Critical Observer

WAR CRIMES: US, SAUDI ARABIA TARGETING HOSPITALS

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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">When a despotic regime like Saudi Arabia decides to become subservient to the United States, it's not because it wants to get a rocket to put a man on the moon to serve humanity; it’s because it wants to send as many innocent people as possible to their graves; more so, doctors, nurses and patients.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Now it shouldn't come as surprise to hear that the Saudi-led death cult,  with a stockpile of Western arms, are ‘deliberately’ targeting hospitals and clinics in Yemen. After all, their American masters are doing the same in Afghanistan. Tragic enough, the Saudi-led siege of Yemen, which also includes the United States and Israel, has so far hit nearly 100 healthcare facilities. Still, they have the face to insist this is for democracy!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As reported by the International Committee of the Red Cross, the US-backed invaders have been “deliberately” attacking hospitals and clinics for months. It's an appalling trend that “disrespects the neutrality of health facilities.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The most recent airstrike devastated a clinic on Sunday, November 8, in the city of Taiz - one of the most populous regions, which has been under heavy fire for months. The shelling of Al-Thawra Hospital in the south came just weeks after a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) clinic was hit in Haydan in the north. It comes also after the MSF condemned the US for deliberately bombing its hospital in Afghanistan. The international organization has even charged the US government with war crimes. We say good luck with that!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">However, any decent human being knows that the neutrality of healthcare facilities and staff must be respected. Health facilities should never be attacked, and surgical and medical supplies should never be blocked from reaching hospitals in areas under siege – something that the Saudi-led and US-backed occupying forces have been doing for months in a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As is customary,  the Saudi murderers deny being aware that the airstrikes in Haydan targeted a clinic – just as their American masters keep denying the evident truth of having destroyed the Kunduz hospital in Afghanistan and now stonewalling international inquiry into that deliberate mass murder. Perhaps there is a simple explanation for all this: The Saudis and the Americans keep targeting hospitals because they know there is no international inquiry, not today, not tomorrow, not ever.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It's a silly world we live in, where Malala Yousufzai, a Pakistani schoolgirl, is turned into a poster child and movie star for a nefarious agenda in the West – under the pretext that she was shot by the Taliban after refusing to quit school – all while there is no one to sympathize with all those defenseless doctors and nurses who were killed in cold blood for doing what they loved the most: SAVING LIVES.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It’s absolutely shocking how the tragedy of hospitals in Yemen is never “exploited” by various interested parties in the West – even to advance their own agenda. The most disgusting part is played by the corporate media AND “pro-human rights” establishments. They have never bothered to express any sympathy with the thousands of women and children murdered by the Americans and the Saudis. The world's indifference to the suffering of Yemeni civilians and the murdering of doctors and nurses is shocking.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Article from FARS News Agency, Tehran.</span>

WAR CRIMES: US, SAUDI ARABIA TARGETING HOSPITALS

When a despotic regime like Saudi Arabia decides to become subservient to the United States, it's not because it wants to get a rocke...

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REMEMBERING KIEV'S WAR CRIME: PHOSPHORUS BOMBS

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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Today we remember the long-suffering of Gorlovka, and in particular, in late July last year, the city was shelled with UN-banned phosphorous bombs. Moreover, during the shelling, a small child was burned alive, whose corpse just lied in the street. </span></span></div>
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<i style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">[O.R: USA is a keen user of illegal ammunition, such as cluster bombs, agent orange and of course Nuclear bombs, so it comes as no surprise that their banana republics are using the same tactics.]</span></span></i></div>

REMEMBERING KIEV'S WAR CRIME: PHOSPHORUS BOMBS

Today we remember the long-suffering of Gorlovka, and in particular, in late July last year, the city was shelled with UN-banned phosph...

