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Network

Russian Foreign Ministry confirms contact with Trump team discussing Syria crisis


TASS
Wed, 30 Nov 2016 16:38 UTC
trump
© EPA/PETER FOLEY
Moscow is in contact with some members of US President-elect Donald Trump's team on the Syrian crisis, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said on Wednesday.

"These are different people whom we have known for a long time already," Bogdanov said giving no further details.

Bogdanov also noted that Russia's Foreign Ministry hopes that relations between Russia and the US on Syria will improve under the Trump administration.

"Of course, we hope so," he said answering a question on the issue.

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov earlier said it is premature to make forecasts about the potential cooperation between Russia and the US on Syria. Nevertheless, Moscow continues expressing its willingness to keep up the dialogue on this issue.

Peskov said although the approaches of Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump coincide to a large extent, there are also some differences.

Trump said earlier that after the inauguration he planned to focus on the fight against the Islamic State terrorist group (outlawed in Russia) instead of attempts to ouster Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. He also said that the cooperation with Russia in the fight against terrorism could be useful.
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Network

Senior Russian diplomat: Russia ready to normalize relations with EU


TASS
Wed, 30 Nov 2016 16:34 UTC
handshake
© Alexander Shcherbak/TASS
Russia is ready to normalize relations with the EU as profoundly as the EU itself is ready for this, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Meshkov told reporters on Tuesday upon the completion of Russia-EU consultations at the level of political directors.

Representing the EU was the Deputy Secretary General of External Action Service for political issues, Jean-Christoffe Belliard. Meshkov stressed a professional and fruitful character of the consultations.

"It has become quite traditional for our two sides over the part two to one-and-a-half years to embed a certain share of negativism in the discussions of the problems of Russian-EU collaboration," he said. "But today I'm satisfied with our talks."

"The discussion was really useful, as we put aside the traditional clich·s with an exchange of barbs and spent almost four hours discussing all the issues of common interest - Syria, Moldova and Ukraine," Meshkov said.
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Bizarro Earth

Libya's hollow victory over IS - the real battle is yet to come

Tarek Megerisi
Chicago Tribune
Mon, 28 Nov 2016 16:02 UTC
ISIS sirte lybia
ISIS position in Sirte as of September 22, 2016
Little noticed by the outside world, Libyans have almost succeeded in achieving a long-awaited victory over the Islamic State. For months, bolstered by air strikes from their international allies, local militias have been tightening a ring around IS forces in the coastal city of Sirte. The jihadis have been corralled into an area of less than one square kilometer. The battle is all but won.

You'd think that Libyans and their friends in the international community would be thrilled. Actually, though, there's little sense of triumph to be detected anywhere.

The reason is simple: Victory in Sirte, however welcome, will have little positive effect on the country's power vacuum. When the Islamic State first conquered the city in June 2015, many observers hoped that the threat would serve as a rallying point for Libya's myriad warring factions. The need to strike a resounding blow against the Islamic State, it was thought, would finally provide the catalyst for unity.

It didn't work out that way. Instead, Libya's competing power centers -- from Field-Marshall Haftar and his government in the East to its rival internationally backed government in Tripoli to the country's extremist Grand Mufti Sadiq al-Gheriani -- have tried to exploit the threat of the Islamic State to advance their own agendas. Each group knew full well that merely appearing to engage the Islamic State would garner international support and strengthen its claims to legitimacy. So far, none have proved willing to redeploy serious resources and manpower to combat a threat they perceive as secondary to their domestic opponents.

Comment: Further reading:

Behind the Headlines: NATO Slaughter - James and Joanne Moriarty expose the truth about what happened in Libya

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Megaphone

Russian Foreign Ministry: EU's ban on issuing visas to Russians in Crimea a "blatant violation of human rights"


RT
Wed, 30 Nov 2016 16:30 UTC
moscow foreign ministry
© Maksim Blinov / Sputnik
The EU's ban on issuing visas to Russian citizens living in Crimea is a blatant violation of human rights, Russia's deputy foreign minister has said, adding that the policy is an attempt to make ordinary people the hostages of a political agenda.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday after a meeting with the new deputy secretary general of the European Union diplomatic service, Aleksey Meshkov said: "Today, I raised the question about the visa genocide of Crimean residents, and I raised it in a very harsh way. Because it is not right to make 2.5 million people hostages of their [European] political objectives and demand that they change the citizenship that they had once accepted. This is nonsense."

