the US Bomb Iran for Peace Conference in Warsaw


The Trump administration had originally called the conference to bring Washington in from its isolation for having shredded its participation in the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action ‘allies’ of Amerika have found detrimental, as well as the increasing sanctions on Iran for which they’re creating alternatives for doing business with ‘the Pariah Terrorist Nation’ (NSTEX, for Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges”.

I don’t know what the Warsaw Conference had been originally called, but as invitations were being…ignored, and the guest list didn’t even include Iran, they’d rebranded it: Ministerial to Promote a Future of Peace and Security in the Middle East, just after Gordon Sondland, U.S. ambassador to the EU had claimed:  This is not a trash-Iran conference

Russia, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Qatar, the PLA, Houthis Rebels in Yemen, nor EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, etc. had attended.

But as Amerika is losing its ability to Rule the World, even her putative allies have been balking at taking orders from Trump, Pence, and Bolton.  And as the axiom goes: Dying Empires are even most dangerous and bellicose as they try to exert their total command and control.  Let’s hear from a few dissenters who see the conference for what it was:

‘US-led anti-Iran circus in Warsaw unravels as farce’, Finnian Cunningham, RT, Feb. 14, 2019

“Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has been labeling the Warsaw event “a desperate anti-Iran circus.” Last month, it was evident that European states were going to give the conference a miss on the grounds that the thinly veiled agenda would further undermine EU efforts at preserving the Iran deal.”

“On the eve of the Warsaw conference, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pulled back the curtains when he revealed the gathering was intended to solidify the “common interest of war with Iran.” Netanyahu’s tweet was quickly deleted but not before it was widely disseminated by critics.

Iran noted it was “no coincidence” that on the first day of the conference in Warsaw, the country saw the worst terrorist attack in years on its soil when 27 of its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were killed in a suicide bombing claimed by a jihadist group. Tehran asserted that the terrorist group had links to “foreign intelligence services.

“Earlier this week, Iran celebrated the 40th anniversary of its Islamic revolution. The anniversary was vilified by Trump as “40 years of terror.” His National Security Advisor John Bolton also directed a message to Iran’s leadership saying its time was up. Israel’s Netanyahu also gloated in a chilling warning that the anniversary could be the last.”

Cunningham notes that the administration is incoherent in its Syria policy: are troops leaving or not,  that most nations know that Trump’s anti-Iranian policy is crazy, and that it resonates mainly in Israel, Saudi Arabia, and of course: Poland, as Trump’s newest lackey, having offered millions for a new Amerikan Army base which Warsaw would name ‘Fort Trump’.

‘Netanyahoo Asks Arabs To “Advance The Common Interest Of War With Iran”, b at moonofalabama.org, Feb. 13

“The meeting took place today but the European powers did not fall for the trick. They want keep the nuclear agreement with Iran:

Even Poland on Tuesday said it disagreed with the U.S. approach to Iran. Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz told reporters the nuclear pact was valuable and expressed hope the conference could help participants find common ground.

While the U.S. delegation includes Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and senior White House adviser Jared Kushner, other major players have either refused to attend or are sending low-level delegations. The EU’s foreign-policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said she had other commitments.”

berhard writes that Germany and France only sent lower level staff, the UK foreign minister will attend a side session on Yemen, and that the State Department went to great lengths to obfuscate the true purpose of the meeting, and quotes the State Dept.:

‘The agenda is wide-ranging, and will include a discussion of the Administration’s efforts to promote a comprehensive and lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians, as well as a conversation on how to address ongoing regional humanitarian crises. The Secretary will provide an update on the situation in Syria and discuss other U.S. priorities in the region, including concerns regarding Iran’s destructive activities.

Smaller breakout sessions will provide ministers the opportunity to focus on specific areas of concern such as missile development and proliferation, cyber security and emerging threats, and terrorism and illicit finance.’

He then quotes this from Bibi’s office (with evidence):

‘I am going to a meeting with 60 foreign ministers and envoys of countries from around the world against Iran. What is important about this meeting – and this meeting is not in secret, because there are many of those – is that this is an open meeting with representatives of leading Arab countries, that are sitting down together with Israel in order to advance the common interest of war with Iran.

b updated it later to say the original language now says:  that the statement has now been changed into “combating Iran”.

“But that is not what Netanyahoo said in Warsaw and there is video to prove it.”

This is the video, but no subtitles.   He goes on to say how crazy it was to announce that, not only for the State Department, Arabs, but also embarrassing for any attendees to justify their presence.

War summit in Warsaw’, Bill Van Auken, wsws.org, 15 February 2019

“US Vice President Mike Pence delivered a sanctimonious sermon in which he denounced Tehran for threatening a “another Holocaust” and attempting to recreate the Persian Empire by opening up a “corridor of influence” through Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.

Pence, who peppered his speech with Biblical references and claimed that faith and God would deliver peace to the Middle East, described Iran as “the leading state sponsor of terrorism, and that state which sows the greatest harm and greatest discord across the region about which we gather here today.” [snip]

“The most jarring element of Pence’s speech, however, was directed against Washington’s erstwhile NATO allies for failing to toe the US line in relation to Iran. The US vice president demanded that Germany, France and the UK, all signatories to the 2015 Iran nuclear accord, follow Washington’s lead in tearing up the agreement and imposing an economic blockade that is tantamount to an act of war.

The US vice president demanded that the European powers “stand with us” by killing the nuclear accord and, presumably, preparing for war with Iran. Acknowledging that Iran was in compliance with the nuclear accord, Pence declared that the issue was not compliance, but the undesirability of the deal itself.

For me, Catholic Democrat-to-Evangelical-Republican Pence is far more terrifying than the-Tweeter-in-Chief.

Van Auken writes that the American Empire has never forgiven the masses of Iranian poor and working class revolution of 1979 that over threw the Shah, even though the revolution was coopted by the theocratic-bourgeois regime established under Ayatollah Khomeini, Washington has continuously panted for regime change to install another US puppet government.  He ends:

“The Warsaw conference, for all of its farcical aspects and overheated rhetoric, has a deadly serious content. It constitutes a nodal point in the drive towards a third world war between the world’s major nuclear powers.”

But then Van Auken is often over-heated in his World War III rhetoric, imo, but still…when war drums are banging…false flags, Bibi?

(cross-posted from Café Babylon)

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wendy davis's picture

al-monitor.com, feb. 13, 2019: ‘Trump allies hijack Warsaw summit with calls for Iran war, regime change’,

“First, Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer in the Russia investigation, called for Iran regime change at a rally in Warsaw of the controversial Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK), an Iranian opposition group until recently designated as a terrorist group by the United States, and widely reviled by Iranians both inside and outside of Iran as a cult that fought with Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war.”

“US envoy on Iran Brian Hook, in an interview with the BBC Persian service, said repeatedly that the United States does not have a relationship with the MEK, and said Giuliani does not represent the US government. But the fact that the president’s personal lawyer, as well as his national security adviser John Bolton, are or have been longtime lobbyists for the controversial group has made many other countries wary of the Trump administration’s hard-line policies on Iran and where they are heading.”

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stupid bastards.
Ignorance can be forgiven, Stupidity can not.

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Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .

Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .

If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march

wendy davis's picture

@Tall Bald and Ugly

small wonder that the 2019 NDAA is 'the john mccain memorial, yada, yada' after so many liberals like bernie sanders and ocasi-cortez praising him to the high heavens after he finally popped his clogs.

stoopid is as stoopid does.

on morning edit: due to some weird goings-on w/ some stoopid newish neighbors, i'd been telling mr. wd that their brand of stoopid is epically dangerous, as well. one example: setting off fireworks while we were in an existential drought zone.

but when stoopid entwines with geopolitical need of power, the stoopid tends to be this 'careless', as f. scott fitzgerald had written the dialgouge for nick the great gatsby.

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dystopian's picture

kill for peace -

Here is a link if the above doesn't work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvA1bKLQtbM

I just can't believe the war mongering on steroids these days. This is what happens when you keep increasing their budget. Ever hear anyone say "How ya gonna pay for that war and the wounded vets for life?"

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

wendy davis's picture

@dystopian

that was viet nam era, 1966. before their time, yeah? new to me, and thank you so much, dystopian. now that both duopoly parties are war parties but with minuscule differences, this is where the amerikan Imperium resides. for now.

i had a precocious (and wealthy) neighbor when i was in eighth grade, and she'd play the fugs for us in her basement small sound studio, but mainly for their 'dirty' lyrics. but not this one.
; )

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dystopian's picture

@wendy davis you were cool, that is all there is to it. Smile They were blacked out from the radio right early on so it was a strict word-of-mouth following, of the cool people. Wink They were great, way ahead of their time, so creative, artistic, funny, and hip. CIA Man is another good one.

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

wendy davis's picture

@dystopian

so let's bring their original, even though...

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3V98lnJX1k]

and look: the US elected herbert walker bush...president! and now it's the D team who love the CIA!

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wendy davis's picture

have the current Outrage of the Week op-eds (ilhan omar), but in his February 15, 2019 'Pence and the Benjamins: 'An Eternity of Anti-Semitism', February 15 counterpunch, chris floyd digs deeper, echoing my fears of evangelical pence. whether he's aware of it or not, he's channeling christians united for israel (cufi, although he seems to have dialed down his polemics by now), pastor john hagee. he does offer caveats, but:

"Mike Pence believes, with all his heart, that every single Jewish person on the planet will — and should — burn in the ovens of Hell for all eternity … unless they stop being Jews and accept his own version of the Christian faith. There is no equivocating here. Pence is a passionate evangelical Christian. He believes that the Bible is the literal word of God, and that his sect’s interpretation of that word is true, correct and everlasting. I know his type of Christianity very well, for I was raised in it. There can be no question what Mike Pence, and millions of Americans, believe about Jews and their ultimate fate.

So let’s continue. Mike Pence not only believes that every Jew alive today will be tortured and tormented for eternity, but that every single Jew since the time of Jesus Christ is right now burning and writhing in undying flames — unless, again, they had cast off their cursed Jewishness at some point and become Christians.

Thus Mike Pence believes that every Jewish person killed in the Holocaust — with a few exceptions (see note 2 below) — is even now, right this minute, screaming madly with unbearable pain as they feel the fire searing into their flesh: fire that never stops lashing, flesh that never burns away. Mike Pence believes that almost all of the Jews killed in the Holocaust went directly from the torment of the gas chamber or the shooting pit into the fires of Hell, where they are even now undergoing tortures and abominations far worse than the Nazis could ever inflict.", etc.

CUFI was taking the acid dream of the book of Revelations to mean: 'Until Israel stands alone, christ won't return to planet earth, and jews need to repent and turn to christ or roast in hell for eternity'. (fundie Xianist eschatology) a true believer pence is, where his president believes in nothing save himself, and his Power.

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wendy davis's picture

tonight's closing son will be by john gorka. the lyrics: “the arc of the moral universe is long...but it bends toward justice”...the earliest quote i could find was theodore parker, 1918, popularized by MLK, jr. my question is: does it, will it? how long is... long? anyway, thanks to those of you who get this is Big Deal. g' night.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWQeyy8hfqg]

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dystopian's picture

Pence and his ilk are evil. He is worse than Trump. Seemed he was the way Trump got the support of the fundies and gelicals. And a good insurance policy with a bank account. Pence really thinks it is power from above that is why he is there. Absolutely delusionaly nuts.

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

wendy davis's picture

@dystopian

the willies, as do all Xianists. to say the truth, i hadn't known any up close and personal until i'd spent time w/ some of mr. wd's family and learned not only of their hubristic personal beliefs (their interpretations of 'this is what the bible says!'), but their social politics, parenting beliefs (spare the rod, as w/ james dobbins) and their political politics. well, i won't bore you w/ the details.

but True Believers of pence's sort have no doubts that they are correct in the wisdom of their beliefs. wonder how it goes for pence in regard to sucking up to bibi? oh: love the sinner, hate the sin? i expect so, and maybe he loves death bed conversions.

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Fionnsboy's picture

--I once again lay at the door of Clinton INC, the DNC, and a compliant, corporatist media. It was HER TURN, dammit! Knowing she was loathed (and rightly so) for her warmongering, lies, lust for power, lack of integrity, flip-flopping, Wall Street ass-kissing, etc etc etc, they egged Trump on and ordered the media to legitimatize-- "We know she's abhorred," they must have said, "but she can't be abhorred that much!" WRONG!

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Semper ubi sub ubi

wendy davis's picture

@Fionnsboy

Yes! though i'm not altogether sure that's the main reason she lost, but in any event i dug up:
'Hillary Clinton: “If I’m President, We Will Attack Iran… We Would be Able to Totally Obliterate Them.”, By Stephen Lendman, global research, july 2015

but boy howdy, did the D team blame her loss on wikileaks publishing the dlc and podesta emails! and goddam, here it comes again, just when i'd thought it was all settled.

Roger Stone: Mueller discloses evidence Trump adviser communicated with Wikileaks; Stone says evidence is ‘innocuous Twitter direct messages’ that prove ‘absolutely nothing’, the guardian (no author claimed, not even luke harding...)

the whole piece is a true mind fuck of lies, as with mueller's contentions. wikileaks on twitter has answered it once again as to the 'communications' with stone the serial liar/ego-tripper. marcy wheeler & co. must be ecstatic.

gotta go make some toast; i'll be back.

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Pluto's Republic's picture

@wendy davis

Really. It's pure stupidity. They couldn't decode the written statement of the Mueller team into their native language, whatever that is.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Pluto's Republic's picture

@wendy davis

He wrote this back in August and pretty much solved the case:

G2 never made any serious effort to repudiate the widely held belief that he was with Russian intelligence until his final communication to the world — seven months after his debut — by which time all but a few skeptical researchers took it for granted that he was Russian. Furthermore, from the moment G2 appeared, he went out of his way to plant clues that he was with Russian intelligence; including, but by no means restricted to, ending the second sentence in his first communication to the world with a Russian emoticon and inserting the name of the founder of the Soviet Secret police, in the Russian alphabet no less, into files mere minutes before releasing them.

Mueller also accuses his 12 indicted Russians of using the G2 identity to pass documents to WikiLeaks. Yet Mueller somehow neglected to mention that G2 himself boasted of being a WikiLeaks source several times; starting, once again, with his very first blog post.

Mueller’s silence about G2’s multiple confessions to one of his indictment’s main allegations, though contemptible, is at least understandable. Publicly confessing to being a WikiLeaks source is, after all, the very last thing a Russian spy who secretly was one would do. Mueller couldn’t mention G2’s confessions for the same reason he couldn’t mention all the evidence G2 planted to give the impression that he was a Russian spy. Both are obviously self-refuting and, hence, make a mockery of Mueller’s allegations, which he made knowing he had no power to extradite any of the 12 indicted Russians and, hence, that none of his misrepresentations will be exposed in court.

The clues G2 left connecting himself to Russian espionage and his repeated shout-outs to Julian Assange are as flagrant and gratuitous as they are self-refuting. And, they are equally inexplicable unless the truth is the exact opposite of what Mueller alleges and G2 was created to poison Assange’s reputation by falsely making him out to be in league with Vladimir Putin.

But, the other two important items we’ve seen (and about which Mueller remains silent) — G2’s possessing the Trump opposition research file and Assange’s June 12 announcement that Clinton campaign emails were forthcoming — together shed a new and revealing light on the purpose behind that June 14 Washington Post story that first brought the now infamous Russian hack of the DNC to the world’s attention.

Stone has a completely novel idea of who G2 is. And so do I. I think a few more surprises and crazy coincidences are about to be discovered.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
wendy davis's picture

@Pluto's Republic @Pluto's Republic

and can't possibly read something 8 yards long now, so i'm glad you've pasted in the cliffs notes.

but this section is why mueller won't find what he wants to find, as someone here at noted months ago, no?

"CrowdStrike Enacts a “Public Relations Strategy”

The Post got most of its story directly from the DNC’s tech firm, CrowdStrike. The firm’s founder and chief technology officer Dmitri Alperovitch and president Shawn Henry are quoted extensively. Before cashing in and joining CrowdStrike, Henry was the FBI’s head of cybersecurity, promoted to that position by none other than Robert Mueller. Alperovitch, though Russian by birth, is a member of the anti-Russian and pro-Ukrainian Atlantic Council."

so...what are your guesses? oh, those russians use emojis; that's how luke harding can spot one a mile away.

but let me add this; it seems lavrov and some europeans really dinnae care for pence's gunboat diplomacy in munich (gods, do i love sergei lavrov):

West ‘starts listening to Russia’: Lavrov says Europeans want better relations after Munich talks’, RT 16 Feb, 2019 (w/ photo: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov meets EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on February 15, 2019

“Europeans want relations with Moscow to go back to normal, Russian FM Sergey Lavrov said after a long chain of meetings in Munich, Germany, adding that Europe is increasingly ready to listen to what the Kremlin has to say.

The Russian delegation has held more than two dozens of “nonstop negotiations” with foreign officials over just two days at the Munich Security Conference. Those included even some European nations that talk hard on the Kremlin publicly, Lavrov told journalists after meeting with his Japanese counterpart, Taro Kono.

“All talks were constructive, including those with the politicians, who otherwise make tough statements about Russia when they hold speeches in the European Parliament or elsewhere,” the senior Russian diplomat said.

‘Everyone assured us that they want normalization of relations.’

Speaking on his general impression of the conference so far, Lavrov noted that the international community “has started to listen more” to Russia, adding that the hard work Moscow was doing over the past years has apparently paid off. “We are patient people … in a strategic sense,” the minister said.

Lavrov believes that Washington’s continued attempts to impose its will on other nations “threaten the international trade system” and have already backfired by fueling the “feeling of uncertainty” in the world. The US’ “unilateral coercive measures … its attempts to apply their legislation extraterritorially and force other nations to comply with the laws of a foreign state” only contribute to “confusion” among its own allies, he said.
The minister reasoned that “all sensible powers” should come to the negotiating table and develop inclusive formats that would take into account the interests of all major players. However, Washington apparently struggles to accept the multipolar world, he believes.”

but that defense news re: internal rifts in nato in munich, not so much worth reading.

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Pluto's Republic's picture

@wendy davis

I, and I think the VIPS, have them in tight focus. The motive and opportunity is certainly there and explains the missing forensics at the DNC. I think the key players at the DNC knew she was going to lose in the General well before the nominating convention in late July. Some of the stolen emails suggest they saw it coming as far back as February 2016. And the political decisions they made were crazy and clearly coerced.

There was also desperate risk-taking at the FBI and the DOJ. In fact, I think the purpose of the September FISA warrants was not for investigation at all. They were part of the cover-up for what they had already done beginning in early summer. The the Dirty Dossier was actually a frame-up and cover-up operation, and not opposition research. The Five Eyes were all involved to some extent. It's starting to look like the UK was likely behind the desperate attack on the Skripals. No one else had the opportunity, motive, and the home-brewed nerve agent. (I wonder what happened to those folks. It can't be good.) It was an extraordinary moment in history. In the end, they are all cowardly — that's on display right now.

However, all that being said, I think xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.

[Edit] I'm taking out my speculation. I just scared myself to death. I felt like a character in Three Days of the Condor.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
wendy davis's picture

@Pluto's Republic

and memory, amigo. but only The Shadow Knows...aka craig murray. hadn't take the time to go to his site to see his reactions on the new Mueller Stone/wikileaks revelations, not the new Integrity Initiative horse-hockey. sorry to be so in haste, but it's time to make mr. wd some dinner.

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wendy davis's picture

@Pluto's Republic

may you find peace before sleep in meditation. speculative belief is not only yours, but i may lack the imagination. i did peek into craig murray's site, and found:

'Craig is in Jacobabad 1483
8 Feb, 2019 in Uncategorized by craigmurray.org.uk
Just a quick note to say that Craig has been in contact and he is fine but currently in Jacobabad, Pakistan with no reliable internet access.
He knows some people have been wondering if all is okay, so this post is just to confirm all’s well and he’ll be back online when he can.
Site Admin.'

dunno why he's there, but whose coverage do we trust? not this, imo...'India considers action against Pakistan after suicide attack'

India's foreign ministry said US supports New Delhi's right to self-defence against cross-border attacks.' narendra genoicidaire modi (jammu province?), but kashmir has long been the elephant if the room between two nuclear powers, and i'd imagine with the charm offensive led by tulsi the gabbard, more india than pakistan. that's my quasi-CP thinking, anyhoo.

sleep well, dream well if you can, amigo. and when you consider emigrating to an actual democracy, where do you imagine?

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Pluto's Republic's picture

@wendy davis

It's an Oracle. Pakistan is exactly what I was thinking. And extortion.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
wendy davis's picture

@Pluto's Republic

meaning, but at any rate, i'm frothing at the mouth again at thug modi's reaction to 'the suicide bombing'. i'm writing it up, but the thing is: the nuclear clock just clicked even closer to midnight. slow-going, but after a rest for mine eyes, mind...i my finish it this afternoon. it's complicated issue, though: kashmir, and i'm not sure how many here know about it. at the cafe, yes, as i've written about it (and modi) a lot, but w/ my crap memory and all...well, yanno.

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Pluto's Republic's picture

@wendy davis

Me too. Same topic. Different people. Different place.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
wendy davis's picture

@Pluto's Republic

and the dude in background practicing his tai chi. ach, it's a tome, but it's almost ready to post. been working on it since first light, 7 degrees brrrrr.

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Pluto's Republic's picture

I see little bits and pieces of the world's changing attitudes toward the US, but this was a trade-show sized version. "World Peace." What an unfortunate topic for the US to pretend to push.

Finnian Cunningham was lucid, as always, in the telling of this difficult story, but in the end I think everyone exposed to our new Post Modern American diplomacy had the same thought I did: "This is frickin' dumpster fire."

Finally, finally(!) the ties are unraveling between the global lackey states and the US. What were they waiting for? Endlessly kissing America's ass is the opposite of standing on their own two feet and acting in the best interests of their people. They're lucky the American people showed them who we really are by electing Trump, so they could be shocked to their senses! We could have sent in yet another stealth psychopath, like Hillary. She could have hand-delivered the chaos to their front door before they woke up and remembered they were supposed to be sovereign nations. (Hope they can remember how to do that.)

Anyway, if we are going to ever get control of our rogue war monster wannabe Empire, the rest of the world needs to stand firm for what is right and ethical. Otherwise, we're all gonna die. It does look like that is starting to happen. Most leaders have become so tone deaf in this Neoliberal shitstorm of self-important arrogance, they have no idea what is going on with their people. I think they are in for a big surprise.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Pluto's Republic's picture

@Pluto's Republic

...at the failed Iran-hate conference — Lindsey Graham showed up in Germany to attend the 2019 Munich Security Conference. He wanted to personally announce that the Islamic State group is destroyed in Syria. Now, the US is looking for allies to step in and help stabilize the region, he told them.

I can just imagine the look of dismay on the faces of the European leaders who pulled out of the Poland Summit to avoid this headache. Heh.

Speaking at the 2019 Munich Security Conference, Graham told the assembly of world leaders that the U.S. chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, “would be coming to some of you in this room, and he will be asking for a contribution of forces to stabilize the region, post destruction of the caliphate.”

Graham called for a lean, joint military presence to enforce a safe zone that would protect American-backed Kurdish forces in Syria from Turkey, watch for the reemergence of ISIS and buy time for a Syria peace process in Geneva.

He echoed President Donald Trump’s recent announcements that ISIS — through the work of a multinational coalition — is all but defeated. The militant group holds only “a couple of kilometers and one town,” Graham said.

“The Islamic State in Syria and Iraq is dead. It has been destroyed.” He congratulated Trump for “pouring on the gas in the last month or so. To every nation who’s contributed to this effort, God bless you.”

Drink!

“I am hoping that President Trump will be coming to you and you will say, ‘yes,’ and in return the capability we have that’s unique to the United States will still be in the fight,” he said.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
wendy davis's picture

@Pluto's Republic

kee-rikey. 'isis only owns one small corridor' (or whatever), but a lean and mean combined force' needs to keep (US supported) YPG safe from turkey to buy time...for the peace process in geneva. yeppers, amerika really wants peace in syria, yanno? if they can federalize it, and shut down pipelines line nordstream II.

but on the defense news sidebar is: ‘NATO’s internal rifts emerge as powerful subtext at Munich forum’, Sebastian Sprenger

that might be an interesting read, esp. as the (easily passed) house Defense of Nato bill was predicated on the NYT whisper campaign of anonymous pentagon aides saying that DT can't stop talking about 'getting out of Nato'.

oh, an when i'd seen this comment, i'd tried to find out more about munich, all i could drum up was 'photos of arriving dignitaries'. but RT has some coverage of it now: 'Munich brawl: Pence clashes with Merkel and Mogherini over Iran deal, Russian pipeline'

file under: O.M.G. (even before reading)

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wendy davis's picture

@wendy davis

pence went for broke:

"The sanctions imposed on Tehran by the US prompted the EU to devise a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), a plan to protect European companies dealing with Iran. Speaking in Warsaw, Poland before heading to Munich, Pence warned that this "ill-advised step" will create "more distance" between Washington and the EU.

"They call this scheme a Special Purpose Vehicle. We call it an effort to break American sanctions against Iran's murderous revolutionary regime."

EU's foreign affairs chief, Federica Mogherini, was unfazed by Pence's strong-worded warning. After meeting Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Munich on Friday, she reiterated that the JCPOA "continues to deliver on its objectives and is crucial for both regional and global security," her office stated.

In his fiery tirade, the vice president also called on the EU to join Washington in openly backing Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, who proclaimed himself to be the 'interim president' last month. He also warned NATO allies that the US "will not stand idly by" as they buy weapons from "our adversaries," hinting at the major contract recently signed between Turkey and Moscow for S-400 air defense missile systems.

Pence lashed out at the construction of Nord Stream 2, an underwater Baltic Sea pipeline that will supply Russian gas to Germany. The US "commends" those nations that had "taken a stand" against the project, and urges "others to do the same," Pence stated.

US officials, joined by the Baltic States and nations like Ukraine and Poland, had been arguing that the new pipeline goes against EU interests and will deprive Kiev of collecting lucrative revenue from the transit of Russian gas to Europe. These claims have been strongly rebuffed by Berlin.

It is "right and important" for Europe to "maintain sovereignty" over its energy policy and to have a variety of gas suppliers, Chancellor Angela Merkel said shortly before Mike Pence delivered his remarks. Defending the construction of the pipeline with Russia, she said that pushing Moscow out of the European gas market would be a "wrong strategic signal."

"If during the Cold War... we imported large amounts of Russian gas, I don't know why times should be so much worse today that we can say: Russia remains a partner." [go, mutti merkel, even it's by way of self-interest!)

"Geostrategically, Europe can't have an interest in cutting off all relations with Russia," the German leader stated."

munich musta been some kinda fun, yes?

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Pluto's Republic's picture

@wendy davis

Cover it live.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
wendy davis's picture

@Pluto's Republic

; )

okey-dokey: IF they give me the Jet Pack they'd promised us decades ago! but no; all the bucks went into military hardware instead. what the fuck good is DARPA, anyway? oh. wait.

but myownself, i did go to davos-klosters again this year, speaking of fun times. ; )

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wendy davis's picture

@Pluto's Republic

the lacky states pushing back in this case, but NOT in the case of maduro/guaido, such a tragedy. but he's still alive, and the guaido/trump/bolton/abams/pompeo coup-meisters haven't won...yet, at least. but RT's (or some site) reporting that ivan duque went to washington yesterday (iirc) to receive his next orders from the T admin.

how fun you've mentioned 'dumpster fire'. although coverage has been sparse (non-existent at leftish counterpunch), i almost swear i'd heard that phrase.

but i agree that we're lucky for so many reasons that trump was elected, not 'stealth psychopath clinton' and is too loose a cannon to even considering thinking before he presses his Twitter finger, rather that being coy like obomba and the Red Queen.

as an erstwhile commenter at the café was want to ask and answer: 'who will stop amerika? those who can.'

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Pluto's Republic's picture

@wendy davis

...somewhere in passing. Once I had seen those two words, I could not imagine a better image for Western Diplomacy. So, I paid the meme forward. Heh.

And then there's this:

WikiLeaks director Julian Assange said on Monday that his anti-secrecy organization never provided election information to Donald Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone or to Jerome Corsi, a conservative author and conspiracy advocate.

...which verifies the fact that Mueller is running out the clock wasting everyone's time.

Lot's of odd news being dumped today....

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
wendy davis's picture

@Pluto's Republic

might have seen it and not been gaslightng myself again.

now that was dated jan 7, wtf? assange has no way to communicate online, hasn't for eons. dunno who runs his personal account, but some pissant did tweet gleefully (on the mueller claims) on that account that 'he'd been lying the whole time.

but on wikileaks' account:

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wendy davis's picture

especially that the ICJ seems to have smacked the US in the face already; there's a lot more that i won't bring, but as all of it seemed confusing at the start, i may bring a bit of other coverage that i'd found elsewhere trying to make sense of it...and also because i don't trust al jazeera news altogether:

ICJ rules Iran has legal claim to $2bn in assets frozen by US; Tehran says it owns $2bn in frozen assets, but US court ruled cash must be given to victims of attacks blamed on Iran', aljazeera.com, 13 Feb 2019

"The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ruled that Iran has the right to recover two billion dollars in frozen assets in the United States.

In a ruling issued on Wednesday, the 15-member court in The Hague said Tehran can proceed with a bid to recover the assets, which Washington says must go to victims of attacks blamed on Iran.

Judges rejected US claims the case should be thrown out because Iran had "unclean hands" from alleged links to "terrorism", and the international tribunal in The Hague did not have jurisdiction over the lawsuit.

Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, chief judge at the ICJ, said the court "unanimously rejects the preliminary objections to admissibility raised by the United States of America".

The court also "finds that it has jurisdiction" to rule on the case, which was filed by Iran in 2016, Yusuf said at the end of an hour-long reading of the judgment.

The court will hold further hearings on the case.

Wednesday's ruling threatens to further escalate the dispute between the rivals and comes after a decision in October when the same court ordered the US to lift sanctions on humanitarian goods destined for Iran.

Tensions between Tehran and Washington are already high around the anniversary of the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Republic's revolution, as well as Wednesday's Middle East summit in Poland, which observers say is aimed at isolating Iran.

In 2016, the US Supreme Court ruled Iran must give the cash to American survivors and relatives of victims of attacks, including the 1983 bombing of US Marine barracks in Beirut.

Iran said the US decision breached the 1955 Treaty of Amity with the US, an agreement signed before Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution severed relations between the former allies.

The ICJ is the top court of the United Nations and was set up after World War II to resolve disputes between member states. Its rulings are binding and cannot be appealed, but it has no means of enforcing them."

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wendy davis's picture

@wendy davis

ruling by the ICJ from yemenpress.org (in part):

"The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ruled that Iran can proceed with a legal action to recover billions of dollars in frozen assets that the United States says must be paid to purported American survivors and relatives of victims of attacks spuriously blamed on the Islamic Republic.

On Wednesday, judges at the Hague-based tribunal dismissed Washington’s allegations the case should be thrown out, and that the court did not have jurisdiction in the lawsuit.

The US Supreme Court ruled in April 2016 that the $2 billion in frozen Iranian assets must go to victims of attacks, including the 1983 bombing of US Marine barracks in Beirut, without corroborating its allegations of Iran’s involvement.

Last October, Iran won a legal victory when the ICJ ruled that the US must lift sanctions against Tehran targeting humanitarian goods such as food and medicine.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in response that Washington was pulling out of the 1955 treaty with Tehran.

US National Security Adviser John Bolton also announced that his country was leaving the 1961 Optional Protocol and Dispute Resolution to the Vienna Convention, which establishes the ICJ as the “compulsory jurisdiction” for disputes unless nations decide to settle them elsewhere."

remember, too, that bolton had been threatening judges at the hague, and one quit to get his story out in the public?

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