Turks down Russian fighter [Archive] - Page 2

mick silver

6th December 2015, 06:35 AM

December 4, 2015 This is a Dumb War (http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/12/04/this-is-a-dumb-war/)
by Serge Halimi (http://www.counterpunch.org/author/serge-halimi/) by

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A little-known US senator named Barack Obama said in 2002: “I don’t oppose all wars. […] What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. […] A war based not on reason but on passion.” Americans were angry after 9/11 and President George Bush Jr chose to channel their anger not against Saudi Arabia (most of the Al-Qaida terrorists involved came from there), but against Iraq, which the US invaded six months later. The media wanted the war and most Democratic senators, including Hillary Clinton, favoured it too. But the invasion of Iraq created the chaos that produced so-called Islamic State (ISIS).
The Paris killings of 13 November are about to help realise ISIS’s two main objectives. The first is to create a coalition of “apostates”, “infidels” and “Shia renegades” who will come to fight it in Iraq and Syria, then in Libya. The second is to make the majority of westerners believe that their Muslim compatriots could be a fifth column hiding in the shadows, a “domestic enemy” in the service of the jihadists.
War and fear — even an apocalyptic objective contains a grain of rationality. The jihadists have calculated that the “crusaders” and “idolaters” may launch airstrikes on Syrian cities or patrol Iraqi provinces intensively but will never manage to occupy an Arab country for long. ISIS also hopes that its attacks in Europe will stir up mistrust of western Muslims, and lead to heavy policing of them. This will breed resentment, and some will want to join the “caliphate”; only a very few, but then the followers of Salafist jihad aren’t trying to win an election. In fact, an anti-Muslim party win would advance their cause.
“France is at war,” François Hollande told the French congress on 16 November. He has been trying for a long time to intervene militarily in Syria, and has been pushing for greater US involvement. What is peculiar is that Hollande now wants to fight ISIS in Syria, yet two years ago, seized by the same war fever, he was trying to convince the US to punish Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Will Obama persist in opposing Hollande’s “dumb” war? The pressure on Obama is all the stronger because ISIS wants the same thing as Hollande. As Pierre-Jean Luizard, a researcher at France’s Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), says, it was at first “as if ISIS had consciously made a list of everything that would disgust popular opinion in the West: infringing the rights of minorities and of women, particularly through forced marriage, executing homosexuals, reinstating slavery, […] beheadings and mass executions” (1 (http://mondediplo.com/2015/12/01dumbwar#nb1)). When this macabre catalogue was not enough, ISIS cut the throat of an American hostage, posting a video of it, then carried out deadly shootings in Paris. At this point, ISIS expected the “crusaders” to respond.
A head of state is almost duty bound to react to such spectacular acts. He is under political pressure to announce some kind, almost any kind, of response — the destruction of a warehouse or a munitions depot, airstrikes on a city. He is expected to show determination, to promise new, even tougher, legislation and condemn those in favour of appeasement. He must use martial language, talk of blood and assert that retaliation will be ruthless. Thus, he will seek standing ovations, and his approval rating will go up ten points. Eventually, all of this will prove “dumb” — but not until a few months later. And the temptation to escalate grows ever stronger, especially with frenetic 24/7 news coverage making it seem that every act, every statement, requires an immediate answer.
During the Gulf war in 1991, US hawks criticised George Bush Sr for not ordering the troops that had just freed Kuwait to go on to Baghdad. Four years later, chief of staff General Colin Powell justified their relative restraint: “From the geopolitical standpoint, the coalition, particularly the Arab states, never wanted Iraq invaded and dismembered. […] It would not contribute to the stability we want in the Middle East to have Iraq fragmented into separate Sunni, Shia, and Kurd political entities. The only way to have avoided this outcome was to have undertaken a largely US conquest and occupation off a remote nation of twenty million people. […] It is naïve however, to think that if Saddam had fallen, he would necessarily have been replaced by a Jeffersonian in some sort of desert democracy where people read the Federalist Papers along with the Koran. Quite possibly, we would have wound up with a Saddam by another name” (2 (http://mondediplo.com/2015/12/01dumbwar#nb2)). In 2003 George Bush Jr completed his father’s military project. The neocons hailed in him a new Churchill, courage, even democracy. But Powell had forgotten to read his own book, as the fears he had once expressed came true under the president he was serving as secretary of state.
Bush Jr was criticised for the childish, almost criminal naivety of his war on terror. He seems to have found his true heirs in Paris. “Let’s put it simply,” France’s foreign minister Laurent Fabius said, talking down to us like a teacher to a class of small children. “ISIS are monsters, but there are only 30,000 of them. If all the countries in the world are unable to eliminate 30,000 people who are monsters, then nothing makes sense any more” (3 (http://mondediplo.com/2015/12/01dumbwar#nb3)).
Let’s try to explain it to him: the 30,000 monsters have widespread support in the Sunni regions of Iraq and Syria, where the armies they face are often seen as instruments of Shia dictatorships, themselves responsible for many massacres. That is why ISIS was able to capture some cities without any fighting, when the soldiers holding them fled, abandoning their weapons and uniforms. The US has tried funding the training and equipment of more than 4,000 “moderate” Syrian fighters but, according to the Americans, only four or five are operational — and the unit cost has been several million dollars. At Mosul, 30,000 Iraqi troops were defeated by 1,000 ISIS fighters, who captured more than 2,000 armoured vehicles and hundreds of millions of dollars from the vaults of local banks. At Ramadi, the jihadists defeated 25 times their number of Iraqi troops. Syria’s armed forces are exhausted by four years of war. And the Kurds are not prepared to die for territory they do not claim. “In reality,” Luizard observed, “ISIS is only strong because its opponents are weak, and is flourishing on the ruins of institutions that are in the process of collapsing” (4 (http://mondediplo.com/2015/12/01dumbwar#nb4)).
It’s the same in Libya. Under the influence of strong emotions and led by the shock team of Nicolas Sarkozy and Bernard-Henri Lévy, France made an important contribution to the fall of Muammar Gaddafi. It imagined that getting a dictator lynched would be enough to bring about a western-style liberal democracy. But Libya has fallen apart and ISIS controls several cities from which it attacks neighbouring Tunisia. France’s defence minister has admitted: “I am very concerned about Libya. Daesh has moved in, taking advantage of internal clashes between Libyans,” but “if Tobruk and Tripoli were to work together, Daesh would no longer exist” (5 (http://mondediplo.com/2015/12/01dumbwar#nb5)). That problem had presumably been solved, three years ago, when Lévy explained: “Contrary to what the Cassandras predicted, Libya has not split into three confederate entities. […] Tribal law has not prevailed over the sense of national unity. […] Compared to Tunisia and Egypt, Libya appears to have achieved a successful [Arab] Spring — and those who helped it can be proud of themselves” (6 (http://mondediplo.com/2015/12/01dumbwar#nb6)). Proud indeed: apart from Bernard Guetta, who broadcasts the French foreign ministry’s viewpoint (7 (http://mondediplo.com/2015/12/01dumbwar#nb7)), nobody is better at tall stories.
Hollande now wants “a grand and unique coalition” against ISIS. This would include Assad. But Assad has already replied: “You cannot fight Daesh and still be allied with Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are arming the terrorists” (8 (http://mondediplo.com/2015/12/01dumbwar#nb8)). President Vladimir Putin feels that Turkey, another presumed member of the coalition, has stabbed Russia in the back by shooting down one of its planes on 24 November. As soon as the motley coalition that France is trying to cobble together had won the war, it would face the question of what next, under even more difficult conditions than in Afghanistan, Iraq or Libya. US neocons have already forgotten all these failures (as has Hollande), and are demanding that 50,000 troops be sent into the ISIS-occupied zone (9 (http://mondediplo.com/2015/12/01dumbwar#nb9)).
In [I]Foreign Affairs, Steven Simon and Jonathan Stevenson, experts on the Middle East, list the conditions for a sustainable western military success on territory currently controlled by ISIS: “the support of the American public; a large cadre of deployable civilian experts in reconstruction and stabilisation; deep knowledge of the society for whose fate a victorious United States would take responsibility; […] a sustained military force to provide security for populations and infrastructure […] local constituents or clients, or indeed allies, to assist.” They point out that “if this sounds familiar, it is because it is the same list of things that Washington wasn’t able to put together the last two times it launched major military interventions in the Middle East . […] The United States would likely lose another war in the Middle East for all the same reasons it lost the last two” (10 (http://mondediplo.com/2015/12/01dumbwar#nb10)).
France, already heavily engaged in Africa, cannot win a war in the Middle East. The fact that ISIS is trying to draw it into this trap should not lead Hollande to rush into it, taking with him a coalition of countries that are often more cautious. Terrorism kills civilians, but so does war. The intensification of western airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, which will create as many jihadist fighters as they kill, will not restore the territorial integrity of those countries, nor the legitimacy of their governments in the eyes of their peoples. A lasting solution will depend on the peoples of the region, on a diplomatic solution, not on former colonial powers or the US, which are disqualified both by their support for the worst policies of Israel and by the disastrous results of their military adventurism — disastrous from their own viewpoint too, since by invading Iraq in 2003, after supporting Saddam Hussein in his war against Iran (which killed more than a million) for eight years, they turned Iraq into an ally of Iran. And states that sell arms to the oil dictatorships of the Gulf, propagators of Salafist jihad, are not qualified to talk of peace, or to teach Arabs the virtues of pluralist democracy.
Historian Eric Hobsbawm wrote in [I]Globalization, Democracy & Terrorism (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0349120668/counterpunchmaga) that when they operate in stable states with stable regimes and do not have significant support from a section of the population, small groups of terrorists are a police problem, rather than a military one. He added that it is understandable that such groups make the population very nervous, especially in major western cities, and especially when government and media are working together to create a climate of fear (11 (http://mondediplo.com/2015/12/01dumbwar#nb11)).
This creation of a climate of fear, and repeated denigration of those who refuse to face up to reality, make it possible to stifle the voices of those who reject the accumulation of repressive measures that are not only ineffective but threaten civil rights. Xenophobic measures (as demanded by the National Front) have been added to the mix, such as revoking the French nationality of some citizens with dual nationality. The declaration of a state of emergency was approved almost unanimously by French parliamentarians, and, as if this was not enough, the prime minister asked them not to refer to the constitutional council the legally shaky measures he wanted them to approve.
Obama told Bush in 2002: “You want a fight, President Bush? Let’s fight to make sure that […] the arms merchants in our own country stop feeding the countless wars that rage across the globe. […] Let’s fight to make sure our so-called allies in the Middle East […] stop oppressing their own people, and suppressing dissent, and tolerating corruption and inequality […] so that their youth grow up without education, without prospects, without hope, the ready recruits of terrorist cells.” Obama has not taken his own advice, and neither have other heads of state. Hence, the situation we are in today. ISIS attacks and France’s disastrous foreign policy have led to a new “war”, solely military and therefore already lost.
Notes.
(1 (http://mondediplo.com/2015/12/01dumbwar#nh1)) Pierre-Jean Luizard, Le Piège Daech: l’Etat islamique ou le retour de l’histoire (The Daesh trap: Islamic State and history repeated), La Découverte, Paris, 2015.
(2 (http://mondediplo.com/2015/12/01dumbwar#nh2)) Colin Powell, A Soldier’s Way: an Autobiography, Hutchinson, London, 1995.
(3 (http://mondediplo.com/2015/12/01dumbwar#nh3)) France Inter, 19 November 2015.
(4 (http://mondediplo.com/2015/12/01dumbwar#nh4)) Pierre-Jean Luizard, op cit.
(5 (http://mondediplo.com/2015/12/01dumbwar#nh5)) Europe 1, 22 November 2014.
(6 (http://mondediplo.com/2015/12/01dumbwar#nh6)) Le Point, Paris, 6 December 2012. In the 16 November 2015 issue, Bernard-Henri Lévy set out his “Guerre, mode d’emploi” (War, a User’s Manual) for Syria.
(7 (http://mondediplo.com/2015/12/01dumbwar#nh7)) Bernard Guetta broadcasts daily on France Inter. On 18 November he claimed: “France’s president only moved closer to Russia after that country completely overhauled its policy on Syria.”
(8 (http://mondediplo.com/2015/12/01dumbwar#nh8)) Valeurs actuelles, Paris, 19 November 2015.
(9 (http://mondediplo.com/2015/12/01dumbwar#nh9)) Robert Kagan, “The crisis of world order (http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-crisis-of-world-order-1448052095)”, The Wall Street Journal, New York, 21 November 2015.
(10 (http://mondediplo.com/2015/12/01dumbwar#nh10)) Steven Simon and Jonathan Stevenson, “The end of Pax Americana: why Washington’s Middle East pullback makes sense”, Foreign Affairs, New York, November-December 2015.
(11 (http://mondediplo.com/2015/12/01dumbwar#nh11)) See Eric Hobsbawm, Globalisation, Democracy and Terrorism, Abacus, 2008.

Serge Halimi is president of Le Monde diplomatique

More articles by:Serge Halimi (http://www.counterpunch.org/author/serge-halimi/)

mick silver

7th December 2015, 08:27 AM

Turkey angered by rocket-brandishing on Russian naval ship passing Istanbulhttps://s.yimg.com/lq/p/us/news/editorial/d/0c/d0c3eb8ca18907492a4b337b5cec5193.jpeg (http://www.reuters.com/) December 6, 2015 10:20 AM

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Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu speaks to the media during a visit to northern Cyprus, …

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey accused Russia of a "provocation" on Sunday after a serviceman on the deck of a Russian naval ship allegedly held a rocket launcher on his shoulder while the vessel passed through Istanbul.
Relations have deteriorated sharply since Turkey last week became the first NATO member in more than half a century to down a Russian plane, which it said had violated its airspace while flying sorties over Syria. The pilot was killed.
The NTV news channel broadcast photographs that it said showed a serviceman brandishing a rocket launcher on the deck of the landing ship Caesar Kunikov as it passed on Saturday through the Bosphorus Strait, which bisects the city of Istanbul. It said the ship was believed to be en route to Syria.
"For a Russian soldier to display a rocket launcher or something similar while passing on a Russian warship is a provocation," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters, according to the Hurriyet news site. "If we perceive a threatening situation, we will give the necessary response."
The Bosphorus offers the only passage to the world's oceans for the Russian Black Sea fleet. A World War One-era treaty obliges Turkey to allow all ships to pass during peacetime.
Turkey had considered Russia a strategic partner as its main energy supplier, despite deep differences over Syria. But since Turkey shot the plane down, Moscow has introduced economic sanctions including a ban on Turkish foods and other products worth as much as $1 billion.NTV said three NATO frigates with Canadian, Spanish and Portuguese flags had been moored in Istanbul as the Caesar Kunikov passed through.
(Reporting by Ayla Jean Yackley; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

mick silver

7th December 2015, 08:51 AM

Syria slams US-led coalition deadly strike against troops as 'act of aggression' Published time: 7 Dec, 2015 06:50Edited time: 7 Dec, 2015 14:38
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Damascus has labelled as an “act of aggression” the US-led coalition’s missile strike which killed three Syrian soldiers at an army base in the Deir ez Zor province.

On top of the fatalities, 13 personnel were injured and a number of military vehicles were destroyed when warplanes fired nine missiles at the Saeqa military camp.
The incident is the first of its kind since the coalition started to bomb Syrian territory more than a year ago, though the US-led alliance continues to deny it carried out the airstrike.
READ MORE: ‘Everyone knows what’s going on’: Istanbul residents on Turkey-ISIS oil trade (https://www.rt.com/news/324668-istanbul-residents-isis-oil/)
“Syria strongly condemns the act of aggression by the US-led coalition that contradicts the UN Charter on goals and principles. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has sent letters to the UN Secretary General and the UN Security Council,” Syria's SANA news agency quoted the country's foreign ministry as saying.

Coalition spokesman Colonel Steve Warren has insisted, however, that the only airstrikes in the area were delivered some 55km away.
“We’ve seen those Syrian reports but we did not conduct any strikes in that part of Deir ez Zor yesterday. So we see no evidence,” he said.
The Deir ez Zor province is situated in eastern Syria, and is largely controlled by Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL). The region is of significant strategic importance to the terrorist group, as it contains a number of oilfields, which are a major source of revenue for IS.
On November 24 a Turkish Air Force F-16 jet shot down a Russian Su-24 bomber over Syria. Ankara claims the Russian plane briefly crossed into Turkish airspace. One of the Russian pilots was killed by Syrian rebels as he ejected from the stricken plane, while the other was rescued in a swift operation during which one Russian serviceman was killed.

The downing of the bomber by Turkey came after a successful Russian bombing campaign against ISIS oil infrastructure on the Syria-Turkish border, and was seen as revenge. Putin described the act as "a stab in the back" and accused Erdogan of benefiting from the illegal oil trade with IS and financing the terrorists.
READ MORE: Putin: Downing of Russian jet over Syria stab in the back by terrorist accomplices (https://www.rt.com/news/323262-putin-downing-plane-syria/)

Russia has been conducting airstrikes targeting IS and other terrorist groups in Syria since September 30. The strikes were launched after a formal request from Damascus. Russian jets have been carrying out sorties from Moscow’s Khmeimim Air Base in Latakia.
The US-led coalition’s airstrikes in Syria are in fact illegal, as it has never received permission from Syrian President Bashar Assad to enter the country’s airspace. In response to the UK’s decision to join the bombing campaign in Syria, Assad reiterated in an interview with the Sunday Times that the presence of Britain in Syria is unlawful as neither Damascus nor the United Nations have given London the green light to bomb Syrian territory.
“It will be harmful and illegal and it will support terrorism, as happened after the coalition started its operation a year or so [ago], because this is like a cancer,” Assad said.

mick silver

7th December 2015, 02:07 PM

Turkey defends ground troops in Iraq as war escalateshttps://s.yimg.com/lq/p/us/news/editorial/d/0c/d0c3eb8ca18907492a4b337b5cec5193.jpeg (http://www.reuters.com/) By Daren Butler and Isabel Coles 5 hours ago

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ISTANBUL/ERBIL (Reuters) - Turkey said on Monday it would not withdraw hundreds of soldiers who arrived last week at a base in northern Iraq, despite being ordered by Baghdad to pull them out within 48 hours.
The sudden arrival of such a large and heavily armed Turkish contingent in a camp near the frontline in northern Iraq has added yet another controversial deployment to a war against Islamic State fighters that has drawn in most of the world's major powers.
Ankara says the troops are there as part of an international mission to train and equip Iraqi forces to fight against Islamic State. The Iraqi government says it never invited such a force, and will take its case to the United Nations if they are not pulled out.
Washington, which is leading an international coalition against Islamic State that includes Turkey, Arab states and European powers like Britain and France, has told Ankara and Baghdad to resolve the standoff, and says it does not support deployments in Iraq without Baghdad's consent.
The Turkish troops' presence is an embarrassment for Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar Abadi, under strong pressure from powerful Iran-backed Shi'ite political groups to kick them out.
Shi'ite parties linked to militia groups armed and funded by Iran have also complained about U.S. plans to station special forces in Iraq to conduct raids and guide bombs against Islamic State. Political pressure on Abadi could make those plans more difficult to carry out.
Political analysts saw last week's deployment in northern Iraq by Turkey, which has the second biggest army in NATO, as a bid to assert its influence in the face of increased Russian and Iranian involvement in Syria and Iraq.
"Turkey seems to be angling to prove to the Russians and Iranians that they will not be allowed to have either the Syrian or Iraqi war theaters only to themselves," said Aydin Selcen, former consul general of Turkey in Erbil, the capital of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region.
OUR DUTY
The troops arrived on Thursday with tanks and armored personnel carriers at a camp in territory held by Iraqi Kurds near the Islamic State-held northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Ankara said they were there to help protect a training mission close to the front line.
"It is our duty to provide security for our soldiers providing training there," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in an interview on Turkey's Kanal 24 television.
"Everybody is present in Iraq ... The goal of all of them is clear. Train-and-equip advisory support is being provided. Our presence there is not a secret," he added.
Abadi has called the Turkish deployment a violation of Iraqi sovereignty. Government spokesman Saad al-Hadithi said Iraq was still waiting for Turkey to respond officially.
"In case we have not received any positive signs before the deadline we set for the Turkish side, then we maintain our legal right to file a complaint to the Security Council to stop this serious violation to Iraqi sovereignty," he said.
A senior Turkish official said Baghdad's objections had come as a surprise: "There was no single development ... that happened without informing the central government."
"The military personnel for training will stay. Not because we want them (there) particularly but because there is a demand from the Iraqi side. The discussion with the central government still continues," the official told reporters.
He said the total number of Turkish troops across Iraq was much less than 1,000 soldiers, with some having arrived from Turkey and others sent to the base from other parts of Iraq.
Islamic State militants overran Mosul, Iraq's main northern city and home to around 2 million people, in June 2014. An expected counter-offensive by Iraqi forces has been repeatedly postponed because they are involved in fighting elsewhere.
The U.S.-led coalition has been staging air strikes on Islamic State bases in both Iraq and Syria for more than a year.
Russia joined the regional conflict with air strikes of its own on Syria two months ago, and like Iran is allied to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, who is opposed by Turkey, the United States and their allies. Turkey shot down a Russian warplane last month, causing a breakdown in relations with Moscow.
IRAQI ULTIMATUM
Brett McGurk, U.S. President Barack Obama's envoy to the global coalition to counter Islamic State, said on Twitter that Washington did not support missions in Iraq without permission of Baghdad, which he said also applied to U.S. missions there.
The camp occupied by the Turkish troops is being used by a force called Hashid Watani, or national mobilization, made up of mainly Sunni Arab former Iraqi police and volunteers from Mosul.
It is seen as a counterweight to Shi'ite militias that have grown in clout elsewhere in Iraq with Iranian backing, and was formed by former Nineveh governor Atheel al-Nujaifi, who has close relations with Turkey. A small number of Turkish trainers were already there before the latest deployment.
The government of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, whose security forces control the area where the Turks are deployed, backed up Ankara's explanation: Thursday's deployment was intended to expand the capacity of the training base, said Safeen Dizayee, Kurdish government spokesman.
"The increase of personnel requires some protection."
Although Turkey is strongly suspicious of Kurds in Syria, it has good relations with Iraq's Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani.
"Turkey, working through the Nujaifis and the Barzanis, is trying to establish its own sphere of influence in northern Iraq," said Aaron Stein, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.
(Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk in Istanbul, Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad, Orhan Coskun and Tulay Karadeniz in Ankara; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Pravin Char, Peter Millership and Peter Graff)

mick silver

7th December 2015, 02:09 PM

neuro I know you work in turkey have you thought about doing your job some were else hell a big war cannot be far off

Neuro

7th December 2015, 02:55 PM

neuro I know you work in turkey have you thought about doing your job some were else hell a big war cannot be far off
The thought is there for sure, thanks man!

mick silver

8th December 2015, 07:16 AM

Russian submarine with cruise missiles off Syria coast - reports Published time: 8 Dec, 2015 08:32Edited time: 8 Dec, 2015 13:45
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© Yuri Maltsev / Reuters

An advanced Kilo-class submarine has appeared near the Syrian coast, according to a source within the Russian MoD. The Rostov-on-Don sub is equipped with modern Russian Kalibr cruise missiles.
In mid-November, there were reports of the same submarine striking targets in the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa.
These were neither confirmed nor denied by the MoD. Russian warships in the Caspian Sea hit Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) targets in Syria with modern Kalibr cruise missiles in early October.

They also fired 18 cruise missiles in late November.

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Known as 'Improved Kilo' under a NATO code name, the Rostov-on-Don (B-237) is the first trade-off model of the third generation submarines of the Varshavyanka class (Project 636) subs. The diesel-electric stealth sub is believed to be the quietest in the world. It also possesses an extended combat range and its relatively small size helps it maneuver in shallow waters.
READ MORE: Russia’s stealth ‘black hole’ submarine prepares for 4,000km trip, deep water trials (https://www.rt.com/news/220983-russia-submarine-tests-nato/)

The sub is armed with 533mm torpedoes and reportedly Kalibr-PL (submarine modification) water-to-surface cruise missiles. The sub weighs 4,000 tons, reaches underwater speeds of 20 knots (37kmp/h) and can dive to a depth of 300 meters. It has a 52-man crew and can spend 45 days at sea before needing to go to port. NATO has called this type of submarine a “black hole” for its ability to remain undetected.

mick silver

8th December 2015, 07:20 AM

What Stinks in Saudi Ain’t the Camel Dung Column: Politics (http://journal-neo.org/category/columns/politics/)
Region: Middle East (http://journal-neo.org/category/locations/middle-east/)
Country: Saudi Arabia (http://journal-neo.org/category/locations/middle-east/saudi-arabia/)

http://journal-neo.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/saudi-arabian-artillery-300x169.jpg (http://journal-neo.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/saudi-arabian-artillery.jpg)In recent weeks one nation after another is falling over themselves, literally, to join the Turkey shoot known, erroneously, as the war in Syria, ostensibly against the Islamic State. The most wanted but most feared question is where will this war frenzy lead, and how can it be stopped short of dragging the entire planet into a world war of destruction?On September 30, responding to a formal invitation or plea from the duly-elected President of the Syrian Arab Republic, the Russian Federation began what was an initially highly effective bombing campaign in support of the Syrian Government Army.On 13 November following the terror attacks claimed by ISIS in Paris, the French President proclaimed France was “at war” and immediately sent her one and only aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, to Syria to join the battle. Then on December 4, the German Parliament approved sending 1,200 German soldiers and six Tornado jets to “help” France. Reports out of Germany say the Germans will not work with Russia or the Assad regime, but with CentCom command in Florida and coalition headquarters, not in Damascus, but in Kuwait. The same week the UK Parliament approved sending British planes and forces to “fight ISIS” in Syria. Again we can be sure it’s not to help Russia’s cause in cooperation with the Syrian Army of Assad to restore sovereignty to Syria.Then Turkey’s hot-head President Recep Erdogan, fresh from his criminal, premeditated downing of the Russian SU-24 in Syria, orders Turkish tanks into the oil-rich Mosul region of Iraq against the vehement protests of the Iraqi government. And added to this chaos, the United States claims that its planes have been surgically bombing ISIS sites for more than a year, yet the result has been only to expand the territories controlled by ISIS and other terror groups.If we take a minute to step back and reflect, we can readily realize the world is literally going berzerk, with Syria as merely the ignition to a far uglier situation which has the potential to destroy our lovely, peaceful planet.
Something major missing I t and nuclear plants, and possible “face time” for Putin with the Saudi King Salman.The long procession of Arab leaders going to Moscow and Sochi in recent months to meet President Putin gave the impression of a modern version of the walk to Canossa in 1077 of Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV to Pope Gregory VII at Canossa Castle, to beg revocation of Henry’s ex-communication. This time it looked like it was the Gulf Arab monarchs in the role of Henry IV, and Vladimir Putin in the role of the Pope. Or so it seemed. I at least believed that at the time. Like many global political events, that, too, was soaked in deception and lies.
The Vatican succeeded to force the secular monarch Henry IV to bend the knee before the power of the Church of Rome in 1077 at Canossa What is now emerging, especially clear since the Turkish deliberate ambush of the Russian SU-24 jet inside Syrian airspace, is that Russia is not fighting a war against merely ISIS terrorists, nor against the ISIS backers in Turkey. Russia is taking on, perhaps unknowingly, a vastly more dangerous plot. Behind that plot is the hidden role of Saudi Arabia and its new monarch, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, together with his son, the Defense Minister, Prince Salman.
Saudi ‘impulsive intervention policy’German media has widely reported a leaked German BND intelligence estimate. The BND is Germany’s version of the CIA. The BND report, among other things, concentrates on the rising role of the King’s son, 30-year-old Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Referring to the child prince’s important role the BND states, “The current cautious diplomatic stance of senior members of the Saudi royal family will be replaced by an impulsive intervention policy (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/saudiarabia/12029546/Saudi-Arabia-destabilising-Arab-world-German-intelligence-warns.html).”Prince Salman is Defense Minister and led the Kingdom, beginning last March, into a mad war, code-named by Salman as “Operation Decisive Storm,” in neighboring Yemen. Saudis headed a coalition of Arab states that includes Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain. The Prince is also head of the Saudi Economic Council which he created.The new King, Salman, is not the benign sweet guy his PR staff try to paint him.As my soon-to-be-released book, The Lost Hegemon: Whom the gods would destroy, documents in detail, ever since CIA Cairo Station Chief Miles Copeland organized the transfer of the Muslim Brotherhood, banned in Egypt for an alleged assassination attempt against Nasser, to Saudi Arabia in the early 1950’s, there has existed a perverse marriage of the Saudi monarchy and radical “Islamic” terrorist organizations. As described by John Loftus, a former US Justice Department official, by the joining of Egypt’s Muslim Brothers and Saudi strict Islam, “they combined the doctrines of Nazism with this weird Islamic cult, Wahhabism.”Allen Dulles’ CIA secretly persuaded the Saudi monarchy in 1954 to help rebuild the banned Muslim Brotherhood, thereby creating a fusion of the Brotherhood with Saudi ultra-fundamentalist Wahhabi Islam and, of course, backed by the vast Saudi oil riches. The CIA planned to use the Saudi Muslim Brothers to wield a weapon across the entire Muslim world against feared Soviet incursions. A fanatical young terrorist named Osama bin Laden was later to arise out of this marriage in Hell between the Brotherhood and Wahhabite Saudi Islam.King Salman was in the middle of creating Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda as it was later dubbed in the media. His involvement goes back to the late 1970’s when he, as Governor of Riyadh, was named head of major conservative Saudi charities later discovered financing Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Bosnia. Salman worked intimately as the financial funding conduit for what became Al Qaeda together with bin Laden’s Saudi intelligence “handler,” then-head of Saudi Intelligence, Prince Turki Al-Faisal and the Saudi-financed Muslim World League.King Salman in those days headed the Saudi High Commission for Relief to Bosnia-Herzegovina, a key front for al-Qaeda in the Balkans in the 1990s. According to a United Nations investigation, Salman in the 1990s transferred more than $120 million from commission accounts under his control — as well as his own personal accounts — to the Third World Relief Agency, an al-Qaida front and the main pipeline for illegal weapons shipments to al-Qaida fighters in the Balkans. Osama bin Laden was directly involved in those operations of Salman.During the US invasion of Iraq in 2003-4, Al Qaeda entered that country, headed by Moroccan-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who had pledged allegiance to bin Laden’s Al Qaeda, creating Al Qaeda in Iraq, later calling itself the Islamic State in Iraq, the Saudi-financed forerunner of ISIS. A declassified Pentagon DIA document shows that in August 2012, the DIA knew that the US-backed Syrian insurgency was dominated by Islamist militant groups including “the Salafists, the Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaeda in Iraq (https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/officials-islamic-state-arose-from-us-support-for-al-qaeda-in-iraq-a37c9a60be4#.mrjgu8mcl).” According to author Gerald Posner, Salman’s son, Ahmed bin Salman, who died in 2002, also had ties to al-Qaida.
A Saudi Oil ImperiumIf we look at the emergence of Al Qaeda in Iraq and its transformation into the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), it all traces back to the Saudi operations going back to the late 1970’s involving now-King Salman, Saudi Osama bin Laden, together with Saudi intelligence head, Prince Turki Al-Faisal.Washington and the CIA worked intimately with this Saudi network, bringing bin Laden and other key Saudis into Pakistan to train with the Pakistani ISI intelligence, creating what became the Afghan Mujahideen. The Mujahideen were created by Saudi, Pakistani and US intelligence to defeat the Soviet Red Army in the 1980’s Afghanistan war, the CIA’s “Operation Cyclone.” Cyclone was Zbigniew Brzezinski’s plan to lure Moscow into an Afghan “Bear Trap” and give the Soviet Union what he called their “Vietnam.”The so-called ISIS today in Iraq and Syria, as well as the Al Qaeda Al-Nusra Front in Syria and various other Jihad terror splinter gangs under attack from Russia and the Damascus government of Assad, all have their origins in Saudi Arabia and the activities of King Salman.Has the King undergone a Saul-to-Paul conversion to a pacific world view since becoming King, and his son, Prince Salman as well? Despite signals in recent months that the Saudis have ceased financing the anti-Assad terror organizations in Syria, the reality is the opposite.
The Saudis Behind ErdoğanMuch attention of late is given, understandably, to the Turkish dictatorship of the thug, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. This is especially so since his Air Force deliberately shot down the Russian SU-24 jet over Syrian territory, an act of war. What few look at are the ties of Erdoğan and his AKP to the Saudi monarchy.According to a well-informed Turkish political source I spoke with in 2014, who had been involved in attempts to broker a peace between Assad and Erdoğan, Erdoğan’s first Presidential election campaign in August 2014 was “greased” by a gift of $ 10 billion from the Saudis. After his victory in buying the presidential election, Erdoğan and his hand-picked Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu opened the doors wide to establish secret training centers for what was to be called ISIS. Under supervision of Hakan Fidan, Erdoğan’s hand-picked head of the Secret Services (MIT), Turkey organized camps for training ISIS and other terrorists in Turkey and also to provide their supplies in Syria (http://www.voltairenet.org/article187879.html).The financing for the Turkish ISIS operation was arranged apparently by a close personal friend of Erdoğan named Yasin al-Qadi, a Saudi banker close to the Saudi Royal House, member of the Muslim Brotherhood, financier of Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda since Afghanistan in the 1980’s (http://www.voltairenet.org/article181671.html).Erdoğan’s US-sanctioned and Saudi-financed terrorist training camps have brought an estimated 200,000 mercenary terrorists from all over the world, transited by Turkey in order to wage “jihad” in Syria.But that jihad, it is now clear, is not about Allah but about Moola—money. The Saudi monarchy is determined to control the oil fields of Iraq and of Syria using ISIS to do it. They clearly want to control the entire world oil market, first bankrupting the recent challenge from US shale oil producers, then by controlling through Turkey the oil flows of Iraq and Syria.
Saudi TOW missiles to ISISIn May 2014, the MIT transferred to ISIS terrorists in Syria, by special train, a quantity of heavy weapons and new Toyota pick-ups offered by Saudi Arabia.Now a detailed investigation of the Turkish shoot down of the Russian SU-24 jet reveals that the Turkish F-16 jet that shot down the jet was supported by two AWACS reconnaissance planes that enabled the Turkish F-16 exact hit, a very difficult if not impossible feat against a jet as agile as the SU-24. One of the AWACS planes was a Boeing AWACS E-3A of the Saudi Arabian air force which took off from the Riyadh, Saudi Arabia airbase (http://journal-neo.org/2015/12/08/what-stinks-in-saudi-aint-the-camel-dung/%20http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/bombshell-turkish-attack-russian-su-24-was-guided-us-and-saudis-reconnassaince-aircraft).Then, as a Russian rescue helicopter rushed to the scene of the SU-24 crash, Saudi TOW anti-aircraft missiles shot the Russian helicopter down. The Saudis had sent 500 of the highly-effective TOW missiles to anti-Assad terror groups in Syria on October 9 (http://www.businessinsider.com/syria-rebels-and-tow-missiles-2015-10?IR=T).What we have, then, is not an isolated Russian war against ISIS in Syria. What lies behind ISIS is not just Erdoğan’s criminal regime, but far more significant, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and her Wahhabite allies Kuwait, UAE, Qatar.In the true sense, ISIS is simply a “Saudi army in disguise.”If we strip away the phony religious cover, what emerges is a Saudi move to grab some of the world’s largest oil reserves, those of the Sunni parts of Iraq, and of Syria, using the criminal Turkish regime in the role of thug to do the rough work, like a bouncer in a brothel. If Moscow is not conscious of this larger dimension, she runs the risk of getting caught in a deadly “bear trap” which will more and more remind them of Afghanistan in the 1980’s.What stinks in Saudi Arabia ain’t the camel dung. It’s the monarchy of King Salman and his hot-headed son, Prince Salman. For decades they have financed terrorism under a fake religious disguise, to advance their private plutocratic agenda. It has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with money and oil. A look at the ISIS map from Iraq to Syria shows that they precisely targeted the oil riches of those two sovereign states. Saudi control of that oil wealth via their ISIS agents, along with her clear plan to take out the US shale oil competition, or so Riyadh reckons, would make the Saudi monarchy a vastly richer state, one, perhaps because of that money, finally respected by white western rich men and their society. That is clearly bovine thinking.Don’t bet on that Salman.F. William Engdahl is strategic risk consultant and lecturer, he holds a degree in politics from Princeton University and is a best-selling author on oil and geopolitics, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook” (http://journal-neo.org/).
First appeared: http://journal-neo.org/2015/12/08/what-stinks-in-saudi-aint-the-camel-dung/

mick silver

8th December 2015, 07:25 AM

Armed to the teeth: Amnesty slams US & allies for weapons falling into ISIS’ hands Published time: 8 Dec, 2015 10:42Edited time: 8 Dec, 2015 12:24
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Islamic State’s campaign of terror in Iraq and Syria is being aided by the weapons indirectly supplied by the very countries trying to fight them, with the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 giving the terrorist group access to “a large and lethal arsenal.”
The claims were made in a study by Amnesty International, entitled ‘Taking Stock: The arming of Islamic State (https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/12/islamic-state-atrocities-fuelled-by-decades-of-reckless-arms-trading/),’ which was released on Tuesday. Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) acquired most of its munitions by raiding weapons depots of the Iraqi government army. However, the capture of weapons on the battlefield, defections and an illicit trade have helped to keep their supplies well-stocked.

The report states how, after capturing Iraq’s second largest city Mosul in 2014, IS terrorists were able to acquire “a windfall of internationally manufactured arms from Iraqi stockpiles, including US-manufactured weapons and military vehicles.” The terrorist group was quick to show off the captured loot as they paraded the hardware on social media.
“Decades of free-flowing arms into Iraq meant that when IS took control of these areas, they were like children in a sweetshop. The fact that countries including the UK have ended up inadvertently arming IS should give us pause over current weapons deals,” said Amnesty UK’s arms program director, Oliver Sprague.
Read more
https://cdn.rt.com/files/2015.12/thumbnail/565d1ad2c4618822688b459e.jpg‘Too dumb’: Ex-US intelligence chief blames Iraq War, poor strategy for rise of ISIS (https://www.rt.com/usa/324081-intelligence-chief-iraq-war-isis/)
“Risks need to be far more carefully calculated, and we shouldn’t wait for this worst case scenario to happen before acting to prevent sales of arms which could fuel atrocities.”
Among the advanced weaponry in the IS arsenal are man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS), guided anti-tank missiles and armored fighting vehicles, as well as assault rifles like the Russian and Chinese-produced Kalashnikov series and the US M16 and Bushmaster, the report states.
“The vast and varied weaponry being used by the armed group calling itself Islamic State is a textbook case of how reckless arms trading fuels atrocities on a massive scale,” said Patrick Wilcken, researcher on Arms Control, Security Trade and Human Rights at Amnesty International.
“Poor regulation and lack of oversight of the immense arms flows into Iraq going back decades have given IS and other armed groups a bonanza of unprecedented access to firepower,” he added.
However, it seems Washington is refusing to learn from its past mistakes. Between 2011 and 2013, the US signed billions of dollars' worth of arms contracts with the Iraqi government, and by 2014 it had delivered more than $500 million worth of small arms and ammunition.
Congress also passed a bill in December 2014 giving the green light to $64 billion in funding for overseas war ventures in countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. However, the White House was left with its tail between its legs after a $500 million program to train ‘moderate’ rebels ended in abject failure, with just a handful of fighters making the grade.
Even more disastrous was the fact that a stockpile of weapons given to the US-trained rebels ended up in the hands of terrorists, after the so-called ‘moderates’ willingly handed it over to groups such as Al-Nusra Front soon after crossing into Syria.
“My concern from the beginning was that we were going to end up unwittingly aiding and abetting terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda,” Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, told Sputnik news agency in October, adding: “I am sorry that my concern turned out to be true.”
Sunjeev Bery, the advocacy director for Middle East North Africa at Amnesty International USA was equally scathing, saying, “In its rush to ‘degrade and destroy’ the Islamic State armed group, the Obama administration must not trample its international human rights obligations,” while also adding that this was “simply opening the floodgates” to put more weapons into the hands of armed groups who have “committed serious human rights abuses in both Iraq and Syria.”

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mick silver

8th December 2015, 07:39 AM

Daesh Makes Gains as Western-Backed Rebels Turn Guns on One Another© AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra

Middle East (http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/)03:48 08.12.2015(updated 07:45 08.12.2015) Get short URL
8 (http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20151208/1031394816/syrian-rebel-infighting.html#comments)3521201

Throughout the Syrian crisis, the United States and its Western allies have propped up rebel groups fighting against the legitimate government of Bashar al-Assad. But those factions are beginning to turn on each other, and the confusion is helping Daesh, also known as ISIL/The Islamic State.

The United States and its allies — Turkey, in particular — have funneled massive stockpiles of weapons to various rebel groups, hoping they would help fight Daesh. But new reports from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights suggest that those guns are instead being pointed at each other.http://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/images/102685/93/1026859362.jpg
© AP Photo/ U.S. Air Force via AP
Say What? US Blames Russia After Syria Slams Coalition’s 'Act of Aggression' Against Government Forces (http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20151208/1031392508/syrian-army-camp-bombing.html)

The infighting is occurring principally near the town of Azaz, near Aleppo along the Turkish border.
"The Levant Front and the others are in dispute over who should control the Azaz area, and so you have this fighting between them, and the Jaysh al-Thuwwar and the [Kurdish YPG]," one combatant told Reuters.
"This is strife between Jaysh al-Thuwwar and the Kurds, with the [Free Syrian Army] FSA factions."
The Free Syrian Army is a group with close ties to Turkey, while YPG and Jaysh al-Thuwwar are both part of a new Washington-backed alliance known as the Democratic Forces of Syria.

"Turkish groups against US groups — it’s odd," Observatory director Rami Abdulrahman told Reuters.http://cdn3.img.sputniknews.com/images/103069/06/1030690609.jpg
© AFP 2015/ NICHOLAS KAMM
Daesh Unlikely to Be Defeated Before Obama Leaves Office - White House (http://sputniknews.com/military/20151208/1031391853/daesh-obama.html)

That infighting is clearly a problem for the US and Turkey, two allies essentially fighting a proxy war against themselves, but it’s also a major problem for the broader fight against Daesh. The area around Azaz is also highly prized by the terrorist group, and by manipulating the infighting, Daesh may very well gain control of the territory.
"The winner in all this fighting is likely to be ISIS," Jason Ditz writes for AntiWar, using an alternative name for Daesh, "as they are also moving forces into the same area, and seem to be planning to just pick up the pieces of whichever faction ultimately wins this battle, and claim the valuable border-crossing."

Throughout the conflict, Russia has stressed the need to support the legitimate government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as the only effective means of preventing the spread of terrorism.http://cdn5.img.sputniknews.com/images/103136/00/1031360066.jpg
© REUTERS/ Christian Hartmann
West Needs to Work With Russia and Syria Against Daesh - London Mayor (http://sputniknews.com/europe/20151207/1031358537/boris-johnson-west-needs-to-work-with-russia-syria.html)

While Washington and its allies have insisted that the ousting of Assad is crucial to ending the conflict, Moscow has maintained that Syria’s future should be left for the Syrian people to determine.
A number of Western leaders are beginning to agree that the West should cooperate with Russia to end the conflict.
"I don’t want to have them on my conscience, and I don’t want these sickos from Daesh/Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant to continue to exult in their so-called caliphate, and to be allowed indefinitely to promote their terrorist campaigns," London Mayor Boris Johnson wrote in the Telegraph.
"…We cannot afford to be picky about our allies," he added.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20151208/1031394816/syrian-rebel-infighting.html#ixzz3tjxhjVX1

mick silver

8th December 2015, 08:22 PM

Russia strikes ISIS targets in Syria from sub in Mediterranean for first time (VIDEO) Published time: 8 Dec, 2015 19:02Edited time: 8 Dec, 2015 21:00
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© Vitaliy Ankov / Sputnik

5.8K7

Russia has, for the first time, targeted Islamic State targets in Syria with Kalibr land-attack cruise missiles launched from a submarine in the Mediterranean Sea, according to Russia’s Defense Minister.
TrendsRussian anti-terror op in Syria (https://www.rt.com/trends/russia-syria-op/), Su-24 downing (https://www.rt.com/trends/su-24-downing/)

The 3M-54 Kalibr missiles were launched from the Kilo-class diesel-electric submarine “Rostov-on-Don”, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.
Russia’s warships based in the Caspian and Mediterranean seas launched similar missiles targeting Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) positions in late November. This is the first time that Russia has targeted IS in Syria from a submarine.
“[The missiles] targeted two major terrorist positions in the territory of Raqqa,” he said.
“We can say with absolute confidence that significant damage has been inflicted upon ammunition warehouses and a mine production plant, as well as the oil infrastructure.”

Earlier on Tuesday, a source within the Russian Ministry of Defense revealed that the Rostov-on-Don, equipped with modern Russian Kalibr cruise missiles, had appeared near the Syrian coast.
READ MORE:Russian submarine with cruise missiles off Syria coast - reports (https://www.rt.com/news/325060-russian-kilo-submarine-syria/)
Shoigu stated that in the past three days Russian Air Forces have carried out over 300 sorties hitting 600 terrorist targets.

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“In the past three days, the operation involved Tu-22 planes as well as warplanes from the Khmeimim airbase. In total we carried out 300 sorties and hit 600 various targets,” he said adding that all sorties were performed with the backing of Su-30 fighter jets.

Speaking to the president, Shoigu also said that the flight recorder of the Russian Su-24, recently downed by Turkey near the Syrian-Turkish border, has been found and presented it to Putin.
Putin told Shoigu that it should be opened only in the presence of international experts.
Read more
https://img.rt.com/files/2015.11/thumbnail/564f3909c461885d728b4596.jpgRussian cruise missiles hit ISIS from Mediterranean & Caspian; 600 killed in one strike (https://www.rt.com/news/322881-russia-cruise-missiles-isis/)
Russia has been conducting airstrikes targeting Islamic State (IS, former ISIS, ISIL) militants and other terrorist groups in Syria since September 30. The air campaign was launched after a formal request from Damascus. Russian jets have been carrying out sorties from Khmeimim Air Base in Latakia.
Turkey has been insisting that it downed the Russian Su-24 bomber on November 24 because the jet had violated its airspace for “17 seconds” and said that the jet’s crew had been repeatedly warned prior to the attack.
READ MORE:Turkish F-16 attacked Russian Su-24 without warning, both were above Syria – commander (https://www.rt.com/news/323651-turkey-su24-downing-syria/)
Moscow has denied Ankara’s claims, saying that the Turkish F-16 attacked the Su-24 without warning and over Syrian territory. The surviving Russian pilot, Konstantin Murakhtin, stated that neither he nor Lieutenant Colonel Oleg Peshkov, who was killed by Turkmen rebel machine gun fire after ejecting, had received any radio or visual warning.

mick silver

9th December 2015, 11:27 AM

Shi'ite militias threaten Turkey over incursion into Iraq
By Saif Hameed
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BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Shi'ite paramilitary groups with ties to Iran threatened to use force against Turkey on Wednesday unless it withdraws its troops from Iraqi territory, after a 48-hour deadline set by the government expired.
Turkey deployed a contingent of troops to a camp near the frontline in northern Iraq last week, provoking an outcry in Baghdad, which condemned it as a violation of sovereignty and asked NATO to intervene.
The area north of Mosul where the Turkish troops are stationed is under the control of Kurdish forces and Shi'ite militia have no presence there, which would make it difficult for them to follow through on the threats.
But it puts additional pressure on Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who was already under fire from the same Shi'ite factions over an announcement by the United States that it will send a new special operations force to conduct raids in Iraq.
Badr Brigade spokesman Karim al-Nuri likened the Turkish incursion with the occupation of Iraq by Islamic State militants and said "all options" were available.
"We have the right to respond and we do not exclude any type of response until the Turks have learned their lesson," Nuri said. "Do they have a dream of restoring Ottoman greatness? This is a great delusion and they will pay dearly because of Turkish arrogance."
Ankara says the troops are there as part of an international mission to train and equip Iraqi forces to fight Islamic State and will not withdraw them, although it said on Tuesday it would send no more. Baghdad says it never invited such a force.
In the Iraqi parliament on Wednesday, a motion condemning the Turkish intervention was approved unanimously, supporting the government in taking whatever measures it viewed as appropriate.
Several MPs suggested Iraq could wage "economic war" on Turkey, but Jafaar Hussaini, a spokesman for one of the Shi'ite armed groups, Kata'ib Hezbollah, said violence was likely.
"We say that they military option is still probable and we might reach a stage in the next few days where we start carrying out operations against the Turks, be it against their soldiers or Turkish interests in Iraq."
In September, 16 Turkish workers were abducted in Baghdad by an unknown armed group that used a familiar Shi'ite slogan and threatened to attack Turkish interests in Iraq if its demands were not met. The men were eventually released.
(Additional reporting by Ahmed Rasheed; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Neuro

10th December 2015, 03:54 PM

‘Out of question’: Erdogan rules out Turkish troop withdrawal from Iraq
https://www.rt.com/news/325539-iraq-turkey-invasion-erdogan/

I wonder if they are there to protect the ISIS oil trade? 25 tanks is quite a lot if the object is only to train anti-terrorists...

slvrbugjim

10th December 2015, 08:16 PM

Glass

10th December 2015, 08:23 PM

The Turks are establishing the beachhead/ base for the upcoming deployment of the 100,000 Saudi, Egyptian, Turk forces being deployed there along with the 10,000 US Boots. (might be 20,000 boots).

As per the deal arranged by Graham and McCain.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-12-10/us-has-secret-non-negotiable-plan-send-100000-us-saudi-troops-iraq-lawmaker-claims

Neuro

11th December 2015, 06:18 AM

7955
Turkeys map prior to the 1923 Lausanne treaty. Some may want to restore it... As it is Turkey doesn't have much of Oil/Gas resources. But with these additions, it would be oil rich. By a coincidence, the Southern border through Syria and Iraq seems to coincide with the spread of ISIS, and the border of Greater Israel... ;D

mick silver

12th December 2015, 09:09 AM

Many Iraqis Think They Know Who's Behind ISIS: Uncle Sam
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/25/united-states-fight-isis-_n_6939066.html

mick silver

12th December 2015, 09:49 AM

Russian Warships Equipped With Kalibr Missiles Join Black Sea Fleet© Sputnik/ Maks Vetrov

Military & Intelligence (http://sputniknews.com/military/)15:12 12.12.2015(updated 15:20 12.12.2015) Get short URL
1 (http://sputniknews.com/military/20151212/1031641742/russian-ship-black-navy-fleet-kalibr-missile-system.html#comments)4768450

The ‘Zelyoniy Dol’ and ‘Serpukhov’ warships, equipped with the versatile ‘Kalibr-NK’ missile system, have joined the Russian Black Sea Fleet, based in Sevastopol, commander of the Black Sea Fleet Alexander Vitko said.
On Saturday, St. Andrew's flag, a sign of the Russian Federation’s Navy, were sanctified and raised on the new ships. The solemn ceremony was attended by commanders of the Black Sea Fleet led by Admiral Vitko, as well as the head of the Republic of Crimea Sergey Aksenov.

http://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/images/102820/95/1028209598.jpg
© Russian Defense Ministry
Kalibr-NK: The Russian Cruise Missile That Shocked the World (http://sputniknews.com/russia/20151012/1028390749/russia-kalibr-missile.html)

“The ships were put on combat duty today. Previously, the ships were only tactical, but now they will include operational tasks. Their combat capabilities were seen by the whole world in the Caspian Sea and now they have appeared in the Black Sea Fleet,” Vitko said.Vitko thanked the creators of the ships, the labor collective of the Zelenodolsk plant, noting that the fleet is expected to supply a few more combat units.
The ‘Green Dol’ and ‘Serpukhov’ small-missile carriers are the fourth and fifth ships of the modernized series of ‘Buyan-M’, built as part of the Navy's shipbuilding program at the Zelenodolsk plant named after AM Gorky.
They have increased displacement and are equipped with the latest ‘Kalibr-NK’ long-range missile system.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/military/20151212/1031641742/russian-ship-black-navy-fleet-kalibr-missile-system.html#ixzz3u7sNakoX

Neuro

12th December 2015, 12:54 PM

meanwhile...

Turkish president Erdogan unveils his new palace of a thousand rooms

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVrZQmR1Syg
I think it has 1100 rooms, the biggest palace since Versailles I have heard. Anyway it has been ready for a year or so. It was actually built for the Turkish Prime Minister, when Erdogan held that post. As he decided to run for president, it became the presidents palace. Now I suppose it is just Erdogans palace! And it seems like he is attempting to recreate the Kalifate/Ottoman empire with him as the Sultan/Emperor. I guess a simple country is too small for that Palace... Turkey is a bit small for Erdogan too!

mick silver

12th December 2015, 07:37 PM

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/12/11/1449835559624/StephenCollinsdesktop1212.jpeg

mick silver

12th December 2015, 07:53 PM

West supporting terrorism behind the scenes
West supporting terrorism behind the scenesBy Jim W. Dean, Managing Editor (http://www.veteranstoday.com/author/dean/) on December 12, 2015
http://www.veteranstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/PressTV-interview_JimDean_Assad-interview-on-state-sponsored-terror-640x372.jpgThis screen grab is not active – See link below

… Jim W. Dean, … with Press TV (http://www.presstv.com/), Tehran– First published … December 2, 2015 (http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2015/12/02/440001/Syria-Turkey-US-Assad-Russia-Erdogan-terrorists-) –____________Press TV has interviewed Jim W. Dean, managing editor of Veterans Today in Atlanta, to discuss the remarks made by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad about fighting terrorism.

You can view the 3.5 minute interview here. (http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2015/12/02/440001/Syria-Turkey-US-Assad-Russia-Erdogan-terrorists-)____________The following is a rough transcription of the interview.http://www.veteranstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Assad_flag_crop-320x234.jpgNo one every expected the former dentist to still be standing

Press TV: What do you think about the Syrian President’s remarks regarding the complicity of the United States and its allies in the rise of terrorists? Can the US and its allies under any doctrine and international law support rebels?
Dean: Well they have been doing it, using terrorism for controlling things on the ground. This has been going on five years now.
Over the last couple of years new stories started coming out of the behind the scenes support that the western allies have been giving these various terrorist groups and in the last year there has been a tremendous amount of publicity on it.
But there has been no real political push back in any of the countries, not here in the US other than alternative media. There is no marching in the streets, the veterans are not marching, the academic associations are doing nothing.
There is none of the Vietnam War peace movement, the anti-Vietnam war thing going on here whatsoever. And none of the political candidates are making it an issue. They are all anti-Russia. They are all on board the military industrial complex thing here.
So it is a little scary what we are seeing. We did not expect this Russian offensives and teaming up with the Syrian army, and Iranians helping. Nobody really saw this coming. So it was a good surprise to all of us and we now have to do what we can politically to try to see that those who have been supporting the terrorists, using that as a tool, have to pay a political price for that.
Press TV: Well how much do you think the propaganda machine of the West has a role in all of this – Russia being seen as a boogeyman and a force to be reckoned with?
Dean: Well Erdogan unfortunately is bleeding now. He has been exposed but he is kind of prepared for this because he has been eliminating his opposition very methodically over the last couple of years.
The Turkish army had always been the guardian of its secular constitution to make sure one group would not take over and of course Erdogan basically wants to build a Muslim caliphate. He figures that is really the game he wants to play, the great Muslim leader.
He does not want a secular government, so he has weeded those former generals out. He has basically muzzled the press. It is a type of situation people using religion twisted in a way where they feel they can get power from it.
But the sanctions now are going to be hurting and I think the Russians are going to be dropping more bombs in terms of what they know about Mr. Erdogan and his family and also more about how western governments are involved in supporting the terrorists.
I think they are just dropping a little bit at a time to let them know that we have our own intelligence, we have our own intercept capability, and we know a lot about what you people have been doing.

__________http://www.veteranstoday.com/2015/12/12/dean-west-supporting-terrorism-behind-scenes/

mick silver

12th December 2015, 08:25 PM

Deployment in SyriaRecently the Russian Marines have been deployed in Syria as a part of the Russian military assistance in fighting terrorism. Since September this year, few hundred marines have been stationed in western Syria and in the city of Slunfeh in East Latakia, with the primary objective of guarding the Russian air base. During their short service in Syria, there have already been sporadic clashes with terrorist groups in Latakia. One of the incident happened in September when the fighters of the Islamic State tried to mount an attack on the air base in Latakia, however they were ambushed by the Russian Marines which resulted in a couple of dead terrorist while the others retreated. There are also some reports which suggest that this unit might be coordinating attacks on terrorists alongside Hezbollah and the Syrian Arab Army. The Involvement of the Russian Marines in the Syrian conflict has been already paying off. After the downing of the SU-24, this unit was successful in the search and rescue mission of the second pilot while fighting the jihadists in the border region with Turkey.
http://southfront.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Structure_Deployment.jpg
Naval Infantry – Russian Marines ε20,000 Structure/Deployment:Pacific fleet HQ Vladivostok
– 59th Marine Battalion
-84th Armoured Marine Battalion
-263rd Artillery Battery
-1484th Signals Battalion
Baltic Fleet HQ Kaliningrad
-299th Baltic Fleet Coastal Forces Training Center
-336th guards Białystok Marine Brigade – Baltiysk
-877th Marine Battalion
-879th Air-Assault (Desant) Battalion
-884th Marine Battalion
-1612th Self-Propelled Artillery Battalion
-1618th Anti-Aircraft Missile and Artillery Battalion
-53rd Marine cargo escort platoon – Kaliningrad
Northern Fleet HQ Severomorsk
-61st Kirkinesskaya Red Banner Marine Brigade – Sputnik
-874th Marine Battalion
-876th Air-Assault (Desant) Battalion
-886th Reconnaissance Battalion
-125th Armoured Battalion
-1611th Self-propelled Artillery Battalion
-1591th Self-propelled Artillery Battalion
-1617th Anti-aircraft Missile and Artillery Battalion
-75th Naval Hospital
-317th Marine Battalion
-318th Marine Battalion
Black Sea Fleet HQ Crimea
-810th Marine Brigade – Kazachye Bukhta, Sevastopol
-880th Marine Battalion
-881st Air-Assault Battalion
-888th Reconnaissance Battalion
-1613rd Artillery Battery
-1619th Air-Defense Artillery Battery
-382th Marine Battalion
Caspian Flotilla HQ Astrakhan
-414th Marine Battalion
-727th Marine Battalion
http://southfront.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Forces-by-role.jpg
Forces by role:Manoeuvre:
Mechanised: 2 MR bde; 1 MR regt; 3 indep naval inf bde; 2 indep naval inf regt.
Combat Support: 1 arty bde; 3 SAM regt.
http://southfront.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Untitled-5.jpg
Equipment by type:• MBT 200 T-72/T80
• RECCE 60 BRDM-2 each with 9K11 (AT-3 Sagger)
• AIFV 300 BMP-2
• APC 800; APC (T) 300 MT-LB; APC (W) 500 BTR-80
• ARTY 365; SP 263: 122mm 113: 95 2S1; 18 2S19; 152mm 150: 50 2A36; 50 2A65; 50 2S3
• GUN/MOR 66; SP 120mm 42: 12 2S23 NONA-SVK; 30 2S9 NONA-S
• TOWED; 120mm 24 2B16 NONA-K. MRL 122mm 36 BM-21
• AT; MSL SP 9P149 with 9K114 Shturn (AT-6 Spiral); MANPATS 9K11 (AT-3 Sagger); 9K113 (AT-5 Spandrel). GUNS 100mm T-12
• AD; SAM SP 70: 20 9K33 Osa (SA-8 Gecko); 50 Strela-1/Strela-10 (SA-9 Gaskin/SA-13 Gopher). MANPAD 9K32 Strela-2 (SA-7 Grail). GUNS 23mm 60 ZSU-23-

mick silver

14th December 2015, 08:17 AM

How John McCain Crippled Obama’s War on ISIS Column: Politics (http://journal-neo.org/category/columns/politics/)
Region: Middle East (http://journal-neo.org/category/locations/middle-east/)

http://journal-neo.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/hpmg3blis7modnwteyuc-300x136.jpg (http://journal-neo.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/hpmg3blis7modnwteyuc.jpg)A story leaked out of Washington credits Senator John McCain, empowered by America’s corrupt congress to oversee Pentagon programs, with derailing the Obama administration’s “coalition bombing campaign” in Syria and Iraq. McCain and key right wing extremists, working in concert with Turkish, Israeli and Saudi intelligence, have placed a “political shield” over terrorist targets in Iraq and Syria, something that has frustrated American pilots, silenced by the threat of imprisonment or worse.Reports from pilots and sources up and down the Pentagon chain of command tell an interesting story. Considering America’s years of experience at “precision bombing” and the vast intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities of the world’s largest military, America’s utter failure in curtailing ISIS and her dozens of “sister organizations” has been inexplicable.American pilots flying over Iraq and Syria have quietly leaked their story for over a year now but no news agency will carry it. They say they have flown over oil tanker convoys 4 lanes wide at times and been told to stay silent.They report mysterious aircraft dropping supplies to ISIS and al Nusra, they are silenced on that as well.The most common report, however, is massive parking lots filled with hundreds, even thousands of Humvees, Abrams tanks, artillery pieces, support vehicles of all kinds, all “hands off” at the orders of the Pentagon.In previous bombing campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, American pilots and drone operators admittedly suffered “collateral damage” at levels from 50% to almost 90% by some estimates. This could be the reason the US has somehow ordered pilots, both “cockpit” and “deskbound drone,” to “stand down” when they find juicy targets of opportunity.They say it isn’t, that many of these targets are totally in the open or “well worth the risk.” In fact some pilots are totally dispirited from seeing the same “fat targets” over and over while they are sent after road checkpoints or abandoned buildings.McCain, chairman of the powerful Senator Armed Services Committee, has strangled America’s efforts to the point where there are no sufficient munitions available. America is flying operations over Syria and Iraq with the aging F 16 recently upgraded for improved all weather capability using typical payloads of World War II era iron bombs.Note that John McCain’s personal trips to Syria, meeting with the heads of ISIS and al Nusra, deeply parallel his earlier actions in Vietnam when as a prisoner of war McCain trained North Vietnamese air defense forces to shoot down American planes and made dozens of anti-American propaganda broadcasts.McCain was pardoned by President Nixon when facing court martial and his records sealed and “whitewashed” by the press.Crippled OperationsAmerica is beholding to Turkey for the use of an airbase for operations in Syria and Iraq, bombing runs that restrict loiter time and can require air refueling as America’s aircraft carriers are now being kept in port with rare forays into the Pacific or Indian Ocean, all on McCain’s orders.Even America’s huge airbase in Qatar, home to the B1B and B52 fleet of heavy bombers, seen over Kobani, is now “frozen” and “off limits” for anti-ISIS operations.
Making the CaseTaking the anonymous statements of half a dozen pilots and extrapolating a pattern requires support, both direct and anecdotal. Below we list some factors used:

Traditionally, the US reports some collateral damage while foreign press is more forthcoming. However, there are almost no reports of collateral damage by US planes with the exception of assertions by Russia and Syria that coalition planes are actually actively flying air support for ISIS and al Nusra operations, bombing power stations and “accidentally” hitting Syrian Army units involved in critical operations.
US capability, advanced weapons and targeting capability, when combined with the available aircraft in the US inventory at over 1000, should have made all movement and resupply in both Iraq and Syria through use of “kill zones” and impossibility within two weeks. A year later and ISIS heavy armour convoys are as safe on Iraq roads as though they were snug at home in their mother’s arms.
Failure to bring America’s A10 “Warthog” squadrons to Iraq, the only planes America has in its inventory capable of obliterating oil convoys and other ISIS assets, is more than curious, it is criminal.
That Russia, within weeks, was able to destroy hundreds of “fat targets,” command centers, fuel and ammunition depots, equipment storage facilities and training camps, most of which had been “up and running” through the entire coalition bombing campaign but untouched, speaks volumes as to the truth of reports by American pilots of “hands off” orders.
America’s refusal to share targeting data with Russia may well be more than simply politics. Sharing this date would reveal patterns of deception and misdirection that would, we believe, inexorably lead to exposure of the American led bombing program as a sham.

The political issue that few outside Washington can understand is how an American politician like McCain, whose “long game” could be anything, treason, personal gain or “he knows something we don’t,” can govern or even overrule the White House.That answer is not simple, that American military commanders are inherently, and we are saying a majority, deceptive, disloyal and conspiratorial. Since Obama was elected, Washington has been deluged with rumors of a military coup against the government. Literally thousands of military officers have been “cashiered” for misconduct of all kinds, sexual, gambling or incompetence, with the real underlying reason being treason.For decades, AIPAC, the Israeli lobby in Washington, was believed to control congress, the press and the American military. In recent months, however, it has become clear that AIPAC has always acted in concert with Turkish intelligence services and the powerful Saudi lobby.As al Qaeda has moved from “terror group” to “loyal American ally,” pulling a decade of conspiracy theorists into the mainstream, the exposure of the Israeli, Turkish, Saudi alliance with the American right and their love affair with ISIS is also coming into focus.With that, with the right and all that cash, all that influence and the bizarre and unfathomable Mr. McCain, more is coming into focus as well, how America’s Air Force may actually be ISIS’ air force.Another explanation would be welcome but thus far is not supportable by facts.Gordon Duff is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War that has worked on veterans and POW issues for decades and consulted with governments challenged by security issues. He’s a senior editor and chairman of the board of Veterans Today (http://www.veteranstoday.com/), especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook (http://journal-neo.org/)”.
First appeared: http://journal-neo.org/2015/12/14/how-john-mccain-crippled-obama-s-war-on-isis/

mick silver

14th December 2015, 02:21 PM

President Barack Obama calls for more military support in fight against ISIL

President Barack Obama is calling for more military contribution for the coalition in the fight against the so-called Islamic State terrorists and revealed the US Defense Secretary Ash Carter would travel to the Middle East on Tuesday to secure more support.

“Lat month in November we dropped more bombs on ISIL targets than any other month since this campaign started. We’re also taking out ISIL leaders and commanders and killers one by one,” the president told reporters at the Pentagon.

Commentators say the speech was as much to ease public concern in the US where around 70 percent believe the risk of an attack is at least somewhat high.

“W’re going after ISIL from their stronghold, right in downtown Raqqa to Libya, where we took out Abu Nabil, the ISIL leader there. The point is ISIL leaders can’t hide and our next message to them is you are next,” asserted the president.

The fight against the terrorists, admitted the president was “difficult” and that progress needs to come faster. Forces would continue to “hammer” targets like oil wells and refineries and he referred to the group as, “thugs, thieves and killers.”

President Obama also said Secretary of State John Kerry was travelling to Russia to discuss the civil war in Syria with leaders there.

Read more at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=8d2_1450125002#6YK5OpT8pb82BDUS.99 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=8d2_1450125002

mick silver

14th December 2015, 02:35 PM

EXCLUSIVE: Sarin materials brought via Turkey & mixed in Syrian ISIS camps – Turkish MP to RT Published time: 14 Dec, 2015 05:03Edited time: 14 Dec, 2015 15:34
Get short URL (http://on.rt.com/6zep)

© Mohammad Abdullah / Reuters

Islamic State terrorists in Syria received all necessary materials to produce deadly sarin gas via Turkey, Turkish MP Eren Erdem has told RT, insisting there are grounds to believe a cover up has taken place.
TrendsIslamic State (https://www.rt.com/trends/islamic-state/), Syria unrest (https://www.rt.com/trends/syria-unrest-assad-opposition/)

The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) member, Erdem, brought up the issue for public discussion in parliament last week, citing evidence from an abruptly-closed criminal case. He accused Ankara of failing to investigate Turkish supply routes used to provide terrorists with toxic sarin gas ingredients.
“There is data in this indictment. Chemical weapon materials are being brought to Turkey and being put together in Syria in camps of ISIS which was known as Iraqi Al Qaeda during that time," Erdem told RT.
Sarin gas is a military-grade chemical that was used in a notorious attack on Ghouta and several other neighborhoods near the Syrian capital of Damascus in 2013. The attacks were pinned on the Syrian leadership, who in turn agreed to get rid of all chemical weapons stockpiles (https://www.rt.com/news/179868-syria-chemical-sarin-destroyed/) under a UN-brokered deal amid an imminent threat of US intervention.
Addressing parliamentarians on Thursday, Erdem showed a copy of the criminal case number 2013/120 that was opened by the General Prosecutor's Office in the city of Adana in southern Turkey.
The investigation revealed that a number of Turkish citizens took part in negotiations with Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) representatives on the supply of sarin gas. Pointing to evidence cited in the criminal case, he said that wiretapped phone conversations proved that an Al-Qaeda militant, Hayyam Kasap, acquired sarin.

“These are all detected. There are phone recordings of this shipment like ‘don't worry about the border, we’ll take care of it' and we also see the bureaucracy is being used,” continued Erdem.
Based on the gathered evidence Adana authorities conducted raids and arrested 13 suspects in the case. But a week later, inexplicably, the case was closed and all the suspects immediately crossed the Turkish-Syrian border, Erdem said.
READ MORE: Turkish prosecutors indict Syrian rebels for seeking chemical weapons (http://on.rt.com/u0lprm)
“About the shipment, Republic prosecutor of Adana, Mehmet Arıkan, made an operation and the related people were detained. But as far as I understand he was not an influential person in bureaucracy. A week after, another public prosecutor was assigned, took over the indictment and all the detainees were released. And they left Turkey crossing the Syrian border,” he said.
Read more
https://img.rt.com/files/news/20/8e/c0/00/un-syria-resolution-continues.n.jpgHomemade sarin was used in attack near Damascus – Lavrov (https://www.rt.com/news/syria-chemical-un-resolution-356/)
“The phone recordings in the indictment showed all the details from how the shipment was going to be made to how it was prepared, from the content of the labs to the source of the materials. Which trucks were going to be used, all dates etc. From A to Z, everything was discussed and recorded. Despite all of this evidence, the suspects were released,” he said.
READ MORE: ‘Abandoned’ barrels containing deadly sarin seized in rebel-held Syria (https://www.rt.com/news/171076-two-sarin-barrels-found-syria/)

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“And the shipment happened,” Erdem added. “Because no one stopped them. That’s why maybe the sarin gas used in Syria is a result of this.”
Speaking to RT, Erdem said that according to some evidence Turkish Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation was also involved, with some unconfirmed reports pointing in the direction of a government cover up, with Minister of Justice Bekir Bozdag’s involvement.
Certain evidence suggests Bozdag wanted to know beforehand from the sarin gas producer when and if the Islamists will use the chemical weapon.
“When I read the indictment, I saw clearly that these people have relationships with The Machinery and Chemical Industry Institution of Turkey and they don’t have any worries about crossing the border. For example in Hayyam Kasap's phone records, you hear him saying sarin gas many times, saying that the ateliers are ready for production, materials are waiting in trucks which were supposedly carrying club soda,” he told RT.
The parliamentarian said that now he feels like there is a witch hunt against him, after he confronted the justice minister. Bozdag, according to Erdem denied only the part that he wanted to get notified about the operations beforehand.
Read more
https://img.rt.com/files/news/20/2b/f0/00/rtx12s55.n.jpgReports of massive chemical attack near Damascus as UN observers arrive in Syria (https://www.rt.com/news/syria-chemical-weapons-un-775/)
Furthermore, Erdem argues that the West purposely blamed the regime of Bashar Assad for the August 2013 attacks and used it as part of the pretext to make US military intervention in Syria possible. The MP said that evidence in Adana’s case, according to his judgment, proves that IS was responsible.
“For example the chemical attack in Ghouta. Remember. It was claimed that the regime forces were behind it. This attack was conducted just days before the sarin operation in Turkey. It’s a high probability that this attack was carried out with those basic materials shipped through Turkey. It is said the regime forces are responsible but the indictment says it’s ISIS. UN inspectors went to the site but they couldn’t find any evidence. But in this indictment, we’ve found the evidence. We know who used the sarin gas, and our government knows it too,” he said.
At the same time, Erdem also accused the West and Europe in particular for providing “basic materials” to create such a powerful chemical weapon.
“All basic materials are purchased from Europe. Western institutions should question themselves about these relations. Western sources know very well who carried out the sarin gas attack in Syria. They know these people, they know who these people are working with, they know that these people are working for Al-Qaeda. I think is Westerns are hypocrats about the situation,” he concluded.
LISTEN MORE:

mick silver

14th December 2015, 02:37 PM

WW3 is taking too long to get started.

midnight rambler

14th December 2015, 03:09 PM

WW3 is taking too long to get started.

WW3* ended with the fall of the USSR. WW4 up next.

*over 113,000 Americans were killed in WW3

mick silver

14th December 2015, 03:18 PM

after I wrote that I started to write ww4 I remember you saying that now
WW3* ended with the fall of the USSR. WW4 up next.

*over 113,000 Americans were killed in WW3

midnight rambler

14th December 2015, 03:21 PM

after I wrote that I started to write ww4 I remember you saying that now

I'm so obsessive about it 'cause I use the notion like a bludgeon to beat the concept of "We are war, war is what we do, it never ends, one war ends, another begins" into the minds of our fellow countrymen since they are in desperate need of waking the fuck up.

mick silver

14th December 2015, 04:40 PM

Turkey says its patience with Russia 'has a limit': newspaperhttps://s.yimg.com/lq/p/us/news/editorial/d/0c/d0c3eb8ca18907492a4b337b5cec5193.jpeg (http://www.reuters.com/) 10 hours ago

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Russia's diesel-electric submarine Rostov-on-Don is escorted by a Turkish Navy Coast Guard boat as …

ROME (Reuters) - Turkey's foreign minister said Ankara's patience with Russia "has a limit" after Moscow's "exaggerated" reaction to a weekend naval incident between the two countries, an Italian newspaper reported on Monday.
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A Russian destroyer fired warning shots at a Turkish vessel in the Aegean on Sunday to avoid a collision and summoned the Turkish military attache over the incident..
"Ours was only a fishing boat, it seems to me that the reaction of the Russian naval ship was exaggerated," Mevlut Cavusoglu told Italian daily Corriere della Sera in an interview.
"Russia and Turkey certainly have to re-establish the relations of trust that we have always had, but our patience has a limit," Cavusoglu said.
The incident is likely to heighten tensions between the two nations who are at odds over Syria and Turkey's downing of a Russian warplane last month.
Cavusoglu said Russia had already "put itself in a ridiculous position" with accusations by its President Vladimir Putin that Turkey had shot down the jet to protect oil supplies from Islamic State.
"No-one believed it" he said.
He also criticized Russia's military intervention in Syria, saying it was aimed at propping up the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, not combating Islamic State.
"Unfortunately Russia is not in Syria to fight terrorists," he said, adding that only 8 percent of its air strikes had been aimed at Islamic State while 92 percent were against other groups hostile to Assad.
Cavusoglu also said air strikes were not sufficient to defeat Islamic State and soldiers on the ground were necessary, according to the interview.
(Reporting By Gavin Jones; Editing by Hugh Lawson

Neuro

15th December 2015, 03:26 AM

He also criticized Russia's military intervention in Syria, saying it was aimed at propping up the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, not combating Islamic State.
"Unfortunately Russia is not in Syria to fight terrorists," he said, adding that only 8 percent of its air strikes had been aimed at Islamic State while 92 percent were against other groups hostile to Assad.
hahaha! I think of the 65 air strikes Turkey has performed in Syria only 2 was against ISIS targets, while the remaining 97% has been targeting Kurdish rebels fighting ISIS. Not sure of the accurate up to date statistics as this was told to me by a Turkish friend a month ago...

mick silver

16th December 2015, 10:46 AM

ISIS uses Turkey for trafficking heroin to Europe – Russian anti-drugs chief Published time: 16 Dec, 2015 12:34
Get short URL (http://on.rt.com/6zma)

https://cdn.rt.com/files/2015.12/original/56714db9c3618854518b458b.jpg
© Parwiz / Reuters

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One of the biggest money-spinners for Islamic State terrorists is transporting illegal drugs from Afghanistan to Europe through Turkey and the Balkans, according to the head of Russia’s federal anti-drug agency FKSN.
“ISIS fighters are controlling certain territory,” Viktor Ivanov was quoted as saying by TASS. “Now it is targeted by the Russian Air Force, but until recently the terrorists enjoyed great freedom there. Trafficking illegal drugs was one of the major sources of their income.”
Ivanov added that so far the heroin transported to the European Union via Turkey and the Balkans yields Islamic State (IS, previously ISIS/ISIL) about $150 billion for distribution to members of the criminal chain. “This money is getting into the criminal turnover and destabilizes the situation in the transit countries. Turkey is exactly such a country,” Ivanov told reporters.
READ MORE: ISIS economy based on illegal drug trade - Russian anti-drug chief (https://www.rt.com/politics/310571-isis-economy-based-on-illegal/)

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In July, Russia’s top drug enforcer spoke at an international anti-trafficking conference in Gambia and said that the $500 billion annual income from illegal drug trade was the financial and organizational basis for new terrorist organizations, such as Boko Haram, Islamic State and others. “Illegal drugs are a kind of gold and foreign currency reserves for quasi-state groups,” he said.
In March, Ivanov said in a press interview that IS made up to $1 billion annually from Afghan heroin trafficked through its territory. He predicted another record-high poppy harvest in the terrorist-controlled lands, and urged countries to raise the issue of fighting the IS drugs trade at the highest international level, including at the UN, saying it represents a global security threat.

Glass

16th December 2015, 10:56 AM

Neuro

16th December 2015, 11:07 AM

We know that NATO manages the Afghan opium trade on behalf of UK/Netherland. The royals of both, who established the heroin trade some 300+ years ago. NATO is doing a cracking job by all accounts.

Now ISIS is linked into the supply trade. A link all the way to the top perhaps? Shocked I tells ya.
British and Dutch royalty is running the Heroin trade today? How do WE all know this? Are you sure it's not the Vatican, Masons or the Nephilim involved?

Glass

16th December 2015, 11:29 AM

Foreign involvement

See also: CIA transnational anti-crime and anti-drug activities § Southwest Asia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_transnational_anti-crime_and_anti-drug_activities#Southwest_Asia), CIA activities in the Near East, North Africa, South and Southwest Asia § Afghanistan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_activities_in_the_Near_East,_North_Africa,_Sou th_and_Southwest_Asia#Afghanistan) and Allegations of CIA drug trafficking (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegations_of_CIA_drug_trafficking)
Approximately 40,000 foreign troops attempted to manage “security” in Afghanistan, principally of 32,000 regular soldiers from 37 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Atlantic_Treaty_Organization) (NATO) forces: the International Security Assistance Force (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Security_Assistance_Force). 8,000 US and other special operations forces, mainly privately contracted (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academi) soldier of fortune,[33] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_production_in_Afghanistan#cite_note-RT20150401-33) make up the balance. There is significant resistance, both from the ideological/theocratic Taliban (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taliban), especially in southern Afghanistan, and also independent local warlords and drug organizations. Antonio Maria Costa (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Maria_Costa), Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Office_on_Drugs_and_Crime) (UNODC), described the situation this way: “There is no rule of law in most of the southern parts of Afghanistan—the bullets rule.”

I notice wiki says Iran is the conduit. Not Turkey. strange that.

Record production in 2014 says RT (https://www.rt.com/news/156128-afghanistan-drugs-usa-heroin/)

Opium trade, http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/48/78748-004-82220D67.jpg (http://www.britannica.com/topic/opium-trade/images-videos/The-clipper-ship-Le-Rye-Moon-built-for-the-opium/74519)in Chinese history (http://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-China), the traffic that developed in the 18th and 19th centuries in which Western countries, mostly Great Britain (http://www.britannica.com/place/United-Kingdom), exported opium (http://www.britannica.com/science/opium) grown in India (http://www.britannica.com/place/India) and sold it to China (http://www.britannica.com/place/China). The British used the profits from the sale of opium (http://www.britannica.com/science/opium) to purchase such Chinese luxury goods as porcelain, silk, and tea, which were in great demand in the West.

Link (http://www.britannica.com/topic/opium-trade)

More:

Early in the 18th century the Portuguese found that they could import (http://www.britannica.com/topic/import) opium from India and sell it in China at a considerable profit. By 1773 the British had discovered the trade, and that year they became the leading suppliers of the Chinese market. The British East India Company (http://www.britannica.com/topic/East-India-Company) established a monopoly on opium cultivation in the Indian province of Bengal (http://www.britannica.com/place/Bengal-region-Asia), where they developed a method of growing opium poppies cheaply and abundantly. Other Western countries also joined in the trade, including the United States (http://www.britannica.com/place/United-States), which dealt in Turkish as well as Indian opium.Britain and other European countries undertook the opium trade because of their chronic trade imbalance with China.

Mentions France elsewhere but no mention of NL.

The amount of opium imported into China increased from about 200 chests annually in 1729 to roughly 1,000 chests in 1767 and then to about 10,000 per year between 1820 and 1830. The weight of each chest varied somewhat—depending on point of origin—but averaged approximately 140 pounds (63.5 kg). By 1838 the amount had grown to some 40,000 chests imported into China annually. The balance of payments (http://www.britannica.com/topic/balance-of-payments) for the first time began to run against China and in favour of Britain.

Neuro

16th December 2015, 11:53 AM

I asked for proof that Brittish and Dutch royalty was involved in the opium trade today. As to the 150+ year old opium trade with Asia, it is well known it was run by the Jewish Sassoon family. Sure Brittish royalty probably got a cut for their ardent protection of the profitable Sassoon business monopoly. The Brittish even invaded China for it, as it was the only product they had the Chinese, addicted on opium by the Sassoons, thought worth trading for their porcelain.

You forgot to mention the Jews?

Horn

16th December 2015, 12:10 PM

I asked for proof that Brittish and Dutch royalty was involved in the opium trade today.

British and Dutch Royal Imperialists from 150yrs ago until today are jewish.

I don't see any reason to try and steal their jewishness away from them or their parts in forming a Manifest Destiny NATO.

Neuro

16th December 2015, 01:28 PM

British and Dutch Royal Imperialists from 150yrs ago until today are jewish.

I don't see any reason to try and steal their jewishness away from them or their parts in forming a Manifest Destiny NATO.
Clearly Mr Glass failed to mention any Jewishness in the trade of opium at all. And you can put that in your Torah roll and smoke it all.

Horn

16th December 2015, 01:44 PM

Clearly Mr Glass failed to mention any Jewishness in the trade of opium at all. And you can put that in your Torah roll and smoke it all.

Ah I see, even if for all purposes intense or otherwise naming Dutch and British royalty needs no mention of jewishness as its an integral part in form and function. Forum Nazis need all T's crossed and I's dotted so they can continue to protect british royalty by not crossing the Atlantic or British Channels.

Neuro

16th December 2015, 01:54 PM

Ah I see, even if for all purposes intense or otherwise naming Dutch and British royalty needs no mention of jewishness as its an integral part in form and function. Forum Nazis need all T's crossed and I's dotted so they can continue to protect british royalty by not crossing the Atlantic or British Channels.
While forum Jews continue to distract from the real enemy. Do you have any evidence whatsoever that the Brittish and the Dutch royalty is involved in today's opium trade Hornstein? Neither does Glasstein apparently.

Horn

16th December 2015, 02:02 PM

While forum Jews continue to distract from the real enemy. Do you have any evidence whatsoever that the Brittish and the Dutch royalty is involved in today's opium trade Hornstein? Neither does Glasstein apparently.

Glass was connecting dots, European Royalty (jews) created NATO created ISIS - article on ISIS drug trade.

Do you need a reverse engineering degree or spinal adjustment?

Neuro

16th December 2015, 02:10 PM

Glass was connecting dots, European Royalty (jews) created NATO created ISIS - article on ISIS drug trade.

Do you need a reverse engineering degree or spinal adjustment?it seems like you have a reverse logic degree. Or maybe it is in your genes?

Horn

16th December 2015, 02:20 PM

Or maybe it is in your genes?

Now you're just making up for your shortcomings, they didn't exit or cast out of the jew theatre which is europe over 150yrs for no good reason.

mick silver

16th December 2015, 02:22 PM

the jews didn't do it ............leave my people alone mickstein

Neuro

16th December 2015, 02:36 PM

Now you're just making up for your shortcomings, they didn't exit or cast out of the jew theatre which is europe over 150yrs for no good reason.
Who?

Glass

16th December 2015, 04:20 PM

yes I was connecting dots. East india Trading company still trades today. As it was established with royal patent and traded in the name of Queen Vic and heirs. Its generally accepted this is how this royal dynsasty built up it's wealth. On the back of the heroin trade. Only time they sslowed down was when the taliban nearly destroyed the industry in Afghanistan.

And please don't mangle my handle. its pretty disrespectful.

mick silver

16th December 2015, 05:39 PM

http://static.reuters.com/resources/assets/?d=20151028&t=2&i=RTX1TBF7&w=&q=

mick silver

16th December 2015, 05:58 PM

Publicly, Barack Obama maintains that Assad has zero chances of being reelected but privately he might have reservations. At any rate, this is not a risk Washington is willing to take. "The US position is to bar Assad from the ballot, thus ensuring 'regime change' in Syria, a long-held goal of Official Washington's neoconservatives," the analyst noted.

This position is deeply engrained in Washington's psyche.
"A key problem appears to be that the Obama administration has so demonized Assad and so bought into the neocon goal of 'regime change' that Obama doesn't feel that he can back down on his 'Assad must go!' mantra," Parry assumed.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20151215/1031761936/us-syria-assad-democracy-elections.html#ixzz3uXFeHDrs

mick silver

16th December 2015, 06:14 PM

Let Me Take You on a Missile Cruise

The Pentagon is very much aware of the tremendous heavy metal Russia may unleash if provoked to the limit by someone like Erdogan. Let's roll out an abridged list.
Russia can use the mighty SS-18 – which NATO codenames “Satan”; each “Satan” carries 10 warheads, with a yield of 750 to 1000 kilotons each, enough to destroy an area the size of New York state.
The Topol M ICBM is the world's fastest missile at 21 Mach (16,000 miles an hour); against it, there’s no defense. Launched from Moscow, it hits New York City in 18 minutes, and L.A. in 22.8 minutes.
Russian submarines – as well as Chinese submarines – are able to launch offshore the US, striking coastal targets within a minute. Chinese submarines have surfaced next to US aircraft carriers undetected, and Russian submarines can do the same.

http://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/images/101674/68/1016746853.jpg
© Sputnik/ Valeriy Melnikov
Safe Skies: Russian Army Could Soon Receive Newest S-500 Air Defense System (http://sputniknews.com/military/20151212/1031630250/russia-anti-aircraft-ballistic-missiles-defense-s500-s400.html)

The S-500 anti-missile system is capable of sealing Russia off from ICBMs and cruise missiles. (Moscow will only admit on the record that the S-500s will be rolled out in 2016; but the fact the S-400s will soon be delivered to China implies the S-500s may be already operational.)The S-500 makes the Patriot missile look like a V-2 from WWII.
Here, a former adviser to the US Chief of Naval Operations essentially goes on the record saying the whole US missile defense apparatus is worthless.
Russia has a supersonic bomber fleet of Tupolev Tu-160s; they can take off from airbases deep in the heart of Russia, fly over the North Pole, launch nuclear-tipped cruise missiles from safe distances over the Atlantic, and return home to watch the whole thing on TV.
Russia can cripple virtually every forward NATO base with tactical – or battlefield – small-yield nuclear weapons. It’s not by accident that Russia over the past few months tested NATO response times in multiple occasions.
The Iskander missile travels at seven times the speed of sound with a range of 400 km. It’s deadly to airfields, logistics points and other stationary infrastructure along a broad war theatre, for instance in southern Turkey.
NATO would need to knock out all these Iskanders. But then they would need to face the S-400s – or, worse, S-500s — which Russia can layer in defense zones in nearly every conceivable theater of war. Positioning the S-400s in Kaliningrad, for instance, would cripple all NATO air operations deep inside Europe.
And presiding over military decisions, Russia privileges the use of Reflexive Control (RC). This is a tactic that aims to convey selected information to the enemy that forces him into making self-defeating decisions; a sort of virus influencing and controlling his decision-making process. Russia uses RC tactically, strategically and geopolitically. A young Vladimir Putin learned all there is to know about RC at the 401st KGB School and further on in his career as a KGB/FSB officer.
All right, Erdogan and NATO; do you still wanna go to war?
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Sputnik.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/columnists/20151215/1031786484/russia-ready-war.html#ixzz3uXJdmqLe

mick silver

16th December 2015, 06:18 PM

Widespread Terrorism Is Just Part Of The Perfect Storm That Is Now Descending On The Western World
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/themes/atahualpa/images/icons/user.gif By Michael Snyder, on November 15th, 2015

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http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Perfect-Storm-Public-Domain-460x349.jpg (http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/widespread-terrorism-is-just-part-of-the-perfect-storm-that-is-now-descending-on-the-western-world/perfect-storm-public-domain)Words cannot adequately describe the utter horror that was unleashed on the streets of Paris, France on Friday. CNN is calling it “the worst violence witnessed in France since World War II (http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/14/europe/paris-attacks-france-response/index.html?iid=hp-stack-dom)“, and even though it happened a couple of days ago now, many of us are still having a really tough time processing what took place. Somehow, a small group of less than 10 radical Islamists was able to unleash a coordinated wave of attacks that killed at least 129 people and injured at least 350. All of this comes less than a year after the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris, and many in the western world are now starting to understand that something has fundamentally changed. Even though France has a highly advanced anti-terrorism infrastructure, and even though it also has some of the strictest anti-gun laws in Europe, none of that did anything to prevent these attacks. Despite all of our advanced technology, the openness of our society makes us highly vulnerable to Islamic terror. And as more waves of refugees from the Middle East are absorbed by both Europe and the United States (http://themostimportantnews.com/archives/thousands-of-syrian-refugees-being-resettled-by-obama-could-end-up-in-48-out-of-50-u-s-states), it is inevitable that there will be more attacks like this.
According to Google (https://www.google.com/#q=soft+target), the definition of a “soft target” is “a person or thing that is relatively unprotected or vulnerable, especially to military or terrorist attack.” And as we just saw in France, the western world is literally teeming with soft targets. I am talking about sporting events, concert halls, schools, churches, shopping malls, power stations, water treatment facilities, mass transit, etc.
For those that wish to create terror, the opportunities are endless.
In the western world, we generally rely on certain deterrents in order to maintain order. Most sane people do not want to be shot, and most sane people do not want to go to prison.
But what do you do when there are large numbers of crazy people that are actually looking forward to being martyrs?
We don’t really have a defense for the kind of attack that we just witnessed in France. What can you really do when you are dealing with large numbers of homicidal maniacs that are not afraid to die and that can strike anywhere at any time? Unless you can identify the terrorists or their plans ahead of time, it becomes a guessing game.
And the level of evil demonstrated by these terrorists is truly astounding. At the Bataclan Theater, two of the terrorists fired their AK-47s indiscriminately into the crowd for a full 10 minutes (http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/silent-and-calm-ak47-wielding-terrorists-paris-fired-crowd-ten)…

At the Bataclan Theater, at least 75 people attending a concert by a U.S. rock band were killed and many more injured, according to authorities. Eyewitnesses spoke of two young men armed with AK47 assault rifles firing repetitively and dispassionately into the crowded venue, targeting helpless victims cowering on the floor.
Julien Pearce, a radio reporter who was inside the concert hall, told CNN he saw two terrorists at the back of the venue, “firing randomly to the crowd. People yelled, screamed, everybody lying on the floor. And it lasted for ten minutes, ten minutes, ten horrific minutes, where everybody was on the floor covering their heads.”
But these latest attacks are just part of a wider trend of chaos and terror that has descended upon western Europe. For much, much more on this, please check out this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44vzMNG2fZc).
Sadly, what Europe is currently experiencing is coming here too.
When I first start dealing with someone new, I watch to see if that individual will actually follow through on what he or she has promised. Sometimes this happens, but sometimes it does not.
In the case of ISIS, I would have to say that they are indeed following through on what they said they would do. Tonight, much of Europe is completely gripped by fear and terror, and the head of ISIS has promised a “direct confrontation” (http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/isis-leader-usa-soon-we-will-be-direct-confrontation) with the United States as well…

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), issued a rare audio message back on January 21 in which he flatly stated his group’s intention to march on Baghdad and move into “direct confrontation” with the United States.
“Our last message is to the Americans. Soon we will be in direct confrontation, and the sons of Islam have prepared for such a day,” Baghdadi said. “So watch, for we are with you, watching.”
As WND has pointed out (http://www.wnd.com/2015/07/big-list-of-muslim-terror-attacks-in-u-s-since-911/), there have been dozens of Islamic terror attacks on U.S. soil since 2001, but most of them have been relatively small.
Unfortunately, I believe that we are moving into a new era. Instead of just being satisfied with killing dozens or hundreds of people, these terrorists will start getting a hold of weapons that can kill thousands. Eventually we will see terror attacks inside this country that will make 9/11 look like a Sunday picnic. And Barack Obama is certainly not helping things by “resettling” thousands upon thousands of Syrian refugees in communities all over America (http://themostimportantnews.com/archives/thousands-of-syrian-refugees-being-resettled-by-obama-could-end-up-in-48-out-of-50-u-s-states).
Of course increasing terror is just a part of the overall picture. Many have described what is coming to the United States and Europe as a “perfect storm”, and I would agree with that assessment.
Even without Islamic terror, we live at a time of rising civil unrest. The deep divisions in our country have been demonstrated by what happened in Ferguson, in Baltimore and more recently at the University of Missouri. Americans are angrier and more frustrated than ever before, and the mainstream media is constantly playing up the divisions between various groups. And thanks to Barack Obama’s refusal to protect our borders, there are now 1.4 million members of criminal gangs living in our cities. Violent crime is already on the rise in our urban areas, and it is going to get even worse as we plunge into recession (http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/we-have-never-seen-global-trade-collapse-this-dramatically-outside-of-a-major-recession). For instance, the city of Baltimore recently recorded its 300th homicide of the year (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3319496/Baltimore-records-300th-homicide-year-time-1999.html) after only seeing 211 for all of 2014. Our major cities have never been more primed for civil unrest, and I believe that we are going to see widespread rioting, looting and chaos in the years ahead as the economy totally falls to pieces.
In addition to increased Islamic terror and civil unrest, I also believe we are moving into a time of great governmental shaking, increased tensions between global superpowers, unprecedented natural disasters (http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/violent-shaking-along-the-ring-of-fire-continues-a-progression-of-disasters-that-began-in-september), and the greatest financial unraveling the world has ever seen.
All of these trends will feed into one another to create the “perfect storm” that I mentioned earlier. What this is going to mean is a dramatic change in our standard of living, our liberties and freedoms will continue to be stripped away, and our world is going to be transformed at a pace that very few of us ever imagined was possible.
If you have the feeling that everything has changed after what just happened in France, you are right.
But this is just the beginning.
What is coming in the weeks and months ahead is going to be even worse, and it is going to shock the entire planet.

mick silver

16th December 2015, 06:23 PM

The Bizarre Explanation For Why The U.S. Has Avoided Bombing ISIS Oil Wells
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/themes/atahualpa/images/icons/user.gif By Michael Snyder, on November 29th, 2015

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http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/What-Public-Domain-460x376.png (http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-bizarre-explanation-for-why-the-u-s-has-avoided-bombing-isis-oil-wells/what-public-domain-4)Why hasn’t the U.S. bombed the oil wells that ISIS controls into oblivion by now? Would you believe that it is because the Obama administration “didn’t want to do environmental damage”? Former Deputy Director of the CIA Michael Morell has publicly admitted that we have purposely avoided damaging the main source of income for ISIS, and his explanation for why we were doing this is utterly bizarre. But at this point what could the Obama administration say that would actually make sense? Everyone now knows that ISIS has been making hundreds of millions of dollars (http://themostimportantnews.com/archives/turkey-the-country-isis-uses-as-a-home-base-and-where-it-has-sold-800-millions-dollars-of-oil) selling oil in Turkey, and that this has been done with the full knowledge and complicity of the Obama White House (http://themostimportantnews.com/archives/the-biggest-obama-scandal-he-knows-that-turkey-is-buying-oil-from-isis-and-he-is-doing-nothing-to-stop-it). This is potentially the biggest scandal of the entire Obama presidency, and yet so far the Republicans have not jumped on it.
If you or I even gave five bucks to ISIS, we would be arrested and hauled off to Guantanamo Bay. And yet Barack Obama is allowing ISIS to funnel massive quantities of oil through our NATO ally Turkey, and he is not doing anything to stop this from happening. It is a betrayal of the American people that is so vast that it is hard to put into words.
By now, virtually everyone on the entire planet knows exactly what is going on. For example, Iraq’s former National Security Adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie shared the following on his Facebook page on Saturday (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-28/isis-oil-trade-full-frontal-raqqas-rockefellers-bilal-erdogan-krg-crude-and-israel-c)…

“First and foremost, the Turks help the militants sell stolen Iraqi and Syrian oil for $20 a barrel, which is half the market price.”
Until Russia started bombing the living daylights out of them, an endless parade of trucks carrying ISIS oil would go back and forth over the Turkish border completely unmolested. Following the downing of a Russian SU-24 bomber by Turkey in an area where many of these trucks travel, Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to publicly air this dirty laundry. Just check out what he told reporters following a meeting with French President Francois Hollande last week (https://www.rt.com/news/323603-isis-oil-smuggling-turkey/)…

Commercial-scale oil smuggling from Islamic State controlled territory into Turkey must be stopped, Putin said after meeting Hollande in Moscow.
“Vehicles, carrying oil, lined up in a chain going beyond the horizon,” said Putin, reminding the press that the scale of the issue was discussed at the G20 summit in Antalya earlier this month, where the Russian leader demonstrated reconnaissance footage taken by Russian pilots.
The views resemble a “living oil pipe” stretched from ISIS and rebel controlled areas of Syria into Turkey, the Russian President stressed. “Day and night they are going to Turkey. Trucks always go there loaded, and back from there – empty.”
“We are talking about a commercial-scale supply of oil from the occupied Syrian territories seized by terrorists. It is from these areas [that oil comes from], and not with any others. And we can see it from the air, where these vehicles are going,” Putin said.
If the Russians could see all of this, the U.S. military could see it too. In fact, we have far better surveillance capabilities than the Russians do.
So why didn’t Obama put an end to this?
Well, as I mentioned above, former Deputy Director of the CIA Michael Morell told PBS that the Obama administration didn’t want “to create environmental damage”, and he insists that the oil wells are “infrastructure that’s going to be necessary to support the people when ISIS isn’t there anymore”. The following comes from the Daily Caller (http://dailycaller.com/2015/11/25/former-cia-deputy-director-obama-didnt-attack-isis-oil-because-of-the-environment-video/)…

Appearing on PBS’s “Charlie Rose” on Tuesday, Rose pointed out that before the terrorist attacks in Paris, the U.S. had not bombed ISIS-controlled oil tankers.
Morell explained, “Prior to Paris, there seemed to be a judgment that … look, we don’t want to destroy these oil tankers because that’s infrastructure that’s going to be necessary to support the people when ISIS isn’t there anymore, and it’s going to create environmental damage. And we didn’t go after oil wells — actually hitting oil wells that ISIS controls because we didn’t want to do environmental damage and we didn’t want to destroy that infrastructure, right.”
In case you think that this is some sort of a joke, you can watch video of Morell making these comments on PBS below (https://www.youtube.com/embed/TgMgjPzXqg4)…

After the horrific terror attacks in Paris, the Obama administration finally was shamed into bombing a few of these oil trucks. But 45 minutes before the U.S. military bombed them, they dropped leaflets telling the truck drivers to “get out of your trucks now and run away from them”.
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Leaflet-460x216.png (http://amzn.to/1XBC6WC)
What kind of “war on terror” are we running?
Why in the world would we want to warn the terrorists to get away from their trucks?
Meanwhile, things between Russia and Turkey continue to get even more tense. The Russians have slapped severe economic sanctions on the Turks, they have shut down all channels of communication with Turkey’s military, and they are bombing every Turkish vehicle that they can find inside Syria. The following comes from a report that was put out by Debka (http://www.debka.com/article/25046/Turkey-suspends-flights-over-Syria-Russia-launches-electronic-warfare-against-Ankara)…

In the last two days, Putin has been found saying one thing and doing another: Although he declared that Russia would not go to war with Turkey for “stabbing it in the back”, debkafile’s military and intelligence sources report that since Wednesday night, Nov. 25, Russian heavy bombers and warplanes have been hitting every Turkish vehicle moving or stationary inside Syria.
They bombed the Bab al-Hawa border crossing, located on the Turkey-Syria frontier, as well trailers and tractors parked in an area belonging to the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation, on the Syrian side of the border.
As I wrote about the other day (http://themostimportantnews.com/archives/the-biggest-obama-scandal-he-knows-that-turkey-is-buying-oil-from-isis-and-he-is-doing-nothing-to-stop-it), it has been documented that our NATO ally Turkey has been “training ISIS militants, funneling weapons to them, buying their oil, and tending to their wounded in Turkish hospitals”. Now, heavy bombing by the Russians threatens to cut off those links (http://www.debka.com/article/25046/Turkey-suspends-flights-over-Syria-Russia-launches-electronic-warfare-against-Ankara)…

In addition to punishing the Turkish leader, Russia’s massive military operations in Syria aim to degrade the rebel groups fighting the Assad regime. Heavy bombing sorties this week on the Syrian-Turkish border are cutting off tens of thousands of rebels from their only source of fresh supplies of weapons, ammo, food and fighters, leaving them without a line of retreat and nowhere to send their wounded.
At this point, Russia and Turkey are very close to a state of war.
But as a member of NATO, the United States is obligated to help protect Turkey if a full-blown shooting war does break out.
We are closer to World War III than we have been in decades, and yet most Americans are still completely and totally oblivious to what is taking place.
Hopefully cooler heads will prevail, because things over in the Middle East threaten to spiral completely and totally out of control.

Neuro

16th December 2015, 10:42 PM

Glass

16th December 2015, 11:19 PM

East India Company dissolved in the 19th Century, long before Heroin was first synthesised by the German chemist Bayer in 1895. Sorry for disrespecting you with facts!

Thank you. I wasn't aware of that. But you could still be civil about things. I know it's a struggle for you but I encourage you to try. I've never dissed your on line handle. I have to say I found that really offensive.

I still contend that drug trafficking goes to the higest level. It just might not be called East India co now. My own experiences have shown the police in my state pretty much run the drug distribution and anecdotally they appear to run it in NSW and Victoria as well.

Horn

17th December 2015, 12:04 AM

Opium Heroin what's the difference its a poppy derivative.

My guess is Afghanistan is mostly all about it, I don't see an international terrorist threat coming from the area with the Taliban. They were probably slowly turning over the market their way is all.

In 1931 the managing directors of the so-called "big Five" British companies were rewarded by being made Peers of the Realm for their activities in drug money laundering. Who decided such matters and bestows such honors? It is the Queen of England who bestows honors upon the men in the top positions in the drug trade. British banks engaged in this terrible trade are too numerous to mention, but a few of the top ones are...

Under international treaty obligations this is what happens, thus Kintex trucks were able load their cargoes of heroin and certify it as "fresh fruit and vegetables;" and then make their way through Western Europe, even entering high-security NATO bases in Northern Italy. In this manner, Bulgaria became one of the principal countries through which heroin was routed.

http://ncoic.com/bllseye3.htm

Neuro

17th December 2015, 01:29 AM

Thank you. I wasn't aware of that. But you could still be civil about things. I know it's a struggle for you but I encourage you to try. I've never dissed your on line handle. I have to say I found that really offensive.

You spout blatantly erroneous opinions as facts, fail to mention the head honcho in the Brittish Chinese opium trade, the Jew Sassoon. And you can't handle being called Glasstein? Nice little passive-aggressive rant from you. Sorry for you being offended, but you never mention the real offenders, the international Jew, it's always the Catholic or the European Royalty or the Masons. If you lived in the last two centuries, you'ld have noticed the waning of power in the groups you mention while the Zionist star has risen. Why do you think that is?

Neuro

17th December 2015, 01:32 AM

Opium Heroin what's the difference its a poppy derivative.

You don't inject opium in your veins, like you do with Heroin, do you?

Cebu_4_2

17th December 2015, 01:42 AM

You don't inject opium in your veins, like you do with Heroin, do you?

Opiun is like hash you smoke it, heroin is a powder you can snort or convert to injectables.

Horn

17th December 2015, 02:23 AM

Neuro

17th December 2015, 04:21 AM

You can smoke or snort heroin, probably how it started moreso.

Drugs aren't exclusively a "jew race" commodity, are promoted and pushed by the general elite and underclass everywhere. Masons alike to profit for sure skull and bones. I actually think khazar type zionist jews dont really need the risk and let it go in most cases. They win either way on the exchange. Possible they can influence a desired takeover result.
You think so, well this researcher who wrote a book about it begs to differ...

http://www.toqonline.com/blog/the-jewish-mafia/

And then they own the booze trade and the legal drug trade also, only for the purpose of showing us goys a good time!

Mazel Tov!

Horn

17th December 2015, 11:15 AM

Its not exclusively jew, I'm sure they probably do whatever is necessary to make sure whoever is actually operating is not a threat or protection racket the traffic anymore these days or used it more when rising thru the ranks.

mick silver

17th December 2015, 06:09 PM

Kaleidoscope of Power Games in the Middle-East (http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/2015/10/03/521975kaleidoscope-of-power-games-in-the-middle-east/) Posted by Peter Koenig (http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/author/koenig/) on October 3, 2015
http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/wp-content/themes/_stylebook/timthumb.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.veteransnewsnow. com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F10%2FobamaSyria-Lies.jpg&q=90&w=795&h=470&zc=1So it is alright for the CIA to train anti- Assad terrorists, but not for Russia to fight them on behalf of a democratically elected leader of a sovereign country

mick silver

17th December 2015, 06:11 PM

Iran’s ‘take’ on Russian build-up in SyriaBy VNN (http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/author/admin/) on September 25, 2015
Things were going splendidly for Israel until Russia arrived on the scene as the great ‘spoiler’.
http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/abdollahian-635x357.jpgIran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian : Moscow, Tehran to use ‘all means’ to end Syria crisis

by M K BhadrakumarIndian Punchline (http://blogs.rediff.com/mkbhadrakumar/2015/09/25/irans-take-on-russian-build-up-in-syria/)
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.
http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/kerry-lavrov-e1441491417650-640x448.jpg
The Iranian interpretation runs counter to the story being spread by Israel and right-wing American propagandists that the Russian forces intend to join the war in Syria.
The Israeli media even claimed (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4699809,00.html) that the Russian intervention in Syria is in active collaboration with the so-called Quds Force of the IRGC. The Israeli disinformation aims to put pressure on the Barack Obama administration not to coordinate with Russia over Syria.
http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Israel-concern.jpg
But then, Israel has every reason to be livid about the Russian build-up, which frustrates its entire strategy of manipulating the al-Qaeda affiliate Nusra Front to destabilize the Syrian government. Israel stands to gain if the Syrian state gets destroyed, as that would ensure the perpetuation of its illegal occupation of Golan Heights. Things were going splendidly for Israel until Russia arrived on the scene as the great ‘spoiler’.
Importantly, the Fars commentary appeared following the consultations of Deputy Foreign Minister Amir Abdollahian in Moscow on Monday. (Abdollahian is Tehran’s point person on Syria.) The Iranian account (http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=249599) of Abdollahian’s consultations in Moscow also emphasize the importance of a political strategy in Syria. The Fars commentary is here (http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13940702000658).
(Copyright 2015 M K Bhadrakumar)
Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar was a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service. His assignments included the Soviet Union, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Germany, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kuwait and Turkey.
Also see:Iran, Russia: Political strategy essential to settle Syria conflict (http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=249599)
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/)

mick silver

18th December 2015, 02:21 PM

Five global powers agree on UN Security resolution draft to settle Syrian crisis – reports Published time: 18 Dec, 2015 19:48Edited time: 18 Dec, 2015 21:10
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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (L) and Foreign Minister of Russia Sergey Lavrov are seen seated next to each other before a meeting of Foreign Ministers about the situation in Syria at the Palace Hotel in the Manhattan borough of New York December 18, 2015. © Carlo Allegri / Reuters

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The five permanent UNSC members have agreed on a draft of a resolution calling for a ceasefire and political settlement in Syria, agencies report, citing diplomat sources. The official vote is expected in the coming hours.
The four-page draft demands that all parties to the Syrian conflict “immediately cease any attacks against civilians,” Reuters reports. A mechanism to monitor, verify and report the truce is to be worked out within a month.
The draft resolution would also ask the UN to convene formal talks on a transitional government. The talks between the regime and opposition are targeted for early January.
"The Syrian people will decide the future of Syria," says the draft.
Foreign ministers from 18 countries as well as the UN and Arab League representatives gathered in New York Friday to push the Syria roadmap. The group has already met twice in Vienna in the last six weeks and drafted a road map for the Syrian conflict reconciliation.
Apart from the UN and the Arab League, the group includes Russia, the US, the EU, the UK, Germany, France, China, Egypt, Jordan, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Qatar, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

During the conference preceding the UN Security Council meeting, new calls for Bashar Assad to step down were voiced, arguing that the Syrian President’s exit would facilitate the battle with terrorism, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
“We confirmed our position that – as the UNSC has repeatedly stressed – there can be no pre-conditions to fight terrorism,” Lavrov said, adding that such calls did not make it into the draft. He once again said it is up to the Syrian people to determine the future of their country and its current leader.
The conflict in Syria has lasted for more than four years with more than 300,000 killed.

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Another goal of the talks was to work out a mechanism for establishing which rebel groups in Syria will be eligible to take part in the peace process. Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) and Al-Nusra Front would be exempt from the truce.
For this purpose, Jordan, who was tasked with listing terrorist organizations in Syria, presented a document that includes 160 extremist groups, RIA Novosti reported, citing sources in the Russian Foreign Ministry.
“The list reflects positions of different sides,” Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judah, who presented the document during the ISSG talks in New York, also said, according to TASS.
On Thursday, the UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution submitted jointly by Russian and the US which allows punishing individuals or companies involved in trade with Islamic State or other terror groups.

On Tuesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry held talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov as well as with the Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
Russia and the US managed to reach an agreement on some “critical” issues concerning Syria in particular. Kerry said that the positions of the US and Russia on Syria are “fundamentally very similar” and expressed readiness to further cooperation

mick silver

18th December 2015, 02:25 PM

Soros Plays Both Ends in Syria Refugee Chaos Column: Politics (http://journal-neo.org/category/columns/politics/)
Region: USA in the World (http://journal-neo.org/category/locations/usa-in-the-world/)

http://journal-neo.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/soros_2636184b-600x374-300x187.jpg (http://journal-neo.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/soros_2636184b-600x374.jpg)Since John D. Rockefeller was advised to protect his wealth from government taxation by creating a tax-exempt philanthropic foundation in 1913, foundations have been used by American oligarchs to disguise a world of dirty deeds under the cover “doing good for mankind,” known by the moniker “philanthropy” for mankind-loving. No less the case is that of George Soros who likely has more tax-exempt foundations under his belt than anyone around. His Open Society foundations are in every country where Washington wants to put ‘their man’ in, or at least get someone out who doesn’t know how to read their music. They played a key role in regime change in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe after 1989. Now his foundations are up to their eyeballs in promoting propaganda serving the US-UK war agenda for destroying stability in Syria as they did in Libya three years ago, creating the current EU refugee crisis.We should take a closer look at the ongoing Syrian refugee crisis wreaking such havoc and unrest across the EU, especially in Germany, the favored goal of most asylum seekers today. George Soros, today a naturalized American citizen, has just authored a six-point proposal telling the European Union on what they must do to manage the situation. It’s worth looking at in detail.He begins by stating, “The EU needs a comprehensive plan to respond to the crisis, one that reasserts effective governance over the flows of asylum-seekers so that they take place in a safe, orderly way…” He then says that, “First, the EU has to accept at least a million asylum-seekers annually for the foreseeable future (https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/rebuilding-refugee-asylum-system-by-george-soros-2015-09).”Soros does not elaborate where he pulled that figure from, nor does he discuss the role of other of his Soros-financed NGOs in Syria and elsewhere which manufacture faked propaganda to build a public sympathy lobby for a US and UK “No Fly Zone” in Syria as was done to destroy Libya.The American hedge fund speculator then adds, among his points to be implemented, a series of proposals that would consolidate a de facto supranational EU state apparatus under control of the faceless, unelected bureaucrats of the European Commission. The Soros proposals call for creating what amount to EU-issued refugee bonds. He states, “The EU should provide €15,000 ($16,800) per asylum-seeker for each of the first two years to help cover housing, health care, and education costs – and to make accepting refugees more appealing to member states. It can raise these funds by issuing long-term bonds using its largely untapped AAA borrowing capacity (https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/rebuilding-refugee-asylum-system-by-george-soros-2015-09)…”That issuing comes to 30 billion euros at a time when most EU member states are struggling to deal with domestic economic crises. Soros is generous with other peoples’ money. The mention of the AAA bond rating is the rating of the legal entity named the European Union. Soros has maneuvered for years to try to get a centralized Brussels independent financial power that would take the last vestiges of national financial sovereignty away from Berlin, Paris, Rome and other EU states, part of a scheme to destroy the remains of the national borders and of the nation-state principles established at the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 ending the Thirty Years’ War.George Soros has more ideas how to spend European citizens’ tax euros. He calls on the EU to cough up an added annual commitment to “frontline countries” (Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan) of at least €8-10 billion annually. Then, insidiously, Soros declares, “Safe channels must be established for asylum-seekers, starting with getting them from Greece and Italy to their destination countries. This is very urgent in order to calm the panic (https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/rebuilding-refugee-asylum-system-by-george-soros-2015-09).”
‘Destination Countries’His use of the term “destination countries” is very interesting. Today, by a huge margin that means the Federal Republic of Germany. Soros strategy is obviously to target Germany, especially, with a refugee flood.It has gradually come out into the open that many of the refugees or asylum-seekers flooding into the EU since summer of 2015 have come in response to reading Twitter or Facebook social media portraying especially Germany as an arms-open, refugee-loving paradise where all their needs will be met.How did word get out that Germany was the “in place” for those in flight from Syria and other conflict areas? Vladimir Shalak at the Russian Academy of Sciences developed the Internet Content-Analysis System for Twitter (Scai4Twi). He made a study of over 19,000 refugees-related original tweets (retweets discounted). His study showed that the vast majority of the tweets name Germany as the most refugee-welcoming country in Europe (http://www.voltairenet.org/article188774.html).Shalak’s study discovered that 93% of all tweets about Germany contained positive references to German hospitality and its refugee policy. Some samples of the Tweets:• Germany Yes! Leftists spray a graffiti on a train sayin “Welcome, refugees” in Arabic• Lovely people – video of Germans welcoming Syrian refugees to their community• Respect! Football fans saying “Welcome Refugees” across stadiums in Germany. _ • This Arabic Graffiti train is running in Dresden welcoming refugees: (ahlan wa sahlan – a warm welcome).• ‘We love Germany!,’ cry relieved refugees at Munich railway station• Thousands welcome refugees to Germany – Sky News Australia• Wherever this German town is that welcomed a coach of Syrian refugees with welcome signs and flowers -thank you (http://www.voltairenet.org/article188774.html).Now comes the real hammer. The vast majority of these “Germany welcomes refugee” Tweets come not from Germany, but from the United States and from the UK, the two countries up to their necks in the bloody deeds of ISIS and Al Qaeda and countless other terror gangs rampaging across Syria the past four years.Shalak analyzed 5,704 original tweets containing a “#RefugeesWelcome” hashtag and a country name which welcomes them. It showed almost 80% of all Tweets claimed that Germany was the most-welcoming country in Europe. The second most welcoming country found was Austria with 12%. However, the study also found that those “Germany welcomes you” Tweets did not originate from inside Germany. Over 40% of all the Tweets originated from the USA, UK or Australia. Only 6.4% originated inside Germany (http://www.voltairenet.org/article188774.html).George Soros is also the Daddy Warbucks financing a new EU think-tank with the name European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). On the website of the ECFR is an editorial titled, “If Europe wants people to stop drowning it needs to let them fly.” The Soros Think-Tank argues that the main reason migrants choose boats is EU Directive 51/2001/EC: “The EU directive was passed in 2001. Put simply, it states that carrier companies—whether airlines or ship lines—are responsible for ensuring that foreign nationals wishing to travel to the European Union have valid travel documents for their destination. If such travelers arrive in the EU and are turned away, the airlines are obligated to foot the bill for flying them home (http://www.ecfr.eu/article/commentary_if_europe_wants_people_to_stop_drowning 4046).” In other words, “open the gates of heaven wider, dear Lord.”
Soros’ Syria NGOs Beat War DrumsThe cynicism of the Soros call for the EU taxpayers to step up to the plate and accept millions of new refugees, to fly them in without papers, and more, is clear when we look at the same Soros-financed network of NGOs active in Syria trying to create the propaganda background to get acceptance of yet another US “No Fly Zone” over Syria as was done against Iraq after 1991 and against Libya in 2012 to bomb those countries back to the stone age.One of the key online advocates for a US-UK “No Fly Zone” over Syria, something the Russian intervention since September 30 has de facto blocked, is an organization known as Avaaz. Avaaz was given initial financial support by Soros’ foundation in 2007 to promote key policies suitable to the US State Department. They cite Soros’ Open Society foundation as their foundation partner. Avaaz played a key role promoting the 2011 No Fly Zone in Libya that introduced a regime of terror and chaos in that once prosperous and stable African nation. Avaaz is now very actively promoting the same treatment for Syria (https://ingaza.wordpress.com/syria/human-rights-front-groups-humanitarian-interventionalists-warring-on-syria/).Another Soros-financed NGO active demonizing the Assad government as cause of all atrocities in Syria and helping build public support for a war in Syria from the US and EU is Amnesty International. Suzanne Nossel, until 2013 the Executive Director of Amnesty International USA, came to the job from the US State Department where she was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, not exactly an unbiased agency in regard to Syria. As well, the Soros-financed Human Rights Watch has played a major role in falsely portraying ISIS and Al Qaeda civilian bombings and other atrocities as the work of the Assad regime, building support for military action from the US and EU (https://ingaza.wordpress.com/syria/human-rights-front-groups-humanitarian-interventionalists-warring-on-syria/).The Middle East and other wars today including Ukraine are the product of the foreign policy doctrine set out in 1992 by then Defense Assistant Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, the infamous Wolfowitz Doctrine that justifies “pre-emptive” war, free from any oversight from the UN Security Council, against any nation or group of nations which threaten US “Sole Superpower” domination. George Soros, the hedge fund speculator turned self-proclaimed philanthropist, and his tax-exempt foundations, are an integral part of that pre-emptive war machine. Now Soros lectures the EU countries, above all Germany, on how they should receive the human fallout from the wars he and his cronies in the US State Department have created. That’s real Chutzpah, or perhaps it is really hubris.F. William Engdahl is strategic risk consultant and lecturer, he holds a degree in politics from Princeton University and is a best-selling author on oil and geopolitics, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook” (http://journal-neo.org/).
First appeared: http://journal-neo.org/2015/12/18/soros-plays-both-ends-in-syria-refugee-chaos/

mick silver

18th December 2015, 05:02 PM

You Want War? Russia is Ready for War (http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/12/18/you-want-war-russia-is-ready-for-war/)
by Pepe Escobar (http://www.counterpunch.org/author/pepe-escobar/) by

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Nobody needs to read Zbigniew “Grand Chessboard” Brzezinski’s 1997 opus to know US foreign policy revolves around one single overarching theme: prevent – by all means necessary – the emergence of a power, or powers, capable of constraining Washington’s unilateral swagger, not only in Eurasia but across the world.
The Pentagon carries the same message (http://archive.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=45289) embedded in newspeak: the Full Spectrum Dominance doctrine.
Syria is leading all these assumptions to collapse like a house of cards. So no wonder in a Beltway under no visible chain of command – the Obama administration barely qualifies as lame duck – angst is the norm.
The Pentagon is now engaged in a Vietnam-style escalation of boots on the ground across “Syraq”. 50 commandos are already in northern Syria “advising” the YPG Syrian Kurds as well as a few “moderate” Sunnis. Translation: telling them what Washington wants them to do. The official White House spin is that these commandos “support local forces” (Obama’s words) in cutting off supply lines leading to the fake “Caliphate” capital, Raqqa.
Another 200 Special Forces sent to Iraq will soon follow, allegedly to “engage in direct combat” against the leadership of ISIS/ISIL/Daesh, which is now ensconced in Mosul.
These developments, billed as “efforts” to “partially re-engage in Iraq and Syria” are leading US Think Tankland to pen hilarious reports in search of “the perfect balance between wide-scale invasion and complete disengagement” – when everyone knows Washington will never disengage from the Middle East’s strategic oil wealth.
All these American boots on the ground in theory should be coordinating, soon, with a new, spectacularly surrealist 34-country “Islamic” coalition (Iran was not invited), set up to fight ISIS/ISIL/Daesh by no less than the ideological matrix of all strands of Salafi-jihadism: Wahhabi Saudi Arabia.
Syria is now Coalition Central. There are at least four; the “4+1” (Russia, Syria, Iran, Iraq plus Hezbollah), which is actually fighting Daesh; the US-led coalition, a sort of mini NATO-GCC combo, but with the GCC doing nothing; the Russia-France direct military collaboration; and the new Saudi-led “Islamic” charade. They are pitted against an astonishing number of Salafi-jhadi coalitions and alliances of convenience that last from a few months to a few hours.
And then there’s Turkey, which under Sultan Erdogan plays a vicious double game.
Sarajevo All Over Again?
“Tense” does not even begin to describe the current Russia-Turkey geopolitical tension, which shows no sign of abating. The Empire of Chaos lavishly profits from it as a privileged spectator; as long as the tension lasts, prospects of Eurasia integration are hampered.
Russian intel has certainly played all possible scenarios involving a NATO Turkish army on the Turkish-Syrian border as well as the possibility of Ankara closing the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles for the Russian “Syria Express”. Erdogan may not be foolish enough to offer Russia yet another casus belli. But Moscow is taking no chances.
Russia has placed ships and submarines capable of launching nuclear missiles in case Turkey under the cover of NATO decides to strike out against the Russian position. President Putin has been clear; Russia will use nuclear weapons if necessary if conventional forces are threatened.
If Ankara opts for a suicide mission of knocking out yet another Su-24, or Su-34, Russia will simply clear the airspace all across the border via the S-400s. If Ankara under the cover of NATO responds by launching the Turkish Army on Russian positions, Russia will use nuclear missiles, drawing NATO into war not only in Syria but potentially also in Europe. And this would include using nuclear missiles to keep Russian strategic use of the Bosphorus open.
That’s how we can draw a parallel of Syria today as the equivalent of Sarajevo 1914.
Since mid-2014 the Pentagon has run all manner of war games – as many as 16 times, under different scenarios – pitting NATO against Russia. All scenarios were favorable to NATO. All simulations yielded the same victor: Russia.
And that’s why Erdogan’s erratic behavior actually terrifies quite a few real players from Washington to Brussels.
Let Me Take You on a Missile Cruise
The Pentagon is very much aware of the tremendous heavy metal Russia may unleash if provoked to the limit by someone like Erdogan. Let’s roll out an abridged list.
Russia can use the mighty SS-18 – which NATO codenames “Satan”; each “Satan” carries 10 warheads, with a yield of 750 to 1000 kilotons each, enough to destroy an area the size of New York state.
The Topol M ICBM is the world’s fastest missile at 21 Mach (16,000 miles an hour); against it, there’s no defense. Launched from Moscow, it hits New York City in 18 minutes, and L.A. in 22.8 minutes.
Russian submarines – as well as Chinese submarines – are able to launch offshore the US, striking coastal targets within a minute. Chinese submarines have surfaced next to US aircraft carriers undetected, and Russian submarines can do the same.
The S-500 anti-missile system is capable of sealing Russia off from ICBMs and cruise missiles. (Moscow will only admit on the record that the S-500s will be rolled out in 2016; but the fact the S-400s will soon be delivered to China implies the S-500s may be already operational.)
The S-500 makes the Patriot missile look like a V-2 from WWII.
Here, a former adviser to the US Chief of Naval Operations essentially goes on the record saying the whole US missile defense apparatus is worthless.
Russia has a supersonic bomber fleet of Tupolev Tu-160s; they can take off from airbases deep in the heart of Russia, fly over the North Pole, launch nuclear-tipped cruise missiles from safe distances over the Atlantic, and return home to watch the whole thing on TV.
Russia can cripple virtually every forward NATO base with tactical – or battlefield – small-yield nuclear weapons. It’s not by accident that Russia over the past few months tested NATO response times in multiple occasions.
The Iskander missile travels at seven times the speed of sound with a range of 400 km. It’s deadly to airfields, logistics points and other stationary infrastructure along a broad war theatre, for instance in southern Turkey.
NATO would need to knock out all these Iskanders. But then they would need to face the S-400s – or, worse, S-500s — which Russia can layer in defense zones in nearly every conceivable theater of war. Positioning the S-400s in Kaliningrad, for instance, would cripple all NATO air operations deep inside Europe.
And presiding over military decisions, Russia privileges the use of Reflexive Control (RC). This is a tactic that aims to convey selected information to the enemy that forces him into making self-defeating decisions; a sort of virus influencing and controlling his decision-making process. Russia uses RC tactically, strategically and geopolitically. A young Vladimir Putin learned all there is to know about RC at the 401st KGB School and further on in his career as a KGB/FSB officer.
All right, Erdogan and NATO; do you still wanna go to war?

mick silver

18th December 2015, 06:25 PM

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mick silver

20th December 2015, 08:59 AM

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mick silver

20th December 2015, 09:00 AM

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mick silver

20th December 2015, 10:04 AM

Lebanese militant leader killed in Israeli raid in Syria - Hezbollahhttps://s2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/OGt94hXLi8pJ3gZn0K8OFA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3NfbGVnbztxPTg1/http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/d/0c/d0c3eb8ca18907492a4b337b5cec5193.jpeg (http://www.reuters.com/) By Mariam Karouny and Suleiman Al-Khalidi 1 hour ago

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Men place a picture of Lebanese Hezbollah militant leader Samir Qantar, who was killed in an Israeli …

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Longest-serving Lebanese prisoner in Israel killed in Syria (https://news.yahoo.com/hezbollah-says-lebanese-militant-killed-syria-airstrike-054136540.html) Associated Press
Syria says Lebanese militant killed in 'terror attack' in capital (https://news.yahoo.com/syria-says-lebanese-militant-killed-terror-attack-capital-081920093.html) Reuters
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BEIRUT (Reuters) - An Israeli air strike killed Samir Qantar, a Hezbollah militant leader, in Damascus on Saturday evening, the Lebanese group and Syrian state media said on Sunday.
Israel welcomed Qantar's death, saying he had been preparing attacks on it from Syrian soil, but stopped short of confirming responsibility for the strike that killed him.
A former national security adviser to Israel said he doubted the strike would escalate hostilities between Israel and Iranian-backed Hezbollah, whose last major confrontation was in 2006.
Israel has formally kept out of Syria's civil war which started almost five years ago but has bombed Hezbollah targets there without publicly acknowledging these sorties.
Hezbollah, a powerful Shi'ite Muslim group that has sent hundreds of fighters to Syria to support President Bashar al-Assad against rebels trying to topple him, said Qantar was "martyred" in an Israeli raid on the residential district of Jaramana in the Syrian capital, but gave no details.
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was due to speak on Monday evening as both supporters of the group and Syrian loyalist groups said the death of Qantar would be avenged and not be in vain.
Jailed in Israel for his part in a 1979 raid in Israel that killed four people, Qantar, a Druze, was repatriated to Lebanon in 2008 in a prisoner swap with Hezbollah, which he is then believed to have joined.
Yaakov Amidror, Israel's former national security adviser, predicted Hezbollah would seek to exact "small revenge" for Qantar's killing, but said Hezbollah, like Iran, was likely too busy fighting in Syria to afford a new front with Israel.
"It would not be in their interest, and if they did so, they would have a big problem," Amidror said, alluding to Israel's threats to respond to any major Hezbollah attack with strikes in Lebanon.
Hezbollah's official media said Qantar would be buried on Monday in a Shi'ite cemetery in its main stronghold of Dahiya in the southern suburbs of Beirut. The party opened a condolences hall to receive the public.
"Such acts of the Zionist regime (Israel), which have become a consistent method, are the most dangerous forms of state terrorism," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari was quoted as saying by Iran's ILNA news agency.
Syrian Information Minister Omran al Zubi pointed the finger at Israel but fell short of blaming it directly.
"The party that gains most from the assassination of Qantar is the Zionist enemy whom we have long known for these cowardly attacks," Zubi told Hezbollah's Manar television station.
Official Syrian media said an Israeli aerial strike hit a six-storey residential building in Jaramana.
EXPLOSIONS
"I am not confirming or denying anything to do with this matter," Israeli Housing and Construction Minister Yoav Gallant told Israel Radio, adding: "It is good that people like Samir Qantar will not be part of our world."
Qantar, born in 1962, kept a low public profile after Israel released him. Hezbollah did not say which role Qantar played in the Syrian conflict, but Syrian state media said he was involved in a major offensive earlier this year in Quneitra, near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Rebels in southern Syria also said Qantar was present in battles this year to defend a Syrian air base near the Druze majority city of Sweida, close to the border with Jordan, that rebels sought to capture.
Reuters could not independently verify this.
Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked accused Qantar of overseeing covert Hezbollah entrenchment on the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau overlooking northeastern Israel.
"He set up a broad terror network on the Golan, and it is good that he returned his soul to his creator," Shaked told Israel's Army Radio, without elaborating on any Israeli role.
The Assad loyalist National Defence Forces in Jaramana, a bastion of government support and home to many of Syria's Druze minority as well as Christians, mourned Qantar on its Facebook page.
"Two Israeli warplanes carried out the raid which targeted the building in Jaramana and struck the designated place with four long-range missiles," the NDF said.
In January, an Israeli strike in Syria killed six members of Hezbollah, including a commander and the son of the group's late military leader Imad Moughniyah near the Golan Heights.
(Additional reporting by Dan Williams in Jerusalem and Suleiman al-Khalidi in Beirut; Editing by Janet Lawrence and Dominic Evans

mick silver

20th December 2015, 10:37 AM

Syria regime, Russia making 'extensive' use of cluster munition: HRWhttps://s3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/7fznww770L15BQcSLrCSpA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3NfbGVnbztxPTg1/http://l.yimg.com/os/publish-images/news/2013-08-26/d19448d6-6aaa-4359-a768-eadacf5fbca9_afp-gif_new.gif (http://www.afp.com/) 1 hour ago

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Syrian rebels previously accused Damascus of using cluster munitions during 2012 raids on the northwestern town of Maaret al-Numan (AFP Photo/Bulent Kilic)

Beirut (AFP) - Human Rights Watch charged Sunday that Syrian government forces and their Russian allies have been making "extensive" use of cluster munitions against rebel groups since late September.

The New York-based rights watchdog said in a report it had documented the use of cluster munitions on 20 occasions since Russian and Syrian forces launched their assault on September 30.
HRW "collected detailed information about attacks in nine locations that have killed at least 35 civilians, including five women and 17 children, and injured dozens", the report said.
All the bombs were either made in Russia or the former Soviet Union, the rights group said.
"Syria's promises on indiscriminate weapons ring hollow when cluster munitions keep hitting civilians in many parts of the country," HRW's Ole Solvang said in the report.
Solvang urged the UN to "get serious about its commitment to protect Syria’s civilians by publicly demanding that all sides stop the use of cluster munitions".
Cluster munitions contain dozens or hundreds of bomblets and are fired in rockets or dropped from the air.
Widely banned, they spread explosives over large areas and are indiscriminate in nature, often continuing to maim and kill long after the initial attack when previously unexploded bomblets detonate.
Russia launched an aerial bombing campaign against opponents of President Bashar al-Assad on September 30.
More than 250,000 people have been killed since Syria's conflict erupted in March 2011, and millions more have fled their homes.