Welcome to Sott.net
Tue, 19 Oct 2021
The World for People who Think

Puppet Masters
Map

Star of David

One year later, UN finally releases blacklist of 112 companies with ties to illegal Israeli West Bank settlements

Noa Landau
Haaretz
Wed, 12 Feb 2020 18:00 UTC
illegal settlements west bank
© UPI/Debbie Hill
A Palestinian stands on his property overlooking the Israeli settlement Har Homa, West Bank, February 18, 2011.
The UN human rights office released Wednesday a long-anticipated report which names companies with ties to Israeli West Bank settlements.

OHCHR said it has reasonable grounds to believe that 112 business entities [For full list see below] have ties to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, 94 based in Israel, and 18 in six other countries.

In 2019, the publication of a UN database of companies with business ties to Israeli settlements in the West Bank was delayed, drawing the ire of activists who campaigned for it for three years.

Comment: About time. The list is down from the original 130 (some backroom horse-trading?), but better than nothing. Let the boycotts commence. For the retail consumers who want to do their part:
israel barcode boycott
israel companies boycott


      Read More...
Attention

Australian senator calls on govt to bring Assange home as journalist faces 'death' if extradited to US


RT
Wed, 12 Feb 2020 17:41 UTC
Assange protest
© REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
The Australian government has been implored to urgently intervene in Julian Assange's extradition plight and to bring its citizen home, by a senator who warned that the WikiLeaks founder faces death in a US prison.

Assange is currently in jail in the UK and fighting extradition from there to the US, where he has been charged with espionage for publishing sensitive leaked documents detailing potential American war crimes in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Australian Greens Senator Peter Whish-Wilson is a member of the 'Bring Assange Home Parliamentary Group' campaigning for the journalist's safe return to the country and voicing their alarm over his deteriorating health while in detention. In November, Whish-Wilson presented a petition to the Senate with 200,000 signatures backing the repatriation of Assange and, on Tuesday, he renewed his calls for the government to take action to protect Assange.

Comment: See also: Britain's Supreme Court scandal: New damning emails show UK corruption in Assange case

      Read More...
Eye 1

CIA used Swiss encryption firm to spy on DOZENS of nations for DECADES - Codenamed 'Rubicon', racket was 'intel coup of the century'


RT
Wed, 12 Feb 2020 18:10 UTC
cia emblem
© AFP / Saul Loeb; AFP / John MacDougall
The CIA and German intelligence spied on the secret communications of governments around the world for decades in a covert partnership, controlling a top encryption company and installing backdoor vulnerabilities in its products.


Comment: Ah, so that's why they don't want anyone using Huawei: the US will no longer control the world.


Founded during the Second World War, the Swiss cryptography firm, Crypto AG, has provided top-of-the-line devices for encoding communications to some 120 countries. Starting in 1970, however, the CIA and then-West Germany's foreign intelligence service, the BND, secretly bought and controlled the company, using its devices to eavesdrop on enemies and allies alike, according to a joint investigation by the Washington Post and German public broadcaster ZDF, based on a classified internal CIA history.


Comment: Founded during WW2... Does this mean the CIA is literally a continuation of the Nazi party?


Comment: The Swiss have a lot to answer for too.

      Read More...
Chess

Bernie Sanders wins NH primary while Joe Biden tucks tail after finishing 5th


Tampa Bay Times
Wed, 12 Feb 2020 17:59 UTC
sanders
© AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
Bernie Sanders won New Hampshire's presidential primary, edging moderate rival Pete Buttigieg and scoring the first clear victory in the Democratic Party's chaotic 2020 nomination fight.

In his Tuesday night win, the 78-year-old Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, beat back a strong challenge from the 38-year-old former mayor of South Bend, Indiana. The dueling Democrats represent different generations, see divergent paths to the nomination and embrace conflicting visions of America's future.

As Sanders and Buttigieg celebrated, Amy Klobuchar scored an unexpected third-place finish that gives her a road out of New Hampshire as the primary season moves on to the string of state-by-state contests that lie ahead.

Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden posted disappointing fourth and fifth place finishes respectively and were on track to finish with zero delegates from the state.
      Read More...
Bullseye

Thousands killed in 'reconstruction' mission show it's high time for US to get out of Afghanistan

Nebojsa Malic
RT
Wed, 12 Feb 2020 17:14 UTC
honor guard
© REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
A recent report shows over 2,000 people were killed outside of combat during the US "reconstruction" of Afghanistan. Yet President Donald Trump campaigns on ending that and other endless US wars, without actually doing so.

By a conservative estimate from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), 2,214 people were killed and 2,921 wounded in the course of "reconstruction or stabilization" mission, between its beginning in April 2002 and the end of 2018. Another 1,182 people were "kidnapped or missing."

This is on top of casualties in actual combat with the Taliban and other militant groups, resupply missions, or attacks on Afghan government and military forces, or in places unrelated to "reconstruction" activities.

Dated February 5, the SIGAR report was made public on Tuesday, when the special inspector John Sopko testified before a Senate committee on the "lessons learned" from the long war. News about Afghanistan was relegated to the (metaphorical) back pages, however, as the media attention was on New Hampshire primaries or the latest episode in #Resistance lawfare against Trump.
      Read More...
Attention

Moscow says Turkey failed to separate 'opposition' from its terrorists in Idlib, made the situation worse by pumping arms into area


RT
Wed, 12 Feb 2020 16:54 UTC
turkish troops turkey Idlib syria
© Reuters / Khalil Ashawi
Turkish military vehicles are seen in Hazano near Idlib, Syria, February 11, 2020.
Turkey's inability to separate "opposition" from terrorist groups in Syria's Idlib is one of the main reasons behind the ongoing escalation there, Russian Defense Ministry has said, warning Ankara against "uncoordinated" actions.

The ongoing fighting in Syria's Idlib region has been triggered by repeated attacks from "terrorist groups" in the government-controlled parts of the country, the Russian military said on Tuesday. These continual attacks - documented by both Russian and Turkish servicemen stationed in the area - ultimately triggered a Syrian government offensive against the militants.

Comment: Erdogan doubled down in abrogating the Sochi Memorandum, in a unstated effort to hold the territory Turkey's proxies still control:
The Turkish leader made his comments during a speech in the nation's parliament on Wednesday.
I announce that we will strike the [Syrian] regime forces everywhere starting from today, without being bound to Idlib and by the Sochi Memorandum, if our soldiers at the lookout posts or elsewhere suffer any harm.
The 2018 Sochi Memorandum established the de-escalation zone set up around Idlib by Ankara and Moscow to enforce ceasefire on the ground between the Syrian army and anti-government forces. Turkey also promised to clear the area of jihadist militants.
Russia backs the Syrian position that Idlib is sovereign territory and they are entitled to clear out the terrorists, regardless of who is supporting them. Civilian casualties are always tragic, but they are due to the terrorist tactic of using them as human shields, not allowing them to leave the combat area.
Turkey has failed to clear the de-escalation zone in Syria's Idlib Province of jihadist groups, despite promising to do so under the 2018 ceasefire agreement reached by Moscow and Ankara, the spokesperson for the Kremlin Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday.

"These groups are still attacking the Syrian forces from Idlib, as well as conducting aggressive actions against our military sites," he said.

The Kremlin's spokesperson denied that Damascus deliberately targets anyone except the militants. "The Syrian army's strikes in Idlib are strikes against terrorists, not civilians," Peskov said.
In the meantime, the SAA continues its advance. Now, except for a tiny stretch south-west of Aleppo city, Syria has gained full control of the M5 highway:
While Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is crying foul threatening Syria with military actions, his dear al-Qaeda-linked Idlib militants are losing more and more areas to the Syrian Army.

On February 12, government forces once again attacked the militant-held town of Khan Nuran, and liberated the villages of Arnaz, Sheikh Ali, Aradah and Dhahra Sheikh Ali in southwestern Aleppo.

The Syrian Army is now advancing on positions of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and other radical groups in Radhwan and nearby areas.
Syria idlib february
© SouthFront.org


      Read More...
Control Panel

Forever war: Almost all quiet on the Afghanistan front - for now

Valery Kulikov
New Eastern Outlook
Wed, 12 Feb 2020 00:00 UTC
US troops Afghanistan
US President Donald Trump confirmed his intention to end nearly two decades of war in Afghanistan and reduce the number of US troops in the country in his State of Union address to Congress on February 4. About 14,000 members of the US military are currently deployed in Afghanistan, as well as 17,000 troops from 39 NATO member states. However, according to the Trump administration, it aims to reduce the number of US troops in Afghanistan to 8,000-9,000 as part of a peace agreement to end the conflict.

Putting an end to the war in Afghanistan was one of Trump's pre-election promises during his campaign in 2016. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that this remains one of the most pressing issues as Trump has begun his re-election campaign. In his speech, Trump emphasized that the USA is negotiating with the Taliban (the movement is banned in the Russian Federation) and the government of Afghanistan in order to reach a peace deal. Nevertheless, he once again hinted that the US could secure a win in Afghanistan, but that would lead to a large number of casualties, including civilian deaths.

It should be noted that, as of yet, Washington's talks with representatives of the Afghan leadership and the Taliban (banned in Russia) leave no hope for the possibility of signing a peace treaty between these parties and ending the armed conflict in the foreseeable future.

Comment: See also: US-Created Chaos in Afghanistan May Use ISIS to Target Russia in Great Game of Global Control as well as:

      Read More...
Magnify

US 'brain injury' numbers a cover-up for dead US troops in Iranian missile strike - IRGC


Press TV
Sat, 01 Feb 2020 11:28 UTC
Ain al-Asad
© AP
US military personnel look at damage to a building at the Ain al-Asad base in Anbar Province, west of Baghdad, in Iraq, January 13, 2020.
The spokesman for the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps has said that Washington's alleged numbers of "brain injuries" in its troops following the Iranian retaliatory missile strike on the Ain al-Assad airbase represent the number of dead troops.

"We conclude that what the United States announces to be related to brain injuries from the attack on Ain al-Assad to be a metaphor for dead US troops," Brigadier General Ramezan Sharif wrote for Iran's Vatan-e-Emrooz daily on Saturday.

"I believe that that the term 'brain trauma', whether mild, moderate or severe, reflects the number of dead, which they hesitate to formally announce," he said.

Comment: See also:

      Read More...
Toys

Puppet Pete Buttigieg says revolution and the status quo aren't mutually exclusive

Caitlin Johnstone
Medium
Mon, 10 Feb 2020 00:01 UTC
puppet pete buttigieg
The world's first laboratory-grown presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg met with boos and chants of "Wall Street Pete" at a recent Democratic Party event in New Hampshire for taking a dig at the revolution-minded rhetoric favored by Bernie Sanders and his supporters.

"We cannot risk dividing Americans' future further, saying that you must either be for a revolution or you must be for the status quo," Buttigieg said. "Let's make room for everybody in this movement."

This is a talking point that the tightly scripted and focus group-tested Buttigieg has been repeatedly regurgitating all month, so it's worth taking a look at.

Comment: See also:

      Read More...
Satellite

Norway claims Chinese intelligence has repeatedly acquired its space technology


Sputnik
Wed, 12 Feb 2020 04:42 UTC
satellite
© John Pulsipher / Global Look Press
Norway plays an important role in space exploration for key military space facilities used by the US, including the Globus II radar in Finnmark County, sometimes referred to as the world's most advanced radar for tracking satellites.

In recent years, the Chinese intelligence service has succeeded in obtaining advanced Norwegian technology several times, the Scandinavian country's intelligence service has stressed, warning that China is en route to becoming "a military superpower in Norway's neighbourhood".

"With growing interest in the Arctic, we believe that China will continue to influence the situation, even in our proximity", the head of the intelligence service, Lieutenant General Morten Haga Lunde, said, as quoted by national broadcaster NRK.

According to Haga Lunde, advanced technology with military application is especially sought after.

For instance, the Andøya Space Centre at Andenes in Nordland County, which is vying to become the first in Europe to launch satellites, has admittedly noticed penetration attempts.

"We notice that the interest and awareness of our sector is only getting bigger, even when it comes to penetration attempts", Odd Roger Enoksen, Managing Director of the Andøya Space Centre, told High North News.
      Read More...
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts