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Stormtrooper

German government considering reintroducing military draft if defense of NATO borders is needed


RT
Tue, 23 Aug 2016 15:16 UTC
german military
© Thomas Peter / Reuters
The German government may revive nationwide conscription in times of crisis, such as situations in which the country needs to "defend NATO's external borders," according to local media citing a controversial paper drafted by the Interior Ministry.

The so-called "Civil Defense Concept," which is due to be discussed by the German cabinet on Wednesday, mainly focuses on fulfilling Germany's obligations to defend NATO's external border.

However, the controversial proposal to revive conscription does not lie on the surface and can only be found buried in a section entitled "Civil support for the armed forces," according to DPA news agency.

"Quick and reliable delivery of mail especially important for the Bundeswehr (in particular, call-up papers and notices of performance in times of reintroduction of conscription) is ensured under Post- and Telecommunications Safety Act," reads the draft cited by DPA.
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Heart - Black

Military source: Saudi Arabia launches chemical attack on Sana'a, killing civilians


FARS News Agency
Mon, 22 Aug 2016 15:05 UTC
Chemical weapon
A Yemeni military source disclosed that Saudi Arabia has attacked the civilians in Sana'a with chemical weapons, killing and injuring a number of people in the capital city's Ninth district.

"A number of Yemeni people have been killed as a result of inhaling poisonous gases in the chemical attack," Military Expert Major General Abdel Sattar al-Sa'deh told FNA on Monday.

He reiterated that Sana'a's Ninth district has been under artillery attacks of the pro-Saudi forces, yet it seems that the Saudi forces have been recently supplied with chemical weapons to exert more pressure on the district.

Al-Sa'deh said that the Yemeni citizens felt weakness, unconsciousness and tiredness after the Saudi forces attacked them with artillery shells containing white-colored substances.

"This is for the first time that this kind of poisonous artillery shells are fired at residents of the Ninth district and the villages of Qoubareh, Qoul Ali, al-Ma'di, al-Asarat and al-Aqran," he added.

Al-Sa'deh reiterated that the chemical warfare used by Saudi Arabia only targets humans and animals.
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Vader

Oxford study finds Trump has more psychopathic traits than Hitler


RT
Tue, 23 Aug 2016 15:03 UTC
trump
© Eric Thayer / Reuters
US presidential hopeful Donald Trump has more psychopathic traits than Adolf Hitler, a researcher at Oxford University has found.

Psychologist Dr. Kevin Dutton has ranked the psychopathic traits of the Republican candidate and various historical figures using a standard psychometric tool - the Psychopathic Personality Inventory - Revised (PPI-R).

Experts suggested likely scores against a series of questions. Trump scored 171, two points more than Hitler.

Saddam Hussein topped the list, scoring 189, while Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton received a score of 152, putting her in the top 20 percent.

Margaret Thatcher scored 136 points, and Elizabeth I was put at 130.
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Bomb

Turkey backtracks on 'child suicide bomber' statement


Al Jazeera
Mon, 22 Aug 2016 14:49 UTC
suicide bomber turkey
© Umit Bektas/ReutersTurkish Prime Minister Binali Yildrim
Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim says authorities are in no position to verify whether a child suicide bomber was responsible for a blast that killed at least 54 people on Saturday, reversing an earlier assertion by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"We are not in a position to verify anything about who the perpetrator was - if it was a child, an adult, or for which organisation," Yildrim told reporters in Ankara on Monday, referring to the suicide attack at a wedding in the city of Gaziantep.

"We do not have a clue about who the perpetrators behind the attack were," he added. "Early information on who did the attack, in what organisation's name, is unfortunately not right," he said.

Comment: For more information on the bombing read:

Explosion and 'multiple casualties' reported at wedding ceremony in Turkey - UPDATES

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Bomb

Al Shabaab car bombs kill 20 people in Somalia


TVC NEWS
Mon, 22 Aug 2016 14:35 UTC
al Shabaab militants
More than 20 people were killed on Sunday when suicide bombers from the militant al Shabaab group detonated two car bombs at a local government headquarters in Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland region, witnesses and officials said.

Residents of the town of Galkayo in north central Somalia said they heard two loud blasts in quick succession followed by heavy gunfire.

"There were two huge bombs. The first one was a truck bomb, followed a minute or so (later) by another car bomb. My brother was injured at the scene," Halima Ismail, a local resident, told Reuters.

Comment: Al Shabaab: Terror in East Africa benefits Western interests

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Jet5

Sharing of military bases between India and US soon to become reality


Sputnik
Tue, 23 Aug 2016 14:11 UTC
US F-16 fighter jets
© AFP 2016/ DESHAKALYAN CHOWDHURY
As India is all set to conclude a security deal with the US, experts warn it could prove dangerous to the existing regional security alliance.

After much dilly-dallying, India and the US are set to sign an agreement which would pave the way for sharing each other's military bases for logistic and humanitarian assistance. The draft of the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) is ready and is likely to be signed during the forthcoming visit of India's Defense Minister to the United States. The three day visit of Manohar Parrikar, India's Minister of Defense, will begin from August 29. The agreement, however, will not give access to Indian bases for the deployment of US troops. India and the US had agreed in April this year to conclude the LEMOA soon.

After extensive discussions, both countries have agreed upon the draft of the LEMOA. The draft agreement says that the LEMOA will not grant the deployment of US troops on Indian soil under any circumstances. Both nations will have to seek advance permission to use the facilities, which are mainly for training, exercises, port calls and humanitarian assistance.
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Gold Seal

Advisor to Syrian President Assad: The West's fight against terrorism is a farce - they facilitate terrorism

Eva Bartlett
RT
Tue, 23 Aug 2016 14:00 UTC
Bouthaina Shaaban
© Stringer / ReutersBouthaina Shaaban
In early August, Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban, Political and Media Adviser to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, spoke with me about how the Western media is stifling Syrian voices, endlessly propagating false allegations against the Syrian government and army.

On the question of the Western media's reaction whenever the Syrian Arab Army liberates areas from foreign-backed terrorists (the most recent examples include the liberation of Aleppo's Bani Zaid and Lairamoun industrial districts from the so-called "Free Syrian Army" (FSA), Jabhat al-Nusra, Nouriddeen Al-Zinki, and Ahrar al-Sham, among other terrorist factions), which was met with deafening silence by Western corporate media, Shaaban accused the Western media of "double standards."

"If the West really wants to end this terrorism, why are they so upset about liberating Bani Zaid in Aleppo, which was responsible for killing thousands of civilians in Aleppo? They should have hailed the Syrian Arab Army that liberated these Syrian citizens from terrorism, and they should have hailed overcoming these terrorist groups that were sending hell into Aleppo.

"There's no real stand against terrorism," the Syrian president's adviser continued. "Not only do they not care about the lives of civilians in Aleppo or Syria, they don't care about the lives of civilians in Nice or Paris or in the USA. The lives of civilians in Syria is as worthy as the lives of civilians in any European country, and one should be human in this regard."
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Quenelle - Golden

Russian rep to UN slams US hypocrisy in Syria: "Look at yourselves in the mirror!"

Translated by J. Arnoldski
Fort Russ / PolitRussia
Tue, 23 Aug 2016 12:37 UTC
Vitaly Churkin
It would be best if the international coalition headed by the US would "look itself in the mirror" before spreading provocative insinuations concerning the Russian Air Force in Syria to the UN Security Council. This was stated by Russia's permanent representative to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, at a security council meeting.

"Unfortunately, some of the Council's members tend to hold incorrect or, frankly speaking, dishonest discussion. They drag provocative insinuations into the Security Council concerning the work of Russian air forces while remaining silent over their own unjustifiable actions," he said.
Churkin recalled multiple coalition airstrikes on Syrian cities and villages as a result of which civilians, including women and children, were killed. For example, the strike on the city of Manbij which killed dozens and injured hundreds of people.

"Aid was not afforded to the civilian population. The only case in which civilians exited Manbij on July 19th was accompanied by an incident in which an aircraft flew too low over a colony of refugees, injuring 200 people," Russia's permanent representative noted.

Comment: Further reading:

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Bad Guys

NPR's role in the 'unholy choir' of Western propaganda

Tom Winter & Joaquin Flores
Fort Russ
Tue, 23 Aug 2016 12:43 UTC
NPR National Propaganda Radio
National Public Radio is one of the US's state media institutions, despite the protestation to the contrary. It serves a critical role in providing left-cover for US imperial and military adventurism in the world today and like much of the western press, plays an active role in encouraging military interventionism, as you will see below.

The beauty of NPR is that it is a microcosm, a mirror reflection, of the entire US project and self-conception. The parallels between the views of NPR's target demographic, (middle-aged, college educated, whites who are left-of-center), and how this demographic views the US in the world, might otherwise seem uncanny. That is, of course, until we come to terms with the nature of media and NPR's role in it.

The role of media in shaping world events and our thinking about them is indisputable. Whether news, entertainment, or advertising, media is much more than a mere reflection of reality - it is a reality creator. Any ambivalence about this point should be quickly disabused by a cursory glance at the multi-billion dollar advertising industry, the primacy of seizing TV and radio stations in a coup attempt, that TV and radio stations are primary military targets in war, or the controls that governments and corporations impose on internet access. None of these would be important if media merely reflected a reality which was already a consensus. To the contrary, media is a consensus builder.
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Dollar

15k new Hillary emails discovered - more evidence of Clinton Foundation pay-to-play scheme


RT
Mon, 22 Aug 2016 22:40 UTC
hillary clinton
© Associated Press
The FBI has found nearly 15,000 emails that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton never turned over after she left office. Some show that foreign officials tried to curry favor with the State Department by donating millions to the Clinton Foundation.

The existence of the 14,900 messages was revealed during a court hearing on Monday. Judicial Watch, a conservative foundation that promotes integrity in government, has been seeking to release those emails, all of which were found on one computer disc that includes emails and attachments sent directly to or from Clinton or in which she was included at some point in the email chain. Monday's court hearing was to determine the schedule by which the new emails will be released.

Also on Monday, Judicial Watch released 725 pages of State Department documents, including 20 email exchanges in which Clinton was a participant. More than a dozen of them added further evidence of a pay-to-play scheme in which foreign officials donated millions of dollars to the Clinton Foundation and its Clinton Global Initiative in exchange for access to the State Department.

In one of the message chains, the Clinton Foundation's Doug Band emailed Clinton's aide at the State Department, Huma Abedin, about a "good friend of ours," Crown Prince Salman of Bahrain. He was "asking to see her," Band wrote in June 2009.


Comment: Ms. Abedin has a very interesting political pedigree herself:

The crown prince had already asked to see Clinton through "normal channels," Abedin replied. "I asked and she doesn't want to commit to anything."

Two days later, Abedin wrote Band that Clinton was able to meet with Crown Prince Salman, and that he should let the Bahraini royal know if he sees him. "We have reached out thru official channels," she added.
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