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Russian FM: ISIS receiving reinforcements in Aleppo province from Turkey


RT
Thu, 21 Jan 2016 19:01 UTC
militants in syria
© Hosam Katan / Reuters
Terrorists have increased their activities ahead of the next week's inter-Syrian talks, with insurgents in the Syrian province of Aleppo receiving reinforcements from Turkey, Russia's Foreign Ministry said.

The much-anticipated talks between the Syrian government and different opposition groups are scheduled to take place in the Swiss city of Geneva on January 25.

"Unfortunately, in recent days, it's especially noticeable that ahead of the planned start of the inter-Syrian negotiations in Geneva the activities of terrorist groups have intensified. Obviously, they're trying to turn the tide in their favor on the battlefield," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said during a briefing in Moscow.

According to Zakharova, Attempts to launch counter-attacks against the government forces were performed by Al-Nusra Front and Ahrar ash-Sham groups, which "got serious reinforcements from Turkey."
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USA

US State Department hangs Russian flag upside down at Lavrov-Kerry meeting


RT
Thu, 21 Jan 2016 18:52 UTC
US and Russian flag
© Ruptly
The US State Department just seems to lack attentiveness when it comes to minor details in US-Russian relations: the Russian flag was hung upside down in the conference room in Zurich ahead of a meeting between the top Russian and US diplomats.

Ahead of the key negotiations between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry on the fate of Syria, the situation in the Middle East and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, US State Department officials were left red-faced when a cameraman pointed out the fact that the Russian flag in the conference room was hanging upside down.

As Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs Glen Johnson led journalists to the appropriate rooms before the diplomatic teams arrived, a cameraman alerted the US State Department official to the obvious mistake.

Comment: The Dunning-Kruger effect strikes again! US officials are showing to be less knowledgeable about the world than the average cameraman. That should make Americans concerned about the state of their government.

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Star of David

Israeli land grab in occupied territories, yet again


Press TV
Thu, 21 Jan 2016 02:03 UTC
israeli illegal settlement
© AFPConstruction in an Israeli illegal settlement in East al-Quds (Jerusalem) January 15,2016
The Israeli regime has confirmed plans to seize a large tract of fertile Palestinian land for the purpose of expanding its illegal settlement construction in the occupied West Bank. The decision had already been taken to capture the territory and "the lands are in the final stages of being declared" Israeli lands, Reuters quoted a unit in the Israeli Ministry for Military Affairs, which coordinates Tel Aviv's activities in the occupied territories, as saying.

Earlier this week, Israeli media reported that the Tel Aviv regime is to confiscate 380 acres (154 hectares) of agricultural land in the Jordan Valley near the West Bank city of Jericho over the coming weeks. The planned land grab will be the largest since August 2014.

Comment: In the Jordan Valley, Israeli occupation forces have succeeded in decreasing the Palestinian population from 320,000 in 1967 to approximately 55,000 people. In the same four decades, 37 illegal Israeli settlements have been established. The encroachment continues at full speed. As long as there is no opposition, no call to justice by the world community, nor enforcement of international law, we can kiss Palestine and its people good-bye. It is unconscionable. It is criminal. It is an unobstructed invasion. Perhaps Israel does want a two-state solution...but not until there is no other nation with which it has to share.

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Георгиевская ленточка

Putin responds to complaints of rising anti-Semitism by offering Russian refuge


RT
Wed, 20 Jan 2016 17:52 UTC
Jewish Congress meeting Putin
© RTPresident of Austrian Jewish Community Ariel Muzicant and President of European Jewish Congress Viatcheslav Kantor during President Vladimir Putin's meeting with representatives of the European Jewish Congress in the Kremlin, January 19, 2016
As a rising wave of anti-Semitic attacks engulf Europe, the Russian president has offered European Jews protection by proposing that they immigrate to Russia.

In a meeting with members of the European Jewish Congress in the Kremlin, the president of the congregation complained to Vladimir Putin about the rising anti-Semitism across Europe that has manifested itself in an increased number of attacks against Jews.

Focusing on the tragic events in France last year Vyacheslav Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress (ECJ), said that European Jews are facing mass discrimination, the biggest since the end of World War II.

"The position of Jews in Europe today is the worst since the end of World War Two. Jews [are] gripped by fear and the very real new Exodus of Jews from Europe," Kantor told Putin.
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Cardboard Box

US Defense Dept. wasted millions on half-baked Afghan reconstruction projects funding


Press TV
Thu, 21 Jan 2016 02:29 UTC
$43M gas station
© eideard.comThe $43M gas station, courtesy the US Department of Defense
A US government watchdog has found that a Defense Department agency wasted millions of dollars on reconstruction projects in Afghanistan. John Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR), accused the Task Force for Business and Stability Operations (TFBSO) of "poorly planned and ill-conceived projects" in Afghanistan.

TFBSO, a division of the Pentagon established in 2006 to "stabilize" the post-invasion Afghan and Iraqi economy, has spent some $800 million on development projects over a five-year period. The US Congress created SIGAR to provide independent and objective oversight of the Afghanistan and Iraq reconstruction funds.

Speaking before senators from a special committee on military management, Sopko said had "not been able to find credible evidence showing [the task force's] activities in Afghanistan produced the intended economic growth or stabilization outcomes that justified its creation. On the contrary, [its] legacy in Afghanistan is marred by unfinished, poorly planned, and ill-conceived projects."

goat, soldier
© www.mediaite.comWe got your goat, and we ate it.
Among the wasteful schemes highlighted by Sopko was a project to help the local cashmere industry. The $6 million initiative saw a small herd of rare blond Italian goats imported. But Sopko said oversight was so ineffective he could not be sure that the goats were not eaten. The Pentagon has disputed several of his findings.

Last year, the embattled Pentagon agency was also blamed by the special inspector for building a $43 million gas station in Afghanistan and renting luxury housing for its employees.

Comment: The totals above do not include the loss of Afghani infrastructure, homes and property, local livelihoods, nor the cost of US troops, equipment, supplies and lives lost. Maybe we should ask where waste starts.

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Jet5

Saudi Arabia given US, Brit, Israeli jets to bomb Yemen


Press TV
Thu, 21 Jan 2016 01:18 UTC
Sharaf Luqman
© en.abna24.comYemeni army spokesman, Sharaf Luqman
Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom have been contributing to Saudi Arabia's deadly war on Yemen by sending warplanes to bomb the impoverished nation, a Yemeni army official reveals. Sharaf Luqman, a spokesman for the Yemeni army, said on Thursday that fighter jets belonging to the US, Britain and Israel have been directly bombing Yemen as Saudi pilots are unable to conduct sorties with modern warplanes over Yemen. The army official said that Yemeni army and fighters of the Houthi Ansarullah movement have so far managed to down three F-16 fighter jets,10 Apache helicopters and dozens of drones.

Luqman said about 400 military personnel from the European and Latin American countries, mainly from Colombia, have been recruited to fight for the Saudis in Yemen.

Reports emerged in late December 2015 that six Colombian troops and an Australian commander had been killed in clashes with Yemen's Houthi fighters and allied forces in the southwestern part of the country. According to Yemeni sources, the Colombians have been dispatched to Yemen under an agreement between the United Arab Emirates, a major ally of the Saudis in the Yemen war, and a US-based security services company formerly called Blackwater.

The New York Times reported on November 25 that the UAE has "secretly" deployed 450 Latin American troops, most of them from Colombia but among them Panamanian, Salvadoran and Chilean soldiers, to fight in the war on Yemen


Comment: In December, 2015, Colombian troops were assigned to Yemen by UAE, and were supposed to pass unnoticed as local Emirati soldiers. Many of the Colombian fighters deserted, refusing to be substitute canon fodder.


Washington has also been helping the Saudis in their nearly nine months of bombardment of Yemen by providing logistics and intelligence to the Saudi air force.

Comment: The privatization of war, by the US/UK/Israel and Saudi Arabia, has become big business. How else to prop up failing economies, provide layers of distraction and facilitate the continuity of chaos all over the Middle East.

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Treasure Chest

Pepe Escobar: Wall Street psychos and Mid-East minions crashing global economy to strangle Russia

Pepe Escobar
Sputnik
Thu, 21 Jan 2016 13:58 UTC
Chinese stock market
© AFP 2016/ WANG ZHAO
The World Economic Forum in Davos is submerged by a tsunami of denials, and even non-denial denials, stating there won't be a follow-up to the Crash of 2008.

Yet there will be. And the stage is already set for it.

Selected Persian Gulf traders, and that includes Westerners working in the Gulf confirm that Saudi Arabia is unloading at least $1 trillion in securities and crashing global markets under orders from the Masters of the Universe - those above the lame presidency of Barack Obama.

Those were the days when the House of Saud would as much as flirt with such an idea to have all their assets frozen. Yet now they are acting under orders. And more is to come; according to crack Persian Gulf traders Saudi Western security investments may amount to as much as $8 trillion, and Abu Dhabi's as $4 trillion.

In Abu Dhabi everything was broken into compartments, so no one could figure it out, except brokers and traders who would know each supervisor of a compartment of investments. And for the House of Saud, predictably, denial is an iron rule.
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Bad Guys

How will Russia react now that Turkey's military has entered Syria?

Rudy Panko
Russia Insider
Thu, 21 Jan 2016 13:22 UTC
Erdogan Putin
© Unknown
With peace negotiations to begin next week, and with almost no bargaining chips left to play with, Erdogan has decided to send Turkish forces into Syria.

Turkey has seized the ISIS-controlled town of Jarabulus, but faced no resistance, according to reports:
Eyewitnesses to the incursion reported that the Turkish forces have not encountered any resistance from ISIS fighters in the area. These reports once again raise the question of possible collaboration between Turkey and ISIS aimed at halting the advance of the Kurdish militias in north Syria.
The fact that Turkey faced zero resistance is suspicious, but even more troubling is Erdogan's level of desperation. The Kurds are slowly retaking northern Syria from ISIS. For Turkey this is an unacceptable reality. As Patrick Cockburn wrote earlier this week, "Turkey is getting close to the point where it has to become militarily engaged in the war for northern Syria or become a marginal player."

Comment: No doubt that, after Turkey took down a Russian bomber, Russia was well aware that further escalations were simply a matter of when and where. As Pepe Escobar pointed out back in December, 2015:
The current shadow play - which includes the deployment of US Special Forces to northern Syria - opens the possibility that Turks and Americans are about to launch a major offensive to expel Islamic State from the crucial Jarabulus crossroads. Erdogan's pretext is well known: to block by any means the attempt by YPG Syrian Kurds to unite their three cantons in northern Syria. In this corridor, Erdogan wants to install a dodgy, hazy bunch of Turkmen - his proxies - mixed with unspecified Sunni "moderate rebels," keeping all lines of communication (and smuggling) with Turkey open.

Syrian Kurds, on the other hand, want to get there first. With American air support. And with Russian air support. This is one of the few things Team Obama and the Kremlin do agree on in Syria - to the absolute despair of the Sultan. The inside word from Ankara is that Turkey would be ready for a ground push on Jarabulus but only under American cover. Quite absurd, considering Washington and Ankara hardly are looking for the same endgame.

Syria: The break for the border


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Airplane

Israeli report reveals ISIS is close to making armed drones


Sputnik
Thu, 21 Jan 2016 11:45 UTC
Drone
© US Air Force
While the terrorist group has long used small, recreational drones to film propaganda videos, Daesh is now producing military-grade models - and working toward an armed variant.

Earlier this week, Iraqi militias spotted a familiar sight in the skies above Anbar province. While Iraq is no stranger to the presence of UAVs, two seen over Daesh-held Fallujah and Haditha were not American Reaper or Predator drones.

Upon inspection, the UAVs were more crude, but nevertheless outfitted with cameras and capable of transmitting surveillance data back to units on the ground. Analysis also showed that the aircraft were capable of covering a distance of at least 42 miles.

Comment: Well of course if Israel's colonels hadn't helped ISIS take Mosul, where they're creating these drones, the terrorist group wouldn't have grown into the beast that it is today.

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Bomb

Syrian forces retake major ISIS supply and communication routes


Sputnik
Thu, 21 Jan 2016 11:41 UTC
Syrian Army
© AFP 2016/ GEORGE OURFALIAN
The Syrian forces together with units of the people's militia cut off Daesh communication routes from al-Mansur al-Miass and al- Karyateyn areas, destroying a large number of terrorists, official representative of the Syrian Armed Forces Brigadier General Ali Mayhub said on Wednesday.

The Syrian Armed Forces in cooperation with the national militia killed more than 40 terrorists in areas of Jabhurin and Tallaff, Mayhub added.

"Syrian Armed Forces in conjunction with the forces of the national militia took control of two mountains, Mhin Al-Kabir and Mhin Al Sagyr, district warehouses, settlements Mhin, villages Hauvarin and Al Hadas, commanding heights along the road Al Mhassa — Al Karyateyn cutting the most important communication of Daesh in the direction of Al-Mankura- Al Mhassa — Al Karyateyn. During the fighting a large number of terrorists, weapons and military equipment were destroyed," Mayhub elaborated.

Comment: Further reading: South Front: Heavy clashes between SAA and ISIS in Deir Ezzor (VIDEOS)

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