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Stock Up

Iraq takes Saudi crown to become oil king for India


RT
Wed, 14 Jun 2017 11:43 UTC
Al-Basra terminal in southern Iraq
© Atef Hassan / Reuters
As competition among oil producers for major Asian markets intensifies, Iraq has become India's top crude supplier for a third month in May, surpassing Saudi Arabia.

Shipping data compiled by Bloomberg showed, Iraq supplied 1 million barrels a day and those supplies accounted for 23 percent of India's purchases last month, up from an average 19 percent in the previous four months. Saudi Arabia's share fell to 17 percent.
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Snakes in Suits

Tillerson grilled from both sides at State Dept budget hearing in Senate


RT
Wed, 14 Jun 2017 11:36 UTC
Rex Tillerson
© Aaron P. Bernstein / Reuters
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson faced a fierce backlash from US senators of both parties during a Senate hearing on President Donald Trump's proposed 2018 State Department budget of $37.6 billion.

Tillerson defended a White House plan for a US Aid and State Department budget of $37.6 billion at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings on Tuesday. There was a bipartisan effort to point out areas of the proposal considered weak, although not all senators agreed on which parts those were.

One of the proposed budget's biggest doubters, Senator Bob Corker (R-Tennessee), said reading it was "a waste of time," and added, "I don't want to do this anymore."
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Arrow Up

Syria: The end of the war is now in sight


Moon of Alabama
Tue, 13 Jun 2017 00:00 UTC
Syrian War map
© Al Watan Online
The most important change over the last days was the Syrian government forces move (red areas and arrows) in the south-east towards the Iraqi border. The original plan was to retrieve al-Tanf further south-west to secure the border crossing of the Damascus-Baghdad highway there. But al-Tanf was occupied by U.S., British and Norwegian invaders and some of their proxy forces (blue). Their airplanes attacked Syrian army convoys when they approached. The U.S. plan was to move from al-Tanf north towards the Euphrates river and to thereby capture and control the whole south-east of Syria. But Syria and its allies made an unexpected move and prevented that plan. The invaders are now cut off from the Euphrates by a Syrian west-to-east line that ends at the Iraqi border. On the Iraqi side elements of the Popular Military Unites under the command of the Iraqi government are moving to meet the Syrian forces at the border.

The U.S. invaders are now sitting in the mid of a piece of rather useless desert around al-Tanf where their only option is to die of boredom or to move back to Jordan from where they came. The Russian military has made it very clear that it would intervene forcefully should the U.S. attack the Syrian line and move further north. The U.S. and its allies have no mandate to be in Syria in the first place. There is no justification or legal ground for them to attack any Syrian units. Their only option now is to retreat.
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Info

Tillerson doesn't want communication channels closed with new anti-Russia sanctions


RT
Tue, 13 Jun 2017 23:05 UTC
Rex Tillerson
© Aaron P. Bernstein / Reuters
The US Senate's bipartisan deal on new set of restrictive measures against Moscow might further worsen relations with Russia and hinder existing efforts on joint US-Russia progress to fight terrorism in Syria, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has warned.
"There are efforts under way in Syria specifically, those are, I would say, progressing in a positive way,"
America's top diplomat said on Tuesday during testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Despite the relationship between US and Russia being "at an all-time low," according to Tillerson, the "objective is to stabilize that" rather than deteriorate it further.
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Magnify

How Vladimir Putin sees the world

Robert Parry
Consortium News
Tue, 13 Jun 2017 22:16 UTC
Exclusive:The mainstream U.S. media has assumed the role of protecting the American people from alternative viewpoints, which is why Oliver Stone's long-form interviews with Vladimir Putin are such a concern, reports Robert Parry.

Putin and Stone
Oliver Stone interviewing Russian President Vladimir Putin in Showtime’s “The Putin Interviews.”
There was a time when I thought that it was the responsibility of an American journalist to hear all sides of a dispute and then explain the issue as fairly as possible to the American people, so they would be armed with enough facts to make their own judgments and act as the true sovereigns in a democracy.

I realize how naïve that must sound today as American journalism has shifted to a new paradigm in which the major news outlets view it as their duty to reinforce whatever the establishment narrative is and to dismiss or discredit any inconvenient facts or alternative analyses.

Comment:

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Airplane

Qatar Airways appeals to UN over 'illegal' Gulf blockade


RT
Tue, 13 Jun 2017 21:36 UTC
Qatar airlines
© Alkis Konstantinidis / Reuters
Measures taken by several Arab states to block Qatari air traffic must be declared illegal, according to CEO of Qatar Airways Akbar Al Baker.

The state's major carrier appealed to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a UN body that is in control of civil overflight security guaranteed by Chicago Convention.

The UAE, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia have signed the convention.
"We have legal channels to object to this. ICAO should heavily get involved, put their weight behind this to declare this an illegal act," Al Baker said
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Attention

Chuck Schumer joins bipartisan push to block part of Trump's Saudi arms deal - Update: the effort fails


RT
Tue, 13 Jun 2017 16:29 UTC
Chuck Schumer
© Aaron P. Bernstein / Reuters
A bipartisan effort to stop a portion of President Donald Trump's $110 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia just got a big boost. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) cited the Kingdom's human rights violations in Yemen.

Schumer announced Monday that he intends to back a resolution to block a portion of arms sales to Saudi Arabia, citing the country's human rights and humanitarian abuses.
"The human rights and humanitarian concerns have been well documented and are important: of equal concern to me is that the Saudi government continues to aid and abet terrorism via its relationship with Wahhabism and the funding of schools that spread extremist propaganda throughout the world," Schumer said in a statement, according to the Huffington Post.

Comment: Update - The Senate failed to block the resolution: A bipartisan effort to block the sale of US precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia in the US Senate has failed by a vote of 47-53. Critics of the sale argued the missiles would be used in Yemen, where Saudi airstrikes have killed many civilians.

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Star of David

Dehumanizing psychopaths: Israeli leaders say Palestinian prisoners just need bread, water - and a bullet to the head

Jonathan Ofir
Mondoweiss
Tue, 13 Jun 2017 00:00 UTC
Oren Hazan and Trump
Oren Hazan, a member of Knesset, taking a selfie with President Donald Trump in May 2017 at Ben-Gurion airport.
Sometimes you just can't believe it. These words don't come from the rabble in the streets of Tel-Aviv or Jerusalem. They come straight from the mouths of Israel's leaders in a Knesset committee meeting.

Last month, the Israeli Knesset's Internal Affairs Committee discussed the matter of the suspended Palestinian prisoner hunger strike, and whether there indeed was a negotiation between the Israeli Prison Services (IPS) and the prisoners. The Palestinians were claiming there was a successful negotiation, whilst Israeli officials were claiming nothing happened.

And it goes like this:

MK Oren Hazan (Likud) said,
"If we were to do the right thing, every terrorist would get a bullet to the head. There is enough room underground."
In response, MK Osama Sa'adi (Joint List) said,
"One can utter such things in the committee? He is inciting to murder."
MK Hazan:
"I am referring to organized executions."

Comment:

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Megaphone

Oliver Stone's "The Putin Interviews" reveals vulnerable side of the Russian president

Robert Parry
Consortium News
Mon, 12 Jun 2017 18:17 UTC
Oliver Stone Putin
Before we stumble into a nuclear war and end life on the planet, the American people might want to watch Oliver Stone's four-part series of interviews with Russian President Vladimir Putin on "Showtime." Stone accomplishes what Western journalists should do but don't, by penetrating deeply into the personality of this historic figure.

Director Oliver Stone interviewing Russian President Vladimir Putin for Showtime's "The Putin Interviews."

Typically these days, American TV news personalities use interviews with a demonized foreign leader, like Putin, to demonstrate their own "toughness" on air, hurling insulting questions at the target and pretending that this preening behavior proves their courage.

Comment: Putin is extending a hand to the American people, sharing an intimate and sincere understanding of his experiences, challenges and motivations. Many in the West have largely accepted the over-simplistic US caricature of Putin as an 'evil dictator'. Stone's documentary offers quite a different picture, for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear.

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Arrow Up

Vladimir Putin: The most powerful person in the world

Paul Craig Roberts
Paul Craig Roberts Org
Mon, 12 Jun 2017 20:34 UTC
Putin
© Reddit
It must be wonderful being Vladimir Putin and being the most powerful person on earth. And not even have to say so yourself. The US Democratic Party is saying it for Putin along with the entirety of the Western presstitute media and the CIA and FBI also. The Russian media doesn't have to brag about Putin's power. Megyn Kelly, the Western presstitutes, and Western leaders are doing it for them: Putin is so powerful that he is able to place in office his choice for the President of the United States.

I mean, Wow! What power! Americans are simply out of the game. Americans, despite a massive intelligence budget and 16 separate intelligence services plus those of its NATO vassals, are no match whatsoever for Vladimir Putin.

I mean, really! What is the CIA for? What is the NSA for? What are the rest of them for? Americans would do better to close down these incompetent, but expensive, "intelligence services" and pay the money to Putin as a bribe not to select our president. Maybe the CIA should get down on its knees and beg Putin to stop electing the President of the United States. I mean, how humuiliating. I can hardly stand it. I thought we are the "world's sole superpower, the uni-power, the exceptional, indispensable people." It turns out that we are a nothing people, ruled by the President of Russia.

When the Democrats, CIA, and media decided to launch their PR campaign against Trump, they didn't realize how inconsequential it would make the United States appear by putting American democracy into Putin's pocket. What were they thinking? They weren't. They were fixated on making sure Trump did not endanger the massive military/security complex budget by restoring normal relations with Russia.
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