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US trying to 'embarrass' Pakistan with reinclusion in terror financing watchlist, says adviser to PM


Dawn
Tue, 27 Feb 2018 11:50 UTC
Flags of United States and Pakistan
Islamabad.- Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance Miftah Ismail has brushed off concerns that economic growth will suffer because of the country's re-inclusion on a terrorist financing watchlist, and lashed out at the United States for seeking to "embarrass" his country.

Washington last week persuaded member states of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to place Pakistan back on the "grey list" of nations with inadequate terrorist financing or money laundering controls. Pakistan was on the list for three years, until 2015.

The diplomatic setback has sparked anger in Islamabad against the US, which championed the motion against Pakistan at the FATF meeting in Paris. It represented another blow to the worsening relationship between the uneasy allies, who have long differed on how to combat militants waging war in Afghanistan.

It has also heightened concerns that Pakistan is becoming internationally isolated, and that its economy could suffer if global banking intuitions cut links with the nuclear-armed nation, or otherwise increase the cost of doing business with Pakistan.

Comment: The US loses an ally, Russia wins one:

Russia and Pakistan strengthen ties in new Cold War conditions

See also:

Saudi Arabia, China, Turkey oppose US efforts to place Pakistan on terror-financing list

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Vader

Creepy uncle Erdogan makes girl cry on stage telling her she might be "martyred" (VIDEO)

Alex Christoforou
The Duran
Mon, 26 Feb 2018 10:24 UTC
Erdogan crying girl
Turkey's Sultan Erdogan shows why he may very well be the most dangerous and unstable leader on the world stage, doing something that no demagogue dictator in the history of mankind has been filmed doing... making a little girl cry on stage during a speech by telling her she will be "martyred."

Zerohedge reports that in what has been slammed as a bizarre act of propaganda, Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan sparked online outrage when during a public address urging the nation to prepare for mobilization, he invited a small girl in military uniform onstage and promised the sobbing child she would receive state honors if she is killed.


Comment: It is a problem not just for children in the region, but for the whole of Syria, Turkey, and even the prospect of a global stable and peaceful future, that Erdogan is a bit unhinged. Public displays aside, he has been quite erratic in his behavior and strategy on the Syrian conflict. Hopefully Russian diplomacy will have a positive effect on this loose cannon. See:

The struggle for Afrin: Syria, Turkey, Russia and the Kurds

      Read More...
Map

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau's trip to India a "colossal failure" (Video)

Alex Christoforou
The Duran
Mon, 26 Feb 2018 23:01 UTC
Justin Trudeau India


Trudeau family criticized for overdoing it on their traditional Indian outfits.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's trip to India was a "colossal failure of diplomacy and leadership skills," says the senior assistant editor at the Times of India, in New Delhi, Aarti Tikoo Singh.

Comment: Social Justin Warrior Trudeau's moronic blunders continue to embarrass Canadians and drives home the point Canadian Conservatives were making during the run up to his election - that Trudeau is not ready to be Prime Minister. It's proving questionable that he'll ever be ready.

See also:

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Info

Russian MoD spokesman: Syrian civilians suffer most in areas controlled by US allies


Sputnik
Wed, 28 Feb 2018 09:39 UTC
Damaged buildings
© REUTERS/ Zohra Bensemra/File Photo
Damaged buildings are pictured during the fighting with Islamic State's fighters in the old city of Raqqa, Syria, August 19, 2017
The Russian Defense Ministry has commented on the situation in Syria's areas, controlled by the allies of the US-led coalition, after a senior American general accused Moscow of acting as "both arsonist and firefighter" in the Arab Republic.

Syrian civilians experience the most suffering in the areas controlled by the US-led international coalition and the armed opposition groups Washington is backing, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Wednesday.

"At the moment, the most difficult circumstances for the civilian population of Syria exist in the areas controlled by the US-led coalition and the groups of the armed opposition it is controlling," Konashenkov said.

According to the spokesman, the situation in these areas was not transparent to Damascus or to the international observers, despite the declared victory over Daesh terrorist group.

READ MORE: US-Led Coalition: No Value in Russia's Proposal for UN Commission on Raqqa

Comment: US military commander states the obvious - The Empire will stay in Syria after Daesh is defeated (by Russia)

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Play

Syria: What's really going on in East Ghouta?

Sarah Abed
The Rabbit Hole
Mon, 26 Feb 2018 00:00 UTC
The news on East Ghouta today is not telling us the truth
Syria hands gun
© politpuzzle.ru

Comment: See also:

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USA

Poll: Overwhelming majority of Americans hold dismal opinions of Congress, most say it primarily serves donors and elites


RT
Tue, 27 Feb 2018 04:27 UTC
US Congress approval rating
© Win McNamee / Reuters
Americans have long been disenchanted with Congressional politics. A glance at the Gallup Congress approval chart through the years will show that it rarely climbed over the 20 percent threshold since 2010.
The overwhelming majority of Americans, irrespective of party allegiance, holds a dismal opinion of Congress, a fresh poll shows. It found 89 percent of Democrats and 82 percent of Republicans disapprove of the legislature's work.

