Exclusive: In a backhand way, The New York Times admits that the U.S.-backed “moderate” rebels in east Aleppo are fighting alongside Al Qaeda jihadists, an almost casual admission of this long-obscured reality, writes Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
As much as The New York Times and the mainstream U.S. media have become propaganda outlets on most foreign policy issues, like the one-sided coverage of the bloody Syrian war, sometimes the truth seeps through in on-the-ground reporting by correspondents, even ones who usually are pushing the “propo.”
Such was the case with Anne Barnard’s new reporting from inside west Aleppo, the major portion of the city which is in government hands and copes with regular terror rocket and mortar attacks from rebel-held east Aleppo where Al Qaeda militants and U.S.-armed-and-funded “moderate” rebels fight side-by-side.
Samantha Power, Permanent Representative of the United States to the UN, addresses the Security Council meeting on Syria, Sept. 25, 2016. Power has been an advocate for escalating U.S. military involvement in Syria. (UN Photo)
Almost in passing, Barnard’s article on Sunday acknowledged the rarely admitted reality of the Al Qaeda/”moderate” rebel collaboration, which puts the United States into a de facto alliance with Al Qaeda terrorists and their jihadist allies, fighting under banners such as Nusra Front (recently renamed Syria Conquest Front) and Ahrar al-Sham.
Barnard also finally puts the blame for preventing civilians in east Aleppo from escaping the fighting on a rebel policy of keeping them in harm’s way rather than letting them transit through “humanitarian corridors” to safety. Some of her earlier pro-rebel accounts suggested that it wasn’t clear who was stopping movement of civilians through those corridors.
However, on Sunday, she reported: “We had arrived at a critical moment, as Russia said there was only one day left to pass through a corridor it had provided for people to escape eastern Aleppo before the rebel side was flattened, a corridor through which precious few had passed. The government says rebels are preventing civilians from leaving. Rebels refuse any evacuation without international supervision and a broader deal to deliver humanitarian aid.”
Granted, you still have to read between the lines, but at least there is the acknowledgement that rebels are refusing civilian evacuations under the current conditions. How that is different from Islamic State terrorists in Mosul, Iraq, preventing departures from their areas – a practice which the Times and other U.S. outlets condemn as using women and children as “human shields” – isn’t addressed. But Barnard’s crimped admission is at least a start.
Barnard then writes: “Instead [of allowing civilians to move through the humanitarian corridors], they [the rebels] are trying to break the siege, with Qaeda-linked groups and those backed by the United States working together — the opposite of what Russia has demanded.”
Again, that isn’t the clearest description of the situation, which is stunning enough that one might have expected it in the lede rather than buried deep inside the story, but it is significant that the Times is recognizing that Al Qaeda and the U.S.-backed “moderates” are “working together” and that Russia opposes that collaboration.
She also noted that “Three Qaeda-linked suicide bombers attacked a military position with explosive-packed personnel carriers on Thursday, military officials said, and mortar fire was raining on neighborhoods that until now had been relatively safe. It was among the most intense rounds in four years of rebel shelling that officials say has killed 11,000 civilians.”
While she then throws in a caveat about the impossibility of verifying the numbers, the acknowledgement that the U.S.-backed “moderate” rebels and their Al Qaeda comrades have been shelling civilians in west Aleppo is significant, too. Before this, all the American people heard was the other side, from rebel-held east Aleppo, about the human suffering there, often conveyed by “activists” with video cameras who have depicted the conflict as simply the willful killing of children by the evil Syrian government and the even more evil Russians.
More Balance
With the admission of rebel terror attacks on civilians in west Aleppo, the picture finally is put into more balance. The Al Qaeda and U.S.-backed rebels have been killing thousands of civilians in government-controlled areas and the Syrian military and its Russian allies have struck back only to be condemned for committing “war crimes.”
The second plane about to crash into the World Trade Center towers in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001.
Though the human toll in both sides of Aleppo is tragic, we have seen comparable situations before – in which the U.S. government has supported, supplied and encouraged governments to mount fierce offensives to silence rockets or mortars fired by rebels toward civilian areas.
For instance, senior U.S. government officials, including President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, have defended Israel’s right to defend itself from rockets fired from inside Gaza even though those missiles rarely kill anyone. Yet, Israel is allowed to bomb the near-defenseless people of Gaza at will, killing thousands including the four little boys blown apart in July 2014 while playing on a beach during the last round of what the Israelis call “mowing the grass.”
In the context of those deaths, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, who has built her career as a supposed humanitarian advocating a “responsibility to protect” civilians, laid the blame not on the Israeli military but on fighters in Gaza who had fired rockets that rarely hit anything besides sand.
At the United Nations on July 18, 2014, Power said, “President Obama spoke with [Israeli] Prime Minister Netanyahu this morning to reaffirm the United States’ strong support for Israel’s right to defend itself…. Hamas’ attacks are unacceptable and would be unacceptable to any member state of the United Nations. Israel has the right to defend its citizens and prevent these attacks.”
But that universal right apparently does not extend to Syria where U.S.-supplied rockets are fired into civilian neighborhoods of west Aleppo. In that case, Power and other U.S. officials apply an entirely different set of standards. Any Syrian or Russian destruction of east Aleppo with the goal of suppressing that rocket fire becomes a “war crime.”
Perhaps it’s expected that the U.S. government, like other governments, will engage in hypocrisy regarding affairs of state: one set of rules for U.S. allies and another for countries marked for U.S. “regime change.” Statements by supposed “humanitarians” – such as Samantha Power, “Ms. R2P” – are no exception.
But double standards are even more distasteful when they come from allegedly “objective” journalists such as those who work at The New York Times, The Washington Post and other prestige American news outlets. When they take the “U.S. side” in a dispute and become crude propagandists, they encourage the kind of misguided “group thinks” that led to the criminal Iraq War and other disastrous “regime change” projects over the past two decades.
Yet, that is what we normally see. A thoughtful reader can’t peruse the international reporting of the U.S. mainstream media without realizing that it is corrupted by propaganda from both government officials and from U.S.-funded operations, often disguised as “human rights activists” or “citizen journalists” whose supposed independence makes their “propo” even more effective.
So, it’s worth noting those rare occasions when The New York Times and the rest of the MSM let some of the reality peek through. When evaluating the latest plans from Hillary Clinton and other interventionists to expand the U.S. military intervention in Syria – via prettily named “safe zones” and “no-fly zones” – the American people should realize that they are being asked to come to the aid of Al Qaeda.
[For more on this topic, see Consortiumnews.com’s “The De Facto US/Al Qaeda Alliance.”]
Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest book, America’s Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com).
“The Democrats were so entrenched in their corruption and self-dealing that they didn’t see the Bernie Sanders campaign for modest reform as the savior it might have been. Instead they marched in lock step with a woman who was heartily disliked. Sanders went along as the sheep dog who led his flock straight over the cliff. The Democrats inadvertently galvanized people who had stopped participating in the system and who want change from top to bottom.
“One of our biggest problems lies not in facts but in perceptions. What did Democrats do for black people? The Democrats ship living wage jobs off shore in corrupt trade deals like NAFTA and TTP. They don’t prosecute killer cops or raise the minimum wage. Trump will be hard pressed to deport more people than Obama did. The list of treachery is very long.
“When Donald Trump asked black people, ‘What have you got to lose?’ his words were met with derision. But in reality he posed a good question. What do we have to show for years of Democratic votes? Obama bailed out banks, insurance companies, Big Pharma and even Ukraine. But he didn’t rebuild Detroit or New Orleans. The water in Flint, Michigan is still poisoned and the prisons are still full.
“The outpouring of love for Barack Obama was purely symbolic. In state after state, black people who gave him victory in 2008 and 2012 stayed home. They loved seeing him and his wife dressed up at state dinners but they were never fully engaged in politics because that is not what Democrats want. The love was phony and void of any political intent. Donald Trump will be president because of that veneer of political activism.
“As for white people who voted for Trump, of course many of them are racists. However they are not without valid complaints. They don’t want neoliberalism but black people don’t either. They don’t want wars around the world and neither do black people. We corrupt our own heritage of radicalism in favor of shallow symbolism. While we slept walk in foolish nostalgia for Obama and cried at the thought of him leaving office, white people kept their hatred of Hillary to themselves or lied to pollsters. They want America to be great again, great for them. White nostalgic yearnings are dangerous for black people, and we must be vigilant. But there may be opportunity in this crisis if we dare to seize it.”
Dump the Democrats for Good
By Margaret Kimberley
http://blackagendareport.com/dump_the_democrats_for_good
Powers performances ironically remind me of those blustering Russians in the old Soviet days. She’s a master of hypocrisy. I wonder if she believes any of what she spouts or it’s just pure imperial strategy.
This probably means that Barack Hussein Obama has given up on his pet cannibal headhunters in Aleppo. The New York Crimes will never dare admit anything without the Amerikastani regime’s express permission.
