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Turkmenistan claims to be coronavirus free, refuses visit from WHO

Bruce Pannier
RFE/RL
Fri, 08 May 2020 08:03 UTC
Ashgabat

FILE PHOTO: Ashgabat, Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan's government never fails to disappoint, and its latest action will keep that reputation intact.

For more than two decades the government has been touting its UN-recognized status as a neutral country to close itself off from the rest of the world and preserve the harmony Turkmen authorities say exists there.

For example, the Turkmen government continues to claim there are no cases of the coronavirus in Turkmenistan.

That claim is interesting to many parties, among them the World Health Organization (WHO) that had planned to send a delegation to Turkmenistan to discuss combating the coronavirus.
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Arrow Up

Declassifications by Barr and Grenell allow a two-year hold to lift on counterintelligence nominee

Jerry Dunleavy
Washington Examiner
Tue, 05 May 2020 09:19 UTC
William Evanina
© Win McNamee/Getty Images
Lawmakers voted 84-7 to make William Evanina the first Senate-confirmed director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center.
A two-year standoff over a top counterintelligence nomination ended this week after a Senate Republican said the nation's spy chief and attorney general provided long-sought transparency for congressional investigations.

William Evanina, a former FBI special agent, has led the National Counterintelligence and Security Center since 2014 and in February 2018 was nominated by President Trump to be the first Senate-confirmed director of the center. But since June of that year, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley has blocked the nomination as a form of protest against Department of Justice leadership and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for not providing Congress documents related to the government's investigation into Russian election interference and Trump's presidential campaign.

That impasse ended on Monday with Grassley withdrawing his objection, citing "recent actions" by Attorney General William Barr and acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell to "finally respond to my very longstanding oversight requests."
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X

Sounds of silence: US has cut ALL communication channels with Caracas after mercenary raid


RT
Fri, 08 May 2020 03:08 UTC
Maduro
© Reuters/Miraflores Palace handout
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has said that evidence will soon reveal the US leader himself was behind the failed incursion attempt, noting that Washington severed all remaining ties with Caracas thereafter.

In an interview with Uruguayan reporter Jorge Gestoso on Thursday evening, Maduro said the freshly-appointed Ambassador James Story - the first formal US envoy to the country in some 10 years - and other senior American officials were to blame for last weekend's attempted raid, in which two US security contractors were arrested and eight local fighters killed.

"James Story has his feet, his hands and his whole body in this armed incursion," the socialist leader said, adding that declassified documents would soon provide proof, while implicating Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Special Envoy to Venezuela Elliot Abrams.

Comment: Has the Trump administration 'gone silent' to ignore and demean Maduro's accusations? Is it not responding because it is distancing from the 'quasi-independent' actions of a private company? Has Guido been the impetus behind the foiled attempt all along? Maduro may choose all three and chances are he would be right, right, right.

Tweets mentioned in the article:


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Windsock

American mercenaries involved in failed coup is proof US policy on Venezuela lacks meaningful direction

Scott Ritter
RT
Thu, 07 May 2020 17:06 UTC
Maduro
© Miraflores Palace/Handout via REUTERS
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro holds a document during a virtual news conference in Caracas, Venezuela May 6, 2020.
An abortive coup attempt with US ties exposes a lack of leadership and direction as the Trump administration struggles to implement its regime-change plans in Venezuela.

The headlines read like something out of a bad novel:
A bunch of commandos, operating from speedboats launched from a "mother ship" disguised as a fishing vessel, land on a heavily populated resort coast in Venezuela to initiate a coup designed to overthrow President Nicolas Maduro. Expecting to be greeted by defectors from the Venezuelan military recruited by 52 operatives who had earlier infiltrated the country from neighboring Colombia, the commandos were instead met by armed Venezuelan security forces, who, in the ensuing firefight reportedly killed six of the would-be invaders and captured two others.
In a bizarre interview following Sunday's failed amphibious landing, Jordan Goudreau, the head of an American security-services company, Silvercorps USA, accompanied by Captain Javier Nieto Quintero, a defector from the Venezuelan military who had sided with opposition leader Juan Guaido in an failed coup in April 2019, provided details about what he termed Operation Gideon. He said the operation was conducted on behalf of Guaido and that dozens of his men were on the ground inside Venezuela, while others were adrift in a boat off the coast of Venezuela, waiting for a resupply of fuel.

