The fact that the US couldn't do this for a full year is yet more proof they didn't really want to

One question that's been asked repeatedly over the past thirteen months is why Washington has been unable to achieve the Pentagon's stated goal of "degrading and defeating" ISIS despite the fact that the "battle" pits the most advanced air force on the planet against what amounts to a ragtag band of militants running around the desert in basketball shoes.

Those of a skeptical persuasion have been inclined to suggest that perhaps the US isn't fully committed to the fight. Explanations for that suggestion range from the mainstream (the White House is loathe to get the US into another Mid-East war) to the "conspiratorial" (the CIA created ISIS and thus doesn't want to destroy the group due to its value as a strategic asset).

Or are mulling doing so

Obama is alleging that Russians are pounding "moderate rebels" because they're hitting the likes of Bin Ladenite al-Nusra Front. In reality while there once were reasonably non-crazy rebels they've overwhelmingly since gone over to the crazies or have switched their allegiance back to the government.

Fact is Assad is far closer to any real moderates than the Bin Ladenite salafis - those who are still around can be expected to defect and ally with Assad if the tide of war changes and they can do so without getting their head chopped off by ISIS and fellow travelers. Here are a few reminders from earlier this year:

Moderate Syrian rebels are switching their allegiance—to Assad
By Rare, April 2015

"Moderate" Muslims in Syria, both those aligned with the secular Assad regime and rebel groups backed by Western governments, suffered terrible blows in the month of March.

With international attention shifting from Assad to ISIS, support for the moderate rebels is waning. As the Syrian civil war continues into its fourth year, hopes for a secular democracy in Syria seem all but extinguished.

The moderate rebels' decline started when Harakat Hazzm, the first Syrian rebel group to receive heavy weapons support from the U.S., dissolved. After it suffered heavy casualties, many Harakat Hazzm fighters defected to extremist groups like al Nusra, al Qaeda's franchise in Syria.

Then just days later, two more contingents of the Free Syrian Army abandoned the rebellion and joined with the government. The al Anfai and Liwaa Hateen Brigade both defected while fighting government forces in the suburbs of Damascus. The head of al Anfai left amongst rebel infighting, as have several thousand other rebels, hoping to gain amnesty from the Assad regime.

This is a blow to Western governments, which focused their energies on arming rebel groups in the south instead of the north. Many northern Syrian rebels have close ties to extremist organizations, and the defections show that the momentum for ousting Assad in the south is faltering as well.

"I think the American people should be extremely concerned about their personal rights and privacy. As I was being searched at the airport, there was a Latino couple to my left, and an Asian couple to my right also being aggressively searched. I briefly had to remind myself that this was not North Korea or Nazi Germany. This is the land of the Free.

- Anthony Silva, Mayor of Stockton, California

Just in case you're still under the infantile illusion that you reside in a free country.

From ArsTechnica:

At least 499 Palestinians have been injured in clashes with Israeli soldiers and settlers across the occupied Palestinian Territory since Saturday, the Palestinian Red Crescent said on Monday.

Red Crescent spokesperson Errab Foqoha told Ma'an that at least 41 Palestinians had been shot with live rounds, while 143 were injured by rubber-coated steel bullets.

Some 297 Palestinians had suffered excessive tear gas inhalation, she said, while another 18 were injured when they were physically assaulted.

Israeli forces have also killed two Palestinians, including a 13-year-old boy, in the fierce clashes that have swept across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since Friday.

Governments use the European Union to bypass national democracy and pass laws that national parliaments would not accept, a Home Office minister has admitted.

Karen Bradley told a fringe meeting at Conservative party conference that other countries sometimes asked British MEPs to push legislation through the European Parliament so it could not be blocked by their own national legislatures.

The U.S. government is missing - or withholding - audit documents about the finances and possible accounting irregularities at a $150 million U.S.-taxpayer-financed investment fund when it was run by Ukraine's Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko, who has become the face of "reform" for the U.S.-backed regime in Kiev and who now oversees billions of dollars in Western financial aid.

Before taking Ukrainian citizenship and becoming Finance Minister in December 2014, Jaresko was a former U.S. diplomat who served as chief executive officer of the Western NIS Enterprise Fund (WNISEF), which was created by Congress in the 1990s with $150 million and placed under the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to help jumpstart an investment economy in Ukraine.

After Jaresko's appointment as Finance Minister — and her resignation from WNISEF — I reviewed WNISEF's available public records and detected a pattern of insider dealings and enrichment benefiting Jaresko and various colleagues. That prompted me in February to file a Freedom of Information Act request for USAID's audits of the investment fund.

Though the relevant records were identified by June, USAID dragged its feet on releasing the 34 pages to me until Aug. 28 when the agency claimed nothing was being withheld, saying "all 34 pages are releasable in their entirety."

However, when I examined the documents, it became clear that a number of pages were missing from the financial records, including a total of three years of "expense analysis" - in three-, six- and nine-month gaps - since 2007. Perhaps even more significant was a missing paragraph that apparently would have addressed an accounting irregularity found by KPMG auditors.

"You gotta remember, establishment, it's just a name for evil. The monster doesn't care whether it kills all the students or whether there's a revolution. It's not thinking logically, it's out of control." — John Lennon (1969)

John Lennon, born 75 years ago on October 9, 1940, was a musical genius and pop cultural icon.

He was also a vocal peace protester and anti-war activist and a high-profile example of the lengths to which the U.S. government will go to persecute those who dare to challenge its authority.

Long before Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden were being castigated for blowing the whistle on the government's war crimes and the National Security Agency's abuse of its surveillance powers, it was Lennon who was being singled out for daring to speak truth to power about the government's warmongering, his phone calls monitored and data files collected on his activities and associations.

For a little while, at least, Lennon became enemy number one in the eyes of the U.S. government.

Years after Lennon's assassination it would be revealed that the FBI had collected 281 pages of files on him, including song lyrics, a letter from J. Edgar Hoover directing the agency to spy on the musician, and various written orders calling on government agents to set the stage to set Lennon up for a drug bust. As reporter Jonathan Curiel observes, "The FBI's files on Lennon ... read like the writings of a paranoid goody-two-shoes."

As the New York Times notes, "Critics of today's domestic surveillance object largely on privacy grounds. They have focused far less on how easily government surveillance can become an instrument for the people in power to try to hold on to power. 'The U.S. vs. John Lennon' ... is the story not only of one man being harassed, but of a democracy being undermined."

Indeed, as I point out in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, all of the many complaints we have about government today—surveillance, militarism, corruption, harassment, SWAT team raids, political persecution, spying, overcriminalization, etc.—were present in Lennon's day and formed the basis of his call for social justice, peace and a populist revolution.

For all of these reasons, the U.S. government was obsessed with Lennon, who had learned early on that rock music could serve a political end by proclaiming a radical message. More importantly, Lennon saw that his music could mobilize the public and help to bring about change. Lennon believed in the power of the people. Unfortunately, as Lennon recognized: "The trouble with government as it is, is that it doesn't represent the people. It controls them."

However, as Martin Lewis writing for Time notes: "John Lennon was not God. But he earned the love and admiration of his generation by creating a huge body of work that inspired and led. The appreciation for him deepened because he then instinctively decided to use his celebrity as a bully pulpit for causes greater than his own enrichment or self-aggrandizement."

Pentagon has admitted its airstrike erroneously hit a hospital in Afghanistan that killed 22 people, adding that the Afghan military had requested the use air power.

The top commander of US and coalition forces in Afghanistan, General John F. Campbell, said that Afghan forces told US forces on the ground that they needed air support.

So US forces proceeded with the strike, which led to several civilians being "accidentally struck," he said.

Campbell said he was correcting an initial US statement that said the airstrike was called to defend US forces under fire. He declined to provide more details, saying a military investigation is ongoing.

"We have now learned that on Oct. 3, Afghan forces advised that they were taking fire from enemy positions and asked for air support from U.S. forces," Campbell said.

"An airstrike was then called to eliminate the Taliban threat and several civilians were accidentally struck. This is different from the initial reports which indicated that U.S. forces were threatened and that the airstrike was called on their behalf."

"Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam are pleased to announce that we have successfully concluded the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations," stated U.S Trade Representative Michael Froman early Monday morning.

The ministerial meeting in Atlanta was expected to conclude on Friday but dragged into Monday morning because of disagreements on dairy products and pharmaceutical regulation. The controversial trade agreement must now be approved by the twelve individual nation-states before it can officially become law.

In the United States, President Obama must wait a minimum of 90 days before signing the agreement, and the full text of the agreement must be made publicly available for at least 60 days. This means that a congressional vote on the TPP will not likely happen before January.

President Obama promised that "Congress and the American people will have months to read every word" and stated that passing the agreement "can help our businesses sell more Made in America goods and services around the world, and we can help more American workers compete and win."


In late June, President Obama signed into law the so-called "fast-track" bill that set the stage for approval of the TPP. The fast-track bill, officially known as the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), was one of two bills signed by Obama. The president also signed the Trade Adjustment Assistance Act (TAA), aimed at extending aid to workers who might lose their jobs as a consequence of the TPP or other so-called free trade deals.

Twin suicide bombings were reported in Kabul on Monday evening near the Afghan parliament and the Russian Embassy. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack, Pajhwok Afghan News reported.

The explosions took place on Darul-Aman Road and are believed to have targeted the home of Naeem Baloch, former Helmand governor and ex-head of the Afghan spy agency, TOLO News reported.

Reports say that there could be gunmen holed up in nearby buildings.

Continuous gunfire can be heard in the area, TOLO News cited eye-witnesses as saying.

Baloch told Pajhwok Afghan News that he left the house before the attack took place.


Power has been cut in the area and families are being evacuated, local media report. Security forces have cordoned off the roads around the scene of the bombings.

There have been no reports on casualties, nor has there been any official reaction.