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Forget Trump's 'deal of the century': Annexing the West Bank has always been Israel's goal

Jonathan Cook
Mondoweiss
Tue, 25 Jun 2019 19:24 UTC
illegal settlements israel
© Reuters
The Israeli flag flying over Israeli settlements in the West Bank
When Israeli prime ministers are in trouble, facing difficult elections or a corruption scandal, the temptation has typically been for them to unleash a military operation to bolster their standing. In recent years, Gaza has served as a favourite punching bag.

Benjamin Netanyahu is confronting both difficulties at once: a second round of elections in September that he may struggle to win; and an attorney general who is widely expected to indict him on corruption charges shortly afterwards.

Netanyahu is in an unusually tight spot, even by the standards of an often chaotic and fractious Israeli political system. After a decade in power, his electoral magic may be deserting him. There are already rumblings of discontent among his allies on the far right.

Given his desperate straits, some observers fear that he may need to pull a new kind of rabbit out of the hat.
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Yoda

UN Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer has become one of Assange's most vocal advocates

Jjimmysllama
MintPress News
Wed, 19 Jun 2019 18:00 UTC
free assange poster
On May 9, UN Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer, visited WikiLeaks founder and journalist Julian Assange at Belmarsh Prison, where he is currently serving a 50-week prison sentence for a minor bail violation. Melzer was accompanied by two medical experts who specialize in the examination of possible victims of torture as well as the documentation of symptoms, both physical and psychological. The team was able to speak with Assange and conduct a medical assessment following a set of guidelines known as "The Istanbul Protocol," a tool designed to help UN workers and others investigate, document, and report incidents of torture and ill-treatment.

The results were shocking.

According to Melzer, the evidence is overwhelming that Assange has been "deliberately exposed, for a period of several years, to progressively [more] severe forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment," the effects of which he described as psychological torture. Melzer also found that Assange has been exposed to:
"persistent, progressively [more] severe abuse ranging from systematic judicial persecution and arbitrary confinement in the Ecuadorian embassy, to his oppressive isolation, harassment and surveillance inside the embassy; and from deliberate collective ridicule, insults and humiliation, to open instigation of violence and even repeated calls for his assassination."

Comment: No surprise; the author @jimmysllama was removed from Twitter on or about June 21st.

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Black Cat

From Exxon to 'ambassador': Carlos Vecchio's path to becoming Venezuela's top coup lobbyist

Anya Parampil and Diego Sequera
The Grayzone
Tue, 25 Jun 2019 14:59 UTC
trump vecchio venezuela
© The White House
Venezuelan "ambassador" Carlos Vecchio presents his fake credentials to Trump
The story of regime-change brain Carlos Vecchio's rise through elite US institutions and the oil industry captures the essence of Venezuela's opposition.

May 24th was a day of hard-earned celebration for Carlos Vecchio, the man tasked with leading the Trump administration's coup attempt in Venezuela from the US capital. His face was largely obscured in the grainy Twitter video of the moment he and his gaggle leaned out of a third-story window and hoisted a brand new flag onto Venezuela's former diplomatic mission in Washington DC, but Vecchio was clearly beaming as a small crowd of supporters cheered from below.

Finally, on that swampy spring afternoon, Vecchio had arrived as Venezuela's "ambassador" to the United States. Or had he?

Vecchio's quest to illegally seize and occupy Venezuela's US embassy had been a far more arduous battle than he likely imagined. A group of anti-war activists had managed to prevent his entry for over a month by establishing a presence inside the building at the invitation of Venezuela's elected president, Nicolas Maduro. Their goal was to block Vecchio and his cohorts from taking over the premises until a diplomatic resolution regarding the mission's status could be reached.
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Bullseye

Goad, threaten, backtrack: Trump & Bolton's Iran policy is confusing, dangerous & achieves NOTHING

Igor Ogorodnev
RT
Tue, 25 Jun 2019 17:44 UTC
trump and bolton
© Getty Images/Sean Gallup
Washington's fuzzy and high-drama "maximum pressure" approach to Iran has no realistic endgame - but is good for making the world a more unstable place for both America's adversaries and allies.

National Security Advisor John Bolton's Tuesday claim that US diplomats are "surging" across the Middle East in search of a "path to peace" only to encounter "deafening silence" from Tehran might have ordinarily seemed merely mendacious.

But considering the extraordinarily rich array of pronouncements and actions from the White House in the past week, most are no longer sure if Bolton is playing the diplomat, gaslighting us or actually believes his words. If - surely, like many of the world's foreign ministers - you are struggling to keep up, here is the timeline since Thursday, when Iran admitted shooting down an American drone:
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Snakes in Suits

Russian MP correctly brands NATO chief 'irresponsible babbler' over 'Russian INF non-compliance' claim


RT
Tue, 25 Jun 2019 17:33 UTC
Jens Stoltenberg
© REUTERS / Joshua Roberts
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg
NATO is to discuss this week what it will do after the looming expiry of the INF Treaty, with its chief pinning the blame for the development on Russia. This charge prompted some name-calling from a senior Russian MP.

The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty will expire in six months after the US announced its withdrawal from the Cold War-era agreement in February. The Donald Trump administration claimed the move was due to Russia's non-compliance, a charge that Moscow denied. The US-favored narrative was reiterated by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg as he was announcing that the alliance will be discussing what measures it will take after the treaty ceases.

"We call on Russia to take the responsible path, but unfortunately we have seen no indication that Russia intends to do so," he told the media during a press conference ahead of a two-day meeting of the defense ministers of member states.

"Our response will be defensive, measured and coordinated," he said.
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Bullseye

Moscow: 'Unacceptable' to lump Iran together with ISIS as Middle East's 'chief security threat'


RT
Tue, 25 Jun 2019 17:27 UTC
oman tanker attack
© SNA / Reuters
It's wrong to label Iran as the main threat to the Middle East, Russia's senior security official warned, while stressing that data produced by Washington is not enough to blame the Iranians for recent tanker attacks.

"Iran was and remains our ally and partner," Secretary of Russia's Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, said on Tuesday.
In that sense, any attempts to portray Tehran as the chief threat to regional security, let alone lump it together with ISIS and other terrorist organizations, are unacceptable to us.
The senior official made his remarks in Jerusalem following a meeting with President Donald Trump's national security adviser, John Bolton, and his Israeli counterpart, Meir Ben-Shabbat, both of whom clashed with the Russians over their views on Iran.
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Snakes in Suits

Soros & US billionaires call for new wealth tax; public reacts with instinctive skepticism


RT
Tue, 25 Jun 2019 17:23 UTC
soros
© Reuters / Lazslo Balogh
A group of US billionaires including infamous financier George Soros is backing a "moderate wealth tax" on the fortunes of the richest .01%, echoing several Democratic candidates' proposals. Somehow, Americans don't trust them.

"Polls show that a moderate tax on the wealthiest Americans enjoys the support of a majority of Americans - Republicans, Independents, and Democrats," the group of 20 billionaires, including Soros, his son Alexander, the Pritzker, Gund, and Disney families, and the elusive Anonymous, wrote in a letter published by the New York Times on Monday.

While acknowledging that "major policies seldom come to pass without the prior support of wealthy elites or other wealthy interests," the billionaires made the case that taxing the rich would benefit everyone by bankrolling solutions to "our climate crisis," infrastructure improvements, "public health solutions," and wiping out student loan debt. Why, it would even "strengthen American freedom and democracy," the billionaires gush.
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Vader

Trump signs executive order delivering 'hard-hitting' sanctions against Iran

Alex Pappas
Fox News
Mon, 24 Jun 2019 16:53 UTC
Khamenei
© Official Khamenei website/Handout via REUTERS
President Trump struck back Monday at Iran by issuing "hard-hitting" financial sanctions against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his associates.

"Today's action follows a series of aggressive behaviors by the Iranian regime in recent weeks including shooting down a U.S. drone," the president said in the Oval Office, calling Khamenei "responsible for the hostile conduct of the regime."

Trump said the sanctions "will deny the supreme leader and the supreme leader's office and those closely affiliated with him and the office access to key financial resources and support." Speaking to reporters in the White House briefing room Monday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the sanctions "lock up literally billions of dollars more of assets."

"Along with that action today, we are also announcing specific actions targeting those responsible for recent activities," Mnuchin said, adding that the president has instructed him to sanction Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif "later this week."
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Rocket

India scraps Israel anti-tank missile deal after domestic developer promises alternative

Amitav Ranjan
The India Express
Mon, 24 Jun 2019 16:40 UTC
anti-tank guided missile
© Reuters
Officials said domestic production of the missile was favoured as DRDO’s effort in creating a man-portable anti-tank guided missile (MPATGM) was “progressing fast” with the second stage of testing concluded.
India has scrapped a $500-million deal with Israel for the purchase of Spike anti-tank missiles from defense contractor Rafael Advanced Defense Systems after indigenous developer Defense Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) claimed that it could deliver an alternative within two years.

Government officials associated with the approval of the deal said Israel has been informed about the contract being abandoned in favor of DRDO, which claimed that it was developing a similar missile at a lower price in partnership with VEM Technologies Ltd.

Officials said domestic production of the missile was favoured as DRDO's effort in creating a man-portable anti-tank guided missile (MPATGM) was "progressing fast" with the second stage of testing concluded. The DRDO claimed it successfully test-fired the MPATGM at the Ahmednagar range last September.
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Rocket

Russian industry minister: Development of Russia's advanced S-500 SAM enters 'final phase'


RT
Tue, 25 Jun 2019 16:33 UTC
Test-launch
© Russian Defense Ministry
Test-launch of a long-range interceptor missile, which may be meant for the S-500 Prometey.
The S-500 Prometey, Russia's next-generation surface-to-air long-range missile system, has completed most of its trials and is ready to go into series production, according to the Russian industry and trade minister.

The development of the system is in its "final phase" after each element of the system was tested individually, Denis Manturov told Interfax in an interview. The current work is focused on checking the S-500's performance as an integrated system.

"All main specifications of the air defense system have been confirmed during the tests and it is now ready for series production," he said, adding that the hardware will be delivered to the Defense Ministry on schedule.
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