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The West's imperialistic wars and domestic storms: Fascists, terrorists, & "multiculturalism"

Tony Cartalucci
New Eastern Outlook
Wed, 24 Feb 2016 01:53 UTC
syria bombing
The United States and Europe, along with many willing collaborators have waged a series of wars and proxy wars stretching across much of Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia.

What the West was pursuing in reordering the post-Soviet world through conventional military means in Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq beginning in 2003, it continued through somewhat less-conventional means - the so-called "Arab Spring" and the series of proxy wars that erupted afterward beginning in 2011.

Today, Western-fueled wars continue to consume Libya, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yemen, while violence and political instability plague other nations the West has either recently meddled in or is currently occupying or undermining.

France alone - in addition to conducting military operations in Libya in 2011, and currently carrying out military operations in Syria and Iraq - has troops stationed in African nations including the Central African Republic (2,000), Chad (950), Ivory Coast (450), Djibouti (2,470), Gabon (1,000), Mali (2,000), and Senegal (430).

Eritrea and Somalia during this 15 year period have been subjected to invasions from neighboring Ethiopia - who despite being plagued by widespread poverty - has been the benefactor of US military support and encouraged to carry out proxy war upon its neighbors not unlike Saudi Arabia is now doing in Yemen.

Predictably, the result is an arc of chaos stretching halfway around the world. Also predictably, from this arc of chaos refugees flee, and they are fleeing to Europe, the only place they can go to escape the chaos.
For Africa, perhaps the most ironic aspect of the current refugee crisis besetting Europe is the fact that Libya - whom Europe conspired to destroy - had been absorbing refugees from across Africa for years, putting them to work and giving them a stable nation to live their lives in. When Libya was set upon by the US and Europe in 2011, it was predicted that Libya would go from serving as a destination for refugees, to a gateway for them, onward to Europe. And that is precisely what has happened.
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Arrow Down

Imperial values: Britain downgrades already degraded human rights across globe, Amnesty warns


RT
Wed, 24 Feb 2016 12:59 UTC
Prince Nayef Prime Minister David Cameron
© Fahad Shadeed
Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Nayef (R) welcomes British Prime Minister David Cameron in Riyadh January 13, 2012.
Britain is allowing a "culture of impunity" to flourish across the globe by planning to scrap the Human Rights Act, a damning report from Amnesty International has warned.

In its annual report on the worldwide state of human rights, the campaign group criticizes the Tory plan to abolish the Human Rights Act and replace it with a British Bill of Rights, excluding the UK from European jurisdiction.

As well as the British Bill of Rights, the report also examines the British government's breach of privacy and undertaking of mass surveillance.

"The UK is setting a dangerous precedent to the world on human rights. There's no doubt that the downgrading of human rights by this government is a gift to dictators the world over and fatally undermines our ability to call on other countries to uphold rights and laws," Amnesty's UK director, Kate Allen, said.

Comment: Looks like Britain is about to step up its alignment with U.S./Israeli imperial designs and would rather not be subject to any kind of law or justice that would inevitably occur, under trial for war crimes, once the smoke clears (though the probability of smoke clearing after the coming conflagrations AND earth changes seems rather small...)

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Wolf

Report says BBC missed 'multiple opportunities' to stop pedophile Jimmy Savile - still lets top brass off the hook


BBC
Fri, 26 Feb 2016 01:05 UTC
Jimmy Savile
© Paul Hackett / Reuters
Jimmy Savile, sexual predator
The BBC missed numerous opportunities to stop sexual abuse perpetrated by now-deceased DJ and television star Jimmy Savile, a report into his crimes has revealed.

Published on Thursday, The Dame Janet Smith Review criticized the broadcaster for letting the star continue to commit offenses with impunity.

The former BBC presenter and charity figurehead died in 2011, but allegations of sexual abuse emerged after his death. By October 2012, complaints about Savile had been made to 13 different police forces across Britain.

The star is alleged to have sexually abused roughly 450 victims who came forward as part of Operation Yewtree, a police investigation into widespread abuse by Savile and other high-profile figures.

Sexual assaults took place at six hospitals and on BBC premises, with victims' ages ranging from five to 75. Police described the abuse as being on an "unprecedented scale."

The report found there had been "serious failings" at the BBC, which had neglected to stop Savile from sexually abusing 72 women on its premises.

Comment: It appears Dame Smith has been 'persuaded' to markedly tone down her criticism of the BBC's wanton negligence in its handling of Savile. An earlier version appears to be more strongly worded. Neither is this a singular situation. Pedophilia pervades the entire British establishment:

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Target

US agenda: Establish a unipolar world order


Press TV
Fri, 26 Feb 2016 05:02 UTC
Ochsenreiter
© at.linkedin.com
Manuel Ochsenreiter, Editor-in Chief, Zuerst
Press TV has interviewed Manuel Ochsenreiter, editor-in-chief of Zuerst in Berlin, to discuss a US plan aimed at boosting Navy patrols in the disputed waters of the South China Sea. The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Does the US have the right to rebut Beijing's assertions of sovereignty?

Ochsenreiter: Out of the perspective of Washington, the US for sure thing they have the right to do that because in Washington we find the philosophy of international politics as world inner-politics. Terms like sovereignty, just as one example, do not really exist in the original meaning in the Washington narrative of international politics anymore. We have to see the American actions in the Pacific as the actions of an extra-territorial power there, violating the sovereignty of China.

We see in Washington the plan or will of the establishment of a unipolar world order. Unipolar world order means, one world, one center of the world, one government maybe at the end, and every conflict has to be solved on the basis of the so-called Western values. We have in China, the contradiction we have there, the idea of a multi-polar world with; this is a world with centers of power distributed all over the Continent China, India, the Russian Federation, Europe, Latin America, North America, Africa of course, the Islamic World would be such centers. So we see there the confrontation between these two ideas.
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Black Cat

U.S. hawks' murderous Plan B: Support the terrorists till the bitter end

Martin Berger
New Eastern Outlook
Thu, 25 Feb 2016 00:26 UTC
syrian terrorist CIA
At a time when the international community is looking forward to the possibility of putting an end to the bloody conflict in Syria that has dragged on for years, while putting their hopes behind the agreement that was achieved between the US and Russia on February 22 regarding the cessation of all hostile activities in Syria, certain forces in the United States carry on banging the war drum.

As it has been pointed out by the The Wall Street Journal:
Defense Secretary Ash Carter; Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan have voiced increasingly hawkish views toward Moscow in recent White House meetings, calling for new measures to "inflict real pain on the Russians," a senior administration official said.
Moreover, those gentlemen are somehow convinced that Moscow will break the ceasefire, so they have formulated a "Plan B," that will imply the strengthening of their support to extremists and the introduction of new sanctions against Russia.

Of course, one could only be amazed by such behavior from Washington's "hawks" if one did not take into consideration the evidence exposing their direct involvement in the continuous aggravation of the situation in Syria, which makes them directly responsible for the deaths of thousands of civilians. Those actions would for sure present the perfect subject for a careful investigation of an international tribunal.

Comment: You can bet the lunatics in the CIA and the Pentagon will be looking for any excuse to continue the bloodshed in Syria. Turkey's increasingly erratic foreign policy and antagonism towards the Kurds doesn't help matters at all. It's important to keep the elites' overall goal in mind:

General Wesley Clark reveals 2001 U.S. plan to conduct 'regime change' in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Iran

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Chess

Is there to be a regime change in Ankara? More likely than you think

Mike Whitney
Counter Punch
Wed, 24 Feb 2016 00:00 UTC
Erdogan/putin
© ekurd.net
Erdogan...madman or just overly enthusiastic. What does Putin think?
On Friday, the United States rejected a draft resolution by Russia that was intended to prevent a Turkish invasion of Syria. Moscow had called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to address its growing concern that Turkey is planning to send thousands of ground troops and armored vehicles it has massed on its southern border, into Syria to protect Turkish-backed militants and to block the Kurdish militia, the YPG, from establishing a contiguous state in northern Syria. Moscow's one-page resolution was a thoroughly-straightforward document aimed at preventing a massive escalation in a conflict that has already claimed the lives of 250, 000 and left the country in ruins.

According to Russia's deputy U.N. envoy, Vladimir Safronkov, "The main elements of this Russian draft resolution are to demand that all parties refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of Syria, that they fully respect Syria's sovereignty and independence, stop incursions, and abandon plans for ground operations." The resolution also expressed Moscow's "grave alarm at the reports of military buildup and preparatory activities aimed at launching foreign ground intervention into the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic."

There was nothing controversial about the resolution, no tricks and no hidden meaning. The delegates were simply asked to support Syrian sovereignty and oppose armed aggression. These are the very principles upon which the United Nations was founded. The US and its allies rejected these principles because they failed to jibe with Washington's geopolitical ambitions in Syria.

Quashing the resolution confirms in the clearest terms that Washington doesn't want peace in Syria. Also, it suggests that the Obama administration thinks that Turkish ground troops could play an important role in shaping the outcome of a conflict that the US is still determined to win. Keep in mind, if the resolution had passed, the threat of a Turkish invasion would have vanished immediately. Why? Because the Turkish "military has publicly stated that it is not willing to send troops across the border without U.N. Security Council approval."

Comment: Whether or not a trap is now being set for Erdogan, he has managed to single-handedly and wittingly bring himself to the brink of destruction. He is playing into the very scenarios that will assure his downfall, perhaps even his demise.

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Document

What the Russian-American agreement on Syria solves?

The Saker
Unz Review
Wed, 24 Feb 2016 00:00 UTC
syrian flag
© www.express.co.uk
Bullet hole strewn flag still flies in Syria.
The recent agreement between the USA and Russia really solves nothing, it does not even end the war, and both sides are expressing a great deal of caution about its future implementation. And yet, this is a huge victory for Russia. While it is too early to say that "the Russian won in Syria", I think that it is now fair to say that the Russian position on Syria has won. Here is why:

First: nobody is suggesting anymore that Assad will be ousted or Damascus taken. That, in turn, means that everybody has now recognized that Syrian Arab Republic, backed by Russia, has successfully repelled the aggression of the huge coalition the AngloZionists built to overthrow Assad.

Second: Russia has forced the UNSC and the USA to admit that the vast majority of those who fight Assad today are terrorists. Of course, this is not how this was declared, but if you look at the organizations which the UNSC has already declared as 'terrorists' then you already have an absolute majority of the anti-Assad forces. This means that the moral and legal legitimacy of the anti-Assad forces is lies in tatters.

Comment: By way of this agreement process, many aspects of the Syrian conflict may be forced to change - by design, revelation, fear or upsmanship. Whether it will all be for the better depends on truth and honor and, as for the West, left to be seen. More likely the negative aspects will regroup and strengthen in places like Libya and Yemen. Evil always pops out somewhere.

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Quenelle

Davutoglu & Erdogan are greatest threats to Turkey's national security - Syrian official


Sputnik
Thu, 25 Feb 2016 21:54 UTC
Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan
© Umit Bektas / Reuters
The Syrian opposition has agreed to a proposal of establishing a two-week truce. The High Negotiations Committee said the initiative will test the government's commitment to a Russia-US endorsed plan on the cessation of hostilities.

The opposition's statement came after Damascus voiced its readiness to maintain the truce. Hopes are that the ceasefire deal, which is due to start on February 27, will help to resume Geneva peace talks between the warring sides.

The agreement is applied to all members of the conflict, accept for Daesh and al-Nusra Front.

Comment: Further reading:
"Turkish heavy artillery is shelling settlements on the border. Instead of making groundless allegations that [Russia] is carrying out haphazard airstrikes, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Doctors Without Borders should make a formal assessment of the Turkish Armed Forces' criminal actions," said Konashenkov.

Turkey's attacks on Syria should be investigated by Amnesty Int'l - Russian MoD


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Safe

Deadline looming: Ukraine has to respond by March 4 to Russia's claim on $3 bln debt


Tass
Thu, 25 Feb 2016 20:53 UTC
Russia loan Ukraine
© Sergey Dolzhenko/European Press Agency
The Russian claim to Ukraine amounts to $3 bln, plus $75 mln of interest

Ukraine has to respond to Russia's claim on debt before March 4, after that the court is going to appoint a hearing, Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergey Storchak told journalists on Thursday.

"March 4 - is the first key date, when the Ukrainians need to respond to our claim. And then the court will have to appoint a hearing," he said.

Explaining the procedure, Storchak said, "We have presented a claim, they need to present some counter arguments. This is the usual procedure."

He noted that the total sum of the claim amounts to $3 bln, plus $75 mln of interest.

Storchak noted that discussing measures of financial support for Belarus is in the agenda of Thursday's visit of the Russian President Vladimir Putin to Minsk, but declined to talk about further details of possible aid.

Comment: Ukraine is a pawn in the West's financial war on Russia. Things may not go as planned though.

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Light Saber

Turkey's attacks on Syria should be investigated by Amnesty Int'l - Russian MoD


Sputnik
Thu, 25 Feb 2016 20:44 UTC
Turkey attack syria
© Bulent Kilic/Agence France-Presse
Tanks stationed at a Turkish army position near the Oncupinar crossing gate close to the town of Kilis, south central Turkey, fire towards the Syria border, on February 16, 2016
Turkish military continues to shell Syrian settlements across the border, Russian Defense Ministry's spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said.

"Turkey is continuing to fire heavy artillery shells at Syrian villages near the border," Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said.

The Russian Defense Ministry called on Amnesty International to assess the situation on the Turkish-Syrian border.

"Turkish heavy artillery is shelling settlements on the border. Instead of making groundless allegations that [Russia] is carrying out haphazard airstrikes, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Doctors Without Borders should make a formal assessment of the Turkish Armed Forces' criminal actions," said Konashenkov.

Comment: The Russians seem to be the only ones sincerely worried about civilian casualties, or upholding international law.

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