On Friday night, a portion of the Turkish military staged an attempted coup against Erdogan's government. While there is still the possibility for further internal conflicts between the government and those who supported the coup, at this point it's over. You can read our coverage of the events related to the coup here, in the SOTT editors' commentary section. Analysts in the mainstream and alternative media are now trying to put the pieces together, asking the question: "Who's responsible?" For the most part, the answers they've given so far don't account for all the evidence.

Three main possibilities are currently on offer: 1) the Turkish government's claim that the coup was organized by Turkish exile Fethullah Gulen in collaboration with the U.S. (CIA, NATO); 2) an authentic, Turkey-based military faction (usually identified as secular Kemalists) unhappy with Erdogan's 'Islamist' policies; and 3) the "#TheaterNotCoup" meme sourced to Politico's Ryan Heath, which alleges that Erdogan planned the coup as a false-flag operation, his very own Reichstag to purge opposition and solidify his dictatorial control (unsurprisingly, Gulen supports this version). None of these options quite work. Or at the very least, if one of them is true, it is not that simple.

At least three people were wounded in clashes with the IDF as army troops bulldozed a Palestinian suspect's house in West Bank. Angry locals reportedly threw Molotov cocktails and fired makeshift guns at the soldiers.

The demolition took place on Monday in the town of Qabatiya, AFP reported. IDF forces bulldozed the house of Bilal Abu Zeid who Israeli authorities believe is an accomplice of a group of Palestinians involved in a February attack that left one Israeli police officer dead and one injured. Zeid is currently being held in Israeli prison.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan places the blame for this weekend's failed coup attempt on an Islamic preacher and one-time ally, Fethullah Gulen (above), who now resides in Pennsylvania with a green card. Erdogan is demanding the U.S. extradite Gulen, citing prior extraditions by the Turkish government of terror suspects demanded by the U.S.: "Now we're saying deliver this guy who's on our terrorist list to us." Erdogan has been requesting Gulen's extradition from the U.S. for at least two years, on the ground that he has been subverting the Turkish government while harbored by the U.S. Thus far, the U.S. is refusing, with Secretary of State John Kerry demanding of Turkey: "Give us the evidence, show us the evidence. We need a solid legal foundation that meets the standard of extradition."

In light of the presence on U.S. soil of someone the Turkish government regards as a "terrorist" and a direct threat to its national security, would Turkey be justified in dispatching a weaponized drone over Pennsylvania to find and kill Gulen if the U.S. continues to refuse to turn him over, or sending covert operatives to kidnap him? That was the question posed yesterday by Col. Morris Davis, former chief prosecutor of Guantánamo's military commissions who resigned in protest over the use of torture-obtained evidence:

That question, of course, is raised by the fact that the U.S. has spent many years now doing exactly this: employing various means — including but not limited to drones — to abduct and kill people in multiple countries whom it has unilaterally decided (with no legal process) are "terrorists" or who otherwise are alleged to pose a threat to its national security. Since it cannot possibly be the case that the U.S. possesses legal rights that no other country can claim — right? — the question naturally arises whether Turkey would be entitled to abduct or kill someone it regards as a terrorist when the U.S. is harboring him and refuses to turn him over.

Members of Congress on Friday prepared to leave Washington for their summer recess without having completed a single one of the dozen appropriations bills required to fund government operations in 2017. That sets the stage for a contentious budget battle when lawmakers return to work in September following the Labor Day holiday. The current fiscal year ends on Sept. 30.

How that battle will affect agencies is anybody's guess at this point.

Ed Lorenzen, senior advisor at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said "I'd be extremely surprised to see Congress finish the appropriations process before the election." He thinks lawmakers may send one or two appropriations bills to the president's desk this fall, but then will pass a stopgap spending bill to fund the government through December.

"We might get one or two bills that pass, but there will have to be a continuing resolution," he said. Lorenzen also expects lawmakers to use various budget gimmicks—such as channeling funds through the Pentagon's Overseas Contingency Operations account or other "emergency" accounts—to blow through the spending caps established by the 2011 Budget Control Act. That's something both Republicans and Democrats are amenable to if it advances their own priorities. For Republicans, that's to increase defense spending, especially given troop increases in Afghanistan and Iraq; for Democrats, it's to boost spending on domestic programs such as efforts to combat the Zika virus.

Because members of both parties want to increase spending—albeit on different things—lawmakers would be reluctant to pass a long-term CR [Continuing Resolution] that would carry over into 2017 because that would lock in current spending levels, Lorenzen said.

WikiLeaks reported suffering a "sustained attack" after it announced the upcoming release of hundreds of thousands of documents relating to Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the wake of a failed military coup.

"Our infrastructure is under sustained attack," WikiLeaks said on Twitter. "We are unsure of the true origin of the attack. The timing suggests a Turkish state power faction or its allies."

Russian President Vladimir Putin has stressed the importance of project approach in solving the current tasks the country is facing.

"We have to work now in conditions of known serious restrictions. Certainly, we cannot solve tasks the country is facing without this project approach, and we need to rely on what we have earlier and address the current situation and the best work administration practices," Putin said on Wednesday at the first meeting of the Strategic Development and Priority Projects Council.

According to the president, the situation is more challenging and fundamentally different from the one Russia faced in the 2000s when the first national projects were initiated. "I'd like to stress projects should not be viewed as requests for utilization of budget funds," Putin stressed.

"Regarding each project it is necessary to make it clear what will be done already by 2018 and simultaneously establish a mid-term trajectory, outline the targets, which needs to be met by 2020 and 2025," he underscored. According to Putin, this "does not mean that the targets set earlier should be neglected" though "adjustments are obviously needed."

US Secretary of State Kerry's low key departure with no joint public statement and no joint press conference with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov confirms deadlock of talks.

It can now be said with confidence that US Secretary of State Kerry's trip to Moscow was a failure (see our previous article).

Despite engaging Russian President Putin in talks that went on past midnight, and having further talks with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov the following day which lasted 8 hours, the talks ended with no public announcement, as there certainly would have been if the two countries had reached agreement. There apparently was a joint press conference involving Kerry and Lavrov, but it was a very subdued and under-reported affair, which broke no new ground. Instead Kerry left Moscow quietly, probably relieved that the Turkish coup had drawn attention away from his trip.

As we reported before, the US offer to Russia - essentially an offer of a junior place in a US led coalition against Jabhat Al Nusra and Daesh in return for Russia's agreement to the eventual overthrow of President Assad - was hardly one to appeal to Moscow. The Russians, in what look like difficult talks, will have pointed this out.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has not ruled out the possibility of bringing back the death penalty in Turkey, saying that "people on the streets have made that request" and are calling for the punishment of suspected plotters for the attempted military coup.

"There is a clear crime of treason and your request can never be rejected by our government," Erdogan said in an interview with CNN on Monday, referring to the government supporters who took to the streets of Turkey who voiced approval.

"But of course it will take a parliamentary decision for that to take action in the form of a constitutional measure so leaders will have to get together and discuss it and if they accept to discuss it then I, as president, will approve any decision that comes out of the parliament," he added.

Turkish people have condemned the attempt to bring down the official government and have spoken in favor of reintroducing capital punishment for thousands of soldiers and officers standing behind the failed coup.

The international community is witnessing "a dangerous recurrence of politics interfering in sport," Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.

In his Monday statement, the president pointed out that the allegations against Russian athletes are based on the testimony of a "single person with a scandalous reputation."

Such meddling aims "to turn sport into an instrument of geopolitical pressure" and "form a negative image of countries and people," Putin's statement published by the Kremlin said.

The Olympic movement, which has united people around the globe for over a century, "may now be on the brink of splitting," the Russian leader warned.

"So-called doping scandals" have been used to get in the way of fair sports, Putin said, adding that efforts are being made to apply sanctions related to the alleged use of forbidden substances even on "clean" athletes.

The National Front's Marine Le Pen was already leading all presidential candidates by a wide-margin, but an attack on the country's day of liberation seems all but certain to put the country on a crash course for far-right nationalism.

On Thursday evening, France once again was the target of a Daesh terror plot killing at least 84 people and injuring some 202 others as the people of Nice gathered to celebrate France's national holiday, Bastille Day. Horror ensued when a commercial truck plowed through the unsuspecting crowd while the driver, and possibly other accomplices, shot into the crowd.


In the globalist world laid out by the European Commission and adopted in full by Socialist President Francois Hollande, terror attacks of this nature have become what US Secretary of State John Kerry referred to offhand following a separate strike two weeks ago at the Ataturk International Airport in Istanbul, Turkey as "daily fare."

As the country now looks to pick up the pieces following another mass casualty event that struck terror in the hearts of the public and ripped at the very fabric of France's national identity, the possibility of France departing from the EU under the command of a future President Marine Le Pen appears all but certain marking the final act of the European experiment.