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Showing posts with label christians killed. Show all posts
Showing posts with label christians killed. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 7, 2018

Some of my tweets ... November 1 - 6






























































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Tuesday, May 16, 2017

How Kurds Disarmed Assyrian Christians Then Abandoned them to ISIS



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Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Saudi Arabia's wahhabist beasts kill Egyptian Christians in their churches




Not a soul would listen to voices who warned decades ago about Saudi Arabia's petrol dollars enabling the spouting of madrasas not only all over Muslim lands but also inside the Anglosphere. These days, you won't catch the MSM ... now in bed with the wahhabi nations because its masters, the Jewish "Israel First" billionaires, are in bed with Saudi Arabia, which translates to the USA's elite being in bed with both Israel  and their new lovers, the Wahhabi nations ...  to tell you the origins of  the ISIS ideology and how those extremists were/are being used as USA+gang's proxy armies.  The ex-students of these deadly madrasas, if not officially in the ISIS groups, are in the various groups known as "opposition to Assad" and this is the same ideology that is bread and butter to the wahhabists carrying out terrorist attacks in the West. 






From BBC
Egypt declares state of emergency after deadly church attacks

Egypt's President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has announced a three-month state of emergency after attacks on two Coptic churches that left at least 44 dead.

The measure allows authorities to make arrests without warrants and search people's homes. It needs to be approved by parliament before it is implemented.

So-called Islamic State (IS) said it was behind the blasts in Tanta and Alexandria on Palm Sunday.

The group has targeted Copts in Egypt recently and warns of more attacks........
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Wednesday, January 4, 2017

The madness of Erdogan and wahhabi Turks ... the essential ingredients for a bloody civil war



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Sunday, December 11, 2016

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


Marjorie Cohn at ConsortiumNews
The Remarkable Story of Fidel Castro

When Fidel Castro died on Nov. 25 at the age of 90, we lost one of the most remarkable leaders of the Twentieth Century. No other head of state has so steadfastly stood up to the United States and survived.
In 1959, the Cuban Revolution, led by Castro and Ernesto “Che” Guevara, overthrew the ruthless Fulgencio Batista, who had come to power in a coup d’état. Batista’s government had protected the interests of the wealthy landowners. In order to control the populace, Batista had carried out torture and public executions, killing as many as 20,000 people. During his regime, Batista was supported — financially and militarily — by the United States. Indeed, the U.S. Mafia’s gambling, drug and prostitution operations flourished under Batista’s government.

Led by Castro, the new Cuban government expropriated U.S.-owned property, companies and holdings in Cuba. The United States responded with a punishing economic embargo, which later became a blockade. The CIA attempted unsuccessfully to overthrow the revolution in the disastrous 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.

Since 1959, the U.S. government and the expatriated Cuban-Americans who fled Cuba after the revolution have tried mightily to topple the Castro government, without success. Castro survived more than 630 assassination attempts.

Legacy of Fidel Castro
“What’s amazing here is you’ve got a country that’s suffered an illegal economic blockade by the United States for almost half a century and yet it’s been able to give its people the best standard of health care, brilliant education,” Ken Livingstone, former mayor of London, said in 2006. “To do this in the teeth of an almost economic war is a tribute to Fidel Castro.”....




Brandon Smith at Alt-Market
Understanding Evil: From Globalism To Pizzagate

I have spent the better part of the last 10 years working diligently to investigate and relate information on economics and geopolitical discourse for the liberty movement. However, long before I delved into these subjects my primary interests of study were the human mind and the human “soul” (yes, I’m using a spiritual term).

My fascination with economics and sociopolitical events has always been rooted in the human element. That is to say, while economics is often treated as a mathematical and statistical field, it is also driven by psychology. To know the behavior of man is to know the future of all his endeavors, good or evil.

Evil is what we are specifically here to discuss. I have touched on the issue in various articles in the past including Are Globalists Evil Or Just Misunderstood, but with extreme tensions taking shape this year in light of the U.S. election as well as the exploding online community investigation of “Pizzagate,” I am compelled to examine it once again.

I will not be grappling with this issue from a particularly religious perspective. Evil applies to everyone regardless of their belief system, or even their lack of belief. Evil is secular in its influence.

The first and most important thing to understand is this — evil is NOT simply a social or religious construct, it is an inherent element of the human psyche. Carl Gustav Jung was one of the few psychologists in history to dare write extensively on the issue of evil from a scientific perspective as well as a metaphysical perspective.  I highly recommend a book of his collected works on this subject titled 'Jung On Evil', edited by Murray Stein, for those who are interested in a deeper view....

From Desiforce
Egypt bomb blast kills at least 25 worshippers in Cairo church

A bomb blast killed at least 25 worshippers during Sunday mass inside a Cairo church near the seat of the Coptic pope who heads Egypt’s Christian minority, state media said.

The explosion ripped through the church at around 10:00 am (0800 GMT), Egyptian security officials said.

It was the deadliest suspected attack on the country’s beleaguered Christian minority in recent memory.

The blast in the church adjacent to Saint Mark’s Coptic Cathedral in the Abbasiya neighbourhood shattered its glass windows and left a scene of carnage in the main prayer hall.

State television quoted a security official saying a bomb made of TNT appeared to have been behind the explosion.

“Tell the sheikh, tell the priest, Egyptians’ blood is not cheap,” a crowd outside the church chanted, as ambulances lined up to evacuate the casualties.

The church “is deeply loved by many Coptic faithful in Cairo and it has a regular parish presence,” said Bishop Angaelos, the General Bishop for the Coptic Church in Britain.....




Jason Ditz at antiwar
Bipartisan Bill Would Forbid US Funding ISIS, al-Qaeda Affiliates

Gabbert-Rohrabacher Bill Would Effectively End CIA Program Arming Syrian Rebels
The Stop Arming Terrorists Act (SATA) has been introduced today in the House of Representatives by Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D – HI). The bill is a bipartisan effort, co-sponsored by Reps. Peter Welch (D – VT), Barbara Lee (D – CA), Dana Rohrabacher (R – CA), and Thomas Massie (R – KY) which would forbid the US government from using taxpayer dollars to arm, fund, or train terrorist organizations.
Rep. Gabbard noted that it has been against the law for years for individual Americans to fund terrorist organizations, but that the US has been routinely doing so for years in Syria, providing arms to many terrorist-linked groups within Syria’s rebellion.

The bill appears aimed primarily at ending the CIA program smuggling arms to Syrian rebels, something President-elect Donald Trump has also expressed support for. The bill singles out ISIS, al-Qaeda, and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (the “rebranded” version of al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front) and forbids support to them, their allies, or foreign nations who are themselves providing support for the groups....

Weather is not climate


Ron Paul at RonPaulInstitute
Trump’s Promised ‘New Foreign Policy’ Must Abandon Regime Change for Iran

President-elect Donald Trump told a Cincinnati audience this week that he intends to make some big changes in US foreign policy. During his “thank you” tour in the midwest, Trump had this to say:

    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. …In our dealings with other countries we will seek shared interests wherever possible...”

If this is really to be President Trump’s foreign policy, it would be a welcome change from the destructive path pursued by the two previous administrations. Such a foreign policy would go a long way toward making us safer and more prosperous, as we would greatly reduce the possibility of a “blowback” attack from abroad, and we would save untold billions with a foreign policy of restraint.

However as we know with politicians, there is often a huge gap between pronouncements before entering office and actions once in office. Who can forget President George W. Bush’s foreign policy promises as a candidate 16 years ago? As a candidate he said:

    I am not so sure the role of the United States is to go around the world saying ‘this is the way it’s got to be.’ … If we’re an arrogant nation they will resent us, if we’re a humble nation but strong they’ll welcome us.

Unfortunately as soon as he took office, George W. Bush pursued a completely different foreign policy, attacking countries like Iraq at the urging of the neocons he placed in positions of power in his White House and State Department...
 
Pizzagate: "BBC Fake News Psyop" Debunked


 
Jonathan Turley at RonPaulInstitute
Washington Post Issues Correction To 'Fake News' Story

The Washington Post has been under fire for its publication of an article entitled, “Russian propaganda effort helped spread ‘fake news’ during election, experts say.” The article by Craig Timberg relied on a controversial website called PropOrNot, which published what is little more than a black list of website that the authors deemed purveyors of fake news including some of the largest sites on the Internet like Drudge Report. However, the previously unknown group was itself criticized for listing “allies” that proved false. Yesterday, Hillary Clinton ramped up the call for action against “fake news” which she described as an epidemic. Now the Washington Post has published a rather cryptic correction to the fake news story. The controversy is the subject of my latest column in USA Today.

The organization listed a variety of news sites as illegitimate. It included some of the most popular political sites from the left and right Truthout, Zero Hedge, Antiwar.com, and the Ron Paul Institute. It even includes one of the most read sites on the Internet, the Drudge Report. Notably, it also included WikiLeaks, which has been credited with exposing political corruption and unlawful surveillance programs.

The Washington Post is the largest newspaper to buy the clearly biased list as the work of objective “experts” — ignoring that the site relies on anonymity of those contributors. When the Post ran the story, some were eager to push the story as a reason why they lost the election. The former White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer tweeted, “Why isn’t this the biggest story in the world right now?” The reason is that it was facially absurd.....

Yemen


Craig Murray at his blog
Julian Assange’s Defence Statement
Julian Assange has published his statement given to the Swedish prosecutor. I give it in full below. I do implore you to read it. This is the first time his defence has been made public, although the media have been delighted to report the leaked allegations against him in detail.
His defence will not be given in the same detail in the media.

It is worth noting that under Swedish law the identity of both the accuser and the accused ought to be protected, but that did not prevent Swedish police and prosecutors leaking details to a complicit media, or the women concerned selling their story to the tabloids.

You really do owe it to yourself, to justice and to personal honesty to read Julian’s side of the story. ....

Corbett Report: Trump Fills The Swamp with Stevn Mnuchin


Saker at his blog
Wesley Clark Jr apologizes to the Lakota nation (UPDATED 2x)

An incredible moment of healing at Standing Rock: Hundreds of veterans ask Native elders for forgiveness.

“We fought you. We took your land. We signed treaties that we broke. We stole minerals from your sacred hills. We blasted the faces of our presidents onto your sacred mountain… We didn’t respect you, we polluted your Earth, we’ve hurt you in so many ways but we’ve come to say that we are sorry. We are at your service and we beg for your forgiveness.” – Wes Clark, Jr.



More about Wesley Clark Jr and this amazing event here:.........

From RT
RT crew first to reach liberated area of Aleppo’s Old City 
(EXCLUSIVE VIDEO)
Battles continue between pro-government forces and insurgents in Aleppo’s Old City, with Damascus slowly winning back territory. RT’s Lizzie Phelan and her crew were the first journalists to visit the neighborhoods just captured by the government.
“It is still not entirely safe here. The opposition forces are only a couple of hundreds of meters away. The area needs to be cleaned from unused weapons and mines left,” she reported by phone.

She said her crew saw many weapons abandoned by the militants stashed in buildings, including the home-made gas cylinder rockets they have been using to shell government forces.....

Jason Ditz at AntiWar
US Officials: Al-Qaeda’s Loss in Aleppo Is Also America’s Loss

Officials See al-Qaeda Rebounding Quicker Than US From 'Defeat'

The increasingly public re-branding of America’s war in Syria as a proxy war against Russia has suited a lot of officials, particularly in the Pentagon, who see a new Cold War as a ticket to a bigger budget. With Russia’s fighting focusing on al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front, this Russo-centric view has seen the administration realigning US interests more directly with al-Qaeda.
Embarrassing as America’s realignment toward al-Qaeda is, officials see the defeat of the al-Qaeda-dominated rebels in Aleppo as an even bigger blow, presenting the loss of Aleppo as Russia’s victory and America’s loss, in addition to being al-Qaeda’s loss.

This “loss” is being presented by current officials as potentially hindering President-elect Donald Trump’s policy choices going forward, though since Trump was not in favor of backing al-Qaeda, or backing Syrian rebels in general, it probably makes his go-to plan of moving toward fighting ISIS even simpler to sell to the public....




Robert Parry at ConsortiumNews
Big Media’s Contra-Cocaine Cover-up

Amid the mainstream U.S. media’s current self-righteous frenzy against “fake news,” it’s worth recalling how the big newspapers destroyed Gary Webb, an honest journalist who exposed some hard truths about the Reagan administration’s collaboration with Nicaraguan Contra cocaine traffickers.

Webb’s reward for reviving that important scandal in 1996 – and getting the CIA’s inspector general to issue what amounted to an institutional confession in 1998 – was to have The New York Times, The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times lobby for, essentially, his banishment from journalism.
The major media pile-on was so intense and so effective that Webb lost his job at the San Jose Mercury-News and could never find regular work in his profession again. Betrayed by his journalistic colleagues, his money gone, his family broken and his life seemingly hopeless, Webb committed suicide on Dec. 9, 2004.

Even then, the Los Angeles Times wrote up his obituary as if the paper were telling the life story of an organized-crime boss, not a heroic journalist. The Times obit was then republished by The Washington Post.

In other words, on one of the most significant scandals of the Reagan era, major newspapers, which now want to serve as the arbiters of truth for  the Internet, demonstrated how disdainful they actually are toward truth when it puts the U.S. government in a harsh light.

Indeed, if it had been up to the big newspapers, this important chapter of modern history would never have been known. A decade earlier, in 1985, Brian Barger and I first exposed the Contra-cocaine connection for The Associated Press – and we watched as the big papers turned their backs on the scandal then, too.....




Gareth Porter at MiddleEastEye
US strikes on Syrian troops:
Report data contradicts 'mistake' claims

Moscow and Damascus cited the attacks as the reason for declaring an end to the ceasefire in Syria
The summary report on an investigation into US and allied air strikes on Syrian government troops has revealed irregularities in decision-making consistent with a deliberate targeting of Syrian forces.

The report, released by US Central Command on 29 November, shows that senior US Air Force officers at the Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC) at al-Udeid Airbase in Qatar, who were responsible for the decision to carry out the September airstrike at Deir Ezzor:

    misled the Russians about where the US intended to strike so Russia could not warn that it was targeting Syrian troops
    
    ignored information and intelligence analysis, warning that the positions to be struck were Syrian government rather than Islamic State
    
    shifted abruptly from a deliberate targeting process to an immediate strike in violation of normal Air Force procedures

Last week Brig. Gen. Richard Coe, the lead US official on the investigating team, told reporters that US air strikes in Deir Ezzor on 17 September, which killed at least 62 - and possibly more than 100 - Syrian army troops, was the unintentional result of “human error”.

The report itself says that the investigators found “no evidence of misconduct” - but it is highly critical of the decision process and does not offer any explanations for that series of irregularities.
How the strikes killed off ceasefire deal

The strikes against two Syrian army positions were the pivotal event in the breakdown of the Syrian ceasefire agreement reached between the United States and Russia in September. .....




From EuropeOnlineMag
Turkey airstrike kills US and German citizens: Syrian Kurdish group

A Turkish airstrike in Syria has killed two militants - one from the United States and one from Germany - from a group allied with the main Kurdish militia in the country, according to a statement from a local Syrian military council on Thursday.

The two were killed near the northern Syrian city of Minbij, which the Kurds, along with Arab allies and backed by United States airstrikes, seized from the Islamic State extremist group after protracted battles.

Turkey opposes the presence of the Syrian Democratic Forces - an umbrella group dominated by the Kurds - near the city of Minbij. Ankara wants its own Syrian armed groups to take control over the area.....
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Sunday, October 30, 2016

Some of the News, Views and Opinions from the Alternative Media....week ending Oct 30


Justin Ling at VICE
The Liberal Party Has Scheduled More Than 100 Cash-For-Access Events in 2016 Alone

If you wanted an audience with Finance Minister Bill Morneau during his two-night engagement in Vancouver this past April, it would have cost you between $1,000 and $1,500.

If you were looking for facetime with the Honourable Amarjeet Sohi, Minister for Infrastructure and Communities, in Surrey in February, that would run a cool $500.

But for some quality time with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau himself, at one of his 16 fundraising events held in 2016—which have been dubbed by the media 'cash-for-access' events—you'll likely be paying the maximum allowed: $1,525.

These details, which come from a breakdown of every Liberal Party fundraiser and "appreciation event" for deep-pocket donors held in 2016, shows that the governing party has been charging a hefty sum to be in the same room as a senior member of the Canadian government.

All-told, the Liberals have held 89 fundraisers so far this year, and have another 10 scheduled for October and November. The list includes all fundraisers with ministers and parliamentary secretaries, as well as the one event with the prime minister's senior advisor, Gerry Butts.

For quality time with Butts, Trudeau's right-hand man, in Charlottetown in August, it would be a steal at just $125.

Most events also have special pricing for youth members, or for those who are already donating large amounts to the party.....



Andre Akulov at Strategic-Culture.org
Djibouti Turns into Springboard for US Military Intervention

 The US is dramatically increasing the tempo of its military operations in MENA (the Middle East and North Africa), especially in the Horn of Africa.

Djibouti has an important role to play in the military planning. The small republic guards the entrance to the Red Sea and Suez Canal to make it a perfect springboard for launching military interventions in Africa and the Middle East.

Housing 4,000 military and civilian personnel, Camp Lemonnier, the US military base in the country, is the hub of a network of American drone bases in Africa. It is used for aerial strikes at insurgents in Yemen, Nigeria and Somalia, as well as exercising control over the Bab-el-Mandeb strait - a strategic maritime waterway linking the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean through the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea. In 2014, America signed a new 20-year lease on the base with the Djiboutian government, and committed over $1.4 billion to modernize and expand the facility in the years to come.

According to Stars and Stripes, the US Air Force deployed F-16 fighters and KC-135 to Djibouti in July. Until the publication, the information had been kept secret. The aircraft remain on standby amid concerns over the situation in South Sudan, including threats to the lives of American citizens there. In July, about 50 combat-equipped troops were sent to protect US diplomatic personnel amid widespread violence and civil unrest in that country. The US has provided assistance in form of training and equipping of the elite presidential guard; employment of foreign instructors to teach army recruits; development of riverine forces; training of commandos. This aid is rendered despite the fact that South Sudan uses child soldiers.

Under Obama, this country receives waivers to the prohibition on US security assistance under the Child Soldiers Prevention Act (CSPA), despite recent reports by UNICEF that children in the country are forcefully recruited into the armed forces. ....


Prof Michel Chossudovsky at GlobalResearch
Clinton's no-fly zone over Syria will not save lives, it will lead to war with Russia

In a Senate Arms Services Committee hearing, Dunford said, responding to questions from Republican Senator Roger Whicker (Mississippi)

    “Right now, Senator, for us to control all of the airspace in Syria it would require us to go to war, against Syria and Russia,… That’s a pretty fundamental decision that certainly I’m not going to make.” (Senate Armed Services Committee, September 22, 2016, emphasis added)

At the third presidential debate, Hillary Clinton reasserted her commitment that if elected president, she would implement a no-fly-zone, intimating that the objective was to “save lives”:

    “I think a no-fly zone could save lives and could hasten the end of the conflict. I am well aware of the really legitimate concerns you have expressed from both the president and the general,” Clinton said in response to a question from Fox News debate moderator Chris Wallace.

    “This would not be done just on the first day. This would take a lot of negotiation and would also take making it clear to the Russians and Syrians that our purpose here was to provide safe zones on the ground … I think we could strike a deal and make it clear to the Russians and the Syrians that this was something that we believe was in the best interest of the people on the ground in Syria.” (Fox News, emphasis added)...

Mother Agnes and Vanessa Beeley speak to RT


Amb Craig Murray at his blog
Blanket Corporate Media Corruption

....I was in Washington last month to chair the presentation of the Sam Adams Award to heroic former ex-CIA agent and whistleblower John Kiriakou. There were on the platform with me a dozen or so former very senior and distinguished officers of the CIA, NSA, FBI and US Army. All now identify with the whistleblower community. There were speeches of tremendous power and insight about state abuse, from those who really know. But as usual, not one mainstream media outlet turned up to report an award whose previous winners and still active participants include Julian Assange, Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning.

Similarly my statement of definite knowledge that Russia is not behind the Clinton leaks has caused enormous interest in the internet. One article alone about my visit to Assange has 174,000 Facebook likes. Across all internet media we calculate over 30 million people have read my information that Russia was not responsible for these leaks. There is no doubt whatsoever that I have direct access to the correct information.

Yet not one single mainstream media journalist has attempted to contact me.

Why do you think that might be?....


Description at video post: Saudis are deliberately bombing farms in Yemen, which may lead to survivors starving when the war is over. 357 strikes in 20 provinces targeted farms, animals, water infrastructure, food stores, agricultural banks, markets and food trucks, with 60% of the population already dependent on food aid. Post-war Yemen may totally rely on food imports most probably coming from Gulf States. According to international law targeting infrastructure objects is a war crime.
Yet it’s not stopping Britain and the US from helping Saudi Arabia.

Archbishop of Aleppo Mgr. Jean-Clement Jeanbart (translation from Italian at GlobalResearch)
US Sponsored “Moderates” “Have Sown Terror Everywhere”:
 Testimony of the Archbishop of Aleppo

The whole world is terrified at the sight of the images from Aleppo that the mass media have been presenting in recent days. Many of our friends abroad are concerned and want to hear from us. We are living tragic moments in our history and what’s happening here continues to make Aleppo and its people suffer, people that for more than five years have been unable to have peace, so harassed and massacred by armed groups that have come from all over the world, to conduct a self-styled holy war, in a country governed (according to them) by atheists and infidels!

For five years now the terrorists here have been calling the shots, where the civil authorities of the country have not managed to be present. They have sown terror everywhere, killed tens of thousands of innocent people, destroyed thousands of factories, businesses and institutions of public services, looted houses and stolen, without any concern, assets of the country and the citizens. They have have made victims of many innocent people, kidnapping and brutally murdering countless peaceful people, including nuns, priests and even bishops.

This still going on today: this morning a dozen shells fell in two of our residential areas, causing further destruction and in one neighborhood, numerous deaths and injuries.

Battles are raging on the outskirts of the city: the rebels from the “Al-Nusra Front” are attempting to take positions in areas considered strategic, almost completely depopulated and almost entirely destroyed, that they seized and held until last June at the city’e edge. ...

...The hardest thing for Christians who are currently present in Aleppo would be the prospect of having to live, morning and evening, in anxiety in this situation of insecurity: destabilizing disconcerting uncertainty. They are afraid for the next day, and the future of their children troubles them greatly. Imagine that one day a Muslim fundamentalist state would be imposed on them — for them this is an unbearable nightmare.

This is why we turn to our brothers in France and throughout the West, and we beg you to help us ensure that this does not happen. We are not asking you to make war for us, but only to end the unjust claims of your allies that want to impose antiquated laws, laws that are unbearable for the people of the twenty-first century who want to be free to choose their culture, their style life and, finally, their faith. We call on our brothers in France to pray for us and all women and all men concerned about human dignity and love of freedom, to come to our rescue to save our dear country from the depth of the fundamentalist regime they are trying to put us in. Please help us to continue to live in dignity on this blessed land of our birth!........




Pepe Escobar
The Aleppo / Mosul Riddle

There’s no question Baghdad needs to take back Mosul from ISIS/ISIL/Daesh. It could not do it before. In theory, the time is now.

The real question is the conflicting motivations of the large “who’s who” doing it; the Iraqi Army’s 9th Division; the Kurdish Peshmerga, under the baton of wily, corrupt opportunist Barzani; Sunni tribal lords; tens of thousands of Shi’ite militias from southern Iraq; operational “support” from US Special Forces; “targeted” bombing by the US Air Force; and lurking in the background, Turkish Special Forces and air power.

Now that’s a certified recipe for trouble.

Much like Aleppo, Mosul is – literally – the stuff of legend. The successor of ancient Nineveh, settled 8000 years ago; former capital of the Assyrian Empire under Sennacherib in the 7th century B.C.; conquered by Babylon in the 6th century B.C.; a thousand years later, annexed to the Muslim empire and ruled by the Umayyads and the Abbasids; the key hub, from the 11th to the 12th century, of the Atabegs medieval state; a key Ottoman hub in a 16th century post-Silk Road spanning the Indian Ocean all the way to the Persian Gulf, the Tigris valley, Aleppo and Tripoli in the Mediterranean.....




Mark Taliano at GlobalResearch
Life in Syria, as Recounted by a Syrian

Stories from Syrians are conspicuously absent from mainstream propaganda stories.

I asked Ammar about life in Syria, and this is what he wrote:

“As everyday morning my sister was going to the university when a bloody Takfiri Salafi Wahhabi suicide bomber blew up bomb car at the bus stop which led to the martyrdom and injury of many civilians and university students who were going to their exams , after 10 minutes another suicide bomber blew up himself at the same place taking advantage of the gathering of people and ambulance teams, usually when a terror attack happens we call all family members and friends to make sure they all are ok . but this time no one answered! Then we started looking for her in hospitals . . . the shock was in the bloody views there ; many burned bodies and human body parts were on the ground , there i saw my sister a body without soul . . .”

Almost every new story from the West demonizes Vladimir Putin.  Ammar, however, has direct contact with Russian agencies.  This is his assessment.

“about Russian aid , I see the biggest humanitarian aid provided by our Russian brothers is fighting the US NATO founded brutal terrorism and supporting Syrian armed forces against western backed barbarian terrorism as well standing with Syria in International forums furthermore the Russian aid for in need Syrian civilians represented in food like rice , sugar , tea , canned meat and fish and medical aid that includes medicines, emergency medical supplies, antibiotics and medical products for the treatment of a variety of diseases as well they brought a doctors who made physical check up to needy people. these aid were distributed directly by Russians to needy people thanks to American European sanctions against Syrian people and against Syrian economy , prices got so expensive , economical situation became harder, targeting Syrian infra structures by the illegal US-led coalition aircrafts also Looting and theft Syrian industrial plants and then Sold cheaply to Turkey by their mercenaries. All these reasons iincreased the suffering of Syrian people moreover targeting Syrian central bank and Syrian pound caused to lose a lot of Syrian pound purchasing value.”....

Tim Johnson at McClatchyDC
The strange tale of a dating site’s attacks on WikiLeaks founder Assange

....A company representative, identifying herself as Hannah Hammond, emailed Assange’s Swedish and British legal agents offering $1 million for him to appear in a five-minute tongue-in-cheek television advertisement. In a subsequent exchange Sept. 19, the representative wrote that “the source of the $1,000,000 is the Russian government.”

In a curious twist, she offered what she said were three facts about Assange’s London attorney that are “unknown to the public,” including details inside her home and an event in her son’s life, suggesting a capability to conduct surveillance.

Taylor, the Assange lawyer, said the details appeared “to create the impression that the members of his team were under close surveillance and/or to bolster the bona fides of the claim that the offer was linked to a State. Its inclusion does appear quite menacing.”

A lawyer identifying himself only as “James” responded the next day, slamming the offer as an “elaborate scam designed to entrap” Assange and embarrass him for ties to Russia.

The dating site representative sought to pull the veil off “James.”

“Julian: We know it’s you writing. The offer expires at midnight, October 31st 2016,” she wrote back on Sept. 21, according to copies of the emails posted by WikiLeaks on its website.

By early October, toddandclare.com went on the offensive. It filed a civil complaint in a British court against Assange, seeking 295 pounds sterling – about $359 – in damages because it said it could no longer use his services due to the “child sex offenses in Nassau.”

The suit, said Taylor, Assange’s lawyer, “seems to be designed to evade defamation law in the U.K. They’ve put highly noxious information knowing that it would be made public.”

The global tussle between the online dating company and WikiLeaks went public in mid-October when the anti-secrecy group voiced public doubt on whether toddandclare.com actually existed, or served only as a vehicle to attack Assange.....

From Catholic World Report at Off-Guardian
 
Syrian Catholics denounce Western media
 biased reporting on Aleppo


From Sott.Net
What's wrong with the planet? Saudi Arabia to be reelected to UN Human Rights Council

As the death toll in Yemen surpasses 10,000, Saudi Arabia, one of the principal parties in the conflict, is poised to be reelected to the UN human rights body. Saudi airstrikes are responsible for the majority of the nearly 4,000 civilian deaths in Yemen.

A secret ballot vote at the UN General Assembly on Friday will select the 14 members of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), or a third of its 47 members. Saudi Arabia, Iraq, China, and Japan are running for the four seats from the Asia-Pacific region, and are all expected to secure seats.

Riyadh's term at the UNHRC would be the third in a row, and its presence at the body has been increasingly puzzling to human rights groups, given its record of twisting arms at the UN to hush up its rights abuses.




Ann Wright at ConsortiumNews

It’s like we are back to the 1800s when the U.S. Army rampaged against Native American tribes across the American West. The militarized police and the use of the National Guard this week in responding to the Standing Rock Sioux Native American challenge in North Dakota to big oil and its dangerous pipelines reminds one of Custer’s Last Stand against Sitting Bull.

In fact, the portrait of Sitting Bull is on one of the most popular t-shirts available to supporters of the “water protectors,” as those are known who protest yet one more oil pipeline that crosses sensitive watershed areas and major rivers of the United States.

Four days last week, I joined hundreds of Native Americans and social justice campaigners from around the United States and around the world, in challenging the Dakota Access Pipe Line (DAPL), the 1,172-mile, $3.7 billion dollar scar across the face of North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois.

Last week, I photographed the area along Highway 6 south of Bismarck where the Energy Transfer Partnership contractors were busy digging the trench for the “Black Snake” as the pipeline is called.

I also counted 24 police cars returning to Bismarck at shift change around 3 p.m., a huge number of state law enforcement personnel and vehicles dedicated to protection of corporate business, instead of the rights of citizens.

Huge machines were chewing up the earth near water sources for all of North Dakota. The pipeline was rerouted from near Bismarck so if the pipeline breaks it would not endanger the water supply of the capital city of the state. But it was relocated to where it will cross the Missouri River and will jeopardize the water supply of the Native Americans and all Americans living in southern North Dakota and downstream of the Missouri River.....


 Max Blumenthal at Alternet
Inside the Shadowy PR Firm That’s Lobbying for Regime Change in Syria

Posing as a non-political solidarity organization, the Syria Campaign leverages local partners and media contacts to push the U.S. into toppling another Middle Eastern government.

......By partnering with local groups like the Syrian civil defense workers popularly known as the White Helmets, and through a vast network of connections in media and centers of political influence, The Syria Campaign has played a crucial role in disseminating images and stories of the horrors visited this month on eastern Aleppo. The group is able to operate within the halls of power in Washington and has the power to mobilize thousands of demonstrators into the streets. Despite its outsized role in shaping how the West sees Syria’s civil war, which is now in its sixth year and entering one of its grisliest phases, this outfit remains virtually unknown to the general public.

The Syria Campaign presents itself as an impartial, non-political voice for ordinary Syrian citizens that is dedicated to civilian protection. “We see ourselves as a solidarity organization,” The Syria Campaign strategy director James Sadri told me. “We’re not being paid by anybody to pursue a particular line. We feel like we’ve done a really good job about finding out who the frontline activists, doctors, humanitarians are and trying to get their word out to the international community.”

Yet behind the lofty rhetoric about solidarity and the images of heroic rescuers rushing in to save lives is an agenda that aligns closely with the forces from Riyadh to Washington clamoring for regime change. Indeed, The Syria Campaign has been pushing for a no-fly zone in Syria that would require at least “70,000 American servicemen” to enforce, according to a Pentagon assessment, along with the destruction of government infrastructure and military installations. There is no record of a no-fly zone being imposed without regime change following —which seems to be exactly what The Syria Campaign and its partners want......

From Xinhuanet
Saudi-led airstrikes kill 27 civilians across Yemen provinces

At least 27 civilians, mostly children and women, were killed on Saturday in three Yemeni provinces by airstrikes from a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia, officials and residents said.

Early Saturday morning, the Saudi-led air strikes hit residents' homes in two villages of al-Sharaf and Mabaran in al-Salo district of the southwestern province of Taiz, killing 10 villagers on the spot and flattering several mud-brick houses to the ground, according to the local officials and the residents.....
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Sunday, September 4, 2016

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


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

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

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

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





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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



From TheSaker
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin Interview to Bloomberg

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

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

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

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

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

China's Zhangjiajie glass bridge


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Corbett Report and Media Monarchy on the EpiPen price gouge


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

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

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

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

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

From Larouchepac
The Start of An Historic Week

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

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


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





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