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Anonymous exposes NATO influence operation targeting Russia-friendly candidates for leadership positions across EU


RT
Fri, 23 Nov 2018 18:36 UTC
NATO Institute Statecraft
Anonymous has published documents which it claims have unearthed a massive UK-led psyop to create a "large-scale information secret service" in Europe - all under the guise of countering "Russian propaganda."

In a document dump on November 5, the group exposed the UK-based 'Integrity Initiative', said to have been established by the ominously titled Institute for Statecraft in 2015.

The main objective is "to provide a coordinated Western response to Russian disinformation and other elements of hybrid warfare." The Institute for Statecraft is affiliated with the NATO HQ Public Diplomacy Division and the Home Office-funded 'Prevent' program, so objectivity is, of course, at the forefront of their work.

Operating on a budget of £1.9 million (US$2.4 million), the secretive Integrity Initiative consists of "clusters" of local politicians, journalists, military personnel, scientists and academics. The team is dedicated to searching for and publishing "evidence" of Russian interference in European affairs, while themselves influencing leadership behind the scenes.

Comment: It doesn't get any more Orwellian than naming a covert influence operation in foreign countries an 'Integrity Initiative'.

This just goes to show that pretty much all it takes to conduct a 'massive' conspiracy is a few million$ and small clusters of 'ideologically-aligned' people.

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Star of David

Israel votes against formally recognizing Yazidi massacres by IS as genocide


i24News
Wed, 21 Nov 2018 22:11 UTC
yazidis
© CHRISTOPHE SIMON (AFP/File)
Of the world's 1.5 million Yazidis, the largest community was in Iraq where it comprised some 550,000 people before being scattered by the IS offensive
Members of Israel's Knesset voted down a bill Wednesday that would formally recognize the killing of the Yazidi people by the Islamic State as a genocide.

The bill, proposed by Zionist Union MK Ksenia Svetlova, was defeated in a 58-38 vote.

The legislation called for Israel to recognize the massacres as a genocide and mark the event annually on August 3. It also recommended curricula be adopted to teach about the atrocities.

"The coalition just voted against my bill to regognize the genocide of the Yazidi people under the ridiculous pretense that 'the UN did not yet recognize the genocide.' Shameful" Svetlova said in reaction to the vote.

Svetlova tweeted her frustration with the right wing of the government who voted down the bill, saying "there is no reason for the right-wing coalition not to recognize the terrible genocide of [Islamic State] against this small and miserable group. They voted in hypocrisy and nationalist egoism."
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Bad Guys

UK MPs find MI5 knew London Bridge attacker Khuram Butt was 'supportive of ISIS' but did nothing

Lizzie Dearden
The Independent
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 21:54 UTC
Khuram Butt
© Channel 4
MI5 intelligence indicated Khuram Butt was ‘supportive of Isis’, MPs found
Police arrested the London Bridge attack ringleader eight months before the atrocity but let him go - even after finding terrorist propaganda that could have seen him jailed.

A report by the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament revealed that Khuram Butt could have been "disrupted" over allegations of fraud in 2016.

He was already known for his links to hate preacher Anjem Choudary's al-Muhajiroun extremist group and MI5 intelligence indicated he was "supportive of Isis".

Counterterror police investigated Butt in October 2016 over suspected bank fraud and "discovered files that police considered 'may successfully be used in a prosecution under the Terrorism Act'", the report said.

But MPs said the issue "was not explored further" due to reasons that were redacted for national security reasons.
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Russian Flag

Fmr French president Sarkozy admits the blindingly obvious: Russia has once again become 'a powerful nation'

Paul Antonopoulos
Fort Russ News
Fri, 23 Nov 2018 16:59 UTC
Then French President Nicolas Sarkozy (L) meets Vladimir Putin at the Elysee Palace in Paris in 2010.
© Sputnik / Aleksey Nikolsky
Then French President Nicolas Sarkozy (L) meets Vladimir Putin at the Elysee Palace in Paris in 2010.
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who paid a sudden visit to Moscow on Thursday, said he had always considered himself a friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"You Russians are living here and cannot even imagine how great your prestige is and how your image has changed on the global stage. Russia has once again become a powerful nation, Russia knows its place in the international arena and knows its destination," said the former French president.

"Lastly, I would like to say that I have always been friends with Vladimir Putin, because he is a person with whom you can talk to even in the face of misunderstandings," Sarkozy told a Russian Social Investment Fund (RDIF).

Comment: Sarkozy is making the rounds like the fading political star that he is. Though a nasty piece of work, even he seems preferable to the useless vapidity that is Emmanuel Macron. He even gets a few things right. And prophetically from 2012: Sarkozy wants EU partners to toughen border controls

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Pirates

US backed terrorists in Syria looted over 4,500 artifacts from Raqqa Museum


Sputnik
Mon, 29 Oct 2018 15:28 UTC
Syria burnt car
© REUTERS / Nour Fourat
Terrorists have stolen more than 4,500 artifacts from a museum in the Syrian city of Raqqa, head of the Syrian Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums (DGAM) Muhammad Nazeer Awad told Sputnik on Monday.

Awad pointed out that the DGAM had lists of all pieces currently being shown in Syria's museums.

"For example, more than 4,500 showpieces have been stolen from the museum in Raqqa," Awad said.

He pointed out that the directorate had no clear information about the situation in the museum in Idlib as the city was not controlled by government forces.

Comment: And what a surprise, those countries who supported ISIS, in particular the US and Israel, are also notorious for their handling of stolen archeological goods:

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Colosseum

Why the DC beltway-types are wrong about nearly everything in Trump's Saudi posture

Mollie Hemingway
The Federalist
Wed, 21 Nov 2018 18:55 UTC
Trump bin Salman
© Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead
President Donald Trump speaks with Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Deputy Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, during their meeting Tuesday, March 14, 2017, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C.
Yesterday, President Trump resisted public pressure and declined to significantly reorient American foreign policy in light of Saudi Arabia's brutal killing of its political opponent Jamal Khashoggi.

Of President Donald Trump's many disruptions to the established order, his foreign policy has been perhaps the least understood and least accepted by elites. Yesterday, President Trump resisted public pressure and declined to significantly reorient American foreign policy in light of Saudi Arabia's brutal killing of its political opponent Jamal Khashoggi, who was also a columnist for the Washington Post.

In a statement, Trump said that what happened to Khashoggi was terrible, but that Saudi Arabia is an ally that shares our broader strategic interests in the region, while Iran remains a foe to be countered.

Comment: Trump's career was built in the brawling business of construction and deal-making, a world populated with unsavory characters, that had to be worked with in order to accomplish anything. In his mind foreign policy is not much different. Countries are competing ventures, each trying to get the best deal for itself, and the US should conduct itself that way as well. Beltway denizens are appalled that he is dropping the humanitarian act the US uses against countries it doesn't like and is being honest. In other words, realpolitik.

Russia runs its foreign policy along the same pragmatic lines. Russia is aware that it must have the cooperation of deranged countries like Israel and Turkey to bring calm to the Middle East. Towards that larger goal, Putin has tolerated the murder of Russian soldiers, a far greater sacrifice than any the US has made. Russia has restrained itself and turned each tragedy to a larger advantage.

Unfortunately Trump's animus towards Iran is in service to Israel, which is not in the real interests of the US in the least. Pat Buchanan: Trump's pardon of MBS is just politics, but his reasoning is bogus

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Dominoes

Irish border issue surrounding Brexit labeled a trap by MEP


RT
Fri, 23 Nov 2018 18:48 UTC
Anti-Brexit campaigners protest
© Reuters / Clodagh Kilcoyne
Anti-Brexit campaigners protest outside Irish Government buildings in Dublin
The panic surrounding what will happen at the Irish border after Brexit is nothing more than a "trap" that has been laid by European negotiators - and the UK government has fallen straight into it, MEP William Dartmouth told RT.

"The whole matter of the Irish border - which was never discussed during the referendum, not even by the [David] Cameron government... is in my view simply a trap set up by EU negotiators which the British government has fallen right into," Dartmouth told RT's SophieCo.

That very fact means that all of the British civil servants who have fallen for the charade "should never be allowed near any negotiation ever again, not even to buy a flat for themselves."

Meanwhile, the EU has also put "draconian" demands on the UK, Dartmouth said, while expressing confidence that those terms won't be passed through by Parliament. "They've created a new Versailles treaty on the UK and it isn't going to stick. It actually won't get through the House of Commons and even if it did it won't stick for any palpable period of time."
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X

You won't hear this from the US govt: Iran is open to working with Saudi Arabia

Darius Shahtahmasebi
RT
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 16:23 UTC
Map ME
© Getty Images/JeanUrsula
Washington's rhetoric regarding Iran paints the picture of an evil nation hellbent on destroying the world. In reality, it appears that Tehran would prefer dialogue with its rivals, which is unacceptable to the US.

Tuesday's White House Statement from President Trump on "Standing with Saudi Arabia" was an outright condemnation of Iran and a total free pass for Saudi Arabia.

Iran is to blame for almost every issue in the Middle East, including the war in Yemen, according to the statement. The US-made and supplied bombs raining down on Yemeni school buses, with some 85,000 children dying in the process, is simply because of Iran. Not only is Iran responsible for the bloodshed in Yemen, Tehran has further helped "dictator Bashar Assad" in Syria kill "millions of his own citizens." The official death toll of the Syrian war is under one million, and certainly the various jihadist groups, including Islamic State (IS), share responsibility for that figure.

"The Iranians" have also killed many Americans and other innocent people throughout the Middle East. Iran not only shouts "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" but it is also considered "the world's leading sponsor of terror."

It is curious enough that firstly, in a statement about Saudi Arabia, the term "world's leading sponsor of terror" is not gifted to the prime sponsors of Al-Qaeda and IS. Secondly, the fact that Trump himself put that term in inverted commas seems to suggest that even he doesn't quite believe that one to be true.

Comment: Audience programming predisposes thinking patterns concerning Iran - even to the level of governments. Accusations without proof of guilt are easier to believe than declarations of innocence which are harder to prove - perhaps not at all.

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Arrow Down

Former Brexit Sec Raab would rather scrap Brexit than accept May's deal, others agree

Adam Bienkov
Business Insider
Fri, 23 Nov 2018 00:00 UTC
Dominic Raab
© Jeff Overs/BBC via Getty Images
Former Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab
It would be better to scrap Brexit and stay in the European Union rather than accept Theresa May's Brexit deal, the former Brexit Secretary has said.

Dominic Raab, who quit the government last week in protest over the terms of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, told the Today programme on Friday morning that May's deal would leave Britain tied to EU customs and trade rules without any democratic oversight over them.

"If you just presented me terms, this deal or EU membership, because we would effectively be bound by the same rules without control or a voice over them, then yes this would be even worse than that," Raab said.

Raab joins a growing list of leading Conservative Brexiteers who have suggested in recent weeks and months that it would be better to remain in the EU rather than accept what the prime minister has agreed with Brussels.

Comment: See also:

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Arrow Down

Iranian FM: Iran won't renegotiate nuclear deal, despite US sanctions, just because Trump wants it


RT
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 21:10 UTC
Javad Zarif
© Reuters/Murad Sezer
Iran FM Javad Zarif
Iran has no intention of renegotiating the nuclear deal, the nation's foreign minister says, as it already spent more than two years in negotiations and came to a conclusion that was solidified by a UN Security Council resolution.

Speaking at the 'MED Dialogues' conference in Rome on Thursday, Mohammad Javad Zarif said Tehran will not simply sit back at the table with the US, because he already spent 2.5 years negotiating with former US Secretary of State John Kerry and other political figures and experts.

"We negotiated a very good deal," he said, noting that Tehran came to an agreement with the US, not simply the administration of the moment. "Why should we resume another talk just because somebody doesn't like it? Just because somebody hates his predecessor? That's not the reason you engage in diplomacy." That comment was in response to US President Donald Trump pulling out of the deal agreed by his predecessor Barack Obama.

In all of this, Zarif said, the Iranian people will "see less and less possibility of relying on the promises that are made to them, and I think that will be very difficult for the international community."

Comment: Trump is pretty much 'out on his own limb' for the withdrawal decision. Europe did not rally to his position. Israel and Saudi Arabia agreed but neither were part of the P5+1 deciders (the US, Britain, France, Russia, China, and Germany). See also:

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