Puppet Masters

Saudi Special Forces capture leader of Yemeni branch of Daesh

Sputnik
Tue, 25 Jun 2019 12:40 UTC

Saudi special forces have arrested the leader of the Yemeni branch of the Daesh* terrorist group, Saudi state news agency SPA reported.

According to the report, Abu Osama al-Muhajer, along with several other members of the organisation, were captured on 3 June. Weapons, ammunition and telecommunication devices have been seized during the operation, the SPA reported.

In April, the terrorist group Daesh claimed responsibility for an attack on a Saudi police station northwest of Riyadh that left four militants killed.

ICE hard-liner to replace outgoing CBP commissioner as immigration tensions escalate

Jorge L. Ortiz and Alan Gomez
USA TODAY
Wed, 26 Jun 2019 12:36 UTC

© J. Scott Applewhite, AP
John Sanders, left, has resigned as acting commissioner of the Customs and Border Protection agency, effective July 5

The head of the Customs and Border Protection agency is leaving, and his replacement probably won't warm the hearts of advocates for immigrants.

John Sanders, the acting CBP commissioner, resigned Tuesday amid reports of migrant children at the border being held in unsafe and filthy conditions.

His resignation comes as public furor has increased over the treatment of detained migrant kids after lawyers reported some of the older children were caring for toddlers at a facility in Clint, Texas, and they lacked adequate food, water and sanitation.

Sanders is expected to be replaced by Mark Morgan, a former Marine and FBI agent who has been leading Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for fewer than two months, according to a senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision has not been finalized.

'Can't wish away' India-Russia defence ties say sources before Pompeo visits Modi

Nidhi Razdan
NDTV
Tue, 25 Jun 2019 18:45 UTC

The S-400 Triumf missile is an advanced long-range surface-to-air missile manufactured by Russia

Diplomatic sources in India say all issues are on the table, and there is no structured agenda for the discussions, in which Foreign Minister S Jaishankar will host a working lunch for Mike Pompeo

India, which plans to push ahead with an $5 billion air-defence missile deal with Russia despite the threat of US sanctions, will point out that the US has a law that offers a way out, sources said. New Delhi's stance will be made clear to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who would reach New Delhi tonight, sources said.

"We have a longstanding defence relationship with Russia which we cannot wish away," a person with direct knowledge of the matter told NDTV.

Comment: The US is forcing India to choose between the failing, unipolar, US dominated system or the emerging world, as they US did with Turkey, but, for the moment, it seems India wants to sit on the fence for as long as it possibly can:

"All Russians are bastards!" declares Ukrainian delegate to Parliamentary Assembly Council of Europe

RT
Tue, 25 Jun 2019 16:19 UTC

Tempers have been running high at the PACE this week as the rights body is about to reinstate Russia as a fully-fledged member. One of Ukraine's delegates went as far as declaring in English all Russians are 'bastards'.

The outburst came from Borislav Beryoza, a Russophobic Ukrainian MP with a long record of disruptive behavior that marks him even among the, to say it politely, expressive delegation from Kiev. The insult came on Tuesday as he was entering the Palace of Europe, the gathering site of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

The independent MP is hardly a stranger to verbal and even physical abuse, although he usually prefers his insults in the Russian or Ukrainian language. His favorite target over the last few years has been Russian journalist Olga Skabeeva, who covers PACE meetings for the Russian news channel Rossiya 24 and also hosts a political talk show with her husband Evgeny Popov, who published the video.

Comment: It says a lot about the state of Ukraine that this is their representative in Europe:

Leaked Google doc describes Shapiro, Jordan Peterson as 'nazis using dogwhistles'

Project Veritas
Wed, 26 Jun 2019 08:32 UTC

Project Veritas has obtained a newly leaked document from Google that appears to show a Google employee and member of Google "transparency-and-ethics" group calling conservative and libertarian commentators, including Dennis Prager and Ben Shapiro, "nazis." Project Veritas received this document after the release of its investigation into Google through the "Be Brave" campaign at VeritasTips@protonmail.com.

The email apparently was sent as part of the Google "transparency-and-ethics" group internal communications and suggests that content from PragerU, Jordan Peterson, and Ben Shapiro should be disabled from the "suggestion feature...if we understand that PragerU, Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro et al are nazis using the dog whistles..."

"I don't think correctly identifying far-right content is beyond our capabilities. But if it is, why not go with Meredith's suggestion of disabling the suggestion feature?"

Israeli UN Ambassador: Palestinian surrender & 'national suicide' is needed for peace

Jonathan Ofir
Mondoweiss
Wed, 26 Jun 2019 08:32 UTC

This came out yesterday in the pages of the New York Times:

The "economic workshop" in Bahrain this week, a summit of business leaders and political figures, is the first step in the rollout of the Trump administration's long-awaited Israeli-Palestinian peace plan. However, because the plan offers a new approach, many on the Palestinian side, including President Mahmoud Abbas and the chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, say that the plan is dead on arrival and that engaging with it is tantamount to a Palestinian declaration of surrender. I ask: What's wrong with Palestinian surrender?

Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon's opinion piece, titled "What's Wrong With Palestinian Surrender?" posits that the current Bahrain conference (today and tomorrow) is something that Palestinians should have embraced, rather than rejected.

Huawei set to abate 'spying fears' by signing 'no-back-door' agreement with India

RT
Wed, 26 Jun 2019 08:32 UTC

Chinese telecom giant Huawei, which has been accused by the US over alleged breaches of sensitive user information, has said it is ready to sign a 'no-back-door' pact with the government of India.

A 'back door' in technology products refers to a feature that allows unauthorized access to customers' data.

Huawei's business engagement in India is under scrutiny by the government after Washington restricted the Chinese company's hardware and software supplies.

Comment: While the US has done its best to instill fear of Huawei 'spying on the world' the world hasn't been listening. Global Times reports that Huawei has already doubled its 5G contracts outside of China:

Despite rising US harassment and assault, China's Huawei Technologies has doubled its 5G contacts outside China, continuing supplying major carriers in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Huawei has secured so far 50 5G contracts outside China market as of Tuesday, which is a gain of almost 50 percent from the 30 contracts reported at MWC19 held in Barcelona, Spain, in February, Ding Yun, a senior executive of Huawei, told a summit ahead of the launch of MWC19 Shanghai, which is the largest industry annual event in Asia.

"Huawei has been doing fine, we have to make sure the continuity of our business, not by relying on inventory, but by investing on our core technologies ranging from chipset to modules to the operating system," Ding said. [...] "Currently, two-third of global existing 5G networks are powered by Huawei technologies," the senior executive said. He added that Huawei has just helped launch the 5G commercial network in Saudi Arabia.

Also see:

The economic entrails at the heart of the 'deal of the century'

Alastair Crooke
Strategic Culture
Tue, 25 Jun 2019 20:46 UTC

It is nothing new to say that the 'Deal of the Century' is - and always was - in essence an economic project. Indeed, it seems that its political ramifications are viewed by the White House as little more than the ineluctable consequences to an a priori economic architecture, already in the process of being unfolded.

In other words, it is the economic facts on the ground that are intended shape the political outcome - an attenuated political landscape that anyway has been minimised by Trump's pre-emptive removal of key pieces of any Palestinian negotiating leverage.

The financial squeeze on the Palestinians is well attested. On the one hand, the Palestinian Authority (historically dependent on Saudi subvention) is gently slipping into bankruptcy; whilst Gaza is held in virtual abject dependency through the drip-feed of subventions channelled into Gaza by Qatar, with Israeli permission - the size of this latter monthly 'lifeline' subvention being carefully adjusted by Israel according to what it judges to be the norms of (generally Hamas) 'good conduct'.

Comment: See also:

Facebook to give data on 'hate speech' suspects to French courts after Zuckerberg-Macron meetings

Mathieu Rosemain
Reuters
Tue, 25 Jun 2019 21:17 UTC

Facebook has agreed to hand over the identification data of French users suspected of hate speech on its platform to judges, France's minister for digital affairs Cedric O said on Tuesday, adding the deal was a world first.

The move by the world's biggest social media network comes after successive meetings between Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg and French President Emmanuel Macron, who wants to take a leading role globally on the regulation of hate speech and the spread of false information online.

So far, Facebook has cooperated with French justice on matters related to terrorist attacks and violent acts by transferring the IP addresses and other identification data of suspected individuals to French judges who formally demanded it.

Following a meeting between Nick Clegg, Facebook's head of global affairs, and O last week, the social media company has extended this cooperation to hate speech.

"This is huge news, it means that the judicial process will be able to run normally," O, a former top adviser to Macron, told Reuters in an interview. "It's really very important, they're only doing it for France."

Comment: Huge, but not for the reasons O says. This is actually a huge travesty of justice. Who defines what is hate speech? This is not 'normal' justice, by any stretch of the imagination. Just look at what is happening already in the UK - people getting visits from the police because of something mildly offensive they said on Twitter. They're even getting arrested.

The US-led economic war is tearing Venezuela apart, not socialism

Caleb T. Maupin
MintPress News
Tue, 12 Jul 2016 00:00 UTC

© AP
Pro-government supporter with Chavez shirt awaits results of congressional elections in Caracas, Venezuela, Dec. 6, 2015.

Americans have been trained by decades of Cold War propaganda to look for any confirmation that 'socialism means poverty.' But in the case of Venezuela and other states not governed by the free market, this cliche simply doesn't ring true. The political and economic crisis facing Venezuela is being endlessly pointed to as proof of the superiority of the free market.

Images and portrayals of Venezuelans rioting in the streets over high food costs, empty grocery stores, medicine shortages, and overflowing garbage bins are the headlines, and the reporting points to socialism as the cause.

The Chicago Tribune published a Commentary piece titled: "A socialist revolution can ruin almost any country." A headline on Reason's Hit and Run blog proclaims: "Venezuelan socialism still a complete disaster." The Week's U.S. edition says: "Authoritarian socialism caused Venezuela's collapse."

Indeed, corporate-owned, mainstream media advises Americans to look at the inflation and food lines in Venezuela, and then repeat to themselves clichés they heard in elementary school about how "Communism just doesn't work."

In reality, millions of Venezuelans have seen their living conditions vastly improved through the Bolivarian process. The problems plaguing the Venezuelan economy are not due to some inherent fault in socialism, but to artificially low oil prices and sabotage by forces hostile to the revolution.

Comment: See also:

Big Tech cancels Alex Jones, Anglin, countless others. Outcry ignored. Evil bastards. All above: Great comments! R.C.

Rowan Cocoan

AA article on some German soccer player who the malevolents are griping about because he doesn't trust the science, no long term data, etc. German...

Rowan Cocoan

DNA collection doesn't mean anything, DNA doesn't survive outside of a cell. Since I couldn't get access to the study, I will guess they are...

hotfood

It's only censorship if you are on one side of the political spectrum, is that it?

ReRan

25 Years for malum prohibitum crimes - and that don't sound like crimes at all; more like drunks bragging. Big terror ring there.(Sarcasm.) All...

Rowan Cocoan

Puppet Masters

Saudi Special Forces capture leader of Yemeni branch of Daesh

ICE hard-liner to replace outgoing CBP commissioner as immigration tensions escalate

'Can't wish away' India-Russia defence ties say sources before Pompeo visits Modi

"All Russians are bastards!" declares Ukrainian delegate to Parliamentary Assembly Council of Europe

Leaked Google doc describes Shapiro, Jordan Peterson as 'nazis using dogwhistles'

Israeli UN Ambassador: Palestinian surrender & 'national suicide' is needed for peace

Huawei set to abate 'spying fears' by signing 'no-back-door' agreement with India

The economic entrails at the heart of the 'deal of the century'

Facebook to give data on 'hate speech' suspects to French courts after Zuckerberg-Macron meetings

The US-led economic war is tearing Venezuela apart, not socialism

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