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Human costs of US 'regime change' in Venezuela: Hyperinflation hit 130,000% last year


RT
Thu, 30 May 2019 09:45 UTC
Bolivar notes Venezuelan currency
© Reuters / Carlos Garcia Rawlins
Bolivar notes
Venezuela's inflation has been soaring dramatically and reached 130,060 percent in 2018, the country's central bank said in its first report on key economic indicators since 2015.

The latest data from the watchdog released on Tuesday means that an item that cost 1 bolivar in 2017, cost 1,300 bolivares a year later. Even compared to the huge inflation spike in 2017 of 862.6 percent, last year was disastrous for the country's economy.

Venezuela's central bank published its previous report three years ago. Before the latest release, inflation data and forecasts were published by the opposition-controlled National Assembly and some international organizations. For example, the International Monetary Fund projected an inflation of over 10 million percent for this and next year.
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Bad Guys

Glenn Greenwald: US war on Assange a 'blueprint' for criminalizing journalism


RT
Thu, 30 May 2019 09:45 UTC
Julian Assange protest
© Reuters / Henry Nicholls
The latest indictments of WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange are a blueprint for making journalists into felons, a test case for dismantling the First Amendment that will destroy journalism as we know it, Glenn Greenwald warned.

"If Assange can be declared guilty of espionage for working with sources to obtain and publish information deemed 'classified' by the US government, then there's nothing to stop the criminalization of every other media outlet that routinely does the same," Greenwald wrote in a Washington Post op-ed on Tuesday, highlighting what he considers "the greatest threat to press freedom in the Trump era, if not the last several decades."

By redefining Assange's actions as "espionage" rather than "journalism" or "publishing," the Trump administration seeks to exempt him from legal protections governing speech that belong to everyone, from the Post itself to the lowliest blogger, the Intercept editor and former civil rights attorney explains.
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Eye 1

Report: Sanctioned TV mogul was US 'point man' in failed Venezuela coup


RT
Thu, 30 May 2019 09:45 UTC
Raúl Gorrín
© Instagram / raulgorrinb
Raúl Gorrín, president of the TV network Globovision
A TV mogul wanted in the US on money laundering and bribery charges was a mediator between Washington and Caracas officials, offering them sanctions relief in exchange for turning on the government, a new report says.

One of the key figures behind the abortive April 30 uprising intended to oust President Nicolas Maduro in favor of the US-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido was Raúl Gorrín, president of the TV network Globovision, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

Gorrín, who fled the US after he was indicted for money laundering and bribery last November, was acting as a go-between with three senior Venezuelan officials who were seen as key to regime change in Caracas: chief justice of the Supreme Court Maikel Moreno, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino, and military counter-intelligence chief General Ivan Hernández.
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Target

Austria's 'Russiagate' setup targeted EuroRealists just as much as the FPO

Andrew Korybko
Eurasia Future
Mon, 20 May 2019 12:00 UTC
Heinz-Christian Strache Johann Gudenus
© AFP / Spiegel and Sueddeutsche Zeitung
Heinz-Christian Strache and party member Johann Gudenus meet with the woman in Ibiza
The most immediate target of Austria's "Russiagate" setup was obviously the Russian-friendly FPO, but the timing at which the scandal broke two years after the fact strongly suggests that the real target is the rest of the EU's EuroRealist parties ahead of the upcoming European Parliamentary elections this weekend.

Austria's "Russiagate" scandal was a "deep state" setup to to frame the leader of the FPO as an overly wiling "Russian puppet" (a role that he all too eagerly played) in order to later take down the coalition government that he was a part of precisely at the point when his country was approaching a strategic partnership with Russia, thereby allowing the Mainstream Media to reframe the rapid rapprochement between the two as a "Russian conspiracy" to "capture control" of the Central European country that forms a crucial part of both the Polish-led "Three Seas Initiative" and prospectively even China's Belt & Road Initiative (BRI). There's more to it than just that, however, as both the French Economy Minister and German Chancellor Merkel hinted in a pair of quotes that were included by Reuters in one of its recent reports on the issue.

Comment: Judging by the big wins for nationalist parties in the UK, France, and Italy, any effect the contrived scandal had was regional and will likely not be very long lasting. As for who the likely plotters were, check out SOTT's analysis: NATO 'Deep State' And Israeli Interests Served by Ousting of Austrian Government

See also: Mossad was behind video leak that led to collapse of Austrian government - German Ex-Spy Chief

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Bullseye

Mossad behind video leak that collapsed Austrian government - German ex-spy chief


Sputnik
Tue, 28 May 2019 12:04 UTC
mossad
© CC0
Austrian politics has been rocked by "Ibiza-gate" allegations that the country's vice chancellor was discussing the possibility of a foreign citizen investing into a local newspaper in exchange for favourable media coverage.

Rudolf Adam, a former diplomat and deputy head of Germany's Federal Intelligence Service, claims that the scandal that turned Austria's politics upside down was orchestrated by Israeli secret services.

Writing for the political magazine Cicero, Adam argues that the plan to bring down Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache with an explosive video leak was unlikely to have been hatched by the United States, which is currently "fully occupied with Korea, Iran and China".

Comment: For more, check out SOTT's analysis: NATO 'Deep State' And Israeli Interests Served by Ousting of Austrian Government

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Arrow Down

Ukraine returns citizenship to eccentric fugitive former Georgian president Saakashvili


RT
Wed, 29 May 2019 11:49 UTC
Mikheil Saakashvili
© Reuters / Kacper Pempel
Mikheil Saakashvili with reporters in Warsaw, Poland, 2018
Ukraine's newly minted President Volodymyr Zelensky has restored the Ukrainian citizenship of Mikheil Saakashvili, the former Georgian president and onetime governor of Odessa.

"Thank you President Zelensky! Glory to Ukraine," Saakashvili announced on Facebook on Tuesday, linking to the presidential decree granting him re-entry. Saakashvili later said he will return to Ukraine on Wednesday.

Saakashvili served as Georgia's head of state from 2004 to 2007, and again from 2008 to 2013. He presided over the caucasian state during its conflict with Russia in 2008, and traded his Georgian citizenship for Ukrainian papers in 2015. After serving as governor of the Odessa region, Saakashvili was booted from Ukraine by then-President Petro Poroshenko in 2017, and barred from entering the country until 2021.

Comment: Mikheil Saakashvili: The tie-eating, rabble rousing nutball the neocons wanted in NATO

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Bizarro Earth

Tehran "ready for war" with US, but hopes for dialogue and peace - Iran's deputy FM


RT
Wed, 29 May 2019 10:11 UTC
Iranian Army
© Reuters / Raheb Homavandi
FILE PHOTO: Members of the Iranian Army
Iran is prepared for the possibility of war with the United States, but hopes instead that tensions between the two nations can be solved with dialogue, the country's deputy foreign minister has said.

"We hope that we can start a dialogue, but we are ready for war," Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told RIA Novosti.

He stressed that Iran was aware of "certain elements" within the US government pushing for war with Iran, even though such a conflict would be "catastrophic" for the entire Middle East.

"We know that there are certain elements and people who are trying to push the United States to war with Iran for their own ends. However, we hope that wisdom will prevail in Washington," he said.

Comment: Trump said himself that, despite what he wants to do, there are some in the US who are always pushing for war:
'You know what I'll do, I'll leave a couple hundred soldiers behind,' but if it was up to them, they'd bring thousands of soldiers in. Someday people will explain it, but you do have a group, and they call it the military-industrial complex. They never want to leave. They always want to fight."
See also:

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Light Sabers

US-China trade war could cost global economy $600 billion


RT
Tue, 28 May 2019 00:00 UTC
Shipping Containers
© Global Look Press / Jacek Sopotnicki
Whoever wins the bitter trade row between the two biggest world economies, the US or China, the consequences are set to spread far beyond... erasing up to $600 billion off global GDP, according to a Bloomberg forecast.

Trade representatives from Washington and Beijing had been soothing the markets as they indicated that they were on the verge of a deal, before the trade war reignited two weeks ago. After the two sides introduced tit-for-tat tariff hikes, the trade conflict then turned into a technological war as the Trump administration blacklisted Chinese telecom giant Huawei and has been pressing its overseas allies to ditch the company's 5G equipment.

Comment: In the trade war with China, US will cause a major ruckus before losing the fight

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Snakes in Suits

US threatens suspension of F-35 training and sanctions if Turkey buys Russia's S-400s

Humeyra Pamuk
Reuters
Tue, 28 May 2019 11:37 UTC
F-35 aircraft
© REUTERS/Axel Schmidt/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A Lockheed Martin F-35 aircraft is seen at the ILA Air Show in Berlin, Germany, April 25, 2018.
The United States is seriously considering suspending training for Turkish pilots on advanced F-35 fighter jets as Ankara moves ahead with plans to purchase a Russian missile defense system despite objections from Washington, sources told Reuters on Tuesday.

The two NATO allies have argued for months over Turkey's order for the Russian S-400 defenses, which Washington says are incompatible with the Western alliance's defense network and would pose a threat to American F-35 stealth fighters which Turkey also plans to buy.

The two sources, who are familiar with Turkey's role in the F-35 program and who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a final decision had not yet been made.

The deliberation follows signs that Turkey is moving ahead with the S-400 purchase. Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on May 22 that Turkish military personnel were receiving training in Russia to use the S-400, and said Russian personnel may come to Turkey.

Comment: The US has been threatening something similar for a while but Turkey hasn't backed down, and why would it? The S-400s are the best in its class and an amicable relationship is in Turkey's best interests:

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Star of David

Mossad spied on Austria's Haider


UPI
Thu, 02 Jun 2005 21:48 UTC
joerg haider

Joerg Haider, arguably the first European 'populist' of the modern era
The Israeli secret service, Mossad, spied on Jörg Haider, the right-wing Austrian populist, The London Times newspaper reported Thursday.

Mossad used Peter Sichrovsky, one of Haidar's closest aides, to gather information on his contacts with Arab dictators. Sichrovsky said he had been a Mossad informant for five years until retiring from politics in 2002.

"I wanted to help Israel and certainly did not do anything wrong," said Sichrovsky, who was secretary-general of Haider's Freedom Party and a member of the European Parliament.

The Austrian state prosecutor said Wednesday he would open an investigation to determine whether Sichrovsky should be prosecuted. Spying for a foreign power carries in Austria a jail sentence of up to three years.

The revelations, in the news weekly Profil, stunned the Austrian political class. The Jewish community had regarded Sichrovsky as a traitor, while anti-Semitic Freedom Party activists made no secret of their distrust.

The Freedom Party became a member of Austria's governing coalition in 1999, prompting a diplomatic boycott by the European Union. Haider had publicly praised the SS and Hitler's employment policies. Israel withdrew its ambassador.

Comment: Three years later, following his most successful election result in 2008, he was dead.

This is not to suggest that it was necessarily the Israelis who took him out in a covert assassination. They would not have been the only ones with means and motive.

Nevertheless, it's interesting that Mossad, spying operations, and Austrian 'far-right' leaders have a colorful recent history, given what happened in Vienna last week...

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