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US Immigration officers are officially allowed to create fake social media profiles to spy on visa applicants


RT
Sun, 01 Sep 2019 17:00 UTC
facebook
© Reuters / Akhtar Soomro
US Citizenship and Immigration officers can now use fake social media accounts to surveil foreigners seeking visas and citizenship, even after years of US lawmakers blasting foreign rivals for supposedly doing the same.

Officers have until recently been banned from creating fictitious profiles, but a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) privacy review dated July 2019 but posted online on Friday has reversed that ban. According to the review, officers with the department's Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate can keep an eye on the social media profiles of suspicious visa applicants, as they decide who to allow entry to.

Twitter told AP that it would evaluate the DHS proposal, while Facebook has yet to comment. Yet, the move seems to directly contradict the policies of both social media giants, which explicitly ban impersonation on their platforms. Both platforms just recently shut down more than 200,000 "fake accounts," supposedly operated by the Chinese government to discredit the Hong Kong protest movement.
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Dollar Gold

MAKS 2019 airshow brings Russia billions in military contracts


RT
Sun, 01 Sep 2019 17:16 UTC
MiG-29 jet fighters of the Strizhi (Swifts) aerobatic team at MAKS 2019
© Sputnik / Mikhail Voskresenskiy
This year's MAKS airshow has proven to be an effective sales platform for Russian companies, as they expect to ink multi-billion-dollar deals on exports of military hardware, according to the state arms trade agency.

Official arms exporter Rosoboronexport said that it held more than 200 talks and consultations during MAKS 2019, which wraps up on Sunday. The main results of the international aviation and space salon are new contracts on deliveries of Russian-made jets, helicopters, and air defense systems, according to the arms corporation.

"The successful implementation of those projects that we have discussed with our partners these August days will bring Russian enterprises several billion dollars," Rosoboronexport CEO Aleksandr Mikheyev said. He added that the funds will be used to develop modern production facilities and pay for specialists' work.

Comment: Turkey's Erdoğan seeks $100 billion trade and closer ties to Russia, meets with Putin at air show

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Wall Street

Is the Fed preparing to topple the US dollar?

F. William Engdahl
New Eastern Outlook
Sun, 01 Sep 2019 15:24 UTC
Mark Carney
Unusual remarks and actions by the outgoing head of the Bank of England and other central banking insiders strongly suggest that there is a very ugly scenario in the works to end the role of the US dollar as world reserve currency. In the process, this would involve that the Fed deliberately triggers a dramatic economic depression. If this scenario is actually deployed in coming months, Donald Trump will go down in history books as the second Hebert Hoover, and the world economy will be pushed into the worst collapse since the 1930s. Here are some elements worth considering.

Bank of England speech

The about-to-retire head of the very special Bank of England, Mark Carney, delivered a remarkable speech at the recent annual meeting of central bankers and finance elites at Jackson Hole Wyoming on August 23. The 23-page address to fellow central bankers and financial insiders is clearly a major signal of where the Powers That Be who run world central banks plan to take the world.

Carney addresses obvious flaws with the post-1944 dollar reserve system, noting that, "...a destabilizing asymmetry at the heart of the IMFS (International Monetary and Financial System) is growing. While the world economy is being reordered, the US dollar remains as important as when Bretton Woods collapsed." He states bluntly, "...In the longer term, we need to change the game...Risks are building, and they are structural." What he then goes on to outline is a remarkably detailed blueprint for global central bank transformation of the dollar order, a revolutionary shift.
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Attention

Monsanto quashed felony charges using former top DOJ official involved in Epstein case

Adam Zagorin, Nick Schwellenbach
Yahoo News
Wed, 28 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC
Alice S. Fisher and the Monsanto
© Yahoo News/Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images, Babes Against Biotech/Facebook, Haven Daley/AP
Alice S. Fisher and the Monsanto case.
This spring, Justice Department prosecutors were on the verge of charging biotech giant Monsanto with a felony for illegally spraying a banned, highly toxic pesticide and nerve agent in Hawaii, not far from beachside resorts on Maui. But then, according to an internal April 2019 government document viewed by the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), that decision was overruled.

Monsanto, battling a slew of high-profile lawsuits contending that its Roundup weed killer causes cancer, had its Washington lawyers intervene at the highest levels of DOJ to stop the felony case, which has not been previously reported. A key attorney handling the matter for Monsanto, Alice S. Fisher, is a former senior DOJ official alleged to have played a part in keeping Jeffrey Epstein's controversial plea deal secret from his victims more than a decade ago, although some U.S. officials have provided other reasons why victims were not notified. Fisher denies playing a decision-making role in the Epstein matter.

The felony case against Monsanto was halted after the company's lawyers launched a last-minute appeal to the office of then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, according to sources close to the case. Rosenstein's office, after consulting the Justice Department's top political appointee on environmental law, then "directed" federal prosecutors "to resolve the Monsanto criminal case with misdemeanors only" before July 2019, according to the document.
Rod Rosenstein.
© Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Andrew Harnik/AP
Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
A misdemeanor is a less serious offense, carrying reduced penalties; it is also less likely to attract public attention.
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Binoculars

'She was a spy from day one': Trump assistant resigns for press leaks regarding the president's family

Tyler O'Neil
PJ Media
Fri, 30 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC
Madeleine Westerhout
© AP/Kathy Willens
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry enters Trump Tower with Trump aide Madeleine Westerhout, Dec. 12, 2016, in New York.
Madeleine Westerhout, President Donald Trump's personal assistant, who has been described as a gatekeeper to the president, resigned on Thursday after leaking to the press earlier this month. Several White House officials had long suspected her of disloyalty to the president. A former staffer for the Republican National Committee and Mitt Romney's 2012 campaign, she had reportedly cried when it became clear Trump had won in 2016.

"She was a spy from day one who sought to use her proximity to the president to curry favor with his detractors," a former White House official told CBS News.

Westerhout's resignation came after Trump learned on Thursday that she had "indiscreetly shared details about his family and the Oval Office operations she was part of during a recent off-the-record dinner with reporters staying at hotels near Bedminster, N.J., during the president's working vacation," The New York Times reported.

Westerhout was immediately considered a "separated employee" and was not allowed to return to the White House on Friday.
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Star of David

Netanyahu: HBO is 'anti-Semitic' for its series about murder of Palestinian, makes Israel look bad!


RT
Sat, 31 Aug 2019 09:52 UTC
Netanyahu
© AFP/JIJI
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for a boycott of the producers of a HBO series which, he says, is "anti-Semitic" and "slanders Israel."

Netanyahu took to Facebook to call for a boycott of "propaganda" Channel 12 and its owner Keshet for creating the show Our Boys, which he says "besmirches the good name of Israel." He urged his followers to stop watching the channel, especially those who have a ratings meter in their homes.

Our Boys tells the story of the murder of Palestinian Mohammed Abu Khdeir, who was kidnapped and burned alive by two Israeli teenagers and an adult in 2014. Netanyahu slammed the series for not focusing on the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers, who had been killed by Hamas militants before Khdeir's kidnapping, sparking riots and Israel's war on Gaza in 2014.

Netanyahu was criticized at the time for using the Jewish boy's deaths as a pretext to carry out raids and arrest hundreds of Palestinians, and for the subsequent assault on Gaza, which saw 1,462 Palestinian civilians, including 551 children, killed by the Israel Defense Forces. The assault also destroyed much of Gaza's infrastructure and homes, with over 6,000 air strikes in 50 days.

"We were drawn to understanding the perpetrators of this murder more than we were interested in understanding the victimhood of our side," Hagai Levi, one of the filmmakers, told Drama Quarterly about the motivation for the show.
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Eye 2

Donbass ceasefire is a myth: Ukraine continues shelling of residential areas

Drago Bosnic
Fort Russ
Sat, 31 Aug 2019 23:06 UTC
Donbass
Last night, Russian President Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel. In addition to bilateral relations, they discussed key international issues, such as the situations in Syria, Libya, and around the Iranian nuclear program. They also discussed the situation in Ukraine, including prospects of a new Normandy Four summit. According to the Kremlin's press service, the president noted that such a meeting should be thoroughly prepared so that it could bring concrete results.

The EU and other Western countries regularly criticize Russia, even imposing sanctions, due to the so-called "violations" of the Minsk Treaty. However, it is Ukraine that never honors the deal. More than 40 shells have been fired by the Ukrainian Army yesterday, which resulted in the death of 3 Novorossiyan soldiers, while 5 others were wounded. The settlement of Grigorovka was the target of Ukrainian shelling.

