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Obama whitewashes years of disastrous foreign policy in new interview


Moon of Alabama
Thu, 10 Mar 2016 00:00 UTC
Obama

The Atlantic publishes Obama's great whitewashing of his own foreign policy. It is the result of a series of interviews with Jefferey Goldberg written up into one gigantic piece under the headline "The Obama Doctrine". Throughout the piece Goldberg and Obama touch various foreign policy issues, mainly in the Middle East.

The ostensible purpose is to refute hawkish critics of Obama who say that he has not been militaristic enough or was 'leading from behind.' Judging from comments to the piece in various media the readers seem to fall for that. But the real purpose of the piece is to hide the militaristic, dangerous to catastrophic decision Obama has made on many foreign policy issues.

Comment: So, in other words, its just about what you'd expect Obama to say in an attempt to absolve himself from acts which pretty much point to genocide. Can't have a bad rep getting in the way of all those $250,000 speech engagements he expects to have after his term is over.

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Jet3

Syrian military source says Air Force MiG-21 jet downed, pilot killed


Sputnik
Sat, 12 Mar 2016 23:07 UTC
Syrian MiG-21 fighter jet
© Sputnik/ Dmitriy Vinogradov
Syrian Air Force MiG-21 has been downed by armed militants near a military airfield in western Hama Governorate, a military source told Sputnik. The pilot had been shot dead from the ground while parachuting, according to the source.

"A Syrian warplane MiG-21 was shot down near the Hama military airfield," the source said.
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Stormtrooper

Eight times protesters were attacked, dragged from Donald Trump rallies


RT
Sat, 12 Mar 2016 21:32 UTC
Trump with fists
© AP
Speaking about a protester, Trump is quoted as saying, "I'd like to punch him in the face" and then reminisced about the "old days" where protesters might be "carried out on a stretcher."

Comment: With incidents of violence breaking out in at least 8 Trump rallies one might begin to wonder why Trump is openly promoting it in some instances. And if he's promoting it at his own rallies then what can we expect of him as president in relation to other countries?


Tensions between Donald Trump supporters and protesters have hit an all-time high, as the latest confrontation forced the presidential candidate to cancel a Chicago rally due to outbreaks of violence amongst the clashing crowd.

Trump's campaign rallies have been marked by protests almost from the beginning of his run for the Republican presidential nomination. Given The Donald's attitude toward protesters, the escalation in violence has been simultaneously shocking and unsurprising.

Comment: See these related article for insight into how Trump himself condones, and thus promotes, the violence:

A history of Donald Trump inciting violence against protesters at his rallies and campaign events

The problem with violence at Trump rallies starts with Trump himself

Could Donald Trump be held legally responsible for inciting violence at his rallies?

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Eye 2

Kurdish Diyarbakır, city of the dead and missing after Turkish crackdown


RT
Sat, 12 Mar 2016 20:22 UTC
Kurd Diyarbakir destruction
© Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Damaged buildings in the Sur district of the mainly-Kurdish city of Diyarbakir.
An RT crew has visited Diyarbakır, the unofficial capital of the Turkish Kurds, to throw light on the gruesome consequences of Turkey's crackdown on the Kurdish population. RT's William Whiteman talked to the relatives of one of the victims.

RT took an exclusive look into the mass killings of civilians allegedly committed by the Turkish military, filming the mourning of those who lost their loved ones as a result of the ongoing crackdown.


Friday prayers in Diyarbakir have also become a manifestation of the deep divide between the locals and the Turkish government.

In a further effort to quash Kurdish descent, Turkish authorities now require imams to read government-approved sermons. Thousands of local Kurds are protesting this move by boycotting the city's main mosque and holding prayers in a nearby park.

