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Pompeo visits Baghdad to give imperial orders yet claims US wants Iraq to be independent


Sputnik
Wed, 08 May 2019 16:27 UTC
pompeo
© REUTERS / Mandel Ngan/Pool
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made an unannounced visit to Baghdad on Tuesday and met with both President Barham Saleh and Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi after telling reporters the United States was concerned about Iraqi sovereignty because of increasing Iranian activity, according to Reuters.

"I wanted to go to Baghdad to speak with the leadership there, to assure them that we stood ready to continue to ensure that Iraq is a sovereign, independent nation," Pompeo said as cited by Reuters.

On the way to Baghdad on Tuesday, Pompeo told reporters he would meet with Iraq's president and prime minister to show them what he said is US. support for "a sovereign, independent" Iraq, free from the influence of neighboring Iran, AP reported.

He reportedly said he would also discuss with them unfinished business deals that he said would allow Iraq to wean itself from dependence on Iranian energy.
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Star of David

Targeted assassination: Israel murders Hamas commander in Gaza with Hellfire missile

Jim Hoft
The Gateway Pundit
Mon, 06 May 2019 16:08 UTC
Hamas rockets to Israel
© Shehab News Agency
Hamas rocket launch
Over the weekend Hamas and Islamic Jihad fired off over 600 missiles into Israel.

In response Israeli Defense Forces targeted 350 Islamic Jihad and Hamas terrorist targets.
Including:
  • rocket launch sites
  • terror squads & operatives
  • command and training centers
  • weapon facilities
  • observation posts
  • military compounds
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Sherlock

GOP senators: Strzok-Page texts suggest intel agencies leaked on Russia case

Ronn Blitzer
Fox News
Tue, 07 May 2019 16:21 UTC
brennan and clapper

Former CIA Director John Brennan, left, and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, right
Republican congressional leaders are calling for a new investigation of media leaks surrounding the Russia investigation -- possibly emanating from the intelligence community -- pointing to internal text messages they say indicate a more widespread problem.

"[T]hese texts and emails demonstrate the need to investigate leaks from agencies or entities other than FBI," Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, wrote to Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael K. Atkinson, pointedly asking whether he's launched a probe "into these apparent leaks."

Attorney General Bill Barr testified last week, under questioning from Grassley, that the Justice Department has "multiple criminal leak investigations" underway concerning media contact by department officials during the special counsel's Russia investigation.

But Johnson and Grassley, in suggesting a broader culture of leaking, pointed Atkinson in their latest letter to messages between former FBI employees Peter Strzok and Lisa Page hinting other government agencies may have been leaking to the press -- and the FBI could have been aware. This follows a previous letter from the same lawmakers regarding Strzok and Page messages indicating potential efforts to monitor members of the incoming Trump administration during briefings, as reported by Fox News.
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War Whore

FBI's Trump-Russia investigation was formally opened on false pretenses

Andrew C. McCarthy
National Review
Mon, 06 May 2019 16:06 UTC
George Papadopoulos
© Yuri Gripas/Reuters
George Papadopoulos leaves after his sentencing hearing at U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., September 7, 2018
The State Department and an Australian diplomat grossly exaggerated Papadopoulos's claims - which were probably false anyway.

Chicanery was the force behind the formal opening of the FBI's Trump-Russia investigation. There was a false premise, namely: The Trump campaign must have known that Russia possessed emails related to Hillary Clinton. From there, through either intentional deception or incompetence, the foreign ministries of Australia and the United States erected a fraudulent story tying the Trump campaign's purported knowledge to the publication of hacked Democratic National Committee emails.

That is what we learn from the saga of George Papadopoulos, as fleshed out by the Mueller report.

The investigative theory on which the FBI formally opened the foreign-counterintelligence probe code-named "Crossfire Hurricane" on July 31, 2016, held that the Trump campaign knew about, and was potentially complicit in, Russia's possession of hacked emails that would compromise Hillary Clinton; and that, in order to help Donald Trump, the Kremlin planned to disseminate these emails anonymously (through a third party) at a time maximally damaging to Clinton's campaign.

There are thus two components to this theory: the emails and Russia's intentions.
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Light Saber

Spanish FM: US playing 'cowboy' & 'abusing power' in Venezuela & Cuba


RT
Wed, 08 May 2019 15:57 UTC
trump rally cowboy hats
© Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
The US is abusing its power in lifting a ban on lawsuits against the Cuban government, according to Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell. He also lashed out at Washington's "cowboy" intervention threats against Venezuela.

Borrell roasted US President Donald Trump's administration policies in Latin America during a TV interview on Wednesday. He was particularly fired up about Washington's decision last month to begin enforcing the 1996 Helms-Burton act, which essentially allows Cuban-Americans to sue the Cuban government over property confiscated during the 1959 Socialist revolution.

Comment: It appears Spain will only go so far in supporting the Empire's activities in Venezuela.
"Spain will not permit its embassy to be converted into a center of political activity by Mr Lopez, or anyone else," Borrell said on the sidelines of a summit in the Lebanese capital Beirut.

The 48-year-old Lopez, his wife Lilian Tintori, and their daughter have been staying in the Spanish embassy since Wednesday after a failed military coup in the country.

It's unclear how Madrid is going to keep its promise as media reports suggest that Lopez, who has strong links to the US, masterminded the current political crisis in the country despite being under house arrest. He was restricted in July 2017 for inciting violence during the 2014 anti-government protests. The closest ally and mentor of opposition leader and self-proclaimed president Juan Guaido, Lopez will surely enjoy a lot more freedom within the Spanish embassy.

"Lopez has not asked for political asylum because, according to our legislation, for that you must request it while on Spanish territory," Borrell added.

Spain was among the 50 nations that recognized Guaido's claim to power after he declared himself the head of state in January. However, Madrid also never cut official ties with Venezuela's socialist government of Nicolas Maduro.


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Star of David

Leaked draft of Trump's peace plan reveals creation of 'New Palestine,' promises to join Israel in next war in Gaza if Palestinians reject

Allison Deger
Mondoweiss
Tue, 07 May 2019 15:49 UTC
trump netanyahu kushner
© Kobi Gideon/GPO
A leaked document of "main points" from the Trump administration's so-called "deal of the century" was published today by Yisrael Hayom, outlining a plan for a two-state solution that includes the creation of a demilitarized state of "New Palestine," Israeli annexation of all settlements in the West Bank, a land deal with Egypt, and shared capitals in Jerusalem.

If either Israel or the Palestinians, including Hamas and the PLO, reject the deal, the document says the U.S. will impose steep penalties. The U.S. will cut off all aid to Israel and ensure "no country in the world transfers money" to the Palestinians, whose economy is reliant on foreign donors.

If the PLO accepts the plan and Hamas or Islamic Jihad in Gaza reject it, the document warns "the U.S. will back Israel to personally harm leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad" in a future escalation, and will hold Hamas' leadership "responsible in another round of violence between Israel and Hamas."
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Snakes in Suits

US ambassador to Kiev sacked amid 'meddling' accusations from Ukraine's top prosecutor


RT
Wed, 08 May 2019 15:45 UTC
Marie Yovanovitch
© Global Look Press / Maxym Marusenko
US ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch
Washington's ambassador to Ukraine has been dismissed from service two months ahead of schedule. The development comes less than a month after the top Ukrainian prosecutor claimed she gave him a 'do-not-prosecute list.'

Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch will leave her position on May 20, some two months ahead of the end of her tenure, the Ukrainian media and the US government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported earlier this week, citing sources within the American embassy in Kiev.

Although no announcement about the ambassador's dismissal was made public yet, the news has already drawn attention of some prominent Democrats in the Congress, who rushed to declare the development to be part of President Donald Trump's political games.

"The White House's outrageous decision to recall her is a political hit job and the latest in this Administration's campaign against career State Department personnel," said Eliot Engel (D-New York), chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) in a statement on Tuesday, adding that it is "clear that this decision was politically motivated."
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Eye 1

Twitter suspends more conservative and pro-Trump accounts prompting new accusations of censorship


RT
Wed, 08 May 2019 15:39 UTC
maga
© Reuters / REUTERS/Nick Oxford
Twitter has suddenly suspended a slew of pro-Trump accounts including the 'Magaphobia' account, which was set up by conservative commentator Jack Posobiec to "track violence against Trump supporters."

The @Magaphobia account had defined the word as "an irrational, unfounded fear of Donald Trump or his supporters" or bigotry towards those who voted for him.

The platform also suspended the @AOCPress account created by conservatives to parody freshman Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, despite the fact that it had apparently followed Twitter rules and labeled itself as satire. The man who ran the parody account, Jewish conservative Mike Morrison, who tweets personally at @OfficeofMike, also had his account "permanently suspended," according to activist Courtney Holland.
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Chess

Pence lifts US sanctions from Venezuela's defector general, hopes to inspire more turncoats


RT
Wed, 08 May 2019 15:09 UTC
pence
© REUTERS/ Tom Brenner / Miraflores Palace
The US has lifted sanctions from a former Venezuelan spy chief, who recently defected from President Nicolas Maduro's side. US Vice President Mike Pence hopes this incentive will prompt others to defect as well.

Pence announced the decision to remove all sanctions from General Manuel Ricardo Cristopher Figuera, the former director general of Venezuela's National Intelligence Service, at a conference in Washington on Tuesday.

Figuera broke ranks with Maduro in the wake of the failed coup attempt, which was orchestrated by a small group of soldiers last week. In a letter that had circulated on social media, the high-ranking general said he switched sides in order to "rebuild the country," citing rampant corruption as one of the most glaring faults of the Maduro presidency.
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Eye 2

Rachel Maddow promotes Bolton's "humanity" as she advocates for more war

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Sun, 05 May 2019 15:10 UTC
rachel maddow
This is where three years of failed Russiagate conspiracy theorizing and fixation leads you - into the arms of fanatical endless war proponent John Bolton: "John Bolton God bless you, good luck.." one can now hear on "resistance" network MSNBC prime time.

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow is now championing neocon national security adviser John Bolton's "humanity" given he apparently went loose cannon this past week, vowing to confront Russia over Venezuela even as his boss President Trump downplayed Moscow's role in the crisis after a Friday phone call with Putin.

"This is what John Bolton, human being, thought his job was this week," Maddow said on her show Friday night. Both Pompeo and Bolton had clearly gone a bit rogue with their overly bellicose Venezuela comments, while Trump appeared to be more restrained - and for Maddow this was of course cause for championing the neocon interventionist line: "Hey, John Bolton, hey, Mike Pompeo, are you guys enjoying your jobs right now?" she questioned.

Comment: Bolton and his ilk are anything but humanistic. Of course, that Maddow should promote their "human side" by siding with them and their war efforts should come as no surprise. See also:

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