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First charges reportedly filed in US probe into so-called Russian election meddling - UPDATE: Rumors say Manafort targeted


RFE/RL
Sat, 28 Oct 2017 17:42 UTC
Robert Mueller
© Reuters
U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller has filed charges for the first time against an unidentified target of his investigation into Russian meddling in last year's U.S. presidential election, media reported late on October 27.

CNN and Reuters, citing anonymous sources who were "briefed on the matter," reported that a federal grand jury in Washington approved the first indictment in the Mueller investigation, which was launched in May under a mandate from the Justice Department to maintain independence in addressing possible violations of law by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration.

CNN, the first to report on the indictment, said the nature of the charges was "unclear." It said they were still sealed under orders from a federal judge, and plans were made on October 27 for anyone charged to be taken into custody next week, possibly as soon as October 30.

Comment: Jack Posobiec claims his DC sources tell him Manafort will be charged for something related to a bad condo/real estate deal - unrelated to the Trump-Russia probe.





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Cut

Twitter vs. RT: Time to hit the corporate refresh button on the social media monopoly?

Adam Garrie
The Duran
Sat, 28 Oct 2017 13:58 UTC
Twitter versus RT
The war on RT: A childish crusade pushing a dangerous agenda
News producers, like authors, musicians, painters, photographers and other people in creative or current events trades, often do not take into account how the technology used to convey one's content, often dictates the very nature of the context itself.

Consider how the invention of magnetic tape recording created a boom in the sales of symphonic music, because the supreme fidelity of such tapes allowed a more accurate recreation of the sound of a live concert vis-a-vis previous formats, which were rendered instantly obsolete. Consider how the advent of television led to film makers changing the way films were made, forcing studios, directors and producers to offer new enticements to people including more visually and sonically impact stimuli in the cinema.

It was the invention of increasingly inexpensive and portable video-tape records as well as broadcast satellites that led to a revolution in how people consumed the news. The age of printed papers and news reels which needed to be filmed, developed and then physically distributed, were at once made obsolete by the ability to broadcast sound and picture from multiple parts of the globe, all at one time.
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Black Cat

Detailed timeline shows when Clinton and DNC started the 'Russian Dossier' - bears sole responsibility for it

Chuck Ross
The Daily Caller
Sat, 28 Oct 2017 17:54 UTC
Hilldossier cover
© Unknown
There has been much confusion in the media - and thereby, the public - about who funded the infamous Trump dossier. Some outlets have incorrectly reported that Republicans began financing the dossier before the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee took over last Spring.

But that is incorrect. Democrats are solely responsible for the dossier, which was passed around by their research firm, Fusion GPS, to Beltway reporters and select lawmakers during the heat of the presidential campaign.

Here is the definitive timeline of how it all transpired.

Comment:

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Cult

US pushing for Saudis to rebuild Raqqa - danger that Wahhabi radicalist may be put in charge

Whitney Webb
MintPress News
Fri, 27 Oct 2017 16:59 UTC
raqqa destroyed
© Asmaa Waguih/Associated PRessA traffic roundabout in the city of Raqqa, Syria, Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2017. U.S.-backed fighters were removing land mines and clearing roads in the northern city a day after commanders said they had driven ISIS from its de facto capital.
With the U.S. intent on freezing the Syrian government out of the Raqqa rebuilding process, it has now looked to the Saudis for funding and planning. The Saudi point man for the project is a known anti-Shiite sectarian, espousing much of the belief system of the ousted Daesh terrorists.

The fight to free the Syrian city of Raqqa from Daesh (ISIS) - by the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), led by U.S. special forces - has all but ended. With Raqqa now under SDF control, the question has become how to rebuild the former Daesh stronghold. The reconstruction of Raqqa will undoubtedly last longer than the siege to free it, as thousands of U.S. air and artillery strikes pounded much of the city into rubble. During August alone, a U.S. coalition bomb, missile or artillery round was fired into Raqqa on average every eight minutes.

Unable to deny its role in the city's rather destructive "liberation," the U.S. government has claimed that it will lead the way in clearing the rubble it created and restore basic services, such as water and electricity that were cut off during the bombardment. Last Tuesday, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters, "We will assist and take, essentially, the lead in bringing back the water, electricity and all of that."
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Arrow Up

Rare blend of intelligence and integrity: Why Vladimir Putin deserves a Nobel Peace Prize

Robert Bridge
Strategic Culture Foundation
Thu, 19 Oct 2017 00:00 UTC
putin
For many years, and despite all evidence to the contrary, the Western media has forwarded the inane idea that Vladimir Putin ranks in the same club with some of history's most loathsome creatures, up to and including Hitler.

The reality is that the Russian leader has done more to promote the cause of global peace and security than any other Western leader in recent times. That explains why he is the object of such intense scorn.

Putin's rise as a statesman of the first magnitude began, oddly enough, with the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 on the United States. Since that day, Washington has taken advantage of that national tragedy to achieve specific geopolitical ends, the majority of them - coincidentally or not - diametrically opposed to Russia's own national security. Moscow, for its part, was expected to serve as nothing more participatory than a captive audience to the US war machine as it began its destruction tour through the Middle East, most notably in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In late 2013, the tide began to turn, as the violence began to roost on Russia's doorstep. Kiev had suddenly erupted in protests against the government of then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich, whose only crime had been to suspend the implementation of an association agreement with the European Union.

Comment: See also:

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Vader

Paying any price: Losing an empire by bombing and bullying, demanding rather than negotiating

Robert Gore
Straight Line Logic
Tue, 24 Oct 2017 00:00 UTC
African political map
Empires get stupider and more corrupt as they age.

Why are US Green Berets, four of whom were recently killed, in Niger? Why does the US have at least 36 bases, outposts, and staging areas in Africa, located in 24 countries? Why does a website, TomDispatch, have to file a Freedom of Information Act request to get that information, which contradicts years of assurances from AFRICOM, the US's African military command, that the US has only one base in Africa, in the Republic of Djibouti? Why is AFRICOM headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany? How does anything that happens in Niger, or most of the rest of Africa for that matter, affect anyone's way of life in the US? Why do we say the dead were heroes protecting our way of life when the country where they died poses no threat?

From the AFRICOM website:
The United States and Niger have a long-standing bilateral relationship. Our militaries have been stalwart allies focused on working together to deter and to defeat terrorist threats in the West African nation and across the Sahel region.
A war on a tactic, terror, can provide the rationale for anything. Terror is ubiquitous, it can be fought anywhere. Anyone who uses or threatens to use violence in furtherance of political or economic ends can be deemed a terrorist. Any "terrorist" who yells, "Death to the United States!" can be deemed a threat to Americans. Terrorism will never be eradicated, so the war against it is perpetual. President George W. Bush even arrogated the right to wage that war preemptively, before terrorists actually struck the US or its citizens. And that's how the US finds itself in Niger, its "long-standing" and "stalwart" ally that 999,999 out of a million Americans can't find on an unlabeled map.

Comment: The end of the American empire

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Hourglass

Russian opposition candidate for 2018 presidential election Ksenia Sobchak already self-destructing

Paul Robinson
Russia Insider
Sun, 29 Oct 2017 16:48 UTC
Ksenia Sobchak
Ksenia Sobchak opposition candidate in Russia
" ... she runs a serious risk of being an immediate bust and crashing so far out of contention as to be unable to fulfill her required role."

The Russian opposition is in complete disarray

Say what you like about Ksenia Sobchak, who this week declared her intention to challenge Vladimir Putin in next year's Russian presidential election, but she's certainly creating a splash. In a single day, Sobchak has managed to create two scandals - first by saying that under international law Crimea is part of Ukraine, and second by calling Russia a 'страна генетического отребья', a phrase I have difficulty translating, but which roughly speaking, I think, means "a country from which all the good genetic material has been removed."
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Recycle

Dust to dust: Their caliphate in ruins, IS militants melt into the desert


AP
Sun, 29 Oct 2017 16:25 UTC
buses desert Syria
BEIRUT (AP) - Islamic State militants, routed from one urban stronghold after another in Syria, have recently been moving deeper into Syria's remote desert, where experts say they are regrouping and preparing their next incarnation.

The Sunni militants' self-proclaimed "caliphate" with its contiguous stretch of land - linking major cities such as Syria's Raqqa and Iraq's Mosul - may have been vanquished, but many agree this territorial defeat will not mark the end of IS.

Beyond the urban and inhabited areas lies the vast Syrian Desert, also known as Badiyat al-Sham, famous for its caves and rugged mountains. It encompasses about 500,000 square kilometers (200,000 square miles) across parts of southeastern Syria, northeastern Jordan, northern Saudi Arabia, and western Iraq.

The desolate landscape is a perfect hideout and a second home for many IS militants from the days before the birth of their caliphate. Experts estimate that hundreds of thousands of troops would be needed to mount search operations - and even more to put the desert under permanent control.

Comment: If the US is serious about not letting ISIS rise from the dead, they should cut their sources of funding and support, for example that which comes from Saudi Arabia and the US itself. See:

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Fire

Europe will reap what Spain has sown - Catalonia gathers support from secessionist movements around the world

Wayne Madsen
Strategic Culture Foundation
Sun, 29 Oct 2017 16:11 UTC
catalonia
The Spanish government decided to reach back into its history and borrow from the playbook of longtime Spanish fascist dictator Francisco Franco in dealing with Catalonia's decision to declare independence from the Spanish Kingdom as the Republic of Catalonia. The Catalan government's decision to declare independence followed an October 1 referendum in the region that resulted in a "yes" for independence.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, whose Popular Party is a direct political descendant of Franco's fascist Falangist Party, wasted no time in invoking, for the first time, Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, which allows the Spanish Kingdom to impose direct rule on regions not adhering to the whiplashing from Madrid. Catalonia is the first, but possible not the last victim, of Spain's neo-fascism on display for the entire world.

Comment:

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USA

US military force projection: Semper Paratus?

F. William Engdahl
New Eastern Outlook
Sun, 29 Oct 2017 15:32 UTC
damaged US warship
Since the inauguration of US President D. J. Trump in January 2017, along with his contingent of generals, Washington has rattled its nuclear and other military sabers in most every direction, threatening to totally destroy North Korea, ramping up weapons deliveries to Syrian opposition groups, scaling up AFRICOM military actions, sending its naval fleets in every imaginable direction from the South China Sea to the Baltic, building up troops along the borders to Russia, threatening Iran...

Behind all the bluster is a US military with morale at an all-time low, with preparedness in many cases abysmally inadequate, and using technologies that are costly to taxpayers and far behind the state of the art of other potential adversaries. All are symptoms of a failing former sole superpower whose military is being gravely abused and misused, far from the intent for defense of the nation.
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