2019-06-24: News Headlines

Stephen Lendman (2019-06-24). Iran and the Dangers of Nuclear War. The Risk of a US Preemptive War. globalresearch.ca Pompeo, Bolton, and their hardline underlings seek coalition partners of the willing for confronting Iran militarily. More on this below. | Sunday on NBC News Meet the Press, Trump made a rare candid statement, saying "(i)f it was up to (John …

Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (2019-06-24). Memo to the President: Is Pompeo's Iran Agenda the Same as Yours? globalresearch.ca UPDATED: VIPS says its direct experience with Mike Pompeo leaves them with strong doubt regarding his trustworthiness on issues of consequence to the President and the nation. | DATE: June 21, 2019 | MEMORANDUM FOR: The President. | FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for …

Mel Gurtov (2019-06-24). Iran—Who and Where is The Threat? counterpunch.org The official US narrative on Iran is that it is an escalating threat to "peace and security" in the Middle East and must be stopped. Step by step, with Mike Pompeo and John Bolton—two war maniacs—taking the lead, the Trump administration has sought to destabilize Iran with sanctions, if possible bring about regime change, and More

Howard Lisnoff (2019-06-24). "Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran" counterpunch.org Was the U.S. spy drone that Iran shot down On Thursday, June 20th, in international airspace, or was it over Iranian airspace as Iran insists? Flight coordinates in strategic locations are easy to access, but that misses the point altogether. Here is the point: The U.S. has acted belligerently and violated the most basic tenets of More

WSWS (2019-06-24). Punitive fines threaten whistleblower Chelsea Manning with bankruptcy. wsws.org Manning is being held in contempt and fined $500 a day for her refusal to testify before a grand jury aimed at concocting charges against Julian Assange and WikiLeaks.

RT (2019-06-24). Insider exposes Google's efforts to influence 2020 election against Trump. rt.com Google interferes with search results, censors conservative views and even directly manipulates facts in the name of 'fairness', according to internal video and documents a whistleblower has turned over to Project Veritas.

BACFJA (2019-06-24). #Candles for Assange Independence Action @ Mime Troupe Delores Park. indybay.org Delores Park, San Francisco | Dolores St. & 19th St. | San Francisco, CA 94114…

Staff (2019-06-24). Ola Bini, Privacy Activist and Julian Assange Friend, Speaks Out After Release from Ecuadorian Jail. democracynow.org Last week, an Ecuadorian judge ordered the release of Swedish programmer and data privacy activist Ola Bini, who spent more than two months in jail without charge. Bini is a friend of WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange. He was arrested in Quito on the same day that Assange was forcibly taken by British authorities from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. We speak with Ola Bini in Quito, where he remains under investigation for allegedly hacking the Ecuadorian government. He says, "Through the whole process, 70 days in prison, and all of the days since, we've been asking the prosecution to tell us what it is I have don…

commondreams (2019-06-24). Supreme Court Rules Against Government Transparency in Contracts with Private Businesses. commondreams.org ______________________________…

plenglish (2019-06-24). Supreme Court to Postpone Analysis of Lula's Habeas Corpus. plenglish.com 24 de junio de 2019, 15: 14Brasilia, June 24 (Prensa Latina) The Federal Supreme Court (STF) will postpone the habeas corpus trial for the freedom of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, scheduled for Tuesday, according to what journalist Monica Bergamo published tMonday in the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper.

Staff (2019-06-24). Justices Side With Business, Government in Information Fight. truthdig.com WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court sided with businesses and the U.S. government Monday in a ruling about the public's access to information, telling a South Dakota newspaper it can't get the data it was seeking. | The justices ruled against the Argus Leader, which is owned by USA Today publisher Gannett and is the largest newspaper in South Dakota. The paper was seeking to learn how much money goes annually to every store nationwide that participates in the government's $65 billion-a-year Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, called S…

teleSUR (2019-06-24). Iran Fends Off US Cyber Attacks on Rocket Systems. telesurenglish.net The U.S. has increased their cyber warfare against the Iranian government since Republican President Donald Trump was elected in late 2016. | RELATED: | Iraq Seeks Air Defense Cooperation With Iran After Downing of US Drone | On Thursday, however, the Pentagon launched a long-planned cyber-attack, Yahoo News said, citing former intelligence officials. The cyber strike disabled Iranian rocket launch systems, the Washington Post said on Saturday. | Iranian Information Mi…

Staff (2019-06-23). Yemeni Rebels Strike Saudi Airport Ahead of Pompeo Visit. truthdig.com One person dies in attack by the Iranian-allied Houthis as the secretary of state heads to the region to talk to Saudis and UAE about Iran.

WSWS (2019-06-22). Facebook blocks ad for PES meeting in Paris to defend Assange. wsws.org The Parti de l'égalité socialiste calls on its supporters to share its material and support the freeing of journalist Julian Assange and whistleblower Chelsea Manning.

WSWS (2019-06-22). The Guardian's direct collusion with media censorship by secret services exposed. wsws.org The facts provide damning proof of the Guardian's total integration into the propaganda wing of the Ministry of Defence following its involvement in the WikiLeaks and Snowden files releases.

Staff (2019-06-22). Trump's Persecution of His Investigators Follows Authoritarian Playbook. truthout.org The Justice Department's decision to interview top CIA officials as part of an effort to investigate the reasons for looking into Russian interference in the 2016 election will alarm people who understand President Trump in the broader international context of authoritarians' recent successes in undermining democratic governments. | In functioning democracies with independent prose…

Staff (2019-06-21). Trump Pulls Back from Iran Attack as Bolton & Pompeo Continue to Push for War. democracynow.org After threatening to strike Iran in retaliation for shooting down an unmanned U.S. drone, President Trump reportedly approved, and then abruptly called off, military strikes. The move came after the operation was already underway in its initial stages, with warships and planes already being put into position. We go to Tehran to get response from Mohammad Marandi, a professor at the University of Tehran who was part of the nuclear deal negotiations in 2015. We also speak with CUNY professor and historian Ervand Abrahamian, author of several books about Iran. Whether or not Trump wants war with Iran doesn't ultimat…

Ian Goodrum (2019-06-21). Pompeo ready to undermine any country he doesn't like. peoplesworld.org

Staff (2019-06-21). War Survivor Ilhan Omar Makes Impassioned Case Against Iran Attack. truthout.org Citing her firsthand experience of the horrors of military conflict as a refugee from war-torn Somalia, Rep. Ilhan Omar Thursday night made an impassioned case against war with Iran amid reports that President Donald Trump approved — then abruptly called off — airstrikes on a number of Iranian targets. | "Mr. President, as a survivor of war, I want to tell you: going to war does not make you strong. It makes you weak," Omar wrote in a series of tweets. "Send…

Staff (2019-06-21). Trump May Stumble Into War With Iran Over Belligerent, Incoherent Policies. therealnews.com The Nation's new National Correspondent Jeet Heer sees the mix of warhawks Bolton and Pompeo, complicit Republicans, meek Democrats, and an erratic president as volatile and dangerous…

Media Lens (2019-06-21). The Shaving Kit: Manufacturing The Julian Assange Witch-Hunt. dissidentvoice.org Last week, UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid signed the US extradition request to hand over Julian Assange, who is charged with 18 counts of violating the US Espionage Act. Assange's immediate fate now lies in the hands of the British justice system. Javid 'consistently voted for use of UK military forces in combat operations overseas', …

RT (2019-06-21). 11-hour live reading of Mueller report in DC keeps the dream alive for collusion cultists. rt.com A Washington DC theatre is bringing the Mueller report to life for the #Resistance faithful, inviting hundreds of D-list politicians and actors to read the entire second volume over a marathon 11-hour session.

ACLU (2019-06-20). Supreme Court Undermines Religious Neutrality In Permitting Giant Governmental Cross. aclu.org The decision ignores our constitutional commitment to official religious neutrality. | Today, the Supreme Court announced that a governmental display of a 40-foot-tall Latin cross as a war memorial for all veterans does not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The decision ignores our constitutional commitment to official religious neutrality and is a slap in the face to non-Christian veterans.

susan_p (2019-06-20). Centrists within US Democrats fear a leftward political slide if Trump impeached. greenleft.org.au No matter how reprehensible one considers former US president Bill Clinton's actions to have been in the Monica Lewinsky case, they dwarf in comparison to the actions of Donald Trump. The Republicans impeached Clinton and then moved to remove him from office. Hasn't Pelosi heard of tit for tat? | Similarly, Mitch McConnell, Republican leader of the Senate, has stated that if a Supreme Court vacancy occurs in 2020, the Republicans would fill it — the exact opposite of what the party did in 2016, with the argument that regardless of who former president Barack Obama chose to fill the court's vacancy, let vote…

Nafeez Ahmed (2019-06-20). Veteran Navy Officer Exposes Flaws in US Version of Iran Oil Tanker Narrative. mintpressnews.com According to Dr Gwynne Dyer who has served as a Reserve Naval Officer in the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve, US Naval Reserve, and British Royal Navy Reserve for a total of 17 years, alleged US intelligence about the incident does not add up…

Jimmysllama (2019-06-19). UN Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer Becomes One of Assange's Most Vocal Advocates. mintpressnews.com "Here [in Assange's case] we are not speaking of prosecution but of persecution. That means that judicial power, institutions and proceedings are being deliberately abused for ulterior motives." — Nils Melzer, UN Rapporteur on Torture…

Brian Becker (2019-06-19). Exposed: The Pentagon's cyberwar against Russia. liberationnews.org Five years before Robert Mueller was appointed Special Counsel to investigate the allegation that Russia interfered in the 2016 election and had conspired with the Trump campaign, the Pentagon had been waging secret cyberattacks against Russia's electrical grid.

Staff (2019-06-18). Julian Assange Indictment "Criminalizes the News Gathering Process," Says Pentagon Papers Lawyer. democracynow.org A London judge has ordered WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to appear before a court in February 2020 to face a full extradition hearing. Prosecutors in the U.S. have indicted Assange on 18 counts, including 17 violations of the Espionage Act. This is the first-ever case of a journalist or publisher being indicted under the World War I-era law. Assange said that his life was "effectively at stake" if the U.K. honors a U.S. request for his extradition. Assange is currently serving a 50-week sentence in London's Belmarsh Prison for skipping bail in 2012. We speak with James Goodale, former general counsel of The Ne…

Staff (2019-06-14). Vijay Prashad: U.S. Rushes to Blame Iran for Tanker Attacks as Much of World Pushes for Diplomacy. democracynow.org Tensions between the U.S. and Iran are again ratcheting up as the Trump administration accused Iran of orchestrating an attack Thursday on Japanese and Norwegian oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman. Iran denied any involvement and accused the Trump administration of trying to sabotage diplomacy. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo directly accused Iran of attacking the oil tankers, and the U.S. released video of what it claimed was Iran's Revolutionary Guard removing an unexploded mine from the side of the Japanese oil tanker that was attacked. However, the president of the Japanese company that owns the ship said it…

Staff (2019-06-14). Ola Bini Was Friends with Julian Assange. He Has Spent Two Months in Jail Without Charge in Ecuador. democracynow.org WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appeared before a magistrates' court in London Friday, saying his life was "effectively at stake" if the U.K. honors an extradition request from the United States, where he faces 17 counts of violating the Espionage Act. Meanwhile, a friend of Assange's, Swedish programmer and data privacy activist Ola Bini, is still in prison in Ecuador, after being arrested April 11, the same day Assange was forcibly taken by British authorities from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, and has been jailed ever since without charges. We speak with Vijay Prashad, director of Tricontinental: Institut…

Staff (2019-06-14). "Advocate": Israeli Attorney Lea Tsemel Reflects on Defending Palestinians Who Resist Occupation. democracynow.org Attorney Lea Tsemel has defended Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli courts for nearly half a century, insisting on their humanity and their right to a fair trial. Her work has earned her the scorn and reprobation of many Israelis, as well as death threats. A staunch critic of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, Tsemel has long argued that Palestinians who carry out politically motivated violence are freedom fighters, not "terrorists." In 1999, Tsemel won a landmark case in the Israeli Supreme Court, making it illegal for Israeli officials to torture detained Palestinians during interrogations. The docume…

Paul Dobson (2019-06-06). Venezuela: Pompeo Exposes Frustration Over Opposition Divisions as China, Russia Call for Non-Interference. venezuelanalysis.com The US Secretary of State claims efforts to unify the opposition have been "devilishly difficult."

Pamela Rafalow Grossman (2019-06-06). Chelsea Manning's Coming of Age. progressive.org In the new film "XY Chelsea," director Tim Travers Hawkins keeps the whistleblower's vulnerability front and center: "I hope she can flourish as a free woman."

CGTN America (2019-06-03). Why is the US targeting Huawei? cgtn.com Huawei is the world's largest provider of smartphones, but the U.S. is accusing it of spying on behalf of the Chinese government, increasing tensions ahead of a looming trade war. The Heat Podcast talks with senior correspondent Nathan King about the controversy.

Lucas Koerner and Ricardo Vaz (2019-05-01). Venezuelans Hold Rival Marches for Workers' Day as Pompeo Threatens 'Military Action'. venezuelanalysis.com Opposition leader Juan Guaido called for "escalating strikes" following Tuesday's failed military putsch.