Puppet MastersS


Briefcase

Rod Rosenstein cleared Hillary of charges in FBI case, wife Lisa represented Bill in civil case

Patrick Howley
Big League Politics
Tue, 20 Mar 2018 01:00 UTC
rodrosenstein
© The CannabistRod Rosenstein
Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein's wife Lisa Barsoomian represented then-President Bill Clinton in a 1998-99 civil case in federal court.

Rod Rosenstein worked as a Whitewater prosecutor. In this role, he was in charge of the "FBI Travel Office" case, in which it was found that the Clinton White House illegally seized FBI files from White House travel office employees, including the Clintons' travel director.

Rosenstein interrogated Hillary Clinton on January 14, 1998, and was seen as responsible for clearing her of potential charges in the case. By that time, Rosenstein had already been picked to work for the U.S. Attorney's office in Maryland in the Clinton administration. When he applied to the Senate to become deputy attorney general, he falsely stated the dates he worked for Starr's team, saying he ended his employment with Starr in 1997 (before his friendly 15-minute interrogation of Hillary Clinton).

Comment: Clearly most of the players in the Mueller probe are either friends, cohorts, colleagues or have crossed legal paths. What does this bode for the integrity of the investigation? See also:

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Light Saber

Rand Paul blasts omnibus spending bill: 'Maybe holding hands with Dems isn't a great idea'

Josh Delk
The Hill
Sat, 24 Mar 2018 11:40 UTC
rand paul
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) blasted Republicans for "holding hands" with Democrats over a massive funding bill signed into effect this week that he criticizes for skyrocketing the national debt and failing to deliver on key Republican agenda items.

"The debt is up over a trillion the Dow is down...Maybe the GOP holding hands Democrats isn't such a great idea," the libertarian-leaning senator said on Twitter Saturday.

Paul live-tweeted his attempt to read through the behemoth 2,232-page omnibus spending package on Friday. Congress only had a few hours between the release of the bill and its passage before a Friday night government funding deadline.


Comment: If anyone hasn't noticed yet, this appears to be a recurring theme in America.


Comment: Will the Omnibus bill include yet more spending on entitlement programs? See more: US Wars Fund The Welfare State Which Finances The Liberal March Towards Totalitarianism

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Light Sabers

Turkey's victories and diplomacy in Syrian conflict - What to expect next


South Front
Sat, 24 Mar 2018 00:00 UTC
Turkey
© Investopedia/shutterstock
In recent days, Turkey achieved the most notable military victory since the Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922. On March 18, the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) and the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) captured the city of Afrin from the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) following an almost two-month long military operation in northwestern Syria. The advance, entitled Operation Olive Branch, was widely covered in the Turkish media in a heroic style creating a patriotic frenzy in the country.

During the whole of 2017, the media and authorities were conducting a large-scale propaganda campaign supporting the military and encouraging citizens to enlist. Some foreigners visiting Turkey in the period mentioned leaflets in municipal transport vehicles promoting the ideal of becoming a martyr defending the interests of the country and nation.

Comment: Kurds are not powerful enough to live as an independent country. Kurds have to make a choice about whether they want to be part of Turkey or Syria/Iraq. At this point, Kurds are not independent enough to make a choice which is allowing Turkey to expand. The US which supported Kurds is not helping them when Turkey attacked them. Turkey is not as powerful as Erdogan would like his people to think when dealing with Russia. It will be interesting to see what will happen next.

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Radar

China launches massive military drills 'in preparation for war'

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Sun, 25 Mar 2018 16:33 UTC
Chinese Su-35
Chinese Su-35
Just hours after the latest close military encounter between the US and China, when the US navy sailed a destroyer to within 12 nautical miles of the contested Spratly Islands in the South China Sea as a "freedom of navigation" operation - a move that China condemned as a "severe provocation" just as the two countries launched an all-out trade war - the Chinese military launched its spring combat readiness drills with an air force exercise in the West Pacific and a joint combat patrol mission in the South China Sea.

The air force drills include H-6K bombers and Su-30 and Su-35 fighters, according to the PLA , and have a simple, if clear, purpose: "Air Force exercises are rehearsals for future wars and are the most direct preparation for war," the Chinese Air Force said on its Weibo account on Sunday, according to Reuters.

"The more exercises China practices far from its shores the better it will be positioned as an important force for managing and controlling crises, containing war and winning battles", it added.
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MIB

Russia report: Classified leaks 'damaged national security' and 'potentially endangered lives'

Sara Carter
Sara A. Carter
Thu, 22 Mar 2018 13:39 UTC
devin nunes
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes has submitted the committees much anticipated fourteen month long Russia investigation report to the intelligence community Thursday for a declassification review so that a redacted version of the classified report can be made public, the committee said in a statement.

The committee's findings revealed that classified leaks alleging the Trump campaign may have colluded with Russia dramatically increased after the election and some of those leaks "correlate to specific language found in the Intelligence Community Assessment," which had not been released at that time. It also noted that former Obama Director of National Security James Clapper, who is now an analyst at CNN, provided inconsistent testimony about his contacts with the media, specifically CNN, as previously published by this reporter.

Comment: For more information:

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Biohazard

'No way' nerve agent could escape UK lab? Russia demands full disclosure on Porton Down toxin research


RT
Sun, 25 Mar 2018 16:18 UTC
Porton Down Defence Science and Technology Laboratory
© Peter Nicholls / Reuters
Porton Down lab claims no toxins could have escaped it's "four walls," but has never denied the possession of the nerve agent used on the Skripals, the Russian Embassy said, urging the UK to disclose its chemical warfare program.

The origin of the mysterious nerve agent, used on March 4 to poison former Russian double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, has been the main point of contention in the unraveling international scandal. While Britain claims that the alleged A-234 nerve agent - also known as Novichok - was a Soviet development and thus could only have been used by Russia, Moscow contends that the chemical has since been studied by numerous parties and could have been re-engineered elsewhere, including in the UK itself.

Last week, in an interview with the BBC, Russia's ambassador to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, noted that a secret military research lab at Porton Down, which is located roughly seven miles from the scene of the incident, could have manufactured the deadly agent. Among its other military-related research, the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) specializes in Chemical, Biological and Radiological warfare.
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Info

Ex-Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont detained in Germany for rebellion and sedition


RT
Sun, 25 Mar 2018 16:05 UTC
Carles Puigdemont
© Reuters
Carles Puigdemont has been detained in Germany, according to the former Catalan president's lawyer.

An arrest warrant had been issued for Puigdemont in Finland after the former president visited the country for talks with lawmakers. He was returning to Belgium, where he lives in self-imposed exile, when he was detained by German authorities after crossing the border from Denmark.

"First Minister Carles Puigdemont has been detained in Germany when he was crossing the border from Denmark," Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas, Puigdemont's lawyer, tweeted Sunday. Puigdemont is now said to be in a police station awaiting his legal team. German police have confirmed the arrest. It is unclear where Puigdemont is being held.
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Map

Erdogan: Iraq's Sinjar and Syria's Tal Rifaat next targets of Turkish military op


RT
Sun, 25 Mar 2018 15:54 UTC
Tayyip Erdogan
© Umit Bektas / Reuters
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced the launch of a new military operation against Kurdish militants in Iraqi Sinjar. He also vowed to take over the Kurdish-controlled town of Tal Rifaat in northern Aleppo, Syria.

"We've eliminated 3,747 terrorists [in Syria's Afrin]," Erdogan said on Sunday, adding that Ankara has now begun an operation against the Kurdish militants in Iraq's Sinjar.

"Remember, I told you we'd get them. They will flee, we will chase; the work will not end with Afrin. The PKK went to Sinjar - 'We'll go there as well,' I said. Operations there began," the president declared.

Ankara's operation 'Olive Branch,' targeting Kurdish militias in Syria's Afrin region, has nearly realized its goals, according to Erdogan. "We will take control of the Tal Rifaat town shortly and thus achieve the goals of the operation," he said. Tal Rifaat is the last stronghold in the Afrin region held by the Kurdish militias.

Comment: More from Southfront:



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SOTT Logo Radio

SOTT Focus: Behind the Headlines: Facebook and Cambridge Analytica - Trump Dumped - Skripal Saga


Sott.net
Sun, 25 Mar 2018 16:00 UTC
cambridge analytica
A steady trickle of mainstream punditry about the evils of social media in recent months last week became a flood of criticism, targeting Facebook in particular. High-profile exposés of Anglo-American market research firm Cambridge Analytica had instant impact, kicking off a viral #DeleteFacebook campaign. But the chattering classes loved social media until recently. Why the sudden change of heart?

The Trump Train lost many of its passengers before now, but the US president's signing last week of a gargantuan $1.3 trillion budget that includes no Mexican wall and lots of funding for Democrats' favorite projects has enraged what remained of his base. On the foreign front, Trump finally fired H.R. McMaster... only to replace him with John Bolton. Trump now has a bona fide neo-con National Security Advisor!

The UK government still has zero evidence to support its wild conspiracy theory that the Kremlin poisoned a former Russian spy in southern England earlier this month. In fact, recent developments in this saga only buttress the case that this 'chemical terrorist attack' was a false-flag operation conducted by British security services.

Join us later today - from 12-1:30pm EST / 4-5:30pm UTC / 6-7:30pm CET - as we go Behind the Headlines of the Western Propaganda Factory.

Running Time: 01:40:05

Download: MP3

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Info

Egyptian presidential hopeful: US triggered Arab Spring, destabilized Middle East


Sputnik
Sun, 25 Mar 2018 15:48 UTC
Arab flags in Cairo
© REUTERS/ Mohamed Abd El Ghany
The United States intentionally destabilized the Middle East by triggering the "Arab spring" in 2011 Egyptian presidential hopeful Moussa Mostafa Moussa, the leader of the liberal Ghad Party, told Sputnik.

"The 'Arab spring' has resulted in a catastrophe in the region. This huge US project was implemented by the team [of former US Secretary of State] Condoleezza Rice. Its aim was to overthrow the leadership of all the Arab countries and to divide the states into smaller countries," the leader of the liberal Ghad Party said.

Egyptian presidential hopeful Mostafa Moussa has also mentioned, that he hoped for the further enhancement of ties between Russia and Egypt.

"I am happy that in recent times there's been a rapprochement with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Today I do not see any difference between Russian and US capabilities. I see that Russia is a great country... I hope for the further enhancement of relations between Moscow and Cairo," the candidate said.
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