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Psychopathic Biden sez: 'Moscow should return Crimea to Ukraine'


PressTV
Tue, 08 Dec 2015 00:30 UTC
Biden and Poroshenko
© AFP
US Vice President Joe Biden gestures, flanked by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, as they deliver a statement on the results of talks in Kiev on December 7, 2015.

US Vice President Joe Biden says Russia should stick to a peace agreement on Ukraine and return the Black Sea Crimea peninsula to its western neighbor.

Biden made the comment during his latest trip to Ukraine where he told Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko that "the US stands firmly with the people of Ukraine in the face of continued, I emphasize, continued aggression from Russia and Russian-backed separatists."

Crimea declared independence from Ukraine on March 17, 2014 and formally applied to become part of Russia following a referendum a day earlier, in which 96.8 percent of participants voted in favor of the secession. The voter turnout in the referendum stood at 83.1 percent.

Comment: The 'return of Crimea to Kiev' isn't mentioned in the Minsk Accords.

If anything, Washington needs to return Kiev to Moscow.

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Bad Guys

Feeding the monster: US approves $70 million Joint Direct Attack Munitions package for Turkey


Sputnik
Tue, 08 Dec 2015 00:22 UTC
Turkish soldiers
© AFP 2015/ OZAN KOSE
The US government has authorized the sale of a Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) package to Turkey worth tens of millions of dollars to boost Ankara's air power, the US State Department's Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a press release.

This sale comes after Turkey deployed 150 troops to Iraq's northern Nineveh province on Friday to allegedly give training to Kurdish Peshmerga fighters.

"The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to Turkey for Joint Direct Attack Munitions and associated equipment, parts and logistical support for an estimated cost of $70 million," the release stated on Monday.
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Bad Guys

Yes, it's all about the oil... Again: Syria, the ultimate pipeline war

Pepe Escobar
Strategic Culture Foundation
Mon, 07 Dec 2015 22:36 UTC
Syria gas pipelines
© n/a
Syria is an energy war. With the heart of the matter featuring a vicious geopolitical competition between two proposed gas pipelines, it is the ultimate Pipelinestan war, the term I coined long ago for the 21st century imperial energy battlefields.

It all started in 2009, when Qatar proposed to Damascus the construction of a pipeline from its own North Field - contiguous with the South Pars field, which belongs to Iran - traversing Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria all the way to Turkey, to supply the EU.

Damascus, instead, chose in 2010 to privilege a competing project, the $10 billion Iran-Iraq-Syria, also know as 'Islamic pipeline'. The deal was formally announced in July 2011, when the Syrian tragedy was already in motion. In 2012, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed with Iran.

Until then, Syria was dismissed, geo-strategically, as not having as much oil and gas compared to the GCC petrodollar club. But insiders already knew about its importance as a regional energy corridor. Later on, this was enhanced with the discovery of serious offshore oil and gas potential.


Comment: Not to mention the recent discovery of huge volumes of oil under the Golan Heights. Land illegally occupied by Israel:

Iran for its part is an established oil and gas powerhouse. Persistent rumblings in Brussels - still unable to come up with a unified European energy policy after over 10 years - did account for barely contained excitement over the Islamic pipeline; that would be the ideal strategy to diversify from Gazprom. But Iran was under US and EU nuclear-related sanctions.

That ended up turning into a key strategic reason, at least for the Europeans, for a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear dossier; a 'rehabilitated' (to the West) Iran is able to become a key source of energy to the EU.

Yet, from the point of view of Washington, a geostrategic problem lingered: how to break the Tehran-Damascus alliance. And ultimately, how to break the Tehran-Moscow alliance.
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Info

French aircraft carrier takes over anti-ISIL coalition naval command from US Navy


Sputnik
Mon, 07 Dec 2015 22:36 UTC
France’s aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle
© REUTERS/ Jean-Paul Pelissie
France's aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle has taken command of the US Navy's Central Command Task Force 50, which leads the international coalition's naval strike operations against the Islamic State, the US Navy announced in a statement on Monday.

France has participated in the US-led coalition against the Islamic State since 2014.

"Charles de Gaulle's presence in the region signals the return of carrier-based naval aviation to the fight against ISIL [Islamic State]," the statement said. "The carrier and embarked air wing, along with the other ships in her battle group, will support strike operations over Iraq and Syria."

Comment: Remember Hollande has the aircraft carrier moving to the Persian Gulf. Still no mention of coordination with Russia.

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Arrow Down

Instead of ISIS, U.S.-backed rebels and Turkish-backed rebels are fighting each other in Northern Syria

Jason Ditz
Anti War
Sun, 06 Dec 2015 22:03 UTC
Levant Front Fights Kurds With ISIS Waiting in the Wings
Syrian rebels
© AFP
Syrian rebels
In what everyone expected would boil down to a proxy war with Russia, US and Turkish officials have been throwing ever-growing numbers of weapons at their favorite rebel factions, nominally bulking them up against ISIS, but also giving them weapons meant to be used against the Syrian military itself.

Proving that nobody can predict just how much these schemes are going to backfire, however, the reports out of northern Syria today suggest that, instead of fighting Russia, or ISIS, or the Assad government, the US-backed factions and the Turkish-backed factions are just fighting one another.

Turkey's been throwing arms at the "Levant Front" faction, which includes Free Syrian Army (FSA) wings in Idlib and Homs, along with groups like al-Qaeda and Ahrar al-Sham. The US, by contrast, has been heavily arming the Kurdish YPG, who Turkey views as "terrorists."

So it perhaps was unsurprising that groups newly awash in Turkish weapons are going after the Kurdish group, with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reporting the Levant Front is getting "new support, which is coming in continuously from Turkey."

The Turkish allies, however, appear aware that they're not supposed to be fighting US-backed groups, and presented the YPG, the group that's receiving more US aid than anyone else in Syria, as being backed by "Russian airstrikes" in the fighting.

The winner in all this fighting is likely to be ISIS, as they are also moving forces into the same area, and seem to be planning to just pick up the pieces of whichever faction ultimately wins this battle, and claim the valuable border-crossing.


Comment: That will make them easier for Russia to find and obliterate.


Comment: Russian Defense Ministry presents evidence of Turkey's role in ISIS' oil trade

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Stop

You cannot pass! Flow of Turkish troops into Iraq stops due to Bagdad ultimatum


Press TV
Sun, 06 Dec 2015 20:57 UTC
Erdogan hands up
© Wardoon.net
Turkey says it will halt further military interventions in northern Iraq for the time being following an ultimatum by Iraq.

Ankara announced that it will cease transferring troops to Daesh-controlled areas near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul after Baghdad threatened to appeal to the UN over the troop deployments on Sunday, Reuters reported.

"No further forces will be deployed to Bashiqa until concerns of the Iraqi government are overcome," read a letter sent to Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi by his Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Davutoglu.

Earlier in the day, the Iraqi premier warned that if Ankara does not withdraw its troops within 48 hours, Iraq may turn to the UN security council.

He noted that the deployment had been carried out without the approval or knowledge of the Iraqi government and was a violation of the country's national sovereignty.

On Thursday, Turkey deployed hundreds of troops to the Bashiqa region to allegedly to train Iraqi troops for the battle against the Daesh Takfiri terrorists who are in control in Mosul.

Ankara's commitment to the fight against Daesh has been repeatedly questioned as it has been accused of using the campaign as a cover to attack the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants.

Turkey has also been implicated in Daesh sale of Syrian oil, which is reportedly tramsferred through the Turkish border.

The oil transfer was particularly highlighted when Russian authorities opened up about it in the wake of downing of a Russian jet by the Turkish air force.
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Chess

Turkey's belligerence signals a new phase in Russia's fight against Daesh - Russian military expert


Sputnik
Mon, 07 Dec 2015 19:33 UTC
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi
© Kirill Kudryavtsev / Reuters
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said that the deployment of Turkish troops in Iraq occurred without the consent of Iraqi leadership and violates the sovereignty of the country. According to military expert Vladimir Bogatyrev, the move was coordinated with the US and is a "provocation".

On Friday, media reported that up to 150 Turkish soldiers had entered northern Iraq's Nineveh province. On Monday, their number reached 900 servicemen, the province's Governor Nawfal Akub told Sputnik.

The move was allegedly aimed to provide training to Kurdish Peshmerga fighters. However, the Iraqi authorities stated that the deployment of Turkish forces took place without official consent and constitutes a violation of the country's sovereignty.

Comment: This new phase is when the real terrorists begin showing their hands. As Putin said:
"We all know why [this] happened. We know who decided to oust the unwanted regimes and brutally impose their own rules... They stirred up trouble, destroyed the countries' statehood, set people against each other, and then "washed their hands", as we say in Russia, thus opening the way to radical activists, extremists and terrorists."
Also see:

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Chess

Turkey plans on installing anti-aircraft missiles along Syrian Border


Sputnik
Mon, 07 Dec 2015 18:47 UTC
Russia airstrikes
© Unknown
Ankara launched a new round of negotiations with the Franco-Italian concern Eurosam to install anti-missile systems on the border with Syria due to the worsening situation, a Turkish newspaper reported.

The Turkish authorities in connection with the deteriorating situation on the border with Syria have decided to install anti-aircraft missiles (SAMs) on the border. This decision has launched a new round of negotiations with the Franco-Italian concern Eurosam, newspaper Aksam reported on Monday.

Previously, Turkey confirmed the cancellation of an international tender for the production of components for the Turkish missile defense system (NMD) worth $ 3.4 billion in connection with the decision to develop a national missile defense system project.

Comment: With their blatant invasion of Iraq and their acts of war committed against Russia, it's clear that Turkey has gone down the tubes along with the rest of NATO. Also see:

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War Whore

Weapons manufacturers celebrate their latest windfall from mass murder and terrorism

John Vibes
The Free Thought Project
Mon, 07 Dec 2015 00:00 UTC
arms manufacturers, lobbying war, defense contractors
Major defense contractors celebrate mass murder and terrorism, boasting that it is good for their bottom lines.

At a Credit Suisse conference in West Palm Beach this week, representatives from major defense contractors spoke to their investors about how well business was going in these times of global war. Representatives from top firms like Raytheon, Oshkosh, and Lockheed Martin were in attendance, in somewhat of a celebration of the escalating conflict in the middle east and Africa.

Lockheed Martin Executive Vice President Bruce Tanner gave a speech openly praising the "indirect" benefits that defense contractors would see as a result of the war in Syria. A portion of his speech was captured on audio by someone inside and shared widely on the internet hours after the conference.

In the audio that was captured, Tanner discussed the many recent troubles in the Middle East, with an escalation of conflict in Syria and Turkey. He pointed out how these conflicts would lead to increased sales for their company.

Tanner said that the increased conflict would cause "an intangible lift because of the dynamics of that environment and our products in theater."

Comment:

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2 + 2 = 4

Turkey's President Erdoğan is 'godfather of terrorism' - German politician


Sputnik
Mon, 07 Dec 2015 18:39 UTC
Erdogan
© REUTERS/ Umit Bektas
During an interview with Spiegel, leader of Germany's Left Party Sahra Wagenknecht criticized the Turkish President and said that the United States is hampering the fight against terrorism to pursue its own interests.

Commenting on the situation with the terrorist threat in the Middle East, the German politician called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan the "godfather of terrorism."

Wagenknecht expressed regrets that the Turkish leader does not stop secretly supporting terrorism and is refusing to close the Turkish border with Syria.

Comment: Erdoğan has definitely been outed as an opportunistic thug. Check out:
What is Erdogan's game plan in Syria and Iraq?

The - predictable - reaction across the West over the Russian Defense Ministry's very serious denunciation of Ankara embedded with ISIS/ISIL/Daesh still begs to be regarded as no less than astonishing.

The actual evidence is not even discussed by Western corporate media. It's all dismissed as "Russia claims..." Yet not only Sultan Erdogan has been systematically unmasked as a serial liar; the accumulating evidence points to Ankara both as an indirect ally and shady sponsor of the fake "Caliphate".

Whatever the Atlanticists can come up with to "excuse" the Erdogan system, at least the devastating PR debacle for the "democratic West" is now a fact of life all across the Global South.


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