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Footprints

Idlib, Syria: Assad visits frontline, vows to retake all Syrian land (photos)


RT
Wed, 23 Oct 2019 00:36 UTC
Assad and troops
© Facebook/SyrianPresidencySyrian President Bashar Assad and Syrian troops
Syrian President Bashar Assad has visited the frontline in the Idlib province - the last major stronghold of the militants. He then sent a clear message to Ankara that the Damascus intends to regain all of its land.

Assad made the surprise visit to the frontline on Tuesday. He met the troops west of the town of Khan Sheikhoun, recently liberated by the Syrian Arab Army.
Assad and troops
© Facebook/SyrianPresidency
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Footprints

Despite vows to end 'endless wars,' about 200K US troops remain deployed around the globe


The Straits Times
Tue, 22 Oct 2019 09:11 UTC
soldier training
© New York Times
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly promised to end what he calls America's "endless wars", fulfilling a promise he made during the campaign.

No wars have ended, though, and more troops have deployed to the Middle East in recent months than have come home. Mr Trump is not so much ending wars, as he is moving troops from one conflict to another.

Tens of thousands of US troops remain deployed all over the world, some in war zones such as Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq and - even still - Syria. And the United States maintains even more troops overseas in large legacy missions far from the wars following the Sept 11 attacks, in such allied lands as Germany, South Korea and Japan.

Although deployment numbers fluctuate daily, based on the needs of commanders, shifting missions and the military's ability to shift large numbers of personnel by transport planes and warships, a rough estimate is that 200,000 troops are deployed overseas today.
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Bulb

Jordan's King Abdullah rejects Pelosi and Schiff by endorsing Trumps withdrawal from Syria

Tore
Loomered
Wed, 23 Oct 2019 18:56 UTC
King Abdullah Pelosi
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and disgraced lying Congressman Adam Schiff met with King Abdullah of Jordan, only to find out that the King of Jordan agrees with President Trump's Syria withdrawal, as well as his support for maintaining the Syrian border, Assad's government, and Russia's reinforcement. I guess they are not ready for prime time players.

This last minute fishing expedition had two stops: Jordan to see a King, and Afghanistan to meet with the Taliban. This alleged bipartisan delegation lead by Pelosi and Schiff is really not bipartisan. Thornberry is the only Republican representative that joined the Pelosi - Schiff fishing expedition. He is not running for re-election. Like all compromised FAKE GOP, corrupt RINOs, he decided to step down rather than be called out.
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Bulb

Bernie Sanders pledges to end practice of prosecuting whistleblowers under Espionage Act

Ryan Grim
The Intercept
Tue, 22 Oct 2019 18:57 UTC
whistle
© Soohee Cho/The Intercept, Getty Image
As president, Bernie Sanders would end the practice of using the controversial Espionage Act to prosecute government whistleblowers, the Vermont senator told The Intercept in an interview on Saturday ahead of a major rally in New York.

The century-old law had largely gone out of fashion until it was deployed heavily by the Obama administration, which prosecuted eight people accused of leaking to the media under the Espionage Act, more than all previous presidents combined. President Donald Trump is on pace to break Barack Obama's record if he gets a second term: He has prosecuted eight such whistleblowers, five of them using the Espionage Act, according to the Press Freedom Tracker.

Asked if it is appropriate to prosecute whistleblowers using the Espionage Act, Sanders said, "Of course not."
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Handcuffs

Best of the Web: John Pilger interview with RT UK: British judge's treatment of Assange 'disgraceful, a 1950s showtrial'


RT
Wed, 23 Oct 2019 18:38 UTC
assange court
© Julia QuenzlerGulag Britannia
Veteran British journalist John Pilger has blasted the "atrocious" and "appalling" treatment of Julian Assange by a judge who decided this week to reject the whistleblower's request to delay his upcoming US extradition hearing.

"To say it is surreal is not enough, it is simply appalling," Pilger, who was present in the courtroom on Monday, told RT's Going Underground. Pilger accused District Judge Vanessa Baraitser of using "disgraceful" and "dictatorial gestures" toward Assange and said she was clearly biased in favor of the attorney acting on behalf of the US government.

"Her bias was incandescent," Pilger said, adding: "I've never seen anything like this. It belonged in a show trial in the 1950s... Moscow, Prague, you name it."

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Chess

Russian PM Medvedev: Russia's response to NATO build-up could be both political, military


Iran Daily
Sat, 19 Oct 2019 18:50 UTC
Medvedev
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev
Russia views with alarm NATO's expansion toward its western border and it will make not only a political response but a military one as well if need be, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has said.

In an interview with the Serbian newspaper Vecernje Novosti, the Russian official said NATO's maneuver toward Russia's border is a threat to its "national security," Tass news agency reported on Saturday, Presstv Reported.

"We are a large country, we are a nuclear state, and the desire to place NATO bases in our immediate vicinity obviously cannot fill us with positive emotions," Medvedev said.
"We have always responded and will continue to respond to this, both politically and in a military sense."
The Russian prime minister further warned NATO to think twice before adding certain countries into the alliance. He said "all attempts to draw into NATO countries that have internal political tensions are very dangerous" and fraught with very "serious consequences."
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Fire

Hong Kong officially kills controversial extradition bill while China 'plans to replace Carrie Lam'

Vincent Wood
The Independent
Wed, 23 Oct 2019 17:07 UTC
HOng Kong protests
© GettyProtesters set fire outside a Causeway Bay Mass Rapid Transit (MTR) station in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong authorities have formally withdrawn the unpopular extradition bill that sparked a months-long protest movement.

The semi-autonomous province's leader, Carrie Lam, had initially proposed the bill in February to resolve a case involving a man wanted for murder in Taiwan who could not be sent to face charges because there was no extradition agreement.

However the proposals sparked widespread fears that residents would be at risk of being sent to mainland China to face the state's Communist Party-controlled courts - prompting protests that have engulfed the territory between citizens and the police.

Now, after assurances from Ms Lam in September that the bill would be scrapped in the next meeting of the state's legislative council, it has been formally withdrawn by secretary for security John Lee.

Comment:

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Eagle

US officials ignored Trump on Syria, now we're paying the price

Aaron Stein
War on the Rocks
Tue, 22 Oct 2019 16:53 UTC
turkish soldier flag
© Anadolu Agency / Arif Hüdaverdi Yaman
Republicans, Democrats, and European leaders are united in their outrage with President Donald Trump. This time, it is for his effective endorsement of a Turkish invasion of northeastern Syria to put a boot on the neck of Kurdish militants who fought with the United States to defeat the Islamic State.

But this anger is misplaced. Trump has been clear about his intentions in Syria. As he told the world in April 2018, after years of fighting foreign wars, in his view it was time for the United States to withdraw from Syria, passing responsibility for the mission to hold territory taken from the Islamic State to regional states. I was listening, and wrote in War on the Rocks that the longer the president's own staff continued to treat the world's most powerful man like an infant, the more likely it became that he would simply order a hasty withdrawal. This chaotic U.S. exit from Syria was obviously coming, for anyone paying attention to the opinion of the man who matters most in the United States: the president.

Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reached a ceasefire agreement with Turkey, which grants its core demand of a 32-kilometer "safe zone" between the towns of Ras al Ayn and Tel Abyad. But it remains outrageous that senior U.S. officials found themselves in the position of having to travel to Turkey to negotiate under pressure while Turkish troops remained on the offensive in Syria. For over a year, it was obvious Trump wanted to leave Syria and, as I wrote in April 2018, Trump "has made his preferences for U.S. policy in the Middle East clear" and it was time "for his national security staff to listen to him and to devise a sequential drawdown policy that fits with the spirit of the president's demands, but takes deliberate and uncomfortable steps to protect U.S. interests." This did not happen.

Rather than plan and begin to implement a coordinated withdrawal, the president's appointed envoy for Syria and the Department of Defense worked to ensure Washington could stay, and ignored the reality that Trump would eventually order an American withdrawal. Such delusions have not served the United States and its friends well.
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Bullseye

It's their JOB! MPs shouldn't complain about having no time to read Brexit bill

Jonathan Arnott
RT
Tue, 22 Oct 2019 16:56 UTC
uk mps
© AFP / HO / PRU
MPs claim they haven't got time to read the Brexit Withdrawal Bill. As a former legislator myself, here's why I have little sympathy for their complaints.

The latest delaying tactic in the Brexit saga is MPs complaining that they don't have enough time to read the 115-page Withdrawal Agreement Bill. I've seen people jumping on the bandwagon, suggesting that we want MPs to be 'ordinary people', but then we expect them to scrutinize complex legislation in a short period of time, working overnight.

Anyone saying that is probably a little out of touch with everyday life. As a former teacher, I'm acutely aware of the stress felt by teachers when they know there's an Ofsted inspection coming the next day. Our police have had leave cancelled to deal with Extinction Rebellion protestors, having to work very long hours. At short notice, medical professionals will often have to work incredibly long hours at a high level of concentration. Students putting together dissertations for a degree, small business owners getting their tax returns sorted, salespeople meeting targets - we all have times when something goes wrong.
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No Entry

Iraq turns to UN to kick out unauthorized US troops who came in from Syria


RT
Wed, 23 Oct 2019 16:35 UTC
esper
© REUTERS / Erin Scott
The Iraqi government is seeking international help after US troops withdrawing from Syria entered western Iraq without authorization, with Baghdad now taking legal action against the uninvited presence.

Baghdad did not give permission for US forces to stay in Iraq, Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi reaffirmed on Wednesday.
We ask the international community and the United Nations to perform their roles in this matter.
US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Tuesday that US troops transiting from Syria would use Iraq to make preparations to go home and assured that the aim is not to "stay in Iraq interminably." Esper did not specify how long the American troops would be staying.

Washington removed its troops from northern Syria on foot of a Turkish offensive against Kurdish militias in the region, who Ankara regard as terrorists.

Comment: Secretary of Defense Esper made an unannounced visit to Iraq, presumably to deal with the fallout of the unannounced arrival of US troops Iraq didn't ask for:
Pentagon Chief Mark Esper has been paying unofficial visits to Middle Eastern countries since 18 October. He will reportedly get updates on the current operations in the region and then will head to the NATO ministry in Brussels where he will meet with his Turkish counterparts and discuss the campaign to defeat the Daesh terrorist group.

Esper has arrived in Baghdad for meetings with his Iraqi counterpart and the prime minister Adel Abdul Mahdi to discuss matters of mutual concern in the region, Reuters reported.

The counterparts will also reportedly discuss the partial withdrawal of US troops from Syria and the role Iraq will play in it.

​Esper earlier stated that around 1,000 US soldiers, withdrawn from Syria after the beginning of Turkey's offensive there, would head for western Iraq.

"We're still in the early stages of withdrawal from northeast Syria. It will take weeks, not days, and we're... in many ways only days into the withdrawal. The aim is to pull our soldiers out and eventually get them back home", Esper said.

He added that the weeks needed for US forces to leave Syria left plenty of time for Washington and Baghdad to work out the details of a withdrawal from Iraq.


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