Puppet Masters
Senator Chuck Grassley has been trying for years to get the DOJ to produce some highly classified material in regards to the Clinton email investigation, but the DOJ just won't provide him the material he has patiently waited to see. An August 14, 2019, letter from the Finance Committee/Homeland Security/Governmental Affairs Committee (Finance Committee Letter) outlines the progress to date of Grassley's request.
What the material that Grassley is seeking nobody really knows since Grassley's October 17, 2018, letter is classified, but apparently, as a condition of allowing Barr's nomination, Grassley asked Barr, if nominated, will you finally answer that letter. Barr says yes.

Site of an air strike launched by the Saudi-led coalition in Sanaa, Yemen May 16, 2019.
Renowned activist, press freedom advocate, and Nobel Laureate Tawakul Karman once told the Yemen Times that "a day will come when all human rights violators pay for what they did to Yemen." This statement was made years before the US, UK, and France enabled a Saudi-led coalition to ravage Yemen's entire civilian population through a host of criminal actions.
Thanks to a UN report released on Tuesday this week, we may be closer to seeing some accountability for the criminal actions of all human rights violators who have used the people of Yemen in a cruel, geopolitical chess game to further their own agenda. But will Western governments be held accountable, or is this yet another case of wishful thinking?

The federal order calls for the release on the data of users who downloaded apps used to calibrate scopes from a major manufacturer.
That's because the government wants Apple and Google to hand over names, phone numbers and other identifying data of at least 10,000 users of a single gun scope app, Forbes has discovered. It's an unprecedented move: Never before has a case been disclosed in which American investigators demanded personal data of users of a single app from Apple and Google. And never has an order been made public where the feds have asked the Silicon Valley giants for info on so many thousands of people in one go.
According to an application for a court order filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) on September 5, investigators want information on users of Obsidian 4, a tool used to control rifle scopes made by night-vision specialist American Technologies Network Corp. The app allows gun owners to get a live stream, take video and calibrate their gun scope from an Android or iPhone device. According to the Google Play page for Obsidian 4, it has more than 10,000 downloads. Apple doesn't provide download numbers, so it's unclear how many iPhone owners could be swept up in this latest government data grab.
To launch a counter-intelligence investigation on an American citizen, like Carter Page, the Department of Justice applies to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. All warrants require accuracy and integrity, but those to the FISA court should meet an even-higher standard. Why? Because, unlike criminal warrants, FISA warrants remain hidden. The goal is to "spy on spies," not haul them into court, so the application will remain secret, never challenged by a defense attorney at trial.
That's why the DoJ and FBI must certify, in writing, that the FISA application is truthful and complete and that the evidence it presents has been thoroughly vetted by the bureau. That's what the Obama administration's top law-enforcement officials did when they wanted to spy on Carter Page. It is becoming increasingly clear they were lying.
The B61-12 life-extension program consolidates and replaces the older B61-3, -4, -7 and -10 variants, while the W88 Alteration 370 is meant to replace the arming, fuzing and firing subsystem for the W88 warhead for the Trident II sub-launched ballistic missile. The two are among five major modernization programs underway at the agency.
Both had been due for production in 2020, but neither will have their first production units delivered on time, according to Charles Verdon, the National Nuclear Security Administration's deputy administrator for defense programs. NNSA is working with the Defense Department to minimize the delays, but Congress has been informed both will be ready "roughly around the same time," Verdon said at the at the 2019 Defense News Conference.
The issue stems from off-the-shelf parts used in both weapons. Both systems are planned to work for 20-30 years, and heavy stress testing of the parts raised questions for NNSA officials about whether the parts would survive for three decades. Rather than risk the pieces failing years in the future, officials decided to seek replacements now and delay moving forward with the program.
Comment: 7/9/2019, RT has more on US retrofits: US tests refurbished missiles as nuclear refit lags behind
The US Navy test-fired a volley of decades-old Trident II nuclear missiles, proving they can still fly days after a top official said the upgrade of bombs and warheads was lagging, and Russia offered to sell US some of its tech.See also:
The USS Nebraska, an Ohio-class missile submarine, fired two missiles on Wednesday and another two on Friday, the Navy confirmed. All four missiles splashed into the target area off the Pacific island of Guam.
The Trident II D5 submarine-launched ballistic missile was designed to last through 2024, but was recently refurbished to last into the 2040s, the Navy said. Their W76 warheads were recently upgraded as well.
The modernization push, outlined under the Obama administration but embraced with enthusiasm by President Donald Trump in 2017, is a 30-year project affecting the entire US atomic arsenal, with an estimated cost of $1.5 trillion. In addition to upgrading the missiles and warheads, the US is also developing a new stealth bomber and a long-range air-to-ground standoff missile.
US politicians may not be concerned about the cost of this kind of endeavor, even with a national debt of $22 trillion and the Pentagon budget bloating up to $750 billion a year, but Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to be. Earlier this week, Putin offered - perhaps jokingly - to sell hypersonic weapons to the US to "even things out," quipping that this was preferable to the Pentagon wasting billions of US taxpayer dollars attempting to develop the technology independently.
- Putin: Russia offered to sell Trump hypersonic weapons, balance everything
