“It makes no sense, even if you were totally separate from this and take no sides of this and you were just an analyst, it doesn’t make sense for Assad under these conditions to all of the sudden use poison gasses,” Paul continued. “I think it’s zero chance that he would have done this deliberately.”
Back in January, Paul said in an interview with The Daily Caller that false flag attacks could be used by both the so-called American “deep state” and foreign actors to draw the Trump administration into foreign engagements.
“All we need is a false flag and an accident and everybody will be for teaching them a lesson,” he told TheDC’s Alex Pfeiffer. “You know the deep state is very very powerful and they have a lot of control.”
05.04.2017 - 23:15 [ Electronic Frontier Foundation ]
It’s a shame that our elected representatives decided to prioritize corporate interests over our privacy rights. We shouldn’t have to take extraordinary steps to limit how our personal information can be used, but that is clearly something that we are all forced to do now. EFF will continue to advocate for Internet users’ privacy and will work to fix this in the future.
In the wake of Tuesday’s alleged attack, the tone was quite different. The Trump administration and the corporate-controlled media wasted no time in declaring the guilt of the Assad regime to be beyond doubt.
Die Teilnehmer der internationalen Syrien-Geberkonferenz haben für das laufende Jahr insgesamt sechs Milliarden Dollar an Hilfsgeldern zugesagt. Das teilte EU-Kommissar Christos Stylianides am Mittwoch zum Ende des Treffens von Vertretern aus rund 70 Staaten in Brüssel mit.
Der libanesische Regierungschef Saad Hariri verwies bei der Konferenz auf die schwierige Lage durch rund eine Million Flüchtlinge in seinem Land. «Die aktuelle Situation im Libanon ist eine tickende Zeitbombe», sagte er an der Konferenz. Hariri, mit dem sich Burkhalter traf, forderte die Teilnehmerstaaten auf, «in den Frieden zu investieren».
Following Tuesday‘s deadly chemical attack at Syria‘s Idlib province, Israeli officials strongly believe the Syrian regime has begun to rebuild Sarin manufacturing plants
05.04.2017 - 17:27 [ Verteidigungsministerium der Russischen Föderation ]
The parties discussed condition and prospects of Russia-Israel cooperation in the defence field, issues of global and regional security. They also exchanged their opinions about participation of the Israeli military delegation in the VI Moscow Conference on International Security.
The meeting was held in a climate of understanding.
Alle C-Waffen, die der syrische Präsident Baschar Assad jemals hatte, sind 2014 beschlagnahmt worden. Der ehemalige US-Staatschef Barack Obama berichtete davon persönlich, und die Organisation für das C-Waffen-Verbot bekam dafür sogar den Nobelpreis.
Daran erinnerte Igor Nikulin, Ex-Mitglied der UN-Kommission für Bio- und Chemiewaffen,vor dem Hintergrund der jüngsten Giftgas-Vorwürfe gegen Damaskus im Interview mit der Agentur Sputnik.
(4.4.17) Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is visiting Iraq to assess progress in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. He invited Kushner and the president’s Homeland Security Advisor Tom Bossert along to meet U.S. service members and see the effort, close up.
In Auslandseinsätzen soll es Auftrag der Truppe sein, die Kommunikationskanäle des Gegners zu überwachen und zu stören. Ein mögliches Szenario: Zunächst forschen die Soldaten den Feind im Internet aus und hören ab. Dann könnte die Kommunikation des Gegners blockiert werden. Ein so isolierter Feind wäre dann im echten Kampf ein leichteres Ziel, erklärte eine Staatssekretärin des Ministeriums bei einem Pressetermin.
05.04.2017 - 17:12 [ Werner Rappenecker, beigetreten März 2017, Tweets: 1 / Twitter ]
Zu Berichten über einen Giftgasangriff in der syrischen Provinz Idlib sagte Außenminister Gabriel heute (04.04.) am Rande seines Besuchs in London:
„Sollte es sich bestätigen, dass die Menschen in der syrischen Stadt Chan Scheichun Opfer eines Giftgasangriffs geworden sind, für den das syrische Regime die Verantwortung trägt, wäre dies ein Akt kaum zu überbietender Grausamkeit. Und es wäre ein weiterer Grund, warum wir im Kampf gegen den Terrorismus nicht auf das Assad-Regime setzen dürfen.
