2019-11-23: News Headlines

WSWS (2019-11-23). Interviews with Alice Springs workers and youth about public meeting to defend Assange and Manning. wsws.org Popular support in Alice Springs for imprisoned journalist Julian Assange is matched by a deep distrust of government authorities and the major parliamentary parties.

Max Blumenthal (2019-11-23). La CIA ayudó a convertir a la serie 'Jack Ryan' en una fantasía intolerante sobre un cambio de régimen en Venezuela. thegrayzone.com Un análisis del investigador Tom Secker revela cómo la fantasía de Amazon sobre un cambio de régimen, "Jack Ryan", fue…

Kevin Gosztola (2019-11-23). JFK Files: US Officials Plotted Destruction of Cuban Crops with Biological Agents. globalresearch.ca Today, November 22, 2019, we commemorate the passing of JFK. | Why was he killed? | He opposed the Deep State? | He was opposed to waging war on Cuba. | He favored dialogue rather than war with the Soviet Union. | *** | Several of …

Christopher Brauchli (2019-11-23). The Tale of the Whistleblower. commondreams.org Republican counsel Steve Castor listens to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) during a hearing with witness U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch before the House Intelligence Committee in the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill on November 15, 2019 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Joshua Roberts—Pool/Getty Images) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/views-article/thumbs/jim_jordan_0.jpg

Staff (2019-11-23). Documents: Giuliani, Pompeo Had Contacts Before Yovanovitch Ouster. truthdig.com WASHINGTON — Newly released documents show Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani was in contact with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the months before the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine was abruptly recalled. | The State Department released the documents Friday to the group American Oversight in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. They show that Pompeo talked with Giuliani on March 26 and March 29. | Austin Evers, executive director of American Oversight, said the documents reveal "a clear paper trail from Rudy Giuliani to the Oval Office to Secretary Pompeo to facilitate Giuliani's smear…

Joe Giambrone (2019-11-23). Ukrainegate 13,000 Times Worse Than You Think. dissidentvoice.org Did you know that Donald Trump had the State Department, USAID, NED, and the CIA fund and train Neo-Nazi, fascist militias to overthrow the government of Ukraine? These riot mobs, primarily Svoboda and Right Sector, stormed the capital, firebombed and shot the police, and destroyed democracy inside Ukraine. When the legitimately elected president was forced …

RT (2019-11-23). 'Sacred right to suck up to power': Pilger blasts 'cruel' media coverage of Julian Assange (VIDEO). rt.com In a wide-ranging dismantling of mainstream media reporting on Julian Assange, award-winning journalist John Pilger has blasted the Guardian for its coverage of the WikiLeaks founder. | Pilger took aim at a Guardian editorial published this week, which made the case for not extraditing the Australian to the US, where he could face 175 years behind bars for possession and dissemination of classified information. | The BAFTA award-winning documentary filmmaker h…

RT (2019-11-23). 'Sacred right to suck up to power': Pilger blasts 'cruel' media coverage of Julian Assange. rt.com In a wide-ranging dismantling of mainstream media reporting on Julian Assange, award-winning journalist John Pilger has blasted the Guardian for its coverage of the WikiLeaks founder. | Pilger took aim at a Guardian editorial published this week, which made the case for not extraditing the Australian to the US, where he could face 175 years behind bars for possession and dissemination of classified information. | The BAFTA award-winning documentary filmmaker h…

Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers (2019-11-22). New Report On FBI Spying Shows Need For Congressional Investigation. dissidentvoice.org Church Committee hearing. The Frank Church Papers, Special Collections and Archives, Boise State University. Clearing the FOG (forces of greed) hosts Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers interviewed Chip Gibbons, an expert on Constitutional Law and the legal and policy counsel for Defending Rights and Dissent about a recent right to protest victory in Washington, DC …

Staff (2019-11-22). Mystery Grows Over Withholding of Aid to Lebanon. truthdig.com WASHINGTON—The Trump administration is withholding more than $100 million in U.S. military assistance to Lebanon that has been approved by Congress and is favored by his national security team, an assertion of executive control of foreign aid that is similar to the delay in support for Ukraine at the center of the impeachment inquiry. | Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday congratulated Lebanon as the country marked its independence day but made no mention of the hold-up in aid that State Department and Pentagon officials have complained about for weeks. | It came up in impeachment testimony by David Ha…

Chip Gibbons (2019-11-22). New Report on FBI Spying Shows Need for Congressional Investigation. globalresearch.ca Clearing the FOG (forces of greed) hosts Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers interviewed Chip Gibbons, an expert on Constitutional Law and the legal and policy counsel for Defending Rights and Dissent about a recent right to protest victory in Washington, …

Max Blumenthal (2019-11-22). CIA helped shape 'Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan' series into bigoted Venezuela regime change fantasy. thegrayzone.com Analysis by researcher Tom Secker reveals how Amazon's regime change fantasy "Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan" was shaped by CIA and…

Andrew Levine (2019-11-22). What's Up With Trump and "The Deep State"? counterpunch.org Our Commander-in-Chief has attitudes that seldom rise to the level of ideas. For the most part, they are noxious and stupid, though the ones that descend from old fashioned "isolationism" are at least less lethal than the Cold War and empire-friendly attitudes that nearly all Democrats evince. Or rather they would be if anything ever More

Robert Fisk (2019-11-22). Pompeo Scorns the Law Because He's Never Had to Follow It. counterpunch.org Michael Pompeo — let's use his real name — was very revealing when he ripped up the latest bit of international law which didn't favour Donald Trump or Benjamin Netanyahu in the Middle East. Jewish colonies in the West Bank were not against international law. "Calling the establishment of civilian settlements inconsistent with international law More

Louis Proyect (2019-11-22). Douma, Chlorine Gas and Occam's Razor. counterpunch.org On June 21, 2019 I wrote an article for CounterPunch titled "The Douma Gas Attack: What's the Evidence It was a False Flag?" It was a critique of a self-described whistleblower's report that implicitly absolved Bashar al-Assad for the April 7, 2018 chlorine gas attack that left between forty and fifty people dead in Douma, a More

Edward Curtin (2019-11-22). Unspeakable Memories: The Day John Kennedy Died. globalresearch.ca Unless one is a government disinformation agent or is unaware of the enormous documentary evidence, one knows that it was the CIA that carried out JFK's murder. Confirmation of this fact keeps arriving in easily accessible forms for anyone interested in the truth.

Jefferson Morley (2019-11-22). JFK: What the CIA Hides. counterpunch.org My own JFK questions involve George Joannides, a decorated undercover officer who served as branch chief in the Miami station in 1963. He ran psychological warfare operations against Cuba. In 2003, I sued the CIA for Joannides' files. The lawsuit ended 15 years later in July 2018, when Judge Brett Kavanaugh, in his last opinion before ascending to the Supreme Court, tossed my case. Kavanaugh declared the agency deserved "deference upon deference" in its handling of Freedom of Information Act requests about JFK files. More

RT (2019-11-22). 'I want a Senate impeachment trial', Trump says in live TV phone call. rt.com President Donald Trump has said that he wants to be tried by the Senate if the House votes to impeach him. Trump told Fox & Friends that he would like to see impeachment democrats like "nut job" Adam Schiff testify. | While the Republican-controlled Senate could shoot down any articles of impeachment presented by the House, Trump told the Fox show by phone on Friday that he would like to see the inquiry against him go to a Senate trial. | "I want a trial," the president said. "I want to see Adam Schiff testify about the whistleblower — who's a fake whistleblower," he continued, referring to the intelligen…

RT (2019-11-22). Who needs a trial? Just impeach the guy already, says Hillary Clinton. rt.com If all the legalities of finding grounds for impeachment are making your head hurt, Hillary Clinton has got you covered. Trump "has committed impeachable crimes," she says, and needs to be booted already — no trial required. | The ongoing impeachment inquiry against US President Donald Trump is just the first step in a drawn-out process. After gathering information and grilling witnesses, the House Intelligence Committee will send a report to the House Judiciary Committee, which will then draft articles of impeachment accordingly. The house will then vote on these articles and Trump can only then be remo…

RT (2019-11-22). Stunning explosive bombshell! Impeachment-pushing CNN & MSNBC fire up the crowds with deluge of flashy words in hilarious VIDEO. rt.com The impeachment hearings against President Donald Trump are hardly the epitome of high drama — but count on the mainstream media to hype up the snoozefest, with every witness dropping "bombshells" and every statement "explosive." | How many times can you repeat a word before it loses all meaning? Throughout four days of witness testimony before the House Intelligence Committee this week, anchors at CNN and MSNBC did their best to strip all impact from the words "stunning," "explosive" and "bombshell" to describe the events on Capitol Hill. | SUPERCUT: Media trying their best to hype "Bombshell!" "Explosi…

Staff (2019-11-22). "In Defense of Julian Assange": Why WikiLeaks Founder's Case Threatens Press Freedom. democracynow.org This week Swedish prosecutors dropped an investigation into sexual assault allegations against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, stemming from 2010. Assange, who has always denied the allegations, took refuge inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London for over seven years to avoid extradition to Sweden on the charges. British authorities dragged him out of the Ecuadorian embassy in April and he has since been jailed in London's Belmarsh prison on charges related to skipping of bail in 2012, when he first entered the embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden over the now-dropped sexual assault charges. The United States…

Staff (2019-11-22). U.N. Rapporteur: Julian Assange Has Faced Psychological Torture; He Should Not Be Extradited to U.S. democracynow.org This week Swedish prosecutors dropped an investigation into sexual assault allegations against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, stemming from 2010. Assange, who has always denied the allegations, took refuge inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London for over seven years to avoid extradition to Sweden on the charges. British authorities dragged him out of the Ecuadorian embassy in April and he has since been jailed in London's Belmarsh prison on charges related to skipping of bail in 2012, when he first entered the embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden over the now-dropped sexual assault charges. The United States…

Binoy Kampmark (2019-11-22). Dropped Investigations: Julian Assange, Sex and Sweden. counterpunch.org Sex, the late Gore Vidal astutely observed, is politics, and not merely from the vantage point of those who wish to police it. In the case of whistleblowers, claims of aberrant, unlawful sex serves the purpose of diminishing credibility, tarring and feathering the individual and furnishing a distraction. Forget what was disclosed; focus, instead, on More

Jake Johnson, staff writer (2019-11-22). Pompeo Calls It 'Democracy' in Bolivia as Post-Coup Violence Grows and Fear of Civil War Intensifies. commondreams.org "The military has guns and a license to kill; we have nothing. Please, tell the international community to come here and stop this." | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/bolivia_2.jpg

RT (2019-11-22). IED, not IUD! Style mag issues correction after cocking up impeachment witness Vindman's injury story. rt.com Did a roadside bomb or a female contraceptive device cause star impeachment witness Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman's war wounds? One magazine was forced to clear things up as the internet laughed. | Vindman testified before the House Intelligence Committee's impeachment inquiry against President Trump on Wednesday. Weeks beforehand, GQ magazine profiled the National Security Council adviser, but must have mistook his military service for military cervix. | Initially, the article read that Vindman "has a Purple Heart for an IUD injury in Iraq." Evidently realizing that the colonel had been struck by an improvised e…

Eds. (2019-11-21). 'Orwellian absurdity': U.S. reversal on settlements draws international outrage. mronline.org U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Monday that the U.S. was softening its position on Israel's network of settlements in the occupied Palestinain territory, saying it was revoking the notion that settlements are illegal under international law—a notion recognized by the rest of the world as factual and true. | Source

RT (2019-11-21). Craig Murray on Assange: "Swedes should be ashamed of the way they've been played by the CIA" dissidentvoice.org "The Swedish people should be ashamed of the way they've been played by the CIA." | Craig Murray reacts to the prosecutor dropping the rape case against Julian Assange which he believes was a "political fit up from the start."

Neema Singh Guliani (2019-11-21). Congress Just Temporarily Extended the Government's Spying Powers. aclu.org Congress today temporarily extended the NSA's spying powers that time and again have been used to violate our rights. Disturbingly, this three-month extension was snuck into a broader funding bill, forcing members of Congress to choose between extending this program and causing a government shutdown. The extension is an unnecessary lifeline to spying programs that are plagued with compliance violations, have no proven intelligence value, and violate our rights. | Under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, one of the spying | powers extended, the government believes it has the right to collect our | personal inform…

pip.hinman (2019-11-21). Media continues its smear campaign against Lula. greenleft.org.au media lies Brian MierIssue 1246 Brazil stitch upNovember 21, 2019The Brazilian Supreme Court reversed a 2018 ruling on November 7, upholding the principle of innocent until proven guilty in the 1988 Constitution and declaring it illegal to jail defendants before their appeals' proces…

Fred_F (2019-11-21). Assange's case 'a threat to free speech worldwide'. greenleft.org.au civil liberties Jim McIlroyIssue 1246 Australia Julian Assange SydneyNovember 21, 2019Jennifer Robinson, a lawyer for imprisoned WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, believes the United States' applicatio…

Staff (2019-11-21). Julián Castro: Gordon Sondland's Testimony Is "Nail in the Coffin" of Trump's Defense. democracynow.org During Wednesday's impeachment hearing, U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland told lawmakers that he was ordered by Trump to pressure the Ukrainian government to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Sondland also acknowledged there was a quid pro quo tying U.S. military aid to investigations, and said that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence were aware of the Ukraine pressure campaign. Democratic presidential candidate Julián Castro joins us to discuss these latest developments in the impeachment inquiry, which he describes as "blockbuster testimony" that could serve…

RT (2019-11-20). Chemical Watchdog Manipulated Douma Attack Report — Whistleblower. dissidentvoice.org The head of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has signed an open letter urging his own watchdog to give two whistleblowers a platform at its next conference. They claim the #OPCW suppressed evidence when conducting a probe into an alleged #chemicalattack on the Syrian city of #Douma in April 2018.

Staff (2019-11-20). Headlines for November 20, 2019. democracynow.org 4 Key Witnesses Testify in Impeachment Hearings, Amnesty Says Iranian Security Forces Killed Over 100 Protesters, Bolivian Military Carries Out Second Massacre Against Morales Supporters, Senate Approves Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, U.N. Affirms It Still Considers Israeli Settlements Violation of International Law, Pentagon Says ISIS Is Rebuilding in Northern Syria, NYT: Navy SEALs Expected to Oust Gallagher, Despite Trump Restoring His Rank, Report: Mike Pompeo Planning to Resign as Secretary of State, Trump Administration Can Now Send Asylum Seekers to Guatemala, Sweden Drops Sexual Assault Investi…

Kim Petersen (2019-11-19). Saving Julian Assange is Saving Ourselves. dissidentvoice.org The United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner issued a statement based on special-rapporteur-on-torture Nils Melzer's fact-finding mission into the incarceration of WikiLeaks founder and publisher Julian Assange. The facts were a scathing indictment of those nations behind the targeting of Assange. 'The evidence is overwhelming and clear,' the expert said. 'Mr. Assange …

Staff (2019-11-19). Noura Erakat: U.S. Recognition of Israeli Settlements Is "Entrenchment of an Apartheid Regime" democracynow.org The Trump administration has announced it no longer views Israel settlements in the occupied West Bank to be a violation of international law, in another blow to possible Israel-Palestine peace negotiations. On Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced a reversal to the U.S. position, putting the U.S. at odds with the international community. A U.N. resolution in 2016 declared the settlements a "flagrant violation" of international law. Israel's embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed Pompeo's announcement as a historic day for Israel, but Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat condemned the…

James Risen (2019-11-18). Iran's Quds Force and the Muslim Brotherhood Considered an Alliance Against Saudi Arabia. theintercept.com An Iranian intelligence document describes a meeting between Iran's Quds Force and the Muslim Brotherhood in a Turkish hotel. It didn't go well.

Aaron Maté (2019-11-18). Whistleblower: OPCW suppressed Syria chemical evidence after US pressure. thegrayzone.com A second whistleblower from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has come forward to accuse top OPCW officials…

Betsy Reed (2019-11-18). The Story Behind the Iran Cables. theintercept.com The source said they wanted to "let the world know what Iran is doing in my country Iraq." They sent The Intercept 700 pages of secret intelligence reports from Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security, or MOIS, but never revealed their own identity. This kind of leak is unprecedented for Iran, a country with a highly secretive government and spy agencies that guard their confidential information zealously. | In the months after we received the intelligence reports, which are written in a highly bureaucratic and opaque style, we had them translated from Persian into English and then had the translations cross…

Tyler Durden (2019-11-18). Pompeo Issues Historic US Policy Reversal: Israeli West Bank Settlements "Not Illegal" theantimedia.com The Trump administration is reversing the official US stance on the illegality of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Staff (2019-11-18). Leaked Cables Show Depth of Iranian Influence in Iraq After U.S. Invasion "Shattered" the Country. democracynow.org An unprecedented leak of secret intelligence reports from inside the Iranian government has shed new light on how Iran has taken control of much of the Iraqi government in the wake of the 2003 U.S. invasion. The documents from Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security were leaked to The Intercept, which then partnered with The New York Times on reporting the story. The leak includes 700 pages of intelligence documents from 2014 to 2015. The documents reveal that a number of Iraqis who once worked with the CIA went on to work with Iranian intelligence. We speak with Murtaza Hussain, a reporter at The Intercept…

Aaron Maté (2019-11-16). Syria scandal: New whistleblower claims chemical weapons watchdog OPCW suppressed Douma evidence. thegrayzone.com A whistleblower from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is accusing top officials of tampering with evidence…

Christine Harrison (2019-11-16). Weekend Read: The importance of documenting racism in the White House. splcenter.org Earlier this week, the SPLC's Intelligence Project released the first two installments of an explosive four-part series examining more than 900 leaked emails between White House senior adviser Stephen Miller and an editor at the Breitbart News Network, a far-right website that its co-founder once dubbed the "platform for the alt-right."

Kate Ruane (2019-11-15). Whistleblowers Are Public Servants. We Must Protect Them. aclu.org President Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine spoke on the phone. The president insists the call was " perfect." Others are concerned that, during the call, the president intimated he would withhold financial aid appropriated to Ukraine unless the Ukrainian president agreed to investigate former-Vice President Joe Biden, a political rival of the president. | How do we even know about any of this? A…

Staff (2019-11-15). "This Is My Home": Meet the Lead Plaintiff in the Supreme Court Case to Save DACA. democracynow.org On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments from three lawsuits demanding the Trump administration preserve Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. The Obama-era program has granted protection from deportation and a work permit to at least 700,000 undocumented people who were brought to the United States as children. The court's conservative majority appeared poised to side with President Trump in ending the program, while some of the court's liberal justices seemed skeptical of Trump's efforts. In September 2017, the Trump administration announced it planned to terminate DACA, arguing the program…

Staff (2019-11-15). Justice for Rodney Reed: Millions Urge Texas to Halt Execution Amid New Evidence of His Innocence. democracynow.org The Supreme Court considers Friday whether to take up the case of Rodney Reed, an African-American death row prisoner in Texas who is scheduled to be executed in less than a week for a murder he says he did not commit. On Thursday, Reed's family braved the cold to camp outside the Supreme Court for a vigil asking the justices to help halt the execution. Millions of people around the country have joined their cause in recent weeks amid mounting evidence that another man may be responsible for the 1996 murder of Stacey Stites, a 19-year-old white woman. In 1998, an all-white jury sentenced Reed to die for Stites's…

Meagan Burrows (2019-11-14). Trump Administration Forgoes Petition to Supreme Court in Jane Doe Case. aclu.org For more | than two years, the ACLU has been fighting a Trump administration policy that | prevents unaccompanied immigrant minors in federal care from accessing | abortion. We had previously won in the lower court, securing a preliminary block on | the policy. And last week, the Trump administration chose not to challenge that | ruling and ask the Supreme Court to review the case—a real victory in our fight | for justice for the Janes. | We first filed | the case in Octobe…

Activist Post (2019-11-12). Pompeo's Iran Nuclear Lies Exposed Using Clear Evidence & The JCPOA Document Itself. thelastamericanvagabond.com Mike Pompeo continues to lead the propaganda push to get the public panicking about an Iran "nuclear breakout" even when all evidence shows that Iran is nowhere near capable of being a nuclear threat. Of course many other countries have far more robust nuclear programs, but because it's Iran we have to come together as …

Ryan Cristián (2019-11-09). Possible False Flag In Iraq, US Votes Against Anti-Nazi Res. & Pompeo's Iran Nuclear Lies Debunked. thelastamericanvagabond.com Welcome to The Daily Wrap Up, a concise show dedicated to bringing you the most relevant independent news, as we see it, from the last 24 hours (11/6/19). As always, take the information discussed in the video below and research it for yourself, and come to your own conclusions. Anyone telling you what the truth …

Ryan Cristián (2019-10-26). More Troops/Tanks To Syria Confirmed, OPCW Whistleblower, Barr's PreCrime & Mossad Clinton Blackmail. thelastamericanvagabond.com Welcome to The Daily Wrap Up, a concise show dedicated to bringing you the most relevant independent news, as we see it, from the last 24 hours (10/25/19). As always, take the information discussed in the video below and research it for yourself, and come to your own conclusions. Anyone telling you what the truth …

Ryan Cristián (2019-10-21). Turkey Breaks Ceasefire, US "Secures Syria's Oil" & Assange's Torture & Violation Of Rights Exposed. thelastamericanvagabond.com Welcome to The Daily Wrap Up, a concise show dedicated to bringing you the most relevant independent news, as we see it, from the last 24 hours (10/19/19). As always, take the information discussed in the video below and research it for yourself, and come to your own conclusions. Anyone telling you what the truth …