Propagandists Conning Citizens Into demanding Assad's Arrest

I have no idea what I'm doing in creating a thread, but I have just received this 'repeat blast from the past' in my inbox and it must be stopped! HOW???

Alice Jay - Avaaz
Today, 2:52

Syrian forces just gassed dozens of people to death with chemical weapons! With Putin and Trump in power, President Assad will get away with war crimes. But European leaders are deciding right now on Syria. They could be our only hope to stop the carnage. Click to call on them to speak out for the Syrian children:
sign now
Dear friends,

Syrian forces gassed children to death with chemical weapons, just days after Trump officials said the US will no longer go after President Assad as a war criminal.

The regime that has murdered, tortured, starved, and raped hundreds of thousands of its own people backed by Russia, now feels it can slaughter it's way to victory, get off scot free, and stay in power.

One power bloc can stop that -- Europe.

The EU is considering right now what to do on Syria, and there are rumours some countries could push for a ‘deal with the devil’. But if enough of us make that utterly unacceptable, and demand our leaders lock up the monsters who commit these crimes, it could be the only threat that stops Assad’s murder. Click to call on Europe to speak out for Syria’s children:

Click to call urgently on Europe to act

These kids have suffered such extreme trauma that a top doctor has created a new name for their pain -- ‘Human Devastation Syndrome’. For six years the world has failed to protect them. Now, with Trump saying he will do nothing, and Putin fully backing the regime, immunity for the perpetrators of these crimes is a real possibility.

But Europe can be the world’s conscience. Already brave victims and prosecutors in Spain and Germany are using universal jurisdiction law to take cases against the highest offices of the regime. Europe can now make clear that Syria will not get away with war crimes.

The message Europe sends right now could give Assad the green light to keep gassing civilians, or know he will face justice. Let’s send a resounding message to our leaders fast that there will be a massive public backlash if they don’t stand up for humanity:

Click to call urgently on Europe to act

Our movement has stood firmly with the Syrian people through this hell -- getting aid in, helping refugees, demanding across the world that our governments protect civilians. The Syrian conflict is the humanitarian disaster of our generation. Today, let’s unite in our fullest force to insist the EU makes Idlib’s deadly attack finally the beginning of the end.

With tears and resolve,

Alice, Mohammad, Lisa, Rewan, Wissam and the whole Avaaz team

Dozens of civilians killed in alleged "poison gas" attack (CBC News)
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/syria-alleged-poison-gas-chemical-attack-kha...

EU at odds with Trump administration over Assad's role in Syria (The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/apr/03/eu-at-odds-tr......

Assad has unleashed horror on Syria. The EU must not make a deal with him (The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/04/syria-assad-white-......

Hope for justice in Syria from an unlikely source (Al Jazeera)
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/03/war-crimes-serve-justic...

Editing to add: Although the accidental gassing of civilians would be probable in any such wide-range attack on terrorists in the area (any such action having been denied by both Russia and Syria and we've seen this precise scenario proven to be a False Flag excuse for attack/regime change before) the 'evidence' is supplied by the White Helmets, raising a red flag.

Especially following the disappointment of the war-monger's hopes of immediate excuse apparently thwarted by Trump's (albeit likely incidental to his hopes of personal profiteering) reluctance to kill off life on this planet to start nuking for MIC (very temporary) profit.

The Guardian link is broken; see if you can find any specific references to Assad in the Aljazeera opinion piece, (although peppered with links to opinion pieces referring to Assad's crimes and the need to punish him).

So the EU is to be 'pressured' by well-intentioned dupes among the citizenry into beginning WW3 'to save the children'? Because only the 'exceptional' and their allies can get away with war crimes, even if they have to, as I strongly suspect has been repeated by these creatures of habit, arrange the war-crimes themselves, yet again.

I'm hoping that some of the experts on here can sort this out and begin to raise a ruckus.

That being why I'm shoving this through as a messed-up essay, not even being sure how to block-quote on here, rather than as a comment, because this is happening now and I greatly fear that all-out nuclear exchanges could result from this at any moment.

And re-editing mainly to break up some of the mess above, add in a couple of missed words and reiterate that citizens are being propagandized into demanding that Assad be arrested for what seems very, very likely to be yet another False Flag in the interest of starting what's very, very likely to prove the final phase of their corporate/military War On The World:

... The EU is considering right now what to do on Syria, and there are rumours some countries could push for a ‘deal with the devil’. But if enough of us make that utterly unacceptable, and demand our leaders lock up the monsters who commit these crimes, it could be the only threat that stops Assad’s murder. ...

Edit to add thanks to snoopydawg - don't know how the heck I missed the now-obvious block-quotes here; must have been the visions of MIC nuclear sugarplums dancing in my head...

Editing again to fix 'Black False Flag' (thanks, Linda!) and to add something which just arrived in my inbox:

Dear MoveOn member,

News is breaking that Donald Trump just ordered the launch of dozens of Tomahawk missiles to strike Syria.1

It's an illegal and unauthorized escalation that could have devastating consequences, killing innocent Syrians and costing the lives of U.S. service members.

Things could spiral quickly in the coming hours, and it's up to MoveOn members to lead a chorus of progressives in every corner of this nation saying NO to bombing the people of Syria.

Will you sign an emergency petition to Congress right now?

Congress must force consideration of an Authorization for Use of Military Force, and members of Congress should vote "no" and halt Trump's march toward war. ...

And me not flexible enough to actually kiss my ass good-by...

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Pricknick's picture

But a hell of a lot of hyperbol. Actually, let's call it what it is.....Bullshit.
There is still no proof of who used them in 2013.
Let's talk about cluster bombs and white phosphorus. Crickets.

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Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

@Pricknick

I couldn't agree more - but how many people know enough to check out the links or know enough about the White Helmets to realize what their involvement indicates - before they click to call Europe and demand a specific Syrian invasion for 'regime change' for corporate management through the EU?

And who's presumably funding the requested public's mass calls to Europe, come to that?

Who was that wonderful person who posted, on a thread here I saw yesterday, that gawd-awful HuffPo link with the animated link showing a startled pilot setting off MAD by mistake, while blaming everything (of course) on THE ROOSHIANS!!!!! rather than the Perps.That Be? Have you seen that? Scared the pants off of me, as egregious propaganda designed to shut down the brains of the carefully disinformed.

They're upping the scare tactics by trying to shock and terrorize the population into mindless acceptance and trying to subvert the population into demanding Armageddon - and this could work, in which case we're probably toast in the very near future.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Pricknick's picture

@Ellen North @Ellen North
The huffmorecompost and killorangesatan have tons of things that cause a normal digestive system to go into overdrive.
And no, I missed that post. Now that I know what it was I think I'll skip it again.
Talking about the near future................we're toast anyways. Mom nature is pissed.

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@Pricknick

Mom nature is not so much pissed as dying... murdered for profit in her prime...

