Today's appearance of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller before the House Judiciary Committee to discuss his report on Trump Campaign collusion with the Russian government may be a last ditch effort to make the election all about impeachment proceedings against the president. Will this strategy fall flat on its face? Is Mueller falling flat on his face? Russiagate? Watch today's Liberty Report... read on...
Recently released secret documents from Chinese company Huawei provide insights into how the US Empire rules the world. According to the Washington Post, the documents reveal that Huawei secretly helped North Korea “build and maintain the country’s commercial wireless network.”
What’s wrong with that? you ask.
It violates US sanctions against North Korea!
What do US sanctions have to do with commercial relations between a Chinese company and North Korea?
Well, as the ruler of the world — or, in common parlance, as the world’s sole remaining empire — the US Empire’s rules and regulations apply to everyone in the world. If anyone anywhere in the world is caught violating them, he will be summoned to the United States to face criminal and civil prosecution.
What about President Trump’s lovefest with North Korean communist dictator Kim Jong-Un? read on...
The Ukraine, translated as “the borderlands,” lies between core Russia and the Europe's western states. It is a split country. Half the population speaks Russian as its first language. The industrialized center, east and south are culturally orthodox Russians. Some of its rural western parts were attached to the Ukraine only after World War II. They have historically a different culture. read on...
While Iran’s seizure of a British tanker near the Strait of Hormuz on Friday was a clear response to the British capture of an Iranian tanker in the Strait of Gibraltar on July 4, both the UK and U.S. governments are insisting that Iran’s operation was illegal while the British acted legally.
The facts surrounding the British detention of the Iranian ship, however, suggest that, like the Iranian detention of the British ship, it was an illegal interference with freedom of navigation through an international strait. And even more importantly, evidence indicates that the British move was part of a bigger scheme coordinated by National Security Advisor John Bolton.
British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt called the Iran seizure of the British-flagged tanker Stena Impero “unacceptable” and insisted that it is “essential that freedom of navigation is maintained and that all ships can move safely and freely in the region.”
But the British denied Iran that same freedom of navigation through the Strait of Gibraltar on July 4. read on...
This year's Intelligence Authorization bill contains language drafted by the CIA itself designed to make it a criminal act to reveal the name of undercover agents whether stationed overseas or at home, whether working or retired. The measure is designed - in the CIA's own words - to prevent the kind of transparency that was provided by Wikileaks. It is a war on the free press! We have the details in today's Liberty Report... read on...
The latest neocon scheme is to push US allies to send warships to join a US-led mission to keep the Strait of Hormuz "free and clear" for shipping. In reality it is a trigger for war. Thus far the US has no takers for this clear escalation. Will Bolton's brigades begin peeling away EU hold-outs? The US is sending troops to Saudi Arabia and building up a massive airbase. Meanwhile, Iran claims to have broken up a CIA spy ring in country. War drums beating. Watch today's Liberty Report... read on...
You can tell that the establishment is getting nervous when in just the last month we see a grand effort to "re-invent" conservatism launched by the same kinds of ideologues who destroyed conservatism, and we see a new venture promising to promote a new foreign policy that turns away from "endless war and toward vigorous diplomacy in the pursuit of international peace" that just happens to be co-funded by an individual among those most responsible for pushing endless war and color revolutions overseas.
First, the much ballyhooed conference on "National Conservatism" this week brings to mind Pat Buchanan's seminal 1992 Republican convention speech when he spoke of radical Democrats pretending to be centrists as one of the greatest examples of cross-dressing in history. In this case, we have many of the old re-treads from the failed Republican administrations of the past (especially Dub-yuh's) telling us in ideological drag that they have an amazing new product to sell us called "we must fight them over there so we don't have to fight them over here" and "what would we do without our greatest Middle East allies Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Turkey?" read on...
The UK got a taste of its own medicine this week as Iran seized a British tanker, the Stena Impero, just two weeks after UK Royal Marines seized a tanker near Gibraltar carrying two million barrels of Iranian oil. As could be predicted, the US and UK media are reporting Iran’s seizure of the Stena Impero as if it were something out of the blue, pushing the war propaganda that “we” have been attacked and must retaliate. Media criticism of the UK is limited to claims that it has not put enough military into the Persian Gulf, not that it should never have seized the Iranian ship in the first place. read on...
Donald Trump appears to be on the verge of doing what the "Never Trumpers" could not--destroy his Presidency and make re-election impossible. It all boils down to whether or not he decides to launch military strikes on Iran. The bottomline is this--if Trump launches military strikes against Iranian military targets it is very likely he will ignite a series of events that will escalate beyond his control, expose him as a paper tiger full of empty bellicose threats and risk a war with other countries, including Russia and China.
The "War" class in Washington and the media are exhorting tough action and doing all within their power to portray Iran as an imminent threat to the West. The mantra, "the must be stopped," is being repeated ad nauseam in all of the media echo changers. President Trump, regrettably, is ignorant of military history and devoid of strategic intelligence when it comes to employing military force. He reminds me of Lyndon Johnson during the early stages of the Vietnam War--i.e., being exhorted to take action, increase forces and not back down rather than lose face on the international front.
The media is busy pushing the lie that Iran launched an unprovoked "attack" on a British flagged ship. They ignore the British action two weeks ago, when the British Navy seized an Iranian flagged tanker heading to Syria. Britain justifies its action as just keeping the sanction regime in place. But it is more likely the Brits intended this as a provocation, in coordination with some members of Trump's team, that would bait the Iranians to respond in similar fashion. Iran has taken the bait and given the Brits what Iran sees as a dose of its own medicine. read on...
John Bolton, White House national security adviser and notorious Iraq-era hawk, is a man on a mission. Given broad latitude over policy by Donald Trump, he is widely held to be driving the US confrontation with Iran. And in his passionate bid to tame Tehran, Bolton cares little who gets hurt – even if collateral damage includes a close ally such as Britain. read on...
