Bulletin N° 824
Marat/Sade
(1967)
Subject
:
« MADNESS
IN THE TIME OF FASCISM »
22 November 2018
Grenoble,
France
Dear
Colleagues and Friends of CEIMSA,
The past few days have seen a barrage of reports on the sadistic murder of Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, at the hands of 15 agents dispatched by the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman “to do the deed.” There seems to be no shortage of credible evidence of who perpetrated of this unspeakable crime, the multiple motives behind it, and the intended beneficiaries.
It was certainly a crime against human rights and an attack on journalism, as well. But it is important to place this individual act in historical perspective in order to understand just where we are situated today. In the larger context, we find that the entire world is threatened with “imminent extinction” by global warming and by thermonuclear war – the so-called “twin disasters”. Very little is being done to reduce this monstrous threat which hangs over our heads like the Sword of Damocles, producing in many people either panic or a feeling of resignation – in either case, a “take it while you can” attitude so characteristic of the acquisitive bourgeois circles of society.
Certainly sadistic violence is not new to humanity. There are historical accounts of cruel and sadistic events dating back to Biblical times in the Middle East, the birth place of our three major western religions. Early literature and other evidence from China, India, Russia, and pre-colonial Africa and pre-Columbian America also indicate the experience of intense gratification from inflicting pain upon the body and mind of another, as well as upon the bodies and minds of those who bear witness to the act. Whether under the guise of “political terror,” or of “religious rituals”, or simply spontaneous moments of impulsive release from powerful inhibitions, this violence always reflects social relationships that have evolved under ruling class controls in any given period and it constitutes “propaganda by deed.” Sadistic actions are socially manufactured by institutions and customs; certainly sadists are not born to that career. Their behavior advertises the milieu from which they spring and is thereby useful to promote the corrupt system as a whole by naturalizing its violence.
Class consciousness involves a certain moral responsibility, not the least of which is to rationally fight back in self-defense and to take note of who is there with you. The “Good Fight,” of course, is for the general well-being - not for national dominance, or for religious/ethnic superiority, or for individual ambition. Those who allow the bully to prevail over them are not class conscious, and they likely lack the skills to acquire this awareness. Instead, they try to protect themselves by collaborating with their class enemies in exchange for small advantages.
The 25 + items below offer readers a window into the private lives of the ruling class. By some stroke of magic, we have been allowed to see in its full repugnance the cynicism and cruelty of our owners and their true class interests. The shallow narcissism of the Man, who is protected by wealth and power, who has everything and wants more, and is hyper-sensitive to his public image - this sort of man is accustomed to finding others to fight his battles for him, and as we have seen repeatedly the struggle is never equal, nor with explicit rules of engagement. It’s more like a massacre, for the owners are not accustomed to loosing, and there is no shortage of mercenaries at their beck and call.
Francis Feeley
Professor emeritus of
American Studies
University
Grenoble-Alpes
Director of Research
University of
Paris-Nanterre
Center for the Advanced
Study of American Institutions and Social Movements
The University of
California-San Diego
a.
Are We About to Face Our
Gravest Constitutional Crisis?
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/are-we-about-to-face-our-gravest-constitutional-crisis/
by Chris Hedges
Before this
lame-duck Congress adjourns in December we could face the most serious
constitutional crisis in the history of the republic
if Donald Trump attempts to shut
down the investigation by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.
A
supine and pliant Republican Party, still in control of the House and the
Senate, would probably not challenge Trump. The Supreme Court, which would be
the final arbiter in any legal challenge to the president, would probably not
rule against him. And his cultish followers, perhaps 40 million Americans,
would respond enthusiastically to his trashing of democratic institutions and
incitements of violence against the press, the Democratic Party leadership, his
critics and all who take to the streets in protest. The United States by Christmas,
if Trump plays this card, could become a full-blown authoritarian state where
the rule of law no longer exists and the president is a despot.
Trump
has flouted the Constitution since taking office. He has obstructed justice by
firing the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, James Comey, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, replacing
Sessions with the Trump partisan Matthew Whitaker. The president regularly
ridicules the Mueller investigation and insults its leader. In a tweet last
week he called the investigation a “witch hunt,” a “total mess” and “absolutely
nuts,” and he went on to assert that Mueller and his investigators were
“screaming and shouting at people” to make them provide “the answers they
want.” He called those involved in the probe “a disgrace to our nation.”
He
has repeatedly delivered diatribes against the press as “the enemy of the
people,” belittled, mocked and insulted reporters during press conferences and
defended his revoking of the White House press
credentials of a CNN reporter. He and his family openly use the
presidency for self-enrichment, often by steering lobbyists and foreign
officials to Trump’s hotels and golf courses. He has peddled numerous
conspiracy theories to discredit U.S. elections and deployed military troops
along the southern border to resist an “invasion” of migrants. However, an
attempt to fire Mueller and shut down the investigation would obliterate the
Constitution as a functional document. There would be one last gasp of
democracy by those of us who protest. It is not certain we would succeed.
+
Published: 21 Nov, 2018 22:10
"Stop being 'Saudi Arabia's b*tch," Gabbar tells Trump.
https://www.rt.com/usa/444589-tulsi-gabbard-trump-bitch/
+
From: Groucho Marx
Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2018
Subject: Byron: Jewish Family Service Press Release....San Diego Rapid
Response Network Shelters Asylum Seekers in San Diego
Hey
Francis,
After
reading your email, I saw this on the San Diego Jewish Family Services website.
Stay
well,
Byron
http://www.jfssd.org/site/PageServer
Media
Contacts:
Sandy
Young / Ashley Weaver, J. Walcher Communications
sandy@jwalcher.com/ ashley@jwalcher.com,
619-295-7140
San
Diego Rapid Response Network Shelters Asylum Seekers in San Diego; Launches GoFundMe Campaign
SAN
DIEGO (Nov. 19, 2018)
–
Every day since October 26, immigration authorities have released into San
Diego 20-30 migrant families (50-70 individuals) seeking asylum at the San
Diego-Tijuana Border.
These
families are desperately fleeing violence, suffering and persecution in their
home countries. They have braved the elements and dangerous hardships on their
journey to the U.S. in search of a safer, better life. Once initially processed
and vetted for security risks, the Department of Homeland Security has quietly
dropped these families –tagged with ankle bracelets and without any resources
–at various locations throughout San Diego. The situation has left hundreds of
migrants homeless on San Diego’s streets, with nowhere to go and no way of
getting to their final destinations.
The
San Diego Rapid Response Network (SDRRN), a coalition of human rights and
service organizations, has worked with partners to set up a migrant shelter and
are responding to the needs of these vulnerable children and families by
providing meals, medical care and legal services.
Appealing
to the San Diego community for help, a GoFundMe
campaign has been launched by the San Diego Rapid Response Network to raise
funds for the shelter to maintain its daily operation and provide basic
necessities, such as food, blankets and bedding, portable showers and toilets.
The
funding will also help SDRRN provide free legal representation for these
families and fund bond fees. To donate, visit GoFundMe.com/MigrantReliefSD
.
The
families include an average of one to two young children, ranging in age from
three months to 10 years old. Children are given age-appropriate resources,
including bottles, formula, diapers and toys.
Once
their basic needs are met, families receive one-on-one support and case
management from trained staff and volunteers to help them reunite with family
members in their destination cities –often a multi-day bus trip across the
country. Families also receive detailed information about their rights as
asylum seekers and details on their responsibilities to Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) and court appearances in their destination cities.
Along
with the SDRRN’s GoFundMe campaign, Catholic
Charities Diocese of San Diego has established a travel fund to support
cross-country travel expenses for these migrant families. To donate, visit sharejourneysd.org/families.
Core
partners for SDRRN include ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties, Employee
Rights Center, Jewish Family Service of San Diego, SEIU Local 221 and San Diego
Organizing Project.
A
24-hour hotline is available for individuals to call, should they or someone
they know be experiencing an immigration emergency (raid, arrest, checkpoint
and/or harassment): 619-536-0823.
About
the San Diego Rapid Response Network The San Diego Rapid Response Network
(SDRRN) is a coalition of human rights and service
organizations, attorneys, and community leaders dedicated to
aiding immigrants and their families in the San Diego border region. Core
partners for SDRRN include ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties, Employee
Rights Center, Jewish Family Service of San Diego, SEIU Local 221 and San Diego
Organizing Project.