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WHISTLEBLOWER RELEASES OBAMA'S DRONE PROGRAM PAPERS

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<span style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.4em;">A cache of classified documents has revealed the inner workings of US drone operations in Somalia and Yemen, including the mechanism of targeting suspects slated for assassination.</span></div>
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The documents were provided to The Intercept by a source within the US intelligence community who wished to remain anonymous because of the government's aggressive prosecution of whistleblowers.</div>
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He says the American public has the right to know about the process by which people are placed on kill lists and assassinated on orders from US government officials.</div>
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<span style="line-height: 21.0021px;">“</span><em style="line-height: 21.0021px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">This outrageous explosion of watchlisting — of monitoring people and racking and stacking them on lists, assigning them numbers, assigning them ‘baseball cards,’ assigning them death sentences without notice, on a worldwide battlefield — it was, from the very first instance, wrong,</em><span style="line-height: 21.0021px;">” the whistleblower </span><span style="line-height: 21.0021px;">told</span><span style="line-height: 21.0021px;"> </span><span style="line-height: 21.0021px;">The Intercept.</span></div>
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The cache contains two sets of slides detailing the US military's drone operations in Somalia and Yemen between 2011 and 2013, by the secret Task Force 48-4.</div>
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Additional documents on drone operations in Afghanistan show that the US government has categorized unidentified people killed in drone strikes as enemies, even if they were not the intended targets, thus masking the true extent of civilian casualties.</div>
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"<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Taken together, the secret documents lead to the conclusion that Washington’s 14-year high-value targeting campaign suffers from an overreliance on signals intelligence, an apparently incalculable civilian toll, and — due to a preference for assassination rather than capture — an inability to extract potentially valuable intelligence from terror suspects</em>," wrote The Intercept's Jeremy Scahill.</div>
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Check out all the documents here https://theintercept.com/drone-papers</div>
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WHISTLEBLOWER RELEASES OBAMA'S DRONE PROGRAM PAPERS

A cache of classified documents has revealed the inner workings of US drone operations in Somalia and Yemen, including the mechanism of t...

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MH17 DOWNED BUK MISSILE FROM KIEV-CONTROLLED AREA

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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Two full-scale experiments by the Almaz-Antey defense company aimed at recreating the MH17 crash conclude the missile that downed the flight was an old BUK model fired from a Ukraine-controlled area, contesting the preliminary theory by Dutch investigators.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Two detonations of Buk missiles near aluminum panels and the cockpits of decommissioned Ilyushin Il-86 passenger airliners in July and October have produced what the company calls conclusive results.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In the course of the international investigation, "the company was provided with three T-shaped strike elements, which looked like 9M38M1 [model] strike elements, which caused specialists to make their conclusion on the missile type in June," said Almaz Antey’s CEO.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Late in July the first full-scale experiment was conducted. Then a BUK 9M38M1 missile and aluminum panels were used.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">“In the course of the experiment it became absolutely evident that if the Malaysian Boeing was downed by a BUK missile, it was done with an old BUK model which does not have double-T iron strike elements,” CEO Yan Novikov told a media conference in Moscow.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The outcome of the experiment was sent over to the Dutch investigators, however, "according to what we know was not taken into consideration," Novikov said.</span><br />
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<img alt="© Almaz-Antey" class="media__item" src="https://cdn.rt.com/files/2015.10/original/561cdfc1c46188587d8b45dc.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; width: 813.247px;" /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">© Almaz-Antey</span><img alt="© Almaz-Antey" class="media__item" src="https://cdn.rt.com/files/2015.10/original/561cdff9c361887c5d8b45ed.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; width: 813.247px;" /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">© Almaz-Antey</span><img alt="© Almaz-Antey" class="media__item" src="https://cdn.rt.com/files/2015.10/original/561cdf33c36188110f8b45ca.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; width: 813.247px;" /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">© Almaz-Antey</span><img alt="© Almaz-Antey" class="media__item" src="https://cdn.rt.com/files/2015.10/original/561cdf88c4618862518b45dd.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; width: 813.247px;" /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">© Almaz-Antey</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In October, the BUK manufacturer conducted a second full-scale experiment using the missile and a decommissioned Ilyushin Il-86 passenger airliner. The simulation of the attack on the Boeing <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">"unequivocally proved that if the plane was brought down by a BUK system, it was done with an outdated 9M38 missile from the village of Zaroshchenskoye,"</em> in Ukrainian military-controlled territory.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The company also said that the last missile of this type was produced in the Soviet Union in 1986, that its life span is 25 years including all prolongations, and that all missiles of this type were decommissioned from the Russian Army in 2011.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">According to Almaz-Antey experts, the Dutch side does not explain why the investigation insists that the possible launch of the surface-to-air missile was executed from the settlement of Snezhnoye, controlled by rebel forces.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A missile launched from Snezhnoye could not have inflicted damage to Boeing’s left side and not a single element would have hit the aircraft’s left wing and engine, insist the Almaz-Antey experts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“The main proof that the aircraft was shot down from the direction of Snezhnoye was [the Dutch commission’s] modeling of that process and interpretation of the damage to the fuselage. It does provide a quite visual imagery of how a missile on a head-on course could damage certain areas, yet this kind of modeling does not explain at all the real-incidence angles of striking elements [hitting the aircraft],”</em> Novikov said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Analysis of the photos of MH17 debris led the company's experts to believe that the blast of the warhead damaged not only the cockpit of the Boeing 777 that crashed in Ukraine, but also the left wing and stabilizer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The detonation of the missile occurred at a distance of more than 20 meters from the left-wing engine and most of the strike elements were moving along the fuselage of the aircraft.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“The left wing and stabilizer also bear traces of damage, the size of which provides an opportunity to define them as inflicted by the strike elements of a BUK missile complex,”</em> adviser of the general constructor of Almaz-Antey, Mikhail Malyshevsky, said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Almaz-Antey experts paid special attention to the fact that some of the damage registered on the MH17 debris was caused by disruption of the aircraft’s structural components and not by the striking elements of the missile.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The experts of Almaz-Antey also said that Ukraine possesses 9M38 missiles, but fell short of accusing either the Kiev authorities or the rebels in the east of Ukraine of causing the catastrophe.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Almaz-Antey specialists have not excluded other possible causes of the MH17 tragedy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The preliminary theory of the Dutch Safety Board report investigating technical details of the MH17 air crash was presented on June 1 and since then the participants in the investigation, namely Australia, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Russia, the USA, UK and Ukraine have been allowed to deliver their amendments. Russian authorities have repeatedly called attention to the fact that the investigation team rejects evidence presented by Russian entities such as Almaz-Antey, which are not likely to be presented in the final version expected to be delivered on Tuesday, October 13.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Simultaneously with the investigation of the Dutch Safety Board, the Dutch prosecutor's office is conducting a separate criminal investigation of its own aimed at establishing the perpetrators of the attack on passenger aircraft.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A Malaysia Airlines Boeing-777 flight MH17 passenger aircraft left from Amsterdam to the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014. The airliner was shot down and fell to Earth over the Donetsk Region in eastern Ukraine. All 298 people, 283 passengers and 15 crew, on board were killed. There were 80 children among the passengers. Most, 193 people, were Dutch nationals; altogether the airliner was carrying citizens from 10 countries.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 21.0021px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">From RT News</span></span></div>

MH17 DOWNED BUK MISSILE FROM KIEV-CONTROLLED AREA

Two full-scale experiments by the Almaz-Antey defense company aimed at recreating the MH17 crash conclude the missile that downed the fli...

