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Iran says "war with Israel has already begun" amid fresh covert attacks


Zerohedge
Sat, 02 Oct 2021 16:00 UTC
Israeli attacks
© Reuters
Prior Israeli attacks inside Syria targeting 'Iranian Assets'
Amid a recent spate of covert espionage attacks on Iranian infrastructure - some publicly known and more that are possibly unknown - Iran's foreign ministry has declared that "war with Israel has already begun".

A foreign ministry spokesmen told the major Israeli national Hebrew-language daily newspaper Maariv that "Israel has carried out attacks that were intended to destroy our nuclear program for peaceful purposes." Saeed Khatibzadeh declared "the war with Israel has already begun" - in an ominous message intended as a warning to the Israeli public and leadership.

The spokesman added that Israel "has murdered nuclear scientists and harmed the Iranian people. Iran is blamed for terrorism, but there is no good or bad terrorist. The entire crisis in the region is the fault of Israel."

Rare or unlikely as it is for a top Iranian official to speak to Israeli publication, it's the closest Tehran has come in years to direct communication with Israeli entities. It's a sign that the two countries are truly on the brink of direct conflict.

"Israel severely harmed our civilian and research system," he described. "They speak about the Iranian nuclear threat, but Israel has hundreds of bombs, and it never signed the non-proliferation treaty for nuclear weapons."
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Vader

Israeli raids have dire effect on mental health of Palestinian children


Palestine Online
Thu, 23 Sep 2021 06:48 UTC
Palestinian arrest
© Ahmad Gharabli/AFP
While the military claimed these raids were for security reasons, the authors of the report by Israeli rights organisations concluded that they were used foremost as a tool for 'creating deterrence and intimidation to increase military control over the population'
Rights groups and medical advocates say that Israeli raids are having a dire effect on the mental health of Palestinian children.

Nidal Rajabe says his children are traumatised and in a permanent state of fear as his family home in Silwan, occupied East Jerusalem has been invaded several times by Israeli security forces.
"My children are unable to sleep at night peacefully, always fearful of the next raid by the police," Rajabe told Al Jazeera.
He said family members had been arrested during the raids, including his 17-year-old son Harby, but he also believes they were designed to intimidate him.

Rajabe is one of more than 1,500 Palestinian residents in Silwan facing the threat of home demolition and forced expulsion.

Israel has claimed that demolition orders are issued to people who built properties without building permits.

Palestinian residents and human rights groups contend that Israel makes it almost impossible for Palestinians to get the required building permits and that this Israeli policy is a deliberate plan to Judaise the eastern sector of the city.

Rajabe's butchery was demolished in July for not having a building permit. His home is also under threat of demolition for the same reason.

Comment: See also:

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Eye 2

The CIA's plan to poison Assange wasn't needed. The US found a 'lawful' way to disappear him

Jonathan Cook
.jonathan-cook.net
Thu, 30 Sep 2021 19:48 UTC
Assange/CIA
© The Intercept
Julian Assange
A Yahoo News' investigation reveals that, through much of 2017, the CIA weighed up whether to use wholly extrajudicial means to deal with the supposed threat posed by Julian Assange and his whistleblowers' platform Wikileaks. The agency plotted either to kidnap or assassinate him.

Shocking as the revelations are - exposing the entirely lawless approach of the main US intelligence agency - the Yahoo investigation nonetheless tends to obscure rather than shine a light on the bigger picture.

Assange has not been deprived of his freedom for more than a decade because of an unimplemented rogue operation by the CIA. Rather, he has been held in various forms of captivity - disappeared - through the collaborations of various national governments and their intelligence agencies, aided by legal systems and the media, that have systematically violated his rights and legal due process.

Comment: The Grayzone's Aaron Mate interviews one of the Yahoo News reporters who broke the story, Michael Isikoff.

What is so strange about the whole situation, is that Isikoff was also one of the champions of the Russian Hacking/Collusion fairytale. Why he is now breaking a story that is at least marginally favorable to Assange's case?
The story builds on previous disclosures including a May 2020 exposé by The Grayzone's Max Blumenthal, which revealed that the CIA was working with Republican mega-donor Sheldon Adelson and the Spanish security firm UC Global to target and surveil Assange in London's Ecuadorian embassy.

Isikoff and Aaron Maté also debate Russia's role in the Assange controversy, particularly the allegation that Russia stole Democratic Party emails in 2016 and gave them to Wikileaks.

Some vintage Isikoff: Bonus material: Assad destroys US reporter Michael Isikoff in interview

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Syringe

Public health or power play?

Mark T. Mitchell
The American Conservative
Fri, 01 Oct 2021 12:01 UTC
vaccine bottles
© M-Foto/Shutterstock
I have not been vaccinated for the Covid-19 virus. I am not anti-vaccination. I have had a variety of vaccines including those to protect against polio, measles, and mumps. When I step on a rusty nail, I am quick to get a tetanus booster. My children have been vaccinated against these things as well. Nevertheless, I hesitate to comply with the emphatic suggestions of various government agencies, and I find myself put off by the mandate issued by a stern, though at times confused, president whose patience, he has informed us, is wearing thin.

Why the hesitation? For one, I've had Covid. By most accounts, natural immunity is at least as effective as a vaccination in protecting against future infections. And while there is uncertainty about how long natural immunity will last, it is significant that in a 2008 study, people who survived the Spanish Flu of 1918 still had antibodies. Thus, I am, or at least should be considered, as good as vaccinated.

This is great news. If the goal is to control the spread of Covid-19, the number we should watch is the sum of those who have been vaccinated and those who have recovered from the virus. Currently, around 181.7 million Americans have been vaccinated against Covid-19, which is roughly 55 percent of the population. Nearly 42 million Americans have had confirmed cases and subsequently recovered. This number is likely far lower than the actual, since we know that many experience mild or no discernible symptoms and therefore develop antibodies without ever being tested. According to the CDC, from February 2020 to May 2021 an estimated 120.2 million Americans were infected with Covid and recovered. Combine these numbers with the fact that we are getting better at treating Covid symptoms, and there is reason to think that we are making serious progress in blunting the effects of this virus.

Thus, it's hard not to smell a rat. I am, of course, not a physician; however, I am a political philosopher who has spent a goodly number of years thinking about the nature of power and the all-too-human proclivity to abuse it. This background primes me to ask certain questions.
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Arrow Up

'It is Sara-Go': Duterte tells Philippine media his daughter will run for president


South China Morning Post
Sun, 03 Oct 2021 06:55 UTC
Duterte and Daughter
© Lionheart TV/KJN
President Rodrigo Duterte and his daughter Davao City mayor Inday Sara Duterte
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's daughter will run for president in next year's election and her father's long-time aide, who filed his vice presidential candidacy, will be her running mate, broadcasting firm ABS-CBN news reported late on Saturday.

Sara Duterte-Carpio is currently mayor of Davao, the third-largest city in the Philippines, and filed on Saturday to run for mayor again. She has previously said she would not run for national office next year.

ABS-CBN news based its report on an interview that the president had with a broadcast journalist on Saturday right after he announced that he was retiring from politics while accompanying his closest loyalist Senator Christopher "Bong" Go to file his vice-presidential candidacy.

He was asked: "So is it clear, Sara-Go?" "It is Sara-Go," Duterte said in response.

When asked to confirm what the president said, Duterte-Carpio's spokeswoman, Mayor Christina Garcia Frasco said:
"The extent of my knowledge is also what was reported in local news. We have no comment on the same."
Go did not immediately respond to a request for comment.


Comment: See also: Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte announces retirement from politics

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Calendar

OPM says vaccine mandate for federal workers can be enforced next month

Joseph Choi
The Hill
Sun, 03 Oct 2021 08:02 UTC
OPM logo
© tripwire.com
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) said in a memo issued Friday that President Biden's vaccine mandate for federal employees can be enforced beginning on Nov. 9 for employees who have not yet been inoculated.

In the memo from Director Kiran Ahuja, OPM advised against waiting to the last minute to get vaccinated as
"other events often interfere with even well-laid plans. Employees who refuse to be vaccinated or provide proof of vaccination are subject to disciplinary measures, up to and including removal or termination from Federal service. The only exception is for individuals who receive a legally required exception pursuant to established agency processes."
Federal agencies were advised to require their employees to get fully vaccinated by Nov. 22, with their second dose of a vaccine to be received "no later than November 8." The Nov. 8 deadline also applies to getting a dose of Johnson & Johnson's one-dose COVID-19 vaccine. Ahuja added:
"Given this timeline, agencies may initiate the enforcement process as soon as November 9, 2021, for employees who have not completed their vaccination dose(s) by November 8."

Comment: Saving one's body and ditching the job - if done en masse - not only sends a message, it requires a major adjustment to all federal entities engaged in this mass manipulation.
The White House in July explicitly stated that coronavirus vaccine mandates are "not the role of the federal government" — an admission made months before President Biden announced federal vaccine mandates he was imposing on private businesses.

During a divisive speech in September, the commander-in-chief scolded the unvaccinated while announcing his decision to instruct the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to develop a rule forcing private businesses with over 100 employees to mandate the vaccine or implement weekly testing requirements.

Weeks ago, Biden asserted there is only a "small percentage" of Americans who oppose vaccine mandates. "There's a positive support for mandates - by and large," Biden told reporters. "There's always going to be a small percentage that say no."

The Biden administration has become more emboldened in its public support of mandates. On Tuesday, Biden's chief of staff, Ron Klain, essentially praised New York's vaccine mandate for healthcare workers after preliminary reports suggested it forced more to get the jab.

Notably, Biden's administration has been unable to provide a timeline of when to expect OSHA's rule, despite the fact that he made the announcement more than three weeks ago.
"Not the role of the federal government!" How quickly Biden forgets.

See also: Biden to announce vaccine requirement for all federal workers

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Snakes in Suits

Algeria recalls envoy, accuses Paris of 'interference' after Macron slams post-colonial 'hatred of France' amid migrant visa row


RT
Sat, 02 Oct 2021 22:40 UTC
2 presidents
© AFP/Ryad Kramdi/Reuters/Ludovic Marin
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune • French President Emmanuel Macron
Algeria recalled its ambassador to France and accused its former colonizer of "interference," after French President Emmanuel Macron criticized the country's government. Meanwhile, a visa row has erupted between the two nations.

The ambassador was recalled on Saturday after French President Emmanuel Macron this week criticized the "political-military system" that emerged in Algeria after the former colony won independence in 1962, and supposedly fomented a "hatred of France" in Algerian society.

"Was there an Algerian nation before French colonization?" Macron reportedly asked during a meeting on Thursday with descendants of Algerian war veterans, according to Le Monde.

Macron's comments angered Algerian officials, and a statement from President Abdelmadjid Tebboune's office read on Algerian public television expressed "categorical rejection of the inadmissible interference in its internal affairs that these comments constitute." While Tebboune and Macron bicker over history, the two countries are currently embroiled in a more pressing dispute over visas.
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Arrow Down

Gov. DeSantis says he's not considering a presidential run - busy 'trying to make sure people are not supporting critical race theory'*

Cheryl Teh and Eliza Relman
Business Insider
Thu, 30 Sep 2021 11:19 UTC
DeSantis
© Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida on Wednesday said he isn't currently considering a presidential run in 2024 because he's busy making sure "people are not supporting critical race theory." The Republican told Fox News host Sean Hannity:
"I'm not considering anything beyond doing my job. We got a lot of stuff going on in Florida. I'm going to be running for reelection next year. We are also working on a lot of things in the state beyond the governor's race. We got school-board races. I want to make sure people are not supporting critical race theory, making sure that parents have the ability to send their kid to school the way they want to."
Under DeSantis, Florida banned the teaching of critical race theory in its public schools in June. Critical race theory is an academic theory that holds that American institutions — including the criminal justice system, housing, and educational systems — remain systemically racist. Republican activists and lawmakers across the country baselessly insist that liberal school systems are teaching white American kids that they're racist, and DeSantis has described CRT as the teaching of "false history" that would "denigrate the Founding Fathers."

Comment: There is a strength to DeSantis that many resonate with and his dedication to his state and its people is evident.


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Briefcase

Trump sues Twitter to reinstate his account

Peter B.
Disclose.tv
Sat, 02 Oct 2021 00:00 UTC
Dorsey/iPhone
© Unknown
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey
Former US President Donald Trump continues his legal battle against the suspension of his Twitter account.

Trump applied to a court in Florida on Friday for an injunction against the short message service Twitter - with the aim of unblocking his account. Trump is taking advantage of Florida Gov. DeSantis' new anti-social media censorship law.

In the court document, the Republican argues, among other things, that Twitter was forced by members of the US Congress to censor it.
Lawsuit doc
The lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of Florida on Friday, also stated that:
the social media platform Twitter was a "communication tool" of his presidency, and by being allowed to ban the President of the U.S., they are exercising a "degree of power and control over political discourse in this country that is immeasurable, historically unprecedented, and profoundly dangerous to open democratic debate."
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Mr. Potato

Aussie PM to 'ease' border restrictions for states that reach 80% vaccination rate

Jake Evans
ABC News
Sat, 02 Oct 2021 19:48 UTC
airplane
© ABC News: Che Chorley
According to the national reopening plan international travel can resume once the 80 per cent vaccine target is met.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced the international border will reopen next month for states that have reached 80 per cent vaccination rates, starting with New South Wales.

Fully vaccinated Australians and permanent residents arriving in NSW will be able to home quarantine for a week, instead of paying thousands to quarantine at a hotel for a fortnight, pending the success of the state's home quarantine trial.

Commercial flights out of Australia will resume for vaccinated Australians.

Comment: Japan is also "easing restrictions", thus nominally lifting a state of emergency that began in April. However, restaurants will still be subject to restrictive measures (because, why not). Japan Today reports:
The government will continue for about a month to ask restaurants and other dining establishments to close by 8 p.m. but those taking sufficient anti-virus steps can operate until 9 p.m. In Tokyo, the metropolitan government decided that establishments can serve alcohol if they receive certification for their anti-COVID measures.


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