RTMon, 14 Oct 2019 17:14 UTC
© (L) Getty Images / SOPA Images, (R) ; Getty Images / Washington Post
Project Veritas has dropped what it claims is a bombshell expose on CNN, including secret recordings of staff at editorial meetings which reveal an "anti-Trump crusade" and "bias" at the highest levels.
In the first clip uploaded by PV, a person who is allegedly
CNN President Jeff Zucker tells a staff meeting that he wants them to "stay very focused" on President Donald Trump's possible impeachment.
The video also shows Nick Neville, a media coordinator at CNN saying that
Zucker has a "personal vendetta" against Trump.
Comment: Dissidents on social media are circling the wagons...
BBCMon, 14 Oct 2019 16:57 UTC
© European Press Association
Protesters in Barcelona held placards showing Catalonia's former vice-president Oriol Junqueras and calling for the release of separatist leaders
Spain's Supreme Court has sentenced nine Catalan separatist leaders to between nine and 13 years in prison for sedition over their role in the 2017 independence referendum.
Three other defendants were found guilty of disobedience and fined but will not serve prison sentences. The 12 politicians and activists had all denied the charges.
A new arrest warrant was also issued for former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, who is living abroad.
In response to the verdicts, thousands of Catalan independence supporters marched in Barcelona before blocking some streets and access to metro stations.
© Sputnik / Alexey Nikolskij
Relations between Iran and the US have hit bottom after President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew his country from the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018, slapping Tehran with a series of tough banking and energy sanctions.
Tehran will soon use new-generation IR-9 gas centrifuges in its nuclear activity, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Monday.
"IR-9 centrifuges will soon be introduced and used," Rouhani said during a press conference broadcast by Iranian television.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on the ground and speaking to Syrian Arab Army officers.
Last night, Kurdish officials in northeastern Syria issued a statement that an agreement has been reached with the government in Damascus allowing the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) to takeover key strategic positions along Syria's northern border with Turkey.
Not surprisingly, cheers can he heard from Damascus to Moscow, and Tehran, too, while leaving Washington's foreign policy blob visibly moaning in agony.
The reality of the situation is that
Turkey sprung a trap set by Damascus and its allies. In doing so, Turkey helped to clean up what was previously a near impossible situation for Damascus.
Comment: Only briefly mentioned are the tireless efforts of Russia, both military and diplomatic, to bring about a just conclusion to the tragedy the West created in Syria.
If the policy-wonks in the depths of The Swamp are having conniptions, it's clear that Commander-in-Chief Trump is not:
The Kurds make a deal with Damascus: Trump's checkmate in Syria
RTMon, 14 Oct 2019 15:53 UTC
© REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Turkey-backed militias in Syria
American troops have reportedly withdrawn from their observation post in the town of Kobani in northern Syria as the Turkish Army advances deeper south and Damascus says it has sent its military to the area.
The pullout began after 3pm local time, Turkey's Anadolu news agency reported, citing security sources.
There has been no confirmation from the Pentagon. The American observation post in Kobani, the strategic town also known as Ayn Al-Arab, came under Turkish artillery fire on Saturday.
No one was hurt and it's unclear if the attack was deliberate.
A small number of US troops have also reportedly left their station in the town of Ain Issa, a Kurdish administration center located an hour's drive south of Kobani.
This happened as Turkish-backed militias were advancing on the city. The troops were relocated to other bases in Syria, according to the
Washington Post.
Earlier reports claimed that US troops in Ain Issa were left isolated after Turkish-backed forces took control of the M4 highway, a key supply route in northern Syria that runs through the city.
US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said on Sunday that the US is planning to evacuate about 1,000 troops from northern Syria. "We have American forces likely caught between two opposing advancing armies, and it's a very untenable situation," he told CBS. "There is no way they could stop 15,000 Turks from proceeding south."
Comment: The Kurdish authorities released the following
statement about their Moscow-mediated deal with Damascus:
"To prevent and repel this attack, an agreement has been reached with the Syrian government to protect the border and sovereignty of Syria. The Syrian army will enter [Kurdish-controlled areas] and deploy troops along the entire Syrian-Turkish border in order to help the [Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, SDF] repel this attack and liberate areas occupied by the Turkish army and its affiliates", the statement issued by the authorities of the Kurdish autonomy said.
According to the statement, the agreement is aimed at "liberating [...] other Syrian cities occupied by Turkey, including Afrin".
Another senior Kurdish official added
this:
"After the Americans abandoned the region, and gave the green light for the Turkish attack, we were forced to explore another option, which is talks with Damascus and Moscow to find a way out and thwart these Turkish attacks," senior Kurdish official Badran Jia Kurd said.
"This is a preliminary military agreement. The political aspects were not discussed, and these will be discussed at later stages."
"The priority now is protecting the border's security from the Turkish danger," Xelil said. "We are in contact with the Damascus government to reach common [ground] in the future."
Syrian troops have
entered Tell Tamer, a small but strategically located town in Kurdish-held Syria:
Earlier, the government troops were reported entering Al-Thawrah, a city in the Raqqa governorate located on the Euphrates River, which is famous for its proximity to a major dam.
The mobilization of Syrian troops comes as Kurdish militias in northeastern Syria face an incursion from neighboring Turkey. Ankara launched a cross-border military operation with the stated goal of creating a "safe zone" along the border. The Turks see Kurdish fighters in Syria as terrorists allied with Kurdish guerrillas in Turkey itself.
The Kurds in Syria previously enjoyed the protection of the US, which used the Kurdish forces as ground troops for their campaign against the terrorist group Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS). The protection, however, was de facto withdrawn last week by President Donald Trump, who pulled out US troops that had previously been embedded with the militias.
Syrian troops have also entered Ain Issa north of Raqqa (for the first time in 5 years), the Taqba airbase, Manbij, and secured the Euphrates dam. See the
map here for details.
Erdogan's
response to his NATO allies:
Erdogan on Monday criticized a lack of support from nations that are supposed to be allies under NATO. "According to Article 5 of the NATO treaty, which side should they take? They need to stand by us," he told reporters, referring to the cornerstone of the agreement that says a military attack on one member is an attack on all of them.
Trump's response to criticism of the partial withdrawal of US troops:
Russia too has
no plans to go to war with Turkey:
Russia has consistently supported the process of political settlement in Syria and vehemently opposed any steps that could potentially harm it, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in the wake of the ongoing Turkish operation.
"There is absolutely nothing new about Russia's approach to this issue," Peskov told the Russian media, commenting on the developments in northern Syria, where Turkish forces have launched an offensive against the Kurdish militias holding the area, who are considered terrorists by Ankara.
The Russian president's spokesman said that, from the very beginning of Turkey's 'Operation Peace Spring', Moscow has been pointing out that "any actions that could hamper or stall the process of political settlement in Syria and further escalate tensions" there are "absolutely undesirable."
At the same time, he made it clear that Russia "does not even consider" a possibility of a potential military conflict with Turkey in Syria. The spokesman said that the two nations have close contacts both between diplomats and the military that would help them avoid such a development.
The Russian and US militaries have been
in contact. Macron's office says France is taking steps to
ensure the safety of its soldiers in the region, adding that "France will increase its diplomatic efforts ... to obtain an immediate end to the Turkish offensive." Erdogan's spokesman says Turkey will
not stop until it reaches its goals. Commenting on the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army, one anonymous American official
described them aptly: "crazy and not reliable." (That's the same FSA the Americans armed and trained.)
Kurdish media report that a Turkish
airstrike on a Kurdish convoy killed 11 and injured 74, including journalists:
According to the ANHA news agency, one of its correspondents was also killed in the Turkish airstrike.
The France 24 broadcaster said at least one of their journalists was also among the dead, while two French reporters were reportedly injured in the attack. "Our team is fine but some colleagues are dead", Stephanie Perez, a French journalist, tweeted earlier.
The attack hit a convoy outside the border town of Ras al-Ain which Turkish forces had seized earlier in the day, according to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Earlier reports suggested that at least 9 people had been killed, but the Kurdish-led military, cited by local media, put the death toll at 11. It remains unclear how many civilians are dead.
Kurdish forces also report that 785+ ISIS captives have managed to
escape a camp they were being held in:
In an apparent reference to Ankara-backed militants, the Kurds announced in a statement that "mercenaries" had attacked the camp where "Daesh elements" in turn attacked camp guards and opened the gates.
An official with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), meanwhile, stated that Kurdish-led security forces do not have enough guards for the Ain Issa camp that holds families of ISIS militants and dozens of them have escaped since Turkish shelling struck the area. Already weakened by the redeployment of forces to front lines, the guarding of the camp was further depleted on Sunday when Turkish shells crashed nearby, prompting some of the remaining personnel to flee, SDF official Marvan Qamishlo noted.
"The guarding is very weak now," he told Reuters, saying that there were now just 60-70 security personnel at the camp compared with a normal level of no less than 700.
The camp holds some 12,000 displaced people including some relatives of ISIS militants and ideally would require 1,500 guards, he stated, noting, "We don't have this sufficient number."
Citing sources in the camp at Ain Issa, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Director Rami Abdulrahman stated there was a state of "anarchy" inside. Kurdish militias had announced that the Turkish military operation in northern Syria had revived the terror group after five Takfiri militants broke out of a prison in the region on Friday. The shelling of the camp at Ain Issa, north of Raqqa, represented "support for the revival of the Daesh organization once again", the Kurdish-led administration for northern and eastern Syria stated.
Moon of Alabama comments:
The strategic plan behind last weeks development must have come from Moscow. Russia has tried for some time to get Turkey into its camp. Russia, Iran and Syria allowed Turkey a limited invasion of Syria to scare the U.S. out. Russia largely supported the Turkish move but it will also set its limits.
Since last year Trump looked for a chance to move the U.S. troops out of Syria. The borg made that politically unfeasible. The Turkish (Russian) move gave him the excuse he needed.
It is possible that the whole arrangement was made for exactly that purpose.
For previous updates, see:
RTMon, 14 Oct 2019 16:12 UTC
© Reuters / Valentyn Ogirenko / File
Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk.
Nothing demonstrates a nation's aspiration of becoming a member of the European Union like its new prime minister paying a visit to a 'patriotic' event featuring a prominent neo-Nazi band. Just ask Ukraine's Oleksiy Honcharuk.
The 35-year-old, who was confirmed as the head of the Ukrainian government in late August, had a really busy Sunday evening last week. He attended an event at one of Kiev's bars to honor the nation's veterans and promise support to the armed forces. All good so far, except the event was a neo-Nazi gig featuring one of their favorite bands as the main attraction.
Images of Honcharuk attending the "Veterans Strong Party" show him speaking from the stage with the banners of the band "Sokyra Peruna" behind his back. One of the first people to share the pictures was Evgen Karas, the leader of the far-right organization C14, which is best known in the West for a series of
attacks on Roma camps last year.
Seraphim Hanisch
The DuranMon, 14 Oct 2019 15:53 UTC
© Fox News
President Trump was right again. According to a new Fox News
piece published late Sunday evening, Kurdish forces negotiated a deal with Damascus to face off Turkey's offensive. Russia is involved in the dealmaking as well.
The New York Times reported that the deal- which was announced Sunday evening- would enable President Bashar al-Assad's forces to attempt to regain a foothold in the country's northeast. The Kurdish fighters had few options after the United States abandoned them, and it had been anticipated they would turn to Assad's government for support.
"An agreement has been reached with the Syrian government — whose duty it is to protect the country's borders and preserve Syrian sovereignty — for the Syrian Army to enter and deploy along the Syrian-Turkish border to help the SDF stop this aggression" by Turkey, the SDF said in a statement.
The Washington Post reported that the deal was reached after three days of negotiations between the Kurdish forces, Russian envoys and Damascus.
This story has been widely portrayed as "Trump did the wrong thing", but let's review this from the beginning.
Steve Brown
The DuranMon, 14 Oct 2019 15:31 UTC
The Iranian-flagged oil tanker Sabiti
If on October 10th a Saudi vessel had been struck by a missile in the Red Sea there is absolutely no doubt that US State and its major media outlets would immediately identify Iran as the culprit. So far, we've seen no hysteria from US State claiming that Iran was the source of the attack on the Sabiti tanker, originally claimed to be the
Sinopa.
Despite a spreading oil spill related to the attack, according to the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), "No help was offered to assist by any country" even if Saudi Arabia
claimed otherwise. To the contrary, ship tracking service Marine Traffic wrote on twitter, "We do not see any smoke, fire, spills or tugboats. Instead, we see a tanker cruising home at a healthy speed".
However, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said in a statement, "The investigation, conducted by the National Iranian Tanker Company, shows that the Iranian tanker ... was attacked twice, with an interval of around 30 minutes, and was damaged". And now we have photos of the
ship's damage to prove it. Iran is still investigating the source of the attacks, has made no official statement regarding responsibility, and no one has claimed responsibility.
Jonathan Arnott
RTMon, 14 Oct 2019 11:45 UTC
© Reuters / Juan Medina
People carry and wear Esteladas (Catalan separatist flag) during a protest after a verdict in a trial over a banned independence referendum, in Girona, Spain, October 14, 2019
Catalan separatist leader Oriol Junqueras is jailed for 13 years. The UK is still waiting for Brexit in 2019. The EU has ignored countless referendums. The connection? Governments think they know better than the people.
Spain will no doubt say that the Catalan independence referendum was illegal. They'll point out that the reason over 92% voted for independence was that the 'Remain' side, to use the common parlance, had boycotted the referendum. That doesn't change the fact that Catalonia has consistently elected pro-independence governments.
I'm very much interested in whether Catalonia remains part of Spain but, first and foremost, I believe in the power of self-determination. The Catalan people must be the people to make that determination. In the UK I'd describe myself as Unionist: I want Scotland to remain part of the Union. However, if the Scottish people were to vote in a referendum to become an independent country, I would absolutely and unequivocally support their right to do so. In all of this, Spain has sought to crush the Catalan drive for autonomy rather than providing a pathway to an undisputed, legal, means of making an ultimate determination.
Idrees Ali, Humeyra Pamuk
ReutersMon, 14 Oct 2019 00:39 UTC
© REUTERS/Kemal Aslan
Boys wave Turkish flags as a military convoy drives near the border town of Akcakale in Sanliurfa province, Turkey, October 14, 2019.
President Donald Trump's administration is set to impose economic sanctions on Ankara, potentially as early as this week, for its incursion into northern Syria, one of the few levers the United States still has over NATO-ally Turkey.
Using the U.S. military to stop the Turkish offensive on U.S.-allied Kurdish fighters was never an option, defense officials have said, and Trump asked the Pentagon on Sunday to begin a "deliberate" withdrawal of all U.S. troops from northern Syria.
After Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Friday that Trump had authorized "very powerful" new sanctions targeting Turkey, the administration appeared ready to start making good on Trump's threat to obliterate Turkey's economy.
Comment: Dissidents on social media are circling the wagons...