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Time running out: US Senate's last-ditch effort to ax Nord Stream 2 pipeline


RT
Sun, 24 Nov 2019 13:19 UTC
Nord Stream 2 pipe
© Ilya Pitalev/Sputnik
After failing to persuade allies in Europe to scrap the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which is set to transport natural gas from Europe to Russia, US lawmakers are planning to roll a new batch of sanctions into a defense spending bill.

The sanctions against the companies involved in the project have been included in the draft 2020 National Defense Authorization Act. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch told Defense News on Saturday that the legislation essentially mimics the last anti-Nord Stream bill - the so-called Protecting Europe's Energy Security Act - which was approved by the committee in July but then got stuck in procedural hurdles.

"The reason for the push is that this window is closing. A lot of Nord Stream is done already," Risch said, hoping that the sanctioned companies working with the Russians "will shut down," should the sanctions scheme take effect.

Comment: It's a done deal. The 'masters of the universe' should just get over it!

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Cult

Protecting the network? Lawyers for pedo-madam Ghislaine Maxwell seek redaction of 100s of names in Epstein docs

Jerry Lambe
Law & Crime
Mon, 18 Nov 2019 02:29 UTC

Comment: She's quiet; the media's quiet... the cover-up continues.


GhislaineMaxwell
© Getty Images/Laura Cavanaugh
Ghislaine Maxwell
Attorneys for former Jeffrey Epstein partner, friend, and alleged madam Ghislaine Maxwell on Monday asked a federal judge in Manhattan to grant them a one-month extension as they prepare to argue that the court should not unseal the identities of non-party persons whose names appear in documents ordered released by the court.

U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska in August ordered the release of more than 2,000 previously sealed documents from alleged Epstein victim Virginia Roberts Giuffre's now-settled 2015 defamation lawsuit against Maxwell. Attorneys for Giuffre have fought to have the court unseal significantly more pages, while Maxwell's lawyers have tried to stymie the release of new information, arguing that documents do not fall under the definition of "judicial documents," and therefore are not subject to the presumption of access by the public.

Comment: Documentation may be found here: See also:

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Briefcase

A first glimpse into AG Horowitz's FISA-abuse report


National Review
Sun, 24 Nov 2019 19:09 UTC
fbi logo
© Jim Bourg/Reuters
CNN reports that an FBI attorney tampered with documents related to the Carter Page application. How much does it matter?

Is this the tip of a scandalous iceberg? Or is it a signal that Inspector General Michael Horowitz's much anticipated report on investigative irregularities in the Trump-Russia probe will be much ado about nothing much?

A low-ranking FBI lawyer altered a document that was somehow related to the Obama Justice Department's application to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) for a national-security surveillance warrant. The application, approved by the FISC in October 2016, targeted former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page — an American citizen, former naval intelligence officer, and apparent FBI cooperating witness — as a clandestine agent of Russia. Apparently, the document tampering made at least one of the application's factual assertions seem more damning than it actually was.
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Boat

Russian warship 'Marshal Ustinov' puts into Cape Town for first-ever joint drill with Chinese, South African navies


RT
Sun, 24 Nov 2019 18:42 UTC
Russia cruiser Marshal Ustinov
© Sputnik / Pavel Lvov
The cruiser 'Marshal Ustinov' docked in Severomorsk.
The Slava-class missile cruiser Marshal Ustinov of the Russian Navy's Northern Fleet has arrived at one of the world's southernmost ports, South Africa's Cape Town. It will take part in a joint exercise also involving China.

The cruiser and two support ships reached South Africa's co-capital after an almost five-month, 25,500-nautical mile (47,200 km) voyage from its home base in Severomorsk. The flotilla made stops in Algeria, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, Cape Verde and Equatorial Guinea, and took part in several sea exercises before reaching its South African destination on Sunday.

Comment: Defense Web adds:
According to the SA Navy, the exercise goal is to develop and strengthen relations and friendly co-operation between the armed forces of the three countries. The theme, agreed by all nations involved, is "Joint actions to ensure safety of shipping and maritime economic activity".

Mosi is the only at sea exercise the South African maritime service will take part in this year as the exercises Oxide with the French naval forces in the Indian Ocean and Good Hope, with the German Navy, have been postponed. Indications are Exercise Oxide will be staged next year with Exercise Good Hope, at present, set for 2022. The rescheduling is by mutual agreement between the countries involved.


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Bad Guys

Bully behavior: US MidEast Cmdr says Iran under 'extreme pressure', will crack and attack again

Lilia Dergacheva
Sputnik
Sun, 24 Nov 2019 17:44 UTC
us navy ship
© REUTERS / MC2 ANTHONY R. MARTINEZ
Having recently put all the blame for the Gulf tanker and oil field controversies on Iran, the US is warning of another "audacious" feat, depicting in menacing terms the "trajectory" the Islamic Republic is on. Per Gen. Mckenzie, the US regional commander, this is despite US reinforcements in the area.

Speaking ahead of a Manama security conference, in Bahrain, the home of the Navy's Fifth Fleet, commander of American forces in the Middle East Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie, has assumed the latest deployment of 14,000 extra US troops may not have put off Iran from plotting a major attack akin to the one against Saudi Aramco oil fields, and a drone attack in June.

"My judgment is that it is very possible they will attack again", General McKenzie said, noting that the Gulf reinforcements, including 3,000 troops sent to Saudi Arabia, are intended as a deterrent, not a move to trigger Iranian military action.


Comment: The idiocy of American policy on full display. The move is "intended" as a "deterrent". Yet, the expected result is that it will provoke an attack. But the move is not intended to provoke an attack. Got it? Get a brain, guys: if your actions will predictably lead to a certain consequence, and you're aware of that consequence, you can't just say "that wasn't our intention." Which means, on some level, it is intentional. It's typical schoolyard bully behavior: provoke your opponent into attacking first, then cry to the teacher and blame them for hitting you.


In earlier interviews he elaborated on the course he says Iran has taken:

"It's the trajectory and the direction that they're on", he noted in a second interview later in the week. "The attack on the oil fields in Saudi was stunning in the depth of its audaciousness", he said of an assault in September that the United States and its European allies blamed on Iran.

"I wouldn't rule that out going forward".


Comment: And even assuming it was Iran behind some of these incidents, can you honestly say they haven't been provoked? None of this would be happening if the U.S. was following a foreign policy at least approaching a basic level of sanity and common sense.

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Bullseye

Trump's advisor says no to admitting Ukraine to NATO: 'We don't want conflict with Russia'

Paul Antonopoulos
Fort Russ News
Sun, 24 Nov 2019 17:51 UTC
usa-nato flags
© Unknown
US National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien rejected the idea of ​​Ukraine joining NATO, which could lead to a direct conflict with Russia.

"I do not think that NATO as a whole is attractive to accept Ukraine and enter into a direct conflict with Russia," the adviser said.

O'Brien emphasized that "the West does not want a conflict with Russia" and "NATO was founded to prevent that conflict," he claimed.
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Attention

Russian intelligence states that coup in Bolivia is an attempt to destabilize all of Latin America

Paul Antonopoulos
Fort Russ News
Sun, 24 Nov 2019 17:33 UTC
Evo Morales
© REUTERS / David Mercado
Evo Morales
Russian Foreign Intelligence Director Sergei Naryshkin denounced US involvement in the political crisis in Bolivia.

Sergei Naryshkin said the United States is involved in the political crisis in Bolivia and is trying to "shake" the situation in Latin America "following" what is going on in Venezuela .

"Yes, the United States is involved in the crisis," Naryshkin answered the question of whether we can talk about any kind of US interference in Bolivia's current situation.

He said the events happening in Bolivia and Venezuela "are the same thing."

Comment: Looks like the Empires is doing marginally better in Bolivia than in Venezuela. Key to that fact is that while Maduro retains the loyalty of the military, the US has been able to pry Bolivia's officers away from Morales. Keeping the world safe for rechargeable batteries . . . .

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NPC

Wolfowitz crawls out of hole to slam Trump for abandoning Kurds, not preparing for 'next' war in Syria

Helen Buyniski
RT
Fri, 22 Nov 2019 17:35 UTC
wolfowitz
© Reuters / Aboud Hamam (inset: Reuters / Yuri Gripas)
Unreconstructed neocon Paul Wolfowitz has slammed President Donald Trump for 'abandoning' the Kurds, insisting the US will need them next time there's a war in Syria. Trump's blunder, then, is thinking wars can "end."

The man once described by CNN as "the heart and soul of the Iraq war" points out in an op-ed in the New York Times on Thursday that decades of meddling in the Middle East have made the US some friends in the region - namely, the Kurds. Casting them aside, he says, will make future meddling much more difficult.


Comment: If the neocons are disappointed, that's all the proof you need that Trump has done something right.


The failed war's mastermind reminds Trump that because the US' Kurdish and Arab allies were gracious enough to serve as cannon fodder in the fight against the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in Syria and Iraq, the US lost just six soldiers, compared to 11,000 from the US-backed opposition. A less belligerent mind might see this as exploitation, rather than alliance - but friendship means never having to say "sorry I turned your homeland into a hotbed of sectarian conflict."

When the next war comes around - and Wolfowitz assures us there will be a next war - the US will be sorry it spurned its Kurdish friends, he warns. The inveterate warmonger calls Trump short-sighted for viewing all engagement in the Middle East through the lens of the Iraq and Afghanistan quagmires, and holds up a failed Shiite uprising against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein as a cautionary tale of what happens when the US isn't lurking in the shadows ready to play World Police at the drop of a shell - but glosses over the fact that every war Wolfowitz has backed in his lengthy career has ended with the "liberated" country all but turned to dust.

Comment: The stench is strong with this one. Time to crawl back into your hole, Wolfowitz. Better yet, we're sure the Kurds would welcome you to join them in northern Syria. Just watch out for the Turkey-backed jihadists you're so enamored with. They're unlikely to return the good will you've extended to them over the years.

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Airplane

Sounds legit: Pence visits troops in Iraq, reassures Kurds that US supports them


Fox News
Sat, 23 Nov 2019 17:15 UTC
pence
© AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
Vice President Mike Pence arrives at Al Asad Air Base, Iraq, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2019. The visit is Pence’s first to Iraq and comes nearly one year since President Donald Trump’s surprise visit to the country.
Vice President Mike Pence made an unannounced visit to Iraq on Saturday in the highest-level American trip since President Donald Trump ordered a pullback of U.S. forces in Syria two months ago.

Flying in a C-17 military cargo jet to preserve the secrecy of the visit to the conflict zone, Pence landed in Erbil to meet with Iraqi Kurdistan President Nechirvan Barzani. The visit was meant to reassure the U.S. allies in the fight against the Islamic State after Syrian Kurds suffered under a bloody Turkish assault last month following the Trump-ordered withdrawal.

Earlier Pence received a classified briefing at Iraq's Al-Asad Air Base, from which U.S. forces launched the operation in Syria last month that resulted in the death of IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and spoke by phone with Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi.

It was Pence's second trip to the region in five weeks after Trump deployed him on whirling trip to Ankara, Turkey, last month to negotiate a cease-fire after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seized on the U.S. withdrawal to launch an assault on Kurdish fighters in northern Syria. Trump's move had sparked some of the most unified criticism of his administration to date, as lawmakers in both parties accused Trump of forsaking longtime Kurdish allies and inviting Russia and Iran to hold even greater sway in the volatile region.


Comment: Russia and Iran's influence in the region was already secured before Trump's decision. If anyone is to 'blame' for this, it's the neocons and Obama. But the critics just can't accept the reality that the U.S. is no longer top dog in Iraq and Syria. Trump made the right move. In fact, he didn't go far enough. He's still being held back by the myopic foreign policy idiots who are living in the past and dreaming of a glorious American empire that is becoming increasingly unrealistic.


Pence said he welcomes "the opportunity on behalf of President Donald Trump to reiterate the strong bonds forged in the fires of war between the people of the United States and the Kurdish people across this region."


Comment: Damage control.

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Yoda

John Solomon corrects the record with facts: Responding to Lt. Col. Vindman' testimony about my Ukraine columns

John Solomon
John Solomon Reports
Sun, 24 Nov 2019 17:09 UTC
vindman
© AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
“That’s Lieutenant Colonel Vindman, please.”
I honor and applaud Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman's service to his country. He's a hero. I also respect his decision to testify at the impeachment proceedings. I suspect neither his service nor his testimony was easy.

But I also know the liberties that Lt. Col. Vindman fought on the battlefield to preserve permit for a free and honest debate in America, one that can't be muted by the color of uniform or the crushing power of the state.

So I want to exercise my right to debate Lt. Col. Vindman about the testimony he gave about me. You see, under oath to Congress, he asserted all the factual elements in my columns at The Hill about Ukraine were false, except maybe my grammar
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