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Political prostitute Lindsey Graham to push for US recognition of occupied Golan Heights as 'Israeli' territory


Sputnik
Tue, 12 Mar 2019 17:30 UTC
Israel soldiers golan heights
© Reuters
Israeli forces at the border fence along the illegally-occupied side of the Golan Heights and Syria
The region was taken by Israel from Syria during the Six-Day War of 1967. Neither the UN nor the US recognizes the territory as belonging to Israel.

US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said on Monday that he will push the Trump administration to formally recognize the disputed region of the Golan Heights as part of Israel, according to a report by The Hill.

Graham made the announcement after a joint tour of the territory by him, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Envoy to Israel David Friedman.

Last month, Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Tom Cotton (R-AR), together with Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI), introduced a resolution "to ensure that Israel retains control of the Golan Heights."



Comment: "Moral clarity." Because in Israel and Washington, taking land by force in the 20th century is acceptable behavior, and international law be damned. Is theft legal in Israel? As long as it's theft by Israelis from non-Jews, apparently. How's that for a moral exemplar?


​Netanyahu, who is currently facing criminal indictment in Israel on bribery charges, has used the US' support as a trump card for his re-election campaign, even using photos of President Donald Trump and American politicians in his campaign posters, The Hill reports. The trip to the disputed territories in company of Graham and Friedman was supposed to demonstrate American support to the media once again, The Jerusalem Post says.
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Cell Phone

US threatens to withhold intelligence sharing from Germany if it doesn't drop Huawei

Chris Mills Rodrigo
The Hill
Mon, 11 Mar 2019 17:24 UTC
huawei
© Getty Images / Guillaume Payen
The Trump administration is threatening to withhold intelligence from Germany if the country does not drop a potential contract with Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei.

The Wall Street Journal obtained a letter dated Friday from U.S. Ambassador Richard Grenell to Germany's economics minister saying that intelligence sharing would be limited if Huawei or other Chinese vendors are allowed to participate in building Germany's 5G network.

The U.S. has been urging allies to drop Huawei for months. Intelligence officials have expressed concerns that the telecommunications giant is spying on behalf of the Chinese government.

The push comes as many countries begin adopting the next-generation wireless technology known as 5G. With people becoming increasingly dependent on the internet, U.S. officials are increasingly sounding the alarm over the potential for Chinese spying.

Comment: China's response:
Commenting on the report, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lu Kang said Washington should accept the fact that other countries may take strategic decisions independently, as is their right. Beijing sees US attacks on Chinese telecom giants as baseless scaremongering and a not-so-subtle way of undermining a competitor through political leverage and legal attacks.
See also:

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Bad Guys

'Pressured' chemical watchdog afraid to contradict US on Douma chemical incident - Russian envoy


RT
Tue, 12 Mar 2019 17:01 UTC
OPCW HQ
The OPCW could not come up with an unbiased report on the alleged 2018 chemical attack in Douma, as acknowledging that it was faked would've made the US strikes against Syria illegitimate, the Russian envoy to the OPCW told RT.

In early March, the final report by the Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) stated that there were "reasonable grounds" to believe that "molecular chlorine" was used as a chemical weapon in the Syrian city of Douma on April 7, 2018.

On Monday, Russian experts held a press-conference to respond to that paper. Moscow's Permanent Representative to OPCW, Alexander Shulgin, told RT after the event that the chemical arms watchdog's findings were "full of gaps, discrepancies and inconsistences."
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Chess

Iran's Rouhani makes historic visit to Iraq to 'bypass unjust US sanctions'

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Tue, 12 Mar 2019 16:53 UTC
Rouhani Salih

Iraq's President Barham Salih and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani
What Iran is billing as President Hassan Rouhani's first "historic" and landmark visit to Iraq, both the United States and Israel are seeing as a provocative move to solidify Iran's influence over Baghdad.

Just prior to arriving in Iraq Monday, Rouhani said on state television that his country is determined to "strengthen its brotherly ties" with neighboring Iraq. It's expected that the the three-day visit will result in a wide range of economic deals in fields such as energy, transport, and agriculture; however, as Israel's Haaretz writes based on a Reuters report:
The visit is a strong message to the United States and its regional allies that Iran still dominates Baghdad, a key arena for rising tension between Washington and Tehran.
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Bad Guys

US is playing both India & Pakistan, in more ways than one

Darius Shahtahmasebi
RT
Tue, 12 Mar 2019 16:36 UTC
USA Pakistan India
© Jung Yeon-je/Pool via REUTERS/Yuri Gripas/Jason Lee
As India and Pakistan iron out a few significant differences after a near brush with each other's militaries, the US has been quietly enacting a trade war strategy against India, a key ally of Washington.

The India-Pakistan conflict has revealed an incredibly ugly side of the Middle East's regional geopolitics. What I mean is, if you thought it was ugly before, it just got a whole lot uglier.

For example, it now transpires that Israel has had a specific stake in the India-Pakistan conflict, as Israeli-made bombs dropped on Pakistani villages during the recent bombardment. Apparently, Israel is a key weapons supplier to the Indian army, supplying a billion dollars of arms each year. If it weren't for veteran journalist Robert Fisk, the Israel-India deal would most likely have been kept in the dark from the mainstream eye for some time to come.
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Pirates

Rouhani urges Pakistan to take decisive action against proxy terrorists


PressTV
Sat, 09 Mar 2019 23:25 UTC
Imran Khan Rouhani

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (R) and Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani urges Pakistan to take firm action in dealing with terrorists acting against the Islamic Republic.

