Friday, January 31, 2020

Trump and his pal, The Queen, are both big fans of Islamic terrorist headslicer group White Helmets. In 2016 The Queen honored White Helmets co-founder James Le Mesurier

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White Helmets terror group in Syria requires “aid” payments be made in cash and gives no receipts, per August 2018 report by Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, page 31. Further per Netherlands report, page 24:The large majority of the [White Helmets] volunteers is not actually vetted.” …Syria has “been the target of one of the most expensive and sophisticated disinformation campaigns in recent history.”

In June 2016 announcement below, The Queen was “graciously pleased” to give orders for appointment to “the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, OBE, to James Gustaf Edward LeMesurier for services to Syria Civil Defence and the protection of civilians in Syria."… 

Per BBC, James Le Mesurier was White Helmets co-founder. The organisation is also known as the Syria Civil Defence. Le Mesurier was honored by the Queen with an OBE in 2016. Le Mesurier is a former British Army officer. 

Image below, June 11, 2016, The Gazette, Official Public Record, Order of the British Empire” to “James Gustaf Edward LeMesurierFor services to Syria Civil Defence and the protection of civilians in Syria.”





UK Telegraph: “James Le Mesurier, who has died aged 48, was a former British Army officer who founded MayDay Rescue, the charity that trained the civilian White Helmets.His military career included operational tours as part of the United Nations peacekeeping forces in Bosnia and Kosovo.…He went on to private-sector appointments at the Abu Dhabi-based private security consultancies.”
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Image: June 3, 2019, Trump and the Queen during dinner at Buckingham Palace, getty
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Added: Pres. Trump, like his pal, The Queen, openly supports Islamic terrorist headslicers in Syria. Trump has given at least $16.1 million US taxpayer dollars to White Helmets terrorists whom he lavishly praises, even urges “allies and partners to join us in our support” for this terrorist group. (Don’t forget, White Helmets only accepts cash): 

*Oct. 2019-US announces $4.5 million US to White Helmets…”The Trump White House called on “allies and partners to join us in our support for the SCD (White Helmets).”… 

*In March 2019, Trump gave $5 million more US taxpayer dollars to Islamic terror group White Helmets. He praised them in a State Dept. proclamation:These heroic first responders have the most dangerous job in the world....The United States Government strongly supports the work of the White Helmets.”… 

*In June 2018, Trump approved $6.6 million [tax dollars] in USAID funding for the White Helmets…Between 2013 and 2016, USAID gave at least $23 million [US tax dollars] to the group... 

3/16/19, “US to provide $5 million to White Helmets to continue services: State Dept.,” almasdarnews.com, Beirut, Lebanon 

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Comment: I understand why the Queen isn’t in jail for supporting Islamic terrorist headslicers, but I don’t understand why Trump isn’t in jail for supporting Islamic terrorist headslicers.




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Thursday, January 30, 2020

2016 election pre-empted when State Dept. invited Ukraine official to GOP platform meetings in July 2016 to make sure money to kill Russians was in GOP platform. WaPo warmonger columnist on hand to ensure democracy was dead-VOA News, 7/21/2016

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“Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, Valeriy Chaly, is here [at Republican Party Platform meetings in July 2016 in Cleveland] on a program organized by the State Department.”…Ukraine Ambassador sought GOP platform language stating that lethal weapons will be provided to Ukraine. The Ambassador also said that the wider Republican establishment" decides US foreign policy rather than a US president. Why aren’t all countries invited to GOP platform meetings, why just Ukraine, a country thousands of miles away from the US? 

7/21/2016, “Proposed GOP Stance on Ukraine Sparks Controversy," VOA News, by Tatiana Vorozhko, Iuliia Iarmolenko, Cleveland, Ohio

At this week’s [July 2016] Republican National Convention, a mini-drama has surfaced over what the party’s platform has to say about the conflict in Ukraine…. 

Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, Valeriy Chaly, is here [at Republican Party Platform meetings in Cleveland] on a program organized by the State Department. He said he was less concerned about the rewording of the language on Ukraine than about the way it was done. 

[Alleged] Russian actions against Ukraine and the GOP’s position on the issue dominated a roundtable discussion organized by the International Republican Institute in Cleveland on Tuesday….[IRI Board of Directors]…[IRI is a division of NED, a US taxpayer funded regime change group whose longtime chief Carl Gershman has stated his desire that US use its “power” and “will” to remove Russia’s elected President Putin.] 

“The problem [said Ukraine Ambassador Chaly] is that the [Republican Party Platform] document, which included [a] position on providing lethal weapons to Ukraine, was amended by the group in the committee who, I think, didn’t consider the position of the wider Republican establishment,” Chaly told VOA.[Mr. Chaly, if in fact the “Republican Establishment” had correctly been ignored, it would’ve meant US had a working democracy instead of the unelected dictatorship it actually has. Even the NY Times on May 3, 2016 said, “It’s Donald Trump’s Party Now: …“That Mr. Trump was able to enthrall voters by promising simply to “Make America Great Again”...is testimony to how thoroughly they reject the politicians who betrayed them.”..

Mr. Chaly would deny us our voice, our only chance to be heard. The most meaningful news of 2016 was that the vicious “Republican Establishment” had been massively, historically, and deservedly rejected by voters. Mr. Chaly at least reveals that the Emperor Has No Clothes, ie, US pretends to be a democracy but isn’t one. NY Times headline]……..

(continuing): “The document, which was submitted by the wider Ukrainian diaspora ... was amended by the people of Donald Trump’s campaign manager and not by the people who analyze and formulate foreign policy and defense positions. It makes [it] difficult to predict how strategic documents would be developed if Trump becomes president.”…

The language was altered from providing “lethal defensive weapons” to providing “appropriate assistance."

“Trump staffers in the room, who are not delegates but are there to oversee the process, intervened, Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin wrote of the meeting at which the wording was changed. “By working with pro-Trump delegates, they were able to get the issue tabled while they devised a method to roll back the language.“… 

The ambassador noted that the document is only an electoral platform plank and not a statement of policy of a possible future Trump administration. He said that conversations at the convention led him to believe that policy toward Ukraine has not yet been formulated. 

“I don’t think that overall foreign policy of the United States would change dramatically regardless of who wins,” Chaly said, [so obviously there’s no need for elections] adding that Indiana Governor Mike Pence, the Republican Party nominee for vice president, has “good credentials” and understands the issue. 

“The main thing for us is that the people who run Donald Trump’s campaign would not run his foreign policy, he said.”…


5/21/2014, IMF warns Ukraine on bailout if it loses east,“ cnbc.com 

“Ukraine, struggling with a stuttering economy as well as an escalating crisis with neighboring Russia, has had its $17 billion International Monetary Fund bailout signed off. But international lenders are already warning of threats to its funding.”…
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Map shows Russian speaking areas of Ukraine, as of Oct. 2015
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Added: As of Oct. 2017, political influence of some Ukraine oligarchs has only increased following 2014 regime change by US :

"Since 2014 [through 10/3/2017] there has not been much change [in Ukraine]. Business people continue to hold leading political roles….After the Euromaidan protests [and US regime change], the political influence of some oligarchs increased even further."…10/3/2017
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Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Contrary to "impeachment" propaganda, deaths in Ukraine have been at hands of Ukraine military armed by US--not Russians-Counterpunch, Jeremy Kuzmarov…(Compared to terror sponsoring US political class, Mr. Putin looks like a saint)

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The majority of those killed have been Eastern Ukrainians who died at the hands of the Ukrainian military that the U.S. has armednot the Russians.Ukrainian military actually caused many of the civilian deaths by “us[ing] explosive weapons with wide-area effect in populated areas, including near school buildings, in violation of international humanitarian law.” ...“There would be a horrific political price to pay–an upheaval such as has not been witnessed in the U.S. since the Civil War–if the American people became fully aware of the scope of their leaders’ partnership with al Qaeda."...

1/29/2020, Truth a Major Casualty of Impeachment Hearings,” counterpunch.org, Jeremy Kuzmarov 

“Impeachment manager Adam Schiff, for example, claimed that “more than 15,000 Ukrainians have died fighting Russian forces and their proxiesand that the military aid [which Trump subverted] was for “such essentials as sniper rifles, rocket propelled grenade launchers, radar…and other support for the war effort.” 

While the military aid may have assisted the war effort, Schiff’s comments are misleading because the majority of those killed have been Eastern Ukrainians who died at the hands of the Ukrainian military that the U.S. has armed-not the Russians. 

The UN Monitoring Mission on Human Rights determined that of the approximately 13,000 people killed between April 2014 and December 2018, 3,300 of the victims were civilians, 4,000 were Ukrainian military and 5,500 “Russian-backed armed militants.” 

Thus, according to Schiff, Russia is responsible for killing 5,500 of its own men! 

Human Rights Watch found that the Ukrainian military actually caused many of the civilian deaths by “us[ing] explosive weapons with wide-area effect in populated areas, including near school buildings, in violation of international humanitarian law.” 

But this doesn’t fit with Schiff’s alarmist views about Russia, which are straight out of the 1950s McCarthy era. 

At the hearings, Schiff frequently referenced the danger of “Russian expansion” and its efforts to “remake the map of Europe [of course, it’s the US that “remakes maps” as it’s been doing for a long time] and quoted a witness who stated that “the U.S. aids Ukraine and her people so that they can fight Russia over there, and we don’t have to fight Russia here.” 

Sounding like Ronald Reagan or any one of the most hawkish of cold warriors, this assessment has no basis in reality. 

Among other things, it ignores that Russia under Putin was the first country to offer sympathy to the U.S. following the 9/11 terrorist attacks and has repeatedly pushed for better diplomatic relations. 

Schiff’s misinformation extends to his defense of Joe Biden. In his opening statement, Schiff claimed that Biden never wanted the “corrupt prosecutor removed in order to stop an investigation into Burisma Holdings, on whose board Biden’s son Hunter sat.” 

However, Biden has been filmed in a speech before the Council on Foreign Relations bragging about his efforts to blackmail the Ukrainian government by threatening to withhold a $1 billion loan if that prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, was not removed. Shokin had never actually been censured or indicted for corruption, although his successor, Yuriy Lutsenko was. 

The latter settled the case with Burisma and its chief executive Mykola Zlochevsky by allowing it to pay a $7 million fine when the company stood accused of evading $40 million in taxes – a clear victory for Burisma. 

Lutsenko did not even have a law degree and has been characterized by Ukrainian officials as a crooked political appointee of Ukraine’s former Prime-Minister Petro Poroshenko, whom Biden had cultivated close ties with. 

(For more information on this see Olivier Berrayer’s documentary, Ukraine-Gate- Inconvenient Facts.) 

Schiff and other Democratic Impeachment Managers such as Sylvia Garcia of Texas claimed that under Shokin the investigation against Burisma had lain “dormant.” 

However, Shokin told ABC News in an interview – which was conveniently never aired – that this was not true and that the case was proceeding prior to his removal in February 2016.

The Ukraine-Gate saga has commanded a huge amount of attention and contributed to the rising fame of Schiff who has been praised in some circles for his magnificent performance. 

By spreading misleading or outright false information about Russia and Ukraine, and drumming up anti-Russian sentiment, the consequences of the hearings, however, could be even more damaging then the Trump presidency.” [But the entire political class is fine with “damage.” They’d be happy if the US burned to the ground. Endless war gives them their dream issue: silencing US taxpayers while forcing them to pay all the bills for global genocide].
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Comment: Not a problem. Like Schiff, the entire US political class believes US taxpayers exist only to finance US mass murder and starvation which includes financing Islamic terrorists as US “boots on the ground.” Thus, I'm now a fan of Mr. Putin and am cheering his success. The term “US military” is a misnomer. US taxpayers actually have no military of their own since armed US military aren’t allowed to stand on US soil and enforce the 2000 mile US southern border. The #1 target of the US political class isn’t Russia, it’s US taxpayers and keeping us silent. The “endless war” policy begun by George W. Bush was for that purpose above all. “Endless war” impoverishes us and prevents us from having a country. It isn't even an election issue because the US is a dictatorship.
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Desperate US hopes to divide Iraq into 3 statelets, one in western Anbar region to be Sunni Iraq. If US has to leave Anbar, it would lose control of Syria oil fields-Moon of Alabama…(Good luck, Iraq! Someone has to stop US genocide machine)

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1/28/2020, “Syria: Army Liberates Maarat al-Numan – U.S. Plans New Mischief,” Moon of Alabama 

(scroll down): “The U.S. has still not given up its efforts to overthrow the Syrian government through further economic sanctions. It also pressures Iraq to keep its troops in the country.

[Map from Middle East Eye] 

After the U.S. murder of the Iranian general Soleimani and the Iraqi PMU leader al-Muhandis its position in Iraq is under severe threat. If the U.S. were forced to leave Iraq it would also have to remove its hold on Syria’s oil. To prevent that the U.S. has reactivated its old plan to split Iraq into three statelets: 

“Nine months ago, a group of Iraqi politicians and businessmen from Anbar, Salah al-Din and Nineveh provinces were invited to the private residence of the Saudi ambassador to Jordan in Amman. 

Their host was the Saudi minister for Gulf affairs, Thamer bin Sabhan al-Sabhan, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s point man for the region…. 

On the agenda was a plan to push for a Sunni autonomous region akin to Iraqi Kurdistan. 

The plan is not new. But now an idea which has long been toyed with by the US, as it battles to keep Iraq within its sphere of influence, has found a new lease of life as Saudi Arabia and Iran compete for influence and dominance. 

Anbar comprises 31 percent of the Iraqi state’s landmass. It has significant untapped oil, gas and mineral reserves. It borders Syria.

[Image: New statelet of “Sunni Iraq,” closeup from map below] 

If US troops were indeed to be forced by the next Iraqi government to quit the country, they would have to leave the oil fields of northern Syria as well because it is from Anbar that this operation is supplied. Anbar has four US military bases. 

The western province is largely desert, with a population of just over two million. As an autonomous region, it would need a workforce. This, the meeting was told, could come from Palestinian refugees and thus neatly fit into Donald Trump’s so-called “Deal of the Century” plans to rid Israel of its Palestinian refugee problem. 

Anbar is almost wholly Sunni, but Salah al-Din and Nineveh aren’t. If the idea worked in Anbar, other Sunni-dominated provinces would be next.” 

At least three large meetings have already been held over the plan, the last one in the United Arab Emirates. The timing indicates that the plan was initiated when John Bolton as Trump’s national security advisor. 

To split Iraq into three statelets the U.S. would control is a long standing neoconservative dream.

At the height of the war in Iraq Joe Biden publicly supported it. The original plan failed when in 2006 Hizbullah defeated Israel’s attack on Lebanon and when the Iraqi resistance overwhelmed the U.S. occupation forces.It is doubtful that the plan can be achieved as long as the government in Baghdad is supported by a majorities of Shia. Baghdad as well as Tehran will throw everything they have against the plan. 

After the U.S. murder of Soleimani Iran fired well aimed ballistic missiles against U.S. forces at the Ain al Assad airbase west of Ramadi in Anbar province and against the airport of Erbil in the Kurdish region. This because those are exactly the bases the U.S. wants to keep control of. The missiles demonstrated that the U.S. would have to fight a whole new war to implement and protect its plan. 

From the perspective of the resistance the new plan is just another U.S. attempt to rule the region after its many previous attempts have failed.” 

“Posted by b on January 28, 2020 at 16:28 UTC | Permalink”



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Monday, January 27, 2020

US lackey Guaido is all but out of the picture: Venezuela’s supposed “man of the people” Guaido shows up in Davos, addresses adoring Euro sycophants but fails to obtain meeting with Trump-Dominguez, Black Agenda Report

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Despite media’s best efforts, US lackey Guaido is all but out of the picture: Venezuela’s “man of the people,” “Guaido Addresses Davos, Fails to Secure Meeting with Trump.1/23/2020, Venezuelanalysis, Lucas Koerner 

[Image: Guaido at Davos, 1/23/20, AFP]

1/22/2020, Venezuela: A Successful Year of Resistance," Black Agenda Report, Francisco Dominguez 

“Washington’s strategy throughout 2019 was aimed at bringing about chaos and mayhem sufficient to justify US military intervention.  

“The Bolivarian socio-economic model is structured to defend the poorest and most vulnerable.” 

The failure of Juan Guaido to be re-elected as president of the national assembly is also a failure of the US to bring about regime change through his self-proclamation as “president in charge” of Venezuela.  

It is worth noting that the new leadership of the national assembly and its new president, Luis Parra, are all members of opposition parties [but aren’t US lapdogs like Guaido]....[US mafia immediately "punished" the new representatives, freezing US-based assets belonging to the individuals and prohibiting US citizens from doing business with them.] 

The US strategy of Guaido’s presidential self-proclamation could not be more destabilizing, especially considering that it has Donald Trump’s recognition and support — and slavish endorsement of most of the EU, plus Ecuador, Chile, Colombia and, of course, the likes of Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro. 

The US strategy behind Guaido’s self-proclamation, Operacion Libertad, throughout 2019 involved violent initiatives aimed at bringing about chaos and mayhem sufficiently intense to justify external (US military) intervention.  

This was the case with the attempt, with the support of Colombian armed forces, police and paramilitaries, to push by violent military means US-donated “humanitarian aid”across the border with Venezuela in Cucuta, Colombia.  

The paramilitaries would take over a city or big town, proclaim it “liberated territory,” fly in a “Guaido provisional government” and call for international assistance to be positively responded by the US military — exactly the model the US sought to deploy in Cuba in April 1961. It failed then and it failed in Venezuela in February 2019.  

In March 2019, a cyber-attack against Venezuela’s electricity system produced total blackout for five days.

It brought the country to a halt, interrupting or obstructing the functioning of all its services, including transport, water and healthcare (dozens, including babies, died in hospitals).

The blackout was unsuccessful in its intention to instill panic and desperation, which extreme rightwingers sought to exploit by encouraging looting so as to justify external (US military) intervention.  

In April 2019, Guaido, with well-known extreme rightwinger Leopoldo Lopez, staged a farcical attempted coup d’etat during which a few dozens soldiers blocked a Caracas thoroughfare, where they languished for hours waiting for a non-existent military uprising.

The coup ended with golpista soldiers seeking asylum in the Brazilian embassy, Lopez in the Chilean then Spanish embassy, and, Guaido, tail between his legs, back to his home, surrounded by embarrassment. 

They waited in vain for a government knee-jerk reaction leading to a shootout with an abundance of corpses, thus justifying external (US military) intervention. 

The military remained totally loyal while, wisely, the government allowed the coup to just crumble away. 

“The coup ended with golpista soldiers seeking asylum in the Brazilian embassy.” 

Then the US activated the Lima Group (comprised of representatives of right-wing Latin American governments), led by the golpista Organisation of American States secretary-general Luis Almagro, seeking to both isolate the Venezuelan government and create the conditions for an international (US military) intervention.  

Though they--especially Colombia and Brazil’s Bolsonaro — have been vociferously in favor of such intervention, time and again they have resisted US pressure to commit troops for a military adventure against Venezuela.  

In August, Trump passed a raft of extra economic and financial sanctions, including the freezing and confiscation of Venezuelan assets in the US (of about US$30 billion), as well as the application of penalties against anyone doing business with Venezuela. 

It brought Venezuelan financial transactions in the world almost to a total halt. US strategists expected panic and capitulation from Maduro but instead were met by more resilience.  

Throughout the year, Guaido called for mass mobilization almost weekly, each time with less support. His team has been beset by accusations of corruption even from his own “ambassador” to Colombia; by irrefutable evidence of strong connections with Colombian narco-trafficking paramilitaries, and by growing fragmentation in the opposition and within his own base. 

The US got the Lima Group, led by Almagro, to use the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (TIAR in its Spanish acronym) to apply sanctions against Venezuela. 

A US-designed military treaty, TIAR’s activation has a military threatening flavor, but it left Venezuela unimpressed. 

According to the Venezuelan government, Guaido’s team ordered a terrorist attack against military barracks during which terrorists murdered a soldier. 

They stole rifles and about 10 rocket launchers, apparently intending to shoot down a Colombian plane, blame Venezuela to generate a conflict and thus get a TIAR-sponsored international (US military) intervention. 

Most weapons were recovered and most of the terrorists were captured. 

Since 2019 the US has constantly threatened Venezuela with military action — “all options are on the table” — coupled with aggressive statements from the US southern command and persistent violations of Venezuela’s air and sea space.

Previously US Vice-President Mike Pence on tour in Latin America sought to create a “coalition of the willing” to undertake military action against Venezuela.  

But all US efforts, though wreaking havoc on Venezuela’s economy and inflicting horrible hardships, shortages and hyperinflation on millions, have failed.  

Trump, “who has made the restoration of democracy in Venezuela one of his signature goals,” faces “a stinging defeat” where military action “is not a realistic option,” concluded a Washington Post editorial (January 8 2020). 

With Guaido out of the picture, defeated by another section of the opposition, Washington has lost a key lever.  

This section of the opposition is in dialogue with the government to jointly prepare elections to the national assembly to be held this year.  

The world’s corporate media plays a perfidious role by persistent and systematic misrepresentation and demonization of Venezuela’s Bolivarian government.  

But almost nothing else legitimizes US policy on Venezuela more than the slavish endorsement it gets from Europe, whose continuous support for Guaido is scandalous — but its almost total silence on repression in Chile, Ecuador, Haiti and Bolivia and its timidity when it comes to the killings of hundreds of peace activists in Colombia is a disgrace. 

Faced with a year of brutal US economic aggression, any other government in the world (Cuba excepted) would have collapsed or capitulated.  

The socio-economic model represented by the Bolivarian revolution explains Venezuelans’ resilience and resistance. The model is so structured as to defend the poorest and most vulnerable, such as the CLAP food program that benefits six million families.  

Venezuela refuses to apply neoliberal policies — its tenacious commitment to free universal healthcare and education and pensions to 100 per cent of those entitled are further examples. All that--and the building of three million houses for the poor, aiming to reach five million in the coming period--explain why the people of Venezuela support the Bolivarian socio-economic model. Imagine this with no US sanctions or US financial aggression. 

The capacity of the model to deliver explains something even more fundamental: the civil-military alliance, cornerstone of the Bolivarian revolution.

The Bolivarian People’s Militia currently stands at 3.3 million, rapidly being expanded to five million. Bolivarian Venezuela wants dialogue, elections, democracy and peace, not war. But if the US goes for military aggression, millions are willing and ready to defend the patria. No pasaran! Not in 2002, the year of recovery, not ever.” 

“Francisco Dominguez is secretary of the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign (www.venezuelasolidarity.co.uk ).

This article previously appeared in MorningStar . 

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If Americans knew the extent of their government’s partnership with Al Qaeda, there would be a second Civil War-"Trump protects Al Qaeda," “Resistance” applauds, cursing “Russians,” Glen Ford, Black Agenda Report, 9/6/2018

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“There would be a horrific political price to pay–an upheaval such as has not been witnessed in the U.S. since the Civil War–if the American people became fully aware of the scope of their leaders’ partnership with al Qaeda....Every single Syrian death in this conflict is, legally, the fault of the aggressors: the United States and its allies.” 

9/6/2018, Trump Protects Al Qaeda, “The Resistance” Applauds, Cursing “Russians,” Glen Ford, Black Agenda Report
 
“The “Russians” had to be reinstalled as the “enemy after Obama made his alliance with Islamist jihad. Trump has now signed on as Protector of the Idlib Caliphate. The so-called ‘resistance is the world’s phoniest ‘left.’

The Trump administration, just like the Obama regime, is willing to start World War III to protect the largest al Qaeda outfit in the world from annihilation by the Syrian government and its Russian, Iranian and Lebanese allies. The New York Times and the rest of the corporate media have also chosen sides in the struggle against terror in Syria; they prefer the sons and daughters of Osama bin Laden to the internationally recognized government in Damascus. The same goes for most of the so-called “resistance”–the world’s phoniest “left,” who direct their righteous anger at the victims of U.S. imperialism and take their political cues from the corporate rag on 42nd Street, oligarch Jeff Bezo’s propaganda sheet in Washington, and Rachel Maddow, the MS-DNC’s 8 Million Dollar Woman. 

The Times today [9/6/2018] (Wednesday) spent more than 800 words warning that a Syrian-Russian air offensive against “densely populated,” “rebel-held” Idlib Provincecould result in a “bloodbath,without once informing its readers that Idlib Province is almost entirely controlled, militarily and civilly, by al Qaeda, now operating as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham. Donald Trump, who two years ago accused President Obama of having “founded” ISIS, along with Hillary Clinton–an essentially correct assessment-is now all-in with the al Qaeda defense team. “President Bashar al-Assad of Syria must not recklessly attack Idlib Province,” Trump tweeted. “The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Don’t let that happen!” 

“Donald Trump is now all-in with the al Qaeda defense team.” 

Just in case the al Qaeda/White Helmets don’t get the message–that the U.S. is eager to “retaliate” against Syria for chemical weapons use, no proof requiredthe White House issued this statement: “Let us be clear. It remains our firm stance that if President Bashar al-Assad chooses to again use chemical weapons, the United States and its allies will respond swiftly and appropriately.” 

It is an invitation to al Qaeda to stage another “sarin” attack, as the jihadists did on April 4 of [2017] last year, resulting in a U.S. missile strike on a Syrian airbase. 

Idlib Province is al Qaeda’s last bastion, the place where the Syrian government has allowed defeated Islamist jihadists to retreat, along with their families, so that battles to-the-last-man could be avoided. But al Qaeda cannot be allowed to continue its de facto “caliphate” in Idlib. Not only is the Syrian government entitled to exercise legal authority over all of its territory, but the U.S. is bound by a unanimous United Nations Security Council Resolution to take all steps necessary to destroy al Qaeda and its off-shoot, ISIS, wherever these terrorists raise their heads. Instead, Trump is threatening war to protect al Qaeda’s shrunken realm, while the remaining ISIS strongholds in Syria are located within the U.S. military sphere of influence, from which they have been allowed to stage attacks against Syrian Arab Army units and civilians. 

With Turkey reassessing its position, the only allies the U.S. has on the ground in Syria are the Kurds and al Qaeda/ISIS. That’s why Trump is drawing a defensive line around the de facto caliphate in Idlib Province. An anonymous administration official told the Washington Post’s David Ignatius: “Right now, our job is to help create quagmires until we get what we want.” What Washington wants is to prevent the reunification of Syria after seven years of U.S. proxy warfare against that nation, at the cost of possibly half a million lives. Every single Syrian death in this conflict is, legally, the fault of the aggressors: the United States and its allies, who spent billions to deploy as many as 100,000 jihadists to wage war against a sovereign nation– a crime against peace, the highest crime under international law, for which Obama, Clinton and other ranking U.S. civilian and military officials deserve the most extreme punishment. Donald Trump is now guilty of the same crime – the one that ten Nazis were hanged for at Nuremburg. 

“Presidents of both parties have nurtured and protected the same jihadist terrorists that were blamed for 9/11.” 

There would be a horrific political price to pay–an upheaval such as has not been witnessed in the U.S. since the Civil War–if the American people became fully aware of the scope of their leaders’ partnership with al Qaeda. Many suspect the war on terror is phony, or at least incompetently waged, but the fact that presidents of both parties have nurtured and protected the same jihadist terrorists that were blamed for 9/11 is–too awful to contemplate. 

The analysts at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) also found it difficult to fathom, back in 2012, why the U.S. and its allies were doing everything possible to set the stage for the creation of an Islamic caliphate in Syria and Iraq. According to a DIA memo declassified in 2015, for “THE WEST, GULF COUNTRIES, AND TURKEY [WHO] SUPPORT THE [SYRIAN] OPPOSITION…THERE IS THE POSSIBILITY OF ESTABLISHING A DECLARED OR UNDECLARED SALAFIST PRINCIPALITY IN EASTERN SYRIA (HASAKA AND DER ZOR), AND THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT THE SUPPORTING POWERS TO THE OPPOSITION WANT, IN ORDER TO ISOLATE THE SYRIAN REGIME…” [caps as in the original memo] 

ISIS declared its caliphate in 2014. The birth of a “rogue” ISIS–as opposed to the more compliant al Qaeda army, then called the al-Nusra Front, which was content to fight the Syrian government and forswear a caliphate for the time being–was not necessarily the intention of U.S. war planners. However, the split in al Qaeda should have been seen as inevitable, given the billions of dollars and thousands of tons of arms that were lavished on the Islamist fighters descending on Syria. [US ran the largest weapons smuggling racket in history flooding jihadists in Syria with billions in weapons 2010-2017 was called Timber Sycamore and likely still exists. More about it]. All al Qaeda members dream of a caliphate–it is only a question of timing. 

But U.S. planners have even bigger dreams, of global domination. And to achieve their imperial aims, the secular, Arab nationalist government in Damascus had to go. This was Barack Obama’s “smart war”–to achieve, with a proxy army of rightwing fundamentalist Islamist maniacs, what George Bush could not accomplish with hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops: U.S. military domination of the entire energy-rich region, allowing Washington to strangle China, the up-and-coming superpower, at will. 

Bush and Obama lost both wars. Now Trump is digging in his heels to preserve an American military presence in long-suffering Syria, to play for time-to the applause of the phony left, the ridiculous “resistance,” the lying corporate media and the hideously criminal CIA, the architects of the Crime of the Century. 

“The New McCarthyite line is that, since the Russians are trying to stir up dissent in the U.S., all dissenters are in league with the Russians.” 

Donald Trump is now assuming the role of guardian of al Qaeda’s Idlib caliphate, to replace the diminished ISIS caliphate. He knows that he is aiding and abetting al Qaeda, as he accused Obama of doing, but, What choice does an imperialist have? If Syria is reunified and rebuilt, and its alliance with Iran, Lebanon and Iraq allowed to deepen, then the prospect of Washington derailing China’s New Silk Road evaporates–and with it, the future of U.S. empire. Trump doesn’t want to preside over that, and so he takes up the mission of the predecessor he [supposedly] despises. 

The entirety of the corporate media are committed to their role in the mission. They must pull off the Deception of the Century, to cover up the Crime of the Century. Since the U.S. is so deeply enmeshed with Islamist fighters in Syria, the jihadist terrorists have lost their value as the “generational,” existential threat to America. The “Russians” have been drafted--capitalist oligarchs and all–to resume their historic place on the hit/hate list. Having failed to come up with proof of “collusion” between Wikileaks, Donald Trump, and the Russian government to filch Hillary Clinton campaign emails–because it didn’t happen--the New McCarthyite line is that, since the Russians are trying to stir up dissent in the U.S., all dissenters are in league with the Russians. The “resistance” is fine with that, which shows they are frauds, allies of a corporate multicultural fascism that is vying for domestic hegemony with an older, white supremacy-based fascism. 

The only U.S. political force that cannot be assimilated by either of these fascisms, is the Black polity, which yearns for self-determination. But, that won’t stop the Black Misleadership Class from trying to find its niche in the fascist corporate order of endless austerity and war, and to blame Russians for rich white Americans’ crimes. For the Black misleaders, opportunism is always in season.” 

“BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.”
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