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Saudi Arabia and Turkey considering ground forces in Syria is just cover to protect ISIS against Assad

Stephen Lendman
Global Research
Sat, 06 Feb 2016 20:19 UTC
isis in syria
Syria's conflict is getting increasingly dicey. Farcical peace talks collapsed. Resuming them is doubtful. Chances for diplomatic resolution are nil.

Russia's aerial campaign aiding Syrian ground forces continues unrelenting, Putin committed to combating all terrorist groups until defeating or reducing them to a shadow of their peak strength - enabling government troops to contain their remnants.

A previous article cited Russian evidence, indicating possible Turkish ground incursion preparations. Earlier Russian video evidence exposed Turkish shelling of Syria's Latakia province - whether ahead of plans to invade its territory remains to be seen.

Does Riyadh have the same intention? Weeks earlier, it set up a military coordination body with Ankara. Saudi General Ahmed Asseri said "(t)he kingdom is ready to participate in any ground operations that the (US-led) coalition may agree to carry out in Syria" - on the phony pretext of combating ISIS.

Washington created ISIS, using its fighters as imperial foot soldiers - supported by other NATO nations, Gulf States including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Israel and Jordan.
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Георгиевская ленточка

China seeks joint Arctic expedition with Russia and greater exploration of Antarctica


RT
Tue, 09 Feb 2016 18:16 UTC
Russian ice breaker
© Russian Emergencies Ministry / Lyubov Volozhantseva / AFP
China wants to arrange a joint Arctic expedition with Russia, while deep-sea mining and a deep-sea space station in Antarctica are also on the Beijing agenda, according to the Chinese State Oceanic Administration.

The State Oceanic Administration (SOA) wants to establish an air service team, which will allow for greater exploration of Antarctica, according to Xinhua. Given the harsh environment they will be working in, the Chinese scientists understand they will need to adapt their technology and equipment to be compatible with their surroundings.

China also has economic interests in the region. Despite a treaty banning mining in Antarctica, which comes up for review in 2048, but does not expire, the SOA wants to carry out pilot deep-sea mining projects. Antarctica is believed to have large deposits of oil and gas, as well as minerals, such as iron ore and coal.

To get a better picture of what is beneath the giant ice sheets of Antarctica; researchers also plan to build a deep-sea space station.
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Light Sabers

Russia's relations with Turkey is "worst in decades, virtually impossible to normalize them"


RT
Tue, 09 Feb 2016 17:29 UTC
Dmitry Peskov
© Sergey Guneev / Reuters
Russian President's Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov
Relations between Russia and Turkey have deteriorated so far it is virtually impossible to normalize them, Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov has declared. Moscow is still expecting an apology from Ankara.

"The relations have now hit their worst state in the past several decades. And we regret to conclude so," Peskov told journalists Thursday, adding that it's not Russia who is to blame for the current situation.

He added that Turkey has committed "aggressively treacherous actions against Russia" in the recent months, alluding to the downing of the Russian Su-24 bomber in November.

The Russian military jet was downed over the Syrian territory while returning to the Khmeimim airbase after being hit by a Turkish air-to-air missile. One of the two Russian pilots, Lieutenant-Colonel Oleg Peshkov, was shot dead by militants while parachuting to the ground, having ejected from the stricken aircraft. His partner, navigator Captain Konstantin Murakhtin, survived, but one Russian Marine in the rescue team who was recovering Murakhtin was killed when the rescue helicopter was destroyed by a tank missile launched by a militia group.
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Dollars

America's defense spending compared to the rest of the world

Jeff Desjardins
Visual Capitalist
Mon, 08 Feb 2016 11:12 UTC
Defense Spending
© Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Wouldn't it be a strange world to live in if 50% of military spending was paid for by just 5% of the population?

Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.

Every year, the United States government spends the equivalent of $3,300 for each working citizen on its military budget. In aggregate, this grand total of $610 billion in defense spending amounts to about half of the dollars globally spent on the military.
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Light Sabers

Russian aviation official: Moscow provided Dutch Safety Board with MH17 radar data but evidence was ignored


RT
Tue, 09 Feb 2016 17:11 UTC
MH17 wreckage
© Michael Kooren / Reuters
Moscow provided the Netherlands with radar and other data on the MH17 crash but it has all been ignored, a Russian aviation official said, responding to the relatives of Dutch victims who recently wrote to President Vladimir Putin.

Oleg Storchevoy, the deputy head of Rosaviatsia, the agency representing Russia in the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crash investigation, has personally addressed the relatives of the victims in a lengthy letter.

"I would like to emphasize that Russia is strongly committed to establishing the actual cause of the crash, and has consistently done everything in its power to help find out the truth, both throughout the course of the technical investigation and following its official completion," he said.

Desperate for answers that would shed the light on who fired the BUK missile that allegedly hit the passenger plane on July 17, 2014, and dissatisfied with the slow-moving Dutch probe, the relatives have turned to the heads of several states, including Russia's. On January 22, they sent a letter to Putin, asking about the primary data from radars and satellites, which they think is crucial.

"We did not impose any conditions or restrictions regarding further use and disclosure of radar data, records of phone conversations and other data we submitted to the Dutch Safety Board (DSB) at its request. Moreover, Russia has stored all that data to this day, and is willing to provide it once again to the relevant authorities," said Storchevoy.
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War Whore

Pentagon's recent budget preview showcases Washington's blueprint for war against Russia and China

Bill Van Auken
World Socialist Web Site
Thu, 04 Feb 2016 16:30 UTC
us ships at sea
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter's speech Tuesday previewing the Pentagon budget for fiscal year 2017 spelled out Washington's advanced preparations for military confrontations with the world's second- and third-largest nuclear powers, Russia and China.

Delivered to the Economic Club of Washington, DC, an appreciative audience whose sponsors include the major arms manufacturers Boeing and Northrop Grumman as well as financial giants like Bank of America and Goldman Sachs, the defense secretary's speech presented an unabashed declaration of Washington's intentions to assert its hegemony over the world's markets and resources by whatever means necessary, up to and including a nuclear holocaust.

The presentation made by Carter, a longtime technocrat of America's military industrial complex, provides a powerful vindication of the warnings made by the International Committee of the Fourth International and the World Socialist Web Site that the deepening crisis of US and global capitalism is posing a real and growing danger of a Third World War.

The biggest increase proposed in the Pentagon budget is the quadrupling of funding for the US military buildup against Russia in Europe—projected to rise from $800 million to $3.4 billion. In addition to the 65,000 troops Washington already garrisons on the European continent, the funding increase will pay for the "heel to toe" rotation of full armored combat brigades into the former Baltic republics, on Russia's doorstep, as well as other eastern European countries.
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Stormtrooper

Anti-PKK campaign in SE Turkey turns into a slaughter


Press TV
Tue, 09 Feb 2016 03:34 UTC
Istanbul protest
© AFP
Turkish riot police use a water cannon to disperse protesters in Istanbul demonstrating against military actions in Cizre.
The leader of a Turkish opposition party has condemned the Turkish army operations against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants in the country's southeast, saying Ankara is slaughtering citizens there. "They (Turkish forces) committed a massacre in Cizre, and they don't want to announce it," Selahattin Demirtas, the co-chairman of the left-wing pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), told lawmakers from his party on Tuesday.

Over the past six weeks, the town of Cizre in the southeastern Sirnak Province has been under a curfew as part of the Turkish military operations against PKK militants. People in the Turkish city of Istanbul held a demonstration on Monday to express their outrage at the Cizre curfew. Turkish riot police used water cannon to disperse the protesters.

As many as 100,000 of the 120,000 Cizre inhabitants have fled, according to Faysal Sariyildiz, the local MP from the HDP. A number of other citizens are still trapped in buildings in the restive town. On Sunday, up to 60 wounded people, who had been sheltering in the basement of a building in Cizre, were killed during a military raid. Turkey claimed that high-profile PKK militants had holed up in the cellar.

Demirtas said some 70-90 people had taken refuge in the basement and a few other buildings in Cizre, which were coming under mortar fire. "They are scattering the bodies on the streets, on ruined buildings," he added.

Comment: The PKK is waging war against Daesh. Turkey is protecting Daesh. Turkey is utilizing the faux fight against one enemy as a means to destroy another, the PKK.

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Yoda

Pope Francis sees Putin as the only person able to defend Christians around the world


Sputnik
Tue, 09 Feb 2016 16:21 UTC
putin pope francis
© Sputnik/ Osservatore Romano
The upcoming meeting between Pope Francis and Russian Patriarch Kirill will not only be a historic religious event, but could also have major benefits to Christians around the world, the French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche reported.

In an attempt to defend Christians in the Middle East and other parts of the world where they're being persecuted, Pope Francis wants to ask Russian President Vladimir Putin for help.

According to Pope Francis, Putin is "the only one with whom the Catholic Church can unite to defend Christians in the East."

"It's important to join efforts [with Russia] to save Christianity in all regions [of the world] where it's oppressed," Pope Francis said, as cited by Le Journal Du Dimanche.
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Snakes in Suits

Leaked documents reveal Erdogan blackmailed EU for $30 billion over migrant crisis


Sputnik
Tue, 09 Feb 2016 16:17 UTC
Erdogan
© AP Photo/ File
In November, during a meeting with President of the European Council Donald Tusk and European Commission Chairman Jean-Claude Juncker, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan demanded from Brussels €30 billion to resolve the European migrant crisis, a leaked document revealed.

The talks took place in Antalya on November 14, 2015. The confidential document has been published by Greek website Euro2Day.

According to it, Erdogan threatened to send migrants to Europe. By that time, the EU and Turkey had agreed a plan on providing €3 billion to Ankara in exchange for assistance in resolving the migrant issue.

However, Erdogan threatened that he would take measures if the EU delayed Turkey's admission to the bloc. Particularly, he said Turkey would put refugees on buses to Europe and the consequences for Europe will be "more than a dead boy" on the Turkish shores.
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TV

French television used footage of Russian airstrikes in Syria to show "success" of US-led strikes in Syria


Sputnik
Tue, 09 Feb 2016 16:08 UTC
russia airstrikes
© Ministry of defence of the Russian Federation
TV Channel France 2 showed footage of Russian airstrikes in Syria as the work of the US-led international coalition in a fight against Daesh (Islamic State).

While covering news from Syria and reporting about airstrikes against Daesh militants, France 2 showed footage first released by the Russian Defense Ministry.

According to Russian blogger Timofei Vasiliev, the news story said that Russian airstrikes hit civilian targets, as the Russians allegedly don't use precision bombs, instead indiscriminately bombing everything in the area. Unlike the Russians, the French Air Force, which works as part of the US-led coalition, "successfully" bombed Daesh targets, France 2 said.

The French TV channel, however, couldn't find any footage to prove their point, so it just used footage of Russian airstrikes to demonstrate the precision of Western missiles. No big deal, right?

Comment: The West has to steal Russian footage of successful strikes against ISIS because they just don't have any of their own. Not because they don't take video of attacks, but simply because there are no attacks to film.

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