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Snakes in Suits

US-British Neo-Imperialism: The role of its modern day 'missionaries'

Tony Cartalucci
New Eastern Outlook
Fri, 31 Aug 2018 00:00 UTC
Fortify Rights peeps
© Unknown
The worst sort of deception is that perpetrated by those who pose as defending the most vulnerable when in reality, are leveraging their circumstances, exploiting their suffering, and in many cases, playing a direct role in perpetuating both.

This is an apt description of Washington, London, and Brussels' global-spanning human rights racket - used repeatedly as a pretext for political meddling and even war.

An especially cynical example of this is playing out in Southeast Asia's nation of Myanmar.

With ties between Myanmar and China growing, the US and its European partners are working to pressure, co-opt, or even overthrow Myanmar's current political order which includes not only a powerful, independent military, but also a civilian government the US and UK played a direct role in placing into power.

The decades of US-UK support for Aung San Suu Kyi - Myanmar's current State Counsellor - now hang around her and her National League for Democracy (NLD) political party's necks like a millstone. The very foreign-sponsored networks they invited into Myanmar to assist them into power are now being leveraged against them to coerce Myanmar's domestic and foreign policy.
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No Entry

Trump: 'No political necessity' to keep Canada in the new NAFTA deal


RT
Sun, 02 Sep 2018 08:30 UTC
BridgeCanada sign
© Rebecca Cook/ReutersBridge to Canada sign, Detroit Michigan.
Donald Trump said there is "no political necessity" to keep Canada in the NAFTA agreement if a "fair deal" cannot be reached. The US president warned Congress against interfering, threatening to kill the deal single-handedly.

"There is no political necessity to keep Canada in the new NAFTA deal. If we don't make a fair deal for the US after decades of abuse, Canada will be out," Trump tweeted on Saturday, a day after the trade negotiations with Canada were upended by leaked off-the-record remarks he made to Bloomberg.
He went on to warn US lawmakers against involving themselves into the negotiations, tweeting that should they do this he "will simply terminate NAFTA entirely and we will be far better off."
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Attention

US strategy in Syria is to 'create quagmires until we get what we want'

Jason Ditz
Antiwar.com
Fri, 31 Aug 2018 00:00 UTC
USconvoy
© Getty Images
In 2013, top Obama Administration officials described their policy in the Syrian War as one of keeping the war going. The administration wanted a big seat at the table for a political settlement, which officials clarified meant ensuring that the war kept going so that there was never a clear victor.

The Trump Administration seems to be slipping into that same destructive set of priorities in Syria. The Washington Post this week quoted an unnamed Administration official as saying that "right now, our job is to help create quagmires [for Russia and the Syrian regime] until we get what we want."

As ever, what the US really wants is to have a dominant position in post-war negotiations, so they can dictate the form that post-war Syria takes. This means ensuring that the Syrian government doesn't win the war outright.

That's not as realistic as it once was, with the Assad government, backed by Russia, having retaken virtually all of the rebel-held territory except for a far north bastion in Idlib, dominated by al-Qaeda. This means the US now has to save al-Qaeda to keep the war going, which if we're being honest has been a recurring undercurrent in US policy in Syria for years.

Comment: Last hurrah or the start of something bigger? Strategy dictates 'go big.' The last hurrah will always be there - but at what cost.

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Magnify

'Through a glass darkly,' the US economic boom is only a numbers game


Sputnik
Sat, 01 Sep 2018 23:11 UTC
Mirror dark
© yankeetherebel.com/KJN
The numbers look great on paper, but numbers do not educate children, provide basic housing and health services or feed hungry families, according a new report from one of DC's longest-serving think tanks.

New statistics released last week by the US Commerce Department detail the gross domestic product (GDP) rising at its fastest level in over four years, even while almost half of Americans are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet as wages lag behind inflation.

Pundits and investment experts have issued glowing praise as government economists running reams of data through algorithms have noted a sharp rise in the US GDP over the past several months, while the nation's employment figures have beat estimates and the American NASDAQ stock exchange index tops 8000 for the first time in its history.

These impressive numbers, however, exist outside of the realm of everyday life in America. As the DC-based Urban Institute think tank has now detailed, some 40 percent of Americans between 18-64 find themselves facing economic difficulty in the form of either education, health care, housing, food or utilities, according to CBS News.com.

Comment: With concerns acknowledged, the article has not stated whether the rise in GDP, up-trending employment figures and other positive economic markers have had a chance to filter through the American economic hierarchy to support those near or at risk at the time of these assessments. The Urban Institute is a "leading liberal think tank."

See also: Under Trump black business ownership jumps 400% in one year

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Vader

Russian MoD: Militants say they were trained by US, planned attacks in Palmyra


Sputnik
Sun, 02 Sep 2018 19:24 UTC
Palmyra Syria liberation
© Reuters / Omar SanadikSyrian army soldiers carry flags in the amphitheater of the historic city of Palmyra, Syria March 4, 2017.
The militants that attempted to assault the city of Palmyra claimed that they belong to the "Lions of the East" group that is stationed near a US military base, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported.

The militant group "Lions of the East" was set to carry out terrorist attacks in the country, capturing Syria within one week, the Russian Reconciliation Center stated.

"The militants' objective was to conduct a series of terrorist attacks in the vicinity of the city of Palmyra and to ensure the passage of the main forces of about 300 militants to capture the city within the next week," the center's report said.

Comment:

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Calendar

Canada: Saudi students file for asylum as deadline passes to return home

Michelle Ghoussoub
CBC News
Sat, 01 Sep 2018 09:00 UTC
Omar Abdulaziz
© FlickrOmar Abdulaziz, activist from Saudi Arabia, working with students caught in diplomatic feud between Saudi Arabia and Canada.
20 students are currently filing papers - but asylum may not be their only option. As the Aug. 31 deadline for Saudi students to leave Canada passes, at least 20 students are filing asylum claims in an attempt to stay in the country.

Omar Abdulaziz, a prominent Montreal-based activist from Saudi Arabia, said he's working with the students, whose lives were disrupted in August after a diplomatic feud erupted between Saudi Arabia and Canada.

Saudi Arabia asked all its students to leave Canada, after Canada expressed concern over arrests of civil society and women's rights activists in Saudi Arabia, including Samar Badawi.

"They want to keep studying here in Canada. They don't want to lose all their credits and the time that they've been here studying and working, so they're at least looking for a solution," he said.

Abdulaziz, 27, successfully filed for asylum in 2013 after he said he was threatened by the Saudi government because of his political activism. "They don't want to go back. Some of them are scared of what happened to me, and they think that if they go back they'll be arrested."

Comment: See also:

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Attention

US media is conditioning the public for bombing raids on Syria


Sputnik
Fri, 31 Aug 2018 03:38 UTC
Peter Ford
© www.alaraby.co.ukFormer UK Ambassador to Syria Peter Ford
The Syrian government is gearing up to liberate one of the last remaining strongholds of the jihadist opposition which has been ravaging the country for seven years. As the government has deposed the so-called rebel leaders from power in various cities in the country over the years, it has shipped them to Idlib.

The United Nations called on Russia, Iran and Turkey to not attack Idlib until humanitarian corridors are set up to evacuate civilians. One overlooked possibility, however, is an attack from France, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Former UK Ambassador to Syria Peter Ford published an article on Thursday outlining just how plausible such an attack is.

"It's three major powers about to attack, apparently, a vulnerable Middle East country, and again they're using subterfuge, if the reports coming from Russian sources are correct. And I believe they are - that a fabricated incident involving alleged use of chemical weapons is in the works," Ford told Radio Sputnik's Loud & Clear hosts John Kiriakou and Brian Becker.

"Just so there's no confusion here: if the Syrian regime uses chemical weapons, we will respond very strongly, and they really ought to think about this a long time," US National Security Adviser John Bolton threatened at a news conference in Jerusalem on August 22.

Comment: Fake chemical stunts in Syria require retaliatory missile attacks. Real bombing raids that obliterate children in Yemen...nothing.

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Attention

Atlantic Council continues US pre-election interference

Rick Rozoff
Ron Paul Institute
Wed, 29 Aug 2018 00:00 UTC
Hillary C Henry K
© Ron Paul Institute for Peace and ProsperityHillary Clinton • Henry Kissinger
On August 24 what is in effect the social media warfare division of the Atlantic Council published an article accusing the Russian television and print news outlet RT of running a one-sided attack against the Democratic Party and several leaders thereof ahead of this November's politically pivotal Senate and House of Representatives elections. (Thirty-five Senate seats and all 435 House seats are being contested.)

The Atlantic Council, until recently kept comparatively in the shadows for obvious reasons, is a think tank that has more than any other organization effected the transition of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization from a seeming Cold War relic with the break-up of the Warsaw Pact and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 to the world's only and history's first international military network with 70 members and partners on six continents currently. All thirteen new full member states are in Eastern and Central Europe; four of them border Russia.

Three months ago it began collaborating with Facebook to police and censor that and (presumably) soon after other social media companies which in recent decades have become the major sources of information and communication for the seven billion citizens of the planet. No modest undertaking.
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Snakes in Suits

French General: France and Russia should lead 'European Confederation'


Sputnik
Sun, 02 Sep 2018 18:03 UTC
General Didier Tauzin
© Quest-FranceFrench General Didier Tauzin
With global tensions reaching a fever pitch, many Europeans, including at the very top, have started to realize a need for good-neighborly and trusting relations with Russia.

While on a visit to Finland, French President Emmanuel Macron suggested revising the relationship between the EU and Russia, raising the issue for the second time in recent days. Sputnik France has discussed this with Didier Tauzin, a French general and a former presidential candidate.

Didier Tauzin said that he agreed with Macron on this particular issue and that he endorses the idea of "returning Russia to the European community" - a concept Tauzin has consistently defended in his books and public appearances.

He believes that the European continent, which is the "heart of the world," and the birthplace of "the most humane civilization on Earth," is facing many problems. "Europe, of which Russia is part, expects a difficult 21st century," Tauzin said, pointing in particular to the fact that 80 years from now Europe will have to deal with an Africa that has a population of 4 billion people.
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Attention

When a mafia expert says Britain is the most corrupt country in the world - time to start listening

Joel Benjamin
Independent
Tue, 31 May 2016 14:17 UTC
Robert Saviano
© BBCRoberto Saviano
In London, the financial mafia don't take out death warrants on truth tellers, but powerful financial firms will destroy the lives and reputations of whistleblowers. Newsnight found they have a 100 per cent success rate!

Mafia expert Roberto Saviano was right this week when he said that it's Britain, rather than Afghanistan, the South of Italy or Nigeria, which is the most corrupt country in the world. The fact of the matter is that the British public think they are detached from the mafia problem and corruption, yet London is the drug money laundering capital of the world, and 90 per cent of drug cash ends up in the US and Europe via London.

In Saviano's native Italy, the Naples based Camorra have a warrant out for Roberto's life, after he exposed the inner workings of members of the mafia in his book Gomorrah. He is a man willing to risk his own life for truth - and we should listen.

In London, the financial mafia don't take out death warrants on truth tellers, but powerful financial firms will destroy the lives and reputations of whistleblowers without a moment's hesitation, ensuring they never work in the financial services sector again.

According to a 2012 Newsnight report from the BBC's Joe Lynam, these City firms have a 100 percent success rate.

Comment: Fast forward...we can rest assured little has changed.

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