Puppet MastersS


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US officials: Saudi crown prince has hidden his mother from his father, the king

Carol E. Lee and Courtney Kube
NBC News
Thu, 15 Mar 2018 00:00 UTC
rump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
© Nicholas Kamm / AFP - Getty Images file
When Saudi Arabia's crown prince visits the White House next week, he's expected to be welcomed as a reformer who's expanded women's rights in one of the most restrictive countries in the world, allowing them to drive and attend sports events.

Yet there is one Saudi woman whom U.S. officials say has not benefited from the prince's rise: his own mother. Fourteen current and former senior U.S. officials told NBC News that intelligence shows Prince Mohammed bin Salman - often referred to by his initials MBS - blocked his mother from seeing his father, King Salman, more than two years ago and has kept her away from him as the young prince rapidly amassed power.

Prince Mohammed, a key ally of the Trump White House, has concocted various explanations of his mother's whereabouts over the years, such as that she's out of the country receiving medical treatment, so King Salman would not know his son has been behind her continued absence, the current and former officials said.
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Black Cat

The real 'Russia collusion' story - a chronicle

Michael Doran
National Review
Tue, 13 Mar 2018 18:08 UTC
U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton
© Brian Snyder / Reuters
In a textbook example of denial and projection, Trump foes in and out of government wove a sinister yarn meant to take him down.

Barack Obama keeps a close watch on his emotions. "I loved Spock," he wrote in February 2015 in a presidential statement eulogizing Leonard Nimoy. Growing up in Hawaii, the young man who would later be called "No-Drama Obama" felt a special affinity for the Vulcan first officer of the U.S.S. Enterprise. "Long before being nerdy was cool, there was Leonard Nimoy," the eulogy continued. "Leonard was Spock. Cool, logical, big-eared and level-headed."

It is the rare occasion when Obama lets his Spock mask slip. But November 2, 2016, was just such a moment. Six days before the presidential election, when addressing the Congressional Black Caucus, he stressed that the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, threatened hard-won achievements of blacks: tolerance, justice, good schools, ending mass incarceration - even democracy itself. "There is one candidate who will advance those things," he said, his voice swelling with emotion. "And there's another candidate whose defining principle, the central theme of his candidacy, is opposition to all that we've done."
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Eye 2

Washington dusts off the "just following orders" torture defense for CIA director-designate "Bloody Gina" Haspel

Jon Schwarz
The Intercept
Thu, 15 Mar 2018 20:51 UTC
gina haspel cia
"Bloody Gina"
During the Nuremberg Trials after World War II, several Nazis, including top German generals Alfred Jodl and Wilhelm Keitel, claimed they were not guilty of the tribunal's charges because they had been acting at the directive of their superiors.

Ever since, this justification has been popularly known as the "Nuremberg defense," in which the accused states they were "only following orders."

The Nuremberg judges rejected the Nuremberg defense, and both Jodl and Keitel were hanged. The United Nations International Law Commission later codified the underlying principle from Nuremberg as "the fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him."

This is likely the most famous declaration in the history of international law and is as settled as anything possibly can be.

Comment: No clearer indication that the Deep State has co-opted Trump than paving the way to bring back the worst excesses of the Bush years.

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Target

New sanctions and accusations as US 'gets tougher' on Russia

Josh Lederman, Matthew Lee
AP
Fri, 16 Mar 2018 00:00 UTC
Russiasanctionsball
© KatehonThe Political Wrecking Ball
In its toughest challenge to Russia to date, the Trump administration accused Moscow on Thursday of an elaborate plot to penetrate America's electric grid, factories, water supply and even air travel through cyber hacking. The U.S. also hit targeted Russians with sanctions for alleged election meddling for the first time since President Donald Trump took office.

The list of Russians being punished includes all 13 indicted last month by special counsel Robert Mueller, a tacit acknowledgement by the administration that at least some of Mueller's Russia-related probe has merit.

Trump has repeatedly sought to discredit Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the presidential election, but the sanctions appeared to rely on the special counsel's legal conclusions in deciding who should be named. The sanctions freeze any assets the individuals may have in U.S. jurisdictions and bar Americans from doing business with them.

The named Russians - 19 in all - are unlikely to have any assets in the United States that would be covered, making the move largely symbolic. But it could help inoculate the president from persistent claims he's afraid or unwilling to stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin or to fight back against efforts to undermine America's democracy and domestic affairs.
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Arrow Down

Washington wrecks cybersecurity talks with Russia

Arkady Savitsky
Strategic Culture Foundation
Sat, 17 Mar 2018 00:00 UTC
Cybersecurity
© linkedin.com/KJN
Cybersecurity (CS) is the latest frontier in warfare. Much has been said about the need to work out certain rules to prevent an "unfettered arms race" and "combat operations" in this domain. Last year, Russia and the US agreed to discuss these issues and form a working group. The need for a joint approach to the problem during a telephone exchange between the two presidents. US pundits have discussed it in depth.

Many hopes were pinned on these Russia-US cyber talks. If they could get off the ground, they would be viewed as a light at the end of the tunnel. Negotiations over strategies in regard to this "fifth domain" might expand to also include land, air, sea, and space. It took a lot of effort to reach an agreement to hold a dialog on February 27-28 in Geneva. Experts had been impatiently waiting for the two powers to address this burning issue.

The whole world heard National Security Advisor H. R. McMaster claiming at the Munich Security Conference in February that the US was ready for such talks. Russia had initiated the efforts to reach an agreement aimed at restricting military operations in cyberspace. The 17-member Russian delegation arrived in Switzerland ready to roll up their sleeves, buckle down, and work hard to tackle the issue and get something accomplished, but Washington torpedoed the consultations. It informed Moscow that its delegation was not coming. It was a last-minute pull out.

Comment: Something to hide? A country to snub? Forgot to put fuel in the plane? At least there would be information to glean from such a meeting had the US shown the courtesy of attendance.

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Attention

Unproven involvement of N. Korea in the murder of Kim Jong-Nam is now its 'use of chemical weapons'

Konstantin Asmolov
New Eastern Outlook
Sat, 17 Mar 2018 00:00 UTC
NK vapor
© Fotolia
On March 5, 2018 a sensational headline appeared in several Western newspapers: "North Korea has used chemical weapons against its own citizens!" Having reached that conclusion, the USA imposed new sanctions on the DPRK in accordance with the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act, passed in 1991. Sanctions prohibit the USA from exporting technology and materials connected with security, selling weapons, and providing financial or other aid to the DPRK.

"The use of deadly chemical weapons against its own citizens" is a very dramatic sounding phrase- it suggests to readers, at the very least, a large scale chemical attack such as those Assad's regime is accused of carrying out, or Saddam Hussein's attack on the rebellious Kurds. In fact, as the US State Department made clear, "the use of chemical weapons" refers to the killing of Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un using the toxic substance VX. Despite the fact that Pyongyang's involvement has not been proved by any court, the USA has already used this incident to put the DPRK back on the list of countries sponsoring terrorism.

Comment: One of the more disturbing aspects of Western frame-ups is how utilitarian the 'scenarios' become and how they are able to, without facts or reason, dictate opinions and actions.

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Attention

Lavrov: Partition Syria must be foiled, West is 'on the ground', Haley remarks irresponsible


Sputnik
Sat, 17 Mar 2018 14:34 UTC
Lavrov
© Al-Masdar NewsRussian FM, Sergey Lavrov
During an interview with the television and radio company of Kazakhstan's President, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has commented on a wide range of issues: from the situation in Syria to Skripal's poisoning and beyond.

While stressing that the level of violence in Syria has significantly decreased, the foreign minister emphasized that "the process of deescalation in Eastern Ghouta could start only if the militants stopped shelling Damascus. This process has not been underway for a very long time, now there seems to be some hope that these armed formations will separate from Jabhat al-Nusra, " Lavrov said.

According to Lavrov, any plans on Syria's partitions should be abandoned. "I do not think that we should even talk about a potential partition of Syria, but it is our duty to demand that these plans be immediately foiled, some bear it," the minister said in an interview with the television and radio company of the president of Kazakhstan.

Comment: Fair and direct comments from Mr. Lavrov. The US and its Western allies are conforming reality to meet their mindset -- insanity.

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Arrow Up

Reports: Trump now open to non-permanent DACA compromise

Guy Benson
Townhall
Wed, 14 Mar 2018 04:40 UTC
Trump
© Unknown
Despite a fairly obvious path to compromise, bipartisan DACA negotiations on Capitol Hill have gone nowhere, with four different immigration bills failing in the Senate last month. The president's deadline has come and gone, leaving the Obama-era executive amnesty in legal and practical limbo. As March 5th approached, we wrote about the possibility of a can-kicking deal that would formally extend DACA for some period of time, in exchange for undetermined enforcement concessions. President Trump has since seen his (pretty reasonable, in my view) "four pillars" approach fall well short of even a simple majority in Congress' upper chamber, with another budget deadline (March 23) fast approaching. He's now sounding more open to a non-permanent solution:

Comment: See also:

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War Whore

Theresa May's "novichok" story continues to crumble


Off Guardian
Thu, 15 Mar 2018 11:12 UTC
Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May
© Toby Melville—Pool/AFP/Getty Images
We already know UK PM Theresa May misrepresented the Russian law on executing terrorists in foreign lands, in order to bolster her currently evidence-free claims of Russian culpability in the poisoning of ex-MI6 employee Sergey Skripal. Her narrative remains, as of March 15, bald and unconvincing. But it seems things may be about to get even worse for her and what some see as her bid to "Falklandise" her flagging premiership. It seems the "nerve agent" she claims was used to attack Skripal and his daughter may not actually exist.

Comment: See more: Skripal Likely Poisoned by British Intelligence in Effort to Smear and Silence Russian World View

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Dollars

Trump requests $4bln from Saudi King to destabilize Syria


Tasnim News Agency
Sat, 17 Mar 2018 19:52 UTC
US President Donald Trump and Saudi King Salman
US President Donald Trump and Saudi King Salman
A recent report suggests that US President Donald Trump asked Saudi King Salman for $4 billion to push ahead with its destructive and destabilizing policies in Syria.

The request by Trump was made in December in a phone conversation with Saudi Arabia's King Salman.

According to the Washington Post on Friday, Trump had an idea he thought could hasten a US exit from Syria.

The White House wanted money from the kingdom and other nations to help rebuild and stabilize the parts of Syria that the US military and its local allies have liberated from Daesh, the newspaper reported.
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