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Cult

Pepe Escobar: Why Killary is a bigger concern to China (and the rest of the world) than Trump

Pepe Escobar
SCMP
Sat, 15 Oct 2016 00:00 UTC
Killary
So you think Donald Trump is the biggest threat to world peace? And Barack Obama engineered America's "pivot to Asia"?

It was actually Hillary Clinton, emphasising the necessity of a "strategic turn" for the United States, who launched the pivot to Asia in an October 2011 article titled "America's Pacific Century". The tone was martial: "Our military is by far the strongest and our economy is by far the largest." The South China Sea duly featured: "Half the world's merchant tonnage flows through this water". Informed observers didn't need a manual to spot Clinton's subtle cue alerting them to the danger of China's "nine-dashed line".

Clinton's essay preceded Obama's November 2011 speech to the Australian Parliament in which he officially announced the pivot. The key theme was the US as a "Pacific nation". The tone was mostly combative. Only after 10 long confrontational paragraphs did a meek "effort to build a cooperative relationship with China" appear.

As a presidential candidate in 2008, Clinton's tone was way more composed. She admitted that the US budget deficit was largely funded by Chinese purchases of US Treasury bills. She then seemed to be subscribing to the widely held notion in the Beltway that the root of US global hegemony is economic.
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Attention

US controls the Aleppo terrorists who are using civilians as human shields - US Senator


RT
Mon, 17 Oct 2016 00:58 UTC
Richard H. Black, Senator of Virginia
Richard H. Black, Senator of Virginia
The US and its allies could order their terrorist proxies in Aleppo to allow civilians to leave, but instead use them as hostages to escalate anti-Russia rhetoric in a bid to prevent the fall of the rebel stronghold, Virginia Senator Richard Black told RT.

RT: John Kerry has come out and put the blame squarely on just Russia. Do you think it's a fair comment?

Richard Black: No, I don't. The fact is when he gave that speech, he was sitting next to Saudi Foreign Minister al-Jubeir, and Saudi Arabia has funded ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and Al-Nusra - which is Al-Qaeda in Syria, a coordinating group within the Aleppo pocket in East Aleppo.

They have forbidden the civilians from leaving, using the civilians as a human shield, because they know that it forces Syria and Russia to be much more cautious with the bombing. You know, the hyperbolic language used by Secretary Kerry is really outrageous, because the United Nations Office of Human Affairs announced that in the two weeks between September 23 and October 8, there have been about 406 civilians killed.

No one wants any civilians killed, but I've got to tell you, if you compare that to the American casualty figures during our invasion of Iraq, during that first year period, we killed approximately 100,000 civilians. So you're talking about 406 versus 100,000. Frankly, I don't know whether they taught arithmetic at Yale University, but Secretary Kerry, his rhetoric is terribly overblown.
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Snakes in Suits

Sudden urgency? US and UK call for unconditional truce in Yemen ASAP


RT
Mon, 17 Oct 2016 17:51 UTC
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson (L) and US Secretary of State John Kerry
© Justin Tallis / Reuters
The US and the UK have called for an urgent ceasefire in Yemen, after the coalition led by Saudi Arabia bombed a funeral in early October. However, both Washington and London continue to funnel weapons to their Saudi ally.

US Secretary of State John Kerry met with his Saudi Arabian counterpart late on Sunday, stressing that "this is the time to implement a ceasefire unconditionally and then move to the negotiating table."

"We cannot emphasize enough today the urgency of ending the violence in Yemen," Kerry said, adding the truce must be achieved "as rapidly as possible, meaning Monday, Tuesday."

With military and logistics support from the Pentagon, Saudi Arabia is leading a coalition of Arab countries launching an air and ground campaign in Yemen against the Houthis, a Shia Muslim movement that ousted Yemen's Sunni President, Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

Comment: The Houthis have always wanted a ceasefire and are ready as long as Saudi Arabia sincerely complies. So why the sudden need for a ceasefire now after the U.S. hit 3 radar sites in Yemen? Was the Saudi funeral massacre just a bit too atrocious? Update: Dictator Hadi has now also signaled his support for a ceasefire:
Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi agreed to conclude a 72-hour truce with the Houthi rebels, local media reported Sunday, citing Yemeni Foreign Minister Abdel Malek Mekhlafi.

According to the foreign minister of Yemen, Hadi also considered the possibility to extend the ceasefire, the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper posted on its Twitter account.


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Eye 2

Cowardly Kiev Special Forces Assassinate Novorossiya Hero "Motorola" Arsen Pavlov (UPDATE)

J. Arnoldski
Fort Russ
Sun, 16 Oct 2016 10:14 UTC
Motorola Pavlov
Militiaman Motorola with his spouse, Elena, at the Donetsk Opera and Ballet Theatre
The commander of the Sparta battalion of the Donetsk People's Republic and famous defender of Donbass known by his callsign "Motorola," Arsen Pavlov, was killed today, October 16th, by a bomb in his apartment building's elevator. The incident has been officially confirmed as an assassination carried out by Ukrainian special forces.

Over the course of the war in Donbass, Ukrainian media claimed dozens of times that Motorola had been killed. This time, however, reliable sources have confirmed the news.

The Ministry of Defense of the DPR has officially stated that "According to preliminary information, Motorola was killed as a result of a terrorist operation of a Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group. Upon returning home, a remote-detonated explosive device was set off in the elevator."


Comment: Militia commander Motorola killed in bombing attack in eastern Ukraine

Update Oct. 17:

Assassination of Motorola: the last straw? Chilling message
On 16 October 2016, Motorola was cowardly killed with a remotely-controlled explosive device, placed in the elevator of his own home. The message delivered by the leader of the self-named Donetsk Republic is awfully chilling. It is official that the Minsk Agreement is dead. For those not in the know - the Minsk agreement provided a set of instructions, basically a ceasefire, for both sides.


Video translation by Inessa Sinchougova. Correction noted:
It was brought to my attention that at 3.06 - the crowd is chanting "Hitlerjugend - SS" which is referring to the Hitler Youth Army division of the SS Nazi special forces. As I don't speak German, it sounded to me like the Russian word for "Hitler loves SS" - apologies. This makes it even more eerie.


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Clock

Best of the Web: Will the Empire really try to kill Philippines president Duterte?

Andre Vltchek
New Eastern Outlook
Mon, 17 Oct 2016 15:44 UTC
President Duterte
© AFP
Rodrigo Duterte, the outspoken President of the Philippines has by now, most likely, joined the concealed, prestigious and permanent hit list of the Empire.

The hit list is very long; it has already been long for several decades. One could easily lose count and get confused: how many personalities have been marked and secretly condemned to death? How many of them actually died?

It reads like a catalogue of illustrious world leaders: from Patrice Lumumba (Zaire), Mohammad Mosaddegh (Iran), Hugo Chavez (Venezuela), Sukarno (Indonesia), Juvénal Habyarimana (Rwanda), Salvador Allende (Chile) to Muammar Gaddafi (Libya), Al-Basheer (Sudan) and Fidel Castro (Cuba), to name just a very few.

Some were directly assassinated; others were 'only' toppled, while only a handful of 'marked' leaders actually managed to survive and to stay in power.

There were several grave crimes committed by almost all of them, very similar crimes. They include: defending the vital interests of their nations and people, refusing to allow the unbridled plunder of natural resources by multinational corporations, and standing against the principles of imperialism. Simple criticism of the Empire has also been often punishable by death.

Comment: See also: Duterte in the western media crosshairs, and the truth about the Philippines' drug war

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Radar

Radar malfunction? Pentagon voices caution on latest Yemen missile incident

Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali
Reuters
Mon, 17 Oct 2016 23:40 UTC
The USS Mason
© Karl Ronstrom / Reuters
The Pentagon declined to say on Monday whether the USS Mason destroyer was targeted by multiple inbound missiles fired from Yemen on Saturday, as initially thought, saying a review was under way to determine what happened.

Any determination that the USS Mason guided-missile destroyer was targeted on Saturday could have military repercussions, since the United States has threatened to retaliate again should its ships come under fire from territory in Yemen controlled by Iran-aligned Houthi fighters.

The United States carried out cruise missile strikes against radar sites in Yemen on Thursday after two confirmed attempts last week to hit the USS Mason with coastal cruise missiles.

"We are still assessing the situation. There are still some aspects to this that we are trying to clarify for ourselves given the threat - the potential threat - to our people," Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told a news briefing.


Comment: Possible radar malfunction?
Officials Saturday night were uncertain about what exactly happened, if there were multiple incoming missiles or if there was a malfunction with the radar detection system on the destroyer.

"We are aware of the reports and we are assessing the situation. All of our ships and crews are safe and unharmed," one US defense official told CNN.

The USS Nitze and the USS Ponce were sailing nearby.

There are initial unconfirmed reports of missiles possibly being fired from positions both ashore on Yemen and by small spotter boats operated by Houthi rebels.

Comment: If confirmed as a radar malfunction, this will be another blow to the US. Is this the reason for the sudden ceasefire demand? Sudden urgency? US and UK call for unconditional truce in Yemen ASAP

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Info

The New American Warfare: Covert Chaos Creation

Bernhard
Moon of Alabama
Mon, 17 Oct 2016 21:47 UTC
africa us special forces
A recommendable New York Times piece looks at the mostly hidden way the U.S. is now waging wars. The example is Somalia, where the U.S. has been at war with the people of that country for over 25 years. But, as the authors note, the same modus operandi applies elsewhere.
The Obama administration has intensified a clandestine war in Somalia over the past year, using Special Operations troops, airstrikes, private contractors and African allies in an escalating campaign against Islamist militants in the anarchic Horn of Africa nation.
Would that "anarchic" nation Somalia still be "anarchic" if the U.S. would end its endless fighting there? That is very unlikely. Without outer interference Somalia would have been peaceful again many years ago. But the war continues, run not with regular U.S. forces, but with mercenaries, proxies, drones and a few U.S. Special Forces.
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Info

French historian view on why Russia 'wins in the whole of Arab-Muslim world while the West loses'


Sputnik
Mon, 17 Oct 2016 18:48 UTC
Damascus, Syria
© Wikipedia/ Bernard Gagnon
Due to its status as the "Muslim power", Russia has been able to work out a very effective policy in the Middle East; Kremlin's course based on realism and readiness to fight against extremism enables it to win in the whole of Arab-Muslim world where the West, and Europe and France in particular, inexorably loses, according to a French historian.

French Doctor of History and Associate Researcher at the Institute for Research and Studies on the Arab and Muslim World (IREMAM) at Aix-Marseille University, Roland Lombardi has attempted to "coldly and objectively" analyze Russia's current success in the Arab-Muslim world. "Since the Western intervention into Libya, Russia has renewed its interest in the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Now no day passes without some symbolic or diplomatic success of the Kremlin in the Mediterranean region (the latest being the reconciliation with Turkey)," Lombardi writes in his article for French Atlantico news website.
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Binoculars

Best of the Web: The Story of Jaber al-Bakr: From White Helmets to Berlin Bomb Plot

Christoph Germann
Newsbud
Mon, 17 Oct 2016 20:11 UTC
Jaber Albakr
The two-day manhunt, spectacular arrest and shocking death of a Syrian terrorism suspect in Germany have attracted a lot of attention and raised a lot of questions.

On October 8, German police raided an apartment in the eastern city of Chemnitz after being tipped off by Germany's domestic intelligence agency. They found 1.5 kilograms of TATP, the explosive of choice for ISIS terrorists, but the target of the raid, a 22-year-old Syrian refugee named Jaber al-Bakr, managed to escape.

Three alleged associates of al-Bakr were detained in connection with the raid, two of whom were later released. A 33-year-old Syrian refugee, identified only as Khalil A., remains in custody. Kahlil A. was renting the Chemnitz apartment where al-Bakr was staying. He is accused of allowing al-Bakr to use his apartment and of ordering bomb-making materials for him online. Security sources referred to the apartment as "a virtual bomb-making lab."1

Comment: Even if we take everything about the official account of al-Bakr and his death at face value, it is utterly damning, as Germann makes clear. Here is a member of the U.S./NATO-backed White Helmets, the U.S./NATO-backed Ahrar al-Sham, and ISIS, who somehow managed to get back into Germany without any documentation, and who planned an attack on German soil. Presumably the only reason he got caught was because some U.S. intelligence agency tipped off the Germans about his communications with ISIS in Syria, perhaps in the hopes of staging a big PR coup for Germany's war on terror. We guess they didn't realize the can of worms they were opening on that one! And conveniently, al-Bakr is now dead.

See also:

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Network

WikiLeaks 10: More releases of emails from Clinton campaign chair


RT
Mon, 17 Oct 2016 18:19 UTC
Hillary Clinton
© Brian Snyder / Reuters
WikiLeaks has dumped another collection of emails from Hillary Clinton's campaign chair, John Podesta.

The newly released emails include campaign staff exchanges on handling media queries about Clinton "flip-flopping" on gay marriage, galvanizing Latino support and locking down Clinton's healthcare policy.

The organization had already published over 12,000 Podesta emails online by Sunday. This latest release brings the number of Podesta emails now in the public domain to over 15,200.
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