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Chess

US embassy in Turkey shuts down due to 'security threat'


RT
Mon, 05 Mar 2018 15:11 UTC
US embassy Turkey
© Adem Altan / AFPThe US Embassy in Ankara, Turkey
The US embassy in Ankara will be shut down starting Tuesday due to a security threat, it said in a statement. The reopening date is yet to be scheduled. The move comes amid tensions between the US and Turkey.

Starting March 5, the Embassy will provide "only emergency services," the Monday announcement said. Routine actives, including visa interviews will not be held during the period of restrictions. The notice also advised US citizens in Turkey should avoid large crowds, keep a low profile and otherwise be cautious.

Also on Monday, the Turkish state news agency Anadolu reported the arrest of 12 people in Ankara as part of an investigation into suspected jihadists. The 12 were among 20 people in the case, for whom arrest warrants were issued by the state prosecutor's office, the report said. It was not immediately clear whether the arrests were connected to the closure of the embassy. The Anadolu report was published hours after the US announcement.
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Propaganda

Russian military: False 'hospital bombing' claims in Ghouta came after Syrian troops repelled pro-US forces


RT
Mon, 05 Mar 2018 15:39 UTC
Syria Damascus East Ghouta
© AFP
The Russian military has said allegations of "hospital bombings" in Eastern Ghouta are false, in a statement issued in response to accusations from the White House that Russia is "killing innocent civilians" in Syria.

Washington's claims came after the Syrian Army repelled an attack of the US-backed groups, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

It is the US and not Russia that is violating the UN resolution on the ceasefire in Syria, the ministry added. It accused Washington of doing nothing to constrain the militants it supports in Eastern Ghouta while they regularly shell Damascus, killing civilians.

Comment: It is not hard to see that the accusations against Russia and Syria in regards to Eastern Ghouta are mere propaganda. That is what the West has done since the start of this war, that is what it did in Aleppo. This is not the first time, nor will it be the last one.

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Brick Wall

Trump tweets to Canada and Mexico: "Tariffs will only come off if new, fair NAFTA is signed"

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Mon, 05 Mar 2018 15:29 UTC
US President Donald Trump
© Kevin Lamarque / ReutersUS President Donald Trump
Trump resumed his now daily trade war and tariff tweetstorm, blasting on Twitter that "we have large trade deficits with Mexico and Canada. NAFTA, which is under renegotiation right now, has been a bad deal for U.S.A. Massive relocation of companies & jobs." Specifically, the president added that "Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum will only come off if new & fair NAFTA agreement is signed."


Comment: Art of the Deal? See also:

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War Whore

Best of the Web: Young Turks' Cenk Uygur joins the chorus demanding that Trump escalate further with Russia

Caitlin Johnstone
caitlinjohnstone.com
Sun, 04 Mar 2018 15:01 UTC
Cenk Uygur Young Turks
Cenk Uygur
"Reminder that there are two kinds of Trump-Russia stories: those we pay attention to because they serve a narrative, and those we ignore because they don't," tweeted The Real News' Aaron Maté ‏yesterday in response to the news that the Trump administration had authorized the sale of hundreds of anti-tank missiles to Ukraine. "This one falls into latter category."

"That piss-tape kompromat surely dropping any day now," added journalist Mark Ames, a sarcastic reference to the fact that backing off on calls to arm Ukraine was an explicitly named part of the allegations in the notorious Steele dossier as one of the benefits Russia was supposed to have received from its "collusion" with the Trump campaign.

"If US media attitudes re: Russia weren't so hopelessly blinkered, this could be identified as the dangerous escalation that it is - rather than ignored or spun because it doesn't comport with the narrative that so many are now wedded to," said The Young Turks' Michael Tracey.

Comment: Caitlin Johnstone's podcast on the topic, here.

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Arrow Down

US media reacts to Jared Kushner's swift rise and long, long fall


Mondoweiss
Thu, 01 Mar 2018 14:30 UTC
Jared Kushner cartoon
© Katie MirandaJared Kushner
The press is reporting that Jared Kushner's days as a White House power may come to an end, due to a flurry of reports about his meetings as a Trump adviser with foreign officials and corporate execs who are in a position to help out his family's troubled real estate company - as well as Kushner's considerable innocence when it comes to foreign policy. The knives are out, and the latest reports are that Donald Trump himself wants his son-in-law to disappear.

The New York Times editorial board says Kushner "flames out." It says his only legacy ought to be anti-nepotism laws that would forbid the ascension of someone so unschooled in the ways of Washington.
At this point, the right question to ask is why Mr. Kushner still has any diplomatic role at all.
The Washington Post predicts "the fall of the House of Kushner" (a good Poe pun):
Once the prince of Trump's Washington, Kushner is now stripped of his access to the nation's deepest secrets, isolated and badly weakened inside the administration, under scrutiny for his mixing of business and government work and facing the possibility of grave legal peril in the Russia probe.

Kushner's tensions with chief of staff John F. Kelly have spilled into public view, while other dormant rivalries have resurfaced. Some colleagues privately mock Kushner as a shadow of his former self; one official likened the work of his Office of American Innovation to headlines in "The Onion," the satirical news website. Others said fear of the Russia probe has made some officials wary of interacting with Kushner on sensitive matters. And his reputation as an interlocutor for foreign governments has been undermined by the lowering of his security clearance level, which generated embarrassing headlines worldwide.

Comment: It is interesting that all these media outlets which are loving to see the fall of Kushner - simply because he is close to Trump - do not seem to have any problem with Kushner's biggest problem: He is a Zionist, and therefore he puts Israel before America and everyone else.

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Handcuffs

Idaho House passes first-of-its-kind bill that bans federal NDAA indefinite detention

Rachel Blevins
The Free Thought Project
Sat, 03 Mar 2018 00:01 UTC
protester barbed wire
© thefreethoughtproject.com

One state is fighting back against the unconstitutional powers granted by the NDAA with a bill that would make it illegal for the government to indefinitely detain citizens without due process.

A state is considering a bill that would counter one law that is rarely mentioned by the mainstream media - which just happens to be the one that gives the president the power to enforce indefinite detention of American citizens - the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

While most states ignore the overreaching power granted by the NDAA, the state of Idaho is fighting back against it. The Idaho House of Representatives passed House Bill 473, the Restoring Constitutional Governance Act, in a landslide vote of 63-4 this week. The bill specifically targets the most egregious constitutional violations that are allowed by the NDAA:
"The purpose of the Restoring Constitutional Governance Act is to restore the constitutional protections usurped by certain provisions in the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act ("NDAA"). Sections 1021 and 1022 of the 2012 NDAA, Public Law 50 U.S.C. 1541, authorize the violation of no fewer than 14 provisions of the Constitution including over half of the Bill of Rights. The sovereign government of the Great State of Idaho has a duty to protect the rights of citizens and other persons within Idaho's jurisdiction against such violations and from Federal overreach."

Comment: See also:

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Handcuffs

French prosecutors officially charge Marine Le Pen for tweet exposing ISIS crimes - UPDATE


RT
Thu, 01 Mar 2018 16:14 UTC
marine le pen
© Pascal RossignolMarine Le Pen
Marine Le Pen could face up to three years in prison after a French judge opened a criminal probe into her posting of graphic images to her Twitter feed in 2015. The tweets showed victims of Islamic State executions.

Three images, one showing the decapitated body of US journalist James Foley, were posted to the National Front leader's social media account. The pictures were captioned: "Daesh is THIS!"

Le Pen later removed the image of Foley following protests from Foley's family, but left another showing a tank running over a man in an orange jumpsuit and another of a man being burned alive in a cage. The far-right politician posted the images in response to some French media equating aspects of her political party and the terrorist group.

Comment: Marine Le Pen has long been known for her blunt assessment of political reality and though it took them a little time, they've now found an excuse to intimidate her. Whether it will be successful will depend on whether French citizens will allow let them to get away with it:

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War Whore

Condoleezza Rice demands illegal sanctions on 'Putin's inner circle'

Sally Persons
The Washington Times
Mon, 05 Mar 2018 12:35 UTC
Condoleezza Rice
© AP Photo/Ben MargotIn this March 15, 2014, file photo, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gestures while speaking before the California Republican Party 2014 Spring Convention in Burlingame, Calif.
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday that sanctions are the best way to punish the Russians for their attempted meddling in the 2016 election.

"Sanctions saying this person can't travel, this person can't visit. You have to remember, the reach of the United States is very broad, and so when you're listed by the U.S. it really has an effect on what you can and cannot do," Ms. Rice said on Fox News.

She did caution against wide-ranging economic sanctions, saying that the younger generation of Russians need to be separated from President Vladimir Putin and his "inner circle."

Comment: It's disturbing how easily these career imperialists manage to downplay the fact that they've been out-witted and out-gunned, and continue to go on the offensive. That's what makes them so dangerous - their megalomania coupled with a severe case of the Dunning-Kruger effect.

As Putin said, it's time to put aside the war-mongering rhetoric and realize that Russia is not to be messed with:
"To those who for the last 15 years have been trying to fan an arms race, achieve unilateral advantage against Russia, impose sanctions, which are illegal from the standpoint of international law and are aimed at holding back the development of our country, including in the military area, I have this to say: All the things you were trying to prevent through your policies have already happened. You have failed to hold Russia back," Putin said.

"You now have to acknowledge this reality, confirm that everything I said is no bluff - which it isn't - think for some time, send into retirement the people stuck in the past and incapable of looking into the future, [and] stop rocking the boat that we all ride in and which is called planet Earth," he said.


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Snakes in Suits

Trudeau looks like an idiot while trying to explain trade with USA (VIDEO)

Alex Christoforou
The Duran
Mon, 05 Mar 2018 12:35 UTC
Justin Trudeau
After embarrassing Canada during his recent trip to India, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau looked like a complete fool trying to explain Canada's trade surplus, or deficit, or surplus...with the United States.

Try not to laugh, watching the Canadian prime minister talk trade...
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Vader

'We will not sit back': Israel vows to prevent Iran's permanent military presence in Syria


Sputnik
Mon, 05 Mar 2018 09:39 UTC
Israeli soldiers walk next to mobile artillery units
© AP Photo/ Ariel SchalitIsraeli soldiers walk next to mobile artillery units in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights near the border with Syria
Tehran has repeatedly slammed Israeli and US claims of Iran's military presence in Syria as groundless, though admitted sending military advisors to help Damascus fight terrorism.

Israel is not interested in the escalation in Syria, but will respond if Iran continues to "provoke" the situation on the Syrian border, Foreign Ministry's Deputy Director General Alexander Ben-Zvi said Monday.

"I hope that this will not happen ... Of course, if they [the Iranian armed forces] attack the territory of Israel - and we regard the drone incident as a direct attack on the territory of Israel - then we will not have any other way out. We will not sit back. And anyone who wants to take some steps, should understand that there will be retaliatory measures," Ben-Zvi told reporters, commenting on Ban's statement.

According to him, Iran's military presence in Syria allegedly escalates the confict, while Israel will make every effort to prevent it from becoming permanent.
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