Puppet MastersS


Stormtrooper

To silence the press: Six journalists shot by Israel during Gaza protests


AFP/Yahoo
Fri, 06 Apr 2018 16:46 UTC
press_israel_gaza
© AFP Photo/SAID KHATIBDemonstrators assist an injured Palestinian journalist Yasser Murtaja during clashes with Israeli security forces following a protest near the border with Israel, east of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on April 6, 2018. Demonstrators assist an injured Palestinian journalist Yasser Murtaja during clashes with Israeli security forces following a protest near the border with Israel, east of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on April 6, 2018
Six Palestinian journalists were shot and wounded by the Israeli army during clashes Friday between demonstrators and troops on the Gaza border, the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate said.

The union said the six were shot despite wearing clothes clearly identifying themselves as journalists, adding it held Israel "fully accountable for this crime".

None of the injuries were life threatening, but it called for the perpetrators to be held accountable.
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Dollars

How $37 million from the Clinton Foundation disappeared in Baltimore

Charles Ortel
LifeZette
Fri, 06 Apr 2018 21:05 UTC
Clinton Bush Haiti Fund
© Clinton Bush Haiti Fund
A grant went to the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund - but the group had only an office address in Washington, D.C. So what happened to the money?

Here's a question for which Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, special counsel Robert Mueller, and former FBI Director James Comey may well know the answer to - but aren't likely to want to talk about in public, under oath:

Why did the Clinton Foundation send a $37 million grant for the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund in 2010 to a Baltimore post office box when the CBHF told federal tax authorities that its only office that year was in Washington, D.C.?

For the rest of us, the answers to that and many other questions posed by those who wonder why investigations into obvious and rampant frauds involving Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton and their purported foundation never go anywhere are complex. But they're worth following if you care about combating charitable fraud.

Be prepared, because the answers also make clear that too many powerful people were and are covering up an odious set of scandals that implicate Establishment Republicans and Democrats alike.
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Extinguisher

Operation 'Damage Limitation' stumbles as UK Establishment on back foot in Skripal Case

Neil Clark
Sputnik
Fri, 06 Apr 2018 21:52 UTC
skripal front door
© Reuters / Peter NichollsDeadly nerve agent on front door, but no hazmat suit.
The failure of the UK laboratory experts at Porton Down to confirm that the nerve agent we were told was used on the Skripals actually came from Russia, has led to back-pedalling from Ministers and Establishment-friendly journalists and the propagation of new, even more outlandish conspiracy theories to try and shore up the 'Official Narrative.'

The immediate response- following Tuesday's dramatic developments, was to dismiss the testimony of Porton Down CEO Gary Aitkenhead as unimportant. 'Porton Down lab probably baffled by the fuss over this interview' tweeted the BBC's Security Correspondent Frank Gardner. 'Porton Down wouldn't be able to say where the nerve agent was from anyway' was the oft-repeated refrain. The trouble is that we already been told that the laboratory HAD identified the nerve agent as coming from Russia.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said as much in an interview on German television on 25th March.

In addition, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office tweeted on 18th March 'Analysis by world-leading experts at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down made clear that this was a military grade Novichok nerve agent produced in Russia'.

Comment: From the mouths of babes:



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Mr. Potato

Ray McGovern on John Bolton: Lunatic let loose in the West Wing

Ray McGovern
Consortium News
Thu, 05 Apr 2018 00:01 UTC
JohnBolton
© AP/Seth Wenig

As Uber-Hawk John Bolton prepares to take over as national security adviser on Monday, Ray McGovern looks back at when Bolton was one of the "crazies" in the George W. Bush administration.

John Bolton's March 22 appointment-by-tweet as President Donald Trump's national security adviser has given "March Madness" a new and ominous meaning. There is less than a week left to batten down the hatches before Bolton makes U.S. foreign policy worse that it already is.

During a recent interview with The Intercept's Jeremy Scahill (minutes 35 to 51) I mentioned that Bolton fits seamlessly into a group of take-no-prisoners zealots once widely known in Washington circles as "the crazies," and now more commonly referred to as "neocons."

Beginning in the 1970s, "the crazies" sobriquet was applied to Cold Warriors hell bent on bashing Russians, Chinese, Arabs - anyone who challenged U.S. "exceptionalism" (read hegemony). More to the point, I told Scahill that President (and former CIA Director) George H. W. Bush was among those using the term freely, since it seemed so apt. I have been challenged to prove it.
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Black Cat

Best of the Web: Sarkozy's hand caught in the French cookie jar?

Eric Margolis
EricMargolis.com
Thu, 29 Mar 2018 21:01 UTC
Nicolas Sarkozy
© Benoit Tessier/ReutersFrance’s ex-president is accused of receiving €50m in campaign funds from Muammar Gaddafi.
There was something refreshing about watching former French president Nicolas Sarkozy being interrogated in a French jail. Particularly since he may soon be accused of conspiracy in the murder of my old friend, Col. Muammar Khadaffi of Libya.

Sarkozy and his former chief of staff, Claude Guéant, are being investigated for secretly accepting at least fifty million Euros from Khadaffi for his 2007 electoral campaign. Such a payment violated France's maximum permissible limit for political donation, not to mention a ban on foreign financing of candidates and failure to report the payments. Sarko also faces investigation over secret payments from the Gulf oil states.

French political candidates often have to wade through the sewers to finance their campaigns because spending limits were set relatively low to prevent big money from buying the elections, as in the United States.

These charges against Khadaffi and Guéant have been percolating for years with only a muted response. Sarkozy also got into hot water after he was accused of bilking large sums of cash from a senile heiress to France's L'Oréal cosmetics company.

Comment:

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Bad Guys

Washington and Riyadh's enduring global terror enterprise

Tony Cartalucci
New Eastern Outlook
Thu, 05 Apr 2018 00:00 UTC
Saudi Regime
For decades the United States and its NATO allies have helped Saudi Arabia export methods of political indoctrination known as Wahhabism to radicalize individuals and swell the ranks of mercenary forces used to wage proxy wars abroad and manipulate Western populations at home.

What began as a means for the House of Saud itself to establish, expand, and eventually consolidate political power on the Arabian Peninsula in the 18th century has now become a finely honed tool of geopolitical power integrated into Washington's foreign policy.

A remarkable admission was recently made in the pages of the Washington Post in an article titled, "Saudi prince denies Kushner is 'in his pocket'."

The article would quote Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, stating (emphasis added):
Asked about the Saudi-funded spread of Wahhabism, the austere faith that is dominant in the kingdom and that some have accused of being a source of global terrorism, Mohammed said that investments in mosques and madrassas overseas were rooted in the Cold War, when allies asked Saudi Arabia to use its resources to prevent inroads in Muslim countries by the Soviet Union.
Successive Saudi governments lost track of the effort, he said, and now "we have to get it all back." Funding now comes largely from Saudi-based "foundations," he said, rather than from the government.
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Bullseye

Russian Foreign Ministry: Democracy is being degraded by US need to maintain global hegemonic control at all costs


RT
Fri, 06 Apr 2018 20:30 UTC
us flags
© Yuri Gripas / Reuters
US democracy is being degraded as Washington is using all means to maintain its global hegemony, even those measures that harm the American people, Moscow has said, reacting to the new round of anti-Russian sanctions.

"The American democracy is clearly being degraded. [Its only] desire is to ensure by all means that US global hegemony remains, including pressuring countries that conduct an independent line and speak [with] their own voice, unlike Washington's NATO allies," Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Moscow said the new US restrictions will be faced with "a firm response," urging Washington to "swiftly give up on the illusion that one can communicate with [Russia] using the language of sanctions."
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X

Best of the Web: Abby Martin's interview, critical of Israel, blocked by YouTube in 28 countries


RT
Fri, 06 Apr 2018 00:12 UTC
youtube purge
An episode of Abby Martin's Empire Files, featuring journalist Max Blumenthal and spotlighting rising militarism in Israel, has been blocked by YouTube in 28 countries, including Israel and the UK, for violating "local laws."

"Just notified by YouTube that Abby Martin's interview with Max Blumenthal has been blocked from being viewed in 28 countries (including Israel) to 'comply with local laws.' Actions disabled & warnings for viewers elsewhere," the program's official Twitter account related on Thursday.

Entitled "Jewish-American on Israel's Fascism: 'No Hope For Change From Within'," the episode featured a discussion between Martin and journalist Max Blumenthal about the increasingly militaristic, racist attitude of Israel towards Palestinians.
"YouTube has claimed that it removed my interview on Israel-Palestine with Abby Martin to comply with laws in 28 countries. However, nothing I did or said in the discussion was even remotely illegal, even in countries with the strictest hate crime laws," Blumenthal told RT in an email. "My comments were based entirely on my extensive journalistic experience in the region and my analysis was clinical in nature. At no point did I denigrate anyone based on their faith or ethnicity."

Comment: It's a control war against any message, report, criticism of Israel that it deems unfavorable, be it true or not, regardless the context. It applies to any and all commentary right down to censoring the individual. Can we please get alarmed about this? Impression management is going viral and mutating. Think gender labels, pronoun confusion, vegan warriors... Do we understand the depth and breadth of this process and the outcome?

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Propaganda

Corbyn out of intel loop; anonymous sources inundate Tory press on Skripal poisoning


RT
Thu, 05 Apr 2018 15:32 UTC
Jeremy Corbyn
© Sputnik InternationalOut of the loop! He should be glad!
The day after the UK government was left red-faced over its rush to blame Russia for the poisoning of an ex-double agent, 'evidence' is now being leaked to the press, left, right and center.

Prime Minister Theresa May's security minister has defended the decision not to fully share intelligence over the investigation into the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal with, among others, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Security minister Ben Wallace MP said the "circle" of those with access to highly sensitive information should be restricted.
"He is the leader of the opposition; he is not the government. He doesn't have the duty or the responsibility of protecting at the moment - and I hope he never does - the security of this country," he told BBC radio.
However, after Porton Down scientists blew holes in the Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson's claim that there was "no doubt" the nerve agent had been made in Russia, the press is gaining access to more leaks than a plumber.

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Briefcase

'Arbitrary resistance': Nunes demands Trump probe documents from FBI and DOJ


RT
Thu, 05 Apr 2018 20:23 UTC
DevinNunes
© Crooks and LiarsHouse Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes
The FBI has until April 11 to give Congress the unredacted document that launched the 2016 probe into the Trump campaign or face legal action in federal court, House Intelligence Committee chair Devin Nunes said.

Almost two years since the FBI opened a counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign, it remains a secret on what basis that probe was launched. The portion of the bureau's "electronic communication" (EC) memo remains heavily redacted, according to Nunes (R-California).

The FBI informed the House Intelligence Committee last month that the bureau "would refuse to further unredact the EC based on its supposed sensitivity," according to the letter Nunes sent Wednesday to the Assistant Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and to FBI Director Christopher Wray.
"The document in question is not highly classified, and law enforcement sources have apparently not been shy about leaking to the press information that the Department and Bureau refuse to share with Congress," Nunes wrote.
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