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Magic Wand

A political obituary for Jared Kushner: R.I.P to the President's son-in-law

Nomi Prins
Truthdig
Mon, 19 Mar 2018 00:01 UTC
Jared Kushner
© Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff / CC BY 2.0Jared Kushner

Here we are a little more than a year into the Trump presidency and his administration's body count is already, as The Donald might put it, "unbelievable, perhaps record-setting."

Among the casualties are Secretary of State Rex Tillerson; my former boss at Goldman Sachs, economic policy chief Gary Cohn; national security adviser Michael Flynn; FBI Director James Comey; White House press secretary and communications director Sean Spicer; four other communications directors including Hope Hicks who, having been Ivanka Trump's confidante, was elevated to the status of the president's "real daughter" before her own White House exit; chief strategist Steve Bannon; chief of staff Reince Priebus; a bunch of other instant relics of Trumpian political history, and a partridge in a pear tree. (Actually, a 200-year-old magnolia uprooted from the White House grounds thanks to the first lady.)

Responding to Hope Hicks' departure and, perhaps subliminally, the rumored future exile of son-in-law Jared Kushner, the president typically half-lamented and half-quipped, "So many people have been leaving the White House. It's invigorating, since you want turnover. I like chaos. It really is good. Who's going to be the next to leave? Steve Miller or Melania?"

Comment: See also:

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Arrow Down

Turkish forces seize US weapons left by YPG 'terrorists' in Afrin

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Wed, 21 Mar 2018 12:11 UTC
Erdogan
© Citifmonline.com
There are many reasons why US interventions abroad tend to backfire spectacularly and usually without fail, but the most embarrassing of all is when US weapons meant for one side end up in the hands of their enemies, and eventually used against the US itself. Most recently, this happened in the 2014-2016 period when ISIS steamrolled countless Iraqi towns, collecting Humvees, SAM missiles, guns and ammo in the process.

Today, it happened again in the Syrian-Kurdish town of Afrin, where the "victorious" Turkish army seized an unknown number of weapons provided by the Pentagon to the (formerly) US-allied Kurdish YPG "terrorists" as they are called by Turkey.
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Chess

Erdogan threatens to wipe out 'terror corridor' in Syria & Iraq


RT
Wed, 21 Mar 2018 12:11 UTC
Turkish Army Free Syrian Army
© Khalil Ashawi / ReutersTurkish forces and Free Syrian Army are deployed in Afrin, Syria March 18, 2018.
Turkey's military operation in Syria will target other Kurdish-held towns - and may even spill over into Iraq - President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced just a day after pro-Turkish forces seized Afrin.

The controversial cross-border offensive "will go on until the terror corridor through Manbij, Ayn al-Arab, Tell Abyad, Ras al-Ayn, Qamishli has been wiped out," Erdogan said, speaking in the presidential complex in Ankara on Monday.

Erdogan hinted that the Turkish military operation may even expand into neighboring Iraq, if needed, in an effort to "eliminate" forces loyal to the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), which Ankara has designated as a terrorist organization.

Comment: One of Erdogan's top advisors claimed that the success of this military operation proves the West 'cannot push Turkey around.' He went on to compare the battle for Afrin with the failed attempt by the British and French to take the Dardenelles in World War I:
"We bashed you at the Dardanelles 103 years ago," wrote Çevik, "but you failed to take a lesson from this. Now you have ganged up against us in Afrin supporting the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) and its affiliates despite the fact that the PKK is on your list of terrorist organizations."

