Puppet MastersS

Star of David

Senior Israeli official admits 'covert contacts' with Saudis 'to curb Iran'

Israel Saudi Arabia
A senior Israeli official has said Tel Aviv has "partly covert" ties with "many Muslim and Arab countries," including Riyadh. With the absolutist kingdom, Israel is now working on common concerns over Iran, the cabinet minister said.

"The connection with the moderate Arab world, including Saudi Arabia, is helping us curb Iran," Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said in an interview on Israel's Army Radio. Riyadh, with which Tel Aviv does not have diplomatic ties, is not the only not so obvious Israel's partner in the region, the minister proffered, adding that his country is "usually the party that is not ashamed" of such contacts.

"It's the other side that is interested in keeping the ties quiet. With us, usually, there is no problem, but we respect the other side's wish, when ties are developing, whether it's with Saudi Arabia or with other Arab countries or other Muslim countries," he said, adding that there are a number of contacts that are kept secret.

Comment: Further reading: Saudi Arabia: Israel's dream state


Star of David

Israeli police confirm they questioned Netanyahu at his home on Saturday

netanyahu
© REUTERS/ Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli police have confirmed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was questioned for several hours at his residence in Jerusalem on Saturday.

Saturday's interview marked the sixth time the prime minister was questioned in the course of police probes into alleged corruption.

"We confirm that the prime minister was questioned today [Saturday] for several hours in his Jerusalem residence as part of the investigation led by Lahav 433 [National Crime Unit]," the police said.

Comment: Further reading: Netanyahu corruption case reaches new phase: Police ready to charge PM with bribery


Ark

Chinese military launches program that tackles leaks, disinformation & fake news

China military information
© AFP
China has launched a website to report illegal online activities of the military and the spreading of "harmful information." Earlier, the Chinese leader vowed to turn the People's Army into a "world class force" and to "ensure a clean cyberspace."

China's official military website announced the launch of the platform on Sunday, which is supposed to maintain a "clear internet space" surrounding the military. Any person, both publicly and anonymously, can issue an online report on various violations, including those published on websites or social media platforms. The possible violations include fake news about the military, leaked secrets, and "distorting headlines."

MIB

The FBI should be abolished

fbi agents
Abuses from the likes of Comey and Mueller are just the tip of the iceberg. We need to be reminded why the founders opposed having any sort of national police force.

For the last few years, the media has been dominated by a number of sensational stories: that Trump colluded with Russia to influence the presidential election; that the Trump team was wiretapped by Obama intelligence officials; that Hillary used a private email server to transmit classified information; that Hillary and the DNC colluded with Russian sources to compile a dossier on Trump, and finally, that Russia acquired 20% of America's uranium supply during the same time period $145 million miraculously appeared in the Clinton Foundation's bank account. It all stinks to high heaven but it's created a confusing array of facts that has bewildered most Americans. They all know something is seriously wrong with their country even if they can't pinpoint exactly what the problem is.

But there is a common denominator in all these scandals or alleged scandals, and that would be the FBI and the actions they took or didn't take. Indeed, it's hard to not conclude that the agency's actions in these events were improper if not illegal. If so, this validates the warnings by constitutionalists in the early 1900s that a federal police force would someday be used to prop up the ruling elites and attack those who dare challenge the establishment.

Under FBI Director James Comey, Hillary was allowed to escape prosecution, even though he presented compelling evidence that she committed numerous felonies by transmitting classified documents using her private email server. Comey also leaked classified information to a friend to be disseminated to the media, another felony, and his FBI was the recipient of a dossier full of sensational but false allegations traced to Putin-connected individuals. Instead of investigating the dossier's sources, Comey used the phony intel as the basis for his allegation that the Russians intervened in our election, a charge later proven to be without factual basis. It also appears that Comey likely used the dossier's claims to convince a FISA court to authorize a phone tap on various Trump aides and possibly even Trump himself.

Comment: The FBI, along with the other monolithic institutions that make up the Deep State cabal, are not likely to go away any time soon. See also:

The FBI: The silent terror of the Fourth Reich
The FBI: America's secret police
"This place is actually worse than I thought", new FBI director Wray admits


Nuke

Uranium One informant sues to recoup more than $700K lost helping the FBI

uranium containers
© AP Photo/Dmitry LovetskyRepresentatives of participating companies sign containers with uranium to be used as fuel for nuclear reactors, prior to loading them aboard Atlantic Navigator ship, on a port in St. Petersburg, Russia, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2013. A 20-year program to convert highly enriched uranium from dismantled Russian nuclear weapons into fuel for U.S. power plants has ended, with the final shipment loaded onto a vessel in St. Petersburg's port on Thursday. The U.S. Energy Department described the program, commonly known as Megatons to Megawatts, as one of the most successful nuclear nonproliferation partnerships ever undertaken
A FBI informant who gave the government information about a Russian bribery plot implicated in the sale of U.S. uranium rights tried unsuccessfully last year to recover upwards of $700,000 in bribes he said he was authorized to pay as part of the FBI investigation.

