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Ukraine: Austrian Journalist and Kiev Critic was Barred 'For His Own Safety'

Christopher Miller
RFE/RL
Mon, 11 Mar 2019 00:00 UTC
Christian Wehrschuetz
© Heinz-Peter Bader (Reuters)
Austrian ORF broadcast correspondent Christian Wehrschuetz arrives for an ORF meeting in Vienna, August 9, 2011
Austrian reporter Christian Wehrschuetz said he feared being attacked by Ukrainian nationalists over reporting critical of the government in Kyiv, according to the Ukrainian Security Service. Now they're using a one-year entry ban to keep him out of the country.

In citing Wehrschuetz's own purported concerns, the counterintelligence and counterterror agency appears to be contradicting the initial reason for the ban given to Austrian authorities: that he had violated Ukrainian law when his camera crew crossed the Kerch Strait via the Russian-built bridge connecting Russia to the annexed Crimean Peninsula. That legislation allows for bans of up to three years for those who violate it.

It also appears to skirt a dispute over whether or not Wehrscheutz actually broke the entry law, which is aimed at undermining Moscow's de facto control over the seized peninsula, since he said he stayed behind while other members of the crew crossed the bridge.
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Chart Bar

Trump's 2020 Budget Proposal: More for Defense,Border Security and Countering Russia, Less for Welfare and Food Stamps


RT
Mon, 11 Mar 2019 22:25 UTC
President Trump
© Reuters / Kevin Lamarque
President Trump's budget presented on Capitol Hill
President Donald Trump has announced his 2020 budget request. The $4.7 trillion funding plan cuts foreign aid and DC spending, and gives a boost to the military and border security, as well as to countering Russia's "influence."

Announced on Monday, the 2020 budget promises to drive down the US' staggering $22 trillion debt by cutting "wasteful Washington spending," while demanding more resources for defense and national security.

The document outlines $2.7 trillion in spending cuts aimed at slashing nondefense spending by five percent. The State Department will see its spending cut by 23 percent, the Environmental Protection Agency will suffer a 31 percent chop, and food stamps will be cut by $17 billion and other welfare programs by $22 billion.
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Attention

China rebukes Turkey over Uighur criticism, closes consulate


The New Arab
Sat, 02 Mar 2019 00:00 UTC
Man and flags
© Getty Images
China has threatened Turkey with 'economic' consequences if it keeps criticising Beijing's treatment of Uighur Muslims in its far western Xinjiang region, days after the Chinese government shut down its general consulate in Turkey's third biggest city in an apparent punitive move.

The threats were made by China's envoy to Ankara on Friday, saying Turkey risks jeopardising economic ties with his government if it persists in its criticism of its internal policies.

China Map
© Unknown
"There may be disagreements or misunderstandings between friends but we should solve them through dialogue. Criticising your friend publicly everywhere is not a constructive approach," said Deng Li, Beijing's top diplomat to Ankara.

"If you choose a non-constructive path, it will negatively affect mutual trust and understanding and will be reflected in commercial and economic relations," Deng, speaking through a translator, told Reuters in [an] interview.

This comes as China is seeking to expand investments in Turkey, including in mega infrastructure projects, although the row over Xinjiang could now affect these efforts.

Comment: The US needs to destroy China's OBOR project. If completed, OBOR will create new and lasting trade partners for China while US trade diminishes. The plan is to infuse Xinjiang Province with TIP and IS cells from Syria to foment violence, challenge China's counter-terrorism capabilities and provide a strategic US foothold inside China. We should expect these efforts, and the spread of radical jihadist ideology in the Uighur population, to be funded and supported by the usual suspects: US, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

See also:

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Eagle

US has been getting 'its ass handed to it' in war games simulating fights against Russia and China

Ryan Pickrell
Business Insider
Fri, 08 Mar 2019 20:07 UTC
us artillery exercise
© U.S. Army National Guard photo by Sgt. Brittany Johnson
US artillery units hone their gunnery skills during an exercise near Dona Ana, New Mexico, April 28, 2018.
In war games simulating a high-end fight against Russia or China, the US often loses, two experienced military war-gamers have revealed.

