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Protesters in Beirut decry US meddling in Lebanon burn American and Israeli flags in front of US Embassy

beirut protests
© REUTERS / ANDRES MARTINEZ CASARES
The latest round of demonstrations comes in response to a statement by former US Ambassador to Lebanon Jeffrey Feltman, who said that "the demonstrations and the reactions to them by Lebanese leaders and institutions fortunately coincide with US interests".


Several dozen Lebanese citizens have over the weekend been protesting near the US Embassy in the capital city of Beirut to express their discontent at what they call US intervention in Lebanon's internal affairs.

The protesters were seen burning US and Israeli flags in front of the embassy.

Comment: See also: US calls on social media giants to block accounts of Iran's leaders following suspension of service during protests


Snakes in Suits

US calls on social media giants to block accounts of Iran's leaders following suspension of service during protests

tehran internet

A man in Tehran shows his phone while unable to load a social-media page amid an Internet shutdown in Iran.
The United States has called on social-media giants Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to suspend accounts linked to Iranian government leaders until Internet coverage is restored in that country.

"It is a deeply hypocritical regime," Brian Hook, the U.S. special representative for Iran, told Bloomberg News in an interview posted on the official State Department Twitter account.

"It shuts down the Internet while its government continues to use all of these social-media accounts."

Comment: Meanwhile the US regularly and increasingly seeks to block social media access of dissenting voices in its own country - a 'deeply hypocritical regime' indeed: See also: US embassy's sordid role in stoking October protests in Iraq revealed in Lebanese paper


Eye 2

Der Spiegel finds Browder's Magnitsky narrative riddled with lies: Anti-Russian sanctions are based on fraudster's tales

browder magnitsky
© Bill Browder / AFP / Drew Angerer; Sergey Magnitsky / AFP / Hermitage Capital Management
Bill Browder and Sergey Magnitsky (inset)
British investor Bill Browder has made a name for himself in the West through blaming Moscow for the death of his auditor, Sergey Magnitsky. Der Spiegel has picked apart his story and uncovers it has major credibility problems.

For years Browder - Russian President Vladimir Putin's self-proclaimed "enemy number one" and head of the Hermitage Capital Management fund - has been waging what can only be described as his personal anti-Russian campaign.

The passionate Kremlin critic relentlessly lobbied for sanctions against Russian officials everywhere from the US to Europe - all under the premise of seeking justice for his deceased employee, who died in Russia, while in pre-trial detention, where he'd been placed while accused of complicity in a major tax evasion scheme.

Comment: The MSM seems to be slowly getting up to speed on fraudster Browder. Andrei Nekrasov has been shouting the same facts from the rooftops for years, after discovering the truth while making a documentary that was initially sympathetic to the Magnitsky affair. It has had very few public screenings and was banned from Youtube due to Browder's legal threats. Alex Krainer wrote a book which Browder got banned from Amazon. Browder has so far been successful at shutting down anyone conducting a serious investigation into his criminal enterprises. Will the Der Speigel report break the mainstream media silence?


Russian Flag

Next US ambassador to Russia nominee meets Lavrov, sets conditions for improved ties

john sullivan
© Reuters
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan met with Russia's Sergei Lavrov in Japan.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan, who has been nominated to become Washington's next ambassador to Moscow, told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that an improvement in bilateral ties depends on Moscow's "disavowal of efforts to undermine our democratic processes" and a commitment to peace efforts in Ukraine.


Comment: Softball. Moscow has repeatedly disavowed any such efforts (mythical though they may be), and has been committed to peace in Ukraine, unlike the Ukrainians under Poroshenko or their American masters.


State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement on November 23 that Sullivan met with the Russian diplomat on the sidelines of the Group of 20 foreign ministers' meeting in Nagoya, Japan.

The statement said Sullivan and Lavrov discussed "a broad range of regional and bilateral issues, including international security challenges such as North Korea and Syria, as well as counterterrorism cooperation and strategic security."

Sullivan reiterated "that improvement in the bilateral relationship is contingent on Moscow's adherence to the Minsk agreements and disavowal of efforts to undermine our democratic processes."

Whistle

Trump-Ukraine CIA whistleblower sought by FBI for questioning

ZaidCiaramella
© zerohedge.com/KJN
Attorney Mark Zaid • Alleged whistleblower CIA analyst Eric Ciaramella
The FBI has reached out to an attorney for the Trump-Ukraine whistleblower reported to be CIA analyst Eric Ciaramella, who filed a complaint over President Trump's July 25 phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodomyr Zelensky, according to Yahoo! News. The move came after a vigorous internal debate at the agency over how to proceed with an investigation of allegations contained in the complaint, according to sources familiar with the matter.

According to the report, an FBI agent from the Washington field office reached out to whistleblower attorney Mark Zaid (The 'Coup has started' guy who loves going to Disneyland alone), who declined comment for the article. From Yahoo! News:
The request from the FBI comes at a sensitive moment when Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee are making repeated efforts to "out" the whistleblower in order to suggest he may have had political motivations hostile to the president when he filed his Aug. 12 complaint with the intelligence community's inspector general.

It also comes after multiple threats have been made against the whistleblower and his lawyers — some of which have been separately passed along by the lawyers to other officials at the FBI. But the agent who sought to question the whistleblower made no reference to the threats as the purpose of the interview, according to sources familiar with the discussions. Yahoo suggests that an FBI interview will "introduce a new wild card into the debate over whether to impeach the president over his Ukraine dealings."

Comment: Daily Caller, 20/11/2019; Nunes to subpoena whistleblower, Hunter Biden
Republican California Rep. Devin Nunes on Wednesday wrote a letter to House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff asking Hunter Biden and the whistleblower to be subpoenaed to appear before the committee. Nunes and Republican Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan said in the letter:
"The American people understand how you have affirmatively prevented Republicans from examining serious issues directly relevant to the issues. Therefore, to provide some basic level of fairness and objectivity to your 'impeachment inquiry,' we intend to subpoena the anonymous whistleblower and Hunter Biden for sworn testimony in closed-door depositions."
Nunes Plans To Subpoena Whistleblower, Hunter Biden on Scribd

Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul on Thursday said he might force a vote to bring in 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden's son in as a witness to the impeachment trial against President Donald Trump.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that the Senate cannot dismiss the articles of impeachment against Trump, meaning there will be a trial. However, most Republican senators refused to rule out voting to remove Trump from office in an impeachment trial over the Ukraine scandal when contacted by the Daily Caller at the end of October.

The Caller contacted all 53 Republican Senate offices to ask if senators would rule out voting to remove Trump from office, and received a variety of responses — seven senators explicitly rejected impeachment in their statement.

However, Senate Republicans do not appear to be concerned about House Democrats' ongoing efforts to impeach Trump, with many saying even if the House were to move forward with impeachment, that there is no way the Senate would vote to impeach the president.

The Daily Caller spoke with over ten GOP senators in mid-October, who all shared their views about House Democrats' efforts to impeach the President. Not one senator was concerned about the impeachment process, saying they are most concerned about the Democrats' ongoing attempts to impeach Trump based on no hard evidence.

House Democrats will continue to hold open impeachment hearings throughout the next weeks.
See also:


Star of David

Gantz urges opposition to unite; claims Netanyahu could 'ignite a civil war'

BGantz
© AP/Dan Balilty
Former IDF Chief of Staff Benney Gantz
On 21 November, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin instructed the Knesset to form a coalition government within 21 days following Prime Minister Netanyahu's and Benny Gantz's failure to do so. There have been repeated calls for Netanyahu to resign over his inability to form a government and a recent corruption indictment against him.

The head of Israeli political alliance Blue and White, Benny Gantz, has called upon officials from Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud to form a coalition government, arguing that the Israeli PM was risking to "ignite a civil war" with his actions, Haaretz reported. Gantz told the media:
"Likud leaders, it's time to make your voice heard. The last days and weeks leave no room for doubt - Netanyahu risks igniting a civil war between us.

"I respect you and I call for a partnership with you. Even if we do not agree on everything, you, like my friends and I, share the Zionist values of partnership and unity. It's time for you to put the fears and threats of the past aside, and to march Israeli society as a whole into a new era of healing".

Comment: See also:


Document

NYT names FBI 'resistance' lawyer now under criminal investigation for fabricating FISA documents

HorowitzClinesmith
© teaparty.org/Zerohedge.com
DOJ IG Michael Horowitz • Lawyer Kevin Clinesmith
The New York Times has revealed that the "low-level lawyer" under criminal investigation for allegedly doctoring materials used to obtain renewals of the Carter Page surveillance warrant is Kevin Clinesmith - who worked on both the Hillary Clinton email investigation and the Russia probe, was part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team, and interviewed Trump campaign advisor George Papadopoulos.

Clinesmith, a 37-year-old graduate of Georgetown Law, "took an email from an official at another federal agency that contained several factual assertions, then added material to the bottom that looked like another assertion from the email's author, when it was instead his own understanding," according to the report. From the New York Times:
Mr. Clinesmith included this altered email in a package that he compiled for another F.B.I. official to read in preparation for signing an affidavit that would be submitted to the court attesting to the facts and analysis in the wiretap application.

The details of the email are apparently classified and may not be made public even when the report is unveiled.
In other words, we won't get to see whatever the FBI used to trick the FISA court into granting Page's renewals.

Comment: See also: Horowitz: FBI lawyer falsified FISA doc; WaPo stealth-deletes Strzok connection




Attention

Joe Biden threatens Lindsey Graham: He will 'regret' investigating me 'his whole life'

Biden
© Sean Rayford/Getty Images
Presidential candidate and Former VP Joe Biden
Former Vice President Joe Biden threatened Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) for launching an investigation into his activities with Ukraine while in the Obama White House, stating the Republican will "regret" the move his "whole life."

On Thursday, Graham sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo requesting documents to aid in determining whether Biden pushed for the firing of Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin to squash a sweeping probe into Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian energy giant where his son, Hunter Biden, served as a board member. The younger Biden was compensated generously, making up to $83,000 a month for several years while on the Burisma's board.

"Lindsey is about to go down in a way that I think he's going to regret his whole life," Biden told CNN host Don Lemon in a Friday interview in South Carolina. "I say Lindsey, I just — I'm just embarrassed by what you're doing, for you. I mean, my Lord. They have him under their thumb right now. They know he knows that if he comes out against Trump, he's got a real tough road for reelection, number one," the former vice president continued about the South Carolina senator.

Comment: See also:


Stop

William Taylor is blocking Ukrainians' visas to come testify in Schiff's fraudulent investigation says Giuliani

RudiGiuliani
© Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
Trump lawyer Rudi Giuliani
As Congress slogs through more monotonous testimony in the impeachment probe against President Donald Trump, the man at the center of the impeachment narrative — Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani — appeared on BlazeTV host Glenn Beck's program Wednesday night to give his side of the story.

During the exclusive interview, Giuliani told Beck that his initial job in Ukraine was to gather exculpatory evidence counter to the Mueller investigation and report about allegations of collusion between the Russian government and the Trump campaign. During that process, he says, he started turning up information about collusion between Democrats and the Ukrainians to influence the 2016 election.

Giuliani also claimed that United States diplomats — including some who have testified against President Trump in Congress' ongoing impeachment efforts — were doing the bidding of leftist billionaire George Soros in a "massive pay-for-play multimillion-dollar scheme."


Comment: See also:


Pirates

CENTCOM: US to increase fight against ISIS in Syria 'because oil'

US Convoy
© Reuters/Azad Lashkari
US military convoy withdraws from northern Syria, October 2019
The Central Command chief said the US plans to escalate operations against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) militants in Syria, where hundreds of American troops were left to "secure the oil." General Kenneth McKenzie spoke to reporters on the sidelines of a security-themed event in Manama, Bahrain on Saturday.

The US-led anti-IS operations in Syria are "expected to pick up in coming days and weeks," he said. McKenzie also noted that about 500 US troops currently remain in eastern Syria.

US President Donald Trump announced the withdrawal of troops from northeastern Syria in October. However, he later clarified that hundreds of soldiers would stay to secure the oilfields in the country.

The president has also repeatedly declared victory over IS in the past, and Defense Secretary Mark Esper claimed to have destroyed "the physical caliphate" in Syria. Despite that, experts at the Pentagon have been warning that the militants would likely resurge and renew their activities should the Americans leave.

Comment: The US is committed to protecting what really matters.

See also: