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Today's Topics:
1. Re: When is it necessary to take up arms? (Zenaan Harkness)
2. Creating The Devil In Their Own Image (Zenaan Harkness)
3. US Military Chopper Transfers ISIL Leaders from Fallujah to
Unknown Location - 21 February 2016 (Zenaan Harkness)
4. Reminders of why USAgov and NATO must be dismantled
(Zenaan Harkness)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Sat, 9 Apr 2016 22:29:27 +0000
From: Zenaan Harkness <zen@freedbms.net>
To: cypherpunks@cpunks.org
Subject: Re: When is it necessary to take up arms?
Message-ID:
<CAOsGNSTGJD0XOPdk_H8mPaLG7gr1Krn46KULCu52cRD3FXugzA@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
On 4/9/16, listo factor <listofactor@mail.ru> wrote:
> On 04/09/2016 07:57 AM, Zenaan Harkness wrote:
>> Serious analysis interposed with the lighter side of Ukraine's current
>> predicaments:
>
> Interesting. For those attracted to the study of Russian-Ukrainian
> relationship, I also propose the following:
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor
> Equally serious, but unfortunately it lacks any "lighter side".
Stalin's USSR did a lot of pretty bad stuff from what I understand,
and this is just one example of which the drum was recently beaten due
to the CIA's Ukrainian Maidan (to drum up anti Russian sentiment of
course).
Putin's Russia is worlds away from Stalin's USSR, in time, intentions,
deeds, and the experiences of the nation's people - Russians have been
through hell and back like few in 'the West' ever have; I am most
interested in contemporary reality for obvious reasons.
The contradictions, deceptions and lies in the Western MSM dialogue
are shameful. The CIA's coups are shameful. The West's sanctions
against Russia are shameful (notwithstanding that Western firms,
Western farmers and the Western financial system are all taking the
greatest hits from those "sanctions"). Compare America's foreign
minister Kerry's current "Russia played a constructive role in Syria"
with modern history:
http://russia-insider.com/en/john-kerry-would-be-butcher-syria-forced-praise-russia-delivering-syria-iran-deals/ri13810
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Sat, 9 Apr 2016 22:30:31 +0000
From: Zenaan Harkness <zen@freedbms.net>
To: cypherpunks@cpunks.org
Subject: Creating The Devil In Their Own Image
Message-ID:
<CAOsGNSQ5QO1fxYR=k8XRp3sip5B9Tui=Jn1oVpbQ6gGCktV8og@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
in reply to: cypherpunks@cpunks.org,
http://thesaker.is/creating-the-devil-in-their-own-image/
Creating The Devil In Their Own Image
February 21, 2016
This comment was chosen by Mod HS from the post “International
Military Review – Syria, Feb. 18, 2016”. The moderator believes this
comment reflects the West’s obsession with President Vladimir Putin
and how their media demonizes him. The commenter, mmiriww, responds
to the article written by Sharon Tennison. where she shares her
thoughts as the Ukraine situation worsened. Unconscionable
misinformation and hype was being poured on Russia and Vladimir Putin.
Journalists and pundits scoured the Internet and thesauruses to come
up with fiendish new epithets to describe both. Wherever Sharon makes
presentations across America, she finds the first question ominously
asked during Q&A is always, “What about Putin?”.
Comment by mmiriww
Is Putin incorruptible? A U.S. insider’s view of the Russian
president’s character and his country’s transformation.
“What about Putin”
It’s time to share my thoughts which follow: Putin obviously has his
faults and makes mistakes. Based on my earlier experience with him,
and the experiences of trusted people, including U.S. officials who
have worked closely with him over a period of years, Putin most likely
is a straight, reliable and exceptionally inventive man. He is
obviously a long-term thinker and planner and has proven to be an
excellent analyst and strategist. He is a leader who can quietly work
toward his goals under mounds of accusations and myths that have been
steadily leveled at him since he became Russia’s second president.
I’ve stood by silently watching the demonization of Putin grow since
it began in the early 2000s – – Like others who have had direct
experience with this little known man, I’ve tried to no avail to avoid
being labeled a “Putin apologist”. If one is even neutral about him,
they are considered “soft on Putin” by pundits, news hounds and
average citizens who get their news from CNN, Fox and MSNBC.I don’t
pretend to be an expert, just a program developer in the USSR and
Russia for the past 30 years. But during this time, I’ve have had far
more direct, on-ground contact with Russians of all stripes across 11
time zones than any of the Western reporters or for that matter any of
Washington’s officials. I’ve been in country long enough to ponder
Russian history and culture deeply, to study their psychology and
conditioning, and to understand the marked differences between
American and Russian mentalities which so complicate our political
relations with their leaders. As with personalities in a family or a
civic club or in a city hall, it takes understanding and compromise to
be able to create workable relationships when basic conditionings are
different. Washington has been notoriously disinterested in
understanding these differences and attempting to meet Russia
halfway.In addition to my personal experience with Putin, I’ve had
discussions with numerous American officials and U.S. businessmen who
have had years of experience working with him – – I believe it is safe
to say that none would describe him as “brutal” or “thuggish”, or the
other slanderous adjectives and nouns that are repeatedly used in
western media.
