Puppet MastersS


Pirates

Erdogan: Turkey prepared to join Russia to eliminate Daesh in Syria if invited

Turkish tank
© Reuters/Khalil AshawiInvited, or not?
Turkey is ready to fight the outlawed in Russia Daesh jihadist group in Syria jointly with Russia if it receives a proposal from Moscow, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday. "If Russia requests the continued joint fight against Daesh, then this fight can be carried out," Erdogan said as quoted by the Haber7 broadcaster on his return trip from Pakistan.

Erdogan said he planned to discuss the subject in Russia later this month. He is expected in Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 9-10, according to the Turkish diplomatic mission in Russia.

The next phase of Turkey's Euphrates Shield military campaign in northern Syria will target the Kurdish-controlled city of Manbij, the Turkish head of state confirmed.

He said Tuesday that the Turkish Armed Forces would advance toward Manbij and Raqqa if a mutual understanding with Russia and the US-led coalition was reached, calling on the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) to leave Manbij.

Comment: Erdogan wants in on the fight in Northern Syria for several reasons besides fighting Daesh: To gain favor with Russia, to keep troops in Syria with a legitimate excuse, and to eliminate the Syrian Kurdish population as part of a genocidal operation ongoing in SE Turkey. Protocol demands Russia's invite and approval. What happens after that regarding Turkey's agenda is wait and see.

See also:


Stop

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard: To help refugees, stop arming terrorists

Gabbard
© RTUS Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii)
Representative Tulsi Gabbard called again for the US to stop aiding terrorists like Al-Qaeda and ISIS, while her guest at the presidential address to Congress, a Kurdish refugee activist, called for an end to the US policy of "regime change in Syria.

While many Democrats invited immigrants as their guests for President Donald Trump's speech to the joint session of Congress on Tuesday, Gabbard, a Democrat from Hawaii, hosted Tima Kurdi, whose 3-year-old nephew drowned on the shores of Turkey in September 2015. Photos of Alan Kurdi's body quickly became the symbol of Syrian refugees' plight - and led the US to step up efforts to overthrow the Syrian government, actually magnifying their suffering.

On Wednesday, Tima Kurdi joined Gabbard at a press conference on Capitol Hill and called on Trump "to end the regime change in Syria."

"The most important question is, how do we address the cause of these people fleeing their homes," said Gabbard, pointing to the bill she submitted in this session of Congress. Her "Stop Arming Terrorists Act," or HR 608, would ban the use of US taxpayers' funds to aid terrorist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda or Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).

"For years, our government has been providing both direct and indirect support to these armed militant groups, who are working directly with or under the command of terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda and ISIS, all in their effort and fight to overthrow the Syrian government," Gabbard told RT.


Comment: See also:


Eye 2

Fake News overload: Republican lobbyist blames Russia for slain DNC staffer

killary clinton
Maybe I had him killed, maybe Russia did. What difference does it make?
It's suspected that Seth Rich was the source of the DNC email leaks. Time to blame Russia for his bizarre murder!

Ah yes. It's all starting to make sense.

Wikileaks publicized the murder of a DNC staffer (it was a "botched robbery" where nothing was taken, aside from the DNC staffer's life, and a few bullets from a gun) because Julian Assange is a FSB agent who kills people who "know too much".

Comment: When Hillary loses the elections, blame Russia. When her apparent enemies end up dead, blame Russia then too. What haven't the Russians done today?

See: Deadly Wikileak reveals Clinton's murder of Seth Rich to 'make an example'


Blackbox

Israeli media: Russia, Jordan & Egypt spearhead Assad's reinstatement in Arab League

President Bashar al-Assad
Three heads of state are leading an effort to reintegrate Syrian President Bashar al-Assad into the Arab League, five years after he was exiled from the group, according to Israeli military-intelligence news agency DEBKAfile.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fatteh El-Sissi, Jordanian King Abdullah II, and Russian President Vladimir Putin are championing the movement, DEBKAfile reported, "whether together or separately." The leaders "hope to see a historic handshake" and diplomatic reestablishment between Assad and Saudi Arabia's King Salman.

On Saturday, the Egyptian parliament moved to implement a full reinstatement of Assad into the Arab League. The parliament also acted to invite Assad to the highly-anticipated Arab League annual summit, slated to take place on the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea on March 29, the Times of Israel reports.

Earlier in February Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called for Damascus to be included in the bloc, citing potential gains and progress toward negotiated peace and a settlement of the Syrian civil war.

One source of tension that could stand in the way of Syria's reinstatement is Iran's backing of Assad, the Times of Israel reported, since Iran and Saudi Arabia are sworn rivals. The conflict in Yemen, for example, features Iranian-backed Houthis squaring off against a coalition led by the Saudis.

Pirates

Wahhabism: An Ideology of Violence and Hate

Wahhabism
© Oliver Munday
On the 13th of September, Iran's Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif penned an Op-Ed in the New York Times, titled, "Let Us Rid the World of Wahhabism." Reactions to his piece have been mixed. While many support his argument, others prefer to point out a double standard by pointing to Iran's role in Syria. Here is my problem with the latter approach: focusing on Iran's role in Syria does not address the regional and global problem that is Wahhabism; it does not examine the ideology & its threats. We need to stop looking at Wahhabism through the restrictive "Iran v. Saudi Arabia" framework and examine Wahhabism for the ideology that it is.

Regardless of how anyone feels about Iran, Wahhabism is an immense threat to any chance of peace in the Muslim and non-Muslim world. It is an ideology that openly advocates for violence against minorities and any majority-member Sunni who opposes it. It is an ideology that arose with violence since day one. It is an ideology that is misogynistic, sectarian, takfiri, and violent.

Comment:


Bad Guys

Turkey continues setting up military bases across Northern Syria

Turkey al Bab Syria azaz military base
© REUTERS/ Khalil Ashawi
Reliable sources in the Middle East have told Sputnik that Turkey continues setting up military bases in the north of Syria. Kurdish politician Rezan Hiddo spoke to Sputnik Turkiye about what Turkey's Armed Forces are up to in the area.

Reliable sources in the Middle East have told Sputnik that after setting up a military base in the Aktarin district to the north of Aleppo, Turkey has now set up another military facility in the city of al-Bab which was recently liberated from Daesh.

The base was set up near the Akil hill which is considered to be a strategic height. The sources also said that Turkey is setting up a facility near the city of Azaz.

Comment: Further reading: Nostalgia & 'soft power' in Turkey's neo-Ottoman blueprint
While the War on Syria is proving itself to be a failed enterprise for all of its culprits, especially Turkey, it also saw the eventual administrative-political tweaking of Neo-Ottomanism. Turkish scholar Dr. Can Erimtan warned in late-2013 that "the government's long-term goal (as arguably expressed in the AKP's policy statement Hedef 2023) is to transform the nation state Turkey into an Anatolian federation of Muslim ethnicities, possibly linked to a revived caliphate. In this way, Turkey's future (as a nation state) would arguably become subject to Anatolia's past as a home to many different Muslims of divergent ethnic background."

What this basically means is that the devolution of the unitary Turkish state to a federation would give Ankara the flexibility to incorporate/annex territories under its wing which are populated by people of a separate ethno-nationalist identity in order to build the post-modern/post-Western 21st-century Neo-Ottoman Caliphate. In practice, this could allow for all or part of Syria become part of a reformatted Turkey, as well as Syrian and Iraqi "Kurdistan", and the geographically large Sunni areas of Iraq. In fact, the"federalization" of both Syria and Iraq would amount to an internal partition in both cases and the emergence of a transnational sub-state "Sunnistan" which could, under Dr. Erimtan's analyzed template of the future Turkish state, come under Ankara's eventual control.



Vader

Killary won't go away: 'Hillary for Mayor' signs showing up around NYC

hillary mayor nyc sign
No, Hillary Clinton is not going away.

Someone is making "Hillary for Mayor" signs and plastering them around New York City, several photos posted on Twitter show. There was one on an advertisement above the 34 Street-Herald Sq subway station:


Info

BBC director-general admits media industry favor hiring the 'well-connected and well-off'

BBC building
© Paul Hackett / Reuters
The BBC's director-general, Tony Hall, has admitted the British state broadcaster and wider media industry tend to favor hiring "well-connected and well-off" people from the affluent southeast of England, and said they must try to do more to spur social mobility and diversity.

Lord Hall is to speak at a creative skills conference in Thurrock, Essex on Thursday. He will say the television industry, which has been broadcasting since 1922, is one that, "instead of being a force for social mobility, is too often a source of social exclusion."

While expressing his desire to give "everyone the chance to shine" regardless of their connections or socio-cultural and ethnical background, he will admit it remains a "relationship-based, 'who you know' industry.'"

"Of course this marginalizes those who don't have connections... and it favors the well-connected and well-off from the southeast of England," Hall is to say.

He will say the BBC must "draw on all of the country's diverse talent" in order to reach its full creative potential.

Question

The Trump Enigma

Trump
© Kevin Lamarque / ReutersU.S. President Donald Trump
President Trump may be wondering himself about the miracles and mysteries and confusions he creates. As a megalomaniac, he is the only one who knows everything. His ideas range and flash from right to left, crisscrossing the political spectrum to favor the globalized world - and yet he is largely acting against globalization - and in the 'interest of people'. That would be great.

He also seeks truth by telling truth; that Obama and Hillary created ISIS and the CIA created Al Qaeda, that 9/11 was not the way the Nine-Eleven Commission says it was, and that the Government lies about statistics. Poverty, unemployment and inflation figures are much higher than those published by the various US statistical offices. He loves BREXIT, congratulating Teresa May for it, and joyfully predicts the end of the European Union and of the Euro. It would be a good thing for the world. But does he mean what he says? - As a megalo he loves to be an Enigma.

Comment: Behind the Headlines: American Coup D'Etat, Anti-Russian Hysteria, Global Chaos, and the Fourth Turning


Network

Russian Embassy in London welcomes calls by UK MPs for dialogue amid 'deplorable state' of Russia-UK relations

big ben russian parliament
© Reuters / Sputnik
The Russian Embassy in London has welcomed a report into the "deplorable state" of the Russia-UK relationship, and says it supports the re-establishment of a "genuine political dialogue" between the two countries.

The Foreign Affairs committee, chaired by Conservative MP Crispin Blunt, aimed to investigate the UK government's policies towards Russia.

The report, titled 'The United Kingdom's relations with Russia,' said relations between the countries were at their most "strained since the end of the Cold War." It said Britain's refusal to engage with the Russian government is not a viable long-term foreign policy option.

Britain should clarify what it wants from relations with Russia and conduct regular political dialogue with the Kremlin, however uncomfortable such conversations might be, the report released on Thursday said.