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Netanyahu sought 2-week prep notice for Iran strike by IDF in 2011


RT
Thu, 31 May 2018 21:17 UTC
Netanyahucockpit
© Reuters
Back in 2011, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the military to get ready to strike Iran with only a two-week preparation period, former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo revealed. Such [a] strike would have resulted in open war.

It's the first time a former Israeli official gave an insight on how long such large-scale military operations would (and should) take IDF to prepare.

Pardo, who was picked for his role earlier that year, was unsure about the idea even wondered if the Prime Minister had the authority to order the action, the former spy chief said in an interview with Keshet TV's Uvda investigative show, broadcast on Thursday evening. The strikes were intended to target Iran's nuclear facilities, but such action would likely have resulted in a full-blown war.
"I made inquiries about everything I could do. I checked with previous Mossad chiefs. I checked with legal advisers. I consulted anyone I could consult in order to understand who is authorized to give instructions about the whole issue of starting a war," Pardo said, as quoted by Israeli media.

"In the end, if I get an order and if I get an instruction from the prime minister, I am supposed to carry it out," he said. "I need to be certain if, God forbid, something goes wrong, even if the operation fails, that it shouldn't be a situation that I carried out an illegal action."
Pardo even contemplated to resign if the situation got too close to the point of no return, but never had to make such choice, as the idea to strike Iranian nuclear facilities was scrapped.

Comment: The never-ending, always at Israeli fingertips, aggression-satisfying manifestation of a pretext for bombing Syria: Iran.

See also:
Israeli PM's 2010 Iran strike order rebuffed by IDF and Mossad, says Israel's Channel 2 documentary Apparently not many were in the loop nor onboard with Neti's plan:
The demand met fierce objections on the part of Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi and the head of the Israeli intelligence service (Mossad) Meir Dagan, who had to step down after that notorious meeting.

The former Mossad chief told Ilana Dayan that Netanyahu attempted to make the IDF attack Iran's nuclear objects in a "stealing a war' manner, in other words, without holding consultations with all 15 members of his cabinet.

After his resignation from Mossad, Dagan called that move by Netanyahu "stupid", reports AFP.


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Stock Down

US stocks take a beating as Trump begins trade brawl against the world


RT
Thu, 31 May 2018 16:07 UTC
Trumpcrowd
© Pinterest
American stock markets reacted negatively after the United States imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, Mexico and the European Union.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped over one percent, S&P500 dropped 0.54 percent, while the Nasdaq was 0.16 percent in the red.
The sell-off was triggered by the announcement from US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who said a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports from its long-time allies would go into effect at midnight.
Shares of American steel companies Steel Dynamics, AK Steel and US Steel gained between 3.4 percent and 7.4 percent and aluminum producer Alcoa surged 3.4 percent. Boeing and Caterpillar were losing 1.1 and 1.2 percent, respectively.
Fears of a trade war between the US and its allies are buoyed by the fact that US President Donald Trump is also seeking to levy German car makers; the tariffs would be similar to those on steel and aluminum.
"This is another negotiation tactic on the US side because there are other negotiations going on. The US wants to use tariffs as a bargaining tool for other negotiations. I think, it's very important to have a long term view and not to over trade in this kind of environment," said Zhiwei Ren, managing director and portfolio manager, Penn Mutual Asset Management, as quoted by Reuters.
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Umbrella

Countries demand recourse to US veto power at WTO


RT
Fri, 01 Jun 2018 13:48 UTC
WTO emblem
© Assignment Point
Some member countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO) want to create an appeal mechanism that would prevent the US vetoing decisions it dislikes, according to Russian Economy Minister Maksim Oreshkin.

By September four seats will be vacant at the Appellate Body, the WTO appeals chamber, leaving three judges out of the necessary seven. Washington has blocked appointments to the chamber, thus engineering a crisis in the system of settling global disputes.

According to Oreshkin, without the appointments, the WTO appeals body would stop working next year. On Thursday, Oreshkin met with trade ministers from WTO member countries, and they discussed a mechanism that would allow the appeals chamber to work without getting a green light from the US.

"What we have discussed, have suggested is to create a mechanism without taking into account the US stance, which would allow us to settle cases which are reviewed at this appeal commission. We would work on this," the minister told reporters.

Since 1995, the WTO has expanded to cover around 95 percent of world trade, which has more than tripled to around $18 trillion per year in goods alone. US President Trump has taken a sharp stance on the WTO saying it's a "catastrophe". "We lose the cases, we don't have the judges," he said in February.

Comment: Trump is shaking it up, targeting entrenchments and global mechanisms, forcing reactions and changes. See also:

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Bullseye

Sarah Sanders rips ABC media for its 'double standard' amid the Roseanne Barr controversy

Gabby Morrongiello
Washington Examiner
Wed, 30 May 2018 03:28 UTC
Sarah Sanders
© Yuri Gripas/Reuters
WH Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders tore into reporters on Wednesday as she fielded questions about Roseanne Barr, claiming ABC's response to the actress' incendiary tweet about former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett demonstrates the "double standard" that exists in the media.

Echoing her boss, who criticized Disney CEO Bob Iger earlier Wednesday for calling Jarrett to apologize for Barr's comments, Sanders said Trump was highlighting "the hypocrisy in the media saying the most horrible things about this president" and nobody at ABC or other networks addressing it.
"Where was Bob Iger's apology to the White House staff for Jemele Hill calling the president and anyone associated with him a white supremacist? To Christians around the world for Joy Behar calling Christianity a mental illness?

Where was the apology for Kathy Griffin going on a profane rant against the president on The View after a photo showed her holding President Trump's decapitated head?" Sanders asked reporters in the briefing room.

She added: "And where was Bob Iger for ESPN hiring Keith Olbermann after his numerous expletive tweets attacking the president as a Nazi and even expanding Olbermann's role after that attack against the president's family?"

Comment: There's just not enough slander to go around!

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Snakes in Suits

The Italian U-turn: Euroskeptic coalition forms new cabinet in spite of President's 'undemocratic' veto


RT
Thu, 31 May 2018 18:23 UTC
Guiseppe Conte
© picture-alliance/AP/A Carconi
Guiseppe Conte
Giuseppe Conte will head a new Lega-Five Star Movement government after all, as the two parties proposed a new finance minister instead of EU critic Paolo Savona, whose candidacy was rejected by the president.

"All the conditions have been fulfilled for a political Five Star and Lega government," said a joint statement from the two anti-establishment parties, which gathered more than half of the votes in the March election but had been unable to form a government for nearly three months.

With Conte to be sworn in on Friday, the new finance minister will be Giovanni Tria, a politically unaffiliated 69-year-old academic, who is regarded as anti-EU, but more flexible than Savona. The latter, who has called Italy's entry into the euro zone a "historic mistake," will become the European Affairs minister, with a remit to negotiate on Rome's behalf in Brussels.


Comment: See also:

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Airplane

Malaysian minister: JIT provided 'no conclusive evidence' that Russia shot down MH17


RT
Fri, 01 Jun 2018 15:43 UTC
MH17 wreckage
© Las Vegas Review Journal
Wreckage of MH17
The international investigative team failed to present any "conclusive evidence" to pin the blame on Moscow for its alleged role in downing MH17 over Ukraine, according to Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke.

"There is no conclusive evidence to point at Russia under the JIT (Joint Investigative Team) evidence," Loke said in an interview to Channel NewsAsia on Wednesday.

"But who's responsible - you can't just pinpoint Russia," the minister stated, adding that "any further actions will be based on conclusive evidence." He also stressed that it is important to safeguard good diplomatic relations.

Comment: Kiev's potential liability for the crash "cannot be ruled out," and yet it's Russia that has come under the spotlight, not Kiev. See also:

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Eye 2

Pentagon's thinly veiled threat to China: US military "has a had a lot of experience...taking down small islands"


RT
Fri, 01 Jun 2018 17:23 UTC
1945 of US warships in Okinawa
© AFP
Picture taken in 1945 of US warships in Okinawa during the American troop landing in Japan, during World War II.
A top Pentagon official has apparently shrugged off China's militarized, man-made islands in the South China Sea, boasting that the US military "has had a lot of experience in the Western Pacific taking down small islands."

Speaking with reporters at the Pentagon on Thursday, Director of the Joint Staff Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie said that Washington would continue to seek cooperation with Beijing on the Korea crisis, but would not shy away from protecting "both US and allied interest in the region."

"I would just tell you that the United States military has had a lot of experience in the Western Pacific taking down small islands," McKenzie said, in response to question about US military capabilities against China's man-made islands in the South China Sea. He later clarified his statement, emphasizing that he was making a "simple statement of historical fact."


Comment: Awesome diplomacy as always from the increasingly isolated and deluded US: Ron Paul: Accidental Isolationism? America's Incredible Shrinking Influence


Comment: Where it can the US is surrounding China with military bases, just as they are with Russia, and with the 'historical facts' that the US is one of the most arrogant, demented and blood thirsty nations going, it's no wonder the Chinese consider their behaviour threatening:

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Binoculars

NATO Fake News Factory: 'Russian Journalist Assassination' Hoax by Ukrainian Intelligence Linked to Criminal Arms Deal


RT
Thu, 31 May 2018 18:42 UTC
Arkady Babchenko
© Valentyn Ogirenko / Reuters
Russian dissident journalist Arkady Babchenko (R) holds his own memorial portrait in Kiev, Ukraine on May 31, 2018.
It didn't take long for the story of a brave operation to prevent a Russian assassination in Kiev by faking a journalist's death to start unravelling and revealing a crude publicity stunt.

On Wednesday, Ukraine's national security service SBU shocked the world by revealing that it had staged the murder of Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko. The service claimed it was necessary to foil a real large-scale plot targeting Ukraine and masterminded by the Kremlin. By Thursday the shock effect wore off, and commenters started to tear apart the story they were fed.

According to the Ukrainian law enforcement, the biggest immediate win for the SBU in the case was the arrest of a Ukrainian businessman identified as "G". He is accused of serving as an organizer of the hit on Babchenko on behalf of Russian intelligence. He did hire a man, who was actually an SBU informant, and paid him $30,000 to kill Babchenko, the story goes. The SBU published footage of the arrest as well as a video taken by a hidden camera, which showed the money changing hands.

Comment: The one thing the SBU managed to accomplish is to demonstrate that they have no problem knowingly creating fake news. And having the gall to blame Russia for fake crimes the SBU manufactured. At least there's plenty of opportunity here for humor. Case in point:


And we wouldn't be happy if Luke "Worst Journalist Ever" Harding weren't to make an appearance:
​'A terrible crime. Arkady was a fearless and brilliant journalist, the best of his generation, committed to telling uncomfortable truths', gushed Luke Harding, author of 'Collusion: How Russia helped Trump win the White House'. His tweet was retweeted over 600 times, including by some leading members of the 'Punditocracy'. 'I do not know what it is if not the terrorism. There is no other word for it', wrote one person in reply. How about fakery? That fits quite nicely, I think.

These people are idiots. And they're not the only ones. Real journalists are not impressed, to say the least:
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemned the Ukrainian intelligence stunt with staging the murder of journalist Arkady Babchenko, stating it damaged credibility of Kiev and harmed international journalism.

"The profession's aim is to seek the truth and ... any manipulation of information can dramatically damage media credibility as well as journalism as a whole," the IFJ said in a statement on Thursday. The staged murder of Babchenko by Ukrainian authorities, who was "killed" on May 29 only to reappear a day later during the secret service's press conference, reinforced "the idea of journalists and politicians conspiring together," the organizations' president Philippe Leruth said.

"By spreading false evidence about his murder, Ukrainian authorities have seriously eroded the credibility of information, and their communication runs the risk of being considered a propaganda operation. Was it really necessary to stage his death in order to stop an alleged attack?" Leruth wondered.

The stunt was also inappropriate due to the fact that "killers and their backers" of journalists who were indeed assassinated, such as Pavel Sheremet, have never been identified by Ukraine's authorities. While IJF condemns the killings and "fights against impunity, which benefits journalists' murderers," it also advocates transparency of information, Leruth stressed.

Moreover, the whole affair was "a complete circus orchestrated by military figures and a journalist," and it was not "simple journalistic case anymore," IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger argued. The stunt misled journalists worldwide and "millions of citizens that were rightly moved by this so-called murder," he added.

