Welcome to Sott.net
Fri, 05 Nov 2021
The World for People who Think

Puppet Masters
Map

Propaganda

Twitter bans 'state media' from advertising in hybrid war attempt to censor China


RT
Mon, 19 Aug 2019 23:14 UTC
Jack Dorsey
© Reuters / Anushree Fadnavis
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey (November 2018 file photo)
As mainstream media outlets accused Twitter of allowing a Chinese news agency to advertise its reporting on the Hong Kong protests, the platform announced it would ban all "state-controlled" media advertising within a month.

"Going forward, we will not accept advertising from state-controlled news media entities," Twitter announced on Monday afternoon.

What exactly amounts to a "state controlled" media will be "informed by established academic and civil society leaders in this space," Twitter said.

The devil, as usual, is in the details. The policy will not apply to "taxpayer-funded entities, including independent public broadcasters," the company said, in language that seems tailor-made for outlets such as the BBC or Voice of America (VOA), and seems both broad and flexible at the same time, to the point of being arbitrary.

Comment: RT comments that the US hybrid war against China via the Hong Kong protests, and now social media censorship, is a poor rehash of the 'Russia bots' and the 2016 election:
'Sowing discord' again? Twitter wades into Hong Kong protests with hunt for 'Chinese bots'

In another high-profile purge, Twitter has announced the deletion of nearly 1,000 accounts from its platform, citing fears that "Chinese bots" are "sowing discord" in Hong Kong after months of heated protests there.

After coming under fire recently for its alleged role in protests in China, Twitter has taken steps to combat what it called a "significant state-backed information operation focused on the situation in Hong Kong," according to the company's Monday blog post. In all, the firm said 936 accounts were permanently suspended "for a range of violations" of its policies.

"Based on our intensive investigations, we have reliable evidence to support that this is a coordinated state-backed operation," the blog post said of the deleted accounts. "Specifically, we identified large clusters of accounts behaving in a coordinated manner to amplify messages related to the Hong Kong protests."


By now we can be sure this "reliable evidence" will prove very little.


Using the "sow discord" language directly out of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report, the company's blog post reads much like a rehash of the 2016 presidential election, in which so-called "Russian bots" supposedly played an outsized role.

Also reminiscent of 2016's "Russian bot" craze is Twitter's connect-the-dots reasoning, in this case identifying a "cluster" of suspicious accounts "behaving in a coordinated manner," though the company did not elaborate on how such a determination was made. A recent court ruling determined Mueller's team did not prove any connection between the Russian government and the company that managed the purported "Russian troll farm" - despite making very similar claims of "coordinated behavior."

Twitter is certainly no stranger to purges, especially those of the politically motivated variety; in recent months, in fact, the company apparently can't keep its hands off the banhammer.

April saw British European Parliament candidates Carl Benjamin and Tommy Robinson exiled from the platform, while Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya was given the boot in June - for no stated reason. The Russian Embassy in Syria briefly fell victim in July, but was soon reinstated, however weeks later three Iranian news agencies would suffer the same fate. Earlier this month, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and a reporter from the right-of-center Daily Caller were censored on Twitter for reporting the contents of death threats against the senator.

While accounts are removed from Twitter on a daily basis for a variety of reasons, the platform's major purges are apparently related to political considerations, and the great hunt for 'Chinese bots' seems to fall into that category. However, it also amounts to meddling into internal affairs of a major world power.

China has previously warned the US against sticking "their noses in our affairs" in relation to the ongoing Hong Kong protests, with China's freshly appointed ambassador in Moscow, Zhang Hanhui, reminding that Hong Kong is Chinese and not "American" or "English."
RT also reports that Facebook is getting in on the censorship action:
Facebook said it also removed a number of "fake" accounts and pages linked to people associated with the Chinese government after a tip-off from Twitter.

On Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang refused to comment on the claims made by the social media giants, but said Chinese people "have the right to express their point of view" on the protests.

"What is happening in Hong Kong, and what the truth is, people will naturally have their own judgment. Why is it that China's official media's presentation is surely negative or wrong?" Shuang asked during a daily news briefing.
See also:

      Read More...
Sherlock

Spotlight in Spygate scandal moving onto the roles of the CIA and ex-director Brennan

Jeff Carlson
The Epoch Times
Tue, 20 Aug 2019 15:48 UTC
obama brennan cia
© Mark Wilson/Getty Images
Partners in crime? Then-President Barack Obama (L) nominates chief counterterrorism adviser John Brennan (R), to be CIA Director during an event in the East Room at the White House on Jan. 7, 2013.
More than two and a half years after President Donald Trump assumed office, focus on actions taken during the 2016 presidential campaign is starting to shift toward the CIA and its former director, John Brennan.

While some observers, including this publication, have pointed out for more than a year that Brennan appears to have played a key role in the scandal that's become known as Spygate, actions taken by Brennan and the CIA now appear to have become a central focus of investigators.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told Fox News' Maria Bartiromo that Justice Department (DOJ) Inspector General (IG) Michael Horowitz was "doing a very in-depth dive about the FISA warrant application" and "the behavior regarding the counterintelligence operation."
      Read More...
War Whore

US praises sanctions for killing Iran's economy, then blames Tehran for people's suffering


RT
Wed, 21 Aug 2019 16:22 UTC
money
© Reuters / Essam al-Sudani
The US State Department can't seem to make up its mind about the cause of Iran's economic woes, claiming Tehran's "Marxist economy" is to blame even as it celebrates the devastation US sanctions have wrought on the country.

Speaking to reporters in New York on Tuesday, US special envoy for Iran Brian Hook assailed the Islamic Republic, demanding an end to its "lethal assistance...to terrorist organizations," and running down a list of economy-ruining American sanctions currently imposed on the country.

"We have effectively zeroed-out Iran's export of oil," Hook said. "We have sanctioned Iran's export of petro-chemicals, industrial metals, precious metals."
We have collapsed foreign direct investment. We have seen significant asset flight leaving the country. Iran is in a recession. Inflation is creeping up near 50 percent.
However, Hook went on, it would be wrong to suggest that Washington is behind Iranian people's struggles - despite having just argued precisely that. Instead, the fault was with Iran's "Marxist economy" and ideological fervor, the envoy said. Sanctions? What sanctions?
      Read More...
Bomb

Iraqi paramilitary blames US for recent attacks on military bases


Sputnik
Wed, 21 Aug 2019 16:12 UTC
iraq explosion
© AP Photo / Loay Hameed
An ammunition depot at Iraq's al-Saqr military base was hit by an explosion on 12 August, killing one person and leaving 13 injured. Weeks earlier, a similar blast took place at Amerli base.

Iraqi paramilitary force Hashd al-Shaabi has stated that Washington is responsible for the attacks on the country's military bases, according to AFP.

"We announce that the first and last entity responsible for what happened are American forces, and we will hold them responsible for whatever happens from today onwards," the paramilitary group said in a statement.

Earlier, a member of the Security and Defence Committee in the Iraqi Parliament, Karim Alaiwi, told Lebanese broadcaster al-Mayadeen that the explosions that rocked two Iraqi military bases held by the country's Shi'ite paramilitaries were the result of unmanned Israeli airstrikes.

"We have proof that Israeli air forces hit several targets in Iraq, including the al-Saqr and Amerli bases. Israel claims that the Popular Mobilisation Forces have connections to Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah," the lawmaker claimed.

According to Alaiwi, the Jewish state is vying to weaken the militias through such airstrikes and even kill their members. He noted that Iraqi airspace is controlled by the US Air Force, indicating that Israel could not have struck the bases without Washington knowing it.
      Read More...
Sherlock

Galloway: How I exposed Ghislaine Maxwell's arch-Zionist daddy

George Galloway
RT
Wed, 21 Aug 2019 16:09 UTC
Ghislaine and Robert Maxwell
© AFP / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Laura Cavanaugh; AFP / MICHEL CLEMENT
Ghislaine and Robert Maxwell
As Jeffrey Epstein's accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell appears to have fallen off the face of the Earth, it's little remembered in the media how I fought a long war against her father Robert and the part I played in his downfall.

