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Snakes in Suits

Peter Strzok is the serial FBI leaker, congressman suspects

Ivan Penchoukov
The Epoch Times
Fri, 31 May 2019 20:44 UTC
strzok smirk hearing

Peter Strzok
A Republican lawmaker suspects that former FBI official Peter Strzok is the serial leaker referred to in an investigative summary released on May 29 by the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General.

Rep. Doug Collins (R-Georgia) substantiated his suspicion in a letter (pdf) to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, whose office released a summary showing that someone with the same title as Strzok-Deputy Assistant Director (DAD)-leaked sealed court information in violation of federal law, maintained contacts with dozens of reporters, and accepted a gift from a reporter in violation of FBI policy and federal statutes.

"While the DAD is not named in the Summary, there are several indications the DAD in question is former FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok," Collins wrote.

He points out that Horowitz's report on the Clinton-email investigation, dubbed the Midyear investigation by the FBI, shows that Strzok forwarded an email from his FBI account to his personal account about a proposed search warrant the Clinton-email investigators were seeking on the laptop of Anthony Weiner, the husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin. That email included information that was filed under seal with a federal court in the Southern District of New York, according to the report.
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Bad Guys

Germany in secret talks with US on military support in Syria


Sputnik
Thu, 30 May 2019 19:41 UTC
german jet
© REUTERS / Ruben Sprich/Files
Ahead of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit to Berlin, the German outlet Spiegel reported that Washington has been urging Berlin to support a buffer zone in northern Syria. The zone is meant to shield the Kurds, whose militia has been supported by the US, from both Turkey and the government forces of Bashar Assad.

The German government has signalled during months-long secret talks with the US that it would be prepared to take part in securing a safe zone in northern Syria, Spiegel reports. According to the outlet, Berlin has suggested that the mission of the German Armed Forces, Bundeswehr, in Jordan could be extended for this purpose.

The mandate for a German deployment called "Camp Sonic" to remain at a Jordanian Air Force base in order to counter Daesh expires in October. It includes specially equipped "Tornado" jets that are assisting the US-led anti-Daesh coalition with reconnaissance and aerial refuelling over Syria. However, as the German outlet points out, it is still unclear what assistance the German Air Force can provide for the safe zone.

Comment: See also:

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Newspaper

Far from quiet on the US vs Russia-China front

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
Fri, 31 May 2019 19:46 UTC
us versus world

States in central Asia fear the impact of a new Cold War on integration plans.

Kazakhs fear impacts of new 'cold war', but Putin is adamant Eurasian integration will go ahead
Let's start in mid-May, when Nur-Sultan, formerly Astana, hosted the third Russia-Kazakhstan Expert Forum, jointly organized by premier think tank Valdai Club and the Kazakhstan Council on International Relations.

The ongoing, laborious and crucial interconnection of the New Silk Roads, or Belt and Road Initiative and the Eurasia Economic Union was at the center of the debates. Kazakhstan is a pivotal member of both the BRI and EAEU.

As Valdai Club top analyst Yaroslav Lissovolik told me, there was much discussion "on the state of play in emerging markets in light of the developments associated with the US-China trade stand-off." What emerged was the necessity of embracing "open regionalism" as a factor to neutralize "the negative protectionist trends in the global economy."

Comment: See also:

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TV

South Korean newspaper's 'anonymous source' claims North executed official following failed US summit


Sputnik
Fri, 31 May 2019 03:54 UTC
Kim Yong-chol
© REUTERS / Athit Perawongmetha
Kim Yong-chol
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his government are said to have carried out a purge against at least five Foreign Ministry officials, including the country's envoy to the US, following the second official meeting between leaders of the US and Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Kim Hyok-chol, North Korea's special envoy to the US who acted as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's counterpart in discussions prior to the failed Hanoi summit between the two nations, has been dead for months, reported South Korean newspaper The Chosun Ilbo Friday.

"Kim Hyok-chol was investigated and executed at Mirim Airport with four foreign ministry officials in March", an anonymous North Korean source revealed, according to TheChosun Ilbo.

Comment: There is no reason to believe that these claims of execution and reeducation of officials are true - although this kind of propaganda may have gained some traction in times gone by. If Kim Jong-Un had any issue with his officials he would simply fire them, if they'd broken the law he'd jail them. It's notable that this particular news outlets from the South would be so willing to publish unsubstantiated and even provably false claims. As for the summit, it failed because some in the US intended for it to fail: How Trump sabotaged the North Korea summit to appease the hawks and lied about Kim's terms

See also:

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MIB

Russiagate is #1 Threat to US National Security - Stephen Cohen


RT
Fri, 31 May 2019 20:29 UTC
brennan clapper comey

The greatest threat to US national security
The system-wide US Russophobia that reached its nadir with Russiagate has created a "catastrophe" for both domestic politics and foreign relations that threatens the future of the American system, professor Stephen Cohen tells RT.

War with Russia could easily break out if the US insists on pursuing the policy of "demonization" that birthed Russiagate instead of returning to detente and cooperation, New York University professor emeritus of Russian history Stephen Cohen argues on Chris Hedges' On Contact. While NATO deliberately antagonized post-Soviet Russia by expanding up to its borders, the US deployed missile defense systems along those borders after scrapping an arms treaty, leaving President Vladimir Putin devoid of "illusions" about the goodwill of the West - but armed with "nuclear missiles that can evade and elude any missile defense system."
"Now is the time for a serious, new arms control agreement. What do we get? Russiagate instead."

Comment: Ex-CIA Chief John Brennan STILL has his security clearance - Even though President Trump revoked it last summer

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Take 2

City of Beverly Hills votes to ban ALL tobacco sales, but exempts cigar clubs

Sonja Sharp
Los Angeles TImes
Mon, 20 May 2019 13:05 UTC
Arnold Schwarzenegger holds a cigar
© Damian Dovarganes/AP
Then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger holds a cigar as he waves to Long Beach residents after visiting the city.
Beverly Hills has long been anything but a smoker's paradise. The city was the first in California to ban smoking inside restaurants and most public places, back in 1987, and added outdoor venues to the list in 2007.

Now it is poised to enact what officials say is the most stringent tobacco ban in the country, eliminating the sale of virtually all recreational nicotine products - with one very Beverly Hills exception.

Cigarettes are out. Vapes are dead. But for an elite group of aficionados, hundreds of whom swamped committee meetings and wrote the city in protest, cigars will be spared - as long as they're smoked inside one of three dedicated lounges.

Entreaties have poured in to City Hall from top executives at real estate offices, security firms, talent agencies - and from former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Nearly all of them are acolytes of the Grand Havana Room on North Canon Drive, a club so exclusive its members need a special key to get in.

"The Grand Havana Room, which I have been a member of since its inception, provides a treasured home away from home, " wrote Schwarzenegger. "It is unthinkable that the city might adopt a policy that would intentionally or unintentionally cause the closure of this character-defining institution."


Comment: How does one define their character at a cigar club? Smoking cigars and rubbing elbows with powerful people? Translation: Arnie loves his tobacco and wants to continue to enjoy the benefits of tobacco with his wealthy friends, without criticism from prying eyes.


Comment: See also: Smoke, Lies and the Nanny State

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Snakes in Suits

Mueller used 'qualifying, sneaky' language to insinuate Russia was behind DNC 'hack'


Sputnik
Fri, 31 May 2019 08:57 UTC
mueller
© Reuters/Jim Bourg
Special counsel Robert Mueller: accused of "scorched earth" methods and "Gestapo tactics."
In his Wednesday remarks on his report, US special counsel Robert Mueller's used careful language on the Democratic National Committee hack. His qualifying language has been overlooked by mainstream media sources stating, with certainty, that Russia was behind the hack, Aaron Maté, a journalist for The Nation, told Sputnik.

"In general, this sort of qualified, sneaky language applies to pretty much the entirety of the entire Mueller's team work from the beginning," Maté, who is also the former host and producer at Democracy Now and The Real News, told Radio Sputnik's Loud & Clear.

"If you look at the indictments that they've [the Mueller team] handed down during this Trump-Russia saga, they gave the appearance to many people, especially in cable news and politicians who wanted to build a case for this fictitious Trump-Russia conspiracy, [that Russia was behind the hack]. They use language that gave the impression there might be something there - it's sneaky," Maté told hosts John Kiriakou and Brian Becker.

