Puppet MastersS


Snakes in Suits

Trumped-up claims against Trump

William Binney and Ray McGovern
The Baltimore Sun
Wed, 17 May 2017 14:59 UTC
Putin and Trump
© AP/Andrew Harnik/Nati Harnik/Photo montage by SalonMaybe Trump could get some advice from Putin on 'draining the swamp'.
The Washington establishment rejoiced last week over what seemed to be a windfall "gotcha" moment, as President Donald Trump said he had fired FBI Director James Comey over "this Russia thing, with Trump and Russia." The president labeled it a "made-up story" and, by all appearances, he is mostly correct.

A few days before his firing, Mr. Comey reportedly had asked for still more resources to hunt the Russian bear. Pundit piranhas swarmed to charge Mr. Trump with trying to thwart the investigation into how the Russians supposedly "interfered" to help him win the election.

But can that commentary bear close scrutiny, or is it the "phony narrative" Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn of Texas claims it to be? Mr. Cornyn has quipped that, if impeding the investigation was Mr. Trump's aim, "This strikes me as a lousy way to do it. All it does is heighten the attention given to the issue."

Comment: Maybe it would help if Trump just drains the swamp, lock 'em up, pardon Snowden and Assange to garner support from their many followers and encourage more leaks... and be done with it.

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Folder

Trump shares honest opinion with Lavrov: Comey is 'a nut job'

Adam Garrie
The Duran
Fri, 19 May 2017 14:53 UTC
Trump Comey
© Reuters
Donald Trump told Russian Foreign Minister Sergev Lavrov what he really thinks of former FBI director James Comey.

According to yet another leak from the Trump White House, The New York Times has published further details of the conversation Donald Trump had with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak.

According to the New York Times, Trump said,
"I just fired the head of the F.B.I. He was crazy, a real nut job".
Trump allegedly continued,
"I faced great pressure because of Russia. That's taken off.

I'm not under investigation".
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer has not denied the veracity of the claims, instead he said,
"By grandstanding and politicising the investigation into Russia's actions, James Comey created unnecessary pressure on our ability to engage and negotiate with Russia.

The investigation would have always continued, and obviously, the termination of Comey would not have ended it. Once again, the real story is that our national security has been undermined by the leaking of private and highly classified conversations".
Donald Trump's opponents are all ready using this as 'evidence' of the fact that Comey's firing was politically motivated, even though it initially came as a legal recommendation for deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
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Attention

Moscow condemns new US-led coalition strike near Syrian al-Tanf 'illegitimate'


Sputnik
Sat, 20 May 2017 14:42 UTC
Sergey Lavrov
© AFP 2017/ ANDREJ ISAKOVIC
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the latest US-led coalition airstrike against Syrian pro-government forces in southern Syria "violation of Syria's sovereignty."

The latest US-led coalition airstrike against Syrian pro-government forces in southern Syria severely violated Syria's sovereignty and negatively affected the prospects of political settlement in the crisis-torn country, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday.

On Thursday, a US defense official told Sputnik that the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State terror group (ISIL or Daesh, banned in Russia) conducted a strike near the Al Tanf hamlet against Syrian government forces which were operating in an established US-Russian de-escalation zone and posed a threat to forces of the United States and its allies. The coalition's spokesperson told Sputnik that warning shots were fired prior to carrying out the airstrike.
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Bad Guys

Open Senate will hear Comey testify on alleged Russian interference in 2016 election


RT
Sat, 20 May 2017 14:43 UTC
TrumpComey
© Salon
Ex-FBI director James Comey has agreed to testify openly to the Senate on alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US election. He's also expected to react to reports that President Donald Trump called him "a real nutjob" in a meeting with Russian diplomats.

Senator Richard Burr (R-North Carolina), chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, announced late Friday that Comey accepted an invitation to testify to the committee in an open setting.
"The Committee looks forward to receiving testimony from the former Director on his role in the development of the Intelligence Community Assessment on Russian interference in the 2016 US elections, and I am hopeful that he will clarify for the American people recent events that have been broadly reported in the media," Burr said in a statement.
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Eye 2

Trump visits Bethlehem bearing gifts to child killers

Finian Cunningham
Sputnik
Fri, 19 May 2017 14:18 UTC
Donald Trump
© AFP 2017/ JIM LO SCALZO / EPA POOL
US President Donald Trump makes his first overseas visit this weekend, beginning in the Middle East and continuing to Europe. His tour to the "holy land" is being presented with feel-good, messianic spin.

Trump touches down first in Saudi Arabia, then will go to Israel and from there make a pilgrimage to Bethlehem in the Palestinian territories. After his stop at the reputed birthplace of Jesus, the American president will then fly to the Vatican, where he will be greeted by Roman Catholic Pope Francis. He will later meet NATO military leaders in Brussels.

Presenting the president's Middle East itinerary like a momentous religious event, Trump's senior national security adviser General HR McMaster said: "This trip is truly historic. No president has ever visited the homelands and holy sites of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths all on the same trip. And what President Trump is seeking is to unite peoples of all faiths around a common vision of peace, progress and prosperity."
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Star of David

Israeli intelligence officials furious over Trump's loose lips

Kavitha Surana,Dan De Luce,Robbie Gramer
Foreign Policy
Fri, 19 May 2017 13:36 UTC
Donald Trump
Just days before President Donald Trump's arrival in Tel Aviv, Israeli intelligence officials were shouting at their American counterparts in meetings, furious over news that the U.S. commander in chief may have compromised a vital source of information on the Islamic State and possibly Iran, according to a U.S. defense official in military planning.

"To them, it's horrifying," the official, who attended the meetings, told Foreign Policy. "Their first question was: 'What is going on? What is this?'"

White House officials are touting Trump's visit to Israel next week as a chance to show U.S. solidarity with its closest Middle East ally after eight years of friction between former President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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Info

Interior Ministry reports Hassan Rouhani wins Iran presidential election


RT
Sat, 20 May 2017 12:23 UTC
Hassan Rouhani
© President.ir/ / Reuters
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has secured the necessary majority in Friday's election, defeating his conservative rival, Ebrahim Raisi, according to the country's Interior Minister.

Rouhani has secured over 23.549 million votes, while Raisi has garnered around 15.786 million.

The rest of the candidates trailed far behind the front-runners, with Mostafa Mirsalim getting 478,215 votes and Mostafa Hashem Taba 219,450 votes at the latest count.

Earlier, the Interior Ministry reported that over 40 million ballots were cast by Iranians on Friday, indicating a turnout of 70 percent.
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Attention

Over 140 killed in Libya after UN-backed govt militia ravages rival military base


RT
Sat, 20 May 2017 12:15 UTC
damaged buildings in Libya
© Reuters
Dozens of troops and civilians have reportedly been slaughtered in an attack on an airbase in southern Libya. The attack was blamed on the militia backing the Tripoli-based government of National Accord (GNA), which denies that it sanctioned the carnage.

The attack unfolded Thursday afternoon at Brak Al-Shati airbase, which since December has been under control of the Libyan National Army (LNA), rivaling the government in Tripoli. LNA, headed by General Khalifa Haftar, does not recognize the authority of the GNA and is linked to the rival House of Representatives (HoR), the country's elected legislature, which operates from the city of Tobruk on Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast.

The so-called Third Force militia, hailing from the city of Misrata, which is loyal to the UN-backed government of Prime Minister Fayez Al Sarraj, launched an attack on the airbase as the LNA soldiers were returning from a military parade held there. The servicemen were not able to offer much resistance as they were unarmed, LNA spokesman Ahmad Al-Mimari said in a statement on Friday, as cited by AFP.

"Most of them were executed," Al-Mimari said.
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Star of David

Israeli security forces use rubber bullets & live ammo to quell Palestinian protests in West Bank, Gaza


RT
Sat, 20 May 2017 09:29 UTC
Palestinian protesters
© Ruptly
Dozens of people were injured after protests in support of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike turned violent Friday, with protesters igniting tires and hurling rocks at security forces, who responded with tear gas, grenades and life fire.

The rallies that swept through West Bank and along the Gaza Strip border were held as part of the so-called "Day of Rage" protest action in support of the prisoners in Israeli jails, who have been on hunger strike against squalid conditions of their incarceration since April 17.


In the West Bank city of Hebron, the protesters faced off with Israeli security forces, setting tires alight and pelting soldiers with stones. The IDF, in turn, fired rubber bullets, tear gas and stun grenades to break up the crowd.

Dozens of Palestinians reportedly suffered from the effects of tear gas inhalation in the village of Beit Ummar in Hebron, where protesters attempted to burn down an Israeli flag, Palestinian Ma'an news agency reported, citing local activists.

At least four Palestinians were injured by rubber bullets and three were treated for tear gas suffocation at a local hospital in the Bab al-Zawiya area of the city, Ma'an reported.

An Israeli border guard and a soldier have been mildly injured in the clashes in the village of Aboud, where at least 10 Palestinians were reported to be also wounded, including one who was shot with live ammunition.

Comment: See also:

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Bad Guys

Bilking the Canadian taxpayers' - money as backdrop to far-right violence in Ukraine

Julia Rozenblat
The New Cold War
Thu, 18 May 2017 00:00 UTC
Ukraine Nationalist Groups
© Valentyn Ogirenko / Reuters Activists of nationalist groups, Kiev, Ukraine.
The state is an apparatus of violence and coercion. So Vladimir Lenin claimed, and this is one of his theses rarely questioned by critics, even the strongest of them.

If, in the course of some processes, one state is demolished or its territory is seized by a neighbouring state, another state necessarily emerges in its place. Sometimes, though too rarely, an entirely new state could emerge promoting higher social values. This was the case throughout the twentieth century. But in today's world, in particular in the case of Ukraine, the impossible has become possible. Ukraine has introduced a new type of state, with a power base among independent groups of militarized "patriots" and who the government relies upon for much of its repressive apparatus.
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