This page includes materials on US relations with the world, with a special focus on Northeast Asia and, inevitably, the Middle East. And so Britain is brought into it. And sometimes I stray further afield, when something catches my eye. Prior to 2005 it was called 'US and the world'

• Bipartisan Bombers: Republican and Democratic Candidates Defend Killing Civilians in Terror War
  by Stephen Zunes There has been a lot of consternation expressed in the media at a series of statements by Republican presidential candidates during their most recent debate and elsewhere in which a number of them appeared to be advocating the large-scale killing of civilians through aerial bombardment as a legitimate means of defeating the so-called “Islamic State.” (ISIS or IS) These statements did not simply rationalize military operations that result in large numbers of civilian deaths, which politicians in both parties have supported for decades, but actually advocate the killing of civilians as a legitimate tactic in counter-terrorism warfare. Let’s put aside for a moment the irony of killing innocent people as a means of fighting a terrorist group that kills innocent people and the fact that it would result in blowback that would almost certainly increase the threat of terrorist attacks against the United States. Such operations would constitute a flagrant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and other principles of international law to which the United States, like all governments and armed groups, is legally bound. Yet the three leading Republican candidates for president are not bothered about that. Donald Trump has called on killing families of terrorist suspects. Ted Cruz has called on “carpet bombing” Syrian cities controlled by IS and see if “sand can glow in the dark.” When moderator Hugh Hewitt asked Ben Carson, “So you are OK with the deaths of thousands of innocent children and civilians?” he responded, “You got it. You got it.” [Bombing] [Civilian]
• Why WWIII Is On The Horizon — Paul Craig Roberts
  Paul Craig Roberts December 28, 2015 The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 gave birth to a dangerous American ideology called neoconservativism. The Soviet Union had served as a constraint on US unilateral action. With the removal of this constraint on Washington, neoconservatives declared their agenda of US world hegemony. America was now the “sole superpower,” the “unipower,” that could act without restraint anywhere in the world. The Washington Post neoconservative journalist Charles Krauthammer summed up the “new reality” as follows: “We have overwheming global power. We are history’s designated custodians of the international system. When the Soviet Union fell, something new was born, something utterly new–a unipolar world dominated by a single superpower unchecked by any rival and with decisive reach in every corner of the globe. This is a stagering new development in history, not seen since the fall of Rome. Even Rome was no model for what America is today.” The staggering unipolar power that history has given to Washington has to be protected at all costs. In 1992 top Pentagon official Undersecretary Paul Wolfowitz penned the Wolfowitz Doctrine, which became the basis for Washington’s foreign policy. [Neocon] [US global strategy] [Russia confrontation]
• Spy agencies resist push for expanded scrutiny of top employees
  Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr., seen Dec. 17, was concerned about the workload, among other issues, that would have been generated by the original bill, officials said. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images) By Greg Miller December 29 ? U.S. intelligence agencies recently fought off a move by Congress to require the CIA and other spy services to disclose more details about high-ranking employees who have been promoted or fired, despite pledges to be more open and accountable. The disputed measure was designed to increase scrutiny of cases­ in which senior officers ascend to high-level positions despite problems ranging from abusive treatment of subordinates to involvement in botched operations overseas. The CIA in particular has come under sharp criticism in recent years for promoting operatives who faced investigations by the agency’s internal watchdog or the Justice Department for their roles in the brutal interrogations of prisoners or badly mishandled operations to capture terrorism suspects. [CIA] [Intelligence] [Governance]
• Leaked documents may reveal the inner workings of the Islamic State — but what if they are fake?
  By Adam Taylor December 30 at 1:57 PM This undated image posted on a militant website on Jan. 14, 2014, shows fighters from the Islamic State marching in Raqqa, Syria. (Militant website via AP) If you want to really understand the Islamic State and go beyond the propaganda, looking at the militant group's internal documents might be a good place to start. As the group expanded over the past year and attempted to turn into a functioning state, it released several internal orders and decrees that seek to organize this "caliphate." These documents offer a glimpse of not only the way the Islamic State organizes but also the anxiety and disorder in the group that lies under the surface. One example of this comes from documents that were recently revealed by Reuters and that appear to show the Islamic State decreeing who can have sex with captured enslaved women and who cannot. The documents showed that a bureaucracy appears to underpin even the most brutal acts committed by the group and hinted that some of the extreme behavior by its fighters led even the group's own religious authorities to balk. On the other hand, some experts believe that some purported Islamic State internal documents shared online are hoaxes, deliberately designed to deceive. These fakes are widespread enough that Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi, a young British analyst who has made a name for himself with his analysis of extremist activity, recently published his own "guide to Islamic State document hoaxes." [ISIS] [Disinformation]
• Foreign Ministry: Terrorism is outcome of generous support provided by countries like Turkey and Saudi Arabia to terrorist organizations
  Foreign and Expatriates Ministry 28 December 2015 Damascus, SANA – Foreign and Expatriates Ministry on Monday sent two letters to the UN Secretary-General and President of UN Security Council regarding the persistence of ISIS, Jabhat al-Nusra, and other terrorist organizations in committing crimes against civilians in Syrian cities. The Ministry said that terrorist organizations are targeting Syrian cities with suicide bombing and arbitrary shelling in a bid to disturb the state of tranquility and stability which had prevailed in several Syrian cities that witnessed successful national reconciliation efforts in recent days. The letters asserted that this terrorism is the result of the open and generous support in funds, arms, and munitions provided to terrorists by states like Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, who are complicit in the terrorist attacks carried out against the Syrian people. Foreign Ministry went on to say that on Monday, terrorist explosions took place in the cities of Aleppo and Homs, claiming the lives of many civilians, while the terrorist gangs of so- called “Jaish al-Islam”, sponsored by Saudi Arabia, targeted Damascus city with different forms of mortar and rocket shells. [Syria] [Outsourcing] [Saudi Arabia] [Turkey]
• The Dirty War on Syria: Washington Supports the Islamic State (ISIS)
  The Evidence By Prof. Tim Anderson Global Research, December 29, 2015 [Featured image: Head of US armed forces General Martin Dempsey, Senate Armed Forces Committee Chairman Senator Lindsey Graham and US Vice President Joe Biden have all admitted that their close regional allies (especially the Saudis, Qatar and Turkey) finance ISIS.] “It is always difficult to play a double game: declaring a fight against terrorists and simultaneously trying to use some to place pieces on the Middle Eastern chess board to pursue their own interests … [but do the] so-called moderate bandits behead people moderately?” – Vladimir Putin (2015) Reports that US and British aircraft carrying arms to ISIS were shot down by Iraqi forces (Iraqi News 2015) were met with shock and denial in western countries. Yet few in the Middle East doubt that Washington is playing a ‘double game’ with its proxy armies in Syria. A Yemeni AnsarAllah leader says ‘Wherever there is U.S. interference, there is al Qaeda and ISIS. It’s to their advantage’ (al-Bukaiti 2015). However key myths remain important, especially to western audiences. Engaging with those myths calls for reason and evidence, not just assertion. [ISIS] [Outsourcing]
• Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations, 2007-2014
  Catherine A. Theohary Specialist in National Security Policy and Information Operations Congressional Research Service December 21, 2015 This report provides Congress with official, unclassified, quantitative data on conventional arms transfers to developing nations by the United States and foreign countries for the preceding eight calendar years for use in its policy oversight functions. All agreement and delivery data in this report for the United States are government-to-government Foreign Military Sales (FMS) transactions. Similar data are provided on worldwide conventional arms transfers by all government suppliers, but the principal focus is the level of arms transfers by major weapons supplying governments to nations in the developing world. Developing nations continue to be the primary focus of foreign arms sales activity by weapons suppliers. During the years 2007-2010, the value of arms transfer agreements with developing nations comprised 74.4% of all such agreements worldwide. More recently, arms transfer agreements with developing nations constituted 75.5% of all such agreements globally from 2011-2014, and 86.0% of these agreements in 2014. The value of all arms transfer agreements with developing nations in 2014 was $61.8 billion. In 2014, the value of all arms deliveries to developing nations was $20.6 billion. Recently, from 2011 to 2014, the United States and Russia have dominated the arms market in the developing world, with both nations either ranking first or second for each of these four years in the value of arms transfer agreements. From 2011 to 2014, the United States made nearly $115 billion in such agreements, 46.3% of all these agreements (expressed in current dollars). Russia made $41.7 billion, 16.8% of these agreements. During this same period, collectively, the United States and Russia made 63.1% of all arms transfer agreements with developing nations, ($156.4 billion in current dollars). In 2014, the United States ranked first in arms transfer agreements with developing nations with $29.8 billion or 48.2% of these agreements. In second place was Russia with $10.1 billion or 16.3% of such agreements. In 2014, Russia ranked first in the value of arms deliveries to developing nations at $8.4 billion, or 40.8% of all such deliveries. The United States ranked second in these deliveries at over $7.6 billion or 27.2%. In worldwide arms transfer agreements in 2014—to both developed and developing nations—the United States dominated, ranking first with $36.2 billion in such agreements or 50.4% of all such agreements. Russia ranked second in worldwide arms transfer agreements in 2014 with $10.2 billion in such global agreements or 14.2%. The value of all arms transfer agreements worldwide in 2014 was $71.8 billion. In 2014, South Korea ranked first concluding $7.8 billion in agreements. Brazil ranked third in the value of arms transfer agreements among all developing nations weapons purchasers, concluding $6.5 billion in such agreements. Iraq ranked second with $7.3 billion in such agreements. [Arms sales] [Military balance]
• U.S. Foreign Arms Deals Increased Nearly $10 Billion in 2014
  By Nicholas Fandos Dec. 25, 2015 A United States-South Korea joint military exercise in Yeoncheon, northeast of Seoul. South Korea, a key American ally, was the world’s top weapons buyer in 2014, completing $7.8 billion in contracts. Credit Yonhap, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images WASHINGTON — Foreign arms sales by the United States jumped by almost $10 billion in 2014, about 35 percent, even as the global weapons market remained flat and competition among suppliers increased, a new congressional study has found. American weapons receipts rose to $36.2 billion in 2014 from $26.7 billion the year before, bolstered by multibillion-dollar agreements with Qatar, Saudi Arabia and South Korea. Those deals and others ensured that the United States remained the single largest provider of arms around the world last year, controlling just over 50 percent of the market. Russia followed the United States as the top weapons supplier, completing $10.2 billion in sales, compared with $10.3 billion in 2013. Sweden was third, with roughly $5.5 billion in sales, followed by France with $4.4 billion and China with $2.2 billion. South Korea, a key American ally, was the world’s top weapons buyer in 2014, completing $7.8 billion in contracts. It has faced continued tensions with neighboring North Korea in recent years over the North’s nuclear weapons program and other provocations. The bulk of South Korea’s purchases, worth more than $7 billion, were made with the United States and included transport helicopters and related support, as well as advanced unmanned aerial surveillance vehicles. [Arms sales] [Military balance]
• A year of Taliban gains shows that ‘we haven’t delivered,’ top Afghan official says
  The Washington Post traveled to the front lines of the fight against a Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan, the Marja district in Helmand province. (The Washington Post) By Sudarsan Raghavan December 27 at 4:43 PM ? MARJA, Afghanistan — As the Afghan convoy entered the battered village, Taliban fighters opened fire. U.S.-trained Afghan policemen poured out of their Humvees and began wildly shooting their AK-47 rifles in every direction. “The enemy is firing one bullet, and you are responding with dozens!” their commander, Col. Khalil Jawad, screamed into his radio in frustration. “Aim, then fire!” A minute later, the militants melted away. On this day in early December in the southern province of Helmand, they had delivered their message: The Taliban is back, its fighters showing a battle discipline and initiative far superior to the Afghan security forces trained and equipped by the United States. [Afghanistan] [Taliban]
• At least 60 people charged with terrorism-linked crimes this year — a record
  By Ellen Nakashima December 25 ? The Justice Department has charged at least 60 individuals this year with terrorism-related crimes, an unprecedented number that officials attribute to a heightened threat from the Islamic State and the influence of social media on potential recruits. Last week alone, prosecutors charged three people and convicted two others on terrorism-linked charges. One of those charged was Enrique Marquez Jr., a friend and neighbor of Syed Rizwan Farook, the male gunman who was killed in a firefight with police in the aftermath of the San Bernardino, Calif., shooting rampage this month. That terrorist attack killed 14 people. A second was Mohamed Elshinawy, a Maryland man accused of receiving at least $8,700 from the Islamic State overseas and planning to use the money to carry out attacks in the United States. He told prosecutors that a childhood friend had connected him through social media with an Islamic State operative. The third was Jalil Aziz, a Pennsylvania man who was arrested for allegedly providing material support to the Islamic State, by spreading its propaganda on social media and for seeking to help the group’s supporters travel to Syria to fight. Aziz also encouraged other Islamic State supporters he communicated with to use U.S.-based encrypted messaging applications, prosecutors said. [ISIS] [Blowback]
• Afghanistan's new phase
  Paul Rogers 23 December 2015 In the fourteenth year of Afghanistan's war, a resurging Taliban and expanding ISIS are forcing the west to react. The resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan has come as a surprise only in those countries, such as Britain, where the country as a whole is rarely covered in detail in the media. This routine paucity of information also helps explain the publicity surrounding the news that a small group of UK advisers is joining 300 Nato personnel in Helmand province. This is part of an emergency response to a sudden threat of Taliban takeovers of the district centre of Sangin, and possibly even the provincial capital of Laskhar Gar. Sangin has already largely fallen to Taliban militias but Nato has reportedly despatched special-forces units, including some British, to try and hold on to at least part of the town. For the British army the Sangin district is especially symbolic because of the loss of 106 lives there from 2006-10. This is nearly a quarter of the entire UK losses in the thirteen-year deployment that ended in 2014, when David Cameron made his extraordinary “mission accomplished” claim. [Afghanistan]
• Veteran Intelligence Officials Call for Proof on Syria-Sarin Attack
  By Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity Global Research, December 23, 2015 Consortium News 22 December 2015 MEMORANDUM FOR: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, and Foreign Minister of Russia Sergey Lavrov FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) SUBJECT: Sarin Attack at Ghouta on Aug. 21, 2013 In a Memorandum of Oct. 1, 2013, we asked each of you to make public the intelligence upon which you based your differing conclusions on who was responsible for the sarin chemical attack at Ghouta, outside Damascus on Aug. 21, 2013. On Dec. 10, 2015, Eren Erdem, a member of parliament in Turkey, citing official documents, blamed Turkey for facilitating the delivery of sarin to rebels in Syria. Mr. Kerry, you had blamed the Syrian government. Mr. Lavrov, you had described the sarin as “homemade” and suggested anti-government rebels were responsible. Each of you claimed to have persuasive evidence to support your conclusion. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Aug. 30, 2013, claims to have proof that the Syrian government was responsible for a chemical weapons attack on Aug. 21, but that evidence failed to materialize or was later discredited. [State Department photo] Neither of you responded directly to our appeal to make such evidence available to the public, although, Mr. Lavrov, you came close to doing so. In a speech at the UN on Sept. 26, 2013, you made reference to the views we presented in our VIPS Memorandum, Is Syria a Trap?, sent to President Obama three weeks earlier. Pointing to strong doubt among chemical weapons experts regarding the evidence adduced to blame the government of Syria for the sarin attack, you also referred to the “open letter sent to President Obama by former operatives of the CIA and the Pentagon,” in which we expressed similar doubt. Mr. Kerry, on Aug. 30, 2013, you blamed the Syrian government, publicly and repeatedly, for the sarin attack. But you failed to produce the kind of “Intelligence Assessment” customarily used to back up such claims. We believe that this odd lack of a formal “Intelligence Assessment” is explained by the fact that our former colleagues did not believe the evidence justified your charges and that, accordingly, they resisted pressure to “fix the intelligence around the policy,” as was done to “justify” the attack on Iraq. Intelligence analysts were telling us privately (and we told the President in our Memorandum of Sept. 6, 2013) that, contrary to what you claimed, “the most reliable intelligence shows that Bashar al-Assad was not responsible for the chemical incident that killed and injured Syrian civilians on August 21.” This principled dissent from these analysts apparently led the White House to create a new art form, a “Government Assessment,” to convey claims that the government in Damascus was behind the sarin attack. It was equally odd that the newly minted genre of report offered not one item of verifiable evidence. [Sarin] [False flag]
• Seymour Hersh report on Syria: White House knew US was arming Islamic State
  By Andrew V. Pestano Dec. 28, 2015 at 9:22 AM Journalist Seymour Hersh writes in the London Review of Books that the Obama administration's Syria policy has sparked dissent at the Pentagon. File photo by Giorgio Montersino/Flickr WASHINGTON, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- Pulitzer-prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh reports that the administration of President Barack Obama, in particular the CIA, has knowingly armed militant Islamists in Syria, including the Islamic State. "Barack Obama's repeated insistence that Bashar al-Assad must leave office -- and that there are 'moderate' rebel groups in Syria capable of defeating him -- has in recent years provoked quiet dissent, and even overt opposition, among some of the most senior officers on the Pentagon's Joint Staff," Hersh writes in the London Review of Books. "Their criticism has focused on what they see as the administration's fixation on Assad's primary ally, Vladimir Putin. In their view, Obama is captive to Cold War thinking about Russia and China, and hasn't adjusted his stance on Syria to the fact both countries share Washington's anxiety about the spread of terrorism in and beyond Syria; like Washington, they believe that Islamic State must be stopped." Hersh writes that a highly classified 2013 Defense Intelligence Agency/Joint Chiefs of Staff report on Syria forecast that the fall of the Assad regime would lead to "chaos" and possibly to Islamist extremists taking over Syria. Hersh reports that Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, director of the DIA between 2012 and 2014, told him that his agency sent a "constant stream" of warnings to the "civilian leadership" about the dire consequences of ousting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. [US Syria policy] [Civil-military]
• Sitrep Afghanistan: Bad, Getting Worse
  by Robert Fisk The news from Afghanistan is very bad. No one says that, of course. President Ghani has a “national unity government” that “supports a strong partnership with the United States”, according to Barack Obama two months ago. Sure, Kunduz was captured by the Taliban – but then the Afghans got it back (though minus one American-bombed hospital, along with most of its patients and doctors). Sure, Sangin was captured by the Taliban – but now the Afghan army is fighting to get it back. But didn’t more than a hundred British soldiers die to hold Sangin? Sure, but American troops in Iraq died to hold and keep Mosul – and Mosul is now the home of the Isis leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. And US troops in Iraq died to capture Fallujah, then lost it, and died all over again to recapture it – and Fallujah is now in the hands of Isis. [Afghanistan]
• Seymour Hersh's Latest Bombshell: U.S. Military Undermined Obama on Syria with Tacit Help to Assad
  December 22, 2015 NEXT: Sy Hersh: Backing Assad's Ouster, Has Hillary Clinton Forgotten the Lessons of Iraq & Libya? Seymour Hersh Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist in Washington, D.C. His latest piece in the London Review of Books is titled "Military to Military: US Intelligence Sharing in the Syrian War." Hersh is working on a book about Dick Cheney’s vice presidency. A new report by the Pulitzer-winning veteran journalist Seymour Hersh says the Joint Chiefs of Staff has indirectly supported Bashar al-Assad in an effort to help him defeat jihadist groups. Hersh reports the Joint Chiefs sent intelligence via Russia, Germany and Israel on the understanding it would be transmitted to help Assad push back Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State. Hersh also claims the military even undermined a U.S. effort to arm Syrian rebels in a bid to prove it was serious about helping Assad fight their common enemies. Hersh says the Joint Chiefs’ maneuvering was rooted in several concerns, including the U.S. arming of unvetted Syrian rebels with jihadist ties, a belief the administration was overly focused on confronting Assad’s ally in Moscow, and anger the White House was unwilling to challenge Turkey and Saudi Arabia over their support of extremist groups in Syria. Hersh joins us to detail his claims and respond to his critics. [US Syria Policy] [Pentagon] [Dissension] [Civil-military]
• Sy Hersh: Backing Assad's Ouster, Has Hillary Clinton Forgotten the Lessons of Iraq & Libya?
  December 22, 2015 Seymour Hersh Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist in Washington, D.C. His latest piece in the London Review of Books is titled "Military to Military: US Intelligence Sharing in the Syrian War." Hersh is working on a book about Dick Cheney’s vice presidency. Links London Review of Books: Seymour Hersh, “Military to Military” At Saturday’s Democratic presidential debate, front-runner Hillary Clinton rejected what she called a "false choice" between defeating the Islamic State and overthrowing Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. "We will not get the support on the ground in Syria to dislodge ISIS if the fighters there who are not associated with ISIS, but whose principal goal is getting rid of Assad, don’t believe there is a political, diplomatic channel that is ongoing," Clinton said. Rivals Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley disagreed, saying it is not for the U.S. to decide Assad’s fate. "I think there should be learning curves for people with that kind of power," Hersh says of Clinton. "I think what happened in Libya should have instructed anybody in the government, including the president, that when you depose a dictator, you have to be aware of what’s going to come next, and you have to think long and hard about what you’re doing. I think, by any standard, getting rid of Gaddafi has proven to be a horrible event. It was a terrible decision, and we seem not to have learned enough from it." [US Syria policy] [Outsourcing] [Hersh] [Liberal]
• ‘The Iran-Iraq War,’ by Pierre Razoux
  By Graeme Wood Dec. 29, 2015 The war between Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and Ruhollah Khomeini’s Iran ended 27 years ago, before most of today’s Iraqis and Iranians were alive. Many of today’s Americans were pretty young then, too — certainly too young to remember the glee with which United States policy makers watched the war, an eight-year storm of steel that killed as many as a million people and exhausted two unsavory regimes. The most famous line about the war is also the most fatuous. Henry Kissinger is said to have remarked that it was “a shame there can only be one loser.” In fact, they both lost: Few modern wars have so thoroughly broken, traumatized and destroyed both sides, and few have turned out to have had such disfiguring effects on the region or on American foreign policy. The war started small. In September 1980, Saddam Hussein began invading and annexing Iranian territory, in a move that foreshadowed his annexation of Kuwait a decade later. Khomeini, still fresh in the role of Iran’s head of state, fought back and eventually seized bits of Iraq. For Hussein, the prizes included Iranian oil fields in the Arab southwest; for Khomeini, Shiite shrines in Iraq. At various points, the war became a duel of bombers trading sorties over Baghdad, Tehran and other cities; a naval battle over control of Persian Gulf tanker traffic and port access; and an old-school trench war, with exchanges of territory measured in hundreds of feet. [Iran Iraq war] [US Middle East policy]
• Special Report: Pentagon thwarts Obama's effort to close Guantanamo
  WASHINGTON | By Charles Levinson and David Rohde In September, U.S. State Department officials invited a foreign delegation to the Guantanamo Bay detention center to persuade the group to take detainee Tariq Ba Odah to their country. If they succeeded, the transfer would mark a small step toward realizing President Barack Obama's goal of closing the prison before he leaves office. The foreign officials told the administration they would first need to review Ba Odah's medical records, according to U.S. officials with knowledge of the episode. The Yemeni has been on a hunger strike for seven years, dropping to 74 pounds from 148, and the foreign officials wanted to make sure they could care for him. For the next six weeks, Pentagon officials declined to release the records, citing patient privacy concerns, according to the U.S. officials. The delegation, from a country administration officials declined to identify, canceled its visit. After the administration promised to deliver the records, the delegation traveled to Guantanamo and appeared set to take the prisoner off U.S. hands, the officials said. The Pentagon again withheld Ba Odah's full medical file. Today, nearly 14 years since he was placed in the prison and five years since he was cleared for release by U.S. military, intelligence and diplomatic officials, Ba Odah remains in Guantanamo. In interviews with multiple current and former administration officials involved in the effort to close Guantanamo, Reuters found that the struggle over Ba Odah's medical records was part of a pattern. Since Obama took office in 2009, these people said, Pentagon officials have been throwing up bureaucratic obstacles to thwart the president's plan to close Guantanamo. [Dissension] [Civil-military]
• 2015 PacNet newsletter index
  Dec 28, 2015 The comprehensive 2015 index of each PacNet newsletter is listed below, with hyperlinks. The Pacific Forum CSIS will continue to publish timely insight and analysis in 2016.
• Turkish ‘traitor’ MP’s revelations on sarin transfers must be probed, reported to UNSC – Moscow
  Published time: 26 Dec, 2015 04:54 A U.N. chemical weapons expert, wearing a gas mask, holds a plastic bag containing samples from one of the sites of an alleged chemical weapons attack in the Ain Tarma neighbourhood of Damascus August 29, 2013. © Mohamed Abdullah / Reuters 1.5K Russia has expressed hope that a joint OPCW-UN investigation of deadly sarin attacks in Syria will not ignore reports from a Turkish MP, who faces charges of treason for exposing Ankara’s alleged role in hiding ISIS-bound shipments of gas precursors. TrendsIslamic State, Syria unrest The so-called Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) consolidated the efforts of the UN and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) with a mandate to identify people involved in the use of chemicals weapons in Syria under the Security Council resolution 2118. “This specialized mechanism should thoroughly investigate the information provided by the Turkish parliamentarian in accordance with its mandate, and report back to the UN Security Council,” Ministry’s spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement The parliamentarian in question – Eren Erdem of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) – was accused of “betrayal” by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after telling the media that the Islamic State terrorists in Syria received all necessary materials to produce deadly sarin gas via Turkey. Erdem revived concerns regarding a possible cover-up following the sudden termination of a local criminal case in Adana into the illegal shipments. Furthermore, Erdem argued that the West purposefully blamed the government of Bashar Assad for the August 2013 chemical attack in Ghouta that was used as part of the pretext to make US military intervention in Syria possible. [Turkey] [Sarin] [cbw]
• What really happened to the U.S. train-and-equip program in Syria?
  Highlights Participants’ descriptions suggest trainees and trainers never agreed on mission Inserted back into Syria, trainees’ first act was to take two weeks off There were arguments and walkouts over goals, escorts, food supplies, expenses By Roy Gutman Reyhanli, Turkey — When the first group of Syrians from a U.S.-trained force intended to combat the Islamic State crossed into their country from Turkey in mid-July, they arrived in uniform carrying M16 rifles, mortars and flak vests. But they had no expense money, little food and no clear idea of how they, just 54 men, were to do battle against the extremists. Most had been in near-total isolation during their two months of training in Turkey and Jordan, and they wanted to see their families, many of whom had been under heavy government bombardment. And it was Ramadan, a month of fasting, so they voted to take a two-week break, according to their elected commander, a former Syrian army lieutenant colonel, Amin Ibrahim. Disaster struck when the break was over and they were headed back to their base. On July 29, a day after U.S. aircraft had attacked an outpost of the Nusra Front, al Qaida’s Syrian affiliate, Nusra seized Col. Nedim Hassan – the commander of Division 30, the rebel unit in which the trainees were to be embedded – along with seven of his men. [US Syria policy] [Proxy] [Incompetence] [Strategic incoherence]
• Secret 2010 State Dept Report Warned of Turkey’s Neo-Ottoman Shift
  Alexander Tsukanov | 23.12.2015 State Dept Report from 2010 Predicted Turkey’s Dangerous Neo-Ottoman Shift In recent months, Ankara’s increasingly aggressive foreign policy has become the center of global attention. Looking back to the origins of the neo-Ottomanist ideology which drives Turkey’s risky foreign adventurism today, a classified US State Department cable from 2010 confirms that Washington saw President Erdogan’s dangerous shift in foreign policy coming, but couldn’t do anything about it – or worse, chose not to. From the provision of support to radical Islamist rebels in Syria, to the alleged trade in stolen ISIL oil, to the provocative downing of a Russian military plane, to the army’s incursion into Iraq, Ankara’s increasingly unhinged foreign policy decisions have become a mainstay on the front pages of the world’s press. Who could have predicted, only a few short years ago, that the ruling Justice and Development Party would pivot, so quickly and so drastically, from a foreign policy of ‘Western orientation’ and ‘zero conflicts with neighbors’, to one of confrontation and ‘neo-Ottomanism’? Well… the US State Department did, apparently. In a confidential diplomatic cable written in early 2010 and since published by WikiLeaks, Ambassador to Turkey James F. Jeffrey suggested, albeit in a somewhat muted manner, that Washington’s long-time allies in Ankara were becoming infatuated with a new, «more Islamic», «more independently activist» «neo-Ottoman» ideology – one which could present «major challenges» for US interests. The shift, the cable explained, was influenced by a number of political, economic and geopolitical factors, and was spearheaded by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) – the big-tent political coalition of Islamists, conservatives and nationalists formed in 2001 – which would come to dominate the country’s political system by the mid-2000s. According to the document, Ankara’s new ideology, epitomized by then-Prime Minister Recep Erdogan and his Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, was leading to a gradual partial shift away from Turkey’s ‘traditional Western’ and ‘zero conflicts’ trajectories, and toward ‘neo-Ottomanism’ – the desire to regain Turkey’s place in the sun as a great imperial power. [Turkey] [Erdogan] [Friction] [Neo-Ottomanism]
• False Flag Terror. A Historical Overview
  Never Forget … Your Country Admits to "False Flag Terror" By Washington's Blog Global Research, December 24, 2015 Washington's Blog 11 September 2015 Presidents, Prime Ministers, Congressmen, Generals, Soldiers and Police ADMIT to False Flag Terror In the following instances, officials in the government which carried out the attack (or seriously proposed an attack) admit to it, either orally, in writing, or through photographs or videos: [False flag]
• Saudi Arabia is killing the Russian economy in its fight to control oil prices
  Jim Edwards A year ago, Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi made it plain that he didn't care what happened to Russia if oil-producing countries failed to cooperate with Saudi-dominated OPEC on keeping prices high by restricting production. "We want to tell the world that high efficiency producing countries are the ones that deserve market share," he said, before singling out Russia's West Siberia as a region that wasn't very good at producing competitively priced oil. Since then Russia's oil-dependent economy has been decimated as the price of oil has plummeted. Here is the chart of the Russian economy from OPEC's most recent report on the state of the global oil market: [Oil] [Saudi Arabia] [Russia confrontation]
• Obama’s foreign policy goals get a boost from plunging oil prices
  An oil pump is seen in the state of Zulia, Venezuela, Falling crude prices around the world have fueled the country’s economic discontent. (Stringer/Venezuela/Reuters) By Steven Mufson December 23 at 8:48 PM ? Plunging crude oil prices are diverting hundreds of billions of dollars away from the treasure chests of oil-exporting nations, putting some of the United States’ adversaries under greater stress. After two years of falling prices, the effects have reverberated across the globe, fueling economic discontent in Venezuela, changing Russia’s economic and political calculations, and dampening Iranian leaders’ hopes of a financial windfall when sanctions linked to its nuclear program will be lifted next year. At a time of tension for U.S. international relations, cheap oil has dovetailed with some of the Obama administration’s foreign policy goals: pressuring Russian President Vladimir Putin, undermining the popularity of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and tempering the prospects for Iranian oil revenue. At the same time, it is pouring cash into the hands of consumers, boosting tepid economic recoveries in Europe, Japan and the United States. [Oil weapon] [US global strategy]
• U.S. keeps Disneyland-bound British Muslim family out of the country
  By Griff Witte, Lindsey Bever and Justin Wm. Moyer December 23 at 6:19 PM ? Muslim family barred from plane to Disneyland British Prime Minister David Cameron will look into claims that U.S. officials prevented a British Muslim family of 11 from flying to Disneyland. The father of the family is speaking out about what happened and says he would still like to visit. (AP) LONDON — As Mohammed Tariq Mahmood sat in the departure lounge of London’s Gatwick Airport last week, he was surrounded by giddy children, ecstatic for the 11-hour flight that would ferry them to Disneyland. “Mickey Mouse – I’m looking forward to seeing you tomorrow,” Mahmood’s 10-year-old niece scribbled in her diary, alongside a colorful illustration complete with oversized ears. “I’ve got to go now. We’re getting on the plane.” But they never did. A border control officer, on orders from Washington, intervened, Mahmood said, telling him and his brother that their family of 11 had been barred from the flight. What was supposed to be a dream vacation instead became on Wednesday just the latest flash-point in a debate over Islam and security that inflamed passions on both sides of the Atlantic. [Islamophobia] [Extraterritoriality]
• Fault line: Democrats divided on how to wage war on terrorism
  Highlights Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders disagree on the US role in world Divisions exposed following a pair of terrorist attacks in California, Paris Foreign policy dominates the third Democratic presidential debate By Anita Kumar Manchester, N.H. — The Democratic Party heads into its primaries sharply divided over how to wage war against terrorism, a rift magnified by Americans’ growing fears following recent terrorist attacks and laid bare in the newest debate between their presidential candidates. The party’s top two presidential candidates described starkly different philosophies on national security, sparking some of the liveliest exchanges in Saturday night’s debate just six weeks before the first nominating contest of the 2016 presidential election. Front-runner Hillary Clinton took the more hawkish and interventionist approach, advocating that the U.S. should be aggressive in helping to resolve disputes around the globe, even if that involves sending special forces or overthrowing dictators. “If the United States does not lead, there is not another leader,” she said. “There is a vacuum.” Her chief rival Bernie Sanders, who does not generally favor international intervention, touted his role in leading the effort against the war in Iraq, which he called one of the worst foreign policy blunders in the country’s history. “The United States of America cannot ... be thought of as the policeman of the world,” he said. [US global strategy] [[US_Election16] [Sanders] [Hillary Clinton]
• Bashar al-Assad: The Democratically Elected President of Syria
  Steven MacMillan “Butcher”; “thug”; “dictator”; “murderer”; “savage”; “tyrant”; “oppressor”; “despot”. These are just some of the words that many in the Western world associate with the Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, after four years of incessant and hypnotic war propaganda. Democratically elected leader of a sovereign country however, is not a narrative the propagandists want to be circulated. The 2014 election in Syria is an event that the ‘Ministry of Truth’ in the West desperately wants to be memory-holed, as it runs in stark contrast to the narrative they are still trying to inculcate in the minds of the public. In June of last year, Assad won Syria’s Presidential election with 88.7 percent of the vote, in the country’s first multi-candidate election in almost five decades. In a country which had a population of 17,064,854 in July 2014 (according to an estimate from CIA World Factbook), over 10 million people voted for Assad. 73.42 percent of the Syrian population voted in the election, with voting only taking place in government controlled areas. A group of international observers emphasized that the election was a valid and democratic expression of the views of the Syrian people. Predictably, Western nations denounced the election as a sham and a fraud, with US Secretary of State, John Kerry, calling the election afarce a few months prior to the vote. Despite the efforts of the Western establishment to delegitimize the election, it is obvious that Assad has popular support in Syria. The Western narrative – which claims that Assad is an insane dictator who butchers his own people – is illogical, as if this was true, Assad would have been ousted years ago. First appeared: http://journal-neo.org/2015/12/20/bashar-al-assad-the-democratically-elected-president-of-syria/ [Bashar Assad]
• Washington's 'Plan B' in Syria: Renewed military intervention to oust Assad?
  By Finian Cunningham December 17, 2015 "Information Clearing House" - "RT" - US top diplomat John Kerry appeared to offer cooperation during lengthy talks in Moscow this week with President Vladimir Putin. Kerry said that US policy was not trying to isolate Russia, neither was it seeking regime change in Syria. Rhetoric aside, Kerry’s expressions of goodwill simply do not cut it. During a walkabout in Moscow, the US Secretary of State chanced on a little Christmas shopping, with Kerry buying a Babushka stacking doll among other souvenirs. The iconic Russian doll containing six shelled figurines could serve as a metaphor for Washington’s elusive rhetoric. Following his three-hour discussion with Putin, Kerry said: “While we don’t see eye to eye on every aspect of Syria, we see Syria fundamentally similarly.” US government-owned media outlet Voice of America added: “He [Kerry] said the US and Russia identify the same challenges and dangers, and want the same outcomes [in Syria].” That, to put it bluntly, is simply not true. Washington and Moscow do not see Syria fundamentally similarly nor want the same outcomes. Washington wants regime change, no matter what Kerry may declare. From the outset of the conflict in Syria in March 2011, the Obama administration has been demanding that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “must go”. Indeed, it is well documented that Washington and its NATO partners have been seeking regime change against Russia’s long-time Syria ally going back to 2007 during the George W Bush presidency. The whole foreign-backed war in the Arab country – resulting in 250,000 deaths and millions of refugees over the past five years – has been orchestrated for the precise purpose of destabilizing Syria. Certainly, Kerry’s latest visit to Moscow marked a softening of the “Assad must go” line. Washington is now saying that the Syrian president may remain in office until a political transition is negotiated. But at the end of the so-called transition, the US still wants Assad gone, as Kerry again noted. That is regime change no matter how you slice it. Like Kerry’s coy claim that the US is not trying “to isolate Russia as a matter of policy,” the bottom line is that Washington has imposed unilateral economic sanctions on Russia as a result of provable US regime change in Ukraine in February 2014, and cajoled its European allies to follow suit. Withdrawing unilaterally from arms control treaties and expanding NATO forces on Russian territory are hardly the actions of a party “not seeking isolation” of Moscow. [US Syria policy] [Russia confrontation] [Kerry]
• US CENTCOM Bases
  US bases in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the Gulf
• Speaking the Unspeakable: Why the Establishment Wants to Silence Donald Trump
  Sam Husseini • December 17, 2015 The establishment so wants everyone else to unfriend Trump supporters on Facebook. There’s even an app to block them. That’ll teach them! Yes, Trump plays a bully boy and is appealing to populist (good), nativist, xenophobic, and racist sentiments (bad). Those things need to be meaningfully addressed and engaged, not for self-styled sophisticates to raise their noses, dismissing them. But focusing only on the negative aspects of Trump’s campaign has blinded people to the good — and I don’t mean good like, oh, the Democrat can beat this guy. I mean good like it’s good that some of these issues are finally getting aired. Trump appeals to nativist sentiments, but those same sentiments are skeptical of the militarized role of the U.S. in the world — as was the case during Pat Buchanan’s 1992 campaign. The New York Times recently purported to grade the veracity of presidential candidates. Of course by their accounting, Trump was off the scales lying. But he recently said the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State “killed hundreds of thousands of people with her stupidity….The Middle East is a total disaster under her.” Now, I think that’s pretty accurate, though U.S. policy in my view may be more Machiavellian than stupid, but the remark is a breath of fresh air on the national stage. But I’ve not seen anyone fact-check that assertion, because that’s not an argument much of establishment media wants to debate. [Trump] [US global strategy]
• Most Smuggled ISIS Oil Goes to Turkey, Sold at Low Prices – Norwegian Report
  RT 20 December 2015 A newly-leaked report on illegal oil sales by Islamic State (IS, previously ISIS/ISIL), which was ordered to be compiled by Norway, has revealed that most of the IS-smuggled oil has been destined for Turkey, where it is sold off at bargain low prices. Norwegian daily Klassekampen leaked details of the report, which was put together by Rystad Energy, an independent oil and gas consulting firm, at the request of the Norwegian Foreign Ministry. “Large amounts of oil have been smuggled across the border to Turkey from IS-controlled areas in Syria and Iraq,”Klassekampen cited the report as saying. “[The] oil is sent by tankers via smuggling routes across the border [and] is sold at greatly reduced prices, from $25 to $45 a barrel.” The crude is reportedly sold on the black market at greatly reduced prices, while the Brent benchmark is currently trading at $35-$50 per barrel. To compile the report, which is dated from July, Rystad Energy used its own database as well as sources in the region. “Exports happen in a well-established black market via Turkey,” the report concluded. “Many of the smugglers and corrupt border guards, who helped Saddam Hussein avoid international sanctions, are now helping IS export oil and import cash.” In the beginning of December, the Russian Defense Ministry released evidence which it said shows most of the illegal oil trade by IS going to Turkey. [Oil] [ISIS] [Turkey]
• Donald Trump on Putin: ‘Nobody has proven that he’s killed anyone’
  By Jose A. DelReal December 20 ? The Sunday after a contentious Republican debate, presidential candidates Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson and Rand Paul went after rival Donald Trump in television appearances. They attacked Trump's relationship with Putin, his proposed ban on allowing Muslims to enter the country and his seriousness as a candidate. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post) Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump defended Russian President Vladimir Putin against accusations that he has assassinated political adversaries and journalists, responding to criticism from his rivals over his embrace of praise from the Russian leader. "Nobody has proven that he's killed anyone. ... He's always denied it. It's never been proven that he's killed anybody,” Trump said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “You're supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, at least in our country. It has not been proven that he's killed reporters." On Thursday, Putin praised Trump during a wide-ranging news conference, calling him “talented without doubt" and "brilliant." Trump has embraced the remarks, drawing fire from critics such as Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who facetiously called the alliance “a match made in heaven.” Trump welcomed Putin's praise, citing it as proof that a Trump administration would be able to work well with the Russians. [Trump] [US_Election16] [Russia confrontation]
• The 239 Year Timeline Of America’s Involvement in Military Conflict
  . December 18, 2015 By Isaac Davis “I should welcome almost any war, for I think this country needs one.” – President Theodore Roosevelt The American public and the world have long since been warned of the dangers of allowing the military industrial complex to become such an integral part of our economic survival. The United States is the self-proclaimed angel of democracy in the world, but just as George Orwell warned, war is the health of the state, and in the language of newspeak, democracy is the term we use to hide the reality of the nature of our warfare state. In truth, the United States of America has been engaged in some kind of war during 218 out of the nation’s total 239 years of existence. Put another way, in the entire span of US history, this country has only experienced 21 years without conflict. For a sense of perspective on this sobering statistic, consider these 4 facts about the history of US involvement in military conflict: ?Pick any year since 1776 and there is about a 91% chance that America was involved in some war during that calendar year. ?No U.S. president truly qualifies as a peacetime president. Instead, all U.S. presidents can technically be considered “war presidents.” ?The U.S. has never gone a decade without war. ?The only time the U.S. went five years without war (1935-40) was during the isolationist period of the Great Depression. As the world moves closer and closer to an official beginning to world war III, and as many people are seeking opportunities to de-escalate the situation in the Middle East, it is important to realize that the US state and the American people are simply not equipped or conditioned to pursue and realize peace. War is indeed the health of our state. US-War-Graph Here is a year-by-year timeline of America’s involvement in military conflict, as compiled by Danios of Loonwatch.com. It is noted that this list is not exhaustive, but rather a compilation of events that fit the definition of ‘war,’ excluding acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing such as were carried out against Native American populations during the establishment of the empire, and also excluding foreign interventions by America’s covert security agencies such as the CIA: Year-by-year Timeline of America’s Major Wars (1776-2011) [Militarisation] [US military] [History]
• Neocons Object to Syrian Democracy
  December 19, 2015 Exclusive: President Obama has infuriated Official Washington’s neocons by accepting the Russian stance that the Syrian people should select their own future leaders through free elections, rather than the neocon insistence on a foreign-imposed “regime change,” reports Robert Parry. By Robert Parry The Washington Post’s editorial board is livid that President Barack Obama appears to have accepted the Russian position that the Syrian people should decide for themselves who their future leaders should be – when the Post seems to prefer that the choice be made by neoconservative think tanks in Washington or other outsiders. So, in a furious editorial on Friday, the Post castigated Secretary of State John Kerry for saying – after a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow – that the Obama administration and Russia see the political solution to Syria “in fundamentally the same way,” meaning that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could stand for election in the future. Russian President Vladimir Putin greets Secretary of State John Kerry before meetings at the Kremlin on Dec. 15, 2015. (State Department photo) Russian President Vladimir Putin greets Secretary of State John Kerry before meetings at the Kremlin on Dec. 15, 2015. (State Department photo) The Post wrote: “Unfortunately, that increasingly appears to be the case — and not because Mr. Putin has altered his position. For four years, President Obama demanded the departure of Mr. Assad, who has killed hundreds of thousands of his own people with chemical weapons, ‘barrel bombs,’ torture and other hideous acts. Yet in its zeal to come to terms with Mr. Putin, the Obama administration has been slowly retreating from that position.” The Russian position, which Obama finally seems to be accepting, is that the Syrian people should be allowed to choose their own leaders through fair, internationally organized elections, rather than have outside powers dictate who can and who can’t compete in a democratic process. Obama’s previous stance was that Assad must be prevented from running in an election. [US Syria policy] [Independence]
• Hate is As American As Apple Pie; So Is Trump
  On December 7, Donald Trump issued a statement calling for “a complete and total shutdown of Muslims entering the United States…” A temporary ban? "… until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.” Well then, maybe never. Trump’s rabble-rousing is nothing new in American politics. It wasn’t even new last month. Remember the November Syrian refugee ban uproar after Paris? I know, a long time ago and many massacres away... Here’s a memory assist: Republicans…have called on congressional leaders to block the Obama administration from proceeding with plans to resettle thousands of refugees… In a letter to Ryan, Ben Carson … called for Congress to block funding for any programs "that seek to resettle refugees and/or migrants from Syria into the United States, effective immediately." "Until we can sort out the bad guys we must not be foolish," Carson said… Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee similarly heaped pressure on Ryan, saying in a statement: "Speaker Ryan needs to make it clear that if the President won't stand to protect America from wholesale open borders, then Republicans will." … In addition, Govs. John Kasich and Bobby Jindal of Ohio and Louisiana, respectively, said they would work to keep refugees out of their states. And Sen. Rand Paul… introduced legislation that would block the United States from issuing visas to refugees from countries with a high risk of terrorism in an effort to "stop terrorists from walking in our front door." Religious litmus tests didn’t start with The Donald either: [Cruz] has also said Christians from war-torn Syria are victims and do not pose a risk of terrorism, whereas letting in Muslim refugees would be "lunacy." Jeb Bush, supposedly the worthy heir to America’s premier terrorist-stomping dynasty, bumbled his way through his proposal for prioritizing Syrian orphans and Christians in his endearingly incompetent fashion. [Trump] [US_Election16] [Refugee] [Immigration] [Racism] [Islamophobia]
• Yes, the Press Might Do a Joe McCarthy on Trump; Just Not the Way You Think
  Wednesday, December 16, 2015 I am not particularly impressed with protestations that the Fourth Estate is going to solve our Donald Trump problem by speaking truth to power, exposing his low, dishonest, and inflammatory rhetoric, and the filthy bigotry in which he traffics. There’s a lot of people—a lot of voters—down in the sewer with Donald Trump. Apparently the smell doesn’t bother them. Nor do I hold out hope that elite opinion-makers like Thomas Friedman will lead the stampede of asses that will trample Trump into well-deserved oblivion. And I do not have much patience with the trope that all the media needs to do is put on its big-boy pants and stick it to Donald Trump in the name of decency just like the press did to Joe McCarthy in the glorious days of Ed Murrow in 1954. [Trump] [Media] [Myth]
• Moral Monsters: What al-Baghdadi and Hitler Do and Do Not Have in Common
  by Andrew Levine December 18, 2015 The Bush-Cheney war on terror or terrorism, launched after 9/11, was absurd; the idea behind it rested on what Gilbert Ryle, an influential mid-twentieth century English philosopher, called a “category mistake.” Terror is a state of mind, and terrorism is a tactic; these are not the kinds of things that wars can be waged against. Barack Obama had the good sense to drop the name, but he picked up the idea and has been running with it ever since. America’s allies have joined in too. None of this diminishes the absurdity one iota. It is not hard to see why war on terror talk is still flourishing: it is a useful public relations gimmick for politicians who want to sustain a permanent war regime. For many of them, it is also a good career move. Philosophers, political theorists, military strategists and others have been thinking and writing about terror and terrorism since before the French Revolution. Their reflections have yielded insights and merit consideration. But the way those words are used in political circles in Western countries nowadays, and in mainstream media, has little to do with any of that. Politicians and pundits use those words propagandistically, not analytically — to condemn politically motivated violence directed against the West or against Western interests. The violence in question is typically small-scale and its perpetrators are usually non-state actors. However, states that the West opposes are sometimes also said to sponsor or commit terrorist acts. In practice, this means that Muslim organizations and individuals, and some (out of favor) Muslim countries, are tarnished with the “terrorist” label, and that others are not. It is taken for granted in Western countries that terrorism is mainly, or only, a Muslim affair, and that Westerners, not Muslims, are its main victims. These are hard claims to justify, given the evidence. But, propaganda is all. In Western countries, war on terror talk helps mobilize support for police repression – mainly, but not only, in Muslim communities. And it generates support for military operations throughout the historically Muslim world. It is therefore good for the military-industrial-national security state complex. This is why its leading figures cannot get enough of it, and why they do all that they can to keep it going. They are as bad as broadcast and cable news executives on the prowl for advertising revenues. Politicians like it too because a terrorized public is easily manipulated and disinclined to stand up for its real interests. Also, it boosts their self-esteem. Macho warmongering helps otherwise feckless men and women feel important — as if they were doing something worthwhile. [Terrorism]
• “Left” propagandists for escalation of imperialist war
  15 December 2015 With the US political establishment roiled by an increasingly acrimonious debate over how to escalate the US military intervention in Iraq and Syria, and with one Western European power after another joining in the assault, the overwhelming sentiment of broad masses of people both in Europe and America remains decidedly hostile to war. Despite the frantic efforts of the political establishments in the US, Britain, France, Germany and elsewhere, along with the campaign of the media to whip up fear and hatred in response to recent terrorist attacks, millions of working people are conscious that, once again, they are being lied to about a military intervention in the Middle East. Amid the dizzying array of pretexts put forward for this war, from combating terrorism by bombing the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), to supporting “human rights” by financing and arming similar Salafist jihadi militias in a war for regime-change, there remains the well-founded popular suspicion that the real aims have to do with the drive by US imperialism and its allies to secure hegemony over the Middle East and its vast oil reserves. It is under these conditions that a collection of pseudo-left organizations from Europe, the US and beyond have joined in issuing a statement that serves as propaganda for a dramatic widening of the imperialist campaign. The signatories of the statement include the French New Anti-capitalist Party (NPA), the British Socialist Workers Party, Socialist Alternative of Australia, the Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP) of Sri Lanka, and the International Socialist Organization (ISO) of the US. All of them have long and shameful records of providing “left” justifications for imperialist interventions and dressing up US-orchestrated wars for regime-change as “revolutions.” [Imperialism] [Disclaimer]
• Untangling Turkey’s Middle East allegiances
  Turkey, in a sticky web of allegiances, shares mutual enemies with the Islamic State. By Behlül Özkan 12/19/15, 12:41 PM CET Armed Kurdish militants of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) stand behind a barricade during clashes with Turkish forces on September 28, 2015, at Bismil, in Diyarbakir. | ILYAS AKENGIN/AFP/Getty ISTANBUL — The northwestern corner of Syria is home to a dizzying spectrum of anti-Assad forces. Weapons — and fighters — have amassed in the area in large part thanks to Turkey’s “open door” policy, which makes the passage relatively painless. When Turkey’s ethnic brethren, the Turkmen, recently became the targets of Russian air strikes — prompting, perhaps, Turkey’s decision to shoot down a Russian fighter jet on November 24 — the incident brought Turkey’s murky relationship with a tangled web of jihadist groups to the fore. Ankara’s ties with the extremists are anything but straightforward. What’s clear is that Turkey has taken clear sides in the civil war in Syria, took a laissez-faire approach to the frontier with Syria and more recently felt the terrorist blowback from Syria Turkey differs with its allies on which opposition forces to support in Syria, a thorny issue further complicated by the emergence of ISIL. Apart from ISIL, jihadist groups in Syria include al-Nusra Front (al-Qaeda’s Syrian branch), Ahrar al-Sham, and various more loosely formed militias from the Caucasus and elsewhere. [Turkey] [Outsourcing] [ISIS]
• Guns are now killing as many people as cars in the U.S.
  By Christopher Ingraham December 17 ? For the first time in more than 60 years, firearms and automobiles are killing Americans at an identical rate, according to new mortality data released this month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In 2014, the age-adjusted death rate for both firearms (including homicides, suicides and accidental deaths) and motor vehicle events (car crashes, collisions between cars and pedestrians, etc) stood at 10.3 deaths per 100,000 people. The convergence of the trend lines above is driven primarily by a sharp drop in the rate of motor vehicle fatalities since 1950. In the late 1960s, for instance, there were well over 25 motor vehicle deaths for every 100,000 people in the United States. Since then, that rate has fallen by more than half. Over the same period, gun deaths rose, but by a considerably smaller amount. Gun homicide rates have actually fallen in recent years, but those gains have been offset by rising gun suicide rates. Today, suicides account for roughly two out of every three gun deaths.
• Imperialism and Capitalism: Rethinking an Intimate Relationship
  By Prof. James Petras and Prof. Henry Veltmeyer Global Research, December 16, 2015 The literature on imperialism suffers from a fundamental confusion about the relationship between capitalism and imperialism. The aim of this paper is to remove this confusion. The paper is organised in three parts. In Part I we state our own position of the capitalism-imperialism relation. In part II we discuss some major points at issue in the Marxist debate on imperialism. And in Part III we review the changing forms that imperialism has taken in Latin America in the course of the capitalist development process. The main focus of the paper is on the form taken by imperialism in the current conjuncture of capitalist development, namely extractive capitalism. This conjuncture is characterised by the demise of neoliberalism as an economic model and a growing demand on the world market for energy, minerals and other “natural” resources—the political economy of natural resource development (large-scale investment in the acquisition of land and entailed resources, primary commodity exports). The fundamental dynamics of what we term “extractivist imperialism” are examined in the context of South America, which represents the most advanced but yet regressive form taken to date by capitalism in the new millennium. Our analysis of these dynamics is summarized in the form of twelve theses. [Imperialism] [Capitalism]
• Kerry: US No Longer Seeking “Regime Change” in Syria?
  By Jason Ditz Global Research, December 16, 2015 Anti-War 15 December 2015 U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Aug. 30, 2013, claims to have proof that the Syrian government was responsible for a chemical weapons attack on Aug. 21, but that evidence failed to materialize or was later discredited. [State Department photo] During his visit to Moscow, Secretary of State John Kerry talked at length with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and came out of those talks with a shocking declaration that “the United States and its partners are not seeking regime change in Syria.” The declaration is not only bizarre, in that many of America’s “partners” in Syria are rebel factions formed explicitly to oust the government, but because Kerry himself, as well as other high-ranking US officials, have been openly demanding unconditional regime change for several years now. Kerry went into his Moscow visit saying Assad’s future would be a topic of discussion with Russian officials, which itself raised eyebrows since US officials have long insisted Assad has no future. Kerry doubled down on this, however, insisting that the US and Russia see Syria’s future fundamentally the same way. [US Syria policy]
• Do Muslims and Christians worship the same god? College suspends professor who said yes.
  By Kirkland An December 17 Wheaton College, a prominent evangelical school in Illinois, has placed a professor on administrative leave after she posted on Facebook that Muslims and Christians “worship the same God.” The official school statement Tuesday about associate professor of political science Larycia Hawkins’s suspension said Wheaton professors should “engage in and speak about public issues in ways that faithfully represent the College’s evangelical Statement of Faith.” Following a protest and sit-in of about 100 people Wednesday afternoon on campus, President Philip Ryken and later Provost Stanton Jones said they would not be lifting the suspension. It wasn’t clear how long Hawkins was suspended for, but some of the student leaders who had been involved in talks with administrators said it was through the spring semester. [Bizarre] [Islamophobia]
• Anticipating Complex Northeast Asian Futures
  by Peter Hayes, Joan Diamond and Kiho Yi 16 December 2015 I. Introduction “Another way that civil society has tried to embrace the uncertainty posed by rising complexity is to envision possible shared futures and to develop robust, joint strategies that anticipate the inevitable surprises that lie in store… Just as we must create historical memory across generations and borders if former enemies are to reconcile, so must we imagine futures together to create “complex time” that embodies the universal values in regional and global community.” This chapter examines such scenarios and future roles of civil society. This Special Report is an extract (Chapter 7) to the book Complexity, Security and Civil Society in East Asia, edited by Peter Hayes and Yi Kiho, published by Open Book Publishers in June 2015 (http://www.openbookpublishers.com/product/326/).
• Fact checking the fifth round of GOP debates
  By Glenn Kessler and Michelle Ye Hee Lee December 16 ? War, terrorism dominate GOP debate Here are highlights from CNN's Republican presidential debate on Dec. 15 in less than two minutes. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post) CNN aired two GOP presidential debates on Dec. 15: a prime-time event starring nine candidates and an earlier debate featuring four second-tier contenders, based on an average of recent polls. Not every candidate uttered statements that are easily fact checked, but following is a list of 12 suspicious or interesting claims. As is our practice, we do not award Pinocchios when we do a roundup of facts in debates. [US_Election16]
• Assad can stay, for now: Kerry accepts Russian stance
  . Associated Press By MATTHEW LEE and BRADLEY KLAPPER December 15, 2015 6:01 PM MOSCOW (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday accepted Russia's long-standing demand that President Bashar Assad's future be determined by his own people, as Washington and Moscow edged toward putting aside years of disagreement over how to end Syria's civil war. "The United States and our partners are not seeking so-called regime change," Kerry told reporters in the Russian capital after meeting President Vladimir Putin. A major international conference on Syria would take place later this week in New York, Kerry announced. Kerry reiterated the U.S. position that Assad, accused by the West of massive human rights violations and chemical weapons attacks, won't be able to steer Syria out of more than four years of conflict. But after a day of discussions with Assad's key international backer, Kerry said the focus now is "not on our differences about what can or cannot be done immediately about Assad." Rather, it is on facilitating a peace process in which "Syrians will be making decisions for the future of Syria." Kerry's declarations crystallized the evolution in U.S. policy on Assad over the last several months, as the Islamic State group's growing influence in the Middle East has taken priority. President Barack Obama first called on Assad to leave power in the summer of 2011, with "Assad must go" being a consistent rallying cry. Later, American officials allowed that he wouldn't have to resign on "Day One" of a transition. Now, no one can say when Assad might step down. [US Syria policy]
• How the GOP looks more like Obama on war than it thinks
  Highlights Few new, sharply different ideas Criticism of Obama’s leadership style Widespread support for coalition to fight Islamic State By David Lightman Las Vegas — Sure, it was a Republican debate, but President Barack Obama might have fit right in much of the time. As they did in their latest debate Tuesday, Republican presidential candidates are eager to say they’ll be tougher on terrorists than Barack Obama. And they differ by degrees in emphasis. But as they grapple with the balance of national security and such things as civil liberties at home and Muslim alliances abroad, they mostly offer variations of the same policies as Obama. Send in special troops to target our airstrikes? Obama’s doing that. Keep our combat troops at home and get the Arabs to fight? That’s Obama’s plan. Stop the targeting of all Muslims lest that drive away potential allies? Obama again. “ The threat from terrorism is real, but we will overcome it. President Barack Obama in Dec. 6 address Start with the idea of sending in U.S. combat troops. Obama won’t authorize large numbers of American ground troops against the Islamic State, saying his military advisers believe that would be a mistake. A larger American presence, Obama said, could wind up meaning an American occupation of Syria or Iraq, creating the sort of quagmire that dogged the United States in Iraq for years. When pressed, as in the debates, top Republicans also shy away from committing U.S. troops to defeat the Islamic State. Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/election/article50012315.html#storylink=cpy [US_Election16] [Continuity]
• Is Denmark as great as Bernie Sanders says?
  December 16, 2015 Highlights Danes are happier, don’t pay anything for health care and not much for college But they also pay a lot in taxes, 32 percent on average Some Danes worry their country may be becoming too much like the United States By Matthew Schofield Aarhus, Denmark — When Berit Seidelin recently heard reports that American presidential candidate Bernie Sanders thinks the United States could do with being a bit more like Denmark, she immediately wished Danish politicians were thinking the same thing. “Denmark should be more like Denmark these days,” the 53-year-old quipped. “In the last several years, we’ve become too much like the United States. I’m not happy about that.” She said it with a wink, while moving flower pots around outside the shop where she works near the center of Aarhus, Denmark’s oldest city. But her comment gets at a central point that the Democrat Sanders raises on the campaign trail and that Danes have been dealing with in recent years. Exactly what does it mean to be Danish? The political right describes the tiny Scandinavian nation as socialist, noting what by U.S. standards are luxurious unemployment and social benefits. But that’s not a universal characterization. Centrist politicians and Danish economists make the point that the country is entirely capitalist. They note that the Index of Economic Freedomby the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research organization in Washington, rates Denmark above the United States. That, they say, is evidence that Denmark’s political system is based on a very open economy. And there are many on the left who describe Denmark as a disappointment of late, a nation that recently has cut benefits and allowed irrational fears of migrants and refugees to lead it to considering even deeper cuts. This, they believe, leaves Denmark perhaps in line with other European nations, but not an example to follow. As for the typical Dane in the street, what they really want from life is “hyggeligt,” often shortened to “hygge,” meaning comfort, or the state of being cozy. They talk about the importance of having the ability to succeed, but the equal importance of knowing everything will be OK if they fail.
• The Ghouta chemical attack and the unraveling of Ankara's official story
  Neil Clark Published time: 16 Dec, 2015 13:52 It was the chemical weapons attack that so nearly led to direct war between the US, the UK, France and the Syrian government; a war which most likely would have delivered the whole of Syria to IS and Al-Qaeda extremists. The horrific Ghouta attack of August 21, 2013, which killed hundreds of civilians, including many children, was blamed on President Assad and his government by Western political leaders and elite media commentators. Those who dared to question this version of events were predictably denounced as ’conspiracy theorists’ and/or ’Assad apologists’. Today, however, new evidence has emerged that questions the ‘official’ narrative. Could it be that, as was the case with Iraqi WMDs, we were lied to again by those individuals desperate to launch another ‘regime change’ war in the Middle East? Interestingly, the US and its allies never publicly produced any hard evidence showing that Syrian government forces had carried out the attacks, but told us that it had to be them because no one else possessed or had the capability to use chemical weapons. But now Turkish MP Eren Erdem has told RT that Islamic State terrorists, then going under the name of Iraqi Al-Qaeda, received all the necessary materials to produce deadly sarin gas via Turkey. Erdem, who is now being charged with treason for his comments, revealed that an investigation by Turkish police was started but then the case was closed, and all the suspects were released near the Turkish/Syrian border. He accused the Turkish authorities of a high-level cover up. The Turkish MP says the evidence shows that IS, and not the Syrian government, was responsible for the Ghouta attacks. “This attack was conducted just days before the sarin operation in Turkey. It’s a high probability that this attack was carried out with those basic materials shipped through Turkey. It is said the regime forces are responsible, but the indictment says it’s ISIS. UN inspectors went to the site but they couldn’t find any evidence. But in this indictment, we’ve found the evidence. We know who used the sarin gas, and our government knows it too,” Erdem said. It’s not just Erdem’s testimony that challenges the official version of events. US experts do too. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) report by former UN weapons inspector Richard Lloyd and Professor Theodor Postol challenged the intelligence on which US claims against the Syrian government were made. They revealed that the range of the rocket which was supposed to have carried the nerve gas was too short to have been launched from government-controlled areas. “The Syrian improvised chemical munitions that were used in the August 21 nerve gas attack in Damascus have a range of about two kilometers. This indicates that these munitions could not possibly have been fired at East Ghouta from the ‘heart’ or the eastern edge of the Syrian government controlled area in the intelligence map published by the White House on August 30th 2013,” the report concluded. The report pointed out that all the possible launching points for the rocket were in rebel-controlled areas. “My view when I started this process was that it couldn’t be anything but the Syrian government behind the attack,” said the report's co-author, Professor Postol. “But now I’m not sure of anything. The administration narrative was not even close to reality. Our intelligence cannot possibly be correct.” Award-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh also countered the ‘administration narrative’ in articles published in the London Review of Books. [False flag] [cbw] [Syria] [Jihadists] [Turkey
• Life in Daesh territory: an inside view
  Published December 21st, 2014 - 18:38 Jürgen Todenhöfer, who interviewed Assad in July 2012, will publish a piece on his Jürgen Todenhöfer, who interviewed Assad in July 2012, will publish a piece on his "10 days in the Islamic State" tomorrow. (AFP/File) Follow > al-Qaeda, Bashar al-Assad, Charlie Winter, Facebook, Hamid Karzai, ISIS, James Foley, Jürgen Todenhöfer, Mosul, RTL, Taliban The first Western journalist in the world to be allowed extensive access to Isis territories in Syria and Iraq has returned from the region with a warning: the group is “much stronger and much more dangerous” than anyone in the West realises. Jürgen Todenhöfer, 74, is a renowned German journalist and publicist who travelled through Turkey to Mosul, the largest city occupied by Isis, after months of negotiations with the group’s leaders. He plans to publish a summary of his “10 days in the Islamic State” on Monday, but in interviews with German-language media outlets has revealed his first impressions of what life is like under Isis. Speaking to the website Der tz, Todenhöfer revealed that he actually stayed in the same hotel in Benghazi as James Foley, the US journalist who was beheaded on camera by Isis in August. “Of course, I’ve seen the terrible, brutal video and it was one of my main concerns during the negotiations as to how I can avoid [the same fate],” he said. Once within Isis territory, Todenhöfer said his strongest impression was “that Isis is much stronger than we think here”. He said it now has “dimensions larger than the UK”, and is supported by “an almost ecstatic enthusiasm that I have never encountered in any other warzone”. “Each day, hundreds of willing fighters arrive from all over the world,” he told tz. “For me it is incomprehensible.” Todenhöfer claims to have been able to move among Isis fighters, observing their living conditions and equipment. On his Facebook page, he has posted images which he said show German Heckler & Koch MG3 machine guns in the hands of Isis. “Someday this German MG could be directed to us,” he said. Isis’s fighters themselves sleep, he said, in barracks formed from “the shells of bombed-out houses”. They number around 5,000 in Mosul, and are spread so widely that were the US to bomb them all “they would have to reduce the whole of Mosul to ruins”, he said. Todenhöfer says that this ultimately means Isis cannot be beaten by Western intervention or air strikes – despite US claims last week that they have proven effective. “With every bomb that is dropped and hits a civilian, the number of terrorists increases,” he said. [ISIS]
• Syria in 2016 Will be Like the Balkans in 1914
  Explosive violence breaks out on an international scale Patrick Cockburn • DECEMBER 12, 2015 The CIA analyst is confident about what is likely to happen in Syria. He says that “Assad is playing his last major card to keep his regime in power”. He believes that the Assad government will step up its efforts to prove that its enemies “are being manipulated by outsiders”. The probable outcome is a split within Syria’s ruling elite leading to Assad being ousted, though he admits that there is no obvious replacement for him. The reasoning in the CIA special analysis, entitled “Syria: Assad’s Prospects”, is sensible and convincing, though overconfident that Assad’s days are numbered. The extent of this overconfidence is highlighted by a glance at the date of the document, which is 17 March 1980, or 35 years ago, and the President Assad, whose imminent political demise is predicted as likely, is not Bashar al-Assad but his father, Hafez al-Assad, who died in 2000. The analysis was released by the CIA under the Freedom of Information Act in 2013. [CIA] [Intelligence] [US Syria policy]
• Turkey Smuggled Sarin Gas to Al Qaeda Terrorists in Syria? Turkish MP
  By Stephen Lendman Global Research, December 14, 2015 Turkey is allegedly complicit in the smuggled use of various types of banned chemical weapons for which the Assad government was wrongfully blamed. Turkish Republican People’s Party (CHP) opposition member Eren Erdem accused Ankara of covering up a major war crime, likely direct high-level involvement in smuggling materials used to make deadly sarin gas to ISIS and other terrorists – US proxy foot soldiers waging war on Syria. Various attacks occurred. The most notorious targeted the Damascus Ghouta suburb in August 2013, killing and injuring scores of civilians. [Turkey] [Jihadist] [cbw]
• Pentagon announces worldwide expansion of US military bases
  By Thomas Gaist 11 December 2015 The US Defense Department (DOD) is preparing to expand its global network of military bases by establishing a new “string” of bases in countries stretching from Africa to East Asia, unnamed Pentagon officials told the New York Times Wednesday. The enlarged US basing arrangements will include at least four new large-scale bases or “hubs,” including new facilities in East Africa and West Africa and Afghanistan, along with a greater number of smaller camps or “spokes,” sources told the Times . [Bases] [US military]
• “Humanitarian” Military Interventions: “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) and the Double Game
  By Prof. Tim Anderson Global Research, December 13, 2015 A new version of ‘humanitarian intervention’, known as the ‘responsibility to protect’ (R2P), was developed at the turn of the 21st century. An invention of the big powers, with reference to the suggested humanitarian consequences of their supposed failures to intervene in the past, it became a tremendous moral argument for the 2011 intervention in Libya. That intervention, based on lies, was a disaster for the Libyan people. A similar course was attempted with Syria, but failed. Russia and China, in particular, were no longer prepared to play Washington’s game. However it may have sounded in theory, in practice this R2P emerged as a new tool of intervention. It carries great dangers, having helped incite ‘false flag’ massacres by armed groups in their search for greater foreign support. It has also helped undermine the international system which, since the 1940s, has been founded on principles of sovereignty and non-intervention. In some respects it is extraordinary that, so soon after the 2003 invasion of Iraq on a manifestly false pretext (see Kramer and Michalowski 2005), an earnest debate began over how to deepen and sanctify the reasons for military intervention. The debate was extraordinary, in that relatively little attention was paid to the long history of false pretexts for intervention. Yet in many respects it was logical, as it appeals to a naïve social conscience while opening new avenues for big power ambition. The ‘double game’ of mixing false pretext, political ambition and public benefit rationale is an age-old tradition. The recent debate has been mostly western referenced and often focussed on promotion of the R2P as ‘a new norm of customary international law’, even one of obligation (Loiselle 2013: 317-341). This has articulated a groundswell of western sentiment generally in favour of intervention, almost regardless of the detail. This was a reversal of trends established by the formal colonies in the post-colonial era. The Non-Aligned Movement of 118 nations, mostly former colonies, on the other hand, elevates non-intervention as a founding principle of nation-states (Köchler 1982). As an example of past debates, the major in-principle dispute between the United States and the Latin American states at all Pan-American conferences in the early twentieth century was Washington’s refusal to accept the principle of non-intervention. Finally, in 1933, the United States recognised that principle (Dreier 1963: 40-41). Of course, the US continued to intervene in Latin America after this, but that principle helped drive a search for new pretexts. [Humanitarian intervention] [R2P] [Pretext]
• Thai Man May Go to Prison for Insulting King’s Dog
  By Thomas Fuller Dec. 14, 2015 BANGKOK — Thailand’s strict laws making it a crime to insult the monarchy entered new territory on Monday when a factory worker was charged with disparaging the king’s dog. In a case brought in a Thai military court, the worker, Thanakorn Siripaiboon, was charged with making a “sarcastic” Internet post related to the king’s pet. He also faces separate charges of sedition and insulting the king. Mr. Thanakorn could face a total of 37 years in prison for his social media posts, highlighting what has become a feverish campaign to protect the monarchy and rebuff critics of the country’s military rulers. The precise insult toward the royal dog was not divulged by the military, according to the suspect’s lawyer, Anon Numpa. Mr. Anon said the boundaries of what has been considered lèse-majesté, as royal insults are known, had expanded drastically in recent years. Last year, a prominent scholar was accused of insulting a king who died 400 years ago. The list of people who have been investigated now includes the American ambassador to Thailand. The law applies to anyone who specifically defames the king, the queen, the heir apparent or the regent, but Mr. Anon said he was incredulous that it could be broadened to include a household pet. [Bizarre]
• Turkey's Dangerous Game: Turkey's duplicity threatens the entire region
  Philip Giraldi • December 15, 2015 Turkey borders several Middle Eastern countries that are either unstable or potentially hostile to it, sometimes both simultaneously. With a modern military of more than 600,000 underwritten by NATO membership it is regional superpower whose ability to dominate the politics of its neighbors is sometimes exercised. Turkey has a large and educated population, a vibrant diversified economy and is at the crossroads of east and west, Asia and Europe. Together with Egypt, it is truly the indispensable nation if anyone wants to seriously consider influencing developments in the Near East. It is perhaps Turkey’s indispensability that is part of the problem, as it has given its current government a hubristic sense of entitlement that has developed into a conceit that it can be the arbiter for all its neighbors while also transforming itself into an autocracy at home. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is attempting to turn the country’s traditionally fractious party politics into one party rule with himself at the helm. In so doing he has created what some call an “illiberal democracy” where dissent is systematically repressed and elections are rigged to favor his incumbency. Erdogan has largely destroyed his country’s independent media by imprisoning and intimidating journalists, has not hesitated to characterize protesters as “terrorists” before having them beaten and shot, has packed the military and intelligence services with his own supporters, and has hobbled the judiciary and police. In Turkey it is now a crime to “insult” a public official. The law is strictly enforced regarding Erdogan. A man was fired from his job and is facing two years in prison for comparing the president to Gollum, the character in Lord of the Rings. As president, Erdogan was not allowed to get involved in parliamentary elections in June and October, but he instead campaigned relentlessly on behalf of his Justice and Development Party (AKP). As the margin in parliament opposing him consisted of a Kurdish Party he unilaterally restarted a civil war with the Kurds and fear-mongered recklessly before calling for a snap election, resulting in AKP’s regaining its parliamentary majority. Erdogan has taken a largely secular republic and turned it into a state increasingly run on Islamic principles, funding religious schools, introducing religious curricula at universities, converting historic churches into mosques and also building hundreds of unneeded new mosques. He has supported legislation outlawing the drinking of alcohol in public and has instructed stewardesses on the state owned Turkish Airlines not to wear makeup. He has made religiosity a prerequisite for high office. One almost has the sense that there is nothing that he would not dare to do. Ankara’s recent shoot down of a Russian bomber that might or might not have strayed briefly into Turkish airspace was a very bad mistake as it made clear to all concerned that the Erdogan phenomenon has a very reckless side. [Turkey] [Erdogan] [Su24_151124]
• Saudi, Gulf states discussing sending special forces to Syria - Saudi foreign minister
  Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab states are discussing sending special forces to Syria as part of U.S.-led efforts to fight Islamic State, Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said on Tuesday. PARIS: Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab states are discussing sending special forces to Syria as part of U.S.-led efforts to fight Islamic State, Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said on Tuesday. "There are discussions, countries that are currently part of the coalition (like) Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain about sending in some special forces into Syria, and those discussions are ongoing. It's not excluded," Adel al-Jubeir told reporters. He said that the discussions were aimed at clarifying the needs and the objectives of such an operation, but that the picture should become clearer in the next few weeks. Jubeir was speaking in Paris after outlining a separate initiative by Riyadh to set up a coalition of Islamic countries for counter-terrorism operations especially in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt and Afghanistan. [Saudi Arabia]
• America’s “Dirty War on Syria”: Bashar al Assad and Political Reform
  By Prof. Tim Anderson Global Research, December 04, 2015 It should go without saying that the internal political processes of a sovereign country belongs to the people of that country, and no-one else. Nevertheless, as Washington insists on a prerogative to determine who can or cannot lead another country, some background on Bashar al Assad and the political reform process in Syria might be useful. We find little reasonable discussion of either, in western circles, after the Islamist insurrection of 2011. Instead, the wartime discussion descended into caricatures, conditioned by ‘regime-change’ fervour and bloody war, of a bloodthirsty ‘brutal dictator’ mindlessly repressing and slaughtering his own people. None of this helps sensible or principled understandings. Fortunately, there are a range of Syrian and independent sources that allow us to put together a more realistic picture. If we believed most western media reports we would think President Assad had launched repeated and indiscriminate attacks on civilians, including the gassing of children. We might also think he heads an ‘Alawi regime’, where a 12% minority represses a Sunni Muslim majority, crushing a popular ‘revolution’ which, only in later years, was ‘hijacked’ by extremists. A key problem with that story is the President’s great popularity at home. The fact that there has been popular dissatisfaction with corruption and cronyism, fear of the secret police, and that an authoritarian state maintains a type of personality cult, does not negate the man’s genuine popularity. Even most of his enemies admit that. We have to look a bit deeper. A mild mannered eye doctor, with part of his training in Britain, Bashar al Assad was effectively conscripted to the Presidency by the Ba’ath Party after the death of his father Hafez, in 2000. He was expected on the one hand to maintain his father’s pluralist and nationalist legacy, yet on the other hand develop important elements of political and economic reform. President Hafez al Assad had brought three decades of internal stability to Syria, after the turmoil of the 1960s. This allowed important social advances. [Syria] [Bashar Assad]
• America vs ISIS: towards real war
  Paul Rogers 11 December 2015 The spreading influence of ISIS is forcing Washington into a strategic decision: escalate. Suddenly, and without almost anyone noticing, the war against ISIS in Syria and Iraq is developing and growing rapidly. Some elements are already clear enough: they include the expansion of ISIS-controlled territory in Libya, the attacks in Paris and California, the increasing involvement of Russia, and the decision of the British parliament to authorise UK air-attacks in Syria. Those are all significant changes. But they are decidedly less important than another development, one that resonates with the experience in the early days of the Iraq war in April 2003. That war had started on 20-21 March. Within three weeks, United States marines and army units had got to Baghdad and the Saddam Hussein regime had collapsed; three more weeks, and President George W Bush could don a flying-jacket and jet out to the USS Abraham Lincoln to give his confident “mission accomplished” speech from the carrier’s flight-deck. True, there was at the time looting and disorder in Baghdad, and early indications of a revolt. But the expectation was that peace would be restored, Iraq would make a successful transition to a pro-western state, and most of the coalition troops would leave within months. Already, though, something different seemed to be happening, with reports in the US media that the Pentagon was planning to establish four large bases for airforce and army units, with every intention that these would at least be long-term projects and quite possibly permanent (see “Permanent occupation?”, 24 April 2003) Now it was becoming clear that what the Bush administration was about: a military operation that would determine US influence across the region for many years to come. The turning-point Fast forward to late 2015, and any talk of a major expansion of the US presence in the region is again quickly discounted. The main reason is the Obama administration’s evident caution about entering a ground war in Iraq and Syria. That judgment, though, needs a rethink – and at two quite different levels. [US Middle East Strategy] [ISIS]
• Libya’s Oil and ISIS
  by Vijay Prashad December 10, 2015 In the northern heart of Libya sits the town of Sirte. It is the hometown of Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed there by local militiamen after a NATO missile stopped his convoy on their behalf. A militia group from the western town of Misrata had taken control of the town, much to the annoyance of the local population. Local officials and elders complained about their fate. They had been delivered to what many saw as an occupying force. Older sympathies for Gaddafi went underground. Loyalty to Gaddafi had been declared a crime. That section of society muted itself for the time being. This year, in late summer, the Islamic State group appeared in Sirte and now flies its black flag from Sirte’s tall buildings. Not 400 miles south of Europe sits this branch of the caliphate. It is not to be easily dislodged. [ISIS] [Libya]
• Elephant in the Room: Terrorism and the U.S.-Gulf States Alliance
  by Hasan Hafidh When it comes to existing discourse on efforts to counter radicalization and the subsequent extremism that arises, it appears that Western policymakers and media outlets want to address everything but the actual long-term causes. The elephant in the room being Gulf States (namely Saudi Arabia and Qatar) whose state institutions have acted as an ideological incubator for extremist sentiment to flourish both domestically and abroad. It is rarely talked about in a sensible way since the Saudis continue to hire a spree of U.S. lobbyists and PR experts, one of which is the PR powerhouse Edelman. The largest privately owned PR agency in the world, Edelman is known for helping clients with favorable media coverage on mainstream outlets. Meanwhile, a Saudi-led coalition is continuing to bomb the poorest country in the Middle East (Yemen), violating international law in the process, which like many of their activities has Western approval due to lucrative arms deals, in turn, affording Gulf states impunity for any of their actions. This explains the notable media blackout and minimal coverage on events in Yemen across Western media outlets. [Saudi Arabia] [Qatar] [Outsourcing] [US Middle East strategy]
• Syria’s White Helmets: War by Way of Deception – Part I
  October 23, 2015 Vanessa Beeley 21st Century Wire “The Ivy League bourgeoisie who sit at the helm of the non-profit industrial complex will one day be known simply as charismatic architects of death. Funded by the ruling class oligarchy, the role they serve for their funders is not unlike that of corporate media. Yet, it appears that global society is paralyzed in a collective hypnosis – rejecting universal social interests, thus rejecting reason, to instead fall in line with the position of the powerful minority that has seized control, a minority that systematically favours corporate interests.” ~ Cory Morningstar In his recent speech Hezbollah leader, Sayyed Nasrallah, alluded to a multi-phase “soft war” which relies upon the mass media complex to disseminate propaganda and bias, propelling the Middle East into, primarily, a sectarian crisis before descending even further into regionalism and finally a devastating individualism. Cory Morningstar’s body of work does more than any other to expose the bare bones of the non-profit propaganda industry that governs both our reactions – and inactions, through a network of multi-layered and multi-faceted media manipulation campaigns, of which the end result is mass thought control. She explains: [NGO] [Softwar] [Covert]
• Part II – Syria’s White Helmets: War By Way of Deception ~ ‘Moderate Executioners’
  October 28, 2015 Vanessa Beeley 21st Century Wire “If there is any doubt concerning the nefarious undertones of subversiveness in these NGO dealings, [National Endowment for Democracy] NED founder reportedly said the following in the 1990s: ‘A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.’ What was once done at night under the cloak of ‘imperialism’ is now done during the day under the guise of ‘humanitarianism.’” ~ The Wrong Kind of Green Hindsight is a generous provider of absolution of the guilt from falling for the sophisticated western government or state propaganda and their media sleights of hand that so often deceive us into believing the narrative they present, one that’s so often designed to justify military intervention. [NGO] [Softwar]
• Assad: "I never thought about leaving Syria under any circumstances"
  Published December 11, 2015 By Jose Antonio Vera and Jose Manuel Sanz Full transcript of Agencia EFE's exclusive interview Thursday in Damascus with Syrian President Bashar Assad: Question 1: Thank you very much, Mr. President, for your hospitality and for giving the Spanish News Agency EFE the opportunity to understand what is the situation in your country. Okay, on November 14th, the world powers, including Russia and Iran, agreed in Vienna on a timetable for a political solution for the Syria crisis. According to this timetable, the negotiations between your government and the moderate opposition should start on Jan. 1. Are you ready to start those negotiations? President Assad: You are most welcome in Syria. Since the very beginning of the conflict in Syria, we adopted the dialogue approach with every party that is involved in the Syrian conflict, and we dealt positively, responded positively, to every initiative that has been launched by different states around the world regardless of the real intention and the genuineness of the people or the officials who started those initiatives. So, we were ready, and we are ready today to start the negotiations with the opposition. But it depends on the definition of opposition. Opposition, for everyone in this world, doesn't mean militant. There's a big difference between militants, terrorists, and opposition. Opposition is a political term, not a military term. So, talking about the concept is different from the practice, because so far, we've been seeing that some countries, including Saudi Arabia, the United States, and some Western countries wanted the terrorist groups to join these negotiations. They want the Syrian government to negotiate with the terrorists, something I don't think anyone would accept in any country. [Syria] [Bashar Assad]
• Nightmare scenario for establishment: Trump or Cruz
  By Niall Stanage - 12/10/15 06:05 AM EST Three candidates for the Republican nomination have broken away from the rest of the pack, and two of them — businessman Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz — give the GOP establishment nightmares. That leaves the third member of the trio, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, potentially well placed to pick up the support of center-right Republican voters who are looking for someone to stop Trump and Cruz at almost any cost But Rubio is behind both of his top-tier rivals in national polling averages and is even further back in Iowa, home to the first-in-the-nation caucuses, where he holds fourth place, albeit behind the fast-fading Ben Carson. An even deeper problem for the Florida senator is that other candidates who are competing for the same voters are unlikely to drop out before the New Hampshire primary. That means votes that might otherwise go to Rubio could instead be won by contenders such as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Add all these factors together and it becomes clear why establishment Republicans are so concerned, especially in the wake of Trump’s inflammatory call to ban Muslims from entering the United States. Cruz, meanwhile, has been enjoying a rapid rise in the polls. [US_Election16]
• Empowering the Ugliness
  Paul Krugman Dec. 11, 2015 We live in an era of political news that is, all too often, shocking but not surprising. The rise of Donald Trump definitely falls into that category. And so does the electoral earthquake that struck France in Sunday’s regional elections, with the right-wing National Front winning more votes than either of the major mainstream parties. What do these events have in common? Both involved political figures tapping into the resentments of a bloc of xenophobic and/or racist voters who have been there all along. The good news is that such voters are a minority; the bad news is that it’s a pretty big minority, on both sides of the Atlantic. If you are wondering where the support for Mr. Trump or Marine Le Pen, the head of the National Front, is coming from, you just haven’t been paying attention.