The Russian diplomat emphasized that it was perplexing that European officials wanted Crimeans - who have clearly and consciously accepted their Russian citizenship - to become Ukrainian citizens again "in order to travel to Brussels."

"One thing is to accept or not accept the evident fact that Crimea had reunited with Russia, and another thing is the life of ordinary people who understandingly chose Russian citizenship and received Russian passports," he said, following the meeting with Jean-Christophe Belliard, the new deputy secretary general of the European External Action Service.
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Light Saber

Civilians freed, militants given amnesty - Russia hopes Aleppo will be resolved by year's end


RT
Wed, 30 Nov 2016 16:05 UTC
hanano aleppo
© SANA / ReutersSmoke rises behind a damaged street in Hanano housing district after government forces took control of the area in Aleppo, Syria, November 27, 2016.
Moscow hopes to resolve the situation in Aleppo, Syria by the end of the year, according to Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov.

"We are hoping for this, yes, indeed. We need to force these terrorists out the same way as they need to be forced out of Mosul and Raqqa. It's a common task," Bogdanov said on Wednesday, as quoted by RIA news agency.

The high-ranking diplomat had been asked if the situation in Aleppo could be resolved by the end of the year.

This week brought a breakthrough for the Russian-backed Syrian drive to retake eastern Aleppo, allowing humanitarian relief to be brought in to tens of thousands of civilians living in the recaptured districts, according to Russia's Defense Ministry.

Comment: Contrast this with the UN, US, UK and France, who have not offered any aid to the 90,000 civilians freed from al-Qaeda:
"Two days after over 90,000 Aleppo residents were freed from terrorists, no offer of humanitarian assistance came from the office of UN envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, the British and French Foreign Ministries or the US State Department," the ministry's spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said.

Konashenkov reminded about the previous US, UK, UN and French demands to provide humanitarian access to eastern Aleppo when it was held by the militants. "Apparently, the [humanitarian] assistance was destined for certain other people living in the eastern parts of Aleppo," Konashenkov said highlighting the absence of the above-mentioned sides' interest in providing civilians with humanitarian aid after all the necessary conditions for the aid delivery had been created.
More data on the latest in Aleppo:
"Over the past three days, Syrian army units supported by militia have managed to clear 16 quarters in the northern part of eastern Aleppo of militants," Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoy said, adding that 1,007 settlements had joined the Syrian ceasefire, and that over 100,000 residents returned there.
...
He said that terrorists destroy schools, hospitals and mosques in Aleppo to accuse Syrian aviation and artillery of the attacks. "Social infrastructure [in Aleppo] is completely destroyed. According to eyewitnesses' evidence, terrorists mine and blow up schools, hospitals and mosques. The footages of destroyed buildings are being given to Western human rights watchdogs under the guise of the results of strikes by Syrian aviation and artillery," Rudskoy said.

Moreover, Russia has sent a demining squad to Aleppo. According to Rudskoy, over 200 Russian servicemen and 47 pieces of combat and special equipment will be deployed for mine clearing in Aleppo.


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Propaganda

Propaganda Alert! Germany warns of "Russian hackers" disrupting 2017 presidential election


RT
Wed, 30 Nov 2016 15:37 UTC
German Federal Intelligence Agency logo
© Hannibal Hanschke / ReutersThe logo of the German Federal Intelligence Agency (BND)
On the heels of Washington's allegations of ominous "Russian hackers" disrupting the US presidential race, the German Chancellor and new intelligence chief are now implying Moscow may launch a cyber-offensive on Germany's 2017 presidential election.

On Tuesday, Merkel alluded to a link between the recent hacking attacks on major German telecommunications group Deutsche Telecom and Russia. The attack hit some 900,000 of the company's customers on Sunday.

"Such cyberattacks, or hybrid conflicts as they are known in Russian doctrine, are now part of daily life and we must learn to cope with them," she said, commenting on the incident Tuesday.

Merkel, however, added she did not know who the attackers really were.
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Bad Guys

War, war and more war: Obama 'creates' new Al-Qaeda out of thin air in order to justify war in Somalia

Michael Krieger
Liberty Blitzkrieg
Tue, 29 Nov 2016 09:14 UTC
obama al-shabab
An article published in The New York Times this past Sunday perfectly demonstrates how out of control and unconstitutional America's foreign policy has become. It highlights the latest war being perpetrated by the Obama administration, which is expanding with very little scrutiny from the press or the government branch supposedly in charge of waging war, the U.S. Congress.

The latest growing battlefield is in Somalia, and it threatens to spiral out of control just like so many other undeclared war zones before it. From the NY Times:
WASHINGTON — The escalating American military engagement in Somalia has led the Obama administration to expand the legal scope of the war against Al Qaeda, a move that will strengthen President-elect Donald J. Trump's authority to combat thousands of Islamist fighters in the chaotic Horn of Africa nation.
Is it "a move that will strengthen President-elect Donald J. Trump's authority to combat thousands," or is it a move that will allow Trump to also engage in endless, unconstitutional war?
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Attention

Gitmo prisoner reveals Saudi terrorist rehab is 'hidden radicalization program'


RT
Wed, 30 Nov 2016 14:11 UTC
Guantanamo Bay detainees
© U.S. Department of Defense/Petty Officer 1st class Shane T. McCoy / Handout / ReutersDetainees sit in a holding area during their processing into the temporary detention facility, at Camp X-Ray inside Naval Base Guantanamo Bay.
A senior Al-Qaeda operative told a parole board at Guantanamo Bay that Saudi Arabia's lauded "rehabilitation" center, which uses art therapy and other methods to de-radicalize convicted terrorists, in reality appears to be a "hidden radicalization program."

"You guys want to send me back to Saudi Arabia because you believe there is a de-radicalization program on the surface. True. You are 100 percent right, there is a strong... externally, a strong de-radicalization program," a Saudi detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Ghassan Abdullah al-Sharbi, told a Gitmo parole board (which assesses whether Guantanamo prisoners can be released) at his hearing earlier this year, according to recently declassified documents.

"But make no mistake, underneath there is a hidden radicalization program," al-Sharbi added, referring to the Saudi terrorist reform facility, officially known as the Prince Mohammed bin Naif Counseling and Care Center.
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Star of David

Israeli warplanes launch two missiles across Syrian border striking near Damascus


RT
Wed, 30 Nov 2016 14:01 UTC
Israeli F-16 fighter jet
© Amir Cohen / Reuters
Syrian state media said Israeli fighter jets fired two missiles that hit west of Damascus, causing no casualties. Earlier reports indicated the missiles had hit Hezbollah militia targets near Al-Saboorah, a government-controlled suburb of Syria's capital.

Israeli planes launched the airstrike from Lebanese airspace at dawn to "divert attention away from the successes of the Syrian Arab Army," a Syrian military source said, according to SANA news agency.

Al-Masdar news agency reported earlier that the Israeli Air Force had launched four air-to-surface Popeye missiles targeting Hezbollah positions. The jets themselves are not believed to have entered Syrian airspace.
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Attention

Trump to tap ex-Goldman partner and Soros employee for top Treasury job, billionaire Ross to head Commerce Dept


RT
Wed, 30 Nov 2016 13:49 UTC
Steven Mnuchin
© Mike Segar / ReutersSteven Mnuchin
US President-elect Donald Trump is expected to select former Goldman Sachs executive Steven Mnuchin as his Treasury secretary as soon as Wednesday, media sources quote people familiar with the matter.

The 53-years old financier with no government experience but a broad background on Wall Street and in Hollywood served as national finance chairman for Trump's presidential campaign.

He was picked from among some other high-profile candidates, including JPMorgan chairman Jamie Dimon and Republican Jeb Hensarling, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.
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