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Israeli TV still pushing 'Hezbollah involvement in Beirut explosion', claims Lebanese org. 'wanted ammonium nitrate for third war with Jewish state'


The Times of Israel
Sat, 08 Aug 2020 01:09 UTC

Comment: Israeli media still hasn't let go of insinuating that 'Hezbollah did it' (i.e. is responsible, in one way or another, for blowing up half of Beirut last week). Wethinks the lady doth protesteth too much...


Beirut explosion
© Twitter
Explosion in Beirut's port, August 4, 2020
Hezbollah apparently planned to use the ammonium nitrate stockpile that caused a massive blast at Beirut's port this week against Israel in a "Third Lebanon War," according to an unsourced assessment publicized on Israel's Channel 13 Friday night.

The report was broadcast hours after Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, gave a speech "categorically" denying that his group had stored any weapons or explosives at Beirut's port, following the massive explosion there Tuesday that has claimed over 157 lives and wounded thousands. He said:
"I would like to absolutely, categorically rule out anything belonging to us at the port. No weapons, no missiles, or bombs or rifles or even a bullet or ammonium nitrate. No cache, no nothing. Not now, not ever."
Israel has not formally alleged that Hezbollah was connected to the Tuesday blast.


Comment: ...but it keeps hinting at exactly that...


Comment: IF this was an Israeli operation, then you really have to hand it to them; they have quite possibly won the 'Third Lebanon War' in one (vicious) strike.

But, maybe that's ascribing too much cunning to them. Maybe they're just cleverly taking advantage of a scenario ('kick Hezbollah while they're down') they wish to overlay on an otherwise tragic accident.

See also:

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Propaganda

NYT offers more unnamed sources for 'Trump-Russia' narrative as media resurrects hysteria ahead of 2020 election


RT
Sun, 09 Aug 2020 08:41 UTC
Trump Times
© Top Right News
US President Donald Trump
The New York Times has once again broadcast the musings of anonymous officials to insinuate Donald Trump is somehow in cahoots with Russia, amid a growing resurgence in debunked Russiagate theories ahead of the November election.

The paper ran an exclusive report purportedly detailing the US president's battle with intelligence agencies over allegations that Moscow had interfered with the 2016 presidential contest. According to unnamed sources cited by the NYT, Trump was unresponsive and dismissive of an intelligence assessment which claimed that he is Russia's "favored" candidate in the 2020 race. One anonymous senior official complained to the Times that "you just didn't talk about" alleged Russian meddling with Trump, because the president "assumed you were calling his election into question."

More than ten paragraphs into the story, the NYT mentions in passing that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation found no evidence of "collusion" between the Kremlin and Trump's election campaign. Undaunted by inconvenient facts, the long-winded feature suggests that Trump is now turning a blind eye to the Kremlin's devious machinations as the November election approaches.
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Dollar

Who profits from the Beirut Tragedy?

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
Sat, 08 Aug 2020 00:00 UTC
Aftermath Lebanon
© satimage
Aftermath in Beirut
The narrative that the Beirut explosion was an exclusive consequence of negligence and corruption by the current Lebanese government is now set in stone, at least in the Atlanticist sphere. And yet, digging deeper, we find that negligence and corruption may have been fully exploited, via sabotage, to engineer it.

Lebanon is prime John Le Carré territory. A multinational den of spies of all shades - House of Saud agents, Zionist operatives, "moderate rebel" weaponizers, Hezbollah intellectuals, debauched Arab "royalty," self-glorified smugglers - in a context of full spectrum economic disaster afflicting a member of the Axis of Resistance, a perennial target of Israel alongside Syria and Iran.

As if this were not volcanic enough, into the tragedy stepped President Trump to muddy the - already contaminated - Eastern Mediterranean waters. Briefed by "our great generals," Trump on Tuesday said: "According to them - they would know better than I would - but they seem to think it was an attack." Trump added, "it was a bomb of some kind."

Comment: Who benefits? As they say...follow the money, match the fingerprints, sit back and watch.

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Chess

Biden's game plan: Take no risks and run out the clock

Patrick J. Buchanan
buchanan.org
Fri, 07 Aug 2020 00:00 UTC
Biden
© Flickr/Gage Skidmore
Former VP and presidential candidate Joe Biden
A second hurdle for Biden is his speech accepting the Democratic nomination. The country would be watching intently to see if the Biden of August 2020 had lost the mental and communication skills he once had. But Biden's advisers bypassed that hurdle this week by declaring that the pandemic prevents Biden from traveling to the Milwaukee convention.

When Vice President Calvin Coolidge ascended to the presidency on the death of Warren Harding in 1923, a wag remarked that Silent Cal's career had exhibited unmistakable signs of celestial intervention.

Governor Coolidge vaulted to national attention during the Boston police strike of 1919, where, in a stinging letter to Sam Gompers of the AFL, he thundered: "There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, any time."

If Joe Biden becomes president, celestial intervention, once again, cannot be ruled out.