In a phone conversation with Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday, the Iranian president said that Tehran and Islamabad should not allow "a bunch of terrorists," who are tools in the hands of other countries, to affect their decades-long cordial ties.

He said the Iranian and Pakistani nations enjoyed "exemplary and historical" relations, calling on senior officials of the two countries to help promote bilateral ties.

"We should not allow any third party to impact Iran-Pakistan relations through their measures," Rouhani said.
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MIB

Trump's simple trick to getting budget past Democrats? Label everything 'confronting Russia'


RT
Tue, 12 Mar 2019 13:51 UTC
Trump's 2020 budget proposal
© Reuters / Kevin Lamarque
President Donald Trump's 2020 budget proposal, March 11, 2019
US President Donald Trump may have found a way to get Democrats in the House to approve all of the State Department funding in his proposed $4.7 trillion budget for 2020: by labeling all sorts of things as "countering Russia."

The budget request, published on Monday, says its State Department funding is "$12.3 billion or 23-percent decrease from the 2019 estimate." Yet the same document also says the US government will allocate $661 million to "counter Russian malign influence" in Europe and Eurasia - nearly double the numbers for fiscal year 2019.

A closer look at some of the numbers contained in the document suggests both of those numbers are subject to accounting logic and fuzzy math. Rebranding some of the programs as "countering Russia" seems mostly intended to get approval from Russiagate-obsessed Democrats who currently control the House of Representatives and, therefore, the purse.
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Stock Up

Italy is linking up with China's Eurasian megaproject, and there's nothing Washington can do to stop it

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
Sun, 10 Mar 2019 13:24 UTC
All roads seem to lead to Rome as Italy expresses its love for China's Belt and Road Initiative
colosseum
© AFP
Chinese tourists just can’t get enough of Venice, Florence, Rome – and shopping in Milan.
President Xi Jinping is due to arrive in Italy for an official visit on March 22. The top theme of discussion will be the New Silk Road, or the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

A day earlier, in Brussels, the EU is to debate a common strategy related to Chinese investments in Europe.


Comment: This, no doubt, was scheduled in response to the bilateral Italy-China summit.


A substantial part of the EU is already linked de facto with BRI. That includes Greece, Portugal, 11 EU nations belonging to the 16+1 group of China plus Central and Eastern Europe and, for all practical purposes, Italy.
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Snakes in Suits

Trump regime's electricity war in Venezuela more serious than first believed

Stephen Lendman
stephenlendman.org
Mon, 11 Mar 2019 13:00 UTC
venezuela dam
On Thursday, Venezuela's Guri dam hydroelectric power plant was cyberattacked at 5:00 PM during the late afternoon rush hour to cause maximum disruption.

Up to 80% of the country was affected, damage done more severe than initially thought. Weeks or months of planning likely preceded what happened - US dark forces almost certainly behind it, considerable expertise needed to pull it off.

On Friday, another cyberattack occurred, followed by a third one on Saturday, affecting parts of the country where power was restored, further complicating resolution of the problem, Maduro saying:

After power was restored to about 70% of the country, "we received another attack, of a cybernetic nature, at midday...that disturbed the reconnection process and knocked out everything that had been achieved until noon," adding:

Comment: According to RT 2 perpetrators of Venezuelan power grid 'sabotage' captured:
Authorities reportedly apprehended the two "material" perpetrators of the vandalism in the midst of interfering with the dam's communications systems on Monday, averting a serious catastrophe, and have turned them over to the courts. They are now looking for the "intellectual authors" of the sabotage, and Maduro has blamed the US for the sustained technological attack on Venezuela's electrical system, which began last week.
This cyber warfare on Iran and now Venezuela make the West's accusations of possible cyber attacks all the more prescient - as usual they were projecting their own nefarious plans on others.

See also: And check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: US Regime Change Operation in Venezuela - This Time It's Legit?





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Hammer

2 perpetrators of Venezuelan power grid 'sabotage' captured, according to authorities


RT
Tue, 12 Mar 2019 10:37 UTC
burnt electrical substation
© Reuters / Carlos Jasso
A resident looks at a burnt electrical substation after a massive blackout in Caracas, Venezuela
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has said two would-be saboteurs have been caught "in flagrante delicto" trying to take down the communications system of the Guri hydroelectric dam. Investigation into who sent them is underway.

Authorities reportedly apprehended the two "material" perpetrators of the vandalism in the midst of interfering with the dam's communications systems on Monday, averting a serious catastrophe, and have turned them over to the courts. They are now looking for the "intellectual authors" of the sabotage, and Maduro has blamed the US for the sustained technological attack on Venezuela's electrical system, which began last week.

After a failure at the Guri dam left much of the country in the dark on Thursday night, authorities worked round the clock to fix the problem, managing to restore nearly 70 percent of the electrical system before a cyberattack knocked it out again on Saturday afternoon, Maduro said, adding that one of the generators had been working perfectly and could only have been sabotaged by an infiltrator. The Guri hydroelectric plant produces 80 percent of Venezuela's power.

Comment: See also:

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