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US Navy seizes suspected Iranian missile parts set for Yemen

Lolita C. Baldor
AP
Wed, 04 Dec 2019 18:52 UTC
pompeo netanyahu
© AP Photo/Patricia De Melo Moreira, Pool
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands during their meeting in Lisbon Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2019.
A Navy warship has seized a "significant cache" of suspected Iranian guided missile parts headed to rebels in Yemen, U.S. officials said Wednesday, marking the first time that such sophisticated components have been taken en route to the war there.


Comment: Probably U.S. propaganda. But even if it isn't, shouldn't Iran be praised for arming the Houthis? The Saudis have been waging a war of aggression for years. Who else is helping to fight them, or otherwise stop the Saudi bloodbath?


The seizure from a small boat by the U.S. Navy and a U.S. Coast Guard boarding team happened last Wednesday in the northern Arabian Sea, and the weapons have been linked to Iran.


Comment: Vague and ambiguous, as usual.


Officials said the incident illustrates the continuing illegal smuggling of weapons to Houthi rebels and comes as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were meeting, with Iran as the main topic.


Comment: Convenient timing.


The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details about a sensitive military mission. In a statement, Cmdr. Sean Robertson, a Pentagon spokesman, said a U.S. warship inspection discovered a cache of weapons and advanced missile components. He said, "An initial investigation indicates that these advanced missile components are of Iranian origin."
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Handcuffs

Den of vipers: Netanyahu's top aides indicted on corruption charges


Sputnik
Thu, 05 Dec 2019 18:35 UTC
netanyahu
© AFP 2019 / ABIR SULTAN
The Israeli State Prosecutor's Office on Thursday published charges in the large-scale corruption scheme, known as Case 3000, that involved bribes to Israeli officials for soliciting multi-million-dollar state contracts on nuclear submarines with German company Thyssenkrupp, media reported on Thursday.

In November 2018, the police recommended prosecutors to indict several individuals close to Netanyahu over Case 3000 on various corruption-related charges, including suspicion of fraud, breach of trust, and conspiring to commit a crime.

The prosecution laid out bribery charges against former navy chief Eliezer Marom, former Netanyahu bureau chief David Sharan, former cabinet minister Eliezer Zandberg, and Thyssenkrupp representative in Israel Miki Ganor, the Times of Israel reported, citing a publication by the state attorney's office.

According to the report, Netanyahu's personal attorney and cousin, David Shimron, was charged with money laundering.

Former Deputy National Security Adviser Avriel Bar-Yosef, though recommended for indictment by the police, was not indicted, the newspaper added.

The charges now are pending a hearing in court.

Comment: There was another a time in Palestine's past when Jerusalem was host to a similar batch of scum and villainy: just prior to the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple in 70 AD. Maybe its current occupiers should take a lesson from history to avoid a repeat performance.

See also:

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Bad Guys

Pelosi: Full speed ahead with articles of impeachment against Trump

Rebecca Shabad
NBC News
Thu, 05 Dec 2019 17:20 UTC
pelosi impeachment announcement
© Saul Loeb / AFP - Getty Images
Nancy Pelosi speaks about the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump at the US Capitol on Dec. 5, 2019.
The speaker's comments come a day after the House Judiciary Committee held its first hearing.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announced Thursday that she was asking the House Judiciary Committee and chairmen of other committees to proceed with drafting articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, saying "the president leaves us no choice but to act."

"Sadly, but with confidence and humility, with allegiance to our founders and our heart full of love for America, today, I am asking our chairmen to proceed with articles of impeachment," Pelosi said in a brief televised statement from the Capitol, speaking directly to the American people.

The facts of Trump's alleged wrongdoing involving Ukraine, she said, "are uncontested."

Comment: Why are the Democrats committed to pursuing this farce to the bitter end? It could possibly be the end of the party itself.

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Eagle

Betraying the Constitution: Who will protect us from the unpatriotic Patriot Act?

John W. Whitehead
The Rutherford Institute
Mon, 02 Dec 2019 00:00 UTC
patriot act
While Congress subjects the nation to its impeachment-flavored brand of bread-and-circus politics, our civil liberties continue to die a slow, painful death by a thousand cuts.

Case in point: while Americans have been fixated on the carefully orchestrated impeachment drama that continues to monopolize headlines, Congress passed and President Trump signed into law legislation extending three key provisions of the USA Patriot Act, which had been set to expire on December 15, 2019.

Once again, to no one's surprise, the bureaucrats on both sides of the aisle — Democrats and Republicans alike — prioritized political grandstanding over principle and their oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution.

As Congressman Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) predicted:
Today, while everyone is distracted by the impeachment drama, Congress will vote to extend warrantless data collection provisions of the #PatriotAct, by hiding this language on page 25 of the Continuing Resolution (CR) that temporarily funds the government. To sneak this through, Congress will first vote to suspend the rule which otherwise gives us (and the people) 72 hours to consider a bill. The scam here is that Democrats are alleging abuse of Presidential power, while simultaneously reauthorizing warrantless power to spy on citizens that no President should have... in a bill that continues to fund EVERYTHING the President does... and waiving their own rules to do it. I predict Democrats will vote on a party line to suspend the 72 hour rule. But after the rule is suspended, I suspect many Republicans will join most Democrats to pass the CR with the Patriot Act extension embedded in it.
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Cut

Russian Prime Minister Medvedev: Cutting Russia off from SWIFT would mean declaration of war


RT
Thu, 05 Dec 2019 12:18 UTC
Swift payment
Restricting Russia's access to the SWIFT international banking payment system would virtually mean a declaration of war, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has warned.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Medvedev recalled the West once seriously considered the option, and Moscow is aware of it.

"This would in fact be a declaration of war, but nevertheless it was discussed," the Russian prime minister said, adding that this is one of the reasons why the government is looking into ways to protect the Russian part of the internet.

The global interbank SWIFT system facilitates cross-border payments between 11,000 financial institutions in more than 200 countries worldwide.

First calls to disconnect Russian banks from the money transfer network emerged in 2014 in response to Moscow's alleged role in the conflict in Ukraine.

Comment: Russia, however, seems to be preparing for such an eventuality:

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Chess

Dueling reality split: Democrats claim 'evidence' of Trump misconduct, Republicans say there isn't any


RT
Tue, 03 Dec 2019 17:01 UTC
impeachment report democrats trump
© REUTERS/Jim Bourg
Impeachment hearings have shown evidence that US President Donald Trump solicited election interference from Ukraine for personal gain, says a new report by the House Democrats. Republicans say that no such evidence was given.

House Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff (D-California) published a 300-page report on Tuesday, as part of the official impeachment inquiry authorized in October despite bipartisan opposition. The report claims that both the secret depositions and the public hearings held over the past month have shown evidence that Trump "solicited the interference of a foreign government, Ukraine, to benefit his reelection" by conditioning US aid to Kiev on "politically-motivated investigations" into Trump's domestic political opponent Joe Biden.

Comment: Some have speculated that after Jerry Nadler's disastrous handling of December 4th's Judicial Committee hearing with three partisan Constitutional lawyers and one token moderate, that she was backed into a corner by the more radical members of the Democratic party. Pelosi made the announcement today with high sounding words about preserving the Constitution.


The facade dropped quickly after being asked if the move was simply to remove a president the Democrats disagreed with.


Stay tuned . . . . . .

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Info

Media outlets reported that Tom Steyer's campaign trolled Trump's campaign - but they buried a major detail

Shelby Talcott
The Daily Caller
Mon, 02 Dec 2019 21:07 UTC
Donald Trump
© Getty Images
Media outlets downplayed the fact that 2020 Democratic candidate Tom Steyer's newest domain name purchase, aimed at trolling President Donald Trump's campaign, had been owned by anti-Trump activists since as early as 2016.

The Steyer campaign purchased the domain name "Keep America Great" in an apparent attempt to turn the tables on the Trump campaign, who have previously purchased political opponents' would-be websites. "Keep America Great" is Trump's re-election slogan for 2020.

"Trump's campaign prides itself on hoarding websites of political opponents, but they forgot to pick up the URL for their signature re-election slogan, 'Keep America Great,'" Steyer's campaign claimed in a statement.

Comment: See also:

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Better Earth

Had Putin been Russian president in 1999, Serbia wouldn't have been bombed - President Vucic


RT
Wed, 04 Dec 2019 19:52 UTC
Aleksandar Vucic
© Sputnik / Mikhail Klementyev
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic speaks at a joint press conference with the Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi, Russia, on December 4, 2019.
NATO would not have bombed Serbia in 1999 if Vladimir Putin had been the Russian president then, said Serbian leader Aleksandar Vucic praising friendly relations between Moscow and Belgrade.

Vucic believes Serbians value the current Russian leader more than any in recent history, as they are confident of Moscow's steadfast support of their nation's sovereignty.

"We believe that in 1999, if Putin had already been president there would have never been a bombing of Serbia," Vucic told journalists at a press conference following his talks with the Russian leader in Sochi on Wednesday.

He said that the Serbs would also never "forget 2012 when Mr. Putin saved us from the West designating us a people that practice genocide." He was referring to the time when Russia blocked a UN resolution, backed by the US and the UK, which would recognize 1995 Srebrenica massacre - a tragic event from the Bosnian War - as genocide, while blaming solely the Serbs for the events of the said civil war.

Comment: It's probably reflective of just how fragile any semblance of peace on our planet is that it relies on the shoulders of a very few upstanding statesmen, like Putin:

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Snakes in Suits

Germany expels two Russian diplomats over Berlin murder probe - "unjustified" says Moscow


RT
Wed, 04 Dec 2019 11:25 UTC
Moabit
© Reuters / Fabrizio Bensch
Police officers investigate a crime scene in Berlin, Germany, August 23, 2019, after a cyclist shot at a man in the Moabit district.
Germany said it is expelling two Russian diplomats for not sufficiently cooperating with a probe into the high-profile assassination of a Chechen expat, with Georgian citizenship, in Berlin.

On Wednesday, the Foreign Ministry declared two Russian diplomats personae non gratae for not sufficiently participating in the investigation, despite "repeated requests," into the murder of a man, named in the statement as Tornike K., who was gunned down in Berlin's Tiergarten Park in August.

The ministry stressed that immediate cooperation from Russia "remains crucial" because the investigation has been taken over by the Prosecutor General's Office.

Comment: RT reports:
The expulsion of Russian diplomats by Germany is an unfriendly and unjustified move, the Russian Foreign Ministry believes. It promised to respond in kind.

Responding to the news on Wednesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said it considered the German move "unjustified and unfriendly" and that is demonstrated an unacceptable "politicized approach to the investigation."

"We are forced to implement an array of retaliatory measures."

Russian Ambassador to Germany Sergey Nechaev released a similarly-worded statement and expressed his disappointment with Berlin's handling of the situation. He said it will "result in a most negative effect on the Russian-German relationship."

"There is and there has never been any evidence that Russian governmental structures have anything to do with this incident," he said

The victim in the murder investigation, who is identified as Tornike K., was shot in Berlin's Tiergarten Park. German authorities alleged the crime may be tied to officials in the Russian government or in Russia's Chechen Republic.

Moscow effectively lost control of the southern Russian region in the 1990s, which allowed warlords and international terrorists to establish a power base there. A large incursion of jihadists into neighboring Dagestan in 1999 triggered a renewal of hostilities which ended with forces loyal to the Russian government prevailing in Chechnya.

Khangoshvili's reported paramilitary career continued into 2012, when he is said to have assisted a Georgian operation against his former comrades, whom he had lured out of Austria and into Georgian territory. According to Bild, the man survived four assassination attempts before leaving his home country and getting asylum in Germany.
This is just the latest 'evidence free' accusation laid at the feet of Russia:

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Bad Guys

Intelligence indicates 'potential Iranian attack' against US forces in Middle East


Sputnik
Wed, 04 Dec 2019 18:37 UTC
Iranian missiles
© AFP 2019 / STRINGER
Last week, Iranian General Allahnoor Noorollahi announced that Tehran is ready for "the greatest war against the greatest enemy", adding that the Islamic Republic's missile systems are aimed at 21 American military bases in the Middle East.

CNN has cited several US defence and administration officials as saying on Wednesday that "there has been consistent intelligence in the last several weeks" indicating a possible Iranian threat against US forces and interests in the Middle East.

The sources referred to alleged movement of unspecified Iranian troops and weapons that Washington fears "could be put in place for a potential attack, if one is ordered by the Iranian regime."

They did not clarify whether a potential threat emanated from the Iranian government or the country's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The remarks come as Under Secretary of Defence for Policy John Rood said earlier in the day that there are indications that an Iranian "aggression" could take place in the future amid aggravating relations between Tehran and Washington. He declined to elaborate.

Pentagon spokeswoman Rebecca Rebarich told CNN that the Department of Defence continues to "closely monitor the activities of the regime in Iran, its military and its proxies, and we are well postured to defend US forces and interests as needed".
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