"If you look at what they're actually saying, they were never charging anybody with a Trump-Russia conspiracy, and they were never accusing anyone of lying to cover up one. But the language they used gave an appearance of otherwise. That extends also to how they talk about even their core charge that Russia engaged - in Mueller's words - in a systematic interference effort."

Comment: The DNC was not 'hacked' and Mueller knows it but is still attempting to preserve the fiction:

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Attention

Maduro says sabotage is preventing ships with gasoline, food from reaching Venezuela


Maritime Herald
Fri, 31 May 2019 16:14 UTC
MaduroCrowd
© Sputnik/Stringer
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro
The president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, on Monday denounced ten boats with gasoline heading to the South American country were objects of sabotage, as part of the "persecution" resulting from the sanctions imposed by the US, against the Caribbean nation.

"The boat that brought gasoline last week, ten ships sabotaged us so that it did not reach the Venezuelan coasts," Maduro said at a meeting with the political leadership of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) in Caracas .

Despite the incident, the South American president said that the problem with the ships "is in the process of being resolved".

Comment:

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Star of David

Israel twists law to dodge ICC war crime investigation

Maureen Clare Murphy
The Electronic Intifada
Thu, 30 May 2019 17:10 UTC
Injured Palestinian
© Mohammed Zaanoun/ActiveStills
More than 200 Palestinians, including 44 children, have been killed by Israeli occupation forces during Gaza’s Great March of Return.
Israel is relying on US muscle to stop the International Criminal Court investigating alleged war crimes perpetrated in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

"The International Criminal Court in The Hague has no jurisdiction to discuss matters concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," Sharon Afek, Israel's military advocate general, stated at the annual Herzliya Conference, a high-profile gathering of Israel's political and military elites, this week.

"Israel is a law-abiding country, with an independent and strong judicial system, and there is no reason for its actions to be scrutinized by the ICC," Afek added.


Comment: Afek's nose must have grown about 20 metres after saying this load of rubbish. Israel is anything but a law abiding nation. Israel is an apartheid nation that viciously and violently oppresses the Palestinian people


The military advocate general's office also recently published a report claiming that the military had conducted "lectures and workshops on the legal ramifications" of occupation forces' actions, the Tel Aviv daily Haaretz stated.

"The move was prompted by weekly clashes between soldiers and Palestinians over the past year as well as by the International Criminal Court's scrutiny of the [military's] actions in the 2014 Gaza war," Haaretz added.
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Bad Guys

Julian Assange's mother condemns UK government for 'unlawfully slowly killing my son'

Cassandra Fairbanks
The Gateway Pundit
Thu, 30 May 2019 00:00 UTC
Christine Assange, Julian Assange

“They made him very ill by refusing him ANY access to life sustaining fresh air, exercise, sun/VitD or proper medical care for 6 YEARS of illegal Embassy detention.”
Christine Assange, the mother of imprisoned WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, says that the UK government is killing her son.

Mrs. Assange's statement comes amid news that the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize nominee is so gravely ill that he has been moved to the prison's medical unit and cannot even hold a normal conversation with his lawyers.

Responding to the news of Julian's deteriorating health, Mrs. Assange tweeted that the "UK Gov is unlawfully slowly killing my son!"

"They made him very ill by refusing him ANY access to life sustaining fresh air, exercise, sun/VitD or proper medical care for 6 YEARS of illegal Embassy detention," she tweeted at the United Nations Twitter account. "Then against ALL medical advice threw him into a prison cell."

Comment: UN Expert: Assange deliberately subjected to prolonged cruel and inhuman psychological torture
Nils Melzer, a Geneva-based former Red Cross lawyer and human rights expert who is now the UN special rapporteur on torture, spent four hours with Assange in Belmarsh in early May, assessing his psychological and mental state along with two medical specialists.

In a currently confidential report submitted to the British government on Monday, along with letters to the US, Swedish and Ecuadorian governments, Melzer concluded Assange "shows all the symptoms of someone exposed to prolonged psychological ill-treatment".

"The evidence is overwhelming and clear," Melzer said. "Mr Assange has been deliberately exposed, for a period of several years, to progressively severe forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the cumulative effects of which can only be described as psychological torture."


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