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Why future of War in Syria depends on battle for Aleppo


Sputnik
Thu, 12 May 2016 00:00 UTC
Aleppo rubble
© AFP 2016/ KARAM AL-MASRI
The complicated situation in Aleppo as of late has shown the strategic importance of the Syrian town. Both the US and Russia have insisted on maintaining the ceasefire in Aleppo. However, there are a number of circumstances which could undermine it.

The "silent period" in Aleppo has resulted in a lowering in intensity of combat activity, according to the US presidential administration.

At the same time, SANA news agency reported that al-Nusra Front terrorists and their allies made an attempt to breach the ceasefire and fired 20 rockets at the civillian districts of the city on Thursday.

Earlier, the US State Department reported that Moscow and Washington had reached a ceasefire in Aleppo. According to Russian presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, the "ceasefire in Aleppo is fragile because terrorists and opposition fighters are mixed up in the city."

The "silent period" commenced on Thursday at 01:00 a.m. local time. The Syrian Army reported that combat actions would be stopped for 48 hours. In addition, the "silent period" was extended outside Damascus and in to northern Latakia.

Comment: See also:
US proxy terror armies re-branded as 'moderates': All part of Plan B in Syria

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Snakes in Suits

Hollande faces more protests and splits in government after surviving confidence vote


Sputnik
Fri, 13 May 2016 22:43 UTC
French President Francois Hollande
© REUTERS/ Philippe Wojazer
Embattled French President Francois Hollande is facing deep divisions within his own party as well as continuing mass protests by students and unions after surviving a no-confidence vote over his reforms to the country's labor laws and bypassing parliament to push them through.

France has been paralyzed by a series of nationwide strikes - particularly by students - against French President Francois Hollande's proposed reforms to the highly codified French labor laws - known as the Code du Travail - in order to give employers more flexibility.

Comment: The protests are not over for sure: Paris explodes as 50,000 take to streets to protest labor reform

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Megaphone

German MP recites notorious anti-Erdogan poem in front of Parliament


RT
Fri, 13 May 2016 00:00 UTC
German parliament
© Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters
Germany's parliament was shocked when one MP read aloud a notorious poem about Turkey's president which sparked an international free speech row last month. His performance was aired on national TV. He said the aim had been to show how "awful" it was.

The poem about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gained an audience in the Bundestag when Detlef Seif, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU party recited the entire text standing at the pulpit.

Comment: See also:
German court refuses to grant injunction requested by Erdogan against publisher who supported Bohmermann poem
Boomerang effect: 'Insult Turkey's Erdogan' contest set up by Spectator magazine

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Rocket

Syrian forces beat back Al-Nusra offensive with Russian rocket-launchers

RusVesna
Fort Russ
Fri, 13 May 2016 22:07 UTC
Russian rocket launcher
© RusVesna.su
In the Aleppo province of Syria, violent clashes are ongoing. The Syrian Arab Army and its allies are fighting against various terrorist groups supporting the offensive of "Jebat al-Nusra" against the village of Khan-Tuman.

According to reports from the Syrian side, the army has liquidated a large number of terrorists on this sector of the front, and has confirmed the destruction of dozens of pickup trucks armed with machine guns, infantry fighting vehicles, and other military equipment of the bandit gangs.
In this published footage, government soldiers are seen destroying tanks and infantry fighting vehicles with the aid of "Konkurs" Russian anti-tank missiles, and eliminating the gangs' foot soldiers with mounted grenade launchers, rocket launchers, and anti-aircraft installations.
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Pocket Knife

Russia blames 'Foreign Interference' for Brazil coup


teleSUR
Thu, 12 May 2016 00:00 UTC
CIA operations
© ReutersCIA has an extensive record of carrying out covert operations around the globe aimed at destabilizing governments that refuse to comply with U.S. interests.
"For Russia, Brazil is an important foreign partner in Latin America and the world," added Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova.

The Russian Foreign Ministry spoke out Wednesday against the efforts to oust Rousseff, pinning the move on "foreign interference."

"For Russia, Brazil is an important foreign partner in Latin America and the world," added Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova.

Russia and Brazil have an important relationship and are members of the influential BRICS group.

A 2015 document, reported in various Russian news agencies, addressed the possibility of U.S. intelligence agency involvement in the parliamentary coup against President Dilma Rousseff. "It is quite possible that the CIA is involved in the plan to stage riots in Brazil nationwide," the Russian news outlets said in a 2015 report.

Comment: See also:
WikiLeaks: Brazil's acting president used to be US embassy informant
Democracy to be crushed in Brazil after US-engineered Rousseff impeachment

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Treasure Chest

Not corrupt, just 'exceptional': Donald Trump's name appears 3,540 times in latest Panama Papers leak


teleSUR
Wed, 11 May 2016 20:12 UTC
Donald Trump
© ReutersRepublican nominee Donald Trump during a campaign speech
At least 140 politicians from more than 50 countries are linked to offshore companies.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has been linked to anonymous companies created by the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, according to documents released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists known as the ICIJ, according to an NPR report.

The leaked documents show that the Trump empire is linked to 32 offshore companies, including the real estate project Trump Ocean Club International Hotel and Tower in Panama.

His name appears 3,540 times in the database, but according to media reports that doesn't mean he is directly involved since Trump has sold his name to other investors in different countries.

The latest release of documents includes the names of more than 320,000 people and companies around the world, including politicians, businesspeople and movie stars.

Comment: Iceland's leader resigned the day after his wife was named as belonging to ONE offshore company.

The Donald won't be going anywhere.

The difference is that corruption is a virtue in the US, the 'exceptional' country.

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Jet3

Militarism: America's drug of choice

Tom Inglehardt
TomDispatch.com
Thu, 12 May 2016 07:45 UTC
american wars, U.S. militarism
There are the news stories that genuinely surprise you, and then there are the ones that you could write in your sleep before they happen. Let me concoct an example for you:
"Top American and European military leaders are weighing options to step up the fight against the Islamic State in the Mideast, including possibly sending more U.S. forces into Iraq, Syria, and Libya, just as Washington confirmed the second American combat casualty in Iraq in as many months."
Oh wait, that was actually the lead sentence in a May 3rd Washington Times piece by Carlo Muñoz. Honestly, though, it could have been written anytime in the last few months by just about anyone paying any attention whatsoever, and it surely will prove reusable in the months to come (with casualty figures altered, of course). The sad truth is that across the Greater Middle East and expanding parts of Africa, a similar set of lines could be written ahead of time about the use of Special Operations forces, drones, advisers, whatever, as could the sorry results of making such moves in [add the name of your country of choice here].

Put another way, in a Washington that seems incapable of doing anything but worshiping at the temple of the U.S. military, global policymaking has become a remarkably mindless military-first process of repetition. It's as if, as problems built up in your life, you looked in the closet marked "solutions" and the only thing you could ever see was one hulking, over-armed soldier, whom you obsessively let loose, causing yet more damage.

Comment:
"Senile old power" U.S. resorting to viagra of militarism

The behavior of the United States is the archetypal response of a tyrant whose days are numbered. Or an empire that is crumbling before its very eyes. In denial of demise, it wields a still formidable military power in a bid to compensate for impotence in all other spheres: culturally, morally, economically, politically, the once virile giant is but a shell of its former self. Instead of bowing out gracefully to the realities of a changing world, Washington is using militarism like viagra to postpone the inevitable.
Further reading:

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USA

SOTT Focus: US proxy terror armies re-branded as 'moderates': All part of Plan B in Syria

Paul Mansfield
Sott.net
Wed, 11 May 2016 18:57 UTC
jaish nusra
© ReutersOne of a kind: Jaish al-Islam, FSA and al-Nusra terrorists routinely support one another.
Al-Nusra and the so called "moderate" rebel opposition in Syria have no intention of calling off their alliance with which they intend to overthrow the government of Bashar al-Assad. In the same vein, the US, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, who sponsor these "moderates", have no intention of ending their alliance, which has the same objective. Russian intervention has turned the tide and ensured there will be no regime change. The US has responded with Plan B, ominously presented as a plan to "counter Russia" and which may lead to the partition of Syria.

Sputnik News reported that on Wednesday, 5 May, Vitaly Churkin, Russia's representative to the United Nations, told the UN Security Council that "Western-backed opposition forces in Syria have not broken off ties to the al-Nusra Front group despite their promises to do so."

Al-Nusra was a leading member of a coalition of Islamist groups called Ansar al Sharia, formed in 2015 for the purpose of capturing government-held regions of Aleppo. This followed its membership in the formation of Jaish al-Fatah ("Army of Conquest") in the Idlib province earlier in the year. Besides Al-Nusra, these alliances include hard-line Islamist groups such as Ahrar ash-Sham, Jund al-Aqsa, Liwa al-Haqq, Ansar al-Din, Jaysh al-Sunna, Ajnad al-Sham, and Faylaq al-Sham. Jaish al-Fatah has fought together in Aleppo, Latakia, Hama, and Idlib Governorates. Through this alliance Al-Nusra has gained easy access to weapons such as the US anti-tank TOW missile. On 6 May Jaish Al-Fatah launched an offensive in south west Aleppo by a suicide bomb attack in the town of Khan Tuman.
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Star of David

No surprise: Israel stealing Palestinian land using forged title documents


Yahoo News
Mon, 09 May 2016 21:04 UTC
Pisgat Ze'ev legal Israeli settlement
Pisgat Ze'ev, an illegal Israeli settlement of over 50,00 in East Jerusalem, is seen behind the wall separating Israel from Palestinian occupied territories.
Land owned by a Palestinian family in East Jerusalem has been confiscated by the Israeli government and reallocated to a Zionist settlement non-government organization, an investigation by local news outlet Haaretz discovered.

The NGO, Amana, is in the process of building its headquarters on land that belongs to the Abu Ta'ah family. "Documents submitted for an administrative petition against the land transfer reveals that the state used strenuous bureaucratic acrobatics to deliver land that didn't belong to it," Haaretz reported.

Maps were redrawn, crucial documents were concealed and the Abu Ta'ah family was never even informed their land was going to be seized. When the family finally realized their property was being expropriated — after Amana started cordoning off portions of their land with fences — — they petitioned the Jerusalem District Court to no avail. They have appealed and the case has now advanced to the Supreme Court.

One of Amana's key leaders, Ze'ev Hever, has previously been convicted of terrorism and helped spearhead the NGO's illegal acquisition of Palestinian land for settlements.

Comment: There seems to be no low Israel won't sink to in pursuit of the dream of "Greater Israel".

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Stormtrooper

Wikileaks reveals new Brazilian president Michel Temer was informant for US intelligence


Sputnik
Fri, 13 May 2016 20:09 UTC
Michel Temer
© AFP 2016/ EVARISTO SA
Brazil's interim President Michel Temer provided political intelligence to the US National Security Council and military in his capacity as leader of the ruling PMDB party, the WikiLeaks investigative website revealed Friday, citing its 2006 cables.

In two January and June 2006 cables marked "Sensitive," Temer relayed his views on party unity and upcoming presidential elections to the US Southern Command in Miami and the US National Security Council among other recipients, WikiLeaks said.

"Brasil's new president #Temer was an embassy informant for US intelligence, military," the website tweeted.

Temer, who assumed the presidency on Thursday following suspension of his predecessor Dilma Rousseff's over impeachment procedures, presided over the PMDB from 2001 until April 5, 2016.

On Thursday, the upper house of the Brazilian parliament voted 55-22 to open impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff after she was accused of concealing the country's budget deficit ahead of the 2014 re-election. She was suspended for 180 days and her office was assumed by Vice President Michel Temer

Comment: It should be clear now that Brazil has just been taken over by a Western coup, and they will now likely gravitate towards the US and away from BRICS.

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