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Western diplomatic source: Everyone in EU wants to lift anti-Russian sanctions


Sputnik
Fri, 12 Feb 2016 21:11 UTC
nato flags
© Sputnik/ Vladimir Sergeev
The European Union is willing to lift anti-Russia sanctions as soon as possible, but needs to see progress on the Ukrainian conflict settlement, a Western diplomatic source told Sputnik on Friday.

"Everybody in Europe wants to lift anti-Russia sanctions, but we can't do it without resolving the Donbass issue. But yes — everyone wants those sanctions lifted as soon as possible, and actions are required," the source said.

He added that the Saturday's meeting of the foreign ministers of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference is designed to boost the stalling settlement in the region.

"This meeting is to kickstart the Minsk process, which has stalled," the source pointed out.
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Bad Guys

Erdogan losing allies left and right: Turkey put in the cold by US and Russia

Robert Ellis
Independent (UK)
Thu, 11 Feb 2016 20:51 UTC
Erdogan
Erdoğan has reignited the war against the PKK in Turkey
The underlying tensions between the US and its supposed ally Turkey have once again surfaced after a visit by President Obama's special envoy, Brett McGurk, to the Kurdish PYD (Democratic Union Party) in Kobane in northern Syria.

It was the heroic defence of Kobane by the PYD's military wing, the YPG (People's Defence Units), against Isis which won international admiration.

However, Turkey put a different gloss on the visit, and as President Erdoğan angrily remarked: "Are you on our side or on the side of the terrorist organisations?" Turkey has branded the PYD a terrorist organisation together with its sister organisation, the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party), which is outlawed in Turkey. While agreeing with Turkey on the status of the PKK, the US clearly differs when it comes to the PYD, as it considers Kurdish fighters to have been some of the most successful in going after Isis inside Syria.

Comment: Is support for the Syrian Kurds plan B for U.S. interventionists? Regime change via terrorist proxies obviously hasn't worked, and is unlikely to, given Russian military support to Assad's Syrian Araby Army. Maybe some slightly less hawkish American policy makers are willing to settle on merely breaking up Syria? A Kurdistan to the north and a 'Sunnistan' to the east? If so, they will have to ensure that ISIS or a suitable facsimile remains in control of Raqqa: Race to Raqqa: A battle the Syrian Army must win

Despite the softening of Washington's tone in recent weeks, you can bet your bottom dollar this is not because they have grown a conscience. They simply have no other options at the moment. As for Erdogan, he is serving his purpose as chaos-creator-in-chief. The U.S. can't openly intervene to the extent they would like. And Erdogan will in all likelihood be thrown out once he has completed his proxy role in escalating the situation.

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Handcuffs

US Justice Department releases new controversial engagement guidelines for nation's police


Sputnik
Fri, 12 Feb 2016 20:52 UTC
US police officer
© Flickr/ TCDavis
The Department of Justice's has prepared a series of guidebooks to guide police agencies gain the trust of the communities they serve, US Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a press release on Friday.

"The series of guidebooks our COPS [Community Oriented Policing Services] office has produced with the Vera Institute of Justice will give officers across the nation a new central resource, informed by deep experience in the field, for building those bonds within their communities," Lynch stated.

Numerous instances of police brutality and misconduct, including killings of unarmed citizens, often caught on video, have spurred protests throughout the United States in the past year and a half as well as calls for police reforms.

President Barack Obama has launched several policy initiatives in the wake of renewed calls to counter police brutality as well as racial bias. The initiatives include investing in body-worn cameras for law enforcement agencies and a plan for addressing segregation in US neighborhoods.

Comment: Apparently these new rules only apply to federal agencies and not local and state police: Re: Concerns with the U.S. Department of Justice Guidance for Federal Law Enforcement Agencies Regarding the Use of Race, Ethnicity, Gender, National Origin, Religion, Sexual Orientation, or Gender Identity

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War Whore

Best of the Web: Pepe Escobar: Syrian "ceasefire" amid a sea of hostility

Pepe Escobar
Sputnik
Fri, 12 Feb 2016 20:32 UTC
lavrov kerry
© Sputnik
There could hardly have been a more appropriate start for the Chinese Year of the Monkey, geopolitically, than the prime monkey business enacted in Munich between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

The Syrian charade now proceeds under a vague "cessation of hostilities" - which is not a ceasefire - to be implemented within a week. Further on down the road, as this is the real world, "hostilities" will inevitably resume.

As Lavrov stressed multiple times, "we made proposals on implementing a ceasefire, quite specific ones." And yet Washington and the Saudi-Turkish combo relented. A frightened, cornered House of Saud - with its remote-controlled "moderate rebel" gaggle being routed on the ground - even started spinning the ludicrous notion of sending ground troops, a.k.a. a bunch of mercenaries, to "help the US effort" against Daesh (ISIS/ISIL/IS).

The monkey business reached such a level of un-sustainability that Russian premier Dmitry Medvedev felt compelled to tell an interviewer from Germany's Handelsblatt, "The Americans and our [Arab] partners must think hard about this: Do they want a permanent war?"
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Light Sabers

Medvedev: Sending foreign troops to Syria will unleash yet another war on Earth


RT
Fri, 12 Feb 2016 20:19 UTC
Dmitry Medvedev
© Ekaterina Shtukina / SputnikRussian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev
Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev told German media that sending foreign troops into Syria could unleash "yet another war on Earth." The warning follows increasingly aggressive statements made by Saudi Arabia and Turkey amid Bashar Assad's gains in Aleppo.

"All sides must be compelled to sit at the negotiating table, instead of unleashing yet another war on Earth," Medvedev told Germany's Handelsblatt newspaper. "Any kinds of land operations, as a rule, lead to a permanent war. Look at what's happened in Afghanistan and a number of other countries. I am not even going to bring up poor Libya."

The PM was commenting on recent statements from Saudi Arabia claiming that it was ready to send ground troops to Syria, should Washington lead the way.

"The Americans and our Arab partners must think well: do they want a permanent war? Do they think they can really quickly win it? It is impossible, especially in the Arab world. Everyone is fighting against everyone there," Medvedev added. The interview was published on the eve of the International Syria Support Group meeting in Munich, where the cessation of hostilities in Syria became a top item on the agenda.
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Red Flag

Turkish minister claims 50,000 Syrian refugees are headed toward Turkey's border


Sputnik
Fri, 12 Feb 2016 20:08 UTC
syria refugees
© EUTERS/ Murad Sezer
Some 50,000 Syrian refugees are moving towards the Turkish border, Turkey's Minister of European Union Affairs Volkan Bozkir said Thursday,

According to the official, quoted by the local Daily Sabah newspaper, the number of new refugee arrivals from Syria could reach 1.5 million if the city of Aleppo is "completely bombed out."

Turkey hosts over 2 million of Syrian migrants, who fled across the border to escape violence in their home country. Syria has been locked in an armed conflict involving various opposition factions and radical Islamist militant groups for almost five years.

According to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Hussein, since the latest offensive against the extremists by the Syrian government forces began last week in the Aleppo province bordering Turkey, some 51,000 civilians have been displaced and a further 300,000 are at risk of being placed under siege.
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Yoda

Lavrov: Terrorists around city of Aleppo supplied by Turkey


Sputnik
Fri, 12 Feb 2016 19:46 UTC
isis jeeps
© REUTERS/ Ammar Abdullah
Militants around the city of Aleppo in Syria, including those from the Jabhat al-Nusra (Nusra Front) and Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) groups, are supplied from Turkey, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

Speaking after a Thursday meeting of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG), Lavrov stressed that the western suburbs of Aleppo are still controlled by al-Nusra and Jaish al-Islam.

"Those guys are around Aleppo on the western side, on the eastern side the government forces have unblocked the city with our support...And don't forget that all those who are in the Aleppo region - both Jabhat al-Nusra and Jaish al-Islam, and [Harakat] Ahrar ash-Sham, and some more moderate groups - all of them are supplied via one route, from one location on the territory of Turkey," Lavrov said.

The Russian Foreign Minister stressed that UN Security Council Resolution 2254 prohibits all supplies that support terrorist organizations.
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Beaker

CIA Director Brennan: Daesh produces and uses chemical weapons, Syria and Iraq


Sputnik
Fri, 12 Feb 2016 09:10 UTC
gasmask
© www.albawaba.comChemical weapons: Are they making them or being supplied?
Daesh used chemical weapons in Syria and Iraq, CIA Director John Brennan said. "We have a number of instances where ISIL [Daesh] has used chemical munitions on the battlefield," Brennan told CBS News in an interview.

He added that the militant group had capabilities to produce small amounts of mustard gas or chlorine gas and possibly export it to the Western countries. The CIA chief said that US intelligence was actively involved in searching for chemical weapons or labs producing those in Syria and Iraq.

On Tuesday, US National Intelligence Director James Clapper said an investigation into an alleged Daesh attack in Syria in August revealed that at least two people were exposed to sulfur mustard.

Comment: Exporting mustard gas or chlorine gas to Western countries...is it unrealistic? fear mongering? Probably, but traces of sulfur mustard have been found in mortars that hit Kurdish forces in northern Iraq and Syria. Daesh's Western funding sources/suppliers could potentially provide anything they want, the means for Daesh to produce it including a way to export it. See also:

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Handcuffs

Police State America: DOJ steps up its war on 'domestic extremists'

Derrick Broze
Activist Post
Fri, 12 Feb 2016 18:30 UTC
police state
Senior officials with the U.S. Department of Justice recently announced possible legal changes which could allow the government greater room to combat so-called "anti-government extremists".

On Thursday February 4, Reuters reported that John Carlin, the Justice Department's chief of national security, and federal prosecutors are looking for new tools to deal with the rise of "domestic extremists."

"Based on recent reports and the cases we are seeing, it seems like we're in a heightened environment," Carlin told Reuters. Reuters notes that the U.S. government is facing an increase in opposition from militia groups, "sovereign citizens," and other "anti-government extremists."

However, federal officials like Carlin claim they are impeded in their pursuit of violent domestic terrorists because, although there is currently a U.S. law that prohibits "material" support of internationally recognized terror groups, there is not such a law for domestic groups. Reuters reports:
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Chess

Russia's gambit: Kurds take Moscow's side as ally in Syria


Sputnik
Wed, 10 Feb 2016 09:59 UTC
Kurds
© www.jpost.comKurd fighters on the march, part of the Syrian game change.
The announcement of the leadership of the Syrian Kurds that they would open their first foreign office in Moscow is telling: their choice of Russia over Washington or Western Europe signals that Russia is allying with the Kurds in the Middle East, which will certainly undermine US and Turkish policy in the region, according to the Israeli media.

Wednesday is set to see an inauguration ceremony of the first European office of the Syrian Kurds, which will be located in Moscow. The ceremony is to be attended by Russian foreign ministry officials as well as representatives from several other countries, according to Abdulsalam Ali, the Syrian Kurdish envoy in Moscow. "The choice of Moscow and not Washington or Western Europe is telling," says The Jerusalem Post. "Putin appears to be making another shrewd play for power in the Middle East by allying with the Kurds, in a step that undermines United States and Turkish policy in the region," states the Israeli newspaper.

The US has established its cooperation with Syrian Kurdish fighters against Daesh (ISIL/ISIS). It has developed working relations with the Syrian Kurdish YPG (People's Protection Units) - the military wing of the Syrian Democratic Unity Party (PYD) - the most dominant force among the Syrian Kurds and an affiliate organization of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a Kurdish group located in Turkey which remains listed as a terrorist organization by the US, Turkey, and the EU.

Meanwhile, Turkey has denounced the move. Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued what can be considered as an ultimatum to the US this week, saying that its "either us or the PYD", Gallia Lindenstrauss, a Turkey expert and research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University told the newspaper.

Comment: The effectiveness of the Russian military campaign and the expertise of Kurdish fighters against the Daesh and other factions, has proven to be a mutually aligned and beneficial partnership (one the West could have had but doesn't deserve). Erdogan should knock on Israel's door. His ongoing tantrums and civil war/massacre of the PKK is more aligned with Israel's modus operandi and Bibi's temperament.

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