The Media is the Message > MSNBC's Desperate Fear Campaign; Treatment of Assange Likened to Cannibalism; American's Trust in Media is Lowest;

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30 million Americans ready to ‘take up arms’, MSNBC claims

In the press, fear, and fear alone sells

12 Dec, 2021 22:10

Supporters of Donald Trump gather outside Michigan State Capitol to demand audit 2020 election votes, in Lansing, Michigan ©  REUTERS/Rebecca Cook

MSNBC’s national affairs analyst John Heilemann shocked many Americans by claiming on a Sunday show that “20 to 30 million people” are ready to “take up arms” to remove President Joe Biden from office.

On Sunday’s ‘Meet the Press’, host Chuck Todd focused on a recent Atlantic article declaring that Donald Trump’s “coup has already begun” for a segment, finding Heileman in total agreement with the statement with the piece's premise. 

“There is this research that shows something like 8% and maybe up to 12% who say that Joe Biden was illegitimate and that violence is a suitable tool to remove him and restore Donald Trump. This represents between 20 and 30 million people,” Heilemann said, claiming these supposed “20 to 30 million people” are ready to “take up arms.”

These Trump supporters, he added, represent a “mass movement in favor of political violence.”

In the Atlantic article, by Barton Gellman, it is argued that Trump’s “coup” will “rely on subversion more than violence” and the January 6 Capitol riot is described as “practice” for the former president. Gellman claims political maneuvering by Trump and his supporters and putting the right supporters in the right positions nationally and locally could lead to a 2024 presidential election that is not decided by ballots. 

Gellman’s ‘prediction’ had already faced some scrutiny from people chalking it up as hyperbolic partisanship, and Heilemann’s declaration that tens of millions are waiting in the wings to “take up arms” was met with some eye rolls and criticism against MSNBC for airing such “irresponsible journalism.”

“The last few years have convinced the press that fear - and fear alone - sells,” journalist Drew Holden tweeted. 

“Too much of our news has become PANIC TV to get you fearful and grab your attention. It’s irresponsible,” author Daniel Darling added.

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Moscow likens treatment of Assange to ‘cannibalism’

15 Dec, 2021 22:10

File photo: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange after he was arrested by British police in London,

April 11, 2019. ©  REUTERS/Henry Nicholls

The treatment of Julian Assange amounts to “real cannibalism” by Western governments, the Russian Foreign Ministry said, pointing out that the WikiLeaks founder is being punished for publishing the truth about US atrocities.

“The actions of recent years are real ‘cannibalism’ shown by our Western partners,” ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a press briefing on Friday, answering a question about Russia’s official position on Assange. 

Given Russia's history of murdering journalists who are anti-government, this is more than a little hypocritical.

“This is no longer about double standards or about trampling the principles and ideals [the West claims to champion]”, she added, calling the West’s treatment of Assange “revenge” for his decision to share with the world the information that shed light on “lies and deception” by multiple governments.

“One way or another, this is a person committed to the principles of freedom of speech, which is of fundamental importance for international relations. With his life and deeds, he defended the very values ​​that many only issue statements about,” said Zakharova.

Assange spent years trapped inside the embassy of Ecuador in London, before a new government in Quito revoked his asylum. He was dragged out of the embassy by British police in April 2019, and has been kept at the Belmarsh maximum-security prison ever since. His health has deteriorated considerably, and his fiancé, Stella Moris, recently revealed that he had suffered a stroke back in October. 

Zakharova noted that Assange had become a “completely different man” as a result of his captivity, deprived of fresh air, walks and sunlight. 

I don't know about cannibalism, but this is torture, and a warning from Deep State not to expose their criminal activities. What possible justification can there be for keeping him locked up 24/7?

If this is part of the mindset of Western civilization, then everything else about it

is canceled automatically. There cannot be any other interpretation.

The UK high court ruled last week to allow his extradition to the US, where he faces “espionage” charges for publishing documents about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2010. If convicted, he could face up to 175 years in prison.

Poll reveals how many Americans think media

pushes own agenda over facts

17 Dec, 2021 16:45

More than three quarters of all Americans from across the political spectrum think the news media’s primary goal is “advancing their own opinions or political agendas,” according to a new poll.

A Trafalgar Group poll published this month found that 76.3% of Americans agree that the primary focus of the mainstream media is “advancing their own opinions or political agendas,” with 23.7% saying the media’s focus is “finding and reporting the facts.”

Republicans were the most cynical group surveyed, with more than 90% believing that the media pushes its own political agenda. 76% of independents felt the same.

Democrats were the most trustful of the media, but only just, with 37.3% trusting news outlets to deliver the facts and with 62.7% accusing them of pushing partisanship.

The difference here between Republicans and Democrats reveals the direction of the news spinning is to the left.

"Thanks to the decentralization of the news through the internet and social media, the mainstream press outlets no longer have a monopoly on controlling the news,” Convention of States Action President Mark Meckler said in a statement to the Daily Caller, a conservative news site.

"Unfortunately, the mainstream media has been slow to adjust to this reality and don’t seem to realize that the average American can now see in real time the difference between the actual facts of a story versus what the mainstream media says.”

The hyper-partisanship of the Trump administration - which saw the president treated to scathing coverage by liberal outlets and adulation by the comparatively fewer conservative ones - has not done the media any favors in terms of public trust. A poll by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism this summer found that out of 46 countries surveyed, the US ranked last in media trust.

Another Gallup poll in October found that only 36% of the American public expressed “a great deal” or “a fair amount” of trust in the news media, the lowest figure since 2016 and nearly 20 points lower than at the turn of the millennium.

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Billions in US Funds & Equipment Lost to ‘Out of Control’ Corruption in Afghanistan

FILE PHOTO: Afghan policemen and a US soldier patrol the town of Sar Howza in Paktika province.

© Reuters / Goran Tomasevic

A lack of accountability breeds corruption in Afghanistan but money is still funneled into the country, as a fall of its government would become a geopolitical disaster for the US, former Pentagon official Michael Maloof told RT.

