As a European commentator noted recently, it is symbolic that the president of the most advanced democracy in the world makes his first foreign trip to the most feudal among Arab monarchies.

On the other hand, US citizens at large see happening what they vaguely expected, and probably wanted when they voted for Trump. Namely, that the curtain of elitist euphemisms and contrived metaphors masking the lying and the rudeness of previous administrations, would be dropped in favor of greater coarseness of expression and less palpable disguise.

This is apparent even in the body language and voice of (at least some) members of the Cabinet. I think particularly of the Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson. With his cowboy name, he may not have an Eastwood smile and a Robert Redford hair, but when he begins to speak, it is as if he said, “I am sir Oracle, and when I ope my lips, let no dog bark.”

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Cover image above: Obama paying his respects to the Saudi despots. Every leader of the “free world” —from Americans to Bitish and other lesser players—is obligated to make a show of support and approval of this repugnant medieval tyranny. 

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Still, for unbiased observers of the worldly scene, the de-facto alliance between Israel, the US and the Saudi monarchy, however thinly disguised, is unspeakable, unbelievable and unimaginable. It is a truly unholy trinity where Israel is God, the US the Son, and Saudi Arabia the hellish Ghost.

For while everybody knows who did 9/11 but is not allowed to say it, everybody is now allowed to say who financed it. And, equally, who set up, funds and finances the mercenaries of the so-called ISIS and their associates with sundry other names.

It will be the task of a courageous and dedicated historian to trace the seeds of the faked resurgence of a Mohammedan Sect – Salafists or Wahabis or whatever – and of its conversion into a well funded and organized mercenary army and state, with an actual political and economic infrastructure to boot.

Hardcore imperialist Ronnie Reagan gave full throttle to the anti-Soviet Jihadi “project” initiated by Carter in Afghanistan. When people say the US (with major accomplices like Saudi Arabia) created ISIS they are being absolutely correct.

For no one, unless he be a cultured Muslim, heard of Sunnis, Shias, Salafists and Wahabis, until after Reagan financed the plot to remove the lay government in Afghanistan that had called the Soviet Union to its aid. And apart from the spilled blood of thousands, it is ironic that the emblem image of “pre-freedom” Afghanistan is the picture of young girls in European skirt and uniform walking to their school. Whereas the iconic image of “post-freedom” Afghanistan is the dynamiting of the 5^th centuries “Buddahs of Bamiyan,” by the US-financed and now somewhat unruly “freedom fighters.” And most recently, the footprint left by the explosion of the American “mother of all bombs,” and alleged consequent hecatomb of “insurgents.”

As for Saudi Arabia, I can say I know something about the country through direct experience. During my first job, my employer sent me to Saudi Arabia to explore the option, the difficulties and the opportunities of opening a branch office in Riyadh, the capital.

While still on the plane, I had bought a Glen Fiddich in one of those mini bottles shaped like the original. Then, through the speaker, passengers were reminded that no alcoholic beverages were allowed off the plane after landing in Dhahran, the port of entry. Still infused with some of the goliardic spirit, I decided on the spot to conduct a test – partly a student’s prank and partly a sociological experiment.

Waiting in the lounge for the next connection, I positioned the unopened mini Glen Fiddich in the geometrical center of an empty seat in a row of empty seats, and waited at a distance for what would happen next.

After a few minutes an Arab in his night-gown (which experts call jillaba, but it still looks like a night gown to me), began to circle the seats, much as a bird of prey hovers over the center of its killing field.

After two rounds, the Arab sat down on the chair and when he got up the Glen Fiddich had disappeared.

Later in Riyadh I was struck by the almost total absence of women in the streets. Of course women could not (and still cannot) drive. No doubt a sign of progress for die-hard male chauvinists.

My other discovery was that, in the world of local business people dealing with American and European counterparts, there were few who were not either sheiks or princes, as printed on their business card.

My immediate reference was a sheik who could not speak English but used the services of his factotum-manager for interpretation. He was a Pakistani, who spoke an amusing English, with words reminiscent of Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” made even more amusing by his Pakistani accent.

In fairness, the sheik entertained me in a way that seemed royal to me, given my humble expectations. His house was richly decorated with the beautiful intricate Arabic geometrical mosaics and scripts, and with enormous rugs.

He organized a banquet, held in the center of his house-compound, under the stars, with guests customarily accommodated on the ground. Several of them spoke English, and throughout the dinner I was vaguely aware of some black moving shadows hardly standing out against the obscured background of the other inner side of the building.

As we stood up at the banquet’s end, a group of several uncounted children jumped out from the dark and eagerly partook of the large quantity of unconsumed food. The black, hardly-noticeable shadows, I learned later, were the four wives of the sheik and the children were his offspring.

After the initial introductions and discussion, the sheik left me in the hands of his interpreter-manager who accompanied me through the length of my stay in Riyadh. And he also told me something about local customs and culture.

From the notes of my faded diary, I read that at one time he said, “Here in Saudi Arabia, if you kill a man they cut your head. If you are a thief and make a theft, they cut your hand. And if you go with a girl and do an evil thing…. “

“Hold it – I said – you need not go any further. I think I’ve got the picture.” “No – he said – you have an evil mind. If you go with a girl and do an evil thing, they stone you to death.”

Of course I had no intention to do any evil thing of the sort, especially in Saudi Arabia, but my host’s lecture strengthened my determination. Even if…. “all this the world well knows, yet none knows well how to shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.”

But I digress. It seems, however, that so many years later, little has changed as far as Saudi Arabia-American relations. And if it did, I think it did for the worse – compounded with a widespread perception that, for the Western-Zionist-Saudi cabal, the world at large is a den of fools, save the 1% or equivalent.

Circumstances of no elegant recital concur to raise disgust. One example, as clear as the summer’s sun, is the election of the Saudi Mr. Abdulaziz Alwasil as representative of the UN Human Rights Council. And, notwithstanding Saudi Arabia’s record on religious freedom and justice at large, this worthy official will have vote and oversight, among other things, on “freedom of religion and belief” and “integrity of the judicial system.”

That could even pass for a joke. But, apart from the President’s visit to Saudi Arabia, the US driven cabal is dropping ever more rapidly the myth of America as a custodian of liberty. It is not an exaggeration that whatever US foreign policy touches becomes scorched earth, with victims in the millions, assassination of progressive leaders and annihilation of the soul of nations. To pay homage to the genocidal murderers of Yemen says much about what is loosely called the American image.

As evident at large, to destroy the capacity of independent thought, the cabal has completely subjugated academia, through the lure of money or the threat of harm. For no one really understands the true nature of fawning servility until he has seen an academic who has glimpsed the prospect of money, or personal publicity.

The Constitution is still held as an untouchable symbol of American democracy. In practice it is a myth, quoted for effect or convenience, and more honored in the breach than in the observance.

There is a universe of lies, distortions and deformations that the capitalist world wraps around the masses – masses it despises and detests. It is the reflection of the pervading subservience to the interests of the 1%, and of a mythical and in itself distorted vision of the Western world.

As observed recently in France, a ruthless Fascism won the elections pretending to be anti-Fascist. And as a journalist noted, the European Union is but a media dictatorship, practicing the utopia of supreme selfishness.

To peddle the European Union as a means to prevent European nations waging war against each other is a sick joke. Sick because it implies that without the EU, Europeans were and would continue to seethe with lust at the idea of killing each other. Whereas, it was two fascisms – different in name but not in kind, and competing with each other for supremacy – that led Europe to slaughter, twice.

Furthermore, the famed prosperity that the EU should deliver to its citizens is a senseless euphemism to mask the implementation of extreme capitalism, imposed by the local servants of the transatlantic master.

For a while, the presence of the Soviet Union forced so-called Keynesian policies across the European continent. They led to the greatest growth and income distribution in the Western world. It’s no wonder that it was necessary and indispensable to destroy the only remaining obstacle to the end of history.

We are living in the final winning stage of neo-liberal capitalism, primitive, ruthless, instinctive, though masked in its spirit and action by the airy and almost meaningless lexicon of academic lackeys and economists. Neo-liberal philosophy spreads misery at large, more often not by a heavy crush of disaster, but by the corrosion of less visible evils, which undermine security and by building anxiety inject a chronic fear of life.

All this has slowly, inadvertently but steadily become custom. And established custom is not easily broken, till some great event shakes the whole system of things, and life seems to recommence upon new principles.

Meanwhile, a “super-centrist”, multi-level, multi-form and multi-faceted world government, meaningfully renamed ‘governance’ is clearing away the remnants of democracy, while the democrats applaud. On both sides of the pond, and probably in Saudi Arabia as well.

US citizens at large see happening what they vaguely expected, and probably wanted when they voted for Trump. Namely, that the curtain of elitist euphemisms and contrived metaphors masking the lying and the rudeness of previous administrations, would be dropped in favor of greater coarseness of expression and less palpable disguise.

Itinerant Philosopher and Journalist
Cover image above: Hezbollah flag over Israeli border

BE SURE TO PASS THIS ARTICLE ON TO KIN, FRIENDS AND WORKMATES.

Text and Photos: Andre Vltchek | Click on images for best resolution. 

Palestinian refugee camps are up in flames, across the country, a result of the disputes between the rival factions, but also of ‘unsavory’ influences from abroad. As everyone knows here, there are, for instance, the Al Qaida-affiliated militants hiding in the South.

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Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

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There are Israeli incursions into Lebanon, both by land and by water. There are also drones, flying habitually from Israel into and through the Lebanese airspace.

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Invader's grave: Israeli tank destroyed.

There is great tension between Israel and Hezbollah, over Syria, but not only.

Lebanese forces are fighting DAESH, mainly in the Northeast of Lebanon, on the mountainous border with Syria. Hezbollah is fighting DAESH, too, but ‘independently’.

In the 7th year into the war in Syria, there are still more than 1 million Syrian refugees living on Lebanese territory, some in awful conditions and many with extremely uncertain future. The exact number is unknown (UNHCR stopped the registration of all new arrivals approximately 2 years ago), but is believed to fluctuate between 1 and 2 million.

---

There is mounting tension between the Syrian and the Lebanese communities, as they are now competing for already sparse jobs and public services (including such basic utilities like water), while Palestinian refugees have been stranded in Lebanon already for decades, with very little social, political and economic rights.

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Lebanon, by Israeli border.

There is a drug epidemic, from its production (mainly in the Bekaa Valley), to its unbridled consumption in Beirut.

A new government has finally been formed in December 2016, after more than 2.5 years of absence of any functioning administration. However, the Prime Minister is a Sunni Muslim, Saad Hariri, who is openly hostile to Syria and has directly expressed support for the recent US attacks against the neighboring country. Mr. Hariri has long been accusing Hezbollah and Syria of assassinating his father, Rafik Hariri, in February 2005. Mr. Hariri has dual citizenship, that of Lebanon and also of Saudi Arabia where he was born (in Riyadh). On the other hand, the President of Lebanon is now a Maronite Christian, 83-years old Michel Aoun, who came to power thanks to the unfailing support given to him by Hezbollah, the fact that puts him at odds with the Prime Minister.

There is an ongoing struggle, even deadlock, amongst the ‘political parties’ (in Lebanon often synonymous with sectarian divisions), over such varied issues as the electoral law, waste management, international political alliances, foreign military funding, gender-based discrimination, employment as well as all basic social services (or acute lack of them).

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In Palestinian camp, in South Lebanon.

Lebanon is literally surrounded by perpetual conflicts. Syria, the country in great agony is right ‘next door’, north and east of tiny Lebanon, while mighty and aggressive Israel is threatening the country from the south. The United Nations troops are patrolling the so-called “UN 2000 Blue Line” or the de facto border between Lebanon and Israel. In fact, UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon) has for years been ‘covering’ a large part of the country’s territory. It all feels like a war zone.

In fact the region consists of a series of temporarily dormant conflicts that are ready to explode again, at any moment, with destructive, murderous force.

The occupied and devastated Golan Heights is just across the borderline, too. Officially, The Golans are still part of Syria, but the Israelis have already purged most of its population, resettling it with their own citizens. During my visit, some 4 years ago, the situation was already dire, the area scarred by barbed wires, with Israeli military posts and vehicles everywhere. Many local houses were destroyed, as ‘punishment’. If you drive to the geographical extreme, you can see the Golan Heights from Lebanon. You can also see Israel, while Syria is ‘always there’, right behind the majestic and bare mountains.

The UN peacekeepers come from all parts of the world, including South Korea, Indonesia and Europe. Right before the Coastal Highway ends, near the city of Tyre, the motorists pass through the last Lebanese checkpoint. The UNIFIL protected area begins, with armored vehicles, sandbags and watchtowers. It reads, on the concrete blocks intended to slow down the traffic: “Peace to Lebanon, Glory to Korea!”

Palestinian refugee camps are overflowing. Syrian refugees (some in awful conditions) are working like slaves in the Bekaa Valley, begging for money in Sidon and Beirut, or if they are wealthy, renting lavish seafront condominiums on the Corniche of the capital city.

---

Unifil vehicle parked in front of Hezbollah post. The UNO has been there for years.

Despite all the bravado, Lebanon is scared; it is petrified.

Everybody knows that Israel could hit at any moment, again. It is said that Israelis are already stealing Lebanese oil from the seabed, but the weak and almost totally defenseless country can do almost nothing against one of the mightiest military forces on Earth.

---

Luxury boats in Zaitunay Bay, Beirut.

All over the country, there are ‘dormant cells’ of ISIS (DAESH) and of other extremist militant groups, overflowing from war-torn Syria. The ISIS is dreaming about a ‘caliphate and the access to the sea’. Lebanon is right there, a ‘perfect location’.

Both Russia and China are keeping a relatively low profile here, not too interested in operating in this divided and uncertain political climate. In Lebanon, there are very few permanent loyalties left; allegiances are often shifting and are frequently dependent on outside ‘funding’.

---

Louis Vuitton in Beirut. Amid ruins and chaos some boast their wealth. War and self-indulgence are living side by side.

Saudi Arabia and Iran are always present here, and so is the West. Hezbollah (on several ‘lists’ of the terrorist organizations of the West) is the only pan-Lebanese force capable and willing to provide at least some basic social services for the poor, as well as determined military and ideological defense against Israel.

Many political analysts are predicting that Lebanon will collapse, totally, and soon. But it is still here, determined and defiant. How, nobody knows. For how long, is a total mystery!

Patrolled by the UN, overflowing with refugees, Lebanon is shining into the night. Its Ferraris are roaming through its streets, without mufflers, until early morning hours. Its nightclubs are seducing hedonist visitors from the Gulf. Its art cinemas are as good or even better than those in Paris. At the AUB Medical Center, the best Middle Eastern surgeons are treating the most horrid war injuries from the area.

Here, war and self-indulgence are living side by side. Some say it is nothing else other than a bare cynicism. Others would argue: “No, it is life! Life of the 21^st century world; exposed, brought to the extreme, but in a way honest.”

[First published by NEO] 

Andre Vltchek

Philosopher, novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist, Andre Vltchek has covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries. Three of his latest books are revolutionary novel “Aurora” and two bestselling works of political non-fiction: “Exposing Lies Of The Empire” and  “Fighting Against Western Imperialism”. View his other books here. Andre is making films for teleSUR and Al-Mayadeen. After having lived in Latin America, Africa and Oceania, Vltchek presently resides in East Asia and the Middle East, and continues to work around the world. He can be reached through his website and his Twitter.

Lebanon is literally surrounded by perpetual conflicts. Syria, the country in great agony is right ‘next door’, north and east of tiny Lebanon, while mighty and aggressive Israel is threatening the country from the south. The United Nations troops are patrolling the so-called “UN 2000 Blue Line” or the de facto border between Lebanon and Israel. In fact, UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon) has for years been ‘covering’ a large part of the country’s territory. It all feels like a war zone.

THE SAKER | SOUTHFRONT

With Select Comments

1. vot tak on April 11, 2017  ·  at 7:38 pm UTC

   Transcript:

   Last week, the US Navy launched Tomahawk cruise missiles at the Ash Sha’irat military airfield operated by the Syrian Air Force near the city of Homs. The launch followed a large-scale media campaign aimed at blaming the Assad government for an alleged chemical attack in Khan Sheikhoun. The move was described by the mainstream media as a justified response to criminal actions of the Assad regime. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that “steps are underway” on an international coalition to pressure the Syrian president from power. It is worth noting that no investigation was made by the US-led block to confirm these accusations. Despite this, a number of countries, including the UK, Israel, Turkey and Saudi Arabia expressed their full support to the US military actions.

   Following the incident, Moscow suspended the memorandum of understanding on flight safety in Syria with the United States, suspended work of a hotline with the Pentagon and announced that it will take additional measures to strengthen the Syrian air defense capabilities in case of possible attacks against the country.

   According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, President Vladimir Putin described the US attack as an act of “aggression against a sovereign nation,” which was carried out based on a “made-up pretext.”

   The meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the issue showed further deep divisions among sides involved in the conflict. The US-led block continued blaming Damascus, Moscow and Tehran for the ongoing escalation and opposed the Russian suggestion to investigate jointly the Khan Sheikhoun incident.

   US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, threatened more military strikes on Syria and blamed Russia and Iran for casualties among civilians. Later, Haley clarified the Trump administration’s attitude towards Syria in an interview to CNN. According to the US official, the regime change in Syria is now one of the top priorities of the US foreign policy and a political solution of the crisis is not going to happen “with Assad at the head of the regime.” Haley declared that decreasing the Iranian influence in Syria and combating the ISIS terrorist group are important goals of the current US administration and added that President Donald Trump is already considering the issue of imposing new sanctions on Russia and Iran.

   Separately, the Pentagon continued with accusations that Moscow was also responsible to the Khan Sheikhoun incident and it was finding out whether Moscow took part in the alleged chemical attack. Tillerson also pushed the idea that Russia had failed to prevent Syria from carrying out a chemical attack on a rebel-held town.

   The large-scale US-led media and diplomatic campaign against the Iranian-Russian-Syrian alliance was strongly supported by the UK. British Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson canceled a planned trip to Moscow and announced that London will call for new “very punitive sanctions” on Russia if Moscow does not cut ties with the Syrian government. Johnson also threatened Syria with new military strikes from the US.

   In turn, Russian Deputy Ambassador to the UN, Vladimir Safronkov said that the US aggression against Syria works towards the strengthening of terrorism and its aftermaths would affect negatively the regional security. Spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova emphasized that the US actions are not related to attempts to learn about chemical weapons in Syria.

   “Only recently the Americans and their western allies demanded inspectors sent, some investigation begun into the aircraft which delivered strikes on the militants’ depots and production facilities,” she said. “They demanded a probe into those aircraft and the equipment used in the strikes, and then they deliver strikes right on that equipment.”

   Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that a US missile strike against a Syrian airbase last week was “basically wrong” and “benefited terrorism.” He emphasized that “A repeat of such an action could be very dangerous for the region.”

   Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying declared that China opposes “the use of force” against Syria and it is important “to prevent further deterioration of the situation and uphold the hard-won process of political settlement of the Syrian issue.”

   The US missile strike against the Syrian military airfield became another rung on the escalation ladder in the ongoing Syrian war and complicated dramatically any efforts aimed at searching a political solution of the conflict. If the Trump administration continues such actions, the progress in reconciliation of interests of various powers in the conflict will be reversed and the region will be pushed back to the brink of a regional war. The situation will become especially dangerous in case of any incidents between the US and Russian militaries operating in the war-torn country.
2. 

   nice try on April 11, 2017  ·  at 7:55 pm UTC

   Mattis is trying to back-pedal, in his press conference (preceded by playing Glory Glory Halleluja), claims the 59 Tomahawks were a “singular response on chemical weapons” and “priority remains defeat of ISIS”.

   Mattis is still claiming he has actual info on Syrian use of chemical weapons… where do they find such gullible morons?
3. 

   vot tak on April 11, 2017  ·  at 7:55 pm UTC

   This SF report presented a summary up to Monday. Things changed today. Very important news coming from Russia today:

   Russia Has Intel on Upcoming Chemical Weapons Provocations in Syrian Regions

   https://sputniknews.com/military/201704111052527787-chemical-weapons-provocations-syria-intel-russia/

   “Russia has intelligence from “trusted sources” that chemical weapons provocations are currently being prepared in more regions in Syria, including Damascus, Russian President Vladimir Putin said after talks with Italian counterpart Sergio Mattarella Tuesday.

   “We have information from various sources that such provocations — and I cannot call them anything else — are being prepared in other regions of Syria, including in the southern suburbs of Damascus, where they intend to plant some substance and blame the official Syrian authorities for its use,” Putin told a briefing.

   Russian President Putin announced that Russia will officially turn to the UN in the Hague for an investigation of the chemical weapons’ use in Idlib.

   “We discussed the situation with President [ of Italy Sergio Mattarella] and I told him that these events strongly resemble the events of 2003,” Putin said at a briefing, outlining the prelude to the US intervention in Iraq.

   Following Putin’s presser, Russian General Staff released a statement announcing that it has information of militants bringing poisonous substances to areas of Khan Shaykhun, West of Aleppo and Eastern Guta in Syria.

   Chief of the Russian General Staff Main Operational Directorate Col. Gen. Sergei Rudskoy said that the militants are trying to provoke new accusations targeted at Syrian government for alleged use of chemical weapons. The militants aim to incite the US to conduct new strikes, Rudskoy warned, adding that such measures are impermissible.

   Rudskoy is obviously pulling his punches saying the terrorists are behind the plan, since Putin makes it clear israeloamerica is running this. By comparing the current situation with the WMD fraudulent pretext for the Iraq war, Putin makes it very clear he thinks israeloamerica is working a similar strategy against Syria now.

   See also:

   Russian General Staff Warns Against New US Missile Strikes on Syria

   https://sputniknews.com/military/201704111052528327-russia-warns-us-missile-strike-syria/

   “Moscow warns against new US missile strikes on Syria, chief of the Russian General Staff’s Main Operational Directorate Col. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi said at a news briefing on Tuesday.

   The general reiterated that the Syrian army does not possess chemical weapons, while the remaining two chemical weapons production and storage facilities in Syria are located on the territory controlled by the so-called armed opposition groups.”

   This article has more detail and a summary of the WMD false flag that already took place. See also:

   Idlib ‘chemical attack’ was false flag to set Assad up, more may come – Putin

   https://www.rt.com/news/384333-putin-idlib-attack-provocation/

   I want to stress that Putin does not make statements about things unless he has the facts. He is not a scare monger. He doesn’t exaggerate.
4. 

   Lodewijk Langeweg on April 11, 2017  ·  at 8:07 pm UTC

   Too bad no mention is made that Syria had all it’s chemical stockpiles destroyd, the last batch in 2016:

   ORGANISATION FOR THE PROHIBITION OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS:
   “Destruction of declared Syrian chemical weapons completed”
   Monday, 04 January 2016
   https://www.opcw.org/news/article/destruction-of-syrian-chemical-weapons-completed/

   While it is known that the armed opposition does possess chemical weapons, and they were never destroyed:

   “FSA – Turkish Chemicals – Nerve Gas test on Rabbits and promise to use it against Syrian minorities!”
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AufB1Eq2gXM

   Also:
   “BBC News Carla Del Ponte ‘stupefied by Syrian opposition sarin use’”
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBsW342pMKM
5. 

   Lee Francis on April 11, 2017  ·  at 8:20 pm UTC

   The Zionist war-machine is in full attack mode. Laughably it claims that it will simultaneously fight the Jihadis and Assad. Russia will be invited to abandon its allies, but it would be very foolish to do so. As Alexander Dugin argues:

   The neo-cons understand the American missile attack on the Syrian base as what it really is: a military attack on the Russians. Trump expressed this more softly: “Assad’s friends will be disappointed”. This is the rhetoric of a delusional parrot, not a victorious realist who decided to make America great again. The Swamp applauds.

   One thing is clear: this is a war against us.

   But this war will be dressed up as a war against our friends and allies, against Assad (of course), against Iran, against Shiites and Hezbollah in particular. As a bow-out – here once again CFR’s networks come in – Moscow will be offered to join operations against Assad and Tehran on the side of the US and its allies: “Trump changed his position overnight. Come on, you guys. You’re supposed to be ‘realists.’” Someone will calculate that if we surrender, then we can avoid a Third World War. But we cannot. It is being waged against us, and our friends are only a secondary, local target, the main test of our endurance. If we surrender them, they can do whatever they want with us.
6. 

   Anonymous on April 11, 2017  ·  at 8:43 pm UTC

   FUBAR or deliberate fake or staged propaganda is interesting question about claim of chemical attack. but 4th r always use anything, smallpox, anything at all, choice is simply based on effect.

   the third reich might have said the same things – just as the 4th reich say now…

   The affair at Bari was similar FUBAR,,, Bari? You never heard of it?

   poison gas…https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_raid_on_Bari

   http://www.historynet.com/world-war-ii-german-raid-on-bari.htm
7. 

   James lake on April 11, 2017  ·  at 9:06 pm UTC

   The Daily mail says Putin will meet Tillerson.
   He is supposed to be going there with ultimatum
   Wish I could be a fly on the wall
   • 

     Anonymous on April 12, 2017  ·  at 12:24 am UTC

     Putin and Lavrov will perhaps invite Rex to enjoy some Bavarian beer and pretzels and watch a movie…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vg8tLuvqN0

     (Nuremberg docu)
8. 

   Lodewijk Langeweg on April 11, 2017  ·  at 9:57 pm UTC

   After the attack on Syria:

   “Syrian people should decide Assad’s fate, Tillerson tells US media”
   https://www.rt.com/usa/384142-tillerson-syria-regime-change-isis/

   I hope Trump doesn’t change is mind again. The terrorists feel supported by that US attack on the Syrian army, and might provoke another one with yet another gas attack, blaming it again on Assad. After all the White Helmets get paid to do their part.

   This proud FSA clip is subtitled, the other one I posted a link to isn’t:

   “FSA Terrorists Threaten Alawites and Government Supporters with Genocide
   Using Chemical Weapons”
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rs86RJR3ZUk
9. 

   Pirouette on April 11, 2017  ·  at 10:17 pm UTC

   You should realise that Johnson only speaks for the dictator of Britain, not the British people.

   The British people are all economic slaves to the private owner and joint (98%) shareholder of The Bank of England.

   Johnson is a puppet, a very nasty individual behind the clown facade, and an inveterate liar.

   Never trust Johnson, May or Rudd any further than you can throw them.

   Johnson’s ancestry is Turkish, he is not really British at all, just that he went to posh private boarding schools in England and has more money than sense!
10. 

    vot tak on April 11, 2017  ·  at 11:14 pm UTC

    The buggered zionazi subhuman the tuppence regime uses as their press conference mouth claims Assad is worse than hitler.

    Sean Spicer forgets Holocaust, claims Hitler did not use chemical weapons in WWII (VIDEO)

    https://www.rt.com/usa/384406-spicer-chemical-weapons-hitler/

    ““We didn’t use chemical weapons in World War II. You had someone as despicable as Hitler, who didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons. So you have to if you are Russia, ask yourself is this a country and a regime that you want to align yourself with,” he said.”

    What a pathetic israeli faggot club this regime is turning out to be.
11. 

    vot tak on April 11, 2017  ·  at 11:31 pm UTC

    And speaking of “closet cases” (look at the freak, if you doubt it):

    Mad Dog’s Proof: I Saw Intel on Syrian Chemical Attack Myself

    https://sputniknews.com/world/201704121052544750-mad-dog-proof-intel-attack/

    “It seems that Mattis must be trusted on his word that Assad acted to kill his own people, because he seems unable to furnish any evidence for his bold claims. “The Syrian regime attacked its own people using chemical weapons,” Mattis said. “I personally reviewed the intelligence, and there is no doubt the Syrian regime is responsible for the decision to attack and for the attack itself.”

    Yeah, sure, faggot. This israeli owned traitor should have been hung after his war crimes committed in Fallujah.

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What will it take to bring America to live according to its own self image?

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By Jean Shaoul

Dateline: First published on 5 April 2016. Reposted due to relevancy.

ITV’s Exposure: Saudi Arabia Uncovered portrays the horrific brutality with which the House of Saud maintains its rule and has been the subject of intense media commentary.

Much of this focuses on the documentary’s depiction of how dissent is suppressed in collaboration with the Wahhabi religious police, including public beheadings, crucifixions, stoning, amputations and 1,000 lashings, as well as gratuitous police violence on the street.

In contrast, the media has been almost silent about the exposure of the Saudis’ export of religious hatred and funding of terrorism that took up about one quarter of the film’s airtime. This omission is politically motivated. The programme explained that the Saudi ruling family had spent $70 billion exporting its particularly repressive form of Islamism through books, the media, Islamic welfare institutions and charities.

It reiterated that there was evidence of Saudi involvement in the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon in 2001, noting that 15 of the 19 suspects were Saudi citizens, while Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden was a member of a prominent Saudi family.

It then referred to the Saudi High Commission for Relief of Bosnia and Herzegovina (SHC), ostensibly a charity for the relief of Bosnian Muslims during the Balkan wars in the 1990s, which had collected £375 ($600) million by 2001. The largest fundraising effort undertaken in Muslim and Arab countries, it was a front organisation for Al Qaeda in the Balkans and was used to facilitate arms shipments to break a United Nations embargo on the former Yugoslav states from 1991 to 1996. Jihadists attached to the SHC carried out a car bomb attack in 2001 after the war had ended, in an effort to reignite the war.

The SHC was set up by prince, now king, Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, who was the Saudis’ chief fundraiser for the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in the 1980s and later the Bosnian Muslims in the 1990s, at the direction of his brother, King Fahd. His role was to fund the Islamic mercenaries used in the US and its regional allies’ proxy wars in the Middle East and Asia. Salman helped to recruit fighters for Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, an Afghan fighter who trained Osama bin Laden and the self-confessed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, providing them with generous funding.

In 1996, a CIA report identified the SHC as one of several Saudi “charities” that “employ members or otherwise facilitate the activities of terrorist groups operating in Bosnia.”

A Defense Intelligence Agency report concluded that the Al Qaeda-affiliated Somali warlord responsible for the massacre of US military forces during the battle of Mogadishu—the subject of the movie Black Hawk Down—received “weapon shipments from the Saudi Arabian High Commission for Relief.”

Although it was well known that the SHC employed and covered for Jihadi terrorists in Bosnia, Afghanistan, Somalia and elsewhere, US forces did nothing until after the 9/11 attacks, when NATO forces raided the office in Sarajevo. There it discovered a horde of terrorist materials, including maps highlighting government buildings in Washington, notes about meetings with bin Laden, and plans for an attack using crop duster planes.

Relatives of the 9/11 victims have filed claims for billions of dollars in damages from companies, countries and organisations, accusing them of aiding Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups in the hijacking of the planes. So close were the SHC’s links to the Saudi government that they have cited Saudi Arabia, Prince Salman and other members of the ruling family, as defendants in their suits.

They charge that one of the defendants, Abdul Rahman Hussayen, had said he was a Saudi government official. He had entered the U.S. five days before the 9/11 attack and moved from his hotel to another where three of the hijackers were staying.

Ali Ahmad Ali Hamad, a confessed former Al Qaeda member and employee of the SHC, testified for the 9/11 families that “the Saudi High Commission was extensively involved in supporting Al Qaeda’s operations in Bosnia.” The lawsuit argued that there were repeated warnings from US and European officials that SHC and similar charities were serving as fronts for terrorist organisations, but the Saudi authorities did nothing. Between 1992 and 1995, Western intelligence officials discovered that the Third World Relief Agency (TWRA) spent most of its funds arming fighters aligned with the Bosnian government. At least $120 million came from Prince Salman’s personal bank accounts and the SHC.

In 1994, French interior minister Charles Pasqua, who had oversight of French intelligence operations, told his Saudi counterpart, Prince Naif, that he had evidence that the Muslim World League, a Saudi government-funded charity to promote Islam, was funding terror cells in France.

Colonel Richard Kemp: From the mouths of babes and indiscreet (or frank?) military henchmen.

In 1998, US intelligence told the Saudis that employees of a Saudi government-affiliated charity, al-Haramain Foundation, may have been involved in the bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

In 1999, following these attacks, then-vice president Al Gore appealed to Saudi crown prince Abdullah to help the Clinton administration stem Al Qaeda’s flow of money. US officials flew to Riyadh on two occasions to give their Saudi counterparts lists of suspect Saudi charities, money exchanges, banks and suspected terrorism financiers.

US Treasury documents show that another terrorist-front organisation with close links to the Saudi government, the International Islamic Relief Organisation (IIRO), set up branches in the Philippines in the 1990s. One of its directors there was Mohammad Jamal Khalifa, Osama bin Laden’s brother-in-law and a senior Al Qaeda member.

The US Treasury designated both the Philippine and Indonesian IIRO branches as conduits for channelling money to Al Qaeda and other radical groups. A 1996 CIA report said the IIRO had financed six militant training camps in Afghanistan in the 1990s.

Despite this and other evidence, the US government has consistently covered up the involvement of the Saudi ruling clique, which is one of its key allies in the Middle East. Senator Robert Graham of Florida, chairman of the congressional joint inquiry into 9/11, said that during the inquiry the FBI repeatedly stonewalled efforts to subpoena a Muslim academic and FBI informant who had housed the hijackers. He said, “That is one of the major unanswered questions of 9/11: Why the administration tried to disguise the role of the Saudis.”

The authorities also intervened to block the lawsuit and prevent the evidence against King Salman and the Saudi ruling family seeing the light of day. In September 2015, the US courts dismissed the families’ claims against the Kingdom, citing “sovereign immunity.” In 2008, a US court ruled that even if the Saudis retained their immunity, there was enough evidence to proceed against several Islamist charities, banks and alleged terrorism financiers named in the lawsuit.

These revelations provide a devastating exposure of the fraudulent nature of the “war on terror,” which has provided the axis for the last 15 years of US and British foreign and domestic policy. In particular, they point once again to the degree to which the CIA, MI5 and other intelligence agencies must have had foreknowledge of terror attacks that were then used to legitimise and then step up repressive measures directed against the working class, most recently in Belgium.

The 9/11 attacks were used by the Bush administration and the British government as the pretext for war against Afghanistan, whose government had provided shelter to Osama bin Laden, but had no involvement in 9/11, and against Iraq, which had no connection to either 9/11 or Al Qaeda.

Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, remains a key ally. Britain has supplied the Saudis, who spend more on arms in proportion to its GDP than any other state, with £5 billion in weaponry since 2010, and trains its police force. With consummate cynicism, Colonel Richard Kemp, former Head of International Terrorism, told ITV, “We don’t approve of what Saudi Arabia does, we don’t like what they do, but they are a necessary evil in combating other regimes. And of course, ultimately they have a lot of oil.”

 APPENDIX
More Video documentation: The Saudi royal mafia

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Dispatches from Deena Stryker

Thirty years later, two concepts could, I believe, break the deadlock between Israel and the people it displaced. The first is based on process dynamics. For any given act, unforeseen consequences far out-number those that were anticipated. Interactions between processes create yet more unforeseen consequences, which interact ad infinitum, as awareness of having ever-diminishing control over major events breeds resignation or irrational behavior. The Israeli government is not the only one to be affected by this process, which in broad terms is a result of exponential population growth and increasing complexity; confronted both at home and abroad with challenges they cannot meet, governments everywhere fall back upon reactive rather than creative policies, increasing the number of unforeseen consequences.

Like all processes, international law has a feedback effect; as it codifies the evolution of mentalities, it pushes them along, generating both positive and negative outcomes. Laws that were excellent forty years ago may today be counter-productive, yet even when the evidence is overwhelming, governments largely fail to question their continued validity.