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THE U.S. SUPPLIED ISIS’ ICONIC TOYOTA PICKUP TRUCKS

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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 1.1;">U.S. counter-terror officials have </span>launched an investigation<span style="line-height: 1.1;"> </span><span style="line-height: 1.1;">into how ISIS got so many of those</span><span style="line-height: 1.1;"> </span>identical Toyota pickup trucks<span style="line-height: 1.1;"> </span><span style="line-height: 1.1;">which they use in their convoys.</span></span></h5>
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They don’t have to look very far …</div>
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The Spectator reported last year:</div>
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<i><b>The [Toyota] Hilux is light, fast, manoeuvrable and all but indestructible (‘bomb-proof’ might not, in this instance, be a happy usage).  The weapons experts Jane’s claimed for the Hilux a similar significance to the longbows of Agincourt or the Huey choppers of Nam. A US Army Ranger said the Toyota sure ‘kicks the hell out of a Humvee’ (referring to the clumsy and over-sized High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle made by AM General).</b></i></div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.25;"><i>The fact is the Toyotas were supplied by the US government to the Al Nusra Front as ‘non-lethal aid’ then ‘acquired’ by ISIS.</i></strong></div>
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Al Nusra Front is literally Al Qaeda.</div>
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<i><span style="background-color: #b6d7a8; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #333333; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 18.2px;">Comment: This (among many other events, makes America and it's coalition in the war on terror, DIRECT sponsors of terrorism! A label which America itself likes to wave around and stick to other countries like Iran for propaganda purposes.</span></span></b></span></i></div>
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Public Radio International – an American public radio outlet – also <a href="http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-04-01/one-toyota-pickup-truck-top-shopping-list-free-syrian-army-and-taliban" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #025ab4; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="documented">documented</a> a specific shipment of Toyotas by the U.S. State Department in 2014:</div>
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Recently, when the US State Department resumed sending non-lethal aid to Syrian rebels, the delivery list included <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">43 Toyota trucks</strong>.</div>
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Hiluxes were on the Free Syrian Army’s wish list. Oubai Shahbander, a <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Washington-based advisor to the Syrian National Coalition, is a fan of the truck</strong>.</div>
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“Specific equipment like the Toyota Hiluxes are what we refer to as force enablers for the moderate opposition forces on the ground,” he adds. Shahbander says the US-supplied pickups will be delivering troops and supplies into battle. Some of the fleet will even become battlefield weapons.</div>
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And that is exactly what happened.</div>
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Article by WASHINGTON'S BLOG</div>

THE U.S. SUPPLIED ISIS’ ICONIC TOYOTA PICKUP TRUCKS

U.S. counter-terror officials have launched an investigation into how ISIS got so many of those identical Toyota pickup trucks whi...

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'USE REFUGEES AS HUMAN SHIELDS FOR TERRORISTS' - US GENERAL

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<i style="font-size: x-large; line-height: 1.1;">A recent <a href="http://www.armed-services.senate.gov/hearings/15-10-08-russian-strategy-and-military-operations" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #025ab4; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">US Senate hearing</a> regarding Russia’s ongoing air campaign in Syria plumbed dark depths when it was actually proposed by retired US Army General John M. Keane that “free zones” be established for armed militants, and populated with refugees to deter Russian attacks. In essence, General Keane’s plan is to use refugees as human shields, and leverage any attack on this established “free zone” as a means of manipulating public opinion.</i></h5>
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<b style="box-sizing: border-box;">The US Strategy Until Now </b></div>
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The recent multinational anti-terror operation led by Russia at the request of the Syrian government has dealt the United States and its narrative regarding its own military intervention in Syria a severe blow.</div>
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It has become abundantly clear that not only has the United States been arming and funding extremists inside of Syria, including groups operating in tandem with listed terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda’s Al Nusra Front, it also appears that the US has feigned its campaign against the so-called “Islamic State” (ISIS/ISIL).</div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.2px;">While the US now poses as determined to “defeat” ISIS in Syria, just last year talking points circulated </span>about instead “containing” the terrorist organization within Syria<span style="line-height: 18.2px;"> </span><span style="line-height: 18.2px;">– essentially letting it ravage the country, degrade the fighting capacity of the Syrian government and hopefully, lead to the collapse of Damascus.</span></div>
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Within the pages of the Brookings Institution – a corporate-financier funded think-tank whose policymakers have helped engineer much of America’s plans now playing out on the global stage – was a report titled, “<a href="http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/up-front/posts/2014/11/07-big-questions-islamic-state-threat-hein" style="background: transparent; border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #025ab4; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">The Big Questions on ISIS</a>.” It stated:</div>
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<i style="box-sizing: border-box;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box;">Should we defeat ISIS? Rather than defeat, containing their activities within failed or near-failing states is the best option for the foreseeable future. </b>The United States has no desire to build nations, and without a stable Middle East, terror groups will continue to find safe haven; if not in western Iraq or Afghanistan, then in Yemen or Somalia. The Middle East and Africa have no shortage of ungoverned or poorly governed territories. The current strategy of prolonged engagement, development and training of local militias, logistic support and air strikes against real targets may be the best solution after all. </i></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="more" style="background: transparent; border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #025ab4; outline: none;" target="_blank"></a>However the instability the US claims ISIS is sustaining itself on was created by the US itself as it attempts to violently overthrow the Syrian government, intentionally dividing and destroying the country in the process. “Containing” ISIS in Syria is not unlike an assassin “containing” a poisonous snake under the covers of their sleeping victim until they are bitten and die.</div>
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But as abhorrent as it is to create, unleash, and “contain” a terrorist threat within a targeted nation to ravage it, the US seems ready to stoop lower still.</div>
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<b style="box-sizing: border-box;">Using Refugees as Human Shields </b></div>
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With Russia and its allies setting out to destroy all terrorist groups operating within Syria and making moves to cut them off from their foreign sponsors, the strategy of waging a proxy war as the US has been doing through Al Qaeda, Al Nusra, and ISIS is no longer viable.</div>
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At a recent US Senate hearing on Russian strategy and military operations, sitting US Senators, retired generals and representatives from various think-tanks and lobbying groups attempted to produce a response to Russia’s most recent move.</div>
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Rather than interpreting Russia’s actions as a welcomed addition to the supposed “War on Terror,” the hearing appeared to interpret the entire Syrian conflict as a mere pawn in a wider proxy war Washington clearly believes it is waging against Moscow. Those attending the hearing admitted to the deterioration of American foreign policy, its global legitimacy and credibility, and the diminishing returns US State Department media operations are having worldwide.</div>
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In this context, many of the solutions regarding Syria centered not on how to stop ISIS or restore peace and stability to the country, but rather how to foil Russia’s military operations aimed at terrorist organizations, how to humiliate and turn global public opinion against Moscow.</div>
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It was among these discussions that retired US Army General John Keane stated:</div>
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<i style="box-sizing: border-box;">If we establish free zones – you know, for moderate opposition forces – but also sanctuaries for refugees, that gets world opinion support rather dramatically. If Putin is going to attack that, then world opinion is definitely against him.  You take this issue right off the table in terms of why he’s in Syria and if you’re doing that [attacking free zones] and contributing to the migration that’s taking place by your aggressive military actions, then world opinion will have some rather – I think – significant impact on him. </i></div>
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One must wonder – if players among US policy circles believe Syrian refugees are pawns of potential use in turning public opinion against Russia in Syria itself, did they not also see them as pawns that could be used to flood Europe and turn public opinion in favor of waging wider and more direct war on the Syrian government itself?</div>
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<a data-slb-active="1" data-slb-asset="882206289" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqRyb2dLY_-PzlAFA8tLT0wxVz9fKAOhCbWer0OrRfrm0ZQUJIZiELH5dbZ22Uf7g_u7h_3mRY0nfOdjpGGJR9Nk-miKhBeMXJMwO64GnMs72bPcTtdJKGqzHB0xnYPcD5i9wZiZSc9Sk/s1600/2300syria-ISIS-7-27-15.jpg" style="background: transparent; border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #025ab4; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img alt="" border="0" class="img-responsive" height="540" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqRyb2dLY_-PzlAFA8tLT0wxVz9fKAOhCbWer0OrRfrm0ZQUJIZiELH5dbZ22Uf7g_u7h_3mRY0nfOdjpGGJR9Nk-miKhBeMXJMwO64GnMs72bPcTtdJKGqzHB0xnYPcD5i9wZiZSc9Sk/s640/2300syria-ISIS-7-27-15.jpg" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; max-width: 100%; outline: none; vertical-align: middle;" width="640" /></a></div>
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While ISIS begins repositioning its weapons and fighters in mosques and other heavily populated areas to use human shields to evade Russian airstrikes, a prominent retired US general is suggesting CIA trained terrorists likewise be repositioned within protected “free zones” using refugees as human shields to also evade Russian airstrikes.</div>
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It should also be noted that America’s proposed “free zone” is located in precisely ISIS’ last remaining supply corridor leading from Turkey. Should Syrian and Russian forces finally seal off the border, ISIS’ fighting capacity within northern and eastern Syria would quickly collapse.</div>
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An abominable proposition echoing through the halls of one of America’s highest institutions, met with either nodding heads or silent approval, portend the next chapter of American intervention in Syria.</div>
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<b style="box-sizing: border-box;">A Dangerous Policy Born of Desperation </b></div>
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Keane’s testimony, provided <a href="http://www.armed-services.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Keane_10-08-15.pdf" style="background: transparent; border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #025ab4; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">by the official US Senate’s website (pdf)</a>, also includes the following points:</div>
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<i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Putin has begun a proxy war with the U.S. when Russian combat aircraft struck, continuously, moderate rebel forces trained by the CIA. This was no accident, targets were provided by the Syrian regime and they were accurate. How can the U.S. stand by and do nothing? U.S. military should have been given the mission to retaliate. Options likely to be considered among others: crater the Al Assad runway, establish free zones that are sanctuaries for refugees, strike Assad’s helicopter fleet that is barrel bombing, just to name a few.</i></div>
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Similar testimony and agreement was also provided by retired US Marine Corps General and former USMC Commandant James Jones, as well as Heather Conley and Stephen Sestanovich representing a milieu of corporate-financier funded policy think-tanks. Their talking points can be heard echoing across the summation of American and European policy circles and in turn, repeated faithfully by the Western media.</div>
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Besides American hegemony, what purpose would “cratering” Russia’s airbase in Syria serve? Would that aid in the battle against ISIS? Would it be worth triggering a potential war with Russia to protect militants the entire world has come to understand are in fact terrorists no different or any less dangerous than the ISIS threat itself?</div>
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That US policymakers and politicians are not asking themselves these questions before they propose such “solutions” publicly gives the world some insight into the intellectual and moral deterioration taking place within America’s ruling elite itself – which has in turn directly fed the deterioration of American influence, power, and legitimacy globally.</div>
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Using refugees as human shields will most likely not turn world opinion against Russia. The practiced liars across the Western media that would be charged with doing the turning, have already entered a terminal crisis of credibility. Instead, General Keane’s suggestions, if taken seriously, will only further compound America’s unraveling global primacy.</div>
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For American policymakers, they may want to explore the qualities that actually make a nation great, rather than qualities useful in only creating the illusion of greatness.</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">This post first appeared on Land Destroyer.</em></div>

'USE REFUGEES AS HUMAN SHIELDS FOR TERRORISTS' - US GENERAL

A recent US Senate hearing regarding Russia’s ongoing air campaign in Syria plumbed dark depths when it was actually proposed by retire...

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DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS STRIKE WAS DELIBERATE

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The US airstrikes that destroyed a hospital belonging to Doctors Without Borders in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz was "a deliberate attack," a top official charged Thursday.<br />
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"The trauma hospital ... came under multiple, precise and sustained air raids for more than an hour after we informed military officials in both Washington and Kabul," Christopher Stokes, the general director of the aid group, said in arguing that the attack did not consist only of "collateral damage."<br />
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"This does not match at all what our team told us," he said. "They said very precise strikes on the main building of the hospital. ... It was a deliberate hit."<br />
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He called for an independent inquiry into Saturday's airstrikes, which killed at least 22 people. The aid group said nine patients and 24 staff members are still missing.<br />
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Three investigations are now under way into the bombing by US, NATO and Afghan forces.<br />
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US President Barack Obama on Wednesday called the president of Doctors Without Borders to apologize for the attack.<br />
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"When we make a mistake we own up to it," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. "We apologize, and we make changes to be sure it won't occur again in the future."<br />
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Stokes, however, charged that the airstrikes amounted to violations of international humanitarian law and "an attack on the Geneva Conventions itself."<br />
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He pressed for an independent international investigation by the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission, an international body that investigates potential breaches of international humanitarian law.<br />
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The commission was created in 1991 on the basis of the Geneva Conventions, but the commission has never been activated or used.<br />
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The 76 signatory states includes Germany, Russia and Britain, but the United States and France are not part of it.<br />
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None of the signatory states has replied to the Doctors Without Borders request for a formal investigations yet, Stokes said.<br />
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By Anne K Walters, dpa

DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS STRIKE WAS DELIBERATE

The US airstrikes that destroyed a hospital belonging to Doctors Without Borders in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz was "a deli...

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SAUDI ARABIA ‘INVESTIGATE THEMSELVES’ FOR WAR CRIMES

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The UN decision to support Saudi-led resolution to set up a national inquiry into human rights violations in Yemen, gave the right for one of the world's worse human rights abuser to investigate itself, human-rights activist Ajamu Baraka told RT.<br />
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RT:  Why do you think the Saudi proposal has been chosen over that of the Netherlands?<br />
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Ajamu Baraka: Because the Saudi proposal was a de-politicized proposal that in effect gave the Saudi authorities the right to investigate themselves. It was an outrageous decision made by the UN Human Rights Council. The Saudis were able to achieve something that even the Israelis were unable to achieve and that is to stop this body from carrying out its responsibility to protect the Charter and to protect the human life and human rights.<br />
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RT:  Amnesty International says that Saudi-led actions in Yemen should be regarded as war crimes. Do you think anyone will ever be held responsible?<br />
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AB: In this present era of international lawlessness there is a good possibility that the Saudi war crimes will escape any kind of real accountability. We see a situation now where states are able to engage in activities that a decade ago they would have been roundly condemned. But now this type of activity is being normalized. There appears to be no real international accountability. Therefore, states like the Saudi government feel no hesitation to pursue their own so-called national interest, even if it means violating international law.<br />
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RT:  In an interview to RT Arabic, the UN's special envoy for Yemen described the situation in the country where 21 million people are in need of humanitarian aid. What should be done in your view to improve the situation?<br />
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AB: It defiantly needs addressing because what we have is a humanitarian crisis, a humanitarian crisis that can just be put at the foot of the Saudi authorities. We have to look at the fact that the Saudis have not been operating by themselves. They pulled together a coalition of states that theoretically are involved in this massive crime, including the USA, that participates in a naval blockade that stops any kind of real humanitarian assistance reaching the people of Yemen.<br />
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The Americans, we know, have provided logistical support, target information to the Saudis. And we know that the Saudis are utilizing American-supplied weapons. So when we talk about the crimes being committed in Yemen, we have to connect those crimes with all of those forces involved that are complicit, including the US.

SAUDI ARABIA ‘INVESTIGATE THEMSELVES’ FOR WAR CRIMES

The UN decision to support Saudi-led resolution to set up a national inquiry into human rights violations in Yemen, gave the right for on...

Read Article »