Puppet MastersS


House

'Taxpayer squatting': Boris Johnson slammed for failing to move out of £20mn gov house

Boris Johnson
© Rob Pinney/ Global Look Press
Boris Johnson has been accused of "taxpayer squatting" as he resigned from his senior cabinet role almost two weeks ago and yet is still living rent-free in the £20 million government mansion in Carlton Gardens.

The Tory - once branded by the PM as an 'FFS - a fine foreign secretary' - resigned earlier this month in protest at Theresa May's Brexit white paper.

Almost a fortnight on, he is still taking advantage of the taxpayer-funded residence, which has been reserved for the use of British foreign secretaries since 1945. Besides not having to pay a single penny on rent, he is also raking in some £10,000 per year from the rental of his own property in Islington, north London.

Labour MP Catherine West told the Mirror Online: "While many people in Westminster are stuck on housing waiting lists, this amounts to taxpayer-funded squatting from Boris. He should pack his bags and move on."

Laptop

NSA sets up task force to fight 'cyberattacks' from 'near-peer' Russia

hacker communist russia
© Bill Hinton / Getty ImagesOld mindsets die hard
The NSA and the US Cyber Command have created a special unit tasked with combating hacks and spying allegedly coming from "near-peer threat" Russia. It comes as 'election meddling' accusations keep being hurled at the Kremlin.

"I stood up a Russia group, a Russia Small Group, the RSG," NSA chief General Paul Nakasone said on Saturday, confirming earlier media reports that the intelligence agency and the US Cyber Command are planning to coordinate efforts in combating cyber threats apparently emanating from Moscow.

Speaking at a security conference in Aspen, Colorado, Nakasone, who is also the US cyber commander, said that the new task force will work "in line with what the intelligence community has really been doing since post-2016, 2017."

Beaker

Putin orders 'closed town' Shikhany where UK claims novichok was developed to be opened

Shikhany russia novichok
© Sputnik/FileShikhany, Saratov region, Russia.
The "closed administrative-territorial formation" of Shikhany in the Saratov region, about 930 km southeast of Moscow, has been liquidated by presidential decree, with the town's restricted status to be lifted in six months' time.

Published on the Russian government's official web portal, the presidential order gives the town of about 5,500 people until early 2019 to prepare for the changeover to standard administration.

During Soviet times, the closed town was a key R&D center for the USSR's chemical weapons program, but did not serve as a storage facility. In a scandal following the March poisoning of Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, the British media alleged that the so-called Novichok nerve agent was developed at Shikhany, a charge Mayor Andrei Tatarinov has denied. "Claims that 'Novichok' was manufactured here, in Shikhany, are absurd. We perceive it as a lie, as a hoax," he said, speaking to Sputnik in April.

SOTT Logo Radio

SOTT Focus: NewsReal: Treason, Really? Trump-Putin Summit Enrages The War Party

trump putin hysteria
We knew it was going to provoke those vested in isolating Russia and keeping the US president on a leash, but we didn't know it would set off such a firestorm. Trump's brief meeting with Putin last Monday should really just be a footnote to the fact that trade, security, and diplomatic relations between the two countries are at an all-time low. Instead, the 'Washington Consensus' reacted as if the whole world had been turned upside-down!

This week on NewsReal with Joe and Niall, we're discussing the fallout and trying to understand why certain people consider a meeting between the world's largest nuclear powers as 'treason'.


Running Time: 01:36:48

Download: MP3


Star of David

Sad yet familiar refrain: European politicians are all in bed with the Israeli government, media won't report on Palestine

Miko Peled lectures EU Palestine
In the many speaking tours I have had in Europe, there is a line that I hear and that is repeated in every European country I visit: “Here in (fill in the blank) the Zionist lobby is very strong, the politicians are all in bed with the Israeli government and media will not report on Palestine.”
I recently returned from a ten - day speaking tour in Europe, to launch the German language translation of "The General's Son, Journey of an Israeli in Palestine." I had lectures to German speaking audiences and even and interviews with main stream media outlets. The tour also included two lectures in Italy, one in Milan and one in the small town of Biella, which of course were not related to the German edition. All the lectures were well attended and people did not mind sitting through the extreme hot weather plaguing Europe this summer or the lengthy process of translation - indeed the audiences sat for hours and listened and then remained for lengthy discussions and Q&A sessions.

This was the latest of many speaking tours I have had in Europe and there is a line that I hear and that is repeated in every European country I visit: "Here in (fill in the blank) the Zionist lobby is very strong, the politicians are all in bed with the Israeli government and media will not report on Palestine." This stands in contrast to the prevailing opinion which is, that in Europe there is a strong Palestine solidarity movement. That people in general are sympathetic to the cause of justice for Palestine and the BDS movement has recorded serious accomplishments in Europe. And yet, it is true that European governments and mainstream media and the EU as a body are fully supportive of Israel and collaborate with Israel on every level which means that there is an enormous gap between the politicians and their constituents on this issue.


Comment: Most politicians know or learn very quickly that anything other than complete submission to Israel is career-destroying. Few are willing or able to withstand the onslaught, which is why those that do should be supported in every respect.


Comment:


Oil Well

Libya's oil sector unsurprisingly plagued by corruption, blockades and accusations of funding terrorists following Western 'intervention'

Smoke and flame rise from an oil storage tank that was set on fire amid fighting between rival factions at Ras Lanuf terminal, Libya  Reuters
© ReutersSmoke and flame rise from an oil storage tank that was set on fire amid fighting between rival factions at Ras Lanuf terminal, Libya
The latest port blockade in Libya, which had sent the country's oil production plunging and oil prices surging, was lifted last week with new promises of transparency and the fair distribution of oil revenues.

As part of the agreement for lifting the port closure, Libya's central bank, national oil company, politicians, businessmen, and traders in the country could end up being probed in a wide-ranging corruption investigation to tackle the underlying problem of Libya's oil wealth-accusations and counteraccusations of corruption and channeling of oil revenues to Islamist groups.

The Libyan National Army (LNA) of eastern strongman General Khalifa Haftar recaptured in June four ports in the Oil Crescent in the east from armed groups after a week of fighting, handing their control to an unrecognized oil company in the east. But last week, Haftar agreed to hand back control of the ports to the internationally recognized National Oil Corporation (NOC).

Comment: Libya was once considered the most successful country in north Africa, before Western 'liberation':


Better Earth

Qatar increases ties with Russia through arms purchases and intelligence sharing

s300
© FILE PHOTO Alexei Malgavko / Sputnik
Qatar, which has already negotiated the purchase of AK rifles, grenade launchers and anti-tank missiles from Russia, is also in talks to procure state-of-the-art S-400 systems, the Russian ambassador to the Gulf country has said.

Qatar, which is now at odds with its Gulf neighbors, is expected to take a delivery of Russian conventional arms, including time-proven AK rifles, grenade launchers, machine guns and Kornet anti-tank missiles, according to Nurmakhmad Kholov, the Russian ambassador to Doha.

The Arab nation's interest in buying Russian weapons extends beyond firearms, Kholov told TASS news agency: "Regarding S-400 air-defense systems, some discussions are underway about the issue, although there is no specific outcome so far." Without going into details, the Russian envoy reiterated that the Qataris "seem to be willing" to acquire S-400s.

Comment: Qatar isn't alone in choosing to align itself with Russia over the ailing Western powers: Also check out SOTT radio's: Behind the Headlines: Trump Ditches Europe, Europe Bluffs, Russia and China Carry on With Eurasian Integration


Blue Planet

Inside Wikileaks and working with the publisher that changed the world

Stefania Maurizi, Julian Assange
© DIEM25/Praxis Films/Showtime/AP/KJNStefania Maurizi • Julian Assange
Italian journalist Stefania Maurizi has worked with WikiLeaks for nine years on the Podesta emails and other revelations. Here's an insider's view of the publisher, which has incensed rulers around the world, desperate to hide their corruption.

Silenced and cut off from the outside world, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been confined to the Ecuadorian embassy in London for the last six years with no access to sunlight, fresh air, or proper medical treatment. Furthermore, last March President Lenin Moreno's Ecuadorian government cut his access to the internet, phone calls and even visitors and journalists. For a man who has already been confined to the embassy for so long, these restrictions are particularly harsh.

I began working as one of WikiLeaks' media partners in 2009, before Assange and WikiLeaks published such bombshells as the Collateral Murder video. Over the last nine years, I have partnered with WikiLeaks on behalf of my newspaper, the Italian daily La Repubblica to work on the Podesta emails and many of its other secret files, except for those that WikiLeaks released without media partners: the DNC emails, the Saudi Cables, Turkey's ruling party emails, the Hacking Team documents, the Collateral Murder video and the Brennan emails.

Comment: Insights offered into the realm of Wikileaks from an inside journalist and publisher who closely worked with Julian Assange over a span of many years.


Footprints

A walk on the wild side: Trump meets Putin at Finland station

TrumpballPutin
© Chris McGrath/Getty ImagesThe pass receiver and the goal keeper.
US President stirs up a hornet's nest with his press conference alongside his Russian counterpart, but it seems that no 'grand bargain' was struck on Syria, and on Iran they appear to strongly disagree

"The Cold War is a thing of the past." By the time President Putin said as much during preliminary remarks at his joint press conference with President Trump in Helsinki, it was clear this would not stand. Not after so much investment by American conservatives in Cold War 2.0.

Russophobia is a 24/7 industry, and all concerned, including its media vassals, remain absolutely livid with the "disgraceful" Trump-Putin presser. Trump has "colluded with Russia." How could the President of the United States promote "moral equivalence" with a "world-class thug"?

Multiple opportunities for apoplectic outrage were in order.
Trump: "Our relationship has never been worse than it is now. However, that changed. As of about four hours ago."

Putin: "The United States could be more decisive in nudging Ukrainian leadership."

Trump: "There was no collusion... I beat Hillary Clinton easily."

Putin: "We should be guided by facts. Can you name a single fact that would definitively prove collusion? This is nonsense."
Then, the clincher: the Russian president calls [Special Counsel] Robert Mueller's 'bluff', offering to interrogate the Russians indicted for alleged election meddling in the US if Mueller makes an official request to Moscow. But in exchange, Russia would expect the US to question Americans on whether Moscow should face charges for illegal actions.

Comment: A 'Pepe Escobar glimpse' into the interactions between Putin and Trump.


Document

Time to declassify documents relating to Russian collusion, Mr. President!

Trumpmueller
© media.salon.comPresident Trump • SC Mueller
Now that FBI agent Peter Strzok has appeared before Congress and told us nothing that we did not know, it is time for President Donald Trump to act. Strzok looked like a cocky crook testifying to Congress about a failed con job. His appearance was utterly astounding. He actually smirked at the assembled elected officials of government. He smirked from morning until late in the afternoon when Congress finally adjourned, though admittedly, by late in the afternoon, the wind was pretty much out of his sails and his smiling face most assuredly ached. He looked deflated, and if he was eager for anything, it was for the exit and the arms of his paramour, former FBI lawyer Lisa Page.

His demeanor was not that of a stalwart FBI agent appearing before the Congress of the United States to inform the citizenry but like that of John Gotti or one of the other hoods whom a better generation of FBI agents than Strzok's once put behind bars.

At some point in the near future, a reflective Congress might -- in a bipartisan moment -- investigate how the FBI became a tool of elitist interests in our nation's capital. Then, too, Congress could offer suggestions as to what could be done to repair the damage. Federal law enforcement becoming so flagrantly political is genuinely alarming.

I think President Trump has subtly brought the left and the right in this country together, at least on one point. The time has come for the citizenry to see all the documents held by the government in the so-called Russian collusion scandal. Was there collusion? Who was involved? The president has it in his power to declassify the documents. Use your faithful weapon, Mr. President, your trusty black felt pen. Sign the declassifying order now.

Comment: Trump has method to his madness which seems to also include an element of 'timing' and a successful 'poker face' on his level of awareness. The tide is rising from the Left. There may be more 'catch' in the net yet to come.