Puppet Masters
"We are currently striking Islamic Jihad terror targets in Gaza," the IDF tweeted. "This comes after rockets were indiscriminately fired from Gaza at Israeli civilians today." In a previous tweet two hours prior, they noted two rockets fired into southern Israel from Gaza were intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system.
Reports from inside the Gaza Strip said Gaza city and Hattin, west of Khan Younis, had been hit by IDF attacks. Others reported airstrikes near Rafah, in the south of the territory. Explosions and the roar of IAF jet engines, as well as the whine of drone motors, were recorded by observers in the early morning hours.
President Evo Morales fled Bolivia to Mexico on Tuesday, after opposition leaders declared his October re-election fraudulent and the Bolivian police and military turned on him. Since then, opposition senator Jeanine Añez has declared herself "interim president," without a vote or recognition by Morales's Movement for Socialism majority party.
Pro-Morales protesters, outraged by the blatant coup, have since faced off with riot police on the streets of La Paz. Añez' grip on power is anything but secure.
Putin told reporters on Thursday:
"There is a situation where there is no leadership in the country... Anarchy. It resembles Libya somewhat. Although there is no direct armed invasion from the outside, the country is actually on the verge of chaos."
Comment: Traps are set. Triggers are initiated. The targeted populace is unsuspecting until it is too late. The pattern is as apparent as the source. Putin's accurate assessment and warnings will have little effect on the immanent destruction of Bolivia, a coup years in the planning and execution.
See also:
Dissection of the coup: Top Bolivian coup plotters were grads from SOA, attachés in FBI police programs
The diplomat, as I recall, suggested that Yovanovitch had just caused a commotion in Ukraine a few weeks before that country's presidential election by calling for the firing of one of the prosecutors aligned with the incumbent president.
The diplomat related that a more senior State official, David Hale, was about to travel to Ukraine and was prepping to be confronted about Yovanovitch's comments. I remember the diplomat joking something to the effect of, "we always say that the Geneva Convention is optional for our Kiev staff."
The Geneva Convention is the UN-backed pact enacted during the Cold War that governs the conduct of foreign diplomats in host countries and protects them against retribution. But it strictly mandates that foreign diplomats "have a duty not to interfere in the internal affairs of that State" that hosts them. You can read the convention's rules here.
Comment: See also:
- Ex- ambassador Yovanovitch lies under oath: Communicated with Dem staffer on 'delicate' issue after 'whistleblower' complaint, emails show
- Former Ukraine ambassador claims Trump broke 'sacred trust' with US diplomats in a self-serving testimony
- The bloom is off the ruse: Yovanovich transcript is a case study in narrative construction
- US ambassador to Kiev sacked amid 'meddling' accusations from Ukraine's top prosecutor
- Top Ukrainian justice official: US ambassador gave us a 'do not prosecute list'
The report, released by the International Institute of Finance (IIF) on Thursday, showed that global debt surged by $7.5 trillion in the first six months of 2019. The IIF said the overall number hit $250.9 trillion at the end of this period, and will exceed $255 trillion by the end of 2019.
"China and the U.S. accounted for over 60% of the increase. Similarly, EM debt also hit a new record of $71.4 trillion (220% of GDP). With few signs of slowdown in the pace of debt accumulation, we estimate that global debt will surpass $255 trillion this year," the IIF said in the report.
Rising debt across the world has been a big concern for investors and has also been flagged as the next breaking point by a number of economists. Record-low interest rates make it extremely easy for corporates and sovereigns to borrow more money.
"However, with diminishing scope for further monetary easing in many parts of the world, countries with high levels of government debt (Italy, Lebanon) — as well as those where government debt is growing rapidly (Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, and Greece) — may find it harder to turn to fiscal stimulus," the IIF report stated.
Al-Bara Shishani, a Georgian national, was apprehended near Ukraine's capital, Kiyv, the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) said in a Facebook statement on November 15.
The statement said the CIA and Georgia's Interior Ministry participated in the operation.
Vika Klimicheva, a spokeswoman for Georgia's state security service, confirmed the man was being held in Ukraine and said his birth name was Cezar Tokhosashvili.
Shishani has served as a deputy to Abu Omar al-Shishani, the man the Pentagon has described as the IS's "minister of war."
After the latter was killed in 2016, Shishani fled to Turkey and in 2018 used a fake passport to travel to Ukraine, where he continued to coordinate IS activities, the SBU said.
He was detained in the Kyiv region near a private home where he resided, the statement said, without saying when the operation took place.
"A portrait examination has proved that the detained foreigner is indeed a wanted leader of the Islamic State," according to the SBU.
Comment: What RFE/RL doesn't - and never will - say is that there's a reason ISIS has a foothold in Ukraine. They are partners of sorts with the neo-Nazis there in their war against Russia. For just a peak into this relationship, see:
- Ukraine continues to provide passports to ISIS militants
- ISIS in Ukraine: A Christmas Present to Russian Christians From Western Multiculturalists
- The plot thickens: FSB detains ISIS member 'who planned murder of a Donbass leader on behalf of Ukraine'
- Leader of Ukrainian nationalists: ISIS is our ally in fight against Russia
- ISIS in Ukraine wants to take over drug trafficking in Europe
- Death trafficking: ISIS militants given passage through Odessa to Donbass
- Ukraine's Geraschchenko backs idea 'to help ISIS take revenge on Russian soldiers in Syria' under Sharia Law"
- Western media celebrates ISIS fighting in Ukraine
The Federal Communications Commission will vote on Nov. 22 and is proposing requiring the carriers to remove and replace equipment from the companies. Barr said in a letter to the FCC released on Thursday that "their own track record, as well as the practices of the Chinese government, demonstrate that Huawei and ZTE cannot be trusted."
He added that "we should not signal that Huawei and ZTE are anything other than a threat to our collective security, for that is exactly what they, through their actions, have shown themselves to be."
Huawei and ZTE did not immediately comment.

President Bashar al-Assad speaking during a special broadcast interview in Syria's capital Damascus on October 31, 2019 .
The war in Syria will end after the victory over terrorism rather than after the adoption of a new constitution for the country.
Assad also said the Syrian government and the people of the Syrian Arab Republic will in no way agree to a partition of the country."Some are led to believe the settlement of the conflict depends on the work of the constitutional committee. The war in Syria did not start because of disagreements around the Constitution, the war in Syria began because terrorists killed military, police and civilians, as well as because they destroyed infrastructure. By virtue of this, the war will end when terrorism is defeated."
For the past six months, residents of the Issawiya neighborhood of East Jerusalem have been subjected to daily raids, arrests and beatings, and constant drone surveillance, culminating in the killing of 20-year-old Mohammad Samir Obeid at the hands of Israeli forces. Obeid was shot dead while holding his hands up in the air and waving a white cloth. 80 Palestinians were injured in subsequent protests due an exceedingly violent response by Israeli forces.
Now - under Netanyahu's orders - the Israeli military has vigorously escalated its aggression in Gaza in an effort to provoke a war that will allow Netanyahu to gain immunity from prosecution.
The January 2017 report, called an Intelligence Community Assessment, followed months of leaks to the media that had falsely suggested illicit ties between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin while also revealing that such contacts were the subject of a federal investigation. Its release cast a pall of suspicion over Trump just days before he took office, setting the tone for the unfounded allegations of conspiracy and treason that have engulfed his first term.
What was Brennan's motive? Among the possibilities is hostility within his camp toward Michael Flynn (foreground), Trump's future reform-minded national security adviser.
Comment: Kudos to Aaron Maté for putting together a detailed report on the nefarious Mr. Brennan. It will take years to repair the damage he has done to the country.
- The 'Russia collusion' clues all point back to John Brennan
- Veteran reporter Hersh told Ed Butowsky on Trump-Russia 'collusion': "It was a Brennan operation"
- John Brennan's plot: Infiltrate the Trump Campaign
- Spotlight in Spygate scandal moving onto the roles of the CIA and ex-director Brennan
- Will Russiagate mastermind John Brennan ever face justice?

The dubious death of a former British intelligence member living in Istanbul with his family is thought provoking and must raise serious questions.
The connection between the M16 and the White Helmets is often overlooked by the Western media, but on Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry made a startling revelation. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova revealed that "The White Helmets co-founder, James Le Mesurier, is a former agent of Britain's MI6, who has been spotted all around the world, including in the Balkans and the Middle East. His connections to terrorist groups were reported back during his mission in Kosovo." A few days later he was found dead...
Of course, Karen Pierce, the UK Permanent Representative to the UN, denied the Russian allegation, claiming that they were "categorically untrue. He was a British soldier," before describing the mercenary as a "true hero." The claim he is a "true hero" is a curious choice of words considering he has a long history of working alongside terrorists, as Zakharova correctly highlighted.













Comment: Gaza is at the mercy of Israeli politics and psychopathic leadership. Bibi is looking to shore up his political security. For Gantz, it is what he does best.
See also: