Puppet MastersS


Megaphone

Senate Judiciary boss Grassley says Comey likely leaked classified information

Stephen Dinan
The Washington Times
Fri, 05 Jan 2018 11:19 UTC
James Comey
© Associated PressJames B. Comey
A top Republican senator said Wednesday that it appears former FBI Director James B. Comey leaked classified information in his effort to shape the narrative surrounding President Trump's decision to fire him.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley said Mr. Comey wrote seven memos, and shared four of them with a professor he was using as an intermediary to defend him. Of the seven, four are marked at the confidential or secret level - meaning at least one of the memos Mr. Comey shared contained restricted information.

Mr. Grassley now wants to know when and how the memos were deemed classified, and what that might mean for Mr. Comey.

Comment: See also:

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War Whore

Fox News pundits and neocons who cheered Iraq war suggest arming Iranian protesters

Caitlin Johnstone
Medium
Fri, 05 Jan 2018 10:32 UTC
Iran cartoon Middle East
© Latuff / Mint Press News
Sharing the world with neocons is like living with an Alzheimer's patient.

"I want to go home!"

"You are home, Mum. Remember? You live here now with me and Dave? And your grandkids? You've been living here for two years. This is your home."

"Oh, okay."

[Two minutes pass.]

"I want to go home!"

Except they're not forgetful. They're just evil.

Comment:
Insanity quote doing the same thing over and over again


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Propaganda

New York Times: Beating a hasty retreat from the Steele dossier

Andrew C. McCarthy
National Review
Wed, 03 Jan 2018 18:19 UTC
Trump Atlanta
© Reuters/Tami ChappellTrump speaks at a campaign event rally in Atlanta, Ga., in February 2016.
Fusion GPS and the New York Times want to disassociate the dossier from the collusion narrative they labored to create.

The New York Times' Russian Reset continues. My weekend column argued that the Democrats and the media are scrambling to pull together a new origination account of the Trump-Russia collusion narrative. The original origination account has become a political liability because it centered on Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser who featured prominently in the so-called Steele dossier. The dossier, a compilation of Russia-sourced reports authored by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, is now known to have been a Clinton campaign-funded opposition-research project. Though its key allegations seem never to have been verified by the FBI, the dossier was apparently used by the Obama Justice Department in applying to the FISA court for a surveillance warrant targeting Page as a Russian agent enmeshed in a corrupt plot against the 2016 election.

On cue, the Times has now published a defensive op-ed by the two founders of Fusion GPS, the research firm that produced the Steele dossier. What is most striking about this offering by Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch is what it studiously avoids addressing: the specific allegations in the dossier.

Comment: It seems the New York Times is doubling down on their efforts to steer the narrative they were originally pushing to an entirely new one, as if we're all idiots and have the memories of hamsters. The problem is that there are too many facts in the way. If the narrative was actually all about Papadopoulos, why were the FISA warrants for Wray? The Times basically thinks their readers are retarded. See also:

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Star of David

By way of deception? Kosherising the 9/11 Truth Movement

Gilad Atzmon
Gilad.co.uk
Tue, 02 Jan 2018 00:00 UTC
Ludwig Watzal and Elias Davidsson
Ludwig Watzal and Elias Davidsson pushing for kosher 9/11
I have been correctly accused of remaining silent about 9/11. Although I frequently talk to 9/11 truth groups about various related topics such as Israel, Zionism and Jewish ID politics, I do not contribute to the discourse involving controlled demolitions and airplanes flying into buildings. Engineering, construction and flying are not within my field of research. Though I am aware of many of the details to do with the 9/11 truth movement, I can't make any original scholarly contributions in this arena.

Comment: The Real Smoking Gun on September 11th 2001: WTC Building 7

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Chess

Europe utterly rebukes the U.S. drive to war with Iran

b
Moon of Alabama
Thu, 04 Jan 2018 14:52 UTC
Netanyahu
Netanyahu now using better graphics to explain just how eeeevil Iran is
The reaction to the minor protests in Iran drive another wedge between the U.S. and Europe. It exposes the belligerence of the Zionist lobby and its influence in the U.S. media and politics. The issue shows the growing divergence between genuine U.S. interests and the interests of Israel.