The new poll, published by the Associated Press-NORC Center on Monday, revealed that a total of 85 percent of Americans believe the Congress's job is below par. The attitude to the Republican-controlled legislature does not change much across party lines. The number of Democrats that held an unfavorable view of Congress, 89 percent, is only seven percentage points higher than that of Republicans, at 82 percent.

While the figures are a bit more reassuring when it comes to the members of Congress, the immediate representatives of those surveyed, they are still hardly anything to brag about.
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2 + 2 = 4

Two memos enter, one memo leaves: Why the Dems' memo fails to rebut the GOP's - and even confirms its main points

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Tue, 27 Feb 2018 20:01 UTC
Adam Schiff

Adam Schiff
The two pronged counter attack by the FBI and the Democrats against the allegations of misconduct and abuse on the part of the FBI set out in the GOP Memorandum continued in full force last week.

Firstly there was the flurry of further indictments from Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Though none of these indictments actually takes the Russiagate collusion case which Mueller is supposed to be investigating any further forward - the indictment against the 13 Russians who worked at the St. Petersburg based Internet Research Agency actually resulted in an admission that there was no collusion between the Russians who had been indicted and any member of the Trump campaign - such is the intensity of the commitment of the media to the Russiagate narrative that they were treated as big news, when in truth they are no such thing.

Secondly we have had the Memorandum the Democrats in the House Intelligence Committee put together in response to the GOP Memorandum which was published earlier.
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Arrow Down

Boris Johnson falls flat on his lying face over Saudi sponsorship of terrorism in Syria


RT
Tue, 27 Feb 2018 21:11 UTC
Syrian Red Crescent volunteer
© Samer Bouidani - Restrictions: * Russia Rights Only * / Global Look Press
A Syrian Red Crescent volunteer Eastern Ghouta, Syria, 20 February 2018
Boris Johnson failed to answer questions on Saudi Arabia's alleged links to the Islamist militia battling the Syrian government in Eastern Ghouta. The interview came after a UN-agreed temporary ceasefire was put in place.

Presenter Mishal Husain for BBC Radio 4's Today program pushed the foreign secretary on reports that British ally Saudi Arabia was "backing" the main militant group in the area. Husain asked: "The Saudis are reportedly backing the most prominent rebel group in Ghouta, Jaish al Islam. Have you talked to the Saudis about that?"

"We certainly do and one of the tragedies of this whole conflict as you will remember...," Johnson said, before aborting any attempted explanation and simply adding: "To be fair I don't think the Saudis would concede that they're involved in military action."


Comment: Of course Saudi Arabia is not going to concede that they are somewhat covertly sponsoring terrorism in Syria. That has nothing to do with the fact that everyone knows what they are up to!

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War Whore

US military commander states the obvious - The Empire will stay in Syria after Daesh is defeated (by Russia)


Sputnik
Tue, 27 Feb 2018 21:16 UTC
us military syria
© AFP 2018/ DELIL SOULEIMAN
US forces deployed in Syria will remain in the country after Daesh defeat (outlawed in Russia) to ensure the terror group does not reemerge and proceed with a political resolution of the conflict, Central Command (CENTCOM) commander Gen. Joseph Votel said in a congressional testimony on Tuesday.

"When we have completed our mission here in Syria, it involves not only kicking ISIS [Daesh] out of the areas which they occupied, but also includes consolidation of gains and the stability that allows us to move forward with a political resolution," Votel told the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee.

Votel confirmed that the reason for the US military being in Syria is to defeat Daesh.

"The principal thing will be to ensure that ISIS [Daesh] does not reemerge."


Comment: If the US Empire does not want Daesh to reemerge, they should stop funding, training and arming terrorists as part of their geoplitical maneuverings. It's that simple.

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Light Sabers

Syrian govt. forces reportedly attacked by US-led warplanes

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Mon, 26 Feb 2018 21:11 UTC
us strike syria
The last time the US-led coalition fighting ISIS in Syria conducted air and artillery strikes against pro-regime forces in Syria, in the oil-rich Deir Ezzor region, was on Feb. 7, when hundreds of pro-regime fighters were killed, the largest number of "pro-regime" casualties inflicted by the US-led coalition in one attack. The coalition described its action as carried out in "self defense", while the Syrian state news agency SANA described the action as an "aggression" by the coalition against "popular forces" who were fighting ISIS and the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.

In a bombshell update one week later, it was revealed that among the casualties were hundreds of Russian mercenaries working on behalf of the Assad regime, and hired by the Wagner PMC (Private Military Group) - a shadowy organization often referred to as Russia's answer to Blackwater. Adding to the mystery, is that the Wagner Group is believed to be funded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a rich businessman close to President Vladimir Putin and also known as "Putin's Chef." Prigozhin was recently sanctioned by the US due to his links to the eastern Ukraine separatists.

Unnamed US intelligence sources quoted by the Washington Post said Prigozhin was in close contact with the Kremlin in the run-up to the Feb 7 assault on the Syrian Democratic Forces base in Deir Ezzor region.
      Read More...
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