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Sunday, October 16, 2016

News, Views and Opinions from the Alternative Media ... week ending Oct 16


Claire Bernish at FreeThoughtProject
Gulf of Tonkin 2.0?
US Using Unconfirmed Attack on Navy Ship to Quietly Start War With Iran & Russia
After reportedly coming under fire from missiles launched in Houthi rebel-held territory, the United States officially entered the war in Yemen today by firing back, knocking out strategic radar sites and other targets in the area believed to have fired first.

In response to the U.S. escalation, Iran deployed a fleet of military vessels to the same geostrategically-critical Gulf of Aden waters where American ships have been situated for months guarding the Bab el-Mandeb strait — the narrow passage through which much of the world’s oil is shipped through to the Suez Canal.

While that may be the crux of the narrative presented by the U.S. government and corporate media, far more ominous secondary developments must be considered, and — as has been the case in Syria and the East and South China Seas — everything points back to Russia.

And not in the vein of Russian aggression as the U.S. propaganda machine would have you believe.

Yemen’s Shi’a Houthis — who captured capital city, Sana’a, last year — have long been suspected by Washington to be receiving direct but surreptitious support from the Iranian government, which flatly denies the allegation.

Saudi Arabia has imposed a naval, air, and land blockade on the tiny country — leaving Yemenis one of the most food-insecure and impoverished nations on the planet — and leading to mass starvation. Without a guaranteed influx of supplies — including arms and other military items — haphazardly firing at a Navy ship seems a logical improbability....



Brandon Turbeville at GlobalResearch
Only In The World Of American Media Is Syria A Civil War
To the vast majority of Americans, the Syrian crisis (as well as the state of affairs in Iraq, Libya, Yemen, etc.) is merely a distant blip on a cluttered radar screen. Competing with issues affecting an individual’s daily life like wages, taxes, and free trade, that small portion of the American population who hasn’t completely zoned out of the political and current-events sphere is increasingly overtaken with the necessities of survival. Those who are able to devote enough time to the Syrian crisis are confronted with an unprecedented onslaught of propaganda demonizing the Syrian government and the Syrian president as “killing his own people,” “brutal,” and “genocidal.” The Syrian people are also victims of the propaganda war as being obsessed with religion, divided, and opposed to their government.

As they are presented by the U.S. media, the Syrian people, like most other people across the world are completely dehumanized. In American media, Syrians are not human. They are numbers. 100 died today. 86 died the day before. Syrians are not mothers or sons. They are not fathers or little children, grandparents. They are blips on a screen and data in a spreadsheet. At least, this is how they are presented to an increasingly hardened American public, a nation that is becoming more and more desensitized to death, destruction, and degradation both at home and abroad.

Having recently concluded a trip to the Middle East, I can safely say that the claims made by Western media are the opposite of the truth.

While my visit centered in Lebanon, we had frequent opportunities to talk with ordinary Syrian citizens either visiting Lebanon or fleeing the ravages of the war in their home country. Indeed, Syrians and Syrian refugees were plentiful in Beirut and many would openly speak about the horrors visited upon them by the West’s proxy war and their trials outside Syria.

What is so important about the fact that these Syrians were being interviewed in Lebanon is the unique benefit of talking with someone not living in their home country because one knows with relative certainty that the person speaking has nothing to lose or gain.......

Waleed Rikab at SyriaComment
Abdallah al-Muhaysini came to Syria in 2013 to partake in the
uprising against Bashar al-Assad. He presents a unique case of the outsized role a single person can play in the lawless world of the Syrian rebellion.  He has positioned himself at the center of radical jihadist politics, fund raising, and legal opinion.
Al-Muhaysini hails from the al-Qassim region in Saudi Arabia. Prior to his arrival to Syria, he completed his MA and PhD studies in Islamic Jurisprudence in the Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh, with a dissertation on “The Treatment of Prisoners of War in Islamic Jurisprudence.” A self-professed Salafi jihadist scholar, al-Muhaysini is often seen on the battlefields of northern Syria together with various Islamist factions, prominent among whom are Ahrar al-Sham and Jabhat al-Nusra (JN), in addition to other factions affiliated with the Jaish al-Fateh coalition. He has set up institutions that provide military and financial aid to jihadist groups, and runs a proselytization (Dawah) center (named “The Jihad’s Callers Center“) in Idlib Province.

Al-Mushaysini holds the title General Judge of Jaish al-Fateh. He is highly revered in the jihadi-Salafi landscape (notwithstanding Islamic State adherents), embracing a leading role in the warfare – most recently in the Jabha al-Nusra takeover, together with the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) of the Abu al-Dhuhur Air Base and in the Jaish al-Fatah battles for control over al-Fuah this month (September 2015). During clashes in the last year, he was documented delivering inflammatory speeches to the troops and bestowing religious blessing upon suicide bombers before embarking on their missions.....



Neil Clark at RT
The deadly racism of the ‘anti-racist’ liberal imperialist 

When it comes to hypocrisy, the pro-war Western ‘liberal’ is in a class of his own. While professing opposition to racism, the pro-war liberal is cheerleader for the most dangerous and deadly form of racism in the world today - contemporary US/Western imperialism.

A racism that is scarcely reported, but which has laid waste to entire countries and killed millions - and which now threatens to drag us into potentially catastrophic military confrontation with Russia.

We can see this abhorrent racism on display again in the current debates in elite circles in the West over Syria. It’s taken as a given that ‘We’ i.e., the US and its allies, have a right to declare who is or is not the legitimate government of Syria. We can demand ‘Assad must go’ but of course no Syrian government official can demand one of OUR leaders must go. The very thought of it!

We have the right to impose ‘No Fly Zones’ which of course won’t apply to OUR aircraft - only to THEIRS. We have the right to bomb or illegally invade countries at any time we want to - for whatever fictitious reasons - but if the people of the targeted country dare to fight back, we’ll call them “genocidal” and accuse their leader (and his allies) of war crimes and push for them to be sent to The Hague. Our leaders meanwhile can break international law and kill hundreds of thousands with total impunity.

If you doubt the inherent racism of the current world order, and think I’m overstating the case; then consider what’s been going on at the International Criminal Court (ICC). During its 14 years of existence the only people indicted and tried by the ICC have been Africans..........

From Off-Guardian
Four days ago, after reports that Saudi Arabia had bombed a funeral in
Yemen killing 140 mourners, America announced it would “review its support” for the Saudi-led coalition.

Three days ago the USS Mason, an American destroyer patrolling the Red Sea, was apparently fired upon from Yemen. It has gone unquestioned in the Western MSM that the Houthis were behind this attack, despite strong denials from the Houthis themselves.

Yesterday, all thoughts of “reviewing support” put aside, the Americans bombed three “radar sites” that they claim were a threat to their assets in the Red Sea.

Just like that, America is now an active player in the war on Yemen, when before they were simply selling weapons to the Saudis et al.

You might consider it strange that the Houthis, who have not fired on American ships ever before in the nearly 2 years of warfare in Yemen, suddenly decided – just as American support for Saudi Arabia was in question – to launch missiles at an American destroyer.

You might be asking yourself, “Why would the Houthis, who struggle to get any coverage in the Western press at all, let alone sympathetic coverage, launch an attack on America?”

You might consider it strange that the Houthis, already fighting a losing battle against a richer and better equipped enemy, might try and drag America into the war.

It’s not strange. Not in the least. It fits so well with the history of American military entanglements that one might even call it predictable, at this point.....



From WarNewsToday
Update for Wednesday, October 12, 2016
Gunman attacks a Shiite shrine in Kabul as worshippers observe Ashura, killing 18. IS in Afghanistan claims responsibility.
Separately, an explosion at a Shiite mosque in Balkh kills 14.
While the center of Kunduz is now said to be secure, Taliban continue to occupy surrounding areas. This analysis in Der Spiegel discusses the generally deteriorating security situation in the country....



From RT
Scores dead and wounded after gunman attacks Shia festival in Kabul 
 At least 14 people have been killed and 36 wounded after a gunman burst into a Shia shrine in the Afghan capital, during the marking of the Ashura festival in what appears to have been a sectarian attack.

The worshipers were densely packed during an evening service at the Karte Sakhe shrine during one of the key weeks in the Shia calendar, when the attack occurred. In a blurry video taken from a distance posted to social media shortly after the incident, a staccato barrage of gunshots is followed by screams. Several unverified photos from the shrine showed the floors running red with blood.......

Ryan Devereaux at AnswerCoalition
Protest demands: Close Rikers Island!
...The very idea of a detention center devoted to locking up and terrorizing local youth, men and women who have not even been convicted of a crime is abominable. In a blatant violation of inmates’ basic rights, solitary confinement is used against inmates, even ones who later face no formal charges. Kalief Browder, a teenage inmate subjected to the torture of solitary confinement, took his own life after being released; no formal charges were ever pressed against him.

Daniel Dromm, a City Councilor representing District 25, Jackson Heights and Elmhurst stated, “Rikers Island is a hellhole. No man deserves to live in that hellhole.” Rikers Island is indicative of the United States’ approach to “criminal justice” as a whole: warehouse supposed criminals out of the public eye, throw them into a violent prison environment, punish them for the violence through terrorizing inmates with solitary confinements and other abuses meanwhile doing little to address the root causes of crime.

Whether it’s petty crimes such as shoplifting or drug misuse, the “justice” system seeks nothing but revenge. Instead of allocating roughly $200,000 to detain each inmate at Rikers, communities could use that money for expanding institutions that actually help the community: public schools, jobs and affordable housing to start. As always under capitalism, the government somehow has enough money to detain and terrorize poor people but never enough to make the communities in which they reside genuinely safe and livable....




Dady Chery at GlobalResearch
Haiti: Facts About Hurricane Matthew Versus The Media’s “Poetic Truth”
All of Haiti, however, suffered hurricane-force winds and floods that destroyed crops and swept away much of the livestock.

Furthermore, violent surges of seawater crashed into most of Haiti’s cities, which line the coasts. Even the Dominican Republic, on the eastern side of Hispaniola, well away from the hurricane’s center was so strongly affected by floods and winds that it lost four people.

...For example, the children from a collapsed orphanage are presumed to have died, but no evidence of their deaths has been offered. Such disappearances of children during disasters are often due to https://www.devex.com/news/human-trafficking-prevalent-in-post-typhoon-philippines-82576 human trafficking, and the irresponsible reporters who eagerly repeat these numbers should consider that they might be serving as the unwitting accomplices of criminals....

Afghanistan: 15 years of Invasion and Occupation


From RT
‘Cancer connected with nuclear disasters develops in Yemeni children’ 
The humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen, where people are dying of famine, lack of medical supplies and chemical weapons, may amount to genocide if the international community doesn’t act, says Kim Sharif of Human Rights for Yemen.
Saudi Arabia has blocked a UN request for an independent investigation into alleged crimes committed during the Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen.
The UN claims the inquiry spearheaded by the Yemeni National Committee is not enough.
Yemen is running out of food, fuel and medicine; and the number of malnourished children is skyrocketing. UN figures claim more than half of Yemen's 28 million population is suffering from a lack of food, and vulnerable children end up being the hardest hit.

Up to 400,000 children suffer severe malnutrition leading to a number of diseases.

A study reported by UK’s Guardian newspaper reveals more than a third of all airstrikes hit civilian sites, including hospitals, schools and mosques....

...Sharif went on to say, “people are dying of chemical type of weapons, where children are developing very unusual cancers that are usually connected with a nuclear type holocaust.”

“This is very shocking and so frequent in the northern parts of the Yemen that there is a disproportionate development of rare types of cancers that are usually connected with nuclear types of disasters,” said Sharif.

She insists that an independent investigation into the situation in Yemen and the alleged war crimes committed by the Saudi coalition is necessary........




From TheIntercept
“Do Not Resist”:The Police Militarization Documentary Everyone Should See
On a sunny afternoon last summer, Craig Atkinson, a New York City-based filmmaker, stood in a front yard in South Carolina surrounded by several heavily armed police officers.

The officers, members of the Richland County Sheriff’s Department tactical team, were descending on a modest one-story house looking for drugs and guns. The team smashed through the windows of the home with iron pikes, then stormed the front door with rifles raised.

Inside, they found a terrified family of four, including an infant. As the family members were pulled outside, Atkinson’s camera captured a scene that plays out with startling regularity in cities and towns across the country, one of many included in his new documentary, “Do Not Resist,” an examination of police militarization in the United States.

The police begin rooting through the trash. “Where the fuck is the weed?” one officer asks, as the team ransacks a car parked in the driveway. “Boy that was sweet,” another says, commenting on the speed of the raid. One officer finds a backpack, which yields a bit of marijuana — it’s not enough to roll a joint, but it’s something.

The officer in charge questions the owner of the backpack, a young African-American man. In a conversation captured on Atkinson’s microphone, the young man, a local community college student, tells the officer he runs a small landscaping business.

Knowing he’s being taken into custody, with his hands cuffed in front of him, he asks the officer for a favor: Can he remove the $876 in his pocket set aside for new lawn-care equipment and give it to one of his employees to go to the hardware store?

Instead of handing the cash to the arrestee’s co-worker, the tactical team seizes the money.....


Andrew Korybko at OrientalReview
Hybrid Wars 7. How The US Could Manufacture A Mess In Myanmar (I)

The last ASEAN country to be studied within the book is Myanmar, which is by far the most susceptible of the entire bunch to Hybrid War. Truth be told, it’s been experiencing some form or another of Hybrid War since its independence in 1948, although this mostly took the form of Unconventional Warfare prior to 1988. From that point on, Color Revolutions were reversely integrated into the destabilization model there and offered as a “solution” to the world’s longest-running civil war, earning them the automatic support of the international (Western) community and lending them false normative “justification” in the eyes of the easily misled global masses.

Myanmar functions as the ideal case study for examining Hybrid War in practice, and it’s more relevant in the current geopolitical climate than ever before. All of the pieces are in place for a violent explosion and the country is rife with asymmetrical risks to its stability. The reason that Myanmar is such a powder keg is because foreign actors have been conspiring against its unity since independence, wanting to exploit one or another peripheral ethnic group for their own particular purposes. The decades-long military government can’t avoid shouldering some of the responsibility for the country’s present woes, as it was unsuccessful in crafting an inclusive and lasting sense of nationhood, though to be fair, the challenge that it was confronted with was immense....

 Part II 



From SuperStation95
Russian Television Tells Citizens NUCLEAR WAR IMMINENT
- Find location of nearest Bomb Shelter -- US Base at Diego Garcia so loaded with planes, parking them on roads!
Russian television has told its citizens that nuclear war may be "imminent." The terrifying Russian television broadcast explicitly told civilians to find out where their nearest bomb shelter is and repeatedly asked viewers if they were ready for nuclear war.

One apocalyptic broadcast told viewers on Moscow's state-owned TV channel NTV: "If it should one day happen, every one of you should know where the nearest bomb shelter is. It’s best to find out now."

The enraged host, Evgeny Kiselyov, blasted America's "impudent behaviour" and spent two hours warning that a conflict could take "nuclear dimensions".....

......According to information from a government contractor, the US has deployed "More planes than I have ever seen in nine years" to the Military Base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.  Specifically, this contractor wrote to say:

     I rotate thru Diego Garcia every 6 weeks to pull maintenance on uplink equipment as a private contractor.

    Something big is going on, the island has more aircraft than anytime in the last 9 years. They have blocked off some access roads and are now parking aircraft on the National Road. Barriers have been set up around the aircraft areas. Temporary barracks and hangers are popping up everywhere. A tent city full of AF and Navy maintenance personal has also been set up.

    I have never seen B1s and B2s there at the same time. Actually I have never seen more than 1 there at a time.  Now, there are very many.

    Security is nuts I had to show my id at least 8 times a day.

    My coworker is former AF and said they are like that when nukes are around.....
Posted by MariaS at 23:39
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