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May 17, 2017
Open Thread 2017-19
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The background on the persecution of Assange. More proof that institutionally this planet is beyond redemption, although a complete purging of lawyers and politicians would be a good start.
Getting Assange: the Untold Story – by John Pilger
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/05/19/getting-assange-the-untold-story/
-includes this gem that can be filed under ‘you just can’t make this sh*t up’.
“At a press conference, Borgstrom (lawyer/politician) was asked by a Swedish reporter why the case was proceeding when it had already been dismissed. The reporter cited one of the women as saying she had not been raped. He replied, “Ah, but she is not a lawyer.”“
Posted by: pantaraxia | May 21 2017 9:52 utc | 101
Re: @99 “One last query – given that it took two years for the Chinese security services to roll up the amerikan network (presumably it took time for them to gather the proof of each traitor’s guilt, present it to China’s judiciary and be advised of the sentence) why did the CIA sit on its ass instead of grabbing their employees and protecting them?”
I wonder if iron-clad proofs are necessary to arrest suspect spies, it is more the matter of tactics. Surveilance of spies can give additional intelligence, and one can use suspect spies to disinform the adversary. Concerning the rescue of the spies, you do not know which ones are compromised, and you do not want to shut down the entire shop.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | May 21 2017 14:06 utc | 102
Chris Floyd
‘ a terrorist hit–like any illicit high–doesn’t last long. You always need another fix. Especially when your economy is sinking beneath the weight of rampant cronyism, corruption, poverty and inequality.’
Another terrorists attack in UK,
Al Qaeda [tm], the gift that keeps on giving.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5266.htm
Posted by: denk | May 23 2017 7:34 utc | 103
denk
Western elites is in a mess concering these continuing deadly attacks, they cant even defend young girls (kids?) going to music concerts anymore. Its like they dont care at all.
Posted by: Anon | May 23 2017 8:07 utc | 104
soul brothers …
Trump calls for $1.7 trillion in social cuts
Macron prepares enabling act to slash contracts, labor rights in France
but …
S. African Hunter Dies Trampled by Elephant in Zimbabwe
the good guys strike back in south africa!
Posted by: jfl | May 23 2017 8:56 utc | 105
Something is just blowing up in Britain
Police confirmed the 22-year-old’s identity after officials in the United States passed it to news reporters, apparently against the wishes of the British police and security services.
Posted by: somebody | May 23 2017 21:24 utc | 106
Posted by: Mina | May 23 2017 22:02 utc | 107
@107 mina
interesting … i’m always struck dumb by spiegel. speaking of an agreement with putin prior to the the french election : ‘Had Marine Le Pen won in France, the Normandy format would have suddenly included a French president who has nothing but understanding for Russia’s expansionary policies.’ russia’s expansionary policies! … this from nato! … knuckle draggers with american tailors.
i still fear that the macaroon’s vision of a new eu is to embrace and extend the profoundly undemocratic nature of the present eu.
Posted by: jfl | May 23 2017 22:58 utc | 108
anon 104
‘ they cant even defend young girls (kids?) going to music concerts anymore. Its like they dont care at all.’
Washington allowed the jps to bomb pearl harbor so murkka had a pretext to enter ww2 remember ?
What about 911 ?
are the 99% just ‘useless eaters’, ‘disposable assets’, ‘cannon fodders’. ?
If you are a teflon club member like India, Indonesia, Turkey, Saudi……
You’r licensed to kill……..murkkans uncluded, with a helping hand from washington,
no less !
‘A 1976 internal report of the State Department said the Chilean government “might have believed this American [Horman] could be killed without negative fallout from the US government.” And, “US intelligence may have played an unfortunate part in Horman’s death.”
The report suggests that he was fingered for the Pinochet regime by a CIA officer undercover as a consular official.’
How low can one get ?
http://www.csmonitor.com/2000/0225/p11s1.html
Posted by: denk | May 24 2017 3:59 utc | 109
UK Deploys Army As Terror Threat Raised To Critical, May Warns “More Attacks Imminent”
May continued: “I do not want the public to feel unduly alarmed. “We have faced a serious terror threat in our country for many years and the operational response I have just outlined is a proportionate and sensible response to the threat that our security experts judge we face.
“We have faced a serious terror threat in our country for many years …” gee, do you think you might take a look at your ‘foreign policy’, just to see if there might be some linkage between your serial destruction of islamic countries in the mena and the terrorism in britain over these past 15 years?
nah! unrelated!
Rand Paul seeks Senate vote on Trump’s $110bn Saudi arms deal
“Saudi Arabia is an unreliable ally with a poor human rights record. We should not rush to sell them advanced arms and promote an arms race in the Middle East,” Paul said in August last year, when the deal was first authorized.
good for rand paul. put all the rest of them on record voting in favor, anyway.
then americans will know who to hold responsible for the resulting terrorist attacks in that country.
Posted by: jfl | May 24 2017 9:47 utc | 110
Posted by: jfl | May 24, 2017 5:47:27 AM | 110
They tried to conceal the name of the Manchester attacker, whilst the US leaked it. France came out with the knowlegde that the attacker traveled to Libya and Syria.
I guess that May et al don’t want British media to start reporting on the Manchester Libyan Muslim Brotherhood scene that was employed by British secret services for the fall of Gaddafi and in the Syrian “civil” war.
Posted by: somebody | May 24 2017 10:25 utc | 111
@111 someb
labour in britain should be pushing this point for all they’re worth. the only chance they have at this point is the truth … when all else fails …
Posted by: jfl | May 24 2017 10:41 utc | 112
112)
I don’t think Labour needs to, they were doing very well against May when this happened (which makes it the more suspicious).
May is pretty incompetent when seen close. The attack might save her but I don’t think people are that stupid.
This here is the Telegraph
A group of Gaddafi dissidents, who were members of the outlawed Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), lived within close proximity to Abedi in Whalley Range.
Among them was Abd al-Baset Azzouz, a father-of-four from Manchester, who left Britain to run a terrorist network in Libya overseen by Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s successor as leader of al-Qaeda.
Azzouz, 48, an expert bomb-maker, was accused of running an al-Qaeda network in eastern Libya. The Telegraph reported in 2014 that Azzouz had 200 to 300 militants under his control and was an expert in bomb-making.
Posted by: somebody | May 24 2017 10:57 utc | 113
add
This here is the 2011 delisting from UN sanctions of members of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group
Posted by: somebody | May 24 2017 11:02 utc | 114
all this should be moved to the Libya thread
According to French gov radio, the Libyan guy went to Syria (“and probably got radicalized there” it would be funny if it is no so sad already) and one of the Paris attacks had been to Manchester. It is clear that the attack was copied on the failed attacks at the exit of the Stade de France on the day of the Paris attacks.
Posted by: Mina | May 24 2017 13:05 utc | 115
Qatar hacked? RT is very prudent in not providing details. Detente between Putin and Qatar?
https://www.rt.com/news/389568-qatar-hack-arab-rift/
Here from AA
http://angryarab.blogspot.nl/2017/05/what-f.html
Posted by: Mina | May 24 2017 14:12 utc | 116
US to review Boeing, Airbus sales to Iran, impose ‘additional sanctions’
“We will use everything within our power to put additional sanctions on Iran, Syria and North Korea to protect American lives,” he told members of the House Ways and Means Committee.
“I can assure you that’s a big focus of mine and I discuss it with the president,” Mnuchin told lawmakers.
these are the same guys who sing their siren song of the invisible-hand and a market free of regulation that will take us all to paradise.
has there ever been a thumb on the scales as fat as uncle sam’s is at the present moment?
the world economy is kept in a stress position by the gangsters at treasury.
everything they say is a lie.
the russians make airliners, the iranians ought to look into them. perhaps they can co-produce them with the chinese. this is an opportunity to turn the so-called ‘real economy’ – what’s left of it – in the west against the megalomaniacal neocon financial elite.
Posted by: jfl | May 25 2017 11:17 utc | 117
@116 mina
erdogan is building a base in qatar, isn’t he? all this ‘hacking’ sounds weak to me.
i assume it’s been al-CIA-duh that’s been attacking erdogan’s turkmen in idlib? or was it the other was ’round?
Posted by: jfl | May 25 2017 11:28 utc | 118
US warship carries out “freedom of navigation” exercise in Chinese-claimed waters
This week, prominent US strategic analyst George Friedman advised business figures that war is “imminent” due to China’s failure, or inability, to convince the Pyongyang regime and its figurehead Kim Jong-un to capitulate. The pretext is being systematically prepared by Washington—removing the danger purportedly posed by “weapons of mass destruction”—to justify a pre-emptive attack on North Korea.
The real aim of war with North Korea, however, would be to profoundly weaken China’s strategic position and destabilise it politically. For decades, Beijing has propped up North Korea because it functions as a buffer between China, and US-aligned South Korea. The destruction of the North Korean regime, and the occupation of the North by the forces of the South, would be taken as evidence internationally that China is incapable of even defending a nominal ally on its own borders, let alone defending its territorial claims in the South China Sea from the military might of the US.
if that’s the case then china will be likely to defend its ally, wouldn’t it? and what sort of action would a decision like that require with regard to attacking us forces? if north korea is to be defended then us naval assets – the ohio class cruise missile submarines, for instance – must be sunk.
the neocon mantra is ‘china/russia are paper tigers’. i hope they don’t act on that article of their fundamentalist faith.
Posted by: jfl | May 26 2017 13:29 utc | 119
for anyone interested i put a copy of corbyn’s Manifesto: For the many not the few, as ‘leaked’ in the independent on 11 may 2017.
Posted by: jfl | May 27 2017 8:32 utc | 120
While the attention of the Western press has been focused on Trump’s visit to the Middle East, which he used to threaten Iran, and the NATO summit, where he attacked Germany, relations between India and Pakistan, South Asia’s rival nuclear-armed powers, have gone from bad to worse.
Pakistan has “operationalized” all its forward air bases, reputedly in response to a letter from the Indian military high command instructing 12,000 Indian Air Force officers to be ready for operations at “very short notice.”
Yesterday, the Pakistan-based Daily Times published an editorial titled “Looming Nuclear War?” It warned that were New Delhi to implement its Cold Start military strategy, which calls for India to mount a massive lightning strike on Pakistan’s heartland, Islamabad, due to its more limited conventional forces, “would appear” to have just one option—“use of nuclear weapons.” Pakistan’s defense minister has repeatedly vowed that an Indian invasion would be met with tactical nuclear weapons.
India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government incorporating the country ever-more completely into Washington’s military-strategic offensive against China, Beijing’s attitude has undergone a pronounced change.
Over the past two years, India and China have engaged in one diplomatic spat after another, and they have begun to publicly exchange military threats, both implicit and explicit. Beijing responded angrily to India’s most recent test of its Agni ballistic missile, which, with a range of 5,500–8,000 kilometers, would be capable of delivering nuclear warheads to any Chinese population center. On becoming head of India’s Army last January, General Bipin Rawat boasted of India’s readiness to fight a “two-front war” against China and Pakistan simultaneously.
US imperialism, in its drive to escape the consequences of its economic decline and reassert hegemony over Eurasia through aggression and war, has fueled the growth of geopolitical tensions in South Asia.
Fifteen years ago, while the United States was using the so-called “war on terror” to pursue regime-change in the Middle East and establish a strategic foothold in Afghanistan, the Pentagon and CIA were already promoting India as a “strategic prize.” India was uniquely placed, they claimed, to bolster US power in Asia and Africa because of its large military, growing economic heft and potential to serve as a vantage point for dominating the Indian Ocean, the world’s most important commercial waterway.
Since then, Washington has spared no effort to transform India into a “frontline” state in its military-strategic offensive against China.
The Indo-US alliance has overturned the “balance of terror” between New Delhi and Islamabad. During the Cold War, Pakistan was Washington’s principal regional ally. But over the past decade, it has been reduced to a poor cousin.
Under Modi and his Hindu supremacist BJP, India is seeking to leverage its growing strategic advantage and Washington’s eagerness to expand their anti-China alliance to pursue a belligerent policy toward Pakistan. Last September, after ordering Indian Special Forces to mount an illegal cross-border raid, Modi declared that the days of Indian “strategic restraint” toward Pakistan were over.
The Indo-US alliance has also become an increasingly pronounced threat to China. Modi has aligned India ever-more completely with the US drive against China, diplomatically and militarily. India now parrots the US line on the South China Sea; it has greatly expanded bilateral and trilateral strategic ties with America’s chief regional allies, Japan and Australia; and it has thrown open its ports and air bases for use by the Pentagon to resupply and repair its warplanes and battleships.
Facing a common threat from the Indo-US alliance, Pakistan and China have moved to strengthen their own longstanding military-strategic and economic ties. This is exemplified by the $50 billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor, which will link western China with the Arabian Sea port of Gwadar and thereby provide Beijing a means of partially circumventing the Pentagon’s strategy to impose an economic blockade on China by seizing various Indian Ocean and South China Sea chokepoints.
South Asia is thus becoming more and more geo-politically polarized between an India allied with US imperialism and a Pakistan backed by Beijing.
while everyone’s eyes are on the mena or north korea, it starts in south asia? modi is whack, and the pakistanis are all generals.
Posted by: jfl | May 27 2017 13:18 utc | 122
To recap ……..
whats the common thread to these leaders ?
King Birendra of Nepal,
King Gyrandra of Nepal,
Prez Oli of Nepal,
Prez Rajiv Ghandi of India
Prez Raja of Sri Lanka,
Prez Park Chun Hue of SK,
Pm Yatohama of JapaN,
,Pm Whithnam Oz,
Prez Sukarno of Indon,
Prez Arroyo of Ph,
Prez Rousel of Brazil,
Prez Kirchner of Argentina,
Prez Chavez of Venezuela,
Ans
They were all deposed, via coups/civil war/assasination/ corruption charges….
[*Those South Asian leaders were toppled by CIA/RAW join ops.]
……………………………………..
What did they do before their downfall ?
Ans
They tried to befriend China !
like so….
http://gtty.im/2qufyNy
China’s ww2 commemoration Day.
The Washington/Tokyo/Delhi axis were definitely not amused by her ‘insubordination’
……………………………………………….
Yet I manage to miss out one prominent figure, Prez Yanukovych of Ukraine !
http://gtty.im/2s1joA3
He had hardly touched down back home when all hell broke loose,
The rest is history.
Posted by: denk | May 27 2017 16:35 utc | 123
jfl 122
Modi is mad ,he’s militarising the Indo/Sino border like crazy.
Hardly a day went by without hearing more troops/armor/artillery/airforce being sent to the border.
China has zero reason to attack India now or ever, so wtf are the Indians up to ?
In 1962 Washington goaded Delhi to provoke China at the border, the rest is history.
China’s is being encircled now, its predicament might give the indians idea that this is the time to even the score, with the murkkans/japs/Aussies/SK backing up.
Posted by: denk | May 27 2017 17:15 utc | 124
J. Carson of the U.S. State Dept.
‘China is a very aggressive & pernicious competitor with no morals
———————————————————–
Beijing had big plan for Ukraine, its slated to be a key node of OBOR and a huge wheat producing base for land scarce China.
This wont do with Washington.
it had been stalking and sabotaging Chinese investments, killing Chinese nationals all over the world, thats uncle sham’s idea of ‘fair competition’.
Yanukovych had to go.
After the regime change, China’s plan went up in smoke, the huge deposit paid for the wheat production base and other proj went down the drain.
http://www.stalkerzone.org/chinese-silk-road-us-overthrow-yanukovych/
Posted by: denk | May 28 2017 1:34 utc | 125
India , the u.s. new pit bull in SCS,
http://bit.ly/2qZjzyr
http://bit.ly/2rp7Qt0
Posted by: denk | May 28 2017 1:59 utc | 126
Turns out king Birendra of Nepal was the very first casualty of OBOR,his entire family wipe out
after his return from beijing, 2001.
‘The main cause is the conspiracy of RAW (Research and Analysis Wing). RAW has been destabilizing Nepalese unity since 2005. Professor Wang Hongwei of the Chinese Academy of Social sciences is a veteran Nepal watcher made these remarks. ‘I firmly believe that Birendra’s affiliation with China finally became the prime reason for his ghastly murder, some power centers did not want late King Birendra to have good relations with China’. ‘Birendra was committed to serve his country, he had brought new ideas of cooperation with China, King Birendra believed that if Nepal is linked to the Silk Route, the country can have direct links to Europe and other countries mainly to import petroleum products’. ‘That is the prime reason why those alien power centers did not want him to survive’.
http://bit.ly/2qnLmsh
Posted by: denk | May 28 2017 3:41 utc | 127