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List of shame: The 29 countries that attended ceremony for US embassy relocation to Jerusalem


Al Jazeera
Thu, 17 May 2018 02:45 UTC
netanyahu mnuchin ivanka kushner
© Ronen Zvulun/Reuters
The United States has formally opened its embassy in Jerusalem amid deadly protests in the Gaza Strip.

The move on Monday followed a December 2017 decision by US President Donald Trump to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital and relocate the US mission there from Tel Aviv.

Trump's controversial declaration was widely condemned by the international community, with the United Nations General Assembly rejecting by a huge majority the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Most countries say the status of Jerusalem - a sacred city to Jews, Muslims and Christians - should be determined in a final peace settlement and that moving their embassies now would pre-judge any such deal.

Israel's foreign ministry said all 86 countries with diplomatic missions in Israel were invited to the embassy opening, and 33 confirmed attendance. However, the Nigerian, Vietnamese, and Thai representatives did not attend as it reported.
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Binoculars

Craig Murray: When is a massacre not a massacre?

Criag Murray
craigmurray.org.uk
Mon, 14 May 2018 00:00 UTC
gaza massacre
On the day the Israeli Defence Force massacred dozens of unarmed Palestinians in Gaza and maimed over 400 more, our media has carefully avoided the use of the word massacre. Here is a Google search of News I did five minutes ago on the word "massacre".

google massacre

Comment: See also: Israel's massacre of Gazans is a deliberate and calculated policy

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Star of David

Syrian Army produces evidence Israel providing weapons to ISIS, terrorists, near illegally-occupied Golan Heights

Matfey Shaheen
The Duran
Wed, 16 May 2018 20:14 UTC
captured israeli weapons
Israel has been arming rebels to "counter Iran" in Syria

As rebels in Syria surrender their medium and heavy weapons, the Syrian Army is driving ISIS out of the southern countryside, near the Golan Heights.

The Syrian army has found something peculiar amongst the captured arsenal of hundreds of different weapons. The weapons captured included grenades, many RPGs, makeshift mortars, and even WW2 era machine guns, however, this was not what caught the eye of government forces.

What was particularly interesting, was the presence of Israeli made landmines, as described in a report by Fort Russ. Syrian media posted a video of the captured weapons, which show the massive disparity in arms, but the Israeli mines as described in the report are particularly interesting.

Comment:

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Attention

AUMF: the blank check for indefinite detention of Americans and presidential use of military force


Marjorie Cohn
Mon, 14 May 2018 00:00 UTC
AUMF graphic
© ACLU
Under the guise of exercising supervisory power over the president's ability to use military force, Congress is considering writing Donald Trump a blank check to indefinitely detain US citizens with no criminal charges. Alarmingly, this legislation could permit the president to lock up Americans who dissent against US military policy.

The bill that risks conveying this power to the president is the broad new Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), S.J.Res.59, that is pending in Congress. Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair Bob Corker (R-Tennessee) and Democratic committee member Tim Kaine (Virginia) introduced the bipartisan bill on April 16, and it has four additional co-sponsors.

This proposed 2018 AUMF would replace the 2001 AUMF that Congress gave George W. Bush after the September 11 attacks. Although the 2001 AUMF authorized the president to use "all necessary and appropriate force" only against individuals and groups responsible for the 9/11 attacks, three presidents have relied on it to justify at least 37 military operations in 14 countries, many of them unrelated to 9/11.

Comment: This is scary power in essentially one person's hands should this new version of AUMF pass Congress and bypass civil liberties and protections. There are too many questions unanswered, and legal ramifications without recourse, to condone and unleash the spectrum of potential consequences described.
Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA): "Over the last sixteen years, we have witnessed the consequences of unfettered executive power in matters of war. Instead of further endorsing perpetual war, we need to insist on an AUMF that is narrow, clearly defined, and respects Congress's constitutional duty to debate and authorize military action."


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Attention

Not another Libya: N. Korea to reconsider Trump-Kim summit if US seeks surrender instead of talks


RT
Wed, 16 May 2018 02:53 UTC
KimTrump
© Sky NewsBack to square one?
Pyongyang is not interested in any negotiations that envisage only unilateral denuclearization without guarantees North Korea won't be left totally defenseless like Libya in case of aggression, deputy foreign minister has said.

