Maria Podkopaeva
Fort RussWed, 10 Jun 2015 16:37 UTC
Camp Bucca
In the past six months reputable publications and news agencies of different countries increasingly engage in a heated discussion about whose project is ISIS. And who is responsible for the emergence and operation of this group. Discussion started late last year in the Western media of this topic can hardly be silenced. Therefore an exchange of blame is inevitable.
The main nerve of the emerging debate is the burning issue about the real relationship between ISIS and the United States. It is not easy to provide an exhaustive answer. However, much begins to make sense.
On the one hand, ISIS is conducting a campaign of threats against the U.S. and American citizens. On the other hand, Americans are already openly perceived as the handlers of ISIS. In mid-April 2015 the Iranian news Agency Fars quoted the statement of chief of General staff of the Iranian armed forces major-general Hassan Firouzabadi, who said:
"We have received reports that American planes have been landing and taking off from ISIS-controlled airports. The United States should not supply weapons, money and food to 'Islamic State', and then apologize about doing that by mistake."
A number of Western media outlets at the same time worked a completely different version of ISIS creation.
Comment: See also this CNN report from late 2014 which lays it all out:
It's time
Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's acclaimed Lahore bus visit and the Lahore Declaration in February 1999 was followed by the Kargil War in May the same year. Similarly, Prime Minister Modi's Lahore visit, with all its bonhomie, hoopla and fanfare was followed by the attack by militants on the Pathankot Air Force base and later on the Indian consulate in Mazhar-e-Sharif.
There are many people who want improvement of relations between India and Pakistan. They say that if France and Germany can live as good neighbours after long years of animosity, why cannot we?
In my opinion such people are living in a fool's paradise, and they forget certain basic facts.
The very purpose of creating Pakistan was that there should be no peace but enmity and hostility.
Comment: There's no better time for this to at least begin happening: both countries have anti-establishment, popular, patriotic leaders who genuinely want the best for their people.
The UK would be well-advised to support reunification: over million Pakistanis and almost 1.5 million Indians
live there. We can't envisage war between India and Pakistan being confined to South Asia...
Caitlin Johnstone
MediumThu, 08 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC
© UnknownUS President Donald Trump speaking in Lima, Ohio
Whenever I criticize the foreign policy of the current US administration, I always get some pushback from Trump supporters who insist that this president is doing more good than harm by "fighting the Deep State" and, even more commonly, by "keeping us out of wars".
This notion that Donald Trump is some kind of peace president, or even the notion that he puts any more inertia on the US war machine than his predecessor did, is contradicted by all facts and evidence we have available to us. Trump has not ended a single one of the wars his predecessors started, and has added dangerous escalations against
Venezuela,
Iran, and
nuclear-armed Russia.
One of the difficulties in addressing this persistent myth, besides the obvious fact that everyone now lives in
tightly cloistered information echo chambers of confirmation bias-feeding validation loops, is that the myth is in some ways bipartisan. Whenever Trump mumbles one of his empty appeals to non-interventionist principles, his supporters lap it up while half of the Democrats start attacking the president for being insufficiently hawkish. Trump's
talk about withdrawing from Syria is a perfect example of this;
the troops are still there, but Dems attacked him for irresponsible "isolationist" behavior and his supporters got their fairy tale about their president ending wars.
Everyone gets what they want, including the military-industrial complex that Trump pretends to oppose.
© XinhuaA team of Chinese researchers says a period of global cooling could be on the way, but the consequences will be serious.
- but the mainland scientists behind the research warn there is no room for complacency or inaction on climate change, with the prospect of a sudden global cooling also posing a danger.
The study found that winds from Arctic Siberia have been growing weaker, the conifer tree line has been retreating north, and there has been a steady rise in biodiversity in a general warming trend that continues today. It appears to have little to do with the increase in greenhouse gases which began with the industrial revolution, according to the researchers.
Lead scientist Dr Wu Jing, from the Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said the study had found no evidence of human influence on northern China's warming winters.
© Flickr/europeancentralbank/Strategic Culture
The influential economic commentator on Europe, Ambrose Pritchard Evans,
writes:
"German industry is in the deepest slump since the global financial crisis, and threatens to push Europe's powerhouse economy into full-blown recession. The darkening outlook is forcing the European Central Bank to contemplate ever more perilous measures.
"The influential Ifo Institute in Munich said its business climate indicator for manufacturing went into "free fall" in July, as the delayed damage from global trade conflict takes its toll and confidence wilts. It goes far beyond the woes of the car industry. More than 80pc of Germany's factories are in outright contraction."
Why? What is going on here? It seems that, though other European member-states used to be Germany's largest market,
Germany's first and third largest export destinations are now the US and China, respectively. Together, they account for more than 15% of all outbound German trade activity. More than 18% of Germany's export goods ended up somewhere in Asia. Therefore, Germany's industrial struggles in 2019 point the finger in the direction of its external focus, which means the US, China, and Asia - i.e. its largest marginal trade partners. And the principal assailants in today's trade and tech wars.
Quirin Schiermeier
NatureThu, 08 Aug 2019 15:39 UTC
© Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/GettyCattle farming, shown here in northern Brazil, is emission-intensive and often accompanies large-scale deforestation.
Efforts to curb greenhouse gas-emissions and the impacts of global warming will fall significantly short without drastic changes in global land use, agriculture and human diets, leading researchers warn in a high-level report commissioned by the United Nations.
The special report on climate and land by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) describes plant-based diets as a major opportunity for mitigating and adapting to climate change ― and includes a policy recommendation to reduce meat consumption.
On 8 August, the IPCC released a summary of the report, which is designed to inform upcoming climate negotiations amidst the worsening global climate crisis. More than 100 experts compiled the report in recent months, around half of whom hail from developing countries.
Comment: Given the IPCC's lamentable track record, why would anyone listen to their recommendations. Besides:
Helen Buyniski
RTSat, 10 Aug 2019 08:54 UTC
© Agence France-Presse/Saul LoebCardboard cutouts of Mark Zuckerberg stand outside the US Capitol in Washington
Facebook's plan to hook ad-cash-deprived mainstream outlets on licensing payouts seems to be an attempt to hijack narrative control en route to total domination of the infosphere - the ultimate safe space, Zuckerberg-style.
More than two thirds of American adults get their news from social media at the same time that
more than half expect that news to be "largely inaccurate." Perhaps sensing a business opportunity, Facebook has moved in to manage that news consumption, reportedly offering mainstream outlets millions of dollars per year to license their content in order to present it to users authoritatively, as "Facebook News" - having long since ceased trusting users to share news among themselves.
But trusting Facebook to deliver the news is like trusting a cheetah to babysit your gazelles - all that's left at the end is likely to be a pile of bones. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
warned legacy media last year that if they did not work with his plan to "revitalize journalism," they would be left dying "like in a hospice."
Dangling a few million in front of news outlets after depriving them of the advertising cash on which they once subsisted is merely the final step in the process of consolidation and control that began when Facebook removed actual news from its newsfeed in an effort to manage the narrative in the run-up to the 2016 election. A move ostensibly designed to "favor friends and family over publishers," it instead plunged mainstream and especially alternative media into financial oblivion, setting them scrambling to recoup lost traffic as their place in subscribers' feeds was taken by cat videos and family snapshots.
Yuliya Talmazan, Tom Winter and Jonathan Dienst
NBCSat, 10 Aug 2019 13:26 UTC
'We're gonna get to the bottom of this. Oh wait, nevermind...'
Jeffrey Epstein, the millionaire financier and accused sex trafficker, is
dead by suicide, according to three officials familiar with the matter.
The officials told NBC News he was found at 7:30 a.m. ET at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York and that he hanged himself.
He was transported Saturday morning from the Metropolitan Correctional Center to a hospital in Lower Manhattan. Upon arrival, he was in cardiac arrest, people familiar with the matter say.
Epstein, 66, was being held on federal sex trafficking charges.
He was arrested July 6 in Teterboro, New Jersey, as he returned from Paris on a private jet.
He had pleaded not guilty and was denied bail.
Comment: Recall that he was also found with ligature marks on his neck a few weeks ago, then put on 'suicide watch'.
Just in the last few days, documents were introduced into his trial concerning
British royal Prince Andrew, his London 'socialite girlfriend'
Ghislaine Maxwell, and connections were made between his brother and Clintonistas Adam Schiff and
Debbie Wasserman Schultz. And that's not all. RT
reports:
According to court documents unsealed a day before his death, another alleged victim claims that Epstein trafficked her and other girls to some of the world's wealthiest and most powerful men, including British Prince Andrew, billionaire investor Glenn Dublin, and former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. The victim's list also includes "another prince," a "foreign president," a "well-known prime minister," and the owner of a French "large hotel chain."
Like we said when he was arrested, Epstein was a dead man walking...
In a way, it's amazing they didn't do this before now, because for the last month or so there's been an unusually intense spotlight on the US, UK and Israeli elites Epstein worked for...
See also:
Mega Group, Maxwells And Mossad: The Spy Story at The Heart of The Jeffrey Epstein Pedo ScandalTwitter was ablaze with the news, with many questioning the 'suicide'. Some are convinced the Clintons are behind Epstein's death...
UPDATE 21:00 CETFrom the Daily Caller:
Bill Barr Says Epstein's Death 'Raises Serious Questions'
Attorney General Bill Barr said Saturday he was "appalled" to learn of Jeffrey Epstein's apparent suicide and promised an investigation into the circumstances of Epstein's death.
The convicted sex offender and financier was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell Friday night at the age of 66.
"I was appalled to learn that Jeffrey Epstein was found dead early this morning from an apparent suicide while in federal custody," Barr said in a statement. "Mr. Epstein's death raises serious questions that must be answered."
The attorney general added that the FBI was investigating Epstein's death, and that the inspector general would open a separate investigation as well.
"In addition to the FBI's investigation, I have consulted with the Inspector General who is opening an investigation into the circumstances of Mr. Epstein's death," Barr said.
Barr's statements echo the sentiments of several politicians and pundits who have expressed exasperation that Epstein was able to commit suicide just weeks after being placed on a suicide watch list following a failed attempt.
Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said "We need answers. Lots of them," to which Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz agreed, calling on House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler to prioritize an investigation into Epstein's death over investigations into Russia and Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Meanwhile, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough called the apparent suicide "bullsh*t" and "predictably Russian," while left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore said "I guess they think a country dumb enough to elect Trump is stupid enough to believe Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide."
The
New York Post published photos purporting to be Epstein being taken to hospital:
Paramedics frantically tried to revive convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein early Saturday morning after he was found unresponsive in his cell in downtown Manhattan, exclusive photos shot by The Post reveal.
© William FarringtonEMTs attempt to revive Jeffrey Epstein as he's wheeled into New York Downtown Hospital.
A call was placed to first responders around 6:30 a.m. as MCC staff tried to revive him, said the FDNY and Bureau of Prisons.
© William FarringtonJeffrey Epstein is wheeled into New York Downtown Hospital.
The images show a drawn, ashen face with closed eyes, and EMTs using a breathing apparatus in an attempt to revive the multi-millionaire convicted pedophile.
Epstein was later declared dead at the hospital.
While Breitbart reports that several sources said Epstein had been
removed from suicide watch:
Sex offender and accused sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein was not on suicide watch at the time of his death, according to several reports.
Prison officials found the disgraced billionaire dead in his jail cell early Saturday morning. Multiple reports are calling his death an apparent suicide via hanging, although it has come with suspicion, as Epstein was believed to be on suicide watch. However, officials told the New York Post that Epstein was not on suicide watch at the time of his death.
According to the New York Post:
Department of Justice spokesman Lee Plourde told The Post that Epstein, 66, was not "currently" on watch in his cell at the Manhattan Correctional Facility while he awaited trial on child sex-trafficking charges.
Plourde refused to say whether that meant Epstein had been taken off additional monitoring or whether he had never been getting special attention to make sure he did not kill himself.
"I'm not going to discuss his previous medical status," he said.
The Associated Press also reported that the billionaire was taken off suicide watch:
A person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press that Epstein had been taken off suicide watch. The person wasn't authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity. It wasn't immediately clear when he was taken off suicide watch.
NBC News had a similar report:
Epstein, 66, was in his federal jail cell in downtown Manhattan but was not on suicide watch at the time of his death, multiple people familiar with the investigation told NBC News. He had apparently hanged himself, and was found unresponsive at around 6:30 a.m. ET.
The latests documents to be
unsealed may have been the final straw in the Epstein scandal, but for whom? RT reports:
The files were unsealed on Friday as part of an ongoing lawsuit filed by Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre against the businessman's ex-girlfriend and so-called "madam," Ghislaine Maxwell. Giuffre alleges Epstein and Maxwell forced her into sex, and trafficked her to other wealthy and powerful men.
In a deposition included in the unsealed records, Giuffre said she was ordered by Epstein and Maxwell to give erotic massages and have sex with men, ranging from Prince Andrew, billionaire investor Glenn Dubin - whose wife claimed to be "100% comfortable" with having Epstein around her children - and former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who has admitted to meeting with Epstein on his Zorro Ranch once in 2002, but denies Giuffre's charge.
Also on the list is modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, whose MC2 agency was allegedly used to recruit and traffic girls as young as 12 to Epstein and other wealthy men. Giuffre mentions "another prince," a "foreign president," a "well-known prime minister," and the owner of a French "large hotel chain," but seems frustrated she can't "recall all of the people," largely because there were so many of them. "I was told to do something by these people constantly," she testifies, explaining, "my whole life revolved around just pleasing these men."
Their whole entire lives revolved around sex.
Epstein allegedly told another of his accusers that he required "three orgasms a day" - that "it was biological, like eating." Another claimed his anatomy was deformed - "egg-shaped," to be exact. The unsealed documents also included photographs, including nude snapshots of prepubescent girls. Giuffre said she was made to watch as Epstein and Maxwell indulged in "illegal sexual acts with dozens of underage girls."
In perhaps the most disturbing disclosure, the documents also contain a receipt indicating Epstein bought books pertaining to sadomasochism and sexual slavery, including the titles SM 101: A Realistic Introduction,SlaveCraft: Roadmaps for Erotic Servitude and Training with Miss Abernathy: A Workbook for Erotic Slaves and Their Owners. Giuffre's attorneys say the purchases support her account of sexual exploitation at the hands of Epstein and Maxwell.
While the documents reveal that both President Donald Trump and former President Bill Clinton had dealings with Epstein - whether on his private jet or on one of his luxurious properties - Giuffre noted in the deposition that Clinton had no involvement in the sex-trafficking ring, and that Trump "didn't partake in any sex" with underage girls.
Giuffre first sued Maxwell in 2015 for her role in Epstein's sex ring, and later filed a second defamation suit after Maxwell accused her of lying. The records released Friday have been under seal as part of that case, for which Maxwell failed to obtain a summary dismissal in 2017.
Paul Joseph Watson comments:
UPDATE Aug 11 12:4500 EDT
"I question whether or not it was a true suicide attempt that Mr Epstein was involved in in jail or whether or not there may be some powerful people who just don't want him to talk. If he goes on trial, everyone he's been in contact with will ultimately be fair game. There's no doubt in my mind that no jail will protect you when there's powerful people that want to reach you - wherever you are. If he's going to implicate anyone in power that has the ability to reach in and somehow get to him - his life is definitely in jeopardy.
"I do question whether it was a true suicide attempt. I mean how do you choke yourself? It doesn't make any sense. There are reports someone came after him but that could just be because he's a paedophile. Those types of individuals don't last long in prison. If Epstein is in general population or anywhere available to the general population I believe his life is in jeopardy. They will have to seal him down in the jail. But even there there are still people who can get to him, ultimately."
- The Sun, 'IN DANGER' Jeffrey Epstein's life 'in jeopardy' as powerful pals 'don't want their secrets out', victim's lawyer claims
From the
Daily Mail:
A separate source revealed to DailyMail.com that Epstein actually told prison guards and fellow inmates that he believed someone had tried to kill him in the weeks before his death.
The insider, who had seen the disgraced financier on several occasions during his incarceration at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, also claims that the normally reserved Epstein seemed to be in good spirits.
'There was no indication that he might try to take his own life,' the source told DailyMail.com
'From what I saw, he was finally starting to adjust to prison. I think he was comforted by the rigidity of his new life.'
CNBC
reports:
He was, by all accounts, the kind of inmate that should have been under the closest possible supervision.
Instead, Epstein was taken off suicide watch in the days before he took his own life, officials told NBC News, a decision that baffled former wardens and veterans of the federal prison system.
"For them to pull him off suicide watch is shocking," Cameron Lindsay, a former warden who worked at three federal facilities, told NBC News. "For someone this high-profile, with these allegations and this many victims, who has had a suicide attempt in the last few weeks, you can take absolutely no chances. You leave him on suicide watch until he's out of there."
...
The conditions would have required him to be moved to a special bare-bones cell where he would be outfitted in a tear-resistant one-piece smock and receive stepped-up observation from a staffer or inmate posted outside, according to Lindsay and sources familiar with Epstein's case.
But Epstein's status was changed sometime in the last two weeks for reasons that remain unknown, officials told NBC News. The decision would normally have to have been authorized by the jail's suicide prevention program coordinator, who is ordinarily the institution's chief psychologist, and approved by the warden.
"Once an inmate has been placed on watch, the watch may not be terminated, under any circumstance, without the program coordinator or designee performing a face-to-face evaluation," according to the federal Bureau of Prison official guidelines issued in 2007.
...
"It's too early to say what I think should happen, but if this did occur as we believe that it did, some staff are going to have some hard questions to answer, I'm afraid," said Lindsay, who served as warden at the nearby Metropolitan Detention Center from 2007 to 2009.
Bob Hood, a former federal Bureau of Prisons chief of internal affairs and former warden at the ADX Florence "supermax" prison in Colorado, said he also was perplexed by the decision to remove the suicide safeguards.
"Under the circumstances, I would have a staff member sitting there or have a camera on him 24/7 while he was in my custody, purely to cover my butt," said Hood. "I know that sounds tacky, but this is not your average inmate."
...
Jack Donson, a former longtime federal Bureau of Prisons case manager, told NBC News that suicide watch in federal lockup "usually only lasts a few days to week" due to the amount of manpower the 24-hour surveillance entails.
"It requires staff to do overtime shifts," Donson said, and is "not considered a good use of resources."
Federal staff members will "make an assessment" about when they believe that "imminent danger" to the inmate has passed, and then the warden and chief psychologist make a determination about what to do with the inmate, Donson said.
...
Epstein's suicide has led some involved in his case to wonder whether he received outside help.
"It simply does not make common sense that Jeffrey Epstein was not on suicide watch," said Jack Scarola, a lawyer who represents seven of Epstein's alleged victims. "And it does not make common sense that if he was on suicide watch he could have successfully taken his own life unless he had some outside help."
© Charles Krupa/Associated Press/ShutterstockPresidential hopeful U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, smiles during a campaign stop at a brewery in Peterborough, N.H on March 22nd, 2019.
"It just shows," says Hawaii congresswoman
Tulsi Gabbard, "that launching a smear campaign is the only response to the truth."
Gabbard, 38, burst into headlines after a July 31 Democratic Party presidential debate, when she went after California Senator
Kamala Harris's record as Attorney General of the State of California. The "smear campaign" refers to the bizarre avalanche of negative press that ensued, as reporters seemed to circle wagons around a Harris, a party favorite.
The Gabbard-Harris exchange was brief but revealing, as a window into a schism in the Democratic Party. Harris was elected Attorney General of California in 2010. She frequently sought moderate or even conservative positions on issues like criminal sentencing, drug enforcement, and prison labor. These stances were standard among Democrats back when being "tough on crime" was considered an essential component of the "electability" argument.
© Twitter/KTHopkinsKatie Hopkins joins Shakeel Afsar and Amir Ahmed in Birmingham for Eid celebrations
Controversial social commentator
Katie Hopkins has
joined forces with leaders of the Birmingham school protests against LGBT education equality, in a move which has angered many of their supporters.
In a tweet posted earlier today, anti-Islam activist
Hopkins shared a photo of her in the home of Shakeel Afsar and alongside Amir Ahmed, who have both voraciously led protests challenging LGBT equality education at Anderton Park Primary School in the city.
Writer and broadcaster Hopkins, who once stated "Islam disgusts me" but defended her views as "entirely rational", thanked Afsar for inviting her into his home for "Eid celebrations" and to "discuss the issues with LGBT teaching at Anderton Park Primary School".
It appears the 44-year-old media personality - who in 2017 was reported to the Metropolitan police
for a tweet in which she called for a "final solution" as part of a longer anti-Muslim tirade - was in the Sparkhill and Balsall Heath area to report on the recent protest ban, as she earlier tweeted a photo of herself standing outside the school.
A temporary council injunction has
currently been placed around the school banning protests, but the protesters
have vowed to continue.
Comment: Indeed they are, and it's simultaneously being rolled out through the education system in every Western country.
The extremely divisive social issues it brings up is why Russia legislated against allowing such propaganda against minors back in 2013.
Watch Katie Hopkins's report from the Anderton Primary School in Birmingham, England:
Comment: See also this CNN report from late 2014 which lays it all out: