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Russia, Iran, Turkey will facilitate first meeting of new Syria Constitutional Committee


Sputnik
Wed, 25 Sep 2019 17:00 UTC
Syrian flag
The foreign ministers of Russia, Iran and Turkey have agreed to help convene the first session of the Constitutional Committee on Syria in Geneva, a joint statement released on the official website of the Russian Foreign Ministry says.

The statement stressed that Russia, Iran and Turkey reaffirmed their commitment to the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Syria.

The ministers "agreed to help convene the first session of the Constitutional Committee in Geneva" and "emphasized that this crucial step will pave the way for a viable and lasting Syrian-led, Syrian-owned and UN-facilitated political process in line with the decisions of the Syrian National Dialogue Congress in Sochi and the UN Security Council resolution 2254".

According to the release, the foreign ministers held a trilateral meeting at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday and "expressed their determination to support the work of the Constitutional Committee through continuous interaction with the Syrian parties and the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy on Syria".

On Monday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced that the Syrian Constitutional Committee had been created and said its first meeting would be convened in the coming weeks.

Comment: Look what Russia has accompished in Syria after 4 years of intervention. Compare that to what the U.S. has accomplished in Afghanistan in 18 years...

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Russian Flag

Leave.EU funding probe wraps up - no evidence of wrongdoing - Russia didn't cause Brexit


RT
Wed, 25 Sep 2019 16:55 UTC
proudbear putin brexit billboard
© AFP / Daniel SORABJI
An investigation into Arron Banks, a backer of a pro-Brexit campaign, found no evidence that the money for it came from a third party. The political establishement claimed he was illegally pouring Russian funds into the endeavor.

The UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) announced it has shut down investigation into Banks after finding no evidence he broke the law in loaning £8 million ($10 million) to his own pro-Brexit campaign Leave. EU ahead of the 2016 referendum. The loan came from the company Rock Holdings Ltd, owned by Banks, and went to Better for the Country Ltd, which managed the campaign.

The Electoral Commission referred the case to the NCA last year, saying it suspected a third party was the original source of the money. In a public statement on Tuesday, the NCA said it found "no evidence that any criminal offences have been committed" by Banks. Likewise, no evidence was found that he "received funding from any third party to fund the loans, or that he acted as an agent on behalf of a third party."

The third party was presumed to be the government of Russia, which many Remainers accuse of boosting their Leaver opponents financially and with clandestine activities on social media. This notion may, for some, ease the pain caused by the cringeworthy way the UK is now parting ways with the EU, but it has a few problems in terms of actual evidence.

Comment: Pay special attention to the final sentence: "Hunting for the Kremlin's shadow behind domestic troubles is a popular activity these days, especially since the consequences are insignificant for those involved when they are eventually proven wrong." Never trust anyone without skin in the game.

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Dominoes

Civil rights lawyer: 'If impeachment trump card doesn't work, it will guarantee Trump re-election'


RT
Wed, 25 Sep 2019 16:32 UTC
pelosi broadcast impeachment
© Reuters/Jonathan Ernst
Members of the White House press corps watch U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) live on television as she announces an impeachment investigation of U.S. President Donald Trump in New York City, New York, U.S. September 24, 2019.
With the announcement of an official impeachment inquiry, Democrats have put all their eggs in one basket, risking losing the next election if they fail to enlist enough support, civil rights attorney Robert Patillo told RT.

Accusing US President Donald Trump of pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to "take actions which would benefit him politically" - that is, to investigate 2020 candidate Joe Biden's son Hunter and his shady business dealings in Ukraine, according to a whistleblower's report - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced the start of an official impeachment inquiry on Tuesday evening.

The probe is not itself an act of impeachment, and must yet be authorized by a House vote. But even if the Democrat-controlled chamber goes along with Pelosi, the motion would still need to be greenlighted by a two-thirds majority in the Republican-controlled Senate.


Comment: Fat chance the Senate will vote to impeach. This is political bluster and grandstanding by Pelosi and co.


Comment: The only sane Democrat in the room, Tulsi Gabbard calls it:
As many of her House Democratic colleagues decided to back the impeachment of President Donald Trump, Democratic Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard on Tuesday said she doesn't support the move because it would be "terribly divisive" for an "already very divided" United States.

"Look, my position remains the same. I think impeachment would be terribly divisive for our already very divided country," Gabbard said in an interview with CNN's Brooke Baldwin. "I think Congress needs to exercise oversight over the information that's been leaked. I think it's important this transcript is released to Congress so that Congress can do its job."

The 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, in the past, has cautioned against impeaching Trump. Her comments on Tuesday came shortly before House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a formal impeachment inquiry into the President. "The actions of the Trump presidency revealed the dishonorable fact of the President's betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security and betrayal of the integrity of our elections," Pelosi said in doing so.
Trump has released the contents of the call. The Dems are toast.

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Info

Key 'Russiagate' case against Flynn is crumbling - so Dems move on to 'Ukrainegate'


RT
Wed, 25 Sep 2019 16:42 UTC
michael flynn
© Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images
General Michael Flynn, former National Security Advisor to President Donald Trump, departs the E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse following a pre-sentencing hearing on July 10, 2018.
President Donald Trump's security adviser Michael Flynn was the first casualty of 'Russiagate' impeachment push, but the case against him seems weaker than ever, after a federal judge voided the conviction of his business partner.

Flynn, a retired general and former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, was forced to resign in February 2017, after less than two weeks of serving as national security adviser. He was snared in an FBI perjury trap as part of surveillance of the Trump campaign - which was predicated on claims it was "colluding" with Russia during the 2016 presidential election.

Though the original 'Russiagate' scandal more or less imploded when special counsel Robert Mueller admitted there was nothing there in his final report, Democrats have moved to impeach Trump anyway, now claiming he had sought help from Ukraine to influence the 2020 election.

Flynn's case is still pending, but the prosecutors just suffered a major setback. On Tuesday, Judge Anthony Trenga in the Eastern District of Virginia threw out the jury conviction of his business partner Bijan Rafiekian, saying that the government "failed to offer substantial evidence" he acted as a foreign agent of Turkey.

"The evidence was insufficient as a matter of law for the jury to convict Rafiekian," Trenga wrote in his ruling, granting Rafiekian's motion for acquittal. If the prosecutors successfully appeal the decision, he would have to be tried all over again.
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Attention

Ukraine call transcript shows Zelensky suggested re-opening Biden probe - Trump asked about DNC server, but made no mention of US aid

Alex Pappas
Fox News
Wed, 25 Sep 2019 15:56 UTC
trump zelensky

President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
The White House on Wednesday released a transcript of President Trump's July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky showing he sought a review of Biden family dealings in the country — but the document does not show Trump explicitly leveraging military aid as part of a quid pro quo, as Democrats have suggested in pressing forward with impeachment.

The document, declassified by Trump a day earlier, indicates that the call - which Trump made from the White House residence -- took place July 25 from 9:03 a.m. to 9:33 a.m. A notation on the memo says it does not represent a "verbatim transcript" but is based on "notes and recollections" of those listening and memorializing the call. It is still presented in transcript form.

The memo begins with the president congratulating Zelensky on his election victory, before Trump eventually broaches the subject former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

Comment: Trump on top of the background:





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Toys

Social engineering: French government announces deal with toy manufacturers to crack down on 'gender-specific toys'


The Local
Tue, 24 Sep 2019 16:11 UTC
toy shop
© AFP
A mother and her daughter look at the shelves of a big toy shop in Bruay-la-Buissiere on November 20, 2010.
The French government signed an agreement on Tuesday to fight cliched sexist divides in toy shops.

The old adage 'dolls for the girls, cars for the boys' will hopefully become a thing of the past in France thanks to a new agreement that aims to reduce gender stereotypes.

On Tuesday, it was signed by the Secretary of State for the Economy, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, with major toy manufacturers, distributors and shops.


Comment: Govt and corporations working together to implement social engineering. If that isn't the textbook fascism, we don't know what is.


"We are looking to work on the creation of new toys, and also how they are represented in advertisements and the way they are sold," said Pannier-Runacher.

Comment: One significant problem here is the male and female brain aren't conditioned to like male or female things. Preferences are hard-wired. That said, it is certainly true that the first years of a child's life remain critical for their development. This makes it all the more important that we don't mess with children's brains based on activist ideology over actual science. See the following documentary:



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Target

Throwing stones in a glass house: Trump criticizes the world at UN, but his words are best applied to the US

Helen Buyniski
RT
Tue, 24 Sep 2019 17:42 UTC
Trump at UN
© Reuters / Lucas Jackson
US President Donald Trump had harsh words for socialism, Venezuela, Iran and China in his speech at the United Nations General Assembly - but many of his criticisms were best applied to his own country.