Comment: See also: Sounds of silence: US has cut ALL communication channels with Caracas after mercenary raid

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Star of David

'NYT': Israeli military's 'cutting edge ways to kill people and blow things up' will aid in virus battle

James North
Mondoweiss
Fri, 08 May 2020 00:00 UTC
Halbfinger
© New York Times
David Halbfinger
David Halbfinger has left his job as the New York Times bureau chief in Jerusalem to take a new position as a publicist for Israel's military. That's one explanation for today's embarrassing, gushing PR article about how the army is using technology to fight the coronavirus.

Another possible explanation is that a hostile critic, determined to discredit Halbfinger's pro-Israel bias, commandeered his computer and produced a wicked parody.

Here's how the article starts:
"The Israeli Defense Ministry's research-and-development arm is best known for pioneering cutting edge ways to kill people and blow things up, with stealth tanks and super drones among its more lethal recent projects."
The flippant tone is jaw-dropping. Israel's army has been credibly accused of war crimes, particularly in Gaza, including charges from its own soldiers who belong to the courageous Breaking the Silence movement.
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Arrow Down

US withdraws some Patriot missile batteries from ME

Anthony Capaccio, Glen Carey
Bloomberg
Thu, 07 May 2020 08:08 UTC
Patriot battery
© Bloomberg
US Patriot antimissile battery
The U.S. has removed two of its four Patriot antimissile batteries from Saudi Arabia and another two in the Mideast partly because tensions with Iran have eased from a peak earlier this year, according to a U.S. official.

The two batteries in Saudi Arabia were helping protect the country's oil fields and are likely to be replaced by Saudi Patriot batteries, according to the official, who asked not to be identified discussing the change. More than 12 Patriot batteries and one THAAD battery, which can intercept ballistic missiles at higher altitudes, remain in the region, the official added.

The four Patriot batteries were scheduled to be withdrawn in March but their redeployment was delayed after two rocket attacks at Camp Taji in Iraq in mid-March, according to the official. The U.S. blamed the strikes on Iranian-backed militias.
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Snakes in Suits

Controversial Georgian ex-president Saakashvili takes charge of Ukraine's reform body - UPDATE: Tbilisi recalls Ambassador from Kiev


RT
Fri, 08 May 2020 00:06 UTC
Saakashvili
© Reuters / Valentyn Ogirenko
Georgia's former President Mikheil Saakashvili speaks with journalists.
After weeks of rumor and speculation, Mikhail Saakashvili, the former Georgian president who is wanted for embezzlement at home, has been appointed as head of Ukraine's executive council on reforms.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree on Thursday confirming Saakashvili's new political role.

Zelensky said that he "sincerely congratulated" the 52-year-old on this "new challenge," adding that he trusts Saakashvili to be able to "provide impetus" to the body and help him with "implementing important changes in the life of the country."

According to media leaks, Saakashvili was initially considered for the job of deputy prime minister, but there was no consensus on his candidacy even among members of Zelensky's own party.

Comment: UPDATE Friday 8th May @ 22:11 CET:

RT reports:
Teimuraz Sharashenidze, Georgia's envoy to Ukraine, was told to pack and return until further notice, Davit Zalkaliani, the country's Foreign Minister, told the media this Friday.

The chief diplomat said that "further steps are needed to consult with the ambassador" because, as he put it, "certain problems" had emerged in the relationship between Kiev and Tbilisi.

The demarche, considered a sign of extreme displeasure in diplomatic practice, came after Georgia's former president, Mikhail Saakashvili, was appointed head of Ukraine's National Reform Council.

Giving a top government job to "a person convicted and wanted by the Georgian judiciary" raises questions, Foreign Minister Zalkaliani stated.

In Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said he hoped the US-educated Saakashvili would "give an impetus" to effect much-needed change, but back at home, law enforcement agencies accuse him of large-scale embezzlement, abuse of power, and corruption.

He fled the country after his term ended in 2013, and the new leadership has, since then, pushed for criminal charges against the fugitive politician.

However, Georgia's diplomatic demarche won't be escalated any further, its foreign minister revealed, saying that severing ties between the two "friendly" post-Soviet nations isn't on the table.

Saakashvili reinvented himself on Ukrainian soil following the 2014, West-inspired Euromaidan coup in Kiev. But his political fortunes in Ukraine have seen ups and downs, from being made (surprisingly) governor of the Odessa region by then-President Petro Poroshenko to becoming a stateless person and a deportee to neighboring Poland.

In Georgia, he remains a highly divisive figure since he seized power on the back of the 2004 revolt in Tbilisi. Supporters hail him for battling corruption and making governance more transparent, but opponents accuse the ex-president of silencing dissent and persecuting rivals.

Saakashvili's foreign adventures earned him a reputation of being a volatile, impulsive leader. He gained notoriety for briefly deploying Georgian troops to Iraq in the mid-2000s, and giving a green light to the 2008 invasion of the breakaway republic of South Ossetia which triggered a six-day armed conflict, in which Russia responded to Georgia's attacks on its peacekeepers and local civilians.
See also:

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Bad Guys

Trump disavows Venezuela coup attempt: US would send the 'army' to overthrow Nicolás Maduro, 'wouldn't make a secret about it'

Ebony Bowden
New York Post
Fri, 08 May 2020 17:55 UTC
Trump Maduro
© AP; Getty Images
Donald Trump and Nicolás Maduro
President Trump has denied suggestions the US government was behind a failed coup to overthrow Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and bring him to the US — saying he would invade with a large army instead, if he wanted to.

Two ex-US special forces soldiers were among dozens of people arrested over the weekend for trying to topple the socialist strongman — with Maduro accusing Trump of being "the direct chief of this invasion."

"We have nothing to do with it. If I wanted to go into Venezuela, I wouldn't make a secret about it," Trump told Fox and Friends on Friday morning, denying the dictator's charges.

"I'd go in, I'd go in and they would do nothing about it, they would roll over," he said, adding, "I wouldn't send a small little group — it would be called an army."

Comment: Brave words notwithstanding, the fact is the Trump administration has long sought the downfall of the Chavez-Maduro government, one way or another. Not Venezuela's first rodeo.

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Arrow Up

EU dictatorship: ECB given ultimatum over €2 trillion stimulus scheme by Germany's top court UPDATE

Carsten Hauptmeier
Yahoo
Tue, 05 May 2020 12:00 UTC
Vosskuhle

German constitutional court chairman Andreas Vosskuhle ruled that the ECB must clarify a key element of its bond-buying scheme to support the eurozone economy
Germany's top court on Tuesday demanded clarification of a key element of the European Central Bank's support to the eurozone economy, but stopped short of overturning its "quantitative easing" (QE) bond-buying scheme altogether.

Germany's Bundesbank central bank will be barred from participating in QE in three months' time unless the ECB can show its asset purchases are not "disproportionate", the Constitutional Court (BVG) in Karlsruhe said in a landmark ruling.

The court also raised an unprecedented challenge to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), labelling its earlier ruling rubber-stamping the QE scheme "not comprehensible" and declaring it not legally binding.

Comment: UPDATE: 8/5/2020
Germany's Constitutional Court said that the ECB had overstepped its mandate with massive bond purchases. EU's top court retorted that it alone has the power to rule whether EU bodies breach the bloc's rules. Court of Justice of the European Union's statement:

"In general... In order to ensure that EU law is applied uniformly, the Court of Justice alone... has jurisdiction to rule that an act of an EU institution is contrary to EU law. Divergences between courts of the member states as to the validity of such acts would indeed be liable to place in jeopardy the unity of the EU legal order and to detract from legal certainty."


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Star of David

Always ready for war? IDF's low morale could be deal breaker in event of confrontation

Elizabeth Blade
Sputnik
Fri, 08 May 2020 17:25 UTC
IDF training exercise
© REUTERS / Amir Cohen
Israeli soldiers of the Search and Rescue brigade carry their comrade on a stretcher during a training session in Ben Shemen forest, near the city of Modi'in May 23, 2016
While the COVID-19 pandemic has been keeping Hamas militants busy, a report released by a leading Israeli institute projects a war by the end of the year, and a former IDF general says the Jewish state has no other option but to always be ready.

After more than a month of relative calm, a rocket emanating from Gaza hit an open space in southern Israel in the early hours of Wednesday night. No damage was caused, but the IDF retaliated, attacking Hamas targets in the north of the Gaza Strip.

Since the first COVID-19 cases in Gaza appeared in March, the Islamic group has been busy handling the crisis and has even started cooperating with Israel to contain the spread of a virus that has so far infected more than 300 people.

The group's intention to battle Israel has never waivered, however. Nor has the willingness of other militant organisations to take on Tel Aviv. In fact, in January, Israel's Institute for National Security Studies submitted a yearly report to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, projecting an eruption of a war in 2020, while a public opinion poll released that same month indicated that the country was ready for it.

Comment: The internal rot of illegitimate "state" of Israel is coming to fruition.

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