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Pompeo: China and Russia "spread disorder" in Latin America - By supporting leaders US doesn't like

pompeo
© Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Secretary of State Michael Pompeo blamed China and Russia for spreading "disorder" in Latin America by funding failing development projects and supporting leaders such as Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who the U.S. insists must step down from power.

Pompeo, speaking Friday in Chile at the start of a three-day South American tour, said Beijing and Moscow have fueled corruption and sought to undermine democracy across the region. He cited a failing dam project in Ecuador, Chinese loans to the Maduro and Chavez regimes in Venezuela and support for police training programs in Nicaragua.

When China does business in Latin America, Pompeo said, "it often injects corrosive capital into the economic bloodstream, giving life to corruption, and eroding good governance." Along with Russia, the two countries come to the region to "spread disorder," he added. .


Comment: That's an exact description of the US foreign policy, as well as the IMF and World Bank: Assange was sold for $4.2 BILLION - Former Ecuadorian President confirms IMF loan in exchange for Assange


Comment: China responds: 'Pompeo has lost his mind'

Pompeo seems to be on a tour of countries bordering Venezuela, which just happens to be the country the US is currently failing to overthrow: Also check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: US Regime Change Operation in Venezuela - This Time It's Legit?


Chess

Iran says it 'cannot wait forever' for European trade mechanisms that avoid US sanctions

Iran Europe flags
Tehran will not wait forever for the European nations to launch the promised payments mechanism aimed at avoiding the US sanctions against the Islamic Republic, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif has warned.

Ever since Washington unilaterally withdrew from the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, the European parties to the agreement - the UK, France, and Germany - have been considering the idea of a special payment channel with Iran, which would allow them to bypass re-imposed US sanctions. However, it seems that the Europeans did not make great strides on this path, sparking discontent in Iran, which did not only stick to its part of the 2015 accord but also created its part of the mechanism months ago.

On Sunday, Iran's top diplomat complained about a prolonged delay in the launch of the European non-dollar direct payment channel with Tehran called the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchange (INSTEX).

Red Flag

'Pompeo has lost his mind' - China strikes back at Latin America remarks

Mike Pompeo and James Mattis listen to China's Foreign Affairs Director Yang Jiechi, November 9, 2018
© Reuters / Leah Millis
Mike Pompeo and James Mattis listen to China's Foreign Affairs Director Yang Jiechi, November 9, 2018.
China has come out swinging after Mike Pompeo's three-day Latin America tour in which the Secretary of State publicly called out China for spreading "disorder" in Latin America alongside Russia. Pompeo identified the two countries, both of which have over the past two months condemned US efforts toward regime change in Venezuela, of backing failing investment projects that only fuel corruption and undermine democracy, especially in Venezuela.

China's ambassador to Chile, Xu Bu, quickly lashed out in response to America's top diplomat blaming China for Latin America's economic woes which first came last Friday while standing alongside Chilean President Sebastian Pinera. Ambassador Xu told the Chilean newspaper La Tercera: "Mr Pompeo has lost his mind."

Pompeo had asserted during his tour that Chinese investment and economic intervention in Venezuela, now facing financial and infrastructural collapse amidst political turmoil, had "helped destroy" the country and said Latin American leaders must therefore see who their "true friend" is.

NPC

Democrat In-Fighting: Sanders lashes out at progressive think tank for pointing out he's a 'millionaire'

Bernie Sanders
© Reuters / Carlos Barria
Senator Bernie Sanders has written a scathing letter to the board of the Center for American Progress accusing it of being a "destructive" force in the "critical mission to defeat Donald Trump."

The accusations were prompted by an article and video published by one of CAP's projects, ThinkProgress, which claimed Sanders is a millionaire but wishes to downplay his finances because it's "very off-brand and embarrassing."

In the letter dated April 13 and published by the New York Times, Sanders takes aim at both CAP and ThinkProgress for alleged smears against him as well as fellow progressive Democratic candidates for 2020 Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker, and suggests that this divisive approach to Democratic campaigning is going to damage the party's push to take the presidency from Trump.

Comment: Also see: Liberalism's hypocrisy: A case study of Senator Bernie Sanders, example of those to come


Bad Guys

Amnesty International ignores Al-Qaeda war crimes to criminalize Syrian government

Idlib Syria cave
© Reuters / Khalil Ashawi
A man looks at an opening from a makeshift shelter in an underground cave in Idlib, Syria September 3, 2018
Amnesty International's biased and misleading report ignores the suffering of communities under attack from Al-Qaeda affiliates in Syria's Idlib.

Tensions are being ratcheted up in the north-westerly provinces of Idlib and Northern Hama and Western media prepares itself for the revival of the notorious "last doctor" meme.

In September 2018 Russian and Turkish negotiators agreed to establish a demilitarized zone in Idlib which should have been completed by October 15, 2018. The reality is that the withdrawal of heavy weaponry has only been partially successful and the remaining armed groups dominated by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), effectively a rebrand of Al-Qaeda or Al-Nusra Front, have consistently violated the ceasefire and targeted cities, towns and villages on the borders of the so-called "safe zone."

Info

Maduro's government reveals plans of far-right terrorist cell

Jorge Rodriguez
© VTV
Vice President of Communication, Tourism, and Culture of Venezuela, Jorge Rodriguez, revealed the names and plans of a far-right “terrorist” group.
One of the groups is the so-called "Cocoon 2.0", whose members are Juan Guaido, Ricardo Hausmann, Leopoldo Lopez, among others.

Vice President of Communication, Tourism, and Culture of Venezuela, Jorge Rodriguez, revealed Thursday the members and plans of a far-right "terrorist" group called Cocoon 2.0, based off of information provided by Roberto Marrero Borgas and other found in his cellphone after his March 21 capture.

Marrero Borgas alleged "chief of staff" for lawmaker Juan Guaido, was arrested after the Venezuelan intelligence agencies and the Public Prosecutor's Office found a link between him and violent far-right organizations, that aimed to aggravate plans in order to destabilize the Bolivarian government.

Eagle

Where will the Trump administration go to war next?

Trump at war
Ever since Mr. MAGA made it to the White House, I have been awed by the level of sheer stupidity and, frankly, the immorality of this administration. Obama was almost as incompetent and evil, but Trump truly brought about a qualitative change in what we could loosely refer to as the "average White House IQ." The best thing I can honestly say about Trump is that stupid can be good. Alas, it can also be extremely dangerous, and that is what is happening now. Just check out these recent headlines: I have to admit that this last one is my favorite, really! How cool is that? The US threatens a NATO member state with war (that is what "devastating/serious consequences" means in diplotalk).

Pompeo (surely one of the most evil and delusional idiots in the Trump Administration) was probably trying to emulate the role-model of this entire Administration, Bibi Netanyahu, who once even threatened *New Zealand* with war (well, kinda, I know, they did not really mean "real" war, but they did use war language, which, for a politician, is irresponsible at best).

Comment: Like an ever-irritating itch that yearns to be scratched, the body of neocon and neo-liberal actors for empire cannot help themselves to look for the next country that can be subjugated and oppressed in the name of "freedom and democracy".


Bad Guys

Cooperation between NATO and Russia nonexistent - Russian deputy FM

nato russia
© Global Look Press / imago stock&people
NATO has reverted to Cold War behavior and virtually no cooperation between the bloc and Moscow exists, the Russian deputy FM says. There are no signs the situation will improve, since the alliance is craving a new arms race.

Relations between NATO and Russia - or lack thereof - was the main topic of a long interview with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Grushko, published by RIA Novosti on Monday.

"Civil and military cooperation has ceased completely. NATO itself has dropped any positive agenda in relations with Russia. It does not exist. And so far there are no signs that NATO knows how to get out of this deadlock," Grushko stated.

Comment: See also: And check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: Trump on Tour! US President Takes Wrecking Ball to NATO & EU, Mueller Indicts Russians


Pistol

Middle East: Who's killing whom? Blaming Iran could be the excuse for war

BushCheneyRumsfeld
© prison1
Fmr President George W. Bush • Fmr VP Dick Cheney • Fmr Sec. of State Donald Rumsfeld
Newsweek is reporting a story regarding how Iran "was responsible for the deaths of at least 608 American troops in Iraq between 2003 and 2011." The account is sourced to a newly revised estimate prepared by analysts at the Pentagon that was discussed by Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook at a State Department press briefing on April 2nd. According to Hook, Tehran is now being blamed for 17 per cent of all US military deaths because it supplied weapons to the several Shiite militias that were opposing the US invasion, occupation and subsequent presence in the country.

Hook also stated that the American casualties are in addition to the "thousands" of Iraqi troops and civilians that were killed in attacks initiated by what he referred to as the Iranian proxy forces. Hook noted that the new number is higher than the 2015 confirmed death total of 500 that was reported by then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford, who qualified his estimate by saying:
"We were not always able to attribute the casualties that we had to Iranian activity, although many times we suspected it was Iranian activity, even though we did not necessarily have the forensics to support that."

Comment: See also more on this outlandish statement:
US claims Iran is behind the killing of hundreds of US troops in Iraq


Question

Matt Taibbi: The Pentagon books are so screwed on every level it's impossible to detect fraud

Pentagon
© Shutterstock
The Pentagon
The US Department of Defense's (DoD) finances are so labyrinthine and full of invented numbers that it's impossible to detect cases of rampant fraud and criminality from the books, journalist Matt Taibbi told RT's Lee Camp.

Taibbi recently delved into the intricacies of the Pentagon's finances to find out how a much-lauded audit of the organization, which receives half a trillion dollars a year, failed to give the DoD either a pass or fail. What he found was a system that is inherently unable to provide financial accountability, he said during an interview on Redacted Tonight.
"It's organized so badly that when the Pentagon at the end of every year goes to ask for more money for the next year... they invent the numbers because they have no audit trail. They submit all those numbers to the Congress, saying we spent this on that, but they don't actually have the documents. The sheer quantity of the numbers makes it impossible to detect anything like fraud or theft because the books are all wrong at every single level of the system."

Comment: See also: