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Trump: If Saudis want US troops to stay in Syria, Saudis need to pay


Al Jazeera
Wed, 04 Apr 2018 00:00 UTC
trump Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud
© the-wau.com
President Trump • King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud
US President Donald Trump has said that Saudi Arabia might have to pay if it wants continuing US presence in Syria. "We've almost completed that task [of defeating ISIL] and we'll be making a determination very quickly, in coordination with others in the area, as to what we'll do," said Trump on Tuesday during a White House press conference with leaders from three Baltic nations.

"Saudi Arabia is very interested in our decision, and I said, 'Well, you know, you want us to stay, maybe you're going to have to pay'."

Trump spoke on Monday with the King of Saudi Arabia, Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, over the phone to discuss a range of regional issues, including a peace plan between Israelis and Palestinians and opportunities to strengthen the American-Saudi strategic partnership. But the White House statement of the call, released on Tuesday, did not mention any discussion about Saudi Arabia's boosting funding for US military efforts in Syria.

Similarly, a White House readout of his March 20 meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman made no mention of US military efforts in the region.

'I want to get out'

Comment: What we know now is that the president has been swayed to keep US troops in Syria a 'little longer.' He was arm-twisted by Netanyahu, MbS and his advisors. If he compromised this time, what are his chances of success the next go-round?
See also:

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Gold Coins

Hamza bin Laden vows to 'redistribute the riches' of Saudi Arabia to the poor, calls for uprising

Bridget Johnson
PJ Media
Tue, 03 Apr 2018 00:00 UTC
Hamza bin Laden
© CIA video
Hamza bin Laden, center
Hamza bin Laden went after the Saudi kingdom's relationship with America in a new video intended to incite Muslims to rise up against Middle Eastern rulers they see as too allied with the West.

The video is the sixth episode in a series by the son of Osama bin Laden; Hamza said that in addition to trying to spur "our dear people in the Arabian Peninsula" to rise up "against the criminal tyrants and rulers of the country," al-Qaeda wants to incite people "to liberate the place of revelation from the Crusaders, and protect the Two Holy Mosques from the Safavids, and establish a complete and rightly guided Islamic system."

Comment: See also:

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Biohazard

Prior to any investigation US State Dept accuses Russia and Syria of gassing civilians

Caitlin Johnstone
Medium
Sun, 08 Apr 2018 00:01 UTC
Heather Nuaert
Just weeks ago, two firebreathing neoconservative war whores were promoted to the highest echelons of influence within the Trump administration. The new National Security Advisor John Bolton only has one key on his piano, and that key is war. Neoconservative hawk Mike Pompeo was promoted from the head of the notoriously vicious Central Intelligence Agency to Hillary Clinton's old job as Secretary of State after famously announcing that he was trying to make the CIA "a much more vicious agency."

Trump supporters talk a lot about the Deep State as though it is something separate from and at odds with the Trump administration. If that was ever the case, it certainly isn't anymore. Trump might be in a power struggle with certain factions or aspects of the power establishment, but you don't promote bloodthirsty swamp monsters like John Bolton and Mike Pompeo to positions of maximum impact if you're fighting the Deep State.

Pompeo's State Department has issued a press release by way of its soulless spokeswoman Heather Nauert about the nonsensical new report that the Syrian government once again decided to kill a bunch of children with poison gas at the least strategically opportune moment imaginable. The press release is riddled with falsehoods and jaw-dropping accusations which cannot possibly be based in fact since they were made mere hours after the allegations surfaced, long before any sort of investigation into them could have even begun, much less been completed.

Comment: See also: Remember, Jaish al-Islam is the group that put Syrian civilians in cages on rooftops to act as human shields in order to discourage air strikes in East Ghouta. (Why would they even have bothered if Assad targets his own civilians?) Their leader praises Osama Bin Laden. Chemical weapons labs have been discovered in the liberated portions of East Ghouta. The terrorists have means, motive and opportunity, but idiots like Trump blame "Animal Assad". Give us a break. Donate your brain to science, because it's obvious you don't need it.

The Russian military, via the head of the Reconciliation Center in Syria, refuted the reports of the alleged attack, saying:
"We declare our readiness, after Douma is liberated from the militants, to immediately send Russian radiation, chemical and biological protection specialists to collect data that will confirm the fabricated nature of these allegations," he stated.

Yevtushenko said that "a number of Western countries" are trying to prevent the resumption of an operation aimed at driving militants from the city of Douma.

"For this purpose, the use of chemical weapons by Syrian government forces - one of the most widespread claims in the West - is being used," he added.
Even the propaganda source SOHR has refused to confirm the attack, "and said casualties might have been a result of fire and toxic smoke following a conventional airstrike."
Thus Reuters, while admitting it "could not independently verify reports of a chemical attack," sought a comment from another obscure organization, the Syrian American Medical Society. A US-based SAMS representative claimed that, while a "chlorine bomb hit Douma hospital," another nearby building was targeted by a barrel-bomb containing a mix that included "nerve agents."
And how would they know? Ahh, it must be their jihadist chemical weapons experts on the ground in Douma. Of course!

Even Turkey has jumped on the bandwagon, saying they have "strong suspicions" Damascus is behind the alleged attack.

This is the background on what has actually been happening in Douma: the terrorists are desperate:
The situation in Douma escalated after Jaysh al-Islam militants breached all agreements, shelling Damascus and terrorizing civilians to derail evacuations, the Russian Reconciliation Center in Syria said in its daily report, issued before the claims of a chemical attack emerged.

"The Jaysh al-Islam militants carried out a number of attacks against the SAA [Syrian Armed Forces] positions and conducted mortar and missile shelling against Damascus," the Russian Center for Reconciliation in Syria said Saturday. "Over the last 48 hours, militants fired 25 mines and rocket projectiles at the capital and its suburbs. As a result, seven civilians were killed and 42 people injured. Shelling attacks are intensifying."

Terrorists also continue to use civilians as human shields, the MoD noted, adding that militants are "publicly executing civilians" who support the withdrawal of militants from Douma.

"Jaysh al-Islam terrorists breached [the] Douma agreement by attacking with mortar and rocket shells several residential areas of Damascus, claiming lives and injuring dozens of civilians, including women and children," Sana meanwhile reported.
The U.S. is "reviewing its options" - which is ridiculous given that they don't have a freaking clue what has even happened yet:
The EU claimed on Sunday that there is "evidence" pointing to "another chemical attack" conducted by Damascus. It provided no specific details to substantiate the claim. Instead, the bloc called for an immediate "international response" and urged Russia and Iran to use their influence to prevent any similar incidents in future.

Damascus rejected the accusations, calling them "boring and inconclusive propaganda." Only countries that "speculate on the blood of civilians and support terrorism in Syria" could be convinced by such reports, a Syrian Foreign Ministry official told SANA news agency. They pointed out that similar allegations emerge every time the Syrian Army makes advances in its fight against terrorists. The official added that Damascus had warned about a pre-planned false-flag attack.
Assad, once again, is the sane one. The Russian Foreign Ministry too:
The Russian Foreign Ministry denounced the latest reports about a chemical attack that allegedly affected dozens of civilians in the militant-controlled town of Douma. It said the reports were another example of a "continuous series of fake news about the use of chlorine and other chemical agents by the government forces."
...
"The goal of this... baseless speculation is to shield the terrorists and... the radical opposition that refuse to engage in a political settlement [process], as well as to justify potential military strikes from the outside," the statement said. It then warned that any military interference in Syria conducted under "far-fetched or fabricated pretexts" would be "absolutely unacceptable" and could lead to "dire consequences."
The Russian and Syrian air forces are on red alert after Trump's idiotic tweets.

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Mail

Viktoria Skripal writes directly to Theresa May after being denied UK visa

Paul Antonopoulos
Fort Russ News
Sun, 08 Apr 2018 17:06 UTC
Viktoria skripal
© Pust Govoryat
Viktoria Skripal is cousin to Yulia Skripal
Viktoria Skripal, niece of poisoned former spy Sergei Skripal, read out a copy of a letter to the British Prime Minister Theresa May, on the Russian talk show Pust Govoryat (Let Them Talk) Moscow on Saturday.

"Another reason [why I was refused a visa] is because I did not specify the date of my return, but when I filled in the application at the consulate, we discussed how could I specify the return date, if I did not know what their state was at that time? What if they needed my help? How could I specify my return date?" Viktoria Skripal said.

Comment: Heartless, just heartless. But that is the way of failing empires.

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Vader

Assad on verge of victory: Cue another chemical weapons stunt in Syria

Finian Cunningham
Sputnik
Sun, 08 Apr 2018 16:23 UTC
white helmets idlib chemical

Someone tell the White Helmets that Sarin exposure works through skin contact.
This weekend's alleged chemical-weapon attack on civilians in Syria has all the hallmarks of a false-flag propaganda stunt. Only people who have had their critical senses numbed by saturated Western media distortion could possibly believe otherwise.

Three hallmarks are: the typically unverified claims and videos showing children being hosed down, which are attributed to the discredited media outlet, the so-called White Helmets. This group is embedded with terrorist organizations like Nusra Front and Jaysh al Islam, among others, but is eulogized in Western media as a respectable source. Anything that the White Helmets claim should be taken with extreme caution, if not contempt.

Secondly, the unverified claims are nevertheless quickly and uncritically broadcast by Western mainstream news media with the pejorative implication of the Syrian "regime" being responsible, as well as allied Russian forces.
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Chart Pie

Trade wars: Trump claims Jinping 'will take down' barriers harming US economy


RT
Sun, 08 Apr 2018 15:56 UTC
Donald Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping
© Reuters
As trade tensions threaten to boil over between the two nations, US President Donald Trump insists his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping will scrap barriers to commerce "because it is the right thing to do."

Washington is seeking to cut a deal with the Chinese government to eradicate a trade deficit and allow US products to enter the market in Asia more freely. The US president has also accused China of intellectual property theft, through practices that require US business to transfer technology information to Chinese companies.

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SOTT Logo Radio

Behind the Headlines: Perfidious Albion: If Russia is a Rogue State, What is the UK?


Sott.net
Sun, 08 Apr 2018 16:00 UTC
Trump East Ghouta attack
When it emerged that the dodgy Trump dossier - supposedly 'proof' that Russia 'meddled' in the 2016 US election - was put together by a 'former' British spy named Christopher Steele, no one thought too much of it because, well, 'the Special Relationship' and all that. But in the course of the 'Russiagate' investigations, it has emerged that Steele's source in turn - described in the British press as a 'Maltese professor with close connections to the Kremlin' - is in fact someone whose actual ties place him close to the British establishment.‌

‌In the meantime, the Skripal spy saga has again led to Russia being portrayed as a 'rogue state', but this attempt to frame Russia for conducting a chemical weapons attack on British soil is backfiring spectacularly on the UK government. Concurrently, media exposure of how a nominally American company - Cambridge Analytica - used Facebook users' data to 'rig' both the Brexit referendum and the US election for Trump has also inadvertently lifted the lid on the British establishment's meddling in both those events and many others around the world.‌

What on Earth is going on here? Why are so many threads in the biggest scandals of the day - all ostensibly leading to the Kremlin in Moscow - in fact all leading back to London, England? With the latest "chemical weapon" attack in East Ghouta happening today, after Russia warned that it was imminent TWO DAYS AGO, what kind of stupid do America and the UK have to be to blame Russia and Syria?

On this week's show, we're going to take a closer look at the small island off northwestern Europe and the big - and often dark - role it has played on the world stage.‌

You can listen and call in live with questions or comments from 4-5:30pm UTC / 12-1:30pm EDT / 6-7:30pm CET this Sunday April 8th.

Running Time: 01:43:23

Download: MP3

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Star of David

Rogue state: Israeli Defense Minister Lieberman defends IDF killings of Palestinian journalists


Sputnik
Sun, 08 Apr 2018 15:47 UTC
Israeli soldiers
© AFP 2018/ JACK GUEZ
Israel has faced mounting questions over its use of live fire after 10 days of protests and clashes along the border fence with Gaza.

On Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman denied reports about a number of "naive people" having been killed in the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip.

"Everyone's connected to Hamas, everyone gets a salary from Hamas, and all the activists trying to challenge us and breach the border are Hamas military wing activists," Lieberman told Israel's public radio.

Health officials in Gaza earlier said that 30 Palestinians, including a journalist, had been killed during 10 days of protests and clashes with Israeli security forces, AFP reported from Jerusalem.

Comment: And of course the US seems to support Israel's actions: US lone Security Council member to block UN inquiry into Gaza violence

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Attention

Ex-Afghan President Karzai: 'Only Russia can help us - US keeps killing us'


Sputnik
Sun, 08 Apr 2018 15:04 UTC
Hamid Karzai
© Sputnik/ J. Kargyar
Afghanistan has been dealing with dire security instability for years, with the situation becoming sharply worse in recent months, as the Taliban has been carrying out offensives on major cities.

Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Sunday that Russia was the only force that could help Afghanistan fight terrorism.

"I understand perfectly well that if you [Russia] build new relations with Pakistan and Afghanistan, you can help us. Not the Britons as we kicked them out of the country several times, not the Americans as they've been killing us for 17 years, but Russia only. We [Afghanistan] are the last barrier from terrorists. We've been fighting continuously for a century and a half," Karzai told the Russian NTV TV channel.

"Moscow has always helped us, even when its forces invaded Afghanistan at the invitation of then-president Babrak Karmal. We surely fought each other at those times, but you [Russia] used to build schools and hospitals in Afghanistan. Americans lie when they say that al-Qaeda emerged as the result of your invasion. They used the war to grow al-Qaeda in Pakistani military camps. They wanted to be the only superpower and they did it. The USSR collapsed and one of the reasons was the Afghan war," Karzai said.

Comment: Also see:

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Pirates

Jaysh al-Islam militants - likely perpetrators of any chemical weapon attack in Douma - suddenly surrender to Syrian govt and leave E. Ghouta


RT
Sun, 08 Apr 2018 14:54 UTC
Syrian soldier
© Omar Sanadiki / Reuters
The Syrian government is holding negotiations with Jaysh al-Islam militants on Sunday after the group requested talks, state media reports. The city of Douma is one of the remaining strongholds controlled by the radical group.

Damascus agreed to negotiate with one of the last major militant groups holding out in Douma in a bid to protect civilians and liberate abductees, state news agency SANA reported, citing an official source.

Meanwhile, Sputnik news agency reported that the talks have already yielded results, with the militants agreeing to withdraw from the city in two groups and release the prisoners.

The radical Islamist group, which has been accused of using civilians as human shields, earlier agreed to leave the enclave of Eastern Ghouta near the Syrian capital. Jaysh al-Islam will have to clear barricades and provide maps of minefields that they have laid in the area. The militants were set to begin withdrawing from the city of Douma on Sunday, the head of the Russian Defense Ministry's Syrian Reconciliation Center, Major General Yury Yevtushenko has said.

Comment: The US had already accused Russia of gassing Syrian civilians before this development. Will it retract its abominable accusation?

WILL IT EVER!

The released prisoners are going to the town of Jarablus on the Syria-Turkey border, which the Turkish military and their jihadist proxies currently occupy.

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