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US' anon intel blaming Iran for oil facility strikes insufficient say Saudis


Sputnik
Tue, 17 Sep 2019 12:59 UTC
drone
© AP Photo / Cliff Owen
On Monday, Yemen's Houthi militia movement reiterated that they were responsible for Saturday's drone attacks, and accused those trying to blame the attacks on outside actors of acting like "cowards."

US intelligence agencies have handed over a secret report to their Saudi counterparts which has implicated Iran directly for the weekend's attacks on two major Saudi Aramco oil facilities, the Wall Street Journal has reported, citing unnamed sources said to be familiar with the situation.

According to the report, which has yet to be shared publicly, the strikes were staged from Iran, and involved some 20 drones and at least a dozen missiles.

A Saudi official speaking to WSJ said the report was not conclusive, adding that the US side hadn't provided sufficient evidence that Tehran was 'definitely' behind the attacks.

Comment: Sputnik reports:
Riyadh to Invite Int'l Experts to Join Investigation Into Attacks on Oil Facilities


Riyadh also called on the international community to "take a firm and clear position against this reckless behaviour that threatens the global economy."

Houthi rebels regularly conduct drone attacks on facilities in Saudi Arabia, which has been providing air support to Yemen's internationally recognized government in its fight against Houthis since spring 2015. At the same time, US officials have claimed that intelligence indicates Iranian involvement in the incidents. Iran firmly denied any involvement.
See also:

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Oil Well

Rouhani: Drone strikes on Saudi oil facilities were Yemen's response to SA-led coalition bombings


RT
Mon, 16 Sep 2019 19:40 UTC
Rouhani
© Reuters/Pavel Golovkin/Pool
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at a joint news conference with his Russian and Turkish counterparts in Ankara, Turkey, September 16, 2019.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said recent drone attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure were a proportionate Yemeni response to years of daily bombings carried out by a Saudi-led coalition.

Speaking to reporters in Ankara following three-way talks between the presidents of Turkey, Russia and Iran, Rouhani suggested the drone attacks were a legitimate act of self-defense.
"On a daily basis Yemen is being bombarded and innocent civilians are dying ... so they have to retaliate. Yemeni people are exercising their legitimate right of defense ... the attacks were a reciprocal response to aggression against Yemen for years."
Rouhani added his hope that the conflict in Yemen would be resolved through diplomacy, and said that such a process might even mirror Syria's Astana talks.

Addressing the same question, Turkish President Recep Erdogan also pointed out that it was Saudi Arabia who'd started the cycle of attacks.

Comment: And from RT, 16/9/2019: Trump points finger at Iran for oil facility attacks
While Saudi Arabia is investigating the attacks on its oil facilities, President Donald Trump has said that "it certainly would look like" Iran was the culprit. Yet, he also noted he doesn't want another war.

Trump's statement, made to reporters on Monday, is the latest in a series that stop short of outright blaming Iran for the attack, which has already been claimed by Houthi rebels in Yemen. Earlier in the day Trump tweeted that "there is reason to believe that we know the culprit," before questioning Tehran's denial of the strike.

Other US officials have been more forceful in ascribing blame. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo immediately called the "unprecedented attack" the work of the Iranians, and hawkish US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) called for retaliatory strikes on Iranian targets.

Amid rising fears of conflict, Trump boasted of the US' military might, saying that "the United States is more prepared" for a conflict than any country in history, but told reporters that he would "certainly like to avoid" war. "I don't want war with anybody," the President said.

Saturday's drone attacks targeted two oil refineries in Abqaiq and Khurais in the country's east. The strikes cut off half of Saudi Aramco's oil output, or five percent of the world's supply.

The Kingdom's foreign ministry added later on Monday that it will invite international experts, including UN officials, to investigate the attack.


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Arrow Up

Outgoing IMF chief Christine Lagarde, voted new ECB President


thejournal.ie
Tue, 17 Sep 2019 00:00 UTC
Christine Lagarde
© Getty Images/S. Loeb
Christine Lagarde
The European Parliament has approved outgoing IMF chief Christine Lagarde as the next boss of the European Central Bank, which last week announced massive stimulus for the sluggish eurozone despite divisions among its governors.

Lagarde, who was absent for the vote, won backing from 394 MEPs, with 206 voting against and 49 abstaining in a secret ballot. Some criticised her not turning up. The European Parliament vote on the appointment of the president of the ECB is done by secret ballot.

The parliament's green light is just a recommendation. The final decision on her appointment is up to EU leaders in a mid-October summit. She is expected to easily clinch that confirmation as the leaders put her forward for the ECB post back in July.

Lagarde, a former French economy minister and head of the International Monetary Fund for the past eight years, is expected to largely follow the course set by departing ECB president Mario Draghi.

Comment:



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Cell Phone

Hello? Hillary Clinton used at minimum 6 personal phones for government business, all easily hacked

Joe Hoft
Gateway Pundit
Mon, 16 Sep 2019 00:00 UTC
Clinton/phone
© AP
Iconic photo of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her BlackBerry
Recent reports that Russians and others hacked Hillary's emails are not unfounded. Per a review of Hillary's history with personal phones, she used at least six phones all of which were easily hacked.

Per an Intel expert, there are basic rules that everyone should abide by, especially any US politician or department head:
1. The moment your data is out of the SCIF (or if it never made it there), you can safely assume that it's being read by every decent intelligence organization in the world. HRC's emails were no exception. So, the moment her emails were placed on a private server everyone (including her IT team) were reading them.

2. Every decent intelligence agency has a whole department dedicated to senior US political figures like the Secretary of State, the FBI Director, etc. These teams can have dozens of individuals who on daily basis analyze everything the target does.

Like for example what restaurant they visited last night (then another team hacks into the restaurant's high resolution CCTV system, gets the video footage, and a different team does some lip reading).

Tracking someone like HRC would have quickly revealed that she was using a non-government issued phone. As a matter of fact, she was using six different phones. This meant that her voice/email/messaging had to be non-government based. Once that was known, intercepting the calls, messages, and emails of HRC becomes a trivial problem.
We know from expert analysis that Hillary used at least six different personal phones over the years. Here she is with phones 1 and 3:
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Airplane

After stalled negotiations with the US, Taliban delegation visits Iran to discuss peace deal


Sputnik
Tue, 17 Sep 2019 14:04 UTC
Abdul Salam Hanafi
© Getty Images
Abdul Salam Hanafi, deputy political head of the Taliban
A delegation of the Taliban movement has travelled to Iran amid the decreasing prospects for signing a peace deal with the United States, a Taliban spokesman, Suhail Shaheen, said Tuesday.

According to the spokesman, the four-member delegation met with Iranian officials on Monday to discuss the recent developments in the Afghan peace process, the progress and security of Iranian economic projects in Afghanistan, and international and regional efforts to reach peace in the war-torn country.

The delegation was led by the deputy political head of the Taliban, Abdul Salam Hanafi, the spokesman added.

Comment: See also:

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X

Google/YouTube axed RSBNetwork live-streaming just before Trump election, censored views without cause

Jim Holt
The Gateway Pundit
Mon, 16 Sep 2019 00:00 UTC
Right Side Broadcasting Network
© RSBN
RSBN is a popular pro-Trump publisher that live-streams Trump public appearances and rallies.

On November 2, 2016 one week before the national election Right Side Broadcasting Network (RSBN) confirmed they had their live stream disabled by YouTube, after having their live stream camera sabotaged that morning.

In February 2017 Google-YouTube began censoring and preventing views to RSBN. The company lost up to 90% of its traffic.

In February 2018 RSBN reporter Margaret Howell joined The Gateway Pundit at the Newseum in Washington DC to discuss how tech giants such as Facebook, Google, and Youtube were taking direct orders from far left groups like Media Matters to censor conservative voices. In multiple examples, Howell discussed how if you are branded as a conservative on social media, these companies will go as far as to remove live videos and videos with no actual political context because they want to prevent any potential message from getting through their gates.
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Brick Wall

Justice Department suing Snowden for any profits from publication of his new memoir

Tom Winter
NBC
Tue, 17 Sep 2019 19:19 UTC
Edward Snowden
© MSNBC
Edward Snowden in Moscow speaking with Brian Williams on Sept. 16, 2019.
The Department of Justice has sued Edward Snowden over the publication of his new memoir, arguing the book violates the nondisclosure agreements it says he signed with the CIA and National Security Agency. Snowden is a former NSA contractor who leaked secret documents about the government's secret intelligence collection programs.

"The lawsuit alleges that Snowden published his book without submitting it to the agencies for pre-publication review, in violation of his express obligations under the agreements he signed," the Justice Department said in a news release Tuesday.
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Top Secret

US government files lawsuit against Snowden over book, 'violates CIA & NSA non-disclosure agreements'


RT
Tue, 17 Sep 2019 18:05 UTC
Edward Snowden speaking about his book
© Reuters/Fabrizio Bensch
Edward Snowden speaks via videolink as he takes part in a discussion about his book "Permanent Record", Berlin, September 17.
The US government has filed a lawsuit against the National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, alleging that his newly-published memoir 'Permanent Record' violates nondisclosure agreements he signed with the CIA and NSA.

The civil lawsuit, filed on Tuesday, claims that Snowden violated these agreements by not sending a draft of the book to the spy agencies for review - and presumably redaction - before publication. It also alleges that the whistleblower's public speeches on "intelligence-related matters" violated the agreements.

Rather than pull the book from the shelves, the government wants to pocket all the earnings from its sale.

"Intelligence information should protect our nation, not provide personal profit," said Zachary Terwilliger, US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. "This lawsuit will ensure that Edward Snowden receives no monetary benefits from breaching the trust placed in him."
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Network

Turkey, Russia, Iran vow to take on greater responsibilities for peace in Syria's Idlib


RFE/RL
Tue, 17 Sep 2019 18:20 UTC
Iran Turkey Russia presidents
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hosted the leaders of Russia and Iran in Ankara on September 16 for talks aimed at finding a lasting truce in the ruinous eight-year Syrian civil war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Iranian President Hassan Rohani, and Erdogan each met separately before meeting for their fifth summit. They discussed Idlib, a region in northwestern Syria that is the last rebel stronghold.

They vowed to prevent a worse humanitarian crisis in the region and agreed to ease tensions there.

Last year, Russia and Turkey signed a buffer-zone agreement that is supposed to protect Idlib from a government offensive. Ankara mans 12 observation posts in the area to help enforce it, however it fears Syrian forces, who enjoy Russian air-power support, will advance on Idlib.
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Jet4

Oops: 'We've all accidentally sold weapons': UK trade secretary mocked for 'inadvertent' illegal arms sales approval


RT
Tue, 17 Sep 2019 18:04 UTC
Uk arms sales Liz Truss
© Reuters / Faisal Al Nasser ; Reuters / Toby Melville
(Main) Saudi Arabian F-15SA fighter jets (Top right) UK International Trade Secretary Liz Truss
UK International Trade Secretary Liz Truss has been ridiculed online after claiming the government had accidentally granted two military export licenses for Saudi Arabia, despite pledging to freeze weapons sales to Riyadh.

Truss was forced to apologize to the Court of Appeal on Monday for the "two inadvertent breaches," revealing that she had launched an urgent departmental inquiry into the "errors."

The UK suspended arms sales to the Kingdom in June after the court ruled that ministers had acted unlawfully by not determining whether weapons could be used against civilians in the war in Yemen. As a result, the government stated that no new licenses would be issued to Saudi Arabia while a review is conducted.

Comment: Profits above all. Wonder how many MPs have connections to Britain's arms industry?

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