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Iraq: Successfully walking between landmines, juggling US and Iranian influence

Elijah J. Magnier
ejmagnier.com
Sat, 01 Jun 2019 17:10 UTC
iraq
Notwithstanding the failure of US foreign policies in the Middle East over the last four decades, the US administration seems to have managed not to earn the animosity of the Iraqi government. The US administration demonstrated its failure to produce an efficient and clear policy in the Middle East by waging wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, occupying part of Syria, unconditionally supporting Israel (at the expense of peace with the Palestinians) and unilaterally declaring economic war on Iran. Nevertheless, the present Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi is helping the US to establish good ties with Iraq on a basis of partnership, despite considerable regional and domestic challenges.

The Iraqi Premier is trying to maintain a balance between his country's relationship with the US and with Iran, the two enemy countries. This balance is difficult to manage on a territory that hasn't fully recovered from the effects of years of terrorist domination and a punishing lack of full recovery for its infrastructure. And Abdel Mahdi's task is even greater: to win over the hearts and minds of a population deeply wounded by the effects of the 'war on terror'. However, in the middle of all these difficult tasks, Iraq is offering a perfect model for the US to follow and reproduce for its relationships with other "hot" parts of the Middle East, enabling it to return to the arena as a partner and not remain an enemy.
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Propaganda

Brainwashing through Video games: CALL OF DUTY 2019 pictures white Helmets and a "Bana al-Abed-esque" girl killing "Evil Russians."


South Front
Wed, 29 May 2019 11:51 UTC
white Helmets in Call of Duty game

White Helmets as seen in-game.
The newest 2019 Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare features missions involving the pro-al-Qaeda "humanitarian organization" White Helmets and a "Bana al-Abed-esque" girl killing "bad Russians."

The following is a description of the second mission in which a flashback shows how two children become "rebel fighters" on the side of the US, after Russian soldiers raided their house.

Comment: United States lost the war in Syria and they continue to influence young innocent minds through propaganda, video games and comics.

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Eye 1

Snowden sounds warning of greatest social control scheme in history: 'Unlimited reach, no safeguards'


RT
Sun, 02 Jun 2019 17:49 UTC
Snowden press conference
© Reuters / Vincent Kessler
Edward Snowden
The US government has a tendency to hijack and weaponize revolutionary innovations, Edward Snowden said, noting that the natural human desire to communicate with others is now being exploited on an unprecedented scale.

"Our utopian vision for the future is never guaranteed to be realized," Snowden told the audience in Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada via live stream from Moscow this week, stressing that the US government "corrupted our knowledge... towards a military purpose."
They took our nuclear capability and transformed it into the most horrible weapon that the world had ever witnessed. And we're seeing an atomic moment of computer science... Its reach is unlimited... but its safeguards are not!

Comment: It's already here:

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Arrow Up

Escaping the globalist system

James Corbett
Corbett Report
Sun, 02 Jun 2019 17:35 UTC
Escaping the Globalist System
© Corbett Report
The US-China trade war continues to simmer, with Uncle Sam once again talking tough and China, for its part, producing propaganda video after propaganda video promising that hellfire will descend on Washington unless America backs off. Oh, and there's Beijing's whole "we'll deny you rare earth metals" thing, which may be more of a realistic threat.

The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury note yields have dropped to 19-month lows and even the phony baloney stock market is slumping globally. Oil prices are down, too.

China's economy is notoriously difficult to measure, but it's getting harder and harder for the ChiComs to hide the fact that their industrial output is flagging. And, since we live in a globally-connected economy, that means that global trade has fallen to lows not seen since the depths of the Lehman crisis.

So, are you feeling the squeeze? After all, we are now stuck in this globalist system where the pronouncements of (mis)leaders in far away capitals can have immediate-and, all too often, negative-effects on our lives.

So how do we get out of this mess?

Well, let's looks at some of the solutions on offer and see if they really work.
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Eiffel Tower

City of Paris extends smoking ban to 52 parks and gardens


France24
Sun, 02 Jun 2019 07:07 UTC
Paris extends smoking ban
© AFP (File photo)
The city of Paris will extend a ban on smoking to 52 parks and gardens in the French capital from June 8, the mayor's office announced Friday, marking World No Tobacco Day.

Smokers in the French capital face further restrictions on their liberté to light up with a new measure to ban smoking in 52 parks and gardens across Paris.

The announcement -- made on May 31, World No Tobacco Day - adds 46 additional parks and gardens to a list of six parks, which were designated no-smoking zones in July 2018.

The measure is aimed at "reducing the number of smokers in these parks and cigarette butts thrown on the ground", explained the directive issued by city authorities.

The French have long cherished their smokes, from Gauloises to Gitanes, and France ranks among the EU's heaviest smoking nations. The new move to increase public health standards will be phased in, with the first few weeks of "sensitisation" set to last until early July.
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Megaphone

Malaysian Prime Minister: "No Evidence" Russia Shot Down MH17

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Sat, 01 Jun 2019 00:00 UTC
Mahathir Mohamad - Shinzo Abe
© AFP
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad (left) shakes hands with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo on Friday.
In unexpected statements Malaysia Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has questioned the methodology behind Dutch investigators who produced what the West considers the authoritative report on the tragic shoot down of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 in 2014 while flying over war-torn eastern Ukraine. He criticized that the Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT) seems "to be concentrated on trying to pin it on the Russians".

The Malaysian leader told reporters at the Japanese Foreign Correspondents Club (FCCJ) in Tokyo on Thursday "They are accusing Russia but where is the evidence?" Mahathir said his country accepted that a "Russian-made missile" shot down its civilian airliner, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew members on board, but that "You need strong evidence to show it was fired by the Russians."

He ultimately questioned the objectivity of the investigators in what major regional media described as a "jaw dropping speech".

Comment: See also:

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Dollars

Iran and Turkey working on pact to ditch greenback in bilateral trade


Sputnik
Sun, 02 Jun 2019 16:28 UTC
Dollar bill
© CCO
Earlier, Washington ripped up waivers enabling major importers of Iranian crude oil, including Turkey, to continue their imports as part of its strategy of "maximum pressure" aimed at crippling the Iranian economy.

Iran and Turkey are working on a new gas trade mechanism to enable the two countries to resist US sanctions pressure, Iranian Ambassador to Turkey Mohammad Farazmand said, the Islamic Republic News Agency has reported, citing an interview by the ambassador with Turkish television.

"Iran exports a large volume of gas to Turkey and we need a new mechanism to be created to ease financial transactions via our national currencies," Farazmand said. "We are [in] the process of establishing a joint bank as well," he added.
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X

Nasrallah warns US, Israeli, Saudi Arabian forces will be "exterminated" if they attack Iran


RT
Sun, 02 Jun 2019 16:30 UTC
Lebanese Hezbollah supporters
© Reuters / Aziz Taher
Lebanese Hezbollah supporters
The leader of Hezbollah has warned the US and its Middle Eastern allies against seeking war with Iran, saying it would set the entire region on fire and result in the extermination of American, Israeli, and Saudi forces.

"Any war on Iran would mean the whole region will be set ablaze," Hassan Nasrallah warned Friday. "All US forces and interests in the region will be exterminated and those who conspired [with US] will pay the price; first Israel, then Al Saud."

The leader of Lebanese Hezbollah, and a close ally of Tehran, made the comments on the day King Salman of Saudi Arabia gathered the kingdom's Arab allies in Mecca to reach a common position against Iran. Addressing delegates of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) emergency summit, the monarch accused Iran of sabotaging commercial ships in the Gulf, and claimed that Tehran may once again try to "target the safety of navigation and world oil supplies."

While the Saudis try to form a united front against its arch-rival, the US military has already mustered a massive force in the region, including an aircraft carrier and B-52 bombers, right on Iran's doorsteps under the pretext of countering"clear indications" of threats to American interests from the Islamic Republic.

Comment: See also:

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USA

US Border Patrol and DHS agents to deploy 'side-by-side' with Guatemalan authorities to curb illegal migration flow

Geneva Sands
CNN
Fri, 31 May 2019 16:23 UTC
ice guatemala

ICE agents with U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, and Guatemalan police stand at the scene of an early morning raid where a suspected human trafficker was taken into custody on May 29, 2019, in Guatemala City.
US Border Patrol agents and other Department of Homeland Security law enforcement officers will be sent to Guatemala to assist in training missions with local authorities as part of a two-year plan aimed at decreasing migration flows to the United States.

Agents will be "side-by-side" with local Guatemalan authorities, deployed to locations where US law enforcement has not traditionally operated, according to a senior DHS official.

This is a unique surge of DHS personnel to Guatemala, with a "significant increase" in US law enforcement presence in the country, said acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan.

The deployment of DHS officers follows an agreement signed earlier this week between the US and Guatemalan governments. It comes as the administration is trying to find a way to stem the influx of migrant families, mostly from Central America, through Mexico to the US.

The number of migrants illegally crossing the the southern US border has been on a steady upswing, resulting in dangerous overcrowding in US holding facilities at the border. The month of May is on pace to have the highest number of border crossings in over 12 years, according to McAleenan.
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Dollar

Report claims Khodorkovksy bribed managers to get Yukos, then fleeced shareholders for billions


RT
Fri, 31 May 2019 16:14 UTC
Khodorkovsky
© AFP 2018 / JIM WATSON
A TV report, citing an ongoing probe, claims Russian oligarch-turned-opposition figure Mikhail Khodorkovsky took control over the oil giant Yukos by bribing its managers and then siphoned off billions of dollars from shareholders.

Having spent a decade in prison in Russia after being found guilty of tax evasion and embezzlement, Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, may now face more charges. A new probe into his activities, launched by the Russian Prosecutor General's Office, has revealed that the businessman laid his hands on the now-defunct oil giant as a result of a shady deal, the report by the Russia's NTV Channel says.

It reveals that, in the mid-1990s, Khodorkovsky managed to win the right for his companies to buy almost 80 percent of Yukos's shares by bribing the company's management. The businessman allegedly promised the then-Yukos director Sergey Muravlenko and three more top managers to pay them an equivalent of 15 percent of the oil giant's shares - or some $2 billion - Salavat Karimov, an adviser to Russia's Prosecutor General, told NTV.

"He indeed transferred hundreds of millions [of dollars] to the offshore accounts opened in the names of these four Yukos top managers," Karimov said.

Comment: See also:

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