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US media: DoD mulls keeping 1K troops in Syria while Pentagon denies the report


Sputnik
Mon, 18 Mar 2019 03:50 UTC
US troops
© AFP 2018/Ahmad al-Rubay
A hundred US troops arrive in Northeastern Syria
The US military are planning to keep nearly 1,000 troops in Syria, the US-based media reported on Sunday, citing US officials.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Washington plans to continue supporting Kurdish forces in Syria despite the threats from Ankara to launch a military operation against the Kurds in northern Syria. Sources told the media outlet that these plans require to keep nearly half of the current US military contingent in the country.

However, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford denied the accuracy of the media report.


According to the Pentagon, "there has been no change to the plan announced in February" and the US continues to implement the president's order to pull out US forces from Syria.

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Star of David

Bennett's New Right launches election campaign aimed to defeat High Court, Hamas

Jacob Magid
Times of Israel
Sun, 17 Mar 2019 04:16 UTC
Ayelet Shaked/Naftali Bennett
© Flash90
The New Right party co-leaders Ayelet Shaked and Naftali Bennett hold a press conference in Tel Aviv on March 17, 2019.
The New Right Party led by Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked launched a new campaign Sunday ahead of the upcoming election, vowing to defeat both the Hamas terror group and the High Court of Justice.

"My mission and that of Ayelet Shaked is clear: to release the IDF from the High Court of Justice so that the IDF can defeat Hamas," Bennett said at a press conference at Tel Aviv's Beit Sokolov. In his remarks, Bennett referenced the Sunday morning terror shootings at a pair of junctions in the northern West Bank, in which an Israeli man was killed and two others were wounded.

"Specifically on days like today when it's as difficult as ever to admit it, I will: when soldiers see a terrorist they think five times before they open fire on him because they fear they will be tried in court," the New Right leader charged.

Following the attack, initial reports indicated that Israelis troops at the Ariel Junction had failed to fire at the assailant after he assaulted a soldier and snatched the soldier's rifle, then fired at several passing vehicles before driving away with one of them.

The education minister and New Right co-leader asserted, "The time has come to honestly state that the High Court of Justice is tying the hands of IDF soldiers who are trying to defeat terror."

Comment: See also:

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Arrow Down

UN is toothless on the issue of sanctions, leaves Venezuela vulnerable to instability


21st Century Wire
Sat, 09 Mar 2019 00:00 UTC
MaduroTrumpGuaido
© unknown
Venezuela President Maduro • US President Trump • Juan Guaido
According to 21WIRE editor Patrick Henningsen, the fact that Juan Guaido is allowed to roam free even after openly plotting a military coup and stealing Venezuelan state assets with the help of Washington - will actually help the Maduro government in its public relations battle in the short-term. But how long can Caracas tolerate the open sedition being coordinated by Washington? How long can Venezuela withstand the economic pressure being place on it?

Washington's self-proclaimed "interim president" of Venezuela, Juan Guaido, claims that Venezuela's recent expulsion of the German ambassador Daniel Kreiner, is a 'threat against Germany,' and that Venezuela lives under a "dictatorship" - and yet when Guaido, an operative working on behalf of the US government, eventually returned to Caracas - he was not arrested by the Maduro government which belies claims made by Guaido and the Trump Administration.

Comment: See also:

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Network

Russia's Crimea to become part of China's new Silk Road, despite Western sanctions


RT
Mon, 18 Mar 2019 10:13 UTC
crimea bridge
© Reuters / Pavel Rebrov
Road-and-rail bridge connecting Russian mainland with the Crimean peninsula
Private businesses in China are interested in involving Russia's Crimea in the implementation of projects under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Beijing's development & investment project in 152 countries on five continents.

That's according to the head of the association of Chinese compatriots on the peninsula, Ge Zhili. "Our organization is bolstering cooperation ties, exchanges and friendly contacts with the Crimean society," he said at an event dedicated to the fifth anniversary of Crimea's reunification with Russia, which was held in the Russian Embassy in Beijing on Monday.

The official explained that the association he leads wants "to help people understand what Crimea is, establish reliable relations with the peninsula, and implement joint private projects under the Belt and Road Initiative."

Comment: Ukraine's absence from the project speaks volumes about the damning impact the US-backed coup has had on the potential prosperity of the country:

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Green Light

Putin launches 2 new power stations in Crimea on anniversary of reunification with Russia


RT
Mon, 18 Mar 2019 12:58 UTC
putin power station crimea
Russian President Vladimir Putin has launched new power stations in Crimea as the region marks the fifth anniversary of reunification with Russia. The facilities will boost the peninsula's energy independence.

The Russian president came to the Balaklava power station, developed by Russian state-run conglomerate Rostec, in the city of Sevastopol on Monday to see the station start work at full capacity.

Putin also observed the opening of another facility in Simferopol and a substation in the Taman area, located across the Kerch Strait, via a video conference.


Comment: The improvement in Crimea is stark when compared with how dire life for most Ukrainians has become:

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NewsReal #30: Christchurch Massacre - Don't Fall For The Manipulation


Sott.net
Mon, 18 Mar 2019 22:59 UTC
NewsReal terror shooting christchurch
Whenever a horrific terror attack or mass shooting occurs, it is of course proper to mourn or at least acknowledge the victims and their loved ones. The 50 innocent people killed at two mosques in Christchurch under a hail of bullets last Friday deserve the respectful treatment they have been afforded in supportive media coverage since then, both in New Zealand and internationally.

What is entirely missing, however, from all media accounts, is a proper accounting of what took place in the city of Christchurch that afternoon. Eyewitness statements and police reports of multiple armed men, arrested suspects, and defused bombs at diverse locations in the city have simply been 'dropped' from media coverage, replaced with a narrative focusing on one sole actor, Australian Brenton Tarrant.

The sadistic psychopath who filmed his part in the events is undoubtedly a perpetrator, but was he the sole perpetrator?

In this NewsReal, Joe and Niall discuss the bloody events in Christchurch and point to some of the evidence that indicates Tarrant was not acting alone. They also discuss why it's important to consider this and similar events in the context of organized criminal conspiracies: the fractious fallout inflames and reinforces divisions in society globally.

If this is the intention not just of the 'lone gunman', but of his powerful backers, then it behooves us to know when we are being manipulated...


Running Time: 01:42:04

Download: MP3 - 93.4 MB

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Bad Guys

Attempt to prosecute Assad at ICC is aimed at undermining Syrian peace process

John Laughland
RT
Mon, 18 Mar 2019 20:23 UTC
anti assad demonstration ICC offices
© REUTERS/Michael Kooren
A man wearing a mask of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad demonstrates against Assad in front of the ICC offices in The Hague
The announcement that "a group of Syrian refugees and their London lawyers" have found "a neat legal trick" to press for an indictment against Syrian President Bashar Assad by the International Criminal Court demonstrates, yet again, the dangerous corruption of international justice, against which I have been warning for over a decade.

The Syrian war is nearly over, thanks to the military successes of the Syrian army and its Russian and Iranian allies. Exhaustion on both sides has probably helped. Diplomatic overtures have started to re-integrate Syria into the international system, starting at the regional level: the United Arab Emirates have re-opened their embassy in Damascus; the Sudanese president, Assad's near namesake, Omar Al-Bashir, has visited Syria, as have senior Egyptian officials; Syrian officials have attended pan-Arab summits; even Israel is maintaining its dialogue with Russia over Syria. In short, the situation is being slowly normalised as Syria herself embarks on the painful search for internal peace.
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Handcuffs

US Supreme Court to rule on identity fraud committed by illegal immigrants

Greg Stohr
Bloomberg
Mon, 18 Mar 2019 19:44 UTC
social security theft
The U.S. Supreme Court will consider letting states prosecute undocumented immigrants for identity theft if they use someone else's Social Security number to apply for a job, agreeing to take up what could be a polarizing fight.

Heeding calls from Kansas and the Trump administration, the justices said they'll decide whether the Kansas Supreme Court was right to say that only the federal government has the power under U.S. immigration law to press those types of prosecutions.

A victory for Kansas would give states a new tool for battling illegal immigration, letting them be more aggressive on an issue handled primarily at the federal level. The court will hear the case during the nine-month termthat starts in October.

Kansas says the dispute is more about identity theft than illegal immigration. The state is trying to reinstate the convictions of three men who got restaurant jobs using another person's Social Security number.
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Chart Bar

Brexit could be 'terrific' for emerging markets... if it ever happens

Sam Meredith
CNBC
Mon, 18 Mar 2019 19:32 UTC
Theresa May
© Reuters TV via REUTERS
Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May speaks in Parliament, following the vote on Brexit in London, Britain, March 13, 2019, in this screen grab taken from video.
The prospect of Britain leaving the European Union without a Withdrawal Agreement over the coming days could be "terrific" for emerging markets, according to veteran fund manager Mark Mobius.

His comments come as British Prime Minister Theresa May considers whether to put her embattled Brexit deal before Parliament for the third time.

May has urged U.K. lawmakers to make an "honourable compromise" on her twice-rejected Brexit deal, with less than 12 days to go before the world's fifth-largest economy is set to leave the bloc.

"If the U.K. says: 'Look, we are free trade. Everybody can come into our country, everybody can trade free of problems,' then (Brexit) is going to be terrific," Mark Mobius, founding partner at Mobius Capital Partners, told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" on Monday.
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Eagle

Pompeo perpetuates lies about Russia invading Ukraine in bid to woo US oil industry

The Duran
Seraphim Hanisch
Mon, 18 Mar 2019 00:00 UTC
Pompeo
Secretary Pompeo displayed either stunning ignorance or a mass-attack of propaganda about what must be the most invisible war in history.

After the 2014 Maidan revolution and the subsequent secessions of Lugansk and Donetsk in Ukraine, and after the rejoining of Crimea with its original nation of Russia, the Western media went on a campaign to prove the Russia is (/ was / was about to / had already / might / was thinking about / was planning to ... etc.) invade Ukraine. For the next year or so, about every two weeks, internet news sources like Yahoo! News showed viewers pictures of tanks, box trucks and convoys to "prove" that the invasion was underway (or any of the other statuses confirming the possibilities above stated.) This information was doubtless provided to US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo.
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