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French court rules IMF chief Lagarde to stand trial in €400mn payout case


RT
Fri, 22 Jul 2016 12:30 UTC
IMF chief Christine Lagarde
© Joshua Roberts / Reuters
IMF chief Christine Lagarde must stand trial for her role in a €400 million payout case while she was French finance minister back in 2008, France's highest appeals court has ruled.

News that the IMF chief may face a negligence trial in France had been circulating in the media for several years.

Bernard Tapie, a former owner of Marseilles football club, was awarded €400 million ($440 million) compensation in a lawsuit against the French bank Credit Lyonnais, which he accused of undervaluing his stake in multinational sportswear company Adidas. Lagarde, who was former President Nicolas Sarkozy's finance minister at the time, sent the case to arbitration and ratified the payout.

Tapie, who along with his business interests was also a politician, was a key shareholder in Adidas.
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Quenelle - Golden

Why Erdogan's purges are a godsend for Russia & Syria

Andrew Korybko
The Duran
Fri, 22 Jul 2016 12:08 UTC
putin erdogan
The purges in Turkey make complete political sense but they will radically limit for the foreseeable Turkey's appetite or ability to pursue an aggressive foreign policy line as Ankara focuses on internal politics.

Many observers across the world are taken aback at the scale and scope of Erdogan's post-coup purges, with many people wondering aloud whether this proves that the Turkish strongman engineered a 'false flag' coup for these very purposes. I rebuffed this claim in an earlier piece this week, but nonetheless, the purges themselves are certainly worthy of prolonged discussion.

If approached from the angle of realpolitik - that is, of pure geostrategic interests separate from morals, ethics, and principles - then the purges are actually a blessing in disguise for the multipolar world, doing more than anything else could conceivably do to neutralize the Turkish military threat and create a wide array of positive opportunities for ending the War on Syria.

The author's intent isn't to defend these highly debatable purges, but rather to highlight the ways in which they're inadvertently beneficial for Syrian interests. It's naturally up to the reader themselves to decide whether the ends justify the means, but in helping to arrive at that conclusion, let's take a look at the impact that Erdogan's purges are having on Syria's interests:

Comment: Further reading:

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Eye 1

Flashback Could a military coup really happen in the United States?

Peter Moore
You Gov
Wed, 09 Sep 2015 12:55 UTC
43% of Republicans could imagine supporting a military coup in the United States.

A law professor at West Point was forced to hastily resign after it emerged that he had authored a number of controversial articles. In one he suggested that legal scholars defending the rights of suspected terrorists could be considered legitimate military targets, while in another he examined a potential military coup in the United States, arguing that officers may have a duty to sieze control of the federal government if the federal government acted against the interest of the country. The United States military has long embraced the idea of civilian control of national affairs, and apart from certain rare moments the American officer corps has faithfully followed the orders of their civilian superiors.

YouGov's latest research shows, however, that officers in the military are held in much greater esteem than their civilian superiors, and that they are widely viewed as having the best interests of the country in mind instead of their own selfish concerns. 70% of Americans believe that military officers generally want what is best for the country. When it comes to Congressmen, however, 71% of Americans believe that they want what is best for themselves, along with 59% for local politicians.
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Radar

France to deploy aircraft carrier against Daesh, will supply Iraqi forces with heavy weapons


RT
Fri, 22 Jul 2016 12:14 UTC
France's Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier
© Philippe Wojazer / Reuters
France's Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier will assist airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, French President Francois Hollande has said.

Hollande was speaking after a Defense Council meeting in the Elysee Palace in the French capital.

The carrier will be deployed at the end of September this year, according to the French president. French aircraft carrier the Charles de Gaulle, the flagship of the French Navy, is the largest western European warship currently in commission. It is France's first nuclear-powered surface vessel.

According to the French president, Paris is planning to supply heavy weapons to Iraqi forces as early as next month.

Comment: Isn't this aircraft carrier already there fighting Islamic State?

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Camcorder

Something to hide? Nice authorities turn down police request to delete footage of fatal truck attack


RT
Fri, 22 Jul 2016 12:05 UTC
municipal police supervision centre in Nice
© Eric Gaillard / Reuters
Nice authorities have turned down the request of French anti-terrorist police to delete footage from surveillance cameras and any other videos which captured the fatal truck attack on Bastille Day.

The request was sent by Anti-Terrorist Sub-Directorate (SDAT), a special police division battling extremism, to the mayor of Nice's office on Wednesday, according to the paper.

Le Figaro managed to obtain the copy of the document in which SDAT, citing articles of the criminal and penal codes, demands the city authorities delete "completely" nearly 24 hours of the attack captured on cameras on the Promenade des Anglais.

"Delete the recordings between July 14, 2016 22:30 and July 15, 2016 18:00," the documents demands.
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Snakes in Suits

Successful psychopaths and the Presidency

David Ludden Ph.D.
Waking Times
Wed, 20 Jul 2016 00:00 UTC
super psychopath
The Psych Club at my college was hosting a colloquium on "The Psychology of Superheroes," and they asked me if I'd join the panel discussion, posing as my favorite comic book character.

"I don't know anything about superheroes," I told them. And it's true. I never read comic books as a kid, and I have no interest in the superhero action movies that Hollywood endlessly rolls out.

"Then what about a supervillain?" one of them asked.

"Yeah, you look just like Lex Luthor," said another, pointing at my shiny pate.

Supervillain? Now that sounded tempting. And I'd just finished reading an article on "successful psychopaths" that I could reference in the discussion. So I said I'd do it.

According to Emory psychologist Scott Lilienfeld and his colleagues, a psychopath displays a paradoxical personality type. They're charming, articulate, and fearless, yet at the same time they're self-centered and they show no sense of empathy or remorse as they repeatedly violate the rights of others. The serial killer is perhaps the prototypical psychopath, and, to be sure, plenty of psychopaths end up behind bars serving long sentences. Lilienfeld and colleagues dub these "unsuccessful psychopaths."

Comment: Huh? It seems the author of the article should take the research he did on psychopaths in leadership roles to heart - and then take a closer look at who we have as Presidential candidates. He should also read:

Why Trump's "textbook narcissism" makes him a dangerous world leader

As well as the list of articles on Ponerology and "successful psychopaths" here:

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Binoculars

Best of the Web: Why the claim that the Russians warned Erdogan about the coup may be true

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Thu, 21 Jul 2016 20:20 UTC
putin
Whilst the Russians will never confirm the Iranian news agency reports they tipped Erdogan off about the coup even if they are true, the facts do point to a leak and it is plausible it originated in Russia.

Sergey Gladysh has written for The Duran a piece about the reports from the Iranian news agency Fars that the Russians tipped Erdogan off about the coup in the hours before it happened.

The Russians will never publicly confirm the truth of these reports, which concern the highly classified work of their intelligence agencies. However, consider the comments made about the reports by Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin's spokesman:
"I don't have such information and I don't know the sources, to which the news agency Fars is referring."
Note that this is not a denial. As such it is the strongest indication to date that the Fars reports may be true. Peskov is almost certainly telling the truth when he says he doesn't know. However he would have presumably by now been told - and would have made a public denial - if the Fars reports were untrue.

If the Russians did tip off Erdogan about the coup that would explain many of its mysteries and would explain why it failed.

Comment: Al-Monitor provides some more details:
The basic reason the coup failed was its premature birth. How? First, the coup was planned for a later date but was moved up. Then the rescheduled coup, which was to have started at 3 a.m. July 16, was moved up yet again by five hours, to around 10 p.m. July 15, after the coup attempt was discovered.
...
With the indictments in last week's Izmir espionage case, the Turkish judiciary was gearing up to target about 1,000 Gulenists in the TSK prior to the supreme council meeting. With so many detentions just before the meeting, the government was intending to compel the TSK command to carry out mass purges.

When the coup planners learned of that intention, they moved up the date to precede the council meeting. This turned out to be a suicidal move.
...
Al-Monitor's sources said coup leaders had planned to move at 3 a.m. to take over by 5 a.m., when people would be asleep and streets would be empty. But this didn't work. Around 4 p.m. July 15, 11 hours before the coup was to start, the national intelligence service MIT learned from radio and telephone intercepts of TSK personnel known to be Gulenists that some units were gearing up. MIT informed the chief of general staff at 5 p.m. At a meeting at the chief of general staff headquarters, officials decided to close Turkish air space to all flights as of 6 p.m. and bar military units from leaving their barracks. While that order was being written, Land Forces Commander Gen. Salih Zeki Colak was called to the general staff headquarters.

