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EU approves $274 million aid package to Palestinians


Ma'an News Agency
Tue, 01 Mar 2016 22:18 UTC
eu approve aid palestinians
© AP/Francois Walschaerts
European Union High Representative Federica Mogherini, right, shakes hands with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas prior to a meeting at the EU External Action Service building in Brussels on Monday, Oct. 26, 2015.
The European Commission on Tuesday approved €252.5 million ($274 million) worth of aid for the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian refugees, in the EU's first assistance package of 2016.

The package includes €170.5 million ($185 million) to be channeled directly to the PA -- particularly to its health and education services -- while the remaining €82 million is to go towards the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

"The European Union renews its concrete commitment to the Palestinians," Federica Mogherini, vice-president of the European Commission said in a statement.

"Through this package, the EU supports the daily lives of Palestinians in the fields of education and health, protecting the poorest families and also providing the Palestinian refugees across the country with access to essential services."

Comment: While this is good news for the Palestinians, it pales in comparison to the billions in aid that Israel receives from the United States. Palestinians live in an open-air prison while Israelis live in relative comfort far from the perils of everyday life that Palestinians live in. The difference in aid between the two countries is gross and shameful.

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Attention

Zakharova slams Erdoğan for saying it's a 'pity' Russia upset by murdered pilots

Christian Saarländer; Translated by Werner Schrimpf
Russia Insider
Thu, 03 Mar 2016 21:53 UTC
Maria Zakharova
© Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation
Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova

Maria Sacharowa, spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, is correcting Mr. Erdogan's words concerning the murder of the Russian pilot. Erdogan should put his words in the correct order, because it was Russia that lost two pilots because of Turkey, and not the other way around. Earlier, Mr. Erdogan had sent some soft messages in the direction of Russia.

The relations between Moscow and Ankara have had seen better times. But the major responsibility for the deterioration is on Ankara's side. After having experienced major economic set-backs, Turkey's President Mr. Erdogan is now sending soft messages to Moscow. He was quoted by Sputnik news agency, "It's a pity that Russia has lost a friend like Turkey because of two pilots."

On her official Facebook page, Ms. Sacharowa has now corrected the words of Mr. Erdogan, who pretends to be sorry about the deterioration of relations with Moscow, which were caused by the incident with the Russian fighter aircraft, Su-24, last November. One of the pilots was shot and murdered by Turkmen terrorists with tacit approval from Ankara. But nevertheless, Ankara and lying Western main stream media try to blame Russia for the broken relationship.
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Bad Guys

Millions of lives at risk: Mosul Dam's collapse is now 'imminent'


Sputnik
Thu, 03 Mar 2016 21:33 UTC
Iraq Mosul dam
© AP Photo/ JACOB SILBERBERG
Spanning the Tigris, the Mosul Dam was briefly captured by Daesh, also known as IS/Islamic State, over one year ago. Since its liberation, officials have failed to upgrade the infrastructure. Were the dam to collapse, it could kill as many 1 million people, according to the engineers who built it.

Built in the early 1980s, the Mosul Dam is the largest in Iraq. In 2014, it was seized by Daesh, causing fears that the terrorist group would use the installation to cut off electricity or water supplies to cities downstream. Of even greater concern was that the militants would intentionally destroy the dam, creating flash floods along the Tigris.

While the dam was ultimately retaken by Iraqi security forces, the threat of its collapse remains.

Comment: So is the director general of the dam correct when he says that there is 'nothing seriously wrong' with the dam? If so, then perhaps US officials are preparing the public mind for another 'accidental' catastrophe. But he may not be correct. Engineers involved in building the dam have claimed that it requires ongoing maintenance due to the fact that it rests on ground that is soluble in water. So what did the Western-backed terrorists do as soon as they took it over? They destroyed the equipment necessary for this maintenance, thus turning the dam into a weapon of mass destruction.

Further reading:
An ominous wire report sent a shiver down my spine when I read it. On January 28, US Army Lieutenant General Sean MacFarland, head of the US-led coalition against Daesh (ISIL) in Iraq and Syria, said that the US military was on site at the Mosul Dam to assess "the potential" for the collapse. Were it to be blown up, it would send a flood of water down the heavily populated Tigris river valley. "The likelihood of the dam collapsing is something we are trying to determine right now... all we know is when it goes, it's going to go fast and that's bad," MacFarland told reporters in Baghdad. The US State Department estimates up to 500,000 people could be killed and over one million rendered homeless should Iraq's biggest dam collapse.

Has Washington hatched a new Machiavellian plan for Syria and Iraq?


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Yoda

Moscow, a bulwark against the jihadists

Thierry Meyssan
Voltaire
Thu, 03 Mar 2016 21:10 UTC
assad putin support demonstration

Demonstration of support at the Russian embassy in Damascus.
Since 2012, Moscow has been trying to rally the Western powers to its cause - to defend civilisation against jihadism, as the world was once united against Nazism. In order to do so, it first of all dissociated the White House from the combatants that the United States call "rebels", and whom Moscow regards as "jihadists". Today, it is trying to isolate Turkey. Far from being a diplomatic epiphenomenon, the cessation of hostilities in Syria marks an about-face. Washington has just admitted that there are no "moderate" armed groups, or none left.

We are wrong to analyse Russian politics from the Arab or Western point of view. Russia has its own view of jihadists, with whom it is familiar since 1978, when they came to lend a helping hand to the Afghan Pashtuns against the Communist government in Kabul.

Vladimir Putin personally fought the jihadists from the Caucasus, in particular the Islamic Emirate of Itchkeria (the second Chechen war 1999-2000), and beat them. At the time, the Arabs claimed to support the Russian Muslims, although they did not understand what was happening there, while the West, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, applauded any group who attempted to pursue the movement of the dislocation of Russia. However, on the ground, there was no difference between yesterday's Emirate and today's Caliphate. The sharia was still applied, and heads were chopped off in Grozny just as they are today in Rakka.
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Eye 2

Hillary Clinton 'Should Be Terrified' of new revelation in email scandal: the immunity granted to former aide Pagliano

Jason Howerton
The Blaze
Thu, 03 Mar 2016 20:44 UTC
hillary clinton
© Kevin Lamarque/Associated Press
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton checks her BlackBerry from a desk inside a C-17 military plane upon her departure from Malta, in the Mediterranean Sea, bound for Tripoli, Libya, in 2011
The U.S. Department of Justice seems to be prepared to push for an indictment of "someone" connected to the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private email server, Judge Andrew Napolitano said on Thursday.

Napolitano argued that the revelation that former Clinton aide Bryan Pagliano, who set up Clinton's private email server in 2009, is reportedly being offered immunity means he will likely be called to testify against someone much higher on the "totem pole."

Pagliano will likely be asked how he was able to "migrate a State Department secure system onto her private server." He then presented this theoretical question: "Mr. Pagliano, did Mrs. Clinton give you her personal Secretary of State password to enable you to do that?"

"If he answers, 'yes,' we have an indictment for misconduct in office as well as espionage. She should be terrified of the fact that he's been granted immunity," Napolitano added.

Comment: Things are getting hotter for Killary. It will be interesting to see how the 'anointed' one wiggles out of this.

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Megaphone

Mitt Romney blasts Donald Trump as presidential candidate - "A fraud who gets a free ride to the White House and all we get is a lousy hat"


RT
Thu, 03 Mar 2016 20:38 UTC
Mitt Romney
© Reuters
Former Republican U.S. presidential nominee Mitt Romney
Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney called on his party to disavow its frontrunner Donald Trump in a scorching rebuke of the candidate - from the way Trump is running his campaign to his business, political and personal history.

Speaking at the Hinckley Institute at the University of Utah, the former Massachusetts governor said that America's prospects for a safe future are "greatly diminished" if Donald Trump becomes the Republican nominee for president.

"His is not the temperament of a stable, thoughtful leader. His imagination must not be married to real power," Romney said, branding Trump "a phony, a fraud" whose "promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University."

"He's playing the American public for suckers: He gets a free ride to the White House and all we get is a lousy hat," Romney added.

Comment: While Romney certainly makes some good points, it is possible that his comments will have the opposite effect. Most people think and speak on the same level as Trump, and no matter how many pleas Romney makes for more rational head to prevail, Trump is speaking to people at their level. It doesn't matter if what he's saying will lead the US down a worse path.

Romney certainly isn't any better:

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Hourglass

Justice Dept. grants immunity to former Clinton staffer who set up Hillary's private email server


RT
Thu, 03 Mar 2016 20:19 UTC
Hillary Clinton
© Scott Morgan / Reuters
The Justice Department has granted immunity to the former State Department staffer who set up Hillary Clinton's private email server. The immunity deal comes as part of a criminal investigation into the possible mishandling of classified information.

A law enforcement official told the Washington Post that Bryan Pagliano has agreed to work with the FBI in exchange for not facing any possible criminal charges.

Pagliano, who invoked the Fifth Amendment when testifying before Congress over the email scandal, worked on Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign before setting up her server in her New York home in 2009.

The controversy is over the presidential Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton's use of a private email account and a server installed in her house which she used while she was Secretary of State. Clinton's server did not encrypt emails, a fact that let critics raise concerns about hackers who may have obtained classified information from her correspondence. The Clinton campaign maintains there were no breaches in security.
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Star of David

Propaganda alert! Israel accuses Syrian government of using chemical weapons during ceasefire


Sputnik
Thu, 03 Mar 2016 00:20 UTC
Moshe Yaalon
© AFP 2016/Abir Sultan
Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon accused Tuesday the Syrian governmental forces of using chemical weapons against civilians during the current ceasefire, reached at the initiative of Russia and the United States.

"The Syrians initially used industrially produced chemical weapons, but lately they have started to use such substances as chlorine and they use it against civilians. They continue doing it now, during the allegedly holding ceasefire. They are mainly dropping barrels of chlorine from the air," Yaalon said in a speech to a conference near Tel Aviv.

In 2013, a massive chemical weapons attack was carried out in the Syrian suburb of Ghouta which killed more than 1,300 civilians. Both the Syrian government and the militant factions that oppose it blamed one another for the attack.

A mission to eliminate Syria's chemical arsenal was announced after the deadly 2013 gas attack. The Syrian government placed its chemical weapons under international control on Russia's urging.

On February 22, Russia and the United States reached an agreement on a ceasefire in Syria which has been in a state of civil war since 2011. The army loyal to President Bashar Assad is considered to be the only side of the conflict in Syria, which has military aircraft and helicopters.

The ceasefire took effect on Saturday. The cessation of hostilities does not apply to groups designated by the United Nations to be terrorist organizations, such as Islamic State and the Nusra Front, outlawed in a number of countries worldwide including Russia.

Comment: IF chemical weapons were used during the truce, it probably wasn't the Assad government using such substances.

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Mail

Pseudepigrapha? Osama comes across as liberal presidential candidate in latest declassified docs

Avi Asher-Schapiro
Vice News
Tue, 01 Mar 2016 19:54 UTC
Osama bin Laden
© Reuters
In the final years of his life, al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden tried to manage the terrorist network's operations and comment on world affairs, even as he grew more and more paranoid about spies and, in the end, worried about his own death.

A cache of 113 documents seized from bin Laden's Pakistani hideout have been translated and declassified by US intelligence agencies, and are now publicly available on the Office of the Director of National Intelligence's website. It's the second release of bin Laden material since Navy Seals killed the wanted terrorist in a raid on his compound in 2011.

Along with operational directives and personnel correspondence — including a handwritten will for bin Laden's $29 million fortune — the new documents also contain letters and essays on a wide range of issues, including the US financial crisis, the growing influence of Iran in the Middle East, and President Barack Obama's political prospects.

Comment: Just like Jesus in the New Testament and associated apocrypha, there's an Osama everyone can love in these letters. Concerned about Iran's dominance in the Middle East? Osama's your man! Convinced the U.S. is run by monied financial interests, not the president? Join the revolution! Want to wage jihad against the West? Follow Osama! Wanna help President Obama fight climate change? So does Osama!
Osama bin Laden wrote a letter calling on the American people to help President Barack Obama fight "catastrophic" climate change and "save humanity", in the latest evidence of his worries about environmental issues, newly released documents show. ... That would enable Obama to make "a rational decision to save humanity from the harmful gases that threaten its destiny," bin Laden continued.

In a separate letter, bin Laden urged a close aide to launch a media campaign for the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that included a call for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Bin Laden contended that the world would be better off fighting climate change than waging what he claimed was a war against Islam. "...the world should put its efforts into attempting to reduce the release of gases," said the undated, unsigned letter to someone identified as Shaykh Mahmud that U.S. intelligence officials said they believed was written by bin Laden. "This is a struggle between two of the largest cultures on Earth, and it is in the shadow of catastrophic climate conditions."
What's going on here? Are these letters fabrications designed to plant the association of liberal talking points with evil terrorism? To downplay bin Laden's evil so that al-Nusra in Syria doesn't get such a bad rap? Or is the American intelligence community just messing with us for no other purpose?

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Bullseye

The U.S. 'wants to overthrow democratically elected Syrian government' - Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.


Sputnik
Thu, 03 Mar 2016 21:41 UTC
Syrian patriot
© AFP 2016/Anwar Amro
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Sputnik in an exclusive interview that most Americans are unaware that Washington aims to overthrow democratically elected Syrian government.

In his recent op-ed article for Politico Magazine, US attorney and nephew of US President John Fitzgerald Kennedy — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote that the US decided to remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power after he refused to back a Qatari gas pipeline project.

The CIA went ahead with this plan after the multi-billion dollar pipeline project first surfaced in 2000, years before the Arab Spring uprising in Syria took place. The project was aimed to build a gas link from Qatar through Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and Turkey to Europe.

Kennedy writes that if completed, the pipeline would have had major geopolitical implications. For example it would have given "the Sunni kingdoms of the Persian Gulf decisive domination of world natural gas markets and strengthen Qatar, America's closest ally in the Arab world."

The gas link would have also provided Ankara with 'rich transit fees', the author added. This all clearly indicates that the Syrian conflict is not a civil war for greater rights or representation, but a violent foreign-sponsored insurgency aimed at bringing a business project to life.

Radio Sputnik spoke with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to learn more about his research.
If we study the history of America's relation with Mideast and looking at the US' violent intervention in Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt over time and the extraordinary and astonishing thing is the solid record of the cataclysmic failure every time we venture there in violent fashion. Most Americans are completely unaware of us attempting to overthrow the democratically elected government in Syria, contrary to our own state department policy and contrary to American values.

Comment: The truth on Syria: Is there a crack in the dam?

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