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DC Judge rules FBI must show documentation used to verify Steele Dossier

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Sat, 18 Aug 2018 16:13 UTC
Judge Amit Mehta

Judge Amit Mehta
The FBI has been dealt a major blow after a Washington DC judge ruled that the agency must respond to a FOIA request for documents concerning the bureau's efforts to verify the controversial Steele Dossier, before it was used as the foundation of a FISA surveillance warrant application and subsequent renewals.

US District Court Judge Amit Mehta - who in January sided with the FBI's decision to ignore the FOIA request, said that President Trump's release of two House Intelligence Committee documents (the "Nunes" and "Schiff" memos) changed everything.

Considering that the FBI offered Steele $50,000 to verify the Dossier's claims yet never paid him, BuzzFeed has unsuccessfully tried to do the same to defend themselves in a dossier-related lawsuit, and a $50 million Soros-funded investigation to continue the hunt have turned up nothing that we know of - whatever documents the FBI may be forced to cough up regarding their attempts to verify the Dossier could prove highly embarrassing for the agency.
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X

Twitter is meddling in US elections, not Russia - shadow-banning GOP candidates

Jim Hoft
Gateway Pundit
Sun, 19 Aug 2018 16:46 UTC
gop candidates

Senate candidate John James (on left) and Congressional candidate Ron Bassilian (on right)
A recent study by the leftist website VICE News found that Twitter was censoring top pro-Trump lawmakers.

Twitter is targeting pro-Trump Republican lawmakers Matt Gaetz, Devin Nunes, Mark Meadows, Jim Jordan and John Ratcliffe with the same shadowbanning technique.

Twitter is also censoring prominent pro-Trump accounts including: Mike Cernovich, Jack Posobiec, Paul Joseph Watson, TGP's Jim Hoft, TGP's Cassandra Fairbanks, TGP's Lucian Wintrich, TGP's Cristina Laila and Laura Loomer among others.

In July Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-CA) announced he was filing a FEC complaint against Twitter after he discovered his account was being throttled by the social media company.

And now this... Twitter is also censoring the accounts for Republican candidates.

Comment: No political bias? Yeah, right: NewsReal: Social Media Censorship and the Clash of Civilizations - Manufactured, Packaged, Sold

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Broom

Belarus president fires prime minister, other government members after corruption scandal


The Guardian
Sat, 18 Aug 2018 18:55 UTC
New Belarusian prime minister Sergei Rumas
© Photograph: Maxim Guchek/AP
New Belarusian prime minister Sergei Rumas
Belarus's strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko has sacked his prime minister and other key members of government following a corruption scandal that saw top officials arrested.

Andrei Kobyakov will be replaced as prime minister by former development bank head Sergei Rumas. Several vice-premiers as well as the ministers for economy and industry have also lost their posts.

"I won't name names, but in our government we had the following situation - one programme would be announced and then another programme would be carried out," Lukashenko said in comments released by his press office.
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Newspaper

Foreign militants are taking over Libya's Fezzan region

Alessandra Bocchi
The New Arab
Sun, 19 Aug 2018 19:12 UTC
Libya's Fezzan desert
© Getty
Libya's Fezzan region is largely desert
Libya's southern area of Fezzan is suffering from an influx of foreign fighters that are gradually taking over the country's tribes.
Following the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, Libya's porous southern border has led to an influx of mercenaries and militants who are posing an increasing threat to the already highly fractured country.

Three main tribes have controlled Libya's southern Fezzan area: Tuareg, Tebu, and Awlad-Sliman. These tribes have always had a unique ethnic and cultural identity in Libya, even at the time of the country's unity under Gaddafi's more nationalist rule.

Following the 2011 revolution and Gaddafi's removal from power, the tribes have been in violent conflict over the control of oil rich areas and key cities in Libya's south.

Comment: See also:

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Quenelle

Jewish writer Gideon Levy in Haaretz: Jeremy Corbyn isn't anti-Semitic, should be UK's PM

Gideon Levy
Haaretz
Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:06 UTC
Jeremy Corbyn
© REUTERS / Neil Hall
Jeremy Corbyn is a paragon of a leftist, one who has fought his whole life for the values he believes in. Israelis regard him as a sort of alien - the left here has never been led by an Israeli Corbyn, nor by anyone who can hold a candle to him.

Corbyn is a brave man. He voted in parliament 553 times against his party's position, and yet he took its leadership by storm. He voted against the war in Iraq, against nuclear weapons and against British rule in Northern Ireland. He was active in Amnesty against Augusto Pinochet, and was arrested in anti-apartheid demonstrations in South Africa.

With such a conscience and courage he wouldn't have gotten anywhere in Israel, apart from Breaking the Silence. In Britain he has a good chance of being elected the next prime minister. Nothing lights up the imagination and inspires hope more than that. Anyone who wants to see the world take action against the Israeli occupation should dream of Corbyn.

Corbyn has been declared the next enemy of the Jews. Viktor Orban is a righteous among the nations; the American alt-right is the rock of Israel and its savior; Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines' leader who called to kill millions "like Hitler," is a welcome guest in Israel - and Corbyn is the enemy of the people.

Comment: See also:

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Info

Pakistan's new PM Imran Khan gives first televised speech - plans to cut servant staff from 542 to 2


RFE/RL
Mon, 20 Aug 2018 13:59 UTC
imran khan
© Reuters/ Athit Perawongmetha
Pakistan's 21-member cabinet has been sworn in, a day after newly elected Prime Minister Imran Khan vowed in a televised speech that his government would cut spending, end corruption, and repatriate public funds.

Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain administered the oath of office to 16 federal ministers in Islamabad on August 20. Khan has also appointed five advisers to his cabinet.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said after taking his oath of office that he was aware of foreign policy challenges ahead. He promised to tackle all key issues.

Khan took the oath of office on August 18 after his party won the most parliamentary seats in the July 25 elections but fell short of a majority, forcing it to form a coalition.

The former cricket star turned politician spoke for more than an hour in a live televised address on August 19, saying he wants to see "Pakistan a great country" with social services for the poor.

He also lamented the growing divide between rich and poor in the Muslim-majority nation of some 200 million people.

Comment: Khan seems to be Pakistan's Trump: an outsider politician seeking to make Pakistan great (again?). He has charisma, and is already using persuasion techniques to pace and lead the public in the direction he wants to take his country. Case in point: he has promised to cut his household servant staff from 542 to just 2, to set an example of how Pakistan's ruling elite should change their "lavish lifestyle". He is framing his reforms in the lingo of the people, Islamic values:
During his inaugural speech in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, Khan said in order for the country to prosper, an Islamic welfare state must be introduced and debt must be cut via taxation of the rich. He also pledged to slash poverty and illiteracy rates.

"I want to speak about how the rich and powerful live in this country. The prime minister has 524 servants and 80 cars. The prime minister, which is me, also has 33 bulletproof cars. The prime ministers all have helicopters and airplanes to fly them. We have massive governor houses and every conceivable luxury," Khan said, Dawn reports. How could it be, the cricket star-turned PM asked, that "on the one hand we don't have money to spend on our people, and on the other we have people living like our colonial masters used to live? I want to tell my people, I will live a simple life, I will save your money," he said. As the literacy rate in Pakistan hovers above 40 percent, Khan also pledged to increase education levels across the country.
...
In a country where less than one percent pays income tax, Khan went on to outline plans to reduce debt via taxation rather than loan. "It is your responsibility to pay taxes," said Khan. "Think of this as a jihad [holy war], that you need to pay tax for the betterment of your country."
See also: Is Imran Khan's Pakistan ready to escape the clutches of the US?

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Black Cat

Bolton stokes the hysteria: China, North Korea & Iran may target US elections - offers no proof


RT
Mon, 20 Aug 2018 12:15 UTC
john Bolton
© Global Look Press
John Bolton
The upcoming 2018 US midterm elections might be targeted by Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran, National Security Advisor John Bolton has warned, while declining to provide any evidence.

"I can say definitively that it's a sufficient national security concern about Chinese meddling, Iranian meddling, and North Korean meddling that we're taking steps to try to prevent it, so it's all four of those countries, really," Bolton told Martha Raddatz, co-anchor of ABC's This Week, on Sunday.

Bolton produced the remark when asked to elaborate on US President Donald Trump's cryptic tweet that accused certain "fools" of looking only at Moscow while an election meddling threat might also be coming from Beijing. When confronted about what exactly China did to US elections in the past, Bolton dodged the question, simply reassuring Raddatz that the four countries could be seeking to tamper with the upcoming polls.

Comment:

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Light Sabers

Clapper throws Brennan under the bus: 'John and his rhetoric have become an issue'

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Sun, 19 Aug 2018 10:55 UTC
John Brennan and James Clapper
Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper threw former CIA Director John Brennan under the bus on Sunday, telling CNN's State of the Union that "John and his rhetoric have become an issue in and of itself," adding "John is subtle like a freight train and he's gonna say what's on his mind."


Somebody wants to keep their security clearance...

Brennan's latest "rhetoric," of course, is his Sunday morning threat to sue the Trump administration following the stripping of his security clearance.


That said, Clapper empathized with Brennan over shared concerns regarding what they say is a threat to the United States from the Trump administration.

Comment: There's no honor among thieves, as they say. See also:

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Bug

Bombshell: Courts documents reveal #MeToo movement leader raped teenage boy then paid him off


RT
Mon, 20 Aug 2018 10:38 UTC
Asia Argento

Not so glorious now, is it? Asia Argento, the actress who kickstarted last year's global anti-men campaign. Was she paid to do it?
Asia Argento, an Italian actress and director at the forefront of the #MeToo campaign that brought down producer Harvey Weinstein over sexual assault, herself reportedly assaulted an underage actor, and paid him to stay silent.

Court documents reportedly seen by the New York Times outline allegations by Jimmy Bennet, actor and rock musician, who says Argento sexually assaulted him when he was 17 and she was 37. The age of consent in California, where the alleged assault took place, is 18.

Comment: Watch now as they defend her by saying "but that wasn't rape - it was consensual..."

As we said at the time, while we would, hypothetically, extend our sympathy to the actual individual victims of rape (preferably, shown to be such in a court of law), the entire batch of claims was rendered dubious-by-association because of the 'public shaming' witch-hunt manner in which they became known.

In any event, Hollywood - and other dens of iniquity - ranks among the least deserving venues of public sympathy.

And what does this say about the shallow, vapid nature of people - the world over - who fell for this emotional guff? The whole #MeToo nonsense was one great big spasm of emotional incontinence.

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Light Sabers

Turkey's defiance of US has support from Russia, China and Qatar

Ivan Danilov
Sputnik
Mon, 20 Aug 2018 08:27 UTC
turkey flag silhouette
© Sputnik / Andrey Stenin
The Turkish crisis is not in any way shape or form a financial one. It's an unequivocal attempt to punish Erdogan for his geopolitical transgressions against Pax Americana. The crisis will either break Turkey or help radically reshape the global order.

US-Turkish relations are at their lowest point in recent history. The crisis only appears to be financial, even though it has some painful financial implications for Turkey.

Although Erdogan's incompetent monetary policy made Turkey excessively vulnerable to American economic sanctions, the reason for sanctions is a political one. That's not a conspiracy theory, that's an open secret. Even the mainstream Western media, like Reuters have no qualms in spelling out the real reasons of crisis in the US-Turkish relations:

Comment: Washington's games may have worked on their lackey's in Europe, but they're unlikely to work on the rest of the world now that there's a viable alternative provided by China, Russia and their allies. And in the process, the US is becoming increasingly isolated and showing itself as the ego-maniacal player that it really is: For more, check out SOTT radio's:

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