Puppet MastersS


Lemon

Ukrainian oligarch sues lobbyist over failure to procure Trump inauguration VIP tickets - US media cries 'RUSSIA!'

Pavel Fuks
© Krysja/ShutterstockUkrainian businessman Pavel Fuks
What does an Ukrainian tycoon suing an Ukrainian-born lobbyist over access to Trump inauguration have to do with Russia? Nothing, unless you're a mainstream US media outlet, in which case it's - everything.

Pavel Fuks, a real-estate developer from the Ukrainian city of Kharkov, apparently really wanted VIP access to President Donald Trump's inauguration in January 2017, and paid $200,000 to Ukrainian-born lobbyist Yuri Vanetik to arrange it. Fuks is now suing Vanetik in a federal court in California, saying the lobbyist cheated him out of the money.

Vanetik says the money was at least in part a payment for legal work on behalf of Gennady A. Kernes, the mayor of Kharkov, and not for the inauguration - because foreigners are not allowed to buy tickets, you see. He is disputing the allegations and says he will counter-sue.

So how did this story come to the attention of the New York Times? Because it is never specified that Vanetik was born in Ukraine (at least if one hasn't bothered to read his Wall Street Journal piece from back in April), and Fuks is described as "Ukrainian-Russian" because he has done business in Moscow - including, reportedly, interest in the Trump Tower project that never came to pass.

Quenelle

Israelis livid as New Zealand government website map replaces Israel with Palestine

NZ Map of Palestine
© New Zealand Immigration
New Zealand's immigration website deleted a fact sheet about Palestine from its website after it caused outrage for identifying Israel as Palestine on a map.

The government website published the map as part of a fact sheet about Palestinian immigrants in New Zealand, showing Israel highlighted in blue and marked as 'Palestine'. The West Bank is not included in the highlighted area.
The Israel Institute of New Zealand called on the immigration minister to "immediately apologize for the offending image and confirm that it does not reflect government policy." It also called for an investigation.

Comment: Word to the staffer who did this!


Attention

Propaganda alert! Russians, Ukrainian to face murder charges over downing of Flight MH17

memorial MH17
© Reuters/Alexander ErmochenkoToys are placed at a memorial to victims of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 plane crash ner to village of Hrabove in Donetsk Region, Ukraine, June 19, 2019.
Three Russians and a Ukrainian will face murder charges for the deaths of 298 people aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 that was shot down over eastern Ukraine in 2014, the international investigative team said on Wednesday.

The suspects are likely to be tried in absentia in proceedings set to start in the Netherlands next March. Dutch authorities said Russia has not cooperated with the inquiry and is not expected to surrender defendants.


"These suspects are seen to have played an important role in the death of 298 innocent civilians," Dutch Chief Prosecutor Fred Westerbeke said.

"Although they did not push the button themselves, we suspect them of close cooperation to get the (missile launcher) where it was, with the aim to shoot down an airplane."

Comment: The authors of this embarrassing propaganda piece should hang their heads in shame. There is an overwhelming amount of evidence proving Ukraine's guilt in the shoot-down. The media gatekeepers such as Reuters, BBC, CNN and others are hiding the truth.

Over to RT for some reporting from the real world:

[...]

The JIT includes representatives from Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, Ukraine and the Netherlands. Kiev lauded the accusations against the four, raised by the JIT, praising the international team of investigators.

"Ukraine welcomes the conclusions of the Joint Investigation Team on MH17. The President of Ukraine hopes that... those who are guilty of this brazen murder of innocent children, woman and men, will be put in the dock," recently elected President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a statement.

Pointing out "inconsistencies" in the probe, Moscow said the Dutch-led team was reluctant to search or study evidence that contradicted the theory that rebels were responsible for the incident. Moscow stands accused of providing the Buk launcher and missile, an allegation that it denies.

Moscow also blamed the JIT of failing to pressure Ukraine into providing radar data for the day when MH17 was shot down. It published its own radar data as well as records related to production and transportation of Buk missiles in Soviet times. According to Moscow, the data and records point to Ukraine as the culprit in the case. In particular, the warhead that destroyed the plane was of an older model that is no longer in use in Russia while its serial numbers, which were recovered at the crash site, point to a projectile that had been shipped to Ukraine.

Russia also criticized the JIT for relying on so-called 'open source evidence' like videos published on social media as well as opinions of 'civilian journalists' like the UK-based group Bellingcat in its reporting. Moscow says such evidence is not always reliable.

Bellingcat published its own report with a longer list of people, whom it accused of shooting down the airliner. The four suspects named by the JIT are on that list. Notably, the report was issued just hours before the JIT press conference.


Meanwhile, Russia is not the only country that has reservations about JIT's work. Last month Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said his country was not convinced by the evidence uncovered about either Russia's involvement or Ukraine's innocence in the case.


Russia slams the JIT's accusations as 'baseless':
On Wednesday, the Dutch-led Joint Investigations Team (JIT) accused three Russians nationals and a Ukrainian of playing a significant role in the downing of MH17 over Ukraine in 2014. All 298 people onboard died back then.

On top of that, the allegations were not backed up by reliable evidence and followed a "not quite coherent" line of argument. At the same time, the ministry maintains, JIT still opts to ignore information provided by Moscow.

That includes declassification of military data on the Buk missile, publication of radar data and an experiment conducted to show the exact effect that the projectile has on a plane cockpit

"Since day one after the tragedy Russia was most interested in establishing the truth and willing to cooperate with the investigation," the ministry said.

That includes declassification of sensitive military data on the Buk missile, radar data and "documents" proving the projectile that downed the passenger jet was a Ukrainian one.

The foreign ministry noted that while Russia was only given a secondary role in the investigation, Kiev enjoyed full membership. That allowed Ukraine "to fabricate evidence" and ditch any responsibility for not closing its airspace. The decision to keep the airspace open was criticized by the 2015 report of the Dutch Safety Board (which led the technical part of the probe into the crash).
Under such circumstances, we have legitimate questions about the work of the JIC. That underscores our previous concerns about the [investigation] process being biased and one-sided.
That said, Moscow is still ready to cooperate on the matter to bring the actual perpetrators to justice.



Mr. Potato

Pentagon wants $4.5 billion to counter China with theoretical robotic ships

Sea Hunter
© REUTERS / Steve DipaolaThe autonomous ship "Sea Hunter".
The US Navy is eyeing a large-scale introduction of robotic surface ships of various sizes as a counter to China's boosted capabilities. The vision, however, relies on not-yet-proven technologies and may even be a bluff.

The world's largest navy feels threatened by Beijing, whose advancements in anti-ship missile technologies and large investments in its own naval assets over the past years mean that a conflict near China's shores may not end in US favor. Among the Pentagon's plans to deal with the problem is to switch away from larger ships in favor of smaller ones and make scores of them robotic.

A drone ship would be cheaper to build and operate since it doesn't need all the facilities for the meatbags and the drones may be spread over wider areas.

Comment: If previous US output is anything to go by, this will be yet another scheme where taxpayers money goes to die, or just goes missing: "Astonishing fraud": Pentagon stashes billions, spends it later to avoid accountability

See also:


Eagle

Pompeo lays out red line for Iran: Death of a single US service member will trigger military response

american carrier jets
© REUTERS / Jeff Sherman/U.S. Navy
The United States continues to amass military forces in the vicinity of Iran, following tanker incidents near the Strait of Hormuz and the alleged threat that Iran poses to US forces operating in the Middle East.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, one of the architects of Washington's hard-line policy on Iran, has relayed a message to Tehran that the death of a single US service member would trigger a military response, the Washington Post reports.

According to the broadsheet, one such message was sent during Pompeo's emergency visit to Baghdad, after the White House picked up intelligence allegedly showing that Iran or its proxies were threatening US interests in the Middle East.

A person with knowledge of the situation was quoted as saying that Pentagon officials, including outgoing Acting Defence Secretary Patrick Shanahan, have been "the ones putting the brakes" on hawks at the State Department and the White House.

Comment: That may be why Pompeo seems to have broken protocol on several occasions by talking to military commanders without Shanahan present. Pompeo and Bolton want war, and they'll steamroll over anyone in their way to get it. Luckily, however, so far they haven't been successful - in North Korea, Venezuela, or Iran. If anonymously sourced reports are anything to go by, it seems that Trump is at least attempting to keep them on the leash, too.

However, Shanahan's upcoming departure from Pentagon's top slot is understood to have raised concerns that the more belligerent Trump administration will push the military aside and involve it in further escalation of the conflict.

Comment: If that is the line, it leaves many opportunities for Iran and their allies to make life miserable for the Americans and their allies without triggering a military response. (Barring a false flag that blames the Iranians for the death of one or more American service members, of course.) Whether or not they have begun to do so yet is unverifiable, but the possibility is there.


Vader

Best of the Web: US exceptionalism: Exploiting certain Syrians, ignoring others

syrians
© Eva Bartlett
Syria and Russia have been evacuating civilians from yet another region starved by its Western-backed terrorists. But Western corporate media ignore this and instead continue spinning nightmarish war propaganda on Syria.

Predictably, copy-paste Syrian reports emanate from Western governments and corporate media feign concern for civilians in Idlib while negating to mention that the Idlib governorate is an Al-Qaeda hotbed.

Back in Syria again, over the 'Eid holidays, I spoke with residents about life in Damascus now, and highlighted the peace which exists - having been absent for many years prior when terrorists' mortars rained down on the city.

But I was also interested in highlighting another issue: the evacuation of southeastern Syria's Rukban Camp which has been under way for months; civilians have been plucked from starvation and intolerable conditions, and delivered to safety with access to food and medical care.

Sherlock

Erdogan says former Egyptian leader Morsi was murdered

Erdogan
© Sputnik/Sergei GuneevTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Turkey's president has accused Egyptian authorities of murdering former president Mohamed Morsi, who died after collapsing in court on Monday, and vowed to see them prosecuted in an international court.

At an election rally in Istanbul, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Morsi "did not die, he was murdered" and called on the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to act on his death.

Morsi, who was suffering from diabetes, hypertension and liver disease, collapsed after speaking during a retrial hearing in Cairo over charges of collaborating with foreign powers and militant groups.

Mr Erdogan said: "Unfortunately, Mohamed Morsi was on the ground of the courtroom flailing for 20 minutes. No official there intervened. Morsi did not [die] naturally, he was killed."

The office of Egypt's attorney-general has denied claims that he was murdered and argued he "was transported immediately to the hospital", where he was later pronounced dead.

Comment: See also:


Red Flag

Moscow: 'Age of digital terrorism' is coming, impact may be as dangerous as WMDs

hacking
© Pixabay / Pete Linforth
Terrorist groups exploit the internet for hacking and global outreach, the impact of which could soon become no less dangerous than that of weapons of mass destruction, a senior Russian security official warned.

The rapid development of technology allows terrorists to "even more actively" use the internet for "recruitment, attracting funds, hacking and other cybercrimes," the deputy secretary of Russia's Security Council, Yury Kokov, said at a security-themed event in the city of Ufa in central Russia.

The official said the internet has become the "main mechanism" for various extremists to "control their scattered forces and resources," while there are currently around 30,000 "extremist and terrorist websites" online.

Light Sabers

Biden to wealthy donors: I don't want to demonize the rich

Joe Biden
© Daniel Acker/BloombergJoe Biden
Former Vice President Joe Biden told affluent donors Tuesday that he wanted their support and -- perhaps unlike some other Democratic presidential candidates -- wouldn't be making them political targets because of their wealth.

"Remember, I got in trouble with some of the people on my team, on the Democratic side, because I said, you know, what I've found is rich people are just as patriotic as poor people. Not a joke. I mean, we may not want to demonize anybody who's made money," Biden told about 100 well-dressed donors at the Carlyle Hotel on New York's Upper East Side, where the hors d'oeuvres included lobster, chicken satay and crudites.

"Truth of the matter is, you all know, you all know in your gut what has to be done," Biden said. "We can disagree in the margins. But the truth of the matter is, it's all within our wheelhouse and nobody has to be punished. No one's standard of living would change. Nothing would fundamentally change," he said.

Comment: Biden is an elite just like the group of people he was speaking to, so it shouldn't be surprising that he would try to comfort their fears. There's also the little fact that Biden needs their campaign contributions for his presidential run.


Dollar

Russia's foreign intel chief: 'US dollar becoming toxic - more nations searching for alternatives'

us dollar toxic risk
© Getty Images / LdF
The use of the US dollar presents risks and more nations are looking into finding alternative tools for doing business, according to the director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergey Naryshkin.

He called US currency an anachronism of the modern world economy, accusing Washington of using sanctions as a political tool.

Talking at an international meeting of security representatives in the Russian city of Ufa, the head of Russian intelligence said: "It seems bewildering that the US continues to be the holder of the main reserve currency while behaving so aggressively and unpredictably."

Naryshkin added: "The monopoly position of the dollar in international economic relations has become anachronistic. Gradually, the dollar is becoming toxic."

Comment: Smart countries began moving away from the dollar years ago, and creating bilateral currency agreements wit their favored trading partners to avoid becoming a target for US sanctions. They are also diversifying into traditional currency supports such as gold.