Puppet MastersS


Bad Guys

Democrats know impeachment will fail, they want to turn Ukraine 'quid pro quo' into Trump's Benghazi

Trump Zelensky call
© Reuters/Loren Elliott
Because the Democrats know that they can't remove Trump from office they are trying everything to win back the presidency in 2020. The impeachment hearings are one way that they can bash the president as much as possible.

When the Benghazi investigation came to a close in 2014, the House Intelligence Committee found "no deliberate wrongdoing" by the Obama administration. This was viewed as a massive failure for the GOP and a huge win for the Democrats, Hillary Clinton in particular (who everyone knew would be the next DNC candidate for president).

The Republican majority then set up a special Select Committee to continue the probe. Kevin McCarthy, at the time the Republican majority leader in the house, was completely honest in a 2015 interview about why the GOP fought so hard to investigate Clinton's involvement in the Benghazi disaster.

Cards

FM Zarif: Iran's 'only crime is we decided not to fold'

MJZarif
© Mehr News AgencyIranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif
Just in time to shine a light on what's behind the latest sanctions from Washington, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in a speech at the annual Astana Club meeting in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan delivered a searing account of Iran-US relations to a select audience of high-ranking diplomats, former Presidents and analysts.

Zarif was the main speaker in a panel titled "The New Concept of Nuclear Disarmament." Keeping to a frantic schedule, he rushed in and out of the round table to squeeze in a private conversation with Kazakh First President Nursultan Nazarbayev. During the panel, moderator Jonathan Granoff, President of the Global Security Institute, managed to keep a Pentagon analyst's questioning of Zarif from turning into a shouting match.

Previously, I had extensively discussed with Syed Rasoul Mousavi, minister for West Asia at the Iran Foreign Ministry, myriad details on Iran's stance everywhere from the Persian Gulf to Afghanistan. I was at the James Bond-ish round table of the Astana Club, as I moderated two other panels, one on multipolar Eurasia and the post-INF environment and another on Central Asia (the subject of further columns).

Zarif's intervention was extremely forceful. He stressed how Iran "complied with every agreement and it got nothing;" how "our people believe we have not gained from being part of" the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action; how inflation is out of control; how the value of the rial dropped 70% "because of 'coercive measures' - not sanctions because they are illegal."

He spoke without notes, exhibiting absolute mastery of the inextricable swamp that is US-Iran relations. It turned out, in the end, to be a bombshell. Here are highlights:

Comment: Zarif is an articulate speaker, providing a rare glimpse into the problematic outcome of the JCPOA and a responsible way forward from Iran's perspective. The offer is out there.


Calculator

Bolivian election: Two independent studies contradict the findings of OAS, rule out fraud in Morales' victory

OAS group
© Reuters/David MercadoOAS observers at the Bolivian elections in La Paz on October 23, 2019.
Two international studies, done by independent investigators, have contradicted the reports published by the Organization of American States (OAS) on alleged irregularities in the elections of October 20 and have shown that Evo Morales won in the first round without committing fraud.

One of the research papers is entitled 'What happened in the vote count of the 2019 elections in Bolivia? The role of the OAS Electoral Observation Mission' and was carried out by the Center for Research in Economics and Politics ( CEPR ).

This 18 page document summarizes the statistical analysis of the electoral results and the minutes of the general elections of last October 20 in Bolivia, which "does not show evidence of irregularities or fraud that has affected the official result that gave a first round victory to President Evo Morales."

According to the study prepared by Guillaume Long, David Rosnick, Cavan Kharrazian and Kevin Cashman, the OAS Electoral Observation Mission (MOE) supported a "post-election narrative without evidence" that referred to alleged inconsistencies in the process.

The Washington-based CEPR was founded by economists Dean Baker and Mark Weisbrot and includes as consultants the Nobel Prize in Economics winners Robert Solow and Joseph Stiglitz, among other specialists.

Comment: Evo Morales was set up for defeat and elimination. The consequence of this coup has sent Bolivia into chaos - and the takeover is now unfolding according to plan. Does it make a difference that Morales truly won the election? Only as a historical account. The remodeling of Bolivia, courtesy the Western hydra, is well underway.


