Puppet MastersS


Attention

France reacts with caution to US 'evidence' on Iran weaponry in Yemen

John Irish
Yahoo
Fri, 15 Dec 2017 00:00 UTC
Niki and cylinder
© Reuters/YuriU.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley briefs the media in front of remains of Iranian "Qiam" ballistic missile provided by Pentagon at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington, U.S., December 14, 2017.
France reacted cautiously on Friday to U.S. evidence which allegedly proved Iran supplied weapons to Houthi militia in Yemen, saying it was still studying information at its disposal and the United Nations had yet to draw any conclusions.

The United States on Thursday presented for the first time pieces of what it said were Iranian weapons supplied to the Houthis, describing it as conclusive evidence that Tehran was violating U.N. resolutions.

The arms included charred remnants of what the Pentagon said was an Iranian-made short-range ballistic missile fired from Yemen on Nov. 4 at King Khaled International Airport outside Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh, as well as a drone and an anti-tank weapon recovered in Yemen by the Saudis.

When asked whether Paris believed that evidence was irrefutable, foreign ministry deputy spokesman Alexandre Giorgini declined to respond directly. "The United Nations secretariat has not, at this stage, drawn any conclusions. France continues to examine the information at its disposal," he said.


Comment: And with good reason, too, given the US's track record of fabricating foreign threats as a pretext for destroying other countries.

Our take on the matter: Former Waffle House Waitress Serves Iranian Nothing Burger to the Media


Comment: Consider the sources.

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Info

Trump lawyers to meet with Mueller next week - some think investigation coming to an end, others think it will drag on

Pamela Brown, Evan Perez, Gloria Borger and Kara Scannell
CNN
Sun, 17 Dec 2017 20:43 UTC
mueller trump
President Donald Trump's private lawyers are slated to meet with special counsel Robert Mueller and members of his team as soon as next week for what the President's team considers an opportunity to gain a clearer understanding of the next steps in Mueller's probe, according to sources familiar with the matter.

While the lawyers have met with Mueller's team before and might again, the sources believe the upcoming meeting has greater significance because it comes after the completion of interviews of White House personnel requested by the special counsel and after all requested documents have been turned over. Mueller could still request more documents and additional interviews. No request to interview the President or the vice president has been made, sources tell CNN.

But Trump's team, led by John Dowd and Jay Sekulow, is hoping for signs that Mueller's investigation is nearing its end, or at least the part having to do with the President. Their goal is to help Trump begin to emerge from the cloud of the ongoing investigation, several of the sources explained. The sources acknowledge that Mueller is under no obligation to provide any information and concede they may walk away with no greater clarity.

"There's no 'there' there," one White House official says, a sentiment Trump's legal team hopes Mueller will echo. At a minimum, the lawyers hope to get a sense of what avenues Mueller is still working to investigate.

Comment: This investigation should never have been put into motion to begin with. It was based on pure propaganda - propaganda engineered with the purpose of discrediting the president on trumped up charges - and everyone who believed that propaganda should be embarrassed for being such gullible hacks. So yes, bring this sham to an "appropriate and prompt conclusion". It's already enough of a stain on the reputation of the American political establishment.

See also: White House lawyer denies fake news rumor that Trump plans on firing Mueller

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Propaganda

White House lawyer denies fake news rumor that Trump plans on firing Mueller

Ryan Levi and Bianca Hernandez
KQED News
Fri, 15 Dec 2017 20:27 UTC
Mueller
© ABC News
A White House lawyer is denying a rumor voiced by Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-San Mateo) that President Donald Trump intends to fire special counsel Robert Mueller before Christmas.

On Saturday, White House special counsel Ty Cobb told CNN that no such plans exist:
"As the White House has consistently said for months, there is no consideration of firing the special counsel," Ty Cobb, the White House special counsel, told CNN in a statement.
Speier told KQED Newsroom on Friday that she believes Republicans are trying to shut down the House Intelligence Committee's probe into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 elections.

"I believe the President wants all of this shutdown," Speier said when asked if she believed House Republicans were bowing to pressure from the White House. "The rumor on the Hill when I left yesterday was that the president was going to make a significant speech at the end of next week. And on Dec. 22, when we are out of D.C., he was going to fire Robert Mueller."

Comment: There's a simple reason Trump and Republicans want the Mueller probe shut down: because there's NOTHING to it. Trump doesn't need to fire Mueller at this point, because the investigation's futility is becoming clearer each day. The investigation is discrediting itself.

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Play

Trump visits Quantico, blasts "sad, disgraceful" FBI, but praises police and agents

Ali Vitali
NBC News
Fri, 15 Dec 2017 20:03 UTC
FBI Trump
© Associated Press
President Donald Trump heaped praise on law enforcement while decrying anti-police sentiment in a speech to FBI academy graduates on Friday not long after he lamented the agency's "sad" and "disgraceful" state.

In remarks to the FBI National Academy that also touched on immigration and violent crime, Trump called himself a "true friend and loyal champion" of police while noting that members of law enforcement "rarely get the recognition" they deserve.

"We will protect those who protect us," the president said, adding that those accused of killing police officers "should get the death penalty."

"Anti-police sentiment is wrong and it's dangerous, and we will not stand for it," he said.


Comment: No word on what penalty bad cops should get when they use excessive force and kill unarmed people. There are some people who just hate cops. That's painting with too broad a brush. But there are many who have nothing against police per se; they don't like dirty cops. That's something Democrats and Republicans can agree on. See: The reasons Black Lives Matter (BLM) and Republicans should be natural allies


An hour earlier, speaking to reporters on the White House lawn on his way to talk to graduates of the academy in Quantico, Virginia, Trump said: "It's a shame what's happened with the FBI, but we're going to rebuild the FBI. It'll be bigger and better than ever."


Comment: It is a shame. From its inception as the "Federal Blackmail Industry", the FBI has sheltered people who should've been behind bars, not putting people there. Today, there is FBI counterintelligence gone wild and sting/entrapment operations to catch nonexistent terrorists. By all means, rebuild the FBI. But make it better in the process. Drain the swamp.


Comment: Trump's speech:



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USA

America's biggest loser: Hillary blames Republicans for spreading white supremacy, misogyny and homophobia

Pam Key
Breitbart
Fri, 15 Dec 2017 18:51 UTC
Hillary on Ellen
Friday on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said the Republican agenda was fanning the flames of "white supremacy and misogyny and homophobia."

When asked if Trump will last four years, Clinton said, "I can't predict it, but I believe that it really does come down both to the investigation that's going on and to whether Republicans will decide that they have to put our country before their party. And I hope that enough of them will decide to do that."

Comment: Just go away, PLEASE!! Most Americans agree with Trump, it's time for Hillary to move on

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MIB

Finnish paper leaks about long-running spy program targeting Russia, faces criminal investigation


RT
Sun, 17 Dec 2017 06:44 UTC
Pipes for the Baltic Sea pipeline being transported for loading onto a ship in the premises of the harbour in Mukran, Germany
© Stefan Sauer / Global Look PressPipes for the Baltic Sea pipeline being transported for loading onto a ship in the premises of the harbour in Mukran, Germany
A Finnish paper is facing criminal charges for reporting the country's extensive spying focused on Russia's military and the Nord Stream pipeline project. Finland's president says the leak compromises the country's security.

An explosive report published by the Helsingin Sanomat daily on Saturday, based on secret documents obtained by the newspaper, focuses on the signal surveillance complex in the city of Tikkakoski in central Finland. The paper based its findings on top secret documents, some of which date back as far as 1999.

The intelligence center's surveillance activities were not confined to Russia, but that country was effectively the primary target of the operation, the paper notes. The center, it says, has been tasked with detecting Russian military movements in the St. Petersburg region based on electromagnetic radiation.
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Map

Will the US offensive against the global south hit South Africa?

Andrew Korybko
Oriental Review
Fri, 15 Dec 2017 18:44 UTC
Southern African Development Community (SADC)
Southern African Development Community (SADC)
In a pattern largely overlooked by many, roughly half of the mainland members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) are experiencing various degrees of regime change instability, with the asymmetrical warfare model presently active in Southern Africa closely resembling the one that was already applied in the neighboring "Global South" region of South America.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is a regional integration organization that brings together most of sub-equatorial Africa and is largely considered to be a platform for extending BRICS member South Africa's influence throughout this broad area. After all, South Africa's Southern African Customs Union (SACU) forms the economic core of the group and has the potential of one day expanding northward to incorporate SADC's other members. This is a possible eventuality, albeit a long-term one, due to the 2015 Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) between SADC and its counterparts of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the East African Community (EAC, which has future plans to formally become a federation).
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Bulb

Austria's returning Freedom Party vows to fight anti-Russian sanctions that caused €1 billion in economic losses


RT
Sun, 17 Dec 2017 02:30 UTC
Head of the People's Party (OeVP) Sebastian Kurz (L) and head of the Freedom Party (FPOe) Heinz-Christian Strache address a news conference in Vienna, Austria, December 16, 2017
© Leonhard Foeger / ReutersHead of the People's Party (OeVP) Sebastian Kurz (L) and head of the Freedom Party (FPOe) Heinz-Christian Strache address a news conference in Vienna, Austria, December 16, 2017
The Austrian far-right Freedom Party (FPO) will work to rescind anti-Russian sanctions as part of the new government, its leader, Heinz-Christian Strache, said. He added that ending the sanctions would benefit the whole of Europe.

Strache listed the lifting of the sanctions the EU imposed against Russia among other goals his party would like to achieve as part of the newly formed Austrian government, adding that it would defend its position at the EU level as well. "Yes, we would like these sanctions to be lifted," he said, speaking to journalists at a joint press conference with the future Chancellor, leader of the conservative Austrian People's Party (OVP), Sebastian Kurz.

The FPO leader also said that his party could potentially act as a mediator between Europe and Russia and help the two sides find a solution that would serve the interests of both. He pointed out that the FPO would "seek a solution in the interests of Europe" that would allow "Europe and Russia to come together once again."

Comment: Sounds very reasonable.

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Snakes in Suits

Putin thanked Trump for CIA tip-off which enabled Russia to prevent terror attack


RT
Sun, 17 Dec 2017 17:07 UTC
Trump and Putin
© Reuters / Global Look Press
The Russian President Vladimir Putin has thanked his US counterpart Donald Trump for help in preventing a terrorist attack in St. Petersburg. Data provided by the CIA enabled Russian security services to find and detain terrorists.

The Russian leader expressed his gratitude in a telephone call, adding that the Russian security services would also always share information with their US colleagues, were they to obtain data on any planned attacks on US soil.

Putin also asked Trump to convey his compliments to the CIA director, Mike Pompeo, as well as to the operatives that gathered the information about the terrorists. He said that the data provided by the US was enough to track down and detain the members of the extremist cell.

Comment: Nice to see Trump and Putin working together to get things done.

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Blackbox

Why Russia wants to sell arms to the Central African Republic

Andrew Korybko
Oriental Review
Fri, 15 Dec 2017 18:10 UTC
EU military training mission in Central African Republic
EU military training mission in Central African Republic.
Russia's "military diplomacy" in the war-torn Central African Republic is designed to stabilize part of Africa's "Failed State Belt" and set the stage for Moscow to eventually move its peacemaking efforts to the continent's next cauldron of chaos in the neighboring Congo, all with the intent of reasserting its historic Great Power role in Africa and providing more strategic value to its relationship with China.

Russian Arms In Central Africa

Some unexpected news surfaced earlier this week when it was revealed that Russia requested the UN to make an exception to its arms embargo on the Central African Republic so that Moscow could send weapons to two EU-trained battalions of its military by the beginning of next week. Even more surprisingly, the Western members of the UNSC reacted positively to this idea, though they asked that the measure be temporarily put on hold until they receive more details about how Russia plans to prevent these arms from inadvertently falling into the hands of the country's rebel groups. They already seem satisfied to find out that Russia plans to store them in new containers under tight security, but they'd like to know the serial numbers for each unit so that they can be traced in the event that they end up in the wrong hands.
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