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Willing slave Boris Johnson rejects calls to punish Israel over diplomat 'take down' plot


RT
Tue, 10 Jan 2017 19:28 UTC
Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson
© Gareth Fuller / ReutersBritain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has rejected calls to sanction the Israeli embassy in London after one of its diplomats was secretly filmed discussing with a Conservative staffer how British officials with a pro-Palestinian stance could be "taken down."

Speaking in the House of Commons on Tuesday, Johnson said diplomat Shai Masot was no longer working in London and that the Israeli embassy had issued a full apology.

The foreign secretary told MPs he considered the matter closed. Johnson was challenged by fellow Conservative MP Hugo Swire, who asked him to explain why Britain had not summoned the Israeli ambassador.

Swire cited the recent incident when Tel Aviv summoned Britain's ambassador to Israel after the UK backed a UN resolution condemning Israeli settlements.

The MP asked for the rationale behind the government's decision to overlook the incident on the basis the Israeli ambassador "makes a couple phone calls."

Johnson replied: "The Israeli ambassador made a very full apology for what had taken place and the diplomat in question seems no longer to be a functionary of the embassy in London - so whatever he may exactly have been doing here his cover may well be said to have been and well truly blown - so the matter can be considered closed."

Comment: See also:

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Chart Pie

Is it normal for Trump to have so many confirmation hearings in one week?

Ben Mathis-Lilley
Slate
Tue, 10 Jan 2017 18:24 UTC
Donald Trump
© Molly Riley/UPI
Is This Normal? is a new Slate series that will attempt to determine which controversial Trump World behaviors are outrageously unprecedented, which are outrageous but within the realm of what others have gotten away with, and which shouldn't even be considered outrageous at all.

The Issue

Senate Republicans have scheduled eight Trump administration Cabinet confirmation hearings to take place within a span of three days this week. (The Cabinet consists of the vice president, who is elected rather than confirmed, and the individuals who lead federal departments. The Senate also confirms other "Cabinet-level" figures—as in, people who attend Cabinet meetings—and agency directors.) Five of them will be ongoing on Wednesday, which is the same day Donald Trump is scheduled to hold a press conference in New York City.

Democratic senators have complained that this jam-packed schedule will prevent them from attending all of the hearings that they'd like to be present for and that the rush is preventing them from giving appropriate public scrutiny to nominees such as Alabama Sen. and would-be attorney general Jeff Sessions. Multiple outlets have also reported that the incoming administration has failed to complete standard background checks (which can include vetting by the FBI, IRS, and Office of Government Ethics) on nominees whose hearings are set to be held this week.

Is this normal?
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Attention

Russian UN envoy: Some UNSC members still favor fueling Syrian conflict and removing Assad over peace


Sputnik
Tue, 10 Jan 2017 19:15 UTC
Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin
© REUTERS/ Andrew KellyRussian Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin
Certain members of the UN Security Council are still fomenting the conflict in Syria and are seeking to remove President Bashar Assad's government rather than ending the war, Russian Envoy to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin said Tuesday.

"Work on Syria inside the Security Council has never been easy. Certain members of the council, which, let's be frank, contributed to the start of the conflict in Syria and are still fueling it, are unable to give up their aims of overthrowing the current government of Syria," Churkin told the Izvestia newspaper.

These diplomats seldom come up with constructive proposals and have been "demonizing" Syrian authorities as well as Russia, he added, noting that despite the difficulties, positive solutions began to emerge in late 2016.

The confrontation over Syria began to subside in late 2016, when we were able to adopt resolutions 2328 and 2336 on improving the situation in Aleppo and giving the go-ahead to December 29 Ankara agreements.
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Star of David

Overview of the barbaric human rights violations by Israel in Palestine for 2016


Staat Van Beleg
Sat, 07 Jan 2017 17:50 UTC
In the month of December 2016 Staat van Beleg could list 726 human rights violations (and 186 reports/analyses). The highest number we could document so far since the start of Staat van Beleg in July 2015.

2016 In Numbers

2016 was another difficult year for the Palestinian people. We could document almost 7000 violations (about 18 abuses every single day!) on the Palestinian people, their land and their properties by Israel. About 150 Palestinians have been killed last year, ranging from a baby of several months old to a man of 85 years old.

We will show you the numbers through some graphics below.
Violations by category
© Staat Van Beleg
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Info

Cambodia as an example of Chinese influence in the ASEAN

Dmitry Bokarev
New Eastern Outlook
Tue, 10 Jan 2017 17:36 UTC
Cambodia
For several years, the Asia-Pacific states have been concerned with the confrontation between China and a number of different states in the region over the South China Sea (SCS). China's opponents are the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) that are seeking support from the other states constituting the association. However, the association also includes supporters of China, and attempts to turn ASEAN into a site for the resolution of the SCS issue have failed several times.

The dispute over the SCS has troubled the ASEAN unity, splitting it into the supporters and opponents of China's policy. China and countries like Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines are involved in a confrontation over a number of islands and a considerable part of the waters surrounding them. All these states have access to the SCS. They are also supported by Singapore. Between Singapore and Malaysia lies the Strait of Malacca, which serves as a waterway for the ferry ships heading across the SCS. Thus, the economies of these countries depend on free navigation on the South China Sea, and they find China's claims running contrary to this concept. The US supports the opponents of China mainly because of its two goals: political (to retain influence in the region via friendship with these states) and economic (goods worth more than $5 trillion are shipped through the SCS and the Strait of Malacca every year). If China takes over full control of this region, the US might suffer great losses.
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Folder

Security Threats to Russia: FSB Counterespionage Successes of 2016

Filip Kovacevic
Newsbud
Wed, 28 Dec 2016 17:23 UTC
putin lavrov bortnikov naryshkin
Within a few hours of the brutal assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov in Ankara, the Russian president Vladimir Putin convened his inner national security team: the foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, the SVR (Russian foreign intelligence agency) director Sergey Naryshkin, and the FSB (Russian domestic law enforcement and counterintelligence agency) director Alexander Bortnikov.[1] The absence of the prime minister Dmitry Medvedev is easy to explain and I have done so at length in one of my earlier article.[2] In a nutshell, Medvedev is no longer considered an important player in the Russian political hierarchy and will soon be replaced.

However, the absence of the defense minister Sergey Shoigu is puzzling. Should not the GRU (Russian military intelligence agency) be also involved in developing a firm response to what is undoubtedly a shocking and unexpected blow to the Russian diplomatic and security establishment? Or is it perhaps the case that it was the GRU operatives who failed in their mission to warn their civilian counterparts on the imminence of a threat to the ambassador? It has barely been a year since the GRU itself suddenly lost its chief, general Igor Sergun, under what some have claimed were mysterious circumstances in the Middle East, though the official narrative insists that he died in Moscow.[3]
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Eye 1

Three realities you aren't being told about Afghanistan

Ulson Gunnar
New Eastern Outlook
Tue, 10 Jan 2017 17:19 UTC
Helicopters in Afghanistan
US commander of US Forces Afghanistan (USFOR-A) General John Nicholson's December 2016 briefing was paradoxical and perhaps indicative of the bankrupted foreign policy that defines America's occupation in Afghanistan.

The US Department of Defense published General Nicholson's full briefing titled, "Department of Defense Press Briefing by General Nicholson in the Pentagon Briefing Room." In it, three truths in particular emerged.
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Bad Guys

Aid worker killed by grenade in Afghanistan 'secretly worked with Britain's MI6'


RT
Tue, 10 Jan 2017 18:19 UTC
British soldiers
© Richard Schoenberg / Corbis via Getty Images
A British aid worker who was killed by a grenade in Afghanistan during a botched rescue attempt by US special forces was actually working secretly for MI6, according to investigators at the Intercept website.

Linda Norgrove was captured by Taliban insurgents in eastern Afghanistan in September 2010 while she was working for the US contractor agency Development Alternatives Incorporated (DAI).

In November 2010, amid fears she was about to be moved to Pakistan by her captors, US special forces launched a rescue mission which resulted in her death by a grenade thrown by her would-be liberators.

In an extensive investigation into the SEALs' track record - which compares their heroic public face with suppressed accusations of war crimes - the Intercept website claims a number of senior military and intelligence sources say she was working for UK foreign intelligence.
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Better Earth

Andrew Korybko's 2017 Forecast: China & Russia

Andrew Korybko
Katehon
Mon, 09 Jan 2017 21:59 UTC
china
Summary

China will have to confront the Three T's of Trump, trade, and Taiwan, as well as the progressively unfolding and American-provoked New Cold War that it's involved in with India, but Beijing could make positive geopolitical progress so long as its New Silk Road plans in Pakistan and ASEAN aren't derailed by Hybrid War.

The Three T's

Right off the bat, China will be forced to confront the incoming Trump Administration's hard-bargaining approach towards trade and Taiwan, with both variables being intertwined with one another in order to give the Manhattan dealmaker maximum leverage for his all-encompassing negotiations with Beijing. China is accustomed to the implicit 'gentlemen's agreement' that has been in play ever since the end of the Cold War, whereby the US and China occasionally criticize the trading ties between their two countries but generally refrain from taking any dramatically substantial steps to decouple their economies. Trump wants to change that, however, and it fills China with dread since it might result in an unexpected shock to its economic system. What is meant by this is that Chinese production is still heavily influenced by American investments and capital, and that if Trump creates enticing incentives for American companies to return back to their country and close up shop in China (or perhaps relocate elsewhere such to as ASEAN or India), then it might cumulatively contribute to socio-political issues inside of the People's Republic if this is done on a large enough scale and within a short period of time.

Comment: Previous instalments:

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Vader

Immature Obama determined to go out in a blaze of petulance in latest sanctions against Russian police chief

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Tue, 10 Jan 2017 16:53 UTC
Alexander Bastrykin
Alexander Bastrykin
Barack Obama remains determined to exit the Presidency in a blaze of petulance.

Yesterday he announced a further set of sanctions against Russia, using as his legal authority the Magnitsky Act.

The Magnitsky Act was passed by Congress in 2012, and imposed sanctions on a group of Russian individuals who the US Congress says are guilty of causing the death in prison of Sergey Magnitsky. This Act stemmed from a case involving allegations by the Russian authorities that the business Magnitsky whose accounts Magnitsky was handling - Hermitage Capital, which is run by the British businessman Bill Browder - was guilty of tax evasion, and Browder's cross allegations that a group of corrupt Russian police officers and Russian mobsters had used the false tax evasion allegations to seize some of Hermitage Capital's companies to carry out a tax fraud of their own.

The Russian authorities claim that Magnitsky was implicated in Browder's and Hermitage Capital's tax scam, and arrested him on that basis. He was held on charges in prison for a year but died shortly before he was due to be released.

There is massive controversy both about the truth of the tax claims and about the circumstances of Magnitsky's death. Browder - who has repeatedly though it seems wrongly referred to Magnitsky as a lawyer - claims Magnitsky was murdered. The Russian authorities deny this, and say he died of natural causes, though they admit the negligence of some of the prison officials tasked with looking after him.

Comment: Russian MPs have reacted to Obama's most recent move to poison relations between Trump and Putin by calling it "a hysteric fit of the departing Obama administration." Another MP noted:
"The Obama administration has persistently implemented its policy of straining relations between the United States and Russia. In their last days they seek to make it continuous, put Donald Trump in such conditions and force him into making such decisions that would ensure that this whole line is prolonged throughout the next period,"
One of the people included in the sanctions list, MP Andrey Lugovoy (LDPR), told RIA Novosti that he was simply "bewildered" by this development:
"Considering how many years have passed since the making of the so-called Magnitsky List, what could I do in the past year, or two, or three, or four?"


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