Some anti-government demonstration and attacks on public institutions continue in Iran. But, as the graph shows, such protests and riots continue to decrease. Yesterday's events took place in only 15 places while, since December 28, a total of 75 towns and cities had seen some form of protest or incidents. Additional to these several pro-government marches took place yesterday each of which was by far bigger than the anti-government events.

Iran protest cities
© by M. Ali Kadivar
The violence against public property by some young rioters has alienated the original legitimate protesters who have ample economic reasons to reject the neo-liberal policies of the current Iranian government. The instigating of violence from the outside of Iran, likely due to CIA machinations, has robbed them of their voice.

Comment: See also:

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Binoculars

Seeing the unseen in Ukraine: Why is the US sending arms just as the MINSK II agreements are making some progress?

Patrick Lawrence
Salon
Sun, 31 Dec 2017 06:00 UTC
Donbas under fire
© Getty/Sergei SupinskyA man runs in front of a barricade burned by Maidan self-defence activists as they clash with residents of Kiev on August 9, 2014.
Unnoticed by the West, ceasefire talks continue, even as the Pentagon ships weapons to a corrupt Ukrainian regime

It is difficult to see into the running Ukraine crisis, just as it is in the Syrian case. This has long been so and is entirely by design - an impressive collaboration between the policy cliques in Washington and their clerks in the press. Some events are reported, but only some, for omission is an essential device in these extraordinarily pervasive mis- and disinformation campaigns. Rarely, possibly never, are events presented so as to convey cause and effect or responsibility. All is disparate, all things occur in isolation, some occurrences never occurred, and there is no past. Informed understanding is rendered difficult on the way to impossible.

There were, for instance, the events of a Saturday evening in mid-October, when as many as 20,000 neo-Nazi fanatics marched in Kiev to honor the anniversary of a paramilitary group called the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, which collaborated with Hitler's Wehrmacht and the SS during World War II. It was the too-common scene in the Ukrainian capital: torches, fascist slogans, denunciations of "organized Jewry." Before the march, President Petro Poroshenko declared the paramils of yesteryear "an inspiration."

Comment: American domination of Ukraine as a Geopolitical weapon against Russia is under threat. If cooperation under the MINSK II track continues unabated (God forbid!) something like a lasting peace might break out in the region - and then where would the deep state's long-fought efforts towards chaos and destabilization be then?

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SOTT Logo

SOTT Focus: Everyone Is Putin's Agent! Poroshenko and Saakashvili Each Accuse the Other of Colluding with Russia

Harrison Koehli
Sott.net
Thu, 04 Jan 2018 22:33 UTC
Saakashvili
"Damn you, Russia!"
Infamous tie-eater, wanted criminal, ex-leader of Georgia, ex-leader of Odessa region in Ukraine, current figurehead for the "Ukrainian opposition" and all-around sorry excuse for a human being Mikheil Saakashvili is currently undergoing some legal trouble in Kiev. His Ukrainian citizenship was revoked back in December, prompting a series of self-preservation-inspired publicity stunts after he re-entered Ukraine and promised to stay. Since then, he has been taken into custody, rescued, questioned and released on numerous occasions. He and his supporters have called for Poroshenko's impeachment because of his corruption - Saakashvili says he's ready to become Ukraine's next prime minister. And just yesterday Saakashvili stunned the world by revealing the man behind all his current troubles: Vlad "The Man" Putin himself.

At the hearing, prosecutors sought to have Saakashvili placed under house arrest after he refused to answer questions from the SBU (Ukraine's security service). After refusing to speak, he revealed the dark hand of Putin to the media, accusing President Poroshenko of colluding with Putin to manufacture the charges against him. What charges? That Saakashvili himself is an agent of Putin! What a tangled web of Russian agents we have here.

