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Sanctions on Iran more like a demonstration of US weakness, rather than strength

Patrick Cockburn
The Independant
Tue, 06 Nov 2018 08:08 UTC
Radioactive material
© AFP/GettyRadioactive material at the laboratories of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Seibersdorf, near Vienna
US sanctions imposed on Iran today are the greatest test so far of President Donald Trump's ambition to act unilaterally in defiance of both rival powers and traditional allies.

The aim of the Trump administration is to put enough economic pressure on Iran to force it to renegotiate the Iran nuclear deal of 2015 or, more ambitiously, to secure regime change in Tehran by provoking popular unrest.

It will be difficult to achieve either objective: sanctions can impose intense pressure on a country if maintained over a long period, but their effectiveness depends on support and enforcement by a broad coalition of powers. This is what happened with UN sanctions on Iraq between 1990 and 2003 and with sanctions on Iran between 2006 and 2015.

But this time round there is no coalition supporting sanctions and a great array of states from China and Russia to the EU and Iran's immediate neighbours, Turkey and Iraq, which are opposing them. On one level, they are seeking to save the Iran deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which the five permanent members of the Security Council - US, UK, France, Russia, China - plus Germany and EU, agreed with Iran three years ago.

Comment: See also: Paper Tiger Sanctions on Iran Will Speed The End of Pax Americana

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Attention

'Blue Wave' more like 'ripple' as Democrats take House from Republicans in midterms


PressTV
Wed, 07 Nov 2018 07:10 UTC
Washington DC
© AFP
US Democrats are set to take control of the House of Representatives for the first time in eight years, a crucial victory that spells trouble for President Donald Trump in the second half of his first term in office.

To win the House, all Democrats needed to do was to flip 23 Republican seats, a task that proved too easy for the opposition party.

While the Senate was a lost cause from the get-go, Democrats were highly optimistic that they would win back the lower chamber of Congress.

Initial results of the frenzied midterm elections projected Democrats as the next majority party in the House, with NBC predicting a 230-205 makeup.

people cheer
© AFPPeople cheer while watching election results during a midterm election night party hosted by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee November 6, 2018 in Washington, DC.
By winning the House, Democrats will have the opportunity to frustrate Trump's legislative plans and ramp up their "obstructionist" approach, as the president would like to call it.

Comment: Surprising? We doubt that support from washed out warmongers Obama and Clinton would have had much influence on the outcome. In any case, control of the House doesn't really change things all that much. They've been fighting tooth and nail on anything 'Trump' since the beginning, or he would have had his border wall by now. What we will get is another two years to sit back and enjoy the show. See also:

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Pistol

Syrian Army reportedly seizes new cache of US-Made weapons


Sputnik News
Tue, 06 Nov 2018 00:00 UTC
US arms in Syria
© AFP 2018 / Ad Dumayr
Authorities made the find in villages and towns in the Damascus countryside and Quneitra region in Syria's Golan Heights, areas recently freed from a motley collection of militants and terrorist groups

The weapons, ammunition and medical equipment, most of them said to be US and British-made, were found in local villages thanks to cooperation between authorities and local national reconciliation committees in Jibat al-Khashab, Quneitra province and Beit Jin, Rif Dimashq province, the Syrian Arab News Agency has reported.
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Brick Wall

The blacklist: Targets of new US sanctions against Iran


RT
Tue, 06 Nov 2018 02:13 UTC
Iranian women in Tehran
© AFP / Atta KenareIranian women walk past an anti-US mural in Tehran
The US has re-imposed all of the sanctions against Iran that had been suspended under the 2015 nuclear deal. From airlines to oil firms, the list of companies and people targeted is exhaustive.

The sanctions, applied on Monday, reimpose financial penalties lifted under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which promised Iran some sanctions relief in exchange for a halt to its nuclear weapons program. President Trump withdrew from the deal in May, and has since reimposed sanctions in 19 rounds.

Described by Trump as the "strongest sanctions our country has ever issued," Monday's penalties target the Islamic Republic's banking, energy and transport sectors, and according to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, aim to "fundamentally alter the behavior of the Islamic Republic of Iran's leadership."
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Gold Seal

Paul Craig Roberts: What this election is ultimately about - and its far-reaching implications

Paul Craig Roberts
paulcraigroberts.org
Tue, 06 Nov 2018 00:00 UTC
voting elections
Trump has been so harassed by the Establishment that he is having trouble thinking straight

I never cease to be amazed at the insouciance of Americans. Readers send me emails asking why I ever supported Trump when he was the Establishment's candidate. If Trump was the Establishment's candidate, why has the Establishment spent two years trying to destroy him?

The failure to put two and two together is extraordinary. Trump declared war on the Establishment throughout the presidential campaign and in his inaugural address.

As I wrote at the time, Trump vastly over-estimates the power of the president. He expected the Establishment, like his employees, to jump to his will, and he did not know Washington or who to appoint to support his goals. He has been totally defeated in his intention to normalize relations with Russia. Instead, we are faced with both Russia and China preparing for war.

In other words, the same outcome that Hillary would have achieved.

Comment: See also: After the midterm election, a major part of the political class will further embrace insanity as a coping mechanism

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Bad Guys

Pentagon now realizes that 'made in China' has left the US Army desperate for 'made in America'

Ivan Danilov, Translated by Ollie Richardson & Angelina Siard
The Saker
Sun, 04 Nov 2018 00:00 UTC
chinese army
In the system of national defense of the US a gaping vulnerability was found that is very difficult to close. The reaction of the Pentagon is reminiscent of badly hidden panic, and journalists who examined the results of the research of American experts, who thoroughly studied the condition of the American army and defensive industry, admit that there is iron logic in the recent "strange" actions of president Trump - he wants to save America from transforming into a cardboard tiger with paper claws.

The essence of the problem, according to the retelling of the columnist of the Reuters agency Andy Home, who obtained a copy of the September report of the US Department of Defence on the situation concerning key deliveries necessary for the American army, is reduced to one important figure. More than 300 (!) key elements necessary for the normal functioning of the US Armed Forces and defensive industry are under threat: American producers are either on the verge of bankruptcy or were already replaced by suppliers from China or other countries because of the deindustrialisation of national economy and the relocation of production to the countries of Southeast Asia.
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Evil Rays

US Senator Cory Booker uses anti-Semitic massacre in Pittsburgh as excuse to dismiss Palestinians' rights

Phil Weiss and Donald Johnson
Mondoweiss
Mon, 05 Nov 2018 00:00 UTC
Senator Booker
Senator Booker
New Jersey Senator Cory Booker says that the Pittsburgh massacre has led him to support the Israel Anti-Boycott Act. He becomes the first politician to use the killings of 11 Jews to take a racist position against Palestinian rights. His move should be described exactly that way, as a cynical use of real antisemitism as an excuse to dismiss Palestinian rights so as to further his political career.

Booker, who is thought to have presidential ambitions, had opposed the Israel Anti-Boycott Act, but last week told Jewish Insider:
"We've seen the alarming rise in anti-Semitism in the United States and across the world in recent years manifest itself in many deeply concerning ways, including in the actions of foreign governments targeting Israel and the Israeli people."

"I have long and staunchly opposed the BDS movement, and support this bill which will prevent international entities from imposing their will on US businesses with regards to their decisions, consistent with US law, to conduct commerce with our close ally Israel and its citizens. Initial concerns that this bill unintentionally infringed on individuals' First Amendment rights have now been addressed by changes agreed upon earlier this year, and I feel confident that those modifications safeguard Americans' constitutional right to free speech. I'll be adding myself as a cosponsor, and will be urging my colleagues to support this important legislation in its modified form."
The bill seeks to thwart the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign, by criminalizing U.S. participation in the boycott, much as participation in the Arab boycott of Israel decades ago was criminalized. The ACLU rejects the modifications in the bill, saying it would "allow people who boycott to be slapped with criminal financial penalties. It suffers from the same fundamental flaw as the original draft by criminalizing participation in constitutionally protected boycotts."

Comment: As one commentator on Mondoweiss so aptly put it:
Shame on Corey Booker, like other politicians with presidential ambitions, he is taking this awful incident, to show his unwavering support for the land of the zionists. The massacre in Pittsburgh had NOTHING to do with BDS, and the killer, a white nationalist, obviously does not care about the Palestinians, and their suffering. Booker has simply taken advantage of the situation, to change course, and bring AIPAC into his campaign.....despicable.

I guess the millions of shekels Israel is investing to sabotage the BDS movement is working.


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Colosseum

SOTT Focus: Sanctioning The Sanctioners: De-Dollarization & De-Americanization is an Idea Whose Time Has Come

John Wight
RT
Tue, 06 Nov 2018 21:44 UTC
Iran protests sanctions
Iranians protest the re-imposition of US (world govt) sanctions, 5 November 2018
The imposition of sanctions on Washington by a world whose development is being grievously impeded by its brutal and asphyxiating hegemony is overdue.

The world that is invites us at seminal moments to contemplate the world that is not in obeisance to the understanding of history and historical events as the story of the roads not taken.

Imagine for a moment if instead of Alexander's Macedonians invading and conquering the vastness of the Persian Empire, it had been the Persian Emperor Darius who'd invaded and conquered Macedonia and the Greek city-states with his elite army of Immortals. What kind of world would have been fashioned as a consequence?
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Heart - Black

Millions in Yemen are starving and UK, US & France are 'behind this' - Oxfam representative to RT


RT
Tue, 06 Nov 2018 20:55 UTC
man receives food ration Yemen
© Reuters / Khaled Abdullah
FILE PHOTO A man receives food ration from a charity food distribution in Sanaa, Yemen
The US, UK, and French governments are behind millions of people starving in Yemen because they are "supporting this war," an Oxfam representative told RT, urging London to stop beefing up Saudi Arabia's military.

"We have 14 million people starving," Richard Stanforth, Oxfam UK's regional policy officer for the Middle East, said. "British, French, American governments are all behind this, they are all supporting this war."

Stanforth blamed the British government in particular, saying that London should stop its arms sales to Saudi Arabia, which is accused of targeting food supplies and even no-strike locations in Yemen.

"We've seen attacks on water infrastructure, on hospitals, warehouses of food. This pattern is continuing. Certainly, it's the airstrikes that are killing most civilians," he said.

Stanforth says Riyadh's bombing is not sparing humanitarian sites either... including that of Oxfam. Saudi Arabia is "aware of many of these locations" and along with the UAE, it is still hitting them, he added.

Western states have been widely criticized by rights groups for their continued arms sales to Riyadh. However, turning the tide on multibillion-dollar deals may not be so easy.
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Bad Guys

Facebook blocks 115 accounts after alert from U.S. authorities


RFE/RL
Tue, 06 Nov 2018 20:41 UTC
Facebook and Instagram ads
Facebook and Instagram ads linked to a previous Russian effort to disrupt the U.S. elections.
Facebook says it has blocked 115 user accounts after U.S. authorities alerted the social network to suspicious activity that may be linked to a foreign country.

The company's move, announced in a blog post late on November 5, came hours after U.S. law enforcement agencies warned that, as U.S. voters go to the polls on November 6, they should be wary of attempts by Russia, Iran, and other countries to spread fake news on social media.

"At this time we have no indication of compromise of our nation's election infrastructure that would prevent voting, change vote counts, or disrupt the ability to tally votes," said a joint statement by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen; Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, and FBI Director Christopher Wray.


Comment: US elections have been compromised for a very long time, and it wasn't the Russians' doing:
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