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Bad Guys

Syria requests urgent UN Security Council meeting on Golan


Yahoo
Tue, 26 Mar 2019 16:19 UTC
syrian protests
© AFP Photo/George OURFALIAN
Syria asked the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday to hold an urgent meeting on the US decision to recognize the Golan Heights as Israeli territory.

President Donald Trump signed a proclamation Monday in which the United States recognized Israel's annexation of the strategic plateau, despite UN resolutions that call for Israel's withdrawal from the Golan.

In a letter seen by AFP, the Syrian mission to the United Nations asked the council presidency, held by France, to schedule an urgent meeting to "discuss the situation in the occupied Syrian Golan and the recent flagrant violation of the relevant Security Council's resolution by a permanent member-state."

The French presidency did not immediately schedule the meeting and diplomats said there would be a discussion at the council about the request.
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Eye 1

Facebook deletes accounts linked to Russia, Iran and Kosovo

Ron Synovitz
RFE/RL
Tue, 26 Mar 2019 16:06 UTC
facebook
Facebook said on March 26 that it has deleted more than 2,600 fake pages and accounts linked to Russia, Iran, North Macedonia, and Kosovo as the firm continues a crackdown against troll networks that try to manipulate public opinion in other countries.

Facebook cybersecurity chief Nathaniel Gleicher said 1,907 group pages and accounts "linked to Russia" were removed for "posting spam" that included "content related to Ukrainian news and politics" ahead of Ukraine's March 31 presidential election.

He said the Ukraine-related content included posts about "the ongoing conflict in the eastern part of Ukraine, local and regional politics; Ukrainian patriotism; refugee issues; Ukrainian military; the situation in Crimea; corruption."

Gleicher said "a small portion" of the Russia-linked pages were run by individuals who "engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior."
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Bad Guys

Senate Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy: Adam Schiff 'unfit' to be House Intelligence chairman

Zachary Halaschak
Washington Examiner
Mon, 25 Mar 2019 15:49 UTC
schiff and trump
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said Monday that Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., should step down as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

McCarthy said Schiff used his high-profile role as leader of the committee to push a false narrative about President Trump and insinuate to the American public that Trump colluded with Russia.

"I am calling on him to leave the committee as chairman," McCarthy said during an interview on Fox News Monday. "He should apologize to the American public, and he should step back from being chair of the intel committee."
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Bullseye

US backs Israel's 'sovereignty' over Golan Heights, proving sovereignty is not something it respects

Danielle Ryan
RT
Tue, 26 Mar 2019 15:31 UTC
uncle sam
© Reuters / Carlo Allegri
The US's "recognition" of the Golan Heights as Israeli territory is brazen - but it's no surprise. Washington itself violates the sovereignty of other countries with such regularity that it barely even raises eyebrows anymore.

US President Donald Trump signed a declaration on Monday recognizing Israeli "sovereignty" over the disputed, strategically important and (surprise!) resource-rich region. In a joint press conference with Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the declaration "historic justice."

Back in reality, the Golan Heights is recognized as Syrian territory in international law, having been seized by Israel in a land grab during the Six-Day War in 1967 and later officially annexed in a 1981 Israeli law.

The New York Times editorial board called Trump's move a "pointless provocation" and said it had "more to do with Israeli politics than American interests." It also just so happens that there are some great big oil reserves in the area and, well, you can do the math. The NYT is 100 percent correct, but the newspaper hardly deserves high praise for taking such a stance, having been a cheerleader for illegal US military interventions all over the world during the last two decades.


Comment: It's interesting to note the timing of Trump "recognizing" the Golan as Israeli territory and the end of the Russiagate investigation. Connection? Nothing is certain, but also nothing in politics happens by accident.

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Sheriff

Sen. Graham: Investigation into FBI's "unprofessional conduct" and 'troubling' behavior - "It's coming"

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Mon, 25 Mar 2019 14:20 UTC
Lindsey Graham
© DesconocidoSenator Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said in a Monday press conference that he's going to get to the bottom of "unprofessional conduct" and "shady behavior" by the Justice Department and the FBI surrounding the 2016 US election, and will call on Attorney General William Barr to appoint another Special Counsel "that would look into what happened with the FISA warrant," and "what happened with the counterintelligence investigation."

Graham also laid out that while he hopes AG Barr will release as much of the Mueller report as possible, certain information would need to be redacted.

Comment: The previous day Gatewaypundit reported that Devin Nunes wants to go directly to AG Barr with criminal referrals rather than appoint a special counsel. Will there be a Republican split over the correct way to proceed?
Rep. Devin Nunes is referring will make criminal referrals to Attorney General Bill Barr on FBI, DOJ officials who perpetrated this hoax.

Paul Sperry reported:



Twitter seems to be coming down on Nunes' side:
twitter poll nunes special counsel graham
© TheLastRefuge2/Twitter




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Better Earth

Will Japan join the multipolar world or remain beholden to US Imperialism?

Federico Pieraccini
Strategic Culture Foundation
Tue, 26 Mar 2019 12:22 UTC
Russian Japanese flags
© Reuters / Konastantin Salomatin
Relations between Japan and Russia have long been the subject of discussion within international-relations circles. The meetings between Prime Minister Abe and President Putin have been going on for years, yet the situation regarding the peace treaty between the two countries, never signed since the conclusion of the Second World War, is difficult to resolve. While the discussions appear to be about the status of the Kuril islands, they are in reality more profound, covering the role that Japan and Russia play in Asia, especially with regard to the other two regional superpowers, namely China and the United States.

Vladimir Putin and Shinzo Abe have met 25 times over five years, an average of five meetings a year, one every two-and-a-half months. Such an active relationship not only demonstrates the closeness between the two leaders but also their difficulty in trying to reach an agreement to solve the longstanding territorial dispute surrounding the Kuril Islands.

Understandably, Moscow does not intend in any way to renounce its sovereignty over the islands, especially given the geostrategic significance of the port city of Vladivostok. This important Russian city hosts Russia's Pacific Fleet; and when one looks at the map, it is easy to understand the importance of the Kuril Islands. If these islands were militarized against the Russian Federation, then they could effectively block the Russian fleet's access to the Pacific. Moscow faces the same problem with the Black Sea Fleet, where it needs to navigate through the Turkish Straits to reach the Mediterranean; the same is the case with the Baltic Fleet, located in St Petersburg and Kaliningrad, with Russian naval vessels having to navigate between Finland and Estonia, if coming from St Petersburg, and then through the Danish straits, between Sweden and Denmark, to reach the Atlantic Ocean.

Comment: See also:

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Light Saber

Alistair Crooke: Iran & Syria's far-reaching geopolitical strategy unfolds

Alastair Crooke
Atrategic Culture
Wed, 27 Mar 2019 11:05 UTC
iran syria
As the US tries to consolidate its strategy for weakening and confronting Iran, the contours of an important geo-political strategy, launched by Syria and Iran, are surfacing. On the one hand, it consists of a multi-layered sewing together of a wide 'deterrence' that ultimately could result in Israel being pulled into a regional war - were certain military trip wires (such as air attacks on Syria's strategic defences) - to be triggered. Or, if the US economic war on Iran crosses certain boundaries (such as blockading Iranian tankers from sailing, or putting a full stranglehold on the Iranian economy).

To be clear, the aim of this geo-political strategy is not to provoke a war with the US or Israel - it is to deter one. It sends a message to Washington that any carelessly thought-through aggression (of whatever hybrid nature) against the 'northern states' (from Lebanon to Iraq) might end by putting their ally - Israel - in full jeopardy. And that Washington should reflect carefully on its threats.

The deterrence consists at the top-level of Syrian S300 air defences over which Russia and Syria have joint-key control. The aim here, seems to be to maintain strategic ambiguity over the exact rules of S300 engagement. Russia wants to stand 'above' any conflict that involves Israel or the US - as best it can - and thus be positioned to act as a potential mediator and peace-maker, should armed conflict occur. In a sense, the S300s represent deterrence of 'last resort' - the final option, were graduated escalation somehow to be surpassed, via some major military event.

Comment: As evidenced by its over reliance on ineffective sanctions, the US hegemon is running out of ideas, and time:

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Pirates

Maker of OxyContin pays Oklahoma mere $270 million settlement for role in "worst public health crisis" the US has ever seen

SEAN MURPHY
AP
Wed, 27 Mar 2019 11:02 UTC
l Mike Hunter
© (Mike Simons/Tulsa World via AP)Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter speaks about a settlement with Purdue Pharma for opioid abuse, Tuesday, March 26, 2019. Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin and the company's controlling family agreed Tuesday to pay a groundbreaking $270 million to Oklahoma to settle allegations they helped create the nation's deadly opioid crisis with their aggressive marketing of the powerful painkiller.
The maker of OxyContin and the company's controlling family agreed Tuesday to pay a groundbreaking $270 million to Oklahoma to settle allegations they helped create the nation's deadly opioid crisis with their aggressive marketing of the powerful painkiller.

It is the first settlement to come out of the recent coast-to-coast wave of nearly 2,000 lawsuits against Purdue Pharma that threaten to push the company into bankruptcy and have stained the name of the Sackler family, whose members rank among the world's foremost philanthropists.

"The addiction crisis facing our state and nation is a clear and present danger, but we're doing something about it today," Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter said.

Nearly $200 million will go toward establishing a National Center for Addiction Studies and Treatment at Oklahoma State University in Tulsa, while local governments will get $12.5 million. The Sacklers are responsible for $75 million of the settlement.

In settling, the Stamford, Connecticut-based company denied any wrongdoing in connection with what Hunter called "this nightmarish epidemic" and "the worst public health crisis in our state and nation we've ever seen."

Comment: It's rather reflective of the state of the world that this family who have presided over the deaths of tens of thousands, destroying communities and corrupting medicine are also considered some of 'the world's most foremost philanthropists':

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Megaphone

More US sanctions won't make Russia reverse stance on Venezuela - Zakharova


TASS
Wed, 27 Mar 2019 00:50 UTC
Zakharova
© Mikhail Tereshchenko/TASSRussian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova
The United States won't make Russia reverse its stance to support the legitimate authorities in Venezuela through their threats to slap more sanctions on Russia, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a commentary in connection with the Russia-Venezuelan Threat Mitigation Act passed by the House of Representatives.

"Continuing its aggressive rhetoric towards Venezuela, openly making efforts to organize a coup in that country, the US is simultaneously trying to threaten those who are cooperating with its legitimate authorities, including Russia," the diplomat said.

"The US Congress is considering on a fast-track basis a bill on measures to influence the participants in Russia-Venezuela cooperation, believing that Moscow can be influenced through sanctions, to which Russia has already adjusted itself and has stopped paying attention to," she added.

Comment: The sanctions regime have only served to force countries and businesses to find a work around, isolating the US in the process and further proving their increasing irrelevance on the world stage: Also check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: US Regime Change Operation in Venezuela - This Time It's Legit?

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Eye 1

EU copyright law kills free speech online - that's a feature, not a bug

Helen Buyniski
RT
Tue, 26 Mar 2019 07:06 UTC
eu internet protest
© Global Look Press / Emmanuele Contini
The controversial copyright law facing a final vote in the EU parliament is less about copyright than it is about hammering a final nail in the coffin of the freedoms the internet once promised. Yes, Article 13 is that bad.

Most laws address themselves toward tangible, human-sized problems. Article 13, the sweeping European copyright legislation that proposes to filter all content on its way to the web to ensure no rights are being violated, isn't interested in such prosaic stuff. It seeks to defy the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

Physics? In my internet? The web operates according to the laws of entropy. It trends toward decentralization - of ideas, of social groups, but most importantly of power. Authority looks at this delightful disorder and sees only malevolent chaos that needs to be reined in. Legislators and the corporations that run their countries have spent a lot of time brainstorming on how to put the cat back in the bag, and Article 13 is the result.

Comment: The vote passed with an implementation time-frame of two years: EU Copyright Directive: Europe just voted to change the face of the internet, backing new wildly unpopular laws

RT reports on exiled whistleblower, Edward Snowden's thoughts:
Never forget what they did here': Snowden vents dismay at EU copyright reform

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has decried the EU's decision to pass highly controversial copyright reform in a move that critics argue clamps down on free speech.

Shortly after the European Parliament voted to adopt Article 13 on Tuesday, Snowden, who currently resides in Russia, tweeted his disgust at the decision to pass a directive that will shift responsibility onto web platforms to enforce copyright law more stringently.

Tweeting in German, Snowden took aim at Germany's ruling CDU/CSU alliance, urging people to punish the parties at the ballot box.

"Never forget what they did here. Since @CDU_CSU_EP voted for never more internet freedom, the internet must never vote for more @CDU_CSU_EP. #nieMehrCDU," he wrote.

The US government fugitive also took the opportunity to aim a barb at the EU for standing by the US and effectively exiling the whistleblower.


For the most part, Snowden received widespread support for his criticism of Germany's ruling parties, which despite at least alluding to an attempt at postponing the Article 13 vote, failed to prevent it from passing.

Article 13 has faced severe criticism since it was first proposed by the European Commission two years ago and sparked major, last-minute protests across Germany in the days prior to the final vote.

Critics allege that MEPs declined to reconsider the proposed legislation and effectively rubber-stamped new rules which will have far-reaching consequences for content producers and average citizens of the EU alike.
Considering the waves of discontent rippling throughout Europe it should come as no surprise that, since the phantom fake news boogeyman failed to dissuade the public from getting its information online, and from alternative sources, the beleaguered bureaucrats had to come at censorship from a different angle: Also check out SOTT radio's:

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