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DNI, CIA Director decry impact of intel leaks following Russia reports

Josh Feldman
Mediaite
Mon, 29 Jun 2020 18:45 UTC
White House

The White House
The past few days have been dominated by multiple reports that Russia offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants to kill U.S. troops. President Donald Trump has denied that he was briefed and tweeted Sunday night the intel agencies "did not find this info credible."

On Monday night, the Director of National Intelligence and the head of the CIA both put out statements decrying intelligence leaks.

DNI John Ratcliffe, who said Saturday that the president was not briefed "on any intelligence alleged by the New York Times in its reporting," put out a new statement saying:
"U.S. and coalition force protection is a critical priority for both the president and the intelligence community. The selective leaking of any classified information disrupts the vital interagency work to collect, assess, and mitigate threats and places our forces at risk. it is also, simply put, a crime."

Comment: The MSM mouthpieces, including the Associated Press are still trying to keep the "Russian bounty" story alive:
Unfortunately for AP, even the president's most ardent critics have declined to publicly corroborate their claim. John Bolton, who was serving as national security advisor at the time, declined to comment on whether he had briefed the president on the matter in March 2019. Undeterred, AP still reported that Bolton told colleagues that he had informed Trump about the bounties - citing unnamed sources.

The New York Times, referring to its own anonymous officials, claimed last week that Trump had known about the "bounties" for foreign troops since at least March of this year. The US president has denied that he was ever briefed on the matter accusing the "Fake News NYT" of peddling "another fabricated Russia Hoax."

White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said on Monday that there was "no consensus within the intelligence community" that the allegation had merit, and therefore the information was never brought to Trump's attention.

The Pentagon disclosed that it was "evaluating" the claims but so far has found "no corroborating evidence to validate" the sensational media reports. For its part, Russia has dismissed the unverified story as nonsense, pointing out that the allegation coincides with Trump's move to withdraw US forces from the 19-year occupation of Afghanistan.
Yeesh. When even arch warmonger Bolton won't back the story, it should be clear it's pure fantasy.

New York Times takes anti-Russian hysteria to new level with report on Russian 'bounty' for US troops in Afghanistan

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NPC

Cringeworthy: Democrats attack July 4 Trump rally at Mt. Rushmore as 'glorifying white supremacy,' scrub tweet amid outcry


RT
Tue, 30 Jun 2020 18:56 UTC
mount rushmore
The Democratic Party has provoked a collective eye roll on Twitter after blasting the president for an upcoming rally at Mount Rushmore, saying it would honor "white supremacy" on sacred native land. The tweet was quickly nuked.

The Dems' latest hot take on Monday night stood for only moments before it was sent down the memory hole, though by then it had already been preserved for eternity on an internet archive site. The hot-button tweet said President Donald Trump had "disrespected Native communities," and would do so again by holding his July 4th rally at Mount Rushmore, which it deemed "sacred" to some Native American tribes.


The now-deleted post sent critics into a fury, interpreting the message to say that both the iconic American monument and Independence Day itself are celebrations of racism. Among those to wade into the fray were Trump's own campaign team, as well as the GOP's national spokesperson, Elizabeth Harrington, who put a challenge to Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
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Eye 2

Another voice gone: YouTube perma-bans Stefan Molyneux, reports '5x spike' in removals after launching crackdown on 'supremacist content'


RT
Tue, 30 Jun 2020 18:20 UTC
youtube censored
YouTube intellectual Stefan Molyneux has seen his channel of 14 years and thousands of videos deleted, with the platform citing "hate speech" as a number of online venues take aim at conservative and right-wing personalities.

Molyneux - the host of Freedomain Radio, billed as "the world's number one philosophy show" - was booted off YouTube on Monday over its policies regulating "hate speech," according to a company statement. His termination came amid a broader social media purge throughout the day, which saw prominent Trump-related accounts banned on Reddit and Twitch, as well as other right-wingers scrubbed from YouTube for good.

"We have strict policies prohibiting hate speech on YouTube, and terminate any channel that repeatedly or egregiously violates those policies," a YouTube spokesperson told The Verge about Monday's bans, adding that a policy change last year has driven a surge of similar deletions.

Comment: It appears that YouTube has upped the pace, and has moved from smaller outlets to those with huge followings. Social media platforms cannot be stripped of their 230 protections soon enough. Those who are banned due to arbitrary political opinions should have the right to sue these platforms on freedom of speech grounds

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Light Sabers

'No doubt' India was behind attack on Karachi Stock Exchange, claims Pakistan's PM Khan


RT
Tue, 30 Jun 2020 18:22 UTC
Pakistan Stock Exchange building in Karachi
© REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro
Pakistan Stock Exchange building in Karachi
India is the prime suspect behind a terrorist attack that targeted Pakistan's Karachi Stock Exchange, Prime Minister Imran Khan has alleged. New Delhi has strongly denied having any role in the incident.

Speaking before the National Assembly on Tuesday, Khan asserted that the gunmen who stormed the facility were linked to Pakistan's longtime rival.