Some seven billion dollars’ worth of equipment was stolen from Camp Kearney base in Paktika province in the east of the country, after it was handed to the Afghan forces by the US in 2014, provincial governor Mujib Rahman Samkanai told local media. The looters, he claimed, were “former governors, commanders, mayors, directors, parliament members.”

“It’s been an ongoing problem for years, in which billions of dollars, not only in military but in foreign aid, have been lost due to corruption in Afghanistan,” Maloof explained to RT. “It’s out of control. There’ve been a lot of efforts to try and stem this corruption, but it’s actually part of the culture [among the country’s elites].”

US hardware on both sides of the war is more common than you would believe.

The former Pentagon official said that “it started with money and now it came to the equipment,” which disappears without a trace and is then turned into cash by interested parties. In almost 100 percent of cases the US hardware ends up on the ‘black market’ where it’s purchased by terrorists, whom the Afghan and American forces are supposed to be fighting, he pointed out.

According to Maloof, the problem is that “once the equipment gets into the field then there’s no accountability for it. The Afghan forces may sell it off, even though sometimes it’s only on loan to them.”

Once it’s lost, there’s no effort to try and retrieve it on the part of the US side.

Billions in taxpayer money is lost every year, but “nobody does anything about it in the US government or in the Congress… It’s a continuous endless cycle of corruption not only on [the Afghani] part, but on our part too,” he said.

Washington can’t withdraw its forces from Afghanistan or cut off the funding because “in the view of the US that would be catastrophic from the geopolitical standpoint” if the Afghan government loses power to the Taliban. This is where “this level of tolerance to the corruption” comes from, he explained. However, despite all the money spent “the Taliban is only increasing its territory.”

Paktika Province, Afghanistan

American Terrorist Gets Life in Prison for Aborted Plot in Canada

American woman sentenced to life in prison for Valentine's Day shooting plot involving Halifax mall

The plan involved shooters opening fire at the Halifax Shopping Centre

CBC News 

Lindsay Kantha Souvannarath, shown in provincial court for a preliminary hearing in Halifax on July 8, 2015, has been sentenced to life in prison for her role in a shooting plot targeting a shopping mall. (Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press)

An American woman who took part in a plotted Valentine's Day shooting rampage at a Halifax mall has been sentenced to life in prison.

Lindsay Souvannarath pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to commit murder in a plan that would have seen two shooters open fire at the Halifax Shopping Centre food court in 2015. She will serve at least 10 years before she is eligible for parole.

"The impact of an offence like this would have changed the city forever," said Crown prosecutor Shauna MacDonald.

"It seems like something that's only in the news and happens elsewhere. This made it very real, brought it home to us that our community is at risk, was at risk, and something very serious was only narrowly averted by the quick action of the police."

The sentencing comes exactly 19 years after the Columbine High School massacre, something Souvannarath and her co-conspirators had said was their inspiration for the foiled plot. 

Police thwarted the planned attack after receiving an anonymous tip, but not before Souvannarath boarded a Nova Scotia-bound plane in Chicago.

Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Peter Rosinski called it a "very unusual and difficult case." On Friday, Rosinski said he was satisfied that if police hadn't thwarted the plot, it would have been successful. 

Souvannarath is eligible to apply for parole after 10 years in custody, which would be February 2025. 

MacDonald pointed out that a life sentence comes with no end date. If Souvannarath does not show signs of rehabilitation, she could potentially remain in custody the rest of her life.

Souvannarath declines to address court

Rosinski said he couldn't ignore the timing of her guilty plea. She was charged in February 2015 and pleaded guilty in April 2017 — only after she learned her social media conversations with her co-conspirator, James Gamble, would be permitted as evidence.

In his decision, Rosinski wondered what carnage would have been inflicted that day. "One can readily infer multiple serious casualties."

He said Souvannarath remains a danger to the public, and continues to show no remorse for her plan. 

Life was the strongest possible sentence, and means potentially that Souvannarath may never be released from custody if rehabilitation is not successful. 

"It certainly sends a clear message that anyone who would think of participating in something to this extreme, random killing of innocent citizens, will suffer serious consequences," said MacDonald. 

Gamble killed himself as police surrounded his Halifax-area home, while she was arrested at the airport.

Randall Shepherd, a third accomplice, is a local man described in court as the "cheerleader" of the plot. He was sentenced to a decade in jail.

When the judge asked Souvannarath if she would like to address the court prior to sentencing, the 26-year-old said: "I decline."

The case also poses interesting immigration questions.

The Canada Border Services Agency caught Souvannarath at the airport, before she was admitted into Canada. 

Crown prosecutor Mark Heerema says she's effectively on loan from immigration to the police while she serves her custodial sentence in Canada.

If she is granted parole, a spokesperson from CBSA says she would likely face deportation. 

Contract Security Firm Sallyport - No Scruples, No Oversight

US firm at Iraqi base hushed up probe into human trafficking & alcohol smuggling – report

Joint Base Balad, Iraq. © Sgt. Quentin Johnson / Wikipedia

A US firm, paid $686 million to secure an Iraqi base for F-16 fighter jets, ignored security violations, human trafficking allegations and alcohol smuggling by its staff, according to an AP investigation. Those who uncovered the wrongdoing were fired.

The investigation centers on Sallyport Global, which was contracted by the US government to help secure Iraq's Balad Airbase by keeping F-16s and their Iraqi pilots safe.

The $686 million contract also required investigations into potential crimes and contract violations, and for any breaches to be reported to the US government.

However, Robert Cole and Kristie King, the investigators tasked with that job, would soon realize their findings were extremely unwelcome by Sallyport.

The news agency interviewed two former internal investigators who were fired by Sallyport, as well as a half-dozen former or current staff members. It also obtained documents as part of the probe.

Alcohol smuggling

Although alcohol was restricted at the base, Cole and King discovered that staff frequently flew in smuggled alcohol in such large volumes that a plane once “see-sawed” on the tarmac due to the weight.

According to documents and witnesses, alcohol was everywhere on the base. Empty suitcases were reportedly loaded on to Baghdad-bound round-trip flights, returning with booze-filled plastic water bottles which evaded security – a serious risk in a war zone.

Steve Anderson, who worked on flight logistics for Sallyport, said he was told by managers to sign off on manifests he knew had been falsified to hide alcohol and guns.

When he raised concerns, it was suggested that he find a new job. His position was soon eliminated.

In one allegation, informants told the investigators that “flight line” staff responsible for directing airplanes on the runways and handling cargo, were showing up to work drunk. At one point, they reportedly passed around a bowl of gummy bears soaked in vodka.

Prostitution

When Cole and King were aiming to get to the bottom of the alcohol smuggling, they came across a prostitution ring in Baghdad, the customers of which included Sallyport employees, according to informants.

They also learned that four Ethiopians who had previously worked as prostitutes at a hotel had moved to Balad and were plying the same trade while also working as housekeepers for Sallyport.

That investigation, along with the alcohol smuggling probe, was shut down by a Sallyport executive in Virginia before it could continue.

However, Sallyport Chief Operating Officer Matt Stuckart said the prostitution allegations were not substantiated.

“It is absurd to suggest that the company would shut down an inquiry into a matter of such gravity,” he said.

There were also allegations that Sallyport staff members were involved in human trafficking for prostitution.

Theft & security breaches

The AP investigation details an incident which occurred on July 13, 2015, in which a truck driver lost control of his vehicle, taking it onto the tarmac and stopping about 45 yards from a jet in the “no-go area."

Three months later, Cole reported the theft of an armored Toyota SUV assigned to VIPs. His chief suspect was a Sallyport bodyguard. However, the Toyota was recovered within days and Cole was called off the case.

A former senior manager for Sallyport defended taking Cole off the case, telling AP that negotiations with militias were sensitive and needed Iraqi cooperation. Although he said the chief suspect – the bodyguard – was ‘banned’ from the base, Cole later saw him walking around freely.

On November 15, 2016, rogue militia stole three enormous generators using flatbed trucks and a 60-foot (18-meter) crane, driving directly past Sallyport security guards unchallenged.

Despite requirements to report major security breaches, none of the incidents were reported to the US government until earlier this year, after an auditor began asking questions.

‘We knew too much’ 

After uncovering the information, Cole and King reported it to the correct channels. However, those channels never reported it to the US government and the two investigators were abruptly fired on March 12 and immediately flown out of Iraq.

At the time of their sacking, King and Cole had been looking into allegations that Sallyport manager were falsifying timesheets and people were getting paid without working. They were set to interview those whom they considered to be suspects.

The investigators said company lawyers had ordered them to keep two sets of books at the time, which they believed to be an attempt to deceive auditors.

“One for the government to see and one for the government not to see,” King told AP.

“I feel like they got us out so quickly because they feel like we knew too much,” he said.

King said he and Cole eventually realized that Sallyport was hiding all of the information from the US government, calling the revelation “mind-blowing.”

Meanwhile, Sallyport's COO Stuckart says the company stands by its security procedures and received “high marks” from the US Air Force.

He said the company has a “strong record of providing security and life support services in challenging war zones like Iraq and plays a major but unheralded role in the war against ISIS [Islamic State/IS].”

“The company takes any suggestion of wrongdoing at Balad very seriously,” he added.

Balad Airbase is controlled by the Iraqi government, and has hosted US forces off and on since 2003. The base was evacuated in June 2014, when IS began overrunning Iraqi territory. Sallyport was tasked with keeping the base safe after the Americans returned.

Middle East Forum Senior Staff Disagree over Trump's Bombing of Syria

Middle East Forum Senior Staff Disagree over Trump's Bombing of Syria - and they both manage to get it wrong!

U.S. cruise missile strikes on Syria last week elicited varied reactions from

Middle East Forum fellows and staff.

I want you to know I have great respect for MEF and its staff. But this is a complex situation where the truth is far from being transparent.

PHILADELPHIA  – It's in the nature of a research institute to share a basic outlook. The board, staff, and fellows of the Middle East Forum (MEF) agree broadly on such things as countering Islamism, supporting U.S. allies, promoting American interests, and rewarding democratic practices.

Of course, how one reaches these policy goals is a matter of debate, and argument over strategy and tactics has been a feature of MEF life since it opened its doors in 1994.

Rarely, however, has a clash of views been as sharp as now, with President Daniel Pipes calling U.S. missile strikes against the Syrian air base responsible for a deadly chemical weapons attack a "mistake" and Director Gregg Roman praising the operation. Nonetheless, we see this as a healthy diversity of opinion over how to reach common goals.

No to Bombing Syria

Writing in National Review Online on April 7, Middle East Forum President Daniel Pipes reiterates his long-standing opposition to direct intervention in the 6-year-old Syrian civil war, which pits a motley assortment of Sunni Islamist-dominated Arab rebels, backed by Turkey, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, against a far more unified Iranian-dominated network of Shiite, Alawite, and Christian pro-regime forces.

Pipes has long argued that the U.S. should work to ensure that "[Syrian President Bashar] Assad & Tehran fight the rebels & Ankara to mutual exhaustion" while awaiting the emergence of a "moderate alternative to today's wretched choices." In addition to alleviating suffering where possible, the goal should be "to help those who are losing, but indirectly," he explained in an April 7 interview with i24News.

Being American and a patriot, Mr Pipes fails to recognize that the world is being run by those who make and sell weapons of war. His policy to encourage the Syrian war to continue to exhaustion is exactly what the military industrial establishment wants. It keeps the inventory rolling and the money coming in. 

But his policy is also really poor for several more reasons:

1. It has contributed greatly to the suffering and death toll of Syrian civilians

2. It has contributed greatly to the complete destruction of what was once a fairly modern society

3. It has contributed greatly to the mass migration of Muslims into Europe and the subsequent Islamization of Europe

4. It is probably illegal

5. It is definitely immoral

6. His assumption that an acceptable Muslim group will emerge to replace Assad is absurd. Muslim groups never evolve toward moderation - they evolve toward extremism. The strongest groups are supported by Saudi Arabia which is determined to replace Assad with a Salafist government. If you think that will be an improvement, you need to take a trip to Saudi Arabia. If you think having a Salafist country bordering Israel can be anything but disastrous, you need to think again. 

Pipes insists that U.S. intervention in Syria should remain indirect.

In 2013, amid rising prospects of a rebel victory "replacing the Assad government with triumphant, inflamed Islamists," the application of this principle led Pipes to advocate support for pro-regime forces. Today, with the regime having regained control over Aleppo and other key real estate, he argues that the U.S. should assist the rebels with arms and intelligence on the grounds that they are now the weaker party.

But Pipes insists that U.S. intervention in Syria should remain indirect. Limited strikes of the kind ordered by Trump (and contemplated by Obama in 2013) don't have much deterrent value because of the American public's well-known aversion to sustained military intervention in Middle East conflicts. "[I]t's really a paper tiger," he told i24News. One-off missile strikes also give Assad the halo (among supporters) of having stood up to the U.S. military without paying a prohibitive cost. "Unless a great deal follows, which I don't think is going to happen, this will be seen as something that the Assad regime has been able to survive," he added. "Symbolism is not a good idea in warfare."

Yes to Bombing Syria

Writing for The Hill on April 7, Middle East Forum Director Gregg Roman expressed strong support for the strike against Syria.

Roman's primary concern is the loss of American credibility following Obama's 2013 'red line' fiasco.

Roman's primary concern is the loss of American deterrence credibility in the wake of President Obama's bungled response to Assad's chemical weapons use in 2013. By acting quickly, unilaterally, and unpredictably (all in sharp contrast to his predecessor's playbook), Trump helped "wash away the stain" of Obama's "red line" fiasco and thus restore American credibility and prestige. The "astonishingly favorable reaction to the strike throughout the world," he writes, "underscores that bold American leadership and decisive action are the way to win friends, not multilateralism and diplomatic nicety."

Some research will reveal that the chemical weapons used in 2013 were not the same as the chemical weapons that Assad had available at that time. It will also reveal that it could not have originated from government controlled airfields. I'm amazed Mr Roman isn't aware of that. Obama could have responded quickly and decisively as, I'm sure, many of his advisers wanted him to, but if he had he would have played right into the hands of the rebels who actually did use the gas. 

This is exactly what Trump has done! Instead of gaining credibility he, when the truth is revealed, will look like the loose canon he is, and the world will be far less safe than it was before last week. But, hey, weapons makers and sellers are having the time of their lives.

Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi, a research fellow at the Forum's Jihad Intel project, offers a more limited endorsement of the strike. "Besides reducing the absolute number of aircraft capable of bombing Syrian civilians (absolutely a good thing in its own right)," he writes in an April 7 Middle East Eye op-ed, "the strike is useful in sending a message that international norms prohibiting chemical weapons use cannot simply be violated and merely condemned with words." However, he warns of the dangers of escalation and expresses concern that broader military intervention "cannot be completely ruled out" given the "volatility" of the Trump administration.

The Middle East Forum is dedicated to promoting American interests in the Middle East and protecting the West from Middle Eastern threats. It does so through intellectual, activist, and philanthropic efforts.

French Muslims: Jews Are Behind Paris Attacks!

BY MICHAEL VAN DER GALIEN 

After the terrorist attacks in Paris, Canadian journalist and entrepreneur Ezra Levant hopped on a plane to France. His mission? To interview French Muslims about the attacks. He wanted to know their views: Who committed these horrific attacks, does it have anything to do with Islam, and does this mean France is at war? If so, a war against whom?

Now, Levant has published a 20-minute video with highlights of these interviews. Although the conversations are in French, his organization, Rebel Media, put English subtitles below them. The results are both troubling and, in some way at least, reassuring.

Let me start with the reassuring part. Most French Muslims Levant talked to condemned the attacks. They made clear they don't want to have anything to do with ISIS and don't share the organization's views and goals.

This has nothing to do with Muslims

So far, so good.

However, many of them also said some things that are extremely troubling. For example, almost every single one of them said ISIS can't possibly have anything to do with Islam. Muslims can't kill innocent people, they say, so ISIS terrorists aren't Islamic.

That is circular reasoning that defies any form of common sense and reality.

Although that may make them feel better about their faith, the problem with that attitude is that it denies reality. If radical Islam is to be defeated, non-extremist Muslims have to be honest with themselves about the problems within their faith. Sadly, many of them clearly aren't prepared for that.

What's more, while condemning the attacks and claiming the terrorists can't possibly be Islamic, many of the interviewees put the blame on... Jews.

And it's not just Jews who are responsible for ISIS, say these "moderate" French Muslims. No, when push comes to shove, it's actually an American organization:

In other words, ISIS isn't Islamic at all! Nope, as far as these enlightened adherents of the Islamic faith are concerned, the group is nothing more or less than a cabal of "really sick" Jews and their capitalist American friends:

As Levant points out in his video, the most troubling part of this is that the interviewee who made this statements doesn't look like a radical Muslim at all. He's not wearing traditional Arabic clothes, nor does he have a long beard. "He looks like a hipster": an average guy and active participant in French society.

Yet his views are anti-American, anti-Semitic and, dare I say it, downright fundamentalist.

It would be one thing if the man who said this was the exception, but Levant's video proves that not to be the case. Many other French Muslims -- men who appear to be completely normal -- share his ideas.

All in all, Levant says about half of the French Muslims he spoke to told him that ISIS was created by "the Jews" and America.

Their reasoning is simple: Muslims don't kill other people, and especially not fellow Muslims. ISIS kills innocent people -- and especially Muslims (in their eyes) -- and so the group can't possibly be Islamic. It's as simple as 1+1=2.

On the other hand, these people are convinced that Jews do kill innocent people -- and Muslims most of all.

Amazing! 1.6 billion Muslims in the world and 16 million Jews - 100 Muslims for every Jew and Muslims are perpetual victims! How pathetic! That in itself should be enough to renounce Islam.

To summarize: ISIS "is an organization that follows the United States and the Jews."

So at best, French Muslims are in denial about ISIS' Islamic views, and at worst, they blame "the really sick Jews and Americans" for the rise of the organization and its attacks in Paris last year.

If it proves one thing it is that France has a massive Islamic problem on its hands.

This reveals that at least half of all French Muslims are living in Fantasyland, in complete denial of reality and 1400 years of history. They are also illiterate when it comes to the Quran. The scary problem is that such people are extremely vulnerable to radicalization when someone actually does teach them the Quran. Right now, they are only being taught to deny reality and hate Jews.

‘Lies are Their Agenda’: Canadian Journalist Blasts MSM Syria Coverage at UN Event

MSM - Main Stream Media has been called to task in the biased reporting of the American election. Here, they are chastised for their pro-western, anti-Assad coverage in Syria, based on lies and little more than 'gossip journalism'. This is a serious charge and it is not the first time it has been made, but this time it is made by a Canadian who has been there for years.

Boys stand amid the damage in the government-held al-Shaar neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria December 13, 2016. © Omar Sanadiki / Reuters

Western mainstream media’s coverage of the Syrian war is “compromised” as their local sources are “not credible” and, in the case of Aleppo, not even there, a Canadian journalist said in an emotional speech at the UN.

Syrians support Assad

“I’ve been many times to Homs, to Maaloula, to Latakia and Tartus [in Syria] and again, Aleppo, four times. And people’s support of their government is absolutely true. Whatever you hear in the corporate media is completely opposite,” Eva Bartlett, a Canadian journalist and rights activist, told a press conference arranged by the Syrian mission to the UN.

video 3:45

“And, on that note, what you hear in the corporate media, and I will name them – BBC, Guardian, the New York Times etc. – on Aleppo is also the opposite of reality,” she added. The mainstream media narrative, she argued, is meant to mislead the public about what is really happening in Syria by demonizing President Bashar Assad’s government and altering the facts on Russia’s support for Damascus.

Bartlett’s statements did not seemingly play well with everyone in the room. A reporter from Aftenposten, Norway’s largest print newspaper, challenged her and demanded Bartlett explain what she thought was the “agenda” of Western mainstream media. “Why should we lie, why the international organizations on the ground should lie? How can you justify calling all of us liars?” he said.

Sources not credible

Bartlett, who has been covering Syrian events for several years since the outbreak of the civil war, noted that while there are “certainly honest journalists among the very compromised establishment media,” many respected media agencies simply seem to avoid doing a fact-check.

She then asked her Norwegian colleague to name humanitarian organizations operating in eastern Aleppo. As the Aftenposten reporter stayed silent, Bartlett added that “there are none.”

“These organizations are relying on the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights [SOHR], which is based in Coventry, UK, which is one man. They're relying on compromised groups like the White Helmets. Let's talk about the White Helmets,” she went on.

White Helmets

Members of the controversial group “purport to be rescuing civilians in eastern Aleppo and Idlib … no one in eastern Aleppo has heard of them.” Meanwhile, she noted, “their video footage actually contains children that have been ‘recycled’ in different reports; so you can find a girl named Aya who turns up in a report in say August, and she turns up in the next month in two different locations.”

White Helmets keep rescuing the same girl

“So they [the White Helmets] are not credible. The SOHR are not credible. 'Unnamed activists' are not credible. Once or twice maybe, but every time? Not credible. So your sources on the ground – you don't have them,” Bartlett concluded.

A journalist from Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera took a more measured tone and asked Bartlett to explain the difference between the Western and Russian media coverage, saying that Russian television channels report on humanitarian efforts and reconciliation instead of overt naming and blaming.

“You ask why we aren't seeing this,” Bartlett said. “This relates to the other gentleman's question about why most of the corporate media are telling lies about Syria. It's because this is the agenda; if they had told the truth about Syria from the beginning, we wouldn't be here now. We wouldn't have seen so many people killed.”

And if people aren't being killed, arms merchants aren't moving their inventory! Isn't it ironic that left-leaning media are totally supporting war mongers!

'Secular' Syrian Rebels Don't Actually Believe in Secular Democracy

Labelled as: SHOCKING ADMISSION, by PJ Media, this article is only shocking to those who believe America is doing the right thing in Syria. For the rest of us, we already knew the 'rebels' are the military of choice for the Saudi's proxy war in Syria. With Salafists in dominant positions, you can be sure that if they manage to topple Assad, he will be replaced by something even more heinous, with America's help.

BY PATRICK POOLE PJ Media

A stunning admission last week by a French academic about the true nature of the so-called "secular" elements of the Syrian rebels exposes the lies behind the official media and foreign policy establishment narratives pushing for regime change in Syria.

As first noticed by Professor Max Abrams of Northeastern University, a study published by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and authored by French professor Fabrice Balanche on the status and composition of the Syrian "rebels" admits that the vaunted "secular" rebels are anything but.

Discussing the religious composition of the rebels based on estimates provided by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Balanche says:

The ISW usefully classified the various rebel groups into four ideological categories: transnational Salafi-jihadists (i.e., al-Qaeda-linked fighters), national Salafi-jihadists, political Islamists, and secularists. The difference between national jihadists and political Islamists is more or less akin to the difference between Salafists and the Muslim Brotherhood -- in simplified terms, the former seek strict application of Islamic law, while many of the latter tend to favor a state with an Islamic civil constitution but protections for religious freedom. As for the "secularists," the term is used very loosely because most of the fighters in this category are conservative Muslims who do not actually want a secular government.

The fact that Balanche admits that the ISW's estimates of so-called "secularists" are built upon the fiction that they are actually secular exposes the false narrative that ISW has long peddled in support of regime change.

This lie about large numbers of "secular" rebels that the U.S. needed to support is one that  the ISW has been pushing for a while.

Rewind to September 2013, when considerable pressure was being placed upon President Obama to directly involve the U.S. in the Syrian war.

At that time the ISW's resident Syria "expert," Elizabeth O'Bagy, was opining in the Wall Street Journal about her travels to Syria and purported discovery that the Syrian "rebels" really weren't bloodthirsty jihadists, but moderates worthy of U.S. financial and military support -- in particular, heavy weapons. Her claims about the Syrian rebels, particularly the FSA, were cited and praised by Secretary of State John Kerry and Senator John McCain.

That view, of course, quickly came crashing down as O'Bagy came under fire for failing to disclose that she was also a paid contractor for a Syrian rebel front. (She had also lied about her academic credentials.) Within two weeks of her op-ed appearing, she was fired from the Institute for the Study of War, though she was hired two weeks later by Senator McCain as a Senate staffer.

Gee, nothing the least bit suspicious about that, eh? Does anyone else think that most of the wars America is involved in are entirely about moving massive inventories of weapons? Or is it just me?

What is Really Going on in Aleppo? It is Tragic and Infuriating!

Western powers, ie USA, Britain, France, Germany, etc., are supporting a rag-tag ensemble of rebels in an attempt to get them all on the same page in order to overthrow Assad. There are 22 different groups fighting in East Aleppo, all of whom are involved in the bombing and murdering of civilians including children in West Aleppo as they try to expand their territory westward. 

These are the people the west wants to win! These are the people the west wants to govern Syria. At the very least they are no better than Assad and because they are so fragmented, each with their own motivations and ambitions, they can never form a stable government and could easily end up a far worse regime than Assad's. They could also end up being a far bigger threat to Israel. 

The main force in this 'coalition' is the Al-Nusra Front which is associated with al Queda. Western powers are supplying them with weapons, finances, and propaganda facilities. According to the two very knowledgeable women interviewed below the apparently heroic 'white helmets' are trained mercenaries and murderers who are well armed and whose real purpose is to help resupply the rebels.

One point made several times is that western media are deliberately propagandizing western efforts overthrow Assad. Such a scheme is really only going to keep the war going ad infinitum until Syria is a complete wasteland, but it is really good for arms merchants to keep the inventory moving. It's hard to understand why left-leaning western media are playing into the hands of the military industrial establishment, but they are.

The narrative written below is a poor excerpt from the video. Please watch and listen especially to the reporter who is also interviewed.

West, Arab States ‘Protecting Terrorists’ Who Will Never Win in Syria – Mother Agnes

 
© Bassam Khabieh / Reuters

The West and the Arab states keep sponsoring and defending militants in Syria, despite the fact that they will never prevail against the government, Christian nun and Syrian peace campaigner Mother Agnes-Mariam told RT.

“It’s a tragedy for the civilians and for any person that’s living in Syria because there’s no security. And the security doesn’t exist because the international community is still financing and protecting the terrorists,” she said. 

The mother superior of the monastery of St James the Mutilated in Syria’s Homs province said that she couldn’t understand why the foreign powers are “gambling with the names” of terror groups.

Al-Qaeda’s offshoot Jabhat al-Nusra “changes its name and it becomes a moderate rebel [group]. And all this is threatening the lives of millions of people,” she stressed.

“Western and Arab powers are helping Jabhat al-Nusra as being the sole rebel power to be strong enough to stand facing the Syrian Arab Army,” Mother Agnes-Mariam said.

However, she said that this support will only add to the suffering of the population, but won’t bring the results desired by the militants’ sponsors.

“I don’t think that the opposition will end up in power because they’re… totally divided among them,” the Melite nun explained.

Mother Agnes-Mariam expressed regret that her humanitarian work in Aleppo has been distorted and even “demonized” by the Western media.

“The main stream media don’t care about what’s really happening on the ground. What they care about is to produce things that are more in harmony with their policies. It’s brainwashing. They can orient the public opinion towards what they would like the people to believe,” she said.

According to the nun, her group provides help to all the side of the conflicts, including the militants and their families.

“The rebels from the Free Syrian Army, they have esteem for what I might give them security, counseling and also humanitarian help,” she said.

“But the mainstream media and those who are standing behind them, they don’t care about any good we’re doing. They always try to translate what we’re doing into politics...  And it’s a real scandal,” Mother Agnes-Mariam added.

‘Democracy, Freedom and the Rule of Law’ have No Value, Erdogan Says

Turkey will strike Kurds everywhere

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan © Adem Altan / AFP

Democracy, freedom and the rule of law have no value any longer, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said. He added that those who don’t support Ankara’ efforts to combat terrorists in the country are Turkey’s “enemies.”

“Democracy, freedom and the rule of law…For us, these words have absolutely no value any longer. Those who stand on our side in the fight against terrorism are our friend. Those on the opposite side are our enemy,” Erdogan told local leaders in Ankara on Wednesday, according to the DPA news agency.

"You're either with us, or your against us"! Where did I hear that before? Oh, yes, just before America invaded Iraq.

Ankara is planning to deploy “an iron fist against terrorism” and “fight Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants” in the country’s south east Erdogan said.

Turkey views all Kurdish militia that are also spread widely throughout Syria and Iraq as a direct national threat. Erdogan repeated Turkey will strike Kurds everywhere.

Isn't that akin to genocide? This ought to be particularly disconcerting to Canada which is planning on increasing its training of Peshmerga forces in the Syrian conflict. They will definitely be going into the line of fire. Will Erdogan care? I doubt it!

Erdogan bombs Kurds 'wherever they are'

"Wherever you run, our soldiers, police and village guards will find you there and do what is necessary," the president said, referring to Kurdish militants.

He also urged the authorities to “swiftly” end immunity from prosecution for pro-Kurdish politicians.

“I no longer see as legitimate political actors the members of a party, which is operating as a branch of the terrorist organization," Erdogan said. The Turkish president has repeatedly accused the Peoples' Democratic Party of Turkey (HDP) of supporting PKK fighters.

Watch for the arrest of Kurdish politicians, coming soon to a theater near you.

This is not the first controversial comment made by the Turkish president. In January, he reiterated his desire to ensure Turkey’s adoption of a presidential system of government. He has even cited Adolf Hitler’s Germany as an example of how this can be achieved.

“There are already examples in the world. You can see it when you look at Hitler’s Germany,” he said on Thursday, according to a recording broadcast by the Dogan news agency. “There are later examples in various other countries.”

In February, Erdogan accused Washington of causing the bloodbath in Syria by not recognizing as terrorists Kurdish forces fighting against Islamic State (IS, former ISIS, ISIL) in the region.

Of course, Erdogan is a supporter of ISIS. He thinks they are the good guys and the Peshmerga are the bad guys. That tells you a lot about Erdogan.

“Oh America! I told you many times, you are [either] beside us, or all of these terrorist organizations. You haven’t had a good grasp of them, and that is why the region has turned into a sea of blood,” Erdogan said, referring to the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its militia wing, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which the US does not recognize as terror groups.

The conflict between the Turkish government and Kurdish population, who demand greater autonomy, has been continuing for decades. With several failed ceasefires between the sides, Ankara has been blamed by a number of human rights groups for putting civilian lives at risk in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast.

In summer 2015, Ankara launched a military operation to crack down on Kurdish fighters linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The violence ended a two-year truce.

ISIS Would Be Easy to Defeat if Turkey and Saudi Arabia Did Not Support It – Assad Adviser

Money and resources flowing to Islamic State from regional players make it more difficult to fight terrorism, an adviser to Syria’s president told RT, adding that the political dialogue has also been thwarted by opposition groups backed by foreign states.

“For five years they [Syrian opposition] have not been able to have a dialogue, because each party of this opposition belongs to a different country and is paid by different countries. They are not an opposition that have a political party in Syria and that have grown from the Syrian people. This is the only opposition in the world that are agents of foreign countries against their own country,” Bashar Assad’s political adviser, Bouthaina Shaaban, said in an interview with RT.

Direct talks between the opposition and the government will be held “whenever the opposition is able to get together and be at the table,” she said, adding that while the government is ready for dialogue, their opponents have so far failed to even agree on their own delegation.

“We are running the country according to its constitution... We are fighting terrorism as we should, and we are forthcoming in pursuing any political solution,” she said, adding that both in Syria and Iraq the armies have been “trying their very best” to defeat Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).

However, the interference of some regional players has hampered the success of the process, Shaaban said.

“If it were not for the support [of militants groups] by regional parties – in particular Turkey and Saudi Arabia, it would not be difficult to defeat ISIL. But the money, the resources, the facilitation comes from these countries to IS,” she told RT. Islamic State “doesn’t live in a vacuum,” she added, saying that the militants have been receiving support not only from countries in the region, but also “political support of the United States and the West.”

“There is no such thing as moderate terrorist or moderate opposition, because anyone who carries arms is not moderate, anyone who is killing people is not moderate, anyone who is destroying institutions in the country is not moderate,” she explained, saying that the use of the word “moderate” in this case “has no relation to reality whatsoever.”

“It’s very dangerous, as so many people are using it almost unconsciously... It’s an abuse of the language,” the Syrian president’s adviser said, adding that some powers “depend on this abuse of the language” in trying to achieve their political goals.

Commenting on the idea of a so-called “Plan B” for Syria made public by the US Secretary of State John Kerry, who said that dividing up the country might be necessary should the ceasefire fail, Assad’s adviser said that “the Syrian people have fought for five years against any partition of Syria.” She expressed hope that the initial ceasefire plan put forward with Russian-American efforts “will succeed to keep the territorial integrity and the unity of Syria.”

The main objective now is to defeat terrorism in the region, Shaaban said, stressing that this “requires first of all, stopping the flow of support” to terror groups.

“It’s only [when] the Russian forces came to Syria that the oil trucks that were going to Turkey were attacked. Only when the Russian planes came to Syria, were we able to control some parts of the border with Turkey,” she said. “And that’s why Turkey started to attack us directly,” she added.

“The Syrian army is working very well and it’s strong, but the Russian airplanes is something that we do not have. They are more advanced, more modern, more capable and more precise in targeting terrorists,” the presidential adviser said. Recognizing that “Russian help in the airspace [which] is extremely important for the Syrian army,” she stressed that the Russian Air Force and the Syrian government only target terrorists, despite the “many false reports that Western media put in order to show that Russia is not doing the right thing in Syria.”

“I get tired of saying how many unfounded news come to us every day from Western media. They fabricate news about Russia, Syria, about what’s happening on the ground – but they have no grain of truth in them,” Bouthaina Shaaban told RT.

The Complex Mess in the Middle East

Erdogan uses ISIS to suppress Kurds, West stays silent – Turkish MP

Buildings which were damaged during the security operations and clashes between Turkish security forces and Kurdish militants, are pictured in Sur district of Diyarbakir, Turkey February 11, 2016 © Sertac Kayar 

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been using ISIS to advance his Middle East policy and suppress the Kurds, and Ankara’s elite maintains vibrant economic ties with the terror group and harbors its militants, a Turkish MP has told Russian media.

“Erdogan uses ISIS [Islamic State/IS, also known as ISIS/ISIL] against the Kurds. He can’t send the Turkish Army directly to Syrian Kurdistan, but he can use ISIS as an instrument against the Kurds. He has a greater Ottoman Empire in his mind, that’s his dream, while ISIS is one of the instruments [to achieve it],” Selma Irmak, a Turkish MP from the Peace and Democracy Party told RIA Novosti on Monday.

There are many signs that the Turkish leadership is aiding Islamic State and benefiting from it, Irmak argued.

“Wounded militants are given medical treatment in Turkey. For ISIS, Turkey is a very important supply channel. They are allowed to pass through the Turkish border, being given IDs [and other documents],” she added.

“ISIS has training camps in Turkey,” Irmak stressed, citing other examples of Turkey providing IS with certain capabilities, including the fact that all militants go back and forth into Syria through Turkish territory.

Both the Turkish elite and the terrorist group enjoy economic ties as well," Irmak argued.

“ISIS’ oil is sold via Turkey. All of ISIS’ external [trade] operations are being carried out via Turkey and involve not only oil.” Part of the terrorist group’s criminal business trafficking hostages as well as female slaves of Yazidi and Assyrian minorities, while “the government is, of course, well aware of it,” she added.

More proof could be the absence of any violence between the Turkish military and Islamic State militants.

“ISIS never attacked Turkish positions and claimed no responsibility for terror attacks in Turkey’s cities. There were three large terror attacks [in 2015] in Diyarbakir, Suruc and Ankara. Each attack caused harm to the Kurds and opposition activists supporting them,” the MP noted.

Turkey only intervened when the Kurds retook territory from the IS-held Kurdish city of Tell Abyad in northern Syria.

“Turkish warplanes formally bombarded the ISIS-held territory and conducted two airstrikes to show it fights the Islamic State. And in the meantime, Turkey made 65 airstrikes on Qandil [the PKK stronghold in mountainous northern Iraq].”

According to Irmak, Ankara feels free to take on the Kurds because the West is unwilling to harm its interests in the region and beyond.

“Unfortunately, the international community is indifferent towards these events. Turkey has taken Europe prisoner by using Middle Eastern refugees as an instrument of blackmail. The US keeps silent too, having common interests with Turkey. For instance, the US wants to keep using the Incirlik airbase […] and the Turkish Army is emboldened by such impunity.”

The Canadian angle
Another problem with Turkey's determination to eliminate the Kurds is that the Canadian Government has decided to triple the number of trainers and support personnel working with the Kurds. What happens when a few of them are blown-up by Turkish bombs?

Chechen leader: Saudi-led coalition protects ISIS from full destruction

Head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov © Michael Klimentyev / Sputnik

Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of Russia’s Chechen Republic, has said that the latest actions by pro-Western military forces in Syria show that in reality they do not intend to fully destroy ISIS and return power to the legitimate government of the country.

Kadyrov issued the comment Monday, soon after news agencies reported about planned military exercises by the Saudi-led anti-terrorist coalition, which includes over 20 Muslim nations. “We cannot exclude the possibility that by these exercises they are preparing themselves for active operations in Syria,” the Chechen leader said in an Instagram post.

“But the [real] goals and tasks of this coalition lie on the surface. They want to prevent the full defeat of the ‘Iblis State’ and the restoration of peace in the region,” Kadyrov said. He used the expression “Iblis State,” or “Devil State,” referring to the Islamic State terrorist group, also known as ISIL and ISIS. Such a replacement has been proposed and promoted by Russian imams, who noted that using the word “Islamic” to describe terrorists was insulting to their faith.

“The plans of the authors of Middle Eastern wars and overthrows do not include the full liquidation of IS and the strengthening of Bashar Assad’s power,” Kadyrov wrote. “But they will have to put up with the fact that the rules of the game are now dictated not by the West and not by the United States.”

He also warned that the simultaneous use of many military contingents and air forces from various nations in one region would inevitably lead to various incidents that could provoke larger conflicts. “Instead of a real struggle against international terrorism we will have some settling of accounts between various members of this so-called coalition,” Kadyrov wrote. “This is an open threat to peace in the region and the world as a whole.”

In November 2015, Kadyrov addressed all Muslims in the world with a call to unite and destroy IS, adding that no one has the right to remain neutral after the atrocities committed by the extremists. In the same address, he reiterated his point that the current Middle East crisis was masterminded by the West. “Special services from the US and other Western states have cheaply bought the leaders of terrorist groups and ordered them to constantly shed Muslim blood, destroy stable countries and blacken the reputation of Islam,” he wrote.

Of course, Kadyrov, being a Muslim would blame the west for the atrocities of Islam even though such atrocities have been committed in over 600 wars in the 1400 years of Islam's sorry existence.
But he is right in at least two areas: "pro-Western military forces in Syria show that in reality they do not intend to fully destroy ISIS and return power to the legitimate government of the country." If the west wanted ISIS gone it would have been gone a long time ago.

The other area he is right about is that special forces, and/or special interests from the west are most likely complicit in the mess over there. 

In 2014, Kadyrov vowed to destroy IS after the group threatened to attack Russia. He also said that he had repeatedly asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to send Chechen infantry and himself to Syria to take part in the anti-terrorist operation in Syria, or any other part of the world.

‘Dogs of war’: Profiteering military contractors must be regulated, warns charity

© Stringer / Reuters

Private firms based in Britain (and the US, for that matter) are reaping huge profits by exploiting conflict and instability around the world in the absence of proper regulation, a British charity has warned.

The remarks were made by War on Want, following the charity’s release of a report examining the devastating impact of private military and security companies (PMSCs) around the globe.

Writing on War on Want's website, the charity's communications chief, Ross Hemingway, called for an “end to the privatization of war.”

“For too long this murky world of ‘guns for hire’ has been allowed to grow unchecked, and in letting the industry regulate itself the UK government has failed,” he said.

“Binding regulation is long overdue. The Swiss government has already banned all PMSCs based in Switzerland from operating in conflict; it is time the UK followed suit.”

Profiting from instability and turmoil 
Hemmingway’s analysis drew from research that scrutinizes the legacy of PMSCs operating in Britain and beyond.

PMSCs first appeared in their current form 15 years ago, after Washington and Westminster declared a “war on terror” and subsequently invaded Afghanistan and Iraq. Although they initially were contracted for security-based services, they are often hired today to provide combat roles in wars in Africa and the Middle East.

Although they profit directly from war and conflict and have been accused of multiple human rights abuses in conflict situations around the world, Hemingway notes that they are currently unregulated. He said that British firms G4S, Aegis Defence Services, Control Risks and Olive Group currently regulate themselves.

Hemmingway argued that this trend is unsurprising, given the revolving door that exists between PMSCs and the military, intelligence and corporate sectors.

He said the biggest market for British PMSCs is in Iraq, where the provision of private security is common. One such firm is G4S, which the charity accuses of profiting from turmoil in Iraq and the oppression of Palestinians.

Violating international law
PMSCs are also increasingly exploiting legal loopholes concerning the use of arms on ships in international waters, according to Hemmingway.

Although Iraq and Afghanistan are longstanding markets for British-based PMSCs, instability in resource-rich parts of northern and western Africa has also been capitalized on by these firms, he says.

Despite the fact that private armed forces on ships can violate domestic and international law, G4S says the securitization of trading ships in the Indian Ocean is a large-scale “commercial opportunity.”

Firms that make use of such floated armories can operate freely, without the threat of investigation, according to War on Want. In August 2013, the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills issued 50 licenses for floating armories operating in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden. War on Want’s research reveals that Royal Dutch Shell, BP, ExxonMobil and other energy giants also pay PMSCs to secure their operations.

Speaking earlier this month, War on Want’s executive director John Hilary said private military contractors “ran amok in Iraq and Afghanistan, leaving a trail of human rights abuses in their wake.”

“Now we are seeing the alarming rise of mercenaries fighting on the front line in conflict zones across the world," he said. 

"It is the return of the ‘Dogs of War’.”