Jet4

US restriction of F-35 sales may prove helpful for Russia to satisfy intl demands for 5-th generation fighters with Su-57

A Su-57 fighter jet
© Grigoriy Sisoev / SputnikA Su-57 fighter jet during a military parade in Moscow. May, 2018
Russia's most advanced fighter, the 5-th generation Su-57, is slated to become not only the future backbone of the national air force, but also a success in the international market - provided the technology gets matured fast.

During the MAKS air show near Moscow eairlier this year Sukhoi advertised for the first time the export version of its flagship project, the Su-57. And in November pictures emerged of the Russian aircraft going into series production - a major milestone for any complex weapon system.

RT spoke about the future of the jet with Vadim Lukashevich, who worked as an aircraft engineer for Sukhoi between 1985 and 1992 and later became an independent aviation expert. He says the aircraft indeed has the potential to be a major hit in the market, but that won't come without fullfiling certain terms.

Hiliter

OPCW accused of making misleading edits in chemical weapons attack report

OPCW
A member of an international watchdog tasked with investigating an alleged Syrian chemical weapons attack accused his superiors of inserting bias and language that "misrepresents the facts" in an early summary of his team's findings, an email published by WikiLeaks shows.

The message, purportedly written by a member of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, was sent to his higher-ups in June 2018, weeks after he says he and others "conducted the investigation into the alleged chemical attack in Douma" on April 7 of that year. The attack, which the Syrian government has been blamed for, left at least 43 people dead.

"After reading this modified report... I was struck by how much it misrepresents the facts," the email reads. "Many of the facts and observations outlined in the full version are inextricably interconnected and, by selectively omitting certain ones, an unintended bias has been introduced in the report, undermining its credibility."

The email adds: "In other cases, some crucial facts that have remained in the redacted version have morphed into something quite different to what was originally drafted."


Comment: See also:


Snakes in Suits

Impeachment inquiry: A question of who should be running the show

Trump?
© mediadc.brightspotcdn/Getty ImagesUS President Donald Trump
Many will debate the substance of the public impeachment testimony against President Trump. To me, each of the Democrats' witnesses of the past two weeks appeared to be well-intentioned and hard-working, and seemed genuinely to believe they know what's best.

But a picture also emerged of U.S. diplomats who appear to believe they, rather than the U.S. president, have the ultimate authority to determine our foreign policy. And if the president doesn't go along? He clearly must be wrong — in their view. Or, even worse, he's a traitor. He's to be obstructed. Taken down.

In an odd turnabout, they actually make the case for President Trump's mantra that we need to "drain the swamp."

One can first look at the language witnesses used as they vented about Trump's tutelage in ways that veered far from relevance to the impeachment allegations. They conveyed hurt feelings, bruised egos and strong differences of opinion. At times, the testimony sounded a bit like a human resources conference or psychotherapy session.

Vader

Rank Russophobia: WADA panel recommends ALL Russian athletes receive FOUR-YEAR BAN from ALL sporting competitions


Comment: In a world where everyone knows that pretty much anyone who makes it to the top in sports is doped to the gills, this is rank politicking of the worst kind.


WADA 2019
© REUTERS/AGENCJA GAZETA
A key panel of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) recommends Russia be hit with a four-year ban from sporting competitions over noncompliance with the World Anti-Doping Code.

The global anti-doping watchdog on November 25 said the recommendation by its Compliance Review Committee is based on a forensic review of "inconsistencies" found in some of the data that were obtained by the agency from a Moscow laboratory in January. WADA's Executive Committee will consider the recommendation and proposed consequences on December 9, a statement said. The four-year ban would prevent Russia from taking part in next year's summer Olympics in Tokyo and the Beijing Winter Games in 2022.

The country was officially banned from the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, but a number of Russian athletes were allowed to compete as neutrals under the Olympic flag.

WADA has documented more than 1,000 Russian doping cases across dozens of sports, most notably at the Winter Olympics that Russia hosted in Sochi in 2014. The country was found guilty of a government-organized effort to mask samples from athletes using banned substances between 2011 and 2015. Full disclosure of data from the Moscow lab was a key condition of Russia's controversial reinstatement by WADA in September 2018.

Comment: Just incredible how far they're going with this. Relatively-speaking, the USSR was treated like an ally. Most don't notice its significance though - they're too strung out on crap food, drugs, narcissism and lies.

See also:


Arrow Down

House Democrat retreats from impeachment, doesn't see a value in kicking him out of office

Brenda Lawrence
© UnknownHouse Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D-MI)
Democratic Rep. Brenda Lawrence of Michigan now favors censuring President Trump after backing impeachment proceedings over allegations that he withheld military aid from Ukraine for his personal benefit.

Lawrence appeared on the Michigan radio show No BS News Hour with host Charlie LeDuff on Sunday to discuss the impeachment process in the House. Lawrence told LeDuff, to his surprise, that she does not support removing the president from office and that she would ask her caucus to censure him instead.
"We are so close to an election. I will tell you, sitting here knowing how divided this country is, I don't see the value of taking him out of office. I do see the value of putting down a marker saying his behavior is not acceptable. I want to censure. I want it on the record that the House of Representatives did their job and they told this president and any president coming behind him that this is unacceptable behavior and, under our Constitution, we will not allow it."

Comment: 'The United States Constitution of Acceptable Behavior' where offenders are are punished by censorship. THAT Constitution - you know, the one exclusively for this president.


Lawrence also said she would have a "discussion with the party and with the caucus" to censure Trump instead of impeaching him.


Newspaper

Best of the Web: Der Spiegel's Exposé of Con-Man Bill Browder: Questions Cloud Story Behind US Sanctions

bill broder
© Chris Gloag/ WirtschaftsWocheBill Browder at his office in London.
There's a tombstone in northeastern Moscow that bears the portrait of a man with a friendly yet somewhat uneasy smile. His name is Sergei Leonidovich Magnitsky. He was born in April 1972 in Odessa, Ukraine, and died in November 2009 in Moscow. To this day, 10 years after the fact, the circumstances of his death in a Russian pretrial detention facility remain unclear.

There are two versions of what happened to Magnitsky. The more well-known version has all the makings of a conspiracy thriller. It's been repeated in thousands of articles, TV interviews and in parliamentary hearings. In this version of the story, the man from the Moscow cemetery fought nobly against a corrupt system and was murdered for it.

The other version is more complicated. In it, nobody is a hero.

The first version has had geopolitical implications. In 2012, the United States passed the Magnitsky Act, which imposed sanctions against Russian officials who were believed to have played a role in his death. The measure was signed into law by then-President Barack Obama after receiving a broad bipartisan majority. Back then, if there was one thing that politicians on both sides of the aisle could agree on, it was their opposition to a nefarious Russian state. In 2017, Congress passed the Global Magnitsky Act, which enabled the U.S. to impose sanctions against Russia for human rights violations worldwide.

The facilitator behind these pieces of legislation is Bill Browder, Magnitsky's former boss in Moscow. "When he was put to the ultimate test, he became the ultimate hero," Browder says of Magnitsky. Browder was born in the U.S. For years, his company, Hermitage Capital Management, was one of the largest foreign investors in Russia. At the time, Browder was an advocate for Russian President Vladimir Putin in the West. That is, until he was prohibited from entering Russia in 2005.

Radar

White House lifts lockdown after airspace violation was reported

police
© JIM WATSON / AFP
The White House on Tuesday was briefly put on lockdown, as fighter jets were scrambled in Washington following an airspace violation, law enforcement officials told NBC News.

The lockdown was lifted less than 30 minutes after it was first reported by White House reporters.

"The White House was locked down this morning due to a potential violation of the restricted airspace in the National Capital Region," a Secret Service spokesman told CNBC in a statement. "The lockdown has been lifted at this time."

A small aircraft violated airspace rules in a restricted area, officials told the Associated Press. The North American Aerospace Defense Command said the plane was not considered hostile.

NBC also reported that a security alert was raised at the Capitol building.

U.S. Capitol Police confirmed that access to the Capitol Complex buildings was halted "for a short time." The situation was cleared at 9:12 a.m., Capitol Police said, about 45 minutes after the aircraft was first reported in the restricted airspace.

The White House referred CNBC to the Secret Service.