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Time to break the silence on Palestine

Michelle Alexander
The New York Times
Sat, 19 Jan 2019 20:11 UTC
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
© John C. Goodwin
“We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak,” the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. declared at Riverside Church in Manhattan in 1967.
On April 4, 1967, exactly one year before his assassination, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stepped up to the lectern at the Riverside Church in Manhattan. The United States had been in active combat in Vietnam for two years and tens of thousands of people had been killed, including some 10,000 American troops. The political establishment - from left to right - backed the war, and more than 400,000 American service members were in Vietnam, their lives on the line.

Many of King's strongest allies urged him to remain silent about the war or at least to soft-pedal any criticism. They knew that if he told the whole truth about the unjust and disastrous war he would be falsely labeled a Communist, suffer retaliation and severe backlash, alienate supporters and threaten the fragile progress of the civil rights movement.

King rejected all the well-meaning advice and said, "I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice." Quoting a statement by the Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam, he said, "A time comes when silence is betrayal" and added, "that time has come for us in relation to Vietnam."
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Brick Wall

'Several thousand' more troops for the southern border: Acting SecDef Shanahan

Julio Rosas
Townhall
Tue, 29 Jan 2019 20:05 UTC
Trump meeting
© Associated Press/Evan Vucci
Speaking with reporters during an off-camera press gaggle at the Pentagon on Tuesday, Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan said there will be an increase of active-duty service members along the U.S-Mexico border.

The news comes as Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, has been vocally opposed to the border deployment. Shanahan said he has had multiple conversations with the congressman about the topic.

"Our activity to date has really been, you know, logistics, medical. Some, I'd call it construction, but the laying - the installation of the concertina wire," Shanahan explained, according to the DOD transcript. "Then there's what I would consider, you know, more of a traditional capability of monitoring, surveilling and detecting. So this is the enhanced capability that we provide to DHS."

Comment:

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Chess

Maduro claims Trump ordered his assassination via the Columbian government and mafia


RT
Wed, 30 Jan 2019 16:32 UTC
Nicolas Maduro
© Reuters / Adriana Loureiro
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has claimed that Donald Trump ordered the Colombian government and mafia to assassinate him, but insisted that he's well protected from the threat of assassination.

"Without a doubt, Donald Trump gave the order to kill me, told the Colombian government, the Colombian mafia, to kill me. If something happens to me, Donald Trump and Colombian President Ivan Duque will be responsible," Maduro told RIA Novosti.

Maduro, however, expressed confidence in his country's security services.

Comment: There may very well be actual threats to Maduro's life, however it wouldn't be coming from Donald Trump.

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Laptop

Facebook moves to block ad transparency tools - Including Pro Publica's

Jeremy B. Merrill and Ariana Tobin
ProPublica
Wed, 30 Jan 2019 18:23 UTC
Mark Zuckerberg
© Reuters / Charles Platiau
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of Facebook Inc. at the Viva Tech start-up and technology gathering on May 24, 2018 in Paris, France.
A number of organizations, including ProPublica, have developed tools to let the public see exactly how Facebook users are being targeted by advertisers.

Now, Facebook has quietly made changes to its site that stop those efforts.

ProPublica, Mozilla and Who Targets Me have all noticed their tools stopped working this month after Facebook inserted code in its website that blocks them.

"This is very concerning," said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who has co-sponsored the Honest Ads Act, which would require transparency on Facebook ads. "Investigative groups like ProPublica need access to this information in order to track and report on the opaque and frequently deceptive world of online advertising."

Comment:

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Chess

Trump rips into US intel's Iran report, calling spies 'wrong' & 'naive'


RT
Wed, 30 Jan 2019 19:29 UTC
trump
© Reuters / Eduardo Munoz
President Trump has called US intelligence agencies "naive" and "wrong" on Iran, after their annual 'threat assessment' contradicted his hawkish stance by downplaying Tehran's nuclear threat.

"The Intelligence people seem to be extremely passive and naive when it comes to the dangers of Iran," Trump tweeted on Wednesday. "They are wrong!"

"They are testing Rockets (last week) and more, and are coming very close to the edge," he continued. "There economy is now crashing, which is the only thing holding them back. Be careful of Iran. Perhaps Intelligence should go back to school!"

Trump's aggressive sanctions against Iran have squeezed the Islamic Republic's economy, but the president's warnings about the "dangers of Iran" are not shared by the US' intelligence agencies.
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Light Sabers

'Stupidity': Russian envoy dismisses US report that Moscow offered North Korea nuclear power plant


RT
Wed, 30 Jan 2019 19:11 UTC
Kalininskaya nuclear power plant
© Reuters / Alexander Natruskin
Kalininskaya nuclear power plant
Moscow has scoffed at a report alleging that Russia offered to build North Korea a nuclear power plant, in exchange for dismantling its nuclear weapons. Russia's envoy to North Korea said the story was steeped in "stupidity."

Citing anonymous intelligence officials, the Washington Post reported that the Kremlin made a secret proposal to North Korea, last year, in which the 'hermit kingdom' would receive a nuclear power plant if it gave up its nuclear weapons.

The report claimed that as a part of the deal, the Russian government would operate the plant and transfer all waste back to Russia, reducing the risk that North Korea could use the power plant to build nuclear weapons.

