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Turkish crackdown leaves Kurdish town of Cizre 80% destroyed


Sputnik
Thu, 07 Apr 2016 02:33 UTC
turkey bombs kurds
© Ilyas Akengin/Agence France Presse
A woman reacts while walking among the rubble of damaged buildings following heavy fighting between government troops and Kurdish fighters in the Kurdish town of Cizre in southeastern Turkey, which lies near the border with Syria and Iraq, on March 2, 2016
Dirayet Tashdemir, a member of Turkish parliament from the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) said that around 600 people were killed in the Kurdish regions of Turkey, and 99 of them were children. Four-fifths of the Kurdish town of Cizre has been destroyed as a result of the Turkish crackdown on the minority, a member of Turkish parliament from the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) said Thursday.

"80 percent of Cizre is already destroyed, including even those parts that were not under a blockade before," Dirayet Tashdemir told reporters at a press conference in Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency.

He estimated the death toll in the town less than 2 miles north of the Syrian border at nearly 300 residents. Eighty-six have died in the Sur district of the unofficial Kurdish capital of Diyarbakir, followed by 74 in Idil and 32 in Nusaybin, he added.
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Gold Coins

'Fessing up: Cameron comes clean on father's offshore trust, admits profiting from tax haven


RT
Fri, 08 Apr 2016 02:16 UTC
David Cameron
© Dan Kitwood / Reuters
Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron addresses students at Exeter University in Exeter, Britain April 7, 2016.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron has admitted that he has benefited from shares in an offshore trust set up by his father, Ian, which was revealed in the Panama Papers leak. Cameron claims to have sold the shares before taking office in 2010, however.

"We owned 5,000 units in Blairmore Investment Trust, which we sold in January 2010. That was worth something like £30,000 (about $42,000)," he told the UK's ITV news, admitting that these have been "a difficult few days."

Cameron says that, between 1997 and 2010, he and his wife, Samantha Cameron, owned shares in Blairmore Investment Trust, a multimillion-pound offshore trust fund established by his late father, Ian Cameron. "I sold them all in 2010 because I was going to become prime minister," he said. "I didn't want anyone to say you've got other agendas, other interests, all the rest of it." Cameron said he sold the shares months before taking up residence at 10 Downing Street in January of 2010 and paid income tax on the dividends from the units. The family's offshore firm also was moved to Ireland that year.

Comment: Even among the elites there are hierarchies. The US PTB appear to have ramped up the fear factor for "world leaders" to remind them who's really the boss. They now know that any and all possible pressure will be used to keep everyone in line.

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Eye 2

Panama Papers: U.S. intel op to solidify western elite's global domination?

Jay Syrmopoulos
Free Thought Project
Tue, 05 Apr 2016 23:29 UTC
Panama papers map better
© Brian Kilmartin
Map of Panama Papers companies by country
The bombshell revelations contained in the Panama Papers have resulted in the resignation of the Prime Minister of Iceland, massive censorship in China, and outright denials in Moscow after both of their respective Presidents were implicated in the scandal.

But curiously, not a single member of the political/corporate elite within the U.S. has been named out of the 441 U.S. clients identified in the leaked documents.

The surprising lack of U.S. power elite appearing in any of the articles written on the leak could potentially be related to the entities funding the organization investigating the papers — or perhaps something even more nefarious.

While there oddly have been no U.S. power brokers connected to Mossack Fonseca, Zero Hedge reports Brian Kilmartin has created an interactive map, based on the leaked data, that reveals there are at least 441 clients, 3,072 companies, 211 beneficiaries and 3,467 U.S.-based shareholders of the Panamanian law firm.

The 441 clients would put the U.S. among the countries with the most clients serviced by Mossack Fonseca in the world. With so many U.S. clients — yet none who are connected to the ruling elite — it raises some serious questions about the nature of the leak itself.

Some have questioned whether the leak itself could be a strategic intelligence operation called a "limited hangout."
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Attention

Coincidence? One day After Panama Papers leak, IRS headquarters closes then catches fire

John Vibes
Free Thought Project
Thu, 07 Apr 2016 20:43 UTC
fire IRS panama papers
© NBC Washington
A fire broke out in the basement of the Washington offices of the IRS one day after the release of the Panama Papers.
As we have been covering this week, the release of the Panama Papers has created a panic among world governments, by exposing some of their darkest secrets.

In the leak, 11.5 million documents were stolen from Mossack Fonseca and were leaked to Suddeutsche Zeitung, who then turned to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists to examine the documents. In the time since, media organizations have been scrambling to sift through a large number of documents, in hopes of finding stories that they can spin to fit their narrative.

So far, most of the information to be released through the mainstream media has been directed at foreign governments and leaders, with a passing mention of several hundred American citizens who store their money offshore without reporting it to the IRS. Ironically enough, at the height of the Panama Papers publicity, a fire broke out in the basement of the IRS headquarters, leading to a full closure of the headquarters for over a week.

Comment: This is not the first time an office that might contain sensitive information has conveniently been destroyed. Remember 9/11? The most damaged part of the Pentagon that day contained the accounting offices of Naval Intelligence.

9/10/2001: Rumsfeld says $2.3 TRILLION Missing from Pentagon

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Bad Guys

Daesh kidnaps over 300 Syrian civilians after attacking cement factory near Damascus


RT
Thu, 07 Apr 2016 22:18 UTC
man firing machine gun
© Sultan Kitaz / Reuters
More than 300 Syrian civilians are missing following an Islamic State attack on a cement factory situated to the east of Damascus.

"The company has informed the officials that over 300 workers and contractors have been kidnapped by Islamic State [IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL] militant group," Syrian SANA news agency reported, citing a source in the Ministry of Industry. The source added that the company couldn't establish contact with any of the people.

One of the officials in charge of observing the ceasefire in the region has informed the agency of reports from eyewitnesses who claim they saw presumed IS vehicles in the area carrying at least 125 workers. The vehicles headed to the Eastern Ghouta region, SANA reported.

The people are feared kidnapped, AFP also reported, citing local residents and a factory administrator who said the employees have been unreachable since Monday.

"We haven't been able to reach our family members since noon on Monday after an attack by Daesh [Arabic pejorative term for IS] on the factory. We have no information about where they are," a resident of the town of Dmeir said on Thursday.
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Treasure Chest

Journalist asserts Panama Papers are an inside job to eliminate tax haven competitors to the U.S.

Shepard Ambellas
Intellihub
Tue, 05 Apr 2016 20:18 UTC
panama papers we are change
© Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung/Flickr
Luke Rudkowski of We Are Change
New leak traces back to Soros and others, journalist says

Luke Rudkowski of We Are Change gave his take on the leaked Panama Papers recently via a YouTube vid titled "Panama Papers Psyop, Complete Inside Job by Real Elite," published Tuesday.

In the video Rudkowski says that the largest leak in journalistic history is engineered by the "top of the top elites to get rid of their lower competition."

Rudkowski explains in the video that the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) is the agency responsible for organizing the leak along with George Soros's Open Society Foundation, USAID, the Ford Foundation, the Carnegie Endowment, the Rockefeller Family Fund, the W K Kellogg Foundation and the U.S. Government.
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Cut

Transcarpathia demands autonomy from Ukraine, other regions may follow


Katehon
Thu, 07 Apr 2016 00:00 UTC
transcarpathia
© unknown
Transcarpathia (Zakarpats'ka oblast, Ukraine) in red.
In the latest event in the collapse of Ukraine, Deputies of the Legislative Assembly of Transcarpathia have demanded autonomy from the Ukrainian nationalist state. MPs demanded that the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, and Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Volodymyr Groysman grant autonomy to the region. The statement was adopted at the plenary session of the local parliament.
"We demand the recognition of Transcarpathia as a special self-governing administrative territory. The necessary amendments to the Constitution of the country must be made without delay", - the document says.
Stalin's Gift

Transcarpathia is the region that was last to join Ukraine. It was a part of Hungary, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and then Czechoslovakia until 1945, when Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin incorporated it into the Soviet Ukraine after World War II. Representatives of local communities (Orthodox congress of Carpathian Ruthenia, headed by Archimandrite Kabaljuk and Professor Lintur) asked him to include it in the USSR as an independent republic. This proposal was rejected by the Soviet leadership.

Comment: One can see the writing on the wall for a failed Ukraine. Other regions may follow Transcarpathia's example.

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Ambulance

Aleppo district shelled with chemical gas from territory held by Islamist and FSA factions


RT
Thu, 07 Apr 2016 20:19 UTC
aleppo
© Nawrouz Uthman
A neighborhood in the Syrian city of Aleppo, which is held by Kurdish YPG militias, has been shelled with chemical agents from territory held by Islamist and FSA factions, a local journalist on the ground has told to RT.

"The attack was carried out between 11.30 and 12.00 local time. The gas that was used in this attack, caused choking and malaise among those affected. This indicates that the poisoning substances were used in the attack. Four people have been injured," journalist Nawrouz Uthman reports.

Videos posted online purportedly show yellow gas rising over the Sheikh Maqsood neighborhood.


Comment: More pictures available here. The Syrian Red Crescent confirmed that at least 4 patients showed symptoms of gas poisoning, adding that it appears to have been chlorine gas. 'Moderate' terrorist group Jaysh al-Islam then admitted to using banned weapons, putting the blame on a rogue commander and stating that use of such weapons is "contrary to the charter of Jaysh al-Islam".

This comes as Kurds in the region report that at least 100 Turkish special forces have crossed the border into Idlib province. Remember where Daesh got its sarin gas: Turkey.

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Light Sabers

South China Sea conflict shows US plans for regime change in China


Sputnik
Thu, 07 Apr 2016 20:06 UTC
south china sea
© AFP 2016/ POOL / RITCHIE B. TONGO
As Beijing begins construction of a lighthouse in the disputed South China Sea, Radio Sputnik's Loud & Clear speaks with Eric Draitser, founder of StopImperialism.org, to discuss the ongoing tensions between the US and China.

"What we're really interested in here is the symbolic significance of China's opening of this lighthouse because it is clearly and unmistakably an issue that has gone far beyond just military capabilities, commercial capabilities," Draitser tells Loud & Clear.

"Now China is also injecting itself into the legal questions and conflict resolution and dispute resolution."

Beijing's construction of artificial islands in the Spratly archipelago has been met with derision by US officials who accuse China of attempting to establish an air defense zone. Draitser believes this to be an inaccurate reading of Beijing's goals.

"...China now becomes a focal point in conflict resolution when it comes to maritime disputes, and I would argue this is another facet of China trying to pivot the world's attention away from strictly Western institutions when it comes to conflict resolution and putting China on an equal footing...politically, as well as economically and legally..."
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Attention

John Kerry praises Putin in new Charlie Rose interview - tacitly admits Putin outwitted and countered U.S. imperial ambitions


RT
Thu, 07 Apr 2016 18:56 UTC
kerry
© Eduardo Munoz / Reuters
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry
Just as the Pentagon ranked Russia as its No.1 threat, Secretary of State John Kerry lauded Moscow's "constructive role" in major diplomatic breakthroughs such as the Syrian ceasefire and Iran nuclear deal. He also had rare compliments for Vladimir Putin.

Russia's commitment to the Syrian ceasefire was initially called into question by the US and its coalition partners, which condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin for supporting Syrian President Bashar Assad, while accusing Moscow of bombing US-backed rebel groups.

"Everybody doubted whether Russia would play any constructive role whatsoever with respect to the cessation of hostilities [...] and we got the cessation of hostilities because they played a positive role," Kerry told PBS's Charlie Rose in an interview aired on April 5.


Comment: This is disingenuous at best, but it's the only way Kerry can accept reality and save face at the same time. No one with any brains in the U.S. doubted that Russia would play a constructive role, because the U.S. decision-makers were the ones that wanted a destructive outcome. With that denied to them, they have no choice but to acknowledge that Putin and Russia did what they said they'd do (something U.S. politicians can't quite grasp).

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