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Star of David

Lock him up: Israeli AG advises Netanyahu be indicted over corruption case


Sputnik
Sat, 19 Jan 2019 19:57 UTC
netanyahu
© Reuters
Police have been investigating three corruption cases, namely Case 1000, Case 2000, and Case 4000, against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since 2017. His office has repeatedly denied the allegations, labelling them "fake news".

Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandleblit is due to announce his decision on the indictment of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in one of the corruption cases against him in the next few weeks, a legal source was cited by Israel's Hadashot TV as saying on Saturday.

The AG has already decided to recommend the PM be indicted over Case 4000, the source added. Mandleblit reportedly plans to summon Netanyahu for a pre-indictment hearing by mid-February.

"It's a question of professionalism," Mandleblit stressed, in a statement that came after he rejected Netanyahu's request that the indictment be delayed in light of Israeli elections.

The indictment is related to an investigation into the Bezeq-Walla corruption affair, also known as Case 4000.
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Attention

Docs reveal US training of UAE troops for combat in Yemen - despite official denials

Nick Turse
Yahoo News
Wed, 16 Jan 2019 19:15 UTC
yemen cluster bomb
© Hani Mohammed/APA Yemeni man displays an American-made cluster bomb in Sanaa, Yemen, October 2016.
When the Pentagon announced last November that it was ceasing aerial refueling of Saudi-led coalition aircraft operating in Yemen, the move appeared to be a major step back from U.S. support for the war there. But newly obtained documents reveal that the United States has also been training coalition military personnel from the United Arab Emirates for the air war in Yemen.

The documents underscore the continuing frustrations for critics of the war, including those in Congress, over the lack of transparency around U.S. military support for a war that has killed thousands of civilians and pushed the country to the brink of famine.

The United States is "not a participant in the civil war in Yemen nor are we supporting one side or the other," Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said last month, echoing a long-held position in the Pentagon.

But official Air Force documents obtained by Yahoo News show that the U.S. military has been even more deeply involved in that war than previously indicated. Despite unambiguous claims by the U.S. military to the contrary, the United States has trained members of the Saudi-led coalition, specifically, according to the files, "for combat operations in Yemen."

The files, obtained from Air Forces Central Command via the Freedom of Information Act, appear to tell a different story. "Escorted 6 UAE F-16s to RED FLAG" - reads a December 2017 Air Force document referring to an advanced aerial combat training exercise held for U.S. and allied pilots - "assisted 150 airmen in challenging ex[ercise] to prepare for combat ops in Yemen." The document goes on to detail additional support provided by the U.S. Air Force's Air Warfare Center at Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates. "Unit fighter personnel advanced the UAE's F-16 fighter pilot training program; 3 pilots flew 243 instructor sorties/323 hrs that created 4 new instructors & 29 combat wingmen who immediately deployed for combat operations in Yemen."

Comment: Remember this bit of reporting from AP, too:

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Bad Guys

Press dishonesty: MSM ignores Democrats partying in Puerto Rico amidst gov shutdown

Charlie Kirk
Fox News
Fri, 18 Jan 2019 12:14 UTC
democrats in puerto rico
© Fox News
This past weekend, Democrats, lobbyists and corporate executives all traveled to Puerto Rico to attend the local opening of the hit Broadway show "Hamilton." The event was organized by BoldPAC, the fundraising arm for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. The mainstream media covered it as important business meant to renew focus on issues facing the island and ensure that it would no longer be taken for granted by the Trump administration.

In reality, the Democrats and their groupies stayed at an expensive resort, hung out with celebrities, and enjoyed world-class meals. But those details weren't included in the press reports, of course.

Comment: If the Democrats were serious about solving problems and ending the government shutdown, as they claim to be, then they wouldn't be taking lavish vacations in Puerto Rico while Trump is working in Washington.

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Gold Bar

Russia's gold continues to set records, increasing trade in Euro and Yuan


Sputnik
Sat, 19 Jan 2019 17:07 UTC
gold bar
© Sputnik / Pavel Lisitsyn
This week, the Russian Central Bank reported that it had added to its gold reserves again in 2018, with the sovereign stockpile jumping by nearly 275 tonnes to 2,112 tonnes total.

The stockpile, valued at close to $87 billion at today's exchange rate and comprising 18.6 percent of Russia's total reserves of $468.5 billion, has allowed Russia to enter the top five countries in terms of gold reserves, surpassing China.

