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'

• Matt Drudge suggests US government behind cyberattack on ‘Drudge Report’
  By Greg Hadley In his first tweets from his personal account, Matthew Drudge, creator of the popular news website "The Drudge Report," alleged that the U.S. government might be trying to crash his website. Drudge started his Twitter account in 2011. DDoS is an acronym for distributed denial-of-service attack and refers to a tactic used by some organizations to overwhelm a website’s server with millions of requests and cause it to crash. A major DDoS attack this past Drudge’s mention of Fort Meade is a reference to the Maryland headquarters of the National Security Agency and United States Cyber Command. As of Thursday night, “Drudge Report” was still available to readers on multiple internet browsers, according to the Washington Times. However, the International Business Times reports that the website was briefly unavailable around 7 p.m. Eastern time Thursday. Drudge’s speculation comes just hours after the Obama administration announced sanctions against Russia in retaliation for hacking efforts aimed at disrupting the presidential election. Russia’s role in the hacks, which many political analysts say aided Republican Donald Trump, has been disputed by some conservatives and Trump himself. “The Drudge Report” has covered Trump favorably in the past, and at least one activist group has accused the site of pushing Russian propaganda throughout the election. Through the website’s official Twitter account, Drudge said the attack lasted 90 minutes. According to Politico, “The Drudge Report,” which was launched in 1995 and has famously kept its bare-bones design and long lists of links, is the top referrer of traffic to the Daily Mail, CNN, Fox News, Roll Call, Breitbart, The New York Times, National Journal, USA Today, Associated Press, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal and Politico itself. The site has more than 700 million page views per month [Hacking]
• What it means that the U.S. is not part of the Syria cease-fire
  December 29, 2016 a There is a new cease-fire agreement in Syria, but this time without the U.S. at the negotiating table. Will it last when so many others have failed? William Brangham speaks with Andrew Tabler of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and Joshua Landis of the University of Oklahoma about the symbolic significance of the move and what’s next for the rebels, the Assad regime and Syria. RELATED • Syrian government and rebels agree to nationwide ceasefire • Is the Russia-Turkey cease-fire deal a breakthrough? HARI SREENIVASAN: The Russians and Turks announced a cease-fire deal among some of the warring parties in Syria. It went into effect at midnight in Damascus. For that, I’m joined now via Skype from Tucson by Andrew Tabler, who’s a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and Joshua Landis, who directs the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma. Welcome to you both. Joshua Landis, I would like to start with you first. We have seen cease-fires come and we have seen cease-fires go. Are you at all confident that this one is going to last? JOSHUA LANDIS, University of Oklahoma: No, I’m not confident. This is really not about the cease-fire holding. It’s about Turkey being involved with Russia and Iran and essentially letting the rebels know that a new page has been turned, that Turkey cannot keep its — cannot keep its door open to the rebels, that it’s closing the door, and that they’re going to have to fend for themselves in negotiations with the Assad regime. [Russia Syria] [Turkey] [Decline]
• The Real US Strategic Blunder in Syria
  by Gareth Porter President Barack Obama has long been under fire from the US national security elite and the media for failing to intervene aggressively against the Assad regime. But the real strategic blunder was not that Barack Obama didn’t launch yet another war in Syria, but that he decided to go along with the ambitions of America’s Sunni allies to create and arm a Syrian opposition army to overthrow the regime in the first place. Now a former Obama administration official who is knowledgeable on the internal discussions on Syria policy, speaking to this writer on condition of anonymity, has shed new light on how and why that fateful decision was made. The former official revealed that when Obama made the first move toward supporting the arming of Syrian opposition forces, the president failed to foresee the risk of a direct Iranian or Russian intervention on behalf of the Syrian regime in response to an externally armed opposition – because his advisors had failed to take this likelihood into account themselves. [US Syria policy] [Outsourcing] [Client]
• The Diplomacy of Donald J. Trump
  by Mel Gurtov Oblivious to Tradition and Good Sense Those of us who appreciate the unconventional have to have second thoughts after watching Donald J. Trump in action. All the more so when it comes to the conduct of foreign affairs, in which Mr. Trump is a novice. Defying convention, which calls for the president or president-elect to call on the State Department for advice and talking points, and on the intelligence community for daily briefings, Trump at any time might decide to pick up the phone and chat with a foreign leader, might Tweet an opinion, or might make an off-the-cuff remark about a controversial issue. Trouble is, any of these acts might run directly counter to ongoing US foreign policy. You can’t flatter a dictator, interject comments about another country’s domestic affairs, praise one country at the expense of another, or bring family into high-level meetings without consequences. Trump has done all these, and more, and as president seems determined to continue the practice. Such practices only make sense when understood in terms of Trump’s “art of the deal” approach to diplomacy. And “the deal” must be taken literally, since Trump clearly sees doing the nation’s business as being equivalent to doing his personal business. Protecting the environment, promoting human rights and social justice, and strengthening international law have no place in the deal. [Trump] [Foreign policy]
• Turkey's Erdogan: 'Confirmed evidence' US-led coalition supports ISIS & other terrorists in Syria
  Published time: 27 Dec, 2016 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said "it's very clear" that the US-led coalition is supporting terrorist groups in Syria, Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIS/ISIL) among them. "They give support to terrorist groups including Daesh (Arabic for IS)," Erdogan said. Saying that the US have accused Turkey of supporting IS, speaking at a press conference on Tuesday the Turkish leader blamed the US-led coalition for assisting terrorists themselves. Apart from IS, he also mentioned Kurdish People's Protection Units in northern Syria (YPG) and Democratic Union Party (PYD) as groups supported by the coalition. "We have confirmed evidence, with pictures, photos and videos," he added. Read more ‘US not serious about fighting ISIS, it raised terrorists & wants them to stay’ – Iran Def Min to RT Erdogan has also called on Saudi Arabia and Qatar to join Russia, Turkey and Iran in peace talks on Syria. On Tuesday, the Turkish leader said officials of these Gulf states should be included in the talks of foreign ministers in Kazakhstan next month, as their countries had "shown goodwill and given support'' to Syria, AP reported. However, the Turkish president stressed that Ankara itself would not take part should Syrian Kurdish groups - whom he called "terrorist organizations" - be invited to take part in the meeting. [Outsourcing] [ISIS]
• Cease-fire to begin across Syria starting at midnight, Syrian army says
  By Louisa Loveluck and Andrew Roth December 29 at 9:41 AM A cease-fire will take effect across much of Syria from midnight Thursday, the Syrian army announced, in a deal that opposition officials hailed as a rare chance to tamp down violence in the country’s bloody war. In a statement posted to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), the military declared a “comprehensive” cessation of hostilities following “victories and advances” by Syria’s armed forces. But it said the deal excluded “terrorist organizations” including the Islamic State and the country’s al-Qaeda affiliate, now an influential component of what remains of Syria’s armed opposition. The caveat suggested that the fighting could continue in the northwestern province of Idlib, now the rebels’ final bastion. Their most important stronghold, east Aleppo, fell earlier this month to a coalition of forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. That victory is likely to be seen as a milestone in Syria’s five-and-a-half-year war. Russian President Vladimir Putin, one of Assad’s most important backers, announced earlier Thursday that agreements on a cease-fire have been reached with the Syrian government, Iran and Turkey turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu says Turkey and Russia will be the guarantors of a cease-fire deal, speaking just before a deal is announced by Syria, Russia and Ankara. (Reuters)
  Notably absent from the peace process was the United States. As President Obama prepares to leave office next month, Washington’s influence in Syria is much diminished. Moscow and Ankara now are taking the lead on initiatives to end a war that has killed almost half a million people, spurred the largest refu¬gee crisis since World War II and spawned a global terrorist threat in the form of the Islamic State. [Syria] [Decline]
• The U.S. spends more on health care than any other country. Here’s what we’re buying.
  By Carolyn Y. Johnson December 27 at 11:00 AM American health-care spending, measured in trillions of dollars, boggles the mind. Last year, we spent $3.2 trillion on health care -- a number so large that it can be difficult to grasp its scale. A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association reveals what patients and their insurers are spending that money on, breaking it down by 155 diseases, patient age and category -- such as pharmaceuticals or hospitalizations. Among its findings: •Chronic -- and often preventable -- diseases are a huge driver of personal health spending. The three most expensive diseases in 2013: diabetes ($101 billion), the most common form of heart disease ($88 billion) and back and neck pain ($88 billion). •Yearly spending increases aren't uniform: Over a nearly two-decade period, diabetes and low back and neck pain grew at more than 6 percent per year -- much faster than overall spending. Meanwhile, heart disease spending grew at 0.2 percent. •Medical spending increases with age -- with the exception of newborns. About 38 percent of personal health spending in 2013 was for people over age 65. Annual spending for girls between 1 and 4 years old averaged $2,000 per person; older women 70 to 74 years old averaged $16,000. The analysis provides some insight into what's driving one particularly large statistic: Within a decade, close to a fifth of the American economy will consist of health care. [Health]
• Do the Tragedies of Syria Signal the End of Arab Revolutions?
  by Robert Fisk Just as the catastrophic Anglo-American invasion of Iraq brought an end to epic Western military adventures in the Middle East, so the tragedy of Syria ensures that there will be no more Arab revolutions. And it’s taken just 13 bloodsoaked years – from 2003 to 2016 – to realign political power. Russia and Iran and the Shia Muslims of the region are now deciding its future; Bashar al-Assad cannot claim victory – but he is winning. “Aleppo must be taken quickly – before Mosul falls,” a Syrian brigadier announced to me with a wan smile in the country’s army headquarters in Damascus. And it did, scarcely a month later. There were – and still are – little Aleppos all over Syria in which the government and its armed “jihadi” opponents are playing “good guy” and “bad guy”, depending on who is besieging whom. When the Sunni militias end their siege of little Shia towns like Faour, the civilians flock to government lines. It’s reported as a slightly incomprehensible local dispute. But when the regime’s forces storm into eastern Aleppo, it’s deplored around the world as a war crime. I’ve grown tired of repeating that, yes, war crimes are committed on both sides, and Bashar’s forces are no squeaky clean military cadets – although these days, we have to remember that 42 Royal Marine Commandos were not that squeaky clean in Afghanistan. But the story of Aleppo is still being re-threaded into old loops, the brave but largely “jihadi” defenders disguised as nondescript “rebels”, their opponents compared to Milosevic’s Serb killers or Saddam’s gas-bomb pilots. All this will soon end. Russia realised that Obama and the weeping liberals of Europe were bluffing about the overthrow of Bashar – who, unlike Putin’s Ukrainian ally in Kiev, did not run away – and backed his army. The Economist made fun of Syrian soldiers because they supposedly couldn’t march in step when Moscow staged a military parade at its Syrian air base. But you don’t have to march like the Wehrmacht to win battles. The Syrian Arab Army – its real name, which is increasingly used, I notice, by the usual mountebanks who pose as “experts” on the satellite channels – boasts that it has fought simultaneously on 80 fronts against Isis, Nusrah and a clutch of other “jihadi” armies (and Free Syrian Army men who changed sides). Which, given the infractions and bulges in front lines, is probably true, but perhaps not a military record to be proud of. It’s one thing to recapture Palmyra from Isis, quite another to lose it to Isis again in the middle of the battle for eastern Aleppo. Syrian soldiers have a lot of time for their Hezbollah militia allies – who used to turn up on the battlefield better armed than the Syrians themselves – but are less enamoured of the Iranian “advisors” who supposedly know so much about open warfare. I have been present when an Iranian officer called a Syrian general “stupid” – in this case, the Iranian was probably right – but Syrian officers are far more battle-trained and experienced than the Revolutionary Guard from Tehran who have sustained – along with their Afghan and Iraqi Shia allies – far more casualties than they believed possible. So after almost five years of battle, the Syrian army is still in action. The Nusrah and Isis forces surrounding the government sector of the eastern Syrian city of Deir ez-Zour will almost certainly be its next target — after the retaking of Palmyra, but long before the Isis capital of Raqqa, which will probably be retaken by Washington’s Kurdish allies. And it is the Syrian army which will most likely have to rebuild the new Syria when the war eventually ends. It will certainly decide the future of the country. That doesn’t mean the overthrow of Bashar. Neither among his official opponents nor his mortal jihadi enemies nor the corrupt and corrupted political opposition in Turkey is there anyone who can challenge him on the ground. Even if they were successful, you can be sure that the same prisons and dungeons in Syria would be in operation within 24 hours to lock up and torture the “new” opposition to a “new” regime. Besides, Vladimir Putin has suffered enough humiliation after Isis’s second success in Palmyra – after the Russians staged a victory concert of peace in the Roman city only a few months ago. He is not going to permit the defenestration of Bashar al-Assad. Oddly, Western leaders remain stupefyingly unaware of the nature of the real struggle in Syria, and even which warlords they should support. Take the impotent François Hollande, who chose to tell the United Nations in September that Russia and Iran must compel Assad to make peace, because they would otherwise, along with the regime, “bear the responsibility for the division and chaos in Syria”. All well and good. Yet only two months earlier, the same Hollande was demanding “effective action” against the Islamist Nusrah front – among the defenders of Aleppo, although most of us decided not to tell our readers this – on the grounds that Isis was in retreat and Nusrah stood to take advantage of this. “That is beyond dispute,” Hollande pompously remarked of Isis’s “retreat”. That was before the retaking of Palmyra by the same ISIS brigands. [Syria] [Bashar Assad] [Turkey]
• Singapore Blogger Applies for U.S. Asylum
  VOA News December 26, 2016 08:35 A teenage blogger from Singapore has applied for political asylum in the United States after being detained last week at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. Gail Montenegro, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, released a statement Saturday saying Amos Yee, 18, was in federal custody while awaiting federal immigration court proceedings. Yee, detained Dec. 16, was at the McHenry Adult Correctional Facility, an hour away from Chicago. His U.S. attorney, Sandra Grossman, said Yee was arrested because he entered the country on a tourist visa despite his intention to apply for asylum. Rights group Human Rights Watch called on Washington to recognize Yee's asylum claim, saying Yee had been consistently harassed by the Singapore government for publicly expressing his views on politics and religion and criticizing Singapore's leaders. . Teen blogger Amos Yee arrives with his mother at the State Courts in Singapore on Sept. 28, 2016. /Reuters The video blogger aired a piece full of expletives last March as the city-state was mourning the death of Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. Singapore's government said his posting mocked Christians and Muslims, and it argued that his jailing was meant to preserve racial and religious harmony. Yee was jailed twice this year on charges of offending Christians and Muslims with his online activities. He is also due to be called up for mandatory military service. Grossman, Yee's attorney, said the teen would have to undergo an interview by an asylum official to determine whether he had "credible fear" of persecution or torture in Singapore. He would then be scheduled to appear before an immigration court, a process that could take years because of a backlog of applications. . © This is copyrighted material owned by Digital Chosun Inc. No part of it may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission. [Defector] [Double standards] [Singapore] [Human rights]
• Aleppo city is one, no more west, or east
  Xinhua, December 25, 2016 Rolling his wheelchair through the rubble-strewn crossing of Bustan al-Qasr into the former rebel-held eastern Aleppo, 53-year-old Bakri Maruf was fearless, unlike the first time he crossed through the same area three years ago, when shrapnels sliced through his legs and placed him in his wheelchair. "I was hoping I could cross back into eastern Aleppo on my feet, but because of my condition I couldn't, but I am happy anyway because I will take a look at my house in the Mashad neighborhood," he told Xinhua, as his son was walking beside him to help him. Maruf is one of thousands of people who have started returning to check on their homes in eastern Aleppo city in northern Syria, after the army declared its control over the entire city, following the withdrawal of the last rebel groups on Friday. Bustan al-Qasr was the main crossing between the former rebel-held areas in the east and the government-controlled ones in the western part of the city. The crossing was so important for the residents of Aleppo who used to cross back and forth between both parts of the city to visit their relatives or attend to their jobs, or schools. The wreckage of two buses sandbags had been used at the entrance of the crossing, which was a lifeline to both part of the city, especially when the rebels besieged the government side of Aleppo in 2012, the same year eastern Aleppo fell under the rebel control. At the time, the checkpoint was controlled by a group of rogue rebel groups who tried to extort money from the war-weary people using it. But with the recent military offensive in Aleppo, which has seen the evacuation of the rebels and their families from the eastern part of the city, the notion of eastern Aleppo and western Aleppo was over. It's one now, according to pro-government activists from Aleppo who want to see the city back as one again. Government trucks were quick to start removing the sandbags and the wreckages of buses blocking the crossings or streets between both parts of the city, which facilitate the flow of civilians, who had fled eastern Aleppo for a long time, to return to check on their homes. [Aleppo]
• The War on Terrorism Just Keeps Making It Worse
  by Patrick Cockburn European political leaders are making the same mistake in reacting to the massacre at the Christmas fair in Berlin, in which 12 died, as they did during previous terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels. There is an over-concentration on the failings of the security services in not identifying and neutralising the Tunisian petty criminal, Anis Amri, as the threat he turned out to be. There is too little focus on bringing to an end the wars in Syria and Iraq which make this type of atrocity unstoppable. In the aftermath of the killings the visibility of Amri, who was shot dead in Milan this morning, as a potential threat looks misleadingly obvious, and the culpability of those who did not see this appears more glaring than it really was. The number of possible suspects – suspected before they have done anything – is too great to police them effectively. [Terrorism] [Blowback]
• Who Profits from Turkey’s ‘Sarajevo Moment’?
  by Pepe Escobar Let’s cut to the chase: Ankara 2016 is not Sarajevo 1914. This is not a prelude to WWIII. Whoever plotted the assassination of the Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov – a cool, calm, collected old-school diplomat – risks a mighty blowback. The assassin, Mevlut Mert Altintas, was a 22-year-old police academy graduate. He was suspended from the Turkish National Police (TNP) over suspected links to the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETO) after the failed July 15 putsch against Erdogan but returned to duty in November. It’s no secret Gulenists heavily infiltrate the TNP; so a particular outcome of the attack will be an, even more, relentless Erdogan/AKP crackdown on the Gulen network. The Turkish investigation will have to focus not only on the (major) security service fail at Ankara’s modern art center – but way beyond. It’s not very reassuring that Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu put out a terse statement a very long three hours after the facts. [Turkey] [Realignment] {Assassination]
• World War I, “An Un-Christian Like Patriotic Fervor”: The 102nd Anniversary of the Christmas Truce of 1914
  Questioning Christian Participation in Aggressive Warfare By Dr. Gary G. Kohls Global Research, December 21, 2016 “…and the ones who call the shots won’t be among the dead and lame; And on each end of the rifle we’re the same” — John McCutcheon 102 years ago this Christmas Eve something happened in the early months of the “War to End All Wars” that put a tiny little blip of hope in the historical timeline of the organized mass slaughter that is war. The event was regarded by the professional military officer class to be so profound and so important (and so disturbing) that strategies were immediately put in place that would ensure that such an event could never happen again. “Christian” Europe was in the fifth month of the war of 1914 – 1918, the so-called Great War that finally ground to a mutually suicidal halt after four years of exhausting trench warfare, with all of the original participants financially, spiritually and morally bankrupted. [WWI] [Christianity] [Peace effort]
• It Wasn’t the Russians: Hillary Lost Because She Blew Off Sanders and His Voters
  by Dave Lindorff The incredible group-think that has seen the CIA, the FBI, the NSA, President Obama, the Clinton campaign and most of the corporate media braying that Vladimir Putin scandalously upended American democracy and threw the election to his favored candidate Donald Trump is based on a ludicrous premise. That premise: that the election went Trump’s way because several tens of thousands of voters in a few states — Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin — switched away from Clinton to Trump because of an alleged (and factually unproven) Russian “hack” of Democratic National Committee and of Hillary campaign chair John Podesta’s emails. According to this conspiracy theory — and that is what it is — the “Russian” hack, with the results allegedly passed on to Wikileaks, and the resulting release of emails that showed that the DNC had conspired to throw the primary election to Clinton, and that revealed the contents of Clinton’s secret sycophantic quarter-million-dollar speeches to Wall Street banks, explain those narrow Trump wins in three key swing states. What is ludicrous about this alleged conspiracy is that Sanders supporters already knew the DNC was in bed with the Clinton campaign. They’d already learned that first hand from Hawaiian Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), who quit in disgust back in late February, saying that the DNC was undermining Sanders and working for Clinton. As for the bank speeches, Clinton did all the damage herself by refusing to disclose what she’d said in those extravagantly paid gigs, and by getting caught in a lie that she couldn’t release the texts because they were “under the control” of the banks (she actually owned the copyrights). She also hurt herself by lying and saying during one debate that she hadn’t asked for the high fees when in fact her agent had demanded them. This infuriating information was all out there way before Wikileaks started releasing the documents in had in its possession. [Hillary Clinton] [Sanders] [DNC]
• Keith Ellison’s one-man march
  The man seeking to lead the Democratic Party on Louis Farrakhan, Donald Trump and his personal journey on race. By Glenn Thrush 12/20/16 05:08 AM EST Rep. Keith Ellison was on the cusp of an easy victory in the race for Democratic National Committee chairman until the past few weeks. | Bridget Mulcahy/POLITICO . Keith Ellison is chair-slumped in a nondescript union office a few hundred yards north of the Capitol, surrounded by boxes of fliers for his campaign to chair the Democratic National Committee, nursing a nasty cold and eye-rolling at another question about his onetime admiration for Louis Farrakhan. . . The Minnesota congressman — a powerful speaker and canny political organizer — was on the cusp of an easy victory in the race for DNC chairman until the past few weeks, when his decades-old writings on the Nation of Islam leader (he called him a “role model for Black Youth” in a 1995 student editorial) resurfaced and ignited. Soon after, reporters unearthed 2010 comments about how Israel, “a country of seven million,” dominates U.S. policy in the Mideast — prompting a denunciation from the head of the Anti-Defamation League and Democratic mega-donor Haim Saban, casting his coronation into sudden and serious doubt. [Ellison] [DNC]
• In last-shot bid, thousands urge electoral college to block Trump at Monday vote
  With criticism flying about the electoral college, here's what you need to know about our system for electing the president and why the "Hamilton electors" don't like it. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post) By Robert Samuels December 17 at 6:38 PM ? Pressure on members of the electoral college to select someone other than Donald Trump has grown dramatically — and noisily — in recent weeks, causing some to waver but yielding little evidence that Trump will fall short when electors convene in most state capitals Monday to cast their votes. Carole Joyce of Arizona expected her role as a GOP elector to be pretty simple: She would meet the others in Phoenix and carry out a vote for Trump, who won the most votes in her state and whom she personally supported. But then came the mail and the emails and the phone calls — first hundreds, then thousands of voters worrying that Trump’s impulsive nature would lead the country into another war. “Honestly, it had an impact,” said Joyce, a 72-year-old Republican state committee member. “I’ve seen enough funerals. I’m tired of hearing bagpipes.?.?.?. But I signed a loyalty pledge. And that matters.” Such is the life these days for many of the 538 men and women who are scheduled to meet Monday across the country to carry out what has traditionally been a perfunctory vote after most every presidential election. [Trump] [US_election16] [Electoral College] [Coup]
• Aleppo evacuation efforts falter as Islamist fighters burn convoy of rescue buses
  By Louisa Loveluck December 18 at 4:38 PM ? BEIRUT — Evacuation efforts in Syria were on the verge of fresh collapse Sunday, with thousands of people trapped inside the shattered rebel enclave of Aleppo after gunmen burned a rescue convoy bound for government areas in a neighboring province. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said evacuations were postponed for an “unknown” period, deepening abject suffering inside eastern Aleppo as the United Nations thrashed out ways to resolve the crisis. After more than three hours of closed consultations, France and Russia said Sunday that they had agreed on a U.N. Security Council resolution to deploy international monitors to eastern Aleppo to ensure safe evacuations and immediate delivery of humanitarian aid. [Aleppo] [Hostage]
• A Spy Coup in America?
  December 18, 2016 Exclusive: As the Electoral College assembles, U.S. intelligence agencies are stepping up a campaign to delegitimize Donald Trump as a Russian stooge, raising concerns about a spy coup in America, reports Robert Parry. By Robert Parry As Official Washington’s latest “group think” solidifies into certainty – that Russia used hacked Democratic emails to help elect Donald Trump – something entirely different may be afoot: a months-long effort by elements of the U.S. intelligence community to determine who becomes the next president. I was told by a well-placed intelligence source some months ago that senior leaders of the Obama administration’s intelligence agencies – from the CIA to the FBI – were deeply concerned about either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump ascending to the presidency. And, it’s true that intelligence officials often come to see themselves as the stewards of America’s fundamental interests, sometimes needing to protect the country from dangerous passions of the public or from inept or corrupt political leaders. It was, after all, a senior FBI official, Mark Felt, who – as “Deep Throat” – guided The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in their Watergate investigation into the criminality of President Richard Nixon. And, I was told by former U.S. intelligence officers that they wanted to block President Jimmy Carter’s reelection in 1980 because they viewed him as ineffectual and thus not protecting American global interests. [Coup] [Trump] [CIA]
• At Least 14 US Coalition Military Officers Allegedly Captured by Syrian forces in East Aleppo Bunker
  from 21st Century Wire DAMASCUS – According to two reports coming out of Aleppo today, at least 14 US Coalition military officers were captured this morning in an East Aleppo bunker by Syrian Special Forces. This story was quietly leaked by Voltaire.net, who announced, “The Security Council is sitting in private on Friday, December 16, 2016, at 17:00 GMT, while NATO officers were arrested this morning by the Syrian Special Forces in a bunker in East Aleppo.” Fares Shehabi MP, a prominent Syrian Parliamentarian and head of Aleppo’s Chamber of Commerce published the names of the Coalition officers on his Facebook page on the 15th December (emphasis added): Mutaz Kanoglu – Turkey David Scott Winer – USA David Shlomo Aram – Israel Muhamad Tamimi – Qatar Muhamad Ahmad Assabian – Saudi Abd-el-Menham Fahd al Harij – Saudi Islam Salam Ezzahran Al Hajlan – Saudi Ahmed Ben Naoufel Al Darij – Saudi Muhamad Hassan Al Sabihi – Saudi Hamad Fahad Al Dousri – Saudi Amjad Qassem Al Tiraoui – Jordan Qassem Saad Al Shamry – Saudi Ayman Qassem Al Thahalbi – Saudi Mohamed Ech-Chafihi El Idrissi – Moroccan Listen to Fares Shehabi’s interview on the Sunday Wire radio show: ‘Liberation Aleppo‘ In addition to Voltaire.net, the other original report was provided by Damascus-based Syrian journalist Said Hilal Alcharifi. According to Alcharifi, captured “NATO” officers were from a number of member states including the US, France, Germany and Turkey, as well as Israel. Here is his statement (translated from French): “Thanks to information received, Syrian authorities discovered the headquarters of high ranking western/NATO officers in the basement of an area in East Aleppo and have captured them alive. Some names have already been given to Syrian journalists, myself included. The nationalities are US, French, British, German, Israeli, Turkish, Saudi, Moroccan, Qatari etc. In light of their nationalities and their rank, I assure you that the Syrian government have a very important catch, which should enable them to direct negotiations with the countries that have tried to destroy them.” Although these initial reports describe the individuals in question as “NATO” officers, it’s unlikely they would have been carrying NATO colors on a covert operation – and might be more accurately labeled as US Coalition officers. Note that early reports suggest that these are not standard ‘street rebel’ or jihadi terrorists but actual Coalition military personnel and field commanders. 21WIRE also received unconfirmed reports yesterday that militants had fired a missile into the Ramousa area and then tried, unsuccessfully, to get cars out of East Aleppo. It’s possible this incident could be related to today reports of captured western operatives. [Aleppo] [Outsourcing] [Proxy]
• Make America Great Again
  Israel Shamir It is so dark now in the North. The Sun rises at 10 am to go down at 3 pm. White and plentiful snow and glorious stars outside and Christmas trees indoors make this darkness bearable – just. Here one understands why the people of the North had viewed Yuletide with great anxiety: they never were quite sure whether the Darkness would actually lift and pass away and the Day would gain this year, too. Last year it worked, but who can be sure that this year the Undead creatures won’t keep the Sun in eternal captivity? Now we are in a similar quandary. Will the sun rise? Will Donald Trump gain the White House from the Undead Ones? Never before in our memory has the President-elect’s progress been so full of uncertainties and so pregnant by possible dangers. It appears that the losers still do not accept their defeat. Like the Germans in 1945, they look for a Wunderwaffe, a wonder weapon to turn the tables and win, no trick is too mean to try. They will try to influence electors, they may try to prevent Congress from approving their choice, they may try their hand in public disturbances or a military coup. The Yuletide will be anything but peaceful and dull. Their idea of recount did not work the desired miracle. In vain Ms Stein had turned her fine party into a tool in the hands of Soros et al. Trump is still ahead in the marginal states he won. No state had been shifted into Clinton’s camp. [US_election16]
• How Republics End
  Paul Krugman DEC. 19, 2016 Many people are reacting to the rise of Trumpism and nativist movements in Europe by reading history — specifically, the history of the 1930s. And they are right to do so. It takes willful blindness not to see the parallels between the rise of fascism and our current political nightmare. But the ’30s isn’t the only era with lessons to teach us. Lately I’ve been reading a lot about the ancient world. Initially, I have to admit, I was doing it for entertainment and as a refuge from news that gets worse with each passing day. But I couldn’t help noticing the contemporary resonances of some Roman history — specifically, the tale of how the Roman Republic fell. Here’s what I learned: Republican institutions don’t protect against tyranny when powerful people start defying political norms. And tyranny, when it comes, can flourish even while maintaining a republican facade. On the first point: Roman politics involved fierce competition among ambitious men. But for centuries that competition was constrained by some seemingly unbreakable rules. Here’s what Adrian Goldsworthy’s “In the Name of Rome” says: “However important it was for an individual to win fame and add to his and his family’s reputation, this should always be subordinated to the good of the Republic … no disappointed Roman politician sought the aid of a foreign power.” America used to be like that, with prominent senators declaring that we must stop “partisan politics at the water’s edge.” But now we have a president-elect who openly asked Russia to help smear his opponent, and all indications are that the bulk of his party was and is just fine with that. (A new poll shows that Republican approval of Vladimir Putin has surged even though — or, more likely, precisely because — it has become clear that Russian intervention played an important role in the U.S. election.) Winning domestic political struggles is all that matters, the good of the republic be damned. [Russia confrontation] [US_election16] [Trump]
• Washington’s most exclusive meeting may lose its luster under Trump
  By Greg Jaffe December 18 at 6:16 PM  For eight years, it has been the most exclusive, and arguably most important, daily meeting in Washington. Each morning, President Obama gathers his inner circle for the Presidential Daily Briefing, a run-through of the most important intelligence from around the world. The rules under Obama have been strict and unyielding: No substitutes are permitted if one of the six regular attendees is out sick or traveling. No straphangers are allowed to linger in the Oval Office and watch. Unlike just about every other meeting involving Washington officialdom, this one rarely, if ever, leaks. Now it looks as if the PDB’s status as Washington’s most indispensable briefing could be coming to an end. “I get it when I need it,” said President-elect Donald Trump, who so far is taking the PDB only a few times a week. “I’m, like, a smart person. I don’t need to be told the same thing and the same words every single day for the next eight years.” [Trump] [Intelligence] [CIA]
• Lessons From a Dark Year in Syria
  Dec 18, 2016 11:00 AM EDT By Noah Feldman The fall of Aleppo at the close of 2016 signals an especially depressing future for the civil war, the region, and the vast number of refugees within Syria and beyond. For all practical purposes, the end of this battle means that the Syrian dictatorship has, with Russian help, won its war for survival. However, there is no clear path for the Assad regime to wipe out the last of the rebels.So fighting will continue, and a rump Syrian Sunni statelet will persist. And because displaced Sunnis will remain deeply wary of going home to places now controlled by the hostile regime, the long war's refugee problem may become permanent. That's no small matter. In scope it dwarfs the Palestinian refugee crises of 1948 or 1967. The human rights failure in Aleppo is on par with other failures in recent decades, from Srebrenica to Rwanda. The international community had no leverage with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad or Russian President Vladimir Putin as they remorselessly bombed the city, killing thousands of civilians. Worse, the tactic worked, which sends a lesson to other future rights violators that they should use whatever means necessary to achieve victory. Yet like every such tragedy, the fall of Aleppo also has a particular meaning for the struggle in which it has taken place. Specifically, Assad’s victory shows that with air support from a great power and no compunction for collateral damage, an armed regime can displace rebels from urban space, even when the rebels have substantial civilian support. The U.S. could have gotten Islamic State fighters out of Syrian cities using the same scorched earth techniques, had it been inclined to ignore international law and not to care about the loyalty of the bombed civilians after the conflict was over. [Aleppo] [Double standards] [Hypocrisy]
• It was bizarre to watch Samantha Power at the UN conveniently forget to mention all the massacres done in America's name
  When Samantha talked about ‘barbarism against civilians’ in Aleppo, I remembered climbing over the dead Palestinian civilians massacred at the Sabra and Chatila refugee camps in Beirut in 1982, slaughtered by Israel’s Lebanese militia friends while the Israeli army – Washington’s most powerful ally in the Middle East – watched
  Robert Fisk | Thursday 15 December 2016 Nor – most oddly of all – did Samantha mention 9/11. Here, surely, was an international crime against humanity worthy of mention in Samantha’s roll call of shame. 3,996 innocent dead. A must-be, you’d think, for throwing at the Syrians and the Russkis and the Iranians. But no. For there’s a wee bit of a problem there, isn’t there? Because the 9/11 bloodbath was carried out by al-Qaeda. And al-Qaeda in Syria has changed its name to al-Nusra and then to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham and – well, it’s al-Sham (alias Nusra, alias al-Qaeda) that’s been fighting against the Syrian regime in eastern Aleppo. A bit difficult, you see, for Samantha to express her horror over the most terrifying attack on her country in recent history – talk about “barbarism against civilians” – when the very criminal “jihadi” organisation which committed this outrage is, yes, in eastern Aleppo fighting against the Syrian army. [Aleppo] [Samantha Power] [Hypocrisy] [9/11] [Al Qaeda]
• This Won’t Look Like Winning: A Sensible Path for Trump’s Syria Policy
  Sam Heller December 14, 2016 For the United States, the election of Donald Trump to the presidency is the beginning of a period of profound political and social uncertainty. For Syria, it signals a sort of end. Prior to November 8, the national security policy community, like most others, assumed the victory of Hillary Clinton was a near-certainty. A number of proposals for U.S. Syria policy were therefore prepared and advanced with a Clinton presidency in mind. These were mostly forward-leaning and hawkish, calling for things like U.S. escalation against the Assad regime and, indirectly, its Russian ally. With Trump’s victory, most of this debate is now void. There is still a good deal of ambiguity about how Trump will govern. Many of the positions he took over the course of the campaign seem to have been improvised, or not to be particularly strongly held. But on Syria specifically, he seems to have some clear, consistent preferences: He is focused on defeating the Islamic State, wants to prioritize cooperation with Russia, and is extremely skeptical of U.S. support for the Syrian opposition. [US Syria policy] [Trump]
• The Bad Losers (And What They Fear Losing)
  by Diana Johnstone Paris. If the 2016 presidential campaign was a national disgrace, the reaction of the losers is an even more disgraceful spectacle. It seems that the political machine backing Hillary Clinton can’t stand losing an election. And why is that? Because they are determined to impose “exceptional” America’s hegemony on the entire world, using military-backed regime changes, and Donald Trump seems poised to spoil their plans. The entire Western establishment, roughly composed of neoconservative ideologues, liberal interventionists, financial powers, NATO, mainstream media and politicians in both the United States and Western Europe, committed to remaking the Middle East to suit Israel and Saudi Arabia and to shattering impertinent Russia, have been thrown into an hysterical panic at the prospect of their joint globalization project being sabotaged by in ignorant intruder. [US_election16] [Imperialism]
• Why it’s possible to anticipate a Syrian peace process
  By M.K. Bhadrakumar December 16, 2016 The fall of Aleppo to Syrian government forces was expected to produce a barrage of western condemnation of Russia and Iran. In a proxy war, defeat is seldom accepted stoically. The western intelligence suffered a comprehensive rout in Aleppo. The Iraq war was also a defeat – moral and political – and Libya remains a permanent scar on the West’s conscience, but Syria is also a geopolitical defeat, given the nature of the proxy war. Syria was where President Barack Obama had openly expressed the certainty to create a quagmire for his Russian adversary Vladimir Putin. The calculation of the Obama administration was that the quagmire in Syria would mean a devastating setback for Putin, which in turn, would erode his grip on power and mark the unraveling of the Russian political system itself. The timeline for the ‘bear trap’ factored in the presidential election in Russia in early 2018. The Obama administration pursued a multi-dimensional approach – engaging Russia on the diplomatic track to buy time for extremist groups in Aleppo to regroup and try to break the siege; taking control of Raqqa on the supply route to Aleppo; keeping up a sustained propaganda barrage on ‘humanitarian grounds’ to disorient the Russian military track – all predicated on the hope of Hillary Clinton becoming the next US president. [US Middle East Strategy] [Russia confrontation] [Turkey] [Iran]
• Iran Calls for P5+1 Meeting Over US Sanctions Extension
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESSDEC. 17, 2016, 7:45 A.M. E.S.T. TEHRAN, Iran — Iran's Foreign Minister in a letter to the European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini has called for a joint commission meeting on the nuclear deal over the extension of U.S. sanctions against Iran. Iran's official IRNA news agency is reporting Saturday that Mohammad Javad Zarif has requested that Mogherini inform all P5+1 nation members to hold a joint commission meeting over extension of U.S. sanctions against Iran. American lawmakers voted to extend some sanctions against Iran for another 10 years and although President Barack Obama declined to sign the act it still became law. [Iran deal] [Renege]
• How James Mattis Could Stop Trump From Ripping up the Iran Nuclear Deal Ilan Goldenberg
  He’s primed to play a major role. Last April, retired Gen. James Mattis stood in front of an august audience at the Center for Security and International Studies in Washington and declared, “The Iranian regime, in my mind, is the single most enduring threat to stability and peace in the Middle East.” This was quite a statement, given the challenges posed by ISIS, Al Qaeda, the Syrian civil war, and Russia’s first military intervention in the Middle East in 30 years. But for Mattis, the priority was crystal clear: Iran. Fast forward six months, and President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Mattis to be the next U.S. secretary of defense. Ironically enough, the man who places such a high priority on countering Iran’s bad behavior may turn out to be one of the new administration’s biggest supporters of the Iran Nuclear deal that aims to curb the country’s nuclear programs, which Trump criticized throughout his presidential campaign. To understand why, it’s worth taking a closer look at his military background. Mattis’s focus on Iran is shaped by the U.S. military’s experiences over the past 35 years. The 1983 Marine Barracks attack by Iranian-sponsored Hezbollah bombers killed 241 service members, leaving an indelible mark, especially for Marines such as Mattis. The 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia, sponsored by Iran, killed 19 Americans. And most recently, Iranian-armed Shia proxy groups in Iraq were responsible for roughly 1,000 American fatalities during the eight years of the Iraq War. [Iran deal] [Trump] [Renege] [Mattis]
• Saddam Hussein should have been left to run Iraq, says CIA officer who interrogated him
  By Ishaan Tharoor December 16 at 12:44 PM Iraqi President Saddam Hussein holds up a rifle during a Dec. 31, 2000, military parade in Baghdad. Hussein was forced from power in 2003 in a U.S.-led invasion. (AP) Both President Obama and President-elect Donald Trump believe the United States never should have invaded Iraq in 2o03 (or, at least, Trump claims he now does). The war in Iraq and its chaotic aftermath in many ways prefigure the present moment in the Middle East; it triggered a sectarian unraveling that now haunts both Iraq and Syria and looms large in the minds of an Obama administration wary of further intervention in the region's conflicts. In a new book coming out this month, John Nixon, a former CIA officer who interrogated Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein after he was captured by coalition forces in December 2003, details his encounter with the toppled despot and the varied discussions that followed. Early on, Hussein warned that the occupation of Iraq wouldn't be as much of a "cakewalk" as Washington's neoconservatives assumed at the time. From an excerpt published on Time magazine's website: When I interrogated Saddam, he told me: “You are going to fail. You are going to find that it is not so easy to govern Iraq.” When I told him I was curious why he felt that way, he replied: “You are going to fail in Iraq because you do not know the language, the history, and you do not understand the Arab mind.” Nixon now reckons Hussein had a point and that a ruthless strongman like him was necessary to "maintain Iraq's multi-ethnic state" and keep both Sunni extremism and the power of Shiite-led Iran, a Hussein foe, at bay. [Iraq] [Saddam Hussein] [CIA]
• If Assad Takes Eastern Aleppo He Will Think He’s Won the War
  by Patrick Cockburn The Syrian armed forces are close to capturing the remaining rebel-held districts in the enclave of east Aleppo, bringing them their biggest victory in five years of war. The insurgent armed forces, that were originally estimated to number between 8,000 and 10,000 fighters, have been retreating or giving up more readily than had been expected. It is still possible that a hard core will hold out in the ruins, but President Bashar al-Assad will be eager to crush any remaining resistance so he can present the fall of east Aleppo as a decisive turning point in the conflict. Will this be true? There are so many players with such diverse agendas in the Syrian civil war that past “turning points” have turned out to be no such thing. But what is truly important about what we have just seen in Aleppo is that the outside allies of the armed opposition to Assad – Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and, in a somewhat different category, the US – have not come to the rescue of the rebels whom they have previously supported. Over the last five years it has been foreign powers and not domestic parties in Syria who have dictated who is winning or losing at any particular moment [Aleppo]
• There is More Than One Truth to Tell in the Terrible Story of Aleppo
  by Robert Fisk
  December 14, 2016 Western politicians, “experts” and journalists are going to have to reboot their stories over the next few days now that Bashar al-Assad’s army has retaken control of eastern Aleppo. We’re going to find out if the 250,000 civilians “trapped” in the city were indeed that numerous. We’re going to hear far more about why they were not able to leave when the Syrian government and Russian air force staged their ferocious bombardment of the eastern part of the city. And we’re going to learn a lot more about the “rebels” whom we in the West – the US, Britain and our head-chopping mates in the Gulf – have been supporting. They did, after all, include al-Qaeda (alias Jabhat al-Nusra, alias Jabhat Fateh al-Sham), the “folk” – as George W Bush called them – who committed the crimes against humanity in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania on 11 September 2001. Remember the War on Terror? Remember the “pure evil” of al-Qaeda. Remember all the warnings from our beloved security services in the UK about how al-Qaeda can still strike terror in London? Not when the rebels, including al-Qaeda, were bravely defending east Aleppo, we didn’t – because a powerful tale of heroism, democracy and suffering was being woven for us, a narrative of good guys versus bad guys as explosive and dishonest as “weapons of mass destruction”. [Aleppo] [Media] [Propaganda]
• Bipartisan War: A new study urges more U.S. interventions
  Philip Giraldi • December 13, 2016 The Establishment and Realist foreign policy communities in the United States often seem separated by language which leads them to talk past each other. When a realist or Libertarian talks about non-intervention or restraint in foreign policy, as Ron Paul did in 2008 and 2012, the Establishment response is to denounce isolationism. As Dr. Paul noted during his campaigns, non-interventionism and isolationism have nothing to do with each other as a country that does not meddle in the affairs of others can nevertheless be accessible and open in dealing with other nations in many other ways. Non-interventionists are fond of quoting George Washington’s Farewell Address, in which he recommended that “The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible… Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest.” Establishment pundits tend to dismiss that “little political connection” bit, preferring instead to warn how detachment from foreign politics might lead to the rise of a new Adolph Hitler. I was reminded of the language barrier while reading the Atlantic Council’s Middle East Strategy Task Force report, which appeared on November 30th. The report, which promises a new “Compact for the Middle East” while also asserting that “isolationism is a dangerous delusion,” might be regarded as a quintessential document laying out the Establishment position on what should be done in the region. It is ostensibly the product of two co-chairs, Madeleine Albright and Stephen Hadley, but it is also credited to an Executive Team headed by Executive Director Stephen Grand and Deputy Executive Director Jessica Ashooh, who in all probability were responsible for the actual drafting and editing. [US Middle East Strategy] [Establishment]
• The electoral college should think hard before handing Trump the presidency
  By E.J. Dionne Jr. Opinion writer December 14 at 7:11 PM In making what is likely to be the most consequential decision of this transition period, Donald Trump couldn’t resist petty vindictiveness. Mitt Romney was briefly touted as the front-runner to become secretary of state. After meeting with Trump over a meal, he pronounced himself “very impressed” by the man he had described as “a phony, a fraud” during the campaign. Trump did not accept this graciously. Citing a Trump friend, The Post reported that the president-elect “enjoyed watching his dinner partner appear to grovel for the post.” Memo to Trump’s Republican critics: Your initial instincts about Trump were right. Remember that catering to this man will bring only pain and humiliation. Memo to those claiming that everyone should give Trump a chance now that the people have spoken: Actually, “the people” didn’t make Trump president. They preferred Hillary Clinton by at least 2.8 million votes. If Trump takes office, it’s the electoral-college system that will do it. And the post-election Trump has been as abusive and self-involved as he was during the campaign. The opposition’s job is to stand up and prevent or mitigate the damage he could do to our country. [US_election16] [Electoral College] [Coup]
• Iran sanctions renewal becomes law without Obama signature
  By Josh Lederman?|?P December 15 at 1:59 PM WASHINGTON — In an unexpected reversal, President Barack Obama declined to sign a renewal of sanctions against Iran but let it become law anyway, in an apparent bid to alleviate Tehran’s concerns that the U.S. is backsliding on the nuclear deal. Although the White House had said that Obama was expected to sign the 10-year-renewal, the midnight deadline came and went Thursday with no approval from the president. Instead, he opted to let it become law without his signature — a rare move that Obama has never used before. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the president’s decision was intended to send a direct message to lawmakers who passed the sanctions renewal over his objections. [Iran deal] [Renege] [Governance] [Obama]
• With small changes, U.S. maintains military aid to Saudi Arabia despite rebukes over Yemen carnage
  By Missy Ryan December 13 at 11:00 AM Smoke rises after Saudi-led airstrikes hit a food factory in Sanaa, Yemen, on Aug. 9, 2016. (Hani Mohammed/AP) The Obama administration will curtail some intelligence sharing with Saudi Arabia following a review of military assistance, a U.S. official said, but it will expand support in other areas despite intense criticism of Saudi strikes on civilians during the Kingdom’s air war in Yemen. The carrot-and-stick approach reflects an attempt by U.S. officials, increasingly uncomfortable with support for an operation that has been widely condemned by rights groups, to distance themselves from the Yemen campaign without alienating a core Middle Eastern ally. [US Middle East strategy] [Saudi Arabia] [Double standards]
• The ISIS Offensive against Palmyra: A US-NATO Sponsored Operation?
  By Mehmet Ersoy Global Research, December 14, 2016 Inside Syria Media Center 15 December 2016 On December 10, the world media reported that IS terrorists started an offensive on Palmyra liberated by the SAA in spring. According to Syrian MoD, the total number of fighters exceeded 4,000, they used tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and improvised cars with heavy guns. On December 11, the terrorists pushed the government troops and took control over central Palmyra. At the same time Homs governor Talal al-Barazi said that unfortunately only some 80% of Palmyra residents had been evacuated. Within one day, Palmyra saw the continuing intensified clashes between the SAA and ISIS; Damascus and its allies killed more than 300 militants and destroyed dozens of vehicles. However, eventually the troops had to leave the town. Obviously, the Syrian army command was unprepared for such a large-scale attack. Another thing is also clear: the Islamic State wouldn’t been able to deploy such a number of troops and vehicles without any aid. The largest group might have arrived from Raqqa which is about 220 km to the north of Palmyra. Yesterday, various Middle East media reported the terrorists’ success became possible due to the US-led international coalition which had suspended its operations in Raqqa during the offensive on Palmyra. Using such a pause, ISIS regrouped and moved its forces for the upcoming attack on the ancient town. Besides, terrorists seem to have arrived from Deir Ezzor and Iraq’s Mosul through the corridor set up by the coalition. It could be supposed that the movement had been planned and coordinated with the US-led coalition. That means the West once again showed how it is using the Islamic State as a tool for reaching its goals in Syria. [Palmyra] [ISIS] [Outsourcing]
• Who planned the terrorist operation in Palmyra?
  Wed, Dec 14, 2016 The unexpected militant attack on Palmyra on Dec. 10 was an unpleasant revelation for everyone who expected IS/Daesh to quickly succumb after its stinging defeat in Aleppo. Around 5,000 terrorists overcame the resistance of smaller SAA contingent who were forced to withdraw toward the T4 airbase. Fortunately, 80% of the civilians had been successfully evacuated from Palmyra in time, but due to the presence of those remaining, the Russian air force could not be fully utilized to assail the positions of terrorists who had embedded themselves in residential neighborhoods. More than anything else the attack was a serious blow aimed at Russia’s international image, as the world associates her with Palmyra after Valery Gergiev conducted an unforgettable concert there last May. Unfortunately, the Syrian General Staff did not attach much importance to the skirmishes near the hilltop of Qasr al-Halabat southwest of Palmyra, Jabal Hayan in the western suburbs, South Sawamea to the northeast, and the Hawaisis region to the northwest, which took place on Dec. 9 and 10, and as a result the fighting advanced to within four kilometers of the city’s borders. It is quite obvious that the terrorists had been trained in advance to capture the city. Back in late November, hundreds of armed infiltrators posing as civilians were secretly dispatched into Palmyra and at the appointed hour they ambushed the Syrian troops. Under cover of night, other ISIL detachments no less successfully managed to capture the poorly guarded vantage points and – simultaneously with the reinforcements arriving from Raqqa – attacked Assad’s forces that were guarding the city. The total number of fighters taking part in the attack, as well as its timing, is clear evidence that this operation had been more carefully mapped out than is typical for terrorists, which suggests the existence of shadowy consultants working for Daesh. Not to mention the fact that the terrorists had unexpectedly acquired reserve personnel, high-end weaponry, tactical information, and specialized equipment. The way the battle itself unfolded also seems suspicious. Despite heavy losses in manpower and equipment, the terrorists were focused and steady in their efforts to penetrate the residential areas of the city, without pausing to inflict bloodshed or collateral damage. This uncharacteristic behavior suggests that they had been drilled on the need to overtake the Syrian strongholds and make their way into the civilian neighborhoods prior to the arrival of the Russian air force. [Palmyra] [ISIS] [Outsourcing]
• UNICEF: One child dies every 10 minutes in Yemen
  At least 462,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition with 2.2m in need of urgent care, UNICEF says. UNICEF says at least 2.2 million children in Yemen are in need of urgent care [Reuters] More than 400,000 children are at risk of starvation in Yemen, with nearly 2.2 million in need of urgent care, according to the UN children's agency UNICEF. New figures indicate that hunger among children has reached an "all time high," with at least 462,000 suffering from severe acute malnutrition - a drastic increase of about 200 percent since 2014. In a report published on Monday, UNICEF said at least one child dies every 10 minutes because of malnutrition, diarrhoea and respiratory-tract infections "The state of health of children in the Middle East's poorest country has never been as catastrophic as it is today," Meritxell Relano, the agency's acting representative, said in a statement. "Malnutrition in Yemen is at an all-time high and increasing." Severe acute malnutrition is a major cause of death for children under the age of five, and is apparent when a child has a very low weight for their height and becomes visibly frail and skeletal. Saada governorate, the most heavily bombed region in Yemen, has the world's highest stunting rates among children, affecting eight out of 10 in some areas, it said. [Yemen] [Saudi Arabia] [Double standards]
• Trump takes aim at Pentagon’s ‘revolving door’ and Lockheed Martin’s $400 billion F-35 program
  By Christian Davenport December 12 at 10:45 AM President-elect Donald Trump took aim at another major defense contractor on Monday, saying the cost of Lockheed Martin's F-35 fighter jet program was too high. (Reuters) Just over a year after Northrop Grumman won the multibillion dollar contract to build a next-generation stealth bomber, the company appointed Mark Welsh, who was serving as Air Force chief of staff at the time of the contract award, to its board. The appointment, announced Friday, is not unusual in Washington, where former high-ranking Pentagon officials often go to work for the defense industry after their military service. But it comes as President-elect Donald Trump is highlighting the potential conflicts of interests in the “revolving door” between the Pentagon and industry, as he vows to clean up Washington. On Monday, Trump also took a shot at Lockheed Martin’s $400 billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, the most expensive in the history of the Pentagon, saying the “cost is out of control. Billions of dollars can and will be saved on military (and other) purchases after January 20th.” [Trump] [Military industrial complex] [F-35]
• Syrian forces push Aleppo rebels to brink as city nears ‘total collapse’
  By Louisa Loveluck December 12 at 8:31 PM BEIRUT — Syrian forces in the northern city of Aleppo pinned down rebel fighters to a sliver of territory on Monday as President Bashar al-Assad’s troops appeared close to capturing their biggest battlefield prize and delivering a crushing loss to the opposition. Taking full control of Aleppo — whose eastern districts were among the last urban strongholds of the rebels — would not end the more than five-year-long conflict that has ravaged Syria and scattered millions of war refugees across the Middle East and Europe. But Aleppo’s fall would mark a major setback for rebel factions and leave them — and their Western and Arab allies — struggling for ways to keep the anti- Assad rebellion alive. [Aleppo]
• Syrian Government Moves Closer to Completely Controlling Aleppo
  By Anne Barnard Dec. 12, 2016 BEIRUT, Lebanon — The siege in Aleppo is almost over. Advances by Syrian government forces and their allies have squeezed the fighters and civilians remaining in rebel-held parts of the city into a sliver of territory, spokesmen for the government and the opposition forces said on Monday. The last civilians caught in the shrinking antigovernment enclave issued panicked calls for help. Late Monday, several residents reported via text and voice messages that they were crowded into abandoned apartments and rainy streets, exposed to shelling and afraid they would be killed or arrested if pro-government forces reached them, as antigovernment activists circulated reports of scores of summary killings in retaken areas. The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said in a statement on Monday that he was alarmed by reports of atrocities against a large number of civilians, including women and children.
  It appeared increasingly likely that the government would gain control of the whole of Aleppo, the largest city in Syria, within days, if not hours. Videos from government-held districts showed people celebrating in the streets, waving flags and honking horns. [Aleppo] [Public opinion] [Media]
• Advice for the 45th U.S. President: Opinions from Across the Pacific
  The election of Donald Trump as the next President of the United States surprised observers on both sides of the Pacific and raised more questions than answers in terms of what it means for U.S. policy in Asia. Primarily, what policy course will a Trump administration chart in the region? On December 13, 2016 the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) addressed this critical topic by launching a new briefing book, Advice for the 45th U.S. President: Opinions from Across the Pacific. Drawing on our global network of high-level advisors, ASPI has compiled a series of short policy memos for the next administration, providing regional perspectives on what U.S. policy could look like if its partners were writing the script. Our aim is to provide the next President with practical advice on what motivates Asian countries, how they view America's role in the Pacific, and what their priorities and concerns will be for the next several years. The briefing book includes perspectives from regional leaders who have experienced first-hand the challenges of managing Asia's complex relationships. Authors include: • Chan Heng Chee, Chairwoman of the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities and former Ambassador of the Republic of Singapore to the United States • Choi Seokyoung, Visiting Professor at the Graduate School of International Studies at Seoul National University and former Permanent Representative of the Republic of Korea to the World Trade Organization • Peter Jennings, Executive Director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and former Deputy Secretary for Strategy in the Australian Department of Defence • Yoriko Kawaguchi, Professor at the Meiji Institute for Global Affairs and former Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of the Environment • Ken Koyama, Chief Economist and Managing Director for Japan's Institute for Energy Economics • Shivshankar Menon, Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Institute of Chinese Studies in New Delhi and former Indian National Security Adviser • Wang Jisi, President of the Institute of International and Strategic Studies at Peking University [Trump] [US Asia]
• In Washington, Syrian opposition offers to work with Trump and Russia
  By Josh Rogin Global Opinions December 11 Last week, two top leaders of the Syrian civilian opposition quietly visited Washington to meet with lawmakers and experts with connections to the Trump transition team. Their mission was as simple as it was urgent: to convince Donald Trump that he needs Syria’s rebels as much as they need him. Before the election, Trump often railed against the U.S.-backed resistance to the regime of Bashar al-Assad, suggesting the United States did not understand its true nature and questioning whether the success of the Syrian revolution would be better than the preservation of the Assad regime. Trump pledged to join with Moscow to fight the “terrorists” without defining who they were. He even declared that the city of Aleppo had fallen although rebels and civilians there are still fighting for survival. The aim of opposition leaders is to convince the next president that the Syrian civil war, and the threat it poses to vital U.S. interests, cannot be ended without their collaboration. In an interview, they told me that they want to help the Trump administration work with Russia and against the terrorists. [US Syria policy] [Proxy] [Client]
• Islamic State re-enters Syria's Palmyra
  Xinhua, December 11, 2016 The Islamic State (IS) group entered the ancient city of Palmyra in central Syria on Saturday, nine months after the Syrian army captured it, a monitor group reported. "The IS is in the city of Palmyra for the first time after losing it to the Syrian army, whose forces are collapsing in the city," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The UK-based watchdog group said the IS group succeeded to advance and reach the vicinity of the Palmyra hospital in the northwestern outskirts of the city, after capturing the Amiriyeh suburb in the northern part. The IS militants also captured the Tar mountain, close to the Palmyra Citadel, west of the city, in tandem with shelling the citadel with mortar shells and heavy artillery. The Observatory said intense battles are still raging between the IS militants and the Syrian government forces in the city. [ISIS]
• Constitutional Crisis, Movement to Undermine President-elect Donald Trump’s Accession to the White House?
  America is gearing towards a Constitutional Crisis
  By Prof Michel Chossudovsky Global Research, December 09, 2016 Author’s note: This article does not constitute an endorsement of Donald Trump. Quite the opposite. The focus is on an unfolding constitutional crisis. While Trump has put together a right wing cabinet of arch reactionaries which largely conforms to the mainstay of the Republican Party, the bi-partisan “entente cordiale” is in crisis. The powerful corporate interests which supported the Clinton candidacy remain intent upon undermining Trump’s accession to the White House. Global capitalism is by no means monolithic. What is at stake are fundamental rivalries within the US establishment marked by the clash between competing corporate factions, each of which is intent upon exerting control over the incoming US presidency. In this regard, Trump is not entirely in the pocket of the lobby groups. As a member of the establishment, he has his own corporate sponsors. His stated foreign policy agenda including his commitment to revise Washington’s relationship with Moscow does not fully conform with the interests of the defence contractors. In contrast, Hillary takes her instructions from a panoply of corporate lobby groups including the defence establishment, the oil conglomerates, Wall Street hedge funds, etc. not to mention Monsanto-Bayer, which has generously funded her election campaign. [US_Election16] [Trump] [Russia confrontation] [Canard] [coup]
• Pentagon expands Syria force ahead of assault on militant capital
  By Missy Ryan December 10 at 2:18 AM ? Troops identified by Syrian Democratic forces as members of U.S. special operations are seen May 25, 2016 near the village of Fatisah in the northern Syrian province of Raqqa on May 25, 2016. (AFP/Getty Images) The Pentagon will send another 200 Special Operations troops to Syria, a senior official said on Saturday, substantially expanding the U.S. military footprint as part of an effort to topple the Islamic State capital there. Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter, speaking at a conference in Bahrain, said the troops would include trainers, advisers and explosives specialists. He said the increase would better enable the United States to support allied Syrian forces who were now only 15 miles from Raqqa, the Syrian city where the Islamic State is expected to make a final stand. The Obama administration currently has about 300 Special Operations troops in Syria. Those troops are “bringing down to bear the full weight of U.S. forces around the theater of operations like the funnel of a giant tornado,” Carter said, according to prepared remarks released before his address. A senior defense official, speaking in a statement provided to reporters, said the addition of new forces was “tied to the growing number of local forces now willing to participate in this fight, and our efforts to enable them.” The announcement comes as U.S. military commanders seek to advance plans, which President Obama approved in October, to launch an operation to capture Raqqa using a Kurdish-dominated group known as the Syrian Democratic Forces. [US Syria policy] [Special forces] [Kurds] [Proxy]
• Was 11/8 a new 9/11?
  The election that changed everything and could prove history’s deal-breaker
  by Tom Engelhardt, 5 December 2016 For decades, Washington had a habit of using the Central Intelligence Agency to deep-six governments of the people, by the people, and for the people that weren’t to its taste and replacing them with governments of the [take your choice: military junta, shah, autocrat, dictator] across the planet.
  At least those acts remained largely covert, undoubtedly reflecting a sense that this wasn’t the sort of thing you should proudly broadcast in the light of day. In the early years of the twenty-first century, however, a new mindset emerged. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, “regime change” became the phrase du jour. As a course of action, there was no longer anything to be covert about. Instead, the process was debated openly and carried out in the full glare of media attention. [Trump] [Climate change]
• How War Propaganda Keeps on Killing
  By Robert Parry Consortiumnews 7 December 2016 A key reason why American foreign debacles have been particularly destructive mostly to the countries attacked but also to the United States is that these interventions are always accompanied by major U.S. government investments in propaganda. So, even when officials recognize a misjudgment has been made, the propaganda machinery continues to grind on to prevent a timely reversal. In effect, Official Washington gets trapped by its own propaganda, which restricts the government’s ability to change direction even when the need for a shift becomes obvious. After all, once a foreign leader is demonized, it’s hard for a U.S. official to explain that the leader may not be all that bad or is at least better than the likely alternative. So, it’s not just that officials start believing their own propaganda, it’s that the propaganda takes on a life of its own and keeps the failed policy churning forward. It’s a bit like the old story of the chicken that continues to run around with its head cut off. In the case of the U.S. government, the pro-war or pro-intervention “group think” continues to run amok even after wiser policymakers recognize the imperative to change course. The reason for that dilemma is that so much money gets spread around to pay for the propaganda and so many careers are tethered to the storyline that it’s easier to let thousands of U.S. soldiers and foreign citizens die than to admit that the policy was built on distortions, propaganda and lies. That would be bad for one’s career. And, because of the lag time required for contracts to be issued and the money to flow into the propaganda shops, the public case for the policy can outlive the belief that the policy makes sense. [Propaganda] [Military-Industrial complex] [Liberal]
• U.K.-U.S. Called Israel 'True Threat' to Middle East
  A 2008 document, leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden, says the British were concerned about Israel's stance on Iran. GCHQ also spied on Israeli diplomats, and defense firms. Haaretz and JTA Dec 07, 2016 10:33 PM Edward Snowden speaks via video link during a conference at University of Buenos Aires Law School, Argentina, November 14, 2016. Marcos Brindicci, Reuters British intelligence spied on Israeli diplomats, Snowden leaks reveal Der Spiegel: Germany spying on Israeli Prime Minister's Office U.K.-U.S. spy operations also reportedly targeted Israeli missile project British intelligence spied on Israeli diplomats and firms in addition to its military, the French daily Le Monde reported on Wednesday, based on leaked documents that came into the possession of whistleblower Edward Snowden. In one of the files, Britain’s GCHQ intelligence-gathering apparatus defined Israel as "a true threat" to the Middle East. “The Israelis constitute a true threat to regional security, notably because of the country’s position on the Iran issue," a leaked top secret document from 2009 said. According to Le Monde, the GCHQ collected information on Israeli diplomats, including a person described by the newspaper as the second-highest ranking official in the Israeli foreign ministry. That person was not named. The British also spied on the Palestinian Authority, the report said. [Espionage] [Israel] [UK]
• Syrian army retakes Aleppo’s Old City as rebels discuss exit
  Smoke billows near the historic citadel during fighting between Syrian regime forces and rebel fighters in Aleppo on Dec. 3. (Youssef Karwashan/AFP/Getty Images) By Louisa Loveluck and Karen DeYoung December 7 at 6:38 PM ? BEIRUT — Syrian government forces swept through the Old City of Aleppo on Wednesday as rebel forces — besieged and facing certain defeat — debated when to withdraw from their shattered stronghold. The government’s push into the historic heart of Syria’s largest city marks a defining moment in more than five years of war. The army and allied militiamen now control three-quarters of east Aleppo, the rebels’ most important enclave. The accelerating rebel collapse came as Secretary of State John F. Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met in Germany for a last-ditch effort to agree on conditions that would allow the city to be evacuated. Kerry said the two would meet again Thursday morning. [Aleppo]
• Americans Are Paying Apple Millions to Shelter Overseas Profits
  by Andrea Wong December 7, 2016 Over the years, Apple Inc. has become the poster child for U.S. multinationals accused of sheltering overseas profits to avoid the IRS. What’s gone largely unnoticed is that it’s been paid more than half a billion dollars by the U.S. government to do just that. Taking advantage of an exemption tucked into America’s Byzantine tax code, Apple stashed much of its foreign earnings—tax-free—right here in the U.S., in part by purchasing government bonds, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. In return, the Treasury Department paid Apple at least $600 million and possibly much more over the past five years in the form of interest, a Bloomberg review of its regulatory filings shows. [Apple] [Tax evasion] [Corporate power]
• Trump hires a third general, raising concerns about heavy military influence
  By Philip Rucker and Mike DeBonis December 7 at 6:43 PM ? President-elect Donald Trump has selected retired Marine Gen. John F. Kelly as secretary of homeland security, officials familiar with the decision said Wednesday, recruiting a third former member of the military’s brass to serve at the highest levels of his administration. Trump’s choice of Kelly — and his continued deliberations about tapping as many as two more military figures for other posts — has intensified worries among some members of Congress and national security experts that the new administration’s policies may be shaped disproportionately by military commanders. “I’m concerned,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the Foreign Relations Committee. “Each of these individuals may have great merit in their own right, but what we’ve learned over the past 15 years is that when we view problems in the world through a military lens, we make big mistakes.” Despite making regular remarks on the campaign trail disparaging the nation’s generals, Trump has long shown an affinity for them. In shaping his administration, Trump has prioritized what one adviser described as “can-do, no-bull types,” which the president-elect sees as a deliberate contrast from the personnel choices President Obama has made. [Trump] [Militarisation]
• U.S. life expectancy declines for the first time since 1993
  By Lenny Bernstein December 8 at 12:01 AM ? For the first time in more than two decades, life expectancy for Americans declined last year — a troubling development linked to a panoply of worsening health problems in the United States. Rising fatalities from heart disease and stroke, diabetes, drug overdoses, accidents and other conditions caused the lower life expectancy revealed in a report released Thursday by the National Center for Health Statistics. In all, death rates rose for eight of the top 10 leading causes of death. Life expectancy at selected ages, by sex (CDC/NCHS/HHS/NVSS) “I think we should be very concerned,” said Princeton economist Anne Case, who called for thorough research on the increase in deaths from heart disease, the No. 1 killer in the United States. “This is singular. This doesn’t happen.” A year ago, research by Case and Angus Deaton, also an economist at Princeton, brought worldwide attention to the unexpected jump in mortality rates among white middle-aged Americans. That trend was blamed on what are sometimes called diseases of despair: overdoses, alcoholism and suicide. The new report raises the possibility that major illnesses may be eroding prospects for an even wider group of Americans. [Health] [Life expectancy]
• 'Threshold not crossed’: Boris Johnson denies Saudi bombing massacres in Yemen breach int'l law
  The UK government does not believe that Saudi Arabia’s bombing campaign in Yemen violates international law, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said, defending the UK’s arms sales to Riyadh and expressing support for the Arab kingdom. “So far, we do not believe that there has been a clear risk of a breach of the international humanitarian law,” Johnson told BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show, referring to the Saudi actions in Yemen and adding: “At the moment, we do not think the threshold has been crossed.” [Boris Johnston] [Saudi Arabia] [Yemen] [Double standards] [Arms sales]
• How Iran closed the Mosul 'horseshoe' and changed Iraq war
  By Dominic Evans, Maher Chmaytelli and Patrick Markey | BAGHDAD/ERBIL, Iraq In the early days of the assault on Islamic State in Mosul, Iran successfully pressed Iraq to change its battle plan and seal off the city, an intervention which has since shaped the tortuous course of the conflict, sources briefed on the plan say. The original campaign strategy called for Iraqi forces to close in around Mosul in a horseshoe formation, blocking three fronts but leaving open the fourth - to the west of the city leading to Islamic State territory in neighboring Syria. That model, used to recapture several Iraqi cities from the ultra-hardline militants in the last two years, would have left fighters and civilians a clear route of escape and could have made the Mosul battle quicker and simpler. But Tehran, anxious that retreating fighters would sweep back into Syria just as Iran's ally President Bashar al-Assad was gaining the upper hand in his country's five-year civil war, wanted Islamic State crushed and eliminated in Mosul. The sources say Iran lobbied for Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization fighters to be sent to the western front to seal off the link between Mosul and Raqqa, the two main cities of Islamic State's self-declared cross-border caliphate. That link is now broken. For the first time in Iraq's two-and-half-year, Western-backed drive to defeat Islamic State, several thousand militants have little choice but to fight to the death, and 1 million remaining Mosul citizens have no escape from the front lines creeping ever closer to the city center. [Mosul] [Iran] [ISIS]
• Pentagon buries evidence of $125 billion in bureaucratic waste
  By Craig Whitlock and Bob Woodward December 5 at 6:47 PM ? Pentagon buries internal study documenting billions of dollars in waste The Pentagon has buried an internal study that exposed $125 billion in administrative waste, according to findings by The Washington Post. (Victoria Walker/The Washington Post) The Pentagon has buried an internal study that exposed $125 billion in administrative waste in its business operations amid fears Congress would use the findings as an excuse to slash the defense budget, according to interviews and confidential memos obtained by The Washington Post. Pentagon leaders had requested the study to help make their enormous back-office bureaucracy more efficient and reinvest any savings in combat power. But after the project documented far more wasteful spending than expected, senior defense officials moved swiftly to kill it by discrediting and suppressing the results. The report, issued in January 2015, identified “a clear path” for the Defense Department to save $125 billion over five years. The plan would not have required layoffs of civil servants or reductions in military personnel. Instead, it would have streamlined the bureaucracy through attrition and early retirements, curtailed high-priced contractors and made better use of information technology. [Pentagon] [Military-Industrial complex] [Corruption] [Incompetence]
• Can Iran moderates hold ground against US pressure?
  TEHRAN, Iran — The US House of Representatives voted to extend the Iran Sanctions Act (ISA) on Nov. 15, and the Senate followed suit on Dec. 1, approving the measure in a vote of 99-0 and sending it to President Barack Obama for his signature. “We believe the Iran Sanctions Act extension is not necessary, but we also believe it won't interfere with the Iran deal,” said Eric Schultz, deputy White House press secretary. “I would expect the president to sign this piece of legislation.” The US Congress vote to extend the Iran Sanctions Act has provoked harsh rhetoric in Tehran as well as a tempered response from decision-makers. Author Rohollah FaghihiPosted December 6, 2016 US sanctions against Iran had originally been set out in 1996 in the Iran Libya Sanctions Act (ILSA) “to impose sanctions on persons making certain investments directly and significantly contributing to the enhancement of the ability of Iran or Libya to develop its petroleum resources.” After sanctions on Libya ended, the ILSA was renamed the Iran Sanctions Act, which passed in 2006. The day after the November House vote, Iran adopted a strident tone in warning about its consequences. On Nov. 16, Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), said, “If you extend the sanctions, this will mean kicking out the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action], and we will confront it through implementing powerful technical packages.” Moreover, in a Nov. 23 meeting with members of the volunteer Basij forces, the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said, “If these sanctions are extended, it will surely constitute a violation of the JCPOA, and [the United States] should know that the Islamic Republic will definitely react to it.” [Iran deal] [Renege]
• Syrian rebels in talks with U.S. about surrender in Aleppo, evacuation
  Secretary of State John F. Kerry said he plans to meet with his Russian counterpart later this week for further talks on a proposal for the rebels’ departure from Aleppo that was first discussed Friday. (Francois Lenoir/Reuters) By Karen DeYoung December 6 at 3:50 PM ? BRUSSELS — The United States is discussing with Syrian rebels their surrender and evacuation from Aleppo, as Russia on Tuesday threatened the imminent “elimination” of anyone who refuses to leave the city. “Those who refuse to leave of their own accord will be wiped out,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Moscow. “There is no other solution.” Secretary of State John F. Kerry, in Brussels for a meeting of NATO foreign ministers, said he expects to meet with Lavrov later this week for further talks on a proposal for the rebels’ departure that was first discussed Friday. But hopes of agreement on the new plan to stop the carnage in Aleppo again appeared to falter amid charges, countercharges and confusion. Russian-backed Syrian forces­ made further gains Tuesday in reclaiming rebel-held eastern neighborhoods of the city amid heavy civilian casualties. [Aleppo] [Proxy] [Kerry]
• Post-election, will the US have an Asia policy?
  5 November 2016 Author: Sheila A. Smith, Council on Foreign Relations The Obama administration’s rebalance to Asia has sought to energise US partnerships in the region, stabilise relations with an increasingly assertive China and embed the United States in the economic prosperity of the region. But as Obama’s time in office comes to an end, the rebalance has been found wanting. And his successor’s efforts will be gravely hampered by the challenges revealed during the 2016 presidential election. [US Asia]
• Syrian troops close in on Aleppo's Old City
  By Angus McDowall , John Davison and Stephanie Nebehay | BEIRUT/GENEVA Syria's army and allies closed in on areas near Aleppo's Old City on Tuesday, looking closer than ever to achieving their most important victory of the five year civil war by driving rebels out of their last urban stronghold. Rebels said on Tuesday they would never abandon Aleppo, after reports that U.S. and Russian diplomats were preparing to meet to discuss the surrender and evacuation of insurgents from territory they have held for years. Russia said its Syrian government allies had taken control of five more districts of Aleppo, and had now seized 35 districts from the rebels during an advance that has changed the course of the conflict. The government now appears closer to victory than at any point since 2012, the year after rebels took up arms to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad in a war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people, made more than half of Syrians homeless and created the world's worst refugee crisis. The Syrian Foreign Ministry said it would accept no truce at this point in Aleppo, should any outside parties try to negotiate one. Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution on Monday calling for a weeklong ceasefire. Moscow said rebels used such pauses in the past to reinforce. Rebel-held districts of Aleppo, reduced to a few kilometers across, where tens of thousands of civilians are trapped, looks set to fall. The United Nations, whose staff are restricted to government-controlled areas of the city, on Tuesday described "a very disastrous situation in eastern Aleppo". [Aleppo] [Hypocrisy] [Outsourcing]
• Can The Iranian Nuclear Deal Survive The Trump Presidency?
  12/06/2016 Daniel Wagner Managing Director of Risk Cooperative / Co-author of “Global Risk Agility and Decision Making”. Giorgio Cafiero CEO and co-founder of Gulf State Analytics, a Washington, DC-based geopolitical risk consultancy Donald Trump’s shocking victory will bear important, albeit unclear, implications for a variety of America’s bilateral relationships, few more important than its relationship with Iran and the impact that may have on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Throughout his campaign, Trump made no secret of his opposition to the deal. In March, when he addressed the annual AIPAC meeting in Washington, Trump declared that his “number-one priority is to dismantle the disastrous deal with Iran.” Shortly after the news of Trump’s victory, Reuters reported that the election’s outcome had placed JCPOA on “shaky ground,” and one knowledgeable commentator said simply “say goodbye to the Iran deal.” Yet even if Trump takes action to retard JCPOA’s implementation, he cannot single-handedly tear the nuclear deal to shreds. [Iran deal] [Trump] [Renege]
• . Why Everything You’ve Read About Syria and Iraq Could be Wrong
  by Patrick Cockburn December 2, 2016 The Iraqi army, backed by US-led airstrikes, is trying to capture east Mosul at the same time as the Syrian army and its Shia paramilitary allies are fighting their way into east Aleppo. An estimated 300 civilians have been killed in Aleppo by government artillery and bombing in the last fortnight, and in Mosul there are reportedly some 600 civilian dead over a month. Despite these similarities, the reporting by the international media of these two sieges is radically different. In Mosul, civilian loss of life is blamed on Isis, with its indiscriminate use of mortars and suicide bombers, while the Iraqi army and their air support are largely given a free pass. Isis is accused of preventing civilians from leaving the city so they can be used as human shields. [Media] [Double standards] [Mosul] [Aleppo] [Propaganda]
• Congress authorizes Trump to arm Syrian rebels with anti-aircraft missiles
  The House voted for the first time today to explicitly authorize the incoming Donald Trump administration to arm vetted Syrian rebels with anti-aircraft missiles. The House passed a defense bill that conditionally allows the provision of MANPADs to anti-Syrian regime forces. Author Julian Pecquet Posted December 2, 2016 While the language in the annual defense bill also creates restrictions on the provision of the controversial weapons, it represents a win for Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., a fervent advocate of helping the rebels resist President Bashar al-Assad and his Russian and Iranian allies. The Senate is expected to pass the bill next week. Until now, the transfer of man-portable air-defense systems, or MANPADs, had been implicitly authorized in the absence of an outright ban. Critics, however, view the new provision as tantamount to a policy recommendation for the president-elect. "I'm more afraid of Congress on this issue than I am of Trump,” said Robert Naiman, the policy director at Just Foreign Policy, a liberal advocacy group that lobbied for a ban. “I think Congress is trying to tie Trump's hands against making a realistic deal with Russia to end the Syrian civil war. And they are trying to pressure him in the direction of not doing that," he told Al-Monitor. Trump was outspoken about his reluctance to get dragged into the Syrian civil war throughout the presidential campaign. He has since picked hawkish advisers and candidates for Cabinet positions, including retired Marine Gen. James Mattis as secretary of defense. Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/12/defense-ndaa-congress-manpads-syria.html#ixzz4RzZpshUQ [US Syria policy] [Outsourcing] [Trump] [Congress]
• For 10 years, a fake U.S. embassy in Ghana sold illegal visas and ID papers
  By Greg Hadley Every Monday, Tuesday and Friday for the past decade, a pink building in Accra, the capital city of Ghana, flew an American flag from 7 a.m. to 12 p.m. Inside, a portrait of President Barack Obama hung on the wall, and people claiming to be consulate workers speaking English sold visas to the U.S., India and other countries to rural Ghanaians for $6,000 apiece. It was all a fraud, a scheme of organized crime rings and a Ghanaian lawyer to defraud people of tens of thousands of dollars, according to the U.S. State Department, which recently raided and shut down the fake embassy. And it wasn’t just the U.S. There was also a fake Dutch embassy being run as well. ADVERTISING The U.S. does have a real embassy in Accra, and a standard tourism visa costs $160, according to the U.S. Department of State’s website. But Ghanaian and Turkish crime syndicates were able to keep their fraudulent business going for so long by bribing corrupt local officials and doctoring bank statements, according to the State Department. They also specifically targeted people who lived in rural areas of Africa who would be easier to fool. Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/article118758218.html#storylink=cpy [Bizarre]
• Why Aleppo’s fall will be a game-changer for Turkey
  Soon after the insurgency in Syria got underway, Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan revealed his sensitivity about Aleppo for the first time. Around midnight on March 29, 2011, we were on board his aircraft flying back to Turkey from his visit to Iraq. Erdogan had made history as the first Turkish prime minister to pay an official visit to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). The recapture of Aleppo by Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s forces could turn the tables on Turkey. Cengiz Çandar Posted December 1, 2016 We were flying from Erbil back to Ankara, following a dinner given in his honor in the residence of once-and-future KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, in the presence of his uncle and father-in-law, KRG President Massoud Barzani. There were three of us journalists listening to Erdogan; one is now an adviser to Erdogan, who became president in 2014, and the other is at large as a wanted Gulenist following the failed July 15 coup attempt. In 2011, the so-called Arab Spring had just knocked on Syria's door with March 15 disturbances in the southern town of Daraa and with some minor demonstrations in Damascus. It was too early to call it an uprising. But what if the disturbances in Syria turned into a revolutionary situation such as those in Tunisia and Egypt, I wondered. At that point, Erdogan was a close friend of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, an Alawite, and Syria's Sunni majority had pinned its hopes on Erdogan as a pious Sunni leader of its strong neighbor, Turkey. Would not the evolution of events in Syria be an embarrassment for Erdogan? How would he tackle it in such a case? Erdogan expressed the geopolitical importance of Syria, especially Aleppo, to Turkey. [Erdogan] [Aleppo]
• After a mere 25 years, the triumph of the West is over
  By Charles Krauthammer Opinion writer December 1 at 7:25 PM ? Twenty-five years ago — December 1991 — communism died, the Cold War ended and the Soviet Union disappeared. It was the largest breakup of an empire in modern history and not a shot was fired. It was an event of biblical proportions that my generation thought it would never live to see. As Wordsworth famously rhapsodized (about the French Revolution), “Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive/But to be young was very heaven!” That dawn marked the ultimate triumph of the liberal democratic idea. It promised an era of Western dominance led by a preeminent America, the world’s last remaining superpower. And so it was for a decade as the community of democracies expanded, first into Eastern Europe and former Soviet colonies. The U.S. was so dominant that when, on Dec. 31, 1999, it gave up one of the most prized geostrategic assets on the globe — the Panama Canal — no one even noticed. That era is over. [Hegemony] [Decline]
• Iran says extension of sanctions act shows U.S. unreliable
  Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is pictured after meeting with Lebanese President Michel Aoun at the presidential palace in Baabda, near Beirut, Lebanon November 7, 2016. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir A U.S. Senate vote to extend the Iran Sanctions Act (ISA) for 10 years shows the world that Washington cannot be relied upon to act on its commitments, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Saturday. Iran has vowed to retaliate against the ISA extension, passed unanimously on Thursday, saying it violated last year's agreement with six major powers to curb its nuclear program in return for lifting of international financial sanctions. "To the world community, the extension of sanctions against Iran shows the unreliability of the American government," state broadcaster IRIB quoted Zarif as saying on arriving in India for an official visit. "America is acting against its commitment." U.S. officials said the ISA renewal would not infringe the nuclear agreement. U.S. lawmakers have also said the ISA extension would make it easier for sanctions to be quickly reimposed if Iran contravened the nuclear deal.. [Iran deal] [Renege] [Congress]
• Trump’s emerging Cabinet is looking less Trumpian than expected
  By John Wagner and Sean Sullivan December 3 at 2:24 PM Just two weeks ago, President-elect Donald Trump appeared poised to assemble a Cabinet as unconventional as he is, drawing heavily from a band of quirky loyalists that included several from the fringes of the Republican Party. But as he moves rapidly toward assembling his roster of top advisers, Trump instead is pulling together a more orthodox GOP team than many expected, including a defense secretary nominee, retired Marine Gen. James Mattis, who has received solid marks from the party establishment ahead of his formal unveiling Monday. The emerging Cabinet has gone a long way toward mollifying some of Trump’s Republican critics, and several of the picks — including the wife of the Senate majority leader as transportation secretary — are tailor-made to encourage cooperation between the administration and GOP leaders on Capitol Hill. The incoming team is preparing not only to implement longtime Republicans goals — such as repealing the Affordable Care Act and cutting taxes — but also to push for Trump’s iconoclastic and controversial campaign promises on issues such as a border wall and trade. But the group and the president-elect are also fraught with conflicting views over key issues including Iran policy, Medicare and immigration, raising the risk of infighting and fractiousness both within the administration and with Congress. Several of Trump’s early personnel picks were “more directly in your face, while others that have come forward since then are decidedly less so,” said Thomas E. Mann, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington. “At this point, I would say the Republican establishment that was so attacked by Trump during the campaign is doing pretty well in shaping his administration.” [Continuities] [Trump]
• Roaming Charges: The CIA’s Plots to Kill Castro
  by Jeffrey St. Clair When it came to trying to eliminate Fidel Castro, the Central Intelligence Agency spared no effort across a quarter of a century. In 1975, former CIA director William Colby admitted to the US Senate’s Church Committee investigating CIA abuses that the agency had tried and failed to kill Castro several times, but, Colby claimed, not nearly as often as its critics alleged. “It wasn’t for lack of trying,” Colby observed. “Castro gave McGovern in 1975 a list of the attempts made on his life – there were about thirty by that time – as he said, by the CIA. McGovern gave it to me and I looked through it and checked it off against our records and said we could account for about five or six. The others – I can understand Castro’s feeling about them because they were all ex-Bay of Pigs people or something like that, so he thinks they’re all CIA. Once you get into one of them, then bingo! – you get blamed for all the rest. We didn’t have any connections with the rest of them, but we’d never convince Castro of that.” [Fidel] [Assassination]
• Does an "ageing population" make it harder to afford our NHS? A look behind the rhetoric
  Stephen Watkins 30 November 2016 Jeremy Hunt claims the "ageing population" poses a challenge "as serious as global warming". New UKIP leader Paul Nuttall says the "ageing population" will force us to see the NHS as merely a "monolithic hangover from days gone by". OurNHS thought it was time to examine such claims - and finds they distort a much more interesting reality...
  The most optimistic scenario however is that we will live longer and we will spend less of that time ill. For each extra year of life there will be fewer years of woe. We will live longer and die quicker. My preferred mode of death is to be shot by a jealous lover at the age of 104: [Ageing society]
• Introduction: Perspectives on the Bombing of Civilians From World War II to the Present
  Claire Andrieu and Mark Selden December 1, 2016 The articles included in this special issue on the bombing of civilians from World War II to the present represent a selection drawn from a December 2015 Paris workshop held on the seventieth anniversary of the end of World War II. The workshop was organized by the Mass Violence & Resistance online journal (CERI-Sciences Po and the Center for History at Sciences Po) in partnership with the Asia-Pacific Journal and is being published simultaneously at both sites. This bouquet of articles opens with Sheldon Garon’s depiction of the transnational knowledge transfer of civil defense praxis from 1920 to 1945. The first aerial bombing occurred in 1911 in Libya. But it was the First World War which made clear its revolutionary potential. [Bombing] [Civilians] [History] [Nuclear weapons] [Firebombing]
• Obama, Trump, and the Future of U.S. Foreign Policy
  The Obama administration will soon hand over power to a Trump administration that shares some of the very same foreign policy commitments. By Edward Hunt, November 23, 2016. Originally published in Lobelog. Amid all the uncertainty about what a Trump presidency means for the future role of the United States in the world, one possibility is that Trump will embrace some variant of the policies that have been pursued for the past few decades by the nation’s foreign policy establishment. Although Trump may break sharply with the establishment consensus that the United States must play the lead role in imposing order on the world, many signs indicate that Trump will continue to ensure that the United States plays the dominant role in policing the world. [Trump] [Foreign policy] [Continuities]
• Trump’s Falling for the Same Old ‘War on Terror’ Fantasies
  If Trump really sought to make America great again, he'd extricate the U.S. from war. But early signs aren't promising. By Andrew Bacevich, November 30, 2016. Originally published in TomDispatch. President-elect Donald Trump’s message for the nation’s senior military leadership is ambiguously unambiguous. Here is he on 60 Minutes just days after winning the election. Trump: “We have some great generals. We have great generals.” Lesley Stahl: “You said you knew more than the generals about ISIS.” Trump: “Well, I’ll be honest with you, I probably do because look at the job they’ve done. OK, look at the job they’ve done. They haven’t done the job.” In reality, Trump, the former reality show host, knows next to nothing about ISIS, one of many gaps in his education that his impending encounter with actual reality is likely to fill. Yet when it comes to America’s generals, our president-to-be is onto something. No doubt our three- and four-star officers qualify as “great” in the sense that they mean well, work hard, and are altogether fine men and women. That they have not “done the job,” however, is indisputable — at least if their job is to bring America’s wars to a timely and successful conclusion. Trump’s unhappy verdict — that the senior U.S. military leadership doesn’t know how to win — applies in spades to the two principal conflicts of the post-9/11 era: the Afghanistan War, now in its 16th year, and the Iraq War, launched in 2003 and (after a brief hiatus) once more grinding on. Yet the verdict applies equally to lesser theaters of conflict, largely overlooked by the American public, that in recent years have engaged the attention of U.S. forces, a list that would include conflicts in Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen. Granted, our generals have demonstrated an impressive aptitude for moving pieces around on a dauntingly complex military chessboard. Brigades, battle groups, and squadrons shuttle in and out of various war zones, responding to the needs of the moment. The sheer immensity of the enterprise across the Greater Middle East and northern Africa — the sorties flown, munitions expended, the seamless deployment and redeployment of thousands of troops over thousands of miles, the vast stockpiles of material positioned, expended, and continuously resupplied — represents a staggering achievement. Measured by these or similar quantifiable outputs, America’s military has excelled. No other military establishment in history could have come close to duplicating the logistical feats being performed year in, year out by the armed forces of the United States. [Trump] [Foreign policy] [Continuities] [US military]
• Accidental strikes on Syrian forces were the result of human error, Pentagon investigation finds
  By Thomas Gibbons-Neff November 29 at 1:36 PM ? A U.S. Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet conducts a mission over the Persian Gulf. (Tech. Sgt. Rob Tabor/ U.S. Air Force) An investigation into several U.S., Danish, British and Australian airstrikes that accidentally decimated positions belonging to Syrian government forces in September concluded that the attack was the result of multiple human errors, the Pentagon announced Tuesday. U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Richard “Tex” Coe, the officer who oversaw the investigation, told reporters that intelligence assets monitored a vehicle believed to have been aligned with the Islamic State in eastern Syria’s Deir al-Zour province, and followed it to a position with dozens of troops, tents, entrenchments and at least one tank. [After an apparently errant strike in Syria, confusion and competing claims] On Sept. 17, that position was struck by F-16s, F-18s, drones and A-10 ground attack aircraft, dropping 34 precision-guided munitions and firing 380 rounds of 30 mm cannon fire within the span of an hour, killing dozens of Syrians. Coe said the presence of the vehicle, compounded by the troops’ lack of uniforms or identifying features, gave the targeting personnel watching the area what he called “confirmation bias,” and they concluded they were looking at an Islamic State encampment. [US Syria policy] [Bombing] [Spin]
• Was Fidel a “Dictator?” A Personal Account
  by Margot Pepper November 29, 2016 Given the current U.S. media market, I could start my article about Fidel Castro thus: “Contrary to Donald Trump’s reputation, Fidel Castro had a reputation as ‘el caballo— ‘the horse.’ Could organ envy be the real impetus for Trump’s rants against Castro? However, this is a serious article about a serious leader. So let’s start here: [Fidel] [Cuba]
• From a parade of foreign leaders, a glowing farewell to Fidel Castro
  Latin American leaders pay tribute to Fidel Castro Leaders of Latin America's left gathered with thousands of mourners at a farewell ceremony in Havana's Revolution Square on Nov. 29 and shared glowing tributes to Fidel Castro. (Reuters) By Nick Miroff November 29 at 10:41 PM ? HAVANA — Fidel Castro’s international allies and leftist leaders from around the world paid their respects to the deceased Cuban ruler Tuesday night at a massive outdoor farewell ceremony, honoring him with effusive praise that cut a stark contrast with his negative reputation in the United States. Castro’s death Friday at age 90 brought jubilant celebrations among Cuban exiles in Miami, but the solemn event here was a reminder that his socialist idealism and clash with the United States made him a powerful symbol in many other nations, and especially in the global south. The event stretched late into the night as presidents and foreign dignitaries from Russia, Iran, China, South Africa, Vietnam and across Latin America came to the podium in Havana’s Plaza of the Revolution, praising Castro as a towering figure and tireless advocate for the world’s poor and downtrodden. [Fidel Castro was a revolutionary leader who remade Cuba as a socialist state] “His will could never be broken, nor the will of the Cuban people,” said Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of Russia’s parliament, who came on behalf of Vladimir Putin. “Fidel’s strength has been an example for all the people of the world who want to choose their own path of development.” [Fidel] [Imperialism]
• The Liberation of Aleppo: Tears, Hugs and Smiles, the Relief of Escaping Imprisonment in East Aleppo
  By Vanessa Beeley Global Research, November 30, 2016 21st Century Wire 29 November 2016 These images and videos will never see the light of day in the corporate media editing rooms because they expose their almost six year narrative on Syria as one of the most criminal propaganda projects ever deployed against a sovereign nation, its people, its state and its national army. The prolonged dehumanization of the majority of the Syrian people, the exploitation of their children as cynical props to further the NATO & Gulf state geo-political objectives in the region, the overt and covert endorsement of NATO State-proxy terrorism, the tacit endorsement of economic terrorism via the illegal US/EU sanctions against Syria, all amount to crimes against Humanity and the Syrian people. The #FakeNews “regime change” cohorts are seeing their pyramid of lies being dismantled stone by stone, by the very people they have been claiming to “protect” for almost six years. This video shows the reactions of civilians, fleeing their four year imprisonment in East Aleppo, subjugated by various militant factions, funded by NATO states and led by Nusra Front aka Al Qaeda. The first woman, collapses into tears, as she reaches the journalist. These touching moments will be sullied by the corporate media reporting and accounting of events, as they desperately try to resuscitate their expiring Aleppo chronicles. [Aleppo]
• Aleppo: How US-Saudi Backed “Rebels” Target “Every Syrian”
  By Eva Bartlett Global Research, November 30, 2016 Mint Press News 29 November 2016 In early November, Fares Shehabi, a member of the Syrian parliament from Aleppo, organized a trip to Aleppo for 13 Western journalists, including myself, with security provided by forces in the Syrian Arab Army. While I had traveled to Aleppo independently as recently as July and August, for many others in the delegation, it was their first visit to the city or their first visit since the war on Syria began in 2011. On previous visits to Aleppo, I met with the Aleppo Medical Association and saw a maternity hospital hit twice by rocket and mortar attacks by militants under Jaysh al-Fatah (the Army of Conquest), a loose alliance of anti-government terrorist groups. I met with members of a branch of the Syria Civil Defense and Christian and Muslim religious leaders. Just north of the city, I visited Nubl and Zahraa, towns besieged for more than three years by the Free Syrian Army, the Nusra Front, and other affiliated terrorist factions before the Syrian Arab Army drove them out in February of this year. I saw the liberated region of Bani Zaid and the al-Layramoun industrial district. I interacted with civilians in public parks, streets, and markets. Ahead of my trip earlier this month, I was interested to see what might have changed following the liberation of still more areas by the SAA. I also hoped to speak with civilians who had fled the terrorist-held areas of Aleppo’s eastern districts since I had last visited, during which time eight humanitarian corridors had been established for civilians and members of terrorist factions willing to relinquish their arms or to accept safe passage to areas in Idlib and government-secured parts of western Aleppo. However, on Nov. 4, no one fled terrorist-held areas of Aleppo. Family members of civilians still there say their loved ones are being used as human shields by groups like the Nusra Front, Ahrar al-Sham, or Nour al-Din al-Zenki — the so-called “moderate rebels” and “opposition forces” backed by the United States, NATO, Israel and Gulf allies like Saudi Arabia and Qatar. [US Syria policy] [Outsourcing]

• Trump meets with Petraeus, Romney as secretary of state battle heats up
  Retired Army Gen. David H. Petraeus has emerged as a potential secretary of state pick for the upcoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump. (Photo: Anthony Behar/Bloomberg) (Bastien Inzaurralde, Osman Malik/The Washington Post) By Jerry Markon and Paul Kane November 28 at 4:04 PM President-elect Donald Trump met Monday with retired Army Gen. David Petraeus, a possible alternative choice for secretary of state amid an escalating feud over the position between supporters of former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who will sit down with Trump on Tuesday. As Trump’s senior advisers battled over who should fill what is considered the most prestigious Cabinet post, the president-elect will hold a second session with Romney along with another possible option, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), aides said Monday. Corker, who will visit Manhattan’s Trump Tower on Tuesday, chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and had suggested publicly that he was unlikely to be chosen. [SecState] [Petraeus]
• Western weapons falls into the hands of terrorists
  by Sophie Mangal British organization Conflict Armament Research (CAR) has examined the ways arms have been supplied to the areas of military conflict around the world and has published a new investigation on Syria (link: http://www.conflictarm.com/publications/). CAR experts have found that weapons supplied by Western countries not only get into the hands of the Syrian opposition fighters but also into the hands of IS terrorists. It is noteworthy that at the beginning of the Syrian conflict IS militants used mainly weapons captured during the fighting with the Syrian and Iraqi government troops. But after 2012 the terrorists gained new sources such as illegal supplies of weapons from the Western countries, buy and capture arms shipments destined to the Syrian opposition, as well as its own domestic arms industry. According to CAR’s James Bevan, the first evidence of illegal weapons turnover showed up as his staff found a box of ammunition with serial numbers not far from Mosul. It turned out that the ammunition had been manufactured in the factories of Eastern Europe, but it was legally acquired by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United States after some time. These countries were delivering weapons to the opposition groups in Syria through Turkey. Moreover different batches of ammunition were found in the Iraqi cities of Tikrit, Ramadi, Fallujah and Mosul. Daesh militants used such ammunition against government troops. CAR has documented more than 300 samples which were manufactured in the United States since the 2000s. The terrorists very often got the ammo in just two months after it was shipped from the factory to the original customer. [Arms] [Outsourcing] [Syria] [Iraq]
• Uniquely Talented: Only the Democrats Could Have Lost to Trump
  Fred Reed • November 24, 2016 A great uproar goes forth from the enemies of the Trump Beast, with much gnashing of hair and pulling of teeth. He will be a terrible President, they say, and they may well be right. There are ominous signs, particularly as regards foreign policy, and he seems radically incoherent and contradictory. Interestingly, his critics have no slight idea why he won. The reason is obvious: He won because everybody was campaigning for him, in particular the media, Hillary, Black Lives Matter, Obama, Democrats, and far leftists. Everybody worked for Trump. He couldn’t lose. The election was a referendum on Marie Antoinette’s court. It was the revolt of the unnoticed downtrodden, the financially sinking, the working classes rising against privileged snots–but it was engineered by the elites. The glittering elect of course did not say “working class,” this being a loaded phrase redolent of Marxism and of the Democratic Party of five decades back before it became a royal court. They spoke instead of disgruntled white men, racists, homophobes, sexists, and the Islamonauseated–phobic, I meant. The rich and powerful are on display in Washington, white, well paid, secure, above average in intelligence, often from Oberlin, Amherst, Swarthmore, Yale. The better sorts of schools, you know. They cluster in Washington’s posh barrios of Bethesda, Upper Connecticut, Cap Hill, and Great Falls. They drink together and talk to each other and believe that they must be right because everyone they know agrees with them. [US_election16] [Hubris]
• Syrian forces seize more rebel-held districts in Aleppo as assault gains momentum
  By Louisa Loveluck November 28 at 1:19 PM BEIRUT — Syrian government forces seized full control of northeast Aleppo on Monday, overrunning a third of what remained of the rebel enclave and sending thousands of civilians into panicked flight. The area’s recapture brings President Bashar al-Assad’s troops closer than ever to realizing their biggest victory of the five-year-old civil war: retaking full control of the northern city of Aleppo. The reconquered neighborhoods in what was once Syria’s commercial capital had been among the first to throw off government control in 2012. On Nov. 15, government forces launched a final push to take them back, supported by Russian warplanes and Iranian-backed troops. Monitoring groups said the rebels in Aleppo city had lost a third of their territory by Monday evening as district after district fell to government and Kurdish forces, which are fighting on separate fronts to expand footholds in Aleppo, although apparently with a degree of coordination. [Aleppo]
• The CIA and Castro: an Undying Obsession
  by Nelson P. Valdes - Saul Landau “Show me where Stalin’s buried, and I’ll show you a communist plot.” — Edgar Bergen For 53 years exiles from Miami and US officials have tried to assassinate Fidel Castro 638 times, overthrow his revolutionary government, and blamed him for numerous sins. The exiles and government officials who upbraid him have yet to thank Fidel for providing them with long-term employment. Given their levels of incompetence in carrying out bloody but unsuccessful terrorist acts, writing of inane and inaccurate reports and uttering of supercilious predictions about Cuba’s reality and its future, they appear unfit for other work — well, maybe as TSA screeners. One Fidel beneficiary, retired CIA analyst Brian Latell (“Castro’s Secrets: The CIA And Cuba’s Intelligence Machine,” Palgrave Macmillan) condemns Castro for not informing the US government about Lee Harvey Oswald’s intentions to kill Kennedy. To support this accusation, Latell rehashes defecting Cuban intelligence agents’ information to the CIA about Castro’s knowledge of Oswald’s murderous intentions, which he screamed in the Cuban Consulate in Mexico City while trying in vain to obtain a visa. Latell omits that CIA Agents in Mexico, including Mexican President Adolfo Lopez Mateos, had reported this information to the Agency and that Fidel had disclosed the incident in a November 27, 1963 speech. Latell doesn’t even ask why Oswald wanted a Cuban visa or why his CIA colleague David Attlee Phillips sent his agent on such a quest. (See also Jefferson Morley) Over decades, US heavies (including President Johnson and journalist Jack Anderson) believed Castro had masterminded the JFK hit. But who in his right mind would blame Castro for withholding such data from a government trying to assassinate him? Unless, of course, one is dealing with someone whose mind doesn’t heed facts or reason. In March 1977, responding to a Bill Moyers question about Senator Robert Morgan ‘s (D-NC) accusation that he killed Kennedy in retaliation for attempts to kill him, Castro explained “it would have been absolute insanity on Cuba’s part… to risk that our country would have been destroyed by the United States. Nobody who is not crazy would have had such a thought.” Logically, Castro continued, why eliminate a known adversary for an unknown?” We understood Kennedy from “observing his behavior at the Bay of Pigs and Missile Crisis.” Finally, Castro said assassination didn’t change policies. “It would have been easier to kill Batista than wage two years of guerrilla war, but it would not have changed the system.” (CBS Reports June 10, 1977) [Fidel Castro] [Assassination]
• Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro dies
  Shanghai Daily, November 26, 2016 Cuban revolutionary icon Fidel Castro died late Friday in Havana, his brother, President Raul Castro, announced on national television. "The commander in chief of the Cuban revolution died at 22:29 hours this evening," the president announced on national television. Fidel Castro was 90. [Fidel Castro]
• Perversions of Power: Trump’s Hedonism vs Pence’s Puritanism
  by David Rosen Since the nation’s founding there’s been a peculiar tension between the president and the vice president. This tension was first established in 1796 when John Adams became president and Thomas Jefferson the vp. The two men could not have been more different. Adams was a Northern Federalist, pro-British and morally upright, puritanically married to Abagail; Jefferson was a Southern Democratic-Republican, pro-French and worldly, intimately involved with his slave, Sally Hemings, with whom they had four surviving children who he set free. Over the intervening two-plus centuries and nearly 50 administrations, a host of different president and vice-president tag-teams have occupied the White House. Drawing only upon some recent examples, the nation’s two top officials have reflected differences in age (e.g., Eisenhower and Nixon), geography (e.g., Kennedy and Johnson) and race (e.g., Obama and Biden). Donald Trump and Mike Pence, the tug-of-war leaders who will soon occupy the headquarters of global power for the next four years, could not appear more different. [Trump] [Pence]
• Trump's day one: in crisis mode
  Paul Rogers 25 November 2016 The president-elect's hope is to follow an "America first" path to domestic renewal. Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya may puncture it. The previous column in this series contrasted Donald Trump's isolationist geopolitical stance with plans to increase the size of all four branches of the US armed forces – army, navy, airforce and marine corps, with the last constituting the Pentagon’s major instrument of expeditionary warfare. The column concluded a little cautiously, suggesting that if such an expansion went ahead it did not necessarily imply Trump's keenness to go to war. But the situation might change if domestic reversals made an "overseas adventure" look a tempting diversion: “In all of this there may be an element of giving Trump increased options in a time of crisis, but the fact remains that this will be a substantial expansion at a time when the Republicans control both Houses of Congress. Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that if Trump’s first term runs into trouble, not least with an inability to deliver on domestic campaign promises, then that would be the kind of circumstance where an overseas adventure – “war” in other words – might become rather attractive. What these various expansions mean is that in such circumstances the military will be in a stronger position to oblige” (see "Trump and the Pentagon", 7 November 2016). The case against this conclusion might be that it takes too long-term a view. For a start, it's doubtful that Barack Obama's two terms will end with significant successes in areas where the United States military is now directly involved: Iraq, Afghanistan, and lesser areas of Islamic State activity such as Libya (see "Trump in context", 11 November 2016). By this stage, it had long been expected that Mosul would have been purged of IS forces and that even the capital of the caliphate, Raqqa in northern Syria, would have been under heavy pressure; that there would have been sufficient progress in Afghanistan to resume the gradual drawdown of US forces; and that the coastal city of Sirte would have been freed from IS control. Add the grim siege of Aleppo and relations with the Kremlin, and the challenges mount. Thus, Trump may well inherit acute problems that will demand his attention from day one of his presidency, 20 January 2017. [Trump] [Foreign policy] [Adventurism]
• Syrian War Threatens to Escalate as Turkey Accuses Damascus of Attacking its Troops
  By Jordan Shilton Global Research, November 25, 2016 World Socialist Web Site 25 November 2016 Turkey’s Prime Minister and armed forces both accused the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad Thursday of conducting an airstrike on Turkish troops in the vicinity of al-Bab in the country’s north, resulting in three casualties. The incident threatens to escalate already sharp tensions between Ankara and Damascus into all-out war, posing the very real risk of direct clashes between the major powers. Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim warned in comments to Hurriyet that the attack would “not be left unanswered.” Turkish warplanes at the Gaziantep air base were placed on emergency standby. A direct Turkish attack on Syrian government forces would quickly draw Russia, a key ally of the Assad regime, even more deeply into the conflict and Turkey, as a member of NATO, could call on the alliance for support under Article 5, which obliges alliance members to come to the defense of a NATO state under attack. Such a move would mean war between NATO and Russia. Turkish troops launched Operation Euphrates Shield in northern Syria in late August, in alliance with opposition militias organized in the Free Syrian Army (FSA) with the aim of preventing the establishment of a Kurdish enclave on the Turkish border by the People’s Protection Units (YPG) fighters, which are aligned with the Kurdish Democratic Unity Party (PYD). The Syrian government condemned the intervention as a violation of its territorial sovereignty. Ankara alleged the attack occurred as its troops sought to push into al-Bab, an Islamic State-held town it is determined to capture before Kurdish forces. Gaining control of al-Bab would enable Turkey to have a major say in the offensive to retake the ISIS capital of Raqqa and represent an important step in blocking attempts by YPG fighters to link two Kurdish-held areas in northern Syria. The Syrian government also recently indicated that it might be preparing to launch an offensive on al-Bab, raising the prospect of a multi-front battle over the town. Reports said pro-government forces had been seen gathering to the south. Speaking to Voice of America, an anonymous Western diplomat stated that the alleged Syrian government attack runs the risk of causing a “potentially catastrophic escalation of the war.” While it is entirely possible that Syrian aircraft did launch the attack, there is strong evidence to suggest that Turkey is seeking to pin the blame on Damascus to legitimize its ongoing incursion. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition-aligned organization that can hardly be accused of having a brief for the Assad government, reported that the Turkish casualties were in fact caused by an ISIS suicide bombing on Wednesday. For its part, the Turkish government imposed a gag order on media reporting of the attack. The Syrian government has not commented on the incident and there has been no independent verification of Ankara’s claims. [Turkey Syria] [Legality] [US Syria policy]
• Obama administration expands elite military unit’s powers to hunt foreign fighters globally
  By Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Dan Lamothe November 25 at 11:06 AM ? U.S. Special Operations forces travel through the village of Fatisah in the northern Syrian province of Raqqa on May 25, 2016. (Delil Souleiman/AFP/Getty Images) The Obama administration is giving the elite Joint Special Operations Command — the organization that helped kill Osama bin Laden in a 2011 raid by Navy SEALs — expanded power to track, plan and potentially launch attacks on terrorist cells around the globe, a move driven by concerns of a dispersed terrorist threat as Islamic State militants are driven from strongholds in Iraq and Syria, U.S. officials said. The missions could occur well beyond the battlefields of places like Iraq, Syria and Libya where Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) has carried out clandestine operations in the past. When finalized, it will elevate JSOC from being a highly-valued strike tool used by regional military commands to leading a new multiagency intelligence and action force. Known as the “Counter-External Operations Task Force,” the group will be designed to take JSOC’s targeting model — honed over the last 15 years of conflict — and export it globally to go after terrorist networks plotting attacks against the West. [Special Forces] [Assassination] [Extraterritoriality]
• The Liberation of the Slaves
  Israel Shamir • November 22, 2016 Donald Trump’s electoral victory unleashed pent-up tectonic energies on the unprecedented scale. The world has been changed, much more than could be expected from any election of a US president. Just a short time has passed since election day, but it appears that the New World Order has received a shattering blow. There is a great feeling of freedom in the air, as if the vote broke the chains of a generation, and we suddenly found ourselves free. As the first sign of this new freedom, there are reports that the dreaded TTIP and TTP, the twin agreements almost imposed by Obama administration on the world, are as good as dead. Trump killed the agreements, said the Germans, and it is a very good news. Just for that, it was worth electing Trump. Silly activists say they stopped the TTIP and TTP by their own efforts. Bunkum! Without Trump, the agreements would have been duly signed and ratified despite all the protests. Let us give him his due. I congratulate Trump on choosing Stephen Bannon. He is so heavily demonised by the NWO forces, so fervently called “an anti-Semite”, that he’s got to be good. If Trump will persevere and keep him, it will be additional proof that Trump is fearless, that the magic of political correctness has stopped working and that the word “anti-Semite” does not ruin a career anymore. [Trump]
• Trump nominates two prominent GOP women: DeVos as education secretary, Haley as U.N. ambassador
  By Jerry Markon, Robert Costa and Emma Brown November 23 at 4:08 PM ? President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday selected two prominent Republican women for Cabinet-level positions, adding diversity to an inner circle that was already coming under fire for being composed mostly of white men. In a potentially controversial choice, Trump intends to nominate billionaire philanthropist Betsy DeVos for education secretary, turning to a conservative activist who has forcefully pushed for private school voucher programs. Her nomination is expected to face strong opposition from public school advocates, who oppose her efforts to funnel taxpayer dollars from public to private and religious schools.
  DeVos — whose husband, Dick DeVos Jr., is an heir to the Amway direct-sale fortune — is a Michigan power broker and major donor to conservative causes and candidates around the country. Her brother is Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, one of the most profitable private security contractors during the Iraq War. [Trump] [Plutocracy] [Privatisation]
• Trump turning away intelligence briefers since election win
  By Greg Miller and Adam Entous November 23 at 8:40 PM ? President-elect Donald Trump has received two classified intelligence briefings since his surprise election victory earlier this month, a frequency that is notably lower — at least so far — than that of his predecessors, current and former U.S. officials said. A team of intelligence analysts has been prepared to deliver daily briefings on global developments and security threats to Trump in the two weeks since he won. Vice President-elect Mike Pence, by contrast, has set aside time for intelligence briefings almost every day since the election, officials said. [Trump] [Foreign policy] [Intelligence]
• Trump’s Campaign of Militarization
  by Melvin Goodman President-elect Donald Trump’s authoritarian style and personality, which attracted an overwhelmingly authoritarian following, is manifesting itself in the selection of his national security team. The appointment of Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as the national security adviser is particularly worrisome because of the general’s lack of experience in strategic policy and his controversial stewardship as the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. More recently, we have learned that general officers are being given consideration as secretaries of state, defense, and homeland security. Trump is putting at risk the Constitution’s support for civilian control of the military as well as decision-making in the use of force as well as national security policy in general. What is at stake in this case is the deepening cultural divide between the military and civilian worlds, particularly the increased militarization of national security policy that has taken place over the past two decades. the administrations of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama have catered to the military, and have appointed too many general and flag officers to positions that should be in the hands of civilians. President Obama was particularly guilty in this regard, rewarding general officers with ambassadorial positions and naming a retired marine general to the post of national security adviser. The general, James Jones, was a poor fit in terms of both management and substantive support, and was soon forced out of the White House. With the exception of the first appointment to the post of director of national intelligence, John Negroponte, all of Bush’s and Obama’s intelligence stars have been general and flag officers, and during this period we have witnessed a signficant decline in the production and usefulness of strategic intelligence. Obama also demonstrated too much deference to the military when he retained Bush’s secretary of defense, Robert Gates, as his own in order not to create concerns about reform of the military within the Pentagon. [Militarisation] [Trump]
• Foreign Donors Begin Pulling Out From Clinton Foundation
  Overseas governments clearly feel there is nothing left to buy By Michael Sainato • 11/23/16 6:45am Former Secretary of State and former Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Clinton Foundation scandals emerged as a major blow to Hillary Clinton’s campaign this past election, as emails released by WikiLeaks and from FOIA requests revealed pay-to-play schemes and overt conflicts of interest between the Foundation and Clinton’s State Department. Though the Clintons and their supporters staunchly defended the Foundation, pointing to the charitable work it produced to defend any criticisms, such claims of corruption were proven correct. It now appears that Norway, one of the most prolific foreign Clinton Foundation donors, is decreasing its annual donation from $20 million in 2015 to $4.2 million this year—a significant drop suggesting the foreign government had expected to receive benefits in return for its generous donation. Norway’s move also provides further evidence that the Foundation serves more as a front to sell access to the Clintons than as an organization focused on philanthropy. While the Foundation may have conducted some charitable work, its greater purpose has always been to boost the Clinton brand, market the Clintons on the highly paid speech circuit, and offer donors access to the Clintons and their prolific network of elite and corporate connections. [Clinton] [Corruption] [Media] [Trump]
• Trump names foreign policy novice Haley as envoy to U.N.
  Haley accepts top U.N. post: reports By Roberta Rampton and Doina Chiacu | WEST PALM BEACH, Fla./WASHINGTON Donald Trump on Wednesday named South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, a former critic who has little foreign policy experience, to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations at a time of uncertainty over America's international role under his presidency. Haley, one of two women chosen for a job in Trump's Cabinet, is "a proven dealmaker, and we look to be making plenty of deals. She will be a great leader representing us on the world stage," the Republican president-elect said in a statement. A 44-year-old Republican and the daughter of Indian immigrants, Haley took Trump strongly to task during the presidential campaign over his harsh rhetoric about illegal immigration and for not speaking forcefully enough against white supremacists. [Trump] [UNUS]
• Hidden Warfare 2: Drones
  Richard Norton-Taylor 21 November 2016 In an attempt to give them a better image, the British MoD has renamed them Protector rather than Predator. Drones, like nuclear weapons, are here to stay. Unlike nuclear weapons, whose ostensible purpose is to deter, drones will be used more and more frequently as they get smaller and cheaper. They could be used by terrorists. There is talk of ‘suicide drones’.(sic) The Ministry of Defence, true to form, was initially extremely reluctant even to admit the RAF was deploying drones, first in Afghanistan. Now, as they are used in Syria and Iraq, the MoD cannot avoid commenting on attacks by armed ‘remotely-piloted air systems’ (RPAS) as it insists on calling them. The ministry is buying 20 American Predator B drones, at a cost of more than £400m. The aircraft, which can carry a range of bombs, cameras, and sensors, can fly for almost two days, will replace the RAF’s 10 Reapers. They will be operated, via satellite link, by RAF personnel at their base at Waddington in Lincolnshire. In an attempt to give them a better image, the MoD has renamed them Protector rather than Predator. [UAV] [Spin] [Euphemism]
• Trump’s Team Will Start New Wars in the Middle East
  by Patrick Cockburn Isis is under pressure in Mosul and Raqqa, but it is jubilant at the election of Donald Trump. Abu Omar Khorasani, an Isis leader in Afghanistan, is quoted as saying that “our leaders were closely following the US election, but it was unexpected that the Americans would dig their own graves.” He added that what he termed Trump’s “hatred” towards Muslims would enable Isis to recruit thousands of fighters. The Isis calculation is that, as happened after 9/11, the demonisation and collective punishment of Muslims will propel a proportion of the Islamic community into its ranks. Given that there are 1.6 billion Muslims – about 23 per cent of the world’s population – Isis and al-Qaeda-type organisations need to win the loyalty of only a small proportion of the Islamic community to remain a powerful force. [Trump] [Islamophobia] [ISIS]
• The 60 Minutes Interview George Soros Tried To Bury
  Long lost footage of George Soros appearing on 60 Minutes in 1998. GS has allegedly gone to some lengths to suppress this interview, and it’s not hard to see why. He does not come off well. ?Sit back and enjoy the media-vaunted “philanthropist” inadvertently reveal his textbook psychopathy to an incredulous interviewer (who does his best to cover for him). ?Listen to George tell us it’s all about making money and the social consequences of his actions just don’t bother him. ?Watch George admit he feels no shame for selling out his fellow Jews to the Nazis and pocketing their gold. ?Marvel at his blank incomprehension when asked if he is tortured by guilt for what he did. Guilt? Moi? Nah, he says, with what may pass for a smile to those familiar with his facial expressions, it’s just like business really – if George wasn’t doing it someone else would be. Still think George is funding Avaaz and all those other NGOs because he just cares so much about humanity to the depths of his big soft heart? [Soros]
• My American Decade
  Anatoly Karlin • November 8, 2016 As I am leaving the United States for an indeterminate period of time, now would likely not be a bad time to share some of my impressions of what is still, when all is said and done, an extraordinarily effective, dynamic, and successful nation. It would be redundant to compare to simply compare it with the two other countries that I have extensive experience of – that is, Russia and the United Kingdom – because I have already done that, and at great length (the whole thing together runs to 37,000 words), in my 2011 series of posts Comparison of USA, UK, Russia: •Introduction •Freedom and Security •The People •Everyday Life •Politics and Media •Conclusion Though some of my assessments will have inevitably changed since then, it would not (yet) be worthwhile to repeat this exercise today. Instead, I will take a look at America as it was in space and time during the 2006-2016 time, especially relative to how it was perceived by West Europeans. All the photos are my own. *** America in Time: The Obama Decade If I had to summarize the changes the US has undergone in the past 10 years in one short phrase, it would be the following: It has become a European country.
• Fed up with EU, Erdogan says Turkey could join Shanghai bloc
  President Tayyip Erdogan was quoted on Sunday as saying that Turkey did not need to join the European Union "at all costs" and could instead become part of a security bloc dominated by China, Russia and Central Asian nations. NATO member Turkey's prospects of joining the EU look more remote than ever after 11 years of negotiations. European leaders have been critical of its record on democratic freedoms, while Ankara has grown increasingly exasperated by what it sees as Western condescension. "Turkey must feel at ease. It mustn't say 'for me it's the European Union at all costs'. That's my view," Erdogan was quoted by the Hurriyet newspaper as telling reporters on his plane on the way back from a visit to Pakistan and Uzbekistan. "Why shouldn't Turkey be in the Shanghai Five? I said this to (Russian President) Mr Putin, to (Kazakh President) Nazarbayev, to those who are in the Shanghai Five now," he said. "I hope that if there is a positive development there, I think if Turkey were to join the Shanghai Five, it will enable it to act with much greater ease." [Turkey] [Realignment] [SCO] [EU]
• With Donald Trump's election, has the American 'experiment' run its course?
  Tom Engelhardt 19 November 2016 A deep and spreading sense of disorder lay at the heart of the bizarre election campaign and, with Donald Trump's election, it may never really end. Is Trump the end of the 'American experiment'? Traditional Russian wooden dolls depict recent US presidents, including President-elect Donald Trump. Pavel Golovkin AP/Press Association Images. All rights reserved. The one thing you could say about empires is that, at or near their height, they have always represented a principle of order as well as domination. So here’s the confounding thing about the American version of empire in the years when this country was often referred to as ‘the sole superpower’, when it was putting more money into its military than the next ten nations combined: it’s been an empire of chaos. [Trump] [Liberal]
• CIA likely to change directions under Pompeo, especially in Syria
  By Tim Johnson WASHINGTON — The nominee to become the director of the CIA, Rep. Mike Pompeo, suggested early this year that execution would be an appropriate punishment for Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency contractor who revealed the vast extent of government monitoring of Americans’ phone communications. “He should be brought back from Russia and given due process,” Pompeo said on C-SPAN, “and I think the proper outcome would be that he would be given a death sentence.” Over his nearly six years on Capitol Hill, the Kansas Republican has routinely offered such strong views, suggesting that U.S. forces should use banned interrogation tactics on terrorism suspects and keep the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba open indefinitely. He won’t be the first politician with firm partisan beliefs to become CIA chief. But those before him offer a mixed record. And if President-elect Donald Trump follows through on campaign promises, Pompeo may instruct CIA agents in the field to take a 180-degree turn after inauguration day Jan. 20. “In some cases, it’s going to be doing exactly the opposite of what they’ve been doing,” said John Kiriakou, a former CIA officer who became a whistleblower and who served two years in prison for telling a reporter the name of a fellow CIA operative. One example may be Syria, where President Barack Obama has pushed a policy of regime change against President Bashar Assad and CIA officers have provided so-called moderate rebels with weapons and guidance. But Trump disdains regime change and pledges to work closely on Syria with Russia, whose policy is to bolster Assad. [US Syria Policy] [CIA] [Pompeo] [Proxy]
• “Rebel Unity” Fails Amid Aleppo’s Fall
  Salman Rafi Sheikh What had once been called a “jewel of Syrian rebellion” by the West is now facing its collapse. Aleppo now stands to fall back to the Syrian government forces, and with is likely to come one of the biggest symbolic and territorial defeats to the foreign funded “rebels.” According to the latest reports, Syrian government forces have recaptured all of the areas taken by “rebel fighters” in a recent assault intended to break the regime siege on eastern Aleppo. The setbacks these “rebels” have suffered have practically undone all of the progress made during a recent push by a coalition of groups, including (former) Al Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham front, as they tried to end a government siege on the east of Aleppo city. Whereas the defeat is likely, it has done a lot of damage to the fragile unity different rebel groups, particularly backed by the former Al-Nusra front, had forged among themselves at the beginning of their counter-attack on Syrian forces in August. What had started as a ‘co-ordinated front’ against Assad’s siege-attack is now crumbling like a heap of cards and is desperately fighting its own self to salvage out of the city. Aleppo being the last major urban centre where the rebels have had a foothold, success against Syrian forces would have meant a lot of psychological advantage, reversing the momentum of months of setbacks brought about by an intense Russian air campaign in support of Assad. Failure to hold onto the city has initiated a self-destructing process, forcing the bigger rebel groups to swallow the smaller groups and bring more territory under their control, and thereby find more recruits for future fighting. [Aleppo] [Jihadist]
• For Syria rebels, Trump win adds to uncertain fate
  By Tom Perry and Suleiman Al-Khalidi | BEIRUT/AMMAN On the eve of Donald Trump's election victory, members of a Western-backed Syrian rebel group met U.S. officials to ask about the outlook for arms shipments they have received to fight President Bashar al-Assad. They were told the program would continue until the end of the year, but anything more would depend on the next U.S. administration, a rebel official at the meeting said. When Trump takes office in January, it may stop altogether. The president-elect has signaled opposition to U.S. support for the rebels, and an overhaul of policy on Syria. The military aid program overseen by the Central Intelligence Agency has given arms and training to moderate rebels in coordination with Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and others. [US Syria policy] [Proxy] [Trump]
• Trump and the Pentagon
  Paul Rogers 17 November 2016 Under the president-elect, America's military can expect more of everything. What then? The assault on Mosul in northern Iraq has been eclipsed somewhat by the aftermath of the presidential election in the United States. A stuttering military campaign and a messy transition process, however, are also two parts of the same reality. Decisions now being made in Washington seem bound to bring them closer. Mosul has now been fought over since mid-October. In the early phase, Iraqi government forces were able to move speedily through the less populated outer districts. There, air power could be used repeatedly, but this is less available when close urban fighting is required. This is one reason why the Iraqis' advance into the eastern part of the city has slowed to a crawl. [Mosul] [Trump] [Military expenditure] [US Middle East Strategy]
• Trump’s First Crisis: Iraqi Troops in Mosul?
  by Patrick Cockburn The Iraqi armed forces are becoming bogged down in the battle for Mosul. Its elite special forces and an armoured division are fighting to hold districts in the eastern outskirts of the city against counter-attacks by Isis fighters using networks of tunnels to move about unseen. “In one day we lost 37 dead and 70 wounded,” said a former senior Iraqi official, adding that the Iraqi forces had been caught by surprise by the extent of the tunnel system built by Isis, said to be 45 miles long. [Mosul] [ISIS] [US Middle East Strategy]
• Bolton, Giuliani: Finalists to Head Trump State Department
  The State Department is about to veer sharply to the right.
  By Derek Davison, November 15, 2016. Originally published in Lobelog. The election of any new president brings some uncertainty about how that president’s administration will govern. But the uncertainty surrounding the incoming Donald Trump administration is greater than usual, for the simple reason that Trump was remarkably unclear and self-contradictory throughout the campaign. This may have worked to his advantage politically, as voters may have seen in Trump whatever they wanted to see. As tech billionaire and Trump supporter Peter Thiel put it, they took Trump “seriously but not literally.” [Trump] [SecState] [Bolton] [Giuliani]
• Trump’s $1 Trillion Infrastructure Plan: Another Privatization Firesale? Lincoln Had a Bolder Solution
  By Ellen Brown
  Global Research, November 15, 2016 Donald Trump was an outsider who boldly stormed the citadel of Washington DC and won. He has promised real change, but his infrastructure plan appears to be just more of the same – privatizing public assets and delivering unearned profits to investors at the expense of the people. He needs to try something new; and for this he could look to Abraham Lincoln, whose bold solution was very similar to one now being considered in Europe: just print the money. In Donald Trump’s victory speech after the presidential election, he vowed: We are going to fix our inner cities and rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools, hospitals. We’re going to rebuild our infrastructure, which will become, by the way, second to none. And we will put millions of our people to work as we rebuild it. It sounds great; but as usual, the devil is in the details. Both parties in Congress agree that infrastructure is desperately needed. The roadblock is in where to find the money. Raising taxes and going further into debt are both evidently off the table. The Trump solution is touted as avoiding those options, but according to his economic advisors, it does this by privatizing public goods, imposing high user fees on the citizenry for assets that should have been public utilities. Raise taxes, add to the federal debt, privatize – there is nothing new here. The president-elect needs another alternative; and there is one, something he is evidently open to. In May 2016, when challenged over the risk of default from the mounting federal debt, he said, “You never have to default, because you print the money.” The Federal Reserve has already created trillions of dollars for the 1% by just printing the money. The new president could create another trillion for the majority of the 99% who elected him. [Privatisation] [Infrastructure]
• The Middle East is Now All About Putin
  by Robert Fisk November 15, 2016 Predictable claptrap is being uttered about Trump and the Middle East. How can the Muslim world deal with a man who is an Islamophobe? For that is indeed what Trump is. He is a disgrace to his country and to his people – who, heavens above, elected the chap. But here’s a mollifying thought. US prestige in the region has fallen so low, the Arab world’s belief (and quite possibly the Israeli belief) in American power so shattered by Washington’s stupidity and ineptness, that I rather suspect little attention will be paid to Donald Trump. [Trump] [Islamophobia] [Putin] [US Middle East strategy]
• National security expert decides he’s not playing nice with Trump after all
  By David Goldstein dgoldstein@mcclatchydc.com WASHINGTON — Eliot Cohen is the epitome of the national security establishment that President-elect Donald Trump had vowed to topple and remove from power. Now Cohen, who teaches at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced and International Studies, has become involved in a mini-controversy that opens a window onto the deliberations of the Trump transition team, where loyalty and perhaps political vengeance play determining roles. Cohen is former top defense and state department official, who’s worked with the White House National Security Council and advised on policy on issues from Iraq and Afghanistan to Russia and North Korea. To burnish his eastern establishment credentials further still, he not only attended Harvard, but taught there and became an assistant dean as well. Additionally, he’s authored several books about military campaigns and strategy. Alarmed by Trump’s rise through the Republican primaries, he coordinated a letter last spring signed by 122 national security experts, who concluded that Trump would make America “unsafe” and that his views posed a “threat to civil liberty.” Trump’s lack of government experience, and its political value as a campaign message got him votes, but now could present some hurdles in filling jobs. [MISCOM] [Establishment] [Trump]
• I told conservatives to work for Trump. One talk with his team changed my mind.
  By Eliot A. Cohen November 15 at 9:33 PM Eliot A. Cohen is the author of the forthcoming “The Big Stick: The Limits of Soft Power and the Necessity of Military Force.” He served as counselor of the State Department from 2007 to 2009. I am a national security Never-Trumper who, after the election, made the case that young conservatives should volunteer to serve in the new administration, warily, their undated letters of resignation ready. That advice, I have concluded, was wrong. My about-face began with a discreet request to me from a friend in Trumpworld to provide names — unsullied by having signed the two anti-Trump foreign policy letters — of those who might be willing to serve. My friend and I had agreed to disagree a while back about my taking an uncompromising anti-Trump stand; now, he wanted assistance and I willingly complied. [Trump] [MISCOM] [Establishment]
• Hague prosecutors say U.S. forces may have committed war crimes
  By Thomas Escritt | AMSTERDAM Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court in The Hague said on Monday there were preliminary grounds to believe U.S. forces committed war crimes in Afghanistan and at secret detention facilities elsewhere in 2003 and 2004. In a report, prosecutors said there was a "reasonable basis to believe" that U.S. forces had tortured prisoners in Afghanistan and at Central Intelligence Agency detention facilities elsewhere in 2003 and 2004. "Members of US armed forces appear to have subjected at least 61 detained persons to torture," the prosecutors' office, wrote. It added that CIA officials appeared to have tortured another 27 detainees. [War crimes] [ICC] [Afghanistan] [Torture]
• After the Election: Don’t Panic, Think!
  by Diana Johnstone November 14, 2016 In 2016, the fundamentally undemocratic U.S. two-party system presented the public with the two most hated candidates in history. The choice was so dismal that over forty three percent of the voters could not bring themselves to go to the polls. Everyone hated one or the other of the candidates, or both. Whoever won was bound to face vehement opposition. The unexpected shock of Donald Trump’s victory created mass hysteria, with crowds in tears going into the streets to protest – an unprecedented reaction to an uncontested election. This hysterical opposition is not the best basis for building the new movement needed to oppose a widely rejected political establishment. Most of the weeping and wailing comes not from Bernie Sanders supporters, who were prepared for the worst, but from those who believed the Clinton campaign claim that Trump represents nothing but various ways to “hate” other people: sexism, racism, homophobia, xenophobia, etc. The response is to hate Trump. This is sterile and gets nowhere politically. [US_election16]
• Trump hates the nuclear pact with Iran, but the rest of the world is busy cutting deals
  By Brian Murphy November 14 at 12:41 PM Iranian Defense Minister Gen. Hossein Dehghan, right, exchanges cooperation documents with Chinese Defense Minister Chang Wanquan in Tehran on Nov. 14. (Iranian Defense Ministry/European Pressphoto Agency) Judging from Donald Trump’s campaign posturing, his Big Three foreign policy views go something like this: Russia can be wooed, Iran needs to be slammed, and China’s economic and strategic reach must be tamed. But what happens when they all start to overlap? A series of initiatives and announcements Monday pointed to the deepening interplay between Iran, China and Russia — and offered an early lesson to the Trump administration on the slippery reality of the world. One maxim Trump will quickly learn: Washington now has very limited power to isolate and punish Iran. Trump may be able to follow through on pledges to tear up the U.S. portion of last year’s nuclear deal, which seeks to rein in Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for easing international sanctions. But that leaves America’s other five negotiating partners — including Russia and China — sticking with the program and making deals with Iran. [Iran deal] [Renege] [Trump]
• Should Iran fear a Trump presidency?
  European Union and allies remain committed to Iran deal New US sanctions could end up isolating Washington, not Tehran, as Iran gains ground in the region; Obama’s decision to target Jabhat al-Nusra leaders could lead to breakthrough on Aleppo. Author Week in Review Posted November 12, 2016 US President-elect Donald Trump will give priority to new sanctions and pressure on Iran, while considering whether and how his administration might seek to renegotiate the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The trend in Europe and Asia, however, is heading in the other direction, where the emphasis is on breaking down, rather than erecting, barriers to business and engagement with Iran. It is difficult to envision a global retreat from Iran, absent an Iranian breach in its commitments to the JCPOA. [Iran deal] [Trump]
• Who Benefits From Donald Trump's Tax Plan?
  John Ydstie Donald Trump has proposed a very detailed tax plan — but his statements on the campaign trail don't always match what his proposal would really do. Politics FACT CHECK: Donald Trump's First 100 Days Action Plan Politics Analysis: Trump Tax Plan Would Cost Trillions, Boost Incomes For The Rich For instance, at a rally in Scranton, Pa., Trump promised to "massively cut taxes for the middle class, the forgotten people, the forgotten men and women of this country, who built our country." During a town hall meeting on NBC's Today show, he said he believes in raising taxes on the wealthy. And at least half of Trump's supporters agreed with him on that, according to a pre-election survey by the RAND Corporation, a research group. "Just before the election, after the last debate, 51 percent of them intending to vote for Trump supported increasing taxes on high-earning individuals," says Michael Pollard of RAND. But Trump's plan does the opposite, says Lily Batchelder, a law professor at NYU and visiting fellow at the Tax Policy Center. "If you look at the most wealthy, the top 1 percent would get about half the benefits of his tax cut, and a millionaire would get an average tax cut of $317,000," she says But a family earning between $40,000 and $50,000 a year would get a tax cut of only $560, she says, and millions of middle-class working families will see their tax bills rise under Trump's plan — especially single-parent families. [Trump] [Tax] [Inequality]
• No one has a clue what kind of president Donald Trump will be
  President-elect Donald Trump listens as President Obama speaks at a news conference in the Oval Office on Nov. 10. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) By Dan Balz November 12 at 1:31 PM ? The battle for Donald Trump’s presidency is underway, and there’s nothing orderly about it. Washington is rife with rumor, speculation and trepidation. The rest of the country is in the dark and divided. Trump always said he liked to be unpredictable, and so it is left to others right now to imagine how all the conflicts, contradictions and questions will be resolved. Two signs of the absence of clarity came Friday when Trump reshuffled the leadership of his transition team, jettisoning New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and some of his loyalists and installing Vice President-elect Mike Pence to run the show. At the same time came suggestions that Trump might back away from several key campaign pledges, raising once again the question of what his real convictions are. These might just be hiccups. If not, look out. [Trump] [Unpredictable]
• Trump’s Victory: Arrogance Defeated
  by Jean Bricmont Hillary Clinton called half of Trump voters “a basket of deplorables”. In all the discussions I have had with American “liberals”, they explained to me that Trump supporters were mostly uneducated white men. However, I am old enough to remember an era when the all the leftwing parties, socialist or communist, and even American Democrats, were based on the workers or the “working class” or the “common man”. Nobody thought to inquire whether they had university degrees or to investigate whether or not their opinions were politically correct on issues such as racism, sexism or homophobia. What defined the workers as progressive subjects was their economically exploited condition and not some ideological orthodoxy or moral purity. At the end of the 1970s a great change took place within leftwing parties. They were increasingly dominated by academics and their ideology changed radically from that of the classical left. Far from aiming to establish some form of socialism, or merely of social justice, the left turned into the champion of the fight for equal opportunity, against discrimination and prejudice, and – with the rise of globalization – the opening of markets. The more or less mythical hero of the left was no longer the proletarian but the marginal, the migrant, the foreigner, the dissident, or the rebel – even if he happened to be a religious fanatic that no leftist intellectual would have anything to do with. One recalls how Jean-Jacques Rousseau made fun of those who pretend to love the Tartars in order to avoid loving their neighbors. Little by little a new class alliance formed: the one percent as it is called, or more realistically the richest ten percent who benefit from globalization are allied with the middle class intelligentsia to sell us globalization in the name of “openness to others” and which flaunt the specter of racism or sexism to attract minorities and certain feminists (for although women are not a minority, certain feminist demands are similar to those of minorities). [US_election16]
• We Googled Trump’s top Cabinet picks so you don’t have to
  By Vera Bergengruen, Anna Douglas and Matthew Schofield McClatchy Washington Bureau WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump’s list of choices for his Cabinet contains an eclectic mix of early backers of his campaign, business executives and conservative activists. Despite his promise to “drain the swamp,” the names being mentioned also show that he and his advisers are drawing heavily from a group of Washington insiders. Here are the top picks being considered to serve in Trump’s Cabinet and as White House chief of staff.
  Secretary of state Newt Gingrich, 73, an early and important supporter of Trump’s campaign, served as speaker of the House from 1995 to 1999 and ran for president in 2012. Like Trump, he has often spoken of creating a new Republican Party, and he would bring congressional experience. He has been a strong supporter of Trump’s proposals for combating terrorism, and he drew criticism for calling for a “test” for Muslims entering the U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., 64, is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He advised Trump on foreign policy during the campaign and has visited more than 70 countries. Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, 67, served in George W. Bush’s administration and is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He previously served as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security affairs. [Trump] [Cabinet]
• The Middle East Crises Trump Inherits Could Still Suck Him in
  Patrick Cockburn • November 11, 2016 ‘Make America Great Again’ was the slogan of Donald Trump’s election, but the immediate impact of his victory is to make the US less of a power in the world for two reasons: American prestige and influence will be damaged by a general belief internationally that the US has just elected a dangerous buffoon as its leader. The perception is pervasive, but is not very deeply rooted and likely be temporary, stemming as it does from Trump’s demagogic rants during the election campaign. Those about relations with foreign countries were particularly vague and least likely to provide a guide to future policy. More damaging in the long term for America’s status as superpower is the likelihood that the US is now a more deeply divided society than ever. Trump won the election by demonising and threatening individuals and communities – Mexicans, Muslims, Latinos – and his confrontational style of politics is not going to disappear. Verbal violence produces a permanently over-heated political atmosphere in which physical violence becomes an option. At the same time, the election campaign was focused almost exclusively on American domestic politics with voters showing little interest in events abroad. This is unlikely to change. Governments around the world can see this for themselves, though this will not stop them badgering their diplomats in Washington and New York for an inkling as to how far Trump’s off-the-cuff remarks were more than outrageous attempts to dominate the news agenda for a few hours. Fortunately, his pronouncements were so woolly that they can be easily jettisoned between now and his inauguration. Real foreign policy positions will only emerge with the formation of a Trump cabinet when it becomes clear who will be in charge. But, if future policies remain unknowable, super-charged American nationalism combined with economic populism and isolationism are likely to set the general tone. Trump has invariably portrayed Americans as the victims of the foul machinations of foreign countries who previously faced no real resistance from an incompetent self-serving American elite. [Trump] [Foreign policy] [US Middle East Strategy]
• Trump undermines America’s already-tattered authority
  By Bob Rigg, Former Executive Director, Amnesty International NZ
  November 13, 2016 3:33 AM (UTC+8) Hillary Clinton and the Democrats deserved to lose the presidential election. Under Hillary’s husband Bill, the Democratic Party moved to the center, which in US terms means to the right, in what was touted at the time as a smart strategic repositioning. What the Democrats lost sight of was that, in repositioning themselves, they were abandoning their traditional working class and black constituencies, while they were at the same time continuing to rely on their support at the ballot box. Slowly, over decades, it began to dawn on traditional Democratic voters that the Democratic Party was no longer dedicated to serving their interests. Mass unemployment and immiseration, especially in the so-called rust belt but also nationwide, were simply disregarded by the Democratic elite, which lined its pockets with congressional salaries, pensions and benefits and supported the nakedly self-seeking Clinton dynasty, which devoted more energy to building up its own assets than it did to combating the flagrant inequalities that were increasingly at the heart of post-neoliberal life in the US. The predatory practices of the Washington elite were actively supported by congressional carpetbaggers who approved legislation that opened the floodgates to every imaginable form of financial manipulation. When these sharp practices produced the global international crisis which, in the US, dispossessed very large numbers of ordinary citizens, sometimes depriving them of both their homes and their pensions, their cup began to run over. Congress bailed out the banks with prodigious sums of taxpayer money. The then-new Barack Obama administration, whose financial advisers were the core of the financial elite, refrained from prosecuting a single CEO. The good will of US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was valued more highly than the loyalty of Obama’s legions of camp followers. What does this potted Democratic prehistory have to do with Donald Trump, the unlikely hero of the hour? Everything. While Bill and Hillary were rapidly accumulating a personal fortune in excess of $100 million, and were playing a starring role in the life of the nation’s elite, many of their loyal constituents were going to the wall while Bill and Hillary hobnobbed with the Trumps, even gracing their lavish wedding with their presence. Their daughter Chelsea is a best friend of Trump’s daughter Ivanka. [Trump] [US_Election16]
• Meet the potential Trump Cabinet picks most likely to make liberals squirm
  By Aaron Blake November 11 at 2:15 PM ? Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke holds up a rifle that was presented to him as part of his Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire Award at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February 2015 in National Harbor, Md. (Alex Brandon/AP) We don't know a whole heckuva lot about who Donald Trump will pick for his Cabinet at this point. So far, the process is heavy on rumors and preliminary lists. For Trump, selecting and vetting his picks isn't a three-day process, nor should we expect much of it to be done in public. [Trump]
• On foreign policy, Donald Trump is no realist
  By Robert D. Kaplan
  November 11 at 7:10 PM Robert D. Kaplan is a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and author of “Earning the Rockies: How Geography Shapes America’s Role in the World,” to be published in January. President-elect Donald Trump is being called a “realist” in foreign policy. Don’t believe it. He may have some crude realist instincts, but that only makes him a terrible messenger for realism. Realists like myself should be very nervous about his election. [Trump] [Foreign policy] [Realism]
• Obama directs Pentagon to target al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, one of the most formidable forces fighting Assad
  This 2015 file photo posted on the Twitter page of Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, shows al-Nusra fighters in Idlib province where the United States has begun to strike the group’s leadership. (AP) By Adam Entous November 10 at 4:42 PM President Obama has ordered the Pentagon to find and kill the leaders of an al-Qaeda-linked group in Syria that the administration had largely ignored until now and that has been at the vanguard of the fight against the Syrian government, U.S. officials said. The decision to deploy more drones and intelligence assets against the militant group formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra reflects Obama’s concern that it is turning parts of Syria into a new base of operations for al-Qaeda on Europe’s southern doorstep, the officials said. The move underlines the extent to which Obama has come to prioritize the counter­terrorism mission in Syria over efforts to pressure President Bashar al-Assad to step aside, as al-Nusra is among the most effective forces­­ battling the Syrian government. [US Syria policy] [Nusra]
• The Unpredictable Presidency of Donald Trump
  Donald Trump's election as the 45th president of the United States was not the product of his strength, but of Hillary Clinton's weakness. His victory has plunged the US into a deep crisis -- and nobody knows how he might govern, perhaps not even Trump himself. By Gordon Repinski and Holger Stark November 11, 2016 09:41 PM In the moment of his triumph, when Donald Trump began making his way to the Hilton Hotel in Manhattan in the early morning hours of Wednesday, the chanting started -- aggressive and loud, bellowed out by a group of frenzied men. It spread through the crowd and was aimed at Trump's erstwhile opponent, Hillary Clinton. "Lock her up! Lock her up!" Trump, after all, had promised to do just that -- to throw his political adversary in prison as soon as he had taken the oath of office on January 20, not unlike the way Vladimir Putin deals with his enemies in Moscow or Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara. And thus, the zero hour of the new American era began just as the campaign had ended: with a threat that contained little in the way of reconciliation and was reminiscent of distant dictatorships -- even as Trump later sought to rein in the chants by speaking of "binding the wounds of division" and of coming "together as one united people." His followers saw his victory as a signal, as the beginning and not as the end. They bared their teeth and cheered as the Empire State Building radiated red in the night sky with a gigantic image of their leader projected onto the facade. [Trump] [Alienation]
• Trump foreign policy adviser: Trump will demand changes to the Iran nuclear deal
  By Andrew Kaczynski, CNN Updated 2205 GMT (0605 HKT) November 10, • "He's gonna take that agreement, it's been done before in international context, and then review it," Phares said. • "He will take the agreement, review it, send it to Congress, demand from the Iranians to restore few issues or change few issues, and there will be a discussion," Phares said. (CNN)Walid Phares, one of Donald Trump's foreign policy advisers, says the President-elect is going to demand changes to the Iran nuclear agreement. During the campaign, Trump said the Iran deal was one of the worst agreements ever negotiated. In a USA Today op-ed in September of 2015 Trump said, "When I am elected president, I will renegotiate with Iran." Republican members of Congress have sharply criticized the deal since it was announced in 2014. [Iran deal] [Renege] [Trump]
• What will Trump do on Syria?
  Trump's "America first" is likely to make him cooperate with Putin on Syria.
  By Rami G Khouri Rami G Khouri is a senior public policy fellow in the Issam Fares Institute at the American University of Beirut. Anyone interested in how the United States president-elect Donald Trump will fill in the many blanks in his foreign policy should keep an eye on the Middle East - the most dramatic convergence point of ongoing American military engagements and Russia's foreign policy. Russia and its leader President Vladimir Putin is also the issue on which Trump has spoken with perhaps the most clarity and specificity, amid his otherwise vague and often changing foreign policy positions. Syria, in particular, is where Trump's emphatic "America-first" principles and his disdain for promoting regime change and nation-building abroad naturally line up with two of his expressed views: The US should get out of the war in Syria and avoid destabilising more Middle Eastern countries, and the US should work with Putin to defeat terrorist groups such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS). [Trump] [US Syria policy] [Russia Syria]
• Change.org Petition to Unseat Donald and Make Hillary President
  By Stephen Lendman Global Research, November 11, 2016 Change.org is a for-profit enterprise, not an NGO – deceiving supporters by using the .org domain suffix, not .com as it should. Its business is getting people to sign petitions, along with selling advertising and personal data for added profits. Best to ignore its petitions altogether, especially a deplorable one now circulating with nearly two million signers – calling for the Electoral College to make war goddess/racketeer/perjurer Hillary president when it votes on December 19 - wanting Trump’s election annulled. Democracy in America is pure fantasy. Change.org wants it undermined more than already – for its bottom line interests exclusively, taking advantage of state-sponsored and media anti-Trumpism, unrelated to electoral results or anything else. What it asks for, is the following: “On December 19, the Electors of the Electoral College will cast their ballots. If they all vote the way their states voted, Donald Trump will win.” “However, they can vote for Hillary Clinton if they choose. Even in states where that is not allowed, their vote would still be counted, they would simply pay a small fine – which we can be sure Clinton supporters will be glad to pay! We are calling on the Electors to ignore their states’ votes and cast their ballots for Secretary Clinton.” [US_Election16] [Democracy] [Coup]
• Meet Trump's Cabinet-in-waiting
  He’s expected to reward the band of surrogates who stood by him. By Nancy Cook and Andrew Restuccia 11/09/16 02:56 AM EST President-elect Donald Trump does not have the traditional cadre of Washington insiders and donors to build out his Cabinet, but his transition team has spent the past several months quietly building a short list of industry titans and conservative activists who could comprise one of the more eclectic and controversial presidential Cabinets in modern history. Trumpworld has started with a mandate to hire from the private sector whenever possible. That’s why the Trump campaign is seriously considering Forrest Lucas, the 74-year-old co-founder of oil products company Lucas Oil, as a top contender for Interior secretary, or donor and Goldman Sachs veteran Steven Mnuchin as Treasury secretary He’s also expected to reward the band of surrogates who stood by him during the bruising presidential campaign, including Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani and Chris Christie, all of whom are being considered for top posts. A handful of Republican politicians may also make the cut, including Sen. Bob Corker for secretary of state or Sen. Jeff Sessions for secretary of defense. [Trump] [Cabinet] [Corker]
• Trump’s Triumph: DiEM25 on how progressives must react
  Yanis Varoufakis Posted on November 9, 2016 by yanisv Donald Trump’s victory marks the end of an era when a self-confident Establishment preached the end of history, the end of passion and the supremacy of a technocracy working on behalf of the 1%. But the era it ushers in is not new. It is a new variant of the 1930s, featuring deflationary economics, xenophobia and divide-and-rule politics. Passion has returned to politics but not in a way that will help the 80% left behind since the 1970s. Passion is now fuelling misanthropy. Passion is exploiting the anger of the 80% to re-arrange power at the top, while leaving the 80% moribund, betrayed and divided. And it is our job to stop this. It is our job to harness passion in the cause of humanism. The Establishment’s folly is causing its demise. Unable to come to terms with the economic crisis they created, they crushed the Greek Spring because they could. They pushed the majority of British families into austerity-induced hopelessness. They committed millions of Germans to mini-jobs. They conspired to keep Bernie Sanders at bay. And when Golden Dawn, Brexit, the Alternative für Deutschland and Donald Trump were the result, they responded with a mixture of condescension, denial and panic. Politics is undergoing a shake up that the world has not seen since the 1930s. A Great Deflation is now gripping both sides of the Atlantic, re-kindling political forces that had been dormant since the 1930s. President Trump’s use of Mussolini-like tactics and narratives is a mere symptom of the rendition of that bleak era. [Trump] [Radical]
• An American Tragedy
  By David Remnick , November 9, 2016 The election of Donald Trump to the Presidency is nothing less than a tragedy for the American republic, a tragedy for the Constitution, and a triumph for the forces, at home and abroad, of nativism, authoritarianism, misogyny, and racism. Trump’s shocking victory, his ascension to the Presidency, is a sickening event in the history of the United States and liberal democracy. On January 20, 2017, we will bid farewell to the first African-American President—a man of integrity, dignity, and generous spirit—and witness the inauguration of a con who did little to spurn endorsement by forces of xenophobia and white supremacy. It is impossible to react to this moment with anything less than revulsion and profound anxiety. [Trump] [Liberal]
• With Trump as commander in chief, ‘America is in uncharted territory’
  By Missy Ryan November 9 at 3:58 PM ? This fall, after Iranian naval vessels veered dangerously close to American ships in the Middle East, then-candidate Donald Trump promised a swift response. “With Iran, when they circle our beautiful destroyers with their little boats, and they make gestures at our people that they shouldn’t be allowed to make, they will be shot out of the water,” the Republican presidential nominee told supporters in September. Trump’s vow to escalate a standoff with a significant military power stood in contrast to the Obama administration’s calibrated response to the naval confrontations with Iran, which included using loudspeakers to wave off approaching ships and firing warning shots into the water. It also raises questions about what the nation can expect from a commander in chief who, as a candidate, vowed to upend many of the fundamentals of U.S. defense policy and transform the use of the world’s most powerful military. [Trump] [US military]
• Hillary versus Donald: Ding Dong, The Witch Is Dead! Victory for the Wizard of Oz!
  By Diana Johnstone Global Research, November 09, 2016 The real meaning of this election is not, as bitterly disappointed Hillary supporters still maintain with tears in their eyes and fear in their throats, a victory for racism and sexism. The real meaning of this upset is that Wall Street’s globalization project has been rejected by the citizens of its homeland. This has major implications for the European nations that have been dragged along into this ruinous project. [Trump] [Hillary Clinton]
• The Iraqi Christians Who Are Struggling to Survive After Isis
  by Patrick Cockburn In the half-burned church of St Mary al-Tahira in Qaraqosh, several dozen Syriac Catholics are holding a mass in Aramaic amid the wreckage left by Isis. The upper part of the stone columns and the nave are scorched black by fire and the only artificial light comes from three or four candles flickering on an improvised altar. Isis fighters used the courtyard outside as a firing range and metal targets set at one end of it are riddled with bullets. In his sermon, the Syriac Catholic Bishop of Baghdad Yusuf Abba calls for the congregation to show cooperation and goodwill to all. But the people of Qaraqosh, an overwhelmingly Christian town 20 miles south east of Mosul, wonder just how much goodwill and cooperation they can expect in return. . The Christians are still traumatised by the disasters of the last two-and-a-half years. When Isis took Qaraqosh on 8 August 2014 it had a population of 44,000, almost all Syriac Catholics, who fled for their lives to Irbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Regional Government. Some 40 per cent of these have since migrated further to countries like Australia and France or, within the Middle East, to Istanbul and Lebanon. [ISIS] [Christianity]
• A View of the Syrian War From the Golan Heights
  by Robert Fisk November 9, 2016 From Colonel Saleh’s forward position on his front line north of Quneitra, he has a unique and exclusive view of the Syrian war. To his west and south is a vast area of his country which is occupied by Jabhat al-Nusra Islamist fighters – their earthen ramparts and supply roads are scarcely half a mile away. Then, another couple of miles away, Israeli soldiers are inside their concrete positions on the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, above the old and Nusra-held Syrian city of Quneitra. “You see that mosque over there, just to the right of the water tower?” the colonel asks. “Well, Nusra is there. And you see the triangular hill beyond? The Israelis are there.” It’s what you call a politically intriguing battlefield – yes, shells do come whizzing in towards the Syrians from Nusra and also from the Israelis. The Syrians concentrate their fire on Nusra but Nusra’s casualties are often taken through the Israeli lines for hospital treatment in Haifa. [Nusra] [Israel]
• Congratulations, Folks!
  Israel Shamir • November 9, 2016 What could be better than waking up in time to witness the last few minutes of the historic race between the Champion of Deplorables and the Best Friend of Banksters, and to see Trump emerging victorious! Thank you, Lord, for allowing me to see these scenes at all and especially in sunny Jerusalem where I am now, and thank you, our American friends, for achieving this victory. You were not scared when they called you “racist rednecks”, you did not despair when the CNN said (yesterday) that Clinton had a 96% chance of winning. You did not sat down with a bottle of beer, you still went to the booths and voted, God bless you. [Trump]
• Many of Trump’s sweeping promises will be hard, if not impossible, to fulfill
  By Sean Sullivan and Dana Priest November 9 at 7:21 PM ? NEW YORK — President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office under immense pressure to quickly deliver on a list of audacious campaign promises that served as the cornerstone of his bid to disrupt Washington and undo pieces of President Obama’s agenda. Some of Trump’s most dramatic undertakings — such as canceling Obama’s “illegal” executive actions — can be done in his first hours as president. Other priorities, such as repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act or building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, will require the approval of Congress, which will be controlled by Republicans but could still squabble over details. Others still could run into political or legal obstacles that may be difficult to overcome. For Trump, the transition from proposing severe changes on the campaign trail to trying to navigate the complex gears of government to implement them will serve as a jarring early test of his tenure in the White House. Two of Trump’s ideas could probably be realized as early as his first day in office: scrapping executive orders issued by Obama — including those that shielded from deportation some immigrants who are here illegally — and appointing a special prosecutor to investigate vanquished Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. [Trump] [Candidate promises]
• Donald Trump has won the presidency: ‘It is time for us to come together’
  Associated Press and staff reports Donald Trump has been elected the 45th president of the United States, and in a speech to supporters he said Hillary Clinton had called him to concede. Trump also struck a note of reconciliation. “Now it is time for Americans to bind the wounds of division. It is time for us to come together as one united people,” he said. “I pledge to every citizen that I will be president for all americans and this is so important to me.” His triumph over Clinton will end eight years of Democratic dominance of the White House and threatens to undo major achievements of President Barack Obama. He's pledged to act quickly to repeal Obama's landmark health care law, revoke the nuclear agreement with Iran and rewrite important trade deals with other countries, particularly Mexico and Canada. The Republican blasted through Democrats' longstanding firewall, carrying Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, states that hadn't voted for a GOP presidential candidate since the 1980s. He needed to win nearly all of the competitive battleground states, and he did just that, claiming Florida, Ohio, North Carolina and others. Global stock markets and U.S. stock futures plunged deeply, reflecting investor alarm over what a Trump presidency might mean for the economy and trade. [Trump]
• Donald Trump Is Elected President in Stunning Repudiation of the Establishment
  By Matt Flegenheimer and Michael Barbaro Nov. 9, 2016 Donald John Trump was elected the 45th president of the United States on Tuesday in a stunning culmination of an explosive, populist and polarizing campaign that took relentless aim at the institutions and long-held ideals of American democracy. The surprise outcome, defying late polls that showed Hillary Clinton with a modest but persistent edge, threatened convulsions throughout the country and the world, where skeptics had watched with alarm as Mr. Trump’s unvarnished overtures to disillusioned voters took hold. The triumph for Mr. Trump, 70, a real estate developer-turned-reality television star with no government experience, was a powerful rejection of the establishment forces that had assembled against him, from the world of business to government, and the consensus they had forged on everything from trade to immigration. The results amounted to a repudiation, not only of Mrs. Clinton, but of President Obama, whose legacy is suddenly imperiled. And it was a decisive demonstration of power by a largely overlooked coalition of mostly blue-collar white and working-class voters who felt that the promise of the United States had slipped their grasp amid decades of globalization and multiculturalism. [Trump] [Alienation]
• Donald Trump wins the presidency in stunning upset over Clinton
  Early on the morning of Nov. 9, Republican President-elect Donald Trump addressed supporters in New York, declaring victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton. Here are key moments from that speech. (Video: Sarah Parnass/Photo: Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post) By Karen Tumulty, Philip Rucker and Anne Gearan November 9 at 5:12 AM ? Donald Trump was elected the nation’s 45th president in the stunning culmination of a campaign that defied expectations and conventions at every turn and galvanized legions of aggrieved Americans in a loud repudiation of the status quo. Hillary Clinton’s quest to make history as the first female president was thwarted by the Republican nominee’s breathtaking performance at the polls. He was carried to victory by voters fed up with the political system and mistrustful of Clinton, a former first lady, senator and secretary of state. Trump, a 70-year-old celebrity businessman who had never before run for office, is poised to become the oldest president ever elected to a first term. After running a divisive campaign, Trump sounded a magnanimous note of reconciliation as he claimed victory shortly before 3 a.m. Wednesday. [Trump]
• What President Trump’s foreign policy will look like
  By David Ignatius Opinion writer November 9 at 2:37 AM ? Donald Trump proclaimed “America First” on his way to his head-spinning victory in Tuesday’s presidential election, and the success of that message will rock many foreign capitals where leaders have feared that Trump would alter the basics of U.S. foreign policy. Making predictions about Trump’s foreign policy is difficult, given his lack of experience. But the most likely bet is that as president he will seek to do what he promised during the campaign in breaking from current U.S. approaches to Russia, the Middle East, Europe and Asia. Traveling abroad over the past year, I heard concern about Donald Trump’s candidacy from senior officials in more than a dozen countries. He was viewed as an inexperienced and unreliable figure who might dismantle traditional U.S. commitments and alliances. Most foreign leaders will be upset that Hillary Clinton, an advocate of traditional U.S. strategy and commitments, lost the race. [Trump] [Foreign policy]
• Mosul and Aleppo, a reshaping war
  Paul Rogers 7 November 2016 The intense aerial assaults in Iraq and Syria are being seized as an opportunity by forces, both ISIS and other jihadi, on the receiving end. After two weeks of military assault on the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, there is no sign of a definitive breakthrough. The attackers, a wide-ranging coalition of international forces, have made some incursions into its eastern environs. But the main part of the city, west of the Tigris, remains firmly under ISIS control. If ISIS does not withdraw, as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's rare message has indicated, the most likely development is the greater use of intensive firepower to support ground troops in ejecting them. The United States and its coalition partners have certainly brought in all the weapons to take that route. Such an approach may kill many civilians and damage much of the city. That, after all, was the pattern in Fallujah and Ramadi during earlier stages of the anti-ISIS campaign. An example of what is being done is a report in the Pentagon’s own newspaper, Stars and Stripes, reporting from a base within range of the city: “Here at Qayara Airfield West, the thud of outgoing fire from American M109 Paladins and CAESAR howitzers manned by French troops stationed at the base is punctuated by the occasional whoosh of rockets launched by a U.S. Army HIMARS (High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System). The multiple-launch rocket systems have unleashed more than 200 rounds in support of Iraqi ground forces since the weapons started shooting from this area 10 weeks ago, first at a nearby base and then here” (see "Destruction, sounds of battle attest to US support for Iraqi offensive on Mosul", Starts and Stripes, 31 October 2016). HIMARS is a multiple-launch rocket system which is highly accurate in all weathers, during night and day, and can operate when strike-aircraft and helicopter-gunships are grounded. The fact that French troops are operating at such a forward base is a reminder that this really is a coalition with a number of western states involved, and a contrast with the country's refusal to get involvoled in the invasion of Iraq in 2003. One result of the media concentration on Mosul is that there is far less coverage in the western media of Russian and Syrian regime operations to take control of eastern Aleppo. The Russians have now announced a brief pause to allow rebels to leave the city before what they describe as the final attack, which would be prosecuted by intensive (and often inaccurate) air-power in support of Syrian ground troops. [Airpower] [Mosul] [Aleppo] [Double standards]
• Democracy at a Dead-End in America
  On the eve of the US election, Hillary Clinton has a lead in the polls, but it's a small one. Donald Trump's success is the logical outcome of the decades-long erosion of liberal democracy in America. An Essay by Georg Diez November 07, 2016 05:33 PM I can hardly believe it -- and my fingers are quivering as I type this -- but I'm afraid that Donald Trump will be elected as the next president of the United States How have I come to that conclusion? It has been like a slow-motion train wreck that we have been watching in amazement, fear and disgust over the course of the past several months. But now, shortly before the trains finally plow into each other, something akin to understanding has set in. It may have been misguided to focus too intently on the trains themselves. The real story is the history of this country, which is so deeply and traumatically divided. It is a country that is so profoundly rent asunder by shock and change, so gripped by fear, that it is hardly recognizable anymore The real story is that of the last 35 years. Since the 1980 Reagan Revolution, a conservative syndicate has systematically strived to destroy the foundations of liberal democracy by elevating the economy, selfishness and social Darwinism above all. The real story is that of the last 25 years. Since the election of Bill Clinton in 1992, the Democrats, the leftists and liberal forces (as has happened with New Labour in Britain and the Social Democrats in Germany) have capitulated to globalization as if to a law of nature. Step by step, they have abandoned a significant segment of their voters: workers and the lower-middle class. The real story is that of the last eight years, during which Barack Obama has been president. For many Americans, his presidency remains an ignominy and a disgrace because racism has such deep roots in American history and now appears to many whites as a matter of survival. Sometimes it seems as though it's all they have left. The election of Donald Trump by these white Americans would be a direct reaction to the eight years of Barack Obama, a man who embodies the future and opportunities of this country. In concert with reactionaries who have come before, Trump invokes an idyllic past, to which it is impossible to return, not even with violence. [Alienation] [US_Election16] [Reagan] [Liberal]
• The FBI-Justice Department war has gone nuclear. Comey’s decision on Clinton’s emails won’t fix the fallout.
  By Tim Weiner The end of the most bitter presidential contest in memory is upon us. One candidate says he may or may not respect the results. The other has been the subject of a long national-security investigation by the FBI. Americans have been justly afraid of a crisis before and after the ballots are cast. What if a cyberattack strikes Monday? If self-proclaimed poll-watchers confront voters with violence on Tuesday? If a clear loser refuses to concede and rejects the will of the people on Wednesday? FBI Director James B. Comey broke ranks with his superiors at the Justice Department on October 28 and fired a loaded weapon in the form of a letter to Congress. On Sunday, that bullet ricocheted. He has inflicted a wholly unnecessary wound on the Democratic presidential nominee and left a scar on the American body politic. [FBI] [Emails] [DoJ] [Hillary] [Media]
• Elephant In The Room: The Pentagon’s Massive Carbon Footprint
  by Lisa Savage July 23, 2015 It’s not news that climate change threatens the security of every person on planet Earth. The Union of Concerned Scientists predicts 6-16 inches of sea level rise by the year 2050. The threat is apparent in the Marshall Islands, which just set its own ambitious goal for reducing carbon emissions in the wake of catastrophic storms and coastal flooding in the South Pacific. The threat is apparent in California, where prolonged drought has led to wildfires like the one that crossed a busy highway and caused several vehicles to explode in flames. The threat of weather extremes is apparent in Sydney, Australia, which saw snowfall this winter for the first time since 1836. What is news: the Pentagon’s enormous, unacknowledged contribution to climate change. According to its own study, in 2013 the Pentagon consumed fuel equivalent to 90,000,000 barrels of crude oil. This amounts to 80% of the total fuel usage by the federal government. If burned as jet fuel it produces about 38,700,000 metric tons of CO2. And the Pentagon’s figures do not include carbon produced by the thousands of bombs dropped in 2013, or the fires that burned after the jets and drones departed. Corporate media reports on alarming climate change never mention the Pentagon. Newspapers and television stations [Pentagon] [Climate change]
• Majority of voters think Clinton acted illegally, new poll finds
  By Anita Kumar and Lesley Clark McClatchy Washington Bureau WASHINGTON — A majority of voters believe Hillary Clinton has done something illegal, according to a new McClatchy-Marist Poll days before the presidential election. A total of 83 percent of likely voters believe that Clinton did something wrong – 51 percent saying she did something illegal and 32 percent saying she something unethical but not illegal. Just 14 percent said she’s done nothing wrong. By comparison, 79 percent think Donald Trump did something wrong, though not nearly as many think he did something illegal. Just 26 percent think he’s done something illegal, while 53 percent think he’s dome something unethical but not illegal. Just 17 percent think he’s done nothing wrong. The deep suspicion of Clinton is likely a top reason she’s lost much of her lead and the race for the White House has tightened in the race’s closing days. [Hillary Clinton] [Legality] [Public opinion]
• ‘I Saw My Father Dying’: A View From Aleppo’s Government-Held Side
  By Anne Barnard Nov. 4, 2016 ALEPPO, Syria — The government-held side of Aleppo looks halfway normal: bustling with restaurants, parks, hotel swimming pools and commuters. President Bashar al-Assad’s main pitch to his people is that they are safer in the territory he controls, a far cry from the bombs and hunger on the rebels’ half of the storied and strategic city. This is what the government wanted international journalists to see when it invited a group into the country this week after years of keeping most out. But when I stepped off the bus, I found a war zone. The thump of outgoing artillery fire sounded throughout Thursday morning, and the crack of incoming shells was increasing. Paramedics whisked groaning men in camouflage jackets from ambulances outside Al Razi hospital, where a 14-year-old boy wept quietly. His mother had just been killed when a mortar shell hit their house; his father had died in an attack the day before. [Syria] [Media]
• The Secrets of the US Election: Julian Assange Talks to John Pilger
  by Julian Assange – John Pilger This interview was filmed in the Embassy of Ecuador in London – where Julian Assange is a political refugee – and broadcast on November 5, 2016. John Pilger: What’s the significance of the FBI’s intervention in these last days of the U.S. election campaign, in the case against Hillary Clinton? Julian Assange: If you look at the history of the FBI, it has become effectively America’s political police. The FBI demonstrated this by taking down the former head of the CIA [General David Petraeus] over classified information given to his mistress. Almost no-one is untouchable. The FBI is always trying to demonstrate that no-one can resist us. But Hillary Clinton very conspicuously resisted the FBI’s investigation, so there’s anger within the FBI because it made the FBI look weak. We’ve published about 33,000 of Clinton’s emails when she was Secretary of State. They come from a batch of just over 60,000 emails, [of which] Clinton has kept about half – 30,000 — to herself, and we’ve published about half. [WikiLeaks] [Hillary Clinton]
• President al-Assad: United States and its Western allies are to blame for failure of latest ceasefire
  3 November? 2016 Damascus, SANA – President Bashar al-Assad asserted that the United States and its Western allies are to blame for the failure of latest ceasefire, because terrorism and terrorists are for them a card they want to play on the Syrian arena. In an interview given to the Serbian newspaper Politika, President al-Assad said that Russia is very serious and very determined to continue fighting the terrorists, while the Americans base their politics on a different value as they use the terrorists as a card to play the political game to serve their own interests at the expense of the interests of other countries in the world. President al-Assad pointed out that Western countries wanted to use the humanitarian mask in order to have an excuse to intervene more in Syria, either militarily or by supporting the terrorists. Following is the full text of the interview: Question 1: Mr. President, why has the latest Syria ceasefire failed? Who is to blame for that? President Assad: Actually, the West, mainly the United States, has made that pressure regarding the ceasefire, and they always ask for ceasefire only when the terrorists are in a bad situation, not for the civilians. And they try to use those ceasefires in order to support the terrorists, bring them logistic support, armament, money, everything, in order to re-attack and to become stronger again. When it didn’t work, they ask the terrorists to make it fail or to start attacking again. So, who’s to blame? It’s the United States and its allies, the Western countries, because for them, terrorists and terrorism are a card they want to play on the Syrian arena, it’s not a value, they’re not against terrorists. For them, supporting the terrorists is a war of attrition against Syria, against Iran, against Russia, that’s how they look at it. That’s why not only this ceasefire; every attempt regarding ceasefire or political moving or political initiative, every failure of these things, the United States was to be blamed. Question 2: But which country is supporting terrorism? Saudi Arabia? Qatar? President Assad: Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey… Journalist: Turkey? President Assad: Because they came through Turkey with the support of the government, direct support from the government. Journalist: Directly? President Assad: Direct support from the government, of course. [Bashar Assad] [US Syria policy]
• Privatization Cure Often Worse Than Malady
  By Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Anis Chowdhury Jomo Kwame Sundaram was a UN Assistant Secretary General for Economic Development. Anis Chowdhury is Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University, and held various senior United Nations positions in New York and Bangkok. KUALA LUMPUR and SYDNEY, Nov 3 2016 (IPS) - Privatization of SOEs has been a cornerstone of the neo-liberal counterrevolution that swept the world from the 1980s following the economic crisis brought about by US Fed’s sharp hike in interest rates. Developing countries, seeking aid from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, often had to commit to privatization as a condition for credit support. The World Bank and the IMF then attributed developing countries’ inability to adjust to the external shocks of that time, inter alia, to their import-substituting industrial policy initiatives and the inefficiency of the state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Hence, their support came with conditions to undertake measures for ‘stabilization’ and ‘structural adjustment’. Privatization was seen and advocated as an easy means to accelerate growth, improve efficiency and productivity, shrink the public sector and associated debt, as well as reduce governments’ financial and administrative responsibilities and activities. However, the privatization experiences of the last three and a half decades, especially for developing countries, have been anything but glorious. [Privatisation]
• Iran to ‘send nuclear deal to museum’ if US fails to keep its pledges: IRGC
  “If the US does not remain fully committed to its pledges in implementation of the nuclear deal, the inactive centrifuges will come on stream once again but this time we will not restrict ourselves to the pre-sanctions level,” the commander said. The Iranian government is not just committed to the US and the G5+1 countries, it is also committed to the Iranian nation, Salami said, adding that the Iranian government has promised the nation that if the US fails to honor its commitments under the nuclear deal, it will nullify the deal and resume nuclear activities. Baku – APA. If the US fails to honor its commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran will send it to museum and return to the first point, according to an IRGC official. Deputy Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General Hossein Salami issued the warning in Tehran on Thursday on the anniversary of the take-over of the US embassy in Tehran by revolutionary students in 1979, IRNA reported. The day, which is also called as the Student Day, falls on November 3 this year. “If the US does not remain fully committed to its pledges in implementation of the nuclear deal, the inactive centrifuges will come on stream once again but this time we will not restrict ourselves to the pre-sanctions level,” the commander said. The Iranian government is not just committed to the US and the G5+1 countries, it is also committed to the Iranian nation, Salami said, adding that the Iranian government has promised the nation that if the US fails to honor its commitments under the nuclear deal, it will nullify the deal and resume nuclear activities. [Iran deal] [Renege]
• The intrigue-laden tale of U.S. efforts to seize jet engines bound for Iran
  By Michael Doyle WASHINGTON — A British Virgin Islands-based company allegedly controlled by Russians now faces a $15,000-a-day fine until it retrieves a pair of General Electric jet engines thought to be bound for Iran. And no, a federal judge says, a comparable pair of jet engines located in Miami won’t suffice as an alternative. In a case that combines asset forfeiture with a hint of international intrigue, U.S. District of Columbia District Court Judge Gladys Kessler imposed the fine this week on Evans Meridians, Ltd, after rejecting the company’s offer to turn over instead what Kessler called “the Miami engines.” Such sales would be legal today, in the wake of the Iran nuclear deal. The stakes could be more than financial, even as the United States begins lifting certain economic sanctions on Iran. The Justice Department contends, Kessler noted, that the two jet engines being sought were “destined for Iran, and more specifically, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.” “If correct, each day that the defendant engines remain outside the United States increases the risk that they will arrive at their intended destination, and thereby benefit a hostile organization,” Kessler reasoned. [Iran deal] [Renege] [Legality]
• I Envy You
  Israel Shamir • November 3, 2016 I envy you, American citizens. I do not care about your military might, nor for your supreme currency, the US dollar. I envy your chance to deal on 11/8 a decisive blow to the rule of the Masters of Discourse. Though the Masters control the entirety of world media, and they decide what people may think and say from Canada to Hong Kong, only you, American citizens, can defeat them. This is a great chance, a unique opportunity not to be missed. The Masters of Discourse can be defeated. They are not stronger than any ruler of past. Trump has a great quality making him fit for the task: he is impervious to labels and libels. He had been called everything in the book: anti-Semite, racist, women hater, you name it. And he still survived that flak. Such people are very rare. We know he is against the Masters because every newspaper is against him. I never saw a similar onslaught but once, in Russia in 1996. Then President Yeltsin, an old drunkard who had brought Russia to collapse, had to run for his second term. His popularity was next to zero. Two per cent of Russians intended to vote for him. And then the oligarchs turned on their propaganda machine. Yeltsin’s competitor Gennady Zyuganov, a mild church-going post-communist, had been presented like a Hitler of his days. All the Russian media of the day belonged to oligarchs, and all of it participated in the onslaught. Zyuganov surrendered. Perhaps he won the election, but he congratulated Yeltsin with his victory. It was said that he was threatened with assassination unless… Others say he was bribed. I do not exclude both explanations, but for sure the might of united media can crush a timid man. [Media] [Election]
• At the close of an ugly contest, a stark reality of low expectations awaits the next president
  By John Wagner November 4 at 11:22 AM Hillary Clinton accepts the Democratic nomination for president at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on July 28. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post) This story was reported by Jose A. DelReal, Anne Gearan, Abby Phillip, Patricia Sullivan, Sean Sullivan, John Wagner and David Weigel and written by Wagner. RALEIGH, N.C. — Jennifer Petticolas arrived early at the Hillary Clinton rally here, and there was no doubt that the Democratic nominee would get her vote. But the retired educator said the biggest draw for her on a sunny fall day was Mothers of the Movement — women appearing on the program with Clinton who have lost children to gun violence or in the custody of law enforcement. As the African American grandmother of a 3-year-old, Petticolas said she prays for the day that her grandson will be able to walk down the street and not be viewed suspiciously by police because of his skin color. Asked what she thinks the Democratic nominee can do to help with that, Petticolas sighed — and then confessed that her expectations aren’t terribly high for a candidate she considers only “the better of the two.” “This is the worst election I’ve ever seen,” Petticolas said, “and I’m 68 years old.” [US_Election16] [Alienation]
• Rudy Giuliani Confirms FBI Insiders Leaked Information To The Trump Campaign
  “Did I hear about it? You’re darn right I heard about it.” 11/04/2016 11:49 am Mollie Reilly Deputy Politics Editor, The Huffington Post Rudy Giuliani said Friday that he knew the FBI planned to review more emails tied to Hillary Clinton before a public announcement about the investigation last week, confirming that the agency leaked information to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign The former New York City mayor and Trump surrogate has recently dropped a series of hints that he knew in advance that the FBI planned to look at emails potentially connected to Clinton’s private server. The agency discovered the messages while investigating former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) for allegedly sexting with a minor. (Weiner’s estranged wife, Huma Abedin, is a top aide to Clinton.) Giuliani has bragged about his close ties to the FBI for months, mentioning in interviews that “outraged FBI agents” have told him they’re frustrated by how the Clinton investigation was handled. And two days before FBI Director James Comey announced that the agency was reviewing the newly uncovered emails, Giuliani teased that Trump’s campaign had “a couple of surprises left.” [Hillary Clinton] [Emails] [FBI]
• A Retired FBI Agent Addresses James Comey on the Hillary Clinton Investigation
  By Hugh Galyen October 25, 2016 Mr. James Comey, Director Federal Bureau of Investigation Sir, I am writing regarding your public statement in July, 2016 informing the American people that the FBI investigation of Hillary Clinton was being closed without referring it to a Federal Grand Jury or the Attorney General of the U. S. for a decision whether or not to indict her. Strangely, you eloquently laid out enough of the evidence deduced from the investigation to strongly indicate there was abundant evidence uncovered during the investigation and interview of her to not only indict but to convict her in Federal Court.­­­­­­­ ­­­­­­However, you personally re-worded and soft-pedaled the actions she took as Secretary of State describing her actions as "extremely careless” in using a personal email and un-secured server for her communications while Secretary of State. You rewrote the statute, which is not your job. [Hillary Clinton] [Emails] [FBI]
• Iraq ‘Ready For War’ With Turkey Over Who Should Control Mosul After Isis
  Patrick Cockburn • November 2, 2016 Iraq and Turkey are threatening to go to war with each other over who should hold power in Mosul and the surrounding region after the defeat of Isis. Turkish tanks and artillery have deployed along the border and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has said that while Iraq “did not want war with Turkey” it is ready to fight one if necessary. The confrontation is sharpening as the Iraqi Army enters eastern Mosul and Shia militia known as the Hashd al-Shaabi advance towards the town of Tal Afar, threatening to cut Isis’s last escape route from Mosul to Syria. Turkey sees itself as the protector of the Sunni Arabs of Mosul and northern Iraq, a community left vulnerable by the likely defeat of Isis by Shia and Kurdish forces backed by US-led airpower. [Mosul] [Turkey] [Iraq] [Neo-Ottomanism]
• Hillary Clinton and the Neocons
  Veteran GOP foreign policy hawks are flocking to Hillary Clinton. Is it callow opportunism, or a major realignment? By John Feffer, November 2, 2016. Much has been made of the swing in political allegiances of neoconservatives in favor of Hillary Clinton. As a group, Washington’s neocons are generally terrified of Trump’s unpredictability and his flirtation with the alt-right. They also support Clinton’s more assertive foreign policy (not to mention her closer relationship to Israel). Perhaps, too, after eight long years in the wilderness, they’re daydreaming of an appointment or two in a Clinton administration. This group of previously staunch Republicans, who believe in using American military power to promote democracy, build nations, and secure U.S. interests abroad, have defected in surprising numbers. Washington Post columnist Robert Kagan, the Wall Street Journal’s Bret Stephens, and the Foreign Policy Initiative’s James Kirchick have all endorsed Clinton. Other prominent neocons like The National Review’s William Kristol, the Wall Street Journal’s Max Boot, and SAIS’s Eliot Cohen have rejected Trump but not quite taken the leap to supporting Clinton. [Hillary Clinton] [Neocon]
• The fatal expense of American imperialism
  By Jeffrey D. Sachs October 30, 2016 Part of a weekly series on the economic choices facing the United States and its relations with the rest of the world. For previous entries, click here. THE SINGLE MOST important issue in allocating national resources is war versus peace, or as macroeconomists put it, “guns versus butter.” The United States is getting this choice profoundly wrong, squandering vast sums and undermining national security. In economic and geopolitical terms, America suffers from what Yale historian Paul Kennedy calls “imperial overreach.” If our next president remains trapped in expensive Middle East wars, the budgetary costs alone could derail any hopes for solving our vast domestic problems. [Imperialism]
• Clintons Are Under Multiple FBI Investigations as Agents Are Stymied
  By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: October 31, 2016 Current and former FBI officials have launched a media counter-offensive to engage head to head with the Clinton media machine and to throw off the shackles the Loretta Lynch Justice Department has used to stymie their multiple investigations into the Clinton pay-to-play network. Over the past weekend, former FBI Assistant Director and current CNN Senior Law Enforcement Analyst Tom Fuentes told viewers that “the FBI has an intensive investigation ongoing into the Clinton Foundation.” He said he had received this information from “senior officials” at the FBI, “several of them, in and out of the Bureau.” (See video clip from CNN below.) That information was further supported by an in-depth article last evening in the Wall Street Journal by Devlin Barrett. According to Barrett, the “probe of the foundation began more than a year ago to determine whether financial crimes or influence peddling occurred related to the charity.” Barrett’s article suggests that the Justice Department, which oversees the FBI, has attempted to circumvent the investigation. The new revelations lead to the appearance of wrongdoing on the part of U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch for secretly meeting with Bill Clinton on her plane on the tarmac of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on the evening of June 28 of this year. Not only was Bill Clinton’s wife under an FBI investigation at the time over her use of a private email server in the basement of her New York home over which Top Secret material was transmitted while she was Secretary of State but his own charitable foundation was also under investigation, a fact that was unknown at the time to the public and the media. [Clintons] [Corruption] [FBI]
• Clinton loses popularity edge in tight race with Trump, new Post-ABC Tracking Poll finds
  By Scott Clement and Emily Guskin October 31 at 7:00 AM ? With one week to go, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are in a statistical dead heat nationally. The Fix's Chris Cillizza explains what you should expect from the last week of the election. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post) Registered voters see Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in a nearly identical negative light, mirroring a persistently close split in overall vote preference in a new Washington Post-ABC News Tracking Poll. Nearly 6 in 10 registered voters have an unfavorable impression of Clinton (59 percent), and an identical percentage see Trump negatively. Nearly half of registered voters, 47 percent, have a "strongly unfavorable" view of Clinton and Trump alike. [US_Election16] [Public opinion]
• Forget the FBI cache; the Podesta emails show how America is run
  Thomas Frank WikiLeaks’ dump of messages to and from Clinton’s campaign chief offer an unprecedented view into the workings of the elite, and how it looks after itself Monday 31 October 2016 22.00 AEDT Last modified on Tuesday 1 November 2016 05.39 AEDT The emails currently roiling the US presidential campaign are part of some unknown digital collection amassed by the troublesome Anthony Weiner, but if your purpose is to understand the clique of people who dominate Washington today, the emails that really matter are the ones being slowly released by WikiLeaks from the hacked account of Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair John Podesta. They are last week’s scandal in a year running over with scandals, but in truth their significance goes far beyond mere scandal: they are a window into the soul of the Democratic party and into the dreams and thoughts of the class to whom the party answers. The class to which I refer is not rising in angry protest; they are by and large pretty satisfied, pretty contented. Nobody takes road trips to exotic West Virginia to see what the members of this class looks like or how they live; on the contrary, they are the ones for whom such stories are written. This bunch doesn’t have to make do with a comb-over TV mountebank for a leader; for this class, the choices are always pretty good, and this year they happen to be excellent. [Corruption] [Cronyism]
• Justifying the Saudi Slaughter in Yemen
  October 31, 2016 Exclusive: Official Washington insists Iran is the main Mideast troublemaker when clearly that isn’t true, but the “group think” explains why a few intercepted arms shipments to Somalia where linked to Iran and Yemen, reports Gareth Porter. By Gareth Porter The Obama administration has carried out a deliberately deceptive campaign accusing Iran of covertly sending arms to the Houthis by sea, a claim that Washington cites to help justify the Saudi massive air attack against the Houthis that began last year. By repeating the accusation over and over, the administration has been largely successful in turning a dubious allegation into accepted fact, even though it is contradicted by evidence that is well-documented on the public record. [Yemen] [US Middle East policy] [Propaganda]

• Five myths about the Salem witch trials
  By Stacy Schiff October 28 Stacy Schiff is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “The Witches: Suspicion, Betrayal, and Hysteria in 1692 Salem.” Historical truths emerge only with time, after which they are ours, particularly on Halloween, to mangle. Early on, the Salem witch trials disappeared from the record; a hush descended over 1692 for generations. “The People of Salem Do Not Like to Be Questioned in Regard to the Witchery Affair” reads a Philadelphia Inquirer headline — from 1895. It fell to others to resurrect the “witchcraft,” as the South did during the debate over slavery. Then came Arthur Miller, who made off with the story, or at least a version of it. A lush mythology grew up around the trials, one that reassured us that these events took place in a remote land in no way resembling our own. In truth, they are deeply woven into the American fabric. They are more relevant than the lore suggests — our earliest instance of conspiratorial fantasy and reckless demonizing, of the brand of national distemper that grips us in anxious times. [Hysteria]
• The Foreign-Policy Elite Are Extremely Ready for More War in Syria
  By Eric Levitz In an election cycle that has pushed American politics to new heights of partisan acrimony, the Washington foreign-policy elite has represented a singular bastion of bipartisan comity. A large segment of the GOP’s neoconservative wing broke with Donald Trump in the early days of his general-election campaign. A significant number took shelter in Hillary Clinton’s coalition, where they’ve gotten along amiably with liberal interventionists who share their belief that Obama has betrayed America’s obligation to lead. That point of agreement has now been ratified in a flurry of new reports — from an array of think tanks that span partisan divide — all calling for an escalation in U.S. military involvement in the Syrian civil war. Per the Washington Post: The studies, which reflect Clinton’s stated views and the direction she is likely to take if she is elected, break most forcefully with Obama on Syria. Virtually all these efforts, including a report that will be released Wednesday by the liberal Center for American Progress, call for stepped up military action to deter President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and Russian forces in Syria. The proposed military measures include calls for safe zones to protect moderate rebels from Syrian and Russian forces. Most of the studies propose limited American airstrikes with cruise missiles to punish Assad if he continues to attack civilians with barrel bombs, as is currently happening in besieged Aleppo. So far, Obama has staunchly resisted any military action against the Assad regime. The foreign-policy elite’s frustration with President Obama’s reluctance to engage in a large-scale military intervention in Syria is nothing new. And the desire to do something to ameliorate the suffering of the Syrian people is, of course, understandable. But there are a few problems with the narrative advanced by the papers and foreign-policy thinkers quoted in the Post — which is to say, the notion that the humanitarian catastrophe in Syria illustrates the perils of America withdrawing from the world. Or as Philip Gordon, a senior foreign-policy adviser to Obama until 2015, put it in an interview with the paper, “There’s a widespread perception that not being active enough or recognizing the limits of American power has costs … So the normal swing is to be more interventionist.” For one thing, this summation suggests that America has not been active in Syria under Obama’s tenure. Which is false. Among other things, the United States has provided weapons and training to Syrian rebel groups and conducted air strikes against ISIS in eastern Syria. [US Syria policy]
• FBI’s new Clinton investigation could upend presidential race
  By Anita Kumar, David Goldstein and David Lightman McClatchy Washington Bureau With 11 days left in the presidential election, the FBI’s decision to launch another investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email system for government business threatens to upend an already volatile race. At the most, it could turn at least some voters to rival Donald Trump, who has rested much of his pitch on the argument that Clinton is dishonest and who grabbed at the news immediately as a gift to salvage his trailing campaign. With less but still important impact, it could freeze the momentum to Clinton that has helped her pull ahead in past weeks. At a minimum, it could have a nominal effect on an electorate that already had doubts about her honesty, and has already started voting. FBI Director James Comey set off the late October furor with a letter to Congress on Friday saying the agency was launching another investigation into Clinton’s personal email server after obtaining additional information in an unrelated case Thursday. “The FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation,” Comey wrote in the letter. “I agreed that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation [US_Election16] [FBI] [Emails]
• Inside the Invisible Government; War, Propaganda, Clinton & Trump
  by John Pilger The American journalist, Edward Bernays, is often described as the man who invented modern propaganda. The nephew of Sigmund Freud, the pioneer of psycho-analysis, it was Bernays who coined the term “public relations” as a euphemism for spin and its deceptions. In 1929, he persuaded feminists to promote cigarettes for women by smoking in the New York Easter Parade – behaviour then considered outlandish. One feminist, Ruth Booth, declared, “Women! Light another torch of freedom! Fight another sex taboo!” Bernays’ influence extended far beyond advertising. His greatest success was his role in convincing the American public to join the slaughter of the First World War. The secret, he said, was “engineering the consent” of people in order to “control and regiment [them] according to our will without their knowing about it”. He described this as “the true ruling power in our society” and called it an “invisible government”. Today, the invisible government has never been more powerful and less understood. In my career as a journalist and film-maker, I have never known propaganda to insinuate our lives and as it does now and to go unchallenged. Imagine two cities. [Media] [Propaganda] [Imperialism]
• Seven World-Historical Achievements of the Iraq Invasion of 2003
  by Gary Leupp Here is a list of the noteworthy, ongoing results of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq beginning in March 2003. (Recall that that that invasion was denounced by the UN as illegal, based entirely on lies, and—given the U.S.’s hegemonic position in the world, allowing it to act with impunity—the crime’s architects have never punished.) [US Middle East Strategy] [Consequences]
• Irony Redefined: “Human Rights Champion” Suu Kyi Jails Dissidents
  Tony Cartalucci Myanmar’s defacto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi of the National League for Democracy (NDL) political party, has paved her time since coming to power earlier this year with both irony and hypocrisy. She has not only illegally declared herself “leader” of the Southeast Asian state in contravention of its constitution, she has also embarked on an iron-fisted purge of her political opponents identical to the one she fought against as she struggled to seize power to begin with. http://journal-neo.org/2016/10/28/irony-redefined-human-rights-champion-suu-kyi-jails-dissidents/ [Suu Kyi]
• Computer seized in Weiner probe prompts FBI to take new steps in Clinton email inquiry
  Hillary Clinton calls on FBI to release information on emails By Rosalind S. Helderman, Matt Zapotosky and Sari Horwitz October 28 at 9:32 PM Newly discovered emails found on a computer seized during an investigation of disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner thrust the controversy over Hillary Clinton’s use of a private server back into the presidential campaign less than two weeks before the election. Officials said the discovery prompted a surprise announcement Friday by FBI Director James B. Comey that the agency would once again be examining emails related to Clinton’s time as secretary of state. In a letter to lawmakers, Comey said the FBI would take “appropriate investigative steps” to determine whether the newly discovered emails contain classified information and to assess whether they are relevant to the Clinton server probe. [Hillary Clinton] [Emails] [FBI]
• Professor who’s predicted 30 years of presidential elections correctly is doubling down on a Trump win
  By Peter W. Stevenson October 28 at 8:50 AM Professor Allan Lichtman, author of "The Keys to the White House," explains why his keys still point to a Democratic loss in the 2016 presidential election – and a Donald Trump victory. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post) Last month, the man who's tried to turn vote prediction into a science predicted a Trump win. Allan J. Lichtman, distinguished professor of history at American University, said Democrats would not be able to hold on to the White House. In the intervening weeks, the campaign was rocked by a series of events. The release of the Access Hollywood tape obtained by The Washington Post was followed by accusations from a growing list of women of various improprieties on Trump's part, ranging from verbal abuse and harassment to outright sexual assault. Fix founder Chris Cillizza named Trump the winner of the inauspicious “Worst Week in Washington” award for four weeks running. At the same time, WikiLeaks released internal Clinton campaign emails, and the U.S. government flatly accused the Kremlin of being involved. And let's not forget those presidential debates. So plenty has changed. But one thing hasn't: Lichtman, author of “Predicting the Next President: The Keys to the White House 2016,” is sticking with his prediction of a Trump victory. [US_Election16] [Prediction]
• The True Flag – Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the Birth of the American Empire
  Understanding Imperial Rhetoric. Review of Stephen Kinzer's Book By Jim Miles Global Research, October 28, 2016 The True Flag – Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the Birth of the American Empire. Stephen Kinzer. Henry Holt and Company, New York. 2017. The American empire is usually not spoken of as such within today’s current mainstream media discussions, but is generally recognized as such during infrequent candid moments, and within discussions in much of the alternate media. The discussion is not new, and the factors within the discussion, while changing somewhat with the times, tend to have remained the same. Stephen Kinzer’s illustrative new history, The True Flag, takes the reader back to the turn of the Twentieth Century when the first acts of overseas empire were argued and acted on. It can be argued that ‘empire’ starts with the first movement across the continent by the new United States, incorporating, by various means, Florida, the Louisiana Purchase, the northern half of Mexican territory, and the lands of the native population. Kinzer acknowledges all that indirectly, as do some of the characters in the history, but his focus is on the pivotal years of 1898 to 1901 when the arguments concerning overseas territories focussed on the Spanish empire in Cuba, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and the then sovereign state of Hawaii. [Imperialism] [History] [Philippines]
• Iran-backed Shi'ite militias to join assault near Mosul on new front
  By Saif Hameed and Maher Chmaytelli | BAGHDAD Iraqi Shi'ite militias backed by Iran said on Friday they would soon join the fight against Islamic State on a new front west of Mosul, a move which could block any retreat by the jihadists into Syria but might alarm Turkey and the United States. The Shi'ite militias, with thousands of battle-hardened fighters trained by Iran, would bring important extra firepower to what is expected to be the biggest battle in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. But their arrival on the battlefield in one of the most diverse parts of Iraq also creates worry for Western countries backing the Iraqi government offensive, who fear that the Shi'ite fighters could alienate residents in mainly Sunni areas. [Mosul] [US Middle East Strategy] [Iran]
• In Germany, Syrians find mosques too conservative
  By Joseph Nasr | COLOGNE, Germany Hani Salam escaped civil war in Syria and survived the journey from Egypt to Europe. But when he saw men with bushy long beards at a mosque near his current home in Cologne last November, he was worried. The men's appearance reminded him of Jaish al-Islam, the Islamist rebels who took over his hometown near Damascus, said Salam, 36, who wears a mustache but no beard. One of them told Salam that "good Muslims grow beards, not moustaches," he recalled – a centuries-old idea that he dismisses. "Everything about this mosque made me feel uneasy," he said. Syrians in Germany say many of the country's Arab mosques are more conservative than those at home. [Islam] [Emigres][Conservative]
• Hillary Clinton: A Hawk in the Wings
  After a mere eight years in which diplomacy narrowly edged out militarism, the foreign policy elite rallying around Clinton has forgotten the lessons of the George W. Bush era. By John Feffer, October 26, 2016. When Barack Obama was running for office in 2008, he was determined to redirect U.S. military efforts away from the “bad war” in Iraq and toward the “good war” in Afghanistan. This commitment to extricate the U.S. military from the dismal aftermath of a botched exercise in regime change earned Obama the exaggerated designation of “peace candidate.” Jump ahead eight years and listen to how history rhymes. Today, the Obama administration is reluctant to pour more resources into a failed regime change effort in Syria and far more intent on confronting the Islamic State in the battle for Mosul and, ultimately its capital of Raqqa. Once again, the “good” war competes for attention with the “bad” war. Meanwhile, the candidate that challenged Obama as too naïve and peace-loving back in 2008 is poised to succeed him as president. Once again, she has staked out a more hawkish position. And this time she has a large chunk of the foreign policy elite behind her. As Greg Jaffe wrote last week in The Washington Post: [Hillary Clinton] [Liberal interventionism]
• West's failure to reconnect Iran to global banks 'risks breaching nuclear deal'
  The west risks breaching the landmark nuclear agreement if it fails to give Iran proper access to the international financial system, a former British ambassador to Iran has argued. Sir Richard Dalton, who served in Tehran between 2003 and 2006, said in a report published this week in the journal of the Royal Society of Asian Affairs in London that the US and its allies had made “some potentially significant mistakes” in respect to reconnecting Iran to global banks after the deal. [Iran deal] [Renege]
• Inside ‘Bill Clinton Inc.’: Hacked memo reveals intersection of charity and personal income
  By Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamburger October 26 at 8:17 PM ? When top Bill Clinton aide Douglas Band wrote the memo, he was a central player at the Clinton Foundation and president of his own corporate consulting firm. Over the course of 13 pages, he made a case that his multiple roles had served the interests of the Clinton family and its charity. In doing so, Band also detailed a circle of enrichment in which he raised money for the Clinton Foundation from top-tier corporations such as Dow Chemical and Coca-Cola that were clients of his firm, Teneo, while pressing many of those same donors to provide personal income to the former president. The system has drawn scrutiny from Republicans, who say it allowed corporations and other wealthy supporters to pay for entree to a popular former president and a onetime secretary of state who is now the Democratic presidential nominee. [Corruption] [Bill Clinton]
• Is Yemen Too Much for the World to Take?
  by Robert Fisk The Yemen war uniquely combines tragedy, hypocrisy and farce. First come the casualties: around 10,000, almost 4,000 of them civilians. Then come those anonymous British and American advisers who seem quite content to go on “helping” the Saudi onslaughts on funerals, markets and other obviously (to the Brits, I suppose) military targets. Then come the Saudi costs: more than $250m (£200m) a month, according to Standard Chartered Bank – and this for a country that cannot pay its debts to construction companies. But now comes the dark comedy bit: the Saudis have included in their bombing targets cows, farms and sorghum – which can be used for bread or animal fodder – as well as numerous agricultural facilities. In fact, there is substantial evidence emerging that the Saudis and their “coalition” allies – and, I suppose, those horrid British “advisers” – are deliberately targeting Yemen’s tiny agricultural sector in a campaign which, if successful, would lead a post-war Yemeni nation not just into starvation but total reliance on food imports for survival. Much of this would no doubt come from the Gulf states which are currently bombing the poor country to bits. [Yemen] [War crimes] [Saudi Arabia]
• Fact Check: Trump Is Right that Clinton Might Cause WW3
  Posted on October 26, 2016 by WashingtonsBlog Trump claims that Clinton’s policy on Syria would lead to World War 3. Let’s fact check … The Washington Post points out that a vote for Clinton is a vote for escalating military confrontation in Syria and elsewhere: In the rarefied world of the Washington foreign policy establishment, President Obama’s departure from the White House — and the possible return of a more conventional and hawkish Hillary Clinton — is being met with quiet relief. The Republicans and Democrats who make up the foreign policy elite are laying the groundwork for a more assertive American foreign policy, via a flurry of reports shaped by officials who are likely to play senior roles in a potential Clinton White House. *** The studies, which reflect Clinton’s stated views, break most forcefully with Obama on Syria …. call[ing] for stepped-up military action to deter President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and Russian forces in ­Syria. *** Most of the studies propose limited American airstrikes with cruise missiles to punish Assad …. *** Last year, Obama dismissed calls for a no-fly zone in northwestern Syria — a position advocated by Clinton — as “half-baked.” *** Even pinprick cruise-missile strikes designed to hobble the ­Syrian air force or punish Assad would risk a direct confrontation with Russian forces, which are scattered throughout the key ­Syrian military bases that would be targeted. “You can’t pretend you can go to war against Assad and not go to war against the Russians,” said a senior administration official who is involved in Middle East policy and was granted anonymity to discuss internal White House deliberations. [Hillary Clinton] [WWIII] [Russia confrontation] [Libya] [Syria]
• U.S. abstains on UN resolution blasting U.S. Cuba embargo
  By Franco Ordoñez WASHINGTON — For the first time in more than a quarter century, the United States refused to oppose a United Nation resolution condemning the American trade embargo against the communist island. “The United states has always voted against this resolution. Today, United States will abstain,” U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power said to applause from the UN General Assembly. For the 25th consecutive year, the U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly Wednesday for an end to the U.S. policy that restricts trade between the countries. The final vote was 191 in favor, with two abstentions – the United States and Israel. The U.S. abstention aligns the Obama administration with the international community against U.S. laws against Cuba, which continues to be supported by the Republican-led Congress. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calls the embargo the “most unjust, severe and long-lived system” of sanctions ever applied against a country. [Cuba] [Embargo] [Sanctions]
• Afghan Woman in Famed National Geographic Photo Is Arrested in Pakistan
  By Christine Hauser and Ismail Khan Oct. 26, 2016 Sharbat Gula, left on the cover of National Geographic in 1985, and then nearly two decades later, after she was featured in a story in the magazine about being reunited with the photographer. Credit Steve McCurry/National Geographic Society, via Agence france-presse An Afghan woman whose photograph as a young refugee with piercing green eyes was published on the cover of National Geographic in 1985, becoming a symbol of the turmoil of war in Afghanistan, is facing charges in Pakistan of fraudulently obtaining national identity cards. The arrest on Wednesday of the woman, Sharbat Gula, came as the Pakistani authorities are cracking down on Afghans with illegal national identity cards. Ms. Gula was arrested at her residence in the northwestern city of Peshawar after more than a year of investigation, said Shahid Ilyas, the assistant director of the Federal Investigation Authority. “We raided the house and picked her up,” he said. “It took us a while to collect all the evidence against her, and the officials involved in helping her and her two sons get Pakistani national identity cards.” He added, “We have the evidence now, and we are going to go for prosecution.” [Afghanistan] [Refugee] [Poverty]
• In Lebanon deal, Iran wins and Saudi retreats
  By Tom Perry and Laila Bassam | Beirut A veteran Christian leader is set to fill Lebanon's long-vacant presidency in a deal that underlines the ascendancy of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement and the diminished role of Saudi Arabia in the country. It appears all but certain that Michel Aoun will become president next week under an unlikely proposal tabled by Sunni leader Saad al-Hariri, whose Saudi-backed coalition opposed Hezbollah for years. Parliament will likely elect Aoun on Oct. 31. This will end one element of a paralyzing political crisis: the 29-month-long presidential vacuum. But it is also creating new tensions that may disrupt the formation of a new government expected to be led by Hariri under a deal with Aoun. Aoun's election will also raise questions over Western policy toward Lebanon. Lebanon's army, guarantor of the country's internal peace, depends on aid from the United States, which deems Hezbollah a terrorist group. Hariri's proposal, unthinkable a few weeks ago, appears to have been forced on him by problems at his Saudi-based construction firm, Saudi Oger, the financial backbone of his political network in Lebanon. It marks the death throes of the Hariri-led alliance that struggled with Hezbollah for more than a decade, only to see the heavily armed Shi'ite group go from strength to strength in Lebanon and the wider region. [Lebanon] [Saudi Arabia]
• House Republicans are already preparing for ‘years’ of investigations of Clinton
  By David Weigel October 26 at 12:19 PM SOUTH JORDAN, Utah — Jason Chaffetz, the Utah congressman wrapping up his first term atop the powerful House Oversight Committee, unendorsed Donald Trump weeks ago. That freed him up to prepare for something else: spending years, come January, probing the record of a President Hillary Clinton. “It’s a target-rich environment,” the Republican said in an interview in Salt Lake City’s suburbs. “Even before we get to Day One, we’ve got two years’ worth of material already lined up. She has four years of history at the State Department, and it ain’t good.” In a tweet Wednesday night, Chaffetz reaffirmed his distaste for Clinton and his refusal to endorse Trump — but reversed his plans not to vote for the Republican nominee. If Republicans retain control of the House, something that GOP-friendly maps make possible even in the event of a Trump loss, Clinton will become the first president since George H.W. Bush to immediately face a House Oversight Committee controlled by the opposition party. (Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama lost Congress later in their presidencies.) [Hillary Clinton] [Republicans]
• U.S. has secretly expanded its global network of drone bases to North Africa
  By Adam Entous and Missy Ryan October 26 at 1:09 PM The Pentagon has secretly expanded its global network of drone bases­ to North Africa, deploying unmanned aircraft and U.S. military personnel to a facility in Tunisia to conduct spy missions in neighboring Libya. The Air Force Reaper drones began flying out of the Tunisian base in late June and have played a key role in an extended U.S. air offensive against an Islamic State stronghold in neighboring Libya. The Obama administration pressed for access to the Tunisian base as part of a security strategy for the broader Middle East that calls for placing drones and small Special Operations teams at a number of facilities within striking distance of militants who could pose a threat to the West. U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss an operation that has not been acknowledged, said the drones being flown out of Tunisia were unarmed and were principally being used to collect intelligence on Islamic State targets in Sirte, Libya, where the United States has conducted more than 300 airstrikes since August. U.S. officials said they sought access to the air base in Tunisia to close a critical “blind spot” for U.S. and Western intelligence services­ in North Africa, which has become the Islamic State’s largest base of operations outside of Syria and Iraq. The region is also home to al-Qaeda-linked fighters. [Drones] [US Africa] [Bases]
• Christians in Syria: “Help us pull our country back from the brink of the abyss”
  Many Christian leaders of Syria are speaking out, asking world leaders to preserve their ancient, war-torn homeland. October 21, 2016 05:24 EST Alessandra Nucci One message that should not be lost in the deluge of often one-sided media reports about the war being waged in Syria is that the land of Damascus—the site of the conversion of the Apostle of the Gentiles, St. Paul—retains a unique culture of fraternal respect and dignified acceptance of people of different creeds. This culture rejects all attempts to foment division, not only among the various Christian denominations, but even between Christians and Muslims. “You ask how many Muslims there are in Syria, a land of 23 million people? The answer is 23 million. How many Christians? 23 million.” This was the reply given both by the Grand Mufti of Damascus and by a Christian Orthodox bishop to the questions posed by a delegation of American citizens who went to Syria in September. The delegation was seeking to solve the riddle of how the country has managed to withstand more than five years of brutal military attacks, economic sanctions, and media distortion at the hands of several foreign powers. Their report confirms what has been said by the many Syrian religious leaders who have travelled to and from the West, at some risk, in the midst of the warfare, to try and set the record straight, in the interests not only of truth but of peace itself. “Please help us pull our country back from the brink of the abyss of the fundamentalist regime in which they are trying to immerge us,” is the dramatic appeal to the West by Jean Clément Jeanbart, Greek-Melkite archbishop of Aleppo. “Please help us continue to live in a dignified manner on this blessed land where we were born and raised!" [Syria] [Christianity] [Media] [US Syria policy] [Saudi Arabia]
• Snapchat use ends Saudi marriage after two hours
  By Hong Dam-young Social media use has caused a marriage to end in just in two hours in one of the male-dominated Middle East nations. A groom in Saudi Arabia filed for divorce after realizing his wife had shared wedding pictures with her friends on Snapchat, an image messaging mobile app, according to the British Daily Mail on Monday. Not sharing pictures or videos of the ceremony was a binding clause in the marriage contract. "Regretfully, my sister did not honor the pledge and used Snapchat to share pictures from the wedding ceremony with her female friends, resulting in the shocking decision by the groom to cancel their marriage and call for a divorce," said a brother of the bride. [Saudi Arabia] [Bizarre]
• U.S. House to vote on Iran Sanctions Act renewal as soon as November
  By Patricia Zengerle | WASHINGTON The Republican leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives plan a vote as soon as mid-November on a 10-year reauthorization of the Iran Sanctions Act, congressional aides told Reuters on Tuesday. The act, which expires on Dec. 31, is one of the major pieces of unfinished business facing lawmakers when they return to Washington on Nov. 14 for the first time after the Nov. 8 election. Aides said the reauthorization of a "clean" bill, unchanged from the current legislation, was likely to pass the House, but its fate in the Senate was less certain, given Obama administration concerns. The Iran Sanctions Act, or ISA, was first adopted in 1996 to punish investments in Iran's energy industry and deter Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons. But President Barack Obama's administration and other world powers reached an agreement with Iran last year in which Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. The White House has warned Congress repeatedly that it would oppose any new sanctions that interfere with the nuclear deal. But every Republican in Congress and many Democrats opposed the nuclear agreement and do not want the sanctions act to expire [Iran deal] [Renege]
• Plans to send heavier weapons to CIA-backed rebels in Syria stall amid White House skepticism
  By Greg Miller and Adam Entous October 23 at 7:03 PM As rebel-held sections of Aleppo crumbled under Russian bombing this month, the Obama administration was secretly weighing plans to rush more firepower to CIA-backed units in ­Syria. The proposal, which involved weapons that might help those forces defend themselves against Russian aircraft and artillery, made its way onto the agenda of a recent meeting President Obama held with his national security team. And that’s as far as it got. Neither approved nor rejected, the plan was left in a state of ambiguity that U.S. officials said reflects growing administration skepticism about escalating a covert CIA program that has trained and armed thousands of Syrian fighters over the past three years. [US Syria policy] [Proxy] [Nusra]
• Tom Hayden, preeminent 1960s political radical and anti-war protester, dies at 76
  By Elaine Woo October 24 at 2:13 AM Tom Hayden, the preeminent 1960s radical who roused a generation of alienated young Americans, became a symbol of militancy by leading riotous protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, and added Hollywood glamour to his mystique with an activist partnership and marriage to film star Jane Fonda, died Oct. 23 in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 76. Mr. Hayden’s wife, Barbara Williams, confirmed the death to the Associated Press but did not provide an immediate cause. He had heart disease and was hospitalized for a stroke in 2015. At a moment in history — June 1962 — before U.S. escalation in Vietnam, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the civil rights March on Washington and the awakening of the environmental and feminist movements, Mr. Hayden emerged as one of the most articulate spokesmen of youthful angst. At 22, a year out of college in Michigan, he drafted the Port Huron Statement, an expansive utopian manifesto that extolled “participatory democracy” as an antidote to the complacency and conformity of the Eisenhower decade. [Vietnam war] [Protest]
• The Revolutionary Distemper in Syria That Wasn’t
  By Stephen Gowans Apparently, the US Left has yet to figure out that Washington doesn’t try to overthrow neoliberals. If Syrian President Bashar al-Assad were a devotee of the Washington Consensus–as Counterpunch’s Eric Draitser seems to believe–the United States government wouldn’t have been calling since 2003 for Assad to step down. Nor would it be overseeing the Islamist guerilla war against his government; it would be protecting him. There is a shibboleth in some circles that, as Eric Draitser put it in a recent Counterpunch article, the uprising in Syria “began as a response to the Syrian government’s neoliberal policies and brutality,” and that “the revolutionary content of the rebel side in Syria has been sidelined by a hodgepodge of Saudi and Qatari-financed jihadists.” This theory appears, as far as I can tell, to be based on argument by assertion, not evidence. A review of press reports in the weeks immediately preceding and following the mid-March 2011 outbreak of riots in Daraa—usually recognized as the beginning of the uprising—offers no indication that Syria was in the grips of a revolutionary distemper, whether anti-neo-liberal or otherwise. [US Syria policy]
• Clinton’s Slog Deeper into the Big Muddy
  October 24, 2016 Exclusive: In the last debate, Hillary Clinton vowed to follow up the defeat of ISIS in Iraq’s Mosul with a march on ISIS’ capital in Raqqa, except that’s in Syria, a suggestion of a wider war, says Daniel Lazare. By Daniel Lazare Attentive viewers may have noticed something curious about last week’s presidential debate. Asked if she would send troops to help stabilize Iraq once ISIS has been expelled from of the northern city of Mosul, Hillary Clinton replied that U.S. intervention would only make matters worse by providing Islamic State with a rallying point. But then she said: “The goal here is to take back Mosul. It’s going to be a hard fight. I’ve got no illusions about that. And then [we should] continue to press into Syria to begin to take back and move on Raqqa, which is the ISIS headquarters. I am hopeful that the hard work that American military advisers have done will pay off and that we will see a really successful military operation.” Move on Raqqah? What did that mean – that Clinton wants to follow up victory in Mosul with a push into Syria? That she envisions a coordinated military thrust into Syria from Iraq? The answer is not quite, although the results could hardly be more dangerous than if she did. [Hillary Clinton] [US Middle East strategy]
• America's Assad Quandary
  An excruciating fact confronts us: it does not necessarily follow that Bashar al-Assad’s departure would improve the situation in Syria. Robert D. Kaplan October 17, 2016 November-December 2016 A PRINCIPAL tenet of realism is that disorder is worse than injustice, since injustice merely means the world is imperfect, whereas disorder can mean there is no justice for anyone. President Bashar al-Assad of Syria has tested this thesis to an unbearable extent. The degree of injustice he has perpetrated can be equated with crimes against humanity. Hundreds of thousands have been killed in a half-decade-old civil war, both ignited and perpetuated by Assad’s regime—not to mention the millions of refugees and regional chaos his rule has spawned in the Middle East and Europe. But an excruciating fact confronts us: it does not necessarily follow that his departure would improve the situation, at least at this juncture. Syria, to put it mildly, is in great disorder. Assad’s abdication could both deepen and broaden that disorder, if it has any effect at all. Don’t ever assume that things cannot get worse. Assad remains a secular ruler from a minority group, whose forces and allied criminal bands still control more of the Syrian heartland than any other warlord. These are not altogether negative attributes, given Syria’s level of anarchy and the plethora of Islamic extremist outfits operating in that environment. His departure, rather than leading directly or indirectly to peace, would more likely raise the stakes for those already vying for supremacy. Rebels would not surrender their guns at the sight of his removal—they would have even more cause to keep fighting for each patch of ground. Damascus, in such a circumstance, could quickly descend into another version of the humanitarian hell that is Aleppo, as various rebel groups battle over the frightful carcass of what was once Syria. Fanciful descriptions of Assad ceding command, even as the Alawite power structure survives to provide transitional stability, entirely miss the point: The Alawite state itself may be synonymous with the very person of Assad, who assumed power in 2000 precisely because it was only he who could unite the various factions of the regime built by his father, Hafez al-Assad. Quite possibly, Bashar al-Assad is the state, or what’s left of it. In any case, an outside power demonstrably acting to dislodge him would have to assume moral and political responsibility for the consequences, which might include a variety of dire outcomes: some ethnic cleansing of the Alawites; the slaughter of more Christians; and the eventual establishment of a Sunni jihadist regime in Damascus more hostile than Assad to Israel and Jordan, both U.S. allies. [US Syria policy]
• Hillary Clinton’s Strategic Ambition in a Nutshell
  by Diana Johnstone It has become crystal clear. For the record, here it is. She has big ambitions, which she does not spell out for fear of frightening part of the electorate, but which are perfectly understood by her closest aides and biggest donors. She wants to achieve regime change in Russia. She enjoys the support of most of the State Department and much of the Pentagon, and Congress is ready to go. The method: a repeat of the 1979 Brezinski ploy, which consisted of luring Moscow into Afghanistan, in order to get the Russians bogged down in their “Vietnam”. As the Russians are a much more peace-loving people, largely because of what they suffered in two World Wars, the Russian involvement in Afghanistan was very unpopular and can be seen as a cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union. [Hillary Clinton] [Russia confrontation] [US Syria policy]
• Ronald McDonald or Lucretia Borgia?
  In the Long Run, We Are all Dead Fred Reed • October 20, 2016 • 1,200 Words • 56 Comments • Reply More fun in the Indispensable Nation: As we have all heard by now, according to Hillary, ardent of becoming National Basilisk, half of Trump’s supporters are evil and the other half losers, deplorables all. That is, she holds half of Americans in contempt. Unsurprisingly she said this in New York, which is barely America, and to a convention of sexual curiosities. I frankly think her admirable. As she coughs, staggers, convulses, lies, pilfers, sells favors and lapses into intermittent confusion, she still has the courage to tell America that she loathes half of it. That´s candor. Give her credit for consistency. She is always mendacious, firmly in the pockets of Wall Street, Israel, the Neocon hawks, and the arms industry, never having accomplished anything on her own, always riding Bill’s coattails, having a disastrous record as SecState, always for sale. With her, we know what we will get. With Trump, it’s a roll of very weird dice. Ah, the Donald. While he unmistakably displays various presidential qualities–he can walk up stairs by himself, and his eyes usually point in the same direction–there is indeed a certain aleatory quality to the man. God knows what he might do. He shoots from the hip, saying all sorts of loopy but interesting things. Interesting if you live somewhere else. He talks unflatteringly about the other sex near open mikes, instead of away from them like everybody else. The Donald merely makes me nervous, while Hillary makes me want to take poison. It is the difference between an acid trip and death by sinus drainage. His truly great strength is that he is not Hillary. The election is really a contest between placeholders for conflicting interests, for different views of the world. Few would want either if there were another choice. Hillary’s attitude toward America has for years been implicit in our ruling class in New York. Having little in common with the rest of the country, they speak of most of it as Flyover Land, a realm of intellectual darkness and barbarism separating Manhattan and Hollywood. So far as I know, this is the first time the elites have had the confidence, if not necessarily the judgement, to say it plainly. Let’s not delude ourselves. America is ruled by the Five Cities, Boston, New York, Washington, Tel Aviv, and Hollywood. The rest of us just pay taxes. The heart of the beast is New York, the Ivies being its nursery and Washington its storefront. [US_election16] [Decline]
• President al-Assad to Swiss SRF 1 TV channel: Fighting terrorists is the way to protect civilians in Aleppo
  By Bashar al Assad Syrian Arab News Agency 19 October 2016 Damascus, SANA – President Bashar al-Assad stressed that protecting civilians in Aleppo necessitates getting rid of the terrorists. Speaking in an interview with the Swiss SRF 1 TV channel, the President said “Of course, it’s our mission according to the constitution and the law. We have to protect the people, and we have to get rid of those terrorists in Aleppo. That’s how we can protect civilians.” He added that it goes without saying that the way to protect the civilians in Aleppo is to attack the terrorists who hold the civilians under their control and are killing them. Following is the full text of the interview: Journalist: Mr. President, thank you very much for having welcomed Swiss Television and our program Rundschau here in Damascus. President Assad: You are most welcome in Syria. Question 1: First, please, allow me to clarify one thing: may I ask you every question? President Assad: Every question, without exception. Question 2: I’m asking because one of your conditions is that interview is being broadcast in its full version. Are you afraid that we might manipulate your statements? President Assad: You should answer that question, but I think we should build this relation upon the trust, and I think you are worried about the trust of your audience, so I don’t think so. I think you have good reputation in conveying the truth in every subject you try to cover. [Media] [Bashar Assad]
• A Syrian no-fly zone would be a gift to the terrorists
  By Christina Lin| October 20, 2016 The US and its rebel proxies in Syria appear to be weaponizing human rights as a tool to legitimize regime change operations. In Libya, the US invoked Responsibility to Protect (R2P) as a rationale to overthrow the sovereign government under Muammar Gaddafi, and destroyed a country that enjoyed the highest living standard on the African continent prior to US/NATO invasion in 2011. Now this OPEC member is a cauldron of Wahhabi-Salafi terrorism and a weapons bazaar for Islamic State (IS), al-Qaeda and various international Islamic extremist groups. With increasing footage of alleged Syrian air force war crimes in Aleppo supplied by the White Helmets — a Syrian civil defense organization created by the US and UK in 2013 — there has been corresponding calls in Washington for a no-fly zone and war against Russia and Syria ostensibly to protect civilians. However, in practice the no-fly zone serves as a form of asymmetric warfare waged by terrorists against an air force. [Syria] [Outsourcing] [No fly zone]
• Cautious Western insurers rebuild business ties with Iran
  By Jonathan Saul and Carolyn Cohn | LONDON Western insurers are slowly reaching deals with Iran as they seek to re-enter a multi-billion dollar market although the pace of business is hampered by banking restrictions ten months on from the lifting of international sanctions. Shut out of international financial markets for years, Iran is still trying to reap the benefits of last year's nuclear deal with world powers. Despite the removal of international banking restrictions in January, Tehran has secured ties with only a limited number of smaller banks as U.S. sanctions remain in force. By contrast, Iran is in more active talks with insurers to provide cover in a market valued at $9 billion overall last year and potentially double that in the next decade. Western companies need insurance in order to resume business with Iran. Shipping and trade credit insurance, which remove the risk of non-payment for goods, are the first types of insurance being offered. [Iran deal] [Financial sanctions]
• Syrian army vows decisive response to terrorist spillover
  Xinhua, October 18, 2016 The Syrian army said on Tuesday that it will deal decisively with Islamic State (IS) terrorists fleeing Iraq's Mosul city into Syria, according to the state news agency SANA. Mosul, an IS stronghold, has been under extensive attack by the Iraqi army in order to drive out IS militants. Although the military statement hailed the progress made by Iraq's army "heroes" against the IS, it warned of a "Western scheme, whose features have started to become obvious." The scheme, the statement continued, is for IS militants to obtain access from Mosul into Syria' eastern region, mainly the province of Deir al-Zour by Iraq's border. "While the general-command of the Syrian army stresses that the battle to liberate Mosul from terrorism is its battle too, it will deem any infiltration of the Syrian borders as an aggression and will deal with the infiltrators as terrorists with all possible means," the statement said. Military experts in Syria have recently warned that Western countries, mainly the United States, want IS militants to flee Iraq into Syria. This comes particularly after the U.S.-led anti-terror coalition attacked Syrian military posts recently, killing 90 soldiers and allowing IS militants to control bombed military posts in Deir al-Zour. Officials in Syria said the U.S. intends for IS to remain strong in Deir al-Zour and for the province to become a safe haven for IS militants fleeing Iraq in order to pressure the Syrian army and its Russian ally. [Mosul] [ISIS] [US Middle East strategy]
• Irregular war, and how to reverse it
  Paul Rogers 20 October 2016 A military-led response to violent movements such as ISIS and al-Qaida misses the wider global forces that are triggering their rise. A member of Iraq's elite counterterrorism forces pauses as they advance towards the city of Mosul. 20 October 2016. Khalid Mohammed/AP/Press Association Images. All rights reserved. The long-awaited military assault on ISIS in Mosul began on 16 October, two years and four months since the movement seized the city in its advance across northern Iraq. Its initial moves were accompanied by much hype from western broadcasters, though this eased within a day amidst some confusion over the pace of operations. Iraqi government officials reported that Kurdish elements were seeking more time to complete the first phase of their operations, whereas Kurdish sources said that they had achieved their objectives and were waiting for Iraqi army units to advance. At the same time, sources point to extensive ISIS use of mortars, car- and truck-bombs and roadside devices, all of them capable of hampering the attackers' progress. ISIS, with at most 6,000 fighters at its disposal in Mosul, faces much larger numbers – around 80,000 in all – arrayed against it. That imbalance could yet be a factor in the decision of the movement's leaders about whether to abandon the city. When Ramadi was retaken in 2015, the Iraqi attackers numbered around 10,000, while 15,000 were deployed in the battle for Fallujah earlier this year. Yet the early indications are that many of the ISIS paramilitaries will stay. If so, a pattern may emerge similar to Ramadi. There, a battle expected to last little more than a fortnight extended for four months, with much of the city severely damaged in airstrikes and artillery bombardments. [COIN] [Global insurgency] [Asymmetry]
• Washington’s foreign policy elite breaks with Obama over Syrian bloodshed
  By Greg Jaffe October 20 at 10:20 AM ? There is one corner of Washington where Donald Trump’s scorched-earth presidential campaign is treated as a mere distraction and where bipartisanship reigns. In the rarefied world of the Washington foreign policy establishment, President Obama’s departure from the White House — and the possible return of a more conventional and hawkish Hillary Clinton — is being met with quiet relief. The Republicans and Democrats who make up the foreign policy elite are laying the groundwork for a more assertive American foreign policy, via a flurry of reports shaped by officials who are likely to play senior roles in a potential Clinton White House. It is not unusual for Washington’s establishment to launch major studies in the final months of an administration to correct the perceived mistakes of a president or influence his successor. But the bipartisan nature of the recent recommendations, coming at a time when the country has never been more polarized, reflects a remarkable consensus among the foreign policy elite. This consensus is driven by a broad-based backlash against a president who has repeatedly stressed the dangers of overreach and the need for restraint, especially in the Middle East. “There’s a widespread perception that not being active enough or recognizing the limits of American power has costs,” said Philip Gordon, a senior foreign policy adviser to Obama until 2015. “So the normal swing is to be more interventionist.” [US Syria policy] [MISCOM] Hillary Clinton] [Russia confrontation]
• Israel’s Bogus History Lesson
  by Jonathan Cook It was presumably intended as an Israeli history lesson to the world. A video posted to social media by Israel’s foreign ministry shows an everyday Jewish couple, Jacob and Rachel, in a home named the “Land of Israel”. A series of knocks on the door brings 3,000 years of interruptions to their happiness. First it’s the Assyrians, followed by the Babylonians, Hellenists, Arabs, Romans, Crusaders, Mamluks, and Ottomans – all straight out of Monty Python central casting. Jacob and Rachel are forced by the warring factions to relocate to ever smaller parts of their home until finally they have to pitch a tent in the garden. Their fortunes change only with the arrival of a servant of the British Empire, who returns the title deeds. A final knock disturbs their celebrations. On the doorstep are a penniless Palestinian couple, craning their necks to see what goodies await them inside. The chauvinism in portraying Jacob and Rachel as the only normal folk, stoicly enduring barbarians butchering each other in their living room, is ugly enough. But it is harder still to take seriously an account in which the Palestinians suddenly appear out of nowhere in 1948, as Britain departs. [Israel] [History]
• Dennis Kucinich: War or Peace?
  By Dennis Kucinich The most consequential statement by Secretary Clinton in last night’s debate was her pronouncement that a no-fly zone over Syria could “save lives and hasten the end of the conflict,” that a no-fly zone would provide “safe zones on the ground” was in “the best interests of the people on the ground in Syria” and would “help us with our fight against ISIS.” It would do none of the above. A US attempt to impose a no-fly zone in Syria would, as Secretary Clinton once cautioned a Goldman Sachs audience, “kill a lot of Syrians,” and, according to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Dunford, lead to a war with Russia. If the US has not been invited into a country to establish a “no-fly zone” such an action is, in fact, an invasion, an act of war. It is abundantly clear from our dark alliance with Saudi Arabia and our conduct in support of jihadists in Syria that our current leaders have learned nothing from Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya as we prepare to plunge head-long into the abyss of a world war. Our international relations are built upon lies to promote regime changes, the fantasy of a unipolar world ruled by America, and a blank check for the national security state. [US Syria policy] [Imperialism]
• Congress’s Take on the Heroin Epidemic
  by William Edstrom / October 17th, 2016 A heroin epidemic is on fire all across America. Heroin deaths shot up from 1,779 in 2001 to 10,574 in 2014 as Afghan opium poppy fields metastasized from 7,600 hectares in 2001 (when the War in Afghanistan began) to 224,000 hectares currently. The Taliban outlawed opium in Afghanistan in 2000 and within a year it was all but gone, demonstrating that Afghan opium can be eradicated quickly for any administration that chooses to do so. Afghanistan is, by far, the number one source globally of both opium and heroin. In 2014, 7,554 tons of raw opium were produced worldwide, including 6,400 tons in US-occupied Afghanistan and 173 tons from Mexico and Colombia. Opium plus chemicals (like acetic anhydride) produce heroin. US-occupied Afghanistan produces 85% of the world’s heroin. Mexico and Colombia produce only 2% of the world’s heroin. Mexico and Colombia produce enough heroin for only 115,000 heroin addicts. [Drugs] [Afghanistan]
• Video: Interview of Syria’s First Lady Asma Al-Assad
  By Asma al-Assad and Russia-TV24 Global Research, October 19, 2016 Syria’s First Lady, Asma al-Assad delivers her first public interview with foreign media. We bring to the attention of Global Research readers her interview with Russia’s Channel 24 TV. It is important that Americans across the land take cognizance of the voice of Syria’s First Lady, acknowledge her humanitarian mandate and commitment outside the realm of mainstream media propaganda. While Obama and the US media have persistently described the war in Syria as the result of sectarian conflicts opposing the Allawite minority and the Sunni majority, they fail to acknowledge that the First Lady Asma Al Assad is Sunni. [Asma al-Assad]
• Turkey bombs Syrian Kurdish militia allied to U.S.-backed force
  Ece Toksabay and Angus McDowall | ISTANBUL/BEIRUT Turkish air strikes pounded a group of Kurdish fighters allied to a U.S.-backed militia in northern Syria overnight, highlighting the conflicting agendas of NATO members Ankara and Washington in an increasingly complex battlefield. The jets targeted positions of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in three villages, northeast of the city of Aleppo, that the SDF had captured from Islamic State, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said late on Wednesday. The Turkish military confirmed its warplanes had carried out 26 strikes on areas recently taken by the Kurdish YPG militia, the strongest force in the SDF, and that it had killed between 160 and 200 combatants. [Turkey] [Kurds] [Friction] [Outsourcing]
• This Battle for Mosul Will Not Be the Last
  by Patrick Cockburn The Iraqi government and its allies may eventually capture Mosul from Isis, but this could be just a new chapter in the war. It will only win because of the devastating firepower of the US-led air forces and sheer weight of numbers. But the fight for the city is militarily and politically complex. The Iraqi army, Kurdish Peshmerga, Shia Hashd al-Shaabi and Sunni fighters from Mosul and Nineveh province, which make up the anti-Isis forces, suspect and fear each other almost as much as they hate Isis. The Western media is portraying the first advances towards Mosul as if it is as orderly and well-planned as the D-Day landings in Normandy in 1944. But in private Iraqis, who have seen many decisive victories turn out to be no such thing, are more sceptical about what they are seeing. One Iraqi observer in Baghdad, who did not want his name published, said that “the whole Mosul offensive seems to be a ramshackle affair held together by the expected high level of support from the US air force and special forces”. [Mosul] [Airpower]
• Syrian priest who escaped ISIS says, ‘Boycott Saudi Arabia!’
  Berthold Pelster October 18, 2016 . Syrian priest who escaped ISIS says, ‘Boycott Saudi Arabia!’ Father Jacques Mourad, who was held captive by the Islamic State for nearly five months in 2015. (Credit: Aid to the Church in Need.) "Last spring, I had the following inspiration during Mass: our world needs a revolution against violence. Only then will it be able to find peace. We want to be instruments of peace," says Father Jacques Mourad, a priest who was kidnapped by ISIS. HOMS, Syria - Father Jacques Mourad was prior of the Mar Elian monastery, a pilgrimage centre near Al Quaryatayn, about 65 miles southeast of Homs, until he was abducted by Islamic State militants in May 2015. He managed to escape after nearly five months of captivity, yet that August the Islamic State had captured Al Quaryatayn and destroyed the monastery. The city was later liberated by Syrian forces, in April 2016. Now based in Europe, Mourad spoke Oct. 17 with international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need about the situation in Syria. In early April 2016, Al Quaryatayn was finally freed from ISIS. How is the situation there now? The city may have been liberated, but normal, everyday life is not yet possible. Most houses have been destroyed, but at least electricity and water have in the meantime been restored. However, most people have not yet returned to Al Quaryatayn. The fear that ISIS will come back is great. The war in Syria continues unabated. Peace negotiations have repeatedly failed. Many people are fleeing, including Christians. How great is the danger that Christianity will be obliterated in the Middle East? This obliteration has already become reality. There are regions in Iraq and Syria that no longer have any Christian inhabitants. But, the people are not fleeing willingly. They have no other choice. This is especially true for the Christians in Syria, because we are a small minority. The violence that reigns in Syria is unbearable. I do not understand why other countries refuse to see this reality and take action. The world must finally react! What actions are needed?
  If the world is really serious about putting an end to the ravages of the fanatics, then it will have to stop doing business with Saudi Arabia. Because that is where the funding and weapons for ISIS are coming from. [ISIS] [Saudi Arabia]
• After Mosul Falls, ISIS will Flee to Syria. Then What?
  by Robert Fisk Syria’s army and Hezbollah and Iranian allies are preparing for a massive invasion by thousands of Isis fighters who will be driven out of Iraq when Mosul falls. The real purpose behind the much-trumpeted US-planned “liberation” of the Iraqi city, the Syrian military suspect, is to swamp Syria with the hordes of Isis fighters who will flee their Iraqi capital in favour of their “mini-capital” of Raqqa inside Syria itself. [ISIS] [Outsourcing] [US Middle East Strategy]
• Ecuador cut off Assange’s internet at U.S. request, WikiLeaks says
  By Tim Johnson WASHINGTON — Wikileaks said Tuesday that Secretary of State John Kerry asked Ecuador to stop WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, from publishing leaked emails that could disrupt peace negotiations with a guerrilla group in Colombia. [WikiLeaks emails show influence of Univision chairman in Clinton campaign // Internet cutoff is just the latest trouble for WikiLeaks’ Assange] Assange, who has been in refuge in Ecuador’s embassy in London for more than four years, saw his access to the internet cut over the weekend. Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/election/article108908532.html#storylink=cpy [WikiLeaks] [US dominance] [Pretext]
• The Real Humanitarian Crisis Is Not Aleppo. The Crisis is Washington Loosing its ISIS Mercenaries
  By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts Why do we hear only of the “humanitarian crisis in Aleppo” and not of the humanitarian crisis everywhere else in Syria where the evil that rules in Washington has unleashed its ISIL mercenaries to slaughter the Syrian people? Why do we not hear about the humanitarian crisis in Yemen where the US and its Saudi Arabian vassal are slaughtering Yemeni women and children? Why don’t we hear about the humanitarian crisis in Libya where Washington destroyed a country leaving chaos in its place? Why don’t we hear about the humanitarian crisis in Iraq, ongoing now for 13 years, or the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan now 15 years old? The answer is that the crisis in Aleppo is the crisis of Washington losing its ISIL mercenaries to the Syrian army and Russian air force. The jihadists sent by Obama and the killer Hillary (“We came, we saw, he died”) to destroy Syria are being themselves destroyed. The Obama regime and the Western presstitutes are trying to save the jihadists by covering them in the blanket of “humanitarian crisis.” Such hypocrisy is standard fare for Washington. If the Obama regime gave a hoot about “humanitarian crisis,” the Obama regime would not have orchestrated humanitarian crisis in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Yemen. We are in the middle of a presidential campaign in the US and no one has asked why the US is determined to overthrow a democratically elected Syrian government that is supported by the Syrian people. [US Syria policy] [Hypocrisy]
• US Allies are Funding ISIS (and Hillary Knew All Along)
  by Patrick Cockburn It is fortunate for Saudi Arabia and Qatar that the furore over the sexual antics of Donald Trump is preventing much attention being given to the latest batch of leaked emails to and from Hillary Clinton. Most fascinating of these is what reads like a US State Department memo, dated 17 August 2014, on the appropriate US response to the rapid advance of Isis forces, which were then sweeping through northern Iraq and eastern Syria. At the time, the US government was not admitting that Saudi Arabia and its Sunni allies were supporting Isis and al-Qaeda-type movements. But in the leaked memo, which says that it draws on “western intelligence, US intelligence and sources in the region” there is no ambivalence about who is backing Isis, which at the time of writing was butchering and raping Yazidi villagers and slaughtering captured Iraqi and Syrian soldiers. The memo says: “We need to use our diplomatic and more traditional intelligence assets to bring pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to Isis and other radical groups in the region.” [ISIS] [Outsourcing] [Hillary Clinton] [Saudi Arabia] [Qatar]
• US Treasury official praises Saudi cooperation against terror funding
  A senior US official in charge of combatting terrorist financing praised Saudi Arabia for its progress in blocking the flow of funds to groups such as al-Qaeda and said he wished other countries in the Persian Gulf would meet the same standard. Summary? Print Assistant Treasury Secretary Daniel Glaser says there has been substantial progress reducing funds amassed by the Islamic State, but warns that IS could seek external financing if it loses its "caliphate" in Iraq and Syria. Author Barbara Slavin Posted October 14, 2016 "We have a very willing and capable partner in Saudi Arabia," Daniel Glaser, the assistant secretary for terrorist financing in the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, told an audience at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy on Oct. 13. "Our goal is to see a similar evolution in Qatar and Kuwait," which he said had made some progress but not to the same extent as the Saudi government over the past decade. Glaser's praise for Saudi Arabia as the "No. 1" US partner in the region combatting terrorist financing comes at a time of severe strain between the United States and the kingdom over other issues, including the Saudi bombing of civilians at a funeral in Yemen and new US legislation that permits the relatives of those who died on Sept. 11, 2001, to sue Saudi Arabia in US courts. President Barack Obama vetoed the bill, but was overridden by the US Congress, which may revisit the issue after US presidential elections in November. The Obama administration has also said it is reviewing its support for the Saudi bombing campaign in Yemen. [Saudi Arabia] [Outsourcing] [Treasury]
• King Pumipon of Thailand: The ugly truth
  Ugly Truth-Thailand? 15 October 2016, 7:00am 19 Shed not one tear for Pumipon, writes Giles Ji Ungpakom. Instead, think of those who were killed in his name by the military. KING PUMIPON of Thailand was a weak and characterless monarch who spent his useless and privileged life in a bubble, surrounded by fawning, grovelling, toadies who claimed that he was a “god”. He was a pathetic creature who should not in any way be pitied. His life’s work was in self-enrichment, support for military regimes and the defence of inequality. He played a significant role in preventing democratic rights, the development of social justice and the fair and unbiased use of the law. He did this by legitimising all the worst government policies and atrocities committed by Thai rulers. In recent years, he remained silent while more and more dissidents were gaoled, under the draconian lèse majesté law, for merely speaking out against the destruction of democracy. He always remained silent about the killing of innocent civilians by the military. Pumipon was a willing tool of the military, who constantly staged coups and obstructed democracy and the economic development of the Thai people. For Pumipon, this resulted in great rewards. He amassed so much wealth from the work of others during his reign that he became the richest man in Thailand and the richest monarch in the world. Yet he preached, through the “Sufficiency Economy Ideology” that his “subjects” should be happy in their poverty and always opposed any redistribution of wealth. Thailand is one of the most unequal countries in Asia. His toadies had to constantly project a photo of him with a drop of sweat falling from his nose. The photo was always the same one, since Pumipon seldom did anything to work up a real sweat. Unbelievably, his followers wept when the Palace released a photo of him tying his own shoe-laces without help from any servants. He allowed the use of crawling and special royal language in his presence without any sense of shame, and he passed on his warped and elitist view of the world to his dysfunctional children. [Thailand] [Monarchy]
• Behind closed doors, Clinton spoke of willingness to bomb Iran's facilities
  By Michael Wilner 10/16/2016 21:51 The Wikileaks documents reveal her conversation with Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein after a paid speech to the firm. WASHINGTON -- As recently as 2013, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton believed that joint military action by Israel and the United States might be necessary to stop Iran from expanding its nuclear program, according to documents released by Wikileaks over the weekend. The documents, which have not been confirmed by the Clinton campaign as authentic, reveal her conversation with Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein after a paid speech to the firm. "The option" to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power, Clinton said, was a massive US-led air campaign on its nuclear facilities. "The Israelis, as you know, have looked at this very closely for a number of years," the former secretary of state said. "The Israelis’ estimate is even if we set their program back for just a couple of years it’s worth doing and whatever their reaction might be is absorbable." "That has been up until this recent government, the prior government, their position," she continued. "But they couldn’t do much damage themselves. We now have a weapon that is quite a serious one." She proceeded to describe to Blankfein the creation of a 30,000 "bunker-buster" bomb intended for targets such as Iran's burrowed nuclear facility in the holy city of Qom. Named the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, the Pentagon accelerated development at US President Barack Obama's order in 2009. [Hillary Clinton] [Iran] [Bunker buster]
• BRICS agrees to set up credit rating agency
  The five-nation group BRICS agreed to set up an independent rating agency based on market-oriented principles, saying it would further strengthen the global governance architecture. “We believe that BRICS institution-building is critical to our shared vision of transforming the global financial architecture to one based on the principles of fairness and equity,” the declaration stated. “...to further bridge the gap in the global financial architecture, we agreed to fast-track the setting up of a BRICS Rating Agency,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a statement at the conclusion of the BRICS Summit. Batting for a rating agency backed by BRICS, New Development Bank president K.V. Kamath had expressed concerns over methodologies of the three global agencies (S&P, Fitch, Moody’s saying that these constrain growth in emerging nations. He had said that ratings of multilateral banks like the BRICS-promoted NDB were affected by the parent countries’ ratings, despite having deep capital buffers. — PTI [BRICS] [Rating] [Decline]
• The Ruling Class’s Hatred of Trump is Different Than Yours
  by Paul Street Much, maybe most, of the nation’s corporate, financial, and imperial establishment loathes Donald Trump. When’s the last time one of the corporate media’s presidential debate moderators actually argue with one of the two major party presidential contenders, as did the wealthy ABC News reporter Martha Raddatz (enraged by Trump’s lack of enthusiasm for a United States military confrontation with Russia in Syria) last Sunday? More than fifty Republican “national security” “elites” have joined several top Republican office-holders, a good number of typically Republican newspaper editorial boards, and the “liberal” New York Times’ editors in proclaiming Trump too stupid, sexist, juvenile, racist, volatile, ignorant, and vicious to be trusted with the keys to the White House. The master class’s fear and loathing of Trump – one of their own, sort of – can be detected in the normally Republican-leaning corporate elite. A recent Wall Street Journal report finds that not a single solitary Fortune 100 chief executive has endorsed Trump or donated to his campaign. Hillary Clinton has accepted campaign contributions funds from 11 of these corporate captains. Four years ago, just five F-100 CEOs gave to Obama while a while nearly a third donated to Mitt Romney. [Trump]
• I Nominate Viktor Orban for Nobel Peace Prize
  F. William Engdahl Now before you react, I am fully aware that the Norwegian Nobel Committee which decides Nobel Peace Prize winners has usually chosen based on a globalist agenda, one might call them corrupted by it. I’m aware they have in the past given the prize to some very not-peace-loving candidates including Henry Kissinger, Barack Obama, even the European Union. Nonetheless, I want to nominate the courageous Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban, for the award. Let me explain my reasons. He stands, together with more than three million of his fellow Hungarians, opposed to the destructive demands of the unelected, faceless bureaucrats of the European Union, to block the forced future imposition of refugees from Syria and who knows where, in Hungary. His stand might well be the catalyst to stop the disintegration of the nation-state in Europe, and stop a social conflict that threatens to rip Europe apart in a frenzy of hate and destruction. The Notable Referendum I’ve noted before that Viktor Orban is unusual for a European politician or prime minister. He is actually a genuine democrat, which clearly is why the EU Commission and so many fake democratic EU leaders demonize him and call him totalitarian or who knows what. Now, as most reading this know, on October 2 Hungarians went to vote in a national referendum. Hungary, unlike Germany and other EU nations, allows its citizens to express their preferences in referendum form. Orban has used this tool in the past to be sure whether he has a strong popular backing for major decisions. The results on October 2 saw 3 million 204 thousand eligible Hungarians voting on the refugee referendum. An impressive 95% of those, or 3 million forty four thousand, voted No! to the Brussels plan of forced national refugee quotas. The mainstream media across the EU claims it is a mandatory quota but only for some two thousand refugees. Reality is it is a forced quota for any and all refugees the EU accepts from now on. That’s what makes it so dangerous. The schemers behind the EU refugee crisis intend to use it to destroy national sovereignty, eliminate borders, the nation-state, and national identity. http://journal-neo.org/2016/10/12/i-nominate-viktor-orban-for-nobel-peace-prize/ [Hungary] [Orban] [Refugee] [EU]
• An Urgently Necessary Briefing on Syria
  by Gary Leupp 1. Syria is country about the size of Washington state, with an extraordinarily long, well-documented and glorious history, and central role in the emergence of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Before the current war, it had a population of around 22 millions. It has never threatened and poses no threat to the United States. It is a secular, constitutional republic recognized diplomatically by the United Nations and has diplomatic and usually cordial relations with Russia, Iran, China, India, Japan, Brazil, South Africa, the Philippines, Argentina, Tanzania, Cuba, Egypt, Iraq, Algeria, Oman, etc. It has historically been a battleground of Arab, Iranian and Turkish peoples, at different times a part of the Persian Empire, the Arab-led Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates, or the Ottoman Empire. It fell under French colonial administration after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire (centered on what is now Turkey) in the course of World War I. It was briefly declared a kingdom under the Arab Emir Feisal until the French drove him out of Damascus in 1920. [Syria] [History] [US Syria policy]
• The Kissinger Story
  by Uri Avnery I am writing this (may God forgive me) on Yom Kippur. Exactly 43 years ago, at this exact moment, the sirens sounded. We were sitting in the living room, looking out on one of Tel Aviv’s main streets. The city was completely silent. No cars. No traffic of any kind. A few children were riding about on their bicycles, which is allowed on Yom Kippur, Judaism’s holiest day. Just like now. Rachel, my wife, I, and our guest, Professor Hans Kreitler, were in deep conversation. The professor, a renowned psychologist, was living nearby, so he could come on foot. And then the silence was pierced by a siren. For a moment we thought that it was a mistake, but then it was joined by another and another. We went to the window and saw a commotion. The street, that had been totally empty a few minutes before, began to fill up with vehicles, military and civilian. And then the radio, which had been silent for Yom Kippur, came on. War had broken out. [US Middle East Strategy] [Kissinger]
• NYT Finds "Hidden Hand" In War On Yemen
  Yesterday the U.S. openly attacked Yemen by firing cruise missiles against old Yemeni radar stations. This, allegedly, in response to four missiles fired on two days against a U.S. destroyer at the Yemeni coast. The U.S. Navy said the missiles fell short. They were unable to reach the ship. No one but the navy, especially no one in Yemen, has seen or reported any such missile launches - short or long. The U.S. is in alliance with Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other countries in bombing Yemen for 18 month now. They totally blockade the coast of the country that depends on imports of food and medicines. The actively fighting countries are heavily supported by the U.S. military. This has been widely admitted by U.S. officials and in military reports. The U.S. government even feared of being help legally responsible for the carnage it causes. But since the launch of the cruise missile U.S. media have totally forgotten all of this. Now the U.S. "has been attacked", without any recognizable reason, and is only "defending" itself. No legal consequences are to fear now. Anyone who believes that the U.S. is somehow responsible for the at least 10,000 dead and the many starving people in Yemen must somehow believe in a mysterious conspiracy. [US Yemen] [Agency]
• Hacked emails raise possibility of Clinton Foundation ethics breach
  Hacked emails published by Wikileaks this week appear to show Qatar pledging to donate $1 million to Hillary Clinton's family's charitable foundation, despite her promise to curb new donations by foreign governments while U.S. secretary of state. In an email from 2012, a senior official from the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation informs colleagues that a planned donation by Qatar's government to mark Bill Clinton's birthday came up in a meeting he had with the Gulf state's ambassador in Washington. The ambassador said that he asked "to see WJC 'for five minutes' in NYC, to present $1 million check that Qatar promised for WJC's birthday in 2011," Amitabh Desai, the foundation official, writes in his email, using the former U.S. president's initials. Hillary Clinton, who is the Democratic nominee for the Nov. 8 presidential election, served as secretary of state from 2009 until 2013. The hacked email is among thousands published over the last week by the pro-transparency group Wikileaks from the account of John Podesta, the chairman of Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. [Clintons] [Corruption]
• Navy launches Tomahawk missiles at rebel sites in Yemen after attacks on U.S. ships
  By Dan Lamothe October 12 at 11:15 PM ? Tomahawk missiles were launched from the USS Nitze early Thursday off the coast of Yemen. The missiles struck three coastal radar sites that were associated with previous attacks on Navy ships. (U.S. Navy) The U.S. Navy launched Tomahawk missiles early Thursday from the Red Sea at three coastal radar sites in Yemen, destroying targets associated with missile attacks on U.S. ships this week. The Tomahawks were launched from the destroyer USS Nitze at about 4 a.m. at three locations in territory held by Houthi rebels north of the Bab el-Mandeb strait, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said. President Obama authorized the strikes upon the recommendations of Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter and Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “These limited self-defense strikes were conducted to protect our personnel, our ships, and our freedom of navigation in this important maritime passageway,” Cook said. “The United States will respond to any further threat to our ships and commercial traffic, as appropriate, and will continue to maintain our freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandeb, and elsewhere around the world.” [Saudi airstrikes on Yemeni civilians may have put a target on the backs of U.S. troops] The strikes were announced late Wednesday in Washington. A defense official said the radar sites were in remote areas where there was little risk of civilian casualties, but declined to say how many Tomahawks were used. The equipment was set up near Ras Isa, north of Mocha and near Khoka. All are on or near Yemen’s western coastline. [Yemen] [Cruise missiles]
• Why a No-Fly Zone Will Not Solve the Crisis in Aleppo
  by Patrick Cockburn The proposal put forward to shoot down Russian and Syrian aircraft over Eastern Aleppo in a bid to end the bombardment of this part of the city is wholly unrealistic. The West is not going to risk a war against a nuclear power and its Syrian ally in order to help the 250,000 to 275,000 civilians trapped there. To pretend anything else is empty bombast detached from the realities on the ground. The danger of such wild schemes is that they divert attention from more realistic plans to save the besieged from further suffering and death. [Aleppo]
• The "Salafist Principality" - ISIS Paid Off To Leave Mosul, Take Deir Ezzor?
  Updated below (3:34pm EDT) On September 20 I wrote about the likely reason for the willful U.S. bombing attack on a critical Syrian army position in Deir Ezzor: Two recent attacks against the Syrian Arab Army in east-Syria point to a U.S. plan to eliminate all Syrian government presence east of Palmyra. This would enable the U.S. and its allies to create a "Sunni entity" in east-Syria and west-Iraq which would be a permanent thorn in side of Syria and its allies. ... The U.S. plan is to eventually take Raqqa by using Turkish or Kurdish proxies. It also plans to let the Iraqi army retake Mosul in Iraq. The only major city in Islamic State territory left between those two is Deir Ezzor. Should IS be able to take it away from the isolated Syrian army garrison it has at least a decent base to survive. (Conveniently there are also rich oil wells nearby.) No one, but the hampered Syrian state, would have an immediate interest to remove it from there. There are new signs that this analysis was correct. [ISIS] [US Middle East Strategy]
• “Remember the Mason!” – US attacks Houthis in Yemen
  by Kit Four days ago, after reports that Saudi Arabia had bombed a funeral in Yemen killing 140 mourners, America announced it would “review its support” for the Saudi-led coalition. Three days ago the USS Mason, an American destroyer patrolling the Red Sea, was apparently fired upon from Yemen. It has gone unquestioned in the Western MSM that the Houthis were behind this attack, despite strong denials from the Houthis themselves. Yesterday, all thoughts of “reviewing support” put aside, the Americans bombed three “radar sites” that they claim were a threat to their assets in the Red Sea. Just like that, America is now an active player in the war on Yemen, when before they were simply selling weapons to the Saudis et al. You might consider it strange that the Houthis, who have not fired on American ships ever before in the nearly 2 years of warfare in Yemen, suddenly decided – just as American support for Saudi Arabia was in question – to launch missiles at an American destroyer. You might be asking yourself, “Why would the Houthis, who struggle to get any coverage in the Western press at all, let alone sympathetic coverage, launch an attack on America?” You might consider it strange that the Houthis, already fighting a losing battle against a richer and better equipped enemy, might try and drag America into the war. It’s not strange. Not in the least. It fits so well with the history of American military entanglements that one might even call it predictable, at this point. [US Yemen] [False flag] [Diversion]
• ISIS's squeeze, al-Qaida's return
  Paul Rogers 13 October 2016 Aleppo burns and Mosul reels. But in the background, yet more conflicts are incubating. The combined Russian-Syrian bombardment of eastern Aleppo continues to be intense and often indiscriminate. In this the operation resembles the destruction of Grozny in the two Chechen wars of the 1990s. Strong opposition in western states includes a demand that relevant actions be designated as war crimes. In practice, such calls will not resonate much in the Middle East, for two reasons. The United States-led air-war against ISIS has caused 1,500-plus civilian casualties, a fact little acknowledged, while western support for the Saudi-led assault in Yemen – using weaponry sold by Britain – further erodes the credibility of British parliamentarians who criticise Russia. [US Middle east strategy] [ISIS]
• Saudi standoff with Iran threatens regional turmoil
  BY Nishank Motwani Riyadh’s perceptions of ’enemy’ Iran are creating political tensions in the region Beneath the strategic rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia, the latter’s perception of its Persian neighbour as an existential threat is an example of ‘ideological fundamentalism’ in operation. International relations theorists Ken Booth and Nicholas J. Wheeler explain that when a state develops a perception of a counterpart based on what it thinks the other is, meaning its political identity or character, rather than how it actually acts, the state creates an ‘enemy image’ of that counterpart. In extraordinary cases, the enemy image also extends to the other state’s society, thus intensifying the other’s presumed malign behaviour. The operationalisation of such enemy images, as exemplified by the way the Al Sauds view their Iranian counterparts, harms Saudi Arabia’s ability to find within itself the political will, clarity of thought and foresight to build a cooperative relationship with Iran for mutual gain. Moreover, the promotion of Saudi ideological antipathy towards Iran since its Islamic revolution in 1979 prevents rapprochement and exacerbates political tensions where Riyadh’s strategic interests compete with Tehran’s in countries such as Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, among others [Saudi Arabia]
• It’s Time to Release the Real History of the 1953 Iran Coup
  Contrary to what the U.S. government might think, holding on to the records certainly isn’t helping U.S. interests in the region. By Malcolm Byrne October 12, 2016 . Sixty-three years ago, the CIA and British intelligence fomented a coup d’état that toppled the prime minister of Iran, restored a cooperative shah and strengthened a regional buffer against possible Soviet aggression. It also unwittingly set Iran on a course toward dictatorship and helped inject the 1979 Iranian revolution with an anti-American cast that continues to animate hardline elements within the current regime. More than six decades later, the coup against Mohammad Mosaddeq and its aftermath are still haunting U.S.-Iran relations. Yet amazingly, Americans do not have access to the full historical record of U.S. involvement in the event, even though much of that record (at least the parts the CIA has not destroyed, by its own admission) is unclassified. [Iran] [Coup]
• Media Silence Over Deadly Sanctions: From Iraq To Syria
  In Alerts 2016 Post 10 October 2016 Last Updated on 10 October 2016 By Editor Hits: 532 Awkward facts that erode the 'benign humanitarian' self-image of the West are routinely side-lined or buried by the corporate media. Consider, for example, the severe impact of sanctions imposed on Syria by the United States and the European Union. An internal United Nations assessment, revealed on September 28 by Rania Khalek in The Intercept, makes clear that the sanctions are punishing ordinary Syrians and preventing vital aid, including medical supplies, from reaching those in dire need. Access has been denied for blood safety equipment, medicines, medical devices, food, fuel, water pumps and spare parts for power plants, amongst other items. Khalek notes that the internal assessment, which was prepared for the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, describes: 'the U.S. and EU measures as "some of the most complicated and far-reaching sanctions regimes ever imposed." Detailing a complex system of "unpredictable and time-consuming" financial restrictions and licensing requirements, the report finds that U.S. sanctions are exceptionally harsh "regarding provision of humanitarian aid."' US sanctions on Syrian banks have made the transfer of funds into Syria 'nearly impossible'. This has had a two-fold effect: 1. Aid groups have been unable to pay local staff and suppliers which has delayed or prevented aid from reaching those in need. 2. An unofficial and unregulated financial network has proliferated, making it easier for ISIS and al Qaeda to divert funds undetected. Khalek also reports that a leaked email from 'a key UN official' blamed US and EU sanctions for contributing to food shortages and weakened health care. In particular: [Sanctions effect] [US Syria policy]
• U.S. and EU Sanctions Are Punishing Ordinary Syrians and Crippling Aid Work, U.N. Report Reveals
  Rania Khalek Sep. 28 2016, 2:55 p.m. Internal United Nations assessments obtained by The Intercept reveal that U.S. and European sanctions are punishing ordinary Syrians and crippling aid work during the largest humanitarian emergency since World War II. The sanctions and war have destabilized every sector of Syria’s economy, transforming a once self-sufficient country into an aid-dependent nation. But aid is hard to come by, with sanctions blocking access to blood safety equipment, medicines, medical devices, food, fuel, water pumps, spare parts for power plants, and more. A 40-page internal assessment commissioned by the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia to analyze the humanitarian impact of the sanctions describes the U.S. and EU measures as “some of the most complicated and far-reaching sanctions regimes ever imposed.” Detailing a complex system of “unpredictable and time-consuming” financial restrictions and licensing requirements, the report finds that U.S. sanctions are exceptionally harsh “regarding provision of humanitarian aid.” [Sanctions effect] [Syria]
• Obama’s Syria policy and the illusion of US power in the Middle East
  Gareth Porter
  Friday 7 October 2016 23:27 UTC One of Obama's biggest failures is letting his policy in Syria be determined primarily by the ambitions of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey With the collapse of the US-Russian ceasefire agreement and the resumption and escalation of the massive Russian bombing campaign in Aleppo, the frustration of hawks in Washington over the failure of the Obama administration to use American military power in Syria has risen to new heights. But the administration’s inability to do anything about Russian military escalation in Aleppo is the logical result of the role the Obama administration has been playing in Syria over the past five years. The problem is that the administration has pursued policy objectives that it lacked the means to achieve. When Obama called on President Bashar al-Assad to step down in September 2011, the administration believed, incredibly, that he would do so of his own accord. As former Hillary Clinton aide and Pentagon official Derek Chollet reveals in his new book, The Long Game, “[E]arly in the crisis, most officials believed Assad lacked the necessary cunning and fortitude to stay in power.” Administration policymakers began using the phrase “managed transition” in regard to US policy toward the government, according to Chollet. The phrase reflected perfectly the vaulting ambitions of policymakers who were eager to participate in a regime change that they saw as a big win for the United States and Israel and a big loss for Iran. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would be out front pushing for a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a “transition” in Syria. But US regional Sunni allies - Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia - would provide the arms to Syrian fighters. The only US role in the war would be a covert operation devised by then CIA director David Petraeus to provide intelligence and logistical assistance to those allies, to get arms to the groups chosen by the Sunni regimes that would pay for them. Of course there were those, led by Clinton herself, who wanted to go further and create a “no-fly zone” where the insurgents could be trained and operate freely. But Obama, supported by the US military leadership, would not support that invitation to war. The US was going to play the great power role in Syria without getting its hands dirty with the arming of an opposition force. But within a few months it was already clear that the administration’s “managed transition” had gone terribly wrong. Al-Qaeda, firmly ensconced in Iraq, had begun to show its hand in a series of attacks in Damascus and elsewhere in Syria. By August 2012, it was widely recognised that the jihadists were rapidly taking over the anti-Assad war. Ed Hussein of the Council on Foreign Relations observed in the Christian Science Monitor that Syria was becoming “a magnet for jihadis globally,” just as Iraq had become after the US invasion. The Defense Intelligence Agency identified al-Qaeda, the Salafists and the Muslim Brotherhood as the three major strains in the rapidly growing anti-Assad war. [US Syria policy] [Outsourcing]
• Attack on mourners in Yemen kills more than 140, say local health officials
  By Mohammed Ghobari | SANAA Saudi-led warplanes struck a funeral at a community hall in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, the country's Houthi-run administration said on Saturday, but the coalition denied any role in the attack. More than 140 mourners were killed, according to local health officials cited by the United Nations, in an attack that prompted a strong rebuke from Washington, a key Saudi ally. Jamie McGoldrick, a UN official in charge of humanitarian efforts in the country, said more than 525 were injured. The death toll was 82, according to Ghazi Ismail, the administration's acting health minister. The reason for the discrepancy in numbers was not immediately clear. Ismail said the air strike occurred in the southern part of the city, where a wake was taking place for the father of the administration's interior minister, Jalal al-Roweishan, who had died of natural causes on Friday. The death toll was one of the largest in any single incident since the Saudi-led alliance began military operations to try to restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power following his ousting by the Iran-aligned Houthis in March 2015. [Saudi Arabia] [Yemen] [Bombing]
• WikiLeaks email dump reveals excerpts of Clinton’s speeches to Wall Street
  By Anita Kumar, Tim Johnson and David Lightman McClatchy Washington Bureau WASHINGTON — Excerpts of Hillary Clinton’s paid speeches, including those to Wall Street, were leaked late Friday, a revelation that may perpetuate criticism that she is an out-of-touch Washington insider and potentially create trouble for her in the final weeks of her run for the White House. “Obviously, I’m kind of far removed because the life I’ve lived and the economic, you know, fortunes that my husband and I now enjoy, but I haven’t forgotten it,” Clinton told Goldman-Black Rock on Feb. 4, 2014. In the transcripts, Clinton acknowledges that she can’t relate to everyday Americans and admits she’s created a public personality separate from who she is behind closed doors. She discusses her stances on trade, health care and Wall Street. “Politics is like sausage being made,” Clinton told the National Multi-Housing Council on April 24, 2013. “It is unsavory, and it always has been that way, but we usually end up where we need to be. But if everybody’s watching, you know, all of the back room discussions and the deals, you know, then people get a little nervous, to say the least. So, you need both a public and a private position.” [Hillary Clinton] [WikiLeaks]
• Carter Launches Plan C; Pentagon Begins Low-Intensity, Stealth War in Syria
  Mike Whitney • October 7, 2016 “Last Wednesday, at a Deputies Committee meeting at the White House, officials from the State Department, the CIA and the Joint Chiefs of Staff discussed limited military strikes against the (Assad) regime … One proposed way to get around the White House’s long-standing objection to striking the Assad regime without a U.N. Security Council resolution would be to carry out the strikes covertly and without public acknowledgment.” – Washington Post Call it stealth warfare, call it poking the bear, call it whatever you’d like. The fact is, the Syrian war has entered a new and more dangerous phase increasing the chances of a catastrophic confrontation between the US and Russia. This new chapter of the conflict is the brainchild of Pentagon warlord, Ash Carter, whose attack on a Syrian outpost at Deir Ezzor killed 62 Syrian regulars putting a swift end to the fragile ceasefire agreement. Carter and his generals opposed the Kerry-Lavrov ceasefire deal because it would have required “military and intelligence cooperation with the Russians”. In other words, the US would have had to get the greenlight from Moscow for its bombing targets which would have undermined its ability to assist its jihadist fighters on the ground. That was a real deal-breaker for the Pentagon. But bombing Deir Ezzor fixed all that. It got the Pentagon out of the jam it was in, it torpedoed the ceasefire, and it allowed Carter to launch his own private shooting match without presidential authorization. Mission accomplished. [US Syria policy] [Covert war] [Ash Carter]
• Needed Now: a Peace Movement Against the Clinton Wars to Come
  by Andrew Levine Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize –for not being George W. Bush. This seemed unseemly at the time, but not outrageous. Seven years later, it seems grotesque. As the steward-in-chief of the American empire, Obama continued Bush’s Afghanistan and Iraq Wars, and extended his “War on Terror” into Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, and elsewhere in Africa and the Middle East. He also became a terrorist himself and a serial killer, weaponized drones and special ops assassins being his weapons of choice. Much of this has taken place under a veil of secrecy. A great deal of effort has gone into keeping news of the murder and mayhem Obama let loose upon the world out of public view; so far out that, to this day, Obama, is still widely thought of as a man of peace. He kept that illusion intact the way that Bill Clinton kept a similar illusion alive in the nineties– by keeping war talk to a minimum and by keeping American combatants out of harm’s way. Along with his Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, Clinton saw to it that sanctions would kill hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. And when sanctions weren’t enough to complete the dismemberment of Yugoslavia, he unleashed death and destruction from the skies. With his drones, Obama has surpassed Clinton in that one respect; if they gave a Nobel Prize for killing from afar, he’d win hands down. Sometimes, though, there is no avoiding “boots on the ground.” When this is the case, the Clinton-Obama way is to rely as much as possible on proxy armies or militias to do the fighting, using the empire’s own troops only as a last resort. Also, like Clinton, Obama relies on “humanitarian” interveners to make his depredations seem kosher. Nobody can sell killing and maiming to a gullible public as well as they. [Hillary Clinton]
• The Trump Phenomenon, as Seen From Europe
  October 7, 2016 by Jean Bricmont Brussels, Belgium. The first thing to say about the U.S. presidential elections is that they are extremely anti-democratic. And here I’m not even talking about the manipulations that may have enabled Clinton to beat Sanders or about the fact that mainstream media spend their time deriding one candidate and covering up for the other. The most fundamentally anti-democratic aspect of the American elections is that a small fragment of humanity gets to elect someone who has an enormous influence over the rest of the world, someone who takes decisions that can drag us all into a generalized war, or at very least can aggravate tensions with Russia, Iran, and China, not to mention Syria, which are contrary to European interests. From that point of view, Trump has an advantage over Clinton. That is, he says he wants to be President of the United States and not of the whole world, whereas she insists that the United States must exert world leadership. [Trump]
• It’s Time to Rethink Syria
  For years, I helped advise President Obama on Syria. It’s now clearer than ever that a new strategy is needed. By Philip Gordon
  September 25, 2015
  If somehow the tragic trajectory of the conflict in Syria were not apparent enough, several dramatic developments in recent weeks have come together to make it impossible to ignore. The most obvious is the influx into Europe of tens of thousands of desperate, hungry refugees—so devoid of hope in their homeland or neighboring refugee camps they are willing to risk drowning and starvation in the hope of finding a better life for themselves and their children. The second is the growing evidence of the failure of efforts to train and equip a moderate, unified opposition capable of pressuring the Assad regime to change. Despite extensive efforts by the U.S. government and its partners to build such a force, the opposition remains deeply fragmented, dominated by extremists and incapable of threatening Assad’s rule or of stabilizing Syria even if the regime did somehow fall. Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/09/its-time-to-rethink-syria-213184#ixzz4MQH5dIyI Follow us: @politico on Twitter | Politico on Facebook [US Syria policy] [Outsourcing] [Proxy]
• JASTA’s Impact on the US-Saudi Relations, as Seen from the Middle East
  The adoption of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) by the US Congress and the impact it may have on Washington’s relations with Riyadh and the future of the Gulf region have been actively discussed across Arab media and social networks. This act grants the families of 9/11 victims the chance to sue Saudi Arabia for its involvement in the attacks. The frustration that Riyadh and other Gulf countries have shown towards this development, in the opinion of the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahmar, clearly shows that JASTA will increase tensions in US-Saudi relations even further. There’s been talks about the possible suspension of bilateral cooperation between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the US in such areas including the fight against terrorism, the closure of US military bases in the region, and the withdrawal of billions of Saudi dollars from American banks. On the other hand, one may have the impression that Riyadh perceives JASTA through the prism of the current election season in the United States. Analysts point out that Riyadh has little to nothing to worry about, since it’s highly unlikely that American families will be able to win against Saudi Arabia in US courts to obtain compensation for the deaths of their loved ones in an attack that shook America. One would be demanded to provide irrefutable evidence that must prove the involvement of Saudi officials in the preparations of the attacks, which is a pretty tall order, the newspaper concludes. A number of Arab lawyers have described the law as a direct violation of the concept of state sovereign immunity. However, according to the Lebanese newspaper An-Nahar, the adoption of JASTA by the US Congress casts a severe blow against Saudi Arabia at a particularly difficult time for this monarchy. This will lead to the distancing between the US and Saudi Arabia against the background of the current turbulent situation in the Middle East, when the two states are still involved in various “proxy wars”. A number of Arab experts believe that Saudi Arabia must have been expecting a step like this one, since the foundations of bilateral relations between the two countries that were laid down by the founder of the modern Saudi state, King Abdul Aziz Al Saud and US President Roosevelt in 1945, have already been shaken. A prominent Lebanese journalist, Sarkis Nahum, is drawing the attention of his readers toward the fact that the differences that Washington and Riyadh had in their interpretation of the Arab Spring movement, followed by rapprochement with Iran over its nuclear program have created the preconditions for JASTA. But what’s even more important is that the two states in their assessments of the situation in the world are applying completely different and often conflicting doctrines. [Saudi Arabia] [JASTA]
• Army Warns that Future War with Russia or China Would Be ‘Extremely Lethal and Fast’
  By Bradley Peniston Read bio October 4, 2016 Leaders say warfare in the coming decades will be fundamentally different from the past 25 years. To envision the wars of the future, first remember those of the distant past, with their soul-numbing artillery barrages and unstinting waves of conventional enemy forces. Then speed up that mental newsreel and imagine a ground war accelerated by artificial intelligence and precision munitions, nested in a larger strategic sphere where everything is moving at Internet velocity. That’s the picture that Army leaders are working from as they try to prepare their force to deter and defeat America’s enemies over the next few decades. The nation faces existential threats from “modern nation-states acting aggressively in militarized competition,” said Lt. Gen. Joseph Anderson, Army deputy chief of staff for operations, plans, and training. “Who does that sound like? Russia?” He spoke on a future-of-the-Army panel at the annual meeting of the Association of the U.S. Army in Washington on Tuesday. China is a growing threat as well, if not one that can project force globally yet. Together, these two powers are mustering conventionally massive militaries that are increasingly technological — and forcing the Pentagon to contemplate and prepare for “violence on the scale that the U.S. Army has not seen since Korea,” said Maj. Gen. William Hix, Anderson’s deputy. “A conventional conflict in the near future will be extremely lethal and fast. And we will not own the stopwatch. [US military]
• Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte dares CIA to 'oust' him, says it's part of his destiny
  AFP Updated: Oct 7, 2016 20:10 IST Davao: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday dared the United States' CIA spy agency to try and oust him, as he branded Western critics of his deadly crime war "animals" and vowed many more killings. In two fiery speeches to mark his 100 days in office, Duterte repeatedly raised the prospect of local or foreign opponents seeking to remove him from power in an effort to stop the violence. But he insisted he would not be intimidated and that his campaign against drugs, in which an average of more than 33 people a day are being killed, would not end. "You want to oust me? You want to use the CIA? Go ahead," Duterte said in a speech in his southern home town of Davao city, referring to the Central Intelligence Agency, while railing against US President Barack Obama and other critics. Last month Duterte accused the CIA of plotting to kill him, but gave no specifics. [Duterte] [CIA] [Coup]
• Reaping the Whirlwind: Kerry, al-Nusra, Russia and Syria
  by Gary Leupp “I think you’re looking at three people, four people in the administration. I lost the argument. I’ve argued for the use of force. I’m the guy who stood up [in August 2013] and announced that we’re going to attack Assad for the use of weapons.” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, talking informally with Syrian “opposition” members, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly Oct. 3, 2016 The Libya UNSC Resolution of 2011: Template for the Syria Resolution of 2017? I’ve been re-reading UNSC Resolution 1973, which provided a legal fig leaf for the regime-change assault on Libya from March to October 2011. [Kerry]
• U.S. Diplomacy: A Dangerous Proposal
  Is the United States on the verge of enshrining humanitarian intervention as a bedrock principle of foreign policy? By Conn Hallinan, October 3, 2016. While the mainstream media focuses on losers and winners in the race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, a largely unreported debate is going on over the future course of U.S. diplomacy. Its outcome will have a profound effect on how Washington projects power—both diplomatic and military—in the coming decade. The issues at stake are hardly abstract. The United States is currently engaged in active wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia. It has deployed troops on the Russian border, played push –and-shove with China in Asia, and greatly extended its military footprint on the African continent. It would not be an exaggeration to say—as former U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry has recently done—that the world is a more dangerous place today than it was during darkest times of the Cold War. Tracking the outlines of this argument is not easy, in part because the participants are not always forthcoming about what they are proposing, in part because the media oversimplifies the issues. In its broadest framework, “realists” represented by former National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, Harvard’s Steven Walt, and University of Chicago’s John Mearsheimer have squared off against “humanitarian interventionists” like current UN Ambassador Samantha Power. Given that Power is a key advisor to the Obama administration on foreign policy and is likely to play a similar role if Clinton is elected, her views carry weight. In a recent essay in the New York Review of Books, Power asks, “How is a statesman to advance his nation’s interests?” She begins by hijacking the realist position that U.S. diplomacy must reflect “national interests,” arguing that they are indistinguishable from “moral values.” What happens to people in other countries, she argues, is in our “national security.” [Humanitarian intervention] [Samantha Power] [US global strategy]
• US moral decay? Congress passes arms package to slaughter more Yemenis
  By Christina Lin on October 4, 2016 On September 21, Congress approved a new $1.15 billion arms package to Saudi Arabia to continue bombing Yemen. The Obama administration has already sold about $100 billion worth of weapons and military equipment to Riyadh, including cluster bombs. Despite 64 lawmakers submitting a resolution to block the sale, the Senate rejected the resolution with a vote of 71 to 27. Before the vote, Congressman Ted Lieu (D-Calif) who spearheaded the bill, slammed that it’s “morally outrageous for US to continue its direct assistance in the slaughter of civilians by Saudi Arabia in Yemen.” Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky) likewise had scathing words regarding arming Riyadh that was “involved in the financing of terror including 9/11”, commits human rights abuses, bombs hospitals and schools, and creates millions of refugees for Europe and the US while refusing to take in any. [Arms sales] [Yemen] [Ignorance] [Governance]
• Presidential Candidates Silent as Saudis Prepare to Crucify Activist
  Not their cross to bear? Leading politicians have yet to offer a position on young protester's penalty. By Steven Nelson | Staff Writer Sept. 24, 2015, at 3:06 p.m. Presidential Candidates Silent as Saudis Prepare to Crucify Activist Ali Mohammed al-Nimr could be executed without notice in Saudi Arabia. At bottom left, a photo of al-Nimr's uncle, a prominent Shiite leader also sentenced to death. Ali Mohammed al-Nimr could be executed without notice in Saudi Arabia. Since last week his case has attracted widespread international attention. At bottom left, a photo of al-Nimr's uncle, a prominent Shiite leader also sentenced to death. Facebook/Free Sheikh Nimr Baqir Al-Nimr Saudi Arabia’s justice system reportedly has cleared the way for political activist Ali Mohammed al-Nimr's crucifixion. No major U.S. presidential candidate has yet weighed in as the looming execution increasingly attracts global attention and outrage. Critics say al-Nimr's trial was unfair and the punishment grossly disproportionate -- particularly for someone who was a minor at the time of his alleged crimes. The 21-year-old Shiite from eastern Saudi Arabia is the nephew of a prominent dissident cleric. Both were arrested in 2012 following political protests and later sentenced to death by the fundamentalist Sunni kingdom, along with a handful of others. U.K.-based advocacy group Reprieve says al-Nimr, arrested when he was 17 years old, was tortured. His father told Agence France-Presse this week his son denies allegations he committed non-political crimes including burglary and throwing Molotov cocktails. The penalty of crucifixion, recently practiced by the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq, would reportedly feature decapitation by sword, followed by display of al-Nimr's body on a cross. [Saudi Arabia] [Human rights] [Sectarianism] [Execution]
• A President Trump could end the era of American global leadership
  By Editorial Board October 3 IN NO realm is the U.S. president more powerful than in matters of national security. A president may launch wars, conduct intelligence operations and strike deals with foreign governments with minimal checks from the courts and Congress. If he wished, a President Donald Trump could carry out — or at least order — many of the most extreme proposals he has tossed off during the election campaign. If Mr. Trump chose to “take the oil” of Iraq or Syria, as he has frequently proposed, he could direct the armed forces to plan and launch such an operation, whatever its prospects for success. If he wanted to assassinate foreigners who opposed him, he could unilaterally and secretly change the executive order prohibiting such action. If he wanted to reinstate waterboarding and other torture methods for use on detainees, he could cancel President Obama’s orders governing torture and appoint lawyers to the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel willing to issue a secret opinion invalidating a congressional ban. Mr. Trump could launch surveillance programs targeting foreigners without informing Congress. He could scrap — again, without public notice — the rules Mr. Obama instituted for limiting U.S. drone strikes. He could shut U.S. bases abroad, withdrawing troops from Japan, South Korea and Europe. [Trump] [US foreign policy] [Leadership]
• This Is How America Will Accidentally Join the Syrian War
  Neither of the presidential campaigns knows what their Syria policies actually mean. By Micah Zenko October 5, 2016 During Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate, there was a brief exchange between the moderator and candidates that perfectly captured the muddled confusion over potential new U.S.-led military missions in Syria. It showcased the type of slippery and imprecise rhetoric that could easily result in the United States entering a war the public opposes. Halfway through the debate, moderator Elaine Quijano asked Gov. Mike Pence and Sen. Tim Kaine about the war there. “250,000 people, 100,000 of them children, are under siege in Aleppo, Syria. Bunker buster bombs, cluster munitions, and incendiary weapons are being dropped on them by Russian and Syrian militaries. Does the U.S. have a responsibility to protect civilians and prevent mass casualties on this scale?” Pence first made the case for significantly expanding the number of troops in the U.S. military, which was a puzzling policy suggestion, given that Donald Trump does not endorse any U.S. boots on the ground in Syria. He then added, “We have got to begin to lean into this with strong, broad-shouldered American leadership.” [US_election16] [US Syria policy]
• The Rise of Hypersonic Weapons
  October 5, 2016 | Will Edwards and Luke Penn-Hall A hypersonic missile launched from mainland China could strike a U.S. carrier group located anywhere in the South China Sea in under 20 minutes. That’s a hypothetical right now, but hypersonics are poised to be the next big thing in defense technology. A hypersonic weapon is any projectile that is able to achieve and sustain speeds at or above Mach 5, which is to say, five times the speed of sound. Some weapons, like electromagnetic railguns, can fire munitions at these speeds – but the primary focus of current research efforts is the creation of hypersonic missiles. Cruise missile type hypersonic weapons could be fired from planes or ships and would be relatively cheap, whereas hypersonic glide vehicles are the final stage of an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), which makes it both effective and accurate at very long ranges. Both types would be extremely fast and maneuverable, which makes them very difficult to intercept. Hypersonic weapons are currently under development by the United States, Russia, China, and India, though each country intends to deploy them differently. The U.S. envisions that hypersonic weapons will be an integral piece of the prompt global strike regime; a concept that seeks to deliver a precision guided conventional strike anywhere in the world in as little as an hour [PGS] [Military balance]
• Destroying Syria: a Joint Criminal Enterprise
  by Diana Johnstone
  Everyone claims to want to end the war in Syria and restore peace to the Middle East. Well, almost everyone. “This is a playoff situation in which you need both teams to lose, but at least you don’t want one to win — we’ll settle for a tie,” said Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli consul general in New York told the New York Times in June 2013. “Let them both bleed, hemorrhage to death: that’s the strategic thinking here.” Efraim Inbar, director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, stressed the same points in August 2016: “The West should seek the further weakening of Islamic State, but not its destruction… Allowing bad guys to kill bad guys sounds very cynical, but it is useful and even moral to do so if it keeps the bad guys busy and less able to harm the good guys… Moreover, instability and crises sometimes contain portents of positive change… The American administration does not appear capable of recognizing the fact that IS can be a useful tool in undermining Tehran’s ambitious plan for domination of the Middle East.” Okay, not exactly everyone. But surely the humanitarian website Avaaz wants to end the war and restore peace. Or does it? Avaaz is currently circulating a petition which has gathered over a million signatures and is aiming at a million and a half. It is likely to get them, with words like this: “100 children have been killed in Aleppo since last Friday. “Enough is enough!” Avaaz goes on to declare: “There is no easy way to end this war, but there’s only one way to prevent this terror from the skies — people everywhere demanding a no-fly zone to protect civilians.” No-fly zone? Doesn’t that sound familiar? [US Syria policy] [Outsourcing] [NGO] [Front] [DaR]
• JASTA Opens Many Doors: Will Israel be sued for 9/11?
  Philip Giraldi • October 4, 2016 By overwhelming margins the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives voted on September 28th to override President Barack Obama’s veto of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA). Obama had noted that the Act would have negative consequences for U.S. officials overseas as it establishes the principle that governments can be held accountable in the courts for what they do. Prior to this legislation Washington generally respected the principle of sovereign immunity, which means in practice that governments resolve issues between themselves by negotiation, not through litigation.
  But the potentially biggest secondary target of the new legislation would without a doubt be Israel. The Israeli role in 9/11, insofar as can be determined, has never been seriously investigated at all and any suppositions or conclusions regarding its activities were never included in the final 9/11 Commission Report. [9/11] [Saudi Arabia] [Israel]
• Why thousands of millionaires don’t pay federal income taxes
  By Christopher Ingraham October 3 at 4:23 PM ? Here’s how Trump could have taken a $916 million loss and avoided paying taxes for 18 years The tax code allows real estate developers or managers to use special tax breaks and benefits that the rest of us can’t. Here’s how that works. (Daron Taylor, Sarah Parnass, Danielle Kunitz, Lisa Rein, Kelsey Snell/The Washington Post) Tax documents obtained by the New York Times show that Donald Trump declared a massive net operating loss of $916 million in 1995, enough to allow him to avoid paying federal income taxes for up to 18 years. The documents shed light on provisions in the U.S. tax code that allow wealthy individuals to avoid income tax payments even in years when they make millions. In 1995, Trump declared $3.4 million in business income, $7.4 million in interest income, and close to $100,000 in income from other sources such as dividends, taxable refunds and wages. But this income was more than offset by hundreds of millions of dollars in reported losses from real estate and "the financial wreckage he left behind in the early 1990s through mismanagement of three Atlantic City casinos, his ill-fated foray into the airline business and his ill-timed purchase of the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan," according to the Times. About 46 percent of all tax filers (individuals or households) pay no federal income taxes each year because of various exclusions. High-income tax filers make up a tiny portion of that number, but they are by far the biggest beneficiaries. More than half of the tax revenue lost to the most common tax exclusions stays in the pockets of the richest one-fifth of Americans, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office. [Tax] [Plutocracy] [Trump]
• WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange 'We Believe in What We're Doing'
  WikiLeaks is now 10 years old. SPIEGEL met with founder Julian Assange, 45, to discuss the whistleblower platform's achievements and whether recent criticism leveled at the site is justified. Interview Conducted by Michael Sontheimer AFP WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange September 30, 2016 06:12 PM SPIEGEL: Mr. Assange, 10 years after the founding of WikiLeaks, the whistleblower platform is again being criticized. WikiLeaks is said to have put millions of Turkish voters in danger. What is your response? Assange: A few days after the publication of internal emails from the Democratic National Committee, an entirely false story was put out that we had published the names, addresses and phone numbers of all female voters in Turkey. It is completely false. And it was and is simple to check. Power factions fight back with lies. That's not surprising. SPIEGEL: Quite a few German journalists have long sympathized with WikiLeaks and also with Edward Snowden. But they aren't impressed with the publishing of the DNC emails. Are you campaigning on behalf of Donald Trump? Assange: Our publication of the DNC leaks has showed that the Democratic National Committee had effectively rigged the primaries in the United States on behalf of Hillary Clinton against Bernie Sanders. That led to the resignation of leading members of the DNC, including its president Debbie Wasserman Schultz SPIEGEL: People within the Clinton campaign have suggested that the DNC emails were given to you by the Russian secret service. Assange: There have been many attempts to distract from the power of our publications. Hillary Clinton is the favorite to win. As always, most media aligns with the presumptive winner even though their claimed societal virtue is to investigate those in power. SPIEGEL: The fact is, WikiLeaks is damaging Clinton and bolstering Trump. [WikiLeaks] [Canard] [Whistleblower]
• Trump could have avoided paying taxes for 18 years, report on tax records says
  By David A. Fahrenthold, Rosalind S. Helderman and Jose A. DelReal October 2 at 12:12 AM ? Donald Trump declared a loss of $916 million on his income tax returns for 1995, and — because of tax rules that favor wealthy real estate investors — he could have used that loss to avoid paying any federal income taxes for up to 18 years, according to a report in the New York Times. The Times’ report said that the enormous loss Trump reported in 1995 — $916 million — seemed to be a holdover from the early 1990s, when his real estate and casino empire tottered and almost fell. [Trump] [Tax] [Media]
• U.N. atomic agency chief says Iran sticking to nuclear deal
  Iran has kept to a nuclear deal it agreed with six world powers last year limiting its stockpiles of substances that could be used to make atomic weapons, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told French daily Le Monde. Confirming the findings of a confidential report by the U.N. agency seen by Reuters last month, IAEA Director-General Yukiya Amano said Tehran had observed the deal which was opposed by hardliners inside Iran and by skeptics in the West. "The deal is being implemented since January without any particular problem," he told Le Monde in an interview published on Saturday. "There was a small incident in February: the stock of heavy water very slightly exceeded the limit set - 130 tonnes. But we immediately signaled that to Iran which took all the necessary measures," he said. Under its July deal with the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany, Iran is allowed to have 130 tonnes of heavy water, a moderator in reactors like the one it has disabled at Arak and a chemical it produces itself. The stock briefly reached 130.9 tonnes, the agency reported in February. "Apart from that, I can certify that Tehran respects its commitments to the letter. The Iranians are doing what they promised the international community," Amano said. [Iran deal] [IAEA]
• How Arms Sales Distort US Foreign Policy
  October 1, 2016 Exclusive: Money may not be the root of all evil but it surely contributes to horrible war crimes when lucrative arms sales distort U.S. foreign policy and cause selective outrage over human rights atrocities, writes Jonathan Marshall. By Jonathan Marshall Forget oil. In the Middle East, the profits and jobs reaped from tens of billions of dollars in arms sales are becoming the key drivers of U.S. and British policy. Oil still matters, of course. So do geopolitical interests, including military bases, and powerful political lobbies funded by Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the other Gulf states. But you can’t explain Washington’s deference to Saudi Arabia, despite its criminal war in Yemen and its admitted support for Islamist extremism, without acknowledging the political pull generated by more than $115 billion in U.S. military deals with Saudi Arabia authorized since President Obama took office. Saudi King Salman bids farewell to President Barack Obama at Erga Palace after a state visit to Saudi Arabia on Jan. 27, 2015. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) As arms sales expert William Hartung observed earlier this year, “U.S. arms deliveries to Saudi Arabia have increased by 96% compared to the Bush years. . . In 2014 alone more than 2,500 Saudi military personnel received training in the United States.” These deals have generated huge new business opportunities for politically powerful U.S. contractors such as Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Boeing, and Raytheon. Neither the White House nor Congress will let mere war crimes stand in the way of continued sales that fund thousands of jobs. [Arms sales] [US Middle East Strategy]
• Defense secretary: US will sharpen 'military edge' in Asia
  By Associated Press Published: 12:21 +10:00, 30 September 2016 | SAN DIEGO (AP) — Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Thursday the U.S. will "sharpen our military edge" in Asia and the Pacific in order to remain a dominant power in a region feeling the effects of China's rising military might. Carter made the pledge in a speech aboard the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson in port in San Diego. The Pentagon chief described what he called the next phase of a U.S. pivot to Asia — a rebalancing of American security commitments after years of heavy focus on the Middle East. His speech, aimed at reassuring allies unsettled by China's behavior in the South China Sea, came three days after he made remarks at a nuclear missile base in North Dakota about rebuilding the nuclear force. Those comments prompted a strong reaction from the Russian foreign ministry, which issued a statement saying it had interpreted Carter's statement as a declared intention to lower the threshold for using nuclear weapons. Carter said the Pentagon will make its attack submarines more lethal and spend more to build undersea drones that can operate in shallower waters where submarines cannot. [US global strategy] [US military] [China confrontation]
• The cobalt pipeline
  Tracing the path from deadly hand-dug mines in Congo to consumers’ phones and laptops
  Story by Todd C. Frankel Photos by Michael Robinson Chavez Video editing by Jorge Ribas September 30, 2016 The sun was rising over one of the richest mineral deposits on Earth, in one of the poorest countries, as Sidiki Mayamba got ready for work. Mayamba is a cobalt miner. And the red-dirt savanna stretching outside his door contains such an astonishing wealth of cobalt and other minerals that a geologist once described it as a “scandale geologique.” [Capitalism] [Labour] [Human rights]
• Cracks in the Kingdom: Saudi Arabia Rocked by Financial Strains
  by Patrick Cockburn Hundreds of foreign hospital workers in Saudi Arabia, unpaid for seven months, were on strike this week and were blocking a highway in Eastern Province in defiance of the ban on strikes and demonstrations in the Kingdom. The employees’ anger was deepened by the belief that the very same employer who has been holding back their salaries regularly offers massive fees to international singers who perform at his parties. Things are not well in Saudi Arabia and this week there were two pieces of bad news. Hitherto, there have been protests like this by foreign employees suffering from the knock-on effects of cuts in state expenditure following the drop in the oil price. In work camps far out in the desert workers complain that, not only have they stopped receiving money owed to them, but they are no longer even receiving supplied of food and electricity.
  . What makes the present economic stresses more significant is that they come at a moment when Saudi political influence is visibly under strain in the region and the world. Among those exempted from this week’s benefit cuts are Saudi forces in Yemen which may remind Saudis that they are still mired in a vastly expensive conflict there which their government voluntarily entered last year and shows no sign of winning. In Syria, the five-year-long effort by Saudi Arabia, together with Turkey and Qatar, to get rid of President Bashar al-Assad, has likewise failed. In the decade-long Saudi rivalry with Iran, today it is the Iranians who look like getting the upper hand. But a more menacing development than this may be facing the rulers of the Kingdom in the US. For so long the ultimate guarantor of the status quo in Saudi Arabia, the US is increasingly ambivalent or hostile towards its old ally. On Wednesday, the US Senate will vote on whether or not to override a presidential veto preventing the families of victims of 9/11 suing the Saudi government. The measure is unlikely to become law, but it is a sign of the Kingdom’s ebbing influence where it really matters at a time of deepening troubles at home. [Saudi Arabia]
• The Butcher of Qana: Shimon Peres Was No Peacemaker
  by Robert Fisk When the world heard that Shimon Peres had died, it shouted “Peacemaker!” But when I heard that Peres was dead, I thought of blood and fire and slaughter. I saw the results: babies torn apart, shrieking refugees, smouldering bodies. It was a place called Qana and most of the 106 bodies – half of them children – now lie beneath the UN camp where they were torn to pieces by Israeli shells in 1996. I had been on a UN aid convoy just outside the south Lebanese village. Those shells swished right over our heads and into the refugees packed below us. It lasted for 17 minutes. [Israel] [Massacre]
• Donald Trump proves he is unfit, unserious and unprepared on national security
  By Michael Vickers and Michael Morell September 28 Michael Vickers was undersecretary of defense for intelligence from 2011 to 2015 and assistant secretary of defense for special operations, low-intensity conflict and interdependent capabilities from 2007 to 2011. Michael Morell was deputy director of the CIA from 2010 to 2013, and twice served as acting director during that time. They have both endorsed Democrat Hillary Clinton for president. Donald Trump showed again during Monday’s presidential debate the many ways in which he is unfit to be president. But nowhere did he reveal himself to be as temperamentally unfit, unserious, unprepared and incoherent as he did on the topic of national security. Trump continued to question the global alliance system that has served U.S. national security interests so well since World War II. He continues to see our relationships with our closest allies and partners solely in terms of cost — who is paying how much of the bill. He does not see all the benefits that have accrued to the United States from this system, including the stability of Europe and East Asia that has made this a more secure and prosperous nation. [Trump] [MISCOM]

• New Cold War Spins Out of Control
  By Alastair Crooke
  September 26, 2016 U.S. enthusiasts for the New Cold War with Russia appear to be ignoring less-belligerent orders from President Obama and pushing for a dangerous escalation of tensions, reports ex-British diplomat Alastair Crooke. In the aftermath of the U.S. attack on the Syrian army positions overlooking and commanding the Dier A-Zor airfield – the airfield, whose daily “Berlin air-bridge” style flights, are the sole lifeline to a city long besieged by ISIS – the Russian U.N. Ambassador asked a pertinent rhetorical question at the United Nations Security Council: Who is running U.S. policy: Is it the Pentagon or the White House? There was no official response, of course, but one was not necessary: the New York Times editorial board gave us the answer in its verdict of Sept. 15: Praising the U.S. Secretary of State for his energetic, but “quixotic” diplomacy, the “Board” wrote: President Barack Obama meets with President Vladimir Putin of Russia on the sidelines of the G20 Summit at Regnum Carya Resort in Antalya, Turkey, Sunday, Nov. 15, 2015. National Security Advisor Susan E. Rice listens at left. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) President Barack Obama meets with President Vladimir Putin of Russia on the sidelines of the G20 Summit at Regnum Carya Resort in Antalya, Turkey, Sunday, Nov. 15, 2015. National Security Advisor Susan E. Rice listens at left. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) “The [Syria ceasefire] agreement also has powerful critics inside the Obama administration, including Defense Secretary Ashton Carter. On Tuesday, Pentagon officials refused to say whether they would comply with their part of the deal, which calls on the United States to share information with the Russians on Islamic State targets in Syria if the cease-fire holds for seven days. This would be an unusual and possibly risky collaboration with a Russian regime that has become increasingly adversarial and could profit from learning American military secrets.” What is so surprising here is the non-surprise evinced by the editorial writers of the New York Times. The Board blandly states that the Defense Secretary and the Pentagon might not comply. Not a hint of surprise is evident at the constitutional implications of this open defiance of Presidential authority. [Dissension] [US Syria strategy] [Pentagon] [NCW]
• Who Is Making American Foreign Policy—the President or the War Party?
  The US military attack on the Syrian army gravely endangers Obama’s proposed détente with Putin in Syria and elsewhere. By Stephen F. Cohen September 21, 2016 Nation Contributing Editor Stephen F. Cohen and John Batchelor continue their weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. (Previous installments are at TheNation.com.) Tonight’s main focus is on Syria, the crisis in Ukraine, and Russia’s parliamentary elections. Cohen discusses the following issues: [Dissension] [Russia confrontation]
• Cliché and Banality at the Debates: Trump and Clinton on the Middle East
  by Robert Fisk
  September 28, 2016 Watching them both yacking on about the Middle East as a pink dawn glowed from behind the Lebanese mountains above Beirut, I found the Trump-Clinton show a grimly instructive experience. In the few hundred miles east and south of Lebanon, hundreds are dying every week – in Syria, in Yemen, in Iraq – and yet there were the terrible twins playing “I can beat Isis better than you can beat Isis”. Was this what the Arab world really meant to the reality show participants at the unpronounceable university campus on Long Island? [US Middle East policy] [US_election16]
• Interview With Al-Nusra Commander “The Americans stand on our side”
  from Moon of Alabama This interview by Jürgen Todenhöfer was first published in German on September 26 2016 by the Kölner Stadtanzeiger, the major newspaper in the Cologne region. (The interview was copied and translated to English by Bernhard for educational and academic purposes.), and is being reproduced here for the same purpose It was the seventh trip by my son Frederic and me to the civil war country Syria. We were there for 13 days. Words can only barely describe the extend of damage and suffering on both sides. We conducted the interview ten days ago with a commander of the al-Qaida branch “Jabhat al-Nusra”. Abu al-Ezz reported quite openly about his financiers Saudi-Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait. We were able to exactly research the identity of the man and know practically everything about him. [Outsourcing] [Nusra]
• President Assad: US Aerial Aggression on Our Troops in Deir Ezzor Lasted for Almost an Hour
  President Assad interview with AP
  September 22, 2016 The Syrian president Bashar Assad revealed on Thursday that the US air raids which targeted one of the army’s posts in Deir Ezzor last for almost an hour, which refutes the American claim that the attacks were launched mistakenly. In an interview with the American news agency, Associated Press, President Assad reiterated that Syria will preserve its integrity and confront the terrorist challenge. The following is full text of the interview: Journalist: President Assad, thank you very much for this opportunity to be interviewed by the Associated Press. President Assad: You are most welcome in Syria. Question 1: I will start by talking about the ceasefire in Syria. Russia, the US, and several countries say a ceasefire could be revived despite the recent violence and the recrimination. Do you agree, and are you prepared to try again? President Assad: We announced that we are ready to be committed to any halt of operations, or if you want to call it ceasefire, but it’s not about Syria or Russia; it’s about the United States and the terrorist groups that have been affiliated to ISIS and al-Nusra and Al Qaeda, and to the United States and to Turkey and to Saudi Arabia. They announced publicly that they are not committed, and this is not the first attempt to have a halt of operations in Syria. The first attempt was in last February, and didn’t work, I think, because of the United States, and I believe that the United States is not genuine regarding having a cessation of violence in Syria. Question 2: Do you believe there could ever be a joint US-Russian military partnership against the militants, as outlined in the deal? President Assad: Again, practically, yes, but in reality, no, because the United States doesn’t have the will to work against al-Nusra or even ISIL, because they believe that this is a card they can use for their own agenda. If they attack al-Nusra or ISIL, they will lose a very important card regarding the situation in Syria. So, I don’t believe the United States will be ready to join Russia in fighting terrorists in Syria. Question 3: This week, the US has said the coalition attack on Syrian troops was an accident. Do you accept that explanation? President Assad: No, no. It’s not, because it wasn’t an accident by one airplane for once, let’s say. It was four airplanes that kept attacking the position of the Syrian troops for nearly one hour, or a little bit more than one hour. You don’t commit a mistake for more than one hour. This is first. Second, they weren’t attacking a building in a quartier; they were attacking a huge place constituted of many hills, and there was not terrorist adjacent to the Syrian troops there. At the same time, the ISIS troops or the ISIL militants attacked right away after the American strike. How could they know that the Americans are going to attack that position in order to gather their militants to attack right away and to capture it one hour after the strike? So it was definitely intentional, not unintentional as they claimed. [US Syria policy] [Disinformation]
• Another Kerry Rush to Judgment on Syria
  September 24, 2016 Exclusive: The U.N. withdrew its claim that an airstrike hit its Syrian relief convoy but Secretary of State Kerry relied on the outdated claim in lashing out at Russia in a repeat of his earlier rushes to judgment, writes Robert Parry. By Robert Parry Secretary of State John Kerry has engaged in another rush to judgment blaming the Russians for an attack on a United Nations relief convoy in Syria before any thorough investigation could be conducted and thus prejudicing whatever might follow, as he did with the Syrian sarin case in 2013 and the shoot-down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in 2014. Eager to go on the propaganda offensive – especially after a U.S. military airstrike last Saturday killed scores of Syrian soldiers who were battling the Islamic State in eastern Syria – Kerry pounced on an initial report that the attack on the convoy on Monday was an airstrike and then insisted that the Russians must have been responsible because one of their jets was supposedly in the area. But the United Nations – and I’m told CIA analysts – have not ruled out the possibility that the convoy was instead hit by a surface-to-surface missile. On Friday, a source briefed by U.S. intelligence said one fear is that the jihadist group, Ahrar al-Sham, which has fought alongside Al Qaeda’s Nusra Front but is deemed to be part of the “moderate” opposition, may have used a U.S.-supplied TOW missile in the attack. [Syria] [Canard] [Russia confrontation]
• Are US-Turkey military ties under threat?
  Until two years ago, deep-rooted US-Turkey military relations were cited as a model of strength in the defense industry, military training and exercises, global peace support operations, global struggle against terror, NATO missions, and joint operations in Afghanistan. These were all signs of the high level of cooperation and interoperability between the US military and Turkish Armed Forces (TSK). Both Ankara and Washington seem to be oblivious to the changing nature of their relations. Author Metin GurcanPosted September 23, 2016 Translator Timur Göksel In those good old days, billions of dollars’ worth of defense projects between the two countries moved forward despite minor hiccups and, financed by the International Military Education and Training Fund, hundreds of Turkish officers and noncommissioned officers went to the United States for training. Every year, the two sides carried out about 20 bilateral or multilateral exercises and maneuvers, organized high-level military summits, and they even awarded each other medals of outstanding service. The traditional model of US-Turkish military relations resembled a sort of "high politics" shaped behind closed doors by the Turkish General Staff and its US counterpart, where societal dynamics and the elected civilians of Turkey did not have much say. The relations were also an anchor of Turkey's untouchable links to the Western security bloc, thereby directly affecting Ankara's foreign policy choices. [Turkey US] [Military]
• Airstrikes, Obfuscation and Propaganda in Syria
  by Patrick Cockburn September 23, 2016 Airstrikes that hit the wrong target have always been justified or denied by the perpetrators with a rich blend of hypocrisy and lies. It was interesting to see this tradition of deliberate mendacity being not only maintained, but outdone in Syria over the last week. The US was seeking to explain how it had come to kill at least 62 Syrian soldiers fighting Isis in the besieged government-held city of Deir Ezzor a week ago and the Russians evading responsibility for an air attack on a UN aid convoy killing 20 people outside Aleppo five days later. The explanation of US military officials was splendidly ingenious. As dutifully retailed by CNN, they said they believed a likely scenario was that the personnel hit were prisoners of the regime, perhaps military personnel being detained, although that is not certain. The initial signs indicated that they were dressed in civilian clothing. They may not have had the typical weapons of a Syrian military unit but rather trucks with weapons mounted on top of them. It is also not known if they were deliberately placed there to potentially deceive the coalition. For students of war propaganda this is a wonderful piece of obfuscation. No evidence is produced for “the likely scenario” in which supposition is heaped on supposition. Its purpose is instead to mask, or throw in doubt over, the obvious fact that someone had committed a blunder and ordered an attack on a long established Syrian Army position near Deir Ezzor airport. This sort of smoke screen is not designed to last very long, but to blunt criticism during the first crucial few days when the story is still at the top of the news agenda. Then a few weeks or even months down the road, there can be a grudging admission of the truth, or part of it, when it will barely get a mention at the end of newscasts or be relegated to page 24 of the newspapers. An old PR adage says that the best way for the perpetrator of some disaster to limit the damage to himself or herself is to “first say no story and then say old story.” It still works. The Russian explanation of the attack on the UN aid convoy on 19 September is also well worth studying as an example of the propagandist’s art. It is important to make your explanation detailed and interesting because it will be competing with a reality which, in the nature of war, will be murky and confusing. The Russian news agency Tass quoted a senior Russian official as saying that “analysis of video records from drones of yesterday’s movement of the humanitarian convoy across Aleppo territories controlled by militants has revealed new details. It is clearly seen in the video that a terrorists’ pickup truck with a towed large-calibre mortar is moving along with the convoy.” This was good stuff. Suggesting that there was an understandable reason to imagine they were attacking a legitimate target – though it had to be admitted that “the large calibre mortar” had somehow disappeared by the time of the attack. But the Russians made the mistake of producing too many exculpatory stories at the same time, claiming there were no Russian or Syrian planes in the area – in which case why suggest the legitimate target scenario? Other Russian explanations were that there had been no attack at all and, if there had been, it had been carried out by jihadis and, in any case, all the damage was done from the ground and not from the air. [Airstrikes] Casualties] [False balance] [US Syria policy]
• Nicaragua speaks out against congressional rebuke
  By Franco Ordoñez WASHINGTON — The Nicaraguan officials accused members of Congress with carrying out an intimidation and disinformation campaign against the government. They called a House proposal, led by Miami Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, to restrict the President Daniel Ortega government’s access to loans a violation of international agreements. “We reject as a violation of International Law and the United Nations Charter, the proposals and Initiatives presented in the House of Representatives and the Senate of the United States that are part of a pattern of historic interventionist policies in our Rightful and Sovereign Political, Social and Economic Processes, especially in an intensive way during Electoral Moments,” government said in a statement. Concern in Washington about Nicaragua has grown as the government has cozied up with the Russian military and Ortega has sought to build his authoritarian power. He’s running for a third consecutive term and has refused U.S. and its allies calls to allow international monitors to observer the election. Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article103697317.html#storylink=cpy [Nicaragua] [Russia confrontation]
• Turkey's Erdogan says U.S. sent weapons to Kurdish fighters in Syria
  By Daren Butler and David Dolan | ISTANBUL Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan accused the United States of supplying more weapons to Kurdish fighters in northern Syria this week, saying Washington had delivered two plane loads of arms to what Ankara considers a terrorist group. Erdogan's comments are likely to add to the tension between Turkey and the United States over Syria, where Washington backs the Kurdish YPG forces against Islamic State. [Turkey] [Kurds] [Proxy] [US Middle East Strategy]
• Obama vetoes Sept. 11 Saudi bill, sets up showdown with Congress
  By Patricia Zengerle and Roberta Rampton | WASHINGTON President Barack Obama on Friday vetoed legislation allowing families of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks to sue Saudi Arabia, which could prompt Congress to overturn his decision with a rare veto override, the first of his presidency. Obama said the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act would hurt U.S. national security and harm important alliances, while shifting crucial terrorism-related issues from policy officials into the hands of the courts. The bill passed the Senate and House of Representatives in reaction to long-running suspicions, denied by Saudi Arabia, that hijackers of the four U.S. jetliners that attacked the United States in 2001 were backed by the Saudi government. [9/11] [Saudi Arabia] [Governance]
• Yemen: The Graveyard of the Obama Doctrine
  The human costs of facilitating Saudi Arabia’s proxy war Samuel Oakford and Peter Salisbury Sep 23, 2016 This past Tuesday, President Barack Obama delivered his final speech to the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Though he tried to sound optimistic, he couldn’t help but strike a rueful tone. Gone was the global media darling who electrified world leaders in 2009—that Obama was “determined to act boldly and collectively on behalf of justice and prosperity at home and abroad.” The graying, deliberate Obama of 2016 could offer only limited aspirations of a “course correction” in world politics, while pondering why cycles of conflict and suffering persisted. Though the president advocated for the “hard work of diplomacy” in places like Syria, he also elaborated on one of his recent, common refrains, cautioning that in the Middle East “no external power is going to be able to force different religious communities or ethnic communities to co-exist for long.” Across the region, “we have to insist that all parties recognize a common humanity and that nations end proxy wars that fuel disorder,” Obama said. A day later, the U.S. Senate held a rare debate on the sale of arms destined for another war in the Middle East. The deal, for $1.15 billion in weaponry to Saudi Arabia, including over 150 Abrams tanks, is a drop in a bucket: more than $100 billion in arms sales to the kingdom have already been approved by the Obama administration. But a year and a half into the kingdom’s relentless war in Yemen, opponents of the new sale see it as an outright affirmation of Washington’s involvement in a deadly, strategically incoherent war that the White House has kept largely quiet about. What’s more, it is at odds with Obama’s apparent distaste for regional proxy wars. [Yemen] [Saudi Arabia] [US Middle East Strategy]
• Syrian Ceasefire failed, what now?
  By Aram Mirzaei from The Saker One week ago I and many other analysts predicted that the ceasefire agreement brokered by the US and Russia last week was doomed to fail. I said this because of the fact that there are no “moderate” rebels, and that any group trying to disassociate itself from Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham (formerly Jabhat Al-Nusra) would commit both political and military suicide. Right from the first day of the implementation, Western backed Jihadists and their allies declared that they would not take part in the cessation of hostilities, which really rendered the whole agreement useless since it became clear that they would use this opportunity to regroup and rearm. This week long ceasefire was also supposed to allow for humanitarian aid to reach besieged areas such as East Aleppo which is currently under the control of Washington’s “moderate” rebels. Despite the Syrian Army withdrawing up to 1 km north of the imperative Castillo road leading into the eastern parts of Aleppo and handing over the control over the checkpoints in this area to Russian Marines and Syrian Red Crescent Society, the humanitarian aid destined for eastern Aleppo were severely delayed due to constant attacks on the Russian Marines by the Jihadists. In a video posted by RT on their Youtube page, one can clearly see the Russian personnel coming under attack by Jihadist fire, yet despite this, mainstream media in the West shamefully reported that the “Assad regime” were the ones who were guilty of both violating the ceasefire and disrupting the delivery of humanitarian aid. The Jihadists and their supporters refused to allow for humanitarian aid to be delivered because they refused to acknowledge the ceasefire, instead claiming that both the ceasefire and the humanitarian aid being sent to them was part of a “UN conspiracy” and that they “refuse to accept this humiliating and pathetic aid”. In a video posted online, a rally takes place in eastern Aleppo where Jihadists and their supporters declare that they refuse to accept this “humiliating” aid in the name of the religion (of Islam). [Syria] [Ceasefire]
• Young voters to Clinton: We can’t stand you
  By David Lightman STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Students all over Penn State University agree on this much about Hillary Clinton: “She’s slimy,” said Anay Pope. And Pope, 25, is a Clinton supporter. For the moment. Clinton’s poll numbers are sagging, and the biggest reason is that she’s plunging among young voters. A Quinnipiac University poll this month found that in a four-way race, Clinton is up 5 points nationally with 18- to 34-year-old voters, down from a 24-point lead just a month before. Just days ahead of the first debate Monday and less than two months before voting ends, interviews with more than 30 young voters in the battleground state of Pennsylvania underscore her two challenges: Many young voters are taking serious looks at Donald Trump as well as Libertarian Gary Johnson and the Green Party’s Jill Stein. And many are debating whether they even want to vote this year. [Hillary Clinton] [Alimentation]
• Politicians have always lied. Does it matter if they leave the truth behind entirely?
  Sep 10th 2016 CONSIDER how far Donald Trump is estranged from fact. He inhabits a fantastical realm where Barack Obama’s birth certificate was faked, the president founded Islamic State (IS), the Clintons are killers and the father of a rival was with Lee Harvey Oswald before he shot John F. Kennedy. Mr Trump is the leading exponent of “post-truth” politics—a reliance on assertions that “feel true” but have no basis in fact. His brazenness is not punished, but taken as evidence of his willingness to stand up to elite power. And he is not alone. Members of Poland’s government assert that a previous president, who died in a plane crash, was assassinated by Russia. Turkish politicians claim the perpetrators of the recent bungled coup were acting on orders issued by the CIA. The successful campaign for Britain to leave the European Union warned of the hordes of immigrants that would result from Turkey’s imminent accession to the union. [Propaganda] [Media] [Trump] [Irony]
• Islamic State fired crude chemical weapons on US troops – Pentagon
  Powdered mustard used in attack on air base near Mosul in Iraq, raising questions about whether the militant group is manufacturing the agent itself Spencer Ackerman in New York Thursday 22 September 2016 02.28 Islamic State forces have fired crude chemical weapons at US troops in Iraq, the Pentagon has confirmed, a startling disclosure that US officials promptly downplayed as resulting in no deaths or injuries. The attack came from a powdered mustard agent delivered in a mortar or rocket shell and fired on US forces on Tuesday at the Qayyarah West air base near Mosul. The air base, recaptured from Isis in July, is a pivotal staging ground for a highly anticipated attack on Mosul, Isis’s capital in Iraq approximately 40 miles (65km) to the north. [ISIS] [cbw]
• An American in Latakia: “this was no revolution”
  by Lily Martin c As an eye witness to the entire war in Syria, from March 2011 to present, I can state this was no revolution. I am an American citizen living permanently in Syria, which is my husband’s birthplace. I have been here 24 years. A real revolution would have the support of the people, inside Syria, not Syrian living in Paris and London for the past 40 years. To have a real grassroots uprising, you need the support of the people living inside Syria, who would share your views. If it had been a real uprising/revolution, the whole process could have taken 3-6 months, because the Army would have followed the will of the people, given the fact the Syrian Army is made up of Syrians of all ethnic and religious sects. The Syrian Army is a true representative of the Syrian population. If the population wanted the goals stated by the ‘protesters’, which was to establish Islamic law in Syria, and to abolish the current secular government, the Army would have eventually followed along, expressing the will of the people. However, you had a small minority in the Syrian population who were for regime change, but this very small group was backed by USA, UK, NATO, EU, and the Arab Gulf Monarchies. Money talks, as we say in America. [Syria]
• Clinton or Trump victory? America says ‘meh’
  Elections 2016 September 21, 2016 2:04 PM By Lesley Clark WASHINGTON — No matter who wins the November election – Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump – America will not be that enthusiastic. Only about 1 in 10 registered voters say they’ll be excited if either major party candidate wins, a new national survey by the Pew Research Center says. The poll illustrates just how deeply unpopular both candidates are. The Clinton excitement level ranked at 12 percent; Trump’s at 11 percent. Even among supporters, more said they’d feel relief rather than excitement if their preferred candidate won. That fits with an overall finding that 33 percent of Trump supporters and about as many Clinton supporters say they’re voting at least partially in opposition to the other candidate. Among Clinton supporters, only her experience – at 32 percent – is mentioned as frequently as opposition to Trump. For Trump supporters, opposition to Clinton is among the most frequently cited factors for supporting the candidate, with nearly as many citing his status as a political outsider – 27 percent – or his policy stances – 26 percent. [US_Election16] [Alienation]
• Rogue Mission: Did the Pentagon Bomb Syrian Army to Kill Ceasefire Deal?
  Mike Whitney • September 20, 2016 “Everything suggests that the attack…… was deliberately committed by forces inside the US government hostile to the ceasefire….Claims that US fighters were unaware of who they were bombing are simply not credible, and are flatly contradicted by other accounts in the media…” — Alex Lantier, World Socialist Web Site A rift between the Pentagon and the White House turned into open rebellion on Saturday when two US F-16s and two A-10 warplanes bombed Syrian Arab Army (SAA) positions at Deir al-Zor killing at least 62 Syrian regulars and wounding 100 others. The US has officially taken responsibility for the incident which it called a “mistake”, but the timing of the massacre has increased speculation that the attack was a desperate, eleventh-hour attempt to derail the fragile ceasefire and avoid parts of the implementation agreement that Pentagon leaders publicly opposed. Many analysts now wonder whether the attacks are an indication that the neocon-strewn DOD is actively engaged in sabotaging President Obama’s Syria policy, a claim that implies that the Pentagon is led by anti-democratic rebels who reject the Constitutional authority of the civilian leadership. Saturday’s bloodletting strongly suggests that a mutiny is brewing at the War Department. [US Syria policy] [Dissension]
• US-Russian Ceasefire in Syria Has Broken Down, But Who Is at Fault?
  Patrick Cockburn • September 20, 2016 The British participation in the misdirected US-led air raid that killed at least 62 Syrian soldiers and the final breakdown of the shaky six-day truce combine to underline the need to bring the war to an end and to emphasise how difficult it will be to accomplish this in the near future. The British and Americans admit to a mistake in targeting the Syrian army rather than Isis, but in the atmosphere of chronic suspicion that swirls around anything to do with the Syrian war, there will be plenty, and not just in Damascus and Moscow, who will not believe them. [Syria] [Ceasefire]
• U.S. begins unblocking jetliner sales to Iran
  By Tim Hepher and Alwyn Scott | PARIS/NEW YORK The United States has begun unblocking deals by Western giants to sell jetliners to Iran in a move likely to ease complaints from Tehran over implementation of last year's sanctions deal, but test conservative opposition to the deals in both nations. Europe's Airbus (AIR.PA) said on Wednesday it had received U.S. Treasury approval to begin exporting jets to Iran, under a deal for more than 100 jets struck in January. Hours later, its U.S. rival Boeing (BA.N), which had been behind Airbus in the line for permits because its matching deal for over 100 jets came six months later, said it had received a sales license and remained in talks with IranAir. [nL2N1BX1TJ] The U.S. Treasury confirmed issuing two licenses. [Iran deal] [Treasury]
• Obama’s Curious UN Farewell Address
  September 21, 2016 President Obama’s U.N. speech looked critically at the U.S. role in world and admitted capitalism’s shortcomings, a contrast with Obama’s previous bluster about “indispensable” and “exceptional” America, notes Joe Lauria. By Joe Lauria The Barack Obama of 2008 reemerged at the United Nations on Tuesday, bookending his presidency with an uplifting address somewhat critical of American power and calling for an end to economic inequality at home and abroad. The speech revealed the president that Obama might have been – and that many people had hoped for – if he had successfully confronted the American Deep State. But he waited until his farewell U.N. address, much like Dwight Eisenhower did with his Farewell Address in 1961 warning about the Military-Industrial Complex, to say what he really thought without having to suffer the full consequences inside the Beltway. President Barack Obama waits backstage before making his last address at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Sept. 20, 2016. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) President Barack Obama waits backstage before making his last address at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Sept. 20, 2016. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) Obama didn’t mention the word “exceptional” once as he has in his past U.N. speeches, and he kept his distorted criticism of Russia and China to a minimum. (He briefly tried to say the U.S. was not behind the Ukraine coup.) Last year, bashing Beijing and Moscow was the main point of an address steeped in hypocrisy. [Obama] [Rhetoric]
• Why ASEAN is here to stay and what that means for the US
  by Satu Limaye In the wake of President Barack Obama's final attendance at the ASEAN-led East Asia Summit (EAS) in Vientiane, Laos, it is a good time to take stock of ASEAN’s imperfections, ability to endure, and utility to the United States. Especially in the US, commentary has concentrated on ASEAN’s inability to forge consensus on the South China Sea (SCS). The more puzzling question, however, is why observers should expect 10 disparate countries with widely divergent interests on the SCS to have a unified position. We need to avoid “ASEANology” (the parsing of each ASEAN gathering’s developments and communiqués regarding the SCS) and focus more on ASEAN’s fundamental shortcomings, how it is likely to endure despite them, and its utility to US interests in Southeast Asia and the wider Asia-Pacific. {ASEAN] [US global strategy]
• The aftermath of Turkey’s failed coup threatens its ties with Western allies
  By Michael Birnbaum and Karen DeYoung September 21 at 2:46 PM ? ISTANBUL — More than two months after a rump military group and its backers tried to overthrow the elected government of Turkey — bombing the parliament, sending tanks into the streets and only narrowly failing in an attempt to kidnap the president — the Turkish government last week sent Washington its first evidence that an elderly cleric living in rural Pennsylvania was the mastermind of the coup attempt. If the information persuades the Justice Department, a federal court will decide whether to accede to Turkey’s demand that Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish imam who has resided under self- imposed exile in the United States for nearly two decades, be sent home to face charges. Should the Justice Department or the court be unconvinced, or the process take too long, U.S. relations with the West’s most important Muslim-majority ally are likely to hit new lows. [Turkey US] [Coup] [Gulen]
• 75 retired senior diplomats sign letter opposing Trump for president
  A group of former senior diplomats released a letter Wednesday saying they will oppose Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who is seen here touring the Staub Manufacturing plant in Dayton, Ohio, on Wednesday. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) By Karen DeYoung September 21 at 6:54 PM ? A group of 75 retired career Foreign Service officers, including ambassadors and senior State Department officials under Republican and Democratic presidents over nearly a half-century, has signed an open letter calling Donald Trump “entirely unqualified to serve as President and Commander-in-Chief.” The diplomats said “none of us” will vote for Trump. While they said not all of them agreed with every decision made by Hillary Clinton, they said they all supported her candidacy. “Because the stakes in this election are so high,” the letter said, “this is the first time many of us have publicly endorsed a candidate for President.” [Read the diplomats’ letter on why they will not vote for Donald Trump] The letter is the latest in an unprecedented number of joint public statements signed by retired high-level government officials and military officers this election cycle. Most have focused on national security, and most have been against Trump. [Trump] [Deep state]
• Turkey’s Euphrates Shield has turned into the Sword of Osman
  By M.K. Bhadrakumar on September 20, 2016 Although Euphrates Shield had exceeded its original mission and further extension of the operation involves political and military risks, Turkey is still eyeing control of al-Bab to create for itself a ‘safe zone’ inside Syria and to reinforce the rebel forces controlling the eastern part of Aleppo city. The Turkish military incursion into Syria, which began on August 24, is getting to be one month old. Ankara faces a ticklish decision: Should it rename its operation code-named Euphrates Shield as the Sword of Osman used for the coronation of Ottoman Sultans? A member of Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army stands guard in front of a building in the border town of Jarablus A member of Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA), seen with a mural of the Islamic State in the background, stands guard in front of a building in the border town of Jarablus, Syria, August 31, 2016. REUTERS/Umit Bektas Euphrates Shield began modestly as an operation to drive away Syrian Kurdish militia back to the eastern side of Euphrates River. It now wears the look of ‘Mission Creep’. President Recep Erdogan redefined the scope of Euphrates Shield in a major statement on Monday. Having first taken over the Syrian border towns of Jarablus al-Rab, Turkish troops are “now going down as far as al-Bab”, as he put it. Erdogan posed the question that is on everyone’s lips: “But why are you going down there?” Then, he offered an answer himself: “We need to rid these places from being a threat to us”. Turkish troops are now poised to go 30 kilometers inside Syrian territory, close to the eye of the storm in Aleppo where a battle is raging between Syrian government forces and rebel fighters supported by Turkey. [Turkey Syria] [Neo-Ottomanism]
• Deir ez-Zor bombings: What is US’ actual goal in Syria?
  By Christina Lin on September 20, 2016 Mother Agnes Mariam, a nominee for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize from Homs diocese, has some harsh words for the US war against Syria: “Shame on a coalition who pretends fighting ISIS while in reality is helping ISIS killing innocent soldiers whose mission is to protect civilians.” This is in response to the September 17 US airstrikes in Deir ez-Zor that massacred 62 Syrian soldiers and injured 100 more who have been fighting ISIS.[1] According to a June 2015 Time magazine article, Deir ez-Zor with a population of 228,000 has been under siege by ISIS the past years, relying on the nightly arrival of a large Syrian air-force-operated cargo plane which has a payload of more than 46 tons and transports munitions, food and medical supplies. This much needed aid is flown out from the military air base southeast of the city, the target of ISIS the past years and now bombed by US jet fighters. During the bombing, ISIS launched a simultaneous attack and threatened to overrun the air base as well as slaughter the over 200,000 civilians. Deir ez-Zor is also home to a large Christian population protected by the Syrian government, similar to most other Christian inhabited cities that are in government-controlled areas along the coast. [US Syria policy]
• 32 killed in Aleppo after truce expires
  Xinhua, September 20, 2016 At least 32 people were killed and many more wounded in the northern province of Aleppo on Monday, in the first hours after a U.S.-Russian truce expired, a monitor group reported. Over 40 airstrikes were carried against rebel-held areas in Aleppo and its countryside Monday, just hours after a week-long ceasefire expired without any extension. Twelve of those killed were drivers of aid convoys of the Red Crescent, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The UK-based watchdog group said the death toll could likely rise due to the high number of critically wounded people. Meanwhile, the state news agency SANA said the rebel groups attacked military positions on Monday afternoon in the 1070 residential area in the southern countryside of Aleppo. It added that the Syrian forces repelled the attack, inflicting losses on the assailants. [Syria] [Ceasefire]
• If Hillary’s Not Able, There’s Always Kaine
  by Eric Draitser If internet speculation is to be believed, Hillary Clinton is suffering from everything from epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease to adverse reactions to chemotherapy and Zika-West Nile-SARS-swine flu. The problem is that, like bellybuttons, everyone’s got a theory; and, again like bellybuttons, most theories are useless. Whatever the case may be with Hillary’s health, the fact is that she remains the likely winner of the presidential election, which means that a potentially sick woman will become the Commander-in-Chief. So that raises an obvious question: what next? Put another way, the American people deserve to know who the hell Tim Kaine is, and what he would do as president. Because, after the initial “Tim who?” round of questions, citizens will want to understand who this underwhelming ex-Governor and Democratic Party hack is, and what sort of policies he’d pursue. [US_Election16] [Hillary Clinton] [Tim Kaine]
• Deep State America
  One explanation why U.S. policies serve no national interests Philip Giraldi • September 20, 2016 On September 9th the Washington Post featured a front page article describing how the Defense Department had used warplanes to attack targets and kill suspected militants in six countries over the Labor Day weekend. The article was celebratory, citing Pentagon officials who boasted of the ability to engage “multiple targets” anywhere in the world in what has become a “permanent war.” The article did not mention that the United States is not currently at war with any of the six target countries and made no attempt to make a case that the men and women who were killed actually threatened the U.S. or American citizens. Actual American interests in fighting a war without limits and without an end were not described. They never are. Indeed, in the U.S. and elsewhere many citizens often wonder how certain government policies like the Washington’s war on terror can persist in spite of widespread popular opposition or clear perceptions that they are either ineffective or even harmful. This persistence of policies regarding which there is no debate is sometimes attributed to a “deep state.” [Deep state]
• America in Asia: Arrogant, Unapologetic, and Ready for More Conflict
  By Tony Cartalucci Global Research, September 20, 2016 New Eastern Outlook 19 September 2016 The United States exists an entire ocean away from Asia, yet its policymakers, politicians, and even Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter have declared America’s “primacy” over the region, vowing to assert itself and its interests above all nations actually located in Asia. In a June 2016 Reuters article titled, “U.S. flexes muscles as Asia worries about South China Sea row,” Secretary Carter is quoted as saying: The United States will remain the most powerful military and main underwriter of security in the [Asian] region for decades to come – and there should be no doubt about that. The US, by presuming to dictate all that takes place across Asia, has all but declared itself a hegemon. Reiterating the notion of American primacy and exceptionalism is a full-time occupation for the US State Department’s employees. This includes US Ambassador to ASEAN Nina Hachigian who pointed out to followers on Twitter that she had “spoke to some Lao shop owners” following US President Barack Obama’s recent visit to the Southeast Asian nation, and “they said [President Obama’s] visit was the most exciting and significant event in decades.” Of course, for the nation of Laos, the most significant event regarding the US is undoubtedly the 2 million tons of munitions the US dumped on it between 1964 and 1973. These 2 million tons include cluster bombs consisting of some 266 million submunitions, an estimated 30% of which were left unexploded and remain to this day an enduring, deadly hazard to Laos and its 6.8 million people. There are an estimated 80 million submunitions still littering the country, or about 11 for each man, woman, and child that lives in Laos. 20,000 people have been killed by unexploded US munitions and many more maimed which includes losing limbs. [Hegemony] [Laos] [War crimes]
• Syria Bombing Exposes Cracks in American Facade
  by Kit Yesterday, the USA committed what is – essentially – an act of war against the legitimate government of Syria. The official position is that, due to a breakdown in communication (or possibly bad intelligence), the US Air Force – with Australian support – bombed SAA men and vehicles resulting in the deaths of at least 60 Syrian soldiers. The Russian’s are, understandably, incensed. Accusing the Americans of “assisting ISIS” and describing it as an “intentional provocation”, all of which ties into a speech Putin gave yesterday, in which he questioned American commitment to the deal. But why did this attack happen? Assuming it wasn’t just straight incompetence, which is always a possibility when dealing with an American military far more concerned with being expensive than efficient, what was the motivation? Why has the Obama administration worked for weeks to get this deal together, only for the USAF to bomb Syrian soldiers days into the ceasefire? Why has Kerry spent hours carefully negotiating with Sergei Lavrov, only for Samantha Power to immediately launch into abusive and hysterical language the moment any even minor conflict occurs? The only logical position to take is that, for some reason, some parts of the American political or military establishment are trying to scupper the ceasefire before it can take hold. To smother peace in its cradle. [US Syria policy] [Dissension]
• Iran urges U.S. to unblock aircraft deals, seeks investors
  By Tim Hepher | TEHRAN Iran urged the United States on Sunday to remove remaining obstacles to it buying passenger planes following the lifting of international sanctions and spread out the welcome mat to foreign investors as it seeks to boost its aviation sector. Iran provisionally agreed earlier this year to buy over 200 jets worth $50 billion at list prices from Airbus and Boeing under an agreement between Tehran and world powers to ease sanctions in exchange for curbs on Iran's nuclear activities. Both deals hinge on the longer-than-expected process of winning U.S. Treasury approval, which is needed due to the high proportion of U.S. parts in virtually all modern jetliners, including those made by Europe's Airbus. [Iran deal] [Renege] [Treasury] [US dominance]
• America’s Worldwide Impunity
  September 19, 2016 Exclusive: The mainstream U.S. media is treating the U.S.-led airstrike that killed scores of Syrian troops as an unfortunate boo-boo, ignoring that the U.S. and its allies have no legal right to operate in Syria at all, writes Robert Parry. By Robert Parry After several years of arming and supporting Syrian rebel groups that often collaborated with Al Qaeda’s Nusra terror affiliate, the United States launched an illegal invasion of Syria two years ago with airstrikes supposedly aimed at Al Qaeda’s Islamic State spin-off, but on Saturday that air war killed scores of Syrian soldiers and aided an Islamic State victory. Yet, the major American news outlets treat this extraordinary set of circumstances as barely newsworthy, operating with an imperial hubris that holds any U.S. invasion or subversion of another country as simply, ho-hum, the way things are supposed to work. On Monday, The Washington Post dismissed the devastating airstrike at Deir al-Zour killing at least 62 Syrian soldiers as one of several “mishaps” that had occurred over the past week and jeopardized a limited ceasefire, arranged between Russia and the Obama administration. But the fact that the U.S. and several allies have been routinely violating Syrian sovereign airspace to carry out attacks was not even an issue, nor is it a scandal that the U.S. military and CIA have been arming and training Syrian rebels. In the world of Official Washington, the United States has the right to intervene anywhere, anytime, for whatever reason it chooses. President Barack Obama even has publicly talked about authorizing military strikes in seven different countries, including Syria, and yet he is deemed “weak” for not invading more countries, at least more decisively. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has vowed to engage in a larger invasion of Syria, albeit wrapping the aggression in pretty words like “safe zone” and “no-fly zone,” but it would mean bombing and killing more Syrian soldiers. As Secretary of State, Clinton used similar language to justify invading Libya and implementing a “regime change” that killed the nation’s leader, Muammar Gaddafi, and unleashed five years of violent political chaos. If you were living a truly democratic country with a truly professional news media, you would think that this evolution of the United States into a rogue superpower violating pretty much every international law and treaty of the post-World War II era would be a regular topic of debate and criticism. Those crimes include horrendous acts against people, such as torture and other violations of the Geneva Conventions, as well as acts of aggression, which the Nuremberg Tribunals deemed “the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.” [Imperialism] [Media]
• Saudi Arabia appears to be using U.S.-supplied white phosphorus in its war in Yemen
  By Thomas Gibbons-Neff September 19 at 7:00 AM ? An 81mm white phosphorus mortar round bursts on impact during a live-fire exercise involving elements of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division. (Spc. Barbara Ospina/1st Brigade Combat Team Public Affairs) Saudi Arabia appears to be using U.S.-supplied white phosphorus munitions in its war in Yemen, based on images and videos posted to social media, raising concerns among human rights groups that the highly incendiary material could be used against civilians. Under U.S. regulations, white phosphorus sold to other countries is to be used only for signaling to other troops and creating smoke screens. When the munition explodes, it releases white phosphorus that automatically ignites in the air and creates a thick white smoke. When used against soldiers or civilians, it can maim and kill by burning to the bone. It is unclear exactly how the Saudis are using the munitions, but the government has already received widespread condemnation for its indiscriminate bombing in civilian areas since its campaign against rebel forces in Yemen began in 2015. [cbw] [Yemen] [Saudi Arabia] [Arms sales]
• Hillary Clinton regrets her Iraq vote. But opting for intervention was a pattern.
  By Michael Kranish September 15 at 6:04 PM Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) speaks at debate on Joint Resolution 114, which authorized President George W. Bush to use force against Iraq, on Oct. 11, 2002. The resolution passed in the House 295 to 133 and in the Senate 77 to 23. (Senate TV/Getty Images) It was hours before Sen. Hillary Clinton would vote in 2002 on whether to give President George W. Bush the authority to go to war with Iraq. She had been advised by her husband and many close associates to vote yes. Now, at the last minute, she met with a group of church leaders, joining hands in silent prayer, insisting that she remained undecided. “What I saw was her asking a lot of probing questions, a lot of concern about would this be effective,” said Andrew Shapiro, Clinton’s foreign policy adviser at the time, referring to the days leading up to her decision. In the end, however, the New York Democrat crossed party lines and voted for the authorization to use military force. It would take her years to acknowledge that the decision was misguided, eventually calling it “my mistake.” But it was little surprise to many who watched her evolution as a hawk over her years as a first lady and then as a senator. For years, Clinton has blamed Bush for misleading her into voting for the resolution. But an examination by The Washington Post found that her decision was based as much on advice from her husband’s advisers as from Bush administration officials. There were also significant gaps in her fact-gathering, most notably her apparent failure to read a classified analysis that other senators cited in voting against the resolution. [Hillary Clinton] [Belligerence] [Iraq]
• Assad’s Death Warrant
  Mike Whitney • September 15, 2016 “Secret cables and reports by the U.S., Saudi and Israeli intelligence agencies indicate that the moment Assad rejected the Qatari pipeline, military and intelligence planners quickly arrived at the consensus that fomenting a Sunni uprising in Syria to overthrow the uncooperative Bashar Assad was a feasible path to achieving the shared objective of completing the Qatar/Turkey gas link. In 2009, according to WikiLeaks, soon after Bashar Assad rejected the Qatar pipeline, the CIA began funding opposition groups in Syria.” — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Why the Arabs don’t want us in Syria, Politico The conflict in Syria is not a war in the conventional sense of the word. It is a regime change operation, just like Libya and Iraq were regime change operations. The main driver of the conflict is the country that’s toppled more than 50 sovereign governments since the end of World War 2. (See: Bill Blum here.) We’re talking about the United States of course. Washington is the hands-down regime change champion, no one else even comes close. That being the case, one might assume that the American people would notice the pattern of intervention, see through the propaganda and assign blame accordingly. But that never seems to happen and it probably won’t happen here either. No matter how compelling the evidence may be, the brainwashed American people always believe their government is doing the right thing. [US Syria policy] [Pipeline]
• Why the Arabs don’t want us in Syria
  They don’t hate ‘our freedoms.’ They hate that we’ve betrayed our ideals in their own countries — for oil. By Robert F. Kennedy, Jr 2/23/16, 8:50 AM CET Updated 9/16/16, 10:12 AM CET In part because my father was murdered by an Arab, I’ve made an effort to understand the impact of U.S. policy in the Mideast and particularly the factors that sometimes motivate bloodthirsty responses from the Islamic world against our country. As we focus on the rise of the Islamic State and search for the source of the savagery that took so many innocent lives in Paris and San Bernardino, we might want to look beyond the convenient explanations of religion and ideology. Instead we should examine the more complex rationales of history and oil — and how they often point the finger of blame back at our own shores [US Middle East policy]
• The curious death of Iran's left
  Shahir Shahidsaless Friday 16 September 2016 16:20 UTC Over the past four decades, the political currents that brought down Iran's monarchy have slowly disappeared into a mysterious ether There is a consensus among the scholars who have studied and written about the 1979 Iranian Revolution that social and economic inequalities were central to the collapse of the Iranian Monarchy. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the Iranian revolution, mobilised the masses by defending the barefooted, the mostazafin. He presented the Islamic system as a system that would fulfill every aspect of social justice in its broad meaning, including the economic. Central to his discourse was defending kookh’neshinan (those who live in very poor accommodations) against kakh’neshinan (those who live in palaces). [Iran]
• US Media Ignores CIA Cover-up on Torture
  September 16, 2016 A group of U.S. intelligence veterans chastises the mainstream U.S. media for virtually ignoring a British newspaper’s account of the gripping inside story on how the CIA tried to block the U.S. Senate’s torture investigation. MEMORANDUM FOR: Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Vice Chairman, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity SUBJECT: U.S. Media Mum On How Your Committee Faced Down Both CIA and Obama We write to thank you for your unwavering support for your extraordinarily courageous and tenacious staff in (1) investigating CIA torture under the Bush/Cheney administration and (2) resisting CIA/White House attempts under the Obama administration to cover up heinous torture crimes like waterboarding. The CIA seal in the lobby of CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. We confess to having been shocked at the torture detailed in the version of the executive summary your Committee released on December 9, 2014. We found ourselves wondering what additional behavior could have been deemed so repugnant that the White House and CIA insisted it be redacted; and if the entire 6,700-page investigation – with whatever redaction might be truly necessary – would ever see the light of day. We think you could take steps now to make it less likely that the full report be deep-sixed, and we will make some suggestions below toward that end. [Torture] [CIA]
• U.S.-led forces strike Syrian troops, prompting emergency U.N. meeting
  U.S.: 'Not our intention' to strike Syrian personnel By Angus McDowall and Andrew Osborn | BEIRUT/MOSCOW U.S.-led coalition air strikes reportedly killed dozens of Syrian soldiers on Saturday, endangering a U.S.-Russian brokered ceasefire and prompting an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting as tensions between Moscow and Washington escalated. The United States military said the coalition stopped the attacks against what it had believed to be Islamic State positions in northeast Syria after Russia informed it that Syrian military personnel and vehicles may have been hit. [US Syria policy] [ISIS] [Outsourcing]
• As ISIS closed in, a race to remove chemical-weapon precursors in Libya
  By Missy Ryan and Greg Jaffe September 13 at 7:05 PM Late last year, as Islamic State fighters battled to expand their stronghold on Libya’s coast, ­militants came within 45 miles ­of the country’s sole remaining ­chemical-weapons site, unnerving Libyan and American officials who feared that potentially deadly chemicals could fall into extremist hands. In May, when the fighters struck a mile from the lightly guarded desert facility, killing two security officers at a checkpoint, they decided it was time to act. The Islamic State’s encroachment on an installation outside the remote oasis town of Waddan, where 500 metric tons of ­chemical-weapon precursor materials were stored, set off a hurried chain of events culminating in a disarmament operation involving the United States, European countries and the United Nations. The international effort, which concluded last week when a Danish ship unloaded the materials at a German port for destruction, is one of the rare successes that Western nations can claim in Libya since dictator Moammar Gaddafi’s ouster in 2011 pitched the North African country into lawlessness and civil war. [cbw] [ISIS] [Libya] [Agency]
• Israel to get $38 billion in U.S. military aid over 10 years
  By: Josh Lederman, The Associated Press, September 13, 2016 (Photo Credit: Pete Souza/White House) WASHINGTON — The United States will provide Israel's military with $38 billion during the next 10 years, officials said Tuesday, the largest batch of military assistance the U.S. has ever pledged to another country. Following months of behind-the-scenes negotiations, the State Department said the two countries had reached a 10-year agreement, with a signing ceremony planned for Wednesday. The U.S. and Israel haven't disclosed the exact sum, but officials familiar with the deal said it totals $3.8 billion a year — up from the $3.1 billion the U.S. gave Israel annually under the previous 10-year deal. Obama's national security adviser, Susan Rice, planned to attend the ceremony at the State Department, a senior Obama administration official said. Israel's acting national security adviser, Jacob Nagel, arrived in Washington ahead of the announcement and was also expected to attend. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office confirmed in a brief statement that a deal had been reached, but offered no additional comment. Under the agreement, Israel's ability to spend part of the funds on Israeli military products will be gradually phased out, eventually requiring all of the funds to be spend on American military industries. Israel's preference for spending some of the funds internally had been a major sticking point in the deal. [Israel] [Arms Sales] [MISCOM]
• Marine drill instructor accused of running a clothes dryer with a Muslim recruit inside
  By Dan Lamothe September 13 at 2:22 PM Recruits push through the final steps of the Crucible, the culminating training that is part of Marine Corps boot camp, at Parris Island, S.C., on Aug. 13, 2016. (Cpl. Vanessa Austin/ Marine Corps) A Muslim Marine said he was called a terrorist and ordered into an industrial clothes dryer multiple times by a drill instructor who then turned it on, burning him, according to investigative documents that provide new details about the alleged abuse of recruits at the service’s training center at Parris Island, S.C. “You’re going to kill us all the first chance you get aren’t you, terrorist?” the drill instructor thundered at the recruit, the new Marine later alleged, according to the documents that have not been released publicly but were reviewed by The Washington Post. “What are your plans? Aren’t you a terrorist?” [Following a Marine recruit’s death, a culture of hazing is exposed on a storied base] The issue of hazing and abuse at Parris Island surfaced March 18, when a 20-year-old recruit with Pakistani roots — Raheel Siddiqui of Taylor, Mich. — died after leaping from a stairwell landing that was nearly 40 feet high while running away from the same drill instructor who used the dryer. The instructor had just slapped Siddiqui before he jumped. Siddiqui’s death drew public scrutiny to a culture of harsh punishments at Parris Island — one that Marine officials were already examining, the documents show. [Islamophobia] [US military]
• False Flag Terror “Has Succeeded Consistently Against Audiences Around The World, For Millennia, To Compel War”
  By Washington's Blog Global Research, September 13, 2016 Washington's Blog 12 September 2016 Presidents, Prime Ministers, Congressmen, Generals, Spooks, 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: (1) In 1697, native American conspirators admitted in court that Iroquois leaders convinced a Piscataway tribesman to murder an Englishwoman in Virginia for the purpose of igniting a war between the English and the Piscataway – thus weakening both parties – and allowing the Iroquois to seize Piscataway lands. (2) Japanese troops set off a small explosion on a train track in 1931, and falsely blamed it on China in order to justify an invasion of Manchuria. This is known as the “Mukden Incident” or the “Manchurian Incident”. The Tokyo International Military Tribunal found: “Several of the participators in the plan, including Hashimoto [a high-ranking Japanese army officer], have on various occasions admitted their part in the plot and have stated that the object of the ‘Incident’ was to afford an excuse for the occupation of Manchuria by the Kwantung Army ….” And see this, this and this. [False flag]
• Al Qaeda’s Ties to US-Backed Syrian Rebels
  September 13, 2016 Exclusive: The U.S. is demanding the grounding of Syria’s air force but is resisting Russian demands that U.S.-armed rebels separate from Al Qaeda, a possible fatal flaw in the new cease-fire, writes Gareth Porter. By Gareth Porter The new ceasefire agreement between Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, which went into effect at noon Monday, has a new central compromise absent from the earlier ceasefire agreement that the same two men negotiated last February. But it isn’t clear that it will produce markedly different results. The new agreement incorporates a U.S.-Russian bargain: the Syrian air force is prohibited from operating except under very specific circumstances in return for U.S.-Russian military cooperation against Al Qaeda and the Islamic State, also known as Daesh, ISIS or ISIL. That compromise could be a much stronger basis for an effective ceasefire, provided there is sufficient motivation to carry it out fully. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry chats with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov outside a room in the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Osobnyak Guesthouse in Moscow, Russia, on July 15, 2016. [State Department Photo] The question, however, is whether the Obama administration is willing to do what would certainly be necessary for the agreement to establish a longer-term ceasefire at the expense of Daesh and Al Qaeda. In return for ending the Syrian air force’s operations, generally regarded as indiscriminate, and lifting the siege on the rebel-controlled sectors of Aleppo, the United States is supposed to ensure the end of the close military collaboration between the armed groups it supports and Al Qaeda, and join with Russian forces in weakening Al Qaeda. The new bargain is actually a variant of a provision in the Feb. 27 ceasefire agreement: in return for Russian and Syrian restraints on bombing operations, the United States would prevail on its clients to separate themselves from their erstwhile Al Qaeda allies. But that never happened. Instead the U.S.-supported groups not only declared publicly that they would not honor a “partial ceasefire” that excluded areas controlled by Al Qaeda’s affiliate, then known as Nusra Front, but joined with Nusra Front and its close ally, Ahrar al Sham, in a major open violation of the ceasefire by seizing strategic terrain south of Aleppo in early April. As the Kerry-Lavrov negotiations on a ceasefire continued, Kerry’s State Department hinted that the U.S. was linking its willingness to pressure its Syrian military clients to separate themselves from Al Qaeda’s forces in the northwest to an unspecified Russian concession on the ceasefire that was still being negotiated. It is now clear that what Kerry was pushing for was what the Obama administration characterized as the “grounding” of the Syrian air force in the current agreement. Al Qaeda’s Ties [US Syria policy] [Al Qaeda]
• Syria’s Fragile Truce: Can It Last a Week?
  by Patrick Cockburn A ceasefire began at sunset aimed at ending the five-year long civil war in Syria that has killed over a quarter of a million Syrians and forced five million more to flee the country. Under an agreement between the US and Russia, the initial truce will last seven days, during which time UN convoys will bring aid to besieged districts and Syrian government bombing of civilian areas will stop. The Syrian army said a seven-day “calm” would be applied across Syria from 7pm on Monday, but it reserved the right to respond decisively “using all forms of fire to any violation by the armed groups”. If the truce holds for a week, the US and Russia will form an unprecedented military partnership that will control airstrikes targeting Isis and Jabhat al-Nusra, the former Syrian affiliate of al-Qaeda that has relabelled itself as Jabhat Fateh al-Sham. Moderate rebel groups are supposed to separate themselves from al-Nusra in order to avoid air attack, though there are doubts about the feasibility of this. Most of the participants in the war say they will respect the ceasefire, though armed groups seeking to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad said they did not think al-Nusra should be singled out as a target for air strikes. Observers in Damascus say one of the weaknesses of the accord is that “Nusra is the backbone of the armed opposition, but has no reason to abide by the terms of the ceasefire from which it is excluded”. [US Syria policy] [Nusra]
• The pros and cons of Kerry's Syria deal
  By Peter Apps The landmark deal last week between Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov is, in many ways, a major breakthrough. It may well save lives. Against the backdrop of what has been the worst war of the 21st century, that’s a prize worth seizing. The problem: The effects will be strictly limited. The agreement is really several significant, but limited, tactical deals – on aid, on local ceasefires and on coordination against certain Islamist groups that both Washington and Moscow don’t want to see as part of the long-term future of Syria. That’s something, to be sure. To get that deal, however, Kerry and Lavrov appear to have deliberately avoided the toughest issues. Most crucial, the ultimate fate of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was off the table. That omission has likely been noticed in Damascus, Aleppo and the various regional capitals that must also help decide the conflict. It’s hardly surprising the United States and Russia can’t agree. Not least because there is still little to no agreement in Washington on exactly what the United States should be doing. Nor are European capitals – many increasingly worried about the political implications of the growing flow of refugees in their countries – all singing from the same song book. Some would like the war over at any cost. Others are still looking for specific outcomes. [Syria]
• US ambassador is ‘not a governor of Turkey,’ says Turkish FM
  ANTALYA Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavusoglu has slammed the recent statement by the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, saying the U.S. ambassador in Turkey “is not a governor.” “Some statements, especially coming from our allies, make us sad at a time when we are fighting against terrorism,” Çavusoglu said on Sept. 13 in his hometown Antalya. “No elected official can be untouchable if they are aiding terrorists,” he added. The U.S. Embassy on Sept. 11 released a statement on its website expressing concern about a government decision to replace 24 mayors in Turkey’s east and southeast with trustees, calling for early local elections as soon as possible. “First of all, the method of such an interference cannot be accepted,” Çavusoglu said in response. “We voice our concerns about issues in many countries, for example the rising racism in the U.S. The police have killed countless people in the U.S., but I don’t call my ambassador in Washington and tell him to make a statement. We voice our concerns directly to our American counterparts, this is just politeness,” he added. The foreign minister also complained that “the Americans feel entitled to say anything.” “None of you are the bosses of Turkey … If you want to have a strong relationship with Turkey, you will consider Turkey as an equal partner,” Çavusoglu said. “It is not a second-class country.” “Your ambassadors are not governors in Turkey. They should do their jobs properly within the framework of the Vienna Conventions,” he added. [Turkey] [Subversion]
• The Violent, Racist Meaning of “Redemption”
  In foretelling bloody insurrection in the event of a Clinton victory, Kentucky’s governor invoked America’s history of racial reaction. By Jamelle Bouie Over the weekend, Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin stopped in Washington to speak at the Values Voter Summit, an annual gathering of social conservatives. In his speech, the Tea Party politician addressed a dark question about America’s future under a second President Clinton: Somebody asked me yesterday, I did an interview, “Do you think it’s possible, if Hillary Clinton were to win the election, do you think it’s possible that we’ll be able to survive, that we’d ever be able to recover as a nation?” And while there are people who have stood on this stage and said we would not, I would beg to differ. I do think it would be possible, but at what price? At what price? The roots of the tree of liberty are watered by what? The blood of who? The tyrants, to be sure, but who else? The patriots. Whose blood will be shed? It may be that of those in this room. It might be that of our children and grandchildren. I have nine children. It breaks my heart to think that it might be their blood is needed to redeem something, to reclaim something that we, through our apathy and our indifference, have given away. Don’t let it happen. Bevin is not the first Republican to suggest armed insurrection in the event of a Democratic victory. And conservative rhetoric around the Second Amendment often takes, as a given, that it was placed in the Constitution as a safety valve against “tyranny,” with the clear implication that a present or future Democratic administration might be reckoned such. [US_Election16] [Hillary Clinton] [Republicans] [Insurrection]
• Here are the juiciest Colin Powell comments about Trump and Clinton from his hacked emails
  By Aaron Blake September 14 Newly released emails reportedly hacked from former Secretary of State Colin Powell's account show him calling Donald Trump a quote "national disgrace" and "international pariah." He also reportedly criticizes Hillary Clinton's camp for trying to drag him into her email scandal. (Reuters) This post has been updated. In new emails leaked by a hacker, former secretary of state Colin L. Powell offers unvarnished and highly negative opinions about both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. He calls Trump "a national disgrace and an international pariah" who led a "racist" birther movement. And he says that he resented Clinton's dragging him into her email problems and that "everything [she] touches she kind of screws up with hubris." [Trump] [Republicans]
• America’s Mr. Diplomacy
  By THE EDITORIAL BOARD SEPT. 14, 2016 Since becoming secretary of state more than three years ago, John Kerry has been a man on a mission — multiple missions, in fact — relentlessly traveling the globe in search of diplomatic solutions to the world’s toughest problems. His efforts have been daring and, at times, quixotic. He was no more successful than his predecessors in securing a lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. But without his persistence, the Iran nuclear deal in 2015 and last December’s global climate change agreement in Paris would almost certainly have been unattainable. [Kerry] [US Syria policy]
• A reminder of the permanent wars: Dozens of U.S. airstrikes in six countries
  By Missy Ryan September 8 at 6:06 PM While Americans savored the last moments of summer this Labor Day weekend, the U.S. military was busy overseas as warplanes conducted strikes in six countries in a flurry of attacks. The bombing runs across Asia, Africa and the Middle East spotlighted the diffuse terrorist threats that have persisted into the final days of the Obama presidency — conflicts that the next president is now certain to inherit. In Iraq and Syria, between Saturday and Monday, the United States conducted about 45 strikes against Islamic State targets. On the other side of the Mediterranean, in the Libyan city of Sirte, U.S. forces also hit fighters with the militant group. On Sunday in Yemen, a U.S. drone strike killed six suspected members of ­al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The following day, just across the Gulf of Aden in Somalia, the Pentagon targeted al-Shabab, another group aligned with ­al-Qaeda. The military also conducted several counterterrorism strikes over the weekend in Afghanistan, where the Taliban and the Islamic State are on the offensive. [Imperialism] [Resistance] [US Middle East strategy]
• No to partitioning Syria
  Calling for the partitioning of Syria is short-sighted and reckless.
  By Marwan Bishara Marwan Bishara is the senior political analyst at Al Jazeera. It's terribly annoying - not to say revolting - to read Western "experts" as they present a division of Syria as the "best", "most logical", or even "the only" solution to the civil war there. I remember a few years ago when an academic drew a straight line through the map of Syria on CNN and, along with the host, agreed to partition the country. OK, so the guy had actually been to Syria - perhaps he felt somehow entitled to an opinion on the matter. But what about those who've never even been to Syria and yet are so eager to prescribe partition of the country? No longer along one straight line but more along the lines of a Swiss cheese carving. The problem with their thesis is not that partition in principle is blasphemous, unthinkable or improbable. It's rather how they're so blase about the unity or division of other nations, and who is best served by such analysis. You may or may not have noticed, but the pomposity about Syria's future comes primarily from present or past seats of empire, whether it's Washington, New York, London, Paris or Moscow. Even non-Westerners get to feel imperial as soon as they teach, write or even reside in Western capitals, alas. You just don't hear the same type of bombast about the casual partitioning of other states coming from Jakarta, Delhi or Brasilia. A hundred years have passed since the original sin of partitioning the Middle East was imposed from outside the region, and there's no relief in sight. It seems the solution to bad partition is another partition. If partition doesn't work, more partition will. [US Syria policy] [Fragmentation]
• Hope for the Philippines?
  by Gary Leupp September 9, 2016 Son of a bitch (var. sonovabitch): Something that is very difficult or unpleasant. Used to express surprise, disappointment, anger, etc. (based on Merriam-Webster) Rodrigo Duterte, elected president of the Philippines last May, was supposed to meet with President Obama in Laos on the sidelines of the ASEAN meeting Monday. He had referred to Obama as a putang ina (“son of a bitch”) in a news conference, and earlier to U.S. ambassador Philip Goldberg with what was reported as a homophobic slur. (I understand that Duterte routinely uses the word bakla or “gay” to refer to elite men, but—like most Filipinos—actually is fine with gayness. The city of Dalao, where he was mayor for many years, has lots of gay establishments and he had no problem with them. He supports gay marriage. When asked last year if he would mind if his son Paolo had a gay partner, he replied that he had no problem at all.
  But while Sison was touring the world in the year following his release—notably, accepting a literary award for a book of poetry he had composed from the hands of the king of Thailand in October 1986—the Aquino regime under army pressure decided to revoke his passport. Ever since he has been stuck in Utrecht, Holland, advising the CPP from abroad. The prospect of his return to the Philippines, publicly embraced by Duterte, possibly taking a cabinet post along with other members of the CPP, must be producing shit-fits in the U.S. State Department and the Pentagon. [Philippines] [US global strategy] [CPP] [Sison]
• Divided and Conquered
  by Serge Halimi The US celebrates Labour Day in September. This year’s celebration will be unusual because of the many factory and office workers — especially white men — thronging to Donald Trump’s rallies. The Republican presidential candidate cultivates their support by criticising the free trade agreements that have precipitated the decline of former strongholds of US manufacturing industry, and brought loss of status, bitterness and despair to the working class. The ‘law and order’ that Trump promises to restore is that of the 1960s, when — if you were white — you didn’t need a university degree to have a good salary, two cars, and a few days’ paid vacation. For a New York billionaire whose fiscal programme is even more regressive than Ronald Reagan’s — and whose practices go against what he preaches (the products he sells are manufactured in Bangladesh and China, he employs illegal immigrants in his luxury hotels) — to become the voice of working-class resentment would have been harder if trade unionism had not been weakened. And if progressive parties in the West had not for nearly 40 years steadily been replacing working-class activists and leaders with professional politicians, public relations executives, senior civil servants and journalists, all safely enveloped in a bubble of privilege. [Labour]
• UN Team Heard Claims of ‘Staged’ Chemical Attacks
  September 8, 2016 Exclusive: A widely touted U.N. report accusing the Syrian government of two chlorine-gas attacks relied on shaky evidence and brushed aside witness testimony that claimed some incidents were staged, reports Robert Parry. By Robert Parry United Nations investigators encountered evidence that alleged chemical weapons attacks by the Syrian military were staged by jihadist rebels and their supporters, but still decided to blame the government for two incidents in which chlorine was allegedly dispersed via improvised explosives dropped by helicopters. In both cases, the Syrian government denied that it had any aircraft in the areas at the times of the purported attacks, but the U.N. team rejected that explanation with the curious argument that Syria failed to provide flight records to corroborate the absence of any flights. Yet, if there had been no flights, there would be no flight records. The controversial map developed by Human Rights Watch and embraced by the New York Times, supposedly showing the flight paths of two missiles from the Aug. 21 Sarin attack intersecting at a Syrian military base. The controversial map developed by Human Rights Watch and embraced by the New York Times, supposedly showing the flight paths of two missiles from the Aug. 21, 2013 sarin attack intersecting at a Syrian military base. The analysis was later discredited when aeronautical experts found that the one missile carrying sarin had only one-fourth the necessary range. The U.N. team also dismissed out of hand the possibility that jihadist rebels who had overrun some air bases and thus had operational helicopters at their disposal might have used them as part of a staged event designed to incriminate the Damascus regime and thus justify U.S. or other outside military intervention. Another problem with the U.N. team’s findings is that the home-made chlorine bombs had minimal military value, inflicting relatively few casualties and only a handful of deaths. Why the Syrian government, which was under intense international pressure regarding alleged chemical weapons use and was in the process of surrendering its stockpile of such weapons, would have jerry-rigged a handful of homemade bombs and dropped them for no discernible military effect makes little sense. [Syria] [cbw] [False flag] [UNUS]
• Democrats wonder and worry: Why isn’t Clinton far ahead of Trump?
  By Anne Gearan, Jenna Johnson and John Wagner September 9 at 8:23 PM ? NEW YORK — With Election Day less than two months away, Democrats are increasingly worried that Hillary Clinton has not built a formidable lead against Donald Trump despite his historic weaknesses as a national party candidate. Even the Democratic nominee’s advisers acknowledge that she must make changes, and quickly. Clinton leads Trump by three percentage points, having fallen from her high of nine points in August, according to the latest RealClearPolitics average. That tightening has frustrated many Clinton allies and operatives, who are astonished that she isn’t running away with this race, given Trump’s deep unpopularity and his continuing stream of controversial comments. “Generally, I’m concerned, frankly,” said former Democratic Senate leader Thomas A. Daschle (S.D.). “It still looks positive, and I think if you look at the swing states and where she is right now, she’s got a lead. But it’s certainly not in the bag. We have two months to go, and I think it’s going to be a competitive race all the way through. I would say she’s got at least a 60 percent chance of winning.” [US_Election16]
• Why is Duterte so popular in the Philippines?
  By now, the world is well-acquainted with the Philippine president as an unconventional foul-mouthed leader. But what the world may not understand is his high popularity among the Filipino people. Ana P. Santos reports. On August 31, 128 overseas Filipino workers were repatriated from Saudi Arabia. When plummeting oil prices sent Saudi Arabia spiraling into an economic crisis, the company they worked for declared bankruptcy and the workers were left with no job, no pay and no means to return home. Labor groups estimate that there are about 12,000 Filipino workers affected by the Saudi Arabia economic crisis. About 60 percent availed themselves of the repatriation program. At the airport in Manila, they were met by President Rodrigo Duterte who welcomed the workers back to the country and promised to help them. He also said that when he learned about their situation, he was ready to go Saudi Arabia himself and bring them back home. [Duterte] [Overseas labour] [Philippines]
• Academic: ‘Duterte held up a long-hidden looking glass to the US’
  By Rigoberto D. Tiglao on September 12, 2016 Following is an excellent article that was published on September 9 in the Australia-based website The Conversation, with an interesting slogan: “Academic Rigour, Journalistic Flair.” It was written by Adele Webb, a Ph.D. candidate in the University of Sydney’s Department of Government and International Relations. She is working on her thesis “that explores the colonial construction of Philippine democracy, and its legacy in Filipino imaginings of political freedom.” This column’s title is that of her article. I hope our millennials read it: Few Filipinos really know about how ruthlessly the US subjugated us. Although she seemed to believe foreign correspondents’ inaccurate report that President Duterte called President Obama “son of a whore’” (which he didn’t), still, what a difference it is for an analysis on Philippine current events by a well-informed scholar. Webb’s article: Hypocrisy? Rare photo of 600 Moro insurgents and civilians killed by US troops at Bud Dajo in Jolo, March 7, 1906, which President Duterte showed to Asean delegates last week in Laos to counter US criticisms of his regime’s human rights violations. Hypocrisy? Rare photo of 600 Moro insurgents and civilians killed by US troops at Bud Dajo in Jolo, March 7, 1906, which President Duterte showed to Asean delegates last week in Laos to counter US criticisms of his regime’s human rights violations. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has taken his “bad manners” – having gained global notoriety with his election campaign insults earlier this year – to a new level. [Duterte] [Philippines] [History] [Imperialism]
• Trump Favors Regime Change in Iran, Says He’ll Attack Them Over Rude Gestures
  By Chas Danner Speaking at a campaign rally in Pensacola, Florida on Friday night, Donald Trump indicated that, as president, he would attack Iran if their sailors made improper gestures towards the U.S. Navy. After promising to build more ships for the Navy, which has a base in Pensacola, Trump tossed in an aside referencing the recent run-ins that U.S. warships have had with Iranian attack boats in the Persian Gulf. During those encounters, small Iranian speedboats controlled by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, which opposes the country’s nuclear deal with the U.S., have harassed U.S. ships in ways the Navy has deemed “unsafe and unprofessional.” Said Trump, to the delight of the crowd, “When [the Iranians] circle our beautiful destroyers with their little boats, and they make gestures at our people that they shouldn’t be allowed to make, they will be shot out of the water.” Some news reports are framing Trump’s statement about Iran as a matter of him once again going off script and ad-libbing some ill-advised bluster on top of the supposedly-softened speeches his campaign has prepared for him. That’s undoubtedly what he did in this case, and maybe it was just intended as some kind of macho nationalistic towel-snap to get a quick “U.S.A.” chant out of the crowd. But while it’s indeed worrisome, if not exactly news, that the apparent body-language expert is unable to follow plans, or scripts, or basic political norms — in this case Trump, a major-party’s presidential candidate, indicated that he would be willing to start an armed conflict with another country, not to defend America’s citizens, interests, or allies — but over injured pride. And even if it is just a joke, or something Trump is willing to say to get a buzz off of a specific crowd, there is no reason to believe he wouldn’t continue to offer such asides if elected. [Trump] [Iran] [Belligerence]
• Fifteen years after 9/11, the jihadist threat looms larger than ever across the globe
  A look back at the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. By Joby Warrick and Greg Miller September 10 ? Nine days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, President George W. Bush stood before Congress to outline a two-pronged response to history’s deadliest terrorist act: dramatic improvements in security at home and an all-out assault against what he called a “fringe form of Islamic extremism” at war with the West. Fifteen years later, the first goal arguably has been met, as Americans by almost every measure are safer today from another 9/11-scale attack than in 2001. Yet the struggle to defeat the global network of violent, rabidly anti-Western jihadist groups has recorded fewer successes. Indeed, the problem appears to have grown bigger. The al-Qaeda organization once led by Osama bin Laden has been decimated and is no longer capable of orchestrating a sophisticated, trans-national plot on its own, terrorism experts say they believe. Al-Qaeda’s branches in North Africa and Yemen also have been weakened by Western military strikes and ongoing fighting with rival factions. [9/11] [Global insurgency]
• How the government could resist President Trump’s orders
  Civil servants can refuse to comply, judges can issue injunctions and members of Congress can decline to help. By Melinda Henneberger September 9 Melinda Henneberger is a visiting fellow at Catholic University of America’s Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies. If Donald Trump is elected, he’s promised to move quickly to suspend Muslim immigration, or maybe even stop people from entering the United States “from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism.” We’ll withdraw from NATO unless all other members pay their fair share, either renegotiate or shred NAFTA and begin “extreme vetting” of immigrants to make sure they aren’t sneaking in any “hostile attitudes toward our country or its principles.” Before you can say “Geneva Conventions,” he’ll order the waterboarding of suspected terrorists and approve interrogation techniques “a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding,” too, including the killing of the families of terrorism suspects. He might (or might not, or might) deport 11 million undocumented immigrants. But “on Day One,” he insists, we will definitely “begin working on an impenetrable, physical, tall, powerful, beautiful, southern border wall.” Only, Washington has some pretty high walls in place, too, and electric fences that might shock any newcomer naive enough to believe Trump’s line about “criminal aliens”: that on “Day One, my first hour in office, those people are gone.” In a real sense, this town exists to serve the liberal, constitutional order, and President Trump would face fierce and sustained resistance to his “because I say so” threats to that order — not only from the other party but from his own, and from the nonpartisan civil servants who run the government day to day. [Trump] [Deep state] [Coup]
• Cuba launches new international campaign against U.S. embargo
  By Nelson Acosta | HAVANA U.S. sanctions cost Cuba $4.6 billion last financial year, the government said on Friday, and called on U.S. President Barack Obama to do more to ease the pressure in the spirit of improved relations between the two countries. Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez made the comments at the launch of an annual campaign for a United Nations resolution condemning the U.S. trade embargo put in place after Cuba's 1959 revolution, but which has softened a little under Obama. "The blockade imposed by the United States on Cuba persists," Rodriguez told reporters at a news conference. "The blockade is the main cause of the economy's problems and obstacle to development." Rodriguez said damages from April 2015 through March 2016 amounted to $4.6 billion and to $125.9 billion since the embargo's inception. [Cuba] [Sanctions cost]
• Hillary E-mail: Must Overthrow Syria “to Help Israel” — Confirms Israel has Nuclear Weapons
  Monday, March 28, 2016 3:58 The Obama Administration helped ignite the civil war in Syria as “the best way to help Israel,” a newly-released Hillary Clinton email published by Wikileaks has confirmed. The document, case number F-201