I met Putin years before he ever dreamed of being president of Russia,
as did many of us working in St.Petersburg during the 1990s. Since all
of the slander started, I’ve become nearly obsessed with understanding
his character. I think I’ve read every major speech he has given
(including the full texts of his annual hours-long telephone
“talk-ins” with Russian citizens). I’ve been trying to ascertain
whether he has changed for the worse since being elevated to the
presidency, or whether he is a straight character cast into a role he
never anticipated – – and is using sheer wits to try to do the best he
can to deal with Washington under extremely difficult circumstances.
If the latter is the case, and I think it is, he should get high marks
for his performance over the past 14 years. It’s not by accident that
Forbes declared him the most Powerful Leader of 2013, replacing Obama
who was given the title for 2012. The following is my one personal
experience with Putin.
The year was 1992…
It was two years after the implosion of communism; the place was
St.Petersburg. For years I had been creating programs to open up
relations between the two countries and hopefully to help Soviet
people to get beyond their entrenched top-down mentalities. A new
program possibility emerged in my head. Since I expected it might
require a signature from the Marienskii City Hall, an appointment was
made. My friend Volodya Shestakov and I showed up at a side door
entrance to the Marienskii building. We found ourselves in a small,
dull brown office, facing a rather trim nondescript man in a brown
suit. He inquired about my reason for coming in. After scanning the
proposal I provided he began asking intelligent questions. After each
of my answers, he asked the next relevant question. I became aware
that this interviewer was different from other Soviet bureaucrats who
always seemed to fall into chummy conversations with foreigners with
hopes of obtaining bribes in exchange for the Americans’ requests. CCI
stood on the principle that we would never, never give bribes. This
bureaucrat was open, inquiring, and impersonal in demeanor. After more
than an hour of careful questions and answers, he quietly explained
that he had tried hard to determine if the proposal was legal, then
said that unfortunately at the time it was not. A few good words about
the proposal were uttered. That was all. He simply and kindly showed
us to the door. Out on the sidewalk, I said to my colleague, “Volodya,
this is the first time we have ever dealt with a Soviet bureaucrat who
didn’t ask us for a trip to the US or something valuable!” I remember
looking at his business card in the sunlight – – it read Vladimir
Vladimirovich Putin.
1994
Putin as Deputy Mayor of St. Petersburg in the early 90s.
U.S. Consul General Jack Gosnell put in an SOS call to me in
St.Petersburg. He had 14 Congress members and the new American
Ambassador to Russia, Thomas Pickering, coming to St.Petersburg in the
next three days. He needed immediate help. I scurried over to the
Consulate and learned that Jack intended me to brief this auspicious
delegation and the incoming ambassador. I was stunned but he insisted.
They were coming from Moscow and were furious about how U.S. funding
was being wasted there. Jack wanted them to hear the “good news” about
CCI’s programs that were showing fine results. In the next 24 hours
Jack and I also set up “home” meetings in a dozen Russian
entrepreneurs’ small apartments for the arriving dignitaries
(St.Petersburg State Department people were aghast, since it had never
been done before – – but Jack overruled). Only later in 2000, did I
learn of Jack’s former three-year experience with Vladimir Putin in
the 1990s while the latter was running the city for Mayor Sobchak.
More on this further down.
December 31, 1999
With no warning, at the turn of the year, President Boris Yeltsin made
the announcement to the world that from the next day forward he was
vacating his office and leaving Russia in the hands of an unknown
Vladimir Putin. On hearing the news, I thought surely not the Putin I
remembered – – he could never lead Russia. The next day a NYT article
included a photo. Yes, it was the same Putin I’d met years ago! I was
shocked and dismayed, telling friends, “This is a disaster for Russia,
I’ve spent time with this guy, he is too introverted and too
intelligent – – he will never be able to relate to Russia’s masses.”
Further, I lamented: “For Russia to get up off of its knees, two
things must happen: 1) The arrogant young oligarchs have to be removed
by force from the Kremlin, and 2) A way must be found to remove the
regional bosses (governors) from their fiefdoms across Russia’s 89
regions”. It was clear to me that the man in the brown suit would
never have the instincts or guts to tackle Russia’s overriding twin
challenges.
February 2000
Almost immediately Putin began putting Russia’s oligarchs on edge. In
February a question about the oligarchs came up; he clarified with a
question and his answer: “What should be the relationship with the
so-called oligarchs? The same as anyone else. The same as the owner of
a small bakery or a shoe repair shop.” This was the first signal that
the tycoons would no longer be able to flaunt government regulations
or count on special access in the Kremlin. It also made the West’s
capitalists nervous. After all, these oligarchs were wealthy
untouchable businessmen – – good capitalists, never mind that they got
their enterprises illegally and were putting their profits in offshore
banks.
Four months later Putin called a meeting with the oligarchs and gave
them his deal: They could keep their illegally-gained wealth-producing
Soviet enterprises and they would not be nationalized …. IF taxes were
paid on their revenues and if they personally stayed out of politics.
This was the first of Putin’s “elegant solutions” to the near
impossible challenges facing the new Russia. But the deal also put
Putin in crosshairs with US media and officials who then began to
champion the oligarchs, particularly Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The latter
became highly political, didn’t pay taxes, and prior to being
apprehended and jailed was in the process of selling a major portion
of Russia’s largest private oil company, Yukos Oil, to Exxon Mobil.
Unfortunately, to U.S. media and governing structures, Khodorkovsky
became a martyr (and remains so up to today).
March 2000
I arrived in St.Petersburg. A Russian friend (a psychologist) since
1983 came for our usual visit. My first question was, “Lena what do
you think about your new president?” She laughed and retorted,
“Volodya! I went to school with him!” She began to describe Putin as a
quiet youngster, poor, fond of martial arts, who stood up for kids
being bullied on the playgrounds. She remembered him as a patriotic
youth who applied for the KGB prematurely after graduating secondary
school (they sent him away and told him to get an education). He went
to law school, later reapplied and was accepted. I must have grimaced
at this, because Lena said, “Sharon in those days we all admired the
KGB and believed that those who worked there were patriots and were
keeping the country safe. We thought it was natural for Volodya to
choose this career. My next question was, “What do you think he will
do with Yeltsin’s criminals in the Kremlin?” Putting on her
psychologist hat, she pondered and replied, “If left to his normal
behaviors, he will watch them for a while to be sure what is going on,
then he will throw up some flares to let them know that he is
watching. If they don’t respond, he will address them personally, then
if the behaviors don’t change – – some will be in prison in a couple
of years.” I congratulated her via email when her predictions began to
show up in real time.
Throughout the 2000s
St.Petersburg’s many CCI alumni were being interviewed to determine
how the PEP business training program was working and how we could
make the U.S. experience more valuable for their new small businesses.
Most believed that the program had been enormously important, even
life changing. Last, each was asked, “So what do you think of your new
president?” None responded negatively, even though at that time
entrepreneurs hated Russia’s bureaucrats. Most answered similarly,
“Putin registered my business a few years ago”. Next question, “So,
how much did it cost you?” To a person they replied, “Putin didn’t
charge anything”. One said, “We went to Putin’s desk because the
others providing registrations at the Marienskii were getting ‘rich on
their seats.’”
Late 2000
Into Putin’s first year as Russia’s president, US officials seemed to
me to be suspect that he would be antithetical to America’s interests
– – his every move was called into question in American media. I
couldn’t understand why and was chronicling these happenings in my
computer and newsletters.
Year 2001
Jack Gosnell (former USCG mentioned earlier) explained his
relationship with Putin when the latter was deputy mayor of
St.Petersburg. The two of them worked closely to create joint ventures
and other ways to promote relations between the two countries. Jack
related that Putin was always straight up, courteous and helpful. When
Putin’s wife, Ludmila, was in a severe auto accident, Jack took the
liberty (before informing Putin) to arrange hospitalization and
airline travel for her to get medical care in Finland. When Jack told
Putin, he reported that the latter was overcome by the generous offer,
but ended saying that he couldn’t accept this favor, that Ludmila
would have to recover in a Russian hospital. She did – – although
medical care in Russia was abominably bad in the 1990s.
A senior CSIS officer I was friends with in the 2000s worked closely
with Putin on a number of joint ventures during the 1990s. He reported
that he had no dealings with Putin that were questionable, that he
respected him and believed he was getting an undeserved dour
reputation from U.S. media. Matter of fact, he closed the door at CSIS
when we started talking about Putin. I guessed his comments wouldn’t
be acceptable if others were listening.
Another former U.S. official who will go unidentified, also reported
working closely with Putin, saying there was never any hint of
bribery, pressuring, nothing but respectable behaviors and
helpfulness.
I had two encounters in 2013 with State Department officials regarding Putin:
At the first one, I felt free to ask the question I had previously
yearned to get answered: “When did Putin become unacceptable to
Washington officials and why? Without hesitating the answer came back:
“‘The knives were drawn’ when it was announced that Putin would be the
next president.” I questioned WHY? The answer: “I could never find out
why – – maybe because he was KGB.” I offered that Bush #I, was head of
the CIA. The reply was, “That would have made no difference, he was
our guy.”
The second was a former State Department official with whom I recently
shared a radio interview on Russia. Afterward when we were chatting, I
remarked, “You might be interested to know that I’ve collected
experiences of Putin from numerous people, some over a period of
years, and they all say they had no negative experiences with Putin
and there was no evidence of taking bribes”. He firmly replied, “No
one has ever been able to come up with a bribery charge against
Putin.”
>From 2001 up to today, I’ve watched the negative U.S. media mounting
against Putin …. even accusations of assassinations, poisonings, and
comparing him to Hitler. No one yet has come up with any concrete
evidence for these allegations. During this time, I’ve traveled
throughout Russia several times every year, and have watched the
country slowly change under Putin’s watch. Taxes were lowered,
inflation lessened, and laws slowly put in place. Schools and
hospitals began improving. Small businesses were growing, agriculture
was showing improvement, and stores were becoming stocked with food.
Alcohol challenges were less obvious, smoking was banned from
buildings, and life expectancy began increasing. Highways were being
laid across the country, new rails and modern trains appeared even in
far out places, and the banking industry was becoming dependable.
Russia was beginning to look like a decent country – – certainly not
where Russians hoped it to be long term, but improving incrementally
for the first time in their memories.
My 2013/14 Trips to Russia Modern Russia, thriving
In addition to St.Petersburg and Moscow, in September I traveled out
to the Ural Mountains, spent time in Ekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk and
Perm. We traveled between cities via autos and rail – – the fields and
forests look healthy, small towns sport new paint and construction.
Today’s Russians look like Americans (we get the same clothing from
China). Old concrete Khrushchev block houses are giving way to new
multi-story private residential complexes which are lovely. High-rise
business centers, fine hotels and great restaurants are now common
place – – and ordinary Russians frequent these places. Two and three
story private homes rim these Russian cities far from Moscow. We
visited new museums, municipal buildings and huge super markets.
Streets are in good repair, highways are new and well marked now,
service stations looks like those dotting American highways. In
January I went to Novosibirsk out in Siberia where similar new
architecture was noted. Streets were kept navigable with constant
snowplowing, modern lighting kept the city bright all night, lots of
new traffic lights (with seconds counting down to light change) have
appeared. It is astounding to me how much progress Russia has made in
the past 14 years since an unknown man with no experience walked into
Russia’s presidency and took over a country that was flat on its
belly.
So why do our leaders and media demean and demonize Putin and Russia???
Like Lady MacBeth, do they protest too much?
Psychologists tell us that people (and countries?) project off on
others what they don’t want to face in themselves. Others carry our
“shadow” when we refuse to own it. We confer on others the very traits
that we are horrified to acknowledge in ourselves.
Could this be why we constantly find fault with Putin and Russia?
Could it be that we project on to Putin the sins of ourselves and our leaders?
Could it be that we condemn Russia’s corruption, acting like the
corruption within our corporate world doesn’t exist?
Could it be that we condemn their human rights and LGBT issues, not
facing the fact that we haven’t solved our own?
Could it be that we accuse Russia of “reconstituting the USSR” – –
because of what we do to remain the world’s “hegemon”?
Could it be that we project nationalist behaviors on Russia, because
that is what we have become and we don’t want to face it?
Could it be that we project warmongering off on Russia, because of
what we have done over the past several administrations?
There is a well known code of ethics among us: Is it the Truth, Is it
Fair, Does it build Friendship and Goodwill, and Will it be Beneficial
for All Concerned?
It seems to me that if our nation’s leaders would commit to using
these four principles in international relations, the world would
operate in a completely different manner, and human beings across this
planet would live in better conditions than they do today.
Sharon Tennison
http://www.sott.net/article/278407-Is-Putin-incorruptible-US-insiders-view-of-the-Russian-presidents-character-and-his-countrys-transformation#comment108960
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Sat, 9 Apr 2016 22:31:57 +0000
From: Zenaan Harkness <zen@freedbms.net>
To: cypherpunks@cpunks.org
Subject: US Military Chopper Transfers ISIL Leaders from Fallujah to
Unknown Location - 21 February 2016
Message-ID:
<CAOsGNST0nEaxwsPS8WnTAr6+wkzsGx7qP_rysP2hZB7yjrxxpQ@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
America 'encouraging' Iraq into allowing permanent US military bases in Iraq.
America the 'global cop' is also America the 'schoolyard bully'.
Bloody and shameful.
----
http://www.islamicinvitationturkey.com/2016/02/21/source-us-military-chopper-transfers-isil-leaders-from-fallujah-to-unknown-location/
US Military Chopper Transfers ISIL Leaders from Fallujah to Unknown
Location - 21 February 2016
Informed sources disclosed that a US-made helicopter has taken several
senior ISIL leaders out of Anbar province in Western Iraq to an
unknown location.
“A US chopper landed in a farm near the main road linking
al-Saqlaviyeh to Fallujah in Anbar province and took off after one
hour with ISIL leaders on board,” the Arabic-language Sama Baghdad
news website quoted informed Iraqi sources in Fallujah city as saying
on Sunday.
The sources noted that several ISIL leaders had gathered in Fallujah
farm as if they had been informed of the helicopter’s imminent landing
in the farm.
In a relevant development on February 13, senior Iraqi security
sources lashed out at the US and its regional allies for supporting
Takfiri terrorists in Iraq, and said that Washington is the main cause
of ISIL’s survival in his country.
“We have compelling evidence that a US helicopter landed in Albu Arim
palms of Fallujah city to take out the ISIL leaders who were in
contact with the Americans,” a senior Iraqi security official,
speaking on the condition of anonymity, told FNA.
He noted that other US aircraft were flying over the region to protect
the airplane which was boarding the ISIL leaders, adding, “The US took
out the ISIL leaders in order to rescue them from possible attacks by
the Iraqi Army and security forces.”
In relevant remarks in October, Spokesman of Iraq’s Kata’ib Hezbollah
(Hezbollah Battalions) popular forces Jafar al-Hosseini disclosing
that captured ISIL leaders have acknowledged receiving logistical
backup and intelligence support from the US.
“As the ISIL commanders captured in Iraqi popular forces’ recent
military operations have confessed, the US supports for the terrorist
groups are not limited to the dispatch of logistical support,”
Al-Hosseini told FNA.
He reiterated that the US has provided the ISIL with intelligence
about the Iraqi forces’ positions and targets.
“ISIL commanders trusted the US officials who had assured them that
the Iraqi forces would not attack Fallujah because the US had urged
the Iraqi government to prevent the popular forces from entering
Fallujah and raid Beiji instead; hence the terrorists left Fallujah
for Beiji to stay on the alert in there,” Al-Hosseini added.
Al-Hosseini had also stated on Wednesday that his forces plan to win
back the city of Ramadi only after expelling the American forces from
Anbar province.
“Our forces have two operations underway; first seizing Ramadi from
ISIL and second keeping away the American forces from Anbar province,”
al-Hosseini told FNA.
He underlined that preventing the US forces from getting close to
Anbar province will expedite operations for winning back the province,
specially after the military operations in Salahuddin province that
led to the liberation of the city of Beiji.
Iraqi officials have on different occasions blasted the US and its
allies for supplying the ISIL in Syria with arms and ammunition under
the pretext of fighting the Takfiri terrorist group.
Also in October, the Iraqi army and volunteer forces discovered
US-made military hardware and ammunition, including anti-armor
missiles, in terrorists’ positions and trenches captured during the
operations in the Fallujah region in Al-Anbar province.
The Iraqi forces found a huge volume of advanced TOW-II missiles from
the Takfiri terrorists in al-Karama city of Fallujah.
The missiles were brand new and the ISIL had transferred them to
Fallujah to use them against the Iraqi army’s armored units.
On October 10, the Iraqi forces discovered US-made military hardware
and ammunition from terrorists in Beiji.
“The military hardware and weapons had been airdropped by the US-led
warplanes and choppers for the ISIL in the nearby areas of Beiji,”
military sources told FNA.
In February 2015, an Iraqi provincial official lashed out at the
western countries and their regional allies for supporting Takfiri
terrorists in Iraq, revealing that the US airplanes still continue to
airdrop weapons and foodstuff for the ISIL terrorists.
“The US planes have dropped weapons for the ISIL terrorists in the
areas under ISIL control and even in those areas that have been
recently liberated from the ISIL control to encourage the terrorists
to return to those places,” Coordinator of Iraqi popular forces Jafar
al-Jaberi told FNA.
