Puppet Masters

Pierre Omidyar: A Billionaire Prone to Reclusiveness, And His Trove of State Surveillance Secrets

Alexander Rubinstein & Max Blumenthal
MintPress News
Mon, 25 Feb 2019 12:38 UTC

This is the concluding part of our series exploring billionaire eBay founder Pierre Omidyar's broad sweep of influence over global media and surveillance enterprises. Part 1 examined Omidyar's use of investment to build a vast and tangled web of influence in NGOs and media outlets around the world; Part 2 illuminated his involvement with regime-change networks and the surveillance state.

© Jb Reed | Bloomberg | Editing by MintPress News
eBay founder Pierre Omidyar speaks at the eBay Developer’s Conference in Boston, Massachusetts, Wednesday, June 13, 2007.

Flinging accusations of cultism while funding the Dalai Lama

Since pumping $100 million into a network of news outlets, fact-checking sites, film projects and press-advocacy groups, Pierre Omidyar has emerged as one of the most quietly influential media funders in the country. All along, he has kept out of the spotlight, avoiding the scrutiny and attack campaigns that have followed other politically influential oligarchs like Jeff Bezos and George Soros.

Omidyar lives in Honolulu, Hawaii, far from the American mainland. From there, he courts famous gurus and wields his media empire against a Hawaiian lawmaker who has emerged as the most outspoken opponent of the national security state and its militaristic agenda.

Pakistan-India showdown: What you're not being told

Darius Shahtahmasebi
RT
Tue, 26 Feb 2019 13:31 UTC

A recent terrorist attack in Kashmir could set the stage for a major conflict between India and Pakistan as India begins bombing Pakistani territory. As always, the root causes of these are being ignored by the media.

On February 14, India was rocked by a suicide-bombing which took place inside Jammu and Kashmir. The attack targeted a convoy of security personnel vehicles, killing at least 42 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) officers (as well as the bomber himself).

Responsibility for the attack was claimed by a Pakistan-based Islamist group called Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). JeM's main goal is to steal Kashmir away from India and unite it with Pakistan, to ensure that Pakistan is ruled by Sharia law, and to drive Western forces out of Afghanistan. Its other eventual priority is to drive all Hindus and non-Muslims from the Indian subcontinent.

The attack has drawn such negative publicity that the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), finally agreeing on something for once, identified India as a victim of terrorism and asked member states to cooperate actively with New Delhi to bring these attackers to justice.

Comment: See also:

And check out SOTT radio's:

Let the latest media circus begin: Cohen to testify on 'crimes' committed by Trump in office

Tyler Durdan
ZeroHedge
Tue, 26 Feb 2019 20:42 UTC

© Craig Ruttle/AP
Michael Cohen, former personal lawyer to President Donald Trump, leaves federal court in New York, Aug. 21, 2018.

As former Trump attorney and soon-to-be federal inmate Michael Cohen prepares to begin a three-day gauntlet of Congressional testimony on Tuesday, leaks in the press have detailed what Cohen might say both during his closed-door hearings (before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday and the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday) and his public testimony before the House Oversight Committee. And as was widely expected given his attempts to deflect from his own crimes by agreeing to cooperate with federal prosecutors, Cohen will reportedly share never-before-revealed details about alleged criminal acts committed by President Trump while in office, according to reports by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News.

What specific illegal activity will Cohen reveal? Well, it's not 100% clear. The WSJ's source said "Cohen would provide "evidence of criminal conduct since Mr. Trump became president," but other than saying it involved the payoff to Stormy Daniels (aka Stephanie Clifford), they refused to provide more specifics. The $130,000 payoff to Daniels, which was first reported by WSJ in October 2016, allegedly took place during the final months of the presidential race, so it's unclear exactly what illegal behavior could be tied to Trump's time in office.

Though that didn't stop WSJ from venturing a guess:

Comment:

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif announces sudden resignation - via Instagram. President Rouhani rejects it

RT
Mon, 25 Feb 2019 20:04 UTC

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif announces resignation from his post in a statement on his Instagram account.

"I am apologising [to] you for all the shortcomings ... in the past years during my time as foreign minister ... I thank the Iranian nation and officials," he wrote on his Instagram page jzarif_ir.

