Puppet Masters
"I am telling those in the White House that if they do not live up to their commitments, the Iranian government will firmly react," Rohani said in a speech broadcast live on state television on April 24.
Trump has given the deal's European signatories a May 12 deadline to fix what he calls its "terrible flaws," threatening to effectively withdraw the United States by refusing to extend waivers on U.S. sanctions if they do not do so.
In September 2016, Attorney Eitay Mack filed a FOI request on behalf of several Israeli human rights activists to the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry for Strategic Affairs in an attempt to discover their links with possible funding of foreign bodies to combat BDS. To their surprise, it was revealed that the Justice Ministry is directly involved.
Comment: Countering BDS is critical to Israel. Otherwise, how will Ayelet Shaked's goal be realized?
"Behind every terrorist stand dozens of men and women, without whom he could not engage in terrorism. "They are all enemy combatants, and their blood shall be on all their heads. Now this also includes the mothers of the martyrs, who send them to hell with flowers and kisses. They should follow their sons, nothing would be more just. They should go, as should the physical homes in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise, more little snakes will be raised there." -- Uri Elitzur, quoted by Ayelet Shaked
Kogan, a social psychologist and academic, told the fake-news inquiry in his written statement that his "work focuses on wellbeing, kindness, and compassion." He told MPs that in order to study these topics, he and his lab uses a variety of methods "including surveys, behavioral studies, and social media."
The Cambridge academic told the Commons committee that Facebook handed data over to him for research purposes, which eventually inspired a personality quiz app to compliment the dataset handed over by the social media giant.
"We have been told directly that they would like to have the meeting as soon as possible, and we think that's a great thing for the world," Trump told reporters during a meeting with French Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron at the White House. "We're having ... very good discussions. Kim Jong Un, he really has been very open and I think very honorable from everything we're seeing."The comments mark a distinct change in rhetoric from Trump, who referred to Kim as "little rocket man" on Twitter last year.
Comment: Trump's crazy asset is his unpredictability. It keeps him stage center with the ability to upset the balance or become reasonable any time he chooses.
Macron made the comment during a press conference at the White House on Tuesday.
It was a surprising turnaround for Macron, who was expected to use his visit to Washington to push Trump into remaining in the Iran deal, which was signed in 2015.
The deal limits Iran's nuclear program in return for economic sanctions relief. Trump has said the deal "was one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into."
Macron had previously said that ending the Iran deal would be a "grave error" and that it was "essential to peace at a time where the risk of an infernal conflagration cannot be excluded."
Comment: Anyone else think Macron is on a personal power trip and Trump is his ticket? Up until now, JCPOA changes have been a Trump-thumper issue. Macron changes this dynamic.

Israeli troops take part in training in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on April 11, 2018
The Middle East Eye online news service reported on Tuesday that figures compiled by the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) indicating that the arms included components for drones, combat aircraft and helicopters along with spare parts for sniper rifles.
The report has raised fresh concerns that the weapons made by Britain are being used by the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank, amid fears that components in sniper rifles used to kill scores of Palestinian civilians in recent weeks could have been made in the UK.
Comment: See also:
- UK's billions in arms deals to Saudi Arabia make it "utterly complicit in the destruction of Yemen" (VIDEO)
- May denies burying report on Saudi terrorism funding to protect UK arms deals
- War is a racket: Amnesty states that loopholes make United Kingdom a 'hotspot' for illegal international arms trade
The idea was proposed by State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin last week, when the parliament discussed legislation to counter the latest round of anti-Russian sanctions introduced by the United States. Volodin suggested imposing some responsibility on people who comply with various foreign restrictions while acting in Russian territory. Notably, he did not rule out introducing criminal responsibility for acting in line with US sanctions.
On Tuesday, deputy head of the majority caucus United Russia, Andrey Isayev, told reporters that the proposal would be drafted, considered and most likely passed by the parliament before July 29, in the course of the current spring session.

Undated file photo of S-300 air defense missiles launched at Ashuluk shooting range in southern Russia
Since the massive strike which involved the US, UK, and France launching over 100 cruise missiles, Russia is rumored to be moving forward on delivery of its advanced S-300 missile defense system, which would be a monumental upgrade allowing Syrian defenses to far surpass current capabilities which utilize the Soviet-made S-125 and S-200 air defense systems.
Crucially, S-300s have a range of up to 150-200 kilometers (or 120 miles), bringing Syrian deterrent reach easily to within Lebanese airspace (as Israel has routinely struck targets inside Syria while firing over "neutral" Lebanese airspace in recent years), and could even extend airspace coverage into Israel itself.
Could this be the reason for some major behind-the-scenes diplomatic scrambling?
Comment: The Israeli Minister of Defense Avigdor Lieberman told Ynet News on Tuesday that if Syria uses any Russian missiles against the Israeli military, they will act.
"What's important to us is that the defensive weapons the Russians are giving Syria won't be used against us," Lieberman stated.By the way, Al-Manar TV network has reported that a new American military column, including several vehicles, arrived in Hasaka city and later moved toward the town of al-Shadadi in southern Hasaka.
"If they're used against us, we'll act against them," he added.
Lieberman's comments were made in response to a question about Syria acquiring the Russian-manufactured S-300 system.
The network quoted field sources as reporting that the US convoy of armored vehicles moved towards al-Shadadi from a military base north of Khabour Dam.
Al-Manar further said that three military vehicles under French flags entered a Kurdish militia base in al-Aliyeh silos region south of the town of Ra'as al-Ein in northwestern Hasaka.
The objectives of the bombing
According to the Western version of the story, these bombing attacks were not aimed at overthrowing the Syrian Arab Republic (which they call « Bachar's régime »), but to sanction the use of chemical weapons.
However, no proof of the use of such weapons has been published. Instead, the three allies each broadcast evaluations based on the original video published by the White Helmets [1] - a video which was itself later contradicted by many of the people who appear in it, as well as the personnel of the hospital where it was filmed [2].
On the contrary, we are justified in asking whether the real objective of these raids may indeed have been to overthrow the Republic. This seems to be confirmed by the fact that missiles were fired at the Presidential palace in Damascus. This is also the interpretation by Russia, for whom the real Allied objective was to counter the « success of the Syrian armed forces in the fight to liberate their territory from international terrorism ».
Comment: Which is the main thing we learned from this event, whatever about 'EW weapons'.
It's one thing to speculate, but another to present speculation as fact.
See also Joe Quinn's About Those 'Nice, New, Smart' Missiles And The 'Chemical Weapons' Sites in Syria.
"We have a very good chance of making a deal," Trump said at a press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday. He added the US is now in trade talks with the European Union, and also discussing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada.
The trip to China will be the first for Steven Mnuchin as treasury secretary. Notably, his predecessors went to China in their first months in office.
Comment: Taking China head on in a trade war would be a bad idea. The US economy is in a fragile state. It would take very little to tip it over the edge.
- China warns Trump's trade war will have detrimental effects on US consumers and financial markets
- America has more to lose in trade war with China, says Wahaha boss
- China has weapons aplenty to prevail in US trade war
- China media says US sitting on debt bomb
- So just how much of the U.S. does China own?













Comment: See also: