Puppet MastersS


Attention

Trump vows 'severe punishment' should Saudi Arabia be behind killing of WaPo journalist Khashoggi


RT
Sat, 13 Oct 2018 12:30 UTC
Trump, MbS
© Reuters/Jonathan ErnstPresident Donald Trump and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
Saudi Arabia will face "severe punishment" if it ordered the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, US President Donald Trump has warned.
"There's a lot at stake, and maybe especially so because this man was a reporter. There's something really terrible and disgusting about that if that were the case...we're going to get to the bottom of it and there will be severe punishment,"
Trump said during an interview with the CBS program 60 Minutes on Friday.

However, Trump stressed that even if the journalist was killed at the hands of Riyadh
President Donald Trump and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman he still wouldn't end the arms deal between the two countries.

"They are ordering military equipment; everybody in the world wanted that order. Russia wanted it, China wanted it, we wanted it - we got it. And we got all of it, every bit of it."

He went on to say that he doesn't want to "lose an order" or hurt jobs, and that there are "other ways of punishing" Riyadh if needed.

Comment: Turkey reported evidence of the murder from Khashoggi's Apple Watch synched with his iPhone in his fiancee's possession...an interesting development but is it true? As far as Trump issuing 'punishment' to Saudi royals...to what level and type of retaliation remains to be seen. We can bet it won't involve money.

See also:
Does murder of journalist Khashoggi spell the end for Mohammad bin Salman?

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Chess

A look at the Syrian chess board

Conn Halinan
Antiwar.com
Fri, 12 Oct 2018 00:00 UTC
Syrian troops
© Mikhail Alaeddin/Sputnik
The Syrian civil war has always been devilishly complex, with multiple actors following different scripts, but in the past few months it appeared to be winding down.

The Damascus government now controls 60 percent of the country and the major population centers, the Islamic State has been routed, and the rebels opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are largely cornered in Idilb Province in the country's northwest. But suddenly the Americans moved the goal posts and - maybe - the Russians have fallen out with the Israelis, the Iranians are digging in their heels, and the Turks are trying to multitask with a home front in disarray.

So the devil is still very much at work in a war that's lasted more than seven years, claimed up to 500,000 lives, displaced millions of people, destabilized an already fragile Middle East, and is far from over.

There are at least three theaters in the Syrian war, each with its own complexities: Idilb in the north, the territory east of the Euphrates River, and the region that abuts the southern section of the Golan Heights.

Comment: Participating countries, in shake-ups and re-scrambles, are jockeying for position and advantage. The Syrians are straight-forward in their wants and needs. Foreign interests are much more complex. Not mentioned are the rebel factions and false flag plays that may still have an influence over the Syrian outcome.

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Snakes in Suits

Trudeau: Ottawa concerned with Khashoggi's fate but it won't stop arms sales to Saudis


RT
Sat, 13 Oct 2018 15:18 UTC
Canadian Light Armoured Vehicle (LAV)
© John D McHugh/AFPCanadian Light Armoured Vehicle (LAV)
Ottawa will keep its $15bn arms deal with Riyadh despite concerns over Saudi involvement in the disappearance of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the diplomatic row over human rights, Prime Minister Trudeau said.

"We respected that contract," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters on Friday, adding that his cabinet has put forward measures to make the arms sales more transparent. "We are making sure Canadians' expectations and laws are always being followed," he said.

The contract was signed in 2014 by the previous conservative government, and has since been upheld by Trudeau. The specifics of the sales were originally not disclosed by the parties.

According to documents obtained by CBC News last month, a Canadian company is to ship 742 LAV-6 light armored vehicles to Riyadh. The same outlet revealed in March that hundreds of the LAV-6s will be outfitted as "heavy assault" and "anti-tank" types.

Comment: The fate of one individual, as well as the fates of hundreds of thousands, pale in the shadow of arms sales - albeit prior deals to capitalize on the means for murder and destruction.

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Magnify

New evidence may prove Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson lied to Congress

Matt Palumbo
bongino.com
Thu, 11 Oct 2018 00:00 UTC
Glenn Simpson
© MSNBCGlenn Simpson, Fusion GPS founder
What exactly was it that sparked the FBI's counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign to investigate potential collusion with Russia?

In December of 2017, the New York Times told us that it was interactions involving former Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos that sparked their investigation - which is in direct contradiction to statements made by former CIA Director John Brennan, who claims that it was he who did so by relaying British intelligence to the FBI.
"I was aware," Brennan said in May, "of intelligence and information about contacts between Russian officials and U.S. persons that raised concerns in my mind about whether or not those individuals were cooperating with the Russians, either in a witting or unwitting fashion, and it served as the basis for the FBI investigation to determine whether such collusion-cooperation occurred."
The "finding" was based on DNS logs - and spread by Hillary Clinton herself.

The fact that there are conflicting narratives as to how the FBI's investigation started proves that launching an investigation which could derail the Trump campaign was priority #1 - while coming up with a specific reason to justify it was secondary. All they were certain of (or at least pretended to be certain of) was that Trump colluded with the Russians.

Comment: Yet another aspect to untangle and put straight in the record. Not only did the Russiagaters create a complicated, multi-layered and overarching false scenario, they banked on phony testimony and 'save oneself' tendencies to further confuse and conflict the search for the truth.

More from The Daily Caller 10/11/2018:
The co-founder of the opposition research firm behind the Steele dossier, Glenn Simpson, will invoke his First and Fifth Amendment privileges to avoid testifying before Congress next week, his lawyer has told Congress.

According to The Hill, Simpson's attorney, Joshua Levy, told House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte that Simpson will not appear for a deposition because the congressional investigation "is not designed to discover the truth."

The Virginia Republican subpoenaed Simpson on Sept. 29 after Levy said his client would not appear voluntarily for an interview before members of the House Judiciary and House Oversight & Government Reform committees. ...

In addition to investigating Trump and his associates, Fusion GPS has helped plant anti-Trump news stories with numerous news outlets. Simpson helped arrange meetings between Steele and journalists from The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker and Yahoo! News. ...

Ohr's congressional testimony has cast doubt on what Simpson told the House Intelligence panel last November.

Ohr testified on Aug. 28 that he met Simpson twice in 2016, before and after the election. The first meeting took place in August 2016 after Simpson emailed Ohr. Ohr's notes show that he took notes related to the Trump investigation during his encounter with Simpson.

But Simpson testified that he met Ohr only after the election, and at Ohr's request. And though Simpson acknowledged meeting Ohr, he did not tell congressional investigators that Ohr's wife, Nellie, worked for Fusion GPS while the firm was investigating Trump.


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USA

Past presidents kowtowed to Saudi Arabia - Trump is just honest about it


RT
Sat, 13 Oct 2018 14:52 UTC
Trump
© Getty Images"We don't like this situation even a little bit."
Donald Trump set off a backlash by saying US will not stop supplying Riyadh with weapons over the alleged murder of an opposition journalist. But ignoring Saudi sins to preserve the alliance is a feature of American presidencies.

When asked this week about potential sanctions over the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi, an exiled Saudi journalist and US resident, who walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last week, and hasn't been seen since, Trump played the realpolitik card - suggesting that Russia and China would step in and replace American economic partners, if Washington pulled out.
"We don't like [the Khashoggi situation] even a little bit," Trump told journalists in the White House. "But as to whether or not we should stop $110 billion dollars from being spent in this country, knowing Saudi Arabia have four or five alternatives, two very good alternatives, that would not be acceptable to me."
As RT's Caleb Maupin says, Trump is merely removing the "smoke and mirrors" from the US relationship with the Gulf, which has always been about money and retaining a strategic ally in the region.
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Newspaper

Now it has become personal: WaPo editor takes on 'Saudi murderers' over missing columnist Khashoggi


RT
Fri, 12 Oct 2018 20:07 UTC
The Washington Post has taken out a full-page ad in protest of the disappearance and alleged murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey. "We're not going to let this go," said editor Karen Attiah in an interview.

"On Tuesday, October 2 at 1:14 p.m. Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi entered the Consulate of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul. He has not been seen since," the Friday ad reads, along with the text "Demand Answers."

Comment: See also:

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Mr. Potato

Delusional: Washington believes Syria will invite it to 'rebuild', but won't release funding unless "Iran expelled'

Joaquin Flores
Fort Russ News
Sat, 13 Oct 2018 18:03 UTC
Raqqa Syria civil war destruction
© Erik De Castro / ReutersRaqqa, Syria
'Not the Onion'

Washington DC appears to be engaging in a standard attempt to 'flip the script', making a bizarre announcement which seems to beg a number of questions.

The United States will only qualify Syria for provisions of any additional assistance to the reconstruction of Syria if Iranian forces are expelled from the country, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

The statement was made on Wednesday during Pompeo's strange speech at the Washington-based Jewish Institute for National Security (JINSA).

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, speaking to a pro-Israel group, vowed an aggressive push to counter Iran across the Middle East and said that Syria was a decisive battleground.

Comment: Syria is well aware of who its true friends are. They will not give a single financial opportunity to the cabal of countries that wanted to see Syria destroyed on behalf of Israel.

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Attention

About time: State Dept confirms Hillary Clinton's security clearance 'administratively withdrawn'


RT
Sat, 13 Oct 2018 11:41 UTC
hillary Clinton
© Reuters/Aaron P. Bernstein
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton no longer has a security clearance. Five of her former aides also lost theirs, following a scandal over her use of a private email server while running the State Department.

Clinton's security clearance "has been withdrawn at her request," the Senate Judiciary Committee revealed on Friday, citing a State Department note dated September 21 .

The State Department document, doesn't say anything about Clinton's request, however, only that her clearance was "administratively withdrawn" on August 30, 2018, as part of the ongoing review of how Clinton and her staff handled classified documents using a private email server during her tenure.

"Clearances for five other individuals whom Clinton designated as researchers have also been withdrawn, including close aide Cheryl Mills," the committee said. The State Department letter shows that this happened on September 20. The names of four other aides were redacted without explanation.

Comment: Hillary should next be prosecuted for her crimes (almost too numerous to mention), but we're not holding our breath.

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Chess

With UN peacekeepers in place, Syria and Israel agree to reopen key crossing in disputed Golan Heights


Sputnik
Sat, 13 Oct 2018 17:40 UTC
Golan Heights
© Agence France-Presse/Jalaa Marey/FileGolan Heights
In late September, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman signaled his country's readiness to resume normal activity at the Quneitra border crossing point, adding that "now the ball is in the Syrian court."

US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said that Israel and Syria had agreed to open the Quneitra checkpoint in the Golan Heights on Monday to help UN peacekeepers "prevent hostilities" in the area.

"We look to both Israel and Syria to provide UN peacekeepers the access they need as well as assurances of their safety. We also call on Syria to take the necessary steps so UNDOF [the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force] can safely and effectively deploy and patrol without interference," Haley pointed out.

Comment: It appears that, step by step, Russia is is helping Syria regain its territory, eventually perhaps,even what was taken by thieving Israel. Israel has no compunction about using its own people as pawns in the game:

Israel plans to populate Syria's Golan Heights further and develop it more amid 'security danger'

More from Vesti News:



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Chess

Trump's willingness to antagonize the world strengthens China-India rapprochement

Dr. Sreeram Chaulia
RT
Sat, 13 Oct 2018 17:19 UTC
Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping
© Global Look PressNarendra Modi and Xi Jinping
An old Chinese proverb states "crisis is opportunity riding a dangerous wind." Trump's trade war with China and accusations of political meddling against Beijing are dangerous winds & have hurt relations between the great powers.

But given that Trump has also been targeting other countries over trade, defense and energy security, China has company in a lot of disgruntled nations that are perplexed and disappointed by the US leader's diplomatic unpredictability, unilateralism and meanness.

Trump's populist willingness to upset and antagonize the whole world in the name of protecting and promoting US jobs and American manufacturers offers Beijing a unique opportunity to reset ties with several affected nations and strengthen its claim to global leadership based on peaceful intentions.

Comment: Politics does indeed make strange bedfellows.India and China's relationship has been fraught with ups and downs, but China's patience may finally result in an arrangement both countries can be satisfied with.

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