Puppet MastersS


Bullseye

Former AG Michael Mukasey slams CNN: 'You're misleading a lot of people' with Russia collusion theories

Trent Baker
Breitbart
Wed, 24 Apr 2019 17:07 UTC
mukasey and cuomo
In a Tuesday one-on-one interview on CNN's "Cuomo Prime Time," former Attorney General Michael Mukasey and host Chris Cuomo debated FBI special counsel Robert Mueller's findings from his almost two-year investigation into alleged Russian collusion in the 2016 presidential election.

The former attorney general under President George W. Bush called out Cuomo and CNN for "misleading a lot of people" with their collusion theories without full knowledge of the report.

Mukasey asserted that President Donald Trump was "being investigated for a crime that didn't happen and that he certainly didn't commit."
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Bad Guys

US can't compete with new Russian weapons, will rely on nukes if it 'has to'


RT
Thu, 25 Apr 2019 16:17 UTC
laser-guided bomb field test
© REUTERS/US Navy/HandoutA laser-guided bomb fired from a U.S. Marine Corps F-35B fighter jet strikes a fixed ground tank test target during a guided weapons release test at Edwards Air Force Base, California
Despite a defense budget bigger than the next 7 countries combined, the US says Russia is pulling ahead in a new arms race, and the Pentagon has no choice but to rely on its nuclear deterrent. But how sincere are they being?

"It takes two to race," David Trachtenberg, the US deputy undersecretary of defense, said this week, adding that America is "not interested in matching the Russians system for system." He also casually noted that "the Russians are developing an incredible amount of new nuclear weapons systems" and generally "are doing a number of things we are simply not doing."

Talking at the Brookings Institution in Washington, a leading think tank, Trachtenberg said that Russia has recently launched a "military modernization program" by "completely rescaling and replacing a lot of their nuclear systems both at the strategic level and the non-strategic level."
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Eye 2

The UAE's malign influence operations are buried in a footnote in the Mueller Report

Helena Cobban
Mondoweiss
Tue, 23 Apr 2019 16:21 UTC
Mohammed Bin Zayed
© WikimediaMohammed Bin Zayed in front of a painting of his father.
Last week, the redacted text of the Mueller Report dropped-into a Capitol Hill that will spend much of the rest of the present Congressional session dealing with its fallout.

Robert Mueller's investigation was into allegations only of Russian interference in U.S. politics. But at one point his report highlights some highly questionable (Russia-related) contacts that people close to Trump's transition team had with representatives of another government that has intervened massively in U.S. policymaking in recent years: the United Arab Emirates.

The UAE is a small but very wealthy federation of seven tiny emirates (princedoms) strung out along the coast of the Gulf. Through the wily hawkishness of its powerful Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Zayed (MBZ), the UAE has played a major role in prolonging the war in Yemen, fomenting and supporting the conflicts in Syria and Libya, overthrowing (in 2013) the elected government in Egypt - and in persuading Pres. Trump to walk out of the key de-escalation/denuclearization deal the United States concluded with Iran in 2015.
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Chess

Key Republican House Judiciary Committee member: Obama DOJ has to fess up on FISA 'spying' after Mueller finds no collusion

Daniel Chaitin
Washington Examiner
Sun, 21 Apr 2019 16:44 UTC
Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX)
Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX)
A key Republican member of the House Judiciary Committee says the Obama Justice Department has some explaining to do.

Special counsel Robert Mueller's inability to find collusion between President Trump's campaign and Russia begs the question of why officials sought FISA warrants to wiretap one-time campaign adviser Carter Page, Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, said Sunday on Fox News.

He said Attorney General William Barr, who recently testified "spying did occur" on Trump's campaign, needs to seek answers.

"I'm glad that he has focused on getting the Mueller report out in a redacted form that people can see, but now his focus needs to be answering his own question, as he said, there was spying, the Obama Justice Department and intelligence community did spy on the Trump campaign," Ratcliffe said on "Sunday Morning Futures."
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Sherlock

European reporter reveals Trump-Russia-collusion hoax has its origins with Soros-funded Ukrainian activist group

Collin McMahon
The Gateway Pundit
Tue, 23 Apr 2019 16:20 UTC
Serhiy Leshenko
Serhiy Leshenko
Several U.S. media outlets have reported on the Ukrainian origins of the Russiagate hoax, including Epoch Times, The Hill and Gateway Pundit. The Epoch Times reported on April 10, 2019, that the charges against ex-Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort originated with Ukrainian Representative Serhiy Leshenko and Artem Sytnyk, director of Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), who revealed documents on kickbacks to Manafort during the Presidency of pro-Russian president Victor Yanukovych.

Serhiy Leshenko (pictured above) presented these 'Black Ledger' documents to the public on March 21, 2017 in the Soros-funded Ukraine Crisis Media Center, linking Manafort to illegal kickbacks totaling $12.7 million and even seeking to blame him for the deaths of protestors on Maidan Square 2014. The Ukrainian "anti-corruption" investigators even went so far as to hack the phones and text messages of Paul Manafort's daughters.

The Ukraine Crisis Media Center was founded in March 2014 by the Ukraine government and George Soros' International Renaissance Foundation to give reporting on the Ukraine conflict the 'correct' spin. Soros has founded media lobby groups all over the world modeled on Media Matters for American, which he founded with John Podesta after the Lewinsky scandal nearly brought down Bill Clinton.
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Megaphone

Georgian businessman offers more texts with Cohen to rebut Mueller footnote

Chuck Ross
The Daily Caller
Wed, 24 Apr 2019 16:11 UTC
Giorgi Rtskhiladze
Giorgi Rtskhiladze
A Georgian-American businessman is accusing special counsel Robert Mueller of publishing "glaring inaccuracies and misrepresentations" about rumors of alleged sex tapes of President Donald Trump during a visit to Moscow in 2013.

In a letter sent to Attorney General William Barr on Tuesday, a lawyer for the businessman, Giorgi Rtskhiladze, called on the Justice Department to retract a footnote in Mueller's report mentioning an Oct. 30, 2016 text message exchange he had with attorney Michael Cohen about a rumored Trump tape.

Rtskhiladze claims that the special counsel's report inaccurately quotes his text message with Cohen. He says that additional text messages not quoted in the report show that he was doubtful about a rumor he had heard from an associate in Moscow about the existence of a tape.
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Bad Guys

China deploys navy ships to warn France vessel that illegally entered Taiwan Strait


RT
Wed, 24 Apr 2019 16:56 UTC
French Navy frigate Vendemiaire
© Reuters / Romeo RanocoA tugboat escorts French Navy frigate Vendemiaire on arrival at a port in Metro Manila on March 12, 2018.
China had to deploy navy ships to escort off a French vessel which "illegally" entered the Taiwan Strait, the country's defense ministry said.

"China's military sent navy ships in accordance with the law to identify the French ship and warn it to leave," defense ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang said.

The official did not specify the vessel but it was believed to be the frigate Vendemiaire. The French warship passed through the narrow waterway between China and Taiwan on April 6 in a rare move by a vessel of the European country, Reuters reported earlier.

Following the incident, China revoked France's invitation to the parade marking the 70th anniversary of the country's Navy, the agency's sources said.
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Smiley

Best of the Web: At It Again: Russian Phone Pranksters Trick Macron With Fake Call From Ukraine's Zelensky


RT
Thu, 25 Apr 2019 15:39 UTC
Vovan Lexus russian phone pranksters
© Reuters/Philippe Wojazer; Russian Look/Pravda KomsomolskayaRussian prankster team Vladimir ‘Vovan’ Kuznetsov and Alexei ‘Lexus’ Stolyarov
The French president has fallen victim to infamous Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus, who posed as Ukraine's President-elect Volodymyr Zelensky after his recent landslide victory, a video from the trolling duo claims.

Vladimir 'Vovan' Kuznetsov and Alexei 'Lexus' Stolyarov released a 15-minute recording of the call on Wednesday with a person they claim is Macron - although the identity of the prankee has not been confirmed.

At one point during the call, the supposed Zelensky says he believes it is time for Ukraine to again "build a dialogue with Russia," to which Macron replies this is "absolutely right."

Comment: The latest in a long line of epic exposures by the Russian duo of Vovan and Lexus. They should be getting journalism awards.

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Propaganda

Rosneft helps Venezuela evade US sanctions? Reuters amends story as firm vows to get agency banned


RT
Wed, 24 Apr 2019 15:44 UTC
rosneft
© Reuters/Ilya Naymushin
Reuters has corrected its piece alleging a shady scheme involving Russian oil giant Rosneft helping Venezuela evade US sanctions. The news agency said it did not determine that any payments actually took place.

The exclusive story was originally published by Reuters on April 18. Based solely on undisclosed "documents and sources," it claimed that Rosneft was receiving oil from the Venezuelan company PDVSA at a discount, paying for it immediately to bypass the regular transaction timeframe, and then receiving the full amount from the final customers while keeping the difference as a reward.

The allegations caused an angry reaction by Rosneft, which dismissed them as "a blatant lie"and "a provocation." The company vowed to address the issue with law enforcement and get the "pseudo-agency" banned in Russia altogether.

It was not immediately clear whether it was the result of Rosneft's outrage, but Reuters ended up heavily altering the story on Tuesday. Apart from added "clarifications" that experts have seen no violation of US sanctions in the alleged scheme, the names of the banks supposedly involved in it have been dropped from the article altogether.
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Dominoes

Turkey will look for 'best technology' elsewhere if US blocks F-35 transfer


RT
Wed, 24 Apr 2019 15:37 UTC
F-35 aircraft
© REUTERS/Axel SchmidtF-35 aircraft
If Turkey can't buy F-35 fighter jets from the US, it will look for a substitute elsewhere, the Turkish foreign minister said. The US threatened to boot Ankara from the program over its S-400 deal with Russia.

Speaking to media after a reception at the Turkish Grand National Assembly on Tuesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that his country might consider other options if Washington follows through with its threats and leave it without F-35 stealth fighter jets.

"We are already partners in the F-35 manufacturing program, we participate in this project, we have paid the necessary amount," Cavusoglu said.

"There are currently no problems with this. But in the worst case scenario, we will have to satisfy our need in another place, where the best technologies will be offered," he added.
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