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ISIS is gathering, preparing a terrorist attack near Russia's southern border

Paul Antonopoulos
FRN
Mon, 28 Jan 2019 00:00 UTC
ISIS sleeper cell
© Chris Tomson/AMN
ISIS sleeper cell
Russian Interior Deputy Interior Minister Igor Zubov said that the transfer of local combatants from the Pakistani-based Daesh [ISIS] to Tajikistan may be linked to the preparation of a provocation against Russia.

Daesh fighters are being transferred on unidentified airplanes from Pakistan to the border of Tajikistan, near the southern Russian border, said Interior Deputy Interior Minister Igor Zubov.

According to Zubov, it could be the preparation of a massive provocation that could affect Russia.
"Daesh fighters are being mass-transported on unidentified aircraft from the territory of Pakistan to the border of Tajikistan. It seems that massive provocations are being planned with the future expulsion of large numbers of refugees and with all the consequences for Russia."
Earlier, the director of the Commonwealth of Independent States Counterterrorism Center Andrei Novikov stated that Daesh terrorists had been transferred to Afghanistan and Pakistan after being defeated in Syria and Iraq.

Comment: Interesting strategy given the US intended to pull out its troops from Afghanistan - now stretched up to 18 months. Profess commitment to one action while implementing 'the obligation' to do another.

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Arrow Up

Rusal shares rise after US lifts sanctions on firms linked to Russian billionaire Deripaska


RT
Mon, 28 Jan 2019 09:20 UTC
Aluminum smelter
© Reuters/Ilya Naymushin
The Rusal aluminium smelter in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia
Shares of Russian aluminum giant Rusal surged nearly eight percent on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, after the US formally lifted sanctions against the company and two other firms linked to Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska.

The Trump administration removed punitive measures against the world's second largest aluminum producer, Rusal, its parent, En+ Group Plc, and power firm EuroSibEnergo (ESE), late on Sunday. The three firms were slapped with sanctions by Washington in April last year alongside many Russian businessmen and officials.

In a press release, the US Treasury said the three companies managed to meet the necessary conditions of reducing the "direct and indirect shareholding stake" and severing the control of Russian aluminum and energy tycoon Oleg Deripaska. However, the sanctions against the businessman himself remain in force.

After Deripaska significantly cut his stake in the companies, the Trump administration revealed its plans to abandon the measures in December. The Russian tycoon now owns less than 45 percent in EN+ from an earlier stake of approximately 70 percent.

European envoys to the US earlier supported Washington's plans to lift the sanctions against the three Russian companies, saying it would save thousands of jobs and prevent "serious damage to the European aluminum industry."
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Vader

Fmr Chavez adviser weighs in on Venezuela crisis: Regime change is de facto 'state policy of US'


RT
Mon, 28 Jan 2019 19:28 UTC
rally protest support guaido venezuela
© Reuters / Andres Martinez Casares
Supporters of Venezuela's opposition leader Juan Guaido hold a figurine with a sign that reads: "I fight for freedom", during a rally in Caracas, Venezuela, January 26, 2019.
Regime change is a permanent fixture of US foreign policy, but the Venezuelan army's loyalty to President Nicolas Maduro will make his forceful removal no easy task, a former adviser to Hugo Chavez told RT's Going Underground.

Eva Golinger, a Venezuelan-American lawyer and author who served as an adviser to former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, said that there was nothing surprising about Washington's latest attempt to change the leadership in Caracas.

Citing the coup in Honduras which received backing from the Obama administration, and the failed US-backed coup in Venezuela in 2002, Golinger told host Afshin Rattansi that it was wrong to believe that the United States had lost its appetite for interfering in Central and South America.
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Network

Nasrallah challenges enemies, displays tech security by broadcasting 3-hour live interview

Elijah J. Magnier
ejmagnier.com
Sun, 27 Jan 2019 19:22 UTC
nasrallah
The leader of Hezbollah Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah challenged world intelligence services, notably the Israelis, who track him by the hour, during a three hour live broadcast interview with al-Mayadeen TV on Saturday. Nasrallah showed he has the technical ability to broadcast live for this length of time without fear of being located. Even more important, Nasrallah showed the capacity to receive electronic messages via an internet connection in his vicinity, allowing him to take questions and get breaking news from around the world. This is a clear indication that Nasrallah trusts Hezbollah's technical competence, capable of jamming any interception signal and efficient enough to blind any local or international intelligence services trying to locate him.

Hezbollah seems to enjoy electronic abilities superior to those of many Middle Eastern and other countries. What is unusual is that Nasrallah displayed these abilities, online, to tens of thousands of people watching the interview.

Hezbollah's electronic capability is not new: Israel tried to physically intercept its fibber optic landlines and to electronically intercept the mobile phones of many officers and leaders. Indeed, Israel's interception capabilities made it possible, in the past, for the Israeli army to break into Hezbollah's telephone network, exposing a spider web of connections and leading to the destruction of hundreds of Hezbollah homes, offices and bases during the 2006 war.
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Sherlock

The ghosts of San Francisco haunting Kamala Harris' past

Tiana Lowe
The Washington Examiner
Wed, 23 Jan 2019 19:04 UTC
kamala harris Willie Brown

Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown (L) is claiming he had an extramarital affair with Kamala Harris (R) 20 years ago.
Few outside of California know or care who Willie Brown is. But that may be about to change.

