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US troops to remain in South Korea despite forming peace treaties - President Moon Jae-in


RT
Wed, 02 May 2018 16:01 UTC
US army South Korea
© Kim Hong-Ji / Reuters
A US army soldier stands guard in front of a F-22 stealth fighter jet at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, South Korea.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Wednesday that US troops will remain on the peninsula even if a peace agreement with the North is reached, saying their presence has "nothing to do with signing peace treaties."

"US troops stationed in South Korea are an issue regarding the alliance between South Korea and the United States. It has nothing to do with signing peace treaties," Moon's spokesperson Kim Eui-kyeom said at a press conference.

The statement came in response to a Foreign Affairs magazine article written by presidential adviser, Moon Cung-in, in which he stated that it would be "difficult to justify [US forces] continuing presence in South Korea," if peace is concluded with the North. The spokesperson warned the adviser "not to cause any more confusion" with such comments.

Comment: Citing 'the Libya model' for the future of North Korea doesn't exactly instill a great sense of hope over the intentions of the US for North Korea.

See: Should North Korea think twice about ditching nukes after what happened to Libya?

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Recycle

Xi and Modi meet at SCO Summit: It's the Belt and Road Initiative against Washington's Indo-Pacific strategy all over again

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
Thu, 26 Apr 2018 15:43 UTC
Xi Jinping Narendra Modi China India
© AFP/Fred Dufour
Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomes Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the BRICS Summit in Xiamen on September 4, 2017.


Modi and Xi meeting could have a crucial SCO subplot focusing on security and economic cooperation

All bets are off on the outcome of India Prime Minister Narendra Modi's potentially ground-breaking meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping this Friday and Saturday in Wuhan.

Things have not exactly started in auspicious mode.

After a meeting in Beijing of foreign ministers represented at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), India, once again refused to support the New Silk Roads, known as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in the final communiqué.

Every other SCO member - represented by the foreign ministers of Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Pakistan - did.

So here we go again - back to the interminable, intractable India-Pakistan soap opera.

Comment: This puts Trump's threats to scrap the JCPOA and Netanyahu's accusations against Iran in a new light.

As for India, money talks, at the end of the day. If it's committed to INSTC, it'll find solutions to Kashmir, sooner or later.

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Life Preserver

Should North Korea think twice about ditching nukes after what happened to Libya? (VIDEO)


RT
Wed, 02 May 2018 15:28 UTC
Kim Jong Un North Korea nukes
© Kim Hong-Ji / Reuters
A poster with the image of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during an anti-North Korea rally in central Seoul, South Korea, February 11, 2016.
The US says North Korean denuclearization should proceed along the Libyan scenario. RT's Murad Gazdiev remembers how Muammar Gaddafi was killed by US-backed rebels a few years after ditching nukes, and asks - is that a good idea?

There was a time when tales of Gaddafi's death had Kim Jong-un keeping his both hands on the nuclear button, which, by his own admission, he cautiously kept on his desk.

Now US President Donald Trump, who not long ago had been erratically tweeting away about his own shiny red button, is suddenly an advocate for peace, welcoming Kim's push to ditch nukes. RT's Murad Gazdiev believes this bears the question - is Libya's history about to be repeated?

And when US officials speak about the "Libyan model", they mean the 2003 denuclearization, not the devastating West-assisted civil war of 2011. Don't they?

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Black Cat

Did ultra-warhawk Bolton leak intelligence to undercut a Trump-Kim Deal?

Gareth Porter
TruthDig
Wed, 02 May 2018 14:57 UTC
bolton
© Gage Skidmore / CC BY-SA 2.0
War monger John Bolton speaking at the 2015 Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md.
The still-unscheduled Donald Trump-Kim Jong Un summit offers the opportunity for a denuclearization deal that would avoid a possible nuclear war, but that potential deal remains vulnerable to a hostile corporate media sector and political elites in the United States. At the center of this hostility is national security adviser John Bolton, who's not just uninterested in selling a denuclearization deal to the public. He's working actively to undermine it.

Strong circumstantial evidence indicates that he leaked intelligence to a Washington think tank sympathetic to his views in order to generate media questioning about the president's announced plan to reach an agreement with North Korea's leader.

Bolton made no secret of his visceral opposition to such a deal before Trump announced that Bolton would become national security adviser, arguing that Kim Jong Un would never let go of his nuclear weapons, especially since he is so close to having a real nuclear deterrent capability vis-a-vis the United States.

Comment:

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Nuke

Nuclear deal with Iran or JCPOA explained


RT
Tue, 01 May 2018 15:12 UTC
JCPOA negotiations Vienna
© Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
Vienna January 16, 2016.
The Iran nuclear deal hangs by a thread as US President Donald Trump keeps everyone in suspense over whether he will recertify it on May 12, despite the scrambling by other Western signatories to defend it. Here's what's at stake.

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), better known as the Iran nuclear deal, is an agreement signed on July 14, 2015, after 20 months and six rounds of rollercoaster negotiations. The signatories are Iran and a group of nations known as the P5+1: Russia, China, the US, UK, France (all permanent UN Security Council members), and Germany. The deal aims to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon by curbing its nuclear program, which dates back to the 1950s and was, ironically, set up with American help before the 1979 revolution ended most of Iran's ties with the West.

Iran's concessions

Under the JCPOA, Tehran gave up 98 percent of the enriched uranium it already had, and only keeps material enriched to the lowest threshold of five percent (weapons-grade uranium starts at 85 percent). Two-thirds of Iran's enrichment centrifuges are halted, leaving only around 6,000 older models operational. Any remaining materials and facilities are to be used strictly for scientific, medical, and agricultural purposes.

Comment: The only reason Trump says it's the "worst deal ever" is that the US cannot profit from as much as its European counterparts. However, his Deep State and Zionist handlers most likely think it should be scrapped because Iran should not be allowed to become a regional power and compete with Israel. Thus, they will try to 'take Iran out', either economically or militarily.

Don't miss:

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Document

Leaked Mueller questions prove investigation is a witch-hunt - Mueller wants to take Trump down, but doesn't have the evidence to do so

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Wed, 02 May 2018 13:09 UTC
Mueller bites his nails
© Andrew Burton/Getty Images
Ever since Deputy Attorney General Rod Rostenstein appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller Special Counsel to investigate the Russiagate collusion allegations, there has been a huge amount of speculation about what if any information Mueller may have which he has not publicly divulged.

Mueller has however succeeded in running an exceptionally tight ship, with no leaks from his investigation to speak of.

The situation has now changed with the leak - possibly by someone in the Trump administration rather than the Mueller's team - of the questions Mueller apparently wants to ask Donald Trump. These provide a fascinating insight into the state of his inquiry.

Here is my take on these questions:

(1) Robert Mueller is in possession of no facts which have not previously been made public

Every single one of the questions is obviously drawn on information which has already been made public and which has been widely discussed.
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Binoculars

The truth about Netanyahu's 'Iran files': Well known, old, purloined from Vienna


Moon of Alabama
Tue, 01 May 2018 12:57 UTC
netanyahu

Netanbullshit
The dog and pony show the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahoo provided yesterday (video, slideshow) was not based on material Israeli secret services acquired in Iran, but most likely from data Iran provided to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) during the implementation period of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA, pdf).

Ali Vaez, director of the Iran Project at the Crisis Group, was the first to propose this thesis:
Ali Vaez @AliVaez - 18:06 UTC - 30 Apr 2018
5/ It appears to me that what Israel has done is that it has probably hacked the @iaeaorg and gathered some new details from what Iran responded to the agency to close the outstanding issues in 2015: IAEA Board Adopts Landmark Resolution on Iran PMD Case
Several nuclear proliferation experts point out that there was nothing new in Netanyahoo's presentation:
Jeffrey Lewis @ArmsControlWonk - 00:14 UTC- 1 May 2018
Let's go through Netanyahu's dog-and-pony show. As you will see, everything he said was already known to the IAEA and published in IAEA GOV/2015/68 (2015). There is literally nothing new here and nothing that changes the wisdom of the JCPOA. 1/10
All the graphics, pictures and technical details Netanyahoo quoted were known to the IAEA and the negotiators of the agreement with Iran.