An eye-witness account of the bloody aftermath of the bombing of a West Aleppo school from “rebel-held” East Aleppo.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/syria-civil-war-aleppo-conflict-latest-innocent-children-killed-isis-assad-russia-nusra-a7385791.html
Good article, Robert Parry. Thanks for pointing out that at least some of the truth is leaking out, albeit a small amount. People like you deserve to be editors of publications like the New York Times. Can you just imagine the difference that would make to the American population? How many kind, decent people are sitting out there with good intentions, but are being tricked by what they’re reading.
Here’s the video of John Pilger’s interview with Julian Assange. Sometimes the meat of the truth is in the pauses one makes, and it’s hard to get that with writing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdoHXVJPta8&feature=youtu.be&app=desktop
The U.S., Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar have all teamed up to reshape the Middle East. How long has this been going on? Many of the 9/11 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia, and I remember reading about the Israeli students who had been watching it all play out for weeks. They knew what was going to go down.
So is this all about Israel, splitting up the Middle East into factions, keep them fighting each other, take away any power or alliances that they might form so they don’t come after you? This would keep Israel and the princes of Saudi Arabia and Qatar safe.
When you stand far enough back, you can see that this has been playing out for decades now. U.S. arms dealers are happy, the oil keeps flowing into the “right” hands at the “right” price, the banks are delighted, Russia and China are kept weak, along with Iran, Europe and the rest of the puppet governments go along, and thousands get slaughtered.
Corruption, bribes, pay-to-play and lies are the order of the day. Julian Assange and Edward Snowden are vilified and in a virtual prison for releasing information, and yet Hillary gets to ride over the finish line on her broom, even though her email system was hacked into by five different governments and her maid handled and photocopied classified information for her. Oh, that’s right, Snowden and Assange had “intent”, while Hillary didn’t. Yeah, right.
“The United States has reached a crossing the Rubicon moment: either Hillary Clinton is indicted for knowingly violating statutes regarding State Department security, or the rule of law and the Republic are dead. This is a binary moment: we either let Hillary evade the laws that were established to protect the security of the nation and confess there is no rule of law now for the Oligarchy, or the agencies tasked with defending the nation indict her.
There is no middle ground. If Hillary isn’t indicted, the rule of law, i.e. that no one is above the law, is dead.
Once the Oligarchy is above the law, the Republic is already dead. Once the people have lost the ability to influence the central state’s policies and decisions, the Republic is dead. Once the elected officials can no longer impose the nation’s statues on the Oligarchy (or have lost interest in doing so because they are all corrupted cronies), the Republic is dead. Once the nation’s agencies of law enforcement are stayed from indicting, prosecuting and jailing members of the Oligarchy, be they super-wealthy politicos like Hillary or super-wealthy Wall Street bankers, the Republic is dead.
A vote for Hillary, unindicted Oligarch, is a vote in favor of the destruction of the rule of law and the Republic. This is the Rubicon every voter must decide to cross or refuse to cross: vote for Hillary (destroy the Republic and surrender to Imperial Oligarchy) or refuse to vote for an unindicted Imperial Oligarch.”
http://www.oftwominds.com/blogmar16/republic-dead3-16.html
“The United States’ official purpose for being involved in Syria is to fight the Islamic State.
“Under the Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF–OIR), the United States’ official mission according to US President Barack Obama is to:
“‘…degrade, and ultimately destroy, [the Islamic State] through a comprehensive and sustained counter-terrorism strategy.’
“With Russian forces suffering losses fighting the Islamic State in Syria, it would appear that the US and Russia should be natural allies, yet they clearly are not.
“That is either because the US believes Russia isn’t truly fighting the Islamic State, despite losing one of their helicopters just this month while doing so, or because the US itself is not really in Syria to fight the Islamic State. The latter, is clearly the case, with US policy think tanks, American media op-eds and even US presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton declaring that their collective intent is the overthrow of the Syrian government, which Russia most certainly is not a party to.”
“In essence, Russia’s mortal sin is not allowing Syria to be rendered a divided, destroyed and ultimately failed state by the United States and its allies just as has been done to Libya and Iraq before it. So determined to dismember Syria, the United States is willing to ‘covertly’ target and destroy forces openly engaged in combat against alleged enemies of the United States, including Al Qaeda’s Jabhat Al Nusra Front and the Islamic State, enemies who just so happen to also be America’s best bet for ousting the government in Damascus.
“Understanding and communicating to the public the fact that each and every ‘covert’ attack on Russian forces carried out by Al Qaeda affiliates and the Islamic State not only proves Russia is actually in Syria to combat terrorism, but it also further proves how the United States has used the excuse of fighting terrorism to hide its true agenda behind, rather than uphold as its primary mission.”
Terrorists Targeting Russia in Syria – As Planned
By Joseph Thomas
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2016/11/terrorists-targeting-russia-in-syria-as.html
I find the style and substance of a Syrian woman’s view to be compelling:
http://www.brandonturbeville.com/2016/11/syria-created-civilization-and-will-do.html
“since even before ‘day 1,’ the US has banked its entire strategy on the use of Al Qaeda and other designated terrorist organizations for the overthrow of the Syrian government and the division of the Syrian state […]
“US Institute for Peace (USIP) vice president of Applied Research on Conflict Steven Heydemann in the New York Times would write in an article titled, ‘You Don’t Need a No-Fly Zone to Pressure Russia in Syria,’ that:
“‘The most effective diplomatic means for the United States to regain leverage in Syria is for Washington to lead an international effort to undermine the Assad government’s claims and recognize a different government as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.
“‘The best candidate for recognition is the little-known Syrian Interim Government, or S.I.G. Unlike many other opposition groups, which are based in Turkey, the S.I.G. is based inside Syria, with offices in Idlib and scattered throughout opposition-held territory.’
“The problem with Heydemann’s proposal is the same problem that has plagued the entirety of US policy toward Syria, the essential but unobtainable requirement of covering up the opposition’s obvious ties to Al Qaeda […]
“Over 60% of the Syrian population lives in government controlled territory, with this number rising monthly as security operations to restore order across the country continue to garner success, particularly in Aleppo. This includes control over most of Syria’s largest cities, including Damascus itself, most of Aleppo, Homs, Latakia, Hama, Tartus, and Daraa.
“Idlib, on the other hand, doesn’t rank even among Syria’s top ten most populated cities – making plans to designate it a de facto capital all the more transparently absurd.
“Heydemann’s plan – like all US ‘plans’ before it – at face value and amid its more intricate details contradict the US’ own rationale for becoming involved in Syria in the first place. Handing a nation over to an unpopular, illegitimate minority in no shape, form, or way constitutes ‘democracy’ – even the strained definitions used by the West to describe it. With Heydemann’s ‘Syrian Interim Government’ existing in the very center of Al Qaeda’s operations in Syria, no plan to date has so transparently attempted to protect and preserve designated terrorist organizations operating in Syria.
“Considering the second part of Heydemann’s plan includes a revised version of a US-initiated no-fly zone, US assets would literally be used in Syria to protect Al Qaeda’s de facto capital in Idlib from Syrian or Russian attacks.”
US Plan “C” in Syria: Make Al Qaeda Central the New Capital
By Tony Cartalucci
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2016/11/us-plan-c-in-syria-make-al-qaeda.html
Yes, but those are not the terrorists you are looking for (waves hands to reinforce hypnotic suggestion).
If Hillary wins, how long after that will she go to war with Russia to establish her dream come true. A no fly zone?
I don’t read the New York Times unless somebody provides a link to an interesting title. The joint has been turned into a Neoconservative Mouthpiece, or Pravda On The Hudson.
Mr. Parry has more intestinal fortitude than myself to have discovered even the slight wavering in the BS line the Times peddles, for when I went to the Barnard story I found I was wasting my time with badly written propaganda. I cut/pasted the story into a word processor and went through it highlighting the slanting of the tale as well as the items I knew for a fact to be direct lies. And being a professional reporter, at some level Barnard knows she is writing lies too. But it’s a good paying job, and the cognitive dissonance factor with the good money has probably convinced her she is taking the high road and the dreck she is writing is not something to be ashamed of.
I don’t know why there was a pause in the assault on the rebel section of Aleppo. I can guess it’s connected with the US election – to avoid giving the warmonger Hillary anything useful. I can guess the Russians and Syrians have been waiting for the arrival of the Russian Naval ships and their air defense capabilities and the short reaction time of the offensive cruise missiles they carry.
All that, and the highly publicized exit lanes looked good in the world press other than the Neoconservative outfits. It’s my opinion that most everybody who has remained in the Rebel sectors has stayed there because they’re 100% on the side of the Rebels. I would predict that the civilians who remain are almost entirely family members of the local Fighters. I may be wrong about that, but that’s where I’d put my money.
Any assault is going to be a heavy one, and I believe the Government forces want to finish it before President Hillary takes office.
As an aside, I understand the US equivalent of Saddam’s Baghdad Bob has been whining about the suffering of the people in Aleppo.
