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

[Hervé]

DCLeaks Website Down, Twitter Suspended After Releasing Soros Docs

By Peter Hasson Reporter, Associate Editor

2:28 PM 08/27/2016

Billionaire investor George Soros of Soros Fund Management attends the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos January 26, 2013. REUTERS/Pascal Lauener

DCLeaks, a website that releases information on powerful political figures, has had part of its website taken offline after releasing a cache of documents on billionaire donor George Soros. The @DCLeaks Twitter account has also been suspended from Twitter for reasons unknown.

The website had previously released 2,500 internal Open Society Foundation (OSF) documents in order to “shed light on one of the most influential networks operating worldwide.” OSF is one of Soros’ networks of organizations.

The leaked documents had resulted in several damaging reports about the organization. OSF had previously confirmed that the documents were legitimate. Before the website went offline, an OSF spokesperson had called the leaks “a symptom of an aggressive assault on civil society and human rights activists that is taking place globally” in a statement released to The Daily Caller.

By mid-Saturday afternoon, the DCLeaks page with the Soros documents was no longer online. The rest of the DCLeaks site was running smoothly — only the Soros pages appeared to be offline.

The @DCLeaks Twitter account was suspended by Twitter around the same time with no explanation.

This is a developing story, check back for updates.

[KiwiElf]

Hopefully, many people out there downloaded the leaked documents. "They" can try all they want... this isn't going away

[Cidersomerset]

Syria war: US warns over Turkish-Kurdish violence
10 minutes ago


Turkey says it will not tolerate Kurdish forces operating west of the Euphrates

The US says fighting between Turkey, pro-Turkish rebels and Kurdish-aligned forces
in northern Syria is "unacceptable" and must stop. Clashes in places where so-called
Islamic State (IS) was not present were a "source of deep concern", the US envoy to
the anti-IS coalition tweeted.Turkish forces have attacked what they say are Kurdish
"terrorists" since crossing the border last week.But the Kurdish YPG militia says Turkey
just wants to occupy Syrian territory.

Ankara says it aims to push both IS and Kurdish fighters away from its border.


Turkish forces and allied factions of the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) forced IS out of
the Syrian border city of Jarablus on Tuesday and have since pounded neighbouring
villages held by Kurdish-led, US-backed Syria Democratic Forces (SDF).The Turkish
military carried out 61 artillery strikes around Jarablus over the past 24 hours Reuters
news agency reported on Monday,

Turkey has insisted Kurdish militia, which it regards as terrorists, retreat east across the Euphrates river.


Read more....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-37212256

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Biden's Turkish Tightrope Act: VP avoided touchy subjects in Ankara

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=TXOkHujfLC4

Published on 26 Aug 2016

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No incursion into Kobani: Kurds warn Turkey

By David on 29 August 2016 GMT War and Terror

PRESS TV....


‘Kurds have staged a protest rally in the Syrian town of Kobani to warn Turkey
against a potential military incursion into the town.The protest took place as reports
that Turkish forces were preparing to enter Kobani were circulated by the People’s
Protection Units (YPG), an armed Kurdish group, among residents on Saturday.

“We will not allow them to enter, we will stay here if necessary for days and
months and… defend this land,” said one Kobani resident.’

Read more: No incursion into Kobani: Kurds warn Turkey

http://presstv.ir/Detail/2016/08/28/...a-Kurds-Kobani


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Turkey vows to 'cleanse' border region of Islamic State

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=HzdPWOcqz3s

Published on 22 Aug 2016

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu says Turkey's border with Syria must
be 'completely cleansed' from Islamic State militants. Rough Cut (no reporter
narration).

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=SelYXqemYYE

Published on 27 Aug 2016
Relief efforts are underway in the Syrian town of Jarablus, where a Turkish-backed
operation is aiming to remove Islamic State and keep Kurdish rebel groups from
establishing a major presence. Nathan Frandino reports.

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


Turkey accuses Kurdish fighters of 'ethnic cleansing' in Syria

Mon Aug 29, 2016 1:54PM

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has accused the Syrian Kurdish fighters
of engaging in ethnic cleansing in northern Syria.

Cavusoglu told a news conference in the Turkish capital Ankara on Monday that
fighters of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and its affiliate Democratic
Union Party (PYD) were attempting to put their own people in areas that had been
released from Takfiri Daesh terrorists in the northern parts of Syria.

http://presstv.ir/Detail/2016/08/29/...PG-Kurds-Daesh

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50 Turkish tanks in Syrian city of Jarablus: Head of Kurdish group

By David on 30 August 2016 GMT

http://presstv.ir/Detail/2016/08/29/...us-Elham-Ahmad

[Cidersomerset]

RT.....

Iran deploys S-300 missiles at Fordow nuclear facility - report

Published time: 29 Aug, 2016 10:26
Edited time: 29 Aug, 2016 17:34

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=4Z9tMGz45x8

Published on 29 Aug 2016
Iran has deployed a Russian-made S-300 surface-to-air missile defense system a
at its Fordow uranium enrichment facility, the country’s state media have reported.

https://www.rt.com/news/357513-iran-...ordow-nuclear/



PressTV First footage Iran’s S 300 defense system

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=vZ2vzLWL9lI

Published on 28 Aug 2016

Iran releases footage of its S-300 missile defense system

Iran has for the first time released footage of transporting and deployment of the
Russian S-300 missile defense system.The video of the S300-PMU2 launchers along
with some of the system’s radars was broadcast by IRIB on Sunday.On August 20,
Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehqan announced that Iran will fully receive the
remaining consignment of the missile defense system in a month.

Russia undertook to deliver the systems — which are used to intercept tactical and
ballistic aircraft and projectiles — to Iran under a $800-million deal in 2007 but
refused to deliver on the commitment, citing UN sanctions against Iran.

Following Moscow’s refusal to deliver the systems, Iran filed a complaint against the
relevant Russian arms manufacturer with the International Court of Arbitration in Geneva.
In April 2015, President Vladimir Putin lifted the Russian self-imposed ban on the delivery
of the S-300 and subsequently Moscow signed a new contract to supply Iran with the
systems by the end of that year. Tehran recently dropped the case at the arbitration court.

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

REUTERS....

World News | Mon Aug 29, 2016 6:23am EDT

Iran deploys Russian-made S-300 missiles at its Fordow nuclear site: TV

read more...
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ir...-idUSKCN1140YD

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11927720

[Hervé]

Looks like what's been exported around is coming back home:

Ex Mossad chief: Civil war, not Iran, is Israel's biggest threat

Ariel Whitman The Jerusalem Post Tue, 30 Aug 2016 16:30 UTC

© REUTERS - Mossad chief Tamir Pardo.

"If a society crosses a certain line in its division and hatred, then it is a real possibility to see a phenomenon like a civil war."

In his first public appearance since leaving office in June of this year, former Mossad Chief Tamir Pardo said the most pressing threat to Israel is not Iran, but rather it is the increased polarization within Israeli society.

"There is no outside existential threat to Israel, the only real existential threat is the internal division," Pardo said.

Speaking at the annual race to commemorate fallen Druse soldiers in the North, Pardo added that "internal division can lead us to civil war - we are already on a path towards that."

"If a society crosses a certain line in its division and hatred, then it is a real possibility to see a phenomenon like a civil war."

He said that society at large bears responsibility to prevent these divisions, not only the leadership.

Pardo also addressed the Palestinian issue, saying that without a diplomatic solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict "we will never be able to achieve normalization with our Arab neighbors."

The comments on the Palestinian issue came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly hailed improved diplomatic relations with Israel's moderate Arab neighbors.

[Cidersomerset]

US in balancing act as Turkish, Kurdish forces clash in Syria

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=0q7CsuhqN2A

Published on 30 Aug 2016
US-allied Kurdish militias clash with Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army
forces in Jarablus, Syria, putting the US at odds with both allies.

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Pentagon: Turkey's fighting with Kurdish forces unacceptable

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=wnd8dxzTukM

Published on 29 Aug 2016
The Pentagon says clashes between the Turkish army and US-backed Kurdish
forces are unacceptable. Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook condemned the
fighting south of the Syrian town of Jarablus. He called on all sides to stand
down and take appropriate measures to de-conflict. He stressed that fighting
is taking place in areas where Daesh is no longer present. The Turkish army
and the militants supported by Ankara have clashed with Kurdish forces
several times in northern Syria over the past days

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The Debate - Turkey Syria Incursion

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=s-W1KUNSHuA

Published on 29 Aug 2016
Broadcast date: 8/29/2016

On Wednesday Turkey launched Operation Euphrates Shield in northern Syria
by sending in tanks, planes and ground forces under the pretext of liberating
the town of Jarablus from Daesh terrorists. But it soon became apparent that
offensive was just as much as Syrian Kurdish forces, as against Daesh at least.
What has ensued since has been a sling of claims and counter claims. Turkey

accuses the Syrian Kurdish fighters of ethnic cleansing, while the country itself
stands accused of killing around 35 civilians in its latest offensive.

As Turkey vows to protect its borders against “terrorist organizations”, we ask
at what cost? And is regional security really the objective here? Stay tuned to
this edition of The Debate.

Guests:
- Journalist and Political Commentator, Omar Nashabe (BEIRUT).
- U.S. Foreign Policy and National Security Analyst, Lawrence J. Korb (ATLANTA).

[Cidersomerset]

While the focus has been in Syria for the past few years tension in Israel is growing
that's apart from the almost daily clashes in the occupied and Palestinian lands.....


The New 'Two-State Solution' That Would Colonize Palestine

By David on 30 August 2016 GMT



‘A powerful pro-Israel policy group with ties to the Obama administration and the
Israeli military intelligence establishment is promoting plans for a “two state solution”
that would subordinate Palestinians to Israeli military rule, supervised by a permanent
U.S. military presence.The plans have been put together by the Israel Policy Forum
(IPF), a New York-based advocacy group founded in 1993 at the behest of Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin, to promote the Oslo peace process. Shortly after taking office
in 2009, President Obama adopted the IPF’s Middle East “roadmap.”

Among the plan’s recommendations are the complete demilitarization of Palestine,
despite it being defined as a “sovereign” territory, a comprehensive border surveillance
infrastructure, and a permanent U.S. military operation to police the Jordan River.’

Read more: The New ‘Two-State Solution’ That Would Colonize Palestine

http://www.alternet.org/world/two-st...nize-palestine

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Israeli Media: Preparations for Construction of Third Temple to Begin

By David on 30 August 2016 GMT




Israeli Media: Preparations for Construction of 3rd Temple to Begin
August 15, 2016 11:38 PM



‘Israeli institutions and organizations are preparing to build the so-called “Third Temple” in
place of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and are waiting for a political decision to start, Israeli channels reported.
Israeli TV reported, on the alleged anniversary of the temple’s destruction, that Israeli institutions
which seek to build the temple were met with wide political and popular support.It was noted that
these institutions were previously marginalized but, nowadays, enjoy a political presence.’

Read more: Israeli Media: Preparations for Construction of Third Temple to Begin

http://imemc.org/article/israeli-med...mple-to-begin/

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Israel's Great Divide - Al Jazeera World

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xv_0JUBk3fI

Published on 13 Jul 2016

Israel is a nation of immigrants, and first-generation Israelis comprise only 32 percent of the population.
Integration into Israeli society has been one of its main political goals and, under the leadership of
founding prime minister David Ben-Gurion, Israel was going to be "the great Jewish melting pot", but it
has come under severe strain almost since its inception in 1948.

"There's a gap in Israeli society," says Karen Amit, an Israeli of Moroccan origin.

"They support the arrival of immigrants in theory and love them but, in practice, the ordinary Israeli doesn't
open his arms to welcome them. Research about Israeli attitude towards immigrants from Ethiopia has shown
surprising results. On the one hand, they love them and have no problem with them. But when asked if they'd
accept an Ethiopian neighbour or their children being at school with Ethiopians, their reply was negative."

Jewish people living in Israel today are largely divided into three main groups: Ashkenazi, Sephardi and Mizrahi.

The Ashkenazim are from Germany, France and Eastern Europe. The term "Ashkenazi" comes from the Hebrew
word for Germany. Most American Jews today are Ashkenazim, descended from those who arrived from Europe
in the mid-1800s and early 1900s.

The Sephardim are from Spain, Portugal, North Africa and the Middle East. The term "Sephardi" comes from the
Hebrew word for Spain. Many Jews fled Spain after the end of Muslim rule there in 1492.

Sephardic Jews are often subdivided into Sephardim and Mizrahim, from North Africa and the Middle East.
The term "Mizrahi" comes from the Hebrew word for eastern.

[Cidersomerset]

Islamic State: Abu Muhammad al-Adnani 'killed in Aleppo'
6 minutes ago

One of the longest-serving and most prominent leaders of so-called Islamic
State (IS) has been killed in Syria, IS-affiliated media say.In a statement
distributed by the group's supporters, Amaq News Agency reported that
Abu Muhammad al-Adnani died in the province of Aleppo.He was "martyred
while surveying the operations to repel the military campaigns against Aleppo",
it said.Adnani was known for his calls for lone-wolf attacks in the West.
One of the group's founder members, he is also said to have masterminded
attacks in Europe and elsewhere.

read more
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37224570

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Obmvtkn2tEk

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Water weapon in Syrian war: Terrorists cut Aleppo supply lines, residents
find ways to survive

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=kPpMI1JEKF8

Published on 30 Aug 2016
Terrorists have recently cut off water pipes going into West Aleppo. RT's Lizzie
Phelan looks at some of the heroic attempts to change the situation in the embattled city.

====================================================
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( Edit added later )

Russian airstrike killed senior ISIS leader al-Adnani in Aleppo – Moscow

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=DtxTbF8WjjY

Published on 31 Aug 2016

killing of a top figure in the terrorist group Islamic State, Abu Muhammed al-
Adnani, was the result of an airstrike conducted by a Russian Su-34 bomber,
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday.

[Sophocles]

Russian airstrike killed ISIS commander al-Adnani – Moscow

RT.com
31 Aug, 2016 11:27

The killing of a top figure in the terrorist group Islamic State, Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, was the result of an airstrike conducted by a Russian Su-34 bomber, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday.

The death of al-Adnani in a bombing in the Syrian province of Aleppo was earlier confirmed by the terrorist organization itself.

In an airstrike conducted on Tuesday, the Su-34 targeted a group of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) fighters numbering about 40 people, the Russian Defense Ministry reported. Al-Adnani’s death was confirmed by several intelligence channels.

Source

[Sophocles]

Top USA National Security Officials Admit Turkey Coup

F. William Engdahl
31.08.2016
journal-neo.org

While the Obama Administration and the CIA officially cling to the fig leaf lie that US intelligence was innocent of any involvement in the failed July 15 coup d’ etat attempt by the CIA-run Fethullah Gülen organization in Turkey, the truth is coming out from senior US intelligence insiders themselves. It reflects a huge internal faction struggle within US leading circles in what by all accounts is shaping to be the most bizarre Presidential election year in American history.



The first admission that US intelligence had their hand in the anti-Erdogan coup, a coup launched just days after Erdogan announced a major strategic shift away from NATO and towards Russia, came from Zbigniew Brzezinski. Brzezinski is one of the most senior members of the US intelligence establishment, a former Obama Presidential adviser and former National Security Council architect of the Jimmy Carter 1979 Mujahideen Afghanistan terror operations against the Soviet forces in that country.

In a Twitter tweet from his own blog, Brzezinski wrote a precis of a new article he wrote for The American Interest magazine. He writes, “The US backing of the attempted coup against the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was a grave mistake that could deliver a major blow to the US reputation.” That’s definitely putting it mildly given what’s unfolding in Turkey since July 15.

Brzezinski went on to write, “Turkey was on the verge of reconsidering its foreign policy after failure in the Syria during the last five years, and the US miscalculation in supporting the coup and hosting its leader (Fethullah Gülen, now in CIA-arranged exile in Pennsylvania-w.e.) was so serious that it is no longer possible to put the blame on once-US-ally Turkey if it turns its back on US and rethink (sic) its policies.” He continues, “A potential Russia-Turkey-Iran coalition would create an opportunity to solve the Syrian crisis. If Erdogan had the smallest bit of wisdom, he should have come to the understanding that he could not make an independent credibility with the help of some ‘decayed’ Arab countries,” no doubt referring to Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the prime financiers of the Syrian terror war against Assad since 2011.

Brzezinski, who together with Henry Kissinger was one of the foremost US foreign policy strategists of the postwar period, the founding Executive Director of David Rockefeller’s Trilateral Commission, and one who still today presumably retains Top Secret clearance access to US intelligence reports, was expressing his fury at the utter incompetence of US intelligence in managing the Turkey relationship. Notably, the person in the US State Department directly responsible for not only the disastrous US coup in February, 2014 in Ukraine, but also for Turkey, is the hapless neo-con perpetual warrior-ess, Victoria “**** the EU” Nuland, wife of neo-con Robert Kagan.

Brzezinski’s candid critique was followed up by an even more detailed expose of US intelligence ties to Fethullah Gülen, charged by the Turkish government with treason and backing the July 15 coup. In a guest article in the EU online mgazine EurActiv.com dated 17 August, 2016, Arthur H. Hughes confirms the intimate links between Gülen and the CIA, noting that “Gülen fled to the US with the assistance of the diplomat Morton Abramovitz, CIA agents Graham Fuller and George Fidas, and the above-mentioned Fr. Alexander Karloutsos.”

Gülen CIA friend Bartholomew I

Hughes’ article is a bombshell in many respects, and most definitely in his detailing of the intimate ties between the CIA, Gülen and the current Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, current Archbishop of Constantinople and Ecumenical Patriarch. Hughes described the above-mentioned Father Alexander Karloutsos:

“…one of the members of the American-Israeli lobby in the Constantinople Patriarchate is Father Alexander Karloutsos, Public Affairs Officer close to Archbishop Demetrios (of America-w.e.). Thanks to his ties with high-level officials and Greek-American billionaires, he is basically the only person who controls the money flows from the US to the Phanar (the Greek Orthodox part of Istanbul-w.e.), and that gives him wide possibilities of exerting pressure upon the Ecumenical Patriarchate. On the other hand, Karloutsos is also in good relations with former CIA Director George Tenet, and with the preacher Fethullah Gülen cooperating with the American intelligence.”

George Tenet, a close ally of the Clinton political machine is a Greek-American former head of CIA during the time of Bill Clinton and also George W. Bush. The Clintons are both on record praising Fethullah Gülen. It seems to be a cozy network of CIA-Gülen-Constantinople Patriarchate-Clintons, all financed with “money from Greek-American billionaires.”

Arthur H. Hughes is not a casual commentator on events in Turkey and the Middle East. He was US Ambassador to Yemen in the 1990’s during the Clinton Presidency, then Deputy Assistant to the Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs. He also served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Near East and South Asia, and was Deputy Chief of Mission in Tel Aviv. His linking of Gülen to the CIA and to the Constantinople Patriarchate points to one of the least-public and most influential covert CIA-run networks in the world, the anti-Moscow Orthodox Patriarchate of Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople. Hughes suggests that if Erdogan and the Turkish government are serious about dealing with future coup threats, they should put the Constintanople Patriarchate under the magnifying glass.

As I’ve documented in my book, The Lost Hegemon: Whom the gods would destroy, Graham E. Fuller and George Fidas, both decades-long senior CIA officials managed to secure an extraordinary permanent residence in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, over the loud formal objections of the US State Department, in 1999, when Gülen was about to be charged by the Turkish authorities for inciting treason.

Most recently, Fuller felt compelled to write on his blog that, indeed he did help Gülen obtain a US green card, but that no, Gülen was not behind the failed July 15 coup. However Turkish reports place Fuller and another senior CIA ally, Henri J. Barkey, at a luxury hotel on one of the Princes’ Islands in the Sea of Marmara, some twenty minutes from Istanbul the night of the failed coup. In a subsequent appearance at a Washington think tank forum held by the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a neo-con address whose chairman is former CIA director, neo-con James Woolsey III, Barkey and his host tried to make a feeble joke about his presence in Istanbul the night of the coup and his ties to Gülen.

For once, Brzezinski is right.

The CIA-Gülen coup d’etat attempt to topple Erdogan after his turn towards rapprochement with Moscow was “a grave mistake.” The consequences, aside from a massive crackkdown on Gülen networks and media inside Turkey, include an open dialogue of Erdogan and the Turkish government of Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım with Russia and now with Iran, about a “solution” to the Syrian war that would include Bashar al-Assad as at least a transition figure.

The Erdogan pivot East since the failed CIA coup has forced the Pentagon to quietly remove its nuclear warheads from Turkey’s Incirlik airbase near the Syrian border to Romania. At the same time, Turkey’s Prime Minister on August 20 stated to the media that Russia could possibly use Turkey’s Incirlik Airbase if necessary, something that certainly produced more acute gas pains in Langley, Foggy Bottom (the more than fitting name for the US State Department headquarters), and the Obama White House.

July 15 may go down in history as one of the most decisive defeats of American global power projection, of the so-called New World Order of David Rockefeller and friends. If so, not a minute too soon for the prospect of a more peaceful world.

F. William Engdahl is strategic risk consultant and lecturer, he holds a degree in politics from Princeton University and is a best-selling author on oil and geopolitics, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”

Source

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Zbigniew Brzezinski admitted US backing of the coup against the TUrkish president Erdogan was a grave mistake that could deliver a major blow to the US reputation.

Source

[Cidersomerset]

CrossTalk: Turkey's Flip-Flop

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=dbOoAjEuo4o

Published on 31 Aug 2016
With Turkey’s invasion of Syria, that county’s international proxy war became
even more complicated. It would seem there are as many agendas as there
are players involved. And, has Erdogan double-crossed Russia?

CrossTalking with Martin Jay, Mark Sleboda, and Joshua Landis.

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Israeli soldiers routinely shoot heads of injured Palestinians, court told

By David on 31 August 2016 GMT



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

THE ELECTRONIC INTEFADA


Israeli soldiers routinely shoot heads of injured Palestinians, court told

Maureen Clare Murphy Rights and Accountability 30 August 2016



‘Shooting at the heads of incapacitated alleged Palestinian attackers is a common
practice by Israeli occupation forces, a settler security chief told a military court
hearing on Sunday.Eliyahu Liebman testified as a witness for the defense in the
trial of Elor Azarya, an Israeli soldier indicted for manslaughter after he was caught
on video shooting the head of a wounded and incapacitated Palestinian lying in the
street, killing him.

Abd al-Fattah al-Sharif and Ramzi al-Qasrawi were fatally wounded after they
allegedly attempted to stab soldiers in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron in
late March. Multiple videos of the scene show al-Sharif and al-Qasrawi in the street,
badly injured. But video released thus far only shows the fatal shooting of al-Sharif.’

Explicit Vid on link below....

Read more: Israeli soldiers routinely shoot heads of injured Palestinians, court told

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs...a767-299185473

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Israel irked by UN criticism about illegal settlements

By David on 31 August 2016 GMT



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PRESS TV....

Israel irked by UN criticism about illegal settlements
Tue Aug 30, 2016 12:44PM



The picture taken on July 29, 2016 shows a general view of Israeli construction
cranes and excavators at the building site of new settler units in the illegal
settlement of Gilo in East Jerusalem al

‘Israel has reacted angrily to recent UN criticism about illegal settlement activities
by the Tel Aviv regime in the occupied Palestinians territories, describing the
brickbats as ridiculous.In a statement released on Tuesday, David Keyes, the
spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, branded the
comments by UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay
Mladenov as “absurd,” claiming that they “made peace harder to achieve by
distorting history and international law.”

On Monday, Mladenov told the UN Security Council that the expansion of Israeli
settlements has surged in the two months since a key report called for a halt to
such unauthorized construction activities in the Palestinian lands.’

Read more: Israel irked by UN criticism about illegal settlements

http://presstv.ir/Detail/2016/08/30/...kolay-Mladenov

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Israel demolishes nine more Palestinian structures in West Bank

By David on 31 August 2016 GMT



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PRESS TV...

Tue Aug 30, 2016 4:59AM


A Palestinian boy walks past a pile of rubble after Israeli military forces demolished
a building in the village of Sebastia, near the occupied West Bank city of Nablus,
August 9, 2016

read more....

http://presstv.ir/Detail/2016/08/30/...lil-Maazi-Jaba

[Cidersomerset]

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=_SzOYHV1vX0

" Great movie Hill' "

" Geronimo , good name for the op. We murdered him as well didn't we " ?

" No he died of pneumonia in captivity , you're thinking of Crazy Horse Ba' "








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The Clinton Plan to Destroy Russia

By David on 1 September 2016 GMT



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



Clinton Plan to Destroy Russia

Aug 31, 2016

‘Leaked emails are filling in the picture of a Bill-and-Hillary-Clinton plan to destroy
Russia — a plan which had originated with U.S. President George Herbert Walker
Bush in 1990, and which has been followed through both by his son George W. Bush,
and by both of the Clintons, but which has only recently started to become documented
by leaked publications of personal communications amongst the key operatives who
were the insiders running this operation behind the scenes, and who include Bill Clinton,
Hillary Clinton, George W. Bush, Victoria Nuland, Jeffrey Feltman, Saudi Prince Bandar
bin Sultan al-Saud, Saudi Crown Prince Muhammed bin Salman al-Saud, and the Emir of Qatar.’

Read more: The Clinton Plan to Destroy Russia

http://rinf.com/alt-news/breaking-ne...estroy-russia/

[Hervé]

Flores: Turkey's Syria Gambit is 4GW at its finest [Interview]

- J. Arnoldski interviews J. Flores - September 1st, 2016 - Fort Russ News -

Turkey's seizure of multiple villages from the so-called "Syrian Democratic Forces," i.e., US-backed Kurds has put into question the fate of Kurdish forces in and around Aleppo. What's more, discussion has opened as to whether or not Damascus and Ankara have reached a deal trading "Kurds and terrorists for Aleppo," thus heightening cooperation between the two countries in attaining strategic objectives which were diametrically opposed just several months ago.

Analysts have been split in their assessments of Euphrates Shield operation and its implications for Turkish-Russian rapprochement and the dynamics on the ground in Syria. While some appraised Turkey's adventure, its involvement of "FSA" forces, and its supposed backing by the US coalition represented by Joe Biden as signs of post-coup Turkish treachery, others suggested that the campaign could not have begun, much less advanced so far, without coordination and at least tacit agreement with Damascus, Moscow, and Tehran.

Arnoldski: The question begs itself; why is it that analysts cannot agree on the nature and scope of the Turkish incursion?

Flores: We have to step outside of conventional thinking. It's too easy to forget how information works in warfare. Information is written consciously by people, it's interpreted by people. Information is created to be interpreted a certain way.

There are events, facts. And then there's interpretation. Which facts you look at, and which facts you even have access to, these are separate questions. But the map is never the terrain. Whether your map features mountain ranges or bathroom stops, these are value judgments. Value judgments and reality are not the same thing.

There is of course a lot of 'fog of war' stuff that we can attribute to the first day or so of the Turkish incursion, which is why I bit my lip and didn't want to give an opinion on the subject. I knew my opinion would be unpopular.

But there are more complex reasons why its virtually impossible to give a definitive answer here.

We know that in 4GW, the point is that the way we perceive the reality also creates the reality. And how we can misperceive things is part of the strategy.

Public analysts may forget that analysis, public analysis, and also think tank analysis written only for officials, is part of the war.

If there is a lot of confusion and disagreement over the nature of the Russian-Turkish rapprochement, if that's even happening at all, and how to interpret Syria in light of that - then good.

Imagine how confused and confusing intelligence gathering is operating right now. You have not only analysts but various pillars in each of the societies or states that have made official and semi-official statements. Let's face it, they are all conflicting.

So we enter into a sort of Rorschach blot and confirmation bias reality. Whatever your operating thesis was going into this event, that will determine precisely how you interpret the events. The facts have been intentionally set up and placed a certain way, precisely so that there's something for everyone's bias. This is intentional.

Arnoldski: So how do US attempts to contain the situation in view of their own biased reality affect the overall arrangement? Was Biden's visit actually meant to play a part in obfuscating the turn of events?

Flores: Yes and no. Everything is obfuscation. We have to begin on a footing of humility. We have to know that we do not know.

Now imagine Biden's visit with Erodgan on the cusp of the Turkish invasion, incursion, however you want to term it. Of course Biden went in there with something to offer. There was this failed coup attempt. The Americans, Biden comes in, and there's some degree of plausible deniability.

The US dissembles reality, they can play upon this perception they've promoted in media - it doesn't matter to what extent its true, perhaps it is, probably is, but here it doesn't matter - they've promoted this idea that the pentagon, the White House, and the CIA are at odds over a few things. Biden says, look, it was these other guys trying to stage the coup. He plays up this perception.

But Biden received a cold reception at the airport. He was met by a relatively low level public official. Ankara's displeasure was clear. Or at least that's what they wanted to project. Everyone's putting everyone together. It's multiple realities running in tandem. Erdogan can tell Biden, hey we are going to make it look like we are really upset with you, so your reception will 'appear' cold. At the same time, in reality, others are expecting that Erdogan give Biden a cold reception - and that's what is produced.

Everything is symbolic, and it means things to people looking for meanings. But in reality we are dealing with seasoned politicians, they are masters. Nothing means anything. Nothing is personal. ''You tried to kill me, but I'm still here. It doesn't bother me, let's make a deal."

Arnoldski: Did Erdogan 'buy' what Biden was selling?

Flores: Probably not. The only reason his plane didn't get shot down was Russian intel that they shared with him.

Understanding how these things go down means understanding how deals work. You also have to understand human nature and what bull**** smells like. Sometimes you pretend you've made a deal, so that the other guy doesn't see you as a problem, so he doesn't go home trying to figure out the next way to get at you. So, you shake hands, 'yes we have a deal'. But was there a deal?

I'd say that Biden probably left that day believing that Erdogan at least partly went for the US's explanation of the coup, and he knew that Turkey was going to make an incursion, and that it was going to be somewhat beneficial to the US.

Erdogan would have been clear that the US wouldn't like everything about it, but you know in a way 'tough ****' because 'you guys tried to overthrow me', even if Biden is saying it was the other American guys and not Team Obama.

At the same time, everyone is gaming each other, and setting up for the possible double-cross in the event that they think they are going to be double-crossed. So, they may just preemptively double-cross. So the whole situation is fluid. It's set up precisely so that everything can turn on a dime. Those are your own internal games. 'I have no way to confirm that'. So you just chalk that up to irrelevance.

But at the same time, Erdogan was convincing enough to Biden that this would be in America's interest. It's a typical con game. ''Look'', said Erdogan, ''You're going to see Damascus flip **** about this. You want to see if they are happy about it? Ask them, see how they respond." So of course Damascus is on point for this script, and ready to flip **** about it.

Of course Damascus can't just welcome an illegal incursion in their country. They can't 'invite' Turkey in like they did with Russia, because Turkey can't be seen as doing so to the US, Turkey wants to pursue a multi-vectored foreign policy and have as much plausible deniability as possible.

And think about now how much public resources have gone since this war started, and how much momentum there is now, on this anti-Turkey and anti-Erdogan thing among Syrians and the pro-Syrian activist crowd internationally. It's tremendous. You can't just 'welcome' Turkey.

And what happens if they go out of bounds, or flip the script and really do the US's dirty work? Then you as the Syrian state have lost all legitimacy. Assad can't just welcome Erdogan in.

And Erdogan still has to maintain the official line about regime change, at least for now until the situation matures a bit. Otherwise he looks very weak to his constituency, and to the Islamists of the Muslim Brotherhood he supports and who back him. They helped do the dirty work in the streets to put down this coup. He can't just do them dirty, at least not so fast.

Arnoldski: And the Kurds?

Flores: Turkey has problems with the Kurds, but Syria has to denounce the incursions - these Kurds, even if they are up in arms, are still Syrian citizens. And moreover, Damascus may need to patch things up with them in the future. In fact they will. Damascus doesn't need to 'welcome' any attack on Kurds from the Turks. Syria's problems with Kurds are not the same as Turkey's. There's no reason for them to become the same issue.

Maybe the Turks want to genocide the Kurds. Maybe they don't. But these are Kurds that any unitary Syrian state will have to live with, and will require support from. Not the present Kurdish leadership perhaps, but Kurdish people and new representatives. Well, welcoming in this incursion where now Turks may violently suppress Kurds as a general category, well that's not going to fly so well in the near term future history. So the Syrians have to officially oppose all of this.

The Syrians always had to treat these Kurds with kid gloves. The Kurds have the least intel outside the region. They have no real friends. They have all bad information, they are in the dark. In geostrategic terms, they are retarded. The US has been playing them for stupid, getting them to fight against ISIS whom the US also arms through its proxies and allies.

The game here was to have ISIS retreat and 'melt away' with Kurdish advances, in reality to weaken Damascus and fragment Syria. Will the Kurds ever understand how they were played? Only history will tell. But they won't listen to any Damascus later on, if Damascus welcomed the Turkish incursion.

So of course Damascus's role in the script says they have to denounce the incursion. Whether the incursion was welcome or unwelcome, in either event, they would have to denounce it. In fact I'd be more prone to think it was unwelcome if they had publicly welcomed it. See how that works?

Arnoldski: Are the Americans backing the Turks, the Kurds, or ISIS then right now?

Flores: They think they're backing all of them, sure, right now, why not? The Turks objectively have the most agency and the most objective capacity to make their own policy. ISIS is entirely reliant on US and Israeli proxies in the region, and the Kurdish YPG wouldn't be where it is without the US.

But the Americans want to have some control over this Turkey incursion. At least they need to appear to. That will also cause more confusion. So the Americans can call this a victory. They desperately need a victory right now. A lot is on the line here. But the Americans can run several confusing scripts too. The neocons can call it a victory. But the other pillars will be more sympathetic to Kurds.

The Russians may have a deal with the Turks in Syria. They certainly have deals in the works, or at least both agree to pretend to, in energy markets. And this Syria war is all about the gas pipelines and Israel's conflict with Iran. Anyone who forgets this or thinks this is about 'Neo-Ottomanism' of Erdogan has not only lost the script, but never had it.

After all, Erdogan's probably assured Biden that this will be partly in their interest. It will at least create new facts on the ground and shake things up. Sometimes new facts and a shake up is all you need to get through a strategic impasse. It's adding in that 'X' factor, a new variable that changes the equation. It may not be immediately apparent in which way the variables changed, but no matter what, it changes the game.

So the Americans want to make sure the 'right' message about this is sent, and they offer support for the operation. ''Sure, great'', says Erdogan. So yes the Americans and the Turks had a deal. But what's in a deal?

The more that the Americans appear to turn against the Kurds, and support most of Turkey's moves, the more that it makes the Russians scratch their heads. ''Have we been played?'' Of course not all Russians, but we are talking about various analytic circles and advisory councils. A thing to keep in mind is that all of the states involved are connected to basically market based economic models. This involves a lot of speculation. And 'democracy' is a lot like speculation also, its easy to lose support. Even if your plan is solid, the opponent can create the simulacrum that your plan isn't solid. Then you lose support. Then your plan is no longer solid. Then you lose investors.

In that respect, analysis not only interprets the world, but under conditions of 4GW, analysis creates the world.

Arnoldski: Do you have any idea what the actual plan is? Or who said what to whom? Looking at whether Turkey has the deal with Russia and Syria, or with the US, which of these contending views are right?

Flores: Of course not, that's unrealistic. Right now, everyone is speculating. The analysts with integrity will always go back and say when they've learned something or revised their positions. But others, who are basically never right about anything, and have consistently been wrong about Russia's moves in the past, seem emotionally driven to conclude that Russia is always making blunders. So that's their confirmation bias. Or they are speaking to the confirmation bias of their targeted audience.

The role of analysts isn't to be 'right'. Or 'wrong'. This is like some reality TV conception of analytic work. Analysts have different specialties and they approach the same question with different perspectives. Other analysts, generalists, have to sort through these opinions. Even 'wrong' opinions are very valuable, because we can trace these to certain lines of thought, or we can analyze 'why' they are wrong, which produces positive data. Analysts who get things 'wrong' are very valuable. And right and wrong, doesn't properly asses the work being done. A conclusion may be wrong, but the methodology is right. Would you rather have a broken clock that tells the right time twice a day, or a working clock that ticks every second perfectly, but is slow by a few hours and random minutes? Those are two different ways to be wrong. Methodology can be very good, but premise or conclusions wrong. So even apparently wrong analysis may have very sound logic, or it may introduce facts and methods of approaching the problem which are very useful.

Continue below.

[Hervé]

Continued from above:

Also, in the public sphere, not talking private analytic work directly for unpublished documents at the governmental or quasi-governmental level, but in the public sphere, some analysts are actually doing intelligence type work. They are promoting wrong views to give an impression that such and such pillar within a society views something a certain way. It's obfuscation. It's part of the war itself.

In reality, nobody knows what anybody said to each other behind closed doors. Even decades later when these guys write their autobiographies from the retirement home, they are going to tell the history in the way they want it remembered, or how they think people should remember it.

So you can't even really interpret these events without a lens to see it through, but that lens is going to sway you.

We aren't naturalists observing animals in the wild. We are people observing people who know they are being observed. They are sending signals to the observers precisely so that our interpretations of their actions and statements can be read a certain way.

We don't approach this using Ockham's razor. The most elegant theory is least likely to be the correct one. Tremendous resources go into creating the most confusing and inelegant, anti-rational narrative possible - that's how you dissemble reality and confuse the opponent. The more twists and turns you can create without confusing yourself or your actual allies, the better.

Arnoldski: How do the Syrians want to be read in all of this?

Flores: They want to be read different ways by different people. There are lots of important Syrians, way up, that are just pissed as **** at Erdogan for this whole war. Lots of emotions are tied up in this, and rightfully so. Same goes for the world of analysts who tend on the emotional side, and are attached to their own views.

That's why I always try to be detached, just lay out what's happening. There was always a lot of vilification of Erdogan in the anti-Imperialist milieu. You'll notice there aren't many if any moralizing adjectives when I describe geopolitical events. When I describe the liberal ideology, sure, yes - I can get polemical. But I have fun doing this.

The Syrians can't be read as inviting the Turks, even if they are. That's for sure. For reasons I've laid out, if you want to even try to start to figure this tangled mess out - and you never will fully - at least understand that 'evidence' such as Syria's public statements about Turkey, is in fact evidence of nothing.

Arnoldski: To clarify then, the entire personification of this controversy as one between Erdogan and Putin, or Erdogan and Assad is part of the problem?

Flores: I've never described actions, whether Putin's or Erdogan's, as being rooted somehow in certain highly personalized proclivities. Instead, I look at the forces of geopolitical and geostrategic gravity operating on them. And sometimes these 'gravity wells' have been placed under them precisely to get them to act a certain way.

Turkey has been acting along the rational actor model this whole time, since before the start of this. They wanted a Persian pipeline deal with Iran over ten years ago. Israel wanted to isolate Iran because Iran also came up just like Israel did when Iraq was dismantled the first time 15 years ago. Israel and the neo-cons were warning about Iran - not the Iran that was - but the Iran that is in the making, in part because of the dynamics of Iraq under US occupation and after. We are talking concrete things like political support from Shias suppressed by Sadam, water and oil rights, etc.

So Turkey always wanted normal, even decent ties, with Iran. They wanted to build this pipeline. It's politically incorrect to connect more dots regarding Russia's line on this, so at this point even my own job says to shut up, so I will.

But if people got wrapped up in thinking that Putin lacked resolve, or that Erdogan was 'deceitful', then they've basically violated some of the basic tenets of analysis in IR, and have moved into psychoanalysis and the 'great man' view of history. Yes, psychology of leaders plays a role. And in cases of an actually absolutist state, the psychology of the leader plays a bigger role. Even here though, an absolutist 'despot' can be rational and humble himself in light of smarter views from advisors.

But there are also advisors working for all the states involved, and people whose job it is within an administration to play devil's advocate, disagree, and other things to avoid Abilene paradox and group think situations. This is public administration 101.

Arnoldski: That being said, where is the real "deal" here? Once the 4GW intentions are sorted out, what deal and with who could this Turkish operation be revolving around?

Flores: The situation is meant to be fluid, and this is Turkey's initiative, post coup-attempt. This is specifically designed for us NOT to understand it, and we won't really know until the dust has settled.

Turkey's operation revolves around Turkey. I know this sounds circular, but it will make sense if I can explain.

But first let me say that no one's strategic culture should be underestimated, not the Iranians, not the Americans, not the Russians, and not the Turks. No one's.

I don't like forecasting, I prefer summarizing events that have happened. Rational actor model is normally always the best. Always respect the intelligence and rationality of people clearly quite intelligent and capable of coming to power in complex societies. They may have giant egos, but that alone will not get them far. In fact, an unchecked one will normally preclude them from getting past a certain level. The rational actor model is the most humble and least arrogant, and most in tune with reality.

There's always some analyst somewhere out there who thinks he's smarter or a better planner than all of the hundreds or thousands of analysts of all the institutions, working on complex and interconnected policy questions, for that society's government and academic institutions. They believe they know better than people who are privy to inside and top-secret information. I can't explain it. It's tremendous hubris. I want no part of that, no backseat driving. I don't have the answers. The real inside baseball can only start to be unwrapped after the fact.

But if pushed to give an opinion, I will give one. We do happen to have access to political channels inside of Turkey, and Russia, some important pillars in the process of being rehabilitated in Turkey connected to some Kemalists, as well as in Russia to some of Putin's advisers and supporters, working in the realm of information. Those who know of our other projects will understand this.

I think Turkey wants to break away from its unilateral commitments to the US and NATO, and have a security policy which is more inline with its economic and developmental policy in the region.

I think Turkey would like good relations with the US, pursuing a multilateral and multi-vectored foreign policy, and so also be able to engage in energy markets as a partner with Iran, to sell to Europe and the Balkans. They want good relations with Russia, in the area of developing energy and transport hubs, and of course they are the two powers which share the ever important Black Sea.

Turkey requires agreement with Russia to resolve any number of issues in the Caucuses. These are not necessarily friendly agreements, but Turkey has an interest to at least be able to pursue its own foreign policy interests, whether with Russia or at odds with Russia, but at any rate on its own behalf as a sovereign state.

I assess that since the US seems bent on increasing hostilities with Russia, it is strategically unacceptable for Turkey to have nuclear weapons placed on Turkish soil which only the US has the ability to activate.

It makes no sense to be a walking target for a war that's not in your interest. Are there things that the US maybe could have done to make Turkey have a greater interest? Perhaps. Maybe these would do with the Black Sea and the Crimea, defense matters dealing with post-coup Ukraine. That that didn't pan well for the US.

Turkey's proximity to Russia makes it like Poland, a first strike target, and Poland is in a similar situation, but lacks the objective conditions to have an independent foreign policy, in the way that Turkey does.

Turkey is a regional hegemon in its own right and yet through unilateral policy, it has put itself in otherwise unnecessary peril. This has nothing to do with Erdogan the man. Erdogan inherited the present situation. I oppose the policies of that state when they should be opposed, and support them when they should be supported. Erdogan has come, and he will eventually leave - but Turkey's objective and special geostrategic and geopolitical position will remain.

Arnoldski: So what is your assessment of Turkey's position in the Syrian war in general?

Flores: In my humble opinion, Turkey was forced into this war not because 'Erdogan wants to do Washington's bidding'. Not because anyone wanted anything of that sort. Things just do not operate this way in reality.

Keep in mind what I've said about bias. I've tried to give my biases here - rational actor model, etc. But also you can see my view is that much of this is related to security, infrastructural development, and of course gas pipeline geopolitics.

So bearing that in mind, I think one scenario that is most likely, of all the scenarios I've considered, is this:

Turkey's interest in the war revolved around the completion of the AGP line into Turkey. But Syria led by Assad wouldn't allow this, because it cut seriously against Iran's interest.

But initially, Turkey wanted to do the deal, the Persian pipeline deal, with Iran.

But once Iran was under sanctions and Washington put the squash on the Persian pipeline, because the EU and Switzerland went along with the sanctions, it was clear that the Southern Corridor plan or Nabucco by itself would not produce enough to justify investment or expansion by the Turks.

The pressure from the US and Israel was then to complete the Arab Gas Pipeline that ended in Syria, onto Turkey. And Israel wanted to expand the Arish-Ashkelon connector as its stealing Palestinian gas and it sells through the AGP. Israel may have also wanted a separate line that doesn't go through Jordan, but directly goes from Egypt up all the way, because the Arish-Ashkelon connector isn't central and as a result can reverse flow back to Egypt without a disruption of the whole line. In fact its reverse flowing now to Egypt, now that there is an Egyptian government which won't allow itself to be energy starved at Israel's demand.

But the point of the AGP is that Syria would not only receive less gas, but the connection to Turkey would be completed, and hook up with existing Turkish lines, or be repackaged and sold to investors as part of a Southern Corrdior or Nabucco plan.

Several big signs that Turkey was trying to get out from under the gravity well placed beneath it, which had forced it on a war path with Syria, were these:

First, Syria began to win the war, and with Russia and China overtly involved, this is not going to change.

Second Russia and Turkey announced the Turkish stream - this is a hedge for Turkey against being committed to the AGP completion, and hence to the war effort in Syria.

Third, Turkey and Iran had a high level meeting just last March 5th at the Saadabad Palace in Tehran, where they agreed to a range of things relating to security and mutual economic development. It's important symbolically that it was Turkey that went to Tehran.

That's why the Iranian airbase situation with the Russians was such a big deal. The US cannot be given a free ticket to pressure the Swiss, or say that Iran is in violation of sanctions. The Swiss were heavily invested in this Persian pipeline, and they still want it. It's also good for Europe.

Fourth, the sanctions against Iran were partially lifted, and importantly so, the Swiss announced such. The Swiss are the largest European investor in the Persian pipeline. This means that an independent Turkey can return to the Persian pipeline.

Lastly, the coup in Turkey was backed by the US and sought to put into power precisely that pro-Israel and pro-US part of the NATO establishment in Turkey committed to the war in Syria. The US would have probably put in someone both the Gulenists, NATO, and the ruling AKP would support - former Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu - who was just fired by Erdogan last May.

That this coup failed, and that those involved were closest to Atlanticist power stuctures and were subsequently arrested, says a lot to me.

Therefore, I am forced to conclude, from the perspective of my own bias, and my limited understanding of a very complex world in which I can never know all the facts, that Turkey is for the first time operating in Turkey's interests. Not entirely, not purely, but by a tremendous factor more so than ever before in recent history. If that's neo-Ottomanism, then its neo-Ottomanism, so be it.

But in reality its about developing a policy based on what has always been the rule of thumb in diplomacy, to have as much good relations with as many states as possible, at any given time. Being obedient to NATO or a unilateralist policy, is the opposite of this rule of thumb.

Turkey will use its position in Syria to wrestle what it wants from Syria. Maybe this will include the completion of the AGP! But only if Iran also gets its connector to Turkey, and other guarantees from Turkey.

Arnoldski: What does this mean for the war as a whole, in conclusion?

Flores: At any rate, this whole war, if it can end soon as a result of Turkey's change of position, besides the human tragedy to date, will be studied for generations to come as the product of states like Turkey tied to irrational alliances forced upon them by the US and Israel, which created conflict that could have been avoided. If Turkey can play a role in ending this conflict in a way that is in the interests of Turkey, but also Syria and Iran, then it will have ended in an acceptable way.

[Sophocles]

The US is pissing off everyone in northern Syria

By Benjamin Gilbert
August 30, 2016 | 7:50 pm
news.vice.com

When US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter asked Turkey on Monday to "stay focused" in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) and stop attacking US-backed Kurdish forces, Turkish officials responded with a suggestion of their own.

"Americans should revise their policy of supporting (the Kurdish-led force) at all costs," Turkish presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin said in a Turkish newspaper on Tuesday.

It was the latest rebuke to American damage-control efforts after US-backed Kurdish forces clashed with American NATO ally Turkey over the weekend. The Syrian Kurds blew up a Turkish tank in the north of Syria on Saturday, killing at least one soldier, and Turkish warplanes attacked Syrian Kurds the following day, killing at least 35 people.

Experts on the region say the US has mismanaged its relationships with allies who have wildly differing objectives in Syria. And this, says Robert Ford, the last US ambassador to Syria, has created a quagmire that could have been avoided.

"We managed to make everyone angry at us: The Syrian kurds, the larger Syrian opposition, as well as the Turks," said Ford, who is now a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute.

Ford said this is partly because the US failed to communicate the limits of its support to the Syrian Kurds. Before Turkey launched an unprecedented offensive, code-named "Operation Euphrates Shield," into northern Syria last week. US Vice President Joe Biden visited Turkey and publicly announced that the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, would need to withdraw to the east of the Euphrates River, as Ankara had requested, or the US would no longer support them.

"If the vice president has to say that in Turkey, there's a problem," Ford said. "That message should have been clear to [the SDF] long before the VP got to Turkey."

The Turks made clear their offensive had two aims: to drive IS militants away from their border with Syria, and to prevent Syrian Kurds from linking together the two autonomous zones under their control in order to create a large, semi-independent statelet in northern Syria. One of Turkey's biggest national security fears is that Syrian Kurdish gains will feed Turkish Kurds' aspirations for an autonomous zone of their own in Turkey's southeast, where the Kurds are engaged in a war against the Turkish government.

Ford says he warned President Barack Obama's administration in 2014 and 2015 not to support the Kurds due to the problems it would cause with Turkey and other Syrian opposition groups.

"What we have in the past five days is we are now harvesting something that we started sowing back in early 2015," said Ford, who resigned from the State Department in 2014 due to his disagreement with US Syria policy, particularly its refusal to arm what he said were Syria's moderate rebels.

According to Ford, the Obama administration feared it would violate international law if it armed forces that would in turn attack the government of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. And the Kurds didn't want to fight Assad, they wanted to fight the Islamic State — with the understanding that they could expand their own territory in the process.

And expand they did. The Kurds grew their territory by 50 percent as they drove off IS militants with help from US air support and advisors. They also lost hundreds of fighters in the process.

So it must have come as a shock to the Kurds when, just a few weeks after they fought a bloody battle to evict IS from the town of Manbij at America's request, Biden showed up in Turkey and said the Kurds would need to withdraw from the town in order to accommodate the Turks, says Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma.

"Of course the Kurds feel betrayed, and they were betrayed," he said. "I'm sure the US Special Forces who worked with the Kurds over the past two months are feeling very embarrassed, because they feel like they lied through their teeth as they gave encouragement to the Kurds to do the heavy lifting."

The question now, Landis says, is whether this will affect future US plans to use the Kurds as the tip of its anti-Islamic State spear, especially in the battle to take the group's de facto capital, Raqqa. The new US general in charge of the US war against IS has said the US and its allies intend to take Raqqa by next August — and the US is depending on its Kurdish allies to comprise the main ground fighting force in the effort.

Landis points out that the Kurds have no strategic interest in going to Raqqa since it's a Sunni Arab city far east of their territory.

"If this undermines the Kurdish will to go after ISIS, then our efforts to combat ISIS in Syria will be stalled," he said. "[If] the Kurds go back to their tents and sulk, any effort to send them to Raqqa is going to be seriously compromised."

Follow Benjamin Gilbert on Twitter: @benrgilbert

Source

[Sophocles]

Gülen movement ‘founded by CIA like the Mormons and Scientologists,’ says Turkish prosecutor

hurriyetdailynews.com
August/31/2016


REUTERS photo

A Turkish prosecutor probing the financial links of the Fethullah Gülen movement has said the organizational structure of the group is the same as the Mormon Church and the Church of Scientology in the United States, claiming that all three groups were founded by U.S. intelligence.

The CIA organizes these sects as non-governmental organizations in order “to make changes to society,” read the indictment prepared Zafer Dur, a prosecutor in the Aegean province of İzmir.

The system that the Gülenists have built over years up in the education, heath, political, technology and culture sectors aims at the same thing as these churches, Dur said.

He claimed that it would not be possible for a primary school graduate, 75-year-old Fethullah Gülen, who has been living in the U.S. since 1999, to have built up such a large organization and infiltrated vital state organizations through his own efforts and abilities.

“Without international backing, Gülen could not have opened schools in 160 countries,” Dur added.

The prosecutor also established a link between the arrest of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) leader in 1999 and Gülen moving to the U.S. in the same year.

“Investigative journalists have been reporting that [Gülenists] worked as contractors for foreign intelligence services such as the CIA, MI6 and BND and infiltrated into the intelligence services of other countries acting in the name of the services they worked for,” read the indictment.

It noted that the mysterious killings of journalists Necip Hablemitoğlu, Haydar Meriç and Aytunç Altındal, who wrote books on the issue, should be “carefully investigated.”

It also mentioned that journalist Ahmet Şık was arrested in 2011 before his book on Gülenists was published, while Hanefi Avcı and Nedim Şener, who wrote books on the issue, also spent time behind bars.

Source

[Cidersomerset]

The Arms trade hypocrisy ....The US and Russia are the biggest by far but many
other countries sell weapons....

Figures vary according to arms contracts etc , but on the whole the US has been top since WW11
after a lull after 1990 , Russia is not far behind. So the PTB behind the whole global theatre has
built up a balance between major blocks to facilitate a world war as opposed to regional conflicts
that has kept them in production thru most of the 20th and early 21 centuries to keep their power
control meme by creating order out of chaos scenarios......

TE INDEPENDENT....

The Defence and Security Equipment International Exhibition, the world’s biggest weapons fair, is due
to open in London next week.

http://indy100.independent.co.uk/art...rs--WktjmuA1Ul



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

Rolls-Royce will stop military production in Britain if profits cap imposed - CEO

By David on 2 September 2016 GMT



RT NEWS....


Rolls-Royce will stop military production in Britain if profits cap imposed - CEO


Published time: 1 Sep, 2016 11:28

Global engineering giant Rolls-Royce says it may stop providing military services in Britain
and move operations elsewhere after a government cap was placed on its UK profits.

Roll-Royce, which made part of the F-35 fighter and services the UK’s famous Red Arrows,
appeared to threaten to stop servicing the military altogether at the first whiff of state regulation.

The row developed after the UK’s military contract watchdog – the Single Source Regulations
Office (SSRO) – ordered the firm to remove £1.27 million (US$1.68 million) worth of charges
to service Hawk fighter jets.’

https://www.rt.com/uk/357879-rolls-r...ampaign=chrome

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

Another interesting discussion....

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=TX-PFn_gGm4

Published on 2 Sep 2016
Turning reality on its head. Candidate Hillary Clinton claims the woes of the world
are due to a vast alt-right conspiracy – and it is run out of Moscow. The fact is
western elites are in a panic. Publics and audiences around the world are no longer
convinced by the messages propagated by the corporate mainstream media.
CrossTalking with Matthew Gordon-Banks, Gilbert Doctorow, and Earl Rasmussen.

[Ewan]

Rolls Royce are German now, for whatever that matters.

[Cidersomerset]

Putin: Russia and US close to breakthrough deal on Syria

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=LcUNKLtkeDA

Published on 2 Sep 2016
President Putin has said that Russia and the US could be close to a breakthrough
deal on fighting terrorists in Syria. RT's Roman Kosarev has more on the conditions
and stumbling blocks of a possible agreement.

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

‘US has to belly dance between Turkey & Kurds’: American balancing act irks Ankara

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=phUYkUKv8xs

Published on 2 Sep 2016
Clashes between the Turks and Kurds intensified last week, after Turkey began a
large-scale military operation against Islamic State in the Syrian border town of
Jarabulus. Recently, the US stated that a ceasefire exists between Turkey and the
Kurds - something Ankara denies. RT's Gayane Chichakyan has the story.

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Still setbacks for government forces according to this report...

Syria: Army launches numerous air strikes after rebels make gains in major Hama offensive

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=uvYZqKUW2qk

[animovado]

Posted by Ewan (here)
Rolls Royce are German now, for whatever that matters.

It's just Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd. that's a part of BMW.