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Pepe Escobar: Why Erdogan, the Sultan of Chaos, is freaking out

Pepe Escobar
RT
Thu, 04 Feb 2016 17:47 UTC
Aleppo airstrike damage
© Abdalrhman Ismail / Reuters
Residents inspect damage after airstrikes by pro-Syrian government forces in Anadan city, about 10 kilometers away from the towns of Nubul and Zahraa, Northern Aleppo countryside, Syria February 3, 2016
Picture sleepless nights at 'Sultan' Erdogan's palace in Ankara. Imagine him livid when he learns the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), backed by Russian air power, started a preemptive Battle of Aleppo - through the Bayirbucak region - cutting off Ankara's top weaponizing corridor and Jihadi highway.

Who controls this corridor will control the final outcome of the war in Syria.

Meanwhile, in Geneva, the remote-controlled Syrian opposition, a.k.a. High Negotiations Committee, graphically demonstrated they never wanted to meet with the Damascus delegation in the first place - "proximity" talks or otherwise, even after Washington and Moscow roughly agreed on a two-year transition plan leading to a theoretically secular, nonsectarian Syria.

The Saudi front wanted no less than Ahrar al-Sham, Jaysh al-Islam and all Jabhat al-Nusra, a.k.a. al-Qaeda in Syria, collaborators at the table in Geneva. So the Geneva charade, quicker than one can say "Road to Aleppo!" was exposed for what it is.
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Megaphone

Telling it like it is: Top German broadcaster says news agencies take orders from government

Oliver JJ Lane
Breitbart
Tue, 02 Feb 2016 00:00 UTC
Wolfgang Herles
A retired media boss at a major German state broadcaster has admitted his network and others take orders from the government on what — and what not — to report.

National public service broadcaster Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF), which was recently forced into a humiliating apology for their silence on migrant violence and sex assault is being drawn into a fresh scandal after one of their former bureau chiefs admitted the company takes orders from the government on what it reports. He said journalists received instructions to write news that would be "to Ms. Merkel's liking".

Former head of ZDF Bonn Dr. Wolfgang Herles make the remarks during a radio event (from minute 27) in Berlin where journalists discussed the media landscape. Moving on to the freedom of the press, the panel chair asked Dr. Herles whether things in Germany had got "seriously out of whack". With an honesty perhaps unusual in Germany, Dr. Herles replied that ordinary Germans were totally losing faith in the media, something he called a "scandal". He said:
"We have the problem that - now I'm mainly talking about the public [state] media - we have a closeness to the government. Not only because commentary is mainly in line with the grand coalition (CSU, CDU, and SPD), with the spectrum of opinion, but also because we are completely taken in by the agenda laid down by the political class".

Comment: The propaganda exposed in the German media is illustrative of what poses for objective news in most of the Western mainstream press, which has always been controlled by those in power. They continue to get away with such egregious propaganda by continually exploiting fear and xenophobia, keeping people so distracted and stressed that they are unable or unwilling to see the man behind the curtain.

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Eye 1

Fascist Turkey requests all civil servants to report insults against Erdogan and top officials to police


RT
Wed, 03 Feb 2016 17:47 UTC
Erdogan
© Umit Bektas / Reuters
The governor's office in Isparta, southwestern Turkey, has reportedly sent a request to all state institutions in the province instructing staff to report cases of "insulting" President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and other top officials straight to the police.

Insulting the president is considered a crime in Turkey and the punishment can be up to four years in jail.

"According to Articles 299 and 125 of the Turkish Penal Code [TCK], an action must be taken for the posts [on social media] including insults against our president and other senior government officials, which have increased lately in direct proportion to the increase in terror activities in our country," the notification, signed by Isparta Deputy Governor Fevzi Güneş on behalf of Isparta Governor Vahdettin Özkan, stated, Today's Zaman reported.

The government began its crackdown on Kurdish fighters from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), outlawed by Ankara, last July. Turkey's authorities maintain those killed during the security operation in the southeast were all PKK members. According to Turkish human rights groups, however, more than 160 civilians were killed during the government offensive.

President Erdogan has publicly vowed to continue the operation until the area is cleansed of Kurdish militants. Kurds have long been campaigning for the right to self-determination and greater autonomy in Turkey, where they are the largest ethnic minority.

Comment: Maybe the rest of the world can help the Turkish people by insulting the pusillanimous fascist Erdogan wherever they see fit. The guy is plainly a psychopath and should be tarred and feathered and tied to a flagpole in the center of town so people can throw rotten tomatoes at him.

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Snakes in Suits

Turkey blocks Russian flight in violation of Open Skies Treaty


Sputnik
Thu, 04 Feb 2016 17:43 UTC
plane
© Flickr/ Dmitry Terekhov
Ankara has violated the Open Skies Treaty by not allowing Russian inspectors to conduct a scheduled inspection flight over the Turkish territory, a move that Moscow will not leave without proper response, the Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday.

Russian inspectors were scheduled to perform an observation flight on board the An-30B plane over the Turkish territory within the framework of the Open Skies Treaty on February 1-5.

"The itinerary included the observation of areas adjacent to the Turkish border with Syria, as well as airfields that host NATO warplanes. However, after the arrival of the Russian mission to Turkey and the announcement of the desired itinerary, the Turkish military officials refused to allow the inspection flight citing an order from the Turkish Foreign Ministry," head of the ministry's National Nuclear Risk Reduction Center Sergey Ryzhkov said in a statement.

Ryzhkov called the Turkish move "a dangerous precedent of uncontrolled military activity carried out by a member of the Open Skies Treaty. "We are not going to leave this violation of the treaty by Turkey without proper attention and adequate response," the official stressed.
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Gold Seal

Migration as a weapon of war: 'Ethno-engineering' used by the elites to manipulate the masses

Catherine Shakdam
RT
Wed, 03 Feb 2016 17:30 UTC
European refugees
© Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters
Today, war refugees have become headlines onto themselves. Whether referred to as migrants or asylum seekers by a well-thinking media complex, the semantics of this new crisis nevertheless betrays a very globalist agenda - yet more engineering, yet more manipulation.

With war raging on in the Middle East, millions of people were forced to flee before the advances of terror. Trapped in a conflict which was not of their making, and hunted by armies which have sought only their enslavement and/or annihilation, communities have chosen exile over death, chased out of their lands by the brutality of war. In the face of such human tragedy, Europe opened its borders, inviting in, those who lost everything ... or so we were told.

It is this 'humanitarian' narrative EU officials have volunteered to both their constituents and the media - this idea that Western nations hold a duty of care and protection over the millions displaced by war.

Indeed, Western powers are responsible. Actually no ... their role far exceeds the responsibility since the Mid-East has burnt under their fire. Let us remember which powers in fact engineered and purposely exported destabilization to the MENA over the past decade. From Iraq, to Syria, Libya and Yemen, military pyres have lit up many skies, engulfing all in their wake.
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Propaganda

US think tank accuses Sputnik news of discrediting Western governments and NATO


RT
Thu, 04 Feb 2016 16:54 UTC
Sputnik logo
© Alexey Filippov / Sputnik
A US think tank, which notably receives funding from the military sector, has lashed out at Russia's Sputnik news agency, claiming in a new report that the media organization "discredits" Western governments and institutions such as NATO.

The Washington-based Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), which helps the US and central and eastern Europe to shape strategies and policies, has now shifted its focus towards Russia's "modern warfare", shining a specific spotlight on the English-language agency.

CEPA has compiled a five-page report, in which it gives a cursory analysis of Sputnik's reporting, focusing on just one aspect - "European Parliament context" - out of all of its global, 24/7, multilingual coverage.

Referring to it as "one piece of the Kremlin's media machine," the author Ben Nimmo accuses Sputnik of contributing to the discreditation of "western governments, policies and institutions such as the European Union and NATO."

Nimmo's analysis implies that Sputnik is a platform for merely "a small number of anti-establishment politicians" after calculating the number of quotes and citations of individual eastern European politicians and parties.

Comment: The only thing that Sputnik has to do to "discredit" the West and NATO is to tell the truth! Because, the US/NATO do a fine job of discrediting themselves with their asinine, juvenile understanding of world politics and aggressive, bullying behavior.

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Mr. Potato

UK Foreign Minister describes Putin's facial expressions as "absolutely impenetrable"


Fort Russ
Tue, 02 Feb 2016 16:49 UTC
British Foreign Minister Philip Hammond

British Foreign Minister Philip Hammond
The head of the British Foreign Ministry Philip Hammond complained that Putin is "absolutely impenetrable".

"Watching Putin as Defense Minister and now as Foreign Minister, I realized that no matter how long you watch, you will not be able to see anything - completely impermeable. We have no idea what the Kremlin's strategy is. We don't know," said Hammond.

Hammond also said that it is difficult to discern whether the position of the Kremlin changed to support Assad, "because it is impossible to read Putin."

In Syria, since March 2011, armed conflict continues, which, according to the UN, has killed more than 220 thousand people. Government troops confront militants from various armed groups, the most active of the terrorist groups being "Islamic State" and "Jabhat al-Nusra" (banned in Russia and several other countries). From September 30th, Russia, at the request of Assad, has conducted airstrikes on the objects of both groups.

The U.S seeks the resignation of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and therefore opposes any decision to provide any help. For its part, Russia has repeatedly called for "an international coalition" to cooperate with the Syrian authorities under the auspices of the UN Security Council to combat ISIS. Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow has never concealed their mission and will continue to provide military support for the leadership of the Syria to combat terrorism in accordance with existing contracts and international law.

Translated by Ollie Richardson for Fort Russ
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Evil Rays

Turkey appears planning military invasion in Syria: Russian Defense Ministry reports


RT
Thu, 04 Feb 2016 14:02 UTC
Turkish tanks
© Umit Bektas / Reuters
Developments on the Turkish-Syrian border give serious grounds to suspect that Ankara is planning a military invasion in Syria, the Russian Defense Ministry said. "We have serious grounds to suspect intensive preparations by Turkey for a military invasion on the territory of the sovereign state of Syria," Major General Igor Konashenkov, Defense Ministry spokesman, told journalists. "We are recording more and more signs of concealed preparations by the Turkish military," he added.

The spokesman reminded that Moscow had previously provided the international community with irrefutable video evidence of Turkish artillery firing on Syrian populated areas in the north of Latakia Province. "We are surprised that the talkative representatives of the Pentagon, NATO and numerous organizations allegedly protecting human rights in Syria, despite our call to respond to these actions, still remain silent [on the shelling by Turkey]," he said. Turkey is trying to conceal its illegal military activity on the border with Syria and has canceled an agreed Russian surveillance flight over its territory because of that, Konashenkov said.

Comment: It has been clear for some time that Turkey has been playing the role of a provocateur, seeking to "shake up" an otherwise hopelessly lost situation, through acts of terrorism and now apparently, acts of war. Attempts to provoke Russia, no matter how tempting, will be resisted by Moscow. Any retaliation Russia exacts against Turkey will be done in a manner that negates any effects carrying over to its primary mission in Syria - to win the war.

See also:

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Snakes in Suits

The unbelievable insanity of the State Department's 'spokespeople'

Daniel McAdams
Ron Paul Institute
Thu, 04 Feb 2016 13:47 UTC
john kirby
© sputniknews.com
Liar, Liar...
Anyone wondering why the rest of the world sees the US administration as insane -- or worse -- need only spend a few minutes watching a daily briefing from the White House or especially the US State Department. These are not endeavors by intelligent and rational representatives of the US government to help explain US policies to the press corps and thereby to the rest of the world, but rather mind-numbingly sophomoric and barely literate diatribes.

Who can forget the exchange between AP's top diplomatic reporter Matt Lee and State Department Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf, where Mr. Lee questioned Harf on her assertion that US "evidence" for its claim that Russia was involved in the shoot-down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH-17 over Ukraine came from "social media." Pressing Harf for any evidence, he asked "is there anything other than social media" to back US claims? Yes, she said, but only offered that the US assessment was based on "common sense."

Then there was that hilarious moment when former State Department Spokesperson Jan Psaki answered accusations by the Venezuelan government that the US was trying to push a regime change on the country.

Comment: Further reading:
The methods of psychological terror (that specific pathocratic art), the techniques of pathological arrogance, and the striding roughshod into other people's souls initially have such traumatic effects that people are deprived of their capacity for purposeful reaction; I have already adduced the psychophysiological aspects of such states. Ten or twenty years later, analogous behavior can be recognized as well-known buffoonery and does not deprive the victim of his ability to think and react purposefully. His answers are usually well-thought-out strategies, issued from the position of a normal person's superiority and often laced with ridicule. Man can look suffering and even death in the eye with the required calm. A dangerous weapon falls out of ruler's hands.

We have to understand that this process of immunization is not merely a result of the above described increase in practical knowledge of the macro-social phenomenon. It is the effect of a many-layered, gradual process of growth in knowledge, familiarization with the phenomenon, creation of the appropriate reactive habits, and self-control, with an overall conception and moral principles being worked out in the meantime. After several years, the same stimuli which formerly caused chilly spiritual impotence or mental paralysis now provoke the desire to gargle with something strong so as to get rid of this filth.

Political Ponerology: A Science on The Nature of Evil adjusted for Political Purposes


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Chart Pie

Employer layoffs in U.S. surge to 6-month high for January

Tom DiChristopher
CNBC
Thu, 04 Feb 2016 08:11 UTC
Job losses
© Bidness Etc
Layoffs surged in January to the highest levels since July as employers in the retail and energy sectors pulled out the pink slips, according to a private survey out Thursday.

U.S.-based companies announced 75,114 planned job cuts last month, up more than 200 percent from a 15-year low in December, according to global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. That figure was also 42 percent higher from a year ago.

Retailers were the biggest job cutter, despite a nearly 8 percent bump in U.S. holiday sales in 2015. The sector slashed 22,246 positions, a seven-year high.Wal-Mart accounted for much of the payroll reductions. The nation's largest retailer said it plans to close 269 stores and expects to let go 16,000 workers. Macy's said it will also shutter some locations this year, costing 4,820 employees their jobs.

Challenger, Gray & Christmas CEO John A.Challenger said the shift from in-store selling to online transactions is playing a major part in the scaling back of retail work forces. Macy's "had a 25 percent jump in their online sales, but their retail sales at bricks and mortars fell by 5 percent, so they are cutting stores," he told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Thursday.

January delivered a fresh round of energy sector layoffs, as well. Announced payroll reductions of 20,246 marked the highest monthly total since the start of the oil price rout in mid-2014 that has sent crude prices spiraling about 70 percent and led to massive cost-cutting in the U.S. oil patch."Halliburton, Baker Hughes, Schlumberger — all the big oil producers of equipment — are continuing to cut jobs. That suggests that the big ... oil and gas companies are cutting production and exploration," Challenger said.

Comment: See also:

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