Two of the United States military's top officials testified before the Senate on Tuesday about the growing threat posed by Islamic State militants and acknowledged that the Pentagon's current plan for the situation in Iraq and Syria could soon shift.

As Congress considers whether or not the US government should go forward with a plan proposed by President Barack Obama to train and equip fighters to take on the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, American military top brass said the White House may adopt a new strategy if the extremist group's operations in the Middle East intensify and warrant further assistance from the Pentagon.


Pres. Obama has repeatedly gone on the record in recent weeks to state that there will be "no boots on the ground" in Iraq and Syria where the Islamic State continue to wage an escalating campaign of violence, and that US troops will not engage in combat missions, instead relying on airstrikes and providing other assistance to anti-IS fighters.

Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told senators in Washington, DC during Tuesday's hearing that the president's stated policy remains one involving no ground forces in Iraq and Syria. The top commander added, however, that Pres. Obama said to "come back to him on a case-by-case basis" should the situation overseas worsen.

Scottish voters finally have the opportunity to fulfill William Wallace's dream of a Scotland that is free and independent of England forever. All they have to do is vote yes next week. Without a doubt, a divorce from the British would be quite messy, and life would probably be more comfortable in the short-term if Scotland remains part of the United Kingdom. But hopefully the people of Scotland are looking beyond short-term concerns. Today, the United Kingdom is a horribly repressive Big Brother police state that is dominated by bureaucratic control freaks. You can hardly even sneeze without violating some kind of law, rule or regulation. And the London banking establishment is at the very heart of the debt-based global financial system which is enslaving so much of the planet. Scotland finally has a chance to get free from all of this. All it is going to take is a yes vote on Scottish independence.

It looks like it is going to be an incredibly close vote. Recent polls show that the result could go either way. Needless to say, this is causing the British establishment to freak out quite a bit.

For example, a couple of large banks have attempted to sway the vote during this past week by publicly declaring that they will have to move to England if the vote for Scottish independence is successful...

The Royal Bank of Scotland announced Thursday that it is making contingency plans to move its legal incorporation to England in the event of a "yes" vote. In addition, Lloyds Banking Group said it had made arrangements to establish "new legal entities" in England should voters in Scotland decide to sever ties with Britain.

The report on the Malaysian jet crash is very "calm" and doesn't provide much information about the tragedy, said Russian FM Sergey Lavrov. He added that despite all the hype around the crash, the investigators do not seem to be in a hurry.

In a Saturday interview to Russian channel TV-Center, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov revealed he was disappointed by the latest report from Dutch experts on the reasons of Malaysia airplane crash. Malaysian airplane with 298 people on board crashed in Donetsk region July 17. Many western media outlets started accusing Russia without providing any evidence.

However, despite the political tensions, the report provided by the Dutch Safety Board from September 9 is "calm" while the investigators are taking their time with the probe.

"There are no demands that experts resume their work at the crash site," Lavrov said. "There were also no attempts to go there to collect, as they say, the wreckage and to see how the whole plane looked like. Nobody spoke about it out loud."

At the same time, the only side who is the moment seems actively interested in going to the site of the crash is Malaysia, whose Defense Minister is planning a soon visit.

An article from Todays Zaman (link) reports: "US daily The Wall Street Journal has claimed in its editorial on Saturday that it is the "unavoidable conclusion" that the US needs to find a better regional ally to fight the self-proclaimed Islamic State (ISIL) than Turkey, suggesting that the air base Turkey is currently hosting should be moved somewhere else.

Recalling Turkey's reluctance in joining the anti-ISIL coalition, the editorial said not only will Ankara take no military action, it will also forbid the US from using the US air base in İncirlik - located fewer than 100 miles from the Syrian border - to conduct air strikes against the terrorists.

"That will complicate the Pentagon's logistical and reconnaissance challenges, especially for a campaign that's supposed to take years," it added.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has cast doubt on the sincerity of the so-called coalition to fight terrorism, saying it is a "joke" that the countries which have supported and financed militant groups now seek to fight terrorism.

"It is a joke that the countries which trained, equipped and financed terrorist groups now suddenly seek to fight these terrorist groups," Rouhani said in a meeting with Slovak Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Miroslav Lajcak in Tehran on Monday.

Rouhani expressed concern about growing terrorism in the Middle East, including Syria and Iraq, and called on all countries to adopt a unified approach to uproot terrorism.

The Slovak official, for his part, called for consultations between Bratislava and Tehran on serious security issues in the world to find a way out of the problems.

Monitors from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) came under artillery fire at the MH17 crash site in eastern Ukraine on September 14, their report released on Monday said.

It said "the patrol vehicles were damaged by artillery or mortar fire ... the team left the area in the remaining useable vehicle and returned to Donetsk city".

"The SMM also carried out an on-site assessment in the area of the MH17 crash site, upon request of the Dutch, Australian and Malaysian authorities. The patrol vehicles were damaged by artillery or mortar fire at 18:37. The team left the area in the remaining useable vehicle and returned to Donetsk city at 00:32 hrs today," the report said.

In an earlier report, the OSCE said its monitors and representatives of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) had come under a mortar attack in Donetsk, with shells exploding some 100-200 metres away.

The Ukrainian parliament has approved laws on special status for the Donetsk and Lugansk Regions, as well as amnesty for those participating in the hostilities.

The special status law has received 277 'yes' votes from a total of 450 MPs, while the amnesty law was approved by 287 parliamentary members. The session of the Verkhovna Rada is underway during which MPs are to ratify an agreement with the EU.

The law on the special status of Lugansk and Donetsk Regions guarantees the right to use and study Russian or any other language in Ukraine.

It also states that local elections are to take place in the regions on December 7.


The head of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic, Igor Plotnitsky, earlier welcomed the law on special status for Ukraine's eastern regions proposed by President Poroshenko.

On 11 September 2014, on a 'historic' thirteenth anniversary of the terror attack proclaimed by suicide bombers aimed at the buildings of the World Trade Centre, an urgent meeting was called in Jeddah calling for the ministers of foreign affairs of six countries - members of the Gulf Co-Operation Council, as well as Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and the USA. The issues of counter-action to the Middle East terror organisations were discussed there; and first of all, the activities of the ISIS terror organisation.

The USA, as the true champion of this event, although it was officially summoned by Riyadh, hastened to announce its success and creation of the international coalition to fight the 'absolute evil', as ISIS is now called. Indeed, the participants of the meeting, apart from the foreign minister of Turkey - M. Chavushoglu - unanimously signed the document stating the goals of the coalition, as dictated by the USA (in fact they were false, as we will show later), fighting with ISIS and also with the methods proposed by Washington; bombarding the militants' positions from the air, both on the territory of Iraq and Syria, providing military assistance to Kurds and Iraqi government, as well as offering humanitarian aid to those who found themselves on the territories occupied by the militants. In general, several measures were taken which would reduce the influx of militants into the zones seized by them.

Washington is pleased not only with the creation of the above-mentioned coalition with the active support on part of Riyadh, but also with the received freedom of actions. The USA were able not only to escape the immediate participation in destroying of ISIS by their own ground forces (i.e. formally to observe Obama's declarations that he will not involve America into the Middle East conflicts), but also to receive the silent support of the regional states regarding the fact that the actions undertaken by this created coalition will take place virtually beyond the framework of the United Nations Charter, bypassing its requirements to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the independent states, and first of all Syria. The repetition of 2003 scenario is evident.

John Kerry rebuffed the criticism on part of Russia, regarding such intents by issuing a statement that Moscow itself allegedly violates the international law in Ukraine and that is why its criticism of the American activities is 'ridiculous', and it cannot demand respect for the United Nations regulations in the Middle East from the USA. They have a poor excuse - they are going to violate the rules because others do it. In other words, the USA, whilst nodding at others (without any evidence), will further destroy the system of international law, as they were doing successfully during the last decades, especially after the collapse of the bipolar system of international relations.

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The President does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a President to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The President can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? He/she is the leader of the majority party. He/she and fellow House members, not the President, can approve any budget they want. If the President vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

Just 545 Americans have fouled up this great nation.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted - by present facts - of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

Russia and China are moving closer together as Moscow becomes more and more disenchanted with the West. Can these two countries successfully challenge western hegemony? Can the bear and dragon reshape the world? CrossTalking with Martin Hennecke and Pepe Escobar.