One of those who supported nationwide anti-Trump protests in the US is billionaire investor and philanthropist George Soros, who’s well known for his charity organizations across the globe.
Related: Soros-funded NGOs aiming to bring down our govt – Hungarian Foreign Minister | The History of Soros – Lord of Chaos
By Robert Parry
President Trump’s ban against letting people from seven mostly Muslim countries enter the United States looks to many like a thinly concealed bias against a religion, but it also is a troubling sign that Trump doesn’t have the nerve to challenge the false terrorism narrative demanded by Israel and Saudi Arabia.
The Israeli-Saudi narrative, which is repeated endlessly inside Official Washington, is that Iran is the principal sponsor of terrorism when that dubious honor clearly falls to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Sunni-led Muslim states, including Pakistan, nations that did not make Trump’s list.
The evidence of who is funding and supporting most of the world’s terrorism is overwhelming. All major terrorist groups that have bedeviled the United States and the West over the past couple of decades – from Al Qaeda to the Taliban to Islamic State – can trace their roots back to Sunni-led countries, particularly Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Qatar.
Privately, this reality has been recognized by senior U.S. officials, including former Vice President Joe Biden, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Trump’s National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. But that knowledge has failed to change U.S. policy, which caters to the oil-rich Saudis and the politically powerful Israelis.
Read the full article at Consortium News
The Philippines’s controversial President Rodrigo Duterte came to power on his promise to crack down on crime. Dubbed “The Punisher”, he addressed his subjects, encouraging them to kill drug addicts. However, his inauguration was followed by a wave of extrajudicial killings of alleged drug dealers and now he denies any involvement with the vigilante violence.
A dramatic increase in brutal street executions coincided with the start of “Project Duterte”, the police programme aimed at “Drug Use and Trafficking Elimination through Rehabilitation, Training and Enforcement”, many Filipinos claim they have lost all trust in the country’s law enforcement.
Most of the street murders carry distinct hallmarks; the victims’ heads are wrapped in adhesive tape, they are left with stab wounds and a sign accusing them of being drug “pushers” is left at the scene. Some believe the police are behind the murders, others that the drug cartels kill their own to cover their tracks. RT Doc spoke to a “death squad” member who claims to have been hired by the authorities to assassinate suspects. The more prominent an alleged drug dealer, the more his killers are paid. The President concedes that there may be innocent victims but he simply describes them as ‘collateral damage’.
Street murder without trial, suspects dying in police custody, overcrowded prisons, vigilante terror squads hunting targets for the price put on their heads and innocent lives lost: all this adds up to the flip side of the Philippines’ war on drugs. President Duterte talks exclusively to RT Doc.
Source: RT Documentary Channel
US Congress woman, Tulsi Gabbard.
Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii has just departed war-torn Damascus following what her aides described as a “fact-finding” mission to work toward ending the nearly six-year conflict in Syria.
Congressional travel to the devastated country is exceedingly rare, especially as fighting continues in direct violation of a recent cease-fire agreement brokered by Turkey and Russia. This week, Syrian government forces backed by Lebanese militants attempted to recapture a rebel-controlled area near Damascus that includes a pumping station that supplies most of the city’s water.
Gabbard, an Iraq war veteran who drew speculation about an appointment in the Trump administration after she met privately with the president-elect in November, has frequently bucked her party and Washington’s foreign-policy establishment in debates over the Syrian conflict.
For years, she has opposed a U.S. policy of regime change and says the country will become more unstable and dangerous if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is ousted.
In describing the purpose of the trip, Gabbard spokeswoman Emily Latimer said she “felt it was important to meet with a number of individuals and groups, including religious leaders, humanitarian workers, refugees, and government and community leaders.”
This month, she introduced the Stop Arming Terrorists Act, which would prohibit the U.S. government from providing funding and weapons to Sunni militant groups working to overthrow the Assad regime, such as the Levant Front, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, and al Qaeda.
In interviews, she has called for the United States to abandon its goal of removing Assad and focus on eliminating the Islamic State and al Qaeda.
“Gabbard has long been committed to peace and ending counterproductive, interventionist wars,” her spokeswoman told Foreign Policy.
Full article at Foreign Policy
Related: U.S. Congresswoman: CIA Must Stop Illegal, Counterproductive War to Overthrow Assad
President-elect Donald Trump called BuzzFeed a ‘failing pile of garbage’ over the report that Moscow has been blackmailing him over past sex adventures in Russia. He also refused to answer a question from CNN, another outlet that published the report.
“Be quiet. I’m not going to give you a question. You are fake news,” Trump told CNN reporter Jim Acosta at the press conference in New York on Wednesday, where he announced transferring the company to his sons to avoid conflicts of interest.
By Paul Craig Roberts
For several years Russia and her president have experienced endless demonization. The Russians know that Georgia’s invasion of South Ossetia (done while Putin was at the Beijing Olympics) was a Washington provocation. The Russians know that Washington’s coup in Ukraine (done while Putin was at the Sochi Olympics) was a provocation aimed at seizing Russia’s Black Sea naval base in Crimea and cutting Russia off from the Mediterranean. The Russians know that Washington knows that the charges that Russia hacked Hillary’s emails and the US presidential election are lies. The Russians know that the “Russian threat” created by Washington is a lie along with all of its permutations, such as an impending Russian invasion of Poland and the Baltics. The Russians understand that US ABM bases on Russia’s borders are provocations, as are NATO military exercises on Russia’s borders and in the Black Sea. You can add to this list on your own.
The lies are ubiquitous, have grown more absurd, and are now institutionalized in the US government in the CIA, executive branch agencies, and among many US senators and representatives. That these lies are validated by endless media repetitions throughout the Western world are viewed by Russia as indications that Western populations are being prepared for a military attack on Russia. Putin has warned publicly on many occasions that the Western propaganda is dangerously destabilizing. Yet, as he also notes, no one hears his warnings.
Washington is so intent on its anti-Russian propaganda that Congress has passed, and Obama has signed, an intelligence bill that contains a section, Title V, that authorizes active measures to counter purveyors of false news. These purveyors are alternative media websites, such as this one, that challenge the official lies. The truthful alternative media is accused of being under Russian influence. Last summer a website shrouded in secrecy was created that recently posted a list of 200 websites alleged to be under Russian influence, either directly or indirectly. The Washington Post irresponsibly published a long article endorsing the fake news of 200 websites working for the Russian government.
In other words, the suppression of the truth is the last defense of the corrupt American ruling establishment. During the last 24 years three Washington regimes have murdered millions of peoples in nine or more countries along with US civil liberty. To cover up these vast crimes, unparalleled in history, the presstitutes have lied, slandered, and libeled.
And the Washington criminal regime holds itself up to the world as the indispensable protector of democracy, human rights, truth, and justice. As the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said recently, what makes America exceptional is the use of might in the service of evil.
Washington brands not only its opponents but all who speak the truth “Russian agents,” hoping that the demonization of Russia has sufficiently frightened the population that Americans will turn their backs to those who speak the truth.
Full article at: PaulCraigRoberts.org
Following the release of an FBI report outlining Russia’s alleged role in hacking the 2016 election, Larry King sat down to talk with tech pioneer John McAfee to discuss the current state of cybersecurity.
McAfee is no stranger to cybersecurity. As the developer of the first commercial antivirus program, he has been a major player in the industry for the past 50 years. He is also the CEO of MGT Capital Investments, and an outspoken former presidential candidate for the Libertarian Party.
Based on all of his experience, McAfee does not believe that Russians were behind the hacks on the Democratic National Committee (DNC), John Podesta’s emails, and the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. As he told RT, “if it looks like the Russians did it, then I can guarantee you it was not the Russians.”
The Joint Analysis Report from the FBI contains an appendix that lists hundreds of IP addresses that were supposedly “used by Russian civilian and military intelligence services.” While some of those IP addresses are from Russia, the majority are from all over the world, which means that the hackers constantly faked their location.
McAfee argues that the report is a “fallacy,” explaining that hackers can fake their location, their language, and any markers that could lead back to them. Any hacker who had the skills to hack into the DNC would also be able to hide their tracks, he said
“If I was the Chinese and I wanted to make it look like the Russians did it, I would use Russian language within the code, I would use Russian techniques of breaking into the organization,” McAfee said, adding that, in the end, “there simply is no way to assign a source for any attack.”
Source: RT America
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova (Source: Tass)
Russia hopes that the international community will give an impartial assessment of militant crimes in Aleppo, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, told a press briefing on Tuesday.
“Syrians took to Aleppo streets to celebrate the city’s liberation congratulating each other on the victory and thanking Russian and Syrian servicemen,” the diplomat noted. “However, that was a holiday with tears in one’s eyes. We continue to learn new details of what happened in Aleppo when it was controlled by terrorists and extremists. In particular, mass graves containing the remains of dozens of people have been found there. What’s more, it turned out that these people had been tortured.”
“There is every reason to believe that these terrible discoveries will continue,” Zakharova said. She noted that “evidence of these crimes will be handed over to media by the Russian military and made public.” “We hope that the international community will provide an impartial assessment of this bloody carnage, when Syrian citizens were subjected to torture and violence by extremists and terrorists,” the diplomat stressed.
Full article at Al-Masdar News.
Against the Grain 