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. So now I know where the police convoys with sirens, and biker gangs came from. Last week the USA closed negotiations with the CIA created Taliban in Afghanistan in Qatar, and promised verbally that after Eid-ul fater the USA would sign an agreement with the Taliban to: 1. De-escalate the conflict in Afghanistan on-going for 40 years. 2. Power sharing with the corrupt ineffective puppet government in Kabul. 3. The Taliban with CIA directions would hunt down and destroy ISIS and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. (But not in Syria PLEASE after 8 years of slaughter) 4. Not allow foreign terrorists to enter Afghanistan.(Brought in by the Pentagon to create new narratives) 5. NOT attack any USA military personnel in Afghanistan. 6. Reading between the lines ....an unofficial agreement that the Taliban would protect the Opium business ...as with the end of the Vietnam war in 1975, and the Golden Triad and the protection of that business in Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Southern China (Yunan) and THAILAND. The Taliban would get 30% of the profits with the export of the drugs to Europe, and the USA. The Taliban would not seek to eradicate the business as they had previously done up to 9/11 2001. Save for 6 this is all common sense grounded in reality, stuff. After all the CIA created Taliban as 'Controlled Opposition' were merely there to create the illusion that the noble warriors of the USA were fighting a just war against an enemy that had facilitated 9/11, and posed a threat to the world and the USA. The Taliban had in the negotiation given up the idea that they could expel the USA, and control Afghanistan again by themselves. Alas, in the typical Jewey dirty low down double dealing fashion, on the day of the signing of the agreement the USA killed the Taliban defense minister, and a few days later in a FALSE FLAG IN A MOSQUE IN PAKISTAN, the brother of the Taliban leader. Without explanation the USA said it would no longer negotiate for peace with the Taliban, and the Pentagon added that Afghanistan would hence forth become an arid part of the USA military testing site (a la Area 51 in Nevada). How is the peace negotiations going with North Korea? Has Comrade Kim Jong Un accepted any further empty gestures from the USA? How is the reset going with Russia? Typical Jewey dirty low down double dealing DEVIOUS DECEPTION WILL MAKE America Aryan great again.
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.This is NOT a reference to Mike Pompeo, that would be tooo obvious and racist. It also goes against the teachings of Christ, our saviour who says LOVE thy brethen or I ain't comin back to earth again for the second coming after Armegeddon in my name.
Kamala Harris is a black racist. They exist....against Russia of ALL countries. One of those unimaginative GLOBALIST WINDUP DOLLY, where the electronic voice repeats ad infinatum as per the programmed recording:
Married to a Globalist Jew
GLOBALIST people like Soros based in Europe promote and boast of destabilizing nations with $18 billion along RACE LINES.
Its True that Russia does not have a large African population---because black slaves weren't brought to Russia by the Czars??? No colonial legacy for Russia in Africa as per the black genocide of colonial trade between 15th-19th century by Europe.
Imperial Russia did not participate in the scramble for Africa in 1885 (Berlin Conference). The physical exploitation of the whole continent.
Soviet Russia gave massive unconditional aid to Africa in terms of weapons and industrial technology, even as a not so rich country herself.
TO THIS DAY, Russia still does not exploit Africa save for providing SECURITY ADVICE where it is sought. Russian weapons systems are cheap and reliable, and military training programs does not mean Russia will interfere with the politics of the country. (RUSSIA DOES NOT INTERFERE WITH THE POLITICS OF AFRICAN COUNTRIES AND CERTAINLY DOES NOT HAVE THE INCLINATION TO TRY WITH THE SOLE SUPER POWER IN THE WORLD----KAMALA HARRIS IS PROJECTING)
Russia does not use the politics of race to deal with nations.
Russia was the victim of the race card that led to the death of 30 million people during world war II (or the equivalent of a 9/11 carnage everyday over four years)
The politics of RACE comes from the GLOBALIST JEW.
The politics of RACE in Nazi Germany came ultimately from the Jewish bankers.
It is Israel which is obsessed with race, territory and empire.
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No Racism, just Russians
By Margaret Kimberley at Black Agenda Report.
The absurd claim that Russians have orchestrated US racial strife is designed to nullify Black outrage and discredit those who fight oppression.
“The Russiagate corpse is reanimated again and again.”
By all accounts the Russiagate faux scandal and the hysteria it spawned should be dead. The tale of intrigue which claimed that the Donald Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government has been disproven. After two years of investigating Robert Mueller was unable to indict a single American on the charge of collusion. The indictment of Russians said to be intelligence agents is worthless, an allegation that will never be proven in court. The Democrats’ insistence on calling Mueller to testify before two House committees was a disaster which made them all look foolish and which should have put the nail in the coffin.
So why is NBC newsreporting that the Russian government is influencing black Americans? The New York Timesblames the rise of racist, right wing parties in Europe not on racist sentiment, but on a Russian plot. Kamala Harris spins tales of Russians using black people to undermine a mythical American democracy.
It seems that Russophobia won’t be allowed to die. It is too valuable to the warmaking duopoly, opportunistic politicians and the corporate media who give them all cover. Now that the investigation is over they must keep the stoking the flames and black people have been chosen as their tools.
“Kamala Harris spins tales of Russians using black people to undermine a mythical American democracy.”
The bottom line of all these stories is denial. There is denial that black people have any reasons to be angry, which is a denial of our history.
Of course it follows that there is denial of white racist reaction, too. NBC news says that videos showing racist treatment of black people “go viral” only because of “Russian linked” twitter accounts. They don’t say what makes an account Russian-linked or how they can prove the allegation. More importantly they deny that images of oppression have any impact on the lives of millions of people. Watching a gentrifying white woman claim that she was “sexually assaulted by a nine-year old” black child is enough to make all but the lowest Uncle Tom very angry.
In the absence of empowerment, social media becomes the vehicle for redress. Obviously the immediacy of the internet makes it quite easy for videos to spread quickly. Claiming that foreign individuals or a government are responsible makes the outrage null and void, erases the racism that black people face and also the determination to make the oppression known.
“There is denial that black people have any reasons to be angry, which is a denial of our history.”
Of course racism is not confined to the United States. Europeans’ image of tolerance is tested when a tipping point of brown or black faces begin to appear. Like other nations, Sweden has experienced a rise in right wing, anti-immigrant political parties after the arrival of many newcomers from the global south.
All over Europe the story is the same. People who were once considered generous and welcoming pull up the ladder when non-whites appear in large numbers. The issue is self-identified whiteness. But the New York Timesclaims that Russians are responsible for the rise in Swedish racism. How very convenient.
These nonsensical stories have many purposes. They are a form of propaganda which has a goal of getting public support for U.S. foreign policy. If enough people are convinced that Russians are evil they will be silent when their government withdraws from nuclear missile treaties. Even people who claim to resist Trump will condone sanctions or even military attacks against any country declared an enemy.
“Claiming that foreigners are responsible makes the outrage null and void.”
Russiagate continues to excuse the Democrats for the 2016 debacle of their own making. Propaganda works. Three years of repetition has done its joband most Americans will believe anything they are told about the Russian government or Russians as people.
“Three years of repetition has done its job.”
Hopefully, black people are smarter than their country men and women and won’t be swayed by the effort to say that their experiences don’t exist. On the other hand, we are no less susceptible to propaganda. Many of us have already succumbed and given up our traditional left wing stance on many issues. The desire to be rid of Trump has made this particular con game all the more powerful. The orange menace is a useful tool as well.
Not that the rulers really want to oppose him. They just want to galvanize opinion in favor of their sick scheming. Politicians like Kamala Harris are worst of all. Her record as a prosecutor makes her presidential candidacy a non-starter for many black people. The woman who made fun of the demand for more education and fewer jails is now hoisted on her own petard. She is left with trying to get votes from white Democrats who are in the thrall of Russia hatred. What better way to do that than to beat a dead horse that absolves them of blame and puts her on the side of America’s oligarchy.
“Harris is left with trying to get votes from white Democrats who are in the thrall of Russia hatred.”
Russiagate is a real life horror movie. The corpse is reanimated again and again. The low point of Mueller’s testimony was his baseless claim that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 election. “They’re doing it as we sit here. And they expect to do it during the next campaign.”
The only certainty is that the chicanery will not stop. Like the wars carried out by the U.S., the libels will be endless. They will in fact get worse as the presidential campaign season approaches. All manner of lies will be told and those claiming that Russia is responsible for racism will be among the worst. ________________________________________________
Margaret Kimberley’s Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well at http://freedomrider.blogspot.com . Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.com.
US, Taliban Likely To Sign Afghan Peace Deal Next Week
Deal expected to be finalized after Eid al-Adha
Peace talks between the US and Taliban are going to be taking a little time off for the upcoming Eid al-Adha holiday. When they come back after the holiday, the Afghan peace deal is going to be the focus again, and the expectation is it will be finalized. Hopes for a finalized deal are nothing new, but both sides are now saying they believe that a peace agreement will be reached, and signed, at some point in the next week. This will then lead to work on direct Taliban-Afghan talks on power-sharing. That’s a key issue. The deal with the US involves removing foreign troops, Taliban keeping foreign Islamists out of Afghanistan, and a ceasefire. The power-sharing deal is the last aspect of peace, and the Taliban had long resisted entering such talks until the US pullout was agreed upon.
When the inexperienced President just came to power, American troop levels in Afghanistan were about 7,000 in 2016 and looking to draw down further. But the Deep State manufactured Russiagate delusion appeared, along with a concerted coup by the FBI and CIA to putsch out the duly elected President by a variety of illegal means other than Russiagate (which specifically was meant as a war of attrition taking us into 2020 elections, if plans A and B failed).
In this confused atmosphere of inexperience and Jared Kushner's Hassidic Ouija board, General 'Mad Dog' Mattis was appointed Secretary of Defense......to make the new administration appear bullish, tough and patriotic???? especially on defense. But sadly General Mattis was the closet homosexual Zen Master who wrote up the invasion of Afghanistan a good couple years before 9/11(indicating malice aforethought...and Deep State complicity in 9/11 planning) ...he was not a man who thought outside of the box addressing the MASSIVE ENDEMIC CORRUPTION and INEFFICIENCY of the Pentagon but rather played the company man who ran the business as usual model defending ALL its mistakes to the last cent. (hooker hotels, golf courses, gold plated toilet seats...and much much much more)
The DNC didn't exactly help the President appoint the right people, either. Filtering out good guys and shoooing in their Deep State comrades under Obama and the Republicans.
Zen Master Mattiss in this situation of fluidity and uncertainty pushed for what his Deep State Masters wanted.....more troops on the ground in Afghanistan protecting the Opium harvests in the country. The President caved in against his better instincts, and the troops were doubled in Afghanistan.
But now Russiagate is all but over even if the DNC goes into a Moby Dicky mode. Mattis is out, working for the corporate MIC presumably....and the President is in a much stronger position.
So now in the short term American troop levels go back to their 2016 levels, and there after none left in the country.
President Trump can claim to have brought peace to a 40 year old conflict, and bring the boys back home which the majority of Americans want. It is a domestic and international success.
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Taliban Says Differences With US on Afghanistan Troop Pullout Resolved, US mum on talks.
Highly anticipated talks in Doha have come to an end, and the Taliban has issued a statement saying that they and the US have resolved differences onboth the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and the guarantees on the Taliban cutting ties with other groups. The Taliban was not very specific about what was decided, as technical teams continued to meet. The US, interestingly, has refused to comment on the matter at all, beyond Zalmay Khalilzad saying they had made “excellent progress.” There had previously been suggestions that a deal could be announced at the end of these talks, but that doesn’t seem to be happening. Progress or not, the talks are still advancing. But they might not be done by next month’s Afghan presidential election, and that has the Taliban condemning that vote as a ploy, and threatening to attack election rallies that are held.
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. I think the thinking is let the American Empire collapse by itself.....with the help from Likud Israel and the Zionists. On previous experience, in the arms race the USA won because it had greater resources and better technology. (1949-1989)........but despite Industrial espionage and Israeli smuggling, America and Europe ARE still on the top of the game currently, and will be so for the foreseeable future. Yes specific Russian weapons systems might be superior to American ones, but in the broad horizon of technology it is the West that leads. TRENDS in Industrial Espionage indicates this fact to us: 'In recent years, the problem of countries, companies, and individuals misappropriating the trade secrets of U.S. companies has only become bigger, more insidious, and more expensive to address, and lawyers and business executives have no choice but to deal with this increasingly complex problem. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, intellectual property (IP) accounted for $5.06 trillion in value added, or 34.8 percent of U.S. GDP in 2010. IP alone accounts for over 40 million U.S. jobs and over 60 percent of all U.S. exports. U.S. companies have a lot to lose.'
Randolph A. Kahn American Bar Association.
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Why The End Of The INF Treaty Will Not Start A New Arms Race
Moon of Alabama Yesterday the U.S. left the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty. The end of this and other treaties that eliminated or restricted the deployment of nuclear systems is seen by some as the beginning of a news arms race:
William J. Perry - @SecDef19 - 7:37 PM · Aug 2, 2019The U.S. withdrawal from the INF Treaty today deals a great blow to nuclear arms control and global security, we are sleepwalking into a new arms race.
The former Secretary of Defense is wrong. The race will not happen because Russia (and China) won't run. Or said differently, they already won.
To understand why that is the case we have to look at the history if the nuclear treaties and their demise.
In 1976 the Soviet Union started to deploy nuclear armed SS-20 (RSD-10 Pioneer) intermediate range missiles in Europe. The west-Europeans, especially Germany, feared that these missiles would decouple the U.S. from western Europe. The Soviet Union might tell the U.S. that it would not use its intercontinental nuclear missiles against the U.S. mainland as long as the U.S. would not fire its intercontinental missiles into the Soviet Union. It could then use the SS-20 to attack NATO in Europe while the U.S. would refrain from nuclear counter strikes on the Soviet Union. Europe would become a nuclear battle field while the U.S. and the Soviet Union would be left untouched.
The German chancellor Helmut Schmidt urged the U.S. to station nuclear armed intermediate range missiles in western Europe to press the Soviets to eliminate the SS-20. In 1979 NATO made the double track decision. It would deploy U.S. made Pershing II missiles in Europe and at the same time offer the Soviet Union a treaty to ban all such intermediate range weapons. The effort was successful.
The 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) between the U.S. and the Soviet Union (later Russia) banned all of the two countries' land-based ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and missile launchers with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometers (310-3,420 mi). All SS-20 and Pershing II missiles were withdrawn and destroyed. A nuclear war in Europe became less likely.
Another successful treaty was the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. It prohibited both sides from deploying more than one ABM system. It was necessary because the side that thought it had a working anti-ballistic missile defense could launch a massive first strike on the other side, destroy most of its forces, and defend itself against the smaller retaliation strike that would follow. Both sides were better off with prohibiting ABM in general and to rely on Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) for the prevention of a nuclear war.
In June 2002 U.S. President George W. Bush, under the influence of one John Bolton, withdrew from the ABM treaty which led to its termination. The U.S. deployed ABM system in Alaska and California but during tests the systems proved to be unreliable.
The U.S. claimed at that time that ABM was needed to defend against nuclear missiles from North Korea and Iran. That was always obvious nonsense. At that time North Korea had no missile that could reach the United States and Iran has no nukes and limits the range of its missiles to 2,000 kilometer.
Russia saw the U.S. step as an attempt to achieve a first strike capability against it. It immediately started the development of new system that would make the U.S. anti-missile defense irrelevant.
The U.S. also pressed NATO to deploy ABM systems in Europe. Iran was again cited as the main danger. Plans were developed to deploy Patriot and THAAD anti-missile system in Poland and Romania. These did not immediately endangered Russia. But in 2009 President Obama canceled the deployment and came up with a more devilish plan. The AEGIS system used on many U.S. war ships would be converted into a land based version and deployed in an alleged ABM role. AEGIS consist of radar, a battle management system and canister missiles launchers. The big issue is that these canisters can contain very different types of missiles. While the Standard Missile-2 or 3 can be launched from those canisters in an ABM role, the very same canisters can also hold nuclear armed cruise missile with a range of 2,400 kilometer.
Russia had no means to detect which type of missiles the U.S. would deploy on these sites. It had to assume that nuclear intermediate range nuclear missiles will be in those canisters. In 2016 the U.S. activated the first of these AEGIS ashore systems in Romania. It was that step that broke the INF treaty.
That Obama had earlier signed a nuclear agreement with Iran that made sure that Iran would never build nukes made it obvious that Russia is the one and only target of those system:
During a visit to Greece intended to repair ties with the EU, Vladimir Putin said that Russia has “no choice” but to target Romania, which has recently opened a NATO missile defense base, and Poland, which plans to do so within two years.“If yesterday people simply did not know what it means to be in the crosshairs in those areas of Romania, then today we will be forced to carry out certain measures to ensure our security. And it will be the same with Poland,” Putin said during a joint press conference with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in Athens on Friday. ... “At the moment the interceptor missiles installed have a range of 500 kilometers, soon this will go up to 1000 kilometers, and worse than that, they can be rearmed with 2400km-range offensive missiles even today, and it can be done by simply switching the software, so that even the Romanians themselves won’t know,” said Putin, who is in Greece for a two-day tour.
Russia urged the U.S. to negotiate about the issue but the U.S. rejected that. A year after the U.S. deployed its system in Romania it alleged that Russia itself was in breach of the INF treaty. It claimed that Russia deployed the 9M729 missile, an extended range version of a previous missile, with a range that exceeds the limits of the INF treaty. Russia says that the missile is just a technical upgrade of an older one and has a maximum range below 500 kilometers. The U.S. never provided evidence for its claim.
Neither the New York Timesobituary of the treaty nor the CNNwrite-up mention the ABM system in Romania and Poland that were the first to breach of the treaty. Both repeat the unproven claim that Russia deployed new intermediate range systems as fact.
The Europeans in NATO are not happy about the treaty's end:
The official demise of a landmark arms control pact between the US and Russia is a "bad day" for stability in Europe, the military alliance's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told CNN Friday, hours after the US withdrew from the pact.Speaking to CNN's Hala Gorani, the Norwegian politician called the end of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty with Moscow a "serious setback." "I'm part of a political generation that was shaped during the 1980s, where we all were concerned for the risk of nuclear war and where we were actually able to reach the INF treaty that didn't only reduce the missiles but banned all intermediate range missiles and weapons," he said.
Stoltenberg went on to blame Russia without mentioning the fake U.S. "ABM" sites in Romania and Poland.
It was John Bolton who was behind the demise of the ABM treaty and it was John Bolton who convinced Trump to terminate the INF treaty. With Bolton in the lead the New Start treaty, which limits intercontinental systems but ends in 2021, will likely not be renewed. Soon the whole system of treaties that limited U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons and delivery means will be gone.
Why is the U.S. so eager to end all these? It is known John Bolton hates anything that restricts the U.S., but there is also a larger strategy behind it. The U.S. believes that it defeated the Soviet Union by creating an arms race that the Soviets lost. It hopes that it can do the same with a recalcitrant Russia. But that calculation is wrong. President Putin has long said that Russia will not fall for it:(Russia has cut its defense budget by 30%, and the best Propaganda articles from the Guardian will not change that)
Moscow will not engage in an exhausting arms race, and the country’s military spending will gradually decrease as Russia does not seek a role as the “world gendarme,” President Vladimir Putin said.Moscow is not seeking to get involved in a “pointless” new arms race, and will stick to “smart decisions” to strengthen its defensive capabilities, Putin said on Friday during an annual extended meeting of the Defense Ministry board.
Putin & Co have learned: Russia has no World-Historical purpose and its military is just for Russia. They understand what this means for Russia's Armed Forces:Moscow doesn't have to match the US military; it just has to checkmate it. And it doesn't have to checkmate it everywhere, only at home. The US Air Force can rampage anywhere but not in Russia's airspace; the US Navy can go anywhere but not in Russia's waters. It's a much simpler job and it costs much less than what Stalin, Khrushchev and Brezhnev were attempting; it's much easier to achieve; it's easier to plan and carry out. The exceptionalist/interventionist has to plan for Everything; the nationalist for One Thing.
Russia already has all the weapons it needs to defend itself. U.S. warfare depends on satellite communication, air superiority and missiles. But Russia's air defense and electronic warfare systems are first class. They demonstrated in Syria that their capabilities exceed any U.S. systems.
When the U.S. left the ABM treaty Russia started to develop new weapons. In 2018 it was ready and demonstrated weapon systems that defeat any ABM system. The U.S. can not longer achieve first strike capability against Russia no matter how many ABM systems and nukes it deploys. There is no defense against hypersonic systems, nuclear torpedoes or nuclear powered cruise missiles with unlimited reach.
If the U.S. wants to start a new arms race with Russia or China it will be the only one to run. It will have to run fast to catch up.
Unlike the U.S. neither Russia nor China try to achieve world wide hegemony. They only have the need to defend their realm. The U.S. threat against both of them made them allies. If China needs more defense capabilities Russia will be happy to provide these. A U.S. nuclear attack against either of them, from Europe, Japan or the U.S. itself, will be responded to with a nuclear attack on the U.S. mainland. As the U.S. has no ability to defend itself from the new Russian systems it will continue to be deterred.
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. PARANOIA is the main oil that runs an intelligence service, but it is what they do with that paranoia that really matters. The Duran’s Alex Christoforou and Editor-in-Chief Alexander Mercouris discuss newly surfaced text messages (published via The Guardian) between Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and his UK counterpart at MI-5 Jeremy Fleming, which reveal Britain's role in the 2016 'Russiagate hoax' investigation and soft coup attempt against US President Donald Trump. Dangerously POLITICIZED.
I am aware of this fact even as a an ARYAN (As defined by ancient Iranian and North Indian culture and ancient texts such as the Rig Veda, and NOT by Professor Hitler Of Heidelberg University and his hate filled racist empire building CRISIS CULTS, Thule Vril and their Jewish banker backers in Frankfurt, Zurich, NY and London). It is a continuation of white is pure superior, whilst dark is debased and primitive. Classical Western Colonial perspective used as a psychological Pabulum TO JUSTIFY the crimes of Colonialism which killed 100 of millions of people in the America's, Africa AND ASIA. More significantly skin colour via the Rothschilds of London conflates with those that are deserving from their point of view, and those who are not. It became pure ABSURDISTAN in my long experience when the CIA/State Department played this game in nations which are not 'White' in the European sense.' Thailand, Laos, Turkey, South Korea and so forth. This appeared as an OBSESSION to them as they played their psych-ops games, along with height and uber masculinity (Butch gays).
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State Department Issues Manipulated Photo As B-Team Pushes Trump Towards War On Iran
Moon of Alabama
An old propaganda trick is to paint ones side enemies in darker colors than oneself.
Carl Zha @CarlZha - 1:25 UTC · Jul 31, 2019Dark skinned Hong Kong cops vs white skinned Hong Kong protesters 👇🏼 I completely missed it, but someone pointed out pro-protesters Graphic designer DDED comics depicted “baddies” HK cops and white shirts in Yuen Long as dark skinned while Hong Kong protesters light skinned
Also note the blond/black hair colors used which of course contradict the physiognomic realities of the people in Hong Kong. One wonders which U.S. color-revolution workshop gave the protesters graphic designers such racist ideas. Such manipulative us-them graphics are despicable propaganda.
But it is even more malign when the U.S. State Department openly engages in such tactics and manipulates original photos to achieve a similar effect:
Secretary Pompeo @SecPompeo - 22:45 UTC · Jul 31, 2019Recently, President @realDonaldTrump sanctioned Iran’s Supreme Leader, who enriched himself at the expense of the Iranian people. Today, the U.S. designated his chief apologist @JZarif. He’s just as complicit in the regime’s outlaw behavior as the rest of @khamenei_ir’s mafia.
A screenshot of the original tweet and attached graphic.
A reverse image search via Tineye.com finds that the original picture used in the above graphic was first published by the Seattle Times on June 10. It is the second one in the gallery above this piece. In that picture Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif is listening to a journalist's question. It is the only picture in the series in which Zarif is not smiling:
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif speaks during a press conference with his German counterpart Heiko Maas after their talks in Tehran, Iran, Monday, June 10, 2019. [...] (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
The AP picture and Pompeo's tweet graphics cut for the same detail and size:
It is obvious that the picture Pompeo distributed was artificially darkened to make Zarif look more "devilish". The background was manipulated to make it look like a rough unpainted wall. Additionally a vignette was added to put a dark halo around Zarif's head.
The given reasons for the sanction against Iran's foreign minister are laughable. A press statement by Pompeo says:
Today, the United States designated the Iranian regime’s Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, who has acted on behalf of the Supreme Leader.Iran’s Foreign Ministry is not merely the diplomatic arm of the Islamic Republic but also a means of advancing many of the Supreme Leader’s destabilizing policies. Foreign Minister Zarif and the Foreign Ministry he runs take their direction from the Supreme Leader and his office. Foreign Minister Zarif is a key enabler of Ayatollah Khamenei’s policies throughout the region and around the world. The designation of Javad Zarif today reflects this reality.
Collectively, such individuals and companies are called "Specially Designated Nationals" or "SDNs." Their assets are blocked and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from dealing with them.
Despite the new sanctions Zarif is still on Twitter. This is likely to change soon as Twitter will now have to block him:
Javad Zarif @JZarif - 22:33 UTC · Jul 31, 2019The US' reason for designating me is that I am Iran's "primary spokesperson around the world" Is the truth really that painful? It has no effect on me or my family, as I have no property or interests outside of Iran. Thank you for considering me such a huge threat to your agenda.
Javad Zarif @JZarif - 1:23 UTC · Aug 1, 2019We know that calling for dialog & peace is an existential threat to #B_Team. And since reason for designating me is my words, would "US persons" need OFAC license to "engage" with me by reading my writings or listening to interviews?
cc: @stevenmnuchin1 cc: @SecPompeo cc: @jack
The B-team members are John Bolton, the Saudi clown prince Bin Salman, UAE sheik Bin Zayed and "Bibi" Netanyahoo.
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani called the U.S. behavior "childish".
The stupid sanctions against Zarif were introduced to divert the public from the fact that the Trump administration did not dare to eliminate sanction waivers for the delivery of nuclear fuel to Iran and for other civil nuclear activity. Iran would respond to the elimination of those waivers by increasing its own enrichment and fuel production:
Even as the White House unveiled the sanctions against Zarif, it quietly renewed waivers that will allow Iran to continue to receive international assistance for its civilian nuclear projects. Under those waivers, China and other countries are helping Iran transform Iran's nuclear facilities to ensure they cannot be used to produce weapons-grade uranium or plutonium.Iran hawks had lobbied the Trump administration to sanction countries engaged in that work, while critics said it would encourage Iran to pursue a nuclear weapon. The administration's decision to sanction Zarif drew attention away from its waiver of the sanctions, and it could defuse some anger among hardliners who wanted the White House to take a tougher line.
The latest crazy idea the Trump people had was to ask the most hawkish senator to prepare a new Iran deal:
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is working in close coordination with senior Trump administration officials who focus on Middle East policy to find an alternative to the Obama administration’s Iran deal, four people with knowledge of the efforts tell The Daily Beast. Part of that effort includes fielding ideas from outside actors, including foreign officials, two of those sources said.
There is no guessing needed who those "foreign officials" are:
It is unclear how far along the team is in crafting a proposal, but Graham did travel to Israel earlier this month to meet with officials about the situation with Iran.In an interview with The Daily Beast on Wednesday, Graham said he had spoken to Trump about his ideas for a new nuclear deal several times and that the president was contemplating them. The senator said the U.S. should ask the Iranian regime to agree to a so-called 123 Agreement—a key, legally binding commitment that requires countries doing nuclear deals with the U.S. to sign on to nonproliferation standards. The U.S. has entered into those agreements with more than 40 countries.
Graham does not really want to Iran to sign on to the 123 standard. It is a trick he wants to use to pull Europe to the U.S. side:
“I told the president: Put the 123 on the table with the Iranians. Make them say ‘no,’” Graham told The Daily Beast. “I think the Iranians will say no. And I think that will force the Europeans’ hands.”The U.S. should also require Iran to sign on to the “gold standard,” a pledge not to enrich and reprocess nuclear fuel, Graham said. Enrichment and reprocessing are key steps on the way to a nuclear weapon.
Enrichment and reprocessing are key steps to make ones own nuclear fuel. The U.S. several times sanctioned Iran's purchase of nuclear fuel. The country would be crazy to forever depend on others to provide it.
Graham's idea is stupid. The Europeans would not fall for his cheap trick. The JCPOA nuclear agreement with Iran, which the Europeans co-signed, expressively recognize Iran's inalienable right to enrich nuclear fuel under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Only after the Obama administration conceded that Iran has that right, was Iran willing to negotiate that nuclear deal. That position will not change.
Trump seems to really want a deal with Iran. But he has surrounded himself with childish people, Bolton, Pompeo and now even Graham, who all do not want a deal. These folks want war. They want to push Trump into a corner where the only way out for him is to wage war on Iran.