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Attention

Best of the Web: Matt Taibbi: Why you should care about the Julian Assange case

Matt Taibbi
Rolling Stone
Fri, 23 Nov 2018 14:29 UTC
assange
© InconnuJulian Assange
Forget Jim Acosta. If you're worried about Trump's assault on the press, news of a Wikileaks indictment is the real scare story

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who has been inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London since the summer of 2012, is back in the news. Last week, word of a sealed federal indictment involving him leaked out.

The news came out in a strange way, via an unrelated case in Virginia. In arguing to seal a federal child endangerment charge (against someone with no connection to Wikileaks), the government, ironically, mentioned Assange as an example of why sealing is the only surefire way to keep an indictment under wraps.

"Due to the sophistication of the defendant and the publicity surrounding the case," prosecutors wrote, "no other procedure is likely to keep confidential the fact that Assange has been charged."

Comment:

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Vader

Best of the Web: Anonymous exposes NATO influence operation targeting Russia-friendly candidates for leadership positions across EU


RT
Fri, 23 Nov 2018 18:36 UTC
NATO Institute Statecraft
Anonymous has published documents which it claims have unearthed a massive UK-led psyop to create a "large-scale information secret service" in Europe - all under the guise of countering "Russian propaganda."

In a document dump on November 5, the group exposed the UK-based 'Integrity Initiative', said to have been established by the ominously titled Institute for Statecraft in 2015.

The main objective is "to provide a coordinated Western response to Russian disinformation and other elements of hybrid warfare." The Institute for Statecraft is affiliated with the NATO HQ Public Diplomacy Division and the Home Office-funded 'Prevent' program, so objectivity is, of course, at the forefront of their work.

Operating on a budget of £1.9 million (US$2.4 million), the secretive Integrity Initiative consists of "clusters" of local politicians, journalists, military personnel, scientists and academics. The team is dedicated to searching for and publishing "evidence" of Russian interference in European affairs, while themselves influencing leadership behind the scenes.

Comment: It doesn't get any more Orwellian than naming a covert influence operation in foreign countries an 'Integrity Initiative'.

This just goes to show that pretty much all it takes to conduct a 'massive' conspiracy is a few million$ and small clusters of 'ideologically-aligned' people.

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Gold Seal

Best of the Web: What happens if Julian Assange is put on trial in the US?

Srecko Horvat
Al Jazeera
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 20:37 UTC
assange demonstraters
© Daniel Tapia/ReutersSupporters of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange demonstrate in front of presidential palace in Quito, Ecuador, October 31, 2018
The prosecution of the WikiLeaks founder in the US would have grave consequences for press freedom across the world.

Last week it became clear that what WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his lawyers have been warning for seven years has already happened: He has been charged in a criminal case in the United States. The fear of being extradited and tried in the US has forced him to seek refuge at the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012.

This news hardly came as a surprise to those of us who have been following his case or have been convinced that Assange's fate is of profound and historical importance and could define the future of the freedom of the press.

Comment:

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Arrow Up

Best of the Web: Elijah Magnier: US hegemony in the Middle East is over, Hezbollah and Axis of Resistance stronger than ever

Elijah J. Magnier
ejmagnier.com
Wed, 21 Nov 2018 15:04 UTC
hezbollah
The policy of the US establishment towards Lebanon is evidently changing and unstable, with a President who lacks general knowledge about the Middle East and above all of Hezbollah's role in the region. It seems President Donald Trump is willing to reduce military support to the Lebanese Army and to impose further sanctions on Lebanon, unaware that he is thereby strengthening the Axis of Resistance and throwing the country of the Cedars into the arms of Russia and Iran. While the US is imposing further sanctions on Hezbollah, in the last few months its European partners have held secret meetings with that Organisation's leaders during the visits of their official delegations to Beirut.

The US is gradually losing its hegemony in the Middle East. In Iraq, the "Islamic State" (ISIS) grew under the watchful and complaisant eyes of the US establishment in the first months of its occupation of Mosul in June 2014. Washington considered ISIS a strategic asset, oblivious to how this unscrupulous policy would backfire against its interests in the Middle East. The policy alienated Europe but above all the people of the Middle East, especially those minorities who suffered grievously under ISIS tyranny. This ruthless US policy triggered the creation of Hashd al-Shaa'bi (the Popular Mobilisation Forces). This force has now become an essential member of the "Axis of the Resistance" which rejects US hegemony and espouses an ideology of independence with objectives similar to those of Iran and Hezbollah. These national forces are generally unfriendly towards Israel and the presence of US forces in Mesopotamia.

Furthermore, the new Iraqi leaders (Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi, Speaker Mohamad al-Halbusi and President Barham Salih) have been chosen in perfect harmony with the will of Iran. If it becomes necessary to choose between Tehran and Washington, Iraq will not stand for sanctions against the Iranian people, regardless of the consequences. And if the US forces Iraq's hand on Iran sanctions, it will lose Mesopotamia to the advantage of Iran and Russia. Indeed, Moscow is sitting today, along with high ranking Iraqi, Syrian and Iranian military advisors, in one single operational room in Baghdad, waiting to pick up the slack if the US moves away from or slows down military support to Iraq, but also to ensure that ISIS doesn't return to occupy any city in Mesopotamia.
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Russian Flag

Best of the Web: Stephen Cohen: Russian diplomacy is winning the new cold war

Stephen F. Cohen
The Nation
Wed, 21 Nov 2018 14:39 UTC
Kremlin
Stephen F. Cohen, professor emeritus of Russian studies and politics at NYU and Princeton, and John Batchelor continue their (usually) weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. (Previous installments, now in their fifth year, are at TheNation.com.)

On the fifth anniversary of the onset of the Ukrainian crisis, in November 2013, and of Washington "punishing" Russia by attempting to "isolate" it in world affairs - a policy first declared by President Barack Obama in 2014 and continued ever since, primarily through economic sanctions - Cohen discusses the following points:

1. During the preceding Cold War with the Soviet Union, no attempt was made to "isolate" Russia abroad; instead, the goal was to "contain" it within its "bloc" of Eastern European nations and compete with it in what was called the "Third World."

2. The notion of "isolating" a country of Russia's size, Eurasian location, resources, and long history as a great power is vainglorious folly. It reflects the paucity and poverty of foreign thinking in Washington in recent decades, not the least in the US Congress and mainstream media.
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Light Sabers

Best of the Web: EU intelligence agency in the works? 25 member-states (sans UK) agree to launch 'joint spy school'

Philip Kaleta
Politico.eu
Tue, 20 Nov 2018 22:38 UTC
eu flag parliament brussels
The defense ministers of 25 EU member countries agreed Monday on a joint EU intelligence school, along with 16 other new projects, as part of their military pact.

The new projects, signed off by the defense ministers of all the EU's member countries except Denmark, Malta and the United Kingdom under the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) pact, range from improving training and facilities to boosting maritime operations and air systems, as POLITICO reported before their official adoption.

The establishment of a joint EU spy school would be a big step forward for the bloc's intelligence community. Until recently, a significant deepening of intelligence cooperation in the Union was blocked by the U.K., which viewed it as unwelcome competition to the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, made up of the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Britain. With Brexit approaching, London no longer stands in the way.


Comment: This is the crux of the issue: a split in the West between the 'original' anglosphere superstructure - first publicly disclosed in the late 1990s as ECHELON, though of course originally derived from the British empire before it was subsumed under American military authority during WW2 - and the continental European structure known today as the EU.

It's precisely this kind of 'Permanent Structured Cooperation' that the UK has always been uneasy about being subsumed into, much less seeing come about at all. Why 'go foreign', after all, when you can 'keep it all in the (English-speaking) family'?


Comment: The British, needless to say, are not happy about this and similar developments, with UK Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson (yes, he of 'go away Russia' fame) describing Merkel and Macron's recent proposal to create an EU army as "an absolutely crazy idea."

But is it any crazier than a 'North Atlantic Alliance' that includes Colombia and Australia??

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Mr. Potato

Best of the Web: Projection: Bill Browder responds to Russia's accusation he may be involved in 4 assassinations


RT
Mon, 19 Nov 2018 16:18 UTC
browder senate
Bill Browder, 'human rights crusader'
UK businessman Bill Browder, who Russian prosecutors say may have ordered a hit on his employee Sergei Magnitsky, has offered some explanations for why he is being accused.

Browder, an investor-turned-rights crusader, reacted to public statements by Russian prosecutors, which said he may have orchestrated the death of his employee in police custody in 2009 to cover up his crimes.

First, he suggested that the accusations are an attempt by Russia to torpedo a discussion in The Hague about a possible EU-wide law named after Magnitsky, modeled on an American version of the legislation. The US Magnitsky Act enables personal sanctions against people accused of human rights violations by Washington.



Comment: The only thing Kafkaesque is how a criminal and con man like Browder has been taken so seriously over the years.


Comment: See also:

And of course, Alex Krainer's book on the whole story is a must-read: Grand Deception: The Truth About Bill Browder, the Magnitsky Act, and Anti-Russian Sanctions

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Attention

Best of the Web: Sunday Times: UK govt planning to 'engineer financial crash' to frighten MPs into voting for Brexit deal


RT
Mon, 19 Nov 2018 18:26 UTC
financial trader
© Reuters / Russell BoyceA financial trader reacts after Britain votes to leave the European Union in June 2016
Theresa May's government are planning to "engineer a financial crash" if parliament fails to back their Brexit deal - in an attempt to frighten MPs into voting it through at a second vote, claims a source close to the PM's aides.

Since agreeing a draft Brexit withdrawal deal with the EU on Wednesday, May has had to contend with a string of cabinet resignations and a huge backlash from rebel MPs.

The Sunday Times reports that, faced with the prospect of the deal being voted down, the UK government will attempt to plunge the financial markets into chaos - in a bid to scare MPs into eventually voting it through on a second vote.


Comment: Bloody 'ell, they don't do politics by 'alf in the UK, eh!


Comment: This makes us wonder, now that the cat's been let out of the bag, just how many past 'crises' have been engineered in service of political aims...

