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Western reporter Eva Bartlett's Syrian investigations find U.S.-backed 'rebel fighters' are really jihadists

Eric Zuesse
Washington's Blog
Wed, 09 Mar 2016 17:48 UTC
FSA free syrian army
© Freedom House
Eva Bartlett, an independent journalist who is the first Western reporter who has travelled through the areas of Syria that have been freed from jihadist control by the Syrian government with Russian air-support, is reporting, at SOTT.net that everyone she speaks with has stories of horror to tell, and that in many instances the jihadists who were inflicting the horrors were U.S.-armed and backed, basically supported by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey — often "al-Nusra," the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda. As Seymour Hersh and others have reported, the U.S. has worked with the Sauds, Qatar, and Turkey, to get men and weapons to al-Nusra.

For example:

In Latakia, many of the the over 1 million Internally Displaced Persons from Idlib, Aleppo and surrounding areas who are being housed and supported by the Syrian government spoke of the same heinous kidnappings, beheadings, and other crimes that most media currently only associate with Da'esh (ISIS), but which were perpetrated (with Turkish support) by the so-called FSA [that's the Free Syrian Army, the people that the Obama Administration backs and calls 'moderates'] and other terrorist factions.

Comment: Other excellent articles and interviews with Eva Bartlett:

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Bad Guys

Destroying culture and knowledge: Daesh terrorists wipe ancient city of Palmyra off the map


Sputnik
Thu, 03 Mar 2016 17:10 UTC
Palmyra
© Wikipedia/Ulrich Waack
The ancient city of Palmyra has been destroyed completely according to Swedish journalists. The confirmation that the pearl of antiquity and World Heritage monument was demolished completely was taken by a hidden camera.

The famous view of Palmyra has been turned into a desert. In between the piles of stones the ancient monuments are barely discernable. Only a few columns remain standing. It is impossible to shoot with a camera openly but militants are not visible in the pictures.


Daesh broke into Palmyra in May 2015. By then, scientists had managed to evacuate hundreds of historical artifacts everything that could be taken out physically. The militants were convinced that there was treasure hidden in Palmyra. In order to find it, they tortured the caretaker of the old city.
They believed there was gold treasure in Palmyra, they wanted the gold. They demanded to know where the gold treasure had been hidden.
The Temple of Baal Shamin had stood in Palmyra for over two thousand years. It was recently blown up by Daesh. "It's so tragic, you could cry. The Temple of Baal Shamin stood there. Only a few of the temple's columns remain. It has been almost completely destroyed," Museum Director, Khalil Hariri told the journalists, Expressen TV reported.
The Arch of Triumph which is the symbol of Palmyra has also been completely blown to pieces. "When you think of Palmyra, the first thing you picture is the Arch of Triumph. I feel very sad. It makes me want to cry. There are no words," Hariri said.
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Quenelle - Golden

Daesh is 'buckling under the pressure' from Russian coalition's offensive


Sputnik
Thu, 10 Mar 2016 16:14 UTC
ISIS
© Stringer / Reuters
Daesh is buckling under the pressure from the Syrian Arab Army and the Syrian Democratic Forces' advance; at the same the terrorist group is suffering significant damage due to increasing defections and inner strife, Stratfor, also known as "the shadow CIA," reports.

Although Daesh still poses an imminent threat to peace and stability in the Middle East, new cracks have appeared in the Islamist organization.

"Taking advantage of the cease-fire, loyalist forces supported by Russia and Iran have launched two significant offensives, one aimed at the city of al-Qaryatayn and the other at the ancient city of Palmyra. At the same time, the Syrian Democratic Forces are pursuing their offensive against the Islamic State [Daesh] in northern Syria, advancing into Deir ez-Zor for the first time and making inroads closer to Raqqa, the extremist group's self-declared capital," Strategic Forecasting Inc. (Stratfor), global intelligence company, reported on March 7.

Comment: Further reading: It's official U.S. policy to protect al-Qaeda in Syria: Will the ceasefire expose it?

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Propaganda

Omar "the Chechen" dies again! Pentagon claims US airstrikes killed ISIS commander


RT
Thu, 10 Mar 2016 03:32 UTC
Abu Omar al-Shishani
© Al-Itisam / AFP
Abu Omar al-Shishani, aka "the Chechen"



Comment: Omar the red-bearded Chechen has gone and died yet again! He died in early 2014 in Aleppo and then it was claimed later that year that he up and kicked the bucket once again. And just last May he was killed in Iraq! The guy dies as often as a moderately used iPhone.

Meanwhile, Kurdish soldiers on the ground report that not only has no evidence of this man's death tuned up, there is no indication that Omar is in the region at all.


Georgian-born Abu Omar al-Shishani, a top Islamic State commander and Caucasus jihadist recruiter, is thought to have been killed in an air raid in Syria, US officials say, but local forces have not yet confirmed the death of America's most wanted man.

Also known as Omar the Chechen, 30-year-old al-Shishani is believed to have been a close military adviser to the infamous leader of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Until recently, al-Shishani led a brigade of foreign jihadist fighters responsible for a series of beheadings and suicide bombings in northern Syria.

The airstrike was conducted last Friday, and involved multiple waves of manned and unmanned aircraft that targeted al-Shishani near the town of al-Shaddadi in eastern Syria, Reuters reported on Tuesday. Al-Shaddadi had earlier been retaken by US-backed local militia after months under IS control.

According to a Department of Defense press release, the US military is still assessing the results of the strike, without providing further details. The statement added that at the time of the strike, al-Shishani had been sent to al-Shaddadi to bolster IS militants demoralized after a series of defeats by local US-backed forces near the Syrian-Iraqi border.

Speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, several US officials expressed optimism that the strike had been a success, although none could confirm al-Shishani's death.
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Megaphone

Russian MP: Savchenko case used as excuse in Europe to further US-led anti-Russian campaign


RT
Thu, 10 Mar 2016 15:48 UTC
Nadezhda Savchenko
© Sergey Pivovarov / Sputnik
Ukrainian citizen Nadezhda Savchenko, accused of involvement in the deaths of Russian journalists in Ukraine, at the Donetsk City Court in Rostov Region
A Russian MP believes European Parliament members' calls for new sanctions on Moscow come from a desire to exclude Russia from the global war against terrorism, rather than out of concern for Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko, as they have claimed.

"The main reason behind [the call for sanctions] is not the Savchenko process, but simply their [European politicians'] desire to exclude Putin from active life, in this case from an effective struggle against terrorism. It happens because we have succeeded in consolidating the whole world in the war against international terrorism," RIA Novosti quoted Adalbi Shkhagoshev MP (United Russia), a member of the lower house's Committee for International Relations, as saying.

The comments came soon after a group of European Parliament members released an address to the high representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Frederica Mogherini, calling on her to impose sanctions against 28 Russian state officials and law enforcers over the trial of Ukrainian citizen Nadezhda Savchenko. Savchenko faces charges of murder and illegal border crossing in Russia. According to the prosecution, in June 2014 she reported the location of Russian journalists to Ukrainian troops, which then shelled the area, killing the two reporters and other civilians.
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Vader

Documents reveal Obama administration tried to kill transparency despite claims of openness


RT
Thu, 10 Mar 2016 15:37 UTC
redacted letters
© David Gray / Reuters
President Barack Obama has touted his administration as the "most transparent ever," but the Freedom of the Press Foundation says documents released under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit show an effort to "kill transparency."

The non-profit Freedom of the Press Foundation sued the Department of Justice (DOJ) for documents detailing its correspondence with Congress regarding the reform of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) that failed to pass Congress last year despite strong support from legislators. The lawsuit itself was filed in compliance with the FOIA, a law enacted to improve openness in government.

In 2014, the FOIA Oversight and Implementation Act (FOIA Act) sought to make receiving information faster and easier. The FOIA Act breezed through the House of Representatives with unanimous support, and a similar bill, The Freedom of Information Improvements Act, was passed by the Senate. However, the legislation failed in Congress after members failed to reconcile the differences between the two bills.

With both bills receiving bipartisan support, it seemed odd for them to die on the vine. The Senate version was modeled after the DOJ's own policy of transparency set in 2009 by a memo from Attorney General Eric Holder.

Comment: Basically, anything Obama has ever said, you can assume that he means the opposite; classic totalitarian double-speak.

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Stormtrooper

Pentagon to retry failed 'Train and Equip' program, maybe this time will be different?


Sputnik
Wed, 09 Mar 2016 03:40 UTC
army walking
© opitslinkfest.blogspot.com
Train & Equip: Look...this time it's working!
They say "You cannot step in the same river twice" but that doesn't apply to the US military, now requesting the Obama administration restart a halted project on training Syrian rebels, as they believe that with the different approach the program will succeed.

US Army General Lloyd Austin, commander of US Central Command (Centcom) asked the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday for permission to relaunch the $500-million program to train and equip "moderate rebels" to fight Daesh in Syria and Iraq, The Hill has reported.


Comment: Last time only 150 recruits signed up to exclusively fight ISIS. Cost: $384M. Were they even put in the field?


Washington's previous plan to train and arm so-called moderate Syrian rebels to fight Daesh was an utter failure and an ongoing source of embarrassment for the Obama administration, as last October the program was suspended due to the Pentagon's inability to field enough qualified candidates.

According to Austin, the new program will be based on hiring less people so that they can be encouraged to perform with better quality in a shorter period of time.


Comment: So how is this different? Less people...less than 150...and less trained apparently! (Hint to Pentagon: Go with the Kurds!)


"And as we reintroduce those people back into the fight, they will be able to enable the larger groups that they're a part of," he said. "The training would be shorter. But again, I think they would be able to greatly enable the forces once they're reintroduced."

Comment: If at first you don't succeed, you didn't succeed. Dipping twice doesn't make the river warmer, and so on. Is the US just trying to placate Erdogan's tantrums by depending less on Kurdish fighters? Or is it backed into a corner with its (not so) covert support of Daesh and needs to appear like it is doing something to appear to be on the honorable side in this conflict? Maybe they are buying time until...the next stupidly transparent thing.

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Red Flag

Strange bedfellows: Koch Brothers political ad pushes message from Bernie Sanders


RT
Thu, 10 Mar 2016 15:20 UTC
Bernie Sanders
© Jim Young / Reuters
Bernie Sanders
As arch-enemies of many progressives, the billionaire Koch brothers have never been accused of "feeling the Bern." A Koch-funded ad has blurred those political lines, however, by proclaiming that "Bernie Sanders is right" about corporate welfare.

"Across the Board" is the title of a new 30-second political ad released by Freedom Partners, a nonprofit set up by the conservative-libertarian duo Charles and David Koch. At first glance, it may seem more like a promo for the Democratic presidential campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), but it's the Export-Import Bank that Freedom Partners wants to bring into the national conversation.

The only voice heard in the video is that of Sanders, which was recorded in a recent CNN debate. He says, "Seventy-five percent of the funds going from the federal government to the Export-Import Bank goes to large, profitable corporations."

"I don't think it's a great idea for the American taxpayer to have to subsidize through corporate welfare profitable corporations," Sanders adds, as an on-screen message approves.

"We agree. That's why we oppose corporate welfare across the board," the black-on-yellow text reads.
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War Whore

US Army lied to Congress about shutting down corrupt anthropology program


RT
Thu, 10 Mar 2016 15:05 UTC
army soldier
© Erik De Castro / Reuters
The US Army misled Congress and the public when it said that a controversial military anthropology program was terminated in 2014. The $725 million program, mired in fraud and sexual harassment, is still afloat, according to Pentagon officials.

The army publicly said last year the controversial combat anthropology program, also known as the Human Terrain System (HTS), was canceled in 2014. Since 2007, the program took up more than $725 million of taxpayers' money. But an anonymous Pentagon official told USA Today on Wednesday that not only is the HTS alive, but the army would extend it further if more funding becomes available.

The HTS remains in place, which means that it will receive funding for years to come, the official said. It currently has a budget of about $1.2 million per year and employs two army officers, two civilian employees and five contractors, the source added.

The program, founded by US Army's Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) in 2006 was designed to advise American military commanders on social and cultural sides of combatting insurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan. The program's architects insist that it also helped the troops understand cultural differences and develop relationships between both sides, winning "hearts and minds" of Iraqis or Afghans.

Comment: So how many other programs have continued that the government purportedly shut down? Where there's one cockroach, there's more.

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Eye 1

Pentagon admits to using drones to spy on Americans


RT
Thu, 10 Mar 2016 14:17 UTC
pentagon
© Jason Reed / Reuters
The Department of Defense has admitted to using Predator and Reaper military drones in the US since 2006, according to an internal review. Inspectors for the Pentagon concluded that the missions were few in number and had not violated any laws.

A report by the Pentagon's Inspector General (IG), dated March 2015, looked at instances when unmanned aerial surveillance (UAS) aircraft - commonly known as drones - have been flown over US territory and found them "fully compliant with laws, regulations and national policies for UAS support to domestic civil authorities." It was made public on Wednesday, following a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by the newspaper USA Today.

"We found no evidence that any DoD entity using UAS... in support of domestic civil authorities to date has violated or is not in compliance with all statutory, policy or intelligence oversight requirements," says the report signed by Anthony C. Thomas, Deputy IG for Intelligence and Special Program Assessments.

Fewer than 20 missions involving spy drones deployed over US territory have occurred between 2006 and 2015, the report says.

Comment: Orwell's black vision of total surveillance has become our reality. In 1984 he wrote "It was even conceivable that [the Thought Police] watched everybody all the time"

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