Welcome to Sott.net
Fri, 05 Nov 2021
The World for People who Think

Puppet Masters
Map

Snakes in Suits

BS: Pentagon assures THAAD in South Korea needed 'solely' to counter Pyongyang


Sputnik
Fri, 08 Jul 2016 12:35 UTC
Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile
© AP Photo/ Lockheed Martin
The US Defense Department assured "third party nations" that the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile system in South Korea is directed exclusively against North Korean threat, according to the Pentagon's statement.

Earlier in the day, the South Korean Ministry of National Defense announced that Washington and Seoul had agreed to deploy the systems with US Forces Korea. China immediately expressed protest against the deal. Earlier similar concerns were voiced by Russia.

"When the THAAD system is deployed to the Korean Peninsula, it will be focused solely on North Korean nuclear and missile threats and would not be directed towards any third party nations," the statement reads.

Comment: US uses North Korea as latest pretext to target Russia and China. China responds: "China strongly urges the United States and South Korea to stop the deployment process of the THAAD anti-missile system, not take any steps to complicate the regional situation and do nothing to harm China's strategic security interests."

And Russia:
"From the very beginning of the discussion of this issue we have consistently and invariably pointed at the most dangerous consequences of such a decision and called for our partners not to make this wrong choice. Unfortunately, our calls have remained unheard," reads a Foreign Ministry statement released Friday.

Russian diplomats noted that the increase in the Asia-Pacific segment of the global missile defense system by the United States and its allies would undermine the existing strategic balance both in the region and beyond. "Such actions, regardless of the arguments they are backed with, have the most negative effect on global strategic stability, the adherence to which is such a favored topic of discussions in Washington," the statement reads.

The ministry also warned that the US steps threaten to increase regional tensions and create additional barriers to the peaceful settlement of the conflict between North and South Korea and nuclear disarmament on the Korean peninsula.


      Read More...
Laptop

Chaffetz: FBI to investigate Clinton for lying under oath regarding email server

Jay Syrmopoulos
The Free Thought Project
Thu, 07 Jul 2016 00:00 UTC
HClinton
© www.washingtontimes.com
After FBI Director James Comey announced on Wednesday that the bureau had found no basis to bring a criminal case against Clinton for her handling of email when she was secretary of state, he was immediately called before Congress to explain the reasoning behind his decision.

Interestingly, as Comey began his testimony, by explaining again that there was no cause to prosecute Clinton and reiterated that there was no precedent for bringing such a case, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), the committee chairman, zeroed in on another matter altogether, but potentially even more damaging — lying under oath.

During questioning by House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz on Thursday, FBI Director James Comey was grilled about whether Clinton had perjured herself. The exchange ultimately culminated in Chaffetz announcing that he will send a referral to the FBI on Thursday to investigate Hillary Clinton's testimony under oath last October in regards to statements about the setup of her private email server.

"Did Hillary Clinton lie under oath?" Chaffetz asked.

"Not to the FBI," Comey responded. "Not in a case we were working."

Chaffetz quickly reminded the FBI director that while under oath last October, Clinton stated that "there was nothing marked classified" in her emails, either "sent or received."

While Comey said he was "aware" of the statements, the FBI has not investigated the testimony as there hadn't been a referral from Congress to investigate the alleged perjury by Clinton in her statements before Congress.

"Do you need a referral from Congress to investigate her statements under oath?" Chaffetz continued.

"Sure do," Comey replied.

"You'll have one," Chaffetz said. "You'll have one in the next few hours."





Comment: It is no secret that there is a double standard of justice for those politically connected versus the common citizen. The public is always prosecuted, those in power - almost never. Maybe Clinton will finally have something in common with the people she professes to represent.

      Read More...
Airplane

Surface to air missile brought down TWA Flight 800

Jack Cashill
WND
Wed, 29 Jun 2016 09:13 UTC
TWA 747
© Wikimedia Commons
In March 2004, the American people first learned about "the wall." The occasion was the eighth public hearing of the 9/11 Commission.

