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Maria Zakharova spells out the nature of US involvement in Syria
Comment: Zakharova is, of course, absolutely correct. For the last 70 years US foreign policy has centered around intimidation of other countries to toe the American imperial line. Those nations that refused to back down, often saw their political processes directly attacked by US intelligence agencies or their assets, or their countries directly bombed and invaded by the US military. Syria falls into the latter category, but since Russian intervention in the conflict over 2 years ago, US forces have been forced to stoop to increasingly immoral and deceitful practices in an attempt to thwart the rebuilding of Syria by the rightful authorities (the Syrian government) with the help of their Russian allies.
FBI Director Christopher Wray
In a case like this, the FBI might query databases containing foreign intelligence collected overseas. An agent might learn nothing or might find out the plate belongs to an American communicating online with a suspected Islamic State militant.
It's these scraps of data, sometimes meaningless on their own, that can help foil plots and save lives, the government contends. But as Congress considers how to reauthorize the law governing the government's use of such information, lawmakers from both parties and many people in the United States want stricter controls to better protect privacy.
Comment: The FBI's flagrant invasion of privacy of American citizens is nothing new. See:
- The FBI's plan to destroy privacy
- FBI maintains secret biometrics database - claims NGI should not be subject to Privacy Act
- FBI Director Comey reminds us 'no such thing as absolute privacy in America'
© Alice Weidel and Margaret Thatcher Composite: LEFT: AP Photo/Michael Sohn | RIGHT: PA/PA WireAlice Weidels role model Margeret Thatcher was
Weidel told the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag newspaper that her party, which stormed into parliament for the first time after capturing nearly 13 percent of the vote, aimed to be ready to join a coalition government by 2021.
That could be a long shot since all mainstream parties have rejected working with the AfD.
Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis
"I rule out full independence but not necessarily more autonomy, even if they are now already one of the regions with the highest powers and competencies not only in Spain, but in the world at large," Alfonso Dastis told the Associated Press (AP).
He emphasized that the snap elections scheduled for December 21 "will be held according to the law. So the results will have to be respected afterward."
© Hamad I Mohammed / ReutersSaudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia October 24, 2017
Mohammed bin Salman, often referred to as MbS, was officially appointed the heir of the Saudi throne in June. However, his political influence began long before the appointment as he is considered the main and most trusted adviser to his father, King Salman.
He also held a number of key positions previously, including defense minister and chief of the Royal Court. The Crown Prince is said to be behind the latest internal reforms in Saudi Arabia, some representing almost a U-turn compared to the previous decades, shaped by the strict version of Sunni Islam in the country.
© Sputnik/ Alexandr Demyanchuk
Last week, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier paid a working visit to Moscow in a bid to improve chilly Russian-German relations. Shortly after, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin went to Berlin, where he told German journalists that he was concerned with the German public's loss of interest in events in Ukraine.
Also last week, Andriy Kobolev, chairman of the board at Naftogaz, Ukraine's state oil and gas company, complained to the media that when the first stage of the Russian-Turkish Turkish Stream pipeline project comes online starting next year, Ukraine will stand to lose at least half a billion, or about a quarter, of its total revenues from the transit of Russian gas to Europe. It will lose double that by late 2019, when the second stage of the program comes on line, the official added.
As the public has finally began to realize the extent of the corruption surrounding Hillary Clinton, including the now infamous Russia Uranium One deal, the mainstream media has gone into hyper-drive to discredit and distract from documented facts and are now going as far as to float the idea that Trump may be committing a crime for simply investigation Clinton at all.
That's right, in the sick world of the establishment media, Trump is committing a criminal act by even considering an investigation into shady Clinton dealings with the Russians. After all, she is above the law right?
Even more disgusting, the so-called reporters spewing this nonsense are using the fact that Mueller is conducting a deep state operation (now discredited) against the president that accuses him of working with Russia to win the election when in reality it is the exact opposite. In other words, Trump is being accused of something he didn't do but because of this, he can't investigate real crimes committed by Clinton.
Absolutely unbelievable.
© Bernard Goldbach | CC by 2.0
Now, the British government has decided to prosecute pre-crime but has done away with the clunky plot device of the pre-cogs, opting rather to rely on a hazy sense of higher probability to justify surveilling, nabbing, convicting, and imprisoning British citizens. The crime? Looking at radical content on the Internet. What is considered radical will naturally be defined by the state police who will doubtless be personally incentivized by pre-crime quotas, and institutionally shaped to criminalize trains of thought that threaten to destabilize a criminal status quo. You know, the unregulated monopoly capitalist regime that cuts wages, costs, and all other forms of overhead with psychopathic glee. Even a Grenfell Towers disaster is regarded more as a question of how to remove the story from public consciousness than rectify its wrongs.
© ReutersRobert Mueller
Consider this, then, a guide to the perplexed, where we start with two things that are certain. First, special counsel Robert Mueller will never be able to untangle the tangled webs with any credibility and needs to step aside.
Mueller, whose office is apparently leaking the "secret" news that a grand jury has approved charges against an unidentified defendant, assumed his role with one big conflict, his relationship with his successor at the FBI, James Comey. That conflict has morphed into several more that are fixable only by resignation.
That became obvious last week when events showed that any honest probe must examine the Obama White House and Justice Department. Mueller served as head of the FBI for more than four years under President Obama and cannot be expected to investigate his former colleagues and bosses.
Comment: Even journalists and pundits who are more or less oblivious to the larger issues at stake (and forces at work) are now saying Deep State sycophant Robert Mueller should step down; the chorus has begun. But will it come to that - or will Mueller's stubbornness just help him dig his hole deeper - making his connection to the very things he's investigating even more clear to all who's watching?
- Mueller has legal obligation to recuse himself as special counsel
- WSJ calls on Mueller to step down from Russia probe
- Targeting Flynn, shielding Gulen: Why Mueller must step down
- Mueller team under fire by fellow attorneys for history of questionable tactics
- How interesting: Mueller's hedge fund investments are linked to Russia and George Soros
Comment: Anyone with two neurons firing can see clearly that the mainstream media in the USA and Europe is massively biased against Trump and towards Hillary Clinton and all things 'democratic' and 'establishment'. So much for journalistic integrity! While truth is a casualty here, the real problem is that the American people are being bamboozled and sold a false version of reality by those who claim to be protecting their interests.