Puppet MastersS


Palette

Anti-Islamist Dutch politician cancels Mohammed cartoon contest after 'threats and violence'


RT
Thu, 30 Aug 2018 21:25 UTC
Pakistani demonstrators
© Akhtar Soomro/ReutersPakistani demonstrators protest Prophet Mohammed cartoon contest.
Anti-Islamist Dutch politician Geert Wilders has cancelled his Prophet Mohammed cartoon contests after a man was arrested for plotting an attack against him and thousands took to the streets in Pakistan in protest.

"Islam showed its true face once again with death threats, fatwas and violence," Wilders said as he commented on his decision on Twitter. The Party for Freedom (PVV) leader said the controversial competition was called off because the "safety and security" of the Dutch people was his priority.

Wilders announced his contest in June, inspired by comments to his posts on social media. He promised that the event will be held in the Dutch parliament building in Autumn, with the winner receiving a cash prize. The politician said he had gathered more than 200 cartoons of Mohammed for the competition.

Back then, Wilders explained that his intention was not to "provoke or insult" and that the event was being held "because the freedom of speech is the most important freedom we have."
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Footprints

New head of FTC has known conflict of interests, redacted documents block people from knowing the truth


RT
Fri, 31 Aug 2018 20:03 UTC
FTC's redacted documents
© Public CitizenA screenshot from the FTC's redacted documents
Corporate lawyer Andrew Smith's appointment to head the FTC's Bureau of Consumer protection raised some eyebrows earlier this summer. Now, a heavily redacted set of documents have done little to allay this concern.

According to his financial disclosure form, Smith provided legal services to a host of companies, including Uber, Amazon, JP Morgan, and the Dallas Cowboys. Several of these companies are currently under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), including Equifax, the credit company that exposed the personal information of 145 million Americans in a data breach last year.

Among the 53 other companies listed on Smith's disclosure are "predatory" payday lenders Elevate Credit and MoneyKey, the latter of which was ordered to pay back more than $4 million to customers after it violated consumer finance laws in Virginia in 2015.
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Ark

Gohmert doubles down over 'Chinese hack' on DNC after FBI dismisses claims

Brooke Singman
Fox News
Fri, 31 Aug 2018 19:25 UTC
Louie Gohmert
Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert doubled down after the FBI dismissed claims that a Chinese state-owned company hacked former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private email server.

'[P]artisan politics, sadly, are very much at play within some of the leadership at the FBI," the Texas congressman said in a statement late Wednesday.

The Daily Caller first reported that the FBI was notified of the purported hack in 2015, when the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) warned the bureau of the intrusion. The hack reportedly implanted code that generated a "courtesy copy" for almost all Clinton's emails -- which was then forwarded to the Chinese company.

Comment: The FBI doesn't want to acknowledge a 'Chinese hack' likely because they don't want to water down the Russia hack narrative, nor do they want people to know such hacks are commonplace and really do not affect the domestic political process at all. On the other hand, the increasing hostility toward China in terms of political rhetoric as well as Trump's trade war is worth noting given their increasing influence in Eurasia and beyond.

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Attention

The approach of a 'Syrian Suez'?

Peter Ford
Middle East Eye
Wed, 29 Aug 2018 10:15 UTC
Anti-war protest
© AFPAnti-war protest after President Trump launched airstrikes in Syria, April 15, 2018.
Another tripartite aggression based on pretexts and plotting appears imminent, this time involving the US, UK and France.

September 1 will mark the 62nd anniversary of the secret formal request by the government of France to Israel for Israel to attack Egypt.

The plan was for France, soon joined by the UK, to invade Egypt on the pretext of safeguarding the Suez Canal, in hopes of precipitating the overthrow of President Gamal Abdel Nasser. The Tripartite Aggression, as the Arabs call it, was duly triggered on 29 October 1956, when Israel invaded.

September 2018 is likely to witness another tripartite aggression based on pretexts and plotting, this time involving the US alongside the UK and France. The victim now is Syria.

Comment: See also:

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Star of David

Ignored: Israeli spying on Trump

Philip Giraldi
American Herald Tribune
Mon, 27 Aug 2018 00:00 UTC
JaredKushnerGeorgePapadopoulos
© Reutersmedia/Liberty Front PressJared Kushner • George Papadopoulos
It is ironic that the Robert Mueller investigation into possible collusion between the Russian government and the Donald Trump campaign continues to turn up nothing while the evidence of Israeli interference in the U.S. political system continues to surface without any outrage being expressed by either the media or American politicians.

The most recent revelation concerns a payment of $10,000 given to former Trump campaign advisor George Papadopoulos in an Israeli hotel room in July 2017. A self-described Israeli businessman named Charles Tawil provided the money at the meeting, which was set up after Tawil flew to the Greek island Mykonos, where he met Papadopoulos and invited him to come to Israel to discuss some possible business relating to an oil and gas project in the Aegean Sea. Papadopoulos had met Tawil through an Israeli "political strategist" David Ha'ivri, who is a hard-line Israeli settler with close ties to the government of Benjamin Netanyahu. Papadopoulos agreed to do so, leaving his wife Simona in Greece.

Papadopoulos took the money as a retainer and signed a contract for additional consulting services at $10,000 per month before he returned to Greece, where he gave the money to an attorney friend to hold. He shortly thereafter flew to Dulles International Airport near Washington, where he was arrested on May 27th and charged with giving false statements to the FBI. He was convicted in October and is due to be sentenced next week.
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Tornado1

Trump teases McGahn successor, bashes media in tweet frenzy


RT
Thu, 30 Aug 2018 18:06 UTC
TrumpTwit
© Unknown
President Donald Trump announced that he had picked a successor to White House counsel Don McGahn; and blasted the media for covering his departure inaccurately in a series of irate morning tweets.

"I am very excited about the person who will be taking the place of Don McGahn as White House Counsel!" Trump tweeted on Thursday. "I liked Don, but he was NOT responsible for me not firing Bob Mueller or Jeff Sessions. So much Fake Reporting and Fake News!"

"The Rigged Russia Witch Hunt did not come into play, even a little bit, with respect to my decision on Don McGahn!," he reiterated.


Comment: See also:
You're fired! Don McGahn to step down as Trump adviser after being questioned by Mueller in failing 'Russiagate' investigation

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Attention

Situation in Idlib: Possible chemical weapons provocation, US aggression and obstruction


Sputnik
Thu, 30 Aug 2018 16:15 UTC
White Helmets
© APWhite Helmets
Syrian Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Walid Muallem have met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during a visit to Moscow. The visit is being held within the framework of the Syrian-Russian intergovernmental commissions.

"Russia is ready to increase its contribution to these tasks (the restoration of Syria and the solution of the issue with the return of refugees)," the minister said at a press conference following the talks with his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem.


Comment: See also:
Syrian Foreign Minister warns White Helmets kidnapped 44 children to stage chemical attack in Idlib

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Red Flag

Lavrov: Russia has submitted proof of false-flag chemical weapons plot to OPCW and UN


RT
Fri, 31 Aug 2018 16:37 UTC
RubbleCanisters
© Hummam Sheikh Ali/Global Look Press
There is "no doubt" that militants are plotting a false-flag chemical-weapons attack in Syria's Idlib province, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, adding that Moscow has provided proof of the plot to the UN and OPCW.

"We have presented concrete facts obtained from various sources both to the UN and to The Hague, where the OPCW (Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) headquarters is located," Lavrov said, while speaking about the risk of a false-flag attack involving the use of chemical weapons in Syria, adding that "these facts are congruent."

Lavrov said that "there is no doubt that such provocations are being prepared." He explained that terrorist groups entrenched in Syria's northwestern province, including Al-Nusra Front (now known as Tahrir al-Sham), are trying to derail the separation of terrorists from other armed groups "in every possible way."

Comment: Reporting suspicions and evidence ahead of the event may provide a working context for the UN and OPCW. However, as past events dictate, the West's military retaliation will not await the results of any investigation.

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Rocket

Reuters: 'Tehran equipping Iraqi militias with short-range ballistic missiles'


Sputnik
Fri, 31 Aug 2018 14:38 UTC
Baharestan Square
© Vahid Salemi/APBaharestan Square, Tehran, Iran.
The report comes amid increasing tensions between Tehran and Washington that started after the latter abandoned the Iran nuclear deal and re-imposed economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic. The US insists that a new deal, hindering Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs must be reached.

Tehran has been supplying its Shi'ite allies in Iraq with short-range ballistic missiles and means of their production over the last several months, Reuters reported on August 31, citing anonymous sources among Iranian officials, Iraqi and western intelligence. According to the media outlet, the reason behind the move was to build up its deterrence capacity in the event of an attack.

"The logic was to have a backup plan if Iran was attacked. The number of missiles is not high, just a couple of dozen, but it can be increased if necessary," an anonymous senior Iranian official said.

One anonymous western source, interviewed by Reuters, said that the alleged arming was a warning to the US and Israel after the latter carried out airstrikes on purported locations of Iranian troops in Syria. Iraqi and Iranian sources said that the decision was made 18 months ago, but the process ramped up only recently.

Comment: So much for Reuters being a 'news agency' - it's clearly doing pure intel work here.

Iran has since denied the claims, but they may not be baseless.

If Iran ISN'T helping its allies in Iraq, it's very foolish.

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Stop

Russia blocks UNSC report on North Korea


RT
Thu, 30 Aug 2018 21:38 UTC
Vassily Nebenzia
© Shannon Stapleton/ReutersRussian ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia
Russia has decided to halt discussions of a United Nations Security Council report on North Korea, due to disagreement on some of its points and concern over parts of it being leaked before publication, Moscow's UN envoy has said.

Russia has blocked the upcoming report of the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee on North Korea (the 1718 Committee) on the implementation of sanctions against North Korea and its nuclear program, demanding that it be amended.

"The discussion was vivid... we put on hold the report of the Committee 1718, because we disagree with certain elements of the report and on the conduct of the business itself. I will not dwell upon it because the report, before it is published, is confidential,"

Vassily Nebenzia, the Russian representative at the UN told the media. Nebenzia reiterated that Russia has been vocally against any part of the report being made public prematurely.
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