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Whitewash: Benghazi final report reveals nothing of substance while hiding everything relevant

Eric Draitser
New Eastern Outlook
Sun, 03 Jul 2016 00:00 UTC
US consulate compound in Benghazi
© AFP/Getty Images
This file photo taken on September 11, 2012 shows an armed man waving his rifle as buildings and cars are engulfed in flames after being set on fire inside the US consulate compound in Benghazi.
The Republican dominated House Select Committee on Benghazi has released its long awaited final report on the 2012 Benghazi attack which killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others. And, surprise, the report reveals absolutely nothing of substance that wasn't already known.

Naturally, Democrats running interference for Hillary Clinton have continually charged that the probe was simply an act of partisan politics designed more to hurt Clinton in the presidential campaign than to uncover the truth about what happened. No doubt there is truth to such an allegation.

But the most important fact about this whole manufactured drama, the one that neither Democrats nor Republicans want to touch, is the simple fact that what happened in Benghazi was perhaps the most complete encapsulation of everything wrong and criminal about the illegal US war against Libya. Moreover, it exposes the uncomfortable truth that the US harnesses terrorism, using it as one of the most potent weapons it has against nations that refuse to submit to the will of Washington and Wall Street. In effect, it was not merely terrorists that killed the four Americans in Benghazi, it was US policy.

Comment: To understand what really happened to Libya, see:

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Megaphone

Minutes before DARK Act vote activists expose Monsanto's Senate lackeys

Nadia Purpris
Common Dreams
Wed, 06 Jul 2016 22:22 UTC
protests against monsanto
© djandywdotcom/flickr/cc
A protest against Monsanto takes place outside of the White House in May 2013.

Actions highlight how senators who took money from Big Ag companies are voting against majority public opinion on GMO labeling.

Just before a controversial genetically modified (GM or GMO) labeling bill came up for a cloture vote in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, food and consumer advocates dropped over $2,000 on the chamber floor in a symbolic protest against what they are calling the "Deny Americans the Right to Know" (DARK) Act.

The action aimed to highlight the fact that senators who took money from biotechnology giants like Monsanto are voting against majority public opinion, as recent polls have found that roughly 90 percent of Americans want labels on GMO foods.
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Snakes in Suits

Promises, promises: Hillary Clinton announces Sanders-like plan for free college education


RT
Wed, 06 Jul 2016 22:11 UTC
U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton
© Brian Snyder / Reuters
Hillary Clinton has proposed a plan to eliminate college tuition at public universities for families earning under $125,000 a year. The presidential candidate is taking a cue from rival Bernie Sanders, who made free college a central part of his campaign.

In a Wednesday announcement on her campaign website, Clinton said that the plan, called the "New College Compact," would be phased in over the course of five years. However, families that make under $85,000 a year would instantly have access to free tuition at public, in-state universities and colleges.

The threshold for free tuition would increase by $10,000 annually before finally bringing the qualifying income to $125,000 after five years. This would bring free college tuition to 80 percent of American families, the website said.
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Snakes in Suits

Obama shifts: Will keep 8,400 US troops in Afghanistan until 2017

Jeff Mason
Reuters
Wed, 06 Jul 2016 21:24 UTC
U.S. President Barack Obama
© REUTERS/Carlos Barria
President Barack Obama, saying the security situation in Afghanistan remained precarious, said on Wednesday he will keep U.S. troop levels there at 8,400 through the end of his administration rather than reducing them to 5,500 by year's end as previously planned.

Obama, in a statement at the White House, said the role of U.S. forces in Afghanistan would remain unchanged: training and advising Afghan police and troops, and supporting counterterrorism missions against the Taliban and other groups. Obama's presidency ends in January.
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War Whore

Warmonger Breedlove, the Russophobes and the push for World War 3

Justin Raimondo
Antiwar.com
Wed, 06 Jul 2016 18:56 UTC
General Breedlove

Eye of the [paper] Tiger: Gen. 'the Russians killed Jesus' Breedlove.
The Roman republic began its descent into empire as victorious generals - starting with one Julius Caesar - returned to claim the fruits of their victories, their final conquest being the republic itself. "Crossing the Rubicon" has today become a phrase meaning an event that cannot be undone, usually of ominous portent, and surely this applies to the machinations of one General Philip Breedlove, former Supreme Commander of NATO.

Revealed by hackers who broke into his email accounts, Breedlove's plot to start World War III with Russia recalls the recklessness of Dr. Strangelove in a movie of the same name - except this isn't a movie, it's reality.

Hidden camera captures Breedlove in the NATO war room:


Coordinating with sympathetic retired military personnel, such as Wesley Clark, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, and Harlan Ullman, a top official of the Atlantic Council, the idea was - as Ullman put it - to "leverage, cajole, convince or coerce the U.S. to react" to an alleged Russian threat in Europe. Another academic contact, one Phillip Karber, head of the neoconservative Potomac Foundation, was involved in disseminating a crude forgery supposed to have depicted Russian tanks in Ukraine. Naturally, the Washington Free Beacon fell for it, as did Sen. James Inhofe. Confirmation bias is pandemic in these circles.

Breedlove has himself been at the center of similar hoaxes, claiming that tens of thousands of Russian troops are present in Ukraine, armed to the teeth with the latest advanced weaponry: this was an outright lie, as the German intelligence agency, the BND, pointed out.
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Eye 2

Legal loophole gives Tony Blair escape from prosecution for war crimes


RT
Wed, 06 Jul 2016 19:00 UTC
Tony Blair
© Andrew Winning / Reuters
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair might never have to face trial after the publication of the Chilcot report into the Iraq war, because he likely committed a crime of aggression rather than a war crime, legal experts say.

Writing in the Guardian, human rights barrister Geoffrey Robertson QC argued on Tuesday that despite "engaging" calls from both Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Scottish National Party MP Alex Salmond for Blair's impeachment, the prospect is unlikely.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) warned on Sunday that while Tony Blair would not be prosecuted for war crimes, soldiers on the ground could be.


Comment: How hypocritical is that? Blair is the one who ordered them to Iraq in the first place.


Comment: One more damning indictment of just how broken the political/justice system is.

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Colosseum

Brexit: Let the UK do itself in

Andre Vltchek
Dissident Voice
Fri, 01 Jul 2016 03:12 UTC
Pobjeda Brexita: Velika Britanija napušta EU, Kameron podnio ostavku
Once again European bigotry exposed

Oh, that poor old United Kingdom! Armies of political commentators based on all continents are now feverishly trying to define to what extent the Brits got fooled, or how severely they will soon get punished for their 'bold move'.

All over Europe, the neo-Nazis and other right-wingers are celebrating, while most of 'liberals' are panic-stricken, running around like a herd of headless chickens, or howling at the moon at night in despair. The Euro-left (as pathetic and bogus as "Euro business class" on domestic European flights) is trying to put the recent referendum into some sort of philosophical perspective, blabbering something about a working class rebellion against the ruling elites.

Some Europeans are even blaming Mr. Putin for the outcome of the referendum, while others see behind the outcome of the vote the specter of an "American conspiracy" or even a "Zionist lobby".

Things are much more simple. A few million bigoted British voters, many of them old retirees and traditionally conservative, even racist bunch, got scared that their country was soon about to be invaded by unkempt hordes of refugees, or more precisely - by 'un-people' (to borrow from George Orwell's lexicon). While for others, the referendum became a way to express their frustration with the fact that the British working class has lately been getting an increasingly awful deal (read: an increasingly smaller cut from that enormous global loot plundered by both Europe and North America).
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Snakes in Suits

Ukraine's neo-Nazi parliament speaker Parubiy admits Ukraine won't follow Minsk agreements, exposes absurdity of sanctions policy

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Wed, 06 Jul 2016 18:45 UTC
The weekend after EU sanctions are renewed, Ukraine Parliament Speaker admits he has opposed Minsk II Agreement all along.
parubiy
Andrey Parubiy, Speaker of the Ukrainian parliament, founder of the neofascist Svoboda movement, creator of Ukraine's National Guard, former secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council, author of Ukraine's misnamed "Anti-Terrorist Operation" in the Donbas, former Maidan Commandant and the man possibly responsible for the sniper shootings in Kiev in February 2014, has just exposed the total illogic of the EU's entire sanctions policy.
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Bad Guys

Anti-Russian sanctions have cost Western countries over $60billion in 2014-2015


Sputnik
Wed, 06 Jul 2016 16:56 UTC
nato
The European Union, the United States and several other countries lost over $60 billion between early 2014 and mid-2015 in export losses as a result of introducing sanctions against Russia, the French CEPII research institute said.

The share of losses not attributable to Russia's retaliatory import restrictions amounted to 82.2 percent, the report said, noting that an important role in incurring the losses was played by financial service restrictions.

The European Union bore the brunt of the losses, accounting for nearly 77 percent of all trade losses, the institute said.

"We estimate this loss at US$60.2 billion from 2014 until mid-2015. Interestingly, we find that the bulk of the impact stems from products that are not directly targeted by Russian retaliations," CEPII said in the Collateral Damage: The impact of the Russia sanctions on sanctioning countries' exports report published on Tuesday.
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Info

Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan helped bring about Turkey-Russia rapprochement

Catherine Putz
The Diplomat
Wed, 06 Jul 2016 18:06 UTC
nazarbayev

Kazakhstan's president, Nursultan Nazarbayev.
The quick thawing of icy relations between Russia and Turkey came with thanks to both Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told Turkish media last week, "The ice in relations of the two countries has melt[ed], thanks to the contribution of our fraternal countries — Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan — who exerted every effort to normalize the relations between Turkey and Russia. We express our gratitude to these countries."

The sentiment was echoed by the Turkish foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, from Sochi where he met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization foreign ministers meeting. Cavusoglu reportedly noted the important role both Baku and Astana played in bringing about the normalization process now underway.

Comment: Despite the rapprochement, Russia has yet to halt the sanctions on Turkish food imports, probably waiting for the signs that Turkey will actually show some results by closing its border to terrorists and weapons. As for the Istanbul bombings, here's the latest:
Moscow has repeatedly warned Turkey and the EU that suspected terrorists are hiding on their territories, but both Ankara and Brussels largely ignored the calls, the Kremlin said, adding that a recent attack at Istanbul Airport may a cost of their disregard.

"Over the past years, Russia has informed our Turkish and European colleagues that people suspected of having links to terrorism, people who are suspected of planning to join terrorist groups, find shelter both in Turkey and in a number of European countries," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.

"In most cases such signals from the Russian side have not been given proper attention or any reaction by our colleagues [from the EU or Turkey]."

"To our regret, this [a terror attack on Istanbul Ataturk airport] may be a consequence of such disregard," he added.

On Tuesday, Dogan news agency reported that 17 people, including 11 Russians had been charged over the Istanbul Airport attack.


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