Puppet Masters

Backroom deal? US Senate was poised to vote against Pompeo SoS nomination, but then approved him at last minute

Rebecca Ballhaus
Wall Street Journal
Sun, 22 Apr 2018 15:28 UTC

CIA Director Mike Pompeo is on track for a negative recommendation Monday from the Senate committee considering his nomination as secretary of state, a vote that would mark an unusual rebuke to a central member of President Donald Trump's foreign policy team.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is scheduled to vote on Mr. Pompeo's nomination on Monday evening. All of the panel's Democrats have said they would oppose the former congressman's nomination, and they have been joined by one Republican, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky.

That gives Mr. Pompeo's opponents a majority on the committee, which is composed of 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats.

Under Senate procedures, the nomination can still be brought to the chamber's floor, where the math is more favorable for Mr. Pompeo and most senators believe he is likely be confirmed. Still, Mr. Pompeo would be the only secretary of state in modern history to be confirmed by the full Senate without winning a committee endorsement.

One Democrat who is not on the foreign relations panel, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, has said she would support Mr. Pompeo, and she could be joined by other red-state Democrats, especially those facing re-election this year.

Mr. Pompeo would replace former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who had a difficult relationship with the White House and with his own department.

Comment: The Senate panel ended up approving Pompeo yesterday as Rand Paul gave up his opposition at the last minute.

"After calling continuously for weeks for Director Pompeo to support President Trump's belief that the Iraq war was a mistake, and that it is time to leave Afghanistan, today I received confirmation that Director Pompeo agrees with President Trump," Mr. Paul wrote. "President Trump believes that Iraq was a mistake, that regime change has destabilized the region and that we must end our involvement with Afghanistan. Having received assurances from President Trump and Director Pompeo that he agrees with the president on these important issues, I have decided to support his nomination."

Mr. Trump told reporters last week that Mr. Paul has "never let us down" and that "he's a good man."

Craig Murray: Complete disillusionment with the UK Establishment

Craig Murray
craigmurray.org.uk
Tue, 24 Apr 2018 11:58 UTC

The second half of my life has been a continual process of disillusionment with the institutions I used to respect. I suppose it started with the FCO, where I went from being Britain's youngest ambassador to being sacked for opposing the use of intelligence from torture, at the same time having an insider view of the knowing lies about Iraqi WMD being used as a pretext for invasion and resource grab.

I still had some residual respect for the BBC, which respect disappeared during the Scottish independence referendum where BBC propaganda and disregard for the truth were truly shameless. My love of the universities was severely tested during my period as Rector of Dundee University, when I saw how far the corporate model had turned them from academic communities developing people and pursuing knowledge, to relentless churners out of unconsidered graduates and financially profitable research, with nearly all sense of community gone.

My respect for charities vanished when I discovered Save the Children was paying its chief executive £370,000 and had become a haven for New Labour politicos on huge salaries, which was why it was so involved in pushing a pro-war narrative in Syria. When Justin Forsyth and Brendan Cox - both massively salaried employees who came into Save the Children from the revolving door of Gordon Brown's office - were outed over sexual predation, that seemed a natural result of "charities" being headed by rich party hacks rather than by simple people trying to do good. As for respect for parliament, well the massive troughing expenses scandal and all those protected paedophiles...

Activist explains how French weapons end up in Saudi hands committing genocide in Yemen

Sputnik
Mon, 16 Apr 2018 13:43 UTC

Yemeni human rights activists have charged Mohammad bin Salman, accusing him of aiding in "acts of torture" during the campaign in Yemen. Paris is being put under pressure, due to the fact that French weaponry is used in the conflict by the coalition. Tony Fortin, member of the board of the Observatory for Arms told Sputnik how this happened.

Fortin said that one of the most controversial deals is the selling of French arms on the DONAS contract. According to it, Saudi Arabia paid for weapons that must have been delivered to Lebanon.

"Part of the weaponry, which was delivered to Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners, were originally intended for Lebanon. Companies that created it worked under the DONAS contract," Fortin said. "In 2015 [the government] asked them to adapt their weapons to Yemeni conditions. Some of the companies were surprised that the weaponry they were creating would be used in the bombing of civilians," he added.

Comment: Business as usual. A Western country such as France gives weapons to the Saudis and the Saudis murder Yemeni civilians.

Saudi strikes kill 20 civilians in Yemen

Trump & Macron's political 'bromance' blossoming after attacks on Syria

RT
Tue, 24 Apr 2018 13:24 UTC

Long gone are French snorts at the US. Despite disagreeing on the Iran deal and climate change, Emmanuel Macron is the first foreign leader to be indulged with a full state visit by US President Donald Trump in the White House.

United in their recent crusade against Syrian President Bashar Assad, the two leaders are expected to iron out their differences on other international policy questions, including Trump's threats to ditch the landmark nuclear deal with Iran.

Comment: Looks like a match made in heaven.

Kremlin denies Putin boasted to Trump about 'beautiful Russian hookers'

RT
Tue, 24 Apr 2018 11:35 UTC

An exchange about "beautiful Russian hookers" between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, implied in ex-FBI Director James Comey's memos, never happened, the Kremlin says.

The headline "Putin told Trump Russia has some of the most beautiful hookers in the world," with various modulations and levels of attribution, has been doing the rounds in the Western mainstream media, after AP obtained 15 pages of memos by former FBI chief James Comey. In the papers, Comey describes meetings with US President Donald Trump in early 2017 - including the quote, "we have some of the most beautiful hookers in the world," attributed to Trump, who attributed it to Putin.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was asked about the supposed exchange in a Friday news briefing. "No. If it says so in the book [Comey's recently released memoir about Trump], then at least that part is not true. President Putin could not and did not say that to President Trump," Peskov replied. "Especially considering that before Trump became president, they never spoke."

Comment: Cheap made up gossip is all they have to support their 'Russiagate' case. Pathetic!

With NATO's help Ukraine continues its military assault on Donetsk Peoples Republic

Joaquin Flores
Fort Russ
Sun, 22 Apr 2018 12:00 UTC

Fort Russ publishes a complete summary of the military situation in the Donetsk People's Republic over the past day as a result of today's briefing by the deputy commander of operations, Eduard Basurin.

The situation on the battle line remains tense.

Over the past day in the Donetsk area Ukrainian occupation forces shelled the districts of eight settlements. The enemy fired 60 mines from mortars of various caliber, and also fired from the arms of infantry fighting vehicles, grenade launchers and small arms.

Five settlements were attacked in the Gorlovsky area. During the shelling, mortars of 82 mm caliber, BMP armament, grenade launchers and small arms were used.

In the Mariupol area, the enemy fired at areas of five settlements, firing 80 minuntes from mortars of various calibres, and also used BMP armament.

Comment: Ukraine continues to blacken its name thinking it can get away with anything it wants thanks to its support from the Western establishment:

Keep Calm & Blame Russia: RT Documentary on Inconvenient Facts in Skripal Saga

Murad Gazdiev
RT
Tue, 24 Apr 2018 10:42 UTC

If countless Russia-bashing pieces don't help you get the big picture of the lingering Skripal saga, a report by RT's Murad Gazdiev may. He scrutinized the major slipups in the UK government's (and their pundits') narrative.

It is "highly likely" that Russia deployed a deadly weapons-grade toxin to poison former double agent Sergei Skripal. Porton Down, the UK's leading chemical research lab, says there is "no doubt" the toxin was Novichok-class nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union. And Russia surely did it, because the very word 'Novichok' is Russian for 'newcomer.'

RT's Murad Gazdiev examines the stunning discrepancies that emanate from the Skripal case, as the blame game against Moscow continues.

The report includes commentary from renowned chemical weapon experts, both Russian and Western-based, who told RT the formula of Novichok-class agents is actually an open secret as any - yes, you heard it right - laboratory in the world may produce the same substance with the same degree of purity. Moreover, the pace at which the UK authorities identified the poison used on the Skripals raises even more questions.

Watch RT's report in full here:

Comment: Given that it wasn't Russia, suspicions naturally fell on the British security services. But the choice of location for poisoning the Skripals is highly odd - Salisbury, home of British chemical weapons manufacturing for a little over a century. Why would the British paint a target over themselves in this way?

Combined with the British government's utterly bizarre handling of this incident - while being utterly convinced that this was done to them 'from without' - we are led to suspect a 'third force' was behind this.

