Noam Chomsky, one of the world's most respected intellectuals and political thinkers, told RIA Novosti that his "intuitions favor" a "yes" vote in the upcoming referendum on Scottish independence to be held September 18.

Chomsky told RIA Novosti that he is continuing to study the details and consequences of potential Scottish independence, but confirmed he has "been following the debate with interest."

"My intuition favors independence," Chomsky added.

The intervention is a major boost for the "yes" campaign, given Chomsky's international reputation.

Professor Hugh Pennington of the University of Aberdeen is a prominent academic campaigning against independence.

Pennington, a professor in bacteriology, told RIA Novosti that he was "surprised and disappointed" by Chomsky's support for independence.

"Professor Chomsky is obviously very well-regarded," Pennington said, adding that other academics would take note of his backing for Scottish independence and study his arguments.

Scottish voters will go to the polls on September 18^th to decide whether Scotland should become an independent country. As video blogger Ian R. Crane colorfully puts the issues and possibilities:

[T]he People of Scotland have an opportunity to extricate themselves from the socio-psychopathic global corporatists and the temple of outrageous and excessive abject materialism. However, it is not going to be an easy ride . . . .

If Alex Salmond and the SNP [Scottish National Party] are serious about keeping the Pound Stirling as the Currency of Scotland, there will be no independence. Likewise if Scotland embraces the Euro, Scotland will rapidly become a vassel state of the Euro-Federalists, who will asset strip the nation in the same way that, Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain have been stripped of their entire national wealth and much of their national identity.

To achieve true independence, Crane suggests the following, among other mandates:

• Establish an independent Central Bank of Scotland.
• Issue a new Scottish (Debt Free) Currency.
• Settle any outstanding debt with new Scottish Currency.
• Take Scotland out of the EU.
• Take Scotland out of NATO.
• Establish strict currency controls for the first 3 years of independence.
• Nationalize the Scottish oil & gas industry.
• Re-take control of the National Health Service.
• Establish a State Employment Agency to provide work/training for all able-bodied residents.

Internal Revenue Service (IRS) commissioner John Koskinen testified Wednesday that the IRS did not save any of the information on Lois Lerner's destroyed Blackberry and that there is no outside system to store agency emails.

"Hard drive crashes continue as we speak," Koskinen admitted at a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee hearing when asked if any computers had recently crashed under his watch.

Koskinen admitted that destroying records would be an act "not consistent with the law," but maintained that there's no evidence that the IRS intentionally destroyed records.

"Ms. Lerner's Blackberry was replaced in February 2012 as part of an ongoing Blackberry update....it was disposed of under standard procedures at that time," Koskinen said.

Koskinen claimed that information from Lerner's Blackberry could not be transferred to her new model because "Our Blackberries only display email that is displayed by our employees' Microsoft Outlook emails, which is maintained on IRS servers."

Koskinen also said that there's no outside system to save IRS employees' emails.

"There is no system outside the IRS, government or otherwise, that the IRS uses to back up or store emails," Koskinen said.


Koskinen didn't mention that the IRS terminated its years-long contract with its email archiving company Sonasoft shortly after Lerner's computer crashed.

The West's latest round of sanctions against Russia and the fragile truce between Moscow and Kiev fails to alter the fact that the Kremlin has already succeeded in achieving most of its aims in Ukraine. Crimea is an all-but-accepted lost cause, and territories in Eastern and Southern Ukraine are under serious pressure to follow suit. But the US and the EU should realize that it was not solely militias in Eastern Ukraine or Russian weaponry that secured the upper hand for the Kremlin. In its campaign in Ukraine, Russia's propaganda and information warfare have been far more effective than military action in helping Moscow achieve its agenda while largely tying the West's hands in its attempts to respond.

The original version of this post was published on the Oceania Saker Blog who spearheaded the effort to translate this most important document proving, if needed, that one can be down under and yet at the very top at the same time!

The Saker
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Malaysian Flight MH17 crash analysis, by The Russian Union of Engineers

This is an excellent detailed analysis of the MH17 tragedy by the Russian Union of Engineers which quite frankly illustrates how heavily censored the Dutch "report" is.

We will let you digest this report and come to your own conclusion, which in all likelihood will explain the infamous high velocity projectiles whitewash pumped out by the western "press".

This review was undertaken by experts who not only know the subject matter but have objectively presented evidence that must be considered with the legitimacy that is inherent to it. Here is the overall description of the "Analytical Group" from the report:

A group of experts from the Russian Union of engineers was convened to analyze the situation, including reserve officers with experience in the use of anti-aircraft missile systems, as well as pilots having experience with aircraft weapons.This problem was also discussed at a meeting of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems, where many variants were tested and discussed again. In the course of their analysis the experts used materials derived from public sources, found in the media. The situation was also analyzed using a computer simulation of the Su-25.

You can download the English version of the report here.
The original Russian version of the report is here.

[note: the links above point to documents in the proprietary M$ DOCX format. For those who, like myself might prefer the free ODT or PDF format, I have made them available here. The Saker]

Official statement by the Russian Union of Engineers:
(please press on the 'cc' button to see the English subtitles)

A top European court has struck down restrictions imposed by the European Union against the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) on an alleged charge of circumventing US-led sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

In a judgment on Thursday, the Luxembourg-based EU's Court of Justice said it "annuls...the EU March 23, 2012 [ruling] concerning restrictive measures against Iran in so far as it listed Central Bank of Iran."

"The reasons relied on are so vague and lacking in detail that the only possible response was in the form of a general denial," the court ruled on Thursday, adding that "those reasons therefore do not comply with the requirements of the case-law."

It said the charge leveled against the CBI is "insufficient in the sense that it does not enable either the applicant or the Court to understand the circumstances which led the [European] Council to consider...to adopt the contested act."

The court also ordered the 28-nation European bloc to "bear one half of its own costs and to pay one half of the costs of Central Bank of Iran."

I couldn't believe my ears recently when I learned that George Galloway, long-standing thorn in the side of the British establishment... is a firebrand supporter of Scotland remaining in the United Kingdom that is ruled with an iron fist by said establishment! Here's a synopsis of his arguments against Scottish independence, from a recent 'speech' (more like an abrasive and illogical rant) titled 'Just Say Naw', apparently one of many as he toured Scotland to campaign against independence from the UK Crown.

I confess to not having been able to listen to it all - it was really difficult for me to see him fall so low after admiring his defence of working class interests for so long. Scots aren't merely voting 'Yes' for a change of passport, as he flippantly suggests; they're doing so because there is no way for them to continue the 'class war' - as he puts it - within the status quo.

While it's true that "fundamental class points" remain pertinent for Scots whichever state they live under, how those "class points" are addressed is another matter entirely. Scots have woken up to realize that said interests cannot be addressed by a government down in London. Of COURSE Scottish oligarchs envision 'the natural order of things' continuing more or less undisturbed. But surely reducing the number of oligarchs with access to Scotland's resources has at least the potential to improve things for Scots? At the very least, a smaller centralized state run by and for the Scots oligarchs he names in his talk is less likely to get away with as many war crimes, and as much corruption. than a larger centralized state run by and for many more oligarchs in London.

Provoking war abroad raises specter of staged attacks at home

The FBI has foiled yet another entirely fabricated terror threat of its own creation, with missing mechanisms in two firearms provided to a potential terrorist being the only thing that prevented this latest case of entrapment from going "live."

A Rochester man, Mufid A. Elfgeeh, is accused by the FBI of attempting to provide material support to ISIS (undercover FBI agents), attempting to kill US soldiers, and possession of firearms and silencers (provided to him by the FBI). The FBI's own official press release stated (emphasis added):

According to court records, Elfgeeh attempted to provide material support to ISIS in the form of personnel, namely three individuals, two of whom were cooperating with the FBI. Elfgeeh attempted to assist all three individuals in traveling to Syria to join and fight on behalf of ISIS. Elfgeeh also plotted to shoot and kill members of the United States military who had returned from Iraq. As part of the plan to kill soldiers, Elfgeeh purchased two handguns equipped with firearm silencers and ammunition from a confidential source. The handguns were made inoperable by the FBI before the confidential source gave them to Elfgeeh.

What is perhaps more chilling are the details of Elfgeeh's plans to kill US soldiers. The FBI's press release stated (emphasis added):

Court documents also indicate that Elfgeeh first discussed the idea of shooting United States military members in December 2013 when he told CS-2 that he was thinking about getting a gun and ammunition, putting on a bulletproof vest, and "just go[ing] around and start shooting." In February 2014, Elfgeeh told CS-2 that he needed a handgun and silencer. Elfgeeh later gave CS-2 $1,050 in cash to purchase two handguns equipped with silencers and ammunition. On May 31, 2014, CS-2 delivered the two handguns equipped with silencers and ammunition to Elfgeeh. After Elfgeeh took possession of the items, he was arrested by members of the Rochester Joint Terrorism Task Force. Elfgeeh is currently being held in custody.

Elfgeeh's plans are also - coincidentally - verbatim, the dream scenario of Washington's warmongers currently attempting to sell a war that will straddle both sides of the Syrian-Iraqi border, allow the US to provide terrorists operating in Syria with air support, and lead to punitive operations against the Syrian government for attacking US-backed terrorists with the final objective being long-sought after regime change in Damascus.

NATO's Secretary General has accused Russia of being unwilling to build a partnership with the organization, but some Western analysts say it was the Alliance itself which "has violated nearly each and every paragraph of its agreement with Russia, which has stabilized Europe for a certain time".

"We have tried long and hard to build a partnership in a way that respects Russia's security concerns and is based on international rules and norms... Regrettably, Russia has rejected our efforts to engage. Instead, Russia considers NATO, and the West more broadly, as an adversary," Anders Fogh Rasmussen said at a Carnegie Europe event that marked the end of his mandate as NATO chief.


He also added that Russia "has trembled" all of the agreements that kept the peace in Europe and beyond.

But German government consultant and publicist Christoph Horstel has argued that it was quite the opposite.

"I have re-read the NATO-Russia act right before this interview and I see very clearly, there is no thorough discussion necessary, that the paper in fact is dead", he told Radio VR.

He attributes this death to NATO and accuses the organization of murder. "NATO has violated nearly each and every paragraph of this important paper, which has stabilized Europe for a certain time. And it has done so since at least, 2003, when Iraq was infected by an unauthorized invasion," Horstel added.

Russia will provide military and other assistance to Iraq and Syria in the fight against terrorism, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on the sidelines of an international conference on Iraq in Paris on Monday.

"We have spoken of our contribution to supporting the Iraqi government in their fight against terrorists, ensuring security of their state. In a similar way we provide military and other kind of assistance to Syria that is also facing a serious terrorist threat, maybe to a lesser degree. We also provide assistance to our partners in Egypt, Lebanon, Yemen, Jordan. So we have something to contribute to the common efforts," Lavrov said.


No double standards in the fight against terrorists are acceptable, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on the sidelines of an international conference on Iraq in the French capital on Monday.


"We have long been raising the issue of terrorist activity that has dramatically intensified in the Middle East and in North Africa after the "Arab spring" events, after the goals of overthrowing the regimes were set above the general goals of preventing the terrorism threat spread," he said.