Welcome to Sott.net
Thu, 21 Oct 2021
The World for People who Think

Puppet Masters
Map

Arrow Down

Dublin slams Johnson's leaked Brexit plan for Ireland's border


RT
Tue, 01 Oct 2019 11:13 UTC
Johnson/Varadkar
© Reuters/Phil Noble
Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson meets with Ireland's Prime Minister (Taoiseach) Leo Varadkar in Dublin.
Boris Johnson's leaked Brexit proposals to solve the contentious Irish backstop issue have been rejected out of hand by the Republic of Ireland, as the British PM insists the UK will make an official offer to the EU very soon.

Irish broadcaster RTE reported on Monday night that it had received leaked 'non-papers' (background proposals) from the UK officials to solve the intractable Brexit crisis.

RTE's Europe editor, Tony Connelly, claimed on social media that Brexit plans included a number of "customs clearance centres" that would be located 5-10 miles back from the Irish border. He tweeted that the "centres" would effectively be customs posts and operate on either side of the border.
      Read More...
Bulb

Peruvian President Vizcarra dissolves entire congress for blocking anti-corruption reforms

Greg Norman
Fox News
Tue, 01 Oct 2019 18:36 UTC
Vizcarra
© AP/Peruvian presidential press office
Peru's President Martin Vizcarra delivers a national message from the government palace in Lima, Peru, on Monday.
Peru's government is in the midst of a political crisis Tuesday after its president dissolved the country's congress for failing to support his anti-corruption reforms - only for lawmakers to respond by suspending him from office and appointing his vice president as their new leader.

President Martín Vizcarra's actions against the opposition-controlled congress were met with cheers early Tuesday morning by thousands of people who took to the streets of its capital, Lima, waving Peruvian flags, chanting and carrying signs with phrases like "Get out, corrupt politicians!"

Others tried to force their way into the legislature to get lawmakers out, but were driven back by police with tear gas.
      Read More...
No Entry

'Shut him up!' Biden wants Giuliani kicked off TV news, after Trump lawyer lays out Biden's crimes

Gregg Re
Fox News
Tue, 01 Oct 2019 18:18 UTC
Biden Giuliani
© Florida Politics/Mark Reinstein/Shutterstock
Former VP Joe Biden (L) Lawyer Rudi Giuliani (R)
Joe Biden's presidential campaign requested in a letter on Sunday that major news networks not invite President Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani anymore, after Giuliani spent the morning on a series of talk shows aggressively highlighting what he called Biden's apparently corrupt dealings in Ukraine and China.

The Biden campaign wrote to NBC News, CBS News, Fox News and CNN to voice "grave concern that you continue to book Rudy Giuliani on your air to spread false, debunked conspiracy theories on behalf of Donald Trump," according to The Daily Beast, which first reported the existence of the letter.

The memo, drafted by Biden aides Kate Bedingfield and Anita Dunn, continued: "While you often fact check his statements in real time during your discussions, that is no longer enough. By giving him your air time, you are allowing him to introduce increasingly unhinged, unfounded and desperate lies into the national conversation."


Comment: Have the Dems finally overreached themselves?



      Read More...
Bad Guys

Latvian defense minister praises Waffen-SS legion as 'heroes'


RT
Tue, 01 Oct 2019 18:25 UTC
Latvian Waffen
© The Museum of the Occupation of Latvia / okupacijasmuzejs.lv
In a disturbing example of revising the role of Nazi collaborators in World War II, a Latvian minister said veterans, his compatriots who fought in the Waffen-SS, were "heroes" and memories of their sacrifice must be cherished.

"It is our duty to honor these Latvian patriots from all the depths of our souls," Defense Minister Artis Pabriks told the crowd during a memorial event on Saturday.

He then called the Latvian legionnaires - Nazi collaborators now praised as freedom-fighters for their anti-Soviet alignment - "heroes" and "the pride of the Latvian nation and state."
      Read More...
Headphones

Julian Assange's lawyers were placed under surveillance. But that's not the whole story

Tom Coburg
The Canary
Sun, 29 Sep 2019 17:49 UTC
assange
© Flickr/Cancillería del Ecuador
Julian Assange at the Embassy of Ecuador, London
A private security company organised 24/7 surveillance of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during his stay at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. This included confidential meetings between Assange and members of his legal team. The surveillance was provided directly to the CIA. These revelations could possibly jeopardise the viability of the US extradition case.

But within this story there lies another that raises serious questions about the establishment media and allegiances.

CIA streaming

According to El Pais, Spanish security firm UC Global was responsible for the surveillance of Assange when he was a guest of the Ecuadorian government at their London embassy. UC Global, a firm with an address in Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz), was hired by Senain, the former Ecuadorian intelligence service, ostensibly to provide protection for Assange.

Comment:

      Read More...
Mr. Potato

Poroshenko fails to show up for tax-evasion lie detector test


RFE/RL
Tue, 01 Oct 2019 17:50 UTC
Poroshenko

"I'm Petro 'Ukronazi' Poroshenko, and I approve this message"
Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has failed to show up for a polygraph test at the Kyiv Forensics Research Institute in a tax evasion case.

A representative for the institute, Yuriy Irkhin, told reporters on October 1 that Poroshenko's questioning was scheduled for the morning but the former president never turned up.

Irkhin added that even several hours after the appointed time, the institute was ready to perform questioning with a lie detector. However, that chance never materialized.

A court in Kyiv granted permission for authorities to administer a polygraph test to Poroshenko in August.

The former president told reporters on August 12 that he is ready to answer questions with the use of a polygraph, but only in the studio of the Pryamiy (Direct) television channel, adding that he did not trust the State Bureau for Investigations (DBR).

However, Irkhin told journalists that it was impossible to conduct polygraph questioning in a live broadcast.
      Read More...
Russian Flag

Four years of Russian counterterrorism operations in Syria: Key facts to know


Sputnik
Mon, 30 Sep 2019 17:18 UTC
Assad putin Shoigu Syria
© Sputnik / Michael Klimentyev
President of Russia Vladimir Putin, President of Syria Bashar al-Assad (left) and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu at the Hmeymim Air Base in Syria
Monday marks the fourth anniversary of the counterterrorism operation the Russian Armed Forces carried out in Syria at the latter's request.

The Syrian conflict, which began in March 2011, continues to this day. The Daesh* and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly known as the Nusra Front), have been the most active extremist groups during the conflict.

Since September 2014, an international coalition led by the United States has been attacking Daesh positions in Syria. However, the operation is being conducted without the approval of the UN Security Council or Damascus.

By the fall of 2015, the situation in Syria was critical. As of September 30, 2015, only 8 percent of the country's territory was under government control.

Comment: No country has done more to advance the overall cause of peace in the Middle East. Russian diplomacy is a gift to the world.

      Read More...
Dollar Gold

Ex-MI6 chief sez Saddam Hussein 'bribed Jacques Chirac' to oppose the US-led Iraq war

Abdul Taher and Peter Henn
Daily Mail
Sat, 28 Sep 2019 02:54 UTC
Jacques Chirac
© AFP/Getty images
Former French President Jacques Chirac (pictured in 2007) died at the age of 86 'surrounded by his family', according to his son in law. During his time in office Chirac had led an alliance of France, Germany and Russia against plans by the US and Britain to invade Iraq
Jacques Chirac was paid millions of pounds in bribes by Saddam Hussein to oppose the US-led war in Iraq, according to intelligence revealed for the first time by Britain's former spy chief.

Sir Richard Dearlove - head of MI6 in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 - spoke out as recent obituaries for the former French President cited his principled opposition to US President George Bush's plans for military action.

But the former spymaster, speaking exclusively to The Mail on Sunday, revealed that Chirac's true motive for opposing the Gulf War was because he accepted 'substantial amounts' of cash from the Iraqi tyrant for his election

Comment: Dead men tell no tales! RT aptly states:
The chemistry between Chirac and Saddam is no secret and dated back to the 1970s, when the former was prime minister of France and the latter was vice president of Iraq. At that time, France supplied Iraq with technology for the Osirak nuclear plant, which the Iraqis dubbed O-Chirac after the Frenchman, and which was obliterated by a presumed Israeli air raid in 1981.

People have long been talking about dark money allegedly flowing from Saddam's personal pockets to Chirac's campaign coffers, but they were always unsubstantiated rumors. Now Dearlove has promoted the allegation to the level of US and UK intelligence services - which doesn't do much for its credibility, considering that the faulty basis for the 2003 Iraq war came from the same source.

Neither does the fact that Dearlove is taking a swing at Chirac's reputation when the late statesman is no longer capable of responding.
The Guardian from 2016 states:
Blair responded that the intelligence was clear: Saddam had revived his WMD programme. However, the French president, Jacques Chirac, had a different view. He told me and the International Atomic Energy Agency chief, Mohamed ElBaradei, that he thought there were no WMD and that the various national intelligence agencies had "intoxicated" each other when sharing information. They had. In addition, the cautionary question marks they sometimes provided had been replaced by exclamation marks at the political level.

Blair and other leaders misrepresented reality, urging a war over the faulty picture they had created.


      Read More...
Gold Bar

Chinese authorities find 13.5 tons of gold piled in corrupt ex-governor's home


RT
Tue, 01 Oct 2019 16:27 UTC
gold
One Chinese official has some serious explaining to do after investigators came across mounds of gold in his house in Haikou City, Hainan province.

Zhang Qi, a member of provincial and municipal party committees, was reportedly undergoing a disciplinary review and being investigated for possible illegality when the enormous stash was uncovered.


Authorities found some 13.5 tons of gold, as well as millions of yuan in cash and antiques, plus evidence of a huge portfolio of luxury real estate. According to local reports, the disciplinary commission announced in early September that they were looking into the ex-governor's affairs.

Officials convicted of 'economic crimes' or corruption can face the death penalty in China.

Comment: That's around $650 million in gold, give or take. Graft is one of the perks of political power, no matter what the political system may be. But as RT notes, China has the death penalty for economic crimes of this sort. Politics may have the potential for obscenely high - and highly unethical - payoffs, but the stakes are equally high. And they have been throughout history, the power elites' acquisitiveness bounded only by the hands of their equally powerful peers (and competitors). For more on this history, see:

      Read More...
MIB

Our man on Twitter: Senior Twitter exec Gordon MacMillan outed as British Army information warrior

Kit Klarenberg
Sputnik
Mon, 30 Sep 2019 13:50 UTC
gordan macmillan 77th brigade twitter psyops
Gordon MacMillan, a senior Twitter staffer with editorial responsibility for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, joined the social media giant's UK office in April 2013 - however it's unclear when he was recruited to 77th Brigade, the British army's shadowy psychological warfare unit.

Nonetheless, an official army notice published July 2018 notes Gordon MacMillan was appointed "Second Lieutenant (on probation)" in Reserve Group 'A' in February 2016 - and somewhat ironically given 77th Brigade's undercover nature, MacMillan for some time made no secret of his involvement, openly advertising on his LinkedIn that he was "a reserve officer in the British Army serving in 77th Brigade, which specialises in non-lethal engagement". Since his very public exposure by Middle East Eye, all references to the Brigade have been expunged from his profile - although 'Royal Military Academy Sandhurst' is still listed under 'Education'.

Comment: More on Gordan MacMillan and the activities of the 77th Brigade psyops.

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