He noted that eyewitnesses in Al-Havijeh of Kirkuk province had
witnessed the US airplanes dropping several suspicious parcels for
ISIL terrorists in the province.
“Two coalition planes were also seen above the town of Al-Khas in
Diyala and they carried the Takfiri terrorists to the region that has
recently been liberated from the ISIL control,” Al-Jaberi said.
Also in February 2015, a senior lawmaker disclosed that Iraq’s army
has shot down two British planes as they were carrying weapons for the
ISIL terrorists in Al-Anbar province.
“The Iraqi Parliament’s National Security and Defense Committee has
access to the photos of both planes that are British and have crashed
while they were carrying weapons for the ISIL,” Head of the committee
Hakem al-Zameli said.
He said the Iraqi parliament has asked London for explanations in this regard.
The senior Iraqi legislator further unveiled that the government in
Baghdad is receiving daily reports from people and security forces in
al-Anbar province on numerous flights by the US-led coalition planes
that airdrop weapons and supplies for ISIL in terrorist-held areas.
The Iraqi lawmaker further noted the cause of such western aids to the
terrorist group, and explained that the US prefers a chaotic situation
in Anbar Province which is near the cities of Karbala and Baghdad as
it does not want the ISIL crisis to come to an end.
Also in February 2015, a senior Iraqi provincial official lashed out
at the western countries and their regional allies for supporting
Takfiri terrorists in Iraq, revealing that US and Israeli-made weapons
have been discovered from the areas purged of ISIL terrorists.
“We have discovered weapons made in the US, European countries and
Israel from the areas liberated from ISIL’s control in Al-Baqdadi
region,” the Al-Ahad news website quoted Head of Al-Anbar Provincial
Council Khalaf Tarmouz as saying.
He noted that the weapons made by the European countries and Israel
were discovered from the terrorists in the Eastern parts of the city
of Ramadi.
Meantime, Head of Iraqi Parliament’s National Security and Defense
Committee Hakem al-Zameli also disclosed that the anti-ISIL
coalition’s planes have dropped weapons and foodstuff for the ISIL in
Salahuddin, Al-Anbar and Diyala provinces.
In January 2015, al-Zameli underlined that the coalition is the main
cause of ISIL’s survival in Iraq.
“There are proofs and evidence for the US-led coalition’s military aid
to ISIL terrorists through air(dropped cargoes),” he told FNA at the
time.
He noted that the members of his committee have already proved that
the US planes have dropped advanced weaponry, including anti-aircraft
weapons, for the ISIL, and that it has set up an investigation
committee to probe into the matter.
“The US drops weapons for the ISIL on the excuse of not knowing about
the whereabouts of the ISIL positions and it is trying to distort the
reality with its allegations.
He noted that the committee had collected the data and the evidence
provided by eyewitnesses, including Iraqi army officers and the
popular forces, and said, “These documents are given to the
investigation committee … and the necessary measures will be taken to
protect the Iraqi airspace.”
Also in January 2015, another senior Iraqi legislator reiterated that
the US-led coalition is the main cause of ISIL’s survival in Iraq.
“The international coalition is only an excuse for protecting the ISIL
and helping the terrorist group with equipment and weapons,” Jome
Divan, who is member of the al-Sadr bloc in the Iraqi parliament,
said.
He said the coalition’s support for the ISIL is now evident to
everyone, and continued, “The coalition has not targeted ISIL’s main
positions in Iraq.”
In Late December 2014, Iraqi Parliamentary Security and Defense
Commission MP disclosed that a US plane supplied the ISIL terrorist
organization with arms and ammunition in Salahuddin province.
MP Majid al-Gharawi stated that the available information pointed out
that US planes are supplying ISIL organization, not only in Salahuddin
province, but also other provinces, Iraq TradeLink reported.
He added that the US and the international coalition are “not serious
in fighting against the ISIL organization, because they have the
technological power to determine the presence of ISIL gunmen and
destroy them in one month”.
Gharawi added that “the US is trying to expand the time of the war
against the ISIL to get guarantees from the Iraqi government to have
its bases in Mosul and Anbar provinces.”
Salahuddin security commission also disclosed that “unknown planes
threw arms and ammunition to the ISIL gunmen Southeast of Tikrit
city”.
Bu Konuyu Sosyal Medyada Paylaş
------------------------------
Message: 4
Date: Sat, 9 Apr 2016 22:33:19 +0000
From: Zenaan Harkness <zen@freedbms.net>
To: cypherpunks@cpunks.org
Subject: Reminders of why USAgov and NATO must be dismantled
Message-ID:
<CAOsGNSQs=YN5skuSvDPpz8A_st9LtpiGUb3zJOWBt3rgqQRL4g@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
http://russia-insider.com/en/kosovo-evil-little-war-almost-all-us-candidates-liked/ri13583
"
Kosovo: An Evil Little War (Almost) All US Candidates Liked
Nebojsa Malic
Originally appeared at RT (
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/337034-kosovo-us-candidates-war/ )
Although the 2016 presidential election is still in the primaries
phase, contenders have already brought up America’s failed foreign
wars. Hillary Clinton is taking flak over Libya, and Donald Trump has
irked the GOP by bringing up Iraq. But what of Kosovo?
The US-led NATO operation that began on March 24, 1999 was launched
under the “responsibility to protect” doctrine asserted by President
Bill Clinton and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. For 78 days, NATO
targeted what was then the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia – which
later split into Serbia and Montenegro – over alleged atrocities
against ethnic Albanians in the southern province of Kosovo.
Yugoslavia was accused of “ethnic cleansing” and “genocide” as bombs
rained on bridges, trains, hospitals, homes, the power grid and even
refugee convoys.
NATO’s actions directly violated the UN Charter (articles 53 and 103),
its own charter, the 1975 Helsinki Final Act and the 1980 Vienna
Convention on the Law of Treaties. The war was a crime against peace,
pure and simple.
Though overwhelmed, Yugoslavia did not surrender; the June 1999
armistice only allowed NATO to occupy Kosovo under UN peacekeeping
authority, granted by Resolution 1244 – which the Alliance has been
violating ever since.
US Secretary of State at the time, Madeleine Albright, was considered
the most outspoken champion of the “Kosovo War.” She is now a vocal
supporter of candidate Clinton, condemning (
https://www.rt.com/usa/331671-clinton-steinem-albright-backlash/ )
women who don’t vote for her to a “special place in Hell.”
Clinton visited the renegade province in October 2012, as the outgoing
Secretary of State. She stood with the ‘Kosovan’ government leaders –
once considered terrorists, before receiving US backing – and
proclaimed unequivocal US support for Kosovo’s independence,
proclaimed four years prior.
“For me, my family and my fellow Americans this is more than a foreign
policy issue, it is personal,” Clinton said. Given the Kosovo
Albanians had renamed a major street in their capital ‘Bill Clinton
Avenue’ and erected a massive gilded monument to Hillary’s husband,
her comments were hardly a surprise.
She is unlikely to be condemned for those remarks by her rival for the
Democratic presidential nomination, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
While arguing that Congress should have a say in authorizing the
intervention, Sanders entirely bought into the mainstream narrative
about the conflict, seeing it as a case of the evil Serbian “dictator”
Slobodan Milosevic oppressing the unarmed ethnic Albanians. He saw
“supporting the NATO airstrikes on Serbia as justified on humanitarian
grounds” ( http://feelthebern.org/bernie-sanders-on-nato/#kosovo-crisis
).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8S19u91Dfs
One Sanders aide, Jeremy Brecher, resigned in May 1999 (
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/bernie-sanders-troubling-history-supporting-us-military-violence-abroad
) arguing against the intervention as it unfolded, since the “goal of
US policy is not to save the Kosovars from ongoing destruction.”
Trouble is there was no “destruction.” Contrary to NATO claims of
100,000 or more Albanians purportedly massacred by the Serbs, postwar
investigators found fewer than 5,000 deaths – 1,500 of which happened
after NATO occupied the province and the Albanian pogroms began.
Western media, eager to preserve the narrative of noble NATO defeating
the evil Serbs, dismissed the terror as “revenge killings.” NATO
troops thus looked on as their Albanian protégés terrorized, torched,
bombed and pillaged across the province for years, forcing some
250,000 Serbs, Jews, Roma, and other groups into exile.
After George W. Bush was re-elected in 2004, his administration
adopted the Clinton-era agenda for the Balkans, including backing an
independent Albanian state in Kosovo. None of the Republicans, save
2012 contender Ron Paul, have criticized the Kosovo War since.
Billionaire businessman Donald Trump actually has been critical –
though back in 1999, long before he became the Republican front-runner
and the bane of the GOP establishment. In October that year, Trump was
a guest on Larry King’s CNN show, criticizing (
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/10/08/trump.transcript/ )
the Clintons’ handling of the Kosovo War after a fashion.
“But look at what we’ve done to that land and to those people and
the deaths that we’ve caused,” Trump told King. “They bombed the hell
out of a country, out of a whole area, everyone is fleeing in every
different way, and nobody knows what’s happening, and the deaths are
going on by the thousands.”
The problem with Trump, then as now, is that he is maddeningly vague.
So, these remarks could be interpreted as referring to the terror
going on at that very moment – the persecution of non-Albanians under
NATO’s approving eye – or the exodus of Albanians earlier that year,
during the NATO bombing. Only Trump would know which, and he hasn’t
offered a clarification.
Though he has the most delegates and leads in the national polls for
the Republican nomination, the GOP establishment is furious with Trump
because he dared call (
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/332416-trump-iraq-us-elections/ ) George W.
Bush a liar and describe the invasion of Iraq as a “big fat mistake.”
According to the British historian Kate Hudson (
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/aug/14/usa.kosovo ), however,
the 2003 invasion was just a continuation of the “pattern of
aggression,” following the precedent set with Kosovo.
#MarchPogrom of Serbs in #Kosovo happened under UN & NATO
administration. Crime without punishment for 11th year.
pic.twitter.com/sy9c4GlndW
— Anti-Serbism Monitor (@AntiSerbism)
March 17, 2015 ( https://twitter.com/AntiSerbism/status/577732537344221184 )
Last week Secretary of State John Kerry reluctantly branded (
https://www.rt.com/usa/335971-isis-genocide-iraq-syria/ ) the actions
of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in Iraq and Syria
“genocidal” towards the Christians, Yazidis, Shiites and other groups.
He cited examples of how IS destroyed churches, cemeteries and
monuments, and murdered people simply because of who they were.
It was March 17, eight years to the day since 50,000 Albanians began a
three-day pogrom in Kosovo, doing the very same things – while their
activists in the US were raising funds for the very same John Kerry,
as he ran for president as the Democratic candidate.
"
----------------
http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/karadjic-told-me-i-saved-serbs-genocide-god-knows-we-are-right/ri13574
"
Karadjic Told Me: 'I Saved Serbs From Genocide. God Knows We Are Right'
Personal reflections on a Serb leader who was sentenced to 40 years in
prison for crimes against humanity
Daria Aslamova (Komsomolskay Pravda)
Photo: Radovan Karadjic and Daria Aslamova, 1993
http://russia-insider.com/sites/insider/files/lfkf.jpg
Translated by Julia Rakhmetova and Rhod Mackenzie
The author is a veteran war correspondent who reported from numerous
hot spots throughout the world
This man gave me my first professional tape recorder (his own). With
this man I drank wine at night in the town of Pale near Sarajevo in
March, 1993, during the Bosnian War, with him reading me his poems in
Serbian. A poet and psychiatrist, the Serbian politician Radovan
Karadjic was sentenced ( http://www.kp.ru/daily/26508.4/3377436/ ) to
40 years' imprisonment by a duplicitous International Criminal
Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia for ‘crimes against humanity’ (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimes_against_humanity ).
They even blamed him for ‘genocide (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide ) against Bosnian Muslims (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosniaks )’ in the town of Srebrenica
when he had nothing to do with it. He was a politician, not a general.
(By the way, when the ‘world community’ refers to the massacre of
Muslim men in Srebrenica, it forgets that it was in reprisal for the
murder of Serbian villagers in neighboring towns and villages).
There was a cruel civil war taking place in Bosnia back then, which
began with shootings at a Serbian wedding party in Sarajevo. Bosnian
Muslims got help from the West and the Muslim world, but no one helped
the Serbs. Even Russia, though making loud statements, refused to
supply arms.
The Bosnian Muslims received $2 billion (!) to purchase arms over the
3 years of the war, and 4,500 Al-Qaeda jihadists came to the country
thanks to the US, including Osama Ben Laden. They cut off Serbs’ heads
and threw them like cabbages into a basket. We have shocking
photographs http://www.kp.ru/share/i/4/1084796/big.png (not
recommended for people under 18 and sensitive adults) of those
murders. The murderers are still alive and recruiting new young
terrorists around the world, including for ISIS. When arrested, they
were provided with new passports. And now for that interview with
Karadjic.
"My job was great”, - he said. “Thousands of Serbs were liberated
and avoided genocide. Our biggest mistake was poor propaganda. The
world is against us because we were proud and didn’t want to be
humiliated by making excuses. We let this happen, and now the world
considers Serbs evil incarnate.
Yes, it’s bad for us. But as a psychiatrist, I can say that the
law that applies to an individual, such as ‘stay alone and you will
become mature’, also applies to a nation. Forced isolation will break
him down if he is spiritually weak, or he will rise above it, if he is
worth it. Now the Serbs are alone but this will bring them spiritual
growth and wisdom. God knows we are in the right.”
Sometimes it seems to me that he’s talking about us Russians.
"
------------------------------
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