said. "Bolton was correct about the Taliban; State wasn't. Bolton has been a hawkish voice for a tough national security policy, and his ouster likely signals that Trump's approach will be significantly softer from this point forward."


Some considered the larger overall media reaction to the disagreements between Trump and Bolton that led to his termination. "Press is about to go from 'John Bolton is a radical warmonger who never should be permitted near the Oval Office' to 'This is a story of how a reasonable, respected expert was dismissed by a chaotic, megalomaniacal Administration, and whatever his critique is, we agree!'" one user suggested of a possible change in tone of a media often critical of Trump's inner circle.


Others noted Bolton's own contradicting account of his termination as an unwillingness to quietly leave Trump's Cabinet without defending his own actions. "Not going quietly," Maggie Haberman of the New York Times said.


Sputnik reports:
US Political Spectrum and Media React to John Bolton's Shock Dismissal

The US president took to Twitter to announce that John Bolton handed in his resignation this morning. According to Donald Trump, he told his aide that his "services are no longer needed", admitting that he had disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions. In turn, Bolton stated that he had himself offered to resign.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo commented on the decision, saying that "The president is entitled to the staff he wants". However, he deflected when he was asked whether Bolton's departure was prompted by disagreements between him and the president over the planned Taliban peace talks.

Another White House official, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, rebuffed the claim that "this national security staff" is "a mess" over Bolton suddenly leaving the administration.

"That's the most ridiculous question I've ever heard", he reacted.

One of the commenters, President of the International Crisis Group consultancy Rob Malley, warned that the realignment would affect US policy on Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela. According to him, with Bolton gone, the voice that was whispering in Trump's ears and pushing for belligerence has "lost its loudest proponent".

Even a congressman who left the Republican Party for its backing of Donald Trump, Justin Amash, welcomed the president's decision, tweeting: "John Bolton never should have been hired. I hope the president's next national security adviser will focus on securing peace, not expanding war".


At the same time, CNBC's correspondent covering the Trump White House, Eamon Javers, cited an unnamed source close to the outgoing national security advisor as saying: "Since Ambassador Bolton has been National Security advisor over the last 17 months, there have been no bad deals".

NBC News White House correspondent Peter Alexander noted that the resignation might have prompted hard feelings between the White House staff and NSC employees.

"A pro-Bolton NSC official came to speak with reporters inside the West Wing when Press Secy Stephanie Grisham walked by, gave a look & said: 'Oh look, right outside my office' as she walked past", he tweeted.

The announcement came hot on the heels of US media reports shedding light on the purported disagreements between the US president and Bolton over a now-cancelled planned meeting of US officials with the Afghan government and the Taliban movement at Camp David.

While Trump slammed media reports claiming that he had "overruled" US Vice President Mike Pence and advisors on the Camp David meeting as "fake news", he stated that the peace talks were "dead". Earlier, some media outlets suggested that Trump and Bolton had clashed over the US policies on Iran and North Korea. While Bolton has been known for his hard-line stance on Tehran, which has been described as "hawkish", Trump has never ruled out the possibility of holding talks with the leadership of the Islamic Republic, despite the escalation in tensions.
See also:

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Star of David

Israel Supreme Court rules state has right to withhold bodies of slain Palestinians, use them as 'bargaining chips'

Yumna Patel
Mondoweiss
Wed, 11 Sep 2019 09:46 UTC
Palestinian victims protest martyr
© Sheren Khalel/Mondoweiss“To Paris Conference: The bodies of our martyrs must be returned”
In the reversal of an earlier ruling, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the Israeli government can withhold the bodies of 13 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces and use their bodies as bargaining chips in future negotiations with Palestinian political factions.

The ruling, passed in a 4-3 majority vote, stated that under Israel's "emergency regulations," the military is permitted to order the bodies of slain Palestinians who have been declared "deceased enemies," Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, said in a statement.

It came in response to a petition filed by the families of six Palestinians who were killed by Israeli forces, and their bodies subsequently withheld, after they carried out attacks on Israelis.
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X

SOTT Focus: Democrats Somehow Frame Bolton's Exit as a Bad Thing

Caitlin Johnstone
Medium
Wed, 11 Sep 2019 07:49 UTC
democrats pelosi
John Bolton is out as President Trump's National Security Advisor. Trump says he fired Bolton, Bolton says he offered to resign first. Both suggested that the departure was due to disagreements over foreign policy, which independent reports seem to confirm.

Personally, I do not care. I don't care if Trump fired Bolton over an argument about which Sesame Street characters would win in a bare knuckle boxing match. I don't care if Bolton was carried bodily out of the White House by a strong gust of wind. Trying to sort out the specifics of the drama in an administration packed with lying sociopaths is always an exercise in futility, and in this case it's even more pointless, because all that matters is that John Bolton is gone now. That is an intrinsically good thing, by itself, regardless of what events led up to it.

Trump says he's going to name a new National Security Advisor next week, and the good news is that it is literally impossible for whoever he ends up picking to be worse than John Bolton. They might not be any better, but there's no way they can be more of a bloodthirsty psychopathic monster than their predecessor, because Bolton is without exaggeration as bad as it gets in terms of sheer drive to start World War Three. Right now Bolton's acting replacement is a neocon ghoul named Charles Kupperman, who analyst Jeffrey Kaye describes as "a Reaganite neanderthal Islamophobe, a creature of the defense industry, and a very close associate of Bolton himself," and there are rumors that another vile neoconservative Bolton ally, former CIA analyst Fred Fleitz, is among the top possible picks. So we can't be confident that Bolton's replacement will be any better, but we can absolutely be confident that they won't be any worse.


Comment: Let's not hold our breath on that. They can always be worse.


It is an indisputably positive thing that the former PNAC director who is so psychopathic that he once threatened to murder the children of an OPCW official for inconveniencing his attempts to engineer the Iraq invasion is no longer in the most powerful foreign policy advisory position on planet Earth. That is clearly and obviously an intrinsically beneficial thing for all of humanity. So of course the leaders of the Democratic Party are objecting to it.
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Propaganda

'Welcome to mainstream news' - Leaks, fake news, and hidden agendas

Jon Rappoport
NoMoreFakeNews.com
Tue, 10 Sep 2019 01:59 UTC
Analyzing mainstream news anti-logic

Wikileaks mobile information collection unit
© Flickr
Thousands of articles have been written about the so-called Russian hack of the US election. The term "Russian hack" suggests the Russkies actually found a way to subvert the results of voting machines.

But of course, no convincing evidence has been presented to support such a charge. In fact, when you drill down a few inches below the surface, you find this charge instead: Russia hacked into email accounts and scooped up Hillary, DNC, and Podesta emails, and passed them to WikiLeaks, who then published them.

But no chain of evidence supporting THAT claim has been presented to the public, either. Even assuming the assertion is true, an important factor is intentionally being ignored: THE CONTENT OF THOSE LEAKED EMAILS.

In other words, if making all this content publicly available cost Hillary the election, and if no one is seriously questioning the authenticity of the emails, then THE TRUTH undermined Hillary. However, no major media outlet is reporting the story from that angle.

Comment: Have a listen to an older 2007 Podcast from back in the Bush days - then play it forward over the last twelve years:

SOTT Podcast: Media Spin, Limited Hangout, and the Melting of the American Mind

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Control Panel

By hosting US nuclear missiles Romania and Poland pose an irresponsible threat to Russia

Paul Craig Roberts
paulcraigroberts.com
Fri, 23 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC
Putin Trump
After falsely accusing Russia of violating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), Washington unilaterally repudiated the treaty. Thus did the US military/security complex rid itself of the landmark agreement achieved by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev that defused the Cold War.

The INF Treaty was perhaps the most important of all of the arms control agreements achieved by American 20th century presidents and now abandoned in the 21st century by US neoconservative governments. The treaty removed the threat of Russian missiles against Europe and the threat of European-based US missiles to Russia. The importance of the treaty is due to its reduction of the chance of accidental nuclear war. Warning systems have a history of false alarms. The problem of US missiles on Russia's border is that they leave no time for reflection or contact with Washington when Moscow receives a false alarm. Considering the extreme irresponsibility of US governments since the Clinton regime in elevating tensions with Russia, missiles on Russia's border leaves Russia's leadership with little choice but to push the button when an alarm sounds.

That Washington intends to put missiles on Russia's border and pulled out of the INF Treaty for this sole purpose is now obvious. Only two weeks after Washington pulled out of the treaty, Washington tested a missile whose research and development, not merely deployment, were banned under the treaty. If you think Washington designed and produced a new missile in two weeks you are not intelligent enough to be reading this column. While Washington was accusing Russia, it was Washington who was violating the treaty. Perhaps this additional act of betrayal will teach the Russian leadership that it is stupid and self-destructive to trust Washington about anything. Every country must know by now that agreements with Washington are meaningless.

