Puppet MastersS


Gold Bar

Trump dismisses financial interest claim in Saudi Arabia as 'fake news', but billions in weapons deals are at stake


RT
Tue, 16 Oct 2018 20:38 UTC
Trump Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman
© Reuters/Jonathan ErnstPresident Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman at the White House, March 20, 2018
Donald Trump has dismissed as "fake news" that he has financial interests in Saudi Arabia, amid heated tensions over the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. But there are billions of dollars tying Riyadh to Washington.

"For the record, I have no financial interests in Saudi Arabia (or Russia, for that matter)," the US president tweeted on Wednesday.

The tweet comes after Trump sent Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Riyadh on Tuesday for a crisis meeting with the Saudi king Salman. The visit follows allegations that the kingdom sent a hit squad to Istanbul to either kill or kidnap Khashoggi, a critic of the regime who had been living in exile.

Comment: The issue here has very little to do with Trump's past dealings with Saudi Arabia and everything to do with the profitable relationship of weapons sales and war creation.

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Bulb

Best of the Web: Khashoggi a critic of the Saudi regime? Only in western journalists' dreams

As'ad AbuKhalil
Consortium News
Mon, 15 Oct 2018 20:20 UTC
Jamal Khashoggi
© Johnny Green / Press AssociationJamal Khashoggi, media advisor to Prince Turki Al-Faisal, leaves the Royal Courts of Justice in central London.
Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist, who disappeared in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last week is not quite the critic of the Saudi regime that the Western media says he is.

The disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist, in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last week has generated huge international publicity, but unsurprisingly, little in Saudi-controlled, Arab media. The Washington Post, for whom Khashoggi wrote, and other Western media, have kept the story alive, increasing the pressure on Riyadh to explain its role in the affair.

It's been odd to read about Khashoggi in Western media. David Hirst in The Guardian claimed Khashoggi merely cared about absolutes such as "truth, democracy, and freedom". Human Rights Watch's director described him as representing "outspoken and critical journalism."

But did he pursue those absolutes while working for Saudi princes?

Comment: See also:



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USA

Stormy Daniels' lawsuit gets tossed and Trump marks the occasion by referring to her as 'horseface'


RT
Tue, 16 Oct 2018 20:03 UTC
Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump
© Reuters
After a federal judge tossed porn star Stormy Daniels' defamation lawsuit against President Trump, the president took to Twitter to gloat, calling Daniels "horseface" and her case against him "a total con."

"'Federal Judge throws out Stormy Danials [sic] lawsuit versus Trump. Trump is entitled to full legal fees,'" Trump tweeted on Tuesday, quoting Fox News. "Great, now I can go after Horseface and her 3rd rate lawyer in the Great State of Texas. She will confirm the letter she signed! She knows nothing about me, a total con!"

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Light Sabers

Trump threatens Honduras with aid cut unless new 'caravan of people' stopped


RT
Tue, 16 Oct 2018 20:07 UTC
Honduran migrants
© Jorge Cabrera/Reuters
US President Donald Trump said US aid to Honduras will be stopped unless its government stops a so-called "caravan" from heading towards the US border. Washington gave $175 million to Tegucigalpa last year.

The threatening tweet on Tuesday came in response to reports that around 1,600 Hondurans have banded together to travel north and eventually reach the US. They hope their lives in America will be free of the violence and poverty of their home nation. Honduras is one of the most dangerous countries in the world to live in, while about two-thirds of the population lives in poverty.

On Friday, the caravan left San Pedro Sula, a large city in the northwest of the country, despite warnings from US Vice President Mike Pence that they would be turned back at the US border. The people sang the national anthem of Honduras and chanted Barack Obama's campaign slogan, "Yes, we can!"
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Snakes in Suits

Ecuador gets UN praise for 'freedom of expression' as Assange remains gagged in embassy limbo


RT
Tue, 16 Oct 2018 20:02 UTC
assange
© Reuters / Peter NichollsJulian Assange
A UN official praised Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno for his treatment of journalists despite the fact that the leader is said to be preparing to hand over WikiLeaks' Julian Assange to the governments persecuting him.

UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression David Kaye commended Ecuador and Moreno for supposedly promoting freedom of speech - the same Moreno that recently cut off communications to fugitive whistleblower Julian Assange and has been mulling handing him over to the UK and the US to be tried as a spy.

Assange, the co-founder of WikiLeaks, was granted political asylum by Moreno's predecessor Rafael Correa in 2012 and became an Ecuadorian citizen in December 2017. In order to hand Assange over, Moreno would have to strip him of that citizenship first, as Ecuador's extradition treaty with the UK precludes turning over its own citizens.
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Vader

US praises Saudis' 'transparent' investigation into the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi


RT
Tue, 16 Oct 2018 19:08 UTC
pompeo mbs
© Reuters / Leah Millis
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's praise on Tuesday of the Saudis' "transparent" investigation into the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi is just the latest sign that Washington seems to be advocating for Riyadh.

Khashoggi was last seen entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on October 2 and Turkey claims to have audio and video evidence proving that he was murdered there. A Turkish forensic team spent nine hours searching for clues in the building. Following that search, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that some "toxic materials" in the consulate had been "painted over" - and Turkish police claim to have found "certain evidence" which proves that the journalist died there.

Video footage of cleaners with mops and buckets entering the consulate on the day the team of investigators were due to search the building also provided more fuel to the fire of speculation surrounding a potential coverup.

Comment: In further news, Turkish police left the Saudi consulate after an extensive search for Khashoggi's DNA traces. After that, a "high level Turkish official" told the AP that police did find evidence that Khashoggi died in the building. A Turkish source also told CNN that a Saudi forensics expert, Saleh al-Tubaiqi, 'cut to pieces' Khashoggi's body.

Clearly there is an effort here to demonize the Saudis (not that they don't deserve it), and in the process hurt the Trump Administation, which seems to be the end goal with the entire Khashoggi affair. See also:

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Sherlock

Khashoggi Mystery: Rogue killers Or rogue royals?

Andrew Korybko
Eurasia Future
Mon, 15 Oct 2018 12:00 UTC
MbS Khashoggi
© Saudi Gazette/Associated PressCrown Prince Mohhmad bin Salman • Journalist Jamal Khashoggi
Trump's claim that "rogue killers" might have been responsible for Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi's possible murder is likely only half of the story in the sense that this operation probably wasn't ordered by Riyadh but might have been undertaken at the behest of rogue royals who want to topple the Crown Prince.

Trump just dropped a bombshell when he alleged that missing Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi might have been murdered by "rogue killers", which suggests that Riyadh didn't officially order his assassination like many had been led to think after such claims began to spread around the world like wildfire last week. The Mainstream Media narrative was immediately suspicious because it claimed that the image-conscious Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) was so offended by Khashoggi's critical commentary about him that he ordered his dramatic torture, assassination, and subsequent dismemberment inside his country's Istanbul consulate in a daring move that would have reversed all of the soft power gains that he painstakingly (and expensively through paid PR) tried to make over the past three and a half years if it was true. Furthermore, Khashoggi was closely connected with the American, Turkish, and Saudi "deep states", so assassinating him in such a manner was bound to draw global attention.

Comment: See also: And for more on the matter, check out SOTT radio's:

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Take 2

Project Veritas undercover on Sen. McCaskill: Concealing liberal agenda to keep moderate voters - 'People just can't know that'

Tyler Durdan
ZeroHedge
Tue, 16 Oct 2018 19:02 UTC
In the third undercover video filmed by Project Veritas during the ongoing 2018 election season, Missouri Senator McCaskill's considerably more liberal views - "essentially the same as [Obama's]" - are exposed as she and her campaign staff conceals them in order to court moderate voters... and she needs them as her and her opponent are essentially tied:
poll hawley McCaskell
© Real Clear Politics
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Cow

SOTT Focus: Plant-Based Profits: The Corporate Interests Behind the Push Towards Veganism

Doug DiPasquale
Sott.net
Tue, 16 Oct 2018 19:13 UTC
NPC Guardian headline
I was overjoyed to see yet another article grace the pages of the Guardian this week, extolling the vital necessity that everyone switch to a plant-based diet in order to 'save the planet'. This is, by my count, the fourth such article to come out of the Guardian's pie-hole in the last few months (oops, I meant the fifth). They seem to have their hearts set on getting everyone to go along with the dramatic fiction that ruining your health by giving your body the least ideal food is going to appease the sky gods halt climate shift and save the globe. Apparently, sanctimoniously dining on rabbit-food has the magical ability to change the climate back to a more stable, 'cooler' state. Just ignore the fact that the science this claim is based on is beyond questionable; if the Guardian says it's true, who are we to argue? Drop that steak, son. We've got a planet to save.

This article focuses on another 'study' with a misguided perspective on how to save the world - looking at modern animal farming practices and the problems they cause, and offering the only possible solution: doing away with animal farming altogether (or to at least cut back significantly on animal farming by shifting the population to a more plant-based diet). As usual, it frames everything in black and white terms, ignoring the fact that switching to sustainable animal farming practices has a net beneficial effect on the environment with the added bonus of making the meat healthier.
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X

China slams US harassment claim over South China Sea row


PressTV
Tue, 16 Oct 2018 17:44 UTC
US destroyer NAVY South China Sea
© David Flewellyn/US Navy / ReutersGuided-missile destroyer USS Mustin transits in formation with Japanese JS Kirisame vessel during bilateral training in South China Sea in 2015.
China's Foreign Ministry has slammed a claim by the United States that one of its warships was harassed by China in the South China Sea, insisting that Beijing holds "indisputable sovereignty" over its islands and surrounding waters there.

"The allegation by the United States is nothing but making an unfounded counter-charge," said China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang during a Tuesday press briefing. "China has an indisputable sovereignty over its islands and the surrounding waters on the South China Sea."

He further underlined Beijing's right to self-defense and self-protection under international law and rejected Washington's claims about Chinese aims to militarize the waters in the area.

Comment: The US actually just ran a genealogy test on its original founders and discovered 2 out of 56 delegates who signed the Declaration of Independence were in fact 1/1,024th Southeast Asian, and so the United States clearly has claim to the South China Sea!

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