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New book says Skripal doesn't believe Kremlin poisoned him, supports Russia on Crimea


RT
Tue, 02 Oct 2018 20:37 UTC
Sergei Skripal
© wsbuzz.com / Global Look Press
Sergei Skripal
Sergei Skripal, the Russian former double agent in the center of the Salisbury poisoning scandal, was "reluctant" to believe that the Kremlin had targeted him with a nerve agent, a new book claims to reveal.

The upcoming book The Skripal Files by BBC editor Mark Urban says Skripal "was initially reluctant to believe the Russian government had tried to kill him," the Guardian reports. It claims this led to some "difficult psychological adjustments" for the former double agent, secreted away in the UK as a blame game tore through Moscow-London relations. It is, however, not clear from the story by The Guardian how the book gauges Skripal's post-poisoning emotions as it's said to be based on 2017 interviews.

Comment: Ah, Bellingcat. Eliot Higgins has managed to leverage Atlanticist support to create the UK's premiere disinformation source to deceive those disenchanted with mainstream sources of disinformation As for those who might be interested in Sergei Skripal's silence, there's plenty of other possibilities:

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Sherlock

Senior French Intel: Zakharchenko was assassinated by Ukraine Intelligence, with support from US & UK


Mike Norman Economics
Sat, 29 Sep 2018 20:40 UTC
Alexander Zakharchenko

Alexander Zakharchenko
Earlier this year, noted French counter-terrorism and personal security expert Captain Paul Barril was invited to visit the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR). The intention of the planned visit was to consult with the DPR's Prime-Minister, Alexander Zakharchenko, on issues of protection and personal security. However, before the two men could meet, Mr Zakharchenko was assassinated with a bomb in the Separ cafe in Donetsk.

In this interview Capt. Barril makes some shocking revelations about his murder (translated from the French):
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Mr. Potato

The Dumbing-Down of Contemporary Political Discourse: British Foreign Secretary Compares EU With USSR

Neil Clark
RT
Tue, 02 Oct 2018 20:29 UTC
eussr eu flag hammer sicklle

An apt metaphor? Or does this go too far?
The comparison that UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt made between the EU and a Soviet 'prison' has been fiercely attacked. The episode shows us how superficial political debate has become today.

For right-wingers, the EU is just like the Soviet Union - a bureaucratic socialist tyranny which doesn't allow anyone to leave. For Russophobic, western-centric Europhile 'liberals', 'centrists' and the 'centre left', it's a disgraceful analogy as the Soviet Union was, along with Nazi Germany, the most evil creation in history, and did nothing good.

How did political debate descend to these kindergarten levels? Is this the price we've paid for allowing Rupert Murdoch to get such a stranglehold over our media?

Nowhere in this 'black and white' discourse is there an acknowledgement that the Soviet Union changed greatly during the 69 years of its existence. In fact, the Soviet Union, and communism in eastern Europe generally, has been reduced to the period during which Stalin carried out his purges and sent millions of innocent people to the gulag.
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Attention

Donald Trump, The Manchurian Candidate and the Russian Probe...meets the Rosenstein-Comey-Mueller intrigue

Professor Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research
Sun, 30 Sep 2018 00:00 UTC
RosMueTru
© CNN/Getty Images
Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein • SC Robert Mueller • President Donald Trump
Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein was slated to be fired by President Trump on Thursday September 27. That meeting has been postponed until next week to avoid an overlap with the Senate hearings on the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. In the meantime, Rosenstein has agreed to meet privately with Republican lawmakers.

The outcome of the Rosenstein affair is uncertain. It is intimately related to the history of Russia-Gate which was launched prior to the November 2016 elections. Russia-Gate consisted in presenting Trump as a Manchurian candidate controlled by the Kremlin.

Already prior to his inauguration, the media had described "Trump as sleeping with the enemy". The underlying political narrative focussed on "Impeachment".

Comment: Architecture - whether a structure or a 'plot' it has to have a foundation on which to build and a crew to install the framework. As Professor Chossudovsky outlines, Rosenstein may have had more to do with the initial and ongoing concerted effort to oust Trump than previously thought.

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Snakes in Suits

Hypocrisy unbounded! Left and right slam Comey's 'shot clock' op-ed regarding Kavanaugh FBI probe


RT
Mon, 01 Oct 2018 22:34 UTC
James Comey
© The Economist
Former FBI Director, James Comey
Former FBI director James Comey has piped up about the bureau's investigation into Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, saying it is "idiotic" to have a "shot clock." His critics, both left and right, were not amused.

The FBI opened a background investigation into Kavanaugh - his seventh - on Friday, after the White House humored the demands of Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee and one Republican, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Arizona). Though initially fine with the investigation wrapping up by this Friday, the Democrats are now asking it to be unlimited in time and scope - and Comey, writing in the New York Times, agreed.

A number of people quickly observed that Comey doesn't have a leg to stand on, given that he actually admitted putting a "shot clock" on the FBI probe of Hillary Clinton's email use, due to the 2016 presidential election.

Comment: Proof that the dead do not stay buried and Russiagate has not swung shut.
See also:

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Bomb

France accuses Iran of June bomb plot near Paris

Adam Plowright, Valerie Leroux
Yahoo
Tue, 02 Oct 2018 00:00 UTC
Giuliani MEK Paris
© AFP Photo/Zakaria Abdelkafi
Giuliani speaking at MEK event near Paris June 30, 2018
France accused Iran's intelligence ministry on Tuesday of being behind a foiled plot to bomb an exiled opposition group near the French capital in a move that risks straining already complicated ties between Paris and Tehran.

The French government announced it was freezing assets belonging to two suspected Iranian intelligence operatives, as well as others belonging to Iran's ministry of intelligence and security. The decision to take retaliatory measures and go public with the accusations was taken three months after the alleged plot to bomb a meeting of the People's Mujahedeen of Iran (MEK) in a suburb of Paris.

"This extremely serious act envisaged on our territory could not go without a response," France's interior, foreign and economy ministers said in a rare joint statement. "In taking this decision, France underlines its determination to fight against terrorism in all its forms, particularly on its own territory."

A French diplomatic source told AFP that the security forces had concluded that "the head of operations at the (Iranian) intelligence ministry ordered it". Iran immediately denied any involvement, as it did in July when the MEK accused it of being responsible.

Comment: Considering the remarkable coincidences, this bomb attempt was just as likely a false flag attempt to bolster MEK, a formerly designated terrorist organization with its ongoing mission to overthrow the Iranian government.

From Times of Israel, July 3, 2018 and same author:
The NCRI is an umbrella group for exiled opposition organizations, including the former rebel People's Mujahedeen, [MEK] which was once considered a terror group by European and American authorities and is banned in Iran. The NCRI immediately pointed the finger at Tehran, saying the regime was behind the alleged plot.

The timing of the alleged plot is noteworthy; it came just as Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was arriving in Europe, hoping to secure continued support for the 2015 nuclear agreement.

The European Union has been a strong backer of the deal, which offers Iran sanctions relief in return for accepting curbs on its nuclear program, despite US President Donald Trump's decision to pull out in May.

Evidence that Iran had sought to carry out a bombing on European soil would seriously jeopardize those efforts and make it politically more difficult for leaders such as France's Emmanuel Macron to continue to support the accord.

Iran's foreign minister implied that the regime's enemies - notably Israel or the United States - might be behind a "false flag ploy," meaning a deliberate effort to discredit Iran.

"How convenient: Just as we embark on a presidential visit to Europe, an alleged Iranian operation and its 'plotters' arrested," Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted.

"Iran unequivocally condemns all violence and terror anywhere, and is ready to work with all concerned to uncover what is a sinister false flag ploy," he said.


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Arrow Down

Trump's ME policy disparaged at UN assembly

James Reinl
Middle East Eye
Fri, 28 Sep 2018 21:13 UTC
Palestinian FM Riyad al-Maliki
© MEE/James Reinl
Palestinian FM Riyad al-Maliki
It was not just US President Donald Trump getting laughed at in the UN General Assembly this week. On Iran, Palestine and other Middle East issues, Washington has drifted away from its global allies and partners, veteran diplomats told Middle East Eye.

At one of several events about Iran's missile-building and support for foreign militias, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was heckled by a woman audience member who was expelled after yelling: "We're sick of you killing these Iranians."

As he exited that meeting at a Manhattan hotel, Yousef al-Otaiba, the UAE's ambassador to Washington, was trailed down the street by another activist calling him a "war criminal" over his country's US-backed military deployment in Yemen.

