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A judgement day for Brennan

Mike Whitney
The Unz Review
Fri, 10 May 2019 00:00 UTC
John Brennan
© Jay Godwin/Wikimedia Commons
Former CIA Director John Brennan
Sometime in the next 4 weeks, the Justice Department's inspector general will release an internal review that will reveal the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation. Among other matters, the IG's report is expected to determine "whether there was sufficient justification under existing guidelines for the FBI to have started an investigation in the first place." Critics of the Trump-collusion probe believe that there was never probable cause that a crime had been committed, therefore, there was no legal basis for launching the investigation. The findings of the Mueller report - that there was no cooperation or collusion between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign - seem to underscore this broader point and suggest that the fictitious Trump-Russia connection was merely a pretext for spying on the campaign of a Beltway outsider whose political views clashed with those of the foreign policy establishment. In any event, the upcoming release of the Horowitz report will formally end the the first phase of the long-running Russiagate scandal and mark the beginning of Phase 2, in which high-profile officials from the previous administration face criminal prosecution for their role in what looks to be a botched attempt at a coup d'etat.

Here's a brief summary from political analyst, Larry C. Johnson, who previously worked at the CIA and U.S. State Department:
"The evidence is plain - there was a broad, coordinated effort by the Obama Administration, with the help of foreign governments, to target Donald Trump and paint him as a stooge of Russia. The Mueller Report provides irrefutable evidence that the so-called Russian collusion case against Donald Trump was a deliberate fabrication by intelligence and law enforcement organizations in the US and UK and organizations aligned with the Clinton Campaign."
Bingo. Attorney General William Barr has already stated his belief that spying on the Trump campaign "did occur" and that, in his mind, it is "a big deal". He also reiterated his commitment to thoroughly investigate the matter in order to find out whether the spying was adequately "predicated", that is, whether the FBI followed the required protocols for such spying, or not. Barr already knows the answer to this question as he is fully aware of the fact that the FBI used information that they knew was false to obtain warrants to spy on the Trump campaign.
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Attention

Bolton spins Israeli 'intelligence' to sow seeds for war against Iran

Gareth Porter
Truthdig
Sat, 11 May 2019 00:00 UTC
Bolton
© National security adviser John Bolton. Andrew Harnik/AP
National Security Adviser John Bolton
John Bolton has gotten away with a dangerous deception. The national security adviser's announcement Sunday that the Pentagon has deployed air and naval forces to the Middle East, which he combined with a threat to Iran, points to a new maneuver to prepare the ground for an incident that could justify a retaliatory attack against Iran.

Bolton presented his threat and the deployments as a response to alleged intelligence about a possible Iranian attack on U.S. targets in the Middle East. But what has emerged indicates that the alleged intelligence does not actually reflect any dramatic new information or analysis from the U.S. intelligence community. Instead, it has all the hallmarks of a highly political case concocted by Bolton.

Further underscoring the deceptive character of Bolton's maneuver is evidence that senior Israeli national security officials played a key role in creating the alleged intelligence rationale for the case.

The new initiative follows an audacious ruse carried out last fall by Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, detailed in Truthdig in February, to cast the firing of a few mortar rounds in the vicinity of the U.S. embassy and a consulate in Iraq as evidence of an effort by Tehran to harm U.S. diplomats. Bolton exploited that opportunity to press Pentagon officials to provide retaliatory military options, which they did, reluctantly.

Bolton and Pompeo thus established a policy that the Trump administration would hold Iran responsible for any incident involving forces supported by Iran that could be portrayed as an attack on either U.S. personnel or "interests."

Comment: See also:

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USA

The US couldn't wish for a greater ally than Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

Tony Cartalucci
New Eastern Outlook
Fri, 10 May 2019 00:00 UTC
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
© News.com.au
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
With US-backed militants having already reached the full extent of their gains on the battlefield and now facing incremental but inevitable defeat - the US appeared to be out of time and out of options.

Then suddenly - as if on cue - Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi - alleged leader of the so-called "Islamic State in Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) was resurrected after US claims he had died years early, and provided the US with the perfect pretext to militarily intervene in Syria anyway.

A July 2014 BBC article titled, "Isis chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi appears in first video," would claim:
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Islamist militant group Isis, has called on Muslims to obey him, in his first video sermon.

Baghdadi has been appointed caliph by the jihadist group, which has seized large swathes of Iraq and Syria.
The sudden wave of violence unleashed by ISIS across Iraq and Syria was on such a scale that only state sponsorship could have accounted for it.

Comment: See also: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi appears in video for first time in 5 years

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Arrow Down

As South Africa re-elects ANC, the West has to admit post-apartheid SA has failed

Igor Ogorodnev
RT
Sat, 11 May 2019 06:44 UTC
Man carries ANC poster
© REUTERS/SUMAYA HISHAM
Man carries ANC poster through a township in Johannesburg.
The ANC has yet again won a majority in South Africa's general election despite its disastrous record, killing hope that the country will turn in the right direction. And the West must stop pretending this is just a glitch.

What's wrong with the country that went to the polls on Wednesday to vote for a new National Assembly, goes well beyond the hard facts - unedifying as those are.

It's not that half the population lives in absolute poverty, that more than a quarter of adults are unemployed, or that the country has yet again been declared officially the most unequal in the world. Nor is it the economic growth rate that has stagnated at below a two percent average for a decade, as the rest of the world recovered from the global crisis, or the regular blackouts, the violent crime rates, or that one in five adults is infected with HIV.
vote lineup
© A queue outside a polling station in Johannesburg.REUTERS/MIKE HUTCHINGS
A queue outside a polling station in Johannesburg.
Rather, the story since 1994 is of a country being given a historic chance to show the way to prosperity and democracy for Africa - and failing to take it, exactly as the pessimists predicted.
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Pirates

'ISIS with lipstick': Disillusioned Imam of Peace rips 'Islamist agenda' in US Congress


RT
Fri, 10 May 2019 23:57 UTC
Imam Mohamed Tawhidi
© RT
Imam Mohamed Tawhidi
Bad leadership and propping up extremists are helping radicalize young Muslims in the West, "Imam of Peace" Mohamad Tawhidi told RT, not sparing the recently elected Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.

"When I first heard that two Muslim women were running for Congress, I was very happy, because I thought this was now the opportunity for Muslims to have a voice other than the voice of ISIS. But now we have the same situation, except with lipstick," Tawhidi said in an exclusive interview to RT America's In Question on Friday.

Omar (D-Minnesota) and Tlaib (D-Michigan) made national headlines in November, when they became first female Muslim members of the House of Representatives. Since then, they've stayed in the headlines due to controversy, such as Tlaib calling for President Donald Trump's impeachment in vulgar terms and Omar describing the 9/11 terrorist attacks as "some people did something" in a speech to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in April.

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Stop

Kashmir: Pakistan proposes cease fire for artillery 'from both sides'


RT
Sat, 11 May 2019 09:38 UTC
Artillery guns transit
© REUTERS/Mukesh Gupta
A train loaded with Indian army trucks and artillery guns moves in to Kashmir.
Islamabad has approached New Delhi suggesting that both arch-rivals stop using artillery in the contested Kashmir region, according to a media report. Pakistan has also vowed to remove special forces from the area.

The Pakistani army had made the peace offer using existing military-to-military channels, according to Hindustan Times. The offer included "moratorium on the artillery fire from both sides," says a report sent to the Indian prime minister's office and seen by the paper.

An Indian defense official said there were over 100 instances when shelling was recorded in the troubled state of Kashmir, but now the use of artillery "has considerably reduced." Moratorium aside, Pakistan's military ordered its Special Service Group (SSG) - an analogue of the American Green Berets - to withdraw from the Indian border.

Islamabad seems to be willing to defuse tensions around Kashmir, Indian officials believe. "These are clear on-ground signals from Pakistan for de-escalation," one such official told the newspaper.
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Bad Guys

Facebook's Zuckerberg praises French hate speech plan as social media model for EU

Mathieu Rosemain and Gwénaëlle Barzic
Reuters
Sun, 12 May 2019 15:28 UTC
Zuckerberg Macron
© Reuters/Charles Platiau
Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives for a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, May 10, 2019.
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg hailed France's efforts to regulate hateful content online as a model for the European Union after meeting President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Friday.

His comments come after the U.S. social media giant was heavily criticized by politicians and the public for its failure to more rapidly remove footage of the March shooting attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, from its network.

Fifty people were killed in the assault, with footage of it circulating online for days.

Zuckerberg's meeting with Macron coincided with the release of a report commissioned by the French leader recommending increased oversight of Facebook and an independent regulator to police the efforts of large tech companies to deal with hate speech.

Comment: When one of a company' founders calls for government regulation of it, there's something serious there.

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Propaganda

'Done deal': Erdogan aide debunks claim that Turkey is set to drop S-400 over lira crises


RT
Sun, 12 May 2019 15:12 UTC
Russian S-400
© Yevgeny Odinokov / RIA Novosti
Turkey will stay on course with a "done deal" to procure the S-400 systems from Russia, a top Turkish official stated in response to a German media report that Ankara was about to scrap the purchase, fearing US sanctions.

Potential US sanctions were too big a threat for Turkey to proceed with the S-400 deal, German tabloid Bild claimed on Friday. The publication quoted a "high-ranking diplomat from Ankara" who said that economic considerations were behind the alleged Turkish decision to stop the purchase.

Later, Fahrettin Altun, head of communications at the Turkish president's office, took to Twitter to debunk the report.

"Dear Julian, your sources are mistaken," Altun said in response to Bild editor Julian Roepcke, sharing a link to the article in question. "Take it from me: The S-400 procurement is a done deal."
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Attention

British establishment's nightmare scenario: Polls show Farage's Brexit Party winning landslide victory in EU election, and possible victory in UK election


RT
Sun, 12 May 2019 15:04 UTC
Nigel Farage
© REUTERS/Scott Heppell
Nigel Farage's Brexit Party has jumped to a double-digit lead over its closest rival, Labour, in the upcoming European election, and has three times the support of the Conservatives, who continue to lose ground, a poll has found.

With the EU Parliament election, set for May 23, inching closer, Farage's anti-EU party has taken pole position, leading with 34 percent thanks to a six-point increase in voter support from two weeks ago, a new Opinium poll commissioned by the Observer has revealed.

While the Brexit Party and Labour shared first place with 28 percent in the last poll, Jeremy Corbyn's party has since lost seven points, while Farage's newest political creation pulled ahead and is now separated from its closest rival by a 13-percent gap.

Comment: The BBC let Farage on for an interview today, in which it tried (and failed, epicly) to paint Farage as a crazy person...

And that's not all...
Poll surge for Farage sparks panic among Tories and Labour

The Opinium survey for the Observer places the Brexit party on 34%, when people were asked how they intended to vote on 23 May, with Labour slipping to 21% and the Conservatives collapsing to just 11%. Ominously for Theresa May, support for the Tories at the European elections is now less than a third of that for Farage's party, and below that for the Liberal Democrats, who are on 12%. [...]

A ComRes poll for the Sunday Telegraph showed that if a Westminster general election were called, Labour would reap the largest share of the vote with 27%; the Brexit party would garner 20% ahead of the Conservatives on 19%. The Liberal Democrats would win 14%, followed by ChangeUK (7%) and the Greens (5%) with Ukip trailing on 2%.


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Snakes in Suits

Obama White House knew about Clinton emails years earlier than previously admitted

Mark Tapscott
The Epoch Times
Sat, 11 May 2019 14:52 UTC
obama_clinton
Top officials working in the White House for President Barack Obama knew Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was using a private email system for official government business three years before it became public, according to documents obtained by Judicial Watch.

"WH [White House] called - have we received a FOIA request from CREW (Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington) on the topic of personal use of email by senior officials?

"Apparently other agencies have. If we have it, can you give me the details so I can call the WH back? I think they'd like it on quick turnaround. Thanks! Sheryl," read a Dec. 20, 2012 email from Sheryl L. Walter, who was then director of the Department of State's Office of Information Programs and Services (IPS). Her email was addressed to several of her subordinates.
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