IT WAS A DEEP STATE SET-UP: Trump Campaign Volunteer Papadopoulos Introduced to ‘Russian’ Mifsud by FBI in London!

As the Mueller Investigation and the corrupt FBI investigations unravel we are finding out additional information on how the Trump team was set up by US and foreign agents. London appears to be the hotbed for spies from all countries and that’s where the Trump sham appears to have started.

Candidate Trump’s unpaid volunteer George Papadopoulos was indicted by the Mueller team for lying. We still don’t know what he lied about, but we are finding out about the FBI’s involvement in setting him up.

Papadopoulos was in an interview with former Secret Agent and author Dan Bongino when he shared this –

Bongino: I want to get right to it. I have a list of questions for you..I guess the easiest question to ask is why did you meet with Mifsud?

Papadopoulos: Professor Mifsud is a Maltese professor. Just so everybody understands – he’s not a Russian.

I was working at this organization in London – the London Center for International Law Practice (LCILP) – that unbeknownst to me at the time was apparently some sort of front group for ex-western diplomats and ex-western intelligence types of personalities.

As well, the legal counsel for the FBI in the UK, Arvinder Sambei, just happens to also be a director at this organization I used to work for. I tell this organization ‘Look, I’m joining the Trump Campaign, I’m leaving. I’m going back to the U.S. I’m leaving London.

But they all of a sudden tell me, ‘before you leave, you really need to come to Rome with us. We want to introduce you to some people there.’ So, I say, ‘that’s fine. I’ll go to Rome. It’s a three-day holiday before I get back to Washington.

They introduce me to Josef Mifsud at this university in Rome called Link Campus. This isn’t any normal university in Rome. At the time I had no idea what this place was. But apparently, it’s a training ground for western intelligence operatives in Rome. The CIA has held symposiums there. David Ignatius from the Washington Post has actually written extensively about this place. They have connections to the FBI and other groups.

I also saw many Italian diplomats there. The ex-foreign minister of Italy was the director of this university, so things started to pop in my mind that this isn’t just a random event – a random meeting.

They tell me it’s very important for you to meet Josef Mifsud. I had no idea who this person was. He came up to me, presented himself as this mid-fifties, former diplomat, who knew the world.

The mainstream media and the FBI, DOJ and Mueller team all wanted to connect President Trump to Russia so they set up Papadopoulos and then claimed that he met with Russians. The only problem is that the Russian was not a Russian – he’s a Maltese professor, Josehp Mifsud The entire connections in London were a set up.

SIGN THE PETITION: End The Robert Mueller “Witch Hunt” For Good!

Mueller’s Team also has connections to Joseph Mifsud –

According to one investigative site on the web, one of the members of Mueller’s team was connected to Mifsud –

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/02/it-was-a-deep-state-set-up-trump-campaign-volunteer-papadopoulos-introduced-to-russian-mifsud-by-fbi-in-london/

Watch Top Catholic Cardinal Admit Church 'Destroyed' Pedophile Documents

Germany's top cardinal Reinhard Marx railed against the Catholic Church's decades-long pedophilia scandal during a Saturday conference in the Vatican called by Pope Francis to discuss child abuse, according to Deutsche Welle.

"Sexual abuse of children and young people can be traced back, in no small part, to the abuse of power in the area of administration," Marx told some 200 senior church officials including the pope, adding that the Vatican had been "trampling on the rights of victims," by derailing investigations into child abuse.

"It was not the perpetrators, but the victims who were regulated and pushed into silence," Marx said, adding: "The files that documented these horrible acts and could name those responsible were destroyed or not created at all."

The Catholic church has taken steps to crisis-manage their pedophile scandal, after an archbishop in the Vatican ignited a scandal that nearly brought down the pope when he alleged the systematic suppression of an investigation into one of the church's most powerful cardinals in the US, 88-year-old William McCarrick, who was found guilty of misusing his position of power to abuse both seminarians and children. McCarrick was defrocked by Pope Francis as a result.

Last August, a bombshell grand jury report from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court concluded that over 300 members of the Catholic clergy molested over 1,000 child victims amid a "systematic" coverup by church leaders spanning over seven decades - in the second major Catholic pedophile scandal that month following a raid conducted in Chile at the Catholic Episcopal Conference.

"The coverup was sophisticated. And all the while, shockingly, church leadership kept records of the abuse and the coverup. These documents, from the dioceses' own 'Secret Archives,' formed the backbone of this investigation," said Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro.

Meanwhile in Chile, authorities raided the headquarters of the Catholic Church's Episcopal Conference as part of a wide-ranging probe into clerical sex abuse in the South American country, following an investigation into 158 members of the country's Catholic church - both clergymen and lay people, for perpetrating or concealing the sexual abuse of children as well as adults.

In May, Pope Francis summoned the entire bishops conference to Rome after he said he made "grave errors in judgement" in the case of Baros, who stands accused by victims of pedophile Rev. Fernando Karadima of witnessing and ignoring their abuse.

But the scandal grew beyond the Barros case after Francis received the report written by two Vatican sex crimes experts sent to Chile to get a handle on the scope of the problem.

Their report hasn't been made public, but Francis cited its core findings in the footnotes of the document that he handed over to the bishops at the start of their summit this week.

And those findings are damning. -Daily Mail

While some of the pedophile priests and brothers were expelled from their congregations following the discovery of "immoral conduct," many had their cases "minimized of the absolute gravity of their criminal acts, attributing them to mere weakness or moral lapses," wrote Francis.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-02-23/watch-top-catholic-cardinal-admit-church-destroyed-pedophile-documents

‘We are defending our borders and freedom’: Maduro amid humanitarian aid tensions

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro has rallied a large crowd of supporters telling them that the country has been defending its sovereignty. The call comes as the opposition was trying to get ‘aid’ from the US across the border.

Maduro rejected the attempts by self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaido to pressure border guards deployed to border crossings with Colombia to allow trucks in, calling the campaign an “attempted coup”. He called on the people of Venezuela to band behind his government.

“It is not a time of betrayal, it is a time of loyalty to the country and the supreme ideals of Venezuela,” he said.

Maduro dismissed the defectors, saying what they did was for show, just like the entire situation on the border orchestrated by the US government.

He stated that Venezuela was within its rights to defend its borders and the freedom of its people from a "Washington regime-change operation".

https://www.rt.com/news/452264-we-are-defending-our-borders/

Pentagon to send another 1,000 troops to Mexican border

Feb. 23 (UPI) — The Pentagon plans to deploy about 1,000 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border by the start of March, the Defense Department said Friday.

Those additional personnel will be tasked with applying barbed wiring to existing border fences, Defense Department officials said at a briefing Friday, The Washington Post and The Hill reported. It will bring the number of troops at the border to about 6,000.

“That mission has evolved,” a senior defense official said. “We are now transitioning to supporting [areas] between the ports of entry. We’re laying down another 140 miles of concertina wire — [we’re] about 30 percent done with that — as well as providing a ground-based detection and monitoring mission in support of CBP.”

Military personnel at the border have already installed about 70 miles of wiring, in addition to reinforcing ports of entry and medically treating migrants, a senior defense official said.

Early this month, the Pentagon announced it would deploy 3,750 additional troops to the southern border. Last year, President Donald Trump suggested as many as 15,000 troops could be sent there.

Trump has made border security a hallmark of his administration. The longest partial government shutdown in U.S. history, which ended earlier this year, resulted from his demand for $5.7 billion to fund a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

https://www.breitbart.com/news/pentagon-to-send-another-1000-troops-to-mexican-border/

Venezuelan government condemns US-orchestrated ‘propaganda show’ at Colombian border

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza has blasted the United States and Colombia for organizing a “propaganda show” at the country’s Colombian border. The border is currently the scene of a standoff over aid shipments.

“From the propaganda show organized at the border, the governments of the United States and Colombia have violated practically all the principles and purposes of the UN Charter,” Arreaza tweeted on Saturday. “The world community observes them and will take appropriate action within the UN.”

Truckloads of US-supplied humanitarian aid remain parked on the Colombian side of the border, after the Venezuelan government locked down crossing points on Friday night. Protesters have spontaneously clashed with government troops at the border, but Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro refuses to allow the convoys to enter, calling them a precursor to military invasion.

Rabidly anti-Maduro Senator Marco Rubio has visited the border to drum up support for regime change in Venezuela, as has US envoy to Venezuela Elliott Abrams, best known for smuggling weapons in aid shipments to Nicaragua’s right-wing Contras in the early 1980s.

Tweeting in Spanish, Rubio warned the Venezuelan military,the majority of whom remain loyal to Maduro, to lay down their arms. “Now is the time, tomorrow will be too late,” he said.

President Trump, who threw his support behind opposition leader Juan Guaido moments after Guaido declared himself interim president last month, was short on analysis and simply tweeted "God Bless the people of Venezuela!"

The United Nations has warned the US against using aid as a political pawn, and called for negotiations between Maduro and Guaido. “Humanitarian action needs to be independent of political, military or other objectives,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York on Wednesday.

https://www.rt.com/news/452263-venezuela-border-propaganda-show/

Congress Wants To Bring Thousands More Acres Under Federal Control. The US Can’t Afford It

A lengthy public lands package sitting in Congress adds hundreds of thousands of acres of federally protected wilderness without securing funding to manage it.

The House is preparing to vote on a bipartisan land package next week that is roughly 660 pages and composed of 118 different bills. The Senate version passed its version, the most comprehensive land package in a decade, on Feb. 12 in a 92 to 8 vote.

“It touches every state, features the input of a wide coalition of our colleagues, and has earned the support of a broad, diverse coalition of many advocates for public lands, economic development and conservation,” Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, according to The Washington Post.

The Senate package designates 1.3 million acres in California, New Mexico, Oregon and Utah as wilderness, the strictest form of federal protection that bans development of almost any kind as well as roads and most forms of motorized travel. It prohibits mineral development on 370,000 acres of land near two national parks in Montana and Washington state.

The lands package designates three new national monuments – two in Kentucky and one in Mississippi – to be managed by the National Park Service (NPS) and classifies roughly 500 miles of river in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Oregon as wild, scenic or recreational.

The federal government is more than $18 billion behind on maintenance needed on current federal land holdings. The NPS holds the largest amount of the debt, about $11 billion, according to a 2017 Congressional Research Service report.

The lands package lacks any meaningful programs or plans to pay off the debt. The omission is one of several reasons Utah GOP Sen. Mike Lee fought the lands package in the Senate and was one of the few to vote against its passage.

https://dailycaller.com/2019/02/22/mike-lee-federal-land-package/

Macron MP Compares Traditional Marriage Activists to Islamic Terrorists

An MP belonging to French President Emmanuel Macron’s La Republique En Marche! (LREM) has compared members of a pro-traditional marriage movement to radical Islamic terrorists.

LREM MP Marlène Schiappa, who serves as Secretary of Equality, made her comments earlier this week, comparing the Manif Pour Tous movement, which protested against same-sex marriage, to Islamic radicals.

She alleged the “existence of an ideological convergence” between the two, Europe 1

“There is an explosion of anti-Semitic acts, but also homophobic,” Ms Schiappa said, before asserting that “there is an alliance between the people of the extreme right and the Islamists, who unite in fact in this fight.”

“There are slogans of the Manif Pour Tous that are launched in the suburbs,” she added, referring to the heavily migrant-populated Paris suburbs which have seen a number of both anti-Semitic and homophobic attacks in recent years.

The Manif Pour Tous movement reacted to the comments in a press release, saying they would be lodging a formal defamation complaint against Schiappa in court.

“These scandalous remarks are an insult to the millions of French people mobilized since 2012 to peacefully show their attachment to the family, the first place of solidarity and refuge for the most vulnerable. These remarks are also an insult to the victims of Islamist terrorism whose suffering they relativize,” the group said.

Schiappa’s comments are not the first controversial statements from the LREM MP in recent months. In January she proposed that “foreign powers” could be behind the anti-establishment Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vest) movement.

“Who finances the rioters? Foreign powers? The question is not incongruous, given the positions of Italian officials,” she suggested.

The comments were in reference to Italian Five Star Movement leader Luigi Di Maio expressing support for the Yellow Vests and later meeting with several of their leaders.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/02/23/macron-mp-compares-traditional-marriage-activists-to-islamic-terrorists/

NYC’s murder rate rises 55% and rapes up 21% so far in 2019

From Daily Mail: New York City’s murder rate has risen 55 percent in 2019 so far, according to NYPD statistics.

Numbers show that, from the start of 2019 through Sunday, there have been 48 grisly murders in New York City, compared to just 31 in the same seven-week period in 2018.

However, overall crime in the Big Apple is down eight percent.

A majority of those killings have taken place in Brooklyn North, where 15 murders have been recorded so far this year. By this time last year there were a total of three murders in all 10 precincts in that area, marking a 400 percent increase, according to the New York Daily News.

The number of murders has also increased in northern Queens, where there have been four killings recorded so far. At this time last year, there were none.

The number of shootings in general are on the rise as well. Nonfatal shootings have increased by 69 percent as 22 people have been shot this year, compared to just 13 last year.

The shocking number defies the progress of 2018, where 289 people were murdered, a one percent decrease from 292 people in 2017. 2018 also saw shooting incidents down a total of four percent.

To add to the wave of crime, reports of rape have also risen. There have been 239 reported rapes around the city, 21 percent more than the 198 reported last year in the seven-week time frame.

Other categories of crime such as robbery, felony assault, burglary, grand larceny and grand larceny auto are down six percent and 14 percent so far in 2019.

Cops believe the #MeToo movement has empowered more victims to come forward and report the assaults.

The New York Police Department said they’re working on tackling the violent crime.

‘The NYPD will use these proven tactics to address any temporary upticks so that every New Yorker – regardless of zip code – can live in safety,’ Deputy commissioner Phillip Walzak said to the outlet.

https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/nycs-murder-rate-rises-55-and-rapes-up-21-so-far-in-2019/

Microsoft staff protest over Pentagon contract for augmented reality tech ‘designed to kill people’

Dozens of Microsoft employees have demanded the company pull out of a contract with the US military to provide augmented reality technology, stating that they refuse to be complicit in “warfare and oppression.”

Microsoft workers released a letter on Friday addressed to CEO Satya Nadella and President Brad Smith, in which they voiced opposition to the $479 million contract that aims to equip the US Army with up to 100,000 augmented reality headsets to be used in combat and for training. The Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) will be based on a preexisting Microsoft technology called HoloLens. Released in March 2016, HoloLens is capable of interposing digital images on whatever its wearer sees.

Signed by more than 50 employees, the letter states that the IVAS contract marks the first time that Microsoft has “crossed the line into weapons development.”

“The application of HoloLens within the IVAS system is designed to help people kill,” they wrote. “It will be deployed on the battlefield, and works by turning warfare into a simulated ‘video game,’ further distancing soldiers from the grim stakes of war and the reality of bloodshed.”

The employees said that they “did not sign up to develop weapons,” and demanded more control over “how our work is used.”

Microsoft acknowledged the petition – but insisted that the company has always been transparent and open to feedback from its workers.

“We always appreciate feedback from employees and provide many avenues for their voices to be heard,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement responding to the petition. “In fact, we heard from many employees throughout the fall. As we said then, we’re committed to providing our technology to the US Department of Defense, which includes the US Army under this contract.”

The statement promised that Microsoft, as an “active corporate citizen,” would remain engaged in “the important ethical and public policy issues” surrounding artificial intelligence and the military.

Workers at America’s tech giants have increasingly spoken out against their companies’ business dealings with intelligence agencies and the Pentagon. Firms such as Apple, Google and Amazon have all faced scrutiny from employees and the public alike for their shady dealings with the US government.

In June, Google backed out of a contract with the Pentagon after facing internal dissent from angry workers. The tech giant had been enlisted to provide the US military with an advanced AI that would improve the targeting capabilities of weaponized drones.

Microsoft, however, seems to be sticking to its Pentagon-friendly guns. In December, the company’s president said that Microsoft would “provide the US military with access to the best technology… all the technology we create. Full stop.” He added that he wanted “Silicon Valley to know just how ethical and honorable a tradition the military has.”

https://www.rt.com/usa/452227-pentagon-microsoft-hololens-petition/

Orbán faces backlash over billboard campaign

The Hungarian government’s ad hoardings campaign on “Brussels’ plans” contains accurate, true and tenable statements, Gergely Gulyas, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office, told a regular press briefing.

European public officials, the European Commission (EC) and the European People’s Party (EPP) should all be capable of self-criticism, he said. The five-year EU parliamentary cycle about to end is best described by failed attempts to keep migrants outside the EU and the UK within the bloc, he said.

Gulyas added that EC President Jean-Claude Juncker, who is featured on the ad hoardings, had done “all he could” to have Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party expelled from the EPP, and publicly declared this intention recently, during the EP election campaign. “Fidesz has always been loyal to the EPP”, he said. In response to a question about the billboard campaign, Gulyas said the government will reach out to every voter by mail to inform them about the details of the campaign.

This week Juncker and several other EPP politicians rejected the campaign. At the plenary session of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) in Brussels, Juncker said that he is “totally unable to hate someone” and very surprised to see “these posters now spread around in Hungary full of hatred”.

Swedish EPP MEP Gunnar Hökmark urged group leader and spitzenkandidat Manfred Weber to “address the question of Mr. Orban and Fidesz at the next group meeting and at an extra meeting with the Bureau of the group already next week”, according to Politico.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel told at a press conference on another subject that Juncker has her “full solidarity.” Meanwhile, Merkel’s successor as chair of the CDU, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, did threaten Fidesz with halting bilateral cooperation between the two parties, unless they could find common ground on the EPP’s broader aims, DW reported. “It’s up to the Hungarians to clearly prove that they still belong in the EPP,” Kramp-Karrenbauer told Der Spiegel.

https://voiceofeurope.com/2019/02/orban-faces-backlash-over-billboard-campaign/

Militants Keep Preventing Refugees From Leaving Rukban Camp - Russian Military

Militants are still stopping refugees and their families from leaving Syria's Rukban camp and providing them false information about true intentions of Russia and Damascus, head of the Russian Defense Ministry's Center for Syrian Reconciliation Lt. Gen. Sergei Solomatin said on Friday.

According to Solomatin, two checkpoints were opened on Tuesday to facilitate the refugees' withdrawal from the Rukban camp, which lies in the area controlled by the United States. Soldiers from the Russian Reconciliation Center in Syria and crews of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent are working at the checkpoints, and are prepared to provide assistance for those who want to leave the camp, he added.

"At the same time, illegal armed groups operating in the area [spanning] 55 kilometers [34 miles], are preventing the refugees from leaving the Rukban camp, providing them misleading information about true intentions of the Russian side and Damascus," Solomatin told a briefing.

He called on the United States to put pressure on the leadership of opposition groups and prevent them from disrupting the evacuation of civilians from the camp.

Syria has been in a state of civil war since 2011, with the government forces fighting against numerous opposition groups and militant and terrorist organizations. Russia, along with Turkey and Iran, is a guarantor of the ceasefire regime in Syria. Moscow has also been providing humanitarian aid to residents of the crisis-torn country.

https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201902231072671882-militants-continue-blocking-rukban-refugees/

FITTON: BIG Batch of Emails Confirm Bribery Offer by State to FBI in order to protect Hillary Clinton!

Here’s the release: www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-fbi-general-counsel-talked-to-hillary-clintons-lawyer-about-comeys-letter-on-weiner-laptop-clinton-emails/

And a link directly to the emails: www.judicialwatch.org/document-archive/jw-v-state-strzok-page-emails-prod-7-00154/

Florida human trafficking: Billionaire equity firm owner John Childs wanted on prostitution charge in Vero Beach

Billionaire equity firm owner John Childs is one of several men accused of soliciting prostitution in connection with a Florida spa tied to an international human trafficking ring, police said Thursday.

Childs, who lives seasonally in Indian River Shores, is wanted on a solicitation of prostitution charge, according to a warrant for his arrest. He has not been arrested.

Childs owns J.W. Childs Associates, a private equity firm based in Massachusetts.

He's a prominent donor to several Republican politicians and groups, including former U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, Club for Growth and 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

He donated about $4.3 million to Republican candidates and PACs last cycle, according to a review of federal campaign finance records.

https://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/crime/indian-river-county/2019/02/22/billionaire-john-childs-charged-florida-human-trafficking-prostitution-ring/2953948002/

Everyone has fallen for the lies about Venezuela (by Lee Camp)

Socialism, ditching the dollar, and having natural resources are the three crimes that usually provoke the US into overthrowing a foreign government. And these are the reasons it’s backing the coup in Venezuela.

There are three things I know for sure in this fanciful, sometimes inglorious experience we call life:

You will never have a safety pin when you need one, and you will have thousands when you don’t need one.

Wild animals are breathtakingly majestic until they’re crawling up your pant leg.

A US presidential administration will never admit that it invaded another country or backed a coup attempt in order to essentially steal the natural resources (oil) of said country.

This is why it was so very shocking last week when members of the Trump administration admitted they were backing a coup attempt in order to essentially steal the natural resources (oil) of another country.

That country is Venezuela. I’ll get back to this in a moment.

Let’s take a second to go over the big three. There are three things that seem to provoke the ornery United States into overthrowing or bringing down a foreign government, no matter how many innocent civilians may die in the process. (If enough die, the perpetrators often get nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.) If your country has one of these things, the US might screw with you. If your country has two of these things, the US will definitely screw with you. If your country has three of these things, then look behind you, because the US is currently screwing you:

1. Being socialist.

Pretty self-explanatory. If you don’t have the same economic system as we do, we treat it like you have candy and we’re not allowed to have any, so we slip razor blades in yours and tell everyone your candy kills people.

1. Dropping the US dollar.

Iraq dropped the dollar. We invaded.

Syria dropped the dollar. We invaded.

Iran dropped the dollar. We want to invade.

Libya planned to drop the dollar. We invaded.

Pakistan dropped the dollar in trade with China, and the US added them to the list of countries violating religious freedom. (I guess you could argue they did indeed violate our religion: The dollar.)

Basically, we do NOT take kindly to countries dropping the dollar.

In unrelated news, Venezuela dropped the dollar.

1. Having oil or other natural resources the US needs.

In case you were curious, Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the known world. (But we haven’t checked northern Wyoming yet, because it’s a long, cold drive with nary a 7-11.)

So these are the three ACTUAL reasons the US has created an attempted coup in Venezuela over the past several weeks. And right now, you are falling into one of two categories. Either you’re saying to yourself, “Of course those are the reasons. Those are the only reasons the US ever tries to bring down governments.” OR you still have some strange, deep-rooted faith in our Pepsi-and-pharmaceutical-owned media outlets, and therefore you’re thinking, “That’s not true. The US supports the opposition in Venezuela because we want to help those poor starving people.” But if that were accurate, we would be tripping over ourselves to help starving and sick people around the world. Instead we (oddly) only seek to help them when they have oil under their feet. And in fact, data has proven this true. A study a few years ago from the Universities of Portsmouth, Warwick and Essex found that foreign intervention in civil conflicts is 100 times more likely if the country has a great deal of oil, versus none.

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/452176-venezuela-resources-us-lies/

France's Jewish Elites Demand Yellow Vest Protests Be Shut Down

Le Parisien today (19 February) has an interview with Frances Kalifat, president of the CRIF (Representative Council of Jewish Organisations of France), the main Jewish ethno-activist organisation in France. All major French politicians are expected to attend its dinners and pay court to it it, except those of the Front National (now renamed Le Rassemblement National), who, being defenders of French interests, are systematically excluded.

https://russia-insider.com/en/frances-jewish-elites-demand-yellow-vest-protests-be-shut-down/ri26334

Iran Apprehends Eight Al-Qaeda Suspects for Attack on IRGC Forces

Eight people have been arrested so far in connection with the terrorist attack that took place in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan, said the head of the Provincial Justice Department of Sistan-Baluchestan Province.

A suicide attack on a bus, carrying Islamic Republic Guard Corps (IRGC) personnel, martyred 27 and wounded 13 in southeastern Iran on February 12th. A terrorist group so-called Jaish al-Adl, affiliated to Al-Qaida, claimed responsibility for the incident.

Ibrahim Hamidi said that one of the detainees who is the owner of the exploded car is a woman that was arrested based on solid evidence.

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‘When examining her house, parts of the exploded car were found,’ he noted.

He added that as soon as the court verdict is issued, it will be announced publicly.

The official further said that security forces had in their search operations in Khash and Saravan, in southeastern Iran, also found 750 kilograms of explosives, 150 kilograms of which were ready for terror attacks, said Hamidi.

Regarding assassination of a traffic police officer recently, he said three people have been arrested so far and valuable clues have been found

https://www.fort-russ.com/2019/02/major-iran-apprehends-eight-al-qaeda-suspects-for-attack-on-irgc-forces/

Pompeo vows US will help uproot ‘authoritarianism’ in Nicaragua & Cuba

The United States will help the people of Nicaragua and Cuba to resist “non-democratic regimes” in their countries, Mike Pompeo has said. His comments come as Washington steps up calls for a new government in Venezuela.

The secretary of state responded in the affirmative when asked during an interview with Telemundo if the US would “help” people living in “non-democratic regimes” in South America.

“Yes, President Trump’s administration has done so and will continue to do so. Not just in Venezuela but certainly in Nicaragua and Cuba,” Pompeo said, adding that the Washington is “working diligently to achieve good outcomes for those people.”

He stated that the US would help the people of these countries to rise up against the “yoke of authoritarianism” and “achieve a better political situation.”

“The people need to lead those efforts. I’m convinced that they’re determined to do it as well. The American people will support them,” said Pompeo.

His comments come on the heels of an incendiary tweet from National Security Advisor John Bolton, who wrote that Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega’s “days are numbered” and that “the Nicaraguan people will soon be free.”

In the meantime, Washington has increased its pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who so far has successfully weathered a “coup” attempt led by self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaido. The US-backed opposition leader has entered into a showdown with Caracas over US “humanitarian aid” stashed in Colombia and Brazil. Maduro has refused to allow the opposition to deliver the cargo and has sealed the borders with neighboring states. The decision was followed by reports that Venezuelan security forces killed several civilians near the border with Brazil. Caracas has strongly denied the allegations.

https://www.rt.com/usa/452229-pompeo-cuba-nicaragua-venezuela/

US Defeat in Syria: The Wrong End of “Might Makes Right”

With Damascus and its allies firmly in control of Syria and its future – the war having been decided on the ground rather than “politically” as envisioned by Western politicians, media, and policymakers – the US proxy war against Syria has all but failed.

Despite the obvious defeat – and as contemporary American history has illustrated – the US will unlikely relent and instead, do all within its power to complicate the war’s conclusion and disrupt desperately needed reconstruction efforts.

Encapsulating current American intentions in Syria is a Foreign Policy article titled, “The New U.N. Envoy to Syria Should Kill the Political Process to Save it.”

The article – written by Julien Barnes-Dacey of the NATO-Soros-funded European Council on Foreign Relations – suggests the otherwise inevitable end of the conflict be delayed and that reconstruction aid be held hostage until political concessions are made with the militarily-defeated foreign-backed militants dislodged from much of Syria’s territory by joint Syrian-Russian-Iranian-Hezbollah efforts.

The article makes an unconvincing argument that maintaining Idlib as a militant bastion, delaying the conflict’s conclusion, and withholding reconstruction aid will somehow positively benefit the day-to-day lives of Syrian civilians despite all evidence suggesting otherwise.

Demands made toward “decentralizing” political power across Syria seems to be a poorly re-imagined and watered down version of America’s Balkanization plans rolled out in 2012 when swift regime change was clearly not possible. The article also indicates concern over Europe’s potential pivot toward Russia and an abandonment of European complicity with US regime change efforts.

But what is most striking is the article’s – and Washington’s insistence that Syria make concessions to a defeated enemy – funded and armed from abroad and with every intention of transforming Syria into what Libya has become in the wake of the US-led NATO intervention there – a fractured failed state overrun by extremists disinterested and incapable of administering a functioning, united nation-state.

It is striking because it has been the US who has for over half a century predicated its foreign policy on the age-old adage of “might makes right.” The US – no longer mightiest – now demands concessions despite no leverage to logically compel anyone to make such concessions.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-defeat-in-syria-the-wrong-end-of-might-makes-right/5669416

Reporter Finds No Empty Shelves in Venezuelan Supermarket (VIDEO)

US journalist Max Blumenthal went to Venezuela’s capital to see how reports of a humanitarian crisis in the country correspond with reality and found at least one supermarket which continues to operate well.

Blumenthal visited a hypermarket of the Excelsior Gama chain in Caracas and posted a video showing that there is still a wide selection of meats, cheeses and dairy products, as well as alcohol and basic commodities.

Blumenthal also showed that a large package of dog food which he says costs 66,000 bolivars and that imported olive oil is worth 85,000 bolivars.

He concluded that he had a “pretty normal” supermarket experience, yet had to pay for it in dollars instead of bolivars, in cash and not with a card. He noted that the issue is not one of food scarcity or distribution, but rather “buying power” as Venezuela’s currency has been “completely destroyed.”

“It has been completely weakened by hyperinflation, speculation and the flood of dollars that the government cannot control here as well the accumulation by private capitalist elements that support the opposition,” he said.

Blumenthal’s video report came amid reporting from the western media that the country is in a state of humanitarian crisis and people are facing food and water shortages. The Independent reported last week that “Grocery shelves lie empty as food becomes increasingly scarce and expensive” and a CNN reporter claimed that Venezuelan supermarkets are lacking basic commodities.

READ MORE: US Air Force Plane With Aid for Venezuela Arrives in Colombia's Cucuta

On 21 February, Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, alongside members of the opposition-led parliament, set off to the country's border with Colombia to welcome the delivery of US aid despite Maduro's pledge to turn it back. The US aid had been collected at logistics hubs in Brazil's Roraima, Colombia's Cucuta and on the Caribbean island of Curacao. President Nicolas Maduro said during televised comments that Venezuela would close the border with Brazil and was considering closing the border with Colombia, saying that the US and its allies were using "the pretext of delivering humanitarian aid" to try to "destroy the independence and sovereignty of the country.”

https://sputniknews.com/latam/201902231072671472-reporter-finds-no-empty-shelves-venezuela/

AID = WEAPONS FOR WAR