Headlines of interest for August 2020 [Editor’s note: we have a few more items to digest, check for updates; see also our Minds page, evidently now requiring sign-in, our apologies]…
Al Jazeera – Dozens killed, thousands wounded in Beirut explosion: Live
AFP (Twitter) – #BREAKING Two explosions in Beirut port left dozens wounded: security source – Gustavo @Gu_rebel caught the second, larger explosion – also Rachael Venables @rachaelvenables
Newsflare – Unseen footage shows moment of Beirut explosion in 4K slow motion
BBC – Beirut explosion: What we know so far
USA Today – Trump says massive explosion in Beirut appears to be an attack but local officials are still investigating
Reuters – Lebanon’s leaders were warned in July about explosives at port – documents
– Lebanon sees possible ‘external interference’ in port blast
L’Orient-Le Jour – Aoun évoque la possibilité d’un missile ou d’une bombe
Mehr News Agency – Possibility of US sabotage in Beirut explosion
Richard Silverstein – BREAKING: Israel Bombed Beirut
Voltairenet (Thierry Meyssan) – Israel destroys East Beirut with a new weapon
Elijah J. Magnier – The Beirut Explosion: Who is responsible?
– US-Israel meeting: When is the Hezbollah response expected?
Times of Israel – Israel TV: Hezbollah apparently wanted Beirut’s ammonium nitrate for Israel war
Wayne Madsen Report – August 6-7, 2020 — There were two explosions in Beirut, one willful and the other an accident
WMR has learned that there were two explosions in the port of Beirut, Lebanon on August 5. The first explosion was caused by an Israeli special operations team that was targeting a Hezbollah arms depot in a warehouse at the port. However, the Israeli team failed to perform a survey of surrounding structures and it was unaware that 2750 tons of ammonium nitrate had been stored for the past seven years in a structure adjacent to the Hezbollah weapons warehouse. The first explosion was from the Hezbollah warehouse. The second and more devastating ammonium nitrate explosion and massive supersonic shock wave leveled the port of Beirut, killed hundreds, injured thousands, and caused severe damage throughout most of the city….
ThereAreNoSunglasses – 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, 850 Tons Beyond MVRhosus Capacity
Noteworthy that the abandoned shipment of ammonium nitrate had arrived on September 20, 2013 -in the wake of Obama’s stand-down of overt military action in Syria. Pepe Escobar suggests that “moderate rebels” in Syria may have subsequently made use of this stockpile….
Asia Times (mirrored at Zero Hedge) – Who profits from the Beirut blast?
Voltairenet (Thierry Meyssan) – Israel destroys East Beirut with a new weapon
South Front – Desperate Measures: Israel Deployed ‘Robot Soldier’ On Separation Line With Lebanon To Trick Hezbollah (Video)
Reuters – Fire breaks out at Iranian industrial area, no casualties: state TV
Rudaw – Iran strikes Kurdish opposition party base in Kurdistan Region territory
South Front – Pro-Iranian Forces Attack US Convoys Withdrawing From Largest Base In Iraq
Al Monitor – Pro-Iran militias continue hitting military bases in Iraq
– Iran arrests US-based leader of exile group
– Exposure of Israel-UAE ties changes Middle East substantively
– Agreement with UAE reveals Mossad chief’s ambitions
South Front – UAE And Israel Plan To Create Intelligence Bases On Yemen’s Socotra Island
A fly in the ointment…
Middle East Eye – UAE cancels meeting with US and Israel over F-35 deal: Report
– ‘Nobody can see him’: Lawyers of detained Saudi prince sound alarm
Reliefweb – Yemen: Women and children killed and injured in Khabb wa ash Sha’af District in Al Jawf Governorate
Press TV – Elliott Abrams — the worst choice for US special envoy for Iran
Haaretz – Kamala Harris: Biden White House Will Not Place Conditions on Aid to Israel
Al Jazeera – Israel carries out air strike on Gaza over balloon bombs, rockets
Palestine Post 24 – Gaza to plunge in full darkness in days
Times of Israel – Syria’s Assad briefly leaves parliament speech after ‘drop in blood pressure’
Al Masdar News – Massive Turkish military convoy enters northwestern Syria after Russian airstrikes
Syrian Arab News Agency – Syria condemns Turkish regime’s crime of cutting off water to Hasaka residents
– Electricity Minister: Explosion on Arab gas pipeline leads to blackout in Syria- video
ThereAreNoSunglasses – US Special Forces Oil Company (Delta Crescent Energy) Looting Eastern Syria, Pillaging Oil
– Turkish Gas Looting Spree Setting-Off Confrontation w/Greece, France, UAE, US
– Malian Coup Leaders Special Forces Trained By Both Russian and US Militaries
Africa Intelligence – Erdogan sets out to conquer Africa
New Zealand Herald – South China Sea: Beijing mobilises invasion craft along coast as Taiwan tensions escalate
Reuters – China protests U.S. spy plane watching drills
Wall Street Journal – China’s Xi Jinping Tightens Grip on Domestic Security Forces in First Broad Purge
Byline Times – ‘Death is Everywhere’Millions More Uyghurs Missing
Evidently the CCP has its own Qanon, and Pepe Escobar is its interpreter…
The Saker – China: everything proceeding according to plan
Japan Times – Abe’s resignation catches even Japan’s political insiders off guard
NK News – Rumors explained: Is Kim Jong Un really in a coma? Will Kim Yo Jong take over?
Yonhap News Agency – NK leader’s sister in control of key Workers’ Party unit, Seoul’s defense chief says
– N. Korea broadcasts encrypted spy message on YouTube for first time – not so says NKNews
Global Research (Kira Zalan and Emmanuel Freudenthal) – Private U.S. Contractors Part of the ‘Kill Chain’ in East Africa “Anti-Terrorist Operations”
American Herald Tribune (Philip Giraldi) – American Troops to Leave Germany: Is It Goodbye or Just Auf Wiedersehen?
This should not be mistaken as a dovish move, however, as many of the troops have gone in the direction of Lebensraum…
The Drive – The Pentagon To Beef Up Its Posture In Poland, Add 1,000 Troops
South Front – When A Missile Is A Message: Poland’s All-Encompassing “Information Ops” Doctrine
– Euro-Atlanticists Prepare For War With Russia
ThereArenoSunglasses – Belarus President Warns NATO Is Preparing Border Provocation
NBC News – Lukashenko says Belarus has deployed military on its western borders
The Saker – Putin and Russia are facing a very serious crisis in Belarus
Moon of Alabama – Navalny Was Not Poisoned
South Front – Venezuela’s Armed Forces Down Another Drug Plane With North American Registration (Photos)
Al Monitor – US government seizes control of websites allegedly involved in Iran-Venezuela oil deal
New York Times – U.S. Identifies Some of the Mysterious Seeds Mailed From China
Antiwar – As Trump Advances Ban, CIA Says No Evidence of TikTok Giving Data to China
Los Angeles Times – Visiting researcher at UCLA is arrested and charged with destroying evidence
WION (Lawrence Sellin) – Unless true origin of coronavirus is identified, another Chinese pandemic is in the offing
Professor Giuseppe Tritto claims to have identified that origin…
AsiaNews.it (Bernardo Cervellera) – Prof Tritto: COVID-19 was created in the Wuhan laboratory and is now in the hands of the Chinese military
The Hill – DOJ asks governors about coronavirus orders that may have resulted in nursing home deaths
One News Now (Bryan Fischer) – Fauci knew about HCQ in 2005 — nobody needed to die
Real Clear Politics (Steven Hatfill) – An Effective COVID Treatment the Media Continues to Besmirch – note Hatfill’s background as a falsely accused Anthrax bio-terrorist: WaPo 9/14/03 via UCLA
TASS – Russia is first to register COVID-19 vaccine worldwide, Putin says
ABC8 (Richmond) – Virginia Health Commissioner says he’ll mandate a COVID-19 vaccine
Weblyf – German Naturopathic Doctor wrote a Warning Letter about the coming Coronavirus Vaccine
Bulatlat (ROMEO F. QUIJANO, M.D.) – Hazards of the COVID-19 vaccine
Hidden in the Crag – CRISPR: Tests and Inoculations for ©¤^!d9+€€n
Global Research (Peter Koenig) – Agenda ID2020: The Diabolical Agenda within the Agenda. “Genetically Modified Humanity” – for what it’s worth, the provenance of the CIA “Funvax” video is disputed (Reuters) -though he resembles him, the speaker does not appear to be Bill Gates.
(Ron Paul Institute) – Anthony Fauci Is Out, “Sidelined” by Trump. Enter Dr. Scott Atlas to the Coronavirus Task Force
RT – Pandemic profiteer: Jeff Bezos’ fortune skyrockets to nearly $200 BILLION
– ‘Famine of biblical proportions’ looms over humanity due to Covid-19, UN food chief warns
Web of Debt (Ellen Brown) – From Lockdown to Police State: The “Great Reset” Rolls Out
21st Century Wire – Face-Pay? How COVID is Accelerating Facial Recognition Payment Systems
Unz Review (Philip Giraldi) – Managing the Narrative
American Intelligence Media – Coronavirus, QinetiQ, and the Rothschild Bombshell
Colombia Journalism Review – Journalism’s Gates keepers
Continuing unrest in the U.S. As covered in our previous installment, Grand Master Jay of the Not Fucking Around Coalition gave a four week ultimatum (on July 25) for charges to be brought on the Breonna Taylor case, or else the NFAC would return to Louisville and ‘burn it down’… The wheels of justice go a bit slow, however, and while charges have yet to be brought, there has been some movement…
WLKY (Louisville) – FBI’s ballistics report in Breonna Taylor probe received by Attorney General Cameron
Making September 5 the day of reckoning…
Newsweek – Armed Black Militia Returning to Louisville for Kentucky Derby
The UK version of the Not Fucking Around Coalition…
Meanwhile, the unorganized miscellaneous fucking around clubs continue to be pawned across the nation…
Zero Hedge – Watch: The Moment Secret Service Shoots Gun-Toting Man Outside White House
– “They Would Have Killed Us” – Rand Paul Describes Attack By “Unhinged” Mob
– Gov Evers Declares ‘State Of Emergency’ As Wisconsin Braces For 3rd Night Of Violence
– Kenosha Or Kosovo? Shocking Images Reveal Destruction After Race Riots Leave Buildings In Ruins
ABC 7 (Chicago) – Antioch teen Kyle Rittenhouse appears in court on murder charges for Kenosha protest shooting, lawyers say he acted in self-defense
Unz Review (Mike Whitney) – Rittenhouse
Infowars – Trump Supporter Shot Dead in The Street During Pro-Trump Rally in Portland
Oregon Live – Man under investigation in fatal shooting after pro-Trump rally allegedly took loaded gun to earlier Portland protest
The Post Millennial (Andy Ngo) – ‘I am 100% Antifa’: Alleged Portland shooter was previously arrested—and released—for bringing illegal loaded gun to a riot
Chicago Tribune – Police shooting of Englewood man reignites political debate and looting as Mag Mile trashed, 13 cops injured, 2 people shot
FOX 32 – Chicago alderman says residents, businesses now looking to leave Magnificent Mile: ‘It’s really sad’
Gothamist – 49 People Shot In 72 Hours As Wave Of Gun Violence Continues In NYC
WSOCTV (Charlotte NC) – Driver accused of shooting at Trump supporters along Fort Mill overpass
OCTheGreat TV (Youtube) – Armed coalitions of leftists and right wingers face off at Stone Mountain, Georgia.
American Rifleman – Mid-2020 Gun Sales Eclipse All of 2019 Sales
Guardian – New York attorney general sues to shut down NRA, alleging ‘brazen illegality’
Global Research (Mike Whitney) – Seattle’s “Bolshevik Revolution”
Spy-gate developments…
The Hill – Intelligence chief shifts election security briefings to written updates
Daily Caller (Chuck Ross) – Director Of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe Says He Has Filed Multiple ‘Crimes Reports’ Over Classified Leaks
Don’t count on the Durham prosecutions to target anyone much higher up than Kevin Clinesmith, the designated fall guy…
AP – Ex-FBI lawyer to plead guilty in Trump-Russia probe review
National Review – Connecting Dots in Clinesmith’s Russiagate Guilty Plea
How high do we believe this should go? To the top of the FBI, i.e. Comey? Sure, but that’s not high enough. To the top of the executive branch, i.e. Barack Obama? Sure, but even that is not high enough. To get to the top, the very top, we would zero in on the highest known co-conspirator, that would be John O. Brennan. He may cue us in to who was actually issuing the orders…
Red State – John Brennan, Part 1: “Super Spy?” – Part 2: Super Sleaze!
As John Solomon has noted however, Brennan has been willingly talking to Durham’s team, which no good defense attorney would allow him to do. This seems to indicate that they have been assured no prosecution is forthcoming. Unless Brennan is a naif like Michael Flynn in trusting his “benign” FBI interview in early 2017, we don’t anticipate seeing Brennan behind bars any time soon.
Daily Caller – Russian Oligarch’s Ties To Manafort, Steele Posed Intel Risks, Senate Report Says
Intelligence Online – Steele’s activities for Deripaska questioned by Congress
– Congress spotlights Soriano’s links with Deripaska, Rybolovlev
Just the News (John Solomon) – Senate panel releases memo showing FBI may have misled lawmakers about Russia probe
Sputnik – ‘All the Evidence’ Suggests Guccifer 2.0 is Linked to CIA, Not Russia, NSA Whistleblower Says
LaRouchePAC – Roger Stone and William Binney Speak Out: “To Keep the Republic, Defend the Presidency”
– Breaking: British Intelligence And The Coup Against Trump; How Much Will Be Revealed?
Millie Weaver (Twitter) – Official Trailer – Shadow Gate
USSA News – Breaking: Infowars Reporter Millie Weaver Arrested on Secret Indictment!
Newswars – Shadowgate — Full Film
Consortium News (Caitlin Johnstone) – QAnon Is a Fake, Decoy Imitation of a Healthy Revolutionary Impulse
Epoch Times – Hillary Clinton: Biden ‘Should Not Concede’ Election
Free Thought Project (Matt Agorist) – Florida Official Arrested for Using Govt Databases to Engage in Child Sex Trafficking
Wayne Madsen Report – July 31-August 2, 2020 — SPECIAL REPORT. Ghislaine Maxwell lawsuit documents unsealed and they are bad news for Donald Trump and Bill ClintonNew York
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit denied accused international underage sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell’s appeal of a decision by U.S. District Court Judge Loretta Preska to order the unsealing of over 2000 pages of documents related to the lawsuit against Maxwell brought against her by one of her and the late Jeffrey Epstein’s trafficking and abuse victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre. The appeals court reached its decision late on July 30.
In 1999, Giuffre, after having been recruited at the age of 15 by Epstein and Maxwell to perform sex acts, recounted how she was forced to have sex with Britain’s Prince Andrew, Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, “model scout” Jean-Luc Brunel, and “many other powerful men, including numerous prominent American politicians, powerful business executives, foreign presidents, a well-known Prime Minister, and other world leaders.” Giuffre was recruited as a “slave” by Maxwell while she was employed as a towel girl at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, where Epstein and Maxwell were well-known habitués. Among the newly-released documents is a Social Security Administration print out showing Giuffre’s employment by Mar-a-Lago during 2000. [jpg]
Also among the newly-released documents is a letter of recommendation for Skye Roberts, Giuffre’s father, who was employed by Mar-a-Lago from 2000 to 2003. [jpg] The documents also include Mar-a-Lago’s Employment Policies, dated October 28, 1995. The policy prohibited Mar-a-Lago employees from commenting to the press “on the Club or it’s [sic] members.” At the time of the employment policies, Epstein was a member of Mar-a-Lago…
Giuffre alleged that Dershowitz received massages in a private upstairs room at Epstein’s Palm Beach estate. In the room was a laundry basket “full of toys” [vibrators]. Giuffre also claimed that Donald Trump had “flirted” with her while she was being trafficked by Epstein. Giuffre said during her encounter with Trump that he laughed and told Epstein, “You’ve got the life.”
John Alessi, an Epstein handyman who worked at the Palm Beach estate from 1990 to 2000, testified that he saw the following individuals at events at the Epstein estate: Brunel, Mark Epstein [Jeffrey Epstein’s brother], Daniel Estes, Matt Groening [creator of The Simpsons], retail magnate Leslie Wexner, former Senator George Mitchell, Prince Andrew, Princess Sarah Ferguson, Miss Yugoslavia, Miss Germany, Dershowitz, Princess Diana’s secretary with her children, Donald Trump, Robert Kennedy, Jr., Frederik Fekkai [a French celebrity hair stylist], Bill Clinton, and various Nobel Prize recipients. Alessi said that during his ten years working at the Epstein residence he saw “over 100” massage therapists enter the residence…
In sworn statements, Giuffre alleged that Brunel, the French modeling agency owner who provided entrees into fashion modeling careers to young girls — many of whom were impoverished and from poor countries — was an integral part of Epstein’s and Maxwell’s trafficking operations. Brunel would farm out the models to his friends, including Epstein, for sexual purposes. Giuffre states that she was forced to watch Epstein, Brunel, and Maxwell engage in sexual acts with “dozens of young girls.” Giuffre also states that she was forced to have sex with Brunel at Epstein’s Palm Beach estate, Epstein’s Little St. James Island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, New York City, New Mexico, Paris, Nice, the Bahamas, and California. Giuffre also testified that she was forced by Maxwell to have sex with, in addition to Dershowitz, Brunel, George Mitchell, former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, and “another prince,” in addition to Prince Andrew, as well as a “foreign president” who was “Spanish.” Former Colombian President Andres Pastrana admitted to flying on Epstein’s Lolita Express after his name turned up in the plane’s flight logs. In September 2002, Epstein sent Giuffre to Chiang Mai, Thailand for massage training. The late Alfredo Rodriguez, Epstein’s house butler in Palm Beach from 2004 to 2005, revealed that Maxwell “kept a list of the local girls who were giving massages at her desk, and that Maxwell kept nude photos of girls on her computer.” On August 7, 2009, Rodriguez testified in a deposition that all the computers and video equipment that Epstein maintained at his Palm Beach home were serviced by someone who came down to Florida from New Albany, Ohio. Epstein’s financial patron, Les Wexner, lives in New Albany. Rodriguez was later prosecuted for shopping around Epstein’s “black book” to the media. Giuffre testified that the FBI told her that “Epstein had hidden cameras watching you the entire time, even when you were in the bathroom?”…
According to the newly-released documents, Epstein provided underage girls for sex to “another prince,” one in addition to Prince Andrew.
Sets of flight logs for Epstein’s Gulfstream and Boeing 737, the latter nicknamed the “Lolita Express” as a result of its frequent interstate and international trafficking of underage girls. In a deposition, Epstein’s pilot, David Rodgers, reveals that the Boeing 737 was formerly owned by Wexner, the retail magnate whose financial portfolio Epstein managed. Rodgers stated that the “JE” in the tail number for the Gulfstream, 909JE, and the Boeing 737, 908JE, stood for Jeffrey Epstein. However, when identifying the plane, the pilot used the alpha designation “Juliet Echo.” Rodgers identified Epstein’s flights with underage girls to destinations such as Paris; Granada, Spain; and Tangiers [sic] and Marrakesh, Morocco. Inasmuch as Spain and Morocco are monarchies, the “other prince” Giuffre claims Epstein provided young girls to may have been associated with either the Spanish or Moroccan royal families. It is noteworthy that Israel’s Mossad, with whom Ghislaine Maxwell, her father Robert Maxwell, and Epstein and his patron Wexner all have had close ties, has special access to the Moroccan royal family. Giuffre stated in a January 16, 2016 deposition that the other prince spoke English and a “foreign tongue.” The sexual act with the other prince took place in the south of France. …
OK! – DNC Overshadowed: Hillary Clinton HIRED Ghislaine Maxwell’s Nephew At State Dept
LaRouchePAC – Steve Bannon Indicted; Good News For The Republic
Here we go again…
Newsweek (John C. Eastman) – Some Questions for Kamala Harris About Eligibility | Opinion
One American News – N.Y. attorney general files lawsuit to dissolve the NRA
Wall Street Journal (Byron Tau) – U.S. Government Contractor Embedded Software in Apps to Track Phones
WJRT (Flint MI)- Bishop airport police get Smart Helmets to screen for coronavirus, scan other info
Zero Hedge – The USPS Just Filed A Patent For A Blockchain-Based Secure-Voting System
Wrench in the Gears – Timpsila, Medicine for Tech-No-Logic
Updates on old news…
NBC News – AG Barr promises to rule out death penalty for ISIS ‘Beatles’, victims’ families say
Jerusalem Post – Special Court convicts 1 of 5 Hezbollah members of killing ex-Lebanese PM
Global Research (Rannie Amiri) – The Hariri Assassination: Israel ’s Fingerprints
Consortium News (Peter Kuznick) – ATOMIC BOMBINGS AT 75: Truman’s ‘Human Sacrifice’ to Subdue Moscow
Newly declassified Tsar-bomb film…
Росатом (Youtube) – Испытание чистой водородной бомбы мощностью 50 млн тонн
Strategic Culture (Matthew Ehret) – The Pentagon’s New UFO Disclosures: 75 Years of MK Ultra Psy Ops
Al Monitor – 22 mummies to parade across Cairo
Auribus Arrectis 