The imam speaks in both Kurdish and Turkish, condemning the government's actions.
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Eye 2

UN reports US-based companies & Turkish arms manufacturers 'breaking Libya arms sales embargo'


RT
Sat, 12 Mar 2016 20:04 UTC
Libya fighters
© Esam Al-Fetori / Reuters
Two US-based companies have allegedly broken the international arms embargo imposed on Libya during the Arab Spring revolution, UN investigators have reportedly concluded. The weapons were destined for two rival governments and allied militias fighting for control.

Investigators reportedly said the two US-based companies brokered an arms deal in 2011, as well as an Italian middleman working with a UK-based Libyan national on behalf of the Libyan authorities in control of Tripoli, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a UN report.

The oil-rich North African nation is currently ruled by two opposing governments: the internationally-recognized Council of Deputies (based in Tobruk) and the Tripoli-based General National Congress.

Libyan and international officials reportedly told UN investigators the government in Tobruk had been receiving equipment from abroad through its own procurement operations and from countries supporting it. Those countries allegedly include Egypt and the UAE, according to two sources cited in the report.

Comment: Good old 'Murrican values. Never let a little thing like an embargo get in the way of one's profits.

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Hardhat

Winning strategic allies: Russia to supply Afghanistan with over a million tons of oil


Sputnik
Sat, 12 Mar 2016 19:35 UTC
Russian pump jack
© REUTERS/ Sergei Karpukhin
Russia is considering the possibility of supplying Afghanistan with 1.5 million tons of oil per year, according to the Deputy Minister of Energy Yury Sentyurin.

According to the minister, Afghanistan consumes more than 3 million tons of petroleum products for its own personal needs and uses another 3 million for the International Security Assistance Force.

The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was a NATO-led security mission in Afghanistan, established by the United Nations Security Council in December 2001.
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Laptop

ISIS file leak exposes previously unknown British jihadists


RT
Fri, 11 Mar 2016 18:52 UTC
british isis jihadists
© Stringer / Reuter
Leaked Islamic State membership files have exposed a number of British jihadists, recruiters and fighters in Syria and Iraq previously unknown to the UK public.

Newly revealed jihadists include fighters from Arsenal and Finsbury Park in north London, one of whom is an as yet unknown young Italian.

Fourteen Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) recruitment forms were passed to the Guardian by German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. The forms include names, dates of birth, home towns and recruiter details.

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Stock Down

Erdogan on the edge: Will Putin's economic sanctions bring him down?

Kerim Karakaya
Al Monitor
Thu, 25 Feb 2016 17:59 UTC
Turkish street market Russia
© Murad Sezer/Reuters
The Arasta Bazaar that sells leather and goods near the Blue Mosque is empty of people, Istanbul, Jan. 12, 2016.
The economic warfare declared by Russia damages the Turkish economy beyond expectations

The Russian plane shot down by the Turkish air force Nov. 24 has brought President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin into serious confrontation. The economic warfare that began shortly afterward has been inflicting heavy damage on Turkey ever since.

At the outset, Turkish politicians seemed unconcerned about possible effects of the political crisis on the economy. Back then, while Mehmet Simsek, the deputy prime minister responsible for Turkey's economic policies, stated that Russian economic sanctions would not have any — or at least only limited — effect on the economy. Erdogan was trying to ignore any such economic effects by saying that nothing would happen, even if natural gas were to be cut, because Turkish citizens are used to coping with difficulties.

The sanctions caused major problems and bankruptcy in the tourism, construction, food and textile industries, and a chain reaction in banking sectors on the day the sanctions became effective Jan. 1 — this despite the fact that Putin had not yet played his strongest trump card: energy.

Comment: It seems Erdogan's eagerness to please his western masters by attempting to provoke Russia is having long-range consequences he never considered.

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Blackbox

Did RT founder Lesin die during an FBI interrogation?

Petri Krohn
Fort Russ
Sat, 12 Mar 2016 17:41 UTC
putin lesin

Comment: As the article below says, it took 4 months for U.S. officials to make public the details of Lesin's death. However, even now, details remain murky. After initially calling the investigation "criminal" in nature, State Dept. spokesman John Kirby corrected himself, simply stating the investigation is "ongoing". White House press secretary Josh Earnest vaguely said Friday that he believes the FBI might have been involved in the investigation, but didn't clarify his statement.


The Russian "media mogul", co-founder of RT, former minister, and a Putin ally Mikhail Lesin was found dead in his room at the Dupont Circle Hotel in Washington, D.C. on the morning of November 5th last year. Emergency medical staff was alerted to the scene, but the D.C. Fire and EMS found no signs consistent with life. It was initially reported by "family members", most likely Lesin's son and daughter living in Los Angeles, that Lesin had died of a heart attack. The death caused wide scale speculation, both in Russia and the West, that the death had been murder.

The Russian foreign ministry says the US has not given it any substantive information on the death, even though they have repeatedly requested information through diplomatic channels. Yesterday it was confirmed by the medical examiner that Lesin had died of "blunt force injuries of the head," as well as "blunt force injuries of the neck, torso, upper extremities, lower extremities."

There is reason to suspect Mikhail Lesin may have died while being interrogated by the FBI.
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Books

McGraw-Hill destroys poli-sci textbook, placates pro-Israel bloggers' censorship demands

Rania Khalek
The Electronic Intifada
Fri, 11 Mar 2016 00:00 UTC
book page
© elderofziyon.blogspot.com
An image published by Elder of Ziyon from the textbook "Global Politics," as part of the anti-Palestinian blogger’s successful campaign to pressure McGraw Hill over maps depicting land loss in Palestine.
The publisher McGraw-Hill Education is destroying all copies of a political science textbook after receiving complaints from hardline supporters of Israel that it features a series of "anti-Israel" maps.

The college textbook, titled Global Politics: Engaging a Complex World, was published in 2012. But it wasn't until early this month that the maps generated criticism from a pro-Israel blogger known as Elder of Ziyon.

Within a week of the initial outcry, McGraw-Hill began destroying all copies of the book, scrubbed the book from its website, promised to reimburse anyone who bought the book and apologized to the offended right-wing bigots behind the manufactured controversy.

According to the publisher's summary, the book fosters "critical thinking and theory" about global events and "offers students a number of lenses through which to view the world around them."
The maps, which appear in chronological succession on page 123, show Palestinian land loss from 1946, one year before Zionist militias initiated the displacement of more than 750,000 indigenous Palestinians from historic Palestine, to the year 2000, by which point Palestinian land had been reduced to a handful of tiny non-contiguous enclaves in the occupied West Bank and a sliver of Gaza.
The caption reads, "A mix of diplomatic and military actions and expanded Jewish settlements since the founding of modern Israel has led to a gradual decline in Palestinian-held territory - which explains why the territory remains one of the central sticking points in the long-standing Israeli-Palestinian conflict." The image is sourced to the Middle East Political Research Center.



Comment: MSNBC is owned by NBCUniversal, parent company Comcast. Having acquired 51% ownership of media conglomerate NBC Universal from General Electric in January 2011, Jewish-owned Comcast completed its purchase of the company in February 2013.


Comment: Just another historically incorrect rewrite? If so, what was the leverage to compel McGraw-Hill to even consider the problem, let alone completely capitulate to demands within a week's time? This short duration suggests "instantaneous" work by its 'academic experts' (think Zionists) or it was bypassed completely. And, what kind of fire was lit under McGraw-Hill to destroy ALL books within the week? How does a big publishing house even get this kind of financial and publishing ramifications through internal channels in less than seven days with the original authors onboard? Big power and big threats would be the guess.

And then there was puppet company MSNBC's mea culpa. Was it a "mistake?" Or did MSNBC "cave?" Or was it a set-up in order to make a public correction and plant purposefully-skewed Zionist propaganda. Israel has been coming under global scrutiny for its ethnic cleansing and expansion program into Palestinian-held territories. It has to continually maneuver the facts to match its narrative, absolving all guilt and blame. (...OK, you're right, they don't do guilt.)

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