Canada’s prime minister recently addressed the CFR, a globalist think tank who have been a driving force behind the push towards deeper North American integration. The U.S. and Canada are now further advancing this agenda through the Beyond the Border agreement. Both countries are increasing bilateral border transportation and infrastructure coordination. This includes a common approach to border management, security and control. They are also integrating an information sharing system that would be used to track everyone crossing the U.S.-Canada border and entering or leaving the continent. Without much fanfare and seemingly little resistance, Canada is being assimilated into a U.S. dominated North American security perimeter.
In May, the Conservative government highlighted the benefits of the U.S.-Canada Beyond the Border action plan which was announced back in 2011. The deal, “focuses on addressing security threats at the earliest point possible and facilitating the lawful movement of people, goods, and services into Canada and the United States, and creates a long-term partnership to improve the management of our shared border.” The goal is to further increase, “security, economic competitiveness and prosperity through numerous measures, including reducing border wait times and improving infrastructure at key crossings to speed up legitimate trade and travel.” The Beyond the Border Executive Steering Committee recently met to discuss the objectives that have already been achieved and the work that still needs to be done. Another important facet of the economic and security perimeter agreement is the Regulatory Cooperation Council action plan. A stakeholder dialogue session is planned for June 20, which will review its implementation progress and will seek further input regarding the next stage of U.S.-Canada regulatory integration.
Last month, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a joint report on the findings of Phase I of the Entry/Exit Information System. The program included collecting and exchanging biographic information at four selected land border ports of entry. In a news release, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Acting Commissioner Thomas Winkowski stated that, “The results of Phase I demonstrate the capacity of the United States and Canada to increase information sharing capabilities.” He added, “This kind of cooperation epitomizes the Beyond the Border Action Plan.” The next phase of the entry/exit initiative is set to begin at the end of this month. It will involve exchanging the biographic data collected from third-country nationals and permanent residents of Canada and the U. S. at all common ports of entry. Both countries are further merging databases and are expanding surveillance and intelligence gathering operations. In 2014, they will also start sharing biometric information at the border. This will further advance the creation of a North America security perimeter where all travelers will be tracked and traced in real time.
As part of the commitment made under the Beyond the Border deal, both countries have announced the Border Infrastructure Investment Plan which was, “developed to establish a mutual understanding of recent, ongoing and potential border infrastructure investments. It outlines the approach that Canada and the United States will take to coordinate plans for physical infrastructure upgrades.” In June 2012, Canada reached an agreement with the State of Michigan to build a second bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario. This was followed by a presidential permit issued in April of this year that officially paved the way for construction of the project. A U.S. State Department press release explained that, “Consistent with the bilateral Beyond the Border Initiative, this permit contributes to ensuring that our border infrastructure supports increased competitiveness, job creation, and broad-based prosperity in the United States and Canada.” It went on to say that the new bridge, “will help to meet future capacity requirements in a critical travel corridor, promote cross-border trade and commerce, and advance our vital bilateral relationship with Canada.”
In March, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano and Canada’s Minister of Public Safety Vic Toews signed a memorandum of understanding which established a truck cargo pre-inspection pilot project. The joint undertaking is another component of the Beyond the Border agreement and would shift inspections and clearances away from the actual border crossing. The first phase, “will test the concept of conducting U.S. CBP primary cargo inspection in Canada, and will be implemented at the Pacific Highway crossing between Surrey, British Columbia and Blaine, Washington.” The second phase, “will further test how pre-inspection could enhance border efficiency and reduce wait times to facilitate legitimate trade and travel, and will be implemented at the Peace Bridge crossing between Fort Erie, Ontario and Buffalo, New York.” The perimeter security deal is laying the foundation for a future U.S.-Canada binational organization that would jointly manage and control the border.
The CBSA is also testing additional technology at the Morses Line, Quebec and Piney, Manitoba ports of entry. Under the remote traveller pilot project, people entering either location after regular hours of service, “will be processed by a border services officer located at a remote processing centre through a two-way audio and one-way video kiosk. Cameras will be installed to provide the officer with the ability to see the traveller and the vehicle.” The program which could later be expanded to other areas , “is part of the Small and Remote Ports of Entry Initiative, one of the deliverables under the Beyond the Border Action Plan.” NAUNEWZ pointed out that, “Although a lot of this technology is already installed and being utilized in limited ways at most of the main Canada-U.S. border crossing points, these smaller border crossings are ideal testing grounds for their ‘no borders’/NAU agenda.”
On May 16, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper participated in question and answer session before the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). The conversation centered around economic growth, foreign investment and the role of the G20 with regards to global governance. Other issues focused on Canada-U.S. relations. Harper lobbied for approval of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline which would carry oil from western Canada to the Texas gulf coast. He dismissed environmental issues associated with the project and argued that it would be a step towards North American energy independence. The Obama administration is expected to make a final decision on the pipeline sometime this year. Harper also acknowledged the Beyond the Border and the Regulatory Cooperation Council action plans. He blamed sovereignty concerns and the continued negativity surrounding NAFTA as the main obstacles to even deeper continental integration. Prime Minister Harper used his audition in front of the CFR as an opportunity to demonstrate to the U.S. political and corporate elite that he is committed to defending the interests of big business and further pushing plans for a North American Union (NAU).
The Beyond the Border action plan is the most significant step forward in U.S.-Canada cooperation since NAFTA. It provides the framework for future North American integration. When fully implemented, the agreement can be expanded and updated. So far, the agenda has quietly slipped under the radar. By incrementally incorporating various pilot projects and excluding Mexico from the process, it has managed to avoid the controversy of past initiatives. The perimeter security deal is being sold as vital to improving the flow of trade and travel across the border. In order to appease U.S. fears, Canada has made numerous concessions with no guarantees that it will lessen border restrictions. As part of a North American security perimeter, Canada will always be at the mercy of any new U.S. security measures, regardless of the dangers they may pose to privacy and civil liberties.
Dana Gabriel is an activist and independent researcher. He writes about trade, globalization, sovereignty, security, as well as other issues. Contact: beyourownleader@hotmail.com. Visit his blog at Be Your Own Leader.
Continental Europe has started to move towards the United States as a new subduction zone forms off the Portuguese coast. This is the start of a cycle that will see the Atlantic Ocean reduce in size and finally close as what scientists refer to as a ‘passive margin’ becomes active.
A subduction zone is an area where one of the plates that cover the Earths’ surface is driven underneath the plate it is colliding into. Such faults are known to produce mega-thrust earthquakes when they get stuck and then slip allowing massive pressure to be released. The Indonesian quake of 2004 was caused by the subduction of the Indian Plate under the Burmese Plate and the Japanese quake of 2011 was caused by the subduction of the Pacific Plate under the Okhotsk Plate.
The Cascadia fault line off the coast of California is also a subduction zone. In this case it’s a long sloping fault where the Juan de Fuca Plate is being forced under the North American Plate.
The new fracture marks the start of activity at the South West Iberia Plate margin and is thought to be the start of a new Wilson Cycle. The Wilson cycle is named after J. Tuzo Wilson who recognized how plate tectonics fitted in with the geological record. It describes the coming together, and then the drifting apart that happens as the plates slide around on the Earths surface.
The consequences of this new movement is likely to be an increase in seismic activity. The large earthquake of 1755 that devastated Lisbon is an indication that convergent techtonic movement has been taking place for some time but for the first time scientists are able to prove it.
Chris Carrington is a writer, researcher and lecturer with a background in science, technology and environmental studies. Chris is an editor for The Daily Sheeple. Wake the flock up!
Is president Obama setting the stage for a “humanitarian intervention” by casually accusing the Syrian president of killing his own people?
“Following a deliberative review, our intelligence community assesses that the Assad regime has used chemical weapons, including the nerve agent sarin, on a small scale against the opposition multiple times in the last year,”
White House Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said in a statement. “Our intelligence community has high confidence in that assessment given multiple, independent streams of information.”
“Obama has give notice to President Bashar Al Assad of ‘enormous consequences’ for having crossed the ‘red line’” by allegedly using chemical weapons.
Money and Weapons for Al Qaeda
A WMD saga modeled on Iraq based on fabricated evidence is unfolding. The Western media in chorus relentlessly accuse the Syrian government of premeditated mass-murder, calling upon the “international community” to come to the rescue of the Syrian people.
“Syria crosses ‘red line’ on chemical weapons. How will Obama respond?”
The Syrian “opposition” is calling upon the US and its allies to implement “a no fly zone”.
In turn, the White House has acknowledged that the red line “has been crossed”, while emphasizing that the US and its allies will “increase the scope and scale of assistance” to the rebels.
The chemical weapons pretext is being used to justify further military aid to the rebels, which in large part have been decimated by Syrian government forces.
These defeated opposition rebel forces –largely composed of the Al Qaeda affiliated Al Nusrah– are supported by Turkey, Israel, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
US-NATO-Israel have lost the ground war. Their Al Nusrah Front fighters, which constitute the foot-soldiers of the Western military alliance, cannot, under any circumstances, be rapidly rebuilt through a renewed flow of US-NATO military aid.
The Obama administration is in an impasse: its foot soldiers have been defeated. A “no fly zone” would, at this stage, be a risky proposition given Syria’s air defense system, which includes the Russian S-300 SAM system.
Al Nusra Front “Freedom fighters”
US-NATO Are Training “Opposition” Rebels in the Use of Chemical Weapons
The chemical weapons accusations are fabricated. In a bitter irony, the evidence amply confirms that the chemical weapons are being used not by Syrian government forcesbut by the US supported Al Qaeda rebels.
In a twisted logic whereby realities are turned upside down, the Syrian government is being accused of the atrocities committed by the US sponsored Al Qaeda affiliated rebels.
The Western media is feeding disinformation into the news chain, casually refuting its own news reports. Confirmed by various sources including CNN, the Western military alliance has not only made chemical weapons available to the Al Nusrah Front, it has also sent in military contractors and special forces to train the rebels:
The training [in chemical weapons], which is taking place in Jordan and Turkey,involves how to monitor and secure stockpiles and handle weapons sites and materials, according to the sources. Some of the contractors are on the ground in Syria working with the rebels to monitor some of the sites, according to one of the officials.
The nationality of the trainers was not disclosed, though the officials cautioned against assuming all are American. (CNN, December 09, 2012, emphasis added)
While the news report does not confirm the identity of the defense contractors, the official statements suggest a close contractual relationship to the Pentagon:
The US decision to hire unaccountable defense contractors to train Syrian rebels to handle stockpiles of chemical weapons seems dangerously irresponsible in the extreme, especially considering how inept Washington has so far been at making sure only trustworthy, secular rebels – to the extent they exist – receive their aid and the weapons that allies in the Gulf Arab states have been providing.
It also feeds accusations that the Syrian Foreign Ministry recently made that the US is working to frame the Syrian regime as having used or prepared for chemical warfare.
“What raises concerns about this news circulated by the media is our serious fear that some of the countries backing terrorism and terrorists might provide the armed terrorist groups with chemical weapons and claim that it was the Syrian government that used the weapons,” the letters said.”( John Glaser, Us Defense Contractors Training Syrian Rebels, Antiwar.com, December 10, 2012, emphasis added)
Lets be under no illusion. This is not a rebel training exercise in non-proliferation of chemical weapons.
While president Obama accuses Bashar Al Assad, the US-NATO military alliance is channeling chemical weapons to Al Nusrah, a terrorist organization on the State Department blacklist.
In all likelihood, the training of Al Nusrah rebels in the use of chemical weapons was undertaken by private military contractors.
The United Nations Independent Mission confirms that Rebel Forces Are in Possession of Sarin Nerve Gas
While Washington points its finger at president Bashar al Assad, a United Nations independent commission of inquiry confirmed in May 2013 that the rebels rather than the government have chemical weapons in their possession and are using sarin nerve against the civilian population:
U.N. human rights investigators have gathered testimony from casualties of Syria’s civil war and medical staff indicating that rebel forces have used the nerve agent sarin, one of the lead investigators said on Sunday.
The United Nations independent commission of inquiry on Syria has not yet seen evidence of government forces having used chemical weapons, which are banned under international law, said commission member Carla Del Ponte. [see image right]
“Our investigators have been in neighboring countries interviewing victims, doctors and field hospitals and, according to their report of last week which I have seen, there are strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof of the use of sarin gas, from the way the victims were treated,” Del Ponte said in an interview with Swiss-Italian television.
Turkish Police Report: US Supported Al Nusrah Terrorists Possess Chemical Weapons
According to Turkey’s state media agency Zaman, the Turkish General Directorate of Security (Emniyet Genel Müdürlüğü):
[Police have] ceased 2 kg of sarin gas in the city of Adana in the early hours of yesterday morning. The chemical weapons were in the possession of Al Nusra terrorists believed to have been heading for Syria.
Sarin gas is a colourless, odorless substance which is extremely difficult to detect. The gas is banned under the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention.
The EGM [Turkish Police] identified 12 members of the AL Nusra terrorist cell and also ceased fire arms and digital equipment. This is the second major official confirmation of the use of chemical weapons by Al-Qaeda terrorists in Syria after UN inspector Carla Del Ponte’s recent statement confirming the use of chemical weapons by the Western-backed terrorists in Syria.
The Turkish police are currently conducting further investigations into the operations of Al-Qaeda linked groups in Turkey. (For further details see Gearóid Ó Colmáin, Turkish Police find Chemical Weapons in the Possession of Al Nusra Terrorists heading for Syria, Global Research.ca, May 30, 2013)
Who has Crossed the “Red Line”? Barack Obama and John Kerry are Supporting a Terrorist Organization on the State Department List
What is unfolding is a diabolical scenario –which is an integral part of US military planning– namely a situation where opposition terrorists of the al Nusrah Front advised by Western defense contractors are actually in possession of chemical weapons.
The West claims that it is coming to the rescue of the Syrian people, whose lives are allegedly threatened by Bashar Al Assad.
Obama has not only “Crossed the Red Line”, he is supporting Al Qaeda. He is a Liar and a Terrorist.
The forbidden truth, which the Western media has failed to reveal, is that the US-NATO- Israel military alliance is not only supporting the Al Nusrah Front, it is also making chemical weapons available to its proxy “opposition” rebel forces.
The broader issue is: Who is a threat to the Syrian people? Syria’s President Bashar al Assad or America’s President Barack Obama, who has ordered the recruitment and training of terrorist forces which are on the US State Department blacklist.
In a bitter irony, according to the US State Department Bureau of Counter-terrorism, President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry, not to mention Senator John McCain could be held responsible for “knowingly providing, or attempting or conspiring to provide, material support or resources to, or engaging in transactions with, al-Nusrah Front”:
The Department of State has amended the Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and Executive Order (E.O.) 13224 designations of al-Qa’ida in Iraq (AQI) to include the following new aliases: al-Nusrah Front, Jabhat al-Nusrah, Jabhet al-Nusra, The Victory Front, and Al-Nusrah Front for the People of the Levant. The consequences of adding al-Nusrah Front as a new alias for AQI include aprohibition against knowingly providing, or attempting or conspiring to provide, material support or resources to, or engaging in transactions with, al-Nusrah Front, and the freezing of all property and interests in property of the organization that are in the United States, or come within the United States or the control of U.S. persons. (emphasis added)
The State Department advisory acknowledges that from November 2011 to December 2012:
“Al-Nusrah Front has claimed nearly 600 attacks – ranging from more than 40 suicide attacks to small arms and improvised explosive device operations – in major city centers including Damascus, Aleppo, Hamah, Dara, Homs, Idlib, and Dayr al-Zawr. During these attacks numerous innocent Syrians have been killed. ….
The advisory also confirms that “the United States takes this action [of blacklisting the Al Nusrah Front] in the context of our overall support for the Syrian people. … ”
What it fails to mention is that the Obama administration continues to channel money and weapons to Al Nusrah in blatant defiance of US counter-terrorism legislation.
Washington’s “Go-Between”: General Salem Idriss
Washington’s “Go Between” is the Head of the FSA Supreme Military Council Brigadier General Salem Idriss [right], who is permanent liaison with the Al Nusrah military commanders.
Secretary of State John Kerry meets representatives of the Syrian opposition. US officials meet with General Idriss. The latter, acting on behalf of the Pentagon, channels money and weapons to the terrorists. This model of supporting Al Nusra is similar to that implemented in Afghanistan in the 1980s whereby the Pakistani military government of General Zia Ul Haq would funnel weapons to jihadist “Freedom Fighters” in the heyday of the Soviet-Afghan war.
US support to terrorists is always sent through a trusted intermediary. According to an Obama administration official: “While the United States may have leverage with General Idris, it has no ability to control some jihadists — like the Nusra Front, which is also fighting Syrian government forces.” (New York Times, May 23, 2013)
John McCain Enters Syria, Mingles with US Sponsored Terrorists
Meanwhile, Senator John McCain “entered Syria [early June] from the country’s border with Turkey and stayed there for several hours … McCain met with assembled leaders of Free Syrian Army units in both Turkey and Syria.” See image below John McCain together with General Salem Idriss)
The Contradictory Role of the United Nations Security Council
In late May 2013, the UN Security Council added Al Nusrah to the UNSC “Al-Qaida Sanctions List.” Yet at the same time, the Security Council decision casually dismissed the fact, amply documented, that three permanent members of the Council, namely Britain, France and the US continue to provide military aid to the Jabbat Al Nusrah Front, in defiance of international law and the UN Charter.
An amendment to the NDAA passed the US House of Representatives on Friday. The pricey amendment doesn’t apply to the national defense of the United States, but that of Israel.
“It is the policy of the United States to take all necessary steps to ensure that Israel possesses and maintains an independent capability to remove existential threats to its security and defend its vital national interests.”
The amendment was introduced by Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.), and passed overwhelmingly with a vote of 315-108. It will go for a vote by the Senate next, and then cross the desk of President Obama before it becomes a law that Israel can remove “existential threats” on the American taxpayer’s dime.
The bill would require the President to report every 90 days upon how the “necessary steps” are being implemented. It includes the mandatory identification of “all aerial refueling platforms, bunker-buster munitions, and other capabilities and maintenance by Israel of a robust independent capability to remove existential security threats, including nuclear and ballistic missile facilities in Iran, and defend its vital national interests.”
It is also important to note that while the city of Detroit defaulted on $2.5 billion of debt this week, this amendment promises to triple the request for missile defense cooperation funding for Israel from $96 million to $284 million.
Luke Rudkowski interviews British politician George Galloway at an Anti-G8 event about why he is against the G8′s policies and his thoughts on the recent Bilderberg meeting.
When world leaders get together at annual ‘G’ summits they are all smiles in front of the cameras. To the public, it seems as if everything is on the up-and-up; all friends, joining together to make the world a better place.
But behind closed doors, global intelligence agencies are working hard to ensure their respective leadership has the upper hand in any negotiations taking place.
According to a report from the Guardian, for example, the purportedly secure and encrypted communications of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev were intercepted by none other than the U.S. National Security Agency, an organization specifically tasked with foreign intelligence gathering. Like the American public, everything Medvedev did at a 2009 G8 summit was tracked and monitored.
But it wasn’t just Medvedev who was under surveillance.
Russian news station RT reports that numerous foreign delegates were targeted and fell for an intelligence front operation set up by the British:
As Britain readies to host the G8 summit, the documents uncovered by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden have revealed that back in 2009 US spies intercepted top-secret communications of then Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, during his visit to London.
The shocking news was broken by The Guardian which has seen the documents. It also revealed that a UK intelligence agency, GCHQ, monitored foreign politicians and intercepted their emails during the 2009 G20 summit held in the British capital, which among others was attended by Medvedev.
Some delegates were tricked into using internet cafes which had been set up by UK intelligence agencies to read their email traffic.
…
The information obtained by the GCHQ analysts was being rapidly passed on to the British representatives in the G20 meetings, giving them a negotiating advantage. “In a live situation such as this, intelligence received may be used to influence events on the ground taking place just minutes or hours later. This means that it is not sufficient to mine call records afterwards – real-time tip-off is essential,” read one of the leaked documents.
During the London summit, GCHQ used what one document described as “ground-breaking intelligence capabilities” to intercept the communications of the foreign delegations. The spy agency set up internet cafes where they used an email interception program and key-logging software to monitor delegates’ use of computers. The security of delegates’ BlackBerrys had been penetrated to enable GCHQ see their messages and phone calls.
Making the world a better place through collaboration, friendship and trust.
Washington’s decision to arm Syria’s Sunni Muslim rebels has plunged America into the great Sunni-Shia conflict of the Islamic Middle East, entering a struggle that now dwarfs the Arab revolutions which overthrew dictatorships across the region.
For the first time, all of America’s ‘friends’ in the region are Sunni Muslims and all of its enemies are Shiites. Breaking all President Barack Obama’s rules of disengagement, the US is now fully engaged on the side of armed groups which include the most extreme Sunni Islamist movements in the Middle East.
The Independent on Sunday has learned that a military decision has been taken in Iran – even before last week’s presidential election – to send a first contingent of 4,000 Iranian Revolutionary Guards to Syria to support President Bashar al-Assad’s forces against the largely Sunni rebellion that has cost almost 100,000 lives in just over two years. Iran is now fully committed to preserving Assad’s regime, according to pro-Iranian sources which have been deeply involved in the Islamic Republic’s security, even to the extent of proposing to open up a new ‘Syrian’ front on the Golan Heights against Israel.
In years to come, historians will ask how America – after its defeat in Iraq and its humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan scheduled for 2014 – could have so blithely aligned itself with one side in a titanic Islamic struggle stretching back to the seventh century death of the Prophet Mohamed. The profound effects of this great schism, between Sunnis who believe that the father of Mohamed’s wife was the new caliph of the Muslim world and Shias who regard his son in law Ali as his rightful successor – a seventh century battle swamped in blood around the present-day Iraqi cities of Najaf and Kerbala – continue across the region to this day. A 17th century Archbishop of Canterbury, George Abbott, compared this Muslim conflict to that between “Papists and Protestants”.
America’s alliance now includes the wealthiest states of the Arab Gulf, the vast Sunni territories between Egypt and Morocco, as well as Turkey and the fragile British-created monarchy in Jordan. King Abdullah of Jordan – flooded, like so many neighbouring nations, by hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees – may also now find himself at the fulcrum of the Syrian battle. Up to 3,000 American ‘advisers’ are now believed to be in Jordan, and the creation of a southern Syria ‘no-fly zone’ – opposed by Syrian-controlled anti-aircraft batteries – will turn a crisis into a ‘hot’ war. So much for America’s ‘friends’.
Its enemies include the Lebanese Hizballah, the Alawite Shiite regime in Damascus and, of course, Iran. And Iraq, a largely Shiite nation which America ‘liberated’ from Saddam Hussein’s Sunni minority in the hope of balancing the Shiite power of Iran, has – against all US predictions – itself now largely fallen under Tehran’s influence and power. Iraqi Shiites as well as Hizballah members, have both fought alongside Assad’s forces.
Washington’s excuse for its new Middle East adventure – that it must arm Assad’s enemies because the Damascus regime has used sarin gas against them – convinces no-one in the Middle East. Final proof of the use of gas by either side in Syria remains almost as nebulous as President George W. Bush’s claim that Saddam’s Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.
For the real reason why America has thrown its military power behind Syria’s Sunni rebels is because those same rebels are now losing their war against Assad. The Damascus regime’s victory this month in the central Syrian town of Qusayr, at the cost of Hizballah lives as well as those of government forces, has thrown the Syrian revolution into turmoil, threatening to humiliate American and EU demands for Assad to abandon power. Arab dictators are supposed to be deposed – unless they are the friendly kings or emirs of the Gulf – not to be sustained. Yet Russia has given its total support to Assad, three times vetoing UN Security Council resolutions that might have allowed the West to intervene directly in the civil war.
As the dust had settled from Bilderberg’s global weekender held at The Grove Hotel in Watford, England, some members of the alternative media stayed on site continuing to dig for answers…
Investigative journalists from the UK Column, American Free Press and Sovereign Independentaccidentally wandered into a presentation suite at the Grove – only discover the remnants of a presentation by Thomson Reuters which Bilderberg organisers had neglected to take down after the event. It read “”unleashing the power of our unified platform on financial markets”.
Of course this reminds us of a similar international cartel , or syndicate called LIBOR, where bankers successfully gamed global interest rates enabling them to reap easy billions at the expense of the lower classes. Money for nothing. They did so with impunity, all but laughing in public at any attempt to bring any of the gold collar criminals to book for financial fraud and racketeering.
It’s no coincidence that LIBOR’s biggest inside player was also in attendance at Bilderberg 2013. The teflon banker himself – the elusive Marcus Agius, the former Group Chairman of Barclays, and chairman of the British Bankers Association (BBA). It’s worth pointing that LIBOR’s rate scam was being calculated and published by Thomson Reuters on behalf of the BBA.
Only days after, events on the news wires – of international banking tycoon gaming the world’s currency markets – provided the connection to this topic discussed behind closed doors between members of the global industrial and political elite.
Continuing conflict in the Middle East has pushed oil prices to their highest in 9 months. The prices reached their highest level since September 2012 on the news that President Obama is to arm Syrian rebels due to the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime.
Syria is not a big oil producer but with Russia and Iran against the intervention there is the potential for the conflict to spread to the wider Middle East which could affect the supply.
Olivier Jakob of Petromix said:
“One way or another, the Syrian conflict is escalating. It is not only morphing into a US-Russia proxy war but also into a US-Iran proxy war and nobody knows how this will terminate,” (source)
Chris Carrington is a writer, researcher and lecturer with a background in science, technology and environmental studies. Chris is an editor for The Daily Sheeple. Wake the flock up!
Many documents leaked these days, all proving the involvement of NSA in the surveillance of Internet activity of people with the cooperation of nine internet giants. Here is a good synthesis of these news.
For me it didn’t come as a surprise nor am I surprised by the cooperation of the Internet companies (since they mostly have the mentality of opportunists that will always cooperate for their best interest). But the way the arrogance of power is displayed in the debates triggered by these disclosures is very significant for what i wrote in this article. Follow this debate and you will be surprised by the rhetoric that become much like all the classic pre-dictatorial rhetorics in the world.
Here is one of the threads you can follow. And this is the excellent statement of NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden on the generalized surveillance system.
England Welcomes the “Elite”
The Bilderberg Group, an annual gathering of royalty, statesmen and business leaders, will take place this week at the Grove Hotel, a golf resort in Watford, Hertfordshire (June 6-9). Approximately 140 members of the global elite will be present. A “festival feel” has been promised. The Bilderbergers are staying at the Grove Hotel – “a private family-owned luxury hotel” (that previously hosted the exclusive Google Zeitgeist conference in 2009, 2010 and 2012). (Google’s Chairman, Eric Schmidt, is no stranger to Bilderberg.)
Until now, any attempt to discuss this group’s meetings was massively ridiculed and considered to be pure speculation, a ”conspiracy theory”. But now, as anyone can easily see, the magic happened and the meeting is in plain sight, right under the public’s and press’ noses! Obviously, I am wondering, what is with this miraculous metamorphosis – from something that was ”not existing” to something that now not only exists, but is going to eventually impact our lives?
How about all the references to this group – so far made by different authors (Alex Jones, David Icke, Jim Tucker etc)? Were they lunatics or visionary heroes? Obviously the latest is confirmed by the reality … but then, how about their warnings?
In my opinion what we see now happening in the UK Bilderberg meeting is the next level of what I called years ago “the arrogance of power“.
Who Are the Bilderbergers?
At the Hotel de Bilderberg in Oosterbeek, Netherlands, from 29 to 31 May 1954, “the future of the world” was first debated. They called themselves the Bilderberg Group with a membership representing a who’s who of world power elites, mostly from America, Canada, and Western Europe with familiar names like David Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger, Bill Clinton, Gordon Brown, Angela Merkel, Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, Larry Summers, Tim Geithner, Lloyd Blankfein, George Soros, Donald Rumsfeld, Rupert Murdoch, other heads of state, influential senators, congressmen and parliamentarians, Pentagon and NATO brass, members of European royalty, selected media figures, and invited others – some quietly, by some accounts, like Barack Obama and many of his top officials. Always well represented are top figures from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), IMF, World Bank, Trilateral Commission, EU, and powerful central bankers from the Federal Reserve, the ECB’s Jean-Claude Trichet, and Bank of England’s Mervyn King. Ever since they decided to meet annually in secret. So secretly that the very existence of the group was denied and whomever talked about it was ridiculed by the corporate media.
For over half a century, neither the agenda nor discussion topics were made public, nor was any press coverage allowed.The few invited fourth estate attendees and their bosses were sworn to secrecy. Only the Group’s Steering Committee decides whom to invite, and in all cases participants are adherents to One World Order governance run by the top power elite. Here you can read more about what is on the ‘’wish list’’; the Group’s grand design is for “a One World Government (World Company) with a single, global marketplace, policed by a one world army, and financially regulated by the one ‘World (Central) Bank’ using one global currency.”
To get a taste of the often arrogant and mostly irrational attitude of the organizers, here is a fact: until now the corporate media had always immediately dismissed any information about the group … but how can one be so sure that something does not exist without in reality affirming its existence? Now the same corporate media, acting as if nothing happened, is reporting about the annual meeting as a well-known fact. Someone really has an elitist attitude behind the smokescreen .
Controversies and In-depth Studies About the Bilderbergers
Many things have been said about this group and its connections with the power structure the world over. Some say that the Bilderbergers are rich, powerful people who manipulate human genetics to create particular hybrid bloodlines. Others report that the members of the elite group know how to manipulate the reality of the masses through anxiety, stress and frustration so that it generates energy, and in this way they have been changing our planet, its atmosphere, genes – not just the GMO’s of the human being, but of the entire world. For others it appears that their practice is in fact de-humanization, as they use fear as the control factor. But no matter what are the sources and how well documented and sound are the arguments, some things are made here clear to all: the Bilderbergers are a power-thirsty elite group that are seeking to change the planet as we know it. And they consider they have the right to interfere from behind closed doors. This becomes obvious now when the reality of this occult group is being gradually brought to public awareness as if it was always there.
G. Edward Griffin explains in his lecture, “The Quigley Formula: A conspiratorial view of history as taught by the conspirators themselves”, that a great deal of the point where we are today in our history is due to the Bilderberg Group.
There are also at least two sociological studies that aim to make the world understand the psychology behind the ‘’elite’’. In 1956, sociologist C. Wright Mills published a book entitled The Power Elite. In it he argues that our democracy was corrupted because the same people exercised power in business, the military, and politics. Fast forward to 2012 and Lambert Strether continues, and posts a series of Venn diagrams at Naked Capitalism.
However, the media blackout hasn’t stopped some courageous individuals from exposing the Bilderbergers. Amongst them are: Jim Tucker – for his last 35 years, David Icke – for 20 years, Alex Jones –for 18 yrs, Gerald Celente, Benjamin Fulford, Fidel Castro and the list goes on. There are thousands of articles on the Bilderbergers’ secret deals, such as: Infowars.com, drugsreport.com, naturalnews.com, corbettreport.com, davidicke.com, prisonplanet.com, benjaminfulford.net etc. Proponents of Bilderberg opponents in the United States include individuals and groups such as the John Birch Society, political activist Phyll is Schlafly, political activist Lyndon LaRouche, radio host and politician Jesse Ventura, who made the Bilderberg group a topic of a 2009 episode of his TruTV series Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura. Non-American proponents include Russian-Canadian writer Daniel Estulin.
Studying the few reports that have managed to slip past the censors in the course of the previous decades, we can see that both the European Union and the European single currency have been nurtured and guided by the far-reaching hands of Bilderberg. For example, in the leaked transcript from the 1955 Bilderberg meeting (chaired by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands), participants speak of the “pressing need to bring the German people, together with the other peoples of Europe, into a common European market”. The current reality has proven the influential power of these talks.
Anders Eldrup, a Freemason from Denmark, reveals here a number of details about the meetings of Bilderberg in Denmark.
This ghost-like group has surfaced here and there, every now and then deciding some important world issues, never taking responsibility for this in the open or admitting their existence … until now.
These people have been aiming to rule the earth for many generations. Now they have almost everything in place, obtained by eliminating any form of governance with sabotage from the shadows. They are one step away from their controlled world dream becoming our daily reality. Their plans for further economic, political, and military integration, that have been pre-scripted for decades, are designed to expand from regional to global in a fine-tuned process.
If one wants to see the real consequences of the Bilderbergers’ activities, take a look here at their plans that have come to fruition so far: austerity and loss of national sovereignty and democracy in Europe, the massive transfer of wealth and manufacturing from America to the communist elite in China. Henry Kissinger (one of the very active members of this occult group and one of the dark eminences of it) has been involved in secret wars, military coups, CIA torture and terrorism — all of which have caused the loss of hundred of thousands of lives. But the machinations of his mentor David Rockefeller and the manipulations of the central banks could, if not stopped, already cause worldwide economic disaster, famine and war. And all these for an alleged “greater good”.
The question that I have in the first point is: in whose name are they acting? Because for sure they are not asking any of us here. And if it is in their name, how dare they decide for all of us?
“The Bilderberg Elite Just Want to Help”- Watch for the Big Scheme!
‘’But the Bilderbergers are not a secret society,” insists Andrew Kakabadse, a professor at Cranfield University School of Management. “The meeting is just a get-together of bankers and business magnates who understand how capitalism works and are trying to help. It’s basically nothing more than rich people saying nice things to each other,” Kakabadse explains.
In other words: There is nothing to see here. Please move along. Honestly, what do they take us for? Just a bunch of idiots?!
On the other hand, the professor says that when royalty rubs elbows with Wall Street and former presidents, wars are prevented and crises “smoothed out”. It is interesting that Bloomberg feels compelled to explain away Bilderberg. In the past, they would simply deny any knowledge about the annual meeting. Here they even describe Kissinger and Rockefeller as somewhat boring folks who prevent wars and financial crises. Obviously they are not doing a good job at all since all that happens after their meetings is exactly the financial crises and wars, all of which are not following the bottom-to-top natural pattern but the top-to-bottom pattern that reveals the elite behind it. All recent crises and wars have the same abnormal pattern that shows that they are not reactions of the social system to regulate itself but an induced state of affairs in order to follow a hidden agenda. If you see the tree moving, most probably it is the wind blowing even if you cannot see the air.
Back in 2009 at the Bilderberg meeting in Greece, as we can find out here, there were barely a dozen witnesses – harassed and arrested by heavy-handed Greek police. This year there is a press zone, police liaison, portable toilets, a snack van, a speakers’ corner – all the ingredients for a different Bilderberg. For the first time in 59 years there will be an unofficial press office, staffed by volunteers, on the grounds. We can now even see a full list of 2013 Bilderberg attendees.
So now the Bilderberg Group comes out in the open and is meeting everyone in England. The only problem debated in the English media is whether society has to spend money for this conference or it is kept on private donations. This, by the way, is an ordinary manipulation method, as it is also presented here, in order to attract attention to a minor problem which does not lead to major questions. The issue here is NOT who finances this conference; the problem is its fundamental LEGITIMACY! So far the same organizers have denied it and now they simply take it out in the open? What kind of credibility do they have? If our yoga school would have done that, there would have been such a wave of criticism. If any organization that is not following the elite’s agenda would have done this, they would have been mediabolized … This is another example of the double standard mentality -institutionalized hypocrisy. What kind of trust can one have in people that start their leadership adventure on these grounds?
There are even social and political groups that have been asking questions to political forums about their involvement in the Bilderberg Group and even MEPs raising the issue of the Bilderbergers in the European Parliament, such as Gerard Batten MEP, UKIP (London), Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) Group. Even so, until now there was NO ANSWER to these inquiries other than ridiculing the one asking or eventually dismissing the issue all together.
Speaking of which, what are EU Commission President Barroso and Vice-President Reding doing in a Bilderberg meeting then?? Government appointed officials are acting outside their elected authority where they operate secretively and in conflict to the interest of their public position. Isn’t this against the interest of the people who elected them? This is a violation of our rights as Citizens and, and as such, people have the right to react and demand explanations and hold responsible those that trespassed. These meetings are also illegal at the level of international law and under Logan’s Act in the USA because these activities are recognized across the world as a conflict of interests manifesting itself as a serious threat to our legitimate and natural society.
And of course one can legitimately ask: who authorizes these people to organize these meetings, and in whose name? I do not have anything against people meeting for an informal chat but in this case many of them are officials, holding key positions in the power structure of the world. Having this power from the people they allegedly represent their participation to such meeting holds another meaning. Is this the way democracy works? Definitely not the one they apparently are suppose to stand for.
Such conference should be discussed openly in each country or group represented there and then we should send our representatives, who represent those on whose behalf mandate acts, our political leaders! Such a meeting should be completely supervised. Or am i pushing here toward an utopian democracy? Judging the facts, definitely the members of Bilderberg group do not have the same opinion about transparency and democracy as they preach it to the others.(again the double standards?)
The World’s Elite is Taking the Place of Centralized World Leadership In The Open!
By hypocrisy, deceit, sabotage, assassination, lies, economic terrorism, fear, violence and manipulation, occult groups were preparing their way to control this world in a centralized occult elite fraternity since many centuries. All natural power structures that appeared among people were in a way or another destroyed, weakened, hindered to the point of collapse. All for the occult societies to gradually take over. And acting from the shadow is much easier than openly taking responsibility. You can create a big mess in an entire country with only one bomb planted by some brainwashed soldier. And by repeating this you can weaken the system to the brink of collapse, getting it ready for you to take control. But it will take a lot of dedicated, intelligent and honest people to exert a wise rulership for a long time.
But there is a problem when you are acting always from the shadow: nobody can see you did it. Therefore step by step they came closer to the final moment: disclosure of their existence and claiming the vacant position of the King of the World. And this is the moment we are into now. The last of natural power structures were eliminated when the new age of terrorism was instated into the world in 9/11 by the only ones specialized since centuries to strike from the shadow.
And now they are facing the most dangerous step of all: stepping out in open and taking responsibility, claiming the prize of the victory and assuming the real responsibility for the world leadership. This will mean exposure to real public scrutiny … an operation they hate the most since they have used the idea of democracy only as “the opium for the masses” but without really planning to apply its principles to themselves. And of course the thief is is the one that takes the most measures against thievery … because they think many people are like them.
Here is part of an article that I wrote years ago on my blog, foreseeing this pattern which unfortunately became so obvious today: ‘’So far, this Bilderberg group was practically nonexistent, and now, suddenly, they are the ones who are shaping the future of the world? It is probably the next level of involvement of these free masonic structures in international politics: an arrogant attitude that is displayed without any scruples. I am sure that in the future we will see more of these people playing their games out in the open.’’ It was clear to me all along that the Illuminati and the occult power will have to come to light, at a certain moment, because otherwise they cannot keep their power if they do not expose, even if they are still a ‘’discreet’’ organization. The predictability of this situation proves only the existence of a clear pattern behind the scene.
Speaking of ‘’transparency’’, The Economist reaffirms the fact that ‘’the cosmopolitan elite’’ do indeed ‘’flock together’’ at such gatherings and elusive clubs to shape the world that the ‘’superclass’ wishes to inhabit. A decade ago anyone who even spoke of the existence of Bilderberg, let alone suggested it was a major manipulator or world events, was roundly categorized as lunatic. And today we have the same assertions make up by the staff of editorials in the world-s corporate press. This is definitely a new notion of transparency: the remotely controlled transparency. This is always the tool used by dictators, elite groups and anarchists. And the occult groups like Illuminati or Bilderberg contains all of them in a “melting pot”.
‘’We Can Do What Others Cannot!’’
Is it a coincidence that the FreeMasons had the same strategy in the recent years? Few years ago it was a top-secret organization, saying they know nothing and are not involved in anything; now it became an official organization with founding from the state. But this is because they could not arrogate the deeds they did in the secrecy of shadow. How can an organization that didn’t exist claim the organization of the French Revolution in 1789?
For centuries the ranks of the occult organizations of Freemasonry were the nursery for the secret groups of power such as Illuminati, CFR, Trilateral Commission or The Bilderberg. And this is why the step forward into the semi-obscurity from the total secrecy is done in unison by all these structures, even if they apparently have nothing in common (they didn’t even exist until now!). It is exactly the same pattern of thinking for it is the same people in these groups. And for a lucid observer this is another proof of the existence and nature of these power structures that are built without our consent.
If you check Bilderberg’s website you can find there bluntly things about their conferences such as this: ‘’in short, Bilderberg is a small, flexible, informal and off-the-record international forum in which different viewpoints can be expressed and mutual understanding enhanced. Bilderberg’s only activity is its annual conference. At the meetings, no resolutions are proposed, no votes taken, and no policy statements issued. Since 1954, fifty-nine conferences have been held. The names of the participants, as well as the agenda, are made available to the press. ‘’ It sounds like a boring nap day on the beach, saying ‘’go to sleep, it’s really nothing interesting going on here’’. This is their official story and we know how ”true” that is.
Speaking again of their previous absolute secrecy, here is what Ken Clarke MP exposed.
On the same note, a few days ago, in Romania, Radu Balanescu, Grand Master of the National Grand Lodge of Romania and Rüdiger Templin, Grand Master of the United Grand Lodges of Germany were invited on the national TV post for a special show, saying that ‘’freemasonry (..) is not a secret society, we are a civil society, a discreet society …” said Rüdiger Templin, Grand Master of the United Grand Lodges of Germany.
Time to ask: Are Bilderbergs really this innocent ”on and off” thing, as they present it and that happens just once a year and where are we heading?
My conclusion is that what Bilderbergers do now is a test. They are testing the ‘’market’’ to see if anyone notices their strategy and if there is any reaction. Otherwise, a big(ger) crisis is always easy for them to provoke, on the way to the world government foundation. They are counting on the fact that people will not notice this slow smooth move and they will have their grip upon the world power before anyone will sound the alarm. And when this will become obvious it will be too late, they are the legitimate power and the attempt to disclose these plans will be an attack upon the established (long awaited) order.
It is only now we have a window of opportunity to massively drew the attention upon this move, to put under public attention and scrutiny these attempts, despite the smoke screens that I am sure will abundantly come in the next months. It is now that these occult structures are weak and face a delicate moment, when they are stepping out of their dungeons and are still not used with the light. And the Light of awareness and Truth can be now the strongest weapon one can use, starting from within.
It therefore depends on each of us to perpetuate this induced mass sleeping slavery or to wake up NOW without any hesitation. Waking up is not as hard as it seems at first sight, it is just a matter of making the first attempt. The system is weaker than one thinks it is and one firm intention that reaches to the point of action is enough to create a breach and then another, and so on, until this network of occult power will be dismantled.
The UK government has urged airlines worldwide not to allow ex-CIA employee Edward Snowden, who leaked details of a secret US internet surveillance program, to board flights to Britain.
The alert, dated Monday on a Home Office letterhead, said carriers should prevent the former US intelligence contractor boarding UK-bound flights because “the individual is highly likely to be refused entry to the UK”, according to the Associated Press.
The news agency reported seeing a photograph of the document taken on Friday at a Thai airport.
It said a British diplomat confirmed that the document was genuine and had been sent out to airlines across the globe, and that a Thai airline also confirmed the alert had been issued.
A redacted image of the leaked Home Office document
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, reportedly told AP that any carrier that brought Mr Snowden would be liable to be fined £2,000, adding that he would likely have been deemed by the Home Office to be detrimental to the “public good”.
The alert was issued by the Risk and Liaison Overseas Network, which is part of the UK Border Agency and has staff in several countries identified as major transit points for inadequately documented passengers.
The document titled “RALON Carrier Alert 15/13″ included a photograph of Mr Snowden, his date of birth and passport number.
It said: “If this individual attempts to travel the UK: Carriers should deny boarding.”
It warned carriers may “be liable to costs relating to the individual’s detention and removal” should they allow him to travel.
Mr Snowden, the American citizen who leaked top-secret information about the controversial US Prism program, has not been seen since he checked out of a Hong Kong hotel on Monday.
The National Security Agency headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland
He has admitted to giving details of the monitoring of phone calls and internet data, from companies such as Google and Facebook, to The Guardian and Washington Post.
Based on the leaked information, both papers disclosed the existence of the Prism system – set up by America’s National Security Agency (NSA) to track customer data directly from ISP servers to fight the threat of terrorism.
The US has launched a criminal investigation to prosecute Mr Snowden for lifting and exposing the classified material.
FBI Director Robert Mueller told the US House Committee on the Judiciary on Thursday that “all necessary steps” would be taken to hold Mr Snowden responsible for the leaks.
“These disclosures have caused significant harm to out nation and to our safety,” he said.
“As to the individual who has admitted to making these disclosures, he is the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation.”
Snowden, who revealed himself as the source of the leaks on Sunday, has yet to be charged with any crime and no warrants have been issued for his arrest.
The US is to supply direct military aid to the Syrian opposition for the first time, the White House has announced.
President Obama made the decision after his administration concluded Syrian forces under Bashar al-Assad were using chemical weapons, a spokesman said.
Ben Rhodes did not give details about the military aid other than to say it would be “different in scope and scale to what we have provided before”.
The US had warned any use of chemical weapons would cross a “red line”.
The BBC’s Jim Muir in Beirut says the US announcement is one that the Syrian opposition has been pushing and praying for for months.
It seems clear that President Obama has finally been persuaded, as Britain and France have argued, that the battlefield cannot be allowed to tilt strongly in the regime’s favour, as is currently happening, he adds.
The White House announcement came on the same day the United Nations said the number of those killed in the Syrian conflict had risen to more than 93,000 people.
‘High confidence’
Mr Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser to Mr Obama, said the US intelligence community believed the “Assad regime has used chemical weapons, including the nerve agent sarin, on a small scale against the opposition multiple times over the last year.”
He said intelligence officials had a “high confidence” in their assessment and also estimated that 100 to 150 people had died from chemical weapons attacks.
“We have consistently said the use of chemical weapons violates international norms and crosses red lines that have existed in the international community for decades.” Mr Rhodes said.
Mr Rhodes said the president had made the decision to increase assistance, including “military support”, to the Supreme Military Council (SMC) and Syrian Opposition Coalition.
He did not give details of the aid, but the New York Times quoted US officials as saying that Washington could provide small arms and ammunition as well as anti-tank weapons.
The Wall Street Journal was told by officials that the US proposal called for a limited no-fly zone inside Syria, enforced by US and allied planes on Jordanian territory.
Asked whether Mr Obama would back a no-fly zone over Syria, Mr Rhodes said one would not make a “huge difference” on the ground – but would be costly.
He said further actions would be taken “on our own timeline.”
Mr Rhodes said the White House hoped the increased support would bolster the effectiveness and legitimacy of both the political and military arms of Syria’s rebels, and said the US was “comfortable” working with SMC chief Gen Salim Idris.
“It’s been important to work through them while aiming to isolate some of the more extremist elements of the opposition, such as al-Nusra,” he said.
A senior pro-Kremlin politician in Russia – an ally of Syria – said US claims of the Assad government’s use of chemical weapons were “fabricated”.
Likening it to when the US wrongly claimed Saddam Hussein held chemical weapons in Iraq, Alexei Pushkov, head of lower house of parliament foreign affairs committee, tweeted: “Obama is taking the same path as George Bush.”
The violence in Turkey could well end in a full scale military putsch, thus making the government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan the fifth to be overthrown with varying degrees of severity over the last half century.
Alternatively, it may usher in the age of FascIslam, kismet-style. Or even a hodgepodge of both.
Istanbul looks like Manhattan on the Bosporus, in fact it is the least Islamic looking city to be found anywhere in the Islamic world.
The new minarets of the faith are the forests of sprouting skyscrapers. But prosperity comes at a price. There is a severe shortage of buildable space, so when the Istanbul municipality’s eye fell on one of the few remaining green oasis smack in the center of the metropolis, close to the city’s reverential heart, Taksim Square, trouble might be confidently expected.
Well, that’s the fairy tale side of things painted by the western media. The facts are infinitely more complex.
In reality, Turkey has an extremely weak environmental lobby. The number of people with time on their hands to kick up large scale environmental battles like the ones now being witnessed right across this huge and sprawling country is very limited. So where has the Peoples’ Popular Army of Protest suddenly sprung from?
The answer is supplied by the Turkish military and their old friends and allies in the country’s restless pro-secular bastions of opposition to the Islamic authorities presently in charge.
There are hordes of off duty soldiers swarming around, not to mention provocateurs owing allegiance to far-right gangs. The police (the usual hooded lot) are especially busy. Plus the temples of interested parties represented by western secret services and NATO, to which Turkey is the second largest contributor of military force after the US.
How come the ‘west’ wants to overthrow a government on the same page with tactical strategies set by Washington, such as playing the right game in Syria?
This important question leads to the relatively soft (though there are signs of hardening of late) Islamic authorities, winners of three historic landslides in a row. They find themselves increasingly in conflict with the general thrust of western policymakers who prefer their Islam-lite, not the strong flavor stuff purveyed by Erdoğan and his crew.
The long running Ergenekon derin devlet (deep state) scandal resulted in a massive swoop on the top ranks of the military, accused of endlessly scheming since 2002 to bring the government down. Ergenekon is the latest brand of a state-within-a-state organization traceable to the old Counter-Guerrilla secret army outfit, a member of the Europe-wide operation Gladio combination.
Like all its predecessors, Ergenekon is hand in glove with Turkey’s staunchly secular whisky generals, the powerful Far Right elements of Turkish politics (including senior officers in the national gendarmerie) and by no means least, the all-reaching criminal gangs in charge of the vastly lucrative smuggling of narcotics, weapons and nuclear materials pouring through the Turkish hub. The rake is said to be worth a million bucks a minute.
A lot of ‘investments’ which have transformed the Istanbul sky line and many of Turkey’s major cities are siphoned directly from the Golden Trail, no questions asked.
Erdoğan’s ruthless persecution of the rotten apples in the military’s basket was bound to end in tears, especially when the near-centenarian General Kenan Evren (former Counter-Guerrilla commander) was last year put on trial for staging the bloody putsch of 1980.
Turkey was always unique in the Islamic camp in having close ties with Israel. Erdoğan put an end to those after Israel special forces stopped a humanitarian convoy bound for Gaza in June 2010. Commandoes killed nine Turkish citizens. Both countries effectively broke off diplomatic relations.
Progressively, western capitals began to suspect that one of the chief parts of the NATO alliance was in danger of cracking.
Although Erdoğan’s image at home is now badly tarnished, he is still a kind of rock star in much of the Islamic world. But that unsettles many observers, especially those in NATO, the CIA, the State Department and the Pentagon, who are deeply concerned by the idea of an emerging Ottoman-style sultanate.
Others in Turkey, especially in the secular quarters, are concerned that Erdoğan’s real aim is FascIslam, the perpetual rule of the AK (Justice and Development ) party in power for the last decade.
Erdoğan’s uncompromising response to the unrest suggests that he believes all the best cards are in his hands. For his sake, I hope he is right.
In 1960, the elected premier, the mildly socialist Adnan Menderes, was overthrown and hanged for stepping too far out of line with western policies. He was viewed as ‘too soft’ on Islam.
In fact, he intended to crack down on the honey pot smuggling trails controlled, as now handsomely documented, by western secret services (notably those of the US, Germany and the UK) in cahoots with the local mafia.
Turkey is like a giant chess board. One needs a good sense of an intricate game which is often revealed by small moves.
Take the on-going row with Nouri al-Maliki, the de facto dictator of Iraq. The Turks are harboring the former vice president who is wanted at home for treason on grounds of running secret prisons. Who isn’t running secret prisons in that utterly despoiled wreck of a country is the important question. As so often following Erdoğan around is like pursuing a phantom in a maze.
At just this moment Mossad is in town, for a gentle parlay with the Turkish Pentagon. Kiss and make up time? But by who exactly? Did these old pals ever really break ranks? How much of the bust-up was stage scenery?
Erdoğan attempts to bring the militant Kurdish liberation front into the home camp, thus causing outrage in US eyes that his real game is to prise away the Kurdish province in Northern Iraq, then dump his dissidents there.
The US repeats gruffly that the PKK have always been and remain international terrorists. Washington carefully refrains from mentioning that Abdullah Occalan, the jailed PKK leader, is a pawn in the much wider Game of Thrones organized by western – and Turkish – intelligence.
Out of the blue Turkish national state security suddenly gets a whole new pack of powers which makes US efforts in the war on terror look like a kids’ game. Suddenly MIT operatives are back to the good old days (1960’s-80’s) game of the ‘have gun, will travel’ 007 licence to kill any person designated a threat to Turkish national security anywhere in the world.
Mohamed Ali Agca, convicted of attempting to kill Pope John Paul was a Turkish criminal terrorist working as a hired hand to the Turkish state. (My book Gladio – see below – is expansive on this matter).
A huge dragnet of mass surveillance is to be rolled out without as much as token notice by elected parliamentarians or the supine mainly state controlled media. The sole exception is Zaman, an influential daily which is splitting with the AK party after ten years of almost craven loyalty. The paper has directly accused the ruling party and Erdoğan explicitly of advancing towards a home-grown Buyek Kardes (Big Brother) state at almost reckless speed.
Moreover, thanks to the huge commotion now conveniently under way, there is not a peep from a single public organ, bar Zaman, concerning such a massive destruction of civil liberties. Janet Napolitano, eat your heart out.
The MIT card is especially interesting because it can be played by either party.
The military as a whip hand over the government, or the government playing favour with the secret services and the soldiers. Personally I think it bears the mark of a typically calculated Erdoğan ace, splitting the ranks of the military complex. Always share the spoils around.
The same with the recent ‘crackdown’ on alcohol. This was a perfect sop to the country’s vast pious majority. Of itself it means absolutely nothing. It will be ‘strictly enforced’ in the great Anatolian land mass, bastion of traditional Islamic values, and already as dry as dust when it comes to the demon drink. The lucrative tourist hot spots dotting the blue Aegean are left alone completely.
There are two concluding factors. These concern two important individuals, both exercising crucial influence in the present crisis. Abdullah Gül the president and one must now say, former ally of Erdoğan, and the Hizmet movement founded and led by Fethullah Gülen.
I for one would not be surprised if Gül quietly encouraged a palace coup against Erdoğan to install the ever-grinning, reassuringly moderate foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, as the peacemaker. Davutoğlu has almost certainly spotted the opening. He is fanatically ambitious. He seems to be smiling more than ever as the uproar unfolds.
Gülen is often described as the spiritual father of the AK party. Equally some people suspect he is a stooge of the CIA, given that he lives most of the time in the US. Others see Hizmet as a front for creeping Islamism.
Worldwide, Gülen is benevolently regarded as a prophet for Islam with a Smiling Face, rather as though Elijah returned to praise the virtues of tolerance, peace and market forces. In my view Gülen is capable of using his influence – alongside the president – to depose Erdoğan. But will he or would he?
He has many supporters in high places, some quarters of the police, the universities and among many of the young protestors who are now facing the full roar of Turkey’s tear gas and water cannons of public order. He is surely between a rock and a hard place.
Ten years back he was charged with plotting a coup. He was conclusively cleared. Yet to sully his hands at just this moment might drag Hizmet and its well proclaimed policies of clean hands back into the controversies of the public arena.
The advantage, for now at any rate, lies with Erdoğan. What more opportune moment than nationwide uproar, youths fighting like savages in the streets, the scent of revolution mixing with the tear gas, in order to usher in the buyuk kardes devlet?
These are the tried and trusted tactics of Operation Gladio, the fomenting of public disorder to dramatize the enemy within, and then usher in the total regimentation of society at large. The ‘Taksim Platform’ is below the surface another extension of the global Occupy movements, penetrated and manipulated by secret actors with a view to entrench and expand the established order.
I will close with a final thought, which follows directly from that statement. In this Game of Thrones, can it be that a remarkable coalition twinkles as the final outcome in Erdoğan’s eye: FascIslam and the whisky generals exchanging toasts in the same big top? Edited by Madison Ruppert
Madison Ruppert is the Editor and Owner-Operator of the alternative news and analysis database End The Lie and has no affiliation with any NGO, political party, economic school, or other organization/cause. He is available for podcast and radio interviews. Madison also now has his own radio show on UCY.TV from 7 pm — 10 pm Pacific, which you can find HERE. If you have questions, comments, or corrections feel free to contact him at admin@EndtheLie.com
Well, isn’t that convenient? At the moment when the Obama administration is feeling more heat then ever before, it starts another war. Suddenly everyone in the mainstream media is talking all about Syria and not about the IRS scandal, Benghazi,NSA snooping or any of the other political scandals that have popped up in recent weeks. As if on cue, Obama made headlines all over the globe on Thursday by claiming that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons against the rebels “multiple times”, and that the U.S. was now ready to do more to assist the rebels. That assistance is reportedly going to include “military support” for the rebels and a no-fly zone over at least part of Syria is being discussed. Without a doubt, these are acts of war, and this conflict is not going to end until Assad has been ousted. But Assad will not go quietly. And all it would take is for Assad to fire a couple of missiles at Tel Aviv for a huge regional war to erupt in the Middle East. And what happens if Russia or China decides to get involved in the conflict in Syria? Obama is playing with fire, but he has shown again and again that he is willing to do virtually anything if it will benefit him politically.
As far as the Obama administration is concerned, there is no such thing as a coincidence. The timing of this announcement regarding Syria was not an accident. If Obama wanted to use chemical weapons as an excuse to go after Syria he could have done it weeks ago, or he could have waited several more months before taking action. He chose to do it right now for a reason, and hopefully the American people will be able to see right through this.
So exactly what are we going to be doing for the Syrian rebels? Well, we will definitely be arming them and training them. And it is probably reasonable to assume that there will be American “advisers” on the ground inside Syria helping to organize the Syrian resistance. In fact, according to Debka, a large U.S. Marine force has already been deployed to the Jordanian border with Syria.
In addition, according to the Wall Street Journal, U.S. aircraft may be involved in enforcing a no-fly zone inside Syria…
A U.S. military proposal for arming Syrian rebels also calls for a limited no-fly zone inside Syria that would be enforced from Jordanian territory to protect Syrian refugees and rebels who would train there, according to U.S. officials.
Asked by the White House to develop options for Syria, military planners have said that creating an area to train and equip rebel forces would require keeping Syrian aircraft well away from the Jordanian border.
To do that, the military envisages creating a no-fly zone stretching up to 25 miles into Syria which would be enforced using aircraft flown from Jordanian bases and flying inside the kingdom, according to U.S. officials.
No matter how you slice it, the United States is now in a state of war with Syria. The only question is how “involved” we are going to get.
And several prominent Republicans are already rushing forward to applaud Barack Obama on this latest move. The following comes from a CBS News report…
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who met with the rebels last month and has been a vocal critic of the president’s Syria policy said in a joint statement with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.: “We appreciate the President’s finding that the Assad regime has used chemical weapons on several occasions. We also agree with the President that this fact must affect U.S. policy toward Syria. The President’s red line has been crossed. U.S. credibility is on the line. Now is not the time to merely take the next incremental step. Now is the time for more decisive actions.”
But you know what? Many of these Syrian rebels have actually pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda.
Yes, you read that correctly.
The whole point of the “war on terror” was to supposedly fight al-Qaeda, but now the U.S. military is allied with them.
A Syrian rebel group’s pledge of allegiance to al-Qaeda’s replacement for Osama bin Laden suggests that the terrorist group’s influence is not waning and that it may take a greater role in the Western-backed fight to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The pledge of allegiance by Syrian Jabhat al Nusra Front chief Abou Mohamad al-Joulani to al-Qaeda leader Sheik Ayman al-Zawahri was coupled with an announcement by the al-Qaeda affiliate in Iraq, the Islamic State of Iraq, that it would work with al Nusra as well.
Lebanese Sheik Omar Bakri, a Salafist who says states must be governed by Muslim religious law, says al-Qaeda has assisted al Nusra for some time.
“They provided them early on with technical, military and financial support , especially when it came to setting up networks of foreign jihadis who were brought into Syria,” Bakri says. “There will certainly be greater coordination between the two groups.”
This group of jihadists has been responsible for car and suicide bombings all over Syria, and they are the ones that have been doing the heaviest fighting on the front lines…
When the group Jabhat al Nusra first claimed responsibility for car and suicide bombings in Damascus that killed dozens last January, many of Syria’s revolutionaries claimed that the organization was a creation of the Syrian government, designed to discredit those who opposed the regime of President Bashar Assad and to hide the regime’s own brutal tactics.
Nearly a year later, however, Jabhat al Nusra, which U.S. officials believe has links to al Qaida, has become essential to the frontline operations of the rebels fighting to topple Assad.
Not only does the group still conduct suicide bombings that have killed hundreds, but they’ve proved to be critical to the rebels’ military advance. In battle after battle across the country, Nusra and similar groups do the heaviest frontline fighting. Groups who call themselves the Free Syrian Army and report to military councils led by defected Syrian army officers move into the captured territory afterward.
The prominence of Nusra in the rebel cause worries U.S. and other Western officials, who say its operations rely on the same people and tactics that fueled al Qaida in Iraq – an assertion that is borne out by interviews with Nusra members in Syria.
These are no “freedom fighters”. In fact, if these guys take over they will be much worse than Assad. These “rebels” recently massacred an entire villages of Christians, and just two days ago they slaughtered a 14-year-old boy for supposedly insulting Mohammed…
The rebels waited for a crowd to gather; Qatta’s parents were among them. Speaking in classical Arabic, they announced that Qatta had committed blasphemy and that anyone else who dared insult the Prophet Mohammed would share his fate. Then, the shirt still wrapped around the boy’s head, the rebels shot him in the mouth and neck.
Is this really who the U.S. government wants to be allies with?
Are we that stupid?
And guess what? According to the Los Angeles Times, the Obama administration is considering plans to bring all of the poor “refugees” that are allied with these “rebels” to the United States…
Two years into a civil war that shows no signs of ending, the Obama administration is considering resettling refugees who have fled Syria, part of an international effort that could bring thousands of Syrians to American cities and towns.
A resettlement plan under discussion in Washington and other capitals is aimed at relieving pressure on Middle Eastern countries straining to support 1.6 million refugees, as well as assisting hard-hit Syrian families.
But now we are committed to this conflict thanks to Obama.
There will be no backing down until Assad is gone.
Of course this could create a huge regional war in the Middle East or even eventually lead to World War III, but Obama doesn’t seem to care.
For now, Obama is saving his own skin, and that is the most important thing to him.
Even though the wars of the future are unlikely to be fought as those of the past or the present, China will tie all knots on its way to military superiority. The country is currently preparing to fight and most likely win the battles that will come on Earth, space and cyberspace.
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) will conduct military maneuvers next month, during which it intends to test “new types of combat forces, including units that use digital technology”, as reported on Wednesday by Xinhua news agency.
The exercise will take place in late June at the Zhurihe Base, -the largest military training camp in the country, located in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region-, as announced by the General Staff. The goal is to “conform to war with information technology.”
“It will be the first time the PLA maneuvers focus on combat forces with digital units, special operations forces, military aviation and electronic response forces”, said the Army.
The announcement comes at a time of growing concern in the United States and other countries about cyber attacks from China, a theme that President Barack Obama plans to address during the meeting that he will hold next week with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.
The Pentagon has revealed concerns about computer incursions from the Asian country in a report to Congress this month. In it, the US military accuses Beijing of using cyber espionage to modernize its army, and states that the U.S. government has been hacked by intruders that appear to be linked “directly to the government and military of China.”
But Pentagon spokesman George Little and other Defense Department officials have downplayed and have called outdated and exaggerated a report published on Tuesday by the Washington Post, which ensures that Chinese hackers gained access to more than 20 designs of major weapons systems from the United States.
The newspaper quoted a confidential report of the Defense and Science Committee (DSB), a renowned expert group formed by civilian and government people. The committee does not point to China as the author of the theft of the designs, but accusations seem to be coming from Army officials and officers of the arms industry with knowledge of the infiltration.
Although Washington accuses Beijing of military intelligence espionage and is concerned about the increasingly assertive stance of China in the Asia-Pacific region, the military of the two powers have continued to strengthen ties in the past two years. The approach is intended to reduce the risk of a potential conflict between the two nuclear powers, increase mutual knowledge and collaboration on non-controversial topics such as disaster prevention and control of diseases.
But mutual distrust remains in subjects like cyber-espionage, the possibility of an arms race in space, the U.S. support for Taiwan and the Chinese distrust of Obama’s strategy to swing attention to Asia and increase the military presence in the Pacific.
Luis R. Miranda is the Founder and Editor of The Real Agenda. His 16 years of experience in Journalism include television, radio, print and Internet news. Luis obtained his Journalism degree from Universidad Latina de Costa Rica, where he graduated in Mass Media Communication in 1998. He also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Broadcasting from Montclair State University in New Jersey. Among his most distinguished interviews are: Costa Rican President Jose Maria Figueres and James Hansen from NASA Space Goddard Institute.
I had no Idea that countries could just decide that a UN peacekeeping mission is too dangerous for their military personnel and could withdraw them at will. I knew that civilian staff could be pulled out, but military staff…no, that confuses me. These men and women are trained for conflict and combat.
It shocked me even more to find out that Croatia, Canada and Japan have already left the only functioning border crossing between Syria and Israel. With Austria joining them only India and the Philippines have troops left in the Golan Heights.
I wonder if they know something that the Indians and Filipinos don’t?
Chris Carrington is a writer, researcher and lecturer with a background in science, technology and environmental studies. Chris is an editor for The Daily Sheeple. Wake the flock up!
Mohammad Qataa was 14 when he died. Selling coffee on the streets of Aleppo, he was supporting his family because his father was ill and couldn’t work. On Sunday, a man asked if he could buy coffee on credit. Mohammed’s’ answer resulted in him being beaten until he couldn’t even stand and then shot.
Witnesses report that three men approached the boy and one of them asked to buy coffee on credit. Mohammad replied:
” Even if Muhammad came down from heaven, I would not give you this coffee on credit”
One of the three men, the one who had asked for credit, said Mohammad had committed blasphemy by insulting the Prophet. The boy was taken away in a car and returned to the spot where he sold coffee half an hour later too badly beaten to walk. With no preamble, he was thrown to the floor and shot dead.
This isn’t civil war, this is the wanton murder of innocents.
Chris Carrington is a writer, researcher and lecturer with a background in science, technology and environmental studies. Chris is an editor for The Daily Sheeple. Wake the flock up!
Since early 2011, ongoing blame game strategy holds Syria responsible for Western-enlisted death squad crimes.
In August 2011, the Human Rights Council (HRC) appointed a so-called Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria (COI). Paulo Pinheiro heads it.
His mandate is pro-Western propaganda. Credibility isn’t his long suit. His reports bear testimony to his bias. He wrongfully blames Assad for insurgent crimes. He’s done so throughout his tenure.
Washington calls the shots. Pinheiro and other COI members salute and obey. So do HRC officials. Truth is verboten. False reports up the stakes for full-blown US-led NATO intervention.
On June 4, 1,000 US marines arrived in Jordan. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel approved them along with deployment of F-16s, Patriot missiles and other weapons.
Operation Eager Lion 2013 is pretext. Eighteen countries will participate. Exercises begin later in June. They’ll last two months. According to US Central Command spokesman Lt. Col. TG Taylor:
“In order to enhance the defensive posture and capacity of Jordan, some of these assets may remain beyond the exercise at the request of the government of Jordan.”
Jordan needs no enhanced defensive posture. Deploying US troops and weapons near Syria’s border is provocative. Perhaps COI timed its new report release with their arrival. More on that below.
Pinheiro admits anti-Assad forces commit violations and abuses. They pale, he says, compared to government wrongdoing. He lies saying so. He’s paid to lie.
On June 4, COI issued its latest report. It covers the period January 15 – May 15, 2013. Three others preceded it.
The UN News Centre headlined “Independent UN panel calls for diplomatic surge to end ‘daily reality’ of war crimes in Syria.”
Syria was invaded. There’s nothing civil about ongoing conflict. COI persists in characterizing it that way. Doing so distorts reality on the ground. COI’s report states:
“War crimes and crimes against humanity have become a daily reality in Syria where the harrowing accounts of victims have seared themselves on our conscience. Referral to justice remains paramount.”
COI discussed “systematic imposition of sieges, the use of chemical agents and forcible displacement.”
According to Pinheiro, “Syria is in free-fall. No one is winning and will not win the war. More weapons will only lead to more civilians dead and wounded.”
He stops short of truth and full disclosure. It’s not his mandate. Syria was invaded. It’s victimized by Washington-initiated aggression. Obama bears full responsibility.
Pinheiro urges dialogue to end conflict. How can it when Obama prioritizes war? So far, proxy foot soldiers wage it.
Ending hostilities requires calling them off, halting all funding, arming, training and directing, as well as telling complicit allies to cease and desist all anti-Syrian activities.
Pinheiro’s a willing co-conspirator. “We ask that States exert influence over the parties to the conflict to compel them to protect civilians,” he urges.
Only one state matters. Washington calls the shots. What it says goes. As long as Obama prioritizes regime change, expect conflict to continue.
COI ignores the grim reality. It was formed to do so. It’s a pro-Western tool. So-called findings were based on 430 interviews and “other collected evidence.”
Who was interviewed wasn’t explained. Clearly anti-Assad elements were featured at the expense of government loyalists. More on Pinheiro’s report below.
On June 2, Al Manar reported a recent NATO study. Western organizations conducted it. The World Tribune said it shows Syrian forces winning decisively.
On June 4, Western media reported Syria in full control of Qusair. It’s a strategic town bordering Lebanon. It’s part of an insurgent supply route. According to General Yahya Suleiman:
“Whoever controls Qusair control the center of the country, and whoever controls the center of the country controls all of Syria.”
Syrian state television said “Our heroic armed forces have returned security and stability to all of the town of Qusair.”
NATO said 70% of Syrians support Assad. They do so for good reason. They’re alarmed about Al Qaeda, Al Nusra, and other extremist elements waging war, committing atrocities and other crimes.
According to an unnamed Western source, “Assad is winning the war mostly because the people are cooperating with him against the rebels.”
He omitted explaining why. They want no part of foreign invaders. They reject US-led belligerent intervention. They want Syrian sovereignty respected. They want no outside force deciding who’ll rule their country. Above all, they want peace and stability restored.
According to COI, government forces and affiliated militia committed “murder, torture, rape, forcible displacement, enforced disappearances and other inhumane acts.”
Pinheiro calls ongoing conflict part of Assad’s systematic attack on civilians. He lied saying so. Assad’s doing his job. He’s battling foreign invaders. He’s obligated to do so. Syrians express gratitude.
Pinheiro admits anti-government forces commit crimes of war and against humanity. According to COI’s report:
“The violations and abuses committed by anti-Government armed groups did not, however, reach the intensity and scale of those committed by Government forces and affiliated militia.”
At the same time it says:
“Anti-Government armed groups have committed war crimes, including murder, sentencing and execution without due process, torture, hostage-taking and pillage.”
“They continue to endanger the civilian population by positioning military objectives in civilian areas.” Government soldiers and noncombatant civilians were executed in cold blood “without due process.”
Gruesome videos revealed brutal anti-Assad atrocities. Western media largely ignore them. Big Lies substitute. Syrian forces are blamed for insurgent crimes.
Pinheiro suggests Assad’s forces target internally displaced Syrians. Chemical weapons have been used by both sides, he said. Assad bears most responsibility, he claims.
COI’s report cites four attacks. They include March 19 on Khan Al-Asal, Aleppo, March 19 on Uteibah, Damascus, April 13 on Aleppo’s Sheikh Maqsood’s neighborhood, and April 29 on Saraqib, Idlib.
“There are reasonable grounds to believe that limited quantities of toxic chemicals were used” in these incidents, said COI.
Precise chemical agents used, their delivery systems or perpetrators aren’t clear, it said. Other incidents remain under investigation.
No evidence whatever links Syrian forces to toxic chemical attacks. Plenty shows insurgents used them. In late May, Turkish forces arrested 12 suspected Al Nusra fighters.
They were seized in southern Turkey. They were caught red-handed with a two gm cylinder of sarin nerve gas.
Initial Turkish media reports said four and a half pounds of sarin were seized. US media scoundrels said nothing. They largely support aggressive war on Syria.
Along with sarin, Turkish police found handguns, grenades, bullets and various documents. A planned Al-Nusra bomb attack in Adana was foiled. Many Alawites live there. They’re Assad loyalists.
On May 5, COI said testimonial evidence indicates “rebel forces” used sarin. A day later, it suggested “no conclusive findings.”
Other reports confirmed anti-Assad elements using chemical weapons. Syrian forces confiscated two cylinders of sarin used by insurgents in Hama.
It bears repeating. No evidence whatever shows Syria’s military or other pro-government elements used sarin or other toxic agents.
False reports claim otherwise. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius accused Assad of using them. He did so based on alleged tests France conducted. Results were sent to the UN, he said.
On June 5, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) headlined “Syria: UNHCR Committee Insists on Exaggeration, Ignores Crucial Events,” saying:
Syria’s permanent HCR representative Fayssal al-Hamwi addressed the body. He accused it of premeditated exaggerations. It paid little attention to vital information too important to ignore.
“In spite of our warnings against using sectarian expressions,” he said, “basically rejected by the Syrian society, the committee used such terms and ignored in its conclusions and recommendations the causes of deteriorating the social and economic situation, including the unjust unilateral sanctions imposed by some Arab and western countries on the Syrian people.”
Russia’s permanent Geneva-based UN representative Alexei Borodavkin said COI’s report stopped short of “honest positions.”
It downplayed or ignored insurgent “terrorist acts.” It omitted explaining the harmful effects of unilateral economic sanctions. It’s “politically biased.”
False anti-Assad accusations persist. Repeatedly he’s been accused of foreign death squad atrocities. Eye witnesses point fingers the right way. Western media ignore them.
Recent White House and State Department comments suggest Obama appears heading for full-scale intervention.
With marines, other US forces and heavy weapons on Syria’s border, anything may happen any time. If Libya 2.0 is launched, expect Israel to be involved. Israeli air attacks may initiate it.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
His new book is titled “Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity.”
Luis R. Miranda is the Founder and Editor of The Real Agenda. His 16 years of experience in Journalism include television, radio, print and Internet news. Luis obtained his Journalism degree from Universidad Latina de Costa Rica, where he graduated in Mass Media Communication in 1998. He also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Broadcasting from Montclair State University in New Jersey. Among his most distinguished interviews are: Costa Rican President Jose Maria Figueres and James Hansen from NASA Space Goddard Institute.
Britain’s GCHQ has an incredibly close relationship with its US counterpart – and that is now drawing it into controversy.
At issue is whether America’s Prism program has been used to cast a significantly wider surveillance net over communications.
Is Prism simply a means of accessing forms of communication information in a more streamlined way (by directly accessing servers) or does it involve collecting whole new categories of information? And about whom?
Critics will ask whether GCHQ could have used this to get round existing restrictions on whom it collects on.
That’s something the spy agency seems to be pushing back against by saying that everything it does is within a legal and policy framework to make sure it is authorised, necessary and proportionate.
It should come as no surprise that spy agencies spy – and that they don’t like talking about how they spy or on whom.
But this revelation will lead to questions from the public about whether those agencies might be spying on them.
The world’s most powerful politicians and wealthiest CEOs are currently attending the mysterious Bilderberg group meeting at The Grove Hotel in Herforshire, UK. But this time, the public is watching their every move. This time, the secret is out.
Over the past several decades, members of what’s known as the Bilderberg group have met in secret — far outside the prying eyes of of the media limelight. For years, high ranking political officials like Bilderberg regular Henry Kissinger have met with queens and business tycoons behind closed doors in meetings that violate the Logan Act. That is until investigative journalists like Jim Tucker decided to document the event and discover what the elite attendees had been discussing inside.
Jim Tucker discovered that these individuals were planning world changing events behind the closed doors of the meetings, thanks to his sources that managed to relay information to him regarding the conference. Sadly, Jim Tucker has since passed away, but Jim and others like Alex Jones have paved the way for a wider level of coverage than ever. Now, the news coverage surrounding the Bilderberg group is so tight that some Bilderberg members are slated to ‘defend’ the meetings publicly — meeting that were denied by the mainstream media for years (some truly laughable media talking heads still do).
THE SECRET IS OUT
Publications like Asia Times have covered the Bilderberg group, calling the attendees ‘The Masters of the Univserse’. WikiLeaks also brought attention to Bilderberg, posting the count of military, business, and political attendants at around 130. This year, The Telegraph actually published the ‘open’ list of attendees. And by open I mean the public list, as there are high profile attendees who are shuffled through the back via helicopter landings and so on. Interestingly, the article actually spins it into some royal get together, but it’s at least a major change in the flow of information for a publication like The Telegraph to be posting a Bilderberg attendee list.
At the end of the day, it will only open more curious readers to investigate further.
In a similar but more hard hitting report, The Guardian reported just yesterday on the Bilderberg meeting with the excellent title “Bilderberg 2013: welcome to 1984.” Detailing the massive wall that has gone up around the event to keep peaceful protesters and onlookers out, the report brought to light the total secrecy of the meeting. All in all, the reporting on Bilderberg is more on track than ever. In fact, members of the conference are likely extremely concerned. It reminds me of the David Rockefeller (a Bilderberg attendee as well) quote that details the Bilderberg blackout over the past several decades quite nicely:
“We are grateful to the Washington Post, the New York Times, Time magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected the promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subject to the bright lights of publicity during those years.” – David Rockefeller in a June 1991 address as reported by a French publication.
The UK Minister for Culture plus representatives from the MPAA, BPI, Google and four major ISPs met for a roundtable discussion on the issue of online piracy last month. The minutes of the meeting suggest that not only are the parties keen for site blocking to continue, but are considering whether the same High Court mechanism could be used to provide Google with a legal basis on which to delist sites.
Following the passing of the UK’s Digital Economy Act in 2010, one of the remaining big questions is when ISPs will begin sending out warning letters to subscribers suspected of illicit file-sharing.
There has been delay after delay, but yesterday Mark Jackson of ISPreview broke the news that the Department for Culture, Media & Sport had confirmed that the previous target of early 2014 will no longer be met. The notices are now expected to go out during the second half of 2015.
However, the revelation didn’t come from any official announcement but from the minutes of an anti-piracy roundtable held in May and hosted by UK Minister for Culture Ed Vaizey. A copy obtained by TorrentFreak shows that the meeting was attended by a who’s who of rightsholders, anti-piracy groups and ISPs, including the MPAA, BPI, FACT, Google and the Premier League, plus BT, Virgin, TalkTalk and Sky.
Pressuring Google
Perhaps unsurprisingly at this point is how rightsholders and the authorities are increasingly putting pressure on Google. Ed Vaizey said the UK Government now wants to see the issue of infringing search results “addressed and producing tangible results.”
The usual complaints came from Ian Moss, the BPI’s Director of Public Affairs, over the apparent lack of progress demonstrated by Google following the earlier tweaking of its search algorithm. Autocomplete, Moss said, is still suggesting illegal sites in response to user searches.
Theo Bertram, UK Policy Manager for Google, countered that progress had been made but conceded there was more to be done. Over time the algorithm would yield better results, Bertram said.
Censoring search via legal action?
While the wrangling over algorithm adjustment has been heard many times before, what followed next appears to be something quite new. Noting that an analysis is under way to investigate the role of search engines on infringement, the discussion turned to how the law might have a role to play in manipulating search results.
Section 97a of Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 is currently being used by the MPAA and BPI to have sites such as The Pirate Bay and KAT.ph blocked by UK ISPs, but could it have additional usefulness when it comes to dealing with search?
The meeting suggested that s97a could provide Google with a legal basis on which to remove sites from its search rankings.
Rightsholders could “apply to the courts to establish principles on which Google could base decisions to remove sites from rankings,” the MPAA’s Chris Marcich said.
Current site blocking
New uses for S97a aside, the current process appears to be going quite well, at least as far as the rightsholders are concerned.
The BPI and MPAA told the meeting that the court procedure to have sites blocked in the UK had become “increasingly efficient and quick” on the back of ISPs becoming more comfortable with the process and copyright holders getting a better grasp on the kind of evidence required by the court.
However, for reasons not made clear, the MPAA doesn’t consider the process quick enough to deal with “streaming websites.”
Advertising
Another area discussed was the advertising being placed on unauthorized content sites. Peter Szyszko of whiteBULLET said his company has a system in place funded by ad networks looking to protect their brands. It contains a database of 150,000 sites which have been scored for ad suitability.
Szyszko said that rightsholders could use his company’s system to measure the advertising on “high-risk” sites so that decisions could be made on “compliance action.” Lavinia Carey of the Federation Against Copyright Theft expressed support for such independent automated systems and said they could prove useful for evidence purposes.
Bill Bush, Director of Communications and Public Policy at Premier League, raised the issue of online gambling sites advertising on sites illegally streaming live sport. He questioned whether this problem could be addressed not via copyright legislation, but through the Remote Gambling Bill. Ed Vaizey said he would follow this up through the Minister for Sport and Tourism’s office.
Finally, as revealed earlier this week, the music and movie industries are working more closely than ever with police in the UK. FACT’s Lavinia Carey told the meeting that copyright owners had been working with the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau to compile a register of infringing sites. That work, she said, would be completed soon.
The catalyst for the next great war will likely occur somewhere in the middle east. The Americans know this. As do the Russians and the Chinese. And as with the last two ‘great wars,’ the groundwork is being laid well ahead of time.
A large American military force disembarked Tuesday, June 4, at the southern Jordanian port of Aqaba – ready for deployment on the kingdom’s Syrian border, DEBKAfile’s exclusive military sources report. The force made its way north along the Aqaba-Jerash-Ajilon mountain road bisecting Jordan from south to north, under heavy Jordanian military escort.
Our sources disclose that this American force numbers 1,000 troops, the largest to land in Jordan since the Syrian civil war erupted in March 2012. They are members of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Force carried aboard the USS Kearsageamphibious assault ship, which has been anchored off neighboring Israeli Eilat since mid-May. Upon landing, the marines took to the road in a convoy of armored vehicles including Hummers.
Washington and Amman have imposed a blackout on their arrival.
…
According to our US sources, the arrival of the US force in Jordan was not directly related to the regular exercise but decided on at an emergency meeting at the Pentagon on May 31, which was attended by top military and civilian Defense Department officials. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who is away from Washington, took part by video conference.
Just last month the Russians, in response to a multi-year American Naval buildup, deployed the majority of their Pacific Fleet to the Mediterranean, and they are now shifting nuclear submarines to the region.
Sides are being taken, with Russia providing material support to the Assad regime and the United States providing money and weapons to the Free Syrian Army rebels, who sources claim are not only not Syrian, but likely operatives of America’s sworn enemy Al Queda.
There will be no draw down of troops or naval assets in the near future. Russia and the United States, as well as China, have strategic reasons for being in the region, and no one is going to pull back.
A terrible future lies ahead for the people of Syria and the greater world as this conflict continues to escalate.
Using Vietnam and other proxy wars as a reference, here is how I believe the war in Syria is likely to progress over the coming months:
Heavy weapons will be supplied to the insurgency, including anti-aircraft weapons, leading to increased casualties, especially civilian casualties.
Assad will respond with expanded and deadly airstrikes and ground troops will advance with the aid of Hezbollah.
Iran will begin openly supplying arms, and step up covert supplies of advisors and ground troops.
Russia will increase arms shipments even further, including anti-ship, anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles in order to dissuade U.S. and Israeli interests from sending their own forces into the area.
Syrian insurgents will begin losing ground quickly. The UN will offer to “mediate” a ceasefire, but this will only be designed to allow the insurgents time to regroup, and for the U.S., EU and Israel to position themselves for attack.
The UN ceasefire talks will be a wash, if they even take place. Israel will begin regular airstrikes in the name of stopping Iran and Hezbollah from interfering in the war, or to stop them from obtaining “chemical weapons.” The strikes will be aimed at Syrian military facilities and Syrian infrastructure. There will be many civilian casualties.
Syria will respond with ground to air and ground to ground missiles. Israeli cities will see far more precise targeting than the scud missiles used by Iraq during Gulf I and Gulf II. Civilian deaths will be much higher than expected, despite common claims that Israeli missile defenses are the most advanced in the world (Israel has never faced the threat of advanced Russian missile systems).
A no-fly zone will be announced over Syria, enforced by U.S. and Israeli planes, along with anti-aircraft batteries.
A violent attack will take place in Israel, likely against a civilian population center (I would not be surprised if chemical weapons are involved). The attack will be blamed on the Assad government, or affiliated allies. It might be a real attack or it might be a false flag. In either case, the result will be the commitment of Israeli ground troops.
I think it highly probable that Israel will be the first Western country to invade Syria. However, their involvement will immediately draw a declaration of war from Iran, and, increased ship movements from Russia, which maintains a strategic naval base off the coast of Tartus.
Israel will be swallowed up in a strategic quandary, and will demand U.S. military action. The U.S. will supply that action. Combat will spread into cross-border battles in countries not directly engaged in the fight (as it did in Cambodia during Vietnam).
China will respond with economic retaliation, dumping the U.S. dollar as the world reserve currency. Russia will respond by reducing petro-product exports to Europe and staging a massive naval presence in the region. From this point, all bets are off…
Now, the temptation here is for one to immediately take sides and to look at this conflict through the lens of “East vs. West.” This would be a mistake. The Syrian government has in the past acted in tyrannical fashion (though much of the latest accusations appear to be propaganda designed to lure the American public into rallying around another war).
Russia is just as restrictive an oligarchy as the U.S. or the EU. China’s society is a communist nightmare state and the average globalist’s aspiration for what they want America to become one day. Iran has many oppressive policies and is certainly not the kind of country I would ever want to live in. The Syrian insurgency is a mixture of immoral and unprincipled death squads and paid covert wet-work agents. The U.S. government is immorally supplying the cash and weapons for them to operate in the name of fighting the same kind of tyranny that is being instituting here at home.
The point is, there are no “good guys” in this story. There are no heroes; only the insiders, the outsiders, and the general public.
Very few, if any, major conflicts throughout history erupted overnight.
Chess pieces were positioned for years, sometimes decades, before all-out conflict took place.
These people – our dear leaders in America, Russia, China, Syria and Iran among others – are actively pursuing a strategy that is going to get hundreds of millions of people killed.
They are going to take the world to war… again.
Get ready for it, because we are going to see it in our lifetimes.
When it hits the fan, don’t say we didn’t warn you. Mac Slavo is the editor of SHTFplan.com, a resource hub for alternative news, contrarian commentary and strategies that you can take to protect yourself from the coming global paradigm shift.
Beirut June 6th 2013
Credit: Reuters/Muzaffar Salman
There has reportedly been heavy fighting in the Golan Heights and Syrian rebels have taken over a UN-run border crossing. The fighting continues very near Israeli held territory near the town of Quneitra.
The White House has called on Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah to withdraw from the fighting. The rebel forces pledged to hit back at Hezbollah on it’s own ground and several rockets hit Baalbek inside Lebanon late on Wednesday.
“The sounds of shelling are very loud,” Raya Fakhradin, who lives in nearby Majdal-Shams, told the BBC, ”Everybody is scared. People have been stocking up on food supplies so that they don’t need to leave their homes.”
Israel has not yet commented on which opposition faction has taken over the crossing and so far there has been no comment from the UN ‘peacekeeping’ force who operate and patrol the demilitarized zone.
“The rebels have seized the crossing near the old city of Quneitra in the occupied Golan Heights,” Rami Abdelrahman, head of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told Reuters news agency.
UPDATE
Israel is stating that the Syrian Army has re-taken the Golan Heights crossing from the rebels. There is no mention of the UN at this point. (BBC)
Chris Carrington is a writer, researcher and lecturer with a background in science, technology and environmental studies. Chris is an editor for The Daily Sheeple. Wake the flock up!
The following article first published in December 2012 [scroll down] documents how the Pentagon not only provided chemical weapons to Al Nusra, an affiliated Al Qaeda terrorist organization, but also provided training to the rebels in the use of these weapons.
While Washington points its finger at president Bashar al Assad, a United Nations independent commission of inquiry has confirmed [May 2013] that the rebels rather than the government have chemical weapons in their possession and are using sarin nerve against the civilian population:
U.N. human rights investigators have gathered testimony from casualties of Syria’s civil war and medical staff indicating that rebel forces have used the nerve agent sarin, one of the lead investigators said on Sunday.
The United Nations independent commission of inquiry on Syria has not yet seen evidence of government forces having used chemical weapons, which are banned under international law, said commission member Carla Del Ponte.
The Geneva-based inquiry into war crimes and other human rights violations is separate from an investigation of the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria instigated by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, which has since stalled [discredited]. See “U.N. has testimony that Syrian rebels used sarin gas: investigator,” Chicago Tribune, May, 5 2013, (emphasis added)
Ironically, when the chemical weapons pretext was first launched by the Pentagon in August 2012, the accusations were not directed against President Bashar al Assad to the effect that he was underhandedly conniving to use WMD against Syrian civilians. Quite the opposite. According to the Pentagon, the operation was to ensure that Syria’s WMDs, which allegedly had been “left unguarded” in military bunkers around the country would not fall in the hands of opposition jihadist rebels who are fighting government forces:
Pentagon planners are more focused on protecting or destroying any Syrian stockpiles that are left unguarded and at risk [of] falling into the hands of rebel fighters or militias aligned with Al Qaeda, Hezbollah or other militant groups. ( U.S. has plans in place to secure Syria chemical arms – latimes.com, August 22, 2012
What the Pentagon was saying in August 2012, is that these WMD could fall in the hands of the “pro-democracy” Al Qaeda rebels recruited and financed by several of America’s close allies including Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, in liaison with Washington and NATO headquarters in Brussels.
In a twisted logic, the Pentagon was to ensure that the rebels aligned with Al Qaeda would not acquire WMD, by actually training them in the use of chemical weapons:
The training [in chemical weapons], which is taking place in Jordan and Turkey,involves how to monitor and secure stockpiles and handle weapons sites and materials, according to the sources. Some of the contractors are on the ground in Syria working with the rebels to monitor some of the sites, according to one of the officials.
The nationality of the trainers was not disclosed, though the officials cautioned against assuming all are American. (CNN, December 09, 2012, (emphasis added)
And once these Al Qaeda rebels had been supplied and trained in the use of WMDs by military contractors hired by the Pentagon, the Syrian government would then be held responsible for using the WMD against the Syrian people.
This in turn would provide a justification for a humanitarian R2P intervention to “protect” and come to the rescue of the Syrian people.
Believe it or not: that is the justification for waging a “humanitarian war” on Syria.
The Institute of Fiscal Studies has highlighted the the average UK family will be worse off by £1800 a year by 2015.
Incomes in the UK are failing to keep up with inflation and that is in addition to the billions in welfare cuts that came last month.
“Most of the falls in real incomes associated with the recession have now happened for middle- and higher-income groups,” said Robert Joyce, a senior economist at the IFS. (Source)
The UK is struggling with ever increasing food and domestic fuel price rises and is seeing an explosion in obesity as hard hit families turn to cheap, calorie laden food rather than more expensive fresh produce to feed their families.
The heat or eat situation is becoming increasingly common in Britain and many families, and senior citizens in particular have stark choices to make when the weather turns colder.
There has been a massive increase in the number of food banks opening up, even in affluent areas of the country as prices continue to surge higher.
Chichester, a well to do city in Sussex in the south of England has recently opened a food bank, something that would have been unheard of until recently. The city boasts an affluent population and is within the commuter belt for those working in London. Unemployment and rising bills has seen an increasing number of desperate people going through its doors.
Staff declined to comment except to confirm a rise in the number of people using the service and to point out they never have quite enough food to go around and all donations are welcomed.
Lizzie Bennett retired from her job as a senior operating department practitioner in the UK earlier this year. Her field was trauma and accident and emergency and she has served on major catastrophe teams around the UK. Lizzie publishes Medically Speaking on the topic of preparedness.
Monsanto has just announced it’s giving up on most of Europe: people there don’t want GMO food. In America, the struggle is for labeling GMOs.
This is some kind of “fairness doctrine.” Let the US consumer decide what kind of food to buy. Choice. It’s the American way, right?
No, actually it isn’t. The evidence gathered over the last 10 years is staggering. GMO food and the herbicides sprayed on them constitute a major health hazard, to say the least.
In the US, laws exist to prosecute crimes involving endangerment of health and crimes related to false marketing practices. These laws are on the books. When it comes to Monsanto, they’re gathering dust on the shelves.
Choice and fairness apply to competitive products that are safe. The consumer picks one type of tomato over another. The consumer buys walnuts rather than pecans. The consumer chooses black olives over green olives.
Choosing non-GMO corn instead of GMO corn still leaves dangerous GMO corn in produce bins.
Should a bottle of cyanide sit on a store shelf next to a bottle of salt, just to be fair to the consumer? To give him a choice?
Three or four federal law-enforcement agencies would arrest and prosecute the store owners who sell cyanide, as well as the distributors, and the packagers.
But in the case of GMO food, the FDA and USDA, the relevant agencies, do nothing. Neither does the Dept. of Justice.
Aside from several counties in America that have banned the growing of GMO crops, the big push is for labeling of GMO food in stores. That’s it.
The theory is, when consumers have a choice, they’ll overwhelmingly reject GMOs and put a serious crimp in Monsanto’s business. That may or may not happen (if labeling is widespread), but the theory doesn’t directly address Monsanto’s crimes.
The “kinder, gentler” approach is based on two assumptions. One, American consumers need soft activism. They won’t demand legal rejection of GMO food. They will, however, choose the right food.
And two, Monsanto has made such a powerful inroad on food-crop farming, it’s too late to take it back. It’s too late to declare all the GMO crops illegal.
“You see, so many people are taking Vioxx, we can’t go to court over it. It’s a done deal, even though patients are dropping like flies.”
It wasn’t a done deal.
Neither are GMOs.
In a previous article, “Meet Monsanto’s number-one lobbyist: Barack Obama,” I detailed Obama’s horrendous record when it comes to allowing new GMO crops to enter the food chain, and his outrageous appointments of ex-Monsanto stalwarts to important and key positions in his administration.
But Obama is “a good man.” He must be doing the right thing. He’s popular, so it wouldn’t be wise to attack him on the issue. Better to lay back, paste a smile on our faces, and try to secure labeling for GMOs.
Of course, that’s exactly the wrong strategy. But as in all campaigns, the longer people wait and do nothing and remain timid, the less likely it is they can succeed, if and when they decide to move.
That’s why Monsanto now has so many acres of GMO food growing in the United States. That’s why Monsanto has been able to push its unconscionable propaganda down the throat of the American consumer.
That’s why Whole Foods and other major health-food companies decided to surrender the real battles and opt for co-existence with Monsanto.
When there is continuing crime in a community, the people, the citizens have to go after and expose the public officials who are doing nothing about it, who are indeed profiting from it. In the case of Monsanto, the officials are, among others, President Barack Obama, Tom Vilsack, head of the USDA, and Michael Taylor, food czar at the FDA.
But health-food companies, who should be leading the battle, are either friendly or neutral toward these bad actors. They’re hedging their bets. They’re saying, “We’ll inform consumers so they can make good choices, we’ll do labeling, but don’t expect us to be more aggressive than that. Don’t expect us to get mad.”
Neutrality is apparently the American way. First and foremost, the business of America is business. And the idea of consumers staging a full-bore boycott against Whole Foods? Out of the question. No, consumers are too busy loading up bags with groceries.
Monsanto relies on that. Monsanto knows Americans are tuned up to buy, buy, and consume, and then buy more. Americans consider it their right not to be distracted from that obsession.
Obama, like Bush and Clinton before him, are silent on the GMO issue. They all pretend it doesn’t exist. They sell out the people at the drop of a hat, and they don’t lose any sleep over it. Conscience? Never heard of it.
Ditto for major mainstream news outlets. “We don’t cover the Monsanto story in depth because it’s a he-said he-said thing. The scientific issues are complex. People on both sides make interesting points. But there’s no traction…”
That’s a bunch of crap. Make me the managing editor of the Washington Post for a year and I’ll send sales of the paper through the roof. I’ll let the hounds loose on Monsanto 24/7 and pound on the story day after day. The bottom line of the Post will look healthier than it has since Watergate, a minor topic compared to GMOs.
But the Post doesn’t really care about their bottom line. They would go bankrupt before they’d venture into these waters. They’re sold out from the top down. They’re part of the cover-up.
I’ve written about this before, but here it is again. In the early 1990s, when the US health freedom movement was at a fever pitch, when people were going after the FDA for raiding natural practitioners’ offices and trying to limit access to nutritional supplements in stores, I sat in on several significant meetings of activists.
People who controlled those meetings, who were connected to supplement companies, wanted a bill in Congress to protect the consumer. To give the consumer choice and access to supplements. That’s all they wanted.
I told them, in no uncertain terms, that this wouldn’t work over the long term. We had to go after the FDA. We had to attack.
I had a dossier on the FDA. I, like others, knew a lot about their crimes going back a long way.
I was told this was the wrong strategy. “First,” they said, “let’s get a good bill passed in Congress. Then we can attack the FDA.”
They had no such intention, and I told them so. They were never going to support going after the FDA and exposing it down to the ground as a criminal agency.
They had no stomach for it, and they were sold out themselves. They had a confined agenda, which had to do with helping to guard supplement companies’ profits.
They were slick operators. They knew how to present themselves as neutral and rational. They could spout New Age garble at appropriate moments. “Anger can be self-defeating.” “You achieve your aims when you come from a place of doing service.”
The same thing is happening now. “Give people the right to know, the right to choose what’s in their food.” It plays well, because it caters to the wholly absorbed self-interest of the health-food consumer with discretionary income.
It doesn’t work in the long run. It papers over the fact that corporate criminals, in partnership with the highest government officials, are committing RICO crimes against the health of the American people.
The appropriate emotion is outrage.
In case you hadn’t noticed, for the past 40 years there has been a major psyop in progress against righteous outrage and on behalf of Nice. Be nice. Be friendly. Be happy. Be self-contained. Don’t make waves. Anger is a sign of a mental disorder. Outrage isn’t Spiritual. You’ll injure your Karma.
Karma was invented to prop up a caste system. It was used to promote passivity.
Silence is not golden. Profits are.
Labeling food that isn’t poisonous, while permitting the sale of poison, is let’s-pretend virtual reality.
I’ve met so-called health entrepreneurs who’ve adopted squeaky clean New Age cover-personalities to obscure their sleazebag cynical motives. They’re very slippery characters. They do their real work in conference rooms where they look at spread sheets.
The chance of them going after GMO criminals is zero.
Once in a while, if you wait for it, or if you push them a little, you’ll see something come into their eyes. A dead cold nothing. It’s a sign of the personal Arctic region where they really live.
They don’t till, they don’t plant, they don’t harvest. They sell. They’re very much like the Sunday television preachers who are there to hustle dollars.
Only they take a kinder, gentler approach. They’re all about “consciousness” and saving the planet.
If the planet were alive in the way they claim it is, the planet would have long ago consigned them to a desert island under a blazing sun.
The author of an explosive collection, THE MATRIX REVEALED, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world.
Mass protests across Turkey have left streets covered in blood, hundreds injured and an unknown number of people arrested.
Now, nearly 5 days after riots and protests spread throughout the country, police are settling scores.
And according to one video posted by a witness, they are coming after people sleeping peacefully in their homes.
Watch as police mass in front of a home, smash its windows, and then launch what look to be tear gas canisters into the dwelling. Moments after, police leave, suggesting that the intention wasn’t to arrest anyone, but rather, to terrorize them.
While the protests reportedly started when activists staged a sit-in at a local park scheduled to be torn down for a commercial project, it has escalated well beyond a typical protest, with people of all walks of life taking the opportunity to reject recent government efforts to control the populace:
On top of all that, the government control over its people’s personal lives has become unbearable as of late. The state, under its conservative agenda passed many laws and regulations concerning abortion, cesarean birth, sale and use of alcohol and even the color of lipstick worn by the airline stewardesses.
People who are marching to the center of Istanbul are demanding their right to live freely and receive justice, protection and respect from the State. They demand to be involved in the decision-making processes about the city they live in.
Frank Drover is a co-editor and contributor for The Daily Sheeple, an alternative media hub for leading headlines, head lies, opinion, and commentary. Wake the flock up!
This content may be freely reproduced in full or in part in digital form with full attribution to the author and a link to www.TheDailySheeple.com.
May was Iraq’s deadliest month in nearly five years, with more than 1,000 dead – both civilians and security personnel — in a rash of bombings, shootings and other violence. As we read each day of new horrors in Iraq, it becomes more obvious that the US invasion delivered none of the promised peace or stability that proponents of the attack promised.
Millions live in constant fear, refugees do not return home, and the economy is destroyed. The Christian community, some 1.2 million persons before 2003, has been nearly wiped off the Iraqi map. Other minorities have likewise disappeared. Making matters worse, US support for the Syrian rebels next door has drawn the Shi’ite-led Iraqi government into the spreading regional unrest and breathed new life into extremist elements.
The invasion of Iraq opened the door to Al-Qaeda in Iraq, which did not exist beforehand, while simultaneously strengthening the hand of Iran in the region. Were the “experts” who planned for and advocated the US attack really this incompetent?
Ryan Crocker, who was US Ambassador to Iraq from 2007-2009, still speaks of the Iraqi “surge” as a great reconciliation between Sunni and Shi’ite in Iraq. He wrote recently that “[t]hough the United States has withdrawn its troops from Iraq, it retains significant leverage there. Iraqi forces were equipped and trained by Americans, and the country’s leaders need and expect our help.” He seems alarmingly out of touch with reality.
It is clear now that the “surge” and the “Iraqi Awakening” were just myths promoted by those desperate to put a positive spin on the US invasion, which the late General William Odom once called, “the greatest strategic disaster in American history.” Aircraft were loaded with $100 dollar bills to pay each side to temporarily stop killing US troops and each other, but the payoff provided a mere temporary break. Shouldn’t the measure of success of a particular policy be whether it actually produces sustained positive results?
Now we see radical fighters who once shot at US troops in Iraq have spilled into Syria, where they ironically find their cause supported by the US government! Some of these fighters are even greeted by visiting US senators.
The US intervention in Iraq has created ever more problems. That is clear. The foreign policy “experts” who urged the US attack on Iraq now claim that the disaster they created can only be solved with more interventionism! Imagine a medical doctor noting that a particular medication is killing his patient, but to combat the side effect he orders an increase in dosage of the same medicine. Like this doctor, the US foreign policy establishment is guilty of malpractice. And, I might add, this is just what the Fed does with monetary policy.
From Iraq to Libya to Mali to Syria to Afghanistan, US interventions have an unbroken record of making matters far worse. Yet regardless of the disasters produced, for the interventionists a more aggressive US foreign policy is the only policy they offer.
We must learn the appropriate lessons from the disaster of Iraq. We cannot continue to invade countries, install puppet governments, build new nations, create centrally-planned economies, engage in social engineering, and force democracy at the barrel of a gun. The rest of the world is tired of US interventionism and the US taxpayer is tired of footing the bill for US interventionism. It is up to all of us to make it very clear to the foreign policy establishment and the powers that be that we have had enough and will no longer tolerate empire-building. We should be more confident in ourselves and stop acting like an insecure bully.
Is Turkey next for the CIA’s spring cleaning? It certainly looks that way, from all the clues surrounding the huge riots that have developed seemingly overnight in Istanbul and other large cities.
Ostensibly the trouble began over the plans by the Istanbul municipality to redevelop part of Gezi Park close to Taksim (Constitution) Square, situated in the heart of the country’s largest city. Suddenly – and suspiciously – numbers or protestors swelled dramatically and the police, never renowned for their lightness of touch, moved in with full-scale anti-riot tactics.
In the subsequent violence the situation turned from an ecological ‘occupy’ sort of protest to a rolling stone with all the indications of the popular demonstrations which appeared in not dissimilar circumstances in Egypt, Tunisia and Tripoli.
Each demonstration of the popular pro-democracy will ended with the removal of the existing authorities. Libya’s leader, Colonel Gadaffi, was murdered. Turkey’s Erdoğan has already called the protesters “marauders.”
Turkey has long been a source of discontent in western circles, notably the CIA and the US state department. This is entirely because the country is in the hands of soft Islamic power which won three victories in a row by landslide majorities.
The election of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) emerged as a source of hope after years of instability, chaos and economic backwardness. The new AK leaders switched on a humming dynamo of economic reforms which transformed the slothful economy into a huge source of growth.
Only last week, the government repaid the last installment on an outstanding loan contracted from the IMF by the former secular governments, whose only legacy was massive unemployment and zero growth.
The AK people crossed an especially dangerous red line when they fell out with Israel over the Marmara Incident, in which nine Turkish citizens on board a Gazan relief vessel were killed by Israel commandoes. Ankara all but broke off of full diplomatic relations with Israel. Effectively long established friendly co-operation between Turkey, the second largest NATO power, and Israel pitched into the deep freeze.
Turks are tasting sweet success for the first time since the reign of the founder Mustapha Kamal Ataturk, which matters a good deal more than scrap with Israel.
The AK party managed for the first time to bridge the gap between the pious Islamist majority, the quiescent conservatives seeking dramatic reforms, and neo-liberals. The coalition did not include the stoutly secular army or the former secular parties who suddenly found themselves out in the cold, all their power and privileged snatched away.
So why are Turks now apparently in a revolting mood against the very authorities who delivered the long sought boons of prosperity? The answer is this: some are, but the majority of Turks are against any change in government and still less any meddling with the hugely beneficial forms.
We see before us the classic example of rent-a-crowd. Many of the violent demonstrators are off duty members of the armed forces acting as agents provocateur (an old story in Turkey). They are deployed by the military High Command which seeks vengeance for the long running Ergenekon scandal which has seen many of the most senior officers arrested, tried and jailed for conspiring to overthrow the government.
Ergenekon (it means ‘iron mountain’ in Turkish) is the direct successor of Counter-Guerilla, the NATO sponsored deep state force involved in four attempts at overthrowing elected Turkish authorities, three successful, two of them extremely bloody.
These new disturbances feature all the same players: the whisky generals of the Turkish High Command, extreme Right anti-Islamic paramilitaries, secretive units of the national gendarmerie, gangs associated with the Turkish criminal underground, and not least the very same secular parties(notably the main opposition force, CHP) who found all the sweet joys of office and power snatched away when the AK leadership came to power.
Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, generally a master tactician, for once failed to spot the looming danger. He refused to treat the original eco protest seriously, still less appreciate the fuel supplied by the anti-Islamic forces backed by western interests.
When the protests spilled into the highly emotional Taksim Square (traditionally the seat of popular protest), he miscalculated the increasing danger to the AK authorities.
It is not too late to turn the situation around, but that would require a defeat for Erdogan who is bent on a plan to turn Istanbul into the most impressive modern metropolis on earth.
There are many Turks uneasy at the huge demolitions required for the projected third Bosporus bridge, for example. Erdogan reacted insensitively and found himself accused of steam-rolling popular resentment and concern.
So he now finds himself the victim of a long prepared plan, quiet kept in the locker, to overthrow the AK government when the appropriate circumstances ripened. They have.
We are watching a new roll-out of the Counter-Guerrilla/Gladio blueprint which undermined and brought down previous Turkish governments that strayed across the lines of political correctness in the eyes of to western strategists.
Erdoğan and the president and chief ally, Abdullah Gul, will need a good deal more than and courage soothing words – still less over-reactions on the ground – to put this fire out. These are perilous times for all Turks.
Madison Ruppert is the Editor and Owner-Operator of the alternative news and analysis database End The Lie and has no affiliation with any NGO, political party, economic school, or other organization/cause. He is available for podcast and radio interviews. Madison also now has his own radio show on UCY.TV from 7 pm — 10 pm Pacific, which you can find HERE. If you have questions, comments, or corrections feel free to contact him at admin@EndtheLie.com
The changing internal situation in Syria is putting a new set of plans into motion, which involve Israeli aggression against Syria.
Not only have the US and its allies been trying to militarily buttress the retreating anti-government militias, but now they aim to create a new phase in the conflict where states start asserting leverage against Syria in place of the weakening anti-government forces. In other words, external pressure is being applied to replace the declining internal pressure.
The entry of Israeli troops and the Mossad security service into Syria with repeated Israeli air strikes via illegal use of Lebanese airspace on the Syrian military research facility in the town of Jamraya clarifies Israel’s role in destabilizing Syria. Israel has also admitted that “intense intelligence activity” is being maintained in Syria by Israeli forces and that it is even thinking of occupying more Syrian territory as a new “buffer zone.” Fox News, which is openly biased in favour of Israel, has released a video of Israeli troops illegally crossing the Syrian border. Reports have also come out of Syria that an Israeli military vehicle was seized during fighting with anti-government forces in the town of Qusair, inside Syrian territory.
Free Syrian Army fighters prepare to raid a house in Daraa May 16, 2013. Picture taken May 16, 2013.(Reuters / Thaer Abdallah)
Epicentre of a Regional War?
The events involving Israel are part of the trend to expand and internationalize the Syrian conflict by creating violent spillovers. In the words of one British newspaper: “If anyone had doubts that Syria’s gruesome [conflict] is already spinning into a wider Middle East conflict, [Israeli attacks in] the past few days should have laid them to rest.” Turkey and Israel, like the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, are themselves undeniably involved in the fighting as aggressors against Syria. Turkey has conducted reconnaissance work for NATO in Syria, it hosts NATO Patriot missiles aimed at Syria (with the possibility of deployment against Iran and Russia), and openly aids the anti-government forces. Israel has been the more discreet of the two, but it has sent the Mossad into Syria and built facilities in the Golan Heights to aid the insurgency. Both countries have continuously threatened Syria and pushed for NATO intervention and no-fly zones. All the while, the US has been prodding Ankara and Tel Aviv to continue with the war footing and has even examined selling Turkey natural gas from the US to economically de-link the Turks from Syria’s allies Russia and Iran and the leverage they have over Turkey.
In reality, Syria is merely one front in a broader hegemonic struggle that spans from NATO-garrisoned Afghanistan and Iraq to Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. The Lebanese Republic looks like the next target for destabilization in the broader struggle that Syria is a front in. There are fears that there may be a parliamentary and governmental vacuum in Beirut as a result of the spillover from Syria that could be capitalized to ignite another Lebanese internal conflict. Tensions between the pro-Syrian Hezbollah-led March 8 Alliance and the anti-Syrian Hariri-led March 14 Alliance have been building as a result of the conflict in Syria. Both sides in Lebanon are involved in the Syrian conflict.
Lebanon has been dragged into the conflict, because Syria is being used as an arena for striking and crippling Hezbollah and the March 8 Alliance with the aim of turning Lebanon into a colony controlled by Washington and its allies that will be run by the corrupt Hariri-led March 14 Alliance. Hezbollah has begun fighting on the Syrian side of the Lebanese-Syrian border whereas the March 14 Alliance began sending weapons and funding to the insurgents from the very start of the upheaval in 2011. After months of lying, the Hariri camp in Lebanon was exposed in November 2012 when evidence was provided that proved Hariri’s Future Party member Okab Sakr was behind weapons shipments destined for the Syrian insurgents in coordination with Turkish and Qatari intelligence officers.
In regards to Hezbollah, its members began fighting on the Syrian side of the border under their own initiative. Then the insurgents in Syria began launching attacks on Shiite Muslim villages on both sides of the Lebanese-Syrian border. The anti-government forces in Syria began doing everything they could to provoke Hezbollah into retaliating, including kidnapping Lebanese travellers and, in 2012, deliberately attacking Shiite Muslim shrines in Syria. After the mosque where Hujr ibn Adi Al-Kindi and his son were buried in Syria was desecrated by the insurgents, Hezbollah and Iraqi Shia Muslims were drawn further into the Syrian conflict to protect the Sayyidah Zaynab Mosque.
Israeli soldiers stand guard as Syrian residents (unseen) approach the Syria-Israel border in the Israeli annexed Golan Heights, near the southern Syrian village of Ar Rafide, on May 7, 2013.(AFP Photo / Menahem Kahana)
While the majority of Syria’s Arab population and Sunni Muslim population support the Syrian government against the insurgents and their foreign backers, there is a real push to draw the Syria conflict along the sectarian lines of Arabs versus non-Arabs and Sunni Muslims versus Alawites and the Shiite Muslim community. Various minority groups have been systematically targeted. The Druze, Maronite Catholic Christians, Melkite Greek Catholic Christians, Greek Orthodox Christians, Armenian Orthodox Christians, Syriac Orthodox Christians, Alawites, and Twelver (Jaffari) Shiite Muslims all have all been targeted as religious minorities. Armenians, Assyrians, Kurds, and Turkoman have been targeted as ethnic minorities.
Iraq knows all too well about the nightmare that Syria is facing. Many of the insurgents in Syria are from Iraq and linked to sectors of Al-Anbar’s Awakening Movement (or the Sons of Iraq Movement), which was tied to Al-Qaeda and began to collaborate and receive funding from the United States during the Anglo-American occupation. If these militants succeed in Syria, they will eventually return to Iraq and ignite an insurgency against the federal government in Baghdad too.
On the other hand, the conflict in Syria has been the catalyst for a strengthening Russian position in the Middle East and the forging of new ties between Hezbollah and Moscow. In October 2011, Hezbollah sent a delegation to Russia to discuss the fighting in Syria. It is clear now that Moscow is coordinating with the Iranian-led “Axis of Resistance” or Resistance Bloc that includes Syria, Hezbollah, Michel Aoun, and the Palestinians. After holding discussions about Syria in Tehran, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov’s April 26 visit to Beirut, during the absence of a formal Lebanese government, embodies this strategic cooperation. Bogdanov’s trip to Lebanon is important, because it was a clear indicator that Russia has forged direct strategic ties with Hezbollah and recognizes the Resistance Bloc as an extension of its own security sphere.
Like Hezbollah, Iran is also a target of the conflict in Syria. This is one of the reasons that Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hezbollah, made a rare visit to Tehran on April 29 (after meeting with Mikhail Bogdanov) to discuss a common front with the Iranians. The same group of countries targeting Syria and Hezbollah are also targeting Iran. It has been reported that “Israel is preparing to agree a defence co-operation deal with Turkey and three Arab states aimed at setting up an early warning system to detect Iranian ballistic missiles.” Uzi Mahnaimi has explained that this “proposal, referred to by the diplomats involved as ‘4+1’, may eventually lead to technicians from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan working alongside Israelis in joint command-and-control centres.”
The damage caused by an Israeli strike” according to SANA. Israel carried out a pre-dawn air strike near Damascus on May 5, targeting Iranian missiles destined for Lebanon’s Hezbollah in the second such raid on Syria in three days, a senior Israeli source said.(AFP Photo / SANA)
Just as Hezbollah has confirmed that it is involved in the fighting in Syria and promised that Syria’s “real friends”—meaning Iran, Russia, China, and the March 8 Alliance in Lebanon—will not let Syria fall into the hands of the US and its allies, Tehran has told Washington and its allies several times that Syria is the Iranian “redline.” Iranian military commanders have said that Syria is an extension of Iran’s own security parameters. What’s more, the Iranians have openly admitted that they are aiding their Syrian allies and willing to provide further training and assistance to Damascus, as well as intervene militarily to help Syria if the US and its allies attack.
Syria and the Project for the “New Middle East”
What happens in Syria will have major regional and global repercussions. Attempts to create a sectarian war are part of the logic of divide and conquer. This is part of the US and Israel “constructive chaos” strategy to fragment and re-sculpt the entire Middle East along the lines of the Yinon Plan and rehashed versions of it. Iran’s Foreign Minister Salehi has warned that if the conflict in Syria is not ended that it will result in the partition of Syria and the spreading of the conflict throughout the Middle East. The same warnings have been echoing from Russia, Syria, and other places. While the Chinese have kept mostly silent, they realize that the siege of Syria is part of the Pentagon’s roadmap against China. Days before Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to arrive in Beijing, CNN even reported that “China’s foreign ministry spokesman suggested Netanyahu may get a tough, unwelcome message from his Chinese hosts” due to the Israeli strikes on Jamraya.
The situation in Syria is akin to the situation that was created in Iraq during the Anglo-American occupation. It is a continuation of the same process of destabilization that wants to tear the pluralistic fabric of the ancient societies of the Middle East. It is this project that has driven the Christians out of Iraq and destroyed the mixed neighbourhoods of Shiites and Sunnis and Arabs and Kurds.
Contemporary Iraq suffers from the virtual realization of both the Yinon Plan and the Biden Plan, which say Iraq should be divided into three sectors. The Kurdistan Regional Government, which is openly working against the sovereignty of Iraq and aligned with Turkey and Israel, is at loggerheads with the federal government in Baghdad and has de facto independence. The corrupt leaders of the Kurdistan Regional Government have prevented the Iraqi military from manning certain Iraqi-Syrian border crossings in the north used by the insurgents in Syria and they have allowed the Israelis to use Iraqi Kurdistan as a base of operations against Syria and Iran.
Like they did in Iraq during the chaos, the US and its allies are using money and sectarianism. The insurgency in Syria is being financed by the US and members of its anti-Syrian coalition, such as the Saudis and Qataris. In addition, groups opposed to the Syrian government are being financially co-opted by the Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood with the foreign funding it has been receiving to topple the Syrian government. One Damascene opposition figure has admitted that the Muslim Brotherhood “just asked us how much we needed, we told them, and they immediately sent that amount.” Moreover, foreign funds were not only used to pay what he needed, but the Muslim Brotherhood told activists and government opponents that “they should take one per cent of the funding for their personal salaries.”
Israeli infantry soldiers of the Golani brigade take part in exercises during their deployment in the Israeli annexed Golan Heights, near the border with Syria, on May 6, 2013.(AFP Photo / Menahem Kahana)
There should be no doubt that the insurgents in Syria and Israel are on the same side. The anti-government forces in Syria have even thanked Israel on several occasions and were jubilant about the Israeli attacks on Jamraya. As a result of the embarrassing attention they received for being aligned with Israel, the insurgents in Syria have changed gears and tried to save face by ridiculously claiming that Israel is secretly aligned with Bashar Al-Assad, Iran, and Hezbollah.
It says something of significance when Israeli officials say that they do not see an Al-Qaeda takeover of Syria as a threat to Tel Aviv. Amos Gilad, an Israeli military official, has stated very frankly Al-Qaeda is no concern for Israel and “although [its] elements are gaining a foothold in Syria amidst the chaos of the country’s civil war, the Syria-Iran-Hezbollah axis which preceded it [is] far more threatening” for Israel.
In reality, the governments of Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Kingdom, France, and the United States are in league with the supposed terrorists that some of them say they oppose or are fighting. They have been using the groups that have been designated as branches of Al-Qaeda as foot soldiers on the ground in Syria and Libya. If successful, they will eventually try to use the same militants to ignite insurgencies in places like Russia’s North Caucasian Federal District.
While Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, and the Palestinians are being targeted through the destabilization of Syria, the countries targeting Syria are also preparing the flames that they themselves will also burn in if America’s “New Middle East” comes into fruition through a baptism of fire and blood. Syrian instability and a possible partition of Syria could ignite a civil war in Turkey and even result in the partition of Turkey itself. Jordan too will be consumed by the flames that are burning Syria. If Syria collapses, the Iranians have delivered an unequivocal warning to King Abdullah II of Jordan about his future. Tehran’s message to Abdullah II, a despot who has foreigners arrested merely for talking negatively about him, but is invited to the White House to talk about democracy in Syria, is simple: “You must be aware that if the US decides to go to war with Syria, your kingdom will go in the process.” Nor will Saudi Arabia and Qatar be spared from the flames that the House of Saud and the rival House of Al-Thani are stoking for the Obama Administration and Israel in their Syrian gambit that could eventually ignite a major all-out war in the Middle East and beyond.
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Washington’s “Go Between” is the Head of the FSA Supreme Military Council Brigadier General Salem Idriss [right], who is permanent liaison with the Al Nusrah military commanders.
It’s no coincidence that LIBOR’s biggest inside player was also in attendance at Bilderberg 2013. The teflon banker himself – the elusive Marcus Agius, the former Group Chairman of Barclays, and chairman of the 
.
And if it is in their name, how dare they decide for all of us?
A redacted image of the leaked Home Office document
The National Security Agency headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland
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Free Syrian Army fighters prepare to raid a house in Daraa May 16, 2013. Picture taken May 16, 2013.(Reuters / Thaer Abdallah)
Israeli soldiers stand guard as Syrian residents (unseen) approach the Syria-Israel border in the Israeli annexed Golan Heights, near the southern Syrian village of Ar Rafide, on May 7, 2013.(AFP Photo / Menahem Kahana)
The damage caused by an Israeli strike” according to SANA. Israel carried out a pre-dawn air strike near Damascus on May 5, targeting Iranian missiles destined for Lebanon’s Hezbollah in the second such raid on Syria in three days, a senior Israeli source said.(AFP Photo / SANA)
