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Eye 1

Justin Trudeau demands tech giants 'fight back' against imaginary vote meddling

Peace Tower Ottawa Ontario
© Brent Lewin/Bloomberg
Justin Trudeau's government is threatening to crack down on Google, Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc., saying the tech giants aren't doing enough to help fight meddling in the lead-up to Canada's fall election.

Democratic Institutions Minister Karina Gould issued the warning Monday after one of the country's intelligence agencies concluded that foreign cyber interference is "highly likely" in the vote that will decide if Trudeau gets a second mandate.

"There's a lot left to be desired about how seriously they are taking these issues," Gould told reporters in Ottawa. While discussions with the American tech firms are ongoing, she said Canada is reviewing how its current laws apply to the companies and what new laws or regulations may be needed, given they haven't proven themselves able to self-regulate.

Comment: Also see:


Fire

Pakistani PM Imran Khan & his staff evacuated after fire breaks out at HQ

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan
A fire erupted on the sixth floor of Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan's offices in Islamabad on Monday, prompting the evacuation of staff as emergency services rushed to the scene.

The prime minister reportedly ordered his staff be taken to safety first while he continued to chair a meeting, before eventually evacuating to his Bani Gala residence as firefighters tackled the blaze.

"Fire broke out owing to a short-circuit in one specific area of the PM Secretariat," a spokesperson said, as cited by GeoTV.

Bad Guys

Why the 'Intelligence Community' aggressively pushed RussiaGate conspiracy theories

mueller john brennan

James Clapper behind John Brennan and Robert Muller
Why did anonymous members of the intelligence community and top Obama administration officials like James Comey, James Clapper, and John Brennan so aggressively push the Russia collusion narrative for over two years in the midst of ongoing investigations? Who does that? Why have these Obama alumni been so conspicuously loud in their protestations against the president?

"They doth protest too much," Monica Crowley explained in her Washington Times piece this week, as she fleshed out what many of us have been thinking from the beginning.
The best defense, the saying goes, is a good offense.

The key orchestrators of the Big Trump-Russia Collusion Lie seem to have hewed tightly to that tactical advice.

Over the past two years, one of their biggest "tells" has been their hyper-aggressive and gratuitous attacks on the president. Given that special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation found no collusion or obstruction of justice, their constant broadsides now look, in retrospect, like calculated pre-emptive strikes to deflect attention and culpability away from themselves.

By accusing Mr. Trump of what they themselves were guilty of, they created a masterful distraction through projection.

We now know that former FBI Director James Comey and his deputy, Andrew McCabe, are hip-deep in the conspiracy. Both wrote supposed "tell-all" books and carpet-bombed the media with interviews in which they regularly flung criminal accusations against the president. Whenever asked about their own roles, they reverted to denouncing Mr. Trump.

With Mr. Mueller's findings, Mr. Comey's and Mr. McCabe's media benders look increasingly suspicious.

As do those of their comrades in the Obama national security apparatus, including former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and his partner in possible crime, former CIA Director John Brennan, who, apart from former President Barack Obama himself, may be the biggest player of them all.

Evil Rays

It's good for Israel! US labels Iran's Revolutionary Guard as a foreign terrorist organization

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps
© Morteza Nikoubazl/Reuters
The U.S. has designated Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist group. Here, members of the force march during a 2007 military parade in Tehran.

Comment: The following development does not bode well for the Middle East and reeks of the neocon-inspired rhetoric that brought us Saddam's WMDs...


The Trump administration is designating Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization, taking an unprecedented step as it seems to increase pressure on Iran's regime. The move seems certain to bring a new level of tension between the two countries, as Iran's leaders have said they will retaliate in kind.

Iranian lawmakers have prepared legislation that would label the U.S. military as a terrorist group, according to Iran's state-run IRNA news agency.

President Trump announced the designation Monday morning, in a shift from the decades in which the U.S. has viewed Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism.

"This unprecedented step, led by the Department of State, recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a State Sponsor of Terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft," Trump said, in a White House statement. "The IRGC is the Iranian government's primary means of directing and implementing its global terrorist campaign."

MIB

Collateral damage: Cambridge academic on being set up by 'Spygate' figure Stephen Halper

Stephen Halper
© The Bill Walton Show/Youtube
Stephen Halper
A Cambridge University post-graduate student is speaking out about her interactions with Stefan Halper, a former Cambridge professor who was revealed in 2018 as a longtime FBI and CIA informant.

Svetlana Lokhova did not get along with Stefan Halper, which is what she says made a dinner invitation to the Cambridge University professor's home in January 2016 all the more peculiar.

"Halper was a lurking presence with a horrible aura - I avoided him," said Lokhova, a Cambridge post-graduate student who studies Soviet-era espionage.

Lokhova dodged the invitation to Halper's home, which she said was sent to her by Christopher Andrew, a Cambridge professor and official historian for MI5, the British domestic intelligence service. But the past three years have revealed new details about Halper and other activities that went on at Cambridge that have caused Lokhova to question why she was asked to that dinner at Halper's.

Comment: Entrapment seems to be Halper's thing. He has a long and sordid history of ops going all the way back to Jimmy Carter


Gold Bar

A revolution in world economies is underway thanks to the Bank for International Settlements' 'Basel III' policy

gold and cash
Real revolutions are taking place not on squares, but in the quiet of offices, and that's why nobody noticed the world revolution that took place on March 29th 2019. Only a small wave passed across the periphery of the information field, and the momentum faded away because the situation was described in terms unclear to the masses.

No "Freedom, equality, brotherhood", "Motherland or death", or "Power to Councils, peace to the people, bread to the hungry, factories to the worker, and land to the farmers" - none of these masterpieces of world populism were used. And that's why what happened was understood in Russia by only a few people. And they made such comments that the masses either did not fully listen to them or did not read up to the end. Or they did listen to the end, but didn't understand anything.

Comment: This explains perhaps what Russia, China, India and other countries (and even states within the US) have been anticipating - and why they have been accumulating gold so aggressively in recent years:


Light Saber

Kim Foxx's assistant prosecutor blasts her handling of Jussie Smollett case: 'An international laughingstock'

kim foxx
© Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty
Kim Foxx
Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx is facing blistering criticism from an anonymous assistant state's attorney in her office over the handling of Empire actor Jussie Smollett's case, who described the situation as "an international laughing stock" in a letter published by CWB Chicago on Monday. The unnamed prosecutor also ripped Foxx for suggesting racism was behind the criticism of her dropping all charges against the actor.

Bullseye

Alastair Crooke: The looking glass splinters

european flag
Wherever one looks, it is evident that the post-war Establishment élites are on the backfoot. They maintain a studied panglossian hauteur. But whether it is in Britain, where a PM seems ready to sacrifice her own party's future on the altar of maintaining the cosy nexus between big business and Brussels' smug ambitions to be a global economic player, rivalling the US or China. Or, whether it is Trump's readiness to put America's financial system into fiscal and debt jeopardy, in order to keep the cogs and wheels of the Military Industrial Complex whirring and spinning comfortably - at a time when US government over-spending already threatens to break dollar 'trust'.

Or, whether it is Europe, where the abrupt ECB reversal marks a huge conceptual failure... [i.e. the destruction and transfer of wealth from Eurozone savers, to rescue debtors; and from the general public to the banks, government and large corporations to rescue their balance sheets]. This has contributed materially to having turned the Eurozone into an economic zombie, and having radicalised a large and hostile constituency.

Or, whether it is manifest with the EU's evident befuddlement upon China's tectonic 'landing' at Rome last month, heralding the shift of the global trade 'plates'. Maybe the EU leaders do 'get it' - that the EU is already on the slipway, gliding down towards 'new waters', slipping towards its sibling separation from the erstwhile 'parental home' of the trans-Atlantic relationship, to a new life in which a Chinese partner features. But if so, strategic thinking is not evident.

Comment: It's nigh on impossible for the entrenched establishment to acknowledge because a significant proportion of them subsist on delusions and wishful thinking: Also check out SOTT radio's:


Bullseye

US decision on Golan Heights violates UN Security Council resolutions - Putin

Putin
© Reuters / Sputnik / Alexei Nikolsky / Kremlin
The US' decision to recognize Tel Aviv's sovereignty over the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights region violates UN Security Council resolutions - a position that Moscow has already made clear, Russia's president said.

Following a meeting between Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Moscow on Monday, the Russian leader was asked by reporters about Moscow's stance on the US move.

Comment: See also:


Bad Guys

DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resigns

Kirstjen Nielsen
© Reuters
Outgoing Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen
Kirstjen Nielsen will stay on as secretary until April 10.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen submitted her resignation to President Donald Trump Sunday.

"Its been an honor of a lifetime to serve with the brave men and women of @DHSgov. I could not be prouder of and more humbled by their service, dedication, and commitment to keep our country safe from all threats and hazards," Nielsen posted on Twitter, along with a copy of her resignation.

Nielsen will stay until April 10 "to assist with an orderly transition and ensure that key DHS missions are not impacted," she stated on Twitter.

Comment: Nielsen comments after the fact:
Nielsen spoke out for the first time since announcing her resignation outside her house Monday afternoon, telling reporters there is a "humanitarian crisis" at the border and emphasizing the need to address that. Her resignation is effective Wednesday, although Nielsen didn't leave her home in Virginia until early Monday afternoon.

"I don't have any new announcements. I just want to thank the president again for the tremendous opportunity to serve this country. I'm forever grateful and proud of the men and women of DHS who work so hard every day to execute their missions and support the homeland," she told reporters outside her home on Monday, taking no questions. "... As you know, DHS has a vast array of missions. I want to make sure that we execute them all with excellence through the transition. I share the president's goal of securing the border."

But Nielsen's tenure since she was confirmed in December 2017 has at times been rocky, with the president taking some of his frustrations over illegal immigration out on her. Questions about whether she might leave have swirled for months. But she was by the president's side on Friday in Calexico, California, as Mr. Trump pushed for a crackdown on illegal immigration and the need for a border wall.

"This afternoon I submitted my resignation to @POTUS and thanked him for the opportunity to serve in his administration. It's been an honor of a lifetime to serve with the brave men and women of @DHSgov," Nielsen wrote in her resignation letter, which she tweeted Sunday evening. "I could not be prouder of and more humbled by their service, dedication, and commitment to keep our country safe from all threats and hazards."


Nielsen's announced exit comes two days after Mr. Trump announced he wants to go in a "tougher" direction in his nomination for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director, after originally announcing Ron Vitiello would head ICE. Nielsen's departure also means acting heads will soon be running DHS, the Pentagon and the U.S. Department of the Interior. Nielsen has also been one of only four women serving in Cabinet-level positions in the Trump administration, the others being Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, CIA Director Gina Haspel and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

One U.S. official told CBS News is it unlikely McAleenan would be nominated as Nielsen's permanent replacement. It's unclear whether he would have to resign as CBP commissioner to take the job, and whether the line of succession at DHS would even allow for such a personnel move. Those legal issues would need to be sorted out.

McAleenan has worked as CBP commissioner since the early days of Mr. Trump's administration, keeping a generally low profile. In a 2018 interview with the New York Times in the height of the concern over family separations at the border, McAleenan called Mr. Trump's attempt to halt the separations with an executive order an "important recalibration."

In recent days, Mr. Trump has threatened to shut down the U.S.-Mexico border or slap tariffs on cars made in Mexico coming into the U.S. if Mexico and Congress don't fix the situation at the border.

Nielsen became known for her vigorous defense of the "zero tolerance" policy resulting in family separations at the border, blaming Congress for a "loophole" in the laws that needs to be fixed. Nielsen claimed in a White House briefing last year that the administration was merely continuing a policy from "previous administrations" that mandates separating a child who is "in danger, there is no custodial relationship between 'family' members, or if the adult has broken the law."

"As long as illegal entry remains a criminal offense, DHS will not look the other way," Nielsen told reporters at the time.
Apparently a certain amount of backroom arm-twisting went into Nielsen's departure:
Nielsen was allegedly scheduled to talk to the president about immigration and border issues. She had no intention of resigning but personnel changes are being pushed for in the Trump administration, CNN reported.

From CNN:
The source notes Trump's frustration with the current asylum laws, and his desire for individuals who work for the administration to just stop central American asylum seekers from entering the United States, contrary to the law.

Separately, a source close to Nielsen and an administration official said she was blindsided by the White House pulling Ron Vitiello's nomination to be director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and has heard of other impending immigration-related personnel changes, so she asked for a meeting with Trump to get a sense of his thinking.
According to the Washington Examiner, the White House called Vitiello on Thursday night to let him know his nomination had been rescinded, meaning he wouldn't travel with Nielsen and Trump to the border on Friday.

It has been rumored that Vitiello's nomination was pulled because he was not endorsed by ICE union leader Chris Crane.