Germany to deepen military ties with France, others: sources

A German soldier holds NATO flag during a ceremony to welcome the German battalion being deployed to Lithuania as part of NATO deterrence measures against Russia in Rukla, Lithuania February 7, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins

 

Germany will move forward this week with plans to set up a joint fleet of Lockheed Martin Corp C-130J transport planes with France and join a Netherlands-led fleet of Airbus A330 tanker planes, defense ministry sources said on Monday.

Those and several other initiatives with Norway, Romania and the Czech Republic are part of a broader drive to expand European defense cooperation to be announced at a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels, the sources said. Continue reading

EU ARMY? ’Forget US, NATO needs European pillar’ Security chief calls for defence reforms

NATO EU army Trump defence

He claimed security was an area that had support for closer integration [GETTY]

 

A SECURITY expert has championed the idea of a ‘European pillar’ of defence for NATO, worryingly echoing calls for an EU army.

Jean-Marie Guéhenno, CEO of International Crisis Group, an independent conflict prevention organisation, has called on NATO’s European members to step up their defence spending.

The Frenchman has signalled the new direction in foreign policy by US president Donald Trump should act as a catalyst for change, warning: “NATO is about North America’s engagement in Europe, and Europeans, working with Canada, must take the initiative in proposing a vision adapted to the 21st century.  Continue reading

A President’s Policy

BERLIN (Own report) – Frank-Walter Steinmeier, President-elect of the Federal Republic of Germany is the epitome of the past two decades of Berlin’s expansionist policy – from the war over Kosovo to intervention in the Syrian war. As State Secretary in the Federal Chancellery, Steinmeier was implicated in the aggression against Yugoslavia in the spring of 1999, with which Germany, in violation of international law, entered its first war of aggression since 1945. As head of the Federal Chancellery, he had participated in the struggle to obtain access to Russia’s vast natural gas reserves. As Foreign Minister, he was massively striving to roll back Russia’s political influence by associating Ukraine with the EU, even condoning a coup – with fascist participation – in Kiev. Steinmeier’s activities had also been influenced by the so-called war on terror. In the Chancellery, he played a leading role in cooperation with the CIA’s torture program. In the fall of 2002, he helped to prevent an innocent native of Bremen from being released to Germany from the US Guantanamo torture camp. He was complicit in the interrogation of German suspects in Syrian and Lebanese torture chambers. Just recently, Steinmeier provided political support to a jihadist militia, classified a terror organization by the German judiciary. Continue reading

“It Was A Deer In Headlights Moment”: Japan Dumps Most US Treasuries Since May 2013

 

With the December monthly TIC data due out this week, bond traders will be closely watching if the selling of US Treasuries by foreign accounts, and especially central banks, which as we have repeatedly shown for the past several months has hit record levels…

However, this time the surprise may not be China, but its nemesis across the East China Sea, Japan. Continue reading

Trump To Unveil “Passive-Aggressive” Currency War With China

Call it passive-aggressive currency war.

While one of Trump’s most sincere desires, both during his campaign, and ideologically from his life prior to politics, has been to publicly declare China a currency manipulator – something he promised he would do on day one of his administration – and crack down on the “undervalued” Yuan (even though over the past 18 months, China has been scrambling to prevent further devaluation of the Yuan in light of over $1 trillion in capital outflows in recent years), lately Trump appears to have gotten second thoughts, and after backing off on his intent to negotiate the “One China” policy, now Trump is looking for a way out of engaging China directly in currency war. Continue reading

PARIS ERUPTS IN VIOLENCE: Many streets are NO-GO ZONES as five suburbs in flames

The streets of Paris have been turned into no go areas

 

POLICE in Paris are struggling to cope with the fall out from a plague of riots which have kicked off in the city’s northern suburbs.

Five large areas have been reduced to no go areas for the past five nights as masked men cause mayhem on the streets.

Now there are fears the fall out from allegations of police brutality could spread all over the country as unrest in the city grows. Continue reading

Entertainment Industry is Leading Charge to Civil War

Grammy Protest

 

The constant protests by the Entertainment industry against Trump will not subside. There is only one way this is going to end and that is blood in the streets. The riots will only escalate and the left ALWAYS becomes violent. They would not even allow the education secretary to enter a school. The Grammy show was reduced to hurried political statements, A Tribe Called Quest delivered a vigorous rebuke of Trump during a tribute to Phife Dawg, who died in March 2016. The group said the performance of We the People was also in honor of protesters. Continue reading

Corporate America Setting Up “War Rooms” To Prep For Potential Trump Tweets

Since November 8th, several public companies have unsuspectingly fallen into the cross hairs of Trump tweets sending their stocks gyrating violently while adding or erasing millions of dollars worth of market cap in a matter of seconds.  Here is just a small sample: (see source)

As we pointed out back in January, Toyota’s shares, along with the Mexican Peso, tumbled on Trump’s threat to impose a “big border tax” on their Corolla imports as the unprepared and shocked company frantically drafted a response. Continue reading

Germany Is Taking Back Gold from the United States

The German Central Bank’s (Bundesbank) member of the board Carl-Ludwig Thiele presents gold bars during a press conference at the headquarters of the German Central Bank (Bundesbank) in Frankfurt, Germany on February 9, 2017. (Abdulselam Durdak/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

 

… and it’s ahead of schedule.


The German Central Bank announced on Jan. 16, 2013, that it would relocate the gold from New York to Frankfurt. This decision was made after the U.S. Federal Reserve refused to submit to an audit of German gold held in U.S. vaults. The Germans initially estimated it would take seven years to repatriate the gold, but in yesterday’s announcement, they revealed that they had completed the task four years ahead of schedule. Continue reading

Greece warned Troika they are Playing with Fire

 

Greek Prime Minister Alexis is finally getting some backbone thanks to BREXIT. He has now warned the IMF and the German Federal Minister of Finance Wolfgang Schäuble and Merkel along with the Troika, that they should no longer “play with the fire” in the Greek debt crisis. The Troika’s demands have been an all or nothing approach to subjugate Greece. They have pushed Greece beyond human endurance and the EU will pay the price. Continue reading

More Than Half Of The US Navy’s Fighter Jets Can’t Fly: Report

Photo credit: US Navy

 

The grounded aircraft situation is largely due to the fact that, for the entirety of the Obama administration, the Democrats in the executive branch and the Republicans in Congress couldn’t agree on a budget, though we’re sort of past the point of arguing about it now:

According to the Navy, 53 per cent of all Navy aircraft can’t fly — about 1,700 combat aircraft, patrol, and transport planes and helicopters. Not all are due to budget problems — at any given time, about one-fourth to one-third of aircraft are out of service for regular maintenance. But the 53 per cent figure represents about twice the historic norm.

The strike fighter situation is even more acute and more remarkable since the aircraft are vitally important to projecting the fleet’s combat power. Sixty-two per cent of F/A-18s are out of service; 27 per cent in major depot work; and 35 per cent simply awaiting maintenance or parts, the Navy said. Continue reading

White House Puts Palestinians, United Nations in Crosshairs

AP==Kyodo

 

Trump admin no longer willing to swallow anti-Israel agenda

The White House is sending a strong signal that it will no longer tolerate Palestinian intransigence at the United Nations or the international body’s long record of anti-Israel action, according to White House officials and sources in Congress who told the Washington Free Beacon that the Trump administration will “unabashedly support Israel” in the months and years ahead.

The Trump administration sent shockwaves through the U.N. late last week when it took a stance against the appointment of a senior Palestinian official to serve in a top post overseeing Libya. Continue reading

How Obama is scheming to sabotage Trump’s presidency

And more poison pills:

Getty Images

 

When former President Barack Obama said he was “heartened” by anti-Trump protests, he was sending a message of approval to his troops. Troops? Yes, Obama has an army of agitators — numbering more than 30,000 — who will fight his Republican successor at every turn of his historic presidency. And Obama will command them from a bunker less than two miles from the White House.

In what’s shaping up to be a highly unusual post-presidency, Obama isn’t just staying behind in Washington. He’s working behind the scenes to set up what will effectively be a shadow government to not only protect his threatened legacy, but to sabotage the incoming administration and its popular “America First” agenda. Continue reading

The CIA is going after the most important man in the Trump Administration

A second poison pill, this time hard hitting:

 

Central Intelligence Agency STILL targeting key Trump allies

(INTELLIHUB) — In the months after the stunning election of Donald Trump, the CIA, with help from other intelligence services, waged a public battle against the president-elect through the anonymous release of disinformation to the establishment backed mainstream media.

Now, almost a month into the Trump presidency, these attacks are apparently continuing with the target being one of the most important people in the entire Trump Administration. Continue reading

Fake News: NBC’s Report on Russian Plans on Extradition of Edward Snowden to US

Another poison pill with the aim of undermining the the Presidency of the United States. This time just fake news with the aim of playing the Russian card.

 

Former agent of the US intelligence Edward Snowden (Photo: Reuters / Glenn Greenwald / Laura Poitras / Courtesy of the Guardian / Handout via Reuters)

 

A lawyer of former agent of the US intelligence Edward Snowden said that Russia has no reasons for his extradition.

Russia has no reasons for extradition of Edward Snowden to the US, the RIA Novosti news agency reported, citing a lawyer Anatoly Kucherena, who represents interests of the former agent of the US intelligence.

Earlier, the NBC TV-channel reported, citing unnamed sources in the White House, that the US intelligence claims that Russia is considering a possibility of extradition of Snowden as a ‘gift’ for US President Donald Trump. Continue reading