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French presidential candidate urges France to lead policy independent from NATO


Sputnik
Tue, 17 Jan 2017 19:21 UTC
NATO Summit leaders
© REUTERS/ Jonathan Ernst
France has its own national defense and is capable of carrying out an independent foreign policy without NATO, Jacques Cheminade, a candidate in the upcoming French presidential elections, told Sputnik on Tuesday, commenting on US President-elect Donald Trump's criticism of the Alliance.

On Monday, in an interview with The Times newspaper, Trump called NATO an "obsolete" organization, since it was not much engaged in countering terrorism, arguing its member countries' contributions were not efficient.

"Only France has organized its own national defense, under the presidency of Charles De Gaulle. The British have their own army, but under Anglo-American rule. France, therefore, has the capacity to set up an independent foreign policy, out of NATO and based on the cause of humanity," Cheminade said, asked if Europe would try to pursue establishing the EU army to lessen dependence on the US military in protecting its borders.


Comment: Marine Le Pen has also denounced NATO: Frexit: Le Pen vows to take France out of NATO - "It exists only to serve Washington's objectives"


Comment: France is joined by Germany: German Left leader echoes Trump: Dissolve NATO, create new military alliance with Russia

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Arrow Down

New ABC/WaPo poll shows drop in Trump favorability courtesy of aggressive "oversamples" - Same people predicting Hillary Win

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Tue, 17 Jan 2017 19:05 UTC
mainstream news, MSM
In the month leaded up to the election on November 8th, we repeatedly demonstrated how the mainstream media polls from the likes of ABC/Washington Post, CNN and Reuters repeatedly manipulated their poll samples to engineer their desired results, namely a large Hillary Clinton lead (see "New Podesta Email Exposes Playbook For Rigging Polls Through 'Oversamples'" and "ABC/Wapo Effectively Admit To Poll Tampering As Hillary's "Lead" Shrinks To 2-Points"). In fact, just 16 days prior to the election an ABC/Wapo poll showed a 12-point lead for Hillary, a result that obviously turned out to be embarrassingly wrong for the pollsters.

But, proving they've still got it, ABC/Washington Post and CNN are out with a pair of polls on Trump's favorability this morning that sport some of the most egregious "oversamples" we've seen. The ABC/Wapo poll showed an 8-point sampling margin for Democrats with only 23% of the results taken from Republicans.
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Snakes in Suits

Davos elite play-acting as refugees in 'disgusting spectacle of small-minded rich people'


RT
Tue, 17 Jan 2017 18:42 UTC
official logo of the World Economic Forum
© Ruben Sprich / Reuters
The reenactment of the refugee plight is a popular event at the Davos forum. How about a popular event of being in a place where your houses are bombed, and your mother and father are killed, asked Gerald Celente, publisher, The Trends Journal.

The 2017 World Economic Forum annual meeting opened on Tuesday in the luxury resort town of Davos in the Swiss Alps. The theme of this year's gathering is Responsive and Responsible Leadership.

The Davos forum is often viewed as a meeting of the rich and powerful.

At this year's forum participants will be able to pretend they are undergoing the same deprivation as refugees.
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Light Sabers

North Korea burns Obama after Kim Jong-un's sister was blacklisted - "Get packing"


RT
Tue, 17 Jan 2017 18:55 UTC
obama
© John Gress / Reuters
After the US blacklisted seven North Korean citizens, leader Kim Jong-un's sister among them, Pyongyang's news agency advised Obama to "make good arrangements for packing in the White House," also calling the US a "tundra of human rights."

"Obama would be well advised not to waste time taking issue with others' 'human rights issues' but make good arrangements for packing in the White House," North Korean news agency KCNA said in a statement late Monday night.

Last week, the US Treasury Department updated the list of North Koreans sanctioned for "serious" rights abuses, adding the names of seven individuals - including Kim's younger sister Yo-jong, who is deputy director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the North Korean Workers' Party.