• Is the U.S. Facilitating the Use of Mercenaries in Yemen?
  by William D. Hartung The recent New York Times report that the United Arab Emirates is paying, arming, and training retired soldiers from Colombia and other Latin American countries to fight in Yemen marks a troubling turning point in the evolution of the current generation of Mideast wars. The use of mercenaries to fight battles that a country’s own citizens are loathe to engage in lifts yet another barrier to the prosecution and escalation of wars in the region. One question for Congress and the Obama administration is whether U.S. arms and training programs have helped to facilitate these rogue activities. All of the parties to the transaction—including ex-Colombian, Panamanian, Chilean, and Salvadoran soldiers—come from countries that have received extensive U.S. military training programs for decades. According to data compiled by the Security Assistance Monitor (SAM), during the Obama years alone, the United States has trained a total of 30,000 military personnel from the four countries represented in the UAE’s mercenary force, with over two-thirds coming from Colombia. It would be useful to know how many of those 30,000 have sold their skills to the UAE to fight alongside their troops in Yemen. For example, the United States trained Oscar Garcia Batte, who runs the company that recruits ex-Colombian soldiers for the UAE. Batte is now fighting with the first Colombian unit to deploy to Yemen alongside UAE troops. The military of the United Arab Emirates, which is training the Latin American mercenary force, has also received training from the United States. U.S. personnel have trained over 4,000 Emirati troops since 2009. In addition, many of the weapons the mercenary force is being trained to use, including M-16 rifles, grenade launchers, night vision devices, and armored vehicles, have most likely come from the United States, given Washington’s central role in supplying the UAE’s military. [Mercenaries] [Outsourcing] [US Middle East Strategy]
• For Muslims in the U.S. military, a different U.S. than the one they swore to defend
  By Thomas Gibbons-Neff December 9 at 12:53 PM Ibrahim Hashi, a Muslim veteran of the U.S. military, is pictured in his American University dorm room on Dec. 2. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post) U.S. Marine Gunnery Sgt. Emir Hadzic was a Muslim refugee. “The way Americans welcomed us made such a huge impression on me that I felt like I owed something back,” said Hadzic, a Bosnian-Muslim who fled Sarajevo in 1995. Shortly after arriving in the United States, Hadzic joined the Marine Corps as an infantryman — hoping to help peacekeepers deploying to his homeland. “I thought I would sign up and pay my debt and on behalf of my family,” he added. Eight deployments later and still in the Marine Corps, Hadzic has become disturbed by the rising anti-Muslim sentiment in this country after the recent Islamic State attacks in Paris and last week’s San Bernardino shootings. GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump, a candidate Hadzic used to support, has called for barring Muslims from entering the United States. [Islamophobia] [Dysfunction]
• Iraq: ‘Islamic State’ atrocities fuelled by decades of reckless arms trading
  8 December 2015, 00:01 UTC Decades of poorly regulated arms flows into Iraq as well as lax controls on the ground have provided the armed group calling itself Islamic State (IS) with a large and lethal arsenal that is being used to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity on a massive scale in Iraq and Syria, Amnesty International said in a new report today. Drawing on expert analysis of thousands of verified videos and images, Taking Stock: The arming of Islamic State catalogues how IS fighters are using arms, mainly looted from Iraqi military stocks, which were manufactured and designed in more than two dozen countries, including Russia, China the USA and EU states. “The vast and varied weaponry being used by the armed group calling itself Islamic State is a textbook case of how reckless arms trading fuels atrocities on a massive scale,” said Patrick Wilcken, Researcher on Arms Control, Security Trade and Human Rights at Amnesty International [ISIS] [Arms sales] [False balance]
• 15 Blackwater foreign fighters killed in Yemen this week
  The chief of Blackwater mercenaries in Yemen has been killed in clashes with Houthi Ansarullah fighters and allied forces in the country’s southwest, reports say. Yemen’s Arabic-language al-Masirah news website reported that the commander-in-chief of the private security firm in the country, a Mexican national, was slain in the al-Omari district of Taiz Province early on Wednesday. According to the report, the recent fatality has brought to 15 the number of foreign forces with the Blackwater killed in clashes in Yemen since Tuesday. Some Australian, British, and French advisors and commanders -- plus half a dozen Colombian soldiers -- were among the dead. The mercenaries are part of the UAE forces that help Saudi Arabia in its war against the impoverished country. [Mercenaries] [Saudi Arabia] [Yemen]
• Islamic State Uses Libya to Gain African Foothold
  By Christoph Reuter The Islamic State is using the same strategy it deployed in Syria in order to expand its territory in North Africa. Libya has become the center of its deadly activities in the region. The cinematic staging hinted very early on at the plan. As masked men with the Islamic State (IS) terrorist militia massacred 21 Egyptian Christians on a Libyan beach in February, the camera positions, lighting and editing were professional in a way that had only previously been seen in videos eminating from IS headquarters in Raqqa. Libya has become by far the Syrian-Iraqi caliphate's most important beachhead as it seeks to expand its footprint in North Africa, and there are numerous reasons for this development. Libya's disintegration into competing factions and regions provides fertile soil for the jihadists' creeping rise to power. More than 1,000 kilometers (612 miles) of coastline and uncontrolled borders in the south make for easy access to the country. Tunisians, who comprise the largest group of IS foreign fighters, established a broad network in Libya early on and often travel from here to the "caliphate." For months now, IS in Libya has been sticking eerily close to the blueprint it followed when conquering parts of Syria. First, IS units developed a wide network of spies and they are currently pursuing both long-term infiltration and conducting spectacular attacks as they expand the areas under their control. Some 2,000 IS fighters, including many Tunisians and other foreigners, are believed to be in the country. [ISIS] [Libya]
• Syrian insurgents say pull out of opposition talks, highlight rifts
  Riyadh | By Angus Mcdowall A powerful Islamist insurgent group said it pulled out of a Syrian opposition meeting in Riyadh on Thursday because rebel proposals had been ignored, in a move which highlighted the enduring divisions among President Bashar al-Assad's enemies. The conference of political activists and rebel groups in Saudi Arabia set up a joint body to prepare for proposed peace talks with Assad's government which world powers proposed at a meeting in Vienna last month. A statement at the end of the two-day conference said Assad should leave power at the start of a transitional period, and called for an all-inclusive, democratic civic state. It also committed to preserving state institutions. But the Islamist Ahrar al-Sham group said it had pulled out of the talks, objecting to what it said was a prominent role given to the internal political opposition group, the National Coordination Body for Democratic Change (NCB). It said the NCB was considered to be a pro-Assad organization, not opposition. [Syria] [Saudi Arabia] [Jihadist]
• Playing Right Into ISIS’s Hands
  by Robert Fisk Now that we’re all supposedly involved in the world battle against the worst enemy since Hitler – not climate change, of course, but Isis – it’s time to understand just how the forces of law, order and security, who are supposed to protect us, can do more to recruit European Muslims to the Islamist cause than all the Isis videos combined. It’s a tale of how policemen, through ignorance and racism, provoked Isis into sending sneering messages to a young man who probably does more to prevent “terror” on the streets of Brussels than anyone else. Montasser al-De’emeh is a Palestinian academic and writer, a Belgian citizen and specialist in that one subject of which all policemen now regard themselves as experts: “radicalised” or “home grown” Isis “terrorists”. He runs a centre for returning “radicals” to try to wean them from their obsession with the Isis cult – important work in Belgium which has sent 350 fighters to Syria per capita, more than any other European nation – and has co-written a highly-acclaimed book on Isis called The Jihad Caravan: A Journey to the Roots of Hatred. [ISIS] [Hysteria]
• Questions to Ask Obama the Next (and Last) Time You’re Invited to One of His Press Conferences
  by William Blum Which is most important to you – destroying ISIS, overthrowing Syrian president Assad, or scoring points against Russia? Do you think that if you pointed out to the American people that Assad has done much more to aid and rescue Christians in the Middle East conflicts than any other area leader that this would lessen the hostility the United States public and media feel toward him? Or do you share the view of the State Department spokesperson who declared in September that “The Assad regime frankly is the root of all evil”? Why does the United States maintain crippling financial sanctions and a ban on military aid to Syria, Cuba, Iran and other countries but not to Saudi Arabia? What does Saudi Arabia have to do to lose its strong American support? Increase its torture, beheadings, amputations, whippings, stonings, punishment for blasphemy and apostasy, or forced marriages and other oppression of women and girls? Increase its financial support for ISIS and other jihadist groups? Confess to its role in 9-11? Attack Israel? [Obama] {US Middle East Strategy]
• Trump calls for banning entry to all Muslims
  Highlights Trump cites ‘great hatred’ toward Americans Obama has urged Americans not to scapegoat Muslims Proposal draws sharp criticism from some of Trump’s Republican rivals Donald Trump entered the 2016 presidential race on June 16, 2015. Find out where he stands on four of the biggest issues this election: immigration, ISIS, job growth and gay marriage. (Daniel Desrochers/McClatchy DC) By Lesley Clark WASHINGTON — - Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump is calling for a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the United States until lawmakers “can figure out what is going on” in the wake of attacks in Paris and California. Trump’s call for a halt to Muslim immigration comes just hours after President Barack Obama urged Americans not to scapegoat Muslims and as investigators continue to look for clues in the Islamic jihadist-inspired attack in San Bernardino, that killed 14 people. The real estate mogul’s latest blast at the Muslim community comes on the same day that a new Monmouth University poll showed Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, had pulled ahead of Trump in Iowa, which holds the nation’s first caucus Feb. 1. Trump has been dogged by voter concerns that he lacks the temperament to be president, and the Republican party establishment has grown increasingly anxious about his hold on the polls. [Trump] [Islamophobia] [Governance]
• Syria calls US-led coalition air strike on Assad regime forces an 'act of aggression'
  But the US-led coalition denies carrying out the attack in which at least three Syrian soldiers were killed Adam Withnall | An air strike carried out by the US-led coalition in Syria is reported to have targeted regime forces for the first time, killing at least three soldiers and destroying a number of vehicles. The Syrian government said four warplanes bombed its Saega military camp in Deir al-Zor province, describing it as an "act of aggression" by coalition forces. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, 13 more military personnel were wounded in the strike, which it said took place near the town of Ayyash on Sunday evening. But while the Syrian foreign ministry said in a statement that it had written to the UN over the incident, a spokesman for the coalition denied it had carried out any air strikes on the area in question. [US Syria policy]
• What happens when you read people the Bible and tell them it's the Koran? Exactly what you expect
  Posted 2 days ago by Ellen Stewart in videos If you're not familiar with the Bible, there are some rather gory passages within its pages. For example: “ If you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands, and if you reject my decrees and abhor my laws and fail to carry out all my commands and so violate my covenant, then I will do this to you: I will bring on you sudden terror, wasting diseases and fever that will destroy your sight and sap your strength... I will send wild animals against you, and they will rob you of your children, destroy your cattle and make you so few in number that your roads will be deserted... If in spite of this you still do not listen to me but continue to be hostile toward me, then in my anger I will be hostile toward you, and I myself will punish you for your sins seven times over. You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters.„ So what happens when you take certain snippets from the holy text, read them aloud and tell people the words are from the Koran? That's what Dutch YouTube duo, Dit Is Normaal, wanted to know. So they wrapped up a copy of the Bible in a Koran cover, read out a bunch of the most shocking passages, asked people what they thought and what happened? Exactly what you'd expect, unfortunately. [Islam] [Religion]
• U.S. Strategy Seeks to Avoid ISIS Prophecy
  By Rukmini Callimachi Dec. 7, 2015 As the debate on how best to contain the Islamic State continues to rage in Western capitals, the militants themselves have made one point patently clear: They want the United States and its allies to be dragged into a ground war. In fact, when the United States first invaded Iraq, one of the most enthusiastic proponents of the move was the man who founded the terrorist cell that would one day become the Islamic State, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. He excitedly called the Americans’ 2003 intervention “the Blessed Invasion.” His reaction — ignored by some, and dismissed as rhetoric by others — points to one of the core beliefs motivating the terrorist group now holding large stretches of Iraq and Syria: The group bases its ideology on prophetic texts stating that Islam will be victorious after an apocalyptic battle to be set off once Western armies come to the region. Should that invasion happen, the Islamic State not only would be able to declare its prophecy fulfilled, but could also turn the occurrence into a new recruiting drive at the very moment the terrorist group appears to be losing volunteers. It is partly that theory that President Obama referred to in his speech on Sunday, when he said the United States should pursue a “sustainable victory” that involves airstrikes and supports local forces battling the Islamic State rather than sending a new generation of American soldiers into a ground offensive. [US middle East Strategy] [Spin] [Outsourcing]
• No Brake and No Disclosure on Media Owners’ Interests
  by craig on December 5, 2015 3:22 pm The Times today carries an article on ISIS’ oil interests, Syria and Turkey. Nowhere does it inform its readers that the owner of the newspaper, Rupert Murdoch, has a vested interest in this subject through his role and shares in Genie Energy, an Israeli company granted oil rights in Syria by the Israeli government. Dick Cheney and Lord Rothschild are also shareholders. No, they really are. This is not a conspiracy theory. It is a conspiracy. That Israel should grant oil rights within Syria is of course a striking example of contempt for international law, but then that is the basis on which Israel normally operates. Of course Genie’s share value will be substantially boosted by the installation of a neo-con puppet regime in Damascus which can be bought to underwrite the oil concession granted by Israel. Contempt for international law has been the single most important defining characteristic of neo-conservatism, and the need to uphold international law the recurring theme of this blog. I never thought the UK government would make the withdrawal of its support for the concept of international law explicit, as Cameron has done by removing the obligation to comply with international law from the Ministerial Code. That is truly, truly disgraceful. But to return to Murdoch’s oil interests in Syria, it seems to me a fundamental flaw that when Fox News, Sky News, the Times, the Sun and Murdoch’s numerous other media outlets bang the drum for Western military action in Syria, there is no requirement for the consumer of this propaganda to be told that the outlet is pushing a policy in line with the financial interests of its owner. Even for those actively seeking information, there is no register of the interests of media proprietors. [Media] [Legality]
• Obama tries to ease anxiety over terrorism with Oval Office address
  Obama's full speech on terrorism threat from Oval Office President Obama addressed the attacks in San Bernardino, Calif., and overseas from the Oval Office. (Associated Press) By David Nakamura December 6 at 8:46 PM ? President Obama said Sunday that recent attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., show that the threat of terrorism to the United States has entered a new phase, but he vowed that the nation will ultimately defeat the Islamic State and other militant groups. “The threat from terrorism is real, but we will overcome it,” Obama said during a 14-minute Oval Office address. Using an acronym for the group, he declared: “We will destroy ISIL and any other organization that tries to harm us.” Obama, who has struggled to calm public fears, hoped the rare prime-time address would help reassure an uneasy nation after a series of deadly attacks. Aides said he made the decision to speak directly to the nation — only the third time he has used the Oval Office for such a speech — last week and worked on his remarks through the weekend. In a rebuke to critics who have called his approach weak, Obama said the campaign to defeat terrorists will “not depend on tough talk or abandoning our values or giving in to fear. Instead, we will prevail by being strong and smart, resilient and relentless.” [Obama] [US Middle East Strategy] [ISIS] [Rhetoric]
• Are we being misguided about precision strike?
  By Chris Cole on 04/12/2015 • ( 0 ) In the run up to the House of Commons vote on air strikes against ISIS in Syria, there has been much hype in the media about ‘precision strikes’. In particular a new British missile, the Brimstone, has been lauded by the press and politicians with Defence Secretary Michael Fallon going so far as to suggest that it “eliminates civilian casualties.” The perception of ‘precision’ also underlies much of the support for drones targeted killing, with the phrase ‘pinpoint accuracy’ being deployed by the media almost as often as the weapons themselves. However the details and claims of such ‘precision’ deserve scrutiny. It is important to ask whether we are not in fact being misguided about ‘precision’. Not only in terms of the actual impact on the ground, but also in the permissiveness it engenders for further war. [UAV] [Spin] [Civilian]
• Killer Drone News Blackout Continues As Mainstream Media Ignore 4 Whistleblowers
  By John Hanrahan December 3, 2015 The polls show it and commentators of all political stripes often cite the figures: Killer drone attacks by the U.S. military and the CIA in the Greater Middle East and Africa have strong U.S. public support. According to the Pew Research Center’s most recent poll in May, 58 percent — up slightly from 56 percent in February 2013 — approve of “missile strikes from drones to target extremists in such countries as Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.” The numbers of Americans disapproving of drone attacks actually increased from 26 percent to 35 percent over that two-year period — a hopeful sign, but still very much a minority view. But how well informed can U.S. citizens be on this subject when the major news media time and again ignore or under-report drone-strike stories — as we have discussed here and here in recent weeks? Stories — such as The Intercept’s October series based on a trove of classified materials provided by a national security whistleblower — that would likely raise serious questions about the drone program in many more Americans’ minds if they were actually given the information? And now, in the latest example of journalistic negligence, The New York Times, Washington Post and other mainstream news organizations in late November continued their apparent policy of no-bad-news-reporting-about-drones. This time, the major media chose to ignore four former Air Force drone-war personnel who went public with an open letter to President Obama. The letter urged the President to reconsider a program that killed “innocent civilians,” and which “only fueled the feelings of hatred that ignited terrorism and groups like ISIS, while also serving as a fundamental recruiting tool [for extremists] similar to Guantanamo Bay.” [UAV] [Whistleblower] [Civilian] [Counterproductive]
• Israel the Main Buyer of ISIS Oil — Report
  Multiple reports claim that Israel is the top purchaser of smuggled ISIS oil Enrico Braun Thu, Dec 3 Citing multiple sources, the Israeli business press are now reporting that Israel is the main recipient of ISIS oil: Kurdish and Turkish smugglers are transporting oil from ISIS controlled territory in Syria and Iraq and selling it to Israel, according to several reports in the Arab and Russian media. An estimated 20,000-40,000 barrels of oil are produced daily in ISIS controlled territory generating $1-1.5 million daily profit for the terrorist organization. The oil is extracted from Dir A-Zur in Syria and two fields in Iraq and transported to the Kurdish city of Zakhu in a triangle of land near the borders of Syria, Iraq and Turkey. Israeli and Turkish mediators come to the city and when prices are agreed, the oil is smuggled to the Turkish city of Silop marked as originating from Kurdish regions of Iraq and sold for $15-18 per barrel (WTI and Brent Crude currently sell for $41 and $45 per barrel) to the Israeli mediator, a man in his 50s with dual Greek-Israeli citizenship known as Dr. Farid. He transports the oil via several Turkish ports and then onto other ports, with Israel among the main destinations. In August, the “Financial Times” reported that Israel obtained 75% of its oil supplies from Iraqi Kurdistan. More than a third of such exports go through the port of Ceyhan, which the FT describe as a “potential gateway for ISIS-smuggled crude.” It's been well-established that Turkey is a major transportation hub for ISIS oil smuggling operations. But where is the oil sent? Someone has to buy it. The answer, apparently, is: Israel. [ISIS] [Oil] [Israel]
• U.S. struggling over what to do with Syrian rebels once tied to al Qaida
  Highlights Ahrar al Sham is one of the largest Syrian rebel factions Its new leaders are eager to distance the group from al Qaida Diplomats are skeptical about the group’s shift from militancy By Hannah Allam Washington — Last July, an ultraconservative Islamist rebel group made a splash by publicly offering to work with Western powers to resolve the Syrian civil war and build “a moderate future,” a surprising overture from a force that regularly fights alongside al Qaida loyalists. But the very next month, the same rebel group eulogized Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban chief who sheltered Osama bin Laden before and after the 9/11 attacks, as a steadfast warrior who embodied “the true meanings of jihad and sincerity.” The mixed messaging from Ahrar al Sham poses a serious dilemma for the Obama administration and its allies as they determine which rebel militias are acceptable partners in a revived diplomatic effort to resolve the Syrian conflict. Ahrar al Sham is one of Syria’s largest and most effective rebel forces, and its involvement in – or exclusion from – peace negotiations could determine the viability of any settlement hatched from a new series of negotiations in Vienna. The group is too important to exclude from talks on the country’s future, say officials and analysts who monitor the conflict. [US Middle East Strategy] [Outsourcing] [Al Qaeda]
• Beyond ISIS: The Folly of World War IV
  By Andrew J. Bacevich December 03, 2015 Assume that the hawks get their way -- that the United States does whatever it takes militarily to confront and destroy ISIS. Then what? Answering that question requires taking seriously the outcomes of other recent U.S. interventions in the Greater Middle East. In 1991, when the first President Bush ejected Saddam Hussein’s army from Kuwait, Americans rejoiced, believing that they had won a decisive victory. A decade later, the younger Bush seemingly outdid his father by toppling the Taliban in Afghanistan and then making short work of Saddam himself -- a liberation twofer achieved in less time than it takes Americans to choose a president. After the passage of another decade, Barack Obama got into the liberation act, overthrowing the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in what appeared to be a tidy air intervention with a clean outcome. As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton memorably put it, “We came, we saw, he died.” End of story. In fact, subsequent events in each case mocked early claims of success or outright victory. Unanticipated consequences and complications abounded. “Liberation” turned out to be a prelude to chronic violence and upheaval. Indeed, the very existence of the Islamic State (ISIS) today renders a definitive verdict on the Iraq wars over which the Presidents Bush presided, each abetted by a Democratic successor. A de facto collaboration of four successive administrations succeeded in reducing Iraq to what it is today: a dysfunctional quasi-state unable to control its borders or territory while serving as a magnet and inspiration for terrorists. The United States bears a profound moral responsibility for having made such a hash of things there. Were it not for the reckless American decision to invade and occupy a nation that, whatever its crimes, had nothing to do with 9/11, the Islamic State would not exist. Per the famous Pottery Barn Rule attributed to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, having smashed Iraq to bits a decade ago, we can now hardly deny owning ISIS. That the United States possesses sufficient military power to make short work of that “caliphate” is also the case. True, in both Syria and Iraq the Islamic State has demonstrated a disturbing ability to capture and hold large stretches of desert, along with several population centers. It has, however, achieved these successes against poorly motivated local forces of, at best, indifferent quality. In that regard, the glibly bellicose editor of the Weekly Standard, William Kristol, is surely correct in suggesting that a well-armed contingent of 50,000 U.S. troops, supported by ample quantities of air power, would make mincemeat of ISIS in a toe-to-toe contest. Liberation of the various ISIS strongholds like Fallujah and Mosul in Iraq and Palmyra and Raqqa, its “capital,” in Syria would undoubtedly follow in short order. In the wake of the recent attacks in Paris, the American mood is strongly trending in favor of this sort of escalation. Just about anyone who is anyone -- the current occupant of the Oval Office partially excepted -- favors intensifying the U.S. military campaign against ISIS. And why not? What could possibly go wrong? As Kristol puts it, "I don’t think there’s much in the way of unanticipated side effects that are going to be bad there." [US Middle East Strategy] [ISIS]
• ISIS Oil
  by Vijay Prashad December 3, 2015 On December 2, Russia’s Deputy Minister of Defense Anatoly Antonov made a strong statement about Turkish complicity with ISIS. The charge sheet is long and detailed. It mentions many aspects, but the most incendiary is the accusation about “ISIS oil.” ISIS controls Iraqi oil fields near Mosul. They have been making millions of dollars each day by selling oil from these fields. How does ISIS get the oil from the fields in Mosul to the market? What ISIS has done is to use the old networks that have smuggled oil from the Kurdish Regional Government without any consideration given to Baghdad’s sovereignty over that oil. This had been a point of contention for decades, since the Kurdish region began to exercise autonomous control of the north. Kurdish oil was sold to smugglers who would cart them in tankers across the border into Turkey. In Turkey the trucks would run the length of the country to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. From Ceyhan, which is a port run by the Turkish government, the oil is purchased by transporters whose ships go to Malta, where the oil is transshipped to destinations such as Ashdod (Israel). This has long been a bone of contention between the Iraqi government, the Kurdish Regional Government and the Turkish government. It was documented by Tolga Tanis in his book Potus ve Beyefendi (2015). Tanis accuses Berat Albayrak, son-in-law of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, of involvement in this illegal scheme. ISIS has merely replaced the Kurdish Regional Government in the new arrangement. How does ISIS do it? ISIS sells the oil to smugglers who cart it to Ceyhan. But now the story gets interesting. Who is involved inside Turkey with the oil? The Russians have accused the BMZ Group of being a major agent for the transport of the oil. It turns out that one of the owners of BMZ is Bilal Erdogan, son of the president. BMZ Group has – according to the Financial Times – purchased two new tankers this last month. Its volume of oil has increased. Is this ISIS oil? What the Russians allege would need to be investigated further. In the UK parliament, Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said, “We need to know which banks and countries are in on ISIS oil smuggling.” This is the most important question. It is being ignored. [ISIS] [Oil] [Erdogan]
• To Crush ISIS, John Kerry Urges Deft Removal of Syria’s Assad
  By David E. Sanger and Somini Sengupta Dec. 3, 2015 NICOSIA, Cyprus — Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday he believes that if an agreement can be reached to ease President Bashar al-Assad of Syria from power, a coalition of Americans, Russians and Syrian forces could wipe out the Islamic State “in a matter of literally months.” Mr. Kerry’s comments, in a speech to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Belgrade, Serbia, on Thursday morning, were the first in which he publicly offered an estimate of how quickly a well-organized effort might be able to defeat the radical Sunni group. He also said that “without the ability to find some ground forces that are prepared to take on Daesh,” using an Arabic acronym for the group, “this will not be won completely from the air, and we know that.” But he was not specific about where those ground troops would come from. His aides later said they would have to be indigenous. For weeks Mr. Kerry, who arrived in Cyprus later in the day to help advance the first real chance the island has had in decades to unify Greek and Turkish Cypriots under one flag, has argued that his diplomatic effort in Syria had to be matched with military pressure. Yet while American officials say they want to see Mr. Assad leave office, they clearly do not want to have that transition happen too quickly. An abrupt removal of Mr. Assad could create a vacuum in Damascus that the Islamic State would probably try to exploit. “Just imagine how quickly this scourge could be eliminated — in a matter of literally months — if we were able to secure that kind of political resolution,” Mr. Kerry said. [US Syria Policy] [Bizarre]
• Germany Rebukes Its Own Intelligence Agency for Criticizing Saudi Policy
  By Alison Smale Dec. 3, 2015 BERLIN — The German government issued an unusual public rebuke to its own foreign intelligence service on Thursday over a blunt memo saying that Saudi Arabia was playing an increasingly destabilizing role in the Middle East. The intelligence agency’s memo risked playing havoc with Berlin’s efforts to show solidarity with France in its military campaign against the Islamic State and to push forward the tentative talks on how to end the Syrian civil war. The Bundestag, the lower house of the German Parliament, is due to vote on Friday on whether to send reconnaissance planes, midair fueling capacity and a frigate to the Middle East to support the French. [Saudi Arabia] [Outsourcing] [Germany] [US dominance]
• It’s a $cam!
  Tom Engelhardt • November 12, 2015 Let’s begin with the $12 billion in shrink-wrapped $100 bills, Iraqi oil money held in the U.S. The Bush administration began flying it into Baghdad on C-130s soon after U.S. troops entered that city in April 2003. Essentially dumped into the void that had once been the Iraqi state, at least $1.2 to $1.6 billion of it was stolen and ended up years later in a mysterious bunker in Lebanon. And that’s just what happened as the starting gun went off. It’s never ended. In 2011, the final report of the congressionally mandated Commission on Wartime Contracting estimated that somewhere between $31 billion and $60 billion taxpayer dollars had been lost to fraud and waste in the American “reconstruction” of Iraq and Afghanistan. In Iraq, for instance, there was that $75 million police academy, initially hailed “as crucial to U.S. efforts to prepare Iraqis to take control of the country’s security.” It was, however, so poorly constructed that it proved a health hazard. In 2006, “feces and urine rained from the ceilings in [its] student barracks” and that was only the beginning of its problems. When the bad press started, Parsons Corporation, the private contractor that built it, agreed to fix it for nothing more than the princely sum already paid. A year later, a New York Timesreporter visited and found that “the ceilings are still stained with excrement, parts of the structures are crumbling, and sections of the buildings are unusable because the toilets are filthy and nonfunctioning.” This seems to have been par for the course. Typically enough, the Khan Bani Saad Correctional Facility, a $40 million prison Parsons also contracted to build, was never even finished. And these were hardly isolated cases or problems specific to Iraq. Consider, for instance, those police stations in Afghanistan believed to be crucial to “standing up” a new security force in that country. Despite the money poured into them and endless cost overruns, many were either never completed or never built, leaving new Afghan police recruits camping out. And the police were hardly alone. Take the $3.4 million unfinished teacher-training center in Sheberghan, Afghanistan, that an Iraqi company was contracted to build (using, of course, American dollars) and from which it walked away, money in hand. And why stick to buildings, when there were those Iraqi roads to nowhere paid for by American dollars? At least one of them did at least prove useful to insurgent groups moving their guerrillas around (like the $37 million bridge the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built between Afghanistan and Tajikistan that helped facilitate the region’s booming drug trade in opium and heroin). In Afghanistan, Highway 1 between the capital Kabul and the southern city of Kandahar, unofficially dubbed the “highway to nowhere,” was so poorly constructed that it began crumbling in its first Afghan winter. And don’t think that this was an aberration. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) hired an American nonprofit, International Relief and Development (IRD), to oversee an ambitious road-building program meant to gain the support of rural villagers. Almost $300 million later, it could point to “less than 100 miles of gravel road completed.” Each mile of road had, by then, cost U.S. taxpayers $2.8 million, instead of the expected $290,000, while a quarter of the road-building funds reportedly went directly to IRD for administrative and staff costs. Needless to say, as the road program failed, USAID hired IRD to oversee other non-transportation projects. [Imperialism] [Corruption]
• After Paris and California attacks, U.S. Muslims feel intense backlash
  By Kevin Sullivan, Elahe Izadi and Sarah Pulliam Bailey December 3 at 8:01 PM Rabia Chaudry kept her 7-year-old daughter home from her private Islamic school in Maryland on Thursday, fearing anti-Muslim backlash from Wednesday’s massacre nearly 3,000 miles away in San Bernardino, Calif. “I think we are all feeling exhausted and very vulnerable,” said Chaudry, a lawyer and national security fellow at the New America Foundation. “I’m angry at those people who did this attack. And I’m angry at how this is being politicized. Everything boils down to, ‘We should fear Muslims. And they shouldn’t be here.’ ” American Muslims say they are living through an intensely painful moment and feel growing anti-Muslim sentiment after the recent Islamic State attacks in Paris and this week’s San Bernardino shootings, carried out by a Muslim husband and wife. The motivations of the California killers are still unclear, although authorities are investigating it as a potential act of terrorism. Muslims said they are bracing for an even more toxic climate in which Americans are increasingly suspicious of Muslims. [Islamophobia] [Terrorism]
• Opposition win in Venezuela on Sunday may not change much
  Highlights Polls predict opposition might take National Assembly for first time in 16 years But polls could be wrong; in any case, ruling party controls other parts of the government Ambassador: Whatever the outcome, Nicolás Maduro will still be president on Monday By Franco Ordoñez Washington — Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro might have a lot at stake in this weekend’s parliamentary elections. Or he might not. If national polls are correct, Maduro’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela stands to lose control of Venezuela’s National Assembly for the first time in 16 years. With the opposition gaining a bigger voice, the legislature might then become a place for democratic dialogue that has been missing in the country, said Jennifer McCoy, former director of the Americas Program at the Carter Center, the Atlanta-based human rights organization founded by former President Jimmy Carter. That dialogue could lead to a change in the country’s power dynamics and in Venezuela’s attitude toward the ruling party. But the stakes may be lower than they appear. The legislature is only one of five branches of power in the government. And Maduro has the ability to shift more power from the legislature to other branches under his party’s control, McCoy said. “Just because the opposition wins a majority in the legislature, it doesn’t mean it suddenly is going to have this major power,” said McCoy, who now is director of the Global Studies Institute at Georgia State University. Venezuela will hold legislative elections on Sunday. The date commemorates the first election of the late President Hugo Chávez, who launched the country’s socialist revolution when voters supported him on Dec. 6, 1998. The United Socialist Party currently holds a majority in the assembly, but polls indicate the leadership gavel could change hands amid growing discontent over shortages, rapid inflation and rising crime. [Venezuela]
• Panel casts doubt on U.S. propaganda efforts against ISIS
  America's most graphic anti-Islamic State video Hear from the man responsible for one of the most controversial counter-messaging videos produced by the U.S. State Department. “Welcome to ISIS Land” used footage straight from gruesome Islamic State propaganda videos and led to a backlash from officials in Washington. EDITOR’S NOTE: The Washington Post has blurred the graphic images from the State Department video. (The Washington Post) By Greg Miller December 2 at 7:27 PM ? The State Department is considering scaling back its direct involvement in online campaigns to discredit the Islamic State after a review by outside experts cast new doubt on the U.S. government’s ability to serve as a credible voice against the terrorist group’s propaganda, current and former U.S. officials said. The findings by the six-member panel, which included marketing experts from Silicon Valley and New York, have added to the uncertainty surrounding a State Department program that also faces another management shake-up with the departure of its second director in less than a year. [ISIS] [Propaganda]
• CIA runs shadow war with Afghan militia implicated in civilian killings
  By Sudarsan Raghavan December 3 at 12:30 AM ? Darwar Khan prays over the graves of relatives who were killed during a night raid conducted by the Khost Protection Force in the village of Gurbuz District, Khost province, on Nov. 4. (Andrew Quilty/For The Washington Post) TOR GHAR, AFGHANISTAN — Months after the Obama administration declared combat operations over in Afghanistan, the CIA continues to run a shadow war in the eastern part of the country, overseeing an Afghan proxy called the Khost Protection Force, according to local officials, former commanders of that militia and Western advisers. The highly secretive paramilitary unit has been implicated in civilian killings, torture, questionable detentions, arbitrary arrests and use of excessive force in controversial night raids, abuses that have mostly not been previously disclosed. The elite Afghan fighters and their American handlers came to Tor Ghar one night in September. Shortly after midnight, wearing tan camouflage and black masks, they entered a village in this remote mountainous area straddling the Pakistan border in search of militants with a Taliban-allied group, said local officials and tribal elders who later spoke with the force’s commanders. Within minutes, the armed men had arrived at Darwar Khan’s house. “When my father opened the gate, they shot him dead,” recalled Khan, who was inside the house at the time. “Then, they tossed a grenade into the compound, killing my mother.” [Proxy] [CIA] [Afghanistan]
• After Paris and Beirut, It’s Time to Rein in Saudi Arabia
  America's leading Sunni ally was propagating a violent, sectarian religious ideology long before ISIS came on the scene. By Inge Fryklund, November 20, 2015. After the carnage in Paris, Western governments turned immediately to debating the usual tactics for “bringing the terrorists to justice.” Should we employ drone strikes, they wonder? Boots on the ground? Police? The much more important matter, however, is identifying and stopping the source of the nihilism, misogyny, and sectarian animus that’s found fertile breeding grounds in the civil wars of the Middle East. Unless the source is addressed, there will be an endless supply of terrorists wreaking havoc. And we in the West will continue wringing our hands and responding impulsively rather than strategically. While virtually all Islamic scholars dispute the theological soundness of the ISIS ideology, the group’s roots lie in fundamentalist Sunni Islam, specifically the Wahhabi strain officially espoused by Saudi Arabia — our “ally” — which views Shiites as apostates and seeks to turn Islamic societies back to an intolerant (and imagined) medieval past where women are stoned for adultery and reporters are lashed. Since the 1970s, the Saudi government and its allied religious establishment have exported their extremist version of Sunni Islam around the world — all financed by their oil money. [Saudi Arabia] [Outsourcing] [Wahhabi] [Sunni] [Client]
• Argentina’s Election: Who Won What?
  Commentary No. 414, December 1, 2015 On Nov. 22, 2015, Mauricio Macri defeated Daniel Scioli in Argentina’s presidential election somewhat narrowly by just under three percentage points. Most analysts called this the triumph of the right over the left. This is not false but it is far too simple. Actually, the election reflected the very complex developments occurring throughout Latin America at the present time. Misreading what is going on can lead to major political errors in the decade to come. [Argentina]
• Dead, White, and Blue: The Great Die-Off of America's Blue Collar Whites
  By Barbara Ehrenreich The white working class, which usually inspires liberal concern only for its paradoxical, Republican-leaning voting habits, has recently become newsworthy for something else: according to economist Anne Case and Angus Deaton, the winner of the latest Nobel Prize in economics, its members in the 45- to 54-year-old age group are dying at an immoderate rate. While the lifespan of affluent whites continues to lengthen, the lifespan of poor whites has been shrinking. As a result, in just the last four years, the gap between poor white men and wealthier ones has widened by up to four years. The New York Times summed up the Deaton and Case study with this headline: “Income Gap, Meet the Longevity Gap.” This was not supposed to happen. For almost a century, the comforting American narrative was that better nutrition and medical care would guarantee longer lives for all. So the great blue-collar die-off has come out of the blue and is, as the Wall Street Journal says, “startling.” It was especially not supposed to happen to whites who, in relation to people of color, have long had the advantage of higher earnings, better access to health care, safer neighborhoods, and of course freedom from the daily insults and harms inflicted on the darker-skinned. There has also been a major racial gap in longevity -- 5.3 years between white and black men and 3.8 years between white and black women -- though, hardly noticed, it has been narrowing for the last two decades. Only whites, however, are now dying off in unexpectedly large numbers in middle age, their excess deaths accounted for by suicide, alcoholism, and drug (usually opiate) addiction. There are some practical reasons why whites are likely to be more efficient than blacks at killing themselves. For one thing, they are more likely to be gun-owners, and white men favor gunshots as a means of suicide. For another, doctors, undoubtedly acting in part on stereotypes of non-whites as drug addicts, are more likely to prescribe powerful opiate painkillers to whites than to people of color. (I’ve been offered enough oxycodone prescriptions over the years to stock a small illegal business.) Manual labor -- from waitressing to construction work -- tends to wear the body down quickly, from knees to back and rotator cuffs, and when Tylenol fails, the doctor may opt for an opiate just to get you through the day. The Wages of Despair But something more profound is going on here, too. [Labour]
• In intensified Islamic State effort, U.S. to send elite targeting force to Iraq
  By Missy Ryan December 1 at 12:05 PM ? U.S. will deploy special force to fight Islamic State in Iraq While testifying before the House Armed Services Committee on Dec. 1, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said that the United States is deploying a specialized expeditionary targeting force to help Iraq put additional pressure on Islamic State. (Reuters) The Pentagon will send a new Special Operations force to Iraq to intensify U.S. and Iraqi operations against the Islamic State, Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter said Tuesday. Carter, providing the House Armed Services Committee an update on President Obama’s plan for countering the extremist group, said the United States was sending “a specialized expeditionary targeting force” to help Iraqi troops and to intensify direct action against the militants there. “These special operators will over time be able to conduct raids, free hostages, gather intelligence and capture ISIL leaders,” Carter said, using an acronym for the Islamic State. “That creates a virtuous cycle of better intelligence, which generates more targets, more raids and more momentum.” [Special forces]
• Iraqis think the U.S. is in cahoots with the Islamic State, and it is hurting the war
  By Liz Sly December 1 at 9:24 PM ? BAIJI, Iraq — On the front lines of the battle against the Islamic State, suspicion of the United States runs deep. Iraqi fighters say they have all seen the videos purportedly showing U.S. helicopters airdropping weapons to the militants, and many claim they have friends and relatives who have witnessed similar instances of collusion. Ordinary people also have seen the videos, heard the stories and reached the same conclusion — one that might seem absurd to Americans but is widely believed among Iraqis — that the United States is supporting the Islamic State for a variety of pernicious reasons that have to do with asserting U.S. control over Iraq, the wider Middle East and, perhaps, its oil. “It is not in doubt,” said Mustafa Saadi, who says his friend saw U.S. helicopters delivering bottled water to Islamic State positions. He is a commander in one of the Shiite militias that last month helped push the militants out of the oil refinery near Baiji in northern Iraq alongside the Iraqi army. The Islamic State is “almost finished,” he said. “They are weak. If only America would stop supporting them, we could defeat them in days.” [US Middle East strategy] [Outsourcing] [ISIS] [Media]
• ISIS Promise of Statehood Falling Far Short, Ex-Residents Say
  By Ben Hubbard Dec. 1, 2015 Sanliurfa, Turkey — After the Syrian government stopped paying him, a technician who had spent two decades pumping the country’s oil received an enticing offer: do the same work for the jihadists of the Islamic State — starting at three times the salary. He was soon helping to fill tanker trucks with crude oil to fund the Islamic State. But frequent executions of those suspected of spying and deadly airstrikes by government jets made life hard, and he grew angry that the country’s resources were financing the jihadists while schools and hospitals were being shut down. “We thought they wanted to get rid of the regime, but they turned out to be thieves,” the technician said after fleeing to this city in southern Turkey. The Islamic State claims to be more than a militant group, selling itself as a government for the world’s Muslims that provides a range of services in the territory it controls. But that statehood project is now in distress, perhaps more so than at any other time since the Islamic State began seizing territory in Iraq and Syria, according to a range of interviews with people who have recently fled. Under pressure from airstrikes by several countries, and new ground offensives by Kurdish and Shiite militias, the jihadists are beginning to show the strain. [ISIS]
• Confession of a CIA Agent: They gave us millions to dismember Yugoslavia
  November 26, 20152 We bribed parties and politicians who have enticed hate between the nations. Our ultimate goal was to enslave you! WebTribune publishes their interview with former CIA agent Robert Baer during his promotion tour in Quebec for upcoming book “Secrets of the White House” last week. My boss, who was formerly a US Senator, stressed repeatedly that some kind of scam would go down in Bosnia. A month before the alleged genocide in Srebrenica, he told me that the town would be headline news around the world and ordered us to call the media. Robert Baer, ??a former CIA officer, has authored many books which disclosed the secrets of both the CIA and the administrations of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. He has been arrested and detained several times. Mitt Waspurh, a personal friend who worked at the Senate and shared information was killed at gunpoint. As a senior CIA operative, Baer worked in Yugoslavia during the 1991-94 period and in the Middle East. He has worked on several documentaries on National Geographic, accusing the Bush administration of waging war for oil. The interview was conducted live in Canada, during my trip a few days ago. Robert Baer is currently promoting his book “The Secrets of the White House” in Quebec, where we talked. In an interview we spoke of the background of the war in Yugoslavia [CIA] [Destabilisation] [Yugoslavia] [Fragmentation]
• Syrian Crisis Triggers Turkey’s Neo-Ottoman Ambitions
  Dmitry Minin | 30.11.2015 | 08:00 The Turkey’s treacherous attack against a Russian military aircraft dispelled the fog of dangerous illusions. First and foremost, it shows how phony was the assurances of the Turkish government about its readiness for special relationship and close cooperation with Russia. The desire to reap benefits is not the same thing as the implementation of long-term strategy. Everybody needs cooperation; there is no need to refuse it, but an in-depth analysis of the reasons that define the policy implemented by Turkey today shows the downing of the aircraft was not an accident. In a war on evil it is not possible to join efforts with someone who gave birth to it. Pan-Turkism, Neo-Ottomanism and radical Islamism constitute the basis of Turkey’s state ideology. The country that espouses it cannot be our ally, or an associate. Ankara has not been just pursuing the goal of providing protection to the countries that were parts of former Ottoman Empire. It wants to ultimately integrate them into Turkey. These ambitions enter in direct contradiction with the vital interests of Russia. One can easily see it is true – it’s enough to get acquainted with the Davutoglu Doctrine associated with the name of the current Prime Minister of Turkey. The county’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a devout supporter of this policy and is eager to bring it to life. George Friedman, the chairman of Stratfor private global intelligence company, is an expert in geopolitics who is known for his works of provocative nature. In his futuristic book titled The Next 100 Years he predicts with confidence that Poland and Turkey will become the main instruments used by the West to destroy Russia. He believes that these countries will incorporate big chunks of Russia’s territory. [Turkey] [Russia Syria]
• Former CIA Deputy Director Gives A Stunning Reason Why Obama Has Not Attacked ISIS' Oil Infrastructure
  Submitted by Tyler Durden on 11/29/2015 12:42 -0500 As we pointed out a week ago, even before the downing of the Russian jet by a Turkish F-16, the most important question that nobody had asked about ISIS is where is the funding for the terrorist organization coming from, and more importantly, since everyone tacitly knows where said funding is coming from (as we have revealed in an ongoing series of posts "Meet The Man Who Funds ISIS: Bilal Erdogan, The Son Of Turkey's President", "How Turkey Exports ISIS Oil To The World: The Scientific Evidence" and "ISIS Oil Trade Full Frontal: "Raqqa's Rockefellers", Bilal Erdogan, KRG Crude, And The Israel Connection") few on the US-led Western Alliance have done anything to stop the hundreds of millions in oil sale proceeds from funding the world's best organized terrorist group. We concluded by asking "how long until someone finally asks the all important question regarding the Islamic State: who is the commodity trader breaching every known law of funding terrorism when buying ISIS crude, almost certainly with the tacit approval by various "western alliance" governments, and why is it that these governments have allowed said middleman to continue funding ISIS for as long as it has?" To be sure, the only party that actually did something to halt ISIS' oil infrastructure was Russia, whose bombing raids of Islamic State oil routes may not only have contributed to the fatal attack by Turkey of the Russian Su-24 (as the curtailment of ISIS' oil flows led to a big hit in the funds collected by the biggest middleman in the region, Turkey, its president and his son, Bilal not to mention Israel which may have been actively buying ISIS oil over the past year) but prompted questions why the bombing campaign by the US-led alliance had been so woefully incapable of hitting ISIS where it truly hurts: its funding. This past week, someone finally came up with a "reason" why the Obama administration had been so impotent at denting the Islamic State's well-greased oil machine. In an interview on PBS' Charlie Rose on Tuesday, Rose pointed out that before the terrorist attacks in Paris, the U.S. had not bombed ISIS-controlled oil tankers, to which the former CIA deputy director Michael Morell responded that Barack Obama didn’t order the bombing of ISIS’s oil transportation infrastructure until recently because he was concerned about environmental damage. Yes, he really said that: We didn’t go after oil wells, actually hitting oil wells that ISIS controls, because we didn’t want to do environmental damage, and we didn’t want to destroy that infrastructure. [US Middle East strategy] [ISIS] [Spin] [Outsourcing]

• Syria and Washington’s ‘New Middle East’
  By Prof. Tim Anderson Global Research, November 28, 2015 The following text is chapter two of professor Tim Anderson’s forthcoming book entitled “The Dirty War on Syria” After the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and the destruction of Libya, Syria was to be the next state overthrown. Washington and its regional allies had planned this for some time. After ‘regime change’ in Damascus, Syria’s ally Hezbollah, leader of the Lebanese Resistance to Israel, would be isolated. The Islamic Republic of Iran would remain the only Middle East country without US military bases. After Iran, Washington would control the entire region, excluding possible competitors such as Russia and China. Palestine would be lost. This was all part of Washington’s plan for a ‘New Middle East’; but it was not to be. Determined and coordinated resistance can never be discounted. Syria’s national army has resisted wave after wave of fanatical Islamist attacks, backed by NATO and the Gulf monarchies, and Russian and Iranian support remained solid. Importantly, Syria has built new forms of cooperation with a weak but emerging Iraq. Washington had worked for decades to divide Iran and Iraq, so the strengthening ties between Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine represent a regional challenge to the new ‘Great Game’ of our times. The Middle East is not just a big power playground. The US and its close regional collaborators (Saudi Arabia, Israel, Turkey, Qatar and Jordan), we now know, have been behind every anti-Syrian extremist group since the beginning of the recent conflict. They have used the worst of reactionary and sectarian forces to pursue their ends. The Axis of Resistance, on the other hand, should not be misunderstood as a sectarian phenomenon. This group – the Islamic Republic of Iran, secular Syria, the Lebanese Resistance led by Hezbollah and the Palestinians – is deeply anti-imperial. Syria, the only remaining ‘secular’ state in the region has long allied itself with the Islamic Republic of Iran, including against Saddam Hussein’s secular Iraq. Saddam in turn was used by Washington to degrade Iran, after that country’s 1979 revolution. On the other hand, Iran never backed the sectarian Muslim Brotherhood in any of its insurrections against secular Syria. Iran does support the Shia Muslims of Hezbollah, but it is most demonised for arming Palestine, which has hardly any Shia. This plurality disproves any claims that the Axis of Resistance is sectarian. Promotion of sectarianism in the Middle East mostly comes from Washington’s key allies, Saudi Arabia, the other gulf monarchies, and the ethnic cleansers of Israel. They share the US aim of keeping the region weak and divided. [US Middle East policy]
• What really drives you crazy about waiting in line (it actually isn’t the wait at all)
  By Ana Swanson November 27 at 10:10 AM ? There's a better way to stand in Black Friday lines. But you won’t like it. When we stand in line, it's not just the length of time we hate, it's the anxiety, uncertainty and boredom that goes along with it. Some companies and researchers are looking for ways to make waiting in line a little less painful. (Jorge Ribas/The Washington Post) If the people who study the psychology of waiting in line — yes, there is such a thing — have an origin story, it’s this: It was the 1950s, and a high-rise office building in Manhattan had a problem. The tenants complained of an excessively long wait for the elevator when people arrived in the morning, took their lunch break, and left at night. Engineers examined the building and determined that nothing could be done to speed up the service. Desperate to keep his tenants, the building manager turned to his staff for suggestions. One employee noted that people were probably just bored and recommended installing floor-to-ceiling mirrors near the elevators, so people could look at themselves and each other while waiting. This was done, and complaints dropped to nearly zero. It's a tale that appears in books and articles about organizational design, though it's not clear whether it's a real story or simply a parable. Regardless, the story offers a powerful insight into one of the most universal, and universally hated, things we do: waiting in line. It suggests that there are hidden and surprising factors that affect how we experience lines. In the case of elevators, it wasn't the wait that mattered. It was that we got bored while waiting.
• Raqqa's Rockefellers: How Islamic State oil flows to Israel
  By: Al-Araby al-Jadeed staff Date of publication: 26 November, 2015 Oil produced by the Islamic State group finances its bloodlust. But how is it extracted, transported and sold? Who is buying it, and how does it reach Israel? Oil produced from fields under the control of the Islamic State group is at the heart of a new investigation by al-Araby al-Jadeed. The black gold is extracted, transported and sold, providing the armed group with a vital financial lifeline.But who buys it? Who finances the murderous brutality that has taken over swathes of Iraq and Syria? How does it get from the ground to the petrol tank, and who profits along the way?The Islamic State group uses millions of dollars in oil revenues to expand and manage vast areas under its control, home to around five million civilians.IS sells Iraqi and Syrian oil for a very low price to Kurdish and Turkish smuggling networks and mafias, who label it and sell it on as barrels from the Kurdistan Regional Government.It is then most frequently transported from Turkey to Israel, via knowing or unknowing middlemen, according to al-Araby's investigation.The Islamic State group has told al-Araby that it did not intentionally sell oil to Israel, blaming agents along the route to international markets. - See more at: http://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/features/2015/11/26/raqqas-rockefellers-how-islamic-state-oil-flows-to-israel/#sthash.wMoG5kS7.dpuf [ISIS] [Israel] [Oil]
• The Ideology of Humanitarian Imperialism
  by Jean Bricmont November 27, 2015 Àngel Ferrero: It has been 10 years since Humanitarian Imperialism appeared in Spanish. What made you write the book? It started as a reaction to the attitude of the Left during the 1999 Kosovo war, which was largely accepted on humanitarian grounds and to the rather weak opposition of the peace movement before the 2003 invasion of Iraq: for example, many “pacifists” have accepted the policy of sanctions at the time of the 1991 first Gulf war and even after it, and were favorable to inspections in the run-up to the war, without realizing that this was just a maneuver to prepare the public to accept the war (this became even public knowledge through later leaks, like the Downing Street memos). It seemed to me that the ideology of humanitarian intervention had totally destroyed, on the left, any notion of respect for international law, as well as any critical attitude with respect to the media. Àngel Ferrero: What do you think it has changed in this last 10 years? A lot of things have changed, although, I am afraid, not because of my book. It is rather reality that has asserted itself, first with the chaos in Iraq, then in Libya and now in Syria and Ukraine, leading to the refugee crisis and a near state of war with Russia, which would not be a “cakewalk”. The humanitarian imperialists are still busy pushing us towards more wars, but there is now a substantial fraction of public opinion that is against such policies; that fraction is probably more important on the right than on the left. [Imperialism]
• The Soothsayers of Eternal War
  by Robert Fisk
  November 25, 2015 Eisenhower famously sent some brusque advice to Anthony Eden in 1956 when he decided that Britain’s deceitful war in Egypt should come to an end. “Whoa, boy!” were his words. And they should be repeated now to the politicians, historians and other nincompoops who regard themselves as the soothsayers of eternal war. Each morning, I awake to find another Hollywood horror being concocted by our secret policemen or our public relations-inspired leaders. Germany’s top spy warns us of a “Terrorist World War” – I accept his expertise, of course, because Germany has itself proved rather efficient at starting world wars – while a perfectly sane and otherwise brilliant historian compares Europe’s agony to the fall of the Roman Empire. The Paris killings are now supposed to have “changed Paris for ever” or “changed France for ever”. I would accept that the collaboration of General Pétain with Nazi Germany changed France for ever – but the atrocities in Paris this month simply cannot be compared with the German occupation of 1940. That most tiresome of French philosophers, Bernard-Henri Lévy, tells us that Isis are “Fascislamists”. Oddly, I don’t remember the same Mr Lévy telling us that the avowedly Christian Lebanese killers of up to 1,700 Palestinian civilians in the Beirut Sabra-Shatila refugee camps of 1982 – Israel’s vicious Lebanese militia allies – were “Fascichristians”. This was a “terrorist” act with which I was all too familiar. With two journalist colleagues, I walked among the butchered and raped corpses of the dead. The American-armed and funded Israeli army watched the slaughter – and did nothing. Yet not a single Western politicians announced that this had “changed the Middle East for ever”. And if 1,700 innocents can be murdered in Beirut in 1982 without “world war” being declared, how can President François Hollande announce that France is “at war” after 130 innocents were massacred? Yet, now the poor and huddled masses of the Middle East, according to my friend Niall Ferguson, are the Goths flooding towards ancient Rome. Ferguson admits he doesn’t know enough about fifth century Roman history to be able to quote Romans on the subject. But the Romans endowed their newly conquered peoples with Roman citizenship; and Niall might at least have bothered to study the third century when the new Roman emperor, Caesar Marcus Julius Philippus Augustus, came from Syria. He was born about 30 miles from Damascus and was called “Philip the Arab”. But let’s not allow even modern history to get in the way of our desire for revenge. [US Middle East policy] [Israel] [Double standards]
• Results: Should the Administration halt the admittance of Syrian refugees into the U.S.?
  Yes. 5111 (83.2%) No. 921 (15%) I don't know. 45 (0.7%) Other (share your thoughts on my blog here). 63 (1%) [Refugee] [Republican]
• If you keep saying Saudi Arabia is like ISIS, you might get sued
  By Adam Taylor November 26 at 12:01 AM In this undated photo posted on the Instagram account of Ashraf Fayadh, the Palestinian artist poses for a picture. (Instagram account of Ashraf Fayadh via AP) Authorities in Saudi Arabia have long been annoyed that everyone keeps suggesting they are anything like the Islamic State. Sure, they say, perhaps some of the laws on the books may look similar to the punishments in the extremist organization, but the Saudi kingdom is a sovereign state that abides by the rule of law and uses these punishments with discretion. Now, reports in the Saudi press suggest that authorities have a new tactic for those who compare them to the Islamic State: taking them to court. According to a report in pro-government newspaper Al Riyadh, the Saudi justice ministry is planning to sue a Twitter user who suggested that a death sentence recently handed out to a Palestinian artist for apostasy was "ISIS-like." "Questioning the fairness of the courts is to question the justice of the Kingdom and its judicial system based on Islamic law, which guarantees rights and ensures human dignity," a source in the justice ministry told the newspaper, according to a translation by Reuters. The ministry would not hesitate to sue "any media that slandered the religious judiciary of the Kingdom," the source added. It is unclear who the Twitter user in question is, though his or her comments would have referred to the case of Ashraf Fayadh. According to Human Rights Watch, documents show that Fayadh was investigated for blasphemy, spreading atheism and having an illicit relationship with women, based on pictures found on his phone. After initially being sentenced to 800 lashes and four years in prison, he was retried and on Nov. 17 was sentenced to death. [Saudi Arabia] [Human rights]
• Anne Frank and her family were also denied entry as refugees to the U.S.
  By Elahe Izadi November 24 at 9:14 AM Portrait of Anne Frank at age 12, sitting at her desk at the Montessori school in Amsterdam. (Courtesy Anne Frank House, Amsterdam) Many have noted the historical parallels between the current debate over Syrians seeking refuge in the United States and the plight of European Jews fleeing German-occupied territories on the eve of World War II. Among the many who tried — and failed — to escape Nazi persecution: Otto Frank and his family, which included wife, Edith, and his daughters, Margot and Anne. And while the story of the family's desperate attempts ending in futility may seem remarkable today, it's emblematic of what a number of other Jews fleeing German-occupied territories experienced, American University history professor Richard Breitman wrote in 2007 upon the discovery of documents chronicling the Franks' struggle to get U.S. visas. "Otto Frank’s efforts to get his family to the United States ran afoul of restrictive American immigration policies designed to protect national security and guard against an influx of foreigners during time of war," Breitman wrote. The historian told NPR in 2007 that the documents suggest "Anne Frank could be a 77-year-old woman living in Boston today – a writer." Instead, she died at the age of 15 at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany. [Refugee]
• Shocked by Trump? Churchill Wanted to “Collar Them All”
  by Barry Lando November 24, 2015 We’re outraged by Donald Trump’s demanding databases and I.D. cards to protect America from the super-hyped threat of Syrian refugees. We’re ashamed by the memory of Roosevelt’s interning more than 100,000 Japanese American residents and citizens during World War II. But Winston Churchill went even farther. He ordered the internment of tens of thousands of Jewish refugees in England, labeling them dangerous enemy aliens. It’s a “distant mirror” to the mounting hysteria in the United States today. Nationals from Germany and Austria who were living in England when World War II broke out, had already been assigned to different groupings based on their apparent threat to the UK. Category A were the “high security risks.” All 600 of them were immediately interned. Those deemed “no-security risk” in Class C, included 55,000 refugees from Nazi oppression. The great majority of them were Jewish. They were left free–at first. But then, in the Spring of 1940, with the fall of France, the fear of a German invasion, the entry of Italy into the war, there was an outbreak of spy fever in England, a demand that more be done about the thousands of “dangerous aliens” living there. Unwilling to consider which of those foreigners might actually be dangerous, Churchill commanded “Collar them all.” Brushed aside were objections that huge numbers of those ordered interned were Jews who had fled for their lives from the Nazis. The irrational fear was that they might still somehow become a dangerous Fifth Column, they could be blackmailed to engage in espionage or whatever. [Refugee]
• Huckabee: Obama ‘probably’ wants Americans to learn Koran verses
  Highlights GOP presidential candidate blasts Obama terrorism policy Huckabee slams White House for veto threat of House-passed refugees bill ‘Give up your guns & memorize a Koran verse,’ Huckabee says in a tweet By William Douglas WASHINGTON — Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee mocked the Obama administration’s anti-terrorism policy Monday in the wake of last week’s terrorist attack in Mali, saying the White House would rather espouse having Americans “memorize Koran verses” than deal with the problem head-on. The former Arkansas Republican governor, in an op-ed piece for FoxNews.com, asked, “Why does the Obama administration express more outrage at conservatives than at radical Islamic terrorists?” “President Obama seems more interested in protecting the reputation of Islam than protecting the American people,” Huckabee wrote. He added: “After this attack in West Africa, Obama’s new domestic terrorism plan probably requires Americans to memorize Koran verses.” The line was a variation of a Huckabee tweet Friday in which he said, “After today’s attack in #Mali, the Obama-approved domestic anti-terror plan: Give up your guns & memorize a Koran verse.” [Governance] [Republican]
• Texas teen Ahmed Mohamed seeks $15 million for homemade-clock arrest
  Highlights Mohamed was suspended from school in September He had brought a homemade clock to school School officials were suspicious of it By Ryan Osborne IRVING — Ahmed Mohamed, the Irving teenager who made national news after he was suspended for bringing a clock to school, is seeking $15 million in damages from the city of Irving and the Irving school district. Mohamed’s attorneys sent letters Monday to the city and the school district, claiming Mohamed’s “reputation in the global community is permanently scarred.” “One also would anticipate that Ahmed, quite reasonably, will have a lifelong fear of the law enforcement and educational establishments that have let him down so terribly,” Plainview-based attorney Kelly D. Hollingsworth said in both letters. Hollingsworth requested $10 million from the city of Irving and $5 million from the school district, and also demanded written apologies from the school district, Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne and Irving Police Chief Larry Boyd. Mohamed was handcuffed and suspended from Irving MacArthur High School on Sept. 14 after administrators grew suspicious of a homemade clock he brought to class. “He showed it to a teacher, and it was suspicious in nature,” Irving Police Chief Larry Boyd said in September. “The student told the teacher it was a clock, but he was not forthcoming with any other details about it.” Mohamed was suspended three days, and later withdrew from the school. The high-profile nature of his case, though, led to an invitation to the White House from President Barack Obama, an interview on Good Morning America, and attention from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/mcclatchys-america/article46048945.html#storylink=cpy [Islamophobia] [Hysteria]
• America’s Awesome Corruption — Especially in Military
  Eric Zuesse | 24.11.2015 | 00:00 On November 16th, the great journalist on international strategic and military issues, F. William Engdahl, headlined at journal-neo, «Do We Really Want a New World War With Russia?» and he documented that, with military expenditures one-tenth of America’s, Russia achieves at least parity with the U.S. in terms of war-fighting capability. It’s a remarkable article, even though it actually brings together into one place the recent disclosures in many media, regarding vital technologies where Russia far outpaces American capabilities. Of course, that’s what’s necessary to do in order to document the extent of Russia’s areas of clear military superiority. As to the question of whether the areas where the U.S. surpasses Russia’s military technologies might be more or fewer than Russia’s, the key point to consider is, I think, that Russia has now (as Engdahl makes clear) so greatly exceeded U.S. capabilities in certain vitally important respects, so that, at the very most, the U.S., even with all of its alliances etc., would be merely equal to Russia — the Russian military’s areas of excellence are that crucial. Engdahl quotes one high U.S. military official as saying that Russia’s technologies for disabling U.S. weapons are so shocking that it almost makes him cry. A recent article in Defense News went into even more depth about Russia’s superiority in that particular area — and this was published before the subsequent embarrassing U.S. military back-downs in Syria and elsewhere, which have more recently (especially since 30 September 2015) been necessitated by the uncompetitive U.S. position regarding those vitally important technologies. Of course, all of this pertains only to America’s corruptness in the expenditures of ‘defense’ dollars (how ironic to use the word «defense» to refer to the military in the world’s most-aggressive nation. Globally, «The US was the overwhelming choice (24% of respondents) for the country that represents the greatest threat to peace in the world today. This was followed by Pakistan (8%), China (6%), North Korea, Israel and Iran (5%)». Honesty would surely dictate a name-change to «The U.S. Department of Aggression». But in official U.S. Newspeak, Russia is, instead, by far, the most «aggressive» nation on the planet.) According to other measures of corruption, the U.S. is probably less corrupt than Russia is. But everyone knows that that’s highly corrupt. America typically manages to hide its corruption more skillfully than Russia hides its — but that isn't important; the overall reality of corruption in the two countries might be not much different in degree, but only in the kinds of corruption: more high-end in America, more low-end in Russia. [Corruption] [Military balance]
• How the United States helped create the Islamic State
  The Bush administration's mistakes after the invasion of Iraq helped the militant group rise By Juan Cole November 23 at 11:56 AM Juan Cole is Richard P. Mitchell collegiate professor of history at the University of Michigan. Did the Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq in 2003 lead to our current crisis over the Islamic State? The question has been posed baldly in this campaign season, as when a young woman at a campaign rally said to GOP candidate Jeb Bush (using an alternate name for the militant group), “Your brother created ISIL.” It was not so much the invasion itself, however, as the policies implemented afterward that are mainly to blame for Iraq and Syria lying in pieces. What President George W. Bush’s administration did was to foster sectarian divisions and create a long-lasting insurgency. At every point along the way, the Bush administration made choices that exacerbated sectarian tensions in Iraq and set the country on the path to break-up. The assertion by some observers that the country is riven by age-old hatreds, is ahistorical and incorrect. In previous decades, political passions centered on anti-colonialism or big landlordism and socialism. The vacuum of power created by the U.S. dissolution of the secular Baath Party encouraged Iraqi politicians to play on sectarian passions in unprecedented ways. Provoking a violent insurgency was likewise fateful. Once an insurgency comes into being, it typically does not subside for 10 to 15 years. [US Middle East Policy] [Blowback] [Iraq]
• Electric cars and the coal that runs them
  By Michael Birnbaum November 23 at 6:00 PM ? POWER PLAY | Cheap electricity, a changing climate This is part of a series exploring how the world’s hunger for cheap electricity is complicating efforts to combat climate change. ROTTERDAM — In this traffic-packed Dutch city, electric cars jostle for space at charging ­stations. The oldest exhaust-spewing vehicles will soon be banned from the city center. Thanks to generous tax incentives, the share of electric vehicles has grown faster in the Netherlands than in nearly any other country in the world. But behind the green growth is a filthy secret: In a nation famous for its windmills, electricity is coming from a far dirtier source. Three new coal-fired power plants, including two here on the Rotterdam harbor, are supplying much of the power to fuel the Netherlands’ electric-car boom. As the world tries to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and combat climate change, policymakers have pinned hopes on electric cars, whose range and convenience are quickly improving. Alongside the boom has come a surging demand for power to charge the vehicles, which can consume as much electricity in a single charge as the average refrigerator does in a month and a half. The global shift to electric cars has a clear climate benefit in regions that get most of their power from clean sources, such as California or Norway. But in areas supplied by dirtier power, like China, India and even the Netherlands, which is on track to miss ambitious emissions targets set for 2020, the electric-car jump has slimmer payoffs. In some cases, it could even worsen the overall climate impact of driving, experts say. [Green]
• The Gulf Economies' Coming Meltdown? How to Prevent It
  By Adeel Malik Five years ago, the Gulf states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates shared a fiscal surplus of some $600 billion; by 2020, the International Monetary Fund predicts that they will have accumulated a combined deficit of $700 billion. Sustained low oil prices could make things even worse. This bad news is yet one more reminder of resource-rich Arab states’ need to build vibrant, diversified economies that can withstand the effects of oil price shocks. Although Arab governments have long recognized the need to shift away from an excessive dependence on hydrocarbons, they have had little success in doing so. Iraq, for example, set economic diversification as a core policy objective in one of its first five-year development plans in 1965—yet the country has only become more dependent on oil over time. In Qatar, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, too, diversification has been a central, yet largely unrealized, development goal since the 1970s. Even the United Arab Emirates’ economy, one of the most diversified in the Gulf, is highly dependent on oil exports. Stephanie McGehee / REUTERS Kuwaiti Oil Minister Ali Al-Omair (C) at the second Kuwait Oil and Gas Show and Conference in Mishref, Kuwait, October 2015. Why have Arab governments consistently failed to diversify their economies despite tall promises and grand plans? The answer has more to do with politics than economics. Indeed, if diversification were as simple as importing technical blueprints from states that have already diversified their economies, such as Botswana, Malaysia, and Norway, it would already have been accomplished. Economic diversification carries deep power implications for ruling elites. The trouble is that in many Arab economies, good economic policies rarely constitute good politics, especially for ruling elites. This is because the structural changes demanded by economic diversification—specifically, the production of a greater number and variety of high-value goods—promise to empower business constituencies that, flush with new income, could potentially challenge the ruler. In Kuwait, for example, the rise of an independent merchant class could undercut the power of the monarchy. If rulers in the United Arab Emirates have accepted diversification, meanwhile, it is partly because the Emirati private sector poses little political threat, since it is overwhelmingly reliant on foreign labor.
• Isis: In a borderless world, the days when we could fight foreign wars and be safe at home may be long gone
  Isis was quick to understand a truth the West must now confront: that the national borders imposed by colonial powers 100 years go are becoming meaningless, says Robert Fisk • Robert Fisk • @indyvoices Early in 2014, Isis released one of its first videos. Largely unseen in Europe, it had neither the slick, cutting-edge professionalism of its later execution tapes nor the haunting “nasheed” music that accompanies most of its propaganda. Instead, a hand-held camera showed a bulldozer pushing down a rampart of sand that had marked the border between Iraq and Syria. As the machine destroyed the dirt revetment, the camera panned down to a handwritten poster lying in the sand. “End of Sykes-Picot”, it said. Like many hundreds of thousands of Arabs in the Middle East, for whom Sykes-Picot was an almost cancerous expression, I watched this early Isis video in Beirut. The bloody repercussions of the borders that the British and French diplomats, Mark Sykes and François Georges-Picot, drew in secret during the First World War – originally giving Syria, Mount Lebanon and northern Iraq to the French, and Palestine, Transjordan and the rest of Iraq to the British – are known to every Arab, Christian and Muslim and, indeed, every Jew in the region. They eviscerated the governorates of the old dying Ottoman empire and created artificial nations in which borders, watchtowers and hills of sand separated tribes, families and peoples. They were an Anglo-French colonial production. The same night that I saw the early Isis video, I happened to be visiting the Lebanese Druze leader, Walid Jumblatt. “The end of Sykes-Picot!” he roared at me. “Rubbish,” I snorted. But of course, I was wrong and Jumblatt was right. He had spotted at once how Isis captured symbolically – but with almost breathtaking speed – what so many Arabs had sought for almost exactly 100 years: the unravelling of the fake borders with which the victors of the First World War – largely the British and the French – had divided the Arab people. It was our colonial construction – not just the frontiers we imposed upon them, but the administrations and the false democracies that we fraudulently thrust upon them, the mandates and trusteeships which allowed us to rule them – that poisoned their lives. Colin Powell claimed just such a trusteeship for Iraq's oil prior to the illegal Anglo-American invasion of 2003. [US Middle East policy]
• Israeli Colonel Leading ISIL Terrorists Captured in Iraq
  TEHRAN (FNA)- Iraqi security and popular forces have caught an Israeli colonel from Golani Brigade along with a number of ISIL terrorists, a commander disclosed on Thursday. "The security and popular forces have held captive an Israeli colonel," a commander of Iraq's popular mobilization forces said on Thursday. "The Zionist officer is ranked colonel and had participated in the Takfiri ISIL group's terrorist operations," he added. Noting that he was arrested along with a number of ISIL terrorists, the commander said, "The Israeli colonel's name is Yusi Oulen Shahak and is ranked colonel in Golani Brigade of the Zionist regime's army with the security and military code of Re34356578765az231434." He said that the relevant bodies are now interrogating the Israeli colonel to understand the reasons behind his fighting alongside the ISIL forces and the presence of other Zionist officers among ISIL terrorists. The Iraqi security forces said the captured colonel has already made shocking confessions.
• Time to “Defund” the International Criminal Court, Should the ICC be Disbanded?
  By Dr. David Hoile Global Research, November 23, 2015 Africa Research Centre The Assembly of States Parties is meeting this month in The Hague to review the work of the International Criminal Court and to discuss the ICC’s budget. The ASP is the International Criminal Court’s management oversight and legislative body. The Assembly also elects the judges and prosecutors and decides the Court’s budget. The court’s proposed budget for 2016 amounts to €153.32 million, representing an increase of €22.66 million, or 17.3 per cent, over the 2015 approved budget. At face value, far from increasing the budget for the ICC, the Assembly of State Parties should be demanding a refund. Established in 2002, the ICC is an impotent billion euro white elephant. 2015 has been a particularly bad year for the court. It has botched the Kenyan cases it has undertaken and its continuing alienation from Africa was centre-stage internationally when South Africa, previously a keen member, publicly ignored ICC arrest warrants and appears on the verge of withdrawal from the organisation – something seen by observers as a death knell for the court. The International Criminal Court has self-evidently failed across the board. In 2010 the ICC-friendlyEconomist had already found it necessary to publish an article about the ICC entitled “International justice: Courting disaster?” Things have worsened considerably since then. The ICC has consumed more than a billion euros in its 13-year existence and has only secured two deeply questionable convictions. The ICC’s claims to international jurisdiction and judicial independence are institutionally flawed and the court’s reputation has been irretrievably damaged by its racism, blatant double standards, hypocrisy, corruption and serious judicial irregularities. The Assembly of State Parties should also accept that it has grotesquely neglected its responsibility to manage the court. The ASP has turned a blind eye to systemic failure on the part of the ICC. While the ICC pretends to be the world’s court this is simply not the case. Its members, however, represent under one-third of the world’s population: China, Russia, the United States, Pakistan and Indonesia are just some of the many countries that have remained outside the court’s jurisdiction. India, the world’s largest democracy, has chosen not to join the ICC because the court is subordinate to the United Nations Security Council and because it does not criminalise terrorism and the use of nuclear weapons. The United States has forcefully pointed out that the ICC is a kangaroo court, a travesty of justice open to political influence, and has said that no American citizen will ever come before it. That said, Washington is perfectly happy when it suits American foreign policy objectives to demand that black Africans appear before a deeply flawed court peddling sub-prime justice. [ICC] [Softwar] [Double standards] [UNUS]
• The ruins of Kobane: What one small town says about the destruction of Syria
  Story by Liz Sly ? Photos by Alice Martins Published on November 13, 2015 KOBANE, Syria — A heap of dust is all that remains of the house where Alan Kurdi was born and raised, before war sent his family fleeing and he drowned on the short sea crossing between Turkey and Greece. The image of the toddler’s lifeless body washed up on a Turkish beach turned him into an instant symbol of the suffering of Syrians so desperate to reach Europe that they are prepared to risk their lives making the dangerous journey. His flattened home, destroyed in an American airstrike in the landmark battle for control of the Syrian town of Kobane last year, has not been so widely seen. It is just one of thousands of buildings leveled, among hundreds of thousands more that have been obliterated in Syria during the four-year-old war. As the conflict drags into a fifth year with no end in sight, little heed is being paid to the enormity of the havoc being wreaked on the country. Some 2.1 million homes, half the country’s hospitals and more than 7,000 schools have been destroyed, according to the United Nations. The cost of the damage so far is estimated at a staggering $270 billion — and rebuilding could run to more than $300 billion, according to Abdallah al-Dardari, a former Syrian government minister who heads the National Agenda for Syria program at the U.N.’s Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia. That’s more than 10 times the amount spent by the United States on reconstruction in Iraq, with few discernible results. [US Syria policy] [Airpower] [Double standards]
• What Mali means to France
  By Adam Taylor November 20 at 1:01 PM ? French soldiers in a vehicle mounted with a machine gun leave a base camp in Sevare on Jan. 22, 2013. (Fred Dufour/AFP) Just a week after a series of attacks in Paris left at least 129 dead, another attack has occurred that seems designed to goad France deeper into a fight against Islamist extremists on a variety of fronts. In this case, at least 100 people were taken hostage Friday when gunmen stormed a hotel in Mali's capital of Bamako. Early reports suggest that at least 20 people have been killed. While the attacks on the French capital may seem more shocking, the strategic importance of Mali to France should not be understated. Bamako has served as a logistics hub for French forces who are aiding a regional fight against Islamist insurgents. [French imperialism] [Response]
• Inside the surreal world of the Islamic State’s propaganda machine
  By Greg Miller and Souad Mekhennet November 20 at 10:30 AM ? CONFRONTING THE ‘CALIPHATE’ | This is part of an occasional series about the rise of the Islamic State militant group, its implications for the Middle East, and efforts by the U.S. government and others to undermine it. An image grab taken from a propaganda video uploaded on June 8, 2014, by the Islamic State allegedly shows militants driving in vehicles near the central Iraqi city of Tikrit. (AFP/Getty Images) RABAT, MOROCCO — The assignments arrive on slips of paper, each bearing the black flag of the Islamic State, the seal of the terrorist group’s media emir, and the site of that day’s shoot. “The paper just gives you the location,” never the details, said Abu Hajer al-Maghribi, who spent nearly a year as a cameraman for the Islamic State. Sometimes the job was to film prayers at a mosque, he said, or militants exchanging fire. But, inevitably, a slip would come with the coordinates to an unfolding bloodbath. For Abu Hajer, that card told him to drive two hours southwest of the Syrian city of Raqqa, the capital of the caliphate, or Islamic realm, declared by the militant group. There, he discovered that he was among 10 cameramen sent to record the final hours of more than 160 Syrian soldiers captured in 2014. “I held my Canon camera,” he said, as the soldiers were stripped to their underwear, marched into the desert, forced to their knees and massacred with automatic rifles. His footage quickly found a global audience, released online in an Islamic State video that spread on social media and appeared in mainstream news coverage on Al Jazeera and other networks. [ISIS] [Propaganda]
• Pause the Syrian Refugee Program – Here’s Why
  Friend – After yesterday's vote in the House of Representatives over whether to pause the Syrian refugee program, I want to be sure you know where I stand. I voted “yes” on H.R. 4038 to pause the Syrian refugee program, which passed by a vote of 289-137. Here’s why: Bottom-line: Our top priority must always be the safety and security of American citizens. Period. That means until the federal government can adequately ensure the safety of the American people, we must pause the refugee program. How we got here: The current refugee crisis is appalling and tragic. As our former Ambassador to Iraq and Syria told me in a hearing this Wednesday, “we had beaten back al Qaeda pretty soundly” when Obama took office. But, by prematurely withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq and scaling back political engagement, he created a vacuum which the Islamic State filled. Meanwhile, the Administration has allowed the situation in Syria to spiral into further chaos, constraining the U.S. bombing campaign against ISIS, failing to back up his “red line” on chemical weapons, and squandering millions of dollars on a “train and assist” program that only managed to arm a handful of moderate rebels. [US Middle East Policy] [Refugee]
• Turkey sends in jets as Syria’s agony spills over every border
  Turkish air strikes in Syria last week signalled a new phase in a conflict that has left its bloody mark on every country in the region. But will the Turks now agree to US demands to cease all clandestine dealings with Islamic State? Martin Chulov Sunday 26 July 2015 00.07 BST Last modified on Sunday 26 July 2015 16.45 BST When US special forces raided the compound of an Islamic State leader in eastern Syria in May, they made sure not to tell the neighbours. The target of that raid, the first of its kind since US jets returned to the skies over Iraq last August, was an Isis official responsible for oil smuggling, named Abu Sayyaf. He was almost unheard of outside the upper echelons of the terror group, but he was well known to Turkey. From mid-2013, the Tunisian fighter had been responsible for smuggling oil from Syria’s eastern fields, which the group had by then commandeered. Black market oil quickly became the main driver of Isis revenues – and Turkish buyers were its main clients. As a result, the oil trade between the jihadis and the Turks was held up as evidence of an alliance between the two. It led to protests from Washington and Europe – both already wary of Turkey’s 900-mile border with Syria being used as a gateway by would-be jihadis from around the world. The estimated $1m-$4m per day in oil revenues that was thought to have flowed into Isis coffers over at least six months from late 2013 helped to transform an ambitious force with limited means into a juggernaut that has been steadily drawing western forces back to the region and increasingly testing state borders [ISIS] [Turkey]
• Paris: Made in Libya, Not Syria
  To my many foreign policy friends, including terrorism experts, tonight is the night to mourn & #standwithfrance. Tomorrow we analyze.--Anne-Marie Slaughter on Twitter, November 13, 2015 I recently characterized the tsunami of analysis about the Paris attacks as a case of Orientalism. What isn't important is what may have happened. What's important is that we control the alien entity: we define the problem, we dictate the proper response and, natch, we get to declare victory—or at least what victory would look like if we stopped listening to the handwringers and had our spooks and soldiers build us an impregnable fortress of pure gold. I’m a cui bono guy to a fault; I’ll admit that. I don’t give enough weight and legitimacy to emotions and irrationality as drivers for actions. And I have to say I detected a distinct shortage of “bono” to IS in the Paris attacks, unless the thinking of the leadership runs to “It would be an excellent idea to focus the fury of the West upon us here in Iraq instead of laying low and letting the West go along with the GCC/Turkish plan of quagmiring Russia in Syria.” Doesn’t make too much sense. Which is why, in my opinion, is why you see a lot of metaphysical handwaving that the real motive for the attacks was to erase the Muslim “grey zone”, provoke a fatal over-reaction from the West, contribute to the agonies of the Syrian refugees in Europe, rend the time-space continuum and thereby bring the Crusaders to their knees, etc. Let me introduce some interesting factiness on the matter of the alleged mastermind, Abdelhamid Abaaoud. Abaaoud was well known as a violent radical miscreant linked to an Islamic cell in Verviers, Belgium, that did all sorts of mean, murderous crap. [Paris15]
• Myanmar’s New Dictator: Aung San Suu Kyi
  Suu Kyi disenfranchised a million voters before elections, and has declared herself above the constitution afterwards. What about that seems “democratic?” The Western media is portraying Myanmar’s recent elections as historic. One commentator described Myanmar as an “exuberant nation prepared for a new era of democracy and political freedom.” But one wonders what sort of democracy and political freedom can be borne of elections in which nearly a million voters were banned from casting their ballots and with the apparent victor already declaring herself above the law. Sidestepping these inconvenient facts, the West is nonetheless excited about the prospect of Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) taking power in Myanmar. This is in part due to the fact that Suu Kyi herself, along with the NLD she leads and a vast network of supporting “civil society” nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have all been created and sustained annually by billions of dollars worth of backing from the United States and United Kingdom for years. In exchange for this support, Suu Kyi’s long-standing proclivity toward “foreign investment” will lead to the wholesale feeding of Myanmar’s nationalized resources, industry, and infrastructure into the maw of the Wall Street corporations and institutions that have long underwritten Suu Kyi’s rise to power. First appeared: http://journal-neo.org/2015/11/21/myanmars-new-dictator-aung-san-suu-kyi/ [Myanmar]
• Donald Trump Sets Off a Furor With Call to Register Muslims in the U.S.
  By Maggie Haberman and Richard Pérez-Peñanov. 20, 2015 Under assault from Democrats and Republicans alike, Donald J. Trump on Friday drew back from his call for a mandatory registry of Muslims in the United States, trying to quell one of the ugliest controversies yet in a presidential campaign like few others. The daylong furor capped a week of one-upmanship among Republican presidential candidates as to who could sound toughest about preventing terrorism after the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris. Polls show the national mood has soured on accepting refugees from Syria amid concerns about potential terrorist attacks within the United States. Mr. Trump’s talk of a national database of Muslims, first in an interview published on Thursday by Yahoo News and later in an exchange with an NBC News reporter, seemed the culmination of months of heated debate about illegal immigration as an urgent danger to Americans’ personal safety. [Islamophobia] [Trump]
• The Collapsing Syria-Sarin Case
  August 20, 2014
  From the Archive: At the first anniversary of the Sarin gas attack outside Damascus on Aug. 21, there is a concerted effort to reestablish the original conventional wisdom, blaming the Syrian government for the hundreds of deaths. The goal seems to be to bury the alternative narrative that later emerged, as Robert Parry wrote last April. By Robert Parry April 7, 2014 One shouldn’t be surprised, I guess, that some wannabe-journalist bloggers are auditioning before possible mainstream employers by attacking investigative journalist Seymour M. Hersh for writing a groundbreaking article implicating Syrian jihadist rebels and Turkish intelligence in the lethal use of Sarin on Aug. 21 outside Damascus. [cbw] [False flag]
• Tangled Threads of US False Narratives
  By Robert Parry, Consortium News 20 November 15 Official Washington’s many false narratives about Russia and Syria have gotten so tangled that they have become a danger to the struggle against Sunni jihadist terrorism and conceivably a threat to the future of the planet, a risk that Robert Parry explores. ne way to view Official Washington is to envision a giant bubble that serves as a hothouse for growing genetically modified “group thinks.” Most inhabitants of the bubble praise these creations as glorious and beyond reproach, but a few dissenters note how strange and dangerous these products are. Those critics, however, are then banished from the bubble, leaving behind an evermore concentrated consensus. This process could be almost comical – as the many armchair warriors repeat What Everyone Knows to Be True as self-justifying proof that more and more wars and confrontations are needed – but the United States is the most powerful nation on earth and its fallacious “group thinks” are spreading a widening arc of chaos and death around the globe. We even have presidential candidates, especially among the Republicans but including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, competing to out-bellicose each other, treating an invasion of Syria as the least one can do and some even bragging about how they might like to shoot down a few Russian warplanes. [US Middle East policy] [Media]
• Why French airstrikes on ISIS’s ‘capital’ probably haven’t done much
  The French military launched more airstrikes against the Islamic State in Raqqa, Syria, on Nov. 17, 2015. The strikes involved 10 jets launched from Jordan and the Persian Gulf, and targeted training and command centers. (YouTube/France Forces) By Hugh Naylor November 18 at 5:15 PM BEIRUT — Despite heavy French bombardment of the Islamic State’s self-proclaimed capital of Raqqa this week, damage to the extremist group appears to be minimal, according to analysts and Syrian activists. The airstrikes — retaliation for last Friday’s attacks in Paris claimed by the Islamic State — hit such targets as a command post and a militant-training center in and around the Syrian city, French officials said. [Live updates: 2 dead in French raid targeting alleged ringleader] But after more than a year of U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, the ­Islamic State has learned to secure its weapons, communications systems and fighters in fortified bunkers or densely populated residential areas where bombing would inflict intolerably high civilian casualties, analysts and activists said. The French attacks highlight a limitation of air power, said Theodore Karasik, a Dubai-based expert on military issues in the Middle East. Rarely is that approach capable of subduing enemies, he said. What started out as simple protests in Syria has expanded to civil war and now an international crisis. View Graphic ? “The Islamic State, like any other terrorist group, has adapted and developed its own underground networks in order to safeguard their prized assets,” Karasik said. “Airstrikes can be effective, but you need a ground component to go along with them.” [ISIS] [France] [Airpower]
• Paris Attacks Highlight Jihadists’ Easy Path Between Europe and ISIS Territory
  By Katrin Bennhold Nov. 18, 2015 LONDON — One of the militants in the Paris attacks traveled to Syria from his hometown in France and back, officials said, even after his passport had been confiscated and he had been placed under judicial oversight. So did another, despite having been arrested eight times in petty crimes and having been listed as a national security risk in France. Even the man suspected of organizing the massacre on Friday, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a well-known figure in the Belgian jihadist scene, is believed to have traveled between Islamic State-controlled territory and Europe a number of times — including for an attack plot in Belgium in January. The Paris attacks, the deadliest in France to date, have sharpened the focus on the inability of security services to monitor the large and growing number of young European Muslims who have fought alongside the Islamic State or to spot terrorist plots in their early stages, even when the participants are well known to them. It appears so far that as many as six of the assailants who killed 129 people with guns, grenades and suicide bombs at six sites last Friday were Europeans who had traveled to Syria and returned to carry out attacks at home — precisely the nightmare scenario security officials have been warning about for the past two years. “This is the attack everyone was worried about, and it finally happened,” said Louis Caprioli, who was the deputy head of France’s domestic antiterrorism unit from 1998 to 2004. “A high-casualty attack on multiple soft targets executed with apparent military know-how.” [Outsourcing] [Blowback]
• Ben Carson: My plan to defeat the Islamic State
  By Ben Carson November 18 at 10:51 AM The writer is a 2016 Republican candidate for president. Twenty minutes. That was all it took for Islamic State terrorists to unleash a series of coordinated strikes that devastated a nation and shocked the conscience of the entire world. Glued to our television sets in the United States, we looked on in horror at scenes of chaos and bloodshed that shattered the lives of so many in Paris. Make no mistake about it: We are at war. It is not a war against an opposing nation. The Islamic State is not a sovereign in the territorial sense but is a sick and twisted ideology that seeks to engulf the region and turn back the clock to the Dark Ages. We must ask ourselves, how do we defeat an evil state of consciousness? What are the best approaches? The Obama administration has proposed a largely political, containment-based solution that is fraught with risks, including coordinating with the Russians and Iranians to win back Islamic State-controlled territory in Syria and Iraq. The problem with this strategy is that neither of these nations is a trustworthy ally; legitimizing them would lead only to further destabilization. Empowering Russia would only embolden Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. Doing business with the Iranians encourages their ambitions to control the territory from Iran’s eastern border to the Mediterranean, threatening our allies in Israel and Saudi Arabia. To lead this fight, the United States must dramatically increase its efforts to appeal directly to the moderate Kurds, Syrians and Iraqis. We must convince them that the Islamic State poses a fundamental threat to their existence. And we must equip them with the means to convey that message to their people. This will require a multi-pronged communications strategy that leverages our strengths in media production and messaging, combined with cutting off traditional access routes to social media for radical Islamist groups. [US Middle East policy] [Carson] [Bizarre] [Governance]
• Ben Carson Has Much to Learn on Foreign Policy, Say Ben Carson Advisers
  We need to “make him smart,” said one exasperated adviser. by Tina Nguyen, Thou shalt not criticize thine own candidate in print is one of the cardinal rules of working on a political campaign. So what does it mean for Ben Carson that two of his advisers have recently criticized his grasp of foreign policy? The New York Times spoke to several of Carson’s foreign-policy advisers this week in the wake of his recent public struggles on the matter. While they praised the former neurosurgeon’s intelligence, some also raised concerns about his grasp of international affairs. According to adviser Duane R. Clarridge, “Nobody has been able to sit down with him and have him get one iota of intelligent information about the Middle East.” Carson, who has never held a position in government but is currently one of the top contenders for the Republican presidential nomination, has relied upon a network of paid and unpaid consultants with ties to international intelligence to bolster his credentials—a network he once half-jokingly bragged were better than Barack Obama’s. [US Middle East policy] [Carson] [Bizarre] [Governance]
• If ISIS uses chemical weapons, the west will be partly responsible
  Bob Rigg 19 November 2015 How can the international community respond effectively and promptly to this growing threat, not just to the Middle East region, but to the world? Security forces simulate chemical attack outside Israeli Parliament. Demotix/ Yaniv Nadav. All rights reserved. Although the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was awarded the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize for the courage and inventiveness displayed in removing Syria’s chemical weapons (CW) from Syria for destruction elsewhere, it is now ineffectual and powerless in the face of the proliferation of CW by extremist groups such as ISIS and Al Qaeda. Although the proliferation of this weapon of mass destruction is for the time being confined to the Middle East, the knowledge and experience already acquired by extremist groups with global connections will ensure that, sooner or later, CW will be used elsewhere. When the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) was negotiated, during and immediately after the Cold War, the negotiators – all governments – could not anticipate the emergence of powerful, well-funded internationally-connected terrorist groups with the capacity to produce and use their own CW. The CWC negotiators also could not have anticipated the speed with which new production technologies would develop, making it possible for at least some CW to be produced with relative ease in backyard laboratories. US obstructs UN investigation of alleged CW use by Al Nusra In March 2013 the government of Syria angrily alleged that CW had been used by Al Nusra in the village of Khan Al Asal, formally requesting that the UN Security Council (UNSC) investigate just one day after the incident. The US was then supporting extremist ‘rebel’ groups in Syria in the hope that they would bring down President Assad, and did not want them to be discredited. The west was of the view that the Assad government was about to fall. In the absence of any supporting evidence, the US supported ‘rebel’ claims that Syria had itself used the CW. The aim of the US, a party to the CWC, was to delay a CW inspection by the UN, which could have discredited its extremist surrogates of the day. The UN inspection team report eventually presented nine months later, in December 2013, confirmed that CW had indeed been used at Khan Al Asal, although the team’s laughable UNSC mandate specifically prevented it from throwing light on the identity of the perpetrators, even if it had an informed opinion on this. [cbw] [US Middle East policy] [ISIS] [Al Nusra] [Turkey] [UNUS]
• Inside the $3 billion Clinton donor network
  A Washington Post investigation reveals how Bill and Hillary Clinton have methodically cultivated donors over 40 years, from Little Rock to Washington and then across the globe. Their fundraising methods have created a new blueprint for politicians and their donors. By Matea Gold, Tom Hamburger and Anu Narayanswamy Published on Nov. 19, 2015 41 years. $3 billion. Inside the Clinton donor network. By Matea Gold, Tom Hamburger and Anu Narayanswamy LITTLE ROCK — Over four decades of public life, Bill and Hillary Clinton have built an unrivaled global network of donors while pioneering fundraising techniques that have transformed modern politics and paved the way for them to potentially become the first husband and wife to win the White House. The grand total raised for all of their political campaigns and their family’s charitable foundation reaches at least $3 billion, according to a Washington Post investigation. Their fundraising haul, which began with $178,000 that Bill Clinton raised for his long-shot 1974 congressional bid, is on track to expand substantially with Hillary Clinton’s 2016 White House run, which has already drawn $110 million in support. [Bill Clinton] [Hillary Clinton] [Plutocracy] [Governance]
• Is the United States safe from a Paris-style Islamic State attack?
  President Obama made remarks and answered questions at the G-20 summit in Turkey on Nov. 13. Here's what he said about the path forward fighting the Islamic State, welcoming Muslims and protecting Syrian refugees. (AP) By Adam Goldman November 17 at 5:39 PM ? As France reels from a set of Islamic State terrorist attacks in Paris last week that killed scores and wounded hundreds, Americans are wondering whether their own country is any safer. “That’s an easy one,” said a former senior FBI official who until recently was deeply involved in terrorism operations. “Safer here than there? Yes. We are separated by an ocean. Without a doubt, we are safer here than over there.” Since Sept. 11, 2001, the U.S. government has spent more than $1 trillion fighting the war on terrorism, making border crossings more secure, detecting plots and expanding the no-fly list from about a dozen people to roughly 47,000. Tougher post-9/11 terrorism laws also ensure that the FBI and federal prosecutors can charge people with crimes that carry stiff sentences. In the past 18 months, the FBI has charged more than 60 people in connection with the Islamic State. Many could face years in prison if convicted, meaning the FBI won’t have to devote resources to tracking their movements. [ISIS] [Security] [Geography]
• What Americans thought of Jewish refugees on the eve of World War II
  By Ishaan Tharoor November 17 at 6:00 AM ? The results of the poll illustrated above by the useful Twitter account @HistOpinion were published in the pages of Fortune magazine in July 1938. Fewer than 5 percent of Americans surveyed at the time believed that the United States should raise its immigration quotas or encourage political refugees fleeing fascist states in Europe — the vast majority of whom were Jewish — to voyage across the Atlantic. Two-thirds of the respondents agreed with the proposition that "we should try to keep them To be sure, the United States was emerging from the Great Depression, hardly a climate in which ordinary folks would welcome immigrants and economic competition. The events of Kristallnacht — a wave of anti-Jewish pogroms in areas controlled by the Nazis — had yet to take place. And the poll's use of the term "political refugees" could have conjured in the minds of the American public images of communists, anarchists and other perceived ideological threats. But look at the next chart, also tweeted by @HistOpinion. Two-thirds of Americans polled by Gallup’s American Institute of Public Opinion in January 1939 — well after the events of Kristallnacht — said they would not take in 10,000 German Jewish refugee children. [Refugees]
• France’s unresolved Algerian war sheds light on the Paris attack
  The French-Algerian identity of one of the attackers demonstrates how France’s savage 1956-62 war in Algeria continues to infect today’s atrocities. Robert Fisk | Tuesday 17 November 2015| It wasn’t just one of the attackers who vanished after the Paris massacre. Three nations whose history, action – and inaction – help to explain the slaughter by Isis have largely escaped attention in the near-hysterical response to the crimes against humanity in Paris: Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Syria. The French-Algerian identity of one of the attackers demonstrates how France’s savage 1956-62 war in Algeria continues to infect today’s atrocities. The absolute refusal to contemplate Saudi Arabia’s role as a purveyor of the most extreme Wahabi-Sunni form of Islam, in which Isis believes, shows how our leaders still decline to recognise the links between the kingdom and the organisation which struck Paris. And our total unwillingness to accept that the only regular military force in constant combat with Isis is the Syrian army – which fights for the regime that France also wants to destroy – means we cannot liaise with the ruthless soldiers who are in action against Isis even more ferociously than the Kurds. Whenever the West is attacked and our innocents are killed, we usually wipe the memory bank. [ISIS] [French colonialism] [Algeria] [Blowback]
• After Paris attacks, will U.S. and Russia find common cause in Syria?
