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Havana slams Trump for permitting lawsuits against Cuban firms as an 'arbitrary and unacceptable threat'


RT
Tue, 05 Mar 2019 04:44 UTC
Trump CubaUSflags
© Express News
US President Donald Trump
US President Donald Trump, seemingly punishing Havana for supporting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, has tightened the trade embargo in a way that would open [a] way for Americans to sue government-linked Cuban companies.

The measure takes the unprecedented step of permitting lawsuits against Cuban companies using properties confiscated after Fidel Castro took power in 1959, though it limits such suits to about 200 businesses and government agencies that are already subject to "enhanced" sanctions due to their close ties with the Cuban government.

"I strongly reject the State Department's announcement to authorize lawsuits under Title III of the Helms-Burton act, against a list of Cuban companies arbitrarily sanctioned by the Trump administration," Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez tweeted, calling the beefed-up sanctions an "unacceptable threat against the world."

The move activates part of a 1996 Helms-Burton Act, which if fully unleashed could potentially trigger a barrage of international lawsuits - against the US, by allies who aren't interested in curtailing their business ventures in Cuba in order to conform to an embargo even Trump's predecessor saw as a Cold War relic. The Helms-Burton Act was designed to "pressure" Cuba into "peaceful democratic change" - a contradiction not unlike the sanctions recently passed against sanction-choked Venezuela.

Comment: More from NBC News, 3/4/2019:
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a 30-day "partial waiver" to a law known as the Libertad or Helms-Burton Act, allowing U.S. citizens to bring lawsuits in U.S. federal court against about 200 Cuban entities on a "restricted list" that have been subject to U.S. sanctions. The list includes entities under the control of Cuban military intelligence or security forces, but foreign companies invested in the island will be protected against such suits - at least for now.

According to research from the U.S. Cuba Trade & Economic Council, a nonprofit that promotes trade with Cuba, companies in 20 countries could face lawsuits from owners who have certified claims to confiscated property. The list includes numerous U.S. and European airlines and cruise lines, and major hotel chains such as Spain's NH Hotel Group and Melia Hotels International. There are also concerns that both the major port in Havana and the international airport are built at least partially on land owned before the revolution by Cubans who later emigrated to the U.S.

Exempting companies in the U.S. and allied countries will help prevent a backlash from companies like Marriott International, which has started expanding into Cuba since the two countries restored relations under President Barack Obama. It could also avert a new tension point with Europe, where countries are still bristling from the Trump administration's threats to sanction companies that maintain business in Iran.

Pompeo told the U.N. Security Council in January. "Let's be crystal clear: The foreign power meddling in Venezuela today is Cuba." Cuba has adamantly denied that claim, with Rodriguez, the foreign minister, challenging the United States to provide proof. He said the roughly 20,000 Cubans in Venezuela are all civilians.


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X

Iranian FM: Israel's habitual lying is psychological warfare; Iran-Russia ties are strong

Joaquin Flores
FRN
Tue, 05 Mar 2019 00:00 UTC
Bahram Qassemi
© Pars Today
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, Bahram Ghasemi, explained to reporters that media reports which tout the line that Israel is working with Russia to withdraw Iranian forces from Syria, are false. Some of these reports even find their way into Russian state-run media outlets such as RT and Sputnik, raising questions about the effectiveness or aims of its possibly unchecked or unsupervised news-writers, critics of Israeli media efforts have noted.

"Iran's ties with Moscow are strong and we are always in touch and consult with each other," the ministry spokesman told reporters in Tehran, who disregarded the suggestions that Russia was working against Syria's sovereign right to have Iranian military and strategic assistance in its war against U.S-Israeli sponsored terrorism.

On a visit last week to Moscow where he met Russian President Vladimir Putin, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed the Jewish state would "not allow the military entrenchment of Iran in Syria".

Comment: See also:

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Light Sabers

'Vile anti-Semitic' Ilhan Omar row shows pitfalls of US identity politics


RT
Wed, 06 Mar 2019 20:17 UTC
Benjamin Netanyahu
© Global Look Press / Ron Sachs
In a story that perfectly illustrates the perils of runaway identity politics, the historic-first congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) is facing a rebuke in the House over "anti-Semitic" comments about the Israel lobby.

The Democrat-majority House is expected to vote Wednesday on a resolution condemning anti-Semitism. It is unknown as of yet if it will specifically name Omar, but there is little doubt it is aimed squarely at her recent comments, which Republicans and many fellow Democrats have denounced as unacceptably anti-Jewish.

Omar's sin, so to speak, was to "talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK to push for allegiance to a foreign country," as she put it, speaking at an event in Washington, DC, last Wednesday.

Just two weeks prior, Omar came under fire for criticizing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and its influence on US politics. She apologized following some outrage, but her apology was deemed not apologetic enough. While Democrats have called out Republicans for racism and Islamophobia over their attacks on Omar, that has done little to resolve the Israel controversy within the party.
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Footprints

'Cold feet': Christopher Steele backs out of rare public appearance

Chuck Ross
The Daily Caller
Mon, 04 Mar 2019 03:27 UTC
Christopher Steele
© PA images via Getty Images
Christopher Steele
Former British spy Christopher Steele is backing out of a public appearance before a pro-democracy group, a move which comes in the wake of congressional testimony that undercuts some of the core allegations that the former British spy makes in his infamous anti-Trump dossier.

According to Politico, Steele was scheduled to speak by video at an event hosted next week by the Renew Democracy Initiative, a pro-democracy group founded by chess master Garry Kasparov. But the former MI6 officer cancelled the appearance after getting "cold feet," according to Anne Applebaum, a Washington Post columnist who is moderating the panel on which Steele was to appear.

The event would have been Steele's first public remarks in nearly two years, since just after BuzzFeed News published the dossier.

Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen undercut one of dossier's most serious allegations during testimony last Wednesday before the House Oversight and Reform Committee. Cohen denied, under oath, that he has visited Prague or the Czech Republic. Steele alleged that Cohen visited Prague in August 2016 to meet with Kremlin officials to arrange secret payments to hackers who stole emails from the DNC and Clinton campaign.

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Dig

Syria: Russian DM finds 300 fresh graves near Rukban refugee camp


Sputnik
Tue, 05 Mar 2019 19:45 UTC
Rukban camp
© AP/Raad Adayleh
Rukban refugee camp
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that the satellite images had shown 300 fresh graves near the fence of the Rukban refugee camp located on the Syrian territory controlled by the United States.

According to the ministry, the camp is surrounded by a ditch and a fence with the US-controlled militants refusing to let refugees leave the facility.

"In fact, the camp has long time ago lost its status turning into a reservation with forcibly kept hostages. A cemetery with 300 fresh graves is found at the southern side at the fence of the camp," the ministry's statement said.

Comment: See also:

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Boat

France: Its only aircraft carrier sets sail for the Mediterranean 'to fight ISIS'


RT
Tue, 05 Mar 2019 16:52 UTC
French flagship
© AFP/Christophe Simon
French Navy's flagship carrier Charles de Gaulle sails out of the port of Toulon, March 5, 2019.
France's nuclear aircraft carrier, Charles de Gaulle, has been dispatched on a lengthy mission, following repairs. It is set to battle remnants of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) and partake in several multinational drills.

The aircraft carrier departed for the eastern Mediterranean on Tuesday from the southern French port city of Toulon. The flagship is accompanied by several other surface vessels and a nuclear attack submarine.

The first deployment of the ship, after 18 months of repairs, and five of sea trials, was marked quite pompously, with French Defense Minister Florence Parly appearing on the carrier in person to say farewell to its crew.

The minister lauded the carrier as an "instrument for cooperation, which allows France to shine throughout the world" and insisted that the deployment will make a valuable contribution to the fight against IS.

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Bad Guys

Former Adviser to Venezuelan President Chavez: 'There's no way to save Maduro'


Sputnik
Wed, 06 Mar 2019 17:05 UTC
maduro
© AFP 2018 / HO / Venezuelan Presidency
Venezuela's self-proclaimed interim president, Juan Guaido, returned to the country on Monday and successfully passed immigration control at Caracas Airport, despite fears he might be arrested after flouting a travel ban imposed by the nation's Supreme Court.

After his arrival, Guaido greeted crowds at an opposition rally and called on his supporters to take to the streets for more protests on Saturday.

Sputnik has discussed the situation in Venezuela with Professor Heinz Dieterich, an adviser to the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, who now manages a research centre at the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana in Mexico City.

Sputnik: The economic crisis that's continuing in Venezuela started in the last century under the former leader Hugo Chavez. In your view has the situation spiralled now even more so under President Maduro?

Heinz Dieterich: Maduro inherited an economic and political model that was already in crisis in the last years of President Chavez's government and that was due to the 2008 world financial economic capitalist crisis which brought down the oil price and the whole model of Hugo Chavez had been based on the foreign income of the high oil price plateau, and that was enough to satisfy the Venezuelan bourgeoisie and the masses and also the US transnational corporations who were omitted from in the oil exploitation.

Comment: See also: And check out SOTT radio's:

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Star of David

Why violence is fundamental to Israel's 'democracy' and always has been

Ray Hanania
Middle East Monitor
Fri, 01 Mar 2019 20:11 UTC
israel palestine conflict
Israeli soldiers hiding behind bunkers and using long-range sniper rifles have intentionally murdered 35 children, paramedics, journalists and disabled people during its ongoing assault against Palestinian civilian protesters along the Gaza border, a report released by the United Nations concluded this week. The UN Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) said that Israeli soldiers violated international human rights and humanitarian laws in killing 189 Palestinians and wounding more than 6,100 in weekly Friday protests since they began on 30 March, 2018. According to Palestinian sources in Gaza, those figures are very conservative.

In the 25-page report, UN officials said that the killings "may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity" and urged that the evidence should be submitted formally to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for prosecution.

Rather than addressing the contents of the report, Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, responded in their usual way when confronted with overwhelming evidence of the mass murder of women, children and innocent civilians: they accused the UN of "anti-Semitism", bias and hypocrisy. This is nothing new. The Israelis have been obfuscating and denying mass murder allegations since the ethnic cleansing and destruction of at least 400 Palestinian towns and villages during the "war of independence" between 1946 and 1949.
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Eye 2

New website reveals extent of secret CIA flight network


RT
Wed, 29 May 2013 19:40 UTC
cia rendition flights
A team of academics have launched the world's largest interactive database detailing suspected CIA rendition flights, many of which may have transported detainees to Guantanamo Bay.

Scotland is the only country so far which has raised any questions on the alleged rendition activity on home soil.

The Rendition Project is a product of a collaborative research between Dr. Ruth Blakely from the University of Kent and Dr. Sam Raphael from Kingston University, London.

Now anyone with an internet connection can understand, view, and track over 11,000 CIA flights detainees may have been aboard between 2001 and 2006 under the US rendition program, a murky operation of secret detention and torture.

"Our purpose is to shed as much light as possible on this system," Blakely told RT.
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Target

Arab League's insulting statement regarding Turkey is a symptom of desperation leading to foolishness

Adam Garrie
Eurasia Future
Mon, 25 Feb 2019 00:00 UTC
Star/Arab
© shiitenews.org/KJN
The Arab League has long been described by ordinary Arabs themselves as an impotent, useless and even shamefully discredited institution. Originally formed in 1945 to bolster economic and diplomatic cooperation throughout the vast Arab world, today it has been reduced to a shell of its former self. Against this background, Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit issued a statement which sought to scapegoat non-Arab powers as a means of excusing the Arab League's own failings. Ahmed Aboul Gheit stated:
"We [together with the European Union] are sharing concerns over the ongoing military conflicts in Yemen, Libya and Syria as well as foreign interference in them, both Iranian and Turkish ones".
While the Arab League's statements about Iran have been commonplace since the 1980s, blaming Turkey for the failures of the League and of governance in the Arab world more widely, is symptomatic of a newer phenomenon. The problem that Arab leaders have with Turkey is not that Ankara seeks to reconstitute the territory in the Arab world that was once peacefully integrated into the Ottoman Empire. The problem is that while Turkey's government appears to be capable, worldly, professional and while Turkey's president is an articulate supporter of Palestine, the same cannot be said of just about any Arab government.

Comment: Israel sees the Arab League as vulnerable, thus ripe for manipulation to its advantage. As always, underlying motives drive Israel's relationships with other nations. Forging an alliance of multiple nations against Turkey would greatly increase the odds of igniting a regional conflict and serve Israel's interests.

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