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snoopydawg's picture

@Pricknick
used the sarin gas on the Syrian population, but no newspaper in this country would publish his article.
I have found 2 articles about the sarin gas and one from Tulsi Gabbard's trip to Syria. I don't know how many here are aware of how her trip to Syria has been viewed by the warmongers in our country, but it hasn't been well.
This is Hersh's article where he shows that it was the 'moderate ' rebels who this government has been arming and funding who were the ones that used the sarin gas.
https://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n08/seymour-m-hersh/the-red-line-and-the-rat-line

This article was written by Ray McGovern who had been in the CIA for decades and has come out against what it has been doing..
The Syrian Sarin 'False Flag' Lesson
https://consortiumnews.com/2016/12/11/the-syrian-sarin-false-flag-lesson/

And this is Gabbard's article about her time in Syria and what she found out after actually speaking with the Syrian people.
https://medium.com/@TulsiGabbard/the-syrian-people-desperately-want-peac...

How anyone could find out who actually used the sarin gas in such a short time period and then are sure that it was Assad who used it reminds me of after the 9/11 attacks, the Bush administration just knew that it was Saddam who was involved in the attacks and that he needed to be removed from office and it was going to take the whole military and our friends to do it.
It's too bad that a letter written to Bill Clinton was sent long before 9/11 happened and the people who wrote the PNAC had asked him to remove Saddam.
Here's the link to the letter sent to Clinton in February 1998
http://www.iraqwatch.org/perspectives/rumsfeld-openletter.htm

And the controversy surrounding the White Helmets who were the ones who reported on this leaves me highly skeptical about who actually used it.

And why is there the big push to punish Assad and get more troops into Syria?
I know, let's ask McCain. He's the one who is most upset with Trump for not going after Assad. The McCain who has been photographed with members of Al Qaida and the leaders of ISIS.

Good job, Ellen.

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@snoopydawg

Thanks - you are always such a mine of essential information!

I hope that not many recipients many are falling for this and using the call board, (and I'm wondering who's funding this 'call European politicians to start WW3' line?) although I somehow rather doubt that it would take many to provide an excuse pressure the EU into doing something awful, sending in special forces/drones/bombers to kidnap/kill Assad, forcing a Syrian/Russian response to be answered with those blasted nukes, also triggering the other long-targeted countries, and a global murder-of-life-for-what-profit-and-power for the dying/dead remaining on a dead planet...

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A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

snoopydawg's picture

@Ellen North
Probably some think tank that wants a war with Syria regardless if it brings us a war with Russia. They are planning that war anyway, so they don't see it as a big risk.
The military has been upset with Obama for not letting them put troops into Syria and other areas that we are invading. Now Trump has turned control over to the military and I'm sure you know where that is going to lead.
There is a reason that the head of the military is supposed to be a civilian. And that is why congress has the power to stop the president from going to war. Unfortunately they have abdicated their duty and instead of declaring war they use AUMFs.
I have been hearing about Russia's aggression for over a year, but all I have been shown is propaganda.
Someone mentioned the picture of a pilot and a Russian jet outside the window. It was a huge picture and when I read the article it stated that Russian jets buzz the US jets that are close to the Russian borders. Well no shit. Russia has every right to keep an eye on our planes close to their borders just like we would do if Russian jets were flying close to our borders.

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@snoopydawg

The claim that is being made defies all logic.

Assad's military has had control of chemical warfare agents since forever. The logical time for him to use them was in the days before the Russians decided to commit themselves to defending him from the insurgency.

But now supposedly, after actually shoring up his position with Russian support the last couple of years, he supposedly decides to ruin his position politically with a desperate diabolic act....to achieve what?

On the other hand, it is now fairly well known that the rebels opposing Assad have had control of chemical warfare agents, themselves. Their use? As a military weapon, they've had little value. But they've always had potentially a great deal of value if they can be used to provide [phony] evidence of 'inhuman' behavior by Assad and his soldiers.

As always, it is motive which identifies the truth. Assad didn't have a rational motive; the rebels did, since their strategic position has continued to worsen over the past year.

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James Kroeger

MarilynW's picture

@snoopydawg
Buzzfeed
https://www.buzzfeed.com/rosebuchanan/dozens-of-syrians-including-childr...

Local activists, including the doctors who spoke to BuzzFeed News, said the fighter jets that dropped poison gases belonged to the Syrian government. Both Syria and Russia have repeatedly alleged that rebel-held Idlib province is a "hotbed for terrorism" — and have regularly and ferociously conducted airstrikes in the area.

______________
CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/05/middleeast/idlib-syria-attack/

Russia asserted the deaths resulted from a gas released when a regime airstrike hit a chemical weapons factory. But survivors being treated in a hospital on the Turkish side of the border told a CNN team they saw chemical bombs being dropped from planes.

_____________
BBC
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-39493854

Russia, which has carried out air strikes in support of President Assad since 2015, meanwhile said the Syrian air force had struck Khan Sheikhoun "between 11:30am and 12:30pm local time" on Tuesday, but that the target had been "a large terrorist ammunition depot" on its eastern outskirts.

The truth "will out" and I am relying on Doctors Without Borders and other witnesses on the ground. Assad and the Russians deny that neither had anything to do with the chemical attack on sleeping civilians.

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To thine own self be true.

snoopydawg's picture

@MarilynW @MarilynW
Unfuckingbelievable! They knew that ErdoÄŸan wanted Obama to get more involved in Syria and after the meeting between them and Obama turned him down, ErdoÄŸan planned this gas attack so that Obama would bomb Syria and remove Assad from office.
The number of people who are now either dead or are refugees because of these actions is beyond reprehensible!. How. Can. People. Do. This. To. Other. People? How?

“As intercepts and other data related to the 21 August attacks were gathered, the intelligence community saw evidence to support its suspicions. ‘We now know it was a covert action planned by ErdoÄŸan’s people to push Obama over the red line,’ the former intelligence official said. ‘They had to escalate to a gas attack in or near Damascus when the UN inspectors’ who arrived in Damascus on 18 August to investigate the earlier use of gas ‘were there. The deal was to do something spectacular.

“‘Our senior military officers have been told by the DIA and other intelligence assets that the sarin was supplied through Turkey that it could only have gotten there with Turkish support. The Turks also provided the training in producing the sarin and handling it.’

“Much of the support for that assessment came from the Turks themselves, via intercepted conversations in the immediate aftermath of the attack. ‘Principal evidence came from the Turkish post-attack joy and back-slapping in numerous intercepts. Operations are always so super-secret in the planning but that all flies out the window when it comes to crowing afterwards. There is no greater vulnerability than in the perpetrators claiming credit for success.’”

https://consortiumnews.com/2015/09/16/was-turkey-behind-syria-sarin-atta...

Thanks for your links, Marilyn. Good information.

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Roy Blakeley's picture

@Pricknick @MarilynW In one report the gas attack was due to a missile and to another it was gas bombs being dropped so there is an obvious contradiction. Second, how can these people distinguish "gas bombs" from others when they are falling. What they know is that there was a gas release after bombs fell or missiles struck, which is perfectly compatible with the Russian and Syrian accounts of a weapons depot with stored Sarin being struck. It makes no sense for the Syrians to use gas at this point when they are winning the war with conventional weapons. It makes a lot of sense for the rebels to try to pin a gas release on the Syrian government.

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Bob In Portland's picture

@Roy Blakeley They were testifying to barrel bombs which were allegedly dropped out of helicopters a few years ago. The Syrian jets that flew the raid couldn't be retrofitted to carry barrel bombs.

It's all horseshit, or yellowcake.

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ZimInSeattle's picture

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"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK | "The more I see of the moneyed peoples, the more I understand the guillotine." - G. B. Shaw Bernie/Tulsi 2020

@ZimInSeattle

Thanks for the article! Too bad such actual journalism as this couldn't be the norm...

The sheer, overwhelming suicidally murderous lunacy of The Parasite Class and their lackeys is mind-blowingly terrifying.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

@ZimInSeattle @ZimInSeattle
great article by Robert Parry. Here are excerpts I thought were crucial:

https://consortiumnews.com/2017/04/05/another-dangerous-rush-to-judgment...
Another Dangerous Rush to Judgment in Syria

April 5, 2017
The U.S. government and the mainstream media rushed to judgment again, blaming the Syrian government for a new poison-gas attack and ignoring other possibilities.

By Robert Parry

… After noting the Assad government’s denial, Gordon and Barnard added, “But only the Syrian military had the ability and the motive to carry out an aerial attack like the one that struck the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun.”

But they again ignored the alternative possibilities. One was that a bombing raid ruptured containers for chemicals that the rebels were planning to use in some future attack, and the other was that Al Qaeda’s jihadists staged the incident to elicit precisely the international outrage directed at Assad as has occurred.

Gordon and Barnard also could be wrong about Assad being the only one with a motive to deploy poison gas. Since Assad’s forces have gained a decisive upper-hand over the rebels, why would he risk stirring up international outrage at this juncture? On the other hand, the desperate rebels might view the horrific scenes from the chemical-weapons deployment as a last-minute game-changer.

the pressing question now is: Have the American people come to understand enough about “psychological operations” and “strategic communications” that they will finally show the skepticism that no longer exists in the major U.S. news media?

So excellent. Parry raises the great question: WHY WOULD ASSAD DO THIS? WHO STANDS TO GAIN? It's becoming more and more obvious and predictable that the machination-ists of war will do anything to keep it going.

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Pluto's Republic's picture

Russia gave all of Syria's gas weapons to the US to destroy a few years ago.

Assad is the only person with nothing to gain. Someone is doing the Neocons dirty work in Syria. Russia says shells hit an al Qaeda weapons lab. The UN already has inspectors in the area. The last time there was a poison gas bomb, it was a false flag from Turkey.

This is a proxy war over a pipeline.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato

@Pluto's Republic

Thanks, and exactly! But here they're conning and using well-meant citizen pressure to push the EU into an action likely to trigger the global disaster they're seeking. All of these targeted countries have to defend themselves, or at least retaliate, at some point - and then 'we all go boom!' in what's decidedly not a children's game - or anything desired by the reality-dependent non-crazy-people.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

@Pluto's Republic who refused to attend any peace talks whatsoever with Assad and Russia? I may not have that right but swear I read that here on the EB a while ago. Those rebels are backed by us so that makes perfect sense to me since it is indeed that pipeline that Assad said no to.

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

CB's picture

@Pluto's Republic
900 pound gorilla right next door that costs the US taxpayers $3.8 billion per year to keep. Gas pipelines from the largest gas fields in the world shared between Qatar and Iran, resisting World Bank/IMF overtures (Syria’s Central Bank is state-owned & controlled/no IMF debt), banned GMO seeds and the demands of a 900 pound gorilla is almost a guarantee for regime change.

There's a few more but the above are sufficient casus belli to destroy Syria as a viable country. World power is made up of oil/gas interests, banking, corporate agriculture and, in the MENA area, a 900 pound gorilla. Failure to comply to their demands can be hazardous to your health.

Three targets left - Iran, Russia and China. Is Trump stupid and rash enough? The guy has no backbone and no morals. He can be turned on a dime now that the Deep State has a ring firmly attached to his snout.

pig.jpg
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@CB

resisting World Bank/IMF overtures (Syria’s Central Bank is state-owned & controlled/no IMF debt),

is something I think we should all be researching and paying attention to. A decision to go with a Russian economic proposal instead of an EU proposal is what caused the coup in Ukraine, in which we installed a right-wing government powered by a Nazi paramilitary group.

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its a Black Flag, as you put it. I would not be surprised AT ALL to find out we did it and I told one of my co-workers that yesterday. She's not political and tries hard right now not to pay attention but even she agreed it sure sounds fishy.

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

@lizzyh7

If non-political people can recognize the usual terror-propaganda tactics and avoid being drawn in as supportive pawns, our survival chances are higher than otherwise. Thanks for increasing my hope!

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A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

@lizzyh7

at Sic Semper Tyrannis. A sample:

Old Microbiologist said in reply to Serge...
Being somewhat familiar with actually treating victims of chem/bio attacks, if it is Sarin (or similar nerve agent assumed from foam at mouth), it is a persistent agent used mostly for denial of terrain operations. Very tiny amounts can kill you and anyone entering a contaminated area will be equally dead. None of these people seem to be affected thus making this video very suspect. It outgases from contminated clothing and soil on a dose-dependent basis. On the other hand it could be chlorine gas which ISIS has used multiple times in the past and is not very useful in bombs. MOPP IV is the usual level of PPE required to treat victims. Anyone observe any PPE at all in the video? Looks fake to me.

And this -- pmr9 said:

... The alleged impact site is in the town of Khan Sheikhoun, but the site where the children's bodies are seen laid out is a sort of quarry with passages cut into the rock. This is tentatively geolocated to a site about fifteen miles to the south, just south of Latamineh, that was in use last year as a rebel headquarters (and bombed by the Russians) and is now apparently used by the White Helmets. It doesn't make any sense for the children to have been brought to this site, apparently separated from their mothers, unless they were captives. Even if the geolocation is incorrect it's clearly not in the town of Hama.

4. The Reuters photographer Ammar Abdullah, is deeply embedded with Nusra.

5. An alleged chemical attack on 30 March in Lataminah causing 70 nonfatal casualties and attributed to organophosphates (nerve agents) was reported by UOSSM, a French-based NGO closely associated with information operations. It's possible that the children were killed on this date, and that the videos were uploaded today as evidence of a chemical attack in Khan Sheikhoun.

6. As in the Ghouta massacre, there are no videos of victims found dead in their homes being removed by rescuers: just bodies laid out in the open and some alleged victims in hospital.

I think it's pretty clear that this incident was a massacre of captives, staged to look like a chemical attack. The victims may have been gassed, but not necessarily with an organophosphate: many other gased would be lethal in a confined space.

What's not clear is whether the rebels set up this operation on their own initiative, or whether this was an information operation directed by outside agencies. A possible motive would be to disrupt US-Russian cooperation, and to make a case for establishing a "safe zone" in NW Syria.

Of course none of the amibguity surrounding events like this, ever finds its way into the msm. No, the Mighty Wurlitzer says Assad done it, so Assad done it and that is that.

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native

@native

Just wanted to say thanks for the information, although I have to admit that I started crying like an idiot while reading of these people suffering the infliction of these psychopathic cruelties then used to set up someone else for their crimes and had to back off for a while. Those poor kids! And their families! And all of the countries subjected to such as this - at corporate/billionaire behest.

Never vote for evil again - this is its warped and rotten fruit.

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snoopydawg's picture

@Ellen North
to commit these heinous war crimes against civilians and especially making sure that children die in the attacks because they know that people will respond more if children are involved.
I cannot fathom the mindset of people who can do these things and they have been doing them for decades or as long as they have been in congress.
Listen to McCain anytime someone decides not to take military action against a country or leader.
He is very upset with Trump for saying that Assad doesn't have to leave.
This morning he was ranting about how it's a war crime to use chemical weapons on people. Gee, wasn't he involved with the war that saw millions of gallons of Agent Orange sprayed all over the people in Vietnam? His hypocrisy is boundless. I would think that after being held prisoner after bombing innocent civilians, he would have more compassion and empathy for civilians trapped in war zones. But maybe that's just me.
And how many times are people going to say
Never Again! and then help create situations where it Happens Again?

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@snoopydawg

We'd have to become psychopaths to understand their minds. Maybe let's not, and say we did?

And Those Who Matter don't give a damn even about children anyway.

https://news.vice.com/story/epa-sued-for-refusing-to-ban-pesticide-linke...

Risky exposure

EPA sued for refusing to ban pesticide linked to autism

By Carter Sherman on Apr 5, 2017

... Chlorpyrifos is a type of insecticide currently used on a variety of crops, turf, golf courses, and in greenhouses. In its November report, the EPA said that children are exposed to dangerous levels of the pesticide, thanks to its residue on fruits and vegetables. Pregnant mothers who have had even low exposure to the pesticide can end up giving birth to children with long-term and potentially irreversible brain abnormalities, researchers have discovered.

Chemical companies signed an accord with the EPA to stop manufacturing it for residential use in 2000, but the Pesticide Action Network and the Natural Resources Defense Council filed a petition in 2007 to ban the pesticide. After evaluating the pesticide’s dangers multiple times — including in its November report — the Obama administration proposed banning using the pesticide on food.

The EPA was required to respond to the petition and make a final decision on the ban by March 31, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council’s statement. But just a few days before that deadline, Pruitt announced that the agency would roll back the Obama recommendation.

“By reversing the previous administration’s steps to ban one of the most widely used pesticides in the world, we are returning to using sound science in decision-making,” Pruitt said in a statement.

According to his statement, the EPA now doubts its previous findings about the pesticide’s dangers. The statement also notes that the U.S. Department of Agriculture also has concerns about the EPA’s research.

The Natural Resources Defense Council argues the EPA did not offer any new evidence to show chlorpyrifos can be used safely.

“[The council] stands with medical professionals, scientific experts, farmworkers, and agricultural communities across the country to seek court action in the face of a Trump administration unwilling to put children’s health over corporate profits,” the council’s statement reads.

The EPA said it will wait to re-evaluate the pesticide’s safety in 2022. But if the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals sides with the environmentalists, the agency might have to take action sooner. ...

What do you wanna bet that this ban (10 years later, passed at the last minute) was another Obama expected to be overturned right away?

How the heck do we clean this pathology out of politics and public policy? How can people learn not to vote for evil and to make it too obvious for them to be cheated out of their choices?

Of course it's the corporate interests and billionaires who have to go, and divestment is taking off in some areas, but all criminal corporations have to be boycotted by everyone who can.

How could Monsanto, for example, continue en route to a forced global GMO/petrochemical industry food monopoly, the mutation of 'commercially allowable polluting industry science' and the continual poisoning of water, air, food and life if people began, en masse, to refuse at their grocers to purchase and eat even potentially contaminated GMO/petrochemically saturated foods wherever they possibly could?

(I know, the infiltration of the commonly available and more affordable commercial food supply is so high they'd likely starve trying, but this has to come bottom up with the corporate/billionaire-drained pocket-books of the 99% being withheld from their always-rewarded-and-therefore-encouraged abusers, just like the corporate Parties with people's votes. There will not be safe, healthy alternatives for anything, in any area, until they are demanded and enforced by the public for whom democratic government exists to act.)

Dunno if I'm up to listening to McCain right now - maybe after reading more of the sane, informed commentary here to bolster myself against the raving lunacy being propagated out there?

If I had a nickel for every time I felt intensely grateful for this place and the people here, I could buy myself some politicians...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

snoopydawg's picture

@Ellen North
That our government does. Voting doesn't do a damn thing because once they get in congress they are surrounded by corrupt people and lobbyists and they start getting some power. As the saying goes, Absolute power absolutely corrupts.
I got snookered into believing Obama's BS and I didn't figure out that he wasn't going to change anything until he picked his cabinet members. And besides, Hillary or McCain were absolutely people that I couldn't vote for. Which is the biggest problem. No one is going to be able to stand up to the Deep State if they want to continue to live.
Meanwhile we watch helplessly as thousands of people are killed just because of where they were born.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

CB's picture

@Ellen North
Where was the outrage under Bill Clinton's watch?
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omnskeu-puE]

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@CB

Makes you physically ill - especially with the current reactions of corporate Dem supporters wanting more of the same.

Unless the great bulk of them are actually insiders/paid trolls with those spiffy auto-arranged-for-varied-phrasing-and-names multiple identities all set up for them. Because you know that TPTB think we'll blindly follow the herd into the slaughterhouse - which enough evidently do to at least partially justify this claim. Another issue to make us feel physically ill, but the Big Lie is indisputably working on some...

As the Sane Progressive says, deprogramming is required.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

@lizzyh7
is the term I would use, but the term Black Flag is very appropriate given the context of Middle East warfare and history.

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@Linda Wood

Lol, you're right, as usual. I suspect that I'm misusing the term, having seen others do so.

Damn, I'm one of the sheep after all!

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Back in the Obama days, if the children were murdered by .gov, it's because they should have had more responsible fathers. Remember that one, caught on video? It worked for U.S. rationalization. Why can't Assad (making the giant leap he or his government actually did this deed, which is extremely unlikely) use that same line? Should be OK then, right? They shoulda had better fathers.

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@ChezJfrey

Lol - yup, that and 'collateral damage', meaning 'accidental'-even-when-'double-tapped' (or whatever they call reversing the murder vehicle back over the victims/rescuers') hospital/wedding-party/funeral/journalist/gardening-grandma-with-grandkids bombings and dronings.

Can't recall how many millions of innocent civilians the US PTB War-For-Corporate/Billionaire-Profit-and-Power On The World has been estimated to have dispossessed, maimed and killed, both directly and indirectly, probably because they're uncountable - but then they do it so exceptionally well, that this makes it OK, right? It just means that 'they have experience in foreign policy'.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Big Al's picture

Obvious war propaganda, just prior to the upcoming peace talks. I suppose there still remains no shortage of dupes out there who will believe that Assad did it, again, even after it was proven he didn't do it in 2013.

Avaaz wants us to demand "to lock up those responsible", how about we start with Obama, Clinton, Kerry and Rice and work from there.

This also further proves what should be clear now about the Trump administration, it's a continuation of the empire's imperialism and lies. It shoots out of the fucking water the notion that Trump is a non-interventionist.

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lotlizard's picture

@Big Al TOOTR = the Obama of the Right

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Azazello's picture

They tried the "he gassed his own people" thing a couple years back with Obama. He didn't bite but Hillary was ready to go. Will Trump go along ?

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

snoopydawg's picture

@Azazello
pentagon. He has turned Iraq over to the generals and the pentagon and they are calling for more troops and not just in Iraq, but they want more troops in Afghanistan and Syria. And they aren't going to tell us how many troops they send anywhere.
I know that they are in over 150 countries, especially JSOC who are the president's special forces.
Nick Turse has been writing about this for over the 8 years of Obama's presidency.
I want to know who is in charge of the building up of troops in the countries surrounding Russia? If Trump doesn't want a war with Russia and they are still sending troops and equipment, who is making those decisions?
Anyone know?

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Pricknick's picture

@snoopydawg

If Trump doesn't want a war with Russia and they are still sending troops and equipment, who is making those decisions?
Anyone know?

Our true government knows.
Money.

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Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

@Azazello

They're trying to push Europe into Syria specifically to 'arrest' Assad for more 'regime change'; if they do, and Assad/the country attempts self-defense, will the US stay out? Can Russia stand by and watch an ally being attacked, especially knowing they're next on the list of many countries not under US/European Corporate control? Or will the US even be needed to initiate WW3? Or just join in on the nuke-flinging which will polish us all off?

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

what is really happening in Syria. Maybe, just maybe, that's why we should stay the hell out of the internal affairs of other nations, unless what is happening is very clear, as it was in Darfur. BTW, did we stay out of Darfur?

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CB's picture

@HenryAWallace
They have been meddling in Syria since the end of WWII. The CIA cut their teeth in Syria. It was the newly formed agency's very first covert operation.

Timeline of CIA Interventions in Syria
This partial timeline provides evidence that the U.S. government and Obama in particular bear a significant responsibility for the Syrian war and the results of that war. Obama approved elements of CIA plans that go back over 65 years. The CIA meddling is distinct from the Pentagon’s failed plan to train “moderate rebels”, not covered in this timeline.

1940s and 1950s “…if you want to understand the origins of authoritarian rule in Syria today, it is important to go back to the 1940s and the 1950s and see the role the CIA played in that land.” See also here, p. 122: “In the late 1940’s, U.S. policymakers grew alarmed when the Syrian government, bowing to public pressure, refused to let a U.S. oil company build a pipeline through its territory. Washington also found the strong anti-Western sentiment and the large Communist party in the country ominous. Concerned that Syria was ‘drifting leftward’, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) laid plans to overthrow its three-year old civilian government.” CIA operatives met with right-wing military leaders in Damascus to discuss installing a “military-supported dictatorship”.

1947-1948 CIA attempts “to influence the 1947-8 elections by backing right-wing figures in the Nationalist Party…”

March, 1949 CIA sponsors Syrian coup d’etat; CIA directly involved.

1957 CIA and MI6 devise plan to assassinate 3 top Syrian leaders and overthrow the government. “…they planned to use agents provocateurs to launch a series of incidents.” “A ‘Free Syria Committee’ should be funded and ‘political factions with paramilitary or other actionist capabilities’ in Syria should be armed.” [Does this sound familiar?] See also here.

2006-2011 Prior to the onset of the Syrian war, the U.S. stirs up opposition to Syrian government (Assad). An April 18, 2011 article reads “Newly released WikiLeaks cables reveal that the US State Department has been secretly financing Syrian opposition groups and other opposition projects for at least five years, The Washington Post reports.”

March 2011 Daraa violence launches Syrian war. “The Daraa ‘protest movement’ on March 17-18 had all the appearances of a staged event involving covert support to Islamic terrorists by Mossad and/or Western intelligence.” “In Daraa, roof top snipers were targeting both police and demonstrators.” [Notice that this technique also occurred in the Kiev, Ukraine violence.] See also here.
...

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@CB

knows everything that is going on there now.

Global Research may not know everything, either. http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Globalresearch

Even Syrians in Syria may not know everything.

Either way, maybe, just maybe, we should stay out.

As an aside, I wonder why the timeline does not mention the United Arab Republic?

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CB's picture

@HenryAWallace
is verified. The article itself comes from https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/cia-interventions-in-syria-a-partia....

http://www.globalresearch.ca/ is a news aggregator that publishes reports that get little play elsewhere. They do not assume responsibility for he authors.
They were absolutely correct when it came to speaking the truth about the run-up to the Iraq war as well as the Afgan War.

As an aside, I wonder why the timeline does not mention the United Arab Republic?

Things were mostly going in the direction the CIA wanted so they did not need to intervene. The Syrian military controlled government (since the coup of 1961) seceded from the UAR which caused the UAR's demise. That's what the CIA wanted.

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@CB @CB

was happy before, during and after the UAR. I doubt Israel or Jordan was okay with the UAR; and they were both our allies. But, if the CIA was happy with the lead up to the UAR and the UAR, why would it have also been okay with dissolution of the UAR? And if they were okay with dissolution of the UAR, why did they not intervene during the lead up to it? Again, it just seems strange that there is no mention either way of an event that was, at the time, fundamental. But again, as my prior post said, that was only an aside.

As to Global Research, my only comment was that it might not know everything (that is going on in Syria today), either. That Global Research disclaims responsibility for what it publishes does not address the comment I made or give me confidence in Global Research.

Mostly, I am not clear what any of this has to do with the only two comments made in the posts of mine to which you originally replied. Those two comments were that maybe no one, including the CIA, knows everything that is going on in Syria today and maybe we should not intervene.

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CB's picture

@HenryAWallace
That's why they were happy when the US backed Syrian military ceded from the UAR causing its demise.

The link I gave goes up to 2015 in detail. It is obvious you did not read it and did not check the supporting links.

There are now thousands of US manufactured TOW missiles being used in the Hama region by well trained operators. The CIA does the selection and training of TOW operators. This is also the area where the supposed gas was used.

Overview: Usage Of Anti-Tank Guided Missiles By Militants In Northern Hama In March (Videos)

Anti-tank guided missiles are an important component of the opposition’s ability to combat Syrian army heavy military equipment.

During the March rebel advance in northern Hama, the usage of US-made TOW anti-tank guided missiles was not limited to ‘moderate’ factions like Jaish al-Izza and Jaish al-Nasr. Radical islamist groups Ahrar al-Sham and Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda) also used them actively.

On March 21, the joint forces of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Jash al-Izza and Jaish al-Nasr launched a large-scale offensive against government forces in the northern countryside of Hama. Later in March, Ahrar al-Sham joined their militant counterparts in this battle.

Below you will find a review of anti-tank guided missile strikes in northern Hama in March per factions:

Analysis: Insurgents launch major offensive against Assad regime in Hama province
Jaysh al Ezzah has been among the most prolific of these organizations to produce videos, photos and statements. Some of its media records the use of American-made, antitank TOW missiles. Jaysh al Ezzah has used several TOWs — including against the regime’s tanks and artillery pieces — in northern Hama since the fighting began. A screen shot from a Jaysh al Ezzah video of one of its fighters using a TOW to debilitate a T-72 tank can be seen on the right. The organization is also using drones to record footage from overhead.

Al Qaeda Is Attacking Major Syrian Cities with US Weapons — but You Wouldn't Know That from the Media
Rebranded Syrian al-Qaeda, Tahrir al-Sham, has been leading offensives in Hama and Damascus while mainstream media whitewash it

All these terrorist operations had failed miserably. They lost thousands of fighters. That is why we now have claims of "gassing children" in the very same region. Assad did not have to use that crap. He was winning the battle. It was a false flag operation to get US support for their failing fight. In a month or two, the terrorists would have been destroyed.

The CIA and US military are directly involved in Syria.

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@CB

You seem to have misinterpreted my original post as meaning that I had no clue that the CIA had ever intervened in Syria and continued viewing my replies through that prism. However, that is not what that post says or implies.

If I did not know better than that (and who doesn't), my original, brief original post, quoted below, would not have mentioned the CIA in connection with Syria at all. Instead my original post implied the CIA does indeed know a great deal about what is happening in Syria, but just maybe not everything. Moreover, the point of my post was not the precise state of the CIA's knowledge about Syria today. It was that we should stay out of the affairs of other nations.

Maybe, just maybe, none of us, even the CIA, knows what is really happening in Syria. Maybe, just maybe, that's why we should stay the hell out of the internal affairs of other nations, unless what is happening is very clear, as it was in Darfur. BTW, did we stay out of Darfur?

I don't know what reply you could have made that would have contradicted my original post as I actually worded it, unless you can prove both (a) everything that the CIA does know about what is going on Syria today, which only someone holding a very high position within the CIA could reveral--but would not; and (b) that nothing relevant is happening in chaotic Syria today, other what the CIA knows; and no human can prove that.

My original comment about UAR, which, again, was only an aside, was simply that the timeline you posted omitted any mention whatever of the UAR, which it indisputably did. Your response was that the timeline omitted mention because the CIA was "happy" about the UAR.

My reply to you immediately prior to this one said that the CIA could not possibly have been happy with everything about the UAR, which threatened our allies in the region, and maybe us, during all these stages: (1) the lead up to formation of the UAR: and (2) the period during which the UAR existed and (3) the dissolution of the UAR. In any event, no one but the person who prepared the timeline can explain why the timeline omitted any mention of the UAR, but the entire subject is OT and moot anyway.

Please see also my reply to Big Al. https://caucus99percent.com/comment/254514#comment-254514

I'm standing by what my posts actually say and leaving it at that.

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Big Al's picture

@HenryAWallace the U.S., Israel, Saudia Arabia, Qatar, started it and have waged an illegal proxy war against Syria. If they go in with more troops and try to create their "safe" zones, etc., it wouldn't be intervening, it would be escalating their war against Syria.
The number of actors in this war, the strange alliances, etc., all make it seem complicated but in the end it's pretty simple, an attack on a sovereign country and elected government by external forces led by the U.S.

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@Big Al

The impression given by using quotation marks in the subject line of your reply to me is that I claimed we never intervened in Syria, something I never posted and never would have posted. Please don't do that.

Please see my reply to CB, which contains what I actually posted originally: https://caucus99percent.com/content/propagandists-conning-citizens-deman...

What I posted about intervening:

CB posted a timeline showing many years of CIA interventions in Syria. I could not help but notice that the timeline omitted any mention at all of the UAR, which was a profound event in the "life" of Syria that threatened our allies in the region. My comment about the UAR had nothing to do with the thread topic or my own posts, but the omission leapt out at me. http://www.encyclopedia.com/history/asia-and-africa/egyptian-history/uni....

As best I can tell, you misread my post about omission from a timeline of mention of CIA intervention at any stage of the UAR to mean I claimed that the CIA did not intervene recently?

Again, at no time have I ever posted that the CIA never intervened in Syria or anything remotely like that, nor would I. Nothing I've posted in this entire subthread was controversial or incorrect or anything but common sense, except for my opinion that maybe we should stay out of the affairs of other nations.

Maybe I am unduly biased, but I don't think my posts on this subject have been that unclear.

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CB's picture

History Repeats Itself, First As Tragedy, Second As Farce
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/04/history-repeats-itself-1st-as-trage...

UN-WMD.jpg
U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley during an emergency meeting
of the UN Security Council
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@CB

Thanks for the post!

Many of the comments were very interesting, and one linked to one rather grimly amusing:

http://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2017/04/06/nikki-haley-tells-...

U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley powered through a sometimes hostile reception at the Women in the World Summit, talking tough on Russia in the wake of the Syrian chemical attacks
By Emma-Kate Symons 04.06.17

Donald Trump’s top diplomat at the United Nations faced a hostile reaction — including booing, hoots of derision and heckling calls for her to get off the stage — at the 2017 Women in the World Summit on Wednesday night, despite her tough talk on Russia covering for Syria, after President Bashar al-Assad was accused of another chemical weapons mass attack on civilians including children. ...

...Pressing Haley on how she intended to concretely deal with Russia when it blamed chemical weapons attacks on rebel groups in Syria rather than “their pals in Damascus,” Van Susteren elicited some unexpected responses.

“We called them out on it. They said it was this big container of chemical weapons that ISIS had and there’s not a picture there’s not an ounce of proof. They just make things up,” Haley said to widespread laughter from a largely Trump-skeptic audience. ...

...The caustic reactions didn’t end after the U.S. Permanent Representative left the stage.

In the following panel on “Alternative Facts: Journalists under Siege,” moderated by New Yorker editor-in-chief David Remnick and featuring New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman, Turkish author Ece Temelkuran, Indian TV journalist Barkha Dutt and Russian journalist Masha Gessen, Haley was the target of criticism.

Gessen said Haley’s intervention reminded her that the senior people around Trump including the U.N. diplomat, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson were not up to their jobs. “They’re incompetent. None of them is qualified to be in the position they are in.”

Barkha Dutt commented that as Haley was speaking she said to herself “Dear God, please say something intelligent.”

It was, however, hard to doubt Haley’s sincerity as she praised the courage of medics working in Syria despite the grave dangers posed by attacks on health facilities, including after this week’s use of nerve gas.

“As if the [Idlib] chemical weapon attack wasn’t enough, to think that all these people went to the hospital to get care and you had doctors and nurses and people working on them — and then a bomb hits right there in the hospital. So these people died saving lives of others. ...

So, why do I feel that they may have died to remove a lack of claimed 'evidence' against the Syrians?

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

CB's picture

Why was all the military equipment that went to the Baltic's painted with desert camo and now being moved to Romania? Is there any truth to the following?

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travelerxxx's picture

@CB

Normally I would put aside the religious mumbo-jumbo in this video, but considering that a man who desired a dialog with Russia - Steve Bannon - has just been kicked off the National Security Council and replaced with the Armageddon-beliving, religious nut Texan Rick Perry, I have to take this report seriously.

We are running blind as to what US forces are being moved toward the Middle East and have to rely on reports such as these. Those trainloads of heavy military equipment aren't out for a Sunday drive.

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CB's picture

@travelerxxx
because of the mumbo-jumbo. The equipment did end up in Romania and is still painted desert camo. I am still looking for confirmation that the equipment was actually put on a ship in Romania. In any event, it would be convenient to do so from this location.

It's also an airbase so the US could fly the equipment into their enlarged air base in Syria which is now well prepared for the largest transport planes the US has.


US expands air base in northern Syria for use in battle for Raqqa

Wright and a contingent of civil engineers, security forces and intelligence personnel were deployed temporarily to expand the base to “support every type of airframe across the [Defense Department] spectrum,” Wright said. They lived in tents and ate Meals Ready to Eat, known as MREs, for 45 days, he said.

The Kobani airstrip has been modified to support not only C-130s, which are able to land in most difficult environments, but also C-17s, which need a more hardened runway to support their weight, and other aircraft, Thomas said.

Maybe pre-staging? Maybe attempt to use NATO forces against Syria if they can get some casus belli to do so? Military equipment sent to Romania has come from two locations:


U.S. Soldiers, Armored Vehicles Arrive in Romania

...
The soldiers unloaded M1A2 Abrams tanks from the first train that arrived Feb. 14 to this eastern Romanian airbase located about 12 miles away from the Black Sea.
...

What is unusual is that Romania had already received a huge shipment of military equipment directly from the US by ship back in June 2016. This is a very large convergence of military equipment in the very small country of Romania.

Vehicles roll into Romania for Saber Guardian
June 27, 2016
CONSTANTA, Romania (June 26, 2016) -- The Port of Constanta is busy as usual. Cargo is coming in, cargo is going out. After all, Constanta is the fourth largest port in Europe. However, this time, a different type of cargo is at the port; military vehicles from the United States.

On June 19, 2016 a ship that left Charleston, S.C. two-weeks prior sailed into port. It carried approximately 300 wheeled and tracked military vehicles belonging to the 116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Team (CBCT), Idaho Army National Guard and the 122nd Engineer Battalion, South Carolina Army National Guard. The units had shipped their equipment in preparation for Exercise Saber Guardian, which begins late next month.

Found a tie in between Syria and Romania. The desert camo military equipment could be flown into Syria from Cincu on very short notice if required. Everything is ready to lock and load.

Romania hosting SABER-GUARDIAN-16, first major defence exercise after NATO Warsaw Summit
DefMin Motoc: Romania to join efforts of Coalition against Islamic State of Iraq, Syria with 50 servicepersons

Romania will concretely contribute 50 servicepersons to the efforts of the Coalition fighting against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria who will enter the theatre of war on an advisory mission, National Defence Minister Mihnea Motoc said at Cincu on Wednesday, where he attended the opening ceremony of a SABER-GUARDIAN-16 defence exercise.

“As early as February, we committed ourselves based on an approval by Romania’s Parliament to concretely contribute to the efforts of the Coalition fighting against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. Our contribution consists of 50 trainers for the special operation forces in Iraq, for military intelligence in Iraq. These future trainers are about to complete specialised training, after which we have to conclude a few formalities before deploying them to the theatre of war on an advisory mission,” Motoc explained.

According to the minister, the servicepersons will be able to join the theatre of war early autumn.

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travelerxxx's picture

@CB

Thanks, CB. I'll be too busy to follow this until early tomorrow, but I'm going to be watching carefully. I have a few sources able to speak to this who "owe me" a little, but I may only get one shot with them. Probably will just use public resources for now. If I find anything I can talk about, I will.

I saw your other response to me re this thread. Thanks.

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snoopydawg's picture

@CB
So the US has a base in Syria without the permission of the Syrian government and many people in this country say that Putin/Russia is the country that is the aggressor? That shows how much people are just listening to the msm and believing everything that they say without trying to find out the real truth. Goering must be very happy to know that our government used his playbook
IMG_0842_3.JPG
These people probably don't bother to think why it's legal for this country to have bases in other people's countries along with thousands of troops, but if they were asked if it would be okay for another country to have a base inside their country they would say that would be bad.
The arrogance and hypocrisy of Americans knows no bounds.

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@snoopydawg

Personally, it wouldn't be the propagandized Americans I'd blame, myself...

There are armies of propaganda specialists working on this stuff, and Americans have been subjected to, I'd suspect, possibly more propaganda for longer than has any other industrialized 'democracy' of which I've heard, than perhaps even Nazi Germany. And now we have the advantage of knowing how it was that the fascists intent on world domination took control there... if only we could use this knowledge in some manner that could break off the siphoning of power and resources from the people to the Parasite Class repeating the attempt with a larger military, worse weapons and spy network and a false patina of 'virtue'...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

@travelerxxx @travelerxxx

I have no way of verifying a comment I read which claimed that opposition fighters were being moved out, presumed to be headed for Turkey.

But this worried me, what with all of those rather pointed missiles... these maniacs seem capable of anything, as long as it harms others among those Who Don't Matter, unlike themselves.

Later edit: and now, it seems, (according to Move On) that Trump has sent off dozens of Tomahawk missiles to hit the Syrians...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

CB's picture

Gloves Are For Sissies: Photographs Show White Helmets Are Immune to Sarin
Who needs basic protective gear when dealing with chemical WMDs? The White Helmets have superhuman abilities

Chem attack blame game ‘failed’ at Syria conference in Brussels – Russian envoy
Attempts by some members of the Brussels conference on Syria to redraw the agenda and focus on allegations of the Syrian government’s complicity in the suspected chemical attack in Idlib have failed, Russia’s deputy foreign minister has said.


Rebels ‘only people who benefited’ from Idlib chemical weapons attack – analyst

The Syrian government was quickly blamed by the West after the opposition-controlled Idlib region saw a chemical attack that reportedly killed dozens of civilians. However, a UK security analyst told RT the rebels were the only force that benefited from the incident.

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Big Al's picture

@CB Thanks for all this info CB, as always.

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@CB

Indeed, thank you so much for this information! I only hope that enough of this reaches the corporate-media-dependent!

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

snoopydawg's picture

@Ellen North
Syrian gas attack. There are so many websites that are debunking this, I'm having a hard time reading them all.
Of course the msm isn't going to report the truth about what actually happened because most of the 6 msm owners are also owners of defense companies.
And people trying to survive don't have the time to research what actually happened.
And we can thank Reagan and Clinton for this.
Clinton did so much damage to this country and that was one of the reasons I didn't want either of them back in the WH.

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@snoopydawg

Thanks yet again, although I don't seem to be able to locate a live link in this post?

In any event, you are, as usual, dead on. The corruption has to be cleaned out of everywhere; no time remains to waste any more... Life must win over the destructive lunacy and pathological greed of a relative few.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

snoopydawg's picture

@Ellen North
http://iogsd.blogspot.com/2013/12/natos-war-on-syria-just-got-dirtier.html

This is about the first false flag attack that Obama blamed on Assad and it has links to Hersh's first article. I read somewhere that he couldn't get it published on any sites in America so he published it through another country.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg

Thanks - I wish everyone could read that article! Such a slimy can of worms involved...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

is the same thing any one does when they create a thread. And thank you for doing it.

About a block quote: Nothing like that should stop you from posting. However, since you brought it up:

Select the text you want to show up in your post as a block quote as though you want to copy it. However, don't copy it. Instead, hit the button above the window in which you are typing that has an open quote on it. It's directly to the right of the button with an H on it.

Alternatively, you can skip that entirely and instead type blockquote to open the quote. To close the quote, type /blockquote. Don't bold, though. However, you have to start those two things with this the character on your keyboard that is upper case to the comma and end them with this. > I can't show you exactly or it will show up in my post as a block quote!

Alternatively, just use old-fashioned quotation marks!

On edit. I had to change the text above before I did not preview to see certain things were not showing up. My bad!

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PriceRip's picture

@HenryAWallace

You type this:

<blockquote>Stuff you have highlighted</blockquote>

and this will display:

<blockquote>Stuff you have highlighted</blockquote>

But if you type this:

<blockquote>Stuff you have highlighted</blockquote>

this will display:

Stuff you have highlighted

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@PriceRip @PriceRip

Thanks! Not sure how you did that without the conversion (edit: occurring), unless simply not selecting the block works to enable such examples?

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0 users have voted.

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

PriceRip's picture

@Ellen North

          HTML, HyperText Markup Language, is a structured language. The protocol is to have your browser construct a displayed page according to strict rules If for example I type: Quoted Matter !</blockquote> because the < is not a less than symbol (<) at all. It is a bit of code (&lt;) that the HTTP is for the HTML reader (AKA browser) to display a special symbol < that only looks like a less than symbol even though it is not a less than symbol.

          If I want to display a < symbol — I need to type &lt; which allows you to see the command that produces the < symbol.

          If I want to display this &lt; — I need to type this &amp;lt;

          Now I am getting confused ‽ The Interrobang is produced with this bit of code &#8253;

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@PriceRip

Cool, makes perfect sense, thanks! As you can doubtless tell, I was not raised with computers... I actually had to look up the Interrobang, despite the example, lol; I could certainly use a gross of those, although I'd be voted most likely to A.) forget the code and B.) typo it if I remembered...

But you do give excellent explanations and must be a wonderful professor with fortunate students.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

@PriceRip

I just had to edit my original reply to Ellen North about this because I didn't preview to see that some of what I had typed did not show up at all. I'll bookmark this for the next time, but I am not promising I will get it right.

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@HenryAWallace @HenryAWallace

Thanks ever so much! I need all of the help that I can get, the more so as some of the chemicals being used in ongoing house renovations seem to scramble my brain rather badly. Actually, snoopy-dog was kind enough to drop me a note, and I embarrassingly found them rather obviously placed when I went back to look. Not sure how I missed them previously, but it seems that I have a knack. The assistance is certainly appreciated, though!

Edited because I came across a missing 'm'; better late than never!

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

@Ellen North

So, I empathize completely. Some things are like Sanskrit to me.I did okay in school, but am often stumped by things a five year-old can do. For just one example, I almost always move to my left when someone asks me to go to my right. Computer stuff?* I practically need tech support to use the on/off button. At some point, I just ceased being embarrassed about it.

Almost. Wink

*Looking back at my post, I see that some of what I was trying to convey never showed up in the post at all, which I would have seen had I previewed. But typing, previewing and proofing are other things I am horrific about.

Dash 1

Although I meant well, I probably only made everything worse for you and I apologize for that. But, my dumb post prompted PriceRip to rescue both of us. And, as Shakespeare (or whoever wrote that stuff) noted, "All's well that ends well!"

Smile

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@HenryAWallace

... For just one example, I almost always move to my left when someone asks me to go to my right. ...

Henry Wallace for President!!!

That should be a requirement for public office...

No, you certainly didn't make anything worse, and the kindness of everyone helpfully posting was so much appreciated!

Everyone has strong and not-so-strong areas; obviously it's not possible to know everything even in an area specialized in, never mind to know everything or to be good in all areas, and that's not something we should be embarrassed about. Too bad it seems to work out like that anyway, even if it is often counter-productive.

Personally, I come here confused and proceed from there - you'd think I'd be used to it by now! Not...

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0 users have voted.

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

@Ellen North

Figuratively, it is a good trait for a politician in the US which has gone so far--too far---right since the Democratic Leadership Council. Literally, when doing things like driving, walking or "posing" for X-Rays, it ranges from embarrassing to annoying to potentially fatal. But, I muddle through somehow.

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Bob In Portland's picture

I suspect cruise missiles. What happens when Russia takes out a few ships in retaliation?

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@Bob In Portland

Just saw this in my inbox - think I might add it up top, as well:

Dear MoveOn member,

News is breaking that Donald Trump just ordered the launch of dozens of Tomahawk missiles to strike Syria.1

It's an illegal and unauthorized escalation that could have devastating consequences, killing innocent Syrians and costing the lives of U.S. service members.

Things could spiral quickly in the coming hours, and it's up to MoveOn members to lead a chorus of progressives in every corner of this nation saying NO to bombing the people of Syria.

Will you sign an emergency petition to Congress right now?

Congress must force consideration of an Authorization for Use of Military Force, and members of Congress should vote "no" and halt Trump's march toward war. ...

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0 users have voted.

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.