Puppet MastersS


Arrow Up

Chelsea Manning released from jail after refusing to testify before grand jury

Lucien Bruggeman
ABC News
Thu, 09 May 2019 08:29 UTC
Chelsea Manning
© Dennis Van Tine/Sipa USAChelsea Manning attends A Becoming Resemblance exhibition by Heather Dewey-Hagborg and Manning in New York City on August 2, 2017.
Chelsea Manning, an anti-secrecy activist and former U.S. Army intelligence analyst, has been released from jail after a grand jury she refused to testify before expired, her attorneys said Thursday.

"Today marked the expiration of the term of the grand jury, and so, after 62 days of confinement, Chelsea was released from the Alexandria Detention Center earlier today," Manning's legal team wrote in a statement.

Upon release, however, Manning was subpoenaed to appear before a different grand jury, her legal team said, meaning "it is therefore conceivable that she will once again be held in contempt of court, and be returned to the custody of the Alexandria Detention Center, possibly as soon as next Thursday, May 16."

In late January, Manning was subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury in a sealed case out of the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia -- the same district in which the government recently filed charges against WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange.

Comment: See also: UN calls for Julian Assange's release from UK high-security jail citing human rights violations

Read More...
Bomb

Bomb attack against police at Sufi shrine on first day of Ramadan in Lahore, Pakistan - 10 people dead


RT
Wed, 08 May 2019 13:10 UTC
bomb pakistan
© Reuters / Mohsin RazaEmergency workers assess the site of a blast in Lahore, Pakistan on May 8, 2019.
CCTV footage has emerged showing the suspected suicide bomber and the very moment of the deadly blast that killed 10 and injured over 20 near a Sufi shrine in the city of Lahore.


Comment: Not quite. It doesn't show anyone blowing themselves up, though it captures the explosion.


The explosion rocked the second largest city of Pakistan on Wednesday, a day after the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The suspect targeted a police checkpoint near the major Sufi shrine.

"Police was the prime target in this attack. We are collecting forensic evidences to ascertain the nature of the blast," deputy inspector general of Lahore police, Ashfaq Khan, said.


Comment: No, Pakistan was the prime target in this attack. The Deep State doesn't like its new PM, Imran Khan...


The moment of the blast was captured on several CCTV cameras and footage emerged some hours after the attack that killed 10 people, including four police officers, and injured at least 23.


Comment: More likely, the kid was manipulated or somehow induced to be a certain place at a certain time, then a pre-placed bomb was remotely detonated.

Read More...
Snakes in Suits

US Ambassador warns Germany not to do business with Iran


Sputnik
Fri, 10 May 2019 09:14 UTC
Richard Allen Grenell
© Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty ImagesU.S. Ambassador Richard Allen Grenell
The statement comes a few days after the US slapped a new round of sanctions on Iran's steel, iron, aluminium and copper sectors following Tehran's move to suspend some of its obligations under the nuclear deal in light of Washington's decision to intensify restrictive measures.

Speaking to Bild newspaper, US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell warned that companies involved in business with Iran could be blocked from the US market.

"You can do as much business as you want in Iran, but we have a say with regards to your visa. Because if you do something, we're not going to agree to let you enter our country", he warned.

Grenell also slammed German politicians for their reluctance to stick to Washington's demand to spend 2 percent of the country's gross domestic product on defence.

Comment: The US Ambassador to Germany has been mired in controversy since his appointment but, in the long run, he's doing the international community a favor by exposing US designs in the most shameless and tactless way possible:

Read More...
Bad Guys

Can 'America First' survive John Bolton?


RT
Thu, 09 May 2019 20:06 UTC
bolton
© Reuter / Carlos BarriaJohn Bolton
After more than two years into his administration, President Donald Trump may be beginning to realize his National Security Advisor John Bolton could be anathema to his stated 'America First' foreign policy.

Although the president recently told reporters that he is able to keep Bolton's worst instincts in check, a recent op-ed in the Washington Post suggests Trump was unhappy with Bolton leading him "into a war" after the failed Venezuela coup.

That certainly would not be new for the national security advisor, a political appointee under Ronald Reagan and both Bush administrations and a career war hawk.

Comment: See also:

Read More...
Snakes in Suits

Senator Rubio: 'China countering our cyberwarfare in Venezuela because of some notion that US interferes in other countries'


RT
Fri, 10 May 2019 10:45 UTC
marco rubio
"See this? This is a gun..."
Neocon US Senator and Venezuela regime change crusader Marco Rubio claims China is secretly backing President Nicolas Maduro by 'shutting down the internet' to thwart Washington-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido.

The Chinese are "single-handedly controlling the defensive cyber operations shutting down the internet," Rubio told Breitbart in an interview published Thursday, claiming that thanks to Beijing, opposition leader Juan Guaidó has "no access to the internet. Any time he tries to speak or communicate on social media, they shut down the internet. Literally, every time he holds a rally, they shut down the internet."

Its alleged role as official censor is one of the primary reasons China hasn't jumped on board the Guaidó train, according to Rubio - well, that and "they are owed a bunch of money, so they want to get paid," he added.

Comment: Simply because... WE ARE 'MURICA. BOW DOWN TO YOUR IMPERIAL MASTERS!

Read More...
Pirates

Rogue States: US steals North Korea's 2nd largest bulk carrier ship in another act of gunboat diplomacy


RT
Fri, 10 May 2019 10:36 UTC
wise honest north korea ship
The US Justice Department has taken possession of North Korea's second-largest freighter, seized in Indonesia last year for allegedly shipping coal in violation of UN sanctions, ratcheting up tensions between the two countries.

The DoJ has asked a federal judge to transfer ownership of the 17,000-ton Wise Honest - North Korea's second-largest bulk cargo ship - to the US through civil forfeiture, a controversial legal process that allows authorities to take possession of vehicles and other property involved in felonies like drug smuggling.

This process has never been used to seize a North Korean ship for sanctions violations, but because the DPRK used American banks to finance the ship's upkeep, the US is entitled to take it, according to the complaint, which charges the vessel itself with crimes including money laundering.
Read More...
Vader

Damned if you do, damned if you don't: The US resorts to using sanctions threat as a weapon against compliance to its own demands

Marko Marjanović
Checkpoint Asia
Thu, 09 May 2019 06:53 UTC
uncle sam
Just as the US threatened countries buying Iran's excess enriched uranium and heavy water could henceforth find themselves sanctioned, Iran proclaimed it will stop exporting them and will stockpile them and in the case of uraniaum, enrich it further instead.

In this way the Iran deal signatories (Germany, France, UK, Russia, China) are off the hook. Under the Iran deal they were obliged to buy Iran's uranium and heavy water as a way of keeping Iran under the limits the US demanded. In other words, the Empire used the sanctions threat as a weapon against compliance to its own demands.

Let's take a moment to appreciate the full psycho level of this. Iran selling off these elements was never a concession to Iran, it was a concession to the US by Iran. Yet US threatened sanctions, including against its western allies, in order to make it more difficult for Iran and the other countries still in the deal to keep that concession to the Empire alive. Insane!

You know the idiots hanging out in parks in the evening who will ask you for a cigarette hoping you will say no so they will have the "excuse" to attack you? That's what the US is now - if such idiots went out of their way to make it impossible for you to hand over the cigarette.

Comment: See also:

Read More...
War Whore

Pompeo threatens UK with intel sharing cut-off if they buy Huawei 5G, UK rolls over


RT
Thu, 09 May 2019 09:59 UTC
5G wireless
© Peter Hartenfelser
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has warned the UK that allowing Huawei to bid on 5G contracts could spell the end of the US-UK "special relationship" - and, apparently, the UK's membership in the Five Eyes.

"With respect to 5G, the United States has an obligation to ensure that the places we will operate, the places where American information is, the places where we have our national security risks, that they operate inside trusted networks," Pompeo said in a speech to the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office on Wednesday.

While "each country has a sovereign right to make its own decision about how to deal with the challenge," of whether to invite Chinese firms like Huawei and ZTE to bid on infrastructure contracts, the UK certainly wouldn't want to make the wrong decision, Pompeo hinted, adding, "I have great confidence that the UK will never take an action that will break this special relationship."

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt rushed to reassure the American. "We would never take a decision that compromised our ability to share intelligence with our Five Eyes colleagues, or particularly with the US," Hunt pleaded. "We are absolutely clear that the security relationship that we have with the US is what has underpinned the international order since 1945... the preservation of that is our #1 foreign policy priority." The Five Eyes is a highly secretive global intelligence network formed in the aftermath of World War II to share intelligence between Anglophone allies the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.

Comment: See also:

Read More...
Document

FBI's Steele story falls apart: False intel and media contacts were flagged before FISA

John Solomon
The Hill
Thu, 09 May 2019 03:00 UTC
mccabe comey
The FBI's sworn story to a federal court about its asset, Christopher Steele, is fraying faster than a $5 souvenir T-shirt bought at a tourist trap.

Newly unearthed memos show a high-ranking government official who met with Steele in October 2016 determined some of the Donald Trump dirt that Steele was simultaneously digging up for the FBI and for Hillary Clinton's campaign was inaccurate, and likely leaked to the media.

The concerns were flagged in a typed memo and in handwritten notes taken by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kathleen Kavalec on Oct. 11, 2016.

Her observations were recorded exactly 10 days before the FBI used Steele and his infamous dossier to justify securing a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant to spy on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page and the campaign's contacts with Russia in search of a now debunked collusion theory.
Read More...
Snakes in Suits

Docs reveal FBI allowed British spy's false intel to guide bureau's operation against Trump

Sara Carter
SaraACarter
Thu, 09 May 2019 18:58 UTC
chistopher steele
Christopher Steele
This week, we learned that FBI informant and former British Spy Christopher Steele planned to release his unverified dossier on Trump before Election Day.

The dossier served as the backbone of the Trump ousting operation and was the bulk of evidence for the FBI to gain a FISA on short-lived Trump campaign volunteer Carter Page.

According to a memo obtained by Citizens United, Steele confessed in a meeting with Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kathleen Kavalec that his dossier was in fact political and he was planning on releasing before the November presidential elections. The meeting with Kavalec took place on Oct. 11, 2016 and it was during that meeting that Steele revealed his intentions. She documented the meeting and the discussion in her notes.

The evidence sheds light on the FBI's knowledge of what Steele's intentions were when he compiled the dossier in the summer of 2016. Not only did they know his intentions but they ignored the fact that a good bulk of what he shared with the U.S. government was flat out wrong.

Most of the information contained in the dossier has been proven false. It appears Steele's sources, most of whom were former and current Russian spies, gave him disinformation to tarnish the Trump campaign and create chaos in U.S.

Comment: John Solomon's full article: FBI's Steele story falls apart: False intel and media contacts were flagged before FISA

Read More...