Saturday, November 17, 2018
CIA #Khashoggi findings 'highly damaging' to Mohammed bin Salman
Martin Chulov
The CIA’s conclusion that the murder of Jamal Khashoggi was ordered by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been described as the most damaging blow yet to the de facto Saudi leader, officially placing him at the heart of a scandal that continues to shake the region.
The finding, first reported by the Washington Post, for which Khashoggi had written, was the first US government assessment linking Prince Mohammed to the dissident Saudi’s death in Turkey.It came after Donald Trump and his national security adviser, John Bolton, had tried to shield him from criminal investigations that have incriminated 21 Saudi agents in the grisly murder.
The US president had previously suggested the killing inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul was carried out by rogue actors who had exceeded their authority.
The CIA found, however, that Prince Mohammed’s tight grip on decision-making made such a claim highly unlikely.
A European intelligence official told the Observer the CIA’s finding was “highly damaging to the kingdom’s official narrative”.
On Saturday, Trump said he had not yet been briefed on the findings, but he would seek an update. Formerly a strong supporter of the prince, Trump has appeared frustrated at the Khashoggi case and the complicity of senior officials, which has mapped a path to the doors of the royal court.The CIA claim came after six weeks of relentless pressure on the kingdom and the crown prince, who has denied any knowledge of the hit squad sent to Turkey or its mission.
A European intelligence official said the finding from a top intelligence agency was “highly damaging to the kingdom’s official narrative”.
The Washington Post reported that the agency strengthened its conclusions after reviewing two intercepted calls. One was reportedly between Prince Mohammed and his brother Khalid bin Salman, the Saudi ambassador to Washington, and captured the former discussing ways to get Khashoggi back to Riyadh.
The second call reportedly captured Prince Khalid assuring Khashoggi that it was safe to visit the consulate in Istanbul. Khashoggi arrived there on 2 October and never left. A Turkish-led investigation has found that he was killed and dismembered within seven minutes of entering the building. His body has not been found.
Prince Khalid strongly denied having been in contact with Khashoggi in the past year, and called on US officials to table their evidence.
“The last contact I had with Mr Khashoggi was via text on Oct 26 2017,” he said on Twitter. “I never talked to him by phone and certainly never suggested he go to Turkey for any reason. I ask the US government to release any information regarding this claim.”
The Saudi position has moved throughout the investigation. An initial blanket denial of any involvement, coupled with an assurance from Prince Khalid that Khashoggi walked freely from the consulate, gave way around 10 days later to a grudging admission that he had been killed in a fist fight, then to a concession that the killing had in fact been premeditated.
On Thursday, the Saudi state prosecutor claimed Khashoggi had died from an overdose of a drug injected into him by agents.
Turkey has attempted to maintain pressure on its regional rival, and Prince Mohammed in particular, by continuing to leak details of the investigation.During the week, Turkish officials told government-aligned media that audio tapes existed of the conspirators going over their roles as they waited for Khashoggi.The existence of tapes remains central to the investigation. Turkish intelligence officers are believed to have had a long-term bug inside the Saudi consul general’s office, where the first stages of the ambush occurred. A streaming call is also believed to have taken place at some stage during the killing.
After Khashoggi had died, a member of the kill team reportedly called an aide to Prince Mohammed and said: “Tell your boss the deed was done.” The contents of this call have added weight to the CIA’s assessment.
The western intelligence official said it was unusual for an intelligence agency to be so definitive in such a sensitive matter.
“The fact that they have means that they really do hold solid material. These intercepts will cause him [Mohammed] problems.”
NEWS ANALYSIS: These Americans Are Done With Politics - The Exhausted Majority needs a break.
By Sabrina TaverniseAs the country catches its breath after one of the most acrimonious midterm elections in years, it would be easy to conclude that all of America is hopelessly divided — a land where two angry tribes are at each other’s throats and everybody thinks about politics all the time. But the reality is far less extreme.
A deep new study of the American electorate, “Hidden Tribes,” concludes that two out of three Americans are far more practical than that narrative suggests. Most do not see their lives through a political lens, and when they have political views the views are far less rigid than those of the highly politically engaged, ideologically orthodox tribes.
The study, an effort to understand the forces that drive political polarization, surveyed a representative group of 8,000 Americans. The nonpartisan organization that did it, More in Common, paints a picture of a society that is far more disengaged — and despairing over divisions — than it is divided. At its heart is a vast and often overlooked political middle that feels forgotten in the vitriol, as if the country has gone on without it. It calls that group the Exhausted Majority, a group that represented two-thirds of the survey.
“It feels very lonely out here,” said Jamie McDaniel, a 36-year-old home health care worker in Topeka, Kan., one of several people in the study who was interviewed for this article. “Everybody is so right or left, and you’re just kind of standing there in the middle saying, “What happened?’”
For Ms. McDaniel, who works full time and is raising a young daughter, politics is not a hobby but an obligation to be endured — more dental appointment than ballgame. She does not know her friends’ political persuasions, nor they hers, because it is not part of how they see themselves. Ms. McDaniel voted on Nov. 6, mostly for Democrats, in a church. But in an interview three days later, she said she had not checked to see who won.
“I prefer to be in the dark because of all of the hostility going on,” she said.
The study found that nearly half of the Exhausted Majority say they have not been politically active in the past year, compared with just 1 percent of the Progressive Activists and Devoted Conservatives, the two least flexible and most ideological of the seven political tribes identified in the study. Forty-one percent said they did not vote in 2016.
The ugliness of politics has turned some people off. “I’m so upset, I feel physically ill,” Marsha Newman, 66, a school counselor in Chapmanville, W.Va., said on a rainy Election Day morning. “Just the ugliness of it all. It’s so heartbreaking that all we can do is bring each other down and cut into each other. I feel like I’m going to cry.” The highly politically engaged tribes may have seized on the midterm elections as a victory, but for the Exhausted Majority it merely perpetuated a hopeless stalemate. “It’s like World War I, where you’re pushing each other back and forth over the same quarter-mile of ground and nothing happens,” said Christopher Kershaw, 39, a logistics manager in rural New Jersey.The study found that members of the Exhausted Majority are more likely than those on the far ends of the political spectrum to be women, less likely to have a college or graduate degree, less likely to be white and more likely to be young. It concluded that four in five Americans believe that the country has a problem with “political correctness,” which many said made them feel bad but also bewildered — a set of rules they had not learned to decode. It also found that many in the Exhausted Majority tend to see both sides.
“My husband would tell you I’m a devil’s advocate,” said Mary Linda Vetter, 71, a retired teaching assistant in Woodhull, N.Y. “I’m always looking at the other side of the coin.”During the 2016 campaign, Ms. Vetter’s husband would watch the conservative pundit Glenn Beck and then accuse her of not caring because she had little interest. In fact, she cares a lot. Her whole life, she has voted and volunteered — at her church and at a local nursing home, visiting residents who did not have families. But she is uncomfortable with the culture of outrage and ideological conformity.
“I guess I would have to say that I’m completely confused as to who is lying and who is telling the truth,” Ms. Vetter said. “I just feel helpless.”
Partisanship may be at a modern high, but that doesn’t mean people are happy with their political choices. The study shows that most Americans have political tastes that are not uniform: They may lean toward one party, but they see things they like in both. Its findings suggest a deep hunger for political leaders who are practical and not tribal — who do not cast the world in starkly moral terms, but in bread-and-butter policy terms.
The approval of several ballot initiatives long supported by Democrats but opposed by Republicans in Republican or Republican-leaning states last week might have signaled the power of the Exhausted Majority to break partisan gridlock. Those included a measure in Florida that re-enfranchised former felons; measures in Idaho, Nebraska and Utah that expanded Medicaid; and minimum-wage measures in Arkansas and Missouri.
Yascha Mounk, a political scientist at Harvard University, said the influence of the Exhausted Majority might play out in 2020 in another way: Fatigue with the noise of politics is so deep, he said, that it might strengthen the chances of candidates offering to be less nakedly partisan. “For the last two years it’s been impossible to go to a bar on a Monday night and not have to talk about politics,” he said. “Most Americans are sick of that. I think you can win in 2020 by promising that if you become president, people can go back to talking about football.”
The study describes a Democratic base that looks far less like the progressive left and more like the American mainstream. Elizabeth Damon, 54, a veterinarian in Eagle Point, Ore., is a registered Democrat because “I really don’t think anybody should be able to tell me what to do with my own body.” But she also thinks the party has drifted too far left, and in 2016 she voted for Donald Trump. “More than anything, they just want to pick fights,” Dr. Damon said of Democrats. The Senate confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh was one example, she said. William Baltimore, 55, a mail clerk in a bank in Overland Park, Kan., who usually votes Democrat, said Mr. Trump repels him.But on immigration, Mr. Baltimore prefers Mr. Trump. The Democrats “are just willing to accept anything, anybody and anyone, and that doesn’t fly good with me,” he said. Bruce Bell, 32, of Whitmore Lake, Mich., voted Democratic his whole life, including twice for Barack Obama, but has drifted from the party, tired of what he said was progressive contempt. “The progressives, they just shut you down,” said Mr. Bell, who works on electrical systems of semitrucks. “You are a complete idiot, you don’t know what you’re talking about. You don’t have a college degree to even have an opinion on the matter.” Mr. Bell, who voted third-party in 2016, badly wants compromise, but he thinks the political system is uniquely unfit to give it. The effect is a souring on democracy itself. “It makes you feel that you are just not represented in government,” he said, adding, “like the actual interests of the people are almost irrelevant.” More than three in four Americans believe that our differences aren’t so great that we can’t work together. Mr. Bell is among them. The anger he sees is mostly on screens — not in his daily life. He still trick-or-treats with his neighbors and their children. They still wave to one another in the morning before work.
“People in my life, we can easily disagree on some controversial topic,” Mr. Bell said, “but we are not at each other’s throats, calling each other evil.”
Iran says ready to fight terrorism on Pakistan soil
Iranian Interior Ministry announced on Saturday that the country's security forces are ready for anti-terror operations on Pakistani territory.To guarantee the security of common borders, Iran is prepared for counter-terrorism operations on the Pakistani land under the supervision of the Pakistani forces, Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said.
The minister made the remarks in response to the abduction of 14 Iranian borders guards by a Pakistan-based Iranian Sunni rebel group last month.Iran has refrained from any operation against the terrorists on the other side of its border with Pakistan so far, the Iranian minister said. "It is because we wanted to respect Pakistan's sovereignty."
Fazli said that Iran expects the Pakistani government to enhance security measures along the common borders.A total of 14 Iranian border guards were kidnapped by the extremist group, Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice), in Mirjaveh border point in Iran's southeastern Sistan and Baluchestan Province on Oct. 16 and were transferred to the Pakistan soil.
On Thursday, five of the abducted border guards were freed in Pakistan.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran informed the nation he is Hitler
In a meeting with senior journalists, Prime Minister Khan said a leader who does not know how to take U-turns according to the requirements of the situation is not a real leader. The prime minister added, “Hitler and Napoleon suffered huge defeats and caused losses as they did not take U-turns.”
Reacting to the prime minister’s statement, Shah said, “Imran Khan is Hitler and is taking U-turns to avoid losses.”
“He [PM Imran Khan] has made it clear and told the nation that he is Hitler,” Shah added.
According to the PPP leader, the prime minister was also sending a message that Hitler had failed because he did not take a U-turn while he would be successful as he would.
“No Hitler, who was also a dictator, has ever been successful in history,” Shah asserted.
http://www.thesindhtimes.com/pak/pm-imran-informed-nation-hitler-khursheed-shah/
#Pakistan - #GilgitBhuttoKa #PPP will continue its struggle to eliminate extremism – Former President Zardari
Former President of Pakistan and President Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians Asif Ali Zardari has said that we need tolerance in the society for creating a peaceful and prosperous Pakistan.
Former President in his message on the eve of World Tolerance Day said that Pakistan is a country of different cultures and traditions and to some extent multi-religious as well. We need tolerance in our society which means respecting other cultures and religions. Tolerance means living with differences and the diversity in Pakistani society demands tolerance.
Asif Ali Zardari said that PPP and its leadership has always displayed tolerance. Late Begum Nusrat Bhutto and Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto taught us tolerance, patience and harmony. PPP will continue to strive for a society free of hatred and hostility. Party has always rejected extremism and terrorism and will continue its struggle against this menace of fanaticism and radicalism, he said.
https://mediacellppp.wordpress.com/2018/11/16/ppp-will-continue-its-struggle-to-eliminate-extremism-former-president-zardari/
#PPP #Pakistan - Message of Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto on World Tolerance day
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that the world needs tolerance today greater than ever because the right winged politics across the world has wreaked havoc and rocked the foundation of basic civilized society.
In his message on the occasion of World Tolerance day, which is commemorated on November 16 every year, he said that since the Global Village of today has promoted immense opportunities for a reciprocal dialogue but at the same moment, it has also allowed emerging of variety of challenges that pertain to peaceful and tranquil society.
The PPP Chairman said that it is only because of the right-winged politics that a prominent section of the society has been divided into smaller factions owing to that the world is seriously lacking the spirit and unity, efforts and mechanism for the alleviation of poverty, illiteracy and hunger. In addition, different local and international disputes have arisen, instead.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that tolerance is an integrated part of Islamic teachings and the basis of world peace lies in tolerance and tranquility.
The PPP Chairman said that his party, PPP, is the custodian of norms and values of a civilized society through peace and tranquility. The Party has suffered a lot at the hands of extremists but never resorted to any fight-back of vengeance despite all the losses, and the Party also never resorted to politics of vengeance in retaliation to political atrocities and injustices and has always kept the doors open for the reconciliation and tolerating each other.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that it was dynamic platform of politics, which has embraced all sections of life inclusive of religious, ethnic, different communal and cultural entities alike and hence it provides the vast canvass to all with peace, love, respect and tolerance.
https://mediacellppp.wordpress.com/2018/11/16/message-of-chairman-ppp-bilawal-bhutto-zardari-on-world-tolerance-day/
In his message on the occasion of World Tolerance day, which is commemorated on November 16 every year, he said that since the Global Village of today has promoted immense opportunities for a reciprocal dialogue but at the same moment, it has also allowed emerging of variety of challenges that pertain to peaceful and tranquil society.
The PPP Chairman said that it is only because of the right-winged politics that a prominent section of the society has been divided into smaller factions owing to that the world is seriously lacking the spirit and unity, efforts and mechanism for the alleviation of poverty, illiteracy and hunger. In addition, different local and international disputes have arisen, instead.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that tolerance is an integrated part of Islamic teachings and the basis of world peace lies in tolerance and tranquility.
The PPP Chairman said that his party, PPP, is the custodian of norms and values of a civilized society through peace and tranquility. The Party has suffered a lot at the hands of extremists but never resorted to any fight-back of vengeance despite all the losses, and the Party also never resorted to politics of vengeance in retaliation to political atrocities and injustices and has always kept the doors open for the reconciliation and tolerating each other.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that it was dynamic platform of politics, which has embraced all sections of life inclusive of religious, ethnic, different communal and cultural entities alike and hence it provides the vast canvass to all with peace, love, respect and tolerance.
https://mediacellppp.wordpress.com/2018/11/16/message-of-chairman-ppp-bilawal-bhutto-zardari-on-world-tolerance-day/