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© AFP 2015/ Rob Kerr
In the statement, the group spoke of the horrors at Waco and Ruby Ridge, and expressed their distrust that the Obama administration will not repeat those mistakes at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.
"This is not a 'free speech' barbecue at Bundy Ranch with live music by Jordan Page," the Oath Keepers' statement reads. "This is a whole different animal. There should be no women and children there at all. This is not a family event. This is an armed occupation of a government building and the only people staying there should be the armed men who are willing to die there with Ammon Bundy and his brothers and a couple of embedded reporters."
"If adults want to visit them and put themselves at risk, that is their choice, but don't bring children. If a dozen men die in a shootout, that is one thing, but if children die, there will be a civil war."
© Wikimedia CommonsThroughout the Libyan War there were widespread reports of field executions and torture of black Libyans carried out by militias aligned with the National Transition Council (some NTC aligned fighters shown above).
But historians of the 2011 NATO war in Libya will be sure to notice a few of the truly explosive confirmations contained in the new emails: admissions of rebel war crimes, special ops trainers inside Libya from nearly the start of protests, Al Qaeda embedded in the U.S. backed opposition, Western nations jockeying for access to Libyan oil, the nefarious origins of the absurd Viagra mass rape claim, and concern over Gaddafi's gold and silver reserves threatening European currency.
Russia has had to listen to many accusations over the last few days. These allegations are based on statements by supposedly neutral organizations which are funded mainly through Western money. The Ministry of Defence has reacted with transparency, making new videos of Russian military operations accessible to the public.
Russia's campaign in Syria is efficient and relentless. Despite scheming setbacks like the shoot-down of the Su-24 by Turkish fighter planes, the Russian military has continued to carry out its mission in Syria. In this video you can see the last seconds of a remaining terrorist camp in Syria before the "made in Russia" bombs hit.
According to the Sputnik news agency, the Russian Defense Ministry reports more than 1,063 ISIS positions have been destroyed in the last six days. Attacks against terrorist targets were flown even over Christmas. How can it be that ISIS became so strong to begin with?
Comment: HRW: Human Rights Watch or hypocrites representing Washington?
Human Rights Watch is undeniably an appendage of US foreign policy. It is in many ways part of the "soft power" arm of US power projection, a means of delegitimizing, demonizing, and otherwise destabilizing countries that do not play ball with the US. From Ukraine to Libya, Syria to Palestine and Venezuela, HRW has shown itself to be treacherous, and a willing servant of Empire.
Amnesty International: US State Department Propaganda Machine, Betrays Real Human Rights
Amnesty International is run by US State Department representatives and takes money from both governments and corporate-financier interests, one of the most notorious of which, Open Society, is headed by George Soros, who is actively engaged in promoting social unrest throughout the globe.
© AP Photo/ Mindaugas Kulbis
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a military alliance aimed against the Soviet Union, was established on April 4, 1949; and only seven years after the formation of NATO the Warsaw Treaty Organization was established bringing together eight nations (versus 15 NATO member-states).
So, who was the real "aggressor"? What alliance was an offensive one?
"There has been much discussion recently of NATO in the mainstream and alternate media. Why was NATO founded in the first place and why did it expand so rapidly after the collapse and dismemberment of the USSR in 1991," Professor Michael Jabara Carley of the University of Montreal writes in his article for Strategic Culture Foundation.
Comment:
© Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
So far, the House of Saud's whole energy strategy has boiled down to shaving off its oil production no matter what it takes, even issuing bonds to cover its massive deficits.
Now the strategy has been moved one step ahead via a flagrant provocation: the execution of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr.
The House of Saud believes that by stoking the flames of a Riyadh-Tehran confrontation it may raise the fear factor in the oil supply sphere, leading to higher oil prices (which it needs), while maintaining the Holy Wahhabi Grail of keeping imminent Iranian oil off the market.
From the beginning, Riyadh bet on the possibility of extra energy-related sanctions on Iran in case Tehran forcefully responded to its beheading provocation. Yet Iranians are too sophisticated to fall for such a crude tap.
Persian Gulf traders have confirmed the 2016 Saudi budget is based on an average crude oil price of only $29 per barrel, as first reported by Jadwa Investment in Riyadh.
From the House of Saud's budget dilemma perspective, this is absolutely unsustainable. The House of Saud is the biggest OPEC oil exporter. Yet their supreme hubris is to deny Iran any leeway in exports, which will be inevitable especially in the second half of 2016. Moreover, the low oil price strategy doesn't apply solely to Iran: it's still part of the oil war against Russia.
Somebody though is not doing the math right in Riyadh. The Saudi low oil price strategy has been punishing Russia - the number two global oil producer - badly. The Saudis cannot possibly expect that their beheading provocation will simultaneously scotch an OPEC-Russia deal on cutting production and also lead to higher oil prices, which would mostly benefit - guess what - Iran and Russia.
Best of the Web: World Order: New Russian documentary on US hegemony - Includes recent interviews with Vladimir Putin (EN SUBS)
© UnknownSomebody means business.
The Russian documentary World Order, released by the state broadcaster Pervy Kanal on Sunday, 20 December and posted on LiveLeak with English subtitles, received some attention in Western mainstream media, which is not always the case with news generated in Moscow. Euronews, in particular, drew on a minute or two out of this one hour forty-nine minute film to present good tidings to the world: President Putin had just publicly stated that he is ready to cooperate with European countries on shared concerns including terrorism, environmental issues and organized crime notwithstanding the sanctions being applied to Russia over Ukraine. This happy finding ignores completely the nature and overall content of the film in question, which heads in a direction 180 degrees at variance with the Euronews spin, as I will explain in a minute.
Meanwhile, BBC reporting on New Year's Eve celebrations around the world on Friday morning, 1 January, showed Vladimir Putin delivering his 2016 greetings to his countrymen over the caption "Russia names Nato as threat to security." In a classic propaganda exercise, the editorial staff of the British Broadcasting Company merged two very different pieces of news that bear the same dateline: the anodyne salutation of the Russian president and the 41 page National Security doctrine which he had signed earlier in the day. This is propaganda not only because the stories were unrelated but because the Nato threat is covered explicitly in just one page out of the 41, which take in a great many other security metrics such as education, import substitution, religious and spiritual convictions. I mention this case because the major arguments set out in the Russian Security Doctrine flagged by the BBC are precisely the same as those in World Order. For both, ultimate authorial responsibility rests with one man: Vladimir Putin.
© ewrossblog.comThe only line left to cross is the finishing line.
The document hints at a timeline prepared for US officials overseeing the Syria crisis. It sets an unspecified date in March next year as the time when Assad will "relinquish" his position and his "inner circle" will depart, the Associated Press reported Wednesday. This means Assad will outlast Obama who is slated to leave office in January 2017. The American president first called for Assad's removal of power roughly five years ago.
The timeline, obtained by AP, is reportedly designed based on an UN-endorsed peace plan for the Arab country that was reached in Vienna, Austria, in November.
Comment: Assad could possibly return to power, if it is truly left up to the people of Syria. On the other hand, Obama's final bow is most definitely in sight.
© US NavyA Northrop Grumman X47-B US Navy drone touches down as it lands aboard a US nuclear aircraft carrier.
The $93.1 million contract was awarded to Northrop on December 24 as part of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)'s Tactically Exploited Reconnaissance Node (TERN) program, the CNN reported Wednesday. Under TERN, DARPA seeks to provide airborne surveillance and drone strikes from the decks of "forward-deployed small ships" without having to deploy aircraft carriers or construct large, fixed land bases. According to DARPA, fixed-wing unmanned aircraft require bases and large aircraft carriers, which in turn require "substantial financial, diplomatic and security commitments."
In theory, this new technology would allow surveillance flights and drone strikes to be launched globally from the hundreds of existing "small-deck naval maritime vessels," Northrop Grumman noted. The US Defense Department said that it expects the first prototype to fly on November 2017.
Washington's push to advance its drone technology comes amid heightened concerns over the lack of trained military pilots, which according to the Los Angeles Times, has forced the Air Force to navigate the aircraft.
The Pentagon is also accused of running a mass assassination program using its drones. The program attracted a lot more attention in October 2015, when a whistle-blower within the US intelligence ranks leaked a series of sensitive documents that shed light on Washington's drone operations in countries like Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The documents revealed that in order to hide the true numbers of civilian casualties, the US military categorizes unidentified people killed in drone strikes as enemies, even if they were not the intended targets.
Comment: The latest US killing machine wrinkle: expanding on imprecision and saving money, too.
© Amir Cohen / Reuters
Benjamin Netanyahu held a closed meeting with top ministers and security officials to discuss what has to be done if the dissolution of the Palestinian Authority (PA) happens, the Haaretz newspaper reported on Tuesday.
"We must prevent the Palestinian Authority from collapsing if possible, but at the same time, we must prepare in case it happens," the newspaper reported him as saying, citing two senior officials briefed on the meeting.
Comment: What NATO did to Libya is one of the greatest crimes against humanity of our time. Yet one of its main architects, Hillary Clinton, is not where she belongs: rotting in prison. No, instead she is running for president.
If you haven't checked out Sott.net's interviews with Jim and Joanne Moriarty, we urge you to do so. The Moriartys were there and provide eyewitness, on-the-ground reports of what really happened in Libya. Not for the faint of heart: Western media AWOL as 'Islamic State' regroups in Libya: Interview with James & Joanne Moriarty