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Wed, 27 Oct 2021
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Setback for Bibi? Saudi Arabia says Palestinian refugees' right to return to their homeland is 'non-negotiable'

mural arrafat palestinian refugees
© Agence France-Presse/Joseph Eid
Palestinian refugees stand next to graffiti bearing a portrait of late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat at the Ain Al-Helweh refugee camp, near the southern Lebanese city of Sidon, on March 16, 2015
The Saudi government insists that Palestinian refugees' right to return to their homeland on disputed Israeli territory is beyond discussion while the United States ignores the issue in a recently proposed "deal of the century" for settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Saudi Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

"The government confirms the right of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to their homeland, considering it fixed and established as well as not negotiable", the ministry tweeted, citing Cabinet protocol.

The government also confirmed that Saudi Arabia was among major states that continue to provide assistance to Palestinian refugees.

Comment: An interesting statement from the Saudi government, considering the the two countries have been developing closer ties over the last decade. They have shared interests with regard to Iran, the Shia and Hezbollah. Why poke such an obvious sore spot?


Nuke

Putin signs law suspending INF treaty with US

reaper drone
© REUTERS/Josh Smith/File photo
U.S. Air Force ground crew secure weapons and other components of an MQ-9 Reaper drone after it returned from a mission, at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan March 9, 2016.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law suspending the Cold War-era INF Treaty. Putin announced in February that he would halt participation in the treaty after Washington's abrupt decision to pull out of the agreement.

The Trump administration announced last October that the US would pull out of the treaty which has been a cornerstone of European security since its signing in 1987. Moscow later promised a "mirror response" to the decision and said it would suspend its own participation.

The treaty eliminated nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometers. Both sides have repeatedly accused each other of violating its terms.

Abandoning the deal, Trump said the US would "terminate the agreement" and then "develop the weapons." Putin later said Russia would be forced to "do the same thing."

Comment: See also:


Question

Despite the opining of media pundits, did Tusli Gabbard win the debate?

tulsi gabbard democratic debate
Last Wednesday's debate among half of the announced Democratic Party candidates to become their party's nominee for president in 2020 was notable for its lack of drama. Many of those called on to speak had little to say apart from the usual liberal bromides about health care, jobs, education and how the United States is a country of immigrants. On the following day the mainstream media anointed Elizabeth Warren as the winner based on the coherency of her message even though she said little that differed from what was being presented by most of the others on the stage. She just said it better, more articulately.

The New York Times' coverage was typical, praising Warren for her grasp of the issues and her ability to present the same clearly and concisely, and citing a comment "They could teach classes in how warren talks about a problem and weaves in answers into a story. She's not just wonk and stats." It then went on to lump most of the other candidates together, describing their performances as "ha[ving] one or two strong answers, but none of them had the electric, campaign-launching moment they were hoping for."

Pirates

Iraqi leadership: No victory yet - ISIS fighters, sleeper cells still active in Iraq

isis jihadists
© Reuters / Bassam Khabieh
Iraqi leaders told UN Security Council member representatives during a trip to the Middle East last week that it would be a political mistake to claim terrorism had been defeated in Iraq, Russian Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vladimir Safronkov told reporters on Tuesday.

"The Iraqi leadership told the members of the Security Council about the national problems the country faces, including the need to continue counter-terrorism efforts", Safronkov said. "Everyone says that claiming a defeat of terrorism would be politically a mistake. Fighters remain in Iraq. They come from Syria driven out by the military operation in the Arab Republic and disperse in local communities, sleeper cells and the threat can re-emerge at any moment".

On 28 and 29 June, UN Security Council member representatives visited Iraq and met with Iraqi President Barham Salih, Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi, Foreign Minister Mohammed Ali al-Hakim and other government officials.

Safronkov said the threat posed by terrorism to Iraq's national security remains persistent and it is crucial to combat it. However, he added that engaging in reconstruction, rebuilding, and economic development would also contribute to the defeat of terrorism.

Megaphone

Border patrol's Brandon Judd fires back at Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for 'falsehoods' about migrant facilities

AOC Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
© Christ Chavez / Getty
Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, fired back at Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on Monday evening after she made incendiary claims about her visit earlier that day to several U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sites housing migrants who crossed the U.S. border illegally.

Ocasio-Cortez, who continues to refer to CBP facilities as "concentration camps" despite being criticized by Jewish leaders, the U.S. Holocaust Museum, and Israel's Yad Vashem, tweeted that women had been forced to drink water from toilets, among other atrocities:

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Bizarro Earth

Navy SEAL described as "reckless murderer" by own platoon found not guilty of war crimes

Edward Gallagher
© (Andrea Gallagher via AP, File)
Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher.
The jury assigned to the case of accused Special Warfare Chief Edward Gallagher has found the decorated Navy SEAL not guilty of murder and attempted murder after a whirlwind trial that included bombshell revelations and twists.

The verdict was reached by the five Marines and two sailors Tuesday after the prosecution and defense made their closing arguments the day before. The jury did find Gallagher guilty of unlawfully taking a picture with the corpse of the teenage ISIS fighter he was accused of killing.

"Our stance from the very beginning of this has been that Eddie needs to have a fair trial and we're going to stand behind him no matter what because he's our brother. And the courts have prevailed," Brad Bailey, president of the Navy SEALs Fund, told the Washington Examiner. "We understand that it's a very contentious accusation and one that deeply divided our community. And I hope that everyone can learn a lot from this on both sides and we can get back to taking care of business."

Comment: When US war crimes go unpunished why would one expect the minions carrying them out to suffer justice?


Eye 2

Bipartisan bill aims to tackle rampant child porn sharing on Pentagon computers

pentagon
© Pixabay / David Mark
Congress is weighing up a bipartisan bill to crack down on the sharing of child porn on Defense Department computers after a watchdog group found the Pentagon's network ranked among the top US ISPs for sharing the vile content.

"The notion that the Department of Defense's network and Pentagon-issued computers may be used to view, create, or circulate such horrifying images is a shameful disgrace, and one we must fight head on," Abigail Spanberger (D-Virginia) said in a statement on Tuesday as she and co-sponsor Mark Meadows (R-N. Carolina) introduced the End National Defense Network Abuse (END Network Abuse) Act in the House.

The Defense Criminal Investigative Services (DCIS) will receive training in how to root out and successfully prosecute those using Defense Department equipment to access and trade child porn under the new legislation. The bill also integrates DCIS into a "multi-jurisdictional task force" with "federal, state, and local law enforcement," social services, and child protection groups to help victims of child sexual exploitation - and to roll back the tide of filth engulfing Defense Department networks.

Comment: They've known about this since 2008 and only now they're attempting to do something about it?? Pedophile scandals plague the Western establishment and yet very rarely is anyone charged, more often than not we only find out the names of the criminals once they've died:


Jet2

Airstrike hits migrant detention facility in Libya's Tripoli, kills 40, injures 80

libya airstrike
© AP Photo / Mohammed Ben Khalifa
An air strike late on Tuesday hit a detention facility for migrants in the Tajoura suburb of the Libyan capital of Tripoli, Reuters reported, citing an official at the targeted location.

An airstike against a detention centre for illegal migrants in a suburb of the Libyan capital killed 40 and wounded 80, Reuters reported, citing a health official.

A representative of Tripoli's medical service confirmed Wednesday that the airstrike near the Libyan capital had really left at least 40 people dead.

Comment: And the legacy of Western meddling in Libya continues to bear fruit: Also check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: Interview With The Moriartys - New Light on Benghazi, And Liberating Libya


Biohazard

Iran: We will enrich uranium to 'any amount we want'

Hassan Rouhani
© AP
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani
Iran's president warned European partners in its faltering nuclear deal on Wednesday that Tehran will increase its enrichment of uranium to "any amount that we want" beginning on Sunday, putting pressure on them to offer a way around intense U.S. sanctions targeting the country.

The comments by President Hassan Rouhani come as tensions remain high between Iran and the U.S. over the deal, which President Donald Trump pulled America from over a year ago.

Authorities on Monday acknowledged Iran broke through a limit placed on its stockpile of low-enriched uranium.

An increasing stockpile and higher enrichment closes the estimated one-year window Iran would need to produce enough material for a nuclear bomb, something Iran denies it wants but the nuclear deal sought to prevent.

Meanwhile, the U.S. has rushed an aircraft carrier, B-52 bombers and F-22 fighters to the region and Iran recently shot down a U.S. military surveillance drone. On Wednesday, Iran marked the shootdown by the U.S. Navy of an Iranian passenger jet in 1988, a mistake that killed 290 people and shows the danger of miscalculation in the current crisis.

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Bullseye

Putin is right when he says 'liberalism has become obsolete'

vladmir putin
© kremlin.ru
Putin also sees the social excesses of multiculturalism and secularism in the West as representing a failure of liberalism.

"The liberal idea has become obsolete. ... (Liberals) cannot simply dictate anything to anyone as they have been attempting to do over the recent decades."

Such was the confident claim of Vladimir Putin to the Financial Times on the eve of a G-20 gathering that appeared to validate his thesis.


Consider who commanded all the attention at the Osaka summit.

The main event was Trump's meeting with China's Xi Jinping and their agreement to renew trade talks. Xi runs an archipelago of detention camps where China's Uighur Muslims and its Kazakh minority have their minds coercively "corrected."

A major media focus at the summit was Trump's meeting with Putin where he playfully admonished the Russian president not to meddle again in our 2020 election. The two joked about how both are afflicted with a media that generates constant fake news.

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