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Pirates

ISIS leader Baghdadi threatens Turkey & Saudi Arabia in dubious audio message - allegedly recorded in Mosul


RT
Thu, 03 Nov 2016 16:06 UTC
al-Baghdadi
© East News/ Balkis PressThe Big Bad.
Islamic State's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who is reportedly hiding out in the besieged city of Mosul, released his first message since 2015, urging followers to wage all-out war and take the fighting into Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

In the recorded message, the Islamic State (IS, previously ISIS/ISIL) chief also expressed confidence that the terrorist group would ultimately be victorious in fending off the Iraqi forces and allied militias trying to retake Mosul, where he declared the 'caliphate' two years ago.

The 31-minute-long recording, the authenticity of which could not be verified, was released by Islamic State supporters on Thursday, according to Reuters.

In the message, which does not specifically refer to Mosul, al-Baghdadi threatens unbelievers with suicide attacks and rivers of blood.

Comment: Speaking of dubious reports, Iraqi Kurdistan leader Barzani's chief of staff is sure Baghdadi is in Mosul:
In an interview on Wednesday, Fuad Hussein, the chief of staff of Iraqi Kurdistan's head, Massoud Barzani, said that, though he has been lying low for the past eight or nine months, Baghdadi is most likely still alive and in the city.

"Baghdadi is there and, if he is killed, it will mean the collapse of the whole [IS] system," Hussein argued, pointing to the vulnerability of Islamic State's (IS, ISIS/ISIL) command structure, which has no suitable replacement for Baghdadi. According to Hussein, IS' leader has had to completely rely on other terrorist commanders in Mosul and the nearby city of Tal Afar, a largely Turkmen-populated city in the Nineveh Province.


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Stock Up

Chief European economist: Russian economy is coming out of recession


Sputnik
Thu, 03 Nov 2016 15:29 UTC
ruble coin
© AFP 2016/ ALEXANDER NEMENOV
Russia's economy will grow some 1.5 percent after 2018, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) chief economist Sergei Guriev told Sputnik.

"We think that Russia is coming out of recession right now. It is a complicated concept, because when you look at quarter to quarter, you see one figure, but when you look year to year, you get different numbers. If we look at it year to year, then the recession would continue in the second half of 2016, but when you look at quarter to quarter, it would end [in 2016]. The situation is complicated, but the next year will begin with a growth of 1.2 percent annually," Guriev said.

Guriev also said that although EBRD has no official prognosis for Russia's economy after 2017, he expects country's economy to grow some 1.5 percent after 2018.
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Info

As Iran celebrates the 444-day siege of the US embassy, commander says US in 'strong decline'

AFP
Daily Mail
Thu, 03 Nov 2016 15:33 UTC
Iranian women walk past the former US embassy in Tehran
© Atta Kenare (AFP)Iranian women walk past the former US embassy in Tehran on November 3, 2016, during a demonstration marking the start of its 1979 siege.
A senior Iranian military official welcomed Thursday what he said was the "strong decline" of the United States, during celebrations marking the start of the 1979 US embassy siege.

"America is no longer number one and the first power of the world," deputy Revolutionary Guards commander Hossein Salami told thousands gathered outside the former US mission in Tehran.

"America's political will can no longer manage political and military development in... the world of Islam. America's political power has strongly declined."
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Eye 2

Pay to play: Ukraine oligarch, big Clinton Foundation donor, demanded meeting with Bill to discuss Maidan failure

Alex Christoforou
The Duran
Wed, 02 Nov 2016 15:22 UTC
ukrain oligarch clinton
Ukrainian oligarch Victor Pinchuk and wife Elena Franchuk with Bill Clinton
Wikileaks latest dump shows Ukraine oligarch Victor Pinchuk involved in pay-to-play exchange with The Clinton Foundation.

Wikileaks has just released another 1,135 John Podesta emails, bringing the total to 43,104 with seven days left until the November 8th US elections.

The latest release shows more Clinton Foundation pay-to-play arrangements, but not with Morocco kings or Saudi princes, but with a Ukraine oligarch.

In an email from President Clinton's Director of Foreign Policy, Amitabh Desai, to Hillary Clinton's inner circle (including Huma Abedin and John Podesta), we see the Clinton Foundation's biggest donor, billionaire Victor Pinchuk, push Hillary Clinton staff to either set up a "private" meeting with Bill Clinton (aka WJC), or "bring together a few western leaders to show support for Ukraine"...with WJC present at the event to show his commitment to "the county [sic] and for him [Victor Pinchuk]."

We are betting that Pinchuk was planning on leveraging Bill Clinton's presence to display that the future President (via her husband) was fully behind the oligarch and his faltering plan to pivot west.

The email exchange paints a picture of a Ukraine oligarch "relentlessly following up" to expose his connection to the Clinton family, given that (as Desai wrote) Pinchuk "is under Putin's heel right now, feeling a great degree of pressure and pain for his many years of nurturing stronger ties with the West."

It's important to note that Pinchuk was a big supporter of the Maidan coup...a foreign policy debacle that Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland (another Hillary Clinton state department protégé) helped spearhead.

Comment: The Clintons will sell themselves to anyone.

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Chart Bar

Latest survey from White House Watch shows Trump with 3-point lead over Killary


Rasmussen Reports
Thu, 03 Nov 2016 15:23 UTC
Killary and Trump
© Daniel Acker-Bloomberg/Getty Images
Republican Donald Trump has a three-point lead in Rasmussen Reports' White House Watch survey. Among voters who are certain how they will vote, Trump now has over 50% support.

The latest national telephone and online survey of Likely U.S. Voters shows Trump leading Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton 45% to 42%. Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson has four percent (4%) support, and Green Party hopeful Jill Stein picks up just one percent (1%). Two percent (2%) like another candidate, and four percent (4%) are still undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Clinton and Trump have been tied for the previous two days. This is the first time Trump's been ahead in the White House Watch in nearly two weeks, but it remains to be seen whether this is the start of a trend or a one-day hiccup.

Eighty-eight percent (88%) of voters say they are now certain how they will vote. Among these voters, Trump has a 10-point lead over Clinton - 53% to 43%. Johnson gets two percent (2%) and Stein one percent (1%). This is the first time any candidate has crossed the 50% mark. Among those who still could change their minds, it's Clinton 36%, Trump 36%, Johnson 22% and Stein six percent (6%).
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Question

Pepe Escobar: What will it take to finally bring Teflon-coated Killary to justice?

Pepe Escobar
RT
Thu, 03 Nov 2016 11:36 UTC
Hillary cheater
Virtually the whole planet holds its collective breath at the prospect of Hillary Clinton possibly becoming the next President of the United States (POTUS).

How's that humanly possible, as the (daily) Bonfire of The Scandals - relentlessly fed by WikiLeaks revelations and now converging FBI investigations - can now be seen from interstellar space?

It's possible because Hillary Clinton, slouching through a paroxysm of manufactured hysteria, is supported by virtually the whole US establishment, a consensual neocon/neoliberalcon War Party/Wall Street/corporate media axis.

But History has a tendency to show us there's always a straw that breaks the camel's back.

This could be it - as revealed by WikiLeaks; March 2, 2015, the day when John Podesta wrote, "we are going to have to dump all those emails."

Comment: Killary's near-perfect ability to dodge responsibility for her numerous crimes may finally be coming to an end - her establishment support base appears to be having second thoughts:

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Chess

British High Court rules Theresa May must get Parliamentary authority before leaving EU


RT
Thu, 03 Nov 2016 15:16 UTC
theresa may
© Stephane De Sakutin / AFPBritish Prime minister Theresa May
In a major blow for Prime Minister Theresa May, the British government has lost its case for making the sole call on triggering Article 50, the formal process to begin negotiations to leave the European Union.

Three senior judges ruled that Theresa May does not have the power to use the royal prerogative and trigger Article 50 without prior authority of Parliament.

The government had argued it would not give MPs a say on Brexit negotiations ahead of invoking the mechanism.

Government lawyers had attempted to argue that the prerogative powers May demanded were legitimate as they were the only way to put into effect "the will of the people" who voted Leave in the June referendum.

The High Court ruling is seen as a defeat for the defenders of a 'hard Brexit.'

The High Court ruling read: "We hold that the Secretary of State does not have power under the Crown's prerogative to give notice pursuant to Article 50 of the TEU for the United Kingdom to withdraw from the European Union."
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Vader

Collateral damage: Wikileaks exposes Obama's failed ISIS policy

Alex Christoforou
The Duran
Wed, 02 Nov 2016 15:02 UTC
hillary obama
Brent Budowsky warns John Podesta, "there will be more terror attacks in America before the election."

On December 12, 2015, John Podesta got a note from Brent Budowsky (brentbbi@webtv.net), a one time U.S. Senate staffer for the late Texan Lloyd Bentsen, warning the Hillary Clinton campaign to change it's position on ISIS, and disassociate from Obama's ISIS strategy...

The real bombshell comes when Budowsky sends the warning to Podesta...
"If I am right, and there will be more terror attacks in America before the election, this strategy could be a death ray to her candidacy in a general election."
Finally Budowsky lays out a strategy to fight ISIS that involves "at least 20,000 ground troops with 3,000 American and at least 10,000 from Sunni Muslim nations."

So much for Hillary not placing boots on the ground in a Middle East mess she helped create.
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Che Guevara

Duterte calls US 'fools and monkeys' after US halts sale of rifles to Philippines, threatens to turn to Russia and China for arms


RT
Wed, 02 Nov 2016 15:11 UTC
duterte
© Lean Daval Jr / Reuters
The Philippines may turn to Russia or China for arms supplies, its controversial president, Rodrigo Duterte, has said after Washington halted the planned sale of 26,000 rifles to the country.

"Look at these monkeys, the 26,000 firearms we wanted to buy, they don't want to sell,"Duterte said during a televised speech on Wednesday. "Son of a b****, we have many homemade guns here. These American fools," he added, as cited by Reuters.

According to the president, the Philippines may well find other sources to buy weapons if the US refuses to cooperate. "Russia, they are inviting us. China also. China is open, anything you want, they sent me a brochure saying we select there, we'll give you," he said. "But I am holding off because I was asking the military if they have any problem. Because if you have, if you want to stick to America, fine," Duterte added.

The Philippines leader, who has a reputation for bad-mouthing Americans, said that he was "rude" to the US because "they were rude at me." He stressed that he used to believe in Washington, but has recently lost any respect for America.
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Sherlock

Russian MoD: Experts collecting evidence at site of anti-gov Aleppo chemical attack


RT
Thu, 03 Nov 2016 15:06 UTC
aleppo chemical attacks
© Ruptly
Russian military experts have been dispatched to the site of an alleged chemical attack in a government-held area of Aleppo that killed two Syrian servicemen and injured some 40 civilians. Russia is to probe samples of the substance fired by militants.

"Militants who have been striving in the past days to break though the Syrian Army's exterior defense ring of Aleppo at any cost have used toxic substances multiple times," Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said Thursday, as cited by RIA Novosti. He added that the analysis of the samples retrieved by the Russian experts in the area will be carried out in Russia at a laboratory accredited by the chemical watchdog OPCW.

"Experts of the Russian Defense Ministry are equipped with all the necessary technical means of carrying out an express analysis, filtering and delivering samples to the Russian Federation," Konashenkov said, adding that those "will be analyzed at the laboratory of chemical-analytical control at the Scientific Center of the Troops of Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense that is accredited by the Organization for the Prohibition of the Chemical Weapons (OPCW)."

The spokesman also noted that Russia has not been hitting any targets in Aleppo for 18 days, thus "fully complying with the moratorium on any actions in the area around Aleppo."
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