Comment: See: Putin gives grave warning to Romania and Poland against installing NATO's ABM missiles, "no one is listening"

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Eagle

Yemen: Another shameful US defeat is now apparent

Finian Cunningham
Strategic Culture Foundation
Mon, 09 Sep 2019 00:00 UTC
Houthis demonstration
© Flickr / Felton Davis
An official confirmation by the Trump administration of it holding discreet talks with Yemen's Houthi rebels indicates a realization in Washington that its military intervention in the Arab country is an unsalvageable disaster requiring exit.

There are also reports of the Trump administration urging the Saudi rulers to engage with the Houthis, also known as Ansarullah, in order to patch up some kind of peace settlement to the more than four-year war. In short, the Americans want out of this quagmire.

Quite a turnaround. The US-backed Saudi coalition has up to now justified its aggression against the poorest country in the Arab region with claims that the rebels are Iranian proxies. Now, it seems, Washington deems the Houthi "terrorists" worthy of negotiations.

This follows a similar pattern in many other US foreign wars. First, the aggression is "justified" by moralistic claims of fighting "communists" or "terrorists" as in Vietnam and Afghanistan. Only for Washington, after much needless slaughter and destruction, to reach out to former villains for "talks" in order to extricate the Americans from their own self-made disaster.

Talks with the Houthis were confirmed last week by US Assistant Secretary of Near East Affairs David Schenker during a visit to Saudi Arabia.

"We are narrowly focused on trying to end the war in Yemen," said Schenker. "We are also having talks to the extent possible with the Houthis to try and find a mutually accepted negotiated solution to the conflict."

Comment: Like with the withdrawal from Syria that Trump wanted to enact several months ago, we should take US overtures towards creating "mutual peace" in Yemen with a heaping spoon of salt; there is far too much profit to be made - and chaos to be induced - that serves the pathological elite warmongering class - for this profitable disaster to be resolved constructively.

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Newspaper

Abbas says all agreements with Israel over if Palestinian land annexed


RT
Tue, 10 Sep 2019 20:22 UTC
West Bank
© AFP / Jaafar AshtiyehFILE PHOTO: Palestinian protesters confront an Israeli patrol in the West Bank
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said that all agreements signed with Israel will end if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu makes good on his promise to annex the West Bank's Jordan Valley.

The agreements, presumably meaning the Oslo Accords -which set out joint Israeli-Palestinian governance and security responsibilities throughout the West Bank- would be null and void if Israel annexes any of the Palestinian territory it occupied in 1967, Abbas said on Tuesday evening.

"We have the right to defend our rights and achieve our goals by all available means, regardless of the consequences, as Netanyahu's decisions contradict with United Nations resolutions and international law," Abbas warned

Comment: See also:

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Pirates

Guaido under treason investigation in Venezuela over backroom Essequibo bargaining revelations

Paul Dobson
Venezuela Analysis
Tue, 10 Sep 2019 19:50 UTC
Essequibo venezuela guaido treason
© Roberto InsignaresJuan Guaido, Vanessa Neumann and Manuel Avendaño are accused of renouncing Venezuela’s claim over the Essequibo region to the United Kingdom in exchange for political support for their regime change agenda.
Self-declared "Interim President" Juan Guaido and two of his top advisors are being accused of treason and have had a criminal investigation opened against them.

Authorities have accused Guaido, his UK envoy, Vanessa Neumann, and his international office coordinator, Manuel Avendaño, of surrendering Venezuela's claim to the disputed Essequibo region in exchange for political support from the UK government.

The move comes as a recorded phone conversation between Neumann and Avendaño was released on Friday, in which the former can be heard advising Guaido's Venezuela-based team to "drop" the "official [government] line that we want to take control of the Essequibo from Guyana."

Neumann goes on to reference talks with the British Foreign Commonwealth Office and Guyana's high commissioner, clarifying that "they won't support [Guaido's efforts to overthrow Maduro] while we continue [that] line."

Comment: Venezuela prosecutors open probe into opposition leader Juan Guaido for 'high treason'

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Arrow Up

Trump says he could meet with President Rouhani, perhaps at UN General Assembly


RT
Mon, 09 Sep 2019 19:56 UTC
Trump/Rouhani
© unknownIranian President Hassan Rouhani • US President Donald Trump
US President Donald Trump said he has "no problem with the idea" of meeting with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani. There are rumors the meeting could happen later this month at the UN General Assembly.

Trump left open the possibility of the meeting during one of his helicopter press-conferences at the White House on Monday, prior to departing for North Carolina. "Iran should straighten it out, because they're in a very bad position right now."

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday that Trump was willing to meet with Rouhani "with no pre-condition," because "we don't want war with Iran."
"It's up to the Ayatollah to make the decision about the direction he wants to take his country," Pompeo added, referring to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who is rumored by the US media to be against the meeting.

Comment: See also:

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Star of David

Prime Minister of Deception, Netanyahu finds yet another 'super secret' Iranian nuclear facility...


RT
Mon, 09 Sep 2019 18:58 UTC
Netanyahu
© Reuters/Ronen ZvulunNetanyahu speaks at news conference September 9, 2019.
As the world seeks to defuse tensions between the US and Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reappeared with fresh and controversial claims of "secret" Iranian nuclear activity, and he had visual materials to help.

In a brief press conference on Monday, Netanyahu claimed that Israel has discovered a secret Iranian "nuclear weapons development site" at Abadeh, south of the city of Isfahan. The Iranians "destroyed" the site, however, upon learning that Israel knew about it, Netanyahu said.

Using dramatic visual aids to back up his story - a penchant that has inspired mocking and memes - Netanyahu said it was "incredible" that "every time" Israel reveals information about Iran's alleged nuclear activities, Tehran suddenly moves to "cover up their tracks."

Comment: More from Sputnik, 9/9/2019: Possessor of real nukes cries wolf: Zarif reacts to Netanyahu's claim
Zarif: "[Netanyahu] and the #B_Team just want a war, no matter [the] innocent blood and another $7 TRILLION," the 'B Team' comment a reference to Netanyahu, hawkish senior Trump advisor John Bolton, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and UAE Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed, each of whose names have the letter 'b' in them. The "$7 trillion" was presumably a reference to President Trump's criticism of his predecessors, whom he accused of spending $7 trillion on "endless wars" in the Middle East.

Zarif accompanied the tweet with a 2002 video clip featuring Netanyahu's testimony to US lawmakers in the run up to the Iraq War, with Netanyahu promising "enormous positive reverberations" for the entire Middle East if Saddam Hussein's government was toppled. "This time, he assuredly won't be on the sidelines watching," Zarif warned.

[Netanyahu] "Even before that, Iran knew we were on to them, and so they cleared the [Abadeh] site. They cleared it...and then they actually covered up the site. This is an actual cover-up. They put gravel on it to try to hide their traces, but they didn't," the Israeli prime minister said, showing alleged satellite photos of the demolished alleged nuclear facility.

The UN's nuclear watchdog has yet to comment on Netanyahu's presentation. Earlier in the day, IAEA acting director-general Cornel Feruta told reporters that he had had "very substantial discussions with Iranian senior officials," and that he had been "pleased with the tone and the input that we received in those conversations."

Following Netanyahu's presentation Monday, Yair Lapid, co-leader of the opposition Blue and White Party, accused the prime minister of engaging in pre-election "propaganda" at the expense of Israel's national security. "The Iranian nuclear programme cannot be used for campaign Shenanigans," he tweeted. Israel is set to hold snap legislative elections later this month after Netanyahu's Likud Party and its allies failed to form a coalition government after elections in April.
From Sputnik, 9/9/2019 Israeli FM urges JCPOA parties to annul deal, join US sanctions
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Monday called on the signatories of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), known commonly as the Iran nuclear deal, to annul the pact and join the US sanctions against Tehran in a bid to stop what he called Iran's "terrorist ambitions."

"Following IAEA's announcement on Iran's violation of JCPOA, I call on France, UK, Germany and others to annul the agreement and join American sanctions against Iran. The world must unite against Iran's military nuclear and global terrorist ambitions," Katz posted on Twitter.
Iranians and IAEA reps
© Reuters/Nazanin Tabatabaee/WANAActing head of UN's IAEA, Cornel Feruta, meets with Iranian FM Javad Zarif in Tehran, September 8, 2019.
On Sunday, the acting director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Cornel Feruta, said in a press briefing following his visit to Tehran and talks with senior Iranian officials that the agency was "informed about Iran's latest activities related to centrifuge research and development."
See also: And this from May, 2018:




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