Puppet Masters
As Iran claims to have captured spies working for the US and accuses Mr Bolton of trying to start "war of the century", new details have emerged of the president's fondness for baiting his adviser in the company of top officials - including foreign dignitaries.
During a White House Situation Room meeting last year, Mr Trump reportedly said to his hawkish national security chief: "Ok, John, let me guess, you want to nuke them all?"
According to the report by the Axios website, Mr Trump turned to Mr Bolton in an Oval Office meeting with Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar and said: "John, is Ireland one of those countries you want to invade?"
That refusal ignited a chain of events that has consumed Washington for more than two years - including Comey's firing by Trump, the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and ongoing claims that Trump obstructed justice.
Now an answer is emerging. Sources tell RealClearInvestigations that Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz will soon file a report with evidence indicating that Comey was misleading the president. Even as he repeatedly assured Trump that he was not a target, the former director was secretly trying to build a conspiracy case against the president, while at times acting as an investigative agent.
Two U.S. officials briefed on the inspector general's investigation of possible FBI misconduct said Comey was essentially "running a covert operation against" the president, starting with a private "defensive briefing" he gave Trump just weeks before his inauguration. They said Horowitz has examined high-level FBI text messages and other communications indicating Comey was actually conducting a "counterintelligence assessment" of Trump during that January 2017 meeting in New York.
Enter Ukraine
With the election of Ukraine's new President, Volodymyr Zelensky, times have apparently changed. Long gone are the days of just 20 short months ago in which a Ukrainian court ruled that government officials meddled for Hillary in 2016 by releasing details of Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort's 'Black Book' to Clinton campaign staffer Alexandra Chalupa.
Forget that Ukraine's previous administration fired its top investigator who was leading a wide-ranging corruption probe into a Ukrainian energy firm whose board Hunter Biden sat on, Burisma Holdings (after Joe Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in loan guarantees from the 'scandal free' Obama administration).
Nevermind that Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed in a recent interview with Oliver Stone that "it is perfectly obvious that Ukrainian oligarchs gave money to Trump's opponents." Perhaps Burisma's owners are included in that list.
Speaking with Hill.TV, Giuliani said that investigators will undoubtedly focus on Epstein's inner circle, and whether individuals knew or participated in Epstein's sex crimes.
"If you spent this much time with him and he was so involved with these underaged girls — who did you see him with and what was he doing and what did he tell you and what did he say to you and how could you have missed it," said Giuliani. "Maybe some were innocent — maybe some weren't, but I think they're going to investigate everybody."
By October 2016, two years into his term as prefect of the Vatican's Secretariat for the Economy, Cardinal George Pell had become aware of a Vatican dicastery handling large amounts of unregistered cash in offshore accounts.
But nearly three years later the questions raised by Cardinal Pell about the management of Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See (APSA), the dicastery which handles the Vatican's real estate and financial assets, have seemingly gone unanswered. Pell had identified money laundering and fraud risks related to the APSA's use of foreign bank accounts and had questioned particular asset and real estate transactions.
Keen to move swiftly ahead with Pope Francis' mandate to root out mismanagement and possible corruption in Vatican financial operations, the cardinal prefect contacted Australian banking friends in London in 2016 to find out more. They estimated that possibly as much as €100 million could be held in these accounts, primarily in the branches of two private banks located in Lugano, Switzerland.
Despite clear indications that the Iranian regime intended to target British shipping in the region in retaliation for Gibraltar's detention of an Iranian tanker accused of transporting crude oil to Syria in defiance of international sanctions, Mrs May is said to have declined "repeated overtures" to establish a British-American security operation, because "it would look like the UK backed Washington's wider hardline stance on Iran".
While the Trump administration has pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal and imposed sanctions on the theocratic regime, the United Kingdom has followed along with the EU in trying to keep it on life support — despite the Iranians' more or less naked belligerence towards them.
Comment: See also:
- UK begs EU for 'protection in Persian Gulf' as they escalate tensions with Iran
- Syria-bound oil tanker detained in Gibraltar - UPDATE
- Iran's 'duty' to seize British tanker if UK fails to release captured ship - senior official at IRGC
- Europeans planning naval mission to ensure safe passage in Persian Gulf
Pakistan had, until now, denied all knowledge of Bin Laden's presence within its borders, but Khan confirmed that Pakistan's main spy agency, the Inter Services Intelligence agency (ISI), had provided the CIA with the lead that ultimately allowed Seal Team Six to kill the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks in his Abbottabad hideout on May 2, 2011, after a ten-year-long, worldwide manhunt.
"And yet it was ISI that gave the information which led to the location of Osama Bin Laden. If you ask CIA it was ISI which gave the initial location through the phone connection," Khan said Monday, adding that the incident "hugely embarrassed Pakistan" at the time. "Here we were an ally of the US and the US did not trust us. And they actually came and bombed and killed a man in our territory," Khan said.
Comment: The support for this web of deception continues with yet another layer of 'information'.
See also:
- Osama Bin Laden Raid? Resident, Witness Says Not True
- Osama Bin Laden Killed by U.S. Drone Strike in Pakistan, or Shot in the Head?
- White House Revises Account Of Bin Laden's Final Moments
- 'Bin Laden dead long before US raid'
- Iran can prove Bin Laden was dead long before US raid - Iranian minister
- Did Osama Really Die on Monday in Abbottabad?
- US 'alerted to Bin Laden compound in 2009'
- Did Obama Really Kill Osama?
Hunt announced a "European-led maritime protection mission to support safe passage of crew and cargo" in a statement to Britain's Parliament in London on Monday.
The U.K. demanded the immediate release of the Stena Impero, and summoned Iran's charge d'affaires in London, Mohsen Omidzamani, following the incident in one of the world's critical shipping chokepoints. The government threatened Iran with "serious consequences" and advised U.K. vessels to avoid the area, and to inform the government if they planned to travel there.
"Let us be clear, under international law Iran had no right to obstruct the ship's passage, let alone board her," Hunt told the House of Commons. "It was therefore an act of state piracy."
The Foreign Secretary said the U.K. didn't want to escalate tensions with Iran, which have been rising after the U.S. pulled out of the international nuclear deal and imposed new sanctions. Hunt said Britain won't be taking part in the Trump administration's "maximum pressure" policy, because the London government remains committed to the 2015 multi-nation pact to limit Iran's nuclear program.
"If Iran continues on this dangerous path, they must accept the price will be a larger Western military presence in the waters along their coastline. Not because we wish to increase tensions but simply because freedom of navigation is a principle Britain and its allies will always defend."
Comment: More from Sputnik: Pompeo says US seeks coalition to secure Strait of Hormuz
Anything Iran says should be taken "with a grain of salt," US Secretary of State said in an interview with WFTV 9 on July 22 while on a work visit to Orlando, Florida, noting that the US is building a coalition that will patrol the Strait of Hormuz.See also: Virtue-signaling gone wrong: May refuses Trump offer to protect UK ships in order to please EU
Pompeo noted that the US doesn't want war with Iran, yet wants it to "stop engaging in terror activities around the world."
"We are working to change the behaviour of the leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran. And we are building out a coalition that will patrol the Strait of Hormuz to keep those shipping lanes, those sea lanes open. There'll be nations from all around the world that participate in that."
The blackout affected the entire nation, Minister of Communication and Information Jorge Rodríguez said on Monday evening, claiming that the power was knocked out by outside interference. The government has activated all the necessary protocols to provide safety for Venezuelans and work crews are already working to restore power.
Preliminary probe into the incident has suggested the "existence of an electromagnetic attack that sought to affect the hydroelectric generation system of Guayana, the main provider of this service in the country," the minister told state channel VTV.
While authorities are struggling to resolve the crisis, the US-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido has used the power outage to once again attack his political opponent, accusing President Maduro of "destroying" the country's electrical system.
Comment: See also:
- "Terrorists" set fire to power plant in Venezuela, widespread blackouts, oil production threatened
- China offers help to Venezuela to restore power amid nationwide blackout
- Russia assists Venezuela in energy facility attacks; US holds CSIS secret meeting
- Trump regime's electricity war in Venezuela more serious than first believed

Pakistani nuclear-capable surface-to-air ballistic missiles • Pakistani Prime Minister Khan
When asked by Fox News' Bret Baier if India offered to relinquish it nuclear arsenal, would Pakistan, Khan answered with an emphatic "yes. Because nuclear war is not an option. And between Pakistan and India, the idea of nuclear war is actually self-destruction, because we have two and a half thousand-mile border," Khan said.
The Pakistani PM added that the recent escalation in tensions between the two nuclear rivals, following sporadic outbreaks of violence in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack, was unnecessary.
Khan said he had asked US President Donald Trump to mediate between the two regional powers over the Kashmir issue, which Khan said was the only reason for which, over the past "70 years that we have not be able to act like civilized neighbors." Khan played down India's fiery response to reports of potential talks mediated by the US, in which New Delhi insisted that negotiations could only take place bilaterally. He instead urged India's government to come to the table.
"We're talking about 1.3 billion people on this Earth. Imagine the dividends of peace if somehow that issue could be resolved."















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