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Sam Heller: Extent of jihadist control in Idlib means they will fail, Syrians will retake province

Justin Clark
Syria Direct
Tue, 09 Jan 2018 17:21 UTC
idlib
© Omar Haj Kadour/AFP
Displaced Syrians flee fighting in Idlib province's southeast on January 7, 2018.
Hardline rebel coalition Hay'at Tahrir a-Sham wields the most powerful military and civil force in northwestern Syria. It is also is an internationally designated terrorist group led by a former Al-Qaeda affiliate.

Hay'at Tahrir a-Sham (HTS) has outmaneuvered its political and military rivals in the northwest in recent weeks, taking control of most major population centers in Idlib province, dissolving local governance and monopolizing civil authority.

As a result, HTS is "everywhere" in Idlib province, says Syria analyst Sam Heller, a Beirut-based writer and fellow at The Century Foundation.

HTS "can just reach out and touch anything they want to," Heller tells Syria Direct's Justin Clark. "If they want to be there, then they can be."

The hardline coalition's rule over the northwest has created what Heller calls a "critical mass of jihadist control," making it an unsustainable mini-state.

The Syrian government launched a major offensive in southern Idlib province last December, retaking large swathes of the province. The latest push by the government is likely the first phase of a "regime re-conquest of the northwest," Heller tells Syria Direct.

Comment: Following on the heels of the defeat of ISIS, the Syrian Army has been liberating towns in Idlib daily for weeks. These maps show their progress over the past month:
idlib dec 12

December 12, 2017
idlib jan 12

January 12, 2018


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Dominoes

Judge orders State Dept. to process Killary emails recovered by FBI faster


Judicial Watch
Thu, 11 Jan 2018 17:34 UTC
clinton emails ttp
© Wikimedia
Judicial Watch today announced that a federal court judge ordered the State Department to speed up processing and production of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's emails. U.S. District Court Judge James E. Boasberg recently ordered the State Department to complete processing the remaining documents that were recovered by the FBI in its investigation into Clinton's illicit email server by September 28, 2018. The Court's latest order accelerates State's production rate which would have continued until 2020.

Last year, the FBI uncovered 72,000 pages of documents Clinton attempted to delete or did not otherwise disclose. The State Department had been processing the documents at a rate that would have required Judicial Watch and the American people to wait until at least 2020 to see all the releasable Clinton material.
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Stock Up

Sanctions fail: Russian real estate sector steadily recovering


bne IntelliNews
Fri, 12 Jan 2018 17:11 UTC
russian real estate
Russia real estate sector is starting to recover after years in the doldrums, with the investment volume up 9% in 2017 to $4.6bn, reports JLL.

Russia's real estate investments reached $1.9bn in the last quarter of 2017, up 88% y/y versus $1bn in last quarter of 2016, according to JLL calculations. This brought the full year volume to $4.6bn, up 9% from $4.3bn in 2016.

"In 2017, the market underwent both positive and negative changes. The Russian economy has been recovering," Olesya Dzuba, Head of Research, JLL, Russia & CIS, said in a report. "The ruble traded within a narrow range. Inflation declined below the Central Bank target. Despite the raising concerns about the banking sector stability, a number of large deals closed at the year-end. These included the sale of Immofinanz shopping centre portfolio and the part of Sever-2 warehouse complex. We expect the investment volume to climb to $5bn in 2018, up 9% y/y."

Comment: See also:

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Info

UK ambassador: Iranian domestic affairs "none of our business"


PressTV
Wed, 10 Jan 2018 17:03 UTC
Nicholas Hopton

The United Kingdom’s Ambassador to Tehran Nicholas Hopton attends a gathering hosted by Iranian think tank the Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, in Tehran, January 9, 2018.
The United Kingdom's ambassador to Iran says the Islamic Republic's domestic affairs, including recent riots, are none of his country's business and that the UK will stay out of Iranian internal affairs.

Ambassador Nicholas Hopton made the remarks in a gathering titled "Europe and the Geopolitical Affairs of West Asia," which was being hosted by Iranian think tank the Strategic Council on Foreign Relations on Tuesday evening.

About two weeks ago, some peaceful protests were held in Iranian cities against price hikes and the overall economic condition of the country. Limited numbers of violent individuals, some of them armed, later sought to turn the peaceful protests into street riots. However, the original protesters soon heeded calls by authorities to leave the streets so that their legitimate activities would not play into the hands of violent rioters.

While sporadic violence continued for several days - and claimed the lives of 20 people - the riots gradually subsided.

In the course of those events, some British media outlets provided controversial coverage of the developments.

Comment: Nice words. If only they were true. Since when has the UK left other countries' domestic affairs alone? Only when there's nothing in it for them. In all other cases: fair game.

See also:

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Stormtrooper

Apparently drugged-up Nancy Pelosi slurs and repeats words, overrules her own statement (VIDEO)

Kyle Olson
The American Mirror
Thu, 11 Jan 2018 16:58 UTC
Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Pelosi has just returned to Washington, and she brought her bizarre behavior back with her.

As the House Minority Leader returned to her weekly press conference, she was seen repeating words, having trouble saying "Martin Luther King" and slurring "prescription drugs."

Talking about how Democrats used Rev. Martin Luther King's legacy to push socialized medicine, Pelosi had trouble speaking.

She said Democrat protests were "inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King," tripping over the words.

Comment: See: Pharmacist who shuttles carloads of drugs to Congress says its denizens are senile and brain-damaged

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Quenelle - Golden

Another Trump classic: "Why are we having all these people from s***hole countries come here?" - UPDATE

David Martosko
Daily Mail
Thu, 11 Jan 2018 13:45 UTC
trump white house
President Donald Trump, frustrated with America's continued responsibility for immigrants fleeing Third World natural disasters, asked members of Congress Thursday in vulgar terms why the United States had to shoulder such a burden.

'Why are we having all these people from sh*thole countries come here?' Trump said, according to two people who were briefed on the meeting and then leaked the comment to The Washington Post.

Trump was reportedly speaking about Haitians and citizens of various African nations.

'Why do we need more Haitians? Take them out,' he told people in the meeting, according to CNN.

The comments have caused outrage around the world, with the United Nations calling President Trump 'racist'.

Comment: Now watch as liberal-cosmopolitan elites the world over fall over themselves in fake shock at Trump's "racist" comments (while privately agreeing with him).

Trump is not 'racist', just as the vast majority of Americans are not 'racist'. He just speaks frankly because he is not a smooth-talking, lily-livered, lawyerly liar.

The US is well within its rights to amend its immigration laws however it wants to. And anyway, compared with many other countries, it's currently like a sieve. The media's 'indignation' over this just betrays its ideological bias towards the open borders agenda to destroy nation-states.

Update - January 12:

Trump has shrugged off the comments but claimed he was misquoted by the Washington Post - what a surprise!



Ry Dawson at Anti-Neocon Report:



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Chart Bar

Euroskeptic Zeman leads in Czech polls amid anti-Russian hysteria about 'Russian meddling'


Free West Media
Thu, 11 Jan 2018 16:50 UTC
zeman putin
Czechs will head to the polls on Friday to vote for a new president, with incumbent Milos Zeman facing allegations of Russian involvement.

The election could become bogged down in shrill allegations of Russian meddling, because Zeman is currently the favourite to win out of the nine candidates standing.

The popular candidate had previously served as prime minister from 1998 to 2002 and is seen as Russia's favourite candidate.

The Czech politician, 73, has met frequently with Vladimir Putin. Russia meanwhile is constantly being accused of meddling in the 2016 US presidential election and the European Union referendum.

The Eurosceptic Zeman has criticised Muslim immigration and supported the lifting of sanctions against Moscow while calling for the recognition of Crimea.

Polls show that Zeman has a 47.6 percent lead. According to kdovyhrajevolby.cz website which combines polls with bookmakers' odds, his most serious challenger Jiri Drahos, former head of the Czech Academy of Sciences, is trailing with 44.9 percent.

Comment: If a candidate is pro-Russian in any way, he or she must be a Russian agent. There is no other explanation. If voters agree with the Russian point of view on any topic, they must be victims of Russian propaganda. There is no other explanation. If a "pro-Russian" candidate wins an election, it must have been as a result of Russian meddling. There is no other explanation. These are the key tenets of Russian meddling.

Western opinion makers have set up the perfect system. They lie, make sure only lies get any air time, then slam anyone who points out the lie or tells the truth as a Russian tool, simply because Russian sources also point out the lie or tell the truth. Since the truth is not available from Western sources, the source of such insidious truth must come from Russia. And that's bad. Even though it's the truth. Doesn't make sense? Maybe you're a victim of Russian mind control.

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Vader

Trump's disingenuous support for CIA/Soros-created Iranian protests reveals US' naked political bias

Ned Price
Foreign Policy
Wed, 10 Jan 2018 16:22 UTC
iranian students
© Stringer/AFP/Getty Images
Iranian students scuffle with police at the University of Tehran during a demonstration on Dec. 30, 2017
The protests that roiled Iran over the past two weeks had little to do with the United States or its foreign policy. Despite concerted efforts on the part of the Trump administration to portray the movement as a repudiation of President Barack Obama's approach to the regime in Tehran, the unrest in Iranian cities and towns appears to be an organic uprising, the leaders of which would doubtlessly take umbrage at the idea that they were galvanized by the United States.


Comment: It's doubtful the protests are simply "organic". There is a narrative in Western media that the unrest is due to the Iranian economy, but what that narrative fails to point out is that the Iranian economy has been shackled for years by sanctions from the West. Also, Iranian leaders have pointed out that its Western governments who are stoking anti-government campaigns on social media. For further reading, see:

The protests have, nevertheless, cast a spotlight on the Trump administration's foreign policy. Specifically, they have helped dispel a myth that President Donald Trump entirely ignores human rights in the pursuit of a realist, America-first agenda. His true approach is even more harmful to U.S. credibility. In the case of Iran, the administration has put out a slew of tweets and statements in support of the protestors' quest for political reforms, underlining Trump's selective approach to pressing for rights that other presidents, both Democrats and Republicans, described as universal. This approach - harping on some adversaries' human rights records while otherwise turning a blind eye - shatters U.S. credibility and moral authority on the matter. Far from empowering the Iranian protestors, the Trump administration's bald-faced hypocrisy rings hollow and plays into the hands of Iranian hardliners.
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Star of David

Criminal state: Israel approves 1285 new illegal homes for colonists in West Bank


Reuters
Tue, 09 Jan 2018 16:42 UTC
West Bank
© nbcnews
Another illegal settlement, West Bank
Israel will approve construction of hundreds of new settlement homes in the occupied West Bank, Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Tuesday.

Settlements are one of the most heated issues in efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, frozen since 2014.

Palestinians want the West Bank for a future state, along with East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Most countries consider as illegal the Israeli settlements built in the territory which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

Israel disputes that its settlements are illegal and says their future should be determined in peace talks with the Palestinians.


Comment: God gave them the West Bank 3000 years ago. Who can go against the will of God? God is, after all, a real estate agent.


Israeli authorities were due to approve on Wednesday the construction of 1,285 housing units to be built in 2018 and advance planning for 2,500 others in about 20 different settlements, Lieberman said in a statement.

There was no immediate comment from the Palestinian officials. The Palestinians say Israeli settlements in the West bank, a key issue in peace talks, deny them a viable contiguous state.

Comment: What do you call a person who steals, then says God gave it to them?

See also:

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Chart Pie

Merkel Steps Closer to Coalition Deal For New Government, But at What Cost?

Niall Bradley
Sott.net
Fri, 12 Jan 2018 17:52 UTC
merkel coalition germany

'Yay, we kept our jobs!'
There was relief in Berlin and Brussels today as Angela Merkel's center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party and its Bavarian CSU ally announced that they were, in principle, on track to form a repeat coalition of Germany's previous government with Martin Schulz's left-center Social Democrats party (SPD). The deal is not yet clinched, however, as SPD party members won't vote on any arrangement until they hold a special congress on 21 January. And even then, predicts Horst Seehofer, head of the CSU, a government may not be in place until April, some 6 months since the election in late September 2017.

This is uncharted territory for modern Germany. Drawn-out electoral processes are something they're used to mocking Italians about, but with both Merkel's and Schulz's parties clocking their worst election results since the Weimar Republic, political instability has returned to Germany in a big way. Unlike the CDU/CSU-SPD 'grand coalition' government from 2013-2017, this time around the largest party they face in the Bundestag is the AfD (Alternative für Deutschland), which, as a new right-wing nationalist party, poses a 'dangerous threat' (from the establishment's point of view) as the 'official' opposition.
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