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Shoe

Get out of jail card - Saudi offer in corruption crackdown: 'cough up the cash and go home'

Ian Cobain
Guardian
Thu, 16 Nov 2017 12:49 UTC
Turned into a 'prison': The Ritz Carlton in Riyadh was emptied of guests on Saturday night as the round-up of allegedly corrupt ministers and princes got under way
© ReutersThe Ritz Carlton in Riyadh was used as a prison for corrupt ministers and princes


Government demanding up to 70% of rich detainees' wealth in return for their freedom, newspaper reports

Authorities in Saudi Arabia are offering businessmen and members of the royal family detained on allegations of corruption an opportunity to pay for their freedom, according to media reports.

Around 200 princes, ministers, senior military officers and wealthy businessmen have been held in five-star hotels across the country since last week, many of them at the opulent Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh.

Quoting "people briefed on the discussions", the Financial Times reported that the Saudi government was demanding up to 70% of the individuals' wealth in return for their freedom.

If settlements are agreed, hundreds of billions of dollars would be diverted into the country's depleted coffers. Saudi Arabia recorded a budget deficit of $79bn last year and low oil prices have pushed the country into a recession.

Comment: Justice delivered, Saudi style: You are corrupt so you must go to jail, but since you are also a rich prince that's ok. You can stay at the Ritz for a few days instead and if you share with us the fruits of your corruption then you can go. Just don't get any funny ideas about getting the throne for yourself or your pals.

This might work to fill up the coffers of the Red Prince MBS - but how many of those liberated will actually keep their pledge of loyalty? Surely they will not be happy after what happened. According to a report, some of them were beaten and tortured while in custody. Will they just let it go?

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Cowboy Hat

Clinton probe given 'special' status, FBI emails reveal


RT
Thu, 16 Nov 2017 00:00 UTC
Hillary Clinton
© ReutersHillary Clinton talks about FBI inquiries into her emails at news conference in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S. October 28, 2016.
The Hillary Clinton email investigation was given "special" status by the FBI, newly released documents reveal. The disclosures focus on correspondence between former FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

McCabe wrote in an email to FBI press officials that the Clinton email probe was being controlled by a small number of high-ranking officials at the Bureau's headquarters in Washington DC.

"As I now know the decision was made to investigate it at HQ with a small team," McCabe wrote in the October 23, 2016 email. "WFO [Washington field office] provided some personnel for the effort but it was referred to as a 'special' and I was not given any details about it."

McCabe said he had no input into the Clinton email investigation when it began in the summer of 2015. He was assistant director of the FBI Washington office at the time.

Comment: See also:

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Stock Down

Saudi Arabia should be afraid of U.S. oil dominance

Gregory Brew
OIlprice.com
Thu, 16 Nov 2017 12:40 UTC
oil production facility
One of the more important recent developments in global energy is the resurgence of U.S. energy production, thanks in large part to the shale revolution.

Now, after half a century as a net importer, the U.S. is poised in the coming decade to become a net exporter, as imports from historic sources decline and demand for U.S. energy products abroad grows.

According to the IEA's World Energy Outlook, the U.S. is set to be a dominant force in energy production for the foreseeable future, as the surge from shale triggers the biggest boom in production in more than 50 years.

Comment: Saudi Arabia seeks to kill the petrodollar with the Crown Prince's Vision 2030, says economist

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Eye 2

In office, Hillary overturned ban to let Islamist with ties to terrorist funding into US, now he's accused of rape

Benjamin Arie
Conservative Tribune
Thu, 16 Nov 2017 12:31 UTC
Tariq Ramadan
Tariq Ramadan
Democrats are the great protectors and defenders of women - or so they claim.

Of course, when it comes to actually keeping predators away from women, the name "Clinton" should be a giant red flag. The number of sexual abuse claims and even rape cases that can be linked in one way or another to the Clinton inner circle is appallingly high... and now there's yet another crime to add to that list.


Comment: Read and weep: Daniel Greenfield: Every Democrat presidential candidate in 25 years had pedophile ties


A Muslim Swiss national by the name of Tariq Ramadan is currently facing rape and assault claims by three different women. During the early 2000s, the Bush administration found ties between Ramadan and terrorist funding, and banned the Islamic professor from entering the United States.

Despite those terrorist connections and the fact that Tariq Ramadan is the grandson of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton decided in 2010 that the Islamist should be allowed to come to America.
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Newspaper

McCain makes stupid comment, RT Editor-in-Chief Simonyan responds


Sputnik
Fri, 17 Nov 2017 10:52 UTC
Margarita Simonyan
RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan has commented on US Senator John McCain's criticism of Russia's draft amendment of a bill allowing to add foreign media outlets to the list of foreign agents.

"McCain has not read [George] Orwell or heard about 'All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.' And if he has, he has not understood anything, of course," RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan said on Twitter referring to Orwell's allegorical novella "Animal Farm."

McCain said on Wednesday that it was important to distinguish between RT and such networks as Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, adding that these and some other outlets worked to "seek the truth, debunk lies, and hold governments accountable," while accusing the Russian broadcaster of spreading propaganda.

The Russian Justice Ministry confirmed in the day that it had sent nine notification letters to media outlets, including Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and Voice of America (VOA), warning them about possible recognition as foreign agents.

Comment: McCain is just full of idiotic statements. If anything, the news outlets listed above do everything else except "seek the truth, debunk lies and hold governments accountable". For more:

Russia sends letters to known Western propaganda outlets Radio Free Europe and Voice of America notifying them of possible registration as foreign agents
Suppressing RT a "slap in the face of the First Amendment" - NSA whistleblower William Binney
RT Chief Margarita Simonyan interview: Devotes entire hour to ridiculing US harassment of RT journalists (still not enough time)
Russia's #1 news anchor: The decline of freedom of speech in America

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Eye 2

Daniel Greenfield: Every Democrat presidential candidate in 25 years had pedophile ties

Daniel Greenfield
Frontpage Mag
Tue, 14 Nov 2017 12:06 UTC
Jeffrey Epstein Lolita Express Bill Clinton
Inset: Jeffrey Epstein (L) Bill Clinton (R) and Epstein's private jet, dubbed the 'Lolita Express'
The Clintons, Obama, Kerry and their pedophile pals.

It was the cackle that cost her an election.

The time was the 80s and the First Lady of Arkansas was chatting with Roy Reed. Reed was a New York Times bigwig, a civil rights hero and is currently a speaker for the Clinton School of Public Service.

Back then, Reed was working on a profile of the Clintons for Esquire. The profile was never published. The tapes of the interviews were stowed at the University of Arkansas until they were dug up in '14.

And there's Hillary Clinton laughing on tape about how she saved a 12-year-old girl's rapist.

Kathy Shelton had been raped and beaten into a coma when she was twelve years old. Her rapist wanted a "woman lawyer." Hillary Clinton took his case as a favor and used every dirty trick to get him off. Even though she admits on the tape that she knew her client was guilty, she accused his victim of being "emotionally unstable" and fantasizing about older men. And she used the little girl's bloody underwear as the pivot of a blatant lie that got her client off with less than a year in prison.

Comment: More on the arch-pedophile Jeffrey Epstein: And Queen of Corruption Hillary's infamous defense of a pedophile rapist:

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Whistle

Russian Embassy slams 'unfounded accusations' they interfered in Brexit, next day PM Theresa May rewords statement


Sputnik
Thu, 16 Nov 2017 17:53 UTC
Russian Embassy Slams 'Unfounded Accusations' of Alleged Interference in Brexit
© CC BY 3.0 / Kbthompson / Russian Embassy ResidenceRussian Embassy Slams 'Unfounded Accusations' of Alleged Interference in Brexit
The UK prime minister has accused Moscow of alleged meddling in other states' affairs but later said that her accusations were not related to Britain.


Comment: It's probably no wonder Theresa May retracted her fallacious accusation since it has been shown that only 400 out of over 22 million tweets sent about the Brexit vote could be traced back to Russia, and many were tweeted after the vote had been declared: Researcher finds 'infinitesimal' 400 tweets from Russia which UK government claimed 'influenced' entire country's vote on Brexit


"Unfortunately, the British press almost always refers to unpublished documents and other closed sources. Since the latest of them, concerning Russian-British relations, are making false accusations against us, we asked relevant universities - Edinburgh and Swansea in the UK and Berkeley in the US - to send us the source materials," the Russian Embassy's in the UK spokesperson has stated.

According to the Russian embassy, "in view of the anti-Russia campaign that emerged after the speech of UK Prime Minister Theresa May," it has a lot of questions to such documents.


Comment: The hysteria was stoked in the US and has now infected delusional UK politicians:

Comment: Also listen to SOTT radio's: Behind the Headlines: 'Containing' Russia-China and Global Economic Collapse

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Info

Senate Clinton probe's secret witness is ex-lobbyist for Russian firm

Joel Schectman
Reuters
Thu, 16 Nov 2017 14:05 UTC
Radioactive Keep Out
© REUTERS/George FreyWarning signs are displayed near Uranium One and Anfield's "Shootaring Canyon Uranium Mill" facility sits outside Ticaboo, Utah, U.S., November 13, 2017.
Senate Republicans say their investigation of Hillary Clinton's role in approving a deal to sell U.S. uranium mines to a Russian company hinges in part on the testimony of a secret informant in a bribery and extortion scheme inside the same company.

The Senate committee searching for Clinton's alleged wrongdoing is keeping their witness's name cloaked. However, William D. Campbell, a lobbyist, confirmed to Reuters he is the informant who will testify and provide documents to Congress about the Obama Administration's 2010 approval of the sale of Uranium One, a Canadian company with uranium mines in the United States, to Russia's Rosatom.

At the time of the sale, Campbell was a confidential source for the FBI in a Maryland bribery and kickback investigation of the head of a U.S. unit of Rosatom, the Russian state-owned nuclear power company. Campbell was identified as an FBI informant by prosecutors in open court and by himself in a publicly available lawsuit he filed last year.

Comment: See also:

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Dollar Gold

Taxpayers have been footing bill for sexual assault cases in Congress since 1995

Jenny Beth Martin
The Hill
Wed, 15 Nov 2017 12:00 UTC
capitol hill
© Getty Images
Since when are members of Congress and their staffs accused of sexual harassment allowed to hush up and pay off their accusers from a secret "shush" fund full of taxpayer dollars? Since 1995, it turns out.

Congress, we all know, chooses to exempt itself from many of the same laws it foists on the rest of us. It's a grievance I hear regularly during my travels around the country, as grassroots activists complain about this law or that regulation. "If only Congress had to live under the same laws we do, they'd get it, and they'd change it" is a common refrain.

For years, for instance, I've been speaking out about the illegal special exemption of Congress from ObamaCare, which allows members and staff to avoid the financial burdens they imposed on us when they passed that terrible law. If only they had to live under the law the same way the rest of us do, without benefit of taxpayer dollars to subsidize their premiums purchased fraudulently on the D.C. small business exchange, they might be more incentivized to repeal that law.

But until recently, I did not know about the "shush fund" of Congress, a fund managed by the "Office of Compliance," which itself was created following the 1995 enactment of the Congressional Accountability Act (CAA), the first law enacted by the first Republican House in four decades.

Ironically, the CAA was a serious attempt to bring Congress under many labor laws from which it had previously exempted itself. In fact, under the CAA, Congress applied 12 different labor laws to itself for the first time, including the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Federal Service Labor Management Relations Statute, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, among others.

Comment: See also: Taxpayers fork out $15 million to settle congressional sexual harassment suits

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Stock Up

House Republicans pass historic tax reform; stock market jumps 215+ points; zero Democrat votes

Jim Hoft
Gateway Pundit
Fri, 17 Nov 2017 11:35 UTC
tax cuts and jobs act
The Republican House passed historic tax reform today.

The final vote was 227 to 205 no votes.

Every democrat voted against tax cuts for working Americans!
house gop vote tax reform

Comment: See also:

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