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US indicts Turkish bank for $20B+ in Iranian oil money; Dems may try to link it to Trump impeachment


RT
Tue, 15 Oct 2019 22:41 UTC
Halkbank
© Reuters/Osman Orsal
Charges against the Turkish Halkbank announced by federal prosecutors has critics of US President Donald Trump hopeful of his impeachment, due to reports he tried to intervene on behalf of one of its convicted executives.

Halkbank - officially Turkiye Halk Bankasi AS - was charged on Tuesday with six counts of conspiracy, fraud and money laundering in the Southern District of New York, for allegedly helping Iran circumvent US sanctions on oil exports between 2012 and 2016 to the tune of $20 billion. The Turkish government is the bank's majority shareholder, and US Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman claimed that its "audacious conduct was supported and protected by high-ranking Turkish government officials."

The charges come amid the Turkish invasion of northern Syria, for which Trump has threatened to impose economic and financial penalties on Ankara. However, the president's critics at home hope this might turn into a scandal that helps them bring him down.
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Snakes in Suits

Tehran, ready to mediate Yemen war, criticizes US efforts to obstruct improving ties between Iran and SA


Sputnik
Wed, 16 Oct 2019 13:12 UTC
Ali Largijani
© iranobserver.org
Speaker of Iran Parliament Ali Larijani
Tensions between the Gulf neighbours reached new highs in recent months after a string of drone and missile attacks targeting tankers and oil facilities. Last week, the US announced that it would be sending thousands of troops to Saudi Arabia in response to 'Iranian aggression' against Saudi oil infrastructure. Tehran has denied any involvement.

Iran is ready to work to improve relations with Saudi Arabia, and to mediate the long-running war in Yemen, but the United States is trying to hinder these efforts, Ali Larijani, speaker of Iran's parliament, has said.

"If Saudis accept a diplomatic solution, Iran will adopt a mediatory role in the issue of Yemen; but of course, the US thinks that the era of milking Saudi Arabia is not yet over," Larijani said, speaking with Bundestag vice president Claudia Roth on the sidelines of the Inter-Parliamentary Union conference in Belgrade, his remarks quoted by Mehr News.

According to Larijani, the US was largely responsible for the chaos which plagues the Middle East, including the poor relations between Tehran and Riyadh. "The US is the main reason for the dispute between Iran and Saudi Arabia," he claimed.

Comment: See also:

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X

Pence and Giuliani ignore Congressional summons in impeachment probe


RFE/RL
Wed, 16 Oct 2019 08:19 UTC
Pence
© Jacqueline Martin/AP
US VP Mike Pence
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani said on October 15 they won't comply with a Congressional impeachment investigation into Trump's efforts to prod Ukraine to investigate a political foe.

Pence through his lawyer said he will not provide a long list of documents related to the Ukraine case that three House of Representatives' panels have requested.

Giuliani also said he will not cooperate and could face contempt of Congress charges.

The House inquiry was prompted by a government whistle-blower's account of a July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy during which Trump asked Zelenskiy to work with Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr on probing Biden and his son, Hunter, for alleged corruption.

On October 17, Gordon Sondland, the U.S. envoy to the European Union, is scheduled to testify before the House panels. His testimony has been anticipated ever since Democrats released text messages between Sondland and other ambassadors, including former special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker, discussing the possibility of Zelenskiy securing a visit to the White House.
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Yoda

UN envoy Melzer: Assange subjected to torture & violations of due process rights - mainstream press ignores it


RT
Wed, 16 Oct 2019 19:00 UTC
Melser Assange UN press conference
© UN
Nils Melzer, Special Rapporteur on Torture, addresses a near-empty press briefing room
WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange has been subjected to "psychological torture" and his due process rights have been "systematically violated" by all the states involved, according to UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer.

Two medical experts accompanied Melzer when he visited Assange at Belmarsh prison in the UK, he said on Tuesday.
We came to the conclusion that he had been exposed to psychological torture for a prolonged period of time. That's a medical assessment.
Melzer's message fell largely on deaf ears, as only a handful of reporters attended Tuesday's press conference at the UN headquarters in New York.

Comment:

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Light Saber

'Schiffty' in the hot seat: 135 House Republicans co-sponsor resolution to censure Schiff over 'parody' reading of Trump-Zelensky call

Andrew O'Reilly
Fox News
Wed, 16 Oct 2019 18:33 UTC
Adam Schiff

Adam Schiff
A motion to censure House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., for his "parody" reading of President Trump's July phone call with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky during a hearing last month is gaining steam with House Republicans, as Fox News has learned 135 lawmakers have now signed on as co-sponsors.

The resolution to censure Schiff -- who has become a favorite target of Republicans for his role in the Trump impeachment inquiry -- was first introduced late last month by Rep. Andy Biggs, the Arizona Republican who chairs the conservative House Freedom Caucus, and has the support of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., and House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., among other ranking Republicans in the lower chamber of Congress.

Democrats have the majority and control the floor in the House, but Republicans could still attempt to force a vote on the matter.

Comment: As the inimatible John Howard Kunstler put it:
Sometimes, if you open up a big enough gate and stand in the void, the gate will swing back and slap you on the ass — which is where serial bungler and arch-schlemiel Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) finds himself at the end of an exhausting week's dissembling in the WhistleGate matter. Long about now, his reluctant partner in the latest impeachment gambit, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, must feel date-raped just a little bit as every unraveling thread in the story leads back to another exposed deception by Schiff, the Inspector Clouseau of impeachment politics.


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Evil Rays

Germany defies US pressure, confirms it will allow Huawei into 5G networks

Chloe Taylor
CNBC
Wed, 16 Oct 2019 17:57 UTC
Huawei
© Wolfgang Rattay | Reuters
The Huawei logo in front of the company’s German headquarters in Duesseldorf, Germany
Germany will not ban Chinese telecoms giant Huawei from helping to build its national 5G networks, snubbing calls from the U.S. to bar the company over national security concerns.

A spokesperson for Germany's Interior Ministry confirmed in a phone call Wednesday that the decision had been made on Tuesday.

The move is a blow to the U.S., which has been pressuring its allies to exclude Huawei from 5G infrastructure, claiming its presence in the networks would enable Chinese espionage. Countries including Australia and New Zealand have already banned the company from their domestic networks.

Under Chinese law, organizations can be forced to hand over data to the state if requested to do so, but Huawei has repeatedly denied claims that its presence in 5G networks would act as a back door for China.


Comment: The fear from the US is more likely that they will no longer be able to spy on Germany and thus steer the direction of the EU to its own goals. If the US no longer holds this power, we'll likely see some fundamental breakthroughs in geopolitical relationships, most notably between Germany and Russia.

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Light Saber

Tulsi Gabbard: A dove on the warpath

Michael Tracey
The Spectator USA
Wed, 16 Oct 2019 18:07 UTC
tulsi gabbard fourth debate democrats 2019
© CNN
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard speaks at the fourth Democratic debate in Westerville, Ohio
Thank goodness she didn't boycott the Ohio debate

It was never especially plausible that Tulsi Gabbard would follow through on her threat to boycott last night's presidential debate. Too much campaign energy and resources have flowed into ensuring that she secured a spot on the corporate TV stage, which is a sordid but unavoidable aspect of the modern primary process. But in her first comments, she spelled out the reasons why such a boycott would in theory have been absolutely warranted. The two media co-sponsors, CNN and the New York Times, had just spent the past several days attacking her with a level of brazenness that was shocking even to those well-accustomed to the regularity with which she is smeared by journalistic antagonists.
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Cell Phone

Twitter details rules for world leaders' tweets amid criticism from whining Democrats

Tal Axelrod
The Hill
Wed, 16 Oct 2019 17:00 UTC
Twitter app
Twitter is detailing its policies for world leaders as Democrats press the social media giant to take a tougher stance on President Trump's tweets.

In a statement Tuesday, Twitter said that tweets from leaders "are not above our policies entirely."

"When it comes to the actions of world leaders on Twitter, we recognize that this is largely new ground and unprecedented. We understand the desire for our decisions to be 'yes/no' binaries, but it's not that simple," the company said. "The actions we take and policies we develop will set precedent around online speech and we owe it to the people we serve to be deliberate and considered in what we do."

Twitter went on to lay out a series of actions that would trigger "enforcement action for any account," including promoting terrorism, clear and direct threats of violence against an individual, posting private information, sharing intimate photos or videos of a person without their consent, material involving child sexual exploitation and any message encourage or promoting self-harm.
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Yoda

Democrats hate Tulsi Gabbard because she reminds them what they used to stand for

Jack Hunter
Washington Examiner
Wed, 16 Oct 2019 17:31 UTC
Tulsi Gabbard
© Lori Shaull/Flickr
Democratic Candidate for President Tulsi Gabbard
"I think it is important for us to send a signal that we are not hellbent on regime change," presidential candidate Barack Obama said in 2007. He was talking about Iran but citing former President George W. Bush's disastrous precedent of ousting Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Obama defined his candidacy in opposition to that 2003 regime change war and eventually became president.

Times have changed. Most Democrats in Tuesday night's CNN/New York Times presidential debate blasted President Trump's decision to withdraw American troops from northern Syria and said they believe his decision endangers the Kurds. But only one candidate said the United States should also stop pursuing an overall "regime change war" in that country.

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard said, "We've got to understand the reality of the situation there, which is that the slaughter of the Kurds being done by Turkey is yet another negative consequence of the regime change war that we've been waging in Syria."

"Donald Trump has the blood of the Kurds on his hands," the Hawaii Democrat continued, "but so do many of the politicians in our country from both parties who have supported this ongoing regime change war in Syria that started in 2011, along with many in the mainstream media, who have been championing and cheerleading this regime change war."
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Nuke

US official: 50 US nuclear bombs at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey essentially 'hostage'


Sputnik
Wed, 16 Oct 2019 17:22 UTC
Turkey Incirlik Air Base
© Doğan News Agency
Incirlik Air Base
US Officials are reviewing plans to evacuate up to 50 nuclear bombs that have long been stored at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey in the wake of Ankara's military offensive in northern Syria, according to a report from the New York Times.

The Cold War-era B61 nuclear bombs are said to be 100-250 miles from the Syrian border, according to The Guardian. A former US official told the outlet that Turkish diplomats responded to suggestions about moving the bombs by saying Turkey would start to develop its own.
"The potential problems have been discussed for over a decade," the former official said. "And now we've finally gotten to a point where this is a problem that we can't ignore anymore."
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