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Hong Kong: The world is watching as another US made color revolution unfolds

Nebojsa Malic
RT
Mon, 12 Aug 2019 20:30 UTC
Hong Kong color revolution
© Reuters / Kim Kyung-Hoon
A protester carries a US flag during the march at Mongkok, in Hong Kong, China, August 3, 2019.
If the iconography and tone of Hong Kong protests and the support from US diplomats weren't enough, Washington's words of concern sure seem to suggest that the months-long demonstrations amount to a 'color revolution.'

On Monday, the Trump administration urged "all sides to refrain from violence." While carefully paying lip service to Hong Kong being an internal Chinese matter, the unnamed White House official who spoke to the press said the US supported those "looking for democracy."

The president's top legislative ally, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), was far more direct: "Any violent crackdown would be completely unacceptable... The world is watching."


Comment: Recent developments in Hong Kong:

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Pirates

Camp Bucca: The US military internment camp in Iraq where ISIS was born

Maria Podkopaeva
Fort Russ
Wed, 10 Jun 2015 16:37 UTC
Camp Bucca

Camp Bucca
In the past six months reputable publications and news agencies of different countries increasingly engage in a heated discussion about whose project is ISIS. And who is responsible for the emergence and operation of this group. Discussion started late last year in the Western media of this topic can hardly be silenced. Therefore an exchange of blame is inevitable.

The main nerve of the emerging debate is the burning issue about the real relationship between ISIS and the United States. It is not easy to provide an exhaustive answer. However, much begins to make sense.

On the one hand, ISIS is conducting a campaign of threats against the U.S. and American citizens. On the other hand, Americans are already openly perceived as the handlers of ISIS. In mid-April 2015 the Iranian news Agency Fars quoted the statement of chief of General staff of the Iranian armed forces major-general Hassan Firouzabadi, who said:
"We have received reports that American planes have been landing and taking off from ISIS-controlled airports. The United States should not supply weapons, money and food to 'Islamic State', and then apologize about doing that by mistake."
A number of Western media outlets at the same time worked a completely different version of ISIS creation.

Comment: See also this CNN report from late 2014 which lays it all out:



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Arrow Up

Argentina's Fernandez & Kirchner crush President Macri in 'preliminary elections'


RT
Mon, 12 Aug 2019 03:54 UTC
kirchner
© Reuters / Agustin Marcarian
Presidential candidate Alberto Fernandez and his running mate former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner
Argentinian President Mauricio Macri has conceded defeat in the primary elections after suffering a massive loss to the center-left nominee Alberto Fernandez and his running mate, former president Cristina Kirchner.

"We've suffered a bad election," right-wing Macri said on Sunday night, but vowed to "redouble" his efforts to secure the 'real' elections in October.

The nationwide primary election, introduced in Argentina in 2011, is held simultaneously for all parties and serves as a good indication of how the presidential race would swing when people cast their vote in the general election on October 27. The Sunday vote landed the incumbent president with 32.36 percent of support, while Fernandez obtained 47.22 percent. Center-right Roberto Lavagna came in third with 8.39 percent.

Comment: See also Also check out SOTT radio's: Behind the Headlines: Confessions of an Economic Hitman: Interview with John Perkins

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Bell

India And Pakistan Must Reunite For Their Mutual Good

Markandey Katju
The Huffington Post
Mon, 10 Apr 2017 19:46 UTC
India pakistan bangladesh reunification

It's time
Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's acclaimed Lahore bus visit and the Lahore Declaration in February 1999 was followed by the Kargil War in May the same year. Similarly, Prime Minister Modi's Lahore visit, with all its bonhomie, hoopla and fanfare was followed by the attack by militants on the Pathankot Air Force base and later on the Indian consulate in Mazhar-e-Sharif.

There are many people who want improvement of relations between India and Pakistan. They say that if France and Germany can live as good neighbours after long years of animosity, why cannot we?

In my opinion such people are living in a fool's paradise, and they forget certain basic facts. The very purpose of creating Pakistan was that there should be no peace but enmity and hostility.

Comment: There's no better time for this to at least begin happening: both countries have anti-establishment, popular, patriotic leaders who genuinely want the best for their people.

The UK would be well-advised to support reunification: over million Pakistanis and almost 1.5 million Indians live there. We can't envisage war between India and Pakistan being confined to South Asia...

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USA

The persistent myth: Trump opposes war

Caitlin Johnstone
Medium
Thu, 08 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC
Trump/tank
© Unknown
US President Donald Trump speaking in Lima, Ohio
Whenever I criticize the foreign policy of the current US administration, I always get some pushback from Trump supporters who insist that this president is doing more good than harm by "fighting the Deep State" and, even more commonly, by "keeping us out of wars".