By 7 p.m., coup plotters realized that their plan was exposed and were able to take Akar hostage. ... At the end, the plotters couldn't get Akar's signature, so they sent out an order signed by a brigadier general and launched their coup around 9:30 p.m. — that is, 5½ hours before the planned time. The first indication of the rash, reckless actions by the Istanbul wing of the coup was sending out small units commanded by junior ranks to streets on the pretense of exercising or fighting terror.
Put the two together, and this is essentially the scenario SOTT proposed on Behind the Headlines on Sunday, and in our Tuesday Focus: Erdogan benefits from Turkish coup attempt because it failed, not because he engineered it. These latest data points put the picture into more focus: 1) Erdogan is aware of the possibility of a coup, but perhaps lacks specific intelligence of when it will occur, 2) the plotters move the date ahead due to the threat of planned purges, 3) Russian intelligence provides Turkey with intel suggesting the coup will happen very soon, at 3 am, 4) MIT perhaps confirms this, air space is closed, military units are confined to barracks, 5) the plotters decide to go ahead with it while they still can.

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Snakes in Suits

Foreign policy fail: US imposes new sanctions on Assad government


PressTV
Thu, 21 Jul 2016 22:28 UTC
US Department of the Treasury
The United States has imposed new sanctions on Syria, targeting the arms and financial networks of the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

The Department of the Treasury on Thursday included eight individuals and seven entities to its sanctions blacklist, which aims to cut them out of the global financial system.

The Treasury said the Syrian firm Hesco Engineering and Construction is operating energy production facilities in Syria, and added its Russia-based representatives to the sanctions list.

The Treasury also claimed that Yona Star International and T-Rubber are supplying the Syrian defense ministry, air force and other military bodies from their international offices and slapped sanctions on them.

Sanctions were also imposed on many individuals and businesses involved in international money transfers.

Comment: Is Washington serious about partnership with Moscow in Syria?

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Eye 1

Duma MP: US has role in creating turmoil around Russia's borders


RT
Thu, 21 Jul 2016 10:39 UTC
protesters Yerevan
© Asatur Yesayants / SputnikProtesters in Yerevan clash with police in hostage situation.
The recent violent events in Turkey, Armenia and Kazakhstan could have been provoked by special services "from across the ocean," a Russian MP working on the committee in charge of Eurasian integration has commented. "In my opinion these are all links in one chain. The events in Turkey, Armenia and in Aktobe, Kazakhstan, are all connected and were all provoked from abroad. I think that special services from across the ocean are dealing with these issues, destabilizing the situation in these countries," the deputy chair of the State Duma Committee for Eurasian Integration and Commonwealth of Independent States, Kazbek Taisayev, told Life news portal.

The MP said that Western nations were not interested in a calm situation near Russian borders and took steps to prevent such developments. "As soon as we start a normal dialogue with our neighbors, something immediately happens in these countries," he said. "We need to unite our efforts, I think that we have enough political will to render mutual help to poor nations," Taisayev stated.

Comment: These are just a few of the heinous examples of instigation "from across the ocean." Like puzzle pieces, they are becoming one undeniable picture. How soon until the call for retribution rips across the continents and is messaged by millions: "Return to Sender."

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Compass

US Navy's newest $12.9bn supercarrier doesn't work: Most expensive warship ever built not ready for battle

Liam Quinn
Daily Mail
Thu, 21 Jul 2016 21:40 UTC
USS Gerald R. Ford Navy supercarrier
© Getty Images/Stocktrek Images
The most expensive warship ever built has been delayed from hitting the front line because it is reportedly not ready for battle.

The $12.9 billion USS Gerald R. Ford Navy supercarrier - the first of three in its class with a total cost of $43 billion - could potentially struggle with planes landing and taking off, moving military weapons and being able to successfully defend itself, a memo obtained by Bloomberg News reads.

The memo allegedly states 'poor or unknown reliability issues' were identified in a letter dated June 28.
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