As former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray wrote one week after the incident in early March:

Israel has the nerve agents. Israel has Mossad, which is extremely skilled at foreign assassinations. Theresa May claimed Russian propensity to assassinate abroad as a specific reason to believe Russia did it. Well, Mossad has an even greater propensity to assassinate abroad. And while I am struggling to see a Russian motive for damaging its own international reputation so grievously, Israel has a clear motivation for damaging the Russian reputation so grievously. Russian action in Syria has undermined the Israeli position in Syria and Lebanon in a fundamental way, and Israel has every motive for damaging Russia's international position by an attack aiming to leave the blame on Russia.

West impeding restoration of historical monuments in Syria while Russia helps clear land mines and rebuild 8th century mosque

TASS
Tue, 24 Apr 2018 07:57 UTC

MOSCOW, April 24. /TASS/. Western countries are impeding the efforts to restore the destroyed monuments in Syria as they are turning down the contacts with Damascus, the Russian envoy to UNESCO, Alexander Kuznetsov old Izvestia daily.

"We're calling on this organization all the time to throw its shoulder in the restoration of monuments in Syria, for instance, in Palmyra and Aleppo," he said. "These sites are invaluable and their restoration acquires assistance from the international community, including financial aid."

Comment: So the West presides over their destruction and then hinders their reconstruction, anyone would think they wanted the Syrian sites to fall into ruin:

Politicization of sport: Spain stripped of hosting rights to European weightlifting championship because it won't recognize Kosovo

RT
Tue, 24 Apr 2018 10:31 UTC

Fake country

Spain has been stripped of right to host the 2018 European junior weightlifting championships over the country's insistence on not recognizing Kosovo as an independent state.

Last month, during the European Weightlifting Federation (EWF) Executive Board meeting staged just before the 2018 European senior weightlifting championships in Romania, the continental weightlifting governing body stated that Spain must provide a sufficient guarantee that Kosovo team members would be granted visas to take part in the tournament.

The head of the EWF, Antonio Urso, gave the Spanish government and sports ministries three weeks to resolve the issue and ensure equal treatment for all the competitors despite political controversies.

Comment: The move is itself blatantly political, disguised as being non-political, and accusing the 'at fault' party of making it political! What a grotesque spectacle.

Comment: The politicization of sport is so blatant that everyone blindly following Washington pretends not see it. If you don't do as the rulers of the Western Order wish, you can be punished in myriad ways. Spain of course has little choice but to defy the rulers in this instance because it would leave it wide open to secession claims by Catalunya and other regions.

No plans to leave: Lavrov says US has settled in Syria, contrary to 'terrorist defeat' promise

RT
Tue, 24 Apr 2018 09:19 UTC

Contrary to Donald Trump's promise to withdraw, the Americans "are actively settling down" on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River in Syria and have no plans to leave, the Russian Foreign Minister has said.

Speaking in Beijing on Tuesday, Sergey Lavrov said "a number of countries have explicitly chosen to disintegrate Syria."According to Russia's top diplomat, the US, in particular, pledged that their only aim was to "drive terrorists out of Syria and defeat the so-called Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS)."

Comment: See also:

Eppla, Elppa, Elp me, I can't meet demand, raise the prices. BS product.

JTF Truth

'' America's police forces — riddled with corruption, brutality, sexual misconduct and drug abuse — have largely become part of the problem.''...

Demore

I live in Australia, but the outcome of that election even pleased me. I hope the Left doubles down on their insanity so that all of them will...

Spur

JP Sears - Why two classes of citizens is a GREAT idea: [Link]

Animanarchy

Is this not a case of, The pot calling the kettle black.

Winternights3

Puppet Masters

Backroom deal? US Senate was poised to vote against Pompeo SoS nomination, but then approved him at last minute

Craig Murray: Complete disillusionment with the UK Establishment

Activist explains how French weapons end up in Saudi hands committing genocide in Yemen

Trump & Macron's political 'bromance' blossoming after attacks on Syria

Kremlin denies Putin boasted to Trump about 'beautiful Russian hookers'

With NATO's help Ukraine continues its military assault on Donetsk Peoples Republic

Keep Calm & Blame Russia: RT Documentary on Inconvenient Facts in Skripal Saga

West impeding restoration of historical monuments in Syria while Russia helps clear land mines and rebuild 8th century mosque

Politicization of sport: Spain stripped of hosting rights to European weightlifting championship because it won't recognize Kosovo

No plans to leave: Lavrov says US has settled in Syria, contrary to 'terrorist defeat' promise

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