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Monday, December 5, 2016

Views, news and opinions from the Alternative Media .... week ending Sunday Dec 4


Barbara McKenzie at 21stCenturyWire
SYRIA: Child Exploitation: Who is ‘Bana of Aleppo’?

First there was the Gay Girl of Damascus, back in 2011, and now we have @AlabedBana tweeting from Aleppo.

The Bana story all began in September of 2016 when 7 year old Bana began to tweet from eastern Aleppo to share with the world her anxiety about living in a war-torn city. It is perhaps a sad reflection of the world we live in that her arrival on the social media scene provoked a certain amount of scepticism, hilarity even. It seems only fair to endeavour to consider the Bana case objectively.

Bana, as we are told, lives with her parents and two brothers in Aleppo. Her mother Fatemah is a teacher who ‘manages Bana’s twitter account’ and occasionally tweets herself, and her father Ghassan works in the ‘legal department of the local council’, whatever that means – the area is totally controlled by al Nusra [al Qaeda in Syria] who have set up their own council:...........

.....After three weeks Bana was following 51 people.  None of them would be an obvious pick for a seven year old girl: without exception they were politicians, corporate media or social media activists.  Most of them could be considered sympathetic to the war on Syria; many of them have strong links with terrorist groups.

Iyad el-Baghdadi, Louisa Loveluck, Julian Roepcke, Sophie McNeill – all determined supporters of the Syrian ‘revolution’, are very familiar to pro-Syrian activists who spend any time on Twitter.  Bana is also following the pro-terrorist National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces and the White Helmets – the fake humanitarian organisation that presently has a petition calling for a No-Fly (i.e. NATO bombing) zone in Syria.  A particularly sinister choice is @IranArabSpring, which is focused on regime change in Iran, presumably by the same bloody route.

One of the first to be followed by Bana, and typical, was the Australian journalist Sophie McNeill who was instrumental in promoting the Madaya hoax/beatup in January 2016.  The story went that inhabitants of Madaya, a town besieged by the government, were starving and that it was all the fault of the Syrian government who were preventing aid from reaching the town.  In fact many if not all the photos were fake, aid for three months had gone into Madaya in October, and the chief problem was terrorists selling food at exorbitant prices.  Many of the others followed by Bana are likewise involved in pushing misinformation on the Syrian war......

From TelSur
WikiLeaks Drops Yemen Files, Unmasks Washington's Bloody Role
More than 10,000 - mostly civilians - have been killed and more than 3 million have been displaced in the conflict.
Whistleblowing organization Wikileaks on Friday dropped yet another batch of files, this time detailing evidence of the United States arming, training and financing Yemeni forces in the build up to the current war.   
The so-called “Yemen Files” appears to show how the Yemeni government received military hardware from the U.S., including aircraft, vehicles and vessels, as well the Yemeni procurement of US biometric systems.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said that in the rarely reported conflict “the United States government has provided most of the bombs and is deeply involved in the conduct of the war itself,” in a statement on the organization's website.

The latest leak of more than 500 documents from the U.S. Embassy in Yemen’s communications covers both Hillary Clinton and John Kerry’s time as secretary of state from 2009 until March 2015, when the current conflict broke out. The embassy, based in the capital Sana'a, closed only a month beforehand....




From StrategicCulture
Lebanon Elects New President: Opportunities for Russia-Lebanese Cooperation
 

On November 1, General Michel Aoun, the 81-year old retired general, former army commander and the head of New Patriotic Movement, was elected by parliament new president, ending a two-and-a-half-year power vacuum. The Lebanese presidency is reserved for a Maronite Christian in the country’s sectarian power-sharing system.

According to Lebanon’s unwritten «National Pact» of 1943, the President of the republic is always a Maronite Christian, the Prime Minister is always a Sunni Muslim, and the speaker of parliament is always a Shi‘a (Shiite) Muslim. Bilateral dialogues between opposing factions have helped reduce popular tensions among political parties and their respective Sunni and Shiite supporters.

Since former President Michel Suleiman stepped down in May 2014, Lebanon has been without a head of state as the fractured parliament had failed more than forty times to elect a new leader. Aoun will be Lebanon's 13th president since the country gained independence from France in 1943. His election means Lebanon will remain a stable country amid the tumultuous events in the Middle East.

In his inaugural speech, the president-elect vowed to increase bilateral cooperation with the Syrian government led by Bashar Assad on fighting terrorism. He also asserted that developing the capabilities of the Lebanese armed forces was his top priority, until it became a military able of protecting its own land........

Prof Michel Chossudovsky at GlobalResearch
The mainstream corporate media is desperate.

They want to suppress independent and alternative online media, which it categorizes as “fake news”.

Readers on social media are warned not to go onto certain sites.

The intent of this initiative is to smear honest reporting and Truth in Media.

Our analysis confirms that the mainstream media are routinely involved in distorting the facts and turning realities upside down.

They are the unspoken architects of “Fake News”. 

One area of routine distortion is the use of fake videos and images by the mainstream media.
Four Notorious Cases of  Media Distortion

These are four examples and there are many more. The manipulation of videos and images is routine. In some cases, these manipulations are revealed by readers, independent media and social media. In most cases they go undetected. And when they are revealed, the media will say “sorry” we apologize: they will then point to technical errors. “we got the wrong video”.

What is important to emphasize is that these media distortions are invariably deliberate.

1. Coverage of CNN 2008 Riots in Tibet
Chinese Cops with khaki uniforms and Indian Style Moustaches....
2. BBC Coverage of the War on Libya, 2011
Green Square Tripoli. Libyans Celebrating “Liberation” and the Victory of Rebel forces over Gadaffi waving Indian Flags
Examine the footage: It’s not Green Square and it’s not the King Idris Flag (red, black green) of the Rebels. ....
3. CNN and BBC on 9/11.
The Report on the Collapse of WTC Building Seven Occurred Prior to the Collapse
Fake News regarding the Collapse of WTC Building Seven
The most grotesque lie pertains to the BBC and CNN announcement in the afternoon of September 11, that WTC Building Seven (The Solomon Building) had collapsed.
The BBC report went live at 5.00pm, 21 minutes before the actual occurrence of the collapse, indelibly pointing to foreknowledge of the collapse of WTC 7.....
4. The March 2016 Brussels Terrorist Attacks.
Belgian Media Used Video of a 2011 Moscow Airport Terrorist Attack
Brussels News media Dernière Heure at dhnet.be as well as La Libre reported on the terror attacks by providing a CC Camera Airport Surveillance Video of the terror attacks.
The published video footage was fake as documented by a blog posting on Media Part.
The video pertains to a terror attack at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport on 24 January 2011 (posted on youtube in November 2013).
The  report of DHnet.be on the Brussels airport attack used the video of the Moscow 2011 attack with the date of the Brussels attack: (22/03/2016) pasted onto the Russian video.
Below is the screenshot of DH’s report.....





From ZeroHedge
Something Strange Is Taking Place In The Mediterranean
NGOs are smuggling immigrants into Europe on an industrial scale
For two months, using marinetraffic.com, we have been monitoring the movements of ships owned by a couple of NGOs, and, using data from data.unhcr.org. We have kept track of the daily arrivals of African immigrants in Italy. It turned out we were witness of a big scam and an illegal human traffic operation.

NGOs, smugglers, the mafia in cahoots with the European Union have shipped thousands of illegals into Europe under the pretext of rescuing people, assisted by the Italian coast guard which coordinated their activities.

Human traffickers  contact the Italian coast guard in advance to receive support and to pick up their dubious cargo. NGO ships are directed to the “rescue spot” even as those to be rescued are still in Libya. The 15 ships that we observed are owned or leased by NGOs have regularly been seen to leave their Italian ports, head south, stop short of reaching the Libyan coast, pick up their human cargo, and take course back 260 miles to Italy even though the  port of Zarzis in Tunis is just 60 mile away from the rescue spot.

The organizations in question are: MOAS, Jugend Rettet, Stichting Bootvluchting, Médecins Sans Frontières, Save the Children, Proactiva Open Arms, Sea-Watch.org, Sea-Eye and Life Boat.

The real intention of the people behind the NGOs is not clear. Their motive can be money, we would not be surprised if it turned out to be so. .....




From BoulderWeekly
Eviction notice for DAPL protest camp should be viewed through
the lens of military tactics
On Friday, Nov. 25, Colonel John Henderson, district commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, sent an eviction notice to several thousand people who are currently living in the Oceti Sakowin Camp just north of the Cannonball River in North Dakota. The protesters, who established the camp and call themselves “water protectors,” are living in the camp as part of their efforts to stop the completion of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) as well as to strengthen the Greater Sioux Nation’s ownership claims on the lands north of the river as granted under the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie.

Ownership of the 1851 Treaty lands under the Oceti Sakowin Camp — which currently covers approximately 137 acres — is also claimed by the federal government via the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

In his day-after-Thanksgiving eviction notice, Henderson offered a multi-pronged reason for ordering the protesters out of the camp they have now been living in for months.

“This decision is necessary to protect the general public from the violent confrontations between protesters and law enforcement officials that have occurred in this area, and to prevent death, illness, or serious injury to inhabitants of encampments due to the harsh North Dakota winter conditions. The necessary emergency, medical, and fire response services, law enforcement, or sustainable facilities to protect people from these conditions on this property cannot be provided. I do not take this action lightly, but have decided that it is required due to the concern for public safety and the fact that much of this land is leased to private persons for grazing and/or haying purposes as part of the Corps’ land management practices.”

The notice gave those in the camp until Monday, Dec. 5, to clear out.

As if drawing this federal eviction line in the sand wasn’t enough cause for concern, state officials and local law enforcement are also piling on in this dispute that has become increasingly volatile and dangerous due to the heavily militarized police force that has been assembled to stop the protesters from stopping the pipeline. ....

From ZeroHedge
Martin Armstrong Exposes The Real Fake News:
Did The BBC Get Caught Fabricating News To Start A War?
"The press has been routinely creating fake news reports to start a war," exclaims Armstrong Economics' Martin Armstrong, pointing to a recent report exposing The BBC allegedly faking news over chemical attacks in Syria...

    What follows is shocking evidence that crisis actors, green screens, CGI, and paid propagandists are being used to fake worldwide events in order to scare people into giving up liberties and sending us into war. To say this was shocking would be to put it lightly.

    From video proof showing “dead soldiers” killed by “chemical weapons” walking around after they thought the videos stopped recording, to digitally altering sounds to add in “explosions” that never happened, this segment demonstrates some of the most damming evidence against the media ever shown on television.....


Armstrong continues... "This is a serious issue for the press is conspiring against the people to create war, sell climate change, and rig elections. This is by no means something new."

They taught me in high school history class about how the press started the Spanish-American War by reporting that the Spanish attacked a US ship, which never happened.....

From RT
'New era of peace': Trump vows to stop US toppling of regimes
during 1st stop of 'Thank You' tour
 Donald Trump promised a “new era of peace” during the first stop of his “Thank You” tour in Cincinnati, Ohio, vowing that the US will stop trying to overthrow world governments and will cooperate with countries fighting terrorism.

The president-elect also promised to cooperate with any country interested in destroying Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).

"We will partner with every nation that is willing to join us in the effort to defeat ISIS and radical Islamic terrorism," Trump told a large crowd at US Bank Arena in Cincinnati on Thursday evening, as quoted by TASS.
"We will destroy ISIS. At the same time, we will pursue a new foreign policy that finally learns from the mistakes of the past. We will stop looking to topple regimes and overthrow governments, folks," Trump said, as quoted by The Washington Examiner.
"Our goal is stability, not chaos because we wanna rebuild our country. It's time," he said......




Nika Knight at CommonDreams
Veterans Arrive at Standing Rock to Act as 'Human Shields' for Water Protectors

As tensions grow in North Dakota, with multiple eviction orders facing the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in their battle against the Dakota Access Pipeline, U.S. military veterans on Friday began arriving at the Oceti Sakowin protest camp.

The 2,000 veterans, which include Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), plan to act as an unarmed militia and peaceful human shields to protect the Indigenous activists from police brutality.

"I signed up to serve my country and my people and I did that overseas," Indigenous U.S. Navy veteran Brandee Paisano told the CBC. "I didn't think I'd have to do it here, on this land, so here I am. This is what I need to be doing."

The "deployment" is officially planned for December 4-7, but veterans who have arrived early have already taken their stand in front of the militarized police blockade stopping traffic into and out of the camp......

CraigMurray at his blog
Doubting Thomases

I have been quite amused to receive some – well actually rather a lot of – rather aggressive tweets and other social media messages from people who believe Julian Assange is dead, and are therefore outraged I had supper with him on Friday. This seems to me the ultimate in concern trolling – to pretend to adore someone so much that you are angry and upset to find the object of your adoration has not been killed or kidnapped. There are youtube videos alleging that Julian is dead which together have attracted millions of viewers. It is a peculiar kind of cargo-cult.

We now have the situation where people who had never heard of Julian a year ago are demanding that he must be visited not by long-term associates, like John Pilger and myself, but by a “trusted person”, by which these new devotees mean someone Julian has never seen before, probably working for Rupert Murdoch. Best of all are the demands for photos with a sock on the head or a newspaper. To pander to these silly demands would be a never-ending task, and merely spark a new round of craziness – “that sock on his head is photo-shopped”, “that was a double at the window”. It is not a game in which I have any interest. Undoubtedly some of it is stirred up by security services anxious to muddy the water about the authenticity of Wikileaks’ work. But most of it is from decent and genuine but misguided people.

I have been visiting Julian since before Jane from Idaho heard of him, and the purpose of visiting him is not to provide comfort to Jane from Idaho. If my word does that, fine. If she does not want to take my word, also fine. But if people could at least research who John Pilger, Yanis Varoufakis and myself are before deciding we are a CIA plot, that would be helpful. Stopping the aggressive and insulting tweets would be nice too....
Posted by MariaS at 00:27
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