In addition, Gorlovka was shelled as well. More than 20 shells were fired by the Ukrainian Army, hitting mostly residential areas. In the meantime, Azov Battalion Nazis tried to occupy the "no man's land" in the demarcation line but were swiftly repelled by the Novorossiyan forces.

Comment: See also:

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Star of David

Recent Israeli attacks 'significantly weakened' Syria's air-defense systems, barely registered scrutiny or response

Robert Inkalesh
MintPress News
Wed, 28 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC
Damascus airstrikes
© Hassan Ammar/AP
Damascus skies erupt with surface to air missile fire as the U.S. launches an attack on Syria targeting different parts of the Syrian capital Damascus, April 14, 2018.
On the night of June 30 until the early morning of July 1, 2019, Israel carried out its biggest attack against Syria's air defense since 1982. The attack ultimately killed 16 Syrian civilians near Damascus and injured 12 Syrian military personnel in Homs. This was the extent of the damage revealed at the time but, according to Syrian military sources, the damage was much more severe and served to significantly weaken Syria's air-defense capabilities.

Many questions have gone unanswered about what truly happened during that attack, how it happened, and what implications the attack may have.

According to a Syrian Air Defense officer who writes post-mission reports, and who spoke to MintPress on condition of anonymity owing to security concerns, Israel delivered a brutal blow during the June 30 attacks, resulting in the lowering of Syria's air defense capabilities by roughly 60 percent. It is estimated that Israel fired upwards of 150 cruise missiles at Syria's early-warning air-defense systems, completely destroying at least five of the targeted systems. All of the systems targeted were specifically responsible for dealing with Israeli airstrikes and in total were worth up to $500 million.

Comment: See also:

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Arrow Up

Cambodia: How small countries can stand up to the US

Andrew Korybko
Eurasia Future
Thu, 29 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC
Cambodia
© Grassroots Volunteering
Cambodia
Cambodia, unlike its similarly sized and in many cases much larger peers in the international community, is relentless in is criticism of the US' blatant intervention in its domestic political affairs, showing how small countries could stand up to the US if their leaders actually have the will to do so.

Cambodia surprised many across the world when one of its spokesmen said earlier this month that American diplomats should leave the country if they don't like it, specifically remarking that "we don't welcome you" and adding that "We have the same right to speak as President Donald Trump. It's simple. If you don't like it here, leave." Whatever one thinks about Trump's controversial rhetoric against the four congresswomen collectively referred to as "the Squad", Cambodia should be commended for throwing his own words right back at him in response to the incessant criticisms that American diplomats have made about the Southeast Asian state over the past couple of years. The verbal attacks have increased in intensity recently after rumors began to be floated about a supposedly secret deal that it clinched with China to open up a military "base" there, which if true, would be more of a standard overseas logistical facility of the sort that all Great Powers' navies have than anything else.
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Airplane

Bolton visits Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova...is Moscow worried?


RT
Fri, 30 Aug 2019 19:57 UTC
BoltonPutin
© Reuters/BelTA/Nikolai Petrov/Sputnik/Aleksey Nikolsky
US National Security Advisor John Bolton - Minsk, Belarus, on August 29, 2019 • Russian President Vladimir Putin
US National Security Advisor John Bolton has visited a host of ex-Soviet republics, including Moscow's longtime ally, Belarus. Some saw it as a sign of growing US influence on Russia's border. Is it?

Frequent and almost traditional visits of US officials to Kiev would hardly surprise anyone these days. After all, Kiev took an ardently pro-US and anti-Russian position right after the 2014 Maidan events and another visit of another US official would hardly add anything to the geopolitical equation there. Yet, the schedule of the White House advisor this time included trips to Chisinau and Minsk as well.

For the latter it was the first visit of a high-ranking US official in almost two decades to the country deemed one of Moscow's most faithful allies. Some rushed to call it a "turning point" in the geopolitical situation on the Russian borders, which is sure to "ruffle feathers in Moscow." Others assumed that Minsk somehow grew weary of its friendship with its bigger neighbor and is now more than happy to "build warmer relations with the West."
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