Puppet Masters

Mueller investigation requesting access to witnesses' cell phones and encrypted messages

Brian Schwartz
CNBC
Wed, 06 Jun 2018 15:41 UTC

Special counsel Robert Mueller's team is requesting that witnesses turn in their personal phones to inspect their encrypted messaging programs and potentially view conversations between associates linked to President Donald Trump, sources told CNBC.

Since as early as April, Mueller's team has been asking witnesses in the Russia probe to turn over phones for agents to examine private conversations on WhatsApp, Confide, Signal and Dust, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Fearing a subpoena, the witnesses have complied with the request and have given over their phones, the sources said.

While it's unclear what Mueller has discovered, if anything, through this new request, investigators seem to be convinced that the apps could be a key to exposing conversations that weren't previously disclosed to them.

A spokesman for the special counsel declined to comment.

Comment: More on the waste of money known as Russiagate:

Trump fires aide who made a joke about John McCain dying

Liberty Headlines
Wed, 06 Jun 2018 13:47 UTC

Donald Trump has sacked an aide who said cancer-stricken Senator John McCain's opposition to a presidential nominee did not matter because "he's dying anyway," the White House announced Tuesday.

The White House was roiled by bipartisan fury over the remark attributed to Kelly Sadler in May.

"Kelly Sadler is no longer employed within the Executive Office of the President," read a brief statement by deputy White House spokesman Raj Shah.

McCain, 81, had indicated he opposed the nomination of now CIA Director nominee Gina Haspel over her role in enhanced interrogation techniques under president George W. Bush.

The Arizona senator, who was held prisoner and tortured during the Vietnam War, is battling brain cancer.

Comment: McCain doesn't deserve this kind of defense or respect.

Putin: Trade between Russia and China to reach record $100bn by year-end as ties grow in all sectors

RT
Fri, 08 Jun 2018 14:28 UTC

Trade between Moscow and Beijing has grown 31 percent this year and is projected to reach the $100 billion target, said Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting with China's President Xi Jinping in Beijing.

Energy is the key sector of cooperation between the two countries, according to Putin. "Russia remains the largest supplier of fuel to the Chinese market. Last year, we supplied more than 50 million tons of oil. By April, this number increased by another 26 percent," said the Russian president.

Work on the construction of the Eastern Route pipeline from Russia to China is on schedule, and companies from both countries are participating at Russia's $27 billion LNG plant in Yamal, Putin added.

The countries are also building ties in the nuclear energy sector. "Russia and China have just signed an agreement on the construction of another two units and the Tianwan nuclear power plant in China by Rosatom. Russia will also build a brand-new nuclear power site in China," he said.

Putin emphasized the benefits for China of Russian know-how in a demo fast-neutron reactor to be built in the country. Fast neutron reactors can reduce the total radio toxicity of nuclear waste, and dramatically reduce the waste's lifetime. "We don't have this type of cooperation with any other country. We are talking about sensitive and unique technologies developed by Russian scientists," Putin added.

Comment: See also:

Rambouillet ruse? Why Trump could be setting up his North Korea talks to fail

Dan Glazebrook
RT
Wed, 06 Jun 2018 12:43 UTC

President Trump has set the bar of success so high for his forthcoming meeting with Kim Jong-un, it is difficult to see how it could possibly be met.

As the New York Times noted last month, "To meet his own definition of success, Mr. Trump will have to persuade Mr. Kim to accept 'complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization' of North Korea - something that Mr. Kim has shown no willingness to accept in the past, and few believe he will accede to in the future."

Such denuclearization would involve "the actual dismantlement of weapons, the removal of stockpiled uranium and plutonium bomb fuel from the country and a verification program that will be one of the most complex in history, given the vastness of North Korea's mountains." Furthermore, Trump has suggested that the North Koreans will gain nothing in return for this one-sided destruction of their defenses, until the process is all-but-complete; as one Trump official told the Wall Street Journal, "When the president says that he will not make the mistakes of the past, that means the U.S. will not be making substantial concessions, such as lifting sanctions, until North Korea has substantially dismantled its nuclear programs".

In other words - give up your leverage first; then we'll see. What Trump appears to seek is nothing less than a completely disarmed Korea that will pave the way for the "Libya solution" his people have openly suggested is the goal.

Democrats' Awan-Wasserman Schultz scandal set to explode with possible plea deal

Frank Miniter
Fox News
Fri, 08 Jun 2018 13:55 UTC

The curious case of Imran Awan, which sounds like an international spy thriller, is entering its third act. Awan was a congressional IT aide to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., and he was finally fired just after he was arrested trying to fly to Pakistan last summer.

Awan and his wife, Hina Alvi, were charged last summer with bank fraud. They now appear poised to strike a plea deal with the Department of Justice. A plea agreement hearing is set for July 3 before U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan in Washington, Fox News reported Wednesday.

Comment:

Papadopoulos' wife claims he pleaded guilty to 'avoid being charged as unregistered agent of Israel'

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Fri, 08 Jun 2018 12:53 UTC

Special Counsel Robert Mueller threatened to charge former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos as an unregistered agent of Israel, according to his wife.

Simona Mangiante Papadopoulos, an Italian attorney who married Papadopoulos roughly 90 days ago, claimed that Mueller had evidence her husband had worked on behalf of Israel without registering as a foreign agent during his time as an energy consultant, and prior to joining the Trump campaign. The claim was made in interviews with the Daily Caller and the Washington Post - where Simona also said George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to avoid the Israel-linked charges.

"I know he doesn't have anything to do with Russia," she told The Post. "We know he was under scrutiny because of his ties to Israel, not his ties to Russia. So what's this about?"

Comment: Further reading:

US Ambassador tells Serbia to reward Kosovo Islamists by giving them their own state

Aleksander Pavic
Strategic Culture
Fri, 08 Jun 2018 12:53 UTC

On May 29th, a group of Serbs displaced from the Kosovo village of Petrich by Albanian violence attempted to visit the remains of the demolished village church and the village cemetery to mark Holy Trinity holiday (according to the Julian calendar). However, as is usual in most of NATO-occupied Kosovo, they were met by a violent Albanian mob who blocked the road leading to the church and hurled stones at them, injuring three, one seriously. In addition, another Serb participating in a holiday ritual was arrested inside the church yard by Kosovo Albanian police on dubious charges, only to be released a few hours later.

Marko Djurich, Director of the Serbian Government Office for Kosovo and Metohija, condemned this latest act of violence, referring to it as "anti-civilizational," charging that displaced Kosovo Serbs have been "systematically prevented from marking Christian holidays in their villages" for years and that Albanian extremists "want to completely eradicate and suppress every memory related to the Serb existence" in that part of Serbia's breakaway province.

Dalibor Jevtich, one of the Serbs still living in Kosovo who has tried to work with the majority Albanian authorities, but who recently resigned as Kosovo Minister for Communities and Return, reacted similarly:

Comment: Further reading: George Galloway: The NATO virus is spreading

Making Israel Great Again: Sheldon Adelson, the Zionist billionaire driving Trump's Middle East policy

Chris McGreal
The Guardian
Fri, 08 Jun 2018 13:01 UTC

© Kin Cheung/AP
Sheldon Adelson has spent millions on backing Israel and attacking supporters of Palestinian rights in the US.

The Las Vegas billionaire gave Republicans $82m for the 2016 elections and his views, notably staunch support for Netanyahu's Israel, are now the official US line

In 2015, the billionaire casino owner and Republican party funder Sheldon Adelson spent days in a Las Vegas courtroom watching his reputation torn apart and wondering if his gambling empire was facing ruin.

An official from Nevada's gaming control board sat at the back of the court listening to mounting evidence that Adelson bribed Chinese officials and worked with organised crime at his casinos in Macau - allegations that could have seen the magnate's Las Vegas casinos stripped of their licenses.

The case, a civil suit by a former manager of the Macau gaming operations who said he was fired for curbing corrupt practices, was another blow in a bad run for Adelson.

He had thrown $150m into a futile effort to unseat the "socialist" and "anti-Israel" Barack Obama in the 2012 election. His credibility as a political player was not enhanced by his backing of Newt Gingrich for president.

But three years on from the court case, Adelson's influence has never been greater.

The imprint of the 84-year-old's political passions is seen in an array of Donald Trump's more controversial decisions, including violating the Iran nuclear deal, moving the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, and appointing the ultra-hawkish John Bolton as national security adviser.

Comment: Well, that explains a lot, doesn't it?

White House: Austria offers to host Putin-Trump meeting

TASS
Fri, 08 Jun 2018 10:30 UTC

Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump

On March 20, Putin and Trump held a telephone conversation and agreed to hand down instructions to start preparations for a Russia-US summit

Austria has informed the United States that it was ready to host a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump, a source in the National Security Council at the White House told TASS.

"The Austrians have conveyed their willingness to host a meeting between President Trump and President Putin. And, although the two leaders have previously discussed the possibility of arranging a meeting, we have nothing to announce at this time," the source said.

Foreign investment in Saudi Arabia collapses under Saudi Crown Prince

PressTV
Fri, 08 Jun 2018 10:02 UTC

Foreign investment in Saudi Arabia has collapsed under Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his extensive economic reform agenda, according to new data by the United Nations.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Saudi Arabia fell to just $1.4 billion last year, down from $7.5 billion in 2016 and some $12.2 billion in 2012, newly published data from the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) showed Thursday.

The massive failure in attracting international investment put Saudi Arabia behind much smaller countries like Oman and Jordan with FDIs of $1.9 billion and $1.7 billion respectively.

Comment: See also:

New Lt. Governor of Virginia Winsome Sears: "We're going to have safer neighborhoods, safer communities, and our children are going to get a good...

parzival

Bill Gates is going to be the one with the uncertain future,,, * New Lt. Governor of Virginia Winsome Sears: "We're going to have safer...

parzival

The more we hear about adverse affects the more we will merely shrug. It's a catch 22. Is that an asteroid trail in the photo?

sass

Welcome to the new normal. The more sensory exposure we have about such things, the less it is an issue.

sass

more misbehaving phuqqin' jewzskies starring on the sott; speaks for itself

Jibrish

Puppet Masters

Mueller investigation requesting access to witnesses' cell phones and encrypted messages

Trump fires aide who made a joke about John McCain dying

Putin: Trade between Russia and China to reach record $100bn by year-end as ties grow in all sectors

Rambouillet ruse? Why Trump could be setting up his North Korea talks to fail

Democrats' Awan-Wasserman Schultz scandal set to explode with possible plea deal

Papadopoulos' wife claims he pleaded guilty to 'avoid being charged as unregistered agent of Israel'

US Ambassador tells Serbia to reward Kosovo Islamists by giving them their own state

Making Israel Great Again: Sheldon Adelson, the Zionist billionaire driving Trump's Middle East policy

White House: Austria offers to host Putin-Trump meeting

Foreign investment in Saudi Arabia collapses under Saudi Crown Prince

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