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Thread: Ukraine, Crimea, Syria, Israel, Iran, Turkey, Putin, China, and World War III

  1. Link to Post #1961
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    Default Re: Ukraine, Crimea, Syria, Israel, Iran, Turkey, Putin, China, and World War III

    Hillary's sociopathic Wikileaks emails outline her plan to kill Assad, destroy Syria and support terrorists

    Patrick Fleming Russia Insider
    Thu, 19 Apr 2018 09:55 UTC




    Lest we forget, the Wikileaks dumps made perfectly clear what the Israeli / deep-state agenda is as regards Syria.

    Wikileaks released documents made public in May 2016 confirmed the accusations of many "conspiracy theorists" that the Syrian civil war was an American-Israeli supported project with the goal of empowering Israeli interests.

    Who were the American leaders motivated to interfere in the Syrian civil war? Answer: Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama spearheaded this push.

    Hillary Clinton in particular displayed sociopathic and murderous intent as she spoke about threatening Assads family with death.


    This psycho almost became president ...

    Check out some of these amazing excerpts from her official emails:
    The best way to help Israel deal with Iran's growing nuclear capability is to help the people of Syria overthrow the regime of Bashar Assad. Negotiations to limit Iran's nuclear program will not solve Israel's security dilemma. Nor will they stop Iran from improving the crucial part of any nuclear weapons program - the capability to enrich uranium. At best, the talks between the world's major powers and Iran that began in Istanbul this April and will continue in Baghdad in May will enable Israel to postpone by a few months a decision whether to launch an attack on Iran that could provoke a major Mideast war.
    What does politics in Syria have to do with nuclear weapons?
    Iran's nuclear program and Syria's civil war may seem unconnected, but they are. For Israeli leaders, the real threat from a nuclear-armed Iran is not the prospect of an insane Iranian leader launching an unprovoked Iranian nuclear attack on Israel that would lead to the annihilation of both countries.

    What Israeli military leaders really worry about -- but cannot talk about -- is losing their nuclear monopoly. An Iranian nuclear weapons capability would not only end that nuclear monopoly but could also prompt other adversaries, like Saudi Arabia and Egypt, to go nuclear as well. The result would be a precarious nuclear balance in which Israel could not respond to provocations with conventional military strikes on Syria and Lebanon, as it can today. If Iran were to reach the threshold of a nuclear weapons state, Tehran would find it much easier to call on its allies in Syria and Hezbollah to strike Israel, knowing that its nuclear weapons would serve as a deterrent to Israel responding against Iran itself.
    When have similar American actions interfered with political sovereignty in the Near-East and similar countries? What makes Syria different?
    The Obama administration has been understandably wary of engaging in an air operation in Syria like the one conducted in Libya for three main reasons. Unlike the Libyan opposition forces, the Syrian rebels are not unified and do not hold territory. The Arab League has not called for outside military intervention as it did in Libya. And the Russians are opposed. Libya was an easier case. But other than the laudable purpose of saving Libyan civilians from likely attacks by Qaddafi's regime, the Libyan operation had no long-lasting consequences for the region. Syria is harder. But success in Syria would be a transformative event for the Middle East. Not only would another ruthless dictator succumb to mass opposition on the streets, but the region would be changed for the better as Iran would no longer have a foothold in the Middle East from which to threaten Israel and undermine stability in the region.

    Unlike in Libya, a successful intervention in Syria would require substantial diplomatic and military leadership from the United States. Washington should start by expressing its willingness to work with regional allies like Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar to organize, train and arm Syrian rebel forces. The announcement of such a decision would, by itself, likely cause substantial defections from the Syrian military. Then, using territory in Turkey and possibly Jordan, U.S. diplomats and Pentagon officials can start strengthening the opposition. It will take time. But the rebellion is going to go on for a long time, with or without U.S. involvement. The second step is to develop international support for a coalition air operation.
    What were the American leaders view of Russia and the possibility of conflict with Russia?
    Russia will never support such a mission, so there is no point operating through the UN Security Council. Some argue that U.S. involvement risks a wider war with Russia. But the Kosovo example shows otherwise. In that case, Russia had genuine ethnic and political ties to the Serbs, which don't exist between Russia and Syria, and even then Russia did little more than complain. Russian officials have already acknowledged they won't stand in the way if intervention comes.
    Where are Syria's connections geopolitically with Iran, and why are these connections this viewed as a problem?
    Back to Syria. It is the strategic relationship between Iran and the regime of Bashar Assad in Syria that makes it possible for Iran to undermine Israel's security - not through a direct attack, which in the thirty years of hostility between Iran and Israel has never occurred, but through its proxies in Lebanon, like Hezbollah, that are sustained, armed and trained by Iran via Syria.
    Why would the fall of the Assad regime benefit Israel? Why is Syria so significant?
    The end of the Assad regime would end this dangerous alliance. Israel's leadership understands well why defeating Assad is now in its interests. Speaking on CNN's Amanpour show last week, Defense Minister Ehud Barak argued that "the toppling down of Assad will be a major blow to the radical axis, major blow to Iran.... It's the only kind of outpost of the Iranian influence in the Arab world...and it will weaken dramatically both Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza." Bringing down Assad would not only be a massive boon to Israel's security, it would also ease Israel's understandable fear of losing its nuclear monopoly.
    These emails effectively prove that the American government intentionally supported the "moderate rebels" (such as ISIS) in the disastrous Syrian civil war because they viewed it as the best way to protect Israeli interests. Hundreds of thousands were killed by the conflict, and millions were displaced, all of this fueled by American imperialists serving Israeli interests.

    Wikileaks source
    "La réalité est un rêve que l'on fait atterrir" San Antonio AKA F. Dard

    Troll-hood motto: Never, ever, however, whatsoever, to anyone, a point concede.

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  3. Link to Post #1962
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    Default Re: Ukraine, Crimea, Syria, Israel, Iran, Turkey, Putin, China, and World War III

    A good positive debate on the possible up coming talks.....

    CrossTalk: Korean Peace Blitz?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzNUo4HC2IQ

    Published on 25 Apr 2018...RT..( 25 mins )
    After 68 years the two Koreas are on the verge of signing a peace treaty.
    A Donald Trump – Kim Jong-un summit is in the works. Is peace coming
    to the Korean peninsula? Well, it is possible. The foreign policy blob and
    the corporatist media are less enthusiastic. After all, conflict is their
    business model.

    CrossTalking with Sourabh Gupta, John Merrill, and Daniel Lazare.

    FACEBOOK: Like CrossTalk on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/crosstalkrules/

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    Post Re: Ukraine, Crimea, Syria, Israel, Iran, Turkey, Putin, China, and World War III

    With Pomeo and Bolton now Trump whisperers and the Presidents
    open support for Israel & Saudi . Iran is in the full cross hairs....


    Iran is world's greatest terror sponsor - Sec of State Pompeo



    Published on 29 Apr 2018
    Newly-appointed US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called Iran
    "the greatest sponsor of terrorism in the world," during a press
    conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

    =============================================
    =============================================



    Syria war: 'Iranian personnel among dozens dead' in missile attacks
    30/4/18

    Missiles hit a number of military sites in northern Syria on Sunday night,
    state media say, with unconfirmed reports of dozens of fatalities.

    The Syrian military said facilities in Hama and Aleppo provinces were struck.
    It did not immediately report any casualties. But a UK-based monitoring
    group said 26 pro-government fighters were killed, most of them Iranians.
    It is not known who was behind the attacks. Western nations and Israel
    have previously hit sites in Syria.

    Earlier this month, the US, UK and France bombed three facilities they said
    were associated with the Syrian government's alleged chemical weapons
    programme.Israel is meanwhile alleged to have hit an airbase in Homs
    province reportedly serving as an Iranian drone command centre and
    containing an advanced Iranian air defence system. Seven Iranian soldiers
    were among 14 military personnel killed in that attack.Israel has repeatedly
    vowed to stop its arch-enemy Iran from strengthening its military presence
    in Syria, Iran's closest ally.
    read more....

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-43947019


    ====================================================
    ====================================================

    Pompeo was at NATO banging the anti Russia drum a few days ago....

    Ensure NATO has no business with Russia’: Pompeo visits NATO HQ hours after being sworn in

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN5QefiCpJo

    Published on 27 Apr 2018...( 3 mins )
    America's new Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, has kicked off his new role, with a
    speech at the NATO HQ in Brussels saying the alliance will continue countering
    Russian aggression. READ MORE: https://on.rt.com/945i

    ===================================================
    ===================================================

    US defence stocks drop....

    CrossTalk Bullhorns: Kim winning? (Extended version)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBUtTtdgs5w
    Published on 30 Apr 2018...RT...( 35 mins)....
    We live in surreal times. A short time ago even imagining a negotiated end to the
    tensions on the Korean peninsula was a flight into fantasy. But here we are. Is this
    becoming a foreign policy victory for Trump?
    Last edited by Cidersomerset; 30th April 2018 at 11:35.

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    Default Re: Ukraine, Crimea, Syria, Israel, Iran, Turkey, Putin, China, and World War III

    This would be funny if we did not know this is timed to help Trump go after Iran...




    Israel says Iran hid nuclear arms programme

    1 minute ago....30/4/18


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gVBmFfc-g4
    "A great intelligence achievement"

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has revealed what he says are "secret
    nuclear files" proving Iran once covertly pursued nuclear weapons.He said
    thousands of pages of material obtained by Israel showed Iran had deceived the
    world by denying it had ever sought nuclear weapons.

    Iran agreed in 2015 to curb its nuclear energy programme in return for the lifting of
    sanctions.It maintained that it had only been pursuing nuclear energy. US President
    Donald Trump, who has long threatened to scrap the nuclear deal,said the situation
    was "not acceptable" and he would make a decision on the deal on or before 12 May.
    "They're not sitting back idly, they're setting off missiles which they say are for
    television purposes. I don't think so," said Mr Trump.European powers have said
    they are committed to upholding the accord.Tweeting earlier, Iranian Foreign
    Minister Javad Zarif appeared to accuse Mr Netanyahu of "fooling people".

    read more.....
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-43952196
    Last edited by Cidersomerset; 30th April 2018 at 19:31.

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    Default Re: Ukraine, Crimea, Syria, Israel, Iran, Turkey, Putin, China, and World War III

    Holly effing crap, he literally did that on TV? Looks more like a magician than a head of state.

    How can people not see through this pantomime. Why, how, has sanity deserted the majority?

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    Default Re: Ukraine, Crimea, Syria, Israel, Iran, Turkey, Putin, China, and World War III

    Quote Holly effing crap, he literally did that on TV? Looks more like a magician
    than a head of state.
    Ha ha.. Ewan you reminded me of something Richard Hoagland use to say

    "Magicians," the "Masons" and the "Nazis

    https://grahamhancock.com/dark-mission-hoagland/

    ==================================================

    This is obviously timed to push the anti Iran agenda. The Irony is Israel
    has nuclear weapons but still officially will not acknowledge whether
    they do or not.


    https://www.sbs.com.au/news/which-ni...uclear-weapons

    Pompeo meets with Netanyahu; discusses the Iran deal - Daily Mail

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHB_AsXWTWY
    Published on 30 Apr 2018...( 2 mins)...
    President Donald Trump is to decide by May 12 whether to remain in a 2015
    nuclear agreement that is supposed to keep Tehran's nuclear agreement in
    check. Pompeo has been using the Middle East leg of his first trip abroad as
    America's top diplomat to call for concerted international action to punish
    Iran for its missile programs. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin welcomed the
    tough U.S. line. 'Iran must be stopped, its quest for a nuclear bomb must
    be stopped, its aggression must be stopped and we're committed to stopping
    it together,' he said.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Netanyahu claims proof of secret Iranian nuclear activities



    Published on 30 Apr 2018
    In a nationally televised address in Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
    Netanyahu said Israel has obtained "half a ton" of documents showing Iran lied
    to the West about its nuclear program before and after the 2015 nuclear deal.
    The announcement comes as the Trump administration considers whether to
    pull out of the deal. Watch Netanyahu's remarks here.

    ================================================
    ================================================

    Netanyahu claims Iran hid nuclear weapons program

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZa3ZRCYO90
    Published on 30 Apr 2018...Fox...( 17mins)...
    Israeli prime minister claims Iran had been hiding all of the elements of a
    secret nuclear weapons program.

    ================================================
    ================================================

    Netanyahu: Iran lied about nuclear weapons

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmSao-j7Xr4
    Published on 30 Apr 2018...CNN ....( 18 mins).
    Israeli prime minister claims Iran had been hiding all of the elements of a secret
    nuclear weapons program.

    =================================================
    =================================================

    Netanyahu gives statement on Iran nuclear deal

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrPFH_KIqSc
    Streamed live 4 hours ago....30/4/18...( 17 mins )...
    DETAILS: https://on.rt.com/94ce
    Last edited by Cidersomerset; 30th April 2018 at 21:31.

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    Default Re: Ukraine, Crimea, Syria, Israel, Iran, Turkey, Putin, China, and World War III

    Re Iran: two (only) apparently unrelated thoughts that might be worth to consider, on a sidenote ?

    Harald Kautz: there are dwells of (Earth) black goo in Iran, a kind of non-refinable portion of oil coming out of oil dwells. They have to put it in big lakes, because it is a living entity ... (unfortunately the source is not named), but think of the Falkland war and the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

    In 2012 Iran has taken up action to set up a permanent base in Antarctica, a five-year plan has been devised.
    Last edited by Iloveyou; 10th May 2018 at 08:10.

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    Default Re: Ukraine, Crimea, Syria, Israel, Iran, Turkey, Putin, China, and World War III

    Whoa!!! Thanks for the Black Goo reminder!! Makes me think of the suspicious deaths of those working with it (supposedly) in the U.K. in the 1980's. Seems that for it to remain inactive it has to be kept at really cold temps. One doesn't think of Iran in that aspect!

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    Default Re: Ukraine, Crimea, Syria, Israel, Iran, Turkey, Putin, China, and World War III



    Israel strikes Iranian targets in Syria after rockets hit Golan Heights

    10/5/18

    Israel says its forces have struck almost all of Iran's infrastructure in Syria, in
    response to an Iranian rocket attack on the occupied Golan Heights.

    read more....


    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-44063022

    ===================================================
    ===================================================

    Israel fires 60 rockets at Iran outposts in Syria after US withdrawal from nuclear deal

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGcyeO3smJU
    Published on 10 May 2018...( 9mins)....
    Some 60 rockets were fired by Israeli jets at Iranian positions in Syria, with further
    10 missiles fired from the ground. It's the second such strike by Israel in as many
    days. READ MORE: https://on.rt.com/94yg

    ===================================================
    ===================================================

    Israel conducts largest strike in Syria since Yom Kippur War

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VY2rfJKMf0
    Published on 10 May 2018...Fox...( 3 mins )....
    Russia said Israel used 28 warplanes to fire 60 air-to-surface missiles and 10
    surface-to-surface missiles; national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin reports
    from the Pentagon.
    Last edited by Cidersomerset; 10th May 2018 at 22:22.

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    Default Re: Ukraine, Crimea, Syria, Israel, Iran, Turkey, Putin, China, and World War III



    Iran condemns wave of Israeli air strikes in Syria

    11/5/18

    Iran has backed Syria's "right to defend itself" after Israel launched
    strikes on what it said was Iranian military infrastructure inside Syria.
    In the first comments by Iran since Thursday's wave of strikes, the
    foreign ministry condemned the "blatant violation of Syria's sovereignty".

    The strikes were the heaviest carried out by Israel on Syria in decades.
    They came after 20 rockets were fired at Israeli military positions in
    the occupied Golan Heights.Israel said Iranian fighters had carried out
    that attack. Iran has neither directly confirmed or denied this but has
    said that Israel's attacks on Syria were founded "on self-proclaimed,
    baseless pretexts".

    Iran has deployed hundreds of troops in Syria, ostensibly as military advisers
    to the Syrian military. Thousands of militiamen armed, trained and financed
    by Iran have also been battling rebel forces alongside Syrian soldiers

    read more....http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-44080460

    ==================================================
    ==================================================

    Saudi-led airstrike in Yemen kills 6 people, including 2 children

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLkueIiRE24
    Published on 10 May 2018...RT...( 10 mins)...
    At least six people, including two children, were killed in a reportedly Saudi-led
    airstrike this morning in Sanaa province. The video footage has captured the
    moment rescuers tried to help the victims, mostly children, who were helplessly
    trapped under piles of rubble. RT discussed the situation in Yemen with journalist
    Hussain Albukhaiti, who knows those covered under rubbles by names.

    ===================================================
    ===================================================

    Israel: Dozens of Iranian targets hit in Syria

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQBRHDCclw4
    Published on 11 May 2018...( 10 mins )...
    CNN's Ben Wedeman reports that President Trump's decision to pull out of the Iran
    nuclear deal gave the green light for Israel to aggressively pursue Iranian targets in Syria

    ====================================================
    ====================================================

    MATT BRACKEN: IRAN-ISRAEL WAR STARTS? INSANE ELITES! - ALEX JONES INFOWARS

    Published on 10 May 2018
    Last edited by Cidersomerset; 11th May 2018 at 11:24.

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    Default Re: Ukraine, Crimea, Syria, Israel, Iran, Turkey, Putin, China, and World War III

    The REAL Middle East Nuclear Threat



    corbettreport Published on 10 May 2018
    TRANSCRIPT AND MP3 AUDIO: https://www.corbettreport.com/israeli...

    There is in fact a Middle Eastern nation that is in fact in control of a vast,
    undeclared stockpile of nuclear weapons. This nation does have the capability of
    deploying those weapons anywhere in the region. It is not a signatory to the
    nuclear non-proliferation treaty and its arsenal has never been inspected by any
    international agency. But this nation is not Iran. It's Israel

    ===================================================
    ===================================================

    CrossTalk on Iran: Broken Deal

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG3sDuSe5XY
    Published on 11 May 2018....( 25 mins )...
    Donald Trump claims he is the master of the deal. But when it comes to Iran it is
    the art of no deal. The reasons the American president withdrew from the nuclear
    deal ranged from lies and disinformation to outright political propaganda. Trump
    claims he has made America safer. A dubious claim. Closer to the truth is probably
    an attempted forced regime change in Iran. CrossTalking with Mohammad Marandi,
    Adel Darwish, and Roozbeh Aliabadi.
    Last edited by Cidersomerset; 12th May 2018 at 01:49.

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    Default Re: Ukraine, Crimea, Syria, Israel, Iran, Turkey, Putin, China, and World War III

    Premature negotiations ......or posturing , we are not lying down.



    North Korea threatens to cancel Trump summit
    28 minutes ago...16/5/18

    North Korea has said it may pull out of a summit with US President
    Donald Trump if the US insists it gives up its nuclear weapons.

    The highly anticipated meeting between Mr Trump and North Korea's
    Kim Jong-un is due to take place on 12 June.

    But in an angry statement, North Korea's vice-foreign minister accused
    the US of making reckless statements and of harbouring sinister intentions.
    He pointed the finger squarely at US National Security Adviser John Bolton.

    "We do not hide our feeling of repugnance towards him," Kim Kye-gwan said.

    read more...http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-44134910

    ================================================
    ================================================

    North Korea 'reconsidering' summit with US


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDW-zFt4b2o
    Published on 16 May 2018...CNN...( 6 mins)...
    North Korea says it may abandon the planned talks between North Korean leader
    Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump if the US "pushes North Korea to
    unilateral denuclearization."

    ====================================================
    ====================================================

    CrossTalk on Middle East: Stumbling into War

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zzyvfh90NIw
    Published on 15 May 2018....RT...( 25 mins )..
    North Korea has threatened to cancel the planned summit between President
    Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un scheduled for June 12 in Singapore, saying the US
    should carefully consider the fate of the upcoming meeting, in view of what it
    calls "provocative military disturbances with South Korea," North Korea's state
    news agency reported early Wednesday local time.
    Last edited by Cidersomerset; 16th May 2018 at 10:23.

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    Default Re: Ukraine, Crimea, Syria, Israel, Iran, Turkey, Putin, China, and World War III

    CrossTalk: Destruction of Yemen



    Published on 20 Jun 2018
    After three years of conflict, it has been estimated that out of population of 27.4 million,
    22.2 million people in Yemen are in need of humanitarian assistance, 4.5 million children
    and women are suffering malnutrition, while 2.9 million people are internally displaced.
    This is a humanitarian catastrophe by any measure. Why are the U.S. and the UK so
    committed to the Saudi-UAE war on Yemen?
    CrossTalking with Mohammad Marandi, Charles Shoebridge, and Catherine Shakdam.

    ====================================================
    ====================================================



    Yemen war: Pro-government forces 'storm Hudaydah airport'

    19 June 2018

    Yemeni pro-government forces, backed by the United Arab Emirates, are
    reported to have stormed the airport serving the rebel-held Red Sea city
    of Hudaydah.The UAE's state news agency, Wam, said troops had gained
    control of large parts of the facility and that dozens of Houthi rebels were
    dead or wounded.

    They launched a major offensive last week to capture the city and its port.
    The port is crucial to the delivery of aid supplies to Yemen, where 8.4 million
    people are at risk of famine.


    Read more...

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-44534118

    ====================================================
    ====================================================




    US quits 'biased' UN human rights council

    20/6/18

    The US has pulled out of the United Nations Human Rights Council, calling
    it a "cesspool of political bias". Nikki Haley, the US envoy to the UN, said it
    was a "hypocritical" body that "makes a mockery of human rights".

    Formed in 2006, the Geneva-based council has faced criticism in the past for
    allowing member countries with questionable human rights records. But
    activists said the US move could hurt efforts to monitor and address human
    rights abuses around the world.Announcing the decision to quit the council,
    Ms Haley described the council as a "hypocritical and self-serving organisation"
    that displayed "unending hostility towards Israel".

    She was speaking alongside US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who
    denounced the council as "a protector of human rights abusers".

    read more...https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/44537372

    ==================================================
    ==================================================



    Gaza rocket barrage triggers Israeli air strikes

    20/6/18


    Israel said its fighter jets struck a number of Hamas military compounds

    Israeli jets have struck Palestinian militant positions in the Gaza Strip after
    rockets and mortars were fired into Israel, the Israeli military says.
    Twenty-five targets linked to the Hamas movement were hit overnight in
    response to a barrage of about 45 projectiles.

    Two Hamas security personnel are reported to have been lightly injured.
    The escalation came hours after Israel bombed three sites in retaliation
    for the launching of incendiary kites and balloons over the Gaza border.
    Israeli officials say the crude devices have sparked more than 450 fires
    in recent weeks, burning 2,800 hectares of land and causing $2m
    (£1.5m) of damage.

    read more...https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-44544169

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    Default Re: Ukraine, Crimea, Syria, Israel, Iran, Turkey, Putin, China, and World War III

    Poroshenko called the deprivation of Yanukovych’s presidency illegal

    Trayan Markevich | June 20, 2018

    theqtimes.com


    Poroshenko called the deprivation of Yanukovych presidency незаконнымfacebook.com Oliinyk.V.M

    President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko appealed to the constitutional court (CCU) of the country to find out how legitimate was the deprivation of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych his post. A formal appeal of the Ukrainian leader and was posted on the court’s website, said the FAN.

    According to Poroshenko, depriving Yanukovych of the post was illegal because it had violated several articles of the Ukrainian Constitution. The head of state reminded that to deprive the President of his powers is possible only through impeachment, which was not in 2014.

    The President’s actions have become the object of criticism from the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the Ukrainian government. In particular, the leader of Radical party Oleg Lyashko suggested that Poroshenko tries on the fate of his predecessor, and even preparing to flee the country.

    Source

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    This blog (in Norwegian) then asks the following questions:

    Does Petro Poroshenko fear another coup? Or is he planning one? Why did he raise this question when he knew that the answer has the potential of undermining his own presidency (if Viktor Yanukovych really (according to Ukrainian law) were illegally removed)?

    Ukraine is having an election next year and Yulia Tymoshenko is in lead according to the polls.

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    Default Re: Ukraine, Crimea, Syria, Israel, Iran, Turkey, Putin, China, and World War III

    Syria calls upon citizens forced by war and terrorist attacks to leave the country to return home



    Sana - 3. July 2018

    Damascus, SANA – Syria calls on Syrian citizens forced by war and terrorist attacks to leave the country to return to their homeland after the liberation of the majority of areas which were under terrorists’ control.

    Speaking to SANA, an official source at the Foreign and Expatriates Ministry said that the Syrian state calls upon Syrian citizens who were forced by war and terrorist attacks to leave the country to return home in light of the successive achievements of the Syrian Arab Army and the liberation of many areas from terrorism, whether by military operations or reconciliations, which led to the return of many internally-displaced people to their liberated villages and areas.

    The source added that as it affirms that it is responsible for its citizens’ security and safety and providing their needs to have a decent life, the Syrian government stresses the need for humanitarian organizations and the international community to shoulder their responsibilities in this regard and contribute to providing the requirements for the voluntary return of Syrian citizens to their country.

    Syria stresses that the international community and international organizations who pretend to care about the interest of the Syrian people are also called upon to lift the unilateral coercive measures imposed on the Syrian people, the source said, stressing that these measures were an additional reason for the Syrians to leave their country in search of decent life.

    The source concluded by saying that the Syrian government and people are now unifying their efforts to remove the effects of the terrorist war that targeted Syria, stressing that the reconstruction of Syria will be by the hands of the Syrians themselves.

    Manar al-Freih / Hazem Sabbagh

    Source

    ------------------------------
    ------------------------------

    And then this article by Chatham House (a British NGO) from May this year:

    Calls to Begin Returning Refugees to Syria Must Be Resisted

    21 May 2018

    As countries hosting Syrian refugees grow weary of the continuing war, talk is growing about reconstruction and the refugees’ return. This is both premature and dangerous.

    Full article
    Last edited by Sophocles; 6th July 2018 at 13:36.

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    Default Re: Ukraine, Crimea, Syria, Israel, Iran, Turkey, Putin, China, and World War III

    Germany and Syria

    by Thierry Meyssan
    Voltaire Network | Damascus (Syria) | 20 June 2018


    Relations between Germany and Syria, which used to be excellent under Emperor Wilhelm II, are today abysmal. This is because since the Cold War, Berlin has become the backyard for the Muslim Brotherhood in their attempt to overthrow the Syrian Arab Republic. Since 2012, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the federal think-tank SWP have been working directly on behalf of the US deep state for the destruction of the country.


    In Berlin, in January 2015, a march for tolerance united political and Muslim leaders in reaction to the attack on Charlie Hebdo in Paris. Madame Merkel marched arm in arm with Aiman Mazyek, general secretary of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany. Although he pretends to have broken with the Muslim Brotherhood, and maintains an open dialogue, Mr. Mazyek offers protection within his organisation to the Milli Gorus (the supremacist organisation of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan) and the Muslim Brotherhood (the matrix of jihadist organisations, under the international presidency of Mahmoud Ezzat, ex-right hand of Sayyid Qutb).

    Historically, Germany maintained excellent relations with the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the 20th century. Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was fascinated by Islam, pursued archeological excavations, notably in Baalbeck, and participated in the construction of the first railways, including the Damascus -Medina line. The Reich and the Sublime Porte stood together against the British when they organised the « Great Arab Revolt » of 1915. Then they lost the First World War, and as a result, were excluded from the region (Sykes-Picot-Sazovov agreements).


    In 1953, President Eisenhower received a delegation of the Muslim Brotherhood led by Saïd Ramadan. From then on, the United States supported political Islam overseas.

    During the Cold War, the CIA recuperated some of the best Nazi officers in order to continue its struggle against the USSR. Among them were Gerhard von Mende, who had recruited Soviet Muslims against Moscow. In 1953, this senior civil servant installed the chief of the Muslim Brotherhood outside of Egypt, Saïd Ramadan, in Munich.

    In the same period, the CIA secretly sent Nazi officers all over the world to fight the pro-Soviets. For example, Otto Skorzeny went to Egypt, Fazlollah Zahedi went to Iran, and Alois Brunner to Syria. They all organised the local secret services on the model of the Gestapo. Brunner was only to be ousted much later, in 2000, by President Bachar el-Assad.


    Alois Brunner, considered to be responsible for the deportation of 130,000 Jews, was installed by the CIA in Damascus in 1954, in order to prevent the régime of President Choukri al-Kouatli from concluding an alliance with the Soviets.

    In the period between the Khomeinist revolution of 1979 and the attacks of 9/11, West Germany remained prudent in their dealings with the Muslim Brotherhood. However, at the demand of the CIA, and while Syria recognised East Germany, it accepted to offer political asylum to the putschists who attempted the coup d’etat of 1982 against President Hafez el-Assad, including the ex-Supreme Guide Issam al-Attar (brother of Syrian Vice-President Najah el-Attar). In the 1990’s, the Brotherhood reorganised itself in Germany with the assistance of two businessmen, the Syrian Ali Ghaleb Himmat and the Egyptian Youssef Nada, who was later to be accused by Washington of financing Oussma Ben Laden.


    For many years, German academic Volker Perthes participated alongside the CIA in the preparation of the war against Syria. He directed the most powerful European think-tank, the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP), and took part, in the name of the UNO, in the Geneva negotiations.

    When the United States began the « never-ending war » in the « Greater Middle East », the CIA encouraged reunified Germany to launch a « Dialogue with the Muslim world ». In Berlin, the Minister for Foreign Affairs based his work for that purpose mostly on the new local chief of the Brotherhood, Ibrahim el-Zayat, and on an expert, Volker Perthes, who would become the director of the main federal think-tank, the Foundation for Science and Politics (SWP).

    In 2005, Germany participated in the assassination of Rafic Hariri by supplying the weapon which was used to kill him - (it was obviously not a classic explosive, contrary to the propaganda of the special " Tribunal"). Thereafter, Germany supplied the head of the UNO Enquiry, ex-prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, and his assistant, ex-police commissioner Gerhard Lehmann, who was implicated in the affair of secret CIA prisons.


    In the name of the UNO, Detlev Mehlis accused the Lebanese and Syrian Presidents, Emile Lahoud and Bachar el-Assad, of having assassinated Rafic Hariri. His work was based on false witness reports which, when revealed, forced him to resign.

    In 2008, while the CIA was preparing the Syrian « civil war », Volker Perthes was invited by NATO to the annual reunion of the Bilderberg Group. He worked with a Syrian civil servant of the CIA, Bassma Kodmani. Together, they explained to all participants the profit that could be made by the West by overthrowing the Syrian Arab Republic and placing the Muslim Brotherhood in power. Having adopted the double language of the Brotherhood, in 2001 he wrote an op-ed in the New York Times mocking President Assad who believed he had unearthed a « conspiracy » against his country. In October of the same year, he participated in a meeting of Turkish business leaders organised by the private US intelligence agency, Stratfor. He told his listeners of the oil and gas resources that they could steal from Syria.


    Clemens von Goetze (director of the 3rd department of the German Ministry for Foreign Affairs) and Anwar Mohammad Gargash (Emirati Minister for Foreign Affairs), during the meeting in Abou Dhabi of the work group on the carving up of the Syrian economy.

    Expanding this work, Germany organised in Abou Dhabi a meeting of the Friends of Syria under the presidency of one of its diplomats, Clemens von Goetze, who shared among those present the future concessions for exploitation which would be awarded to the winners once NATO overthrew the Syrian Arab Republic.

    In mid-2012, Volker Perthes was tasked by the US Department of Defense with preparing « The Day After » (in other words the government which would be imposed on Syria). He organised meetings at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs with the participation of 45 Syrian personalities, including his friend Bassma Kodmani and Muslim Brother Radwan Ziadeh, who had come especially from Washington. Finally, Perthes became one of Jeffrey Feltman’s assistants at the UNO. With that title, he participated in all the Geneva negotiations.

    The positions of the German Ministry for Foreign Affairs were adopted word for word by the European External Action Service (EEAS) of Federica Mogherini. This administration, directed by a French senior civil servant, drew up confidential notes on Syria for the heads of state and government of the Union.

    In 2015, Chancellor Angela Merkel and Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who had become the world protector of the Muslim Brotherhood, organised the transfer of more than a million people to Germany, thus conforming to the demand by German industrial business leaders. A number of these migrants are Syrians, including those the AKP no longer wants, and which Germany does not want to return home.

    Chancellor Angela Merkel will be in Beirut and Amman this week to talk about Syria.

    Thierry Meyssan

    Translation:
    Pete Kimberley


    Full article with quotes and references

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    Default Re: Ukraine, Crimea, Syria, Israel, Iran, Turkey, Putin, China, and World War III

    Israel is arming neo-Nazis in Ukraine

    Asa Winstanley The Electronic Intifada 4 July 2018


    The Azov Battalion uses the Nazi Wolfsangel symbol as its logo. Its founder Andriy Biletsky (center) has moved to ban “race mixing” in the Ukranian parliament. (Azov/Twitter)

    Israeli arms are being sent to a heavily armed neo-Nazi militia in Ukraine, The Electronic Intifada has learned.

    Azov Battalion online propaganda shows Israeli-licensed Tavor rifles in the fascist group’s hands, while Israeli human rights activists have protested arms sales to Ukraine on the basis that weapons might end up with anti-Semitic militias.

    In a letter “about licenses for Ukraine” obtained by The Electronic Intifada, the Israeli defense ministry’s arms export agency says they are “careful to grant licenses” to arms exporters “in full coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other government entities.”

    The 26 June letter was sent in reply to Israeli lawyer Eitay Mack who had written a detailed request demanding Israel end all military aid to the country.

    Azov’s official status in the Ukrainian armed forces means it cannot be verified that “Israeli weapons and training” are not being used “by anti-Semitic or neo-Nazi soldiers,” Mack and 35 other human rights activists wrote.

    They had written that Ukrainian armed forces use rifles made in Israel “and are trained by Israelis,” according to reports in the country.

    The head of the Israeli arms export agency declined to deny the reports, or to even discuss cancellation of the weapons licenses, citing “security” concerns.

    But Racheli Chen, the head of the agency, confirmed to Mack she had “carefully read your letter,” which detailed the fascist nature of Azov and the reports of Israeli arms and training.

    Both the defense ministry letter and Mack’s original request can be read in the original Hebrew below.


    Israeli rifles in Ukraine


    The fact that Israeli arms are going to Ukrainian neo-Nazis is supported by Azov’s own online propaganda.

    On its YouTube channel, Azov posted a video “review” of locally produced copies of two Israeli Tavor rifles – seen in this video:



    A photo on Azov’s website also shows a Tavor in the hands of one of the militia’s officers.

    The rifles are produced under licence from Israel Weapon Industries, and as such would have been authorized by the Israeli government.

    IWI markets the Tavor as the “primary weapon” of the Israeli special forces.

    It has been used in recent massacres of unarmed Palestinians taking part in Great March of Return protests in Gaza.

    Fort, the Ukrainian state-owned arms company that produces the rifles under license, has a page about the Tavor on its website.

    The Israel Weapon Industries logo also appears on its website, including on the “Our Partners” page.

    Starting as a gang of fascist street thugs, the Azov Battalion is one of several far-right militias that have now been integrated as units of Ukraine’s National Guard.

    Staunchly anti-Russian, Azov fought riot police during the 2013 US and EU-supported “Euromaidan” protests in the capital Kiev.

    The protests and riots laid the ground for the 2014 coup which removed the pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych.


    This photo from Azov’s website shows an officer of the neo-Nazi militia armed with a version of Israel’s Tavor rifle. The Tavor is made under license from Israel by Ukraine’s national arms maker Fort.

    When the civil war began in eastern Ukraine against Russian-backed separatists, the new western-backed government began to arm Azov. The militia soon fell under the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian interior ministry, and saw some of the most intense frontline combat against the separatists.

    The group stands accused in United Nations and Human Rights Watch reports of committing war crimes against pro-Russian separatists during the ongoing civil war in the eastern Donbass region, including torture, sexual violence and targeting of civilian homes.

    Today, Azov is run by Arsen Avakov, Ukraine’s interior minister. According to the BBC, he pays its fighters, and has appointed one of its military commanders, Vadym Troyan, as his deputy – with control over the police.

    Avakov last year met with the Israeli interior minister Aryeh Deri to discuss “fruitful cooperation.”

    Azov’s young founder and first military commander Andriy Biletsky is today a lawmaker in the Ukrainian parliament.

    As journalist Max Blumenthal explained on The Real News in February, Biletsky has “pledged to restore the honor of the white race” and has advanced laws forbidding “race mixing.”

    Max Blumenthal: US is Arming Neo-Nazis in Ukraine:



    According to The Telegraph, Biletsky in 2014 wrote that “the historic mission of our nation in this critical moment is to lead the white races of the world in a final crusade for their survival. A crusade against the Semite-led untermenschen.”

    At a military training camp for children last year, The Guardian noticed that several Azov instructors had Nazi and other racist tattoos, including a swastika, the SS skull symbol and one that read “White Pride.”

    One Azov soldier explained to The Guardian that he fights Russia because “Putin’s a Jew.”

    Speaking to The Telegraph, another praised Adolf Hitler, said homosexuality is a “mental illness” and that the scale of the Holocaust “is a big question.”

    An Azov drill sergeant once told USA Today “with a laugh” that “no more than half his comrades are fellow Nazis.”

    An Azov spokesperson played that down, claiming that “only 10-20 percent” of the group’s members were Nazis.

    Nonetheless, the sergeant “vowed that when the war ends, his comrades will march on the capital, Kiev, to oust a government they consider corrupt.”

    After Azov’s founder Andriy Biletsky entered parliament, he threatened to dissolve it. “Take my word for it,” he said, “we have gathered here to begin the fight for power.”

    Those promises were made in 2014, but there are early signs of them being fulfilled today.

    Ukraine: On patrol with the far-right National Militia - BBC Newsnight:



    This year the battalion has founded a new “National Militia” to bring the war home.

    This well-organized gang is at the forefront of a growing wave of racist and anti-Semitic violence in Ukraine.

    Led by its military veterans, it specializes in pogroms and thuggish enforcement of its political agenda.

    Earlier this month, clad in balaclavas and wielding axes and baseball bats, members of the group destroyed a Romany camp in Kiev. In a YouTube video, apparently shot by the Azov thugs themselves, police turn up towards the end of the camp’s destruction.

    They look on doing nothing, while the thugs cry, “Glory to the nation! Death to enemies!”



    Israeli defense minister Avigdor Lieberman (left) met with the Ukranian prime minister last year to discuss deeper military ties. (Ukranian Government Portal)

    Israel’s military aid to Ukraine and its neo-Nazis emulates similar programs by the United States and other NATO countries including the UK and Canada.

    So obsessed are they with defeating a perceived threat from Russia that they seem happy to aid even openly Nazi militias – as long as they fight on their side [...].

    FULL ARTICLE

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    Default Re: Ukraine, Crimea, Syria, Israel, Iran, Turkey, Putin, China, and World War III

    .
    Link to article: Psychoanalysing NATO: Projection


    Patrick ARMSTRONG | 03.07.2018 | WORLD / Americas, Europe | FEATURED STORY
    strategic-culture.org


    "NATO" can be a rather elusive concept: Libya was a NATO operation, even though Germany kept out of it. Somalia was not a NATO operation even though Germany was in it. Canada, a founding NATO member, was in Afghanistan but not in Iraq. Some interventions are NATO, others aren't. But it doesn't really mean much because NATO is only a box of spare parts out of which Washington assembles "coalitions of the willing". So it's easier for me to write "NATO" than "Washington plus/minus these or those minions".

    We are told – incessantly – that Putin is "Winning the Information War", "We have no counterattack to Russia’s information warfare". Nonsense. The real information war is being conducted by the British Army's "77th Brigade", the soldiers of Fort Bragg, NATO's Centre of Excellence in Tallinn. Or by the BBC, RFE/RL, Deutsch Welle, AFP et al; each of whose budgets is many multiples of RT's. They manipulate; they dominate; they predate; Moscow is a minor newcomer.

    I am not a psychiatrist, psychologist or any other kind of psychist, but I cannot fail to notice the projection and gaslighting practised by Washington and its minions. They accuse Russia of doing things that they actually do – projection – and they manipulate our perception of reality – gaslighting. I will discuss gaslighting in the next essay.

    Wikipedia defines projection as

    Quote Psychological projection is a theory in psychology in which humans defend themselves against their own unconscious impulses or qualities (both positive and negative) by denying their existence in themselves while attributing them to others. For example, a person who is habitually intolerant may constantly accuse other people of being intolerant. It incorporates blame shifting.
    Another source calls it a "defence mechanism":

    Quote Psychological projection involves projecting undesirable feelings or emotions onto someone else, rather than admitting to or dealing with the unwanted feelings.

    Interference: Russia! Russia! But NATO actually does it

    Russia, we are told, interfered in the US presidential election. And Brexit, and France, and Germany, Hungary, Greece, populism, and and and. The American story has metamorphosed from its initial version which was supposed to have been an attempt to elect Trump into an attempt to sow division in US society. The NYT attempts to explain how both stories fit together. The absurdity of the charge was shown when the 3500 or so Facebook ads paid for by the so-called Internet Research Agency were revealed: they were all over the place. Even more amusingly, Mueller, who no doubt thought he was safe to indict a Russian company, is trying to get out of having to prove it now that the company's lawyers have shown up. If the matter ever does come to trial it will likely show that the whole operation was a scam designed to create interest groups to sell advertising to. (Which would explain why the majority of the ads appeared after the election: the election was the bait to create the groups.)

    This is projection at its most obvious: the USA is by far the world champion at interfering in other people's elections. No less an Establishment outlet than the Washington Post (one of the principals in sustaining Putindunnit hysteria) listed many in: "The long history of the U.S. interfering with elections elsewhere"; but piously insisted "the days of its worst behavior are long behind it".

    A quick diversion from the sordid reality of the rigged Democratic Party nomination – "don't blame us for doing it, blame Russia for revealing it!" – attributed to Russia what it denied in itself. The actual interference, we now learn, was not by Russia on the outside but by, among others, FBI officials on the inside.

    A textbook illustration of blame shifting, isn't it?


    The Russian threat NATO created

    NATO expansion is all projection: NATO expands to meet the threat its expansion creates. NATO justifies itself by pretending to solve the problems it creates: Canada/Libya leads to Libya/Mali leads to Canada/Mali. When the documents about the broken expansion promise were published, we saw that NATO's own "false memory syndrome" had been projected onto Moscow.

    This NYT headline from last year perfectly shifts the blame: "Russia’s Military Drills Near NATO Border Raise Fears of Aggression".


    NATO blames Russia when its fake news fails

    Does anyone remember Gay Girl in Damascus tweeting about the horrors of life in Syria under Assad? Not gay, not girl, not Damascus. How about Sarah Abdallah, who, the BBC tells us is "a mysterious and possibly fictitious social media celebrity [who] tweets constant pro-Russia and pro-Assad messages". But she actually exists. But the champion of champions is surely Bana from Aleppo whose English abilities declined so dramatically when she got out (and few wondered how, in a destroyed city, her Internet service could be so good). Aleppo has mostly disappeared from the West's news outlets but here is AFP's coverage a year later (a less NATOcentric view here). Even with the obligatory propaganda twists – "pro-regime residents back on the streets" – it's obviously a better place after the "Assad regime" reclaimed it than it was when Bana wanted to start World War III. Believing Gay Girl, believing Bana, denigrating Sara is projection: because projectors live in a world of falsehood, they assume that everything they do not fake themselves must be faked by someone else.

    And we're still waiting for Kerry’s “we observed it”, a coherent Skripal story (here's one but it's not the authorities'), actual evidence of the Russian "invasion" and many other things that we were told were anything but "fake news". Believing NATO's stories requires crimestop: if you doubt 76 missiles hit this site (here's just one), then you must be a Russian troll or a victim of Russian fake news.

    Don't look here, look there: our fakery is real, their reality is fake.


    Russia challenges the ideas NATO puts in your head

    The concern over Russia’s influence in the West has grown considerably in the past few years, particularly the Russian regime’s use of information technologies to malign unfriendly Western politicians and undermine the Western public’s faith in democracy.

    Russian bots everywhere influencing, dividing, affecting. But the real bots are NATO's: from Operation Mockingbird in the 1950s, through Udo Ulfkotte's Bought Journalists to today:

    Quote The 1,200-strong psychological operations unit based at Fort Bragg turns out what its officers call 'truthful messages' to support the United States government's objectives, though its commander acknowledges that those stories are one-sided and their American sponsorship is hidden. (New Yorker, December 2005).

    Our vision is to be the main source of expertise in the field of cooperative cyber defence by accumulating, creating, and disseminating knowledge in related matters within NATO, NATO nations and partners. (NATO, October 2008)

    A contest to re-design the USAF Cyberwarrior Badge (2010)

    Three years later the accusations have not been substantiated, but they have served their purpose nonetheless: NATO dispatched cyber warfare experts to Estonia shortly after the events of 2007 and on May 14, 2008 the military bloc established what it calls the Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCD COE) in the nation’s capital of Tallin. (2010)

    The British army is creating a special force of Facebook warriors, skilled in psychological operations and use of social media to engage in unconventional warfare in the information age. (Guardian, January 2015)

    Members of the Military Information Support Task Force-Central influence and persuade targets or intended audiences within the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility to reject those enemy narratives and violent extremist ideologies in order to establish conditions for long-term regional stability. (CENTCOM, April 2017).

    The Army announced on Wednesday (Nov. 29) that a team of its researchers would work alongside scientists from Ukraine and Bulgaria to 'understand and ultimately combat disinformation attacks in cyberspace. (November, 2017).
    Clearly NATO is projecting what it is actually doing onto Russia.


    "Hybrid war" was invented by the Russian who's reacting to it

    In 2014 NATO worried about "hybrid war", apparently something Russia practised. This writer tells us it is sometimes called the “Gerasimov doctrine” after an article written in 2013 (note the date) by the Chief of the Russian General Staff.

    According to Gerasimov, the lessons of the Arab Spring are that if the ‘rules of war’ have changed, the consequences have not – the results of the ‘colored revolutions’ are that a ‘thriving state can, in a matter of months and even days, be transformed into an arena of fierce armed conflict, become a victim of foreign intervention and sink into a web of chaos, humanitarian catastrophe and civil war.’

    In short the theoretical foundation of this supposedly amazing, tricky, sinister and almost invisible Russian way of waging war originates in a paper written about Western-inspired “colour revolutions”. Like the 2003 Rose Revolution in Georgia (ten years before Gerasimov's paper), the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine (nine), the 2005 Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan (eight). Once upon a time to get rid of a ruler you didn’t like, you invaded his country and, months later, fished him out of a hole and hanged him. But it's much cheaper to invest money ($5 billion in Ukraine we are told) to organise protests and overthrow him. And, as we have seen in Ukraine, sometimes it becomes a real shooting war, with real dead bodies and entrails. Sometimes the one thing, sometimes the other; but it’s all conflict, and it’s all “hybrid”. It’s “hybrid” because it uses many methods to bring about the desired regime change: propaganda, manipulation, protest and, occasionally, a little judicious bombing or sniping.

    So how ironic – how “hybrid” – to accuse Gerasimov of inventing something that began years earlier. His so-called textbook of Russian “hybrid war” is actually a response to the real “hybrid war” that Washington practises.


    Projection: accusing Russia of doing what you are actually doing.

    We bomb hospitals by mistake, Putin does it on purpose

    Putin and Assad mercilessly bombed Aleppowe heard about it for months. "Carpet bombing". "War crimes". The boy in the ambulance. Humanitarian convoys intentionally hit (although Bellingcat has become sloppy with his faked evidence). The implication was that Russia just threw lots of bombs around while NATO was precise, surgical.

    We heard rather less about Mosul or Raqqa. Although that may change: even the managed Western media/human rights apparat has noticed the stunning, indiscriminate destruction.

    In Raqqa: 20,000 bombs, 30,000 artillery rounds, altogether, about one per five pre-war occupants! Amnesty International condemned the NATO bombing of Raqqa: "we witnessed a level of destruction [un]comparable to anything we’ve seen".

    But, as "The Persistent Myth of US Precision Bombing" shows, the US military has always pretended "surgical precision" while scattering prodigious numbers of bombs. "America has no idea how many innocent people it's killing in the Middle East" said the Independent in 2017. Even the Establishment-friendly NYT concluded that the US military greatly understated the number of civilians it kills – reporting maybe as few as 4%! At least eight wedding parties. But the quantity of bombs dropped makes a mockery of "precision": by its own count 114,000 weapons since 2013 on Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria. Who can believe there are a hundred thousand pinpoint targets in those countries? "The detonation of the bombs as they hit the ground appears to be pretty huge." In Afghanistan the USAF is now bombing to "shape the terrain" – geological bombing.

    If you want a single word to summarize American war-making in this last decade and a half, I would suggest rubble.

    A tour through the rubble in Mosul.

    To say nothing of the sustained destruction of a clearly marked and identified hospital in Afghanistan. (A mistake, for which no one was punished.)

    Projection again: don't look here, look over there.


    Russian Federation is not the USSR

    The USSR did lots of things in its time – influencing, fiddling elections, regime changes, fake news, projection and so on. But the Communist Party was the "leading and guiding force" in those days; today it's the opposition; the Comintern is gone but Mockingbird is not. Things have changed in Moscow, but NATO rolls on.

    Which, when you think of it, is the problem.


    If NATO accuses Russia of something, NATO is actually doing it

    I leave you with this simple rule of thumb:

    Every time NATO accuses Russia of doing something

    you know it's doing it itself.


    And reflect on this: NATO and its propaganda minions are so unimaginative that they cannot imagine Russia doing anything but what they are doing. That's why they are surprised all the time.

    Source
    Last edited by ThePythonicCow; 10th July 2018 at 18:48. Reason: made link to article more prominent

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    Default Re: Ukraine, Crimea, Syria, Israel, Iran, Turkey, Putin, China, and World War III

    AngloZionist attack options against Iran

    The Saker
    August 2, 2018


    [This analysis was written for the Unz Review]

    In the past few days, the Internet has been flooded with a frankly silly rumor about the US soliciting Australia’s assistance in preparing an attack on Iran. Needless to say, that report does not explain what capabilities Australia would possess which the USA would lack, but never-mind that. Still, the report was picked up in too many places (see here, here and here ) to be ignored. In one of these reports, Eric Margolis has described what such a US attack could look like. It is worth quoting him in full:

    Quote Outline of a possible AngloZionist attack on Iran

    The US and Israel will surely avoid a massive, costly land campaign again Iran, a vast, mountainous nation that was willing to suffer a million battle casualties in its eight-year war with Iraq that started in 1980. This gruesome war was instigated by the US, Britain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to overthrow Iran’s new popular Islamic government.

    The Pentagon has planned a high-intensity air war against Iran that Israel and the Saudis might very well join. The plan calls for over 2,300 air strikes against Iranian strategic targets: airfields and naval bases, arms and petroleum, oil and lubricant depots, telecommunication nodes, radar, factories, military headquarters, ports, waterworks, airports, missile bases and units of the Revolutionary Guards.

    Iran’s air defenses range from feeble to non-existent. Decades of US-led military and commercial embargos against Iran have left it as decrepit and enfeebled as was Iraq when the US invaded in 2003. The gun barrels of Iran’s 70’s vintage tanks are warped and can’t shoot straight, its old British and Soviet AA missiles are mostly unusable, and its ancient MiG and Chinese fighters ready for the museum, notably its antique US-built F-14 Tomcats, Chinese copies of obsolete MiG-21’s, and a handful of barely working F-4 Phantoms of Vietnam War vintage.

    Air combat command is no better. Everything electronic that Iran has will be fried or blown up in the first hours of a US attack. Iran’s little navy will be sunk in the opening attacks. Its oil industry may be destroyed or partially preserved depending on US post-war plans for Iran.

    The only way Tehran can riposte is by staging isolated commando attacks on US installations in the Mideast of no decisive value, and, of course, blocking the narrow Strait of Hormuz that carries two-thirds of Mideast oil exports. The US Navy, based nearby in Bahrain, has been practicing for decades to combat this threat.
    There is a lot of interesting material in this description and I think that it is worth looking into it segment by segment.

    First, I can only agree with Margolis that neither the USA nor Israel want a ground war against Iran: the country is too big, the Iranians too well prepared and the size of the force needed for such a campaign way beyond what the Empire can currently muster.

    Second, Margolis is absolutely correct when he says that Iran does not have the means to stop a determined AngloZionist (missiles and aircraft) attack. Iran does have some modern air-defense capabilities, and the attackers will sustain a number of losses, but at this point, the size disparity is so huge that the AngloZionists will achieve air superiority fairly soon and that will give them an opportunity to bomb whatever they want to bomb (more about that later).

    [Sidebar: assessing Iranian air defenses is not just a matter of counting missiles and launchers, however, and there is much more to this. According to one Russian source Iran has 4 long range anti-aircraft missile S-300PMU-2 systems (with 48Н6Е2 Mach 6,6 interceptor missiles), 29 military anti-aircraft self-propelled missile complexes Tor-M1, some fairly advanced anti-aircraft missile complexes like the Bavar-373, a passive electronically scanned array radar (whose illumination and guidance system almost certainly includes modern Chinese electronics) and an impressive number of radar systems early warning radar of the Russian, Chinese and Iranian manufacture. This category includes systems like the high-potential long-range radar detection and target designation Najm-802 radar (has 5120 receiving and transmitting modules, operates in the decimeter S-range and is designed to detect ballistic targets and small elements of high-precision weapons), the Russian meter radar “Nebo-SVU” advanced early warning and control system with a fixed-array radar, as well as a meter range early warning radar of the type “Ghadir” . Most importantly, these radars are all integrated into the network-centric missile defense system of Iran. For example, the “Ghadir” radar is able to detect not only the tactical fighters of the USAF, the KSA and Israel, but also ballistic missiles immediately after launch (at a distance of about 1100 km). As a result, the presence of Iranian radio engineering units of multi-band radar detection facilities in the Western direction (the Persian Gulf) will allow the Iranians to prepare a flexible echeloned air defense to defend against high-intensity missile strikes. And yet, no matter how much the Iranians have improved their air defenses, the sheer number of of missiles (including the new advanced AGM-158 JASSM (Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile) low observable standoff air-launched cruise missile delivered by B-1B bombers) means that the Iranian defenses will inevitably be overwhelmed by any massive attack.]

    I therefore also agree with Margolis that the Iranian oil industry cannot be protected from a determined US/Israeli attack. In fact, the entire Iranian infrastructure is vulnerable to attack.

    Margolis’ final paragraph, however, makes it sound like Iran does not have credible retaliatory options and that I very much disagree with.

    Example one: Iranian capabilities in the Strait of Hormuz

    For one thing, the issue of the Strait of Hormuz is much more complicated than just “the US Navy has practiced for years to combat this threat“. The reality is that Iran has a very wide range of options to make shipping through this strait practically impossible. These options range from underwater mines, to fast craft attacks, to anti-shipping missiles, to coastal artillery strikes, etc.

    [Sidebar: Therein also lies a big danger: the Israelis and or the US could very easily organize a false flag attack on any ship in the Strait of Hormuz, then accuse Iran, there would be the usual “highly likely” buzzword from all the AngloZionst intelligence agencies and, voilà, the Empire would have a pretext to attack Iran.]

    In fact, the mere fact of issuing a threat to shipping through this narrow body of water might well deter insurances from providing coverage to any ships and that might stop the shipping all by itself. Should that not be enough, Iran can always lay even a limited amount of mines, and that will be enough (please keep in mind that while the USN could try to engage in mineclearing operations, to do so right off the coast of Iran would expose USN minesweepers to an extreme danger of attack).

    Margolis does mention this issue when he writes:

    Quote While Iran may be able to interdict some oil exports from the Arab states and cause maritime insurance rates to skyrocket, it’s unlikely to be able to block the bulk of oil exports unless it attacks the main oil terminals in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf with ground troops. During the Iran-Iraq war, neither side was able to fully interdict the other’s oil exports.
    However, I believe that grossly under-estimates the Iranian capabilities in this context. Let’s take one example, the Iranian submarine force.

    The Iranian submarine force is a highly specialized one. According to the 2018 Edition of the IISS’s Military Balance, the Iranians currently have 21 submarines deployed:


    3 Taregh-class diesel-electric submarine (Russian Kilo-class Project-877EKM)
    1 Fateh-class coastal submarine
    16 Ghadir-class midget submarines
    1 Nahand-class midget submarine

    When most people hear “diesel-electric,” they think of old diesel trucks, and are not impressed, especially when these are contrasted with putatively “advanced” nuclear attack submarines. This is, however, a very mistaken opinion because submarines can only to be assessed in the environment they are designed to operate in. Naval geography is typically roughly divided into three types: blue water (open ocean), green water (continental shelves) and brown water (coastal regions). Nuclear attack submarines are only superior in the blue water environment where autonomy, speed, diving depth, weapon storage capacity, advanced sonars, etc. are crucial. In comparison, while diesel-electric submarines are slower, need to resurface to recharge their batteries and are typically smaller and with fewer weapons onboard, they are also much better suited for green water operations. In shallow brown water, midget submarines reign, if only because nuclear attack submarines were never designed to operate in such an environment. Now take a quick look at the kind of environment the Strait of Hormuz constitutes:



    Notice the interesting combination of very shallow and shallow depth typical of brown water and then the green water type of environment when going further into the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. With this in mind, let’s see what kind of submarine force Iran has acquired/developed:

    For brown water operations (Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz) Iran has a relatively large and capable fleet of midget submarines. For green water operations (the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea), Iran has three formidable Taregh/Kilo-class submarines (which are even capable of limited blue water operations, though with much less autonomy, speed, armament or sonar than a nuclear attack submarine). Just like “diesel-electric”, the term “midget” submarine makes it sound that we are talking about a toy or, at best, some primitive third world hack which, at best, could be used to smuggle drugs. In reality, however, the Iranian “midgets” can carry the same heavyweight torpedoes (533 mm) as the Kilos, only in smaller quantities. This also means that they can carry the same missiles and mines. In fact, I would argue that Iranian Ghadir-class “midget” submarines represent a much more formidable threat in the Persian Gulf than even the most advanced nuclear attack submarines could.

    [Sidebar: the USA has stopped producing diesel-electric submarines many years ago because it believed that being a hegemonic power with a typical (aircraft carrier-centric) blue water navy it had no need for green or brown water capabilities. Other countries (such as Russia, Germany, Sweden and others) actively pursued a diesel-electric submarine program (including so-called “air-independent propulsion” – AIP – ones) because they correctly understood that these submarines are much cheaper while being also much better suited for coastal defensive operations. Ditching diesel-electric submarines was yet another major mistake by US force planners; see this article on this topic. The new Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) and the Zumwalt-class guided missile destroyer were supposed to partially palliate to this lack of green and brown capabilities, but both turned out to be a disaster]

    The Russian Kilo-class submarines are some of the most silent yet heavily armed submarines ever built, and they could potentially represent a major threat to any US naval operations against Iran. However, we can be pretty sure that the USN tracks them 24/7 and that the Kilos would become a prime target (whether in port or at sea) at the very beginning of any AngloZionist attack. But would the USN also be capable of keeping track of the much smaller (and numerous) Iranian midget submarines? Your guess is as good as mine, but I personally very much doubt that, if only because these relatively small subs are very easy to hide. Just take a look at this photo of a Ghadir-class submarine and imagine how easy it would be to hide them or, alternatively, create decoy looking just like the real thing. Yet this midget submarine’s torpedoes could sink any vessel in the Persian Gulf with a single torpedo.


    Ghadir-class submarine

    While the US definitely has a lot of very capable reconnaissance and intelligence capabilities available to try to locate and then destroy these threats, we also know that the Iranians have had decades to prepare for this scenario and that they are truly masters at what is called maskirovka in Russian military terminology: a combination of camouflage, concealment, deception, and misdirection. In fact, the Iranians are the ones who trained Hezbollah in Lebanon in this art and we all know what happened to the Israelis when they confidently waltzed into southern Lebanon only to find out that for all their reconnaissance/intelligence capabilities they were unable to deal with even a relatively primitive (technologically speaking) Hezbollah missile capability. For all the patriotic flag-waving, the truth is that if the Iranians decide to block the Strait of Hormuz the only option left for the US will be to land a force on the Iranian shore and engage in a limited but still extremely dangerous offensive land-attack operation. At this point, whether this counter-attack is successful or not will be irrelevant, as there will be so much combat activity in this narrow bottleneck that nobody will even consider to bring ships through it.

    I also believe that Margolis is wrong when he writes that all Iran could do would be to stage “isolated commando attacks on US installations in the Mideast of no decisive value“. One very real Iranian option would be to strike US targets (of which there are plenty in the Middle-East) with various missiles. Furthermore, Iran can also launch missiles at US allies (Israel or the KSA) and interests (Saudi oil fields).

    Example two: Iranian missile capabilities

    I would not trust everything the CSIS writes (they are a very biased source, to put it mildly), but on this page, they posted a pretty good summary of the current Iranian missile capability:



    On the same page, CSIS also offers a more detailed list of current and developed Iranian missiles:



    (You can also check on this Wikipedia page to compare with the CSIS info on Iranian missiles)

    The big question is not whether Iran has capable missiles, but how many exactly are deployed. Nobody really knows this because the Iranians are deliberately being very vague, and for obvious and very good reasons. However, judging by the example of Hezbollah, we can be pretty sure that the Iranians also have these missiles in large enough numbers to represent a very credible deterrent capability. I would even argue that such a missile force not only represents a capable deterrent capability, but also a very useful war-fighting one. Can you imagine what would happen if US bases (especially airbases and naval facilities) in the region came under periodic Iranian missile attacks? Judging by the Israeli experience during the First Gulf War or, for that matter, the recent Saudi experience with the Houthi missiles, we can be pretty sure that the US Patriots will be useless to defend against Iranian missiles.

    Oh sure, just like the US did during the First Gulf War, and the Israelis did in 2006, the AngloZionists will start a massive hunt for Iranian missile sites, but judging by all the recent wars, these hunts will not be successful enough and the Iranians will be able to sustain missile strikes for quite a long time. Just imagine what one missile strike, say, every 2-3 days on a US base in the region would do to operations or morale!

    Reality check: the US is vulnerable throughout the entire Middle-East

    Above I only listed two specific capabilities (subs and missiles), but the same type of analysis could be made with Iranian small speedboat swarms, electronic warfare capabilities or even cyber-warfare. But the most formidable asset the Iranians have is a very sophisticated and educated population which has had decades to prepare for an attack by the “Great Satan” and which have clearly developed an array of asymmetrical options to defend themselves and their country against the (probably inevitable) AngloZionist attack.

    You have probably seen at least one map showing US military installations in the Middle-East (if not, see here, here or here). Truth be told, the fact that Iran is surrounded by US forces and bases presents a major threat to Iran. But the opposite is also true. All these US military facilities are targets, often very vulnerable ones. Furthermore, Iran can also use proxies/allies in the region to attack any of these targets. I highly recommend that you download this factsheet and read it while thinking of the potential of each listed facility to become the target of an Iranian attack.

    The usual answer which I often hear to these arguments is that if the Iranians actually dared to use missiles or strike at the US bases in the region, the retaliation by the USA would be absolutely terrible. However, according to Eric Margolis, the initial and main goal of a US-Israeli attack on Iran would be to “totally destroy Iran’s infrastructure, communications and transport (including oil) crippling this important nation of 80 million and taking it back to the pre-revolutionary era“. Now let me ask you this simple question: if Margolis is correct – and I personally believe that he is – then how would that outcome be different from the “absolutely terrible” retaliation supposedly planned by the USA in case of Iranian counterattack? Put differently – if the Iranians realize that the AngloZionists want to lay waste to their country (say, like what the Israelis did to Lebanon in 2006), what further possible escalation would further deter them from counter-attacking with the means available to them?

    To answer this question we need to look again at the real nature of the “Iranian problem” for the AngloZionists.

    Real AngloZionist objectives for an attack on Iran

    First and foremost, there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that Iran has any kind of military nuclear program. The fact that the Israelis have for years been screaming about this urbi et orbi does not make it true. I would also add that common sense strongly suggests that the Iranians would have absolutely no logical reason to develop any kind of nuclear weapons. I don’t have the time and space to argue this point again (I have done so many times in the past), so I will simply refer to the US National Intelligence Estimate’s conclusion that Iran had “halted its nuclear weapons program” and leave it at that.

    [Sidebar: I don’t believe that the Iranians ever had a nuclear weapons program either, but that is irrelevant: even if they once had one, that would put them on par with many other countries which took some initial steps in the development of such a capability and then gave it up. The only point is that it is the official US position that there is no current military nuclear program in Iran.]

    The real problem of Iran is very simple. Iran is the only country in the world which is:

    1. Islamic and leads the struggle against the Saudi/Daesh/ISIS/al-Qaeda/etc. ideology of takfirism and the terrorism they promote
    2. Openly anti-Zionist and anti-Imperialist and combines conservative religious values with progressive social policies
    3. Successful politically, economically and militarily and thereby threatens the monopoly of power of Israel in the region

    Any one of those features by itself would already constitute a grievous case of crimethink from the point of view of the Empire and would fully deserve a reaction of absolute hatred, fear and a grim determination to eliminate the government and people which dare to support it. No wonder that by combining all three Iran is so hated by the AngloZionists.

    This entire canard about some Iranian nuclear a program is just a pretext for a hate campaign and a possible attack on Iran. But in reality, the goals of the AngloZionists is not to disarm Iran, but exactly as Margolis says: to bomb this “disobedient” country and people “back to the pre-revolutionary era”.

    Here is the key thing: the Iranians perfectly understand that. The obvious conclusion is this: if the purpose of an AngloZionist attack will be to bomb Iran back into the pre-revolutionary era, then why would the Iranians hold back and not offer the maximal resistance possible?

    Because of the threat of a US nuclear retaliation?

    US nuclear attack options – not much of an option in reality

    First, nuclear weapons are only effective when used against a lucrative target. Just murdering civilians like what the USA did in Japan does absolutely no good if your goal is to defeat your opponent’s armed forces. If anything, nuking your opponents “value” targets will might only increase his determination to fight to the end. I have no doubt that, just as during the first Gulf War, the USA has already made a typical list of targets it would want to strike in Iran: a mix of key government buildings and installations and a number of military units and facilities. However, in most cases, those could also be destroyed by conventional (non-nuclear) weapons. Furthermore, since the Iranians have had decades to prepare for this scenario (the USA has always had Iran in its sights since the 1979 Revolution), you can be quite sure that all the peacetime facilities have been duplicated for wartime situations. Thus while many high-visibility targets will be destroyed, their wartime counterparts will immediately take over. One might think that nukes could be used to destroy deeply buried targets, and this is partially true, but some targets are buried too deep to be destroyed (even by a nuclear blast) while others are duplicated several times (say, for 1 peacetime military headquarters there would be 4, 5 or even 6 concealed and deeply buried ones). To go after each one of them would require using even more nukes and that begs the question of the political costs of such a campaign of nuclear strikes.

    In political terms, the day the USA uses a nuclear weapon against any enemy it will have committed a political suicide from which the Hegemony will never recover. While a majority of US Americans might consider that “might makes right” and “screw the UN”, for the rest of the world the first use of nuclear weapons (as opposed to a retaliatory counter-strike) is an unthinkable abomination and crime, especially for an illegal act of aggression (there is no way the UNSC will authorize a US attack on Iran). Even if the White House declares that it “had to” use nukes to “protect the world” against the “nuclear armed Ayatollah”, the vast majority of the planet will react with total outrage (especially after the Iraqi WMD canard!). Furthermore, any US nuclear strike will instantly turn the Iranians from villains into victims. Why would the US decide to pay such an exorbitant political price just to use nuclear weapons on targets which would not yield any substantial advantage for the US? Under normal circumstances, I would think that this kind of unprovoked use of nuclear weapons would be quite unthinkable and illogical. However, in the current political context in the USA, there is one possibility which really frightens me.

    Trump as the “disposable President” for the Neocons?

    The Neocons hate Trump, but they also own him. The best example of this kind of “ownership” is the US decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem which was an incredibly stupid act, but one which the Israel Lobby demanded. The same goes for the US reneging on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or, for that matter, the current stream of threats against Iran. It appears that the Neocons have a basic strategy which goes like this: “we hate Trump and everything he represents, but we also control him; let’s use him to do all the crazy stuff no sane US President would ever do, and then let’s use the fallout of these crazy decisions and blame it all on Trump; this way we get all that we want and we get to destroy Trump in the process only to replace him with one of “our guys” when the time is right“. Again, the real goal of an attack on Iran would be to bomb Iran back into a pre-revolutionary era and to punish the Iranian people for supporting the “wrong” regime thus daring to defy the AngloZionist Empire. The Neocons could use Trump as a “disposable President” who could be blamed for the ensuing chaos and political disaster while accomplishing one of the most important political objectives of Israel: laying waste to Iran. For the Neocons, this is a win-win situation: if things go well (however unlikely that is), they can take all the credit and still control Trump like a puppet, and if things don’t go well, Iran is in ruins, Trump is blamed for a stupid and crazy war, and the Clinton gang will be poised to come back to power.

    The biggest loser in such a scenario would, of course, be the people of Iran. But the US military will not fare well either. For one thing, a plan to just “lay waste” to Iran has no viable exit strategy, especially not a short-term one, while the US military has no stomach for long conflicts (Afghanistan and Iraq are bad enough). Furthermore, once the USA destroys most of what can be destroyed the initiative will be in the Iranians’ hands and time will be on their side. In 2006 the Israelis had to fold after 33 days only, how much time will the US need before having to declare victory and leave? If the war spreads to, say, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Syria, then will the US even have the option to just leave? What about the Israelis – what options will they have once missiles start hitting them (not only Iranian missiles but probably also Hezbollah missiles from Lebanon!)?

    Former Mossad head Meir Dagan was fully correct when he stated that a military attack on Iran was “the stupidest thing I have ever heard”. Alas, the Neocons have never been too bright, and stupid stuff is what they mostly do. All we can hope for is that somebody in the USA will find a way to stop them and avert another immoral, bloody, useless and potentially very dangerous war.

    The Saker

    ------------------
    ------------------

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    Iran Protests Spread to 10 Cities in Widest Unrest Since January

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    Default Re: Ukraine, Crimea, Syria, Israel, Iran, Turkey, Putin, China, and World War III

    When Viktor Orban spoke in Romania (this july) he said something that could remind one of the headline of the Time article from 2009 called Putin to the West: Hands off Ukraine (also posted earlier in this thread).

    On the subject of Ukraine the Hungarian president said:

    Quote What will the Russians do in the coming year, Ladies and Gentlemen? In order to understand this, we have to be aware that Russia sees itself as a country that is not safe unless it is surrounded by buffer zones. Therefore Russia will continue to strive to create buffer zones around itself, just as it has done up to now. Ukraine is one of the victims of this. The Ukrainians have decided to put an end to the situation in which equal influence is exerted on them by the West and Russia: they want to join the Western world, and they therefore want to detach themselves from the Russian sphere of interest. They want to move closer to NATO and the European Union – and will perhaps even join them – and build a modern Ukraine. I don’t envisage their membership of NATO, and the prospects for their EU membership are virtually zero. So at this point in time, instead of a new Ukrainian state, I see a Ukrainian economy increasingly drifting towards debt slavery. The Russians’ goal to tip Ukraine back to its former situation does not seem unrealistic.
    Source:

    Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s speech at the 29th Bálványos Summer Open University and Student Camp

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