Puppet Masters

Lavrov: 'Cynical' US sanctions meant to confiscate Venezuela's assets

RT
Tue, 29 Jan 2019 18:24 UTC

The Russian FM condemned the US for basically confiscating Venezuela's state property, as Washington announced sanctions against government-run oil company PDVSA.

Sergey Lavrov slammed the US sanctions against Venezuela, calling them "cynical", as Washington froze the $7 billion assets of the state-run oil company PDVSA and its US subsidiary Citgo. Moscow's top diplomat implied that the White House is pursuing vested interests in Venezuela.

"US companies operating in Venezuela are excluded from the sanctions regime. Simply put they want to overthrow the government and gain profits at the same time," the Russian diplomat said.

Lavrov believes that what the US is doing is simply trying to confiscate Venezuela's money under the guise of sanctions, noting that the US "has experience" in such "illegal" affairs, giving Iraq, Libya, Iran, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Panama as examples.

The new plan for Africa is the same as the old imperial one

Phil Butler
New Eastern Outlook
Tue, 29 Jan 2019 18:08 UTC

When US National Security Advisor John Bolton unveiled the new United States plan for Africa last December, few in Congress knew the closely guarded secrets of the plan that was already in progress for almost a year. The journalists, African dignitaries, US government officials, and political groupies in attendance at the Heritage Foundation event built around the announcement were "enlightened" on Donald Trump's plans for recolonization of Africa.

The Africa policy Bolton revealed the essence of Donald Trump's mission to assist in the final solution for underdeveloped nations worldwide. Trump's "American First" campaign promise was the wakeup call to Africa and other continents, a call to pay attention to renewed American aggression. The National Security Advisor, making a speech on policy the Secretary of State should probably have made, warned all in attendance at the event:

"The United States will no longer provide indiscriminate assistance across the entire continent, without focus or prioritization... From now on, the United States will not tolerate this longstanding pattern of aid without effect, assistance without accountability, and relief without reform."

Apple disables group calling for FaceTime after users discover bug allowing listener to eavesdrop

David Reid
CNBC
Tue, 29 Jan 2019 18:00 UTC

Apple disabled the group calling feature in its FaceTime calling service late on Monday evening, as it furiously tries to remedy a bug that allowed eavesdropping.

Apple's status page now shows that Group FaceTime is "temporarily unavailable" as of 3:16 a.m. Tuesday London time (10:16 p.m. Monday ET).

Apple has taken its Group Facetime capability offline while it tries to fix a bug.

CNBC tested the bug on Monday that lets you hear the audio of the person you are calling before they accept the call. The issue was first reported by the Apple-related website 9to5Mac.

The bug appears to fool a call recipient's phone into thinking a group call, which involves more than two people, has already started. It then switches the recipient's microphone on without them ever having to accept or reject the call.

Despite the temporary removal of the group service, users of FaceTime are still able to continue using the one-to-one FaceTime function.

A spokesperson for Apple told CNBC Monday that a fix is coming this week. "We're aware of this issue and we have identified a fix that will be released in a software update later this week."

The Making of Juan Guaidó: How The US Regime Change Laboratory Created Venezuela's Coup Leader

Dan Cohen & Max Blumenthal
Gray Zone
Tue, 29 Jan 2019 16:41 UTC

Before the fateful day of January 22, fewer than one in five Venezuelans had heard of Juan Guaidó. Only a few months ago, the 35-year-old was an obscure character in a politically marginal far-right group closely associated with gruesome acts of street violence. Even in his own party, Guaidó had been a mid-level figure in the opposition-dominated National Assembly, which is now held under contempt according to Venezuela's constitution.

But after a single phone call from from US Vice President Mike Pence, Guaidó proclaimed himself as president of Venezuela. Anointed as the leader of his country by Washington, a previously unknown political bottom dweller was vaulted onto the international stage as the US-selected leader of the nation with the world's largest oil reserves.

Echoing the Washington consensus, the New York Times editorial board hailed Guaidó as a "credible rival" to Maduro with a "refreshing style and vision of taking the country forward." The Bloomberg News editorial board applauded him for seeking "restoration of democracy" and the Wall Street Journal declared him "a new democratic leader." Meanwhile, Canada, numerous European nations, Israel, and the bloc of right-wing Latin American governments known as the Lima Group recognized Guaidó as the legitimate leader of Venezuela.

Juan Guaido's transformation from terrorist to 'democratic leader of Venezuela'

If Venezuelan Army stands with Maduro, does US have a Plan B?

Patrick J. Buchanan
buchanan.org
Tue, 29 Jan 2019 17:46 UTC

"Pay the soldiers. The rest do not matter."

This was the deathbed counsel given to his sons by Roman Emperor Septimius Severus in A.D. 211.

Nicolas Maduro must today appreciate the emperor's insight.

For the political survival of this former bus driver and union boss hangs now upon whether Venezuela's armed forces choose to stand by him or to desert him and support National Assembly leader Juan Guaido.

Wednesday, Guaido declared Maduro's election last May to a second six-year term to be a sham, and had himself inaugurated as acting president.

Thursday, the defense minister and army chief General Vladimir Padrino Lopez, with his top brass, dismissed the 35-year-old Guaido as a U.S. puppet, and pledged allegiance to Maduro.

Friday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the U.N. Security Council: "Now it is time for every other nation to pick a side. ... Either you stand with the forces of freedom, or you're in league with Maduro and his mayhem."

Comment: Never go full neocon.

By Friday, however, the world had already taken sides.

Comment: Buchanan asks if anyone thought this through. Apparently not. Moon of Alabama summed it up succinctly in a single image, from South Park:

My impression is that Trump was scammed. It was long evident that he gives little attention to details and does not think things through. Most likely Bolton, Pompeo and Rubio presented him with a three step plan:

Phase 1. Support the self declared president Guaidó; Phase 2: ... (wishful thinking) ...; Phase 3: Take half of their oil!

Trump accepted the plan without asking how phase 2 might really play out. I doubt that he knew that it will likely lead to higher gas prices. Nor do I think that he knew that it will likely require a military escalation up to a major war that will take years to finish. He would have known that both will cost him dearly during the next election.

'Hands off Venezuela': Maduro addresses Trump in English video

RT
Tue, 29 Jan 2019 17:57 UTC

Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro addressed Donald Trump in English to demand that Washington keep its "hands off" the country, after the US imposed sanctions on its state oil company in recognition of Juan Guaido as president.

"Donald Trump, do not get involved with Venezuela! Hands off Venezuela! Donald Trump, hands off Venezuela!" Maduro said, blaming Washington for the political conflict that is causing tremors in the country.

Maduro's words came shortly after US imposed sanctions on the country's state-owned oil company PDVSA in order to "help prevent the further diversion" of assets by the country's government. Venezuela's president called Washington's actions an attempt "to steal" the company, and promised to take countermeasures "to protect the interests of Venezuela."

On Saturday, Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza told local media that Maduro is ready to get in touch with President Trump. The country's authorities would "even meet with the devil to keep the peace in Venezuela," he stated.

Washington is backing the National Assembly leader Juan Guaido, who declared himself to be Venezuela's interim president following violent clashes in Caracas. Maduro, who was re-elected in 2018, accuses the US of orchestrating a coup.

Google and ad industry accused of 'massive' abuse of intimate personal data

David Meyer
Fortune
Tue, 29 Jan 2019 17:47 UTC

Last September, a coalition of privacy activists and browser-makers targeted Google and the advertising technology industry with complaints about "a massive and ongoing data breach that affects virtually every user on the web" - the broadcasting of people's personal data to dozens of companies, without proper security.

Now, on International Privacy Day, they've released new evidence showing this data includes information about people's ethnicity, disabilities, sexual orientation and more. The data is so sensitive that it even allows advertisers to specifically target incest and abuse victims, or those with eating disorders.

How does this information get shared? The online ad industry often uses a technique called behavioral advertising, which basically means they track you around the web and build a profile based on what you look at. When you then visit a webpage that runs behavioral ads, there's often an automated auction with the winner getting to show you an ad that supposedly matches your profile.

Beijing calls charges against Huawei politically motivated, urges end to 'unreasonable crackdown' on Chinese firms

Thomas Maresca
USA TODAY
Tue, 29 Jan 2019 17:38 UTC

Beijing fired back on Tuesday over criminal charges against Chinese telecom giant Huawei, calling them politically motivated and urging the U.S. to stop "unreasonable bashing" of Chinese companies.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced charges against Huawei and its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou on Monday, alleging that the company stole trade secrets, violated trade sanctions against Iran, committed wire fraud and obstructed justice.

"For some time, the U.S. has been using national power to tarnish and crack down on specific Chinese companies in an attempt to strangle their lawful and legitimate operations," said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang in a statement on Tuesday. "Behind such practices are deep political intentions and manipulations. We strongly urge the U.S. to stop its unreasonable bashing on Chinese companies including Huawei, and treat them objectively and fairly."

Geng called on the U.S. "to immediately withdraw its arrest warrant for Ms. Meng Wanzhou, refrain from making a formal extradition request, and stop going further down the wrong path."

Chinese investments most at risk from US sanctions against Venezuela

RT
Tue, 29 Jan 2019 17:29 UTC

© Reuters / Carlos Garcia Rawlins
Employees of Orinoquia, a Chinese-Venezuelan mobile phone factory, inspect phones at the factory in Caracas

While crisis-torn Venezuela braces for the impact from the latest US economic sanctions, Venezuela's trading partners are also at great risk.

On Monday, the Trump administration announced sanctions against Venezuela's state-owned energy company Petroleos de Venezuela, better known as PDVSA. The fresh restrictions will freeze $7 billion in assets and cause more than $11 billion in lost export revenues throughout the next year.

One of the country's biggest trade partners and creditors, China, has already opposed foreign interference in Venezuela's affairs, saying the US will bear responsibility for sweeping sanctions it imposed.

China has provided $50 billion in loans to the Latin American country over the past decade. Through loans and outbound direct investments, Beijing has poured funding into Venezuela while many other countries backed off from doing business with the cash-strapped nation.

Western govts failed to learn the lesson of Iraq, which is why their Venezuela gambit will be another disaster

Patrick Cockburn
Independent
Sat, 26 Jan 2019 17:01 UTC

It is always pleasing for authors to find out that they have readers in far flung places. It was therefore surprising but gratifying to see a picture of a battered copy of a French translation of a book I wrote called The Jihadis Return abandoned by Isis fighters, along with suicide vests and homemade explosive devices, as they retreat from their last enclaves in Deir ez-Zor province in eastern Syria.

The book was written in 2014 when Isis was at the height of its success after capturing Mosul, and was sweeping through western Iraq and eastern Syria. I described the Isis victories and tried to explain how the movement had apparently emerged from nowhere to shock the world by establishing the Islamic State, an entity which at its height ruled 8 million people and stretched from the the outskirts of Baghdad to the Mediterranean.

A picture of the book, Le Retour des Djihadistes, was tweeted by Quentin Sommerville, the intrepid BBC Middle East correspondent, who is travelling through the deserts of Deir ez-Zor and reporting what may be the last pitched battles fought by Isis. The book had presumably belonged a French-speaking Isis fighter: many Isis volunteers came from Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, as well as from France itself, and may now be trapped in this corner of Syria.

But is this truly the last round for Isis? The Islamic State no longer controls territory, but will it live on as an ideology inspiring a core of fanatical believers who will seek to rise again? They know that the US wrongly declared that al-Qaeda in Iraq, the precursor of Isis, was dead and buried in 2007-08. Isis hopes to repeat its previous resurrection by waiting for its many enemies to relax their pressure and to fall out among themselves.

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Puppet Masters

Lavrov: 'Cynical' US sanctions meant to confiscate Venezuela's assets

The new plan for Africa is the same as the old imperial one

Apple disables group calling for FaceTime after users discover bug allowing listener to eavesdrop

The Making of Juan Guaidó: How The US Regime Change Laboratory Created Venezuela's Coup Leader

If Venezuelan Army stands with Maduro, does US have a Plan B?

'Hands off Venezuela': Maduro addresses Trump in English video

Google and ad industry accused of 'massive' abuse of intimate personal data

Beijing calls charges against Huawei politically motivated, urges end to 'unreasonable crackdown' on Chinese firms

Chinese investments most at risk from US sanctions against Venezuela

Western govts failed to learn the lesson of Iraq, which is why their Venezuela gambit will be another disaster

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