Russian officials, however, wasted little time in dismissing WaPo's scoop as hogwash.
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Binoculars

Roger Stone's indictment shows FBI, DOJ have known for months there was no Russia collusion conspiracy

Andrew C. McCarthy
National Review
Sat, 26 Jan 2019 19:06 UTC
Roger Stone
© Bloomberg News
Roger Stone
Roger Stone is the shiny object. The obstruction charges in his long-anticipated indictment, made public on Friday, are not the matter of consequence for the United States.

Nor is the critical thing the indictment's implicit confirmation that there was no criminal "collusion" conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia.

What matters is this: The indictment is just the latest blatant demonstration that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office, the Department of Justice, and the FBI have known for many months that there was no such conspiracy. And yet, fully aware that the Obama administration, the Justice Department, and the FBI had assiduously crafted a public narrative that Trump may have been in cahoots with the Russian regime, they have allowed that cloud of suspicion to hover over the presidency - over the Trump administration's efforts to govern - heedless of the damage to the country.

The rationale for the Trump-Russia investigation - namely, the notion that the Trump campaign had "coordinated" in the Kremlin's cyber-espionage operation to meddle in the 2016 campaign - has been nothing more than a suspicion harbored by political, law-enforcement, and intelligence officials who loathed Donald Trump. That there may be a thousand good reasons to dislike Donald Trump is irrelevant, for we are talking about investigations, not politics. Investigative suspicions must be rooted in fact, not contempt.

Comment: See also:

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Handcuffs

Unprecedented arrest in Russian parliament, senator detained on murder charges


RT
Wed, 30 Jan 2019 18:00 UTC
Rauf Arashukov
© Sputnik / Ilya Pitalev
Rauf Arashukov
Two of the country's top law enforcers, the prosecutor general and the head of the Sledcom, the agency that investigates high profile crimes, entered the hall and addressed the session naming charges to senator Rauf Arashukov.

The embattled senator tried to escape by running upstairs, but chairwoman Valentina Matveenko ordered him in an "icy voice" to return to his seat, the witnesses said. Arashukov, who represents the North Caucasus republic of Karachay-Cherkessia, was eventually detained by secret service officers.

The arrest took place after the Upper House ruled to strip Rauf Arashukov of his parliamentary immunity. Now the senator faces several charges including murder, corruption, and racketeering.

Comment: Wouldn't it be nice to have the "top law enforcers" entering US Congress and arresting a whole raft of crooks and murderers there while simultaneously breaking down the Clinton and Obama doors to take them away. Russia is setting a GOOD example!

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Bulb

US Intel Chief warns Israel is provoking retaliation from Iran


Sputnik
Wed, 30 Jan 2019 18:37 UTC
irgc iranian
© AP Photo/ Mostafa Qotbi/IRNA
The US intelligence chief's remarks come amid smouldering tensions between Israel and Iran over the IDF's continued airstrikes targeting alleged Iranian military sites in Syria and Tehran's intensified anti-Israel rhetoric.

Speaking before the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, warned that Iran was likely to attack Israel if Tel Aviv went ahead with airstrikes on alleged Iranian targets in Syria.

"We assess that Iran seeks to avoid a major armed conflict with Israel. However, Israeli strikes that result in Iranian casualties increase the likelihood of Iranian conventional retaliation against Israel", Coats said.

Presenting the views of the US Intelligence Community to the Committee as part of an annual Worldwide Threat Assessment, the director claimed that Tehran's purported efforts to expand its clout in Syria had triggered the Israeli airstrikes:

"Iran continues to pursue permanent military bases and economic deals in Syria and probably wants to maintain a network of Shia foreign fighters there despite Israeli attacks on Iranian positions in Syria. Iran's efforts to consolidate its influence in Syria and arm Hezbollah have promoted Israeli airstrikes as recently as January 2019 against Iranian positions within Syria and underscore our growing concern about the long-time trajectory of Iranian influence in the region and the risk that conflict will escalate".

Comment: Coats is more right than wrong here. Iran doesn't want a war. Israel wants regional supremacy, and if any further conflicts do break out, they will not have been the result of Iranian aggression, but Israeli.

See also: DNI testifies to Senate that Russia, China 'most serious' espionage threats to US.

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Better Earth

Drinking neocon tears: Trump says Afghan peace talks 'proceeding well'


RFE/RL
Wed, 30 Jan 2019 18:21 UTC
trump
© Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
President Donald Trump has expressed cautious satisfaction over the progress of peace talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan, following six days of talks between the U.S. special envoy for the conflict-wracked country and Taliban negotiators last week.

"Negotiating are proceeding well in Afghanistan after 18 years of fighting," Trump tweeted on January 30.


"Fighting continues but the people of Afghanistan want peace in this never ending war. We will soon see if talks will be successful?" he wrote in a separate tweet.


Comment: The neocons are still irate at Trump's decision to end their regime change operations and endless wars in the Middle East. But Trump is going along with their agenda so far with regard to Iran and Venezuela, and he's still in bed with Israel. The neocons might not get everything they want, but that doesn't mean they've gone anywhere. Bolton and Abrams are still alive and kicking, much to the regret of everyone else.

See also:

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