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Author Topic: 9/11 debate - enter at your own risk!  (Read 968948 times)

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Rwandan Genocide

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_Genocide

The Rwandan Genocide was a genocidal mass slaughter of Tutsi and moderate Hutu in Rwanda by members of the Hutu majority. During the approximate 100-day period from April 7 to mid-July 1994, an estimated 500,000–1,000,000 Rwandans were killed,[1] constituting as much as 70% of the Tutsi and 20% of Rwanda's total population. The genocide was planned by members of the core political elite known as the akazu, many of whom occupied positions at top levels of the national government. Perpetrators came from the ranks of the Rwandan army, the National Police (gendarmerie), government-backed militias including the Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi, and the Hutu civilian population.

The genocide took place in the context of the Rwandan Civil War, an ongoing conflict beginning in 1990 between the Hutu-led government and the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which was largely composed of Tutsi refugees whose families had fled to Uganda following earlier waves of Hutu violence against the Tutsi. International pressure on the Hutu-led government of Juvénal Habyarimana resulted in a ceasefire in 1993 with a roadmap to implement the Arusha Accords that would create a power-sharing government with the RPF. This agreement displeased many conservative Hutu, including members of the Akazu, who viewed it as conceding to enemy demands. Among the broader Hutu populace, the RPF military campaign had also intensified support for the so-called "Hutu Power" ideology, which portrayed the RPF as an alien force intent on reinstating the Tutsi monarchy and enslaving Hutus, a prospect met with extreme opposition.

On April 6, 1994, an airplane carrying Habyarimana and Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down on its descent into Kigali, killing all on board. Genocidal killings began the following day: soldiers, police and militia quickly executed key Tutsi and moderate Hutu leaders, then erected checkpoints and barricades and used Rwandans' national identity cards to systematically kill Tutsi. These forces recruited or pressured Hutu civilians to arm themselves with machetes, clubs, blunt objects and other weapons to rape, maim and kill their Tutsi neighbors and to destroy or steal their property. The breach of the peace agreement led the RPF to restart its offensive and rapidly seize control of the northern part of the country before capturing Kigali in mid-July, bringing an end to the genocide. During these events and in their aftermath, the United Nations (UN) and countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Belgium were criticized for their inaction, including failure to strengthen the force and mandate of the UN Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) peacekeepers, while observers criticized the government of France for alleged support of the genocidal regime after the genocide had begun.

The genocide had a lasting and profound impact on Rwanda and its neighboring countries. The pervasive use of war rape caused a spike in HIV infection, including babies born of rape to newly infected mothers; many households were headed by orphaned children or widows. The destruction of infrastructure and the severe depopulation of the country crippled the economy, challenging the nascent government to achieve rapid economic growth and stabilization. The RPF military victory and installation of an RPF-dominated government prompted many Hutus to flee to neighboring countries, particularly in the eastern portion of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), where the Hutu genocidaires began to regroup in refugee camps along the border with Rwanda. Declaring a need to avert further genocide, the RPF-led government led military incursions into Zaire, including the First (1996–97) and Second (1998–2003) Congo Wars. Armed struggles between the Rwandan government and their opponents in DRC have continued to play out through proxy militias in the Goma region, including the M23 rebellion (2003–2013). Large Rwandan Hutu and Tutsi populations continue to live as refugees throughout the region.

Today, Rwanda has two public holidays commemorating the genocide. The national commemoration period begins with Genocide Memorial Day on April 7 and concludes with Liberation Day on July 4. The week following April 7 is designated an official week of mourning. The Rwandan Genocide served as the impetus for creating the International Criminal Court to eliminate the need for ad hoc tribunals to prosecute those accused in future incidents of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The History Place: Genocide in the 20th Century

http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/genocide/rwanda.htm

Beginning on April 6, 1994, and for the next hundred days, up to 800,000 Tutsis were killed by Hutu militia using clubs and machetes, with as many as 10,000 killed each day.

Rwanda is one of the smallest countries in Central Africa, with just 7 million people, and is comprised of two main ethnic groups, the Hutu and the Tutsi. Although the Hutus account for 90 percent of the population, in the past, the Tutsi minority was considered the aristocracy of Rwanda and dominated Hutu peasants for decades, especially while Rwanda was under Belgian colonial rule.

Following independence from Belgium in 1962, the Hutu majority seized power and reversed the roles, oppressing the Tutsis through systematic discrimination and acts of violence. As a result, over 200,000 Tutsis fled to neighboring countries and formed a rebel guerrilla army, the Rwandan Patriotic Front.

In 1990, this rebel army invaded Rwanda and forced Hutu President Juvenal Habyalimana into signing an accord which mandated that the Hutus and Tutsis would share power.

Ethnic tensions in Rwanda were significantly heightened in October 1993 upon the assassination of Melchior Ndadaye, the first popularly elected Hutu president of neighboring Burundi.

A United Nations peacekeeping force of 2,500 multinational soldiers was then dispatched to Rwanda to preserve the fragile cease-fire between the Hutu government and the Tutsi rebels. Peace was threatened by Hutu extremists who were violently opposed to sharing any power with the Tutsis. Among these extremists were those who desired nothing less than the actual extermination of the Tutsis. It was later revealed they had even drawn up lists of prominent Tutsis and moderate Hutu politicians to kill, should the opportunity arise.


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Everyman Standing Order 02: Everyman is Responsible for Energy and Security.
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The History Place: Genocide in the 20th Century

http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/genocide/rwanda.htm

In April 1994, amid ever-increasing prospects of violence, Rwandan President Habyalimana and Burundi's new President, Cyprien Ntaryamira, held several peace meetings with Tutsi rebels. On April 6, while returning from a meeting in Tanzania, a small jet carrying the two presidents was shot down by ground-fired missiles as it approached Rwanda's airport at Kigali. Immediately after their deaths, Rwanda plunged into political violence as Hutu extremists began targeting prominent opposition figures who were on their death-lists, including moderate Hutu politicians and Tutsi leaders.

The killings then spread throughout the countryside as Hutu militia, armed with machetes, clubs, guns and grenades, began indiscriminately killing Tutsi civilians. All individuals in Rwanda carried identification cards specifying their ethnic background, a practice left over from colonial days. These 'tribal cards' now meant the difference between life and death.

Amid the onslaught, the small U.N. peacekeeping force was overwhelmed as terrified Tutsi families and moderate politicians sought protection.

Among the peacekeepers were ten soldiers from Belgium who were captured by the Hutus, tortured and murdered. As a result, the United States, France, Belgium, and Italy all began evacuating their own personnel from Rwanda.

However, no effort was made to evacuate Tutsi civilians or Hutu moderates. Instead, they were left behind entirely at the mercy of the avenging Hutu.

Back at U.N headquarters in New York, the killings were initially categorized as a breakdown in the cease-fire between the Tutsi and Hutu. Throughout the massacre, both the U.N. and the U.S. carefully refrained from labeling the killings as genocide, which would have necessitated some kind of emergency intervention.

On April 21, the Red Cross estimated that hundreds of thousands of Tutsi had already been massacred since April 6 - an extraordinary rate of killing.

The U.N. Security Council responded to the worsening crisis by voting unanimously to abandon Rwanda. The remainder of U.N. peacekeeping troops were pulled out, leaving behind a only tiny force of about 200 soldiers for the entire country.

The Hutu, now without opposition from the world community, engaged in genocidal mania, clubbing and hacking to death defenseless Tutsi families with machetes everywhere they were found. The Rwandan state radio, controlled by Hutu extremists, further encouraged the killings by broadcasting non-stop hate propaganda and even pinpointed the locations of Tutsis in hiding. The killers were aided by members of the Hutu professional class including journalists, doctors and educators, along with unemployed Hutu youths and peasants who killed Tutsis just to steal their property.

Many Tutsis took refuge in churches and mission compounds. These places became the scenes of some of the worst massacres. In one case, at Musha, 1,200 Tutsis who had sought refuge were killed beginning at 8 a.m. lasting until the evening. Hospitals also became prime targets as wounded survivors were sought out then killed.

In some local villages, militiamen forced Hutus to kill their Tutsi neighbors or face a death sentence for themselves and their entire families. They also forced Tutsis to kill members of their own families.

By mid May, an estimated 500,000 Tutsis had been slaughtered. Bodies were now commonly seen floating down the Kigara River into Lake Victoria.

Confronted with international TV news reports depicting genocide, the U.N. Security Council voted to send up to 5,000 soldiers to Rwanda. However, the Security Council failed to establish any timetable and thus never sent the troops in time to stop the massacre.

The killings only ended after armed Tutsi rebels, invading from neighboring countries, managed to defeat the Hutus and halt the genocide in July 1994. By then, over one-tenth of the population, an estimated 800,000 persons, had been killed.


---------------------------
Everyman Standing Order 01: In the Face of Tyranny; Everybody Stands, Nobody Runs.
Everyman Standing Order 02: Everyman is Responsible for Energy and Security.
Everyman Standing Order 03: Everyman knows Timing is Critical in any Movement.
   

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World War 3: why Russia and Syria are being targeted

September 16, 2014   

A good synopsis of the current state of play:

http://www.hangthebankers.com/world-war-3-why-russia-and-syria-are-being-targeted/

Contrary to popular belief, the conduct of nations on the international stage is almost never driven by moral considerations, but rather by a shadowy cocktail of money and geopolitics.

As such, when you see the mouthpieces of the ruling class begin to demonize a foreign country, the first question in your mind should always be “what is actually at stake here?”

For some time now Russia, China, Iran, and Syria have been in the cross hairs. Once you understand why, the events unfolding in the world right now will make much more sense.

The U.S. dollar is a unique currency. In fact its current design and its relationship to geopolitics is unlike any other in history. Though it has been the world reserve currency since 194 this is not what makes it unique. Many currencies have held the reserve status off and on over the centuries, but what makes the dollar unique is the fact that since the early 1970s it has been, with a few notable exceptions, the only currency used to buy and sell oil on the global market.

Prior to 1971 the U.S. dollar was bound to the gold standard, at least officially. According to the IMF, by 1966, foreign central banks held $14 billion U.S. dollars, however the United States had only $3.2 billion in gold allocated to cover foreign holdings.

Translation: the Federal Reserve was printing more money than it could actually back.

The result was rampant inflation and a general flight from the dollar.

In 1971 in what later came to be called the “Nixon Shock” President Nixon removed the dollar from the gold standard completely.

At this point the dollar became a pure debt based currency. With debt based currencies money is literally loaned into existence.

Approximately 70% of the money in circulation is created by ordinary banks which are allowed to loan out more than they actually have in their accounts.
The rest is created by the Federal Reserve which loans money that they don’t have, mostly to government.

Kind of like writing hot checks, except it’s legal, for banks. This practice which is referred to as fractional reserve banking is supposedly regulated by the Federal Reserve, an institution which just happens to be owned and controlled by a conglomerate of banks, and no agency or branch of government regulates the Federal Reserve.

Now to make things even more interesting these fractional reserve loans have interest attached, but the money to pay that interest doesn’t exist in the system. As a result there is always more total debt than there is money in circulation, and in order to stay afloat the economy must grow perpetually.

This is obviously not sustainable.

Now you might be wondering how the dollar has maintained such a dominant position on the world stage for over forty years if it’s really little more than an elaborate ponzi scheme.

Well this is where the dollar meets geopolitics.

In 1973 under the shadow of the artificial OPEC oil crisis, the Nixon administration began secret negotiations with the government of Saudi Arabia to establish what came to be referred to as the petrodollar recycling system. Under the arrangement the Saudis would only sell their oil in U.S. dollars, and would invest the majority of their excess oil profits into U.S. banks and Capital markets. The IMF would then use this money to facilitate loans to oil importers who were having difficulties covering the increase in oil prices. The payments and interest on these loans would of course be denominated in U.S. dollars.

This agreement was formalized in the “The U.S.-Saudi Arabian Joint Commission on Economic Cooperation” put together by Nixon’s Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in 1974.

Another document released by the Congressional Research Service reveals that these negotiations had an edge to them, as U.S. officials were openly discussing the feasibility of seizing oil fields in Saudi Arabia militarily.

In the United States, the oil shocks produced inflation, new concern about foreign investment from oil producing countries, and open speculation about the advisability and feasibility of militarily seizing oil fields in Saudi Arabia or other countries. In the wake of the embargo, both Saudi and U.S. officials worked to re-anchor the bilateral relationship on the basis of shared opposition to Communism, renewed military cooperation, and through economic initiatives that promoted the recycling of Saudi petrodollars to the United States via Saudi investment in infrastructure, industrial expansion, and U.S. securities.

The system was expanded to include the rest of OPEC by 1975.

Though presented as buffer to the recessionary effects of rising oil prices, this arrangement had a hidden side effect. It removed the traditional restraints on U.S. monetary policy.

The Federal Reserve was now free to increase the money supply at will. The ever increasing demand for oil would would prevent a flight from the dollar, while distributing the inflationary consequences across the entire planet.

The dollar went from being a gold back currency to a oil backed currency. It also became America’s primary export.

Did you ever wonder how the U.S. economy has been able to stay afloat while running multibillion dollar trade deficits for decades?

Did you ever wonder how it is that the U.S. holds such a disproportionate amount of the worlds wealth when 70% of the U.S. economy is consumer based?

In the modern era, fossil fuels make the world go round. They have become integrated into every aspect of civilization: agriculture, transportation, plastics, heating, defense and medicine, and demand just keeps growing and growing.

As long as the world needs oil, and as long as oil is only sold in U.S. dollars, there will be a demand for dollars, and that demand is what gives the dollar its value.

For the United States this is a great deal. Dollars go out, either as paper or digits in a computer system, and real tangible products and services come in. However for the rest of the world, it’s a very sneaky form of exploitation.

Having global trade predominately in dollars also provides the Washington with a powerful financial weapon through sanctions. This is due to the fact that most large scale dollar transactions are forced to pass through the U.S.

This petrodollar system stood unchallenged until September of 2000 when Saddam Hussein announced his decision to switch Iraq’s oil sales off of the dollar to Euros. This was a direct attack on the dollar, and easily the most important geopolitical event of the year, but only one article in the western media even mentioned it.

In the same month that Saddam announced he was moving away from the dollar, an organization called the “The Project for a New American Century”, of which Dick Cheney just happened to be a member, released a document entitled “REBUILDING AMERICA’S DEFENSES Strategy, Forces and Resources For a New Century”. This document called for massive increases in U.S. military spending and a much more aggressive foreign policy in order to expand U.S. dominance world wide. However the document lamented that achieving these goals would take many years “absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor”.

One year later they got it.

Riding the emotional reaction to 9/11, the Bush administration was able to invade Afghanistan and Iraq and pass the patriot act all without any significant resistance.

There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and this wasn’t a question of bad intelligence. This was a cold calculated lie, and the decision to invade was made in full knowledge of the disaster which would follow.

They knew exactly what was going to happen but in 2003, they did it anyway. Once Iraqi oil fields were under U.S. control, oil sales were immediately switched back to the dollar. Mission accomplished.

Soon after the invasion of Iraq the Bush administration attempted to extend these wars to Iran. Supposedly the Iranian government was working to build a nuclear weapon. After the Iraq fiasco Washington’s credibility was severely damaged as a result they were unable to muster international or domestic support for an intervention. Their efforts were further sabotaged by elements within the CIA and Mossad who came forward to state that Iran had not even made the decision to develop nuclear weapons much less begin an attempt. However the demonization campaign against Iran continued even into the Obama administration.

Why?

Well, might it have something to do with the fact that since 2004 Iran has been in the process of organizing an independent oil bourse? They were building their own oil market, and it wasn’t going to be tied to the dollar. The first shipments of oil were sold through this market in July of 2011.

Unable to get the war that they wanted, the U.S. used the U.N to impose sanctions against Iran. The goal of the sanctions was to topple the Iranian regime. While this did inflict damage on the Iranian economy, the measures failed to destabilize the country. This was due in large part to Russia’s assistance in bypassing U.S. banking restrictions.

In February of 2009 Muammar Gaddafi, was named chairman of the African Union. He immediately proposed the formation of a unified state with a single currency. It was the nature of that proposed currency that got him killed.

In March of 2009 the African Union released a document entitled “Towards a Single African Currency”. Pages 106 and 107 of that document specifically discuss the benefits and technicalities of running the African Central bank under a gold standard. On page 94 it explicitly states that the key to the success of the African Monetary Union would be the “eventual linking of a single African currency to the most monetary of all commodities – gold.” (Note that the page number is different on other versions of the document that they released.)

In 2011 the CIA moved into Libya and began backing militant groups in their campaign to topple Gaddafi and the U.S. and NATO pushed through and stretched a U.N. nofly-zone resolution to tip the balance with airstrikes. The presence of Al-Qaeda extremists among these rebel fighters was swept under the rug.

Libya, like Iran and Iraq had committed the unforgivable crime of challenging the U.S. dollar.

The NATO intervention in Libya segued into a covert war on Syrian. The armories of the Libyan government were looted and the weapons were shipped via Turkey to Syrian rebels groups working to topple Assad. It was already clear at this point that many of these fighters had ties to terrorist organizations. However the U.S. national security apparatus viewed this as a necessary evil. In fact the Council on Foreign relations published an article in 2012 stating that “The influx of jihadis brings discipline, religious fervor, battle experience from Iraq, funding from Sunni sympathizers in the Gulf, and most importantly, deadly results. In short, the FSA needs al-Qaeda now.”

(Hat tip to theantimedia.org for catching this.)

Let’s be clear here, the U.S. put ISIS in power.

In 2013 these same Al-Qaeda linked Syrian rebels launched two sarin gas attacks. This was an attempt to frame Assad and muster international support for military intervention. Fortunately they were exposed by U.N. and Russian investigators and the push for airstrikes completely fell apart when Russia stepped in to broker a diplomatic solution.

The campaign for regime change in Syria, as in Libya has been presented in terms of human rights. Obviously this isn’t the real motive.

In 2009, Qatar put forth a proposal to run a natural gas pipeline through Syria and Turkey to Europe. Assad however rejected this, and in 2011 he forged a pact with Iraq and Iran to run a pipeline eastward cutting Qatar and Saudi Arabia out of the loop completely. Not surprisingly Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey have been the most aggressive regional players in the push to topple the Syrian government.

But why would this pipeline dispute put Syria in Washington’s cross hairs? Three reasons:

1. This pipeline arrangement would significantly strengthen Iran’s position, allowing them to export to European markets without having to pass through any of Washington’s allies. This obviously reduces the U.S. government’s leverage.
2. Syria is Iran’s closest ally. It’s collapse would inherently weaken Iran.
3. Syria and Iran have a mutual defense agreement, and a U.S. intervention in Syria could open the door to open conflict with Iran.

In February of 2014 this global chess game heated up in a new venue: Ukraine. The real target however was Russia.

You see Russia just happens to be the worlds second largest oil exporter, and not only have they been a thorn in Washington’s side diplomatically, but they also opened an energy bourse in 2008, with sales denominated in Rubles and gold. This project had been in the works since 2006. They have also been working with China to pull off of the dollar in all of their bilateral trade.

Russia has also been in the process of organizing a Eurasian Economic Union which includes plans to adopt common currency unit, and which is slated to have its own independent energy market.

Leading up to the crisis in Ukraine had been presented with a choice: either join the E.U. under an association agreement or join the Eurasian Union. The E.U. insisted that this was an either or proposition. Ukraine couldn’t join both. Russia on the other hand, asserted that joining both posed no issue. President Yanukovich decided to go with Russia.

In response the U.S. national security apparatus did what it does best: they toppled Yanukovich and installed a puppet government. To see the full evidence of Washington’s involvement in the coup watch “The ukraine crisis what you’re not being told”.

This article from the Guardian is also worth reading.

Though this all seemed to be going well at first, the U.S. quickly lost control of the situation. Crimea held a referendum and the people voted overwhelmingly to secede from Ukraine and reunify with Russia. The transition was orderly and peaceful. No one was killed, yet the West immediately framed the entire event as an act of Russian aggression, and this became the go to mantra from that point on.

Crimea is important geostrategically because of its position in the Black Sea which allows for the projection of naval power into the Mediterranean. It has also been Russian territory for most of recent history.

The U.S. has been pushing for Ukraine’s inclusion into NATO for years now. Such a move would place U.S. forces right on Russia’s border and could have potentially resulted in Russia losing their naval base in Crimea. This is why Russia immediately accepted the results of the Crimean referendum and quickly consolidated the territory.

Meanwhile in Eastern Ukraine, two regions declared independence from Kiev and held referendums of their own. The results of which overwhelmingly favored self rule.

Kiev responded to this with what they referred to as anti-terrorist operations. In practice this was a massive and indiscriminate shelling campaign which killed thousands of civilians. Apparently killing civilians didn’t qualify as aggression to the West. In fact the IMF explicitly warned the provisional government that their 17 billion dollar loan package could be in danger if they were not able to put down the uprising in eastern Ukraine.

While the war against eastern Ukraine was raging elections were held and Petro Poroshenko was elected president. It turns out that Poroshenko, was exposed by a leaked diplomatic cable released by wikileaks in 2008 as having worked as a mole for the U.S. State Department since 2006. They referred to him as “Our Ukraine insider” and much of the cable referred to information that he was providing. (A separate cable showed that the U.S. knew Poroshenko was corrupt even at that point.)

Having a puppet in place however hasn’t turned out to be enough to give Washington the upper hand in this crisis. What does Washington do when they have no other leverage? They impose sanctions, they demonize and they saber rattle (or pull a false flag).

This isn’t a very good strategy when dealing with Russia. In fact it has already backfired. The sanctions have merely pushed Russia and China into closer cooperation and accelerated Russia’s de-dollarization agenda. And in spite of the rhetoric, this has not led to Russia being isolated. The U.S. and NATO have put a wedge between themselves and Russia, but not between Russia and the rest of the world (look up BRICS if you are unclear about this).

This new anti-dollar axis goes deeper than economics. These countries understand what’s at stake here. This is why in the wake of the Ukrainian crisis China has proposed a new Eurasian security pact which would include Russia and Iran.

Consider the implications here as the Obama administration begins bombing in Syria which also has a mutual defense agreement with Iran.

This is not the cold war 2.0. This is World War 3.0. The masses may not have figured it out yet, but history will remember it that way.

Alliances are already solidifying and and a hot war is underway on multiple fronts. If the provocations and proxy wars continue, it’s only a matter of time before the big players confront each other directly, and that is a recipe for disaster.

Does all of this sound insane to you? Well you’re right. The people running the world right now are insane, and the public is sleep walking into a tragedy. If you want to alter the course that we are on, there’s only one way to do it. We have to wake up that public. Even the most powerful weapons of war are neutralized if you reach the mind of the man behind the trigger.

How do we wake the masses you ask? Don’t wait for someone else to answer that for you. Get creative. Act like your children’s and grandchildren’s futures depend on it, because they do.

What data points does this article miss and how do those omissions affect your understanding of the model you have constructed ?


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Everyman Standing Order 01: In the Face of Tyranny; Everybody Stands, Nobody Runs.
Everyman Standing Order 02: Everyman is Responsible for Energy and Security.
Everyman Standing Order 03: Everyman knows Timing is Critical in any Movement.
   

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Russian military into Syria to fight ISIS? Here’s what’s really going on…

http://www.hangthebankers.com/russian-military-syria-fight-isis/

Over the past 48 hours or so, we’ve seen what certainly appears to be visual confirmation of a non-negligible Russian military presence in Syria.

For anyone coming to the story late, overt Russian involvement would seem to suggest that the geopolitical “main event” (so to speak), may be closer than anyone imagined.

Russia’s excuse for being in Syria is the same as everyone else’s: they’re there, ostensibly, to fight ISIS.

As we mentioned yesterday, and as we’ve detailed exhaustively as it relates to Turkey, the fact that ISIS has become a kind of catch-all, go-to excuse for legitimizing whatever one feels like doing is a dangerous precedent and Turkey’s crackdown on the Kurds proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Islamic State will serve as a smokescreen for more than just the preservation/ouster (depending on which side you’re on) of Bashar al-Assad.

Having said all of that, going into the weekend Russia had yet to confirm publicly that it had commenced military operations in Syria despite the fact that it’s the next closest thing to common knowledge that at the very least, the Kremlin has provided logistical support and technical assistance for a period that probably spans two or more years.

But on Friday, Vladimir Putin looks to have confirmed the scope of Russia’s military role, even if he stopped short of admitting that Russian troops are engaged in combat. Here’s The Telegraph:
Russia is providing “serious” training and logistical support to the Syrian army, Vladimir Putin has said, in the first public confirmation of the depth of Russia’s involvement in Syria’s civil war.

And while the highlighted passage there is actually impossible to prove given that the term “depth” is subjective, it certainly does appear that Putin is now willing to concede that support for Assad goes far beyond “political”. Here’s AFP as well:
Asked whether Russia could take part in operations against IS, Putin said: “We are looking at various options but so far what you are talking about is not on the agenda.”

“To say we’re ready to do this today — so far it’s premature to talk about this. But we are already giving Syria quite serious help with equipment and training soldiers, with our weapons,” RIA Novosti state news agency quoted Putin as saying.

And back to The Telegraph briefly:
Speculation is growing that Russia has significantly expanded its involvement in recent months, including with deliveries of advanced weaponry, a raft of spare parts for existing machines, and the deployment of increasing numbers of military advisers and instructors.

Last week Syrian state television released images showing an advanced Russian-built armoured personnel carrier, the BTR-82a, in combat. Videos have also appeared in which troops engaged in combat appear to shout instructions to one another in Russian.

Of course whether or not the troops Russia has on the ground were sent to Syria with explicit orders to join the fighting is largely irrelevant when the bullets start flying. As Pavel Felgenhaeur, an independent commentator on Russian military affairs told The Telegraph, “it was quite conceivable that members of the advisory mission occasionally found themselves in combat or had even suffered casualties.”

So in other words, they’re at war, and even as Putin is now willing to admit, with a two year (at least) lag, that Russian boots are indeed on the ground, it may be a while before he admits to their role in direct combat and if Ukraine is any guide, he might never acknowledge the extent of Russia’s involvement. But make no mistake, the Russian presence has nothing to do with the “threat” ISIS poses to the world and everything to do with ensuring that Assad’s forces can fight on – at least for now.

The absurd thing about the whole effort is that ISIS itself is now just cannon fodder both for Russia and for the US led coalition flying missions from Incirlik that Turkey has suggested may soon include Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Jordan. Even more ridiculous is the fact that since none of this has anything to do with eradicating ISIS in the first place, the bombing of ISIS targets by the US, Turkey, and Russia doesn’t really serve much of a purpose at all.

That is, everyone’s just biding time to see how far the other side is willing to go in support of their vision for Syria’s political future – a political future which, as we noted yesterday, almost certainly will not be decided at the ballot box, that is unless it’s after US Marines have stormed Damascus at which point the US will benevolently allow whatever civilians are still alive in Syria to choose between two puppet leaders vetted and supported by Washington.

And lest anyone should forget what this is all about…


---------------------------
Everyman Standing Order 01: In the Face of Tyranny; Everybody Stands, Nobody Runs.
Everyman Standing Order 02: Everyman is Responsible for Energy and Security.
Everyman Standing Order 03: Everyman knows Timing is Critical in any Movement.
   

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Everyman decries immorality
Mainstream Media Admits in Storytelling Fashion: ISIS Commander Is U.S. Trained!

http://www.thedailysheeple.com/mainstream-media-admits-in-storytelling-fashion-isis-commander-is-u-s-trained_092015

Anyone getting their facts, news and information outside the spectrum of the tiny information bottleneck known as mainstream media is probably tired of hearing it by now. The Islamic State or ISIS is a terror organization created, funded and armed by the U.S. and its allies particularly Israel, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. These U.S.-created new world order thugs trained primarily in Jordan are the exact same “rebels” who have been admittedly armed and trained by the U.S.  Many of these terrorist “rebels” turned ISIS fighters are known to be visited and befriended by global terrorists like John McCain and others. These facts are all well established in recorded documents and independent media reports all over the world. The ridiculous, treasonous and intelligence-insulting never-ending story behind ISIS has been rehashed and exposed too many times. To understand who ISIS is, and to understand the PNAC plans (Project for the New American Century) is to understand almost the entire scenario unfolding in Syria and the entire Middle East as humanity is slowly led down the path of world war 3.

It also allows you to understand how the globalists are setting up America for a future false flag attack to take away even more of your liberties, all to be blamed naturally on ISIS.

Make no mistake, however, whether we like it or not, the ISIS show rolls on. It rolls on because there are still many brainwashed Americans who actually believe the ISIS show; and for those people, writer “Mitchell Prothero” a “special correspondent” for “The McClatchy Company” has submitted an article which mainstream media was more than happy to circulate. The article tells a fantastic, very detailed and almost romantic story about a nice smiley face (Israeli looking) man named ‘Abu Omar al Shishani’, formerly known as ‘Tarkhan Batirashvili’. In this story you are led to believe this nice man was trained by the U.S. to fight as a Syrian rebel.

Incidentally, posting a smiley face image, I believe is done deliberately. This is propaganda to make the story more believable. For comparison, here in the U.S. when someone is wanted or if there is a “manhunt” for someone, the picture of the person being sought after is always a scary, angry looking picture, NEVER a smiley face picture. They do this for psychological reasons.

US training helped mold Islamic State's top military commander

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/us-training-helped-mold-islamic-states-top-military-commander/ar-AAekx26?li=BBgzzfc&ocid=mailsignout

"In 2012, everyone was coming to Syria and we had too much work leading all kinds of people across the border," he explained over lunch in Killis, a Turkish town just a few miles from the rebel-held Syrian city of Azzaz. "A lot were Muslims who had come to support the revolution against Bashar Assad from every country. So many from Europe, Russia, Germany, France ... "

The 15 men had reached Abdullah through a network of contacts that were funneling new fighters to northern Syria, and Abdullah recalled they said they were going to Syria to assist in the fight against Assad. They were quiet, disciplined and for the most part spoke only a bit of crude formal Arabic.

Only later did Abdullah realize that the network that funneled these men to him was the beginnings of the Islamic State, and that one of the 15 would turn out to be the most important non-Arab figure in the Islamic State hierarchy, a former American-trained noncommissioned officer in the special forces of the nation of Georgia, who'd led his men heroically during the 2008 Russian invasion of his homeland.

Abu Omar al-Shishani, as he's now known, had been born Tarkhan Batirashvili 27 years earlier in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge, a tiny enclave of ethnic Chechens, known locally as Kists, whose roughly 10,000 residents represent virtually all of the Muslims in predominantly Orthodox Christian Georgia.

REPORT: The Saudis Offered Mafia-Style 'Protection' Against Terrorist Attacks At Sochi Olympics

http://www.businessinsider.com/saudis-russia-sochi-olympics-terrorism-syria-2013-8?op=1&IR=T

But there was a threat allegedly hidden in there right along with the fruit.

From The Telegraph [emphasis theirs]:

[Soudi intel chief] Prince Bandar [bin Sultan] pledged to safeguard Russia’s naval base in Syria if the Assad regime is toppled, but he also hinted at Chechen terrorist attacks on Russia’s Winter Olympics in Sochi if there is no accord. “I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us,” he allegedly said.

Along with Saudi officials, the US allegedly gave the Saudi intelligence chief the thumbs up to conduct these talks with Russia, which comes as no surprise. Bandar is American-educated, both military and collegiate, served as a highly influential Saudi Ambassador to the U.S., and the CIA totally loves the guy.

Bandar Bush threatens President Putin with Sochi terrorist attack

http://sputniknews.com/voiceofrussia/2013_08_29/Bandar-Bush-threatens-President-Putin-with-Sochi-terrorist-attack-2596/

Warning: What you are about to read will destroy any illusions you may have left as to who is really controlling the world and who is really using terror to bring about their own ends. It will also bring into question everything that has occurred in the world since 9-10-2001 and shed new light as to the intricacies of the relationships between the power elites in the United States and those who are funding and controlling them.

The truth goes to oil and it has its roots in the relationship between former CIA director George Bush Senior’s family and Saudi Arabian intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan also named “Bandar Bush” by the Bush clan. This story has implications on the events 9-11, Bush and his being placed into power, the entire War on Terror paradigm and the acts of aggressive war by the United States and its allies on Iraq and Afghanistan. It also affects everything from the entire Middle East upheaval, Sunni/Shia strife, the death of Hugo Chavez, the attack on the Boston Marathon, the death of Litvinenko, Princess Diana, terrorist attacks by Chechens and the true nature of al-Qaeda.

If this story takes off and is given the attention it deserves it may end the entire “War on Terror” and finally see an end to the wanton illegality being perpetuated by the West and it all boils down to a single conversation between Prince Bandar bin Sultan and the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin.

The conversation between President Putin and the “Bushie” was apparently released to the Russian press and then made its rounds worldwide and gives a rare glimpse into the real conversations that take place between world leaders before the handshakes, smiles and photo opportunities. This one is particularly chilling and it is clear why it was released to press.

What is almost unbelievable is that it clearly shows, apart from what I mentioned above, who has been benefitting and working with the United States to destabilize the Middle East, who is assisting in controlling the terrorists that the United States is arming, funding and giving asylum to and why Israel has nothing to fear from the chaos around it. In this short snippet of conversation, everything has become clearer, almost crystal.

It is also important to note that Bandar Bush spoke with the full backing of the United States. So what is the bombshell? Well there are three main ones actually.

The first is an admission by the Bandar to Saudia Arabia’s and the United States support and knowledge of the true nature of the Muslim Brotherhood and the screaming hypocrisy with which they operate: “There are many common values and goals that bring us together, most notably the fight against terrorism and extremism all over the world. Russia, the US, the EU and the Saudis agree on promoting and consolidating international peace and security. The terrorist threat is growing in light of the phenomena spawned by the Arab Spring.” Here we must note it was the West which drove the Arab Spring.

He continued: “We have lost some regimes. And what we got in return were terrorist experiences, as evidenced by the experience of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the extremist groups in Libya.”

The second and most shocking is this: ”As an example, I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics in the city of Sochi on the Black Sea next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us, and they will not move in the Syrian territory’s direction without coordinating with us. These groups do not scare us. We use them in the face of the Syrian regime but they will have no role or influence in Syria’s political future.”

So Chechen terrorists, who supposedly carried out the attack in Boston and have killed hundreds of Russians including Russian police officers, are being controlled by the US and the Saudis? And what is more the Saudis and the US are admittedly controlling terrorists in Syria? And lastly this arrogant “Prince” has the audacity to threaten the president of the largest country in the world with terrorist attacks if he does not do his bidding?

Not only is this an admission that the United States and Saudi Arabia are state sponsors of terrorism, but they are actually using the terrorists themselves to do their bidding and as instruments to terrorize leaders into submission! This means they have become nothing more than terrorists themselves!

Bandar attempted at first to bribe President Putin with promises of oil and gas deals, arms purchases and more, to pull Russian support for Syria. He then moved on to the threats of attacks on the Olympics by the Saudi and US' terrorists.

President Putin responded by saying: “We know that you have supported the Chechen terrorist groups for a decade. And that support, which you have frankly talked about just now, is completely incompatible with the common objectives of fighting global terrorism that you mentioned. We are interested in developing friendly relations according to clear and strong principles. Our stance on Assad will never change. We believe that the Syrian regime is the best speaker on behalf of the Syrian people, and not those liver eaters.”

The Bushie, after failing in all attempts to get President Putin to pull his support for Assad then responded by saying: “… there is no escape from the military option (in Syria), because it is the only currently available choice given that the political settlement ended in stalemate. We believe that the Geneva II Conference will be very difficult in light of this raging situation.”

And today we are on the eve of an invasion because a terrorist Saudi Prince wants to protect the petro dollar and kill all Muslims who are not Sunnis.

The views and opinions expressed here [in 'Bandar Bush threatens President Putin with Sochi terrorist attack'] are my own. I can be reached at robles@ruvr.ru.


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British Army would use “Whatever Means Possible” should Jeremy Corbyn become Prime Minister. British General

http://www.globalresearch.ca/british-army-would-use-whatever-means-possible-should-jeremy-corbyn-become-prime-minister-british-general/5477206  [video at link: The Plot Against Harold Wilson, BBC 2006]

There has been some debate about the significance of a warning issued this weekend through Rupert Murdoch’s Sunday Times by a British general that the army would “mutiny” and use “whatever means possible, fair or foul” should the new Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn ever get near 10 Downing Street.

Here is what the general says: [see attachment British General statement.png]

Owen Jones has wondered whether this is tantamount to a threat of a coup by the military. I think it would be foolhardy indeed to read it as anything else.

None of us should be surprised either. We have been here before. In the late 1960s and early 1970s serving British generals, former generals, members of the royal family and the British security services regularly spoke in such terms to each other – and even occasionally on prime-time television.

More than that, when they believed their privileges were under serious threat, as they did during Harold Wilson’s various governments of that period, they actively plotted for “regime change”, or a military takeover.

In what became a self-serving vicious spiral, the establishment’s fears were further stoked by the stream of black propaganda being fed to the British media by MI5, Britain’s version of the FBI. It painted Wilson’s government and the trade union movement as overrun with Communists trying to bring down the UK. One can imagine a Corbyn government will receive no better treatment from the UK media than Wilson’s did.

Like Corbyn today, Wilson was seen in the 60s and 70s as a major threat to the entrenched privileges of British elites.

There is a wealth of evidence for all this, though perhaps unsurprisingly many sources, including Wikipedia, casually dismiss these accounts as “conspiracy theories” – the ultimate way to shut down scrutiny.

But the evidence was so compelling even the BBC, hardly a risk-taking broadcaster at the best of times, girded its loins back in 2006 to make a documentary called “The Plot Against Harold Wilson”. In fact, as the 90-minute film makes clear by interviewing many of those directly involved, there was not one plot but many against Wilson.

It probably all seemed like old, slightly quaint history to the BBC nine years ago. Now it sounds frighteningly relevant again.

Here is a fascinating line from one plotter, Sir General Walter Walker, at about 1hr 2 mins in. Speaking in the early 1970s, he says on film:

    If you plot to destroy this present system, what are you doing? You are committing a form of treason. I have taken an oath of allegiance to my Queen and I am not prepared to see that oath interfered with.

For me at least, that puts the ludicrous current confected debate about Corbyn refusing to sing the national anthem in an even more sinister light.

Lord Mountbatten, the Queen’s cousin, a mentor to Prince Charles, and the chief of the defence staff at the time, became a figurehead for this group (45.30) and even approached the Queen Mother to seek her blessing for a military takeover. Walker says Mountbatten told him: “If you want help from me, will you let me know?”

David Stirling, the founder of Britain’s most elite military unit, the SAS, also confirmed to journalists that a coup against Wilson was seriously being considered (1.03). He contemplated bumping off trade union leaders to foment so much anger among workers that the military would be forced to move in to restore order.

Soon, the army, members of the royal family and the intelligence services were all considering how they might launch a military coup to stop a Communist takeover (the one that had been created in MI5’s lurid imagination). Brian Crozier, a former intelligence officer who supported a coup, says there was a “widespread attitude” in favour of it among the military (1.05)

It culminated in a show of force by the armed forces, which briefly took over Heathrow airport (1.06) without warning or coordination with Wilson’s government. Marcia Williams, Wilson’s secretary, called it a “dress rehearsal”. Wilson resigned unexpectedly soon afterwards, apparently as the pressures started to get to him.

As the BBC concludes:

    The actions of Lord Mountbatten and senior military and intelligence officers undermined democracy and brought this country to the brink of a coup. Yet no one has been held accountable, there has been no proper inquiry.

Such an inquiry might have served at least as a small deterrent for those, like the general who approached the Sunday Times, who are thinking once again in terms of a coup.


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Down the Memory Hole: NYT Erases CIA’s Efforts to Overthrow Syria’s Government

http://www.globalresearch.ca/down-the-memory-hole-nyt-erases-cias-efforts-to-overthrow-syrias-government/5477215

FAIR has noted before how America’s well-documented clandestine activities in Syria have been routinely ignored when the corporate media discuss the Obama administration’s “hands-off” approach to the four-and-a-half-year-long conflict. This past week, two pieces—one in the New York Times detailing the “finger pointing” over Obama’s “failed” Syria policy, and a Vox “explainer” of the Syrian civil war—did one better: They didn’t just omit the fact that the CIA has been arming, training and funding rebels since 2012, they heavily implied they had never done so.

First, let’s establish what we do know. Based on multiple reports over the past three-and-a-half years, we know that the Central Intelligence Agency set up a secret program of arming, funding and training anti-Assad forces. This has been reported by major outlets, including the New York Times, The Guardian,Der Spiegel and, most recently, the Washington Post, which—partly thanks to the Snowden revelations—detailed a program that trained approximately 10,000 rebel fighters at a cost of $1 billion a year, or roughly 1/15th of the CIA’s official annual budget.

In addition to the CIA’s efforts, there is a much more scrutinized and far more publicized program by the Department of Defense to train “moderate rebels,” of which only a few dozen actually saw battle. The Pentagon program, which began earlier this year and is charged with fighting ISIS (rather than Syrian government forces), is separate from the covert CIA operation. It has, by all accounts, been an abysmal failure.

Arms Airlift to Syria Rebels Expands, With Aid From C.I.A.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/25/world/middleeast/arms-airlift-to-syrian-rebels-expands-with-cia-aid.html?_r=0

With help from the C.I.A., Arab governments and Turkey have sharply increased their military aid to Syria’s opposition fighters in recent months, expanding a secret airlift of arms and equipment for the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, according to air traffic data, interviews with officials in several countries and the accounts of rebel commanders.

The airlift, which began on a small scale in early 2012 and continued intermittently through last fall, expanded into a steady and much heavier flow late last year, the data shows. It has grown to include more than 160 military cargo flights by Jordanian, Saudi and Qatari military-style cargo planes landing at Esenboga Airport near Ankara, and, to a lesser degree, at other Turkish and Jordanian airports.

As it evolved, the airlift correlated with shifts in the war within Syria, as rebels drove Syria’s army from territory by the middle of last year. And even as the Obama administration has publicly refused to give more than “nonlethal” aid to the rebels, the involvement of the C.I.A. in the arms shipments — albeit mostly in a consultative role, American officials say — has shown that the United States is more willing to help its Arab allies support the lethal side of the civil war.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/03/25/world/middleeast/an-arms-pipeline-to-the-syrian-rebels.html


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EvolvingApe,
To complement your preceding posts:

Stephen Lendman explains how no nation has threatened
humanity's survival more than the U.S.


The highest form of compliment would be to summarise and specify the missing information dots and connections  O0

For example.. how does this event fit in to actual reality:

Poland's President Killed in Plane Crash

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/polands-president-killed-in-plane-crash/

Polish President Lech Kaczynski and some of the country's highest military and civilian leaders died on Saturday when the presidential plane crashed as it came in for a landing in thick fog in western Russia, killing 96, officials said.

The crash devastated the upper echelons of Poland's political and military establishments. On board were the army chief of staff, national bank president, deputy foreign minister, army chaplain, head of the National Security Office, deputy parliament speaker, civil rights commissioner and at least two presidential aides and three lawmakers, the Polish foreign ministry said.

Polish President's Plane Crash Was Assassination, His Brother Says

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/03/polish-presidents-plane-crash-was-assassination-his-brother-says/

MOSCOW - The twin brother of former Polish President Lech Kaczynski believes the 2010 plane crash that killed his brother was an assassination and he wants the European Union to investigate.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski said that explosions might have brought down the plane, which crashed while trying to land amid heavy fog near Smolensk, Russia, April 10, 2010. The crash killed the president, his wife and nearly 100 other top Polish officials who were en route to a ceremony in Russia commemorating the massacre of an estimated 22,000 Polish military officers in 1940 by the Soviet secret police.

"If there were explosions [on board], if this catastrophe looks increasingly like an assassination, then this means there is a new quality to international politics," Kaczynski said Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.

Complement vs Compliment

The Bottom Line

The word pairs complement/compliment and complementary/complimentary are pronounced identically, hence the confusion in spelling. Just remember that complement with an E means "to complete" or "to enhance," while compliment with an I means "to praise" and complimentary means "free."


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Aye, the link is intended to complement the mounting
accumulation of evidence (for those who have the eyes
to see and the ears to hear) which demonstrates that
The West, in desperation, is going ballistic.

The U.S. has a well established record of initiating warfare
when economic collapse appears imminent.  Of course,
the U.S. has found ways to assure that its "vassals"
obediently toe the line to play the game of support.

The near future of Planet Earth may be bloodier than
ever.



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The near future of Planet Earth may be bloodier than ever.

Anonymous general who predicts anti-Corbyn mutiny should be named by GCHQ – SAS veteran

http://www.rt.com/uk/316116-sas-corbyn-coup-general/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

A former SAS soldier has blasted the anonymous British Army general who predicted a military coup if Jeremy Corbyn is elected prime minister. He said the comments threaten democracy and that the military has no excuses for declining to investigate.

Ben Griffin, who served in the Parachute Regiment and the Special Air Service in Iraq and Afghanistan and is now a member of anti-war group Veterans for Peace UK, told RT the general’s comments published in the Sunday Times are an affront to democracy.

“Why is this General cowering behind a reporter?” he said.

“He should go public with his statement. He is threatening the democratic will of the British people and he exposes the lie that the armed forces exist to protect our freedoms.”


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Washington Has Now Lost the Middle East

http://journal-neo.org/2015/09/22/washington-has-now-lost-the-middle-east/

It’s not at all surprising except in how fast it’s going. Within the space of little more than a decade, since the ill-fated Bush Administration decision to invade and occupy Afghanistan then Iraq in March 2003, the United States of America has managed to lose strategic influence and allies across the entire Middle East. Not only the Shi’ite Iranians, whom President Obama believes are now beholden to Washington, but also for the first time Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Arab states and Egypt are in the process of finding new allies or cooperation partners, and they are in the east, no longer the west.

On September 11, 1990 in an address to a Joint Session of Congress then President George Herbert Walker Bush triumphantly spoke of the United States as sole superpower, creating what he termed the New World Order. The Soviet Union had just dissolved in a chaos. Under the Bush and later Clinton presidencies, right up until the present day, Washington policy has been to go further and to devalue, destroy, deconstruct and dismember the Russian Federation, much as they did with Qaddafi’s Libya after Hillary Clinton’s 2011 war there.

During the 1990s President Bill Clinton supported introduction of US-financed economic “shock therapy,” with heavy support from billionaire financial wheeler-dealer friend, George Soros, and Soros’ Open Society Foundations. Soros personally brought Harvard boys like Jeffrey Sachs to Russia after they had devastated Poland, Ukraine and other former communist states in eastern Europe. The corrupt Yeltsin regime, busy swilling vodka and lining their pockets with dollars, cared not about their fellow Russian countrymen.

Times have indeed changed for Washington since those days after 1990. Today the Sole Superpower, the Unchallengeable Hegemon, is challenged as never before, mired in its worst economic depression since the 1930’s. The government has a federal debt more than 103% of GDP. Real unemployment, not the phoney Labor Department definition, stands today above 22%. The Federal Reserve is eight years into the worst financial crisis in history, unable to raise interest rates above zero percent.

And now, the strategic fulcrum of global US power projection since 1945, control of the energy flows of the Middle East, is vanishing like cotton candy in the winds.

Washington Panic

The most telling proof of their loss of influence in Middle East is the reaction of the Obama Administration to recent Russian activities to bring an end to Washington’s horrible war in Syria, the true source of the refugee crisis presently creating social tensions across Europe.

On September 12 Barack Obama spoke out against Russia’s recent Syrian activities. Obama rejected Russia’s calls for increased military cooperation against ISIS, declaring that Russia’s strategy of backing the Syrian government against ISIS is “doomed to failure.” Referring to the fact that Russian aid was going directly to the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad, whom Washington demands resign, Obama attacked Russia’s recent reported military aid: “The strategy they’re pursuing right now of doubling down on Assad is a mistake.” Double down is a term from Blackjack that here clearly means to engage in risky behaviour when one is already in a dangerous situation.

The logic of Washington’s position of demanding Assad go is absurd. As Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov repeatedly stresses, Russia, which has been an ally of Syria for decades, will continue to supply military assistance to the legitimate Assad government in their battle to defeat Islamic terrorists: “I can only say once again that our servicemen and military experts are there to service Russian military hardware, to assist the Syrian army in using this hardware. And we will continue to supply it to the Syrian government in order to ensure its proper combat readiness in its fight against terrorism.”

Why the panic

What has Washington freaked out is not the possibility that Russia will make the situation worse in Syria. After more than one year of destructive bombing by US and NATO planes creating the present EU Syrian refugee crisis, the situation could hardly get much worse if Russia’s actions manage to isolate ISIS. What scares Washington warhawks is the possibility that Russia’s strategy could succeed in ending the ISIS reign of terror.

The Russian call is to form an international coalition, inviting the USA to join together with states in the region and with the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO). At a September 15, 2015 meeting in Dushanbe, Tajikistan the heads of the CSTO member states denounced terrorism in Iraq and Syria, particularly of the Islamic State. They declared that they are ready to deploy forces in Syria under UN auspices much as NATO. This is a new development not appreciated in Washington, that two play the game. CSTO states will discuss their strategy of creating a global coalition against ISIS at the UN General Assembly meeting end of September. The CSTO includes Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrghzstan, and Tadjikistan. Russia as well holds the presidency of the UN Security Council this month.

According to the report of Thierry Meyssan, French editor of Voltaire.net based in Damascus, the latest Russian support to Assad regime’s war on the terrorists includes creation of a Joint Syrian-Russian Military Commission, the transmission of Russian satellite intelligence, the arrival of numerous Russian experts, and the delivery of sophisticated weapons. It also includes significant modernization and expansion of the Syrian Port, Latakia.

Russia’s recent activities expanding the port at Latakia caught NATO by surprise.

A recent report in the German Der Spiegel further claims that recent Russian deliveries include the advanced Russian Armoured Personnel Carrier, BTR-82A. The BTR-82A is presently in use by the armies of Russia and Kazakhstan. It’s features are impressive. It can perform combat operations 24 hours a day. Its main armament is a 30mm dual-feed automatic cannon that can fire armour piercing-tracer projectiles, high-explosive fragmentation-incendiary and high-explosive-tracer ammunition. In addition it has a 7.62mm coaxial machine gun, three forward-facing 81mm smoke grenade launchers on each side. The gunner’s station has a day/night fire control system. The commander has advanced communications and topographic maps. A surveillance camera with laser range finder eables the commander to detect enemy targets within the range of 3km. Oh, and the vehicle has some of Russia’s most robust KAMAZ 740.14-300 turbo diesel engines with 300hp, and a maximum speed of 100 km/hour even over rough terrain and, to boot, is fully amphibious with water-jet propulsion.

The respected blogger, Saker, citing Russian sources, believes that Russia is also sending the Syrian Army battlefield systems which could greatly help them, including counter-battery radars (radars which spot where the enemy’s artillery is shooting from) and electronic warfare systems. Saker points out that from a military strategy point, the real potential game-changer Russia has added in recent days is selection of the port of Latakia. He notes, “the Russians apparently have chosen the city of Latakia as their delivery point. Unlike Damascus, Latakia is an ideal location: it is safe but not too far away from the frontlines, and it is relatively near the Russian base in Tartus. The airport and naval port are also reportedly easy to protect and isolate. There are already reports that the Russians have lengthened the runways and improved the infrastructure at the Latakia airport and that heavy AN-124s have been observed landing there. As for the Russian Navy – it has been sending ships to the Latakia airport.”

He concludes, “In other words, instead of limiting themselves to Tartus or going into the very exposed Damascus, the Russians appear to have created a new bridgehead in the north of the country which could be used to deliver equipment, and even forces, to the combat area in the north… This, by the way, would also explain the panicked rumors about the Russians sending in their Naval Infantry units from Crimea to Syria: Naval Infantry forces are ideal to protect such a base and considering that the front lines are not that far, it would make perfect sense for the Russians to secure their bridgehead with these units.”

What is also going on as I suggested in an earlier article is a Russian diplomacy that is giving Saudi Arabia and the Arab OPEC members an alternative to their failed war strategy of financing any and every anti-Assad Jihadi terrorist. The new Saudi moarch and his advisers seem to have realized that the neo-conservative warhawks feeding ISIS and Al Qaeda’s Al-Nusra Front and the Muslim Brothers in the Middle East next have their sights aimed at toppling the Saudi and other Gulf monarchies. By brokering or mediating an informal end to the recent Sunni-Shi’ite war that Washington fostered, Russia has removed a major proxy prop that has kept those wars running.

That leaves only Erdogan’s Turkey as the main patron of ISIS. This is a qualitatively new situation since the war began some 4 years ago, and an ideal time for the Russian combined increased support for the Syrian National Army and the legitimate government of Assad and to make a major new international diplomatic offensive to end the fighting.

This is what is perhaps most upsetting the war planners in Washington. They realize they are on the verge of losing or most likely already have lost any remaining shred of power or influence over the countries of the entire Middle East including over Iran, the centerpiece of Obama Middle East policy at present. On September 21 Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir Abdollahian is in Moscow discussing the Middle East and Syria. Iran has been working very closely with Russia in recent weeks to build a strategy to end the Syrian ISIS threat.

And Israel?

Of course a major factor feeding destabilization of Islamic Middle East governments has been Israel’s Netanyahu government. Here Putin has again shown a skillful presence, as Netanyahu distances Israel from Washington over Iran and other issues.

According to the news site, DEBKA.file, said to be a conduit for Israeli military and Mossad intelligence, at the end of August Russia’s Putin proposed to Israel for Moscow to undertake responsibility for guarding Israel’s Mediterranean gas fields, along with the offer of a Russian investment of $7-10 billion for developing Leviathan, the largest well, and building a pipeline to Turkey for exporting the gas to Europe.”A multibillion Russian investment in the field would make it a Russian project which neither Syria nor Hizballah would dare attack, even though it belongs to Israel,” they noted.

The report claims the offer was “made to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in confidential phone conversations and through quiet envoys.” DEBKA.file goes on to say the revelations of recent stepped-up military aid to Syria and Russian cooperation with Iranian forces in Syria have entirely changed the Israeli strategy calculus: “The Israel Defense Forces must therefore revamp its posture on the Syrian front, and reassess its sponsorship of the select rebel groups which are holding the line in southern Syria against hostile Iranian or Hizballah cross-border attacks on northern Israel. The changing attitude was suggested in views heard in the last couple of days from top Israeli security officials, who now say that leaving Assad in office might be the better option, after all.”

They add, “The Russian air force and navy are the strongest foreign military force in the eastern Mediterranean. The US deploys nothing comparable. Israel’s military strength is substantial but no one is looking for a military clash with the Russians…”

If DEBKA.file’s report is accurate, the latest Russian Middle East peace strategy of diplomacy through strength has just dealt a devastating defeat to Washington’s strategy of wars everywhere.

If Russia is able now to forge a genuine, honest coalition of nations to isolate and destroy Washington-created Frankenstein monster called ISIS or IS, and to allow Syrians to settle their problems with the duly-elected President, Bashar al-Assad in free elections without the US-financed NGOs of George Soros or the National Endowment for Democracy, the world will take a giant step away from war.
First appeared: http://journal-neo.org/2015/09/22/washington-has-now-lost-the-middle-east/


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The Crisis of the Now: Distracted and Diverted from the Ever-Encroaching Police State

or, the making of Boobus Americanus.  Bottom Line as Edward R. Murrow so long ago
predicted:  Television aka The Boob Tube.

Comments at the bottom of the article are fascinating.

Also,

Why America is Dying

and

The Great Lie

Then there's this:

America's Other Al Qaeda

Destabilizing the World is Job One for America...

« Last Edit: 2015-09-23, 22:13:19 by muDped »


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Cameron’s Syria drone strike ‘revelation’ is a diversion

http://theconversation.com/camerons-syria-drone-strike-revelation-is-a-diversion-47185

Up until mid-afternoon on September 7, it was expected that British prime minister David Cameron would make headlines by announcing that the UK would finally take in a significant number of refugees from Syria’s conflict. What’s more, the chatter in London was that Cameron might try – more than two years after parliament blocked military intervention against the Assad regime – to get authorisation for British air strikes against the Islamic State in Syria.

However, Cameron had a surprise for MPs, the media, and Syria-watchers alike. While saying that Britain would accept 20,000 refugees over five years, his more dramatic announcement was that the Royal Air Force had carried out its first attack inside Syria – a drone strike on August 21, which killed three Islamic State fighters, including two British nationals.

The prime minister declared this an “act of self-defence” to stop terrorism on British soil. But the announcement raises an array of difficult questions.

Avoiding the hard questions

Before the announcement, Cameron had put himself in a corner over the Syrian refugee question. Only a week earlier, he had said that he was satisfied with a British policy that had taken in only 216 Syrian refugees from outside the UK, although 5,000 other Syrians have been in some form of protection since 2011.

Then the photograph of the drowned toddler Aylan Kurdi on a Turkish beach and the images of refugees effectively trapped at Hungarian train stations mobilised public opinion in favour of a quick response. Trying to hold the line, Cameron said:

    "We think the most important thing is to try to bring peace and stability to that part of the world. I don’t think there is an answer that can be achieved simply by taking more and more refugees."

But that raised the obvious question: given that more than 15m people are said to have been displaced from Syria and Iraq, what exactly would Britain do to check this four-and-a-half-year conflict?

Given that a primary cause of displacement has been the Assad regime’s attacks on civilian areas, the logical answer would be to prevent Damascus from launching such attacks in the future. But ever since parliament rejected military intervention following the regime’s chemical attacks in August 2013, the government has shied away from proposing operations inside Syria, even to set up a “safe haven” or “no-fly zone”.

To avoid the challenge of what should be done about Assad, the prime minister and his ministers have long invoked the spectre of Islamic State. They have warned that the “terrorists” must be prevented from attacking inside Britain, and have thereby also shifted the debate away from preventing the group’s attacks within Syria.

In July, British officials tested the waters for operations, leaking to the media that British pilots – but not British warplanes – had been involved in the US-led coalition’s attacks against militants in northern Syria. However, the story receded, apparently because the government assessed that the time was still not right for any military commitment.

Cameron’s statement on Monday was a relatively low-cost diversion – even if the government now faces questions about the legality of the attack in Syria. For now, the focus on the specific drone strike on August 21 will replace attention to the wider question of British participation in the coalition against Islamic State. If the public reaction is not too sharp about the killings, the event could pave the way for an approach to parliament for more operations.

More importantly, the issue of what to do about Assad has been kicked into the long grass once more. Even though that is the central question in the Syrian conflict, it – and the refugee issue – can be replaced with chatter about “what to do about the terrorists?”

“Targeted killings” are by their very nature cloaked in uncertainty. We are unlikely ever to know what reliable information lies behind Cameron’s declaration: “We had no way of preventing planned attacks on our country without taking direct action.”

But the prime minister’s statement skirted around some much greater uncertainties.

What, if anything, will be done about the Syrian crisis? If Britain does take in 20,000 refugees over five years, what happens to the millions of others left out? And how long will the killing be allowed to continue – whoever does it – with no realistic prospect of a “safe haven”?

If you dam people.. millions of them in tent cities, and then release them in a flood.. it has tremendous energy and power.. like a huge reservoir dam breaking and washing away the civilisation that thrived in the valley below it. ISIS mercenaries smuggled within the human tidal wave would begin a guerrilla war on home soil, and the perfect excuse for future total martial law is created.. throw in a cashless society and you have the human race under lockdown.

U.S. wars caused refugee crisis

http://www.iacenter.org/anti-war/refugee090915//

By Sara Flounders

September 8, 2015


U.S. wars, starvation sanctions and planned destabilization are the overwhelming cause of the surge of hundreds of thousands of war refugees flooding across European borders and across the Mediterranean Sea. The major European-NATO powers collaborated with U.S. imperialism in each war.

The corporate media are publishing painful pictures of drowned children, sinking boats, news stories of suffocating trucks and reports of thousands camped in train stations and along roadways. They rob these reports of context by omitting the cause of the refugee crisis. Some people fear the  enormous media coverage could even be cynical preparation to justify a new military offensive by NATO countries against Syria.

The real dimensions of the humanitarian disaster are largely hidden. The 340,000 destitute refugees who have reached Europe constitute only 3 percent of the over 10 million displaced people barely surviving in refugee camps in Syria or in countries bordering Syria. These neighboring countries are also destabilized by the surge of refugees and disruptive sanctions against Syria that ripple throughout the region.

The European governments dismissed the war-caused havoc as long as the crisis was kept off their doorstep.

The refugees’ dire conditions worsened because the meager United Nations Food Program has exhausted its funds and is now cutting hundreds of thousands of refugees off its aid in U.N. administered refugee camps in Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Syria. The U.N. agency needed a mere $236 million to keep the program funded through November.

According to NationalPriorities.org, the U.S. government has spent that much on wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria every 28 hours since 2001.

The largest numbers of refugees are fleeing from war-torn Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and South Sudan. U.S. corporate power, driven by its  insatiable drive to secure control of valuable resources and push back progressive change, had targeted each of these countries. Not one of these wars was for humanitarian purposes. Each war is a source of enormous super profit in military contracts for U.S. and European Union corporations … and ruin for millions of people.

Washington’s strategy in each of these imperialist wars has been to enflame sectarian, ethnic, national and religious differences. This means organizing contending militias, pitting group against group to break down national pride and unified resistance. Divide and conquer is the strategy that dates back to the U.S. wars against Indigenous peoples on the North American continent.

The Pentagon cynically targets civilian infrastructure, including electric grids, fuel depots, irrigation, water purification, sanitation, local industries and especially schools in an effort to demoralize and disorient the population. Washington arms and empowers the most reactionary forces and corrupt warlords as collaborators.

Refugees of current U.S. wars


Syria today has the highest number of people displaced by war. U.S. sanctions as of 2010 were followed in 2011 by U.S./NATO and Saudi arming and financing of mercenary forces. This war has destroyed a formerly prosperous country where the population had modern infrastructure, quality free health care and free education.

Now almost half of Syria’s 23 million population is displaced. More than 4 million Syrians have fled to neighboring countries. Mercenary and fanatic sectarian forces within Syria now number about 125,000 in a thousand competing bands from 80 or more countries.

The U.S. war in Iraq from 1990 to 2003 included massive, systematic destruction of infrastructure and 13 years of economic sanctions. The 2003 U.S.-British invasion and occupation of Iraq brought catastrophic ruin and orchestrated sectarian violence unknown in Iraqi history. Refugees and internally displaced people reached 4.7 million people. Almost half of the Iraqi refugees received shelter in overburdened Syria.

Since the 1978 Saur Revolution, which overthrew the monarchy in Afghanistan, the Pentagon has provided more than $3 billion to counterrevolutionary and warlord forces to destroy the revolution. For three decades, war-torn Afghanistan led in the U.N. lists in the number of war refugees. Through the 1980s, there were 3.5 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan and 2 million in Iran.

The 2001 U.S./NATO occupation of Afghanistan created new waves of refugees. There are currently 1.5 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan and 1 million Afghan refugees in Iran and millions of displaced people within Afghanistan itself.

In Libya, seven months of U.S./NATO bombing in 2010 destroyed the entire infrastructure of a modern state where nationalized oil helped achieve the highest standard of living in Africa. Hundreds of thousands of workers throughout Africa had found jobs in Libya, which had also provided economic development aid throughout Africa.

In appealing for assistance, Tunisia’s President Moncef Marzouki explained that two million Libyans, or one third of Libya’s pre-NATO-intervention population, have taken refuge in Tunisia. The number is equivalent to one fifth of Tunisia’s population.

Today, South Sudan has the largest number of refugees in Africa. According to the U.N. Refugee Agency, there are 2.25 million refugees and spiraling civil war in this oil-rich country. As the Jan. 3, 2014, New York Times explained, South Sudan is in many ways a U.S. “creation, carved out of war-torn Sudan in a referendum largely orchestrated by the United States, its fragile institutions nurtured with billions of dollars in American aid.”

More than 2 million refugees in Ukraine represent the newest refugee crisis, caused by the expansion of the U.S.-commanded NATO military alliance to the borders of Russia. While Washington fails to provide funds to feed refugees from U.S. wars of aggression, the U.S. government spent $5 billion to fund the fascist forces and social networks that overturned the elected government in Ukraine. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland even bragged of this funding. The Kiev coup government is now waging war against anti-fascists in east Ukraine.

According to Russian Federal Migration Service-FMS statistics, a total of 2.6 million Ukrainians are currently in Russian territory. Some 1 million are from Ukraine’s southeastern regions, fleeing armed conflict in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.

Past waves of U.S. war refugees

U.S. wars in Southeast Asia ripped Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos apart in the 1960s and 1970s. The effort to dominate the region failed but the massive destruction left 4 million dead, millions maimed and 2 million Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees desperate for resettlement.

Funding militias, warlords and drug lords was U.S. policy in Central America in the 1980s. The U.N. estimated that one-third of the workforce of El Salvador fled the country in the 1980s. More than a half million reached the U.S.

The war to expand NATO and dismember Yugoslavia, in Bosnia in 1995 and in Serbia in 1999, again used destruction of civilian infrastructure and enflaming sectarian differences. According to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, 3.7 to 4 million people were displaced and became refugees.

It should not be forgotten that it is more than 60 years of U.S. funding and equipping of Israel that enabled the expropriation of hundreds of thousands of people from Palestine, the longest and most protracted refugee problem in the world. BADIL, a research and advocacy center focusing on refugee rights, estimates that there are more than 7 million Palestinian refugees and displaced persons. This figure includes the 4.2 million Palestinians registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and other Palestinians displaced in 1967 and still displaced internally in Israel.

While billions of dollars continues to be allocated for war preparation, the World Food Program cut 1 million Iraqi refugees and millions of Syrian refugees from receiving $14 monthly food coupons. This confirms in the most violent terms that capitalist rulers are incapable of solving the humanitarian disaster that they have created. War preparation is profitable. Distributions of surplus food are not.


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Why The Lie, once believed, has so much power to
deflect Truth.


The Boobus Americanus who has swallowed the hook
of 9/11 deception will be easy prey for all deceptions
which follow.  The Masters of the New World Order are
counting on it...


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The Masters of the New World Order are counting on it...

I have a little surprise for them...

A lie contains with it an expiration date.
The truth lives forever.
   

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Iran’s ‘take’ on Russian build-up in Syria

http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/2015/09/25/521866-irans-take-on-russian-build-up-in-syria/

Things were going splendidly for Israel until Russia arrived on the scene as the great ‘spoiler’.

by M K Bhadrakumar

Indian Punchline

The first detailed Iranian commentary on the Russian military build-up in Syria appeared in a Fars news agency piece. The Fars is often linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps [IRGC]. The following excerpts of the Fars commentary will be of interest:

United States doesn’t want to see the formation of any true counter-ISIL [Islamic State of Iraq and Lebanon] coalition. Otherwise, they would have welcomed Russia’s military buildup – and Iran’s military assistance – from day one! Tellingly, some politicians and pundits in the West have started to doubt the ability of Moscow in fighting and defeating ISIL… Well, they are right. Russia is not there to defeat ISIL and liberate Syria. No force in the world can liberate Syria except for the Syrian people. [Emphasis added.]

For all those skeptics, this is not about Russia shifting quickly into a wartime footing either. The “reported” Russian military buildup is not for show. It will include real anti-terror actors. And Russian airstrikes – if any – will be the beginning of a broader process, which won’t be easy. Moscow might have an eye in providing Syrian forces with direct air support, but the ultimate goal is to help Damascus quickly clean up the American-made mess and pave way for a political solution. It’s better late than never. [Emphasis added.]

Besides, moving forward militarily means more assistance from the international community, but it will also boost the Syrian leadership and give a sense to urgency to the Syrian army. Resolving this issue, though a daunting challenge, will allow the Syrian army to get back to work in its fight against the vicious terrorist groups with greater results. [Emphasis added.]

This is about helping a sovereign state within the framework of international law and by any means possible, including military, and there are plenty of reasons to believe Putin will not go down the military path without the Syrian government’s consent. What is not in doubt is that the United States and its allies will continue to pay a heavy price for assisting ISIL and other proxy forces. They cannot disguise the overall disarray of US policy in the region, especially in Syria where President Assad is wrongfully blamed for everything that has gone wrong, including the refugee crisis in Europe. [Emphasis added.]

In sum, the commentary point-blank rules out Russian forces in a combat role. Russia may provide air cover for Syrian forces, but the big picture is about strengthening the Syrian military capabilities to destroy on own steam the Islamic State. The commentary hints that Syrian government also doesn’t seek Russian participation in the war.


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Russian build-up in Syria puts Israel on the back foot

http://atimes.com/2015/09/russian-build-up-in-syria-puts-israel-on-the-back-foot/

By M.K. Bhadrakumar on September 22, 2015 in Asia Times News & Features   

There is a saying, ‘misfortunes never come singly’. That must have been the thought on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netayahu’s mind as he headed for Moscow Monday on what the Russians described as a 3-hour “short working visit” – a call on President Vladimir Putin at his residence in city suburbs for what a top Kremlin official forecast would be “a business and frank conversation” (read plain-speaking), and back to the airport on the return journey. We don’t know whether Putin hosted a lunch for ‘Bibi’.

The Russian military build-up in Syria comes as a big setback to Netanyahu’s regional policies. And it comes immediately after the spectacular defeat he suffered in the campaign to kill the Iran nuclear deal.

In the normal course, the Syrian developments should have prompted Netanyahu to huddle together with the American president, but the White House has earmarked a slot for the Israeli leader in November. The Israel-US relations are in visible difficulty, and on top of it now, a cloud of uncertainty has appeared over Israel-Russia ties as well. It is a moment of reckoning for Israeli diplomacy.

Netanyahu’s office had said he would discuss with Putin “the stationing of Russian forces in Syria… (and) will present the threats posed to Israel as a result of the increased flow of advanced war material to the Syrian arena and the transfer of deadly weapons to Hezbollah and other terror organizations”.

But the Kremlin had entirely different ideas. A statement in Moscow said, “Urgent issues of bilateral cooperation and the international agenda are scheduled to be discussed. In particular, the sides are expected to exchange opinions on the issue of the Middle East peace process and the fight against the global terrorist threat.”

Surely, Russians knew Palestine issue was last thing on Netanyahu’s order of priority, but they gently let it be known to the Israeli side beforehand that Moscow’s military intervention in Syria to help the government fight the terrorist groups no matter what it takes is a well-thought out policy decision that was not open to negotiation.

Curiously, on the eve of Netanyahu’s departure for Moscow, Russian news agency carried a curtain raiser entitled What Does Netanyahu’s Blitz Visit to Moscow Aim to Accomplish? And it said among other things that Moscow does not regard the Hezbollah as a terrorist organization but that the Lebanese militant group is “assisting the Syrian military in its war against terror groups… including Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIL”.

The commentary speculated that Netanyahu’s real purpose would be: to fathom the Russian intentions in Syria; to find out additional details about the Russian deployment; to dissuade Russia from giving advanced weaponry such as S-300 and S-400 missiles to Syria; and, to “coordinate” with Moscow so that no military clashes took place between the two countries on Syrian soil. (Israeli chief of staff Gen. Gadi Eizenkot accompanied Netanyahu to Moscow).

The Russian accounts of the conversation between Putin and Netanyahu on Monday freely acknowledged that the two countries disagreed on Syria. Netanyahu was quoted as saying to Putin that he had come to Moscow “to explain our position and do everything so there are no misunderstandings of our region or yours”. It was a subtle reference to Israel’s activities in Ukraine directed against Russian interests.

But it is unlikely that Moscow is even remotely contemplating a trade-off with Israel over Ukraine, where tensions are easing, thanks to growing proximity between Russia and the West. Looking back, was it really necessary for Israel to have jumped into the Ukrainian cauldron and caused annoyance to Moscow, without due consideration of consequences?

The impression conveyed by the Russian accounts is that Putin patiently heard out Netanyahu and showed “understanding” for Israel’s security concerns, but did not make any promises – except of course that Russian actions in Syria will be “very responsible” (as they have always been) and that the Israeli fears of a “second front” in the Golan Heights are far-fetched, because the Syrian government forces have their hands full and have no intentions to start a war with Israel.

Without doubt, Israel’s dealings with the al-Qaeda affiliates operating in Syria are known to Moscow. In a series of reports to the UN Security Council, the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force documented numerous instances of Israeli military’s dealings with the radical Islamist groups on the Israeli-Syrian border of the Golan Heights.

Putin said last week, “We must put aside geopolitical ambitions, abandon the so-called double standards, the policy of direct or indirect use of certain terrorist groups for opportunistic purposes, including changes of government and regimes disliked by someone.”

The description fits Israel’s role in Syria rather aptly, and it stands to reason that Israel’s nexus with the radical Islamist groups in Syria will become – if it hasn’t already – a major element in the Russian policy calculus in the coming period.

No doubt, the Russian-Israeli relations are set to enter a complicated period. Russia, especially Putin, tried hard to keep the relations on an even keel, but the contradictions over Syria cannot be pushed under the carpet. In the final analysis, it all depends on what the scope of the Russian build-up in Syria is going to be in the coming weeks and months.

Conceivably, Israel will have to take certain difficult decisions. Syria’s open skies may not remain defenceless for much longer and the country may not present itself as a hunting ground for Israeli jets attacking targets with impunity. This is one thing.

Second, if Russia puts ‘boots on the ground’ in Syria at some stage – something that cannot entirely be ruled out – Israel faces a power dynamic in its neighborhood that has no precedents in all of its history. Simply put, a far superior power has arrived in the immediate neighborhood and life cannot go on as before.

Third, it cannot be ruled out that the Syrian government forces in coordination with the Hezbollah and other Shi’ite militia will make attempts at some point to reclaim the areas adjacent to the Golan Heights which have been under the control of the Israel-friendly al-Qaeda groups. If that happens, the security implications are going to be profound for Israel.

But then, it all depends on the peace process in Syria that is set to begin and the sort of transition that may take place. Russia is neither likely to intervene with Iran or the Hezbollah as regards their activities in the Golan Heights area nor is going to boost the Hezbollah’s capabilities.

But it stands to reason, though, that neither Iran nor Hezbollah is spoiling for a fight with Israel. On the other hand, Russia and Iran have coordinated their moves in Syria so far and Russia also has a line open to the Hezbollah. Therefore, taking into account the totality of the emergent Russian approach on Syria – and its dominant political and diplomatic thrust – Moscow can be expected to restrain the protagonists from exacerbating tensions with Israel.

Fourth, the Russian presence in Syria and the Russian-Iranian axis virtually put a full stop to any Israeli dreams of having a voice at the high table as regards the future of Syria. A fragmentation of Syria might be in the Israeli interests but the Russian intervention aims at preserving Syria’s unity and territorial integrity – and there is also an international consensus on that score. Put differently, Israel needs to learn to live with the Syrian neighbor it gets. Geography and politics cannot be wished away.

Israel would have hoped that there will be a stand-off between the West and Russia over the latter’s military build-up in Syria. But on the contrary, the West is pondering over the terms under which a constructive engagement with Russia becomes possible so as to bring about a transition in Syria very soon.

Quite obviously, the West is no longer insisting on President Bashar a-Assad stepping down later today as a precondition for the transition. Equally, the West has welcomed the Russian intention to join the war against the Islamic State.

What Israel probably overlooked in all this is that the Russian build-up in Syria has taken place against the backdrop of the massive refugee crisis that is threatening European security. Moscow correctly judged the shift in Europe’s priorities today and in diplomacy timing is always the essence of the matter. In sum, Moscow resorted to coercive diplomacy and its military dimension should not be exaggerated out of proportions.

Thus, Europe is nudging the US and Russia to strengthen the fight against the IS and on a parallel track to work together to kick-start a peace process in Syria. Clearly, the centrality of Russia (and Iran) has been conceded by the West – and openly acknowledged even by the US – in the search for a Syrian settlement.

Over and above, Israel should expect that a US-Iranian dialogue on Syria will commence next week in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session as part of the intensifying efforts to bring about a transition in Syria.

(Copyright 2015 Asia Times Holdings Limited, a duly registered Hong Kong company. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)


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Russian Jets Strike ISIL Positions in Syria's Aleppo

Fri Sep 25, 2015 3:44

http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13940703000408

TEHRAN (FNA)- Military sources said that the Russian Air Force launched a series of airstrikes above Aleppo's Eastern countryside, targeting the ISIL terrorist group's positions along the Deir Hafer-Aleppo Highway while the Syrian Army attacked the terrorist group on the ground, Arab media reports said.

The sources told Syria's al-Masdar news outlet that the Syrian army, in coordination with the National Defense Forces (NDF), conducted a powerful assault on the ISIL positions at  ‘Ayn Sabl, resulting in the capture of the Southwestern perimeter of this town that is located to the East of Tal Rayman and Al-Salihiyah.

"The Russian fighter jets reportedly struck ISIL positions in East Aleppo with remarkable precision and relentless ferocity; these airstrikes also marked the first time that Russia physically participated in this four-year-long Syrian conflict," the report said.

The Russian Air Force was also seen flying above the Damascus countryside, Lattakia and Hama Governorates, on Thursday morning, but all of their jets reportedly returned back to the Hmamiyat Military Airport in the Syrian coastal city of Jableh.

According to a senior officer in the Syrian army, these Russian airstrikes were coordinated with the Syrian Air Force , who launched their own raids along the Raqqa-Deir Ezzur Highway, added the report.

Meantime, other sources said that the jets were Russia-made fighters, but did not confirmed that they were operating under the Russian air force command.

Earlier this month, military sources said that the Syrian air force, using satellite images, carried out a series of airstrikes above the Prophet Younis Mountains in the Lattakia Governorate’s Northeastern territories, killing at least 47 militants from Liwaa Suqour Al-Ghaab and Ahrar Al-Sham.


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Here's The List Of What 3,222 US-Led Airstrikes Against ISIS Have Destroyed Since August

http://uk.businessinsider.com/r-us-led-air-strikes-have-hit-3222-islamic-state-targets-pentagon-2015-1?r=US&IR=T

David Alexander, Reuters

Jan. 7, 2015, 8:59 PM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - US-led air strikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria have damaged or destroyed 3,222 targets since August, including 58 tanks, 184 Humvees, 673 fighting positions and 980 buildings or barracks, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.

Army Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said he wasn't sure how many targets had been damaged versus destroyed, "but I'm confident that the destruction level is high. Our strikes are extraordinarily accurate."

Release of the target damage list came a day after US defense officials confirmed they are looking into reports of civilian casualties caused by the strikes in Iraq and Syria and are conducting a deeper investigation of two cases involving fewer than five deaths.

As of 11 p.m. on Tuesday (0400 GMT Wednesday), US and coalition air forces had conducted a total of 1,676 air strikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria since Aug. 8, and had used some 4,775 munitions, a Pentagon spokeswoman said.

Warren said US and coalition forces had hit 3,222 targets in the air strikes but he declined to say what percentage of Islamic State equipment was destroyed.

"In order for us to do that we would have to release to you the exact number of tanks we believe the enemy has, the exact number of Humvees we believe the enemy has," he said. "We don't want our enemy to know how much we know about them."

Countries whose forces have participated in the strikes in Iraq are: Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France and the Netherlands. Those participating in strikes in Syria are Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The targets damaged or destroyed included:

- 58 tanks;

- 184 HMMWVs, the highly mobile multi-purpose wheeled vehicles known as Humvees;

- 26 armored personnel vehicles;

- 303 technical vehicles;

- 394 other vehicles;

- 79 artillery, anti-aircraft weapons or mortars;

- 41 staging areas;

- 11 improvised explosive device positions;

- 16 command posts;

- 92 checkpoints;

- 17 guard shacks;

- 980 other buildings or barracks;

- 673 fighting positions;

- 52 bunkers;

- 14 boats;

- 23 stockpiles;

- 259 oil infrastructure sites.

No aircraft were on the list, Warren said.

He said the Humvees were US vehicles supplied to the Iraqi military and captured by militants as were some of the armored personnel vehicles. It was unclear whether any of the tanks were U.S.-made.

Warren said some vehicles had been hit while parked, while others were struck while engaged in combat. The boats were used by Islamic State to ferry supplies across the Euphrates River, he said.

WOW! ISIS is stronger than ever! How can that be ?

Logistic vehicles

http://www.army.mod.uk/equipment/23254.aspx

To keep our guns firing, tanks driving and soldiers fighting, takes vast amounts of fuel, food and ammunition. Logistic vehicles provide the machine power to keep the Army operating at its highest level.



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Warren said US and coalition forces had hit 3,222 targets in the air strikes but he declined to say what percentage of Islamic State equipment was destroyed.

"In order for us to do that we would have to release to you the exact number of tanks we believe the enemy has, the exact number of Humvees we believe the enemy has," he said. "We don't want our enemy to know how much we know about them."

Bill Hicks on the first Gulf War

http://gavinsblog.com/2003/12/30/bill-hicks-on-the-first-gulf-war/

People ask me where I stood politically you know. It’s not that I disagree with Bush’s economic policy or his foreign policy. But that I believe he was a child of Satan here to destroy the planet Earth. Yeah, I’m a little a little to the left there, I was. I was leaning that way. Yeah you know who else is going, little Quayle boy. Little Damien. Is that guy Damien? Tell me those blank empty eyes aren’t gonna glow red in the very near future. [eyes roll back in head] Stop makingjokes about meee. Nrrr. I’ll spell potato any fucking way I want. Nrrrr. Rioters in LA, let’s nuke them. Bush was a pussy Nrr He held me back. Frightening people man. Bush tried to buy votes towards the end of the election. Goes around, you know, selling weapons to everyone, getting that military industrial complex vote happening for him. Sold 160 fighter jets to Korea and then 240 tanks to Kuwait and then goes around making speeches why he should be Commander-in-Chief because, “We still live in a dangerous world.” Thanks to you, you fucker!

What are you doing? Last week Kuwaitis had nothing but rocks! They’re arming the fucking world man. You know we armed Iraq. I wondered about that too, you know during the Persian Gulf war those intelligence reports would come out: “Iraq: incredible weapons – incredible weapons.” How do you know that? “Uh, well… We looked at the receipts Haar.” “Ah but as soon as that cheque clears, we’re going in.” “What time’s the bank open? 8? We’re going in at 9.” “We’re going in for God and country and democracy and here’s a foetus and he’s a Hitler. Whatever you fucking need, let’s go. Get motivated behind this, let’s go!” Ohoh looks like Mr. Major was on the hot seat there for a second too. Little Iraqgate, little rapscallion he is. “Did we send, did I… did… I’ll have to check Maggie’s old calendar.” What’s funny about this. Every one of your papers says that you guys sold Iraq “machine tools”… which Iraq then converted into military equipment. I have news for you folks, a cannon is a machine tool. Your Orwellian language notwithstanding, it’s a fucking machine, it’s a tool. Our papers in the States have the same thing.

We sold Iraq “farming equipment” which Iraq then “converted”. How do they do this? “Simsalabim simsalabim aa salabim sim sim sim salabim.” Wow! It was a chicken coop, it’s now a nuclear reactor!” “This war’s for Aladdin.” Farming equipment which they converted into military, okay, you got me I’m curious, exactly what kind of farming equipment is this? “Oh okay, well it’s stuff for the farmers of Iraq.” Yeah? What? “Ooh okay, ar well ooh one of the things we gave them was for the little farmer, a new thing we came up with called er the er, flame-throwing rake.” “No it was for the farmer, see. He would rake the leaves and then just turn around Boooo.” “But you know what the Iraqis did with that?” There’s no trees in Iraq, what are you sending them rakes for, you asshole? “We could have done our research better perhaps yes.” What else did you sell ’em? “Okay er one of the other things we gave ’em was a new thing… for the farmer.” “The, er, armoured tractor.” “No, see, farmers when they farm look over their shoulders at times and they won’t see a tree and they’ll hit it maybe and there’ll be a wasps nest in the tree and the wasps will come in and sting ’em.” “So we put four inches of armour all over the tractor. And a turret to shoot pesticides on the wasps.” “Yeah but you know what the Iraqis did with that?” “Can’t trust ’em.” I’m so sick of arming the world and then sending troops over to destroy the fucking arms, you know what I mean? We keep arming these little countries then we go and blow the shit out of em. We’re like the bullies of the world, you know. We’re like Jack Palance in the movie Shane… Throwing the pistol at the sheep herder’s feet: “Pick it up.” “I don’t wanna pick it up mister, you’ll shoot me.” “Pick up the gun”. “Mister, I don’t want no trouble huh. I just came down town here to get some hard rock candy for my kids, some gingham for my wife. I don’t even know what gingham is, but she goes through about 10 rolls a week of that stuff. I ain’t looking for no trouble mister.” “Pick up the gun.” Boom bom “You all saw him. He had a gun.”


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Everyman Standing Order 01: In the Face of Tyranny; Everybody Stands, Nobody Runs.
Everyman Standing Order 02: Everyman is Responsible for Energy and Security.
Everyman Standing Order 03: Everyman knows Timing is Critical in any Movement.
   

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Everyman decries immorality
Ukraine: Buckle of US Encirclement of Russia

http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2015/09/26/ukraine-buckle-us-encirclement-of-russia.html

The war in the Ukraine goes on, seemingly with no end in sight. It is not just a civil war, by the way, but a proxy war of aggression waged by the United States and its European and Anglo-Saxon satellites against the Russian Federation. Why the US government should pursue such a dangerous policy may be a mystery to some people, and so it is good to remember the origins of the present war.

In 1990 promises were made to the Soviet government that the NATO alliance would not seek to expand eastward into the power vacuum left by the USSR as it withdrew from Eastern Europe. The US denies it made such commitments, but the weight of evidence suggests that Washington did indeed break promises made to Soviet leader Michail Gorbachev.

In 1991 the USSR fell apart and the former Soviet republics became independent. US triumphalists declared victory in the cold war, as the Russian economy collapsed, thanks to so-called Russian liberals following western cues for economic «shock» treatment and the privatisation, actually the looting, of Russian national resources. The Russian Federation was then governed by Boris Eltsin, who played court jester to then President Bill Clinton. Eltsin invited his cronies to enrich themselves which they did at everyone else’s expense. They went around Moscow in big cars guarded by expensive «suits» packing ill-concealed pistols. Most other people lost their savings when the ruble collapsed twice during the 1990s. Wrinkled grandmas sold carrots and potatoes in the streets while others stood before Metro exits peddling zippers and bits of ribbon. Except for Eltsin’s cronies and oligarchs, Russia was on its knees. Its people despaired while fundamentalist American preachers hired TV time in Moscow in the early morning.

The United States became the sole superpower; no other state could act as a restraint against it in the way the USSR had done. Between 1999 and 2009 twelve East European states joined NATO including parts of Yugoslavia, which was dismembered and destroyed by the US and its NATO «allies» under the pretext of «Responsibility to Protect» (R2P). A reasonably intelligent person, not to speak of any myopic Russian, looking at a map, could see that the US was pursuing an aggressive policy of encirclement of Russia.

NATO and ironically the European Union became docile instruments of a US anti-Russian policy even though most of Europe had no interest whatsoever in being dragged into a belligerent relationship with the Russian Federation. Business was booming and Russia became the main supplier of natural gas in European markets. Under Vladimir Putin’s presidency, the economic situation in the Russian Federation greatly improved.

Vladimir Putin effectively became president of the Russian Federation after Eltsin had to resign at the end of 1999. Putin wanted nothing more than to integrate Russia into the European community, politically and economically. He made a show of getting along with then US President George W. Bush; sent condolences after 9/11 in 2001; and offered solidarity and support. The story is well enough known. The opening was there from Moscow if the Americans had wanted to take it. Unfortunately, they did not and continued to operate under the principle that «what is mine is mine, and what is yours is mine too.» In 2003 the United States and some of its NATO satellites attacked Iraq in a blatant war of aggression, sowing havoc and bloodshed, which continues to this day. In the meantime NATO eastward expansion continued apace. Finally, becoming alarmed, Putin called US and NATO policy «airstrike democracy», to impose «democracy» by force on other states. The force was real of course but the democracy was bogus.

Putin was right to be concerned because there were so-called «colour» revolutions in Georgia (2003) and the Ukraine (2004), engineered and bankrolled by the United States and its satellites. In 2008 Georgia launched an offensive to seize the independent territory of South Ossetia, provoking Russian intervention and destruction of the Georgian army. The Ukraine colour revolution did not last either; Viktor Yanukovich was elected president of the Ukraine in 2010. Setbacks did not discourage the US government, which intensified its subversive activities close to Russian borderlands. These activities led to a violent coup d’état against the Yanukovich government in February 2014, bankrolled and directed by the United States and its EU satellites. It looked for a moment as though the US had succeeded in fastening the Ukrainian buckle on the encirclement of Russia.

The vanguard of the putschist junta in Kiev is the fascist paramilitary organisation, Pravy sektor, and the fascist political party, Svoboda. It was soon rumoured that the CIA and other US agencies had taken over a floor of the Security Service of the Ukraine (SBU) building in Kiev. The Ukrainian and US flags flew symbolically outside. That of course was only the beginning. Fascist flags, banners, symbols soon appeared in torchlight parades, and the World War II Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera was elevated to the status of father of the new Ukrainian state. Now of course there are US, Canadian, and Polish military «advisors» in the Ukraine. Who knows who else?

The finance minister is a US citizen; the governor of Odessa, Mikhail Saakashvili, is a cowardly fugitive from a Georgian arrest warrant. The American ambassador in Kiev acts as proconsul; US directives are sent to the present so-called president, chocolate mogul Petro Poroshenko. US and western military supplies are reported to be flowing into the Ukraine in exchange for a garage sale of Ukrainian economic resources. Is it not ironic that a Ukrainian «nationalist» movement should so readily abase itself to foreign powers? Foreign control in Kiev, Putin recently commented, insults the peoples of the Ukraine. This is true, but it will also impoverish them.

Not all people in the Ukraine greeted the fascist junta with open arms. In the Crimea resistance was immediate and got Russian backing from «polite people». A referendum ensued and the Crimea returned to Russia. The West accused Putin of aggression forgetting that the US and its satellites had precipitated the crisis by backing the Kiev putsch. It was Pot calling Kettle black. It’s an old trick by the way: the aggressor accuses his intended victim of aggression.

Popular resistance was not limited to the Crimea. In Odessa, Mariupol, Kharkov, Donetsk, Lugansk, for example, opposition began to manifest itself. Violence and repression ensued. Kiev ordered its armed forces to put down the dissidents, who in self-defence took up arms. An anti-fascist resistance began, redolent of the Spanish civil war in 1936. Putin warned the Kiev junta that it would be madness to send tanks against one’s own people. He turned out to be right.

In July 2014 Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over the Donbass. Without a shred of evidence, the US and EU immediately accused Putin and the Donbass militias of having been responsible. The western press was outrageous, spewing out black propaganda, bourrage de crâne, against the Russian Federation and Putin. To this day the US government and Kiev junta have hidden essential parts of the evidentiary record, one must assume, in order to cover up the fascist junta’s guilt in shooting down MH17.

The black propaganda worked however in that it led to the implementation of US and EU economic sanctions against the Russian Federation which are still in place. These sanctions and Russian counter-measures have cost EU member states billions of euros, though not a penny to the US which is reported to be doing increased business with Russia. Europeans have begun to ask why they should pay the price for US aggressive conduct toward Russia. To no avail, Washington still holds the whip hand over its EU satellites, which until now have followed their master’s orders. The US/NATO juggernaut just rolls on.

The Donbass proved the nut the Kiev junta could not crack. In remarkable feats of arms, the outgunned and outnumbered Donbass militias inflicted grievous losses upon the junta’s forces which pleaded for and got two ceasefires, arranged under the so-called Minsk agreements, never respected by the Kiev junta. It was easy to guess that the junta would use the Minsk agreements to refit its beaten armies and attack again. The militias won on the battlefield, but lost in Minsk. One wonders why anyone would think that peace and reconciliation were possible between fascist and anti-fascist forces, or put more simply, why victims of Kiev’s massacres, if they can resist, would agree to submit to Kiev’s authority. One hears that Minsk is the only way forward, but for whom exactly? Does Moscow think the United States will respect any agreement it makes, when experience suggests that it will not?

The Ukraine remains the battlefield where the United States, a relentless adversary, tries to buckle its encirclement of Russia. Washington blames Russia for the war and accuses it of aggression. It expects the Russian government to accept a fascist regime in Kiev under US tutelage, which is a permanent threat to Russian security. Washington accuses Russia of not respecting the Minsk Protocol, when it is the Kiev junta, under US direction, which has never respected these agreements. The US and EU studiously ignore the fascists in Kiev, though it’s hard not to miss them. As in Orwell’s 1984, reality is turned inside out.

The US government operates under false assumptions, magnified by hubris, forgetting perhaps that war is full of the unexpected. In the Ukrainian tinderbox, the US buckle of Russian encirclement may not be so easy to close unless Moscow capitulates under the guise of «peace». The separation of the Ukraine from Russia, breaking bonds of history, culture, religion, and kinship more than a thousand years old, has met with opposition. The rat-like Kiev «prime minister» Arsenii Yatsenyuk can build a Chinese wall against Russia, if he finds the money, but he and his brownshirts can only maintain the separation of the Ukraine from Russia by force and internal repression. That should be something for Europeans at least to ponder before they travel further along the dangerous path set out for them by the United States.


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Everyman Standing Order 01: In the Face of Tyranny; Everybody Stands, Nobody Runs.
Everyman Standing Order 02: Everyman is Responsible for Energy and Security.
Everyman Standing Order 03: Everyman knows Timing is Critical in any Movement.
   

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Bill Hicks - On Gulf War I & George H.W. Bush

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YlyY1pcvQQ

Uncovered: The macabre sex chamber of Libya's Colonel Gaddafi where he raped girls - and boys - as young as 14

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2545819/Uncovered-The-macabre-sex-chamber-Libyas-Colonel-Gaddafi-raped-girls-boys-young-14.html

German journo: European media writing pro-US stories under CIA pressure (VIDEO)

http://www.rt.com/news/196984-german-journlaist-cia-pressure/

German journalist and editor Udo Ulfkotte says he was forced to publish the works of intelligence agents under his own name, adding that noncompliance ran the risk of being fired. Ulfkotte made the revelations during interviews with RT and Russia Insider.

Libya: From Africa’s Richest State Under Gaddafi, to Failed State After NATO Intervention

http://www.globalresearch.ca/libya-from-africas-richest-state-under-gaddafi-to-failed-state-after-nato-intervention/5408740

This article was first published on October 19, 2014.

This week marks the three-year anniversary of the Western-backed assassination of Libya’s former president, Muammar Gaddafi, and the fall of one of Africa’s greatest nations.

In 1967 Colonel Gaddafi inherited one of the poorest nations in Africa; however, by the time he was assassinated, Gaddafi had turned Libya into Africa’s wealthiest nation. Libya had the highest GDP per capita and life expectancy on the continent. Less people lived below the poverty line than in the Netherlands.

After NATO’s intervention in 2011, Libya is now a failed state and its economy is in shambles. As the government’s control slips through their fingers and into to the militia fighters’ hands, oil production has all but stopped.

The militias variously local, tribal, regional, Islamist or criminal, that have plagued Libya since NATO’s intervention, have recently lined up into two warring factions. Libya now has two governments, both with their own Prime Minister, parliament and army.

On one side, in the West of the country, Islamist-allied militias took over control of the capital Tripoli and other cities and set up their own government, chasing away a parliament that was elected over the summer.

On the other side, in the East of the Country, the “legitimate” government dominated by anti-Islamist politicians, exiled 1,200 kilometers away in Tobruk, no longer governs anything.

The fall of Gaddafi’s administration has created all of the country’s worst-case scenarios: Western embassies have all left, the South of the country has become a haven for terrorists, and the Northern coast a center of migrant trafficking. Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia have all closed their borders with Libya. This all occurs amidst a backdrop of widespread rape, assassinations and torture that complete the picture of a state that is failed to the bone.

America is clearly fed up with the two inept governments in Libya and is now backing a third force: long-time CIA asset, General Khalifa Hifter, who aims to set himself up as Libya’s new dictator. Hifter, who broke with Gaddafi in the 1980s and lived for years in Langley, Virginia, close to the CIA’s headquarters, where he was trained by the CIA, has taken part in numerous American regime change efforts, including the aborted attempt to overthrow Gaddafi in 1996.

In 1991 the New York Times reported that Hifter may have been one of “600 Libyan soldiers trained by American intelligence officials in sabotage and other guerrilla skills…to fit in neatly into the Reagan Administration’s eagerness to topple Colonel Qaddafi”.

Hifter’s forces are currently vying with the Al Qaeda group Ansar al-Sharia for control of Libya’s second largest city, Benghazi. Ansar al-Sharia was armed by America during the NATO campaign against Colonel Gaddafi. In yet another example of the U.S. backing terrorists backfiring, Ansar al-Sharia has recently been blamed by America for the brutal assassination of U.S. Ambassador Stevens.

Hifter is currently receiving logistical and air support from the U.S. because his faction envision a mostly secular Libya open to Western financiers, speculators, and capital.

Perhaps, Gaddafi’s greatest crime, in the eyes of NATO, was his desire to put the interests of local labour above foreign capital and his quest for a strong and truly United States of Africa. In fact, in August 2011, President Obama confiscated $30 billion from Libya’s Central Bank, which Gaddafi had earmarked for the establishment of the African IMF and African Central Bank.

In 2011, the West’s objective was clearly not to help the Libyan people, who already had the highest standard of living in Africa, but to oust Gaddafi, install a puppet regime, and gain control of Libya’s natural resources.

For over 40 years, Gaddafi promoted economic democracy and used the nationalized oil wealth to sustain progressive social welfare programs for all Libyans. Under Gaddafi’s rule, Libyans enjoyed not only free health-care and free education, but also free electricity and interest-free loans. Now thanks to NATO’s intervention the health-care sector is on the verge of collapse as thousands of Filipino health workers flee the country, institutions of higher education across the East of the country are shut down, and black outs are a common occurrence in once thriving Tripoli.

One group that has suffered immensely from NATO’s bombing campaign is the nation’s women. Unlike many other Arab nations, women in Gaddafi’s Libya had the right to education, hold jobs, divorce, hold property and have an income. The United Nations Human Rights Council praised Gaddafi for his promotion of women’s rights.

When the colonel seized power in 1969, few women went to university. Today, more than half of Libya’s university students are women. One of the first laws Gaddafi passed in 1970 was an equal pay for equal work law.

Nowadays, the new “democratic” Libyan regime is clamping down on women’s rights. The new ruling tribes are tied to traditions that are strongly patriarchal. Also, the chaotic nature of post-intervention Libyan politics has allowed free reign to extremist Islamic forces that see gender equality as a Western perversion.

Three years ago, NATO declared that the mission in Libya had been “one of the most successful in NATO history.” Truth is, Western interventions have produced nothing but colossal failures in Libya, Iraq, and Syria. Lest we forget, prior to western military involvement in these three nations, they were the most modern and secular states in the Middle East and North Africa with the highest regional women’s rights and standards of living.

A decade of failed military expeditions in the Middle East has left the American people in trillions of dollars of debt. However, one group has benefited immensely from the costly and deadly wars: America’s Military-Industrial-Complex.

Building new military bases means billions of dollars for America’s military elite. As Will Blum has pointed out, following the bombing of Iraq, the United States built new bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Saudi Arabia.

Following the bombing of Afghanistan, the United States is now building military bases in Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

Following the recent bombing of Libya, the United States has built new military bases in the Seychelles, Kenya, South Sudan, Niger and Burkina Faso.

Given that Libya sits atop the strategic intersection of the African, Middle Eastern and European worlds, Western control of the nation, has always been a remarkably effective way to project power into these three regions and beyond.

NATO’s military intervention may have been a resounding success for America’s military elite and oil companies but for the ordinary Libyan, the military campaign may indeed go down in history as one of the greatest failures of the 21st century.

Garikai Chengu is a research scholar at Harvard University. Contact him on garikai.chengu@gmail.com


---------------------------
Everyman Standing Order 01: In the Face of Tyranny; Everybody Stands, Nobody Runs.
Everyman Standing Order 02: Everyman is Responsible for Energy and Security.
Everyman Standing Order 03: Everyman knows Timing is Critical in any Movement.
   

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Assad: Israel operates as al-Qaeda’s air force

http://www.timesofisrael.com/assad-israel-operates-as-al-qaedas-air-force/

Syrian president says Israeli airstrikes benefiting radical extremists in raging civil war, set to enter its 5th year in March

Forces committed


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_military_intervention_in_Libya#Forces_committed

These are the forces committed in alphabetical order.

     Belgium: Six F-16 Falcon fighter jets of the Belgian Air Component, were already stationed at Araxos, Greece for an exercise, and flew their first mission in the afternoon of 21 March. They monitored the no-fly zone throughout the operation and have successfully attacked ground targets multiple times since 27 March, all of them without collateral damage. The Belgian Naval Component minehunter Narcis was part of NATO's SNMCMG1 at the start of the operation and assisted in NATO's naval blockade from 23 March. The ship was later replaced by the minehunter Lobelia in August.

     Bulgaria: The Bulgarian Navy Wielingen-class frigate Drazki participated in the naval blockade, along with a number of "special naval forces", two medical teams and other humanitarian help.[87][88][89] The frigate left port on 27 April and arrived off the coast of Libya on 2 May.[90] It patrolled for one month before returning to Bulgaria, with a supply stop at the Greek port of Souda.

     Canada: The Royal Canadian Air Force deployed seven (six front line, one reserve) CF-18 fighter jets, two CC-150 Polaris refueling airplanes, two CC-177 Globemaster III heavy transports, two CC-130J Super Hercules tactical transports, and two CP-140 Aurora maritime patrol aircraft. The Royal Canadian Navy deployed the Halifax-class frigates HMCS Charlottetown and HMCS Vancouver. A total of 440 Canadian Forces personnel participated in Operation Mobile. There were reports that special operations were being conducted by Joint Task Force 2 in association with Britain's Special Air Service (SAS) and Special Boat Service (SBS) as part of Canada's contribution.[91][92][93][94][95]

     Denmark: The Royal Danish Air Force participated with six F-16AM fighters, one C-130J-30 Super Hercules military transport plane and the corresponding ground crews. Only four F-16s were used for offensive operations, while the remaining two acted as reserves.[96] The first airstrikes from Danish aircraft were carried out on 23 March, with four aircraft making twelve sorties as part of Operation Odyssey Dawn.[97] Danish F-16s flew a total of 43 missions dropping 107 precision bombs during Odyssey Dawn before switching to NATO command under Unified Protector[98] Danish flights bombed approximately 17 percent of all targets in Libya and together with Norwegian flights have been the most efficient in proportion to the number of flights involved.[99] Danish F-16s flew the last fast-jet mission of Operation Unified Protector on 31 October 2011[100] finishing with a total of 599 missions flown and 923 precision bombs dropped during the entire Libya intervention.[101]

     France: French Air Force, which flew the highest percentage of NATO's strikes (35%), participated in the mission with 18 Mirage, 19 Rafale, 6 Mirage F1, 6 Super Etendard, 2 E-2 Hawkeye, 2 C-2 Greyhound, 3 Eurocopter Tiger, 16 Gazelle aircraft. In addition, the French Navy anti-air destroyer Forbin and the frigate Jean Bart participated in the operations.[102] On 22 March, the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle arrived in international waters near Crete to provide military planners with a rapid-response air combat capability.[103] Accompanying the Charles de Gaulle were the frigates Dupleix, Aconit, the fleet replenishment tanker Meuse, and one Rubis-class nuclear attack submarine.[104] France did station three Mirage 2000-5 aircraft and 6 Mirage 2000D at Souda Bay, Crete.[105] France also sent an amphibious assault helicopter carrier, the Tonnerre, carrying 19 rotorcraft to operate off the coast of Libya.[106]

     Greece: The Elli-class frigate Limnos of the Hellenic Navy was deployed to the waters off Libya as part of the naval blockade.[107] The Hellenic Air Force provided Super Puma search-and-rescue helicopters and an Embraer 145 AEW&C airborne radar plane.[105][108][109][110]

     Italy: At the beginning of the operation, as a contribution to enforce the no-fly zone, the Italian government committed four Tornado ECRs of the Italian Air Force in SEAD operations, supported by two Tornado IDS variants in an air-to-air refueling role and four F-16 ADF fighters as escort.[111] After the transfer of authority to NATO and the decision to participate in strike air-ground operations, the Italian government increased the Italian contribution by adding four Italian Navy AV-8B plus (from Giuseppe Garibaldi), four Italian Air Force Eurofighters, four Tornado IDSs under NATO command. Other assets under national command participated in air patrolling and air refueling missions.[112] As of 24 March, the Italian Navy was engaged in Operation Unified Protector with the light aircraft carrier Giuseppe Garibaldi, the Maestrale-class frigate Libeccio and the auxiliary ship Etna.[113] Additionally, the Orizzonte-class destroyer Andrea Doria and Maestrale-class frigate Euro were patrolling off the Sicilian coast in an air-defence role.[114][115] At a later stage, Italy increased its contribution to the NATO led mission by doubling the number of AV-8B Harriers and deploying an undisclosed number of AMX fighter-bombers and KC-130J and KC-767A tanker planes. The Italian Air Force also deployed its MQ-9A Reaper UAVs for real time video reconnaissance.[116]

     Jordan: Six Royal Jordanian Air Force fighter jets landed at a coalition airbase in Europe on 4 April to provide "logistical support" and act as an escort for Jordanian transport aircraft using the humanitarian corridor to deliver aid and supplies to opposition-held Cyrenaica, according to Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh. He did not specify the type of aircraft or what specific roles they may be called upon to perform, though he said they were not intended for combat.[117]

     NATO: E-3 airborne early warning and control (AWACS) aircraft operated by NATO and crewed by member states help monitor airspace over the Mediterranean and in Libya.[118]

     Netherlands: The Royal Netherlands Air Force provided six F-16AM fighters and a KDC-10 refueling plane. These aircraft were stationed at the Decimomannu Air Base on Sardinia. The four F-16s were flying patrols over Libya, while the other two were being kept in reserve.[119] Additionally, the Royal Netherlands Navy deployed the Tripartite-class minehunter HNLMS Haarlem to assist in enforcing the weapons embargo.[120]

     Norway: The Royal Norwegian Air Force deployed six F-16AM fighters to Souda Bay Air Base with corresponding ground crews.[121][122][123] On 24 March, the Norwegian F-16s were assigned to the US North African command and Operation Odyssey Dawn. It was also reported that Norwegian fighters along with Danish fighters had bombed the most targets in Libya in proportion to the number of planes involved.[99] On 24 June, the number of fighters deployed was reduced from six to four.[124] The Norwegian participation in the military efforts against the Libyan government came to an end in late July 2011, by which time Norwegian aircraft had dropped 588 bombs and carried out 615 of the 6493 NATO missions between 31 March and 1 August (not including 19 bombs dropped and 32 missions carried out under operation Odyssey Dawn). 75% of the missions performed by the Royal Norwegian Air Force was so called SCAR ( Strike Coordination and Reconnaissance ) missions. US military sources has confirmed that on the night of 25 April, it was 2 F-16 from the Royal Norwegian Air Force who bombed the residence of Gaddafi inside Tripoli.[125][126]

     Qatar: The Qatar Armed Forces contributed with six Mirage 2000-5EDA fighter jets and two C-17 strategic transport aircraft to coalition no-fly zone enforcement efforts.[127] The Qatari aircraft were stationed in Crete.[103] At later stages in the Operation, Qatari Special Forces had been assisting in operations, including the training of the Tripoli Brigade.

     Romania: The Romanian Naval Forces participated in the naval blockade with the frigate Regele Ferdinand.[128]

     Spain: The Spanish Armed Forces participated with six F-18 fighters, two Boeing 707-331B(KC) tanker aircraft, the Álvaro de Bazán-class frigate Méndez Núñez, the submarine Tramontana and two CN-235 MPA maritime surveillance plane. Spain participated in air control and maritime surveillance missions to prevent the inflow of arms to the Libyan regime. Spain also made available to NATO the Spanish air base at Rota.[129]

     Sweden: The Royal Swedish Air Force committed eight JAS 39 Gripen jets for the international air campaign after being asked by NATO to take part in the operations on 28 March.[130][131] Sweden also sent a Saab 340 AEW&C for airborne early warning and control and a C-130 Hercules for aerial refueling.[132] Sweden was the only country neither a member of NATO nor the Arab League to participate in the no-fly zone.

     Turkey: The Turkish Navy participated with five ships and one submarine in the NATO-led naval blockade to enforce the arms embargo. It also provided six F-16 Fighting Falcon jets for aerial operations.[133] On 24 March, Turkey's parliament approved Turkish participation in military operations in Libya, including enforcing the no-fly zone in Libya.[134]

     UAE: On 24 March, the United Arab Emirates Air Force sent six F-16 Fighting Falcon and six Mirage 2000 fighter jets to join the mission. The planes were based at the Italian Decimomannu air base on Sardinia.[135][136]

     United Kingdom: The United Kingdom deployed the Royal Navy frigates HMS Westminster and HMS Cumberland, nuclear attack submarines HMS Triumph and HMS Turbulent, the destroyer HMS Liverpool and the mine countermeasure vessel HMS Brocklesby.[137] The Royal Air Force participated with 16 Tornado and 10 Typhoon fighters[138] operating initially from Great Britain, but later forward deployed to the Italian base at Gioia del Colle. Nimrod R1 and Sentinel R1 surveillance aircraft were forward deployed to RAF Akrotiri in support of the action. In addition the RAF deployed a number of other support aircraft such as the Sentry AEW.1 AWACS aircraft and VC10 air-to-air refueling tankers. According to anonymous sources, members of the SAS, SBS and Special Reconnaissance Regiment (SRR) helped to coordinate the air strikes on the ground in Libya.[139][140][141] On 27 May, the UK deployed four UK Apache helicopters on board HMS Ocean.[142]

     United States: The United States deployed a naval force of 11 ships, including the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge, the amphibious transport dock USS Ponce, the guided-missile destroyers USS Barry and USS Stout, the nuclear attack submarines USS Providence and USS Scranton, the cruise missile submarine USS Florida and the amphibious command ship USS Mount Whitney.[143][144][145] Additionally, A-10 ground-attack aircraft, B-2 stealth bombers, AV-8B Harrier II jump-jets, EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft, P-3 Orions, and both F-15E[146] and F-16 fighters were involved in action over Libya.[147] U-2 reconnaissance aircraft were stationed on Cyprus.[148] On 18 March, two AC-130Us arrived at RAF Mildenhall as well as additional tanker aircraft.[citation needed] On 24 March 2 E-8Cs operated from Naval Station Rota Spain, which indicated an increase of ground attacks.[citation needed] An undisclosed number of CIA operatives were said to be in Libya to gather intelligence for airstrikes and make contacts with rebels.[149] The US also used MQ-1 Predator UAVs to strike targets in Libya on 23 April.[150]


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Everyman Standing Order 01: In the Face of Tyranny; Everybody Stands, Nobody Runs.
Everyman Standing Order 02: Everyman is Responsible for Energy and Security.
Everyman Standing Order 03: Everyman knows Timing is Critical in any Movement.
   

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Everyman decries immorality
Former CIA boss and 4-star general David Petraeus – who still (believe it or not) holds a lot of sway in Washington – suggests we should arm Al Qaeda to fight ISIS.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/former-cia-boss-and-4-star-general-david-petraeus-u-s-should-arm-al-qaeda/5473441

    Members of al Qaeda’s branch in Syria have a surprising advocate in the corridors of American power: retired Army general and former CIA Director David Petraeus.

    The former commander of U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan has been quietly urging U.S. officials to consider using so-called moderate members of al Qaeda’s Nusra Front to fight ISIS in Syria, four sources familiar with the conversations, including one person who spoke to Petraeus directly, told The Daily Beast.

He’s not alone …

As we’ve previously shown, other mainstream American figures support arming Al Qaeda … and ISIS.

Initially, Barak Mendelsohn – an Associate Professor of Political Science at Haverford College, a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, and a five year veteran of the Israeli army – argues in the Council on Foreign Relations’ publication Foreign Affairs  that the U.S. should support Al Qaeda … as a way to counter ISIS:

    The instability in the Middle East following the Arab revolutions and the meteoric rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) require that Washington rethink its policy toward al Qaeda, particularly its targeting of Zawahiri.

    ***

Destabilizing al Qaeda at this time may in fact work against U.S. efforts to defeat ISIS.

Many mainstream players are suggesting that Al Nusra – the main Al Qaeda group in Syria – “re-brand”, so that it can pretend it is moderate … and so receive direct U.S. backing. See this, this, this, this, thisand this.

Not to be outdone, influential New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman asks if we should arm ISIS to counter Iranian influence.
 The U.S. actually did knowingly support Al Qaeda in Libya. And also in Syria.

And we actually ARE supporting ISIS to some extent:

    NATO member Turkey was busted buying huge quantities of oil from ISIS (its main source of funding), and bombing ISIS’ main on-the-ground enemy – Kurdish soldiers – using its air force. Many also say that Turkey has long been directly supporting ISIS.

    The Israeli air force has bombed near the Syrian capital of Damascus, and attacked agricultural facilities and warehouses (the Syrian government is the other main opponent of ISIS in Syria besides the Kurds). The Israeli military recently admitted supporting Syrian jihadis. And see this.

    Mainstream U.S. writers such as Thomas Friedman have called for America to support ISIS.

    Republican Senator Ted Cruz opposed U.S. military intervention in Syria, saying the U.S. military shouldn’t be “Al Qaeda’s air force.”  Similarly, former Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich  said that striking Syria would turn the United States military into “al-Qaeda’s air force.” (ISIS is just a re-branded name for Al Qaeda).

    Indeed, NBC News, the Wall Street Journal, CNN and others report that the U.S. has already committed to provide air power to support Muslim jihadis in Syria.

    So Turkey, Israel and the U.S. are all now acting as ISIS’ air force in order to oust the Syrian government … again. (Washington Blog, August 3, 2015)

Truly, America’s foreign policy is insane.

USA, Turkey and Israel Act As Air Force for The Islamic State Terrorists (ISIS)


http://www.globalresearch.ca/usa-turkey-and-israel-act-as-air-force-for-the-islamic-state-terrorists-isis/5467022

NATO member Turkey was busted buying huge quantities of oil from ISIS (its main source of funding), and bombing ISIS’ main on-the-ground enemy – Kurdish soldiers – using its air force. Many also say that Turkey has long been directly supporting ISIS.

The Israeli air force has bombed near the Syrian capital of Damascus, and attacked agricultural facilities and warehouses (the Syrian government is the other main opponent of ISIS in Syria besides the Kurds). The Israeli military recently admitted supporting Syrian jihadis. And see this.

Mainstream U.S. writers such as Thomas Friedman have called for America to support ISIS.

Republican Senator Ted Cruz opposed U.S. military intervention in Syria, saying the U.S. military shouldn’t be “Al Qaeda’s air force.”  Similarly, former Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich  said that striking Syria would turn the United States military into “al-Qaeda’s air force.” (ISIS is just a re-branded name for Al Qaeda).

    “So what, we’re about to become Al Qaeda’s air force now?” Kucinich said. “This is a very, very serious matter that has broad implications internationally. And to try to minimize it by saying we’re just going to have a ‘targeted strike’ — that’s an act of war. It’s not anything to be trifled with.” (2013 Interview)

Indeed, NBC News, the Wall Street Journal, CNN and others report that the U.S. has already committed to provide air power to support Muslim jihadis in Syria.

So Turkey, Israel and the U.S. are all now acting as ISIS’ air force in order to oust the Syrian government … again.


---------------------------
Everyman Standing Order 01: In the Face of Tyranny; Everybody Stands, Nobody Runs.
Everyman Standing Order 02: Everyman is Responsible for Energy and Security.
Everyman Standing Order 03: Everyman knows Timing is Critical in any Movement.
   
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