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Artificial Intelligence will make our forever wars truly forever

Dimitri Simes Jr.
American Conservative
Tue, 03 Sep 2019 19:20 UTC
predator drone
© boscorelli / Shutterstock
The world's major powers are in the middle of an artificial intelligence (AI) arms race. Over the next several years, China expects to deploy a fleet of unmanned submarines in contested waters like the South China Sea. Russia has tested its robotic tank on the battlefield in Syria and is reportedly working on developing autonomous nuclear submarines. For its part, the United States is in the process of testing autonomous swarming drones.

This development has major implications — not just for how wars are fought, but also for the future of American foreign policy. As AI grows into an essential part of modern warfare, it will become more difficult for the United States to exit wars and avoid new ones. In short, the use of AI could very well keep our military trapped in forever wars.

It's not difficult to see the appeal of AI in conflict. Robots are far more capable of processing large amounts of data than humans are. At a time when the speed of warfare is increasing, AI systems offer quicker reaction time, allowing militaries to lessen their reliance on human personnel — ultimately limiting bloodshed and lowering costs.

Unfortunately, there's another side of the coin. AI might also inspire unmerited confidence among top military brass. When humans are no longer doing the fighting, it's easy to conclude that the costs of war are smaller. Of course, that isn't true.
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Chess

Iran makes big diplomatic push toward nuclear deal solutions

Abbas Al Lawati and Arsalan Shahla
Bloomberg
Sun, 01 Sep 2019 16:38 UTC
Zarif
© Bria Webb/Reuters
Iranian FM Javad Zarif
Iran is ramping up negotiations as signs gather that it's closer to ending a showdown with Europe over the wobbling 2015 nuclear deal and easing a security crisis in the Persian Gulf.

Iran's top envoy Mohammad Javad Zarif held talks in Moscow with counterpart Sergei Lavrov as the threat of another erosion of Iran's compliance with the accord looms. His deputy Abbas Araghchi went to Paris with a team of economists and central bank officials to discuss a French proposal to help restore Iran's oil exports, the backbone of its economy.
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Bullseye

US won't stop at Iran nuclear deal, it'll tear up any accord as it sees fit, FM Zarif tells RT


RT
Tue, 03 Sep 2019 18:50 UTC
zarif
Tehran is self-reliant enough to survive without the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal, but if Europe doesn't save it, it won't be the last international accord the US will trample, the foreign minister of Iran has told RT.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif appeared on Oksana Boyko's show 'Worlds Apart' during his visit to Moscow, where he spoke to top-tier Russian officials. His trip comes at a time when European nations, fronted by France, are frantically trying to prop up the nuclear deal and to encourage Iran to stay in it.

The Europeans want the deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, to survive, but they are caught between Washington's pressure to cut Iran off, and Tehran's insistence that it has fully complied with the 2015 accord, and that the ball is now in Europe's court.
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Snakes in Suits

NYC mayor De Blasio logged just 7 hours at work for entire month of May

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Tue, 03 Sep 2019 18:47 UTC
de blasio
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasop spent just seven hours at City Hall during the month of May - when he was 'hard at work' launching his bid for the White House, according to records reviewed by the New York Post.

The Mayor showed up just six times in May in order to attend two meetings, four events and hold five phone calls - including his weekly appearance on WNYC radio, according to his official calendar.
The 11 appointments amounted to a meager one-fifth of the 50 meetings, calls and other events at City Hall on de Blasio's calendar for May 2018. He had a total 152 city events scheduled for the month. -New York Post
"If he's trying to show New Yorkers that he's over doing the job, he's doing a good job of it," one ex-aide told the Post, while another 'de Blasio insider' called the Mayor's attendance "real bad," adding "At this point, you've got to wonder how much of his heart is really in it."
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Vader

Huawei accuses US of hacking company's networks, intimidating employees

Tim Korso
Sputnik
Tue, 03 Sep 2019 18:42 UTC
hacker
© CC BY-SA 4.0 / Magnus916 / Hacker-1
Washington has repeatedly accused the Chinese tech giant of stealing technologies, as well as spying on its users under orders from Beijing, something that the company has vehemently denied. The US recently initiated a crackdown, banning Huawei from the American market.

Chinese tech giant Huawei has in a recent statement accused US authorities of using a number of "tools" in a bid to "disrupt the normal business operations" of the company and its partners. The tech giant argues that apart from typical "judicial and administrative powers", Washington has resorted to "a host of other unscrupulous means".

Most notably, among these "means" have been attempts to launch cyber-attacks against the company to "infiltrate [its] intranet and internal information systems" - a method of action that the US earlier claimed that Chinese companies were employing.
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Black Cat

MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell scrapes Russiagate's rock bottom

Aaron Mate
The Gray Zone
Tue, 03 Sep 2019 16:11 UTC
Lawrence O'Donnell Aaron Mate

Lawrence O'Donnell (L) Aaron Mate (R)
Aaron Maté slams MSNBC's latest Russiagate dud, exposing how Lawrence O'Donnell's embarrassing retraction is part of a pattern of bogus conspiracy theories that push the limits of political self-satire.


TRANSCRIPT

AARON MATÉ: When it comes to Russiagate, there have been too many embarrassing media stories to count. And somehow, after nearly three years of this, the most discredited journalists are finding new ways to discredit themselves. The latest is Lawrence O'Donnell of MSNBC. Speaking another prominent conspiracy theorist, Rachel Maddow, O'Donnell shared this bombshell claim.
LAWRENCE O'DONNELL: This single source close to Deutsche Bank has told me that the Trump - Donald Trump's loan documents there show that he has co-signers. That's how he was able to obtain those loans. And that the co-signers are Russian oligarchs.

RACHEL MADDOW: What? Really?

LAWRENCE O'DONNELL: That would explain, it seems to me, every kind word Donald Trump has ever said about Russia and Vladimir Putin, if true.
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Briefcase

Flynn lawyers are urging court intervention to view potential exculpatory classified files

Ivan Pentchoukov
The Epoch Times
Fri, 30 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC
Michael Flynn, Sydney Powell
© Alex Wroblewski/Getty Images
Michael Flynn and his lawyer Sidney Powell leave the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse in Washington on June 24, 2019.
The attorneys for former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn called for a court intervention on Aug. 30 as the government continues to deny them security clearances required to view classified documents which they say likely contain exculpatory information. Attorneys for Flynn stated in a status report filed on Aug. 30:
"Our attempts to resolve that issue with the government have come to a dead-end, thus requiring the intervention of this Court. Our client held the highest security clearance the government provides. We know — but not in any detail because of our lack of clearance — that he briefed and debriefed the DIA [Defense Intelligence Agency] about his foreign contacts and travel. All that material is relevant to the charges against him, and it is most likely Brady [exculpatory] material to boot."
In response to Flynn's claims, the prosecutors said that they have not provided any classified information to the defense and that "the government is not aware of any classified information that requires disclosures to the defendant or his counsel."

Comment: More to this story from The Epoch Times, 2/9/2019 Flynn accuses prosecutors of hiding exculpatory evidence, demands removal
The attorneys accused the government of singling out Flynn for prosecution "motivated by a discriminatory purpose" and suggested that the evidence used against the former national security adviser may have been illegally obtained.

The defense attorney further asked the court to order that the prosecutors preserve all evidence, including the communications of the staff at the now-closed office of special counsel Robert Mueller.

Powell demands in the filing that the defense team examine information even if the prosecutors deem it inculpatory. According to Powell, the kind of conduct she accuses the prosecutors of is pervasive in the DOJ.

Among the exculpatory evidence Powell believes the defense team may be concealing are FBI notes memorializing the interviews between bureau agent Joe Pientka and senior DOJ official Bruce Ohr. Powell notes that the prosecutors in Flynn's case worked with Ohr in 2016 and 2017. Special counsel prosecutors Andrew Weissmann and Zainab Ahmad were in touch with Ohr in 2016 and 2017, Powell claims.

"Weissmann and Ahmad were not in the DOJ chain of command to be informed by Mr. Ohr at all. They had no legitimate reason to be privy to his operation with FusionGPS and Christopher Steele. It is imperative the defense obtain the Bruce Ohr 302s and notes — unredacted — and all evidence of this circuitous and illicit operation."

"Judge Rosemary Collyer, Chief Judge of the FISA court, has already found serious Fourth Amendment violations by the FBI in areas that likely also involve their actions against Mr. Flynn. Much of the NSA's activity is in direct violation of the Fourth Amendment," Powell wrote.


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X

Rouhani: Iran will never agree to talks with US


RT
Tue, 03 Sep 2019 06:24 UTC
Rouhani Trump
© Unknown
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani • US President Donald Trump
Washington has repeatedly proposed dialogue with Tehran, but the Islamic Republic will always turn down such proposals, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has said, shutting down Donald Trump's offer to hold talks.

"No decision has ever been taken to hold talks with the US and there has been a lot of offers for talks but our answer will always be negative," Rouhani told his country's parliament on Tuesday.

Last week, US President Donald Trump stated that he was ready to meet with Rouhani "if the circumstances were right." In order for such a meeting to occur, Tehran would have to "be a good player" and acquiesce to a number of US demands, including the abandonment of its ballistic missiles program, the president said.

Rouhani said at the time that he had no interest in dialogue with Trump as long as US sanctions against Iran remain in place.

Comment: See also:

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Star of David

Hezbollah TV: Footage of missile attack on Israeli army vehicle, response to Israeli drone attacks

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Mon, 02 Sep 2019 20:50 UTC
Hez missile attack
© SCREENSHOT/AL MANAR
Recording footage of Hezbollah anti-tank missile attack on IDF vehicle near Avivim in Galilee.
Hezbollah's Al Manar TV has aired footage which purports to show Sunday's attack on an Israeli military vehicle across the Lebanese-Israeli border at Avivim in the far north of Israel.

Hezbollah and Lebanese media sources had claimed the attack "killed and wounded those inside" — something which Israeli officials, including PM Netanyahu, have denied. The attack involving two guided anti-tank missiles was hailed as successful by Hezbollah leadership, and led to brief Israeli shelling of locations in southern Lebanon; however, no casualties were reported.

The second projectile seen in the video, described by reports as a Kornet anti-tank missile, can be seen landing in the smoke and blast radius of the first. It appears a direct hit on the IDF armored vehicle.


Comment: See also:

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Briefcase

Obama counsel Greg Craig denies lying to investigators, wasn't an agent of Ukraine

Jerry Dunleavy
Washington Examiner
Wed, 28 Aug 2019 04:49 UTC
Greg Craig
© Win McNamee/Mark Wilson/Getty Images
Attorney Greg Craig arrives at US District Court in Washington, DC.
Greg Craig, the Obama White House counsel swept up in a case spun off from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, denied on the stand Wednesday allegations he'd misled investigators looking into whether he'd acted as an agent of Ukraine.

Craig, 74, is charged with misleading Department of Justice investigators about his role promoting the report put together at the behest of the Kremlin-linked government in Ukraine regarding the country's controversial prosecution of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko for alleged corruption.

Craig testified that he did not lie to investigators and that his only involvement in any media outreach was to stop the whitewashing of the conclusions of his report by Ukraine's Ministry of Justice or by people working for Manafort, saying his report was "bad news for Ukraine" and that he was motivated by a desire for his report to be portrayed accurately in the media.

Comment: More from saraacarter.com, 11/4/2019: Thursday Indictments...White House official Greg Craig...
Interestingly, the indictment references Craig's contacts in the media and that he lied about those contacts to investigators.

"It proposed leaking the report to a selected media outlet before it's release, having a former Congressman of a U.S. based lobbying firm working for the Government of Ukraine pre-brief the selected journalist on the report, and then ensuring that the journalist "would be given an off-the record briefing call with [Craig]."
And from Bloomberg Law, 27/8/2019: Greg Craig Trial Poses Public Relations Test for Skadden
In 2012, the firm agreed to develop an independent report on the prosecution of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko by the Yanukovych-led government, which hired Skadden. The engagement drew criticism in Ukraine as a ploy to whitewash deficiencies in Tymoshenko's trial.

Of particular concern was the $12,000 Ukraine said it was paying Skadden for the report. At that time, the identity of the report's third-party financier — a Ukrainian businessman named Viktor Pinchuk — wasn't disclosed, and neither was the more than $4 million he allowed Manafort's team to funnel to Skadden.
See also:

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