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"Commitment to law": Hungary rejects US demand to extradite Russian alleged arms dealers, hands them over to Moscow instead


Voice of America
Wed, 28 Nov 2018 10:17 UTC
Heather Nauert
FILE - State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert speaks during a briefing at the State Department in Washington, Aug. 9, 2017.
Hungary denied a U.S. request to extradite two suspected Russian arms dealers and sent the men to Russia, where it is unclear if they will face trial, the State Department said on Tuesday.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the United States had a strong case against the suspects, Vladimir Lyubishin Sr. and Vladimir Lyubishin Jr.

"The United States is disappointed in the Hungarian government's decision to extradite the Lyubishins to Russia," she said in a statement.

"Hungary is a partner and friend of the United States, but this decision raises questions about Hungary's commitment to law enforcement cooperation."

Comment: RT reports:
In what looks like a rare case of defying Washington's demands, Hungary has "disappointed" the US State Department by not extraditing two Russian nationals targeted in a US sting op and instead handing them over to Moscow.

The recent case of the two alleged gun runners, a father and a son both named Vladimir Lyubishin, was brought up Tuesday by State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert, who lambasted Budapest's decision to reject the extradition request from Washington.

[...]

"The United States is disappointed in the Hungarian government's decision to extradite the Lyubishins to Russia," Nauert said.

According to Hungarian media, the two men were running a business buying and reselling military surplus material decommissioned by the Hungarian army. In 2015 they were approached by an arms broker named Hamit Nasirlioglu, who sought to supply weapons to a Mexican arms cartel. The proposal was part of a sting operation by the DEA, the US law enforcement agency fighting illegal drug trafficking.

The deal was busted in November 2016, and the US sought extradition of the three suspects. Nasirlioglu was handed over in March 2017, but the Lyubishins managed to stall the extradition by applying for an asylum in Hungary. This was rejected, and Russia laid a claim on the pair on the basis of their nationality.

Hungary eventually decided that Russia's request trumped the American one, and in August the two suspects were delivered to Moscow, where they are reportedly held in a pre-trial detention in the notorious Matrosskaya Tishyna prison. They both claim to be innocent of the crimes they have been accused of by the Americans, which relate to smuggling of arms and narcotics, according to their lawyer. They insist they thought the deal was a legit supply of weapons to Nicaragua.

While Russia has not yet publicly commented on the case, it has been vocally complaining about similar operations by the US targeting Russians, which Moscow sees as examples of the US imposing its jurisdiction on other nations. Victor Bout and Konstantin Yaroshenko, who are now serving lengthy terms in American prisons, are the most-publicized cases of that kind.
Gone are the days where America could make unfounded demands and always get their way.

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Dollars

Germany doubles cash offers for migrants to return home


RT
Wed, 28 Nov 2018 03:54 UTC
‘Your land, your future’! Germany
© Reuters / Fabrizio Bensch
As Germany still struggles to balance its migration policy, the Interior Ministry has apparently decided to take one of the issues into its own hands and, through an ad campaign, boost the numbers of voluntary repatriations.

The ministry, led by Chancellor Angela Merkel's Bavarian ally Horst Seehofer, decided to lure potential repatriates with a supposedly bright future awaiting them in their countries of origin - as well as a sort of a complimentary gift should they agree to go home voluntarily.

The ads, which were placed on the billboards in major German cities in mid-November, featured a cheerful slogan that read: "Your country! Your future! Now!"

The ads also offered those who grab the unique opportunity before the end of 2018 a bonus in the form of the German government paying their rental costs in their countries of origin for the next year. In return, the refugees have to take back their asylum applications and renounce further legal proceedings to remain in Germany.

Comment: What a bloody expensive mistake Merkel's 2015 decision has turned out to be - in more ways than one.

The problem with the reactionary libtards screeching 'refugees welcome' is that not all migrants in Germany are fleeing war and instead they're economic migrants, who, without the cover of the refugee crisis created by the West's war on the Middle East, would have been subjected to the usual processes of migration. And many would have been turned away or later deported anyway.

Rather than try to placate EU bureaucrats, migrants and libtards, Germany needs to implement the laws it already has on its books.

See: Also check out SOTT radio's:

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Bad Guys

SOTT Focus: Media Shields American Public From The Truth: USA is Working With Al Qaeda in Yemen


RT
Tue, 27 Nov 2018 22:23 UTC
Militant fighters
© ReutersMilitant fighters in Yemen's southern Lahej province.
US media obfuscation of the truth about the Yemen war has effectively shielded the American public from learning that their country is in league with Al Qaeda forces there, Rania Khalek reports.

Al Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula (AQAP) is supposed to be the branch most dangerous to Americans because it is actively plotting attacks on the US. Yet, the US-backed coalition of Arab nations, led by Saudi Arabia, has cozied up with the group amid the stalled military intervention against the Houthis. AQAP not only fights coalition members, but even serves as a source of recruits for it.
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Cow

SOTT Focus: Guardian Publishes More Blatant MI6 Lies About Assange and Manafort

Craig Murray
Craigmurray.org.uk
Wed, 28 Nov 2018 10:41 UTC
Manafort Assange
The right wing Ecuadorean government of President Moreno continues to churn out its production line of fake documents regarding Julian Assange, and channel them straight to MI6 mouthpiece Luke Harding of the Guardian.

Amazingly, more Ecuadorean Government documents have just been discovered for the Guardian, this time spy agency reports detailing visits of Paul Manafort and unspecified "Russians" to the Embassy. By a wonderful coincidence of timing, this is the day after Mueller announced that Manafort's plea deal was over.

The problem with this latest fabrication is that Moreno had already released the visitor logs to the Mueller inquiry. Neither Manafort nor these "Russians" are in the visitor logs.

Comment: Contrast this with the attitudes of countries like the US, UK and France (not to mention many other European nations) who loudly denounce Russian media outlets like RT.com and Sputniknews.com as "propaganda tools". Yesterday the French Foreign Minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, banned Russian media outlets from attending a press conference in Paris between himself and Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov. It was only when Lavrov said he would not attend the conference unless Russian media was allowed to enter that the French Minister backed down.

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Attention

SOTT Focus: Leaked Transcript Proves Russiagaters Have Been Right All Along

Caitlin Johnstone
Medium.com
Tue, 27 Nov 2018 00:01 UTC
Trump Putin evil plot


A transcript of exchanges between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin has been leaked to National News Conglomerate by an anonymous source within the Kremlin. We here at NNC have confirmed the authenticity of this document using the same rigorous verification process we've been using to authenticate the evidence for all our other reporting on Russia's involvement in the 2016 US elections over the last two years. These verification methods include hunches, gut intuitions, and an introspective assessment of the way our feelings feel. The following exchanges revealed in this transcript provide the clearest evidence yet that the President of the United States has been in collusion with the Russian government for years.

This introduction has been authored by the editorial board of the National News Conglomerate. Obey.

11/9/2016

Trump: I have done as you commanded, my dominant and all-powerful lord. I have conspired with your hackers to steal the election, and now I'm going to be president! I want to thank you for not releasing that video footage of those Russian prostitutes I hired to urinate on a bed the Obamas once slept in. If that had come out it would have offended and alienated a lot of people, which is something I never normally do.

Comment: LOL! There's nothing quite like parody to expose the absolutely ridiculous. The Russiagate narrative is exposed as the completely ludicrous narrative that it is.

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Eiffel Tower

Macron vows to stay course on climate despite France protests

Joseph Schmid
Associated Press
Wed, 28 Nov 2018 09:50 UTC
yellow vest protest france
© Agence France-Presse/Georges Gobet"Yellow vest" protesters have been demonstrating around France against fuel taxes.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday tried to take the heat out of mass anti-government demonstrations, as a spokesman for the movement said there would be another show of strength on the Champs-Elysees in Paris on Saturday.

Macron said he had heard the anger expressed by the protests and would seek to bolster people's spending power but refused to change course from trying to make France greener.

The 40-year-old centrist acknowledged that many struggling households felt penalised by years of rising fuel taxes, the spark for road blockades and demonstrations over the past 10 days.

Comment: 'We don't care about your protests, we're going to keep pursuing our original goal, even though it doesn't represent the will of the people'. The stubbornness of Macron to "stay the course" on his ideologically based environmental plan clearly does not jibe with the citizens of France. And the French aren't the type to take all this lying down.

See also:

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Cut

Guardian stealth edits junk report to save their ass after Assange-Manafort fiction crumbles

Cassandra Fairbanks
Gateway Pundit
Tue, 27 Nov 2018 00:01 UTC
wikileaks
The Guardian appears to realize that they have made a massive and potentially very costly mistake in publishing their fictional story about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and Paul Manafort holding secret meetings.

The junk report, based on anonymous sources, was originally titled 'Manafort Held Secret Talks With Assange in Ecuadorian Embassy." Within 90 minutes, the Guardian changed the headline to add "sources say" and cover their asses.


Comment: Link to the dodgy Guardian piece.


Comment: This is no real surprise. The Guardian have consistently operated as a propaganda outlet with little-to-no regard for the actual truth. It's yellow journalism at its most blatant.

See also: Both Assange and Manafort are considering suing the Guardian for blatantly fabricating this story:
"This story is totally false and deliberately libelous," Manafort said in a statement. "I have never met Julian Assange or anyone connected to him. I have never been contacted by anyone connected to Wikileaks, either directly or indirectly. I have never reached out to Assange or Wikileaks on any matter. We are considering all legal options against the Guardian who proceeded with this story even after being notified by my representatives that it was false."


Similar remarks came from WikiLeaks, which called the core claim of the story false even before its publication. It is also promoting a GoFundMe campaign to support a libel case by Assange.
And in case anyone forgot who Luke Harding is, he's this tool:




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Chess

China's ambassador to US warns of global catastrophe if US-China economies go to war

David Brunnstrom, David Lawder, Matt Spetalnick
Reuters
Tue, 27 Nov 2018 18:00 UTC
Cui Tiankai
© REUTERS/Jim BourgChina's ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai responds to reporters questions during an interview with Reuters in Washington, U.S., November 6, 2018.
China is going to this week's G-20 summit hoping for a deal to ease a damaging trade war with the United States, Beijing's ambassador to Washington said on Tuesday, while warning of dire consequences if U.S. hardliners try to separate the world's two largest economies.

Speaking to Reuters before heading to join Chinese President Xi Jinping's delegation at the Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires, Cui Tiankai said China and the United States had a shared responsibility to cooperate in the interests of the global economy.

Asked whether he thought hardliners in the White House were seeking to separate the closely linked U.S. and Chinese economies, Cui said he did not think it was possible or helpful to do so, adding: "I don't know if people really realize the possible consequences - the impact, the negative impact - if there is such a decoupling."
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Attention

SOTT Focus: Here's Why Everything You've Read About Ukraine is Wrong!

Vladimir Golstein
Forbes
Mon, 19 May 2014 02:40 UTC
Euromaiden in Kyiv
© Evgeny Feldman/CC BY-SA 3.0The Rally
The mainstream American media has taken a nearsighted view of the Ukrainian crisis by following a script laid out by the State Department. Most reports have either ignored the truth or spun it in a way that paints only a partial picture.

Here are seven things you should know about Ukraine.

1. Regardless of claims by some commentators like Forbes contributor Greg Sattell, the divisions in Ukraine are real, and violence unleashed by the Kiev regime is polarizing the nation further. While the differences between the Ukrainian west and the more Russian-facing rest of the country are widely acknowledged, what tends to be overlooked is that the culture, language, and political thinking of western Ukraine have been imposed upon the rest of Ukraine. Ostensibly this is for the sake of "unifying the country," but in fact the objective has been to put down and humiliate Ukraine's Russian-speaking population. The radical nationalists of western Ukraine, for whom the rejection of Russia and its culture is an article of faith, intend to force the rest of the country to fit their narrow vision. Western and eastern Ukraine do not understand each other's preoccupations, just as Cubans in Miami and Cubans in Havana would not understand each other. Ukrainian conflict is not the conflict between the "pro-Russian separatists" and "pro-Ukrainians," but rather between two Ukrainian groups who do not share each other's vision of an independent Ukraine.
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Russian Flag

Russia has become the key to future development in Asia

F. William Engdahl
New Eastern Outlook
Tue, 27 Nov 2018 00:00 UTC
Putin
As serious problems emerge with the further development of China's ultra-ambitious New Economic Silk Road, the formally named Belt, Road Initiative (BRI) the Russian Federation, especially in the wake of Washington's mis-named trade war, is finding a positive role that could serve to change the entire dynamic of East Asian and Eurasian economic development. Depending on how it proceeds, it could help China to make necessary corrections to its current BRI development model and even benefit the development of the United States in a peaceful way. Here are some factors to consider.

Since Chinese President Xi Jinping formally proposed his BRI project in Kazakhstan in 2013 the project has undergone a huge advance across many countries from Pakistan to Malaysia to Africa. The original rather vague concept has been greatly expanded with creation of numerous state-tied think tanks in China proposing this or that new element. A major problem, however, has become evident in recent months in several BRI partner countries where China seems to have pursued its own project concepts such as in Malaysia, without due consideration for the needs of the partner country, sometimes leaving them with unpayable debts.

The BRI is one of the truly transforming ideas for rebuilding our debt-bloated world economy in a productive way. If that is to happen, it cannot be a mere repeat of the Anglo-American IMF model, "with Chinese characteristics." Here is where recent initiatives of Russia's Putin government could provide a major recalibration. The recent ASEAN meeting is instructive in this regard.
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