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JASTA blowback? Syrian people to file lawsuit against US over Deir Ezzur massacre


FARS News Agency
Wed, 05 Oct 2016 18:03 UTC
Deir Ezzur bombed bridge
Several Syrian parliamentary and legal figures have called on the people of Deir Ezzur to lodge a complaint over Washington's recent killing of civilians and destruction of the province's infrastructure.

According to Asharq al-Awsat newspaper, Nabil Saleh, a senior Syrian lawmaker, has filed the lawsuit and wants the US to compensate for the damages and losses it has inflicted on the people of Deir Ezzur.

Also, Bassam Sabbaq, a specialist in the international laws, said that a US attorney can be hired to lodge a complaint with the country's courts against Washington.

If the Deir Ezzur people win the legal dispute, then they can receive compensation from the US, and Washington should apologize to them, he added.

Sabbaq called on those people of Deir Ezzur who have lost their family members or sustained damage in the US fighter jets' airstrikes to provide him with their information for legal procedures.
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Red Flag

Thanks America! UN report finds Afghan opium growth levels at all-time high as eradication is close to zero


RT
Thu, 06 Oct 2016 18:33 UTC
poppy field
© Parwiz / ReutersAfghan men work on a poppy field in Jalalabad province
Opium poppy cultivation levels in Afghanistan this year are the highest on record, said the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, adding that efforts to eradicate the crop have fallen flat.

"Unfortunately, preliminary results suggest that illicit cultivation has increased well above 200,000 hectares (494,000 acres)," UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov said on Wednesday, according to the text of a speech prepared for an international conference on Afghanistan in Brussels, Reuters reported.

"The production of opiates is expected to follow the same upward trend," while eradication efforts have dropped to "close to zero,"Fedotov said.

Presently, 2016 is set to make it into the top three worst years in this regard since the UNODC started tracking information on opium production in Afghanistan in 1994. The largest growing area was detected in 2014, totaling 224,000 hectares.
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Info

Rapprochement? Vladimir Putin to meet Erdogan in Istanbul despite continued Syria differences

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Thu, 06 Oct 2016 17:42 UTC
Putin and Erdogan
Russian President Vladimir Putin's forthcoming trip to Istanbul continues the pattern of a gradual repairing of relations between Russia and Turkey despite continuing deep differences over the conflict in Syria.

News that Russian President Vladimir Putin is planning to travel to Turkey on 10th October 2016 re-opens the question of how well the Russian - Turkish rapprochement is going.

Many of the hoped for predictions made shortly after the Turkish coup attempt in July have failed to happen.

NATO and the US are still firmly ensconced at Incirlik air base. The US continues to conduct missions in Syria from there. Talk of Russia being granted use of the air base has ended.

There is no sign of Turkey quitting NATO or giving up its application for EU membership or joining the Eurasian institutions.
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Eye 2

War hawk John McCain desperately wants to help his ISIS friends, calls on U.S. to attack Syria and go to war with Russia

Alex Christoforou
The Duran
Thu, 06 Oct 2016 17:23 UTC
John McCain with ISIS
In an editorial for The Wall Street Journal entitled, "Stop Assad Now—Or Expect Years of War" the ultimate US war hawk, John McCain, lays out his plan to help his ISIS and Al Qaeda partners in Syria, with a recipe consisting of...
  • Grounding the Syrian air force (from operating in its own sovereign country),
  • Creating safe zones for Syrian civilians (aka Saudi/Turkey Wahhabi trained terrorists),
  • And arming the opposition (aka Al Qaeda / Al Nusra / ISIS).
John McCain is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. John McCain also has a talent for showing up in countries right before regime change war breaks out. He did it in Ukraine and he did it in Syria.

Before considering McCain's plea for aiding the "moderate rebels" as some sort of "war hero's" attempt to bring democracy to a Syria under the rule of an evil dictator, take a look at the company McCain keeps...among whom are Al Qaeda and ISIS commanders, and even the leader of ISIS himself, Mr. Al Baghdadi.

Comment: McCain absolutely refuses to let Russia take care of the terrorist threat that the US created. For him it is US hegemony or else all out war.

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Arrow Down

Bernie "Sellout" Sanders dodges question about Clinton's pay-to-play scheme, deplores Trump

Alex Christoforou
The Duran
Thu, 06 Oct 2016 17:00 UTC
bernie
© RT
Bernie Sanders loves to slam Donald Trump, but when asked about the Clinton Foundation, Bernie goes bust.

Bernie Sanders has zero credibility.

He proved himself to be a feckless and weak leader who hustled an entire generation of millennials into believing a vision that he turned his back on in a matter of seconds.

Bernie built a campaign on change, bashing Wall Street opulence and vowing to take down the 1% establishment...only to pitifully bow down to Hillary Clinton in front of the whole world during the DNC.

Sanders not only kissed the a$$ of the candidate who stole the election right from under him, but he aligned with the ultimate establishment 1%'er, a woman so in bed with Wall Street bankers that Goldman Sachs is considering a name change to Goldman Hillary Sachs.

Comment: The thing is, Bernie is right about Trump. Trump would be horrible for America. He's just wrong about Hillary. She would be just as bad, if not worse. In the "lesser of two evils" debate, how is it that Hillary has managed to con so many people into thinking she is not a power-hungry corporate shill who gets her jollies toppling foreign governments, having their leaders killed, and massacring thousands of innocent people? Trump is a narcissist who can't help but expose himself whenever he opens his mouth. Hillary is a political psychopath who knows how the game is played, and how to wear a mask of sanity.

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Stock Up

Trade between Russia and France begins to recover


RT
Thu, 06 Oct 2016 16:36 UTC
France Russia trade
Trade between Russia and France rose by almost six percent in the first seven months of this year to $6.9 billion, according to the Russian Ministry of Economic Development.

During that period Russian imports surged more than 30 percent to $4.2 billion, while exports fell by 19.4 percent to $2.7 billion.

"France has traditionally been Russia's strategic partner," Russian Economic Development Minister Aleksey Ulyukaev said on Wednesday while meeting with the special representative of the French government for developing relations with Russia, Jean-Pierre Chevenement.
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Wolf

Avaaz spin-off Purpose, the PR firm you've never heard of, is leading the charge for regime change in Syria

Max Blumenthal
AlterNet
Mon, 03 Oct 2016 15:40 UTC
syria campagin organization propaganda
Another "aid" organization clamouring for Assad's removal

Comment: Max Blumenthal peels back the layers of connection between the 'humanitarian aid groups" meddling in Syria and their Western financial/political overlords.


Posing as a non-political solidarity organization, the Syria Campaign leverages local partners and media contacts to push the U.S. into toppling another Middle Eastern government.

On September 30, demonstrators gathered in city squares across the West for a "weekend of action" to "stop the bombs" raining down from Syrian government and Russian warplanes on rebel-held eastern Aleppo. Thousands joined the protests, holding signs that read "Topple Assad" and declaring, "Enough With Assad." Few participants likely knew that the actions were organized under the auspices of an opposition-funded public relations company called the Syria Campaign.

By partnering with local groups like the Syrian civil defense workers popularly known as the White Helmets, and through a vast network of connections in media and centers of political influence, The Syria Campaign has played a crucial role in disseminating images and stories of the horrors visited this month on eastern Aleppo. The group is able to operate within the halls of power in Washington and has the power to mobilize thousands of demonstrators into the streets. Despite its outsized role in shaping how the West sees Syria's civil war, which is now in its sixth year and entering one of its grisliest phases, this outfit remains virtually unknown to the general public.

The Syria Campaign presents itself as an impartial, non-political voice for ordinary Syrian citizens that is dedicated to civilian protection. "We see ourselves as a solidarity organization," The Syria Campaign strategy director James Sadri told me. "We're not being paid by anybody to pursue a particular line. We feel like we've done a really good job about finding out who the frontline activists, doctors, humanitarians are and trying to get their word out to the international community."

Yet behind the lofty rhetoric about solidarity and the images of heroic rescuers rushing in to save lives is an agenda that aligns closely with the forces from Riyadh to Washington clamoring for regime change. Indeed, The Syria Campaign has been pushing for a no-fly zone in Syria that would require at least "70,000 American servicemen" to enforce, according to a Pentagon assessment, along with the destruction of government infrastructure and military installations. There is no record of a no-fly zone being imposed without regime change following —which seems to be exactly what The Syria Campaign and its partners want.
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Telephone

Kerry confers with Lavrov about Syria, Ukraine & North Korea


RFE/RL
Thu, 06 Oct 2016 16:23 UTC
Secretary of State Kerry
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (left) conferred with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Syria, Ukraine, and North Korea.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart resumed discussions on Syria on October 5, despite a U.S. decision earlier this week to suspend direct talks with Moscow on trying to end the conflict.

Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by phone about Syria, Ukraine, and North Korea. The State Department said the chat was outside the engagement that Washington put on hold just 48 hours earlier due to continued Russian bombardment of the besieged city of Aleppo.

"It would be irresponsible for us, given what's happening in Aleppo, not to touch base with Foreign Minister Lavrov periodically," spokesman Mark Toner said.
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Snakes in Suits

Oh the irony: Russian Vekselberg's Renova Group finances the Clintons

Boris Vayner
Oriental Review
Tue, 04 Oct 2016 16:21 UTC
Viktor Vekselberg and Hillary Clinton
The breathtaking and qualified investigative report, recently released by Jerome Corsi on the Clinton's cash-sucking empire, have unleashed a wide public campaign to seriously audit and eventually close the controversial Clinton Foundation. Established back in 2001, it was designed to add some charity charm to banal capitalization of the still powerful brand of the former US President.

According to the Daily Wire, only in 2009-2012 the CF officially (!) raised over $500 million while spending only $75 million on "programmatic grants" and over $400 million on employee salaries and "other expenses". After having forced to disclose its list of contributors, many investigators exposed numerous facts of the conflict of interests during the period when Mrs. Clinton held the position of the US Secretary of State.

The cases of Marc Rich, the world's most famous tax evader who was granted amnesty by Bill Clinton in the last minutes of his presidency by enabling the "HRC option", the former Lebanese DPM and Hezbollah sympathizer Issam Fares making seven-figure donations to the CF, the Ukrainian billionaire, ex-president Kuchma's son-in-law and major CF contributor Viktor Pinchuk who used to breach the US sanctions regime against Iran, are already properly reported worldwide.

While the story of Mrs. Clinton's lobbying affair with the Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg has also had a notable coverage in the US media, the plot was generally focused on a gibberish 2012 Clinton Global Initiative email controversy. The most detailed report "From Russia With Money" on Clinton's cronyism in Russian favor was done by Peter Schweitzer, president of The Government Accountability Institute, this August. According to the latter, in 2010-2012 Mrs. Clinton advocated multibillion American technology investments into the Vekselberg-run Skolkovo Project (the Russian Silicon Valley), engaged e.g. in developing hypersonic cruise-missile engines, radar surveillance equipment, and vehicles capable of delivering airborne troops.


Comment: The Clinton-Kremlin Connection: How Killary funneled millions from Russia's 'Silicon Valley'

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Bulb

Russia passes law offering additional state protection to participants in counter-terrorist operations


RT
Thu, 06 Oct 2016 16:19 UTC
russia tactical unit
© Grigoriy Sisoev / SputnikThe exercise of the Interior Ministry's tactical and counter-terrorism units
The Russian government has drafted a set of amendments extending state protection programs to military servicemen and police who take part in counter-terrorist operations, as well as intelligence agents who protect the interests of the country.

The bill, which was published on the government's website on Thursday, proposes changing the current norm under which state protection can only be offered at the written request or written consent of those eligible for such protection - witnesses, judges, jury members, and other participants in criminal law proceedings. The new document contains provisions allowing the protection measures to be extended to those who cannot file such requests or give consent when state authorities possess information showing that their life or health is in danger.

The bill authorizes investigations into such reports and sets the terms under which these probes must be completed. It empowers the authorities to take urgent measures to protect the persons in extraordinary cases.
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