Ukrainian authorities rushed to defend the stunt, with Interior Minister Arsen Avakov stating he was surprised with "pseudo-moral" criticism from abroad and that the secret services achieved with the operation "enough ... to be satisfied."
"Pseudo-moral." That single word says it all. The criminal minds involved in this are indignant at their 'normally-supportive' allies in the West, who are peeved at them for exposing them as gullible fools.

Just imagine how far all of these cretins would have gone if the SBU had waited a week, a month, or a year before revealing that Babchenko was actually alive. All those journalists bemoaning an assassination that never happened. And yet they're insulted when people call them 'fake'. That's rich. As Neil Clark writes:
'If he hadn't turned up alive, Arkady dead would have become the thing most people called 'truth'..... No one - none of us - would think to question it. And anyone who did would be dismissed as a lunatic', Catte writes.

If Babchenko had stayed dead, then British neocons - the real lunatics in our midst - would be demanding fresh 'punishment' against Russia. There would have been renewed calls for Ofcom and/or the government to 'take action' against Russian media operating lawfully in Britain, such as RT and Sputnik. Would any mainstream politician or journalist have dared to speak out against the Russophobes? In an age where scepticism of official narratives is shamefully equated to treason- one very much doubts it. But outside of the gates of the Bastille, the people are fooled no more.


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Biohazard

Connecting the Skripal case dots: The official story is pure nonsense

Rob Slane
The Blogmire
Fri, 01 Jun 2018 18:35 UTC
Salisbury attack
© AP Photo / Andrew Matthews
I have asked a lot of questions in relation to the Skripal case and many, if not most, are still unanswered. However, I want in this piece to go further than asking questions, and to start to join a few dots together. There is much to say, and rather than doing it in one long piece, which only three people will have the attention span to sit through, I want to do it over a number of articles. Probably four or five. We shall see.

When I say that I am hoping to join some dots together, please note that what I am not attempting to do is state anything conclusively. Rather, I am simply advancing a theory, based on what I have observed so far, and I do so in the full knowledge that there may well be things I have missed, facts which I am as yet unaware of, and other facts which are still to be revealed. These things may well blow any theory I advance apart.

But before I get to that, there is a question that must first be asked: Why is a theory needed in the first place? It's not as if there isn't an official one out there. Indeed there is. In which case, why the need for another theory to explain what happened?

The reason is that the official story, put forward by the British Government, is wholly lacking in credibility. It has actually come as a surprise to me just how many people there are out there who don't buy the official story. Anecdotally, I would say that those looking at the official narrative and wondering how on earth it stacks up includes many who would perhaps not normally question the official line on things.

And so attempting to come up with another theory of what happened has nothing to do with advancing what is usually called a "conspiracy theory". If the claims of the official story did match the facts, then advancing an entirely different theory could well be seen as a conspiracy theory. But since the claims made by the British Government and in the compliant media do not stack up, this is simply a case of seeking an alternative theory that tries to make more sense of the known facts.
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Pirates

Business as usual: Trump moves to protect ISIS and al-Qaeda in southwest Syria

Steven Chovanec
Insurge Intelligence
Fri, 01 Jun 2018 18:25 UTC
Syrian rebels
© YouTube
Syrian rebels using heavy weapons to fight ISIS in southwestern Daraa, 2017
Syria is preparing an offensive to regain control of the southwest of the country near the Daraa and Quneitra regions. The area is occupied by al-Qaeda and other insurgent groups associated with them, and a substantial portion is controlled by ISIS. But the US says it is opposed to the Syrian action because it would violate the de-escalation agreement made between the US, Jordan, and Russia. The administration has warned that it will take "firm and appropriate measures" if the operation is carried out - effectively putting the US squarely on the side of ISIS and al-Qaeda.

Negotiations are now underway to determine the fate of the region, with Israeli media reporting that a possible deal could include a Russian agreement to prevent the involvement of Iran and Hezbollah from any operations in return for the Israeli agreement to refrain from intervening against Syrian government attempts to take area.

However, the US warning makes clear that the administration regards the presence of ISIS, al-Qaeda, and associated forces as preferable to the Syrian state, and that it would like to maintain these in the area to prevent a Syrian advance. This is conducive with the overarching goal of keeping Syria weak and divided, of attempting to punish Russia and its allies for defeating the US-backed opposition by turning the Syrian victory into a liability.
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