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Best of the Web: Propaganda war? Western press paints grim picture of Aleppo as residents celebrate their liberation


RT
Wed, 14 Dec 2016 11:29 UTC
Aleppo residents celebrate
While residents of Aleppo are celebrating the liberation of their city, the mainstream media has been painting the opposite picture with sensational headlines decrying alleged atrocities and a "meltdown of humanity" they claim is happening there.

But what are their sources? Well, "someone told them." Most of their reports are unverified because MSM has no one on the ground in Aleppo.

RT's Murad Gazdiev looks into how MSM lies and misinformation.
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Sheriff

Best of the Web: Victory at last! East Aleppo fully liberated, Syrians celebrate in the streets


RT
Mon, 12 Dec 2016 22:39 UTC
Aleppo residents cheer victory
© Lizzie Phelan / RT
Aleppo streets have erupted in celebrations with people waving flags and shooting in the air as reports said the Syrian Army has taken control of the last militant-held areas in eastern part of the city, RT's Lizzie Phelan reports from the ground.

While an official statement on the situation is yet to emerge from Damascus, a source close to Syrian Army headquarters told RIA Novosti that the army is on the brink of liberating the city.

"The army has begun clearing out the last terrorist stronghold in the Salaheddin neighborhood. The terrorists are firing back and are trying to use mortars," the source told the news agency. "However, the complete liberation of Aleppo could happen soon, which will be officially announced."

Meanwhile people have already taken to the streets of the war-torn city in celebrations, RT's Lizzie Phelan reported from Aleppo.

Comment: The Syrian Army officially announced the liberation of Aleppo after taking the final three blocks held by the terrorist groups that have occupied the city for four years. Between 10,000 to 13,000 civilians fled the final districts in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of refugees to around 130,000 (half the number that Western media and organizations had estimated).



Update: Alexander Mercouris comments:
If the Syrian authorities have indeed at this eleventh hour refused to let the Jihadis leave Aleppo, then this is a reflection of the bankruptcy of US diplomacy. Earlier in the day Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov made the following withering statement about US diplomatic actions
"The problem is very simple. We say - let us first of all agree on what corridors will be provided to militants, given the previous experience when gunmen used any pause for regrouping, receiving replenishment from abroad and terrorising the civilian population even more furiously.

We can coordinate this with Americans very quickly. We undertake commitments to guarantee that these corridors won't be attacked by Syrian armed forces, while Americans undertake commitments together with their regional allies to get militants' consent to leave eastern Aleppo via these safe corridors.

[US colleagues first supported that concept and even committed their considerations to paper at a meeting in Rome on December 2]. But four days later they recalled these considerations and returned to their old and dead-end position, which is that before coordinating the corridors (for the withdrawal of refugees and gunmen) a pause of three, four and seven days must be declared.

We have already gone through this. This will mean that militants will once again get a respite. I hope they will stop sparing gunmen, that the United States as a serious power will use its influence on militants and on those who control gunmen apart from Washington, and that we will finally be able to solve this problem, honestly and caring first of all for the civilian population."
Jubilant Aleppans celebrate their liberation from U.S.-backed terrorist scum:


Panic and celebration in E. Aleppo:


And more videos and pics:







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MIB

Best of the Web: The CIA's big lies about 'Russian hacking' puts everyone in danger

Craig Murray
CraigMurray.org
Sun, 11 Dec 2016 00:00 UTC
CIA Russia
I have watched incredulously as the CIA's blatant lie has grown and grown as a media story - blatant because the CIA has made no attempt whatsoever to substantiate it. There is no Russian involvement in the leaks of emails showing Clinton's corruption. Yes this rubbish has been the lead today in the Washington Post in the US and the Guardian here, and was the lead item on the BBC main news. I suspect it is leading the American broadcasts also.

A little simple logic demolishes the CIA's claims. The CIA claim they "know the individuals" involved. Yet under Obama the USA has been absolutely ruthless in its persecution of whistleblowers, and its pursuit of foreign hackers through extradition. We are supposed to believe that in the most vital instance imaginable, an attempt by a foreign power to destabilize a US election, even though the CIA knows who the individuals are, nobody is going to be arrested or extradited, or (if in Russia) made subject to yet more banking and other restrictions against Russian individuals? Plainly it stinks. The anonymous source claims of "We know who it was, it was the Russians" are beneath contempt.

As Julian Assange has made crystal clear, the leaks did not come from the Russians. As I have explained countless times, they are not hacks, they are insider leaks - there is a major difference between the two. And it should be said again and again, that if Hillary Clinton had not connived with the DNC to fix the primary schedule to disadvantage Bernie, if she had not received advance notice of live debate questions to use against Bernie, if she had not accepted massive donations to the Clinton foundation and family members in return for foreign policy influence, if she had not failed to distance herself from some very weird and troubling people, then none of this would have happened.

Comment: The information war against Russia - and real news - has gotten white hot. But it affords us a great opportunity to see how a dying Empire responds to the threat of shared truth. It's also a chance for those of us who see this truth to carry it forward so that many may benefit from this incredible lesson in history, and take a stand where we can.

See also: The attempted Clinton-CIA coup against Donald Trump

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Black Cat

Best of the Web: The attempted Clinton-CIA coup against Donald Trump

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Sat, 10 Dec 2016 18:33 UTC
Trump thumbs up
The CIA's latest report implicating Russia in the DNC and Podesta leaks is not founded on any evidence. Coming a few weeks before Donald Trump's inauguration it is more dangerous meddling by the US intelligence community in the US political process.
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Sherlock

Best of the Web: WADA publishes second whitewashed McLaren report, still provides no evidence of "state-sponsored doping" in Russia


RT
Fri, 09 Dec 2016 22:17 UTC
Richard McLaren
© Neil Hall / ReutersLawyer Richard McLaren (R) delivers his second report for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)
The doping test samples of 12 Russian medalists from the Sochi Olympics in 2014 were tampered with, according to claims made in the second part of a WADA-commissioned report, authored by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren.


Comment: Claims are useless without evidence to back them up. The Western media may be more than happy to repeat the claims of McLaren, but anyone who maintains any semblance of objectivity in journalism will demand proof before peddling lies meant to demonize Russia.


The report, without providing any names, claims that over 1,000 athletes - in summer, winter and Paralympic competitions - benefited from the alleged plot to conceal positive doping tests.

"We are now able to confirm a cover-up that dates back until at least 2011 and continued after the Sochi Olympic Games. It was a cover-up that evolved from uncontrolled chaos to an institutionalized and disciplined medal-winning conspiracy," McLaren said at a news conference, as cited by Reuters.


Comment: Where is the evidence?


The sports events where the doping was allegedly used by Russian athletes included the 2012 London Olympics, the 2014 Sochi Olympics, the 2013 World Student Games, and the 2013 World Championship in Athletics, according to the report.

Comment: Meanwhile, the International Olympic Committee announced that all 63 blood samples taken from Russian Olympians before the 2014 Sochi Olympics were re-analyzed and came back negative, meaning they were all clean. The Russian Sports Ministry responded to McLaren's second report by saying that there is no state doping program and Sports Minister Pavel Kobolokov pointed out WADA's myopic focus on Russia despite there being plenty of evidence of other countries being involved in doping:
"It would be great if they [the WADA] probed into doping violations in other countries as vigorously [as they do in Russia],"the minister said
It's worth noting that former WADA vice president Arne Ljungqvis admitted in a documentary aired in Russia that well-known athletes "legally" used banned substances after receiving permission for their use to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). One athlete involved in that treatment, Danish cyclist Michael Rasmussen, admitted to doping from 1998-2001. He revealed that in many instances where diagnoses are made that give athletes permission to take banned substances, the doctors' decisions are bogus:
"I didn't have any injuries or illnesses that could warrant a TUE, but I don't think I am the only one who doped, otherwise I would have always been first. Everything is done quite easily: you write to them saying you have an injury, what medication you need, including a seal of approval by the doctor of the diagnosis, which is forged. In five minutes you can get permission to use banned substances," he said, TASS reported.

"They let me know about TUEs the moment I signed a contract with a top team. We all planned in advance, the doctor said, when we needed to take the substance glucocorticosteroid when you succumbed to fatigue, I could lose weight, but nevertheless not feel weakness in my muscles or any weariness," he added.
It should be obvious to anyone with two firing neurons that doping is a widespread behavior. The witch hunt against Russia by the IOC and WADA makes it clear that they are simply a tool of the West, bought and paid for by Western governments. As Alan Moore at RT so aptly puts it, the McLaren report proves that sports governing bodies like WADA and the IOC are as useless as a chocolate teapot.

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Ambulance

Best of the Web: Aleppo: World's biggest hostage crisis comes to an end - but the fake news continues

Christoph Germann
Newsbud
Thu, 08 Dec 2016 18:29 UTC
syrians
As Syrian government forces recapture more parts of eastern Aleppo, many civilians are risking their lives to flee the besieged opposition-controlled areas, telling the world that the so-called "rebels" stop at nothing to prevent people from leaving.

The Syrian government and its Russian allies have long accused armed opposition groups in Aleppo of holding civilians hostage, whereas western governments and media have been promoting a different narrative in tune with "rebel" and "activist" sources. This narrative is now falling apart.

When government forces first managed to encircle the opposition-held districts of Aleppo in July of this year, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced the opening of humanitarian corridors "to aid civilians held hostage by terrorists and for fighters wishing to lay down their arms."[1]

Bashar Jaafari, Syria's ambassador to the United Nations, said in a July 26 letter to the Security Council that "the Syrian Army informed the civilian residents of those neighborhoods that it has secured safe passages, for those who want to safely exit those areas, and that it has allocated temporary accommodation for them."
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Eye 2

Best of the Web: US Empire goes from protecting war criminal Cheney from prosecution to honoring him with a bust at Emancipation Hall

Glenn Greenwald
The Intercept
Mon, 05 Dec 2016 17:33 UTC
cheney
© Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
As vice president, Dick Cheney was a prime architect of the worldwide torture regime implemented by the U.S. government (which extended far beyond waterboarding), as well as the invasion and destruction of Iraq, which caused the deaths of at least 500,000 people and more likely over a million. As such, he is one of the planet's most notorious war criminals.

President Obama made the decision in early 2009 to block the Justice Department from criminally investigating and prosecuting Cheney and his fellow torturers, as well as to protect them from foreign investigations and even civil liability sought by torture victims. Obama did that notwithstanding a campaign decree that even top Bush officials are subject to the rule of law and, more importantly, notwithstanding a treaty signed in 1984 by Ronald Reagan requiring that all signatory states criminally prosecute their own torturers. Obama's immunizing Bush-era torturers converted torture from a global taboo and decades-old crime into a reasonable, debatable policy question, which is why so many GOP candidates are now openly suggesting its use.

But now, the Obama administration has moved from legally protecting Bush-era war criminals to honoring and gushing over them in public. Yesterday, the House of Representatives unveiled a marble bust of former Vice President Cheney, which — until a person of conscience vandalizes or destroys it — will reside in Emancipation Hall of the U.S. Capitol.
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Pistol

Best of the Web: Did FDR Provoke Pearl Harbor?

Patrick J. Buchanan
AntiWar.com
Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
© U.S. NavyView of the airfield at Naval Air Station (NAS) Ford Island and flames from burning ships in the background taken during the Japanese attack, 7 December 1941.
On Dec. 8, 1941, Franklin Roosevelt took the rostrum before a joint session of Congress to ask for a declaration of war on Japan.

A day earlier, at dawn, carrier-based Japanese aircraft had launched a sneak attack devastating the U.S. battle fleet at Pearl Harbor.

Said ex-President Herbert Hoover, Republican statesman of the day, "We have only one job to do now, and that is to defeat Japan."

But to friends, "the Chief" sent another message: "You and I know that this continuous putting pins in rattlesnakes finally got this country bit."

Today, 70 years after Pearl Harbor, a remarkable secret history, written from 1943 to 1963, has come to light. It is Hoover's explanation of what happened before, during and after the world war that may prove yet the death knell of the West.

Edited by historian George Nash, Freedom Betrayed: Herbert Hoover's History of the Second World War and Its Aftermath is a searing indictment of FDR and the men around him as politicians who lied prodigiously about their desire to keep America out of war, even as they took one deliberate step after another to take us into war.
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Caesar

Best of the Web: Duterte, fighting for his country and his life, enjoys outpouring of support from Filipinos

Andre Vltchek
RT
Wed, 07 Dec 2016 15:59 UTC
duterte
© AFLO / Global Look Press
There is a sense of change in those narrow and desperate alleys of the Baseco slum in the Philippines' capital Manila. For the first time in many years a beautiful, noble lady visited; against all odds she decided to stay. Her name is Hope.

Baseco is a tough, crime-ridden region built from cartons and metal sheets, even rusty containers; everything is thrown together in startling fashion, right near the shipyard.

Here, the lips of the people used to be sealed, expressions on their faces incessantly desperate. Now everyone speaks, some even smile shyly, adults and children, women who look sixty at the age of thirty, as well as tough looking men.

"I support Duterte!" declares Ms. Imelda Rodriguez, who works as a physiotherapist here, through the Department of Social Welfare and Development. "Now children get free education and 'medical missions' provide basic medical care. We also receive allowances, and the government provides jobs. We are still lacking electricity, but at least the municipality is providing free drinking water."
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Camcorder

Best of the Web: Aleppo almost completely liberated - RT journalist first to enter eastern half since 2012 (VIDEO)


RT
Wed, 07 Dec 2016 13:27 UTC
Civilians trapped in Old City finally reunite with families
© Lizzie Phelan / TwitterCivilians trapped in Old City finally reunite with families they've been separated from by frontline last 4 yrs.
Battles continue between pro-government forces and insurgents in Aleppo's Old City, with Damascus slowly winning back territory. RT's Lizzie Phelan and her crew were the first journalists to visit the regions just captured by the government.

"It is still not entirely safe here. The opposition forces are only a couple of hundreds of meters away. The area needs to be cleaned from unused weapons and mines left," she reported by phone.

She said her crew saw many weapons abandoned by the militants stashed in buildings, including the home-made gas cylinder rockets they have been using to shell government forces.

"The battle to take the old city over the last few days has been extremely fierce. Opposition forces have been desperate to fight back and prevent government advances. They have been relentlessly shelling the government-held areas of Aleppo. There have been many civilian casualties [there]," Phelan added.
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