He continued, "So now on that very day of the Dardanelles victory we are giving you another message by liberating Afrin. You cannot push the Turks around. You cannot jeopardize our national security. If you do then we just march on and undertake any sacrifice to protect our vital interests. We did that before, we did that in Afrin today and we will do it in Manbij and the east of the Euphrates in Syria tomorrow."
Further reading: Erdogan: US presence in Manbij to thwart Turkey, Russia, Iran

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Magnify

Best of the Web: Russian Embassy tweet: 'If Poirot went to Salisbury'

Neil Clark
Sputnik
Wed, 21 Mar 2018 12:30 UTC
Police officers at Sergei Skirpal
© REUTERS/ Henry Nicholls
The tweet from the Russian Embassy in the UK suggesting that in the absence of evidence, Hercule Poirot should be sent to solve the Salisbury poisoning mystery, wasn't well received by sanctimonious, virtue-signaling neo-cons.

Let's just imagine though what might happen if Agatha Christie's famous fictional detective did - in defiance of the Thought Police - head down to Wiltshire, along with his faithful sidekick, Captain Hastings.

What sort of questions would he be asking - and what conclusions would he come to?
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Snakes in Suits

BoJo and NATO head on fact-free PR tour: Still no proof of Moscow's involvement but their "reckless behaviour" is to blame


RT
Tue, 20 Mar 2018 21:16 UTC
NATO Secretary-General Stoltenberg with British Foreign Secretary Johnson in Brussels.
© ReutersNATO Secretary-General Stoltenberg with British Foreign Secretary Johnson in Brussels.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg wasted no time backing the UK's accusations against Moscow in the Skripal case, but the absence of facts did not seem to matter in this case or other "examples" of Moscow's "reckless behavior."

The NATO Secretary General delivered the comments at a joint press conference with the UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson in Brussels on Monday, where Johnson came to secure European support in the Skripal case.

Stoltenberg branded the Salisbury chemical incident an "attack," despite the fact that the exact causes of the alleged poisoning of former double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were still undetermined and not even a shade of evidence has surfaced yet. The UK blamed Moscow for the incident, naming the mysterious Novichok nerve agent, presumably of Soviet origin, as the toxin involved.

Comment: Also See:

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Star of David

Robert Fisk: Why is Al Jazeera not airing a hard-hitting investigation into US and Israeli lobbying?

Robert Fisk
Independent
Thu, 15 Mar 2018 11:41 UTC
Al Jazeera
© AFP/GettyThe team who work on The Lobby with Al Jazeera are well-respected investigative journalists, but for some reason their latest venture hasn't appeared in the public eye
According to Swisher, if his documentary on the American lobby doesn't air soon, 'it might prove to be ammunition sought by a group of zealous US politicians who wish to declare Al Jazeera a foreign entity, and label us journalists as 'spies''

So when am I going to be able to watch Al Jazeera's hard-hitting investigation into Israel's powerful lobby in the United States? Remember Al Jazeera? The tough, no-holds-barred Middle East satellite channel that transformed Qatar into a media empire whose reports frightened dictators and infuriated potentates and presidents alike? Why, George W Bush once wanted to bomb its headquarters in Doha - so it must have been doing something right. It even has an office in Jerusalem.

But something seems to be amiss. Not Al Jazeera's disastrous American venture, which was supposed to break free of the dross on CNN and Fox News and ended up looking just like CNN or Fox. Nor the tragicomedy of its journalists' imprisonment in Sissi's Egypt, banged up by Cairo's farcical laws and the stupidity of Al Jazeera's own management in Qatar.

No, I'm talking about a documentary called The Lobby, directed by one of Al Jazeera's top journalists, Clayton Swisher, the man whose exclusive (and book) on the "Palestine Papers" blew open the secret and scandalous American-led negotiations between Israelis and the Palestinian authority between 2000 and 2010. But after months of postponement, The Lobby, which secretly filmed pro-Israeli US activists and Israeli government officials and was completed last autumn, is still no nearer to being shown - and Swisher himself has taken a paid leave of absence. He even chose to explain his frustration in an article for the progressive American Jewish magazine Forward, which has always maintained a liberal and often very critical view of Israel.

Comment: To answer the question in the headline: Because Israel.

For some details of what we can expect to see in the documentary - if we ever do watch it - see:

Al Jazeera's undercover film on Israel lobby: Israel 'owns' Foundation for Defense of Democracies, smears BDS

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Brick Wall

Brennan's unhinged tweet-rant about McCabe's firing exposes how vulnerable the Deep State is

Amy Moreno
Truth Feed
Sun, 18 Mar 2018 00:01 UTC
John Brennan
John Brennan
Obama's former CIA Director John Brennan just had an epic meltdown over the firing of disgraced former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and inadvertently revealed how vulnerable the Deep State truly is.

Brennan lashed out at President Trump, who declared McCabe's firing was a great day for democracy.

McCabe stands accused of leaking information to the fake news media, lying to the FBI, and also lying under oath.

Comment: And of course Samantha Power just had to weigh in on the little tweet-spat.

More on Brennan's blatant hatred for Trump:

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Bad Guys

US backed moderate decapitators shell Russian Embassy in Syria while claiming they want peace


Russia Feed
Mon, 19 Mar 2018 12:00 UTC
US backed ‘moderate decapitators’ shelled Russian Embassy in Syria
The militants intentionally provoke conflict with the Syrian Army, possibly to illicit a US response.

In Damascus, militants formally classified as "moderates", by the US from the Eastern Ghouta region have shelled the Russian embassy, and trade mission. According to Vesti News:
272 mines and projectiles have been fired at Damascus over 10 days, leaving 13 people dead and more than 100 injured.
While the Militant groups officially claim they want peace in Syria, and the US and their allies demand the Syrian government talk with them, and make every effort to protect the terrorists, the extremists betray their true motive was never peace.

Comment: The West doesn't want peace in Syria and their jihadi proxy army are acting accordingly:

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Beaker

Stephen Lendman: OPCW likely to rubber-stamp UK claim about Skripal poisoning

Stephen Lendman
Stephen Lendman.org
Wed, 21 Mar 2018 11:07 UTC
Novichok Skripal
© Chris J Ratcliffe Getty Images
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is supposed to implement provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).

Its mandate includes conducting "credible and transparent" on-site inspections to verify whether claims about use of CWs is accurate - what it failed to do in Syria after CW attacks by terrorists falsely blamed on Damascus.

Instead it used fabricated information off-site - supplied by al-Qaeda-linked White Helmets and other disreputable anti-Syria sources.

On Monday, its experts will be in London to collect samples of the alleged "Novichok" nerve agent involved in the Skripal incident.

The Russian Federation never produced anything by this name. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said after Soviet Russia dissolved, America, Britain, and other European countries studied Novichok, perhaps with intent to produce it.

Comment: Indeed, given the background of the OPCW, the organization is likely to side with the false flag conspirators:

WMD in Syria just like Iraq in 2003? Contradictions in the UN/OPCW Report on Khan Shaykhun

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Bulb

Former federal prosecutor and Mueller's witch-hunt critic Joe DiGenova joins Trump's legal team

Cristina Laila
Gateway Pundit
Mon, 19 Mar 2018 10:52 UTC
Joe DiGenova
Former U.S. Attorney Joe DiGenova


President Trump has reportedly hired former federal prosecutor, Joe DiGenova to serve as one of his personal lawyers.

The New York Times reported:
President Trump hired the longtime Washington lawyer Joseph E. diGenova on Monday, adding an aggressive voice to his legal team who has pushed the theory on television that the F.B.I. and Justice Department framed Mr. Trump.

Mr. diGenova, a former United States attorney, is not expected to take a lead role. But he will serve as an outspoken player for the president as Mr. Trump has increased his attacks on the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III. Mr. Trump broke over the weekend from the longstanding advice of some of his lawyers that he refrain from directly criticizing Mr. Mueller, a sign of his growing unease with the investigation.

"Former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia Joe DiGenova will be joining our legal team later this week," said Jay Sekulow, one of the president's personal lawyers. "I have worked with Joe for many years and have full confidence that he will be a great asset in our representation of the President."
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