Btw, it wouldn't take much to send the ailing UK economy into a downward spiral: Also check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: California Wildfires, Climate Change, And The Impossible Brexit

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Fire

Best of the Web: California wildfires: Death toll rises to 71 - 1,000+ missing - 50,000+ remain evacuated - 7,000+ buildings destroyed - Camp Fire deadliest in state's history - UPDATES


RT
Tue, 13 Nov 2018 01:02 UTC
Camp Fire rages through Paradise, California
© APA home burns as the Camp Fire rages through Paradise, California, on Thursday, Nov. 8, 2018.
The death toll in California has risen to 42 and 228 people are still missing as three major wildfires continue to sweep across the state. An estimated 250,000 people have been displaced from their homes.

Thirteen more people were confirmed dead from the "Camp Fire" in Paradise, northern California, taking the toll in that area to 42 and making it the deadliest fire in California history.

Paradise, some 90 miles (145 km) north of Sacramento, has been completely destroyed by the blaze, with the authorities saying that up to 90 percent of the residents lost their homes. The death toll is expected to rise.

An estimated quarter million Californians have been forced to flee their homes to escape the three blazing infernos across the state. Strengthening winds mean the flames are expected to spread even further by Tuesday. So far, the fires have spread to some 400 square miles (1,040 square km) as some 8,000 firefighters are still unable to contain the inferno.


Comment: A total of 7,177 buildings have been destroyed, Cal Fire said. High winds and dry conditions threaten more areas through the rest of the week, fire officials warned. The total cost to the state, insurers and homeowners is expected to top $19 billion.

See also: UPDATE: On November 17th RT reports:
Casualties of the deadliest wildfire in California's history continue to mount, with eight more bodies found Friday bringing the official count to 71. Over 1,000 people have been reported missing, Butte County Sheriff said.

The shocking figure, up from some 630 listed missing the day before, may include some duplicate names, Sheriff Honea hopes. The Camp Fire has been raging for over a week across northern California, razing over 142,000 acres and laying waste the town of Paradise and its environs.


President Trump is expected to visit California on Saturday to survey the damage with Governor Jerry Brown. Trump has criticized the state's management of its forests and rivers, even as thousands of firefighters mobilized to try to control the blaze, which remains only around 45 percent contained.

The Camp Fire broke out last Thursday morning in Pulga and quickly spread due to dry and windy weather conditions. California utility PG&E Corporation appeared to have shouldered some of the blame, admitting to regulators earlier this week they had been experiencing problems with their equipment near the origin of the fire. Multiple victims have filed lawsuits alleging negligence and improper maintenance.

Trump's visit could not come at a more chaotic time. Nearly 500 searchers, including a mobile rapid-analysis DNA lab and cadaver dogs, are combing through the ashes in search of the missing, armed with DNA from their relatives. Over 50,000 people remain evacuated from their homes, while thick smoke from the fire has reportedly earned northern California the distinction of the worst air quality in the world. Schools as far away as San Francisco and San Jose are closed because of the hazardous conditions, and authorities have advised residents not to go outside without a mask for several more days.
More videos have emerged showing the devastation:



As fire-fighting efforts continue there are new fears over potential mudslides such as those experienced earlier this year. See: California Mudslides, a Sign of Worse to Come?


See also: Study: Wildfire seasons are more destructive and lasting longer almost everywhere on Earth

Update: RT on November 18th
The death toll from the worst-ever California wildfires has increased to 76, while the list of those unaccounted-for continues to grow and has jumped to 1,276, even as authorities located hundreds of previously missing persons.


While the list of casualties and missing persons continues to rise, Butte County officials expressed the hope that there might be ID duplication, or that many of those unaccounted for are alive but simply unaware that they had been reported missing. But even though authorities managed to locate over 700 people previously believed missing, with hundreds of new reports the toll has grown to 1,276.

The Camp Fire in Paradise has now destroyed around 13,000 structures after ripping through roughly 149,000 acres since November 8.


Meanwhile the Woolsey Fire in Southern California has resulted in at least three deaths after burning through some 98,000 acres of land. This fire, which is now 82 percent contained, destroyed at least 836 structures.


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Handcuffs

Best of the Web: Free speech for CNN, but not for Assange?


RT
Fri, 16 Nov 2018 19:30 UTC
White House Correspondents
© REUTERS/Jonathan ErnstWhite House Correspondents' Association dinner attendees raise a glass to the First Amendment.
Two journalists on the bad side of Donald Trump were vindicated this week. One had his White House credentials restored. Another got proof that Uncle Sam wants him behind bars. Guess which one had all the support from the MSM.

CNN's Jim Acosta was kicked out of the White House because the US president didn't like the way the journalist bombarded him with confrontational questions. Less than a week later, a Trump-appointed judge ordered his access restored, at least for the time being. A big win for the freedom of speech in America.

WikiLeaks' Julian Assange is in a self-imposed confinement in Ecuador embassy in London because he believes that if he leaves the British will snatch him and ship to the land of the free to be prosecuted as a spy. His situation did not change much this week, except that his suspicions of a secret indictment were collaborated an Assistant US Attorney, in an apparent slip of the pen.

Comment: See also: US intel would bring Assange to the US in chains

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