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Trump's flawed Pakistan policy versus Imran Khan's road show

Seth Ferris
New Eastern Outlook
Fri, 04 May 2018 13:52 UTC
Imran Khan
Pakistan is still in the grip of not knowing who to cheer on: Trump or their own Imran Kahn. Pakistanis still don't quite know whether to take the cricket player seriously, but now they are taking the time to listen to him. Hopefully they will also ask why he has emerged as a political force, and what this tells us about the Western attitude towards their country.

Khan likes to paint himself as Donald Trump's worst enemy. With so many Pakistanis resident in the West, and particularly the UK and Commonwealth countries, he is not going to be anti-Western if he wants an audience. But he has found a way of preying on the Pakistani mentality of feeling part of the West, but above it.

According to Khan, the US is trying to blame Pakistan for its own failures in Afghanistan. This is undoubtedly true, but it is not as simple as that. The US is good at playing two ends against the middle and playing off one neighbor against another, as in the case of its flawed India and Pakistan policy, likely doomed from the start.
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North Korea: Dancing the tango on the brink of war

Iqbal Alimohamed
Oriental Review
Thu, 03 May 2018 13:25 UTC
A US MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile
© APA US MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile is fired during the combined military exercise between the United States and South Korea against North Korea, July 5, 2017..
Much of the world today is on tenterhooks awaiting the outcome of the US-North Korea Summit on denuclearization of North Korea. Both US President Trump and his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong-un are idiosyncratic, whimsical and conceited and it will be interesting, if not hilarious, to watch (pardon my hypocrisy) how they will tango, without stepping on each other and hurting their big toes, bigger egos and, putting at risk the once-in-a-lifetime chance of peace on the Korean Peninsula.

History is replete with instances of attempts and failures to achieve Nuclear Disarmament. When the US, Russia and other states realized during the Cold War, of the extreme dangers inherent in nuclear weaponry, a series of disarmament and non-proliferation treaties were agreed upon after years of negotiations. Among the more notable are the NPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) of 1968, with its three main pillars: nonproliferation, disarmament, and the right to peacefully use nuclear technology, SALT I (1972), SALT II (1979), START I (1991), START II (1993) and New START Treaty (2012).
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Star of David

Israel withdraws bid for UN Security Council seat


RT
Sat, 05 May 2018 13:03 UTC
Danny Danon with US's Nikki Haley
© Brendan McDermid / Reuters
Seeing little support amid international criticism over its violent crackdown on Palestinian protesters, Israel has announced it will not be seeking a rotating two-year non-permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council.

"After consulting with our partners, including our good friends, the State of Israel has decided to postpone its candidacy for a seat on the Security Council," the Israeli delegation to the UN said.

At the same time, the diplomatic mission stressed that the country will remain "active" in the United Nations to exercise the country's rights in the decision-making processes of the world body. "This includes the Security Council as well as an emphasis on areas related to development and innovation," the statement added.
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Trump to ask Israel to withdraw from 4 east Jerusalem neighborhoods in exchange for more military support

Yanir Cozin & Maaric Hashavua
The Jerusalem Post
Fri, 04 May 2018 12:54 UTC
Jerusalem
The Trump administration will ask Israel to withdraw from four Arab neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, which will likely become the capital of a future Palestinian state, US officials told Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman during his visit to Washington last week.

The transfer of control over the neighborhoods - Jebl Mukabar, Isawiya, Shuafat and Abu Dis - was presented to Liberman as just one piece of the larger peace plan the administration has been working on over the last year. Israel, the officials indicated, would be expected to accept the plan once it is presented despite the potentially painful concessions.

News of the demand come less than two weeks before the US Embassy officially moves to Jerusalem on May 14.

The full plan is expected to be unveiled shortly after the embassy moves.

Comment: Israel's war on Iran has begun - What will Russia do about it?

Also, how much more military funding and support can the US give Israel? Trump's budget cuts State Dept, keeps foreign aid of $3.1billion to Israel, silent on other countries . As stated in the article:
Foreign aid to Israel was previously set under the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), an agreement signed by former President George W. Bush in 2007. That funding, which represents a 10-year commitment, is set to increase in 2019 after former President Barack Obama signed an MOU that will set funding to Israel at $3.8 billion...

... Trump originally wanted to slash as much as 37 percent of the funding for the State Department, according to the New York Times. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was given discretion in choosing where to make the cuts, with the exception of Israel, which the White House told him to leave unchanged.


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Quenelle

Best of the Web: Judge mulls dismissal of Manafort charges as he slams Mueller for overreach

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Sat, 05 May 2018 11:58 UTC
manafort
© Alex Wong/Getty Images
Like most motions to dismiss, Paul Manafort's was initially viewed as a long-shot bid to win the political operative his freedom and get out from under the thumb of Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

But after today's hearing on a motion to dismiss filed by Manafort's lawyers, it's looking increasingly likely that Manafort could escape his charges - and be free of his ankle bracelets - because in a surprising rebuke of Mueller's "overreach", Eastern District of Virginia Judge T.S. Ellis, a Reagan appointee, said Mueller shouldn't have "unfettered power" to prosecute over charges that have nothing to do with collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians.

Ellis said he's concerned Mueller is only pursuing charges against Manafort (and presumably other individuals) to pressure them into turning on Trump. The Judge added that the charges brought against Manafort didn't appear to stem from Mueller's collusion probe. Instead, they appeared to be the work of an older investigation into Manafort that was eventually dropped.

Comment: Further reading: Giuliani says Mueller's Russian collusion case is 'dead' - 'Sessions should step in and close it'

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US weapons inspector: 'Western claims that Assad used chemical weapons totally bogus'

Dennis J Bernstein
Consortium News
Sat, 05 May 2018 11:58 UTC
Scott Ritter
Scott Ritter
In the 1980's, Scott Ritter was a commissioned officer in the United States Marine Corps, specializing in intelligence. In 1987, Ritter was assigned to the On-Site Inspection Agency, which was put together to go into the Soviet Union and oversee the implementation of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty. This was the first time that on-site inspection had been used as part of a disarmament verification process.

Ritter was one of the groundbreakers in developing on-site inspection techniques and methodologies. With this unique experience behind him, Ritter was asked in 1991, at the end of the Gulf War, to join the United Nations Special Commission, which was tasked by the Security Council to oversee the disarmament of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. From 1991 to 1998, Ritter served as a chief weapons inspector and led a number of teams into Iraq.

According to Ritter, in the following Flashpoints Radio interview with Dennis Bernstein conducted on April 23rd, US, British and French claims that the Syrian Government used chemical weapons against civilians last month appear to be totally bogus.

Comment: See also:

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Light Saber

David vs Goliath: Russia foils NATO aggression without a costly arms race

Robert Bridge
Russia Insider
Wed, 02 May 2018 00:00 UTC
Russia NATO soldiers
As recent events in Syria suggest, Russia has found an effective way of keeping aggressive Western powers at bay with state-of-the-art missile systems and electronic warfare methods - much of it reportedly developed by young scientists and on the cheap.

War is rarely a pleasant topic, and even less so when it is known that particular conflicts - most regrettably in Iraq in 2003 and Libya in 2011, for example - were triggered due to the shameless machinations of foreign players and mercenaries.

Now the world is being held captive audience to yet another predictable Western rerun starring the usual suspects - the US, UK and France. These NATO members, willfully ignoring bona-fide terrorist groups in Syria, are blaming the 'Assad regime' for a series of chemical attacks against civilians - without evidence and formal investigation. To quote Thomas Paine, speaking on a different matter from a much earlier age, "These are the times that try men's souls."

Comment: See also:

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Stormtrooper

Time-travelling Russians! Ex-CIA head claims Russian bots were behind Jade Helm conspiracy theory


RT
Fri, 04 May 2018 20:33 UTC
us soldiers
© Philipp Guelland / AFP
The almighty Russian bots were to blame for panic and paranoia around military drills held in Texas and six other states in 2015, claims former CIA head Michael Hayden. As is the tradition with bot theories, he cites zero proof.

Claims of impending martial law and other nefarious plots floated around the internet ahead of eight weeks of military exercises held by US Army Special Operations Command in seven states across the southwest. Known as Jade Helm 15, the special forces exercises were held on "private and public" land, and were nearly completely off-limits to the press. To add to the paranoia smorgasbord, Obama-loathing, gun-toting Texas was labeled "hostile" territory for the purposes of the drills.

In Hayden's expert, ex-spook opinion, there's only one reason why Texans distrusted Jade Helm. Hint: It starts with an "R" and ends with "ussia."
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Chess

Giuliani says Mueller's Russian collusion case is 'dead' - 'Sessions should step in and close it'

Jeff Poor
Breitbart News
Thu, 03 May 2018 19:51 UTC
Rudy Giuliani
© Fox NewsRudy Giuliani on Fox and Friends
Thursday on Fox News Channel's Fox & Friends, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to step in with special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and end it.

According to the former New York City mayor, the original basis of the case is dead and is expanding into other things.

"Everybody forgets, the basis of the case is dead," he said. "Sessions should step in and close it. And say, 'Enough is enough.'"

Giuliani reiterated his claim that the probe was setting President Donald Trump up for a process crime.

"What they're really trying to do is trap him in perjury," Giuliani added. "And we're not suckers."

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Bad Guys

Israel's war on Iran has begun - What will Russia do about it?

Dan Glazebrook
Middle East Eye
Thu, 03 May 2018 14:36 UTC
Putin rouhani
Things are escalating again in one of Syria's many wars. On 29 April, two massive strikes - presumed to be Israeli - reportedly hit the Syrian Arab Army's 47th Brigade military base and arms depots near Hama, as well as Nayrab Military Airport in Aleppo.

The strikes reportedly targeted Iranian surface-to-surface missiles intended for deployment in Syria, and killed between 26 and 38 people, including 11 Iranians.

Red Lines Updated

The attack appears to have been coordinated with the US, coming just hours after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo left Jerusalem - where, according to Haaretz, he had "thrilled Netanyahu with hawkish talk on Iran". That same day, noted the Times of Israel, "news also broke of a phone call between Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump", while Israel's defence minister, Avigdor Liberman, was meeting his US counterpart James Mattis in Washington.

This feverish activity came less than a week after General Joseph Votel, the head of the US army's Central Command, or Centcom, whose sphere of responsibility includes Syria and Iran, made "a largely unpublicised visit to Israel."

Comment: Russia is acutely aware of this last point and will not let its partner Iran fall. But all the steps leading to preventing such a thing from happening have to be taken very carefully, and very cautiously.

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