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Welcome to European Tribune. It's gone a bit quiet around here these days, but it's still going.
by Oui
Sun Mar 3rd, 2019 at 09:04:27 AM EST
The Saudi Monarchy is in peril, has been for many years. Domestic forces based on ultra-conservative Wahhabism has caused more than a few headaches since the seventies, more than a half century ago. In close ties with its benefactor the US, the Saudi Kings felt quite safe from outside perils. This has all changed during the Obama presidency and the signed JCPOA nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran. [Persian acronym: BARJAM]
The Obama foreign policy team instigated military intervention at the start of the Arab Uprising early in 2011 which spread across the MENAT countries. The ensued chaos cost hundreds of thousands of innocent lives and further hardship in multiples for the population. In the meantime, Israel tried to provoke a military assault on Iran in 2012 ... president Obama would have none of it and blocked where he could Israel in implementing such a foolhardy action. Fortunately, the war cabinet of PM Netanyahu did their utmost to prevent such a military action. The propaganda was flying all over the Middle East from each capital. The Syrian unrest and civil war would have been an excellent décor to play out a military strike on Iran.
More below the fold ...
by Oui
Sat Mar 2nd, 2019 at 06:17:07 PM EST
Post Brexit .. post-ECJ interference - post-pollution regulation - post archaic EU standards - post-ICC membership perhaps?
To protect the consumers ... delivery of chlorinated chicken and pumped-up beef ... beats "dated" EU standards anyday!
What's In A Name? Johnson ...
The EU has a 'Museum of Agriculture' approach to farming, says Woody Johnson | Politico EU |
The U.K. should ignore "smears" about U.S. farming methods and move away from the EU's "Museum of Agriculture" approach, said Woody Johnson, Washington's ambassador to the U.K.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Johnson urges U.K. citizens to embrace a bilateral trade deal that includes a loosening of the EU's agriculture standards.
Continued below the fold ...
by Oui
Sun Feb 24th, 2019 at 09:44:03 PM EST
I don't buy many books ... this one I will and will write about it in a fortnight.
○ Bette Dam ontrafelde het leven van Talibanleider mullah Omar: 'Hij had een gesprekspartner kunnen zijn' | De Volkskrant |
[Interview: Bette Dam unraveled the life of Taliban leader mullah Omar: 'He could have been a partner of peace']
Her new book is ready and will be available in the bookstores this week ... previous articles about her work as a journalist in Afghanistan and Iraq. Chasing the truth behind Americas revenge for 9/11 ...
'The World's Most Mysterious Political Leader' | Der Spiegel - July 30, 2015 |
Dutch journalist Bette Dam, 36, spent eight years working as a journalist in Kabul. She's currently working on a biography of Mullah Omar, the reclusive Taliban leader whose death was acknowledged recently. The confirmation by the Taliban followed reports by Afghan and Pakistani authorities earlier this week that the Islamist had perished some two or three years ago. Mullah Omar had been wanted since 2001 for providing a safe haven in Afghanistan to the late terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden. The United States had even placed a $10-million bounty on his head.
SPIEGEL ONLINE spoke to Dam about Mullah Omar's death and the true extent of his influence within the Taliban.
Continued below the fold ...
by Oui
Sun Feb 24th, 2019 at 05:22:03 AM EST
So the U.S. stops refugees from Honduras at the border with Mexico ... president Trumnp called in the military for protection?
Berta Cáceres murder trial plagued by allegations of cover-ups set to end | The Guardian |
She died in the arms of her friend Gustavo Castro, a Mexican environmentalist, who was shot by a second gunman in the attack, but survived by pretending to be dead.
Cáceres had led numerous campaigns to protect indigenous territories from environmentally destructive mega-projects, as general coordinator of the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (Copinh).
Continued below the fold ...
by Oui
Mon Feb 18th, 2019 at 10:14:12 AM EST
A Breaking News story ...
Several Labour MPs about to resign, say party sources | BBC News - 14 min ago |
A small group of MPs look set to announce their resignations from Labour, senior party sources have said.
At least four backbenchers who disagree with the Labour leadership over its handling of Brexit and anti-Semitism are thought likely to break away.
They are expected to announce their departure at an event later on Monday morning.
Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson urged those thinking of quitting to "stay and fight their corner".
A move towards right-wing, conservative politics in the UK ...
More to follow!
by Oui
Sun Feb 17th, 2019 at 07:23:46 AM EST
The crisis and distrust in politics grew into discontent due to the financial crisis in 2008/9 and started a counterrevolution. As the West spurned the Arab uprising of 2011 by pushing for regime change through military means, it was the last nail in the coffin and downfall of Western Europe as a liberal society. In the end the Syrian civil war spurned as an offshoot created two years of war refugees that led to European states refuting human rights. By closing borders it was not a show of strength, it revealed just how devoid of empathy, care for our fellow men we have become as a society. Trump trumps it all - America is a decade ahead of Europe. The clock is ticking, but it's two minutes before midnight.
More below the fold ...
by Oui
Mon Feb 11th, 2019 at 09:56:17 PM EST
A fatal last straw that will just anger her Brexiteers as all ideas slowly evaporate as in a mirage ...
(Image credit Financial Times)
○ Theresa May's Brexit overture to Labour is a high-risk move | Sky News |
With exit day looming, and the prospect of negotiating changes to the backstop still elusive, Theresa May has made an overture to Jeremy Corbyn.
In a conciliatory letter, the prime minister offered fresh talks, alongside concessions on workers' rights, the environment and even financial support for deprived communities, all designed to win over wavering Labour MPs to support her deal.
Depending on which newspaper you read, it is being interpreted either as Mrs May opening the door to a soft Brexit - at the risk of a cabinet split - or as a rejection of Jeremy Corbyn's proposals for a permanent customs union.
Brexit: EU's Barnier says customs union idea 'interesting' | DW |
The European Union's chief negotiator Michel Barnier on Monday appeared to welcome the idea of a customs union arrangement with Britain.
In a letter to May, UK opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn suggested a "permanent and comprehensive UK-wide customs union" with the EU.
Corbyn's suggestion appears to envisage Britain being part of a separate customs union, rather than part of the EU Customs Union (EUCU) itself. How this would be established or agreed upon in a matter of weeks is not clear.
The Labour leader envisages common external tariffs on goods from the rest of the world.
Continued below the fold ...
by Oui
Sun Feb 10th, 2019 at 11:48:14 PM EST
Conservatives of the British ruling party roaming the globe to exert influence and extort the truth ...
Tory strategist's pitch detailed how CTF Partners would spread negative stories and press Fifa to 'restart bidding process'
Revealed: Lynton Crosby's £5.5m offer to undermine 2022 Qatar World Cup | The Guardian |
The detailed pitch document - "a proposal for a campaign to expose the truth of the Qatar regime and bring about the termination of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar" - was written in April last year and personally signed by Sir Lynton Crosby.
He said that if engaged, his lobbying firm, CTF Partners, would require £300,000 a month for 18 months to focus on efforts to delegitimise the Qatari government and put pressure on Fifa to "restart the bidding process" and award the World Cup to another country.
Continued below the fold ...
by Oui
Fri Feb 8th, 2019 at 09:22:46 AM EST
The salicious edits in this warfare will be covered elsewhere in the media, I want to look beyond when and where it all started.
The salicious parts are well covered by The Guardian and the content produced by Jeff Bezos in the last 24 hours ...
AMI, the owner of the National Enquirer, led by David Pecker, recently entered into an immunity deal with the Department of Justice related to their role in the so-called "Catch and Kill" process on behalf of President Trump and his election campaign. Mr. Pecker and his company have also been investigated for various actions they've taken on behalf of the Saudi Government.
And sometimes Mr. Pecker mixes it all together:
"After Mr. Trump became president, he rewarded Mr. Pecker's loyalty with a White House dinner to which the media executive brought a guest with important ties to the royals in Saudi Arabia. At the time, Mr. Pecker was pursuing business there while also hunting for financing for acquisitions..."
More below the fold ...
by Oui
Thu Feb 7th, 2019 at 07:52:03 PM EST
From Cuban exiles in Florida and Marco Rubio to the leading elites from Venezuala lobbying U.S. Congress and the White House. Undoubtedly a plot engineered in CIA HQ and the Pentagon's Southern Command. Many countries have succumbed under the onslaught of right-wing politicians and the deep pockets with money from oligarchs. The announcement in January took me by surtrise, I was aghast as a dozen or so nations immediately recognized Juan Guaidó as new interim president. EU countries followed suit after a ridiculous condition placed on Maduro to immediately hold new presidential elections, or else.
Leopoldo López led the opposition's challenge to Maduro from house arrest but could his protege thwart his own ambitions?
Under cover of the "shutdown" and bickering between Republicans and Democrats about building the Trump Grand Wall on the border with Mexico ...
More below the fold ...
by Oui
Thu Jan 31st, 2019 at 06:32:53 PM EST
Using tools denied by Western adversaries ... Russia, China, India and Korea trying to level the playing field.
Black Cube Targets Cyber-Security NGO at Behest of Leading Israeli Malware Maker | Tikun Olam |
The Israeli TV news magazine, Uvdah and the NY Times have collaborated on, and amplified a major story originally published by AP. It documents an elaborate, and ultimately unsuccessful sting operation on the Canadian cyber-security NGO, Citizen Lab (CL). The latter is the key organization which has exposed a series of malware attacks by various hacking outfits whose government, police, and intelligence clients, use the surveillance products to spy on citizen activists. Citizen Lab has documented the use of the Israeli dirty ops company, NSO Group's Pegasus malware by Mexican and Gulf (and many other) government agents to spy on, and even kill dissidents who seek to expose official corruption and who seek the reform their political systems.
Continued below the fold ...
by Oui
Tue Jan 29th, 2019 at 07:28:23 AM EST
Of course on a platform given to Prince Bandar by the Jerusalem Post. Israel, a new and reliable ally of an autocratic Saudi Arabia. What a bs in the Israeli media. Gets me pretty mad his morning ...
Top Saudi official: Barack Obama lied, set Middle East back 20 years | JPost |
Obama, Bandar Bin Sultan said, "would promise something and do the opposite." He spoke critically of the Iran nuclear deal and how the former president spoke about curbing Iran but failed.
Former US president Barack Obama lied to Saudi Arabia when violating the redlines he famously declared regarding Syria's use of chemical weapons and then not acting when they were used, a former senior Saudi official said in an interview with Independent Arabia.
Bandar bin Sultan served for years as head of Saudi intelligence as well as the Saudi ambassador to the United States. In the interview, he recalled a last phone call between the late Saudi King Abdullah and Obama, during which the Saudi leader told the US president: "I did not expect that [after] this long life, I would see [the day] when an American president lies to me."
Continued below the fold ...
by Oui
Fri Jan 25th, 2019 at 09:27:17 AM EST
BREAKING NEWS:
Roger Stone arrested in Fort Lauderdale FL. on an indictment for witness tampering and making false statements under oath ... that’s it for now.
The leading Democrats in the House Intelligence Committee will finally focus on the REAL risk to US security and its national interest.
Trump appointee 'overruled' rejection of Jared Kushner for top security clearance | The Guardian |
Last February, the Washington Post reported that at least four countries had discussed the president's son-in-law as a possible target of manipulation given his financial straits - the paper named the United Arab Emirates, China, Israel and Mexico.
More below the fold ...
by Oui
Thu Jan 24th, 2019 at 09:08:21 AM EST
The opposition calls by Democrats have been mounting due to the Women's Rights abuse by "dictator" Donald Trump during his presidency. On Saturday a mass rally will call for Trump to step aside and let National Assembly (House) leader Nancy Pelosi become to de facto leader of the Nation. It will be difficult to comprehend Trump to relinquish power and abdicate his Office to a woman. Trump as commander-in-chief still has the MAGA armed forces under control who expect to help him clear the streets from DemoRats and the fake call for a new president.
○ Anarchy two blocks from the White House: More than 200 are arrested as riot police teargas masked mob of "Trump haters" smashing stores and burning cars [footage January 2017]
More below the fold ...
by Oui
Wed Jan 23rd, 2019 at 09:41:07 PM EST
Central Elections Committee set to scold Likud on digital manipulation | JPost |
The chairman of the Central Elections Committee, Supreme Court Justice Hanan Melcer, is expected to announce Thursday that he will force the Likud to sign a covenant promising to refrain from digital manipulation in the April 9 election, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
Until now, every major party running - except Likud- has signed the covenant, which was drafted by Hebrew University lecturer Dr. Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler, the head of the Media Reform Program at the Israel Democracy Institute.
She wrote the covenant in lieu of legislation, because Israel's Election Propaganda Law was passed in 1959, and because it has only been updated once since then to include television, makes no reference to the Internet. Efforts to update the law before the election failed after they were blocked by the Likud.
"I wrote the covenant so there would be rules for the Wild West despite the lack of legislation," she said. "We went to [the] parties to sign it, but the Likud didn't want to hear about it."
Continued below the fold ...
by Oui
Wed Jan 23rd, 2019 at 09:21:17 AM EST
The British business community has lost its patience with the political paralysis in the City of London.
Today's headlines in the media are filled with gloom and doom. To be fair, not just in the UK but also in the port cities on the continent.
In capital letters when decisions are lacking - F E A R enters.
More below the fold ...
Frontpaged - Frank Schnittger
by Oui
Tue Jan 22nd, 2019 at 06:44:39 PM EST
Very precise the narrative I found out from mid-campaign in 2016 to the upset victory and inauguration in January 2017. A documentary I watched on Al Jazeera (Doha, Qatar), the state estranged from the Emirates and Saudi Arabia. The feud splitting the military support for Sunni rebels fighting in the Arab Uprising from 2011 forward. The feud that prohibited finding a political solution to the ethnic/civil war in Syria at the Geneva talks.
Watching a part today I found it based on facts and good analysis from experts on the Middle East from the UK, France and the US. Yet when the major part of the election cycle is reviewed the story is quite shocking indeed. And the people have gotten away with it due to the preoccupation of DNC Democrats with finger pointing at Russia's Putin. Putin's part is very minor relative to the billionaires working behind the scenes in the Trump campaign.
Paul Singer and Robert Mercer are both hedge fund billionaires, excellent mathematicians who knew how to manipulate through social media enough voters to tip the scale in Trump's favor. With 77.000 votes the Republicans "stole" three states: Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. HRC won the popular vote by more than 3 million, the EC votes count for the winner.
More below the fold ...
by Oui
Thu Jan 17th, 2019 at 08:31:27 AM EST
I have been blogging since the fall of 2004 to express my views in favor of John Kerry and as much against the tyranny of George Bush and his Republican henchmen. @BooMan I considered myself an independent researcher and analyst of politics. In the approach to the Nov. 2016 election, the cross-section of bloggers changed and Democrats were divided in tribes: for or against candidate Hillary Clinton in the primaries. From that time troll rating became a new norm which made writing your view a new adventure.
As soon as the Steele dossier was introduced in the media and discussed on the blog, division hardened. My analysis was plenty of skepticism from the start, especially as I started to look at where the dossier was coming from. My view on the matter was not appreciated. Two years have passed and still not all details have come out.
Reading this article published by The Hill, I agree with the headline: SHOCKING!
This item will be making all the headlines in the coming hours.
○ Dossier Shocker: Top DOJ Official Sounded Alarm, Warned Of Clinton Connection And Possible Bias | Zero Hedge |
FISA shocker: DOJ official warned Steele dossier was connected to Clinton, might be biased | The Hill - Jan. 16, 2019 |
When the annals of mistakes and abuses in the FBI's Russia investigation are finally written, Bruce Ohr almost certainly will be the No. 1 witness, according to my sources.
The then-No. 4 Department of Justice (DOJ) official briefed both senior FBI and DOJ officials in summer 2016 about Christopher Steele's Russia dossier, explicitly cautioning that the British intelligence operative's work was opposition research connected to Hillary Clinton's campaign and might be biased.
Ohr's briefings, in July and August 2016, included the deputy director of the FBI, a top lawyer for then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch and a Justice official who later would become the top deputy to special counsel Robert Mueller.
Continued below the fold ...
by Oui
Tue Jan 15th, 2019 at 11:11:40 AM EST
Once again I was alarmed by another poll and extensive coverage in some media: CNN: A Shadow Over Europe …
CNN poll reveals depth of anti-Semitism in Europe
Anti-Semitic stereotypes are alive and well in Europe, while the memory of the Holocaust is starting to fade, a sweeping new survey by CNN reveals. More than a quarter of Europeans polled believe Jews have too much influence in business and finance. Nearly one in four said Jews have too much influence in conflict and wars across the world.
One in five said they have too much influence in the media and the same number believe they have too much influence in politics.
Meanwhile, a third of Europeans in the poll said they knew just a little or nothing at all about the Holocaust, the mass murder of some six million Jews in lands controlled by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime in the 1930s and 1940s.
See also my earlier analysis:
○ Israel Lobby is Leading in Attack on Corbyn
○ War On BDS, Progressive Left Under Attack
Just wondering what role is played by the Institute for Statecraft, funded by the UK Government.
More below the fold ...
by Oui
Wed Jan 9th, 2019 at 01:04:51 PM EST
Developing Big Brother in the 21st Century ... interesting!
Google's Earth: how the tech giant is helping the state spy on us | The Guardian | by Yasha Levine - author
In 2003, a San Francisco company called Keyhole Inc. was on the ropes. With a name recalling the CIA's secret 1960s "Keyhole" spy satellite programme [Corona], the company had been launched two years earlier as a spinoff from a videogame outfit.
More below the fold ...
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