Zarif has served as Iran's foreign minister since 2013. He led the Iranian delegation at the negotiations over the Iran's nuclear program, which eventually concluded with the signing of the 2015 deal, which is also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Before assuming his duties as a minister, he served as Iran's permanent representative to the United Nations between 2002 and 2007.

The reasons for his resignation remain unclear so far.

Comment: More from Sputnik:

Mahmoud Vaezi, the chief of staff of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, has categorically refuted media reports claiming that the country's leader accepted the resignation of Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. Later in the day, media reported that Rouhani had accepted the minister's unexpected resignation.

The foreign minister's aide, in turn, told Sputnik on Monday that the ministry's personnel was unaware of Zarif's resignation or the possible reasons behind it. The aide also stressed that Zarif's Instagram account was official and it had not been hacked.

The move was confirmed by Iranian Deputy Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Seyed Abbas Moussavi, according to the Fars news agency. The Iranian parliament will debate on the resignation of Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at Tuesday's session, a source told Sputnik.

Well that's weird.

What's weirder is that Rouhani has 'counter-instagrammed':

The hashtags, in Farsi, say "#Zarif_is_not_alone," and "#Zarif_is_staying."

Zarif could just be sick and tired of it all. He's been doing this as long as Lavrov.

Macron welcomes Trump's agreement to keep some troops in Syria

Sputnik
Mon, 25 Feb 2019 17:36 UTC

Last week, US President Donald Trump reportedly agreed that about 400 troops would remain in Syria after the withdrawal of most of its forces. The step was taken after two months of pressure by Washington's allies and resignations of American top defence officials.

French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed Trump's reported decision to leave about 400 US military personnel in Syria. "On the US decision, I can only but welcome this choice", Macron told a news conference with his Iraqi counterpart Barham Salih. "The US decision is a good thing. We will continue to operate in the region within the coalition".

The remaining forces will be stationed in two areas: 200 at the al-Tanf base and around 200 more soldiers in north-eastern Syria as peacekeepers, Reuters reported last week, citing a US administration official. As the official noted, quoted by the media, those deployed in the northeast would be a part of a larger contingent, including Washington's European allies. The latter's contribution will number around 800-1,500 soldiers.

Comment: See also:

UN report: Israel buries 'nuclear waste with radioactive content' in Golan Heights

Sputnik
Mon, 25 Feb 2019 21:38 UTC

The UN has been adopting resolutions condemning the Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights for decades; however Tel Aviv hasn't changed its policies and is continuing to exercise sovereignty over the disputed territory, including holding municipal elections.

Secretary-General of the UN Antonio Guterres has presented a report to the UN Human Rights Council based on Syrian accusations against Israel's action in the Golan Heights, saying that Israel has been burying "nuclear waste with radioactive content in 20 different areas populated by Syrian citizens" in the occupied territory. Most of the waste has allegedly been dumped in the area near Al-Sheikh Mountain.

According to the report, this puts "the lives and health of Syrians in the occupied Syrian Golan in jeopardy" and violates the 4th Geneva Convention.

Israel is suspected of possessing nuclear weapons, but no evidence proving or disproving the suspicion has been presented so far. Tel Aviv has neither confirmed, nor denied possessing nuclear weapons.

A half-billion dollars' worth of sanctioned oil is sitting offshore Venezuela

RT
Tue, 26 Feb 2019 14:38 UTC

Tankers loaded with 8.36 million barrels of crude are reportedly floating off the Venezuelan coast as the sanction-hit country struggles to find buyers for its oil.

The crude is worth upwards of half-a-billion dollars, according to shipping reports and ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. An armada of 16 ships holds cargoes belonging to state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), Chevron, Valero Energy and Rosneft Oil.

Sources told Bloomberg that oil ventures owned by PDVSA with Rosneft, Chevron, Total SA and Equinor ASA, whose upgraders convert tar-like Venezuelan crude into oil that refineries can process, reduced rates this week because they ran out of space to store crude. PDVSA had to put some of that oil onto tankers to clear space and continue to operate at lower rates.

Shipments to the United States, once Venezuela's largest customer, have dried up, so that the South American nation had to turn its focus to other consumers, including China and India. Imports of Venezuela's oil by India surged 66 percent in the first half of February to 620,000 barrels a day.

A person with knowledge of the situation said the PDVSA-Rosneft joint-venture, Petromonagas upgrader, isn't processing oil after running out of space to store their production.

Comment: See also:

Lebanon speaks out on UK's plan to ban Hezbollah: 'Resistance is not terrorism'

Sputnik
Tue, 26 Feb 2019 12:45 UTC

On Monday, the UK announced it would ban Hezbollah's political wing as a terrorist organisation, following a decade-old ban on its military wing. It comes despite Hezbollah fighting against jihadists in Syria for many years, with Britain saying that the movement had sought to "destabilise" the balance of power in the Middle East.

Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil has commented that the UK's decision to extend its ban on Hezbollah would not affect its relations with Lebanon, despite Hezbollah having a role in the country's government. Bassil said, as quoted by AFP, that senior British officials had agreed the issue should not have an "impact on bilateral relationships between Lebanon and Britain".

Britain's move "will not have direct negative consequences on Lebanon because we are already used to this situation with other countries", he added. "If the whole world stood up and said the resistance is terrorism, this does not make it terrorism as far as the Lebanese are concerned," he said in separate comments reported by Reuters.

Hezbollah is a Shiite paramilitary and political organisation, which was founded in the 1980s and originally aimed to end Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon. Hezbollah has been active in the Syrian war, working with the government of the country to oust terrorists throughout its territory.

Comment: See also:

Mourao: Brazil won't consider 'under any circumstances' even one US base for intervention in Venezuela

Brazil Monitor
Mon, 25 Feb 2019 00:00 UTC

The Brazilian government does not consider "under any circumstances" to allow the United States to use Brazil's territory in a possible intervention in Venezuela, said Vice President Hamilton Mourao on Monday in an interview with GloboNews TV in Bogota, where he participates in the meeting of the Lima Group.

In the interview, Mourao also said that Brazil is working to prevent the Venezuelan crisis from generating conflict in the region and said that it would be "very bad" to bring to South America a climate similar to what existed in the Cold War era.

"Brazil does not consider this at all," Mourao said when asked if the country would allow the United States to use its territory in a possible intervention.

"You have to always remember that any presence of foreign force in our country has to have authorization from the National Congress, the government can not simply do this," explained the deputy, adding that "the majority" of the government of President Jair Bolsonaro is against allowing the US to use Brazilian territory for intervention in the neighboring country.

Former Israeli minister, Gonen Segev, sentenced to 11 years for spying for Iran

Sputnik
Tue, 26 Feb 2019 12:13 UTC

The former official, who served as energy and infrastructure minister from 1995 to 1996, has agreed to a plea bargain on charges of espionage and transfer of information to Iran.

The Jerusalem District Court on Tuesday sentenced Gonen Segev, a former Israeli minister of energy and infrastructure, to 11 years in prison for spying for Iran after a plea bargain was agreed.

Prosecutors Geula Cohen and Rachel Aharoni Zeevi stated:

"The indictment which Segev confessed to as part of the plea bargain included grave crimes of spying and providing information to an enemy with the intent of harming national security. He confessed that he acted on behalf of the Iranian intelligence forces for five years, maintained regular communications with his handlers using a clandestine channel and that he provided them with a diverse range of information - including top secret information."

According to the prosecutors, the former minister met with his handlers both in Iran and other countries at secret locations. As they specified, Segev sought to promote contact between Iran and Israelis he knew in the defence establishment.

Explaining his motives, Segev previously stated, as quoted by Channel 10, he tried to help Israel and return as a "hero" under the guise of spying for Iran.

Comment: See also: Former Israeli Energy Minister arrested on suspicion of spying for Iran

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Puppet Masters

Pierre Omidyar: A Billionaire Prone to Reclusiveness, And His Trove of State Surveillance Secrets

Pakistan-India showdown: What you're not being told

Let the latest media circus begin: Cohen to testify on 'crimes' committed by Trump in office

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif announces sudden resignation - via Instagram. President Rouhani rejects it

Macron welcomes Trump's agreement to keep some troops in Syria

UN report: Israel buries 'nuclear waste with radioactive content' in Golan Heights

A half-billion dollars' worth of sanctioned oil is sitting offshore Venezuela

Lebanon speaks out on UK's plan to ban Hezbollah: 'Resistance is not terrorism'

Mourao: Brazil won't consider 'under any circumstances' even one US base for intervention in Venezuela

Former Israeli minister, Gonen Segev, sentenced to 11 years for spying for Iran

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