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'You're welcome': Snowden casts light on Guccifer 2.0 NSA hack


RT
Tue, 16 Aug 2016 16:35 UTC
American whistleblower Edward Snowden
© Mathias Loevgreen Bojesen / Reuters
The files released by a hacker group that claims to have breached the NSA are authentic, whistleblower Edward Snowden has said, explaining the documents' importance and potential impact on the US elections and relations with allies around the world.

Over the weekend, a mysterious group called Shadow Brokers posted "samples" of files purloined from the Equation Group - widely believed to be a front for the National Security Agency - and said it would sell the rest in exchange for bitcoin. The NSA has yet to comment on the authenticity of the files.

Snowden, who blew the whistle on NSA surveillance operations in 2013, posted a series of tweets on Tuesday with his take on the hack.

"NSA malware staging servers getting hacked by a rival is not new. A rival publicly demonstrating they have done so is," the whistleblower wrote, adding, "I suspect this is more diplomacy than intelligence, related to the escalation around the DNC hack."

Comment: Also read:

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Crusader

Man of the people: Embattled Labour leader Corbyn sits on floor with commuters for 3-hour train ride


RT
Tue, 16 Aug 2016 16:22 UTC
Jeremy Corbyn on 3 hour bus ride
© Stuart / TwitterShook his hand and wished him all the best as he travelled on a London bus late at night with the riff raff.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has been filmed joining seatless commuters on the floor during a three-hour train ride to debate leadership challenger Owen Smith. By contrast, Corbyn's rival was previously exposed enjoying first class travel at taxpayer expense.

Freelance filmmaker Yannis Mendez, who is working for the Guardian to follow Corbyn and volunteers for his campaign, made the footage while they were on their way from London to Newcastle.

From his spot on the floor, where he chose to sit instead of upgrading to first class, Corbyn says: "This is a problem that many passengers face every day, commuters and long distance travelers. Today this train is completely ram-packed. The staff are absolutely brilliant, working really hard to help everybody.

"The reality is there are not enough trains, we need more of them - and they're also incredibly expensive."
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Clipboard

Diplomacy blunder: Swedish FM says Turks allow child sex, Turks tell her to get her facts straight


Sputnik
Tue, 16 Aug 2016 16:14 UTC
Margot Wallström
© AFP 2016/ Bernd Von JutrczenkaMargot Wallström
Turkey and Sweden have found themselves on the brink of a diplomatic debacle, after Sweden's Foreign Minister triggered a storm with a tweet that accused Ankara of "legalizing sex with underage children."

Following a bitter diplomatic row on the web, Sweden's ambassador was summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry, Swedish national broadcaster SVT reported.

"It is scandalous for a foreign minister to post such a tweet based on false information or speculation," Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in televised comments, explaining the decision to summon the Swedish envoy.

Earlier, Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström had used her official Twitter account to call on Turkey to reverse its "decision to allow sex with children under 15." The tweet was later lambasted by her Turkish colleague Cavusoglu as "unacceptable." He also slammed Wallström for irresponsible behavior, as well as spreading lies and slander.

​In the follow-up to the Twitter squabble, Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek told Wallström: "You are clearly misinformed. There is no such stupid thing in Turkey. Please get your facts right."

Comment: Wallström clearly blundered here. As the article makes clear, she has a good record: recognizing Palestine, slamming Saudi Arabia. With regard to this Turkish law, she should have done some basic research.

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Info

Into the fray: Chinese military to provide 'aid and training assistance' to Syrian government

Liu Zhen
South China Morning Post
Tue, 16 Aug 2016 16:09 UTC
Soldiers of China's People's Liberation Army
© Damir Sagolj / Reuters
The Chinese military will provide aid and training assistance to the Syrian government, as a Chinese military envoy agreed with Syrian defense minister in Damascus on Sunday.

The latest move is another step taken by Beijing to strengthen engagement in the Middle East. Beijing appointed Xie Xiaoyan, its former ambassador to Iran, as its special envoy to Syria in March.

The Chinese military delegation to Syria, headed by rear admiral Guan Youfei, director of international cooperation at the Central Military Commission, met Fahd Jassem al-Freij, Syrian vice prime minister and minister of defence, Xinhua reported on Tuesday.

Comment: This move will be a helpful game changer in Syria.

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Eye 2

Gory pictures of blisters suffered by Kurdish fighters are the first evidence that Daesh jihadis are now deploying mustard gas in Iraq

Mark Nicol
Daily Mail
Tue, 16 Aug 2016 15:47 UTC
British troops suffering the appalling effects of a German gas attack in 1918
British troops suffering the appalling effects of a German gas attack in 1918.
They are the terrible scenes that the world had hoped it would never see again after the horrors of the First World War.

But now The Mail on Sunday has uncovered the first shocking evidence that Islamic State is using mustard gas on the front line in Iraq.

Troops fighting against the terror group have been left with appalling injuries - including agonising blisters on their skin and badly damaged lungs - in a frightening echo of warfare in the trenches on the Western Front.

Comment: Mustard gas also used in Syria: Aleppo forensics reveal terrorists using mustard gas

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Black Cat

Running her mouth: Wasserman accidentally brags about how she worked to make Killary nominee


RT
Tue, 16 Aug 2016 15:23 UTC
Debbie wasserman schults clinton
© Bernie Volunteer / YouTubeDebbie Wasserman-Schultz
Debbie Wasserman-Schultz let the cat out of the bag when she boasted about how she worked to make Hillary Clinton the Democratic nominee when chair of the DNC.

The 'secret' was long revealed by e-mail leak in July, but Wasserman-Schultz denied it.

In a debate on Facing South Florida with Jim DeFede on Sunday she dropped the ball however.


Wasserman Schultz said she was "very proud of her tenure" at the DNC and that when she was a key part in getting Obama reelected in 2012.

"The work we did to prepare for Hillary Clinton, to be our nominee and then make sure that we could get her elected president, is absolutely critical to advancing the issues that are important," she said.

The former DNC chair was forced to step down from her position the night before the Democratic party convention after leaked emails showed the DNC favored Clinton over Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders during the primaries.

Comment: Wasserman is still flogging the "Russian hack" theme even though it has been thoroughly discredited. It's still convenient though, because it distracts the public from the contents of the emails, which were about fixing the DNC nomination process in favour of Killary.

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Snakes in Suits

Lord Rothschild: 'Greatest monetary policy experiment in world history puts us in uncharted waters'


RT
Tue, 16 Aug 2016 15:22 UTC
British banker Jacob Rothschild
© Leon NEAL / AFP
Low interest rates, negative yields on government debt and quantitative easing are part of the biggest financial experiment in world history, and the consequences are yet unknown, says RIT Capital Partners Chairman Lord Rothschild.

"The six months under review have seen central bankers continuing what is surely the greatest experiment in monetary policy in the history of the world. We are therefore in uncharted waters and it is impossible to predict the unintended consequences of very low interest rates, with some 30 percent of global government debt at negative yields, combined with quantitative easing on a massive scale," Rothschild writes in the company's semi-annual financial report.

The banker notes this policy has led to a rapid growth of stock markets - US stocks have grown threefold since 2008 - with investments growing and volatility remaining low.

Comment: Are the elites trying to tell us something?

Billionaire Soros doubles bet against US stocks

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Pirates

German intel chief states the obvious: Daesh recruiting refugees, infiltrating mosques


RT
Mon, 15 Aug 2016 15:03 UTC
isis daesh
© Sputnik/ Andrei Stenin
Germany's domestic intelligence agency said it has recorded at least 340 attempts by Islamic State and other Islamist groups to recruit potential fighters in refugee centers and local mosques that remain largely outside the government's oversight.

"To date, there are more than 340 cases which are known to us," Hans-Georg Maassen, head of Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), said, as cited by Die Welt.

"But these are only the cases which we know. Probably, there could be more."

Previous media reports indicated that Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) agents have been trying either to infiltrate Europe inside refugee flows or approach asylum seekers already in Germany to recruit them.

Maassen added that refugee centers and hostels are the likeliest target of IS recruiters. "We are concerned that Salafists and other Islamists do recruit in asylum seeker camps," he said.


Comment: First consider this:
How a secretive branch of ISIS built a global network of terrorists

"They told me that there aren't many people in Germany who are willing to do the job," Mr. Sarfo said soon after his arrest last year, according to the transcript of his interrogation by German officials, which runs more than 500 pages. "They said they had some in the beginning. But one after another, you could say, they chickened out, because they got scared — cold feet. Same in England."

By contrast, the group had more than enough volunteers for France. "My friend asked them about France," Mr. Sarfo said. "And they started laughing. But really serious laughing, with tears in their eyes. They said, 'Don't worry about France.' 'Mafi mushkilah' — in Arabic, it means 'no problem.'" That conversation took place in April 2015 ...
The refugee crisis started flaring up up in early February 2015, just months before Sarfo had the conversation above. It should have been obvious that Daesh (and their covert backers in the West) would infiltrate and exploit the refugee crisis. Unfortunately, Germany, along with the U.S., France, etc., were never serious about fighting Daesh. They were and are content to have them destabilize Assad's Syria. Any terror attacks back at home are at best collateral damage to them, at worst, a useful means of keeping client states like Germany destabilized and compliant.

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Snakes in Suits

'Deporter-in-chief' Obama gave $1bn to private prisons, bypassing law amid 2014 immigration crisis report reveals


RT
Tue, 16 Aug 2016 14:50 UTC
US prison
© Reuters
The Obama administration bypassed public bidding laws to seal a $1 billion deal with the largest prison company in the US, all to handle a surge of immigrants from Central America, a new report reveals. Critics say the measure has been ineffective.

Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) inked a lucrative four-year contract to build a detention facility at the South Texas Family Residential Center, which would accommodate women and children seeking asylum in the US.

However, according to the Washington Post, it was a "unique" deal between the government and a private prison company, because, in the words of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), "a fixed monthly fee for use of the entire facility regardless of the number of residents."

Unlike hundreds of other detention contracts, which normally depend on occupancy, CCA received a fixed 100 percent monthly pay of $20 million, despite its 2,400-bed facility in Dilley, Texas, being "half full."
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Heart - Black

Barbaric! Female genital mutilation is 'harmless, helps tame desire', says senior Russian mufti


RT
Mon, 15 Aug 2016 14:34 UTC
Muslim woman
© Reuters
Female genital mutilation does not pose health risks and "does not contradict the dogmas of Islam," said the head of the North Caucasus Muslim Coordination Center, following a damning report about the outrageous practice in Russia's southern republic of Dagestan.

"As far as I know it is done in order to tame women's desire a bit. It is absolutely harmless to health," mufti Ismail Berdiev claimed in an interview with the "Govorit Moskva" radio, referring to female genital mutilation. He added that it is "purely Dagestan's tradition," suggesting that the practice is limited to areas of just one of Russia's southern regions located in the North Caucasus.


Comment: Being "harmless" (evidence refutes this claim) and a "tradition" aren't reasons to condone this inhumane practice.


Berdiev, who is also a member of the Presidential Council for Coordination with Religious Organizations, commented on a report dedicated to the issue of female genital mutilation in remote communities of Dagestan. It was published by the Russian Justice Initiative, a Russian human rights and legal advice NGO.
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