Asked to account for the intelligence failures that led up 9/11, Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet blamed the "wall that was in place between the criminal side and the intelligence side."

"What's in a criminal case doesn't cross over that line. Ironclad regulations," Tenet insisted. "So that even people in the Criminal Division and the Intelligence Divisions of the FBI couldn't talk to each other, let alone talk to us or us talk to them."

For all the media talk of "the wall," no one spoke of a spectacular breach in the wall, one that first sprung open in 1996 and stayed open for several years thereafter.

During these years, the Clinton Department of Justice ignored its own 1995 memorandum authorizing the wall and encouraged the collaboration of the FBI and CIA on a potentially criminal case involving national security, that of TWA Flight 800.

At 8:19 p.m. on July 17, 1996, TWA Flight 800 left JFK Airport in New York with 230 people on board bound for Paris. At 8:31 p.m., literally thousands of people along Long Island's South Shore witnessed the plane explode, killing all on board.

In the month following the disaster, more than 700 of those witnesses would speak on record with the FBI. The truth of what they saw has only become clear in the last year or so with the release of a treasure trove of CIA documents.

As the documents reveal, the CIA quietly cooperated with the FBI on its criminal investigation and wrestled the witness analysis away from the FBI, the NTSB and even the Defense Intelligence Agency.

The names on the CIA documents are redacted, but the intentions of the CIA analysts bleed right through. Their job was to make missile talk go away.

Comment:
Mystery of TWA Flight 800 Persists, 15 Years Later

Investigators claim government falsified TWA 800 air crash probe

Former Navy official: Missile from USS Seawolf submarine shot down TWA Flight 800

Brand-new TWA 800 film to finally spill beans?

NATO, MH17, Mossad and Kolomoisky: Beware the 'Chameleon'

The Cs Hit List 08: Of Oracles and Conspiracies: TWA 800, 9/11, H1N1, and VISA

      Read More...
Bad Guys

Unity on the "Russia problem" to be discussed at NATO summit meeting

Eric Zuesse
Strategic Culture Foundation
Wed, 06 Jul 2016 00:00 UTC
NATO on the march
All NATO leaders will meet together at a crucial July 8-9 Summit meeting in Warsaw, to agree about what to do to Russia, about which US General Philip Breedlove, then the Supreme Commander of NATO, said earlier this year, «Russia has chosen to be an adversary and poses a long-term existential threat to the United States and to our European allies and partners». The main purpose of this meeting will be to achieve unity on the Russian problem. It will be difficult to do. The 28 member nations are not, and have not been, unified on the matter. The US is seeking a more aggressive stand.

Did you know that in 2004, the US itself had already crossed the nuclear red line against Russia, by installing nuclear missiles right on Russia's border, even worse than, in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, the Soviet dictatorship had threatened to cross America's nuclear red line, by the Soviets' plan at that time to place nuclear missiles there 90 miles from the US border? And did you know that, finally, in 2016, Russia is being surrounded so hostilely by the US, that their President Vladimir Putin is now issuing vague threats that Russia will strike before the US? (The first side to launch its missiles will likely receive the lesser amount of damage in the resulting nuclear exchange - who strikes first will largely determine the 'winner' of any WW III.)

Instead of the US government's and press's «Duck and cover!» and build-your-bombshelters campaigns in 1962, the people who are terrified this time around are actually the Russians; but, would you know about this widespread fear in Russia, from the 'reporting' in the US 'news' media? It's not being reported. And it won't be the topic at NATO, because NATO is the alliance against Russia, not against America.
      Read More...
Bad Guys

How convenient! FBI didn't record Clinton interview, did not administer sworn oath

Julian Hattem
The Hill
Thu, 07 Jul 2016 12:48 UTC
Hillary Email
Hillary Clinton did not swear an oath to tell the truth before meeting with the FBI for three and a half hours last weekend, and the interview was not recorded, FBI Director James Comey told House lawmakers on Thursday.

The lack of a sworn oath does not remove the possibility of criminal penalties against Clinton if she lied to the FBI, though he said he had "no basis to conclude" that she was untruthful.

"Still a crime to lie to us," Comey told the House Oversight Committee.

FBI policy is not to record interviews as part of its investigations.

Yet the revelations will nonetheless raise questions among Republicans, who have been skeptical of the FBI's investigation and have demanded to see the transcript of the former secretary of State's interview in downtown Washington on Saturday.

"Well, that's a problem," Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) told Comey when the FBI chief explained the terms of the interview.

"It's pretty clear ... that the American people would like to see what Hillary Clinton said to the FBI," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters on Wednesday, a day before Comey's appearance before House lawmakers.
      Read More...
Snakes in Suits

Foreign powers could hold blackmail potential on Hillary Clinton over email contents


RT
Thu, 07 Jul 2016 21:31 UTC
Bill and Hillary Clinton
© Lucas Jackson / Reuters
The Democratic presidential hopeful has so much blackmail potential - not only from hackers like the Romanian taxi driver - but from foreign services that have all of her email correspondence, former CIA officer Ray McGovern told RT.

The US Attorney General Loretta Lynch said on Wednesday that the Justice Department decided to close the investigation into Clinton's use of a private instead of a secure server to send classified information via email.

RT: Are you surprised the Attorney General decided to close the investigation?

Ray McGovern: Sadly I am not surprised at all. The thing was fixed from the beginning. Yesterday when [James] Comey gave that incredible speech, it was very clear that the die had been cast and Secretary Clinton would be granted privileged treatment from any indictment.
      Read More...
No Entry

Poll: Swedes no longer want to join NATO


RT
Thu, 07 Jul 2016 16:26 UTC
cartoon nato umbrella
© www.economist.com
NATO's smokescreen. Some are not buying it.
Public support for the idea of Sweden becoming a NATO member has dropped from 41 to 33 percent in less than a year, a fresh poll has revealed. Forty-nine percent of Swedes, who took part in the survey published by the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper, said they don't want their country to join the US-led military bloc. Thirty-three percent supported the possible NATO bid, while 18 percent said that they were undecided.

Some 1,000 Swedish citizens participated in the survey, which was carried out by the Sifo research company this June. Sifo asked the Swedes the same question in September 2015 and the results were quite different. Back then, 41 percent said that they were in favor of Sweden applying for NATO membership, with 39 percent rejecting the move and 20 percent undecided. The pollsters explained the change in public opinion by the anti-NATO stance of the ruling Social Democrats.

Social Democrats, the Greens and Left Party voters showed the strongest opposition to NATO membership. Sweden's middle classes leaned most towards the country joining the military block, Sifo said based on the poll.
Earlier this week, former Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt predicted the country would become part of NATO in less than a decade. In an interview with Dagens Industri, Bildt explained the need for joining the alliance by the fact that "Russia is entering an increasingly uncertain phase of its development with increasingly authoritarian tendencies and a growing uncertainty about the economy and its future political leadership."

In May, the Swedish parliament ratified the Host Nation Support Agreement (HSNA) with NATO, allowing the alliance to transport hardware, including military aircraft and vessels, across Swedish territory.

Comment: Apparently, in Sweden, the people ACTUALLY get to decide this vote. Wow, what a concept! This exercise of liberty just might ruin the West's unjustified unification plan. What will be the persuading ploy to reverse this course and bring Sweden to its knees? Surely there will be one.

      Read More...
Info

Syrian rebels lose battle to Islamic State after being abandoned by US jets


RT
Thu, 07 Jul 2016 21:15 UTC
New Syrian army recruits
© Omar Sanadiki / Reuters
A US-trained Syrian rebel unit was reportedly defeated and forced to flee by Islamic State during a desert battle near the town of Bukamal, after American jets abandoned them at a critical moment to bomb another target in neighboring Iraq.

The Pentagon-trained rebel unit, the New Syrian Army (NSA), was on a ground offensive to re-take the Islamic State-held (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) town of Bukamal in southeast Syria last week, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

In the middle of the desert battle the rebels requested air support, but the aircraft assigned to provide cover had unexpectedly been ordered to leave the area, US officials familiar with the incident told the newspaper.

Comment: Russian senator Frants Klintsevich commented on this:
"The abandoning of allies by the United States during the battle with the Islamic State terrorists [IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL] could have lasting consequences. Obviously, the problem is not only in one failed operation. The very principles of interacting with allied forces during a war are put under scrutiny. Now, no one in Syria knows what to expect from the Americans," senator Klintsevich was quoted as saying by TASS. "It is easy to imagine what consequences all this will have on the effectiveness of the war against terror," he added.
...
Klintsevich, who is a retired colonel of the Airborne Troops and a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, said that he as a military officer cannot justify the decision made by US commanders. "I simply do not understand how one can abandon advancing troops and deprive them of cover. In reality this means that the people on the ground were left to die," he said.

"By doing so the Americans demonstrated that they see Syrian soldiers as cannon fodder. I don't think that they would execute such a maneuver if they had their own ground forces participating in the operation. "No strategic reasoning can justify [the Americans' actions]. Such things simply should not happen in a war," the senator concluded.


      Read More...
Pirates

Chilcot: Confirmation Iraq war created ISIS


RT
Thu, 07 Jul 2016 11:58 UTC
Isis in Iraq
© www.almasdarnews.com
ISIS in Iraq.
Intelligence reports examined and now released by the Chilcot inquiry appear to confirm Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) was created by the Iraq war, a view now apparently backed by Britain's Tory Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond. The reports from the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), which were previously classified, tell the story of the security services' increasing concern that the war and occupation was fueling ever more extremism in Iraq. The evidence also appears to debunk repeated claims by former PM Tony Blair that IS began in the Syrian civil war and not Iraq, positioning the brutal group's rise clearly within Iraq's borders.

The Chilcot findings were backed up Thursday by serving Foreign Secretary Phillip Hammond. He told The Foreign Affairs Committee "many of the problems we see in Iraq today stem from that disastrous decision to dismantle the Iraqi army and embark on a program of de-Baathification." "That was the big mistake of post-conflict planning. If we had gone a different way afterwards we might have been able to see a different outcome," he said.

Hammond conceded that many members of Saddam's armed forces today filled top roles in IS. "It is clear a significant number of former Baathist officers have formed the professional core of Daesh [IS] in Syria and Iraq and have given that organization the military capability it has shown in conducting its operations."



Comment: There are a few wrongs (e.g. creation of AQ and ISIS) left out of this mea culpa moment. No doubt many more. The delusions trudge on, but so does reality. Pip Pip and a Cheerio to you, Mr. Blair.



      Read More...
Light Saber

Labour coup failed, Corbyn keeps on the good fight


RT
Thu, 07 Jul 2016 18:57 UTC
corbyn
© Neil Hall / Reuters
Labour MPs opposed to Jeremy Corbyn have reportedly conceded the embattled Labour leader cannot be removed after lengthy negotiations between the party's deputy leader Tom Watson and union officials failed to resolve the conflict.

Anti-Corbyn MPs are now pinning their hopes on former shadow business secretary Angela Eagle's bid for leadership. However, a source told the Telegraph that Corbyn would easily defeat any challenge from either Eagle or ex-Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Owen Smith.

"It's finished. He will win easily in a second contest if he is on the ballot, it's everything we wanted to avoid," the senior MP told the paper.

"He is losing support of the membership by the day, there is no doubt about that, but they just sign up new members to replace them. He is Teflon in that sense."


Comment: Teflon is evil. Corbyn is more like cast iron. And the real issue is simple: he has the support of Labour members, if not the MPs who allege to represent them. Which is why these traitorous Labour MPs wanted him removed in a coup in the first place. As this 'senior MP' told the Telegraph, an actual vote was "everything we wanted to avoid".


Comment: Why 'they' hate Corbyn: In related news, "political psychopath" Michael Gove was eliminated in the second round of Tory leadership voting, leaving Theresa May and Andrea Leadsom left to claw their way to the top of the Tory food-chain.

      Read More...
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts