Puppet MastersS


Magnify

How professional lobbyists have worked to generate enthusiasm in Washington for a long proxy military conflict in Ukraine

Slobodan Kolomoets
RT
Tue, 26 Jul 2022 14:37 UTC
Javelin anti-tank missiles
© AP Photo/Efrem LukatskyJavelin anti-tank missiles
If you've wondered why so much Western media coverage of the Ukraine conflict seems to be based on "Kiev says," the answer is largely down to the power of lobbying. The Ukraine is always good and Russia is always bad narrative didn't create itself.

On July 11, Washington DC-based public affairs consultancy Ridgely Walsh registered as a Foreign Agent on behalf of Ukrainian interests with the US Justice Department.

The company - which typically advises Silicon Valley big hitters such as eBay, Google, Snapchat, SpaceX, and Uber - is just the latest Beltway operator to enlist under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA). This is archaic and abstruse legislation thrust to the forefront of the mainstream news agenda during the 'Russiagate' hoax of the Donald Trump presidency.

Last July, just 11 US-based firms were registered as lobbyists for Ukrainian clients under FARA. Over the course of 2021, these influencers attempted to pressure Washington to kill the Nord Stream 2 project, increase lethal aid shipments to Kiev, and post ever-more US and NATO forces along Russia's border.
Read More...
Wolf

NATO's arsonist-in-chief Jens Stoltenberg wants the Western public to pay for a Ukrainian fire he helped to ignite

Scott Ritter
RT
Wed, 27 Jul 2022 17:53 UTC
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg
© javier soriano/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesNATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg delivers his opening speech on Day 1 of the NATO summit at the Ifema center in Madrid.
EU members should 'stop complaining' and 'pay the price' for the Russia-Ukraine conflict, says leader of the bloc which started it all

The General Secretary of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, took it upon himself recently to lecture the members of the European Parliament about the need to "pay the price" necessary to keep Ukraine able to function and fight in its ongoing conflict with Russia. What he failed to admit was the major role he himself played in bringing about this conflict.

The Norwegian has an important role. In many ways, one can liken it to that of a fire commissioner whose job is to bring together various neighborhood fire departments into a large mutual aid pact, where a fire in one district automatically causes the resources of the neighboring districts to be dispatched in response. That's Article 5 of NATO's Charter in a nutshell.
Read More...
Map

The Middle East is no longer the US's backyard, it's over

Robert Inlakesh
The Last American Vagabond
Sun, 24 Jul 2022 00:00 UTC
Biden Middle East
US President Joe Biden's visit was a complete failure and shows that Washington no longer possesses the power that it claims over the region — neither diplomatically, nor militarily. The Biden administration failed to achieve any of its primary objectives in the region with his visit and instead of sending a strong message to its rivals in Tehran, affirmed that there is no military solution available against the Islamic Republic.

When the Biden administration announced that the President would make his first trip to the Middle East, by visiting both Tel Aviv and Riyadh, talk began to emerge of many major developments that may follow. Saudi Arabia and Israel were expected to grow significantly closer towards a normalization deal, with some progress seemingly made on that front, the only thing that seemed to change was Riyadh opening its skies to Israeli aircraft, and other than this, there really isn't anything to show for Joe Biden's visit.

An "Arab-Israel Axis" made headlines in the Western media prior to President Biden's visit to the region, with many expecting — following statements made about the potential for an "Arab NATO", by the King of Jordan, Abdullah II — a major unity deal to be discussed at the Arab Summit. At the very least, it was expected that the Israeli proposal for a joint air defense alliance against Iran — to be formed between Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members and Israel — would be discussed, yet there was no discussion about this at the Arab Summit meeting that Biden took part in.
Read More...
Monkey Wrench

Hezbollah's drones: No more safe skies for Israel

Firas Al-Shoufi
The Cradle
Tue, 26 Jul 2022 00:00 UTC
Hezbollah drones
The democratization and development of drone warfare among West Asia's resistance factions present a grave threat to the airspace security of their regional foes, notably Israel, vis-à-vis the Lebanese and Palestinian resistance in particular.

In this sense, it is not just conventional, ballistic, or surface-to-surface precision guided missiles that threatens Israel, the state that once enjoyed qualitative military superiority in the region's skies, and which, over the years of conflict with Arab states, excelled in aerial warfare.

Indeed the proliferation of lethal yet cost-effective, "kamikaze" drones are the new and evolving threat to Israel, spelling the end of the short-lived monopoly it once relished.

Hezbollah drones, activated

On 2 July, Lebanon's resistance movement Hezbollah dispatched three unarmed drones over the Karish gas field, in the disputed maritime economic zone between Lebanon and northern Israel.

The reconnaissance drones' flight close to the Energean production vessel reinforced the Jewish state's fears of the potential danger posed by drones. Overnight, Tel Aviv also realized that Hezbollah is very serious about carrying out its threat to prevent Israel from extracting gas from the disputed field.
Read More...
Eye 1

Former Greenpeace President Dr. Patrick Moore Says the Elites Have a 'Suicide Pact' to Reduce the World's Population

Chris Black
Investmentwatchblog.com
Tue, 26 Jul 2022 00:00 UTC
Dr. Patrick Moore
"We're now facing a situation where a huge number of very powerful organizations and elites at an international and at national levels are calling for policies that are basically a suicide pact.

Basically a death wish of some sort."


Full Show
Read More...
Magnify

Hungary sets up defense body in response to Ukrainian conflict, European economic crisis


RT
Tue, 26 Jul 2022 14:56 UTC
orban
© ReutersPrime Minister Viktor Orban
The Hungarian government has set up a new Defense Council led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban which has been given special decision-making authority, the PM's press secretary Bertalan Havasi announced on Tuesday.

As quoted by Hungarian news agency MTI, Havasi explained that the council was created in response to the military conflict in Ukraine and the ensuing economic crisis in Europe. He also noted that increased pressure from migration had made it necessary to pay special attention to protecting Hungary's security and sovereignty in the coming years.

The council will deal with proposals and reports regarding national security, public safety, border controls, national defense, migrant cases, natural disaster protections, counter-terrorism efforts and defense developments.
Read More...
Whistle

Grassley blasts FBI, DOJ as 'corrupted to their very core' after whistleblowers allege Biden family business coverup

Jordon Boyd
The Federalist
Tue, 26 Jul 2022 00:00 UTC
WrayGrassley
© PBS Newshour/YouTube/KJNFBI Director Christopher Wray • Republican Senator Chuck Grassley
The FBI and Department of Justice are under scrutiny for applying a double standard of justice to their political enemies and prematurely closing investigations — specifically into Hunter Biden — that could yield information that would hurt their preferred political outcomes. In a scathing letter addressed to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray on Monday, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley detailed how partisanship has long tainted how the FBI and DOJ conduct their investigations. He said:
"Attorney General Garland and Director Wray, simply put, based on the allegations that I've received from numerous whistleblowers, you have systemic and existential problems within your agencies. You have an obligation to the country to take these allegations seriously, immediately investigate and take steps to institute fixes to these and other matters before you."
Relying on reports from "highly credible" whistleblowers in both government agencies, Grassley specifically explained how the FBI sought to "improperly discredit negative Hunter Biden information as disinformation and caused investigative activity to cease." Because of the actions of several high-ranking federal officials, Grassley said, "verified and verifiable derogatory information on Hunter Biden was falsely labeled as disinformation."
"The aforementioned allegations put a finer point on concerns that I have raised for many years about political considerations infecting the decision-making process at the Justice Department and FBI. If these allegations are true and accurate, the Justice Department and FBI are — and have been — institutionally corrupted to their very core to the point in which the United States Congress and the American people will have no confidence in the equal application of the law."

Comment: Justice corrupted can beg no mercy.
FBI supervisory intelligence agent Brian Auten opened in August 2020 the assessment that was later used by the agency, according to the disclosures.

The new information comes after Auten was involved in the Trump-Russia investigation, including interviewing Igor Danchenko, the alleged main source for British ex-spy Christopher Steele's dossier in 2017. Congressional sources confirmed to the Washington Examiner that Auten is the "Supervisory Intel Agent" from DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz's 2019 report on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuse.

Grassley said the "volume and consistency" of the whistleblower allegations "substantiate their credibility." The claims come as the U.S. attorney's office in Delaware is reportedly nearing a decision on whether to charge Hunter Biden, who has denied any wrongdoing.

The assessment by Auten in August 2020 was opened the same month Grassley and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) received a briefing from the FBI "that purportedly related to our Biden investigation and a briefing for which the contents were later leaked in order to paint the investigation in a false light," Grassley said.

The senator said Senate Democrats asked for a briefing in July 2020 "from the very same FBI HQ team that discredited the derogatory Hunter Biden information."

The FBI inquiry into Hunter Biden reportedly began as a tax investigation, then expanded into a scrutiny of potential money-laundering and foreign lobbying; the DOJ has declined to hand over investigative details.


Read More...
X

High Court rejects judicial review of children's COVID vaccination, puts government above the law when following 'the science'

Stephen Jackson
The Daily Sceptic
Mon, 25 Jul 2022 07:01 UTC
High Court/Babe
© Medical News Today/Stock Photo/KJN
In a decision that is extremely disappointing and of grave concern, the High Court has dismissed outright the claimant's application for judicial review and to challenge the offer of Pfizer's mRNA injectables to healthy five to 11 year-olds. Mrs Justice Farbey's decision on July 19th 2022 reveals the court's determined and seemingly now absolute reluctance to scrutinise Government decisions where Covid is involved.

As it stands, it also arguably leads to the conclusion that the court will not entertain challenge to any:
  • ministerial decision said to be in response to a pandemic reliant on expert advice;
  • advice or decisions of any expert regulatory body (certainly including the MHRA and JCVI);
  • poor or inaccurate information being provided by the Government to the public about medical treatments (regardless of any misinformation or coercion).
There could be an exception, for example a case of obvious fraud, but it is hard to imagine those circumstances being discovered.

With the High Court declaring the application "totally without merit", the only way forward now is to the Court of Appeal, but this carries great risk, since complete endorsement of this decision by that court would set a precedent that other judges would have to follow.
Read More...
Network

Disinfo board redux: Former Google 'disinformation expert' given top White House cyber role

Allum Bokhari
Breitbart
Mon, 25 Jul 2022 00:00 UTC
Gloster
© UnknownDeputy National Cyber Director Camille Stewart Gloster
The White House's Office of the National Cyber Director has a new Deputy National Cyber Director: Camille Stewart Gloster, a former Google executive who specialized in removing "disinformation" from the tech giant's app store, and in her spare time rants about "systemic racism" in America.

Gloster is a prime example of the extensively documented revolving door between Google and Democrat administrations. Prior to working for the tech giant, she was Senior Policy Advisor for Cyber, Infrastructure & Resilience Policy at the Department of Homeland Security under President Obama.

At Google, she was Head of Security Policy for Google Play and Android at Google, where she led "security, privacy, election integrity, and dis/mis-information."

In a tweet, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) accused the Biden administration of appointing a leftist "social justice warrior" to run the cyber office. "The Big Tech, Big Government alliance continues," said Sen. Hawley.
Read More...
Clipboard

Ukraine government issues blacklist of 'Russian propagandists'

Finn McRedmond
The Post
Mon, 25 Jul 2022 00:00 UTC
Ukraine blacklist
© Center for Countering Disinformation
The Government of Ukraine has issued a blacklist of individuals who they judge to be "promoting Russian propaganda" — including a number of prominent Western intellectuals.

The "Center for Countering Disinformation," established in 2021 under Volodymyr Zelensky and headed by former lawyer Polina Lysenko, sits within the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine. Its stated aim is to detect and counter "propaganda" and "destructive disinformation" and to prevent the "manipulation of public opinion."

On July 14th it published on its website a list of politicians, academics, activists that are "promoting Russian propaganda" — including several high-profile Western intellectuals and politicians. Republican Senator Rand Paul, former Democrat Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, military and geopolitical analyst Edward N. Luttwak, realist political scientist John Mearsheimer and heterodox journalist Glenn Greenwald were all included on the list. The list does not explain what the consequences are for anyone mentioned.
Read More...