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Qatar Formally Rejects Outrageous Saudi-Led Demands
Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman)
Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt cut ties with Qatar, instituting a land, sea and air blockade, an undeclared act of war.
A baker’s dozen of outrageous demands were made to be rejected, not accepted by Qatar.
They include curbing ties with Iran, shutting down Al-Jazeera and other news outlets Qatar controls, ending military cooperation with Turkey, paying reparations to Riyadh and its rogue allies, among others - and comply in 10 days or they become invalid. Time expires today, extended by 48 hours, but it didn’t matter. As expected, Qatar rejected the ultimatum, replying by handwritten letter to the four countries.
They plan to meet in Cairo this week to decide their next moves. It’s unclear if they’ll impose illegal sanctions or something harsher.
America’s Deplorable Independence
Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman)
When America gained independence from Britain, everything changed but stayed the same under new management.
Democracy was established in name only. Today a plutocratic police state at war on humanity at home and abroad runs things.
Independent America subjugates ordinary people at home and abroad, exploited by its ruling class for wealth and power - no matter the human cost.
Governance is of, by, and for its privileged few exclusively. We the People in the Constitution’s preamble refers to them, not us. Its general welfare clause means their interests alone, no one else’s.
American Samizdat: What happens when America’s top investigative journalist reports what its media-owners don’t want the public to know?
Eric Zuesse
This isn’t only about U.S. President Barack Obama’s secret policy on Syria; it’s also about his successor President, Donald Trump’s, adopting that secret policy, and about the U.S. press keeping this policy secret from the U.S. public — effectively blinding America’s voters so they can’t see, much less understand, the U.S. government’s ongoing international looting-operation, nor even the key parts of it:
Seymour Hersh used to have his important news-reports published in the New Yorker. Then in 2007, he reported there something that disturbed America’s aristocracy for it to be made public — “The Redirection”, about the U.S. government’s plan to bring “the United States closer to an open confrontation with Iran and, in parts of the region, propelled it into a widening sectarian conflict between Shiite and Sunni Muslims” — which raised a red flag on Hersh. More followed when he challenged the official story on “The Killing of Osame bin Laden”, which crossed the line so much that the New Yorker rejected it but he found a willing London Review of Books to pay his fee to publish it on 21 May 2015. Afterwards, yet again, the LRB published on 19 December 2013 his “Whose Sarin?” which raised serious questions as to whether U.S. President Barack Obama had lied to say that Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad was behind the 21 August 2013 East Ghouta sarin gas attack that crossed Obama’s famous “red line” and warranted the U.S. (as policeman, judge, jury and executioner, the international government, for the whole world) to bomb Syrian government forces as punishment. Next, on 17 April 2014 — also in LRB — came “The Red Line and the Rat Line”, reporting, about that sarin-attack, the study by:
Saudi Arabia and Qatar: Irreconcilable Differences
Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman)
Both oil-rich countries are rogue states. They’re family dictatorships, state-sponsors of terrorism, guilty of high crimes against peace, defiant of rule of law principles.
Riyadh and its rogue allies (the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt) want Doha transformed into a subservient vassal state, its resources exploited, its wealth stolen, perhaps regime change demanded next.
A sweeping 13-point ultimatum reads like post-WW I Versailles terms - unacceptable to any nation wishing to retain its sovereignty. Here’s the dirty baker’s dozen:
1. Curb diplomatic ties with Iran. Close its diplomatic missions. Expel members of its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp. Agree to commerce and trade allowed by the JCPOA nuclear deal alone.
Russia Combating Terrorism in Syria Effectively
Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman)
Russia and America are world’s apart on Syria - Moscow committed to continue combating the scourge of terrorism Washington supports.
On Thursday, Sergey Lavrov and Rex Tillerson spoke by phone, the call initiated from Washington.
Lavrov told his counterpart it’s “delusional” on the part of America to pressure Russia with sanctions, new US Treasury ones imposed days earlier.
They accomplish nothing other than rupturing bilateral relations more than already - why Moscow “felt compelled to suspend” a June 23 meeting between deputy foreign ministers of both countries.
Lavrov expressed outrage over US operations in Syria - making it harder to defeat terrorism, impeding conflict resolution.
Putin and Lavrov Blast NATO
Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman)
NATO is America’s killing machine, an alliance for offense, not defense, other members and partners pressured to serve US interests, harming their own.
Whatever reasons justified NATO’s existence during Cold War years vanished when Soviet Russia dissolved in December 1991.
Yet the alliance remained, provocatively expanding east near Russia’s borders, surrounding its territory with bases, installing so-called missile defense systems intended solely for offense, threatening its security.
Putin promised to “be ready to respond quickly and adequately to any potential threat” from the alliance.
As long as it exists and expands, endless US-launched imperial wars will continue. Peace and stability will be unattainable. Possible nuclear annihilation will remain humanity’s greatest threat.
Trump Has Been Continuing Obama’s Syria-Policy
Eric Zuesse
U.S. President Donald Trump, who during the election-campaign ferociously condemned Barack Obama’s foreign policies, while asserting nothing concrete of his own, has, as the U.S. President, committed himself quite clearly to continuing Obama’s publicly stated policy on Syria, which policy was to place, as the first priority, the elimination of ISIS, and as the policy to follow that, the elimination and replacement of Syria’s government. I have previously indicated that on June 19th “Russia Announces No-Fly Zone in Syria — War Against U.S. There”, and that the early indications are that Trump has changed his Syria-policy to accommodate Russia’s demands there; but, prior to June 19th, Trump was actually following Obama’s publicly stated Syria-policy. As also will be shown here, Obama’s publicly stated policy — to destroy ISIS and then to overthrow Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad — was actually less extreme than his real policy, which was to overthrow Assad and to use the jihadist forces in Syria (especially Al Qaeda in Syria) to achieve that objective. Trump, at least until 19 June 2017, has been adhering to Obama’s publicly stated policy. Russia’s warning was for him not to adopt and continue Obama’s actual policy (to overthrow Assad).
Nikki Haley’s Recklessly Belligerent Remarks
Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman)
Trump’s neocon UN envoy sounds like Samantha Powers on steroids - her hostility toward Russia, Syria and world peace evident from her reckless comments.
In prepared Wednesday remarks before House Foreign Affairs Committee members, she sounded like an out-of-control war goddess.
She lied saying “(i)n early April, (Syria) dropped chemical weapons on Syrian children,” belligerently adding:
“We drew a red line. If the UN would not act collectively, the United States would act alone. And we did” - failing to explain attacking Syria’s Shayrat airbase was unprovoked naked US aggression.
Senator Corker Blocks Arms Sales to Gulf States Over Qatar Row
Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman)
During his May visit to the Riyadh, Trump and the Saudi family dictatorship agreed to at least a $300 billion US arms sales deal with the kingdom over the next decade.
Because of the row between Riyadh, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt and Qatar, Senator Bob Corker (R. TN) blocked it until things are resolved, in a letter to Rex Tillerson, saying:
Saudi-led Gulf states “did not take advantage of the summit (with Trump) and instead chose to devolve into conflict…hurt(ing)” America’s regional agenda.
“(B)efore we provide any further clearances during the informal review period on sales of lethal military equipment to the GCC states, we need a better understanding of the path to resolve the current dispute and reunify the GCC.”
Major arms deals require preliminary approval by leaders of the House and Senate foreign relations committees - before the statuary 30-day congressional review process begins to approve or reject these deals.
Sovereign Debt Jubilee, Japanese-Style
Ellen Brown
Japan has found a way to write off nearly half its national debt without creating inflation. We could do that too.
Let’s face it. There is no way the US government is ever going to pay back a $20 trillion federal debt. The taxpayers will just continue to pay interest on it, year after year.
A lot of interest.
If the Federal Reserve raises the fed funds rate to 3.5% and sells its federal securities into the market, as it is proposing to do, by 2026 the projected tab will be $830 billion annually. That’s nearly $1 trillion owed by the taxpayers every year, just for interest.
Personal income taxes are at record highs, ringing in at $550 billion in the first four months of fiscal year 2017, or $1.6 trillion annually. But even at those high levels, handing over $830 billion to bondholders will wipe out over half the annual personal income tax take. Yet what is the alternative?
Japan seems to have found one. While the US government is busy driving up its “sovereign” debt and the interest owed on it, Japan has been canceling its debt at the rate of $720 billion (¥80tn) per year. How? By selling the debt to its own central bank, which returns the interest to the government. While most central banks have ended their quantitative easing programs and are planning to sell their federal securities, the Bank of Japan continues to aggressively buy its government’s debt. An interest-free debt owed to oneself that is rolled over from year to year is effectively void – a debt “jubilee.” As noted by fund manager Eric Lonergan in a February 2017 article:
