© Omar Sanadiki / Reuters
Russia and the US agreed the terms for a cessation of hostilities in Syria. The ceasefire will start on February 27 at midnight Damascus time. ISIS, Al-Qaeda and many other terrorist organizations are not part of the truce.
Puppet Masters
Russia and the US agreed the terms for a cessation of hostilities in Syria. The ceasefire will start on February 27 at midnight Damascus time. ISIS, Al-Qaeda and many other terrorist organizations are not part of the truce.
© Gleb Garanich / Reuters
U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt
U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt
Pyatt set out the conditions while speaking at Ukraine Defense and Security Forum. He said that he was glad to see a large number of US defense industry representatives there, but warned Kiev that these companies would be good partners if they "see that the government sticks to the path of reform, that you uphold your IMF commitments, that the government continues to make progress on the critical topic of rule-of-law reform."
"Ukraine has said that it wants to become a major defense exporter. I know that is possible, given the extraordinary capabilities that I have seen the Ukrainian industry demonstrate," Pyatt noted at the 2016 Ukraine Defense and Security Forum in Kiev on Thursday.
"But it can only happen if Ukraine continues to press ahead on critical reforms, tackles corruption, and works to meet NATO standards. This will require a paradigm shift in Ukraine's defense industry, and a move away from a mindset of state-owned enterprises. And, most importantly, the elimination of graft and corruption."
© www.nbcnews.com
Germany receives ammo delivery. Prepping?
Germany receives ammo delivery. Prepping?
"In the largest single Europe-bound US shipment of ammunition in 10 years, the 21st Theater Sustainment Command ... transported over 5,000 tons of ammunition ...to the Theater Logistics Support Center, Europe's ammunition depot in Miesau [Germany] Feb. 17-18," said a statement on the US army website. "This critical shipment will help us to continue to enable the NATO alliance, and the fact that it's the largest single shipment in 10 years demonstrates our continued commitment to the defense of our allies," 21st TSC chief of staff, Colonel Matthew Redding, said.
Maintaining a stockpile of ammunition means the US and NATO "can quickly draw ammunition in support of short notice NATO operations," says Redding. "All that effort pays off when we're able to quickly deliver ammo and other supplies to those down-trace units that need them," he went on.
The ammunition was taken in 415 shipping containers and stored in Miesau. It will be available for various troops to support operations, including exercise Anakonda 2016, one of US Army Europe's premier multinational training events, which will be held in Poland in June. The Anakonda 2016 drills will involve more than 25,000 participants from 24 nations, including the UK, the US, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Spain, Sweden and Turkey.
Comment: US/NATO wouldn't have Russia in their crosshairs, would they? With the US strapped into arms and ammunition sales as a postponer-element to financial collapse, this shipment provides a short-term security measure in a couple arenas. When that no longer works, does it up the ammo and default to war? Is that the drill?
© Jason Getz
Georgia State Senator Judson Hill introduced SB 327 with little fanfare earlier this month. The proposed law targets boycotts of Israel specifically, preventing the state from contracting with any entity that cannot provide, "a written certification that such individual or company is not currently engaged in, and agrees for the duration of the contract not to engage in, a boycott of Israel."
"These bills exist because the BDS movement is growing in the U.S., and that's making Israel's fiercest advocates nervous," said Rahul Saksena, an attorney at Palestine Legal, which has tracked anti-BDS legislation.
Comment: For further reading on the BDS movement: Pro-Israel lobby's McCarthyism and extreme measures to slime BDS human rights activists
© AP Photo/ Susan Walsh
On Monday, Russia and the United States announced an agreement on cessation of hostilities between the Syrian government of President Bashar Assad and the armed opposition factions had been reached. The agreement will come into force on February 27.
"There is a significant discussion taking place now about a Plan B in the event that we do not succeed at the [negotiating] table," Kerry said of the prospective ceasefire.
Comment: So if Syrians vote for Assad for another term, does this mean "Plan B" will be activated?
© AP Photo/ Hassan Ammar, File
"Freeze is the beginning of a process," Al-Naimi stated. "If we can get all the major producers to agree not to add additional barrels then with high inventory we have now [supply] will probably decline in the due time."
© www.rt.com
Conversations without borders...a Turkish military hang up.
Conversations without borders...a Turkish military hang up.
The documents are said to come from an ongoing court case on Islamic State at the Ankara 3rd High Criminal Court. The investigation was reportedly prompted after six Turkish citizens reported to police that their relatives had joined the terrorists. At least 19 people came under surveillance as a result and prosecutors then charged 27 individuals. The daily published the first batch in December.
The new transcripts published by the daily [on] Monday are said to be conversations between Turkish officers and Mustafa Demir, a member of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIL/ISIS) who is a leading figure on the Syrian-Turkish border. "The transcripts and the documents in the investigation revealed that Demir received money... from smugglers at the border and cooperated with the officers as far as [border] crossings are concerned," Cumhuriyet said.
Comment: It seems, for Turkey, there are no allegiances to which it abides. It maneuvers with bravado, oblivious of sovereign borders, furthering its own interests and agenda in self-serving manners. As a rogue nation, it is only a matter of time before Turkey runs out of usefulness to the US/NATO consortium. If so, who makes THAT call?
© Defense Ministry
Ya'alon aboard the USS Carney
Ya'alon aboard the USS Carney
"We've been enjoying unprecedented quiet, Hamas hasn't fired one bullet," Ya'alon told reporters on Monday, referring to the relative quiet since the end of the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas. The defense minister also acknowledged, however, an increase in Hamas's strength.
"Hamas is trying to arm itself with rockets," Ya'alon said, also noting Hamas are conducting tests on rockets that are fired into the sea. He also reckoned Hamas is building underground tunnels to carry out attacks against Israel.
"We've been preparing for the possibility that at some point will be opened in the south, and we'll have to deal with it ... We're not stagnate and we operate both with defensive and offensive measures," he added.
More than 70 Israelis and over 2,000 Palestinians were killed in the 2014 war, since which there had been few, sporadic rocket attacks against southern Israeli communities -- believed by military officials to be mostly the work of Islamist groups within the strip.
© Robert Galbraith / Reuters
The 2012 initiative was brought into effect by Home Secretary Theresa May and means that a British citizen must be earning £18,500 a year to bring a foreign spouse into the UK.
If visas are also required for children, then wages are required to be even higher.
© Photo by EPA
Inside view of the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) in Jerusalem, Israel.
Inside view of the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) in Jerusalem, Israel.
It breathes new life into the phrase "tyranny of the majority". But in this case, the majority will be Jewish MPs oppressing their Palestinian colleagues.
Mr Netanyahu has presented the bill as a necessary response to the recent actions of three MPs from the Balad faction of the Joint List, a coalition of parties representing the often-overlooked fifth of Israel's citizens who are Palestinian.
He claims the MPs "sided with terror" this month when they visited Palestinian families in occupied East Jerusalem who have been waiting many months for Israel to return their relatives' bodies.
The 11 dead are among those alleged to have carried out what are termed "lone-wolf" attacks, part of a recent wave of Palestinian unrest. Fearful of more protests, Israel has demanded that the families bury the bodies in secret, without autopsies, and in plots outside Jerusalem.
There is an urgent moral and political issue about Israel using bodies as bargaining chips to encourage Palestinian obedience towards its illegal occupation. The three Palestinian MPs also believe they are under an obligation to help the families by adding to the pressure on Mr Netanyahu to return the bodies.
Israel's Palestinian minority has a severely degraded form of citizenship, but it enjoys more rights than Palestinians living under occupation.
Comment: Of course the IMF wants out, and it's not about some petty corruption either. Things haven't panned out as expected for the US and friends, and now they're bringing themselves down with their own destructive impulses.