World War 3 news and updates .... November 21 .... Part II

USA, UK, Canada,  Australia, New Zealand, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Jordan, UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, Israel, Syria, Turkey, Kurdistan, Yemen, Nigeria, France with (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad ) Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, Albania, Estonia, Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, Japan, Republic of Korea, Ireland, Spain, Slovakia, Norway, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Novorussia, Ukraine, Russia, Chechnya, Somalia, Iran, India, South Korea, North Korea,  Central African Republic, Kenya, Tunisia, The Philippines, Egypt,  Albania, Serbia, China, Sudan, South Sudan, Bukina Faso, Palestine, Georgia, Chad, Spain, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Nepal, Congo, Uganda, Romania, Poland .....

From Reuters:
Canadian vets plan to join Kurdish fight  against Islamic State
Several former Canadian soldiers plan to join Kurdish forces fighting Islamic State militants in coming weeks, with at least one already in Iraq, Canadian media reported on Friday, bolstering the ranks of foreigners fighting alongside the Kurds.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation said a half-dozen former armed forces personnel were enlisting, citing unnamed sources. Meanwhile, the National Post newspaper said veterans had formed a group called the First North American Expeditionary Force to help link would-be fighters with Peshmerga units and to provide financial help.........



From SputnikNews:
Rioting in Warsaw:    Many Hate the EU and Everyone Blames Russia
In November 2013 – February 2014, Warsaw showed official support for the violent actions of the “urban guerillas” on Maidan. However, Poland’s politicians are somewhat reluctant to let the participants of much less violent riots out of jail in their own capital.
The recent riots in Poland’s capital Warsaw, where 200 people were arrested and several dozen were wounded, are not being compared in the mainstream Western press with the violent clashes of the so-called Maidan revolution in neighboring Ukraine. The Polish rioters are being presented as mere “hooligans”. However, the tactics and slogans of the so-called “peaceful protesters” in Kiev and Warsaw are very similar. In November 2013 – February 2014, Warsaw officially gave its 100 percent support to the violent actions of the “urban guerillas” on Maidan and blasted former president Viktor Yanukovich for arresting the perpetrators. Oddly enough, Poland’s politicians are somewhat reluctant to let the participants of much less violent riots out of jail in their own capital.



Even the obnoxious jokes of the participants in the two “protests” were similar. Last winter in Kiev, the rioters warmed themselves up by jumping and chanting “If you don’t jump, you’re a Russian!” In Warsaw, as the daily Gazeta Wyborcza reported, the “independence fans” were chanting “If you don’t jump, you’re a queer!” Racism and hatred for minorities were quite visible in both Kiev and Warsaw, but the mainstream press of both Poland and the EU in general preferred to overlook them during the “pro-European” Maidan riots.........

From Reuters:
Islamic State targeted in 30 air strikes by U.S., allies 
The United States and its allies have staged 30 air strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq since Wednesday, the U.S. Central Command said on Friday.

The 23 strikes in Iraq included six near Baiji that hit Islamic State buildings, vehicles and tactical units while buildings, vehicles, a guard post and two tactical units were destroyed near Sinjar in four air strikes, Central Command said. Similar targets were destroyed or damaged west of Kirkuk, near Mosul and Ramadi and in Tal Afar........

From CenterForStrategic&IntlStudies:
On November 21,   Vice President Joe Biden arrives in Istanbul for a two day visit during which he will meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. According to a November 18 White House briefing prior to his departure on the three nation trip that will conclude in Turkey, “the Vice President will discuss cooperation in fighting ISIS in Syria and Iraq; coping with the humanitarian crisis caused by the conflicts on Turkey’s southern border and countering the threat posed by foreign fighters.” While the focus would be on countering ISIS, “promoting the Cyprus settlement process and other regional issues” would also be on the agenda. 

Mr. Biden’s high profile trip will be the most recent effort in the ongoing U.S. campaign to persuade Turkey to give greater support in the fight against ISIS which has established brutal control over much of Syria as well as portions of Iraq. Although it is clear that Turkey's contribution has not been at the level the U.S. would have liked, U.S. officials have been generally reluctant to publicize their disappointment. Instead they have chosen to emphasize areas of convergence and to downplay fundamental divergences........

#IslamicState issued its Dabiq-5. Hostage #johncantlie is writing in it. #IS #Syria #Iraq. pic.twitter.com/5Hi8am1UYW
— Elijah J. Magnier (@EjmAlrai) November 21, 2014

From AlAkhbar:
Bahraini opposition leader slams   repression ahead of elections
Bahraini rulers' failure to loosen their grip on power could trigger a surge in violence, the chief of the kingdom's main opposition movement warned Friday, a day before the oil-rich kingdom holds elections without the participation of opposition groups.

On Friday, hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets of the village of Diraz pledging to boycott Saturday's polls, with police firing tear gas to disperse them, witnesses said........

From France24:
France will send six Mirage fighter jets to Jordan to strike the Islamic State militant group in Iraq, Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Wednesday.

"There were nine Rafale (jets) in the United Arab Emirates and they will be reinforced with six Mirage fighter jets to support our action," Le Drian told parliament.

Two French surveillance aircraft and a refuelling tanker are also based at the Emirati airbase of al Dhafra. The defence ministry said the air squadron had been bombing IS positions, including around the city of Kirkuk area of Northern Iraq on Wednesday morning.

Military sources told AFP that the six additional Mirage 2000-D aircraft would arrive in Jordan in December........
From AlAkhbar:
The United Arab Emirates  (UAE) formally endorsed the designation of 86 Islamist groups as "terrorist organizations," state news agency WAM reported on Saturday, in line with a recent federal law on combating terrorism.

The list includes the Muslim Brotherhood and local affiliates, such as al-Islah reform group who is already banned in the UAE for its alleged link to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, as well as al-Qaeda-linked groups operating in different parts of the region and various Islamic think tanks and lobbying groups across the world.

The Gulf Arab state has also designated Syria’s al-Qaeda branch al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group, whose militants are battling the Syrian army and recently the Lebanese army, as terrorist organizations.

In September, 15 Islamists accused of joining and financing al-Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham, another Syrian rebel group, went on trial in the UAE.
The Emirati list also includes the Qatar-based International Union of Muslim Scholars, which is headed by the Brotherhood's spiritual guide Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe, as well as Muslim associations in Britain and other European countries.
Several Islamist groups in Libya, Tunisia, Mali, Pakistan, Nigeria's Boko Haram as well as Afghanistan's Taliban account for the bulk of the list.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah brigades in Iraq, Hezbollah party in Saudi Arabia’s Hjaz, Hezbollah in the Gulf region, and the Houthi movement in Yemen are also on the list.

Lebanon's powerful resistance group Hezbollah, however, is not on the list...........

Ron Paul: "End torture, shut down the CIA"

The evil powers-that-be kept Ron Paul from becoming the prez of the USA.  The world would have had far less wars if he had won and our world would be a much better place if people like him were leaders of the Western nations.  It's sad that his son Rand Paul has fallen far from the tree....way over the fence into the neighbour's yard.

The article below has given rise to a lot of controversy, both for and against.  I have included one of the many discussions posted to YouTube. 

Ron Paul writing at Peace and Prosperity Institute:
Remember back in April, 2007, when then-CIA director George Tenet appeared on 60 Minutes, angrily telling the program host, “we don’t torture people”? Remember a few months later, in October, President George W. Bush saying, “this government does not torture people”? We knew then it was not true because we had already seen the photos of Iraqis tortured at Abu Ghraib prison four years earlier. 

Still the US administration denied that torture was torture, preferring to call it “enhanced interrogation” and claiming that it had disrupted so many terrorist plots. Of course, we later found out that the CIA had not only lied about the torture of large numbers of people after 9/11, but it had vastly exaggerated any valuable information that came from such practices.



However secret rendition of prisoners to other places was ongoing.

The US not only tortured people in its own custody, however. Last week the European Court of Human Rights found that the US government transferred individuals to secret detention centers in Poland (and likely elsewhere) where they were tortured away from public scrutiny. The government of Poland was ordered to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages to two victims for doing nothing to stop their torture on Polish soil.

How tragic that Poland, where the Nazis constructed the Auschwitz concentration camp in which so many innocents were tortured and murdered, would acquiesce to hosting secret torture facilities. The idea that such brutality would be permitted on Polish soil just 70 years after the Nazi occupation should remind us of how dangerous and disingenuous governments continue to be.

This is the first time the European court has connected any EU country to US torture practices. The Obama administration refuses to admit that such facilities existed and instead claims that any such “enhanced interrogation” programs were shut down by 2009. We can only hope this is true, but we should be wary of government promises. After all, they promised us all along that they were not using torture, and we might have never known had photographs and other information not been leaked to the press.

There are more reasons to be wary of this administration’s claims about rejecting torture and upholding human rights. The president has openly justified killing American citizens without charge or trial and he has done so on at least three occasions. There is not much of a gap between torture and extrajudicial murder when it comes to human rights abuses.

Meanwhile, former CIA director George Tenet and other senior current and former CIA officials are said to be frantically attempting to prepare a response to a planned release of an unclassified version of a 6,500 page Senate Intelligence Committee study on the torture practices of that agency. The CIA was already caught tapping into the computers of Senate investigators last year, looking to see what information might be contained in the report. Those who have seen the report have commented that it details far more brutal CIA practices than have been revealed to this point.

Revelations of US secret torture sites overseas and a new Senate investigation revealing widespread horrific CIA torture practices should finally lead to the abolishment of this agency. Far from keeping us safer, CIA covert actions across the globe have led to destruction of countries and societies and unprecedented resentment toward the United States. For our own safety, end the CIA!

Something hitting the fan in Poland

The hole America and her allies in the EU and her best friends Canada and the UK ... the hole they have dug in Ukraine is becoming bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.  What's about to happen in Poland might be linked to what has happened in the Ukraine.
Who knew Poland's politicians are as corrupt  as are  their counterparts in Ukraine, both old and new.  These guys put the crooks in the  third world countries to utter shame.

You might think I am a total nut for connecting this to Ukraine..... but I go with my instincts and they tell me it is. 

Rick Lyman writing at NYTimes:
.....Mysterious tapes of high-level officials discussing what seem to be unsavory deals, recorded in the back room of a restaurant popular with the political elite, are threatening the careers of some of Poland’s most prominent leaders and perhaps even the survival of the current government.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Monday afternoon described the electronic eavesdropping, which occurred over many months and may have involved several locations, as “an attempt at a coup d’état, bringing down the Polish government by illegal means,” and called it well organized and unprecedented in Poland’s post-Communist history.

Although Mr. Tusk and other officials in the governing party criticized some of the behavior and language contained on the tapes, they focused the bulk of their wrath Monday on the eavesdropping itself.

Transcripts of several recordings, which were made at a restaurant favored by those eager to meet out of the public eye, were published over the weekend by Wprost, a weekly Warsaw newspaper. The paper said it did not know who had made the recordings and did not describe how it had obtained them.
“The goal of this well-organized crime was not the public good, but eavesdropping on politicians of the ruling party,” Mr. Tusk said.



In the most potentially incendiary of the recordings, made last July, Marek Belka, chief of the central bank, chats with Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz, the interior minister, about steps the bank might take in an emergency to prop up the national economy, something the minister remarks might be needed to help the governing party win re-election in 2015.

Mr. Belka is heard saying that the bank might intervene, but asked that the finance minister at the time, Jacek Rostowski, be replaced by a more apolitical figure. Mr. Rostowski was in fact replaced last fall by a bank economist with no previous political experience.

Under Polish law, the central bank is to remain independent of politics.

“We are facing extraordinary and outrageous events,” said Jaroslaw Kaczynski, head of the chief opposition party, Law and Justice. “The only proper reaction should be the dismissal of the government.”

If Mr. Tusk does not step down, Mr. Kaczynski said, he will call for a no-confidence vote in Parliament..............

NATO spreading its wings ....rather foolishly like Icarus

of Greek mythology. Will someone please tell NATO what happened when Icarus didn't heed his father's advice of not flying either too near to the Sun or too near to the Sea?  

First to arrive in the Baltics is the American contingent.

From ChristianScienceMonitor:
.....US troops arriving in Eastern Europe. Is it more than symbolic?
The Pentagon is sending a contingent of 150 US troops to Poland this week, the first piece of what US officials describe as an effort to reassure Eastern European allies that the United States has their back in the wake of Russian aggression.

The contingent, which began arriving Wednesday, is the first of four such units headed to Eastern Europe for training exercises. While some military analysts say the deployments will have little to no impact on the tense military situation in the region, the Pentagon insists that its reply to Russian troops movements near Ukraine is not just a symbolic gesture.

“Anytime you put troops on the ground and doing exercises – in this case for a month at a time – it’s more than symbology,” Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said in a briefing with reporters Tuesday. “The kind of work that we’re going to be doing is real infantry training.
There will be a “company-sized” contingent of US troops headed to Poland for “the first in a series of expanded US land force training exercises.” In the coming days, US troops will also be heading to Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia for similar exercises, for a total of 600 troops in the region by the end of the week.....

Wanna know what happens when you insult the leaders of the the supposedly democratic countries of The Netherlands and Poland?

In The Netherlands you can be jailed for up to 5 years,  in Poland up to 3 years.  The link below has a list of 12 countries whose leaders think they are gods.

From GlobalPost:
....These world leaders   are all wonderful people, and here’s what you’ll get for saying otherwise.  Some people just can’t take criticism. We mean they really, really can’t take criticism. And when you’re a world leader, you don’t have to.

When the king of Bahrain recently upped the penalty for anyone found guilty of “offending” him, it reminded us just how many countries count defaming their head of state a crime. It may be par for the course in the United States, but in dozens of nations around the world, badmouthing your commander-in-chief will earn you fines, imprisonment or even a flogging..........

Terrorists here, terrorists there, terrorists everywhere

What's a human being to do when cavemen are rampaging all around ?

Polish authorities said Tuesday    that they have arrested a man who was planning to carry out a terror attack on the Parliament building in Warsaw while the president, prime minister, government ministers and lawmakers were inside.....

....  They say he is a 45-year-old Polish academic researcher who had access to chemistry laboratories and who was in illegal possession of explosive materials, munitions and guns.

They say the suspect, who was not identified by name, was motivated by nationalistic, xenophobic and anti-Semitic ideas, but that he does not formally belong to any political group.....

The Best President that America has ever had ... according to numbskulls on the Left

If so, then definitely the Best President ever, The Most Intelligent President ever, The Most Articulate President ever, couldn't have made this gaffe unless his knowledge about Auschwitz and occupied Poland under the Nazis was minimal to say the least.  For a Prez of the USA, not to know that?  That's horrible !!

...Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk angrily demanded Wednesday that President Barack Obama explain his reference to "a Polish death camp" during a high-profile White House ceremony a day earlier, saying the remark smacked of " ignorance, lack of knowledge, bad intentions" and amounted to "a distortion of history."

"When someone says 'Polish death camps,' it is as if there were no Nazis, no German responsibility, as if there was no Hitler - that is why our Polish sensitivity in these situations is so much more than just simply a feeling of national pride," the prime minister said.

Tusk bluntly rejected National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor's expression of "regret" for the remarks and acknowledgement that Obama "misspoke" as falling woefully short of making up for the mistake.....