But, according to UN analysts, these public embarrassments were overshadowed by a growing international resentment of a Trump administration that is struggling to rally allies and partners behind its policy goals in the Middle East.

"Last year, there was an uncertainty over who Trump was. Was it real? Was it an act? Now, everybody has a year more of understanding of this man and very few countries, very few leaders, are buying into the show," Daniel Kurtzer, a former US diplomat, told Middle East Eye. "Behind closed doors, they have to face the reality that what Trump has said publicly is now the laughing stock of the international community."

Comment: The international 'dis-America' campaign is getting teeth. No surprise the Kavanaugh hearings are redirecting US attention.

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Arrow Down

US Navy aircraft carrier deployments lessen as financial concerns increase


Sputnik
Mon, 01 Oct 2018 22:06 UTC
US aircraft carrier
© public domain
USS Nimitz (CVN-68) a US naval aircraft carrier.
US Navy aircraft carrier deployment rates around the world are at their lowest point in 25 years, USNI News recently reported, as the service copes with maintenance costs that have accrued over the 17-year War on Terror.

Just 15 percent of the Navy's carriers have been operationally deployed at a given point in 2018, USNI News calculated in a recent analysis. In the last 15 months, fewer carriers have been underway than at any point since 1992, according to the report.

What's more, "for 22 days this summer, the Navy did not have a full carrier strike group deployed anywhere in the world available for national tasking," the Navy has confirmed. The USS Abraham certified an air wing during that period, while the USS Vinson spent time at the Rim of the Pacific Exercises, which USNI counted as being unavailable for national tasking.

One major reason for the fall in carrier deployments is the massive cost associated with operating a carrier and the aircraft aboard it, a senior official told USNI.
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Nuke

Kay Bailey Hutchison: 'We'd take out Russia's nukes', claiming banned missiles are being developed


RT
Tue, 02 Oct 2018 16:44 UTC
Russian missile
© Russian Defense Ministry/Sputnik
Test launch of the Russian Burevestnik nuclear cruise missile.
The US would look into ways of "taking out" new Russian missiles if they become operational, the US envoy to NATO said, accusing Moscow of developing a weapon that "violates" the Soviet-US nuclear arms treaty.

US Ambassador to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison didn't miss an opportunity to fire a warning shot in the direction of Russia when accusing it of building new nuclear missiles that would allegedly be pointed at Europe. Should such missiles be completed, she said at the Tuesday briefing, "at that point, we would be looking at the capability to take out a [Russian] missile that could hit any of our countries."

Hutchison then doubled down on the threat, saying: "Counter measures [by the United States] would be to take out the missiles that are in development by Russia in violation of the treaty." She added: "They are on notice."

Hutchison was referring to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), which bans the use of all nuclear and conventional missiles, as well as their launchers, that have ranges of between 500km and 5,500km. The US has claimed that Moscow is not complying with the INF treaty, an accusation that Russia has repeatedly rejected.

Comment: How better to justify weapons sales and NATO participation than claiming infractions on an arms agreement by Russia.

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Nuke

Seoul assessment: North Korean arsenal may contain up to 60 nukes


RT
Tue, 02 Oct 2018 14:36 UTC
NKHwasong-15
© AFP
North Korea's Hwasong-15 missile
North Korea may have obtained anything from 20 up to 60 nuclear weapons, a top South Korean official has revealed in what appears to be Seoul's first public assessment of its neighbor's stockpile.

The figures were outlined by Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon to the South Korean parliament on Monday, AP said. He was reportedly citing intelligence data in response to a lawmaker's question. South Korea's main spy agency, the National Intelligence Service, has not commented on the statement so far.

Earlier reports claimed that Pyongyang has weaponized enough plutonium for at least eight bombs. At the peak of tensions on the Korean Peninsula, the North boasted of having developed an advanced hydrogen bomb and intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the entire US mainland.

The assessment comes as the two Koreas try to mend their relations in the wake of historic bilateral summits. The latest meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and the South's Moon Jae-in in Pyongyang last September ended with "specific denuclearization steps" and Kim's consent to allow international observers oversee the dismantling of missile sites. Previously, North Korea invited a number of journalists to witness the destruction of its nuclear testing site at Punggye-ri.

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