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Eliminating the fifth column: Turkey orders detention of 47 more journalists


RT
Wed, 27 Jul 2016 19:43 UTC
turkey coup journalists
© Murad Sezer / Reuters
Zaman media group employees and their relatives hold banners outside the headquarters of Zaman daily newspaper in Istanbul
Turkish authorities ordered the detention of 47 journalists from a formerly oppositional newspaper amid a widening crackdown on supporters of cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blames for a failed coup attempt earlier this month.

The warrants were issued Wednesday against executives and senior journalists of the Zaman newspaper, which was seized by the Turkish government in March.

"Today's detentions cover executives and some staff including columnists of Zaman newspaper, the Gulen movement's flagship media organization," a government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters, as cited by Reuters.

The official said that the journalists are not being detained for anything they may have written or said, rather because they may have useful information regarding Gulen's network, which could be used by the Turkish state in its investigation against the US-based Muslim cleric, who Ankara believes was the mastermind behind the failed coup.

"At this point, the reasoning is that prominent employees of Zaman are likely to have intimate knowledge of the Gulen network and as such could benefit the investigation," the official added.
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Info

Russia responds: Forms brand-new task force to counter NATO buildup in Eastern Europe


RT
Wed, 27 Jul 2016 19:55 UTC
Iskander high-precision missile system
© Alexei Danichev / Sputnik
Moscow has been forming a force to counterbalance NATO's massive military buildup along Russia's borders in Europe, which will operate along its western and southern borders, according to Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu.

Shoigu named NATO's military buildup in Eastern Europe, the overall situation in Ukraine, and growing terrorist activity in the Caucasus region as the three principle drivers behind Moscow's military upgrade.

"In the given conditions, we have to take commensurate reaction measures," Shoigu said, while speaking at a Defense Ministry board session.

Since 2013, the Defense Ministry has conducted over 200 drills in the southern military district, the minister reported.

Four divisions, nine brigades, and 22 regiments have been formed there from scratch, Shoigu said.
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Radar

Preparing? US delivers 72 surveillance drones to Ukraine


Sputnik
Wed, 27 Jul 2016 19:49 UTC
Soldier launching drone
© Flickr/ U.S. Army Europe
The US drone systems delivered to Ukraine are used to transmit live video images and location data to ground control stations, according to the US embassy in Kiev.

The United States has delivered 72 hand launched surveillance drones to Ukraine as part of a larger effort to help the nation enhance its defense capabilities, the US embassy in Kiev said in a press release on Wednesday.

"24 RQ-11B Raven Unmanned Aircraft Systems (comprised of 72 aircraft and associated equipment) arrived at Boryspil International Airport July 27," the release said.
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Bad Guys

More evidence of human rights violations: Pro-Saudi forces burn 50 houses, kill 20 civilians in Yemen's Ta'iz Province


FARS News Agency
Wed, 27 Jul 2016 19:44 UTC
Burned houses in Yemen
The Saudi-led forces torched the houses of Yemeni civilians in al-Sarari village after looting their properties, killing 20 of them and abducting 40 others.

The Saudi-led forces' atrocities came in Sabr al-Mavadem region of al-Sarari village after they exploded a mosque in al-Sarari village, the Arabic-language al-Ahad news site reported.

The Saudi forces exploded Jamal al-Din mosque in al-Sarari village, and held 40 residents of the village captive after killing 40 others.

The Saudi-led forces cut into pieces the bodies of the residents of al-Sarari village after executing them.

Comment: Nothing to see here, no human rights violation. Sheesh.

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Boat

Escalating activities in South China Sea - Is war inevitable?

Pepe Escobar
RT
Wed, 27 Jul 2016 11:13 UTC
Warship
© Tim Wimborne/Reuters
Since the recent ruling by The Hague in favor of the Philippines and against China over the South China Sea, Southeast Asia has been engulfed on how to respond. They dithered. They haggled.

They were plunged into despair.

It was a graphic demonstration of how "win-win" business is done in Asia. At least in theory.

In the end, at a summit in Vientiane, Laos, the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China finally settled for that household mantra - "defusing tensions".

They agreed to stop sending people to currently uninhabited "islands, reefs, shoals, cays, and other features" after ASEAN declared itself worried about land reclamation and "escalations of activities in the area".

And all this without even naming China - or referring to the ruling in The Hague.

China and ASEAN also pledged to respect freedom of navigation in the South China Sea (which Washington insists is in danger); solve territorial disputes peacefully, through negotiations (that happens to be the official Chinese position), also taking into consideration the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS); and work hard to come up with a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (that's been going on for years; optimistically, a binding text will be ready by the first half of 2017).

So, problem solved? Not really. At first, it was Deadlock City. Things only started moving when the Philippines desisted to mention The Hague in the final statement; Cambodia - allied with China - had prevented it from the start.

And that's the heart of the matter when it comes to ASEAN negotiating with China. It's a Sisyphean task to reach consensus among the 10 members - even as ASEAN spins its role as the perfect negotiation conduit. China for its part prefers bilaterals - and has applied Divide and Rule to get what it wants, seducing mostly Laos and Cambodia as allies.
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Laptop

Assange says Wikileaks has yet more leaks on US presidential elections


RT
Wed, 27 Jul 2016 17:59 UTC
assange
© Rodrigo Garrido / Reuters
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
WikiLeaks possesses "a lot more" documents to surprise American voters ahead of the upcoming presidential elections - and will not hesitate to make them public.

The leak of 20,000 internal emails from the Democratic National Committee (DNC), published by the whistleblowing website on July 22 "is having so much political impact in the United States," Julian Assange acknowledged to CNN in a Skype interview on Tuesday.

Speaking to America's primary media outlet from the safety of Ecuadorian embassy in London, the WikiLeaks founder refused to disclose the source of the leaked batch of DNC emails, particularly avoiding denial or to confirmation of alleged Russian involvement, much talked about by Hillary Clinton's campaign headquarters. He explained his lack of responsiveness by an obligation to protect WikiLeaks' information sources.

"Perhaps one day the source or sources will step forward and that might be an interesting moment. Some people may have egg on their faces," Assange said. "But to exclude certain actors is to make it easier to find out who our sources are. So we never do it."

Comment: Flashback: Get on it already! Assange threatens to release enough information to indict Killary

See also: Trump, Putin, Russian Hackers and the Wikileaks DNC emails: Who's responsible?

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Question

Why were "journalists" calling for a full ban on Russian athletes at Rio Olympics when doping is a widespread problem in athletics?

Danielle Ryan
RT
Mon, 25 Jul 2016 17:02 UTC
rio olympics
© Yasuyoshi Chiba / Reuters
The logo of the Rio Olympic Games is seen at the Olympic and Paralympic Village in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Comment: The answer to this question is that journalists are no longer independent of the government's which they cover, most especially in the West. If you are a Western journalist, your job is to make the US/UK/EU look good and demonize countries which have fought against imperial control such as Russia, China, Iran, etc. There is no objectivity left in journalism, and many "journalists" are either paid by intelligence agencies to spread propaganda, or actually are embedded intelligence agents.

If any of these Western journalists who were calling for a full ban on Russian athletes actually looked at the evidence and had any objectivity, they would see that banning Russia from the Olympics is a ridiculous idea. There is no proof, other than the words of a convicted Russian criminal who was likely paid handsomely to spread lies, of "institutionalized doping". If you want true journalism, you're going to have to look somewhere other than in the pages of Western media outlets. It's gone now, replaced by presstitutes who don't care a lick about journalistic integrity.


I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that if the latest Olympic doping scandal involved US athletes and unproven allegations of state-sponsored cheating, British newspapers would not be calling for a ban on all American athletes from the Rio Olympics.

They'd probably be calling - in concerned tones, of course - for each American athlete to be assessed individually and not punished for the sins of others, while simultaneously loudly screaming accusations that the whistleblower was secretly working for Vladimir Putin.

I don't know, it's just a hunch.

As it turns out, proponents of a blanket ban on Russian athletes failed to convince the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which decided Sunday to leave the decisions on individual athletes up to their respective international sports federations and put the onus on athletes to prove they are clean. But the failure of ban proponents to convince the IOC certainly was not for lack of trying - because they truly did their best to have the innocent punished alongside the guilty and get the whole Russian team thrown out.

The UK's Times newspaper, for example, took it upon itself to organize a letter to the IOC. It wrote: "We ask that you ban the entire Russian team from the Rio 2016 Olympics. It is time to take a stand against the institutionalized doping that would otherwise pollute the Games. Now is not a time for half measures."
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Play

Profiling Fethullah Gulen, the deep state plotter (VIDEO)

James Corbett
The Corbett Report
Wed, 27 Jul 2016 17:07 UTC
Fethullah Gulen
© AP Photo/ Selahattin Sevi, File
CIA-backed terrorist trainer and recruiter Fethullah Gulen
Since the failed coup attempt in Turkey on July 15th, the name of exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen is on everyone's lips.

Not only is President Erdogan pointing the finger at Gulen as the mastermind of the coup, so is General Hulusi Akar, the Chief of Staff of Turkey's Armed Forces and the country's top ranking general. In testimony to prosecutors in Ankara earlier this week he stated that while he was being held captive by pro-coup soldiers he was asked to speak to Gulen, who he described as their "opinion leader," but he refused.

"I believe those coup-plotters are members of [Gulen's] organization," Akar said. "I think they thought their organization would take a huge blow after our Supreme Military Council meeting in August — which we prepared for studiously. This terror organization probably foresaw the outcome of the upcoming meeting and attempted a coup by bombing the parliament building and security offices, killing civilians, attacking their own brothers-in-arms and units with a ferocity and dishonor never seen before."

So who is Fethullah Gulen? Well, that depends who you ask. If you ask the well-coiffed liars of the corporate lapdog media, Gulen is a kindly old reclusive imam who is operating a multi-billion dollar global Islamic school network from his compound fortress in Pennsylvania...for some reason or other.


Comment: See also:

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Attention

Iran calls a spade a spade: 'NATO hasn't done anything about the drug trade in Afghanistan because they earn billions of dollars from it'


FarsNews
Wed, 27 Jul 2016 16:31 UTC
Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli

Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli
Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said the western states, specially the NATO members, have not made any major move to resolve the drug problem in Afghanistan as they earn tens of billions of dollars from drug trafficking.

"The Western countries earn $50bln to $60bln from drug trafficking, but Iran and Afghanistan should pay the price," Rahmani Fazli said, addressing the second day of a meeting of the governors of Iranian and Afghan border provinces in Tehran on Tuesday. He complained that the West has defied help to Tehran and Afghanistan in fighting drug trafficking, and said the westerners have for years been claiming efforts to replace opium cultivation with other agricultural products, but only in words and not in action.

"Production of drugs has increased in Afghanistan after the NATO deployment to the country," Rahmani Fazli said. He stressed Iran's preparedness to help Afghanistan in this regard. Pakistan and Afghanistan are two origins of producing and trafficking of various types of narcotic in the region. The anti-drug squads of the Iranian Law Enforcement Police have intensified their countrywide campaign against drug-trafficking through staging long-term systematic operations since 2010.

Comment: Drug trafficking in Afghanistan didn't increase from 185 tons a year to 8,200 tons by accident. Such an incredible rise of the drug trade takes some serious planning and management, and the world witnesses the fruits of such labor through the chaos spread by the Washington-based drug lords.

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Che Guevara

Catalonia to continue independence bid with or without Spain's consent


RT
Wed, 27 Jul 2016 16:39 UTC
catalonia spain independence separatist movement
© Albert Gea / Reuters
People hold Catalan separatist flags known as "Esteladas" during a gathering to mark the Calatalonia day "Diada" in central Barcelona.
Catalonia says it is preparing to seek independence with or without Madrid's backing. The region's government says it would prefer to conduct cordial negotiations about a split, but that the lack of response from the Spanish capital is forcing its hand.

On Wednesday, the Catalan parliament supported the conclusions of a commission created to study the process of the region's secession from Spain, El Mundo reports. Among other things, the document stipulates a national referendum that is to decide the fate of Catalonia.

Those protesting against the vote included three members of the Parliament's Bureau, the governing body of the Catalan legislature, José María Espejo (Ciutadans), David Perez (PSC), and Joan Josep Nuet (CQP).

The vote, which goes against a recent constitutional court ruling, has been branded a "real blow to democracy" by the opposition groups.

Speaking exclusively to the Guardian, the president of Catalonia's parliament, Carme Forcadell, and foreign affairs minister Raul Romeva said the stance taken by Madrid has left the region with no other choice.

"The [Spanish state] has left us feeling that we just don't have an alternative," Romeva told the Guardian. "We have always said that we would have preferred a Scottish-type scenario, where we could negotiate with the state and hold a coordinated and democratic referendum. We keep talking to Madrid, but all we get back from them is an echo."
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