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Paul Craig Roberts interview: US committed to path of conflict with Russia, tensions higher than in Cold War


RT
Sun, 30 Jul 2017 18:12 UTC
US Congress building
© Zach Gibson / Reuters
The new round of sanctions on Russia benefits the US energy industry and military-security complex, and indicates that conflict with Moscow the principal goal of US foreign policy, former Assistant Treasury Secretary Paul Craig Roberts says.

The Senate, in a nearly unanimous vote on Thursday, slapped new sanctions on Russia over alleged election interference by Russian hackers. The bill, which will prevent US President Donald Trump from easing existing sanctions on Russia and also imposes sanctions on Iran and North Korea, is sent to President Trump in a veto-proof fashion.

Trump reviewed the final version of the bill and plans to sign it, the White House announced on Friday.

RT America's Manila Chan discussed this with Paul Craig Roberts, the former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury and chairman of the Institute for Political Economy.
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Quenelle - Golden

Russia finally responds to US seizure of embassy facilities by ordering a staggering 755 US diplomats to leave


RT
Sun, 30 Jul 2017 18:05 UTC
Vladimir Putin
© Sergey Guneev / Sputnik
755 American diplomats will have to leave Russia as a result of Washington's own policies, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said in an exclusive interview with the Rossiya 1 TV channel.

"The American side has made a move which, it is important to note, hasn't been provoked by anything, to worsen Russian-US relations. [It includes] unlawful restrictions, attempts to influence other states of the world, including our allies, who are interested in developing and keeping relations with Russia," Putin told channel host, Vladimir Solovyov, Sunday.

"We've been waiting for quite a long time that maybe something would change for the better, we had hopes that the situation would change. But it looks like, it's not going to change in the near future... I decided that it is time for us to show that we will not leave anything unanswered," the Russian president added.
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Eye 1

Abby Martin interviews Venezuela Economy Minister: Sabotage, Not Socialism, is the Problem

Abby Martin
TeleSUR
Sat, 17 Jun 2017 16:50 UTC

Today in the corporate media, Venezuela's economic problems are used to paint the country as a failed state, in need of foreign-backed regime change.

To get the Bolivarian government's side of the crisis, Abby Martin interviews Venezuela's Minister of Economic Planning, Ricardo Menéndez. They discuss shortages, oil dependency, the role of the US-backed opposition movement and more.

The Empire Files joined him in Cojedes, Venezuela, where he was speaking to mass community meetings, organizing the population to fight against what he calls an economic war.
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Camcorder

HRW, Amnesty claim US surveillance infringes on fundamental rights, EU should rethink cooperation


RT
Sat, 29 Jul 2017 17:41 UTC
Spy-eye
© The Register
International human rights organizations have appealed to the European Commission asking it to "re-evaluate" its Privacy Shield agreement on personal data transferring with Washington. The US surveillance practices do not comply with EU laws and standards, they claim.

"(T)he United States of America does not ensure a level of fundamental rights protection regarding the processing of personal data that is essentially equivalent to that guaranteed within the European Union," Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International (AI) stated in a joint letter earlier this week.

Having addressed the Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, Vera Jourova, AI and HRW "urged" the European Commission to reconsider its 2016 agreement with Washington, aimed at protecting the personal data of citizens on both continents.

America's "two main foreign intelligence surveillance laws - and the programs that are avowedly or reportedly conducted under it - demonstrably fall far short of essential equivalence to the standards set out in EU law and do not comport with international human rights guarantees," the letter stated.

The EU has agreed to personal data sharing with Washington under "incorrect conclusions," it added, while also calling on the European Commission to "encourage" its US partners "to adopt the necessary binding reforms so that the transfer of personal data to the United States does comply" with European norms and regulations. "We are also concerned about the lack of safeguards applicable to US intelligence-sharing arrangements with other states," the letter stated, criticizing the US government for the lack of available public data on the "current scope or details" of such international arrangements.

Comment: Good luck to the EU on reforming the US surveillance practices and reining in its "warrantless" spy operations. That genie is out of the bottle never to return...even if they promise.

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Satellite

Russia and US to continue space cooperation despite tensions


RT
Sat, 29 Jul 2017 20:23 UTC
Intl spacestation
© NASAInternational Space Station...where cooperation matters enough.
Roscosmos, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) all understand that if co-operation breaks down, it will seriously affect each other's work, the head of Russia's Federal Space Agency has said. "It's very easy to make hasty decisions which would interrupt our co-operation. In many respects, we and our partners understand that it will put us back, and so from the space agencies there's an understanding that this cooperation needs to be maintained and continued," Roscosmos director Igor Komarov, said Saturday in an interview with Russia-24.

The space agencies understand the need to work together in the cosmos despite political tensions back on Earth, Komarov said. "Since we rely so much on each other, both in scientific research and the activities of the ISS [International Space Station], our outer space activity is one of the spheres in which we hold an advantage, and this in many ways enable us to move forward together and work together effectively."