William D. Campbell has emerged now as the key figure in a congressional probe into Russia's 2010 purchase of U.S. uranium rights and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's role in approving the deal.

His identity had been shielded for weeks, but court records obtained by The Washington Times, as well as a report by Reuters, identified the man.

Mr. Campbell has not returned calls from The Washington Times seeking comment, but his civil suit, describing his involvement in the FBI investigation, matches details of the criminal case brought against Vadim Mikerin. Mikerin, who was the head of U.S. operations for Tenex, a subsidiary of Russia's atomic energy giant Rosatom, was convicted of money laundering and other crimes and in 2015 sentenced to four years in prison.

The Senate Judiciary Committee, House Intelligence Committee and House Oversight Committee have all begun to probe the circumstances of Rosatom's purchase of Canadian mining company Uranium One, which had mining rights in the U.S. Investigators have questioned whether the American agencies that signed off on the sale, including the State Department, were ever made aware of the FBI's ongoing investigation of Mikerin and Tenex.

Mr. Campbell told Reuters that he was the confidential informant cited in the Mikerin case. And Victoria Toensing, a lawyer for the informant, has previously told Fox News that her client filed a civil lawsuit to get an unspecified amount of money back that he paid out in bribes during the case after the FBI failed to return the money to him. She has not responded to subsequent requests for comment.

It's unclear what new information Mr. Campbell might be able to offer congressional investigators in their probes, or why he sought to speak with investigators this year.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, issued a series of letters inquiring about the Uranium One deal on Oct. 12.

Bizarro Earth

Flashback Chomsky: Russiagate only serves as a distraction from the actual scandalous happenings in D.C.

Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky
World-renowned intellectual giant and respected academic, MIT professor Noam Chomsky recently sat down for an interview called 'A Continuing Conversation with Geographers'. In the interview, he clearly makes his thoughts known regarding the Trump administration's ongoing media driven pseudo-scandal involving Russia, and specifically concerning Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with a Russian lawyer.

Chomsky, the author of more than 100 books, including "Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media," in which he breaks down how U.S. corporate media has been weaponized as a means of controlling public opinion by propagandizing the American people, didn't mince his words, previously noting:
"It's a pretty remarkable fact that - first of all, it is a joke. Half the world is cracking up in laughter. The United States doesn't just interfere in elections. It overthrows governments it doesn't like, institutes military dictatorships."

"Simply in the case of Russia alone-it's the least of it-the U.S. government, under Clinton, intervened quite blatantly and openly, then tried to conceal it, to get their man Yeltsin in, in all sorts of ways," said Chomsky. "So, this, as I say, it's considered-it's turning the United States, again, into a laughingstock in the world."

"So why are the Democrats focusing on this?" he said. "In fact, why are they focusing so much attention on the one element of Trump's programs which is fairly reasonable, the one ray of light in this gloom: trying to reduce tensions with Russia? That's-the tensions on the Russian border are extremely serious. They could escalate to a major terminal war. Efforts to try to reduce them should be welcomed."

"Just a couple of days ago," said Chomsky, "the former U.S. ambassador to Russia, Jack Matlock, came out and said he just can't believe that so much attention is being paid to apparent efforts by the incoming administration to establish connections with Russia." He said, 'Sure, that's just what they ought to be doing.'"

Continuing, Chomsky said, "So, you know, yeah, maybe the Russians tried to interfere in the election. That's not a major issue. Maybe the people in the Trump campaign were talking to the Russians. Well, okay, not a major point, certainly less than is being done constantly."

"And it is a kind of a paradox," he said, "that the one issue that seems to inflame the Democratic opposition is the one thing that has some justification and reasonable aspects to it."

Comment: These are very astute observations by Chomsky. The whole thing is a complete joke and goes to show how completely insane US politics has become. There's nothing left in anything they do that benefits the public at large. They've completely "destroyed anything of human significance" in the system and it's now only about power and control.


Info

PLO's Dr. Ashrawi: U.S. is punishing the victim and not the perpetrator in Palestine-Israel conflict

Dr. Hanan Ashrawi
© Miriam Alster/Flash90PLO official Dr. Hanan Ashrawi at her office in Ramallah, January 2012
In response to media inquiries concerning the U.S. administration's refusal to extend the waiver of statutory restrictions on the General Delegation of the PLO to the United States in Washington D.C., PLO Executive Committee Member Dr. Hanan Ashrawi condemned such a move and said:

"Instead of holding Israel liable for its persistent violations of international law and conventions, the U.S. administration and Congress are threatening to punish the Palestinian people because of statements made by President Mahmoud Abbas at the United Nations and other leaders pertaining to ICC accountability for Israel and for its war crimes in Palestine.

It is ironic that the U.S. is taking steps to punish the victim (the occupied) and not the perpetrator of the crime (the occupier).

Comment: See also:


Mr. Potato

Mad Maxine Waters thinks she inspires people by calling for Trump's impeachment

maxine waters
Thursday on Bloomberg, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), said when she calls for President Donald Trump to be impeached, she "inspires" people.

Waters said, "Let me just say this - I have learned over the years that I have been in this business that there are few people who are willing to speak truth to power and to talk about what really is bothering our society and our democracy. It is not thought well of to step outside of that box. When I talk about impeachment, I described what I think about this president. I think he is deplorable. I think he defined himself in the campaign, the way that he mocked and mimicked a disabled journalist, the way he talked about grabbing women by their private parts, the way he called names of his peers. I think that is unacceptable. For people to allow this kind of behavior to be normalized is beyond what I believe our democracy should be all about."

Comment: What a nut case. The idea that parroting everything said by the mainstream media somehow "inspires" people and "speak[s] truth to power" is insane. May her bubble continue to protect Maxine from the awful, awful truth.

See also:


Cardboard Box

Merkel may not rule after all: Coalition talks collapse, Germany may hold new elections

merkel refugees
The pro-business Free Democratic Party abruptly announced its exit from three-way talks to form the German government on Sunday, citing a lack of common ground. The setback may see Germany hold new elections, challenging Merkel's all but secured chancellorship.

The chances for a so-called "Jamaica coalition" of Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU), the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and the Greens have worsened after the FDP slammed the door on exploratory talks late Sunday, with its chairman, Christian Lindner, saying that the party would rather not be in the government than agree with the terms of the proposed coalition accord.

"Today there was no progress but rather there were setbacks, while the achieved compromises were questioned," Lindner said, following marathon 12-hour talks.

Take 2

Something to hide? PR firm hired by Mandalay Bay owner MGM Resorts deletes replies to Twitter bots pushing 'crisis actor' conspiracy theories

Las Vegas Mandalay Bay massacre
© The Free Thought Project


Why has the PR team hired by Mandalay Bay been pushing bogus conspiracy theories clearly meant to discredit legitimate inquiry into the Las Vegas shooting?


In another strange twist to the largest mass-shooting in recent U.S. history, a damning report indicates that the parent company of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, MGM Resorts International, is paying crisis management firm Joele Frank to spread disinformation about the massacre online.

According to a bombshell report, published by Thomas Michael on Medium, the crisis management firm is deliberately spreading ridiculous conspiracy theories on social media in an attempt to discredit legitimate inquiry into the bizarre official narrative - and actively trying to muddy the water about events surrounding the mass-shooting.


Comment: Not quite. What Michael claims to have found is evidence that an employee of Joele Frank "made replies to" tweets made by others that push the 'crisis actor' nonsense. We can't see this evidence because, Michael says, the relevant replies have since been deleted.


Comment: You can read Thomas Michael's report here.

It's close, but no cigar.

Nevertheless, it's a plausible scenario for the kind of thing we have long suspected is happening online. We suspect that Deep State sockpuppets have been doing this since Sandy Hook. This 'derailing' of public investigation into crimes likely committed by organized elements that are beyond the reach of law enforcement may go a long way to explaining why every time there is a terrorist attack, bombing or mass shooting, someone starts making the ridiculous claim that it was staged with actors and fake blood. As if the terrorists or their handlers actually cared about not killing real people!

In the case of the Las Vegas terror attack, any disinfo campaign (which is a prime method used in the FBI's COINTELPRO program by the way) is unlikely to be so visibly connected to a PR firm, as the article claims - we're not dealing with amateurs after all.

Make no mistake: there was a real shooting at Las Vegas, dozens of people died - and it was not the work of a lone wolf but of multiple shooters with multiple spotters: