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Sunday, July 31, 2016

News, Views and Opinions from the Alternative Media ... week ending July 31


From SputnikNews
Soros Says Ukraine Could Become Giant Refugee Camp for EU in Turkey's Place

Billionaire George Soros is concerned about the situation in Turkey following Friday's failed coup attempt. Warning that Ankara could soon be moving closer to Moscow, the billionaire suggested that Ukraine may now be the EU's last line of defense against an array of threats.

Interviewed by the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, Soros, the billionaire philanthropist known in Eastern Europe for financing color revolutions, warned that the present waning of the migration crisis in Europe is temporary, and that the continent cannot hope to preserve the current situation indefinitely.

....Russian commentators didn't know quite what to make of Soros' remarks, except to say that what the billionaire was implying was using Ukraine as a pawn, perhaps all the way up to turning the country into a giant dumping ground for Middle Eastern refugees in Turkey's place. That country presently holds about 2.6 million refugees from Syria.

Svetlana Gomzikova, a columnist for Russia's Svobodnaya Pressa online newspaper, recalled that this wasn't the first time that Ukraine has been presented as Europe's 'last line of defense' from external threats....

Josie Wales
Hillary’s Knight in Shining Armor

Last Friday, Wikileaks released over 19,000 emails from top officials within the Democratic National Committee, including now-former chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz. The leak revealed a mountain of unethical and possible criminal behavior. Emails exposed the committee’s nonchalant racism toward blacks and latinos, employees’ strategies to undermine presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, which included guidance from one of Hillary Clinton’s lawyers, and cooperation with multiple major news outlets; one Politico writer even sent stories to the committee for approval before his own editor, to name a few revelations.

The story spread on social media in spite of reported censorship by both Twitter and Facebook. A statement from the Clinton campaign released Saturday expressed complete confidence in the way they had run their campaign. It also seemingly threw Schultz under the bus. Schultz resigned her position on Sunday, only to be immediately hired by Hillary Clinton. In a public statement, Clinton thanked her “longtime friend” for all of her hard work on the committee.....




Jonathan Marshall at ConsortiumNews
Historians still debate whether President John F. Kennedy
 would have withdrawn U.S. troops from Vietnam had he lived to win re-election in 1964. Since President Barack Obama recently announced his intention to keep at least 8,400 U.S. troops in Afghanistan through the end of his presidency, the only debate will be over why he never withdrew but chose instead to bequeath an unwinnable war — the longest in U.S. history — to his successor.

The U.S. war in Afghanistan will officially pass the 15-year mark in a few months. But like Vietnam, where the United States began aiding French colonial forces in the late 1940s, Afghanistan has been the target of Washington’s war-making for more than three-and-a-half decades.

On July 3, 1979, President Carter first authorized the secret provision of aid to armed opponents of the leftist regime in Kabul. A senior Pentagon official advocated the aid to “suck the Soviets into a Vietnamese quagmire.”

When Moscow took the bait and sent troops that December to support the Afghan government against a growing rural insurgency, National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski gleefully wrote President Carter, “We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam War.”

Call it blowback, or just an irony of history, but Afghanistan has turned instead into America’s second Vietnam War. The Soviets finally had the good sense to pull out after being bloodied for a decade. The Obama administration envisions staying there indefinitely. ....





From ZeroHedge
We said at the time that we were sure this 
would not be the last time "organized" protesters will suddenly appear en masse to provoke reactions and violently protest Trump's freedom of speech.. and it wasn't. But now, as The Daily Caller reports,
In multiple emails, DNC officials signed off and acknowledged the existence of two anti-Donald Trump protests in South Bend, IN and Billings, MT. The release of nearly 20,000 emails is the first in a WikiLeaks “Hillary Leaks” series.

 On April 29, a DNC press staffer, Rachel Palermo, alerted Eric Walker, deputy communications director, about a Facebook page for an anti-Trump protest on May 2 in South Bend. “Whoo! Thanks to our interns for finding this out.” Walker replies, “I like it, as long as the students feel safe getting involved. I imagine this demo will be nicer than the one in San Fran today.”
That day in San Francisco protesters blocked off roads to an event Donald Trump was hosting. The Republican nominee ended up having to jump down from the highway and sneak around back to enter.
In another other email chain also on April 29, titled “Week-Ahead Notes & Assignments,” former DNC media booker Pablo Manriquez comments “this should be fun” in reference to the May protest.....

Here's a vid from James Corbett that should tell you that if this witch gets to be the prez of the USA, take it for granted that we are heading into a very, very hot WW3.  No two ways about it.


BTW, the doc floating around titled "Clinton Cash" is hugely underwhelming.   After watching it, I came away with the opinion that the doc maker has made the Clintons look NOT as bad and criminal as they really are.
The deceitful man has failed to show how the American Jewish billionaires own the Clintons lock,stock and barrel (and if truth be told, they likewise do probably 90%+ of the politicians from both major parties).  By his failure to omit such blaring truths, he has shown that he is like most others in America ... afraid to tell the truth lest they lose their livelihood and perhaps even their lives.

 
Darius Shahtahmasebi at AntiMedia
The Turkish mission to weed out every possible element of dissent continues,
with the government of Turkey reportedly dismissing close to 1,700 military personnel and shutting down 131 media outlets throughout the country.

Of the servicemen recently fired in Turkey, 149 were generals and admirals, meaning approximately 40 percent of all of generals and admirals in Turkey’s military are now without jobs.

Apparently, Turkey has not learned from past instances in which regimes fired large numbers of military servicemen; former generals from Saddam Hussein’s army, who were fired by the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority at the time, Paul Bremer, now hold senior positions within ISIS.

To date, over 10,000 soldiers have been detained because of the failed coup attempt, according to Reuters. Eight-thousand are set to face trial.

If Turkey wants an Iraq or Syria-style civil war, they are going about it the right way....


Japanese going crazier than usual



From CatholicHerald
French prosecutors have named Adel Kermiche, 19,
as one of the two attackers who stormed a church and killed Fr Jacques Hamel

A priest has been killed in an Islamist attack on a church near Rouen in northern France.

Archbishop Dominique Lebrun of Rouen released a statement in which he confirmed that Fr Jacques Hamel, 85, died in the attack on the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray by two armed men, who were both later shot dead by police.

They entered the building during Mass, taking the priest and a number of other people, including two nuns, hostage.

French officials have said that one of the attackers suspected of Fr Hamel’s murder was on probation and wearing a surveillance tag at the time of the attack. Prosecutor Francois Molins named Adel Kermiche, 19, as the suspect. He was arrested twice last year trying to reach Syria.

Molins told reporters that Kermiche’s electronic surveillance bracelet was deactivated for a few hours every morning, corresponding with the time of the attack.

He said Kermiche was arrested in Germany in March 2015 trying to join extremists in Syria using his brother’s ID, and then was arrested in Turkey two months later using a cousin’s ID.

Molins also said Kermiche and his fellow attacker had fake explosives when they entered the church and used nuns as human shields. He said they cried “Allahu akbar” during the attack.

Molins added that a minor has been detained in the investigation, who is believed to be a 16-year-old younger brother of someone wanted by police for trying to go to Syria or Iraq in 2015.....

Brently Kopopolous at Sott
Hillary proffered as alternative to Trump, no one cares she's a warmongering psychopath

There's so much happening around the country and around the world that it's almost impossible to keep up. Mass shootings, weird weather, cops on power trips, strange animal behavior and weird phenomena abound. Then there are power plays in the Middle East, including the on-going wars against the Syrian and Palestinian people by rich psychopaths aka the western political and corporate elite. But pay no attention to the man behind the curtain... there's an election happening!

Dominating the headlines in the US, we have had the Republican National Convention which crowned Donald Trump (and yes, his real name is Donald Drumpf) as the Republican candidate for president. ....

From TelsurTv
Clinton Emails Reveal Direct US Sabotage of Venezuela
Clinton Emails Reveal Direct US Sabotage of Venezuela
As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton led a team committed to delegitimizing the politics of the late Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution.

While Hillary Clinton publicly welcomed improved relations with Venezuela as secretary of state, she privately ridiculed the country and continued to support destabilization efforts, revealed her emails leaked by WikiLeaks....

From Sott
Dirty dealing: Canada ditches Boeing jets after Lockheed threatens loss of 10,000 jobs

Lockheed Martin pointed an economic weapon of mass disruption at Ottawa and it appears that Justin Trudeau has blinked caving to the defense contractor's threats.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rose to power last fall on a pledge not to purchase the defective F-35, an aircraft that he has said "does not work," is too expensive, and is wholly incompatible with Canada's defense needs pushing his country instead to move towards a deal to acquire Boeing's Super Hornet - a fighter jet with greater air maneuverability allowing it advanced performance in air-to-air combat.

That promise crashed along the shores of political reality this week as Canada reneged from its earlier proposal to acquire Boeing Super Hornet jets on an interim basis to plug the country's air defense capability gap after Lockheed Martin threatened to pull all of its operations out of the country which would result in a massive layoff of some 10,000 employees and potentially bankrupt portions of Canada's defense sector that benefits from the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program.

The Canadian government issued a request for information from aerospace firms about the types of fighter aircraft they could provide this week, marking the pullout from their arrangement with Boeing, with companies expected to provide initial aircraft data by July 29.

The Department of National Defense plans to rewrite its requirements for a new fighter jet, said Harjit Sajjan, the defense minister for the Liberal Party government. However, the existing aircraft requirements left by the previous Conservative government of Stephen Harper are designed to favor the F-35 and any attempts to radically alter the criteria will lead to another uproar by Lockheed Martin.....

David Sheen at ElectronicIntifada
Meet the Israeli army’s misogynist chief rabbi

The rabbi newly appointed to the Israeli army’s top religious post has made a long list of racist and misogynist edicts over the years, including one permitting Jewish soldiers to rape non-Jewish women during wartime.....

....Comments Karim made in 2003 when he was a civilian resurfaced after his appointment. In a column called “Ask the Rabbi” at Kipa.co.il, a popular Hebrew-language website catering to religious Jews, Karim responded to a number of anonymous letters inquiring about specificities of Jewish religious law, including a question about rape in times of war.

“Is it allowed nowadays for an IDF [Israeli army] soldier, for example, to rape girls during battle, or is such a thing forbidden?” Karim was asked. He answered: “Even though fraternizing with a gentile woman is a very serious matter, it was permitted during wartime … the Torah permitted the individual to satisfy the evil urge.”....

....Recent high-profile cases reveal the pervasiveness of rape culture in Israel.

In April, an Israeli investigative news program revealed that the late Israeli cabinet minister Rehavam Ze’evi was a serial rapist and sexual predator during his decorated army service, in which he reached the rank of general.

Last week, a currently serving brigadier general who had been slated for promotion was indicted for rape and sexual assault against multiple female soldiers. The following day, his former commander told Israeli army radio that the accused rapist is a “hero” and cited the Torah in defense of his alleged actions.....


Peter Korzun at StrategicCulture
US, France: Gradual Expansion of Military Presence in the Middle East


The US military plans to increase the presence in Yemen. «As we continue on the mission, I think there will be some additional troops that we will ask to bring in», US Army General Joseph Votel, who heads the US Central Command, said in an interview in Baghdad on July 14, without disclosing the number.

According to him, a variety of locations could be suitable for American forces. He did not disclose potential sites.

The Saudi Arabia-led coalition of Arab states, supported by the US and the UK, has been involved in the Yemeni conflict since March 2015. So far, it has not gained much ground. The Yemeni capital Sana’a is still in the hands of the Houthis group (Ansar Allah – «Supporters of God»).

The fighting has resulted in more than 3,200 civilian deaths, over 60 percent of them from coalition airstrikes, according to the United Nations.

Around 6,000 civilians have been wounded in the conflict. Airstrikes have damaged or destroyed numerous civilian objects including homes, markets, hospitals, and schools, as well as commercial enterprises.

On 30 June an HRW report stated that US-made bombs were being used in attacks indiscriminately targeting civilians and violating the laws of war.

The report photographed «the remnants of an MK-83 air-dropped 1,000-pound bomb made in the US».

On 1 July, the UN announced that Yemen was at the highest level of humanitarian disaster with over 80% of the population needing help.

United Nations agencies agreed to classify Yemen as a level 3 emergency as the UN envoy for Yemen stated that the country is one step away from famine.....

Black American teens' best loved hobby ... killing each other



From RT
40,000 rally to back Erdogan in Cologne, Germany amid counter-protests

 Thousands of people have gathered in the German city of Cologne to hold a demonstration in support of the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan following a failed coup attempt. However, they were met by several counter-rallies also being held.

Erdogan’s supporters gathered near the banks of the river Rhine in Cologne’s Deutz district. They started arriving early in the morning, even though the demonstration was scheduled to start at 3pm local time (14:00 GMT)....

Linh Dinh at IntrepidReport
...Homeland Terror

....Periodically, terror plots must be orchestrated by the FBI to keep domestic fear from flagging, however. Flags at half mast stiffen limp fighting spirit.

Though Washington makes a show of denying it, the War on Terror is understood by the media—drugged as a war against Muslims, Israel’s eternal enemy.

As this open-ended assault on Muslims generated millions of Muslim refugees, Benjamin Netanyahu declared in March of 2016, “A strong Israel prevents the passage of masses of refugees to Europe. The world would be different if we were not here.”

Bibi got the second part right. Israel is the prime reason why there are so many Muslim refugees, and this world would be much more peaceful if his terror state disappeared. As long as Israel exists, there will be Muslims massacred or fleeing in terror from their wrecked homes.

Neoconservatism birthed the War on Terror. Founded by Zionists, this movement’s main aim is to conserve Israel, even if they have to wreck the entire Middle East, disfigure Europe and ruin the United States. Jacob Heilbrunn explains in They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons:....

Patrick Cockburn at CounterPunch
Erdogan is Strengthened by the Failed Coup, But Turkey is the Loser

The failed military coup is a disaster for Turkey, but its success would have been a far greater calamity. If the plotters had killed or captured President Recep Tayyip Erdogan then other parts of the armed forces might have joined them, but a civil war would have been inevitable as the security forces split and Erdogan’s supporters fought back.

The disaster is that it will now be much more difficult for Turks to resist Erdogan establishing a monopoly of power. By resisting the coup as the leader of a democratically-elected government, he has enhanced his legitimacy. Moreover, all opposition to his rule can be labelled as support for terrorism and punished as such.

“Human rights and democracy will be weaker and they were already in a bad way before the coup,” says a critic of Erdogan, who does not want his name published, adding that it is difficult for him to criticise Erdogan today while he is under threat from military conspirators. He has no doubt that the attempted putsch was carried out by the followers of Fethullah Gulen, who has lived in the US since 1999. Leaving aside the confessions of the plotters, which may have been forced, only the Gulenists had a network of adherents capable of staging an uprising in so many units of the security forces.
“Fethullah did not help us, he killed us,” says the Turkish commentator bitterly. “He left us totally in the hands of Erdogan.”
He says that the Gulenists operate in two different ways: they have a moderate public face with schools, universities, media and business associations, but they also have always had a secret organisation devoted to taking positions of power within the military, police....

Murtaza Hussain at TheIntercept
U.S. Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning tried to kill herself
on July 5 in her cell at Fort Leavenworth military prison. Now, military officials are considering filing charges in connection to the suicide attempt that could make the terms of her imprisonment much more punitive — including indefinite solitary confinement — while possibly denying her any chance of receiving parole.

According to a charge sheet posted by the American Civil Liberties Union, Manning was informed by military officials on Thursday that she is under investigation for “resisting the force cell move team,” “prohibited property,” and “conduct which threatens.” In the weeks following her suicide attempt, she has been active on social media, thanking her followers for their moral support.

Manning’s treatment in prison since her 2010 arrest has repeatedly generated outrage among civil liberties advocates. The punitive tactics that have been employed against her include stripping her naked in her cell on a nightly basis, extended solitary confinement, and denial of medical necessities like eyeglasses. In 2011, then-State Department spokesperson P.J. Crowley publicly described Manning’s treatment in prison as “ridiculous, counterproductive, and stupid.”

Following a 14-month investigation into Manning’s treatment by the United Nations special rapporteur on torture, the U.N. accused the U.S. government of holding Manning in conditions that constituted “cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment,” particularly with regard to the extended use of pretrial solitary confinement. The harsh measures the military has employed during Manning’s detention have led to suspicions that the government is attempting make an example of her over her whistleblowing activities.....

From NSNBC
Syria Denounces Attempt to Re-Brand Al-Nusrah and the Targeting of Civilians

In a letter to the Security Council, the Syrian Foreign Ministry condemned the targeting of non-combatant and innocent civilians and infrastructure by the US-led coalition under the guise of combating ISIS and other terrorist groups. US air strikes in Syria are carried out without a mandate from the UN and in violation of international law. Syria also denounces the re-branding of the Syrian Al-Qaeda franchise Jabhat al-Nusrah in the attempt to circumvent the Council’s resolution that outlaws the organization.

The Syrian Foreign and Expatriates Ministry styled a letter to the UN Security Council (UNSC), calling for an end to what it describes as atrocities committed against civilians, and for bringing the perpetrators to justice.

The Ministry also commented on the Syrian Al-Qaeda franchise Jabhat al-Nusrah’s attempt to re-brand itself as Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham and described it as a desperate attempt to erase its notorious track record.

The sudden re-branding of Jabhat al-Nusrah comes as the United States and Russia have come close to a consensus about insurgencies that haven’t severed links to the Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL, Daesh), and al-Nusrah and the coordination of air strikes against ISIS and al-Nusrah.....

Mac Slavo at SHTFplan
Outbreak: Russian Bio Warfare Troops Rushed To Arctic: “Dangerous Infection”
The Russian military has reportedly sent biological warfare teams to the Russian arctic in northern Siberia after at least 40 people and 1,200 reindeer died as the result of a violent and rapid spread of what is believed to be Bacillus Anthracis, more commonly known as Anthrax.

Russian officials said the infection may have started after a contaminated corpse was exposed following a warm summer in the Arctic which saw temperatures rise as high as 95 degrees Fahrenheit...

...Officials  noted that they are not certain Anthrax is the sole cause and another biological agent may be to blame. Because of the remote location of the outbreak the situation has been, for the most part, contained according to Russian officials...

Manisha Krishnan at VICE
Canada Has a Race Problem and We Refuse to Talk About It

The Ottawa Police Association is denying Abdirahman Abdi's death at the hands of several officers Sunday had anything to do with race.

Abdi died after, according to witness accounts, cops pepper sprayed him, hit him with batons, and punched him in the head and neck. Afterward, he lay facedown on pavement handcuffed and bleeding for several minutes until paramedics arrived on scene and administered CPR.

"To suggest that race was an issue in this, it's inappropriate. The officers were called to the scene. The officers had to attend. Race, in this case, is a fact, just like your age, your gender, your height. It doesn't have anything to do with our ... decision-making. Our decision-making is based on our training, and our training has nothing to do with race," Matt Skof, president of the Ottawa Police Association told the CBC Monday, adding it's "unfortunate" that racially charged "rhetoric" from the US is making its way across the border.

That conversation, he said, is "not one that's applicable here."

Where have we heard this before?.....

Finian Cunningham at StrategicCulture
Trump and the End of NATO?

 If Donald Trump is elected US president it will spell the end of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. At least, that’s how a phalanx of US foreign policy pundits and establishment figures see it. Trump once again caused uproar recently with comments that were viewed as undermining a «cornerstone» of US foreign policy since the Second World War.

Ahead of accepting official nomination as the Republican party presidential candidate, the billionaire property magnate told the New York Times in an interview that, if elected, he would not automatically deploy American military forces to defend another member of NATO if it were attacked.

As the NYT noted Trump’s conditionality regarding NATO was the first time any senior American politician has uttered such a radical change in policy. It overturns «American cornerstone policy of the past 70 years».

Trump was asked whether he would defend Eastern European countries if they were attacked by Russia.

(Hypothetical, propagandistic nonsense, but let’s bear with the argument for the underlying logic that it exposes.)

Trump did not give the customary automatic, unconditional «yes» response. Rather, he said he would have to first review whether these countries had fulfilled their «obligations to us». If they had, then, he said, US forces would defend. If they hadn’t lived up to past financial commitments to NATO, then the inference was that a would-be President Trump would not order troops to defend.

The reaction to Trump’s comments was explosive. NATO’s civilian chief, Jens Stoltenberg, was evidently perplexed by Trump’s equivocal attitude. «Solidarity among allies is a key value for NATO», said the former Norwegian prime minister. «This is good for European security and good for US security. We defend one another».

Stoltenberg was just one of the many pro-NATO figures on both sides of the Atlantic who stampeded to slam Trump for his comments.....




Glenn Greenwald at TheIntercept
As Israel Prospers, Obama Set to Give Billions More in Aid 
While Netanyahu Demands Even More

For all the chatter about animosity between U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, The Washington Post reports that “a senior Israeli official will arrive in Washington next week for a final round of negotiations involving the largest military aid package the United States has ever given any country and that will last more than a decade after President Obama leaves office.” The U.S. already transfers $3.1 billion in taxpayer money every year to Israel – more than any other country by far – but the new agreement Obama is set to sign “significantly raises” that amount, and guarantees it for 10 years.

In response to this massive windfall, Netanyahu is angry that he is not getting even more. For some time, “Netanyahu was holding out for as much at $5 billion a year.” Also, Israel has been opposed to efforts to direct more of that aid to U.S. military contractors rather than Israeli ones (so this “aid” package is as much a transfer of U.S. taxpayer money to weapons manufacturers in both countries as it is to Israel itself). Moreover, “Israelis are also said to be displeased with a U.S. position that whatever amount of money they agree on will be final and that Israel will not go to Congress requesting more money.”

Usually, when someone hands you billions of dollars in aid, you’re not in much of a position to demand more. But the rules for Israel when it comes to U.S. policy, as is so often the case, are simply different.....



Sunday, July 24, 2016

Some views, opinions and news from the Alternative Media ... week ending Sunday July 24


The Saker at his blog  (lots of informative links at the blog)
Major developments in Syria and Turkey
This article has been written for the Unz Review:
This week has been marked by two major events: the USA and Russia agreed to a common plan for military coordination in Syria and the failed coup in Turkey has been followed by a massive purge of the Turkish elites.

Syria:
The Russians had really no option but to accept to work with the USA in Syria. They way in which they did it was very elegant, however: Lavrov and Kerry have agreed to a joint long-term ceasefire whose exact terms are to remain secret, which indicates to me that the Russians forced the US into concessions which the latter don’t want to be made public. How do we know that it was Russian who forced concessions on the USA and not the other way around? Simple – there was no US “leak” to the media and the Russian bombers have resumed their operation with a new intensity. Besides, it is pretty obvious that in Syria at least Moscow holds all the cards now and Kerry has therefore no means to put pressure on Russia even if he wanted to.
But the main development for Syria is still the coup in Turkey.

Turkey:
What happened in Turkey is huge. So big, in fact, that I even suspect that the numerous rumors about an Erdogan-orchestrated false flag could have been started by the US propaganda machine (since ....

Alice Salles at AntiMedia
Here’s the Presidential Candidate the Troops Are Supporting in 2016

Popular online military personality, Doctrine Man, conducted a poll among troops to determine which presidential candidate they support most — and the results are nothing short of remarkable.

Instead of pledging allegiance to the candidate with the most experience sending troops to war, Doctrine Man’s poll showed that Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party candidate — whose “skeptic” foreign policy outlook makes him favor nonintervention over other more popular approaches — is the number one candidate of the active soldier.
The survey, which was not a scientific poll and lacked a margin of error, found Johnson had 38.7 percent of the votes while the Republican nominee Donald Trump earned 30.9 percent. Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton got 14.1 percent, The Hill summarized.

According to The Hill, this poll is important because “it provides a snapshot of the preferences of about 3,500 active duty, reservists, retired and former members of the military and their family members, 95.7 percent of which were registered voters.”........

Eric Zuesse at StrategicCulture
9/11: Bush's Guilt, and the 28 Pages

On Friday July15th, as the national news media were either on vacation or preparing for the opening of the Trump National Convention on Monday the 18th, the long-awaited release of the ‘missing’ 28 pages from the US Senate’s 9/11 report.....

... What these 28 long-suppressed pages revealed was well summarized by one succinct reader who wrote: «The Inquiry discloses that there is a very direct chain of evidence about financing and logistics… [that] goes from the Saudi Royal family (Amb. Bandar's wife and Bandar's checking account) and Saudi consulate employees (al Thumiari) to the agent handlers (Basnan and al Bayoumi) to some of the 9/11 hijackers (Khalid al-Mihdhar, Nawaf al-Hazmi)». In other words, Prince Bandar bin-Sultan al-Saud, known in Washington as «Bandar Bush» (for his closeness to the Bush family), and who served at that time as Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to the United States, paid tens of thousands of dollars to Saudi Arabia’s «handlers» who were directing two of the hijackers, Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi. Also, one of Bandar’s subordinates at the Embassy, named al-Thumiari, was likewise paying the person who was paying and managing those two jihadists.

The report said: «FBI files suggest that al-Bayoumi provided substantial assistance to hijackers Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi after they arrived in San Diego in February 2000… According to an October 14, 2002 FBI document, al-Bayoumi has ‘extensive ties to the Saudi Government’… According to the FBI, al-Bayoumi was in frequent contact with the Emir at the Ministry of Defense, responsible for air traffic control… Al-Bayoumi was receiving money from the Saudi Ministry of Defense… Al-Bayoumi was known to have access to large amounts of money from Saudi Arabia, despite the fact that he did not appear to hold a job… Al-Bayoumi’s pay increased during the time that al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar were in the United States».

Also, an FBI agent testified on 9 October 2002 regarding al-Bayoumi, and said Bayoumi: «acted like a Saudi intelligence officer, in my opinion. And if he was involved with the hijackers, which it looks like he was, if he signed leases, if he provided some sort of financing… then I would say that there’s a clear possibility that there might be a connection between Saudi intelligence and UBL [Usama bin Laden]»....




Simon Henderson at ForeignPolicy
What We Know About Saudi Arabia’s Role in 9/11

The Saudi government still says it had no connection to the hijackers. Newly released classified information proves otherwise.

Sometimes, reality is so absurd that it outstrips anything conspiracy theorists could come up with. More than 13 years after the congressional investigation published its report into the events surrounding the 9/11 attacks, the much-discussed “28 pages” on Saudi involvement in the terrorist assault, which had been held back as too sensitive to publish, have been released. As it turns out, there are 29 pages, not 28, numbered 415 through 443 in the congressional inquiry into the 9/11 attacks. And deletions on the pages — sometimes words, often whole lines — add up to the equivalent of a total of three pages. So we still are not being given the full story.

It is instantly apparent that the widely held belief for why the pages were not initially released — to prevent embarrassing the Saudi royal family — is true.

The pages are devastating:
Page 415: “While in the United States, some of the September 11 hijackers were in contact with, and received support and assistance from, individuals who may be connected to the Saudi Government.… [A]t least two of those individuals were alleged by some to be Saudi intelligence officers.”........

Jason Ditz at AntiWar
Boeing: If We Can’t Have Iran, Nobody Should

Boeing Officials Fear Rival Airbus Could Have Market to Themselves
An effort by Congressional hawks to derail a massive contract between Boeing and Iran Air to supply them with a large number of civilian airliners has fueled considerable consternation within the well-connected US aviation company, with Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg quoted as warning that if Boeing could not have the Iran Air contract “nobody should.”
That’s a concern for Boeing because they only got half of the Iran Air contract, with European rival Airbus securing a roughly equal contract shortly before theirs was announced. Though the Congressional effort aims to derail the European company’s sales too, they might not be able to prevent all commercial airliners getting to Iran.

And that’s where Boeing is really freaking out, as they compete intensely with Airbus. Boeing spokesman Tim Neale insisted Congress was wrong to try to block the deal, noting that the P5+1 agreement was supposed to allow civilian airplane sales....

From LaRouchePac
Their Day Has Come,— And Gone!

That is the meaning of the two releases this month, the one of Britain's long-delayed Chilcot report into Tony Blair's criminal responsibility for the illegal Iraq war, and the other of the long-suppressed 28 pages of the report of the Joint Congressional Inquiry into 9/11, documenting the Saudi hand behind that butchery. It means that time is up at last for those blood-drooling dinosaurs Tony Blair, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Barack Obama, after fifteen years of wars based on lies. They have destroyed the Middle East, drowned Europe in desperate refugees, and caused blood to be spilled on the streets across Europe and the U.S.,— all based on lies.

And don't believe that Tony Blair was merely the "poodle" of the non-functional George W. Bush.  In fact, he instigated Bush on behalf of the British Queen who was really giving the orders. For example, the documentation Chilcot released included a note from Blair to Bush on Sept. 12, 2001, urging him to act immediately on "weapons of mass destruction." Although he did not yet single out Iraq in particular, Blair wrote,
"Some of this will require action that some will balk at.  But we are better to act now and explain and justify our actions than let the day be put off until some further, perhaps even worse catastrophe occurs.  And I believe this is a real possibility." [emphasis in original]

Their fifteen years of wars based on lies, their fifteen years of terrorism, have been a Dark Age of civilization.  It is time to discard all of this; it is time to institute a human direction of human affairs, even if there are only a few people who actually know what it is to be human, and actually conceive themselves as human beings rather than as smart talking animals........

From AntiMedia ... source: MintPress
...Ironically, it was the U.S. mission 
to obliterate the Taliban in the “War on Terror” that turned Afghanistan into a “narco state.”

Prior to the War in Afghanistan, the Taliban actually offered subsidies to farmers to grow food crops not drugs.

In the summer of 2000, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar announced a total ban on the cultivation of opium poppy, the plant from which heroin is made. Those caught planting poppies in Taliban-controlled parts of the country were beaten and marched through villages with motor oil on their faces.

The only opium harvest the following spring was in the northeast, in an area controlled by the Taliban’s rivals, the Northern Alliance. That year, as Matthieu Aikins reported for Rolling Stone in 2012, “Opium production fell from an estimated 3,276 tons in 2000 to 185 tons in 2001.”

But then 9/11 hit and the Bush administration pushed into Afghanistan once again, carrying the banner of the “War on Terror.”

“When the Taliban fled or went into hiding, the farmers lost their financial support to grow food, and returned to growing heroin, a crop that thrives in regions of Afghanistan,” as Dr. Steven Kassels noted in a 2015 piece for Social Justice Solutions.

Seeking a “light footprint” in Afghanistan, the U.S. and our allies teamed up with what Aikins describes as “anti-Taliban warlords.” Aikins reported: “Within six months of the U.S. invasion, the warlords we backed were running the opium trade, and the spring of 2002 saw a bumper harvest of 3,400 tons.”

That’s right: The War in Afghanistan saw the country’s practically dead opium industry expanded dramatically. By 2014, Afghanistan was producing twice as much opium as it did in 2000. By 2015, Afghanistan was the source of 90 percent of the world’s opium poppy....

Since 2001, the U.S. has poured billions into counternarcotics programs in Afghanistan. How could this industry flourish right under the nose of the U.S. and our allies? Well, quite simply, because we let it: Aikins alleges that the DEA, FBI, the Justice Department and the Treasury ALL knew about their corrupt allies in the country, but did nothing to pursue them because it would have derailed the troop surge.

Trita Parsi at ConsortiumNews
Israel’s Wolf-Crying about Iran’s Bomb

A year has passed since diplomats from Iran and the P5+1 (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States; plus Germany) defied conventional wisdom and struck a deal aimed at both preventing Iran from getting the bomb and preventing it from getting bombed.

At the time, the deal’s detractors were apoplectic; Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a “historic mistake” that would pave the way for Iran to obtain a bomb. But the world has not come to an end. Iran is not the hegemon of the Middle East, Israel can still be found on the map, and Washington and Tehran still define each other as enemies. These days, voices such as Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League, criticize the deal for having changed too little.

But a closer examination shows that it has had a profound impact on the region’s geopolitical dynamics. Only four years ago, the Iranian nuclear program was consistently referred to as the United States’ number one national security threat. Senior U.S. officials put the risk of an Israeli attack on Iran at 50–50, a confrontation that the United States would quickly get dragged into. A war that was even more destabilizing than the Iraq invasion was not just a possibility; it seemed likely.

Today, however, the talk of war is gone. Even the hawkish government of Netanyahu has gone silent on the matter. Former Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, a hawk in his own right, announced a few weeks ago that “at this point, and in the foreseeable future, there is no existential threat facing Israel. Thus it is fitting that the leadership of the country stop scaring the citizenry and stop giving them the feeling that we are standing before a second Holocaust.”

Moreover, members of the U.S. Congress who have recently visited Israel have also noted that Israelis are no longer shifting every conversation to a discussion about the Iranian nuclear threat.

“I can’t count how many times I, and many members of Congress, were urgently and passionately informed that negotiation with the Iranian menace was wishful thinking and the height of folly,” Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minnesota, wrote after a recent visit to Israel. “And now? Nothing.”........

From description to vid: Michael Hudson says that the US-led confrontational approach of NATO with Russia is driving European countries to consider disbanding or leaving the military alliance due to increased security risks



Gearóid Ó Colmáin at his blog
French Government orders destruction of CCTV videos in Nice Attacks

A report in 21st of July edition of Le Figaro newspaper states that France’s anti-terrorist executive ( sous-direction anti-terroriste- SDAT) has ordered Nice’s urban surveillance authorities to destroy all CCTV footage of the Nice Attacks on Bastille Day that rocked the city on the 14th of July 2016.

Although SDAT have cited articles 53 and L706-24 of the prosecution procedure and article R642-1 of the penal code, authorities in Nice interviewed by Le Figaro say that it is the first time they have ever been asked to destroy evidence at a crime scene – something they point out is illegal.

The explanation given by the French Ministry of Justice is that they don’t want ‘uncontrolled’ and ‘non-authorised (non maîtrisée) diffusion of the images of the terrorist attacks. The Judicial Police have noted that 140 videos of the attacks in their possession show ‘important pieces of the inquiry’ (éléments d’enquête intéressants). The French government claims it wants to prevent ISIS from gaining access to videos of the attacks for the purposes of propaganda. They also claim that the destruction of evidence is intended to protect the families of the victims. The comments section of the Le Figaro article is replete with outrage and disgust by the fact that the French government, instead of preserving evidence for the purposes of a thorough, independent investigation, is in fact behaving rather more like the chief suspect in the attack – ordering the destruction of vital evidence.

There is something rotten in France’s Judicial Police. Shortly after the Charlie Hebdo attacks on the 7th of January 2015, the judicial police behaved suspiciously before and as they did after the ‘suicide’ of Limoge’s deputy Police Commissioner Helric Fredou. Fredou was found dead shortly after the arrival of the French Judicial Police to his office in Limoges shortly after the Charlie Hebdo massacre. His family were not allowed see his body for 24 hours after his death; they suspect foul play. The Judicial Police claimed he had shot himself in the head, though his mother said she did not see evidence of this. The police commissioner was said to be suffering from depression, a claim denied by the family doctor. Fredou was found dead in his office before the publication of a report on the relationship between Jeanette Bougrab, a former press secretary of Nicolas Sarkozy, and one of the deceased in the attack, Stéphane Charbonnier....

From AlMasdarNews
French Air Force avenges Nice massacre, kills 100+ civilians (Pictures)

Not a week after the horrendous attack that occurred in the French city of Nice, the French Air Force, a member of the anti-ISIS coalition, escalated its bombing of ISIS-held territory.

The retaliatory bombing campaign resulted in a high civilian casualty count in the densely populated Manbij. Lower estimates put the civilian victim numbers at a 100+ while higher estimates provided by local sources put the number at 300, most of whom were women and children.

While civilian losses are not foreign to urban wars, the French Air Force is not foreign to attacks seemingly vengeful in nature. Following the horrific ISIS-claimed attacks in Paris, the French Air Force bombed a school in Iraq’s Nineveh massacring 36 children, local sources said.....

Michal Kozak at FinancialObserver
Colonial trading stations instead of factories in Ukraine

The western companies that come to Ukraine concentrate mainly on exploitation of the country’s raw materials and not on innovation.

The Ukrainian government is counting on millions of dollars of Western FDI which is supposed to put the ruined economy back on its feet. However, the companies that will come will concentrate mainly on exploitation of the country’s raw materials and not on innovation. According to a study of the European Business Association (EBA), Ukraine’s Investment Attractiveness Index reached 2.56 points in 2015 on a scale from 1 to 5. That’s slightly better than the previous year – the level of general dissatisfaction of investors was 8 per cent lower than in 2014. 16 per cent of companies indicated a slight simplification of customs procedures, 11 per cent stated that doing trade had become simpler but the basic problems that continue to be is the pressure of tax authorities and the pervasive corruption.
Russia at the top

The Ukrainian ministry of economy informed that in 2015 between USD2.5-3bn of FDI flowed into Ukraine. Despite the ongoing war and unstable political situation, appetites in 2015 are greater – Kiev is counting on USD5bn. According to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, the total foreign direct investment calculated from the beginning of Ukrainian independence in 1991 to the end of 2015 reached USD43bn and is not growing in relation to previous years.

Paradoxically – despite the pro-western economic and political course declared by the ruling group........

From MoonOfAlabama
U.S. Considers "Pause" In Supplies For Group Beheading Sick Child

Yesterday some ten year old kid in Syria was beheaded by U.S. supported "moderate rebels".

The "rebels" alleged that the boy was a fighter for a Palestinian group on the Syrian government side. But the boy looks very small and weak, has infusion tubes in his arm and no military attributes like a uniform or weapons.

There is now additional information about the case:

    8:08 AM - 20 Jul 2016 Elijah J. Magnier @EjmAlrai
    #Palestinian child, Abdullah Issa, was at Hospital, beheaded by Mateen al-Nahlawee coz his father is a militant.
    #Palestinian Abdullah Issa was suffering from lack of oxygen n the bloodstream causes thalassemias and needed blood transfusion every month+

    He was not fighting among Al-Quds pro-gov group but his father. He was a patient at the Hospital in #Aleppo when beheaded by pro-#US Zinki.


The five "individuals" who killed the child are members of the Harakat Nour al-Din al-Zenki, a group supported by the CIA as well as with Saudi money and weapons. The group issued a statement on the case. It called it "an act of an individual" and blamed the "international community" for its problems. While only one person does the cutting the video shows that the five "individuals" are clearly acting as a group, cheering Takbeer and Allahu Akbar during and after the beheading.

Despite the publicly available video and the statement by the Zinki group leaders admitting the case, the U.S. State Department had only a very subdued response to it:.....


From Katehon
Who is behind the US Hybrid war in Armenia?

In Armenia, the confrontation continues between the security forces and nationalists who seized the police station in Yerevan's Erebuni district. The deputy head of police, Major-General Vardan Yeghiazaryan and Deputy Colonel Valery Osipyan, Chief of Yerevan Police, are being held as hostages. Intelligence agencies are in talks with the attackers. However, the possibility of storming of the building has also not been excluded.

The attackers are obviously counting on the support of the crowd. During the storming of the police station, they killed one police officer and can now hope to get away with it only if they can rekindle a revolutionary conflagration. Perhaps the attack was intended for this. Supporters of the militants have tried to organize a breakthrough crowd to connect with the bandits and initiate a "revolution." The main demand of the militants and their supporters is the removal from power of the incumbent president, Serge Sargsyan, and the release of their leader Jirayr Sefilian, and a number of other prisoners. Otherwise, they promise to start an armed uprising throughout the country. "We have captured a major police base in Yerevan and control the block of Erebuni", they claimed in their statement.

Armenian special services have not yet resolved to storm the occupied station, not just because of the good ....

Daniel Lazare at ConsortiumNews 
What Really Happened in Syria

Exclusive: The U.S. government blames the Syrian civil war almost entirely on Bashar al-Assad – and some progressives have bought into that propaganda narrative – but there is another side of the story, as Daniel Lazare describes.
How did Syria get so ugly so fast? This is a question that could just as well be asked of Libya, Egypt or Yemen, all of which saw stirring democratic revolts during the so-called Arab Spring only to descend into religious bigotry, civil war or military dictatorship.

But it is especially urgent with regard to Syria, a great bleeding wound on the edge of Europe that, over the last five years, has seen as many as 470,000 deaths, generated some 4.8 million refugees, and sent out waves of terrorism that are destabilizing politics from Eastern Europe to the U.S. Not since Yugoslavia has a country collapsed more completely or calamitously.
his should make Robin Yassin-Kassab and Leia Al-Shami’s Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War the book of the hour. Published by London’s Pluto Press, long associated with the International Socialist Tendency, it seemingly analyzes the Syrian disaster from  a critical-left perspective, in other words one that isn’t afraid to tell the left when it goes wrong but otherwise reflects a progressive and democratic point of view.

Considering that the leftwing website Counterpunch hailed it as nothing less than the second coming of George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia, this is a book that many readers have been waiting for.

But they’ll have to wait some more. Burning Country is a disaster – defensive, contradictory, all too eager to blame others rather than asking how the revolution itself may have gone awry. Considering how it downplays...

From Doctors Without Borders /MSF
TRAPPED IN TRANSIT Refugees, migrants and asylum seekers locked up in Libya
 
Since Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) launched search and rescue operations in the central Mediterranean Sea last year, its teams have rescued more than 25,000 people from boats in distress. Regardless of their country of origin or their reasons for trying to reach European shores, almost everyone rescued from this stretch of water passed through Libya.

Hundreds of interviews with people rescued at sea by MSF during 2015 and 2016 have exposed the alarming level of violence and exploitation to which refugees, asylum seekers and migrants are subjected in Libya. Many of those we have rescued report having directly experienced violence in the country, while almost all report witnessing extreme violence against refugees and migrants, including beatings, sexual violence and murder.

Libya remains fragmented by conflicts and the effects of the civil war. While government departments are trying hard to restore some sense of normality and increase public services, daily life for many Libyans is still a struggle, and the country does not have the capacity to support tens of thousands of foreigners, migrants and refugees. While fighting between rival armed groups continues, the situation for migrants, asylum seekers and refugees remains as precarious and dangerous as ever.

.... A young Somali man, who had lived for some years in Yemen, told MSF soon after his rescue in May 2016: “I felt like a precious commodity as I was sold by someone in Sudan to a Libyan for US$2,000. Sudanese and Libyan traffickers work together – it is like a business. Once sold, they kept me and many others in a kind of detention place. I worked on farms in the day and returned to detention at night. Quite a lot of people died inside that detention place because they were sick and were not given treatment. Once I had worked enough I was released from that place and could take the boat journey.”

Lami, aged 26, from Senegal was living in a half-constructed house with 30 other people. “They obliged us to work and we didn’t get any money. They used us as slaves. It was there that they beat me with an iron stick. I lost a lot of blood, I couldn’t even walk. There was a guy there (…) he was really sick and his condition was getting worse every day. He died in front of my eyes; we had to bury him there. In Libya, if you don’t have money to pay back the people that assault you, then they beat you. I prefer to die at sea.” ...

....Hope,* aged 20, a singer from Nigeria, was befriended in Nigeria by a woman who invited her to Lagos but, when she got there, “she sold me to another lady and they took me to a brothel in Libya. Men would come and pay to have sex with the women. I refused to have sex with the men and they locked me away and beat me over and over.”

Natasha, aged 23, from Cameroon, who was rescued at sea along with her four-month-old baby, Divine, told us: “When we arrived in Tripoli, they kidnapped us. They brought us to a house where hundreds of people were held in captivity. I stayed there for five months. I was so afraid to die there, I was so afraid they would rape me in the same way they did other women.” ....




From SOTT.net  ... source: Katehon
Alexander Dugin speaks on the coup-d-etat in Turkey
.......Thus, two forces formed in Turkey: one of them was made up of conditional Kemalists, patriots who wanted to immediately restore relations with Russia and then pushed Erdogan to apologize, and the the Gulen sect and other purely pro-American structures who, on the contrary, did everything they could to prevent this.

When Melih Gokcek and I parted ways two hours before the coup, he said: "We underestimated the power of the parallel state that the Americans and Gulen's supporters established inside Turkey. This was our mistake. But now we are going to fix it, the first step being new rapprochement with Moscow."

When I was waiting for my flight to Moscow at the Ankara airport, I heard shots and explosions. The airport was shut down by soldiers and flights were canceled. The news spread that a coup was underway. People said that the military had rebelled against Erdogan. But it was immediately clear for me that the American agents in the mid-range, but influential positions of the army, i.e., Fethullah Gulen's network, had opted for extreme measures. This was the last chance to kick out Erdogan, who, supported by the Kemalists, decided to break with Washington and turn to Eurasian politics, to Moscow. Many Turkish politicians then told me that Turkey was seriously considering exiting NATO and striving for a rapprochement with Moscow on security issues, so the American agents had only one way out: a coup. This is what the pro-American forces attempted to accomplish. ....

From YemenWarCrimes
25th Jan 2016, judge's house hit by Saudi led coalition airstrike killing family of 8 in Sanaa, Yemen

On 25th January 2016 at 3am, Judge Yahia Robaid and 8 members of his family were killed, including 4 children and 3 women, and 2 others including 1 woman was injured. Judge Rubaid was a judge on a case against Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, for treason in absentia. On the same night, the headquaters for 'Evidence of Criminal Research' building was also targeted by 2 airstrikes. As stated in the Foreign Policy publication "there was no legally valid basis for bombing his home, as he and his family were civilians and under international law should not have been deliberately targeted"....


James Perloff at his blog
Are the Rothschild Elite Banking on the Weather?

Weather modification is widely discussed in alternative media. Even mainstream media acknowledge that we’ve been seeding clouds to make it rain since the end of World War II, and that during the Vietnam War, the U.S. military seeded clouds to extend the monsoon season. In his 1970 book Between Two Ages, Zbigniew Brzezinski quoted geophysicist Gordon J. F. MacDonald on the use of weaponized weather:

    Techniques of weather modification could be employed to produce prolonged periods of drought or storms, thereby weakening a nation’s capacity and forcing it to accept the demands of the competitor.1

Such possibilities were aggressively advanced in the Air Force’s 1996 research paper Weather as a Force Multiplier: Owning the Weather in 2025.

It is generally understood that weather control today represents a component of the population control program of the Illuminati, other elements including GMOs, chemtrails, vaccines, abortion, and of course the old stand-by of war. The Zionist PTB know that if they level a town with a bomb, people will ask “Who dropped the bomb?” But if they level it with a HAARP-energized, directed tornado, people will call it “Mother Nature” or “an act of God.”





It is not the purpose of this post to elaborate on the population-reduction facet of weather control, or the technologies involved, which are discussed abundantly at sites such as Geoengineering Watch. Rather, I wish to address other motives associated with it that garner less attention......


From description to vid: Since early 2015 Yemen has been gripped by civil war, with forces backed by a Saudi coalition fighting Iran-backed Houthi rebels. Since the start of the conflict, Britain has sold nearly £3bn worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia, a dictatorship accused of war crimes and human rights breaches by several NGOs. I went to speak to Yemenis whose lives have been destroyed by the conflict and asks Sir Alan Duncan, governmental special envoy to Yemen, if the British people should be questioning their links to the Saudi regime more.


Bill Van Auken at WorldSocialistWeb
The Turkish coup, US militarism and the collapse of democracy

....US imperialism has no intention of brooking such a strategic realignment in the region. Resort to an attempted military coup was no doubt a criminally reckless policy. If it had succeeded, the likely result would have been a civil war and a death toll that would have made the bloody US-backed coup in Egypt pale by comparison.

US imperialism has already wrecked Iraq, Libya and Syria, killing and maiming millions in pursuit of its geo-strategic interests, so why not Turkey as well?

The tensions with Turkey have emerged in the context of a global eruption of American militarism. The coup took place barely one week after a NATO summit in Warsaw outlined plans to execute a massive escalation of military deployments on Russia’s western border and preparations for a direct, i.e., nuclear, confrontation with Moscow.

In Asia, US imperialism has made it clear it intends to use a ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration against Chinese claims in the South China Sea as the pretext for a major military escalation against Beijing.

To that end, the Obama administration dispatched Vice President Joe Biden to Australia to deliver bellicose speeches threatening China with US military might and, more pointedly, to instruct the Australians that, whether they liked it or not, they would be dragged into the US war preparations. “It’s never a good bet to bet against the United States,” he threatened.

The US is moving toward a military confrontation on a scale not seen since the end of the Second World War. It is determined to crush all obstacles in the path of its war plans. Great shocks are coming in the wake of the American November elections, if not even before.....

From Ontario Ombudsman
Ombudsman urges province to ensure police are trained in de-escalation
Leadership long overdue in teaching alternatives to lethal force

Ontario Ombudsman Paul Dubé today called on the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services to save lives by requiring police across the province to use de-escalation techniques in conflict situations before resorting to lethal force...
It is time for officials to “review the human costs of their legacy of inaction, and to finally make this issue a priority,” the Ombudsman notes in A Matter of Life and Death, his office’s latest systemic investigation report. He recommends the Ministry “use its legal and moral authority to take the lead” on this issue – and that it act “to require all officers to use de-escalation techniques in all situations of conflict before considering force options, wherever tactical and safety considerations permit.”...

Alexander Mercouris at TheDuran
The campaign to ban Russian athletes is an unethical and grossly political affair

When the doping scandal involving Russian athletes first broke I wrote a piece for Sputnik in which I said that an across the board ban on Russian athletes would be contrary to the principles of the Olympic movement and would be openly and grossly discriminatory. 
Reversing the standard of proof and barring athletes against whom there is no evidence simply because they happen to be Russians would be so obviously wrong and unjust that it would inevitably raise questions about the motives of those behind it.  These were the words I used:

    “The Russian authorities are challenging some of the allegations — as it is their right to do — but look to be genuinely offering cooperation to help solve the problem. For example, they have offered to appoint a foreign specialist to head their laboratory. The right thing to do is not to impose a blanket ban but to work with the Russian authorities so that the problem can be solved. That may involve bringing criminal charges and imposing individual bans on specific persons, barring them from involvement in international sports training and competition.

    If that does not happen and a blanket ban on Russian athletes is imposed instead, then it seems to me that the world’s sporting bodies will not only have retreated from their ideals but will open themselves up to questions about what their real motives are.”

Since I wrote those words it has unfortunately become all too clear that the concerns I expressed in the final paragraph were only too justified.

The Russians do not deny that there has been a doping problem in Russian sport and seem to have made a genuine effort to respond to the concerns of the international sporting bodies.  Though it is barely reported in the West, since January samples of all Russian track and field athletes are sent to Britain for testing.  Russian athletes now engaging in doping would presumably have to fool or gain the cooperation of the British authorities in order to do it.  Neither seems very likely.  The Russians have also banned the individuals they allege were involved in doping from further involvement in sport, and have brought criminal charges against some of them.

Notwithstanding these steps, since January there has been an escalating campaign to discredit Russian sports and to have Russian athletes banned from the Olympic Games, which are ....

Justin Gardner at FreeThoughtProject
While Americans Focused on the RNC, the US was Provoking War with China

This week we were treated to the first circus sideshow being put on by the political establishment. Among the petty issues that captured the mainstream media’s attention were Melania Trump’s partially plagiarized speech, and the refusal of Ted Cruz to endorse Donald Trump.

Never mind important issues such as the Republican Party platform, which reaffirms the stupefying idea of “American exceptionalism.” It’s also a pledge to advance global military hegemony, a wholesale denial of environmental degradation and an unflinching display of homophobia.

The Democratic Party platform will be an equally resounding endorsement of big government, put in different terms but ultimately supporting the same welfare-warfare state. Never before has the absurdity of the U.S. two-party dictatorship been so apparent.

As the masses sit captivated by professional liars parading about on stage, spellbound by clichés and the so-called “summer of rage,” important events are playing out around the world which threaten the already tenuous peace between world superpowers.

Dennis Blair, a former commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific told a Congressional panel on July 13 that the U.S. should be prepared to use military force to oppose Chinese aggression in the South China Sea....

Ron Paul at RonPaulInstitute
The Path to Fed-Exit

I recently proposed that the liberty movement capitalize on Brexit with “Fed-exit”: a campaign to “secede" from the Federal Reserve. Fed-exit could be accomplished with a few simple policy changes.

Passing Audit the Fed is a good first step toward Fed-exit. Contrary to the Federal Reserve’s propaganda, auditing the Fed will not reduce the Federal Reserve’s mythical “independence.” It will simply allow Congress and the people to learn the full truth about the Fed’s conduct of monetary policy.

However, the desperation with which the Fed fights the audit bill suggests it believes increased transparency will boost support for Fed-exit. Considering what we discovered from the limited audit of the Fed’s activities during the 2008 financial crisis, the Fed’s fears may be justified. That audit revealed that between 2007 and 2008 the Federal Reserve loaned over $16 trillion — more than four times the annual budget of the United States — to foreign central banks and politically-influential private companies! Imagine what would be revealed by a full audit that includes looking at the Fed’s recent explosion of money creation via “quantitative easing.”

Once Congress and the public know the full truth about the Fed’s operations, we can begin working on ending, or at least reining in, the Fed. A good next step would be to explicitly forbid the Fed from making “loans” to private businesses or foreign governments. Section 13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act, which the Fed claims gives it the authority to provide "emergency assistance” to private companies, must be repealed.....

Jessica McBridge at Heavy
Ali David Sonboly: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know
Ali David Sonboly, the 18-year-old German-Iranian gunman with dual nationality who committed the Munich, Germany shooting spree, was a “depressed” and “deranged” teen, who complained of bullying, was influenced by right-wing Norwegian mass killer Anders Breivik, and read about school shootings, according to UK Telegraph and UK Daily Mail, citing police.
The shooting spree – which started at a Munich mall before spreading to a nearby McDonald’s – left at least 10 people dead (including the shooter) and more injured. CNN said Munich police initially believed there were three gunmen and that the shooting spree was a terrorist attack....

From WarNewsToday blog
Update for Saturday, July 23, 2016

This is breaking news as I write at 9:30 ET, so we have to piece together the story from fragmentary accounts, but the death toll now stands at 61, with hundreds injured, in a bomb attack on a peaceful demonstration by members of the Hazara minority. The Taliban have disavowed the attack, and IS has claimed responsibility. The Hazara, who are Shiite muslims, were demanding that a proposed power line be routed through their territory, which centers on Bamiyan.

I'm sure we'll be seeing candlelight vigils in every U.S. city.

In Iraq meanwhile, bombs targeting civilians fleeing Shirqat kill 13 and injure 9. The grip of IS on the town has been weakening, giving civilians the opportunity to flee.....

Jasmine Siu at SouthChinaMorningPost
Guilty: Hong Kong student leader Joshua Wong and associates could face jail
over protest that sparked 79-day Occupy turmoil
Ruling marks first court convictions for Wong, Nathan Law and Alex Chow
Three prominent student leaders who spearheaded the 2014 Oc­cupy movement were convicted on Thursday over the storming of government headquarters – an ­incident that led to the blocking of key roads for 79 days.

Former Scholarism convenor Joshua Wong Chi-fung was found guilty at Eastern Court of unlawful assembly along with former Federation of Students secretary general Alex Chow Yong-kang, 25. Demosisto chairman Nathan Law Kwun-chung, 23, was convicted of inciting others to join an unlawful assembly.

Wong beat the incitement charge, and all three were released on bail. Their case marked the first criminal convictions of the student leaders who played a pivotal role in the civil disobedience movement for greater democracy after Beijing set a framework for political reform that was seen as too restrictive....

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

On the Fethullah Gulen cult and how our shameless Canadian politicians prefer to stuff their faces with samosas given freely ..


at these feeding frenzies organized by the cults. Our ignorant politicians welcome these Trojan Horses with open arms with nary a thought to the danger they bring to the citizenry of this country.

There's no beast on our planet more disgusting than a politician. 

Really important information revealed within the vid below which was posted July 18.

From description to vid at YouTube: As we predicted last year, the deep state coup against Erdogan finally materialized last weekend...but it fizzled out almost as quickly as it arrived. So what are we to make of this would-be putsch? Did Erdogan allow it to happen in order to further cement his control on the rebound? Or was this merely a trial run for the real CIA/NATO/Gulenist coup yet to come? And what role do the Turkish people play in all of this? Joining us today to dissect the mayhem is Sibel Edmonds and Spiro Skouras of Newsbud.com.



From Gagrule.net
Turkish Imam Fethullah Gulen “Interfaith Scam” have now deeply infiltrated Canadian Political society
 
Gulen Movement is using the same tactic as their forefather did when they infiltrated Islamic empire and hijack islam used as tools went on conquering three continent,  But the movement’s influence extends far beyond Turkey, funding schools, and think tanks and media outlets, from washington to Toronto from Kenya to Kazakhstan. It has attracted millions of followers and billions of dollars.

now that they have fully concurred United State political elite culture they are turning on Canadian political culture, by giving away award under name of  falsified interfaith dialogue scam,

    Recently they have put up  hollywood style award giving show in Toronto, Canada, The award ceremony, which took place at Toronto’s Fairmont Royal York Hotel on Jan. 19, was attended by Lieutenant Governor of Ontario Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Toronto Mayor John Tory, Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie, as well as parliamentarians, academics and representatives of civil society groups.

Hizmet has no formal structure, no visible organisation and no official membership, yet it may have grown into the world’s biggest Muslim network.....

Monday, July 18, 2016

Some views, news and opinions from Alternative Media ... Week ending July 17


The Nice massacre and the failed Turkey coup are posted as separate items below this one.  

There have been several important news items during the last week right here in the Americas but because of the Nice massacre and the failed coup in Turkey, our focus has been diverted. 

The most important, IMO, is the release of the redacted 28 pages from the 9/11 report. One of the items below is authored by a widow of the 9/11 murders.  I am sure there will be many more people looking into those pages and coming to the conclusion that the govt of  KSA definitely had a role in that tragedy and in spite of knowing about that horrendous deed, the elite in the govt of the United States of America have stayed in bed with the Saudis, and to this day continue to  wallow in the kind of dirt that even swine would keep miles away from.  There are no more loathsome creatures on this our planet than the American politicians.

Robert Parry at ConsortiumNews
MH-17: Two Years of Anti-Russian Propaganda

Perhaps it’s only fitting that as we reach the second anniversary of the horrific shoot-down of Malaysia Airlines Flights 17, The New York Times would mark the occasion by once more using the tragedy as a propaganda club to advance the neocon goal of a new, costly and very dangerous Cold War with Russia.

On Saturday, the Times again demonstrated its disdain for normal journalistic practices as it picked up an amateur assertion that the Russians had faked satellite imagery showing Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile systems in eastern Ukraine before the civilian airliner was blown out of the sky on July 17, 2014.

Since that moment, the Times and other mainstream Western publications have been determined to pin the blame for the deaths of 298 people on Russian President Vladimir Putin so the world could plunge ahead into the latest neocon scheme of destabilizing nuclear-armed Russia with the eventual aim of “regime change” in Moscow.

As revolting as it has been to watch the deaths of innocents exploited in the name of big-power geopolitics, what has been most troubling from a journalistic perspective is that the Times has cast aside any pretense of professional objectivity, much as it did during the deception of the American public over Iraq’s fictitious weapons of mass destruction in 2002-2003.

In this latest burst of anti-Russian propaganda, the Times gives great weight to some bloggers who applied a computer program supposedly to show that two Russian government satellite images were manipulated. The point is to cast doubt on whether the Ukrainian military had missiles in place in eastern Ukraine that could have shot down MH-17.

What the Times leaves out is the fact that Western intelligence has already confirmed that Ukraine’s military did have powerful anti-aircraft missiles in eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014. Last October, a Dutch intelligence report stated that fact based on NATO intelligence gathering, i.e., the West’s own satellite and other data collection.

Indeed, the Netherlands’ Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) concluded that....

Naomi LaChance at TheIntercept
Underwear Model-Turned-RNC Speaker Wants Clinton and Obama in Guantánamo
Antonio Sabato Jr., who will speak at the Republican National Convention next week at the invitation of Donald Trump, frequently bashes Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on Twitter. Last month, he said that Clinton and Obama should be sent to Guantánamo.

The Italian immigrant became prominent in the 1990s as a Calvin Klein model, Janet Jackson backup dancer, and actor on the soap opera General Hospital. He starred in a reality show called My Antonio, where women competed to become his girlfriend (his ex-wife, whom he had divorced 16 years prior, came in third place).

Today he spends his time at shooting ranges, on talk shows, dancing at Chippendale’s in Las Vegas — and cheering for Trump......

Baxter Dmitry at InvestmentWatchBlog
Paris At War, Media Blackout

We have entered the third month of ongoing protests as the French rise up in their millions against a ruling class determined to take away their rights. They are protesting against undemocratically imposed anti-worker laws that are designed to enrich and protect a wealthy elite at the expense of ordinary people.

There is anarchy on the streets of France, and the mainstream media continues to collude with the establishment to cover up the scale of events and suppress the Nuit debout (“At Night on our Feet”) movement.
...The threatened ban by the French government on demonstrations was reverted on June 22 after a widespread backlash criticising the government’s authoritarian plans.

France’s police watchdog is now dealing with 48 judicial inquiries into police brutality during three months of civil unrest and strikes against the government’s anti-worker laws.

One police officer is facing criminal prosecution after being filmed punching a restrained high school student on the sideline of a school demonstration in March. The interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, said he was shocked by the case....

From KatehonNews
Mass protests in Argentina against Macri

The streets in Buenos Aires and other Argentine cities are filled with protesters in a "Cacerolazo" against President Mauricio Macri’s major hikes in utilities, including a 700 percent rise in electricity, over 2,000 percent in gas in some places and 350 percent in water.

The Supreme Court demanded Monday that Macri justify the “social and economic aspects” of the measure within the next 10 days. The government of La Plata decided Thursday to suspend all bill increases, saying the government failed to implement the required public audits before imposing the price hike in April.....

Marc Ash at OpedNews
....Micah Johnson, the man who attacked police 
with an assault rifle at an anti-police violence rally in Dallas, was the 566th. Five more people have been killed by U.S. police since the events in Dallas. This according to The Guardian's ongoing landmark investigation, The Counted: People killed by police in the US.

Vice President Joe Biden delivered an address today [July 9] that eulogized in heroic tones the police officers killed and wounded in Dallas. His rationale, while heart-rending, leads toward, not away from, the violence he urged Americans to reject.
Biden said in part, "Being a cop wasn't just what they did. It was who they were -- like every officer who joined for essentially the same reason. There was something about them that made them think they could help, that they should serve, that they had a duty." While those are stirring words, they obfuscate the truth.

The truth is that U.S. police are trained to kill. Not just maim, wound, or subdue -- kill. The problem is systemic, from the highest echelons of government right down to the patrol officer on the street. "Kill when you need to kill. We've got your back."

There are a number of initiatives in the U.S. to promote training that would teach police officers to de-escalate potentially violent situations. The instruction is referred to as "de-escalation training." It is a good idea that will fail. As long as police officers are confident that they can kill with impunity, they will continue to kill. Make no mistake about it: today in America, police kill with impunity....

Meet the guy who saw and filmed the horror of Alton Sterling's murder by the heartless cops of Baton Rouge.

Part 2 is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAbGvr3-w34 
">here


Todd E Pierce at ConsortiumNews (originally published Dec 11,2015)
Chicago Police Adopt Israeli Tactics

From the Archive: Recent cases of white police killing unarmed black men raise concern that some U.S. police are applying counter-terrorism tactics, including some learned at Israeli academies, retired JAG Major Todd E. Pierce wrote in 2015.
After more than a year of stonewalling and what some might call obstructing justice, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel issued an apology for the horrific execution of Laquan McDonald by Chicago police officer Jason van Dyke. Laquan McDonald was the black 17-year-old who was shot 16 times by the police officer on Oct. 20, 2014. The video showing the shooting was only released by Chicago officials when they were ordered to do so by a judge in late November 2015.

But apology or not, the underlying substantive issue is that the summary execution of McDonald was the sort of atrocity that one would expect to see in what the U.S. once called “police states.” In fact, one can imagine a death squad execution in El Salvador in the 1980s looking very similar on video to McDonald’s slaying.
Dashcam video of Chicago police shooting Laquan McDonald.

Dashcam video of Chicago police shooting Laquan McDonald.

“Police state” is a term which has fallen into disuse since 9/11 with the adoption of so many similar practices by the so-called “democracies” in their domestic policies. The term generally was applied to Fascist or Communist governments and described a country where the police and the military exercised martial law over citizens or military occupation powers that uses military force to control a civilian population.

Sometimes these arbitrary powers were enforced by summary executions, depending on how much the authorities could get away with in their “extreme measures.” This was the practice in countries such as Nazi Germany; Pinochet’s Chile; El Salvador and Guatemala during the Cold War; to a lesser degree, apartheid South Africa; and military occupied territories such as Tibet, Israeli-occupied Palestine, and Eastern Europe under the Soviet Union.

But Chicago isn’t under martial law or military occupation, is it? Nor is it an apartheid state, with apartheid enforced by domestic martial law and military force, is it? To a normal civilian-oriented mind, one would think it is not under military occupation or martial law.

Seeking Israeli Training
Yet, under Mayor Emanuel, a former Israeli Defense Force (IDF) volunteer, and Garry McCarthy, the now former Chicago Police Superintendent (Emanuel fired him Dec. 1, 2015), it seems that parts of Chicago were treated as if they were occupied territory under police or paramilitary rule.....

...This policing model is being sold by Israel’s government to gullible or authoritarian-leaning U.S. police officials as a legitimate domestic policing model when, in fact, it is a military model of the sort used by militaristic, authoritarian regimes, customarily referred to as “fascist.”....

....The Chicago Police Department maintained that the warehouse was not a secret facility “so much as an undercover police base operating in plain sight.” But, as the Guardian reported, people were shackled and held for hours or even days without access to attorneys in violation of the U.S. Constitution, but the sort of detention permitted of Palestinians under IDF occupation.

A Chicago civil rights activist said he was abducted by masked officers, shackled and held on false charges, “with no food, no water, no access to the outside world” at the behest of “covert operations.” In other words, he simply disappeared.....

...Also, with Israel making its counter-insurgency police training a major export to U.S. police forces and with American cities such as Chicago eager to adopt that training, it is little wonder that minorities increasingly feel they are under repressive military-style occupation in their communities. They have good reason to feel that way since the police are getting training from a country that is expert at keeping a conquered people under an open-ended military occupation.....

From description at vid: As protests against police brutality spread across the United States, a shocking new joint investigation by the New York Times and the Marshall Project looks at a little-examined part of the criminal justice system: the horrific, and sometimes fatal, private prison extradition industry. Each year, tens of thousands of fugitives and suspects — many who have never been convicted of a crime — are entrusted to a handful of small private companies that specialize in transferring the men and women across the country. After reviewing thousands of court documents and interviewing more than 50 current or former guards and executives, two reporters with the Marshall Project uncovered cases two prisoners dying of perforated ulcers, another woman was sexually assaulted and a third who had to have both legs amputated from complications of untreated diabetes. For more we speak with the two reporters, Eli Hager and Alysia Santo, as well as Roberta Blake, who was arrested in 2014 after not returning a rental car on time, and a former private prison guard Fernando Colon.


Kristen Breitweiser at ConsortiumNews
The Long-Hidden Saudi-9/11 Trail
The U.S. government and mainstream media are playing down the long-hidden 9/11 chapter on official Saudi connections to Al Qaeda’s hijackers, hoping most Americans won’t read it themselves, as 9/11 widow Kristen Breitweiser observes.

By Kristen Breitweiser
First and foremost, here is what you need to know when you hear any member of our government say the newly released 29-page chapter from the congressional 9/11 report contains no smoking gun — THEY ARE LYING.

Our government’s relationship to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is no different than an addict’s relationship to heroin. Much like a heroin addict who will lie, cheat and steal to feed his vice, certain members of our government will lie, cheat and steal to continue their dysfunctional and deadly relationship with the KSA — a relationship that is rotting this nation and its leaders from the inside out.

When CIA Director John Brennan states that he believes the 29 pages prove that the government of Saudi Arabia had no involvement in the 9/11 attacks, recognize that John Brennan is not a man living in reality — he is delusional by design, feeding and protecting his Saudi vice.

When Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, Anne W. Patterson, testifies — under oath — that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is an ally that does everything they can to help us fight against Islamic terrorism, recognize that her deep, steep Saudi pandering serves and protects only her Saudi vice.

Read the 29 pages yourself and know the facts. Do not let any person in our government deny the damning reality of the 29 pages. And as you read the 29 pages remember that they were written during 2002 and 2003. President George W. Bush did not want the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia investigated.

President Bush has deep ties to the KSA and its royal family and only wanted to protect the Kingdom. President Bush wanted to go to war in Iraq — not Saudi Arabia. So, a 29-page chapter that said “Saudi” and “Bandar” instead of “Hussein” and “Iraq” was a huge problem for President Bush. (The solution was to hide the information for 13 years.)

It is well documented that the Joint Inquiry received enormous push-back ......

From Sott.Net ...Source: Andrew Korybko of OrientalReview
Macedonia's 'Colorful Revolution' masquerade: 
A U.S. regime change strategy to block Russian and Chinese projects in Eurasia
ORIENTAL REVIEW exclusively publishes the interview, given by the Hybrid Warfare expert Andrew Korybko to the Macedonian edition "Vecer" late June, in English. He speaks about the US R-TCR (Regime Tweaking - Regime Change - Regime Reboot) strategy in the Balkans, and efforts by Russia and China to stabilize Eurasia.

You're in Skopje at the moment, where the so-called "Colorful Revolution" has been ongoing for two months already. What are the real reasons and the goals behind this in the context of the geopolitical constellations in the region?

The "Colorful Revolution" that's presently ongoing in the Republic of Macedonia is nothing more than a Color Revolution masquerading as a "legitimate" civil society movement. It's really a foreign-supported regime change attempt that employs state-of-art political technologies inspired by the teachings of Gene Sharp, the godfather of this stratagem. Some participants and international observers genuinely believe that what's happening in Skopje is an organic initiative, but others are aware of its artificial nature and pursuit of ulterior motives. It doesn't take much effort for any neutral observer to find out which forces are pulling the protesters' strings, since much information has already been publicly released by the patriotic elements of the Macedonian media about the involvement of the Soros Foundation and the close coordination between the protesters and the US Embassy. Soros and his multitude of affiliated organizations provided the "seed funding" for organizing the wide assortment of "NGOs" that are leading the anti-government movement, and the billionaire philanthropist controls the finances that allow SDSM to pay protesters and bus them into Skopje from all across the country. These protesters, of course, are either "useful idiots" or willing conspirators like was already mentioned. They participate in these events for a few reasons, all of which could potentially overlap depending on the particular individual involved: ....

From SputnikNews
Gulenist Involved in Killing of Russian Pilot Took Part in Attempted Coup
A member of the movement tied to the so-called parallel state linked to prominent Turkish oppositionist Fethullah Gulen, who was involved in killing of Russian pilot over Syria last year, participated in attempted coup in Turkey, Mayor of the Turkish capital of Ankara Ibrahim Melih Gokcek said.
 On Friday, the military coup attempt was carried out in Turkey. According to the Turkish General Staff, 104 coup supporters were killed, while 47 civilians, 41 police officers, 2 soldiers died in clashes. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Edrogan accused Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen, an outspoken critic of the government in self-imposed exile in the United States, of organizing the unrest.

"It was the 'parallel state' that has deteriorated our relations with Russia. It was an incident, in which one of the pilots of this structures has participated, I guarantee it. He was one of the coup's participants. We have not voiced it until now. But I, Melih Gokcek, say that our relations have been deteriorated by these villains," Gokcek said, as quoted by CNN Turk.....

Claire Bernish at AntiMedia
Jill Stein Just Promised to Pardon Snowden and Appoint Him to Her Cabinet If Elected

...Stein said her pardons wouldn’t stop with Snowden, but would extend to others, including CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou, who first revealed proof of U.S. government employment of waterboarding and other torture tactics, as well as Chelsea Manning....

...Remarking whistleblowers “have done a great service,” Stein described those who expose governmental—and other—wrongs as “people who’ve paid an incredible price for our rights of not only the freedom to communicate on the Internet, but also the freedom to guard our privacy.”

Stein—whose cutting-edge campaign platform includes the call to end wars, cut the U.S. military budget in half, stop police brutality, end mass incarceration, forego corporate trade agreements in favor of fair trade, label genetically-modified food, and much more—quickly became the favorite of Bernie Sanders supporters who felt betrayed by his endorsement of war hawk, Hillary Clinton.

In the 24 hours following that capitulation, Stein’s campaign saw an astonishing 1,000 percent swell in donations—receiving over $80,ooo since Tuesday....

From ZeroHedge
Civil Unrest Explodes In Berlin - Over 3500 People Riot Against Police

"Civil Unrest is exploding," warnshttps://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/civil-unrest/civil-unrest-explodes-in-berlin-over-3500-people-riot-against-police/  Armstrong Economics' Martin Armstrong,
Some 1800 police were called in and at least 120 policemen were injured in what is becoming a street battle. This has been the most aggressive and violent protest in Germany for the past five years.
Protesters were throwing bottles, cobblestones and fireworks, as well as they destroyed cars in addition to attacking police officers. It appears at least 3,500 rioters took part in the uprising and possibly more than 4,000.
The protest is against police operations and involved mostly young people who have risen up against the police operations in the Riga street area. Protesters wore black hoods carrying banners with slogans like “Riga defend 94” and “Housing solidarity against state terror.”....

From AllGov  Source: Matt Reynolds, Courthouse News Service
Thousands of U.S. Military Veterans Deported Due to Lack of Citizenship

LOS ANGELES (CN) - In poverty-stricken South Central Los Angeles, a television commercial for the U.S. Marines grabbed the attention of 11-year-old Enrique Salas Garcia.
"I wanted that sense of honor and pride that comes from being a Marine. I wanted to be a badass Marine," Garcia said.

Seven years later, the week after he graduated from high school, Garcia's dream came true when his parents allowed him to enlist in the Marines. He served in the first Persian Gulf War, won many commendations and became a lance corporal.

But as recounted in the American Civil Liberties Union report, "Discharged, Then Discarded," Salas's fortunes dramatically changed when he left the Marines and came home.

In adjusting to civilian life, Salas grappled with a drug problem. He was sentenced to six months in jail for possession. Though he vowed not to repeat that mistake, in a cruel twist of fate, Salas's permanent resident card was stolen during a family trip to Tijuana in 2006.

Border officials voided his legal status when he reported the green card stolen. And unknown to Salas, his conviction meant that despite his four years of military service, he faced deportation and separation from his children and family.

Now Salas is exiled in Tijuana, where he repairs industrial tanks. It is a long way from that snapshot of a young boy who believed America could offer him a better future.

Salas is not the only one, said ACLU staff attorney Jennie Pasquarella, co-author of the report on deported veterans, released last week by the ACLU.

Pasquarella says the U.S. government is letting down Salas and thousands of others by not educating active service members and veterans about how to naturalize.

 All immigrants who are in the country legally are entitled to U.S. citizenship because of their military service. But while some deported veterans believe they earned citizenship simply by signing up for military service, others were misinformed by recruiters or officers about their legal status, Pasquarella said.

"That's one of the greatest tragedies of this. People didn't realize that they weren't already a citizen. Had they known, they could have applied and naturalized when they were in the service," the attorney said.....

The vid below is from 2012, a few months after the initial unrests in Syria


Claire Bernish at AntiMedia
Stop Blaming Black Liberation Groups for the Acts of the Dallas Shooter
Despite popular reports to the contrary, alleged cop-killer Micah Xavier Johnson — who purportedly carried out the murders of five police officers in Dallas — was not a member of a militant black power organization.

In fact, the alleged shooter had been effectively blacklisted from multiple groups — a move several leaders told the Daily Beast would have nullified potential membership in such organizations across the board.
That blacklisting occurred once leaders performing a background check of Johnson discovered he had been sent home from Afghanistan for stealing women’s underwear — and was discharged from the U.S. Army during the period of tumult in the aftermath of the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.....

A sample of Paris riots of last month