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SOTT Focus: US Threatens Iran for Daring to Defend the Iranian People

Paul Mansfield
Sott.net
Mon, 06 Feb 2017 17:45 UTC
General Michael Flynn
© Carlos Barria / Reuters"I came, I saw, Iran." National security adviser General Michael Flynn should take a chill pill.
Former Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency General Michael Flynn, reincarnated as National Security Adviser in the Trump administration, showed he has lost none of his belligerence toward Iran, nor gained any control over his war hawk ways when he threatened that the US is "officially putting Iran on notice," for two recent events. One was not even carried out by Iran, but rather by Iranian-supported Houthi forces who attacked a Saudi warship, while the other was a medium-range ballistic missile test carried out for defensive purposes by Iran. In the myopic worldview of people like Flynn, however, Iran has no right to self-defence. It must sit there like a sitting duck, defenceless, anxiously waiting to be picked off by the US and Israel at a time of their choosing.

Flynn has shown unconditional loyalty to Donald Trump from the start of Trump's election campaign, becoming a trusted confidante and a bottomless pit of knowledge on military/intelligence matters. Trump should strongly consider the value of this loyalty, as Flynn threatens Trump's pledge to scale back US military adventurism and regime change addiction.

Flynn loves Israel. He deliberately lies about Iran's nuclear program. At the end of 2007, 16 US intelligence agencies concluded Iran stopped working on a nuclear program by 2003. Yet 9 years later, Flynn repeats the lie that Iran is still actively working on nuclear weapons. This cloudy thinking totally undermines the good work he did as head of the DIA in revealing the plan for a Salafist principality in Eastern Syria and Western Iraq. But we must take the good with the bad, and in Flynn's case the bad leaves the good in the shade.
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Attention

Yemeni Army claims attack on Riyadh: Saudis mysteriously silent

Adam Garrie
The Duran
Mon, 06 Feb 2017 16:24 UTC
SCUD missile
Could a Yemeni attack on Saudi Arabia be the pretext for a US war on Iran?

The Yemeni Army have issued a statement claiming they have launched a ballistic missile which successfully struck a military target in Riyadh. This comes approximately a week after Houthi rebels released footage of a successful missile attack on a Saudi war ship.

The attack on the Saudi ship was the proximate cause which prompted Michael Flynn, President Trump's National Security Advisor to put Iran 'on notice'.

Although Iran has and continues to aid the Houthi rebels, it is unclear what if anything Iran had to do with the attack in question.
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Green Light

Trump & Putin working together in Libya? There's a very good chance


Sputnik
Mon, 06 Feb 2017 16:01 UTC
Lybian fighters
Last week, EU leaders met in Malta, where they affirmed support for the Tripoli-based Libyan government, and approved the Italy-led plans to build refugee camps in Libya. But the US may have its own project for resolving the Libyan crisis, and could work to try and implement it together with Russia, says Israeli-Russian journalist Avigdor Eskin.

Friday's informal EU meeting in Malta focused on how to stem the flow of migrants from Libya and other African countries into Southern Europe. Ever since the French, UK and US-led military campaign to help militants oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, hundreds of thousands of migrants have made the perilous journey from the North African country to Italy, with 181,000 people arriving in the Southern European country in 2016 alone. Thousands have also died along the way.

Comment: Listen to some important information on the current state of Libya:

The Truth Perspective: Libya Ruined: Interview with Sheikh Khalid Tantoush - Introduced by James & JoAnne Moriarty

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Jet5

US-led coalition airstrikes destroy Daesh headquarters in Raqqa and Mosul


Sputnik
Mon, 06 Feb 2017 16:12 UTC
US-Led Coalition Airstrikes
© Reuters
US-led coalition airstrikes in Syria and Iraq on Sunday destroyed Daesh headquarters near the terror group's strongholds of Raqqa and Mosul, Operation Inherent Resolve said in a press release.

"Near Raqqah, six strikes destroyed three tunnels, an artillery system, a VBIED, and an ISIL headquarters," the release stated on Monday. "Near Mosul, three strikes destroyed 23 ISIL-held buildings, an ISIL headquarters and a front-end loader; and damaged 14 supply routes and a tunnel."

The coalition conducted 10 additional airstrikes in Syria, including three that destroyed oil well heads near Abu Kamal and seven near Deir ez-Zor that destroyed oil tanker trucks, oil wellheads and a pump jack.
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Chess

Trump 'doesn't care about talking to Parliament,' wants meetings instead


RT
Mon, 06 Feb 2017 15:49 UTC
trump
US President Donald Trump is not interested in addressing Parliament during his state visit to the UK, and instead wants to focus on the pomp and ceremony Britain affords foreign leaders, government officials planning his stay say.

Sources told the Guardian that Trump has expressed no interest in speaking at Westminster. However, it's understood that he does want "high visibility visits with key members of the Royal family."

The US president is rumored to have asked for a tour of the Cabinet war rooms with a senior government official such as Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, and it has even been suggested he wants to play golf with the Queen at Balmoral.
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Eye 2

Think tank reports potential ISIS recruits offered protection & free passage to Europe


RT
Mon, 06 Feb 2017 15:49 UTC
refugees europe migrant immigration
© Alkis Konstantinidis / Reuters
Islamic State provides free passage to Europe to refugees willing to join the terrorist group, offering potential recruits up to $1,000 while actively infiltrating migrant communities in countries of destination, a British anti-extremism think tank warns.

A latest report by the leading British counter-extremism think tank Quilliam also says that underage asylum seekers are at increasing risk of being radicalized by Islamic State's (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) preachers infiltrating refugee camps and local migrant communities.