Other blacklisted officials include Minister of State Security Kim Won-hong and Director of the General Political Bureau of the Ministry of People's Security Kang Pil-hun. The United States also sanctioned the North Korean Ministry of Labor and State Planning Commission.
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Yoda

Zakharova: Obama still has a few days left to destroy the world

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Sun, 15 Jan 2017 18:36 UTC
zahkarova
There is a reason Vladimir Putin and the Russian top political echelon has been avoiding the media following the onslaught of allegations lobbed at the Kremlin, and Trump: as the AP writes, careful not to hurt chances for a thaw in U.S.-Russia relations, President Putin and other Russian officials "have deferred questions about their plans for future contacts with Trump and any agenda for those talks until he takes office on Friday." In short, the "Kremlin is counting the days to his inauguration and venting its anger at Barack Obama's outgoing administration, no holds barred."

Trump's desire to restore relations with Russia has brought wide expectations of improved Moscow-Washington relations, but Trump has not articulated a clear Russia policy. His Cabinet nominees include both a retired general with a hawkish stance on Russia and an oil executive who has done extensive business in Russia. At the same time, Russian officials are blasting the outgoing U.S. administration in distinctly undiplomatic language, dropping all decorum after Obama hit Moscow with more sanctions in his final weeks in office.
Most recently, Moscow has called Obama's team a "bunch of geopolitical losers" engaged in a last-ditch effort to inflict the maximum possible damage to U.S.-Russia ties to make it more difficult for Trump to mend the rift.

Doing its part to improve relations once Trump is sworn in on Friday at noon, in a clear effort to avoid risking a rapprochement with Trump, Putin showed a remarkable restraint when the U.S. expelled 35 Russian diplomats over accusations of meddling in the U.S. election campaign. Instead of a usual tit-for-tat response, Putin invited U.S. diplomats' children to a New Year's party at the Kremlin.
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Bad Guys

Libyan terrorist Abdelhakim Belhadj can sue British govt over MI6 rendition policy, Supreme Court rules


RT
Tue, 17 Jan 2017 19:32 UTC
Leader of the Libyan conservative Islamist al-Watan Party and former head of Tripoli Military Council, Abdelhakim Belhadj
© Fabrice Coffrini / AFPLeader of the Libyan conservative Islamist al-Watan Party and former head of Tripoli Military Council, Abdelhakim Belhadj
Britain's highest court has ruled unanimously against the government in the case of rendition victim Abdul Hakim Belhaj, clearing the way for him to sue Tony Blair's former foreign secretary, Jack Straw.

Belhaj claims his treatment and that of his pregnant wife in the torture chambers of late Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi - enabled by UK spies - contravened the Magna Carta and can now be heard in court.


Comment: Further reading:

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Attention

Taiwan holds military drills simulating Naval invasion by China

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Tue, 17 Jan 2017 18:31 UTC
Taiwan tanks
Taiwan today sent the clearest message to China that it is taking deteriorating diplomatic relations with its estranged mainland cousin seriously, when the island nation began two days of military drills simulating an attack by China, in the wake of Beijing's sailing of an aircraft carrier through the Taiwan Strait, as the government sought to reassure the public.


Comment: Taiwan scrambles jets and navy vessels to 'surveil and control' passage of Chinese warships


The island's armed forces gathered in central Taiwan for annual drills that saw troops practice combat skills with tanks, attack helicopters and artillery. The drill was conducted in Taichung by the 10th Army Command and the Army Aviation and Special Forces Command. It simulated a scenario in which a Chinese naval fleet comprising destroyers, corvettes and amphibious assault ships was conducting training off China's southeastern coast.

Comment: More on the Taiwan tensions:

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Stop

Snowden's lawyer scoffs at former CIA chief's conspiracy theory that Putin would 'gift' his client to Trump to make Obama look bad


RT
Tue, 17 Jan 2017 18:28 UTC
Edward Snowden
© Marcos Brindicci / ReutersEdward Snowden
Edward Snowden's lawyer Anatoly Kucherena believes a suggestion by former CIA acting director Michael Morell to extradite his client to the US is "utter nonsense." In Morell's opinion, Snowden would make "the perfect inauguration gift" for Donald Trump.

