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Bullseye

Flashback John Pilger: How Britain wages war

Blindfolded man
Five photographs together break a silence. The first is of a former Gurkha regimental sergeant major, Tul Bahadur Pun, aged 87. He sits in a wheelchair outside 10 Downing Street. He holds a board full of medals, including the Victoria Cross, the highest award for bravery, which he won serving in the British army.

He has been refused entry to Britain and treatment for a serious heart ailment by the National Health Service: outrages rescinded only after a public campaign. On 25 June, he came to Downing Street to hand his Victoria Cross back to the Prime Minister, but Gordon Brown refused to see him.

The second photograph is of a 12-year-old boy, one of three children. They are Kuchis, nomads of Afghanistan. They have been hit by Nato bombs, American or British, and nurses are trying to peel away their roasted skin with tweezers. On the night of 10 June, Nato planes struck again, killing at least 30 civilians in a single village: children, women, schoolteachers, students. On 4 July, another 22 civilians died like this. All, including the roasted children, are described as "militants" or "suspected Taliban". The Defence Secretary, Des Browne, says the invasion of Afghan istan is "the noble cause of the 21st century".

The third photograph is of a computer-generated aircraft carrier not yet built, one of two of the biggest ships ever ordered for the Royal Navy. The £4bn contract is shared by BAE Systems, whose sale of 72 fighter jets to a corrupt tyranny in the Middle East has made Britain the biggest arms merchant on earth, selling mostly to oppressive regimes in poor countries. At a time of economic crisis, Browne describes the carriers as "an affordable expenditure".

Stormtrooper

Is the US-Backed New Syrian Army part of a plan to establish new gas pipelines?

NEW syrian army US training
© ReutersNew Syrian army recruits carry their plates before heading for their Iftar (breaking fast) meals, at a military training camp in Damascus, Syria June 26, 2016
As the US-backed New Syrian Army has recently suffered two crippling defeats in Syria as the result of massive Daesh attacks on the country's borders with Jordan and Iraq, Russian military experts provide their own explanations as to why the US keeps pouring money into a group which is, evidently, unable to fight the jihadists.

On July 4, the US-backed New Syrian Army suffered another crippling defeat as a result of Daesh (ISIL/ISIS) in a massive attack at Bir Mahrutha near the Syria-Jordan border. This is the second setback in a row the US-trained force has experienced, following quickly after it was defeated on June 28 at Al-Bukamal on the Iraqi border.

With its strength of a few hundred fighters, the New Syrian Army (NSA), a Sunni rebel group aligned with the Free Syria Army (FSA), and mainly made up of locals from Syria's Deir ez-Zor Governorate, has received training in Jordan, as well as arms from the US and UK.

Furthermore, the US-led coalition provided air and artillery support in the above attacks; however, the reports later suggested that when the US force saw that the defeat of their protégés was imminent, they called off their jets.

Russian military experts then suggested what the real purpose behind the evidently incapable group's operation on the ground could be.

"It is not by chance that certain information began to emerge that Washington and Arabian monarchies are using this group to [establish] control over Syria's eastern regions," Pavel Ivanov writes in his article for RIA Novosti.

Shoe

U.S. Supreme Court justice on Trump presidency: 'it's time for us to move to New Zealand'

Ruth Bader Ginsburg
© Wake Forest University via FlickrJustice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
The notorious U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg doesn't mess around when it comes to rulings, so it's no surprise she didn't pull any punches when talking about Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

In an interview posted by the New York Times Sunday, Ginsburg said her late husband, who died in 2010, would have told her, "'Now, it's time for us to move to New Zealand,'" if Trump is elected in November.

"I can't imagine what the country would be with Donald Trump as our president," she said. "For the country, it could be four years. For the court, it could be — I don't even want to contemplate that."

However, Ginsburg doesn't want the right-wing to get too excited, she said that she will not be leaving her job "as long as I can do it full steam." But it isn't just her that is getting on in years. She mentioned both Justices Anthony M. Kennedy and Stephen G. Breyer are no longer young.

"Kennedy is about to turn 80," she said. "Breyer is going to turn 78."

SOTT Logo Radio

SOTT Focus: The Truth Perspective: A Very Heavy Agenda: The rise, fall and resurrection of the neocons, with Robbie Martin

very heavy agenda
"Post-9/11, the War on Terror had outlived its usefulness. The minds behind the think tanks that drive America's interventionist foreign policy decided that the U.S. needed a new enemy, so they chose an old one -- Russia."

Thought they were gone and increasingly irrelevant after the disastrous Iraq war? Think again. The neocons are back, and they're directing American foreign policy with as much psychopathic zeal as ever. PNAC may be gone, but it has simply been rebranded as the 'bipartisan' Foreign Policy Initiative, and its agenda is one and the same: to ensure U.S. hegemony and global domination, no matter how many people they have to kill.

All this and more is covered extensively in filmmaker Robbie Martin's new documentary, A Very Heavy Agenda. Robbie has crafted a stunning tapestry of the neocons' deceptions, pushes for war, and blatant media manipulations. Using their own words, he essentially lets the neocons condemn themselves, as they attempt to normalize imperial aggression, the violation of other nations' sovereignty, and the information war against their biggest target: Russia.

Tune in to the Truth Perspective to hear Robbie discuss the latest instalment of his film, Maintaining the World Order. You can read Robbie's writing on Media Matters, tune in to his podcast (co-hosted with his sister Abby), and check out A Very Heavy Agenda on Vimeo.

After the interview, Brent's Police State Round-up covered the latest police atrocities, and the recent events in Dallas and protests all over the country.

Running Time: 02:10:35

Download: MP3


Here's the transcript of the show:

Map

Russia boosting Arctic military presence, rebuilds ten Soviet era airfields

Russian Arctic helicopter
© Sputnik/ Mark Agnor
Russia is building and reconstructing 10 military airfields in the Arctic, according to the country's Ministry of Defense.

By making this move, the country aims to ensure its military security in the region. Russia's Federal Agency for Special Construction (Spetsstroy) is currently developing infrastructure facilities on military bases and garrisons in the Far North, Far East and Siberia for 20,000 service members, their families and civilians working for the Ministry of Defense.

The Ministry's representative told reporters that more than 100,000 metric tons of physical resources will be transported to remote military reservations in 2016. They will be used for over 150 items, including lighthouses, islands and military bases.

Attention

Celebrating independence? Fighting flares again in South Sudan capital after U.N. demand for restraint

South Sudanese policemen and soldiers
© Reuters/Stringer
Heavy fighting erupted again in South Sudan's capital on Monday a day after the U.N. Security Council told rivals President Salva Kiir and Vice-President Riek Machar to rein in their forces and end days of violence that have left scores dead.

A Reuters witness saw two helicopters overhead firing apparently in the direction of Machar's political and military headquarters. Residents reported tanks on the street. A U.N. official said heavy gunfire had erupted around U.N. bases again.

The capital has been mired in fighting almost every day since Thursday when troops loyal to Kiir and soldiers backing former rebel leader Machar first clashed, raising fears of a slide back to a full-blown conflict after a two-year civil war.

Comment: Another hot spot in the world with no signs of resolving itself.

Five years of independence amid economic collapse and suffering in South Sudan


Info

Moscow studying Washington Post information about Obama's proposals on New START Treaty

Russian soldier near American flag
© AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin
Moscow is studying information about the US initiatives on nuclear arms control with the participation of Russia, as well as on the extension of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) for another five years that has been published by The Washington Post, a Russian diplomatic source told TASS on Monday.

"We have seen the publication and are now studying its contents", the source said.

According to the Washington Post, US President Barack Obama plans during his final six months in office to put forward a number of nuclear arms control initiatives, including, possibly, offer Russia the extension of the New Start Treaty for another five years. "The Obama administration is determined to use its final six months in office to take a series of executive actions to advance the nuclear agenda the president has advocated since his college days. It's part of Obama's late push to polish a foreign policy legacy that is plagued by challenges on several other fronts," the newspaper writes.

"By focusing on nuclear weapons, Obama sees an opportunity to cement a foreign policy legacy despite setbacks and incomplete efforts in several other areas. But by doing it unilaterally, without congressional buy-in, and in a hurried way, he risks launching policies that might not last much longer than his presidency," the article says.

Padlock

Military chiefs gagged over Chilcot's Iraq War condemnations

UK army
© Richard Pohle / Reuters
Military chiefs are banned from sharing their views on Sir John Chilcot's Iraq War Report because they are deemed too damaging to army morale.

The gag means military chiefs are not allowed to publicly express their own views on the devastating findings of the seven-year investigation into the Iraq War. They are also gagged from sharing their views with soldiers, sailors and airmen under their command.

Instead, a "top line" was agreed for dealing with troops, while senior officers were forbidden from expressing their views in the media.

On Monday, defense sources told the Telegraph of fears in Whitehall that military morale could be ruined by the report's scathing conclusions.

Bad Guys

The Warsaw Summit: NATO reaffirms its blueprint for global aggression

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg Warsaw University
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg delivers a speech at Warsaw University
At its summit in Warsaw the NATO alliance reaffirmed its course of aggression and expansion against Russia and the world.

The Summit Meeting of the NATO Alliance held in the Polish capital on 8th and 9th July 2016 unfortunately justified the pessimistic forecasts of many analysts.

An analysis of the final documents shows they have been prepared based on an assessment of the current state of the military-political situation in the world, which has been qualified as "more dangerous". This has been backed by provocative language and policies and gross distortions of Russian policy in the international arena.

These actions were founded on the claim of "projecting stability" and "of responding to crises" outside the borders of the states that are members of the Alliance. The areas of "strategic importance" NATO has highlighted are the North Atlantic, the Baltic, the Mediterranean and the Black Seas.

In order to realise these objectives the Alliance confirmed its previous decisions to establish a division sized rapid reaction force (the "NATO Joint Response Force") and the so-called "Very High Readiness Joint Task Force", which will be capable of deployment within two to three days. These forces are to be set up with the participation of seven Member States of the Alliance (the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, Poland, Turkey and France). Permanent operational liaison connections between these forces and NATO's Naval Forces (the "NATO Standing Naval Forces") in these Seas are to be created, tasked with coordinating naval support for these Joint Rapid Reaction Forces in these areas.

X

Poroshenko's "conditions" mean elections in Donbass will never take place

Poroshenko
After a briefing by the Ukrainian head of state following talks on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Warsaw, Poroshenko was approached by Russian journalists with the question of when elections will be held in Donbass.


The Ukrainian President stopped in front of the reporters and said: "As soon as Russian troops withdraw from the territory of Ukraine."


Comment: From the editor of News Front: To withdraw what doesn't exist from Donbass is impossible. Therefore, elections in Donbass on the basis of negotiations with the LDPR laws that bring fundamental change to the Constitution of Ukraine, will never take place during Poroshenko's reign


Via Newsfront Translated by Ollie Richardson for Fort Russ