tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158656642023-11-16T02:41:26.672-05:00MilfuegosIN TIMES OF UNIVERSAL DECEIT, TELLING THE TRUTH WILL BE A REVOLUTIONARY ACT.Macuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13339524320921898869noreply@blogger.comBlogger5612125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15865664.post-9256864376596879252018-03-29T12:03:00.000-04:002018-03-29T12:03:04.952-04:00 Trump's perverse incestuous behavior and his upcoming downfall - By The Wayne Madsen Report<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span><strong>Trump's perverse incestuous behavior and his upcoming downfall </strong></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span><strong> By The Wayne Madsen Report</strong></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span><strong></strong></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><strong><br /></strong></span><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><strong><span>M</span></strong>ost
attorneys would jump at the chance to represent the President of the
United States, either as White House counsel or privately. To do so can
elevate a lawyer to the upper ranks of a handful of attorneys who can
name their own rates and choose their own clients. However, in the case
of Donald Trump, a combination of his own disagreeable personality,
failure to pay his his attorneys' fees, perverted sexual history, and
conflicts of interest have turned him into a pariah as a client for most
lawyers.</span><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">In the latest bizarre decision of Trump, he approved the hiring of a Disney teen dance show star named <img border="0" height="138" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/sunshinetrump.jpg" style="float: left;" width="185" />Caroline
Sunshine [pictured, left] to be a press assistant at the White House.
Sunshine is a 22-year old blond whose only political experience has been
as a member of her high school’s model United Nations team, an intern
for House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, and a college activist for the
neo-conservative American Enterprise Institute. It is not Sunshine’s
shallow experience in politics that has Washington talking about Trump’s
latest move, but her resemblance to first daughter</span><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><img border="0" height="152" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/IvankaandTrump.jpg" style="float: right;" width="185" /></span><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">
Ivanka Trump. [pictured, right] If Trump thought replacing Stormy on
the front pages with Sunshine might clear up the foul political weather
in Washington, he was sorely mistaken.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">On more
than one occasion, Trump has revealed to individuals and entire radio
and television audiences an incestuous sexual attraction to his
daughter. Columnist Richard Cohen wrote in a Washington Post column in
2016 that when Ivanka was 13-years old, Trump asked someone that Cohen
knows, “Is it wrong to be more sexually attracted to your own daughter
than your wife?" That part was later edited out of Cohen’s column by
Post management. When Ivanka was hosting the 1997 Miss Teen USA pageant,
Trump turned to the reigning Miss Universe, Brook Antoinette Mahealani
Lee, and asked, “Don’t you think my daughter’s hot? She’s hot, right?” </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">In 2003,
Trump said the following on the air about Ivanka to radio shock jock
Howard Stern, “she's got the best body.” In 2004, Trump was back on
Stern’s show, saying that his daughter was, “A piece of ass." Appearing
on ABC’s The View in 2006, Trump, answering a question about whether he
would approve of his daughter posing for Playboy, responded, “I've said
if Ivanka weren't my daughter, perhaps I'd be dating her." In an
appearance on the Dr. Oz show in 2016, Trump was heard by studio
personnel stating he kisses Ivanka “with every chance [he] gets.” Just
as with Richard Cohen’s column for The Washington Post, this statement
was edited out.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Trump’s
incestuous attraction to his daughter did not stop with these very
public statements. During their 2006 tryst in a Lake Tahoe hotel suite,
Trump, who was married to Melania at the time, told then-27-year <img border="0" height="260" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/djt-ivanka-stormy-daniels-nydaily-news-.JPG" style="float: left;" width="200" />old
porn actress Stormy Daniels, aka Stephanie Clifford, “Wow, you — you
are special. You remind me of my daughter.” That same year, during a
10-month affair with Playboy model Karen McDougal, Trump constantly told
her that she was like his daughter Ivanka. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">According
to Michael Wolff’s book, “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,”
White House staffers were puzzled over Trump’s relationships with both
Ivanka and departed White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, a
former model. Wolff wrote that the staffers referred to Ivanka as the
president’s “real wife” and Hicks as the president's “real daughter.”
There are reports that Mr. Trump was intensely jealous when he
discovered that his former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and former
White House personal assistant Rob Porter were dating Hicks. Perhaps
Trump’s “real daughter” reminded him too much of his “real wife.” </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">We’ll
have to wait until next year for Dr. Justin Frank’s book, “Trump on the
Couch,” the third in a series of books by the Clinical Professor of
Psychiatry at the George Washington University Medical Center on his
psychoanalysis of recent presidents. But, based on Trump’s history of
comments about his daughter, it is safe to assume that he has an
unnatural and quite incestuous sexual attraction to her. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">And all
of this puts into context a story related to WMR by a source in New York
familiar with the case. In 1997, the same year Trump asked Miss
Universe if she thought 15-year old Ivanka was “hot,” five waiters <img border="0" height="133" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/TrumpsGrill.jpg" style="float: right;" width="200" />working
at Trumps Grill, the steakhouse located in the Trump Tower on Fifth
Avenue in Manhattan, allegedly witnessed Trump sexually groping Ivanka
under the table. “His hand was up his daughter’s skirt,” was the comment
of one witness. As employees of Trumps Grill and, given the Mafia-like
conditions working for the Trump Organization, the waiters were afraid
to say anything at the time. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">This
incident, combined with all the comments made by Trump about his
daughter, as well as his and his friend Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged 1994
rape of 13-year old Katie Johnson and 12-year old Maria -- the latter
abducted from a street in Waterbury, Connecticut the year before -- have
made Trump the “client from hell” for most attorneys. Trump’s current
defense team consists of a Mafia-like personal attorney, Michael Cohen;
White House counsel Don McGahn, who is reportedly eager to leave his
post; McGahn’s colleague, Ty Cobb, who also reportedly wants out;
right-wing constitutional lawyer Jay Sekulow; and Trump’s newest
addition, Dr. Andrew Ekonomou, the assistant district attorney of
Brunswick, Georgia, who also has a doctorate in medieval history.
Ekonomou replaced Washington insider John Dowd, who was fired by Trump. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Perhaps
it was wise for Trump to bring Ekonomou, an expert on ancient history,
onto his legal team. Surely, Ekonomou is familiar with the incest
practiced by the Roman Emperor Caligula and the mythological incestuous
relationship between the sibling Greek gods Hera and Zeus, which
produced many children. While state laws on incest vary, every state
criminalizes sex between an adult and a minor, whether or not the minor
is an offspring. However, every major religion considers incest to be an
abominable sin. It is the sleaziness that surrounds Trump that has made
him toxic to most attorneys in Washington. </span><b><span style="line-height: 107%;"></span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
<span></span>
</span></div>
Macuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13339524320921898869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15865664.post-64415984228748035562018-03-29T11:57:00.000-04:002018-03-29T11:57:52.735-04:00 Worry at NSA that Kushner gave away the store to Israel - By The Wayne Madsen Report<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span><strong> Worry at NSA that Kushner gave away the store to Israel</strong></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span><strong> By The Wayne Madsen Report</strong></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span><strong></strong></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><strong><br /><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">T</span></strong><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">here
are increasing worries that Donald Trump's special adviser and
son-in-law, Jared Kushner, specifically requested Top Secret
intelligence files to pass gleaned information to Israeli intelligence.
WMR has learned from knowledgeable sources that Kushner's compromise of
National Security Agency and allied FIVE EYES partners' intercepts of
foreign leaders led to his losing his temporary access to Top
Secret/Special Compartmented Information (SCI). </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">According
to our sources, NSA intelligence analysts became suspicious when
Israeli companies specializing in not only gathering signals
intelligence (SIGINT) information, but also protecting against such
collection, began aggressively marketing their services to particular
countries, especially those in Africa. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Kushner
has already been accused of passing NSA communications intercept
transcripts on key government and business leaders in Saudi Arabia to
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS). After determining who in the
House of Saud and Saudi business community were opposed to his rise to
power, MbS singled them out for arrest and torture. In a few cases,
MbS's targets were executed. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">NSA fears that not only transcripts of its intercepts of Saudi officials were passed by Kushner to MbS, but<img border="0" height="135" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/kushner-Israel.jpg" style="float: right;" width="185" />
also to the Israeli government. [right, Kushner pictured with his
Israeli handlers in Jerusalem] This not only compromised targets of
NSA's wide surveillance net, but also the agency's sensitive sources and
methods for collecting such intelligence.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">What
alarmed NSA officials more than anything else is their observation that
Israeli signals intelligence (SIGINT) companies, comprised of former
SIGINT officers with Israel's Unit 8200 communications intercept agency,
began aggressively marketing offensive and defensive SIGINT
capabilities to other countries. These countries are routine targets for
NSA collection efforts. Through the use of the joint NSA-Central
Intelligence Agency Special Collection Service (SCS), intercepts of
diplomatic, military, and other official communications are provided in
either full or abridged transcript form to cleared U.S. policymakers.
These are the files that were routinely requested by Kushner for no
apparent reason, raising eyebrows within the upper echelon of the
National Security Council. One of those who raised concerns about
Kushner's "curiosity" for such information was Lt. General H. R.
McMaster, who was recently fired by Trump, largely at the urging of
Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump. National Security Adviser John
Bolton, a pro-Israeli neo-conservative, has vowed to fire those who
questioned Kushner's motives and those of his father-in-law in not
taking immediate steps to curtail Kushner's access to such intelligence.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Kushner,
who has no intelligence or military experience, specifically requested
intercept transcripts on governments that are now on the receiving end
of aggressive Israeli marketing efforts. Although Kushner has reported
responsibilities for U.S. relations with the Middle East, Mexico, and
China, there is no valid reason for him to have requested and read NSA
transcripts of intercepted communications of such African leaders as
Senegal's President Macky Sall, Cote d'Ivoire's President Alassane
Ouatarra, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari, or Gabon's President Ali
Bongo.</span><br /><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Many African countries use low-level forms of encryption, mostly supplied by French firms, that are easy to break. </span></span><span><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><span><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">NSA
is able to decrypt foreign communications, including those transmitted
over Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), using a system code-named
BIRDWATCHER, which forwards such coded communications to other NSA
systems for code-breaking. </span></span>However, Israeli firms are now
able to sell more sophisticated systems to such governments. What the
foreign governments do not realize is that Israeli intelligence has the
decryption keys. Upgrading foreign government encryption with Israeli
products also makes it that much harder for NSA to decrypt the
communications, including e-mail. By providing such information on
communication security vulnerabilities to the Israelis, Kushner has
caused irreparable harm to U.S. national security. If such a security
violation resulted in a criminal indictment, Kushner could be looking at
multiple life terms in federal prison.</span></span><br /><span><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><img border="0" height="142" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/unit8200.jpg" style="float: left;" width="190" /></span></span><span><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">One
such Israeli company that has moved into Africa to the chagrin of NSA
and its partners in Britain and Canada is SAFNA, a firm headquartered in
Israel's "intelligence city" of Herzliya, where Unit 8200, [pictured
left] the lesser known Unit 8100, and various Mossad operations are
located. The company's president is a Moroccan-born Jew named Didier
Sabag, who also runs two Israeli firms based in Hong Kong, Hamsa Ltd.
and Orot Ltd., both of which appear to be Israeli intelligence fronts.
NSA is concerned that SAFNA will stymie its ability to monitor
governments in the Sahel region that are also targets for the Islamic
State and Al Qaeda jihadists. Governments courted by SAFNA include
Morocco, Guinea-Bissau (a major transshipment point for narcotics from
Latin America to North Africa and Europe), Benin, and the Central
African Republic. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Another
Israeli firm, A.D. Consultants of Nes-Ziona, Israel is marketing
communications intercept and security equipment to President Alpha Condé
of Guinea. Guinea is the location of mining resources coveted by
Kushner's real estate business partners, the Steinmetz family of Israel.
Other African countries receiving full-court presses from A.D.
Consultants, include Madagascar, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania,
Cote d'Ivoire, Cabo Verde, Togo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi,
Gabon, Senegal, Equatorial Guinea, Sao Tome and Principe, Rwanda,
Nigeria, and Niger.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><img border="0" height="191" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/nsaunit8200.jpg" style="float: right;" width="195" />Other
Israeli SIGINT firms are marketing their services in India. A recent
visit by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to India cemented
growing military and intelligence links between Tel Aviv and Delhi.
Similar aggressive Israeli SIGINT marketing is being reported from
Azerbaijan, which shares a border with Iran; Angola; Mozambique; Saudi
Arabia; Bahrain; and the United Arab Emirates.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;">The
compromise of SIGINT by Kushner followed the revelation that Lt.
General Michael Flynn, Trump's short-lived National Security Adviser,
had a contractual relationship with another large Israeli cyber-warfare
firm specializing in hacking computer systems. The firm was </span></span><span><span class="st" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">NSO
Group Technologies, also located in the Herzliya espionage metroplex.
Trump --whose presidential campaign's links to the data mining firm
Cambridge Analytica have been established -- may also be linked to
another Israeli electronic surveillance firm, Black Cube, primarily
consisting of ex-Mossad officers. Black Cube cyber-spies were retained
to penetrate the email and medical records of Nigerian President
Muhammadu Buhari, while he was a presidential candidate; and to dig up
dirt on Kenyan opposition politicians; Mexican, United Arab Emirates,
Moroccan, and Bahraini human rights activists; and women who accused
disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault. </span><br /></span></span>
</div>
Macuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13339524320921898869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15865664.post-40253421793539241692018-03-13T15:36:00.000-04:002018-03-13T15:36:04.622-04:00 John Bolton seen more frequently around the White House - By The Wayne Madsen Report <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span><strong> John Bolton seen more frequently around the White House</strong></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span><strong> By The Wayne Madsen Report </strong></span><br /><span><strong></strong></span><span><strong><br /></strong></span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span><strong>J</strong></span>ohn
Bolton, the only unconfirmed U.S. ambassador to the United Nations to
have ever represented his country in the international organization, has
recently been seen more frequently around the White House. There are
strong rumors that Donald Trump's next purge will claim the National
Security Adviser, Lt. General H. R. McMaster, and that Bolton has the
inside track to replace him. Bolton taking over the National Security
Council will, after a nine-year hiatus, put the neo-conservatives back
in the foreign policy and national security driver's seat in Washington.
</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;">The
firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and his replacement by
Central Intelligence Agency director Mike Pompeo, a neocon and Christian
Dominionist, and the continued presence of neocon Nikki Haley in
Bolton's old job at the U.N. marks a sharp turn for a president who
campaigned on general U.S. non-involvement in global affairs as the
"world's policeman." Bolton, Pompeo, and Haley advocate a more
confrontational U.S. foreign policy with nations like Russia, China,
Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;">Bolton had Trump's ear when Steve Bannon was serving as Trump's strategic adviser. After Bannon was fired last August, Bolton </span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><img border="0" height="113" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/bolton-trump.jpg" style="float: left;" width="180" /></span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;">saw
his access to the White House rescinded by chief of staff John Kelly
and National Security Adviser McMaster. Bolton was rumored to be a
strong candidate for Secretary of State or National Security Adviser
during the presidential transition process in late 2016. [Bolton at
Trump Tower for Dec. 2016 interview, left]</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;">In
recent months, Bolton has seen his White House access restored and he
regularly briefs Trump on national security and foreign policy issues. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;">Bolton,
like Trump, is plagued by allegations of bizarre sexual activities.
Bolton's first wife, Cristina Bolton, claimed in court filings in
Virginia that Bolton forced her into having group sex at Plato's
Retreat, a Manhattan swingers club that catered to heterosexual couples
and bisexual women and operated between 1977 and 1985. The club was
located in what had been a gay bathhouse known as Continental Baths.
Plato's Retreat moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, <img border="0" height="306" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/boltondiv.jpg" style="float: right;" width="298" />where
it changed its name to "321 Slammer" and is now a gay male sex club. On
August 15, 1982, while John Bolton was on a two-week trip in his
position as assistant administrator for the U.S. Agency for
International Development (USAID), Mrs. Bolton fled their residence at
918 Grand Court, Vienna, Virginia, taking with her all of her personal
possessions and most of the furniture.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;">With
such a personal history, Bolton might have faced a tougher time getting
confirmed for a post entailing even greater access to highly-classified
information than the U.N. ambassador post. However, the National
Security Adviser position does not require Senate confirmation.</span></span>
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;">Bolton’s
tenure at the U.N. was punctuated by his own undiplomatic outbursts, as
well as those of his spokesman and personal assistant, Richard Grenell,
Trump’s openly-gay nominee to be U.S. ambassador to Germany. Bolton
strenuously pushed the neocon foreign policy line, as spelled out in the
charter for the movement founded in 1997, the Project for the New
American Century (PNAC).<br /><br />Bolton also favors scrapping the Iran
P5+1 nuclear agreement, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan
of Action (JCPOA). Bolton’s international views are no different than
those of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, a camaraderie Bolton
shares with Trump. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="tweet-text">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;">On
the issue of Palestine, Bolton has demanded the abolishment of the U.N.
Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which administers aid programs for
Palestinian refugees. In May 2017, before accepting the Guardian of Zion
Award from Bar-Ilan University in Jerusalem, Bolton told <em>The Jerusalem Post</em>
that the “two-state solution” of Israel and an independent Palestinian
state should be abandoned, Hamas, Fatah, and the Palestinian Authority
disbanded, Gaza given to Egypt, and the West Bank divided between Israel
and Jordan. Bolton cynically said he believes in a “three-state
solution” with Israel, Egypt, and Jordan taking control of current
Palestinian territory.<br /><br /><img border="0" height="139" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/platosretreat.jpg" style="float: right;" width="200" />Trump
may not be the only top U.S. official with a blackmail problem over sex
claims. A photograph of a bulletin board at Plato's Retreat clearly
offers customers the videotaping of their sex acts. [Pictured, right]
Whether or not Bolton knows it, his "swinging acts" may have been
captured on video, which may explain his subservience to Israel. Plato's
Retreat was founded by a high school friend of New York pornographer Al
Goldstein. Goldstein had something in common with Trump's convicted
child molester friend, Jeffrey Epstein: they both shared the same
criminal defense attorney, Alan Dershowitz. Dershowitz has also been an
ardent defender of Trump and his policies.<br /><br /><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;">Bolton’s
neocon rhetoric on NATO is no less alarming. He wants membership in
NATO fast-tracked for Ukraine and Georgia. Bolton as Trump’s national
security adviser would help usher into the Trump White House Bolton’s
fellow neocons ensconced at the American Enterprise Institute in
Washington, where Bolton enjoys a senior fellowship.</span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;">Bolton
actually believes Iran is exploiting the political turmoil in Venezuela
to gain access to the country’s uranium deposits. He also is convinced
that Hezbollah has established a drug-running network in Latin America.
Bolton has called on Trump to reassert the arcane Monroe Doctrine –
proclaiming the Western Hemisphere as America’s domain – because of
“Russian meddling” in Latin America. Bolton’s predilection for such
conspiracy theories, while welcomed and highly sought in Republican
Party cuckoo land, are not the product of sober intelligence analysis of
world events.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
<span></span>
</span></div>
Macuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13339524320921898869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15865664.post-11553842901713188242018-03-08T08:59:00.000-05:002018-03-08T08:59:33.600-05:00 Historical evidence points to Trump's father being a Nazi sympathizer; possible wartime agent By The Wayne Madsen Report<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span><strong>Historical evidence points to Trump's father being a Nazi sympathizer; possible wartime agent</strong></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span><strong> By The Wayne Madsen Report</strong></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span><strong></strong></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><strong><br /></strong><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><strong><span>A</span></strong>n
historian, who specializes on Nazi influence in America during the
1920s, 30s, and early 40s, has contacted WMR with supporting evidence
that Fred Trump, Donald Trump's father and New York real estate baron,
was not only a Nazi sympathizer during the 1920s and 30s, during the
time of Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany, but may have also acted
as an intelligence agent for Nazi Germany in wartime America.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;">Heretofore, the evidence that Fred Trump was a Nazi sympathizer rested on a June 1, 1927 article in <em>The New York Times</em>.
The article, "Warren Criticizes 'Class' Parades," reported that "1,000
Klansmen and 100 policemen staged a free-for-all battle in Jamaica."
Jamaica is a <img border="0" height="167" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/Fred1.jpg" style="float: right;" width="200" /></span></span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span>neighborhood
in Queens where Fred Trump resided at the time. Donald Trump has
consistently sought to obfuscate the fact of his father's arrest,
claiming in media interviews that it never happened and that his father
never lived at 175-24 Devonshire Road in Jamaica, as claimed in <em>The New York Times</em> story from 1927. Fred Trump, according to the <em>Times</em>
story, was released by Magistrate Thomas F. Doyle. It is noteworthy
that Fred Trump and the six other defendants arrested with him at the
Klan march were represented by ex-Judge Edgar F. Hazleton, described in
the ar</span><span>ticle as a "prominent member of the Knights of Columbus," the Roman Catholic fraternal society. Fred Trump and his </span><span>fellow Klansmen were actually protesting against the "Rom</span><span>an Catholic" New York Police Department when the melee </span></span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span><img border="0" height="135" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/Fred2.jpg" style="float: right;" width="200" /></span></span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span>broke out with the hundred New Y</span><span>ork cops.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span><br /></span><span>However, an announcement of the marriage of Fred Trump to Mary A. MacLeod, Donald Trump's mother, that ran in the <img border="0" height="141" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/Fred4.jpg" style="float: left;" width="200" />January 22, 1936 edition of the <em>Long Island Daily Press</em> clearly states that Fred Trump of </span><span>"175-24 Devonshire road, Jamaica." Donald Trump has a habit of calling any news unfavorable to him </span></span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span><img border="0" height="29" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/Fred3.jpg" style="float: right;" width="200" /></span></span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span>and his family "fake news" from the "lying media." In fact, "lying press" (</span><span><i>Lügenpresse</i>) was a</span><span> pejorative used by the Nazis in Germany to describe "Je</span><span>wish,
Communist, and foreign-owned" media. During the 2016 presidential
campaign, the term "lying press" was resurrected by Trump supporters,
including members of alt-right neo-Nazi groups.</span><span><span><br />The
fact that a prominent member of the Knights of Columbus would represent
Fred Trump and the other Klansmen is interesting because the 1920s --
which saw a KKK heavily steeped in anti-Catholic and anti-papacy beliefs
-- would quickly subside in the 1930s and give way to the
German-American Bund as the leading far-right political grouping in the
United States. The Bund supported Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party.
Because Hitler was a Roman Catholic, the American far-right toned down
anti-Catholic fervor and concentrated their venom on Jews and blacks. <br /><br />Fred
Trump's parents hailed from Bavaria and, although they were ostensibly
Lutheran, their home village in predominantly Lutheran Kallstadt was
surrounded by heavily Catholic parishes. On the eve of the outbreak of
World War II, Fred Trump, already a successful real estate mogul in
Queens and Brooklyn, claimed that he and his parents were Swedish. <br /><br />Claiming
false Swedish lineage was no guarantee of avoiding accusations of
pro-Nazi sympathies. During the 1930s, one of the biggest apologists for
Nazi Germany was Swedish-American, Charles Lindbergh. "Lucky Lindy" was
even awarded the </span><span>Service Cross
of the German Eagle by Nazi Air Minister Hermann Goering in Berlin in
1938. Lindbergh was a prominent member of the </span><span>America First Committee, which urged the United States to avoid </span></span></span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span><span><img border="0" height="178" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/fred5.jpg" style="float: right;" width="200" /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span><span>a war with Germany and which had much in common with the pro-Nazi German-American Bund. Donald Tr</span></span></span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span><span>um</span></span></span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span><span>p has resurrected "America First" in his political rhetoric.</span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span><span></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span><span>Trump apologists claim that Fred Trump was probably arrested not as a marching Klansman, </span></span></span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span><span>but
as an innocent bystander attending what was billed as a Memorial Day
parade honoring military war dead. This contention is without merit as
seen in the June 2, 1927 edition of the <em>Long Island Daily Press</em>. [Pictured, right] The article on the KKK march clearly states that "when the police attempted t</span></span></span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span><span>o
break up the formation of klansmen and resulted in the arrests of seven
of the berobed marchers." Not only was Fred Trump part of the Klan
march, but he was wearing the signature white robe and regalia of the Ku
Klux Klan when he was arrested.<br /></span>Donald Trump may try to convince his followers that <em>The New York Times</em> is "fake news" -- a ridiculous charge considering the <em>Times</em>
article is from 1927, long before Trump's "fake news" meme gained any
currency -- but he cannot explain why the same report on his father's
arrest appeared in three others newspapers: <em>The Daily Star</em> of Brooklyn of June 1, 1927; <em>The Queens County Evening New</em>s of June 2, 1927;<img border="0" height="147" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/fred7.jpg" style="float: right;" width="238" /></span><span> and <em>The Richmond Hill Record</em> of June 3, 1927. [Pictured right from top to bottom]<br /><br />All three papers, along with <em>The New York Times</em> and <em>The Long Island Daily Press</em>, the <em>Daily Press</em>
providing details about Fred Trump's KKK march participation and Klan
robes, are certainly not "fake news," but legitimate references that
would be relied upon by any historian or biographer. Four of the pa</span><span>pers include F</span><span>red Trump's address as 175-24 Devonshire, which Donald Trump claimed </span><span>was never </span><span>his fat</span><span>he</span><span>r's address.<br /><br /><em>The Richmond Hill Record</em> provides interesting details about </span></span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span><img border="0" height="170" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/fred8.png" style="float: right;" width="200" /></span></span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span>Fred
Trump's fellow "Jamaica Seven" Klansmen. They hailed from around the
New York area: John Kipp of Peekskill, New York; John Marcy of Yonkers,
New York; Fred Lyons of New Hyde Park, Long Island; Thomas Carroll of
Jamaica; </span></span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span>and
Harry J. Free of Carl Place, Long Island; as well as Thomas Erwin of
West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The KKK march in Queens was no local
affair and drew participants from beyond New </span></span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span>York City. </span><span>In the 1930s, Nazi meetings in New Y</span></span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span>ork,
including the February 20, 1939, 20,000-strong "Americanization" rally
at Madison Square Garden, drew participants from around the </span></span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span>country, but </span></span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span>especially from Long Island, upstate New York, New Jersey, and the Philadelphia area.<br /><br />There is also the interesting fact that </span></span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span>members of the </span></span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span><img border="0" height="224" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/fred9.jpg" style="float: right;" width="312" /></span></span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span>Knight of Columbus defended the ostensibly anti-Catholic Klan, with John P. Conlon, the marshal for five years of the </span></span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span>Jamaica
Division of the parade, being quoted as saying, "Police action was
atrocious and entirely unwarranted. Police performed atrocities which
were unpardonable. Without their interference the parade would have been
perfect. I am a Knights of Columbus man and I do not agree with the
principles of the Klan, but I do believe they should have been granted
permission to participate in any parade to hon</span></span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span>or dead war veterans."</span></span><img border="0" height="133" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/fred12.jpg" style="float: left;" width="200" /><br /><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span></span><span><br />The K</span><span>lan marchers in Queens [pict</span></span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span></span></span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span>ured, left] believed that the</span></span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span> </span></span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span>NYPD was </span></span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span>a "Roman Catho</span></span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span>lic" </span><span>p</span></span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span>olic</span></span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span>e force, so it would appear </span><span>unusual for a leading Catholic </span></span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span></span><span>organization like the Knights of Colum</span></span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span>bus to defend the KKK. However, given the s</span></span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span>ituation in Europe wit</span></span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span>h
the steady rise of Nazism in Germany and fascism in Italy, the
right-wing Catholic rapprochement with the KKK is perfectly logical as
both groups </span></span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;"><span>decided
to make common cause against Communism, "Jewish Bolshevism," and
socialism. The year 1929 saw the enactment of the Lateran Treaty between
the Vatican and Benito Mussolini's fascist government, while the
Concordat (<em>Reichskonkordat</em>) between the Vatican and Nazi
Germany was signed in 1933 between Vatican Secretary of State Eugenio
Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII (the so-called "Nazi Pope') and Nazi
Vice Chancellor Franz Von Papen. These two agreements resulted in Nazi
and fascist groups around the world, including the KKK, making common
cause with far-right groups, regardless of their Catholic ties.<br /><br />Perhaps
no one was more instrumental in uniting the pro-Nazi sympathizers
within the United States than Roman Catholic priest, Father Charles
Coughlin. The expert on American Nazism and fascism in the interwar
years, a renowned expert on Coughlin, believes that Fred Trump was a
follower of not only Coughlin, but of Hitler. The expert's research
indicates that Coughlin, much of whose material came from early and
rather obscure Hitler speeches, influenced not only Fred Trump but also
his son Donald. Research into Hitler's speeches and those of Coughlin
and Donald Trump show definite similarities in rhetoric and policies.
For example, Donald Trump has called the press the "enemy of the
American people." Hitler stated, "A press which is in principle
anti-national cannot be tolerated in Germany." The Coughlin expert told
WMR that Hitler and Donald Trump have one definite thing in common: "</span><span><span>Hitler took advantage of those who thought they were taking advantage of him," adding that Trump does the very same.</span><br />Coughlin,
whose weekly radio broadcasts from Michigan reached up to 30 million
listeners in the United States, were laced with rhetoric in support of
Hitler, Mussolini, and Japanese Emperor Hirohito. In 1938, Coughlin
voiced support for the Nazi Kristallnacht in Germany, which saw attacks
on </span><span>Jews, synagogues, and
Jewish-owned businesses throughout the country. Coughlin also received
financial support from Nazi Germany and, along with Lindbergh, was a
leading figure in the America First movement. <br /><br />In the years
between Fred Trump's arrest as a robed Klansmen in Queens and his
surfacing as a U.S. government contractor, little is known. Trump was
busy building barracks and other buildings for the U.S. Navy troop
embarkation ports in Chester, Pennsylvania and Norfolk and Newport News,
Virginia. As WMR stated in our August 16, 2017 report: "</span><span><span><span>Around
1937, Fred Trump's pals in the Klan joined with the Bund and the Nazi
Silver Shirts and Black Legion to form the Storm Troops. This early
"United the Right" movement received heavy corporate funding. By 1937,
Fred Trump was making handsome profits as a notorious Queens slum lord.
Did any of those profits end up in the coffers of either the Bund or
Storm Troops?" In addition, we reported that a Bund member</span></span></span><span><span><span><span>,
German immigrant Waldemar Othmer, infiltrated the U.S. military as a
civilian employee and dutifully sent via microfilm information to his
Abwehr handlers in Berlin on the movements of </span><span>British
and American military vessels, convoys, and merchant ships out of
Brooklyn and Norfolk. Sinking American ships was a high priority for
German naval commander Admiral Karl Donitz, who dubbed the program
Operation <em>Paukenschlag</em> or Drumbeat." <br /><br />Considering Fred
Trump's Klan background and the "unite the right" agreement between the
Klan and the Bund-affiliated groups in the United States, did the father
of the current president have loyalties to another master, perhaps Herr
Hitler? As we previously reported, 't</span></span></span></span><span>here
is every indication that Fred Trump held his far-right views during the
war. He adamantly refused to rent to African Americans, even though
many of them worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and other nearby military
bases and were in need of housing. When the draft was imposed in 1940,
Fred Trump, who was 35, was subject to conscription but was never
drafted. In 1942, Trump's age and dependent children would have put him
in a lower priority category for the draft. Yet, Fred Trump did not
serve in any draft-exempt occupational areas such as war production or
public health and safety.</span></span><span><span><span><span style="font-family: times\ new\ roman, times, serif;">"<br /><br />FBI
files on Fred Trump, while containing information on his violation of
the Fair Housing Act in the 1960s in refusing to sell or rent to blacks
and his ties to organized crime, are void of any mention of his
activities in the 1930s and 40s. FBI director J. Edgar Hoover is known
to have downplayed the collection of intelligence on America Firsters
and Nazis until the December 7, 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. <br /><br />Defenders
of Fred Trump point to his friendship in the 1980s with then-Israeli
ambassador to the United Nations Benjamin Netanyahu and Fred Trump's
donations to Jewish causes. However, Netanyahu, whose Likud Party has
joined political forces with far-right and neo-Nazi groups in Europe and
tolerated similar groups in the West Bank and Israel proper, is hardly
an exemplar for establishing one's anti-Nazi bona fides. Donald Trump's
embrace of pro-Israel Stephen Miller as his adviser and major
speechwriter is no different than his father's embrace of Netanyahu.
Miller serves as a conduit for President Trump to the alt-right
neo-Nazis led by Miller's friend and Duke University classmate, Richard
Spencer. <br /><br />As president, Donald Trump has shown loyalty to foreign
autocrats but little to the U.S. Constitution. Donald Trump has called
neo-Nazi marchers in Charlottesville, Virginia "fine people" and he has
extolled the "virtues" of Confederate generals, placing himself in the
mold of his Klan father. Rather than call for a military march in
Washington, DC, Mr. Trump might want to fess up about his father's time
as a Klansman and as a possible Nazi sympathizer and war-time agent. In
the case of the President of the United States, it is not the sins of
the father that are as important as the political indoctrination passed
down from father to son.</span><br /> </span></span></span></span>
</div>
Macuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13339524320921898869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15865664.post-52833571330955728002018-03-05T15:53:00.000-05:002018-03-05T15:53:16.906-05:00 Trump prefers dictatorships, including one for the U.S. By The Wayne Madsen Report<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><strong>Trump prefers dictatorships, including one for the U.S.</strong></span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong style="font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">By The Wayne Madsen Report</strong></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><strong><br /></strong></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0.5em 0em 1em;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"><strong>A</strong>t a Republican Party fundraising dinner and reception held at his Mar-a-Lago resort over the we</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"><img border="0" height="83" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/xijinping.jpg" style="border: 0px; float: right;" width="175" /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">ekend, Donald Trump remarked that he envies Chinese President Xi Jinping [pictured, right] for having recently ab</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">olished the two-term limit for his office, thus opening the way for Xi to remain as president of China for life, well past what had been a presidential term that was due to expire in 2023. At 64 years of age, Xi could remain as president well into the 2030s and, quite possibly, beyond. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Ignoring the fact that China is a one-party state, Trump told the enthusiastic 250 Republican donors, who paid $27,700 per couple to attend the dinner, "He’s [Xi's] now president for life . . . president for life. And he’s great. And look, he was able to do that. I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll give that a shot someday.” Trump is limited to two terms in office as stipulated by a Constitutional amendment enacted in 1951.<br /><br />On December 18, 2000, after it became clear that George W. Bush was president-elect after a dubious election that was contested in the courts, the president-elect said, after a meeting with Congressional leaders, "</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">I told all four that there were going to be some times where we don't agree with each other. But that's OK. If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator." Bush's cackling after his comment showed he thought it was funny, but members of Congress on both sides of the aisle felt the comment was inappropriate and dangerous. Bush got the message, but that did not stop him from praising other dictators, even while claiming credit for ridding the world of Saddam Hussein, who he called a ruthless dictator. Bush's dictator transgressions now seem mild compared to those of Trump.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0.5em 0em 1em;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Trump called Xi "a great gentleman," adding, "he’s the most powerful president in a hundred years." Trump appeared to have disregarded the fact that Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong ruled China with an iron fist from 1949 to 1976.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Trump's quip about becoming president-for-life was not his first dalliance with projecting fascist tendencies. On <img border="0" height="98" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/mussoTrump1.jpg" style="border: 0px; float: right;" width="175" />February 28, 2016, Trump tweeted a quote made notorious by Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini, "It is better to live one day as a lion than a 100 years as a sheep." In defending the tweet after criticism, Trump said, "Mussolini was Mussolini . . . It's a very good quote. It's a very interesting quote." The electoral gains of Italy's former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, an open admirer of Mussolini and his Italian fascist movement, will undoubtedly encourage Trump's promotion of fascism and dictators.<br /><br />According to a 1990 interview she gave to <em>Vanity Fair</em>, Trump's ex-wife, Ivana Trump, said Trump kept a copy of <img border="0" height="151" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/meinkampf.jpg" style="border: 0px; float: right;" width="107" />Adolf Hitler's book <em>Mein Kampf</em> on a book cabinet by his bed. She said Trump would read the book "from time-to-time." Asked by <em>Vanity Fair</em> writer Marie Brenner about the book, Trump replied, "Who told you that? . . . I don't remember . . . Actually, it was my friend Marty Davis from Paramount who gave me a copy of <em>Mein Kampf</em>, and he's a Jew."<br /><br />In May 2017, Trump told Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte that he was "doing an unbelievable job on the drug problem." Since being elected in June 2016, Duterte has carried out more than 6000 extrajudicial killings of suspected drug dealers. When Duterte decides to eliminate a political opponent, he merely charges them with drug dealing. Last month, Trump said he wished he could execute drug dealers in the United States, following the example of Singapore. Since its independence in 1965, Singapore adopted a meritocratic form of government, which dissuades active political opposition in return for a generous social welfare system. Trump has been quoted by one White House aide, according to Axios, as saying, "You know the Chinese and Filipinos don’t have a drug problem. They just kill them."<br /><br />During a visit to Manila on November 17, 2017, Trump yucked it up with Duterte after the Philippines autocrat accused American journalists of being "spies." In response to American reporters' questions about Trump bringing up human rights in his conversations with Duterte, Trump cut off the questioners with Duterte chiming in, "With you around, guys, you are the spies," repeating, "You are." In 2016, Duterte justified killing journalists in the Philippines, declaring, "Just because you’re a journalist you are not exempted from assassination if you’re a son of a bitch."<br /><br />In September 2017, Trump praised Turkey's autocratic president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has imprisoned opposition politicians, journalists, businessmen, military officers, and academics, giving him "high marks." It is now widely believed in Turkey and abroad that Erdogan allowed the July 15, 2016 coup to commence, knowing full well that he would be able to put it down in its infancy and justify his subsequent assumption of near-dictatorial powers. Trump congratulated Erdogan for the passage in 2017 of a referendum that gave the Turkish president virtual unlimited powers.<br /><br />Trump has also offered praise for Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who came to power after he ousted the democratically-elected Muslim Brotherhood government of President Mohamed Morsi in a July 2013 coup. In April 2017, Trump said he was "very much behind President al-Sisi," adding, "he's done a fantastic job in a very difficult situation." Sisi has jailed the political opposition and members of the media and permits no dissent in Egypt.<br /><br />In November 2017, Trump praised a royal coup within the House of Saud as an "anti-corruption" initiative. Trump tweeted, "</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">I have great confidence in King Salman and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, they know exactly what they are doing . . . Some of those they are harshly treating have been ‘milking’ their country for years!” Trump failed to mention how King Salman and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), has been taking part in the Saudi "milking" operation. MBS, with his dementia-stricken father's blessing, arrested hundreds of Saudi princes, government ministers, businessmen, and diplomats in a sweeping purge that saw some Saudi princes, reportedly with the aid of mercenaries supplied by Blackwater founder Erik Prince's Abu Dhabi-based Reflex Responses (R2), being hung upside down by their toes during torture sessions in Riyadh. Prince's sister, Betsy De Vos, serves as Trump's Secretary of Education. Trump's reference to "harsh treatment" by MBS failed to mention that at least two Saudi princes were assassinated by forces loyal to MBS.<br /><br />Trump has also avidly praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is on the verge of being re-elected Russia's president and who has held the post of president or prime minister since 2000. In September 2016, Trump said of Putin, "he's been a leader, far more than our president [Barack Obama] has been a leader."<br /><br />In April 2017, Trump, during a meeting with his erstwhile Argentine real estate business partner, President Mauricio Macri, called the right-wing Argentine leader "a good friend," "a great, wonderful person," and "a great leader." Macri has misused the Argentine court system and presidential powers to imprison and put on trial leaders of the political opposition, as well as attacking the opposition media and labor unions. Trump has also praised Honduran strongman President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was re-elected in a November 26, 2017 election marred by electoral fraud and violation of civil liberties.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"><span style="line-height: 13.91px;">The 1930s saw the global rise of fascist dictatorships in Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Hungary, Romania, Austria, Portugal, China, Argentina, Brazil, Greece, and other nations. The world could count on an American president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, to hold the ground for a small group of democratic nations that were, early on, outgunned by the fascist powers. And had FDR not been president in the 1930s, with fascism-appeasers such as Herbert Hoover, Alf Landon, and Wendell Willkie serving as successive U.S. presidents, the entire world would have quickly come under the yoke and jackboot of fascist rule under the Axis powers of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan. Today, a supporter and appeaser serves as President of the United States and there is no longer an American backstop to prevent the world from falling under fascist rule. </span></span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman", times, serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
Macuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13339524320921898869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15865664.post-62521283292107768562018-02-27T17:50:00.000-05:002018-02-27T17:50:27.710-05:00 Trump-linked crime syndicate to world: "Ignore Us!" By The Wayne Madsen Report<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div id="documentContentInner" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; text-align: center;">
<strong>Trump-linked crime syndicate to world: "Ignore Us!"</strong></div>
<div id="documentContentInner" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>By The Wayne Madsen Report</strong></div>
<strong><br /></strong><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"><strong>T</strong>he criminal syndicate with links to the Trump Organization is very similar to Ian Fleming's fictional SPECTRE, the organization of crime bosses and former spies recruited from the ranks of Joseph Stalin's SMERSH (SMERt' SHpionam, or "Death to Spies," security service), Nazi Germany’s Gestapo, Yugoslav Marshal Josip Tito’s secret police, the Italian Mafia, the Unione Corse (the Corsican Mafia), and a massive heroin-smuggling syndicate based in Turkey. The Japanese yakuza and Chinese Triads also lent their services to SPECTRE. Led by Polish-Greek super-villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld, SPECTRE was stymied at every turn by British agent 007 James Bond.<br /><br />Fleming was prescient in his creation of SPECTRE. Today, a criminal syndicate with roots and tentacles in the former Soviet states, the former Yugoslavia, Turkey, Asia, and Latin America has taken over the White House; <img border="0" height="209" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/spectre.JPG" style="border: none; float: right;" width="207" />Kremlin; </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Beit Rosh HaMemshala - the official residence of the Israeli Prime Minister; the Casa Rosada presidential palace in Argentina, the White Palace in Ankara, and other seats of government around the world. Former British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) agent Christopher Steele, the closest we have to a James Bond, has been pilloried by the right-wing press and Republicans in Congress -- all owned by the real-life SPECTRE -- for bringing attention to the infiltration of the Trump presidential campaign by the global crime syndicate, which could be called "TRUMPKUSHMAN" -- "Trump, Kushner, and Manafort."<br /><br />The syndicate goes by many names -- Eurasian Mafia (preferred by the FBI); Russian Organized Crime (ROC) (a misnomer considering the fact that Ukrainians, Moldovans, Azerbaijanis, Latvians, and others are heavily involved); Red Mafiya (a term coined by author Robert Friedman after the fall of the Soviet Union); "Bratva" (Russian for "brotherhood"); and "Kosher Nostra" (a take-off on the Italian Cosa Nostra and a term not considered politically correct, except for FBI agents and police detectives when they use it privately).<br /><br />The investigation of the Trump, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort organizations by Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Mueller has reportedly opened up a Pandora's Box of criminal intelligence on money laundering, smuggling, human trafficking, embezzlement, stock fraud, tax evasion using offshore accounts, and contract murder schemes.<br /><br />A business squabble between the Trump Organization on one side and the owner and condominium </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">owners’ association on the other, which concerns the operations of the </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Trump Ocean Club International <img border="0" height="140" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/trumpTowerPanama.jpg" style="border: none; float: left;" width="210" />Hotel and Tower in Panama City, Panama, has resulted in a Panamanian law enforcement investigation of the Trump Organization. The Trump Organization in Panama has been busy shredding documents after the hotel owners ordered them evicted from the property. The documents being destroyed concern various Trump Tower investors, including a Brazilian fraudster named </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Alexandre Ventura Nogueira who dealt personally with Eric, Donald, Jr, and Ivanka Trump on the Panama hotel/condo project. Trump Tower investors also included </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">David Murcia Guzman, a </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Colombian drug money launderer; suspected human trafficker from the Ukraine, and a native of Moscow named </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Arkady Vodovosov, who served a five-year prison sentence for kidnapping and threats to torture and murder; a Belarusian-Israeli bank fraudster and Trump Mar-a-Lago Country Club member named Alexander Altshoul (and a relative of Vodovosov); and a Ukrainian named Stanislau Kavalenka investigated by Canadian authorities for sex trafficking. Altshoul was also involved in the Trump Tower project in Toronto.<br /><br />Also involved with Trump in the Panama City project was former Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli, who is currently being held at the </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Federal Detention Center in Miami awaiting extradition to Panama. The U.S. Justice Department, reportedly at the behest of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, has been slow to act on extraditing Martinelli to Panama, where it is expected he will divulge, in a public trial, details of Trump's operations in the Panama City building complex. Judge </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Edwin Torres of the U.S. District Court in Miami, ordered Martinelli extradited to Panama. <img border="0" height="139" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/odebrecht.jpg" style="border: none; float: left;" width="195" />However, the ex-president's attorneys are appealing the decision. Martinelli has been linked to the hemispheric-wide scandal involving the Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht and bribes to politicians in Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia and other Latin American nations. Martinelli and members of his family represent a possible link between Odebrecht and the Trump White House, including Donald Trump, Jr., Eric Trump, and Ivanka Trump and real estate chicanery in Panama.<br /><br />SPECTRE was known in the Bond movies for its audacious crimes, including precipitating a U.S.-Soviet nuclear war, launching a biological warfare attack, and assassinating political leaders and overthrowing governments. The crime syndicate responsible for putting Donald Trump in the White House is no less impudent than its fictional counterpart. One of the now-defunct corporate contrivances that has links to the Manafort and Trump Organizations is Ignorus, LLC of Palm City, Florida. While Ignorus's corporate masters want the public to ignore it and other artifices now being investigated by Mueller's prosecution team, the Special Counsel has other ideas, as seen with his list of Manafort companies detailed in successive federal indictments. Firms like Ignorus represents the type of corporate glue that links together the networks of Trump, Manafort, and Trump presidential campaign financier and </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Ukrainian-American real-estate magnate Alexander Rovt.<br /><br />Linked to Ukrainian fertilizer magnate Dmitry Firtash, ordered extradited to the United States by Austrian authorities, Rovt, who self-identifies as a "Carpathian Jew," bought Lower Manhattan's Bankers Trust building, damaged in the 9/11 attack, for a bargain price of $303 million in cash. Along with Trump, Kushner, and Larry Silverstein, Rovt is now considered one of New York City's top real estate magnates. The dubious dealings in which these and other members of the global syndicate engaged are no longer being ignored, as the name of the former firm in Florida strongly implied.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
</div>
Macuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13339524320921898869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15865664.post-18202625068302884502018-02-27T17:45:00.000-05:002018-02-27T17:45:20.825-05:00 School shooting raises red flags in Broward County By The Wayne Madsen Report<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div id="documentContentInner" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; text-align: center;">
<strong> School shooting raises red flags in Broward County</strong></div>
<div id="documentContentInner" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>By The Wayne Madsen Report</strong></div>
<strong><br /></strong><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">The Trump administration has shown that it is more than capable and willing to take advantage of any event, regardless of the sensitivities, to reap political fodder. The recent mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in which 17 students lost their lives, is no different. Trump and his supporters have used the incident to call for the arming of school teachers, even though an overwhelming majority of teachers and school administrators have rejected the idea as ludicrous.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"><img border="0" height="107" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/scottisrael.jpg" style="border: none; float: right;" width="190" />A major red flag in the incident has been raised with comments made by Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel [pictured, right]. County sheriffs in Florida are elected positions. Israel, a native of New York City, began his police career with the Fort Lauderdale Police Department. In 2012, Israel was elected as Broward County Sheriff as a Democrat. However, Israel, a former registered Republican, is no ordinary Democrat. In his 2012 race, Israel received the backing of Republican dirty tricks operative Roger Stone, a resident of Coral Springs in Broward, whose sleazy work extends back to the Richard Nixon administration and encompasses the campaigns of Ronald Reagan, John McCain, and Donald Trump. Stone was involved in dirty tricks operations against CBS anchorman Dan Rather and New York Governor Eliot Spitzer. In many ways, Stone makes longtime GOP operative Karl Rove, himself no stranger to dirty tricks, look like a saint by comparison.<br /><br />No sooner had he been elected Broward County Sheriff, Israel hired Michael Colapietro, Stone's co-author of the books "The Man Who Killed Kennedy — The Case Against LBJ" and "Nixon's Secrets," as a Sheriff's Department community affairs specialist. Another community affairs specialist hired by Israel was Stone's book publicist, Jennifer "Jen" Hobbs. Together with his friend Andrew Miller, who runs the blog Broward Bugle.com, Stone has backed Israel politically. Stone and Miller have defended Israel against charges of excessive force by police officers in Broward County.<br /><br />Israel also hired Chairwoman of the Libertarian Party of Miami-Dade County and Miami Tea Party co-founder Dianne Thorn as the sheriff's assistant chief of staff. It just so happened that Thorn was Stone's longtime personal assistant and Miller's former step-mother.<br /><br />Israel's close connections to Stone do not end with Colapietro, Hobbs, and Thorn. Israel's general counsel is Stone's longtime friend Ron Gunzburger, an early supporter of Israel for sheriff. Topping off the Israel-Stone connection is the fact that Stone's stepson, Scott Stone, was transferred by Israel to a detective job even though he only had two years on the police force. Israel told the <em>Sun-Sentinel</em> newspaper, "if his name was Scott Jones, he would still be [a sheriff's deputy]."<br /><br />Israel is being criticized for the way his department handled the high school shooting carried out by former student Nikolas Cruz. Although one sheriff's deputy assigned to the Parkland high school resigned after failing to enter the school after Cruz began to open fire with an AR-15 assault rifle and two others are under investigation for failing to heed prior warnings the department received about Cruz, Israel is refusing to take any responsibility for the bloody mayhem. There are calls from 73 GOP state representatives for Governor Rick Scott, a Republican and Trump supporter, to remove Israel from his sheriff's position. Given the close ties of Israel to Stone, Trump's unofficial political adviser, that is unlikely. Israel's membership of the Parkland Chabad House (known as a front for Mossad activities) and his endorsement of the teachings of the Talmud have ensured that he is immune to political pressure in Broward County, which has a politically-influential Jewish community.<br /><br />In a February 25, 2018 interview with CNN, Israel made a boast worthy of Donald Trump. He told CNN's Jake Tapper, "I provided amazing leadership to this agency.” Asked by Tapper if he would resign, Israel declared, "Of course I won’t resign."<br /><br />The Coral Springs police officers who arrived at Stoneman High School to find four Broward deputies waiting outside the school as Cruz carried out his killing spree are not so taken with Israel's "leadership" qualities. Coral Springs police officers were the first to enter the school and Coral Springs Police Chief Tony Pustizzi was irate that Israel took all the credit for the enforcement response to the shooting and the efforts of the Coral Springs Police and Fire Departments were largely ignored. Israel appears to be at the nexus of failures to coordinate red flag warnings received about Cruz by Broward County mental health officials, the local FBI office, neighboring Palm Beach County law enforcement officials, and his own sheriff's department.<br /><br />Arch-conspirator and health supplement flim-flam salesman Alex Jones, who features Stone on his broadcasts, downplayed Stone's connection to Israel, claiming he just "had dinner with the sheriff." Jones's ignoring Stone's close relationship with Israel, whom Jones erroneously called "a big Hillary boot-licker," is in keeping with the constant stream of lies and misinformation disseminated by Jones, Stone, their propaganda acolytes, and their number one fan, Trump.<br /><br />Stoneman High School was not the first major shooting incident on Israel's watch. On January 6, 2017, just fourteen days before Trump's inauguration, a former member of the Puerto Rico and Alaska National Guard, Esteban Santiago-Ruiz, arriving at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on a Delta flight from Anchorage via Minneapolis, unpacked his luggage in the baggage claim area. In a restroom, Santiago-Ruiz loaded a 9-millimeter automatic pistol he declared in his checked in baggage in Anchorage and proceeded to open fire on other passengers in the baggage area, killing five and wounding six. Santiago-Ruiz was known to the FBI office in Anchorage as a mentally disturbed individual and he was <img border="0" height="140" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/scottisrael2.jpg" style="border: none; float: left;" width="185" />eventually fired by his private security firm employer, Signal 88 Security, which is based in Omaha. In 2007, Signal 88's CEO was featured on Fox News [pictured, left] after Richard Hawkins entered Westroads Mall in Omaha -- whose owners have strong Israeli connections -- opened fire, killing eight shoppers. There were immediate calls for metal detectors to be installed at entrances to shopping malls across the United States.<br /><br />The Fort Lauderdale airport investigation was stymied by the leak of an airport videotape of the shooting to the media. Broward County Sheriff's deputy Michael Dingman was discovered to have leaked the video to TMZ. Although Dingman was suspended -- with pay -- considering the number of Stone cronies working within the Broward Sheriff's office, the videotape leaking points to a consistent problem with videotape tampering in Broward. The airport incident in Fort Lauderdale resulted in calls for enhanced security at outer perimeters of U.S. airports, a business that Israeli-owned aviation security companies are all-to-eager to accommodate. In the Fort Lauderdale airport incident, Trump's supporters pointed to the shooter's Hispanic ethnicity, even though Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens. The shooting merely fed into the repeated anti-Hispanic gas-lighting by Trump.<br /><br />When Coral Springs police officers arrived at Stoneman High School they were confused by what was billed as real-time security video streaming from inside the school. The real-time video images, broadcast by Broadcastify, an audio streaming website, were "delayed 20 minutes." The Coral Springs cops believed Cruz was still shooting inside the school when he was long gone and sitting at a nearby McDonald's restaurant.<br /><br />Broward County serves as a nexus for Israeli intelligence and "Eurasian Mafia" and it hosts the Trump Hollywood Condo complex, which has attracted as buyers several dodgy characters with ties to Eastern European and Israeli organized crime. Broward and Hollywood, in particular, also served as a center for suspicious pre-9/11 activity, as previously reported by WMR.<br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/hwa.JPG" style="border: none; float: left;" width="180" />Hollywood [pictured, left, along Dixie Highway main thoroughfare], Fort Lauderdale to the north, and Hallandale and Aventura to the south lie in the heart of Broward County, which is heavily populated by Jewish transplants from New York City, like Sheriff Israel. Our sources in Broward continue to pose one major question: Why would alleged lead 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta and his team have been cruising bars and causing scenes in a city with a large Jewish population, just four days before the Arabs were to carry out the "crime of the century" -- the hijacking of four passenger planes in order to fly them into the World Trade Center, Pentagon or White House, and the U.S. Capitol building?<br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">And why would Atta and his team have chosen to use a mail drop at a rental mailbox store in a shopping center catering to Jewish residents, next door to a kosher restaurant? In fact, the mail drop was practically located across the street from the apartment complex that housed at least one of the Israeli "art students" believed by U.S. intelligence to have been part of an Israeli intelligence team. Hollywood was one of several cities where the addresses of the Israeli art students closely matched up with those of the alleged hijackers. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Scott Israel not only has a lot of explaining to do over Marjory Stoneman Douglas High and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International, but the use of his county by unsavory criminal syndicates linked to Trump and deplorable conspiracy propagandists associated with the likes of Alex Jones. Trump, for his part, has said he is envious that 9/11 raised George W. Bush's presidential popularity to over 90 percent. The Parkland shooting occurred as the Justice Department Special Counsel's investigation of Trump, his administration, and campaign team was reaching a crescendo. What part did Trump's dirty tricks team play in diverting attention from the federal courthouse in Washington, DC to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Florida?</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
</div>
Macuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13339524320921898869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15865664.post-87927975775892332992018-02-21T17:04:00.000-05:002018-02-21T17:04:12.945-05:00 Bernie Madoff running financial scams from federal prison By the Wayne Madsen Report<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">Bernie Madoff running financial scams from federal prison </strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">By the Wayne Madsen Report</strong></div>
<div id="documentContentInner" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">
<strong><br /></strong><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"><strong>B</strong>ernie Madoff, who is serving a 150-year sentence after being convicted of running a $64.8 billion fraud scheme in New York in 2009, has been permitted by Trump administration officials to quietly resume running investment <span style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-width: initial;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/butner.jpg" style="border: none; float: left;" width="200" /></span>schemes from the<span class="caption"> medium-security Federal Correctional Institute in Butner, North Carolina. [pictured, left] According to a high-level enforcement official of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission who contacted WMR, Madoff, who is 79, has been permitted to maintain contact with the outside world to direct investments from assets he continues to control from the prison, which has been nicknamed "B'nai Butner" due to its heavy concentration of Jewish white collar criminals and the only kosher-certified chef and kitchen in the federal Bureau of Prisons system.<br /><br />Madoff is reportedly treated by fellow inmates like a Mafia don. One of those inmates is Carmine "the Snake" Persico, the Colombo family crime boss from New York, who is also serving a life sentence. On at least one occasion, Persico intervened to protect Madoff from another inmate who physically assaulted the disgraced investment banker in a dispute over the selection of a television channel.<br /><br /><img border="0" height="107" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/madoff.jpg" style="border: none; float: right;" width="88" />Prison officials granted Madoff [pictured, right] a coveted job in the prison commissary, where he sells sundries to fellow inmates. The job may afford Madoff the opportunity to communicate with associates outside of Butner's security barricades. Madoff reportedly gives stock tips and financial advice to fellow inmates.<br /><br />In his 2009 book, </span><span class="caption"><em>Think Like a Champion, </em>Trump said he rejected requests by Madoff to invest in the Madoff fund. Trump wrote, [Madoff would say],</span><span class="caption">"'Why don't you invest in my fund?' I didn't know much about him and I'm not a fund guy so I said no. I had enough going on in my own businesses that I didn't need to be associated or involved with his." Trump added, "</span><span class="caption">He is without a doubt a sleazebag and a scoundrel without par."<br /><br />However, according to a longtime SEC regulator who spoke exclusively to WMR, Trump did invest money with Madoff but avoided being one of 20,000 investors bilked by Madoff's Ponzi scheme. It is not known whether Trump or Attorney General Jeff Sessions played a role with the Bureau of Prisons in permitting Madoff to conduct business from Butner.</span><span class="caption"><br /></span><span class="caption" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
</div>
Macuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13339524320921898869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15865664.post-5483554021367211852018-02-13T13:01:00.000-05:002018-02-13T13:01:52.450-05:00Trump names George Soros acolyte as charge in Havana By The Wayne Madsen Report<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><strong>Trump names George Soros acolyte as charge in Havana By The Wayne Madsen Report<br /></strong><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"><strong>D</strong>onald Trump has named Phillip Goldberg, an arch-interventionist U.S. diplomat and acolyte of the "regime change" dogma of hedge fund mogul George Soros, as the interim chargé d'affaires of the U.S. embassy in Cuba. Goldberg's task will be to initiate Soros-inspired themed street demonstrations in Cuba when Cuban President Raul Castro steps down on April 19 of this year.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Goldberg will replace Lawrence Gumbier, who has served as chargé since last October. </span></span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"><img border="0" height="119" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/goldberg.jpg" style="border: none; float: left;" width="85" /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Goldberg [pictured, left] is not liked in Latin America. As ambassador to Bolivia, Goldberg's involvement in Bolivia's domestic politics earned him an expulsion in 2008 by the government of President Evo Morales. Goldberg also served as the chief of the U.S. mission in Kosovo, a Mafia-run state that would not have been created and thrived had it not been for the efforts and influence of Soros over European Union and U.S. State Department policies during the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Goldberg, a former </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">and assistant secretary of state for intelligence and research, is an integral member of the U.S. intelligence bureaucracy and a "deep state" functionary of the highest order. Goldberg's placement in Cuba by Trump is yet another indication that Trump's rhetoric about his combating the "deep state" is pure political rhetoric having no basis in fact.<br /><br />Cuban-American Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ) have blocked the appointment of a full U.S. ambassador to Havana. President Obama nominated Cuba expert and diplomat Jeffrey DeLaurentis as ambassador but his nomination died in the Senate.<br /><br />While in La Paz, Goldberg ran a major Central Intelligence Agency espionage operation out of the embassy. Before Goldberg, himself, was expelled from Bolivia in 2008, Assistant Regional Security officer at the U.S. embassy, Vince Cooper, was declared <em>persona non grata</em> by the Bolivian government and charged with espionage. Cooper had attempted to enlist U.S. Peace Corps volunteers and at least one Fulbright scholar in Bolivia to spy on Cuban and Venezuelan nationals in the country. One Fulbright scholar approached by Cooper, John Alexander van Shaick, blew the whistle on the espionage operation.<br /><br />Goldberg supported secessionist movements in the energy resource-rich states of Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando, Cochabamba, and Tarija. Goldberg's activities, supported by the CIA station in La Paz and U.S. Special Forces in the country, sought to break away 35 percent of Bolivia's population to weaken Morales's government. Goldberg also supported the "Santa Cruz Autonomy Statute," which tried to withhold two-thirds of Santa Cruz's tax revenues from Morales's government and establish an autonomous state-wide police force.<br /><br />Goldberg was also reportedly a part of a CIA terrorist operation in Bolivia that blew up agas pipeline from Bolivia to Sao Paulo, Brazil. The severing of the pipeline cut Bolivia's natural gas output to Brazil by 10 percent. Other Goldberg activities included coordinating anti-Morales actions by the right-wing governors of Santa Cruz, Pando, Beni, and Tarija. Opposition groups funded by the United States took over government buildings in the four states. The opposition also cut the gas flow to Brazil and Argentina by taking over gas installations.<br /><br />Goldberg's actions left Morales no choice but to expel him from Bolivia in 2008. In solidarity with Morales, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez also expelled the U.S. ambassador in Caracas and Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega sent the U.S. ambassador in Managua packing. In expelling ambassador Patrick Duddy, Chavez said, "Yankees, go to hell," adding that the United States was "full of shit."<br /><br />As U.S. ambassador to the Philippines, Goldberg immediately involved himself in that nation's 2016 presidential election. Goldberg endorsed and assisted the campaign opponents of the eventual victor, Rodrigo Duterte. In August 2016, irritated by Goldberg's election meddling, Duterte called Goldberg </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span class="st" style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">a "'bakla' son-of-a-bitch." Bakla is Tagalog for gay.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">In dispatching Goldberg as his "man in Havana," Trump has left no doubt that he expects the U.S. diplomat to stir up political violence and disruption in Cuba after Castro's resignation in April. Trump's Cuba policy, which foresees Trump and Scion hotel properties edging out Marriott, Hilton, Sheraton, Sofitel, and other chains in a country governed in a post-Castro era by returning right-wing Cubans from south Florida, is as obvious as Goldberg's jaded diplomatic resumé. Goldberg also represents Trump's growing neo-conservative contingent, which includes ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and ambassador to Israel David Friedman, within key ranks in the State Department.</span></span></div>
Macuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13339524320921898869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15865664.post-80964787103414567302018-02-12T14:10:00.000-05:002018-02-12T14:10:05.373-05:00Fake news is not enough, now it's fake history BY THE WAYNE MADSEN REPORT<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div id="documentContentInner" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>Fake news is not enough, now it's fake history </strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>BY THE WAYNE MADSEN REPORT</strong></div>
<strong><br /></strong><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"><strong>D</strong>onald Trump continues to push his full-throttled assault on the free press by claiming any news report that is critical of him or his policies constitutes "fake news." Not content with re-writing current events to fit Trump's agenda, some of his ardent supporters are now pushing the meme of "fake history" to discredit actual chronicles of past events in order to advance false or misleading historical claims or radical religious dogma. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"><img border="0" height="188" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/controlhistory.jpg" style="border: none; float: left;" width="250" />Altering history to achieve totalitarian rule was the basis for George Orwell's warning in the novel <em>1984</em>: </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"><em></em>"Who controls the past, controls the future; who controls the present controls the past." Trump's affectation for "alternative facts" and baseless "fake news" are part of a treacherous attempt on his part to control the present. The efforts of Trump's alt-right supporters to create fake histories serve to control the past. The overall agenda represents a naked push to control the future.<br /><br />Outside of the disciplines imposed by academic and archival research and historical and biographical documentation, fake history, like its evil twin fake news, is finding a hospitable nesting ground in social media. Facebook, Twitter, and Google are as responsible for promulgating false historical narratives as the alt-right's digital cesspools that include Breitbart News, the Daily Stormer, and Infowars. Although the governments of Britain, France, and Germany are attempting to enact laws against pushing fake news and history, there is no legislative solution to this problem. The only answer lies in educating the public, particularly school age youth, in relying on information that has passed the test of accuracy via scholarly vetting and accurate references.<br /><br />Accurate referencing does not include movies like <em>The Darkest Hour</em>, which erroneously portrays wartime British Prime Minister Winston Churchill as a dogged opponent of German Nazism and Italian fascism. Churchill's number one priority in World War II was to protect and preserve the British Empire. Unfortunately, Trump believes <em>The Darkest Hour</em> presents an accurate history of Churchill, which only further feeds the Oval Office occupant's fractured knowledge of history. It is Trump's myopic knowledge of history that led him to proclaim some sort of equity between neo-Nazi and Ku Klux Klan protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia and those opposing their presence in the city that has a historical legacy that reaches from the Civil War and antebellum South back to Thomas Jefferson's founding of the University of Virginia in 1819.<br /><br />Trump's racist supporters find the Civil War presents the greatest opportunity to proffer fake historical events. For example, the fake history of African-American Confederate battalions in the Civil War is a creation of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV), an outwardly racist organization, which along with its sister group, th</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"><img border="0" height="102" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/edgerton.jpg" style="border: none; float: right;" width="137" /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">e League of the South, seeks to restore the Confederate State of America. There is no record of any African Americans having fought under the Confederate flag. The SCV has been able to enlist the support of a few African-Americans like Anthony Hervey of Mississippi, "honorary" SCV member H.K. Edgerton of North Carolina [pictured right], Karen Cooper of Virginia, and 2013 Virginia GOP lieutenant governor candidate Reverend E. W. Jackson to support the flying of the Confederate battle flag, the singing of "Dixie," displaying Confederate memorials, and the belief in blacks fighting for the Confederacy, but these individuals are cartoonish outliers within their own communities.<br /><br />There is no evidence that any regimented black soldiers fought for the Confederacy. A belief among some Confederacy supporters that General Stonewall Jackson commanded two battalions of black Confederate soldiers is made from whole cloth. Only when the Union forces were on the verge of defeating the Confederacy in March 1865 did the Confederate Congress in Richmond authorize the military training of a small number of freed slaves. However, the war ended before any African-Americans could take up arms. Internet websites offering "proof" of black Confederate soldiers are echo chambers for the SCV and related neo-Confederate organizations trying to repaint the Confederacy as benevolent toward African-Americans and not the prime protector of slavery as a valued institution of the South's culture and economic system.<br /><br />In a Superbowl ad, Fiat-Chrysler decided to use a speech of Dr. Martin Luther King to pitch RAM trucks. King said, "You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve." The ad then ran the slogan: "Built to Serve." There has been a recent tendency to use King as a corporate logo to sell products. George Washington's and Abraham Lincoln's likenesses have been used to sell everything from bed linens and mattresses to recreational vehicles and refrigerators. For those fake historians anxious to turn King into a shill for Wall Street, it should be noted that, far from urging people to buy pickup trucks, King penned the following notes while in seminary: "</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">capitalism has seen its best days in American, and not only in America, but in the entire world."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">There are other attempts by the alt-right to promote fake history. The most absurd theory is that Adolf Hitler was a "socialist" and Franklin D. Roosevelt was a "fascist." In fact, the opposite -- with a few qualifications in the case of FDR -- was true. Hitler's party was the National Socialist German Workers' Party -- shortened as "Nazi" -- but the party was more interested in nationalism and conquest than in workers' rights or socialism as advanced by the Marxist and democratic labor parties of the interwar era.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Fake history also includes an attempt to portray Senator Joseph McCarthy as correct in his <img border="0" height="147" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/truman1.JPG" style="border: none; float: left;" width="288" /> <img border="0" height="219" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/truman2.JPG" style="border: none; float: left;" width="300" />pursuit of "Communists" embedded in the U.S. government and President Harry S Truman as a Communist "fellow traveler." These falsehoods were originally promoted by the far-right John Birch Society, which, under Trump, has experienced a resurgence, along with its discredited fake history claims. The exchange of telegrams [above] between McCarthy and Truman presents an accurate illustration of McCarthy's perfidy and Truman's rejection of McCarthy's spurious allegations: </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Promoting fake history is not the same as researching alternate views of history. Historical research is a dynamic pursuit and newly-discovered documentation often results in acceptable revisionist views of historical events. However, revisionist views of history are different than fake history, the latter having no proof of supporting evidence, but merely unsubstantiated rantings and ramblings found on dodgy websites. Trump, however, in his repeated attacks on "fake news,' has legitimized those who traffic in fake history.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Betsy DeVos, Trump's billionaire Secretary of Education, is encouraging taxpayer-funded voucher and charter schools to teach "Christian history." This curriculum includes discredited "creationism" and the rejection of the scientific evolution of species. DeVos is more interested in America's public schools building "God's Kingdom" than in promoting true education, a goal that can only exist in a secular environment free of religious dogma and sectarian indoctrination. DeVos's and the Republican Party's overall support for historical illiteracy is compounded by the offerings on what was once known as the History Channel. This eyesore of the vast wasteland known as cable television now offers such mindless fare as "Swamp People," "American Pickers," "Counting Cars," and "The Curse of Oak Island." Instead of accomplished historians being cited for their work, a charlatan like Bill O'Reilly can claim the mantle of historical "expert" because he wrote a "Killing Series" of pulp fiction novels masked as historical research on the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, and Jesus of Nazareth; the alleged assassination of General George Patton; and the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan. Conservative commentator Glenn Beck is another purveyor of fake history in his writings and Blaze cable TV network blathering.<br /><br />After the Dark Ages, Europe emerged into the era of the Renaissance. The arts and the study of history flourished. Hopefully, the United States will emerge from the dark age of Trump into a new renaissance where historical fact wins out over ludicrous claims based on ignorance and intolerance.</span></div>
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.144px;" />
<div id="article-footer" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.144px;">
</div>
</div>
Macuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13339524320921898869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15865664.post-13869331302972387982018-02-11T16:35:00.001-05:002018-02-11T16:35:31.972-05:00 Trump's military parade in DC could cost millions in damage and disruption by The Wayne Madsen Report<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div id="documentContentInner" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>Trump's military parade in DC could cost millions in damage and disruption by The Wayne Madsen Report</strong></div>
<strong><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">D</span></strong><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">onald Trump's vainglorious desire for a military parade along Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC could result in millions of dollars in damage to streets, Washington Metro, and other key elements of the nation's capital's infrastructure. Trump recently tasked the Department of Defense to come up with a plan for a military parade that features armored vehicles, aircraft flying in formation, and marching military personnel. Trump got the idea after watching the French military parade held in Paris on Bastille Day while visiting Paris on July 14 last year.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">The last time a military parade was held in Washington was after Operation Desert Storm in 1991. From a reviewing stand between 17th and 15th Streets, President George H. W. Bush viewed parading </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">armored vehicles, mobile Patriot missile launchers, and troops dressed in camouflage comba<img border="0" height="132" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/parade3.jpg" style="border: none; float: left;" width="200" /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">t uniforms. However, that parade was held along Constitution Avenue and consisted of two M1-A1 Abrams tanks, [pictured, left] each weighing 67-metric tons, and two 33-ton Bradley Fighting Vehicles. [pictured, right] <img border="0" height="117" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/Parade1.jpg" style="border: none; float: right;" width="180" />The parade route was along Constitution Avenue, south of the White House Ellipse, and a safe distance from underground Metro stations and parking garages. However, there was still disruption to the capital's infrastructure, with street lights having to be removed and then re-installed and the armored vehicle treads from the tanks and Bradleys tearing up the asphalt along Constitution Avenue and side streets. Connecticut and Pennsylvania Avenues, as with many of DC's streets, are designed for a maximum of 30 gross weight tonnage per vehicle.<br /><br />Another casualty of the 1991 parade was the </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden. The only thing the attack helicopters over the Mall managed to "attack" with their rotor wash were sculptures in the outdoor garden. Pebbles kicked up by the helicopters strafed the sculptures, many of them priceless, with gouges. The total cost of parade damage for Washington was $12 million, not counting the destruction caused to the Hirshhorn. The Pentagon refused to pay the Smithsonian for the damage caused by its helicopters.<br /><br />It does not take much in the way of seismic vibration or shaking to dislodge the hundreds of </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">sheet-metal acoustic panels located in Metro stations underneath Pennsylvania Avenue between the U.S. Capitol and the White House. These include the Orange/Blue/Silver Line's Federal Triangle and the Yellow/Green Line's Archives-Navy Memorial stations. In November 2010, construction above Farragut North station on the Red Line resulted in the ceiling tiles collapsing onto the subway platform.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">According to various news reports, Trump desires a parade much more extensive than the 1991 affair, with a number of armored vehicles and missiles. The annual French Bastille Day parade in Paris does feature armored vehicles along the Champs Elysees but they are put on display to assuage the personal whims of the French president. Since World War II, the French have honored their annual French Revolution commemoration with a military parade to mark France's victory over Nazism.<br /><br />Washington has seen military parades in the past, but these, like the 1991 parade, were to mark the end of wars. Parades in Washington were held following the Civil War, World War I, and World War II.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Trump originally wanted military vehicles, such as tanks, featured in his inaugural parade along Pennsylvania Avenue on January 20, 2017. Because of inadequate time to plan for such a display, only fighter plane fly-overs were scheduled for the parade but they were canceled due to rain.<br /><br />While there is bi-partisan opposition in Congress to Trump's military parade, Defense Secretary James Mattis claimed that the Pentagon has been "putting together some options" for the parade. Although some of the "options" include holding the parade outside of Washington, Trump is intent on Pennsylvania Avenue. The city recently repaved the street following the 2017 inaugural parade. DC Mayor Muriel Bowser said Trump would have to pay for the parade. Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) summed up the feelings of many congressional Republicans and Democrats about the proposed parade, "</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">I don't think it's a particularly good idea. Confidence is silent. Insecurities are loud."<br /><br />In a poll conducted by <em>Military Times</em>, which is largely read by active duty and retired military personnel and their families, 89 percent of the 51,000 respondents felt that the parade is "</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">a waste of money," adding that "troops are too busy” for such an event. Many critics feel that such displays of military might are what can be expected from authoritarian regimes.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
</div>
Macuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13339524320921898869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15865664.post-63746992702646988792018-02-04T15:50:00.001-05:002018-02-04T15:50:14.447-05:00 MBS to celebrate his palace coup in Washington with Trump, Kushner By The Wayne Madsen Report<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div id="documentContentInner" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>MBS to celebrate his palace coup in Washington with Trump, Kushner </strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>By The Wayne Madsen Report</strong></div>
<strong><br /></strong><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"><strong>S</strong>audi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as "MBS," will lead a large Saudi delegation to Washington this month, undoubtedly to brief Donald Trump and Middle East "special envoy" Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, on the success of his royal palace coup against rival princes within the House of Saud. The MBS-led coup resulted in <img border="0" height="107" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/trump-MBS.jpg" style="border: none; float: left;" width="190" />a number of Saudi princes being detained, with an additional two executed on orders from MBS. In his book <em>Fire and Fury</em>, author Michael Wolff wrote that Trump told friends that </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">"w</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">e've put our man on top," after MBS's purge of his fellow princes. [To the left, Trump and MBS are seen shaking hands last year in Riyadh].</span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0.5em 0em 1em;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">The 32-year old MBS is expected to hold more "strategy sessions" with Kushner, like those Kushner and MBS spent together until the early morning hours in Riyadh in October 2017. Some of the discussions also involved Jason Greenblatt, Trump's special adviser on the Middle East and his one-time business lawyer. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Both Kushner and Greenblatt are known to represent the interests of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. It is expected that Kushner will push MBS to purchase additional defensive and offensive missile systems from Israel. Saudi Arabia has already obtained missile systems from Israeli firms, including Elbit Systems Ltd. and its American branch, Elbit Systems of America. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">It is significant that a key player in Saudi Arabia's arms purchases, Ahmed Al Khateeb, the chairman of Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI), is expected to accompany MBS to Washington. Last November, MBS put SAMI in charge of all Saudi defense acquisitions. Also expected in Washington as part of the Saudi delegation are Lieutenant General Prince Fahd bin Turki bin Abdulaziz, the Commander of Saudi Ground Forces, and Khalid bin Ali Al Humaidan, the chief of the Saudi General Intelligence Directorate (GID).</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">For Donald Trump, the main issue to be discussed with MBS and his advisers is the listing of Saudi ARAMCO's initial public offering (IPO) with the New York Stock Exchange. Some Saudi officials, including ARAMCO chairman and Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih, want the IPO to be listed with the London exchange. They point out that a New York exchange IPO would pose a risk to the firm because it could be subjected to lawsuits and potential asset attachments by the families of victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks. ARAMCO President and CEO Amin Nasser has delayed a decision on the ARAMCO IPO listing until later this year. MBS is known to favor the NYSE for the listing but Nasser has also spoken in favor of London and Hong Kong or even Saudi Arabia's own Tadawul exchange in Riyadh. Trump tweeted last November his preference for New York: "Would very much appreciate Saudi Arabia doing their IPO of Aramco with the New York Stock Exchange. Important to the United States!"</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">It is expected that MBS and his delegation will push the United States to increase its military strikes against Houthi forces in Yemen. U.S. air attacks in Yemen have increased six-fold over those conducted by the Obama administration. The Pentagon insists that the attacks are aimed at forces of the Islamic State in Yemen, which it calls ISIS-Y. In fact, this is a not-so-clever cover story to mask U.S. strikes against Houthi forces. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">The Saudi coalition fighting on behalf of a puppet Yemeni government, which has now lost its base in Aden to United Arab Emirates-backed forces of the South Yemen independence <em>al-Hirak al-Janoubi</em> movement, has been caught providing military assistance to jihadists in Yemen. These include Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the Pentagon's appellation, ISIS-Y. Other items on the MBS agenda in Washington include the Saudi-led sanctions imposed on Qatar, U.S. support for jihadist remnants in Syria, and increasing economic and diplomatic pressure on Iran and Lebanon, as well as Lebanese Hezbollah. The MBS agenda is virtually a copy of that of Netanyahu, including the desire to stymie lawsuits against Saudi interests by 9/11 victims' families. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"><img border="0" height="158" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/stc.jpg" style="border: 0px; float: right;" width="210" />MBS will likely ask Trump for the United States to militarily help put down the South Yemeni "Southern Transitional Council" (STC), the <em>de facto</em> government now ruling South Yemen from Aden. MBS will call these forces, which include socialists and Marxists from the old People's Democratic Republic of [South] Yemen, "terrorists." However, that will result in a final break with the UAE's powerful Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Zayed (MBZ), who supports the South Yemeni separatists. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">If Trump and Kushner decide to heed MBS's call and wade fully into the Yemeni civil war, the already-disastrous human suffering in Yemen will only grow worse. Also, aside from the support it is receiving from the UAE, it will be difficult for the STC to match the lobbying power of the Saudis in Washington. The STC's chief representative in the United States is Summer Ahmed, a Dearborn, Michigan mother, who also works as a lab technician. To beef up the STC's lobbying clout in Washington, the UAE hired Grassroots Political Consulting LLC to promote the interests of the STC in the Congress and White House.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Of interest to anti-fraud watchdog groups and Attorneys General suing the Trump administration for violating the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution -- which forbids a president from accepting money or gifts from foreign sovereigns -- is in what DC hotel the Saudis will stay during their time in Washington. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"><img border="0" height="140" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/trumphot.jpeg" style="border: 0px; float: left;" width="200" />In the past, the Saudis, as well as their Kuwaiti allies, have tended to favor Georgetown's plush Four Seasons Hotel or the downtown Ritz-Carlton. However, this February 26th, the Kuwaitis will hold their National Day celebration at the Trump International Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue. Last year, not only did the Kuwaitis hold their National Day celebration at the Trump venue but Saudi ally, Bahrain, chose it for their National Day celebration, just following the November 8, 2016 election. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">If the Saudi delegation or part of it choose to stay at the Trump-owned hotel, it will provide further proof for lawsuit plaintiffs that Trump is knowingly violating the Emoluments Clause to line his and his family's pockets. And there is every indication that most of the Saudi delegation will stay at the Trump hotel. Last year, MSL Group Americas, a lobbying firm hired by the Saudis to lobby against the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act or JASTA -- an act that allows families of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia and its interests -- spent $270,000 at the Trump International Hotel. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Trump previously stated that he would turn over to the U.S. Treasury foreign profits from his hotels to the U.S. Treasury. To date, he has failed to do so.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
</div>
Macuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13339524320921898869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15865664.post-17110233154705162262018-02-04T15:44:00.001-05:002018-02-04T15:44:45.274-05:00 U.S. now ranked as a "flawed democracy" By The Wayne Madsen Report<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong style="font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"> U.S. now ranked as a "flawed democracy" By The Wayne Madsen Report</strong></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: 700;"><br /></span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">The staid financial and political news magazine <i>The Economist</i> is not prone to publish outlandish news stories and headlines. For that reason, the magazine’s readers around the world have taken notice of its annual Democracy Index for 2017. The magazine's 2016 Index warned that the United States had dropped from a "full democracy" to a "flawed democracy."</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0.5em 0em 1em;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"><img border="0" height="144" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/DEMOIDEX17.jpg" style="border: 0px; float: left;" width="258" />Thanks to the actions of the Trump administration, the United States fared even worse in the Index for 2017. The United States is still ranked as a "flawed democracy," but the actions of Trump to circumvent the powers of the legislative and judicial branches, as well as curtail the independence of the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation, have placed the nation at risk of dropping further in the annual index for 2018 to a "hybrid regime." The Economist Intelligence Unit, which calculates the annual Democracy Index, rates nations as falling into four categories: full democracy, flawed democracy, hybrid regime, and authoritarian regime.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0.5em 0em 1em;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">The top five full democracies for recent years have included Norway, Iceland, Sweden, New Zealand, and Denmark. Norway finished at the top of the Democracy Index for 2017. For 2017, the United States was tied with Italy and ranked just behind South Korea and just ahead of Japan.</span><strong><img border="0" height="199" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/iccanthappenhere1.jpg" style="border: 0px; float: right;" width="129" /></strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0.5em 0em 1em;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"><img border="0" height="132" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/sinclair_lewis.png" style="border: 0px; float: left;" width="200" />The writer Sinclair Lewis, author of <i>Elmer Gantry</i> and <i>Main Street</i>, [pictured, left] could have had someone like Donald Trump in mind when, in 1935, he published his best-selling novel <i>It Can't Happen Here</i>. In 1936, the novel was adapted into a play with the same title. The novel's chief protagonist is journalist Doremus Jessup, a reporter for the Fort Beulah, Vermont <i>Daily Informer</i>, an old-school liberal newspaper. Jessup helps lead the opposition to an authoritarian "populist" president named Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0.5em 0em 1em;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">In the 1936 election, Windrip defeats President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the Democratic National Convention, whereupon the incumbent president organizes the Jeffersonian Party to take on Windrip in the general election. Windrip goes on to defeat both Roosevelt and the fictional Republican candidate, Senator Walt Trowbridge, in the November election. Windrip, a firebrand populist, wins office on a platform of restricting immigration, attacking the poor, and threatening to curtail the "liberal" press. Windrip manages to get America's religious right to support him after he receives the full backing of a firebrand Indiana fundamentalist radio preacher named Bishop Prang.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0.5em 0em 1em;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">After Trump's upset win over Hillary Clinton in 2016, <i>Money</i> magazine reported that sales of Lewis's novel spiked.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0.5em 0em 1em;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Soon after assuming office, Windrip proceeds to ban dissent. He trains a paramilitary force called the Minute Men to arrest his enemies and throw them into concentration camps. In his first State of the Union address, Trump announced he w</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/itcanthappen.jpg" style="border: 0px; float: left;" width="122" /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">as keeping open the detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a U.S. military enclave that exists in a legal "no man's land" outside the constraints imposed by the U.S. Constitution.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0.5em 0em 1em;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">One of Windrip's initial actions is to limit the power of the U.S. Congress. Windrip replaces Congress with a "Corpo" government that eliminates rights for women and minorities. The president also abolishes states by replacing them with administrative sections. Military tribunals take the place of civilian courts.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0.5em 0em 1em;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">In reaction, Jessup joins the New Underground, led by Senator Trowbridge, to spirit dissidents out of the United States to political asylum in Canada. Jessup forms a new paper, called the <i>Vermont Vigilance</i>, to fight against Windrip's corporate fascist government.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0.5em 0em 1em;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">After Windrip fails to deliver to his ardent supporters the improvement he promised to lift them out of the Great Depression, opposition to his presidency increases. After Windrip orders the arrest of his running mate, Vice President Perley Beecroft, for insubordination, the Veep flees the country. Windrip is eventually ousted in a coup led by his Secretary of State, chief propagandist, and one-time campaign adviser, Lee Sarason, as well as his top military adviser, General Dewey Haik. Windrip then flees to France.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0.5em 0em 1em;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Upset with Sarason's presidency, Haik leads a military revolt that commandeers the White House and kills Sarason and his top aides. Haik then orders a U.S. military invasion of Mexico. Lewis's novel ends as a civil war breaks out across the United States, with Jessup working as a spy for the New Underground in Corpo-ruled parts of southern Minnesota.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0.5em 0em 1em;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"><i>It Can't Happen Here</i> was slated to become a 1936 film starring Lionel Barrymore; Basil Rathbone; radio's "Charlie Chan," Walter Connolly; and Virginia Bruce -- the co-star of 1936's <em>The Great Ziegfeld</em>. However, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer chief Louis B. Mayer axed the production after complaints were received from Nazi Germany, via the Production Code Administration in Washington, DC about the film's unsuitability for the German market.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0.5em 0em 1em;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">In 1968, the film project was dusted off for the small screen in a TV mini-series with the working title of <i>Shadow on <img border="0" height="108" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/ITCANHAPPEN3.jpg" style="border: 0px; float: left;" width="160" />the Land</i>, starring Jackie Cooper, John Forsythe, and Gene Hackman, and Carol Lynley. Also titled, <i>United States: It Can't Happen Here</i>, the series pilot was aired as a made-for-television movie but the rest of the series' production run was canceled. As with the 1936 movie, there was reason to believe that right-wing elements in the United States -- including FBI director J. Edgar Hoover -- objected to the "anti-fascism" nature of the production. In 1982, a TV series based on Lewis's novel, titled <i>Storm Warnings</i>, was presented to NBC, which rejected the premise of a fascist takeover of the United States. NBC only bought off on the series after American fascists were recast as human-consuming reptilian extraterrestrials and the name of the series was changed to V.<br /><br />More recently, Philip K. Dick's short novel, <em>The Man in the High Castle</em>, has been optioned for a third season as a miniseries on Amazon Prime. Dick's story is set in an alternate history in 1962, fifteen years after the Axis powers defeat the Allies. The United States is split between the German Reich, which occupies the East Coast and Midwestern states, and the Japanese Empire, which occupies the Pacific States. The Rockies exist as a neutral zone law and order do not exist. Dick, like Lewis, portrays a number of Americans as willing accomplices of fascist overseers. <em>The Man in the High Castle</em> series premiered during the 2016 election and after the electoral success of Trump, production was extended for two additional years.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"></span><br />
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0.5em 0em 1em; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">It would appear that after so many failures in bringing <i>It Can't Happen Here</i> to the screen, the political advent of a authoritarian bully real estate developer, who became popular with a reality TV show on NBC, has brought about an adaptation of the Sinclair Lewis novel to real life. <em>The Economist's</em> Democracy Index's rating of the United States as a downward-spiraling flawed democracy confirms the fact that "It Has Happened Here."</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif; font-size: x-small;"></span></div>
</div>
Macuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13339524320921898869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15865664.post-45403368456127661962018-01-31T18:58:00.000-05:002018-01-31T18:58:24.507-05:00"So this is how liberty dies . . . with thunderous applause." Trump's desired rump parliament<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<dl class="category-390250 category-0" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"></dl>
<br />
<dl class="category-390251 category-0" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><dd class="link cat-teaser" style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1em;"><span>"So this is how liberty dies . . . with thunderous applause."</span></dd><dd class="link cat-teaser" style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1em;"><div id="portal-breadcrumbs" style="border: none; padding: 0em 1em 1em !important; text-transform: lowercase;">
<br /><span class="this"></span></div>
<div class="documentContent" id="region-content" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0em 1em 2em !important;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="documentContent" style="background-color: transparent; color: #436976;"></a><div>
<h2 class="category-390251 category-0" id="main-title" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: none !important; color: rgb(88, 122, 160) !important; font-family: arial; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0.5em;">
<span style="font-size: small;">January 31-February 1, 2018 -- Trump's desired rump parliament</span></h2>
<div align="right">
<br /></div>
<div align="right" class="paging-nav">
</div>
<div id="documentContentInner">
<strong><img border="0" height="310" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/trumprump1.jpg" style="border: none; vertical-align: top;" width="584" /><br /><br />January 31-February 1, 2018 -- Trump's desired rump parliament<br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">D</span></strong><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">onald Trump, like other autocrats, clearly rejects the trappings of a democracy. Trump has demanded total loyalty from the Department of Justice and security apparatuses like the Federal Bureau of Investigation and he has set about on a course to purge them of anyone who fails to toe his political line. Trump also rejects the independence of the federal courts and has sought to pack federal benches with unqualified sycophants. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"><img border="0" height="167" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/galactic-senate.jpeg" style="border: none; float: left;" width="250" />An independent and co-equal legislative branch, crafted by the founders of the United States as a check on the powers of the presidency, is also something that gets under Trump's skin. Republican senators and representatives who so wildly cheered Trump's nationalistic and jingoistic State of the Union address remind one of the utterance of the character Senator Padme Amidala in Star Wars's <em>Revenge of the Sith</em>. Padme, witnessing the reception of her fellow senators to Chancellor Palpatine's plan to seize power and change the Galactic Republic to an imperial dictatorship, declares, </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">"So this is how liberty dies . . . with thunderous applause." Those Republicans and even a few Democratic quislings who applauded and cheered the autocrat Trump during the State of the Union address have become witting participants in Trump's desire to create a rump parliament in the place of the U.S. Congress.<br /><br /><img border="0" height="197" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/rumpparliament.jpg" style="border: none; float: right;" width="256" />The term "rump parliament" comes from the latter days of the Second English Civil War. In December 1648, Colonel Thomas Pride blocked entry to the English Parliament of 231 supporters of the Treaty of Newport, which was designed to restore King Charles I to the throne. Only those members of parliament who opposed the treaty were permitted to sit in parliament as virtual rubber stamps for the tyrannical Commonwealth of England, a dictatorship that would soon fall under the total control of the theocratic despot Oliver Cromwell. In 1653, even the rump parliamentarians became a hindrance to Cromwell, so he had the rump parliament dissolved.<br /><br />The English rump parliament has been copied by dictatorships around the world. These "remnant" legislatures, which are kept in place following a seizure of power by a tyrant, are designed to give the appearance of democratic rule when, in fact, they are nothing more than window dressing contrivances and applause machines for dictators and autocrats.<br /><br />Rump parliaments, or undemocratic legislatures, have existed in several Communist countries and fascist <img border="0" height="140" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/kimassembly.jpg" style="border: none; float: left;" width="250" />dictatorships. Perhaps the most undemocratic of these is the </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Supreme People's Assembly of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Whenever this North Korean rump parliament has met, it was to wildly cheer and applaud speeches by the three generations of Kim family leaders: Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, and Kim Jong Un. Donald Trump can only be envious of the Kim's for having such a compliant legislature.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">After the 1973 Chilean coup by General Augusto Pinochet the military junta disposed of the bicameral Chilean Senate and Chamber of Deputies altogether. The junta served as the executive and legislature until 1990. The pre-1997 Mexican presidents, all members of the dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), relied on a subservient legislature to carry out their policies.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Today the world is creeping toward a situation where rump parliaments are the rule rather than the exception. Trump's friend Rodrigo Duterte, the authoritarian president of the Philippines, enjoys wide support in both houses of congress. Duterte's over-arching executive orders have been accepted <em>prima facie</em> by the Philippines Congress. Trump has copied Duterte in issuing various executive orders to circumvent the U.S. Congress. Duterte drafts his executive orders with advice from a very small group of aides. Similarly, Trump relies on such fascist-inclined advisers, including white supremacist Richard Spencer's friend, Stephen Miller, to write his own executive orders.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Trump recently hosted the president-dictator of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">at the White House. Nazarbayev, a veteran of Soviet rump parliament politics, enjoys his own rubber stamp bicameral legislature in Kazakhstan. Trump must have been envious of his Kazakh counterpart during their White House sit down. Nazarbayev never has to worry about explaining his decisions or his dubious finances -- some of which are connected to Trump's money laundering activities -- to the Kazakh Majilis, the lower house, or the upper house Senate.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">During his meeting with Rwandan President Paul Kagame at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump would have been enthused to learn that Kagame appoints 8 members of the upper house Rwandan Senate, with the remaining 18 "elected" through the subterfuge of Kagame's virtual one-party state. Kagame also ensures that he is in control of the lower house Chamber of Deputies. 41 of its 80 members are Kagame loyalists. The remaining members represent a Rwandan "rump" opposition of mainly Kagame supporters.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Another autocratic hero of Trump, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, relies on support for his dictatorial presidency that is conferred by the 316 Justice and Development Party (AKP) members of the Turkish National Assembly. Since the aborted 2016 military coup against Erdogan, the opposition parties have been forced into acquiescing to many of Erdogan's autocratic policies. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">The Inter-Parliamentary Union's 2017 report states that cases of members of parliament (MPs) being killed, attacked, intimidated or jailed for their political views or differences are on an upswing in Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East. Of 459 attacks on MPs, 369 were directed at members of opposition parties. With Trump's rhetoric in tweets and speeches referring to those in the Democratic Party, some within his own Republican Party, and members of the press as "enemies" and "obstructionists," it is only a matter of time before law makers and the media are subjected to physical attacks from Trump's anti-democratic loyalists. One neo-Nazi has already been arrested for threatening a terrorist attack against CNN's studios in Atlanta. Most cases of planned terrorist attacks in the United States, according to FBI statistics, originate with far-right groups. Also known as "Trump's base," these right-wing terrorists would gladly help bring about the dissolution of popularly-elected legislatures in the United States and their replacement with "pro-Trump rumps."</span><br /></div>
</div>
</div>
</dd></dl>
</div>
Macuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13339524320921898869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15865664.post-40147149618382227712018-01-25T12:20:00.000-05:002018-01-25T12:20:30.466-05:00 Opus Dei's and Erik Prince's emerging secret army in the Middle East By The Wayne Madsen Report<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<div id="documentContentInner" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Opus Dei's and Erik Prince's emerging secret army in the Middle East By The Wayne Madsen Report<br /><br /><img border="0" height="336" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/Princesecret%20army.jpg" style="border: none; vertical-align: top;" width="598" /><br /></strong><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Amid nonsensical claims by congressional Republicans, including Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Representatives Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), and John Ratcliffe (R-TX), that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is hosting a "secret society" intent on ousting Donald Trump from the presidency comes word from our Middle East sources that the founder of the infamous Blackwater mercenary firm, Erik Prince, is creating a secret army in the Middle East with strong links to the secret fascist Roman Catholic sect, the Opus Dei. Prince runs a number of private military firms based in the Sheikh Zayed Military City, located outside of Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, and in nearby Dubai, the UAE's financial hub. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Opus Dei was founded in Spain in 1928 by Catholic priest Josemaria Escriva, canonized in 2002 by Pope John Paul II as a saint. This "patron saint" of fascism was a major supporter of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. Escriva justified countless war crimes committed by Spanish fascist forces in the civil war waged against Spain's Loyalist supporters and international volunteers who came to their assistance. Today, Opus Dei is waging a covert battle against Pope Francis I, the first pontiff from Catholicism's Jesuit order and an opponent of the policies of Trump.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Prince sold Blackwater in 2011 and moved to the UAE where, with the financial backing of Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan (MBZ), he established a new network of mercenary entities. These include Reflex Responses (R2) and Frontier Resources Group (FRG). FRG, which is based in Hong Kong, is also involved in energy resources and rare earth mineral exploitation and receiving Chinese investments, along with financial largesse from MBZ. Prince's firms have become influential in the UAE and other Middle Eastern countries due to the fact that his major patron, MBZ, is also the deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, a close friend and ally of Saudi Arabia's emerging strong man, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman al Saud (MBS). </span><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">R2 personnel, many recruits from military units in Colombia, Chile, El Salvador, and South Africa with blemished records of committing human rights abuses, are active in supporting UAE and Saudi forces in Yemen's bloody civil war. R2 has also reportedly hired Baathist military personnel in Iraq, who were once loyal to Saddam Hussein.<br /><br />Prince is also believed to be instrumental in the creation of a domestic UAE armaments industry, which is not bound by international regimes and domestic laws prohibiting the export of war materiel to countries subject to international sanctions. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"><span class="st">Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies (ADAT) and</span> Calidus LLC, are reportedly jointly manufacturing UAE versions of the Brazilian </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">B-250 Bader turboprop and the Embraer </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">312 Tucano, both highly-prized for counter-insurgency operations. Prince's operations in the UAE have also been involved in transforming light aircraft used for agricultural operations into armed surveillance and counter-insurgency aircraft. This has been accomplished by a deal between Prince and </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">LASA Engineering Ltd. of Bulgaria. LASA stands for "</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Light Armed Surveillance Aircraft." The Trump administration, which has called for the tightening of international sanctions on arms exports to Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba, and North Korea, is turning a blind eye to Prince's and the UAE's sanctions-evading operations in Abu Dhabi.<br /><br />Another Prince firm, Phoenix Aviation Malta Limited, is believed to be involved in Libya's civil war. Its parent, Phoenix Aviation Ltd., based at Wilson Airport in Nairobi, Kenya, is involved in various African civil wars, including those in Somalia and South Sudan. Prince has forged a cooperative agreement with Ivor Ichkowitz, the chairman of South Africa's Paramount Group, a military equipment manufacturer, to market the firm's armored military vehicles in Abu Dhabi in cooperation with the UAE firm, </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">International Golden Group. Ichkowitz is close to the scandal-plagued presidents of South Africa and Kazakhstan, Jacob Zuma and Nursultan Nazarbayev, respectively. Trump recently hosted at the White House Nazarbayev, whose vast interwoven network of offshore companies have funneled suspected embezzled Kazakhstan funds into Trump's own network of shell corporations.<br /><br />Together with MBZ and MBS, Prince is also helping to carry out the new "strategy" for the Middle East crafted by Trump's son-in-law and Middle East special envoy Jared Kushner and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's government. Kushner has personally hammered out the new strategy during all-night sessions with MBS in Riyadh. Prince has added influence with the Trump administration through his sister, Betsy De Vos, Trump's Secretary of Education. De Vos is a covert from the Dutch Reformed Church to Mormonism. She is the wife of Amway co-founder Dick DeVos. Erik Prince converted from Dutch Reformed to Roman Catholicism at the same time he joined Opus Dei. Prince and Betsy De Vos are both heirs to an automobile parts corporate fortune created by their right-wing industrialist father, Edgard Prince.<br /><br />Prince was a major supporter of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. On January 11, 2017, a little over a week from Trump's inauguration, Prince and MBZ arranged a clandestine meeting with a Russian government envoy in Seychelles. Prince, representing the Trump transition team, offered Russia a deal that would have seen Russia curtail its support for Syria and Iran in exchange for a lessening of Western sanctions against Russia. The previous month, MBZ met with key Trump transition figures, including Kushner and Stephen Bannon in New York. The Seychelles and Manhattan meetings, as well as the Trump-Kazakhstan connection, are among many issues being investigated by Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his team of prosecutors and FBI agents.</span></span><span class="st" style="font-size: 12.144px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"></span><em><br /></em></span></div>
</div>
Macuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13339524320921898869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15865664.post-57882700943316453232018-01-24T12:27:00.000-05:002018-01-24T12:27:06.357-05:00Trump’s multiple sex scandals endanger U.S. national security By Andrew Kreig and Wayne Madsen<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div align="right" class="paging-nav" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">
</div>
<div id="documentContentInner" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Trump’s multiple sex scandals endanger U.S. national security<br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>By Andrew Kreig and Wayne Madsen</b></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0.5em 0em 1em;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Recent claims that Donald Trump paid hush money before the 2016 election to porn star Stormy Daniels to cover up a 2006 affair underscore far more sinister events.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0.5em 0em 1em;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Such a payoff would show not simply Trump’s low morals and high arrogance —but also his propensity for outright crime.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0.5em 0em 1em;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">These grim possibilities are especially relevant to our recent exposé “Welcome to Waterbury,” which drew on 2016 lawsuit allegations that Trump and his billionaire friend Jeffrey Epstein in 1993 raped “Maria,” age 12, and “Jane Doe,” age 13, also known as Katie Johnson, in a New York City luxury townhouse then being used by Epstein. Details are here in the Wayne Madsen Report and the Justice Integrity Project (JIP, <a href="http://ow.ly/v4qd30hGcVC" style="background-color: transparent; color: #436976; text-decoration-line: none;">http://ow.ly/v4qd30hGcVC</a>).</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0.5em 0em 1em;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Today, we compare those claims by underage girls with the ones by Stormy Daniels, as reported by <i>In Touch</i> magazine in column last week based on her recollections years ago of sleeping with Trump. Insight published the material to follow up the <i>Wall Street Journal’s</i> report that Daniels received $130,000 shortly before the 2016 election from Trump attorney Michael Cohen.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0.5em 0em 1em;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Cohen and Daniels (born Stephanie Clifford) have denied an affair or hush money. More generally, Trump and his representatives have issued blanket denials against all those nearly 20 women who have alleged sexual harassment or assault. “They’re all lying” Trump famously said during the 2016 campaign about his accusers, who then numbered about a doz</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"><img border="0" height="184" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/djt-stormy-daniels-nydaily.JPG" style="border: 0px; float: left;" width="153" /><img border="0" height="199" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/djt-ivanka-stormy-daniels-nydaily-news-.JPG" style="border: 0px; float: right;" width="152" /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">en victims. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0.5em 0em 1em;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">To explore this further, we examine more closely the Daniels and Maria/Jane Doe stories.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0.5em 0em 1em;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">In each instance, Trump allegedly used his celebrity status (much like he described in the “Access Hollywood” tape that surfaced during the presidential campaign) to do what he wanted. The stories demonstrate that Trump has an established system whereby his minions can threaten and/or bribe his targets to cover up crimes or infidelity.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0.5em 0em 1em;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Another commonality in the accounts are two biggies: One is the utter immorality of each scandal, which should concern any decent observer and not just the evangelicals and other “family values” proponents he currently courts. Another similarity is the pure recklessness of the alleged behavior. Any activity with underage girls is supposedly harshly punished by the legal system. And relations by a married new father with a porn star, while not illegal, would be less than prudent.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0.5em 0em 1em;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Any activity </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">with underage girls, as alleged in the Katie Johnson lawsuits, would place Trump in a highly- blackmailable position. The fact that the blackmailing of the President of the United States is the most-prized gem for any foreign intelligence agency, the sex scandals surrounding Trump place the national security of the United States <i>in extremis</i>.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
</div>
Macuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13339524320921898869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15865664.post-44989526872110790852018-01-21T11:42:00.000-05:002018-01-21T11:42:22.852-05:00Why was MSNBC reporter inside Hawaii emergency center just before missile warning was sent?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div align="right" class="paging-nav" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">
</div>
<div id="documentContentInner" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">
<strong>Why was MSNBC reporter inside Hawaii emergency center just before missile warning was sent?</strong></div>
<div id="documentContentInner" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">
<b>By The Wayne Madsen Report</b><br />What was an MSNBC reporter, who is normally based in New York and Los Angeles, doing at the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency just hours before "mistake" was made in transmitting missile alert warning? Jacob Soboroff has close links to Israel and the Los Angeles Police Department.<br /><br />You decide.<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><iframe frameborder="0" height="180" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wgE-pK0nBKI" width="250"></iframe></div>
</div>
Macuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13339524320921898869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15865664.post-11758423093760555332017-12-06T18:24:00.001-05:002017-12-06T18:24:45.973-05:00Trump Settles Debt With Zionists - Confirms That Iran's Struggle Is Righteous<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<br />
<h3 style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Trump Settles Debt With Zionists - Confirms That Iran's Struggle Is Righteous</h3>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
U.S. President Trump <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/06/world/middleeast/trump-jerusalem-israel-capital.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur" style="color: #993300;">announced</a> today a change in the official U.S. view of the city of Jerusalem in Palestine:</div>
<blockquote style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.6px;">
President Trump on Wednesday formally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, reversing nearly seven decades of American foreign policy and setting in motion a plan to move the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv to the fiercely contested Holy City.“It is time to officially recognize Jerusalem <strong>as the capital of Israel</strong>,” said Mr. Trump.</blockquote>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
This is not Trump's lone doing. The position has long had support of both parties <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/democrats-divided-ahead-of-trumps-expected-recognition-of-jerusalem-as-israels-capital/article/2010726" style="color: #993300;">in Congress</a>:</div>
<blockquote style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.6px;">
The Senate’s top Democrat, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, told THE WEEKLY STANDARD Tuesday that he had advised Trump to declare Jerusalem as Israel’s “undivided” capital.<br />...<br />A 1995 law declares that Jerusalem should “remain an undivided city” and “be recognized as the capital of the State of Israel,” but allows the president to issue waivers every six months delaying the move of the embassy for national security reasons. The Senate reaffirmed that law in June.<br />...<br />Maryland senator Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, reiterated his support for recognizing Jerusalem when asked Monday about the president’s potential announcement.<br /><br />“I believe that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, so to me, that’s not news,” he told TWS.</blockquote>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
In 2008 then presidential candidate Obama <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWrvPvo8yXc" style="color: #993300;">pandered</a> to the Zionist Lobby in the U.S.:</div>
<blockquote style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.6px;">
Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel and it must remain undivided.</blockquote>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
Obama though left it at that speech and never made it official policy. Officially declaring Jerusalem an "undivided city" and capital of the Zionist entity means that there is no room for a Palestinian capital in east-Jerusalem. It buries the (fairy-)tale of a sovereign Palestinian state.</div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
But that idea had been dead all along. The only reasons for U.S. presidents to circumvent the 22 year old law by issuing waivers was to pretend that the U.S. would be a neutral broker towards some peace between the (east-)European colonists and Palestinians. That was from start to end a deception. Congress and U.S. presidents are under control of the Zionist Lobby which can marshal enormous amounts of money to make or defeat candidates for legislative or executive offices. The Zionist billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who also sponsors the fascist Israel Prime Minister Netanyahoo, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/may/20/donald-trump-sheldon-adelson-israel-trip-campaign-donation" style="color: #993300;">donated</a> more then $100 million to the Trump campaign and tens of millions to Congress races. Today was time for Trump to settle some of that debt.</div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
With the increasing buildup of Zionist settlements in the Palestinian West Bank areas under Netanyahoo, the two state solution had long been killed. The Palestinian dictator Mahmoud Abbas, who let this happen without resistance, is just a kapo used by the Israelis to keep the Palestinians down. The Palestinians in Gaza which defied the Zionist occupation were bombed whenever an Israeli Premier needed some diversion from domestic political trouble.</div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
The U.S. is alone in its move. The global consensus and international legal status is that the issue of Jerusalem must be decided through negotiations. A city divided into of two capitals is the most expected outcome. The EU nations and other countries rejected the move. The Pope and other dignitaries spoke out against it.</div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
The Trump declaration only reveals the true long-standing U.S. position but it still matters. It provides without doubt that the U.S. is the enemy of the people on the Middle East. It exposes those Arab rulers that seek to ally with the U.S. It elevates all those who have been fighting the U.S. all along.</div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
The tyrant of Saudi Arabia and his clown prince son have agreed to Trumps move. Instead of declaring retaliatory measures they only issued pro-forma condemnations. Other Arab rulers which depend on Saudi money, like the Jordan King "Playstation" Abdullah, will likewise stay mostly quiet.</div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
There will likely be only little violence in the immediate aftermath of the Trump declaration. The long term effects though will be significant. The Arab public, which gets little coverage in the "western" press, is seething. Professor Assad AbuKhalil <a href="http://angryarab.blogspot.de/2017/12/fury-on-arab-social-media-over-jerusalem.html" style="color: #993300;">reports</a>:</div>
<blockquote style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.6px;">
<strong>Fury on Arab social media over Jerusalem</strong><br />There is such a fury on Arab social media over Jerusalem but I am confident that none of the Western correspondents in Beirut or Cairo will notice in their dispatches.</blockquote>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
<a href="http://angryarab.blogspot.de/2017/12/this-in-saudi-arabia.html" style="color: #993300;">and</a>:</div>
<blockquote style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.6px;">
<strong>This in Saudi Arabia</strong><br />Hashtag "Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine" #1 trending right now in #KSA #Saudi #القدس_عاصمه_فلسطين_الابديه<br />PS It also is in Iraq and Algeria.<br />PS and in Syria.</blockquote>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
This is today's front page of the Beirut <a href="http://www.dailystar.com.lb/" style="color: #993300;">Daily Star</a>, a newspaper which is on most issues solidly in the "western" camp.</div>
<center style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
<img src="http://www.moonofalabama.org/images5/jerusalem-s.jpg" /><br /><a href="http://www.moonofalabama.org/images5/jerusalem.jpg" style="color: #993300;">bigger</a></center>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
The Professor Amal Saad of the Lebanon University <a href="https://twitter.com/amalsaad_lb/status/938475586565046272" style="color: #993300;">predicts</a>:</div>
<blockquote style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.6px;">
Amal Saad @amalsaad_lb - 6:29 PM - 6 Dec 2017Trump has no idea how his declaration will backfire. In violating Int'l law & legitimizing Israel's apartheid rule in Jerusalem, Int'l law will no longer serve as a framework for securing Palestinian rights- "from river to sea Palestine will be free" will be normalized discourse</blockquote>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
Those parties that have resisted and continue to resist U.S. hegemony and the Zionists, will win in the public opinion of the Middle East. Those who cooperate with and enable the U.S. and its Zionist pendant will lose.</div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
On the winning side are Iran, Syria, Hizbullah and Hamas (one can now also include the Houthi?) They have all long resisted imperialism despite enormous pressure and furious wars waged against them. Trump's move fits neatly into their narrative that the U.S. always was and continues to be an enemy of people of the Middle East. The public support for them will grow.</div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
The other "winners" are the terrorists group which pretend to be against the U.S. and the Zionists but which have done little to fight them. These are al-Qaeda, ISIS and other Wahhabi/Takfiri groups. They use the issue as a recruiting tool but their paymasters keep them away from fighting the declared enemies.</div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
Trump's move will increase the internal instability of those countries U.S. imperialism in the Middle East depends on. The Gulf States are the most endangered. Their pliant leaders will come under increased pressure from their own people. At some point that pressure will violently relief itself. I find it likely that the U.S. will be the first to be hurt by it.</div>
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="more" style="color: #993300; font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif; text-decoration-line: underline;"></a><span style="background-color: #dee3e9; font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="posted" style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
Posted by b on December 6, 2017 at 02:17 PM | <a href="http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/12/trump-settles-debt-with-zionists-confirms-that-irans-struggle-is-righteous.html" style="color: #993300;">Permalink</a></div>
</div>
Macuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13339524320921898869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15865664.post-34546918058109435042017-12-02T18:12:00.001-05:002017-12-02T18:12:58.843-05:00Yemen - Saudis Throw The Towel - Saleh is Baaack - Russia Wins by Moon of Al<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<br />
<h3 style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif; text-size-adjust: auto;">
Yemen - Saudis Throw The Towel - Saleh is Baaack - Russia Wins</h3>
<div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
The war on Yemen has finally taken a turn towards an end. Former President Saleh is back in his leading position. They Saudis accepted their defeat. The Houthis will be thrown out of the capital Sanaa and return to their northern areas. Yemen is devastated and will need to rebuild. Everyone who participated in this war has lost. The only winner is Russia.</div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
A recap:</div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
During the "Arab spring" (U.S.) induced Yemeni revolution President Saleh was kicked out after ruling the country for 34 years. In 2012 the former Vice-President Hadi was "elected" as the new president on a one choice ballot. With U.S. support the system prevailed.</div>
<center style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
<img src="http://www.moonofalabama.org/images3/yemenballot-s.jpg" /><br /><a href="http://www.moonofalabama.org/images3/yemenballot.jpg" style="color: #993300;">bigger</a></center>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
As I <a href="http://www.moonofalabama.org/2012/02/the-fake-election-in-yemen.html" style="color: #993300;">noted</a> at that time:</div>
<blockquote style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.6px;">
The U.S. missed the chance to use the movement against Saleh for some real transition in Yemen. This will come back to bite.</blockquote>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
Hadi was a Saudi puppet unable to rule the country. He tried to form a unity government under the National Dialogue Conference sponsored by the Gulf Cooperation Council. But two major constituencies were left out of the effort: the northern Yemeni Houthis of Zaidi belief, who for years had fought against Saudi-Wahhabi indoctrination in Yemen, and the followers of the ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The Houthis and Saleh had fought each other for over a decade. Now they had a common enemy and united their efforts.</div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
In 2015 the Houthi and Yemeni army troops loyal to Saleh took over the capital Sanaa. Hadi resigned (twice), fled to Aden in the south and later onto Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. The Saudis were afraid to lose influence over their dirt poor but self-confident neighbor. They falsely alleged that the Houthis were supported by their perceived arch-enemy Iran. They declared war on the country and tried to invade it. The U.S. and the UK supported and still support the Saudi war with intelligence, refueling flights for Saudi bombers and massive weapon supplies.</div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
The Saudis sent their troops to invade the country, their neighboring United Arab Emirates sent its forces and additional mercenaries were hired from Sudan, south America and where ever they could be found. All to no avail. While the Saudis dropped more than 100 bombs per day onto Yemen their forces were defeated every time they tried to enter the mountainous heartland. The Houthi counterattacked within Saudi Arabia. They had no shoes but huge balls. Hundreds of Saudi border posts and military checkpoints were destroyed by them.</div>
<center style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
<img src="http://www.moonofalabama.org/images5/yemeniballs-s.jpg" /></center>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
The Saudis tried to starve the Houthis of weapons, food and other supplies. They blockaded the country and bombed weapon depots, factories and all infrastructure. They completely destroyed Houthi cities in the north and tried to assassinate the leaders of the rebellion. Tens of thousands of Yemenis died in the often indiscriminate attacks. But the Houthi held out. For decades Yemen had been filled up with weapons. During his decades long rule former president Saleh had stashed ten-thousands of tons of ammunition and equipment. Additional supplies were captured or bought from the Saudi mercenaries.</div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
The former Yemeni army units loyal to Saleh, as well as Saleh himself, stayed in the background. Their most visible contribution to the war was the launch of short range ballistic missiles (SRBM) against Saudi cities and military positions. These weapons had been bought earlier and were modified to have extended reach (<strong>see the excursion below</strong>).</div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
The Saudi were stuck in a stalemate that cost them over $800 million per month. Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State were flourishing in the south which the Saudis and their allies nominally controlled. Saudi proxies were infighting with troops from the UAE. Missiles were falling down on Saudi cities. While only few missiles hit their targets each of them demonstrated the impotence of the Saudi rulers.</div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
The Saudis finally send out peace feelers to former president Saleh. The Russians, who had kept their embassy in Sanaa open throughout the war, acted as the middleman. In mid October the first results of the diplomatic efforts <a href="https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/en/originals/2017/10/saudi-arabia-yemen-save-ali-abdullah-saleh-russia.html" style="color: #993300;">became visible</a>:</div>
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="more" style="color: #993300; font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif; text-decoration-line: underline;"></a><span style="background-color: #dee3e9; font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"></span><blockquote style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.6px;">
A Russian medical team flew into Sanaa on Oct. 11 with the approval of the Saudis, who control Yemeni airspace. The Russian surgeons then performed a life-saving procedure on the 75-year-old Saleh. Some reports say the surgery took place at the Russian Embassy in the capital. Saleh's exact health issue is unclear, but it apparently is a result of the severe burns and other injuries he suffered during an assassination attempt in 2011.<br />...<br /><strong>Most likely the Saudis are hoping to break the rebel alliance between Saleh and the Houthis, which has been fraying this year.</strong><br />...<br />Both King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, have their prestige heavily invested in this war. They rushed into it precipitously 2½ years ago.<br />...<br /><strong>Salman was in Moscow earlier this month for an unprecedented state visit to Russia</strong>. ... <strong>It is reasonable to assume that the king and Putin discussed the Yemeni imbroglio</strong>. Russia has been openly critical of the UN's approach to the conflict, which Moscow rightly says is too friendly to the Saudi argument and insufficiently even-handed.</blockquote>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
While Saleh was sick, the Houthis became uppity. They arrested and killed Saleh followers in Sanaa, occupied bases of his troops and raided homes of his officers. They may have gotten wind of the ongoing negotiations between Saleh and the Saudis. Over the last months their behavior towards their compatriots in Sanaa became unendurable.</div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
Meanwhile negotiations between Saleh and the Saudis were ongoing in the backrooms and on the battle field. On November 4 the Yemeni troops launched a missile against the airport of the Saudi capital Riyadh. U.S. provided missile defense systems destroyed the missile before it hit, but the public damage was done. A serious hit on the airport would likely close it for civilian traffic. The economic and political consequences for the Saudi tyrants would be huge.</div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
The Saudis responded with a total blockade of Yemen. Neither food nor medicine was allowed to pass. This led to a famine, hundreds of death per day and finally to a public outcry from the otherwise slavish UN. Not even the hundreds of millions the Saudis spend to manipulate the global media could prevent the backlash.</div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
Another missile was <a href="http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/949022/conflict-saudi-arabia-yemen-missile-houthi-rebels" style="color: #993300;">fired</a> on Thursday to increase the pressure. It targeting the southern Saudi city of Khamis Mushait. The Saudis finally folded. They agreed to Saleh's conditions.</div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
We do not yet know what these conditions are but Saleh publicly announced that a deal had been made and immediately <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2017-12-02/yemen-allies-fight-on-in-sanaa-as-mediation-efforts-collapse" style="color: #993300;">went to work</a>. His first target were the no-longer-allied Houthi:</div>
<blockquote style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.6px;">
ADEN (Reuters) - Former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said on Saturday he was <strong>ready for a "new page" in relations with the Saudi-led coalition</strong> fighting in Yemen if it stopped attacks on his country.The call came as <strong>his supporters battled Houthi fighters for a fourth day in the capital Sanaa while both sides traded blame for a widening rift between allies</strong> that could affect the course of the civil war.<br />...<br />"I call upon the brothers in neighboring states and the alliance to stop their aggression, lift the siege, open the airports and allow food aid and the saving of the wounded and<strong> we will turn a new page by virtue of our neighborliness</strong>," Saleh said in a televised speech.</blockquote>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
The Saudis likewise publicly <a href="https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2017/12/02/Arab-coalition-statement-on-Yemen-developments.html" style="color: #993300;">announced</a> their agreement:</div>
<blockquote style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.6px;">
The Arab coalition has made a statement on Saturday amidst the ongoing fierce clashes in Sanaa.<br />...<br />The coalition also said that <strong>it recognizes the noble members of the the Yemeni General People’s Congress (GPC)</strong>, the <strong>GPC’s leadership</strong> and the Yemeni people who were forced to remain under Houthi-Iranian control. Also, <strong>the coalition recognizes that these noble individuals have endured numerous murder threats, torture, bombings and seizure of public and private property</strong>.</blockquote>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
The Yemeni General People’s Congress (GPC) is Saleh's party. He is still the GPC chairperson. Saleh is now again the Saudi accepted ruler of Yemen. The "legitimate" president Hadi will be buried in Riyadh.</div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
Saleh called on all his followers to oust the Houthi from their positions. His nephew and potential successor Colonel Tariq Mohammed Abdullah Saleh <a href="https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/gulf/2017/12/02/Consultations-in-Yemen-to-form-military-council-headed-by-Saleh-s-nephew.html" style="color: #993300;">will lead</a> a new military council and run that side of the business. Houthi posters in Sanaa have been teared down. There is some fierce fighting ongoing in the city. Sanaa is Saleh territory. His troops are prepared and he is very likely to win the fight.</div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
It is now left to Saleh and his family and followers to clean up the utter mess the U.S. induced "revolution" and the Saudi war on Yemen have caused. The Saudis will have to pay billions in reparations. Saleh's family will plunder a huge share of these. Despite the money Saleh is, like always, no ones puppet but the snake that bites everyone who stands in his way. That is how and why he could rule for so long.</div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
The Houthis, who bravely fought against the Saudis, became too sure of themselves and too obnoxious towards their own people to be able to rule. They will be ousted from Sanaa and pushed back into their devastated northern homelands.</div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
Everyone in Yemen lost in this war. Many, many have died for no good reason. It will take decades to rebuild all that was destroyed. The Saudis and the U.S. behind them have lost face and standing throughout the Arab world. They tried to fuck Yemen but Yemen fucked them.</div>
<center style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
<img src="http://www.moonofalabama.org/images5/yemenfsauds.jpg" /></center>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
The only real winners of the war are the Russians. They again demonstrated that they are able to create peace where the U.S. only creates war and chaos.</div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
---</div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
Excursion:</div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
The Saudis have alleged all along that the Houthi are an Iranian proxy force. That is not true. The Houthis are not Shia and not follower of Iranian state doctrines. They don't take orders. The military support they receive from Iran is minimal. The Saudis especially allege that the missiles fired under the Houthi label by the former Yemen troops under Saleh's command are of Iranian origin. But that is unlikely. Yemen has been under Saudi blockade for more than two years and ballistic missiles can not be smuggled under a coat. Yesterday <em>Reuters</em> released a short piece in supports of the Saudi allegations. But a closer reading shows that these are false.</div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
In mid November a confidential report by a UN panel found <a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/11/16/u-n-security-counil-saudi-arabia-blockade-yemen-famine-iran/" style="color: #993300;">no evidence</a> that the missiles launched against the Saudis are of QIAM-1 type from Iran:</div>
<blockquote style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.6px;">
“<strong>The supporting evidence provided in these [Saudi] briefings is far below that required to attribute this attack to a Qiam-1 SRBM</strong>,” wrote the panel. “The Saudi-Arabia led coalition has not yet though attributed the attempted attack against KKIA” — King Khalid International Airport, in the Saudi capital Riyadh — “to any particular type of SRBM.”“<strong>The Panel has seen no evidence to support claims of SRBM having been transferred to the Houthi-Saleh alliance from external sources</strong> in violation of paragraph 14 of resolution 2216,” the brief went on.</blockquote>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
Like the specialists of <em>IHS Janes</em> (see below) the UN panel assessed that the missiles were modifications of a type that Yemen had earlier bought from North Korea:</div>
<blockquote style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.6px;">
<strong>The Yemeni military, the panel added, retained existing stockpiles of SCUD-B and Hwasong-6 missiles that were not completely destroyed by earlier Saudi airstrikes</strong>. The panel cite a Houthi spokesperson who said missiles that had been damaged were subsequently repaired and modified. “The panel has not discounted though that Yemen based foreign missile specialists may be providing advice,” the brief cautioned. The panel raised the possibility that missiles may have been altered to extend their range to reach targets farther into Saudi Arabia.</blockquote>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
Now <em>Reuters</em> is trying to revive the Saudi claim by reporting on a new assessment with a very deceiving headline. <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-un-exclusive/exclusive-yemen-rebel-missiles-fired-at-saudi-arabia-appear-iranian-u-n-idUSKBN1DU36N" style="color: #993300;">Exclusive: Yemen rebel missiles fired at Saudi Arabia appear Iranian - U.N.</a>:</div>
<blockquote style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.6px;">
Remnants of four ballistic missiles fired into Saudi Arabia by Yemen’s Houthi rebels this year <strong><span style="text-decoration-line: underline;">appear</span> to have been designed and manufactured by Riyadh’s regional rival Iran</strong>, a confidential report by United Nations sanctions monitors said, bolstering a push by the United States to punish the Tehran government.</blockquote>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
The <em>Reuters</em> claim in its opening paragraph is not what the panel really said. Deeper into the report:</div>
<blockquote style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.6px;">
The independent panel of U.N. monitors, in a Nov. 24 report to the Security Council seen by Reuters on Thursday, said it “as yet <strong>has no evidence as to the identity of the broker or supplier</strong>” of the missiles<br />...<br />“<strong>Design characteristics and dimensions of the components</strong> inspected by the panel <strong>are consistent with</strong> those reported for the Iranian designed and manufactured <strong>Qiam-1</strong> missile,” the monitors wrote.</blockquote>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
I agree that the "design characteristics" and "dimensions of components" are consistent with the QIAM-1. The explanation for that is trivial. The Iranian <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qiam_1" style="color: #993300;">QIAM-1</a> is:</div>
<blockquote style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.6px;">
a licensed copy of the North Korean Hwasong-6.</blockquote>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwasong-6" style="color: #993300;">Hwasong-6</a>:</div>
<blockquote style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.6px;">
is a North Korean tactical ballistic missile. It is derived from the Hwasong-5, itself a derivative of the Soviet R-17 Elbrus. It carries the NATO reporting name Scud.</blockquote>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
According to an <a href="http://www.janes.com/images/assets/330/72330/Yemeni_rebels_enhance_ballistic_missile_campaign.pdf" style="color: #993300;"><em>IHS Janes</em> report</a> (pdf) the missiles the Saleh government of Yemen had bought from North Korea were of the Hwasong-5 and probably Hwasong-6 type:</div>
<blockquote style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.6px;">
Prior to the outbreak of the current conflict, Yemen was known to have acquired R-17 Elbrus (SS -1C 'Scud B') ... ballistic missile systems from the Soviet Union<br />...<br />Spanish naval vessels intercepted a ship carrying 15 Scud-type ballistic missiles to Yemen in December [2002]. That ship was later allowed to complete the delivery. The missiles found on board were 'Scud Bs' (a reference to North Korea's Hwasong-5 copy of the R-17), according to a June 2003 US diplomatic cable. ,,, [I]t is possible that it was one of several shipments that also included longer-range variants such as the Hwasong-6, which is also known as the 'Scud-C', and has a range of 500-550 km.</blockquote>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
The Yemen army has over 30 years of experience with Scud-type missiles and knows how to modify these. They revealed "new Yemeni made" <em>Burkan</em> missiles before they fired on Riyadh. <em>Janes</em> notes:</div>
<blockquote style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.6px;">
The stated dimensions of the Burkan-1 suggest that it is<strong> a standard Scud that has been lengthened</strong> with additional sections welded into its fuselage and fuel tanks so that it can carry the additional propellant needed to extend its range. Iraq carried out similar modifications to produce Al Hussein missiles capable of reaching Tehran during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War.<br />...<br />The Burkan-2 appears to use a new type of warhead section that is <strong>locally fabricated</strong>. Both Iran and North Korea have displayed Scud derivatives with shuttlecock-shaped warheads, but <strong>none of these match the Yemeni version.</strong> The range of the Burkan missiles also appears to have been extended by a reduction in the weight of their warheads.</blockquote>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
The Yemenis use locally modified Haewsong-5 and 6 missiles bought from North Korea. Iran builds a licensed copy of the Haewsong-6 under the name QIAM-1. These QIAM missiles will naturally have similar "design characteristics" and "dimensions of components" as the North Korean missiles the Yemenis use.</div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
<em>Reuters</em> is pointing its readers into the false direction when it claims that the Yemeni missiles "appear Iranian". In reality both, the Yemeni Burkan as well as the Iranian QIAM, are variants of the same North Korean Haewsong-5 and 6 which are themselves copies of the Soviet R-17/Scud-B/Scud-C types. All of these were build from the same specification sheet and engineering drawings. That their dimensions and parts look alike, as the UN panel says, follows from that but proves absolutely nothing.</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
Macuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13339524320921898869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15865664.post-4110237886995192112017-11-30T20:57:00.000-05:002017-11-30T20:57:20.727-05:00North Korea: "The Missile Program Is Now Complete"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<br />
<div class="shadowedHeader" style="background-color: #f8f8f8; border: 2px solid rgb(2, 22, 54); font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18.4px; font-weight: bold; padding: 0.5em;">
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />November 30, 2017</div>
<h3 style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
North Korea: "The Missile Program Is Now Complete"</h3>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
Last night the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) launched another nuclear capable missile. It was a new type never shown before. Its name is Hwasong-15 and it is a beauty.</div>
<center style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
<img src="http://www.moonofalabama.org/images5/nokoh1506-s.jpg" /><br /><a href="http://www.moonofalabama.org/images5/nokoh1506.jpg" style="color: #993300;">bigger</a></center>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
The new missile is huge. Note Kim Jong Il in his black coat on the left. He is 5'7 or 1.70 meters. The transporter-erector vehicle with the missile must be nearly 20' or 6 meters high and the missile must have a diameter of 2+ meters.</div>
<center style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
<img src="http://www.moonofalabama.org/images5/nokoh1503-s.jpg" /><br /><a href="http://www.moonofalabama.org/images5/nokoh1503.jpg" style="color: #993300;">bigger</a></center>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
The vehicle is a modified copy of a Chinese WS51200. North Korea once bought 5 or 6 of these to "haul lumber from the mountains". All were of course used as missile transporters. A ninth axle has been added to the original design to carry the additional load of the huge missile and its firing table. The vehicle is not a TEL, a transporter, erector and launcher, but a TE. The missile is erected and set vertical on the firing table. The vehicle is removed for the launch.</div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
The first guestimates for the total weight of the missile currently vary between 45 and 60 metric tons. I believe it is a bit more. My thumb-rule says that a heavy military truck can haul 10 metric tons of cargo per axle. Nine axles times 10 minus the weight of the firing table and the erector system could leave some 70 tons for the missile. They did not add the ninth axle for nothing.</div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
The missile looks like a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGM-25C_Titan_II#Launch_history_and_development" style="color: #993300;">Titan II</a> missile shrunken by 30%. The Titan II was U.S. intercontinental nuclear missile developed in the 1960s. It is not the most modern concept but solid.</div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
The new missile has two engines of unknown type in the first stage. These are fed their fuel by one common turbo-pump. The missile steers by moving its nozzles. The reentry vehicle (RV) in the front which carries the payload is also huge. North Korea can surely fit one of its <a href="http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/09/no-peanut-north-korea-tests-a-thermonuclear-device-continues-to-press-for-negotiations.html" style="color: #993300;">peanut shaped hydrogen bombs</a> inside of it.</div>
<center style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
<img src="http://www.moonofalabama.org/images5/nokopeanut1-s.jpg" /><br /><a href="http://www.moonofalabama.org/images5/nokopeanut1.jpg" style="color: #993300;">bigger</a></center>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
North Korea claims that the vehicle and missile were completely locally build. It is possible that this true. North Korea also claims a maximum reach for the missile of 13,000 kilometer. That is likely the absolute maximum with no payload. With a significant payload of about 600 kilogram for a hydrogen bomb the missile might be able to reach the mid-west of the U.S. but likely not the east coast. But these are guestimates. For risk evaluation one needs to look at the worst case. One has to anticipate that this type, with maybe slight modifications, will have enough reach to flatten Manhattan.</div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
The launch happened on 3:00 am local time after the missile was transported from the factory hall seen above (March 16th Factory, Pyongsong 39°16'52.71"N 125°52'12.89"E) to its launch place. North Korea thus demonstrated the capability for surprise launches independent of the "weather". (In military doctrine nighttime darkness is a "weather" condition.) The U.S. has no means to preempt a launch of such a missile as place and time of the launch are not discernible.</div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
Some pictures of the launch are below. A <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs31hdydloo" style="color: #993300;">14 minute video</a> of the official TV announcement of the launch shows additional details of the preparations and flight.</div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
One hopes that it will have finally sunk in with U.S. decision makers that North Korea <a href="https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/how-the-us-turned-north-korea-into-a-nuclear-power" style="color: #993300;">is a nuclear power</a>. The U.S. has claimed for some 75 years that it needs nukes for its security. It is constantly threatening North Korea. It does not stick to its deals (just ask Ghaddafi). There is no way the the DPRK will give up on its nukes or its intercontinental missile force.</div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
In its <a href="http://www.rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?strPageID=SF01_02_01&newsID=2017-11-29-0002" style="color: #993300;">government statement</a> the DPRK said that its missile development is now "complete":</div>
<blockquote style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.6px;">
.. it is the most powerful ICBM which <strong>meets the goal of the completion</strong> of the rocket weaponry system development set by the DPRK.<br />...<br />Kim Jong Un declared with pride that now we have finally <strong>realized the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force</strong>, the cause of building a rocket power.</blockquote>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
It has achieved its aim of holding the whole continental U.S. at risk of a nuclear attack should it try to attack (or decapitate) North Korea. This likely also means that it will not build any new types of missile. It will continue to develop the existing ones.</div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
A good agreement between the U.S. and North Korea would stop such further development of missiles and nukes in exchange for the stop of U.S. maneuvers near the country. North Korea <a href="http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/04/the-reason-behind-north-koreas-nuclear-program-and-its-offer-to-end-it.html" style="color: #993300;">has made</a> such a "double suspension" offer. It is for the U.S. to accept it. But with Tillerson <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/30/us/politics/state-department-tillerson-pompeo-trump.html" style="color: #993300;">leaving</a> as Secretary of State and Pompeo taking over his job the chances for negotiations and any deal are currently next to zero.</div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
Pics:</div>
<center style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
<img src="http://www.moonofalabama.org/images5/nokoh1502-s.jpg" /><br /><a href="http://www.moonofalabama.org/images5/nokoh1502.jpg" style="color: #993300;">bigger</a></center>
<center style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
<img src="http://www.moonofalabama.org/images5/nokoh1501-s.jpg" /><br /><a href="http://www.moonofalabama.org/images5/nokoh1501.jpg" style="color: #993300;">bigger</a></center>
<center style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
<img src="http://www.moonofalabama.org/images5/nokoh1504-s.jpg" /><br /><a href="http://www.moonofalabama.org/images5/nokoh1504.jpg" style="color: #993300;">bigger</a></center>
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="more" style="color: #993300; font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif; text-decoration-line: underline;"></a><span style="background-color: #dee3e9; font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<center style="font-family: georgia, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">
<img src="http://www.moonofalabama.org/images5/nokoh1505-s.jpg" /></center>
</div>
Macuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13339524320921898869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15865664.post-91377534911097800262017-11-30T07:34:00.000-05:002017-11-30T07:34:51.672-05:00Kushner linked to Madoff Ponzi scheme through Platinum Partners collapse By The Wayne Madsen Report<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<br />
<div id="documentContentInner" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">
<strong>Kushner linked to Madoff Ponzi scheme through Platinum Partners collapse</strong><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">By The Wayne Madsen Report</span></div>
<div id="documentContentInner" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div id="documentContentInner" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Donald Trump son-in-law and special adviser Jared Kushner is linked to two of the most fraudulent financial schemes in the financial history of Wall Street, the Bernie Madoff securities fraud Ponzi scheme and the financial collapse of the fraudulent hedge fund, Platinum Partners. Kushner's aunt and uncle, Richard and Marisa Stadtmauer were major investors in Platinum Partners, along with Madoff Investment Securities LLC, the company operated by the imprisoned-for-life financial manipulator Bernie Madoff. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Madoff funds were transferred to Platinum Partners via the Jay Cohen Revocable Trust of New York. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">$9.271 billion of Madoff funds have already been recovered and distributed to victims of Madoff's fraud. Richard Stadtmauer, who was number two in the Kushner Companies when the firm was being run by Jared's father, Charles Kushner, served a 38-month prison sentence for fraudulent activities associated with Charles Kushner. Charles Kushner received a two-year prison sentence -- serving only 14 months of it -- for illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering. Charles Kushner's wife Seryl is the sister of Richard Stadtmauer. The Ponzi schemes and interlocking corporations involving the Kushners, Stadtmauers, Trumps, Manaforts, and others are notable for the involvement of entire families. This is especially the case with the Russian and Israeli oligarchs who have been involved in Trump and Kushner businesses.<br /><br />Platinum Partners and its principals were the subject of a federal criminal indictment for fraud between 2011 and 2016. This included bilking the New York Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association (COBA) out of $20 million from its pension fund. Indicted in the fraud were Platinum's chief investment officer Mark Nordlicht, its founder Murray Huberfeld, Platinum marketing officer Uri Landesman, and COBA president Norman Seabrook. Many of those who invested in Platinum were the same wealthy New York and Florida Jews who were investors in Madoff's securities scheme.<br /><br />Platinum maintained that it had $1.3 billion in assets but, in reality, had only $68,530 in cash. Some of the Eastern District of New York prosecutors in Brooklyn are now members of Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team that is investigating Kushner's and Trump's dubious business ties.<br /><br />Platinum's insolvency and bankruptcy resulted in a major lender, Parris Investments Ltd. of New Zealand, petitioning a Cayman Islands court to roll up Platinum's Offshore Feeder Fund, which was incorporated in Grand Cayman. One of Platinum's principals, Murray Huberfeld, a friend of Richard Stadtmauer, paid a bribe to COBA's Seabrook, in return for the investment of the pension fund money in Platinum. Huberfeld was major investor in the Livingston, New Jersey-based bank NorCrown, which was owned by Charles Kushner.<br /><br />WMR previously reported that Madoff would order his employees to "roll the accounts" in the Cayman Islands every business day at 3:00 pm. When it came to manipulating hundreds of millions of dollars using the bank and corporate secrecy laws of the Cayman Islands, the Madoffs, Kushners, and Stadtmauers were experts. And the patriarchs of all three families are serving or have served prison sentences for their fraud schemes. Rather than keep such individuals as far from his administration as possible, Donald Trump has appointed Jared Kushner to several key posts, including special Middle East envoy and China trade interlocutor, to name but a few.<br /><br />Trump's real estate schemes have also relied heavily on offshore financial contrivances that rely on tax havens and their bank and corporate secrecy laws.<br /><br />In the federal government's criminal complaint filed against seven Platinum principals on December 14, 2016, the government stated that Nordlicht and an unnamed co-conspirator planned to flee the United States. The indictment reads: "On or about December 13, 2015, Nordlicht, Landesman, and a<img border="0" height="250" src="http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/PlatinumP.jpg" style="border: none; float: left;" width="385" />n unnamed coconspirator sent emails 'that contemplated Nordlicht and Co-Conspirator 1 fleeing from the United States and illustrated their knowledge and awareness of the fraudulent scheme perpetrated on Platinum's investors and prospective investors.'" The e-mail from Co-Conspirator 1 stated "Don't forget books. Assume we are not coming back to ny[.] Just to be safe. Depends on Miami[.] We can fly straiggt [sic] to europe from miami on Tuesday[.] Take passport." Nordlicht responded in an email to Co-Conspirator 1: "Am on my way to jfk with kids for their 6 pm flight to Israel. [Co-Conspirator 2] ducking my calls . . .[My wife] is literally making me get on Israel flight if we don't connect and agree what we are doing."<br /><br />Landesman responded to Nordlicht's email to Co-Conspirator 1, which Nordlicht had forwarded to Landeman: "You should get on the flight if there is no bridge [loan], probably even if there is...We need to go through the <em>mehalech</em> of how we are going to share this with clients and employees, going to be very rough, big shame." Mehalech is a Hebrew word, which means "a way of operating." Some critics of unethical Jewish business practices define mehalech as committing fraud against others while carrying a clean conscience. In any case, Israel has welcomed with open arms Jews who are on the lam from law enforcement in countries as varied as the United States and Russia to Colombia and Romania.<br /><br />Platinum Partners owned Black Elk Energy, a Houston firm that also declared bankruptcy. Black Elk Energy Offshore Operations' West Delta 32 oil platform, located 17 miles southeast of Grand Isle, Louisiana, suffered an explosion that killed three crewmen on November 16,<img border="0" height="105" src="http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/blackelk.jpg" style="border: none; float: right;" width="184" /> 2012. [pictured, right]. Black Elk and its sub-contractors were named in 41 citations issued by the Interior Department's </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) that later resulted in criminal charges being filed against the firm. A link to those citations, which appeared on BSEE's website, now results in a "404 -- page not found" message.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Black Elk Energy was affiliated with other Houston firms, including Iron Island Technologies, Inc., Iron Island Technologies I, Deepwater Solutions LLC, Freedom HHC Management LLC, and Elk Well Services LLC.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">With Kushner-related businesses active in the Texas oil industry, Jared Kushner's recent all-night "strategizing" in Riyadh with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman becomes even more suspicious.</span><br /></div>
</div>
Macuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13339524320921898869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15865664.post-16736860300601564762017-11-08T17:40:00.000-05:002017-11-08T17:40:22.404-05:00 FBI files on Trump's father focus on mob ties - By The Wayne Madsen Report<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div id="documentContentInner" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">
<strong> FBI files on Trump's father focus on mob ties - By The Wayne Madsen Report<br /></strong><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Apparently, WMR's recent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the FBI for files on ties between Donald Trump's father Fred C. Trump and Nazi and white supremacist groups reflects, save for one other inquiry, is the only media interest for such information.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">While the FBI claims its files do not contain any information on Fred Trump's links to Nazi groups like the German-American Bund or white supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan, even though he was arrested at a Klan rally in Queens, New York in 1927, the FBI does appear to have tracked Fred Trump's links to organized crime in the 1960s. It is also noteworthy that the FBI's Central Records System (CRS) has been criticized by a number of professional researchers and librarians for its inability to return complete information on searches on specific subjects or individuals.<i> </i></span><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">In a March 28, 1966 memo from Deputy Attorney General Ramsey Clark to FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, an FBI "Namecheck" on Fred C. Trump of 85-14 Midland Parkway, Jamaica, Long Island, New York is expeditiously requested because of a deposition by Fred Trump being taken by the Justice Department in a "tax case." Clark, who worked for Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, requested that the FBI respond no later than March 29, 1966. The FBI did not respond in writing until March 30, 1966, however, there was a conversation between FBI Special Agent George Scatterday and one of Clark's aides on March 28, 1966. The FBI's written response to Clark stated, "no identifiable information" was found pertinent to Clark's request concerning Trump. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Katzenbach, who succeeded anti-mob Attorney General Robert Kennedy in September 1964, continued Kennedy's aggressive pursuit of mobsters. Wiretaps and electronic bugs placed on known mobsters in New York and New Jersey by Kennedy were kept in place by Katzenbach. In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson ordered the electronic surveillance of mobsters to be discontinued.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"><img border="0" height="562" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/TRUMPFBI1.jpg" style="border: none;" width="500" /></span><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"><img border="0" height="589" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/TRUMPFBI2.jpg" style="border: none;" width="500" /></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">One single paragraph FBI document, dated April 24, 1991, involving an FBI Special Agent and the Trump Organization, is completely redacted, including the name of the agent.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Another FBI file indicates the bureau conducted a Dun & Bradstreet search on the Trump Construction Company on August 27, 1988. Fred Trump died in 1993. Another FBI file shows the bureau was interested in the Trump Organization in 1986 for being one of the largest donors to the New York mayoral campaign of Democrat Ed Koch.<br /><br />An index of files the FBI maintained on various individuals, not included as part of the FOIA request on Fred Trump, does contain a file under the name "Tommy Trump." It is not clear who Tommy Trump was or whether he was connected to the Fred Trump family.<br /><br /><img border="0" height="50" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/trumpfbi4.jpg" style="border: none;" width="541" /></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">While FOIA responses often do not yield much in the way of information, agency responses to such requests contain more valuable information. This appears to be the case with Fred Trump and ties to organized crime. In late 2015 and early 2016, as Donald Trump began to appear as a credible candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, the FBI received a flurry of FOIA requests from a few dozen news organizations requesting FBI files on Fred Trump's, and, by inference, Donald Trump's, links to a number of mobsters and their business entities. Amazingly, some of the Fred Trump-mob indexed cross-references sought by the media were redacted by the FBI. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Among the mob linkages to Fred Trump were Constantino "Big Paul" Castellano, head of the Gambino crime family and secret owner of S&A Concrete, a defunct New York firm run by Nick Auletta, which built the Trump Plaza and Trump Tower; Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno, head of the Genovese crime family and secret owner of S&A Concrete, Inc.; Genovese crime family member and FBI informant Peter Savino; Atlantic City/Philadelphia crime boss Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo [an indication where Donald Trump got the idea for the nicknames "Little Marco Rubio" and "'Liddle' Bob Corker"], owner of the Cleveland Wrecking Company; Wachtel Plumbing; Chief of the New York City District Council of Carpenters Theodore "Teddy" Maritas; The Circle Group, a major Atlanta construction company headed by Long Island reputed mobster Jerry Marchelletta Jr., which built the Atlantis Resort and Casino in the Bahamas and reportedly laundered money through the Gambino-connected Gold Club, a popular Atlanta strip joint; John Cody, the racketeering-convicted president of Teamsters Local 282; Daniel "Danny" Sullivan, a Teamster official and partner in the Scarfo family's New Jersey-based SSG, Inc. and a labor "fixer" for Donald Trump; Kenny Shapiro, an SSG, Inc. partner, scrap metal dealer, and member of the Scarfo crime family; Edward J. "Biff" Halloran, a concrete contractor who owned Certified Concrete Company and the Transit Mix Company; and Michael Matthews, a mayor of Atlantic City.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Two names requested by media organizations from FBI files linked to Fred Trump were redacted in the actual news media request letters released under FOIA. While redactions of private addresses and phone numbers contained in such requests in commonplace and required under the Privacy Act, the redaction of substantive information in FOIA requests is highly suspect [see below].</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/TRUMPFBI3.jpg" style="border: none;" width="500" /></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">The same entries were redacted by the FBI in multiple FOIA requests, including May 31, 2016 communications from The BlackVault.com and GovernmentSecrets.com, as well as The <em>Philadelphia Inquirer</em>, CBS News and Cryptome.com; June 1, 2016 communications from Vice News, Judicial Watch, and <em>The Daily Beast</em>; a June 3, 2016 communication from Gizmodo.com and Trump biographer David Cay Johnson; and a July 27, 2016 communication from ABC News. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/scarfo.jpg" style="border: none; float: left;" width="115" />Castellano was murdered in a gangland hit in 1985 that was arranged by John Gotti. Salerno died in federal prison in 1992. Nick Aueltta died in 2013. Scarfo [pictured left] died in federal prison, while serving a life term, on January 13 of this year, a week before Donald Trump was sworn in an president. Savino died on September 30, 1997 at the age of 55 of unknown causes while living in an undisclosed location as part of the federal witness protection program. Maritas disappeared in March 1982, a day before he was to go on trial for racketeering, near the Throgs Neck Bridge in New York. Maritas's wallet was found in shallow water and a $100 bill was discovered floating on the water. Federal tax evasion charges were suddenly dropped against Marchelletta in 2012. Cody died in 2001. Sullivan died of a heart attack in 1993 at the age of 54, after he began cooperating with the FBI in a probe of Donald Trump's Atlantic City mob ties. Sullivan also said he knew what happened to the body of former Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa, but gave no details. Donald Trump revealed that he understood that Sullivan killed Hoffa. Shapiro died in the 1990s with no details available. Halloran disappeared in Manhattan in August 1998 while visiting the city from his home in Fort Lauderdale. Matthews was recalled as Atlantic City mayor in 1984 and later convicted for extortion. Matthews was sentenced to 15 years in prison but was paroled in 1990 and died in 2014.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">A high number of mobsters connected to both Fred and Donald Trump have died suspiciously and conveniently. Trump's fear and loathing of the FBI may have something to do with what the bureau has amassed in its files over the years. The FBI searches of its arcane file system may have yielded little in the way of files on the Trumps, but the files on the connections of the Trump family to those investigated by the FBI for mob activities could fill an Olympic-size swimming pool.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
Macuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13339524320921898869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15865664.post-71671388379916770862017-11-06T12:26:00.000-05:002017-11-06T12:26:06.121-05:00Arabian peninsula returns to warring princes and tribes By The Wayne Madsen Report<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div id="documentContentInner" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">
<div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0.5em 0em 1em; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><b>Arabian peninsula returns to warring princes and tribes</b></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0.5em 0em 1em; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><b>By The Wayne Madsen Report</b></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0.5em 0em 1em;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Saudi Arabia's 32-year old Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman al-Saud, fancies himself as a champion of "moderate Wahhabism," something that does not actually exist, and clean government. In fact, this fast-rising son of the decrepit 81-year old King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, was a prime motivator behind the creation of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), or "Da'esh," in Iraq and Syria, the chief architect of the genocidal Saudi-led war in Yemen, and the driving force behind the Gulf Cooperation Council's economic and travel sanctions imposed on Qatar. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Rather than being a reformer or "moderate," MBS, as he is known in Saudi Arabia and abroad, hearkens back to an age when rival sheikhs and tribal leaders vied for control over wide patches of desert lands in Arabia. MBS's ongoing coup d'état against some of Saudi Arabia's most powerful and wealthiest princes points to his determination to become an autocratic ruler over Saudi Arabia once his father, King Salman, leaves the scene. MBS has curbed the power of Saudi Arabia's dreaded religious police and allowed women the right to drive in an effort to gain popular support for his own "Salmanist" movement in Saudi Arabia, one that brooks no dissent and rules with an iron fist. MBS will use Wahhabism for his own advantage and when it is against his interests, he will not hesitate to clamp down on Wahhabist domestic clerics and foreign missionaries. Indeed, some Middle East experts see MBS’s rapid rise to power as eventually achieving the same autocratic rule over Saudi Arabia as that commanded by the founder of the modern Saudi state, Abdulaziz bin Saud, in the 1930s.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">MBS's rise to a prominent role within the House of Saud began in October 2011 when Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz died. Salman, who had been Governor of Riyadh province, and, as WMR reported, a major bankroller for Al Qaeda mercenaries traveling to Afghanistan, became second deputy prime minister and defense minister in November 2011. Salman made MBS his personal adviser and with that wide portfolio, the young prince helped initiate the jihadist rebellion in Syria against President Bashar al Assad and the uprising against Muammar Qaddafi in Libya. MBS also aided his father, the defense minister, is helping to brutally crush a pro-democracy uprising in Bahrain. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">In November 2012, Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Salman's brother, died. Salman was named Crown Prince and First Deputy Prime Minister. Salman basically ran Saudi Arabia's domestic affairs while his half-brother, King Abdullah, was out of the country, which was often. Crown Prince Salman's penchant for charitable contributions to poor majority Muslim countries, which was shared by MBS, saw Saudi funds flow into the coffers of Wahhabist radical groups in Somalia, Bangladesh, Afghanstan, and Sudan. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">In January 2015, King Abdullah died at the age of 90 and Salman succeeded to the Saudi throne. The former chief of the Saudi Intelligence Agency, Prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, was named Crown Prince by Salman. Muqrin's reign did not last long. In April 2015, Salman replaced Muqrin with his nephew, the Interior Minister, Prince Muhammad bin Nayef al-Saud. MBS was named defense minister. On June 21, 2017, in what can be described as the beginning of a "creeping coup," Crown Prince Nayef was deposed by Royal Decree. In what would portend future events a mere four months later, Nayef was reportedly held under house arrest at his palace and pressured to renounce his claim to the throne. King Salman moved quickly to name MBS the new Crown Prince.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0.5em 0em 1em;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">In September 2017, MBS detained some of the top clerics in Saudi Arabia, including Salman al-Ouda, who, as being independent from the Saudi state Wahhabist infrastructure, was known to favor reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Al-Ouda’s two compatriots, Awad al-Qarni and Ali al-Omary, were also arrested.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Former Crown Prince Nayef is said to have remained under house arrest until MBS made his sudden move against other members of the House of Saud on November 4, 2017. Declaring the foundation of a new Saudi anti-corruption committee, MBS put under house arrest at least 11 Saudi princes, including multi-billionaire international investor and Kingsom Holding Company Chairman Prince Alaweed bin Talal al-Saud, MBS also fired and arrested the commander of the Saudi National Guard, the son of the late King Abdullah, Prince Miteb bin Abdullah and replaced him with MBS loyalist Prince Khalid Bin Ayyaf Al-Muqrin. Also arrested was the Saudi Minister of Economy and Planning Adel Fakieh, a close reform adviser of MBS. In Fakieh's place was appointed another MBS loyalist, Mohammad Al-Tuwaijri. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"><img border="0" height="525" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/arabiantribes.jpg" style="border: 0px; float: right;" width="485" />Many senior officials of the late King Abdullah's government are being systematically purged by MBS and his loyalists. They include Prince Turki bin Abdullah, a former governor of Riyadh province, and Khaled al-Tuwaijri, the chief of the Royal Court under Abdullah.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">No coup would be complete or successful without seizing control over the media. MBS ordered the arrests of Saleh Kamal and Waleed al-Ibrahim, the co-founders of the Middle East Broadcasting Corporation, which operates the Al Arabiya satellite news network. News out of Saudi Arabia is being strictly controlled by the new MBS regime, with the international corporate media dutifully echoing Saudi government press releases as "news."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">In all, some 14 current ministers, officials and businessmen have been arrested. Dozens of former ministers have also been arrested. The Saudis have not confirmed all of the identities of those arrested. MBS has ordered the bank accounts of the princes and others in Saudi Arabia and abroad frozen. Most of the detainees are being held under house arrest in the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Riyadh. MBS has vowed a complete investigation of all the detainees for corruption, a crime for which the penalty is death.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">One execution may have been carried out early. At the same time MBS was rounding up princes and ministers in Riyadh, a helicopter carrying Prince Mansour bin Muqrin, the deputy governor of Asir province and seven other senior Saudi officials, crashed near Abha in Asir Province, near the border with Houthi-controlled north Yemen. Prince Mansour was the son of former Crown Prince Prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz, who was ousted in 2015 in favor of Salman. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Saudi official news organs reported that the helicopter carrying Mansour and his aides was returning from an "inspection tour" near the border with Yemen. However, other reports indicated that the aircraft was shot down by the Saudis after they learned it was flying to Houthi-controlled Yemen where the prince and his party had been assured of political asylum. Parallels were immediately drawn to the Chinese attack on the plane carrying Chinese vice premier Lin Biao in 1971, following an abortive coup in Beijing. Lin and his party were fleeing China and their plane was shot down by Chinese MiGs over Mongolia. MBS's coup in Riyadh has been likened to the type of leadership purge that routinely takes place in China.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">King Salman went through the motions, Cosa Nostra-style, in paying his respect, in person, to deposed Crown Prince Muqrin at the prince's palace in Riyadh. Saudi press reports failed to indicate whether Murqin was even free to leave his palace in the wake of MBS's coup.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Mansour's safe passage to Houthi-controlled Yemen may have been arranged by his father, Muqrin, who was known to favor dialogue with the majority Shi'as of Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, as well as with Iran, the Houthis major benefactor. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">The role of the Trump administration and Israel in MBS's coup is an issue that is on the minds of every Middle East professional and lay observer. Trump son-in-law and Middle East special envoy Jared Kushner visited Saudi Arabia last month where he and MBS reportedly stayed up until 4 am for several nights "planning strategy." Kushner was accompanied to Israel by Trump's special adviser on Israeli matters, Jason Greenblatt. Both Kushner and Greenblatt are known to represent the interests of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in the Trump White House.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">MBS has promised Trump a military showdown with Iran and a public Saudi rapprochement with Israel. The Saudi National Guard chief was fired after he was blamed for an alleged Houthi missile attack on Riyadh from Yemen. The Saudis and Americans are blaming Iran for the attack, however, there is a belief that it may have been a Saudi false flag designed to provide domestic support for MBS's coup and further ratchet up tensions with Iran.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">The power struggle within the House of Saud also affects surrounding countries. Opponents of MBS can be assured of tacit support from the Al Thani governing family of Qatar, which has its own issues with MBS over the Saudi-led boycott of Qatar. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">MBS's counterpart in the United Arab Emirates, Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, referred to as "MZN" and who is also the deputy commander of the UAE armed forces, does not see eye-to-eye with MBS on certain issues. MBS is backing the extremely corrupt exiled government in Jeddah of Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi against the Houthis and South Yemeni separatists. MZN, on the other hand, supports the South Yemeni independence restoration movement and has taken advantage of Yemen's civil war to extend virtual UAE control over Aden, the islands of Socotra, Abd al Kuri, Darsah, and Samhah in the strategic Gulf of Aden, and the former Mahra Sultanate in the Hadhramaut region of South Yemen. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">An official of the former Sultanate of Mahra and Socotra, Sheikh Abdullah Al Afrar, has received Abu Dhabi's support in representing the mainland Mahra state and Socotra on behalf of his General Council of the Sons of the Province of Al Mahra and Socotra Island. Meanwhile, the former sultan of Hadhramaut, Ghalib Al Quaiti, who has lived in exile in Saudi Arabia, has sought a role in an independent restored Qu'aiti State in Hadhramaut or a new federation of South Yemen. The al-Quaiti royal house was apparently double-crossed by MBS and MZN when it was discovered that Saudi and Emirati funds had flowed to Hadhramaut tribal leader Abdallah Faysal Sadiq al-Ahdal, someone identified as an ally of “Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). The royal family of the former Sultanate of Lahej, near Aden, has also been resurgent in politics, thanks to the patronage of the UAE, a federation of emirates that, unlike the sultanates and emirates of Arabia, survived the throes of British decolonization of the Arabian peninsula.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Meanwhile, the heirs of the Zaidi Imams' long-reigning Mutawakkilite Kingdom of the Yemen, overthrown in 1962, may be angling for a place in a restored North Yemen, which may be a republic or a reincarnation of the Kingdom of Yemen. The Houthis and other North Yemeni tribes, as well as those in the Saudi province of Asir, continue to hold the Imams of the Kingdom of Yemen in great reverence.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">the Khalifa royal family in Bahrain is firmly in the MBS camp. The Hashemites royal family of Jordan, which has its own grievances with Riyadh, can expect to stay neutral in the House of Saud civil war. The Bin Said's of Oman and Sabahs of Kuwait would also prefer neutrality, although neither is happy with the MBS war in Yemen and the saber-rattling against Iran. The Al Rashids of Dubai have also shown a dislike for the Saudi treatment of Qatar and they have like-minded allies among the ruling royal families the northern emirates of Ras al Khaimah, Umm al Qawain, and Fujairah. Without an over-arching referee like Britain or the United States calling the shots, the political chess board on the shifting sands of Arabia has never been more unpredictable.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><strong><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"></span></strong></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12.144px;"></span></div>
</div>
Macuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13339524320921898869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15865664.post-38035649391179357272017-11-04T15:52:00.001-04:002017-11-04T15:52:40.016-04:00Wayne Madsen Report on the story on the fate of the SS Poet set to ballad<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong style="font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">WMR story on the fate of the SS Poet set to ballad</strong></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">WMR's series of articles and book on the ill-fated last voyage of the </span><em style="font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">SS Poet</em><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"> in 1980 has been set to song in a ballad written and performed by Massachusetts song and screenplay writer Timothy Sawyer. WMR's editor recently attended the 37th anniversary of the disappearance of the </span><em style="font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">SS Poet </em><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">at Old Swede's Gloria Dei Episcopal Church in Philadelphia and met family members of some of the 34 lost crewmen who served on board the doomed merchant ship.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">The foreign intrigue of the Donald Trump presidential campaign was not the first to engage in disloyal behavior. In 1980, the Reagan-Bush campaign negotiated an "arms-for-no hostages" agreement with the Ayatollah Khomeni's government that saw Iran refuse to release the U.S. embassy hostages to Jimmy Carter, thus sealing his election defeat in November 1980. The hostages were released at the very moment Ronald Reagan was sworn into office on January 20, 1981. The Reagan pre-election deal with Iran in 1980 would haunt him throughout his presidency with the Iranians successfully receiving U.S. weapons in return for U.S. hostages held by pro-Iranian militias in Lebanon. The diversion of money from Iran to the Nicaraguan </span><em style="font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">contras</em><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"> resulted in a scandal that almost resulted in Reagan's impeachment.</span><br /><br /><span style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-width: initial; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="110" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/poet1.jpg" style="border: none;" width="249" /></span><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">And now, "The Skeleton Crew," with a hat-tip to Timothy Sawyer and his wife:</span><br /><strong style="font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></strong></span><iframe frameborder="0" height="245" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/R07Ba_mLh7Y" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;" width="310"></iframe><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/poet3.JPG" style="border: none;" width="240" /></span></div>
Macuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13339524320921898869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15865664.post-11592954866921376052017-11-01T14:24:00.000-04:002017-11-01T14:24:22.041-04:00Uzbek terrorist shines light on Tampa as a Pentagon-enabled center for radicalism - By The Wayne Madsen Report<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div id="documentContentInner" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lucida Grande", Verdana, Lucida, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">
<div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0.5em 0em 1em;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Uzbek terrorist shines light on Tampa as a Pentagon-enabled center for radicalism - By The Wayne Madsen Report</b></div>
<b><br /></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov, the accused New York bicycle path terrorist who reportedly moved into an apartment in Tampa, Florida a week ago, shines a spotlight on the Florida city that hosts the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) and the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOC). Saipov, who was wounded by New York police after plowing his Home Depot rental pickup truck into cyclists along Manhattan's west side Greenway bike and pedestrian path, killing 8 people, claimed to have carried out his attack on behalf of the Islamic State. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Saipov, a permanent resident of the United States who arrived from Uzbekistan in 2010, lived in Paterson, New Jersey with his wife and two children. Saipov and his wife are both natives of Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"><img border="0" height="118" src="https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/custom/saipov.jpg" style="border: 0px; float: right;" width="210" />Tampa authorities are reporting that Saipov's Florida address of 5586 Granada Boulevard, Apartment 102, Tampa, Florida 33617 on his Florida driver's license is for an apartment that is currently undergoing the type of refurbishment that is common prior to a new renter moving in. [pictured, right] It is unclear whether Saipov, a commercial truck and Uber driver, was planning to move to Tampa, where he had recently established Florida residency by obtaining a Florida license. Saipov also drove a white Toyota Sienna with Florida license plates. Saipov and his family had lived in Paterson for only a few months.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Saipov previously lived in an apartment in Stow, Ohio area, near Akron, where he owned a company, Bright Auto LLC, which was registered at an address in Cuyahoga Falls. Saipov also previously lived in the Cincinnati area, where he registered a firm called Sayf Motors Inc. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Over the past few decades, the two military commands, which oversee military operations in the Middle East and Central and South Asia, have drawn to the Tampa Bay area several Muslims from hotbeds of Islamist radicalism. It is not known why Saipov was planning to move to Tampa, however, it is noteworthy that simultaneous to Saipov carrying out his terrorist attack in Manhattan, not far from the World Trade Center, CENTCOM, through an intelligence contractor called COLSA, Inc., advertised two job openings for fluent Uzbek speakers whose jobs would be to monitor social media. The FBI and New York Police Department are currently analyzing Facebook, Twitter, and other social media for any communications involving Saipov and possible radical Islamist colleagues.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">The two October 31, 2017 CENTCOM job postings for Uzbek linguists and an addition job posted on October 20, are below:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"></span><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="3"><tbody>
<tr><td style="background-color: #e5ffc1;"><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0.5em 0em 1em;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"><b>Cleared Uzbek Social Media Analyst I (Entry Level/CENTCOM)<br />COLSA<br />Tampa, FL<br />--<br />Cleared Uzbek Social Media Analyst II (CENTCOM) at COLSA<br />Tampa, FL 33621<br />--<br />Posted 11 days ago:<br />Cleared Uzbek Social Media Analyst III (CENTCOM) at COLSA<br />Tampa, FL 33621</b></span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;"></span><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0.5em 0em 1em;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">In an effort to fill a vacuum of qualified linguists in such "critical" languages as Uzbek, CENTCOM and other military commands have lowered vetting requirements for intelligence analysts. In addition, CENTCOM and other military commands have relied on foreign partners to vet military personnel sent to the United States for training in such areas as logistics, ordnance, field artillery, communications, and engineering. Since 2005, 320 foreign military trainees out of 253,977 have gone AWOL while attending classes in the United States. 152 of the AWOL trainees were from Afghanistan. Since 2015, the number of AWOLs of foreign military trainees has increased. The foreign trainees come to the United States on A-2 visas, which are foreign government officials traveling to the United States for official business. Some AWOL foreign military personnel have successfully petitioned the government for permanent residency status, such as that possessed by Saipov. 39 AWOL personnel from Afghanistan were granted legal residency status in the United States. Thirteen Afghan trainees disappeared in the United States altogether.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">CENTCOM has not only been a magnet for Middle East and Central and South Asian A-2 visa trainees but also for their families, including extended family members. Noting the problems with the foreign military training programs, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) recently said, "If the U.S. government can't keep tabs on foreign military trainees, maybe the training shouldn't take place in the United States." </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Of the AWOL trainees in the United States, Uzbeks account for those who are members of the Uzbekistan armed forces, as well as Uzbek members of the armed forces of Afghanistan. Other AWOL trainees came from Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Iraq, Bangladesh, and Azerbaijan, all primarily Muslim countries, some of which, like Uzbekistan, have active jihadist movements that have aided the Islamic State in the battlefields of Syria and Iraq.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif;">Uzbekistan was subject to a suspension of most U.S. military training in 2005, owing to that nation's human rights abuses. However, the Pentagon's Expanded International Military Education and Training (E-IMET) program was resumed with Uzbekistan in 2010, the same year Saipov arrived in the United States from the central Asian country.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", times, serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
</div>
Macuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13339524320921898869noreply@blogger.com