Brown spent around a quarter of a century as de facto royalty in California, first serving more than three decades as a member of the California Assembly (15 years as its speaker), and then eight years as mayor of San Francisco.

He also once carried out an open extramarital affair with a young prosecutor named Kamala Harris, currently a U.S. senator and leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Now, we're far beyond the point that a personal past like that disqualifies a candidate. Harris, after all, is vying to challenge a thrice-married man who once graced the cover of Playboy and publicized his infidelity on the cover of the New York Post. Candidates' personal lives no longer warrant deep investigation, unless they tell us something about their professional and political lives.

Comment: Fox News brings us the details:
Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown addressed his past extramarital relationship with U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris in his weekly column Saturday, saying he may have boosted the presidential hopeful's career.

"Yes, we dated. It was more than 20 years ago," Brown wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle.

"Yes, I may have influenced her career by appointing her to two state commissions when I was [California] Assembly speaker. And I certainly helped with her first race for district attorney in San Francisco."


Brown, 84, pointed out that he also helped the careers of other prominent California Democrats, such as U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Gov. Gavin Newsom and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein.


There's a trio for you. Brown doesn't seem to be a very good judge of character.

"The difference is that Harris is the only one who, after I helped her, sent word that I would be indicted if I 'so much as jaywalked' while she was D.A.," Brown wrote. "That's politics for ya."

Brown appointed Harris -- about 30 years younger than Brown and just a few years out of law school - to two well-paid state commission assignments on the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board and the California Medical Assistance Commission, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

"Whether you agree or disagree with the system, I did the work," Harris said in a 2003 interview with SF Weekly. "I brought a level of life knowledge and common sense to the jobs."


Uh, not exactly: Fmr attorney Kamala Harris' record on criminal justice is appalling


The former mayor also connected Harris with campaign donors, which helped her outraise her opponent for San Francisco district attorney, Business Insider reported. Brown's involvement in her election raised questions as to how Harris would remain impartial, given his enormous political clout.

Questions about Brown's relationship with Harris began anew after she announced her 2020 presidential bid on Martin Luther King Day.

During his two terms as mayor of San Francisco, Brown was known for his charm, arrogance and ego, according to a 1996 profile in People magazine.

Named one of the world's 10 sexiest men by Playgirl magazine in 1984, Brown sometimes attended parties with his wife on one arm and a girlfriend on the other, according to a reporter quoted by the magazine.

Brown and Harris broke up in 1995 but remained political allies. In Saturday's column, Brown said Harris is "riding a buzz wave the likes of which we haven't seen in years."

Fox News contacted Harris' office for a response to Brown's claims but did not receive a response.

For the past decade or so, Brown has reportedly been linked with Sonya Molodetskaya, a Russian refugee and socialite. He is said to be separated from wife Blanche Vitero, whom he married in 1958.

Brown and Vitero have three children, while Brown also fathered a child in 2001 with his former fundraiser, Carolyn Carpeneti, according to the Chronicle.


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Black Cat

Fmr attorney Kamala Harris' record on criminal justice is appalling

Katherine Timpf
National Review
Tue, 22 Jan 2019 18:42 UTC
Kamala Harris
© Mario Anzuoni / Reuters
Her record as a prosecutor isn't as "progressive" as she'd have you believe.

Democratic senator Kamala Harris has announced that she is throwing her hat in the ring to run for president in 2020 - so now is as good a time as any to remind everyone of her terrible record on criminal justice.

Thankfully, criminal-justice reform has become a bit of a popular issue these days among both Democrats and Republicans. This has allowed for some steps in the right direction toward fixing our unnecessarily punitive justice system, such as the passage of the FIRST STEP Act. As a civil libertarian, it's my opinion that we still have a long way to go - and putting Kamala Harris in the White House would not be a step in the right direction.

Although Harris seems to have a pretty good reputation among most liberals, her record on criminal justice issues is a dismal one. As a recent piece from Lara Bazelon in the New York Times details, Harris was far from the "progressive prosecutor" that she has tried to rebrand herself as in recent days.

Comment: It seems that Kamala was enamoured of the power she held as an attorney. It would not be wise to grant her any more power than what she's already managed to gain as a senator. One example of Harris' hypocrisy:

Liberal critic of Islam completely ignored by hypocritical female Democratic senators who 'wouldn't even look us in the eye'



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Bad Guys

Orban says he won't aid and abet European Parliament's "Soros-type seance" next week


Voice of Europe
Sat, 26 Jan 2019 18:53 UTC
soros hungary
The European Parliament's debate on the rule of law in Hungary will be a "George Soros-type seance, an election rally, a campaign event", Prime Minister Viktor Orban told public Kossuth Radio.

Orban said he had always fought for "the Hungarian national interest" but he would not aid and abet next week's "pro-migration campaign event" in Brussels.