Russian gold reserves have been climbing steadily for over a decade, growing from just over 500 tonnes in 2009 to the present figure, a record for modern Russia, and moving ever-closer to the 20th century Soviet record of 2,800 tonnes on the eve of the Second World War.

Russia's status as a major gold-producing country has enabled it to top up reserves largely from gold mined in the country. Although the Russian Ministry of Finance has not yet published the complete 2018 figures on gold production for 2018, January-October 2018 figures reflect a gold output of 264.99 tonnes in the first three quarters of the year, up from 261.17 tonnes produced during the same period in 2017.

Comment: Everything but the dollar, and the US only has itself to blame:

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Brain

MSM hero Nastya Rybka: Whistleblower with dirt on Trump or orgy organizer with no credibility?

Igor Ogorodnev
RT
Fri, 18 Jan 2019 20:08 UTC
Nastya Rybka
© INSTAGRAM/nastya_rybka.ruNastya Rybka
After the arrest of escort Nastya Rybka in Russia, Western media has revived her claims of owning tapes proving collusion between Donald Trump and the Kremlin. One problem: there's still no reason to believe they ever existed.

Allegations by the part-time "sex coach" made the headlines of most leading English-language outlets, while the articles focused on the dramatic video in which she struggles against law enforcement awkwardly bundling her into a wheelchair at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport.

Audiences predominantly had to read down to the middle of the text to discover that she was charged by the Russian authorities with inducement into prostitution, a crime remarkably similar to the conspiracy and soliciting prostitution sentences to which she pleaded in Thailand earlier this week, having spent a year behind bars for organizing paid-to-play orgies in the coastal resort of Pattaya.

Comment: The lying mainstream media continues to grasp at any straws that purport to support its fantastical Russian conspiracy theories, which only get more ludicrous as time goes on.

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Lemon

The price for bending the knee to Washington: Trudeau has bitten off more China dragon than he can chew

Robert Bridge
RT
Fri, 18 Jan 2019 16:45 UTC
Justin Trudeau
Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
Bending to the will of Washington, Canadian PM Trudeau is on a collision course with Beijing following the arrest of a senior Huawei executive in December. What sort of madness motivated Trudeau to make such a decision?

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, 47, is famous for his good looks and quick smile, but unfortunately being photogenic does not guarantee political instincts, which he seems to be sorely lacking.

Last February, for example, during a visit to India, Trudeau's cabinet sent a formal dinner invitation to Jaspal Atwal, an attempted murderer from a Sikh organization that India ranks as a terrorist group. Although the invite was eventually rescinded, it certainly made a lasting impression on his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi.

On another cringe-worthy occasion, the self-proclaimed "proud feminist" interrupted a young woman at a political event for using the term "mankind," explaining pedantically that the correct nomenclature was "peoplekind." This may have been the first town hall meeting in history where airsickness bags were needed.

It's this sort of insufferable desire-to-please-everyone phoniness that helps explain why Canada's most powerful Liberal is suffering precipitous drops on the popularity front. And now Justin Trudeau has managed to outdo even Justin Trudeau.

Comment: See also:

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Network

US and N. Korea begin talks aimed at arranging second Kim-Trump summit- UPDATE - Summit planned for February

Matthew Lee and Deb Riechmann
Associated Press
Fri, 18 Jan 2019 17:02 UTC
pompeo
© AP Photo/Carolyn KasterSecretary of State Mike Pompeo and Kim Yong Chol, a North Korean senior ruling party official and former intelligence chief, meet in Washington, Friday, Jan. 18, 2019
The U.S. and North Korea began highly anticipated talks Friday aimed at resuming stalled efforts to end the North's nuclear weapons program by arranging a second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korea's former spy chief, Kim Yong Chol, did not respond to reporters' questions before their meeting at a Washington hotel.

Pompeo, Kim and Steve Biegun, the special U.S. envoy for North Korea negotiations, stood silently as photographers took photos. Pompeo and Kim had plans to go to the White House later for a possible meeting with Trump.

Trump has spoken several times of having a second summit early this year and has exchanged multiple letters with Kim Jong Un despite little tangible progress on a vague denuclearization agreement reached at their historic first meeting in Singapore last June.

Comment:

UPDATE Jan 19: The White House has just announced after talks in Washington with North Korea's Vice Chairman Kim Yong Chol that the summit will take place at the end of February. Trump met with the envoy for an hour and a half, to discuss denuclearization and a second summit. The location of the summit will be announced at a later date.

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Red Flag

Paul Whelan's lawyer says his client is upbeat, confident his predicament will end soon


RT
Sat, 19 Jan 2019 09:27 UTC
Paul Whelan
© Paul Whelan Facebook
Paul Whelan, the American security specialist arrested in Moscow last month over charges of espionage is being kept in good conditions and is sure that his predicament will end soon, says his lawyer.

"Considering his case, he is very confident, sometimes jokey, sometimes in a positive mood. He believes it was an investigative error and he can prove his innocence," said celebrity lawyer Vladimir Zherebenkov in Moscow.

Despite the Russian foreign minister saying that Whelan was caught "red-handed," the 48-year-old former Marine and current head of security at a multinational car parts manufacturer insists that he "never collected any classified data," nor had he ever been employed by an intelligence agency.


Comment: Whelan's confidence suggests he views himself as important to the US security state, which itself suggests he is more than a simple businessman.

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NPC

DNC claims 'Russians' tried to hack them after 2018 midterms


RT
Sat, 19 Jan 2019 12:51 UTC
US Flag
© Reuters / Alexander Demianchuk
'Dozens' of officials at the Democratic National Committee received phishing emails a week after the 2018 midterm elections, the DNC said in a legal filing as part of its ongoing lawsuit against Russia and WikiLeaks.

Several official DNC email addresses received spear-phishing emails on November 14 last year - eight days after the midterm elections that eventually saw Democrats take over the House of Representatives - the DNC said in the legal filing submitted late Thursday, according to the Wall Street Journal. There was no evidence the alleged attack was successful, the DNC reportedly said.


In the filing, the DNC said it believed that a "Russian hacking group" called "Cozy Bear" was "likely" behind the phishing emails, which purported to come from State Department officials. This conclusion is apparently based on the timing and content of the email matching what cybersecurity company FireEye declared to be a "Cozy Bear" campaign at the time. The DNC's legal filing did not provide forensic evidence to back up the claim, according to the WSJ.

Comment: See also:

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Star of David

Zionist historian Benny Morris doubles down in favor of ethnic cleansing the Palestinians

Jonathan Cook
Mondoweiss
Fri, 18 Jan 2019 12:06 UTC
Benny Morris
Benny Morris
Benny Morris, the Israeli historian who has documented Israeli-Palestinian history so meticulously, is again bemoaning that a full ethnic cleansing was not completed in 1948.

In a long interview with Ofer Aderet in Haaretz (published in English today), Morris says:
If the War of Independence had ended with an absolute separation of populations - the Palestinian Arabs on the east side of the Jordan River and the Jews on the west side - the Middle East would be less volatile and both peoples would have suffered less over the past 70 years. They would have been satisfied with a state of their own, not exactly what they wanted, and we would have received the whole Land of Israel.
This is almost an identical repeat of what he said to Ari Shavit in a 2004 interview. There, he said:
If [David Ben-Gurion] was already engaged in expulsion, maybe he should have done a complete job. I know that this stuns the Arabs and the liberals and the politically correct types. But my feeling is that this place would be quieter and know less suffering if the matter had been resolved once and for all. If Ben-Gurion had carried out a large expulsion and cleansed the whole country - the whole Land of Israel, as far as the Jordan River. It may yet turn out that this was his fatal mistake. If he had carried out a full expulsion - rather than a partial one - he would have stabilized the State of Israel for generations.

Comment: For a much more factual appraisal of the Zionist program, one could do no better than Ilan Pappe's The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
Renowned Israeli historian, Ilan Pappe's groundbreaking book revisits the formation of the State of Israel. Between 1947 and 1949, over 400 Palestinian villages were deliberately destroyed, civilians were massacred and around a million men, women, and children were expelled from their homes at gunpoint.

Denied for almost six decades, had it happened today it could only have been called "ethnic cleansing". Decisively debunking the myth that the Palestinian population left of their own accord in the course of this war, Ilan Pappe offers impressive archival evidence to demonstrate that, from its very inception, a central plank in Israel's founding ideology was the forcible removal of the indigenous population. Indispensable for anyone interested in the current crisis in the Middle East.


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