Before the U.N. adopted a proposal for the partition of Palestine, in 1947, a dozen alternatives had been put forth. Since Israel accepted the UN partition and the Palestinians rejected it, territorial divisions created by conquest made the project of a Palestinian state composed of two non-contiguous areas a recipe for conflict. Meanwhile, Jews who envision Israel as a homeland for a people that endured persecution as members of a far-flung diaspora cannot accept a one-state solution that may be agreeable to many Palestinians, who would enjoy equal rights.

Even in 1988, it was clear that the new Palestinian generation was different from the old: like youth everywhere, it moved through time more rapidly. An organization that was then still in its infancy is in power in Gaza, and Arafat’s successors are challenged by their constituents in the West Bank as well as by Hamas. In Israel, war fatigue and resignation have brought to power a far-right determined to avoid any of the solutions that would have the imprimatur of the world community.

The often arbitrary delineation of boundaries. and the Fourth Geneva Convention, drawn up after World War II, aimed at protecting populations from arbitrary relocation, has functioned as the universal law on displaced persons, forcing groups whose national or religious conflicts have deep historical roots to live side by side in on-going violence. Numerous dramatic precedents justified the 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention, but those forced population movements took place in a very different world from that of today, and in fact it specifically does not apply to Palestinian refugees. 

In the twenty-first century states have the physical means to remove populations with minimum suffering from co-habitations that condemn them to daily strife. Where necessary, UN organized population exchanges can be coupled with an appeal to the two communities’ diasporas, for financial support destined to insure that newly settled populations – both Jewish and Arab – are provided with maximum technical, agricultural and investment support. If high-tech development and ample financial means have allowed the Israelis to reclaim the desert, the same could apply to Palestinians, on condition they benefit from comparable funding.

Israel’s main objections to a Palestinian West Bank state are based on security concerns (although it views its most serious threat as coming from Iran, a thousand miles away), causing it to demand a military presence between it and its neighbor, Jordan.  By sacrificing a part of the Negev, the only point at which Israel would be “perilously” narrow would be east of Jerusalem, and the entire state would be one bloc, as would the Palestinian state, as shown in the rough map.

[dropcap]S[/dropcap]ince 1947, Israel has located much of its high-tech industry and military installations in the Negev Desert. It has also relocated about 250,000 settlers to the area to counterbalance the presence of a slightly lower number of Bedouins, most of whom have resisted efforts at ‘sedentarization’ continuing to live in “unrecognized Bedouin villages”.

The creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza would require the same kinds of special roads which already make daily life  a travesty in the West Bank. And even were a significant number of Jewish settlers to be relocated, the land comprising that part of a Palestinian state would remain highly fragmented. If two compact states were created, fewer numbers of Jewish settlers would have to be relocated, while by leaving their historical homes in the West Bank, Palestinians would gain a contiguous state.

This plan leaves the issue of Jerusalem unresolved, and it will not be broken if the outcome advantages either side. The biggest symbolic impediment to peace can only be solved by a creating a new symbolism.  Both parties claim the city as their capital because of its historical symbolic importance: for the Jews, it is the site of the first Temple (?); while for Muslims it is the site of the Prophet’s ascension to heaven. While these are separate cultural symbols, both peoples share a more fundamental symbol in the city’s name. Jerusalem means peace, as in the Hebrew greeting “Shalom” and the Arab “As Salamu Alekum”, and this shared symbol suggests a solution for the issue of sovereignty. By agreeing to make Jerusalem the capital of a new U.N. Peace and Conflict Resolution Council in order to further peace in other areas of the world. Israelis and Palestinians could renounce their respective claims without giving the advantage to the other side. An internationally recognized ‘sacrifice’ would raise the status of both peoples, enabling each of them to accept another city as capital without losing face, for example Tel Aviv and Ramallah.

As the headquarters of a pivotal U.N. body, Jerusalem would incarnate the renunciation of the two peoples who have fought the longest, to aid other peoples involved in territorial disputes. Jews and Palestinians would live freely in and jointly administer Jerusalem together with the UN. Itzak Rabin said: It’s always with an enemy that one makes peace,” and in this spirit, Jerusalem would at last fulfill the destiny implied in its name, becoming a site for pilgrimages both religious and political.

In addition to The Peace and Conflict Council, other entities would generate economic stimulus for the development of Palestine and Israel’s other neighbors:

1) A U.N. University War and Conflict Resolution Studies Programs

1. UNESCO Peace Education Programs
2. U.N. population transfer implementation programs
3. U.N. Peacekeeping Force
4. NGO’s involved in monitoring peaceful coexistence once territorial issues are resolved.

The Bible and 20th century international law are not interchangeable. Today’s Palestinians must not be held responsible for their fathers’ – or other Arabs’ – mistakes, anymore than today’s Germans are held responsible for the Holocaust.  Unreserved acceptance of Israel by its Arab neighbors, like that of any inhabitant returning after a long absence, rests not only on its refusing to be intimidated, but on having something to offer the community it seeks to reintegrate. Israel’s technological achievements put it far ahead of its neighbors. For it to become the Jewish homeland it was intended to be, the answer may be that it should share its expertise with its neighbors.

Note to Commenters
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We apologize for this inconvenience. 

What will it take to bring America to live according to its own propaganda?

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