“A humanitarian pause was designed for what? To allow people to leave, but it was also to allow aid to get in. And how much aid has gotten in? None.
“And so we’re seeing reports now of citizens of Aleppo tying ropes around their abdomens to try to get around the abdominal pain that they’re feeling from starvation. They’re going to contaminated water sources for drinking water, because there isn’t any. What little hospitals there are in Aleppo are now being forced underground into basements, and the medical personnel that are staffing them, we’re seeing reports now, of them having to use non-sanitized equipment to try to tend wounds and to try to make people feel better. They’re not able to sanitize their equipment.
The Russian reply: ‘We’ve delivered 100 tons of aid to Aleppo, Americans haven’t brought one breadcrumb’ – Russian MoD
https://www.rt.com/news/365543-kirby-aleppo-aid-russia/
I can’t verify the Russian claim, but that’s the direction I’d bet my money. The Syrian smash job was never about humanitarianism, but rather a sustained effort to destroy Syria for the benefit of Israel.
There are countless articles exposing the double standards and hypocrisy of government officials and the corporate media, but it is important to note the consistency of these entities. They are in pursuit of a US hegemony ruling the planet and have exempted themselves from any form of civilized and enlightened behavior. Hypocrisy? So what? Double standards? Yesterday’s standards are expendable if today’s call for the opposite, and today’s will also be expendable if necessary tomorrow. Hey, pay attention to the big ones. We supported sanctions on Iraq that cost an estimated half million children their lives and we’re still running the show. Then we waged war on Iraq that created chaos throughout the Middle East and destroyed the lives of millions of people. No accountability for us on that one either. Then there was regime change in Libya. Not as big a deal as the war on Iraq, but it kept our skills tuned up. So Syria is on the chopping block where the hypocrisy is almost beyond measure, but you won’t see any red faces in Washington or New York. Just business as usual. Admittedly, not very nice work, but it pays well if you can make the team. Moral compasses not required. On the contrary, it’s better not to have one if you want on this team.
Excellent article. I believe the Corporate media have become propaganda pushers for the war criminals and their terrorist “allies.”
“There is overwhelming evidence that there are war criminals that plotted and planned a number of wars in various countries. [1] Yet, you won’t hear or see most of the corporate controlled media exposing the criminality of the powerful war perverts in our midst, or the victims of the war criminals and their war business. [2] Syria is just one of example of many countries, where the media are protecting the criminal actions of governments and their treacherous “allies” that are consorting with terrorists….”
[read more at link below]
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2016/10/are-corporate-media-propaganda-pushers.html
Avaaz, the massive online advocate and promoter with 44 million members, has renewed their petition to create a no fly zone for Syria, exactly what the Neocons have wanted all along. However there is a counter petition to persuade them to cancel their petition. It has over 1300 signers. Here is the link:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Avaaz_Stop_Avaazs_Neocon_no_fly_zone_for_Syria_petition/
Interesting comments on Avaaz in this article: Just How Gray Are the White Helmets of Syria? by Jan Oberg – http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/11/04/just-how-gray-are-the-white-helmets-of-syria/
Yes, the truth will set you free, but first the truth must be available without the “Mokinbird” MSM pro military industrial congressional bias. Good work Consortium News in your efforts to offer a real “fair and balanced perspective”.
Americans are a little slow :(……..At this point in the emotional game that the elites set a trap for you to follow do you think it really matters….The entire American way is a sham. It represents a synthetic flow of life (the matrix) that has been going on for a very long time, since rural became urban…..This sham is trying to spread… world wide…. led by the financial system. It is a sad truth that the great America is unaccountable for the massive destruction that is needed to carry on this dead in the water plan….let us all pause to pledge allegiance to a flag of honor that died …….years ago
Great piece, Bob!
Put yours together with Paul Pillar’s most recent, and one cannot avoid seeing the folly of those pushing for a military escalation…”just to put us in stronger position to negotiate,” of course!
At the same time, a declared “urgency” is motivating the US-led “coalition” to step up its long-planned attack on the Syrian city of Raqqa, supposedly because ISIS may be using the city as a base from which to carry out international terrorist attacks.
http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFKBN1310O4?sp=true
Meanwhile, the US mainstream media reports that intelligence agencies fear that al-Qaeda may carry out attacks in America ahead of the election. But US-backed “moderates” can still act alongside al-Qaeda.
Time to call BS on the whole “terrorist” project. Both al-Qaeda and ISIS are provably tied to America and its allies, and they are cynically used to advance US foreign policy goals and to excuse the radical redefinition of America’s founding documents. None of this is the result of mistakes or failures. There is a seriously criminal element embedded within the US state who must be exposed and prosecuted.
jaycee – “There is a seriously criminal element embedded within the US state who must be exposed and prosecuted.” You are so right, but right now they are above the law. It will take a revolution to take them down, and some day it will happen, but not before there’s nothing left. Too many people are still fat and happy. Once the elite are finished raping the land and us, then the people will awake. By then it will be too late. Then we’ll all be fighting each other for scraps, and the elite will be off on some island sipping a Margarita. That’s why they keep making sure the poor are kept in food stamps and subsidized housing; wouldn’t want them rioting, not until the elite have looted everything. It’s not like they actually care about these people, but they pretend they do. And the top 20%, well they’re doing just fine. They’re working for the government or in some way involved with the government/bailed out by the government, whatever, and they’re not going to want to change the status quo. No, the poor will be coming after them when it all ends.
Same as someone said on here the other day: bring back the draft, and all of a sudden people will want the wars stopped. Well, it’s the same with those at the bottom: take away the free stuff, and watch the sh*t hit the fan. (I’m not saying that would be a good thing, only pointing out how it keeps everybody quiet, complacent). And, no, I don’t think the poor are lazy and stupid. I just think that the government is handing out free stuff because they allowed the jobs to be shipped overseas. And take away the Central Bank money that the banks are playing with and watch the stock market tumble, and then all of a sudden the top 20% are angry. Where’s my dividend?
The only people who are waking up are the middle class, and only because they’re getting screwed. These are the people who are going to vote for Trump, and they’re hoping he will “drain the swamp”. These are the people who see the “criminal element”. A good proportion of the rest are parasitic, sucking off the criminal element, and they don’t want that changed.
I think the motive for attacking and capturing Raqqa now is to use it as a base from which American forces (and their “moderate” terrorist allies) will prosecute a grinding war of attrition against the Syrian Army and its Russian allies after Killery takes office. She will base USAF assets there to enforce her no-fly zone against Syria and Russia. Once Raqqa is captured, Syria has effectively been permanently balkanized as Obomber has always wanted. From there, the object will be to march on to Damascus no matter how long that takes, since Washington basically has unlimited monetary and human resources to count on. (Their mercenaries will be recruited from the same population they dislodge from Raqqa and Mosul). Syria and Russia have severe limitations on both. America will prosecute the war in waves, one mercenary group following another, over a decade if necessary until Syrian and Russian assets are totally degraded, and they won’t consider that a war crime–though Russian actions in Aleppo are, according to Merkel and Hollande. If America soon takes Raqqa it will have essentially all of Syria north of the Euphrates River to use as a base, which Putin may see as a tipping point because the cost-benefit ratio for defending Syria at the expense of all the assets he has in Syria is not a rational investment. Not if America becomes entrenched and carries out an unrelenting war of attrition. Those who see farther will say that America ultimately loses anyway because they have shown that, though they may win the war, they can never win the occupation. This has been the outcome in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and whatever other countries are on the hit list. But that is many years, much bloodshed and much squandering of treasure down the road. Why they can never see it coming I guess falls under that famous definition of insanity, supposedly ascribed to Einstein.
Well, after reading this article, the latest Finian Cunningham and George Eliason articles at OpEdNews, and Abe’s comments…coupled with the breaking Comey announcement…I have to concede. Bill Bodden, hat’s off to you, brother, you called it right. I’m too old to bother, but some of you younger readers may want to go to Google Books where they publish old Popular Mechanics magazines. Issues from the fifties and sixties had lots of plans for “do it yourself” bomb shelters. I’m not sure how much will be left after the nuclear “exchange”, but hey, it’s something to consider. Cheers!
F.G. That bomb shelter may come in handy after this Tuesday’s presidential election results are made final. I don’t know about you, but with such divisions amongst us I expect that at least half of our country’s population will be thrilled with joy, while the other half will be out for blood. I hope I’m wrong, I really mean that, but after 18 months of constant media pounding out the differences between the two front runners, I think the let down for the losers won’t go down easy. Bizarre is too tame a word for what all took place this election season. Between Hillary’s illegal server, emails galore to mull over, and a warhawk witch with a bone to pick Hillary is considered by many as the lessor of the two evils. Trump started his campaign by accusing Hispanics of being murderers and rapist although he assumed some were good people, and his disregard for handicaps will never be forgot, along with his admitting how his celebrity status gives him the advantage to grab women’s private parts, and with this he is biting at Hillary’s heels. This big ass reality tv show we are watching has for it’s finale the end of a great empire, so enjoy it or regret it for all it’s worth.
Joe, Don’t know if you have seen this, but it is powerful and deserves serious attention and the time involved; it’s delivered like a college lecture, just the facts – you take the notes, and the dots start back with how the JFK assassination conspiracy was pulled off and ending with its motivations. I have read a lot on the subject, but this is by far the best explanation of how the murder was moved across the country, through and past hospital doctors and pathologists in two large cities and buried deep under mounds of lies and government classifications until now, decades later, it is accepted as part of American history and truth. It is important to understand how this tremendous whitewash and turn in our history let those agents know that they could commit the highest of crimes with impunity and the American people would swallow it without chocking. This crime has been perpetrated many times since with equal success. See below:
JFK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEDBbYAkGt0
Presented by Douglas P. Horne, author and an inside investigator for the U.S. Government’s final investigation into the JFK assassination by the ARRB in the mid to late 1990’s.Doug Horne served as Chief Analyst for Military Records on the staff of the Assassination Records Review Board (AARB) during the 1990s and was responsible for the declassification of many. Horne played a major role in the Review Board’s work on the medical evidence in the JFK assassination, preparing questions for depositions and helping elicit some stunning testimony from medical witnesses and writing several important internal research memos on the issues raised.
While I watch your video read this….
http://educate-yourself.org/cn/jfkassassination23feb12.shtml
I originally found this on the comment board here on consortiumnews. I don’t know about all of it, and if I buy everything this author has to say, but overall it’s a pretty good brief summary of what may have happened with the JFK assassination. Hope you enjoy it.
That’s a very fascinating story. I’ve visited Educate-yourself. org many times. I never seen this one. Catch the “Tone”, the “Flavor” of this story, and it’s easy to see that sept 11th is also an inside job by pretty much the same perps, and is all one coherent narration. Speculation on WHY it’s SO terribly important to keep enmity alive between Russia and U.S.A.: It’s not just about powerful, private, monied interests keeping alive the “revenue-flow” into their banks. It’s because the INSTANT that Russia and U.S.A. become firm allies, it’s all over for the City-of-London/Wall Street Bankster Empire. This is why Churchill campaigned so feverishly in the U.S. with his “Iron Curtain” speech, and the McCarthy operation was set in motion to drive a wedge between us and the Soviets, and eventually the Chinese too, as the Reds prevailed there. FDR’s great post-war vision was to “De-Colonise” all of the Euro-Empires (British,French,Spanish,Portuguese,Dutch,Belgian), bring them into the U.N. as sovereign nations and help to develop them ala New Deal/Marshall Plan methods, with the three Great Republics (U.S.A., U.S.S.R., Rep. of China) guaranteeing the success of this policy (what BRICS and the Silk Road/World LandBridge proposes today; and welcomes U.S. participation ,btw). The U.S. Regime-Change Operation began immediately after FDR’s death, and was completed by the end of the nineties; the New World Order Regime coming on-line Sept. 11th, 2001.
Brad referencing this article and coupling it to our comments, but do you remember when Al Qaeda was our enemy?
Joe, at nov. 7th, @ 12:52 p.m.;
Go to EIR web site (Executive Intelligence Review; a LaRouche organization so be forewarned) and type in the search box; “how Al Qaeda is a British- Saudi project” by Ramtani Maitra. I think you’ll find it interesting reading. Britain has a centuries-long experience in covert and intelligence operations. I guess it’s an old European thing that Royal Dynasties and their powerful and wealthy Retainers relied upon to sway events one way or the other…an official declaration of war was probably the last resort for them. In short; the Al Qaeda was never our enemy, they have no real existence other than as CIA/MI6 supported operatives. The enemy is the (now covert) “British Empire” of City-of-London/Wall Street. The objective is to undermine the Republic and re-take the “Rogue Colony” USA and press it into Imperial Service for the Crown, for The Western Empire(about the 5th re-incarnation of the Roman Empire), while simultaneously suppressing any revival of a Muslim Empire (which nearly destroyed the Western Empire in Roman form, beginning in its’ wild rampages in the 560’s A.D.). This is also the whole reason for the zionist project; to suppress a reviving Muslim Empire.
Skip, you may find interest in this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Transparent-Conspiracy-Essays-poems-mostly/dp/1514725371
Deals in mass psychology, the use of “white” propaganda, and the idea that “transparency” is a tool of intimidation.
If the votes are actually counted, Joe, the results will be so close that either losing side will not brook the result. I don’t know about violence in the streets, but the congress will be a free-for-all. All legislation and court appointments will be blocked by either side. The Dems won’t control the House, so they can’t try to impeach Trump, but the GOPers have Killery’s impeachment high on the agenda, but certainly a whole laundry list of investigations they already have planned. A Dem Senate would investigate Trump no end, though they cannot initiate an impeachment there. A Dem Senate will filibuster Trump court appointments, but they will change the rules to stop the filibuster if Hillary wins. Absolutely every order of business will be strictly ad hoc and political. Each side will not care if the system breaks down–and it WILL collapse, because they want the opportunity to rebuild it from the ashes–in their favor. Yup, you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet. The real madhouse is about to begin.
Yeah you are probably right on your forecast of what our government will be up to, as if there aren’t more pressing matters, but hey who cares it’s all about the celebrity and the corporate bottom line.
Some of the more modern shelters are probably more affordable. I’d suggest as a starter acquiring this book:
Nuclear War Survival Skills
It’s online, but the paper version is very much to be preferred. Likewise, Mr. Kearny has detailed instructions for making an improvised dosimeter. People who could afford one would be better off with a store-bought model.
Probably all of this is a waste of money, for the chances of surviving a nuclear exchange are not so hot. But the money involved would probably be less than the cost of another firearm. From what I hear, that’s what the fanatics are buying lately.
It will bring new meaning to ‘The Night of the Living Dead’.
Probably the one institution in America, which has left the American public down the most, is our news media. I can tell you this, and many of you consortiumnews readers may verify this with me, and that is how hard it is to bring up the truth of many (almost all) of our news stories without being labeled a conspiracy theorist. I seriously often need to bite my tongue, or build up enough courage, to tell people the version of a story as the way I read it. Often people do double takes, or just flat out wave me off with a ‘oh come now’ when I tell them what I know as per the way I collect my news gathering. I’m not always one to insist how right I am, but there again people just don’t want to accept any version other than the version they got off the MSM. If I were smart, I would switch to watching ESPN, and memorizing sports statistics and be done with it all. Now that I said that, I’ll see you all tomorrow same time same place, so take care for now my fellow tinfoiled hatters, and remember the truth will set you free.
I find they simply do not even acknowledge receipt of the articles you send to them in emails, let alone discuss them. You’re right, the attitude is, “oh, boy, more crackpot conspiracy theories from my crazy uncle, or brother or whomever.” I always supply my own explanation of the published text, but doubt that even gets read. Americans simply do not want to hear anything other than the Panglossian propaganda supplied by their government and media. Putin is evil, Russia is trying to take over the world, we are the defenders of freedom and democracy everywhere. End of story. You disagree, you’re a traitor. It was the same during the early years of Vietnam, if you will recall.
I apologize for my venting. There is no reason to feel sorry for what I described, but how many of our critics know about the USS Liberty, or how Hillary got sickeningly giddy over the brutal assassination of Muammar Gaddafi, or do they even care to know who Tim Osmon was, ah but no. Instead they label you a conspiracy theorists or your called the tin-foiled hat guy, as they go about their ignorant way. I don’t believe everything I read. I often research the authors, and like to read old articles to see how accurate these writers are. I’m sure I got some details wrong, but on the whole I believe I got most of the real news correct. This election has everyone’s nerves on edge, and it will be good when it’s over…or will it? Well at least this phase of who will be our next president will be over, and then our media will find another way to separate us all a little more…until there is no more.
You speak the truth: no need to apologise for anything! Americans are basically incurious, cowed by authority, and unwilling to act even when the truth hits them between the eyes. I remember well first discussing the Vietnam war back in college in 1965, as all the men faced immediate draft and shipment to the killing grounds if they didn’t maintain a “C” average at the University of Illinois. I remember quite well, most of my friends didn’t even want to admit that they had the right to criticise their own government. It took a lot of persuasion to convince kids that were about to be drafted and see their lives cut short (I lost at least half a dozen former classmates in that debacle) that they were given the right by (take your pick) their creator, the universe or the constitution to question everything that, not just the government, but any authority proclaimed as true and your duty or obligation. Those kids were conditioned from birth to believe that the government had the right to control their very existence, to take both liberty and life away if it so decided, as they robotically parroted the patriotic nostrums they had been taught. That is, until their friends started coming home in boxes and have slept in the dirt ever since the mid-60’s. I will never apologise for criticising, even condemning, my government when they have it coming, as they do now for actions throughout the Middle East, Ukraine and other global hot spots THEY have heated up.
There’s a reason why in every coup the first thing they take over is the media.