Criticizing Washington's demands for unilateral concessions and unconditional "nuclear abandonment," North Korea's first vice minister of foreign affairs Kim Kye-gwan recalled the eventual fate of Libya and said such negotiations style is unacceptable for Pyongyang.

"This is not an attempt to solve the problem through dialogue but rather the manifestation ...to force the destiny of the collapsed Libya and Iraq to our dignified state," Kim said, according to KCNA.

The US invaded Iraq in 2003, claiming Baghdad possessed weapons of mass destruction. No such weapons were ever found. That same year, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi offered to shut down the country's nuclear weapons research. Libyan nuclear materials were transferred to the US. In 2011, however, the US and its NATO allies backed an armed rebellion that overthrew and killed Gaddafi and plunged Libya into chaos.

"I doubt whether the United States really wants sound dialogue and negotiation," Kim added, again noting that "the world is so well aware that our country is not Libya or Iraq." Denouncing the ongoing "sanctions pressure offensive" against the North, he accused Washington of misrepresenting North Korea's "generosity and bold measures as an expression of weakness."


Comment: Have all sides climbed the diplomatic mountain only to step off the cliff? What is the priority: an annual drill or solving nuclear escalation and repairing international relations?

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Fire

George Galloway: A short hop to Armageddon as Trump and Netanyahu step us closer to 'end times'

George Galloway
RT
Tue, 15 May 2018 11:19 UTC
Gaza father child
© Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters
The biblical town of Armageddon is but a few miles as the bullets fly from the site of the latest Gaza massacre which has taken us further down the road to the end of times.

Its proximate cause was the latest Man-Child effort of Donald J Trump, this time to relocate the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv, with all the other embassies, to Jerusalem, half of which though annexed by Israel still constitutes Occupied Territory under international law.

It is a criminal offence to "make permanent changes" on "territory acquired by force" - which this territory was in 1967 when Israel seized it by force of arms.

Israel has made many such changes to Occupied Territories. For example, the Golan Heights still belongs to Syria despite the many illegal settlements built there, however much stolen oil is extracted there, or however many field hospitals for Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) and Al-Qaeda fighters Israel erects there. That like Jerusalem, the Golan has been illegally annexed makes no difference at all in law nor to every other government in the world. Except Trump's government.

In fact every US president in the last 50 years has promised to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, at least whilst running for election. But campaigning is done in poetry, governing is done in prose and no president has followed through on this pledge. Except Donald Trump.

That his decision would entirely predictably lead to a bloodbath may not have occurred to Trump, but it certainly did to the professionals around him, from those aghast at the State Department to those salivating for the provocation, dripping from the moustache of the likes of John Bolton.
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Arrow Up

Senate Intel Committee to advance Gina Haspel's nomination for CIA director


RT
Wed, 16 May 2018 13:31 UTC
Gina Haspel
© Kevin Lamarque/Reuters/KJN
Gina Haspel is a step closer to becoming the next CIA director after the US Senate Intelligence Committee voted to advance her nomination. It follows weeks of controversy surrounding her involvement with a post-9/11 torture and detention program, launched under the administration of George W. Bush.

In the closed session vote, Haspel won 'yes' votes from 10 of the committee's 15 members, including all eight Republicans and two Democrats. She was opposed by California Senators Kamala Harris and Dianne Feinstein and three others. Her nomination can now be considered by the full Senate.

Haspel, who is President Donald Trump's top pick to lead the spy agency, faced a tough confirmation hearing last week when she was grilled by senators about her time overseeing a "black site" in Thailand where detainees were subjected to brutal torture methods, including waterboarding. She was also questioned about her role in the destruction of tapes showing those interrogation sessions.

During the hearing, Haspel tried a number of times to dodge direct questions about her attitude to torture and was criticized by New Mexico senator Martin Heinrich for giving "legalistic" answers to straight-forward questions.

Comment: We all know the CIA never, ever keeps its protocol, information, agendas or practices secreted from the public or congress -- honest and forthcoming as the day is long! Why should we believe Gina Haspel? Why should Congress? For starters, she perception-managed her submitted documents and hedged her answers to straightforward questions.

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Briefcase

Judicial determination: Ballots in Wasserman Schultz/Canova race illegally destroyed

Alecia Powe
Gateway Pundit
Tue, 15 May 2018 00:00 UTC
Canova/Wasserman Schultz
© The InquisitrTim Canova • Debbie Wasserman Schultz
The Broward County Supervisor of Elections broke state and federal law by illegally destroying ballots cast in the 2016 Democratic congressional primary when Tim Canova faced off against incumbent Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schulz, a circuit court judge ruled Friday.

Canova, an independent candidate for Congress and founder of Progress for All, alleged in a 2017 lawsuit that Supervisor Brenda Snipes illegally obstructed his request to copy and inspect ballots, then improperly discarded thousands of ballots that made inspection of voting irregularities impossible.

Snipes signed a Sept. 1 document to destroy the ballots, without informing Canova or the court. Snipes contends her office made high-quality copies of the ballots.

Paper ballots should have been preserved by the office until 22 months after the election, according to longstanding federal election law and state public records law. Under state law, a public record sought in a court case is not permitted to be destroyed without a judge's order.

Comment: Reflections of Hillary's won states, no doubt. A plague of voter fraud on the state congressional primary level goes systemically all the way to the top - becoming 'election-generational', meaning those who illegally won on the lower level are the candidates in future and higher office elections.

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Snakes in Suits

Merkel: Syria can't be resolved without Russia and regional powers


RT
Wed, 16 May 2018 13:19 UTC
Merkel
© Handelsblatt GlobalGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel
The lingering civil war in Syria has turned into a "gigantic conflict" that cannot be put to an end without backing from Russia and regional powers such as Iran and Turkey, German Chancellor Angela Merkel admitted in a speech.
"While the fight against Islamic State [IS, formerly ISIS] is going forward ... but in the meantime, the civil war in Syria and the struggle against Islamist terrorism has turned into a regional conflict of gigantic proportions," Chancellor Angela Merkel acknowledged on Wednesday as she spoke to German MPs.
The war that has gripped Syria for over seven years, cannot end "without Russia, Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and, basically, without Europe," Merkel underlined, reiterating that "we do need a political solution in Syria."

Interestingly, she struck a slightly different tone when talking Syria at an armed forces conference (Bundeswehrtagung) on Monday. Addressing the service members, the Chancellor compared the Syrian conflict to the Thirty Years' War, one of the longest and most destructive conflicts fought in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648.

Comment: Is Merkel's tiptoe an attempt to distance Germany from the US-Saudi-Israel war corp? If so, what does she have to add by way of solution to this 'gigantic conflict' -- that has seen the displacement or demise of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children in an ongoing swell of destruction and chaos -- spanning how many years now?

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Star of David

The count: 20+ reporters wounded, 2 fatalities as 9 more journalists are fired upon by IDF in Gaza


RT
Wed, 16 May 2018 01:24 UTC
Journalists protest
© Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/ReutersThe PRESS protest against the killing of journalist Yasser Murtaja.
At least nine journalists have been injured reporting from Gaza during Monday's "massacre," bringing the total number of reporters wounded by IDF gunfire so far to more than 20, in addition to two fatalities.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) list eight journalists who were injured while covering Monday's protest in Gaza during the US embassy inauguration in Jerusalem. It cites reports from the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, social media and local news outlets. The International Federation of Journalists estimates the figure to be as high as 13.

Among those injured by Israeli gunfire are photojournalist Omar Hamdan, Al Jazeera journalist Wael Dahdouh, journalist Farhan Hashem Abu Hadayd, local reporter Abdullah al-Shorbagi, cameraman Mohammed Abu Dahrouj, community radio reporter Nihad Fuadand and Yasser Qdeih.

Comment: Precision snipers - no mistakes. Of course the IDF is told to target the PRESS! Israel doesn't want their snipers and drone drops filmed or photographed. To control the story there can be no accurate recordings of events nor bad publicity, nor generated sympathy for the slain. The big, bold letters 'PRESS 'on their uniforms make reporters easy targets and their fate sends a clear and lethal message to all news outlets.

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