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Don't fall for the American political snake oil salesmen

Wayne Madsen
Strategic Culture Foundation
Mon, 10 Sep 2018 16:00 UTC
US aid relief organization
The election engineering merchants of George Soros and other "one-size-fits-all" democracy templates may have been vanquished in Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Myanmar, but they are, by no means, down and out. International non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have simply borrowed a page from international consultancies and gone quasi-private, racking up lucrative contracts as political advisers to pro-capitalist candidates around the world.

With the US Foreign Service largely neutered under President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, there is virtually no one left at various US embassies in far-flung diplomatic posts to warn host governments about the modern version of American "snake oil salesmen" pitching their election assistance wares to unsuspecting candidates for office.

Take Vanguard Africa, a Washington, DC-based election campaign consultancy that seeks public contributions under the aegis of the Democratic Party's fundraising organization, ActBlue. During a time when there are complaints in the United States of foreign interference in American elections, why is an outfit like Vanguard America involved in elections in The Gambia and Niger? What is good for the goose should be good for the gander.
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Megaphone

Manufacturing consent: Remember when CNN staged a fake war propaganda interview with a Syrian child?

Caitlin Johnstone
Medium
Sun, 09 Sep 2018 00:00 UTC
CNN syrian propaganda, bana abed

CNN knowingly staged a fake, scripted interview with a seven year-old Syrian girl last year and passed it off to its audience as a real interview.
Western public discourse about Syria is very much the same. All the time I get people coming up yelling at me about what a butcher Bashar al-Assad is, how he loves gassing children because he's an evil monster, how he's killed hundreds of thousands of civilians in his own country out of sheer sadism, and all I can say to them is, you don't know that. You don't know any of those things, you're just pretending you do because that's what everyone else is doing. I know you don't know any of those things because you're looking at the same information landscape as I am, and it's chock full of war propaganda. The media matrix is too full of obvious psyops meant to manufacture public consent for military interventionism in Syria for any westerner to have a clear idea of what's actually happening in that country.

Imagine if you and some friends wandered into a completely dark room together for some reason. You've never been in this room before, and you can't see a thing.

Now imagine one of your friends says he can see everything in the room perfectly, and starts describing the different things that he sees in a confident, assertive tone of voice. You know for a fact that there's no light in the room, so you are doubtful that your friend is able to see any better than you are, but one by one your other friends start talking about the objects in the room as though what he is saying is true. After a while your group starts telling you you're crazy and evil because you remain skeptical of your first friend's ability to see the room in pitch darkness, despite his assertive tone of voice and despite the fact that everyone else believes it.

And we know this for a fact, as sure as you know when you're in a dark room. Take the time CNN knowingly staged a fake, scripted interview with a seven year-old Syrian girl last year and passed it off to its audience as a real interview.

Comment: Terrorists & White Helmets met in Idlib to prep for final stage false flag chem attack according to Russian MoD

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Vader

Significant casualties reported, at least six killed after militants storm Libya's National Oil Corp HQ in Tripoli

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Mon, 10 Sep 2018 07:22 UTC
National Oil Corporation (NOC) HQ Lybia
© Reuters
National Oil Corporation (NOC) Headquarters.
After weeks of escalating clashes among factions in the Libyan capital of Tripoli armed militants have stormed the headquarters of the National Oil Corporation (NOC).

Reuters reported smoke and ambulances ferrying injured away in an attack that eyewitnesses say started with five blasts and resulted in multiple people being shot. The large glass-fronted office complex is located in central Tripoli and the state-run NOC is responsible for exporting a combined 70% of the country's oil across its subsidiaries and facilities throughout the country.

Significant casualties have been reported with early reports saying at least six have killed. According to Tripoli security officials, two NOC employees are among the dead, and two of the gunmen have been reported killed by security forces. "Three or five gunmen were shooting inside the building," an NOC staff members who fled the building told Reuters, and added, "Several people were shot."

And reportedly Musthafa Sanallah, NOC chairman, who was present at the time of the attack and safely evacuated from the building, immediately told reporters that "the attack won't affect NOC operation".

Comment: See also:

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Newspaper

Uki Tantrums: 'Putin will simply cut us off at some point' - Ukrainian Ambassador to US

Joaquin Flores
FRN III
Tue, 28 Aug 2018 00:00 UTC
Ukrainian Ambassador to the US Valery Chaly

The Kiev establishment lives in fear of the "Nord Stream II"

The Kiev establishment lives in fear of the "Nord Stream II" pipeline project. An interesting thing about the Kiev Junta, is their inability to grasp their lack of international weight, of bargaining power, indeed of any geopolitical relevance at this point, whatsoever. So it's no surprise to see the same U.S installed talking heads, monopolizing the ruins of civil society in Ukraine, broadcasting the underlying message "What we think and want actually counts". With that delusion, and only that delusion carrying them forward, can we understand the sorts of proclamations made on Ukrainian TV.

"Ukraine should reject of any compromises proposed by Germany and Russia regarding the future of its gas transmission system and the construction of the Nord Stream-2." This was unsurprisingly broadcast on Channel 5 by the Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Valery Chaly. But what he says, is something interesting, not because of its relevance, but because of its honesty.

Comment: See also:

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Attention

Senator Richard Black meets with Syria's Assad, claims West is planning fake chemical attack

Tom O'Connor
Newsweek
Sun, 09 Sep 2018 00:01 UTC
Richard Hayden Black
© AFP/Getty Images
U.S. Senator Richard Hayden Black of Virginia talks to reporters during a prior visit to the Syrian capital Damascus, April 28, 2016. That year, Black first met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has since then reconsolidated control over much of the country.
Republican State Senator Richard Black of Virginia has met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and claimed to have knowledge of an alleged Western plot to stage a chemical weapons attack there as a pretext for military action.

Black, an Army veteran, traveled to Syria on Wednesday to express his support for the government's war against insurgents and jihadis who rose up in a 2011 rebellion backed by the West, Turkey and Gulf Arab states. The U.S. and its allies have accused Assad of war crimes, including the use of chemical weapons, but the Syrian leader and his Russian and Iranian allies have alleged that such incidents were "false flag" plots conjured up to justify foreign intervention.

As the Syrian military prepares for a major showdown with the final Islamist-held province of Idlib, U.S. officials have claimed that Assad may order the use of restricted poison gas, while Russia has claimed that the U.K. was working with local militants in an apparent attempt to stage such an incident. In an interview with regional media the following day, Black sided with the pro-Syrian government camp.

Comment: Keep this in mind if a 'chemical weapons attack' does indeed happen - this US senator knew what was coming. When the media propaganda machine inevitably goes into full swing, trying to justify an attack on Syria because "Assad gassed his own people", just ask yourself, how did this guy know all about it in advance?

See also:

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War Whore

US says Assad approved chlorine gas attack in Idlib - considers retaliation including Russian and Iranian targets

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Sun, 09 Sep 2018 08:22 UTC
Trump missile strike military
At this point there's not even so much as feigning surprise or suspense in the now sadly all-too-familiar Syria script out of Washington.

The Wall Street Journal has just published a bombshell on Sunday evening as Russian and Syrian warplanes continue bombing raids over al-Qaeda held Idlib, citing unnamed US officials who claim "President Bashar al-Assad of Syria has approved the use of chlorine gas in an offensive against the country's last major rebel stronghold."

And perhaps more alarming is that the report details that Trump is undecided over whether new retaliatory strikes could entail expanding the attack to hit Assad allies Russia and Iran this time around.

Comment: Moscow has upped the ante this time around, so what do the madmen in Washington think about that? Why, they consider bombing Russian and Iranian objectives, of course! What could possibly go wrong? Apart from from a global confrontation between nuclear superpowers, that is.

In the meantime, the US is accusing Assad of a chemical attack that has not happened yet - and never will, since Assad got rid of his chemical weapons - and while they are at it, they decide to bomb Syria with banned white phosphorus.

And all this American craziness for the sake of saving Al Qaeda. On the anniversary of 9/11, let that sink in.

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Attention

Anarchy in the UK: Police brace for riots, mull army help in case of no-deal Brexit, leaked report reveals


RT
Mon, 10 Sep 2018 09:32 UTC
London policemen
© Jerry Tremaine / Global Look Press
No-deal Brexit might result in lengthy civil unrest and surge in crime, caused by food and medicine shortages, according to a leaked police report, which deemed a call on the military to tackle the anarchy a "real possibility."

The doomsday "leave" scenario could lead to widespread civil disorder across the UK, the police document said as cited by the Sunday Times. The leaked report, painting some truly apocalyptic pictures, has been prepared by the National Police Coordination Centre and is set to be discussed at a meeting of the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) next week.

If the UK fails to reach any deal on the Brexit, the departure from the EU might lead to up to three months of turmoil in the country, the report states. Shortages of medicine and food, as well as of other goods, expected during a no-deal departure, might prompt "widespread protest which could then escalate into disorder."

Comment: See also:

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Bizarro Earth

Moscow has upped the ante in Syria: Will Washington take it seriously?

Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
Consortium News
Sun, 09 Sep 2018 23:32 UTC
russia military drills mediterranean syria

Russia completed its military drills in the Mediterranean and announced its intention to stay in the area.
As Syrian forces back by Russian launch the final showdown in Syria against jihadist extremists, the potential for a U.S.-Russia confrontation has never been greater, as VIPS warns in this memo to the president. September 9, 2018

MEMORANDUM FOR: The President

FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity

SUBJECT: Moscow Has Upped the Ante in Syria

Mr. President:

We are concerned that you may not have been adequately briefed on the upsurge of hostilities in northwestern Syria, where Syrian armed forces with Russian support have launched a full-out campaign to take back the al-Nusra/al-Qaeda/ISIS-infested province of Idlib. The Syrians will almost certainly succeed, as they did in late 2016 in Aleppo. As in Aleppo, it will mean unspeakable carnage, unless someone finally tells the insurgents theirs is a lost cause.

That someone is you. The Israelis, Saudis, and others who want unrest to endure are egging on the insurgents, assuring them that you, Mr. President, will use US forces to protect the insurgents in Idlib, and perhaps also rain hell down on Damascus. We believe that your senior advisers are encouraging the insurgents to think in those terms, and that your most senior aides are taking credit for your recent policy shift from troop withdrawal from Syria to indefinite war.
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Che Guevara

Scotland's choice: Baby boxes vs ballistic bombs

Tommy Sheridan
Sputnik
Sun, 09 Sep 2018 20:45 UTC
scotland independence march
After several packed rallies in support of independence in 2014 and the outcome that 53.5% of the city had voted YES Glasgow's George Square in the centre of the city was re-named Freedom Square by the Indy Family.

Next Saturday, September 15th, that square will be packed to capacity with thousands of Scots from all walks of life who can sense in the air the approach of a new referendum and the chance to secure Scotland's freedom from the restrictive yoke of Westminster rule this time round.
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Eye 1

Silicon spies: How the American government invests in data-gathering startups

Yasha Levine
Literary Hub
Tue, 27 Feb 2018 16:54 UTC
hands on keyboard
A specter is haunting the modern world, the specter of crypto anarchy.
-Timothy C. May, The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto, 1988

I.

In June 2013, headlines flashed across the world: an employee of the National Security Agency had fled the country with a huge cache of top-secret documents and was blowing the whistle on America's global surveillance apparatus. At first the identity of this NSA leaker remained shrouded in mystery. Journalists descended on Hong Kong, scouring hotel lobbies desperately hunting for leads. Finally, a photograph emerged: a thin, pale young man with disheveled hair, wire-rim glasses, and a gray shirt open at the collar sitting on a hotel room sofa-calm but looking like he hadn't slept for days.

His name was Edward Snowden-"Ed," as he wanted people to call him. He was 29 years old. His résumé was a veritable treasure trove of spook world subcontracting: Central Intelligence Agency, US Defense Intelligence Agency, and, most recently, Booz Allen Hamilton, a defense contractor that ran digital surveillance operations for the National Security Agency.

Sitting in his room at the five-star Hotel Mira in Hong Kong, Snowden told journalists from the Guardian that watching the global surveillance system operated by NSA had forced his hand and compelled him to become a whistleblower. "The NSA has built an infrastructure that allows it to intercept almost everything," he said in a calm, measured voice during a videotaped interview that first introduced the leaker and his motives to the world. "I don't want to live in a society that does these sorts of things. . . I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under."

Comment: See also:

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