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Thursday, January 11, 2018

Some of my tweets from Jan 6 - 10




































Posted by MariaS at 22:15 0 comments
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Iran at Dangerous Crossroads


USA and Israel are thirsting for some Iranian blood.  Saudi Arabia is also in the queue with its monstrous tongue hanging out for a lick of same.
All three will be denied now and always.

Peter Koenig at DissidentVoice
Iran at Dangerous Crossroads

On 21 September 2017, the Supreme Leader of the Iranian Islamic Revolution, spoke to the head and the members of the Assembly of Experts with kind of a State of the Nation Speech.

He addressed many issues from internal affairs, competing factions within the Islamic Revolution, to external relations – and the economy. He also referred to The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly called the Iran Nuclear Deal, the international agreement on Iran’s nuclear program, reached in Vienna, Austria, on 14 July 2015. The accord is barely two and half years old and already breached by one of the five main-sponsors, the United States of America. The agreement also refers to the P5+1, meaning the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) – China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, United States – plus Germany and, of course, Iran. The European Union was also part of the agreement in an observer function.

With regard to the JCPOA, the Ayatollah said:

    The problem that I had and continue to have with the nuclear negotiations – I have discussed this matter in private and in public with officials – is this: what I am saying is that it was alright to negotiate, there was nothing wrong with negotiating, but those negotiations should have been conducted with care and precision so much so that every short move by us will not be considered as the violation of the Bar-Jaam [the JCPOA], while this is not the case for every wrong move that the other side makes! This is wrong! This should not happen. This happens due to lack of trust in and attention to domestic power. This state of affairs happens due to reliance on the other side and on foreign elements.

    I will tell you that we should not pin our hopes on foreigners. We should work with the world and I am not opposed to this. Working with the world naturally has certain requirements. ....
Posted by MariaS at 22:11 0 comments
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CNN hopes that by 2038....


Posted by MariaS at 22:02 0 comments
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Here's how to identify MSM outlets carrying on a "pretend" war on Trump ....


and the sad truth of the matter is ... almost all of the alphabet networks never accuse Trump of waging illegal wars or continuing the illegal wars started by Obama.  Instead all they talk about is Russia, Russia, Russia, collusion, collusion, collusion, Russia, Russia, Russia!!

Ben Norton at FAIR
MSNBC Ignores Catastrophic US-Backed War in Yemen
  https://fair.org/home/msnbc-yemen-russia-coverage-2017

Moreover, in all of 2017, MSNBC only aired one broadcast on the US-backed Saudi airstrikes that have killed thousands of Yemeni civilians. And it never mentioned the impoverished nation’s colossal cholera epidemic, which infected more than 1 million Yemenis in the largest outbreak in recorded history.

All of this is despite the fact that the US government has played a leading role in the 33-month war that has devastated Yemen, selling many billions of dollars of weapons to Saudi Arabia, refueling Saudi warplanes as they relentlessly bomb civilian areas and providing intelligence and military assistance to the Saudi air force.

With little corporate media coverage from MSNBC or elsewhere, the US—under both presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump—has staunchly supported Saudi Arabia as it imposes a suffocating blockade on Yemen, diplomatically shielding the draconian Gulf dictatorship from any form of punishment as it has plunged millions of Yemeni civilians into mass hunger and pushed the poorest country in the Middle East onto the brink of famine....

 
Posted by MariaS at 21:59 0 comments
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He's Insanely Stable ... oh yeah !!



 

Posted by MariaS at 20:13 0 comments
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The CIA intervention history into Iranian affairs goes way, way, way back


Very interesting read. 
Part 2 will probably be published by ZeroHedge on Sunday, Jan 14.

From ZeroHedge
From Shahs To The CIA: The History Of Western Intervention In Iran - Part 1

"Once you understand what people want, you can’t hate them anymore. You can fear them, but you can’t hate them, because you can find the same desires in your own heart" - concluded Andrew Wiggins in the novel Speaker for the Dead.  When Americans hear the word Iran, many have a sort of knee-jerk visceral reaction.  The very mention of the word conjures up frightful images of be-turbaned bearded imams leading mobs of Kalashnikov-carrying Muslim men and women whose faces are grotesquely contorted by intense anger as they enthusiastically wave banners bearing squiggly lines, no doubt saying, "Death to America".

Such specters are no frightful flights of fantasy, but reflect a real time and place in Iranian history. The year was 1979 and the place was Tehran. But the Islamic Revolution and subsequent American embassy hostage crisis which shocked the world, catching the West completely off guard, did not materialize in a vacuum. The chaotic domino effect which would lead modern Iran into the hands of the Ayatollahs was set off from the moment the CIA intervened with its 1953 coup d'état in Tehran, which became known as 'Operation Ajax'.
The opening sequence from the 2012 movie 'Argo' features a brief history of aggressive Western intervention which shaped modern Iran.


But Western intervention in Iran's affairs actually started many decades prior even to the CIA's well-known covert operation with the establishment of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, or today's British Petroleum (BP). After this, the 20th century witnessed a series of external interventions in Iran - a pattern which could potentially be continued now at the beginning of the 21st century as officials in the US and Israeli governments are now calling for action in support of protesters.

However, few officials and pundits in the West understand or care to know the tragic and fascinating history of Iran and Western interventionism there, even while feigning to speak on behalf of "the Iranian people". To understand modern Iran and the chaotic events leading to the Islamic revolution of 1979, we have to begin with ancient history to gain a sense of Iranians' self-understanding of their national heritage and identity, and then launch into the 20th century Iranian identity crisis brought about by foreign domination.

Belief in "Persian Exceptionalism" and Revolution

Iranian historian and professor at Tehran University, Sadegh Zibakalam, once defined the idea of "Iranian exceptionalism" as the dominant cultural narrative of modern Iran. Zibakalam explained this as "One of the strange features of 20th century Iranian leaders has been a tendency to perceive themselves, their government, and Iran as serious challengers to the present world order. Given the fact that the present world order is very much a Western dominated system, the Iranian leaders’ historic “crusade” has been broadly anti-Western. Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi as well as his successors have perceived their respective regime as offering the world a different system of leadership - one that is far superior to that of the West in many respects. Thus, Iranian “exceptionalism” rests on two main pillars: the negation of the present world order and the belief in the inherent superiority of Iranian civilization."

This self-perception arises from the Iranian people being descendants of well-known historical rulers and an ancient people that civilized the desert of what was known to the rest of the world as Persia, and to us in our day Iran.  The ruins of Persepolis hearken back several millennia to the days of the great Persian kings Cyrus, Xerxes, and Darius who in the magnificent Hall of Audience received the tributes of the various and sundry nations they conquered: the Elamites, Arachosians, Armenians, Ethiopians, Thracians, Ionians, Arabs, Assyrians, and Indians.  They constituted an empire in every sense of the word, dominating some of the richest lands from Greece in the Eastern Mediterranean through Turkey in Asia Minor, northward to Lebanon, Israel, Egypt and Libya and then to as far East as the Indus river, engulfing the Caucasus along the way.

In so doing, they spread their knowledge of science, poetry, painting, architecture, and their Zoroastrian faith to the ends of the  world.  This faith ingrained in them the idea that it is the responsibility of everyone, rich and poor, young and old, to strive to attain and establish justice here in this world in much the same way that the Hebrews sought it through their Torah and the Buddhists through their Tao.  The Persians were among those first great civilizations that turned men’s faces to the heavens and the stars challenging them to find meaning and purpose in a world replete with suffering and misery and to prepare their hearts, minds, and souls for the judgement that awaited them upon departing this life.  Rulers, great and powerful though they be, were not exempt from this the common lot of man and thus were expected to rule justly guided by the light of their revealed religion.  When they failed to do so, their subjects had the right to rise up and overthrow them.  In this they were not exceptional. This is pattern that repeated itself time and time again through the long history of the Persians.....
Posted by MariaS at 20:03 0 comments
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Marijuana in Canada


I don't smoke but I will try it in a cookie ... one of these days.  Every single person on planet Earth should be given the choice whether they want to or not ... neither governments nor individuals should ever have the right to tell us what we can or can't put in our bodies. 




 
Posted by MariaS at 19:59 0 comments
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The whole world's a stage OR why Hollywood no-gooders pretending to be do-gooders, should not venture into politics -


especially the likes of Angelina Jolie.

George Szamuely at RonPaulInstitute
NATO’s Fraudulent War on Behalf of Women

In a recent Guardian article titled “Why NATO Must Defend Women’s Rights,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Soltenberg and Hollywood movie star Angelina Jolie assert that “NATO has the responsibility and opportunity to be a leading protector of women’s rights.” NATO, moreover, “can become the global military leader in how to prevent and respond to sexual violence in conflict.” The two vowed to identify “ways in which NATO can strengthen its contribution to women’s protection and participation in all aspects of conflict-prevention and resolution.”

The pairing of a NATO bureaucrat and a famous movie actress may at first glance appear odd. However, this partnership has been long in the making. Some years ago, NATO, always on the lookout for a reason to justify its continued existence, not to mention its perpetual expansion, came up with a new raison d’être: It would be the global champion of women...

...This is where Angelina Jolie comes in. Jolie is a goodwill ambassador of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and, in that capacity, wanders around the world berating the “international community” for not doing enough to address humanitarian crises. Her take on these crises is invariably the same as that of NATO. “It is important that we intervene in a timely fashion,” she once explained, “diplomatically if we can, with force if we must.” ...

...Sometimes it’s breathless enthusiasm for “revolution,” sometimes it’s tearful pleading for plain, old-fashioned “humanitarian intervention”—Angelina Jolie is nothing if not consistent in her advocacy for Western use of force. When it comes to Syria, Jolie has declared that “some form of intervention is absolutely necessary.” She sneered at the U.N. Security Council permanent members that stood in the way of intervention. “I feel very strongly that the use of a veto when you have financial interests in the country should be questioned and the use of a veto against humanitarian intervention should be questioned,” she said in an interview. Jolie was of course simply echoing the blustery words of the Obama administration. ....

...Hague earnestly explained, “I started this campaign with Angelina Jolie because foreign policy has got to be about more than just dealing with urgent crises—it has to be about improving the condition of humanity.” Then Hague warmed to his theme: “Tens of thousands of women, girls and men were raped during the war in Bosnia. We are visiting to draw the world’s attention to their search for justice, and to call for global action to end the use of rape as a weapon of war once and for all.” In a BBC interview Hague claimed that sexual violence in conflict was “one of the great mass crimes of the 20th century and the 21st century….If anything, this is getting worse—war zone rape as a weapon of war, used systematically and deliberately against civilian populations.”....

...Punishing the perpetrators of sexual violence sounds laudable enough. The trouble is that NATO’s record of making incendiary charges and then failing to back them up with serious evidence is not one that inspires confidence. During the Bosnian war, for example, the media reported obsessively on the use of rape as an instrument of war. In 1992, Dame Ann Warburton’s European parliamentary delegation estimated that 20,000 rapes had already taken place in Bosnia. In January 1993, Newsweek carried a lengthy cover-story charging Serbs with the rape of as many as 50,000 women, mostly Muslim, as part of “deliberate programs to impregnate Muslim women with unwanted Serb babies.”

Systematic research on the subject however resulted in findings that were insufficiently dramatic to make it into the papers. On Jan. 29, 1994, the U.N. secretary-general issued a report on rapes in the former Yugoslavia, including Bosnia and Croatia, based on a study by the U.N. Commission of Experts. The report found “126 victims, 113 incidents, 252 alleged perpetrators, 73 witnesses.” The report also stated “some of the rape cases” were “clearly the result of individual or small-group conduct without evidence of command responsibility. Others may be part of an overall pattern. Because of a variety of factors, such a pattern may lead to a conclusion that a systematic rape policy existed, but this remains to be proved.”

Allegations of mass rape were a key component of NATO’s propaganda campaign during the 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia. British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook regaled the public with lurid tales of Serbs forcing women “to endure ‘systematic rape’ at an army camp at Djakovica.” Clare Short, Britain’s international development secretary, added that the rapes were “deliberately performed in front of children, fathers and brothers.” The British Foreign Office followed up with claims of having discovered three more rape camps: “Refugees reported orchestrated rapes at Globocica, Urosevac and an unidentified point on the Kosovo-Albania border.” Subsequently, when it was too late to matter, the media sheepishly admitted that the rape-camp stories, like most of NATO’s allegations, were a fabrication. The Washington Post reported that “Western accusations that there were Serb-run rape camps in the cities of Djakovica and Pec, and poorly sourced allegations in some publications that the Serbs were engaging in the mutilation of the living and the dead—including castration and decapitation—all proved to be false.” Even Human Rights Watch’s Fred Abrahams, who had worked as an investigator for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, admitted in testimony that he had found no evidence to support the incendiary rape-camp allegations.......
Posted by MariaS at 19:51 0 comments
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The ungodly deeds of the supposedly "God's Chosen People"


Norman Finkelstein on what's happening to Palestinians at the hands of the descendants of WW2 holocaust Jews.

From  TheRealNews   where you will find the rest.
“Gaza: An Inquest into Its Martyrdom”: Norman Finkelstein on the Many Lies Perpetuated About Gaza


From Democracy Now which gave me an impression that
they didn't want to hear the bare naked facts from Finkelstein. Wonder why.

Posted by MariaS at 19:48 0 comments
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Goebbels would have been extra proud of our present day Mainstream Media


Worth a full read.   Sad to see The Guardian has gone to the dogs.  I used to like it before it became the rag it is today.  Sad!!

Eva Bartlett at GlobalResearch
How the Mainstream Media Whitewashed Al-Qaeda and the White Helmets in Syria

On December 18, 2017, The Guardian issued a shoddily-penned hatchet piece against British journalist Vanessa Beeley, Patrick Henningsen and his independent website 21st Century Wire, Australian professor and author Tim Anderson, and myself.

Many insightful writers have since deconstructed the lies and omissions of the article, which I will link to at the bottom of my own.

Judging by the scathing comments on The Guardian’s Facebook post, the general public didn’t buy it either. The Guardian, like Channel 4 News and Snopes, whitewashes terrorism in Syria, employs non-sequitur arguments, promotes war propaganda, and simply gets the facts wrong: ....

....Regarding The Guardian’s question on my competency as a journalist, I note the following.

I began reporting from on the ground in Palestine in 2007, first blogging and later publishing in various online media.

In 2007, I spent 8 months in the occupied West Bank in occupied Palestine, in some of the most dangerous areas where Palestinians are routinely abused, attacked, abducted and killed by both the Israeli army and the illegal Jewish colonists. There, I began blogging, documenting the crimes in print with witness testimonies, first person interviews, my own eye-witness experiences, photos and videos.

After being deported from Palestine by the Israeli authorities in December 2007, in 2008 I sailed to Gaza from Cyprus and documented not only the daily Israeli assaults on unarmed male, female, elderly and child farmers and fishers, but also the effects of the brutal Israeli full siege on Gaza, Israel’s sporadic bombings and land invasions, and of course two major massacres (Dec 2008/Jan 2009 and Nov 2012).

In the 2008/2009 war against Palestinian civilians, I was on the ground in northern Gaza with rescuers—actual rescuers, no acting, no staging—under the bombings, and under heavy sniper fire. I was also on an upper floor of a media building in Gaza City that was bombed while I was in it. And otherwise, I remained in Gaza after the slaughter had ended, taking horrific testimonies, documenting Israel’s war crimes, including Israel’s: assassinations of children, widespread use of White Phosphorous on civilians; holding civilians as human shields; andtargeting (and killing) of medics.

See this link for a more detailed description of this documentation, with many examples, and my further documentation during the November 2012 Israeli massacre of Palestinians, as well as detailed accounts of my reporting from seven trips, on the ground, around Syria.

While questioning my credentials as an investigative reporter in the Middle East, The Guardian casually assigned the story to a San Fransisco based writer specializing in fluff pieces, fashion and Russophobic analysis, who visibly has little to no understanding of what is happening on the ground in Syria.......

....In The Guardian’s smear piece, Solon employed a tactic used to denigrate the credibility of an investigative journalist by dubbing he/she merely a “blogger”. In her story, Solon used “blogger” four times, three times in reference to Vanessa Beeley (who contributes in depth articles to a variety of online media).....
Posted by MariaS at 19:45 0 comments
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Saturday, January 6, 2018

Some of my tweets from January 1 - 5










































Posted by MariaS at 16:44 0 comments
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Watching the Hawks' Sean Stone talks to Paul Williams ....


an expert researcher on  the CIA’s “Operation Gladio” ... project(s) which are straight from hell and to all intents and purposes still ongoing.  Really worth a listen.

Posted by MariaS at 16:39 0 comments
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USA is training and paying salaries of ISIS left-over terrorists preparing them for fresh assaults on Syrians


All links for statements made in article below will be found at the original link.

Eric Zuesse at StrategicCulture
Why Are Trump's Troops Training ISIS Terrorists?

 When Donald Trump ran for the U.S. Presidency, his biggest foreign-affairs promise (which he copied from Ted Cruz) was to defeat “radical Islamic terrorism”; but, on December 27th, the Russian Government publicly accused Trump’s military of backing ISIS terrorists to fight against Syria’s Government (which is allied with Russia). Russia’s RT international television network headlined "US lets militants train, mount attacks from its Syrian bases – chief of Russian General Staff", and opened:

The US is hosting training camps for militant groups in Syria, including former ISIS fighters who fled from Raqqa, said the head of Russia’s General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, citing data obtained by aerial surveillance.

The US forces have effectively turned their military base near the town of al-Tanf in southeastern Syria into a terrorists’ training camp, Gerasimov said in an interview to Russia’s Komsomolskaya Pravda daily on Wednesday.

“According to satellite and other surveillance data, terrorist squads are stationed there. They are effectively training there,” Gerasimov said. …

Barely over a month earlier, the BBC had headlined on November 13th, “Raqqa’s Dirty Secret: The BBC has uncovered details of a secret deal that let hundreds of IS fighters and their families escape from Raqqa, under the gaze of the US and British-led coalition and Kurdish-led forces who control the city.” One lorry driver told BBC, “We took out around 4,000 people including women and children — our vehicle and their vehicles combined. When we entered Raqqa, we thought there were 200 people to collect. In my vehicle alone, I took 112 people.” The reporter noted, “Another driver says the convoy was six to seven kilometres long.” Furthermore: “IS fighters took everything they could carry. Ten trucks were loaded with weapons and ammunition. The drivers point to a white truck being worked on in the corner of the yard. ‘Its axle was broken because of the weight of the ammo,’ says Abu Fawzi [a lorry driver].”

So: America’s ISIS training camps might have thousands of extremely well-armed fighters to pay (by the Sauds) and train (by the Americans) to fight against Bashar al-Assad’s forces — prolonging the war against Syria, continuing the Syrian carnage.

One can't understand this U.S. support of ISIS, unless one recognizes the key fact: that, during the prior, Obama, U.S. Presidency, the U.S. Government was relying principally upon Al Qaeda in Syria to train and lead the various imported-into-Syria Saudi-paid international fundamentalist-Sunni mercenaries (committed jihadists, but all soldiers need to be paid and trained and fed and armed) who served as America’s proxy boots-on-the-ground in Syria to overthrow and replace Syria’s non-sectarian Baathist socialist Government. Furthermore, on 17 September 2016, Obama’s air force bombed Syrian Government troops in Deir Ezzor (or Der Zor) the capital of Syria's oil-producing region; and the surrounding ISIS forces then rushed in to grab that city to take it over, for the U.S.-Saudi side in the Syrian war. So: Obama sometimes even provided crucial support to ISIS (and not only depended heavily upon Al Qaeda). The U.S. Government, under Obama, even honored internationally the White Helmets wing of Al Qaeda in Syria, at the same time as refusing to allow its leader into the U.S. to receive a ‘humanitarian' award, because he was on the U.S. terrorism watch-list........
Posted by MariaS at 16:37 0 comments
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On big and small buttons



Posted by MariaS at 16:34 0 comments
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On the protests in Iran


US politicians & media dream of regime change in Iran


Paul R Pillar at ConsortiumNews
Gazing at Iran Through a Distorted Glass
With any country that, like Iran, has been the subject of acrimonious debate in Washington, pronouncements by American observers about events in that country have more to do with politics here than with what is going on over there.  So it has been with much of the spinning and interpreting of protests in Iranian streets during the past few days.  Some guidelines for intelligent, responsible, and useful commentary on those protests are in order, and applicable no matter what are the policy preferences of whoever is commenting.
The first guideline is to apply a large dose of agnosticism to the question of where the protests are heading.  The future course of popular unrest in any country is inherently difficult to predict.  That future depends on the vicissitudes of emotion, the complex interplay of different issues and political forces, and the especially unpredictable ways in which minor incidents can spark much larger responses.  A current trajectory cannot be extrapolated into the future, partly because of the effects of decisions not yet made.  In the current Iranian case, security elements of the regime have refrained so far from using most of their capability to crack down on protesters, but have strongly hinted that the capability may yet be used.  Such use would change the game being played in Iranian streets, but again with much uncertainty about where things would go from there....

Trump’s Vow to Support Iran Opposition Carries “No Credibility” as Demonstrations Enter Sixth Day


From MoonOfAlabama

The reaction to the minor protests in Iran drive another wedge between the U.S. and Europe. It exposes the belligerence of the Zionist lobby and its influence in the U.S. media and politics. The issue shows the growing divergence between genuine U.S. interests and the interests of Israel.

Some anti-government demonstration and attacks on public institutions continue in Iran. But, as the graph shows, such protests and riots continue to decrease. Yesterday's events took place in only 15 places while, since December 28, a total of 75 towns and cities had seen some form of protest or incidents. Additional to these several pro-government marches took place yesterday each of which was by far bigger than the anti-government events.....


Posted by MariaS at 16:09 0 comments
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Tuesday, January 2, 2018

Some of my tweets ... December 20 - 31















































Posted by MariaS at 16:58 0 comments
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On North Korea ... Kim Jong-un's initiative in his New Year's speech is very encouraging


Let's hope the USA, which is the real rogue nation on our planet, not North Korea, not Iran, not Syria, not any other nation ... will restrain its vile warmongering, death-loving, atrocity-addicted self and not decide to attack North Korea.  If it does, there's no telling what could happen.

Peter Koenig at GlobalResearch
North Korea – UN Security Council’s “Killer Resolution”,15 to 0: Choking a Country into Submission

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is being choked into submission if not starvation by the UN Security Council, by a vote of 15 : 0; i.e. unanimously. None of the 15 UNSC states, let alone the five permanent members, have had the guts to say no to a killer Resolution, drafted and proposed by the United States of America, a name that increasingly stands for international rogue and crime nation.

The New York Times reports on 22 December 2017:

    “President Trump has used just about every lever you can use, short of starving the people of North Korea to death, to change their behavior,” the White House homeland security adviser, Thomas P. Bossert, said Tuesday. “And so, we don’t have a lot of room left here to apply pressure to change their behavior.”

Two immediate questions come to mind – first, who is Trump to blackmail the UNSC into punishing nations which do not bend to the empire’s wishes?

Yes, blackmailing, because that’s exactly what is categorically part of the chief rogue’s international behavior. Case in point is the recent UN Resolution to nullify Trump’s unilateral decision to declare Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, when he, the Donald, threatening he would watch closely who would vote against the US, in view of punishing those nations monetarily or with other sanctions; and second, how come Russia and China went along with this literally genocidal program of sanctions contained in this UNSC Resolution?

Both Russia and China know that Washington’s arguments against the DPRK are based on a web of lies. That everything coming out of Washington is a lie, or untruth, or omission of facts – is well known around the globe. But in this case, where two ascending super-powers, Russia and China have the veto right to say NO to these illegal sanctions, it begs the question, why’ didn’t they use their veto?....

Carla Shea at GlobalResearch
The Situation in North Korea is Terrifying: US-ROK Military Threats Are Provocations for Nuclear War

The DPRK Emergency Letter to the U.N. Secretary-General
This article was first published on November 15, prior to the latest December UN Security Council resolution against the DPRK, which was adopted unanimously, with the support of Russia and China.

The situation with North Korea is terrifying – I see the stealthy build-up of pressure on the Security Council, similar to that preceding the Iraq and Libya invasions.  The Russian-China veto prevented an attack by the UN on Syria, but Russia and China are not vetoing these vicious sanctions on North Korea, and permitting this incredibly provocative US-ROK military surrounding the DPRK.  What deals are being made?

On October 13, the DPRK sent another emergency letter to United Nations Secretary-General Guterres; this was the third letter sent to the UN since November 20, three letters in 23 days attempting to alert the United Nations to the crisis situation in Northeast Asia jeopardizing International Peace and Security, a crisis that could precipitate nuclear war at any moment. All three letters have been ignored, raising alarming questions about the UN’s commitment to “save humanity from the scourge of war.

Any attempt to accuse the DPRK of “provocation”is flagrant prevarication, as the provocations, and threats to the survival of North Korea described in this appeal to the Secretary-General reveal the US-south Korean  preparation for imminent attack and obliteration of North Korea.

Ambassador Ja Song Nam stated:

    “I write to you with respect to the worst ever situation prevailing in and around the Korean peninsula, which is making it impossible to predict when nuclear war breaks out due to the US nuclear war equipment of unprecedentedly large scale being massively deployed taking up a strike posture. The United States, based on the deployment of three nuclear powered aircraft carrier strike groups in the sub-region, is holding another joint military exercise with south Korea, involving different types of destroyers and submarines, beginning from November 11, 2017. The U.S. is reactivating….. nuclear capable strategic bomber B-52….and is maintaining a surprise strike posture with frequent flight of B-1B and B-2 formations to the air space of south Korea….The US flung the words of “total destruction”of a sovereign state at the UN General Assembly, the world largest official forum of diplomacy and is now running amok for war exercises by introducing nuclear war equipment in and around the Korean peninsula, thereby proving that the US itself is the major offender of the escalation of tension and undermining of the peace…..Despite this fact, the UN Security Council, whose mission is to ensure the world peace and security, keeps turning a blind eye to the nuclear war exercises of the United States who is hell bent on bringing a catastrophic disaster to humanity, thereby giving rise to a serious concern on the double standard of the UN Security Council.”

It defies logic and sanity that the DPRK, which, between 1950-1953, suffered the slaughter of more than 3 million of its citizens by US and ROK soldiers guilty of crimes against humanity, and which is attempting to protect itself from another comparable or worse slaughter, is being viciously subjected to collective punishment by UN Security Council sanctions, condemning the people of the DPRK to agonizing deaths from starvation and disease, while forced to endure the psychological torture of an encirclement by US-ROK nuclear weapons poised to exterminate their entire people........

Ankit Panda at TheDiplomat
3 Takeaways From Kim Jong-un's 2018 New Year's Address

On Monday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un delivered his 2018 New Year’s Day address, as he has done every year since 2013. In the address, Kim celebrated the completion of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, offered to enter conditional talks with South Korea with the offer of potentially sending a delegation to the upcoming Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea, and condemned international sanctions. Kim Jong-un, while acknowledging the “unprecedented” level of sanctions the country had endured in 2017, said that North Korea would have to improve its “ability to be self-reliant.”....

....Beyond his talk of a “nuclear button,” Kim Jong-un’s most diplomatically significant remark in the address concerned inter-Korean relations. He appeared open to the prospect of sending a North Korean delegation to the upcoming Winter Olympics, which will be hosted by South Korea at Pyeongchang in February 2018. South Korean President Moon Jae-in, as part of his pursuit of engagement with the North, has called for North Korea’s participation. “I hope that North Korea will also participate, which will provide a very good opportunity for inter-Korean peace and reconciliation,” Moon said in November 2017, during North Korea’s two-month-long pause in ballistic missile testing. “We truly wish the South a successful Olympics,” Kim said in his address....
Posted by MariaS at 16:32 0 comments
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An eye on Turkey for the month of December ....


hoping for arrogant Erdogan's downfall.  By uttering those dreadful words  "Assad has to go" he has exposed himself to the now famous curse which will see his downfall ... long, long before Assad goes anywhere.


Erdogan's Insomnia And NATO's H-Bombs In Turkey

Recently, Pravda newspaper of Russia has reported that the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been suffering from serious sleep deprivation and that he was yawning and dozed off during a press conference with the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko while on a state visit to Kiev, and the video of the incident has been going viral over social media.
Though this might appear as a minor diplomatic gaffe but bear in mind that insomnia is a serious psychiatric disorder, cognitive functions of sleep-deprived individuals are severely hampered, and such people are prone to committing rash and reckless acts.

Moreover, readers who have been keenly watching Erdogan’s behavior since the July 2016 coup plot must have noticed in his recent TV appearances that his facial expressions have become quite bland lately, he has been lacking in any warmth even when he is hugging and kissing children for public relations’ photo ops, and he has the look of a madman in his eyes.....

Jerusalem: Turkey warns Trump against crossing 'red line'

Turkey's president has warned it could sever ties with Israel if the US recognises Jerusalem as its capital.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan said such a move would cross a "red line" for Muslims.

Donald Trump called Middle Eastern leaders on Tuesday amid growing warnings against taking the step. .......

Is corruption in Turkey so commonplace even journalists are inured?

The US trial of Turkish banker Mehmet Hakan Atilla, featuring the notorious Iranian-Turkish gold trader Reza Zarrab as a witness, has Turks glued to twitter. Zarrab testified Nov. 29 that he bribed Turkey's former Economic Minister Mehmet Zafer Caglayan in 2012 by paying him more than $50 million to help Iran evade US economic sanctions.

The amount of alleged bribes would most likely be sufficient to generate serious political turmoil in any given democracy.

‘Afraid of US’: Turkey slams ‘weak’ response of some Arab countries to Trump’s Jerusalem move

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has criticized the Muslim countries which failed to show a strong response to Washington’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, accusing them of being afraid of the US.
“There was a lot of strong reaction, reaction from the highest level. Some countries, however, have shown a very weak response. It seems that some countries are very timid, since the decision came from that country [the US],” the Minister told NTV broadcaster on Tuesday, adding that such countries were afraid of challenging the US and its “superpower mentality.”
The remarks came ahead of an extraordinary Summit and Ministerial meetings of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on the Jerusalem issue, scheduled to take place in Istanbul on Wednesday. Several countries, namely Egypt and the United Arab Emirates will send only foreign ministers to the meeting, according to Cavusoglu, while Saudi Arabia and some others still have not decided how they would participate........

Muslim leaders at Erdogan-led summit declare East Jerusalem Palestine's capital

Leaders of the world’s Muslim countries announced on Wednesday that they recognized East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine and called on the United States to reverse its decision recognizing the contested city as Israel’s capital, firing a salvo in the bitter dispute over the ancient site claimed by both Israelis and Palestinians.

The decision, made at an Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit in Istanbul, followed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s call to the group to acknowledge Jerusalem as the Palestinians’ rightful capital.


CPJ: Record number of journalists jailed in 2017

For the second year in a row, the number of journalists in jail has hit a historical high, with 262 behind bars.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says in its annual report that Turkey, Egypt and China are the worst offenders.........

Trial of Turkey opposition newspaper staff resumes

Seventeen staff members from Cumhuriyet newspaper are accused of supporting 'armed terrorist organisations'
The controversial trial of staff from Turkey's main opposition newspaper accused of terror links resumed on Monday, in a case which has raised alarm over press freedom under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Seventeen current and former writers, cartoonists and executives from Cumhuriyet ("Republic") are accused of supporting three "armed terrorist organisations". ....

Turkey & Ukraine unlikely to join EU in near future – German FM 

 German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said he doesn’t see either Turkey or Ukraine joining the 28-member bloc anytime soon. Gabriel envisages other forms of cooperation instead, modelled on what he called a “smart” Brexit deal.

Speaking to the German press on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Gabriel said he cannot imagine Turkey and Ukraine as members of the European Union in the years to come. The bloc may choose instead to invent other forms of cooperation, including those modelled on the EU’s post-Brexit relations with Britain.....

Assad Must Go, Erdogan Says, as Syria War Winds Down

 Turkey’s leader denounced President Bashar al-Assad of Syria on Wednesday as a terrorist mass murderer with no place in that country’s postwar future, scrapping a softened approach that Turkish officials had taken toward Mr. Assad in recent years.

The statement by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey came as Mr. Assad seemed more confident than ever that he has won the war and will remain Syria’s leader for the foreseeable future. It also came against the backdrop of maneuvering by many powers — most notably Russia and Iran, Mr. Assad’s most important allies — to influence the outcome of a devastating conflict that has reshaped Middle East politics.

One of the first leaders in the region to condemn Mr. Assad when the conflict began in 2011, Mr. Erdogan had in recent months signaled a willingness to accept Mr. Assad’s political longevity.....


Greece moves to cancel Turkish soldier's asylum

Greece's government has filed a request to cancel the granting of asylum to one of eight Turkish soldiers who fled their country during last year's failed coup attempt.

The move on Saturday came hours after a Greek administrative committee ruled in favour of the man's appeal against his earlier application for asylum.....

Fearing New Year's Eve attacks, Turkey arrests 20 suspected IS militants

Police in Istanbul will be doubled for New Year events after a shooting last year killed 39
Turkish police have detained 20 people, including 15 foreign nationals, suspected of links to Islamic State in Istanbul, as security tightens ahead of the anniversary of a New Year's Eve nightclub attack in which 39 were killed.
The raids by the anti-terrorist branch of the Istanbul police took place on Saturday and targeted four locations across the city, the police said in a statement on Sunday. They did not give the nationalities of the foreign suspects, who are believed to have fought in Syria, according to the Dogan news agency.....

Turkey to pursue ‘more active and if needed risky’ foreign policy in 2018 – Erdogan 

 Ankara is set to embrace a “bold and risky” foreign policy next year, Turkish President Recep Erdogan has promised in his New Year's message. He said Turkey will play an active role in the Middle East and on the Jerusalem issue.

“Turkey will not be able to secure its future without resolving problems in its region,” Erdogan said in his message published on December 31. “This leads us to pursue a more active, bold, and if necessary, more risky foreign policy,” he added, as cited by Hurriyet newspaper.
The Turkish president said Ankara cannot hold negotiations with other actors on the international arena and play a particularly active role in the Middle East “without being [active] in the field.” He then listed Turkey’s recent actions that allowed it to take on a more prominent role among regional powers.....
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