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Snakes in Suits

House Intel Committee announces ahead of DOJ report: No evidence Trump Tower wiretapped

Donald Trump
© Joshua Roberts / Reuters
Although the Justice Department asked for more time to send congressional intelligence committees evidence that Trump Tower was wiretapped during the campaign, the leaders of the House committee said they never received any.

"It deeply concerns me that the president would make such an accusation without basis," Representative Adam Schiff (D-California), the ranking member, told reporters, calling it "irresponsible" of President Donald Trump to suggest that his predecessor ordered a wiretap of him.


There is the possibility that someone in Trump's campaign was swept up in incidental collection by speaking with someone under surveillance, Chair Devin Nunes (R-California) said, but no one in the campaign was a target.

"If you're going to take the tweets literally, then clearly the president was wrong," Nunes said.

Comment: More on this scandal:


War Whore

Trump Administration to approve arms sales to Saudi war criminals

saudi war criminals
This week's episode of "Empire Gone Wild" features our freshly inaugurated dear leader, Donald Trump, who appears determined to enthusiastically continue the Obama administration's policy of recklessly arming Saudi war criminals.

First, here's a little background from The Washington Post:
The State Department has approved a resumption of weapons sales that critics have linked to Saudi Arabia's bombing of civilians in Yemen, a potential sign of reinvigorated U.S. support for the kingdom's involvement in its neighbor's ongoing civil war.

The proposal from the State Department would reverse a decision made late in the Obama administration to suspend the sale of precision guided munitions to Riyadh, which leads a mostly Arab coalition conducting airstrikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen.

While the U.S. military has provided support to the Saudi-led air campaign since 2015, including aerial refueling for Saudi jets and a U.S. advisory mission in the Saudi operations headquarters, the Obama administration sought to scale back that support last year amid alleged Saudi strikes on civilian targets.

Snakes in Suits

US senator wants to probe RT as a 'foreign agent'... What's next, public executions?

RT news studio
A bill introduced by US senator Jeanne Shaheen that seeks to grant the Justice Department powers to investigate RT's "funding sources and foreign connections" is yet another example of McCarthyism-style persecution of dissenting voices, RT's editor-in-chief has said.

"At such pace they'll soon start shooting our journalists at the squares. Greetings to Senator McCarthy from Senator Shaheen," RT's editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan said, drawing parallels with an old school Cold War witch-hunt straight from the 1950s.

The proposed amendment to the Foreign Agents Registration Act dubbed the "Foreign Agents Registration Modernization and Enforcement Act," is touted as a response to alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election. The bill would provide the Justice Department with additional powers to demand organizations to disclose their suspected foreign connections and the sources of its funding.

Dominoes

George Galloway: US Empire's bombardment of Mosul, ignored by MSM, radicalizes Muslims around the world

muslims
© Thaier Al-Sudani / Reuters
Nothing could demonstrate the double standards of the Western political class and their media echo chambers better than the bombardment of the densely populated area of western Mosul, which they have virtually ignored, former MP George Galloway, told RT.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said the anti-ISIS operation in the city of Mosul has entered its final stage. He also warned the number of refugees would increase.

More than 200,000 people have been displaced by the fighting in Mosul since the anti-terror operation started in October, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Hala Jaber, the spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration in Iraq, said that "There are huge numbers of civilians being displaced on a daily basis. The numbers as of yesterday - and those numbers only reflect IDPs that have gone into camps - total 13,428 families, which amounts about 80,568 individuals... The exodus of the displaced is increasing on a daily basis."

Although none of this is being heard in the mainstream media, civilians who managed to escape from the city warn they fear the bombs of their supposed 'liberators' as much as those of the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorists.

Attention

UN Human Rights mission reports almost 10,000 killed in Donbass since 2014

Donbass refugees
© Sputnik/ Mikhail Voskresensky
Almost 10,000 people have been killed in Donbass since the beginning of the military conflict, with over 23,000 people injured, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (UNMMU) said on Wednesday.

In April 2014, the people of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions refused to recognize the new Ukrainian government that came to power in what they perceive to be a coup. Ukraine's government launched a military operation against the regions that, following the May referendums, proclaimed sovereignty.

"The total death toll from mid-April 2014 to 12 March 2017 is at least 9,940, with at least 23,455 people injured. This is a conservative estimate based on available data. These figures include Ukrainian armed forces, civilians and members of armed groups. Over 2,000 are civilians who have been killed in hostilities. The number of civilians injured due to the conflict is estimated at between 7,000 and 9,000," the press release stated, citing a report released earlier in the day.