The European left wing's Spitzenkandidat, Frans Timmermans, who is currently the first Vice-President of the European Commission, is "Soros's man", he said, referring to the American-Hungarian billionaire.

"Soros is now open about wanting to take over European institutions", the prime minister insisted.

The progress of the infringement procedures against Hungary, which the commission decided to step up on Thursday, is also a sign of Soros's big influence "and that he wants to increase it even further", Orban said. This attempt should be thwarted at May's EP election, "where we want pro-migration MEPs to be left in minority", he said.

Comment: See also:

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Bad Guys

Iran's strategy is to annihilate Israel if they 'do anything that leads to war' - top IRGC general


RT
Mon, 28 Jan 2019 18:43 UTC
iran troops
© REUTERS / Morteza Nikoubazl
The second-in-command of the elite Revolutionary Guard Corps fired off a chilling threat, saying Iran will wipe Israel off the map if it starts a war, and the Israelis won't even be able to bury their dead.

"Our strategy is [to wipe] Israel [off] the world's political geography and Israel seems to be approaching this reality by its mischiefs," Brigadier General Hossein Salami told reporters in Tehran, as cited by semi-official Fars news agency. Salami was asked to comment on Israeli airstrikes in Syria.

If Israel "does anything that leads to a new war," the general warned, "certainly it will be [the kind of war] that will result in their elimination, and the occupied territories will be retaken."

An Iranian counteroffensive will be so powerful that the "Israelis won't even have a cemetery in Palestine to bury their corpses," Salami said.

The warning came a week after the Israeli Air Force launched massive strikes against Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces stationed in Syria. Syrian air defenses repelled most of the Israeli missiles with little damage reported on the ground.

Comment: Despite the Iranians' rhetoric and Israel's lame bombing of Iranian warehouses in Syria, the antics of both sides amount to little more than bluster. Israel can't fight Iran, and they know it. And they know the Americans are unlikely to go to war with Iran for them, either. The Iranians know this too, so all that's left is a mutual display of belligerence.

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Better Earth

More on the US-Taliban peace agreement framework


RFE/RL
Mon, 28 Jan 2019 18:35 UTC
ghani
© Afghan Presidential Palace / AFP
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani (center) talks with U.S. special representative for Afghan peace and reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad (upper left), during a cabinet meeting at the Presidential Palace in Kabul on January 27.
U.S. and Taliban officials have agreed in principle to the "framework" of a peace deal, The New York Times quotes U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad as saying after five days of talks between the militant group and the United States in Qatar.

Both sides have said "progress" had been made in the talks aimed at ending the 17-year conflict in Afghanistan.

"We have a draft of the framework that has to be fleshed out before it becomes an agreement," The New York Times quoted Khalilzad as saying on January 28 in an interview in Kabul.

In the framework, the militants agree to prevent Afghan territory from being used by groups such as Al-Qaeda to stage terrorist attacks.

That could lead to a full pullout of U.S. combat troops, but only in return for the Taliban entering talks with the Afghan government and agreeing to a lasting cease-fire.

The Taliban "committed, to our satisfaction, to do what is necessary that would prevent Afghanistan from ever becoming a platform for international terrorist groups or individuals," Khalilzad was quoted as saying.

Comment: Ghani also responded by calling for direct negotiations:
"I call on the Taliban to start serious direct talks with the Afghan government... National unity, independence of the country, the integrity of its territory and a strong central government are non-negotiable issues... The Taliban has two options: it can support its people or become a tool in the arms of other states," Ghani said in an address to the nation, as broadcast by National Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA).

At the same time, according to the Afghan president, Kabul will attempt to remove all foreign troops from the country in accordance with a special plan.

"We will try to bring the number of foreign troops down to zero based on a clear plan," Ghani said, as broadcast by National Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA).
See also: US and Taliban reportedly reach peace deal to end Afghan war, remove all foreign troops within 1.5 yrs

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Cow Skull

Tired, old Killary still delusional: Reportedly weighing THIRD run for president

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Mon, 28 Jan 2019 18:21 UTC
hillary clinton
© Screenshot/OZYFest
The arrogance of the mentally deranged
It looks like the Wall Street Journal - or rather, two Clinton world politicos who published an op-ed on the subject late last year - had it right: Hillary Clinton is seriously considering a third bid for president, according to CNN political correspondent Jeff Zeleny.

Clinton is reportedly telling friends and associates that she "hasn't closed the doors on a third presidential bid" after losing the 2008 Democratic primary to Barack Obama and then the 2016 presidential election to President Trump in one of the most spectacular upsets in the history of US politics.
Hillary Clinton may not be ready to give up on her Oval Office dreams, CNN's Jeff Zeleny reports.

"Clinton is telling people that she's not closing the doors to the idea of running in 2020," Zeleny said. "I'm told by three people that as recently as this week, she was telling people that look, given all this news from the indictments, particularly the Roger Stone indictment, she talked to several people, saying 'look, I'm not closing the doors to this.'"

Comment: A frightening thought, but unlikely. There are many up and coming potential candidates who are less damaged goods than tired, old KIllary. Unfortunately, with the exception of outside chance Tulsi Gabbard, they are equally frightening.

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