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Quenelle

FakeNews Fallout: WikiLeaks Suing CNN For Defamation


RT
Wed, 04 Jan 2017 17:45 UTC
CNN logo
© Erik Lesser/Global Look Press
WikiLeaks says it intends to sue CNN after a counter-terrorism analyst for the US cable news channel labeled Julian Assange a 'pedophile' on air.

In a tweet on Wednesday, the whistleblowing organization signalled its intention to bring legal action against CNN over the matter, tweeting: "We have issued instructions to sue CNN for defamation."


The WikiLeaks response relates to an appearance by Phil Mudd, a former CIA counter-terrorism official, on a CNN current affairs segment about Assange's recent interview with Fox News.

The Obama administration has accused Russia of interfering in the US election by sponsoring hacking groups to target the Democratic party.

During the exclusive sit down with Fox News' Sean Hannity, the WikiLeaks co-founder claimed that a "kid" could have hacked the emails of John Podesta, the campaign chair for Hillary Clinton. Assange denied that the Russian state was WikiLeaks' source for the emails the site leaked from key Democratic party figures.

On CNN's New Day program, presenter Chris Cuomo asked Mudd why he did not agree with Assange's denial that Russia was the source of leaked Democratic National Committee and Podesta documents. Mudd responded by saying the Fox News interview "skirted the bottom line [of] do you know if the Russian's were involved?... not 'where did you get the information'."

Comment: See also: 50 facts the world needs to know about the CIA's influence on media and spreading propaganda

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Star of David

'Pro-Israel' hawks a detriment to both US and Israel

Daniel Larison
The American Conservative
Wed, 28 Dec 2016 06:22 UTC
US ISrael Flag
© theantiglobalist.com
Bloomberg's editorial condemning the U.S. abstention on UNSCR 2334 is comically overwrought:
President Barack Obama's ill-advised decision to order the U.S. to abstain on a United Nations resolution condemning Israeli settlements breaks with past U.S. policy, undermines a vital ally and sets back the cause of Middle East peace.
There are many weak arguments against the recent Security Council resolution, but the claim that it "sets back the cause of Middle East peace" stands out for its sheer bad faith. There is a broad international consensus that settlement-building in the occupied territories is both illegal and a barrier to a negotiated resolution of the conflict. No one who is genuinely interested in securing a negotiated resolution of the conflict thinks that continued settlement construction makes a peace agreement more likely.

Comment: Warning Israel away from a ruinous path is way too late in this game. The 'ruinous path' has gotten them this far along, camouflaging the ploy enough to blindly lock in US support until it is a thinkless, automatic reaction. Programming. An obvious default of Bloomberg. Paranoia. An obvious default of Israel which thrives on its usefulness.

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Colosseum

Slovakia's PM calls on EU leaders to stop referendum 'adventures' - 'hazardous to EU and euro'


RT
Wed, 04 Jan 2017 19:25 UTC
slovakia EU flags
© Robert Harding
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has called on other EU leaders to stop holding referendums on domestic issues, adding that the votes are hazardous for the EU and the euro.

"I am asking EU leaders to stop with adventures like the British and Italian referendums... on domestic issues which pose a threat to the EU," Fico said on Monday.

"Britain is not a Eurozone country, Italy has a huge impact on the banking sector, the euro. What will we do if... there is a referendum in Italy on the euro and Italian citizens decide they don't want the euro?" the Slovak Prime Minister added.

Fico was referring to the UK's Brexit vote in June on leaving the EU, and last month's rejection of constitutional reform in Italy.

In June, the nationalist Slovak People's Party launched a petition to call a referendum on leaving the EU, but the motion was scrapped by the Slovak government.

The only successful referendum in the country was the 2003 vote on EU membership, with a 52 percent turnout and 92.5 percent in favor of joining the bloc.
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Bomb

Arab separatists claim two pipeline 'bombings' in Iran


RFE/RL
Wed, 04 Jan 2017 20:25 UTC
An Arab separatist movementhad blown up two oil pipelines in coordinated attacks in Iran's Khuzestan region
An Arab separatist movementhad blown up two oil pipelines in coordinated attacks in Iran's Khuzestan region
An Arab separatist group in Iran has claimed carrying out two pipeline bombings in the country's oil-rich southwest.

The Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Al-Ahwaz said on its website on January 4 that its militants had blown up two oil pipelines in coordinated attacks in the Khuzestan region two days earlier.

The Interior Ministry denied the attacks took place.

The statement from the separatist group said the attack was in response to Tehran signing new oil and gas agreements with foreign companies following last year's nuclear deal with world powers.
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X

US hysteria over domestic "election interference" may backfire internationally

Joseph Thomas
New Eastern Outlook
Wed, 04 Jan 2017 18:50 UTC
paper ballots voting interference
© Getty Images
The United States has recently claimed the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats from US territory as well as additional sanctions against the Russian state are in retaliation for what the Washington Post claims is "2016 election interference."

In the Post's article, "Obama administration announces measures to punish Russia for 2016 election interference," it's stated that:
The response, unveiled just weeks before President Obama leaves office, culminates months of internal debate over how to react to Russia's election-year provocations. In recent months, the FBI and CIA have concluded that Russia intervened repeatedly in the 2016 election, leaking damaging information in an attempt to undermine the electoral process and help Donald Trump take the White House.
The "damaging information" that was leaked, however, was disseminated by Wikileaks, and likely the result of an internal whistle-blower, not Russian operatives. Questions surrounding the veracity of America's claims are owed to a substantial lack of evidence provided by US departments and agencies involved in both the investigation and the punitive measures applied in its wake.

However, the US' reaction to what it claims is "2016 election interference" could significantly backfire, since the US itself is engaged in very real, overt election interference globally, and for decades. In fact, even as the US berated Russia for allegedly interfering in America's internal politics, its own organisations, including the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), funded by the US government, openly admitted they were leaking information regarding China's internal politics in efforts to undermine Beijing.
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Newspaper

Hacking Your Mind: Washington Post is richly rewarded for false news about Russia threat while public is deceived

Glenn Greenwald
The Intercept
Wed, 04 Jan 2017 17:20 UTC
washington post building
© Stelios Varias / Reuters
In the past six weeks, the Washington Post published two blockbuster stories about the Russian threat that went viral: one on how Russia is behind a massive explosion of "fake news," the other on how it invaded the U.S. electric grid. Both articles were fundamentally false. Each now bears a humiliating editor's note grudgingly acknowledging that the core claims of the story were fiction: The first note was posted a full two weeks later to the top of the original article; the other was buried the following day at the bottom.

The second story on the electric grid turned out to be far worse than I realized when I wrote about it on Saturday, when it became clear that there was no "penetration of the U.S. electricity grid" as the Post had claimed. In addition to the editor's note, the Russia-hacked-our-electric-grid story now has a full-scale retraction in the form of a separate article admitting that "the incident is not linked to any Russian government effort to target or hack the utility" and there may not even have been malware at all on this laptop.
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USA

Trump's pivot to China

James Corbett
The Corbett Report
Wed, 04 Jan 2017 18:10 UTC
Trump and China
© The Corbett Report
Happy New Year, everyone!

Remember 2016? Remember Brexit? And Pokemon Go? And the (s)election circus? And the Russian propaganda hype?

How could you forget? These stories, along with the usual mix of staged terror events, staged leaks, and the general setting of the stage for the new(est) world order, will forever be cemented in the minds of an increasingly-traumatized public as the touchstones of a year that seemed to spiral out of control.

But of the many blink-and-you-probably-missed-it stories that slipped through the cracks of the 24/7 news cycle over the past year, perhaps none is quite as portentous as the story of the USNS Bowditch.

The USNS Bowditch is an oceanographic survey vessel that was deployed by the US Navy in the South China Sea. On an otherwise routine mission to recover two unmanned naval drones in an area 50 miles from Subic Bay in the Philippines last month, the Bowditch encountered a problem. The vessel was approached by a Chinese Dalang-III class submarine, which dropped a boat in the water 500 yards from the Bowditch and scooped up one of the drones. The Bowditch radioed the Chinese ship to ask for the drone back, but the Chinese responded that they were busy and promptly sailed away.

These actions kicked off five days of diplomatic tit-for-tat, including some goading tweets from President-elect Trump and some biting op-eds from China's mouthpiece media. The Americans said this was a dangerous and unnecessary provocation, as the drone is a non-military vessel and only collects oceanographic data. The Chinese protested that they did nothing wrong and that the vessel was within the bounds of their territorial claim to the South China Sea. It seemed as if this little skirmish could be the start of a major international incident.

...But then the Chinese returned the vessel after some "friendly consultations" between the two countries, and that was apparently that.
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Caesar

Russian MOD slams CIA Director: 'Someday they will answer for war crimes'

Viktor Astafyev (translated by Kristina Kharlova)
RT / Fort Russ
Wed, 04 Jan 2017 14:13 UTC
Russia Defence Ministry Moscow
Russian Defence Ministry, Moscow
Before accusing Moscow of using the "scorched earth" policy in Syria, the head of the CIA, John Brennan should remember the history of this term, said the official representative of the Ministry of Defense of Russian Federation Igor Konashenkov. He said that such tactics have been used by the United States since 1945, when the U.S. used nuclear weapons in Japan.

"The less time that remains until the departure of the current American administration, the louder is the angry rattle of the losers-Russophobes among its members", — commented Konashenkov about the statement of the CIA chief John Brennan about the alleged use of the "scorched earth" tactic by Russians in Syria.

Comment: Further reading: John Kerry admits that Russia entered Syrian war to stop ISIS, U.S. used ISIS to pressure Assad

Franz Klintsevich, first deputy chairman of the Defense and Security Committee of the Russian parliament's upper house, called Brennan's remarks "unfounded":
"CIA Director John Brennan has not provided a single piece of evidence on Russia using scorched earth policies in Syria. His statements are as unfounded as accusations of Moscow carrying out cyberattacks during the US presidential elections," Klintsevich told RIA Novosti.

"Did the United States leave anything but scorched earth, which still only yields terrorists, after the invasion of Iraq?" Klintsevich said.
A dose of reality:
As the battle for Aleppo ended in decisive victory for the Syrian army, Russian medical personnel rushed to provide assistance to sick and weary civilians.

While the battle for the city may be over, Russian doctors in Aleppo are now engaged in a different kind of fight: a fight for the lives, health and well-being of the local civilians.


Working in makeshift tents practically around the clock, with little time between shifts to grab some foot or take a nap, Russian medics at the al-Mahaledzh camp treat about 140 people a day.

Lt. Col. Oleg Guryan, a medical officer stationed at the camp, told Ruptly that most of their patients are people seeking treatment for "purulent diseases."

"People with injuries [which became] infected after mine-explosive and gunshot wounds come here. People haven't bandaged [their wounds] for a very long time - for five-seven days and even more," Guryan said.

The first Russian mobile hospitals were deployed to Aleppo in November 30. On December 5 a mortar attack against one of these facilities, carried out by terrorists entrenched in the city, claimed the lives of two Russian nurses, Nadezhda Durachenko and Galina Mikhailova, and injured Col. Vadim Arsentyev, a pediatrician.


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Star of David

US aid package makes it cheap for Israel to start a war

Grant Smith
AntiWar.com
Wed, 04 Jan 2017 17:47 UTC
us aid israel
Although Israeli racism and daily war crimes are very clear, the US pays multi billions to the Israeli occupation in different forms of assistance
Funds for Israeli military industries and U.S. commodity purchases

On September 14, 2016, the United States and Israel signed a "memorandum of understanding" (MOU) pledging $38 billion in "security assistance" to Israel over ten years. The agreement replaces a similar MOU signed by the Bush administration. However, the Obama administration claimed two key differences on its MOU web page. First, Israel is not allowed to lobby Congress for hundreds of millions in additional funds from its embassy and US affinity organizations. Second, more of the ten-year allotment must be spent on US military contractors rather than inside Israel. However, "escape clauses" in the written agreement - which the White House never released - make such limitations unlikely. Most worrying, the MOU dangles Israel a blank check if it launches war on its neighbors, while continuing to provide the IDF with the free food and fuel it would need to sustain such a conflict.
US spending Israel

Comment: More background on the deal

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Quenelle

Trump mocks intelligence community for failing to prove 'Russian hacking'

Sergey Gladysh
The Duran
Wed, 04 Jan 2017 13:47 UTC
Trump
© Shannon Stapleton / Reuters
Donald Trump has called out the intelligence community for failing to provide him with evidence of Russian hacking.

In his most recent comment on Twitter, President-elect Donald Trump expressed his frustration with the intelligence community over the fact that it continues to delay a crucial briefing on the alleged Russian hacking of the US election.

Trump's comment appears to suggest that the entire narrative is made up and that the briefing delay is a testament to the fact that the intelligence community simply doesn't have a case to present.

Comment: VP-elect Pence said today:
"The President-elect has expressed his very sincere and healthy skepticism about intelligence conclusions," Pence told reporters. "Given some of the intelligence failures of the recent years the President-elect has made it clear that he's skeptical about some of the conclusions."
Trump tweeted some more today:







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