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Turkey softening its stance on Assad staying in power for interim period


Sputnik
Sun, 10 Jul 2016 16:53 UTC
Erdogan and Assad
© turkishmonitor.com
Vision of the future?
Turkey is warming to the idea of Syrian President Bashar Assad remaining in power for a brief transitional period, Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported citing Turkish diplomatic sources. Ankara will not change its stance that after a transitional period Assad must go, sources in the Turkish Foreign Minister told the newspaper. However, Turkey may approve of him remaining in power for a transitional period of up to six months if Russia and the United States approve the decision.

According to the sources, this reassessment of the situation by Turkey may stem from the "Kurdish threat" and the damage "Syria has inflicted on Turkey's interests over the last five years."

After normalization between Ankara and Moscow began many analysts assumed that Ankara may be ready to contribute to finding a solution to the Syrian crisis. In particular, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu confirmed that Ankara would take efforts to reach a compromise with Moscow over the Syrian crisis settlement. "Even when we had different points of view in solving the Syrian issue, we did not interrupt dialogue and made efforts to bring closer our positions," the minister said in late-June.

Turkish journalist Murat Yetkin suggests that "due to the fact that Erdogan has proposed working together with Putin on 'regional crises and terrorism,' Syria might...come into picture" following the Russo-Turkish thaw.

Comment: Erdogan must have had one heck of a life-changing message from Putin...or the meds are finally working.

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Network

EU agrees to 'renewed' data transfer deal, move Europeans' private info to US servers


RT
Sat, 09 Jul 2016 02:31 UTC
Trojan horse
© alittlebitbunny.blogspot.com
What are the chances this 'horse' is really the data transfer deal they are expecting?
The EU has accepted a new version of the so-called Private Shield law that would allow US companies to transfer Europeans' private data to servers across the ocean. The EU struck down the previously-reached agreement over US surveillance concerns.

"Today member states have given their strong support to the EU-US Privacy Shield, the renewed safe framework for transatlantic data flows," Commission Vice-President Andrus Ansip and Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova announced in a statement saying that the agreement ensures "a high level of protection for individuals and legal certainty for business."

The majority of EU members voted in support of the Privacy Shield pact with the US that had been designed to replace its predecessor, the Safe Harbor system, which the highest EU court ruled "invalid" in October 2015 following Edward Snowden's revelations about mass US surveillance.

"It [the Privacy Shield] is fundamentally different from the old Safe Harbour: It imposes clear and strong obligations on companies handling the data and makes sure that these rules are followed and enforced in practice," Ansip and Jourova said. However, several countries, including Austria, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Croatia abstained amid privacy concerns. The newly-adopted agreement will come into force starting Tuesday.

The deal, which is said to be aimed at protecting European citizens' private data, defines the rules of how the sharing of information should be handled. It gives legal ground for tech companies such as Google, Facebook and MasterCard to move Europeans' personal data to US servers bypassing an EU ban on moving personal information out from the 28-nation bloc. The agreement covers everything from private data about employees to detailed records of what people do online.

Comment: Trust can be a flimsy thing. It is always promised, if you can trust that! The EU just bought the Trojan Horse.

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Cow Skull

Killary email probe echoes another time prosecutors weighed charging her with a crime

Rosalind S. Helderman
The Washington Post
Sat, 09 Jul 2016 17:47 UTC
Hillary Press
© Susan Biddle/The Washington Post
Hillary Clinton, the first lady at the time, stops to talk to reporters in January 1996 before testifying in front of a grand jury in the Whitewater investigation.
Over the course of 16 hours, prosecutors and FBI agents agonized over whether to charge Hillary Clinton with a crime. In the end, after weighing every ounce of evidence, examining piles of documents and gaming out whether a jury would ever convict her, the group made its wrenching decision: no charges.

Nearly 20 years before FBI Director James B. Comey declared that "no reasonable prosecutor" would bring a criminal case against Clinton over her use of a private email server while secretary of state, Clinton narrowly escaped a similar legal peril amid the Whitewater investigation that engulfed much of her husband's time as president.

While history remembers the 1990s probe led by independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr for its pursuit of President Bill Clinton over the possibility he had lied under oath about his relationship with intern Monica Lewinsky, internal documents from the inquiry show how close prosecutors came to filing charges at that time against Hillary Clinton. They even drew up a draft indictment for Clinton, which has never been made public.

As in the email controversy of today, Clinton's honesty was a central question facing investigators in 1998 as they weighed whether what they saw as shifting stories from Clinton amounted to an attempt to cover up misconduct. Like the events of today, Clinton was interviewed for hours by authorities. Unlike the email inquiry, in which Comey said Clinton's status as a presidential candidate had no effect on the decision not to charge her, documents from the 1990s show how prosecutors weighed whether Clinton's political popularity would make her more difficult to convict.
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Radar

NATO takes command of US-built missile shield, assuage Russian suspicions


Huff Post
Thu, 07 Jul 2016 04:22 UTC
Stoltenberg and Obama
© Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
President Obama and Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at NATO Summit
NATO took command of a U.S.-built missile shield in Europe on Friday after France won assurances that the multi-billion-dollar system would not be under Washington's direct control. The missile shield, billed as a defense against any strike by a "rogue state" against European cities, is one of the most sensitive aspects of U.S. military support for Europe. Russia says the system is in fact intended by Washington to blunt its nuclear arsenal, which the U.S. denies.

"Today we have decided to declare initial operational capability of the NATO ballistic missile defense system," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told a news conference. "This means that the U.S. ships based in Spain, the radar in Turkey and the interceptor site in Romania are now able to work together under NATO command and control," he said, adding that the umbrella was "entirely defensive" and "represents no threat to Russia's strategic nuclear deterrent". Russia is incensed at the show of force by the United States, its Cold War rival in ex-communist-ruled eastern Europe.

Washington hopes handing over control to the multinational NATO alliance can calm Russian fears. European NATO members states are seen as having nothing to gain by provoking Russia, their major energy supplier. European nations will be responsible for some funding and adding assets to the shield over time.

The system comes as NATO prepares a new deterrent in Poland and the Baltics following Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea. In response, Russia is reinforcing its western and southern flanks with three new divisions. France, which is leading diplomatic efforts with Russia and Germany to bring peace to eastern Ukraine, needed assurances that control of the shield was genuinely being transferred to NATO, not kept under the command of U.S. generals.

Comment: Smoke and mirrors. Just because the gizmo has other nations involved in its use, doesn't mean the US doesn't have its finger on the pulse. There is direct control and there is indirect control. (BTW: Are we sure it works?)

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Target

Gorbachev: NATO speaks defense, preps offensive


RT
Sun, 10 Jul 2016 06:57 UTC
Gorbachev
© www.thedailystar.net
Despite NATO assurances that it seeks deterrence and dialogue with Russia, the alliance seems to be preparing to escalate conflict, says Mikhail Gorbachev, the man praised for ending the Cold War after the alliance convened at a summit in Warsaw. "The rhetoric in Warsaw screams of an intention to practically declare war on Russia. They only talk about defense, but in fact they are preparing an offensive," the former Soviet leader told Interfax.

Gorbachev, who played a key part in deescalating tensions between the Soviet Union and the West in the 1980s and eventually withdrew soviet troops from eastern Europe, was commenting on the two-day NATO summit in the Polish capital. Ironically, the city once lent its name to NATO's communist counterpart, the Warsaw Pact, but has now seen leaders of the US-led alliance negotiating increased pressure on Russia.

In its final communique NATO accused Russia of "provocative military activities in the periphery of NATO territory" and "willingness to attain political goals by the threat and use of force". The alliance said Moscow's actions "are a source of regional instability, fundamentally challenge the alliance, have damaged Euro-Atlantic security, and threaten our long-standing goal of a Europe whole, free, and at peace."

The key result of the Warsaw summit was the long-promised deployment of additional NATO troops at Russia's border, namely in host nation Poland and the Baltic States. NATO claims that the deployment is necessary to prevent a possible attack from Russia and reassure the eastern European nations that other members are committed to defend them.

Comment: Old saying: If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck...it is likely a duck. NATO's actions speak the loudest, given the current potential for intended (or even accidental) annihilation. We already have millions of people who are the victims of war, terror, devastation...we need more? That NATO is setting up Russia, goading it to the brink of military confrontation, is unconscionable. Are we past the point of no return? Clearly NATO is past the point of sanity.
NATO's Warsaw Summit Communique states:
NATO's essential mission is unchanged: to ensure that the Alliance remains an unparalleled community of freedom, peace, security, and shared values, including individual liberty, human rights, democracy, and the rule of law.

Russia's destabilising actions and policies include: the ongoing illegal and illegitimate annexation of Crimea, which we do not and will not recognise and which we call on Russia to reverse; the violation of sovereign borders by force; the deliberate destabilisation of eastern Ukraine; large-scale snap exercises contrary to the spirit of the Vienna Document, and provocative military activities near NATO borders, including in the Baltic and Black Sea regions and the Eastern Mediterranean; its irresponsible and aggressive nuclear rhetoric, military concept and underlying posture; and its repeated violations of NATO Allied airspace. In addition, Russia's military intervention, significant military presence and support for the regime in Syria, and its use of its military presence in the Black Sea to project power into the Eastern Mediterranean have posed further risks and challenges for the security of Allies and others.

(It goes on. It gets much, much worse.)


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Bullseye

Osama bin Laden's son vows fight against US for killing his father in audio message

Asma Alabed
Independent
Sun, 10 Jul 2016 12:46 UTC
Osama bin Laden
© Getty
Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011 during a secret operation by US forces.
In a 21-minute speech released by Al-Qaeda, Hamza bin Laden promises to continue the global militant group's fight against the United States

The son of Osama bin Laden has threatened revenge against the US for assassinating his father, according to an audio message posted online by Al-Qaeda.

Hamza bin Laden promised to continue the global militant group's fight against the United States and its allies in the 21-minute speech entitled "We Are All Osama," according to the SITE Intelligence Group, an organisation that tracks white supremacist and jihadi organisations online.

"We will continue striking you and targeting you in your country and abroad in response to your oppression of the people of Palestine, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia and the rest of the Muslim lands that did not survive your oppression," Hamza said.

Comment: See also: America's long support for 'moderate rebels' and their propaganda create a breeding ground of extremists, patsies, and useful idiots

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Chess

Leaked EU document reveals plans for superstate after Brexit

James Corbett
The Corbett Report
Thu, 30 Jun 2016 00:00 UTC
EU military forces
© Unknown
Well, that didn't take long.

The graphite was hardly dry on the Brexit ballots when TVP Info, a Polish broadcaster, leaked a 9-page document drawn up by the German and French foreign ministers calling for an EU superstate, complete with an EU army, integrated border controls and common taxation. The German foreign minister discussed the plans — which are being described as "an ultimatum" — with his counterparts in the Visegrad Group of countries (Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia) this week.

The document, bearing the Orwellian title of "A strong Europe in a world of uncertainties," lays out the exact tyrannical plans that the EU's critics have been warning about for years. After identifying key areas of uncertainty and concern affecting Europe — from spreading [false flag] terrorism to [manipulated] cultural tensions to [engineered] economic hardships — the document proposes three new areas for expanded EU cooperation:

Comment: See also:
Brits claim: 'EU nations to be morphed into one superstate post-Brexit'
Boris Johnson: The EU's drive for a 'superstate' is same as Hitler's

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Magnify

James Corbett explains what everybody's missing about Brexit


The Corbett Report
Sat, 09 Jul 2016 00:00 UTC
Brexit puzzle
© Getty Images
"Brexit is good!" cheer the nationalists. "No, it's a travesty!" cry the globalists. "No, it's a trap!" cry the conspiracists. So who's right? All of them. Or none of them. As James explains on his recent appearance on WGDR radio with Jim Hogue, Brexit is a destabilizing move that can be used by the globalists to create order out of chaos or used by us to effect the only revolution that really matters: the revolution of the mind. Don't miss this wide ranging conversation on the multiple origins of the EU, the 3D moves of the Gladio globalists, and how the real power lies with the people (if only they'd realize it).

Comment: See also:
Behind the Headlines: Rearranging the Geopolitical Chessboard: Turkey's about-face, Istanbul attacks, Brexit's bombshell

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Eye 2

ISIS militants kill 2 Russian pilots after downing helicopter


RT
Sun, 10 Jul 2016 13:07 UTC
helicopter attack
Islamic State militants have downed a military helicopter near Palmyra, Syria, killing two Russian pilots on board. The helicopter had been attacking the advancing terrorists at Damascus' request when it was taken down, according to the Russian defense ministry.

"On July 8, Russian military pilot-instructors Evgeny Dolgin and Ryafagat Khabibulin, were conducting a calibration flight on a Syrian Mi-25 (export version of the Mi-24) helicopter loaded with ammunition in the province of Homs," the official statement from the Ministry of Defense reads.

"The crew received a request from the Syrian command group to help defeat the advancing terrorists and fire for effect. The captain of the aircraft, Ryafagat Khabibullin, made the decision to attack."

The Ministry of Defense stated that due to the skillful actions of the crew the terrorists were thrown back and the attack had been thwarted.

However, their helicopter was shot down by terrorists as it was turning to head back to the base.
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Chess

Moscow confirms US expelled 2 Russian diplomats on heels of confrontation outside US embassy in Moscow


RT
Sun, 10 Jul 2016 12:56 UTC
US Embassy building in Moscow
© AFP
US Embassy building in Moscow
Russia's Foreign Ministry has confirmed reports about US authorities expelling two Russian diplomats from Washington DC following an incident outside the US Embassy in Moscow on June 6, 2016, when a US diplomat was allegedly 'beaten' by Russian security staff.

"I can confirm that [...] the US government did demand the departure of two employees of the Russian Embassy in Washington DC without presenting any complaints to the employees themselves. Furthermore, the State Department strongly asked us not to make this fact public. As you can see, it is customary for American diplomats to keep their word," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told the press, alluding to the publication on the incident in Washington Post.

The article claimed that a Russian guard "attacked and beat up a US diplomat who was trying to enter" the US Embassy in Moscow, citing "US officials who were briefed on the incident."

"The American diplomat - or, more accurately, a CIA officer who worked under the embassy's cover and was returning to the compound disguised after conducting an intelligence operation - attacked a police officer, who was carrying out his duty protecting the diplomatic mission," Ryabkov explained.
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