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UK perplexed as EU kicks it out of cybersecurity meeting amid Huawei crackdown


Sputnik
Sat, 20 Jul 2019 15:40 UTC
EU big ben
© REUTERS / Hannah Mckay
Brexit is certainly going to have an impact on cybersecurity ties between London and Brussels, but the move to snub Britain at a major meeting before its departure from the union could signal more hurdles for British diplomats should another Brexit extension be agreed upon in future.

In a rare move, British diplomats were excluded from an EU meeting on cybersecurity, even though the UK is still part of the European Union, the Financial Times reports.

Tim Barrow, the UK's permanent representative to the EU, wrote a letter of complaint to the European Council on Friday, protesting against British officials being "disinvited" from the 25 June meeting on EU-wide cyber security standards.

Comment: Perhaps EU officials knew that this was one meeting that the Brits were particularly interested in attending: Why Washington wants to ban Huawei: US wants to spy and China won't cooperate

See also:

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Arrow Down

Now 'apologize to Israel': Trump in new rant on 'weak, insecure' Omar, Tlaib & co.


RT
Sun, 21 Jul 2019 15:08 UTC
israel trump
© Reuters / Brendan McDermid
FILE PHOTO. Demonstrators hold an Israel flag with a Trump sticker as they taunt a pro-Palestine rally in New York.
President Donald Trump is unshaken by the accusations of "racism" he faces amid a feud with the Democratic Party's 'Squad,' slamming them for being "hateful" and demanding an apology to the US - and Israel.

The four congresswomen are "destroying the Democrat Party" through their actions, yet they "can never destroy our great Nation" since they are "weak & insecure people," Trump tweeted on Sunday, further fueling the ongoing feud.

"I don't believe the four Congresswomen are capable of loving our Country. They should apologize to America (and Israel) for the horrible (hateful) things they have said."

Comment: Trump should be careful stoking the contrived antisemitism hysteria, it might just come back to bite him: Also check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal #29: What Israeli Lobby? Anti-Semitism Hysteria Hits US, UK, France

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Arrow Up

Panama deregisters unidentified tanker towed by Iran that "deliberately violated international regulations"

Tzvi Joffre
The Jerusalem Post
Sun, 21 Jul 2019 12:32 UTC
tugboat
© HAMAD I MOHAMMED/REUTERS
A tugboat moves cargo towards the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Musandam province, Oman, July 20, 2018.
Panama's maritime authority announced on Saturday night that it had begun the process of withdrawing the registration of the MT Riah oil tanker, which was towed to Iran after disappearing from tracking maps in the Strait of Hormuz at the beginning of last week, Reuters reported.

An investigation determined that the tanker "deliberately violated international regulations" by not reporting any unusual situation, the authority said.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Thursday July 18 that they had seized a foreign ship carrying one million liters of smuggled fuel south of Larak Island in the Persian Gulf on Sunday July 14, according to Fars News.

The foreign ship was seized by order of Iranian judicial authorities during an operation to monitor and control traffic in the Persian Gulf in order to detect and combat organized smuggling.
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Caesar

Oliver Stone interviews Putin on War & Peace, why 'the Ukraine' is actually Russia, and the '2 percent factor'


Kremlin.ru
Fri, 19 Jul 2019 11:44 UTC
putin oliver stone
Vladimir Putin answered questions from American film director, screenwriter and producer Oliver Stone, parts of which were included in his new documentary, Revealing Ukraine. The interview was recorded on June 19, 2019 in the Kremlin. Here is the complete transcript...

Oliver Stone: So, I interviewed Mr Medvedchuk [leader of a Ukrainian opposition party]. It was in Monte Carlo. He gave us a very interesting interview. He gave us his view of the Ukraine. I gather that you're close with him.

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: I would not say that we are very close but we know each other well. He was President Kuchma's Chief of Staff, and it was in this capacity at the time that he asked me to take part in the christening of his daughter. According to Russian Orthodox tradition, you can't refuse such a request.

Oliver Stone: Oh, you cannot refuse it?

I thought it was a big honour for you to be the godfather of his daughter.

Vladimir Putin: It is always a great honour to be a godfather.

Oliver Stone: Well, how many children are you godfather to?

Vladimir Putin: I will not give a number but several people.

Oliver Stone: Wow. Is it like a hundred or three hundred?
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Vader

French intelligence strategy document warns of "insurrectional violence"

Will Morrow
WSWS
Fri, 19 Jul 2019 19:54 UTC
cop, repression, 1984
© Inconnu
The French national intelligence and counterterrorism organization quietly released the first update to its five-year public strategy document on Monday. The report — which was uploaded to a ministerial website and not accompanied by any presidential press release — states that the role of France's counterterrorism agencies is to fight "subversive movements" and the threat of "insurrectional violence" in the population.

The "National Intelligence Strategy" was published by the National Intelligence Coordination for the Fight Against Terrorism (CNRLT), an arm of the Élysée presidential palace. It advises the president and reports directly to the prime minister. The report was written in direct collaboration with the prime minister and personally approved by President Emmanuel Macron.

The strategy document "constitutes the road map for the intelligence agencies," it states in the preface. A comparison with the first five-year "road map" makes clear the purposes of the update. The 2014 version identifies its five areas of operations as terrorism, espionage and economic interference, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, cyberattacks and organized crime.
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Star of David

How does Trump handle the Israeli-Palestinian question?

Thierry Meyssan
Voltairenet.org
Tue, 16 Jul 2019 00:00 UTC
Trump/Jackson
© Michael Reynolds/Getty Images
US President Donald Trump and portrait of President Andrew Jackson
President Trump does nothing like his predecessors (except for his model, Andrew Jackson), thereby destabilising his partners. The "Deal of the Century" that he dreamed up for Palestine angered President Abbas, who interpreted it from the point of view of previous US propositions. Could he have been wrong?

President Donald Trump has declared several times that his method of government was enough to solve many different conflicts, and that he even hoped, during the course of his mandate (or mandates), to attain peace between the Palestinians and the Israëlis.

According to the international Press, Donald Trump has evolved, for US electoral reasons. Although he once seemed little interested by religious questions, he has apparently moved closer to the Christian Zionists and is now under the influence of his vice-President, the Evangelical Christian Mike Pence, and one of his sponsors, the Jewish casino-operator Sheldon Adelson.

President Trump's decisions to move the US embassy from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem, to interrupt the financing of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), and then to recognise Israëli sovereignty over the occupied Syrian Golan, have been interpreted as confirming his pro-Israëli bias.

All this is true, but does not enable us to understand Donald Trump's singular approach to the Palestinian conflict, which could lead to serious errors of interpretation. In order to grasp his approach, we have to study his model, President Andrew Jackson, and replace it in the particular situation of the United States before the War of Secession.
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Fire

New juncture? Epstein and the explosive crisis of the deep state

Charles Hugh Smith
oftwominds.com
Sun, 14 Jul 2019 00:00 UTC
DeepState
© usdefensewatch.com
Since the battle is for the legitimacy of the state, it must be waged at least partially in the open.

Speculations by outsiders must give Deep State insiders many opportunities to chuckle, "if only they knew." We don't know, of course, and public leaks are engineered to misdirect our attention from what's actually going on or "frame" our understanding in a positive way.

Decades later, history reveals a very ordinary mix of great successes and horrific failure in secret operations, caused by errors of judgment, faulty intelligence, poor planning and so on. In other words, life isn't tidy, either inside or outside the Deep State.

Deep state chart
Nonetheless we can postulate a few things with some certainty. One is that the Deep State-- the unelected, permanent government which includes not just the intelligence community but a vast array of agencies and institutions as well as the top-level structures of diplomacy, finance and geopolitics--is not monolithic. There are different views and competing camps, but the disagreements and bureaucratic wars are kept out of sight.

Two, we know that at critical junctures of history one camp wins the narrative battle and establishes the over-riding direction of state policy. Put another way, one camp's understanding of the era's most pressing problems becomes the consensus, and from then on disagreements are within the broad outlines of the dominant ideology.

Comment: Other articles by this author:

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Arrow Up

Despite rising tensions with Iran, Saudis give approval to host US troops


RFE/RL
Sat, 20 Jul 2019 02:13 UTC
Salman bin Abdulaziz
© Reuters
Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz
Saudi Arabia's King Salman has approved the hosting of U.S. troops for the first time since Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003, as the two allies bolster cooperation amid rising tensions with Iran.

A Defense Ministry spokesman was quoted by Saudi state news agency SPA as saying on July 19:
"Based on mutual cooperation between Saudi Arabia and the United States of America, and their desire to enhance everything that could preserve the security of the region and its stability...King Salman gave his approval to host American forces."
Saudi officials provided only limited details about the agreement. But senior U.S. defense officials told AP that some troops and Patriot air-defense missile systems had already arrived at Prince Sultan Air Base, south of Riyadh and site of the previous U.S. deployment. Troops are preparing the base for the arrival of aircraft and additional soldiers later in the summer, one U.S. official said.

U.S. Central Command said in a statement on July 19 that the "movement of forces provides an additional deterrent, and ensures our ability to defend our forces and interests in the region from emergent, credible threats."

Comment: From Sputnik: US Sec of Defense authorizes deployment to Saudi Arabia
The acting US defense secretary has authorized the deployment of "US military personnel and resources" to Saudi Arabia, according to a statement issued by the United States Central Command (CENTCOM).
"In coordination with and at the invitation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Secretary of Defense has authorized the movement of U.S. personnel and resources to deploy to Saudi Arabia. This movement of forces provides an additional deterrent, and ensures our ability to defend our forces and interests in the region from emergent, credible threats. This movement creates improvement of operational depth and logistical networks. U.S. Central Command continually assesses force posture in the region and is working with Kingdom of Saudi Arabia authorities to base U.S. assets at the appropriate locations."
According to the CNN report, the site for the deployment of the US troops - the Prince Sultan Air Base - was chosen because it is located in a remote area that would take longer for Iranian missiles to reach. Neither the US Department of Defence or Riyadh have confirmed the location to which the US troops will be deployed.

The upcoming deployment is expected to reinforce the US military and support personnel already on site with beginning preparations for a Patriot surface-to-air missile system, a runway and other airfield improvements.

Earlier in the day, CENTCOM announced that the US armed forces have surveillance aircraft observing the situation in the Strait of Hormuz.

"We have patrol aircraft operating in international airspace monitoring the situation within the Strait of Hormuz," CENTCOM Chief of Media Operations Lieutenant Colonel Earl Brown said on Friday. "US Naval Forces Central Command has been in contact with US ships operating in the area to ensure their safety."


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Arrow Down

Trump official wants to slash refugee admissions to zero next year

Ted Hesson
Politico
Thu, 18 Jul 2019 09:04 UTC
protesters
© Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Protestors come out against migrant detention in NYC. More than 29,000 refugees have completed USCIS interviews, a major step in the process to being granted travel to the U.S.
The Trump administration is considering a virtual shutdown of refugee admissions next year — cutting the number to nearly zero — according to three people familiar with the plan.

During a key meeting of security officials on refugee admissions last week, a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services representative who is closely aligned with White House immigration adviser Stephen Miller suggested setting a cap at zero, the people said. Homeland Security Department officials at the meeting later floated making the level anywhere from 3,000 to 10,000, according to one of the people.

The proposal for a near-shutdown of the refugee program is alarming officials at the Department of Defense, who don't want to see a halt in admissions of Iraqis who risked their lives assisting U.S. forces in that country. The possible move comes after the Trump administration cut refugee admissions by a third this year, to 30,000.

If the administration shuts down refugee admissions, it would give President Donald Trump a powerful talking point as he makes immigration restrictions a centerpiece of his reelection campaign.


Comment: For more on the Trump administration's history regarding refugee quotas, see also:

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Bad Guys

Middle East heading towards 'maximum danger': Khamenei's 3 commandments

Elijah J. Magnier
ejmagnier.com
Sat, 20 Jul 2019 19:30 UTC
iran
The Middle East is heading for "maximum danger" following the "maximum pressure" imposed on Iran by US President Donald Trump who, unilaterally and unlawfully, withdrew over a year ago from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), known as the nuclear agreement, and imposed harsh sanctions on Iran that Tehran considers a declaration of economic war. Trump's move against Iran has provoked a gathering storm of tanker wars, the mutual detention of tankers by Iran and Britain. Indeed, the US administration has been pushing London to confront Iran starting from the capture of an Iranian super tanker (Grace 1) at Gibraltar on July 4, which has now triggered an Iranian tit-for-tat reaction (capturing a British tanker in the Straits of Hormuz). While the US and the UK are walking, along with Iran, on the edge of the abyss, the Iranian supreme leader, Sayyed Ali Khamenei, has publicly proclaimed "three points of guidance" for officials in the country, which includes a road map to follow even in his own absence.

Iran has detained a British oil tanker "Stena Impero" hours after the British High Court of Gibraltar announced the extension of an additional month of the arrest of Iranian tanker "Grace 1", carrying two million barrels of oil. When this news reached the Iranian leadership, they realised that mediation efforts by French President Emmanuel Macron had stumbled and that it was time for Iran to take the matter in hand.

This does not mean that Iran is closing the door to French diplomacy or attempts by other intermediary states to de-escalate the extremely tense situation that is intensifying daily in the Middle East, particularly with the gathering of new British naval war vessels and the arrival of additional US military forces in Saudi Arabia.

President Emmanuel Macron's chief adviser, Ambassador Emmanuel Bonne, had visited Tehran this month and met with Iranian leaders, and he promised to intervene to secure the release of the Iranian super tanker Grace 1 and to play a mediation role between Tehran and Washington.

Comment: More analysis from Magnier available here:

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