Comment: See also:

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2 + 2 = 4

Bibi's speech was a bust - makes the case for keeping the Iran deal

Fred Kaplan
Slate
Mon, 30 Apr 2018 12:45 UTC
netanyahu iran powerpoint
© Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images
Powerpoint skill level 0.1
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has issued the lamest critique of the Iran nuclear deal that one might imagine. Though his avowed aim was to convince President Trump to back out of the deal, he in fact unwittingly made a strong case to stay in.

In his Monday broadcast, which he recited in English and Hebrew, Netanyahu did publicize a remarkable heist by Israeli intelligence agencies - if his claims are true - of 55,000 pages of "files" and "archives" showing that 15 years ago, Iran did have a plan with an avowed intent to build nuclear weapons.


Comment: Which they're probably not. Netanyahu is a liar.


But did the prime minister think his viewers, at home and abroad, would glide over those key words - files and archive - or that they wouldn't notice that the quotations from some of those files were dated 2003?

He said and showed nothing to suggest that the Iranians ever put their plan into motion or that they are violating the deal's restrictions on nuclear activities now. In fact, at one point in his telecast, he acknowledged that Iran stopped the program - supporting the conclusion of a U.S National Intelligence Estimate, published in 2007, that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program in the fall of 2003.

Comment: The fact is, everyone Netanyahu "revealed" is old news. The IAEA has been aware of all his data for years:

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Dollar

The business of America is war - but the world isn't buying

Stephen Lendman
Global Intel Hub
Wed, 02 May 2018 11:35 UTC
US Soldier
Post-WW II, a permanent US war economy was established to pursue unchallenged global dominance, wanting all sovereign independent governments eliminated - replaced by puppet regimes bowing to Washington's will, a prescription for endless wars of aggression, risking eventual catastrophic nuclear war.

Permanent war shapes geopolitical policymaking in Washington - business allied with the warrior state for maximum profit-making.

Enterprise in America is built on a foundation of endless war-making, imperialism on an unprecedented scale - nothing like it before in world history.

Nothing earlier matched the recklessness and ruthlessness of US pursuit of absolute global rule - supported by major media, most people none the wiser or indifferent about what's going on.
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Stock Down

Global debt soars to all-time high of $164 trillion - US and Japan account for more than 50%


RT
Tue, 01 May 2018 15:28 UTC
Ballon bird fierce
© Fredy Builes / Reuters
The world is now 12 percent of GDP deeper in debt than it was at the peak of the financial crisis in 2009, says the International Monetary Fund (IMF). China was described as a "driving force" behind the new debt levels.


Comment: And yet China is thriving economically:

According to its Fiscal Monitor report, global debt is at a historical high, reaching the equivalent of 225 percent of GDP.

"One hundred and sixty-four trillion is a huge number," said Vitor Gaspar, head of the IMF's fiscal affairs department. "When we talk about the risks looming on the horizon, one of the risks has to do with the high level of public and private debt."

The ballooning debt could make it harder for countries to respond to the next recession and pay off debts if financing conditions tighten, according to the fund.


Comment: And many western countries are showing signs of instability, and it is clearly a matter of when the crash will hit the manipulated markets.


Comment: The financial predators at the IMF are deeply involved in the corruption and chaos around the world and benefit by privatizing national resources and services, so while their assessment is probably correct, one wonders how they aim to take advantage of the situation.

There also seems to be a correlation between the countries with the highest debt levels and their desire for waging war, one wonders whether they're related. Because while this global debt problem will affect every nation on the planet, not every nation is struggling to stay afloat, Russia and China in particular:

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