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Boris Johnson falls flat on his lying face over Saudi sponsorship of terrorism in Syria


RT
Tue, 27 Feb 2018 21:11 UTC
Syrian Red Crescent volunteer
© Samer Bouidani - Restrictions: * Russia Rights Only * / Global Look Press
A Syrian Red Crescent volunteer Eastern Ghouta, Syria, 20 February 2018
Boris Johnson failed to answer questions on Saudi Arabia's alleged links to the Islamist militia battling the Syrian government in Eastern Ghouta. The interview came after a UN-agreed temporary ceasefire was put in place.

Presenter Mishal Husain for BBC Radio 4's Today program pushed the foreign secretary on reports that British ally Saudi Arabia was "backing" the main militant group in the area. Husain asked: "The Saudis are reportedly backing the most prominent rebel group in Ghouta, Jaish al Islam. Have you talked to the Saudis about that?"

"We certainly do and one of the tragedies of this whole conflict as you will remember...," Johnson said, before aborting any attempted explanation and simply adding: "To be fair I don't think the Saudis would concede that they're involved in military action."


Comment: Of course Saudi Arabia is not going to concede that they are somewhat covertly sponsoring terrorism in Syria. That has nothing to do with the fact that everyone knows what they are up to!

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War Whore

US military commander states the obvious - The Empire will stay in Syria after Daesh is defeated (by Russia)


Sputnik
Tue, 27 Feb 2018 21:16 UTC
us military syria
© AFP 2018/ DELIL SOULEIMAN
US forces deployed in Syria will remain in the country after Daesh defeat (outlawed in Russia) to ensure the terror group does not reemerge and proceed with a political resolution of the conflict, Central Command (CENTCOM) commander Gen. Joseph Votel said in a congressional testimony on Tuesday.

"When we have completed our mission here in Syria, it involves not only kicking ISIS [Daesh] out of the areas which they occupied, but also includes consolidation of gains and the stability that allows us to move forward with a political resolution," Votel told the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee.

Votel confirmed that the reason for the US military being in Syria is to defeat Daesh.

"The principal thing will be to ensure that ISIS [Daesh] does not reemerge."


Comment: If the US Empire does not want Daesh to reemerge, they should stop funding, training and arming terrorists as part of their geoplitical maneuverings. It's that simple.

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Light Sabers

Syrian govt. forces reportedly attacked by US-led warplanes

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Mon, 26 Feb 2018 21:11 UTC
us strike syria
The last time the US-led coalition fighting ISIS in Syria conducted air and artillery strikes against pro-regime forces in Syria, in the oil-rich Deir Ezzor region, was on Feb. 7, when hundreds of pro-regime fighters were killed, the largest number of "pro-regime" casualties inflicted by the US-led coalition in one attack. The coalition described its action as carried out in "self defense", while the Syrian state news agency SANA described the action as an "aggression" by the coalition against "popular forces" who were fighting ISIS and the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.

In a bombshell update one week later, it was revealed that among the casualties were hundreds of Russian mercenaries working on behalf of the Assad regime, and hired by the Wagner PMC (Private Military Group) - a shadowy organization often referred to as Russia's answer to Blackwater. Adding to the mystery, is that the Wagner Group is believed to be funded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a rich businessman close to President Vladimir Putin and also known as "Putin's Chef." Prigozhin was recently sanctioned by the US due to his links to the eastern Ukraine separatists.

Unnamed US intelligence sources quoted by the Washington Post said Prigozhin was in close contact with the Kremlin in the run-up to the Feb 7 assault on the Syrian Democratic Forces base in Deir Ezzor region.
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Attention

Hype and the Mueller indictment

Aaron Maté
The Nation
Thu, 22 Feb 2018 00:00 UTC
Russian ads
© Reuters/Aaron P. Bernstein
Facebook examples, social media ads from the group of 13 individuals under indictment.
Special counsel Robert Mueller has charged 13 Russian individuals and three organizations for using social media "to interfere with the U.S. political system, including the 2016 presidential election." The Russian effort denigrated Hillary Clinton, and sought to inflame divisive social issues through fake accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, as well as staging political rallies. While the use of propaganda to influence a domestic audience for any purpose is troubling, the indictment offers nothing on the e-mail hacking of the DNC and John Podesta, nor on the suspicions of Kremlin collusion that have engulfed Donald Trump's presidency. Yet, far from quelling the inflamed rhetoric surrounding Russian meddling for more than a year, one of the few areas of divergence across the political spectrum comes only in regard to which historical calamity to compare it to.

Neoconservative pundit Max Boot decries
"the second-worst foreign attack on America," after 9/11, one that "may be even more corrosive."
According to liberal Jonathan Alter, the Russians have launched "an attack that-but for the loss of life-is as bad as Pearl Harbor." Democratic Representative Jerrold Nadler concurs, explaining to MSNBC:
"They didn't kill anyone but they're destroying our democratic process.... Not in the amount of violence, but in the seriousness, it is very much on par."

Comment: One upshot of the 'nothing burger bits crisis' is the crackdown on free enterprise - another freedom lost - as there is now a demand for social media sites to document and report who is buying ads. As per Asia Times:
In November, 2017, Congress unveiled legislation that would force Facebook, Google, and other social media giants to disclose who buys online advertising, thereby closing a loophole that Russia supposedly exploited during the election.
We also might remind ourselves of who and what is really swaying the news to a particular bias and end-point, emanating from the bastions of MSM.

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Question

Did Trump cut a deal and bypass the 'collusion' charge?

Mike Whitney
CounterPunch
Mon, 26 Feb 2018 00:00 UTC
TrumpMueller
© CNN
Here's your legal koan for the day: When is an indictment not an indictment?

Answer: When there is no intention of initiating a criminal case against the accused. In the case of the 13 Russian trolls who have just been indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, there is neither the intention nor the ability to prosecute a case against them. (They are all foreign nationals who will not face extradition.)

But, if that's the case, than why would Mueller waste time and money compiling a 37-page document alleging all-manner of nefarious conduct when he knew for certain that the alleged perpetrators would never be prosecuted? Why?

Isn't it because the indictments are not really a vehicle for criminal prosecution, but a vehicle for political grandstanding? Isn't that the real purpose of the indictments, to add another layer of dirt to the mountain of unreliable, uncorroborated, unproven allegations of Russian meddling. Mueller is not acting in his capacity as Special Counsel, he is acting in his role of deep state hatchet-man whose job is to gather scalps by any means necessary.
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Star of David

Bald-face liar: Israeli Major General Yoav Mordechai claims Mohammed Tamimi, 15, was not hit in the head by a bullet

Jonathan Cook
Mondoweiss
Tue, 27 Feb 2018 20:20 UTC
tamimi bullet head cat scan
© Nabi Saleh Popular Committee
CT scan of the bullet lodged in Mohammed Tamimi's head.
The Israeli army is using all means to avenge itself on the Tamimis and Nabi Saleh for their resilience and resistance, epitomized by the imprisoned girl Ahed Tamimi who slapped a soldier.

Yesterday morning, before dawn, Israeli soldiers raided the occupied village of Nabi Saleh and detained 10 members of the extended Tamimi family - half of them children.

The forces also used what is known as 'skunk water', as can be seen in local citizen-journalist Bilal Tamimi's video (provided on +972 Magazine) - which is ostensibly designed for 'crowd control', only there is no crowd. The Israeli army is using the putrid liquid, sprayed from a truck, to collectively punish Palestinians, as it has been documented doing in the past, spraying homes and schools.

Among those arrested in the night raid was 15-year-old Mohammed Tamimi, who was shot in the head at close range by a rubber-coated bullet, just before Ahed's famous slap nearly 2-1/2 months ago. Mohammed was put in a medical coma, and had part of his skull removed, which has deformed his skull. His situation is incredibly sensitive, and one wonders just why he was not spared the violence in this night raid. He was released a few hours after the arrest and after a relatively short interrogation.
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Bullseye

Hillary Clinton's election blame-athon zeros in on Facebook


RT
Tue, 27 Feb 2018 11:45 UTC
Killary
© Aaron Bernstein/Reuters
Still beating the dead horse...
Hillary Clinton has a new target to blame for her losing the 2016 presidential election and, surprisingly, this time it's not the Russians. According to the Democrat, Facebook is behind her failure to win the White House.

The crux of the argument is that Facebook charged the Trump campaign team less for advertising on the platform and therefore seemed to favor his candidacy. However, this is exactly how Facebook - a commercial enterprise - works: the more impressions, clicks, interactions, shares and comments a post generates, the less Facebook relatively charges the advertiser to reach people. And this is where the Trump campaign succeeded.

Simply put, team Hillary was not as social media savvy as team Trump and was therefore charged more for advertising on the platform. Former Facebook advertising staffer Antonio García Martínez explained it all in a February 23 article for Wired entitled 'How Trump Conquered Facebook - Without Russian Ads.'
"During the run-up to the election, the Trump and Clinton campaigns bid ruthlessly for the same online real estate in front of the same swing-state voters," Martinez writes. "But because Trump used provocative content to stoke social-media buzz, and he was better able to drive likes, comments, and shares than Clinton, his bids received a boost from Facebook's click model, effectively winning him more media for less money."

Comment: No surprise, Killary found another blame victim to target.

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USA

Trump: WTO is a 'catastrophe', US is losing out, needs new deal


RT
Mon, 26 Feb 2018 19:07 UTC
Trump at WH
© Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
US President Donald Trump has labeled the World Trade Organization a "catastrophe" in a wide-ranging attack on the international trade regulator. His administration is seeking to renegotiate all US trade deals.

Speaking with US state governors at the White House on Monday, Trump said the United States loses a lot of money to Mexico and Canada as a result of the intergovernmental organization, which makes it impossible to do business.

His rhetoric about WTO echoes Trump's pronouncements on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the US, Canada and Mexico, which he has described as "the single worst trade deal ever approved," and a catastrophe for US workers and companies. Trump threatened last year to withdraw from NAFTA if the terms of 1994 agreement are not changed to favor American interests. Negotiations are underway.

Even if the US withdraws from NAFTA, it still would not be able to impose tariffs higher than five percent, because of the WTO rules.
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Attention

USAF chief warns of space war 'in a matter of years'

George Dvorsky
Gizmodo
Mon, 26 Feb 2018 11:30 UTC
GenGoldfein
© U.S. Air Force graphic/Corey Parrish
Speaking to an audience of active-duty airmen, US Air Force Chief of Staff General David L. Goldfein predicted it'll only be a "matter of years" before American forces find themselves "fighting from space." To prepare for this grim possibility, he said the Air Force needs new tools and a new approach to training leaders. Oh, and lots of money.

As reported by Breaking Defense, Goldfein made the comments this past Friday February 23 while delivering a speech at the Air Force Association's 34th annual Air Warfare Symposium and Technology Exposition in Orlando, Florida.

"[It's] time for us as a service, regardless of specialty badge, to embrace space superiority with the same passion and sense of ownership as we apply to air superiority today," he said.

These are some of the strongest words yet from the Air Force chief of staff to get the Pentagon thinking about space - and to recognize the U.S. Air Force as the service branch best suited for the job. "I believe we're going to be fighting from space in a matter of years," he said. "And we are the service that must lead joint war fighting in this new contested domain. This is what the nation demands."

Comment: "That's a lot of money for something we all hope the US military will never have to actually use." If they have it...they will use it. Maybe it is time for countries to bond together instead of unending repeats of "last man standing".
See also:

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Pirates

Amazon paid no US federal taxes despite earning $5.6B in profits in 2017

Emma Roller
Splinter
Mon, 26 Feb 2018 00:00 UTC
Jeff Bezos amazon US taxes

It’s not crazy to expect the company owned by the wealthiest man in the world pay taxes to the government that allowed it to become so successful in the first place.
Jeff Bezos is the richest person in the world, with a personal net worth of $108 billion. In 2017, Bezos' company, the internet retail giant Amazon, reportedly took in $5.6 billion in U.S. profits.

So, how much did Amazon pay in income tax on that bounty? Hang on, we're getting some news...what? What's this? Amazon effectively paid zero dollars in federal income taxes in 2017? Oh.

Amazon is projecting a $789 million windfall from Republicans' tax bill, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, which may have factored into its reason for witholding taxes this year. Bezos-like many other nominally liberal capitalists-claims to disagree with Donald Trump's policies, while quietly lapping up the Republicans' regressive tax breaks.

Comment:

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