HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS, HEARING - U.S. POLICY AFTER RUSSIA'S ESCALATION IN SYRIA, Assistant Secretary Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs U.S. Department of State, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2015, Transcript (pdf)

Ambassador PATTERSON: That is true in the north, Mr. Issa. I would say that it is not true in the south. But, certainly, in the north, the al-Nusra Front, which is an al-Qaeda affiliate, has absorbed, as have other smaller groups, have absorbed a number of what we would have previously called the moderate opposition, yes, that is correct.

Despite Syria's ongoing conflict, life in many parts of the nation goes on. Syria's election schedule is no exception. The last parliamentary elections before the latest held this month were in 2012. Since these elections are held every 4 years, the recent elections were far from a "political stunt" to bolster the legitimacy of the current government, but instead represented the continuity of Syria's ongoing, sovereign political process.

Attempts to undermine the credibility of the elections have become the primary objective of US and European news agencies, however, even the US government's own election monitoring nongovernmental (NGO) agencies have conceded the last presidential election in 2014 saw soaring voter turnout, and despite attempts to leave voter turnout this year omitted from US-European press reports, it appears to also have been high.

During a rally supporting comedian Jan Boehmermann, Bruno Kramm, the head of the Berlin branch of Germany's Pirate Party, was arrested for "insulting a representative of a foreign state" by quoting a line from the comic's satirical poem slamming Erdogan.

German police arrested Kramm while he was conducting a "literary analysis" of the German comedian's satirical poem in front of the Turkish embassy in Berlin during a protest held under the slogan "No Power for Erdowahn, Freedom Instead of Erdogan" [Keine Macht dem Erdowahn, Freiheit statt Erdogan], the Morgenpost newspaper reported.

As Turkey has been waging a brutal and murderous campaign against its Kurdish population in the south of the country it has also illegally shelled Kurdish factions inside Syria that are threatening the remaining supply lines used by Turkey to arm various jihadi groups. Increasingly Erdogan has become more irrational, bent on consolidating power domestically and increasing his imperial presence over his neighbors abroad. The actions are part of a desire to reinvigorate Turkish power in the spirit of the former Ottoman Empire, and have been used in accordance with US imperial designs for the region.

Domestically Erdogan and his ruling AK Party have been pushing for constitutional amendments that would grant President Erdogan de-facto dictatorial power over policy formation, allowing him to dictate policy and bypass most congressional roadblocks. Yet in absence of achieving this Erdogan has consolidated his rule through a plethora of actions, including litigation against any opposition, usage of the courts to stifle dissent, unprecedented attacks against journalism, and unilateral covert operations, all of which add up to a ruthless consolidation of power into the hands of the executive, allowing Erdogan to function as a unilateral actor in absence of constitutional authority to do so.

In a remarkable spectacle of money-grubbing over arms deals, this month saw a parade of Western leaders jettisoning any pretense of upholding vaunted "liberal values" to court despotic Mideast regimes.

Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister who sent liberal hearts aflutter when he was elected in November, with his espousal of feminism among other progressive causes, is the latest Western leader to show where real priorities lie. Trudeau signed off on a $11 billion deal with Saudi Arabia to export armored vehicles to the blood-soaked repressive regime.

With astounding cynicism, the 44-year-old Canadian premier said he was duty-bound to fulfill the arms contract drawn up by the previous administration as "a matter of principle" in order to demonstrate that his country's "word means something in the international community."

This week also saw US President Barack Obama in Saudi Arabia where he glad-handed King Salman and other Gulf monarchs, lauding them as partners in maintaining regional stability and fighting against terrorism. Conspicuously, Obama made little or no mention of human rights violations in the oil-rich kingdom where mass beheadings are a common method of capital punishment.

Western media talked about "strained relations" between Obama and his Saudi hosts. But underlying the superficial optics it was business as usual. Big business. US military affairs publication Defense One reported that high on Obama's agenda was securing a $13 billion contract for warships and submarine-hunting helicopters with the House of Saud.

Before Obama touched down in Riyadh, his administration had angered American families by announcing that it would veto a bill going through Congress that could enable relatives of the 9/11 terror attacks to sue the Saudi rulers for their alleged involvement in sponsoring that atrocity. The topic didn't even arise for discussion during Obama's visit, indicating the president's real concerns in meeting the Saudi and other Gulf rulers.

France has also nabbed market share from Western rivals in the Persian Gulf where over the past year Paris has sold billions of dollars' worth of its Rafale fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Similar prevarication over human rights is brazenly shown by the British government of David Cameron in its arms dealing with Saudi Arabia and the wider region. The Saudi-led war in Yemen has been a boon for British sales of bombs and missiles, even though as many as 9,000 Yemenis have been killed over the past year, many of them civilians from aerial bombing by Saudi warplanes.

Vanessa Beeley exposes the war criminals on the UN Security Council who are backing the Saudi coalition aggression and collective punishment of the Yemeni people.

As the Saudi, Yemen "peace talks" finally kick off in Kuwait, Vanessa Beeley spoke to Mike Robinson, host of UK Column LIVE daily news program.

Vanessa Beeley has recently returned from the UNHRC, 31st Session, where she testified on behalf of Yemen against the illegal use of US supplied Cluster Munitions against civilian targets by the Saudi Coalition. In this programme Vanessa discusses the UK, US and UN complicity in a genocidal war of aggression and the crippling economic and humanitarian land, air and sea blockade of 27 million Yemeni people.

US authorities recently expanded their investigation into German car manufacturer Volkswagen AG over its 'CO2 emissions scandal'. The US Department of Justice is planning to apply the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act, FIRREA, which has thus far only been used against US banks since its enactment following the 2008 Wall Street 'credit crunch'. As we've seen in the 'FIFA scandal', the US is expanding its jurisdictional reach to prosecute international bodies and foreign nationals.

The VW 'scandal' first made headlines in September 2015 after the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that the company had installed computer software in its diesel engine cars that enabled it to 'cheat' during pollution emissions inspections. The total number of vehicles affected is more than 11 million. The new probe will now look into "possible violations of tax laws by the corporation."

This whole 'scandal' is undoubtedly based on industrial espionage. Given that Chancellor Angela Merkel can't send a text message without the Americans reading it, then it's not much of a leap to assume that the 'leaks' that made this issue a media story originate with the US National Security Agency (NSA). The NSA has mountains of insider data it can 'leak' at any time - not least corporate emails that 'reveal' who knew what when. Espionage is, after all, the primary function of the US 'National Security State'.

It's happened before in history, and with great success, but it has also prompted a violent backlash from the elites...

Back in 1914, the Bradbury Pound was introduced by the UK government as an 'emergency measure' to bolster a failing economy.

It was a huge success. The banking elite were unhappy, however and panicked - before managing to wrestle control of the money supply afterwards.

President John F. Kennedy also introduced a similar 'Greenback' in 1961, and again, the banking elite were very unhappy about being pushed out, and losing control of the issuance of money as debt. JFK did not survive past 1963.

Then there was Muammar al-Gaddafi in Libya who, in 2009 announced a new gold-backed dinar, issued by Libya's state-owned public central bank, and with further plans - negotiating with the other African nations for the creation of an all-African currency to compete with the Euro and the Dollar. Gaddafi did not survive past 2011.

Who knew that the revolution would start with those radical Icelanders?

Enough weeping! Latin America has wept incessantly, continuously, for years, decades and centuries. Its people robbed of everything since the days of Columbus, since Potosi. Tens of millions, perhaps hundreds of millions have been slaughtered here, in the last five centuries; first by the conquerors, then by their descendants and serfs, and finally by the Empire of Lies as well as the treasonous local 'elites'.

Enough weeping, comrades! It is time to use force.

Whenever people stood up, whenever true Latin American heroes liberated their lands, by reason or by force, the bloodbath was administered almost immediately, from across the seas, or from the North. Tanks rolled through the avenues and squares, and combat airplanes and helicopters sprayed bombs and bullets all over Presidential palaces, as well as the countryside. People were hunted down like animals, dragged to stadiums and factories, to underground cellars, and there they were violated, tortured and slaughtered.

That's their democracy! Thank you, but no more of that.

Satire died the day Tony Blair was appointed Peace Envoy to the Middle East. But William Hague's fronting of a campaign against sexual violence is pissing on its grave.

Ibtisam was 15 when Islamic State (also known as ISIS/ISIL/Da'esh) came to her village. It was 9 a.m., and the gunfire of the approaching forces was getting louder. Her family piled into their car and fled; in need of baby milk, they passed by the city of Duhok, Iraqi Kurdistan to stock up. That was when they were caught. The men were executed immediately; Ibtisam and her two younger sisters were taken into captivity in the city of Tal Afar.

After several weeks they were moved to another building with around 700 other women and girls, where her younger sisters - one of them five months old - were forcibly removed from her. She and another girl were singled out by a much older man who took them home and raped them. The next morning, finding the house apparently empty, they were able to escape. They reached a road and hailed a taxi; luckily the driver was sympathetic and gave them refuge in his home, hiding and disguising them as best he could. But it soon became unsafe for them to stay there, so he took them to a friend's house. Passing through a checkpoint, they were again caught by ISIS, and taken to a basement full of other women and girls. There they were beaten regularly, as a message to any others who might try to escape. When her friend started vomiting blood, they were taken to a hospital; but when she stopped, they were taken back to the basement and beaten again. They were again sold as sex slaves, and resold and raped repeatedly over the months that followed.