"These statements coming from the former CIA head are stirring mixed feelings and can be seen only as a kind of utter nonsense, there is hardly any other way to put it," Kucherena told RIA Novosti in response to Morell's suggestion of extraditing Snowden from Russia, which he made on Sunday.

There are "a lot of reasons" that would "make sense" for Russia to take such a step, Morell wrote in his column in the Cipher Brief. The former CIA acting chief believes that "the Russian president needs a relationship with the incoming US president where the US overlooks Moscow's anti-democratic activities at home and destabilizing activities abroad."

Moreover, "gifting" Snowden could also become a good way "to poke his [Putin's] finger in the eye of his adversary Barack Obama," Morell added.

In addition, "this would give President Putin one of the things he desires the most - being seen at home and abroad as an equal of the US."

Kucherena responded by recommending that Morell tell everyone about all the "disgraceful acts, eavesdropping and spying not only on American people, but also on those living in foreign countries" carried out by the CIA when the official was in office.
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Clipboard

Trump meets with MLK's son to discuss national voting ID card


RT
Mon, 16 Jan 2017 18:18 UTC
Trump MLK III son
© Alex Wroblewski / ReutersU.S. President-elect Donald Trump shakes hands with Martin Luther King III, an American human rights advocate, at Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., January 16, 2017.
Martin Luther King III, the son of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, has met with president-elect Donald Trump to discuss a national voting ID card. The meeting coincides with Martin Luther King Day, and King III said they had "a constructive meeting," on Monday about the "broken election system and we believe our solution... will give everyone an ID."

King's son wrote in his Op-ed in the Washington Post at the weekend about the broken electoral system that was hampered by legislative efforts to make it harder to vote. His solution is a national identification card, an idea supported by previous presidents and civil rights activists.

"All Trump has to do is direct the Social Security Administration to add a photo to the Social Security card of any citizen who needs it," Martin Luther King III wrote in the Op-ed. "The likely cost of this move - about $18 million - would be virtually insignificant given the benefit of ensuring that every citizen has the opportunity to exercise his or her right to vote."

Many African American leaders see the distribution of a free government ID as a critical boost to low-income Americans who cannot open a bank account without one. The lack of an ID not only makes it more difficult to vote in several states, but it also often makes individuals dependent on check-cashing operations that charge high commissions. King declined to get drawn into the Lewis-Trump dispute, saying "in the heat of emotion, a lot of things get said on both sides."
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Megaphone

Lavrov: US wanted to use terrorists in Syria to overthrow Assad


TASS
Tue, 17 Jan 2017 18:04 UTC
jabhat al nusra terrorists
© AP Photo/Hassan Ammar
The United States wanted to use the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist groupings (outlawed in Russia) to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov sad at an annual press conference on Tuesday.

"There are a lot of examples showing that the Americans and their allies sneakily wanted to use al-Nusra and the IS to weaken and finally overthrow the Assad regime," Lavrov said.

"That is why, they were quite reserved in implementing their stated goal of fighting against terrorism," the Russian foreign minister said.

Similarly to how Al-Qaeda emerged when the Americans supported mujahideen in the 1980s, the IS came into existence after Iraq's occupation in 2003, Lavrov said.

"Exactly in the same way, Jabhat al-Nusra, which is one of Al Qaeda offshoots, is the most vicious, the cruelest and the most merciless terrorist force in the Syrian crisis now," he added.

As the Russian foreign minister said, "it was only after the Russian air task force started to operate in Syria in September last year at the request of President Assad that the US-led coalition that had existed for a year by that time started in earnest at least somehow to bomb IS positions and deliver strikes against its infrastructure, including oilfields, which the IS used for its own financing through smuggling," the Russian foreign minister said.

Comment: All anyone has to do to confirm what Lavrov is saying is to hear it from the horse's mouth: John Kerry admits that Russia entered Syrian war to stop ISIS, U.S. used ISIS to pressure Assad

Also read: Lavrov reminds Western 'messiahship' bred Ukrainian crisis, Arab Spring and the refugee flood

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