This notion that Donald Trump is some kind of peace president, or even the notion that he puts any more inertia on the US war machine than his predecessor did, is contradicted by all facts and evidence we have available to us. Trump has not ended a single one of the wars his predecessors started, and has added dangerous escalations against Venezuela, Iran, and nuclear-armed Russia.

One of the difficulties in addressing this persistent myth, besides the obvious fact that everyone now lives in tightly cloistered information echo chambers of confirmation bias-feeding validation loops, is that the myth is in some ways bipartisan. Whenever Trump mumbles one of his empty appeals to non-interventionist principles, his supporters lap it up while half of the Democrats start attacking the president for being insufficiently hawkish. Trump's talk about withdrawing from Syria is a perfect example of this; the troops are still there, but Dems attacked him for irresponsible "isolationist" behavior and his supporters got their fairy tale about their president ending wars. Everyone gets what they want, including the military-industrial complex that Trump pretends to oppose.
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Star of David

Election ploy: Netanyahu wants Trump to recognize Israeli sovereignty of West Bank

Tim Korso
Sputnik
Mon, 12 Aug 2019 14:10 UTC
TrumpNeti
© AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta
US President Donald Trump • Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu
Since his inauguration US President Donald Trump has already made two landmark decisions regarding policy towards Israel: he recognised Israeli claims on Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. These moves, however, have undermined the US role as mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the eyes of Palestinian leaders.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is undertaking efforts to receive official support from US President Donald Trump for Israeli claims on territories it controls in the West Bank ahead of next elections, scheduled for September, The Times of Israel reported citing an anonymous source in the prime minister's Office.

According to the source, the Israeli prime minister is lobbying the move to secure solid support from right-wing voters, who are likely to praise the move that will strengthen Tel Aviv's hold on West Bank settlements, condemned by the UN.

"Ahead of the elections, something will happen. President Trump will repeat the statements by Friedman and Greenblatt in his own words. It will likely be dramatic", the anonymous source said, referring to earlier statements by US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and US peace envoy Jason Greenblatt, both of whom mulled the possibility of Washington supporting Israeli claims to certain parts of the West Bank.
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Attention

Iranian navy chief's warning: Any Israeli presence in Gulf could 'spark war'!


The Times of Israel
Sun, 11 Aug 2019 10:52 UTC
IRGC Commander Alireza Tangsiri
© Screen capture/YouTube
IRGC Commander Alireza Tangsiri
The commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's navy, Alireza Tangsiri, warned Sunday that "any illegitimate presence by the Zionists in the waters of the Persian Gulf could spark a war."

His remark followed reports on Israel potentially taking part in a US-led international mission to secure Western vessels crossing the Strait of Hormuz, after Iran seized several oil tankers, amid escalating tensions over US sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

In an interview to the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Mayadeen television station in Lebanon, Tangsiri warned that "whenever our commanders wish so, they are able to detain any ship, even if it is accompanied by American and British forces."

Last week, the Ynet news site reported that Foreign Minister Israel Katz had told a closed session of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that Israel was involved in US-led efforts to provide maritime security in the Strait of Hormuz.

Katz said Israel was assisting the mission to secure the crucial waterway with intelligence and in other unspecified fields. He stressed the mission was in Israel's strategic interest of countering Iran and boosting ties with Gulf countries.

Responding to Katz's comments, Iran's defense minister on Thursday said that the formation of a US-led flotilla would "increase insecurity" and any Israeli involvement would have "disastrous consequences" for the region.

Comment: From RT, 12/8/2019: Flooding Persian Gulf with weapons - a 'matchbox ready to ignite' -Zarif
The US and their allies are damaging security in the Persian Gulf by "flooding" the region with arms, and sending a US-led naval force there will make the situation worse, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said.

US foreign policy undermines the security of the countries around the Persian Gulf, Zarif said on Monday during a trip to Qatar. "The region has become a matchbox ready to ignite because America and its allies are flooding it with weapons."

Iranian officials have been accusing Washington and its key overseas partners like Saudi Arabia of destabilizing the situation in the Middle East by training and arming various anti-government militant groups in Syria.

Zarif argued that the presence of the US-led task force will only exacerbate the situation. The narrow Gulf waterway "will become less safe as foreign [navy] vessels increase their presence in it," he said.

The diplomat stressed that the security in the region must be maintained by littoral countries, not outside powers.

From Sputnik 12/8/2019: 'We're here to deter Iran, but ready to strike if ordered'
US officers on the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, deployed at an American naval base in Bahrain along with some smaller vessels, claimed in an interview with Sky News that their mission is to deter Iran from striking US targets, but added that they were also ready to launch offensive strikes if ordered.

"A large part of deterrence is the readiness that backs that deterrence up. We are ready to defend the US and the US interests if called upon... My job is to be here, to be ready, to deter and to defend if required", Rear Admiral Michael Boyle, commander of Carrier Strike Group 12, said.

