Puppet MastersS


Arrow Up

Fallout from Airbus subsidies? Revenge for INSTEX? US considers $4B more in tariffs on EU

wallet for dinner
© Pixabay/Peter-facebook
The US is eyeing tariffs on $4 billion more in European products, citing vague "additional analysis" ostensibly in a row over aircraft subsidies. The decision comes days after the EU restarted trade in essential goods with Iran.

The US trade representative has released a list of 89 categories of goods featuring an array of European foods and liquor to be added to April's compendium of products subject to proposed import duties, which is already worth some $21 billion, claiming the additional tariffs are "in response to public comments and following initial analysis."

Frozen pig meat, fermented and curdled milk products, Gouda, Edam, and an array of Italian cheeses, olives, coffee, pasta, whisky, certain chemicals and metals appear on the USTR's list of additional products. A public hearing will be held in August to discuss the measures.

Comment: For more back and forth on the tariff wars insanity, see also:


Yoda

Irish MEPs wear 'Free Assange' T-shirts supporting WikiLeaks founder on first day in EU Parliament

Irish MEP EU free assange
© Twitter/ Clare DalyClare Daly and Mick Wallace in the European Parliament on Tuesday.
As the European Parliament reopened in Strasbourg on Tuesday, two freshly elected Irish MEPs marked the occasion by donning T-shirts supporting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in the parliament chamber.

Independent politicians Mick Wallace and Clare Daly put all their new colleagues on notice with the eye-catching garments which featured a striking image of Assange, gagged with a US flag, emblazoned across their chests.

"Assange is in prison because he exposed the ugliness of US Foreign Policy. Anyone who cares about a free independent media should challenge the treatment of Julian Assange," Wallace wrote on Twitter.

Comment: The Irish are known for supporting humanitarian causes, being one of the first EU countries to endorse BDS


Bad Guys

Kamala Harris campaign lawyer, Marc Elias, was responsible for hiring Fusion GPS for Clinton presidential run

hillary clinton mark elias perkins coie
© Alex Wong/Getty Images, AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, Breitbart News editFailed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and Perkins Coie lawyer Mark Elias
The former top lawyer for Hillary Clinton's failed presidential campaign who hired Fusion GPS to carry out controversial opposition research against then-candidate Donald Trump in 2016 is now working for a top 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful.

Marc Elias, who heads Perkins Coie's political law group, became general counsel for California Sen. Kamala Harris' presidential bid this year. Elias, who held the same position in Clinton's campaign, is named in two pending Federal Election Commission complaints and in a recent federal lawsuit alleging that the Clinton campaign broke campaign finance laws when it used Perkins Coie to hire Fusion GPS.

Fusion GPS went on to hire British ex-spy Christopher Steele, who compiled an unverified dossier allegedly based on sources close to the Kremlin which was disseminated to the media and used by the FBI to obtain Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants targeting former Trump campaign associate Carter Page. Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz is reviewing alleged FISA abuse related to the dossier and Attorney General William Barr launched his "investigation of the investigators" earlier this year.

Comment:


Health

'It is our fault': El Salvador president says his country is to blame for migrant deaths in Rio Grande

El salvador migrants
El Salvador president-elect Nayib Bukele said migration should be a choice rather than an 'obligation' for residents of his nation a week after the bodies of a Salvadoran young man and his daughter were pictured floating in the Rio Grande circled the globe.

Bukele, who took office June 1, said late Sunday that the drownings were 'a great tragedy.'

On Monday, about 200 relatives and friends followed a hearse bearing the bodies of Óscar Martínez and his 23-month-old daughter Angie Valeria Martínez inside La Bermeja municipal cemetery in the capital city of San Salvador.

The ceremony was private, and journalists were not allowed access.

Comment: The world's problems cannot be understood through black and white thinking, and the migrant crisis is proof of that. It is heartening to see El Salvador's president claim responsibility. More leaders need to do the same. The US bears responsibility here as well, as do many other countries who have participated in creating this mess.


Eye 1

UK Home Office spark outrage after saying Nigerian sex slaves return home 'wealthy' & 'enjoy status'

Nigerian women trafficking
© Reuters / Maxim ShemetovNigerian women rescued from trafficking
British officials controversially implied that human-trafficking victims from Nigeria become rich and get royal treatment upon returning home, when, in fact, the opposite is true, a Nigerian journalist told RT.

The Home Office, which is responsible for law enforcement and security, said in its updated policy note that Nigerian human-trafficking victims return home "wealthy from prostitution" where they "enjoy high social-economic status" and are "often held in high regard because they have improved income prospects."

This passage enraged human rights campaigners and politicians in Britain, who demanded that the Home Office delete it and apologize.

Star of David

Israeli government minister crows over his role getting anti-BDS laws passed in 27 states

Gilad Erdan, minister of strategic affairs israel BDS
© Jerusalem Post/screenshotGilad Erdan, minister of strategic affairs, June 16, 2019, Jerusalem Post conference, NY.
A leading Israeli government minister takes credit for 27 U.S. states passing laws aimed at curbing citizens' advocacy for BDS, the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign targeting Israel.

Gilad Erdan, minister for strategic affairs and information under Benjamin Netanyahu, addressed the Jerusalem Post conference in New York two weeks ago, and bragged that the Israeli government had taken its fights "to the enemy," and that includes BDS.
When I was charged with leading this fight, BDS leaders operated freely and were largely successful in disguising themselves as human rights organizations... We tore off their masks. We exposed their ties to terror, we exposed their deeprooted antisemitism, we exposed their opposition to peace, and we exposed of course their hypocrisy. They couldn't care less about the real human rights violations, for example in Syria and Iran. All they care about is demonizing and delegitimizing the world's only Jewish and democratic state.

Comment: Gilad Erdan has been at the center of Israel's anti-BDS campaign for years. There is no tactic too low for him. He is also champing at the bit to finish annexing the West Bank, re-invade Gaza, and get the US going to fight Israel's war with Iran. A true fanatic.


Bulb

Former Revolutionary Guards commander says Iran should consider talking to Trump

Hossein Alaei
“We can’t leave aside talks, but how to talk is another issue," said ex-IRGC naval commander Hossein Alaei.
Amid escalating tensions with the United States and mounting sanctions pressuring Iran's economy, a former senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) says Tehran should not rule out holding talks with Washington.

"We can't leave aside talks, but how to talk is another issue," said ex-IRGC naval commander Hossein Alaei.

"We have to use the tools of power, meaning negotiations," the former deputy defense minister was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA in Tehran on June 30.

Alaei's opinion appeared to be at odds with Iran's highest authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has categorically rejected holding negotiations with the United States.

Alaei added that Tehran should have accepted an early offer for talks without preconditions made by U.S. President Donald Trump and then set the agenda.

Rocket

Israeli Airstrike On Syria Were Likely Retribution For Russian-Supplied S-300s Going Operational

syrian s-300
© ImageSat InternationalSatellite photos released by ImageSat International appear to show three out of four missile launchers of the S-300 air defense system in the raised position in Masyaf on February 5, 2019.
The private Israeli satellite intelligence firm, ImagSat revealed the day before the July 1st strike which killed 15 civilians, that the Russian provided S-300's had gone operational in Syria. Israel had promised strikes on strategic positions in the event that Syria operationalized the S-300's provided by Russia.
syrian s-300
© ImageSat InternationalSatellite photos released by ImageSat International appear to show all four missile launchers of the S-300 air defense system in the raised position in the northwestern Syrian city of Masyaf on June 30, 2019.
It appears that among the subjects of the Israel-Russia-US talks was an urging by the Russian side that it not allow the S-300's to go operational. As a consequence of a failure of any agreement, Israel launched strikes as they threatened they would.


Comment: Flores presumably meant "an urging by the Israeli side that Russians not allow the S-300s to go operational."


Regarding the claims made by ImagSat, while an Israeli company and therefore suspect in its claims, FRN previously found them to be correct regarding the movement of S-300's in Venezuela, which warded off any potential US attack.

There have been a series of attempts in some alternative media, pushing an inflated version of the 'Russia-Israel cooperation' model on Syria and Iran, that the attacks were evidence of the contrary - that Israel and Russia had come to some deal on the reduction of Iranian influence in the region.

This is patently incoherent for a number of reasons, and amount therefore to baseless claims and wild speculation.

Star of David

Italian observer lays out legal facts regarding Israeli attacks on Syria vis-a-vis the UN Charter

israel missile attack on syria
© Syrian Central Military Media, via APMissiles rise into the sky as Israel hits an air defense position and other military bases, in Damascus, Syria, May 10, 2018.
Over the past two years, the Israeli regime's combat fighters have carried out over 200 attacks in Syria against Syrian army positions. The last air raid took place against a military base in the province of Homs.

For Israeli officials these raids represent a self-defense, while for the Syrian government they are a clear aggression, and a violation of Syria's national sovereignty.

How does international law define these actions?

Comment: Despite all of the whining about 'existential threats', Israel is still legally in the wrong. Only the protection of the United States has prevented any real action on the part of UN members to discipline what is clearly a rogue country.


Bulb

OPEC embraces Putin's leadership amid US pressure

Putin
© UnknownRussian President Vladimir Putin
When Vladimir Putin announced at the weekend that OPEC would extend oil production cuts, broadcasting a deal before the group had even met to approve it, the move angered some member nations.

They were dismayed at the leading role non-OPEC Russia, once seen as an enemy in oil markets, was playing in shaping the group's policies.

But reality soon set in, and the acceptance that Moscow could help OPEC in its goal of propping up oil prices at a time when it is facing intensifying heat on another front: from U.S. President Donald Trump.

Trump is putting unprecedented pressure on OPEC and its de-facto leader Saudi Arabia, demanding they pump more crude to drive down fuel prices - a key domestic issue for him as he seeks re-election next year.