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Ice Cream Bar

Best of the Web: Empire Idiots: Postcard from post-terror Catalonia

Linh Dinh
The Unz Review
Sat, 09 Sep 2017 09:03 UTC
refugees europe
© Linh DinhTarragona, Spain, 2017
In Catalonia, there's a summer drink that combines beer with lemon soda. In Barcelona, it's called "clara." Further South, it's dubbed, most charmingly, a "champu," as in Head and Shoulders. Champu is quite good at eliminating the dandruff inside your skull.

cambrils
© Linh DinhCambrils, 2017
It is late summer, and I'm in Cambrils, drinking my second champu in Hawaii, a beach bar. The tables around me are mostly empty. I face the ocean. There are few bodies on the sand, and fewer in the water. It is peaceful here.

In 2001, Mohammed Atta and Ramzi bin al-Shibh, of 9/11 fame, were in Cambrils, however, and just 2 1/2 weeks ago, five Muslim "terrorists" were killed by police a few hundred feet from where I'm sitting.

It is said that at 1:15AM on August 18th, these Muslims drove their car through a police checkpoint outside the yacht club, then ran over six people, three of whom were cops. The three civilians were an old couple, and the woman's sister. The wife, 61-year-old Ana Maria Suarez, died.
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Gold Seal

Best of the Web: Eva Bartlett's Syria War Diary Part II: Civilians recount horrors of rebel rule as order returns to Madaya and Al-Waer

Eva Bartlett
Mint Press News
Tue, 26 Sep 2017 19:53 UTC
syria children vegetables
© AP/Hassan AmmarSyrian children buy vegetables in the town of Madaya in the Damascus countryside, Syria, May 18, 2017
In revisiting Madaya and al-Waer after their reclamation by the Syrian army, it soon became clear from Bartlett's conversations with residents just how distorted the reporting of corporate media about their fate under "rebel" control had been.

In the last year, the Syrian cities of Aleppo and Madaya have become familiar to the international community as they have become subjects of heavy propaganda amid corporate media coverage to justify a so-called "humanitarian" war. Another area used in the war propaganda was al-Waer, a district of Homs occupied by the Western armed and financed "moderates" of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), al-Nusra (al-Qaeda in Syria), Ahrar al-Sham, and terrorists showing allegiance to Daesh (ISIS).

When I again visited Syria in June 2017, Aleppo, Madaya and al-Waer had been restored to peace, following the evacuation of these armed groups. I was able to visit these areas and speak to residents about the reality of life under the rule of these factions.

In Part I of my coverage August 2017 article focused on Aleppo and the life of civilians there under "rebel" occupation - which included many dangers, deprivations, and horrors, not the least of which was susceptibility to extra-judicial trials and executions.

Here, I look at Madaya and al-Waer, again from on the ground, to give a voice to Syrians who have been marginalized by the Western corporate media, which has instead glorified the insurgency.

Comment: Previously: Eva Bartlett's Syria War Diary: What Life Is Like Under "Moderate" Rebel Rule

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Eye 2

Best of the Web: The insanity of the Generals: They think they can 'win' Armageddon

Phil Butler
New Eastern Outlook
Tue, 26 Sep 2017 22:51 UTC
US flag world burning
© New Eastern Outlook
In a room, somewhere deep inside the Pentagon generals and admirals met recently in order to prepare an assessment for the United States Senate Armed Services Committee. Present at the metering were General Mark Milley, the U.S. Army's Chief of Staff, the Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson, the Commandant of the Marine Corps General Robert Neller, and U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff General David L. Goldfein. At such a meeting there's no doubt that Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford attended seeing he's the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The agenda for this meeting was serious as a heart attack - America's most brilliant and powerful military men gathered that day to discuss Armageddon.

The minutes of this fateful meeting are top secret. Only a handful of people will ever know what was discussed. But the end result of the strategy session was revealed on September 15, 2017 before the people of the United States. The top generals of the most powerful nation on Earth advised congress that America could in fact win an all-out war with Russia and China. It must have been a scene right out of Director Stanley Kubrick's classic Cold War film, Dr. Strangelove. I was not there, so I can only imagine the gathering of war hawks, the stoic expertise and military intellect, and the obtuse arrogance being conveyed across the congressional forum that day. The vision makes me wonder, "Who in the hell ordered such an assessment in the first place?" But I think we all know the answer.

Comment:

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Jet5

Best of the Web: US proxy forces tried to capture 29 Russian troops in Syria... and instantly regretted it

Justin Huebner
Russia Insider
Wed, 20 Sep 2017 15:22 UTC
Spetsnaz (Russian Special Operations)
Spetsnaz (Russian Special Operations)
Now this is something you won't see on NBC nightly news.

The Russian military spokesman in this briefing, General Sergei Rudskoi, in a matter-of-fact deadpan, explains that 'US Secret Services', and their Al Qaeda proxies, had a very, very bad day yesterday.

Americans love bombing small, defenseless countries into the stone age, it's part of their culture like baseball, apple pie, and morbid obesity. One of the things they never do, however, is pick on a country that can fight back.


Comment: See also: Russian General Staff reports 850 jihadists killed as Russian warplanes help Syrian Army repel Idlib offensive

Today Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed at a press conference that the attack was instigated by U.S. intelligence.

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Cowboy Hat

Best of the Web: The momentous Syrian victory in Deir Ezzor

Hugo Turner
Sott.net
Sat, 16 Sep 2017 22:54 UTC
The Syrian Arab Army have achieved yet another dramatic victory this time lifting the ISIS siege of the heroic city of Deir Ezzor. For years Deir Ezzor has been surrounded by enemies and under siege first by the FSA and Al Nusra and then by ISIS. They have withstood repeated attacks by the US-NATO air force most infamously last fall when the Americans bombed Deir Ezzor right after agreeing to a ceasefire, a treacherous move that paved the way for a nearly successful ISIS offensive to capture the city. The brave defenders of Deir Ezzor withstood these endless attacks becoming a symbol of the heroic resistance of all of Syria. For years Syrians and their friends around the world have dreamed that one day this siege would be lifted. Our dreams have finally come true and faster then anyone could have imagined.
Syrian soldiers Deir ezzor
© Agence France-PresseSyrian soldiers raise their weapons while holding a picture of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Deir Ezzor in 2011.
The liberation of Deir Ezzor from ISIS siege is the culmination of months of dramatic SAA victories against ISIS. Now we dream that a final victory may be near in Syria. Once again the SAA and their allies Hezbollah, Russia, and Iran have stunned the world. The empire of Chaos is in a panic. Netanyahu of Israel is hysterical with rage attempting to spoil the victory in Deir Ezzor with yet another of it's illegal and cowardly air strikes on Syria. The whole strategic balance of the world is changing before our eyes. And it is all due to the enormous courage of the Syrian people who have withstood this dirty war launched by seemingly half the world on their country. Syria has resisted the US, Israel, the British, the Saudis, Qatar, Turkey, UAE, Kuwait, France, Germany, and the rest of the GCC/NATO lackeys that make up the the Axis of Chaos. They have resisted armies of fanatical, brutal, killers recruited across the middle east, Africa, Europe, and Central Asia. They have defeated a CIA trained horde of torturers, rapists, slavers, cannibals, and, of course, killers. Has any country in history battled against the odds Syria has faced? Is the victory in Deir Ezzor the most glorious in human history?
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USA

Best of the Web: An Empire of Chaos: The Real Reason the US is in Afghanistan

Caleb Maupin
New Eastern Outlook
Tue, 19 Sep 2017 14:35 UTC
Trump Afghanistan
Donald Trump is sending more troops to Afghanistan, continuing the USA's longest war. CEO Michael Silver, of the American Elements corporation, wrote a short op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, urging for the extraction of the country's mineral resources. Afghanistan remains unstable. Many questions must be asked. The one on many minds is "Why is the USA in Afghanistan?"

Terrorism? Minerals? Or Something Else?

The USA has been occupying Afghanistan since 2001. Why? Both supporters and opponents of US Afghan policy give murky answers. Supporters of US efforts say they are in the country to fight terrorism and help the country rebuild and move toward democracy. Opponents of the occupation say the USA is seeking to control its rare minerals such as neodymium, indium, gallium, and lanthanum which are essential in making computer chips.

Comment: This is the first analysis - to our knowledge - that matches our own: the US is in Afghanistan to thwart Eurasian integration. It is there for negative, destructive reasons, which is why it has taken so long for people to realize its strategy.

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Mail

Best of the Web: Letter to my Liberal American Friends on the True Nature of the U.S. Empire

The Saker
thesaker.is
Sat, 16 Sep 2017 00:00 UTC
America
Introduction by the Saker: During my recent hurricane-induced evacuation from Florida, I had the pleasure to see some good friends of mine (White Russian emigrés and American Jews who now consider themselves American and who fully buy into the official propaganda about the USA) who sincerely think of themselves as liberals, progressives and anti-imperialists. These are kind, decent and sincere people, but during our meeting they made a number of statements which completely contradicted their professed views. After writing this letter to them I realized that there might be many more people out there who, like myself, are desperately trying to open the eye of good but completely mislead people about the reality of Empire. I am sharing this letter in the hope that it might maybe offer a few useful talking points to others in their efforts to open the eyes of their friends and relatives.

---

Dear friends:

During our conversation you stated the following:
  1. The USA needs a military
  2. One of the reasons why the USA needs a military are regimes like the North Korean one
  3. The USA has a right to intervene outside its borders on a) pragmatic and b) moral grounds
  4. During WWII the USA "saved Europe" and acquired a moral right to "protect" other friends and allies
  5. The Allies (USSR-US-UK) were morally superior to the Nazis
  6. The Americans brought peace, prosperity and freedom to Europe.
  7. Yes, mistakes were made, but this is hardly a reason to forsake the right to intervene
I believe that all seven of these theses are demonstratively false, fallacies based on profoundly mistaken assumptions and that they all can be debunked by common sense and indisputable facts.
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Propaganda

Best of the Web: The NYT's campaign of Yellow Journalism against Russia

Robert Parry
Consortium News
Fri, 15 Sep 2017 17:20 UTC
new york times
The New York Times' descent into yellow journalism over Russia recalls the sensationalism of Hearst and Pulitzer leading to the Spanish-American War, but the risks to humanity are much greater now.

Reading The New York Times these days is like getting a daily dose of the "Two Minutes Hate" as envisioned in George Orwell's 1984, except applied to America's new/old enemy Russia. Even routine international behavior, such as Russia using fictitious names for potential adversaries during a military drill, is transformed into something weird and evil.

In the snide and alarmist style that the Times now always applies to Russia, reporter Andrew Higgins wrote - referring to a fictitious war-game "enemy" - "The country does not exist, so it has neither an army nor any real citizens, though it has acquired a feisty following of would-be patriots online. Starting on Thursday, however, the fictional state, Veishnoriya, a distillation of the Kremlin's darkest fears about the West, becomes the target of the combined military might of Russia and its ally Belarus."

This snarky front-page story in Thursday's print editions also played into the Times' larger narrative about Russia as a disseminator of "fake news." You see the Russkies are even inventing "fictional" enemies to bully. Hah-hah-hah! The article was entitled, "Russia's War Games With Fake Enemies Cause Real Alarm."
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Eye 2

Best of the Web: Who really rules America? The power elite in the time of Trump

Prof. James Petras
James Petras Website
Tue, 05 Sep 2017 17:53 UTC
deep state
In the last few months, several competing political, economic and military sectors - linked to distinct ideological and ethnic groups - have clearly emerged at the centers of power.

We can identify some of the key competing and interlocking directorates of the power elite:
1. Free marketers, with the ubiquitous presence of the 'Israel First' crowd.

2. National capitalists, linked to rightwing ideologues.

3. Generals, linked to the national security and the Pentagon apparatus, as well as defense industry.

4. Business elites, linked to global capital.
This essay attempts to define the power wielders and evaluate their range of power and its impact.
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Bad Guys

Best of the Web: Retired US Air Force Lieut Col. Karen Kwiatkowski on Alleged US Rescue of ISIS Field Commanders: 'We Are Rescuing Our Allies'


Sputnik
Sat, 09 Sep 2017 19:04 UTC
Daesh Syria
© lickr/ Day Donaldson
A source has told Sputnik that US Air Force aircraft had evacuated a group of nearly two dozen Daesh (ISIS) field commanders and militants from Deir ez-Zor, eastern Syria last month. Retired US Air Force Lieut Col. Karen Kwiatkowski says this is standard operating procedure for CIA black ops looking to cover their trail after an operation.

On Thursday, a military and diplomatic source told Sputnik that USAF helicopters had evacuated 22 Daesh field commanders and militants from areas outside the city of Deir ez-Zor in late August, amid a successful operation by Syrian government forces to free the area from terrorist control. The militants were reportedly taken to northern Syria. The US-led coalition's press office told Sputnik that the allegations were "false."

Asked to comment, Karen Kwiatkowski, a retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel turned anti-neoconservative activist, told Sputnik that these evacuees were likely people that the US military and intelligence establishment wanted to protect, "particularly people with evidence that could be used against the US [during] negotiations."

Comment: This is another one of the ways in which Trump is bound by the Deep State; to go public, acknowledge and respond to these allegations would mean that he'd be proclaiming war on a group of individuals capable of "heart-attacking" him in retaliation. And to do and say nothing is to give tacit permission for the CIA to continue its criminal dirty work - and ultimately betray the promise he made to the millions of US citizens who put their faith in him.

Imagine being a well intentioned leader faced with such a dilemma.

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