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As Saif Islam Gaddafi calls for Libyan elections ASAP, what is to be Russia's role?

Paul Antonopoulos
FRN
Mon, 14 Jan 2019 00:00 UTC
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi
© Darren Bull/CNNSaif al-Islam Gaddafi
The son of former Libyan leader and martyr Muammar Gaddafi overthrown in 2011, Saif Islam Gaddafi has pleaded for a presidential vote in the state as soon as possible, criticizing delays in the UN proposal to hold the election at a later time.

"The only solution is elections: if not, you maintain the current political situation that is not in the interest of the Libyan people," Saif Islam's aide said in the statement.

Although a recent domestic political summit in Libya, based in Italy last autumn, aims to hold elections in the first half of 2019, UN ambassador to Libya Ghassan Salame later commented that the presidential election may not happen so soon. It is necessary to hold first the parliamentary elections and then a referendum on the Constitution, which must precede the long awaited presidential vote.

At the end of last year, Saif Islam Gaddafi sent a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin via Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov in which he laid out plans for resolving the national reconciliation and impasse of Libya. A member of the Saif Islam Gaddafi political team, Muhammad Qailushia said at the time that Saif had not decided whether to contest in the election.

Bogdanov, meanwhile, announced Russia's willingness to mediate dialogue between political forces wishing to participate in the Libyan elections. The deputy minister said he believed that no one should be deprived of the right to run for the Libyan presidency and that Saif should be part of the national political process.

Comment: A unified and strong Libya is needed to defend against terrorist influx and increasing chaos within the country. Time is not on Libya's side.

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Arrow Up

Syrian Kurds continue fighting Daesh, capture 1,000 militants


Sputnik
Mon, 14 Jan 2019 14:20 UTC
Kurd fighters
© AFPKurd Fighters in Syria
The Syrian Kurds continue to fight the Daesh terrorist group with the help of the US-led international coalition in Syria and are currently storming the city of Hajin, an official representative of the Syrian Kurds in Moscow, Rshad Bienaf, told Sputnik on Monday.
"The latest site where the fighting is in progress is the neighbourhood of the city of Hajin in Deir ez-Zor province. The most professional Daesh fighters remain there, with the heaviest fighting taking place in the area. The movement forward through the territory is slow. The militants send women and children to fight", Bienaf said.
According to Bienaf, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) Kurdish militia are fighting in the streets, while the international coalition assists them by conducting airstrikes.

Some parts of Hajin have already been liberated, and over 1,000 jihadists are now being held captive by the SDF, according to Bienaf.
"The SDF are holding prisoner Daesh terrorists who came to Syria from nearly 40 countries around the world. Over a thousand militants, who fought in the Daesh ranks, are in our hands", Bienaf stated.
He added that the SDF had approached the countries where Daesh militants hold citizenship so that the relevant authorities could repatriate their own people and bring them to justice.
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Jet1

US flies stealth B-2s to the Pacific - A warning to China that America's bombers are 'on watch' 24/7

Ryan Pickrell
Business Insider
Sat, 12 Jan 2019 15:12 UTC
U.S. Air Force B-2 Spirit
© Staff Sgt. Danielle QuillaU.S. Air Force B-2 Spirit deployed from Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, takes off from Wake Island Airfield Sept. 14, 2018.
The US has deployed three B-2 Spirit bombers and 200 airmen to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii for training in the Pacific, Pacific Air Forces Public Affairs revealed Friday.

The stealth aircraft from Whiteman Air Force Base were deployed to the Pacific to support US Strategic Command's Bomber Task Force mission, a deterrence mission intended to reassure allies and send a clear message to any country that would threaten regional peace and security.


Comment: Translation: An aggressive bullying measure designed to intimidate China in the South China Sea


"Deploying to Hawaii enables us to showcase to a large American and international audience that the B-2 is on watch 24 hours a day, seven days a week ready to protect our country and its allies," Lt. Col. Joshua Dorr, the director of operations for the 393rd Bomber Squadron, explained in a statement.

Comment: See also: John Pilger's documentary: 'The Coming War on China' - breaking the silence with startling facts

as well as:

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Bizarro Earth

Thousands of US bases EVERYWHERE - except in the Pentagon's report

Nick Turse
Tom Dispatch
Tue, 08 Jan 2019 08:01 UTC
Pentagon
As TomDispatch's Nick Turse reminds us today, the United States remains an imperial military presence unlike any other -- not just in this moment but in the history of empire. Never has a single country had so many military bases on so many parts of Planet Earth. Consider that a striking fact of 2019, as it was, say, of the 1950s or the post-Cold-War 1990s. How many such bases? As Turse makes clear, no one really knows, possibly not even the Pentagon. And more curious yet, that vast global infrastructure, that "empire of bases" (in Chalmers Johnson's eloquent phrase), is hardly noticed in what, since 9/11, has been known as "the homeland."

Few here think much about those global garrisons (although hundreds of thousands of Americans have in recent years been deployed to them); the media that cover every presidential tweet as if it were a missive from the emperor almost never mention them, much less report on them; and no one -- Turse and a few scholars aside -- seems to have the slightest interest in counting them up, much less considering their cost or even the global role they've been playing all these years. In domestic terms, they are essentially missing in action, which means a vision of how the United States has positioned itself on this planet is missing in action as well.

Comment: The mind-boggling amounts of money, energy and human resources invested in the USs goal for World Hegemony is mind-boggling. So it makes sense that little to nothing of what really gets spent - and why - is not shared with the public that's footing the bill.

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Bad Guys

America's nightmare: The Sino-Russian entente

John S. Van Oudenaren
Center for National Interest
Sat, 12 Jan 2019 12:00 UTC
Center for national interest
The most dangerous threat to America "would be a grand coalition of China and Russia, united not by ideology, but by complementary grievance."

"Growing cooperation between China and Russia poses a major strategic challenge to the United States, which if left unchecked could have profoundly negative consequences," warned Graham Allison and Dimitri Simes at a recent discussion at the Center for the National Interest. Both experts cautioned that Washington is committing a grave miscalculation by failing to make strategic adjustments to forestall the increasingly close alignment of these two once bitter rivals. Allison, the Douglas Dillon Professor of Government at Harvard University, and Simes, President and CEO of the Center for the National Interest, discussed their recent cover stories for the current edition of the National Interest magazine, China and Russia: " New Best Friends? " Jacob Heilbrunn, the magazine's editor, moderated. Prominent attendees included leading scholars on Russia and China, foreign diplomats including the ambassador of China, and administration officials.


Comment: The US is doing all it can to prevent the continuing rise of China and Russia, including mobilizing its proxies.


Comment: All Under Heaven, China's Challenge to The Westphalian System

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Bell

SOTT Focus: All Under Heaven, China's Challenge to The Westphalian System

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
Thu, 10 Jan 2019 21:34 UTC
Beijing is tweaking the rules of the Western order to reflect its revitalized geopolitical and economic power, but some Americans see this as a threat to their way of life
china forbidden city
Embedded in the now dominant US narrative of "Chinese aggression", Sinophobes claim that China is not only a threat to the American way of life, but also an existential threat to the American republic.

It's worth noting, of course, that the American way of life has long ceased to be a model to be emulated all across the Global South, and that the US walks and talks increasingly like an oligarchy.
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Arrow Down

America's faith-based Good Guys doctrine: If US stops its global meddling, the Bad-Guys might win

Caitlin Johnstone
Rogue Journalist
Sun, 13 Jan 2019 00:00 UTC
Mike Pompeo
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters on Saturday that the government under Venezuela's recently re-inaugurated president Nicolas Maduro is "illegitimate", and that "the United States will work diligently to restore a real democracy to that country."

Pompeo's remarks, which were echoed by Trump's National Security Advisor John Bolton, are interesting for a couple of reasons. The first is because Venezuela's presidential election in May of last year (which incidentally was found to have been perfectly legitimate by the international Council of Electoral Experts of Latin America) was actively and aggressively meddled in by the US and its allies. The second is that while the US government is openly broadcasting its intention to keep interfering in Venezuela's political system, it continues to scream bloody murder about alleged Russian interference in its own democratic process two years ago.

What is the difference between the behavior of the United States, which remains far and away the single worst offender in foreign election meddling on the planet, and what Russia is accused of having done in 2016? According to a comment made by former CIA Director James Woolsey last year, it's that the US interferes in foreign democracies "for a very good cause."
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Black Magic

UK government's welfare dept reluctantly admits 21,000 people died waiting for benefits

Steve Topple
The Canary
Mon, 14 Jan 2019 17:11 UTC
DWP graveyard death
© Max Pixel and UK government - Wikimedia
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has revealed that over 21,000 sick and disabled people died waiting for it to give them benefits. That's nearly 12 people a day dying; waiting for a decision over their claims.

But these shocking figures pose more questions than they answer.

The DWP: shocking revelations

DWP minister Sarah Newton published the figures in response to an MP's question. Labour's Madeleine Moon asked:
how many people have died while waiting for their personal independence payment assessment to be completed; and what conditions those people died from.

Comment: Here are just a few more examples of how callous the system has become: One man died a few hours after being declared 'fit for work'; a daughter had to to prove to an assessor her dead mother wasn't 'fit for work'; a paraplegic miner had to undergo repeated assessments just in case he was suddenly found to be 'fit for work'; unqualified assessors asking people with mental health issues questions like "Can you tell me why you haven't killed yourself yet?" - and bear in mind these are just those that have received publicity.

For those in work, a decade of wage stagnation has left them slipping below the poverty line meanwhile MP's have enjoyed pay rises totaling £11,000 in just 3 years.

It should come as no surprise the UN's report following their visit to the UK stated they'd violated every single article in the Declaration of Human rights

See: Here's another damning case highlighted by a Citizens Advice Bureau lawyer:



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Footprints

'Very negative development' says Saudi Prince, slamming US withdrawal from Syria


Sputnik
Mon, 14 Jan 2019 16:45 UTC
Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal
© AP PHOTO/KAMRAN JEBREILISaudi Prince Turki al-Faisal
Donald Trump earlier tweeted that US troops are starting the "long overdue pullout" from Syria, "while hitting the little remaining" Daesh terrorists from several directions.

In an interview with the BBC, Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal said that the withdrawal of US troops from the Syrian Arab Republic would lead to the deterioration of the situation in the Mideast country.
"The US actions from my perspective is [sic] that it is going to further complicate the issue, rather [than] find any solutions to it, and further entrench not only the Iranians, but also the Russians and Bashar al-Assad. So from that perspective, of course, it is a very negative development".
Prince Faisal further added that the resignation of US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis, supposedly triggered by President Donald Trump's decision to pull out the troops, was unlikely to help the situation. "Obviously, he disagreed with the administration on Syria policy, so in that context his remaining would have been a more positive sign of commitment to that policy".

Comment: There will be controversy as long as this decision is not followed through. History puts decisions into perspective, regardless the current abundance of waffling, posturing or criticism.

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X

Trump officially denies: I 'never worked for Russia,' 'Big fat hoax!'

Nicole Lafond
TMP
Mon, 14 Jan 2019 09:55 UTC
Trump
© Getty Images North America/Alex Wong.jpgPresident Donald Trump
On the heels of a report that the FBI probed whether President Donald Trump worked for Russia, the President officially denied on Monday he's ever worked for the Kremlin.

"I never worked for Russia," Trump told reporters on Monday. "You know that answer better than anybody. I never worked for Russia. Not only did I never work for Russia, I think it's a disgrace that you even ask that question because it's a whole big fat hoax. It's just a hoax."


The New York Times reported Friday that after Trump fired former FBI Director James Comey, the FBI began investigating whether Trump was working for Russia and against America because they were so concerned about his behavior.

Comment: Undermining a sitting president with such unrelenting and unproven innuendo might suggest we ask the turn-about question: Does The New York Times work for Russia against American interests, especially in regards to the President and the ongoing effect on its government?


See also: Gregg Jarrett: A corrupt and dishonest FBI: Latest reports offer only more proof

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