Puppet Masters

As the tide turns, Israel is losing on two war fronts

Ramzy Baroud
Mint Press News
Mon, 19 Nov 2018 00:00 UTC

© AP/Khalil Hamra
Palestinian boy in rubble of Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV station building hit by Israeli airstrikes November 13, 2018.

The botched Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip on 12 November is delineating Tel Aviv's failure to utilise its army as a tool to achieve Palestinian political concessions.

Now that Palestinian popular resistance has gone global through the exponential rise and growing success of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) movement, the Israeli government is fighting two desperate wars.

Following the Gaza attack, Palestinians responded by showering the southern Israeli border with rockets and carried out a precise operation targeting an Israeli army bus. As Palestinians marched in celebration of pushing the Israeli army out of their besieged enclave, the fragile political order in Israel - long-managed by right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - was quickly unravelling.

Comment: Sit on its heels or double down...what will Israel do? Pushed out of control, Israel could become really dangerous.

Trump turns in written responses to Mueller's Russia probe questions

RT
Wed, 21 Nov 2018 01:05 UTC

A lawyer for Donald Trump has confirmed that the US President has submitted answers to the questions penned by FBI Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team. The questions refer to the Trump campaign's alleged collusion with Moscow.

"The president today answered written questions submitted by the special counsel's office," Trump's attorney Jay Sekulow said in a statement, as cited by AP.

The issues Trump covered in his responses are "the Russia-related topics of the inquiry," Sekulow said. Trump's legal team has indicated that the president would not answer any additional questions aside from potential follow-ups. Likewise, Trump is not expected to answer any questions that refer to allegations of obstruction of justice, with his lawyers insisting that the constitution protects the sitting President from answering questions on policies he conducted while in office.

Trump's personal lawyer Rudi Giuliani said Tuesday, that "much of what has been asked raised serious constitutional issues and was beyond the scope of a legitimate inquiry," without elaborating.

Comment: Interpretation and context can askew any statement. Was this a wise move? Likely Mueller will aim for a verbal Q&A.

America has constructed 800+ military bases worldwide, so why can't it build a border wall?

Robert Bridge
Strategic Culture Foundation
Tue, 20 Nov 2018 00:00 UTC

The US government has constructed at tremendous cost to its taxpayers some of the most impressive structures - both architectural and organizational - of all time. Yet somehow it has failed to build a viable wall on the Mexican border.

In 1931, during the Great Depression, the US government began construction of the Hoover Dam, one of the most ambitious civil engineering projects ever attempted. Employing thousands of US laborers, some 100 of whom reportedly lost their lives in the course of the project, the dam is mind-boggling due its sheer size, rivaling that of the pyramids.

At 726 feet tall, the wedge-shaped structure is 660 ft (200 m) thick at its base, narrowing to 45 ft (14 m) at the top, which provides enough room to accommodate a highway connecting Nevada and Arizona. The project required millions of cubic feet of concrete - said to be enough to pave a two-lane highway from San Francisco to New York - and tens of millions of pounds of steel.

Many decades later, the US government undertook another extensive project known as the US Embassy in Baghdad. Although rarely discussed in the US media, this 104-acre slice of American property in a foreign country is so immense that it rivals Vatican City in terms of size [the Vatican is an independent city-state, complete with its own euro-based currency and security detail, located inside of Rome].

Comment: And the challenge looms bigger each day that passes. The cost of troops and guard personnel will be ongoing from here on out, given reports of new migrations on the rise.

Saudi FM blasts 'CIA report' on Crown Prince's alleged involvement in Khashoggi killing

Sputnik
Tue, 20 Nov 2018 09:04 UTC

Last week The Washington Post reported, citing sources with knowledge of the case, that the CIA had named Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman as the person who had given the order to kill journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Both US President Donald Trump and the State Department stated that the final conclusions of the case are yet to be made.

In an interview with Al Sharq Al Awsat, an Arabic-language newspaper, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir dismissed the allegations that Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman had orchestrated the killing of Jamal Khashoggi as 'false'.

The foreign minister was cited as saying:

"We in the kingdom know that such allegations about the crown prince have no basis in truth and we categorically reject them, whether through leaks or not. There are leaks that have not been officially announced, and I have noticed that they are based on an assessment, not conclusive order."

Comment: The Khashoggi "process of 'elimination.'" What was easily offered was not the truth. What is the truth has remained unsaid.

'Limited time' left on Earth: Israeli minister's threat to kill Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar

RT
Wed, 21 Nov 2018 13:08 UTC

© Reuters/Mohammed Salem
The son of senior Hamas militant Mazen Fuqaha sits on the shoulders of Hamas Gaza Chief Yehya Al-Sinwar during a memorial service for Fuqaha, in Gaza City March 27, 2017.

A senior cabinet minister has signaled that Israel is preparing to assassinate the leader of Hamas, the militant group that rules Gaza, testing a fragile ceasefire agreed last week.

Yoav Gallant, Israel's minister of construction and housing, has promised that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar's "time is limited" and he "will not end his life in an old folks' home." The minister's threats did not end there, as he vowed that there would be another Israeli campaign in Gaza.

Israel and Hamas recently agreed to a ceasefire after several days of cross-border violence. The deal prompted the resignation of right-wing firebrand Avigdor Lieberman as defense minister.

© Reuters/Suhaib Salem
A Palestinian man looks at the remains of Hamas's TV station building that was destroyed by Israeli air strikes, in Gaza City November 13, 2018.

Comment: See also:

Nunes wants declassification of emails that prove information withheld from FISA Court

Sara Carter
saraacarter.com
Tue, 20 Nov 2018 07:06 UTC

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) told Fox News' Maria Bartiromo yesterday that he wishes to see a "fourth bucket" of emails declassified, saying it would reveal evidence that the Department of Justice and FBI withheld information from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC).

Nunes said the first of three "buckets" were Russia-related documents which President Trump - after calling for their release - had to backtrack on after Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein intervened and suggested the Inspector General review them first.

"The new fourth bucket that we're asking to be declassified now is - for months we have been reviewing emails between FBI, and DOJ, and others that clearly show that they knew about information that should have been presented to the FISA court," he said. "So it is real evidence that people within the FBI withheld evidence from the FISA court."

Nunes said that even House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) requested that the DOJ release the emails. "Even though we know what's in those emails a lot of them are redacted so they're still refusing to give Congress - even in a classified setting - this information," he said.

Comment: More from The Daily Caller News Foundation:

Republicans for months have pressed the Justice Department to turn over classified emails that show that the FBI "withheld evidence" from the federal court that authorized surveillance warrants against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said Sunday.

California Rep. Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the Intelligence panel, said in an interview on Fox News that Republicans have recently added the documents to a list of records that they hope President Donald Trump will declassify.

Republicans have already called on Trump to declassify three other categories of documents: portions of the fourth and final FISA application against Page, FBI interview notes used in the Page surveillance warrant, and FBI interview notes with Bruce Ohr, the Justice Department official who was a backchannel to dossier author Christopher Steele.

Trump has recently said that he is revisiting whether to declassify the documents. He said on Nov. 7 he is "very seriously" considering releasing the records.

Brave new US Congress, or the same old hypocrisy?

Dr. Sreeram Chaulia
RT
Tue, 20 Nov 2018 16:39 UTC

The 'Saudi Arabia Accountability and Yemen Act' bipartisan bill in the US Senate suggests that long-missing congressional activism in American foreign policy might be on the horizon, but likely would be on a selective basis.

Since the mid-1990s, the US Congress has abdicated its oversight of the executive's foreign and national security policies owing to increased partisan polarization, decreased legislative expertise on foreign affairs, and greater deference to the presidency on war, counter-terrorism and trade issues. This default congressional tendency of leaving the White House unconstrained on foreign policy may, however, shift in response to changing international circumstances.

The Senate bill challenges the Trump administration's core strategy of continuing a no-questions-asked, all-weather alliance with Saudi Arabia in spite of the CIA's conclusion with 'high confidence' that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered Khashoggi's premeditated murder inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.

Many US congresspersons are taking a holistic view of Khashoggi's assassination as part of a broader pattern of reckless violence by the Crown Prince, who has pursued a relentless war of impunity in Yemen and unleashed a mass humanitarian disaster there.

The Senate bill demands suspension of US weapons sales to Saudi Arabia, a ban on US refueling of Saudi aircraft bombarding Yemen, and inquiries into human rights violations in Saudi Arabia and of war crimes committed in Yemen.

Comment: Fair assessment as to the dynamics we will see put forth from the House.

Russia: Forcing OPCW to assign blame for chemical weapons incidents damages the organization

RT
Tue, 20 Nov 2018 23:16 UTC

A recently approved budget for an "attribution mechanism" which will let the UN's Chemical weapons watchdog also assign blame for attacks has already damaged the organization, Russia's envoy to the OPCW told RT.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons' (OPCW) increased 2019 budget was greenlighted on Tuesday, including a $2.4 million allotment for the creation of an "attributional mechanism" which will allow the monitoring organization to assign blame for chemical weapons incidents. At the same meeting, the group shot down Russia and China's joint initiative to establish a special group to investigate the legitimacy of broadening the OPCW's powers.

The "attribution mechanism," which has yet to take any concrete shape, will provide the OPCW with the power to assign blame for chemical weapons-related incidents, a job which is currently the responsibility of the UN Security Council. The OPCW has traditionally only been tasked with monitoring and providing technical evaluations of such incidents.

Comment: A transparent plan: Condensing the responsibilities to increase outside control.

IDF Chief of Staff Eisenkot claims Israeli operations in Syria curbed Iran, Hezbollah

Sputnik
Wed, 21 Nov 2018 07:17 UTC

According to the outgoing Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff, Iran was unable to give Hezbollah precision missile weapons because of Israeli bombings in Syria.

The military capabilities of Iran and Hezbollah near Israel's northern border are much smaller than they could be because of successful actions by Israel, outgoing IDF Chief of Staff Gen. Gadi Eisenkot said in a Monday statement.

The departing general said that the Israeli army will continue to counter Iran's attempts to take root in Syria and create a missile delivery route to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

During his trip to the northern border, Eisenkot "praised the armed forces for their actions aimed at preventing the consolidation of Iranian forces in Syria and Iranian attempts to move precision missile weapons to the 'Hezbollah' terrorist organization," the statement reads.

The chief of staff, whose service ends on December 31, underscored that the military capabilities of Iran and Hezbollah are far from what they had hoped, and this is the result of continuous and successful Israeli operations.

Comment: Israel's self-justifying backslaps.

All foreign troops with exception of Russian military must leave Syria says US envoy

Sputnik
Tue, 20 Nov 2018 20:26 UTC

Earlier, the envoy claimed that US troops would be staying in the Arab Republic until the "enduring defeat" of Daesh. He also said that Bashar Assad should not govern the country in the future, noting, however, that it's not the US' job to oust him.

US Special Representative for Syria Engagement James Franklin Jeffrey said in a conference call with reporters that once Iran pulls its troops out of Syria and a political solution to the Arab state's problems is found, all other foreign forces would be ready to leave, too.

At the same time, he underscored that it wouldn't affect Russia, as it had military bases in Syria prior to the conflict, which broke out in 2011. Jeffrey explained that this is why the US has not included the withdrawal of Russian troops in its list of demands.

Previously, the US envoy for Syria called the situation, in regards to 5 foreign militaries operating in one country, namely Russia, the US, Israel, Turkey and Iran, "dangerous."

"The Russians, having been there before, would not in fact withdraw, but you've got four other outside military forces [...] all operating inside Syria right now. It's a dangerous situation," the envoy said.

Comment: Sounds good, but the devil is in the details.

New Lt. Governor of Virginia Winsome Sears: "We're going to have safer neighborhoods, safer communities, and our children are going to get a good...

parzival

Bill Gates is going to be the one with the uncertain future,,, * New Lt. Governor of Virginia Winsome Sears: "We're going to have safer...

parzival

The more we hear about adverse affects the more we will merely shrug. It's a catch 22. Is that an asteroid trail in the photo?

sass

Welcome to the new normal. The more sensory exposure we have about such things, the less it is an issue.

sass

more misbehaving phuqqin' jewzskies starring on the sott; speaks for itself

Jibrish

Puppet Masters

As the tide turns, Israel is losing on two war fronts

Trump turns in written responses to Mueller's Russia probe questions

America has constructed 800+ military bases worldwide, so why can't it build a border wall?

Saudi FM blasts 'CIA report' on Crown Prince's alleged involvement in Khashoggi killing

'Limited time' left on Earth: Israeli minister's threat to kill Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar

Nunes wants declassification of emails that prove information withheld from FISA Court

Brave new US Congress, or the same old hypocrisy?

Russia: Forcing OPCW to assign blame for chemical weapons incidents damages the organization

IDF Chief of Staff Eisenkot claims Israeli operations in Syria curbed Iran, Hezbollah

All foreign troops with exception of Russian military must leave Syria says US envoy

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