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Interview with EU foreign policy chief's advisor: Trump should fire Bolton, control US/Iran policy

Trumpbolton
© Carlos Barria/ReutersUS President Donald Trump • Natl. Security Advisor John Bolton
US President Donald Trump does not appear to be in control of his own administration's Iran policy and he should fire national security adviser John Bolton, special adviser to EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini told RT.

In an interview with RT's Sophie Shevarnadze, Nathalie Tocci said Trump has "been led into a very different direction" than the one he might otherwise have gone in without input from Bolton.

Asked why she didn't trust Trump's claims that he does not want regime change in Iran, Tocci said "Bolton clearly has a different position - and he seems to be the one writing the administration's policy on Tehran. Unfortunately at the moment it seems to me that the US's Iran policy has a very clear author and that author is not the president of the United States."


Health

Concerns for her health as Chancellor Merkel shakes uncontrollably at meeting with Ukrainian president

Merkel/Zelensky
© REUTERS/Hannibal HanschkeGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel • Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky
German Chancellor Angela Merkel was spotted visibly unsteady and shaking when she met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The 64-year-old politician later said she recovered from the sickly condition after drinking water.

Merkel felt unwell while she greeted Zelensky outside the chancellery amid hot weather in Berlin. The two leaders were listening to a band, playing national anthems of the two countries, when Merkel started shaking and swaying around a little, footage from the scene shows.

Following the anthems, Merkel managed to get herself together and was seen walking quickly alongside Zelensky into the chancellery. The German leader later told reporters that she has fully recovered after drinking several glasses of water.

"Since then I have drunk at least three glasses of water - I obviously needed that and so I'm doing very well now," she said.


Attention

WikiLeaks' Vault 7 CIA leaker allegedly attempted to launch an 'information war' against the government

Joshua Schulte
© LinkedinJoshua Schulte
The ex-CIA leaker who gave WikiLeaks the 'Vault7' documents smuggled phones into a Manhattan jail with the intention of waging an "information war" against the US government and "finally revers[ing] US jingoism" from behind bars.

Former CIA technician Joshua Schulte, who leaked documents confirming the CIA can spy on people through their "smart" appliances, along with a mind-boggling array of other sophisticated hacking tools, "smuggled contraband cellphones into the [Metropolitan Correctional Center], created encrypted email accounts and secret social media accounts, and drafted misleading 'articles' for public dissemination that were not only fraught with misinformation but also contained classified information," a US government memorandum filed Monday claims. The memo adds that Schulte has "gone to extraordinary lengths... to try to blackmail the Government into releasing him by disclosing and threatening to disclose more classified information."

Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman filed to block Schulte's request to end the extreme restrictions - including solitary confinement - placed on him in prison, arguing Schulte has only himself to blame for the harsh measures, which forbid contact with anyone outside his immediate family and lawyer.

Comment: See also:


Boat

Iranian military official: Tehran is in charge of security in Gulf of Oman, US is urged to leave

USS Abraham Lincoln
© REUTERS/Jeff Sherman/U.S. NavyUS Navy aircraft carrier the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea, June 3, 2019.
Earlier this week, Saudi Arabia blamed Iran for the 13 June attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman added that although his country does not want a war, it would respond to any threats faced by its people.

The IRIB television channel quoted Iranian Admiral and Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani as saying that Tehran is in charge of security in the Gulf.

"We have always said we guarantee the security of the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz," Ali Shamkhani was quoted as saying by the state broadcaster IRIB.

Mr Shamkhani also called on US forces to leave the area.

"We repeat our stance and call on U.S. forces to finish their presence in the region as they are the main source of crisis and instability."

Comment: See also:


MIB

Best of the Web: Russian intel chief: Venezuela the latest victim of West's 'virus-like' black ops

cia virus
Western secret services are perfecting clandestine tools which are designed to weaken countries like viruses weaken bodies, the Russian foreign intelligence chief has said. This kind of warfare is currently used in Venezuela.

The criticism came from Sergey Naryshkin, who heads Russia's foreign intelligence agency SVR. He said spies are constantly improving the tool used to dispose of governments that the West does not like.

"We are talking about creating a universal algorithm for conducting clandestine influence operations in a continuous manner and on a global scale," he said. According to the official, this clandestine work "never stops and targets not only enemies, but also friends and neutral powers in the times of peace, crisis and war."


Comment: "...but also friends and neutral powers..."

Indeed, right across NATO-stan, critical infrastructure is rigged with Stuxnet-like viruses, just in case any 'allies' start having second thoughts.


Comment: Venezuela is just one of the 'theaters' that are currently visible. What is taking place there now required decades of preparation - since Chavez's election in 1998.

They've been working on Iran - to varying degrees of intensity - since 1953. Russia got some respite in the 1990s, but otherwise it's subject to permanent hybrid warfare.

This includes what seems - at the time - innocuous activity: foreign funding of art that promotes 'ethnic sub-cultures', foreign NGOs working for 'women's health', international student exchanges for 'broadening cultural horizons', etc.

A couple of decades later, your efforts have 'loosened' the socio-cultural basis for national cohesion in your target country/region, and you're ready to 'cash in' with a Maidan-like crisis that only needs a few snipers to push things over the edge and cement regime change...

Each attack by this virus doesn't work, of course, but that doesn't mean it goes away. It just mutates and attacks another weakness in the target organism. The only antidote is a healthy society in which the public is generally aware of the existence of this virus...


Snakes in Suits

The Guardian compromised by UK MoD? Deputy editor thanked for 're-establishing links' post Snowden leaks

guardian
© AFP / Andrew Cowie
The Guardian newspaper's deputy editor was thanked by the UK MoD for "re-establishing links" between the newspaper and the intelligence services after the 2013 Snowden leaks, a document showing board meeting minutes has revealed.

Deputy editor Paul Johnson joined the MoD's Defence and Security Media Advisory Notice (also known as DSMA or D-Notice) committee in 2014, in the aftermath of the newspaper's landmark publishing of the Edward Snowden files.

D-Notices are advisory warnings to the media not to publish certain information, supposedly aimed at protecting national security, but which many journalists regard as an attempt to gag them and suppress important information from the public.

A document shared online by independent journalist Matt Kennard shows that the chairman of the D-Notice board thanked Johnson for being "instrumental in re-establishing links" between the paper and UK military intelligence after the Guardian had its wrists slapped over the revelations.

Comment: Could it be any clearer now that The Guardian is operating as the propaganda arm of the UK government?

Remember this next time they refer to Russian media as 'Kremlin-controlled'...


Star of David

By deception: Recruiting American spies for Israel

spy school israel recruiting
Israel never loses an opportunity to promote what it perceives to be its interests. That any nation would do just that most of the time should surprise no one, but Israel is perhaps unique in terms of how assiduously it works at creating situations that favor it through the use of corruption of foreign governments and subversion of existing institutions. For most countries, the actions of a minority that seeks to advance the interests of a foreign nation would face strong resistance, but Israel manages to get away with what it does due to the presence of powerful and wealthy diaspora communities, most particularly in the Anglophone countries, but also in France.

The Israel Lobby in the United States has been subjected to some scrutiny thanks largely to the impetus provided by Professors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt's groundbreaking study The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy. More recent revelations have come from undercover journalism undertaken by al-Jazeera, which has demonstrated how British Jewish groups and parliamentarians have worked together with Israeli Embassy intelligence officers to remove public officials believed to be critical of Israel. Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party, has been on the receiving end of a campaign to replace him for his alleged anti-Semitism solely because he has condemned Israeli oppression of the Palestinians. A second al-Jazeera investigation demonstrated how The Lobby, cooperating with the Israeli Embassy, has been controlling discussion of the Middle East in the United States, which should have surprised no one.

Comment:


2 + 2 = 4

Corbett Report: Four times the US threatened to stage an attack and blame it on Iran

Sljedeći korak: Iran
The US has threatened to stage an attack and blame it on Iran over and over in the last few years. Don't let a war based on false pretenses happen again. Please share this video.


Nuke

Official: Iran to surpass uranium enrichment limits in days

Uranium Conversion Facility
© AP/Vahid SalemiAn Iranian security person walks at a part of the Uranium Conversion Facility, outside the city of Isfahan, 410 kilometers, south of the capital Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, March 30, 2005.
Iran's atomic energy agency said on Monday that the country will breach on June 27 the limit on its stockpile of enriched uranium that was capped under a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) said that Tehran has increased the speed of low-grade uranium enrichment four times since it announced in May that it would stop complying with parts of the nuclear agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), after the US unilaterally withdrew from the deal.

The country had said earlier that it would quadruple its production of low-enriched uranium in retaliation for sanctions reinstated by Washington, Iranian news agency Mehr reported.

"We will cross (limit of) 300 kg (for the production of low-grade enriched uranium) by June 27," Behrooz Kamalvandi, the spokesman for the AEOI told reporters.

The pace of enrichment will even be faster after that, he added.

Under the nuclear deal clinched between Iran and world's six major powers in 2015, Iran accepted to stockpile low-grade enriched uranium by 300 kg.

Light Sabers

Yemen's Houthi faction reportedly launches wide drone operations against Saudi airport

abha saudi arabia
© CC BY 2.0 / Mushabab Al-MurayehSaudi Arabian city of Abha
Yemeni Shia Houthi rebels on Monday launched a new attack on the international airport of Saudi Arabia's southwest city of Abha, local media reported. It comes almost a week after a Houthi rocket hit the arrival lounge of the Saudi airport, leaving 26 people injured.

Yemen's Houthi faction has launched wide operations using drones at Saudi Arabia's Abha airport, Reuters reported, citing the Houthi-run Almasirah TV channel.

There has been no confirmation from Riyadh, according to Reuters.