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Secret Service confirms intercepting a 'suspicious' letter sent to Trump; speculation it contained ricin have not been confirmed - UPDATE


RT
Wed, 03 Oct 2018 15:23 UTC
White House guard
© Jim Bourg / Reuters
The US Secret Service has confirmed that a "suspicious" envelope was sent to the White House and addressed to President Donald Trump, following reports of two letters testing positive for ricin being intercepted at the Pentagon.

"The envelope was not received at the White House, nor did it ever enter the White House," the Secret Service said on Tuesday afternoon. They offered no further details, adding only that they were "working jointly with our law enforcement partners to fully investigate this matter."

Citing a law enforcement source, CNN reported that the letter contained a suspicious substance believed to be ricin, the same toxin detected on Monday in two pieces of mail sent to the Pentagon and addressed to Defense Secretary James Mattis and Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson. However, that report remains unconfirmed.

Comment:

Update: Sputnik reports arrest of Utah man:
Police in Logan, Utah say a man has been arrested in connection to the letters sent to the White House and Pentagon on Monday containing castor seeds that are used to make Ricin, a poisonous powder that is easy to make and a common choice among would-be chemical attackers.

The FBI says that they are working with police in Logan but refused to say whether they had apprehended the suspect. "As it is a pending matter, that is all we can say at this time," spokesman Doug Davis said. He asked the public to "stay away from the location" of the operation but assured the public that there is "no wider threat," according to the Salt Lake City Tribune.

A few pieces of mail - one which was sent - but never arrived - to the Pentagon and another which was unsuccessfully mailed to the White House have tested positive for a dangerous chemical. One piece was addressed to President Trump, another to Defense Secretary James Mattis and another to the US Navy's Chief of Operations Admiral John Richardson. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) was also sent a package via his home-state office address, but it did not test positive.

While the identity of the suspect remains unknown, a Pentagon spokesperson told Fox News, prior to reports of the arrest of the suspect, that a former US Navy sailor was believed to have been responsible for the mail sent to the White House, Pentagon, and Cruz's office.

"On Monday, the Pentagon Force Protection Agency detected a suspicious substance during mail screening at the Pentagon's remote screening facility," Col. Rob Manning told Fox News. "All USPS mail received at the Pentagon mail screening facility yesterday is currently under quarantine and poses no threat to Pentagon personnel.
"

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Attention

Statement from Christine Blasey Ford's ex-boyfriend casts doubt on sworn testimony about Kavanaugh-created 'trauma'


RT
Wed, 03 Oct 2018 20:01 UTC
Christine Blasey Ford
© Jim Bourg / Reuters
Christine Blasey Ford closes her eyes as she is sworn in before testifying to the Senate Judiciary Committee. September 27, 2018.
A statement provided to the senate by Christine Blasey Ford's ex-boyfriend has raised serious questions about the truthfulness of her sworn testimony, in the latest twist to the ongoing Kavanaugh confirmation saga.

Ford, the California professor who claims Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in high school, caused a national uproar with her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is currently deliberating over Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Supreme Court.


But in a written declaration leaked to the media on Tuesday, an unidentified ex-lover said that during their six-year relationship, Ford never exhibited any of the post-assault anxiety or fears that she detailed during her senate testimony.
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Stock Down

Sanctions And Tariffs Have Turned American Exceptionalism Into Isolationism

D. Rodriguez
Sott.net
Wed, 03 Oct 2018 23:18 UTC
American flag burning
© AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko
On September 24, another round of tariffs was imposed on $200 billion worth of goods coming from China, with Trump threatening another $267 billion more should China retaliate. Trump promised his base he was going to come down hard on China and it looks like he's making good on that promise. But here's the problem: tariffs on China's exports to the US are not going to make America great again, nor will they really help the American people as they ignore the broader reality at hand - the US is no longer the pinnacle of the 'free market' in a multipolar world, and the trade deficit that Trump keeps shouting about is an oversimplification of the real nature of US-China trade.

China retaliated against the first round of tariffs by implementing its own on $60 billion worth of American goods, among them soybeans. As a result, the US government plans to spend up to $12 billion in aid to relieve its domestic soybean industry from the tariffs' effects. However, it's not China's retaliation that will have the most damaging effects.

The latest list of Chinese exports to be taxed includes many everyday items from food to electronics. Consumer electronics were exempted but many of the components used in electronics were not, so those will become more expensive as well. If Trump does follow through with his threat, it will encompass nearly all of China's exports to the US. This means almost everything that you buy will see some sort of price increase since China is integral to many companies' supply chain and production. Don't expect the corporations to foot the bill - it's America's lower and middle classes that get caught in the crossfire and will see higher prices everywhere.
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Light Saber

Putin intervenes in 'extremist internet posts' controversy to stop "manifestations of senility"


RT
Wed, 03 Oct 2018 10:02 UTC
Putin
© Mikhael Klimentyev / Sputnik
October 2, 2018. President Vladimir Putin holds meeting with Government members
Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed softening the law ordering criminal liability for internet reposts of extremist materials. His spokesman described the move as an attempt to "stop the manifestations of senility."

Putin proposes that the law for hateful speech or internet posts should not apply when the action is committed for the first time and does not pose a serious threat to society. At the same time the president proposes to amend the civil code with provisions that would punish such offenders with fines or short-time civil arrest.

The existing law

The presidential bill ordering changes to the notorious article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code has been already submitted to the State Duma. Currently, the Criminal Code orders punishment of up to six years behind bars for inciting hatred and strife as well as degrading human dignity in public speeches, in mass media and also in internet publications, including reposts of other people's materials on social networks.

Comment: Sadly, common-sense is absent in the senile UK: However, surely this Russian citizen can be considered to have broken the law: Russian woman attacks 'manspreading' metro riders with bleach-laced water

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MIB

Wilderness of Mirrors: MI6, The Cold War, Spies And Traitors From Gordievsky to Skripal

George Galloway
RT
Wed, 03 Oct 2018 20:47 UTC
Oleg Gordievsky
© FIONA HANSON / AFP
Former Russian KGB Colonel Oleg Gordievsky, 18 October 2007
I knew the double agent Oleg Gordievsky, though he evidently didn't know me, thank God.

I was rather junior at the time, it's true, but I grew up to be less so. The absence of my name in his ghost-written memoir officially penned by The Times' Ben Macintyre is evidence either of no post facto additions to his photographically-memorized perusal of Soviet secrets regarding the British labour movement, or else it is evidence that his memory isn't quite as photographic as the memoir seeks to persuade us.

The absence of my name in this latest boost to his pension fund is the least interesting thing about the book, however.

The memoir - titled The Spy and the Traitor - is happily timed to buttress the tide of Russophobic propaganda in London around the Skripal affair, in which The Times is playing such a sterling role.

That the revelations within are only scarcely reheated souffles of discredited allegations raised by Gordievsky decades ago. It does not seem to have mattered that one such allegation was previously defeated in the courts, having been published by the same newspaper group under the same editor. These are souffles which can rise twice!
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Chart Bar

Russian natural gas vitally important for Europe according to energy giant Gazprom


RT
Wed, 03 Oct 2018 11:11 UTC
Russia's Gazprom
© Sergey Guneev / Sputnik
Europe crucially needs new gas pipelines from Russia, according to Russian energy giant Gazprom. The company is increasing its exports to the EU and is ready to remain the key supplier to the continent.

"This year we will beat another record, but this record will actually bring us closer to the volume of contracted gas [with the EU], which is about 204.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year," said Gazprom Deputy Chairman of the Management Committee Aleksandr Medvedev, who was speaking at the Russian Energy Week International Forum in Moscow.

This means that Europe will need more natural gas that will come through new pipelines, Gazprom's top manager said. "Therefore both Nord Stream 2 and Turkish Stream are vital for Europe to meet the additional demand for gas."
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Gold Coins

Putin pledges to continue protecting Russian interests with counter sanctions


RT
Wed, 03 Oct 2018 19:44 UTC
russia agriculture
© Kirill Kalinnikov / Sputnik
Agricultural festival held at the Red Square in Moscow
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Moscow's response to foreign sanctions is 'very reserved' and added that new attempts to exert external pressure would only mean introducing new measures to protect national interests.

Putin made the statement at the Russian Energy Week event which is currently taking place in Moscow. He said that the main objective of authorities, who had made decisions on counter sanctions, was not to harm the nation and that was the key to their limited nature.

Comment: The EU and Turkey have already learned that Putin will turn every attack to advantage:

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Nuke

Uranium One: FBI refuses release of three-dozen secret memos involving Clintons, Obama and Russia

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Tue, 02 Oct 2018 17:25 UTC
HillUran1
© Global Research
The FBI has refused to declassify 37 pages of materials related to the Uranium One deal, citing national security and the privacy issues, reports The Hill's John Solomon. The documents are thought to contain information regarding then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's involvement, as well as the Obama administration's knowledge of the controversial deal.

The existence of the documents became known after a recent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) release of related material contained an entry entitled "Uranium One Transaction." The publicly available portion includes benign material, such as public letters from members of Congress who demanded information on the Uranium One approval.
Perhaps the FBI's unexpected "release" - and I use that word loosely, since they gave up no public information of importance - in the FOIA vault was a warning flare designed to remind America there might be evidence worth looking at.

One former U.S. official, who had access to the evidence shared with CFIUS during the Uranium One deal, said this to me: "There is definitely material that would be illuminating to the issues that have been raised. Somebody should fight to make it public."

That somebody could be President Trump, who could add these 37 pages of now-secret documents to his declassification order he is considering in the Russia case. -The Hill
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Magnify

Putin's advice to Trump: 'Donald, look into mirror to find culprit for surge in oil prices'


RT
Wed, 03 Oct 2018 16:52 UTC
Trumpmirror
© Mike Segar/Reuters
US President Donald Trump has been accusing OPEC of propping up oil prices. However, it is the Trump administration that triggered the crude rally, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"We had a very good meeting with President Trump in Helsinki," said Putin at the Russian Energy Week Forum on Wednesday.
"But if we had talked about [oil], I would tell him that if he wants to find the culprit for the surge in prices, 'Donald, then you need to look in the mirror.'"
Putin said the growth of oil prices to $85 per barrel for the first time since 2014 has happened due to external political factors.
"This includes market expectations about sanctions on Iran, which are, by the way, absolutely illegal and harmful to the world economy. There is also a decline in production in North Africa due to a number of political circumstances (civil war, etc.).

"The decline in production in Venezuela happened also because of internal political reasons and the restrictions imposed there. Look at what happens in Libya - the state is destroyed, this is the result of irresponsible politics," said the Russian leader.

Comment: Perhaps The Donald has something to reflect upon.

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Question

Putin says he doesn't know if it would have been better or worse if Trump had not been elected


RT
Wed, 03 Oct 2018 12:40 UTC
TrumpPutin
© Someone's Bones
US President Donald Trump • Russian President Vladimir Putin
The Russian President said there was no way of knowing if Russia had benefited from Donald Trump's presidency, but promised to work with the current administration no matter what. Politics knows no 'what ifs,' he added.

"The United States is a great power, and leads the world in many respects," said the Russian leader, who had been asked repeatedly about relations between Moscow and Washington during the Russian Energy Week International Forum.
"We consider it our natural partner on a whole range of issues, including security, non-proliferation, anti-terrorism and environmental solutions. I don't know if it would have been better or worse if Trump hadn't won the election - there are no 'what ifs' in politics, and we will work with what we have."
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