Puppet MastersS


Star of David

Trump's order to combat anti-Semitism makes Israel sacrosanct, sets a dangerous precedent that could rebound on Jews

Finian Cunningham
RT
Fri, 13 Dec 2019 13:37 UTC
Trump yarmulke
© REUTERS/Jonathan ErnstU.S. President Donald Trump in Jerusalem.
President Trump claims to be protecting American Jews from anti-Semitism by signing an executive order this week. But it's nothing of the sort. It's a cynical attempt to shut down criticism of Israeli state violations.

What he is doing, however, is setting a dangerous precedent which may end up fueling acts of hatred against Jews.

Trump's executive ruling conflates two things: it effectively bestows on the Jewish religion a national or race identity and the rights thereof; secondly, the presidential order equates criticism of the Israeli state with anti-Semitism.

Henceforth, the US government can penalize federally funded academic institutions where courses or activities critical of Israel are identified by invoking existing civil rights laws protecting nations or races from discrimination. In the name of combating anti-Semitism, universities, colleges, and schools could be deprived of federal funds.

This will have a gagging impact on education, debate and free speech under the guise of supposedly protecting Jews from discrimination. Trump's move has grave implications for the constitutional rights of all American citizens.

Comment:

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Document

US pressures India with sanctions over citizenship curb for Muslims

Devjyot Ghoshal
Reuters
Tue, 10 Dec 2019 19:30 UTC
India protest
A policeman removes burning tires set ablaze by demonstrators during the strike to protest against Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), a bill that seeks to give citizenship to religious minorities persecuted in neighbouring Muslim countries, in Guwahati, India, December 10
A federal panel on religion has urged the United States to weigh sanctions against India's Home Minister Amit Shah if the south Asian nation adopts legislation to exclude Muslims from a path to citizenship for religious minorities from its neighbors.

Shah is a close associate of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose Hindu nationalist-led government is seen by critics as pushing an agenda that undermines the secular foundations of India's democracy.

On Tuesday, parliament's lower house approved the measure covering citizenship for non-Muslim minorities, specifically Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jains, Parsis and Sikhs, who fled Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan before 2015.
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Target

Best of the Web: The Art of Doublespeak: Bellingcat And Mind Control

Edward Curtain
The Unz Review
Tue, 10 Dec 2019 00:00 UTC
TV hypnosis
In the 1920s, the influential American intellectual Walter Lippman argued that the average person was incapable of seeing or understanding the world clearly and needed to be guided by experts behind the social curtain. In a number of books he laid out the theoretical foundations for the practical work of Edward Bernays, who developed "public relations" (aka propaganda) to carry out this task for the ruling elites. Bernays had honed his skills while working as a propagandist for the United States during World War I, and after the war he set himself up as a public relations counselor in New York City.

There is a fascinating exchange at the beginning of Adam Curtis's documentary, The Century of Self, where Bernays, then nearly 100 years old but still very sharp, reveals his manipulative mindset and that of so many of those who have followed in his wake. He says the reason he couldn't call his new business "propaganda" was because the Germans had given propaganda a "bad name," and so he came up with the euphemism "public relations." He then adds that "if you could use it [i.e. propaganda] for war, you certainly could use it for peace." Of course, he never used PR for peace but just to manipulate public opinion (he helped engineer the CIA coup against the democratically elected Arbenz government in Guatemala in 1954 with fake news broadcasts). He says "the Germans gave propaganda a bad name," not Bernays and the United States with their vast campaign of lies, mainly aimed at the American people to get their support for going to a war they opposed (think weapons of mass destruction). He sounds proud of his war propaganda work that resounded to his credit since it led to support for the "war to end all wars" and subsequently to a hit movie about WWI , Yankee Doodle Dandy, made in 1942 to promote another war, since the first one somehow didn't achieve its lofty goal.

As Bernays has said in his book Propaganda,
The American motion picture is the greatest unconscious carrier of propaganda in the world today.

Comment: For more on the numerous ways in which imperial propaganda tool Bellingcat lies - and has actually gotten caught out on them, see:

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Sherlock

Sinophobia: Washington's distrust of China has mutated into a hunt for spies among Chinese Americans

Peter Waldman, Andre Tartar
Bloomberg Business Week
Tue, 10 Dec 2019 09:00 UTC
Wei Su security revoked sinophobia
Questions about Wei Su’s loyalty would propel a multiyear investigation prompting the U.S. DOD to revoke the top-secret security clearance he’d held for 24 years. He retired the next year: humiliated, angry, and, the Pentagon later admitted, completely innocent.
For days after his FBI interrogation, Wei Su wondered: Where had the microphone been?

The agents had played him a scratchy recording of a conversation he'd had with a friend at a restaurant in Eatontown, N.J. Both men found it strange when a pot of hot tea arrived at their table without their having ordered it, but only later did Su, an award-winning scientist for the U.S. Army's Intelligence and Information Warfare Directorate, form a hypothesis. He thinks the teapot was bugged.

On the recording, Su says, he can be heard telling his friend in Chinese to always use English when they spoke on the phone, because the government was monitoring all his calls. He warned that "when you work with us, you need to be careful." Su says the FBI demanded to know if "us" was a reference to Chinese intelligence. No, he answered, "us" simply meant his employer, the U.S. Army.

Nevertheless, questions about Su's loyalty would propel a multiyear investigation that in 2016 prompted the U.S. Department of Defense to revoke the top-secret security clearance he'd held for 24 years. He retired the next year: humiliated, angry, and, the Pentagon later admitted, completely innocent.

The short, bespectacled scientist who loves to kayak, garden, and play the piano now divides his time between Maryland and Florida with his wife of 32 years, Elaine, a retired branch chief for a different Army communications lab. The government's case against him amounted to a tempest in a teapot, Su says, if not a listening device as well.

Comment: See also:

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Vader

Page from Iraq playbook: US invokes WMDs to pile 'maximum pressure' sanctions on Iran

Nebojsa Malic
RT
Wed, 11 Dec 2019 20:51 UTC
Iranian pro-government protesters
© Reuters / WANA / Nazanin TabatabaeeIranian pro-government protesters
With over a year of sanctions failing to force Tehran to bend the knee, Washington is now resorting to creatively invoking "weapons of mass destruction" - the very same pretext the US used for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

On Wednesday, the US Treasury Department expanded sanctions against Mahan Air, Iran's largest privately-owned airline, citing a 2005 executive order by then-President George W. Bush targeting "weapons of mass destruction proliferators and their supporters."

Mind you, nowhere in the sanctions announcement does Treasury say that Mahan actually transported WMDs. Instead, the airline is accused of flying personnel and weapons for Iran's "terrorist and militant groups" and thereby "directly contributing" to conflicts in Syria and Yemen.

Meanwhile, the US is sending weapons to "moderate" jihadist terrorists in Syria, and arming and refueling Saudi Arabian and allied forces that have been bombing Yemen to the stone age since 2015. This is never mentioned, of course. Nor is anyone allowed to sanction Washington for any of this, as sanctions only go in one direction.
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Attention

DOJ chief Horowitz slams FBI for 'serious errors in Russiagate investigation


RT
Wed, 11 Dec 2019 19:28 UTC
IGHorowitz
© Reuters/Erin ScottJustice Department IG Michael Horowitz
Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz blasted the FBI for "basic, fundamental, and serious errors" made in their initial Trump-Russia probe which he said amounted to a "failure" by the "entire chain of command."

Horowitz appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday to testify on the results of his 476-page report into the origins of the original FBI 'Crossfire Hurricane' investigation into the Trump campaign. In particular, the IG criticized the FBI for serious irregularities, inaccuracies and omissions in their FISA applications to obtain a warrant to monitor former campaign adviser, Carter Page.

One of the omissions in the FISA application against Page was relevant information that he had been an "operational contact" for another government agency between 2008 and 2013.

While his investigation determined that the FBI complied with policy when it launched the Trump-Russia investigation, it still highlighted "significant concerns" over how it was conducted and managed. Despite the serious inaccuracies, however, Horowitz said he found no "political bias or improper motivation" in the FBI's decision to launch the probe.

That is a conclusion disputed by Attorney General Bill Barr, who said Tuesday that the investigation was launched on a "completely bogus narrative" which was "fanned and hyped by an irresponsible press." Barr decried what he called "inexplicable" and "intolerable" behavior at the FBI.

Comment: The Federalist, 11/12/2019: CNN, MSNBC refused to air the IG's hearing live
CNN and MSNBC stopped following the IG hearing after about 30 minutes, and both refused to cover the opening statements by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. The decision does not align with the recent live hearing coverage standard both networks have held for the last few months, giving endless air time to the impeachment hearings lead by Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif, and Rep. Jerry Nadler.

Media personalities are noticing this unfair balance.




If the IG report proved that the FBI acted perfectly within its boundaries, as the mainstream media claim, then what's the harm in airing this footage? The truth is, the IG report revealed abuse of power at the highest levels of the FBI and the U.S. intelligence community. The truth does not fit the CNN and MSNBC agenda, and that is why they refuse to give a platform to it.


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Dollar

Congress approves budget for Trump's new Space Force, as the 6th branch of the military


RT
Wed, 11 Dec 2019 23:04 UTC
SPACEFORCE
© Bradscribe/WordPress.com/KJN
US Space Force is about to become a sixth branch of the military, courtesy of Congress going along with President Donald Trump's popular campaign promise even as Democrats try to impeach him from office.

Included in the 3,500-page National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for the fiscal year 2020 is the provision recognizing space as a warfighting domain and establishing the Space Force as a separate service branch. While it is a step up from the current Space Command, the USSF will still be embedded under the US Air Force, in an arrangement mirroring the relationship of the Marines and the Navy.

"Congress - don't delay this anymore! I will sign this historic defense legislation immediately!" Trump tweeted on Wednesday.
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Snakes in Suits

US Senate: Proposed new bill to give State Dept. the right to call Russia a 'sponsor of terrorism'


RT
Wed, 11 Dec 2019 22:17 UTC
Capitol
© Reuters/Carlos JassoCapitol Hill, Washington DC
The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee has approved a bill asking the State Department to determine whether Russia falls under criteria of a state sponsor of terrorism, potentially opening a way [for] stricter sanctions.

The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee has approved a bill asking the State Department to determine whether Russia falls under criteria of a state sponsor of terrorism, potentially opening a way stricter sanctions. The pretentiously titled 'Stopping Malign Activities from Russian Terrorism (SMART) Act' could potentially bring the already strained relations between Moscow and Washington to a new low.

Introduced by Senator Cory Gardner (R-Colorado) in April, it requires the Secretary of State to give "appropriate congressional committees" a straight answer on whether Russia could be designated a sponsor of terrorism. The bill also requires the State Department to determine and report to Congress whether the militia in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk republics in eastern Ukraine can be considered "foreign terrorist organizations." The report should be presented "no later than 90 days" after the proposed law comes into force, should it pass in both Senate and the House and be signed by the president.

Comment: The US Congress is truly made up of 'snakes in suits'!

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Document

FISA Report: Clinton meddled in 2016 election, who would have thought!

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Thu, 12 Dec 2019 18:33 UTC
HilClinton
© newyorker.comFormer US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
If Russia spending $100,000 on Facebook ads constitutes election interference, and Donald Trump asking Ukraine to investigate the Bidens is too - then Hillary Clinton takes the cake when it comes to influence campaigns designed to harm a political opponent.

Contained within Monday's FISA report by the DOJ Inspector General is the revelation that Fusion GPS, the firm paid by the Clinton campaign to produce the Steele dossier, "was paying Steele to discuss his reporting with the media." (P. 369 and elsewhere)
FISA#11
(h/t @wakeywakey16)

And when did Steele talk with the media (which got him fired as an FBI source)? September of 2016, roughly six weeks before the election.
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Arrow Down

German FM: Berlin rejects extraterritorial sanctions against Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline


RT
Thu, 12 Dec 2019 11:22 UTC
NStream
© Nord Stream AGPipeline for Nord Stream
Berlin has reaffirmed its support for the Russia-led gas pipeline despite the threat of new US sanctions against European firms involved in the project. Nord Stream 2 will be completed, the Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

"European energy policy is decided in Europe, not the United States. We reject any outside interventions and extraterritorial sanctions," said German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.

The statement comes amid looming US sanctions against the project, that were recently added to US 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, which is up for approval before Christmas. If approved by the US Congress, the act would allow the Trump administration to sanction companies involved in Russian gas pipeline projects.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who met with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday, said "I assure you that neither Nord Stream 2 nor TurkStream will stop."

Comment: RFE/RL, 12/12/2019: Ukraine welcomes US sanctions on Nord Stream
"Ukraine is grateful for 337 votes to support sanctions related to #NordStream2 construction. This is a political project that undermines energy security of #Europe," the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy tweeted.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk also welcomed the move as "good news." The sanctions should "dramatically complicate construction of the Russian pipe."

Kyiv has long protested the project and has lobbied Washington to pass the bill as the pipeline would deprive the country of more than $2 billion in transit fees. Ukraine also sees the pipeline as undermining existing economic sanctions imposed by the West to compel Russia to resolve a conflict in eastern Ukraine and end its occupation of Ukraine's Crimea region.

Republican Senator Ted Cruz, one of the co-sponsors of the bill, has said that only a few companies in the world have the technology to lay deep-sea pipelines and none of them are Russian, meaning the Kremlin could struggle to complete the project should the foreign companies obey the U.S. sanctions bill.


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