  Highlights For first time, Pentagon hails Russian warplanes’ strikes against Islamic State France and Russia pledge soldarity to fight the Islamic State Moscow urges U.N. Security Council to establish international coalition BY JAMES ROSEN WASHINGTON — As Russia forms a new alliance with France and Russian warplanes rain down bombs on Islamic State targets in Syria, the Paris attacks may be nudging Moscow and Washington closer together. After Russia claimed Tuesday to have carried out 2,300 air strikes over two days against Islamic State targets near its headquarters in Raqqa, Syria, the Pentagon praised the Kremlin for the first time since its military aircraft began bombing in the war-torn country on Sept. 30. “Those airstrikes, at least from our vantage point, did appear to strike in ISIL-held territory,” Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook, using a common acronym for the Islamic State, told reporters. “We welcome any sincere effort on the part of the Russians to play a more constructive role in Syria,” he added. With Russian warplanes flying the same skies over Raqqa as U.S. aircraft, Moscow also provided Washington with advance notice of the recent bombing operation against the Islamic State, Cook said, as required under an aviation-safety agreement signed last month by the two countries. Under the Oct. 20 accord, Russia and the United States agreed to set up special radio frequencies over which their pilots could communicate with one another and to maintain a phone hotline between their military leaders to forestall a mid-air collision or other dangerous situations. The Pentagon has criticized the Kremlin for weeks, claiming Russian aircraft were targeting moderate opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad, including rebels trained and equipped by Washington, and were launching airstrikes in areas where no Islamic State fighters were present. On Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry emphasized its solidarity with France, tweeting an image Tuesday of a French flag behind a peace sign altered to resemble the silhouette of a supersonic Tupolev TU-160, a key Russian bomber and the world’s largest combat aircraft [ISIS] [Russia confrontation] [US Syria policy]
• Aung San Suu Kyi, Long a Symbol of Dignified Defiance, Sounds a Provocative Note
  By Seth Mydans Nov. 17, 2015 Photo Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon on Nov. 8 to vote in Myanmar’s election, which her party won in a landslide. She has said she will be above the president. Credit Lam Yik Fei/Getty Images NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar — For two decades, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was a radiant symbol of dignified nonviolent resistance, most of that time confined to house arrest by the generals who have governed Myanmar for half a century. Today, she is at the pinnacle of adoration and power in the country, having led her party, the National League for Democracy, to a landslide victory this month in parliamentary elections that upended the country’s structure of power. She has put reconciliation with the generals high on her agenda, but as she has moved toward dominance, her words have become provocative. Her first sally came just before the Nov. 8 election, when she brushed aside a constitutional provision that bars her from serving as president because she is the widow of a foreigner and the mother of foreign-born children. Soldiers outside a military hospital in Yangon, Myanmar, on Friday. The military has been pursuing what the generals have called a road map to “discipline-flourishing democracy” over the past quarter-century. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi during talks with President Xi Jinping of China in Beijing in June. News Analysis: With Aung San Suu Kyi’s Rise, China and Myanmar Face New RelationshipNOV. 12, 2015 “I will be above the president,” she declared in a phrase that has ricocheted around the political arena. “I will run the government, and we will have a president who will work with the policies of the N.L.D.” Continue reading the main story A Life in Politics June 19, 1945 Aung San Suu Kyi is born to Gen. Aung San, the leader of the military in Burma, now known as Myanmar, and Khin Kyi, a nurse. July 19, 1947Gen. Aung San, now premier, is assassinated in Rangoon, now known as Yangon, along with members of his cabinet. March 2, 1962She ?is studying abroad when a military coup overthrows ?the government. 1988Shortly after her return to Burma, protests against military rule are suppressed. She helps found the National League for Democracy. 1989She is placed under house arrest. The country's name is changed to Myanmar. May 27, 1990The N.L.D. wins general elections. The military rejects the results and keeps her under house arrest. 1991She is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Nov. 13, 2010She is released from house arrest. April 1, 2012She wins a seat in Parliament in by-elections. Nov. 8, 2015The N.L.D. wins a landslide victory in general elections. “Above the president,” she repeated. “I have already made plans.” This end run around the law was in keeping with her assertion that she would maintain “the good parts” of the Constitution, which was drawn up by the generals to protect their political and economic interests. It was nonetheless an audacious assertion by a woman who spent 15 years as a prisoner of the generals, and her peremptory manner surprised those who have viewed her as a caged bird at the mercy of her tormentors. Now, as she prepares at age 70 to take over the government she fought for so long, what some see as her domineering, imperious style has raised questions about her fealty to the rule of law and about the way she plans to exercise power. [Myanmar] [Suu Kyi]
• Strikes on Raqqa in Syria Lead to More Questions Than Results
  By Anne Barnard Nov. 17, 2015 BEIRUT, Lebanon — First France and then Russia answered Islamic State attacks on their citizens with a strategy of direct reprisal: intensified airstrike campaigns on Raqqa, the militants’ de facto capital within Syria, meant to eliminate the group’s leadership and resources. But on Tuesday in the early hours of those new campaigns, there seemed to be more questions than decisive results. Chief among them: Why, if there were confirmed Islamic State targets that could be hit without killing civilians, were they not hit more heavily long ago? And what, in fact, was being hit? More broadly, the Raqqa airstrikes are renewing a debate about how effective such attacks can be in defeating or containing the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, without more commitment to measures like drying up its financial support, combating its ideology or — what outside forces on all sides so far appear to have ruled out — conducting a ground assault. [France] [ISIS]
• ‘The Attacks Will Be Spectacular’
  An exclusive look at how the Bush administration ignored this warning from the CIA months before 9/11, along with others that were far more detailed than previously revealed. By Chris Whipple November 12, 2015 . “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” The CIA’s famous Presidential Daily Brief, presented to George W. Bush on August 6, 2001, has always been Exhibit A in the case that his administration shrugged off warnings of an Al Qaeda attack. But months earlier, starting in the spring of 2001, the CIA repeatedly and urgently began to warn the White House that an attack was coming. By May of 2001, says Cofer Black, then chief of the CIA’s counterterrorism center, “it was very evident that we were going to be struck, we were gonna be struck hard and lots of Americans were going to die.” “There were real plots being manifested,” Cofer’s former boss, George Tenet, told me in his first interview in eight years. “The world felt like it was on the edge of eruption. In this time period of June and July, the threat continues to rise. Terrorists were disappearing [as if in hiding, in preparation for an attack]. Camps were closing. Threat reportings on the rise.” The crisis came to a head on July 10. The critical meeting that took place that day was first reported by Bob Woodward in 2006. Tenet also wrote about it in general terms in his 2007 memoir At the Center of the Storm. [9/11] [CIA]
• instaPoll: Should the Administration halt the admittance of Syrian refugees into the U.S.?
  In the wake of deadly terrorist attacks in Paris last Friday, which killed over 100 and injured over 300 others, reports surfaced that a Syrian passport had been found near the remains of a dead suicide bomber. U.S. officials on Sunday revealed that the attackers may also have had contact with ISIS in Syria. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the coordinated onslaught in Paris. This has reignited a heated debate over the security risks posed by the thousands of refugees from the region who are being accepted into the United States and whether the screening process is adequate. Congressman Forbes joined over 75 other Members of Congress in sending a letter to President Obama, demanding a halt to all Syrian and Iraqi refugee resettlement to the U.S. until an appropriate vetting process that ensures U.S. national security is identified and implemented. Citing similar security concerns, a growing, bipartisan group of state governors have threatened action — through executive order or other means — to prevent Syrian refugees from settling in their states. Democratic Governor Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire urged the federal government to stop admitting refugees until more is known about the vetting process. The Administration has stated that it does not currently intend to change its plan to accept 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next year amidst ongoing conflict in the region. instaPoll: Should the Administration halt the admittance of Syrian refugees into the United States?* Yes. No. I don't know. Other (share your thoughts on my blog here). [Refugee] [US Middle East Policy] [Republican]
• UK daily slams west’s approach to recent Paris attacks
  Tehran, Nov 18, IRNA – The UK daily the Guardian slammed west’s approach to recent Paris attacks saying terror can only succeed with our cooperation. In an article by writer and journalist Sir Simon Jenkins, it said, 'The warlike response to the Paris massacre by western governments, the media and the rest of the world has answered the dreams of Islamic State.” He urged the west to “think what your enemy wants you to do, and do the opposite. No maxim of war is so ignored.” [Iran] [Wishful thinking] [UK Middle East policy] [Paris15] [ISIS]
• Terror can only succeed with our cooperation
  Simon Jenkins The warlike response to the Paris massacre by western governments, the media and the rest of the world has answered the dreams of Islamic State Tuesday 17 November 2015 09.41 GMT Last modified on Wednesday 18 November 2015 09.23 GMT Think what your enemy wants you to do, and do the opposite. No maxim of war is so ignored. Since last Friday’s killings in Paris, the world has answered the dreams of Islamic State. It has drenched their deeds in fame, glorified its perpetrators with vilification and defined them as warriors not murderers. Deeds of the most squalid horror have been “nationalised” then internationalised. The whole world has been drawn into Isis’s web of fear. Its wildest fantasies have been realised. [Wishful thinking] [UK Middle East policy] [Paris15] [ISIS]
• Turkey fans boo minute's silence for Paris victims
  Istanbul Turkish fans booed during the minute's silence for the victims of the Paris attacks before their national team drew 0-0 with Greece in a friendly international soccer game on Tuesday. The mark of respect was observed at matches across Europe, including at Wembley where France faced England, after Islamic State militants struck Paris on Friday killing 129 people. [Turkey] [Public opinion] [Paris15]
• Terrorist Attacks in Paris: Can Tragedy Bring Change?
  by Diana Johnstone November 16, 2015 Paris. The chaos is spreading from the Middle East into Europe. An endless stream of unidentifiable refugees and migrants trudge through the Balkans toward the promised lands of Germany and Sweden. Fights are breaking out in refugee camps between national groups. Both the migrants massed near Calais trying vainly to enter Britain and the exasperated citizens of Calais are increasingly impatient and angry. National leaders who, with the vision of happy European integration on their minds, embraced and advocated the ideals of open borders and multiculturalism, are rudely awakening to their inability to cope. And now Paris has suffered the sort of attacks that are familiar to Beirut or to Russia. Yes, as Chris Floyd wrote, the West is reaping the whirlwind of its support for extremist violence. But it is not time to tell the victims that they are to blame, especially when the main targets in Paris were young people relaxing on a Friday evening, too young to bear responsibility for the disastrous Western policies that have fostered madness in the Middle East for several decades. [Paris15]
• Syria: Dangerous Theatre of Absurd
  Michael Jabara Carley | 17.11.2015 | 00:00 When the Syrian war first escalated, I remember seeing the photograph of a grizzled, greying man shot dead inside an old pickup truck. The window is rolled down and he is slumped back; blood had dripped from his wounds down the outside of the door, dried out and turned brown in the hot sun. Apparently on his way to work this innocent victim of the early Syrian warwas caught in a sudden Jihadi attack on his town. For what reason did this man, like so many others, have to die? His death was absurd, pointless, tragic. For me, the image of the murdered man symbolises the dangerous theatre of the absurd that Syria has become, where its people are menaced by forces beyond their ability to control… except by armed resistance. It was during the summer of 2012 when a major attack was launched on Damascus to overthrow the government of President Bashar al-Assad. His defence minister, Dawoud Abdallah Rajiha, along with other senior officials, were assassinated in a bomb attack in a supposedly secure government building. The situation looked bad. Assad’s government seemed on the brink of collapse. We learned what kind of a leader and a man President Assad was in that grim summer of 2012. He could easily have accepted western summons to leave Damascus. He is a physician, with a speciality in ophthalmology. He could have gone back to practicing medicine and left Syria to the tender mercies of Jihadists running amuck with foreign support. Assad did not take that easy way out. He stayed in Damascus, shared the dangers of his people and led the resistance against the foreign backed Takfiri foreign militias. Had Damascus fallen, he would surely have forfeited his life. He is now the main leader of the Syrian resistance against the Jihadists, which is why the United States and its satellites are so determined to drive him from power. The conflict in Syria, which is often called a civil war, is not a civil war at all. It is a proxy war of aggression, brokered, bankrolled, and led by the United States, France, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Israel, amongst others, with the intention of destroying the Assad government and breaking up Syria. [Outsourcing] [Syria]
• Global terrorism in 2014: the most casualties ever
  The Global Terrorism Index shows that in 2014, more people died through terrorism than ever before. And five countries bear the brunt. Destroyed cars after a Boko Haram bomb attack in Nigeria in 2014. (Photo: EPA/STR) Terrorism - many, if not most, people right now will associate the attacks in Paris with this word after the horrific events that the French capital saw over the weekend. A new statistic puts these attacks into perspective: in 2014, the countries that have been affected most by terrorism are all in the Middle East and in Africa, according to the Global Terrorism Index (GTI). The index is compiled by the Institute for Economics and Peace , a think tank based in Sydney, Australia. Chairman Steve Killelea and his researchers have found that the five countries with the most attacks and victims are Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria. 2014 saw the number of people killed by terrorists rise to 32,658, "the highest level ever," according to the GTI. That's a dramatic increase of 80 percent compared to 2013. Infographic: world map countries affected by terrorism. (Graphic: DW) "But even more troublesome is the number of countries that suffered more than 500 deaths," Killelea told DW. "That number increased from five countries to 11 countries. Some of the new countries are Cameroon, Ukraine or the Central African Republic." Terrorism is spreading across the world. To arrive at this result, the Institute for Economics and Peace worked with a clearly defined set of criteria. Two groups are especially lethal For the Global Terrorism Index, the researchers used a dataset provided by the University of Maryland in the US. The definition they worked with states that terrorism is an act of violence by a non-state actor with the aim of achieving a political, economic or religious outcome. [Terrorism] [NSA] [Spin] [Legality] [Context]
• Is it time for Israel to revisit its relationship with Sunni bloc?
  Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah gave yet another of his regular speeches on Nov. 14. This time, however, the timing was especially dramatic. It was just two days after the Islamic State’s (IS) deadly suicide attack in the Dahiyeh Quarter, a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut, and just a few hours after IS’ killing spree in Paris. After watching a live broadcast of the speech, a senior Israeli intelligence official made a remarkable comment, speaking on condition of anonymity: “[Nasrallah] sounds like he just joined [Israeli nongovernmental organization] Peace Now. How could we possibly have reached a point in which Nasrallah has become the responsible adult in the Middle East?” Summary? Print With Iran fighting against IS forces, and in view of IS’ latest terrorism attacks in Egypt, Lebanon and France, the Israeli security establishment is questioning its regional security doctrine. Author Ben Caspit Posted November 16, 2015 Translator Danny Wool This question is heard more and more in the corridors of Israel’s defense establishment. Nasrallah’s speech lasted several minutes, but this time it did not include attacks on Israel (even though Israel was mentioned more than once as the source of all troubles in the region). In contrast, it contained numerous attacks on IS. Nasrallah employed the same jargon used by the West to describe IS’ atrocities. [Israel] [Sectarianism] [Realignment] [ISIS] [Syria]
• Does Eleven Plus One Equal Sixty?
  AFRICOM’s New Math, the U.S. Base Bonanza, and “Scarier” Times Ahead in Africa By Nick Turse In the shadows of what was once called the “dark continent," a scramble has come and gone. If you heard nothing about it, that was by design. But look hard enough and -- north to south, east to west -- you’ll find the fruits of that effort: a network of bases, compounds, and other sites whose sum total exceeds the number of nations on the continent. For a military that has stumbled from Iraq to Afghanistan and suffered setbacks from Libya to Syria, it’s a rare can-do triumph. In remote locales, behind fences and beyond the gaze of prying eyes, the U.S. military has built an extensive archipelago of African outposts, transforming the continent, experts say, into a laboratory for a new kind of war. So how many U.S. military bases are there in Africa? It’s a simple question with a simple answer. For years, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) gave a stock response: one. Camp Lemonnier in the tiny, sun-bleached nation of Djibouti was America’s only acknowledged “base” on the continent. It wasn’t true, of course, because there were camps, compounds, installations, and facilities elsewhere, but the military leaned hard on semantics. Take a look at the Pentagon’s official list of bases, however, and the number grows. The 2015 report on the Department of Defense’s global property portfolio lists Camp Lemonnier and three other deep-rooted sites on or near the continent: U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit No. 3, a medical research facility in Cairo, Egypt, that was established in 1946; Ascension Auxiliary Airfield, a spacecraft tracking station and airfield located 1,000 miles off the coast of West Africa that has been used by the U.S. since 1957; and warehouses at the airport and seaport in Mombasa, Kenya, that were built in the 1980s. [Bases] [US Africa strategy]
• Bombing ISIS Into the Heart of Europe: the New Face War
  by Patrick Cockburn The Islamic State (ISIS) has always massacred civilians in large numbers to show its strength and instill fear in its opponents. In the West, people notice these atrocities only when they take place on their own streets, though ISIS suicide bombers killed 43 people in Beirut on 12 November and 26 more in Baghdad on 13 November. These attacks are almost impossible to stop because they are directed against civilians, who cannot all be defended, and the bombers are willing to die in order to destroy their targets. ISIS has claimed the Paris attacks, saying that France was targeted because of its air strikes in Syria [ISIS] [Paris15]
• The Age of Despair: Reaping the Whirlwind of Western Support for Extremist Violence
  by Chris Floyd We, the West, overthrew Saddam by violence. We overthrew Gaddafi by violence. We are trying to overthrow Assad by violence. Harsh regimes all — but far less draconian than our Saudi allies, and other tyrannies around the world. What has been the result of these interventions? A hell on earth, one that grows wider and more virulent year after year. Without the American crime of aggressive war against Iraq — which, by the measurements used by Western governments themselves, left more than a million innocent people dead — there would be no ISIS, no “Al Qaeda in Iraq.” Without the Saudi and Western funding and arming of an amalgam of extremist Sunni groups across the Middle East, used as proxies to strike at Iran and its allies, there would be no ISIS. Let’s go back further. Without the direct, extensive and deliberate creation by the United States and its Saudi ally of a world-wide movement of armed Sunni extremists during the Carter and Reagan administrations, there would have been no “War on Terror” — and no terrorist attacks in Paris tonight. Again, let’s be as clear as possible: the hellish world we live in today is the result of deliberate policies and actions undertaken by the United States and its allies over the past decades [Outsourcing] [Blowback] [Paris15]
• France: A la Guerre Comme a la Guerre!
  Dmitriy Sedov | 15.11.2015 | 21:30 A human tragedy has taken place. On November 14, terrorists killed over 100 people in Paris. More than 200 were injured. Even now, after the tragedy has happened, the leadership of France has no courage to face the reality. French politicians, including President François Hollande, keep on harping on the same string expressing their readiness to fight for European values and ideals like if they were attacked for some unknown reason by aliens. A healer in the Middle Ages knew only one way to fight smallpox – to plunge a patient into boiling water. French politicians behave the same way. They call for tougher police measures, closed borders and prolongation of the state of emergency. The introduction of these measures may be expedient, but it’s not clear how it’s going to work without «barbarians» crossing the borders. The crime had planned been perpetrated by the criminals mixed with local Muslim diaspora. Is François Hollande aware of the fact that the «death industry» is an established business that the Islamic State leaders and some circles in Saudi Arabia and Qatar have interest in? Does he not know that there are financial flows coming to provide funds for imams-practiced ideological brainwashing, recruitment and operations of suicide bombers? Does he not know this evil could be eradicated only by cutting off financial flows coming to the Islamic State? Does the French President know that only the United States can put an end to this deadly cycle as the actor capable of influencing Turkey used by the Islamic State as a transition country for oil exports? Does he not know that the United States is the only country to bring to reason the leaders of Saudi Arabia and Qatar? [Paris15] [Outsourcing] [Agency]
• Utah judge removes lesbian couple’s foster child, says she’ll be better off with heterosexuals
  By Justin Wm. Moyer November 12 at 2:19 AM ? Last year, Utah couple Beckie Peirce and April Hoagland decided to get married. Last summer, in a decision legalizing gay marriage across the nation, the Supreme Court confirmed that this was okay. Then, Peirce and Hoagland wanted to take in a foster child. So, since the Supreme Court had signed off on gay marriage, Utah child services officials licensed the couple earlier this year. And, in August, Peirce and Hoagland welcomed a 1-year-old girl into their home, where she joined the couple’s two biological children. Plans for adoption, approved by the infant’s biological mother, were in place — soon, this would be a family of five. But Wednesday, a Utah judge decided to end this plan, ordering the girl removed from her foster home because the child would be better off with heterosexual parents, he said. Hoagland said the decision was “heartbreaking.” “I was kind of caught off guard because I didn’t think anything like that would happen anymore,” Hoagland told KUTV. “… It’s not fair, and it’s not right, and it hurts me really badly because I haven’t done anything wrong.” [Human rights]
• The Paris atrocity, and after
  Paul Rogers 14 November 2015 ISIS's violent assaults in France's capital should lead to a political rethink among western leaders. But will they? The ISIS assaults in Paris on the evening of November 13 were carefully planned by a large team of three groups with at least eight men prepared to die. Some internal French involvement, perhaps limited, is possible. The operation had three components, each with a distinct target. The Stade de France attack was small-scale but large impact – its ingredients a modern national sporting icon, the occasion of a match with Germany, and the French president's presence among the fans. The Bataclan theatre was hosting a popular American rock band, thus ensuring a very international audience. The café and bar attacks would result in persistent fear across a popular district of Paris and well beyond. Indeed the global impact is already huge, probably more than London’s bombs in July 2005, Madrid’s Atocha rail terminal bombs in March 2004, and even the Sari nightclub attack in Bali in October 2002. Paris is on a similar scale to the even more complex and long-lasting Mumbai operation in November 2008, which had a profound impact in India (but less so outside). Among western states, the effect is the biggest since 9/11, which was of course much greater still. A blowback war
  Will Paris lead to a rethink? No, that is highly unlikely. There is simply neither the wisdom nor the independent and able leadership anywhere across the western world for that to happen. Instead, and at least for now, further tragedies will unfold. [ISIS] [Terrorism]
• IMF: Saudi Arabia running on empty in five years
  Gulf kingdom could deplete financial assets within five years as it struggles with slumping oil prices. Abid Ali | 22 Oct 2015 23:02 GMT The fall in oil prices has led to the Middle East facing export revenue losses amounting to $360bn this year alone [Mosaab Elshamy/AP] Saudi Arabia could burn through its financial assets within five years, as the country grapples with slumping oil prices. The Middle East’s biggest economy is expected to run budget deficits of 21.6 percent in 2015 and 19.4 percent in 2016, according the IMF’s latest regional outlook. That means Riyadh needs to find money to meet its spending plans. Just like its oil exporting neighbours, it plans to make substantial cuts to its budgets. [Saudi Arabia] [Oil]
• Paris attacks were carried out by three groups tied to Islamic State, official says
  What the attacks in Paris tell us about the Islamic State Peter Finn, The Washington Post's national security editor, explains how the Paris attacks illustrate how the Islamic State has evolved as a terror organization. (Thomas Johnson, Monica Akhtar and Julio Negron/The Washington Post) By Anthony Faiola and Souad Mekhennet November 15 at 6:20 AM ? PARIS — French police took seven people in for questioning Sunday in connection with the deadly siege that killed at least 129 people on Friday night, expanding an international dragnet and investigation that is now spanning from the Aegean Sea to the teeming Paris suburbs. The seven people taken into custody were relatives of Omar Ismail Mostefai, a 29-year old French national with a criminal record and one of seven assailants who died during Friday night’s deadly siege, according to a French police official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. A petty criminal of Algerian descent, Mostefai was picked up for eight minor offenses including driving without a license between 2004 and 2010. In 2010, however, Mostefai came on the radar screen of French intelligence because of his associations with radical Islamists at a mosque near Chartres, a city 56 miles west of Paris. [Paris15] [ISIS]
• Trump: Paris massacre would have been 'much different' if people had guns
  By Jeremy Diamond, CNN • "When you look at Paris ... nobody had guns but the bad guys. Nobody had guns. Nobody," Trump said • Trump made a similar comment earlier this year on the heels of the terrorist attack in Paris in January Beaumont, Texas (CNN)Donald Trump said Saturday that the terrorist attacks in Paris "would've been a much different situation" if the city had looser gun laws. "When you look at Paris -- you know the toughest gun laws in the world, Paris -- nobody had guns but the bad guys. Nobody had guns. Nobody," Trump said at a rally here. "They were just shooting them one by one and then they (security forces) broke in and had a big shootout and ultimately killed the terrorists." "You can say what you want, but if they had guns, if our people had guns, if they were allowed to carry --" Trump said, pausing as the crowd erupted into raucous applause, "-- it would've been a much, much different situation." [Trump]
• Time for GOP panic? Establishment worried Carson or Trump might win.
  By Philip Rucker and Robert Costa November 13 ? Less than three months before the kickoff Iowa caucuses, there is growing anxiety bordering on panic among Republican elites about the dominance and durability of Donald Trump and Ben Carson and widespread bewilderment over how to defeat them. Party leaders and donors fear that nominating either man would have negative ramifications for the GOP ticket up and down the ballot, virtually ensuring a Hillary Rodham Clinton presidency and increasing the odds that the Senate falls into Democratic hands. The party establishment is paralyzed. Big money is still on the sidelines. No consensus alternative to the outsiders has emerged from the pack of governors and senators running, and there is disagreement about how to prosecute the case against them. Recent focus groups of Trump supporters in Iowa and New Hampshire commissioned by rival campaigns revealed no silver bullet. [US_election16] [Trump] [Carson]
• WHO Director-General asks think tanks to explore health challenges under the Sustainable Development Goals
  Dr Margaret Chan Director-General of the World Health Organization
  The sustainable development goals and their implications for global health: how can think tanks help meet the challenge? Address at a meeting of global health policy think tanks and academic institutions Geneva, Switzerland 12 November 2015 Experts and colleagues in public health, ladies and gentlemen, I was asked to challenge you. I can ask for your help with issues that keep me awake at night. Some are politically contentious, as we see every time they are raised during the World Health Assembly. The world has changed dramatically since the 8 Millennium Development Goals were agreed at the start of this century. The results of that sharp focus, and all the energy, resources, and innovations it released, exceeded the wildest dreams of many. This was an instrument for global health governance that demonstrated the power of international solidarity and brought out the best in human nature.
  Leaving no one behind, ending epidemics, and ending preventable deaths require a massive scaling up of interventions. Who will implement? Who will pay? Intellectual property rights and the patent system continue to raise questions about fairness. I have been hearing some serious concerns that the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the biggest trade agreement ever, may adversely affect the market for generics and biosimilars and increase the cost of medicines. [TPP]
• Surprise! The New Trade Deal Is Written for and By Corporations
  Excessive copyright and investor protections? Check. A company can sue a country for raising its minimum wage? Check.
  By Charles P. Pierce Nov 11, 2015 @ 4:48 PM There probably is no more (occasionally overly) judicious voice on the world economy than Jeffrey Sachs. He has taken a look at the soft spots in the monstrous Trans-Pacific Partnership and he has found them to be bad enough to vote down the bill as a whole. The third is a set of regulations governing investor rights, intellectual property, and regulations in key service sectors, including financial services, telecommunications, e-commerce, and pharmaceuticals. These chapters are a mix of the good, the bad, and the ugly. Their common denominator is that they enshrine the power of corporate capital above all other parts of society, including labor and even governments. The fourth is a set of standards on labor and the environment that purport to advance the cause of social fairness and environmental sustainability. But the agreements are thin, unenforceable, and generally unimaginative. For example, climate change is not even mentioned, much less addressed boldly and creatively. That sounds really bad. But, according to Sachs, there is worse to come. The most egregious parts of the agreement are the exorbitant investor powers implicit in the Investor-State Dispute Settlement system as well as the unjustified expansion of copyright and patent coverage. We've seen this show before. Corporations are already using ISDS provisions in existing trade and investment agreements to harass governments in order to frustrate regulations and judicial decisions that negatively impact the companies' interests. The system proposed in the TPP is a dangerous and unnecessary grant of power to investors and a blow to the judicial systems of all the signatory countries. And, as in earlier trade agreements, the United States has pushed through overly strong intellectual property rights that strengthen the aggressive pricing practices of big pharma and unnecessarily extend the copyright protections far beyond their social usefulness. [TPP]
• Germany to Send Many Afghan Asylum Seekers Back Home
  The country is taking a tougher stance on its refugee crisis. By Felicity Capon 10/29/15 at 11:18 AM Afghan Refugees To Be Sent Home Afghan refugee Ali Reza (C) sits in front of Brandenburg Gate during a hunger strike in Berlin October 25. Some 20 refugees, mainly from Iran and Afghanistan, went on hunger strike on October 24 demanding an end to deportations, obligatory camp accommodation to be abolished and restrictions on their movements be lifted, the refugees said. Thomas Peter/Reuters The majority of Afghan asylum seekers in Germany will be sent back home, the German interior minister announced this week, marking a hardening of government attitudes towards those entering the country. Afghan asylum seekers not fleeing areas held by the Taliban or affected by fighting will be sent back to the country, Thomas de Maiziere announced at a news conference held in Berlin on Tuesday, according to AFP. The move will not affect asylum seekers who are at risk from the Taliban, who will still be granted asylum. Afghans made up more than 20 percent of the 560,000-plus people who have arrived in Europe by sea in 2015, according to the UN Refugee Agency, something de Maziere described as "unacceptable." He said talks had been held with the government in Kabul to put a halt to the influx, saying Afghans should "stay in their country." [Refugees] [Pawns] [Afghanistan]
• Life Under Helicopters: Dispatch From Kabul
  by Brian Terrell When I arrived at the Kabul International Airport on November 4, I was unaware that the same day the New York Times published an article, “Life Pulls Back in Afghan Capital, as Danger Rises and Troops Recede.” My friends Abdulhai and Ali, 17 years old, young men I have known since my first visit five years ago, greeted me with smiles and hugs and took my bags. Disregarded by soldiers and police armed with automatic weapons, we caught up on old times as we walked past concrete blast walls, sand bag fortifications, check points and razor wire to the public road and hailed a cab. [Afghanistan] [Refugees]
• Saudi Funding of ISIS
  Lori Plotkin Boghardt PolicyWatch 2275Also available in ??????? June 23, 2014 Significantly undermining ISIS's financial base would require rolling back the group's access to local Syrian and Iraqi income sources. On June 13, U.S. Treasury Department officials stated that Saudi Arabia sees "eye to eye" with the United States on the importance of halting activities by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), the former al-Qaeda affiliate currently waging jihad in Iraq and Syria. Yet questions continue to arise about Saudi financial support to the group. Addressing these questions requires a better understanding of three issues: the scope of official Saudi government support to ISIS, if any; government allowance of private donations to the group; and the relative importance of Saudi donations compared to the group's other sources of income. GOVERNMENT FUNDING? At present, there is no credible evidence that the Saudi government is financially supporting ISIS. Riyadh views the group as a terrorist organization that poses a direct threat to the kingdom's security. The Interior Ministry formally designated ISIS as a terrorist entity in March, along with Jabhat al-Nusra, the Muslim Brotherhood, Yemen's Houthi rebels, and Saudi Hezbollah. The designation outlawed various forms of support to the group by residents of the kingdom. To be sure, many governments in the region and beyond sometimes fund inimical parties to help achieve particular policy objectives. Riyadh has taken pleasure in recent ISIS-led Sunni advances against Iraq's Shiite government, and in jihadist gains in Syria at Bashar al-Assad's expense. Nevertheless, official financing of the group may be precluded by Riyadh's perception that the ISIS terrorist threat is immediate and serious (though it would not be surprising to learn of limited, perhaps indirect contact, logistical coordination to further Sunni positions in Syria and beyond, or leaking of funds and materiel from Saudi-supported rebels to ISIS). An Interior Ministry statement in early May underscored Saudi perceptions of the ISIS threat at home. In it, officials accused Saudi ISIS members in Syria of encouraging fellow citizens to assassinate leading religious figures and security officials inside the kingdom and plot attacks against government installations and foreign interests. Some of the individuals involved in these domestic plots allegedly had contacts with ISIS and the Yemen-based group al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) -- the kingdom's most acute terrorist threat. At the time of the announcement, police had arrested fifty-nine Saudi citizens and three foreign nationals in the case and were still searching for forty-four additional suspects. PRIVATE DONATIONS There is a misconception that the kingdom does not get in the way of private Saudi financing of terrorist groups operating in Syria, including ISIS. Yet one of Riyadh's most observable counter-terrorism financing activities is its monitoring of the country's formal financial sector in order to block suspect donations. Indeed, social media fundraising campaigns highlight the challenges of sending such funds from Saudi Arabia to Syria. To ensure that their contributions actually reach Syria, Saudi donors are encouraged to send their money to Kuwait, long considered one of the most permissive terrorism financing environments in the Persian Gulf. [ISIS] [Saudi Arabia]
• Who Are the Supporters of International Terrorism?
  The highly effective Russian operation in Syria has clearly exposed the real position of the West, along with the ties it has with international terrorist groups. As is already known, the so-called Western coalition, created by Washington more than a year ago has been “effectively fighting” terrorism in Syria and Iraq. What are the results? Desert areas with no terrorists to be found anywhere have been heavily bombed, at the same time, terrorists are regularly acquiring weapon due to “mistakenly” air-dropped crates. In any case, the terrorists are fighting with modern American weapons and they are wearing US army BDUs (battle-dress uniforms). And it seems that this outcome fully satisfies the sitting US administration, since Washington was leading the charge against international terrorism, or at least it claimed it did. However, the year of bombing nonexistent terrorist positions produced at least some results – the Islamic State has significantly increased the territory it controlled in Syria. It seems that the US could have been supporting extremists, while pretending that it fights them, until the Russian military campaign in Syria began. Since the first days of Russian airstrikes in Syria, when militants got a taste of real bombs falling on their heads, and while fortifications, equipment, and command bunkers were being obliterated, Washington suddenly became quite vocal in claiming that the wrong terrorists were under fire. A whole new media campaign has been started with the money provided by the regimes of the Persian Gulf and the West, in a desperate attempt to convince the world that Russian air strikes are having no military success, and that they are killing civilians in droves. The major advancement launched by the Syrian Arab Army is now portrayed as a sort of a deal between the Islamic State and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, so, we are being told, terrorists are not running for their lives, and instead are just handing over their positions to the Syrian army. Such publications are usually published with unclear “open source” pictures and videos, so that nobody can confirm or deny this evidence. Under these circumstances, it’s only natural for any honest analyst to conclude that Washington and some of its Arab allies are closely linked to terrorist groups and it doesn’t take long to locate those militants. There’s not a lot of people left today who would try deny the fact that Al-Qaeda was created, financed and armed by Washington and its allied reactionary regimes of the Persian Gulf. Al-Qaeda then gave birth to the Islamic State, which has now seized vast territories in Syria and Iraq. The Islamic State or “ISIL” is a Wahhabi organization and it was created by Washington during the days of the Iraq occupation, for them to fight against Iraq’s Shia’a instead of against their Western and Persian Gulf sponsors. [Outsourcing] [Jihadist]
• New Front of Syrian War: White House vs State Department
  Dmitry Minin | 10.11.2015 | 08:03 US State Secretary John Kerry admitted at the Vienna press-conference that he had not been informed about the decision of President Obama to deploy Special Operations Forces (SOF) in Syria. This fact confirms the rumors that have been circulating in Washington for a long time. There are serious contradictions turning into a struggle between the US National Security Council and the Pentagon on one side and the State Department on the other. There is a wide gap between “hawks”, mainly coming from the military ranks, and “moderate” diplomats. The Middle East policy is the best example to illustrate this fact. Obama is balancing between the two camps. He is often rebuked for lack of will power while facing rough times. He is inclined to side more often with those who call for a tougher stand. The President seems to be unaware of the fact that by taking the decision to send SOF to Syria without consulting the State Department he puts the State Secretary into an awkward position and undermines the US international standing. The decision to deploy 50 special operations troops to Syria provides one more reason to doubt the US readiness to really change the situation. The precedent is important. The decision to deploy SOF is not based on the request of Syria’s legal government, or a corresponding resolution of the United Nations Security Council. Actually, it’s an act of aggression. The presence of US ground forces may provoke further escalation, no matter what initial intention was. Obama deviates from his own statements. The President has sworn there will be no boots on the ground in Syria. Many experts are inclined to explain this behavior by the pressure exerted by the military, in particular Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr., the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. [US Syria policy] [Dissension]
• France won’t dine with Iran unless wine is served
  By Anthony Faiola November 10 at 3:03 PM ? BERLIN — Guess who’s not coming to dinner — or even breakfast or lunch? Ahead of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s landmark European trip kicking off this weekend, French officials reportedly nixed plans for a formal meal in Paris with President François Hollande following a dispute over the menu. The Iranians, according to France’s RTL Radio, insisted on a wine-free meal with halal meat — a request based on Islamic codes that amounted to culinary sacrilege in France, a nation that puts the secular ideals of the Republic above all else. The French, RTL said, counter offered with a presumably alcohol-free breakfast — which the Iranians promptly rejected because it appeared too “cheap.” The two leaders will now reportedly settle for a face-to-face chat next Tuesday. [Culture war] [Islam] [Wine]
• Islanders Unite to Resist a New Pacific War
  November 7, 2015 By Koohan Paik | November 7, 2015 Originally published in Common Dreams Last September, I attended a remarkable gathering in Okinawa of impassioned young people from all over the Asia-Pacific. They convened at a critical moment to urgently discuss ramped-up militarism in their region. Thousands of hectares of exquisitely wild marine environments, peaceful communities and local democracy are now under extreme threat. Participants hailed from: Taiwan; Jeju (South Korea); the Japanese Ryukyu islands; Indonesia; New Zealand; and the Japanese Ogasawara islands. I was invited to represent Hawaii, where the headquarters for the U.S. Pacific Command (PACCOM) are located, and where decisions are made that have profound consequences for these young activists, and the rest of the world. These include missile base-building on pristine islands, rampant navy war games that destroy coastlines, reefs and other vital ecosystems, not to mention adding to climate change, pursued with no regard for local opinion. It’s all a result of the “Pacific Pivot,” announced by President Obama in 2011, to move 60% of U.S. Navy and Air Force resources from the Middle East to the Asia-Pacific. The stated goal is to maintain “balance” in the ongoing battle with China for regional military and economic hegemony. A particularly dangerous expression in this effort came a few weeks ago, when a U.S. missile-carrying warship challenged China by passing through disputed waters surrounding China’s artificial island bases in the South China Sea. It is the latest example of brinkmanship after years of provocative moves by the U.S. in the so-called interest of balance. But, the grim fact is there is no balance in the Pacific. The little publicized reality is that the United States, located thousands of miles from China’s coast, already maintains over 400 military installations and 155,000 troops in that part of the world. Meanwhile China, even with its newest artificial island-bases in the South China Sea, will have a grand total fewer than ten. [Pivot] [China confrontation] [Okinawa]
• Appeals court rules against Obama’s immigration plan
  By David Nakamura November 9 at 11:23 PM ? A federal appeals court on Monday ruled against President Obama’s plan to shield up to 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation, dealing another blow to the administration’s effort to remake immigration laws and likely setting up a final battle in the Supreme Court next year. The 2-to-1 ruling from a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans — to uphold a lower court’s injunction that blocks the administration from implementing a ­deferred-action program — was not unexpected. It came several months after the same court had denied an emergency stay request from the Justice Department. The decision means that one of Obama’s signature immigration initiatives remains on hold nearly a year after he announced it through executive action and leaves in doubt whether the program will begin before his term expires in January 2017. Republican presidential candidates have pledged to dismantle the program, creating additional urgency within the Obama administration to get it started. [Governance] [Migration]
• Rosen: Is Obama wondering: What would Cheney do?
  By James Rosen ·Published November 02, 2015 · FoxNews.com Editor's note: Fox News Chief Washington Correspondent James Rosen's new book “Cheney One on One: A Candid Conversation with America's Most Controversial Statesman” (Regnery, 2015) was released on November 2. When President Obama dropped in on “The Daily Show” in July, to pay farewell respects to Jon Stewart, the commander-in-chief was busily engaged in selling his signature foreign policy initiative. Unlike the national desire to retire Jon Stewart properly, support for the Iran nuclear deal was hardly unanimous. Critics of the deal advanced a variety of specific arguments: whether more dismantlement should have been sought; the validity of projected breakout times; the viability of “snap-back” sanctions; the reliability of our negotiating partners; the advisability of sunset provisions; and even whether the accord, as negotiated, violates U.S. law. Although most of these had already been aired, on Stewart’s set the president-- a skilled performer on comedy shows-- used humor to argue that no substantive criticisms had been aired at all. [Iran deal] [Cheney] [Neocon]
• Reaper Madness: Obama’s Whack-a-Mole Killing Machine
  by Doug Noble “Our entire Middle East policy seems to be based on firing drones,” Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told The Intercept. “They’re enamored by the ability of special operations and the CIA to find a guy in the middle of the desert in some shitty little village and drop a bomb on his head and kill him.” Targeted killing by drones remains the US weapon of choice, famously called “the only game in town,” by former CIA director Leon Panetta. This despite a decade of worldwide moral outrage over its overwhelming civilian casualties, violations of international law, disregard for national sovereignty, dismissal of due process, and continuing secrecy. The Obama administration recently announced that the drone killing program will in fact be increased by 50 % in the coming two years. [UAV] [Assassination] [Counterproductive] [Efficacy]
• Kissinger, the Bombardier: How Diplomacy by Air Power Became an All-American Tradition
  Greg Grandin • November 8, 2015 In April 2014, ESPN published a photograph of an unlikely duo: Samantha Power, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and former national security adviser and secretary of state Henry Kissinger at the Yankees-Red Sox season opener. In fleece jackets on a crisp spring day, they were visibly enjoying each other’s company, looking for all the world like a twenty-first-century geopolitical version of Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. The subtext of their banter, however, wasn’t about sex, but death. As a journalist, Power had made her name as a defender of human rights, winning a Pulitzer Prize for her book A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide. Having served on the National Security Council before moving on to the U.N., she was considered an influential “liberal hawk” of the Obama era. She was also a leading light among a set of policymakers and intellectuals who believe that American diplomacy should be driven not just by national security and economic concerns but by humanitarian ideals, especially the advancement of democracy and the defense of human rights. The United States, Power long held, has a responsibility to protect the world’s most vulnerable people. In 2011 she played a crucial role in convincing President Obama to send in American air power to prevent troops loyal to Libyan autocrat Muammar Gaddafi from massacring civilians. That campaign led to his death, the violent overthrow of his regime, and in the end, a failed state and growing stronghold for ISIS and other terror groups. In contrast, Kissinger is identified with a school of “political realism,” which holds that American power should service American interests, even if that means sacrificing the human rights of others. According to ESPN, Power teasingly asked Kissinger if his allegiance to the Yankees was “in keeping with a realist’s perspective on the world.” Power, an avid Red Sox fan, had only recently failed to convince the United Nations to endorse a U.S. bombing campaign in Syria, so Kissinger couldn’t resist responding with a gibe of his own. “You might,” he said, “end up doing more realistic things.” It was his way of suggesting that she drop the Red Sox for the Yankees. “The human rights advocate,” Power retorted, referring to herself in the third person, “falls in love with the Red Sox, the downtrodden, the people who can’t win the World Series.” “Now,” replied Kissinger, “we are the downtrodden” — a reference to the Yankees’ poor performance the previous season. During his time in office, Kissinger had been involved in three of the genocides Power mentions in her book: Pol Pot’s “killing fields” in Cambodia, which would never have occurred had he not infamously ordered an illegal four-and-a-half-year bombing campaign in that country; Indonesia’s massacre in East Timor; and Pakistan’s in Bangladesh, both of which he expedited. [Kissinger] [Samantha Power] [Humanitarian intervention]
• Tourists of Empire: America’s Peculiar Brand of Global Imperialism
  William J. Astore • October 27, 2015 The United States is a peculiar sort of empire. As a start, Americans have been in what might be called imperial denial since the Spanish-American War of 1898, if not before. Empire — us? We denied its existence even while our soldiers were administering “water cures” (aka waterboarding) to recalcitrant Filipinos more than a century ago. Heck, we even told ourselves we were liberating those same Filipinos, which leads to a second point: the U.S. not only denies its imperial ambitions, but shrouds them in a curiously American brand of Christianized liberation theology. In it, American troops are never seen as conquerors or oppressors, always as liberators and freedom-bringers, or at least helpers and trainers. There’s just enough substance to this myth (World War II and the Marshall Plan, for example) to hide uglier imperial realities. [Imperialism] [In denial] [Strategic incoherence]
• Black Swans and Pink Flamingos: Five Principles for Force Design
  Frank Hoffman August 19, 2015 American strategists would benefit from a longer-range view of history to better inform force design. Thinking historically about the future means dealing openly with those things we want to avoid or are in denial about. What key lessons should U.S. policymakers and defense planners take away from the last 14 years of conflict? How relevant is the recent past? What does our strategic and operational performance suggest we need to retain as core competencies? These are critical questions for the design of tomorrow’s U.S. military. Being rigorously critical about our campaigns is a healthy and necessary intellectual exercise. We should not deceive ourselves, nor should we hide from a painful evaluation about the last 14 years and deficiencies in the American way of strategy. Without looking critically at the past, our own wars and others, all of the arguments about AirSea Battle, disruptive technologies, and offset strategies will be largely premature, if not largely uninformed. Drawing upon the last several wars for insights or major principles for force design is useful, but to draw the right insights requires more than merely thinking about the recent past. We must look forward to a more complex world, one in which technological, social, and economic change produce new contexts. In his most famous essay on the abuse of history, Michael Howard noted that the military must strive to explore history to acquire lessons, but also to be able to recognize when changes in context have made doctrine and past practice obsolete. American policymakers and strategists would benefit from a longer-range view of history to better inform defense policy and joint force design. There are calls by some for limited interventions under ideal conditions of lower cost and scale, “more El Salvadors” than Vietnams or more short wars like Operation Desert Storm instead of the protracted Operation Iraqi Freedom. Certainly, this desire is understandable, but strategists cannot plan for ideal conditions or convenient enemies. More importantly politicians cannot dictate the terms of future conflicts. The future does not bend to our illusions or our preferences. History’s furies do not respond to presidential pronouncements about the tides of war. Recent defense policy statements suggest that the “technology optimists” are alive and well again. We must be wary of claims about disruptive breakthroughs, as a premature shift to autonomous robotic systems or unbalanced approach can generate a lot of risk without benefit. We should definitely seek advantages in all dimensions of war, and while we may be forced to consider offsets, we need not rush for silver bullets. As former RAND analyst Russ Glenn once noted, lessons from the past are of value only if molded to the needs of the future. A military that does not balance looking backward with constant glances at the future risks preparing only for the war last fought. We examine the past in order to illuminate the future, not to relive past success. Richard Danzig’s widely cited CNAS paper, Driving in the Dark, recommended that the “defense community should also design processes, programs and equipment on the premise that predictions will often be incorrect. While trying better to illuminate the road, analysts should recognize that sudden twists and turns in areas of darkness demand special driving techniques.” Danzig’s driving metaphor is appropriate for steering into a future that, by its nature, is uncertain. From that metaphor I have derived a set of five force planning principles: [US Global strategy] [US military]
• Leadership at home and abroad
  By Rorry Daniels Nov 5, 2015 The diffusion of global power was a major theme at this year’s Xiangshan Forum, a track 1.5 defense dialogue on Asia-Pacific security organized by the China Association of Military Sciences and the China Institute for International Strategic Studies (CIISS). A multipolar world in which the United States is in relative decline against a backdrop of many rising powers is less stable than the bipolar Cold War system or the US-led international order that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. Fortunately, there is a strong will among states to avoid the conflict that has historically characterized a period of transition between rising and established powers – the so-called “Thucydides Trap.” China has proposed a “New Type of Major Power Relations” to support peace and stability and promote strategic trust. Do current strategies promote stability? And what if mutual trust takes decades to grow between historic opponents? [China confrontation] [Thucydides trap]
• New book spells more family drama for Jeb Bush
  By Ed O'Keefe November 5 ? Bush 41 book critical of son's administration ?Play Video1:49 In a blistering critique, former president George H.W. Bush says Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld "served the president badly" when his son George W. Bush was in the White House. (AP) A former president is rarely publicly critical of another former president — especially by way of a tell-all book. Even more rarely has one president been the father of another. And those categories have never intersected. Until now. And so begins another round of Bush family drama tied mostly to foreign policy, this time in the pages of an authorized biography of former president George H.W. Bush. While generally supportive of his son's presidency, he criticizes former president George W. Bush, former vice president Richard B. Cheney and former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld for how they responded to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The 41st president suggests that the 43rd president's 2002 speech describing Iraq, Iran and North Korea as part of an “Axis of Evil” included comments "that might be historically proved to be not benefiting anything." He calls Cheney's reaction to the attacks "just iron-ass" and says that Rumsfeld displayed a "lack of humility" and "was an arrogant fellow." [George H Bush] [9/11] [George W Bush]
• EXCLUSIVE: HW Bush jabs at Cheney, Rumsfeld in new book
  Published November 05, 2015 ·FoxNews.com As an ex-president, George H.W. Bush has generally maintained a respectful silence regarding later administrations. But now he's speaking out, criticizing some big names, and not in ways you might expect. As revealed in the new Jon Meacham biography, "Destiny And Power: The American Odyssey Of George Herbert Walker Bush," the 41st president has some harsh words for the actions of his son's administration. In particular, he objects to how Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld reacted to 9/11. He feels they were too hawkish, taking a harsh, inflexible stance that tarnished America's reputation around the world. [George H Bush] [George W Bush]
• President Obama: Steve Kroft questions President Obama on topics including Russia's incursion in Syria, ISIS and the 2016 presidential race
  2015 Oct 11 . The following is a script from "President Obama" which aired on October 11, 2015. Steve Kroft is the correspondent. L. Franklin Devine, Michael Karzis and Maria Gavrilovic, producers. It's been a week of rising tensions in Syria with Russia stepping up airstrikes and naval bombardments in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and in some cases against rebel groups supported by the United States. It's complicated an already precarious situation and aggravated an already contentious relationship between President Obama and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Add to that the presidential primary campaigns underway at home, and it seemed like a good time to talk about all of it with the president which we did on Tuesday in the Roosevelt Room at the White House; a lively, spirited discussion that began with ISIS. [Russia confrontation] [Obama]
• Public Private Partnerships? They’re as old as Christopher Columbus
  Keston K. Perry 9 November 2015 Private companies are encouraged to latch onto every potentially-profitable public investment. What’s new or good about that? As the global economy limps along with low expected growth rates or recession in major emerging economies, the World Bank and other donor agencies have embraced a new cure-all for poverty reduction and development called ‘Public-Private Partnerships’ or ‘PPPs.’ Though the term is still ambiguous, these arrangements are basically long-term contracts between a government and a private entity for the provision of a public service. In principle, PPPs are meant to transfer risk from governments, while businesses gain through revenue generation and the receipt of assets or guarantees from the state [Privatisation] [Corporate power] [UNUS]
• Why the TPP Must be Opposed at All Costs: It’s Worse Than You Think
  by K.J. Noh The TPP, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the corporate Mega-deal on “free trade” has been concluded between the partner states, and is now in the final stages of its ratification. This deal involves the US and 11 other countries (Canada, US, Mexico, Chile, Peru; Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Brunei, Japan) of the Pacific Rim, representing 40% of global economic activity. The text was secretly negotiated by hundreds of corporate lobbyists. It has now been released, and Congress will have 90 days to examine the 6000 page text before approving, which will allow the President to sign it in to law. For six years, this corporate-drafted legislation was a pig in a poke. Nobody knew what was in it– except the hundreds (550) of corporate lobbyists that had been drafting it for years in total secrecy. They wouldn’t say what was in it. They would only say it was good for you. They just wanted you to support it. Critics were told to shut up on the grounds that they knew nothing about it. But the outline that people had been able to discern through leaks were monstrous. The text has been just released—by the orders of a New Zealand court–and it is, as anticipated, monstrous, explaining the Manhattan-Project-level secrecy. It’s a total corporate giveaway, and despite some pathetic attempts to put lipstick on it, it’s every bit as bad as we had anticipated, and a little bit worse. Here are some of the key issues: [TPP]
• Text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership
  The text of the TPP was released by TPP Parties on 5 November 2015 and can be accessed by Chapter below. Legal verification of the text will continue in the coming weeks. The Agreement will also be translated into French and Spanish language versions. The Government is preparing a legal synopsis of the Agreement and this will be available below in the coming days. Preamble Preamble [external link, PDF] 1. Initial Provisions and General Definitions 2. National Treatment and Market Access for Goods 3. Rules of Origin and Origin Procedures 4. Textiles and Apparel 5. Customs Administration and Trade Facilitation 6. Trade Remedies 7. Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures 8. Technical Barriers to Trade 9. Investment 10. Cross-Border Trade in Services 11. Financial Services 12. Temporary Entry for Business Persons 13. Telecommunications 14. Electronic Commerce 15. Government Procurement 16. Competition Policy 17. State-Owned Enterprises and Designated Monopolies 18. Intellectual Property 19. Labour 20. Environment 21. Cooperation and Capacity Building 22. Competitiveness and Business Facilitation 23. Development 24. Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises 25. Regulatory Coherence 26. Transparency and Anti-Corruption 27. Administrative and Institutional Provisions 28. Dispute Settlement 29. Exceptions and General Provisions 30. Final Provisions [TPP]
• Secret TPP Text Unveiled: It’s Worse Than We Thought
  Pact’s Fate in Congress Uncertain at Best; Long-Awaited Text Reveals Gaps Between Administration Claims and Actual TPP Terms On Key Congressional, Public Concerns By Public Citizen Global Research, November 06, 2015 Public Citizen 5 November 2015 Theme: Global Economy, Law and Justice Today’s long-awaited release of the text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership’s (TPP) reveals that the pact replicates many of the most controversial terms of past pacts that promote job offshoring and push down U.S wages while further expanding the scope of the controversial investor-state system and rolling back improvements on access to affordable medicines and environmental standards that congressional Democrats forced on the George W. Bush administration in 2007. “Apparently, the TPP’s proponents resorted to such extreme secrecy during negotiations because the text shows TPP would offshore more American jobs, lower our wages, flood us with unsafe imported food and expose our laws to attack in foreign tribunals,” said Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch. “When the administration says it used the TPP to renegotiate NAFTA, few expected that meant doubling down on the worst job-killing, wage-suppressing NAFTA terms, expanding limits on food safety and rolling back past reforms on environmental standards and access to affordable drugs.” On some key issues, the text reveals provisions that will cost TPP support from members of Congress who supported the narrow passage of Fast Track trade authority this summer, and affirm for the many members of Congress who backed past trade deals but opposed Fast Track that the TPP must be stopped. “Many in Congress said they would support the TPP only if, at a minimum, it included past reforms made to trade pact intellectual property rules affecting access to affordable medicines. But the TPP rolls back that past progress by requiring new marketing exclusivities and patent term extensions, and provides pharmaceutical firms with new monopoly rights for biotech drugs, including many new and forthcoming cancer treatments,” said Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines program. “The terms in this final TPP text will contribute to preventable suffering and death abroad, and may constrain the reforms that Congress can consider to reduce Americans’ medicine prices at home.” The text also confirms that demands made by Congress and key constituencies were not fulfilled. [TPP]
• Prospect that bomb destroyed plane raises specter of expanding ISIS threat
  By Ellen Nakashima November 6 at 7:40 PM ? The hardening prospect that a Russian airliner was brought down over the Sinai Peninsula by a terrorist bomb is raising concerns that the threat from the Islamic State has dramatically expanded, and it points to the potentially deadly role of insurgents around the world who have allied themselves with the militant group. Rising fear that a Russian plane packed with tourists was targeted by terrorists deepened Friday with French reports that the flight’s black boxes contained the sound of an explosion. That news followed Russia’s suspension of all flights into Egypt, a clear signal that the Kremlin, which had been reluctant to countenance a terrorist attack, now fears a bomb was behind last weekend’s Metrojet crash, which killed all 224 people aboard. If the Islamic State indeed destroyed the plane, it would shatter whatever expectation there was that the group could be confined and ultimately defeated within Iraq and Syria — the region where it has seized territory and declared a caliphate. [Russia’s military moves in Syria send ripples through White House] And, analysts say, it would show that the Islamic State has learned how to turn its affiliates into operational arms. Islamic State celebrates Russian jet crash, passes out candy ?Play Video0:35 An excerpt from an Islamic-State propaganda video shows members handing out candy to celebrate the news of the Russian plane crash in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. (Excerpt from an Islamic-State propaganda video) There have been arrests of Islamic State operatives in Kosovo and Albania in recent months for allegedly planning attacks in Europe, said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University. “But this is the first time that ISIL has crossed the threshold and burst onto the international terror scene,” he said. [ISIS]
• Why does the government of the United States hate Syrian president Bashar al-Assad
  By William Blum November 04, 2015 "Information Clearing House" - Is it because, as we’re told, he’s a brutal dictator? But how can that be the reason for the hatred? It would be difficult indeed to name a brutal dictatorship of the second half of the 20th Century or of the 21st century that was not supported by the United States; not only supported, but often put into power and kept in power against the wishes of the population; at present the list would include Saudi Arabia, Honduras, Indonesia, Egypt, Colombia, Qatar, and Israel. The United States, I suggest, is hostile to the Syrian government for the same reason it has been hostile to Cuba for more than half a century; and hostile to Venezuela for the past 15 years; and earlier to Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia; and to Dominican Republic, Uruguay, and Chile; and so on continuing through the world atlas and history books. [US Syria policy] [Imperialism] [Pipeline]
• The World's Most Powerful People 2015
  David M. Ewalt , Contributor Forget about the 1%. The men and women who are featured on Forbes’ annual ranking of the World’s Most Powerful People are the 0.00000001% –the global elite whose actions move the planet. These heads of state, financiers, philanthropists and entrepreneurs truly run the world. To compile the list, we considered hundreds of candidates from various walks of life all around the globe, and measured their power along four dimensions. First, we asked whether the candidate has power over lots of people. Pope Francis, ranked #4 on our list, is the spiritual leader of more than a billion Catholics. Doug McMillon (#32), CEO of Wal-Mart Stores WMT +0.00%, employs 2.2 million workers. Next we assessed the financial resources controlled by each person. Are they relatively large compared to their peers? For heads of state we used GDP, while for CEOs, we looked at measures like their company’s assets and revenues. When candidates have a high personal net worth, like the world’s richest man, Bill Gates (#6), we also took that into consideration. In certain instances, like the King of Saudi Arabia, Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (#14), we considered other valuable resources at the candidate’s disposal –like 20% of the world’s known oil reserves.
• Most powerful people list
  Rank Name Organization Age
  #1 Vladimir Putin Russia 63 #2 Angela Merkel Germany 61 #3 Barack Obama United States 54 #4 Pope Francis Roman Catholic Church 78 #5 Xi Jinping China 62 #6 Bill Gates Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation 60 #7 Janet Yellen Washington, United States 69 #8 David Cameron United Kingdom 49 #9 Narendra Modi India 65 #10 Larry Page Google 42
• The Indonesian Massacre: What Did the US Know?
  Margaret Scott Indonesian soldiers near the burning wreckage of a vehicle, following the assassination of six army generals, Jakarta, October 1965 President Barack Obama has several things in common with Joko Widodo, the president of Indonesia, whom he welcomed to the Oval Office last week. The two men are the exact same age, and Widodo, whom everyone calls Jokowi, looks like a shorter and skinnier version of Obama. They also share something else: a personal connection to one of the worst massacres anywhere since World War II. In the late 1960s, Obama lived in Jakarta with his mother, in the years just after the killings of hundreds of thousands of suspected Indonesian Communists, a carefully orchestrated purge that brought the US-backed New Order regime to power; Jokowi grew up in poverty in Central Java, near a river that was filled with corpses in 1965. As it happens, a cache of intelligence documents declassified by the CIA this fall offers a new opportunity to revisit those events, and the US’s involvement in them. Moreover, Jokowi took office last year as the first president from outside the tight circle of oligarchs and political elite that flourished for decades under the New Order and even after its collapse in 1998. He promised to bring open, pluralist rule to Indonesia’s 250 million people, who are spread across 17,000 islands and who make up the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation. Many hoped Jokowi’s reforms would include a full reckoning with the fifty-year-old killings. The question is whether Obama is prepared to support Jokowi, whose troubled administration faces stiff resistance to addressing what happened in 1965. The Indonesian massacre was a critical moment in the cold war. [Indonesia] [Massacre]
• U.S. POLICY IN NORTH AFRICA
  Statement before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee A Testimony by: Haim Malka Deputy Director and Senior Fellow, Middle East Program Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) November 4, 2015 419 Dirksen Senate Office Buildi [US North Africa policy] [Libya] [Agency]
• Racism? By whom? This video of Texas cops stopping a black professor is a racial ‘Rorschach test’
  By Michael E. Miller November 4 at 5:21 AM ? Dashcam video shows two Corinth, Texas, police officers stop and question University of North Texas journalism dean Dorothy Bland on Oct. 24 while she was exercising in her neighborhood. (Corinth Police Department) University of North Texas professor Dorothy Bland was walking around Corinth, her affluent Dallas suburb, on Oct. 14 when she was stopped by police. Bland, who is African American, had been exercising in the street. The officers, who are both white, asked her to walk on the opposite side so she could see traffic or, even better, to use the sidewalk. Roughly three minutes later, she was on her way. The short and seemingly simple interaction has proved anything but, however. Several days later, Bland, who is the dean of UNT’s Mayborn School of Journalism, wrote an op-ed in the Dallas Morning News claiming that she had been racially profiled. “Walking while black is a crime in many jurisdictions,” she wrote. “May God have mercy on our nation.” Corinth police responded by releasing the officers’ dashcam video of the interaction and asserting that Bland had turned a “cordial” stop into a “racial issue.” “If we didn’t have the video, these officers would have serious allegations against them,” Police Chief Debra Walthall told Fox News. “Every white officer that stops an African American does not constitute racial profiling.” Now it is Bland, not the officers, who is facing pressure as more than 3,500 people have signed a petition urging UNT to fire her. Although disciplinary action against either the professor or the police officers appears unlikely, the video is generating a heated debate about law enforcement and race relations in the United States. Like Bland, many Americans see the stop as a subtle but significant instance of racial prejudice by police. “If officers were concerned only about Bland’s safety and her impeding traffic, why did they ask her for her ID? Why did they need her birth date? Why did they radio in a ‘name check’?” Dallas Morning News writer Leona Allen, who is African American, said in an opinion piece. “We’re not fools,” Allen added. “Sure looks like they’re calling to check to see if she had outstanding warrants.” Many others were equally angry — but with Bland. [Racism]
• Sugar industry threatens to scupper WHO
  Sarah Boseley, health editor Monday 21 April 2003 09.33 The sugar industry in the US is threatening to bring the World Health Organisation to its knees by demanding that Congress end its funding unless the WHO scraps guidelines on healthy eating, due to be published on Wednesday. The threat is being described by WHO insiders as tantamount to blackmail and worse than any pressure exerted by the tobacco lobby. In a letter to Gro Harlem Brundtland, the WHO's director general, the Sugar Association says it will "exercise every avenue available to expose the dubious nature" of the WHO's report on diet and nutrition, including challenging its $406m (£260m) funding from the US. The industry is furious at the guidelines, which say that sugar should account for no more than 10% of a healthy diet. It claims that the review by international experts which decided on the 10% limit is scientifically flawed, insisting that other evidence indicates that a quarter of our food and drink intake can safely consist of sugar. [Corporate power] [UNUS] [Health]
• The Pentagon’s Law of War Manual: Part two
  A recipe for total war and military dictatorship By Tom Carter 4 November 2015 This is the second of four articles analyzing the new US Department of Defense Law of War Manual. The first article was posted November 3. The most menacing passages of the Pentagon’s Law of War Manual concern its relationship to other areas of law. According to the manual, the law of war is separate from and supersedes all other bodies of law, including international human rights treaties and the United States Constitution’s Bill of Rights. This is nothing less than a formula for martial law, military dictatorship and the suspension of the Constitution. Citing a legal treatise entitled “Military Law and Precedents,” the manual states that the law of war can supersede the Constitution: “‘On the actual theatre of military operations,’ as is remarked by a learned judge, ‘the ordinary laws of the land are superseded by the laws of war. The jurisdiction of the civil magistrate is there suspended, and military authority and force are substituted.’ Finding indeed its original authority in the war powers of Congress and the Executive, and thus constitutional in its source, the Law of War may, in its exercise, substantially supersede for the time even the Constitution itself …” (p. 10, emphasis added). With the entire world declared to be the “battlefield” in the “war on terror,” this is a formula for the Pentagon to impose military dictatorship on all of Planet Earth [Pentagon] [Legality]
• Northeast Eurasia as Historical Center: Exploration of a Joint Frontier
  The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 13, Issue. 43, No. 1, November 2, 2015 Nianshen Song Summary: In this paper I use a transborder lens to investigate the region encompassed by the Russian Far East, northeast China, eastern Mongolia, northern Korea, and the Sea of Japan. We need to transcend the framework of nation-states and restore the region’s historical agency in a broader geographic, geopolitical, and economic context. We also need to view the socioeconomic development of the area in terms of a protracted process in which various indigenous groups played crucial roles. Recognizing the historical dynamic of this region helps to reconceptualize its present and future development. Key Words: Northeast Eurasia, Russian Far East, the greater Amur River region, Hunchun, Greater Tumen Initiative (GTI) Since 2000, Russia has increasingly turned its gaze eastward emphasizing the economic potential of Siberia and the Far East. From 2014, international tensions in the wake of the Ukraine crisis have further reinforced Russia’s “pivot to Asia,” a policy that emphasizes cooperation between its Far East and the East Asian countries.1 This move brought world attention to the northeast part of the Eurasian continent, a long overlooked region that is a substantial and conceptual “frontier” for both Russia and Asia.2 This paper focuses on the transborder region encompassed by the Russian Far East, northeast China, eastern Mongolia, northern Korea, and the Sea of Japan. I call it a “joint frontier” in that it is viewed as an outer and peripheral region in political, economic, and social terms by all surrounding nation states. To understand the historical dynamics of this frontier, I argue, we should view it not as an isolated and divided space at the margins of nation states but restore its historical agency in a broader geographic, geopolitical, and economic context. We also need to view the socioeconomic transformation of the area as a process encompassing at least 500 years, if not more, with multiple indigenous groups, state and nonstate actors alike, playing crucial roles in local development and interchanges. Realizing the historical dynamic of this region will help us reconsider its contemporary and future development and its place in the geopolitics of the wider region. Boundaries and Nation-Centered Narratives The geographic area I am focusing on encompasses the Russian Far East (including Sakhalin Island), northeast China, eastern Mongolia, northern Korea, and the Japanese island of Hokkaido. We have no common name to refer to this vast borderland in the northeastern part of the Eurasian Continent. The modern phrase “Far East,” which was popularly used before the 1960s, typically referred to Eastern Asia (including northeast Asia and sometimes southeast Asia). Today, “Far East” as a fixed geopolitical term is arguably only officially used in Russia (Dal’niy Vostok), referring to the eastern territory comprising the Far Eastern Federal District. Since Russia is not normally considered an Asian nation, few scholars discuss the Russian Far East within the framework of Asia (and vice versa).3 By the same token, none of the indigenous terms used in Asian countries captures this vast land stretching from the Tumen River region all the way to the Chukchi Peninsula. [Northeast Asia] [History]
• Exclusive: Chemical weapons used by rebels in Syria - sources
  The Hague | By Anthony Deutsch Chemical weapons experts have determined that mustard gas was used in a Syrian town where Islamic State insurgents were battling another rebel group, according to a report by an international watchdog seen by Reuters. A confidential Oct. 29 report by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), a summary of which was shown to Reuters, concluded "with the utmost confidence that at least two people were exposed to sulfur mustard" in the town of Marea, north of Aleppo, on Aug. 21. "It is very likely that the effects of sulfur mustard resulted in the death of a baby," it said. [cbw] [Syria] [Jihadist]
• After vowing to end two wars, Obama may leave three behind
  By Greg Jaffe October 31 President Obama’s decision to expand the U.S. war effort in Iraq and Syria is a reflection of the conflicting pressures on a commander in chief who doubts that military force alone can end the conflicts in those countries, but who also feels compelled to act in the face of a humanitarian catastrophe and a growing threat to the United States. The president on Friday said that he was sending about 50 Special Operations troops to northern Syria to work with Kurdish and Arab fighters battling the Islamic State. The deployment, though small, marks the first full-time deployment of U.S. forces to the dangerous and chaotic country. The troops will be accompanied by more U.S. attack planes, based across the border in Turkey, and plans for more joint raids — led by Iraqi counterterrorism forces — to capture and kill Islamic State leaders. The troops, planes and plans for more raids represent an “intensification” of the president’s existing strategy, said senior administration officials. Few of those officials, however, suggested that the moves would be enough to break open the stalemated conflict or produce sudden battlefield gains. “This is a very complex battle space, and we’re not directly involved in the way we’ve been in the past,” said a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. [US Middle East policy] [Obama]
• Seeking America’s ‘lost’ greatness and finding Trump most appealing
  By Marc Fisher October 31 The way Joe McCoy sees it, the last time America was great was when Ronald Reagan was president, when people played by the rules. No, it was in the ’70s, Holly Martin says, when you could depend on Americans to work hard. No, to find true American greatness, Steve Trivett contends, you need to go back to before the Vietnam War, “when you could still own a home and have a good job even if you didn’t have a college education.” Even if they don’t have “Make America Great Again” campaign caps, Donald Trump’s supporters easily recite the signature slogan of the real estate developer’s insurgent presidential bid. And even if they don’t agree on exactly why the country lost its way, they do accept — give or take a few degrees of hyperbole — Trump’s contention that the United States has become, as he has put it, “an economic wasteland” that is “committing cultural suicide.” The premise behind “Make America Great Again” is that the country is no longer great. It can be great again, and the campaign has a certain can-do billionaire in mind as the guy to make that happen, but at the moment, the leading contender for the nomination of the party that regularly touts the notion of American exceptionalism is arguing that the country ain’t what it used to be. Interviews with Trump supporters across the country find a profusion of perspectives on how and when America lost its mojo; what bonds them is a sense of frustration so abiding that they’re willing to take a chance on a man they readily admit is anything but presidential, at least the way the term has historically been defined. [Decline] [Trump]
• How the Pentagon spent $43 million on a single gas station
  By Christian Davenport November 2 at 11:55 AM The compressed natural gas station in Afghanistan that cost $43 million. (Source: SIGAR) John Sopko’s team of investigators has uncovered all kinds of wasteful spending in Afghanistan through its work as a U.S. government watchdog. Now the group has uncovered a $43 million gas station, which Sopko calls “gratuitous and extreme”—and possibly criminal. In a scathing report, Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, wrote that a similar compressed natural gas station in Pakistan cost $500,000, or about $306,000 at current exchange rates, meaning the Afghanistan station cost 140 times as much. He wrote that the Pentagon’s program had “several troubling aspects,” including $30 million in overhead costs, and the lack of a feasibility study before the project began. Sopko said that that the Pentagon essentially shut down when pressed about the program, saying: “One of the most troubling aspects of this project is that the Department of Defense claims that it is unable to provide and explanation for the high cost of the project or to answer any other questions concerning its planning, implementation or outcome.” The department that was in charge of it, the Task Force for Stability and Business Operations, has closed and so the Pentagon said it couldn’t comment on its activities, Sopko’s letter said. He wrote that he found it “both shocking and incredible that DOD asserts that it no longer has any knowledge about TFBSO, an $800 million program that reported directly to the Office of the Secretary of Defense and only shut down a little over six months ago.” [Pentagon] [Incompetence] [Corruption] [Bizarre]
• A reporter remembers Ahmad Chalabi, the man who never ruled Iraq
  Highlights Perhaps no one is more responsible for persuading the U.S. to invade Iraq Colorful figure, he died Tuesday of a heart attack at his Baghdad home ‘One of the greatest con men of modern times’ By Hannah Allam WASHINGTON — The day after Christmas in 2006, Iraq War mastermind Ahmad Chalabi and I were at his compound in Baghdad squabbling over which insurgents were nastier: Sunni Muslim jihadists who blew up markets full of civilians or Shiite Muslim militiamen who were known for torturing innocents to death with power drills? I was McClatchy’s Baghdad bureau chief and had known Chalabi for years. We frequently had such debates, and it was easy to back down against such a formidable personality, but this time I held firm in my argument that the militants were equally dangerous because of their shared habit of slaughtering civilians. He disagreed. “I’ll believe that when Shiites start chopping off heads!” said Chalabi, a secular Shiite [Iraq] [Client] [Chalabi]
• Charlatan or hero: Ahmed Chalabi’s death and the lessons of Iraq
  By Greg Jaffe November 3 at 7:12 PM ? Few figures have been more loved and loathed in Washington than Ahmed Chalabi, the Iraqi expatriate who charmed American politicians and built the case for the war in Iraq. His death in Baghdad at age 71 has laid bare the deep divisions that remain regarding the causes of the U.S. failure there, the lessons that have yet to be learned from it and the raw anger it still provokes. To a handful of true believers, Chalabi remains a battle-tested hero who toppled a dictator and sought to bring Western-style democracy to the Middle East. “I was at his house for hours and hours,” said Richard Perle, a former head of the Defense Policy Board in the George W. Bush administration and one of the architects of the Iraq war. “We talked about art, we talked about history, we talked about poetry. Did he share our values? You’re damn right he did.” Those who opposed the invasion describe Chalabi as a charlatan who deceived the world’s most powerful nation into launching a disastrous war at a cost of trillions of dollars and nearly 5,000 American lives. “He was a scam artist who conned many members of Congress, an administration, the neocons and some members of the military,” said Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni, who served as commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East. “We tried to warn people, but it fell on deaf ears, and they vilified us as messengers. We all paid the price.” [Iraq] [Client] [Chalabi]
• Six Reasons Why China and Russia Are Catching Up with the U.S. Military
  Why the Gap In Military Superiority Is Closing By Washington's Blog Global Research, October 29, 2015 Washington's Blog 28 October 2015 China and Russia are still behind the U.S. militarily. But they are both showing surprising breakthroughs that – sometime down the road in the future – could threaten U.S. hegemony. The Washington Times reported last month: Defense Secretary Ashton Carter on Wednesday warned Russia and China are quickly closing the military technology gap with the U.S. as inconsistent military budgets and slower innovation threaten America’s lead in the military world. *** “It’s evident that nations like Russia and China have been pursuing military modernization programs to close the technology gap with the United States,” he continued. “They’re developing platforms designed to thwart our traditional advantages of power projection and freedom of movement. They’re developing and fielding new and advanced aircraft and ballistic, cruise, anti-ship and anti-air missiles that are longer-range and more accurate.” The SecDef issued this warning before Russia stunned the U.S. with its long-range missile and electronic communications-jamming capacities. How could this be happening, when U.S. military spending dwarfs that from the rest of the world? There are six reasons … [Military balance]
• They freed a Syrian town from ISIS. Now they have to govern it.
  By Liz Sly October 30 at 4:12 PM ? A cage in which Islamic State militants temporarily held people caught smoking while the militants held control of Tal Abyad, in Raqqa province. (Alice Martins/For The Washington Post) TAL ABYAD, Syria — When Islamic State fighters fled this northern Syrian town in June, they took with them the electricity generators, the water pumps, the hospital equipment and pretty much everything else that had helped sustain the semblance that they ran a functioning state. They left behind their graffiti, their instruments of torture, the block of wood on which they beheaded their victims, the cage in which they punished smokers — and a community riven with suspicion and distrust. Today, Tal Abyad is a tense and troubled place. Its new Kurdish masters are seeking to assert their control over a mixed town that, at least until recently, had an Arab majority — some of whom were not entirely unhappy to be governed by the Islamic State. “As long as you didn’t bother them, they didn’t bother you,” said Sarkis Kaorkian, 60, who is one of the town’s few Christians who remained behind and is now deeply relieved the Islamic State is gone. He claims he drank and smoked his way through the group’s 17-month rule by staying out of their way and paying on time the $100 tax, or jizya, leveled twice a year on Christian residents. These days, Islamic State sympathies abound among local Arabs in the town, say residents who close up their shops by nightfall, just in case. The assassination of a local imam outside his mosque this month reinforced their concerns. [Plans by U.S. to capture Islamic State’s capital already go awry] Occasional suicide bombings keep Tal Abyad on edge, and recent attacks by Turkey underscore the kind of complications likely to arise as the U.S.-led effort to defeat the Islamic State liberates territory in Iraq and Syria — absent a wider settlement to the many rivalries fueling the region’s wars. [ISIS] [Kurds] [US Syria policy]
• Why were no Syrians invited to the peace talks in Vienna?
  Highlights The United States, Russia, Saudi Arabia, even Iran were in Vienna on Friday The Syrian opposition, and the government, both were not invited For all the talk, still unclear who would replace Assad – if he were to go Nineteen foreign ministers and other senior dignitaries attended U.N.-sponsored talks on Syria Friday. Missing: anyone from Syria. By Hannah Allam Washington — Secretary of State John Kerry and other top international diplomats were just sitting down to dinner in Istanbul after a long day of talks on the war in Syria when the then-leader of the main Syrian opposition coalition decided to make his stand. Ahmed Moaz Khatib rose before the dinner guests – members of the so-called Friends of Syria group – and declared that he couldn’t eat because all he could see was the blood of his compatriots, according to diplomats who were present as well as his own account of that evening in April 2013. Khatib accused the deal makers in the room of selling out Syrians’ fight against the government of President Bashar Assad. He resigned on the spot and stormed out of the dining hall, dealing one more blow – a big one – to the Obama administration’s search for reliable partners in the conflict. “Kerry said, ‘These people are not serious,’” recalled a Western diplomat who witnessed the scene and who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. “He said, ‘I’m done.’ He was just done with them.” [US Syria policy]

• The International Dictatorship of the United States, Its Friends (Amnesty International, ISIS and the Nusra Front) and Enemies (Hassan Nasrallah, Cuba and Ana Montes)
  October 25, 2015 By Stephen Gowans In a speech delivered in the southern suburbs of Beirut on October 23, 2015, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, a resistance organization rooted in Lebanon’s Shia community, presented a description of US imperialism that largely comports with that of secular leftwing anti-imperialists in the West. Hezbollah was established in the early 1980s to end Israel’s occupation of Lebanon. With Israel’s withdrawal in 2000, and a subsequent Israeli incursion in 2006 repulsed by Hezbollah fighters, the resistance organization remains on the qui vive against future Israeli aggressions. It is now assisting the Syrian Arab Army in its death struggle against extreme sectarian Sunni Islamists, among them ISIS and Jabhat al Nusra. These al-Qaeda offshoots pose an existential threat to the Shia community in Lebanon, explaining why Hezbollah has chosen to enter the conflict. [Imperialism] [Amnesty International]
• IS has access to chemical warfare agents production — Russian Foreign Ministry
  Russian Politics & Diplomacy October 29, 10:01 UTC+3 The director of Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department for non-proliferation and arms control called to investigate the use of chemical warfare agents in Syria and Iraq by the Islamic State terrorists ? © AP Photo/Petros Karadjias MOSCOW, October 29. /TASS/. The Islamic State terrorist group has taken possession of production of chemical warfare agents, Director of Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department for non-proliferation and arms control Mikhail Ulyanov told TASS on Thursday. Ulyanov called to investigate the use of chemical warfare agents in Syria and Iraq by the Islamic State terrorists. "In the IS case, this is already not only the use of chlorine for military purposes, what Damascus is usually accused of, although there has been no proof yet," Mikhail Ulyanov said. "There are facts against the IS on the use of real chemical weapons - mustard agent, and possibly, lewisite the production of which demands use of rather complex technologies," the diplomat said. All data show that the IS group has indeed gained access to technologies of manufacturing chemical weapons, Ulyanov said. "A lot of facts of use of chemical weapons on the territory of Syria and Iraq by the IS gunmen have been already registered," he said. The diplomat said he regrets that the UN Security Council has not so far condemned these facts "first of all due to the position of our Western partners." Russia has repeatedly insisted on the respective response. [ISIS] [cbw] [UNUS]
• Sayyed Nasrallah : “We All Bear Responsibility of Facing Today’s ‘Soft War'”
  Al-Manar 16-10-2015 Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah said on Friday that the Middle-eastern region has been subjected to a multi-phase soft war which everyone of this area must shoulder the responsibility to face it. During his speech on the third eve of Muharram Hijri month, Sayyed Nasrallah stressed that the major cause of the soft war is the evolution of communication means that opens the opportunity for such an attack more than any time ever. “This soft war works in accordance with several stages regarding the general responsibility and the general affairs,” his eminence said. Sayyed Nasrallah elaborated that in the first stage, the enemies of the region started to exploit the geographical demarcation, by stressing that every national citizen should only tackle his country’s affair without interfering in other countries’, he elaborated. “This stage greatly managed to achieve its goal in the Arab and Muslim world, with the help of difficulties, frustration, limitations, and the feel of disability to obtain victory. This is how every state and every people started to think of themselves only.” [Softwar]
• New Strategic Bomber Contract Awarded After Millions Of Dollars Worth Of Lobbying
  The winning contractor has put money into the campaigns of 224 congressmen who control defense spending. Center for Public Integrity By Alexander Cohen Posted: 10/28/2015 02:06 PM EDT BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES The U.S. Air Force has awarded an initial $21.4 billion contract for a new stealth bomber to be equipped with nuclear weapons, following years of ardent lobbying and generous campaign donations by the victorious military contractor, Northrop Grumman, to 224 key members of Congress. [MISCOM]
• What Comes After Empire?
  Let's say the U.S. actually curbed its military adventurism, reeled in the Pentagon budget, and closed its global network of bases. Then what? By John Feffer, October 28, 2015. Let’s say the car stops and we get our teeth around the tire. Let’s say that we bite down hard enough to let out all the air from the U.S. empire. Now what? Those of us who have campaigned for a radical reduction of the U.S. military footprint overseas, for a major scaling back of U.S. interventionist capabilities, and for a shift of Pentagon funding toward necessary improvements on the home front have spent so much time detailing our objections to the status quo that we don’t have much time left over to consider what would happen if we succeed. Sure, it’s easy enough to talk about the distribution of the surplus here in the United States. We all have our favorite human needs to fund (infrastructure, education, green energy projects). And certainly some funds would be left over to address global problems as well. All of that falls into the category of “doing good.” The much more challenging issue is dealing with the other part of foreign policy: “countering bad.” If the United States were to close all of its military bases tomorrow, withdraw its troops and Special Forces from the 130-plus countries where they’ve been operating, and even stop arms exports, bad things would still happen around the world. Wars would still take place. Governments would still repress their citizens. And countries would still violate each other’s sovereignty. Those of a more isolationist bent will argue: It’s none of our business, and the United States usually ends up aggravating the problems we swoop in to solve. The usual progressive response is: Strengthen international institutions and empower civil society organizations. These answers contain some necessary insights, but they’re not sufficient. And because these alternatives are not sufficient, other options have gained an unacceptable credibility. [Imperialism] [Liberal]
• Examples of U.S. Foreign Policy Dysfunction
  by Rick Sterling If the U.S. is to ever change its foreign policy based on dominance and aggression to a foreign policy based on diplomacy and respect for international law, there needs to be foundation of realistic assessments. Foreign policy decisions need to be based on reality not fantasy and propaganda. Unfortunately, dysfunction, deception and propaganda extends across the spectrum from Congressional Republicans to Hillary Clinton to the White House to Bernie Sanders. The following are recent examples: Benghazi Hearings in Congress ignore important issues to focus on superficial. Congress recently held hearings on what happened in Benghazi Libya leading up to the death of Ambassador Stevens. The hearings focussed on what former Secy of State Clinton knew, when she knew it and whether she should have ordered more security. Before that, millions were spent exploring the email home server issue. Meanwhile the root cause of Stevens’ death and consequences of the US/Nato overthrow of the Gaddafi government have been ignored. The hearings were silent on the deaths of tens of thousands of Libyans, the eruption and expansion of terrorism within Libya and beyond and the massive numbers of refugees fleeing across the Meditarranean. Instead of evaluating the consequences of “regime change” in Libya, Congressional members focused on cheap political advantage. Mainstream media said nothing about the shallowness of the hearings; they were happy to report on political maneuvering and whether or not Clinton would lose her temper or be able to get “above the fray”. [Libya]
• New allies in northern Syria don’t seem to share U.S. goals
  Highlights Neither Kurdish YPG nor Arab Sanadid militia see Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa as a priority Sanadid leader instead sees dissolution of Saudi Arabia as a key goal Meanwhile, another Arab militia vows to take Raqqa but has been excluded by U.S. By Roy Gutman TEL ALO, Syria — After the failure of its $500 million program to stand up a Syrian volunteer force to battle Islamic State extremists, the Obama administration has begun an effort to enable Arab militias to fight alongside a Kurdish force that has gotten U.S. air support for the past year. The stated U.S. aim is to oust the Islamic State from its de facto capital of Raqqa in Syria. But if the Shammar tribal militia, the biggest in Hasaka province, is any example, many Arab forces on the ground have a different agenda. For that matter, so does the Kurdish People’s Protection Force, or YPG, which dominates this area and has worked closely with the United States since the siege last year of the border town of Kobani [US Syria policy] [Kurd] [Strategic incoherence}
• The Long War in Syria: The Trees, the Forest, and All the King’s Men
  By Anthony H. Cordesman Oct 1, 2015 Clichés are clichés, but sometimes it really is hard to see the forest for the trees. In the case of Syria, the “trees” include the UN debate between Obama and Putin over Syria and the fight against Islamic extremism, Russia’s sudden military intervention in Syria, the failure of the U.S. training and assist missions in both Syria and Iraq, and the developing scandal in USCENTCOM over exaggerated claims of success for the U.S.-led air campaign in Syria and Iraq. The most important “tree,” however, is trying to negotiate an end to the fighting from the outside, as if Assad was the key issue and as if it would be possible for some diplomatic elite or mix of power brokers to bring Syria back to some state of stability if only Assad would agree to leave and the United States and Russia could agree on how to approach the negotiations. Focusing on the Trees When the Forest is Burning The problem is that the “forest” is dying, burning, and occupied by four broad sets of fighters that have little reason to cooperate with any UN-led negotiating effort, outside agreement over Assad – with or without U.S. and Russian cooperation. To shift from one cliché to another, Syria presents far more problems than Humpty Dumpty. “All the king's horses and all the king's men” couldn’t put Syria back together by negotiating a solution from the outside even if there was one King instead of a divided mix of the United States, Russia, Iran, Turkey, Iraq, the other states surrounding Syria, the Arabian Gulf states, Egypt, and France and the other interested European powers. It shouldn’t take a child’s nursery rhyme to point out the obvious –although it is one whose origins may date back to England’s civil wars and first appeared in print shortly after it became fully clear that there was no way English could ever bring the 13 colonies back under its control. To begin with, there is no equivalent of Humpty. [US Syria policy]
• The Arab Spring: Made in the USA
  Review of Ahmed Bensada's Book
  By Stuart Jeanne Bramhall Global Research, October 28, 2015 Dissident Voice 25 October 2015 Arabesque$: Enquête sur le rôle des États-Unis dans les révoltes arabes (Investigation into the US Role in the Arab Uprisings) is an update of Ahmed Bensaada’s 2011 book L’Arabesque Américaine. It concerns the US government role in instigating, funding and coordinating the Arab Spring “revolutions.” Most of this history has been carefully suppressed by the western media.The new book devotes much more attention to the personalities leading the 2011 uprisings. Some openly admitted to receiving CIA funding. Others had no idea because it was deliberately concealed from them. A few (in Egypt and Syria) were officially charged with espionage. In Egypt, seven sought refuge in the US embassy in Cairo and had to be evacuated by the State Department. arabesque-Democracy: America’s Biggest Export According to Bensaada, the MENA Arab Spring revolutions have four unique features in common: ?None were spontaneous – all required careful and lengthy (5+ years) planning, by the State Department, CIA pass through foundations, George Soros, and the pro-Israel lobby.1 ?All focused exclusively on removing reviled despots without replacing the autocratic power structure that kept them in power. ?No Arab Spring protests made any reference whatsoever to powerful anti-US sentiment over Palestine and Iraq. ?All the instigators of Arab Spring uprisings were middle class, well educated youth who mysteriously vanished after 2011. Nonviolent Regime Change Bensaada begins by introducing non-violent guru Gene Sharp (see The CIA and Nonviolence), his links with the Pentagon and US intelligence, and his role, as director of the Albert Einstein Institution, in the “color” revolutions.2in Eastern Europe and the attempted coup against Hugo Chavez in 2002.)) The US goal in the Arab Spring revolutions was to replace unpopular despotic dictators while taking care to maintain the autocratic US-friendly infrastructure that had brought them to power. All initially followed the nonviolent precepts Sharp outlines in his 1994 book From Dictatorship to Democracy. In Libya, Syria and Yemen, the US and their allies were clearly prepared to introduce paid mercenaries when their Sharpian “revolutions” failed to produce regime change. Follow the Money Relying mainly on Wikileaks cables and the websites of key CIA pass through foundations (which he reproduces in the appendix), Bensaada methodically lists every State Department conference and workshop the Arab Spring heroes attended, the dollar amounts spent on them by the State Department and key “democracy” promoting foundations3, the specific involvement of Google, Facebook, Twitter and Obama’s 2008 Internet campaign team in training Arab Spring cyperactivists in encryption technologies and social media skills, US embassy visits, and direct encounters with Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, John McCain, Barack Obama and Serbian trainers from CANVAS (the CIA-backed organization that overthrew Slobodan Milosevic in 2000). Bensaada focuses most heavily on the Tahrir Square uprising in Egypt. TheWashington Post has estimated approximately 10,000 Egyptians took part in NED and USAID training in social media and nonviolent organizing techniques. For me the most astonishing information in this chapter concerned the role of an Egyptian exile (a former Egyptian policeman named Omar Afifi Suleiman) in coordinating the Tahrir Square protests from his office in Washington DC. According to Wikileaks, NED paid Suleiman a yearly stipend of $200,000+ between 2008-2011. [NED] [Subversion] [Arab Spring] [US global strategy]
• Open Grave: Western Media Memory Hole Pre-Dug for Turkey
  Monday, October 26, 2015 Turkey would seem to have every element that makes the heart of an idealistic Western journo go pitty-pat: Democracy under attack, journalists getting detained and beaten up, fascism on the march, moderate, middle-class protesters getting shredded by Islamic suicide bombers with alleged government connivance, rampant skullduggery in the run-up to a crucial election on November 1, Turkish government backing ISIL and murdering Kurds in northern Iraq, the overall horror presided over by a sinister supervillain from a palace with the size and aesthetic of an Atlantic City casino… …add to that brave, eloquent and, most importantly, English-speaking local journalists desperate to get the word out. Whaddya get today with a Google search for Turkey? Turkey ‘shoot out with ISIS’ leaves police and suspects dead via the Beeb, with the Guardian, Reuters, ABC News & USA Today running the same story. This action, I suspect, was a PR op meant to deflect attention from Turkey’s “soft on ISIL” rep, solidified by the fact that one of the suicide bombers who been able to perpetrate the horror at the Ankara train station thanks to zero security provided by the Turkish police was the member of a “well-known” ISIL cell, “well known” because the cell had also harbored his brother, the suicide bomber who had killed 32 Kurdish activists at Suruc on July 20. [Turkey] [Erdogan] [Media]
• John Kerry Says Iran Is In on Syria Talks
  Officials: For first time, Iran invited to participate in international talks on Syria's future. Secretary of State John Kerry waves as he arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday to brief the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in a closed session, on the Administration’s response to the Syrian conflict. Associated Press Oct. 27, 2015 | By Bradley Klapper and Matthew Lee, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Iran has been invited to participate for the first time in international talks over Syria's future, U.S. officials said Tuesday, a shift in strategy for the United States and its allies as they seek to halt the four-year civil war and eventually ease President Bashar Assad out of power. [US Syria policy] [Hubris]
• On Ex-Im Bank, GOP leadership allies launch rebellion of their own
  By Paul Kane October 27 at 8:34 AM ? A small but powerful band of House Republicans led a rebellion against party leadership this week — a near-constant theme of Speaker John A. Boehner’s tenure over the past five years. Except these rebels weren’t the usual 30 to 40 staunch conservatives who have agitated Boehner (R-Ohio) and helped prompt his decision a month ago to resign at the end of this week. This time an even larger bloc of Republicans who are reliable votes for the leadership team linked arms with Democrats for a highly unusual bid to revive an export-subsidy agency that conservatives shut down over the summer. Seething at the expiration of the Export-Import Bank, an agency once largely supported by pro-business conservatives, several dozen Republicans executed a rarely used procedure to force a vote to reopen the bank with some modest reforms. Once the mainstream conservatives got the legislation to a final vote, the far-right flank was routed as a majority of Republicans supported renewal of the bank, which passed on a vote of 313 to 118. “The passage of this bill marks a historic day in the House. This is a win for small businesses, hardworking Americans and for rank and file Members who want to get things done for their constituents,” Rep. Stephen Lee Fincher (Tenn.), the lead Republican pushing to force the vote, said in a statement. During debate over the past two days, Fincher complained that the Ex-Im Bank, which facilitates trade by guaranteeing new sales by U.S. corporations to overseas clients, had fallen prey to the ideological fever that has left the House’s leadership in limbo for a month. [Governance] [Trade] [Decline] [Tea Party]
• Obama's Gotten The U.S. Stuck In Yemen. Is He Looking For A Way Out?
  More than 2,500 civilian deaths later, the White House is being asked to account for the war it's supporting. Akbar Shahid Ahmed Foreign Affairs Reporter, The Huffington Post WASHINGTON -- Over the past six months, the Obama administration has quietly embroiled the U.S. in a Middle Eastern war that has left more than 20 million people in need of humanitarian aid and killed at least 5,000. U.S.-backed Sunni Arab nations, led by Saudi Arabia, have bombed weddings, left families to starve and looked the other way as an al Qaeda affiliate has used the confusion to seize significant territory. Civilian casualties are growing daily. The White House won't admit that the U.S. is even "in" Yemen. But it's refueling the planes bombing the country and providing intelligence to the Sunni states running the Yemen campaign. [US middle East Policy] [Saudi Arabia] [Yemen]
• United Nations votes 191-2 to condemn U.S. embargo against Cuba
  U.S. [and Israel] once again votes against resolution First vote on resolution since U.S., Cuba reestablished diplomatic ties By Mimi Whitefield In the first United Nations vote on a resolution condemning the U.S. embargo against Cuba since the two countries renewed diplomatic ties, the U.N. voted 191-2 in favor of the condemnation. The only drama was how the United States would vote. In its statement, the United States said that it couldn’t support the resolution because it failed to take into account “the significant steps in the spirit of engagement” undertaken by the United States, and it was disappointed that Cuba had chosen to bring forth a resolution “almost identical” to those of years past. [Cuba] [Sanctions cost]
• Nice No More: The End of the German Fairytale
  A Commentary By Markus Feldenkirchen REUTERS The shine has come off Franz Beckenbauer's halo The World Cup scandal brought to light by SPIEGEL serves as a reminder that Germany is nowhere near as perfect as it had started to look -- ironically, around the time of that historic "fairytale summer. The World Cup in the summer of 2006 was a turning point in German history. The country that brought the world the Holocaust had already taken many successful steps toward full rehabilitation -- it had matured into a stabile democracy and achieved peaceful reunification. Then, even more remarkably, Germany became something that might have been unimaginable to many: likeable. It organized a perfect football tournament and showed a warm and cosmopolitan side the world had never seen before. The German national team under then-coach Jürgen Klinsmann were even gracious in defeat to the Italians, who took the trophy home. The World Cup appeared to cement Germany's status as the kind of friendly country that people can identify with In Germany, people described the 2006 World Cup as the "fairytale summer." What followed was almost even more magical. Germany's image in the world continued to improve (with the exception, of course, of the Greek crisis). It wasn't just the Americans who found themselves inspired by the "German model" either -- it felt like the whole world had suddenly become enamored with Germany's way of doing things. With its economic power and its people, Germany joined the club of countries viewed as being good for the world. [FIFA] [Corruption] [Country image]
• Obama officials at odds over Saudi airstrikes
  As civilian casualties mount in Yemen, some worry the U.S. is abetting war crimes. By Nahal Toosi 10/26/15 06:28 PM EDT Saudi Arabia’s airstrikes in Yemen, conducted with U.S. assistance, are alleged to have killed at least 1,500 civilians, dividing members of the Obama administration over whether the U.S. risks being accused of abetting war crimes in a bombing campaign that could ultimately strengthen Islamist militants. Sources inside the administration say they are struggling to keep in check the opposing sides in Yemen, one of the clearest examples of the intensifying Saudi-Iran proxy war in the Middle East. But even as reports of civilian suffering and terrorist gains pile up, U.S. officials believe that reducing American support for the Saudis could make the situation even worse. The White House does not want to anger Saudi Arabia, a vital, oil-rich ally already unhappy with President Barack Obama’s decision to pursue a nuclear deal with Iran. At the same time, what many hoped would be a short Saudi-led campaign against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels who overthrew Yemen’s government, is now entering its eighth month with no end in sight [US Middle East policy] [Hypocrisy] [Saudi Arabia] [False balance]
• From King Stork to King Log: America’s Negative Message Overseas
  By Anthony H. Cordesman Oct 26, 2015 There are so many different views of America overseas that any effort to generalize is dangerous, and at least partially misleading. It would be equally dangerous, however, to ignore the growing level of criticism of U.S. strategy, the degree to which Russia and other critics of the United States have made gains at the expense of the United States, and the extent to which both the Bush and Obama Administrations have contributed to a steadily more negative view of U.S. power, influence, and competence. Americans are used to listening largely to themselves, and to American criticism of America. [Country image] [Myopia]
• In the Syrian Deadlands
  Charles Glass October 22, 2015 Issue glass_1-102215.jpg A Syrian man carrying his daughters across rubble after a barrel bomb attack on the rebel-held neighborhood of Kalasa in Aleppo, September 2015 Folk memories endure, mothers’ and grandmothers’ sagas trumping documents in neglected archives. What will Syria’s youth, when they are old, tell their children? All will have stories of cowering in their flimsy houses while bombs fell, of the deadening existence of refugee camps, or of escapes through treacherous seas and perilous highways to uncertain lives in strange lands. My maternal grandmother left Mount Lebanon, then part of Syria, as a child in the late nineteenth century during a confrontation between the Christians of her village and their Ottoman rulers. Although her father was killed a few months before she was born, she told me many times how he faced Turkish troops on horseback as if she had witnessed it. I don’t know what really happened; but her stories, including of a river that was so cold it could crack a watermelon in two, remain undeniable truths to her descendants. Syrians today are enduring a brutal, unending ordeal that reenacts the drama of their ancestors during a prior war exactly one century ago that their families, novelists, and poets preserved for them [Syria] [False balance] [Agency]
• The Devil’s Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America’s Secret Government
  Review of David Talbot’s book By Prof. Edward Curtin Global Research, October 26, 2015 This is a bold and profoundly important book, not only for the portrait of the evil spymaster Allen Dulles, but even more so for its examination of the legacy he spawned – the creation of a cabal hidden behind the public face of the United States government that secretly runs the country today on behalf of wealthy elites. The psychopathic Allen Dulles was the enforcer for this group, called “the power elite” by C. Wright Mills in the 1950s. In recent years, especially since September 11, 2001, as its power has expanded, it has been given different names – the deep state, the national security state, deep politics,etc. – but that has not diminished its power one jot. Like a patient who goes to a doctor seeking a label for vague yet disturbing symptoms, people may feel relief from the naming, but the dis-ease continues until the root cause is eliminated. Aye, there’s the rub! [CIA]
• Deaths of Iranian generals in Syria a sign of commitment to Assad
  Highlights U.S. official: At least six Iranian generals have been killed in Syria, 3 in October Combat losses show depth of Iran’s effort to defend Syrian government For comparison: Only 1 American general has died in combat in 40 years The introduction of Russian aircraft into Syria has made coordination of pro-Syria fighting groups even more important. That job has fallen to Iranian generals, six of whom have been killed in combat in Syria. The introduction of Russian aircraft into Syria has made coordination of pro-Syria fighting groups even more important. That job has fallen to Iranian generals, six of whom have been killed in combat in Syria. Vladimir Isachenkov - AP By Jonathan S. Landay WASHINGTON — Presiding over a ceremony mourning the loss of his country’s top commander in Syria, Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Deqhan vowed the total extermination of the Sunni Muslim rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad. “We are witnessing the start of new developments in Syria (that) will pave the way for the full annihilation of the Takfiri groups,” Deqhan declared at the Oct. 14 memorial for the late Brig. Gen. Hossein Hamadani, according to the semi-official FARS news agency. Takfiri is a reference to radical Sunni groups. It wasn’t the first such funeral, and it likely won’t be the last. At least six generals from the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps have been killed in Syria since 2013, according to an official of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. Three of those, including Hamadani, who was killed Oct.9 in the embattled northern city of Aleppo, have died since the beginning of the month. A seventh Revolutionary Guard general was killed by an Islamic State sniper in Iraq last year. Experts say the deaths of so many senior officers in Syria underscore the Iranian commitment to preserving Assad’s government in a “rump” Syria that includes most of the country’s major cities and the coastal province of Latakia, the traditional center of Assad’s religious sect, the Alawites.
  It also is a reflection of the difference between Iran’s fighting tactics and those of Western militaries, whose senior officers usually direct operations from heavily protected command centers far in the rear. [Iran] [Syria] [US Military]
• Clinton, back in the Benghazi hot seat, withstands Republicans’ grilling
  By Anne Gearan, Karen Tumulty and Elise Viebeck October 22 at 9:26 PM ? Hillary Rodham Clinton easily parried barbed Republican questioning Thursday about the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, emerging unscathed from a high-stakes congressional hearing with a smooth and sometimes poignant account of her role in the event that has loomed as among her largest political liabilities. Just over a year before the 2016 general election, the long-anticipated showdown was suffused with presidential politics — though neither Clinton nor members of the House Select Committee on Benghazi mentioned her position at the top of the Democratic field. Both she and her Republican questioners claimed the high ground, insisting that they were focused on learning what went wrong when militants overran two U.S. compounds in the restive Libyan city in September 2012, just months before Clinton left office as secretary of state. [Hillary Clinton] [Libya] [Diversion]
• What the Army’s top-secret commando unit Delta Force is doing back in Iraq
  Wesley Morgan October 23 at 1:31 PM Islamic State group’s flag is seen in an area after Kurdish troops known as peshmerga regained control of some villages west of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of Baghdad, Iraq. (AP Photo) This morning, the Pentagon released the name of the first American serviceman to die in battle in the latest round of U.S. military involvement in Iraq: Master Sgt. Joshua Wheeler, age 39, killed during a raid by Kurdish and American commandos on an Islamic State prison near the town of Hawija that reportedly freed seventy hostages who were soon to be executed. Accompanying Wheeler’s name and age in the Pentagon’s release was a vague description of his unit: “Headquarters U.S. Army Special Operations Command.” That phrase is a euphemism, trotted out for the twelfth time since 2003 to describe a soldier killed in Iraq. The official biographies of the soldiers described in this way follow a pattern: They are old for combat soldiers, usually in their thirties. They are veterans of the Army’s elite special operations units, the Green Berets or, in Wheeler’s case, the 75th Ranger Regiment. And they die in known insurgent hotbeds: Qaim, Ramadi, and yesterday, Hawija. They are the fallen of the Army’s top-secret counterterrorist commando unit, Delta Force. [Special forces] [Media]
• Netanyahu says a Palestinian gave Hitler the idea for the Holocaust
  In an Oct. 20 speech to the World Zionist Congress, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the “mufti of Jerusalem,” Haj Amin al-Husseini, gave Adolf Hitler the idea to exterminate Jews during World War II. Netanyahu has come under fierce criticism from politicians and historians for the statement. (YouTube/IsraeliPM) By William Booth October 21 at 4:41 PM ? JERUSALEM — There is no Israeli orator tougher and more pugnacious than Benjamin Netanyahu, but even his allies expressed bewilderment — and shock — Wednesday after the prime minister asserted that a Palestinian religious leader gave Adolf Hitler the idea to annihilate the Jews. In a speech here Tuesday evening, Netanyahu sought to explain the surge in violence in Israel and the West Bank by reaching for historical antecedents. He said that Jews living in what was then British Palestine faced many attacks in 1920, 1921 and 1929 — all instigated by the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, who allied himself with the Nazis during World War II. Then Netanyahu dropped his bombshell. He said: “Hitler didn’t want to exterminate the Jews at the time; he wanted to expel the Jews. And Haj Amin al-Husseini went to Hitler and said, ‘If you expel them, they’ll all come here.’ ‘So what should I do with them?’ he asked. He said, ‘Burn them.’ ” Netanyahu, the son of a historian, said the mufti played “a central role in fomenting the Final Solution,” as the Nazis termed their plan to exterminate the Jews. The remarks were made in a speech to the World Zionist Congress about “the 10 big lies” told by Palestinians and their backers. As supporters of the Israeli leader wondered what he was doing, his critics said that his claims were outrageous enough to give cover to Holocaust deniers. [Netanyahu] [Bizarre] [Holocaust]
• Why Should the U.S. Accept Syrian Refugees? Because It Helped Displace Them.
  Washington is one of the most active players in Syria's civil war, but it's accepted effectively 0 percent of the conflict's refugees. By Laith Shakir, October 18, 2015. When a viral photo of 3-year-old Alan Kurdi — a Kurdish boy who drowned while fleeing the ongoing civil war in Syria — captivated international audiences this summer, it became a symbol for the international community’s failure to address the millions of Syrians displaced by the country’s civil war. This crisis did not emerge in a vacuum. For nearly five years now, the UN’s refugee agency has warned of impending disaster, calling on rich countries to increase their support for the agency’s vastly underfunded humanitarian appeals — which, as of mid-October, had raised just 43 percent of the funds necessary to supply aid to Syrian refugees. The global failure to provide for Syria’s refugees is often cast as a humanitarian one — particularly in Europe, where hundreds of thousands have arrived in recent months. And it is. But it also reflects a greater failure by the parties fueling the conflict to accept the inevitable consequences of their own intervention in the region. That’s especially true for the United States, which has accepted scarcely 1,500 of the more than 4 million Syrians who’ve fled the country, even as Washington has steadily deepened its own participation in the war. The United States is far from the biggest perpetrator of human rights abuses in Syria. That particular “distinction” goes to the Assad regime, whose forces, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, have killed more civilians than every other armed group in the country combined. Though rebel groups and the Islamic State also bear immediate responsibility for this catastrophe, 70 percent of Syrian refugees surveyed in Germany recently reported fleeing specifically because of Assad’s regime. [Refugee] [Liberal] [Agency]
• U.S. plans to capture the Islamic State’s capital already go awry
  By Liz Sly October 22 at 12:37 PM Members of a Syrian armed group hold positions in the frontline against the Islamic State group outside Ain Issa, in the countryside of Raqqa province. (Alice Martins/The Washington Post) AIN ISSA, Syria — In this abandoned desert town on the front line of the war against the Islamic State in Raqqa, local fighters are fired up by announcements in Washington that the militants’ self-proclaimed capital is to be the next focus of the war. But there is still no sign of the help the United States has delivered ostensibly for the use of the Arab groups fighting the Islamic State, nor is there any indication it will imminently arrive, calling into question whether there can be an offensive to capture Raqqa anytime soon. Fifty tons of ammunition air-dropped by the U.S. military last week and intended for Arab groups has instead been claimed by the overall command of the Kurdish People's Protection Units, or YPG, which is fighting alongside Arab units but overwhelmingly dominates their uneasy alliance, according to Kurdish and Arab commanders. [US Syria policy] [Kurd] [Turkey] [Strategic incoherence]
• What If They Gave a War and Everyone Came?
  What Could Possibly Go Wrong (October 2015 Edition) By Peter Van Buren What if the U.S. had not invaded Iraq in 2003? How would things be different in the Middle East today? Was Iraq, in the words of presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, the "worst foreign policy blunder" in American history? Let's take a big-picture tour of the Middle East and try to answer those questions. But first, a request: after each paragraph that follows, could you make sure to add the question “What could possibly go wrong?” [US Middle East policy]
• Qatar Threatens Military Intervention in Syria in Support of Al Qaeda Rebels
  By Sputnik Global Research, October 22, 2015 Sputnik news 21 October 2015 Qatar which has been a major sponsor of jihadist groups fighting in Syria for years, now is actively considering a direct military intervention in the country, according to its officials. Throughout Syria’s bloody civil war, the government of Qatar has been an active supporter of anti-government militants, providing arms and financial backing to so called “rebels.” Many of these, like the al-Nusra Front, were directly linked to al-Qaeda. That strategy has, of course, done little to put a dent in terrorist organizations in the region. But as Russia enters its fourth week of anti-terror airstrikes, Qatar has indicated that it may launch a military campaign of its own. “Anything that protects the Syrian people and Syria from partition, we will not spare any effort to carry it out with our Saudi and Turkish brothers, no matter what this is,” Qatar’s Foreign Minister Khalid al-Attiyah told CNN on Wednesday, when asked if he supported Saudi Arabia’s position of not ruling out a military option. [Qatar] [Syria] [Proxy] [Sectarianism]
• Faulty Analysis and Conclusions on Syria
  by Rick Sterling Recently CounterPunch published an article Obama’s Legacy: An Abyss Gazing Backwards by Muhammad Idrees Ahmad. It exemplifies the faulty analysis and conclusions of those advocating direct U.S. intervention in Syria, from far right wing neoconservatives to liberals and even some self-styled Marxists. Because of the dangerous consequences of these assumptions and conclusions, it is important that they be critically examined. We can use the above mentioned article as an example. The same article with different title was published one week earlier in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) paper “The National”. The title was “Obama’s legacy is tarnished as Putin fills the vacuum in Syria”. The Syrian “vacuum” is a popular myth promoted by those who want the U.S. to become more aggressive in Syria. In reality the U.S. has very actively aided and abetted the violent opposition in Syria from the start. The Defense Information Agency report from August 2012 confirms that weapons were flowing to the Syrian armed opposition after the overthrow of the Libyan government in Fall 2011. The claim that the U.S. was only supplying communications equipment and other non-lethal supplies in 2012 and 2013 was for public consumption and ‘plausible deniability’. In reality the U.S. was supplying great quantities of weapons. The ‘dark side’ included a huge budget for CIA operations including training and arming the Syrian armed opposition. Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar and UAE were spending billions annually in support of mercenaries and fanatics trying to overthrow the secular Damascus government. Contrary to what Ahmad says, the US-backed rebels were largely a fiction. Apart from the Islamic State in the Levant (ISIL or ISIS), the most effective fighting force was the official Al Qaeda franchise, Jabhat al Nusra. Out of the public view, to the extent it existed, FSA was working closely with Nusra/Al Qaeda. In a confusing use of terms, Ahmad contrasts “counter-terrorism” with “counter-insurgency”. What he means by “counter-insurgency” is regime change via direct intervention or invasion. What he means by “counter-terrorism” is regime change via coup or proxy army. Pakistan-born Muhammad Idrees Ahmad suggests that Obama is spineless because he has opted for “counter-terrorism” (proxy armies, drone strikes, etc) instead of “counter-insurgency” (direct U.S. Attacks). This is short-sighted and ahistorical. There is no public desire for another US invasion of another country. This is partly because the Iraq invasion and disaster is still fresh in the public mind. It also follows a pattern from the past: after the defeat of the US invasion of Vietnam, the US reverted to using a proxy army (the Contras) against Nicaragua in the early 1980s. But warmongers in the media, such as Ahmad, are not the public. More often than not, they reflect the views of their sponsors. It’s no surprise that Ahmad’s article was first published by UAE’s “The National”. [US Syria policy] [MISCOM]
• Syrian Arab militias dispute they received U.S. airdrop of ammunition
  Highlights U.S. officials have said the Oct. 11 airdrop was destined for Syrian Arab fighters Two top Arab commanders say they didn’t receive any – and don’t know who did Question of whether Arabs or Kurds were recipients is key to Turkey By Roy Gutman TEL ALO, Syria — More than a week after the Pentagon announced that it had dropped 50 tons of ammunition to Syrian Arabs to support a new offensive against Islamic State extremists, it’s uncertain who exactly it reached. Leaders of two principal Arab militias said they hadn’t received any arms aid and doubted that any Arab forces had. “We didn’t get anything,” Sheikh Humaydi Daham al Hadi, the head of the Shammar tribe, told McClatchy in an interview at his palatial compound in Syria’s Hasaka province. “Maybe our partners, the Kurds did,” a reference to the People’s Protection Units, the YPG militia, which, with the help of U.S. air power, now dominates much of northeastern Syria. Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/middle-east/article40532349.html#storylink=cpy [US Syria policy] [Kurds]
• At a cost of $500 million each month, Turkey staggers under growing refugee burden
  On July 9, during an address to foreign ambassadors in Ankara, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey had spent more than $6 billion to take in 2 million refugees, including 1.7 million Syrians and 300,000 Iraqis. Summary? Print Turkey’s spending on refugees has soared by an astonishing $1.5 billion in three months, and that figure doesn't include many other related costs. Author Mehmet Cetingulec Posted October 20, 2015 TranslatorSibel Utku Bila On Oct. 5, at a business gathering in Belgium, he noted Turkey’s spending for refugees has exceeded $7.5 billion. How did the refugee bill swell by $1.5 billion in three months? To better grasp this staggering increase in such a short time, it’s worth recalling that the $6 billion was spent over four years. Are the figures inaccurate, or has the number of refugees shot up beyond what is publicly known? There is nothing wrong with the financial figures. The main factor behind the skyrocketing sum is the abrupt increase in the number of refugees. In July, Erdogan had put the number of Syrian refugees at 1.7 million, while in his Brussels speech in early October he spoke of 2.2 million Syrians. This means another half-million Syrians have crossed into Turkey in the past three months. Metin Corabatir, head of the Ankara-based Research Center on Asylum and Migration, said the initial cost of newcomers is quite high. “They are being accommodated, undergoing medical checkups, etc. There are too many expense items. Even those arrested [while attempting to cross] the Aegean create expenses,” he told Al-Monitor. [Turkey] [Refugee] [Unintended consequences]
• Vietnamization 2.0
  Andrew Bacevich and Nick Turse 21 October 2015 The US history of military intervention is shocking. It should be learnt from, rather than continued. The head of the statue of Saddam Hussein, donated by the US military to Kuwait. Stefan Krasowski/Flickr. Some rights reserved. After the United States toppled Saddam Hussein's government in April 2003, L. Paul Bremer III, the top American civilian official in occupied Iraq, took a bold step. He dissolved Iraq’s military, deciding to replace Saddam’s 350,000-man army with a lightly-armed border protection force that would start with 12,000 troops and eventually peak at around 40,000 soldiers, supplemented by various police and civil defense forces. Bremer’s best-laid plans imploded as an insurgency blossomed from the roiling mass of well-trained Iraqi military veterans he had ushered to the unemployment line and a civil war soon wracked the country. A bloodbath ensued and never ended, even as the US surged in more troops and pumped in tens of billions of dollars to build what eventually became the 930,000-man strong Iraqi security forces. (That’s not much smaller than the South Vietnamese Army the US built up in the late 1960s!) Along the way, there was plenty of progress. “Every single day, the Iraqi security forces are getting bigger and better and better trained and better equipped and more experienced,” said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in 2005. “You know, the one thing – the one thing we have seen is that Iraq has developed a very good capability to be able to defend itself,” said Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta six years later. “And I think that's a reflection of the fact that the Iraqis have developed a very important capability here to be able to respond to security threats within their own country.” And yet by 2014, the Iraqi military had (and was paying) more ghost soldiers – troops who existed only on paper – than the number of real soldiers Bremer had envisioned to secure the whole country back in 2003. As it happened, Iraq was anything but secure. Today, it’s a half-failed state, riven by sectarian strife, and has lost a significant portion of its territory to an extremist group incubated in US prison camps. The country is now far worse off than the one the US invaded in 2003. The US military is great at a lot of things, just not things like winning wars or effectively training foreign forces. TomDispatch regular Andrew Bacevich takes on the how-and-why of this latter failure, tracing the sorry history of US nation/army-building from the battlefields of Vietnam – which he knew intimately – to the festering wars of today. Buckle up for a long, strange trip. Nick Turse [Iraq] [Pacification]
• OPEC Is About to Crush the U.S. Oil Boom
  by Grant Smith October 21, 2015 — 1:01 AM CEST After a year suffering the economic consequences of the oil price slump, OPEC is finally on the cusp of choking off growth in U.S. crude output. The nation’s production is almost back down to the level pumped in November 2014, when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries switched its strategy to focus on battering competitors and reclaiming market share. As the U.S. wilts, demand for OPEC’s crude will grow in 2015, ending two years of retreat, the International Energy Agency estimates. While cratering prices and historic cutbacks in drilling have taken their toll on the U.S., OPEC members have also paid a heavy price. A year of plunging government revenues, growing budget deficits and slumping currencies has left several members grappling with severe economic problems. The fact that the U.S. oil boom kept going for about six months after the group’s November decision also means OPEC has so far succeeded only in bringing the market back to where it started. [Oil] [OPEC]
• Turkish Whistleblowers Corroborate Seymour Hersh Report of False Flag Sarin Gas Attack in Syria
  Wednesday, October 21, 2015 This is quite the bombshell delivered by two CHP deputies in the Turkish parliament and reported by Today's Zaman, one of the top dailies in Turkey. It supports Seymour Hersh's reporting that the notorious sarin gas attack at Ghouta was a false flag orchestrated by Turkish intelligence in order to cross President Obama's chemical weapons "red line" and draw the United States into the Syria war to topple Assad. If so, President Obama deserves credit for "holding the line" against the attack despite the grumbling and incitement of the Syria hawks at home and abroad. And it also presents the unsavory picture of an al-Qaeda operative colluding with ISIL in a war crime that killed 1300 civilians. I find the report credible, taking into full account the fact that the CHP (the rival left-center Kemalist party) and Today's Zaman (whose editor-in-chief, Bulent Kenes was recently detained on live TV for insulting Erdogan in a tweet) are on the outs with Erdogan. Considering the furious reaction it can be expected to elicit from Erdogan and the Turkish government, the temerity of CHP and Today's Zaman in running with this story is a sign of how desperate their struggle against Erdogan has become. Note that the author is shown only as "Columnist: Today's Zaman". [False flag] [Syria] [Turkey] [cbw]
• CHP deputies: Gov’t rejects probe into Turkey’s role in Syrian chemical attack
  October 21, 2015, Wednesday/ 18:39:29/ TODAY'S ZAMAN / ISTANBUL Two deputies from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) have claimed that the government is against investigating Turkey's role in sending toxic sarin gas which was used in an attack on civilians in Syria in 2013 and in which over 1,300 Syrians were killed. CHP deputies Eren Erdem and Ali Seker held a press conference in Istanbul on Wednesday in which they claimed the investigation into allegations regarding Turkey's involvement in the procurement of sarin gas which was used in the chemical attack on a civil population and delivered to the terrorist Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) to enable the attack was derailed. Taking the floor first, Erdem stated that the Adana Chief Prosecutor's Office launched an investigation into allegations that sarin was sent to Syria from Turkey via several businessmen. An indictment followed regarding the accusations targeting the government. [Turkey] [False flag] [Syria] [cbw]
• The Predators Behind the TPP
  Karel van Wolferen • October 19, 2015 A major cause of contemporary political ills in the world is the misnomers that help hide what the strong and rich aspire to and already control. A perfect example of this is the ubiquitous term ‘trade’ in what the media are telling us these days about the TPP and the TTIP – the transpacific and transatlantic treaties that seek to organize business activity under one monumental umbrella of new rules. These have been peddled as trade treaties, and hence as being great for growth and jobs, happiness and social well-being. But neither the TPP, tying the United States, a bit of Latin America and a series of East Asian countries together, nor its TTIP companion that is meant to shape American-European business relations, is primarily about trade, if stimulating genuine trade comes into it at all. It is primarily about power. Two kinds of it. One is aimed at creating global disadvantages for China’s industrial power and putting brakes on what the two formerly communist giants on the Eurasian continent are developing together. The other is power of a collectivity of large politically well-connected corporations to engage in conduct unchecked by national rules, which seen by eyes unaffected by neoliberal dogma would be recognized as predation. [TPP]
• Bernie Sanders has morphed into a serious contender
  Bob Rigg
  19 October 2015 Democratic socialism does not resonate positively in an America still overshadowed by decades of anti-communism, but Sanders is tapping into deeply-rooted popular frustration with inauthentic politicians. The first Democratic Party presidential debate on CNN on Wednesday 14 October broke the Republican Party’s monopoly, not simply on presidential campaigning, but on discussion related to the 2016 elections for half of all seats in Congress. The Republican goals are clearly to win the Presidency, and also to strengthen their majority in both houses of Congress. In the event that the Democrats should once again secure the presidency, the Republicans at the very least want to be better placed to override a presidential veto. Has anyone noticed the Grand Old Party (GOP) is no more? Undercut by a coterie of prodigiously wealthy mega-billionaires with hard-right agendas, and deconstructed by Fox News, the Grand Old Party has been quietly laid to rest. It has been transformed into a vehicle for fantasies nurtured in a political hothouse made in the USA. The Republican Party which has superseded the GOP embodies all the myopia and dementia of a culture remarkably out of touch with the world which it has dominated and largely controlled since World War II. It is now desperately trying to compensate for its declining power and influence worldwide by becoming a fortress dedicated to battling forces of change inside and outside of its territory. We must make America great again, in the words of Donald Trump. [Sanders] [US_election16]
• U.S. delivers 50 tons of ammunition to Syria rebel groups
  By Barbara Starr, CNN Pentagon Correspondent Updated 2331 GMT (0631 HKT) October 12, 2015 | Video Source: CNN (CNN)—U.S. military cargo planes gave 50 tons of ammunition to rebel groups overnight in northern Syria, using an air drop of 112 pallets as the first step in the Obama Administration's urgent effort to find new ways to support those groups. Details of the air mission over Syria were confirmed by a U.S. official not authorized to speak publicly because the details have not yet been formally announced. C-17s, accompanied by fighter escort aircraft, dropped small arms ammunition and other items like hand grenades in Hasakah province in northern Syria to a coalition of rebels groups vetted by the US, known as the Syrian Arab Coalition. All pallets successfully were recovered by friendly forces, a U.S. official said. [Outsourcing] [US Syria policy] [Jihadist]
• Comprehensive Military Power: World's Top 10 Militaries of 2015
  Anatoly Karlin • October 18, 2015 Luke 14:31-32 31 “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace.* It is in some ways remarkable that there is still no commonly agreed method on quantifying and ranking national military power. There is one such for economics, for instance. It is called the GDP. You can make somewhat different arguments on relative economic size or living standards based on various ways of measuring GDP – e.g., the eternal debates over whether nominal or PPP is best – but it does make these discussions factually “grounded” in a way that military discussions (at least as they are carried out in the popular press and comments sections) are not. This may even extend to some extent to the US military itself. For instance, here is a short quote from an article by Adrian Bonenberger, who spent 7 years as an infantry officer in the US Army: This is the greatest risk we face for World War III. Not that Russia defeats Ukraine and moves toward Poland and Estonia, but that Ukraine wipes out the Russians currently in Ukraine, and Putin is forced to take some drastic action to prevent further losses. After all, why should Ukraine not feel entitled to take some of Russia’s territory in return for their lost Crimea? And who will be there to stop them, save demoralized and confused Russian conscripts? The chances of that happening in the foreseeable future are precisely zero, so awesome is the current size of the military gap between Russia and Ukraine (it approximately doubled from a factor of 4.5 in 1992 at the time of the Soviet collapse, to a peak of 9 by 2013). Even cursory examinations of force structure would confirm it; just the Russian Southern Military District by itself is considerably more powerful than the entire Ukrainian military. Tall tales of Donetsk airport “cyborgs” mowing down thousands of elite Pskov paratroopers to the contrary, on the one occasion in the Donbass War that the Ukrainian military engaged directly with the Russian military resulted in a resounding defeat for the Ukraiians at Ilovaysk – and that despite the Russian military having to maintain plausible deniability and thus forego the use of its fancier toys. [Military balance]
• ‘Assad must go’: These 3 little words are huge obstacle for Obama on Syria
  By Steven Mufson October 19 at 11:30 AM ? Assad must go. Three short words — one protracted policy debate. Back in the summer of 2011, those words, or their equivalent, became known among makers of U.S. Middle East policy as “the magic words” — words that President Obama, cautious about the consequences, had not yet decided to utter about Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. For five months there was mounting domestic political pressure on Obama to do so, as the Arab Spring protests demanding greater freedom and an end to corruption spread, triggering a harsh crackdown. Finally, on Aug. 18, then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said, “The transition to democracy in Syria has begun and it’s time for Assad to get out of the way.” Obama simply issued a statement: “For the sake of the Syrian people,” he said, “the time has come for President Assad to step aside.” The route Obama took to that declaration says a lot about where he is today. The president’s insistence that Assad must go has been his only true red line in the Syrian conflict. The red line he drew, and then withdrew, about repercussions of Syria’s use of chemical weapons didn’t happen for more than a year. But Obama’s determination to topple Assad remains one of the main points of friction between the United States and Russia in Syria. [US Syria policy]
• Donald Trump Is Much Derided – But He Is Right About the Middle East
  The candidate is demonised as an exotic celebrity but he knows more about Iraq and Syria than his critics Patrick Cockburn • October 17, 2015 • 1,200 Words • 8 Comments • Reply In 1989 I met Donald Trump several times in Palm Beach in Florida where he was trying to stop jets from a newly expanded Palm Beach International Airport from roaring over his enormous mansion. This was Mar-a-Lago, a magnificent house with 58 bedrooms and 33 bathrooms which Trump had bought four years earlier without realising it was under the flight path. I learned about Trump’s problem because I knew a Canadian paper and pulp magnate who had bought a house near Mar-a-Lago and was also suffering from the airport noise. He was bitter that the people who had arranged for him to visit his new home prior to purchase had carefully chosen a brief moment when there were no planes passing overhead. The two multi-millionaires had set up an organisation that aimed to unite the less well-off people living in West Palm Beach and the plutocrats of Palm Beach, who were not natural allies, in order to get something done about the planes. There was plenty to complain of because, after an airport expansion the year before, there were 200 planes taking off every day. I had mentioned what was happening in Palm Beach to a friend on a magazine in New York who promptly asked me to write a piece about it. I suspect that the idea was that I would produce a knock-about account of the farcical failure of Trump’s self-serving efforts to unite mansion owners, who lived there irregularly, and the less well-heeled but permanent population. In the event, the article was never published, possibly because I wrote that Trump’s campaign to reduce the noise level, involving a curfew on night-time flying, a ban on the noisier aircraft and the enforcement of existing airport noise restrictions, seemed perfectly sensible. [US Middle East Policy] [Trump] [Media] [Self delusion]
• How the Iran deal might change the Middle East
  What the calculations are behind the nuclear pact and where it could lead. By Andrew J. Bacevich, Contributor October 18, 2015 • Andrew J. Bacevich is professor emeritus of history and international relations at Boston University. His new book, 'America's War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History,' will appear next year. Boston — The nuclear deal hat the United States and five other world powers signed with Iran is a means to an end, not the end in itself. In that regard, the pact, scheduled for formal adoption on Oct. 19, necessarily rates as a high-risk proposition. If the agreement succeeds, it may mark a first step toward restoring some semblance of stability to the Greater Middle East, thereby allowing the US to lower its profile there. If it fails, the current disorder may in retrospect seem tame. [Iran deal] [US Middle East policy]
• Are We Really at War Against Islamic Extremism?
  by Thomas S. Harrington October 16, 2015 Imagine going to your doctor and being told that, based on an initial examination, you may very well have a serious and fast-moving form of cancer, and then being a handed a referral to see a heart specialist first thing the next morning. I think you’d agree that a doctor acting in this way is either deeply incompetent or flat out crazy. Either that, or she has bigger plans on her mind than actually curing you, like say, pumping up the profits at a cardiology practice where she is a silent partner. I am reminded of this fictional doctor when I consider the actions undertaken in the Middle East by the US and its allies over the last 14 years. We are told again and again, in both explicit and implicit ways, that we are locked in an existential struggle with Islamic extremists in that region and the rest of the world. Assuming that this is, in fact, the case, a number of strategic emphases in that battle are—or at least should be—axiomatic. The first would be a clear priority on attacking those places in the Islamic world where Islamic fundamentalism is most powerful and well financed. The second would be to actively prop up those governments where the cultures of secularism, and from there, inter-group tolerance, are most highly developed. So, which country in the Islamic world is the place where aggressive and repressive fundamentalism is most well-financed and well-institutionalized? The answer is absolutely crystal clear: Saudi Arabia. No other country even comes close. [US Middle East policy] [Spin]
• Why Today’s GOP Crackup Is the Final Unraveling of Nixon’s ‘Southern Strategy’
  Tea Party rebels are exposing the deep rifts between country-club elites and social-issue hard-liners. By William Greider October 12, 2015 Fresh chatter among Washington insiders is not about whether the Republican Party will win in 2016 but whether it will survive. Donald Trump—the fear that he might actually become the GOP nominee—is the ultimate nightmare. Some gleeful Democrats are rooting (sotto voce) for the Donald, though many expect he will self-destruct. Nevertheless, Republicans face a larger problem. The GOP finds itself trapped in a marriage that has not only gone bad but is coming apart in full public view. After five decades of shrewd strategy, the Republican coalition Richard Nixon put together in 1968—welcoming the segregationist white South into the Party of Lincoln—is now devouring itself in ugly, spiteful recriminations. The abrupt resignation of House Speaker John Boehner was his capitulation to this new reality. His downfall was loudly cheered by many of his own troops—the angry right-wingers in the House who have turned upon the party establishment. Chaos followed. The discontented accuse party leaders of weakness and betraying their promises to the loyal rank and file. At the heart of this intramural conflict is the fact that society has changed dramatically in recent decades, but the GOP has refused to change with it. Americans are rapidly shifting toward more tolerant understandings of personal behavior and social values, but the Republican Party sticks with retrograde social taboos and hard-edged prejudices about race, gender, sexual freedom, immigration, and religion. Plus, it wants to do away with big government (or so it claims). [Republicans]
• Is it time for a surge in Syria?
  WASHINGTON — A gathering of 50 current and former US officials plus regional and security experts concluded Oct. 14 that the United States should intensify both its diplomatic and military involvement in Syria to degrade and ultimately defeat the group that calls itself the Islamic State (IS). A group of current and former US officials concludes that current US policy toward the Islamic State is not working, and that more needs to be done in both the diplomatic and military spheres to end the Syrian civil war. Author Barbara Slavin Posted October 15, 2015 The third and final phase of a war game, organized by the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security at the Atlantic Council, examined three scenarios for dealing with IS: stay the course, diplomatic surge and heavy military intervention. The consensus was that the United States should adopt a hybrid of the last two options, including an effort to revive the stalled Geneva process, this time with Iranian participation. There was also talk of creating a haven for displaced Syrians near the Turkish border, although some participants worried that this would be complicated by Russia’s recent military escalation and Turkey’s anxiety about steps that could strengthen Syrian Kurds. “We need big-ticket items,” Bilal Saab, a senior fellow at the Scowcroft Center, said Oct. 15 at a public event that disclosed some of the findings of the game. In response to a question from Al-Monitor, Saab said he would brief the results to the Barack Obama administration and others. Seven currently serving US officials were among those who participated in the exercise. Their identities could not be revealed under the ground rules of the game. [US Syria policy]
• Nearly 90 Percent Of People Killed In Recent Drone Strikes Were Not The Target
  U.S. drone strikes have killed scores of civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. Marina Fang Associate Politics Editor, The Huffington Post Posted: 10/15/2015 11:52 AM EDT | Edited: 10/15/2015 05:52 PM EDT The controversial U.S. drone strike program in the Middle East aims to pinpoint and kill terrorist leaders, but new documents indicate that a staggering number of these "targeted killings" affect far more people than just their targets. According to a new report from The Intercept, nearly 90 percent of people killed in recent drone strikes in Afghanistan "were not the intended targets" of the attacks. Documents detailing a special operations campaign in northeastern Afghanistan, Operation Haymaker, show that between January 2012 and February 2013, U.S. special operations airstrikes killed more than 200 people. Of those, only 35 were the intended targets. During one five-month period of the operation, according to the documents, nearly 90 percent of the people killed in airstrikes were not the intended targets. In Yemen and Somalia, where the U.S. has far more limited intelligence capabilities to confirm the people killed are the intended targets, the equivalent ratios may well be much worse. The report, compiled from classified documents released by a source in the intelligence community, corroborates the many news accounts of civilian deaths caused by drone strikes. U.S. drone strikes have killed scores of civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia since 2009. In December 2013, a drone strike in Yemen killed 14 people returning from a wedding. Government officials mistook their vehicles for those of al Qaeda militants. Parents in Pakistan have reported taking their children out of school to protect them from possible strikes. The U.S. government has implemented targeted killings since the Sept. 11 attacks as a counterterrorism measure and as retribution against al Qaeda and the Taliban. Under the Obama administration, many of these targeted killings have been carried out using unmanned drones. Despite the high number of civilian casualties and criticism that the program lacks transparency, President Barack Obama has repeatedly defended the strikes. [UAV] [Civilian] [Moral confusion] [Assassination]
• The Assassination Complex: Secret military documents expose the inner workings of Obama’s drone wars
  The Drone Papers 01. The Assassination Complex 02. A Visual Glossary 03. The Kill Chain 04. Find, Fix, Finish 05. Manhunting in the Hindu Kush 06. Firing Blind 07. The Life and Death of Objective Peckham 08. Target Africa Article 1 of 8 The Drone Papers Jeremy Scahill Oct. 15 2015, 1:57 p.m. From his first days as commander in chief, the drone has been President Barack Obama’s weapon of choice, used by the military and the CIA to hunt down and kill the people his administration has deemed — through secretive processes, without indictment or trial — worthy of execution. There has been intense focus on the technology of remote killing, but that often serves as a surrogate for what should be a broader examination of the state’s power over life and death. [UAV] [Assassination]
• How the White House Got Silicon Valley to Take On the Refugee Crisis
  After the president's request, Silicon Valley code writers went to work at record pace. by Phil Mattingly Sarah Svoboda October 16, 2015 — 11:00 AM CEST Even Jason Goldman, a former senior technology executive at companies including Twitter, Medium, and Google, was surprised by how quickly some of his former Silicon Valley colleagues were able to answer the call. Goldman, now sitting in Washington as the first-ever White House chief digital officer, and his colleague Joshua Miller, a former Facebook employee overseeing the Obama administration's digital products, had gone to work lining up allies for a push to aid the waves of Syrian refugees flooding out of the country a little over a week prior. Now they were staring at donation platforms, crafted from scratch, that were ready to roll out. “That's a pretty fast turnaround time to actually build and ship code out into the wild,” Goldman says. [Refugee] [Privatisation] [Agency] [US Syria]
• The Kissinger Diaries: What He Really Thought About Vietnam
  By Niall Ferguson | October 10, 2015 . It has long been assumed that Henry Kissinger “supported” the Vietnam War throughout the 1960s—and that this was one of the reasons Richard Nixon offered him the job of national security adviser. This view is incorrect. As his private papers and diaries make clear, Kissinger realized by 1966 at the latest that the U.S. intervention in defense of South Vietnam was a doomed enterprise and that only a diplomatic solution would end the conflict. From a very early stage, Kissinger understood the nature of the problem the United States faced. “All history proves that there is no cheap and easy way to defeat guerrilla movements,” he wrote in February 1962. “South Vietnam has been plagued by Communist Viet Cong attacks ever since it became independent in 1954. Their defeat can only be accomplished by adequate military force. ... However, merely physical security will not solve the problem. The people of South Vietnam must develop a long-term commitment to their government if they wish to attain political and economic stability.” . . But how could that happen if the United States undermined the legitimacy of the South Vietnamese government, as happened in 1963, when the Kennedy administration approved a bloody coup against the government of Ngo Dinh Diem? When the news broke of Diem’s murder, Kissinger denounced U.S. policy as “shameful.” “Conditions in Vietnam will, in my judgment, get worse,” he warned. In October 1965 Kissinger flew to Saigon at the invitation of the U.S. ambassador to South Vietnam, Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. An expert on European history and nuclear strategy, Kissinger had never previously been to Vietnam. He knew little if anything about the country’s history and not a word of its language. But he already knew one thing: This was a war that could not be won by military means. [Kissinger] [Vietnam] [Coup] [Client]
• Why the US Is Eternally Caught Off Guard in the Middle East
  The national security state and the military seem to have created an un-intelligence system. By Tom Engelhardt / TomDispatch October 15, 2015 To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.com here. 1,500. That figure stunned me. I found it in the 12th paragraph of a front-page New York Times story about “senior commanders” at U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) playing fast and loose with intelligence reports to give their air war against ISIS an unjustified sheen of success: “CENTCOM’s mammoth intelligence operation, with some 1,500 civilian, military, and contract analysts, is housed at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, in a bay front building that has the look of a sterile government facility posing as a Spanish hacienda.” Think about that. CENTCOM, one of six U.S. military commands that divide the planet up like a pie, has at least 1,500 intelligence analysts (military, civilian, and private contractors) all to itself. Let me repeat that: 1,500 of them. CENTCOM is essentially the country’s war command, responsible for most of the Greater Middle East, that expanse of now-chaotic territory filled with strife-torn and failing states that runs from Pakistan’s border to Egypt. That’s no small task and about it there is much to be known. Still, that figure should act like a flash of lightning, illuminating for a second an otherwise dark and stormy landscape. [US military] [Intelligence]
• Statement by the President on Afghanistan
  Roosevelt Room 11:04 A.M. EDT THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Last December -- more than 13 years after our nation was attacked by al Qaeda on 9/11 -- America’s combat mission in Afghanistan came to a responsible end. That milestone was achieved thanks to the courage and the skill of our military, our intelligence, and civilian personnel. They served there with extraordinary skill and valor, and it’s worth remembering especially the more than 2,200 American patriots who made the ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan. I visited our troops in Afghanistan last year to thank them on behalf of a grateful nation. I told them they could take great pride in the progress that they helped achieve. They struck devastating blows against the al Qaeda leadership in the tribal regions, delivered justice to Osama bin Laden, prevented terrorist attacks, and saved American lives. They pushed the Taliban back so the Afghan people could reclaim their communities, send their daughters to school, and improve their lives. Our troops trained Afghan forces so they could take the lead for their own security and protect Afghans as they voted in historic elections, leading to the first democratic transfer of power in their country’s history. Today, American forces no longer patrol Afghan villages or valleys. Our troops are not engaged in major ground combat against the Taliban. Those missions now belong to Afghans, who are fully responsible for securing their country. [Afghanistan] [US Middle East policy]
• Obama outlines plan to keep 5,500 troops in Afghanistan
  President Obama will keep 9,800 troops in Afghanistan through most of 2016 President Obama says the U.S. will maintain 9,800 troops in Afghanistan through most of 2016 and will not go down to a normal embassy presence by the end of 2016. (AP) By Greg Jaffe and Missy Ryan October 15 at 5:24 PM ? President Obama said Thursday that he will keep 5,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan into 2017, ending his ambitions to bring home most American forces from that war-torn country before he leaves office. The president’s decision came after an extensive months-long review that included regular discussions with Afghanistan’s leaders, his national security team and U.S. commanders in the field. The move reflected a painful, if predictable, reality on the ground in Afghanistan, where the Taliban has seized new territory over the past year as Afghan troops have taken over the vast majority of the fighting. “Afghan forces are still not as strong as they need to be,” Obama said Thursday morning from the White House, explaining his decision. “.?.?. Meanwhile, the Taliban has made gains, particularly in rural areas, and can still launch deadly attacks in cities, including Kabul.” [The Islamic State is making these Afghans long for the Taliban] Obama said he will also dramatically slow the pace of the reduction of American forces and plans to maintain the current U.S. force of 9,800 through “most of 2016.” The post-2016 force will still be focused on training and advising the Afghan army, with a special emphasis on its elite counter­terrorism forces. The United States will also maintain a significant counterterrorism capability of drones and Special Operations forces to strike al-Qaeda and other militants who may be plotting attacks against the United States. [US Middle East policy] [Afghanistan]
• When Peace Activists Met With the U.S. Institute of Peace
  By David Swanson I was part of a debate on Tuesday that involved a larger disagreement than any exhibited at the Democratic presidential candidates debate that evening. A group of peace activists met with the president, a board member, some vice presidents, and a senior fellow of the so-called U.S. Institute of Peace, a U.S. government institution that spends tens of millions of public dollars every year on things tangentially related to peace (including promoting wars) but has yet to oppose a single U.S. war in its 30-year history. Without CNN’s Anderson Cooper there to steer us away from the issues into name calling and triviality, we dove right into the substance. The gap between the culture of peace activists and that of the U.S. Institute of “Peace” (USIP) is immense. We had created and took the occasion to deliver a petition which you should sign if you haven’t, urging USIP to remove from its board prominent war mongers and members of the boards of weapons companies. The petition also recommends numerous ideas for useful projects USIP could work on. I blogged about this earlier here and here. We showed up Tuesday at USIP’s fancy new building next to the Lincoln Memorial. Carved in the marble are the names of USIP’s sponsors, from Lockheed Martin on down through many of the major weapons and oil corporations. [Peace] [Pacification] [Orwell] [USIP]
• A Brief History of U.S. Gun Worship
  by Gary Leupp Practically every nation on the planet has been established through violence. The state itself, as Friedrich Engels explained, emerged as a result of primordial class division. The ruling classes have throughout history maintained their control over their subjects (beginning with the exaction of taxes from them) through the use of armed men at their disposal: their military and police. Those running the state use the threat if not the constant use of violence to maintain “law and order” on their terms. Witness the north American inner city, where the police are perceived as a kind of armed occupation force. The country of France as we know it emerged from the conquest of the Gauls by the Franks in the 5th and 6th centuries. England was produced out of the Anglo-Saxon conquests of the Britons at the same time. There is nothing historically unusual about some peoples experiencing invasion, conquest, and displacement, even annihilation in the process of state formation. The rise of European colonialism after Columbus merely made foreign conquest more universal. [Guns] [Japan] [Tokugawa]
• Bernie Sanders' night: Authenticity wins the Democratic debate
  Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Hillary Clinton take part in a presidential debate sponsored by CNN and Facebook at Wynn Las Vegas on Oct. 13, 2015. (Joe Raedle, Getty Images) Editorial Board Hillary Clinton looked prepared. Bernie Sanders, though, looked genuine. Democrats have a surprisingly competitive race for their presidential nomination, and if you watched their announced candidates debate Tuesday night, you saw why. Not because the candidates, like their Republican counterparts, spent much time and effort attacking one another; they didn't. And not because Hillary Rodham Clinton suffered grievous wounds or damaged her standing; she didn't. No, what came closest to electrifying the night was a Vermont senator, a self-described democratic socialist who honeymooned in the Soviet Union, and who probably can't get elected president. Bernie Sanders demonstrated time and again Tuesday night why he's the force vector in this race. If you watched, you now know why he attracts the huge crowds, the money, the energy of rank-and-file Democrats — a party to which he doesn't even belong. You also know why he gives Clinton conniptions. While she behaved like the front-runner — confident, competent, comfortable — Sanders was connecting with the audience. He even managed to profit from a Clinton problem while tacitly excusing her from it: "The American people," he said, "are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails!" Sanders wanted to talk about issues that trouble Americans. Clinton surely believes she had a good night. But her answer to the first question — essentially, given her flip-flops, would she say anything to get elected? — betrayed her agenda: the cautious politics of addition. She first pivoted to an earnest non sequitur; she would, she said, heal an America riven by economic inequality, racial divides, gender inequities. Pressed on whether she would commit to being a progressive or a moderate, she straddled: "I'm a progressive, but I'm a progressive who likes to get things done." Sanders, though, had a better night. Much as Republican debates showcased Donald Trump, this debate showcased Sanders' authenticity. The notion of anyone asking if he would change positions to win votes is preposterous. [US_Election16] [Sanders] [Hillary Clinton]
• Iranian MPs arrive in Damascus before joint offensive
  DUBAI A delegation of Iranian lawmakers arrived in Damascus on Wednesday in the build-up to a joint operation against insurgents in northwest Syria, and said U.S.-led efforts to fight rebels had failed. The visit, led by the chairman of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, came as Iranian troops prepared to bolster a Syrian army offensive that two senior officials told Reuters would target rebels in Aleppo. The attack, which the officials said would be backed by Russian air strikes, underlined the growing involvement in the civil war of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's two main allies, which has alarmed a U.S.-led coalition opposed to the president that is bombing Islamic State militants. "The international coalition led by America has failed in the fight against terrorism. The cooperation between Syria, Iraq, Iran and Russia has been positive and successful," Boroujerdi was quoted as saying by Iran's state broadcaster IRIB as he arrived at Damascus airport. The delegation was due to meet Assad, said officials. Iran has sent thousands of troops into Syria in recent days to bolster the planned ground offensive in Aleppo, the two officials told Reuters. [Syria] [Iran] [Russia Syria]
• The security outlook in the Asia Pacific: uncertain
  By Ron Huisken Ron Huisken (Ron.Huisken@anu.edu.au) is an adjunct associate professor, Strategic & Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University. This is an extract from the introduction to Regional Security Outlook 2016, prepared for the Council on Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific and edited by the author. The complete Outlook can be viewed or downloaded at www.cscap.org The Asia Pacific continued over the past year to squander its most precious asset: the confident expectation that the region could preserve order and stability while managing a strategic transformation of historic proportions. The states of the region are still spending a lot of time in dialogue but along critical channels the degree of engagement, communication, and understanding appears to have encountered sharply diminishing returns. This trend in attitudes is not confined to the media but extends to political circles in most states of the region. For the first time in 10 years, the 2015 risk assessment prepared for the World Economic Forum listed „interstate war? as the most likely of the risks that could have a significant negative impact on the global economic outlook. Further, some of the world?s most respected academics are expressing concern, most recently Graham Allison, director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard. Writing in The Atlantic (September 2015) Allison suggested that war between the US and China is “more likely than is recognized at the moment.” The sense one has is not of imminent war but of a wearing down of the margin of safety, the room for error and the capacity to absorb shocks that we could regret in the future. The United States and China are at the core of this adverse trend and the US, in particular, appears to have become more resigned to the likelihood that achieving a stable co-existence with a powerful China [China Confrontation] [Allegiance]
• Top 1 Percent Own More Than Half of World’s Wealth
  By Patrick Martin Global Research, October 14, 2015 World Socialist Web Site A new report issued by the Swiss bank Credit Suisse finds that global wealth inequality continues to worsen and has reached a new milestone, with the top 1 percent owning more of the world’s assets than the bottom 99 percent combined. Of the estimated $250 trillion in global assets, the top 1 percent owned almost exactly 50 percent, while the bottom 50 percent of humanity owned collectively less than 1 percent. The richest 10 percent owned 87.7 percent of the world’s wealth, leaving 12.3 percent for the bottom 90 percent of the population. The Credit Suisse report focused not on the top 1 percent, but on a slightly smaller group, the 0.7 percent of adults with assets of more than 1 million US dollars. This figure includes both financial assets and real assets, such as homes, small businesses and other physical property. [Inequality]
• On Building Armies (and Watching Them Fail: Why Washington Can’t “Stand Up” Foreign Militaries
  By Andrew J. Bacevich October 13, 2015 First came Fallujah, then Mosul, and later Ramadi in Iraq. Now, there is Kunduz, a provincial capital in northern Afghanistan. In all four places, the same story has played out: in cities that newspaper reporters like to call “strategically important,” security forces trained and equipped by the U.S. military at great expense simply folded, abandoning their posts (and much of their U.S.-supplied weaponry) without even mounting serious resistance. Called upon to fight, they fled. In each case, the defending forces gave way before substantially outnumbered attackers, making the outcomes all the more ignominious. Together, these setbacks have rendered a verdict on the now more-or-less nameless Global War on Terrorism (GWOT). Successive blitzkriegs by ISIS and the Taliban respectively did more than simply breach Iraqi and Afghan defenses. They also punched gaping holes in the strategy to which the United States had reverted in hopes of stemming the further erosion of its position in the Greater Middle East. [US Middle East Policy] [Pacification] [Client]
• US Reluctant over Possibility of Hiroshima Hosting 2016 G-7 Summit, Official Says
  KYODO – japan times OCT 11, 2015 WASHINGTON – The United States told Japan that it is reluctant about the possibility of Hiroshima hosting next year’s Group of Seven summit out of concern about reactions by Americans, a U.S. government official said Sunday. Some in Japan hope U.S. President Barack Obama, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who seeks a world free of nuclear weapons, will visit Hiroshima or Nagasaki when he visits Japan for the 2016 G-7 summit. The story revealed by a U.S. official indicated, however, that it is harder than generally thought in Japan for such a trip to take place. Hiroshima, which along with Nagasaki was destroyed by a U.S. atomic bomb near the end of World War II, was among eight candidate cities to host the annual G-7 summit, to be held on May 26-27. The U.S. side has concerns Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government is seeking to possibly pick the city as the summit host venue, according to the official, who wished to remain anonymous. The official said Washington warned it would be “perceived pretty badly” in the United States if an American president visits an atomic-bombed city under a plan dictated by Japan. [Hiroshima] [Bizarre]
• Psychologists accused of ‘criminal enterprise’ with CIA over torture
  Highlights Suit is first to rely on Senate’s $40 million investigation of the CIA’s program Two psychologists made $80 million to set up what is described as an “experimental torture program” One died and the other two were mentally traumatized after undergoing the techniques, the suit says By Marisa Taylor and Jonathan S. Landay McClatchy Washington Bureau WASHINGTON — Two former detainees and the family of a third who died in custody filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the American psychologists who designed the CIA’s torture techniques in the first legal action to rely on the Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation of the government’s interrogation program. The plaintiffs accused James Elmer Mitchell and John “Bruce” Jessen of torture, cruel and degrading punishment, war crimes and conducting an “experimental torture program” as part of a “joint criminal enterprise” with the nation’s top intelligence agency. The pair earned more than $80 million for developing a set of brutal interrogation methods, including simulated drowning known as water-boarding, beatings, starvation and confinement in “coffin-like boxes,” for supervising their use on detainees in secret overseas CIA prisons and for personally applying them to detainees, according to the suit. [Torture] [CIA]
• White House alarmed as Iraq uses intelligence center operated by Russia, Iran, Syria
  The intelligence center has been operational for about a week and already has provided intelligence for airstrikes on a gathering of middle-level Islamic State figures, Hakim al-Zamili, the head of the Iraqi parliament’s defense and security committee, told Reuters on ... more >\ By Dave Boyer and Rowan Scarborough - The Washington Times - Updated: 7:13 p.m. on Tuesday, October 13, 2015 Iraq has begun bombing Islamic State fighters with the help of a new intelligence center operated by Russia, Iran and Syria, a cooperation that is raising concerns in Washington about the threat to U.S. interests in the region. The center has been operational for about a week and already has provided intelligence for airstrikes on a gathering of middle-level Islamic State figures, Hakim al-Zamili, the head of the Iraqi parliament’s defense and security committee, told Reuters on Tuesday. The White House reacted with obvious concern to the development, just two weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the green light for a bombing campaign that has largely targeted anti-government militants in neighboring Syria, including Islamic State fighters and U.S.-backed rebel groups battling Syrian President Bashar Assad, a longtime ally of Moscow. White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the U.S.-led coalition that was launched in Iraq more than one year ago “has worked effectively with the Iraqis to make progress against ISIL inside of Iraq.” [Russia Iraq] [Decline] [ISIS] [Intelligence]
• Military official says Riyadh used chemical weapons in Yemen
  Tue Oct 13, 2015 Military officials in Yemen say Saudi Arabia has carried out a chemical attack in eastern Yemen, as Riyadh continues its military aggression against the impoverished Arab country. Yemen’s army spokesman Sharaf Luqman said on Tuesday that Saudi warplanes have bombarded areas in Ma’rib Province using chemical and biological agents. Luqman, who was speaking to Lebanon’s al-Mayadin TV, would not elaborate on further details, but said the attacks have failed to assist “terrorists” and militants loyal to the fugitive former Yemeni president, Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, to retake territory in Ma’rib and advance toward the capital, Sana’a. The provincial capital city of Ma’rib is located about 195 kilometers (121 miles) east of the capital. [cbw] [Saudi Arabia] [Canard]
• Syrian Kurds 'razing entire villages captured from IS'
  Image caption YPG fighters have captured a string of towns and villages from Islamic State militants this year Kurdish forces have carried out a wave of forced displacement and mass house demolitions - amounting to war crimes - in northern Syria, a rights group says. A report by Amnesty International accuses the Popular Protection Units (YPG) of razing entire villages after capturing them from Islamic State (IS). This appeared to be in retaliation for residents' perceived sympathies with or links to the jihadist group, it says. The YPG is a key ally of the US-led international coalition against IS. Coalition air strikes, as well as air drops of weapons and ammunition, have helped the militia to drive IS out of large parts of northern Syria this year. [Syria] [Kurds] [War crimes] [AI]
• Blasts kill scores at peace rally in Turkey in sign of worsening instability
  By Erin Cunningham October 10 at 6:17 PM ? BEIRUT — Two bomb blasts ripped through crowds at a rally of peace activists in the Turkish capital Saturday, killing scores, in a reminder of the growing conflicts Turkey faces both at home and across the border in war-torn Syria. The explosions in Ankara, which occurred just minutes and yards apart, killed 97 people and injured 246 more as they gathered to call for an end to the violence that has flared between Turkish security forces and Kurdish separatists in recent months. Turkey, a NATO member and key U.S. ally, shares borders with Syria, Iraq and Iran — all of which are embroiled in the conflict with the Islamic State. Turkish officials have confronted Russia over the latter’s violation of Turkey’s airspace in recent days, as Russian warplanes launch strikes against Syrian rebels, heightening tensions. [Media] [Diversion]
• Hundreds of thousands protest in Berlin against EU-U.S. trade deal
  BERLIN Reuters/Fabrizio Bensch At least 150,000 people marched in Berlin on Saturday in protest against a planned free trade deal between Europe and the United States that they say is anti-democratic and will lower food safety, labor and environmental standards. Organizers - an alliance of environmental groups, charities and opposition parties - said 250,000 people had taken part in the rally against free trade deals with both the United States and Canada, far more than they had anticipated. "This is the biggest protest that this country has seen for many, many years," Christoph Bautz, director of citizens' movement Campact told protesters in a speech. Police said 150,000 people had taken part in the demonstration which was trouble free. There were 1,000 police officers on duty at the march. Opposition to the so-called Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) has risen over the past year in Germany, with critics fearing the pact will hand too much power to big multinationals at the expense of consumers and workers. [TTIP] [Protest]
• Carson suggests that gun rights might have changed history for Jews in WWII
  Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson defended comments that the Holocaust would have been "greatly diminished" if the Jewish people had been armed. (Reuters) By Vanessa Williams October 8 ? Ben Carson said Thursday that Adolf Hitler’s mass murder of Jews “would have been greatly diminished” if German citizens had not been disarmed by the Nazi regime. The comment, which came during an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, was similar to arguments Carson made following last week’s mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore., in which he defended the Second Amendment and suggested that the victims should have fought the gunman. Carson, a retired neurosurgeon and a contender for the Republican presidential nomination, has generated headlines repeatedly for speaking his mind. His string of comments on hot-button issues includes stating that homosexuality is “absolutely” a choice, saying he would not support a Muslim for U.S. president and declaring last week that he would “not just stand there and let him shoot me” — a reference to the Oregon gunman. [Governance] [Bizarre] [US_Election16]
• US to Give Arms, Air Support to Islamist Militias in Syria
  By Bill Van Auken Global Research, October 11, 2015 World Socialist Web Site 10 October 2015 Washington's Arms Deal With Taiwan Threatens US-China Relations The Obama administration Friday announced an “operational pause” of the disastrously failed Pentagon program for arming and training “vetted rebels” in Turkey and sending them back across the border into Syria. Instead, Pentagon and White House officials indicated, the focus will now shift to cementing ties with leaders of existing “rebel” militias, consisting overwhelmingly of Sunni Islamist forces with connections to Al Qaeda. US backing to these groups will apparently include both arms and ammunition as well as close air support from warplanes deployed by the US and its so-called coalition. The policy shift follows the revelation last month by General Lloyd Austin, the commander of US Central Command, that only “four or five” individual US-trained fighters were then on the ground in Syria, and barely 100 more were undergoing training. This, after the allocation of $500 million for the Pentagon to train over 5,000 such fighters within the first year. Austin’s revelation was followed within weeks by the Pentagon being forced to retract its initial denial of verified reports that a group of US-trained fighters sent into Syria had immediately turned over its vehicles and weaponry to the al-Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate. [US Syria policy] [Outsourcing] [Jihadist]
• Iran’s ‘Non-Zero-Sum Game’ In Syria
  By Kaveh L. Afrasiabi Wednesday, October 7th, 2015 On Monday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon met Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and urged Iran to find a political solution for the conflict in Syria. Zarif has recently unveiled a 4-point peace plan and has been actively search for regional and extra-regional partners to form a viable coalition for peace in troubled Syria. But, the military developments on the ground appear to be moving faster than the diplomatic track, in light of Russia’s new “game-changer” air campaign that has come at a critical juncture in the bloody conflict that has seen serious setbacks for Damascus this year. Although in his UN speech, Russian President Putin called for a WWII-style anti-terrorism front, that is unlikely to happen given the depth of current US-Russia hostilities and, instead, we are likely to witness US’s continued support for the Syrian rebels, who are now targeted by Russia’s sophisticated war planes. In other words, the upper hand belongs to the possibility of proxy wars rather than collective action in Syria. Much depends, however, on the political and diplomatic events and developments as well. Presently, the inking of a Russia-Iran-Iraq intelligence-sharing agreement on ISIS, followed immediately by the Russian military intervention in Syria, has been widely interpreted in the West as an ominous development that will “alter the balance of forces in the Middle East” in favor of the anti-West alliance that includes Syria and Lebanon’s Hizbollah. Some Iraqi officials are now openly pondering asking for Russia’s extension of their air campaign to Iraq, given their criticisms of the “ineffective” and or “decorative” US air raids on terrorists, thus raising the prospect of a substantial new Russian influence in the Middle East, much to the chagrin of US policy-makers. In Syria, air campaign will not suffice, which is why there are unconfirmed reports of an imminent ground offensive by the Syrian government in northern parts of the country with much assistance by Iranian (and perhaps Russia) forces. This air and ground campaign will likely succeed in stabilizing the situation in the government-held territories and turning the tide against the rebels in the areas adjacent to Lebanon, considered as vital strategic link between Iran and Hizbollah. A successful Russian campaign in Syria acting as stimulant for Iraq’s invitation of Russian air support can only be interpreted in Washington as a net geostrategic minus with Russians stepping in the “vacuum of American power.” This “power vacuum” is, however, the result of several inter-related factors, including war fatigue, overstretch, and ambiguous policies that respond to contradictory interests, such as the Sunni Arabs’ push to cause the disintegration of Iraq and Syria through proxy wars. The US has as a result exhibited contradictory behavior that in the final analysis does not satisfy anyone and contributes to a credibility problem. If this pattern of US policy in the Middle East continues, there will be a “credibility vacuum” alongside “power vacuum” to the detriment of US’s strategic interests in the region, benefiting its Russian rival. [US Middle East strategy] [Strategic incoherence]
• Trump’s repeated claim that Obama is accepting 200,000 Syrian refugees
  By Glenn Kessler October 8 “You have the migration because Syria is such a disaster. And now I hear we want to take in 200,000 Syrians, right? And they could be, listen, they could be ISIS [Islamic State of Iraq and Syria]. I don’t know.” — Donald Trump, campaign rally, Keene, N.H., Sept, 30, 2015 “So when I heard 10,000 and 3,000, a number, you know, from one of you — I’d say all right. But now we’re talking about 200,000. Obama is getting carried away again with this whole thing about immigration. And now we hear 200,000 and it could very well be ISIS.” — Trump, interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,”, Oct. 1 “Obama wants to — listen to this — he wants to take in 200,000. You know, 200,000. That’s like an army. Now I’m looking the other day. It’s all men. Like, where are the women? They’re very strong men. Why aren’t they back there fighting for their country?” — Trump, campaign event in Franklin, Tenn., Oct. 3 “Now I hear we want to take in 200,000. We don’t know where they’re coming from. We don’t know who they are. They could be ISIS. It could be the great Trojan Horse…. And I’m saying we’re going to take in 200,000 people that we have no idea where they come from?” — Trump, interview on ABC’s “This Week,” Oct. 4 Like a broken record, businessman Donald J. Trump keeps repeating a statistic with little basis in fact — that the Obama administration wants to accept 200,000 refugees from Syria. Our colleagues at FactCheck.org and PolitiFact have already weighed in with fact checks, but given that Trump keeps saying this, we figured it was worth putting the question to the Pinocchio test.
  The Facts We do not know where Trump gets his numbers — his campaign rarely responds to fact check queries — but the only thing close to a 200,000 figure is an announcement by Secretary of State John Kerry that the United States was prepared to boost the number of total refugees accepted in 2016, from 70,000 to 85,000. Then, in 2017, Kerry said that 100,000 would be accepted. That adds up to 185,000 over two years. But this would be the total number of refugees, not the number of refugees from Syria. [Refugees] [Trump]
• Saudi opposition clerics make sectarian call to jihad in Syria
  Riyadh | By Angus McDowall Dozens of Islamist Saudi Arabian clerics have called on Arab and Muslim countries to "give all moral, material, political and military" support to what they term a jihad, or holy war, against Syria's government and its Iranian and Russian backers. Although the clerics who signed the online statement are not affiliated with the government, their strong sectarian and anti-Christian language reflects mounting anger among many Saudis over Russian and Iranian involvement in Syria's civil war. [Jihad] [Saudi Arabia]
• Why is the US Aiding and Enabling Saudi Arabia’s Genocidal War in Yemen?
  by Michael Horton October 8, 2015 The humanitarian crisis in Yemen rivals the crisis in Syria. After six months of war and the imposition of a naval blockade designed to starve the country into submission, 90% of Yemen’s population of more than 24 million are in urgent need of humanitarian aid. More than 6000 people, nearly 90% of which are civilians, are dead and most of Yemen’s already limited infrastructure is in ruins. Sana’a, the capital of Yemen and home to 3 million, is under continuous aerial bombardment by Saudi Arabia and its partners who have targeted schools, hospitals, and homes in densely populated urban areas. The US, along with the UK, is providing intelligence and logistical support to Saudi Arabia and its partners. Both countries are also supplying Saudi Arabia with weapons. The US is equipping the Saudis with internationally banned cluster munitions which now litter large swaths of the Yemeni countryside where they will kill and maim for years to come. Beyond arms manufacturers, the only real beneficiary of this bloody war are takfiri groups like al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the Islamic State (IS) which is making inroads in Yemen. So why is the US supporting a war that has achieved little beyond further empowering groups like AQAP and IS? Yemen and its people are being offered up as a kind of sacrifice for Saudi Arabia’s and the Gulf Cooperation Council’s support for the nuclear arms deal with Iran. Most importantly US support for Saudi Arabia’s war has ensured a steady stream of new weapons orders. US-based arms manufacturers have sold 8 billion USD worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia since it launched ‘Operation Decisive Storm’ six months ago. This is a figure that adds almost ten percent to the 90.4 billion USD worth of weapons that US arms manufacturers have sold to Saudi Arabia since President Obama was elected. [Saudi Arabia] [US Middle East policy] [War crimes] [Iran deal] [Arms sales]
• The devil is in the details: An investigation of the relationships between conflict, food price and climate across Africa ?
  Clionadh Raleigha, , , Hyun Jin Choib, Dominic Knivetona Open Access funded by European Research Council Under a Creative Commons license Show more doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2015.03.005 • Across Africa, conflict increases the price of commodities, which, in turn, increase the rate of political violence. • Climate change has a weak direct effect on political violence rates. • Climate change indirectly affects conflict rates through the effect of increased food prices. • Governments and stable markets play a key role in mitigating the negative effects of climate change. • Studies of how climate change will affect social, economic and political conditions should be conducted on the local level. Abstract This study investigates the relationship between violent conflict, food price, and climate variability at the subnational level. Using disaggregated data on 113 African markets from January 1997 to April 2010, interrelationships between the three variables are analyzed in simultaneous equation models. We find that: (i) a positive feedback exists between food price and violence – higher food prices increase conflict rates within markets and conflict increases food prices; (ii) anomalously dry conditions are associated with increased frequencies of conflict; and (iii) decreased rainfall exerts an indirect effect on conflict through its impact on food prices. These findings suggest that the negative effects of climate variability on conflict can be mitigated by interventions and effective price management in local markets. Creating environments in which food prices are stable and reliable, and markets are accessible and safe, can lower the impacts of both climate change and conflict feedbacks.
• Lies and Truth: Obama’s UN General Assembly Speech Dissected
  By F. William Engdahl Global Research, October 08, 2015 New Eastern Outlook 6 October 2015 To those who bothered to listen to President Obama’s UN General Assembly speech without falling asleep like Secretary John Kerry clearly wished to do, there was a stark contrast to that speech which followed from the Russian President. First before Barack Obama completed his first sentence we could feel his emotion. It was projecting a contempt and arrogance of a special variety: “We have the biggest, baddest military; we call the shots, you peons of the nations of the world.” Going through the official Obama text it’s difficult to find even one sentence where he speaks honestly. It’s an example not of grey propaganda but black. I cite several of the most egregious instances. Near the start after the usual pious homage to the 70-year history of the United Nations, Mr. Obama says, “the United States has worked with many nations in this Assembly to prevent a third world war — by forging alliances with old adversaries; by supporting the steady emergence of strong democracies accountable to their people instead of any foreign power.” I am challenged to think of one single strong democracy accountable to their people that US interventions of the past years have supported. [Obama] [Rhetoric]
• Were missing Iranians arrested in Saudi Arabia?
  After a hajj stampede that killed 464 Iranians near the city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia on Sept. 24, rumors have begun to circulate as to why, after two weeks, 69 Iranians are still unaccounted for. Some Iranian officials are speculating that the Iranians still missing after the hajj disaster may have been arrested as Iran continues to watch the Saudi investigation with distrust. Author Arash Karami Posted October 8, 2015 On Oct. 6, Iran’s Health Minister Hassan Ghazizadeh Hashemi said, “Some of the missing may be among the arrested, or in detention centers or prisons of Saudi Arabia, or in hospitals.” Foreign Ministry official Hassan Ghashghavi said, “We do not know if these dear ones have joined God or if they have been detained somewhere. Until their bodies have been returned we can’t speak with certainty about this matter.” The comments by the two officials made headlines in Iranian media. A number of high-ranking scientists and diplomats were among the hajj pilgrims, and their possible detention or interrogation would expose Iran to security or intelligence risks. However, today, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s representative to the hajj pilgrimage, Hojat al-Islam Seyed Ali Ghazi Asghar, asked officials not to speculate about the missing Iranians. “News in recent days based on the arrest of a number of Iranian pilgrims is not true,” he said. “All of the hospitals in Saudi Arabia and possible locations that were given where the bodies are held have been searched.” Ghazi Asghar asked Iranians to “not pay attention to rumors.” There have been conflicting reports about the numbers missing and dead from the stampede. Saudi Arabia claims that a total of 769 were killed. As of its latest count, the Associated Press has put this number at over 1,360. Indonesia, Pakistan and India also claimed that the pictures offered to them by Saudi Arabia to identity the dead puts their number at 1,100. Saudi authorities said that those countries were shown pictures of those who also died from natural causes while on the hajj. The tragedy has pushed Iran-Saudi tensions to new levels, given that Iran suffered the most casualties from the stampede. Khamenei, in one of his strongest speeches yet against Saudi Arabia, warned that Iran’s “self-restraint” was coming to an end and if the Saudi authorities do not resolve the issue satisfactorily, Iran’s response will be “tough and harsh.” Despite comments by Ghazi Asghar meant to lower tensions and put an end to rumors, other Iranian officials continued to make harsh statements Oct. 8. Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/10/iranians-missing-hajj-stampede.html#ixzz3o5osHruy [Saudi Arabia] [Iran] [Hajj]
• ISIS driving Toyotas a little too often, US Treasury wonders why
  Published time: 7 Oct, 2015 16:23 ISIS has many faults, but it sure knows a good car when it sees one. The US Treasury is now pressing Toyota about why so many of its vehicles are being driven around by the terrorist group, as evidenced in their propaganda videos. Toyota has issued a statement to explain that this is part of a wider probe into terrorist supply chains and capital flow, according to ABC. The company also says it does not know how its trucks ended up in ISIS hands in such a quantity, and is “supporting” the inquiry. The model most popular with Islamic State drivers seems to be the Hilux, similar to Tacomas and Land Cruisers. This overseas version is a mainstay in ISIS propaganda videos, often loaded to the brim with heavy weapons. The company says the cars in the videos aren’t recent models, but ABC spoke to the Iraqi ambassador to the US, Lukman Faily, who said that in addition to re-purposing old vehicles, the terrorist group has been acquiring “hundreds” of “brand new” ones in recent years. “This is a question we’ve been asking our neighbors,” the ambassador said. "How could these brand new trucks... these four-wheel drives, hundreds of them - where are they coming from?” Some of the other cars paraded in victory parade videos include Mitsubishi, Hyundai and Isuzu. “Regrettably, the Toyota Land Cruiser and Hilux have effectively become almost part of the ISIS brand,” said Mark Wallace, a former US ambassador to the United Nations. Wallace is CEO of the Counter Extremism Project, a group specializing in tracking terrorist finance channels. “ISIS has used these vehicles in order to engage in military-type activities, terror activities, and the like,” he said. “But in nearly every ISIS video, they show a fleet - a convoy of Toyota vehicles and that’s very concerning to us.” But according to Lewis, “It is impossible for Toyota to completely control indirect or illegal channels through which our vehicles could be misappropriated.” The current inquiry isn’t the first time somebody’s asked about Toyota popping up frequently in IS hands. A report last year by Public Radio International exposed a delivery by the US State Department of 43 Toyota trucks to Syrian rebels – the “moderate” ones, as has been the Western line since the start of the Syrian war in 2011. Australian media has also this year been circulating reports of some 800 vehicles stolen, and authorities believing they may have been shipped to war zones in the Middle East. [Outsourcing] [Jihadists]
• Saudi woman posts video of husband sexually abusing maid – and now faces jail
  Published time: 8 Oct, 2015 17:42 A woman in Saudi Arabia has secretly filmed her husband cheating on her at their home by groping a housemaid. The vengeful wife published the video online, but now faces up to one year in prison according to the kingdom’s laws against revenge videos. In the scandalous video, a man in traditional Saudi white robes is seen apparently putting his hands all over a female maid in a room that looks like a kitchen. At one point, when the woman's hands are busy as she's holding a tray or a plate, the man tries to kiss her, while she attempts to pull away. READ MORE: Saudi diplomat accused of rape in India claims immunity, files complaint The alleged encounter of the husband with his domestic staff was apparently secretly filmed by the man's wife with a phone camera. She then posted it online, local media reported this week, saying that before the original clip was taken down from the internet it had gone viral in the Arab state. "The minimum punishment for this husband is to scandalize him," the unnamed wife wrote in her caption to the video, Emirates 24/7 News reported. Her public revenge has divided social media users in Saudi Arabia, Gulf News reported, saying that her actions have been both condemned and supported by people in the devout Muslim society. "What she did in fact was to expose her private life and problems for everyone to see," the media cited one blogger as saying. "She has to live with the consequences of what she did.” "I salute you warmly for your valiant courage," another blogger reportedly wrote, adding that "there was an urgent need for revenge and your revenge is the best." But in what might come as a surprise to a western audience, the revenge is now upon the Saudi woman herself, as according to the Gulf state’s laws she might be jailed for up to a year. According to Saudi lawyer Majid Qaroob, cited by Emirates 24/7, the man’s wife "faces up to one year in prison or a fine of SR [Saudi Riyal] 500,000 [around $133,000] for defaming her husband." The law "on information technology crimes" stipulates "stiff punishment" for anyone who films others with various devices, including smartphones with cameras, in order to "defame them," the Saudi lawyer said. [Saudi Arabia] [Victim]
• Pentagon plans major shift in effort to counter the Islamic State in Syria
  Carter speaks of new U.S. approach to support Syrian rebels President Obama is set to overhaul Washington's approach to supporting Syrian rebel forces following this year's deeply troubled launch of a U.S. military training program, Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter said. (Reuters) By Missy Ryan, Karen DeYoung and Craig Whitlock October 9 at 5:08 PM ? The Obama administration backed away Friday from a blighted effort to train Syrian rebels to fight the Islamic State, as the Pentagon announced plans instead to provide direct aid to existing rebel units it believes have better odds of succeeding against the militants. The decision is a recognition of the repeated failures of a program begun early this year. Most recently, newly trained fighters were attacked by rival forces ­engaged in a largely separate fight against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. One U.S.-trained unit decided to hand over ­Washington-provided equipment to the local al-Qaeda affiliate. U.S. officials hope the revised plan will help Arab forces, allied with Syrian Kurdish fighters, replicate the success that the Kurds have had against the Islamic State in northeastern Syria and eventually isolate the group in Raqqa, its de facto Syrian capital. “What we’re really trying to do here is build on what has worked for us and learn from some of the things that have been a lot more challenging,” Christine E. Wormuth, undersecretary of defense for policy, told reporters. Wormuth said the training program launched earlier this year has not been canceled but was put on “operational pause” and might be resumed in the future. [US Middle East policy] [Outsourcing] [Jihadist]
• Over 1,000 ISIS and Al Nusra Militants Surrender To Syrian Army In Last 24 Hours
  By Fars News Agency Global Research, October 09, 2015 The development came after President Bashar al-Assad in a televised address in July pardoned all soldiers who have fled the army, saying that his words served as a general decree to relevant officials. Hundreds of gunmen have been laying down their weapons and turning themselves in to authorities in areas across the country. This number seems to be on the rise as the army has been making steady gains in the battlefield against the terrorist groups, recapturing an increasing number of regions, including strategic sites, which helped cut off many of the militants’ supply routes and forced them to surrender or run away. Also in the past 24 hours, the Syrian air raids destroyed concentration centers of the ISIL, al-Nusra Front and other terrorist groups in Hama and Idlib. [Syria]
• Why the US Owns the Rise of Islamic State and the Syria Disaster
  by Gareth Porter
  Published on Friday, October 09, 2015 by TruthDig Pundits and politicians are already looking for a convenient explanation for the twin Middle East disasters of the rise of Islamic State and the humanitarian catastrophe in Syria. The genuine answer is politically unpalatable, because the primary cause of both calamities is U.S. war and covert operations in the Middle East, followed by the abdication of U.S. power and responsibility for Syria policy to Saudi Arabia and other Sunni allies. The emergence of a new state always involves a complex of factors. But over the past three decades, U.S. covert operations and war have entered repeatedly and powerfully into the chain of causality leading to Islamic State’s present position. [US Middle East policy] [Outsourcing] [Agency]
• Summary of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement
  Office of the United States Trade Representative – Oct. 5, 2015
  Summary of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement On October 4, 2015, Ministers of the 12 Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) countries – Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, United States, and Vietnam – announced conclusion of their negotiations. The result is a high-standard, ambitious, comprehensive, and balanced agreement that will promote economic growth; support the creation and retention of jobs; enhance innovation, productivity and competitiveness; raise living standards; reduce poverty in our countries; and promote transparency, good governance, and enhanced labor and environmental protections. We envision conclusion of this agreement, with its new and high standards for trade and investment in the Asia Pacific, as an important step toward our ultimate goal of open trade and regional integration across the region. [TPP]
• For decades, the government steered millions away from whole milk. Was that wrong?
  By Peter Whoriskey October 6 at 6:36 PM ? U.S. dietary guidelines have long recommended that people steer clear of whole milk, and for decades, Americans have obeyed. Whole milk sales shrunk. It was banned from school lunch programs. Purchases of low-fat dairy climbed. “Replace whole milk and full-fat milk products with fat-free or low-fat choices,” says the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the federal government's influential advice book, citing the role of dairy fat in heart disease. Whether this massive shift in eating habits has made anyone healthier is an open question among scientists, however. In fact, research published in recent years indicates that the opposite might be true: millions might have been better off had they stuck with whole milk. Scientists who tallied diet and health records for several thousand patients over ten years found, for example, that contrary to the government advice, people who consumed more milk fat had lower incidence of heart disease.
• Rand Paul: No-fly zone in Syria ‘could lead to World War III’
  By David Weigel October 7 at 8:15 PM Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul makes a point to a group of supporters in Las Vegas on Sept. 17, 2015. (LE Baskow/Las Vegas Sun via AP) Next week, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) will barnstorm Iowa's college campuses to build on the 15 "Students for Rand" chapters that his campaign has painstakingly built. Doing so will mean an even greater emphasis on the libertarian issues that Paul's tried to focus on since the second presidential debate. "College kids are a natural constituency for us," Paul said in an interview. I think they gravitate to my message of the right to privacy, the right to be left alone, the right not to have the government collecting all your phone records... young people fight our wars, and they tend to be not as excited about fighting civil wars in which, oftentimes, both sides represent various forms of evil." The crisis in Syria was exhibit A. Paul called a no-fly zone over the country, an idea floated by several Republican presidential candidates and by Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton, a "terrible idea" that could "lead to World War III" if anyone was stupid enough to follow through. "That's drawing a red line in the sky," Paul said. Once you draw a red line, and people cross it, what happens? Now we're talking about an incident that could lead to World War III. We went 70 years having open channels of communication with the Russians, trying to avoid having one side shoot down the opposite side's plane. I think the people who call for a no-fly zone are naive. Right now, Russia's actually being invited by two of the neighboring countries, by Iraq and Syria. We're going to say we're going to stop Russia from flying in the area when two of the countries being flown over have invited that country in? This gets back to whether we want to diplomatically isolate ourselves, or whether we want to diplomatically engage." [Russia confrontation] [Rand Paul]
• Hillary Clinton comes out against Obama’s Pacific trade deal
  By Anne Gearan and David Nakamura October 7 at 5:15 PM ? Clinton says she does not support new Pacific trade pact Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton tell PBS she does not support the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership. (Reuters) This story has been updated. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton announced Wednesday that she opposes an expansive 12-nation Pacific Rim free-trade accord finalized by the Obama administration this week, breaking sharply with the president over a deal she had championed while serving as secretary of state. Clinton said in an interview with PBS that she would not support the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) based on what she knows of the deal. The 30-chapter text of the agreement, which negotiators concluded Monday, has not been made public. "As of today, I am not in favor of what I have learned about it," Clinton said in the interview. "I have said from the very beginning that we had to have a trade agreement that would create good American jobs, raise wages and advance our national security. I still believe that's the high bar we have to meet. I've been trying to learn as much as I can about the agreement, but I'm worried." "I appreciate the hard work that President Obama and his team put into this process and recognize the strides they made," Clinton said in a statement released to reporters traveling with her in Iowa. "But the bar here is very high and, based on what I have seen, I don't believe this agreement has met it." The trade-preference deal is a key component of the Obama administration's Pacific Rim engagement strategy, which Clinton promoted heavily as secretary of state. While in office, Clinton had called the proposed deal the "gold standard" of modern trade pacts. Long wary of Chinese economic and military expansion, Clinton backed the pact both for its potential trade benefits and for its potential to knit together Southeast Asian and neighboring nations in an economic alliance that, at least initially, would exclude China. [TPP] [Hillary Clinton] [Opportunist]
• Republicans Sour on Obama's Trade Pact
  GOP lawmakers insisted that the president have the power to negotiate the Trans Pacific Partnership, and now they’re criticizing the deal he struck. Senator Orrin Hatch, a top Republican, said the Trans Pacific Partnership appeared to fall "woefully short." Jacquelyn Martin / Having secured a landmark trade agreement with 11 Pacific Rim nations, President Obama is now relying on trade-loving Republicans to ratify it in Congress. But as details of the pact emerge, the chances of widespread GOP support are dicier than they once were. Senior Republicans have long been the loudest cheerleaders for the Trans Pacific Partnership. In a reversal of the usual political dynamic, it was the GOP that carried the president’s request for “fast-track” negotiating authority earlier this year and saved him from an embarrassing defeat at the hands of his own party. Yet on Monday those same Republicans criticized the very deal that they gave Obama the power to strike, raising concerns that negotiators for the administration had sold out major U.S. industries in a final rush to finish the agreement. “While the details are still emerging, unfortunately I am afraid this deal appears to fall woefully short,” complained Senator Orrin Hatch, a pro-trade Republican who, as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, will be key to passing the agreement. Of particular concern to Hatch and other Republicans is a provision excluding tobacco companies from being able to sue governments over regulations seen as targeting their industry. Another Republican, Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, said that change from past trade agreements, which was cheered as a victory for public-health advocates, could lead him to vote against the TPP. [TPP] [Lobby]
• Indonesia’s maritime strategy: Jokowi’s gamble
  By Michael R. Calistro Oct 5, 2015 President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) announced his maritime strategy during a speech at the East Asia Summit in Myanmar last November. The strategy is Jokowi’s response to one of Indonesia’s most pressing economic problems: the high cost of moving goods through the islands. His plan is to turn Indonesia into a maritime nexus allowing the nation’s ports and sea routes to be better utilized by the world’s leading economic powers. But, the strategy’s emphasis on the Indonesian Navy risks alienating and antagonizing the Army, which could have serious political consequences. [Indonesia] [Jokowi]
• The Trans-Pacific Partnership Negotiations Conclude
  By Matthew P. Goodman, Scott Miller Oct 5, 2015 Late last night, trade ministers from twelve Asia-Pacific countries concluded negotiations on the twelve-party Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). TPP is a regional trade agreement of broad scope and comprehensive coverage that combines trade and investment liberalization among its members with high-standard rules and disciplines in areas like state-owned enterprises, labor, and intellectual property rights. President Obama has made TPP a key part of his economic and foreign policy agenda, and today marks the culmination of more than five years of negotiations. Q1: What was achieved in Atlanta? A1: Trade ministers meeting in Atlanta settled the final points of the agreement. The most prominent issues, automobiles and biopharmaceuticals, were resolved, although negotiators worked well into the early hours of the morning to finish the final details. The agreement summary now available via the United States Trade Representative includes 30 chapters covering a wide swath of trade issues, from trade in goods to government procurement and intellectual property. It also incorporates several issues not covered by traditional trade agreements, notably issues related to the digital economy and the participation of state-owned enterprises. The agreement also provides for transitional periods to help member states develop capacity to implement new obligations. [TPP]
• The Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Accord Explained
  By Kevin Granville Oct. 5, 2015 The largest regional trade accord in history, the Trans-Pacific Partnership would set new terms for trade and business investment among the United States and 11 other Pacific Rim nations — a far-flung group with an annual gross domestic product of nearly $28 trillion that represents roughly 40 percent of global G.D.P. and one-third of world trade. The agreement reached by trade ministers on Monday in Atlanta, the result of five days of round-the-clock talks, came after a dispiriting failure to reach consensus in Hawaii in late July. The product of 10 years of negotiations, the agreement is a hallmark victory for President Obama who has pushed for a foreign-policy “pivot” to the Pacific rim. But the Trans-Pacific Partnership now takes center stage on Capitol Hill, where it rem