On Tuesday, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin confirmed that Russia would not stop its supply of RD-180 rocket engines to the US as doing so would harm the national interest. "We could now, for example, cut off the delivery of RD-180 jet engines for US missiles," Rogozin said as quoted by RIA Novosti. "We discussed this issue, I will not hide it. I summoned our specialists several times. [But then] we thought - why?"

Congress banned the Pentagon from using RD-180 engines at one point following tensions with Russia over Crimea and Ukraine. The ban, was however, eased in 2015, after fears that it could drive United Launch Alliance (ULA) - a joint venture between Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co - out of business, leaving only the privately-owned SpaceX with the capability to launch satellites. The ULA immediately placed an order for 20 RD-180 engines.

Comment: The US Congress has its swollen head in a bag. There is at least some hope of continued cooperation on the outer fringes of the planet -- as long as it is good for business.

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X

Request to dismiss case against CIA psychologists who designed harsh interrogation techniques denied

Martha Bellisle
SFGate
Fri, 28 Jul 2017 03:54 UTC
waterboarding
© The Stuff of LifeOne of many torture techniques used by the CIA.
A federal judge ruled Friday that a jury should decide whether two psychologists who helped design the CIA's harsh interrogation methods used in the war on terror should be held accountable for the suffering that at least one detainee suffered under the program.


Comment: The psychologists had previously asked the court to interview CIA agents to prove that they were just following orders, but that motion was denied on the grounds that questioning the agents would reveal important national security information.


U.S. District Judge Justin Quackenbush refused to immediately rule in favor of the American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the lawsuit on the behalf of three former detainees and argued the psychologists were the architects of what became the CIA's torture program following the Sept. 11 attacks. The men were subjected to physical assaults and sleep deprivation, forced to stand for days in diapers with their arms chained overhead, doused with icy water and stuffed into boxes.

Quackenbush said the evidence warrants a trial on the issues. The trial is set for Sept. 5.

The case will move forward for the representatives of the estate of Gul Rahman, who was "starved, sleepless and freezing" before he died of hypothermia while chained in a prison cell following extended interrogation. Quackenbush, however, said he has reservations regarding the evidence as it applies to the two living detainees: Suleiman Abdullah Salim and Mohamed Ahmed Ben Soud.

The judge said he would review the case and issue a written ruling regarding his position on the other two men. He also granted the ACLU's request to use at trial the Senate Intelligence Committee Study on the CIA Detention and Interrogation Program, completed in 2012 and made public in 2014.

Quackenbush closed the hearing by urging the lawyers to try to settle the case and avoid a costly trial. He noted that the contract psychologists James Mitchell and John Jessen had with the government indemnified them for any judgments. The psychologists' lawyers [are] being paid out of a pot of money provided by taxpayers and established in an indemnity contract.

Comment: "This is a classic example of being left holding the bag," Balderdash! The "architect" psychologists researched, designed and implemented 'the bag' and were present at torture sessions for multiple detainees.

The judge has the following options: 1) find the psychologists guilty of aiding and abetting torture, 2) limit the claims against the psychologists, 3) dismiss ACLU's suit. There does not seem to be any repercussions attributable to the CIA, a "protected" agency above the law.

RT further reports:
Michael Kearns, a retired US Air Force captain, used to teach techniques to resist interrogation at the Survival Evasion Resistance Escape (SERE) school in the 1980s, and worked with Jessen to develop a course called SV-91. Mitchell and Jessen have "taken and reverse-engineered the harsh parts of SERE and turned them into EITs - enhanced interrogation program, brutal techniques," Kearns told RT. The techniques used were "grossly beyond anything at the SERE school standards, in my opinion."

Lawyers for Jessen and Mitchell have prepared in their defense a reference to the Nuremberg Trials, citing the case of a gas technician who worked for a firm that created Zyklon B gas used by the Nazis in World War II concentration camps. That technician was ultimately exonerated. The court noted that even though the technician knew that he played an important role in the transfer of the gas, he was not complicit in how it was used, the Spokesman-Review reported.

"Making comparisons to the Nazi regime's murderous use of poison gas is rarely a good idea," Ladin wrote. "In fact, the Nuremberg tribunals that judged the Nazis and their enablers after World War II established the opposite rule: Private contractors are accountable when they choose to provide unlawful means and profit from war crimes," according to the Spokesman-Review.

The defense made the claim that Congress empowered the US president at the time to respond to threats of terrorism, and he reacted by telling the National Counterterrorism Center to catch and interrogate operatives of Al-Qaida. That is when the CIA hired the psychologists, therefore, lawyers say that the government's immunity should extend to Mitchell and Jessen and the case should be thrown out.

John Kiriakou, the CIA whistleblower who exposed the torture program, says the two psychologists were hired because the agency wanted to atone for 9/11 by capturing and interrogating terrorists. "The reason Mitchell and Jessen were put in charge of this terrible, this important program was because the CIA simply had no experience in this kind of thing," Kiriakou told RT. "Because they had nobody internally that could do these interrogations, they decided to hire Mitchell and Jessen - at the cost of $81 million - to come in and teach the CIA how to torture people. At the end of the day, Mitchell and Jessen were the ones who flew out to the secret prison site overseas and actually carried out the torture themselves."
See also:

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Health

Pass the plan! Trump threatens Congress to end their insurance benefit bailouts

Julia Manchester
The Hill
Sat, 29 Jul 2017 04:59 UTC
CapitolHealth
© Alabama TodayHealthcare off kilter.
President Trump ratcheted up his pressure on lawmakers to pass a healthcare plan Saturday with a threat to end key ObamaCare payments and cancel some of lawmakers' healthcare benefits. "If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!" Trump tweeted.

The president was referring in the first part of the tweet to ending key payments to insurance companies under ObamaCare known as Cost Sharing Reduction (CSR) payments, which he has threatened to end before. The second portion of the tweet referenced congressional health benefits.

Members of Congress and many staffers were removed from Federal Employee Health Benefits structure and put into the new insurance exchanges set up by ObamaCare in 2010.


Comment: 'Health'care has become unable to keep up with the pace of manmade human deterioration. Congress cares not for the welfare of the public until the month before reelection. Trump is providing a reality check in perhaps a concept they understand.

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Info

Russian Deputy FM wishful thinking: Russia and US must 'start anew or everything will be in tatters'


RT
Sun, 30 Jul 2017 16:12 UTC
Russian flag flies in front of the U.S. embassy building in Moscow
© Tatyana Makeyeva / ReutersRussian flag flies in front of the U.S. embassy building in Moscow.
Moscow is calling on Washington to revise its policy and break "the vicious circle of retaliation," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov stated.

The minister's interview to ABC came out after Moscow decided to reduce the number of US diplomatic staff in Russia and suspend the use of embassy storage facilities.

The move, which was "long overdue" as Ryabkov told ABC, came in retaliation to a new round of sanctions against Russia and the stalemate in the situation with the seizure of Russian diplomatic property and expulsion of its diplomats by the US.

"It was the last drop that made all this happen," the diplomat said referring to the "completely weird and unacceptable" bill approved by US lawmakers on Tuesday.

Comment: The 'dark forces' in the US want Russia destroyed and will do anything do obtain that result. It would be wishful thinking that the US would change course from a Russian confrontation.

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Attention

Deputy FM Sergei Ryabkov: US sanctions push Russia closer to abandoning the dollar


Russia Insider
Sun, 30 Jul 2017 16:05 UTC
Sergei Ryabkov
Russia's deputy foreign minister says US sanctions will compel Moscow to seek alternatives to the dollar-based reserve currency system.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov gave a jaw-dropping interview with ABC News in which he stated unequivocally that US sanctions are pushing Russia towards developing alternatives to the dollar reserve currency system.

During the interview, Ryabkov states that Russia is prepared to go tit-for-tat with any US sanctions imposed on Moscow. Asked about whether the Russian economy could withstand a serious sanctions war, Ryabkov doubles down and says that not only is Russia prepared to go toe-to-toe with Washington, it's also closer to developing an alternative to the dollar-based reserve currency system:
Q: You've talked about the Russian economy not being in tatters, but you are emerging from a recession. Can Russia really afford to do this with the US as its third largest trading partner?

Ryabkov: I think we can, and I think also every single step that people - on the Hill in particular - take to make our lives more difficult brings us closer to the moment when we will develop all sorts of alternatives to the US financial system, to the dollar reserve currency system, the dollar-based reserve currency system, to all sorts of areas where the whole world and not just Russia is dependent on very frivolous actions on the part of the US.

And I should say: You undermine confidence in your system altogether.
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SOTT Logo Radio

SOTT Focus: Behind the Headlines: The Fall of Western Society and American Isolationism


Sott.net
Sun, 30 Jul 2017 16:00 UTC
russia sanctions
© New Eastern Outlook
Western society is apparently in trouble. 'Left'- and 'Right'-wing ideologies are resorting to increasingly extreme positions and isolating large groups of people from each other.

Meanwhile, a similar parting of the ways seems to be happening at the level of 'international order'. In just one week, the US has increased sanctions on Iran, tabled a new package of sanctions against Russia and North Korea, and slapped sanctions on Venezuela. From positioning itself as the global arbiter of 'just wars' in the aftermath of 9/11, the US is today self-declared as the global arbiter of economic trade.

With sanctions the US government believes it can isolate Russia and other regimes it doesn't like, and thus 'hold the center'. But is it in fact only isolating itself and further polarizing opinion and society inside the USA?

Join us on Behind the Headlines today, from 12-2pm EST (4-6pm UTC, 6-8pm CET), for our discussion of the week's news in context.

Running Time: 01:39:15

Download: MP3

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