As Turkey has been waging a brutal and murderous campaign against its Kurdish population in the south of the country it has also illegally shelled Kurdish factions inside Syria that are threatening the remaining supply lines used by Turkey to arm various jihadi groups. Increasingly Erdogan has become more irrational, bent on consolidating power domestically and increasing his imperial presence over his neighbors abroad. The actions are part of a desire to reinvigorate Turkish power in the spirit of the former Ottoman Empire, and have been used in accordance with US imperial designs for the region.

Domestically Erdogan and his ruling AK Party have been pushing for constitutional amendments that would grant President Erdogan de-facto dictatorial power over policy formation, allowing him to dictate policy and bypass most congressional roadblocks. Yet in absence of achieving this Erdogan has consolidated his rule through a plethora of actions, including litigation against any opposition, usage of the courts to stifle dissent, unprecedented attacks against journalism, and unilateral covert operations, all of which add up to a ruthless consolidation of power into the hands of the executive, allowing Erdogan to function as a unilateral actor in absence of constitutional authority to do so.

In a remarkable spectacle of money-grubbing over arms deals, this month saw a parade of Western leaders jettisoning any pretense of upholding vaunted "liberal values" to court despotic Mideast regimes.

Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister who sent liberal hearts aflutter when he was elected in November, with his espousal of feminism among other progressive causes, is the latest Western leader to show where real priorities lie. Trudeau signed off on a $11 billion deal with Saudi Arabia to export armored vehicles to the blood-soaked repressive regime.

With astounding cynicism, the 44-year-old Canadian premier said he was duty-bound to fulfill the arms contract drawn up by the previous administration as "a matter of principle" in order to demonstrate that his country's "word means something in the international community."

This week also saw US President Barack Obama in Saudi Arabia where he glad-handed King Salman and other Gulf monarchs, lauding them as partners in maintaining regional stability and fighting against terrorism. Conspicuously, Obama made little or no mention of human rights violations in the oil-rich kingdom where mass beheadings are a common method of capital punishment.

Western media talked about "strained relations" between Obama and his Saudi hosts. But underlying the superficial optics it was business as usual. Big business. US military affairs publication Defense One reported that high on Obama's agenda was securing a $13 billion contract for warships and submarine-hunting helicopters with the House of Saud.

Before Obama touched down in Riyadh, his administration had angered American families by announcing that it would veto a bill going through Congress that could enable relatives of the 9/11 terror attacks to sue the Saudi rulers for their alleged involvement in sponsoring that atrocity. The topic didn't even arise for discussion during Obama's visit, indicating the president's real concerns in meeting the Saudi and other Gulf rulers.

France has also nabbed market share from Western rivals in the Persian Gulf where over the past year Paris has sold billions of dollars' worth of its Rafale fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Similar prevarication over human rights is brazenly shown by the British government of David Cameron in its arms dealing with Saudi Arabia and the wider region. The Saudi-led war in Yemen has been a boon for British sales of bombs and missiles, even though as many as 9,000 Yemenis have been killed over the past year, many of them civilians from aerial bombing by Saudi warplanes.

Vanessa Beeley exposes the war criminals on the UN Security Council who are backing the Saudi coalition aggression and collective punishment of the Yemeni people.

As the Saudi, Yemen "peace talks" finally kick off in Kuwait, Vanessa Beeley spoke to Mike Robinson, host of UK Column LIVE daily news program.

Vanessa Beeley has recently returned from the UNHRC, 31st Session, where she testified on behalf of Yemen against the illegal use of US supplied Cluster Munitions against civilian targets by the Saudi Coalition. In this programme Vanessa discusses the UK, US and UN complicity in a genocidal war of aggression and the crippling economic and humanitarian land, air and sea blockade of 27 million Yemeni people.

US authorities recently expanded their investigation into German car manufacturer Volkswagen AG over its 'CO2 emissions scandal'. The US Department of Justice is planning to apply the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act, FIRREA, which has thus far only been used against US banks since its enactment following the 2008 Wall Street 'credit crunch'. As we've seen in the 'FIFA scandal', the US is expanding its jurisdictional reach to prosecute international bodies and foreign nationals.

The VW 'scandal' first made headlines in September 2015 after the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that the company had installed computer software in its diesel engine cars that enabled it to 'cheat' during pollution emissions inspections. The total number of vehicles affected is more than 11 million. The new probe will now look into "possible violations of tax laws by the corporation."

This whole 'scandal' is undoubtedly based on industrial espionage. Given that Chancellor Angela Merkel can't send a text message without the Americans reading it, then it's not much of a leap to assume that the 'leaks' that made this issue a media story originate with the US National Security Agency (NSA). The NSA has mountains of insider data it can 'leak' at any time - not least corporate emails that 'reveal' who knew what when. Espionage is, after all, the primary function of the US 'National Security State'.

It's happened before in history, and with great success, but it has also prompted a violent backlash from the elites...

Back in 1914, the Bradbury Pound was introduced by the UK government as an 'emergency measure' to bolster a failing economy.

It was a huge success. The banking elite were unhappy, however and panicked - before managing to wrestle control of the money supply afterwards.

President John F. Kennedy also introduced a similar 'Greenback' in 1961, and again, the banking elite were very unhappy about being pushed out, and losing control of the issuance of money as debt. JFK did not survive past 1963.

Then there was Muammar al-Gaddafi in Libya who, in 2009 announced a new gold-backed dinar, issued by Libya's state-owned public central bank, and with further plans - negotiating with the other African nations for the creation of an all-African currency to compete with the Euro and the Dollar. Gaddafi did not survive past 2011.

Who knew that the revolution would start with those radical Icelanders?

Enough weeping! Latin America has wept incessantly, continuously, for years, decades and centuries. Its people robbed of everything since the days of Columbus, since Potosi. Tens of millions, perhaps hundreds of millions have been slaughtered here, in the last five centuries; first by the conquerors, then by their descendants and serfs, and finally by the Empire of Lies as well as the treasonous local 'elites'.

Enough weeping, comrades! It is time to use force.

Whenever people stood up, whenever true Latin American heroes liberated their lands, by reason or by force, the bloodbath was administered almost immediately, from across the seas, or from the North. Tanks rolled through the avenues and squares, and combat airplanes and helicopters sprayed bombs and bullets all over Presidential palaces, as well as the countryside. People were hunted down like animals, dragged to stadiums and factories, to underground cellars, and there they were violated, tortured and slaughtered.

That's their democracy! Thank you, but no more of that.

Satire died the day Tony Blair was appointed Peace Envoy to the Middle East. But William Hague's fronting of a campaign against sexual violence is pissing on its grave.

Ibtisam was 15 when Islamic State (also known as ISIS/ISIL/Da'esh) came to her village. It was 9 a.m., and the gunfire of the approaching forces was getting louder. Her family piled into their car and fled; in need of baby milk, they passed by the city of Duhok, Iraqi Kurdistan to stock up. That was when they were caught. The men were executed immediately; Ibtisam and her two younger sisters were taken into captivity in the city of Tal Afar.

After several weeks they were moved to another building with around 700 other women and girls, where her younger sisters - one of them five months old - were forcibly removed from her. She and another girl were singled out by a much older man who took them home and raped them. The next morning, finding the house apparently empty, they were able to escape. They reached a road and hailed a taxi; luckily the driver was sympathetic and gave them refuge in his home, hiding and disguising them as best he could. But it soon became unsafe for them to stay there, so he took them to a friend's house. Passing through a checkpoint, they were again caught by ISIS, and taken to a basement full of other women and girls. There they were beaten regularly, as a message to any others who might try to escape. When her friend started vomiting blood, they were taken to a hospital; but when she stopped, they were taken back to the basement and beaten again. They were again sold as sex slaves, and resold and raped repeatedly over the months that followed.

President Obama will be visiting Germany and Mme. Merkel tomorrow (24 - 25 April) for the Hannover Industrial Messe, the world's largest Industrial fair, lobbying, in a last ditch convincing effort, Madame Merkel, of the good of the TTIP - that must be signed as soon as possible - maybe even during his upcoming trip to Europe. Everything around the infamous and nefarious TTIP is possible, as it all happens in secret and behind closed doors.

One of the most important items on Obama's check list before he leaves office is obtaining the signatures of the 'free trade agreements' - the TPP - Transpacific Partnership with 11 Asian and Pacific countries, and the TTIP - Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the 28 EU countries. The TPP is almost done. Completion of the two trade agreements - the economic enslavement of Asia (except for China and Russia who bluntly refused to join) and Europe, was one of the conditions for the top elite - call them 'Illuminati' - when they summoned him to a special Bilderberg meeting on 5-8 June 2008, in Chantilly Virginia (just outside Washington DC). They caught him in full campaign missing an important campaign event in Chicago.

The purpose of the meeting was to figure out whether he is worth the money they were willing to pour into his election to make him President. He complied. His psychological profile having been profoundly analyzed before, they knew he would.

And indeed, the spineless Obama complied with all of the conditions. And they made him President at a cost of about US$ 740 million, about double of what Bush's second term presidential campaign cost, and about half of the price of Obama's second term presidency.

Below is my article published by Global Research in December 2014, on the nefarious consequences of the TTIP - to remind people what is laying ahead for Europe, if the EU and its members ratify the TTIP: Slavehood, sheer and unescapable corporate slavehood, enhanced and controlled by Goldman Sachs — and not to forget, the Rothschilds, who are the invisible hand behind the FED.

Katherine Frisk sums up best what the TTIP would mean for Europe:

International "free trade" agreements such as the TTIP and the TPP which will override the National Sovereignty of any country who signs them, the Constitution of any country, their Constitutional law courts and any laws that any government may or may not make regarding health regulations, minimum wage regulations or environmental requirements. Far from being Capitalism with checks and balances restricting monopolies, it is a form of Corporate Fascist hegemonic colonialism and Corporate Empire building, eliminating all competition in the interests of monopolies.

Peter Koenig, April 24, 2016

Federal agencies relentlessly pursue suspected whistleblowers, while self-serving politicians escape punishment.

Starting with Hammurabi, rulers have frequently appreciated that their subjects would be more acquiescent to being governed if they had at least a minimal appreciation that they were being treated fairly. That understanding has led to the development of law codes along the lines of the Roman Republic's laws of the Twelve Tables, which were inscribed in bronze and posted prominently in the Forum so everyone would know what the rules were. In the Middle Ages statues of Justice erected in the Italian republics often had her blindfolded and with a scale in one hand and a sword in the other, indicating that guilt would be weighed fairly and punishment, if merited, would be delivered inexorably. For modern democracies the rule of law has often been translated into the expression "equal justice under law."

Of course everyone knows that there is no such thing as equal justice. Certain infractions are rarely prosecuted while other crimes are pursued rigorously. Expensive lawyers reduce the risk of there being any serious consequences for the wealthy even when one is caught out. Employees of the state are rarely punished even when their felonies cost the taxpayers millions of dollars because no one wants to look closely at corruption in government.

The Israeli regime is set to expropriate more than a thousand acres of Palestinian land in the northern part of West Bank irrespective of the international outcry against the expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied territories.

On Saturday, Israeli authorities sent notices to the residents of the Palestinian village of Jalud, situated approximately 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of Nablus, alerting the locals that 1,250 acres of their land were to be seized, in what appeared to be the retroactive legalization of unlawful settlement expansion activities in the area.

Officials from Jalud's local council said Israeli officials have already built Adei Ad, Esh Kodesh, Ahiya, and Kidah settlements in the area, and their recent measure is in line with their policy of expropriation of Palestinian lands.