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Snakes in Suits

Docs reveal FBI allowed British spy's false intel to guide bureau's operation against Trump

Sara Carter
SaraACarter
Thu, 09 May 2019 18:58 UTC
chistopher steele

Christopher Steele
This week, we learned that FBI informant and former British Spy Christopher Steele planned to release his unverified dossier on Trump before Election Day.

The dossier served as the backbone of the Trump ousting operation and was the bulk of evidence for the FBI to gain a FISA on short-lived Trump campaign volunteer Carter Page.

According to a memo obtained by Citizens United, Steele confessed in a meeting with Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kathleen Kavalec that his dossier was in fact political and he was planning on releasing before the November presidential elections. The meeting with Kavalec took place on Oct. 11, 2016 and it was during that meeting that Steele revealed his intentions. She documented the meeting and the discussion in her notes.

The evidence sheds light on the FBI's knowledge of what Steele's intentions were when he compiled the dossier in the summer of 2016. Not only did they know his intentions but they ignored the fact that a good bulk of what he shared with the U.S. government was flat out wrong.

Most of the information contained in the dossier has been proven false. It appears Steele's sources, most of whom were former and current Russian spies, gave him disinformation to tarnish the Trump campaign and create chaos in U.S.

Comment: John Solomon's full article: FBI's Steele story falls apart: False intel and media contacts were flagged before FISA

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Bulb

Facebook co-founder calls for break up of company because Zuckerberg has 'unilateral control of speech'

Lauren Feiner
CNBC
Thu, 09 May 2019 18:46 UTC
Hughes facebook
Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes issued a forceful call for regulators to break up the company he helped build in a New York Times op-ed published Thursday.

Hughes, who left Facebook to work for Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, said that from his own experience building and working inside the company, Facebook now has more power than a private sector entity is due. While emphasizing his belief that CEO Mark Zuckerberg has good intentions overall, he said the executive has far too much unchecked power, aided by his majority voting stake in the company.

"The most problematic aspect of Facebook's power is Mark's unilateral control over speech," Hughes wrote. "There is no precedent for his ability to monitor, organize and even censor the conversations of two billion people."

Comment: Facebook has become an ugly player in its censorship and control over what people choose to share with their networks. So ugly, that most people will naturally welcome new regulations. If we go by historical precdent, legislators will create regulations that are not favorable to its citizens. The control of information is the greatest battle being fought on the planet, and it would be a mistake to think the coming regulations will finally do even a little good.

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Snakes in Suits

Who were the hired guns working on Mueller's 'report'? The same ones who spun the #Russiagate lies

Paul Sperry
Real Clear Investigations
Thu, 09 May 2019 20:14 UTC
Mueller report redactions
© Associated Press/Jon Elswicck
Special Counsel Robert Mueller spent more than $732,000 on outside contractors, including private investigators and researchers, records show, but his office refuses to say who they were. While it's not unusual for special government offices to outsource for services such as computer support, Mueller also hired contractors to compile "investigative reports" and other "information."

The arrangement has led congressional investigators, government watchdog groups and others to speculate that the private investigators and researchers who worked for the special counsel's office might have included Christopher Steele and Fusion GPS, the private research firm that hired Steele to produce the Russia collusion dossier for the Clinton campaign.

They suspect the dossier creators may have been involved in Mueller's operation - and even had a hand in his final report - because the special counsel sent his team to London to meet with Steele within a few months of taking over the Russia collusion investigation in 2017. Also, Mueller's lead prosecutor, Andrew Weissmann, had shared information he received from Fusion with the media.

Comment: A fine roundup of the slimy swamp critters who shaped the Mueller Dossier. AG Barr will have a wealth a material to work with.

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Bullseye

'US has bullied Europe for a year': Iran's FM calls on EU to step up over nuclear deal


RT
Thu, 09 May 2019 16:18 UTC
iran
© File photo Reuters / Morteza Nikoubazl
Iran's foreign minister has issued a scathing response to the EU's joint statement on the crumbling nuclear pact, saying the bloc has been bullied by the US "for a year" and needs to uphold its obligations under the deal.

Earlier Thursday, the EU and Foreign Ministers of France, Germany, and the UK issued a joint statement reaffirming their collective commitment to the Iran deal while also strongly hinting that US intrusion on Iran is unwelcome.

That statement came a day after Tehran announced it would suspend some of its commitments under the 2015 deal, a year after the US pulled out of the agreement. Other signatories to the deal have 60 days to negotiate with Iran over its concerns, including that the European members of the deal haven't done enough to uphold their own end of the deal and protect Iran from US sanctions.

Comment: The EU will likely cave in the face of US-Israeli pressure, but Russia and China will not, which is why the US has had to resort to its old dirty tricks with the recent announcement it's sending more warships and bombers into the Middle East, in feeble attempt to try to get its way: Mossad sez Iran threatening to attack US military targets 'somewhere in Middle East', so Pentagon sends over more aircraft carriers and bombers

See also:

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No Entry

US Secret Service is blocking food from reaching activists inside Venezuelan Embassy

Alexander Rubinstein
MintPress News
Mon, 06 May 2019 00:00 UTC
Venezuelan Embassy guards
© Alexander Rubinstein | MintPress News
U.S. Secret Service officers stand guard outside the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, D.C.
Since April 30, the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington has been under siege by pro-coup activists who have repeatedly stated their intention to prevent the access of food to the people inside, who are living there at the invitation of the elected government of Venezuela. The U.S. Secret Service is outsourcing its desires to remove the Embassy Protection Collective to the violent and bigoted protesters.

The Secret Service has said that it will not prevent those in the building from accessing food or supplies, but on Monday morning that proved to be a lie. Instead of merely abetting the opposition's war of attrition, the Secret Service now serves as a second line of defense against the delivery of food, having now denied its entry themselves. Embassy protectors say it is a violation of their human rights.

The Embassy Protection Collective is holding down the embassy in order to prevent the United States from violating international law, as it seeks to hand over the Maduro government's diplomatic location to the illegitimate shadow government of Juan Guaidó, which is unable to provide to Venezuelans in the U.S. diplomatic services such as the issuance of visas or passports because it holds no tangible power in the country.

Comment: The US is literally starving people who take a stand for justice and arresting those who express their convictions for why it matters. This blockade is just another form of sanctions and isolation in miniature to what the US is inflicting upon the people and legitimate government of Venezuela.

See also:

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Blue Planet

Acting US Sec Def: US Aircraft carrier deploys to ME, US to hold Iran to account for unspecified threats


RFE/RL
Mon, 06 May 2019 02:43 UTC
Shanahan
© AFP
Acting US Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan
The acting U.S. defense chief has vowed to hold Iran "accountable for any attack on U.S. forces or our interests," as Washington stepped up its rhetoric and said it was deploying an aircraft carrier battle group to waters near Iran.

In a post to Twitter on May 6, Patrick Shanahan, the acting secretary of defense, also accused Tehran of unspecified provocations. "We call on the Iranian regime to cease all provocation. We will hold the Iranian regime accountable for any attack on U.S. forces or our interests," he wrote.
Shanahan's comments came a day after White House national-security adviser John Bolton said that the deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln, and accompanying ships, along with a bomber task force, was intended to send Iran "a clear and unmistakable message."

He said the United States is "not seeking war with the Iranian regime" but that it is "fully prepared to respond to any attack, whether by proxy, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, or regular Iranian forces."

The deployment of the carrier and bomber groups sends "a clear and unmistakable message to the Iranian regime that any attack on United States interests or on those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force," Bolton said in a May 5 press briefing.

Comment: Trump is either unwilling or unable to curb his war dogs. Meanwhile, the Pentagon has no problem finding ways to utilize its bulging budget allowance. At what point does extreme rhetoric and unbridled provocation turn a corner and become the war from hell? It seems restraint is solely dependent upon 'the enemy.'

See also:

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Heart - Black

New book claims Obama told family Trump's victory a result of Hillary's 'scripted, soulless campaign'

Daniel Bates
Daily Mail
Thu, 02 May 2019 14:08 UTC
ObamaClinton
© AP
To Obama and his team, however, the real blame lay squarely with Clinton. 'She was the one who could not translate his strong record and healthy economy into a winning message.'
Barack Obama admitted 'this stings' after the 2016 election result and spent the night watching the movie Dr Strange to try and distract himself, a new book claims.

The former president went from being confident that Hillary Clinton would beat Donald Trump to seeing it as a 'personal insult' that she lost. Obama could not believe the American people had 'turned on him' for a man he had written off as a 'cartoon'.

As the dust settled Obama told his family that 'this hurts' and blamed Clinton who 'brought many of her troubles on herself' and ran a 'scripted, soulless campaign'.

The eye-popping details are in the new edition of Obama: The Call Of History by New York Times chief White House correspondent Peter Baker. The book was originally released in July 2017 but has been updated with extensive new reporting throughout Obama's time in office - and the run through of election day is electrifying.


Comment: See also:

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Cross

Pope Francis issues landmark decree making bishops directly accountable for sexual abuse and cover ups

Philip Pullella
Reuters
Thu, 09 May 2019 18:13 UTC
pope francis
Pope Francis issued a landmark decree on Thursday making bishops directly accountable for sexual abuse or covering it up, requiring clerics to report any cases to Church superiors and allowing anyone to complain directly to the Vatican if needed.

Tackling sexual abuses that have battered the Catholic Church's reputation has been a major challenge for Francis since his 2013 election, with victims demanding a crackdown on bishops at the diocese level accused of concealing or mismanaging cases.

The papal change in Church law, covering abuse of children and adults alike, also obliges every diocese worldwide to set up simple, accessible reporting systems within a year and spurs local churches to involve lay experts in investigations.

Although such systems are already in place in some countries including the United States, they are lacking in many others.

Francis's edict obliges the world's one million priests and nuns to report all suspicion of sexual abuse by clerics of any level. Before, it was just a matter of individual conscience as to whether to report cases.

It calls for whistleblower protection, saying bishops with conflicts of interest in cases of cover-up should recuse themselves from investigations and that bishops can also be held accountable for abuse of power in sexual relations with adults.

Comment: A welcome gesture on the part of Pope Francis, but will The Vatican cease its own cover up operations?

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Bizarro Earth

A frustrated Trump questions Bolton's Venezuela strategy

Anne Gearan, Josh Dawsey, John Hudson, Seung Min Kim
Microsoft News
Thu, 09 May 2019 17:53 UTC
bolton
© Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post
National security adviser John Bolton speaks to reporters and members of the media outside the West Wing of the White House. President Trump has said in recent days that Bolton wants to get him “into a war” in Venezuela.
President Trump is questioning his administration's aggressive strategy in Venezuela following the failure of a U.S.-backed effort to oust President Nicolás Maduro, complaining he was misled about how easy it would be to replace the socialist strongman with a young opposition figure, according to administration officials and White House advisers.

The president's dissatisfaction has crystallized around national security adviser John Bolton and what Trump has groused is an interventionist stance at odds with his view that the United States should stay out of foreign quagmires.

Trump has said in recent days that Bolton wants to get him "into a war" - a comment that he has made in jest in the past but that now betrays his more serious concerns, one senior administration official said.

Comment: And from the spin-it-the-best-you-can department:

Cenk Uygur as Deep State puppet: Young Turks host believes Trump's irritation at Bolton proves president is taking orders from Putin

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Attention

Deep State keeping Russiagate witch-hunt alive: Senate Intel Committee subpoenas Trump Jr.

Jonathan Swan, Alayna Treene, David Nather
Axios
Wed, 08 May 2019 00:00 UTC
Donald Trump, Jr.
© Scott Olson/Getty Images
Donald Trump, Jr.
The Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee has subpoenaed Donald Trump Jr. to answer questions about his previous testimony before Senate investigators in relation to the Russia investigation, sources with direct knowledge told Axios.

Why it matters: It's the first congressional subpoena - that we know about - of one of President Trump's children. The subpoena sets up a fight that's unprecedented in the Trump era: A Republican committee chair pit against the Republican president's eldest son.
  • It's also a sign that the Russia investigations in Congress aren't over despite the conclusion of special counsel Robert Mueller's probe and despite Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell saying it's time to move on from the Russia probe.
  • A Senate Intelligence Committee spokesperson told Axios: "We do not discuss the details of witness engagements with the Committee. Throughout the investigation, the Committee has reserved the right to recall witnesses for additional testimony as needed, as every witness and witness counsel has been made aware."
  • "Don and Senate Intel agreed from the very beginning that he would appear once to testify before the committee and would remain for as long as it took to answer all of their questions. He did that. We're not sure why we're fighting with Republicans," a source close to Trump Jr. told Axios.
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