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US urging Turkey to close off its Syrian border to ISIS


RT
Sat, 28 Nov 2015 13:25 UTC
Turkish soldiers
© Murad Sezer / Reuters
Washington is urging Ankara to seal off a 100-kilometer stretch of borderline with Syria currently used by Islamic State for transportation of fighters and supplies into the Syrian war zone. The Turkish Army would need an estimated 30,000 personnel to do this.

The Obama administration is urging Turkey to ensure Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in Syria receives no supplies through the Turkish border, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing sources in Washington. The request involves sealing off part of the frontier between the western Turkish town of Kilis and Jarabulus in eastern Syrian.

"The game has changed. Enough is enough! The border needs to be sealed," the WSJ cited a senior Obama administration official as saying in a message from the US government to Turkey. "This is an international threat, and it's all coming out of Syria and it's coming through Turkish territory."

Comment: There seems to be some frustration between Turkey and the US.

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Rocket

There have been no US airstrikes in Syria since Russia deployed S-400 systems


RT
Sat, 28 Nov 2015 13:14 UTC
Image
© Dmitriy Vinogradov / Sputnik
An S-400 air defence missile system is deployed for a combat duty at the Hmeymim airbase to provide security of the Russian air group's flights in Syria.
Both the American and Turkish air forces halted their strikes on Syrian territory around the time Russia deployed S-400 air defense complexes at the Khmeimim airbase, from which it stages its own incursions against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).

A spokesperson of the Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) told Sputnik on Friday that the absence of anti-IS coalition airstrikes "has nothing to do with the S400 deployment" in Syria.


Comment: Of course the US doesn't want to admit the S-400 system is a deterrent.


"The fluctuation or absence of strikes in Syria reflects the ebb and flow of battle," the spokesperson said, adding that CJTF-OIR deliver airstrikes when and where it needs to, dedicating a lot of time to researching targets to ensure maximum effect and minimizing civilian casualties.
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Bad Guys

In the crosshairs: 'Turkey should be kicked out of NATO' says US General


Sputnik
Sat, 28 Nov 2015 00:56 UTC
NATO
© AFP 2015/ JOHN THYS
Turkey pursues its own interests in the Syrian conflict and it is not cooperating with NATO or other forces in the region, a retired US Army Major General Paul Vallely said in an interview with RT.

The downing of a Russian Su-24 bomber by the Turkish air force will hardly be the last act of provocation by Ankara, so NATO should kick Turkey out of the alliance, Vallely said.

He believes that the attack on the Russian aircraft had nothing to do with protecting national borders. It was aimed at demonstrating to Russia that Turkey is the dominant power in the region and that it's not going to give ground. The president of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been involved in the conflict in the area for quite some time, and this incident isn't the first of its kind: a few years ago Turkey shot down a Syrian jet.

Comment: Rather than ask the most important question of 'who benefits' from the downing of the Russian Su-24, Western officials and media seem very eager to scapegoat Turkey. 'They're arming ISIS' - 'they need to be kicked out of NATO' - 'Erdogan's a dictator' - etc. How easily they forget that their countries are responsible for the Syrian conflict which Russia is trying to clean up, and that Putin has revealed that Russia knows 40 different countries that have been financing ISIS. That means that there are 39 more corrupt, head-chopper-funding networks to deal with. And that includes the one that benefits most from the death of a Russian pilot, the destabilization of Turkey and the region, and who knew the Russian pilot's flight plan - the U.S.

Also see:

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Bomb

Note to Mainstream Media: Jihadi John is Not the Name of a Strategic Syrian Airbase


Blogmire.com
Tue, 17 Nov 2015 14:02 UTC
Here's and interesting game you can play using nothing but Google. Go to the world's biggest search engine and type in "Kuweires". You'll notice that it comes up with a number of different websites all speaking about a stunning victory achieved by the Syrian Arab Army, supported by Russian air cover, in which the strategic military airbase that had been under siege from ISIS for two-and-a-half years was recaptured and hundreds of ISIS terrorists killed in the process. You'll also notice that with the exception of RT, none of the websites are what you would call well-known. Is it possible that the mainstream organisations just haven't heard about it yet?
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Jet5

The Struggle for Hearts and Minds: Putin Continues to Call NATO's Bluff

Harrison Koehli
Sott.net
Fri, 27 Nov 2015 18:06 UTC
Hollande Putin
© Kremlin.ru
France and Russia have agreed to cooperate in the fight against the Daeshbags. The news comes after Hollande and Putin met in Moscow yesterday, where they agreed to share intelligence, intensify and coordinate airstrikes together, and jointly make sure their airstrikes concentrate on "terrorist" groups, including Daesh. Putin clarified:
... we will exchange information with France about the areas that are being held by healthy opposition, not terrorists, and will refrain from delivering air strikes at them. We will also exchange information, when we - France and Russia - know for sure that certain areas are captured by terrorist organisations, and we will coordinate our efforts with regard to those areas.
It looks like France really is allying with Russia, to the extent it is able -- something the U.S. has refused to do. Putin said he and Hollande "are looking at this kind of cooperation as concrete and practical input towards forming a broad anti-terrorist coalition, a broad anti-terrorist front under the auspices of the United Nations. I will note that the number of nations sharing this initiative is growing." He also said that both parties "agreed to continue working together very actively within the framework of the International Syria Support Group and promote the fulfilment of all agreements reached within this group, first and foremost with regard to the deadlines and parameters for holding intra-Syrian talks."

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Bad Guys

Columbia U. Research Paper: Is Turkey collaborating with the Islamic State (ISIS)?

David L. Phillips
Huffington Post
Mon, 09 Nov 2015 00:00 UTC
Turkey ISIS
© Unknown
Introduction

Is Turkey collaborating with the Islamic State (ISIS)? Allegations range from military cooperation and weapons transfers to logistical support, financial assistance, and the provision of medical services. It is also alleged that Turkey turned a blind eye to ISIS attacks against Kobani.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu strongly deny complicity with ISIS. Erdogan visited the Council on Foreign Relations on September 22, 2014. He criticized "smear campaigns [and] attempts to distort perception about us." Erdogan decried, "A systematic attack on Turkey's international reputation, "complaining that "Turkey has been subject to very unjust and ill-intentioned news items from media organizations." Erdogan posited: "My request from our friends in the United States is to make your assessment about Turkey by basing your information on objective sources."

Columbia University's Program on Peace-building and Rights assigned a team of researchers in the United States, Europe, and Turkey to examine Turkish and international media, assessing the credibility of allegations. This report draws on a variety of international sources -- The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Daily Mail, BBC, Sky News, as well as Turkish sources, CNN Turk, Hurriyet Daily News, Taraf, Cumhuriyet, and Radikal among others.

Comment: The recent shoot-down of a Russian Su-24 jet in Syria and subsequent events have exposed Turkey's role in supporting ISIS to the world community. There's no longer any excuse for ignoring it.

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Gold Seal

Senator Richard Black: War in Syria would end if US stopped supporting terrorists


Sputnik
Thu, 26 Nov 2015 16:36 UTC
Image

Virginia State Senator and decorated Vietnam veteran Richard Black says it like it is.
The United States continues to supply terrorists in Syria with weapons, making them a grave threat to global security as well as deepening the conflict in the country, the Virginia State Senator said.

The United States and its allies can promptly end the conflict in Syria if they decide to stop providing assistance to terrorist groups in the country, Virginia State Senator Richard Black told Sputnik.

"People need to understand that if the United States, France and Britain stopped supporting terrorists, the war would end," Black said on Wednesday. "We caused the war, and we can end it whenever we wish."
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Megaphone

EU politicians rip Turkey's links to ISIS, label Erdogan dangerous


YouTube
Thu, 26 Nov 2015 23:31 UTC
Image
Turkey's attack on the Russian bomber is the first such incident between a NATO country and Moscow in half a century. Across the media, there are concerns that relations between the Alliance and Russia could worsen and see a return to Cold War times.

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Stock Up

Russia's investment appeal rising again amid high returns


Sputnik
Fri, 27 Nov 2015 22:45 UTC
Russia's bonds retuned over 26% per dollar invested in 2015, with the overall financial situation improving after the late 2014 shocks.
Russian ROI
© Sputnik/ Vladimir Astapkovich
Russia has recovered some of its investment appeal as returns per dollar invested have turned out to be among the world's best this outgoing year, despite the still-intact international sanctions, low oil prices, and structural economic inefficiency.

While all these issues are expected to persist well into the next year, investment capital is attracted to Russia by a gradual loosening of the central bank's monetary policy.

Moreover, next year's scheduled payments on external debt are light in volume, and base effect is improving expansion prospects, even though recession still lingers. Subsequently, Russia might be heading for a massive expansion in the financial sector under otherwise equal conditions.
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Chess

Who benefits from Turkey's aggression against Russia?: United States

Prof Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research
Fri, 27 Nov 2015 22:28 UTC
erdogan Putin
© Unknown
"Regime change" in Ukraine engineered by the US State Department was largely responsible for the collapse of the "South Stream" gas pipeline project. Washington's intent was to establish a de facto blockade which would prevent the flow of Russian gas to the European Union.

"The South Stream gas pipeline worth €15.5 billion was intended to pump 67 billion cubic meters of Russian natural gas to Europe annually.

The pipeline's underwater section 900 km (559 miles) long was intended to run along the bed of the Black Sea from the Russkaya compressor station on the Russian shore to the Bulgarian coast." (TASS, January 14, 2015)

On December 1, 2014, President Vladimir Putin announced that the project to build the South Stream gas pipeline "was closed due to the European Union's unconstructive approach to cooperation, including Bulgaria's decision [pressured by the US] to stop the construction of the pipeline's stretch on its territory."

Comment: Also, see...Always the last to know: Did Turkish government find out about shoot-down of Russian jet after the fact?

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