Arch Russia-hater Mikheil Saakashvili accuses his arch enemy Poroshenko of being a Putin tool. Arch Russia-hater Poroshenko in turn is accusing Saakashvili of being a Putin tool. It doesn't get any better than this, folks. Talk about slap stick comedy! Just a couple weeks ago, famous Russian phone pranksters "Vovan and Lexus" rang up Poroshenko pretending to be calling from the Georgian special services. In their conversation, Poroshenko told them, "We found the connection between Mikheil Saakashvili and Russian special services. They financed him. We caught them red-handed."
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Question

Blair denies telling Jared Kushner that British spies had Trump under surveillance


RT
Thu, 04 Jan 2018 08:52 UTC
Trump and Blair
© Reuters
Tony Blair has denied sharing a "juicy rumor" with White House insiders. The ex-PM reportedly told Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner that British spies had the US presidential campaign under surveillance.

An explosive book, written by journalist Michael Wolff, details the exchange between the former Labour leader, Kushner, and a senior aide to the POTUS in February 2017.

According to the tell-all book, 'Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,' Blair spilled the beans that British spies had "the Trump campaign staff under surveillance, monitoring its telephone calls and other communications."

The former PM reportedly gave the impression also that the Obama administration had suggested that British surveillance might be helpful.

Comment: Tony Blair is a war criminal and pathological liar - anything that comes out of his mouth should be taken with a huge grain of salt.

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Dollars

Pakistan gives companies green light to use Chinese yuan in trade and investment with Beijing


RT
Thu, 04 Jan 2018 20:26 UTC
yuan dollar
© Thomas White / Reuters
Pakistani companies have been given a green light to use the Chinese yuan in trade with Beijing, which could potentially sideline the US dollar and other currencies used there. The move coincides with a US-Pakistan aid row.

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said it "has taken comprehensive policy-related measures to ensure that imports, exports and financing transactions can be denominated in CNY," according to a statement issued late on Tuesday. CNY is now effectively on par with the US dollar, euro and other international currencies in the country.

Companies are free to engage in CNY transactions with the immediate effect. "SBP has already put in place the required regulatory framework which facilitates use of Chinese yuan in trade and investment transactions," the bank said.

It also noted the "growing size of trade and investment" between Pakistan and China under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) agreement. The use of yuan will further boost bilateral trade and "will yield long-term benefits for both [of] the countries," the bank added.

Comment: Looks like this is Pakistan's response to Trump's decision to cut off aid. See:

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Chess

Pakistan done 'blindly trusting' Washington, promises 'cold-blooded' response to Trump's cut in aid


RT
Thu, 04 Jan 2018 17:43 UTC
Pakistani demonstrators
© Banaras Khan / AFPPakistani demonstrators shout anti-US slogans at a protest on January 4, 2018.
Islamabad has warned Donald Trump against endangering US-Pakistani cooperation in Afghanistan, promising a "cold-blooded" response to Washington's aid cut. The US carried out some 60,000 attacks from Pakistani soil, it said.

In a seething series of tweets, Pakistan's foreign minister ripped into Trump's accusation that Islamabad has double-crossed the US in Afghanistan, noting that Pakistan "went through a bloodbath" after "blindly" trusting Washington.

"You ask what we've done? From our bases you carried out 57,800 attacks on Afghanistan... thousands of our civilians and soldiers became victims of the war initiated by you," Pakistan's foreign minister Khawaja Asif wrote.

Comment: $255 million in aid is really just a drop in the bucket, particularly when compared to the $33 billion in aid over the past 15 years. The issue here for Pakistan and the US has little to do with aid. Pakistan has been moving closer to China in recent times with the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor being built as a part of China's One Belt One Road initiative. This in and of itself doesn't necessitate a weakening of ties with the US. However, Washington doesn't do partnership well. They also understand the stabilizing influence that a stronger economy will bring for the region, which will have a direct hit against terrorist activity, particularly in the disputed Kashmir region through which the CPEC runs. Trump's outburst has only served as an opportunity for Pakistan to publicly distance relations with the United States. If this was intentional on Trump's part, then it would be genius. It likely was not intentional, but it still pushes developments in the right direction for South and Central Asia.

See also: Denied: Trump admin won't send $255 million in military aid to Pakistan

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