Warning of the "divide between those whose thirst for control deludes them into thinking they are destined to rule over others, and those people and nations who want only to rule themselves" - and implying the US falls into the latter category - Trump proceeded to boast about how the US is the most powerful nation in the world, and said, "hopefully we will never have to use this power."

One can only wonder what countries like Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen and Iraq - plus the countries the US has "merely" sanctioned instead of bombing - would have to say about this magnanimous American restraint. Repeatedly lambasting Iran for its "menacing behavior" later in his speech, Trump seemed to have forgotten that he'd opened his own remarks by menacing the entire General Assembly with the world's "most powerful military," now "rebuilt" with $2.5 trillion in taxpayer dollars.
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Radar

Washington continues to sabre rattle about the Arctic

Brian Cloughley
Strategic Culture Foundation
Tue, 24 Sep 2019 00:00 UTC
military in the Arctic
The Pentagon's recent Report to Congress on Arctic Strategy makes it clear that the US considers the region as "US homeland" and therefore "When necessary and appropriate, the United States will challenge excessive maritime claims in the Arctic to preserve the rules-based international order and the rights and freedoms of the international community in navigation and overflight, as well as for other, related high seas uses."

In this example of US intentions, the Pentagon is firmly backed by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is a dangerous man. Many of us imagined that with the ignominious exit of National Security Adviser John Bolton there might be reason to relax, but Pompeo has always been a sabre-rattler, and recently turned his menacingly mercenary gaze on the Arctic.

There are many pressing priorities in US external affairs, because the White House and the Washington establishment in general have lost no opportunity to increase tension and confrontation world-wide, with grim consequences for the inhabitants of countries targeted by the Military-Industrial Complex. Pompeo has been energetic in many spheres, and boasted that the bodycount of Taliban in the first ten days of September had reached 1,000 (while omitting mention the number of Afghan civilians killed by US airstrikes), and told Fox News that talks with the Taliban were ended. The US-created crisis in the Persian Gulf is meat and drink to Pompeo, as are the provocative manoeuvres in the South China Sea by US warships and nuclear bombers.

Comment: See also:

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Bullseye

'Wherever America goes, terror expands': Rouhani says US is 'supporter of terrorism'


RT
Wed, 25 Sep 2019 01:24 UTC
Rouhani
© Reuters / Sputnik / Alexei Druzhinin / Kremlin
ranian President Hassan Rouhani
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the United States has fueled terrorism in the Middle East, slamming US policies for spreading chaos and radicalism across the region.

Joining Fox's Chris Wallace for an interview that ran on Tuesday night, Rouhani rejected any notion that Iran was on a "fanatical" quest for nuclear weapons - as his American counterpart claimed in a speech earlier in the day - and countered that Washington was instead the major troublemaker in the Middle East.

"Today, America, unfortunately, is the supporter of terrorism in our region - and wherever America has gone, terrorism has expanded in the wake," Rouhani said, pointing to US intervention in Syria as a case-in-point.

Comment: There's hard evidence proving what Rouhani's claims is correct: Leaked Docs Reveal US And Saudi Arabia Supplying Terrorists in Yemen - Serbia files (Part 3)

See also:

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Bad Guys

Saudis considering military retaliation for oil attacks but want to avoid all out war


RT
Tue, 24 Sep 2019 20:52 UTC
Abqaiq facility
© Reuters / Hamad I Mohammed
Damage at Saudi Aramco's Abqaiq facility
Saudi Arabia says a military response to the drone attacks on oil processing facilities is on the table, but only after an investigation into the strikes is completed.

"We want to mobilize international support, and we want to look at all options - diplomatic options, economic options and military options - and then make the decision," Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said at an event held to coincide with the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, reminding his audience that Riyadh believes Iran was responsible for the strikes "because the equipment is the Iranian equipment."


Comment: Terrorists are consistently caught with US, UK and Israeli weapons and supplies: Leaked Docs Reveal US And Saudi Arabia Supplying Terrorists in Yemen - Serbia files (Part 3)


Comment: See also:

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