In his new book titled Dangerous Allies, Malcolm Fraser, the former prime minister of Australia worries that Canberra's dependence on the United States will eventually bring the nation into a direct conflict with China. His words echo those of Georgetown University professor Amitai Etzioni in and article he wrote for the Diplomat on Jan. 20.

Australia has always been strategically dependent on other great powers since gaining independence in 1901. It relied on the United Kingdom until World War II and then transferred that dependence to the United States afterwards. The relationship grew stronger with the signing of the Australia, New Zealand, United States Security Treaty in 1951. Fraser said that the treaty does not require the US to defend Australia, only needing to "consult" it in case of an attack.

In Fraser's book, he describes how Australia's blind faith in the UK before World War II left the country unprepared for war. He then goes on to say that currently many feel more vulnerable because of the country's dependence on the United States. What Fraser and many Australian leaders fears most is that the United States will get Australia involved in a conflict not of its own making. "Australia effectively ceded to America the ability to decide when Australia goes to war," said Fraser.

Fraser labelled the United States a "dangerous ally" as Australia has become progressively more enmeshed in American strategic and military affairs since the end of Cold War.

Two installations of "Tochka U" today left the airfield at Kramatorsk, in the direction of Druzhkovka. Firing positions were between Kramatorsk and Druzhkovka near the village of Kamyshevakha.

Rumble at startup and the flying missiles were seen and heard by the residents of Konstantinovka, Druzhkovka, Alekseev-Druzhkovka and several other settlements.

The direction of launch: Donetsk, Gorlovka. The first launch was made at 16:00, the second at 18:30.

Due to outdated components of the missiles and not without the help of providence (God is still with us!), both missiles had not reached their targets, having broken off in the sky in the vicinity of Gorlovka.

Exact time of launch and location of the explosion of the missiles in the air need to be verified further.

The main targets for Tochka short-range ballistic missile system (NATO Designation SS-21 Scarab) are airfields, command posts, support facilities, air defense batteries, bridges and troops concentrations. The Tochka can carry conventional, nuclear or chemical warheads. Maximum range of fire is 70 km. It has a CEP of 160 m. A standard missile is 6.4 m long and weights 2 000 kg. Warhead weights about 480 kg, depending on the type.

Translated by Kristina Rus

No sooner than they were sworn in, Syriza came out swinging, asserting strong opposition to an EU statement blaming Russia for Saturday's deadly attacks in Ukraine:

The new Greek government has spoken out against the EU partners over the statement that lays the blame for Saturday's fatal attack on the Ukrainian city of Mariupol on Russia. Hungary, Slovakia, and Austria voiced similar objections earlier.

The government, headed by Prime Minister Alexis Tripras, said in a press release on Tuesday that "the aforementioned statement was released without the prescribed procedure to obtain consent by the member states, and particularly without ensuring the consent of Greece."

"In this context, it is underlined that Greece does not consent to this statement," Tsipras added.

He voiced his "discontent" in a phone call to EU foreign relations chief Federica Mogherini.

The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) told Sputnik on Tuesday that it plans to remove social media and purchase history screening from its proposal concerning the security control at airports.

"The line on social media and purchase history was inadvertently included in this request for proposal (RFP), and will be removed in an updated amendment to the solicitation. All proposals will be evaluated for privacy and civil liberties risks," a TSA press officer said.

The proposal to include the collection of "commercial data" about passengers via "press reports, location data and information that individuals post on blogs and social media sites" has provoked criticism from privacy advocates.

Like pretty much all ailments and illnesses in the United States, returning soldiers from the warfronts suffering from acute cases of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are currently being treated, or more like snowed under, with powerful, mind-altering psychiatric drugs. Because it is unnatural for the vulnerable human psyche to witness the insanity of war, watching your buddies or yourself get blown up by IED's (Improvised Explosive Devices), instantly your life can forever be changed into a permanent living nightmare. Just by surviving the trauma after observing your brothers-in-arms (increasingly sisters-in arms with next year's official US policy change deploying women into combat) or even witnessing any humans die in war will often plague combat veterans the rest of their lives as survivor's guilt. Also as human tools of the US Empire killing machine, American soldiers in combat have systematically participated in war crime atrocities killing thousands and even millions of innocent civilians over the many decades of constant US war. Those soldiers who have not been desensitized and numbed to the extent that they cannot block out their survivor's guilt nor their residual guilt from killing others in immoral wars or possibly committing war crimes themselves, virtually always end up scarred for life, burdened with the shame and remorse for what they perceive as their own never forgotten much less forgiven past sins.

My own father, a decorated Navy war hero on US submarines during World War II and Korea, was tortured by his post-war "sins" that he carried for over 70 years all the way to his grave. His particular war sins were the result of being forced at gunpoint by US naval command to comply with America's racist war policy to kill every Asian man, woman and child in Pacific waters during World War II, even innocent non-Japanese civilian families peacefully eking out a modest living in their small fishing boats. At one point when my machine gunner father couldn't bear committing any more of his racist nation's sins, after defiantly throwing his .50 caliber bullet belt to the deck and retreating down below deck to his bunk, his submarine captain charged after him with his revolver drawn ready to murder my father until several of my father's shipmates talked the raging Medal of Honor winning skipper out of it. For the next seven decades my father agonized over the haunting images of gunning down little children and their mothers laying lifeless in their slowly sinking boats, turning the Pacific blue red with white man's inhumanity toward yellow race people. But this is what the last "justified," red, white and blue American war did to my father's fragile human psyche. Rather than placing the blame squarely on United States war policy in the Pacific theater, he always blamed himself for murdering those innocent families whose only crime was being born with slanted eyes. His PTSD symptoms persisted the next 70 years, countless times suddenly jarred awake in the middle of the night in cold sweat moaning in agony over his nightmares of those haunting, indelible images from so many years before. Then on weekends he would regularly put on his treasured "Victory At Sea" records, and the lilting music like a trance would morosely place him right back into reliving his war trauma, wrestling with his inner demons hundreds of times over while drowning himself in alcohol, futilely self-medicating numbness amidst his lingering, unshakable pain. This is what war does. From any end of the gun, war is always wrong.

The Verkhovna Rada with 271 votes officially recognized Russia as an aggressor. The MPs also called on the international community for the implementation of all measures to stop the military aggression against Ukraine, for strengthening of sanctions against the Russian Federation as a country that supports aggression on the territory of Ukraine, and declare DPR and LPR terrorist organizations. What is the reason of this decision, what it means and what the consequences might be, spoke the President of the Center of System Analysis and Forecasting, Rostislav Ishchenko in an interview to Pravda.Ru.

"Rada not only recognized Russia as an aggressor, but also recommended that the President actually declares war on Russia. That is, in this situation, Kiev regime, except for individuals looking for a personal gain, seeks to formalize the state of war with Russia. Ukraine has long said that it is at war with Russia," - said Rostislav Ishchenko.

But as the Russian army did not show up on the battlefield, Rada is trying to formalize it, believes the expert. "I understand that during the meeting of the Security and Defense Council, Poroshenko was pressured to declare martial law. When he resisted, they continued to push. Either they will force him, or else without him the Parliament or government of Ukraine will somehow formalize a state of war with Russia."

Fars news agency in Tehran is reporting that Syrian intelligence and security officials have disclosed that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist group are "using advanced state-of-the-art weapons which are only manufactured by the US", adding that "the largest such cargo has been dispatched to the terrorists just recently."

"These weapons were given to the ISIL inside Syria and only kilometers away from the Turkish border," the Arabic-language Al-Waqt news website quoted an informed source as saying on Tuesday.


This can't be a coincidence! Remember these weapons are being used in many cases against innocent civilians in Syria and Iraq.

You can find numerous execution videos showing ISIL fighters wearing US surplus military camouflage BDU's (Battle Dress Uniforms) and killing people with US made M-16 assault rifles.

The source noted that the advanced weapons included "anti-armor missiles as well as light and semi-heavy weaponry. "We are seeing NATO ammunition boxes as well", said one Syrian Army commander via a social media site -who wished to remain anonymous in this report for security reason.

The report said the consignment contained the largest cargo of US-made arms aid sent to ISIL so far.

Russia has accused Poland of engaging in a "mockery of history" after the Polish foreign minister credited Ukrainian soldiers, rather than the Soviet Red Army, with liberating Auschwitz 70 years ago.

The exchange underlines the deep tensions between Russia and Poland, which is hugely critical of Russian actions in Ukraine. Those strains are casting a shadow over the 70th anniversary commemorations of the liberation of the Nazi death camp, which will be held Tuesday in Poland.


Poland has apparently snubbed Russian President Vladimir Putin, who will not attend even though he was at the 60th anniversary event in 2005. The situation is particularly awkward since Auschwitz was liberated by Soviet troops on Jan. 27, 1945, and some of the more than 1.1 million victims were Soviet citizens, including Jews and prisoners of war.

In a radio interview Wednesday, Polish Foreign Minister Grzegorz Schetyna was challenged over what the journalist called the "pettiness" of not inviting Putin, given that he is the inheritor of the Soviet Union and that the Red Army freed Auschwitz.

Schetyna replied that "maybe it's better to say ... that the First Ukrainian Front and Ukrainians liberated (Auschwitz), because Ukrainian soldiers were there, on that January day, and they opened the gates of the camp and they liberated the camp."

From all appearances, the Obama regime's negotiations with Iran, overseen by Russia, were on the verge of ending the contrived nuclear issue. An end to the confrontation is unacceptable to the Zionist Israeli government and to their neocon agents in America. The Republicans, a political party owned lock, stock, and barrel by the Israel Lobby, hastily invited Netanyahu, the crazed ruler of both Israel and America, to quickly come to tell the Republican Congress, which the insouciant American voters put in place, how to prohibit any accommodation with Iran.

Observing the Israeli-controlled Republican Congress, a collection of warmongers, taking steps to prevent any peaceful resolution of a fabricated issue, Iran's leader, Seyyed Ali Khamenei sent a letter to Western youth advising the youth of the Western world of the mischaracterization of Islam by Western propagandists.

I respect Khamenei's effort to reach out to Western youth in order to help them differentiate the reality of Islam from the demonized portrait painted of Islam by Western politicians and media.

The question is: How much impact can Khamenei have? Khamenei's voice is important, but it is small in comparison to the Western liars and propagandists. Even an important representative, such as Khamenei, of a demonized country and a demonized religion can hardly be heard over the din of propaganda against Iran and Islam.

Moreover, secret Western black op organizations can conduct terrorist operations in the name of Islam, such as possibly occurred with 9/11, the Boston Marathon Bombing, and Charlie Hebdo. The world is told that Islam is behind these attacks, but experts note that no real evidence is ever supplied. Just official assertions, such as those that proved incorrect about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Assad's use of chemical weapons in Syria, the false accusations against Gaddafi in Libya, and the false accusations against Russia in Ukraine. The makers of this propaganda have many voices, and their trumpets overwhelm the voice of Iran's leader.

US has put a final signature to a $2 billion loan guarantee deal for Ukraine, adding that it is prepared to step up sanctions against Russia if necessary.


"The United States and Ukraine signed a declaration of cooperation in providing loan guarantees. The US government provides $2 billion in loan guarantees to Ukraine," Ukrainian Finance Minister Natalia Yaresko said Wednesday after meeting US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew in Kiev.

That means the US will take over the responsibility for Kiev's debt.

The US Treasury agreed to provide loan guarantees to Ukraine two weeks ago when US Vice President Joe Biden and Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk discussed the terms in a phone conversation.

Ukraine will get $1 billion during the first half of 2015, provided that Kiev continues to implement reforms, said Lew.

He said that additional funds can further be allocated if Ukraine complies with the conditions.