"We have no doubt this was done by India," he stated as cited by local media, adding that the three security guards who lost their lives in the attack were "heroes" and "thwarted a major incident, which was planned by India to destabilize us."
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Mr. Potato

Turkish FM Çavuşoğlu: NATO ally France working to ramp up Russian presence in Libya


Daily Sabah
Tue, 30 Jun 2020 18:15 UTC
Çavuşoğlu
© AP Photo
Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu speaks at a joint news conference with Hungary's Foreign Minister Peter Szijjart after their talks, in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, June 30, 2020.
Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said Tuesday that although NATO sees Moscow as a threat, NATO member France is trying to increase the Russian presence in Libya.


Comment: That would be better than a Turkish presence.


"France supports a pirate, a coupist," he added, pointing to Paris' support for putschist Gen. Khalifa Haftar, who is also backed by Russia.


Comment: He's also the leader of the Libyan National Army, which is supported by Libya's population, unlike the so-called official Libyan government, which only controls a small fraction of the country, is illegitimate, composed of murderers and terrorists, and with which Turkey is in league.


"All of our bilateral relations are within the framework of transparent agreements," Çavuşoğlu said.

Turkey enjoys good relations with Libya's Government of National Accord (GNA), which is recognized by the United Nations and most of the world as the only legitimate administration in the North African country.

Comment: See also:

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Wolf

Ex-president Poroshenko ducks questioning by Ukraine's State Bureau Of Investigations


RFE/RL
Tue, 30 Jun 2020 17:48 UTC
Petro Poroshenko

Petro Poroshenko
Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has failed to show at the State Bureau of Investigations (DBR) for questioning.

The DBR planned to question Poroshenko on June 30 in a case about his alleged illegal appointment of Serhiy Semochko to the post of the deputy chief of the Foreign Intelligence Service.

Poroshenko's lawyer, Ihor Holovan, told journalists that his client did not show up at the DBR because the summons for questioning had been made via the DBR's website, which is illegal since Poroshenko should have been served the subpoena personally.

Comment: Rather rich of the U.S. embassy, considering it was/is one of the epicenters of Ukraine's corruption:

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Bad Guys

Shambles: Latvia bans RT, saying it's 'controlled' by EU-sanctioned journalist... who heads DIFFERENT outlet with similar name


RT
Tue, 30 Jun 2020 17:04 UTC
rt stage
© Sputnik / Ilya Pitalev
Latvia's media council has announced a complete ban on seven RT channels, declaring falsely that they are "under the effective control" of a person subject to sanctions imposed by the European Union.

The person in question is well-known Russian broadcaster Dmitry Kiselyov, who in fact heads a completely different news organization called Rossiya Segodnya — a basic fact-check that the bright sparks at Latvia's National Electronic Media Council (NEPLP) seemingly failed to conduct.

Kiselyov has indeed been under EU sanctions since Crimea voted for reunification with Russia in 2014, but he has nothing to do with RT or its broadcasting.

Of course, the knee-jerk move to banish RT based on false information could have been avoided had the council taken even a cursory glance at either RT or Rossiya Segodnya's Wikipedia pages.
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Mr. Potato

Democrats: Independence Day celebrations glorify white supremacy

Jonah Gottschalk
The Federalist
Tue, 30 Jun 2020 00:01 UTC
mount rushmore
In a post that was hastily deleted Monday night, the Democratic National Committee announced that President Trump's plan to celebrate the Fourth of July was "glorifying white supremacy." No explanation was given as to how celebrating the nation's independence from the British Empire could be considered racist.

democrats tweet
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War Whore

The elite technocrats are lying about your future


MoneyCircus
Fri, 19 Jun 2020 05:23 UTC
technocrats
Food standards are being lowered in secret trade deals agreed behind closed doors, writes Colin Todhunter in Off-Guardian From Toxic Food to Agrarian Disaster: Dirty Deals Done Dirt Cheap His analysis is right but the conclusion is not as easy as setting up citizen juries. We need something much bigger.

Here's the problem: A small group is trying to seize control of the global economy but they must use force; they can get no further by peace. The resource wars are no longer about land but about human resources: the people are no longer consumers but a cost base to be exploited or solved. The Great Reset: Eliminating the points at which populations cost money and find new ways to monetize the masses.

There's a problem: it won't work. A market economy is no longer possible once the same interests control more than X% of the market. You get Dirigisme, Gosplan, the banks/corporations/interests supplant the economy. The corporation IS the government IS the corporation. All dominant interests serve the same interests.

The winners have to win so you get managed outcomes. Those interests censor information contrary to their own interests resulting in a filter bubble: the narrower the sources of information, the more they gain authority. Information is reinforced as it becomes detached from reality. Knowledge is replaced by a model of the world outside.

Comment: See also:

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Stock Down

Deep State eating itself? Zuckerberg Loses $7 Billion as Firms Boycott Facebook Ads

Siraj Datoo
Bloomberg
Sat, 27 Jun 2020 00:00 UTC
Mark Zuckerberg
© George Frey/Bloomberg
Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg just became $7.2 billion poorer after a flurry of companies pulled advertising from Facebook Inc.'s network.

Shares of the social media company fell 8.3% on Friday, the most in three months, after Unilever, one of the world's largest advertisers, joined other brands in boycotting ads on the social network. Unilever said it would stop spending money with Facebook's properties this year.

The share-price drop eliminated $56 billion from Facebook's market value and pushed Zuckerberg's net worth down to $82.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That also moved the Facebook chief executive officer down one notch to fourth place, overtaken by Louis Vuitton boss Bernard Arnault, who was elevated to one of the world's three richest people along with Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.

Comment: See also:

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