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Israel freezes Palestinian tax funds as 'collective punishment'

Maureen Clare Murphy
The Electronic Intifada
Mon, 18 Feb 2019 00:00 UTC
PalProtest
© Yasser Qudih/APA.jpg
Palestinians protest the siege on Gaza at Erez checkpoint in the northern Gaza Strip.
Israel's freezing of millions of dollars in Palestinian tax revenue will cause the dire situation in Gaza to deteriorate even further, Al Mezan, a human rights group in the territory, warned on Monday.

Thousands of civil servants in the coastal enclave, its population of two million plunged into poverty after more than a decade of economic blockade, have already had to contend with salary cuts and late payments due to "discrimination" by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

Now Israel is planning to withhold some $138 million in taxes it collects on behalf of the PA as a form of sanctions over stipends to political prisoners. The freezing of tax fund transfers will be a "dangerous contribution to the deterioration of humanitarian and economic conditions," according to Al Mezan.

Israel in "sole control" over borders

Legislation passed last year allows Israel to deduct payments made to Palestinian prisoners and their families from Palestinian Authority tax revenue, which Israel controls. Israel has intermittently frozen tax transfers to the Palestinian Authority since the Oslo accords were signed 25 years ago.

Israel's withholding of Palestinian tax revenue is a violation of Israel's obligations under the Oslo accords Paris Protocol, Al Mezan stated.

Comment: See also:

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Snakes in Suits

The real motive behind the FBI plan to investigate Trump as a Russian agent

Gareth Porter
Consortium News
Wed, 13 Feb 2019 00:00 UTC
TrumpRussia
© Pinterest
Coverage of this episode by The New York Times and CNN further stigmatizes any dissent from new Cold War policy toward Russia, writes Gareth Porter.

The New York Times and CNN led media coverage last month of discussions among senior FBI officials in May 2017 of a possible national security investigation of President Donald Trump himself, on the premise that he may have acted as an agent of Russia.

The episode has potentially profound political fallout, because the Times and CNN stories suggested that Trump may indeed have acted like a Russian agent. The New York Times story on Jan. 11 was headlined, "F.B.I. Opened Inquiry into Whether Trump Was Secretly Working on Behalf of Russia." CNN followed three days later with: "Transcripts detail how FBI debated whether Trump was 'following directions' of Russia."

By reporting that Russia may have been able to suborn the president of the United States, these stories have added an even more extreme layer to the dominant national political narrative of a serious Russian threat to destroy U.S. democracy. An analysis of the FBI's idea of Trump as possible Russian agent reveals, moreover, that it is based on a devious concept of "unwitting" service to Russian interests that can be traced back to former CIA director John O. Brennan.

Comment: Blaming Russia and fabricating Trump-Russia collusion has many uses: the cementing of a new Cold War, the diversion from Hillary's crimes and the complicit DNC, and the galvanization of public support behind a bonanza of imperial conquest.

And all it's based on is John f***ing Brennan's spurious suggestions that 'maybe' Trump is 'unwittingly' a Russian stooge!

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Pistol

US air freight company caught smuggling weapons into Venezuela is linked to CIA 'black site' renditions

Whitney Webb
Popular Resistance
Fri, 15 Feb 2019 00:00 UTC
21Air
© 21Air
A 21Air jet loading relief supplies
This article in McClatchy News about the CIA-connected airline that has been making lots of round trip flights from Miami adds to the article below. They write,
"The Boeing 767 has made dozens of flights between Miami International Airport and destinations in Colombia and Venezuela since Jan. 11, a flight tracking service shows, often returning to Miami for only a few hours before flying again to South America." The Boeing 767 has a payload capacity of 42 tons. The discovery of weapons occurred Tuesday, two days after the flight landed briefly in Valencia, Venezuela's third-largest city. Venezuelan authorities found 19 assault weapons, 118 ammunition cartridges, and 90 military-grade radio antennas, among other items.

An Ottawa-based analyst reported on the unusual ship and plane movements, Steffan Watkins, drew attention to the frequent flights of the 21 Air cargo plane in a series of tweets Thursday. The airline had been flying all around the United States but in January it began flying to destinations in Colombia and Venezuela on a daily basis, and sometimes multiple times a day making close to 40 round-trip flights from Miami International Airport to Caracas and Valencia in Venezuela, and Bogota and Medellin in Colombia since Jan. 11.
McClatchy concludes with how this is a common tactic of the United States and one that was used when Elliott Abrams was previously in government, writing:
The CIA operated a dummy airline, known as Air America, from the early 1950s until the mid 1970s for air operations in Southeast Asia, including air-dropping weapons to friendly forces.

More than a decade later, Sandinista soldiers shot down a cargo plane taking weapons to the U.S.-backed contra rebels fighting the Nicaraguan government. A U.S. Marine veteran, Eugene Hasenfus, survived the 1986 crash, and later told reporters that he was working for the CIA, paving the way for his release and return to the United States.

Curiously, one of the figures in the Reagan administration instrumental in delivering support to the contras, former assistant secretary of state Elliott Abrams, was named by President Donald Trump late last month as his special envoy overseeing policy toward Venezuela.

KZ

Comment: The pieces appear to be falling into place for Plan Venezuela. While the payload in this instance may not be particularly troubling for the Venezuelan military, the number of recent flights over a short period of time, and the appointment of Abrams to oversee Plan Venezuela, support a worse trajectory than a coup: a failed coup costing hundreds of thousands of lives, and millions of war refugees fleeing to the US border.

As the McClatchy article suggests, the CIA is revisiting a page out of its regime-change playbook - including particular principals in their cast of characters.

See also:

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Target

Moscow: Warsaw summit exposed US' attempt to create new dividing lines in Middle East


Sputnik
Mon, 18 Feb 2019 20:27 UTC
Zakarova
© AzerNews
Russian FM Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova
Earlier, Iran denounced the US-sponsored meeting in the Polish capital as a "circus" and a "failure," accusing Washington of promoting "insecurity, instability, poverty, war and extremism" throughout the region.

Last week's anti-Iran conference in Warsaw, Poland served as another illustration of US efforts to create new "dividing lines" in the Middle East, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

"The conference was not conceived and held for the sake of a serious discussion of the problems affecting the Middle East. It's main result was the creation of several working groups discussing a number of global challenges and threats," such as terrorism, non-proliferation, humanitarian issues and refugees, Zakharova said, addressing reporters on Monday. "What is this if not an attempt to launch a 'parallel track' which will engage in the creation of unilateral decisions?" the spokeswoman asked.

Comment: See also:

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X

Lavrov: Russia refrains from 'tooth for a tooth' retaliation as Facebook bans Russian-linked media


RT
Tue, 19 Feb 2019 16:07 UTC
Camera blocking
© Reuters/Andrew Couldridge/KJN
Sergey Lavrov says he is opposed to retaliating against foreign media in Russia after the Facebook ban of Russia-linked pages. Moscow should instead focus on upholding the rights of its journalists abroad.

The recent suspension of four Maffick Media Facebook pages after a CNN report on their links to RT is "definitely another example of pressure against Russian media and against free speech," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told media after a meeting with his Slovak counterpart and current chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Miroslav Lajcak.

Lavrov said he had also brought to Lajcak's attention recent cases of discrimination against Sputnik and RT, including journalists being arbitrarily banned from official events in Spain.

When asked whether Moscow would retaliate against foreign media in Russia, however, Lavrov said he is "firmly against" such measures. "The fact that we still have not done so is not only testimony to our restraint, but also to our strength. We are an open society."
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Eye 1

Cyber-Gestapo: CNN asked Facebook to censor Russia-backed video company at behest of Atlanticist 'think-tank' German Marshall Fund

Kevin Gosztola
Shadowproof
Tue, 19 Feb 2019 17:41 UTC
Maffick media Facebook ban
© CNN
Journalist Rania Khalek Screen and Maffick Media chief operating officer J. Ray Sparks in CNN's report on Russia-backed video company Maffick Media.
Disclosure: Kevin Gosztola co-hosts the Unauthorized Disclosure podcast with Rania Khalek, who is a contributor for Maffick Media's Soapbox. Unauthorized Disclosure is entirely listener-funded. Shadowproof is member-supported and funded by reader donations.
CNN went in search for a story about a Russian-funded digital media project that produces viral videos aimed at undermining American democracy. When CNN journalists could not find what they were looking for, they effectively manufactured the news by giving Facebook a pretext for removing the project's pages used to share videos. Now, the cable news network had their story.

Four CNN journalists worked on the report, "Russia is backing a viral video company aimed at American millennials." It appeared online late in the day on February 15 and broke the news that Maffick Media had their Facebook pages for three video channels suspended.

Maffick also produces In The Now, which Facebook took down as well.

Facebook never required pages to include information about their parent companies nor has the social media company ever labeled state-sponsored media, which CNN acknowledged. Yet, since the project involves funding from Russian state media, CNN believed Facebook may want to require the pages to disclose such details.

Comment: RT adds further comment:
"Closing a Facebook account or any internet link of a media, without prior warning, can be considered as an act of censorship opposed by the IFJ," the group's chief Philippe Leruth told RIA Novosti.

His remarks came after Facebook suddenly removed several news and viral video-themed pages with millions of subscribers, managed by Maffick Media, on Friday. It happened immediately after CNN ran a report accusing the agency of being part of a Russian "influence campaign." The reason given was that Maffick is partially owned by Ruptly video agency, a subsidiary of RT which is funded by Russia. Facebook gave no notice or warning before taking down the pages. The company later said that it is launching an update for popular pages and will request them to disclose their ownership.

"Closing brutally any link doesn't respect this normal way of doing [things]," Leruth said explaining that even if a media organization is accused of "spreading fake news," it should be asked for the "rectification" of the information presented, and if it refuses - other steps can be taken, including legal action.

Maffick's team heavily pushed back against Facebook, pointing out that its pages didn't violate any of the social network's rules. News agencies weren't required to display information on their funding and ownership on Facebook, and the social network never came after other state-funded media, like the BBC, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty or Qatari-owned Al Jazeera, they argued.


Four days after taking down the pages Facebook got back to Maffick saying that more information is needed in About section.


RFE/RL updated its page later on Tuesday.


Good for Naouai! If Maffick Media is to be held to such a high standard, then apply it across the board.


Co-founder of the Intercept, journalist Glenn Greenwald also criticized Facebook's actions as "highly disturbing." The company, along with CNN and the US-funded German Marshall Fund, whose opinion was prominently featured in CNN's story, are "working together to selectively censor," he wrote on Twitter.


Speaking to RT, journalist and political commentator Martin Summers said that Facebook's action against Maffick Media brings up a broader question on whether the social media giant "should have the power to decide what people see here."

"When you do internet searches... you're supposed to find the thing that the most people are looking at. But, of course, now they've started talking about changing the algorithms."

"It's quite clear that the 'Russiagate' is out of control," RT's deputy director for creativity and innovation, Ivor Crotty noted. "The narrative, paranoia and conspiracy theories around it are starting to disintegrate."

Maffick Media said that it appealed the removal of its pages immediately after it happened, but has still received no reply from Facebook.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, meanwhile, suggested that Russia shouldn't retaliate in 'an-eye-for-an-eye' fashion but rather focus on maintaining a "comfortable" environment for foreign reporters.
Maffick Media CEO, host slam Facebook's unprovoked 'censorship' after CNN runs hit piece: 'end of free speech'

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Blackbox

Is Turkey in league with the CIA in its condemnation of Chinese 'repression' of Uighur population?

Thierry Meyssan
Voltaire Network
Tue, 19 Feb 2019 17:44 UTC
uighurs in syria isis
While Turkey has fostered economic links with China in order to solve its economic crisis, it has also publicly denounced the repression of the Uyghurs, basing its accusations on false information. Beijing sent a very cold reply. Everything is happening, now that Daesh has disappeared from Iraq and Syria, as if Ankara was once again running secret operations on behalf of the CIA, this time in Xinjiang.

For the last few weeks, the Turkish Press has been talking about the fate of the Uyghurs, the Turkish-speaking Muslim population of China. The political parties of the opposition, including the Kemalists, have been outdoing one another to condemn the Han repression of this minority and its religion.

This effervescence follows:
  • The report by the Jamestown Foundation on the « 73 Chinese detention centres »[1];
  • The Radio Free Asia campaign, which broadcast a number of interviews with ex-prisoners of the Chinese camps, and went so far as to pretend that China had outlawed the Coran (sic)[2];
  • The campaign launched on 13 November 2018 by the United States and their allies of the Human Rights Council in Geneva against the repression of Islam in China[3];
  • And the hearing, organised in Washington on 28 November 2018 by Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ), before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, (CECC), on « the repression of religions by the Chinese Communist Party »[4]. Thus we learned that between one and three million Uyghurs are being submitted to electrical torture in the re-education camps. These accusations have been reprised by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

Comment: If the U.S., Turkey et al. were sincere in their concern over China's treatment of the Uighurs, they would not need to resort to such blatantly false propaganda techniques, such as reporting on the "killing" of dissidents who are still alive and inflating the number of alleged detainees by orders of magnitude. As usual, human rights aren't the issue here. Such concerns are only the stick with which to beat the U.S.'s geopolitical enemies. Human rights violations by the West and its allies are studiously ignored.

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Briefcase

16 states are suing to halt Trump using emergency powers to build border wall

Charlie Savage and Robert Pear
The New York Times
Mon, 18 Feb 2019 16:57 UTC
border wall tijuana
© Gregory Bull/Associated Press
The border wall in Tijuana, Mexico.
A coalition of 16 states, including California and New York, on Monday challenged President Trump in court over his plan to use emergency powers to spend billions of dollars on his border wall.

The lawsuit is part of a constitutional confrontation that Mr. Trump set off on Friday when he declared that he would spend billions of dollars more on border barriers than Congress had granted him. The clash raises questions over congressional control of spending, the scope of emergency powers granted to the president, and how far the courts are willing to go to settle such a dispute.

The suit, filed in Federal District Court in San Francisco, argues that the president does not have the power to divert funds for constructing a wall along the Mexican border because it is Congress that controls spending.

[Read the full lawsuit here.]

Comment: The Democrats are further complicating a situation that never should have developed were it not for the wilful actions of Obama, who created the condition now making the US such an attractive destination..

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War Whore

NATO's Atlantic Council hijacks Munich conference with authoritarian 'principles' declaration

Nebojsa Malic
RT
Tue, 19 Feb 2019 17:21 UTC
NATO intervention in Benghazi
© Reuters / Esam Omran Al-Fetori
Libyans mark 8th anniversary of the NATO intervention in Benghazi, February 17, 2019
Taking over the annual Munich security conference, the Atlantic Council has come out with a declaration of principles that seeks to legitimize the rogue behavior of the West after the Cold War as a 'rules-based' world order.

For almost three decades now, Washington and its numerous clients and allies have insisted they were only upholding a "rules-based international order" against those who seek to challenge it, be it "rogue states" such as North Korea and Iran or great powers such as Russia and China. In the process, this self-styled "international community" trampled actual rules and laws to sanction, bomb, invade, occupy and regime-change countries that stood in its way - while claiming to be acting in the interests of the peace, democracy and commerce.

Back in 2007, Russian President Vladimir Putin stood up at the Munich Security Conference in Germany and denounced this behavior, arguing that the US has "overstepped its national borders in every way," imposing "economic, political, cultural and educational policies" on other nations while holding itself exempt from any rules and limitations.
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NPC

Politicians jump ship as Jussie Smollett hate hoax sinks amid revelations


RT
Tue, 19 Feb 2019 16:58 UTC
Jussie Smollett
© Reuters/Carlo Allegri
Protest in support of actor Jussie Smollett
As the narrative of a 'racist, homophobic attack' on actor Jussie Smollett in Chicago continues to collapse, politicians and celebrities who fueled the outrage over the incident are quietly backing away and hoping no one notices.

Smollett's story fit perfectly into the mass hysteria fueled by Trump Derangement Syndrome: two men wearing MAGA hats tried to lynch a black, gay actor who is an outspoken critic of the sitting president. If something sounds too good to be true, however, chances are it is. According to Chicago police, the whole incident was staged and Smollett's 'attackers' were two Nigerian brothers who worked as extras with him on the show 'Empire.'

The 'racist lynching' of Jussie Smollett now seems to be just one more in a long list of hate hoaxes perpetrated by people eager to cast themselves as virtuous victims of President Donald Trump, each hyped by the media and then quickly - and quietly - abandoned once the truth came out.
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