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Afghan diplomat slams Erik Prince, says Afghanis 'don't need missionaries of death'


MENAFN
Tue, 12 Mar 2019 10:19 UTC
Erik Prince

Blackwater founder Erik Prince
Erik Prince, the founder and former CEO of Blackwater, has a plan to privatise the war in Afghanistan, but he faced harsh criticism from an Afghan diplomat who was audience at the Oxford Union in London.

Countering Erike Prince's proposal on privatization on war in Afghanistan through mercenaries of death, Naveed Noormal an Afghan diplomat said the world must know that this is for us (Afghans) to decide our future.

'How do you justify that you the mercenaries of death will ever want the war to concluded given you make money out of it,' the youngest Afghan diplomat said, while hard for Prince to answer it.
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Star of David

Psy-Group: Meet the ex-Mossad agents harassing US students & BDS activists

Kristian Davis Bailey
Electronic Intifada
Tue, 12 Mar 2019 10:20 UTC
Boycott Divest Sanction BDS Palestine protest
© Joe Catron
Congress is failing to protect US citizens from espionage and threats aimed at intimidating supporters of Palestinian rights.
In September 2017, Palestine Legal attorneys received nearly 30 emails from students, teachers and even librarians who were justifiably concerned about an anonymous message they had received.

The emails contained threats from outlawbds.com that recipients had been "marked" and "identified as a BDS promoter" and had a "limited window of opportunity to cease and desist or face the consequences of your actions in legal proceedings."

The origin of the attack was a mystery.

Thanks to February exposés in The New Yorker, however, we now know the origin - Psy-Group, a defunct Israeli private intelligence firm.
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Pirates

Sore losers: US sanctions against Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline "under consideration"


RT
Mon, 11 Mar 2019 22:16 UTC
gas pipeline
© Reuters / Axel Schmidt
The US may slap sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which will supply Russian gas to Germany via the Baltic Sea, US energy secretary Rick Perry confirmed. The project has driven a wedge between Washington and Berlin.

Asked by reporters on Monday if sanctions were possible, Perry said this was "still under consideration" and that Nord Stream 2 is a "political pipeline" that Washington does not support.

The Trump administration has been pushing Germany to abandon the project in favor of buying more expensive US liquefied natural gas (LNG) and says it is worried about Europe becoming too "dependent" on Russian energy.

Comment: The US can 'lash out' all it likes, Russian gas is cheaper and much more reliable making it the obvious choice for Europe. And the next step is the Turkish Stream, how vast a swathe of Europe does the US think it can sanction before it no longer has anyone to do business with? Also check out SOTT radio's:

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Arrow Down

Rumours May will postpone Brexit vote till day of EU Parliamentary elections, yet 'legally binding' changes agreed

Martin Williams
The Herald
Tue, 12 Mar 2019 09:30 UTC
Theresa May

May: Becoming a bit player.
LEGALLY binding changes that could finally allow Britain to agree a Brexit deal emerged last night.

Cabinet Office minister David Lidington says legally binding changes that strengthen and improve the withdrawal agreement have been secured.

"Tonight we will be laying two new documents to the House - a joint legally binding instrument on the withdrawal agreement and a joint statement to supplement the political declaration," he said.

He says the documents provide "confirmation that the EU cannot trap the UK in the backstop indefinitely."

It comes after Theresa May set off to Strasbourg for last-minute Brexit talks with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and was preparing to make a late night statement.

Comment: Postponing an important vote till an equally important and busy news day sounds like a scheme to distract from Brexit's next ridiculous plot twist: And check out SOTT radio's:

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Megaphone

After weeks of protests, Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika announces he will not seek a fifth term

Alison Tahmizian Meuse
Asia Times
Tue, 12 Mar 2019 08:57 UTC
Abdelaziz Bouteflika
© Ryad Kramdi/ / AFP
In this file photo taken on November 23, 2017, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is seen voting at a polling station in the capital Algiers. Bouteflika announced on Monday his withdrawal from a bid to win another term in office and postponed an April 18 election, following weeks of protests against his candidacy.
The military establishment of the oil-rich North African nation of Algeria emerged with its influence intact on Monday night, sacrificing the ailing 82-year-old president to quell weeks of street protests.

The wheelchair-bound Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who has not addressed the 42-million strong public in five years, will not run for a fifth term in office, an official statement proclaimed.

In coordination with the orchestrated bow, the Algerian prime minister resigned and Interior Minister Noureddine Bedoui was named in his place - a regime stalwart tasked with forming a new cabinet to oversee a managed transition.

Elections scheduled for April 18 have been postponed indefinitely, during which time the military is expected to ordain a candidate of its choice.

Comment: French president Macron, who is currently in Djibouti, today approved the decision, calling for a "transition of reasonable duration."

Who will say likewise to him?

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Cult

US government no longer excludes MEK as a leadership option for Iran, post regime change

Barbara Slavin
Al Monitor
Wed, 06 Mar 2019 00:00 UTC
Giuliani
© Reuters/Regis Duvignau
Stooge: Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York City, delivers his umpteenth speech to an MEK coven in Paris, France, June 30, 2018.
US administration talking points no longer exclude the Mujaheddin-e Khalq (MEK) as a potential replacement for the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Al-Monitor has learned.

Removed from a State Department list of terrorist organizations in 2012 after an expensive lobbying campaign, the MEK is understood to be widely reviled inside Iran as a leftist Islamist cult that sided with Saddam Hussein during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. The group advocates the overthrow of the Iranian government and the elevation of Maryam Rajavi, the wife of MEK founder Massoud Rajavi, as the new leader. She lives in exile outside Paris.

Top officials close to the Donald Trump administration - including national security adviser John Bolton and Rudolph Giuliani, the president's personal lawyer - have taken tens of thousands of dollars in fees from the MEK and its front organizations over the years to speak before rallies that promote Maryam Rajavi's leadership ambitions. Just last month, Giuliani told a pro-MEK rally in Warsaw, Poland, on the sidelines of a US-organized Middle East conference that Iran's leaders are "assassins" and "murderers" who should be overthrown and then replaced by Rajavi.


Comment: MEK is also known as: PMOI, MKO, NCRI, Muslim Iranian Students Society, Organization of the People's Holy Warriors of Iran, the National Liberation Army and Sazeman-e Mujahideen-e Khalq Iran. Why so many names? Because it has spent the last 4 decades dodging court battles in Western capitals.


Comment: Any hint of US consideration to supplant Iran's leadership with a globally-recognized terrorist organization should be alarming, if not surprising. Apparently MEK's self-admitted track record of at least 12K Iranian deaths from terrorist attacks, utilization by Israel to assassinate nuclear scientists in Iran, its decades-long practice of buying US politicians, and past involvement in Saddam Hussein's botched attempt to destabilize the Tehran government -- are just some of the qualities that appeal to a neocon Washington in quest of outsourcing conflict and regime change.

See also:

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Quenelle

Michael Caputo: Dems asking for my testimony in Trump investigation - but I have nothing to say or give them

Michael Caputo
Fox News
Wed, 06 Mar 2019 00:33 UTC
Michael Caputo

Michael Caputo
Michael Caputo on Jerrold Nadler asking for documents

I got a text from a reporter Monday telling me I am on the list of 81 associates of President Trump receiving document production requests from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y. That was news to me.

I didn't receive the letter from the newly installed Democratic leader of the most powerful committee in the House of Representatives. I got it from a reporter. My attorney also didn't get the letter from Nadler - I had to send him the letter the reporter gave me.

This inauspicious beginning signaled the start of yet another bogus Russia investigation, this time by the new Democratic majority in the House.

After directing broadcast media coverage for seven House committees, I know the signs of a sideshow - and delivering demand letters to reporters before they go to the person being asked to produce documents is one of the chief signs.

Comment: American Lookout adds:
Scott Adams is sticking up for him:

You can't blame Caputo for fighting this. The legal battle has already cost him a fortune.

The Hill reported in May of last year:
Ex-Trump aide decries Senate Russia probe over high legal bills: report

Michael Caputo, a former communications adviser to President Trump's campaign, blasted the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, saying that its Russia probe has him racking up high legal bills.

"Your investigation and others into the allegations of Trump campaign collusion with Russia are costing my family a great deal of money - more than $125,000 - and making a visceral impact on my children," Caputo told the committee in a prepared statement read during a closed-door interview.
Good for him for standing up now.


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Light Saber

Syria notifies Israel it will be attacked if IDF doesn't leave Golan Heights

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Mon, 11 Mar 2019 23:57 UTC
Israel soldiers golan heights
© Reuters
Israeli forces at the border fence along the illegally-occupied side of the Golan Heights and Syria
In a surprising and provocative ultimatum, Syria has notified Israel through United Nations diplomatic channels that it is prepared to go to war if Israel does not leave the Golan Heights.

Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mikdad reportedly sent the message through the head of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO), Christine Lund, this past week, according to a World Israel News report and later picked up other major Israeli sources, including The Jerusalem Post."Syria will attack Israel if it does not leave the Golan Heights," Mikdad told the UN representative.

Mikdad further warned Lund that Syria will respond with force should Israel continue its attacks on Syria, which have occurred more than a dozen times over the past year, but which seem to have recently paused following Russia's announced delivery of the advanced S-300 anti-air missile defense system to Damascus late last year.

"We will not hesitate to confront Israel," Syria's Mekdad said. "We are also not scared away by its [Israel's] supporters who are helping to perpetuate the occupation of the Golan," he added.

Comment: Once again, backed by the US, Israel doesn't have to care that its actions are illegal under international law:

Israel plans to populate Syria's Golan Heights further and develop it more amid 'security danger'

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Pumpkin 2

Elliott Abrams orders India to stop buying oil from Venezuela 'or else The Mighty USA will sanction you!'

Lesley Wroughton, Luc Cohen and Marianna Parraga
Reuters
Mon, 11 Mar 2019 17:36 UTC
Elliot Abrams
© EPA-EFE/JIM LO SCALZO
US Special Representative for Venezuela and convicted felon Elliott Abrams
The United States is pressing India to stop buying oil from Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government, Washington's top envoy for Venezuela said, as the Trump administration this week threatened more U.S. sanctions to cut off Maduro's financial lifelines.

"We say you should not be helping this regime. You should be on the side of the Venezuelan people," Elliott Abrams told Reuters in an interview.

The Trump administration has given the same message to other governments, Abrams said, and has made a similar argument to foreign banks and companies doing business with Maduro.

Abrams described the U.S. approach as "arguing, cajoling, urging."
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Arrow Down

How much longer will the middle class politely tolerate its own destruction?

Robert Gore
Straight Line logic
Fri, 08 Mar 2019 00:00 UTC
France police tear gas
© Damien Meyer/AFP
A middle class that outnumbers the combined poor and aristocracy is a relatively new phenomenon, dating back to around 1900. The rise of the middle class was the result of Industrial Revolution capitalism. It has been one of the most significant and epochal developments in history, yet the intellectual reaction for the most part has been to either ignore it or treat it with disdain. Now the project to destroy the middle class is well under way, with unpredictable and uncontrollable consequences that promise to be just as epochal as its creation.

Intellectual condescension towards the middle class is so common it's a cliché. What's rare are attempts to go back in history and see things through the perspectives of that despised group and its progenitors, the poor.

In 1800, virtually everyone was poor, living under conditions of deprivation and grinding poverty. Even being wealthy was no picnic; present-day poverty-line Americans live better. Life expectancy was an estimated twenty-nine years. Farming, the occupation of most, was dangerous, backbreaking labor from dawn to dusk. Most of those so engaged eked out a tenuous subsistence. There was no electricity, no running water, primitive sanitation and health care, and none of the machinery, gadgets, and appliances we take for granted. Only a few wealthy poets who didn't have to wrest a living from nature waxed euphoric about its "joys."
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