Welcome to Sott.net
Mon, 08 Nov 2021
The World for People who Think

Puppet Masters
Map

No Entry

Intelligence agencies: The land where no one is ever held accountable

Ray McGovern
Consortiumnews
Mon, 22 Jan 2018 11:13 UTC
Recent revelations of "inadvertent" deletions of electronic data at the FBI and NSA relating to alleged felonies are being described as a "foul-up," but the intelligence agencies' track record suggests a possibly more nefarious explanation, explains Ray McGovern in this op-ed.

NSA headquarters
© Jim Lo Scalzo/European Pressphoto Agency
National Security Administration headquarters in Fort Meade, Md.
We learned in recent days that the FBI and the National Security Agency "inadvertently" deleted electronic messages relating to reported felonies, but one noxious reality persists: No one in the FBI or NSA is likely to be held to account for these "mistakes."

It is a 70 year-old tradition. Today's lack of accountability is enabled by (1) corruption at the top of intelligence agencies; (2) the convenient secrecy behind which their leaders hide; (3) bureaucratic indignities and structural flaws in the system; (4) the indulgence/complicity of most of the "mainstream media;" and (5) the eunuchs leading the Congressional "oversight" committees, who - history shows - can be bullied by threats, including blackmail, a la former longtime FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.

Comment: See also: FBI's standard operating procedure is suppressing and destroying evidence

      Read More...
Attention

America's stake in the Czech elections, and President Zeman's policies

Jiri Valenta
Gatestone Institute
Tue, 23 Jan 2018 04:30 UTC
czech USA flag
  • Czech President Milos Zeman adamantly refuses to obey the European Union immigration quotas, even in the face of EU lawsuits.
  • As for the widely bruited charge that he is pro-Russian: In 1968, this writer, a former classmate of Zeman's in the Prague School of Economics, together defended the Prague reforms before hostile academic audiences in Leningrad and Moscow just weeks before the Soviet invasion. Expelled from the Communist Party, for his opposition to the Soviets, Zeman was also thrice in two decades fired from his job. In contrast, his opponent in the run-off, Jiri Drahos, repeatedly traveled to West under the watchful supervision of the Czech secret police.
  • Zeman's defeat would deprive Europe of a powerful voice against anti-Semitism and Islamo-fascism. Drahos, an inexperienced leader, is more likely to be malleable to Brussels's demands on accepting quotas on Muslim immigration. The result of the Czech vote will reverberate through Europe. Consequently, Zeman's reelection is in America's national interest.
The significance of the upcoming run-off of the presidential election in Czech Republic is largely underestimated in Washington. But its prevalent view of it as a not too significant event in a small European country is dead wrong.

Contenders include the sitting President, outspoken and politically incorrect Milos Zeman, who garnered 39% of the vote in the first of a two-phase election. His rival is chemist Jiri Drahos, the correct, low key, former president of the Czech Academy of Sciences, who won 27%. A tight race is expected in the January 26-27 vote.

Comment: Zeman is quite the curious character; he's against many EU policies, is kind of pro-Russian and also pro-Israel, see:

      Read More...
Alarm Clock

Britain's New Energy Policy: When the Blackouts Come, Blame Them on the Russians

Rob Slane
The Blogmire
Sat, 27 Jan 2018 12:08 UTC
Windfarm
Having closed the coal mines, shut most of our coal-fired power stations, and having neglected to build more nuclear power stations, all the while erecting wind turbines that produce enough electricity each day to boil a kettle, I see that the British Government has come up with a novel way of dealing with the power cuts that are likely to hit us. You might think it would be left to the Energy Secretary to reveal the new plan of how we are to cope during the blackouts, but strangely the role appears to have been passed to the Defence Secretary, Gavin Williamson.
      Read More...
Bullseye

Roger Stone warns Trump not to testify for Mueller: "It's a perjury trap" (VIDEO)

Alex Christoforou
The Duran
Thu, 25 Jan 2018 12:51 UTC
Mueller time
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would be willing to be interviewed under oath by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

"I'm looking forward to it, actually," Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House, said of an interview with Mueller. "I would do it under oath."

Trump long time advisor Roger Stone believes that a testimony to Robert Mueller is nothing more that a "perjury trap" for Trump.

Stone discusses the dangers Trump faces if he does move forward with an under oath interview by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Comment: Fair warning. One can take a look at what happened to Flynn to see how that played out.

      Read More...
Megaphone

Meet Laura Huhtasaari, Finnish election candidate who wants out of EU, end to mass migration, supports Trump

Reid Standish
Politico
Fri, 26 Jan 2018 04:01 UTC
Laura Huhtasaari. Finns Party deputy chairman and presidential candidate Laura Huhtasaari in Helsinki | Tuomas Forsell/Reuters
© Tuomas Forsell/Reuters
Finns Party deputy chairman and presidential candidate Laura Huhtasaari in Helsinki
She hates the EU, cheered Brexit, supports Trump - and believes Finland needs her brand of populism.

Of the eight contenders to be Finland's next president, none stand out quite like Laura Huhtasaari.

The candidate of the far-right Finns Party is an outlier in both style and substance. She won't win Sunday's presidential election but she's using her time in the spotlight to push her party's anti-immigrant, anti-establishment message.

She hates the European Union, cheered Brexit and supports Donald Trump - and believes Finland is more than ready for her brand of populism.

Comment: Populist parties are on the rise and its causing quite the headache for the Eurocrats: Also See:

      Read More...
Bad Guys

'Black comedy': US and its vassal states are proposing 'own' political plan 'to solve' Syrian crisis


South Front
Sat, 27 Jan 2018 09:16 UTC
UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura

Permanent Representative of Syria to the United Nations Bashar Jaafari
On January 26, a document containing a political plan presented by the US, Saudi Arabia, France, Jordan and the UK to the UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura was leaked, according to Reuters and the Lebanese Mayadeen TV. The plan contained what the five countries called a "practical approach" to a "slow" political process in Syria.

In the plan, the five countries called for a UN-supervised election for the -Syrians inside and outside the country and for radical changes in the Syrian constitution including stripping the Syrian presidency from most, if not all, of its powers.

The five countries also suggested stripping the Syrian government from many of its powers and creating two parliaments that will have limited powers. This will leave most of the state's establishments under the control of the local authorities in a decentralized political system.
      Read More...
Binoculars

'Operation Olive Branch' - Key points of Turkey's military campaign against Syrian Kurds


RT
Sat, 27 Jan 2018 08:21 UTC
Turkish forces
© Khalil Ashawi / Reuters
Turkish forces are seen near Mount Barsaya, northeast of Afrin, Syria January 23, 2018
A new conflict unfolding in northern Syria has gripped the attention of the world, with some fearing it could turn into a broader confrontation in a country still plagued by war. These are the key points you need to know.

Battleground

Afrin is in northwest Syria, some 57km north from the city of Aleppo and around 30km from the Turkish border. The Afrin region has been something of a Kurdish enclave in an area separated from other Kurdish-held Syrian territories to the east by land controlled by the Free Syrian Army (FSA).

Map of Syria

A map of Syria showing the territories held by the Kurds and the pro-Turkish Free Syrian Army fighters as well as the site of Turkish offensives against Kurdish militias, with positions as of January 26

Comment: See also: Behind the Headlines: Turkey Launches Military Operation Against Syrian Kurdish 'Rebels'

      Read More...
Family

Regime change and globalization ignite Europe's refugee and migrant crisis

Andrew Spannaus
Consortium News
Sat, 20 Jan 2018 00:00 UTC
migrants
© CNN
Right-wing populists are exploiting the migration issue in both the United States and Europe, but dismissing their arguments would be a mistake. Instead, an honest assessment of the economic and regime-change policies that fuel migration is needed.

