PDF (36 pages): Convoy of Martyrs in the Levant (June 2012)
Two best graphics below. Note small sample numbers.
Berto Jongman: Snapshot of Foreign Rebel Fighters in Syria
08 Wild CardsChuck Spinney: The Oslo Peace Process Scam
01 Agriculture, 06 Genocide, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 11 Society, 12 Water
The chart below shows that Oslo Peace Process was simply a cover and deception operation to ensure Israel's successful colonization of West Bank
The graph on the left shows how the settler buildup was not even slowed down by the so-called Peace Process. Note also how the rate of settlement in the West Bank accelerated after the accession of Barack Obama to the Presidency. The map on the right lays out locations of settlements (red areas). Areas A (brown) and B (tan) are the areas under varying degrees of Palestinian control as of 2012. Not shown are the Israeli only access roads connecting the settlements and the Israeli roadblocks that effectively restrict Palestinian travel among their areas, stifling the flow of Palestinian commerce. Also not shown is the fact that Israelis control all but one or two of the major springs in the West Bank and all of the pumping stations that extract water from the crucial aquifers lying under the West Bank. (One third of Israel's water budget comes from the aquifers under the West Bank)
So, why did President Bill Clinton go along with the scam during the Oslo process in the crucial 1990s, and why has Barack Obama allowed the rate of settlement to accelerate on his watch?
Well, as the American humorist Russell Baker said, “Politics is about money; where it comes from; where it goes?” Attached is but one small window into the convoluted pathways implicit in Baker's world view:
Bill Clinton takes a cool half-million from Jewish National Fund for speech in Israel
NIGHTWATCH: Turkish Unrest, Islamization
08 Wild Cards
Turkey: Protestors clashed with police for a third day in Istanbul. One press service reported 1,000 people were injured and 1,000 were arrested in the past three days. Protests also took place in Ankara, Adana and Izmir. One Turkish news source claims protests have occurred in 67 of 81 provinces. More are threatened on Monday.
Comment: Government plans to demolish the last large green space and public park in Istanbul and replace it with a mosque were the catalyst for the protests, primarily by secular urban youth. Another factor was a new law restricting alcohol sales. The root of the unrest is the growing lack of empowerment for secular interests and people who are less devout Muslims.
The protests resemble a Turkish variant of the Arab spring uprisings, which started with secular young city dwellers protesting conditions. The youth in the big cities are often out of touch with the electorate at large in almost every Islamic Middle Eastern country. Their ideas about elected government are naïve, as they have been reported in media interviews.
Turkish youths and city dwellers who support the protests are railing against the actions of a legitimately elected president and parliament. Their complaints are that the government is too authoritarian, too Islamist and not representative of secular Turks.
For Turkey, the revolution began when Prime Minister Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) was elected a decade ago. It started a slow moving Islamist revolution that gutted the political power of the Army and continues to move Turkey toward a system of laws based on Sharia. It was not the revolution the secularists expected.
The Erdogan government is representative of the majority of Turks, as evidenced by its repeated electoral majorities. Any concessions it makes will be temporary. The direction of Turkey's political development is set and popular, except among some in the cities.
Mini-Me: Turkey Today, Saudi Arabia Tomorrow? Arabs Fight for Identity, Justice, & Legitimacy
08 Wild Cards
Huh?
News
Anti-government protests spread across Turkey
Police Retreat as Protests Expand Through Turkey
Protests in Turkey Reveal a Larger Fight Over Identity
Tens of Thousands take to streets in Turkey, clash with police
Turkey protesters hold Istanbul square after days of violent clashes
Berto Jongman: GLADIO B Comes Home to London — USA Next?
04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, IO Deeds of War, Law Enforcement, Military, Officers CallUK pays price for MI5 courting terror
By Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
Asia Times, 30 May 2013
The brutal murder of an off-duty British soldier in broad daylight in the southeast London district of Woolwich raises new questions about the British government's national security strategy, at home and abroad. Officials have highlighted the danger of “self-radicalizing” cells inspired by Internet extremism, but this ignores overwhelming evidence that major UK terror plots have been incubated by the banned al-Qaeda-linked group formerly known as Al Muhajiroun.
Equally, it is no surprise that the attackers had been seen earlier on the radar of MI5, the UK's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency. While Al Muhajiroun's emir, Syrian cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed – currently self-exiled to Tripoli in northern Lebanon – has previously claimed “public immunity” due to murky connections with British intelligence, compelling evidence suggests such connections might still be operational in the context of foreign policy imperatives linked to oil and gas interests.
Continue reading “Berto Jongman: GLADIO B Comes Home to London — USA Next?”
Mini-Me: Thousands call on Turkey’s leader to quit — US Swath of Destruction Absorbs Its Gladio B Ally?
07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Ineptitude, IO Deeds of War, Military, Peace IntelligenceHuh?
Thousands call on Turkey’s leader to quit
Protests swept Turkey on Friday and deep into Saturday morning as thousands of protesters called on prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to resign.
What began as a demonstration against a shopping mall project turned into one of the biggest challenges in recent years to Mr Erdogan’s rule, as whole districts of Istanbul resounded to the banging of pots and pans into the early hours of the morning. Drivers hit car horns in support of the demonstrators.
. . . . . . . .
However, the size of the protests, and the speed with which they grew, appeared to be a reaction not just to the police crackdown on the initial demonstration in Gezi Park but to Mr Erdogan’s general approach to government.
“Gezi park is the new Tahrir of the region,” said Koray Caliskan, a Turkish columnist, in reference to the epicentre of Egypt’s 2011 revolution.
Syria: Assad on Top – With Russian & Christian Support
08 Wild Cards, Ethics, IO Deeds of War, Peace Intelligence
Syria: Fighting. Press service reports indicate that the combined Syrian army and Hizballah forces have control of most, or all, of the town of al-Qusayr. Government claims of success were matched by opposition pleas for assistance from other areas.
Comment: Control of Qusayr means control of Homs Governate and city, which had been in opposition control for months. Opposition groups remain in control of the northern border with Turkey and parts of eastern Syria bordering Iraq, mainly because the government decided to abandon areas too difficult to hold with limited resources.
Peace talks. The various opposition groups are so fractious that they have been unable to agree on representation at the US-Russian sponsored peace talks in Geneva next month. As a result, the main opposition political group announced it would boycott the talks, ostensibly because the Syrian government would not comply with its condition that Asad step down first. This condition is an attempt to put the best face on the failure to craft a united position and presence for talks.
Asad's interview. President Bashar al-Asad announced that the Syrian Army has accomplished major achievements in facing militants on the ground. In an interview broadcast on the Al-Manar television channel on 30 May, he confirmed that the military scales have completely turned in favor of the army. Al-Asad said that “Syria and Hizballah are a single axis,” adding that there are “groups of Hizballah fighters in border areas of Lebanon, but the Syrian Army is doing the fighting, running the battle in the face of the armed groups, and will continue this battle until they vanquish those that he described as terrorists.
Al-Asad denounced the roles of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar in supporting and funding armed groups and he spoke of the presence of nearly 100,000 militants with different Arab and foreign nationalities that entered with the support of these countries.
Continue reading “Syria: Assad on Top – With Russian & Christian Support”