Despite the highly publicised deployment, the aircraft carrier has not passed through the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway linking Mideast crude producers to crucial world markets.

"For our mission here, which is deterrence, we are in the place we need to be. The people in the know in Iran know that we are more of a deterrent here than we are in the Arabian Gulf because from this position we can reach them and they can't reach us. In a boxer's analogy we have got overreach from the spot where we are right now", Boyle added.
Sputnik adds, 8/12/2019 FM: Iraq warns against Israeli involvement
Iraq rejects the participation of Israel in the US-led maritime security mission in the Persian Gulf, Foreign Minister Mohamad Alhakim stated, stressing that it might further increase tensions in the region.

"Iraq is against the participation of the Zionist regime's forces in any kind of patrolling to ensure the save passage of ships in the Persian Gulf", Alhakim said on Twitter.

He added that Iraq was "seeking to reduce tensions in the region through negotiations, while the presence of Western forces in the region is increasing them".


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Stop

France, Italy, UAE, UK, US call for immediate ceasefire in Libyan conflict


Sputnik
Mon, 12 Aug 2019 10:24 UTC
Tank
© Reuters/IsmailL Zitouny
The United States, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and the United Arab Emirates issued a joint statement in connection with the situation in Libya and called on the conflicting sides for an immediate ceasefire and the investigation into the recent attack in Benghazi, which had resulted in the deaths of three UN employees. The statement released by the governments said:
"We call on all parties to start working with no delay on a ceasefire agreement and resume efforts, under the auspices of the Special Representative of the United Nations, to build a lasting political solution ... We reiterate that there can be no military option in Libya, and we urge all parties to protect civilians, safeguard Libya's oil resources, and protect its infrastructure."
According to the statement, the five countries strongly condemn the attack in Benghazi.
"The circumstances of this vicious act must be established with no delay and those who were behind it must be identified and held accountable. We reiterate their full support to the essential work of the UN Mission in Libya."
On Saturday, a bomb-laden vehicle exploded near a food market in the west of the city of Benghazi. Three UN staff members were killed in the explosion. Libyan lawmaker Ali Saidi Qaidi said that the blast targeted employees of the UN mission in Libya.

Comment: See also:
Libya chaos: UN staff killed, dozens of civilians injured in car bombing in Benghazi

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Eye 1

Trump administration announces changes to endangered species rules

Stephanie Ebbs
ABC News
Mon, 12 Aug 2019 12:11 UTC
Monarch butterfly
© Smith Collection/gado/Getty Images
A monarch butterfly collects nectar from a flower in the People's Garden, in Washington, D.C. in 2014.
The Trump administration announced changes to how the government handles endangered species on Monday, a move that advocates say could make it more difficult to protect species that are threatened by human activity and climate change.

The newly finalized rules would change the requirements for how the government decides to add or remove species from the list of endangered animals that are regulated by the government, including limiting how much habitat can be protected to areas where the animals currently live. The changes would also require that each species listed as threatened in the future have its own plan for how it will be protected and if any hunting of that species is allowed, instead of issuing blanket policies that apply to every threatened species.

The changes would not alter the protections for species currently listed as threatened or endangered, but would apply to future decisions about changing listings.

Administration officials said the changes will still protect critical species and habitat but will also make the process more efficient and follow President Donald Trump's mandate to eliminate regulations.
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Dollar

Restoring Glass-Steagall (without the Green New Deal) is the only way to avoid complete economic collapse

Matthew Ehret
The Strategic Culture Foundation
Fri, 09 Aug 2019 21:30 UTC
protest glass steagall act
© Scott Teresi/flickr/cc
Activists have been calling for the restoration of Glass-Steagall since the Occupy Wall Street protests in 2011.
With the recent discussion of the collapse of the western system of banking (and neo-liberal 'post-truth' values more generally) a serious overview of the post-WWII stripping down of nation states is in order. Over the past couple of weeks, various figures like France's Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire and American Senator Elizabeth Warren have called for a re-organization of the banking system with Le Maire saying on July 13 that the Bretton Woods "has reached its limits", and Warren stating on July 22 that "the country's economic foundation is fragile. A single shock could bring it all down." It is no secret that the western nations sit atop the largest financial bubble in human history with global derivatives estimated at $550 trillion to $1.2 quadrillion.

As refreshing as it is to hear such candid admissions of the system's failure from high level political figures, when asked what they wish will replace this bankrupt order, neither Le Maire nor Warren have any desire to work with the Russia-China Belt and Road alliance and are unfortunately on record supporting policies cooked up by the very same oligarchs they appear to despise in the form of the Green New Deal. In spite of what many of its progressive proponents would wish, such a global green reform would not only impose Malthusian depopulation upon nation states globally were it accepted, but would establish a the supranational authority of a technocratic managerial elite as enforcers of a "de-carbonization agenda".
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