Anti-establishment political forces in both the United States and Europe have seized on the issue of illegal immigration, seen by many voters as a threat to both economic well-being and cultural identity, as a key component of their electoral strategies. While Donald Trump has made the wall with Mexico one of his priorities and has worked to uphold a ban on immigration from a number of Muslim nations, in Europe, numerous political parties have been following this script for many years.

Drawing on the economic anxiety of the middle class, tied to fear of being undercut by low-wage work and worries concerning terrorism and cultural changes, anti-immigrant sentiment has become a key weapon of right-wing populist forces. These forces have drawn on the narrative of governing elites that pursue their own, limited interests, while seeking to hold down the majority of society through policies that rob them of both economic opportunity and their cultural heritage.

Comment: We can massage the migrant 'narrative' and perhaps make it more election-time palatable...OR...we could stop interfering, destroying countries, making people homeless fleeing for their lives, impacting other countries with refugees by the hundreds of thousands. Wars always create immigrants and there is no simple-minded and convenient 5-point solution whether you lean left or lean right. The goal was to destroy these ME countries, then compromise and homogenize Europe. That was the point.

      Read More...
Vader

Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion has received high-powered weapons and training from US military despite Congressional prohibition

Max Blumenthal
therealnews.com
Thu, 18 Jan 2018 20:05 UTC
azov battalion

Left: Members of the Azov Battalion offer a sig heil salute. Right: US military advisors meet with Azov commanders in the field in November, 2017.
Last November, an American military inspection team visited the Azov Battalion on the front lines of the Ukrainian civil war to discuss logistics and deepening cooperation. Images of the encounter showed American army officers poring over maps with their Ukrainian counterparts, palling around and ignoring the Nazi-inspired Wolfangel patches emblazoned on their sleeves.

Azov is a militia that has been incorporated into the Ukrainian National Guard, and is considered one of the most effective units in the field against pro-Russian separatists. But it also widely known as a bastion of neo-Nazism within the ranks of the Ukrainian military that has been criticized by international human rights groups, tied to an international fascist network and even a major terror plot.

According to Lower Class Magazine, a leftist German publication, Azov maintains a semi-underground outfit called the "Misanthropic Division" that recruits heavily among the ranks of neo-Nazi youth in France, Germany and Scandinavia. Foreign fighters are promised training with heavy weapons, including tanks, at Ukrainian camps filled with fascist fellow travelers. They even include military veterans like Mikael Skillit, a Swedish former army sniper turned neo-Nazi volunteer for Azov. "After World War Two, the victors wrote their history," Skillit told the BBC. "They decided that it's always a bad thing to say I am white and I am proud."
      Read More...
Eye 1

Orwellian society: ICE to start tracking license plates across the US

Russell Brandom
The Verge
Fri, 26 Jan 2018 08:04 UTC
ICE licence plate tracking
© Garret Beard
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency has officially gained agency-wide access to a nationwide license plate recognition database, according to a contract finalized earlier this month. The system gives the agency access to billions of license plate records and new powers of real-time location tracking, raising significant concerns from civil libertarians.

The source of the data is not named in the contract, but an ICE representative said the data came from Vigilant Solutions, the leading network for license plate recognition data. "Like most other law enforcement agencies, ICE uses information obtained from license plate readers as one tool in support of its investigations," spokesperson Dani Bennett said in a statement. "ICE is not seeking to build a license plate reader database, and will not collect nor contribute any data to a national public or private database through this contract."

Reached by The Verge, Vigilant declined to confirm any contract with ICE. "As policy, Vigilant Solutions is not at liberty to share any contractual details," the company said in a statement. "This is a standard agreement between our company, our partners, and our clients."

Comment: See also: Tracking your every move: Homeland Security wants a nationwide license plate tracking system

      Read More...
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts