Puppet Masters

French domestic intel questions Le Monde journalist who exposed Benalla affair

RT
Thu, 23 May 2019 14:39 UTC

A French reporter who exposed cronyism in President Emmanuel Macron's administration has been summoned for questioning by domestic intelligence, the fifth journalist subjected to the chilling treatment within a month.

Le Monde journalist Ariane Chemin has been directed to appear before the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI) next week, according to the paper's editorial director. Chemin was the first to write about Alexandre Benalla, a security aide and member of President Emmanuel Macron's inner circle who was caught on film beating a protester while impersonating a policeman. The story opened a window into extensive corruption within the Macron government, leading to several more stories and multiple officials resigning in disgrace, turning what has become known as the "Benalla affair" into a millstone around Macron's neck.

Comment: Ariane Chemin deserves a medal for outing some of the corruption of Macronette's government.

UK suffers crushing defeat in UN vote over its occupation of Chagos Islands

Owen Bowcott
Guardian
Thu, 23 May 2019 18:56 UTC

© Ho/Reuters
Fuel tanks on Diego Garcia, the largest island in the Chagos archipelago and the site of a US military base.

The United Nations general assembly has overwhelmingly backed a motion condemning Britain's occupation of the remote Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean.

The 116-6 vote left the UK diplomatically isolated and was also a measure of severely diminished US clout on the world stage. Washington had campaigned vigorously at the UN and directly in talks with national capitals around the world in defence of the UK's continued control of the archipelago, where there is a US military base at Diego Garcia.

The vote was in support of a motion setting a six-month deadline for Britain to withdraw from the Chagos island chain and for the islands to be reunified with neighbouring Mauritius. It endorsed an advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in February, calling on the UK to relinquish its hold on the territory in order to complete the process of decolonisation.

Comment: The UK claims the islands won't be used for nefarious activities? And we're supposed to believe them? Britain accused of creating secret torture policy so long as 'benefits justify risks'

See also:

US quietly upgrading missile defense site in Romania - Nuclear capable Tomahawks to return to Europe

RT
Thu, 23 May 2019 01:48 UTC

© Reuters / U.S. Navy/Lt. j.g Matthew Daniels
The U.S. Navy guided-missile cruiser USS Monterey fires a Tomahawk land attack missile April 14, 2018.

The US is quietly upgrading its Aegis Ashore missile defense site in Romania, possibly to allow it to launch offensive Tomahawk cruise missiles, military analyst Mikhail Khodarenok has learned.

This could be the first time in decades Tomahawks return to Europe.

A low-key modernization effort is taking place at Deveselu, where Aegis Ashore is stationed in Romania. Once it's complete, there's a high probability of Tomahawk cruise missiles being delivered to the site, according to RT's military analyst Mikhail Khodarenok.

According to Khodarenok, the Pentagon is sending two guided-missile destroyers equipped with the Aegis combat system with SM-3 missile interceptors aboard and deploying Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) systems to Romania. The reinforcement of the base's defenses may suggest that the US military want the THAADs and the ship-based missiles to take over the defensive functions and free up the land-based site for something else, the analyst believes.

Comment: The US clearly didn't waste time between scrapping the INF peace treaty and ramping up the aggression. Do those countries facilitating the moves of the warmongers, that also includes Poland, Bulgaria, Ukraine, really believe its worth it?

Manchester Bombing inquest indefinitely delayed while 'accomplice' held in Libya

Keelan Balderson
WideShut.co.uk
Tue, 21 May 2019 10:46 UTC

Hashem Abedi still hasn't been extradited from Tripoli

The inquests into the Manchester Arena bombing have been indefinitely delayed while an alleged accomplice rots in a Libyan jail.

Hashem Abedi, the younger brother of apparent bomber Salman, has reportedly been held in Libya since the May 2017 attack. So far the UK has been unable to secure his extradition.

Investigators have at different times claimed varying degrees of involvement from Hashem, making him a key element in understanding what happened that day. But for whatever reason, the Libyans are yet to complete their own ambiguous legal process. We must now wait until at least April 2020 for the inquests to proceed, which is the new placeholder date set by the coroner.

A Greater Manchester Police spokesperson said via Sky News: "Progress has been positive but the current conflict in the country has presented increased risks and challenges in relation to the extradition."

Conflict in the country is largely down to the UK and allied government involvement in overthrowing Muammar Gaddafi, which ironically, is also when the Home Office permitted the likes of Salman, Hashem and other Libyans to travel to the region when many should have faced counter-terrorism control orders.

Comment: See also:

From joker to peacemaker? Zelensky needs to follow his words with actions to end Ukraine's conflict

Finian Cunningham
RT
Wed, 22 May 2019 16:17 UTC

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenksy said at his inauguration ceremony this week that his first priority would be ending the nearly five-year war in the Donbass region. The value of his words will be seen soon enough.

For the past five years, the mainly Russian-speaking people in eastern Ukraine have had to endure bombardments and sniper attack from military forces loyal to the regime that seized power in Kiev in February 2014. The self-declared independent republics of Donetsk and Lugansk refused to recognize the Kiev authorities, due to the latter's affiliation with Neo-Nazi ideology and rabid Russophobia.

The landslide election of Zelensky in April was a stunning repudiation by Ukrainians of the "war party" that has dominated Kiev's politics since 2014. The former president, Petro Poroshenko, came to be despised for his relentless warmongering and hostility towards the Russian-speaking east of the country, as well as his constant belligerence towards neighboring Russia.

Comment: For more on the situation in Ukraine, check out: The Saker interviews Dmitry Orlov

Andrea Leadsom resigns over Theresa May's handling of Brexit

Heather Stewart & Peter Walker
The Guardian
Wed, 22 May 2019 10:19 UTC

Andrea Jacqueline Leadsom

Andrea Leadsom has resigned as the leader of the House of Commons, saying she no longer believed the government's approach would deliver Brexit.

Leadsom, who has signalled she expects to launch a leadership bid, published her resignation letter after Theresa May resisted intense pressure to step aside.

She was one of several cabinet ministers, including Penny Mordaunt and Sajid Javid, who were known to be unhappy with some of the 10 concessionsset out by May on Tuesday, in a bid to win the support of Labour backbenchers for her deal.

Washington joins West Coast bloc of sanctuary states

Tom James
AP News
Thu, 23 May 2019 10:19 UTC

© AP Photo/Rachel La Corte
In this Monday, May 13, 2019, file photo, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee speaks in Olympia, Wash. Washington has become the latest West Coast state to enact broad sanctuary protections that restrict all local authorities from asking about people's immigration status. Inslee signed the measure Tuesday, May 21, 2019, implementing the new rules.

Washington has become the latest West Coast state to enact broad sanctuary protections that restrict all local authorities from asking about people's immigration status.

Gov. Jay Inslee signed the measure Tuesday implementing the new rules, which rank among the strongest statewide mandates in the nation. California and Oregon have similar laws.

The move comes as President Donald Trump's administration has cracked down on immigration by increasing migrant detentions and attempting to cancel the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Comment: Also see:

'No evidence': EU's last-ditch effort to prove 'Russian interference' leads nowhere

Anna Belkina
RT
Thu, 23 May 2019 10:19 UTC

Last-ditch efforts by the European intelligence community, politicians and the mainstream media to find the "Russian trail" ahead of the EU parliamentary elections lead to nowhere.

They tried. They really tried.

For years the European establishment has been sounding the alarm about a seemingly ever-imminent Russian interference campaign in European politics. Accusations against Russian media and, specifically RT, often took center stage. Now, hundreds of conferences, articles and speeches later, and with just a couple of days to go until the European Parliamentary elections; shock horror there is no evidence of interference. Even the final efforts to pre-emptively find a scapegoat for any unsatisfactory result have come up with nothing.

Video shows Iran may be transferring S-300s to Persian Gulf amid tensions with US

Sputnik
Wed, 22 May 2019 18:34 UTC

The reports come just a few weeks after the United States deployed an aircraft carrier strike group and a bomber task force to the Persian Gulf in what White House National Security Adviser John Bolton described as a "clear and unmistakable message" to Iran.

A video has emerged on social media allegedly showing Iranian vehicles transporting its S-300 air defence systems and other military equipment to the coastal city of Asaluyeh in the southern province of Bushehr - an area along the Persian Gulf.

The country's military has yet to confirm or deny the redeployment of the anti-missile systems.

Comment: Sputnik reports that the IRGC is monitoring US build up in the region. But it's not just the US the IRGC that is a cause for concern, because, following the attacks on Saudi tankers in Fujairah, a number of Arab countries have ramped up patrols in cooperation with the US too:

© AFP 2019 / IRNA
The Iranian armed forces are monitoring the activities of the US Navy in the Persian Gulf, Ali Fadavi, deputy commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said on Wednesday.

"The [US] military vessels, which are in the Persian Gulf, are under full control of the IRGC Navy and Army. There are no reasons for concern", Fadavi said, as quoted by the Fars news agency.

The United States has in recent weeks bolstered its forces in the Middle East, in what US National Security Adviser John Bolton has called a clear and unmistakable message to Iran.

New US deployments in the region include an aircraft carrier strike group, Patriot missiles, B-52 bombers and F-15 fighters, according to the Pentagon.

As noted by Pepe Escobar in I ran squeezed between imperial psychos and European cowards:

Professor Mohammad Marandi at the Faculty of World Studies of the University of Tehran offers quite a sobering perspective: "After 60 days Iran will push things even further. I don't think the Iranians are bluffing. They will also be pushing back at the Saudis and the Emiratis by different means."

Marandi, ominously, sees "further escalation" ahead:
"Iranians have been preparing for war with the Unites States ever since the Iraq invasion in 2003. After what they've seen in Libya, in Syria, Yemen, Venezuela, they know that the Americans and Europeans are utterly brutal. The whole shore of the Persian Gulf on the Iranian side and the Gulf of Oman is full of tunnels and underground high-tech missiles. The Persian Gulf is full of ships equipped with highly developed sea-to-sea missiles. If there is real war, all the oil and gas facilities in the region will be destroyed, all the tankers will be destroyed."

NYT confirms Hunter Biden Bank of China deal, leaves out key details

Rebecca Mansour
Breitbart
Tue, 21 May 2019 01:40 UTC

A Tuesday New York Times article confirms revelations in Peter Schweizer's bestselling book Secret Empires regarding the $1.5 billion deal Hunter Biden's private equity firm secured from the state-owned Bank of China while his father was vice president; however, the Times omits key details that call into question statements made by Biden's associates about the foreign financial deals engulfing his father's 2020 presidential campaign in scandal.

The Times' article focuses on criticism of President Trump's call for an investigation into the financial deals Hunter Biden's firm secured in Ukraine and China while his father, former Vice President Joe Biden, was negotiating U.S. foreign policy with those countries. However, the article does at least acknowledge that the deals occurred.

"Hunter Biden and a business partner, Devon Archer, were involved in a fund that reportedly pursued an investment from the Chinese government-owned Bank of China," the Times states.

Comment:

She's better off dead. The ones that die quickly are the lucky ones. Cancers, chronic pain and exhaustion? No thanks.

DeliciousTears

Here's what lithium ion batteries also do. [Link] R.C.

Rowan Cocoan

She always looks like she's having a painful bowel movement, and is trying very hard to do it silently.

Eventide

Parzival. [Link] Documentary on who owns everything and the current situation and intention NWO. Good summary.

Joyly

"Obama's job is to lie to a nation of liars". Kiese Laymon "the amerikan liberal wants to preserve the essence of the past--the amerikan...

smertzasmert

Puppet Masters

French domestic intel questions Le Monde journalist who exposed Benalla affair

UK suffers crushing defeat in UN vote over its occupation of Chagos Islands

US quietly upgrading missile defense site in Romania - Nuclear capable Tomahawks to return to Europe

Manchester Bombing inquest indefinitely delayed while 'accomplice' held in Libya

From joker to peacemaker? Zelensky needs to follow his words with actions to end Ukraine's conflict

Andrea Leadsom resigns over Theresa May's handling of Brexit

Washington joins West Coast bloc of sanctuary states

'No evidence': EU's last-ditch effort to prove 'Russian interference' leads nowhere

Video shows Iran may be transferring S-300s to Persian Gulf amid tensions with US

NYT confirms Hunter Biden Bank of China deal, leaves out key details

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