NATO displayed its truly destructive and sadistic nature when it obliterated Libya 5 years ago. Those who expose what happened, and what is still occurring there, are 'soft-killed'.

What began in 2011 with a violent assault against Libyans ended in a NATO-requested and UN-approved 'no-fly zone' that resulted in a massacre of unprecedented proportions. Nicholas Kristol at the New York Times had the audacity to claim that Libyans were running around shouting, as bombs fell on their heads, "Thank you, America!" The murder and mayhem was necessary, we were told, to 'protect civilians' from their leader. A glorious and benevolent act of kindness, the 'humanitarian intervention' would usher in a new 'civilized' regime and 'up-lift' ordinary Libyans.

In reality, an entire population was killed, maimed and terrorized while NATO and its 'rebels' displayed apparent enjoyment at tearing the country apart.

When NATO left and the bulk of 'Islamist' mercenaries were moved on to Syria, Libya was left mired in civil war hell. At which point the West changed its narrative - no longer was the intervention a 'triumph of Western values'; now it was 'a regrettable mistake'. The utility of this change in narrative lies in the fact that they're now saying they'll have to go back and 'fix the mess' (that they made). It's like the psychopath returning to the scene of its crime.

But they have no intention of 'fixing' anything - rather, they want to make sure the victim has no chance of recovering and telling her side of the story.

A 'regime of silence' was introduced this weekend in the Syrian province of Latakia and the city of Damascus. This comes after 5 years of constant warfare, 7 months of Russian military assistance, and 2 months of a relatively successful cessation of hostilities. The Syrian Army has liberated hundreds of towns and villages in the past several months, and dozens have agreed to the ceasefire. The historic city of Palmyra has been liberated. But Turkey and Saudi Arabia continue to support terrorism in the country and block a political settlement. The so-called moderate opposition and their U.S. backers blame Syria and Russia for ceasefire violations. Syria and Russia blame Jabhat al-Nusra and Jaish al-Islam. An MSF hospital was shelled in Aleppo, and the blame-game continues.

Joining us for this episode of Behind the Headlines is Professor Tim Anderson, author of The Dirty War on Syria: Washington, Regime Change and Resistance, to clarify what's really going on and to cut through the propaganda of recent events. Dr. Anderson was recently in Syria to observe the parliamentary elections. In today's show, he discussed his visit, his research, and his book on the Syrian war.

Following the interview, Joe and Niall joined us to talk about the U.S. State Department insanity and current events, and Brent gave his weekly Police State Round-up. Behind the Headlines is brought to you by the SOTT Radio Network and SOTT, your one-stop source for independent, unbiased, alternative news and commentary on world events.

Live on Sundays at 12 pm Eastern.

Running Time: 01:57:13

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Back in 2015 the Journal of Evolutionary Psychological Science published a study that provided yet more evidence that "individuals with psychopathic traits may be able to express fraudulent emotions that appear genuine to the people around them." The authors added, "individuals involved in predatory behavior need to appear to be cooperative and 'normal' to successfully take advantage of others."

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the common emotional rhetoric of Israeli politicians. In the past week Netanyahu has claimed 'outrage' that the UN would dare support Syria's claim to its territory in the Golan Heights, and Israel's representative to the UN, Danny Danon, claimed in a heated debate that it is fine for Israel to abduct children because "'terrorists' deserved no other treatment."

But of course Israel's minister of defense would think otherwise. He opined just a few months back that the IDF and Sunni terrorists in Syria were on the 'same page'. Therefore, applying Israeli political logic, if they're 5 years old they're a target for illegal abduction. But if they're a group of drugged-out head-choppers selling Israel stolen oil, then they're 'just fine by us'.

So perhaps it's time to step in and issue a reminder of what is truly 'outrageous' in this situation. What is outrageous is a sadistic regime which steals the land of its neighbors, openly sides with terrorists to steal those neighbors' resources, and proceeds to torture and murder an entire ethnic group while claiming 'defense against terrorism'. All this while Netanyahu has the gall to say, with a straight face, "Israel, [is] the only true democracy in the Middle East."

Are you stressed? Suffering from extreme tiredness? Need stimulants to get going in the morning? So dead tired at the end of the day that sleep seems like a dream that will never come true? Many suffer silently from a seemingly nebulous thing called adrenal fatigue. Prolonged physical, mental, and/or emotional stress, lack of rest, poor diet, antibiotics, and continual stimulation of the nervous system via electronics contribute to adrenal compromise.

Today on the Health and wellness show we discussed the good and bad aspects of stress and its effects on the adrenal system. The adrenals may be small and misunderstood, but in essence, there is no quality of life if they are not functioning properly. What steps can we take to provide the adrenals with adequate nutrition, supplements, herbs, lifestyle changes and alternative modalities such as meditation and bodywork.

In Zoya's pet health segment, adrenal issues in doggies are also covered. Listen to the show below.

Running Time: 01:34:22

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The rather repulsive sight of US puppet-in-chief Obama grovelling before Saudi royals last week, while US media sounds off on the shocking (not) 'revelation' that the House of Saud was instrumental in carrying out 9/11, point to interesting developments in the Western oil war against Russia. Pepe Escobar has proposed that US intervention was the reason for the recent last-minute failure by the world's leading oil producers to cut oil production, a deal that would have led to a rise in oil prices and given the Russians more room to maneuver by decreasing pressure on their state budget.

This came at a time when increased oil prices would benefit both Russia and Saudi Arabia - the Saudis are now more dependent on oil revenue than at any time in the past 40 years. But the Saudis, apparently with Washington's gun to their heads in the form of a threat to expose the Saudi role in 9/11, announced that the oil war was back on by announcing that they would instead flood the market.

Bearing in mind that the House of Saud is, essentially, the West's original Islamic State, their reneging on the oil cut deal is unsurprising. The very purpose of the Royal Head-chopping Kingdom has been to police the region and be a 'proxy force' that the West can use to do its dirty work. They've fulfilled that role brilliantly for decades, arming and inspiring thousands of terrorists, while turning the wealth of the Middle East into monopoly money for the West.

After the deal fell through, the Russian energy minister Alexander Novak essentially said 'We're sick of the games - bring it on', calling the Saudis' bluff by declaring that if they followed through on their threat to pump even more oil onto the markets, thus driving prices down further, and stating that Russia would respond by vastly increasing its own production.

US authorities recently expanded their investigation into German car manufacturer Volkswagen AG over its 'CO2 emissions scandal'. The US Department of Justice is planning to apply the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act, FIRREA, which has thus far only been used against US banks since its enactment following the 2008 Wall Street 'credit crunch'. As we've seen in the 'FIFA scandal', the US is expanding its jurisdictional reach to prosecute international bodies and foreign nationals.

The VW 'scandal' first made headlines in September 2015 after the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that the company had installed computer software in its diesel engine cars that enabled it to 'cheat' during pollution emissions inspections. The total number of vehicles affected is more than 11 million. The new probe will now look into "possible violations of tax laws by the corporation."

This whole 'scandal' is undoubtedly based on industrial espionage. Given that Chancellor Angela Merkel can't send a text message without the Americans reading it, then it's not much of a leap to assume that the 'leaks' that made this issue a media story originate with the US National Security Agency (NSA). The NSA has mountains of insider data it can 'leak' at any time - not least corporate emails that 'reveal' who knew what when. Espionage is, after all, the primary function of the US 'National Security State'.

This week on the Truth Perspective, we interviewed Paul Henry Abram. On the night of Dag Hammarskjold's death in September, 1961, Paul was stationed with the NSA on the Greek island of Crete. Trained in Russian, he regularly monitored communications at the base. That night, he was monitoring radio signals relating to Hammarskjold's flight over the Congo into Northern Rhodesia. What he heard next was shocking: the plane had been shot down.

In 2014 Abram gave his testimony to the Hammarskjold Commission and the UN investigators tasked with following up on its evidence. On the show, he told us the full story, including how he came to work for the NSA, the kind of work he did, and what exactly he heard that fateful night: radio transmissions explicitly indicating that U.S. ground troops took down the plane. Paul eventually left the Air Force in 1963 and began to study law, which he practiced until his retirement in 2004. His memoir Trona, Bloody Trona covers his involvement in "labor's bloodiest struggle since the Embarcadero Strike of 1934".

Following our interview with Abram, SOTT editor Brent joined us for the first installment in a new feature: the Police State Roundup, with the latest stories of police brutality, murder and corruption. We ended the show with a discussion of the infamous 28 pages from the Joint Inquiry into 9/11 report, and what's going on beneath the surface regarding Saudi Arabia's alleged role in 9/11 and their recent rejection of the plan to freeze oil production.

Brought to you by the SOTT Radio Network and SOTT, your one-stop source for independent, unbiased, alternative news and commentary on world events, the Truth Perspective and Behind the Headlines broadcast every Sunday at 12 pm Eastern.

Running Time: 01:59:44

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Remember September 11th, 2001? Every man woman and true-blue child in the USA was up in arms. The outrage! The audacity! This is war! Who dunnit?! The American people were shocked, traumatized, and needed to chill and think things through, but their government had a better idea: ride the deliberately manufactured tidal wave of emotion over to the Middle East, with the US military in tow, to get the one man responsible: Osama bin Laden. Sure!

A few hastily-cobbled-together intelligence reports and a few weeks of mass news coverage later, and the whole nation was, predictably, baying for the blood of not just Osama, but all those sand-nigger, camel-jockeying, towel-head t'rrists, wherever they might be! (Or wherever the government claims they might be.) I mean, how DARE they! This is AY-MURIKA!

So where was he, this Osamy? His home country of Saudi Arabia? No! He was hiding out in Afghanistan with the Taliban! The very same Taliban that the US funded and armed in the 80s to keep the Soviets out. But, make no mistake, it was pure coincidence that the 9/11 attacks were once again leading to direct US involvement in the geopolitically strategic nation of Afghanistan, and for exactly the same reason. We'll have none of your 'conspiracy theories' here!

Inflammation. We've all heard the term and we've all experienced it either acutely or chronically. On today's Health and Wellness show we talked about inflammation -- what it is, what it does (both good and bad) and why, if you peek under the surface of most disease states, you'll find it. But don't despair. Inflammation, both hidden and overt, doesn't have to be permanent. There are ways to decrease it! Zoya's Pet Health Segment covered the ways in which your veterinarian makes a diagnosis for your pet.

Running Time: 01:42:43

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The recent liberation of Palmyra by Syrian government forces was a significant defeat for ISIS and should represent a turning point in the fight against terrorism in Syria. It still may, but the determination of the USA, Turkey and Saudi Arabia to bring down Bashar al Assad jeopardises continued progress towards the ultimate defeat of ISIS and other terrorist groups in Syria.

US cooperation with Russia to actively fight Islamist forces and support the withdrawal of financing, weapons and supply of fighters from Turkey and Saudi Arabia, would isolate, weaken and lead to the destruction of ISIS as a fighting force. But the insatiable desire for control and influence in the Middle East drives the US and its allies to support 'Islamists' as proxies­­­ in order to achieve their goal of overthrowing Assad, a stepping stone to the greater prize of regime change in Iran.

These contradictory agendas are why ISIS, while in retreat, is far from a defeated force. ISIS is the key fighting force against Assad, so it will continue receiving support, directly or indirectly. Essentially, this means the US, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are aiding and abetting, not fighting, terrorism. A perpetual war, chaos and the foreshadowed partition of Syria are the consequences of such destructive policies. John Kerry's enunciation of Plan B threatens realization, sabotaging the gains of the Syrian government as it seeks to reclaim territory from Islamist forces and reunite the country.