"Groups such as Islamic State and Boko Haram recruit using financial incentives within refugee camps and work with smugglers and traffickers to facilitate the journey to asylum," Quilliam's report said. According to the think tank, IS is clearly aware of the value of migrant routes in the Eastern Mediterranean as it offers free passage and "a degree of security" to those willing to join IS.
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Bad Guys

DPR Emergency Statement: Poroshenko prepares for total war following Trump call

J. Arnoldski (translator)
Fort Russ / RusVena
Mon, 06 Feb 2017 15:49 UTC
Eduard Basurin Donbass
The deputy commander of the Donetsk People's Republic, Eduard Basurin, stated at an emergency briefing in Donetsk last night that Poroshenko is preparing to unleash a full-scale war and reject the Minsk Agreements.

Basurin announced: "Following the talk between Poroshenko and Trump, Ukraine will in the near future cease to receive financial and military support for its terrorist operation in the land of Donbass. In connection with this, the Ukrainian president has fallen into complete despair and is ready to desperately commit to the most reckless action of unleashing a full-scale and bloody war in Eastern Europe."

"All of this is needed in order to blame their crimes on the unrecognized republics and the Russian Federation and defraud the West of new funds in order to develop their business built on the blood of the ordinary Ukrainian people," Basurin continued.

Comment: Further reading: Trump administration fails to back Ukraine. It seems Poroshenko is digging in his heels:
While live on the TV channel "Inter," Sergey Kaplin, a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, called on the Ukrainian population to prepare for a protracted war.

"Let's resume preparations for the civil defense of our population. Today we should honestly tell our people that no Minsk Agreements, no negotiations, and no geopolitical shifts in the world will lead to a stabilization of the situation. We should learn to live in a state of war or semi-war for the next few years. The country should be prepared for these challenges," Kaplin stated.

Kaplin was supported by international affairs analyst Aleksandr Sushko, who added: "We should honestly tell the people waiting who sincerely believe that the war could end and that normal life will return in six months - tell them that normal life will not return in the coming years, and maybe this extraordinary situation will continue for decades."

Before his election in May 2014, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko promised to end the war in Donbass within two weeks.


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Quenelle

Palestinians file suit against Trump adviser and Netanyahu for terrorism

Charlotte Silver
Electronic Intifada
Thu, 02 Feb 2017 15:54 UTC
Trump
© Molly Riley/ United Press InternationalPresident Donald Trump speaks next to Jared Kushner, his senior advisor and son-in-law, in the White House on 31 January. Kushner’s family foundation is among several defendants named in a lawsuit over the financing of Israeli settlements and violent extremism.
A group of US citizens and Palestinian nationals is suing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and key members of US President Donald Trump's administration for perpetrating and enabling war crimes.

Their lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, alleges a money laundering scheme that involves the US defendants raising charitable donations to send to Israeli government leaders.

Based on the Anti-Terrorism Act and the Alien Torts Statute, the complaint alleges that the Israeli officials use the money to fund settlements and violent extremism in the occupied West Bank, which the complaint identifies as "international terrorism."

It comes as Netanyahu vowed that Israel would soon build an entirely new settlement in the occupied West Bank. Since Trump took office last month, Israel has announced plans for 6,000 additional settler housing units.

Israel's current and former defense ministers Avigdor Lieberman and Ehud Barak are named as defendants, as is former foreign minister Tzipi Livni, who recently evaded a war crimes summons from Belgian prosecutors.

The lawsuit also names the family foundation of Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and now his adviser on the Middle East and Israel.

Other defendants are David Friedman and his charity, American Friends of Beit El Yeshiva Center. Friedman, Trump's ambassador-designate to Israel, is a major fundraiser for Israeli settlements.
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Eye 2

US administration abandons plan to reopen CIA 'black sites' - media


RT
Mon, 06 Feb 2017 15:42 UTC
Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay naval base
© Michael R. Holzworth / ReutersA Navy guard patrols Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay naval base.
The Trump administration will not proceed with plans to reopen the infamous CIA prisons to interrogate terrorist suspects, US media report, citing sources.

According to the New York Times, the White House has decided to abandon their plans to reopen 'black site' prisons. The unnamed officials who revealed the change of heart to the newspaper cited a revised draft of an executive order on US detention policy.

The first draft of the document titled "Detention and Interrogation of Enemy Combatants" was released by WikiLeaks last week.

In addition to cancelling out former US President Barack Obama's intention to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba, it called for a review of overseas CIA interrogation programs discontinued under Obama. Although US Defense Secretary James Mattis, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, and White House spokesman Sean Spicer denied having any knowledge of the document, it has been widely circulated in the media.

Comment: See also:
  • New CIA deputy director Gina Haspel used to run 'black site' torture prisons
  • Intel source: Steve Bannon Is making sure there's no White house paper trail


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USA

97 US firms lean on Trump travel ban in court


RT
Mon, 06 Feb 2017 15:51 UTC
Muslim ban protesters
© Tom Mihalek / Reuters
Nearly 100 American firms, including tech giants Apple, Google and Microsoft, have filed a legal brief supporting a case challenging the so-called 'Muslim ban', saying the White House's restriction "is inflicting substantial harm on US companies."

The 'amicus curiae' brief, which was filed with the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco on Sunday, supports a lawsuit brought by several US States to challenge President Donald Trump's executive order temporarily banning citizens of seven predominantly Muslim nations from entering the country.

The 97 companies backing the brief include tech heavyweights such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, Intel, Twitter, eBay, Netflix, and Uber, and also non-tech companies, including Levi Strauss and Chobani.

Comment: More on the Muslin ban:

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