"In our games, when we fight Russia and China, 'blue' gets its ass handed to it," David Ochmanek, a RAND warfare analyst, explained at the Center for a New American Security on Thursday, Breaking Defense first reported. US forces are typically color-coded blue in these simulations.

"We lose a lot of people. We lose a lot of equipment. We usually fail to achieve our objective of preventing aggression by the adversary," he said.

US stealth fighters die on the runway

At the outset of these conflicts, all five battlefield domains - land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace - are contested, meaning the US could struggle to achieve the superiority it has enjoyed in the past.

In these simulated fights, the "red" aggressor force often obliterates US stealth fighters on the runway, sends US warships to the depths, destroys US bases, and takes out critical US military systems.

Comment: No doubt this will be used to call for even more inflated defense budgets. The fact is, the U.S. has enjoyed global hegemony long enough for Russia and China to observe American abilities and plan accordingly, on a fraction of the budget. Existential threat has a remarkable ability to focus priorities. American complacency has the opposite effect. At least there are a couple positive implications of the revelation that the U.S. will lose in a war with Russia and China: the U.S. is unlikely to start such a war knowing it will lose. And the Russians and Chinese haven't shown any indication they will be the ones to start one.

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Bullseye

From 'Not Us' to 'Why Hide It': How Maidan Denied Its Involvement in the 20 February 2014 Snipers Massacre and Then Admitted It

Gordon M. Hahn
gordonhahn.com
Mon, 11 Mar 2019 19:57 UTC
Maidan snipers Andriy Parubiy

Andriy Parubiy at the Maidan directing people who appear to be snipers heading home from a job well done
Although the Maidan regime in Ukraine continues to deny, mostly ignore, its leading members' role in organizing and executing the 20 February 2014 snipers massacre that targeted both police and demonstrators in order to escalate the demonstrations and that indeed led to the overthrown of President Viktor Yanukovych, some of the regime's members and supporters are beginning to speak out against the oligarchic-ultranationalist hybrid regime's original sin. Earlier, beginning almost immediately after the coup, numerous participating snipers from the Maidan's ultra-nationalist and neofascist wing began acknowledging their role in the massacre. Many have named present Rada Chairman Andrey Parubii as its organizer and much evidence points to him as at least one if not the lead mastermind of the slaughter (on these admissions, see gordonhahn.com; Ivan Katchanovski, "The Snipers Massacre on the Maidan in Ukraine," Academia.edu, Paper presented at the Chair of Ukrainian Studies Seminar at the University of Ottawa, Ottawa, October 1, 2014, p. 55; Ivan Katchanovski, "The 'Snipers' Massacre' on the Maidan in Ukraine (Revised and Updated Version)," Academia.edu, 20 February 2015, p. 55 or Johnson's Russia List, #33, 21 February 2015, Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs). Most recently, Georgian snipers revealed their involvement in the massacre on order from their then-employer, former Georgian President and Odessa Governor Mikheil Saakashvili.

Comment: Hahn's book, Ukraine Over the Edge, contains a detailed study of the Maidan massacre and all the relevant admissions by its perpetrators over the years. For the full story, read his book and the articles referenced in the article above.

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No Entry

Eleventh Circuit ruling: DACA recipients are illegal aliens


Immigration Reform Law Institute
Wed, 06 Mar 2019 00:00 UTC
Judge gavel
© Getty Images
Court agrees with IRLI and denies admission to Georgia universities for DACA-deferred illegal aliens

Today the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals issued the first opinion by a federal circuit court classifying Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients as illegal aliens. The court's opinion, which closely tracks a friend-of-the-court brief that the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) had filed in the case, makes clear that DACA recipients are "inadmissible and thus removable" under federal law. According to the Court, their deportation has merely been "reprieved" by an Obama-era policy that "encouraged" government officials to "exercise prosecutorial discretion and focus on higher-priority cases."

In 2016, several DACA recipients sued the Georgia higher education system, which bars aliens who are not "lawfully present" from enrolling in selective state colleges and universities, even if they otherwise qualify for admission. The students argued that they were lawfully present under federal law, which preempted state law. They also claimed that the admissions bar violated their right to equal protection, as Georgia treats aliens who are paroled into the U.S. or granted asylum as lawfully present.
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Caesar

Iranian influence goes from strength to strength: Rouhani makes first official visit to Iraq, to 'discuss important projects'


RFE/RL
Mon, 11 Mar 2019 12:09 UTC
iran iraq summit

The kind of deal-making Washington hates
Iranian President Hassan Rohani has arrived in Baghdad for his first official visit to Iraq, state television reported, as Iraq is under pressure from the United States to limit ties with its neighbor.

Speaking at Tehran's Mehrabad airport on March 11 before departing for his three-day visit, Rohani hailed the "special" relations between Iran and Iraq. "We are very much interested to expand our ties with Iraq, particularly our transport cooperation. We have important projects that will be discussed during this visit," he also said.​

Iraq, which receives financial and military support from Washington, has attempted to balance its relations with the United States and Iran, which carries significant influence with members of Iraq's Shi'ite population.

Tehran does not have an official military presence in Iraq. But the government supports powerful Shi'ite paramilitary groups operating in the country, with estimates of the number of fighters ranging up to 150,000.

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Network

Russia preparing to be cut off from Internet, but doesn't want to disconnect - Kremlin


RT
Mon, 11 Mar 2019 18:03 UTC
internet freedom protesters Moscow
© Reuters / Shamil Zhumatov
"This is the web prepared by the authorities for us," reads a banner, carried by protesters at the rally for freedom of internet freedom in Moscow on Sunday.
Russian authorities support online freedom, just like those who rallied in Moscow on weekend, and only want to protect the Russian web from foreign intrusion, Dmitry Peskov, the presidential press secretary, said.

Some 6,500 people took to the streets in the Russian capital on weekend to decry the draft law regulating autonomous operations of the Russian segment of the internet, according to police estimations.

But Peskov insisted that fears of the protestors that the legislation will put the web under strict state control were misplaced because "everybody stands for internet freedom - the authors of this law; the presidential administration; the government."

"In this regard, the position of the participants of the rally should be supported. But there can be no support for their misunderstanding and misconception that the draft law is in some way aimed at limiting online liberties."
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Mr. Potato

Twitter mercilessly roasts Rubio for blaming Venezuelan power outages on explosion at imaginary 'German dam'


RT
Mon, 11 Mar 2019 16:52 UTC
marco rubio
© Reuters / Carlo Allegri
Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL)
Sen. Marco Rubio was besieged by social media mockery after declaring that power outages in Caracas were caused by an explosion at a 'German Dam' - the name of journalist who reported on the blackouts.

The Florida lawmaker and devout Juan Guaido supporter took to his Twitter podium on Saturday to once again proselytize about the evils of Nicolas Maduro's government. Commenting on the recent waves of blackouts in Venezuela, which Caracas has blamed on US-backed sabotage, Rubio shared some insightful Senate intelligence.

"Today another transformer explosion at the German Dam in Bolivar State caused another massive blackout. The result? Critically ill patients have died, the #Caracas metro remains out of service & few if any flights have arrived at or departed from Caracas in over 20 hours," he tweeted.

Comment: Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad? Rubio is becoming more unhinged by the day. His tweet linking Gaddhaffi's horrific murder to Maduro, which many saw as a veiled threat was particularly heinous.

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Dollars

Liberal dark money org Fund for a Better Future funneled $2m to group working with Trump dossier fabricators Fusion GPS, Steele

Chuck Ross
The Daily Caller
Sun, 10 Mar 2019 16:16 UTC
Christopher Steele
© Press Association
Christopher Steele, the former MI6 agent who set-up Orbis Business Intelligence and compiled a dossier on Donald Trump
A dark money group with links to several high-profile liberal activists contributed $2 million to The Democracy Integrity Project, an organization founded by a former Dianne Feinstein staffer that has contracted with Fusion GPS and Christopher Steele to investigate President Donald Trump.

Fund for a Better Future (FBF) donated $2,065,000 to The Democracy Integrity Project (TDIP) in 2017, according to IRS filings reviewed by The Daily Caller News Foundation.

TDIP was founded on Jan. 31, 2017, by Daniel Jones, a consultant who worked for Feinstein, a California Democrat, when she controlled the Senate Intelligence Committee. Jones has disclosed to the FBI that he hired Fusion GPS and Steele, the author of the anti-Trump dossier, to continue an investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
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