Puppet MastersS


Mr. Potato

"Laughingstock": Ex-UN Director-General slams Mattis for idiotic claim that U.S. is in Syria legally


Sputnik
Tue, 14 Nov 2017 18:58 UTC
Mattis
© Aaron P. Bernstein/ReutersUS Defense Secretary James Mattis
On Monday, US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said that the US military will remain in Syria until the situation is resolved by the Geneva process under the aegis of the UN. However, this information does not prove to be relevant.

Former UN Director-General Sergei Ordzhonikidze said that Jim Mattis made himself a "laughingstock" by saying the United Nations allegedly approved the presence of the country's forces in Syria.

"He just doesn't understand or know what he is saying, and apparently he has no decent advisers who could tell him how to act... It is, I believe, just a shame to say things like this, for such a large state, a superpower, like the United States," Ordzhonikidze stressed.

Moreover, he added that the United States presence in Syria was illegal and was "an attempt to justify in an awkward way the illegal stay of US-led coalition forces in Syria".

Comment: Just more proof that U.S. leaders exist in a bubble of their own delusional creation. We thought Mattis was supposed to be a "scholar-general"? Guess he's just another imperial hack.

Read More...
Info

Mueller probe to interview White House comms director Hope Hicks in coming weeks - signals investigation nearing its end

Darren Samuelsohn
Politico
Thu, 16 Nov 2017 18:43 UTC
hope hicks
© Andrew Harnik/AP Photo
Special counsel Robert Mueller's team is preparing to interview the woman who's seen it all: Hope Hicks.

She's been part of Donald Trump's inner circle for years, first at Trump Tower and then as an omnipresent gatekeeper and fixer who could get emails or other communications directly to the boss during the 2016 campaign.

As a senior White House adviser and now as communications director, she's been in the room for moments critical to Mueller's probe, which has grown to include the president's response to the Russia investigation itself.

Hicks' history with Trump makes her one of the more useful witnesses for Mueller as he looks for insights into the president's habits and moods. She also is one of the few people well positioned to recount the president's reactions at various moments as the Russia scandal has sidetracked his presidency - including the Mueller appointment itself.

Mueller's decision to request an interview with Hicks - who hasn't been named in any criminal wrongdoing - also indicates he's reached a critical point in the overall investigation, according to former prosecutors and veterans of past White House investigations. Typically, conversations with such senior-level aides are saved for near the end of a probe.

Comment: With any luck the Hicks interview will indeed signal the end to this obscene waste of time and money.

Read More...
USA

Total information control: US Deep State launches new program to meddle in Hungary's media

Daniel McAdams
Ron Paul Institute
Fri, 10 Nov 2017 18:45 UTC
media manipulation disinformation propaganda
© Garzon
Hypocrisy may be the only consistent guiding principle of US foreign policy. Here's a prime example of the "do as we say, not as we do" that is the core of how Washington does business overseas: In the same week that the the US Justice Department demanded that the Russian-backed RT America network register as a foreign propaganda entity or face arrest, the US State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DNL) has announced that it is launching a program to massively interfere in NATO-partner Hungary's internal media.

So the US Justice Department is cracking down on RT America for what it says is manipulation of US domestic affairs while the US State Department announces a new program to manipulate Hungary's domestic affairs.

The State Department's new program would send three-quarters of a million dollars to Washington-selected Hungarian media outlets to "increase citizens' access to objective information about domestic and global issues in Hungary." On what authority does the United States pick winners and losers in Hungary's diverse media environment? Since when does one government have the right to determine what news is "objective" in another country? Hungary is not a country to be "regime-changed" -- it is a full democracy where the will of the people is regularly expressed at the ballot box and where the media competes freely in the marketplace of ideas.
Read More...
Info

Britain preparing plan to transfer £400m to Iran for 1970s arms deal and to help free jailed British mother


Middle East Eye
Thu, 16 Nov 2017 19:32 UTC
British military tank
© AFPA view of a gun turret on a vintage British military tank during a preview of Auction America's Littlefield Collection auction on July 9, 2014
Britain owes the money as part of a disputed arms deal in the 1970s but sources deny it is linked to fate of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe

Britain is preparing to transfer over £400m ($527 million) to Iran as it seeks the release of a jailed Iranian-British aid worker, The Telegraph newspaper reported, citing unidentified British sources.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was sentenced to five years after being convicted by an Iranian court of plotting to overthrow the clerical establishment. She denies the charges.

Comment: Britain is prepared to pay a £450 million debt to Iran in a bid to free a British mother jailed there for alleged espionage. The government has quietly authorized lawyers to finally settle the 38-year-old dispute over a tank deal, it has been reported.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was imprisoned by the Iranian government while on a family holiday in April 2016 for "plotting to topple the regime." Her plight was exacerbated when Foreign Secretary Johnson falsely told a government committee she was there as to "train journalists." After his gaffe, she was brought before an Iranian court and told she faces an extra five years in jail.

Johnson has apologized for the "anguish" he caused when making incorrect claims about the case.



Read More...
Attention

Flashback DOJ says evidence corroborates Menendez hiring child prostitutes

Matthew Boyle
Breitbart
Mon, 24 Aug 2015 18:30 UTC
menendez
© Andrew Burton/Getty Images
The entire mainstream media bought repeated denials from Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) of allegations that he solicited underage prostitutes in the Dominican Republic, but now the Department of Justice says the allegations are in fact "corroborated."

In a 65-page court filing released publicly on Monday evening, the DOJ laid out how their investigation into Menendez - and Democratic Party mega-donor Dr. Salomon Melgen - "began with serious and specific allegations involving child prostitution."

"Presented with that information, the Government, including experienced prosecutors from the Department of Justice's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, took the only responsible course possible - it conducted an investigation," page 10 of the document reads.
While those allegations have not resulted in any criminal charges, there can be no question that the Government has an obligation to take such allegations regarding potential harm to minors very seriously, regardless of who the alleged perpetrators may be. That is precisely what the Government did here, and there was nothing improper about it, despite the defendants' palpable regret that the investigation ultimately led to the discovery of their corrupt relationship.
Later in the document, the DOJ lays out how even though the allegations of child prostitution against Menendez and Melgen have not resulted in criminal charges, such allegations have been "corroborated."

Comment: Shades of Dennis Hastert. Accusations like this are often thrown around purely for political purposes, whether they're true or not, so it's difficult to sort out which is which without an in-depth, impartial investigation. But those rarely occur. What's certain about the Mendendez case is that the media prefer to ignore it, focusing instead on the accusations leveled against Roy Moore. Both Mendendez and Moore deny the accusations, but so far Moore's accusers have yet to provide any real evidence (and what they have provided so far is contradictory). In contrast, the DOJ corroborated at least some details of the accusations against Mendendez. See also:

Read More...
Stock Up

U.S. govt takes in record taxes in October, still runs $63 bln deficit

Terence P. Jeffrey
CNSNews.com
Thu, 16 Nov 2017 18:24 UTC
The federal government hauled in record total tax revenues in the month of October, taking in a total of $235,341,000,000 during the first month of fiscal 2018, according to the Monthly Treasury Statement released today.

The federal government also brought in record individual income tax revenues for the month of October, taking in $127,832,000,000 in individual income taxes.
deficit chart
Despite its record total tax intake of $235,341,000,000 for the month of October, the federal government still ran a deficit of $63,214,000,000 for the month because it spent $298,555,000,000.

Prior to this year, the largest federal tax haul in October came in fiscal 2017 (October 2016), when the Treasury took in $226,360,090,000 in total tax revenues in constant 2017 dollars. (Dollar amounts were adjusted to constant September 2017 dollars using the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator.)
Read More...
Eye 1

No brain capacity: Netanyahu threatens Israel will 'act alone' against Iran in Syria


RT
Thu, 16 Nov 2017 18:50 UTC
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
© ReturesIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Israel will stop at nothing to contain Iran, even if it has to act alone, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. The PM accused Tehran of plotting to destroy Israel from Syria, where it has been helping fight terrorists at the government's invitation.

"Iran is scheming to entrench itself militarily in Syria," Netanyahu claimed as he addressed the Jewish Federation of North America's General Assembly in Los Angeles via a video conference on Tuesday.

The Israeli leader further alleged that Iran, which serves as one of the guarantors of a ceasefire deal in Syria along with Russia and Turkey, wants to station its troops on the Syrian territory on a permanent basis "with the declared intent of using Syria as a base from which to destroy Israel."
Read More...
Play

Fusion GPS founder admits Trump dossier built on rumors, never verified

Alex Christoforou
The Duran
Thu, 16 Nov 2017 18:17 UTC
Glenn Simpson
© Heavy.comGlenn Simpson
Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson spoke with US House investigators in a closed-door meeting Tuesday, and confirmed what many in the non-establishment media already knew...that Fusion GPS never verified the Dossier claims before passing on the ridiculous document to the corrupt establishment press.

Tucker Carlson discussed the breaking news with a top Democrat strategist, who remains in complete denial over the FACT that Fusion GPS leaked a fabricated "opposition research dossier", which would later become the basis for a Mueller special counsel investigation into Trump-Russia collusion.


Comment: Even though he lacks any credibility, the author of the dossier, Christopher Steele, maintains that it is "70 to 90 percent" accurate:
In a new book on the subject, 'Collusion: How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win,' former agent Christopher Steele is quoted telling friends that he thinks his dossier will be vindicated, according to the Guardian.

He claims his reports were based on sources cultivated over a span of three decades, while working in the intelligence community. "I've been dealing with this country for 30 years. Why would I invent this stuff," Steele is quoted as saying. Steele's friends are reported to say that Steele admits intelligence is rarely 100-percent accurate but claimed most of his information had "proven up" and sources were reliable. Evidence supporting the claims has not been produced, however.
This guy is delusional.

Read More...
Jet1

US Strategic Command faces backlash over fear propaganda and fake news report that B-1 bombers can drop nuclear weapons


RT
Thu, 16 Nov 2017 17:42 UTC
B-1 bomber
© Fabrizio Bensch / ReutersU.S. Air Force B-1 bomber at the ILA International Air Show in Schoenefeld, Germany
The US military has backed claims its B-1 bombers can drop nuclear weapons and that it possesses "secret silos" of nuclear hardware amid fears it will raise tensions with North Korea.

US Strategic Command, which is responsible for the Department of Defense's global operations, shared a KPNX article on Twitter Wednesday, prompting a furious backlash and accusations it's spreading fake news

The offending piece is a report by Mark Curtis, who went on a tour of the nuclear ballistic-class submarine, the U.S.S. Kentucky. The ship is part of the "nuclear triad" which includes land-based missiles "fired from secret silos," with B-1 bombers "that can drop them from the air," the report reads.

Read More...
Display

White House publishes new rules for reporting cybersecurity flaws


RT
Thu, 16 Nov 2017 17:54 UTC
hacking computers programming cybersecurity
© Kim Hong-Ji / Reuters
After a hacker stole cyber tools from an NSA "stockpile" to carry out the WannaCry cyberattack, the White House is now revealing how and when the government decides to disclose vulnerabilities or keep them secret.

On Wednesday, the White House published a charter that details the Vulnerabilities Equities Process (VEP), which was established under former President Barack Obama to determine whether disclosing a vulnerability was in the government's best interest.

The revised rules say that in the "vast majority of cases," disclosing a vulnerability is "clearly in the national interest." However, the White House said that the government can use the previously unknown vulnerabilities to support military, intelligence, and law enforcement activities.
Read More...