- Putin teases during Q&A: Lasers and hypersonic missiles in service, but 'that's not all'
- Putin: Russia surpassed rivals with precise hypersonic weapons & will deploy more within months
It must again be emphasized: It is hard, if not impossible, to think of a more toxic allegation in American presidential history than the one leveled against candidate, and then president, Donald Trump, that he "colluded" with the Kremlin in order to win the 2016 presidential election, and, still more, that Vladimir Putin's regime, "America's No. 1 threat," had compromising material on Trump that made him its "puppet." Or a more fraudulent accusation.
Even leaving aside the misperception that Russia is the primary threat to the US in world affairs, no aspect of this allegation has turned out to be true, as should have been evident from the outset. Major aspects of the now infamous Steele Dossier, on which much of the allegation was based, were themselves not merely "unverified" but plainly implausible.
Was it plausible, for example, that Trump, a longtime owner and operator of international hotels, would commit an indiscreet act in a Moscow hotel that he did not own or control? Or that, as Steele also claimed, high-level Kremlin sources had fed him damning anti-Trump information even though their vigilant boss, Putin, wanted Trump to win the election? Nonetheless, the American mainstream media and other important elements of the US political establishment relied on Steele's allegations for nearly three years, even heroizing him, and some still do, explicitly or implicitly.
Not surprisingly, former special counsel Robert Mueller found no evidence of "collusion" between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. No credible evidence has been produced that Russia's "interference" affected the result of the 2016 presidential election in any significant way. Nor was Russian "meddling" in the election anything akin to a "digital Pearl Harbor," as widely asserted, and it was certainly far less and less intrusive than President Bill Clinton's political and financial "interference" undertaken to assure the reelection of Russian President Boris Yeltsin in 1996.
Nonetheless, Russiagate's core allegation persists, like a legend, in US political life, in media commentary, in financial solicitations by some Democratic candidates for Congress, and, as is clear from my own discussions, in the minds of otherwise well-informed people.
The only way to dispel, to excoriate, such a legend is to learn and expose how it began, by whom, when, and why.
After months of hitting its head against the wall, the Syrian Arabs Army's Idlib offensive has finally started yielding tangible results. A classic military advance, a pincer movement from both the left and right, has taken the major rebel stronghold of Khan Shaykhun.
This serves as both a strategic and a propaganda victory, as this town was the site of the infamous so-called poison gas attack back in 2017. It also serves to question the legitimacy and efficacy of NATO and one of its key members.
The capture of the town resulted in all rebels south of the town being squeezed into a pocket. Many escaped at the last moment, but one group, manning the Turkish observation post at Murak, steadfastly refused to leave or surrender to Syrian forces. This was expected, as the Turkish government has said many times that even if the worst came to the worst, its troops would never leave their posts.
Greenblatt, 53, who has worked on the peace plan since late 2017 alongside Trump advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner, said he would resign after the plan is made public, which US officials have said wouldn't happen before the Israeli legislative elections, set for later this month.
Comment: No bias there... He'll be perfect - for Israel - just like Kushner. How about finding a neutral third party? Yeah, we know, wishful thinking. There's no way Israel would allow a goy to tell them what to do. God's chosen lunatics are like that.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused political opponents opposed to an initiative to place cameras in polling stations of trying "to steal the election."
"It is no coincidence that Benny Gantz and [Blue and White's Yair] Lapid oppose cameras, because they want the election to be stolen," Netanyahu said, speaking to reporters on Friday in London, his remarks quoted by The Times of Israel.
"Placing cameras prevents stolen elections," Netanyahu insisted, According to the prime minister, given the widespread prevalence of surveillance cameras in other areas of Israeli society, such as kindergartens, it was curious that "all of a sudden the one place where it is prevented is in the voting hall."
Comment: Bibi is desperate to be re-elected to stave off facing corruption charges.
- Netanyahu cries leftist conspiracy over decision to indict him for bribery and corruption
- Lock him up: Israeli AG advises Netanyahu be indicted over corruption case
- Police recommend Netanyahu and wife face more bribery charges in telecom-media corruption investigation
- Again? Police question Netanyahu for 11th time in corruption probe
- Netanyahu neck deep in three corruption scandals
- 'It's a law made for a single person': Israeli MPs to pass 'Netanyahu bill' banning police from publicizing corruption probe results
- Netanyahu's grip on power slipping as he calls new election to block rival Gantz
Despite many delays and setbacks, the swap finally happened on Saturday. The government plane carrying the released Russians landed in Moscow this afternoon. The jet with the freed Ukrainians earlier touched down in Kiev.
The long-awaited prisoner exchange "has been completed," Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova confirmed. She hailed the event as "a historical mass-scale humanitarian action," confirming the swap was "35-for-35."
It followed months of painstaking behind-the-scenes negotiations at various levels. At one point, even the presidents of the two nations were involved, as Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the matter with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky over the phone.
There were some "provocations" and other challenges throughout the talks, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova said. But in the end, "the political will and meticulous work delivers results."














Comment: See also: