Puppet Masters

Prosecutors refusing to release wiretaps of Flynn and Kislyak: Why it could be a game-changer

Sara Carter
saraacarter.com
Tue, 04 Jun 2019 15:01 UTC

Michael Flynn and Robert Mueller

The highly classified transcript between former National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and former Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak would answer once and for all exactly what was said between the then senior government officials. Kislyak's phone was being monitored by U.S. intelligence but that didn't stop senior U.S. officials from leaking the conversation to the media. In fact, it was that essence of Flynn's conversation with Kislyak that eventually led to Flynn being fired from his role as President Donald Trump's national security advisor.

Knowing exactly what was said could be a game changer. Prosecutors don't want that to happen. In fact, they argue that the transcripts aren't essential to Flynn's prosecution, in which he has already pleaded guilty. Isn't that interesting, since it was senior government officials who broke the law and leaked the fact to the media that the two had spoken by phone.

Comment:

Putin: 'Trust in US dollar falling because it has become tool of pressure against whole world'

RT
Fri, 07 Jun 2019 15:56 UTC

The role of the US dollar as a reserve currency should be reconsidered since it has become Washington's political weapon, Russian President Vladimir Putin told participants at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

"Deep changes require adaptation of international financial organizations, reconsidering the role of the dollar, which after it became international reserve currency, turned into the tool of pressure of the country of issue on the rest of the world today," Putin said.

The Russian president added that US actions undermine the advantages created by the Bretton Woods system, thus "trust in the US dollar is falling."

'EU supported us amid baseless US spy claims': Kaspersky Lab boss on friends, hackers & cyber-awareness

RT
Thu, 06 Jun 2019 20:46 UTC

The US crusade against Kaspersky Lab has revealed that the Russian anti-virus company has many friends in the EU, including Germany, France, and Belgium, who value its high-quality cybersecurity products, Eugene Kaspersky told RT.

Without providing any proof, the US Department of Homeland Security accused Kaspersky Lab of ties to Russian intelligence in late 2017, and forbade all US government agencies from using its software.

The European Commission initially sided with Washington on the issue, but internal pressure from some of the member states made it change its stance this April, saying that it was "not in possession of any evidence regarding potential issues related to the use of Kaspersky Lab products."

Comment: It's notable that the US attacks pretty much any tech company not under its control:

German parliament slated to debate ban of Hezbollah

Benjamin Weinthal
Jerusalem Post
Thu, 06 Jun 2019 02:40 UTC

"Germany does not classify Hezbollah as a a terrorist organization, it may continue to collect donations and propaganda. That must have an end," said one German politician.

The German Bundestag is scheduled to debate a bill on Thursday to outlaw the radical Islamic organization Hezbollah in the federal republic.

The far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) party introduced the bill.

The Jerusalem Post exclusively reported on Tuesday that the number of Hezbollah members and supporters in Germany rose from 950 in 2017 to 1,050 in 2018, according to a German intelligence report from the state of Lower Saxony.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and her interior minister, Horst Seehofer, rejected an urgent appeal from the Central Council of Jews in Germany last week to ban Hezbollah amid rising Jew-hatred in the federal republic.

Comment: See also:

Democrats plan Capitol Hill event to warn 'Trump's mentally unfit for office'

Kimberly Leonard
Washington Examiner
Fri, 07 Jun 2019 09:50 UTC

Democrats are planning to host a Capitol Hill event featuring psychiatrists who will warn that President Trump is unfit for office based on his mental health.

The event will be led by Dr. Bandy Lee, a Yale School of Medicine psychiatrist and editor of The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, a book that argues psychiatrists have a responsibility to warn the public when a president is dangerous. The position is controversial because psychiatric associations urge members never to diagnose patients they haven't personally evaluated, saying it undermines the scientific rigor of the profession.

But Lee and others who agree with her stance say that their description of the president's behavior, of his showing mental instability and dangerousness, shouldn't be interpreted as issuing a diagnosis.

Police raids escalate as the war on journalism goes worldwide

Caitlin Johnstone
Medium
Fri, 07 Jun 2019 09:50 UTC

The Australian Federal Police have conducted two raids on journalists and seized documents in purportedly unrelated incidents in the span of just two days.

Yesterday the AFP raided the home of News Corp Australia journalist Annika Smethurst, seeking information related to her investigative report last year which exposed the fact that the Australian government has been discussing the possibility of giving itself unprecedented powers to spy on its own citizens. Today they raided the Sydney headquarters of the Australian Broadcasting Corp, seizing information related to a 2017 investigative report on possible war crimes committed by Australian forces in Afghanistan.

In a third, also ostensibly unrelated incident, another Australian reporter disclosed yesterday that the Department of Home Affairs has initiated an investigation of his reporting on a story about asylum seeker boats which could lead to an AFP criminal case, saying he's being pressured to disclose his source.

Comment: As Glenn Greenwald recently pointed out, the US' war on Assange has become a blueprint for the criminalization of journalism:

"If Assange can be declared guilty of espionage for working with sources to obtain and publish information deemed 'classified' by the US government, then there's nothing to stop the criminalization of every other media outlet that routinely does the same," Greenwald wrote in a Washington Post op-ed on Tuesday, highlighting what he considers "the greatest threat to press freedom in the Trump era, if not the last several decades."

By redefining Assange's actions as "espionage" rather than "journalism" or "publishing," the Trump administration seeks to exempt him from legal protections governing speech that belong to everyone, from the Post itself to the lowliest blogger, the Intercept editor and former civil rights attorney explains.

The public smearing of Assange - as a rapist, as a "foreign agent," or any of the other epithets tossed his way over the last decade - is deliberate, designed to make the public cheer his persecution. Because once one act of journalism has been legally reclassified as espionage, a precedent has been set, and further cases become impossible to oppose.

Also see:

Rosneft CEO: Energy consumers are 'hostages' to US political games

RT
Fri, 07 Jun 2019 09:50 UTC

© REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin
Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin attends a briefing dedicated to the signing of a contract between Rosneft and Essar Oil Ltd. companies in Ufa, Russia, July 8, 2015.

Energy consumers are already hostage to US political games as Washington uses energy as a weapon, Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin said, rejecting US claims that Russia uses its natural resources to control others.

"America's 'Golden Age' can turn into the age of energy colonialism for other participants of the market," the head of Russia's biggest oil company told the audience at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum on Thursday. "Should global energy consumers become hostage to non-stop election campaign in the US?" asked Sechin.

The Trump administration has repeatedly accused Moscow of using energy as leverage for pushing its interests, with the US president himself once calling Germany "a captive of Russia." The allegations came amid Washington's attempts to boost sales of its own LNG to Europe and pressure on overseas allies to ditch Russian supplies.

Feds contact Jeffrey Epstein's victims, may open an 'appropriate' investigation into his crimes

Kate Briquelet
The Daily Beast
Fri, 07 Jun 2019 09:52 UTC

Eleven years after billionaire Jeffrey Epstein received what amounted to a country-club jail sentence for allegedly molesting dozens of girls in Florida, his victims could be closer to justice-with a possible future federal prosecution beyond Palm Beach.

In 2007, the disgraced financier signed a secret deal with the U.S. Attorney's Office to evade a series of charges that could have sent him to prison for life. The agreement, brokered under former federal prosecutor and current Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, allowed Epstein to plead guilty to a pair of minor state charges.

Epstein served 13 months of his 18-month sentence in a private wing of a county stockade. And, as the Miami Herald reported, he spent most of this time on "work release" at a comfortable office, for up to 12 hours a day, six days a week.

Comment: Also see:

Trump says tariffs on China could be raised by another $300 billion and will raise Mexican imports by 5%

Matt Clinch
CNBC
Thu, 06 Jun 2019 03:14 UTC

© Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images
President Donald Trump speaks before boarding Air Force One at Shannon Airport in Shannon, Ireland, on June 6, 2019 and fly to Normandy, France, to attend the 75th D-Day Anniversary.

President Donald Trump told reporters Thursday that tariffs on China could be raised by another $300 billion if necessary.

"Our talks with China, a lot of interesting things are happening. We'll see what happens," Trump said, according to Reuters, without giving details on what goods could be targeted. "I could go up another at least $300 billion and I'll do that at the right time."

"But I think China wants to make a deal and I think Mexico wants to make a deal badly," he said at Ireland's Shannon Airport on his way to France for the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion.

Comment: Regarding more tariffs on China, as noted in US' self-righteousness will lead to nothing but failure:

Research from the International Monetary Fund finds that US importers 'almost entirely' bear the cost of tariffs, which are then passed on to the consumers.

Pentagon scrambles for rare earth supplies as China threatens to cut US off

Ernest Scheyder
KFGO
Wed, 05 Jun 2019 17:17 UTC

The U.S. Department of Defense has held talks with Malawi's Mkango Resources Ltd and other rare earth miners across the globe about their supplies of strategic minerals, part of a plan to find diversified reserves outside of China, a department official said on Wednesday.

The push comes as China threatens to curb exports to the United States of rare earths, a group of 17 minerals used in a plethora of military equipment and high-tech consumer electronics.

Although China contains only a third of the world's rare earth reserves, it accounts for 80% of U.S. imports of minerals because it controls nearly all of the facilities to process the material, according to U.S. Geological Survey data.

Comment: These desperate, prospective projects come after the US shut down its own rare earth processing plants, shipped them overseas and sold off its reserves in 1998. And what's to say that those countries with supplies and facilities will want to be party to US aggression around the world?

See also:

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codis

.. .. W ho's the mayor of Bots-Biden, NJ? [Link]

Jibrish

Estimated impact energy 1200 megatons give or take a lot. The apparent impact point -20.758, -69.008 (not really a crater) is roughly 6km across....

StonedMentat

When is Space Weather Scary? & Top Science Updates | S0 News Nov.5.2021 [Link]

parzival

'Pfizer Shares Surge After Release Of 'Miracle' COVID Pill That Is 89% Effective At Preventing Hospitalization' [Link] * 'Take four red capsules....

parzival

Puppet Masters

Prosecutors refusing to release wiretaps of Flynn and Kislyak: Why it could be a game-changer

Putin: 'Trust in US dollar falling because it has become tool of pressure against whole world'

'EU supported us amid baseless US spy claims': Kaspersky Lab boss on friends, hackers & cyber-awareness

German parliament slated to debate ban of Hezbollah

Democrats plan Capitol Hill event to warn 'Trump's mentally unfit for office'

Police raids escalate as the war on journalism goes worldwide

Rosneft CEO: Energy consumers are 'hostages' to US political games

Feds contact Jeffrey Epstein's victims, may open an 'appropriate' investigation into his crimes

Trump says tariffs on China could be raised by another $300 billion and will raise Mexican imports by 5%

Pentagon scrambles for rare earth supplies as China threatens to cut US off

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