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Italy is linking up with China's Eurasian megaproject, and there's nothing Washington can do to stop it

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
Sun, 10 Mar 2019 13:24 UTC
All roads seem to lead to Rome as Italy expresses its love for China's Belt and Road Initiative
colosseum
© AFP
Chinese tourists just can’t get enough of Venice, Florence, Rome – and shopping in Milan.
President Xi Jinping is due to arrive in Italy for an official visit on March 22. The top theme of discussion will be the New Silk Road, or the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

A day earlier, in Brussels, the EU is to debate a common strategy related to Chinese investments in Europe.


Comment: This, no doubt, was scheduled in response to the bilateral Italy-China summit.


A substantial part of the EU is already linked de facto with BRI. That includes Greece, Portugal, 11 EU nations belonging to the 16+1 group of China plus Central and Eastern Europe and, for all practical purposes, Italy.
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Snakes in Suits

Trump regime's electricity war in Venezuela more serious than first believed

Stephen Lendman
stephenlendman.org
Mon, 11 Mar 2019 13:00 UTC
venezuela dam
On Thursday, Venezuela's Guri dam hydroelectric power plant was cyberattacked at 5:00 PM during the late afternoon rush hour to cause maximum disruption.

Up to 80% of the country was affected, damage done more severe than initially thought. Weeks or months of planning likely preceded what happened - US dark forces almost certainly behind it, considerable expertise needed to pull it off.

On Friday, another cyberattack occurred, followed by a third one on Saturday, affecting parts of the country where power was restored, further complicating resolution of the problem, Maduro saying:

After power was restored to about 70% of the country, "we received another attack, of a cybernetic nature, at midday...that disturbed the reconnection process and knocked out everything that had been achieved until noon," adding:

Comment: According to RT 2 perpetrators of Venezuelan power grid 'sabotage' captured:
Authorities reportedly apprehended the two "material" perpetrators of the vandalism in the midst of interfering with the dam's communications systems on Monday, averting a serious catastrophe, and have turned them over to the courts. They are now looking for the "intellectual authors" of the sabotage, and Maduro has blamed the US for the sustained technological attack on Venezuela's electrical system, which began last week.
This cyber warfare on Iran and now Venezuela make the West's accusations of possible cyber attacks all the more prescient - as usual they were projecting their own nefarious plans on others.

See also: And check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: US Regime Change Operation in Venezuela - This Time It's Legit?





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Hammer

2 perpetrators of Venezuelan power grid 'sabotage' captured, according to authorities


RT
Tue, 12 Mar 2019 10:37 UTC
burnt electrical substation
© Reuters / Carlos Jasso
A resident looks at a burnt electrical substation after a massive blackout in Caracas, Venezuela
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has said two would-be saboteurs have been caught "in flagrante delicto" trying to take down the communications system of the Guri hydroelectric dam. Investigation into who sent them is underway.

Authorities reportedly apprehended the two "material" perpetrators of the vandalism in the midst of interfering with the dam's communications systems on Monday, averting a serious catastrophe, and have turned them over to the courts. They are now looking for the "intellectual authors" of the sabotage, and Maduro has blamed the US for the sustained technological attack on Venezuela's electrical system, which began last week.

After a failure at the Guri dam left much of the country in the dark on Thursday night, authorities worked round the clock to fix the problem, managing to restore nearly 70 percent of the electrical system before a cyberattack knocked it out again on Saturday afternoon, Maduro said, adding that one of the generators had been working perfectly and could only have been sabotaged by an infiltrator. The Guri hydroelectric plant produces 80 percent of Venezuela's power.

Comment: See also:

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Quenelle

Afghan diplomat slams Erik Prince, says Afghanis 'don't need missionaries of death'


MENAFN
Tue, 12 Mar 2019 10:19 UTC
Erik Prince

Blackwater founder Erik Prince
Erik Prince, the founder and former CEO of Blackwater, has a plan to privatise the war in Afghanistan, but he faced harsh criticism from an Afghan diplomat who was audience at the Oxford Union in London.

Countering Erike Prince's proposal on privatization on war in Afghanistan through mercenaries of death, Naveed Noormal an Afghan diplomat said the world must know that this is for us (Afghans) to decide our future.

'How do you justify that you the mercenaries of death will ever want the war to concluded given you make money out of it,' the youngest Afghan diplomat said, while hard for Prince to answer it.
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Star of David

Psy-Group: Meet the ex-Mossad agents harassing US students & BDS activists

Kristian Davis Bailey
Electronic Intifada
Tue, 12 Mar 2019 10:20 UTC
Boycott Divest Sanction BDS Palestine protest
© Joe Catron
Congress is failing to protect US citizens from espionage and threats aimed at intimidating supporters of Palestinian rights.
In September 2017, Palestine Legal attorneys received nearly 30 emails from students, teachers and even librarians who were justifiably concerned about an anonymous message they had received.

The emails contained threats from outlawbds.com that recipients had been "marked" and "identified as a BDS promoter" and had a "limited window of opportunity to cease and desist or face the consequences of your actions in legal proceedings."

The origin of the attack was a mystery.

Thanks to February exposés in The New Yorker, however, we now know the origin - Psy-Group, a defunct Israeli private intelligence firm.
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Pirates

Sore losers: US sanctions against Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline "under consideration"


RT
Mon, 11 Mar 2019 22:16 UTC
gas pipeline
© Reuters / Axel Schmidt
The US may slap sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which will supply Russian gas to Germany via the Baltic Sea, US energy secretary Rick Perry confirmed. The project has driven a wedge between Washington and Berlin.

Asked by reporters on Monday if sanctions were possible, Perry said this was "still under consideration" and that Nord Stream 2 is a "political pipeline" that Washington does not support.

The Trump administration has been pushing Germany to abandon the project in favor of buying more expensive US liquefied natural gas (LNG) and says it is worried about Europe becoming too "dependent" on Russian energy.

Comment: The US can 'lash out' all it likes, Russian gas is cheaper and much more reliable making it the obvious choice for Europe. And the next step is the Turkish Stream, how vast a swathe of Europe does the US think it can sanction before it no longer has anyone to do business with? Also check out SOTT radio's:

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Arrow Down

Rumours May will postpone Brexit vote till day of EU Parliamentary elections, yet 'legally binding' changes agreed

Martin Williams
The Herald
Tue, 12 Mar 2019 09:30 UTC
Theresa May

May: Becoming a bit player.
LEGALLY binding changes that could finally allow Britain to agree a Brexit deal emerged last night.

Cabinet Office minister David Lidington says legally binding changes that strengthen and improve the withdrawal agreement have been secured.

"Tonight we will be laying two new documents to the House - a joint legally binding instrument on the withdrawal agreement and a joint statement to supplement the political declaration," he said.

He says the documents provide "confirmation that the EU cannot trap the UK in the backstop indefinitely."

It comes after Theresa May set off to Strasbourg for last-minute Brexit talks with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and was preparing to make a late night statement.

Comment: Postponing an important vote till an equally important and busy news day sounds like a scheme to distract from Brexit's next ridiculous plot twist: And check out SOTT radio's:

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Megaphone

After weeks of protests, Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika announces he will not seek a fifth term

Alison Tahmizian Meuse
Asia Times
Tue, 12 Mar 2019 08:57 UTC
Abdelaziz Bouteflika
© Ryad Kramdi/ / AFP
In this file photo taken on November 23, 2017, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is seen voting at a polling station in the capital Algiers. Bouteflika announced on Monday his withdrawal from a bid to win another term in office and postponed an April 18 election, following weeks of protests against his candidacy.
The military establishment of the oil-rich North African nation of Algeria emerged with its influence intact on Monday night, sacrificing the ailing 82-year-old president to quell weeks of street protests.

The wheelchair-bound Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who has not addressed the 42-million strong public in five years, will not run for a fifth term in office, an official statement proclaimed.

In coordination with the orchestrated bow, the Algerian prime minister resigned and Interior Minister Noureddine Bedoui was named in his place - a regime stalwart tasked with forming a new cabinet to oversee a managed transition.

Elections scheduled for April 18 have been postponed indefinitely, during which time the military is expected to ordain a candidate of its choice.

Comment: French president Macron, who is currently in Djibouti, today approved the decision, calling for a "transition of reasonable duration."

Who will say likewise to him?

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Cult

US government no longer excludes MEK as a leadership option for Iran, post regime change

Barbara Slavin
Al Monitor
Wed, 06 Mar 2019 00:00 UTC
Giuliani
© Reuters/Regis Duvignau
Stooge: Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York City, delivers his umpteenth speech to an MEK coven in Paris, France, June 30, 2018.
US administration talking points no longer exclude the Mujaheddin-e Khalq (MEK) as a potential replacement for the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Al-Monitor has learned.

Removed from a State Department list of terrorist organizations in 2012 after an expensive lobbying campaign, the MEK is understood to be widely reviled inside Iran as a leftist Islamist cult that sided with Saddam Hussein during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. The group advocates the overthrow of the Iranian government and the elevation of Maryam Rajavi, the wife of MEK founder Massoud Rajavi, as the new leader. She lives in exile outside Paris.

Top officials close to the Donald Trump administration - including national security adviser John Bolton and Rudolph Giuliani, the president's personal lawyer - have taken tens of thousands of dollars in fees from the MEK and its front organizations over the years to speak before rallies that promote Maryam Rajavi's leadership ambitions. Just last month, Giuliani told a pro-MEK rally in Warsaw, Poland, on the sidelines of a US-organized Middle East conference that Iran's leaders are "assassins" and "murderers" who should be overthrown and then replaced by Rajavi.


Comment: MEK is also known as: PMOI, MKO, NCRI, Muslim Iranian Students Society, Organization of the People's Holy Warriors of Iran, the National Liberation Army and Sazeman-e Mujahideen-e Khalq Iran. Why so many names? Because it has spent the last 4 decades dodging court battles in Western capitals.


Comment: Any hint of US consideration to supplant Iran's leadership with a globally-recognized terrorist organization should be alarming, if not surprising. Apparently MEK's self-admitted track record of at least 12K Iranian deaths from terrorist attacks, utilization by Israel to assassinate nuclear scientists in Iran, its decades-long practice of buying US politicians, and past involvement in Saddam Hussein's botched attempt to destabilize the Tehran government -- are just some of the qualities that appeal to a neocon Washington in quest of outsourcing conflict and regime change.

See also:

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Quenelle

Michael Caputo: Dems asking for my testimony in Trump investigation - but I have nothing to say or give them

Michael Caputo
Fox News
Wed, 06 Mar 2019 00:33 UTC
Michael Caputo

Michael Caputo
Michael Caputo on Jerrold Nadler asking for documents

I got a text from a reporter Monday telling me I am on the list of 81 associates of President Trump receiving document production requests from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y. That was news to me.

I didn't receive the letter from the newly installed Democratic leader of the most powerful committee in the House of Representatives. I got it from a reporter. My attorney also didn't get the letter from Nadler - I had to send him the letter the reporter gave me.

This inauspicious beginning signaled the start of yet another bogus Russia investigation, this time by the new Democratic majority in the House.

After directing broadcast media coverage for seven House committees, I know the signs of a sideshow - and delivering demand letters to reporters before they go to the person being asked to produce documents is one of the chief signs.

Comment: American Lookout adds:
Scott Adams is sticking up for him:

You can't blame Caputo for fighting this. The legal battle has already cost him a fortune.

The Hill reported in May of last year:
Ex-Trump aide decries Senate Russia probe over high legal bills: report

Michael Caputo, a former communications adviser to President Trump's campaign, blasted the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, saying that its Russia probe has him racking up high legal bills.

"Your investigation and others into the allegations of Trump campaign collusion with Russia are costing my family a great deal of money - more than $125,000 - and making a visceral impact on my children," Caputo told the committee in a prepared statement read during a closed-door interview.
Good for him for standing up now.


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