Wir setzen darauf, dass der Sicherheitsrat der Vereinten Nationen eindeutig Stellung bezieht, sollte sich der Verdacht bewahrheiten. Wer die Verantwortung für solche Taten auf sich lädt, muss wissen, dass er früher oder später dafür zur Rechenschaft gezogen wird. Das ist einer der Gründe, warum Deutschland die Vereinten Nationen dabei unterstützt, Beweise für schwerste Menschenrechtsverletzungen in Syrien zu sammeln.
Der Einsatz von Chemiewaffen wie auch gezielte Angriffe auf medizinische Einrichtungen verstoßen gegen das humanitäre Völkerrecht, alle Standards der internationalen Gemeinschaft und insbesondere das Chemiewaffen-Übereinkommen, dem Syrien 2013 beigetreten ist.“
05.04.2017 - 16:58 [ Stefan Kuzmany / spiegel.de ]
In Syrien sterben Männer, Frauen und Kinder an Giftgas, und der Westen sieht zu, weil er sich nicht entscheiden kann und will zwischen dem Übel Assad und dem Übel Krieg gegen Assad.
Was in der syrischen Provinz Idlib geschehen ist, das wissen wir noch nicht genau.
05.04.2017 - 16:56 [ Seymour M. Hersh / London Review of Books ]
(19.Dezember 2013) In both its public and private briefings after 21 August, the administration disregarded the available intelligence about al-Nusra’s potential access to sarin and continued to claim that the Assad government was in sole possession of chemical weapons. This was the message conveyed in the various secret briefings that members of Congress received in the days after the attack, when Obama was seeking support for his planned missile offensive against Syrian military installations. One legislator with more than two decades of experience in military affairs told me that he came away from one such briefing persuaded that ‘only the Assad government had sarin and the rebels did not.’ Similarly, following the release of the UN report on 16 September confirming that sarin was used on 21 August, Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the UN, told a press conference: ‘It’s very important to note that only the [Assad] regime possesses sarin, and we have no evidence that the opposition possesses sarin.’
It is not known whether the highly classified reporting on al-Nusra was made available to Power’s office, but her comment was a reflection of the attitude that swept through the administration. ‘The immediate assumption was that Assad had done it,’ the former senior intelligence official told me. ‘The new director of the CIA, [John] Brennan, jumped to that conclusion … drives to the White House and says: “Look at what I’ve got!” It was all verbal; they just waved the bloody shirt.
„When the United Nations consistently fails in its duty to act collectively, there are times in the life of states that we are compelled to take our own action,“ declared Ambassador Nikki Haley. She addressed an emergency meeting of the Security Council, which was weighing a resolution condemning chemical weapons use in Syria. Russia, which has veto power, is opposed.
Under the move, the national intelligence director, Dan Coats, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford, are again „regular attendees“ of the NSC’s principals committee.
Fünf Tage nachdem die neue U.S.-Regierung nach sechs Jahren und Hunderttausenden von Toten den Umsturzversuch in Syrien aufgibt und damit die Invasionsmächte in der „Europäischen Union“, Großbritannien, Frankreich und Deutschland mit dem Eingeständnis der offenen, epischen Niederlage in der Syrien-Invasion konfrontiert, einen Tag nach einem blutigen und heimtückischen Attentat in der U-Bahn von St. Petersburg, nach welchem der F.S.B. blitzartig den schon zuvor beobachteten Kopf eines 22-jährigen zentralasiatischen Einzelgängers aus der Tasche des „Selbstmordattentats“ und die Aufmerksamkeit der russischen Öffentlichkeit und russischen Präsidenten und Oberbefehlshabers auf sich zieht, und am selben Tag, an dem in Brüssel die von „Europäischer Union“ und „Vereinten Nationen“ getragene Syrien-Konferenz der Invasionsmächte Deutschland, Kuwait, Norwegen, Katar und Großbritannien beginnt, greift nach Angaben von „Aktivisten“, der berüchtigten Ein-Mann-„Syrische Beobachtungsstelle für Menschenrechte“ in London von Raed Al Saleh, dem Chef von 2851 „Weißen Helmen„, und Augenzeugen der „Bild“-Zeitung ein russischer Jet die syrische Stadt Stadt Khan Sheikhoun (Ḫān Šayḫūn, Chan Schaichun) an und bombardiert diese demnach mit Giftgas.
(30.3.2017) Unhappily, there are growing signs that this cycle is about to start anew. Rockets are fired by Salafist groups (hardliners such as those affiliated with Islamic State) into Israel, actions that Hamas either permits or fails to prevent, and Israel responds with carefully placed airstrikes. Few casualties have resulted on either side so far, but the exchanges are now coming every few days.
The Foreign Ministry lambasted the European Union on Tuesday for protesting a planned demolition of Palestinian buildings in the West Bank, saying Europe spends more time and energy on such demolitions than on genuine humanitarian crises worldwide.
05.04.2017 - 11:54 [ Raed Al Saleh / theguardian.com ]
We – like other Syrian civil society and humanitarian leaders – will not have a voice at the Brussels conference, but if we were in the room we would tell European leaders they should not ignore Assad’s crimes, but instead stand up for basic principles of humanity.
Until an inclusive political transition is underway in Syria, until the bombs stop raining down on schools and hospitals, until independent monitors are allowed unhindered access to the regime’s detention centres, and the violence, sieges and forced displacement are ended, Europe should not countenance offering a single euro of reconstruction funding.
(2.8.2016) Many analysts have denied that the White Helmets have any links to extremists whatsoever. Even when presented with photographs that seem to prove a link, they deny it. Analysts were outraged when Raed Saleh was barred from entering the US to accept the InterAction Humanitarian award. They claimed that pro-Assad Americans were slandering the Syrian Civil Defense organization with zero evidence. This article will present a trove of evidence that proves involvement with extremist groups. Much of this evidence is new, apparently not spotted by Westerners until now.
Veröffentlicht am 29.04.2016
‚The White Helmets‘, fake ‚Syrian humanitarian group, exposed as an al Qaeda support group headed by a British military man and funded by the US Government. Short documentary by Steve Ezzedine, drawing on research by Vanessa Beeley.
Aged 32, he leads 2,851 search and rescue volunteers as head of Syria Civil Defence. Before the Syrian Revolution, Raed was a businessman who sold electrical equipment. After the start of the popular protests in Deraa in March 2011, he started organising peaceful protests and demonstrations in his home town Jisr Ashughour.
(7.10.2016) RT: The White Helmets are also referred to as the ‘Syria Civil Defense.’ Is it the same thing?
VB: This is a complete criminal and illegal taking of copyright. The real Syria Civil Defense inside Syria has existed for 63 years; the White Helmets have existed for 3 years, they were founded in 2013. What we are seeing here is an eradication of Syrian state institutions and the implantation of a Syrian shadow state by predominantly the UK and the US, but also supported by EU governments.
Sources in Israel say they believe the assault in Syria was intended to convey a threatening message to rebel groups against the backdrop of growing confidence in the regime‘s stability.
Foreign ministers Boris Johnson of Britain and Jean-Marc Ayrault of France spoke during an international conference on Syria, which the European Union convened in Brussels in a bid to shore up stalled peace talks between Assad and his rivals.
(März 2007) Psychologist Philip Zimbardo talked about his book, The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil, published by Random House. He explained how particular situations and group dynamics can lead normal, moral people to behave in immoral ways.
But although much of the book is rather dark in tone thanks to the detailed descriptions of how ordinary people succumb to evil, the final chapters of The Lucifer Effect offer a small ray of light by reminding us that, thankfully, some people are able to resist social influence and remain immune to the power of situational forces.
Zimbardo’s examples of such rare individuals include Christina Maslach, the graduate student who forced Zimbardo to end the Stanford Prison Experiment (and whom later became his wife), and Private Joe Darby, the soldier who blew the whistle on the abuses taking place at Abu Ghraib prison.
And in the final chapter, Zimbardo introduces a new concept of “The Banality of Heroism” where he asks the reader if they would be able to take on the role of “hero” if the need ever arose.
Mit dieser eigenen Organisationseinheit mache die Bundeswehr deutlich, „dass es hier nicht um Kleckern geht, sondern um Klotzen“. Bartels kritisierte aber, dass der Vorstoß erst jetzt kommt: „Deutschland ist hier nicht Pionier.“ Dies könne aber auch Vorteile haben: „Man kann schon aus den Erfahrungen anderer Nationen lernen, etwa der USA oder Israels.“
(31.1.2017) Sergei Mikhailov, allegedly detained at a board meeting last December, and his deputy, Dmitry Dokuchaev, were arrested by the Kremlin on Jan. 27 for treason and illegal hacking. Then, on Tuesday, Russian news agency Interfax, after hearing from unidentified sources, reported that they, along with Ruslan Stoyanov, the head of cybercrime investigations at Kaspersky Labs, and a fourth, as yet unnamed person, are suspected of passing along secret information to the CIA — or of passing it to someone who passed it to the CIA.
Mr Mikhailov, what are the versions of what happened in the Petersburg underground?
There can be presuppositions linked with not only the general terrorist activity of some groups but maybe expressions of individual terror of a psychopath who decided to take his revenge on somebody. Generally speaking, if we start enumerating the list of potential threats, we will find a big number of organisations or groups of people who posed a threat of terrorist attacks towards Russia.
A new president of the Eurogroup could be elected by the summer break, as the controversy surrounding Jeroen Dijsselbloem has almost put paid to any chance he had of completing his mandate once a new Dutch government is formed. Remarks by Dijsselbloem that southern countries blew money on drinks and women were unacceptably “racist and sexist”, EU Parliament head Antonio Tajani said.
Wenn der Uno-Sicherheitsrat am Mittwoch zu einer Dringlichkeitssitzung zusammenkommt, könnte der Rat auch über eine Resolution abstimmen, die den mutmaßlichen Giftgasangriff in Syrien verurteilt und in der rasche Aufklärung verlangt wird. Die USA, Frankreich und Großbritannien legten einen entsprechenden Entwurf vor.
According to a statement posted Wednesday on the Russian ministry‘s Facebook page, the strike hit „workshops, which produced chemical warfare munitions“ in the eastern outskirts of the Khan Sheikhoun town.
Algerian electricity and gas workers’ union, SNATEGS, is demanding that Sonelgaz, which employs more than 87,000 workers, stops repression of union activities and ends its harassment of trade unionists at the company.
The announcement comes after the peaceful ‘dignity’ strike by Sonelgaz workers in March, asking for respect and higher wages, was met with violence by security forces. More than 400 people were arrested, including union leaders and SNATEGS president Mellal Raouf.
(3.April) Local populations are unable to defeat the imperial powers, so they impose high costs through terror instead. Consider the terrorism used by Jewish settlers against the British Empire and local Palestinians in their fight for Israel’s independence and territory; or Serbian terrorism deployed against the Hapsburg Empire; or Vietnamese terrorism used against the French and United States in Vietnam’s long war for independence; or American terrorism, for that matter, that independence fighters used against the British in America’s war of independence.
This is of course not to condone terrorism. Indeed, my point is to condemn imperial rule, and to argue for political solutions rather than imperial oppression, war, and the terror that comes in its wake.
Thousands of mostly young people joined protests Tuesday for a second consecutive night in several Serbian cities against Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic being elected the country‘s next president.
Led by several drummers, protesters blew whistles and carried placards saying „You are gone“ and „You are not my president.“ One young man waived a big red flag with Che Guevara’s portrait.
Similar demonstrations were held in Novi Sad in the north and Nis in the south, Serbia‘s second and third largest cities, respectively, local media reported.
Ursache ist unter anderem die starke Marktstellung der Volksrepublik China, die sich an den westlichen Sanktionen nicht beteiligt hat; zudem hat Russland erheblich an Einfluss gewonnen und macht sich Hoffnung nicht nur auf Zuschläge auf dem Erdöl- und Erdgassektor, sondern auch bei der Ausweitung seines Eisenbahn-Breitspurnetzes bis an den Persischen Golf. Während die Vereinigten Staaten nicht auf ihre militärischen Trümpfe verzichten wollen und nach wie vor ihre Kriegsdrohungen aufrecht erhalten, setzt die Bundesregierung darauf, sich als Mittler im harten Hegemonialkonflikt zwischen Saudi-Arabien und Iran zu profilieren. Ein Durchbruch ist allerdings nicht in Sicht.
The airstrip near the Kurdish town of Kobane was first used by a C-17 in December, the military‘s Central Command spokesman Colonel John Thomas said.
„It‘s a very important logistical hub for the Raqqa operation,“ Thomas told AFP, in public comments confirming a story that first appeared in the Stars and Stripes military newspaper.
The report notes that “hackers accessed reports containing portions of the plan, not the entire document.” According to an anonymous official, the United States and South Korea are reportedly discussing whether their existing plans under OPLAN 5027 have to be changed or overhauled based on the data breach. The South Koreans reportedly discovered that the plan had been stolen while investigating an unrelated cyber attack last fall. The attack reportedly targeted a vaccine server at the South Korean military’s cyber command.
The delay plays into what Temer‘s aides have outlined as a defence strategy that centres on dragging the case out through 2018. If successful, that would allow Temer to complete the term of impeached leftist Dilma Rousseff and spare Brazil the turmoil of having two presidents ousted in a year.