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US sets dangerous precedent after snatching Chinese executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver

Tony Cartalucci
New Eastern Outlook
Wed, 09 Jan 2019 17:51 UTC
huawei
Claiming that prominent Chinese telecommunications company Huawei had violated US sanctions on Iran - Canada was requested to arrest and hand over Huawei Chief Financial Officer, Meng Wanzhou, who was transferring planes in Vancouver.

The arrest was described even by the Washington Post as "unusual" in its article titled, "Arrest of Huawei executive triggers stock market turmoil and unsettles U.S.-China trade talks."

The article would also claim:
Meng was arrested on a U.S. extradition warrant because Huawei is suspected of evading American sanctions on Iran, according to multiple news reports. U.S. prosecutors have been investigating since 2016 whether Huawei violated U.S. export and sanctions laws by shipping U.S.-origin products to Iran.
The arrest, on the same day President Trump and China's President Xi Jinping met for dinner in Buenos Aires for trade and national-security talks, is being viewed in China as politically motivated.
And very clearly the move made against Huawei - along with a barrage of similar legal moves made to cripple rising Chinese companies competing against their waning US counterparts - is politically motivated - as are the sanctions the US has imposed on Iran in the first place.

Comment: Previously:

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Satellite

Russian space chief Rogozin blames Trump-Congress rivalry for cancelled NASA visit


RFE/RL
Wed, 09 Jan 2019 17:53 UTC
rogozin
© Yury Kochetkov / AFP
Roskosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin speaks with the media in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on October 11, 2018.
The head of Russia's Roskosmos space agency, an official who has been targeted by U.S. and European Union sanctions, has criticized President Donald Trump and U.S. lawmakers over the cancellation of his planned visit to NASA facilities in the United States.

Dmitry Rogozin on January 9 said the cancellation of his visit was "an episode of the confrontation between Trump and Congress." He compared the situation to a U.S. TV soap opera.

"This is an element of the rivalry between the Congress and Trump," Rogozin said in an interview with Rossia 24 TV on January 9. "In this particular case, we have turned out to be a victim of this rivalry."

NASA announced on January 4 that Rogozin's visit was being canceled following critical press reports and calls by U.S. lawmakers not to allow the blacklisted Russian into the United States.

Roskosmos said in a statement on January 9 that it was not giving up on cooperation with NASA.

"We are fulfilling all our obligations under the contracts signed with NASA, and we hope for further cooperation," the statement said.

Comment: See also:

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X

Bully tactics: US threatens sanctions against Nord Stream 2 contractors because Russia


RT
Wed, 09 Jan 2019 17:35 UTC
Allseas
© Allseas
The US may slap penalties on two European contractors laying the pipeline for the Russian-led Nord Stream 2. The political pressure is still extremely high over the project, which Moscow defines as purely economic.

Swiss-based Allseas Group and Italian Saipem may face US sanctions over firms participating in the highly debated project on behalf of its operating company, Gazprom-owned Nord Stream 2 AG, sources in the German federal government told Handelsblatt.

Allseas will reportedly lay over 90 percent of the controversial pipeline, while Saipem already completed its part of the work.

Nord Stream 2 is being implemented by Russian energy giant Gazprom in close partnership with German oil and gas firms Wintershall and Uniper, French multinational Engie, British-Dutch energy corporation Royal Dutch Shell, and Austrian energy company OMV.

The Trump administration has repeatedly expressed its disapproval of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, pledging to impose secondary penalties on European companies working with the Gazprom-led enterprise. On Monday, US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell told the media that the firms working on the pipeline "are always in danger, because sanctions are always possible."
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Megaphone

Moscow warns Washington 'hotheads' against military intervention in Venezuela

Paul Antonopoulos
Fort Russ
Wed, 09 Jan 2019 17:30 UTC
Putin Maduro
© Sputnik / Aleksey Nikolskyi
Moscow warns "several hotheads" in Washington of resorting to military force in Venezuela, said the 9th Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.

"I view the attempts by the US to consolidate the anti-Chavez front [against Venezuela] from Latin American states with anxiety and concern, this is an alarming trend," Ryabkov stressed.

According to the Russian diplomat, even Latin American governments with a very critical position on Caracas exclude the possibility of military intervention in Venezuelan affairs.
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Quenelle

"World domination": Russian Deputy FM doubts full US withdrawal from Syria


Sputnik
Wed, 09 Jan 2019 09:18 UTC
Syria US
© Reuters/Rosi Saud
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Wednesday it was hard to believe that the United States would pull out of Syria completely under the current circumstances, given the strong position of those who support the continued US military presence in the Arab Republic.

"I believe the positions of those who want to maintain US military presence in Syria - illegal, breaching the international law - are quite strong in Washington... I cannot imagine that the United States will fully and indisputably leave Syria in terms of physical military presence in the current situation where Washington is locked in unstoppable contest for world domination and driven to be present everywhere and resolve issues only on its own conditions," the diplomat told reporters.

The contacts on Syria between Russia and the United States do not stop even if they are not always announced, there are no long pauses in the talks, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Wednesday.

Comment: He has every reason to be skeptical: Putin: The 'US is right to leave Syria, but no signs of pullout - remember Afghanistan'

See also:

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Chess

Beijing trade talks: China hints that talks were successful, Washington 'optimistic' over prospects for deal

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Wed, 09 Jan 2019 11:28 UTC
Donald Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping
© Reuters
Update: In an interview with Fox Business Network, Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the White House is 'optimistic' about the prospects for a trade deal with China following this week's talks in Beijing.


While this should help reassure markets, it's important to keep in mind that if talks weren't going well, the White House probably wouldn't tell us.

After the 'mid-level' talks between US and Chinese delegations in Beijing were extended for a third day on Wednesday, the negotiations have reportedly wrapped up, with both sides touting that they are "serious" about coming to an agreement, and that significant progress has been made, according to CNBC.

With the US delegation on its way back to Washington, China's Foreign Ministry hinted that the talks had been a success and said it would soon release a statement on the outcome.

Comment: See also:

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Snow Globe

Trump's foreign policy for 2019: The real deal - or more bait and switch?

Philip Giraldi
The Unz Review
Tue, 08 Jan 2019 00:00 UTC
Trump mission accomplished
Never before has any presidential administration been as all over the place in terms of national security and foreign policy as is that of Donald J. Trump. Indeed, one might well argue that there is no overriding policy at all in terms of a rational doctrine arrived at through risk versus gain analysis of developing international situations. Instead, there has been a pattern of emotional reactions fueled by media disinformation supplemented by "gut feelings" about a series of ultimately bilateral relationships that frequently have little or nothing to do with American national interests.

This is not to suggest that the "gut feelings" are always wrong. Established wisdom in Washington has long reflected the view that the United States must exercise leadership in establishing and maintaining the neoliberal consensus that gained currency after the devastation of the Second World War. Elections, free trade and a free media were to be the benchmarks of the new world order but they also came packaged with U.S. hegemony to confront those who resisted the development. And it turned out that those "benefits" were frequently difficult to achieve as elections sometimes produced bad results while trade agreements and an uncontrolled media often worked against broader U.S. objectives. All too often the United States found itself going to war against nations that it disapproves of for reasons unrelated to any actual interests, routinely claiming inaccurately that dissident regimes were both "threatening" and disruptive of the universal values that Washington claimed to be promoting.

Comment: See also:

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Chess

Next chess move: Turkey calls for joint control with Russia/Iran over US Syria withdrawal


RT
Wed, 09 Jan 2019 16:59 UTC
rouhani erdogan putin
© Reuters / Umit Bektas
As the US is experiencing "certain difficulties" with the withdrawal from Syria, it should be coordinated with Iran and Russia to prevent "terrorists" from taking up the vacated space, the Turkish foreign minister said.

"The United States [has] been facing certain difficulties with the process of the troops' withdrawal from Syria. We want to coordinate this process with Russia and Iran, with which we had arranged work in the framework of the Astana process," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Wednesday.

Cavusoglu visited Moscow late in December to discuss the situation in Syria. On Wednesday, he mulled bilateral talks between Turkey and Iran, giving no timeframe, however.

At the same time, Cavusoglu revealed that a summit between all three parties is being prepared in Moscow.

Comment: Trump already left the window open for this by suggesting leaving the defeat of ISIS in the hands of Turkey. But Turkey will not just do the U.S.'s bidding. It is yoked with Russia and Iran, to Bolton et al.'s great consternation. Said neocons are banking on the threat of Turkish aggression against the Syrian Kurds to forestall a withdrawal. But the Kurds probably know that they're dreams of an ethno-state are hopeless, and will negotiate with Damascus. The Syrian government has reportedly initiated contact with Kurds on the subject:
The Syrian government has "activated" contacts with Kurdish Groups "in light of Turkish intervention", Faisal Mekdad, the Arab Republic's deputy foreign minister said on Wednesday.

He added that there is no alternative to dialogue with the Kurdish groups.

"Therefore I am always optimistic... we encourage these political groups to be sincere in dialog that is happening now between the Syrian state and these groups, taking into account that there is no alternative to that," he said.


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Dominoes

Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein expected to step down after new attorney general's confirmation

Darren Samuelsohn and Caitlyn Opresko
Politico
Wed, 09 Jan 2019 23:55 UTC
Rod Rosenstein
© Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the Justice Department official who has played a central role in overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe, is planning to step down once the next attorney general has been confirmed.

Rosenstein's impending departure raises significant questions about the future of Mueller's probe into allegations of collusion between Trump campaign officials and the Kremlin. Rosenstein took on oversight of the Mueller probe in its infancy after then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself over concerns that he had misled Congress during his confirmation hearings about his contacts with Russian officials during the campaign.

Two sources familiar with Rosenstein's plans indicated Wednesday that his upcoming departure was not spurred by any singular event.
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Attention

Major Turkish newspaper warns: "Soft coup against Trump is underway"

The Editorial Board
Daily Sabah
Tue, 08 Jan 2019 16:55 UTC
John Bolton Turkey
© Vivian Salama
NatSec adviser John Bolton, Gen. Joe Dunford and Amb. Jim Jeffrey departing from the presidential compound in Ankara after briefer than expected meetings with Turkish defense counterparts.
If U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton thought yesterday's visit was going to be a walk in the park, he must have had a rude awakening thanks to the lukewarm reception in the Turkish capital Ankara. In retrospect, it was probably a bad idea for Bolton to go rogue and try to impose conditions on the United States withdrawal from Syria. Keeping in mind that Turkey was already getting ready to send its troops to northern Syria before U.S. President Donald Trump's surprise announcement last month, it is time for Washington to accept that it isn't negotiating with Turkey from a position of power.

If there was ever any doubt that the resistance within the Trump administration wasn't real, what happened in light of Trump's decision to leave disproved the skeptics. Bolton and several other members of the Trump administration are committing a serious crime by preventing the current president of the United States from reversing his predecessor's misguided decisions in the Syrian theater. What is happening today isn't a policy debate, but a direct challenge to American democracy by unelected paper-pushers. Indeed, "many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate" President Trump's agenda.

A soft coup against Trump is underway in the United States. In recent days, anonymous U.S. officials, like the author of the infamous op-ed in The New York Times, have repeatedly lied to the American people in an attempt to force Trump to walk back from his comments about Syria. Turkey, they said, would "slaughter the Kurds" if U.S. military advisers leave the battlefield unconditionally. Although Turkey did not respond to that ludicrous accusation due to its absurdity, the speed at which such lies have been spreading demonstrates that malice, not ignorance, drives them.

Comment: Turkey (with some encouragment from Russia?) may have managed to put Trump back in the driver's seat regarding the Syrian withdrawal. The neocons don't give up their dreams of Empire easily though, so a false flag chemical attack may still be in the cards.

As US to leave Syria, old threats remain: Bolton promises 'strong response' for chemical attacks

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