Attention

'Most transparent ever' Obama administration set records for denying, delaying or obstructing FOIA requests

Obama coup
The Obama administration granted less than a quarter of public requests for government files in its last year in office and spent $36.2 million on legal battles to keep its files secret, according to a new transparency report compiled for "Sunshine Week."

Having aspired to be "the most transparent administration in history" at the beginning of President Barack Obama's first term, it instead set records for denying, delaying or obstructing requests for government records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the Associated Press reported on Tuesday, citing analysis of data provided by the US government.

The Justice Department spent $12 million on legal costs in fighting to keep its files from the public, with the Department of Homeland Security spending $6.3 million and the Department of Defense spending $4.8 million, AP noted. The three departments received more than half of the total FOIA requests made in 2016.

Comment: Documents reveal Obama administration tried to kill transparency despite claims of openness


Snakes in Suits

Going from bad to worse: Ukraine preparing sanctions against Russian banks

Ukrainian activist spray-painting
© Valentyn Ogirenko / ReutersUkrainian activist spray-painting "Death to Russian banks" at the entrance of Sberbank in Kiev.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) and the SBU security service have been told to draft proposals for sanctions against banks with stakes in Russian state banks, according to the head of the National Security and Defense Council, Alexander Turchinov.

"The National Bank of Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine are instructed to analyze activities of Ukrainian banking institutions with Russian state banks' shares in funds, and to submit the relevant proposals, including on imposing sanctions on them, by the end of the day," Turchinov said following Wednesday's meeting of the Council.

Several subsidiaries of Russian banks, including Sberbank, VTB, and Prominvestbank, are currently providing banking services in Ukraine. Apart from state-run banking institutions, there are also units of private Russian Standard Bank and Luxembourg ABH Holdings owned by Russia's Alfa Bank.

Comment: Kiev seems to be headed in self-destruct more:


Snakes in Suits

Ukraine announces suspension of cargo traffic with separatist-held areas

Empty coal wagons parked near a metallurgical plant in separatist-controlled territory in the Donetsk region
© epa
Ukrainian authorities have announced the suspension of all cargo traffic with areas held by Russia-backed separatists in the eastern part of the country, indicating that the government has moved to replace a blockade established by activists with official restrictions on commerce.

Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov announced the decision on March 15, shortly after President Petro Poroshenko proposed it at a session of the council.

The move comes after the government took steps this week to end a rail and road blockade established by Ukrainians opposed to any trade with the separatists, who control a portion of eastern Ukraine that includes coal mines and other industrial enterprises that have long been a crucial part of the country's economy. The activists maintaining the blockade called such commerce "trade in blood."

Snakes in Suits

Unsealed court docs reveal Monsanto colluded with EPA, was unable to prove Roundup does not cause cancer

monsanto
© Dame Magazine
If we had a dime for every kooky, left-wing theory we've heard alleging some vast corporate conspiracy to exploit the treasures of the earth, destroy the environment and poison people with unknown carcinogens all while buying off politicians to cover their tracks, we would be rich. The problem, of course, is that sometimes the kooky conspiracy theories prove to be completely accurate.

Lets take the case of the $60 billion ag-chemicals powerhouse, Monsanto, and their controversial herbicide, Roundup as an example. For those who aren't familiar, Roundup Ready is Monsanto's blockbuster weedkiller, credited with transforming U.S. agriculture, with a majority of farm production now using genetically modified seeds resistant to the chemical.

For years the company has assured farmers that their weed killing product was absolutely safe to use. As proof, Monsanto touted the approval of the chemical by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Comment: For more on the Monsanto court case: California Judge Kapetan rules against Monsanto, allows Cancer Warning on Roundup


Attention

Cambodia outraged as US demands repayment of 'blood-stained' war debt

U.S. fighter jets and an attack plane drop bombs on Cambodia circa 1973
© Wikimedia Commons/ccU.S. fighter jets and an attack plane drop bombs on Cambodia circa 1973.
Cambodians are responding with outrage to the U.S. government's demand that the country repay a nearly 50-year-old loan to Cambodia's brutal Lon Nol government, which came to power through a U.S.-backed coup and spent much of its foreign funds purchasing arms to kill its own citizens, according to Cambodia's current prime minister Hun Sen.

While the U.S. was backing the Lon Nol government, it was also strafing the Cambodian countryside with bombs—a carpet-bombing campaign that would eventually see over 500,000 tons of explosives dropped on the small Asian country, killing hundreds of thousands of civilians and leaving a legacy of unexploded ordnances.