Puppet MastersS


Briefcase

FBI violated policy; Federal judge demands all exculpatory evidence in Flynn's case

Sara Carter
saraacarter.com
Thu, 13 Dec 2018 01:28 UTC
Michael Flynn
© UnknownFormer National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn
A federal judge overseeing the case of Former National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn is demanding to see the FBI's first interviews with the retired three-star general after explosive information contained in a sentencing memo released Tuesday night revealed that senior FBI leadership suggested he not have a lawyer present, nor warn him that his interview was subject to penalties if he failed to provide all the answers, according to the 178 page Defendants memorandum submitted to the court.

U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ordered Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office Wednesday night to turn over all the government's documents by mid-day Friday. The exculpatory documents requested by Sullivan include any memorandums regarding Flynn's case because of the extraordinary circumstances of the information, according to Sullivan's request. Further, Sullivan is also requesting any documentation regarding the first interviews conducted by former anti-Trump agent Peter Strzok and FBI Agent Joe Pientka -known by the FBI as 302s- which were found to be dated more than seven months after the interviews were conducted on Jan. 24, 2017, a violation of FBI policy, say current and former FBI officials familiar with the process. According to information contained in Flynn's memorandum, the interviews were dated Aug. 22, 2017.

Comment: See also:

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Snakes in Suits

Congress hides, passes illegal legislation in Farm Bill supporting ongoing genocide in Yemen

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Thu, 13 Dec 2018 00:00 UTC
Yemen slaughter bill
© TheFREETHOUGHTPROJECT.comYemen slaughter bill
Yesterday, Congress violated the Constitution and the War Powers Act by voting to block and further moves by Congress, to withdraw U.S. forces from the wholesale slaughter and genocide currently taking place in Yemen. This move was done using the Farm Bill.

Many Americans are wondering what, exactly, a Farm Bill has to do with genocide in Yemen. The answer to that question is absolutely nothing. However, it does make for a good hiding place for insidious and illegal legislation, which is why the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 contained a section which removed the application of the War Powers Resolution.

As the mainstream media reported on the government finally legalizing a plant-industrial hemp-that should have never been illegal in the first place, one of the most disgusting moves ever by Congress was carried out in the dark like cockroaches.

"To avoid a debate on whether the US should be involved in a war in Yemen, today our leadership will trick members into suspending the provisions of the War Powers Act," tweeted representative Thomas Massie yesterday morning. "Sad!" he said. "Despicable" that House Speaker Paul Ryan "is shirking responsibility for debating our involvement in the Yemen war by hiding the war resolution in a procedural vote on the farm bill."

Comment: There is no excuse big enough to justify what has happened, and continues to happen, in Yemen.

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Attention

Trump dossier author, Christopher Steele, was hired to help Hillary challenge 2016 election results

Rowan Scarborough
The Washington Times
Wed, 12 Dec 2018 00:00 UTC
ChrisSteele
© PA images via Getty ImagesChristopher Steele
British ex-spy Christopher Steele, who wrote the Democrat-financed anti-Trump dossier, said in a court case that he was hired by a Democratic law firm in preparation for Hillary Clinton challenging the results of the 2016 presidential election.

He said the law firm Perkins Coie wanted to be in a position to contest the results based on evidence he unearthed on the Trump campaign conspiring with Moscow on election interference.

His scenario is contained in a sealed Aug. 2 declaration in a defamation law suit brought by three Russian bankers in London. The trio's American attorneys filed his answers Tuesday in a libel lawsuit in Washington against the investigative firm Fusion GPS, which handled the former British intelligence officer.

In an answer to interrogatories, Mr. Steele wrote:
"Fusion's immediate client was law firm Perkins Coie. It engaged Fusion to obtain information necessary for Perkins Coie LLP to provide legal advice on the potential impact of Russian involvement on the legal validity of the outcome of the 2016 US Presidential election.

"Based on that advice, parties such as the Democratic National Committee and HFACC Inc. (also known as 'Hillary for America') could consider steps they would be legally entitled to take to challenge the validity of the outcome of that election."
The Democrats never filed a challenge, but Mr. Steele's answer suggested that was one option inside the Clinton camp, which funded Mr. Steele's research along with the Democratic National Committee. The U.S. intelligence community concluded that Moscow interfered in the election by hacking Democratic Party computers and stealing emails that it released via WikiLeaks. No Trump associate has been charged with collusion.


Comment: Filing a challenge to the outcome of the campaign would have opened legal doors the Dems and the FBI were not willing to chance. It was safer for the intel community to provide a determination of 'concluded'. There was, and still is, no proof of any collusion. 'Concluded' has bought them two years running.


Comment: When all deflections are investigated and proven false, what is left is the deflector.

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Cell Phone

Missing Strzok-Page text messages were destroyed by the DOJ before the IG could review them

Bre Payton
The Federalist
Thu, 13 Dec 2018 00:00 UTC
Strzok/Cellphone
© CNBC.com/Tennessee Star/KJN
The Department of Justice wiped text messages between former FBI employees Lisa Page and Peter Strozk from their cell phones before the Office of the Inspector General could review them, a new report from the DOJ watchdog reveals.

Page and Strozk's involvement with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation has been heavily scrutinized after it was revealed they had sent numerous anti-Trump text messages back and forth to one another. Mueller has been tasked with looking into whether or not Donald Trump and his campaign associates coordinated with Russian officials to steal the 2016 election away from Hillary Clinton.

The 11-page report reveals that almost a month after Strzok was removed from Mueller's team, his government-issued iPhone was wiped clean and restored to factory settings by another individual working in Mueller's office. The special counsel's Record's Officer told investigators that "she determined it did not contain records that needed to be retained."

"She noted in her records log about Strzok's phone: 'No substantive texts, notes or reminders,'" the report states.

Comment: "Now you see 'em, now you don't..." Who was instructed to do what by whom?

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Attention

The federal judge overseeing Michael Flynn's sentencing found evidence FBI created multiple 302 summaries

Margot Cleveland
The Federalist
Thu, 13 Dec 2018 00:00 UTC
Flynn
© Reuters/Jonathan ErnstGeneral Michael Flynn leaves US District Court
On Tuesday, attorneys for Michael Flynn filed a sentencing memorandum and letters of support for the former Army lieutenant general in federal court. The sentencing memorandum reveals for the first time concrete evidence that the FBI created multiple 302 interview summaries of Flynn's questioning by now-former FBI agent Peter Strzok and a second unnamed agent, reported to be FBI Special Agent Joe Pientka.

Further revelations may be forthcoming soon following an order entered late yesterday by presiding judge Emmet Sullivan, directing the special counsel's office to file with the court any 302s or memorandum relevant to Flynn's interview.

Flynn, who served briefly as President Donald Trump's national security advisor, pleaded guilty more than a year ago to making false statements to federal investigators during a January 24, 2017 interview. During that interview, Strzok and (presumably) Pientka questioned Flynn about a telephone conversation the Trump advisor had with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

While Flynn's sentencing memorandum methodically laid out the case for a low-level sentence of one-year probation, footnote 23 dropped a bomb, revealing that the agents' 302 summary of his interview was dated August 22, 2017. As others have already noted, the August 22, 2017 date is a "striking detail" because that puts the 302 report "nearly seven months after the Flynn interview." When added to facts already known, this revelation takes on a much greater significance.

Comment: See also:

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Arrow Down

China to suspend added tariff on US autos

David Reid
CNBC
Fri, 14 Dec 2018 00:00 UTC
chinese carworkers
© China Daily/ReutersEmployees assembling SAID Volkswagen in Urumqi, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, China.
China has said it will temporarily halt its additional 25 percent tariff on vehicles made in the United States. The relief will last for three months staring from January 1, as part of an agreed truce between Beijing and Washington.

The Chinese finance ministry said on its website that China will suspend 25 percent tariffs on 144 vehicles and auto parts originating from the U.S. and 5 percent tariffs on an additional 67 auto items.

U.S. President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping agreed to lessen the impact of trade tariffs for the first 90 days of 2019, following a dinner in Argentina on December 1.

The U.S. has slapped a 25 percent tariff on finished vehicles built in China and 10 percent on most auto parts. China's 40 percent tariff on U.S. car imports will now reduce to 15 percent for 90 days.

That brings the auto tariffs in China back down to the same level as before the point that the two countries began imposing tit-for-tat levies.

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Target

Erdogan: 'Cleanse them'; remove Kurdish militias or Turkey will send troops


RT
Fri, 14 Dec 2018 13:10 UTC
Erdogan/US military
© Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan REUTERS/Umit Bektas; (R) FILE PHOTO: American army vehicles drive north of Manbij. Reuters/Rodi SaidTurkish President Tayyip Erdogan REUTERS/Umit Bektas; (R) FILE PHOTO: American army vehicles drive north of Manbij.
The US must have Kurdish militias withdraw from the Syrian town of Manbij, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday, otherwise he will order his troops to take the key settlement.

The threat, delivered during a speech in Istanbul, ramps up Erdogan's rhetoric targeting the YPG militias. Earlier on Wednesday, he publicly complained that the US, which support the Kurds in northeastern Syria, is failing to deliver on its promise to clear Manbij of Kurdish fighters. Ankara considers Syrian Kurdish paramilitaries as an extension of the Turkey-based anti-government guerrillas and brands the YPG as terrorists.

"Manbij is a place where Arabs live, but they have surrendered the area to the terror organization," the Turkish president told a judiciary conference. "Now we are saying that you should cleanse, remove them, or else we will enter Manbij. I am speaking very clearly."

Comment: More from Sputnik:
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and its component, the People's Protection Units (YPG), have promised to fight "to the death" in the event of a new Turkish operation in northeastern Syria, SDF spokeswoman Jihan Sheikh Ahmed told Sputnik on Friday.

"We will defend the north and the east of Syria to the death," Ahmed said commenting on the SDF response on a possible operation.

The spokeswoman added that the SDF would not like to see a situation similar to what happened earlier this year in Afrin, where Ankara conducted a military operation.

Later in the day, Syria's main Kurdish parties and other allied groups issued a joint statement on the issue, calling Turkish plans a "declaration of war" and calling on world powers to prevent an assault on the region.

"All the forces in the north and east Syria...are asked to agree on strategies to confront this aggression," the statement read.

The statements followed Thursday's media reports, saying that the Turkish military was reinforcing troops stationed in the province of Kilis on the Syrian border with armoured vehicles. These reports emerged after a statement made by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday that Ankara would launch a new military operation in Syria within days to free the east of the Euphrates from the US-backed Kurdish militia.
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Stop

Truce agreement achieved for Yemen's lifeline port city of Hudaydah


RFE/RL
Thu, 13 Dec 2018 14:05 UTC
Port HudaydahYemen
© Abduljabbar Zeyad/ReutersPort Hudaydah, Yemen
Warring sides in Yemen's conflict have agreed to a cease-fire for the key port city of Hudaydah.

The delegations from the Yemeni government and the Shi'ite Huthi rebels reached agreement on December 13 at the end of UN-brokered talks in Sweden aimed at ending nearly four years of civil war.

The Red Sea port city of Hudaydah is the main lifeline for two-thirds of the country, and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the cease-fire was crucial to getting aid to millions of Yemenis.

The agreement will see "a mutual redeployment of forces from the port and the city and the establishment of a governorate-wide cease-fire," Guterres said.
"The UN will play a leading role in the port and this will facilitate the humanitarian access and the flow of goods to the civilian population. And it will improve the living conditions for millions of Yemenis. The agreement could "be a starting point for peace and for ending [the] humanitarian crisis in Yemen."
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Smoking

Totalitarian hell: Sweden votes to extend smoking ban to most public places


Daily Mail, UK
Thu, 13 Dec 2018 10:31 UTC
Smoking ban in Sweden
© Shutterstock/Zitke
Sweden is banning outdoor smoking in certain public places, including playgrounds and train station platforms.

In a 142-120 vote on Wednesday, the Riksdagen extended the smoking ban as of July 1, 2019.

Smoking in outdoor restaurants and entrances to booths for smokers will also be banned.

In Sweden, smoking is currently allowed in designated smoking areas in most workplaces and public places.

Official figures show only 11 per cent of the Swedish population of 10 million smoked daily in 2016, with about 10 percent smoking occasionally.

Comment: For the truth about tobacco and why the PTB want to stamp out smoking, see:

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Vader

AFRICOM: The Empire's neocolonial occupation force

Eric Draitser
Counterpunch
Tue, 11 Dec 2018 19:06 UTC
africom logo
© Blleininger/CC BY 2.0
Amid the George HW Bush imperial death-orgy, the endless saga of Midtown Mussolini's daily news cycle, the seemingly unprecedented political upsurge in France, and countless other show-stopping news stories, you likely missed three very sad, yet revealing, incidents out of the Sahel region of West-Central Africa.

First, on November 18th, a massive offensive against a Nigerian military base by a faction of the Boko Haram terror group known as the Islamic State West Africa (ISWAP) killed upwards of 100 soldiers. The surprise attack came at a time when Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who famously (and repeatedly) has declared victory against Boko Haram and terrorism, has faced a crisis of legitimacy, falling approval ratings, and an impending election in early 2019.

Just days later, on November 22nd, while most Americans were gathering with family and eating turkey on Thanksgiving, a contingent of about 50 armed militants kidnapped at least 15 girls in Niger, just outside a town in the Diffa region, near the border with Nigeria. While Boko Haram did not officially claim responsibility, many have attributed the action to the terror group, or one of its factions, given their propensity to use kidnappings for propaganda and fundraising.

Comment:

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