It would be scarcely worth recalling at this distance if I did not shed light, or rather a cloud of suspicion, over Maxwell's favourite child Ghislaine, now at the centre of a dark and fascinating story as bizarre as any which enveloped her late father.

I first met Robert Maxwell when he was an enormously powerful and fiercely intimidating media mogul in the early 1980s. It was in the green room of the BBC's then flagship program Question Time, hosted by Sir Robin Day - then the doyen of BBC grandees.

"Ah, Mr Galway (sic)," boomed Mr Maxwell, "the PLO man." At which point he punched me so hard in the solar plexus I doubled over, tears in my eyes. As was the wont of the British establishment at the time, my fellow participants and Sir Robin himself averted their eyes and pretended not to see.

Comment: Small correction: Galloway says the daughter's whereabouts are unknown. But she is apparently living openly in Los Angeles!

Epstein's alleged co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell spotted eating lunch at burger joint in Los Angeles

      Read More...
Star of David

Clinton email: 'We must overthrow Syrian govt in order to contain Iran for Israel'


The New Observer
Sun, 22 May 2016 00:00 UTC
Killary Syria
A newly-released Hilary Clinton email confirmed that the Obama administration has deliberately provoked the civil war in Syria as the "best way to help Israel."

In an indication of her murderous and psychopathic nature, Clinton also wrote that it was the "right thing" to personally threaten Bashar Assad's family with death.

In the email, released by Wikileaks, then Secretary of State Clinton says that the "best way to help Israel" is to "use force" in Syria to overthrow the government.

The document was one of many unclassified by the US Department of State under case number F-2014-20439, Doc No. C05794498, following the uproar over Clinton's private email server kept at her house while she served as Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013.

Although the Wikileaks transcript dates the email as December 31, 2000, this is an error on their part, as the contents of the email (in particular the reference to May 2012 talks between Iran and the west over its nuclear program in Istanbul) show that the email was in fact sent on December 31, 2012.
      Read More...
Light Sabers

Another tanker with Iranian oil now headed for Syria, Gibraltar says their views on Iran differ to US

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Tue, 20 Aug 2019 12:00 UTC
tanker
© Baltic Shipping
Bonita Queen tanker
A new report suggests we could be headed toward yet another Grace 1-type incident and showdown involving an Iranian tanker intercept by US or UK forces.

A tanker full of Iranian oil is said to be currently on its way to Dubai, with an ultimate offload destination of its 600,000 barrels of oil in Syria. According to the breaking Fox report, citing unnamed Western intelligence sources:
The Bonita Queen loaded 600,000 barrels of crude oil on August 2 near the Iranian coast at Kharg Island. Shortly after, the tanker was de-flagged by the country of St. Kitts and Nevis, fearing retaliatory U.S. sanctions.

The vessel is now headed to Dubai, where it will refuel before beginning a months-long journey around the horn of Africa, through the Mediterranean and to the shores of Syria.

Comment: Sputnik reports that the US plans to prevent the Iranian Grace 1 tanker delivering its shipment, meanwhile Gibraltar rejects the US order telling them that they, the EU, take a different stance towards Iranian sanctions - and then, as usual, the US threatens anyone defying their diktats with sanctions:
US Will Act to Prevent Iranian Tanker From Delivering Oil to Syria - Pompeo

The United States will take every action to prevent the Iranian tanker Grace 1 from delivering oil to Syria, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters.

"If that ship again heads to Syria, we will take every action we can consistent with those sanctions to prevent that," Pompeo said on Tuesday.

On Friday, the United States issued a warrant to seize Grace 1 while the tanker was still in Gibraltar's waters in order to confiscate all its cargo and $995,000 for alleged sanctions violations. However, Gibraltar rejected Washington's request, citing a difference between the United States' and European Union's stance regarding sanctions on Iran.

Iran said on Sunday that Grace 1 had set out into international waters after its release from Gibraltar by the UK authorities. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said Tehran had warned Washington against seizing the supertanker in the open sea.

However, Pompeo reiterated the United States' position for punitive measures against anyone who will assist the Iranian supertanker.

"We have made clear that anyone who touches it, anyone who supports it, anyone who allows a ship to dock is at risk of receiving sanctions from the United States of America," Pompeo said.

Iran's judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi said on Monday that releasing Grace 1 was not enough and called for legal proceedings to recompense and set an example for all those who violate international law by seizing ships.
See also:

      Read More...
Attention

Jill Biden to voters: You may have to 'swallow a little bit' with my husband so we can beat Trump

Joseph A. Wulfsohn
Fox News
Tue, 20 Aug 2019 10:43 UTC
joe and jill biden
Speaking at a bookstore in Manchester, N.H., Dr. Jill Biden urged voters on Monday to consider the "electability" of her husband, former Vice President Joe Biden, ahead of the 2020 Democratic primaries, and how they may have to "swallow a little bit" with the Democratic front-runner in order to defeat President Trump.

"I know that not all of you are committed to my husband, and I respect that, but I want you to think about your candidate, his or her electability, and who's going to win this race," Dr. Biden said.

"And so if you're looking at that you've got to look at the polls," Biden said. "If they're consistent and they're consistently saying the same thing, I think you can't dismiss that."

Comment: 'Don't vote for me because I'm good, vote for me because I'm not Trump!' It's a risky strategy, to say the least, especially considering the number of gaffes and slips Biden continues to make. One would think people would need to actually be behind a candidates positions in order for them to give the candidate their vote. The 'lesser of two evils' strategy has rarely proven successful.

See also:

      Read More...
Bad Guys

When, if ever, can we lay the needless US burden of war down?

Patrick J. Buchanan
buchanan.org
Tue, 20 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC
US troops in Afghanistan
Is it too soon to ask: What have we gained from our longest war? Was all the blood and treasure invested worth it? And what does the future hold?

Friday, President Donald Trump met in New Jersey with his national security advisers and envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who is negotiating with the Taliban to bring about peace, and a U.S. withdrawal from America's longest war.

U.S. troops have been fighting in Afghanistan since 2001, in a war that has cost 2,400 American lives.

Following the meeting, Trump tweeted, "Many on the opposite sides of this 19 year war, and us, are looking to make a deal — if possible!"

Some, however, want no deal; they are fighting for absolute power.

Saturday, a wedding in Kabul with a thousand guests was hit by a suicide bomber who, igniting his vest, massacred 63 people and wounded 200 in one of the greatest atrocities of the war. ISIS claimed responsibility.

Monday, 10 bombs exploded in restaurants and public squares in the eastern city of Jalalabad, wounding 66.

Trump is pressing Khalilzad to negotiate drawdowns of U.S. troop levels from the present 14,000, and to bring about a near-term end to U.S. involvement in a war that began after we overthrew the old Taliban regime for giving sanctuary to Osama bin Laden.
      Read More...
Document

10 declassified Russia collusion revelations that could rock Washington this fall

John Solomon
The Hill
Tue, 20 Aug 2019 19:00 UTC
washington dc
Behind the scenes, some major events were set in motion last autumn that could soon change the tenor in Washington, at least as it relates to the debunked Russia collusion narrative that distracted America for nearly three years.

It was in September 2018 that President Trump told my Hill.TV colleague Buck Sexton and me that he would order the release of all classified documents showing what the FBI, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and other U.S. intelligence agencies may have done wrong in the Russia probe.

About the same time, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, under then-Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), voted unanimously to send 53 nonpublic transcripts of witnesses in its Russia review to the director of national intelligence (DNI) for declassification. The transcripts were officially delivered in November.

Now, nearly a year later, neither release has happened.

To put that into perspective, it took just a couple of months in 2004 to declassify the final report on the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks after a presidential commission finished its work, which contained some of the nation's most secretive intelligence revelations.

But the long wait for transparency may soon end.
      Read More...
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts