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The West Wants Turkey Out

The members of NATO fear that the “impulsive actions” of Turkey’s President will force them into a new major conflict, and NATO is not prepared to fight it yet. These “impulsive actions” may trigger the response that is required by Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty. No wonder Hollande, while declaring war against ISIL, made no reference of Article 5, by quoting the EU Lisbon Treaty instead.

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Turkey Is Lying

We know that Turkey is lying for three reasons.

One reason is that NATO governments lie every time that they open their mouths.

A second reason is that Turkey’s claim that the SU-24 was in Turkey’s airspace for 17 seconds but only traveled 1.15 miles means that the SU-24 was flying at stall speed! The entire Western media was too incompetent to do the basic math!

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Turkey Must Pay for the Crime Against the Russian Aircraft

Instead of immediately apologising to Moscow for the Turkish Air Force downing the Russian SU-24 being part of the Russian Air Force group from the Hmeymim base, whose war with IS terrorists and other terrorist groups on Syrian territory is not just empty words, but real action, Ankara was quick to come out with offensive attacks against Russia. And for some reason, it then went on to demand that the NATO Council convene, although not only wasn’t Turkey attacked, but rather itself committed an act of aggression. It is impossible to differently interpret the attack on the plane of the anti-terrorist coalition performing the mission to destroy terrorist locations in Syria. Moreover, the Turkish F-16 did it when the SU-24 was in Syrian airspace.

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Turkey Downs Russian Fighter to Draw NATO and US Deeper into Syrian Quagmire

On Tuesday, Turkey shot down a Russian warplane that was carrying out military operations against jihadi groups in Northern Syria. The downing of the Su-24 fighter jet is part of a broader plan by the administration of Turkish President Tayyip Recep Erdogan to topple the secular government of Syrian President Bashar al Assad and to establish “safe zones” on the Syrian side of the Turkish-Syrian border. Erdogan needs the safe zones to provide a sanctuary for the militant extremists who are the footsoldiers in his war against Syria. The downing of the Russian fighter is a desperate attempt by Erdogan to incite a reaction from Russia that will draw either NATO or the United States deeper into a conflict which has dragged on for 4 and a half years and killed 250,000 people.

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Turkey Has Destroyed Russia’s Hope Of Western Cooperation

Photo Credit: Alexander Mishin

To the extent that the shoot-down of the Russian military aircraft has a silver lining, the incident has likely saved the Russian government from a coalition in which Russia would have lost control of its war against ISIL and would have had to accept the defeat of Assad’s removal.

Each step along the way the Russian government has held strong cards that it did not play, trusting instead to diplomacy. Diplomacy has now proven to be a deadend. If Russia does not join the real game and begin to play its strong cards, Russia will be defeated.

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Russia-China Relations and the Downing of Russia’s Jet Fighter by Turkey

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What position will China take when the issue of Turkey’s downing of Russia’s war plane over Syria is brought to the UN Security Council?

The position taken by China could be decisive in preventing a process of military escalation.

Escalation would consist in an enlarged US-NATO-Israel led war against the broader Middle East-Central Asian region, extending from North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean to China’s Xinjiang-Uighur Western frontier with Afghanistan and Pakistan.

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Kiev’s Bluff: Yatsenyuk’s Ultimatum over Ukraine’s Debt to Russia

The latest developments pertaining to Ukraine’s debt to Russia continue to unfold at a breakneck pace. At the Nov. 16 G20 summit in Turkey, President Vladimir Putin dropped a bombshell: Russia is prepared to restructure Ukraine’s debt and forgo the $3 billion payment that would have been due at the end of the year in accordance with the terms of the loan agreement.

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Why Would Turkey Shoot Down Russian Su-24?

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has made a number of statements in which he tried to pull full responsibility for the incident on Russia. Of course, it is too early to make conclusions, but even one is to assume that Russia’s airplane violated the Turkish airspace, despite there’s no evidence to support this version whatsoever, the Turkish Air Force would still have no reason to shoot down it. For more than a month Russian war planes have been engaging terrorist groups in Syria, while posing no threat to its neighbors.

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Violations of Greek airspace by the Turkish airforce since 2008

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Back in 2012, Ankara accused Syria of shooting down one of their F-4 Phantoms. At that time, the lunatic Erdoğan jumped up and down and condemned the Syrian military for their rash action.

“A short-term border violation can never be a pretext for an attack” were the words he chose at the time, words that will no doubt come back to haunt him. As can be seen from the above infographic, Turkey has violated the airspace of Greece no fewer than 2244 times in 2014. That’s over 6 times a day!

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France and Martial Law

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Even the most slow-witted, woolly-minded, scatter-brained armchair wikistorian among us cannot have failed to form some dim impression of what happens when you try to tell the French people what they can and cannot do.

When our Gallic chums say ‘Non!’, they mean just that.

If their politicians or ‘rulers’ say ‘Non!’ on their behalf, as when De Gaulle said it to NATO, all is bonheur. If such people deign to say it to the people themselves, they tend to have cause to regret it.

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Hillary’s No-Fly Zones and Resurrecting the Draft

Image Credit: Donkey Hotey / Flickr

When presidential candidate Hillary Clinton recently called for no-fly zones above the Syria to deter Russia’s aerial attacks on ISIS strongholds, even though ISIS is supposedly targeted also by the U.S. The contradiction seems to be that Hillary wanted it to be an American “show.” It was a mindless, knee-jerk repeat of what she said as secretary of state urging president Obama in 2011 to establish a no-fly zone in Libya and in 2012, one in Syria.

She knows a no-fly zone is code not only for being able to shoot down Russian and Syrian planes, but a violation of international law. Worse, it could require American boots-on-the-ground to destroy ISIS and occupy Syria, as the U.S. Central Command’s general attested in mid-month to the Senate Armed Services Committee.

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Sleeping Outside Is Not Voluntary Conduct: The Homeless Fight Back

Fighting back against clueless city officials who evidently believe homelessness should be even more difficult so it won’t seem so enticing to so many, several homeless men are suing Manteca, CA. for inhumane new ordinances banning encampments, sleeping outside in any makeshift shelter or urination in public – even as the city shuts down public bathrooms – to drive off growing numbers of homeless people.

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In the Wake of The Mali Terrorist Attacks: Escalation of U.S. and French Military Interventions in Africa?

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U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) leader Army General David Rodriguez continues to maintain that the purpose of Washington’s military policy on the continent is to assist nation-states in their efforts to enhance the security capacity of various governments. AFRICOM identifies its purpose as working with African states in the so-called “war on terrorism.”

Nonetheless, the “war on terrorism” is a by-product of successive failed imperialist interventions from Afghanistan to Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen. The so-called “Islamist extremist” organizations were nurtured, funded and coordinated since the early 1980s when the administration of President Jimmy Carter worked vigorously to overthrow the socialist government in Afghanistan which was supported by the former Soviet Union.

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Who Has Been Pushing Russia To Go “All In” Against Saudi Arabia and Qatar?

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On November 19, 2015 Russia’s pro-Western radio station “Echo of Moscow” published an article on its website that was written by the former economic adviser to the Russian president on the economy Andrei Illarionov, who is now residing in the United States. The article was titled “The next step – a strike on Saudi Arabia?” and was packed with calls to launch air strikes against Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The author underlined the fact that after a series of terrorist attacks in Egypt and France, and the triumphant for Russia G-20 summit in Antalya, in the face of the paralysis of NATO’s forces, the time has come to execute the plans of launching massive strikes on military, infrastructure, energy facilities in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, that were allegedly “cherished for years”.

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Mastermind of The Bamako Terror Attack Mokhtar Belmokhtar: A CIA Sponsored “Intelligence Asset”?

In response to the tragic Paris events of November 13, Central Intelligence Agency director John Brennan warned that “ISIL is planning additional attacks… It is clear to me that ISIL has an external agenda, that they are determined to carry out these types of attacks.” (Quoted in Daily Telegraph, November 16, 2015)

Five days later following the CIA Chief’s premonition, the Bamako Radisson Hotel Blu in Mali’s capital was the object of a terrorist attack, resulting in 21 people dead. Following the attack and the taking of hostages by the terrorists, French and Malian special forces raided the hotel. US. Africa Command (AFRICOM) also confirmed that US special forces were involved.

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Ukraine’s Debt to Russia: Detonator for Global Financial Chaos

The $3-billion loan Russia provided to Ukraine in December of 2013 will mature in a month and a half. Kiev has made the decision to overlook what it owes to Russia. Such daring, or perhaps it should be called audacity, can be explained by the fact that the Ukrainian government senses that it has the support of Washington. And the US is even working to get Kiev’s financial chicanery blessed by the IMF.

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Brussels Maintains State of Emergency as European Crackdown Grows

Belgian soldiers during an exercise

Brussels remained under lockdown for the second day on Sunday as authorities continued to search for the suspects behind this month’s attacks in Paris that killed 130 people.

Belgian officials, who have repeatedly rejected criticisms of their security measures, are expected to meet later during the day to discuss whether to maintain the state of emergency amid fears of a similar attack.

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Homeless Ex-Banker: ‘The American Dream Is a Load of Crap’

It was always a myth.

The story of “Allen”, a former banker who now spends his days in San Francisco soup kitchens, serves as an sobering allegory for America’s universal decline. Allen, who worked for 30 years in the corporate world, is 61 years old with 2 college degrees. Now he has nothing. His story was featured in an HBO documentary, “San Francisco 2.0”. Coming from an ex-banker, Allen’s comments about the state of America are both damning and poetic.

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Terror Junkies: The West’s Addiction to Funding Radical Groups

Similar to a heroin addict, Western nations have a destructive addiction which they are so dependent on, they appear unwilling to give it up. Funding radical terror organisations is the modus operandi of many prominent nations in NATO, with the US, UK and France, playing a prominent role. From the Afghan Mujahideen to the so-called Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL/IS), extremist groups have been used as geopolitical tools by the West for decades.

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Strangling the Palestinian Economy

Israel has exploited the Palestinian economy — directly and through its illegal settlement enterprise — since its occupation began. It has confiscated Palestinian land and property for settlement construction and agriculture; seized water resources (the more than 600,000 settlers now use six times as much water as the 2.6 million West Bank Palestinians); taken over tourist sites; and exploited Palestinian quarries, mines, the Dead Sea, and other non-renewable natural resources.

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Has the Zionist Lobby Hijacked the US Congress?

Photo Credit: CSIS PONI / Flickr

When US President Barack Obama and Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met the other day in Washington they tried to get along fairly well. The fundamental conflict between the US superpower and its political client state was watered down and rhetorically whitewashed. Obama has put up a brave front because he thinks of the day after leaving the White House and the election chances of Hillary Clinton. And Netanyahu was in great shape because he got all his wishes fulfilled. A 50 % increase in subsidies, plus the most sophisticated warplanes in order to test them on the Palestinians and the neighboring countries such as Lebanon, Syria, or Iran.

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America’s Great Lie. Europe’s Great Shame. Russia’s Great Case

The West owes Russia a hell of a lot; but what it owes Russia first is a deep apology, and a welcome into Europe, of which Russia has been and is an extremely important nation, and very unjustly denied its rightful place there. What doesn’t belong in Europe is the U.S., not in any way whatsoever, especially since the U.S. is now a dictatorship. (Anyone who says it’s not a dictatorship and who doesn’t click onto that link to find out that he’s been snookered to think it’s still a democracy, should just stop reading here right now, because this aricle is going to be suitable only for people with open, critical, inquiring minds — not for closed-minded or stupid readers.)

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Week Seven of the Russian Intervention in Syria: dramatic surge in intensity

The real purpose for Daesh has always been the same: to inflict such damage to the entire Middle-East that, by comparison, an Israeli occupation would appear as a liberation to the few lucky ones who would survive the medieval horrors meted out by Daesh on a daily basis on all the territories it controls. So the bigger and the bloodier the fight, the better for the Israelis who have taken a relatively strong state controlled by relatively strong Baathist leaders – Assad père et fils – and who have now turned it into a heap of smoldering ruins. The problem with this theory is that unless something changes Daesh will not win, but lose, and that Assad will come out not weaker, but much stronger

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The French Republic taken hostage

Photo Credit: Juanedc,  Zaragoza, España / Flickr

The war which has now spread to Paris is incomprehensible for those French citizens who are ignorant of practically all the secret activities of their government in the Arab world, of its unnatural alliances with the Gulf dictators, and its active participation in international terrorism. These policies have never been discussed in Parliament, and the major media have rarely dared to take an interest in them.

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Political instability engulfs Southern Europe

Developments in Portugal are just a part of the ongoing crisis in the Southern Europe where EU-mandated austerity measures conducting a serious disaffection of the citizens and pushing Euroskeptics to the power. Greece is still struggling to keep its creditors at bay. Spain has a fragmented political landscape, with four main parties competing for seats in the parliament. Meanwhile, the Catalonian Parliament has started the independence process to separate from the central government in Madrid.

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Paris Attacks are a game changer: First look at the possible ramifications

With the November 13-14 Paris attacks, the world has passed a tipping point in what is sure to be a decades-long battle against Islamist terrorism. It is already abundantly clear that the November 13-14 terrorist atrocity could change the course of international politics. Flush with cash, the Islamic State has proven its ability to recruit Europeans into its ranks and attack any country located thousands of miles from the Middle East.

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Who was Really Killing Paris, and Why?

Friday the 13th in Paris is over. The body count is over 130, with more of the 99 critically wounded being added to the dead from the 352 wounded. Police have eight dead suspects with a variety of passports, which may or may not be their own. French security seems to have had no hint of what they claim were three operational teams involved in France’s worst terror tragedy.

Three more suspects were arrested in a car seen at one of the attack locations when it tried to cross back into Belgium on Saturday . A parking ticket on the car floor lead to another location where more arrests were made, a total of seven for the day. Another abandoned car was found on Friday in Paris with weapons.

This eliminates its being a formal intelligence service attack, as only rookies would have tried to cross a border in a hot car. They would have dumped it and split up to make their escape. But these rookie mistakes by no means eliminates their being patsies. French authorities claim all but one have been identified through fingerprints, with the youngest being 15.

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More Paris Puzzles

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Some people who are not inclined to believe the official story of the Paris attack are troubled by the question why Muslim suicide bombers would blow themselves up for a false flag attack. The answer to this question is very simple. But first we should dispose of the question whether suicide bombers did blow themselves up. Is this something that we know, or is it part of the story that we are told? For example, we were told that during 9/11 passengers in hijacked airliners used their cell phones to call relatives, but experts have testified that the technology of the time did not permit cell phone calls from airliners at those altitudes.

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Stopping ISIS: Follow the Money

Source: Still from video provided by Минобороны России

Wars are expensive. The recruitment and sustainment of fighters in the field, the ongoing purchases of weapons and munitions, as well as the myriad other costs of struggle, add up.

So why isn’t the United States going after Islamic State’s funding sources as a way of lessening or eliminating their strength at making war? Follow the money back, cut it off, and you strike a blow much more devastating than an airstrike. But that has not happened. Why?

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Putin – Cometh the Hour, Cometh the Man

Image Credit: Presidential Press and Information Office of the Russian Federation

Almost everyone now recognises that Russia’s military intervention in Syria to defeat the so-called Islamic State terror group was the right call to make. Russian President Vladimir Putin isn’t crowing about it. He doesn’t have to.

Putin’s vindication was made clear by the enthusiastic reception afforded to him at the summit of G20 leaders in Turkey last weekend. The Financial Times headlined: “Putin transformed from outcast to problem solver at G20”.

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Rohingya and the Burmese Generals: How to Forge a Democracy and Get Away with It

Photo Credit: Evangelos Petratos EU/ECHO January 2013

With Burma climbing to the world top five countries in terms of proven oil and gas reserves, terms such as genocides, military juntas and human rights are abruptly and largely omitted from the new discourse.

Indeed, a whole new narrative is being conveniently drafted, written jointly by the Burmese army, nationalist parties, Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD, western investors and anyone else who stands to benefit from the treasures of one of the world’s worst human rights violators.

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EU Urged to Resist Fear-Based ‘Fortress Europe’ as Response to Paris Attacks

Asylum seekers and migrants descend from a large fishing vessel used to transport them from Turkey to the Greek island of Lesbos. October 11, 2015. (Photo: Zalmaï/Human Rights Watch)

By erecting fences, sealing off external borders, and withholding aid in the wake of Friday’s massacre in Paris, the European Union would be embracing death—or the threat of such a fate—as a deterrent to those seeking refuge, rights organizations are warning.

“Giving in to fear in the wake of the atrocious attacks on Paris will not protect anyone,” said John Dalhuisen, Europe and Central Asia director at Amnesty International, in a statement accompanying a report released Tuesday by the humanitarian organization.