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SOTT Focus: SOTT News Snapshot: September 9, 2016 edition - Korean nukes, creepy clowns, and Syrian solutions


Sott.net
Fri, 09 Sep 2016 12:59 UTC
brandon marshall
Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall kneels during the national anthem before Thursday's game with the Carolina Panthers.
Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall has joined Colin Kaepernick (as well as Eric Reid and Jeremy Lane) in his courageous protest against racism and police brutality, kneeling during the national anthem while his teammates stood. After the game, he told reporters, "I'm not against the military, I'm not against the police or America. I'm just against social injustice." He plans to continue refusing to stand for the foreseeable future, and like Kaepernick, will disclose money to charities that help veterans.

Given the hysterical response to Kaepernick's relatively benign form of protest, Marshall will surely face a firestorm of criticism from ignorant fanatics. Thankfully, other NFL athletes plan to join the protest, and members of Jeremy Lane's team, the Seattle Seahawks, are reportedly planning to make a unified statement on Sunday's game with the Miami Dolphins. Linebacker Bobby Wagner: "Anything that we want to do, it's not going to be individual. It's going to be a team thing because that's what the world needs to see. The world needs to see people coming together versus being individuals."

The game will take place on September 11th. Hopefully they go through with it. The U.S., and the world by consequence, has descended even further into madness since that day. 9/11 convinced Americans that the threat to freedom comes from the outside. It doesn't. America has enough problems of its own. It's past time they were brought to light.
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Arrow Down

Federal judge denies Sioux tribe request to halt Dakota Access pipeline construction


RT
Fri, 09 Sep 2016 19:44 UTC
Dakota protest
© Andrew Cullen / ReutersProtesters demonstrate against the Energy Transfer Partners' Dakota Access oil pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, U.S. September 9, 2016.
A federal judge has denied the Standing Rock Sioux tribe's request for a temporary injunction to halt the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline.

In a one-page ruling issued by US District Judge James Boasberg in Washington, DC on Friday, described the government's relationship with the tribes as being "contentious and tragic."

The judge said the Army Corp of Engineers "has likely complied with the NHPA (National Historic Preservation Act) and that the Tribe has not shown it will suffer injury that would be prevented by any injunction."

Judge Boasberg ordered the parties to appear for a status conference on September 16, according to the Associated Press.

In its lawsuit filed in August, the tribe had challenged the Army Corps of Engineers' decision to grant permits at more than 200 water crossings for Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners' $3.8 billion pipeline.

They argued the projected violated several federal laws, including the National Historic Preservation Act, and will harm water supplies. The tribe also says ancient sacred sites have been disturbed.

Comment: See also:
  • The Wall Street mega-banks backing the Dakota Pipeline
  • G4S admits it guards Dakota Pipeline as protesters get attacked by dogs


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Dominoes

India seeks more than $200 billion to expand its arsenal


Sputnik
Fri, 09 Sep 2016 09:18 UTC
Indian soldiers
© AFP 2016/ ROUF BHAT
For India to meet equipment and weapons requirements necessary to expand its military capabilities in the next eleven years the country will need about $233 billion. There is some doubt as to whether the funds can be raised in that time.

The equipment and weapons are listed in the Long Term Integrated Perspective Plan (LTIPP) for 2012-2027 and, according to Defense News, funding will be sourced chiefly through Capital Head, the Indian procurement budget. Defense spending will need to increase by at least 10 percent if the funding target is to be met.

Comment: Also, India plans to acquire Predator drones from US.

For more reading:

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Blue Planet

UK Baroness Cox: 'Peace in Syria can't be reach via Western interference'


RT
Fri, 09 Sep 2016 14:52 UTC
Baroness Cox
© BBC ONEBaroness Caroline Cox, people's advocate
Bashar Assad has enormous support both from his people and unarmed opposition groups for his fight against Islamic State, despite the West's push for regime change in Syria, says Baroness Caroline Cox. The UK House of Lords peer was speaking to RT after meeting the Syrian leader.

Crossbencher [independent or minor party member] Baroness Cox, who visited Damascus as part of a British delegation earlier in September, spoke exclusively to RT about her trip. She said Syrian President Assad himself wants to see democratic change and a strong civil society in the country, but believes that's unrealistic at the moment unless the threat posed by Islamists is eliminated and Western pressure on the government is stopped.

"My thoughts reflect the voice of the Syrian people who we met, we were in Damascus and Aleppo, we met very many Syrian people, political leaders, faith leaders, Christian and Muslims, and local people," Cox said. "And they would say that the West plans for regime change, which would be disastrous ... and they would become another Iraq."

Comment: Baroness Cox of Queensbury is a distinguished human rights advocate, making secret expeditions to buy freedom for slaves captured by Arab traders in Sudan, hazardous treks into Communist Poland, Moscow, warring Nagomo Karabakh, Burma and NE Africa, taking aid to war victims and bringing back stories and news from dangerous parts of the world. She was appointed a Life Peer and formerly deputy speaker of the House of Lords.

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Binoculars

UK intel watchdog: MI5 spies break dozens of privacy rules...'by mistake'


RT
Fri, 09 Sep 2016 12:43 UTC
Thames House
© Peter Nicholls/ReuterThames House London, HQ MI5
British spies have been censured by the government's intelligence watchdog for breaking dozens of agency rules last year, including failing to obtain authorization to conduct surveillance and plugging cell phones into computer systems. Security services failed to follow procedures on 83 occasions, twice the number of mistakes made in 2014, the watchdog's report stated. Intelligence Services Commissioner Sir Mark Walter said that all of these errors had led to an intrusion into privacy "to some degree."

Errors made by British spooks included failing to obtain authorization to conduct surveillance, failing to renew authorizations, and operating outside the parameters set out in authorizations in the erroneous belief they were authorized.

Some 67 of the 83 mistakes were made by Britain's domestic spy agency MI5, while 11 were made by overseas security service MI6, and three by listening post GCHQ. Walter said MI5 obtains a "significantly larger number of warrants and authorisations" than other agencies and that the error rate is proportionally low.

Comment: Regarding even one 'mistake': at this level of intel and surveillance, the rules and protocol should be crystal clear and impeccably enforced. But, spy rules are cumbersome and commoners are, after all, just a burgeoning bunch of numbers in a system. Sloppy and careless infringements on public rights? Who can (without repercussions) complain about that?

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TV

Tory MP Kawczynski: BBC plagued by groupthink, RT critics ignorant about Russia


RT
Thu, 08 Sep 2016 21:20 UTC
MP Daniel Kawczynski
© www.bbc.co.ukMP Daniel Kawczynski: "We should celebrate broadcasting diversity."
The BBC has requested additional funds to fend off RT, whose audience it says has "increased sharply" and which has a "very successful" social media presence. We asked a politician from the ruling Conservatives to comment on the battle of the international news networks. The BBC submitted its report on the Russian media sphere earlier this year, as part of a wide-ranging parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee inquiry that seeks to examine every aspect of the UK's relationship with Russia.

While the authors spent time criticizing the lack of media freedom inside the country, and emphasizing its Russian service's own success in reaching the local audience, a large part of the testimony focused on the rise of RT. While it points out that RT's television viewing audience rose by 60 percent between June and December last year, it says that on key issues, such as coverage of the Ukrainian conflict, "both politicians and media commentators [are] accusing it of acting as a Kremlin mouthpiece."

In contrast, the BBC says that it "has played a significant role in providing impartial and objective reporting of the Ukraine crisis" and claims it needs an "increased digital presence" in Russia's own language internet, as well as "enhanced news bulletins" and more staff to up its news-gathering capacity. The BBC is facing real-terms cuts after being forced to pay for over-75s TV licenses that form the bulk of its budget, though the government has channeled extra money to fund its World Service programs.

But the Polish-born Daniel Kawczysnki, who has served as an Eastern Europe Special Advisor to the government of David Cameron, believes that the BBC's antagonistic approach to its younger Russian rival is unwarranted. Kawczynski, 44, who has been MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham since 2005, also accuses the corporation, and the government of being "narrow" in their approach to Russia, and advocates greater engagement.

Comment: BBC outlined to Westminster's Foreign Affairs Committee why RT's success should create panic within the UK establishment in challenging the Brit message of "truth and fairness." Part of the problem stems from the BBC towing the Whitehall line on all foreign policy issues and has done this for decades. Examples, as exhibited by its political staff recently: biased coverage of the Scottish Independence debate and blatant hostility to Jeremy Corbyn. To counteract RT, which has a fraction of BBC's operating budget, BBC is once again seeking an increase in funding...as if more money will somehow transform spoon-fed propaganda into truth.

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Chess

Russia and Israel: The neocon dilemma

Stephen J. Sniegoski
Consortium News
Wed, 07 Sep 2016 17:47 UTC
PutinNetanyahu
© www.washingtontimes.comGripping! Check out the expressions and body language...!
A great brouhaha has erupted in the U.S. presidential campaign over charges that Donald Trump is a Kremlin tool because of his desire for friendly relations with Russia.

Trump is being condemned from almost all quarters, even by those Democrats who in the past could be categorized as peaceniks, but the strongest opposition to Trump comes from the neoconservatives, who are the most ardent in taking a hard line on Russia. A number of them are actively supporting Hillary Clinton after being allied with Republicans since Ronald Reagan ran for president in 1980.

Now, the neocons are noted for being staunchly pro-Israel, maintaining that Israeli and American interests coincide. Yet neither they nor, for that matter, the American mainstream media have acknowledged the fact that Israel and Russia are developing a close relationship, which encompasses economic and security measures.
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Chess

Approaching checkmate? Russia continues to stack up military & diplomatic wins in Middle East

Danielle Ryan
RT
Thu, 08 Sep 2016 17:48 UTC
Russia
© Vadim Savitsky / ReutersRussian military jets are seen at Hmeymim air base in Syria
Moscow's engagement in the Middle East is about more than simply its national interests. It's about sending a message that the rules of the game have changed; that the unipolar world is in its twilight years.

Russia's presence and influence in the Middle East since the collapse of the Soviet Union has been extremely limited. For context, during the early years of Boris Yeltsin's rule, even the former Soviet bloc was disregarded as a foreign policy priority for the new Russian Federation. Instead, Yeltsin and his foreign minister Andrei Kozyrev focused on securing Russia's entry into Western international organizations. Committed to a fully Western course, Yeltsin and Kozyrev supported sanctions on Iraq, Libya and Yugoslavia, initially supported the US bombing of Iraq in 1993 and began to neglect relations with Asian and Middle Eastern nations.

In recent years, however, as Moscow regained its economic and military strength, and as it became clear that Russia was not a desired member of the Western club of nations — that all began to change. The winds of change had already begun to blow in the late 90s when Kozyrev was replaced as foreign minister by Yevgeny Primakov, but economically and geopolitically weakened as it was, there was very little Moscow could do at that time to influence external conflicts. Fast-forward a few more years and Russia could finally begin to etch out a new, independent role for itself in the Middle East.
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Document

Integrate or leave: Merkel's Bavaria allies want enshrined in law 'dominant' German-Christian values


RT
Fri, 09 Sep 2016 17:27 UTC
Bavaria
© Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters
The Bavarian ruling party and Merkel's ally CSU has proposed a set of new measures aimed at toughening Germany's refugee policy and fostering integration and particularly called for enshrining the priority of the German traditional and Christian values in the legislation.

"Germany must stay Germany," says the document by the Christian Social Union party (CSU), which was published by the Bavarian Kurier daily. "We are against our open-to-the-world country being changed through migration and inflow of refugees," it adds, emphasizing that "it is not the Germans, who should look up to the refugees..." but, on the contrary those who come to Germany should adopt German culture.

The paper also lashes out at the multi-culturalism policy advocated by Merkel. It proposes to introduce a"dominant culture" (Leitkultur) rule in Bavaria that would mean the opposite to multi-culturalism and would encompass all the German traditional national and Christian values as well as customs and traditions.
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Stock Down

Reality check Ukraine: Russian claim for repayment of $3 billion goes to trial in January

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Fri, 09 Sep 2016 15:43 UTC
Poroshenko
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko visited the Lviv region on August 18.
Confirmation that Russia's claim for repayment of its $3 billion debt goes for trial in January increases pressure on Ukraine amidst mood of deepening depression and malaise.

Claims that Ukraine would be able to keep the case Russia is bringing against it in the Commercial Court in London for repayment of its $3 billion debt to Russia going indefinitely, appear to have been proved wrong.

The Russian Finance Ministry is now saying that the case will go for trial on 17th January 2017. The trial will last 3 days, and is due to conclude on 20th January 2017.

It is unlikely the Commercial Court will hand down Judgment on 20th January 2017, the last day of the trial. More probably the Judgment will be handed down a few weeks later.

Comment: Further reading:

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