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Former commander of NATO was the mastermind behind failed coup, says Turkish media


RT
Mon, 25 Jul 2016 15:33 UTC
General John F. Campbell
© U. S. Army / Wikipedia
34th Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Army, General John F. Campbell.
The former commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, retired US Army General John F. Campbell, was the mastermind behind the failed military coup in Turkey, the Yeni Safak daily has reported, citing sources close to investigation. General John F. Campbell, 59, was "one of the top figures who organized and managed the soldiers behind the failed coup attempt in Turkey," the conservative paper's English-language edition said on Monday.

The paper is known for its loyal support of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was the target of the coup attempt. According to Yeni Safak, Campbell "also managed more than $2 billion in transactions via UBA Bank in Nigeria by using CIA links to distribute among the pro-coup military personnel in Turkey."

The retired US general had allegedly paid "at least two secret visits" to Turkey since May up to the attempted coup, which the Turkish authorities blamed on what they call the Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETO).
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Moon

PokemonRu: Ukrainian witch-hunting website seeks app to catch 'Russian terrorists'


RT
Mon, 25 Jul 2016 14:51 UTC
Donbass soldiers
© Valentyn Ogirenko / Reuters
Inspired by the international success of the augmented reality game Pokémon Go, the notorious Ukrainian website that collects personal data of people it brands as terrorists wants to develop a similar website to gamify its witch-hunting.

Dubbed "PokemonRu", the app for Android and iOS mobile devices will require "players to hunt for hiding Russian mercenaries and Russian military criminals, aka Pokemons, in cities where they live, and covertly track their movements," the Mirotvorets website described its vision. "Information about Pokemons is rewarded with bonuses, which may be monetized after reaching a certain level. Players can also identify new Pokemons and submit data on them via an interactive map, complete with geolocation data," the project description goes.

The website promises team-stalking and a hunt for "trickier monsters" to experienced players and stresses that "if somebody takes it for a joke or trolling, he is very wrong." The witch-hunting website is advertising jobs for programmers able to develop the so-called game. It says the app will use Mirotvorets' database to pick targets.

Comment: PokemonRu: a modernized Stasi-like program to encourage people to maliciously spy on and report their neighbors. This vile website discredits itself by revealing that the people they are tracking, those who simply disagree with living under Neo-Nazis and tyrants, are not at all dangerous.

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Dollars

Scratching each other's backs: Leaked DNC emails show plans to reward big donors with federal appointments

Chuck Ross
The Daily Caller
Sun, 24 Jul 2016 14:25 UTC
money
© shutterstock
Democratic National Committee documents recently released by WikiLeaks include spreadsheets and emails that appear to show party officials planning which donors and prominent fundraisers to provide with appointments to federal boards and commissions.

The documents, which were circulated among top DNC officials in April, could raise legal questions for the party, says Ken Boehm, the chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center, a government watchdog group.

"The disclosed DNC emails sure look like the potential Clinton Administration has intertwined the appointments to federal government boards and commissions with the political and fund raising operations of the Democratic Party," Boehm told The Daily Caller.

"That is unethical, if not illegal."
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Handcuffs

Irish bankster found hiding in U.S. is extradited to face charges stemming from his role in 2008 financial crisis

Liam S. Whittaker
CS Globe
Sat, 23 Jul 2016 00:00 UTC
David Drumm, irish banking crisis
A former head of a major Irish bank has been extradited from the U.S. and brought before Dublin District Court to face several charges stemming from the bank's role in the 2008 financial crisis.

David Drumm, former chief executive of Irish Anglo Bank from 2005 until 2008, had been arrested in Boston in October 2015, and originally attempted to fight extradition — but he recently withdrew the objection and was returned to Ireland early on Monday.

Drumm faces 33 charges in Ireland, which echoes Iceland's unprecedented move to hold its bankers criminally accountable for their role in that country's economic meltdown.

Though Drumm predictably denied wrongdoing, his charges include "fraud, forgery, misleading management reporting, unlawful lending, falsifying documents, and false accounting, linked to financial transactions prior to the collapse of Anglo," according to the Irish Times.

Comment: More about the psychopathic antics of Mr. Drumm: Former Anglo Irish Bank CEO David Drumm in 'Anglo Tapes': We'll tell the Central Bank that if they don't give us billions now, the economy will collapse

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Bomb

Turkey's coup attempt raises nuclear concern at Incirlik Air Base


South China Morning Post
Sun, 24 Jul 2016 03:33 UTC
US bombs Turkey
© eurasianhub.com
Should they stay or should they go?
A little more than 100 miles from the territory held by Islamic State, there is a little piece of Americana. It has an eight-lane swimming pool, a baseball diamond and housing tracts built on carefully manicured cul-de-sacs. The Incirlik Air Force Base in Turkey has some other American assets: several dozen B61 thermonuclear warheads. The base has been a linchpin in Nato's southern flank for more than half a century, the staging ground for US anti-terrorism missions and the fight against Islamic State. But the failed military coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has increased long-standing concerns about the military usefulness and security of the Incirlik armoury, America's largest foreign stockpile of nuclear weapons.

Security remains at the highest level. Electrical power was restored Friday after a weeklong blackout that strained living conditions at the base. The 3,000 US service personnel stationed there have been ordered to remain inside the gates. Hundreds of dependents were sent home months ago because of fears of a terrorist attack. Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Karns, an Air Force spokesman for US Central Command in Qatar, said the electricity cutoff had forced water rationing and a slight reduction in bombing missions against Islamic State, but operations were returning to normal.

The base was an operational centre of the attempted coup. Its commander and his subordinates were arrested on suspicion of trying to overthrow the Turkish government, leaving junior officers in control. Defence officials have never acknowledged the existence of these weapons on the base and refused at news briefings after the coup attempt to answer questions about them. The weapons are in underground vaults in a mile-long security zone at the base, protected by an Air Force guard unit with attack dogs. The nearly 12-foot-long weapons have devices that are supposed to prevent unauthorised detonation, but experts are divided on the effectiveness of those controls.

Comment: See also: Could US nuclear weapons stored in Turkey pose a post-coup threat?

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Gold Seal

"The world is in grave danger": Putin's full speech at St. Petersburg International Economic Forum

Translated by Inessa Sinchougova
Fort Russ
Mon, 25 Jul 2016 11:41 UTC
Putin
Initially, I published only a small portion of this segment as I felt the key message must be made obvious. However, I have been pleasantly surprised with many people around the world reaching out to translate this into other languages, as well as wanting to see the full address.

This candid conversation took place with representatives of various media outlets during the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, in June 2016. Putin urged journalists to report genuinely on the impending danger that is a nuclear arms race.

Nobody has anything to gain from a nuclear stand-off against Russia. The power hungry decision-makers are few in number, but powerful enough to have subverted mainstream media to misrepresent Russia as the main threat to international security.

Comment: Further reading: Putin: 'We know when US will get new missiles threatening Russia's nuclear capability'

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Boat

South China Sea dispute: China tells Japan 'butt out'


RT
Mon, 25 Jul 2016 02:40 UTC
Wang Yi
© Hoanf Dinh Nam / AFP
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, annual ASEAN meeting.
China has hit out at Japan, which has urged it to abide by the terms of a recent international ruling that challenges Beijing's claims to the South China Sea. Meanwhile, South Asian countries have also failed to display a united position on the ruling. "Japan is not a party to the South China Sea issue, and considering its shameful history, it has no rights whatsoever to accuse China on the matter," the foreign ministry spokesman, Lu Kang, said in Beijing on Sunday.

The response was prompted by a statement made by Japanese foreign minister Fumio Kishida, who promised to discuss the dispute with his Chinese counterpart during the meeting of ten Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) which has kicked off in Laos. "I'd like to emphasize importance of the rule of law and finding solutions through peaceful measures," Kishida promised the Japanese media, before leaving for Laos capital Vientiane. Neither China nor Japan are full members of ASEAN, but both are present at the talks.

Four of ASEAN's members - the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei - have territorial claims on the naval passage that serves as the thoroughfare for an annual $5 trillion dollars' worth of trade goods.

Philippines won a victory on July 12, when the UN-backed Permanent Court of Arbitration rejected China's position. Beijing says that due to its historical use of the waters and the small rocks that dot the passage it is entitled to almost 90 percent of the South China Sea. To reinforce its claims Beijing has upped its military presence in the region, and even constructed an artificial island inside the water mass. China boycotted proceedings, and on Sunday, Lu Kang repeated that Beijing considered the Hague decision "illegal and invalid."

Comment: The China-USA spat may be taking a calculated detour via Japan deflection and now Cambodia's ASEAN statement veto. Sides are forming and loyalties are coming into play. Does the US have any legitimate concern with this dispute or is this just a way to keep Beijing distracted and off its game? For its involvement and pesky offshore patrol, the US has effectively created a pseudo-physical territorial position, another connector in completing its broader Asian encirclement agenda.

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Snakes in Suits

Pathetic: Killary blames Putin for Democratic Party email scandals

Alex Christoforou
The Duran
Mon, 25 Jul 2016 11:48 UTC
clinton emails ttp
© Wikimedia
It does not get more pathetic than this. Blame Russia for the DNC's cheating.

When in doubt just blame Russia. Instead of the Democratic party and the Hillary Clinton campaign admitting their mistakes, they have resorted to the most obvious and most ridiculous excuse for their corrupt actions... 'it was Russia's fault.'

Honestly I am left absolutely speechless at the stupidity of the Clinton campaign.

The strategy is to drag out the spectre of Vladimir Putin in order to distract Clinton supporters from the issue that at hand...Hillary Clinton and DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz conspired to rig the democratic primary elections in Hillary Clinton's favor.

Clinton and the Democratic party cheated, period...And now they are going to dig a deeper hole with more lies and deception by playing the always convenient Russia card.

At least if you are going to lie, be a little more creative. This is just lazy.

Comment: Further reading: Hillary Clinton, a threat to humanity - Her candidacy must be opposed

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Attention

Hillary Clinton, a threat to humanity - Her candidacy must be opposed

James Corbett
Global Research
Sun, 24 Jul 2016 03:05 UTC
Hillary
© State of the Nation
The world looks on in horror as Hillary Clinton heads to Philadelphia to be nominated as the Democratic Party's candidate for the presidency.

Yet still the leading lights of the so-called "progressive" movement argue that it is the left's duty to vote for this neocon warmonger.

But the consequences of this strategy may well lead directly to nuclear war. This is the GRTV Backgrounder on globalresearch.ca

The nuclear option is on the table. Hillary Clinton constitutes an existential threat against all of humanity.

Her candidacy must be opposed.

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Cell Phone

Turkish coup WhatsApp revelations: Orders to kill civilians, 3/5 coup regiments part of Turkey's NATO Rapid Deployable Corps

Christiaan Triebert
bellingcat
Sun, 24 Jul 2016 01:16 UTC
whatsapp
A group of plotters of the failed Turkish coup attempt used a WhatsApp group to communicate with each other. Bellingcat has transcribed, translated, and analysed the conversation, thereby cross-referencing the messages with photos, videos, and news reports of the evening, night, and morning of July 15-16.

The transcript is composed of two different sources. The first source is a video which was uploaded to Twitter in the morning of July 16, and appears to show the conversation on the phone of a surrendered, captured, or killed coup plotter. This video revealed the WhatsApp conversation from its start at 21:15 to 22:45. The second source is 21 photos that show the rest of the conversation, has already been transcribed. The photos are courtesy of Al Jazeera Türk's Selahattin Günday, and we are thankful that he was willing to share them with Bellingcat. We owe many thanks to "Has Avrat"[1] for fully translating the transcript, as well as contributing to the analysis. All times mentioned are in the local time zone, which is EEST (UTC+3).

This article will chronologically highlight and analyse most the most striking parts of the transcript, including the following:
  • The WhatsApp group consists of high-ranking military officials, mostly of the Turkish Land Forces, including two Brigadiers and eleven Colonels;
  • The group is just one coordination group of the coup attempt, as it focuses on (predominantly) land forces in Istanbul and Sakarya only. There were likely other coordination groups for actions elsewhere in Turkey. It is thus important to bear in mind that this is a snapshot of the conversation of some of the coup plotters, and not a full picture;
  • At least one member of the group communicates with "Ankara", where the coupist headquarters was located (probably in Akıncı Air Base);
  • At least three out of the five coupist regiments are part of Turkey's NATO Rapid Deployable Corps;
  • The conversation and communication between the coup plotters appears to be chaotic, as several numbers still had to be exchanged amidst the attempt;
  • Traffic congestion is a problem throughout the night, and so are private broadcasters;
  • There is a constant repetition regarding taking their superior hostage, the Commander of the First Army;
  • Air support is requested many times, including the suggestion to strike the Bosporus Bridge;
  • As the morning breaks, the coup plotters realise it is over. "Shall we escape", a Colonel asks. "The choice is yours", he gets as response. "We have not decided yet. But we have left our position. I'm closing the group. Delete the messages if you want".
A full transcript in both the original Turkish and translated English of the WhatsApp conversation can be viewed and downloaded here as a PDF-file.

Comment: Not only were the regiments NATO for 13 years; they even used their NATO-assigned slogan "Peace at home, peace in the world" as the name of their WhatsApp group. Sibel Edmonds comments:


According to the German magazine FOCUS, British GCHQ "intercepted phone calls, e-mails and SMS from within the Turkish government apparatus saying that the purges would start next day and that Gulen should be presented as the mastermind of the coup" a half-hour after the shooting started. So as Christoph Germann tweets, a NATO source leaks info to a German magazine suggesting a NATO ally staged a coup. Right. And if they really had the capability to receive these messages, surely they intercepted the messages from the actual coup plotters. But did they warn their 'ally'? Nope.

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