In the aftermath of the 'Arab Spring' in 2011, which saw the overthrow of the Egyptian government, followed by a counter-coup in 2013, president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi sharply pivoted Egypt's international outlook away from America and towards Russia. Since then, Russian-Egyptian relations have reached a level not seen since the 1970s.

Throughout, pro-government Egyptian media regularly accused Barack Hussein Obama of siding with deposed Islamist president Mohammed Morsi's now-banned Muslim Brotherhood group. And all the while, Egypt has also seen a huge spike in terror attacks, with 'ISIS' promising more to come.

One naturally wonders, is there a correlation between 'the political' and 'the terror'? The answer is, of course there is.

The nexus is writ large everywhere once you see it. Earlier this year, newly sworn-in Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte was literally in Moscow meeting Putin to discuss refitting his country's military with Russian hardware when 'ISIS' sprang out of nowhere to take a major city in Mindanao hostage. Around the same time, the British establishment's preferred choice was facing defeat in the polls until 'ISIS' rode in to save the day for Her Majesty's Secret Services.

Two years on from Russia's historic intervention in the Middle East to answer an international distress call from Syria, Russian president Vladimir Putin today made a surprise visit to Khmeimim airbase in northwest Syria to address Russian troops stationed there, and to tell them in person that they were going home after accomplishing their mission of saving the Arab republic from the scourge of ISIS.

Russia's successful military intervention stands in stark contrast to American intervention in the region. 14 years ago, US president George W Bush declared 'mission accomplished' aboard a US aircraft carrier just two months into the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Far from marking any accomplishment - for either Iraqis or Americans - it merely foreshadowed a long and brutal period of Iraqi history that culminated in so-called 'Islamic State', the most dangerous terrorist group the world had ever seen. How's that for 'Freedom and Democracy'.

In Putin's first-ever trip to Syria, he was met at the airbase by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, where he addressed Russian troops, congratulated them on a job well done and held meetings with President Assad and the Russian general staff.

Putin also announced that Russia would keep its Khmeimim air base in Latakia Province as well as its naval facility at Tartus "on a permanent basis". Addressing Russian servicemen on the airbase runway, Putin praised their courage and professionalism, and announced that most of them would begin returning home:

It has been sixteen years since the US began military operations in Afghanistan and the country remains in as deep a mess as ever. From the beginning of 2017 to the end of October, the US dropped 3,554 bombs against the Taliban - a three-fold increase compared to 2016 and almost four times as much ordnance dropped in 2015.

Despite all evidence to the contrary, US Army General John Nicholson, commander of the US and NATO mission in Afghanistan, insists that the new US strategy is really working this time, the "Taliban cannot win", the war has "turned a corner" and thanks to the US, the Afghan forces are "on a path to win". If you think his optimism is justified, you need to realize that this is not the first time that this claim has been made. Far from it. The US military has been saying this exact same thing since at least 2004 and yet the bombs are still falling. Compare to it Russia's efficient job in Syria, which took only two years to clean the country of ISIS. Is the difference to do with will or the ability to do the job?

In the meantime, US-backed Afghan troops, police and officials regularly sexually abuse boys as their American friends turn a blind eye; there is an increase in opium production that feeds organized crime in Asia and Europe; suicide bombings routinely target Afghan servicemen; and US airstrikes terrorize, wound and murder Afghan civilians.

Some of you may remember, in the mid-1990s, when a new oil showed up on grocery store shelves and in the ingredient lists of many processed foods. It was called canola, and it was voraciously marketed as a healthy new oil, similar to olive oil in its fatty acid profile, yet cheaper. A public thoroughly brainwashed into the belief that saturated fats were killing us, having traded in their butter for vegetable oils, but already becoming leery of soy, corn and cottonseed, were quick to adopt a cheaper alternative to olive oil which had come to be viewed as basically the only "safe fat".

It seemed few were asking the right questions at the time; namely 'What the hell is this stuff?'

Canola is a Canadian invention, created by cross-breeding the rapeseed plant, the oil of which is toxic for human and animal consumption, so that it no longer produces (much) of the toxic constituent erucic acid. International regulations differentiate canola oil from rapeseed by checking the erucic acid levels - if it has less than 2% erucic acid, and less than 30 µmoles glucosinolates, it's canola (a trademarked term, by the way).

The effect of the sensational headlines about Michael Flynn lying to the FBI about talking to the Russian ambassador is rapidly dissipating, as we learn more about the substance (or lack thereof) of the case and the bias of the FBI. Not only has FBI agent Peter Strzok been fired from the Mueller investigation for his anti-Trump text messages with FBI lawyer Lisa Page, but we have now learned that Mueller's 'Russiagate' team has been plagued by Clinton insiders, such as investigators Aaron Zebley and Andrew Weissmann.

Now Nick James, an attorney writing in the Daily Caller, brings up an interesting legal implication of Strzok's bias.

Vegetarians were celebrating last month because a study published by the American Heart Association (AHA) found that a plant-based diet was associated with reduced risk - by 42%, allegedly - of heart failure.

Vegan and freelance writer Susan Bird, in her article on this study, accidentally cited a different study (published on the same day by the AHA) about coffee, strokes, and heart failure, where researchers analyzed data from the long-running Framingham Heart Study.

In this coffee/strokes study, researchers found that drinking coffee was associated with decreased risk of developing heart failure by seven percent, and stroke by eight percent, with every additional cup of coffee consumed per week, compared with non-coffee drinkers.

They also found that eating red meat was associated with decreased risk of heart failure and stroke. And yet, the AHA recommended that people "limit red meat, which is high in saturated fat, as part of a healthy dietary pattern that should emphasize, fruit, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy products, poultry and fish."

... or is he forcing the long-overdue issue of Palestinian statehood front and center?

Promises, promises. Nearly all U.S. presidents of the last thirty years have made campaign promises to move the American embassy in Israel to the contested city of Jerusalem in order to secure the Israel lobby's support. But once in office, none have ever followed through. That is, until now. Last week Trump dropped a matzo ball-encrusted bombshell on Palestinians, the Middle East and much of the whole world when he recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital and said that he intends, in fact, to follow through on his promise to move the embassy ... in one or two years.

Was Trump merely making good on a deal he made for campaign funds, and not seeing how it could harm a 'dead in the water' peace process? Or was this decision part of a larger plan to team up with Saudi Arabia and Israel in a plan to topple Iran? On the other hand, Trump might be playing Netanyahu in order to get greater concessions for Palestinians during peace talks later. And how does Trump's Israeli settlement profiting son-in-law Jared Kushner fit into all of this?

Whatever the answers, the Middle East is now, more than ever, riled up with indignation and sees Trump's decision as symbolic of a U.S. choice to effectively end Palestinian aspirations for sovereignty.

Join us this week on Behind the Headlines as we follow this story, Brexit, the ongoing Russiagate Mueller investigation and more. Tune in at 6-8pm CET (4-6pm UTC / 12-2pm EST).

*Shlemiel: A jewish or Yiddish term meaning "unlucky bungler" or "chump." It is a common archetype in Jewish humor, and so-called "shlemiel jokes" depict the shlemiel falling into unfortunate situations.

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Anyone following alternative news for the past decade and more understands the deceptive tactics used within the mainstream media. 'Fake news' is nothing new. However, the fervor behind anti-Russian hysteria is increasingly driving major outlets over the edge. Journalists and politicians have been scrambling to find any scrap that might support claims of collusion because as of yet there hasn't been a single shred of evidence to support their ridiculous narrative.

ABC News made headlines last week after incorrectly reporting that former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn was going to testify that Trump ordered him to contact the Russian government during the campaign. If true, this would have seemingly supported the Trump-Russia collusion fantasy. ABC's story turned out to be false. They had to make a major correction and suspend their reporter Brian Ross. It was actually during the transition that Trump's son-in-law directed Flynn to reach out to the Russians, which was a totally normal thing to do.

Now CNN is under fire for another bombshell dud. They initially claimed the Trump team knew about hacked Wikileaks files prior to them being released to the public. However, CNN's general lack of integrity led their reporter to get the date of an email wrong, which upended their whole story.

Ultra-liberal trash site BuzzFeed - memorably excoriated by Trump as a 'failing pile of garbage' at his first press conference since becoming president - has been under-fire ever since it published that fake 'golden-shower' dossier, and for good reason.

Its 'serious' reports on 'Russiagate' are all unsubstantiated nonsense that has actively jeopardized US democracy by giving legs to a now-sprawling witch-hunt 'investigation', damaging people and careers in the process - not least the American president's.

Aleksej Gubarev, Russian tech start-up expert and CEO of Webzilla and XBT Holdings, was alleged in the documents to have helped Russia 'hack the US elections.' He has since filed a libel suit against BuzzFeed, which has been unable to get the case thrown out of a Miami courtroom for lack of jurisdiction.

In addition, the US Department of Justice has thrown out BuzzFeed's lawyers' argument that libel constitutes 'fair reporting privilege,' so the New York City outlet has now taken it upon itself to prove the dossier's allegations - something any legitimate media outlet would have done before publishing it.

Foreign Policy reports:

We all know the CIA and its Saudi friends created ISIS as a proxy army to fight against any countries that dared stand up to American imperial aggression. But just for those who still doubt that truth, now we have the testimony of Talal Silo, a former Pentagon-backed commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), to reconfirm just who has been pulling the strings on ISIS in the Middle East.

It was previously reported in October that the US allowed ISIS fighters to be bused out of Raqqa to other parts of Syria to continue their war on the Syrian people. Silo, who was also the SDF spokesman back in October when the deal was made and has now defected to Turkey, said that about 300 ISIS fighters had been allowed to leave. But in a recent interview with Reuters, he said that the real number of jihadists allowed to leave was far higher than that:

"Agreement was reached for the terrorists to leave, about 4,000 people, them and their families," Silo said, adding that all but about 500 were fighters.

He said they headed east to Islamic State-controlled areas around Deir al-Zor, where the Syrian army and forces supporting President Bashar al-Assad were gaining ground.

Note also what Silo said about the famous "last ditch battle" of Raqqa:

He told Reuters that the account of a last-ditch battle was a fiction designed to keep journalists away while the evacuation took place.

For three days the SDF banned people from going to Raqqa, saying fighting was in progress to deal with militants who had not given themselves up.

"It was all theater," Silo said.

"The announcement was cover for those who left for Deir al-Zor", he said, adding that the agreement was endorsed by the United States.

So the US military directly aided its alleged terrorist enemy - an enemy that was the ostensible reason for the US presence in Syria in the first place - by allowing them to flee to other parts of Syria and continue the destruction of its people, infrastructure and essentially its history. As part of the deception, the US government and CIA manufactured an elaborate cover story about a "final battle" in Raqqa in order to keep the media away and hide the fact that the 'exodus' was taking place.

The SDF commander claims that he came forward because he was "disillusioned" over the structure of the US-backed SDF and because in Raqqa, "they destroyed a city, but not the enemy". Then again, that's pretty much how the CIA has operated since its creation, using the US military and proxy forces as tools to achieve a covert agenda.

To those of us who are well aware of the true nature and role of the CIA over the last 80 years, it's no surprise that they would be disinclined to get rid of an 'enemy' that they themselves created, financed and armed. Such 'fake opposition' is the CIA's tried and tested way to justify the invasion, occupation, destruction and looting of any country they deem not compliant enough with the wishes of the US 'deep state'.