Puppet MastersS


Question

Is Sergey Kislyak the center to the set-up of Michael Flynn?

Julie Kelly
American Greatness
Mon, 17 Dec 2018 00:00 UTC
Sergey Kislyak
© Alex Wong/Getty ImagesRussian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak
During an unhinged, fact-free meltdown on Fox News, anchor Shepard Smith wrongly accused Lt. General Michael Flynn of calling the Russians after sanctions against that country were announced in December 2016. "So the U.S. places sanctions on Russia, Michael Flynn calls Russia, Michael Flynn lies about calling Russia, and tells others to lie for him about calling Russia," Smith ranted on Friday.

Aside from noting that the U.S. placed sanctions on Russia, Smith is flat-out wrong. The truth, according to the charging document filed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, is that Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak called Flynn on December 28, 2016, the very same day the sanctions were publicized. So as pundits and a federal judge take a closer look at the circumstances surrounding Flynn's fateful January 2017 interview with the FBI, it's important to take another step back in time and scrutinize the calls that landed Flynn in legal trouble.

Further, who is Sergey Kislyak? Why does he figure so prominently not just in the Flynn matter but also the recusal of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the framing of Trump campaign volunteer Carter Page, and yet unsubstantiated accusations against Trump' son-in-law Jared Kushner? His longtime ties to the Obama White House may offer some clues-and raise legitimate questions about whether Kislyak himself was a central player in the set-up of Michael Flynn.

Comment: A stretch? A deliberate overlook? Remember who the target is. Is there an impetus/benefit for implicating the Trump administration in the Russiagate scenario if arrows point to Kislyak, not Flynn - the first to fall?

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Arrow Down

Judge Sullivan's accusations mar Flynn's sentencing hearing

Byron York
Washington Examiner
Tue, 18 Dec 2018 04:16 UTC
Judge Emmet Sullivan
© National Law JournalJudge Emmet Sullivan
The sentencing of former Trump White House national security adviser Michael Flynn on a single charge of lying to the FBI turned into a dramatic scene in a Washington, D.C., courthouse Tuesday. Federal Judge Emmet Sullivan excoriated Flynn for what is called uncharged conduct - that is, for crimes that Flynn has not been formally accused of committing.

In open court, Sullivan raised the question of whether Flynn, a retired Army three-star general with more than three decades of service, might have committed treason. He questioned whether Flynn sold out the United States. He said Flynn had served as an unregistered foreign agent (for Turkey) inside the White House.

"Arguably, that undermines everything that this flag over here stands for," Sullivan said, gesturing toward the American flag in the courtroom, according to reporters who were present. "Arguably, you sold your country out."

All were terribly damaging accusations, especially coming from a federal judge sitting in court. And all were false, given that Flynn did not commit treason, did not sell out the United States, and did not serve as an unregistered foreign agent in the White House. There's a reason Trump-Russia special counsel Robert Mueller did not charge Flynn with those crimes, and the reason is he did not commit them.

Comment: Flynn was mis-'judged'.
See also:

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Star of David

Israel's censorship regime going global

Asa Winstanley
Middle East Monitor
Wed, 19 Dec 2018 02:00 UTC
IDF Attack
© Nedal Eshtayah/Anadolu AgencyIsraeli forces attack Palestinians in Nablus, West Bank.
For a government which brashly boasts of being "the only democracy in the Middle East" Israel in reality has a lot of anti-democratic tendencies. The main one of these is the simple reality that Israel enforces a military dictatorship over millions of Palestinians.

These people - in the West Bank and Gaza Strip - cannot vote in Israeli elections. They do not have equal rights under Israeli law. They can have their property, homes and even lives taken away at a moment's notice by Israeli soldiers or settlers.

The system of Israeli law that Palestinians in the sectors of Palestine designated under international law as the "occupied territories" is a military one. This is therefore an apartheid regime, since the Israeli settlers also living in the West Bank are subject to a different set of laws - civilian law.

The conviction rate of the "military courts" regime is 99.7 per cent. This is a system of kangaroo courts and is profoundly anti-democratic and racist.

Another reason that Israel cannot be reasonably described as a democracy is that it enforces a system of military censorship. Army officers, and other senior figures from Israel's armed forces, can essentially tell Israel's media what to do. More often than not in practice, mainstream Israeli journalists are subservient, and don't challenge official narratives, so there is often very little need for the media to be actively censored. They already know what not to publish.

Comment: See also:

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Boat

'Cruising for a bruising'? Ukraine plans another incursion into Kerch Strait aimed to draw in NATO


RT
Thu, 20 Dec 2018 10:42 UTC
Kerch Strait
© The DriveKerch Strait
Kiev is considering sending its Navy ships through the Kerch Strait again, a high-ranked official said weeks after a tense standoff between Russian and Ukrainian vessels in the area.

Another passage by Ukrainian Navy ships through the Kerch Strait which connects Black and Azov Seas might take place very soon, according to Alexander Turchinov, head of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council. "I think that this issue cannot be delayed," he told BBC News Ukraine on Wednesday.

Turchinov, who briefly served as interim president after the Western-backed 2014 Euromaidan coup in Kiev, didn't mince his words while explaining the rationale between the action. To him, Russia is after "seizing the Azov Sea," install new maritime borders and "legitimize the occupation of Crimea."

The only antidote to the plan is "to show to the entire world that Ukraine has not lost its position in the Azov Sea." Turchinov was speaking several weeks after three Ukrainian ships attempted to break through the strait which Russia had closed on safety reasons.

On November 25, three Ukrainian Navy vessels, including two combat-ready gunboats, entered the Kerch Strait without getting proper clearance first, according to Moscow. After ignoring multiple warnings and demands to stop, they were fired upon and seized by the Russian coast guard, while the sailors were taken to custody.

This time, the official said he hopes Ukraine will not be left alone in the next endeavor. "It would be very logical if NATO ships which we invited [to visit] the Azov Sea ports make sure that Russia complies with international law," he said, lamenting the military bloc provided no response yet.


Comment: The Sea of Azov is an internal sea with passage to the Atlantic Ocean going through the Black, Marmara, Aegean and Mediterranean seas. It is considered a 'territorial' sea. International law may not apply.

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Russian Flag

Putin: Reserve currency position of Russian ruble strengthening as world turns away from the dollar


RT
Thu, 20 Dec 2018 14:20 UTC
Ruble strengthens as reserve
© Sputnik / Alexei Sukhorukov
The reserve currency position of the Russian ruble is strengthening as countries turn away from the dollar due to US financial restrictions, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday during his annual Q&A session.

The role of Russia's national currency will continue to grow, especially in payments between members of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), Putin told journalists. The Russian president gave an example of cross-border payments between EEU members Russia and Belarus, nearly 70 percent of which are in rubles.

"The role of the ruble as a reserve currency used in payments is increasing. It will strengthen in this segment as it is not associated with costs of dollar payments and is more reliable," the Russian leader told journalists.

Comment: Bullying and threats only go so far before countries seek alternatives:

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Yoda

'We failed to prevent it': Putin says Russia takes partial responsibility for doping scandal but insists there was no 'state-sponsored' system


RT
Thu, 20 Dec 2018 19:25 UTC
putin
© Global Look Press /Kremlin Pool
Speaking at his annual Q&A session, Vladimir Putin admitted Russia's partial responsibility for the doping scandal that rocked the country, but insisted that a state-sponsored system has never existed in the country.

The Russian head of state emphasized that flagrant doping violations did take place and called on sports officials to admit their shortcomings in preventing them, but Putin denied allegations of state-sponsored doping, saying that an "athletes' health" has always been the main priority for the Russian government.

"First of all we are responsible for the situation we face, because there were doping violations [committed by the Russian athletes]" Putin said.

"It's another matter that some officials are trying to impose an opinion that there was state doping in Russia. This is not true. We never had that and will never create such a system, because we should not only think about sports results, which are important, but our main priority is the athlete's health," he added.

Comment: Putin is absolutely correct that doping is widespread throughout the sports world. But what happened against Russia was to politicize sports in order to commit cultural warfare:

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Yoda

'Russophobic mentality': Putin points out hypocrisy of world's reaction to Skripal poisoning and Khashoggi killing


RT
Thu, 20 Dec 2018 19:15 UTC
skripal and khashoggi
© Global Look Press / Wikimedia / April Brady(L) Sergei Skripal; (R) Jamal Khashoggi
The poisoning of the Skripals was a pretext to attack Russia and impose sanctions in line with a "Russophobic mentality," Vladimir Putin said, while the world's reaction to the killing of Jamal Khashoggi was very different.

"There are plenty of sanctions against Russia... this is a politicized, Russophobic mentality. This is a mere pretext to launch yet another attack on Russia," Putin said on Thursday, while commenting on the Skripals' poisoning. If Skripal did not exist, he would need to be invented, the Russian president suggested.

When an RT correspondent likened the Skripal affair to the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Putin said the ill-fated reporter "was assassinated, that is evident, but Skripal is alive, thank God." However, "there is complete silence" in the Khashoggi case, while Russia is being slapped with more and more sanctions.

"The only goal is to contain the development of Russia as a potential competitor. I don't see any other goals," Putin said.
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Bullseye

Glenn Greenwald on the problem of sucker journalism and why there's no silver bullet for defeating Trump

Davis Richardson
The Observer
Thu, 20 Dec 2018 18:27 UTC
Glenn Greenwald
© Associated Press/Kin CheungGlenn Greenwald
Glenn Greenwald brought The Guardian the biggest scoop of the Obama years when he reported on U.S. agencies collecting metadata on its citizens-turning whistleblower Edward Snowden into a household name, while defining the national conversation surrounding government surveillance. But in the Trump era, the national security wonk's relationship with The Guardian is... tenuous, at best.

"The Guardian's happy to be used," Greenwald told Observer during an interview at The Intercept's New York offices.

After The Guardian published an uncorroborated report by Luke Harding and Dan Collyns alleging Paul Manafort met with Julian Assange at London's Ecuadorian Embassy, Greenwald called out the reporters for failing to vet the information - accusing the publication on Twitter of behavior that "erodes trust in journalism and undermines the work of journalists everywhere." From Greenwald's perspective, it was indicative of a much more frightening trend in media: the reliance on government sources for scoops and information

Comment:

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Bullseye

Putin: Poroshenko sent Ukrainians to die in Kerch Strait in hopes of boosting approval rating


RT
Thu, 20 Dec 2018 19:12 UTC
ships
© RIA Novosti
President Petro Poroshenko sent Ukrainian servicemen to die in a provocation against Russia in the Kerch Strait, in hopes of boosting his approval rating, Vladimir Putin has claimed, adding that thankfully this didn't happen.

The Ukrainian sailors whose vessels were intercepted by Russia's coast guard last month were meant to serve as cannon fodder, and the fact that none of the Ukrainian service members died in the clash caused disappointment in Kiev's "ruling circles," Putin told journalists during an annual Q&A conference.

"They hoped that some of them would die, but, thank God, this did not happen," Russia's president said. He went on to accuse Poroshenko of using the provocation to boost his sagging approval ratings ahead of Ukraine's presidential election.
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Arrow Up

US Treasury to lift sanctions on multiple Russian companies

Polina Devitt
Reuters
Thu, 20 Dec 2018 18:24 UTC
Oleg Deripaska
© Sergei Savostyanev/TASSRussian businessman Oleg Deripaska
The U.S. Treasury said it will lift sanctions on the core empire of Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska, including aluminum giant Rusal and its parent En+, watering down the toughest penalties imposed since Moscow's 2014 annexation of Crimea.

London aluminum prices sank to a 16-month low after the U.S. Treasury's announcement, while shares in Rusal, the world's largest aluminum producer after China's Hongqiao, surged to an eight-month high.

In April, the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on Deripaska, Rusal, En+ and other companies in which he owns stakes, citing "malign activities" by Russia, prompting turmoil in global aluminum markets.
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