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Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Obama, damned if he does, damned if he doesn't AKA Veto or not to veto the Sue Saudi Arabia Bill


Here's my take on this "pretend" Resolution which we all know will be vetoed:
When the Bill is vetoed by his warlordship, Americans, at least those that are not glued to reality TV and Kadashian's boobs, will perhaps ask themselves why their overlords would kill this Resolution when to all appearances KSA-sponsored Al Qaeda terrorists were responsible for the greatest atrocity of all time on American soil.
 
They will also perhaps puzzle over the veto and draw conclusions that would further embed the notion that the 9/11 attack was indeed a false flag operation masterminded by the US govt itself or in partnership with  USA's favorite ally, Israel. Reason: To commence wars of aggression in the Mid East countries.  Vetoing the Bill will tell Americans (the thinking ones anyway) that their government is afraid that Saudi Arabia will spill the beans on what really went on, on that fateful day.  Americans will come to the realization, albeit very slowly and painfully, that if the Bill had been allowed to pass into law, there would have been consequences ... the TRUTH of 9/11 would be made a lot less foggier, courtesy the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
 
So there you have it.  Obama is damned if he lets the Bill pass into law and he and his legacy is even more damned  if he vetoes it.
All in all, I am loving it! 

From FreeThoughtProject
BREAKING: Bill Passes House Allowing Citizens to Sue Saudi Arabia for 9/11
— But It’s a Cruel Hoax
The U.S. House of Representatives, following the lead of the Senate, has passed a bill allowing Americans to sue Saudi Arabia over 9/11 only days before the attack’s 15th anniversary. The measure passed unanimously, without objection or opposition, but President Obama has promised to veto the bill.

House Resolution 3815, also known as the “Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act” or JASTA, creates an exception to sovereign immunity created by a 1976 law, which currently prohibits U.S. citizens from suing foreign countries for terrorism that kills Americans on U.S. soil. The unanimous vote in the House gives the Republican-dominated legislature the ability to override a promised veto from the White House....

From Breitbart
President Barack Obama intends to veto bipartisan legislation
 that would allow the families of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia, according to the White House.

“So the President feels quite strongly about this. And our concern is not limited to the impact it could have on a relationship with one country, but rather it could have an impact on our relationship with every country around the world in a way that has negative consequences for the United States, for our national security, and for our men and women in uniform,” noted White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest on Monday.

“That is still the plan. The President does intend to veto this legislation,” responded Earnest when asked if Obama still planned to veto the bill....

From FreeBeacon
Gulf States Condemn Bill Permitting 9/11 Families to Sue Saudi Arabia

A group of Persian Gulf states denounced legislation passed by the U.S. Congress last week that would allow the families of Sept. 11 victims to sue the Saudi Arabian government over its alleged links to terrorism.

The head of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, Abdullatif al-Zayani, said in a statement Monday that the bill stands “contrary to the foundations and principles of relations between states and the principle of sovereign immunity enjoyed by states,” Reuters reported.

Qatar and the United Arab Emirates also publicly condemned the legislation. UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan said in a statement that the law would negatively impact international efforts to combat terrorism.

The House unanimously passed the bill on Friday, roughly four months after the Senate approved the legislation in May. Congressional leaders called the legislation a “moral imperative.”

Republican and Democratic lawmakers along with a number of 9/11 families have implicated Saudi Arabia in the Sept. 11 attacks given that 15 of the 19 terrorists who participated were Saudi....
Posted by MariaS at 17:50 0 comments
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Sunday, September 11, 2016

News, views and opinions from the Alternative Media ... week ending September 11


9/11 Conspiracy Theory .... a short fable


James Bradley at ConsortiumNews
North Korea’s Understandable Fears

North Korea carried out its fifth nuclear test on Friday, drawing condemnation from President Obama and a charge from the Pentagon that the test was a “serious provocation.” Ho-hum, here we go again.

Every year, America pays its vassal-state South Korea huge sums of U.S. taxpayer money to mount 300,000-man-strong military “games” that threaten North Korea. North Koreans view images that never seem to make it to U.S. kitchen tables: hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of U.S. armaments swarming in from the sea, hundreds of tanks and thousands of troops – their turrets and rifles pointed north – and nuclear-capable U.S. warplanes screaming overhead.

But when a young dictator straight out of central casting responds to U.S. threats with an underground test on North Korea’s founding day, it’s the number-one story on the front page of the New York Times.....
Let’s connect some dots. Washington and their note takers in the American press constantly tell us that crazies in Pyongyang and Tehran are nuclear threats. The misplaced, but easily sold, fears of the “North Korean missile threat” and the “Iran missile threat” allows the Pentagon to install “defensive” missile systems in South Korea and Eastern Europe which actually amount to offensive systems targeting Beijing and Moscow (by making first strikes against China and Russia more feasible).....




From ZeroHedge
US-Trained Special Ops Fighter Is The Islamic State's New Top Commander In Iraq

Just days after the news hit that ISIS' main propaganda officer, Mohammad al-Adnani, one of the Islamic State's most prominent leaders, the second in command of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as well as the unofficial spokesman of the terrorist organization, was killed (with a scandal promptly erupting between the US and Russia over who had taken him out), the power vacuum that formed at the top of the Islamic State has been promptly filled, after former Tajik Special Forces colonel Gulmurod Khalimov became the top ISIS battlefield commander in Iraq, after defecting last year and swearing jihad against the West....

....What makes the ascent of Khalimov particularly embarrassing for the US is that The former paramilitary unit commander of the Tajikistan armed forces received his battlefield training from American advisors and even came to the United States on several occasions to receive special counterterrorism training through the US State Department’s Diplomatic Security/Anti-Terrorism Assistance program. ....

Wayne Madsen at StrategicCulture
Obama-Duterte Blow Up: What the Corporate Media Doesn’t Get

The explanation by the Western corporate media, which caters to a very basic secondary school level of education, about the reasons behind the recent war of words between U.S. President Barack Obama and Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, had little to do with the leader of the Philippines calling Obama a «Putang ina» or «son of a whore» in Tagalog. The breakdown in relations between the Philippines, a former and much-abused American colony, and the United States is based on renewed Philippines nationalism, a disgust by Duterte for the selective human rights agenda of the Obama administration, and the Philippines leader’s antipathy for those schooled in Muslim beliefs in neighboring Indonesia.

Duterte knows full well that Obama prayed in a mosque and recited from the Koran in his early childhood years at a quasi-Islamic state school in Jakarta. And for Duterte, a former mayor of Davao City in Mindanao, -- a southern Philippines island plagued by Saudi-financed Abu Sayyaf Group Wahhabist terrorism nurtured from radicalized mosques across the Sulu Sea in Indonesia -- Obama’s upbringing in Southeast Asia is very germane.

Duterte’s reference to Obama’s mother was not uttered in a vacuum of history. Duterte fully understands Stanley Ann Dunham Obama-Soetoro’s role in the aftermath of the 1965 bloody Muslim- and Central Intelligence Agency-backed coup that toppled Indonesia’s secular president, Sukarno. The coup, in which Obama’s Indonesian stepfather, Lieutenant Colonel Lolo Soetoro, participated as a brutal thug out to identify and execute as many Communists and ethnic Chinese Indonesians as possible, was staffed out of the U.S. embassy in Jakarta.

In 1967, Obama’s mother took young Barack Obama to join her war criminal husband in Jakarta. After her arrival in the country with the world’s largest Muslim population, Obama’s mother worked for the CIA-linked U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) fanning out across central Javanese villages with orders to collect as many names of Communists as possible......

....Instead, Duterte is a fiery pragmatist who is on guard against Obama and the neoconservative war hawks and Wahhabi and Salafist accommodators who dominate America’s CIA and State Department. Duterte and his supporters know fully well that the bloody CIA purge of PKI members and sympathizers, along with ethnic Chinese, in Indonesia would not have been possible without the support of Indonesia’s Sunni Muslim hierarchy – a group in which Obama’s mother and stepfather were in total lockstep.....

Joon Ian Wong at Quartz
Norway is furious with Facebook and its algorithms for “censoring” an iconic war photo
A ruckus has erupted in Norway over Facebook’s repeated removal of an iconic 1972 war photograph of a naked young girl fleeing a napalm attack in Vietnam. Facebook has also suspended users who uploaded it. Things have come to a head today after Norway’s largest newspaper devoted its front page to an open letter to Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg.

The letter, written by Aftenposten’s editor-in-chief, Espen Egil Hansen, accuses Zuckerberg of “abusing” his role as “the world’s most powerful editor.” Hansen wrote: “The media have a responsibility to consider publication in every single case. This may be a heavy responsibility … This right and duty, which all editors in the world have, should not be undermined by algorithms encoded in your office in California.”

Norway’s prime minister, Erna Solberg, also posted the iconic photo to her Facebook page today (Sept. 9) to protest “censorship” by the social network. “I say yes to a healthy, open and free debate on the internet,” she wrote in Norwegian. “But I say no to this form of censorship.” Her photo was later removed by Facebook, according to a subsequent post by Solberg. She posted a version of the photo with nudity blacked out. “What Facebook does by removing images of this kind, good as the intentions may be, is to edit our common history,” she wrote.....




From Off-Guardian
why we’re covering 9/11 fifteen years on

....We aren’t interested in simply erecting new certitudes to replace the used ones. We aren’t claiming “Bush did it” or “Israel did it” or “the Saudis did it”, or indeed “Bin Laden did it.” We want to take a long and dispassionate look at the evidence for what actually happened that day, and give space, as our remit dictates, to those opinions and facts that tend to be silenced in the mainstream.

On 9/11 three steel-framed high-rise buildings collapsed completely at near free-fall speed allegedly due to fires – which, if true, makes them the only steel-framed high-rises in construction history to have ever done this. Rationally and objectively, this is something worth examining, as unique events always are. Did the government-appointed enquiry by the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) do a thorough job in explaining why this unique event occurred? Or did it do what government-appointed enquiries usually do and fudge? Do we have answers or evasions?

For some reason these questions are routinely avoided, even by those who are willing to ask similar questions about WMDs or Syrian chemical weapons or Chilcot. The fear of the label “conspiracy theorist” deters too many of us – which of course is just what it was intended to do.....

The real danger for Russia



Robert Parry at ConsortiumNews
UN Team Heard Claims of ‘Staged’ Chemical Attacks

United Nations investigators encountered evidence that alleged chemical weapons attacks by the Syrian military were staged by jihadist rebels and their supporters, but still decided to blame the government for two incidents in which chlorine was allegedly dispersed via improvised explosives dropped by helicopters.

In both cases, the Syrian government denied that it had any aircraft in the areas at the times of the purported attacks, but the U.N. team rejected that explanation with the curious argument that Syria failed to provide flight records to corroborate the absence of any flights. Yet, if there had been no flights, there would be no flight records.

The U.N. team also dismissed out of hand the possibility that jihadist rebels who had overrun some air bases and thus had operational helicopters at their disposal might have used them as part of a staged event designed to incriminate the Damascus regime and thus justify U.S. or other outside military intervention.

Another problem with the U.N. team’s findings is that the home-made chlorine bombs had minimal military value, inflicting relatively few casualties and only a handful of deaths.

Why the Syrian government, which was under intense international pressure regarding alleged chemical weapons use and was in the process of surrendering its stockpile of such weapons, would have jerry-rigged a handful of homemade bombs and dropped them for no discernible military effect makes little sense.

However, since Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been thoroughly demonized over his harsh reaction to an uprising that began in 2011, pretty much any accusation against him – no matter how unlikely or implausible – is widely accepted in the mainstream Western media and political circles. In other words, the U.N. team was under pressure to reach a guilty verdict.....

Craig Murray at his blog
Thought is Dangerous to the USA

I have been refused entry clearance to the USA to chair the presentation of the Sam Adams Award to CIA torture whistleblower John Kiriakou and to speak at the World Beyond War conference in Washington DC. Like millions of British passport holders I have frequently visited the USA before and never been refused entry clearance under the visa waiver programme.....

....It is worth noting that despite the highly critical things I have published about Putin, about civil liberties in Russia and the annexation of the Crimea, I have never been refused entry to Russia. The only two countries that have ever refused me entry clearance are Uzbekistan and the USA. What does that tell you?....




Corey Schink at SottNet
The Easters: A case study in psychopathy and ponerization

....On April 6th, 1986, a series of bombs were detonated in a Berlin dance hall. The result was the deaths of US marines and the opportunity Reagan had been waiting for to strike Gaddafi. About a week later the US Air Force, having to bypass France due to pressure from French politicians, rained missiles down on Gaddafi's house, murdering his adopted Palestinian child. There was no evidence that Libya was involved in the terrorist attack, let alone justification for murdering an innocent child in response. As was revealed decades later, the allegation against Libya over the Berlin bombing was false, another staged event to provide justification for murder in broad daylight.

Gaddafi survived that attempt, but the US was always going to try again. In 1988 there were the Lockerbie bombings, and once again Gaddafi was fingered as the man responsible for the attacks, despite massive evidence to the contrary:

    British MP: Lockerbie 'evidence' against Libyans was planted by CIA
    Leaked documents: Lockerbie evidence 'was tampered with, destroyed and overlooked'
    BBC probe casts doubt on Lockerbie evidence

Fortunately for Gaddafi, Francis A. Boyle smelled a rat. A prominent international lawyer, Boyle effectively issued the international equivalent of a restraining order against the US. The night before US jets were poised to strike the country the motions were filed, and the US backed down. Clearly the international community had not yet lost its collective mind, and such a legal injunction was capable of working. As the decades went by it was clear that individuals within the US were ready to make sure such restraint would not work again.

By 2011, not only had Gaddafi survived repeated Western assaults, he had overseen a massive increase in the living standards and social rights of the Libyan population, including free health care, education, and women's rights that included free childcare and payment for raising children. Gaddafi wanted to emancipate Africa from Western corporate and imperial interests. Libya, the most prosperous African democracy, was a beacon of freedom in an increasingly dark world. Something had to be done to crush him and the Libyan people. ....




Andrei Akulov at StrategicCulture
US Faces Major Setback As Europeans Revolt Against TTIP

France wants to halt thorny EU-US trade talks on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) as President Francois Hollande underlined there would be no deal until after President Barack Obama leaves office in January. Matthias Fekl, the French minister for foreign trade, has said his country will call for an end to the deal. France has been sceptical about the TTIP from the start and has threatened to block the deal, arguing the US has offered little in return for concessions made by Europe. All 28 EU member states and the European parliament will have to ratify the TTIP before it comes into force.

The statements came just a couple of days after German economy minister Sigmar Gabriel had said talks for TTIP had de facto failed. Gabriel, who leads Germany’s centre-left Social Democratic party and is vice-chancellor in the coalition government, said Europe mustn’t submit to the American proposals. ....

Prof Michel Choussudovsky at GlobalResearch
US-NATO-Turkey Invasion of Northern Syria: CIA “Failed” Turkey Coup Lays Groundwork for Broader Middle East War?
 

In mid-July, President Erdogan pointed his finger at the CIA, accusing US intelligence of having supported a failed coup directed against his government. Turkish officials pointed to a deterioration of US-Turkey relations following Washington’s refusal to extradite Fethullah Gülen, the alleged architect of the failed coup.

Erdogan’s Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag was categorical:

    “If the US does not deliver (Gulen), they will sacrifice relations with Turkey for the sake of a terrorist”

Public opinion was led to believe that relations with the US had not only deteriorated, but that Erdogan had vowed to restore “an axis of friendship” with Moscow, including “cooperation in the defence sector”. This was a hoax....

....The failed coup was indeed supported by the CIA, but the failure was coordinated with President Erdogan. It was an intelligence op which was meant to fail and mislead public opinion.....

Zika virus ... here's an example of how the powers-that-be create a problem to make $s from the solution.  EVIL INCARNATE !!



Aram Mirzael at TheSaker
The latest development in northern Syria

...It is worthy of notice that just before the Turkish incursion, the Kurdish YPG and their police forces “Asayish” were attacking the Syrian government forces in the city of Al-Hasakah, and despite numerous attempts at a ceasefire by the Syrian government, the Kurdish forces refused and declared their intention to fully claim Al-Hasakah for themselves. This could also explain why Syria and Iran have been neglecting the fact that Turkish forces are attacking the YPG/SDF as well. Indeed both Syria and its allies have previously tried to cooperate with the SDF or at least remain neutral towards them, yet recent events have shown that they answer to Washington rather than taking an independent stance towards the conflict. This was very much clear when the SDF spokesman Talal Silo said in an interview that “in Syria, the Americans forbid us from talking to Russia”. [4]...

From ZeroHedge
40,000 Students In Limbo, 8,000 Employees Fired As ITT Suddenly Shuts Down

The long-running tragic saga of ITT Education Services, which was established nearly 50 ago and operates the ITT Technical Institutes for-profit college chain, finally came to a end this morning with both a bang and a whimper, when it announced that it is shutting down effective immediately, leaving the fate of 40,000 students currently enrolled in limbo, and some 8,000 workers without a job.

The company said the closure is due to an investigation and sanctions by the U.S. Department of Education.

"It is with profound regret that we must report that ITT Educational Services, Inc. will discontinue academic operations at all of its ITT Technical Institutes permanently after approximately 50 years of continuous service," the company stated Tuesday. "Effective today, the company has eliminated the positions of the overwhelming majority of our more than 8,000 employees."

As previously reported,  ITT Tech stopped enrolling new students on August 29, just a few days after it was cut off from a significant amount of federal funding by the government. ITT's collapse was catalyzed when the Department of Education effectively killed the company two weeks ago, when it told the company on August 25 that it couldn’t enroll new students who use federal financial aid. The school accused federal officials of forcing the closure and denying it due process. The company has been the subject of state and federal probes for various reasons, including its recruitment tactics, lending practices and job placement figures.

Among the measures imposed, ITT was been ordered to pay $152 million to the department within 30 days to cover student refunds and other liabilities in case the company closes. The chain, based in Indiana, is still paying another $44 million demanded by the department in June for the same reason.....




From RT
Times reporter abducted and shot in Syria says his kidnapper now US-backed rebel

A Times reporter who was kidnapped and twice shot in the leg in Syria claims to have recognized his abductor on a recent Facebook video, which shows him in the ranks of a US-backed “moderate” opposition rebel group.

Journalist Anthony Loyd was captured on his way from Syria to Turkey along with his colleague, photographer Jack Hill, not far from the Syrian town of Tal Rafat in 2014, a week after they had started covering the situation in Aleppo.
It was with some surprise watching a video of a victorious band of western-backed rebels that I noticed the face of America’s newest ally in the war against ISIS in Syria,” Loyd wrote in Britain’s Times newspaper on Saturday.

The Facebook video of a victory celebration by a CIA-vetted rebel group in the border town of al-Rai supposedly showed Hakim Abu Jamal, also known as Hakim Anza, or Abdel Hakim al-Yaseen....

Daisy Luther at her blog
Louisiana Officials Demand That Self-Reliant Locals Stop Surviving the Flood Without Permission

Around the world, governments have recently been issuing an unsettling call for their citizens to become more self-reliant. Just this week, the governments of both Germany and Czechoslovakia warned that people should be  “be prepared for the worst case possible scenario.”

But here in the United States, just the opposite is happening. Our government seems to have an unquenchable thirst for cracking down on those who take responsibility for themselves. There is an abundance of evidence of this in Louisiana.

The southern state has been hit with the worst flooding in over 500 years.

While the final numbers won’t be known for some time, Gov. John Bel Edwards’ office has estimated 60,646 houses were damaged and 30,000 people rescued; other people escaped on their own. FEMA says 109,398 people or households have applied for housing help, and 25,000 National Flood Insurance Program claims have been filed. The American Red Cross called it the worst natural disaster since Hurricane Sandy struck New Jersey in 2012.

This massive disaster was all but ignored by the mainstream media, since it didn’t fit the current agenda of divisiveness and racial tension. So what did the folks in Louisiana do?....
Posted by MariaS at 21:54 0 comments
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Sunday, September 4, 2016

News, Views and Opinions from the Alternative Media .... week ending September 4


Dingding Chen at TheDiplomat
With the Hangzhou G20, China Demonstrates Its Global Leadership Credentials
It is never easy to be a global leader, but China is determined to become one.

There is little doubt that Hangzhou city this weekend will be a very nice place to visit. After more than a year’s hard work in preparation, Hangzhou will welcome world leaders for a G20 gathering to talk about pressing global issues, including global imbalances, climate change, the refugee crisis, and sovereignty. China, as the host of the G20, will seek to demonstrate its global leadership at a time of global uncertainties.

First on the agenda this year will be the question of how to achieve sustainable global growth. Interestingly, as globalization comes under attack from across the world, China has been the biggest beneficiary of the trend over the last three decades. The unfortunate fact is that, this year, unequal distribution of globalization’s benefits has cause political upheavals in Europe and the United States, prompting far right forces to rise up politically. China certainly will not be the white knight to reserve the declining popularity of globalization, but it still enjoys a moderately high level of growth despite its own domestic economic problems. Thus, China’s President Xi Jinping has proposed a new idea of an “inclusive world economy,” spurring the pursuit of more equality among world economies, regardless of rich or poor country status.

Whether or not this new slogan will resonate with other G20 members is a different matter. The fact that it is China now calling for new ideas and concepts of world economy is notable. Remember the “Washington Consensus” back in the 1980s? While ideas like the market economy........





Kareem El-Assal and Sonia Takhar at NewCanadianMedia
The Billion Dollar Immigration Question

Canada’s immigration minister John McCallum recently announced that the federal government is evaluating the merits of launching a new program to attract investor immigrants to the country.

Entrepreneur and investor (“business”) immigration programs aim to stimulate economic growth by attracting investment capital, business savvy, and high-net-worth individuals (HNWI) to Canada.

On the one hand, the programs draw talent, investment capital, and spending power to Canada. Yet, they have met with mixed success since Canada began to open its doors to business immigrants in 1978. In addition, public concerns have been raised about the impact of programs on housing affordability, the ‘sale’ of Canadian citizenship, and the extent to which the programs benefit Canada’s economy and society.

These issues raise a billion dollar question: does Canada need dedicated business immigration programs?

According to most Canadian jurisdictions, the answer appears to be ‘yes’. Today, such programs exist federally, and in eight out of 13 provinces and territories. 

Measure of success
To what extent have business immigration programs benefitted Canada’s economy? The answer depends on one’s benchmark of success.

If the primary objective is to draw investment capital and more spending to Canada, the federal government’s Immigrant Investor Program (IIP), which was terminated in 2014, and the Quebec Immigrant Investor Program, which continues to operate, have been successful.

Between 2007 and 2011, the programs raised $6.42 billion in investment capital for the governments of Canada and Quebec. 

A 2010 study argued that the main economic benefit of the IIP was the purchasing power of immigrants who spent significantly on homes, education, and goods and services in Canada.....



From TheSaker
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin Interview to Bloomberg

John Micklethwait: Mr President, thank you very much for talking to Bloomberg. We are in Vladivostok, at the border of Russia, practically the Pacific Coast is its border, and this is already the second Eastern Economic Forum that is about to start. What are you planning to achieve at the Forum?

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: We would like to draw the attention of our partners, of potential investors to the Russian Far East. In this sense, the Forum as an event is similar to other regional forums of this kind. Russia hosts a lot of such forums, including the International Economic Forum in St Petersburg, (usually in the beginning of summer), as well as the Economic Forum in Sochi.

The Far East is of particular significance for us in terms of this region’s priority development. Over the last few years, let us say even over the last decades, we were faced with many problems here. We paid little attention to this territory although it deserves a lot more of it, because it concentrates great wealth as well as opportunities for Russia’s future development. Not only for Russia alone, but also for the development of the entire Asia-Pacific region (APR), because this land is very rich in natural and mineral resources.

When we talk about the Far East we usually mean the Far East itself, including Primorye Territory, Khabarovsk Territory, Kamchatka, and Chukotka, as well as Eastern Siberia. All this area contains tremendous resources, including oil and gas, 90 percent of Russian tin, 30 percent of Russian gold, 35 percent of forest, 70 percent of Russia’s fish is harvested in the local waters.

This is a region with a substantially developed transport and railroad infrastructure. In recent years we have been actively developing road connection. .......

China's Zhangjiajie glass bridge


Ruth Gledhill at ChristianToday
Syrian Christian leader tells West: 'Stop arming terror groups 
who are massacring our people'
The world leader of Syria's besieged Christians has issued a heartfelt plea to the West to "stop arming and supporting terrorist groups that are destroying our countries and massacring our people."

The Patriarch of Antioch, Moran Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, said he was not asking the West for military intervention to defend Christians.

If the West wants to do something about the present crisis, the most effective thing would be to support local governments, which need sufficient armies and forces to maintain security and defend respective populations against attacks.

"State institutions need to be strengthened and stabilised. Instead, what we see is their forced dismemberment being fuelled from the outside," he told Vatican Insider.

Patriarch Aphrem, head of the Syrian Orthodox Church, said the most blasphemous thing a person can do is to call suicide bombers "martyrs".....

Suraj Sharma and Alex MacDonald at MiddleEastEye
British volunteers in Syrian Kurd forces are 'terrorists', Turkey says

Senior Turkish officials say they see no difference between Kurdish 'terrorists' of YPG and foreigners who joined group to fight IS

Senior Turkish officials said their armed forces will confront as "terrorists" British and foreign volunteers fighting with the Kurdish YPG militia in Syria, and that any casualties will be the responsibility of their own governments.

In comments to Middle East Eye an adviser to the Turkish prime minister, Binali Yildirim, said British, French, American and other citizens fighting alongside the YPG would be treated as "terrorists... regardless of whether they are members of allied countries".

The statement came after the Turkish government rejected a US-brokered ceasefire between Turkish forces and the Kurdish militias in northern Syria, a week after Turkey invaded the Syrian border town of Jarabulus to eject the Islamic (IS) State group. ....

From ZeroHedge ...source Paul Craig Roberts
Are You A Mind-Controlled CIA Stooge?

...The term “conspiracy theory” was invented and put into public discourse by the CIA in 1964 in order to discredit the many skeptics who challenged the Warren Commission’s conclusion that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by a lone gunman named Lee Harvey Oswald, who himself was assassinated while in police custody before he could be questioned. The CIA used its friends in the media to launch a campaign to make suspicion of the Warren Commission report a target of ridicule and hostility. This campaign was “one of the most successful propaganda initiatives of all time.”

So writes political science professor Lance deHaven-Smith, who in his peer-reviewed book, Conspiracy Theory in America, published by the University of Texas Press, tells the story of how the CIA succeeded in creating in the public mind reflexive, automatic, stigmatization of those who challenge government explanations. This is an extremely important and readable book, one of those rare books with the power to break you out of The Matrix.

Professor deHaven-Smith is able to write this book because the original CIA Dispatch #1035-960, which sets out the CIA plot, was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. Apparently, the bureaucracy did not regard a document this old as being of any importance. The document is marked “Destroy when no longer needed,” but somehow wasn’t. CIA Dispatch #1035-960 is reproduced in the book.....

Justin Raimondo at AntiWar
The Other Speech: Hillary the Hawk Spreads Her Wings
Did she threaten to attack Russia?

While the media and the American people were avidly watching and commenting on Donald Trump’s much-awaited immigration speech, another peroration by a presidential candidate somehow got overlooked: Hillary Clinton’s appearance before the American Legion. Overshadowed by Trump’s visit to Mexico, and his subsequent stem-winder, Hillary’s performance was greeted with tepid applause by her military audience, and pointedly ignored by her media cheering section. The reason for the latter’s silence is perhaps due to the fact that it underscores one of her biggest vulnerabilities: her militant interventionism in an age when the American people are sick and tired of foreign wars.

She didn’t waste any time getting down to her basic theme. Once through the preliminaries, she said:

“Thanks for your service in our armed forces. You wore the uniform. You took an oath. You put your life on the line to protect the greatest country on Earth. There are some who may argue with that, but not around me.”

Who is she talking about? I’ve never heard anyone dispute that our soldiers put their lives on the line: and while a few old-fashioned Marxists and so-called “social justice warriors” may disagree that this is the greatest country on earth, they’re all supporting her, if I’m not mistaken, rather than Trump. So whom is she arguing with?

Incredibly, she is trying to characterize her opponent – someone who has adopted “America First” as his campaign slogan – as being somehow anti-American. ....
 
USA's employees are also headchoppers



Mark Taliano at AHT
Which country holds the legal and moral high ground, Canada or Syria?

In terms of international law, human rights, the fight against terrorism, and common decency, Syria wins, hands down.

Syria, which ranked amongst the top 5 countries globally as a “safe” destination prior to the pre-planned western-launched dirty war, puts Canada to shame.

It has been well-documented for years that the pre-planned war on Syria is illegal according to international laws, resolutions, and conventions. Not only does the Canadian Defence Minister’s earlier pronouncement that “President Assad, he does need to go ….” amount to an endorsement for illegal regime change against a sovereign, non-belligerent, U.N member country, but Canada’s membership in NATO and Canada’s proven complicity in regime change operations amounts to the height of criminality according to Nuremburg standards.....

From ForeignPolicy
Can Russia Survive Washington’s Challenge?
The real danger for Russia lies in Russia’s desire for Western acceptance.
ews services abroad ask me if President Erdogan of Turkey will, as a result of the coup attempt, realign Turkey with Russia. At this time, there is not enough information for me to answer. Speculation in advance of information is not my forte.

Moreover, I do not know if it is true that Moscow warned the President of Turkey of the coup, and I do not know if Washington was behind the coup. Therefore, I do not know how to weigh the scales. As I see it, whether Turkey stays with Washington or realigns with Moscow depends first of all on whether or not Moscow warned Turkey and whether or not Washington was behind the coup. If this is what Erdogan believes, whether true or false, Erdogan is likely to align with Russia. However, other factors will also influence Erdogan’s decision. For example, Erdogan’s belief about how resolute Putin is to standing up to Washington....

Erdogan will not want to align with Russia if he thinks Russia is not up to Washington’s challenge. Erdogan sees Putin endlessly asking for Washington’s cooperation, and Erdogan understands that Washington sees this as a sign of Russian weakness. Washington slaps Putin in the face, and Putin replies by asking for cooperation against ISIS. I understand why Putin responds this way. He wants to avoid a war between US/NATO and Russia that neither side can win. Putin is a man of peace and accepts affronts in order to save life. This is admirable. But that might not be the way Erdogan sees it. Erdogan might see it like Washington sees it: weakness.....
From AntiMedia
In this episode of Reality Check,
journalist Ben Swann explores the origins of the National Anthem and debunks the outrage directed at Colin Kaepernick for not standing up for it. This video may leave you questioning everything you thought you knew about the situation.

From Telesurtv
After Coup, OAS Finally Says It's Worried About Due Process

The Organization of American States, instead of denouncing the coup before and during the trial, issues a bland statement after.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights said Friday it was concerned about a lack of due process in the trial that ousted Dilma Rousseff as president of Brazil, a statement that comes much too late for the South American nation's last elected head of state.
The commission is part of the Organization of American States (OAS), an institution intended to protect democracy in the region.

The parliamentary coup in Brazil violates the first four articles of the OAS, which call for the protection of democracy in all its member states, and the protection of the legitimate exercise of power, as well as protecting the population’s right to choose their government. Rousseff was elected in 2014 while her Senate-imposed successor, Michel Temer, is legally barred from standing in an election. ....

Ray McGovern at ConsortiumNews
Georgetown’s Gesture on Slavery’s Evils

Better late than never, Jesuit-run Georgetown University has acknowledged that the school has “been able to hide from the truth” that it was built, literally, on the institution of slavery, according to its president John DiGioia.

Yet, decades ago, when a small group of us asked the Maryland Jesuits to confess openly to those crimes of their predecessors, we were rebuffed (apparently out of financial liability concerns). We saw the crucial role of slavery (and the sale of African-American slaves to help Georgetown meet its financial needs) as a moral issue. We also saw a scandal in the Jesuits’ refusal to show moral leadership before they were finally forced to this year by a public shaming.

I dealt with the backstory of this sorry affair last spring when the “news” about Georgetown University’s Jesuits’ callous treatment of their slaves “broke” in the mainstream media, with a New York Times report about the 1838 sale of 272 slaves into the Deep South.

On Thursday, DiGioia announced that Georgetown will implement a number of remedial (though clearly belated) steps, including the creation of an institute to study slavery, the dedication of a public memorial honoring the slaves whose sacrifices benefited Georgetown, and granting descendants of the 272 slaves admissions preference if they seek to attend the university in Washington, D.C.

Below is the article that I wrote last April:.....

Corbett Report and Media Monarchy on the EpiPen price gouge


Ben Norton at Salon
Israeli think tank: Don’t destroy ISIS; it’s a “useful tool” against Iran, Hezbollah, Syria 
Head of a right-wing think tank says the existence of ISIS serves a "strategic purpose" in the West's interests
According to a think tank that does contract work for NATO and the Israeli government, the West should not destroy ISIS, the fascist Islamist extremist group that is committing genocide and ethnically cleansing minority groups in Syria and Iraq.

Why? The so-called Islamic State “can be a useful tool in undermining” Iran, Hezbollah, Syria and Russia, argues the think tank’s director.

“The continuing existence of IS serves a strategic purpose,” wrote Efraim Inbar in “The Destruction of Islamic State Is a Strategic Mistake,” a paper published on Aug. 2.

By cooperating with Russia to fight the genocidal extremist group, the United States is committing a “strategic folly” that will “enhance the power of the Moscow-Tehran-Damascus axis,” Inbar argued, implying that Russia, Iran and Syria are forming a strategic alliance to dominate the Middle East.

“The West should seek the further weakening of Islamic State, but not its destruction,” he added. “A weak IS is, counterintuitively, preferable to a destroyed IS.”....

From Larouchepac
The Start of An Historic Week

On Sunday, Sept. 4, Chinese President Xi Jinping kicked off the G-20 heads of state summit in Hangzhou, China.  The opening ceremony included a stirring performance of the Ode to Joy, which set the inspiring tone for the entire summit.  President Xi, in his opening remarks, reiterated his call from the previous day at the B-20 business leaders forum, that the entire global financial system must be overhauled to reverse the current global crisis, and that the G-20 must take the lead in bringing about the needed changes, driven by innovation and cooperation among nations.

President Xi’s B-20 speech on Saturday was a strong echo of the policies developed over decades by Lyndon and Helga LaRouche, including her most recent call for the G-20 meeting to move to fully realize the World Landbridge.  The significance of the performance of the Ode to Joy, poem by Friedrich Schiller and music by Ludwig von Beethoven, was a further indication of Xi’s commitment to the principles of scientific and technological progress and “win win” cooperation among all of the nations of the world.


The G-20 meeting was preceded by an informal meeting of the heads of state of the BRICS nations, where further preparations were made for the Oct. 15-16 BRICS summit, hosted by Indian Prime Minister Modi in Goa.  The BRICS and G-20 events began immediately after the conclusion of the East Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia, hosted by President Vladimir Putin, where the same agenda of Eurasian development and a spirit of cooperation among leading nations of the world was promoted.  The two guests of honor at the Vladivostok forum were Japan’s Prime Minister Abe and South Korea’s President Park, thus broadening the alliance for cooperation.....





Posted by MariaS at 21:09 0 comments
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The coming civil war in Turkey - evidence of its coming has mounted in the months of July and August 2016


The rumblings of a civil war have been going on for over a year.  A "well-deserved" civil war in Turkey has been long in coming. Turks, both the guilty and unfortunately also the innocent, will have to atone for the sins that  Erdogan + gang has inflicted on Syria and Syrians. I believe it's only a matter of a short wait now before we see either a dead Erdogan or a full-fledged civil war in Turkey.

from Alalam
Turkish Jets Killed Dozen PKK Militants SE Turkey, N Iraq

Turkish military aircrafts have conducted a series of airstrikes in the rural areas of the country’s southeastern province of Hakkari and Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region and have killed At least a dozen members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Security sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Turkish jets launched eight aerial raids against PKK targets near the southeastern town of Semdinli, located about 14 kilometers (eight miles) north of the border with Iraq, between 6:47 a.m. (0347 GMT) local time and 7:31 a.m. (0431 GMT) on Friday.

Several PKK hideouts were destroyed in the raids. The airstrikes came after Kurdish militants attacked a military outpost in Semdinli with mortar shells, anti-aircraft and machine guns before dawn.

The Turkish army has also launched an operation in the area to hunt down PKK militants involved in the attack on the army base....

Description at vid: Kurdish fighters attack a Turkish army base and ambush a convoy in Sirnak 10 08 2016


From AlJazeera
Turkey: PKK fighters killed in attempt to storm base
Officials say air operation targeted PKK members after attempt to storm military base in southeastern Hakkari province.
Turkish military officials say the army has killed 35 Kurdish fighters after they attempted to storm a military base in the southeastern province of Hakkari.

The early morning attack on Saturday came just hours after clashes in Hakkari's Cukurca district between Turkish troops and fighters from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the officials said.

They said the fighters attempted to take the base in three different groups, but were spotted by aerial reconnaissance.

An air operation was subsequently launched, killing 23 fighters, the Turkish officials said.
Four more were then killed in a ground operation, they said, adding that the other eight Kurdish fighters were killed in Friday's gun battle in Cukurca.

Those clashes also left 25 soldiers wounded, the officials said.....

from GuardianUK
Turkey coup attempt: Erdoğan demands US arrest exiled cleric Gülen amid crackdown on army – as it happened
Officials say 265 killed, 2,839 military arrested
We’re going to pause our live coverage of the failed coup by a Turkish military faction, its defeat at the hands of protesters, police and loyalists, and the subsequent crackdown in the military and courts by victorious president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The attempted coup

    On Friday night a faction of the Turkish military tried and failed to stage a coup to overthrow Erdoğan, and tanks, helicopters and soldiers clashed with police and protesters in the streets of Istanbul and Ankara.
    Erdoğan delivered an iPhone address to the nation, calling on people to resist the coup and defend their democracy. Thousands turned out, and the president landed in Istanbul, where he denounced the “treason” by the rebellious faction.
    Parliament was struck by at least one bomb, and graphic videos and photos social media showed clashes, surrenders and chaos. Helicopters fired at people on the ground, mobs grappled with soldiers, and tanks barreled through crowds or were overrun by protesters. On Saturday the defense minister said the control was fully in control of the government.
    At least 265 people were killed in the violence and at least 1,440 wounded. Prime minister Binali Yildirim said on Saturday that 161 “martyrs” were killed, including civilians and police. The general acting as chief of staff, Umit Dundar, said earlier in the day that 104 “coup plotters” were killed in the fighting........


According to description at vid:
Kurdish PKK fighters overrun a Turkish army position outside in Amed, Diyarbakir 24 08 2016


From Alalam
Turkish warplanes have reportedly carried out fresh air raids on positions of the militants belonging to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the southeastern province of Sirnak.

Security sources said seven PKK bases were destroyed when army jets bombed Sirnak’s Cudi and Guclukonak rural areas at around 9:30 a.m. local time (0630 GMT) on Thursday, Turkey Anadolu news agency reported.

There has been no report on possible casualties.....

From WorldBulletin
Turkish opposition leader escapes assassination attempt

The leader of Turkey’s main opposition party has escaped injury after a security team travelling ahead of his motorcade was fired upon in the country’s northeast.

Interior Minister Efkan Ala confirmed that a security vehicle escorting Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu was shot at in Artvin on Thursday afternoon.

Three gendarmes were hurt as the convoy travelling from the Savsat district of the Black Sea province to Ardanuc came under fire....

From Alalam
Turkey’s military carried out air strikes on Tuesday (July 19) against members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, killing 20 militants, the army said in a statement on Wednesday (July 20), Al-Alam News Network reports.

Turkey frequently launches air attacks against PKK targets in the mountainous regions of northern Iraq near the Turkish border, where the PKK leadership has camps.

A ceasefire between the autonomy-seeking PKK and the state fell apart last year, triggering some of the worst violence in the three decades of the Kurdish insurgency....

from NRTTV
Turkey bombards YPG bases in Afrin, renewing attacks on Kurdish forces
Turkish artillery began on Wednesday (August 31) bombardments in Afrin, targeting Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units’ (YPG) bases in the city, one day after Ankara denied the existence of a truce in northern Syria.

NRT correspondent in Afrin, Chalang Omar said there have been no reports of casualties in the areas so far, although damage has occurred.

A representative from the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) to the global coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS) announced a temporary ceasefire with the Turkish military in northern Syria on Tuesday (August 30).

A spokesman for the U.S. Central Command, John Thomas, confirmed the news to AFP News Agency saying, “It’s a loose agreement for at least the next couple of days and we are hoping that will solidify.”

Several nations have shown concern and urged Turkey not to attack Kurdish forces battling Islamic State militants (ISIS) in northern Syria. Russia, France, Germany and the U.S. have all called on Turkey not to target Kurds. ....

From TurkishMinute
UPDATE: 11 police officers killed, 78 wounded in PKK car bomb attack in Cizre
Eleven police officers were killed and 78 people were injured when terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants attacked a police checkpoint in a bomb-laden truck in the Cizre district of Turkey’s southeastern Şırnak province early on Friday.

Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci, speaking on news broadcaster NTV, confirmed that 11 police officers were killed and 78 others were wounded. Health Minister Recep Akdag said four of the injured were in critical condition....

From GuardianUK
Turkish police raid Kurdish-language newspaper office
23 people detained two weeks after another Kurdish paper was shut down by court order and its chief editors were arrested
More than 20 staff of a Kurdish-language newspaper in Turkey were detained during a police raid on its headquarters.

Among those arrested in the raid on the daily Azadiya Welat in the south-eastern city of Diyarbakır were four people, including a child, who were visiting the offices.

According to a report by the pro-Kurdish Dicle news agency police told staff the raid followed a tip from someone who noted the number of people going in and out of the paper’s office and suspected terrorists were meeting there.....
Posted by MariaS at 19:45 0 comments
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Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Views, new, opinions from Alternative Media ... week ending Aug 28


From LandDestroyer
NATO Nukes in Romania: Rumor Mill Vs. Reality

August 22, 2016 (Ulson Gunnar - NEO) - Unconfirmed reports regarding the US moving nuclear weapons it reportedly maintains at Incirlik Airbase, Turkey to Romania (a NATO member since 2004) made the rounds last week. It is just one of many stories surrounding the apparent fallout between the United States and its stalwart ally and fellow NATO member, Turkey.
Following a failed coup in July, Turkey has accused the US openly of orchestrating the attempted overthrow of the government. Despite this, US forces continue operating from Turkish territory, and according to official reports, American nuclear weapons remain in Turkey.

But what if they were being moved? And if not to Romania as Romanian officials insist, to another NATO members state, what would this mean? And if they are not being moved, who started this rumor and why?

NATO Nuclear Sharing 
The US currently maintains nuclear weapons in a number of NATO countries (Turkey, Belgium, Italy, German and the Netherlands) under a "nuclear sharing" program that dates back to the Cold War. The impact of joining this program is politically and strategically significant. There are risks and responsibilities involved with hosting US nuclear weapons, and those nations that seek to opt out once in the program can struggle for years before these weapons are finally removed from their territory.

A 2009 Der Spiegel article titled, "Yankee Bombs Go Home: Foreign Minister Wants US Nukes out of Germany," highlights just how difficult this can be, especially considering that as of 2016, US nuclear weapons remain in Germany, and as Deutsche Welle points out, new weapons may even be on their way.


Alice Speri at TheIntercept  
The Justice Department Is Done With Private Prisons.
Will ICE Drop Them Too?

The Justice Department’s announcement on Thursday that it would seek to end the use of private contractors to run its federal prisons was a monumental one that quickly sent private prison stocks plunging and drew praise from dozens of human and civil rights groups that for years had been denouncing abuse and neglect in private facilities.

In a memo explaining the decision, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates wrote that private prisons “simply do not provide the same level of correctional services, programs, and resources,” “do not save substantially on costs,” and “do not maintain the same level of safety and security” as facilities operated by the Bureau of Prisons.

But as the criminal justice community began to take stock of the news, many also expressed hopes that the DOJ would not be the only government agency to cut ties with the private companies, which also operate state prisons and immigration detention centers.

In particular, advocates directly called on the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement — which is responsible for holding a growing number of detainees with pending immigration cases or awaiting deportation — to end its multimillion-dollar relationship with the private corrections industry....

 
But, does the US govt really and truly want to take away this lucrative business from their bribe givers or does it want to appease the sheeple baaing a bit too loud for comfort.
From Shadowproof
In a memorandum sent to the Bureau of Prisons (BOP)
on August 18, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced it would begin “reducing and ultimately ending” the agency’s use of private prisons.

“As each contract reaches the end of its term, the [BOP] should either decline to renew that contract or substantially reduce its scope in a manner consistent with law and the overall decline of the Bureau’s inmate population,” Deputy Attorney General Sally Q. Yates directed
The announcement comes days after the DOJ’s Inspector General released a report documenting multiple contract violations and deficiencies at private prisons, which resulted in abuse and poor quality of life for inmates. It also called attention to the BOP’s role in turning a blind eye to abusive conditions in private prisons....

The New and Improved Ukraine!  A product of USA and Canada funded by big wig Jewish billionaires and planned by their  Israeli dual citizenship overlords.



The vid below shows that the cops involved in the killing of the man referred to in tweet above,were arrested. (Incidentally, the young man killed, if rumor has it right, happened to be Jewish.) Just another case of man-made plans not pleasing to God's eyes.


From MediaLens
'Propagandising For War' - Gareth Porter Responds To The BBC Today Programme On Syria

...On August 20, the BBC website featured a Radio 4 Today programme discussion hosted by former political editor Nick Robinson interviewing BBC World Affairs Editor John Cody Fidler-Simpson and Dr. Karin von Hippel, a former State Department official dealing with US strategy against Islamic State.

The discussion was introduced with the following written text, which was repeated in slightly altered form in Robinson's spoken introduction:

    'Exactly five years ago President Obama called on the Syrian President Bashir-Al-Assad to step down but today he is still in power.'

The prominence and repetition of the observation of course conferred great significance. The implication: for the BBC, Obama is not just the leader of another country, he is a kind of World President with the authority to call on other leaders to 'step down'. In reality, Obama made his demand, not in the name of the United Nations, or of the Syrian people, but because, as President George H.W. Bush once declared: 'what we say goes'.

In his introduction, Robinson described a disturbing image that 'has gone viral on social media' of a Syrian child allegedly injured by Russian or Syrian bombing. The child, five-year-old Omran Daqneesh, is depicted sitting between Obama and Putin. Robinson noted that one of these images carried the sarcastic caption: 'Thank you for keeping me safe.' We have found the image but not that caption.....

From RT
'Assange kill attempt'? 
Unknown man climbs Ecuador's London embassy, sheltering WikiLeaks chief
 Social media users are in a panic after WikiLeaks said an unknown man had climbed the Ecuadorian embassy in London where Julian Assange has been staying for four years. Users suggested that it was probably an assassination attempt, “ordered by Clinton.”

“…At 2:47am an unknown man scaled the side wall [and the] window of the Ecuadorian embassy in London; fled after being caught by security,” a statement from WikiLeaks said early Monday morning.
Later the group said that the intruder was “male” and he climbed the Ecuadorian embassy where “Assange has asylum.”
 
Israel is like a pack of salivating Hyenas tearing at the bleeding flesh of the wounded and fallen Syria. What a nauseatingly ugly sight!
Israel shells Syria after stray mortar crosses into its territory 
The IDF says it has attacked a Syrian Army launch site near Israel’s border in the Golan Heights, after a Syrian mortar landed inside Israeli territory. The initial incident produced no casualties or damage, according to Israeli media.
Israel believes that the mortar, which landed next to a minefield, was not aimed at its land, but nonetheless dispatched aircraft to neutralize the source of the firing. In accordance with its policy, Israel holds Damascus responsible for any overspill from its internal conflict, and considers any rockets that breach the border a direct attack. IDF planes have made dozens of such sorties since the outbreak of the Syrian conflict in 2011....

Eric Zuesse at GlobalResearch
Dangerous Crossroads: U.S. Invades Syria, And Warns Russia…

On Monday, August 22nd, the United States government — which demands the overthrow of the internationally-recognized-as-legal government of Syria — officially announced that America’s military forces in Syria will continue to occupy Syrian land, no matter what the Syrian government says, and will shoot down any Syrian planes that fly over U.S. forces there.

As reported on Monday by Al-Masdar News:

    The Pentagon has announced that the USA is ready to down Syrian and Russian planes that they claim threaten American advisers who by international law are illegally operating in northern Syria.

    On Friday, Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis claimed that US jets attempted to intercept Syrian planes to protect the American advisers operating illegally with Kurdish forces in Syria after Syrian government jets bombed areas of Hasakah when Kurdish police began an aggression against the National Defense Force.

On Monday, another Pentagon spokesman, Peter Cook, said,
    “We would continue to advise the Syrian regime to steer clear of those areas.”

“We are going to defend our people on the ground, and do what we need to defend them,” Cook told reporters.
This means that the U.S. government will not allow the Syrian government to expel or otherwise eliminate U.S. forces in Syria. The Syrian government never invited U.S. forces into Syria, but the U.S. now officially dares the Syrian government to assert its sovereignty over the areas where America’s troops are located....

Steven Sahiounie at SottNet
The day before Deraa: How the West brought civil war to Syria

The day before September 11, 2001 was like any normal day in New York City. September 10, 2001 was unaware of the earthshaking events which would happen the next day.

Similarly, one might think the day before the violence broke out in Deraa, Syria, in March 2011, would have been an uneventful day, unaware of the uprising about to begin.

But that was not the case. Deraa was teaming with activity and foreign visitors to Syria well before the staged uprising began its opening act.

The Omari Mosque was the scene of backstage preparations, costume changes and rehearsals. The Libyan terrorists, fresh from the battlefield of the US-NATO regime change attack on Libya, were in Deraa well ahead of the March 2011 uprising violence. The cleric of the Omari Mosque was Sheikh Ahmad al Sayasneh. He was an older man with a severe eye problem, which caused him to wear special dark glasses, and severely hampered his vision. He was not only visually impaired, but light sensitive as well, which caused him to be indoors as much as possible and often isolated. He was accustomed to judging the people he talked with by their accent and voice. The Deraa accent is distinctive. All of the men attending the Omari Mosque were local men, all with the common Deraa accent.

However, the visitors from Libya did not make themselves known to the cleric, as that would blow their cover. Instead, they worked with local men; a few key players who they worked to make their partners and confidants. The participation of local Muslim Brotherhood followers, who would assist the foreign Libyan mercenaries/terrorists, was an essential part of the CIA plan, which was well scripted and directed from Jordan.

Enlisting the aid and cooperation of local followers of Salafism allowed the Libyans to move in Deraa without attracting any suspicion. The local men were the 'front' for the operation.

The CIA agents running the Deraa operation from their office in Jordan had already provided the weapons and cash needed to fuel the flames of revolution in Syria. With enough money and weapons, you can start a revolution anywhere in the world.

In reality, the uprising in Deraa in March 2011 was not fueled by graffiti written by teenagers, and there were no.....
Catte at OffGuardian...

From OffGuardian
BBC, CNN, Guardian et al need to face the agenda they are being used to serve

After the recent revelation that almost every major news site has been promoting unverified video and eye-witness testimony originating in some of the most extreme, violent and debauched terrorist elements currently operating in Syria, we have to ask – is there any longer even a minimum of verification or investigative process required before news agencies and publications endorse a breaking story?

In the case of that notorious “Omran rescue vid”, for example, AP broke the story, but of the three journalists credited, one was in Beirut, one in Geneva and one in Moscow....

....None of them were in Aleppo, or even in Syria. Given what’s now transpired about the discredited and even criminal nature of the source, we need to ask – how did they get word of this event and how did they verify it? Did AP talk to ordinary people on the spot, and directly interview the witnesses? Did they get this video direct from the terrorist-supporting “Aleppo Media Center”, or via an intermediary? Did they know about the terrorist-connections of both the AMC and the “photo-journalist” Mahmoud Raslan, and just not inform their readers, or did they genuinely not know who their sources were?...

Andrew Cockburn on DemocracyNow


Mark Curtis at HuffingtonPost
We know about the Lies over Iraq but what about Syria?

...The British government is waging ‘information warfare’ by funding media operations for some Syrian rebel groups. The Ministry of Defence is 
is hiring contractors to produce videos, photos, radio broadcasts and social media posts branded with the logos of rebel groups, to ‘effectively run a press office for opposition fighters’. Materials are being circulated in the Arabic broadcast media and posted online with no indication of British  government involvement.

Prof Michel Chossudovsky at GlobalResearch
The Strategies of Global Warfare: War with China and Russia? Washington’s Military Design in the Asia-Pacific
The following  text is a point by point thematic summary of Prof. Michel Chossudovsky‘s presentation at the the University of the Philippines Cebu Conference on ASEAN and the World,
UP Cebu, Cebu, 24-25 August 2016

Introduction
It is important to focus on Southeast Asia and East Asia in a broader geopolitical context. China, North Korea as well as Russia are potential targets under Obama’s “Pivot to Asia”, involving the combined threat of missile deployments, naval power and pre-emptive nuclear war.

We are not dealing with piecemeal military endeavors. The regional Asia-Pacific military agenda under the auspices of US Pacific Command (USPACOM) is part of a global process of US-NATO military planning.

US military actions are carefully coordinated. Major military and covert intelligence operations are being undertaken simultaneously in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia and the Asia Pacific region. In turn, the planning of military operations is coordinated with non-conventional forms of warfare including regime change, financial warfare and economic sanctions....

...While, a World War Three Scenario has been on the drawing board of the Pentagon for more than ten years, military action against Russia and China is now contemplated at an “operational level”. U.S. and NATO forces have been deployed in essentially three major regions of the World:

1. The Middle East and North Africa. Theater wars and US-NATO sponsored insurgencies directed against Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen  under the banner of the “Global War on Terrorism”
2. Eastern Europe including Poland and Ukraine, with military maneuvers, war games and the deployment of military hardware at Russia’s doorstep which could potentially lead to confrontation with the Russian Federation.
3. The U.S. and its allies are also threatening China under President Obama’s “Pivot to Asia”.
4. Russia is also confronted on its North Eastern frontier,  through the deployment of NORAD-Northcom
5. In other regions of the World including Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, US intervention is geared towards regime change and economic warfare directed against a number of non-compliant countries: Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia, Cuba, Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua....

Drew Brown at VICE
Gord Downie, Justin Trudeau, and the Complicated Magic  of National Mythmaking
August 20th was a national holiday in Canada. Huddled together in a hundred thousand living rooms, bars, backyards, sheds, and stadiums, more than 11 million people tuned into the CBC for the final Tragically Hip show. We said goodbye to a national icon.

It was a beautiful concert. Poet and frontman Gord Downie delivered an astonishing performance—impressive enough on a regular day, devastatingly powerful for a man with terminal cancer. They played the hits and gems of a 30-year career and everyone's heart shattered into a million pieces as Gord sobbed his way through "Grace, Too" in one of their three encores.

The occasion was tremendously sad, but also genuinely sublime. Cancer is robbing the man far too young, but we should all be so blessed as to give our own eulogy to millions of adoring fans.......

Resistance by the original people of America


From ZeroHedge
Soros Emerges As Mastermind Behind Plan To "Enlarge Electorate By At Least 10 Million Voters"
Ever wonder who is behind all the lawsuits filed to overturn state voter ID laws?  Those lawsuits are very expensive, after all, racking up 1,000's of billable hours from some very high-end law firms.  Well, courtesy of the 2,500 documents recently released by DC Leaks, we now know that George Soros is funding the legal fees as part of his stated goal to "enlarge [the U.S.] electorate by at least 10 million voters" by 2018.

The specifics of the plan were discussed at the May 2014 board meeting of the "Open Society Foundations" a liberal grant-making group founded by Soros (the full 222-page presentation from the board meeting can be found at the end of this post).  The Society's first goal under its "Proposed Strategic Framework 2015-2018" was to "strengthen the quality of American democracy through greater inclusion, participation & accountability."  Under the goal, the Society's top objective was to:

 Enlarge [the U.S.] electorate by at least 10 million voters through modernization of voter registration systems, and through expanded constitutional/legislative protections

As context for their mission to expand the electorate, the Open Society warned that "American democracy is threatened" by, among other things, "undue influence of wealthy interests."  Isn't it ironic that an organization funded by George Soros would be worried about the "undue influence of wealthy interests" on the American political system?  ....

Lawrence Davidson at ConsortiumNews (writer gets educated by commentators to article)
What Israel’s Actions Have Wrought

It has been 71 years since the end of the Holocaust. Initially, the world took that horror as a serious lesson, and the international community created laws against acts of genocide. Those who, even after the public revelation of the Nazi killing fields, still held anti-Semitic opinions kept them to themselves, and as time passed, this particular form of bigotry seemed to be fading away.

And, indeed, that might have been its fate if it weren’t for the strange fact that some of the victims of anti-Semitism, in this case a subset of the Jews known as Zionists (those devoted to the founding of a Jewish state), proved susceptible to catching the disease of their oppressors. The Zionists took up their own form of virulent bigotry against Palestinians, and in reaction, this encouraged a new round of anti-Semitism.
It is a complicated history, but here are some of the particulars that stand out: Israel, created in 1948 in response to anti-Semitism in general and the Holocaust in particular, became the “Jewish state.” Its Zionist leaders were dedicated to the “ingathering” of all Jews into one national entity. And, before you knew it, they were attempting to ethnically cleanse Palestinians and other non-Jews from the land under Israel’s control so as to make room for this “ingathering.”

Such behavior on the part of Zionist Jews was much too reminiscent of their own historical victimization. It created a vigorous anti-Zionist reaction, not only among the Palestinians, but also among increasing numbers of enlightened Jews and others of good will. However, it also created fertile ground for isolated anti-Semites to come out of the closet, as it were, and again become publicly active.

Indeed, we now have the situation where the more anti-Palestinian the Israelis become, the more anti-Semitism they engender. Of course, the Zionists (mistaking longevity for permanence) have always claimed that anti-Semitism is an eternal quality of the Christian West, as if it were something genetic. This is nonsense, but it does allow them to maintain the claim that anti-Semitism would be an ever-growing and threatening reality regardless of their own bigoted behavior.....

Julian Assange
Posted by MariaS at 16:49 0 comments
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Saturday, August 27, 2016

US Elections 2016 .... Cartoons













Posted by MariaS at 20:14 0 comments
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