Politics & Stuff

[Vesper 28,764]

George Santos expelled from Congress in historic vote

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67593885

After a damning ethics report, and as he faces dozens of criminal charges, the US House of Representatives has expelled Congressman George Santos.

The New York Republican is only the sixth lawmaker in history to be expelled from the lower chamber of Congress, and the first since 2002.

His tenure was marked by multiple lies about his past and allegations of fraud - all revealed after his election.

Friday was the third effort to oust Mr Santos after two previous failed votes.

The 35-year-old from Queens made a quick exit before the vote ended as its outcome became clear, rushing past a swarm of reporters.

"As unofficially already no longer a member of Congress, I no longer have to answer a single question from you guys," he said.

"To hell with this place," CNN reported he added before ducking into a waiting SUV parked at the Capitol steps.

Lawmakers backed the resolution to expel Mr Santos 311 to 114, with 206 Democrats and 105 Republicans voting in favour.

 

Life's a F***ing Fantasy for Santos - A Randy Rainbow Parody

 

•  

[cosmicway 1,318]

[Fulham Broadway 16,827]

23 hours ago, Vesper said:

George Santos expelled from Congress in historic vote

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67593885

After a damning ethics report, and as he faces dozens of criminal charges, the US House of Representatives has expelled Congressman George Santos.

The New York Republican is only the sixth lawmaker in history to be expelled from the lower chamber of Congress, and the first since 2002.

His tenure was marked by multiple lies about his past and allegations of fraud - all revealed after his election.

Friday was the third effort to oust Mr Santos after two previous failed votes.

The 35-year-old from Queens made a quick exit before the vote ended as its outcome became clear, rushing past a swarm of reporters.

"As unofficially already no longer a member of Congress, I no longer have to answer a single question from you guys," he said.

"To hell with this place," CNN reported he added before ducking into a waiting SUV parked at the Capitol steps.

Lawmakers backed the resolution to expel Mr Santos 311 to 114, with 206 Democrats and 105 Republicans voting in favour.

 

Life's a F***ing Fantasy for Santos - A Randy Rainbow Parody

 

•  

Haha that bloke is a total fantasist so many lies like his grandparents were holocaust victims  😂

[Fulham Broadway 16,827]

 

[Vesper 28,764]

22 minutes ago, Fulham Broadway said:

 

Always the victim, no matter how many fucked up things they (I could say 'we', as I am part Sephardic Portuguese Jewish on my mum's side) do.

 

[Vesper 28,764]

The biggest dupes in the Western world are the American Democrats currently shilling out for Israel:

 

This is probably the most important post I have ever put in here:

 

 

In 2015, 6 nations hatched a plot to elect Trump. The nations involved: Saudi Arabia, Russia, Israel the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt. The leaders of these countries were all involved.

Three of these six nations—Russia, Israel, the UAE—had infiltrated deep into the Trump campaign by March 2016: Russia through Dimitri Simes; the UAE through Yousef al-Otaiba; Israel through Kushner, Groner, and Birnbaum. The campaign understood the plan these nations had.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EXCLUSIVE: The secret yacht summit that realigned the Middle East

Arab leaders from UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Jordan plotted to counter Turkey and Iran, and replace the GCC and Arab League

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/exclusive-secret-yacht-summit-realigned-middle-east

 

 

snip

How Trump was key to plans

The secret summit on the Red Sea took place towards the end of King Salman’s first year in power, when his son MBS was only deputy crown prince. His chief obstacle to the Saudi throne lay in the form of his elder cousin Mohammed bin Nayef, who was crown prince and a favourite of Washington’s security establishment. MBS would become crown prince in June 2017, only after his father deposed Bin Nayef. Trump had only announced his candidacy months before in June 2015 when the Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton was leading in all the polls. She was thought by the Saudis and Emiratis to be more likely to ring fence the nuclear deal Barack Obama made with Iran, and to be generally more sceptical of their plans for a push back in the region. 

Significantly, these Arab leaders decided in late 2015 that a wildcard presidential candidate in the shape of Trump could be the key to their plans to become the new regional hegemons. Months later, in January 2016, King Abdullah of Jordan briefed US Congressional leaders that Turkey presented the main threat to regional security. As MEE reported, the king told US congressmen in a closed meeting that Turkey exported terrorists to Europe, comments he was to deny publicly later. But Jordan then fell out dramatically with the group which had gathered on the yacht: Saudi Arabia decided that Amman did not go far enough in enforcing the blockade against Qatar, which was imposed in June last year. The split between Saudi and Jordan widened further when Jordan voted against Trump’s move to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, which threatens Jordan’s role as custodian of the Holy Places in the city.

Nader the go-between

Nader has recently emerged as a key back channel between Bin Zayed and Trump. The New York Times has reported that Mueller is actively chasing financial links in order to establish whether the Emiratis illegally contributed funds to Trump’s presidential campaign. It reported that in recent weeks Mueller’s investigators have questioned Nader and pressed witnesses about any possible attempts by the Emiratis to buy political influence by directing money to Trump’s presidential campaign. On Friday, reports emerged of a slew of convictions that Nader had on charges of sexually abusing underage boys and possessing child pornography. Newsweek reported that Nader had been sentenced to six months on child pornography charges in Virginia. According to federal court records seen by Newsweek, Nader was convicted of bringing child pornography into the US from Germany. This was in addition to a conviction on 10 counts of sexually abusing underage boys in the Czech Republic for which he served one year in prison in 2003.

 

Despite this criminal history, Nader was actively used by Trump. He attended a meeting with Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, and Steve Bannon, his chief political strategists at Trump Tower in New York in December 2016. A month later Nader, Erik Prince, the former head of Blackwater, and a Russian banker all attended a meeting in the Seychelles with Bin Zayed. Nader has long-standing connections with Israel. During the presidential elections bin Zayed sent Nader to meet Israeli officials to discuss how the two states can co-operate, a source told MEE. Nader established ties with Israel through an American Jewish fundraiser, Elliott Broidy, who is close to the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. According to the NYT, Broidy owns a private security company with hundreds of millions of dollars of contracts with the UAE. Broidy was removed as chairman of the Tel Aviv-based Markstone Capital Partners after admitting paying nearly $1m in bribes to pension fund managers in New York State. Broidy became deputy chairman of Trump’s fundraising campaign. Citing a memorandum made by Broidy, and passed to the newspaper by “someone critical of the Emirati influence in Washington”, the NYT reported that Broidy lobbied Trump to meet Bin Zayed “in an informal setting”, to back the UAE’s policies, and to push him to fire his secretary of state, Rex Tillerson. In response to the leaking of his memorandum, Broidy accused “registered and unregistered agents of Qatar” for the hacking. Broidy made the accusation through his press spokesman and in a letter to the Qatari ambassador in Washington.

snip

The Most Powerful Arab Ruler Isn’t M.B.S. It’s M.B.Z.

Prince Mohammed bin Zayed expanded the U.A.E.’s power by following America’s lead. He now has an increasingly bellicose agenda of his own. And President Trump seems to be following him.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/02/world/middleeast/crown-prince-mohammed-bin-zayed.html

https://archive.is/OlWeX

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, the 29-year-old commander of the almost negligible air force of the United Arab Emirates, had come to Washington shopping for weapons. In 1991, in the months after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, the young prince wanted to buy so much military hardware to protect his own oil-rich monarchy — from Hellfire missiles to Apache helicopters to F-16 jets — that Congress worried he might destabilize the region.

But the Pentagon, trying to cultivate accommodating allies in the Gulf, had identified Prince Mohammed as a promising partner. The favorite son of the semi-literate Bedouin who founded the United Arab Emirates, Prince Mohammed was a serious-minded, British-trained helicopter pilot who had persuaded his father to transfer $4 billion into the United States Treasury to help pay for the 1991 war in Iraq. Richard A. Clarke, then an assistant secretary of state, reassured lawmakers that the young prince would never become “an aggressor.” “The U.A.E. is not now and never will be a threat to stability or peace in the region,” Mr. Clarke said in congressional testimony. “That is very hard to imagine. Indeed, the U.A.E. is a force for peace.” Thirty years later, Prince Mohammed, now 58, crown prince of Abu Dhabi and de facto ruler of the United Arab Emirates, is arguably the most powerful leader in the Arab world. 

He is also among the most influential foreign voices in Washington, urging the United States to adopt his increasingly bellicose approach to the region. Prince Mohammed is almost unknown to the American public and his tiny country has fewer citizens than Rhode Island. But he may be the richest man in the world. He controls sovereign wealth funds worth $1.3 trillion, more than any other country. His influence operation in Washington is legendary (Mr. Clarke got rich on his payroll). His military is the Arab world’s most potent, equipped though its work with the United States to conduct high-tech surveillance and combat operations far beyond its borders. For decades, the prince has been a key American ally, following Washington’s lead, but now he is going his own way. His special forces are active in Yemen, Libya, Somalia and Egypt’s North Sinai. He has worked to thwart democratic transitions in the Middle East, helped install a reliable autocrat in Egypt and boosted a protégé to power in Saudi Arabia.

At times, the prince has contradicted American policy and destabilized neighbors. Rights groups have criticized him for jailing dissidents at home, for his role in creating a humanitarian crisis in Yemen, and for backing the Saudi prince whose agents killed the dissident writer Jamal Khashoggi. Yet under the Trump administration, his influence in Washington appears greater than ever. He has a rapport with President Trump, who has frequently adopted the prince’s views on Qatar, Libya and Saudi Arabia, even over the advice of cabinet officials or senior national security staff.

snip

 

 

Israeli, Saudi, and Emirati Officials Privately Pushed For Trump To Strike A Grand Bargain With Putin

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/israeli-saudi-and-emirati-officials-privately-pushed-for-trump-to-strike-a-grand-bargain-with-putin

https://archive.ph/QPfJW

President Trump welcoming Prince Mohammed bin Zayed at the White House in 2017.

During a private meeting shortly before the November, 2016, election, Mohammed bin Zayed, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, floated to a longtime American interlocutor what sounded, at the time, like an unlikely grand bargain. The Emirati leader told the American that Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, might be interested in resolving the conflict in Syria in exchange for the lifting of sanctions imposed in response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine. Current and former U.S. officials said that bin Zayed, known as M.B.Z., was not the only leader in the region who favored rapprochement between the former Cold War adversaries. While America’s closest allies in Europe viewed with a sense of dread Trump’s interest in partnering with Putin, three countries that enjoyed unparallelled influence with the incoming Administration—Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the U.A.E.—privately embraced the goal. Officials from the three countries have repeatedly encouraged their American counterparts to consider ending the Ukraine-related sanctions in return for Putin’s help in removing Iranian forces from Syria. Experts say that such a deal would be unworkable, even if Trump were interested. They say Putin has neither the interest nor the ability to pressure Iranian forces to leave Syria. Administration officials have said that Syria and Ukraine will be among the topics that Trump and Putin will discuss at their summit in Helsinki on July 16th. White House officials did not respond to a request for comment.

The special counsel, Robert Mueller, and his F.B.I. team, tasked with probing Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, have been investigating whether the U.A.E. facilitated contacts between Trump’s team and Russian officials and sought to influence U.S. politics. Nine days before Trump’s Inauguration, Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater and a confidant of Steve Bannon, met at M.B.Z.’s resort in the Seychelles with Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, whom the Emiratis used as a go-between with Putin. (An April, 2017, Washington Post story that I co-wrote revealed the Indian Ocean encounter and stated that “the UAE agreed to broker the meeting in part to explore whether Russia could be persuaded to curtail its relationship with Iran, including in Syria, a Trump administration objective that would be likely to require major concessions to Moscow on U.S. sanctions.”) Mueller’s team has also focussed on Trump transition-team meetings in December, 2016, that involved Emirati and Russian officials. One, at a New York hotel, was attended by M.B.Z., and another, at Trump Tower, was attended by Sergey Kislyak, then Russia’s Ambassador in Washington. During the December 1, 2016, meeting between Kislyak and Trump’s transition team, both sides wanted to discuss the conflict in Syria, and the Russian Ambassador proposed arranging a conversation between Michael Flynn, the incoming national-security adviser, and people he referred to as his “generals,” according to congressional testimony by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser. 

To prevent intelligence agencies from eavesdropping on the conversation, Kislyak proposed using a “secure line,” prompting Kushner to suggest using the secure communications gear housed at the Russian Embassy in Washington. M.B.Z. is regarded as one of the Middle East’s strategic thinkers. More than other Arab leaders of his generation, he hails from the school of Realpolitik. During the Obama Administration, M.B.Z. sought to establish closer ties between the U.A.E. and Putin, in the hope of encouraging Moscow to scale back its partnership with Iran, particularly in Syria. (Much like Israel, the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia consider Iran their biggest strategic threat. They also lacked trust in President Obama.) As an inducement for Putin to partner with Gulf states rather than Iran, the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia started making billions of dollars in investments in Russia and convening high-level meetings in Moscow, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, and the Seychelles. It is unclear whether M.B.Z.’s preëlection proposal came from Putin himself or one of his confidants, or whether the Emirati leader came up with the idea. But the comment suggested that M.B.Z. believed that turning Putin against Iran would require sanctions relief for Moscow, a concession that required the support of the American President. If Hillary Clinton had won the election, the idea of accepting Russian aggression in Ukraine would have been a nonstarter, current and former U.S. officials told me. But Trump promised a different approach.

Israeli officials lobbied for rapprochement between Washington and Moscow soon after Trump’s election victory. In a private meeting during the transition, Ron Dermer, the Israeli Ambassador to the United States and one of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s closest confidants, said that the Israeli government was encouraging the incoming Trump Administration to coöperate more closely with Putin, starting in Syria, with the hope of convincing Moscow to push the Iranians to leave the country, an attendee told me. Like M.B.Z., Netanyahu made courting Putin a priority, particularly after Russia’s military intervention in Syria in 2015. The Israeli leader wanted to insure that Israeli forces could continue to access Syrian airspace, which the Russians partially controlled, to prevent the deployment of advanced weapons systems by Iran and its proxies that could threaten the Jewish state. A senior Israeli official declined to comment on Dermer’s message but said that “Israel does believe it is possible to get a U.S.-Russian agreement in Syria that would push the Iranians out,” and that doing so “could be the beginning of an improvement in U.S.-Russian relations over all.”

snip

 

Exclusive: Jeffrey Epstein’s investment in an Israeli start-up reveals a myriad of links to Donald Trump and Israeli spies.

https://narativ.org/2019/07/27/building-big-brother/

 

It’s been thirty-two years since the “Pollard Affair” pierced the seemingly impenetrable facade of U.S.-Israeli relations. Now, two suspected Israeli agents are in jail – indicted on separate charges of sex trafficking of minors. Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein was arrested on July 6 and charged with trafficking minors across state lines. George Nader – a key witness for Robert Mueller – was arrested last month for possession of child porn and transporting a minor for sex from Europe.

Epstein and Nader share a personal network that includes Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, Erik Prince, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and his UAE counterpart, Mohamed Bin Zayed. But their association goes further than powerful friends and proclivities for teenage boys and girls. Epstein and Nader are believed to be agents for Israeli Intelligence. Narativ has independently confirmed with two separate sources who were in a position to know that Epstein worked for Israeli military intelligence.

Both men also have ties to a burgeoning Israeli tech sector which is bringing Mossad-style military intelligence to the private sector and endangering the global balance of power. The Haaretz newspaper has previously reported that Epstein, who was Donald Trump’s friend through the ’80s and ’90s, partnered in an Israeli start-up alongside former Israel Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

Barak is seeking to unseat Benjamin Netanyahu as Israeli Prime Minister in the upcoming re-run elections scheduled for September. Since 2015, he has been the front-man for Carbyne, an Israeli start-up which purports to be a high-tech solution for 911 emergency call centers, but the platform’s architecture and investors raise serious privacy concerns. Narativ undertook an extensive investigation into Carbyne, and can now reveal a myriad of troubling connections between the start-up and people connected to Donald Trump.

snip

 

Ukrainian-born Viktor Vekselberg is close to Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen. He’s been in business with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak for 5 years.

 

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak (center) with the three co-founders of Carbyne (formerly Reporty). Alex Dizengof, Amir Elichai and Lital Leshem. All four are tied to Israeli military intelligence or cybersecurity.

 

 

A rare photo of Joel Zamel obtained by Narativ (center), Erik Prince of Frontier Resource Group (left) and George Nader (right). All three men attended a meeting with Donald Trump, Jr. on August 3 2016 to discuss a social media manipulation plan by Zamel’s Psy Group.

 

 

Edited December 2, 2023 by Vesper

[Fulham Broadway 16,827]

12 hours ago, Vesper said:

The biggest dupes in the Western world are the American Democrats currently shilling out for Israel:

 

This is probably the most important post I have ever put in here:

 

 

In 2015, 6 nations hatched a plot to elect Trump. The nations involved: Saudi Arabia, Russia, Israel the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt. The leaders of these countries were all involved.

Three of these six nations—Russia, Israel, the UAE—had infiltrated deep into the Trump campaign by March 2016: Russia through Dimitri Simes; the UAE through Yousef al-Otaiba; Israel through Kushner, Groner, and Birnbaum. The campaign understood the plan these nations had.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EXCLUSIVE: The secret yacht summit that realigned the Middle East

Arab leaders from UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Jordan plotted to counter Turkey and Iran, and replace the GCC and Arab League

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/exclusive-secret-yacht-summit-realigned-middle-east

 

 

snip

How Trump was key to plans

The secret summit on the Red Sea took place towards the end of King Salman’s first year in power, when his son MBS was only deputy crown prince. His chief obstacle to the Saudi throne lay in the form of his elder cousin Mohammed bin Nayef, who was crown prince and a favourite of Washington’s security establishment. MBS would become crown prince in June 2017, only after his father deposed Bin Nayef. Trump had only announced his candidacy months before in June 2015 when the Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton was leading in all the polls. She was thought by the Saudis and Emiratis to be more likely to ring fence the nuclear deal Barack Obama made with Iran, and to be generally more sceptical of their plans for a push back in the region. 

Significantly, these Arab leaders decided in late 2015 that a wildcard presidential candidate in the shape of Trump could be the key to their plans to become the new regional hegemons. Months later, in January 2016, King Abdullah of Jordan briefed US Congressional leaders that Turkey presented the main threat to regional security. As MEE reported, the king told US congressmen in a closed meeting that Turkey exported terrorists to Europe, comments he was to deny publicly later. But Jordan then fell out dramatically with the group which had gathered on the yacht: Saudi Arabia decided that Amman did not go far enough in enforcing the blockade against Qatar, which was imposed in June last year. The split between Saudi and Jordan widened further when Jordan voted against Trump’s move to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, which threatens Jordan’s role as custodian of the Holy Places in the city.

Nader the go-between

Nader has recently emerged as a key back channel between Bin Zayed and Trump. The New York Times has reported that Mueller is actively chasing financial links in order to establish whether the Emiratis illegally contributed funds to Trump’s presidential campaign. It reported that in recent weeks Mueller’s investigators have questioned Nader and pressed witnesses about any possible attempts by the Emiratis to buy political influence by directing money to Trump’s presidential campaign. On Friday, reports emerged of a slew of convictions that Nader had on charges of sexually abusing underage boys and possessing child pornography. Newsweek reported that Nader had been sentenced to six months on child pornography charges in Virginia. According to federal court records seen by Newsweek, Nader was convicted of bringing child pornography into the US from Germany. This was in addition to a conviction on 10 counts of sexually abusing underage boys in the Czech Republic for which he served one year in prison in 2003.

 

Despite this criminal history, Nader was actively used by Trump. He attended a meeting with Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, and Steve Bannon, his chief political strategists at Trump Tower in New York in December 2016. A month later Nader, Erik Prince, the former head of Blackwater, and a Russian banker all attended a meeting in the Seychelles with Bin Zayed. Nader has long-standing connections with Israel. During the presidential elections bin Zayed sent Nader to meet Israeli officials to discuss how the two states can co-operate, a source told MEE. Nader established ties with Israel through an American Jewish fundraiser, Elliott Broidy, who is close to the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. According to the NYT, Broidy owns a private security company with hundreds of millions of dollars of contracts with the UAE. Broidy was removed as chairman of the Tel Aviv-based Markstone Capital Partners after admitting paying nearly $1m in bribes to pension fund managers in New York State. Broidy became deputy chairman of Trump’s fundraising campaign. Citing a memorandum made by Broidy, and passed to the newspaper by “someone critical of the Emirati influence in Washington”, the NYT reported that Broidy lobbied Trump to meet Bin Zayed “in an informal setting”, to back the UAE’s policies, and to push him to fire his secretary of state, Rex Tillerson. In response to the leaking of his memorandum, Broidy accused “registered and unregistered agents of Qatar” for the hacking. Broidy made the accusation through his press spokesman and in a letter to the Qatari ambassador in Washington.

snip

The Most Powerful Arab Ruler Isn’t M.B.S. It’s M.B.Z.

Prince Mohammed bin Zayed expanded the U.A.E.’s power by following America’s lead. He now has an increasingly bellicose agenda of his own. And President Trump seems to be following him.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/02/world/middleeast/crown-prince-mohammed-bin-zayed.html

https://archive.is/OlWeX

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, the 29-year-old commander of the almost negligible air force of the United Arab Emirates, had come to Washington shopping for weapons. In 1991, in the months after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, the young prince wanted to buy so much military hardware to protect his own oil-rich monarchy — from Hellfire missiles to Apache helicopters to F-16 jets — that Congress worried he might destabilize the region.

But the Pentagon, trying to cultivate accommodating allies in the Gulf, had identified Prince Mohammed as a promising partner. The favorite son of the semi-literate Bedouin who founded the United Arab Emirates, Prince Mohammed was a serious-minded, British-trained helicopter pilot who had persuaded his father to transfer $4 billion into the United States Treasury to help pay for the 1991 war in Iraq. Richard A. Clarke, then an assistant secretary of state, reassured lawmakers that the young prince would never become “an aggressor.” “The U.A.E. is not now and never will be a threat to stability or peace in the region,” Mr. Clarke said in congressional testimony. “That is very hard to imagine. Indeed, the U.A.E. is a force for peace.” Thirty years later, Prince Mohammed, now 58, crown prince of Abu Dhabi and de facto ruler of the United Arab Emirates, is arguably the most powerful leader in the Arab world. 

He is also among the most influential foreign voices in Washington, urging the United States to adopt his increasingly bellicose approach to the region. Prince Mohammed is almost unknown to the American public and his tiny country has fewer citizens than Rhode Island. But he may be the richest man in the world. He controls sovereign wealth funds worth $1.3 trillion, more than any other country. His influence operation in Washington is legendary (Mr. Clarke got rich on his payroll). His military is the Arab world’s most potent, equipped though its work with the United States to conduct high-tech surveillance and combat operations far beyond its borders. For decades, the prince has been a key American ally, following Washington’s lead, but now he is going his own way. His special forces are active in Yemen, Libya, Somalia and Egypt’s North Sinai. He has worked to thwart democratic transitions in the Middle East, helped install a reliable autocrat in Egypt and boosted a protégé to power in Saudi Arabia.

At times, the prince has contradicted American policy and destabilized neighbors. Rights groups have criticized him for jailing dissidents at home, for his role in creating a humanitarian crisis in Yemen, and for backing the Saudi prince whose agents killed the dissident writer Jamal Khashoggi. Yet under the Trump administration, his influence in Washington appears greater than ever. He has a rapport with President Trump, who has frequently adopted the prince’s views on Qatar, Libya and Saudi Arabia, even over the advice of cabinet officials or senior national security staff.

snip

 

 

Israeli, Saudi, and Emirati Officials Privately Pushed For Trump To Strike A Grand Bargain With Putin

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/israeli-saudi-and-emirati-officials-privately-pushed-for-trump-to-strike-a-grand-bargain-with-putin

https://archive.ph/QPfJW

President Trump welcoming Prince Mohammed bin Zayed at the White House in 2017.

During a private meeting shortly before the November, 2016, election, Mohammed bin Zayed, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, floated to a longtime American interlocutor what sounded, at the time, like an unlikely grand bargain. The Emirati leader told the American that Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, might be interested in resolving the conflict in Syria in exchange for the lifting of sanctions imposed in response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine. Current and former U.S. officials said that bin Zayed, known as M.B.Z., was not the only leader in the region who favored rapprochement between the former Cold War adversaries. While America’s closest allies in Europe viewed with a sense of dread Trump’s interest in partnering with Putin, three countries that enjoyed unparallelled influence with the incoming Administration—Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the U.A.E.—privately embraced the goal. Officials from the three countries have repeatedly encouraged their American counterparts to consider ending the Ukraine-related sanctions in return for Putin’s help in removing Iranian forces from Syria. Experts say that such a deal would be unworkable, even if Trump were interested. They say Putin has neither the interest nor the ability to pressure Iranian forces to leave Syria. Administration officials have said that Syria and Ukraine will be among the topics that Trump and Putin will discuss at their summit in Helsinki on July 16th. White House officials did not respond to a request for comment.

The special counsel, Robert Mueller, and his F.B.I. team, tasked with probing Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, have been investigating whether the U.A.E. facilitated contacts between Trump’s team and Russian officials and sought to influence U.S. politics. Nine days before Trump’s Inauguration, Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater and a confidant of Steve Bannon, met at M.B.Z.’s resort in the Seychelles with Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, whom the Emiratis used as a go-between with Putin. (An April, 2017, Washington Post story that I co-wrote revealed the Indian Ocean encounter and stated that “the UAE agreed to broker the meeting in part to explore whether Russia could be persuaded to curtail its relationship with Iran, including in Syria, a Trump administration objective that would be likely to require major concessions to Moscow on U.S. sanctions.”) Mueller’s team has also focussed on Trump transition-team meetings in December, 2016, that involved Emirati and Russian officials. One, at a New York hotel, was attended by M.B.Z., and another, at Trump Tower, was attended by Sergey Kislyak, then Russia’s Ambassador in Washington. During the December 1, 2016, meeting between Kislyak and Trump’s transition team, both sides wanted to discuss the conflict in Syria, and the Russian Ambassador proposed arranging a conversation between Michael Flynn, the incoming national-security adviser, and people he referred to as his “generals,” according to congressional testimony by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser. 

To prevent intelligence agencies from eavesdropping on the conversation, Kislyak proposed using a “secure line,” prompting Kushner to suggest using the secure communications gear housed at the Russian Embassy in Washington. M.B.Z. is regarded as one of the Middle East’s strategic thinkers. More than other Arab leaders of his generation, he hails from the school of Realpolitik. During the Obama Administration, M.B.Z. sought to establish closer ties between the U.A.E. and Putin, in the hope of encouraging Moscow to scale back its partnership with Iran, particularly in Syria. (Much like Israel, the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia consider Iran their biggest strategic threat. They also lacked trust in President Obama.) As an inducement for Putin to partner with Gulf states rather than Iran, the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia started making billions of dollars in investments in Russia and convening high-level meetings in Moscow, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, and the Seychelles. It is unclear whether M.B.Z.’s preëlection proposal came from Putin himself or one of his confidants, or whether the Emirati leader came up with the idea. But the comment suggested that M.B.Z. believed that turning Putin against Iran would require sanctions relief for Moscow, a concession that required the support of the American President. If Hillary Clinton had won the election, the idea of accepting Russian aggression in Ukraine would have been a nonstarter, current and former U.S. officials told me. But Trump promised a different approach.

Israeli officials lobbied for rapprochement between Washington and Moscow soon after Trump’s election victory. In a private meeting during the transition, Ron Dermer, the Israeli Ambassador to the United States and one of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s closest confidants, said that the Israeli government was encouraging the incoming Trump Administration to coöperate more closely with Putin, starting in Syria, with the hope of convincing Moscow to push the Iranians to leave the country, an attendee told me. Like M.B.Z., Netanyahu made courting Putin a priority, particularly after Russia’s military intervention in Syria in 2015. The Israeli leader wanted to insure that Israeli forces could continue to access Syrian airspace, which the Russians partially controlled, to prevent the deployment of advanced weapons systems by Iran and its proxies that could threaten the Jewish state. A senior Israeli official declined to comment on Dermer’s message but said that “Israel does believe it is possible to get a U.S.-Russian agreement in Syria that would push the Iranians out,” and that doing so “could be the beginning of an improvement in U.S.-Russian relations over all.”

snip

 

Exclusive: Jeffrey Epstein’s investment in an Israeli start-up reveals a myriad of links to Donald Trump and Israeli spies.

https://narativ.org/2019/07/27/building-big-brother/

 

It’s been thirty-two years since the “Pollard Affair” pierced the seemingly impenetrable facade of U.S.-Israeli relations. Now, two suspected Israeli agents are in jail – indicted on separate charges of sex trafficking of minors. Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein was arrested on July 6 and charged with trafficking minors across state lines. George Nader – a key witness for Robert Mueller – was arrested last month for possession of child porn and transporting a minor for sex from Europe.

Epstein and Nader share a personal network that includes Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, Erik Prince, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and his UAE counterpart, Mohamed Bin Zayed. But their association goes further than powerful friends and proclivities for teenage boys and girls. Epstein and Nader are believed to be agents for Israeli Intelligence. Narativ has independently confirmed with two separate sources who were in a position to know that Epstein worked for Israeli military intelligence.

Both men also have ties to a burgeoning Israeli tech sector which is bringing Mossad-style military intelligence to the private sector and endangering the global balance of power. The Haaretz newspaper has previously reported that Epstein, who was Donald Trump’s friend through the ’80s and ’90s, partnered in an Israeli start-up alongside former Israel Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

Barak is seeking to unseat Benjamin Netanyahu as Israeli Prime Minister in the upcoming re-run elections scheduled for September. Since 2015, he has been the front-man for Carbyne, an Israeli start-up which purports to be a high-tech solution for 911 emergency call centers, but the platform’s architecture and investors raise serious privacy concerns. Narativ undertook an extensive investigation into Carbyne, and can now reveal a myriad of troubling connections between the start-up and people connected to Donald Trump.

snip

 

Ukrainian-born Viktor Vekselberg is close to Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen. He’s been in business with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak for 5 years.

 

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak (center) with the three co-founders of Carbyne (formerly Reporty). Alex Dizengof, Amir Elichai and Lital Leshem. All four are tied to Israeli military intelligence or cybersecurity.

 

 

A rare photo of Joel Zamel obtained by Narativ (center), Erik Prince of Frontier Resource Group (left) and George Nader (right). All three men attended a meeting with Donald Trump, Jr. on August 3 2016 to discuss a social media manipulation plan by Zamel’s Psy Group.

 

 

Incredible - the biggest you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours ever - the tragedy is at the expense of ordinary people and the illusion of 'democracy'.  Just so that rich cunts get richer 

[Vesper 28,764]

UK porn watchers could have faces scanned

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-67615719

Porn users could have their faces scanned to prove their age, with extra checks for young-looking adults, draft guidance from Ofcom suggests.

The watchdog has set out a number of ways explicit sites could prevent children from viewing pornography.

The average age children first view pornography is 13, a survey suggests.

Explicit website Pornhub said regulations requiring the collection of "highly sensitive personal information" could jeopardise user safety.

Privacy campaigners have also criticised the proposals warning of "catastrophic" consequences if data from age checks is leaked.

A large chunk of the UK population watch online pornography - nearly 14 million people, according to a recent report by Ofcom.

But the ease of access to online pornography has also raised concerns that children are viewing explicit websites - with one in ten children seeing it by age nine, according to a survey by the Children's Commissioner.

The Online Safety Act, which recently became law, requires social media platforms and search engines to protect children from harmful content online.

It will be enforced by Ofcom, who can issue large fines if firms fail to comply.

Ofcom has now outlined how it expects firms to become "highly effective" at complying with the new regulations, which come into force sometime in 2025.

Acceptable methods could include:

• requiring government photographic ID such as a passport
• checking if the user has previously had age restrictions removed from a mobile phone
• credit card checks
• digital ID wallets that store a user's proof of age which can be shared with the site.

Facial age-estimation tech, that will scan users' faces and use software to infer if they are an adult, is also an option.

It is unlikely that any age assurance method will be impossible to circumvent, Ofcom notes, but websites must guard against simple tricks.

For systems that compare a photo ID such as a passport with a user's face, for example, they should do a "liveness check" to guard against children who try to use borrowed or fake ID and a photo of someone older to fool the system.

Young adults involved in sex education told the BBC they believed having these kinds of protections in place would help prevent children being exposed to pornography.

Jack Liepa, director of the charity Sexpression, which sends university students into schools to run workshops about sex and relationships, said the Online Safety Act was a positive step, but not a complete solution.

"Young people probably still will find ways to access this content: older siblings might provide access, and they're still going to turn 18 and suddenly have access, at still quite a young impressionable age", Mr Liepa said.

Blackmail fear

The biggest concern among porn-using adults about proving their age is over the safety of their data, Ofcom says.

The draft guidance says sites must follow the data protection rules set out by privacy watchdog the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

Aylo, the owners of Pornhub, says it backs the principle of age verification but has voiced concerns about user safety and privacy.

"Any regulations that require hundreds of thousands of adult sites to collect significant amounts of highly sensitive personal information is putting user safety in jeopardy", it said.

Pornhub is the 14th most visited website in the world, according to statistics from Similarweb, but faced serious allegations in 2020 relating to illegal content on the platform.

When the US state of Louisiana instituted age verification, Aylo said Pornhub traffic dropped approximately 80 percent in the state.

But it said rather than stopping viewing porn altogether, users went instead to "darker corners of the internet that don't ask users to verify age, that don't follow the law, that don't take user safety seriously, and that often don't even moderate content."

The company said in its view age-verification should take place "on the device" - in other words parental controls on phones and computers that stop children from accessing pornography.

Using a virtual private network (VPN), to mask the region in which they are located, is one way explicit site visitors might try and circumvent age-checks.

Simon Migliano, head of research at VPN comparison site Top10VPN.com said "In Louisiana demand for VPNs more than tripled while in Utah it surged by 847% the day after the new age checks came into effect.

However, Mr Migliano's understanding from VPN providers, was that "this increased demand was driven by adults not comfortable disclosing their real identity while watching adult content."

Abigail Burke of campaigning organisation, the Open Rights Group said there was not enough emphasis on keeping data safe in the guidance.

"The potential consequences of data being leaked are catastrophic and could include blackmail, fraud, relationship damage, and the outing of people's sexual preferences in very vulnerable circumstances," she said.

Balancing act

Ofcom chief executive Dame Melanie Dawes, talking to Women's Hour on BBC Radio 4, said operators of explicit sites would need to "balance getting the verification highly effective with preserving data privacy, which is a legal requirement."

Yoti a company which already provides age-estimation tech to some adult sites, said their tech respected users privacy rights:

"It takes about one second, there is no recognition of an individual and the image is instantly deleted", said the firm's Julie Dawson.

Ms Dawson said there was no reason to wait until 2025 to enforce age-checks as "all of the age assurance technology referenced by Ofcom is ready to use now".

However the guidance currently published only covers pornography websites and apps.

Draft codes of practice to cover pornography on social media platforms - a way in which many teenagers encounter pornography - will be published in 2024.

 

[KEVINAA 90]

I found this video while scrolling x/twitter on Android.

Christopher Hitchens on islam and freedom of speech. Video length - 4:35

 

 

Edited December 5, 2023 by KEVINAA

[lucio 5,418]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67630258
 

tories are subhuman scum 

[cosmicway 1,318]

7 hours ago, lucio said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67630258
 

tories are subhuman scum 

Ha'. In so much as I am in favour of positive vetting, I just don't like anyone to count my money.

[cosmicway 1,318]

The Tories are into their mischief making again but in Greece we have -officially now- the law of "presumptive taxation".
That means if you own a business and you earn zero maybe in one year, you have to pay a minimum of some 5000 euros.
The excuse ?
The excuse is that some people may be hiding treasures, in the mountains - in pirate caves - socks, who knows !
I 've been searching for the word describing this practice, its "presumptive taxation" - found it in Greek govt pdfs translated in English.

We did n't expect it of course. Before the election -June 2023- they promised "no new taxes - only reductions wherever it becomes possible".

I believe this practice against poor people is to be found nowhere in the EU or UK, but maybe something like it was Margaret Thatcher's poll tax.
My information is that it is not being done in the other EU countries.
But do some of you know anything more ?
 

[lucio 5,418]

2 hours ago, cosmicway said:

Ha'. In so much as I am in favour of positive vetting, I just don't like anyone to count my money.

For random migrants yes , the right of British people to live in Britain with their own family is non negotiable in my opinion 

[Fulham Broadway 16,827]

3 hours ago, cosmicway said:

The Tories are into their mischief making again but in Greece we have -officially now- the law of "presumptive taxation".
That means if you own a business and you earn zero maybe in one year, you have to pay a minimum of some 5000 euros.
The excuse ?
The excuse is that some people may be hiding treasures, in the mountains - in pirate caves - socks, who knows !
I 've been searching for the word describing this practice, its "presumptive taxation" - found it in Greek govt pdfs translated in English.

We did n't expect it of course. Before the election -June 2023- they promised "no new taxes - only reductions wherever it becomes possible".

I believe this practice against poor people is to be found nowhere in the EU or UK, but maybe something like it was Margaret Thatcher's poll tax.
My information is that it is not being done in the other EU countries.
But do some of you know anything more ?
 

One of my first jobs was with Schedule D Inland Revenue.

We used to look at peoples accounts for the previous years whether they made a profit or not and send a presumptive tax requisition. It was then up to the business or individual to provide evidence to the contrary. So the EU directive is nothing new.

[cosmicway 1,318]

41 minutes ago, Fulham Broadway said:

One of my first jobs was with Schedule D Inland Revenue.

We used to look at peoples accounts for the previous years whether they made a profit or not and send a presumptive tax requisition. It was then up to the business or individual to provide evidence to the contrary. So the EU directive is nothing new.

It's not EU directive a far as I know.
t's a GR thing.
First who tried it were the socialists in 1994, now the conservatives !
Now when you say "provide evidence" that the presumptive tax requisition is unfair, how to do that ?
Effectively you "accuse" me of under-reporting and me from existing-recorded data prove you wrong.
But what about pirate caves, secret crypts and the like ? I can't disprove so I 'm guilty.

In 1994 this happened.
Me and two friends were publishing sports books. I was responsible for the accompanying cds, they were doing the writing.
In 1991-92 some good sales but towards the end of 1993 the "boss" tells me "it does n't look good anymore and the taxman looms - go end declare the company absolved".
I says "no - I 'm not doing it - leave it - things will improve".
Then in comes the socialist government with the "objective criteria".
I did n't know but my personal profit for the year 1994 was now supposed to be 2,500,000 drachmas (~ 7500 euros) whether I liked it or not.
Therefore tax 500,000 drachmas (1500 euros).
Where to find them ?
Only way out was if I had declared exactly zero for 1994.
But somebody I did n't know bought something for 15,000 drachmas (40 euros) and that amount was declared by me.
So I paid in the end, hawked the family jewels.
The funny thing is that "somebody" was in fact the owner of a big restaurant by the seaside.
To this day he phones me from time to time and he has also made me many gifts !
So for not knowing him at the time he bought those books, I paid the price !

The fanciers of presumptive or objective taxation are basically the left. Marx says there must n't be any private businesses.
But also the rich cats.
There are two big carpet galleries in Athens. One is owned by the family of one of my old schoolmates.
I can imagine him fuming at the gypsies who sell rugs in the flea markets. Poor quality the gypsy rugs are, but fit for certain purposes. Obviously he wants all of them to go to jail.


 

[KEVINAA 90]

Benjamin Zephaniah was a Aston Villa supporter and had dyslexia and had died aged 65.

 

 

 

Edited December 7, 2023 by KEVINAA

[NikkiCFC 7,941]

Paris: German tourist killed and British man among two injured in 'terror attack' near Eiffel Tower

https://news.sky.com/story/paris-one-dead-and-one-injured-after-assailant-targets-passersby-in-french-capital-13021609

Allah now must loves him so much...

[lucio 5,418]

Macron will say a few meaninglessness words then keep importing more Middle Eastern and african men