I am just back from a family funeral – one of a succession – and a combination of circumstances had left me feeling pretty down lately, and not blogging much. But I have to drag myself to the keyboard to denounce a quite extraordinary set of deliberate lies published in the Guardian about a Russian plot to spring Julian Assange last December.
I was closely involved with Julian and with Fidel Narvaez of the Ecuadorean Embassy at the end of last year in discussing possible future destinations for Julian. It is not only the case that Russia did not figure in those plans, it is a fact that Julian directly ruled out the possibility of going to Russia as undesirable. Fidel Narvaez told the Guardian that there was no truth in their story, but the Guardian has instead chosen to run with “four anonymous sources” – about which sources it tells you no more than that.
I have no idea who the Guardian’s “anonymous sources” are, but I know 100% for certain that the entire story of a Russian plot to extract Julian from the Embassy last Christmas Eve is a complete and utter fabrication. I strongly suspect that, as usual, MI6 tool Luke Harding’s “anonymous sources” are in fact the UK security services, and this piece is entirely black propaganda produced by MI6.
It is very serious indeed when a newspaper like the Guardian prints a tissue of deliberate lies in order to spread fake news on behalf of the security services. I cannot find words eloquent enough to express the depth of my contempt for Harding and Katherine Viner, who have betrayed completely the values of journalism. The aim of the piece is evidently to add a further layer to the fake news of Wikileaks’ (non-existent) relationship to Russia as part of the “Hillary didn’t really lose” narrative. I am, frankly, rather shocked.
Casino billionaire’s total contributions on behalf of Israel in 2016 & 2018 reported to surpass $100 million, possibly making him the largest single donor in American politics today… continue
GAZA CITY – At least 10 Palestinians were injured on late Saturday after Israeli forces opened fire in various areas of the besieged Gaza Strip.
According to local sources, Israeli forces opened fire at hundreds of Palestinian youths, who participated in a protest east of Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, and injured seven of the protesters.
The condition of the injured Palestinians remained unknown. … Full article
Israeli occupation forces, on Sunday morning, served notices to the residents of Al-Khan Al-Ahmar, east of Jerusalem, ordering them to demolish their homes, by themselves, before a deadline of 1 October, 2018.
The demolition notice said, according to the PNN :
Inhabitants of Khan al-Ahmar
By the High Court decision you must demolish all buildings within the Khan al-Ahmar no later than 1 October 2018.
If you refuse, the authorities will enforce demolition orders as per court decision and the law.
Any citizen wishes to receive help in demolition or transporting goods must go to the liason office and call this number…
In response, Palestinian national and Islamic voices called for wide participation in the permanent sit-in protest on the land of the village. … Full article
Israeli forces detained the Secretary of the Fatah movement, Yasser Darwish, on predawn Sunday in the Palestinian neighborhood of Issawiya in occupied East Jerusalem.
According to Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, prior to the detention of Darwish, large numbers of Israeli forces stormed the Issawiya neighborhood and raided his home.
PPS confirmed that during the raid, Israeli forces thoroughly searched Darwish’s home and damaged his personal belongings, including the furniture.
Muhammad Abu al-Hummus, member of a local follow-up committee, said that Darwish was detained by Israeli forces and taken to an Israeli detention center for interrogation.
Abu al-Hummus added that following Darwish’s detention, clashes broke out among Palestinian youths and Israeli forces, in which forces fired sound bombs towards the neighborhood repeatedly, while youths threw rocks.
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM – The Israeli occupation forces on Saturday afternoon kidnapped a Palestinian student outside of the Quds Campus, east of occupied Jerusalem.
Eye-witnesses told a PIC news correspondent that an Israeli military patrol set up a checkpoint at the entrance gate to the Quds University moments before the end of the afternoon shift.
Law student Aws Mara’ba, aged 20, was chased down and subjected to heavy beating by the Israeli soldiers, before he was kidnapped and dragged, handcuffed, to an unknown destination.
JERUSALEM – A 28-year-old Palestinian has been hospitalized over the weekend after Israeli forces assaulted him while traveling through the Allenby bridge crossing, between Jordan and the occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian was identified as Amir Abu Laban, who won an award for his contribution to the dissemination of the Arabic language, was traveling through the Allenby crossing to return from Jordan.
Upon his arrival to the Israeli part of the crossing, Abu Laban had informed one of the Israeli soldiers that he cannot pass through the metal detector due to undergoing a reconstructive foot surgery, which consisted of placing platinum in his feet, and requires him to hold a walking stick to sustain balance.
However, five Israeli soldiers unexpectedly assaulted Abu Laban and repeatedly beat him at the crossing, while two others pointed their weapons toward him, without providing a reason. … Full article
Chilean judge Mario Carroza ordered 20 former agents of Chile’s infamous National Intelligence Direction (DINA) to serve prison time for their roles in the kidnapping and murder of 12 victims of the CIA-backed Operation Condor Friday. […]
Raul Iturriaga and Christoph Willike were sentenced to 17 years in prison; Pedro Espinoza, Juan Morales, Jorge Escobar, Federico Chaigneau, and Miguel Riveros to 15 years in prison; Carlos Lopez and Gladys Calderon to 10 years; and Eduardo Oyarce. The other former agents received prison sentences of between 100 days and seven years.
The judge also ordered the state to pay compensations of between US$30,000 and US$134,000 for moral damage to the families of the 12 victims. – Full article
Iraq has refused to allow Turkish troops back into the Arab country following a leave from their bases, a government-affiliated think tank in Baghdad has reported.
According to Al-Nahrain Center for Strategic Studies, the move is in line with the Iraqi government’s efforts to put an end to Turkish military presence in the country. … continue
A minute-by-minute account of the Il-20 downing shows Israel’s culpability and either its military bosses’ lack of appreciation of relations with Moscow, or their control of commanding officers, the Russian defense ministry said.
“We believe that the blame for the Russian Il-20 aircraft tragedy lies entirely with the Israeli Air Force,” said spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov, before revealing a detailed account of events leading to the downing of the Russian Il-20 military aircraft on September 17. The plane was shot down by the Syrian air defense units as Israeli’s F-16s effectively used it as a cover during the attack on its neighbor.
The report featured previously undisclosed radar data and details of communications between Russian and Israeli militaries, and concluded that “the military leadership of Israel either has no appreciation for the level of relations with Russia, or has no control over individual commands or commanding officers who understood that their actions would lead to tragedy.” … continue
… The DMZ is probably the most heavily militarized frontier in the world, with hundreds of thousands of tough troops and thousands of tanks and guns confronting one another. I’ve seen few more impressive military sights. Only the Pakistani-India border in Kashmir offers a similar martial display and menace.
Kudos go to the leaders of North and South Korea for de-escalating the tensions between them. Both deserve a Nobel peace prize. Kim Jong-un and Moon Jai-in have made a great leap forward by trying to end the Korean War. Most Koreans – except for hard rightwing anti-Communist Christians in South Korea – are thrilled.
As a very long-time observer and friend of Korea, I too am elated by the Moon-Kim friendly summit and wish it success. But I’m also worried by the role of Washington.
President Donald Trump certainly broke the ice with North Korea and played a key role in setting peace talks into motion. Kudos to him.
But I’m also apprehensive that the so-called de-nuclearization issue may ruin the effort to end the Korean War. Washington demands that North Korea account for and then dismantle its nuclear weapons under US supervision. This is the key American position.
Interestingly, while making these demands, the US is pushing ahead with a new `smaller’ nuclear warhead program, the B61- Model 12, designed as a deep earth penetrator and for use against tactical targets. This $1 trillion program is designed for war-fighting, not deterrence. Critics warn it will make a nuclear war much more likely.
North Korea, which has a small number of long-ranged, nuclear tipped missiles of undetermined reliability, says its will ‘de-nuclearize’ to meet Washington’s demands. But why? North Korea is demanding ‘reciprocity’ from the US. So far, there is no sign of the US agreeing to shut its air bases in South Korea or Japan, remove nuclear weapons from North Asia, or remove some or all of its 28,500 troops in South Korea.
The Trump administration has convinced itself that a one-way deal with North Korea is possible. Its resident hardliners, John Bolton and Mike Pompeo, are believed to be hostile to any US concessions. They want North Korea to unconditionally surrender, not negotiate. Both are neocons who fear North Korea’s nukes might find their way to Israel’s mideast enemies. A deal between Washington and Pyongyang under President Bill Clinton was sabotaged by the neocons for this very reason. … Read full article
Iranian authorities have summoned ambassadors of the Netherlands and Denmark as well as chargé d’affaires of the British embassy in Tehran after terrorists with alleged links to the European countries carried out attacks during a military parade in the southwestern city of Ahvaz on Saturday.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said that the department for European affairs of the ministry summoned the three diplomats separately at the evening time on Saturday to declare Tehran’s strong protest to the role their countries might have played to support elements who carried out the terror attacks in Ahvaz earlier in the day that led to the killing of some 25 people.
The al-Ahvaziya terror group, whose recruits are believed to be scattered in several European countries, including in the Netherlands and in Denmark, claimed responsibility for the attack in Ahvaz.
The terror outfit, which is backed by Saudi Arabia, has a record of carrying out sabotage acts in Iran’s Khuzestan province, which encompasses Ahvaz and some other Arab-dominated towns.
Qassemi said Iran expected the two European countries to extradite the “criminal perpetrators” of the terrorist act in Ahvaz. … continue
Iranian Armed Forces spokesman, Brig. Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi, told IRNA that the militants who had committed a terrorist attack on a military parade in the Iranian city of Ahvaz on Saturday were linked to the United States and Israel.
“These terrorists are not members of the Daesh and do not belong to groups fighting the Islamic system. These people are linked to the United States and [Israeli intelligence service] Mossad. These militants were organized and trained by two countries of the Persian Gulf,” Shekarchi said in an interview with a local agency.
The spokesman added that the servicemen had killed all four militants who committed the attack.
Earlier, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif accused “regional terror sponsors and their US masters” of organizing the attack.
The minister’s statement came as a response to the incident reported earlier in the day when armed militants opened fire at the parade, leaving at least 25 people killed and another 60 were injured, according to media reports.
The Saudi-linked Patriotic Arab Democratic Movement in Ahwaz has reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack.
The mainstream Western media have been mostly silent about the deadly US-sponsored terrorist attack in the Iranian city of Ahvaz, according to US scholar and political analyst Kevin Barrett.
“Innocent people being killed by terrorists is front page news in the West; but, in the case of terrorism against Iran, suddenly, everything changes and the media tends to ignore and downplay it,” Barrett told Press TV in an interview on Saturday.
Barrett sees the attack as another terrorist operation launched by the United States and its regional allies.
“There have been close to 20,000 people killed in these kinds of terrorist attacks by extremist groups in Iran over the years to almost the complete silence of the western media and that is because it is the western governments led by the United States and its Israeli master who are in fact organizing, funding, arming, equipping, and unleashing these terrorists against Iran and they have been ever since the Islamic Revolution of 1979,” Barrett said. … continue
At least 25 people were killed and 60 others injured in the Iranian city of Ahvaz on Saturday, when terrorists opened fire on people from behind a viewing stand at a military parade held to mark the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Iran in the 1980s.
The Western and Saudi media have refrained from terming the deadly attack in Ahvaz a terrorist act despite the large number of civilian casualties in the incident.
The Saudi-backed al-Ahvaziya terror group claimed responsibility for the assault.
However, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) only used the word “attack” for the terrorist act. … continue
A field correspondent working for the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) has been wounded by rubber bullets fired by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, says the Press TV reporter.
Mona Kandil, Press TV’s correspondent, said on Saturday that “12 Palestinians were wounded, including a journalist,” during a protest rally in the city of Ramallah.
Kandil added that the correspondent was shot in his leg and sustained minor injury.
AL-KHALIL – Dozens of Israeli settlers on Saturday stormed the market of the Old City of al-Khalil and harassed Palestinian citizens.
Escorted by the Israeli occupation forces, the settlers carried out provocative tours in the market and disrupted the movement of Palestinian citizens in the Old City’s streets.
Meanwhile, the Israeli forces stopped an Islamic Awqaf employee, Islam Zahdeh, while he was heading to his work, arrested him, and transferred him to an unknown destination.
Islamic Awqaf employees and other Palestinians working for Palestinian institutions in the Old City are constantly harassed by Israeli settlers and soldiers. These attacks come within the framework of an Israeli plan to pressure Palestinian citizens to leave the area.
University of Michigan professor John Cheney-Lippold, an expert in the field of big data and surveillance, received death threats this week after he told a student he would be unable to write her a recommendation letter for a study abroad program in Israel because he supports the academic boycott for Palestinian rights.
“I wouldn’t cross a union picket line and I can’t cross this one,” said Cheney-Lippold. “I support the Palestinian boycott call because I am appalled at Israel’s continuing violation of Palestinian rights, and our government’s support for those violations. If a student had wanted to do a study abroad at an institution in Apartheid South Africa, I would have declined to write a letter for her as well.”
After an email exchange about deadlines with the student, Cheney-Lippold informed the student on September 5 that for political and ethical reasons he could not write her a recommendation for the program. “Let me know if you need me to write other letters for you, as I’d be happy,” Cheney-Lippold wrote.
A few days later, Club Z, a Zionist organization, posted the email on Facebook. Islamophobe ideologue Pamela Geller and right-wing groups including the Zionist Organization of America called for the professor to be dismissed. The story spread among conservative sites such as Fox News, Breitbart and the Daily Caller and was soon picked up by other sites such as CBS and the Chronicle of Higher Education. Soon after, Cheney-Lippold received over 500 emails, including messages calling for him to be killed. … continue
Russia has rejected the findings of an Israeli investigation into the deadly crash of a Russian military aircraft in the Syrian province of Latakia, and called on Tel Aviv to launch a new probe into the matter.
The Israeli Haaretz newspaper said on Friday that the Russians had not accepted Israel’s findings, which considered Russia and Syria responsible for the downing of a Russian Ilyushin 20 reconnaissance aircraft some 35 kilometers off the coast of Latakia as it was returning to a nearby Russian base earlier in the week. 15 Russian servicemen were killed in the incident.
Haaretz’ report came after an Israeli delegation led by Amikam Norkin, the regime’s air force commander, visited Moscow to brief Russian officials on Tel Aviv’s initial investigation of the incident.
The paper said the visit failed to defuse the crisis and the Kremlin rejected the Israeli conclusion that Syrian forces were to blame for the incident. … Full article
The destruction of a Russian Il-20 reconnaissance aircraft with 15 airmen onboard has led to questions about Moscow’s relations with both Syria and Israel. Speaking to Sputnik, Middle East affairs observer Ali ben Masoud al-Mashani said he was confident that whatever else happens, Russian-Syrian counterterrorism cooperation will continue.
Speaking to Sputnik about the lost Il-20, which was destroyed by Syrian air defenses over the Mediterranean Sea as the Syrian military attempted to repel an Israeli attack on Monday, al-Mashani said it was important to keep in mind that “this tragedy occurred because of the [Israeli] attack on Syria. Syrian airspace was violated,” he said.
At the moment, the Omani security analyst noted, “it is necessary to fully condemn the actions of all participants of this operation. Yes, the Syrian air defense system also made a mistake, but it was provoked by Israeli military aircraft.”
Al-Mashani categorically ruled out the possibility of a downturn in cooperation between Moscow and Damascus. “Both sides know that the Israeli aggression was a response to the agreements in Sochi between Moscow and Ankara on Idlib,” he said, referring to plans to set up a demilitarized zone in the militant-controlled Syrian province by the middle of next month.
Moscow has yet to decide on the future of Russian-Israeli ties following the downing of its Il-20 ELINT reconnaissance plane, which the Russian Defense Ministry has blamed on the Israeli military. … continue
The Ontario government has introduced legislation to scrap the Green Energy Act, which aimed to bolster the province’s renewable energy industry.
The law was introduced by the previous Liberal government in 2009 in a bid to grow the province’s solar and wind energy supply.
Critics of the Green Energy Act have said it resulted in an increase in electricity costs and saw the province overpay for power it did not need.
Infrastructure Minister Monte McNaughton says repealing the law will ensure that municipalities regain planning authority over renewable projects, something that was removed under the act.
The government says that future renewable energy projects must first demonstrate need for the electricity they generate before being granted approval. … Full article
A federal appellate court ruling upheld Illinois’ law directing hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies to nuclear plants and other green energy incentives.
The ruling from the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals says that Illinois’ Future Energy Jobs Act, a 2016 law providing Zero Emissions Credits to Exelon, the owner of several nuclear plants in the state, doesn’t unfairly manipulate the multi-state energy market that establishes rates. … Full article
By Peter KORZUN | Strategic Culture Foundation | 22.09.2018
… Repeated safety lapses have hobbled the Los Alamos National Laboratory. It was sheer good luck that prevented real trouble from happening to the surrounding area. According to Science, “most remarkably, Los Alamos’s managers still have not figured out a way to fully meet the most elemental nuclear safety standards.”
“There’s a systemic issue here,” said Michaele Brady Raap, a former president of the American Nuclear Society and a member of the Energy Department’s elite Criticality Safety Support Group, a team of 12 government experts that analyzes and recommends ways to improve struggling federal nuclear-safety programs. “There are a lot of things there [at Los Alamos] that are examples of what not to do.”
According to the Center for Public Safety, two security experts from the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory drove to San Antonio, Texas, in March 2017 with a sensitive mission: to retrieve dangerous nuclear materials from a nonprofit research lab there and transport them safely back to their state without allowing the materials to fall into the wrong hands. The materials — plutonium and cesium — as well as equipment were stolen on that trip and have never been found. They were simply left unattended in a car! The incident was concealed from the public, but the information was obtained by the Center for Public Safety under the Freedom of Information Act. That source reports that this was just a part of a much larger quantity of plutonium that over the years has gone quietly missing from stockpiles owned by the US military.
Madeleine Jennewein of Harvard University writes in her blog, which is published by Science in the News (SITN), that “Across the United States, nuclear waste is accumulating in poorly maintained piles. 90,000 metric tons of nuclear waste requiring disposal are currently in temporary storage. … Full article
Problem, Reaction, Solution: IAEA Pushes For More Nuclear Plants
By Joe Lauria • Consortium News • September 21, 2018
We’ve seen it before: a newspaper and individual reporters get a story horribly wrong but instead of correcting it they double down to protect their reputations and credibility—which is all journalists have to go on—and the public suffers.
Sometimes this maneuver can contribute to a massive loss of life. … continue
Israeli soldiers killed a young man, and injured 312 other Palestinians, including 54 with live fire, after the army attacked the Great Return March processions, in several parts of the Gaza Strip on Friday.
The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza has confirmed that the soldiers killed Karim Mohammad Kollab, 25, after shooting him with live fire, east of Gaza city. It added that the soldiers also injured 312 Palestinians, including 100 with live fire.
100 of the wounded Palestinians were rushed to hospitals in the Gaza Strip, while five of the injured suffered life-threatening wounds.
The Health Ministry also said that among the wounded are twenty children and two women.
In related news, an Israeli tank fire a shell at Palestinian protesters near the perimeter fence, east of Gaza city, while an Israeli drone fired two missiles at a site, east of Gaza. … Full article
Israel’s critics often describe the country as being above the law, but until now this has never been brazenly declared by its government. Documents published this week shows a legal representative of the Israeli government audaciously claiming that Israel can “legislate anywhere in the world,” that it is “entitled to violate the sovereignty of foreign countries,” and that it “is allowed to ignore the directives of international law in any field it desires”.
The bold declaration was made in legal materials recently submitted to the Israeli Supreme Court in which the government representative said that the Knesset is allowed to ignore international law anywhere it desires. … continue
HEBRON – A 16-year-old Palestinian teen was hospitalized after an Israeli settler “deliberately” ran him over, on Friday, in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood in the southern occupied West Bank city of Hebron.
Witnesses told a Ma’an reporter that an Israeli settler deliberately ran over the Palestinian teen with his vehicle in Hebron City.
The teen was identified by locals as Munir Abdullah Gharib, 16.
Mounir suffered injuries from the attack and was immediately transferred to the Alia Governmental Hospital in Hebron for necessary medical treatment; his condition remained unknown.
Incidents involving Israeli settlers hitting Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory are a relatively regular occurrence, and are usually treated by Israeli security forces as accidents, even in cases when witnesses claim the car rammings were deliberate. … continue
The Israeli authorities yesterday banned the renovation of a sports stadium in the Palestinian town of Issawiya, northeast of East Jerusalem.
A member of the follow-up committee in Issawiya, Mohammed Abu Al-Homs, said that joint teams from the Israeli Jerusalem municipality and police forces stormed the Yasser Arafat sports stadium during renovation work and forced the workers to stop working under the pretext that the renovation was being financed by a terrorist group.
He explained that the Issawiya management club started about a month ago to restore the stadium with donations from the local residents, but they were surprised yesterday when the Israeli army forces stormed the stadium and stopped the restoration work.
He added that the Jerusalem municipality tried to seize the stadium by offering to restore it themselves and turn it into a public arena, but the club’s management and the town residents refused, stressing that they will restore the stadium on their own.
Payment processing service PayPal has banned Alex Jones’s Infowars, saying that the site “promoted hate and discriminatory intolerance” and thus violated their use policy.
Infowars itself broke the news on Friday, saying that PayPal sent them an email on Thursday informing Jones of the decision. PayPal was used to process purchases at Infowars’ on-site store.
According to Infowars, PayPal had conducted a comprehensive review of their website and found it “promoted hate and discriminatory intolerance against certain communities and religions.”
The service offered no specific examples. Infowars says the two examples they were given off the record were their criticism of Islam and opposition to transgenderism being taught in schools. PayPal’s definition of hate is “is so vague that virtually anything could qualify,” Infowars said.
Last month, Right Wing Watch published an article demanding of PayPal to drop Infowars for “egregious violations of the platform’s own terms of service.” RWW is a subsidiary of People for the American Way, a pro-Democrat advocacy group that gets much of its funding from George Soros’ Open Society Institute.
#Resistance activists rejoiced at the news, and even urged pressure campaign Sleeping Giants to have Jones removed from Google.
Jones and Infowars were deplatformed by most social media companies last month under pressure from media outlets and liberal activists, with CNN leading the charge.
Twitter initially resisted calls to ban Jones from its platform, but decided to do so earlier this month, after Jones live-streamed his confrontation with a CNN reporter who advocated for his removal from social media, outside a congressional hearing about internet censorship.
Silicon Valley has gone so far as to punish social media users for simply linking to Infowars. Last week, founder of the #WalkAway movement Brandon Straka found himself banned from Facebook after one of his posts mentioned “infowars.” … Full article
By Peter Dockrill | Science Alert | September 20, 2018
It’s been in the pipeline for years: a sprawling, technological mass surveillance network the likes of which the world has never seen. And it’s already been switched on.
China’s “Social Credit System” – which is expected to be fully operational by 2020 – doesn’t just monitor the nation’s almost 1.4 billion citizens. It’s also designed to control and coerce them, in a gigantic social engineering experiment that some have called the “gamification of trust.”
That’s because the massive project, which has been slowly coming together for over a decade, is about assigning an individual trust score to each and every citizen, and to businesses too. … continue
Summary: The NY Times gives a story with bold numbers, confidently stated. Too bad their fact-checkers did not notice that their numbers are grossly misleading. Propaganda pretending to be science. This does not help, even if well-intended. The State Climatologist of Alabama tells the real story. … continue
By CJ Hopkins | Consent Factory | September 21, 2018
If the Left is ever going to come together to save the world from Donald Trump and his legions of fascistic Putin-Nazis, we’re going to need to confront our primary enemy … the international working classes. Yes, my comrades, I’m afraid it’s time to face the facts, depressing as they are. The working classes are not our friends. Just look at how they’ve been betraying us … and after all we’ve done for them all these years! This cannot be allowed to continue, not if we are going to rescue democracy from Trump, Putin, Assad, the Iranians, and Palestinian kids with terrorist kites, and eventually stem the blood-dimmed tide of neo-fascist anti-Globalism!
Now, OK, I know you’re probably asking, “how can the international working classes possibly be the enemy of the Left?” and “wouldn’t that render the whole concept of the Left completely absurd and essentially meaningless?” and other pertinent questions like that. And that’s totally fine, you’re allowed to ask that. Questioning aspects of the official narrative the ruling classes are forcing everyone to conform to like members of a worldwide cult doesn’t make you a Nazi or anything. It’s perfectly OK to ask such questions, as long as you don’t continue to ask them, over and over, and over again, after the facts have been explained to you. Here are those facts, one more time. … continue
The decision by Russia and Turkey on Idlib is an intermediate step; the demilitarized zone will prevent the shelling of Syrian troops at Hmeymim base, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
“As for the Russian-Turkish agreement on Idlib, it is aimed primarily at eradicating the terrorist threat. This is certainly an intermediate step, because only a demilitarized zone is being created,” Lavrov said.
According to him, this is a necessary step, as it will prevent shelling from the de-escalation zone in Idlib on the positions of Syrian troops and the Russian military base in Hmeymim.
The Nusra Front terrorist group should leave the demilitarized zone in Syria’s Idlib province by mid-October, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday.
“Nusra Front terrorists should leave this demilitarized zone by mid-October; all heavy weaponry should be withdrawn from there,” Lavrov told a press conference.
Previously, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, held a meeting in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi, during which they agreed to set up a demilitarized zone in Idlib by October 15.
The city of Idlib is the last remaining stronghold of anti-government insurgents and al-Qaeda-linked terror groups in Syria. … Full article
Budget constraints are preventing the UK’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) from scrapping potentially dangerous nuclear subs, a new government report showed, noting that some nuclear-servicing facilities were “not fit for purpose”.
The condition of some of the UK’s 13 nuclear sites and constant delays in maintenance created “a ticking time bomb,” House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said in their latest report.
The document, published Friday, earmarked two facilities in particular which are in need of urgent upgrades – the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) and Devonport Dockyard, where the Royal Navy’s nuclear submarines are refitted. It said further investment delays are no longer acceptable. … continue
The level of support for the South Korean government led by President Moon Jae-in grew over the week from 50 percent to 61 percent following the summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, a new poll showed on Friday.
The number of respondents, who do not approve of the government’s policy, decreased by 9 percent compared to last week’s results and stood at 30 percent, according to Gallup Korea. … Full article
Many progressives call for Canada to “do more” around the world. The assumption is that this country is a force for good, a healer of humankind. But if we claim to be the “doctors without borders” of international relations, shouldn’t Canada swear to “first do no harm” like MDs before beginning practice? At a minimum shouldn’t the Left judge foreign policy decisions through the lens of the Hippocratic oath?
Libya illustrates the point. That North African nation looks set to miss a United Nations deadline to unify the country. An upsurge of militia violence in Tripoli and political wrangling makes it highly unlikely elections planned for December will take place.
Seven years after the foreign backed war Libya remains divided between two main political factions and hundreds of militias operate in the country of six million. Thousands have died in fighting since 2011.
The instability is not a surprise to Canadian military and political leaders who orchestrated Canada’s war on that country. Eight days before Canadian fighter jets began dropping bombs on Libya in 2011 military intelligence officers told Ottawa decision makers the country would likely descend into a lengthy civil war if foreign countries assisted rebels opposed to Muammar Gadhafi. An internal assessment obtained by the Ottawa Citizen noted, “there is the increasing possibility that the situation in Libya will transform into a long-term tribal/civil war… This is particularly probable if opposition forces received military assistance from foreign militaries.” … continue
The New York Times published a fraudulent and provocative “special report” Thursday titled “The plot to subvert an election.”
Replete with sinister looking graphics portraying Russian President Vladimir Putin as a villainous cyberage cyclops, the report purports to untangle “the threads of the most effective foreign campaign in history to disrupt and influence an American election.”
The report could serve as a textbook example of CIA-directed misinformation posing as “in-depth” journalism. There is no news, few substantiated facts and no significant analysis presented in the 10,000-word report, which sprawls over 11 ad-free pages of a separate section produced by the Times. … continue
Big tech companies like Google have the power to “shift upwards of 12 million votes with no one knowing they’re doing so,” a research psychologist told Radio Sputnik Thursday, underscoring the influence profit-making firms can have on public elections.
That, he said, is too much power for “just a couple of executives” and is why tech giant monopolies need to be thought of as public utilities and not private entities.
“Research I have been directing in recent years suggests that Google, Inc., has amassed far more power to control elections — indeed, to control a wide variety of opinions and beliefs — than any company in history has ever had,” research psychologist Robert Epstein says. … continue
Setting the global standard for online behavior, preserving American dominance, political and economic interests, punishing ‘malicious actors’ like Russia and China: these are the ambitious goals of the new US cyber-strategy.
The White House published the 40-page document on Thursday afternoon, the first comprehensive cyber strategy in 15 years. The strategy’s core assumption is that the US created the internet and that Washington must maintain the dominant role in defining, shaping and policing cyberspace in much the same way as it does the globe. … continue
The United Kingdom will set up a cybersecurity force, comprising up to 2,000 members, to tackle the “threat from Russia” and other actors, local media reported on Friday.
The authorities planned to invest some 250 million pounds (over $330 million) in creating the cyberforce, the Sky News broadcaster reported, citing sources.
The force would be tasked with carrying out offensive cyberoperations and would be composed of the officials of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), military personnel and contractors, the outlet added.
The plan to create the unit was reportedly drafted by the Ministry of Defence and the GCHQ amid London’s claims about the alleged growing cyberthreat from Moscow and the United Kingdom’s recent successful use of cyberweapons against the Islamic State terror group.
Over the recent years, Russia has repeatedly been accused of carrying out cyberattacks against other countries, including the United States, France, the United Kingdom and Germany, and attempting, in particular, to influence the results of elections. Moscow refuted all such claims, calling them unfounded.
Among his many roles as a public intellectual, Dr. Kevin Barrett has become one of the most important voices of Muslim self-defense in an America plagued by harsh Islamophobic responses to false flag terrorism. An expert commentator on the 9/11 wars against Islam for Israel, this populist scholar has expanded his repertoire as an educator. Dr. Barrett has translated from French to English Laurent Guyénot’s ground breaking text, From Yahweh to Zion. Now the English-speaking world has access to the startling interpretations of a Sorbonne-trained medievalist who courageously goes where other scholarly activists fear to tread.
With his newest book Dr. Guyénot claims his place as one of the world’s most controversial anthropologists and historians of Jewish religion, ethnicity, psychology and interactions with non-Jews. His provocative explorations extend to his chronicling of the roles of Israeli-centered operatives in the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy and in the violent incursions of September 11, 2001. In both instances Guyénot looks at the Zionist infiltration of the revisionist movements devoted to criticizing the dishonest official cover stories. The purpose of these infiltrations, Guyénot asserts, is to plant alternative characterizations of the two horrific crimes as inside-the-USA-jobs rather than as Mossad jobs. Huge energy is being invested in obscuring the Israeli connection to events that in 1963 and 2001 transformed the landscapes of global geopolitics. … continue
This article will examine some of the connections between the US and UK National Security apparatus and the appearance of the anthropogenic global warming (AGW) theory beginning after the accident at Three Mile Island. … continue
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The word "alleged" is deemed to occur before the word "fraud." Since the rule of law still applies. To peasants, at least.
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Israeli soldiers killed a young man, and injured 312 other Palestinians, including 54 with live fire, after the army attacked the Great Return March processions, in several parts of the Gaza Strip on Friday.
