US Politics Thread

[teddytennisfan]

I'm not sure why I'm getting that response from you mate. I really don't. If you provided refutations to the piece in your initial response, then you must excuse me. Your posts are so very long that I tend to skip them. If you did, please let me know, I'll make the effort

refutations?


to your ignorance? like i said -- even were i to NOT argue with you -- just posting REAL news -- you'd have NO problem whatsoever to demand ''refutation'' by a dead body right inf ront of you to stand up and tell you "hey - federberg -- i am DEAD -- THE AMERICANS BOMBED ME IN MY OWN COUNTRY".

showing you all these things -- beyond what MSM WEST FEEDS YOU -- is like trying to teach a kid

that 1 and 1 is equals 2 -- NOT ELEVEN.

 

[Federberg]

^Ah! No refutation then. No worries

 

[teddytennisfan]

^Ah! No refutation then. No worries

who's worried? me ? worriting? lol.

my ''refutations" do not have to be MINE -- they only need to be REAL news like i post here. lol. in fact THAT is the whole refutation itself -

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

journal-neo.org
US Think Tank Admits US Carving Out “Safe Havens” in Syria | New Eastern Outlook
Author: Tony Cartalucci
Since the onset of the war in Syria, corporate-financier funded think tanks engineering American and European foreign policy made it clear that establishing no-fly zones and “safe havens” in Syria would be an incremental step toward achieving regime change and rendering the nation divided and destroyed as US policymakers had done to Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya beforehand.

In particular, The Brookings Institution has – for years now – published paper after paper regarding the establishment of such “safe havens” in Syria under a variety of geopolitical, strategic, and tactical ploys.

As early as 2012, in a Brookings paper titled, “Assessing Options for Regime Change,” its policymakers would state (emphasis added):

An alternative is for diplomatic efforts to focus first on how to end the violence and how to gain humanitarian access, as is being done under Annan’s leadership. This may lead to the creation of safe-havens and humanitarian corridors, which would have to be backed by limited military power.This would, of course, fall short of U.S. goals for Syria and could preserve Asad in power. From that starting point, however, it is possible that a broad coalition with the appropriate international mandate could add further coercive action to its efforts.

Brookings had hoped that the corridors and safe havens would provide a foothold from which additional covert and overt Western military power could be wielded to ultimately overthrow the government in Damascus and render Syria a perpetually divided and destroyed nation, incapable of impeding Western regional ambitions well into the foreseeable future.

From 2012 onward, the notion of safe havens would emanate out from corporate-financier funded think tanks, across the Western media, and attempt to work its way into US foreign policy both in the halls of Congress and the White House, as well as on the ground in Syria itself.

Clearly, however, despite great efforts over the last 5 years to establish such safe havens, none have admittedly materialized. This comes from the Brooking Institutions’ own latest appraisal of its failed policy – or one should more accurately say – foiled policy.

Revisiting No-Fly Zones

Upon Brookings’ “Order From Chaos” blog, is a paper titled, “What to do when containing the Syrian crisis has failed.” The paper mentions revisiting both no-fly zones, as well as “safe havens.” Regarding no-fly zones, it states (emphasis added):

We must also be clever about employing various options for no-fly zones:We cannot shoot down an airplane without knowing if it’s Russian or Syrian, butwe can identify those aircraft after the fact anddestroy Syrian planes on the ground if they were found to have barrel-bombed a neighborhood,for example. These kinds of operations are complicated, no doubt, and especially with Russian aircraft in the area—but I think we have made a mistake in tying ourselves in knots over the issue, since there are options we can pursue.

It should be noted, that while Brookings appears not to be (openly) interested in shooting down Russian planes, others among America’s political and policy establishment have. This includes US Senator John McCain who openly called to arm terrorists with anti-aircraft missiles to down Russian warplanes.

McCain would sayin a 2015 interview on Fox News that:

I might do what we did in Afghanistan many years ago, to give those guys the ability to shoot down those planes. That equipment is available.

When asked to clarify his statement as to who would be shooting down the planes, McCain would answer:

The Free Syrian Army, just like the Afghans shot down the Russian…

Terrorists, including the self-proclaimed “Islamic State,” have in fact used US manufactured anti-tank missiles to down Russian helicopters. The Japan Times would report in an article titled, “U.S. missile brought down Russian helicopter in Syria: report,” that:

Two Russian airmen killed in Syria on Friday were shot down with American weaponry, the Interfax news agency said Sunday, quoting a Russian military source.

It said insurgents from the Islamic State group hit the airmen’s Mi-25 assault helicopter with a U.S.-made TOW heavy anti-tank missile, a weapon that uses guidance from a ground station.

Either by extraordinary coincidence, or by a more than expected act of treachery, no-fly zones are being incrementally established in certain parts of Syria – at least in regards to rotary aircraft – and all due to US weapons ending up “accidentally” in the hands of designated terrorist groups. Senator McCain’s dream of “guys” – from the Islamic State – shooting down Russian aircraft just like they – Al Qaeda – did in Afghanistan has become a partial reality. Brookings apparently wants to expand on that reality.


The Safe Haven Plan, V.2

In regards to carving out safe havens, Brookings would claim in its recent paper that (emphasis added):

…we should push the debate about what creating safe havens really means.I don’t think we should start declaring safe havens, but rather try to help them emerge. The Kurds are making gains in Syria’s northeast, for instance, as are some forces on the southern front—so, ifthe United States, in cooperation with its allies, accelerates and intensifies its involvement on the ground in those areas, safe havens can essentially emerge.An important advantage of this approach is that it doesn’t require putting American credibility on the line, but does help local allies build up and reinforces successes on the ground.

It should be noted that for several years now, the US has incrementally revealed the scope US troops have been playing on the ground in Syria. Brookings itself alludes to the fact that US troops are already present on the ground, and simply suggests ‘intensifying and accelerating’ their activities so desired safe havens can simply “emerge.”

Of course, this was what analysts and governments opposed to Western intervention in Syria have warned about for years – with the West’s own policymakers finally revealing the full truth behind the presence of US troops in Syria. It was warned for years that terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and the self-proclaimed “Islamic State” served merely a pretext for direct US intervention – US intervention that would only feign its fight against “terrorism,” and instead carve up Syrian territory ahead of efforts to topple the government and destroy the nation as was done in Libya.

Brookings and other centers churning out US policy may have succeeded in their plans, had it not been for Russia’s decision to directly aid the embattled government of Syria. The presence of Russian aircraft in the skies over Syria, the presence of Russian troops on the ground, and the expansion of Russian activities across the country mean little room is left for the US to carve out its “safe havens.”

As tragic as Russia’s losses have been in the face of US-armed terrorists utilizing anti-tank missiles to down helicopters, the vector sum of Russia’s operations in Syria still spell defeat for US aspirations of regime change as well as the goal of creating a failed state such regime change implies.

Tony Cartalucci, Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer, especially for the online magazine“New Eastern Outlook”.

18

 

[teddytennisfan]

journal-neo.org
Turkey: Yet Another CIA Operation Uncovered by Journalists | New Eastern Outlook
Author: Martin Berger


Non-corporate media sources have recently uncovered yet another CIA operation that shocks even experienced analysts because of Washington’s blatant confidence that its criminal actions in different regions of the world will go unnoticed and unpunished. We see yet again that in order to secure its foreign interests along with the interests of US military contractors, the White House is demanding the CIA to constantly develop new covert operations aimed at overthrowing political figures who object to Washington’s interests upon the international scene.

One should not be surprised if tomorrow a CIA agent appears, demanding obedience to American dictates. If only the international community would rally against such malicious practices, demanding the White House and the CIA to answer for their actions in front of an international tribunal.

According to the Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak Daily, the failed military coup in Turkey was staged by the White House. The newspaper is providing details regarding who exactly was behind the preparations of this bloody event, noting that due to rapidly deteriorating relations between the Obama administration and Turkish leader Tayyip Erdogan, Washington launched an operation to create preconditions for the toppling of the Turkish president.

It’s noted that the massive propaganda war against Erdogan coupled with the extensive amount of pressure that was put on German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other European politicians who are heavily influenced by Washington to prevent Turkey’s accession to the EU, despite a string of encouraging promises that have been fed to Ankara for the last three decades, was but the first step. This push was followed by the demand of former US ambassadors who published a former appeal to Tayyip Erdogan in the White House mouthpiece – The Washington Post, demanding Erdogan to step down immediately.

The new phase of confrontation between Ankara and Washington started last April, once Turkish officials threatened to ban US military personnel from using the Incirlik military base. Yet, the main reason behind the failed military coup that was prepared in much haste, was rapprochement between Ankara and Moscow that was perceived by the White House as a major threat to US domination in the Middle East.

According to a recent journalistic investigation, US intelligence services spent over 2 billion dollars on the preparations of the failed military in Turkey. The mastermind behind the coup, we are being told, is the former commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, General John F. Campbell. He was behind the planning of this operation and instructing Turkish military officers at the Incirlik military base. It’s been reported that this American General acted under the direct supervision of the CIA and in close contact with the movement of the self-exiled cleric Fethullah Gülen, who resides in Pennsylvania. The 2 billion dollars that Washington decided to spent on the coup was transferred to Campbell via Nigerian bank UBA. This sum was used to bribe Turkish officers who decided to participate in the failed coup attempt.

It’s believed that Campbell led the preparations for the operation in Turkey for eight and a half months. We are being told that the CIA established a special team with the code name of “Safari” to operate the coup plot process and rehearse all steps of the operation. According to Turkish journalists, Henri Bakrey was the CIA’s “supervisor on the spot” in Turkey, this former CIA agent now occupies the position of the Director of the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

It’s now known that Henri Bakrey was holding meetings in Istanbul on July 15 and 16 in the lounge of the Île de Princes Hotel. Barkey was so confident that the outcome of the CIA coup would be successful that he even demanded the administration of the hotel to assist him in making a public statement on July 16 to Western media sources like the CNN, NBC and Voice of America.

Turkish journalists report that the military coup was not simply aimed at toppling the sitting Turkish leader and replacing him with a more convenient pro-US candidate, but to obtain an additional military base within Turkish territory to strengthen its subversive activities against Syria, Iran and Russia.

So, it looks like it’s high time to hold the United States and the CIA accountable for the ongoing meddling in the sovereign affairs of other states, which has now led to the spread of destructive chaos and destabilisations across a number of regions.

Martin Berger is a freelance journalist and geopolitical analyst, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”

52

 

[teddytennisfan]

journal-neo.org
Why Washington is Terrified by the Prospects of the Upcoming Putin-Erdogan Meeting | New Eastern Outlook
Author: Martin Berger
It’s been announced that Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan will go to St. Petersburg to hold a personal meeting with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin this Tuesday. According to Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, it will be the first personal meeting of the two leaders since November 2015 that will focus on the restoration of bilateral relations between Russia and Turkey that deteriorated rapidly after the downing of Russia’s Su-24 over Syria. It’s been reported that the two presidents will be holding talks with businessmen and may even discuss the compensation that Turkey will pay for the destruction of the Russian military aircraft.

Last time Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan met was in November 2015 at the G20 summit in the Turkish city of Antalya. Less than two weeks later the Turkish Air Force brought down a Russian bomber over Syria, which resulted in the diplomatic and economic relations between the two countries being frozen.

The importance of this meeting for Turkey is being stressed by the fact that Erdogan is going to leave Turkey to take this trip, in spite of the extremely complicated domestic situation that his country faces. This shows that Ankara is truly interested in the restoration of multi-dimensional partnership with Russia. It’s no wonder that the Foreign Policy would note that the St. Petersburg meeting is more than just another summit – it is the opening ceremony for a broader Turkish tilt toward Moscow. And it’s perfectly logical since Erdogan’s internal policies are making Ankara gravitate towards Moscow with an increasing speed.

Its been noted that for the past two weeks a steady parade of Turkish ministers have flown to Moscow to lay the groundwork – confirmation that the Turkish-Russian relationship, on ice for the past eight months, is headed for a summer thaw. The aftermath of the recent failed military coup, that was prepared by the CIA in a bid to put an end to Erdogan’s political career and, quite possibly, his life has pushed Turkey away from the West and toward Russia From the outset of the coup Putin offered his support for Erdogan, in contrast to Secretary of State John Kerry’s initial equivocations. Predictably, that contrast has only grown sharper over the past two weeks: while Russia has raised no objections to Erdogan’s attempt to locate Gulen’s supporters in the key government institutions, the West has regularly criticized his crackdowns, with Kerry even threatening Turkey’s membership in NATO.

The Week would note that while going forward, we should expect both countries to cooperate even more, while Turkey, a NATO member, will distance itself further from the West. In turn, L’Hebdo, the prominent Swiss media source, rests assured that the West has every reason to fear Putin’s meeting with Erdogan, while NATO states are riddled with anxiety, since there’s little doubt that the meeting of the two presidents will mark the final reconciliation step between Moscow and Ankara. The newspaper notes that Turkey is a pivotal NATO member that occupies a strategic position on the crossroads between the West, the Arab world, the Caucasus and Russia. The 315 thousand men strong Turkish army is the second largest in the alliance, and even if it seems disoriented today, Turkish government would gradually restore its control over this force.

In terms of economy and trade balance, Turkey is much closer to Russia than it is to the United States, the newspaper notes, while the turnover between Moscow and Ankara has already reached 35 billion dollars, it is believed that this number will reach 100 billion dollars by 2020. The European Union is not much of a partner for Ankara too, since the former is riddled with ideological conflicts, security challenges, economic stagnation, and the notorious Brexit. The idea that Erdogan can reintroduce death penalty, should Turkish people demand it, wouldn’t have quite the same effect on Moscow than it would have on the EU, notes L’Hebdo.

The French Liberation provides a much tougher analysis on the upcoming meeting in St. Petersburg, since its analysts are convinced that the rapprochement between Putin and Erdogan is a true catastrophe and that Europe has never been weaker in face of this duo.

Recently anti-American sentiments have been on the rise in Turkey due to the claims that Washington was behind the failed military coup in Turkey and the reluctance of American authorities to extradite the self exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen, which is believed to be the mastermind behind the anti-government operation in Ankara. It is reported that anti-American rallies are spreading rapidly across the country. Protesters have even reached the Incirlik base, which is not simply NATO’s strongest foothold in the Mediterranean, but is also the place where the US stores its nuclear warheads.

Moreover, Ankara has recently changed its rhetorics on the downing of Russia’s aircraft over Syria in November. According to the new version, Washington took part in the downing of Su-24, that was organized with the help of the Gulen movement. We are being told that one of the Turkish pilots involved has shown his true face when he agreed to bomb Ankara on the night of July 16.

However, the loss of Turkey as a NATO outpost in the Mediterranean is hardly an acceptable development for both the EU and the US. For this reason Turkey has recently been visited by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph F. Dunford, which hasn’t lost all hopes to make friends with Ankara yet again.

But we must not forget that Ankara’s abrupt turn towards Russia occurred when Turkey recognized that it was being prepared for the “future US president and her wars.” Turkey was the last state that was to be brought down by US intelligence services in order to collapse the whole region. It is not surprising that the Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak Daily is convinced that “Ankara has grabbed America by the throat … and now it tightens the grip. “

The upcoming talks of the Russian and Turkish leaders will be held in the situation when politics has overcome economics. If Turkey shows its desire to change its stance on Syria and the fight against terrorism, Russia will cooperate with it, there can be no doubt about it. And if Ankara takes a more adequate negotiation position, we can await the creation of a geopolitical alliance.

So the White House and the West has every reason to be afraid of the upcoming meeting between Tayyip Erdogan and Vladimir Putin.

Martin Berger is a freelance journalist and geopolitical analyst, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”

24

 

[Federberg]

Just give us your personal refutation mate. Life's too short to spend time reading all that


Moving on...

 

[teddytennisfan]

Just give us your personal refutation mate. Life's too short to spend time reading all that


Moving on...

here it is -- my ''personal refutation"

YOU and people like you HIDE behind the excuse of 'having no time to read all that stuff" BECAUSE you are FRIGHTENED of wha tyou WILL read -- that you are LIARS to yourselves who can't afford to be confronted with REAL NEWS.

THEREFORE YOU PUT YOUR HEADS IN THE SAND...AND THEN spend PLENTY of TIME


REPEATING AND REGURGITATING THE LIES YOU ARE FED. it makes you feel ''immune" ..

you are PITIFUL.

 

[teddytennisfan]

Just give us your personal refutation mate. Life's too short to spend time reading all that


Moving on...

YOURS IS THE triumph of STUPIDITY.

I AM here with REAL , SERIOUS news...not make believe , made in hollywood ''news" like CNN ...go now and play...

 

[Federberg]

YOURS IS THE triumph of STUPIDITY.

I AM here with REAL , SERIOUS news...not make believe , made in hollywood ''news" like CNN ...go now and play...

Ok then... nothing substantive, just a few insults. Very good!

 

[Ricardo]

Ok then... nothing substantive, just a few insults. Very good!

you are going lower than i thought, playing dumb now......he's given you more than plenty of facts from news worthy sources, you are the one who says you don't bother to read then now, you whinge 'nothing substantive'!

Just crawl back Federberg.

 

[Federberg]

^Kiddo, if I want to read the latest news I have my own browser. I asked for a view. Clearly he doesn't have one, or isn't willing to share it. Fair enough. I offered a news link about untruths. I didn't express a view. If you disagree with it. Tell us why, by all means provide your own links to support your own view, but do let us know what that is. Childish insults or petty hostility don't make your position more cogent... quite the opposite.

 

[britbox]

YOURS IS THE triumph of STUPIDITY.

I AM here with REAL , SERIOUS news...not make believe , made in hollywood ''news" like CNN ...go now and play...

Truth as we know it is a perception (if it doesn't specifically involve us) - a personal judgement call if you like, based on what we see, hear and believe... or want to believe.

All of these news channels will put out the truth with their own spin based on their own perception. Not everything CNN puts out is gospel or crap and the same goes for channels like RT. None of these can be taken to be the "Oracle".

 

[Federberg]

Did Trump just suggest 2nd Amendment nutters could assassinate Hillary? Thoughts?

 

[britbox]

I think you're reading too much into that Fberg, even though the press has picked up on it and gone to town.

 

[Federberg]

^I thought some people would see it that way. Some might call it perceptual dissonance, but this is someone who is running for President. Let's be honest here, if anyone else said something like this, they would be getting a call from the Secret Service. I find the whole thing extraordinary

 

[britbox]

Well Trump isn't very presidential - as raw as a bone but on the above example, I see that as the media hanging off any word and trying to spin it.

 

[Moxie]

It's not "the media" spinning that remark. They are reporting what gun control advocates, politicians on both sides and others have said about it:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/10/us/politics/donald-trump-hillary-clinton.html

You need only read a couple of paragraphs in. It doesn't take a middle school graduate to interpret it. Even the House Speaker, Paul Ryan called it, "like a joke gone bad," and said he should apologize for it. It's far from the first remark he's made to suggest violent reaction to his followers.

 

[britbox]

It's not "the media" spinning that remark. They are reporting what gun control advocates, politicians on both sides and others have said about it:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/10/us/politics/donald-trump-hillary-clinton.html

You need only read a couple of paragraphs in. It doesn't take a middle school graduate to interpret it. Even the House Speaker, Paul Ryan called it, "like a joke gone bad," and said he should apologize for it. It's far from the first remark he's made to suggest violent reaction to his followers.

I'm not sure how on earth you equate those words to suggesting an assassination attempt on Hillary Clinton. Good Grief.

 

[Federberg]

https://politicalwire.com/2016/08/09/ex-agent-says-trump-close-to-the-edge/

I agree Moxie. I mean.. I watched the clip myself. It's one thing to say it's media spin if I just read the report. Quite another to watch it. And no... I didn't watch it after the fact.. I watched it live and did a double take.

 

[Federberg]

I'm not sure how on earth you equate those words to suggesting an assassination attempt on Hillary Clinton. Good Grief.

Frankly mate, I'm not sure how you don't hear the ambiguity in the comment when you hear it live. It's very clear he knew he was close to the line as he said it