Interview with distinguished Belgian Scholar Jean Bricmont

Àngel Ferrero: It has been 10 years since Humanitarian Imperialism appeared in Spanish. What made you write the book?

It started as a reaction to the attitude of the Left during the 1999 Kosovo war, which was largely accepted on humanitarian grounds and to the rather weak opposition of the peace movement before the 2003 invasion of Iraq: for example, many "pacifists" have accepted the policy of sanctions at the time of the 1991 first Gulf war and even after it, and were favorable to inspections in the run-up to the war, without realizing that this was just a maneuver to prepare the public to accept the war (this became even public knowledge through later leaks, like the Downing Street memos).

It seemed to me that the ideology of humanitarian intervention had totally destroyed, on the left, any notion of respect for international law, as well as any critical attitude with respect to the media.

Àngel Ferrero: What do you think it has changed in this last 10 years?

A lot of things have changed, although, I am afraid, not because of my book. It is rather reality that has asserted itself, first with the chaos in Iraq, then in Libya and now in Syria and Ukraine, leading to the refugee crisis and a near state of war with Russia, which would not be a "cakewalk".

The humanitarian imperialists are still busy pushing us towards more wars, but there is now a substantial fraction of public opinion that is against such policies; that fraction is probably more important on the right than on the left.

Cash 'under the mattress' totaling more than 15,000 euro, jewelry and other valuable items such as diamonds and gemstones, should be declared to electronic system of tax authorities, Taxisnet, as of 1. January 2016.

Next to properties and vehicles and shares, now the taxpayers will also have to declare their deposits. And not only that. They will have to fill if they rent bank lockers and if yes, also the name of the bank and the branch, even if abroad.

A joint ministerial decision issued by the Ministries of Justice and Finance indicates that taxpayers in Greece should add all their valuables into a new category of the tax declaration, the "Assets declaration."

Specifically, the decision provides that:

• "Assets declarations" are submitted electronically and mandatory via Taxisnet.
• Starting date for the submission is 1.1.2016

Declared must be cash money if more than 15,000 euro and precious items if their total value exceeds 30,000 euro. These amounts apply cumulatively per household (husband, wife, underage children).

To facilitate the completion of the declaration, data from the income statements (E1 and E9) will be drawn automatically.

Note that this Assets declaration process will initially apply to lawmakers, journalists, public servants etc and is the rehearsal for the creation of the electronic property & assets register that will be extended to all taxpayers.

The new assets declaration form has a total of 56 pages. The decision has been taken "in the context of support and development of the economy," the ministers state.

Libyan warplanes have bombarded positions belonging to the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group, which has been trying to expand its territories towards oilfields in the eastern parts of country.

On Tuesday, fighter jets of Libya's internationally recognized government hit a "house in an industrial area south of Ajdabiya" city, where the terrorists were holding a meeting, AFP reported, citing an unnamed senior officer. The airborne attack, preceded by other such raids last week, was part of a anti-terror campaign aimed at preventing militants from taking the city, which is currently in the hands of fighters loyal to the government, the officer added.

Daesh terrorists, who currently control the northern city of Sirte, are fighting both government forces and other rival factions that control the embattled city of Benghazi, located in the east of the country. Meanwhile, a United Nations report said that the terror group was eager to reach and capture oil installations in Libya, but it lacked the capacity to take, hold and manage oilfields or refineries in the country. The report added that Daesh "is only one player among multiple warring factions in Libya and faces strong resistance from the population as well as difficulties in building and maintaining local alliances."

The Daesh terrorists, who were initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government, now control parts of Syria and Iraq. They have been engaged in crimes against humanity in the areas under their control. The terror group exploited the chaos in Libya and tries to advance its terror agenda in the northern African country.

When earlier today we read a report in the Greek Enikonomia, according to which Greek taxpayers would be forced to declare all cash "under the mattress" (including inside) or boxes that contain more than 15,000 euros as well as jewelry and precious stones (including gold) worth over 30,000 euros, starting in 2016, we assumed this has to be some early April fools joke or a mistake.

After all, this would be merely the first step toward full-blown asset confiscation, conducted so many times by insolvent governments throughout history, once the government cracks down on those who made a "mistake" in their asset declaration form or simply refuse to fill such a declaration, thereby making all their assets eligible for government confiscation.

It was not a joke.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has approved the list of agricultural products, raw materials and foodstuffs of Turkish origin, banned from import to Russia from January 1, 2016.

In addition to the vegetables and fruits already announced by the Russian authorities, the list now includes poultry (frozen parts and byproducts of chickens and turkeys), salt and fresh cloves.

Russia has also put on hold its mixed intergovernmental Russian commission for trade and economic cooperation with Turkey, suspended negotiations on an intergovernmental agreement on trade and investments and on a midterm program for cooperation in the scientific-technological and cultural fields for 2016-2019 and suspended the visa-free regime for all Turkish ordinary passport holders, starting from January 1, 2016.

Around 1,250 trucks carrying Turkish exports have been blocked from entering Russia and are stranded at border posts awaiting clearance, a senior shipping industry representative told Reuters on Monday.

Six days after NATO-member Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet in the first known incident of its kind since the Cold War, calls for calm have gone largely unheeded. Ankara refuses to back down and Russia responds with sanctions.

"Russia has not given permission to Turkish trucks for entry or transit passage for the past four days," Fatih Sener, Managing Director of Turkey's International Shippers Association (UND) said in an interview.

Sources at Russian gas giant Gazprom say work on the Turkish Stream gas pipeline project might be frozen in response to the recent downing of a Russian warplane by Turkey. Two sources, whose names were not mentioned in the reports, made the announcement on Tuesday amid a current row between Ankara and Moscow, which prompted the latter to impose a series of sanctions on Turkey. Officials in the company have so far made no decision, Gazprom sources said, adding that they are waiting to receive instructions from President Vladimir Putin over the issue.

"We're expecting that the head of state, in all likelihood, could declare a freezing of Turkish Stream, or at least some kind of timeout should be announced," said one source, while the second noted that they hope the Turkish Stream project would be "pushed back by a few years, rather than completely cancelled."

Russian Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev had said before that the Kremlin's sanctions on Turkey could affect Turkish Stream among other projects. The pipeline aims to transit Russian gas, via Turkey, into southeastern Europe as part of Gazprom's efforts to diversify the routes by which it supplies gas to Europe, which is its biggest export market.

Representatives from video sharing website YouTube and parent company Google have met with a high-ranking Israeli official to discuss ways in which "inflammatory material" can be censored on the web.

Tzipi, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Jewish State, met with representatives of Youtube and Google last week to elaborate ways of enhancing cooperation in censoring content that's "inciting violence and terrorism," Middle East Monitor reported.

A joint mechanism of "monitoring and preventing" publications that qualify as inflammatory by Israeli authorities is set to go into effect soon, according to the Hebrew daily Maariv.

A video that seemingly bolsters Russian claims of Turkish government complicity with the Islamic State, highlights the casual relations between the terror group and Turkish officials.

Turkey has been accused of being one of the main benefactors of the ISIS terror group, accused of providing logistics, financing and military hardware. These accusations are particularly startling as Turkey is a member of NATO, a collective security group obligated to go to war if a member state is attacked. It would be a seemingly dangerous proposition to allow a state that basically props up the Islamic State, which then uses the group as a geopolitical weapon, to be in such a strategically important group.

The amateur footage reportedly shows ISIS militants and Turkish border guards holding a relaxed conversation near the Syrian city of Kobane, according to the Daily Mail. The amateur footage, taken near Zarova Hill on the outskirts of Kobane, was uploaded to YouTube on October 28, 2014.

According to the report in the Daily Mail:

It appears to show two heavily armed militants wandering nonchalantly up to the Turkish border fence - displaying shocking bravado as they smile and wave at the camera.

They are met by what appears to be a military vehicle full of security officials who, despite carrying weapons themselves, do little more than break into conversation with the jihadis, who eventually wander off back into Syria while shouting 'Allahu Akbar'...

The clip begins with the two apparent jihadists lighting fires near a group of cars, which are believed to have been abandoned by desperate Kurdish families who fled Kobane in recent weeks when ISIS militants stepped up their attacks on the city.

After appearing to realise they are being filmed from inside Turkey, the pair start walking towards the border fence, stopping only to mockingly wave at the amateur filmmaker.

As they reach the border fence, an armoured military vehicle belonging to Turkish border guards speeds up to meet them. Heavily armed officials jump out the back of the car and - after briefly talking on their radios, simply engage the men in conversation.

At one point the situation appears tense and a border guard scampers towards the militants with his gun briefly raised, but he stops seconds later and also begins talking to the men.

After several minutes chatting, the militants wander off, defiantly raising their index finger to the sky to represent jihadism while chanting 'Allahu Akbar' - a phrase that translates as 'God is the greatest'.

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough asks -- where's the 9/11 video of Muslims cheering the attacks?

On Morning Joe on Monday, Donald Trump yet again proved that that he can't, he won't, and he don't stop when it comes to asserting that he saw American Muslims celebrating the fall of the Twin Towers on 9/11.

MSNBC contributor Willie Geist asked him if he thought "there's any chance that video you think you saw in Jersey City was the video of people in the West Bank celebrating September 11th," to which a dour Trump replied, "to bring it up again — it's so wonderful you brought it up again — this is why you can't get away from these subjects."

Blaming the media for his own inability to substantiate claims he still stands by might not be the most logical of argumentative avenues to travel, but he's determined. "I saw it on television," he said, "fourteen years ago I saw it on television."

And if you don't want to take his word for it, he noted — yet again — that "I have received hundreds of calls and tweets from people" who also claim to have seen it.