San
Diego is the largest land border crossing in the world and has been a highly
active location for deportations and rights violations by Customs Border
Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). SDRRN was activated
to respond to increased immigration enforcement within San Diego County and
humanitarian issues arising at the border, including widespread family
separation and unjust deportation of asylum seekers arriving at the
Port-of-Entry.
A
24-hour hotline is available for individuals to call, should they or someone
they know be experiencing an immigration emergency (e.g. raid, arrest,
checkpoint and/or harassment): 619-536-0823.
For
non-emergency immigration legal assistance inquiries, local immigrants are
encouraged to call SDRRN’s pro bono legal assistance line: 858-
637-3365.
For
more information or to volunteer, www.rapidresponsesd.org
.
To donate, visit GoFundMe.com/MigrantReliefSD.
###
+
Life Secrets
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50639.htm
by Caitlin
Johnstone
When
it comes to the big questions, what life is all about and what’s really going
on here, everyone else is exactly as clueless as you are. The only difference
is that some people are better at feigning confidence than others.
~
Anyone
who thinks they’ve got life all figured out is suffering from a psychedelic
drug deficiency.
~
The
three most overlooked and under-appreciated things in human experience are (1)
consciousness itself, (2) the extent to which compulsive thinking habits dominate
our lives, and (3) the extent to which mass media propaganda influences the way
we think.
~
There
is a deep, abiding peace just beneath the shifting sensory input and flailing,
babbling mental chatter. It isn’t something lofty or distant that you need to
strive for to obtain; it is here presently, and you can recognize it right now.
Inner turmoil is the result of our falling all over ourselves trying to obtain
something we already have, but are overlooking. Sensory impressions, thoughts
and feelings all appear upon the canvass of emptiness, and that emptiness is
peace.
Society
is made entirely of narrative. By that I don’t mean there are no humans and no
solid objects; I mean all the rules, laws, expectations, beliefs and protocols we
have in place for how human beings are supposed to act are made entirely of
mental constructs. The most powerful people in the world are the ones who
understand that since society is made of narrative, then whoever controls the
narratives controls society. The way to democratize power is for society to
awaken to the fact that this is all made of stories, and we can change those
stories whenever we want.
~
Most
of our experience is dictated by habits of thought and perception, most of
which we formed in early childhood. How our attention moves, how we interpret
events and the way we respond to them, the kinds of decisions we’ll make day to
day, the kinds of thoughts we think from moment to moment and the way they
translate to behavior, all arise from internal habits we set in motion long ago
and then kind of forgot about and made subconscious. You can bring
consciousness to all of these habits and un-do them, thus allowing you to live
a life that isn’t dictated by ingrained unconscious patterns.
+
Did Israel Kill Yasser Arafat? Stunning Investigation
Exposes Israel’s Secretive Assassination Program
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/11/21/did_israel_kill_yasser_arafat_stunning
Israeli
intelligence officials desperately tried to prevent Ronen Bergman from writing
“Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations,”
a stunning book exposing the details of Israel’s extrajudicial killing program.
Israel even changed and extended secrecy laws to prevent Bergman from gaining
access to historical documents. Despite this, Bergman gained unprecedented
access while writing the book, scouring thousands of documents and meeting with
some 1,000 sources. The result is a stunning investigation that dives deep into
the targeted killing programs of Israel, which has assassinated more people
than any other country in the Western world since World War II. We speak with
Ronen Bergman about Israel’s many attempts to kill the former chair of the
Palestine Liberation Organization, Yasser Arafat, and the possibility that they
succeeded.
===========
b.
Published
on Nov 19, 2018
Saudi Arabia's war on journalism | The
Listening Post
It's
been more than a month since the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which Riyadh has admitted was a "rogue
operation". But, given the ensuing geopolitical public relations disaster,
one might have thought that the Saudi authorities dealing with the media would
be on their best behaviour. However, news has surfaced
of another Saudi journalist, Turki bin Abdulaziz al-Jasser, who was
arrested eight months ago and allegedly tortured to death while in detention.
Al-Jasser ran what he thought was an anonymous
account on Twitter, a platform that used to be a proxy public square for
Saudis, but where an army of trolls has poisoned debate, harasses dissidents
and spreads misinformation. The mastermind of that campaign was Saud al-Qahtani, who worked behind the scenes as an enforcer for
Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS). As his
boss conducted a charm offensive on the western media, al-Qahtani
ensured journalists back home toed the line and critics stayed quiet. He was
reportedly fired over his role in the Khashoggi
killing, but the chilling effect of his work remains. "He [Qahtani] is not only implicated in Khashoggi's
murder but in the kidnapping of former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri. He is a very powerful man, not only in
terms of shaping public opinion but in executing Mohammad bin Salman's decisions," says Feras
Abu Helal, editor-in-chief, Arabi21. But besides al-Jasser, there are countless others who are missing or
imprisoned for their online political activities, according to Ali al-Ahmed,
director of The Institute for Gulf Affairs, and former Saudi political
prisoner. "There is a famous journalist, an opinion columnist, Turad al-Amri. He has disappeared and we don't know if he
is free or not. Ali al-Dhufairi, who worked for Al Jazeera Arabic has gone silent for over two years. We don't
know if he's in jail or not. Israa al-Ghomgham, they want to send her to death because she
actually used social media to write about the protest in the eastern province
in Qatif." But even in the diaspora,
Saudis are not "immune," points out Sahar Khamis, associate professor at the University of Maryland.
"They were trying to bug Omar Abdulaziz and get
into his accounts and get into his social media platforms. And that's why some
of them are stopping their activism." In Riyadh, the latest official
explanation of the Khashoggi murder places the blame
on five allegedly rogue operatives who, according to the foreign minister,
could face the death penalty. Saud al-Qahtani faces a
travel ban, but nothing more. Meanwhile, his boss MBS - who apparently was
completely unaware of the operation that killed one of his most prominent
critics - can be seen on Saudi television - meeting with investors, visiting
soldiers wounded in the war in Yemen and smiling for selfies
with Saudi children. As the Saudi press is "going about their business of
trying to show him as the responsible leader, statesman who has Saudi interests
at heart", says Chris Doyle, director of The Council for Arab-British
Understanding, "I think it's questionable whether this will work right
now, certainly it won't work internationally."
+
Spread of Wahhabism was done
at request of West during Cold War – Saudi crown prince
https://www.rt.com/news/422563-saudi-wahhabism-western-countries/
The
Saudi-funded spread of Wahhabism began as a result of
Western countries asking Riyadh to help counter the Soviet Union during the
Cold War, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told the
Washington Post.
Speaking
to the paper, bin Salman said that Saudi Arabia's
Western allies urged the country to invest in mosques and madrassas
overseas during the Cold War, in an effort to prevent encroachment in Muslim
countries by the Soviet Union.
He
added that successive Saudi governments had lost track of that effort, saying "we have to get it all back." Bin Salman
also said that funding now comes mostly from Saudi-based "foundations,"
rather than from the government.
The
crown prince’s 75-minute interview
with the Washington Post took place on March 22. Another topic of discussion
included a previous claim by US media that bin Salman
had said that he had White House senior adviser Jared Kushner "in his pocket."
Bin
Salman denied reports that when he and Kushner – who
is also Donald Trump's son-in-law – met in Riyadh in October, he had sought or
received a greenlight from Kushner for the massive crackdown
on alleged corruption which led to widespread arrests in the kingdom shortly
afterwards. According to bin Salman, the arrests were
a domestic issue and had been in the works for years.
He
said it would be "really
insane"
for him to trade classified information with Kushner, or to try to use him to
advance Saudi interests within the Trump administration. He stated that their
relationship was within a normal governmental context, but did acknowledge that
he and Kushner "work
together as friends, more than partners."
He stated that he also had good relationships with Vice President Mike Pence
and others within the White House.
===========
c.
Black Agenda Report
15 November 2018
Ruling
Class War Games at the White House
https://blackagendareport.com/ruling-class-war-games-white-house
by Glen Ford
The
White House press corps, like the corporate media in general, are foot soldiers in a wider conflict between sections of
the ruling oligarchy: Trump versus anti-Trump.
“Most of the White House press corps are anti-Trump partisans in this intra-ruling class war.”
The
herd of corporate operatives that calls itself a White House press corps is up
in arms over the Trump administration’s cancellation of CNN correspondent Jim
Acosta’s press pass, last week. Acosta’s bosses at CNN, owned by AT&T’s WarnerMedia conglomerate, have filed suit, charging White
House staffers and an unnamed Secret Service agent with violating
Acosta’s rights to freedom of the press and due process of law.
Acosta had persisted in pressing Trump with questions after the president
several times proclaimed, “That’s enough!”
CNN
called the press pass revocation “unprecedented” and “a threat to our
democracy.”
Two
days later, Trump suggested that more press passes might be pulled. “It could
be others also," he said.
Despite
CNN’s claim that Acosta’s punishment was unprecedented,
the Cuban-American wasn’t treated nearly as peremptorily as Jorge Ramos, the
Mexican-born anchor for the Spanish-language Univision network. Presidential
candidate Trump kicked
Ramos out of an Iowa press conference, in August of 2015,
when Ramos objected to Trump’s characterization of Mexican immigrants as
“rapists.” Ramos was allowed back in the room after other reporters lobbied on
his behalf, according to Richard
Prince’s Journalisms ,
which has been keeping track of minorities in journalism since 2002.
“You talk about somebody that’s a loser.
She doesn’t know what the hell she’s doing.”
While
he was ranting at Acosta, Trump turned on another favorite target, April Ryan,
the American Urban Radio Networks correspondent. “You talk about somebody
that’s a loser,’ Trump said of Ryan, “She doesn’t know what the hell she’s
doing.” Then he zoomed in on another Black woman, CNN’s Abby Phillip, who had
asked if newly appointed Attorney General Matt Whitaker would “‘rein in
[Special Counsel Robert] Mueller.” “‘What a stupid question that is. What a
stupid question,’ said the president.
Trump
is a habitual abuser of reporters of color, said Abby Phillip:
“While
the president insults many journalists, these critics say his barbs targeting
women and people of color feel especially sharp, and hit at the reporter’s
basic intelligence and competence as a person. It’s a tone that black reporters
and scholars of African-American history say particularly stings, given that
[African American] journalists were not allowed into the White House until 1947
— and that the White House press corps remains overwhelmingly white to this
day.”
+
US
uses scare tactics to blame Russia and China for its own war preparations:
Scholar
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2018/11/15/580145/US-ramps-up-war-preparations
The United
States uses scare tactics to blame Russia and China for its own war
preparations, says American political analyst Dennis Etler,
because “the US economy has become totally militarized.”
Etler,
a former professor of Anthropology at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California,
made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Thursday while commenting on
a report which has warned that the United States runs the risk of losing a
military confrontation with China or Russia.
A US Congress-mandated panel of
bipartisan experts released its
findings on Wednesday. Their report praised the administration of President
Donald Trump for focusing more on Russia and China but it claimed that Trump’s
new National Defense Strategy is insufficiently resourced.
"The (National Defense
Strategy) too often rests on questionable assumptions and weak analysis, and it
leaves unanswered critical questions regarding how the United States will meet
the challenges of a more dangerous world," the report said.
This is while the Trump
administration has authorized the US Department of Defense to invest around
$717 billion into military strategies that will target Russia and China.
Trump has said the budget is aimed
at revitalizing the US military, one of his key campaign promises.
===========
d.
US-Funded
Neo-Nazis in Ukraine Mentor US White Supremacists
November
17, 2018
Short-sighted U.S. foreign policy that backs jihadists in the
Middle East and neo-Nazis in Ukraine is once again blowing back on the United
States,
as Max Blumenthal explains.
(FBI: Azov Battalion
Trained Rise Above Movement)
by Max Blumenthal
Last month, an unsealed FBI indictment of four American white supremacists
from the Rise Above Movement (RAM) declared that the
defendants had trained with Ukraine’s Azov Battalion, a neo-Nazi militia
officially incorporated into the country’s national guard. The training took
place after the white supremacist gang participated in violent riots in
Huntington Beach and Berkeley, California and Charlottesville, Virginia in
2017.
The indictment stated that the Azov Battalion “is believed to have
participated in training and radicalizing United States-based white supremacy
organizations.”
After a wave of racist violence across America that culminated in
the massacre of twelve Jewish worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue, the
revelation that violent white supremacists have been traveling abroad for
training and ideological indoctrination with a well-armed neo-Nazi militia
should cause extreme alarm.
Not only are white supremacists from across the West flocking to
Ukraine to learn from the combat experience of their fascist brothers-in-arms,
they are doing so openly — chronicling their experiences on social media before
they bring their lessons back home. But U.S. law enforcement has done nothing
so far to restrict the flow of right-wing American extremists to Azov’s bases.
There is one likely explanation for the U.S. government’s
hands-off approach to Azov recruitment: the extremist militia is fighting
pro-Russian separatists as a front-line proxy of Washington. In fact, the
United States has directly armed the Azov Battalion, forking over anti-tank
rocket launchers and even sending a team of Army officers to meet in the field
with Azov commanders in 2017.
Though Congress passed legislation this year
forbidding military aid to Azov on the grounds of its white supremacist
ideology, the Trump administration’s authorization of $200 million in offensive
weaponry and aid to the Ukrainian military makes it likely new stores of
weapons will wind up the extremist regiment’s hands. When queried by reporters about
evidence of American military training of Azov personnel, multiple U.S. army
spokespersons admitted there was no mechanism in place to prevent that from
happening.
Two
soldiers from the Azov Battalion in front of a building with Nazi symbol at the
battalion’s base in Urzuf. (Carl Ridderstråle-Wikimedia
Commons)
Today, Azov boasts combat experience, unlimited access to light
weapons, and supporters honeycombed throughout the upper echelons of Ukraine’s
military and government. No longer just a militia, the organization has
developed into a political juggernaut that can overpower Ukraine’s government.
Two years ago, the group flexed its muscle on the streets of
Kiev, bringing out 10,000 supporters to demand that the government bend to
their will or face a coup.
+
From
Maidan to Main Street
Blowback:
An Inside Look at How US-Funded Fascists in Ukraine Mentor US White
Supremacists
by Max Blumenthal
Not only are white supremacists from across the West
flocking to Ukraine to learn from the combat experience of their fascist brothers-in-arms,
they are doing so openly, under the nose of a shrugging law enforcement —
chronicling their experiences on social media before they bring their lessons
back home.
===========
e.
“Mysterious Helicopters” Continue To Evacuate ISIS
Members From Battlefields Across Middle East
There have been sporadic, but regular reports of
“mysterious helicopters” extracting ISIS militants from battlefields in the
Middle East.
Most recently, on November 13th, Syria’s
official news agency SANA cited an anonymous source claiming that US-led military
helicopters conducted an operation in the village of al-Suwayda
in Hasakah province near the border with Iraq. They
reportedly rescued several members of ISIS and transported them to an unknown
location.
Between November 10th and 11th,
an alleged US-led aircraft landed in the outskirts of al-Susah in Deir Ezzor province and took away
three ISIS members.
Earlier, on October 7th, SANA also cited
residents of the town of al-Shaafah who claimed that
American helicopters evacuated ISIS commanders from the Abu Kamal
area of Deir Ezzor province
to an undisclosed location.
SANA also reported that on September 22nd
the US-led coalition carried out an air landing operation in the outskirts of
al-Mrashde village located in the pocket where ISIS
militants spread in the southeastern countryside of Deir
Ezzor, transferring a number of ISIS commanders.
On August 23rd, TASS reported that Russia
recorded flights of mysterious helicopters supplying weapons to ISIS units
active in Afghanistan.
+
US State Dept. claims Daesh was
created to protect Syrians from Assad
The
Syrian government is directly responsible for creating Daesh
(ISIS)*, US special representative for Syria engagement James Jeffrey has
alleged.
“The
Syrian regime produced ISIS,” the diplomat said,
speaking at a press briefing on Wednesday. “The elements of ISIS
in the hundreds, probably, saw an opportunity in the total breakdown
of civil society and of the upsurge of violence as the
population rose up against the Assad regime, and the Assad regime, rather
than try to negotiate or try to find any kind of solution,
unleashed massive violence against its own population.”
“That
created a space for ISIS to recruit people; to protect people
to some degree, ironic as it sounds, from the depredations
of the Assad regime; and very soon, ISIS had an army of 35,000 troops
and had seized big chunks of both Iraq and Syria,” Jeffrey said.
Later
in the press conference, Jeffrey appeared to contradict himself,
recalling that al-Qaeda in Iraq, the direct precursor to Daesh, was actually started in Iraq.
“ISIS’s
predecessor under the same leader, [Abu Bakr]
al-Baghdadi, al-Qaeda in Iraq, was almost completely defeated when I was
in Iraq…But it was able to regenerate itself because there was no
long-term strategy in either Syria or Iraq, but particularly
in Iraq at the time, because that’s where we were focused on,
to ensure the enduring defeat of these elements,” the diplomat said.
Daesh’s predecessor, al-Qaeda in Iraq
(AQI), was formed in 2004, soon after the US invasion of Iraq,
which caused the country to descend into chaos as a number
of terrorist groups, warlords and militia groups waged guerrilla warfare
against the central administration, US forces, and each other for control
of their territories.
No US Aid for Reconstruction
===========
f.
The
Radical Evolution of WikiLeaks
by Kathy Gilsinan
While
the revelation of an apparent indictment against Julian Assange
sets an ominous precedent for news organizations, it also serves as a reminder
of his group’s stark transformatio
Before
the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
was an international fugitive, he was running a little-noticed experiment in
radical transparency. In the early 2000s, his then-obscure site WikiLeaks was mainly concerned with posting small batches
of previously private documents ranging from Swiss bank documents to Sarah
Palin’s emails.
Then,
in 2010, WikiLeaks posted a graphic video depicting
the killing of perhaps a dozen Iraqis, including two Reuters
journalists, at the hands of the U.S. military. The video brought the
organization acclaim from civil libertarians and transparency advocates, and
infamy within the U.S. military and elsewhere. Soon after its release, WikiLeaks posted its largest-ever
cache of leaked material: a set of diplomatic cables and Army documents, many
of which concerned the conduct of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. If WikiLeaks began as a mere internet curiosity when it was
founded in 2006, within four years, national-security officials in the United
States were publicly depicting
it as a threat.
+
Exclusive: WikiLeaks Lawyer
Warns U.S. Charges Against Assange
Endanger Press Freedom Worldwide
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/11/16/exclusive_wikileaks_lawyer_warns_us_charges
+
Trump
Quietly Orders Elimination of Assange
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50620.htm
by Eric Zuesse
On June 28th, the Washington Examiner headlined “Pence pressed Ecuadorian president on country’s protection
of Julian Assange” and reported that “Vice
President Mike Pence discussed the asylum status of Julian Assange
during a meeting with Ecuador’s leader on Thursday, following pressure from
Senate Democrats who have voiced concerns over the country’s protection of the WikiLeaks founder.” Pence had been given this assignment by
U.S. President Donald Trump. The following day, the Examiner bannered “Mike Pence raises Julian Assange
case with Ecuadorean president, White House confirms” and reported
that the White House had told the newspaper, “They agreed to remain in close
coordination on potential next steps going forward.”
On August 24th, a court-filing by Kellen S. Dwyer, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Alexandria
Division of the Eastern District of Virginia, stated: “Due to the
sophistication of the defendant and the publicity surrounding the case, no
other procedure [than sealing the case, hiding it from the public] is likely to
keep confidential the fact that Assange has been
charged. … This motion and the proposed order would need to remain sealed until
Assange is arrested in connection with the charges in
the criminal complaint and can therefore no longer evade or avoid arrest and
extradition in this matter.” That filing was discovered by Seamus Hughes, a
terrorism expert at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University.
On November 15th, he posted an excerpt of it on Twitter, just hours after the Wall Street Journal had reported on the same day that the
Justice Department was preparing to prosecute Assange.
However, now that we know “the fact that Assange has
been charged” and that the U.S. Government is simply waiting “until Assange is arrested in connection with the charges in the
criminal complaint and can therefore no longer evade or avoid arrest and
extradition in this matter,” it is clear and public that the arrangements which
were secretly made between Trump’s agent Pence and the current President of
Ecuador are expected to deliver Assange into U.S.
custody for criminal prosecution, if Assange doesn’t
die at the Ecuadorean Embassy first.
+
Pamela Anderson accuses 'smutty' Scott Morrison of
abandoning Assange
Baywatch
star questions whether Australian PM has ‘strength and conviction’ to bring WikiLeaks founder home
Former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson has penned a furious open letter to the Australian prime minister Scott Morrison,
Writing on
the US website the Daily Beast, Anderson criticised Morrison’s response to her calls for the government
to help WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
return to Australia, accusing him of trivialising the
issue.
Anderson – a close friend of Assange’s
– appeared on 60 Minutes Australia earlier this month to urge Morrison to
“defend your friend, get Julian his passport back and take him back to
Australia and be proud of him, and throw him a parade when he gets home”.
Assange, who has been holed up in Ecuador’s embassy in London since seeking asylum
in 2012, is under investigation by US law enforcement agencies for publishing classified diplomatic cables and other
secret government records.
===========
g.
Filipino
Reporter Maria Ressa on Duterte’s
Targeting of the Press & How Facebook Aids
Authoritarians
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/11/19/filipino_reporter_maria_ressa_on_duterte
As Philippines
President Rodrigo Duterte amps up his attacks on the
free press, we speak with renowned Filipino journalist Maria Ressa about Duterte’s deadly “war
on drugs,” his affinity for Donald Trump, and his weaponization
of social media. Ressa is the CEO and executive editor of the leading independent
Filipino news site The Rappler,
which Duterte has repeatedly tried to shut down. Last
week, the Filipino government indicted her for tax evasion in what is widely
seen as the government’s latest attack on the website. We speak with Maria Ressa in New York City. She has received the 2018 Knight
International Journalism Award and the Committee to Protect Journalists 2018
Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award.
===========
h.
CIA
‘concludes with high confidence’ Saudi Crown Prince
ordered Khashoggi murder – reports
https://www.rt.com/usa/444216-cia-saudi-khashoggi-assassination/
Saudi Crown
Prince Mohammed bin Salman personally ordered the
killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey last
month, the CIA has concluded, according to anonymous sources who spoke with the
Washington Post and Reuters.
The US
foreign espionage agency assessed with “high
confidence” that the prince was behind the death of the Post columnist,
the newspaper reported on Friday evening, citing “people familiar with the matter.” Reuters later cited its own
source as saying that the spy agency “had
briefed other parts of the US government on its assessment,” which contradicts
the official position maintained by both Riyadh and Washington thus far.
+
‘It’s a
suffering tape’:
Sensitive
Trump says he won’t listen to audio record of Khashoggi
killing
Donald Trump
said he has no desire to listen to an audio allegedly depicting the murder of
Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, but added that he
had been briefed that it was a “very violent, very vicious and terrible”
recording.
When asked by
Chris Wallace why he doesn’t want to get acquainted with the critical piece of
evidence in the killing of the journalist, who was a US resident and wrote for
the Washington Post, Trump replied “because it’s a suffering tape.”
https://www.rt.com/usa/444216-cia-saudi-khashoggi-assassination/
CIA ‘concludes with high confidence’ Saudi Crown Prince ordered Khashoggi murder – reports
Khashoggi was brutally murdered and
dismembered by a group of assassins at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on
October 2. Riyadh first claimed that it was unaware of the fate of the
journalist, who was critical of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (also known as MbS) in his
articles.
But with all evidence pointing at them, the Saudis eventually admitted
that Khashoggi was accidentally killed during an
interrogation gone wrong. The key piece of proof is claimed to be a recording
from the journalist’s Apple Watch that he turned on as a precaution before
entering the consulate.
Turkish authorities said they’ve obtained this gruesome audio and have shared
it with several countries, including the US.
Earlier this week, the Washington Post reported that the CIA concluded “with high confidence” that the killing of its columnist
was ordered by the Crown Prince himself.
Wallace wondered if MbS was lying when he
personally assured Trump that he had nothing to do with the crime.
Who can really know? But I can say this: he’s got many people now that
say he had no knowledge.
Since the outbreak of the scandal, Trump has been reluctant to yield to
calls for punishing Riyadh –coming from both sides of the aisle– and spoil
relations with one of America’s key security and business partners.
In Sunday’s interview, he reiterated his commitment to “stick with an ally that in many ways has been very
good.”
+
Pompeo handed Riyadh a plan to shield MBS from Khashoggi fallout, says source
US secretary of state gave Mohammed
bin Salman a roadmap to insulate himself from the
scandal, a senior Saudi source tells MEE
Saudi Arabia's king and crown prince
are shielding themselves from the Jamal Khashoggi
murder scandal by using a roadmap drawn up by the US secretary of state, a
senior Saudi source has told Middle East Eye.
Mike Pompeo
delivered the plan in person during a meeting with Saudi King Salman and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, last month in Riyadh, said the source, who is
familiar with Pompeo's talks with the Saudi leaders.
The plan includes an option to pin
the Saudi journalist’s murder on an innocent member of the ruling al-Saud family
in order to insulate those at the very top, the source told MEE.
That person has not yet been chosen,
the source said, and Saudi leaders are reserving the use of that plan in case
the pressure on bin Salman, also known as MBS,
becomes too much.
“We would not be surprised if that
happens,” the source told MEE.
The US State Department denied the
Saudi source's allegations, and called them "a complete misrepresentation
of the secretary’s diplomatic mission to Saudi Arabia".
"We’ve spoken publicly about our
goals: to impress upon Saudi leadership the seriousness to which the United
States government attaches to a prompt and complete accounting of the murder of
Jamal Kashoggi,” State Department spokesperson
Heather Nauert told MEE.
Mohammed bin Salman and Khashoggi: The crown prince's dilemma
According to the source, Pompeo outlined his
plan on 16 October, when he jetted over to Riyadh to meet with King Salman and MBS as international scrutiny on the Khashoggi case intensified.
Pompeo’s trip to the Gulf kingdom came
exactly two weeks after Khashoggi, a prominent
journalist and critic of the crown prince, was murdered inside the Saudi
consulate in Istanbul on 2 October.
Just days before Pompeo touched down in Riyadh, MEE reported that Turkish officials had discovered
that Khashoggi was killed and dismembered minutes
after he entered the consulate to get papers he needed to remarry.
Pompeo sent to Riyadh to advise Saudi leaders
+
Trump: Jamal Khashoggi 'Enemy Of The State'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fhIAjAWxFU&feature=youtu.be
===========
i.
Trump can’t
ditch MbS because of personal stakes: report
US President
Donald Trump can’t let go of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman despite increasing evidence that the prince ordered
the murder of a Saudi critic overseas, and that is because the US president has
personal stakes in propping up Mohammed, a new report suggests.
An article by
The New York Times’ White House correspondent on Sunday explained why Trump was
sticking with Mohammed even as “evidence piles up pointing to the Saudi crown
prince’s responsibility in the brutal killing of the dissident journalist Jamal
Khashoggi.”
Khashoggi was assassinated by a hit squad of 15 Saudi Arabian
agents — including a frequent companion of Mohammed’s and some members of his
security detail — inside the Saudi consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul on
October 2.
Turkey “moved heaven and earth”
to bring international attention to the killing. As that attention was
attracted, Saudi Arabia became incapable of quietly getting away with the
assassination.
Riyadh has
several times altered its narrative on the killing. Initially, it denied the
killing altogether. After 18 days of blatant denial, Riyadh finally
acknowledged the killing but said Khashoggi had been
killed in a “rogue” operation that had gone haywire. Still later, on Thursday,
November 15, the Saudi Public Prosecution offered yet another account,
saying the 15 agents had acted on “an order to bring back the victim (Khashoggi) by means of persuasion, and if persuasion fails,
to do so by force” but had then went on to kill him on their own.
Citing
informed sources, The Washington Post reported on November 16
that the CIA “has concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the assassination.”
Trump, who
had already refused to directly implicate Mohammed, then
defied his own country’s
intelligence agency by saying that the CIA assessment was “very premature.”
The New York
Times said in its Sunday article that Trump had basically three reasons why he
was resisting blaming Mohammed.
It said Saudi
Arabia — which is under the de facto rule of Mohammed
— is “a linchpin” of the Trump administration’s hawkish strategy on Iran. The
Saudi crown prince also has a close relationship with Trump’s son-in-law, Jared
Kushner, who is pursuing what he thinks would be a peace deal between Israelis
and Palestinians. And lastly, Mohammed has pledged to buy 110 billion dollars’
worth of American military equipment.
+
Khashoggi case story
in 2D animation. Will it change power equations in Saudi Arabia?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20yDbhXZpek&feature=youtu.be
What Jamal Khashoggi couldn't do while he was alive, in death he may
influence the outcome of events in his country of Saudi Arabia. See the
unfortunate events that prematurely ended his life and the conspiracy to hide
the dreadful deed in this comprehensive 2D animation video from Bisbo. Also make sure to wait for the limerick at the end.
+
#Khashoggi
https://twitter.com/hashtag/Khashoggi?src=hash
+
Why Did CIA Turn Against Saudi Crown
Prince MBS? It’s More than Khashoggi
===========
j.
Registering
Israel's Useful Idiots
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50642.htm
by Philip Giraldi
FDD and AIPAC need
adult supervision
Depending on what criteria one uses,
there are between 200 and 600 groups in the United States that wholly or in
part are dedicated to furthering the interests of Israel. The organizations are
both Jewish, like the Zionist Organization of America, and Christian Zionist to
include John Hagee’s Christians United for Israel,
but the funding of the Israel Lobby and both its political and media access
comes overwhelmingly from Jewish supporters and advocates.
Many of the groups
are registered with the Internal Revenue Service for tax purposes as 501(c)3
“educational” or “charitable” foundations, which enables them to solicit tax
exempt donations. One might dispute whether promoting Israeli interests in the
United States is actually educational, but as of right now the Department of
the Treasury believes it can be so construed, protected by the First Amendment.
But there is a
more serious consideration in terms of the actual relationships that many of
the groups enjoy with the Israeli government. To be sure, many of them boast on
their promotional literature and websites about their relationships with the
Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet, so the issue of dual loyalty or, worse,
acting as actual Israeli government agents must be considered.
+
Israel:
Snowden accuses Israeli cybersecurity firm of
enabling Khashoggi murder
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LeOt4HCI-M&feature=youtu.be
US whistleblower
Edward Snowden accused an Israeli cybersecurity firm
of developing and selling surveillance software to Saudi Arabia, enabling the
murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, at a
conference in Tel Aviv on Wednesday.
+
‘Disgrace to
Jews’: Israeli consulate goes after RT America reporter
over Gaza tweets
Israelis in
Tel Aviv protest against the ceasefire with Gaza, November 15, 2018. © Reuters / Ammar Awad
https://www.rt.com/usa/444499-israel-consulate-gaza-journalists/
The Israeli
consulate in Boston has sent angry messages to a RT America reporter, after his
criticism of how the US media were covering the deadly events in Gaza was retweeted by Palestinian activists.
Dan Cohen was
pointing out how the Associated Press was “whitewashing Israel’s crimes” including the shooting of the
agency’s own journalist in Gaza on Monday, when he received the messages from
the consulate, calling him a “disgrace
to Americans and Jews everywhere.”
+
Censored
‘Israel Lobby’ Doc Leaks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70DU4g0806w&feature=youtu.be
Anya Parampil reports on Al Jazeera’s
censored four-part investigation series on the Israel lobby in the U.S., which
was leaked by the Electronic Intifada. She explains why the Qatari network
opted to censor their investigation series after years of production.
Co-Founder of the Electronic Intifada, Ali Abunimah,
explains why Americans must see the films to understand the full scope of
Israel Lobby interference. Later, former member of UK Parliament, George
Galloway, joins the show to discuss the Israel Lobby’s influence on Al Jazeera’s decision to censor the investigation.
===========
k.
‘We Only
Killed the Bad People’: 2 Khmer Rouge Leaders, Forever Linked
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/16/world/asia/khmer-rouge-nuon-chea-khieu-samphan-genocide-cambodia.html?emc=edit_th_181117&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=301006721117
by Seth Mydans
The former
Khmer Rouge leaders Khieu Samphan,
left, and Nuon Chea at a
hearing in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital, in 2013. “Let bygones be bygones,”
Mr. Khieu Samphan once said.CreditMark Peters/Extraordinary Chambers in The Courts of Cambodia, via Associated Press
==========
l.
Trump’s
Defense Spending Is Out of Control, and Poised to Get
Worse
(Using a
time-honored trick, a bipartisan congressional panel argues
we should boost the president’s record defense bill even
more)
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-defense-spending-757028/
by Matt Taibbi
U.S.
President Donald Trump puts on a military jacket as he meets the US troops at
the U.S. Yokota Air Base, on the outskirts of Tokyo, Nov. 5, 2017.
A bipartisan
commission has determined that President Trump’s recent record defense bill is
insufficiently massive to keep America safe, and we should spend more, while
cutting “entitlements.”
The National Defense Strategy Commission concluded the
Department of Defense was too focused on “efficiency” and needed to accept
“greater cost and risk” to search for “leap-ahead technologies” to help the
U.S. maintain superiority.
The panel added that Defense is “not where most of the money is.” It said
Congress should be focused on “domestic entitlement programs” and “interest
payments on the national debt” as sources of savings.
===========
m.
The White House Spat With Jim Acosta Is Not A
First Amendment Issue, Julian Assange's Indictment Is
One
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/11/the-white-house-spat-with-jim-acosta-is-not-a-first-amendment-issue-julian-assanges-indictment-is-on.html?fbclid=IwAR1OAzJ0tBdVgAoUi_0jm7Vt5iOUiDLuc6ZqD9DtemPiKZhT0oa6ZhQJBWs
U.S. media
support a questionable First Amendment case when one
of the network reporters was rebuked by the White House. They are quiet on
another case where the danger to the rights of a free press is much more
serious.
On November
9, during a White House press conference with U.S. president Donald Trump, CNN
reporter Jim Acosta staged a confrontation. His 'questions' to Trump during the
press conference amounted to political statements and personal accusations. The
situation escalated when Acosta insisted to make more statement while the
president invited other reporters to ask their questions.
The first
Acosta statement/question was about the so called caravan of immigrants that
traveled through Mexico to the U.S. border. Trump had used it as a boogeyman
during the midterm election campaign and had called it an "invasion".
Trump answered the question by explaining that he wants immigrants to go
through the legal immigration process and to not pass the border illegally.
Acosta interrupted Trump's answer and asked a follow up, again in an accusing
tone. Trump also answered that second question.
Acosta made another
attempt to involve Trump into a political discussion about the issue. The
president rejected that by telling Acosta to do his job as reporter while he,
Trump, would do his as president. He moved on to the next reporter.
A White House
aid got up to fetch the mobile microphone Acosta held
in his hand. He more or less pushed her away and tried to ask another question,
this time on the "Russian investigation". Trump told him "That's
enough. That's enough." Acosta continued to ask. Trump relented and answered
the question by saying that the whole "Russia investigation" is a
hoax. Acosta tried another question, number five, asking if Trump was worried
about indictments in the case. Trump turned away.
Acosta
finally gave up the microphone. Trump then told Acosta that he is a "rude,
terrible person" and that CNN "should be ashamed" to have him as
a reporter.
Trump turned
to another reporter to continued the press conference.
While the next reporter asked his question Acosta got up again, interrupted the
other reporter and again tried to get Trump into a discussion. He failed.
A video of
the full exchange is here.
+
The Biggest
Threat to Free Speech No One Is Talking About
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-biggest-threat-to-free-speech-no-one-is-talking-about/
by Robert Scheer
Since the repeal in June of
Obama-era rules guaranteeing net neutrality, websites like Truthdig,
Democracy Now!, Common Dreams and more
risk being pushed into an internet slow lane that could severely hamper their
readership, if not drive them out of business entirely. For Jeff Cohen, editor
and co-founder of the media watchdog Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
(FAIR), it may be the most urgent threat to the First Amendment no one is
talking about.
“The biggest issue of freedom of the press is not that
Trump is mean to reporters, as he was last week with CNN’s Jim Acosta and Yamiche Alcindor of “PBS NewsHour,”
he tells Robert Scheer. “The biggest
freedom-of-the-press issue is that Trump is working with Comcast and AT&T
and Verizon to end net neutrality. … Ownership of the media and the ownership
of the internet, the fact that these big internet providers are [a] few giant
companies that also produce content—it’s very, very dangerous.”
In the latest installment of “Scheer
Intelligence,” Cohen plumbs a range of topics, including the myriad failures of
our political press and the Blue Wave election that wasn’t quite, as well as
the future of the progressive movement. No matter how many congressional seats
it ends up flipping, he contends, the Democratic Party is unlikely to change
course until it replaces its leadership: “It’s too indebted to the donor
class. So they talk with mush in their mouths. ‘We should have more
accessibility to affordable housing’—no! What’s popular is ‘Medicare for
all.’ ”
===========
n.
Nov. 19, 2018
The “Resistance” Struggles To Justify
Support For Trump’s
Prosecution Of Assange
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2018/11/19/the-resistance-struggles-to-justify-support-for-trumps-prosecution-of-assange/
by Caitin Johnstone
Ever since
suspicions were confirmed that the Trump administration is indeed
working to prosecute and imprison WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
for publishing authentic documents, the so-called “Resistance” has been
struggling to explain exactly why it is so enthusiastically supportive of that
agenda. And when I say struggling, I am being very, very generous.
When news broke that a court document copy-paste error had inadvertently
exposed the fact that the Trump administration is pursuing an agenda which experts of diverse political
persuasions agree would have
devastating effects on the freedom of the press, #Resistance pundit and DC think
tank operative Neera Tanden responded by tweeting, “Never mess
with karma”. As of this writing if you do a Twitter search for the words “Assange” and “karma” together, you will come up with
countless Democratic Party loyalists using that concept to justify their
support for a Trump administration assault on the press that is infinitely more
dangerous than the president being mean to Jim Acosta.
The trouble with that of course is that “karma”, as far as observable
reality is concerned, is not an actual thing. It’s a Hindu religious concept
that is supported by no more factual evidence than the Roman Catholic claim
that a priest literally turns bread and wine into the body and blood of a Nazarene
carpenter who died thousands of years ago. A Democratic pundit using the
concept of “karma” to justify enthusiastic support for Trump’s fascistic attack
on press freedoms is exactly the same as a Republican pundit using “God wills
it” to justify the existence of poverty, and it is just as intellectually
honest.
But it’s also the best argument these people have got.
I mean, think about it. There’s really no other way you can justify
supporting a Trump administration agenda–an administration you claim to oppose–in
a prosecution with legal implications that are severely detrimental to the free
press, which you claim to support. The only way to justify it is with some
vague, abstract notion that Assange is just “getting
what he deserves” since the 2016 WikiLeaks
publications of Democratic Party likely contributed to Trump’s electoral
victory over Hillary Clinton, and the only way to reify that vague, abstract
notion is with an appeal to some imaginary metaphysical principle, i.e. karma.
But, again, that is not a thing. There is no invisible eight-armed deity
floating around behind the scenes arbitrating and distributing the consequences
of WikiLeaks drops, and there is no rational argument
that the Trump administration prosecuting Assange is
desirable because Assange “deserves” it. The fact of
the matter is that these people are supporting Trump’s fascism in the most
toxic ways possible, they are utterly incapable of defending that support with
any intellectual honesty, and the self-proclaimed “Resistance” would be more
aptly named “the Assistance”.
Journalist Glenn Greenwald described
this phenomenon as follows:
But the grand irony is that many Democrats will side with the Trump DOJ
over the Obama DOJ. Their emotional, personal contempt for Assange
– due to their belief that he helped defeat Hillary Clinton: the gravest crime
– easily outweighs any concerns about the threats posed to press freedoms by
the Trump administration’s attempts to criminalize the publication of
documents.
This reflects the broader irony of the Trump era for Democrats. While
they claim out of one side of their mouth to find the Trump
administration’s authoritarianism and press freedom attacks so repellent, they
use the other side of their mouth to parrot the authoritarian mentality of Jeff
Sessions and Mike Pompeo that anyone who published
documents harmful to Hillary or which have been deemed “classified”
by the U.S. Government ought to go to prison.
…It is this utterly craven and authoritarian mentality that is about
to put Democrats of all sorts in bed with the most extremist and dangerous
of the Trump faction as they unite to create precedents under which the
publication of information – long held sacrosanct by anyone caring about press
freedoms – can now be legally punished.
And indeed this is exactly what has been happening. Check out the joyous
celebrations in online comments sections from when the news broke that the
Trump administration has brought sealed charges upon Assange
(here, here, or here for example)
for a taste of where the “blue wave” zeitgeist is at right now. Their hatred
for Assange has overpowered not only their hatred for
Trump, but the most important ways in which they are meant to be resisting him.
When you find
yourself supporting conflicting principles, it’s a sure sign that you were
never guided by principle to begin with.
And this is
really the lesson we can take from all this. The noxious strain of American
liberalism which promotes Russia conspiracy theories, supports the prosecution
of government transparency advocates, and only attacks Trump as an idea rather
than actually resisting his actual policies was never about any principle of
any kind. There were preexisting agendas against Russia, alternative media, WikiLeaks, and government transparency long before Trump
took office, and all of those agendas have been systematically advanced by the
powerful using the “us vs them” herd mentality of the
McResistance. These people aren’t supporting the
prosecution of a leak publisher because of their ideological values,
they are supporting it because that’s what powerful manipulators want them to
do.
Trump’s
despicable prosecution of Assange, and corporate
liberalism’s full-throated support for it, has fully discredited all of
mainstream US politics on both sides of the aisle. Nobody in that hot mess
stands for anything. If you’re still looking to Trump or the Democrats to
protect you from the rising tide of fascism, the time to make your exit is now.
===========
o.
Monday,
November 19, 2018
Israel aims
to ignite ‘religious war’: Palestinian Authority
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2018/11/19/580475/PA-Israel-religious-war
The
Palestinian Authority says Israel seeks to ignite a religious war after an
Israeli minister forced his way into the al-Aqsa
Mosque compound in Jerusalem al-Quds with a group of
extremists Sunday.
“The
aggression on al-Aqsa Mosque by storming it is a
hellish crime perpetrated by and initiated by an extremist terror ideology,”
Palestinian Authority spokesman Yusef al-Mahmoud said.
His remarks
came after Uri Ariel, Israel’s minister of agriculture and rural development,
and dozens of extremist settlers barged into the highly sensitive site in a
provocative act. Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem
al-Quds is the third holiest site to Muslims and past
Israeli incursions have touched off heavy clashes between Palestinians and
Israeli troops. Mahmoud said the move was carried out
on instructions from the Israeli regime to “storm the Aqsa
Mosque on a daily basis”. He said anyone who participates in storming
mosques and churches in Jerusalem al-Quds “represents
this bloody ideology”.
+
Boston
Billboard Honoring Gaza First Responders Removed over Claims of Anti-Semitism
+
‘Israeli
sniper’ shoots AP cameraman in PRESS vest as he films border protest
https://www.rt.com/news/444448-ap-cameraman-shot-sniper-gaza/
(Published on
20 Nov, 2018 13:45)
An Associated
Press (AP) cameraman has been injured by gunfire while filming a protest in the
Gaza Strip, the agency said. He was apparently shot by an Israeli sniper
despite wearing clothes identifying him as a media worker.
Rashed Rashid, 47 was injured in the leg on Monday while
covering the weekly protest at the Israeli border wall, AP reported. He received
multiple bone fractures above the ankle and will require surgery.
Witnesses say
Rashid was standing on an elevated area some 600 meters from the fence, when
the shooting happened. He was far from protesters and was wearing a blue helmet
and brown protective vest with the word “PRESS” clearly written in white. He
was also operating a live camera.
===========
p.
UN Condemns UK government's 'Mean-spirited and Callous Approach'
to Poorest, in Damning Report
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50617.htm
by May Bulman
'I have spoken with people who depend on food banks
and charities for their next meal, who have sold sex for money or shelter, children
who are growing up in poverty unsure of their future,' says UN special rapporteur
The United Nations has
condemned the British government's "punitive, mean-spirited and often
callous" treatment of the country's poorest and most vulnerable, in a
damning report.
The UN's
special rapporteur said policies and drastic
cuts to social support were entrenching high levels of poverty and inflicting
unnecessary misery in one of the richest countries in the world, adding that Brexit
was exacerbating the problem.
“The United
Kingdom’s impending exit from the European Union poses particular risks for
people in poverty, but the government appears to be treating this as an
afterthought,” said the UN's expert on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip
Alston, at the end of a 12-day visit to the country.
+
May Brexit Deal “Worse” than Remaining in EU- Galloway
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rJQRm16uBo&feature=youtu.be
with George Galloway
Anya Parampil reports on UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s
emergency cabinet meeting, called in an effort to win approval for her final Brexit plan, which members from her own party as well as Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn have
deemed a failure. Former member of UK Parliament
George Galloway returns to tell viewers he believes the plan is dead in the
water and how he believes Corbyn would negotiate Brexit differently.
+
85 arrested
as ‘Extinction Rebellion’ protest blocks major London bridges (PHOTOS, VIDEO)
https://www.rt.com/uk/444270-london-bridge-climate-protest-arrests/
The group
says it aims to use civil disobedience to force the government to take more
steps to tackle climate change, adding that it has plenty of people willing to
be arrested to draw attention to the issue.
===========
q.
Midterm
Results: the War Party Rules
https://blackagendareport.com/midterm-results-war-party-rules
by Danny Haiphong
There is no
doubt who won the midterm elections: the War Party, which for generations has
been virtually unopposed in the US.
“Democrats
gave a wink and a nod to the military industrial complex by remaining silent on
the question of war.”
Forget the
midterms. The “blue wave” was a low tide. The Democrats took the House but lost
the Senate, and badly. The good news is that another excessively hyped election
is over. Let’s talk instead about how under US imperialism, war is a constant.
Republican and Democratic Party officials are members of the War Party. US
imperial wars rage on regardless of whether a Democrat is elected for President
or Congress. The War Party follows of the dictates of Wall Street and the war
machine. Party membership not only includes Democratic and Republican officials
but also the corporate media.
Democratic
Party officials described last week’s midterm elections as the most important
electoral moment in U.S. history. So-called “blue wave” politicians such as
Stacy Abrams and Beto O’Rourke were deemed the “new”
face of the Democrat side of the War Party. Democrats have promised their base
that they will protect Obamacare, institute
immigration reform, and “resist” Trump. These empty promises lacked the
substance necessary to improve the conditions of poor and oppressed people.
Beyond empty promises and corporate gesturing, Democrats gave a wink and a nod
to the military industrial complex by remaining silent on the question of war.
“The War
Party follows of the dictates of Wall Street and the war machine.”
===========
r.
A California
Jew in a Time of Anti-Semitism
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/11/16/a-california-jew-in-a-time-of-anti-semitism/
by Jonah Raskin
When I was
eleven-years-old, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, two American-born Jews, were sent
to the electric chair after they were found guilty of stealing the secret of
the atomic bomb and then handing it to the Soviets. That event seared my
childhood more than any other; my parents were also Jewish and had belonged to
the American Communist Party from 1938 to 1948.
The American
Nazi Party was alive and well when I was a boy. Members of the organization
wore swastikas and paraded in largely Jewish neighborhoods. The U.S. Supreme
Court ruled that they had a right to do so under the First Amendment to the
Constitution. “Jew Boy” was a term of derision and so was “New York Jew,” which
might be taken to mean a Wall Street banker or a Communist agitator. Now, New
York Jew it might mean the former mayor of the city, Michael Bloomberg, the
eleventh richest person in the world, or the orthodox Jews who are
anti-Zionist.
To paraphrase
Henry James, “It’s a complex fate to be an American Jew.” Now, more than ever
before the American Jewish community, which is as divided as ever before since
the height of McCarthyism and the Cold War, faces crucial political and social
issues that will not be resolved anytime soon.
I probably
will never lose my identity as a Jew, though I don’t believe in the Messiah,
don’t care if I never see Jerusalem and have never thought that Jews are the
“Chosen People” who have suffered more than any other people because of
discrimination and prejudice.
I’m a Jew who
believes that the State of Israel has often behaved like a Nazi regime when it
comes to Palestinians. I don’t think of myself as a “white person,” if only
because so-called “white people” have reminded me for much of my life that I
was Jewish and didn’t belong in their fraternities, clubs and cliques, though
sometimes I have been a token Jew, as when I played rugby in New York in the
early 1960s and rubbed shoulders with Irish from Ireland, white South Africans
and white Australians.
After all
these years, I remember now a diner party in Antwerp,
Belgium in 1988 when the host, who was also a colleague of mine at the
university, began to talk about a Belgian woman he described as “a Jewess,” a
word I had never heard spoken before. I associated “Jewess” with Rebecca, the
dark, exotic Jew, and the daughter of a moneylender in Sir Walter Scott’s 1819
novel Ivanhoe, which is set in the
twelfth-century, about the same time that some astute observers of human nature
first explained that non-Jews projected their own “dark side” onto Jews, rather
than owning it themselves.
The word
“Jewess”—when coupled with my landlady’s comment that “the Jews were
taking over Antwerp”—raised my hackles, made me aware of Belgian anti-Semitism
and brought out my own self-identification as Jewish, which is magnified
whenever I hear negative comments about Jews.
Jean-Paul
Sartre’s Anti-Semite and Jew, published
in 1945—just as the world was becoming aware of German concentration camps—has
been my Bible when it comes to anti-Semitism
Search for "antiSemitism" - PaulCraigRoberts.org
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/?s=anti-Semitism
===========
s.
Phil Ochs and
the Crucifixion of President John F. Kennedy
https://dissidentvoice.org/2018/11/phil-ochs-and-the-crucifixion-of-president-john-f-kennedy/
by Edward Curtin / November 16th, 2018
They say they
can’t believe it, it’s a sacrilegious shame
Now, who would want to hurt such a hero of the game?
But you know I predicted it; I knew he had to fall
How did it happen? I hope his suffering was small.
Tell me every detail, I’ve got to know it all,
And do you have a picture of the pain?
— Phil
Ochs, “The Crucifixion”
You are aware
of only one unrest;
Oh, never learn to know the other!
Two souls, alas, are dwelling in my breast,
And one is striving to forsake its brother.
— Goethe,
Faust
President
John Kennedy was assassinated by the U.S. national-security state, led by the
C.I.A., on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas. That is a fact beyond
dispute, except for those who wish to engage in pseudo-debates to deny the
obvious. I prefer not to, since there is nothing to debate.
===========
t.
Six Recent US
Antiwar Demonstrations Your Rulers Don’t Want You Talking About
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50614.htm
by Caitlin Johnstone
November 15, 2018 - A friend told me
yesterday that he hadn’t seen an antiwar protest in America in ten years. It
was a sincere comment; he genuinely hadn’t seen any coverage on any peace
activism in his country during that time. And of course he hadn’t; it is
mainstream media’s job to distort public narratives in favor of the war-hungry
plutocratic class which owns the media outlets. But I’ve actually been noticing
a lot of antiwar activism lately which, while often far from the spotlight of
mass media attention, has given me much hope for the future.
It is true
there was a noticeable lull in vocal demonstrations against military violence
since George W Bush left office, largely due to mainstream US partisan
dynamics. Mainstream liberals supported Obama, so they avoided bringing
attention to his continuation of Bush’s policies of mass murder, while
mainstream conservatives ignored the Obama administration’s violence since they
focused on attacking him as a weakling and a terrorist sympathizer, and of
course had no ground to stand on for any criticisms of warmongering after
supporting eight years of Bush. Some antiwar activism did happen in the US
during that time, but not much.
And,
bizarrely, we’ve seen a mutation of this trend continue well into the Trump
administration, with mainstream liberals herded into holding demonstrations in
support of the empty Russiagate
conspiracy theory. The mass media-endorsed collusion
narrative has fed into an anti-Russia hysteria among Democratic Party loyalists
that has been used to manufacture support for dangerous cold war escalations
and an obscenely bloated military budget, while any objection to Trump’s warmongering and advancement of longstanding neoconservative agendas
has been intentionally lost in the shuffle.
===========
u.
The Iranian
Albatross the US Has Hung Around Its Own Neck
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50630.htm
“Mr. Trump, nor
anyone else in his administration, has announced any conclusions about how Mr. Khashoggi died, or who bears responsibility for ordering
the killing”, a Washington Post editorial fulminates. “Instead, they have
pretended to be waiting for the results of a Saudi investigation... the
obvious problem with that stance is it assumes that Mohammed bin Salman himself is not at the bottom of the Khashoggi plot —
though abundant evidence points to the crown prince. In truth, as the
administration surely knows, there is no Saudi investigation — only a cover-up
operation that has clumsily tried to disguise itself as an inquiry”.
One aspect to this affair is the US
domestic issue. The White House is increasingly perceived – as
the Washington Post implies – as engaged in a ‘soft’ cover-up of
a cover-up. That is to say, the White House is being viewed as so set on
keeping MbS in position as lynchpin to Trump’s entire
Middle Eastern strategy that the White House and Mr
Bolton will try to turn a Nelsonian ‘blind eye’ – or
a ‘selective ear’ – to any audio evidence provided by the Turkish
government that seems to implicate MbS.
President Trump is keeping his powder
dry. He said: “I’ll have a much stronger opinion on that subject over the next
week … I’m forming a very strong opinion.” But caution on his part
might be wise: leading Turkish daily, Yeni Safak, which is close to the Turkish government, and which has
been covering leaked details of the Khashoggi
investigation day by day, has reported that Maher Mutrib, the
Saudi intelligence official who led the 15-man assassination team in
Ankara, spoke to Badr al-Asaker,
the head of the Crown Prince's private office, four times directly after Khashoggi was killed (if it was Mutrib
who said “tell your boss” to
MbS’ chef de cabinet, then the implication is
clear). This has not been officially confirmed, but it is
possible (and likely) that Turkish intelligence has yet further
details to trickle out, piecemeal, to discredit the Saudi ‘line’ each time
the kingdom tries to ‘draw the line’ under the case. Erdogan is
determined to get MbS’ scalp, it seems.
===========
v.
US promises to ‘disrupt’ oil shipments to Syria,
sanctions Russian & Iranian
companies
https://www.rt.com/usa/444472-us-sanctions-russian-iranian-firms-syria/?utm_source=browser&utm_medium=push_notifications&utm_campaign=push_notifications
The US has
introduced sanctions against what it called a network of petroleum shipments to
Syria, including Russian and Iranian companies and individuals. Washington says
it wants to disrupt shipments to Syrian-owned ports.
Six
individuals have been sanctioned over oil shipments to Syria, the US Treasury
Department has said. Three institutions have also been sanctioned.
In addition
to the fresh measures, the US Coast Guard has issued an advisory warning of “significant sanctions risks” on
petroleum shipments to Syria. The US has promised that it will “disrupt” any attempted shipments to
government-owned ports in Syria.
The Treasury
Department claims that the individuals and companies affected by the measures
are involved in a “complex and malign
scheme” to bolster the regime of Syrian leader Bashar
Assad. It claims that oil is being imported into Syria from Iran in defiance of
American sanctions. The Syrian government then allegedly transfers cash to
Islamic militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah, at Iran’s direction.
It claims
that Russian companies act as middlemen, taking money from Iran to move the oil
to Syria. In one case detailed in a Treasury Department press release, the
Iranian central bank transferred money to an Iranian pharmaceutical company,
hoping that its humanitarian name would throw US observers off the trail.
That money
was then allegedly wired to a Russian bank, then to a Russian company that
shipped the oil from Iran to Syria. Along the way, the Treasury Department
claims that Russian ships would switch off their GPS tracking systems to
conceal the origin of their cargo.
===========
w.
Noam Chomsky
- Confronting Climate Change
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8A1_rL0d1c
+
Toxic Talks
http://roadforclimateaction.com/
+
Earth Strike
(A movement to end climate change –
2019)
===========
x.
Erdogan, MBS,
Islamic leadership and the price of silence
http://www.atimes.com/article/erdogan-mbs-islamic-leadership-and-the-price-of-silence/
by Pepe Escobar
The House of
Saud's ties to the Khashoggi slaying are being milked
by the Turkish President for maximum benefit amid debate on leadership of the
Islamic world and how the crisis may affect US and Saudi strategy in the Middle
East
It was packaged as a stark, graphic message, echoing across
Eurasia: Presidents Erdogan and Putin, in a packed
hall in Istanbul on Monday, surrounded by notables, celebrating completion of
the 930 kilometer-long offshore section of the TurkStream
gas pipeline across the bottom of the Black Sea.
This is no
less than a key landmark in that fraught terrain I named ‘Pipelineistan’
in the early 2000s. It was built by Gazprom in only
two and a half years despite facing massive pressure from Washington, which had
already managed to derail TurkStream’s predecessor,
South Stream.
===========
y.
Senators ask
Trump to investigate if MBS was responsible for Khashoggi's
death
Published on 21 Nov, 2018
04:37 Edited time: 21 Nov, 2018 13:58
https://www.rt.com/usa/444504-senate-asks-investigate-crown-prince/
In a rare
bipartisan effort, the senior Republican and Democrat on the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee have both asked President Donald Trump to launch a human
rights probe into Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.
In a letter
penned by the outgoing chairman of the committee, Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn.)
and ranking member Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), lawmakers urge Trump to determine
whether Mohammad bin Salman (MBS) bears
responsibility for the torture and brutal murder of Washington Post columnist
and Saudi citizen Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi
consulate in Turkey in October.