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Weapons worth $8 billion headed to Middle East without congressional approval

David Brown
Politico
Fri, 24 May 2019 18:19 UTC
congress weapons
© Alex Wong/Getty Images
The Trump administration on Friday notified Congress it plans to sell $8.1 billion worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates without congressional approval - a move that has incensed members from both parties who have sought to cut off military aid for the Saudi-led coalition fighting Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen.

The decision covers 22 pending transfers of munitions, aircraft parts, and other supplies "to deter Iranian aggression and build partner self-defense capacity," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement. "These sales will support our allies, enhance Middle East stability, and help these nations to deter and defend themselves from the Islamic Republic of Iran."

Normally such sales are subject to congressional approval. But Trump is using a loophole in the Arms Export Control Act that allows him to bypass the process in case of emergency. The move is similar to Trump's declaration of a border emergency this year, which allowed him to divert military funds to pay for border barriers.

Comment: See also:

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Stock Up

How Trump is Strengthening Xi Jinping And The CCP

Chris Kanthan
Sott.net
Sat, 25 May 2019 19:59 UTC
Huawei USA
Trump and the entire group of US political and corporate elites are doing Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) an incredible favor. Trump and his team are obviously thinking that signing a death sentence for Huawei and arresting its CFO will give him a "huge" advantage when he meets Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in a month.

However, the US actions are going to backfire horribly.
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Target

Yemeni insurgents successfully target two Saudi oil plants with multiple drone strikes


Al Jazeera
Tue, 14 May 2019 19:32 UTC

Comment: This story SHOULD have rattled the markets and sent the price of oil sky high. But because the media largely airbrushes out Yemeni successes against Saudi targets, the illusion of stability on the Arabian Peninsula is maintained...


houthis yemen drones
© Hussam Al-Sanabani/Twitter
Houthi leader Saleh Alsmad unveils a Qasef-1 drone, an indigenous hi-tech development, on February 26, 2017
Aramco oil stations targeted as Houthi-run media says military operation a response to 'continued aggression'.

Armed drones attacked two oil pumping stations in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday in what Riyadh called a "cowardly" act by Yemen's Houthi rebels, two days after Saudi oil tankers were sabotaged off the coast of the United Arab Emirates.

The drone strikes caused minor damage to one of the stations supplying a pipeline running from its oil-rich Eastern Province to the Yanbu Port on the Red Sea, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said in a statement carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency.

"These attacks prove again that it is important for us to face terrorist entities, including the Houthi militias in Yemen that are backed by Iran," Falih said.

A fire that broke out was later brought under control, but the country's state-run oil giant Aramco stopped pumping oil through the pipeline.

Comment: Hurrah for the Yemenis in their efforts to liberate their country from the Saudi-Western yoke.

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MIB

Iranian lawmaker blames 'Israeli mischief' for tanker attacks off UAE coast


Reuters
Tue, 14 May 2019 19:04 UTC
oil tanker sabotage persian gulf
© Emirati National Media Council/AFP
The Norwegian oil tanker Andrea Victory was sabotaged in the Strait of Hormuz, almost certainly by the usual suspects
The tanker attacks off the coast of the United Arab Emirates were "Israeli mischief," an Iranian parliamentary spokesman said on Tuesday, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).

"The events that took place in the Emirates were Israeli mischief," Behrouz Nemati said, without providing any details on what role Israel may have played in the attacks.

Saudi Arabia said on Monday that two of its oil tankers were among those attacked off the coast of the Emirates and described it as an attempt to undermine the security of crude supplies amid tensions between the United States and Iran.

The UAE said on Sunday that four commercial vessels were sabotaged near Fujairah emirate, one of the world's largest bunkering hubs lying just outside the Strait of Hormuz. It did not describe the nature of the attack or say who was behind it.

Comment: In December 2010, Tareq Abdul Razzaq Hassan, an Egyptian businessman accused of working for Israeli intelligence services, told Egyptian authorities that Israeli sabotage had been to blame for the December 2008 spate of undersea cable-snipping...

Undersea Internet Cables Cut AGAIN!

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Yoda

Assange gets handwritten letter out from Belmarsh prison: "I am defenseless. Everyone else must take my place"


RT
Sat, 25 May 2019 17:09 UTC
assange extradition protest
© Reuters/Henry Nicholls
In a handwritten letter from Belmarsh prison, WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange says he is being denied a chance to defend himself and that elements in the US that "hate truth, liberty and justice" want him extradited and dead.

The letter was sent to independent British journalist Gordon Dimmack. It was dated May 13 - ten days before the US announced 17 additional charges under the Espionage Act against the jailed whistleblower.

In light of the new indictment, Dimmack read out the letter in a YouTube video. A photo of the handwritten note was soon posted online as well.

Comment: Journalist Cassandra Fairbanks charges that the US seeks to intimidate reporters by indicting Assange:
The US is apparently seeking to lock Assange away for the rest of his life as an example for all other journalists around the world to see, Fairbanks said, commenting on the latest indictment against the whistleblower announced by a federal grand jury. Each of the 17 additional charges introduced under the Espionage Act carries a 10-year prison sentence, meaning that the Wikileaks founder could face up to 175 years in jail in total.

Fairbanks believes Assange might actually face a much more gruesome fate.

"I am not even convinced that they will not give him the death penalty. There are other espionage act charges that carry the death penalty," she told RT, adding that the US is likely to "throw everything they can at him."

Assange's prosecution goes beyond simply seeking to punish a man who exposed US atrocities, including the indiscriminate killing of civilians in Iraq as well as torture and mistreatment of prisoners, according to the journalist.

"They are sending a message that if you publish some leaks or something that the [US] government does not like, that is going to ruin your whole life. You can potentially go to jail forever."

The US government basically wants the people to give up hope that they will have any future at all if they ever dare to go against Washington, Fairbanks said.

"If there was something so important that you felt you needed to leak it, you could know that you would still have some of your life left afterwards. Now they are sending the message that you won't," she told RT.

The entire campaign against Assange is "a huge threat to the First Amendment, especially for the national security reporters," as it severely limits journalistic freedoms and puts reporters under indirect pressure from the US authorities.

"They are criminalizing journalism. That is exactly what they are doing and there is no way around it."

The fact that Assange is not even a US citizen and that he never committed any crime on US territory is particularly worrying, Fairbanks notes. She explained that this situation shows that pretty much any journalist from any country can become a victim of the US persecution and face extradition to America.

Fairbanks took particular issue with the indictment's claim that Assange endangered individuals working for the US government by publishing the classified government documents.

"To claim that the leaks harmed someone now would be ridiculous," she told RT.

During the 2010 trial of Chelsea Manning, the US Army intelligence analyst who provided Assange with the documents, the Pentagon itself confirmed that nobody was killed because of the leaks and nobody even had to be moved because of the leaks.

"I find it hard to believe that it would suddenly change, because the Pentagon had no interest in protecting Manning at that time," Fairbanks said.
There is little hope that Assange will be given a fair trial in the US justice system, former CIA analyst and whistleblower John Kiriakou, whose case was handled by the same District Court in Virginia, told RT.

According to Kiriakou, Assange should not count on the court's impartiality in his case: "They are going to try to make an example of Julian. He's been charged in the Eastern District of Virginia. His judge was also my judge and ex-Snowden's judge and [CIA whistleblower] Jeffry Sterling's judge who reserves every national security case for herself."

See also:

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Quenelle

British academic suing FBI informant Stephan Halper & MSM oulets for calling her a Russian 'honeypot'


RT
Sat, 25 May 2019 16:25 UTC
Svetlana Lokhova halper flynn
© BBC
Svetlana Lokhova
Characterized Halper as a 'ratf***er and spy'

A Russian-born British historian is suing FBI informant Stefan Halper and several news outlets for defaming her as a "honeypot" working for the Kremlin to seduce Trump aide Michael Flynn. She says the scandal ruined her life.

Former Cambridge University academic Svetlana Lokhova has demanded $25 million from Halper, along with the Washington Post, New York Times, MSNBC, and Wall Street Journal, charging their "combined character assassination" over the past three years "injured her business as an academic and author, and propelled her to the epicenter of a massive fraudulent hoax about 'Russian collusion.'"

Comment: Good for Ms Lokhova. Stephan Halper has left a decades-long trail of destruction in his wake. It's time he answered for it.


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Biohazard

'Not even the White Helmets confirm it': Russian MoD rubbishes Washington's Syria chemical attack claims


RT
Sat, 25 May 2019 13:45 UTC
A man rides on a motorbike in a crowded souk at the city of Idlib, Syria May 24, 2019
© Reuters / Khalil Ashawi
A man rides on a motorbike in a crowded souk at the city of Idlib, Syria May 24, 2019.
Moscow has blasted the US State Department's claims about an alleged chemical attack in Syria's Idlib province, saying the allegations totally lack proof and haven't even been confirmed by Western-backed groups on the ground.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that Washington's attempts to "impose another lie on this world" about the situation in Syria were "not even surprising anymore" as it denied that any such attack in Idlib took place.

The military also called out the US over the lack of evidence. When the State Department first reported an alleged attack on Tuesday it limited itself to saying that the US saw some "signs" it might have happened while failing to provide any details about the incident, except for the date on which it supposedly took place.

Comment: Also see:

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Quenelle - Golden

Modi Wins Second Term as India's PM Following 'Unexpected' Landslide Victory in Largest Ever Democratic Election - Globalist Media Seething

Niall Bradley
Sott.net
Sat, 25 May 2019 22:15 UTC
Narendra Modi
© Reuters/Adnan Abidi
The chattering classes everywhere called this one wrong too - hopelessly so. The leader of the world's largest democracy, Narendra Modi defied all 'official polls' and media attacks (Time Magazine called him the 'divider-in-chief') to win two-thirds of 600 million votes cast!

At first they embraced him because they need a strong India to check China geopolitically, but they're caught on the horns of their own dilemma because Modi's an anti-corruption nationalist who defies the broader multi-cultural agenda...
time modi divider-in-chief
India's establishment is against him. The globalist media is against him. But the Indian people love him.

Does this tale sound familiar?
Final results: Modi's party wins overwhelming majority in Indian parliament

RT, 24 May, 2019

India's ruling Hindu Nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party won 303 out of 525 seats in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament, securing President Narendra Modi's second term with his closest rival's party taking only 52 places.

Modi celebrated his landslide victory after official voting ended on Friday with well beyond the simple majority needed to form a government. A remarkable 600 million people cast votes, making the event the largest election in history.

"The voting numbers in India's election is the biggest event in the history of the democratic world. The entire world has to recognise the democratic strength of India," Modi told cheering crowds on Friday.

The Indian National Congress, Modi's largest competitor led by Rahul Gandhi, managed to win only 52 seats, while the All India Trinamool Congress led by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee took 22 spots. [...]

While no date has been set for the inauguration of the new government, BJP officials say Modi is already working on putting together his new cabinet.

World leaders, including President Donald Trump and regional rival Imran Khan of Pakistan, offered their congratulations. Media reports indicate that Modi will likely be sworn in next Thursday.
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Bulb

'Rational Americans & experienced commanders' won't let radicals in US go to war - Tehran


RT
Sat, 25 May 2019 07:20 UTC
US army
© FILE PHOTO Kim Hong-Ji / Pool / AFP
Cooler heads among the US population and the army will not allow hardliners to steer the country into an open war with Iran, a senior military official in Tehran said amid growing tensions in the Persian Gulf.

"We believe rational Americans and their experienced commanders will not let their radical elements lead them into a situation from which it would be very difficult to get out, and that is why they will not enter a war," Brigadier General Hassan Seifi, an assistant to the nation's army chief, told Mehr News Agency on Saturday.

The defense official said that throughout the years the US "was able to accurately assess the strength of our armed forces," and for that reason has never tried to attack Iran directly.

Comment: War with Iran is not in the best interests of the US for a great many reasons but that won't stop it from trying to coerce and intimidate Iran:

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Mr. Potato

UK heading for another Brexit extension in October - Juncker

Daniel Boffey
Guardian
Thu, 23 May 2019 08:13 UTC
may juncker
© John Thys/AFP/Getty Images
'It seems more important to replace the prime minister than to find an agreement,' Juncker said, describing May as a 'very tough person'.
Jean-Claude Juncker has suggested that the UK is drifting towards another Brexit extension in October as he criticised MPs for prioritising the prime minister's removal over finding agreement on a Brexit deal.

With May appearing on the brink of resignation, the European commission president spoke of his admiration for her resilience and his disdain for the attempts to remove her.

"What I don't like in the British debate is it seems more important to replace the prime minister than to find an agreement among themselves," Juncker said in an interview with CNN. "This is a woman who knows how to do things but she is unable to succeed in doing things. I like her very much; she is a tough person."

Comment: One would think that for an event of such import as leaving the EU it's critical to have the best leader to execute the job - should it actually ever come to pass - although, considering some of the potential leadership candidates, that's probably hoping for too much:

See also:

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