After Randy Credico offered Rep. Adam Schiff an interview with Assange, Schiff apparently revealed US plans to indict and extradite the Wikileaks founder

On May 23, activist and satirist Randy Credico met with the staff of Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee and de facto leader of the House's investigation into Russian meddling. Credico described the discussions to me hours after his meeting.

According to Credico, Schiff requested the interview after a brief chat with Schiff at the White House Press and Correspondents Association gala last month. An email from House Intelligence Committee senior counsel Shannon Green to Credico (below) demonstrates Schiff's interest in the encounter.
Schiff was interested exclusively in gathering evidence to bolster the Russiagate narrative of Credico as a secret liaison between Julian Assange, who has been branded without evidence by the CIA as a hostile foreign intelligence asset rather than a journalist, and former Trump campaign aide Roger Stone.

(Credico, an erstwhile associate of Stone and fervent advocate for Assange's freedom, was subpoenaed last November by Schiff. He invoked the Fifth Amendment at the time).

But once Credico arrived in Schiff's office, he sent the congressman's staff in an unexpected - and politically inconvenient - direction.

In a speech, marking 18 years since Israeli forces withdrew from southern Lebanon, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah reportedly said that the movement doesn't seek war with the Jewish state, but would "assuredly win" if a war were to break out.

Several Israeli media outlets have reported that Nasrallah said that "every day the Israeli enemy enters our airspace," while speaking about Tel Aviv's alleged Friday's overnight attack on Syria from Lebanese airspace.

The Hezbollah leader's comments came shortly after a Syrian conflict-monitoring group claimed that Israel carried out strikes against the Dabaa airbase in central Syria. According to the group, sounds of blasts were heard near the military airport, which is located about 20 kilometers southwest of Homs province.

Syrian state media SANA reported, citing a military source, that Syrian air defenses had intercepted a "missile aggression" on a military airfield in Homs province. Some Lebanese media outlets reported that several Israeli warplanes were seen flying in Lebanon's airspace.

On Wednesday night, Israel Television News showed pictures of an Israeli F-35 stealth fighter flying over Beirut after the country's Air Force Commander Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin had said that the Jewish state had become the first country in the world to carry out an "operational attack" with the new fifth-generation fighter jet.

McCarthyism and firsthand recollections of Soviet surveillance practices.

Stephen F. Cohen, professor emeritus of Russian studies and politics at NYU and Princeton, and John Batchelor continue their (usually) weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War.

Cohen has several reactions to the recent revelation that a longtime CIA-FBI "informant," professor emeritus Stefan Halper, had been dispatched to "interact" with several members of Donald Trump's campaign organization in 2016. He discusses each of them:

1. In February, Cohen asked if "Russiagate" was largely "Intelgate," pointing to the roles then known to have been played by CIA Director John Brennan and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. The revelation about Halper, essentially an Intel undercover operative, is further evidence that US intelligence agencies were deeply involved in the origins and promotion of Russiagate allegations of "collusion" between Trump and the Kremlin. (We do not know if others were deployed covertly to "investigate" the Trump campaign, what the two agencies did with Halper's information, or whether he was connected in any way to UK intelligence officer Christopher Steele and his "dossier.")

The U.S. has engaged in yet another extraordinary breach of all previous foreign policy norms by (not so) tacitly threatening Syria's Pres. Assad with severe consequences if he commences an expected offensive in the southwest to retake territory long-ceded to al-Nusra Islamist rebels allied with Israel. Keep in mind that whatever we may think of Assad (not much), he is the recognized ruler of Syria. His forces have recently retaken large swaths of territory formerly held by Islamist rebels. In other words, he rules Syria. The idea that a foreign power would tell such a figure that he may not take control of his own territory is astonishing by almost any measure.

Add to this that our country is implicitly weighing in on this matter on behalf of our vassal state (or are we the vassals?), Israel; and you have one strange set of circumstances - and dangerous ones at that.

A bipartisan amendment introduced by Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) and cosponsored by Reps. Barbara Lee (D-CA), Ro Khanna (D-CA), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Jim McGovern (D-MA), Walter Jones (R-NC) passed the U.S. House as part of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2019

On Tuesday night, the House unanimously passed an amendment making clear Congress's position that no law exists which gives the President power to launch a military strike against Iran. Today, that amendment passed the U.S. House as part of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2019.

"The unanimous passage of this bipartisan amendment is a strong and timely counter to the Trump administration's withdrawal from the Iran deal and its increasingly hostile rhetoric," Rep. Ellison said. "This amendment sends a powerful message that the American people and Members of Congress do not want a war with Iran. Today, Congress acted to reclaim its authority over the use of military force."

The unanimously passed US House of Representatives amendment, which bans President Donald Trump from declaring a war on Iran, shows Israel is universally rejected in the United States for the first time, according to an American political commentator and journalist.

Gordon Duff, senior editor at Veterans Today, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Saturday, after the US House of Representatives unanimously passed an amendment on Wednesday that bans Trump from declaring a war on Iran without the Congress's approval.

The amendment, introduced by Democratic Representative Keith Maurice Ellison and cosponsored by a number of other Democratic as well as Republican lawmakers, made clear Congress's position that no law exists which gives the president power to launch a military strike against the Islamic Republic.

"It could be seen in a couple of ways," Duff said. "But one is it's a total rejection of the policies of Trump and [Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo by the entire House of Representatives - something that's never before seen in the United States."

"It could also be seen as a prelude to the impeachment of President Trump. There is no other question about this that his policies rejected his relationship with Israel," he stated.

"Israel is universally rejected in the United States for the first time. Not one member of Congress voted in alliance with Israel's request. Not one. Unimaginable!" he concluded.

Iran is considering conducting all trade in euro and yuan amid uncertainty over whether Brussels can challenge the dominance of US law and prevent possible sanctions

The Trump administration's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), has monopolized the highest levels of government in Tehran around the clock since the decision was announced on May 9.

Prime Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who met yesterday with the European Union's energy chief Miguel Arias Canete, reiterated that mere words of support from the Europeans are not enough. The JCPOA joint commission meets in Vienna this coming Friday to analyze all options ahead.

EU diplomats in Brussels told Asia Times that, contrary to rumors, the European Union is not considering offering financial aid to Tehran in exchange for concessions towards a possible new nuclear deal.

What Brussels is desperate to achieve before the first US sanctions kick in from August is to devise a mechanism to contest the dominance of extraterritorial American law - and reassure President Hassan Rouhani, who allegedly has "limited" trust that France, Britain and Germany will affirm an independent foreign policy. Tehran, meanwhile, is considering conducting all its trade and commercial transactions in euro and yuan.

Earlier today, Wikileaks released its second batch of the 'Podesta Emails.' The release was announced the morning following the second Presidential debate, which many said had Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton on the defensive. The previous release of the emails from Clinton's campaign chair, John Podesta, have exposed the corruption of the Clinton campaign, the mainstream press, as well as Hillary herself. However, an email found amongst the most recent release may implicate Clinton in an even greater "conspiracy." In an exchange between Podesta and Bill Ivey, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts under Bill Clinton, Ivey expresses his concern of Clinton facing Trump as Clinton "is not an entertainer," unlike Trump who hosted TV reality shows and international beauty pageants prior to running for president. In the email, Ivey says he is unsure what Clinton can do to "offset" this perceived weakness but says she can count on at least one thing: the ignorance of the general public.

Ivey told Podesta,

"as I've mentioned, we've all been quite content to demean government, drop civics and in general conspire to produce an unaware and compliant citizenry."

Israel's Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a legal challenge to the military's rules on when soldiers can fire their weapons amid weeks of violent protests that have killed dozens of Palestinians on the border with Gaza. Six human rights groups had asked the court to declare as unlawful any regulations that allow soldiers to open fire at unarmed civilians.

But in its unanimous ruling, the court sided with the Israeli military, which argued that the protests were taking place in the context of a long-running armed conflict with the Islamic militant group Hamas which rules Gaza and that weapons-use regulations are subject to the rules of armed conflict. Such rules provide greater leeway for the use of lethal force than those governing law enforcement practices.

Yesh Din, one of the rights groups that brought the challenge, slammed the court's decision. "The judges missed an opportunity to prevent the continuation of the killing and injuries," the group said on Twitter. Israeli fire has killed more than 100 Palestinians in weeks of violent protests along Israel's border with the Gaza Strip. Nearly 60 of those were killed May 14, the deadliest protest day that also saw hundreds of Palestinians wounded.

Everybody's least favorite homeland security goon squad, the Transportation Security Agency (TSA), is back in the news again this week, and for precisely the same reason as it always is: Engaging in the degradation, humiliation, dehumanization and molestation of innocent people which is its real raison d'être.

This time the victim was Jeanne Clarkson, a 96-year-old WWII veteran who the jackbooted thugs of the police state decided would be a fitting target for their "deluxe" treatment, i.e., a full six minutes of groping, patting and molestation. The only reason this even made it as a blip on the news radar (and even then, only in the tabloids and the alt media) was that her daughter had the sense to record the entire ordeal and post it to facebook, where the post went viral.

Sadly, there is nothing new here. Nothing shocking. Nothing unexpected to those who have seen this taking place for nearly two decades now. Whatever one makes of how long (or short) a journey it was from the pre-9/11 airport security experience (the waltz through the metal detector) to the police state gauntlet of today (removing shoes and belts, bomb swabs, radiation scanners, and the dreaded molestation pat-downs), the only surprising part of this story is that people are surprised by it.

As Matt Agorist notes in his write-up on the Clarkson incident and its context:

The TSA - whose job is supposedly "fighting terrorism" - is, without doubt, one of America's most corrupt and incompetent agencies. However, last year, they apparently became so unsatisfied with the mere ability to strip search babies, remove colostomy bags, beat up blind cancer patients, and fondle your genitalia, that they announced a more invasive physical pat-downs. The pat-downs, which TSA warned would probably prompt assault complaints with the police department because of their invasive nature, have been implemented and a 96-year-old WWII veteran has become their latest victim.

To those who are truly surprised at the latest TSA outrage, I could point out yet again that the TSA is pure security theater, nothing more.

• Their security screenings have a staggering 95% failure rate.
• They have repeatedly failed to find bombs, massive shipments of narcotics, loaded guns, and even the very types of box cutters used on 9/11.
• And, in the ultimate case of "pot meet kettle," even the US Congress itself has excoriated the TSA as an "enormous, inflexible and distracted bureaucracy, more concerned with human resource management and consolidating power, and acting reactively instead of proactively."

But, just as the "intelligence failures" narrative is trotted out after every successful false flag terror incident in order to steer the conversation away from the intelligence agencies culpability for those attacks, so, too, is the "security failure" narrative trotted out to explain TSA "incompetence" and distract us from a hidden truth. The TSA is not "failing" in any way. It is not a well-intentioned agency in need of better management or more funding or more highly-trained agents. On the contrary. It is doing precisely what it was created to do. The problem is that most people do not know what it was created to do.

In order to understand the real purpose of this spectacularly successful agency, we need to revisit the Milgram experiment.