Welcome to Sott.net
Mon, 27 Jan 2020
The World for People who Think

Puppet Masters
Map


Eye 1

German Foreign Minister calls for "global task force" & harsher penalties against 'hate speech' and anti-semitism

Heiko Maas
Spiegel.de
Sun, 26 Jan 2020 14:04 UTC
Heiko Maas
© REUTERS
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas
"For A Long Time Now, Words Have Not Been Enough" Speeches and warnings are insufficient when it comes to anti-Semitism in Germany and Europe. We need concrete programs to counter the hatred of Jews, including better education and harsher penalties.

"Halle was my home." This is one of the saddest sentences I have heard in a long time. Max Privorozki said it, the head of Halle's Jewish community, which only barely escaped a massacre in October. His words express the utter despair at the fact that anti-Semitism has become a part of daily life for Jews in Germany once again. Every day, Jewish citizens are openly attacked on our streets or threatened and insulted online. There were over 400 such incidents in Berlin alone over a period of six months last year - more than two per day. In light of such figures, it does not surprise me that almost every second Jew in Germany has already thought about leaving the country. But it pains me even more. We urgently need to take action so that such thoughts do not become bitter reality and large numbers of Jews do not leave Germany. It is an absolute nightmare that people of the Jewish faith no longer feel at home here in Germany - and a terrible disgrace 75 years after the liberation of Auschwitz.


Comment: It's worth noting that a number of these reported attacks remain unsolved, some have been shown to be staged, 30% of those online have been shown to be bots, meanwhile we hear very little about actual attacks on Christianity: Europe: Anti-Christian attacks reach all-time high in 2019


For a long time now, words have not been enough. The lives of dozens of people in Halle were saved by a mere wooden door. We need to do more to protect Jewish institutions and communities, not only in Germany, but all over Europe. For this purpose, we will provide the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe with 500,000 euros in 2020.

Comment: See also: And check out SOTT radio's:

      Read More...
Magnify

White House faith advisor Paula White's sermon commanding "satanic pregnancies to miscarry"

Bob Smietana
Religion News
Sun, 26 Jan 2020 20:13 UTC
Paula White

A video clip featuring presidential advisor Paula White praying about "satanic pregnancies" raised eyebrows on social media on Saturday (Jan. 25).
In the video clip, White, who was named special advisor to the White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative in November, leads a prayer of protection against spiritual attacks targeting Christians, President Trump and the United States.

"We interrupt that which has been deployed to hurt the church in this season. That which has been deployed to hurt this nation, in the name of Jesus," White prays in a video clip posted on Twitter by the activist group Right Wing Watch. She goes on to pray against "any strange winds that have been sent against the church, sent against this nation, sent against our president, sent against myself" and other spiritual threats.

One line late in the prayer went viral on social media.

Comment: Twitter responds:







      Read More...
Eye 2

NBC hack Noah Berlatsky says 'racist' Trump supporters should lose their vote. Guess who decides they're 'racist'?

Robert Bridge
The Strategic Culture Foundation
Fri, 24 Jan 2020 19:43 UTC
trump supporters
© Evan Vucci/AP
Donald Trump supporters stand for the national anthem during a ‘Make America Great Again’ concert in Washington.
Once again, the mainstream media is pushing the repugnant race card, suggesting that Trump supporters are a bunch of knuckle-dragging xenophobes whose only reason for wanting a wall on the Mexican border is because they suffer an aversion to people with different skin color than them.

What exactly do White Americans - who opened the floodgates to immigration in 1965 - need to do these days to prove they are not natural born racists? Cancel their monthly subscription to Town and Country? Stop walking their dogs, which are, of course, four-legged vehicles of "racial segregation," or stop attending their evening yoga class, the unsuspecting breeding grounds for white supremacists? Somehow I suspect that even if White people took to burning effigies of Ku Klux Klan members on their manicured front lawns that would not even put a stop to the ugly rumors. Let's just face it, the only thing that will finally stop the slanderous slurs is if all White Americans publicly denounce their support of the biggest race-hater of them all, Donald J. Trump. And should they refuse the itinerant Liberal Inquisition will be only too happy to do it for them.
      Read More...
No Entry

Iraqi Parliament wants immediate withdrawal of US troops due to violation of agreement and Iraq's sovereignty

Elijah J. Magnier
ejmagnier.com
Wed, 22 Jan 2020 19:49 UTC
soleimani
The Iraqi Parliament has decided to ask for the immediate withdrawal of all foreign forces from the country for violating the terms of their presence. The US has broken its contractual obligations to the government of Baghdad and affronted the sovereignty of Iraq, jeopardising its stability. Sources at the Prime Minister's office said "the request for withdrawal is imminent. US forces have violated the agreement. Therefore, the agreement is now null and void. The agreement had stipulated that US forces were to be given one year's notice for withdrawal, but since the US broke the terms of the agreement, this time horizon no longer applies."

Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi informed all countries with military forces in Iraq — the USA, and its coalition partners the UK, Canada, France, Belgium, Denmark, etc. - of the urgency that they initiate withdrawal as soon as possible. So far, I have learned, no country has responded positively to the request via diplomatic channels. Only the US has even answered the Iraqi government, openly declaring its refusal to depart. Tremendous pressure and intimidation are being applied to the government to persuade it not to carry out the constitutional decision voted by the parliamentary majority.

"I can only see one solution ahead: to inform the country that the United States is defying the will of the Iraqi people, and to declare the US military an occupation force if all diplomatic means are exhausted", said the source.

US officials have overtly refused the lawful democratic decision of the parliament - the democracy that the US claimed to have imported to the country in 2003 - and insist on remaining in Iraq. US Secretary Mike Pompeo described the Iraqi decision as "non-binding". Nevertheless, no foreign military force can stay in a hostile society, notwithstanding the number of military bases and the massive army power under its control.
      Read More...
Binoculars

Kim Jong-un's aunt makes surprise public appearance, six years after husband's execution

Park Chan-kyong
South China Morning Post
Sun, 26 Jan 2020 19:39 UTC
Kim Kyong-hui
© KCNA
Kim Kyong-hui (circled) reappeared in state media reporting on Sunday, her first such appearance in over six years.
Kim Jong-un's aunt has made a surprise public appearance, six years after her husband was executed as a traitor.

Kim Kyong-hui, 73, was with Kim Jong-un and other party officials when they watched a Lunar New Year's music performance, the North's official KCNA news agency reported Sunday.

The North's top newspaper Rodon Sinmun published a picture which showed the aunt, bespectacled and wearing black Korean traditional clothes, sitting next to Kim Jong-un's wife Ri Sol-ju and the leader's sister Kim Yo-jong.

It listed Kim Kyong-hui's name next to the North's No 2, Choe Ryong-hae.

"This means that her familial status within the Kim dynasty remains largely intact, despite her political difficulties following her husband's execution," Professor Koh Yu-hwan of Dongguk University told South China Morning Post.

Kim Kyong-hui's husband Jang Song-thaek, once considered the second most powerful man in the highly hierarchical state, was executed in 2013 after a special military tribunal found him guilty of treason, the North's news media has reported.

His execution came after he was stripped of all posts and expelled from the ruling Workers' Party for "criminal acts" including mismanagement of the state financial system, womanising and alcohol abuse.

Jang brought together "undesirable forces and formed a faction as the boss of a modern day factional group for a long time and thus committed such hideous crime as attempting to overthrow the state," the North's official KCNA news agency said at the time.
      Read More...
Attention

Impeachment: Dems cry 'dictator'; Team Trump cries 'election interference'; Trump approval up to 50%


RT
Sun, 26 Jan 2020 21:29 UTC
NadlerSekulowSchiff
© Reuters/Joshua Roberts/Erin Scott
Jerry Nadler • Jay Sekulow • Adam Schiff
After three days of Democrat offensive, President Donald Trump's defense team have laid out their arguments. The Democrats, they said, are trying to commit their own brand of election interference by removing Trump from office.

The Senate impeachment trial of President Trump opened on Tuesday, and the Democrats' chosen team of prosecutors, or impeachment managers, spent much of this week reiterating their long-standing argument: Trump abused his office by withholding military aid for Ukraine to pressure President Volodymyr Zelensky into reopening a corruption investigation into the business activities of Joe Biden's son, Hunter.

Trump's defense team hit back on Saturday, arguing that the charges against Trump were hastily cobbled together by a party eager for vengeance after losing the 2016 election, and pointing out that none of the witnesses called during the House inquiry revealed direct evidence of a crime.

"They're here to perpetrate the most massive interference in an election in American history," White House Counsel Pat Cipollone said of the Democrats. "And we can't allow that to happen. They're asking you to tear up all the ballots across this country on their own initiative," he added. "Talk about abuse of power. This is a waste of time and money."

Comment: Doubling down, playing out their farce, it seems the Democrats' many tales - full of sound and fury - continue to signify 'nothing'.

      Read More...
Document

US 'deal of the century': Does it achieve peace or demilitarize Palestinian resistance?


Middle East Monitor
Sat, 25 Jan 2020 02:05 UTC
PalProtest
© Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency
Palestinian protest against the 'Deal of the Century', Ramallah, West Bank.
The US 'deal of the century', which according to US President Donald Trump, aims to achieve peace in the Middle East, proposes demilitarising Palestinian resistance, Arabi21.com reported on Friday.

Reporting Israeli TV Channel 12, Arabi21.com revealed that the deal will be presented to leaders of the two largest Israeli parties - the Likud and Blue and White parties - in Washington.

The deal recognises full Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem, annexing all Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and cancelling the right of return of Palestinian refugees. The deal is the most generous proposal that has been offered to Israel, noting that it includes the establishment of a Palestinian state with certain conditions, that no Palestinian leader would accept.

Channel 12 disclosed that the Palestinian Authority (PA) president, Mahmoud Abbas, is not aware of the details of the deal, as there has been no real contact between the PA and US administration, since the latter's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, in December 2017.

Comment: Sputnik, 26/1/2020: Palestinians could abandon Oslo Accords
The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) reserves the right to withdraw from the Oslo agreements [signed in the 1990's], which regulate relations between the Palestinian Authority and the state of Israel, if US President Donald Trump releases his "deal of the century" peace plan, citing Saeb Erekat, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and former Palestinian representative in the talks on the Oslo Accords.

Trump's plan seeks to turn the "temporary occupation [of Palestinian territory by Israel] into a permanent" one, although there has so far been no reliable information about the political part of Trump's "deal".

Deal of the Century contents largely remain a mystery except for its economic part, which was published in June 2019. The deal namely pledges to invest $50 billion in the Palestinian territories and neighbouring Arab countries. It also envisages the construction of a transport corridor between the PNA-controlled West Bank and the Gaza Strip for additional $5 billion.
See also:

      Read More...
Oil Well

In a dangerous standoff, US troops block Russians from Syrian oilfields

Alex Christoforou
The Duran
Thu, 23 Jan 2020 00:00 UTC
Roadblock
© Mohammed Hassan
US blocks Russian access to oil fields
Tense encounters could turn deadly, sparking a major clash of superpowers after third such incident within a week.

Yet another dangerous incident has played out between American and Russian forces operating in Syria in what appears a series of standoffs near key oil installations since Saturday. "This is the third incident that occurred within a week," one local reporter told VOA in an alarming report.

Days ago we reported on the first incident involving a US convoy blocking a Russian convoy on a highway near the town of Rmelan, after the Americans were apparently concerned the Russians were going to enter an oil field, which the US administration says it has "secured".

But now Voice of America reports three total incidents, with the most recent ones happening Tuesday and Wednesday in al-Hasakah province, as newly detailed by the opposition outlet Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

All of the incidents involved US forces blocking Russian military vehicles and forcing them to turn around as they neared sensitive oil installations held by the US-backed Kurdish SDF and American special forces in Syria's northeast.

Comment: The US has no justification to 'protect' Syrian oil fields, nor rights to the resources. The risks in continuing to do so may be mightier than any illegitimate gains it envisions.

      Read More...
Airplane

Zarif: US officer who shot down Iranian plane got a medal: Iranian who downed Ukraine's jet is in jail


RT
Sat, 25 Jan 2020 11:04 UTC
Zarif
© Unknown
Iranian FM Javad Zarif
Iran has imprisoned the army officer who fired a missile that killed 176 on board a Ukrainian jet, Mohammad Javad Zarif has said, comparing Tehran's actions to that of the US when it downed an Iranian airliner 32 years ago.

The downing of a Ukraine International Airlines' Boeing 737 in early January was "a complicated situation in a complicated time," Zarif revealed in an interview with Germany's Spiegel magazine, when pressed into explaining why it took three days for Tehran to admit their guilt.

"Others needed much more time. Almost 32 years ago, the US shot down an Iranian passenger plane. As of today, they still haven't issued an official apology," the chief diplomat said, referring to Iran Air's Dubai-bound Flight 655 which was shot down by the USS Vincennes cruiser in July 1988.

And unlike the US, Iran didn't promote those involved in firing missiles against a civilian target, Zarif reminded. "The American officer who was responsible for shooting it down even received a medal. Meanwhile, the Iranian man who shot down the Ukrainian plane is now in prison."

Comment: Iran has claimed responsibility for the Iranian airliner tragedy, however questions remain as well as speculation that there is more to this tragedy than currently known.

See also:

      Read More...
Hiliter

India and Brazil sign 15 accords, deepen ties and cooperation

Ismail Shakil, Jamie McGeever
Reuters
Sat, 25 Jan 2020 09:49 UTC
Bolsonaro/Modi
© The Indian Express
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro • India PM Narendra Modi
India and Brazil have signed 15 accords aimed at forging closer ties between the two emerging market giants across a range of sectors, especially defense, both countries' leaders tweeted on Saturday.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro took to social media to hail the closer cooperation and agreements struck during Bolsonaro's official visit to India.

"Several agreements signed in ​​infrastructure, justice, science and technology, agriculture, oil exploration, mining, health, culture and tourism," Bolsonaro tweeted, adding: "The world's confidence in Brazil is back!"

For his part, Modi tweeted: "India and Brazil are focusing on expanding cooperation in the defense sector," adding that the two countries share "immense synergies" on several key issues such as the environment and fighting terrorism.

Separately, Brazil's foreign minister Ernesto Araujo tweeted that the 15 accords signed by the two countries represent a move "against the structures of globalist thought." "Brazil is rising to be a great among the greats," he tweeted.

Comment: Yahoo News 25/1/2020:
Bolsonaro arrived in Delhi on Friday for a four-day visit to India, accompanied by his daughter Laura Bolsonaro, daughter-in-law Leticia Firmo, eight ministers, four members of the Brazilian parliament and a large business delegation.



      Read More...
SOTT.NET
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts