James Clapper, the director of national intelligence under former President Barack Obama, gave "inconsistent testimony" about contacts he had with the media while in office, according to a document released Thursday by Republicans on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

"Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, now a CNN national security analyst, provided inconsistent testimony to the Committee about his contacts with the media, including CNN," reads one entry in a seven-page summary of findings from the committee's Russia investigation.

The committee voted on Thursday to formally end the Russia probe. A 150-page report authored by Republicans will now undergo an intelligence community review before being released to the public. Committee Republicans released a one-page preview of its report last week in which they pointed to "problematic contacts between senior Intelligence Community officials and the media." Clapper, a retired Air Force general, is one of the senior officials.

It is not clear what information Clapper discussed with media outlets, but he was involved in a highly significant meeting with President Donald Trump just two weeks before the Republican's inauguration.

Clapper and three other top intelligence community officials - then FBI Director James Comey, then CIA Director John Brennan, and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers - briefed Trump on Russia's efforts to meddle in the 2016 election.

The US has threatened to re-evaluate its membership of the UN Human Rights Council, after it adopted five 'biased' anti-Israeli resolutions condemning its policies and calling on the world community to halt arms sales to Tel Aviv.

Following a month-long 37th session in Geneva, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) approved five 'anti-Israel' resolutions. One of the resolutions, titled 'Ensuring accountability and justice for all violations of international law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem', condemned "all violations of human rights and of international humanitarian law" against Palestinians.

Acknowledging the "widespread and unprecedented levels of destruction, death and human suffering" in the occupied territories, the UNHRC urged member states to stop selling arms to Tel Aviv. The resolution specifically

"calls upon all States to promote compliance with international law" to ensure that "authorities and private entities do not become involved in internationally unlawful conduct, inter alia the provision of arms to end users" which engage in "serious violations of international humanitarian and/or human rights law."

The extended Royal family has become embroiled in the Cambridge Analytica (CA) scandal. As journalists investigate the shady deals of the consultancy firm, it has been exposed that ties to the data company go right to the top.

As the week progressed, more and more links between CA and the establishment have been revealed. Board members for parent company SCL Group include a Lords member, Tory donors, ex-British army officers and defense contractors... there's even a direct descendant of a queen in there for good measure.

CA is one arm of SCL group, formerly known as Strategic Communication Laboratories. The Observer article, which initially broke the CA scandal, said "for all intents and purposes, SCL/Cambridge Analytica are one and the same."

SCL's board is a who's who of the British establishment, with minor royals rubbing shoulders with Conservative Party donors and the military top brass.

The Saudi king has just begun his two-week visit to the US but the first important achievement was seen even before the top-level talks kicked off on March 20. He and President Trump agreed to assemble a Supreme Committee to counter Iran. The UAE is the third member of this action team. Their activities will be coordinated by their national security advisers, with final decisions to be made by the heads of state. The forum will convene monthly to discuss issues of special importance.

This move is widely seen as a sign that President Trump is soon going to recertify the Iran nuclear deal, even if such a decision will mean defying some of his top military leaders. The deadline for recertification is mid-May but the president may make an announcement much earlier.

CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who has been nominated to replace Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, favors a tough approach to Iran. The nominee is the right man to improve cooperation with Saudi Arabia and the UAE aimed at forcing a rollback of Iran. Once he takes over the US is expected to move further into Saudi Arabia's corner.

"It is becoming more obvious with each passing day that the men and the movement that broke Lyndon Johnson's authority in 1968 are out to break Richard Nixon," wrote David Broder on Oct. 8, 1969.

"The likelihood is great that they will succeed again."

A columnist for The Washington Post, Broder was no fan of Nixon.

His prediction, however, proved wrong. Nixon, with his "Silent Majority" address rallied the nation and rocked the establishment. He went on to win a 49-state victory in 1972, after which his stumbles opened the door to the establishment's revenge.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's Press Secretary and Kremlin official Dmitri Peskov said during an interview on Thursday that the rise of Russia makes some Western leaders feel "uncomfortable".

The Kremlin spokesperson said, "The more Russia is rising, the more uncomfortable they feel, and the [tougher] they start to behave in international relations."

According to Peskov, the West is "ready to jeopardize international law, the basics of international relations - free trade and [commercial] regime. They are ready to forget about fair trade. They are ready to forget about [World Trade Organisation] WTO rules. They are ready to forget about [all the] rules when they want to suppress Russia."

Peskov also noted that when Russia faces external pressure, its people tend to "unite around a strong leader."

He said, "This happened numerous times during our history. And of course, partly, it's happening now. Because when you see unprecedented pressure, when you see even craziness coming from some countries, you understand what I mean, well, people cannot tolerate it, they resist. And [by] resisting, they unite around a strong leader."

When Al Qaeda militants shot down a Russian jet over Idlib with a US-made surface-to-air missile this February, the White House and its faithful media were smugly silent. With daily accusations that Russia was bombing hospitals and recklessly killing innocent civilians, this was evidently seen as fair payback by the patrons of the armed opposition. No-one even bothered to ask how these lethal "MANPADS" got into the hands of lawless extremists that even the US was forced to class as terrorists.

There were doubtless many who celebrated the death of the valiant Russian pilot Roman Filipov, who survived the fall but then apparently blew himself up to avoid being taken hostage. The jihadists had long been pleading with the West to send them MANPADS, and now they had got them:

"Mahmoud Turkmani, the military commander of the HTS air defence battalion, managed to shoot down a military plane by an anti-aircraft MANPADS in the sky of Saraqeb in the Idlib countryside in late afternoon today," Ebaa News, the unofficial media outlet used by HTS, reported." (WaPo Feb 4^th 2017)

It was a demonstration of just how useful such a weapon could be, much like US-made TOWs have been in pushing back the Syrian Army's tanks. It didn't look much like coincidence that these "rebels" had finally got the defensive weapon they wanted, when their backs were to the wall, at least not to Russians:

Russian politicians have claimed the US and its allies supplied an anti-aircraft missile used to shoot down a Russian jet over Syria, as Moscow increased attacks on rebels in the country's Idlib province and amid reports of government gas attacks.

"My frustration," writes Peter Schweizer in his new book, Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends, is not that the solid reporting on Trump has been too tough, but that the reporting on the Obama administration has been way too soft or in some cases nonexistent." The author of the 2016 sensation "Clinton Cash" says Trump and his children didn't invent the blurring of government and business, and details a number of ethical violations on both sides of the political aisle. One example: the little-noticed private equity firm run by the sons of Democrats Joe Biden and John Kerry, as detailed in this exclusive first excerpt.

Joe Biden and John Kerry have been pillars of the Washington establishment for more than 30 years. Biden is one of the most popular politicians in our nation's capital.

His demeanor, sense of humor, and even his friendly gaffes have allowed him to form close relationships with both Democrats and Republicans. His public image is built around his "Lunch Bucket Joe" persona. As he reminds the American people on regular occasions, he has little wealth to show for his career, despite having reached the vice presidency.

Fox News conducts an interview blissfully unaware of any need for burden of proof as Bill Browder establishes his propaganda line that Vladimir Putin is the source of all the world's problems.

Over the last 15 months or longer, there has been a very carefully orchestrated campaign of rhetorical propaganda that all has the same kind of characteristics:

• extreme, but connected claims and assertions
• an expression of ideology that seems to explain all the actions
• Zero hard evidence as proof of any allegation

Rush Limbaugh said many years ago that the thing that matters in modern politics is this:

"It's not the nature of the evidence; it's the seriousness of the charge." That's the driving media mantra for stories where they can advance the Democrat agenda, and facts don't matter.

As sad, and painful, as it is to contemplate, let alone say, it appears the West is going to war with Russia. Yes Russia. The firing of US National Security Advisor McMaster today, and most significantly his replacement with John Bolton point to a direct confrontation against Iran. Bolton has always advocated war with Iran, but never really been in a position to make good on the threat. Now he has been invited to join US President Trump's cabinet - a cabinet already dominated by US Generals (for the most part retired). Trump now has what any clear analysis would point to - a war cabinet.

In a game of one-up-man-ship, UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has been blowing the proverbial bridges between Russia and the western world to pieces in the last several weeks with comments that have really been beyond the pale. He suggested that Russian President Putin was the person that gave the go ahead for the attempted assassination of a former Russian spy in England. He then absolutely blew that out of the water by claiming yesterday that holding the World Soccer Cup in Russia was akin to Hitler's 1936 Olympics. This last point I personally took huge exception to, because the fact is the 25 million or so Soviets that died actually fighting Hitler saved England from German invasion - an invasion that England would have lost hands down. In truth, Johnson might just as well of accused modern day Israel of being a Nazi state. That's just how bizarre Johnson's attack on Russia was. And perhaps more importantly in the scheme of things, how incendiary the attack was.