Comment: Here's four of many reasons to gasp at a future Biden presidency:

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People 2

'It's okay when Chuck Schumer says it?' Democrat senator says schools must reopen or economy suffers


RT
Fri, 07 Aug 2020 22:04 UTC
Schumer
© Newsday
Senator Chuck Schumer, (D-NY)
Republicans and Democrats failed to reach a compromise on a Covid-19 economic relief bill, but one comment from Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-New York) about schools needing to reopen has some seeing hypocrisy on the left.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-California) and Schumer addressed the press after failed negotiations with Republicans on a potential relief bill. While many of their complaints about Republicans refusing to continue robust unemployment and other government programs was to be expected, one comment from Schumer went viral as it didn't seem to match the outrage shown to President Donald Trump when he mentioned the same thing.

"If you don't open up the schools, you're going to hurt the economy significantly," Schumer said, "because lots of people can't go to work."

The president has floated the idea of fully reopening most schools in the fall despite the coronavirus pandemic, but he has found pushback with liberal critics each and every time.

Comment: Even if Dems and Reps are on the same page, Americans are programmed to choose a side - no matter the issue.

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Star of David

Trump's quarrel with mega-donor Sheldon Adelson could be good news for Mideast peace

James North
Mondoweiss
Sun, 09 Aug 2020 17:59 UTC
Trump adelson wife miriam
© Israeli American Council National Summet/Screenshot
Miriam and Sheldon Adelson present Trump with a menorah, Dec. 7, 2019.
The New York Times today buried some news that could turn out to be vital to peace in the Middle East over the next few months. Toward the end of a report on Trump's bizarre press conference/campaign rally at his private club in New Jersey last night, the paper revealed that he is quarreling with Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire pro-Israel mega-donor:
Earlier in the week, Mr. Trump had a tense phone call with the casino magnate Sheldon G. Adelson, whom the president upbraided for not donating more to support his re-election, according to a person familiar with the call. Mr. Adelson and his wife donated $10 million to a super PAC supporting Mr. Trump in 2018, and have each written checks for nearly $600,000 during this cycle.

Comment: Curious indeed. More on Zionism's fanatical backer:

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Dollar

Trump gives $35 million to aid human trafficking victims

Darlene Superville
AP
Tue, 04 Aug 2020 17:47 UTC
kushner ivanka trump
The Trump administration on Tuesday announced more than $35 million in Justice Department grants to organizations that provide safe housing for victims of human trafficking.

Attorney General William Barr and presidential adviser Ivanka Trump announced the awards at a White House event attended by human trafficking victims and organizations that serve them.

Barr called human trafficking an "evil scourge," and he thanked President Donald Trump and his daughter Ivanka for working to end human trafficking and help survivors. Beyond the financial support, Barr said his department will do everything possible to "investigate, prosecute and punish" traffickers.

Ivanka Trump called human trafficking the "gravest of human rights violations." She said the event was a "celebration" of the work by the administration and the participants to confront trafficking, as well as an opportunity to hear victims tell their personal stories.

Later in the program, Barr became emotional and partly covered his face with a hand as those stories were being told.
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Arrow Down

Esper confirms U.S. will cut troop levels in Afghanistan to 'less than 5,000'


Reuters
Sat, 08 Aug 2020 17:44 UTC
Mark Esper
© Olivier Doullery (AFP)
U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper
The United States plans to cut its troop levels in Afghanistan to "a number less than 5,000" by the end of November, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said in an interview broadcast on Saturday, adding detail to drawdown plans U.S. President Donald Trump announced earlier this week.

The United States currently has about 8,600 troops in Afghanistan. Trump said in an interview released Monday by Axios that the United States planned to lower that number to about 4,000.

Esper announced the lower troop levels in a Fox News interview.

Comment: See also:

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Clipboard

Pentagon report says US's Kurdish allies in Syria recruiting child soldiers


Sputnik
Sun, 09 Aug 2020 17:34 UTC
Kurds flag SDF
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed coalition of mostly Kurdish militia units operating in northeastern Syria, has maintained de-facto control over much of the oil-rich eastern area of that Middle Eastern nation since the start of the Syrian conflict in the early 2010s.

A new report to Congress by the Office of the Inspector General at the US Department of Defence has criticised the SDF militias' ongoing practice of recruiting child soldiers, with the militia forces reportedly promising to stop doing so since at least 2014.

"Considerable additional detail on the SDF's actions to end the use of child soldiers subject was provided in the [Department of State] Country Report on Human Rights Conditions section for Syria for 2019, issued in March 2020, but the report also notes allegations that children were still being forcibly conscripted and that at least one 14-year-old boy was killed in fighting in Baghouz in early 2019," the report indicates.

"Each year's edition of the DoS Country Reports...since 2014 have contained similar promises by Kurdish entities partnered with the United States to end the use of child soldiers, and each report notes that their use apparently continued," the document notes.

Commenting on this state of affairs for the report, the State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs said that this was an issue "limited more to the YPG [Kurdish People's Protection Unit militias] rather than the SDF or internal security forces as a whole."
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Bad Guys

Covid tyranny: Iran's restrictions to last through January 2021 - at least


RFE/RL
Sun, 09 Aug 2020 17:27 UTC
iranian woman mask covid
© EPA-EFE
Iranian President Hassan Rohani says a state of emergency imposed in the country because of the coronavirus pandemic will remain in place at least until the end of January 2021.

"We have been in this situation for six months and we must prepare ourselves for another six months at least," Rohani said in a statement published on his website on August 9.

Rohani said any complete easing of public health restrictions is not planned for now.

"We must find a middle way between normality and sticking to the virus restrictions," he said.

Comment: See also:

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