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Marketing 101: CIA rebrands 'moderate' rebels, now they're the 'Syrian Democratic Forces'!


Russia Insider
Wed, 14 Oct 2015 13:51 UTC
Syrian moderate rebels
© Unknown
The CIA has rebranded its "army of moderates" (sometimes called the "Free Syrian Army" or "terrorists"). The new freedom-spreading group will be called the Syrian Democratic Forces:
"The Syrian Democratic Forces calls itself a unified national military, aimed at establishing a new democratic Syria. Members include Kurds, Arabs and Assyrian Christians. But those familiar with the group say it's led by the Kurdish YPG, the only partner the U.S. trusts.

"Washington last week announced the overhaul of a rebel training program, which was halted after trainees handed equipment over to al-Qaida. The new Syrian Democratic Forces will absorb some of those trainees. One of them, reached by NPR, says he's been tasked with calling in airstrikes against ISIS and recruiting moderate rebels."
The U.S. says it will provide its Democratic Forces with air support — even though it's a clear violation of international law to conduct air strikes in a country that doesn't want you there.

Comment: Since they're all terrorists, Russia will just have to bomb them too. Putin probably said it best:
"I believe some of our partners simply have mush for brains," Putin said, expressing some of his strongest criticism yet of Washington's handling of the Syrian crisis.


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Eye 1

Destabilizing Germany: Merkel under pressure as majority of Germans reject her refugee approach


Sputnik
Wed, 14 Oct 2015 13:38 UTC
hundreds refugees
© www.dailymail.co.uk
Refugees queue at the compound outside the Berlin Office of Health and Social Affairs as they wait for their registration in Berlin.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is under pressure over the country's stance on the refugee crisis, with a new poll finding that a majority of Germans believe there are too many refugees in the country, while only a third agreed with Merkel's claim that Germany will be able to manage the situation.

The survey, carried out by YouGov, found that 56 percent of respondents thought there were already too many refugees in Germany and that the country couldn't handle taking in any more.

This represented a rise of 10 percent from the last poll in mid-September, indicating that many Germans were becoming increasingly frustrated with the government's approach to the crisis.

Comment: Peaceful protests in Germany, against immigration are routinely hijacked by 'far right' groups. Given the US' historic role in fascism (and even recently in Ukraine), it would be no surprise to find out these agent provocateurs have a very specific goal in Germany as well. Washington has been cynically manipulating the migrant crisis in order to secure a number of its objectives in Syria and Europe. With Russia stealing their thunder in the Middle East, it looks like destabilizing Germany (the command center of the EU) is still on the table.

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War Whore

Washington's war of terror largely responsible for the exponential rise in terrorism

Stephen Lendmen
Global Research
Tue, 13 Oct 2015 00:00 UTC
ISIS terrorist
© REUTERS / Hosam Katan
Washington's war on terror is a war OF terror on humanity, largely responsible for exponentially rising incidents worldwide.

The Global Terrorism Index (GTI) recorded around 18,000 in 2013, up 60% over the previous year - holding ISIS, Al Qaeda, Boko Haram in Nigeria and the Taliban most responsible.

All are US creations. Washington's so-called war to defeat terrorism increased it exponentially, what lunatics in Washington intended.

GTI reported 3,361 incidents in 2000, up dramatically to 11,133 in 2012 and 17,958 in 2013, likely 20,000 or more when final 2015 figures are published. US imperialism bears full responsibility for the exponentially rising numbers.

As long as US direct and proxy wars rage, expect terrorist incidents to keep rising annually. In 2013, 80% of terrorist fatalities occurred in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan and Nigeria, said GTI.

Comment: If there were any lingering doubts that the U.S. has been funding and supporting terror around the world, the empire of chaos' latest moves in support of its so-called 'moderate rebels' have now made their position painfully obvious.

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Magic Wand

Deconstructing Syria: One analyst's flight of fancy

Michael E. O'Hanlon
Brookings Institute
Tue, 23 Jun 2015 02:58 UTC

Comment: Published last June, is this short article eerily prescient, or a summarized Washington playbook for Syria? Regardless, it's clear that Russia's bold action against an unconscionable situation has thrown those smug plans into disarray. Still it's a useful window into neocon "thinking".


syrian militants
U.S. policy towards Syria since the Arab spring uprisings of 2011 has been a litany of miscalculation, frustration, and tragedy for the people of that ill-fated land. The ascendance of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) as the major element of the opposition to the Bashar al-Assad regime may not amount to an imminent threat to American security; indeed, very few Americans have died to date at the hands of ISIL or affiliates. But ISIL's rise does place at much greater risk the security of Iraq, the future of Syria itself, and the stability of Lebanon and Jordan. It could jeopardize the safety of American citizens as well, given the possibility of attacks by "lone wolves" inspired in their western home by ISIL propaganda, or by westerners returning from the Syrian jihad to carry out attacks at home. Massacres on a par with the Charlie Hebdo tragedy, or worse, could easily occur in the United States. The potency of the al-Nusra organization, al Qaeda's loyal affiliate, within the Syrian opposition is also of considerable concern.


Comment: Of course there have been few American casualties, except when expedient, such as Hillary's shameful handling of Benghazi, where the U.S. ambassador was killed, along with staff members. ISIL/ISIS has far more utility as a bogeyman to hypnotize the American public.


Comment: This hare-brained scheme was/is non-starter. Turkey is adamant about not giving any sort of official recognition to the Kurds (the only reliable fighting force besides the Syrian Army), and the ever-morphing 'moderate rebel' groups would squabble endlessly over territory. What was this guy smoking?

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Bulb

Cameron scraps program to manage Saudi prisons amid public outrage


RT
Wed, 14 Oct 2015 16:59 UTC
Image
© Faisal Al Nasser / Reuters
Prime Minister David Cameron's scrapping of a British contract to manage Saudi prisons is a victory for human rights crusaders, but UK arms sales to the Gulf regime must end as well, says the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT).

CAAT's Andrew Smith told RT that campaigners and the media had been instrumental in forcing the British government to drop the contract, but said there was much work still to be done.

CAAT claims at least £4 billion (US$6 billion) worth of arms licenses, including those issued for Typhoon fighter jets, tear gas, military vehicles and riot equipment, have been granted to Saudi Arabia by the British government since 2010, despite a long list of abuses.

"The decision to end the prison contract is a victory for campaign groups and activists," he said.

"Now it's time for the government to end arms sales to the regime and finally stop the long-standing policy of military and political support for a brutal regime that executes its critics."

Comment: Saudi Arabia has the most fanatical and brutal 'Islamic' government in the Middle East, yet are among the West's greatest allies. Might that have something to do with the anglo-American existential gas war in the Middle East?

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Bizarro Earth

New US-Russia air safety talks after another Syria 'near miss'


BBC
Wed, 14 Oct 2015 16:51 UTC
russian airstrikes
© European Press Agency
Russia launched its air strikes in Syria on 30 September
The US and Russia are to hold new talks on air safety in Syria after it emerged combat aircraft from both nations came within miles of each other on Saturday. The planes were in visual contact with each other, 10 to 20 miles (15-30km) apart, a US defense spokesman told reporters in Washington DC.

It will be the third round of talks as the two countries seek to find ways of avoiding an accidental conflict. Despite the talks, the US said Russia's actions in Syria were "wrongheaded". US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said he expected a deal soon. Russia said it had "updated proposals" to be discussed during a video conference.

Russia began its campaign of air strikes in Syria on 30 September, saying it was targeting Islamic State (IS) militants and other jihadist groups after a request to help militarily from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Western countries and Syrian activists say Russian planes have been hitting non-militant targets - a claim Moscow denies.

Comment: One might imagine what might be said by Russia to the U.S. at this conference. "Agree to share your intelligence, or stay out of the way."

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Pistol

Communist MP in State Duma seeks death penalty for terrorists


RT
Wed, 14 Oct 2015 16:47 UTC
Image
© Iliya Pitalev / RIA Novosti
A key member of the Communist caucus in the State Duma has urged fellow lawmakers to allow the death penalty for terrorists as an extraordinary measure and "a supreme measure of social protection."

"All activities of any terrorists are aimed at murdering innocent people. They are perfectly aware of the criminal nature of their actions," MP Vadim Solovyov said in a parliamentary speech on Tuesday. "These killers must know that we will apply to them the harshest measure of social protection which is the death penalty."

Solovyov suggested that reintroducing the death penalty would help to bring down the terrorist threat in the country, adding that this threat can increase in connection with Russia's active participation in the operation against Islamic State terrorists in Syria.

"Unfortunately, I fear that the terrorist underground could step up its activities in connection with the Syria events and civilians would become their victims. Our government is guided by some Western values that are incomprehensible to me and they just cannot decide on the cancellation of the death penalty moratorium. But we need to return to capital punishment, the sooner the better," the Moskva news agency quoted Solovyov as saying.
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Георгиевская ленточка

Moscow should tell Washington to get lost : U.S. has been less than useless in fighting terrorism

Finian Cunningham
Strategic Culture Foundation
Sun, 11 Oct 2015 16:28 UTC
russian air base syria
After a year of bombing the Syrian desert with negligible results in terms of defeating terror groups - as memorably noted by Russian lawmaker Alexei Pushkov - all of a sudden the so-called anti-terror coalition led by the United States seems to have discovered a high degree of logistical precision.

The US and its allies claim that Russian air strikes, commencing on September 30, have failed to hit the jihadis of Islamic State (IS, ISIS or ISIL), also known as Daesh. Russia, according to Washington and the Western news media, has been striking 'moderate rebels' and civilians, and in the process shoring up the 'regime' of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

There's nothing amiss under international law about supporting the sovereign government of Syria, as Russian President Vladimir Putin has recently stipulated. So let's kick that Western objection out first of all.

As for alleged civilian casualties, CNN, BBC, France 24 and so on have so far not provided one report of funerals or hospital scenes, to verify their earlier high-flown accusations. And this after more than a week since the alleged Russian "atrocities" began.

But what is telling about the latest Western protests over Russia's military intervention is the apparent omniscient precision about who and where the terror groups are.

Washington officials and Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary-general of the US-led NATO military alliance, this week claimed that "over 90 per cent of Russian air strikes were not against ISIS or Al Qaeda".

The US and NATO's precise enumeration chimes with that of Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who claimed that "only two out of 57 Russian air strikes in Syria" hit IS targets.

The question that the supine Western media should be asking the NATO chief and his Washington superiors is this: if you can so clearly quantify and delineate the IS and Al Qaeda bases, then why has the US-led coalition evidently been wasting 12 months bombing empty desert spaces instead of degrading and defeating these groups, as vowed by US President Barack Obama over a year ago?
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USA

'The gall of this country': Gitmo attorneys buying basic items (shoes, clothing, toothpaste) for long-held detainees


RT
Tue, 13 Oct 2015 19:13 UTC
Image
© Bob Strong/Reuters
Attorneys for prisoners held at the US military prison at Guantánamo Bay say they have had to purchase shoes, clothes, personal hygiene products and other basic items for detainees they represent. They accuse the prison of "pinching pennies.

The 114 detainees left at Joint Task Force Guantánamo in Cuba are walking around in ragged clothing and shoes held together with duct tape, several attorneys told the Miami Herald. The detention center, which has cost more than $5 billion since it opened in 2002 and boasts a staff of more than 2,000 people, increasingly leaves detainees without adequate clothing, attorneys said. Shampoo, toothpaste and other personal hygiene items are too cheap to be effective, they added.

"Stuff's just not getting replaced," said lawyer George Clarke, who recently purchased new shoes, sandals, T-shirts and towels for his two clients, at a cost of about $300. "They say the stuff they get is crap. Or they're not getting it."

A Gitmo spokesman insisted standards "have not changed," but refused to comment on whether the situation is based on budget cutbacks or new prison policy.

"Any reports of shortages are baseless," Navy Captain Christopher Scholl, public affairs officer at the prison, told the Herald. "The JTF [Joint Task Force Guantánamo] is committed to ensuring detainees are kept in a safe, secure and humane environment. The physical and mental well-being of detainees is our primary responsibility, and their security is of vital importance to our mission."


Comment: Safe, secure, humane environment; physical and mental well-being? How much WRONG can you put in two sentences?


The International Committee of the Red Cross would not indicate whether it had raised any issues with the prison regarding basic prisoner provisions.


Comment: See also:

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Cult

'It's our belief': Mush for brains insists rebels downed MH17 with BUK missile, ignores Dutch report


RT
Wed, 14 Oct 2015 15:08 UTC
MH17
© Robin van Lonkhuijsen/ANP/AFP
Despite a 15-month-long Dutch-led probe not definitively concluding who fired the BUK surface-to-air missile or the precise location from which it originated, the US continues to pursue its "belief" that it was east Ukrainian rebels who downed flight MH17.

The State department spokesman Mark Toner welcomed "the important findings" of the Dutch Safety Board (DSB) presented on Tuesday, briefing journalists that the Dutch report "validated" the US theory that the Malaysia-bound flight carrying nearly 300 passengers was downed "by a BUK surface-to-air missile" from "separatist-controlled territory."

"The unintelligible babbling we have to read constantly simply aims at, on one hand, confusing, and on the other hand - to form a desired public opinion, which could effectively be called propaganda," Russia's Foreign Ministry's spokesperson said at a media briefing in Moscow. Maria Zakharova pointed out that merely days after the MH17 tragedy, the US rushed to present the public with its assessment of "not the results, but the causes of the Malaysian Boeing tragedy."

Foreign Ministry's spokesperson stressed that the US confirmed their position "long before" the Dutch report was published.

The adjustment of beliefs and results of the investigation has unfortunately become "commonplace, notably not only with the Malaysian Boeing issue, but with other subjects as well," Zakharova said.


Comment: The mush for brains in Washington are running out of effective propaganda. The timing of the new report along with the distortion of its findings should give Westerners a moment of pause as the world watches Russia take down the United States' terror proxies in Syria. Furthermore, Russia has offered their satellite data and has offered other evidence but was refused. Yet, the US hasn't provided anything at all to support their narrative. Unsubstantiated beliefs that 'just so happen' to coincide with Washington's paranoid and backwards strategy to 'contain' Russia doesn't cut it.

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