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Mon, 08 Nov 2021
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Chess

Turkey says border with Syria must be "completely cleansed" of Islamic State

turkey Syria border
Turkey has said its border areas with Syria must be "completely cleansed" of the Islamic State group, after the government said the extremists were involved in a deadly attack in the country's south over the weekend. Officials say a child suicide bomber carried out the August 20 attack on a wedding party in the southeastern city of Gaziantep that left 51 people dead and dozens of others wounded.

"Our border must be completely cleansed from Daesh," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in televised remarks on August 22, using an Arabic acronym for the IS group. "It is our most natural right to fight at home and abroad against such a terrorist organization."

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on August 21 that the attack, the deadliest in Turkey so far this year, was carried out with the involvement of the militant group. Turkey's Kurdish-dominated southeast has been hit by several deadly blasts over the past year, linked either to Kurdish separatist militants or the IS group.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP

Chess

North Korea threatens "preemptive retaliatory strike" amid US-South Korea military drills

South Korean soldiers
© South Korean Air Force / Reuters
South Korean soldiers attend an anti-terrorism drill in Daegu, southeast of Seoul, as a part of the Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG) military exercise of South Korea and U.S. forces. File photo.
North Korea has once again warned the "US imperialists and the South Korean puppet" against staging any provocations and threatened a "preemptive retaliatory strike," should the US-led war drills threaten Pyongyang's sovereignty.

South Korea and the United States kicked off the annual two-week Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG) military exercise on Monday involving around 50,000 Korean and 30,000 US soldiers. Fearing that US has been planning to mount a surprise nuclear attack on North Korea during a joint military exercise, General Staff of the Korean People's Army (KPA) has issued a loud warning against any dangerous provocations that could lead to a "nuclear war".

"The first-strike combined units of the KPA keep themselves fully ready to mount a preemptive retaliatory strike at all enemy attack groups involved in Ulchi Freedom Guardian," Pyongyang's Korean Central News, Agency ( KCNA ) said.

"The nuclear warmongers should bear in mind that if they show the slightest sign of aggression on the inviolable land, seas and air where the sovereignty of the DPRK is exercised, it would turn the stronghold of provocation into a heap of ashes through Korean-style preemptive nuclear strike," the statement added.

Comment: The irony is likely lost on Washington that it was they who have set the precedent for such 'preemptive strikes'.


Vader

As Killary asks for money, what she says remains a mystery

reporters wait for killary to speak
© AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
Reporters gather into the chain link fence corner of a parking trying to hear Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's remarks to a crowd of about 1,000 supporters during a fundraiser at the Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum in Provincetown, Mass., Sunday, Aug. 21, 2016. The Democratic nominee hold all of her fundraisers behind closed doors, leaving voters in the dark about what she's telling some of her most influential supporters.
It was a very busy, very lucrative weekend for Hillary Clinton in the summer playground of the East Coast's moneyed elite.

She brunched with wealthy backers at a seaside estate in Nantucket, snacking on shrimp dumplings and crabcakes. A few hours later, she and her husband dined with an intimate party of thirty at a secluded Martha's Vineyard estate. And on Sunday afternoon, she joined the singer Cher at a "LGBT summer celebration" on the far reaches of Cape Cod.

By Sunday evening, Clinton had spoken to more than 2,200 campaign donors. But what she told the crowds remains a mystery.

Clinton has refused to open her fundraisers to journalists, reversing nearly a decade of greater transparency in presidential campaigns and leaving the public guessing at what she's saying to some of her most powerful supporters.

Comment: Further reading:


Star of David

Israel plans to expand even more new settler units in West Bank

Israeli settlements
© AFP
The Israeli regime authorities have granted preliminary permission for the planning of new illegal settler units in the occupied West Bank in defiance of international calls to end such unauthorized activities in the Palestinian territories.

COGAT, an Israeli military body, confirmed on Monday that permission had been given for planning new units for settlers in the occupied West Bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron).

Hagit Ofran of Israeli anti-settlement Peace Now group said that the land was taken from the Palestinian-run municipality for military use and will be converted to residential application.


Comment: So that's the game plan, take over the territory under the guise of military use, then repurpose it as new settlements instead of returning the land to the Palestinians.


According to Israeli media reports, the expansion is still in early stages of planning and has yet to pass through administrative stages ahead of construction.

Attention

Libya's internationally-recognized parliament votes against UN-backed government

Libya parliament
The UN-backed government in Libya faces a major blow as lawmakers in the internationally-recognized parliament reject the cabinet.

A spokesman for the Libyan parliament said Monday that 101 deputies had attended the parliament, enough to reach quorum for the vote.

Abdullah Ablahig added that 61 lawmakers had voted against the Government of National Accord (GNA), 39 abstained and one voted to support it.

The North African country has been split between rival governments and parliaments.

Lawmaker Abdel-Salam Nassiya said the government should now change to include more people from Tobruk, the city where the parliament is based.

Bad Guys

SOTT Exclusive: West's pro-terrorist interpretation of Ukraine's incursion into Crimea

Armed Ukraine Wolf's Angels
The West's proxy war in Syria is going up in smoke and the propaganda machine has kicked into overdrive in full support of al-Qaeda terrorist 'rebels'. The fake 'letter from Doctors in Aleppo' urges Obama to bomb Russian-Syrian forces in Syria while the media calls for a ceasefire in support of terrorists.

The US proceeds to massacre civilians in a Syrian hospital. No chorus of outrage will be heard, not from the Western media.

No wonder then that the same, subservient lackeys of empire are out in full force to defend Ukraine's attempted terror attacks in Crimea, and Poroshenko's onslaught in Donbass.

In case you missed it Ukraine has resorted to out-right in-your-face state-sponsored terrorism. After attempting to break through the Crimean border Ukrainian saboteurs got into a shoot-out with Russian forces, resulting in the death of a Russian soldier and a Russian FSB agent. If this wasn't bad enough, when their agents were caught Valery Kondratyuk, head of Ukraine's Main Directorate of Intelligence, denied the encounter and instead blamed the Russian soldiers for 'getting drunk and accidentally shooting themselves'. However, Russian agents captured a Ukrainian involved in the attack. The captive Ridvov Suleymanov said "he was recruited in Ukraine by the country's Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense".

Chess

Gorgeous George to return to the Labour Party?

George Galloway
Leftist former MP George Galloway has de-registered the Respect political party founded in response to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The move has led to speculation he is poised to return to Labour. He is reported to have de-registered Respect while claiming that the party's membership now backed Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

The Electoral Commission's register of political parties now shows that the party became voluntarily deregistered on August 18. The party was founded in 2004 to give electoral expression to the mass popular resistance to British involvement in the US-led 'War on Terror' at a time when Labour remained under the leadership of former Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Galloway served as its leader and only MP - most recently after his storming win during the 2012 Bradford by-election. Supporters of the fiery Scots politician believe he would form part of a potent trio of left-wing Labour figures alongside Corbyn and Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell. The prospect of Galloway re-entering the Labour fold has rattled a number of Blairite MPs including vocal Corbyn opponent Jess Phillips, who said that a Galloway return would signal an abandonment of women by Labour.

Pistol

Ruby Ridge: U.S. government's raid on isolationist family 24 years ago presaged the militarized police state

ruby ridge massacre

Samuel and Vicki Weaver (left and rear-center) pose with Sara and Rachel.
Randall and Vicki Weaver and their children wanted nothing more than to be left to live an isolated life in peace in their cabin enclave on a northern Idaho mountain top called Ruby Ridge. Untrusting of the federal government and of the belief society had taken an insurmountable turn for the worse, the Weavers — as many residents in the remote and breathtaking area — taught their children to be self-sufficient and defend themselves with firearms from unwanted intrusions onto the family's property.

But the Weaver's seemingly idyllic life came to an appallingly violent end over several hours from August 21 to 22, 1992, in a horrendously botched federal raid that would also profoundly alter perceptions about the U.S. government in the minds of even ordinary Americans.

Often afterward reported to be white supremacists, the Weavers considered themselves race "separatists" only — and intended no harm against others beyond that belief — though their stance often included the company of people with a more vehement ideology.

Regardless of the Weavers' beliefs, the account of what federal agents perpetrated against the family under the premise of effecting law enforcement action implores Americans of every race to consider the telling outcome of untrammeled government power run amok.

Comment:


Snakes in Suits

Church of England told bishops not to apologize to sex abuse victims because of legal liability

Church of England
© Suzanne Plunkett / Reuters
The Church of England explicitly warned bishops not to apologize fully, if at all, to sex abuse victims to avoid being sued, it has been revealed.

Legal advice seen by the Telegraph marked "strictly confidential," circulated among the most senior bishops, told them to "express regret" to sexual abuse victims by only using approved wording.

"Because of the possibility that statements of regret might have the unintended effect of accepting legal liability for the abuse, it is important that they are approved in advance by lawyers, as well as diocesan communications officers (and, if relevant, insurers)," the report says.

Comment: Court documents reveal former head of Church of England covered-up sex assaults by pedophile bishop


Snakes in Suits

He's back: Sarkozy announces bid for French presidency

Nicolas Sarkozy
© Jean-Paul Pelissier / Reuters
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has formally announced he will once again run for the country's highest office.

"I have decided to be a candidate in the 2017 presidential election," Sarkozy wrote in an extract of a book released on his Facebook and Twitter accounts on Monday.

"I've felt I had the force to wage this battle at such a tormented time of history," he added.