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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 PhotoDamaged 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 / ReutersAmericans 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
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif
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 PressA 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.
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Attention

Hype and the Mueller indictment

Aaron Maté
The Nation
Thu, 22 Feb 2018 00:00 UTC
Russian ads
© Reuters/Aaron P. BernsteinFacebook examples, social media ads from the group of 13 individuals under indictment.
Special counsel Robert Mueller has charged 13 Russian individuals and three organizations for using social media "to interfere with the U.S. political system, including the 2016 presidential election." The Russian effort denigrated Hillary Clinton, and sought to inflame divisive social issues through fake accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, as well as staging political rallies. While the use of propaganda to influence a domestic audience for any purpose is troubling, the indictment offers nothing on the e-mail hacking of the DNC and John Podesta, nor on the suspicions of Kremlin collusion that have engulfed Donald Trump's presidency. Yet, far from quelling the inflamed rhetoric surrounding Russian meddling for more than a year, one of the few areas of divergence across the political spectrum comes only in regard to which historical calamity to compare it to.

Neoconservative pundit Max Boot decries
"the second-worst foreign attack on America," after 9/11, one that "may be even more corrosive."
According to liberal Jonathan Alter, the Russians have launched "an attack that-but for the loss of life-is as bad as Pearl Harbor." Democratic Representative Jerrold Nadler concurs, explaining to MSNBC:
"They didn't kill anyone but they're destroying our democratic process.... Not in the amount of violence, but in the seriousness, it is very much on par."

Comment: One upshot of the 'nothing burger bits crisis' is the crackdown on free enterprise - another freedom lost - as there is now a demand for social media sites to document and report who is buying ads. As per Asia Times:
In November, 2017, Congress unveiled legislation that would force Facebook, Google, and other social media giants to disclose who buys online advertising, thereby closing a loophole that Russia supposedly exploited during the election.
We also might remind ourselves of who and what is really swaying the news to a particular bias and end-point, emanating from the bastions of MSM.

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Question

Did Trump cut a deal and bypass the 'collusion' charge?

Mike Whitney
CounterPunch
Mon, 26 Feb 2018 00:00 UTC
TrumpMueller
© CNN
Here's your legal koan for the day: When is an indictment not an indictment?

Answer: When there is no intention of initiating a criminal case against the accused. In the case of the 13 Russian trolls who have just been indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, there is neither the intention nor the ability to prosecute a case against them. (They are all foreign nationals who will not face extradition.)

But, if that's the case, than why would Mueller waste time and money compiling a 37-page document alleging all-manner of nefarious conduct when he knew for certain that the alleged perpetrators would never be prosecuted? Why?

Isn't it because the indictments are not really a vehicle for criminal prosecution, but a vehicle for political grandstanding? Isn't that the real purpose of the indictments, to add another layer of dirt to the mountain of unreliable, uncorroborated, unproven allegations of Russian meddling. Mueller is not acting in his capacity as Special Counsel, he is acting in his role of deep state hatchet-man whose job is to gather scalps by any means necessary.
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Star of David

Bald-face liar: Israeli Major General Yoav Mordechai claims Mohammed Tamimi, 15, was not hit in the head by a bullet

Jonathan Cook
Mondoweiss
Tue, 27 Feb 2018 20:20 UTC
tamimi bullet head cat scan
© Nabi Saleh Popular CommitteeCT scan of the bullet lodged in Mohammed Tamimi's head.
The Israeli army is using all means to avenge itself on the Tamimis and Nabi Saleh for their resilience and resistance, epitomized by the imprisoned girl Ahed Tamimi who slapped a soldier.

Yesterday morning, before dawn, Israeli soldiers raided the occupied village of Nabi Saleh and detained 10 members of the extended Tamimi family - half of them children.

The forces also used what is known as 'skunk water', as can be seen in local citizen-journalist Bilal Tamimi's video (provided on +972 Magazine) - which is ostensibly designed for 'crowd control', only there is no crowd. The Israeli army is using the putrid liquid, sprayed from a truck, to collectively punish Palestinians, as it has been documented doing in the past, spraying homes and schools.

Among those arrested in the night raid was 15-year-old Mohammed Tamimi, who was shot in the head at close range by a rubber-coated bullet, just before Ahed's famous slap nearly 2-1/2 months ago. Mohammed was put in a medical coma, and had part of his skull removed, which has deformed his skull. His situation is incredibly sensitive, and one wonders just why he was not spared the violence in this night raid. He was released a few hours after the arrest and after a relatively short interrogation.
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