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India pledges support for al-Assad after Damascus meeting

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Mon, 22 Aug 2016 00:00 UTC
Akbar, Assad
© www.india.com
The Indian Foreign Minister's visit to Damascus and meeting with Syrian President Assad underscores India's support for Assad government in Syrian conflict. That the story of the Syrian conflict is clouded by a fog of misperception is today almost a commonplace. The recent visit of a strong Indian delegation to Syria headed by the Indian Foreign Minister shows one other way in which this is true.

The way the Syrian conflict is regularly represented in the West is of a Syrian government that has lost the support of the 'international community' save for its allies Russia, Iran and China. This has never been true. The structure of the UN Security Council means that the US can normally rely on a majority there, and within the Arab world the Gulf Arab states led by the two Wahhabi monarchies Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been been able to rally the Arab League against Syria. However in the world as a whole the conflict is perceived very differently, not as some sort of Manichean struggle between good and evil, but rather as a geopolitical conflict and as part of a broader struggle against Jihadi terrorism.

The Indian government has been as outspoken a supporter of the Syrian government as the Chinese and Russian governments have been. More so in some ways since like China but unlike Russia India is not involved in the diplomacy of the Syrian conflict and does not therefore have to take even a theoretical position that President Assad's future should be eventually decided by the Syrian people.

Comment: India seems to be cozying up to everyone. The US is hoping to bring it into the Western Not-'OK Corral' as part of its geographical fence around Russia and China and as a willing member of its deadly march towards unipolarity. Russia and China are hoping for the reverse scenario in order to fortify the BRICS group and keep the West at bay. Syria, caught in the middle of the Geo-giants' struggle, needs all the help and support it can muster if it ever gains the chance to rebuild itself. India, the pivot, may find it can't be on all sides all the time.

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Vader

Merkel: Turks living in Germany should show loyalty towards adopted country


RT
Tue, 23 Aug 2016 19:06 UTC
merkel
© Remo Casilli / Reuters
People with Turkish roots living in Germany should show a "high level of loyalty" toward their adopted country, according to Chancellor Angela Merkel. It comes amid tense relations between Berlin and Ankara.

"We expect that people of Turkish origin who have been living in Germany for a long time should develop a high level of loyalty to our nation," Merkel told Ruhr Nachrichten newspaper in an interview published on Tuesday.

"Therefore we are trying to have open ears to hear their concerns and to understand them. And for this we are also keeping in close contact with immigrant associations," she continued.

The German chancellor also spoke of the current situation in Turkey, where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is cracking down on those believed to have played a role in last month's failed coup attempt.
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Bomb

Syria: Turkey shells ISIS and Kurd positions


RT
Tue, 23 Aug 2016 12:15 UTC
2 Gun tanks
© www.rt.com
The Turkish army has delivered artillery strikes on Kurdish positions near Manbij and on Islamic State targets in Jarablus in northern Syria, media report. The assault came after several stray shells struck inside Turkish border territory on Tuesday. Turkish howitzers fired about 20 rounds across the Syrian border on Monday, targeting Kurdish-held Manbij, Reuters reports, citing an unnamed Turkish official who also confirmed that the shelling of Jarablus, which is held by Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL, also Daesh), is continuing.

"The Turkish state officially supports Daesh and bombs the positions of the Manbij military council and its countryside in the northern axis of the defense positions at Sajur river," Sharvan Darwish, a spokesperson for the Kurdish-Arab Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said on Monday, ARA News reported. The SDF forces are backed by the US-led coalition.

Kurdish NRT TV also reported that both the positions of SDF forces north of Manbij and Manbij Military Council (MMC) fighters in the area had been shelled by the Turkish army.

Ankara also shelled IS targets in northern Syria after the Turkish border town of Karkamis in the southeastern province of Gaziantep was hit by two stray shells on Tuesday, broadcaster NTV said, citing the military. No casualties were reported.

Comment: The Turkish Empire strikes back. Is it retaliation for random far-flung shells that landed over the border into Turkey or an excuse to eliminate a few more Kurds with a few Daesh legitimizers? A secret agreement or permission granted is least likely. Turkey has not been pristine about keeping its actions limited to within its own borders over the course of this war.
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TV

Murdoch's Fox News censured by Ofcom for pro-Brexit broadcast


RT
Tue, 23 Aug 2016 16:15 UTC
Your world
© www.campaignlive.com
Your World on their terms.
Fox News broke UK broadcasting rules on the day of the EU referendum when it aired pro-Brexit views, television regulator Ofcom has said. A broadcast of Your World, a business and financial news program aired at 9 pm in the UK and simulcast in the US, violated Ofcom regulations by discussing the Brexit vote. Under UK rules, broadcasters are not allowed to talk about or analyze election and referendum issues during the time polls are open for voting, from 7 am to 10 pm.

The broadcast aired on Euroskeptic Rupert Murdoch's news channel featured strongly pro-Brexit sentiment.
"I mean we are governed by a bunch of bureaucrats that don't speak English in a funny place called the Hague, which makes no sense at all, and it tells Britain what to do, it takes British money, it doesn't send much of if it back - it's a very unfair one-way street when you begin to dig into it and the biggest thing of course is that all of this is all a disguise over the immigration issue," a commentator said on air.
The Fox program, which aired 10 minutes before the polls closed, also accused the BBC of acting like a "running ad for Remain." The same news program explained there was a lot of "establishment pressure" on the public to back Remain.
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Footprints

Understanding Putin's intentions, charting the right course of action with Russia

J.E. Pepper
Pepper Spectives
Sun, 21 Aug 2016 00:00 UTC
Putin profile
© AFP/Alexei Druzhinin
The New Czar: The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin by Steven Lee Myers

This was a deeply informing and mind-opening book for me in trying to understand President Putin's true intentions and how we in the United States and the West should deal with Russia and him to advance our own and the world's interests. Here are my perspectives:

1. It becomes even clearer to me that Putin's ascendency and with it his frame of mind changed event-by-event, yet inexorably over the course of his life and especially over the 15 years, 2000-2015 during which he has held power.

So much of his history grew from his earliest background, as it does for all of us. Having been born into a war-ravaged country, with his father at one point left for dead and two of his siblings dying during World War II, having seen a movie in his teens that led him to want to join the KGB and become a "spy," having been bullied as a kid, and later pursuing martial arts, learning that one has to fight for oneself, seeing the West as a historic potential threat (witness the Cold War), with a life driven by a pragmatic, "put your nose to the grindstone" commitment, while loyally serving those in power (e.g. Sobchak) and being ready to make the most of what comes next (I can relate to that). In that regard, nothing could have surprised him more looking back than Yeltsin's asking him in 1999 to take his place as President.

Comment: Contrary to the author of the book, and certain positions of the article's author, Putin has been and remains moves ahead of his counterparts, combining integrity and mastery of global politics with the rights and needs of people.

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Ambulance

NATO reports US soldier killed in Afghanistan during operation against Taliban


RT
Tue, 23 Aug 2016 18:52 UTC
afghanistan
© Matt Robinson / Reuters
A US soldier was killed in Afghanistan's Helmand province during an operation against the Taliban, NATO has reported. Another was injured along with 6 Afghan troops.

The US trooper was killed while training Afghan soldiers, when their patrol triggered an Improvised Explosive Device. The injured service member is said to be in hospital in stable condition.

The operation was being conducted near the provincial capital of Lashkar Gar in the south of the country. The report of the soldier's death comes shortly after the US sent 100 troops to Lashkar Gah to train and support Afghan security forces.

The Taliban has made significant advances in the Helmand province over the course of past few weeks, increasing the area under its control to roughly 80 percent, according to local officials.
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Magnify

Philippines police chief denies existence of policy to kill drug addicts


RT
Tue, 23 Aug 2016 18:43 UTC
police
© Romeo Ranoco / Reuters
Police taking part in a large-scale anti-drug operation in the Philippines which started after the president took office are "not butchers," the police chief has said, adding there is no declared policy to kill drug users and pushers.

Several weeks into the tenure of Rodrigo Duterte, the hardline president, the Philippines' anti-narcotics operation is in full swing despite pressure from human rights groups and Manila's international partners.

On Tuesday, Ronald dela Rosa, director-general of the national police, was summoned to parliament to explain the "unprecedented" rise in the body count and reported surge in vigilante killings, Reuters reported.

"We are not butchers," he told MPs.

Nearly 700,000 drug users and peddlers have turned themselves in, dela Rosa added, claiming that the overall crime rate has improved. Murders and homicides, however, increased.
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Document

Emails reveal how foundation donors got access to Clinton and her close aides at State Dept. through the Clinton Foundation

Rosalind S. Helderman, Spencer S. Hsu and Tom Hamburger
The Washington Post
Mon, 22 Aug 2016 18:24 UTC
clinton
A sports executive who was a major donor to the Clinton Foundation and whose firm paid Bill Clinton millions of dollars in consulting fees wanted help getting a visa for a British soccer player with a criminal past.

The crown prince of Bahrain, whose government gave more than $50,000 to the Clintons' charity and who participated in its glitzy annual conference, wanted a last-minute meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

U2 rocker and philanthropist Bono, also a regular at foundation events, wanted high-level help broadcasting a live link to the International Space Station during concerts.

Comment: Here are examples of the Clinton Foundation emails from Judicial Watch.

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Phoenix

Houthi spokesman welcomes Iranian support for Yemeni Supreme Political Council


Sputnik
Tue, 23 Aug 2016 18:17 UTC
houthi support rally
© REUTERS/ Khaled Abdullah
Mohammad Abdul-Salam, a spokesman for Yemen's Shia Houthi rebel movement Ansar Allah, held a meeting with Iran's ambassador to Yemen and thanked Tehran for endorsing the establishment of the Council, which had been agreed by Ansar Allah movement and former President Ali Abdullah Saleh's General People's Congress party in late July.

Mohammad Abdul-Salam, a spokesman for Yemen's Shia Houthi rebel movement Ansar Allah, has praised Iran for approval of the establishment of the Arab country's Supreme Political Council, strictly opposed by the governmental forces, Iranian media reported Tuesday.

In early August, the UN-brokered talks in Kuwait on Yemen's reconciliation ended with the government and Houthi rebels failing to come to an agreement and the rebels forming the Supreme Political Council with a prospect of ruling the country.
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Gold Coins

China buys up Britain's North Sea oil industry - Western security experts freaking out


RT
Tue, 23 Aug 2016 17:47 UTC
bp oil platform
© Andy Buchanan / Reuters
A section of the BP Eastern Trough Area Project (ETAP) oil platform is seen in the North Sea
China's growing foothold in North Sea oil has got experts worried about the rising power's influence and intentions amid heightened tensions over who owns Britain's energy production resources.

While all the talk in geopolitical circles has been of the West's "Pivot to Asia," China's influence in the UK is causing headaches, as attention falls on the ownership of two major British oil fields by Chinese state-run companies.


Comment: What are they worried about? China has not done anything that would give reason for such concern. All they are doing is taking advantage of oil in the North Sea. Most likely the West would prefer that China would stay out of its neighborhood, but that's a wish that the West clearly does not follow themselves, so it's hard to blame the Chinese for doing exactly what they see the West doing.


According to a report from The Times, firms governed by state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) are so embedded in the UK oil industry that they stand to get some £2 billion in tax breaks and now pump out as much as 200,000 barrels per day.

Comment: China is buying up key infrastructure all across the West, particularly in Europe. And there is nothing the PTB can do about it.

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