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State Dept to Ankara on Russian S-400: 'You're only supposed to buy NATO-compatible weapons'


RT
Fri, 04 May 2018 07:56 UTC
S-400 missile system
© Igor Zarembo/SputnikS-400 missile system
Being a NATO member apparently means you can only buy arms and military hardware that the US-led bloc approves. At least, that's what the State Department said in its latest warning to Ankara over an S-400 air-defense system deal.

The new warning came on Thursday from US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert, who said that Washington has "serious concerns about Turkey's potential acquisition" of the S-400 anti-aircraft systems.
"Under NATO and under the NATO agreement, which of course, Turkey is a NATO member, you're only supposed to buy, they are only supposed to buy, weapons and other materiel that are interoperable with other NATO partners. We don't see that as being interoperable," the State Department spokeswoman said during a press briefing.
The hotly discussed Turkey-Russia deal may signal closer relations between both nations, as well as a growing rift between Ankara and its NATO allies, mainly the US.

Comment: Turkey vies for attention between two superpowers that calculate it as strategic, but neither trusts Ankara's meandering loyalty.

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Eye 2

US General declares "we're the mujahedeen", the taliban are the apostates


Sputnik
Fri, 04 May 2018 23:27 UTC
US Marine Corps Commandant General Robert Neller
© WikiUS Marine Corps Commandant General Robert Neller
US Marine Corps Commandant General Robert Neller shocked observers Wednesday at a US Navy Department briefing when he made the tone-deaf claim that American forces and their Afghan partners are the mujahedeen in Afghanistan now.

​​Afghanistan is currently experiencing a resurgence of violence. During the spring, the country typically sees an uptick in insurgent activity as the winter is often spent harvesting poppies for opium production. However, violence during this year's growing season didn't dwindle as in years past, which experts believe signifies an even more intense fighting season. Already, a slew of terrorist attacks have left many Afghan security forces and civilians dead and civil infrastructure destroyed by bombs.


Comment: 2017 is a record breaking year for opium production in Afghanistan, thanks to the U.S.


Neller's statement was in response to a reporter's question about how the US will deal with this uptick, as US officials have offered contradictory statements in recent weeks about the viability of coming to a political solution with the Taliban. For example, Acting Secretary of State John J Sullivan, in an April 25 press release in which he agreed with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, responded to the Taliban's announcement of their spring offensive by noting that "the Taliban should turn their bullets and bombs into ballots. They should run for office. They should vote. We encourage Taliban leaders to return to Afghanistan from their foreign safe havens and work constructively for Afghanistan's future."


Comment: The US can't be trusted in so says former Afghan president Hamid Karzai: US Colluded With ISIL in Afghanistan


Comment: See: Also check out SOTT radio's: Behind the Headlines: Western Order Break-Up? New Middle East? New Korea?

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Bulb

EU: Cracking down on protests only bad when Russia does it (Catalonia violence was okay)


RT
Sun, 06 May 2018 18:59 UTC
russian protests
© Reuters
The EU has released a statement condemning police "violence" at an unauthorized opposition rally in Russia. Seven months earlier, Brussels took a different view on brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters in Catalonia.

"The detention of over a thousand demonstrators and violence used against them by the Russian authorities across the country today threaten the fundamental freedoms of expression, association and assembly in the Russian Federation," the European Union said in comments released as the last protesters were leaving venues across Russia on Saturday.

While acknowledging that "some of the demonstrations [in Russian cities] were not authorised," the EU condemned the "police brutality and mass arrests."

One might expect images of bloody noses, injuries, tear gas, or something similar after this harsh rhetoric. However, photos and videos from the protests that circulated online and in newscasts showed people with their hands locked behind their backs, flanked by officers, police forming a line and pushing the crowd back, some running with their batons up. There are a few pictures of skirmishes between protesters and their opponents. So far there have been three reports of bruises received during the protest.

Comment: It's quite ironic that when the Russians crack down on an illegal protest, they do so in a relatively civilized manner - yet are denounced as violent totalitarians by bureaucratic machines like the EU. Yet the home of freedom and democracy - the West - can't get enough of the bloodshed when it comes to cracking down on their own (legal) protests, and then congratulating themselves on it. Ahh, the glories of double standards. What would we do without them?

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Bizarro Earth

The utter gall: France deigns 'Assad can stay, for now, but leave the terrorists alone'


RT
Mon, 07 May 2018 17:03 UTC
Assad con partidarios
© Sana / Reuters
France, which recently bombed Syrian government targets together with the US and Britain, does not insist on ousting Syrian President Bashar Assad from power, but only if Syrians agree to keep him.

French President Emmanuel Macron may have fired a dozen missiles at Syria last month, but he is not bent on regime change, French Ambassador to Moscow Sylvie Bermann said in an interview with Kommersant business daily.

"We will not take a decision for the Syrian people. There is no more demand for the unconditional departure of Bashar Assad," she said, adding that a political transition in Syria must take place to form a new, fully legitimate government.

She also said France does not want to see reforms - which were supported by Russia during a forum it held in Sochi in January - end with nothing. According to the French diplomat, it is not acceptable for somebody to take the territory from the militants "and for Bashar Assad to simply stay in power."

Comment: Contradictory doesn't even begin to describe the West's behaviour these days. But, when one considers that the ruling establishment is infested with psychopaths and many others are suffering from equally debilitating and dangerous personality disorders - with Emmanuel Macron exhibiting clear signs of deviance - then it all begins to make much more sense: Also check out SOTT radio's: Behind the Headlines: Humpty Trumpty? Western Reality Creation Taken to Breaking Point in Syria Strikes

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TV

Giuliani's ABC interview: 'My issue is getting up to speed on the facts - I'm about halfway there'

David Edwards
Raw Story
Sun, 06 May 2018 17:36 UTC
Rudy Giuliani ABC
© ABCRudy Giuliani appears on ABC
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani on Sunday hinted that his client, President Donald Trump, may assert his Fifth Amendment privilege not to testify in the Russia investigation and admitted that former Trump attorney Michael Cohen may have made payments to multiple women who have claimed to have had affairs with President Donald Trump.

In a rambling interview on ABC's This Week, Giuliani attempted to repair the damage he has done to Trump's legal defense over the past week.


Comment: "Damage" is in the eye of the beholder: Giuliani didn't stumble on Trump admission - he knows exactly what he's doing


Even though he had claimed otherwise just days before, the former New York mayor insisted that Trump did not know of the $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels "at the time" and that the hush money had nothing to do with Trump's campaign.

"Did he repay it over a period of time and then find out what it was about? Yes," Giuliani said. "I'm comfortable with that. That's 100 percent."

"My issue is getting up to speed on the facts here," he told ABC host George Stephanopoulos. "I'm about halfway there."

Comment:

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Newspaper

Paraguay to move embassy in Israel to Jerusalem in May


RT
Mon, 07 May 2018 17:16 UTC
Israel
© Thomas Coex / AFP
Paraguay will follow the lead of US President Donald Trump and move the country's embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May. The news has not been confirmed by Paraguay's foreign ministry, which said that a final decision on the move is yet to be made.

Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes said in April he would be willing to move his country's embassy to Jerusalem. A spokesman for Israel's foreign ministry, Emmanuel Nahshon, said in a statement that Cartes plans to come to Israel to open the new embassy "by the end of the month."
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Jet5

'Standard, absolutely legal and absolutely safe' routine spying? Two US surveillance planes peek over Russia's Kaliningrad borders


RT
Mon, 07 May 2018 18:58 UTC
A US Navy Boeing P-8A Poseidon
© Darrin Zammit Lupi / ReutersA US Navy Boeing P-8A Poseidon
Two US spy planes were spotted over the Baltic Sea close to Russia's borders. One of the aircraft was reportedly intercepted by a Su-27 fighter, in what is becoming a routine aerial encounter, according to the Russian military.

The US surveillance planes conducted several flights near the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad on Saturday, according to Mil Radar, a military plane-spotter's Twitter account, which monitors US Air Force and Navy operations around the world.


Comment: See also:

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Light Saber

Flashback Who is DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz?

Trump Soldier‏
AmericanDigitalNews.com
Mon, 18 Dec 2017 15:24 UTC
Michael Horowitz
DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz
Part 1: The war with the Obama Administration

Obama nominated Michael Horowitz in July of 2011 to fill a vacancy left open by the resignation of Glenn Fine in February. Mr. Horowitz was confirmed in March the following year, and sworn in on April 16th, 2012. [1]

It was a nomination Obama would come to regret. Obama's Most Dangerous 'Enemies' are Being Targeted

There is a pattern emerging in the Obama Presidency. He is at war with reality; his greatest enemies are facts. And he has been targeting for years a small group of people whose duty is to expose the truth. Their loyalty runs to the citizenry and not to Barack Obama. They are not Republicans and they are certainly not journalists. And Obama has been trying to muzzle them. One man stands in the way.

Inspectors General (IG) are government employees who are responsible for ferreting out mismanagement, fraud and corruption in the federal government. The Barack Obama presidency has provided them with a target-rich environment. They are responsible for uncovering a wide range of Obama failures. [2]

Horowitz inherited a position that was effectively neutered in 2011 by Eric Holder's interpretation of § 6 of The Inspector General Act of 1978. (Authority of Inspector General)
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Newspaper

Systematic news-suppression in the U.S.

Eric Zuesse
Off-Guardian
Mon, 07 May 2018 15:59 UTC
Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern
Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern
Ray McGovern was a CIA analyst from 1963 to 1990, and in the 1980s chaired the National Intelligence Estimates and prepared the President's Daily Brief. But now retired, he's a critic of the very same government he had spent his career representing, and especially of its virtually fully controlled press, which he claims misrepresents systematically, as if it were owned outright by the controlling owners of the very same mega-corporations that manufacture and sell weapons to the Pentagon and to its allied militaries in Europe and the Middle East. Basically as a "military-industrial complex" scam upon the public, but really as a military-industrial-media complex, which is even more powerful than the more limited type that Eisenhower had warned against.

Here, then, is from an interview that Ray McGovern did on Talk Nation Radio, on April 24th:

Comment:

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Gear

Trump defends highly criticized CIA Director nominee Gina Haspel, calls her 'too tough on terrorists'


RT
Mon, 07 May 2018 12:25 UTC
Mike Pompeo's ceremonial swearing-in
© Jonathan Ernst / ReutersCIA director nominee Gina Haspel (R) waits to greet U.S. President Donald Trump after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's ceremonial swearing-in at the State Department in Washington, U.S. May 2, 2018
US President Donald Trump took to Twitter Monday to defend his nominee for the CIA directorship, Gina Haspel. Trump argued that Haspel was "too tough on terrorists" for the Democrats.

"My highly respected nominee for CIA Director, Gina Haspel, has come under fire because she was too tough on Terrorists," Trump tweeted. "Think of that, in these very dangerous times, we have the most qualified person, a woman, who Democrats want OUT because she is too tough on terror. Win Gina!"


Comment: Bolton, Pompeo, Haspel... Trump's recent appointee choices have all been nothing less than abhorrent lately. Is it the talent pool that is abysmal, or Trump's inability to choose and be supported by decent competent people?

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