MSM Create #Fakenews Storm As Rebel Aleppo Vanishes

December 13, 2016

I have not ever experienced a #fakenews onslaught as today. Every mainstream media and agency seems to have lost all inhibitions and is reporting any rumor claim regarding the liberation of east-Aleppo as fact.

Consider this BBC headline and opener:

Aleppo battle: UN says 82 civilians shot on the spot

Syrian pro-government forces have been entering homes in eastern Aleppo and killing those inside, including women and children, the UN says.

The UN's human rights office said it had reliable evidence that in four areas 82 civilians were shot on sight.

1. A UN human rights office does not exists. What the BBC means is the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR). That commissioner is the Jordanian Prince Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, a Hashemite educated in the UK and U.S. and a relative of the Jordanian dictator king. That is relevant to note as Jordan is heavily involved in the supporting the "rebels" against the Syrian government.

2. The office has not "said" that "82 civilians were shot" or other such gruesome stuff. It said that there were "sources" that have "reports" that such happened. From its press statement today:

Multiple sources have reports that tens of civilians were shot dead yesterday in al-Ahrar Square in al-Kallaseh neighbourhood, and also in Bustan al-Qasr, by Government forces and their allies, including allegedly the Iraqi al-Nujabaa armed group.

The OHCHR claiming that "multiple sources have reports" of XYZ, without revealing neither the "sources" nor the provenance of the alleged "reports" of XYZ, certainly does not translate into "The UN said XYZ happened."

I find it irresponsible that the OHCHR even mentions such unverified stuff in its press conferences. But it is even more irresponsible that the BBC then uses a "UN says …" headline and intro about such rumors especially without any further qualification in the rest of its "reporting".

There is also this recent report that cats were killed in Aleppo.

#BREAKING – Activists: All residents and guests of last cat shelter in Aleppo killed in Hezbollah gas attack.

The spokesman of the OHCHR has been notified of the above report. We are now awaiting the BBC headline: "UN says Hezbollah gassed last cats in Aleppo".

The BBC is not the only #fakenews outlet in this. Indeed it seems that news agencies seek "safety in the pack" by all reporting the same nonsense through each and every channel.

Again – the UN only says that it knows of such reports. It does not verify or vouches for these. Still the usual "humanitarian" influence operations, like Amnesty International, then join in on the "UN Says …" falsehoods. Thousands of news outlets and websites copy from the fake agency reports and "humanitarian" outlets and try to sensationalize their take even further. Its a total disinformation mess.

But there are also the wonders of Aleppo.

Real inhabitants and reporters in Aleppo say that any internet connection there is slow and unstable. But those "activists" under intense artillery fire in the east seem to have gigabits of reliable bandwidth available. It's a miracle. Pictures and videos in tweets like this one come "out of Aleppo" each and every minute.

Of course such gigabits could be put to better use than for grabbing screenshots of old music videos, but nobody is perfect, especially when under heavy artillery fire.

The news agencies and mainstream media take all the "activist" tweets, WhatsUp talks, video uploads and livestreaming by Periscope as the truth without even knowing where those come from. Those "activists" could sit anywhere in the world and there is no way for reporters to verify their location.

The security of all these information operations (pdf) have me concerned. When those "last activists in Aleppo" tweet that the Syrian army is moving in towards them do they mean that Assad's tanks rumble onto Vauxhall Cross?

But as long as everyone repeats the lying "reports from the ground" of said "activists" no one can be held responsible. "We all honestly erred," is the usual and well accepted apology.

We should try, wherever we can, to hold those news people to higher standards.

Posted by b on December 13, 2016 at 16:57 UTC | Permalink

Comments

US Army General Stephen Townsend said that Daesh terrorists may have seized anti-aircraft weapons in Syria’s ancient city of Palmyra.
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201612141048560930-us-general-palmyra-weapons/
Now the US has plausible deniability to arm ISIS with Anti-aircraft weapons… you have to wonder how these people sleep at night.

Posted by: WG | Dec 14 2016 21:33 utc | 101

WG @100
“you have to wonder how these people sleep at night.”
I would assume that like all vampires they sleep in their caskets with the dirt of their homeland.

Posted by: ALberto | Dec 14 2016 21:45 utc | 102

@WG #100:
you have to wonder how these people sleep at night.
I don’t think Churchill lost any sleep over bombing the Hun at night – something which served no military purpose – or Truman lost any sleep over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which also served no military purpose. This is just what people running the Anglo-American empire do.
The Russians, as far as I know, did little or no strategic bombing in WW II.

Posted by: Adalbrand | Dec 14 2016 22:43 utc | 103

Worrying article today in Zerohedge…. They are still trying to “Steal” this election.
They would provoke a Red State v Blue State Civil War if they managed to “pull off a palace coup”.
Harvard Professor Says He’s Rallied Nearly Enough GOP Electors To Block Trump
by Tyler Durden
Dec 14, 2016 3:35 PM

Harvard University law professor Larry Lessig, who has been providing free legal counsel to “faithless electors” from the GOP considering voting against Trump, claims that 20 GOP Electoral College voters have contacted him and are seriously considering flipping their vote. Of course, with 306 Electoral College votes assigned to Trump, it would only take 37 faithless GOP electors to block his presidency and push the election to Congress to decide. Per Politico:
Lessig’s anti-Trump group, “Electors Trust,” has been offering pro bono legal counsel to Republican presidential electors considering ditching Trump and has been acting as a clearinghouse for electors to privately communicate their intentions.
“Obviously, whether an elector ultimately votes his or her conscience will depend in part upon whether there are enough doing the same. We now believe there are more than half the number needed to change the result seriously considering making that vote,” Lessig said.
Meanwhile, the list of Democrat electors demanding an intelligence briefing on Russian interference in the election prior to casting their vote continues to grow. As of last night we noted that 40 democrats had signed the petition and, as of this morning, the list has grown to 55. Not surprisingly, the list is loaded with disaffected Hillary supporters from Democratic strongholds like California and Virginia.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-14/harvard-professor-says-hes-rallied-nearly-enough-gop-electors-block-trump

Posted by: Julian | Dec 14 2016 22:54 utc | 104

Re: Posted by: jfl | Dec 14, 2016 4:37:18 AM | 68

Where’s the text?

What do you mean text?

Posted by: Julian | Dec 14 2016 23:04 utc | 105

What really gets me is this effortless superiority that pervades the spokeszombies inside the MSM.
It is as if a sovereign nation does not have the right to protect itself.
In any sane world, European leaders would be scrambling, begging to get a hold of the Syria’s terrorist log book in order to discover how many hardened jihadi nationals are alive and potentially returning home. The only Euro nation we’ve heard make any attempt is Italy 6 months ago.
Assad gets it so right in his most recent interview, where he discusses the Palmyra offensive in context with Obama signing a waiver to arm ‘unspecified rebel groups’.
“The announcement of the lifting of that embargo is related directly to the attack on Palmyra and to the support of other terrorists outside Aleppo, because when they are defeated in Aleppo, the United States and the West, they need to support their proxies somewhere else,” he said.
“The crux of that announcement is to create more chaos, because the United States creates chaos in order to manage this chaos,” Assad added
Dirty stuff Barry’O. Filthy.

Posted by: MadMax2 | Dec 14 2016 23:09 utc | 106

@ Julian | Dec 14, 2016 6:04:15 PM | 104
He means the text of legislation. We’re too used to platitudes to care and want to see the proof.

Posted by: ~f | Dec 14 2016 23:48 utc | 107

@63 @66 julian @68
still cannot find the bill number or text of Tulsi Gabbard’s Stop Arming Terrorists Act … but Mike Whitney has a post up, Congress votes to give jihadists anti-aircraft missiles that mentions it as the antidote to the 2017 ndaa which directly authorizes more arms for terrorists … I sent a letter to my congressperson …

Hi Blake Farenthold,
Please find Rep. Tulsi Gabbard’s (HI-02) and Reps. Peter Welch (D-VT-AL), Barbara Lee (D-CA-13), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA-48), and Thomas Massie (R-KT-04)’s
Stop Arming Terrorists Act
and vote for it! Pass it! Don’t you think you in our Congress have armed enough terrorists by now? killed enough innocent Syrians, Yemenis, Libyans, Iraqis, Afghans, Ukrainians … Palestinians?
STOP ARMING TERRORISTS! ACT!! NOW, DAMN IT!!!
Thanks.
john francis lee
US 27th Congressional District TX, USA

… probably worth just what it cost me to send it … nothing. so i’m not out of pocket, at least. nothin’ from nothin’ leaves nothin’ and we gotta have somethin’, if we wanna end us supported terrorism worldwide.
without the Stop Arming Terrorists Act … the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate POTUS and the war criminal US Congress will continue – hell, will increase, now with manpads! – their terrorists’ ability to deal death, devastation, and destruction – the usa’s chief exports in the new american century – worldwide.

Posted by: jfl | Dec 15 2016 0:35 utc | 108

jfl@107 – “…still cannot find the bill number or text of Tulsi Gabbard’s Stop Arming Terrorists Act…”
The text is not in it’s final form and has not been submitted to the House clerk, so no number has been assigned. It has only been drafted and is being discussed before submission.
A bill’s ‘number assigning process’ explained here.
Rep. Gabbard’s press release on the Stop Funding Terrorists Bill described it as follows:
=====
Background: The Stop Arming Terrorists bill prohibits U.S. government funds from being used to support al-Qaeda, ISIS or other terrorist groups. In the same way that Congress passed the Boland Amendment to prohibit the funding and support to CIA backed-Nicaraguan Contras during the 1980’s, this bill would stop CIA or other Federal government activities in places like Syria by ensuring U.S. funds are not used to support al-Qaeda, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, ISIS, or other terrorist groups working with them. It would also prohibit the Federal government from funding assistance to countries that are directly or indirectly supporting those terrorist groups. The bill achieves this by:

Making it illegal for any U.S. Federal government funds to be used to provide assistance covered in this bill to terrorists. The assistance covered includes weapons, munitions, weapons platforms, intelligence, logistics, training, and cash.
Making it illegal for the U.S. government to provide assistance covered in the bill to any nation that has given or continues to give such assistance to terrorists.
Requiring the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to determine the individual and groups that should be considered terrorists, for the purposes of this bill, by determining: (a) the individuals and groups that are associated with, affiliated with, adherents to or cooperating with al-Qaeda, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, or ISIS; (b) the countries that are providing assistance covered in this bill to those individuals or groups.
Requiring the DNI to review and update the list of countries and groups to which assistance is prohibited every six months, in consultation with the House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services Committees, as well as the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
Requiring the DNI to brief Congress on the determinations.

========
Parts of the bill creating controversy were prohibiting either material aid or medical aid – either of which would then prohibit any aid to Israel. It was quickly taken out, but the Israeli lobby is vehemently against the bill as a whole for obvious reasons. It has little chance of passing considering the Israeli lobby/AIPAC’s strong (yet secretive) objections and will likely never make it out of the House because of that. They will likely deny objecting to it, but our MSM Lugenpresse will never bother asking, so there.
P.S. “Know your master” and all.

Posted by: PavewayIV | Dec 15 2016 1:06 utc | 109

Vauxhall Cross is also the UK HQ of ISIS Incorporated. An IPO is pending, depending on the succcess of the Big Bang brand launch in Syria. The Too Big To Fail Banks are bullish for this pending launch.

Posted by: Yonatan | Dec 15 2016 1:08 utc | 110

jfl@107–
Went to Gabbard’s website where there’s a PR and related video that we’ve already seen. Went ot Congressional Record for 8 December, but there’s no entry other than “50 public bills … were introduced.” The only solution I see is to email Gabbard and ask for the text of her proposal.
Nice email to your Rep!

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 15 2016 1:16 utc | 111

@104 @106 julian @108 pw4 @110 karlof
yes, paveway, that’s what i was afraid had happened … and why i wrote to ‘my pal’ blake. if Gabbard is serious she’s going to have to go public with an explanation a la paveway and request a deluge of emails, phone calls, and snail mail to congress to get them off their wallets and working for the people. she ought to appeal directly to the trumpster dumpsters … those who held their noses and dumped for trump.
she does seem to be the political point of the pentagon’s push-back against the cia’s trespass on pentagon turf: she ought to tie in the cia’s ‘the russians stole the election’ coup attempt as well. try to harness as much of the hatred for congress and the neo-cons and the dnc as possible behind her bill. tee-rump himself ought to support, as well as tee-rex, his incoming secdef.
i think i’ll follow up with a snail mail to flake barenthold, ‘my’ two senators and the ‘nppl’ as well: curse him good bye.
it is inexpensive and cannot hurt.

Posted by: jfl | Dec 15 2016 1:31 utc | 112

It is so sad that some ppl think change can be effected by the likes of Gabbard when we already know exactly what Gabbards future holds.
She is currently waving her cap about not unlike the way the other child of Hawaiian invaders did back in the early noughties.
Her bill will go nowhere there is no one with sufficient funds to buy the votes of other members of congress who cares to see the The Stop Arming Terrorists bill passed – so it won’t be. Gabbard knows this very well. So why has she introduced the bill? She wants to establish a higher national profile – ths publicity generated by this bill plus the other mini-campaigns she is running will assist with that.
But she only needs the support of her local Hawaiian based constituents why does she need a national profile?
It is true that Gabbard getting into any position of national power prez, vice prez or cabinet is at least a decade maybe more away, nevertheless she needs to start building her war chest now if she wants to gather the money and credit she needs in the DC favor bank to manoveur her way into a good position in the top trough.
But this anti-terrorist stuff sure that is going to piss off AIPAC etc and leave her on the outer?
Oh your simple naivety astounds. Young congresspeople prepared to back the zionist project to the hilt are a dime a dozen around the house – thick on the ground on both halves of the amerikan empire party, Standing out by offering to butcher palestinian children on the west bank or introduce genetic bombs into the Gaza open air prison camp is commonplace on Capitol Hill. This way is much better she has got the zionists concerned enough to take notice and they will be around her now offering extra congressional assistants “just researchers we’re not asking you to sacrifice your principles Tulsi hah hah” – joke everyone knows she has none since it is impossible to win a nomination for congress with all the politicking and in-fighting that requires, with messy ‘principles’.
The bonus payoff for this of course is that in 10 or 15 years when Tulsi has become just another saggy assed, cellulite encrusted, neoliberal-interventionist hack pol there will be millions of derps arguing that she is a true peacemaker – “remember when she tried to stop us funding al Qaeda?”
There is only one way to fix the mess that the world finds itself in and the fix does not involve any scummy bottom feeding politician – anywhere.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Dec 15 2016 1:42 utc | 113

@ jfl | Dec 14, 2016 4:37:18 AM | 68
I don’t have a text but here is a video
video

Posted by: kWh | Dec 15 2016 2:00 utc | 114

jfl@107 – And I don’t mean to imply that the Israeli lobby/AIPAC is personally opposed to Gabbard or her policies. They are actually pretty well aligned.
Although Gabbard – a somewhat fundamentalist Hindu – is arguably not an ardent Israeli-firster, she sees all if Islam through the same lens as them: all Muslims are potential terrorists. She makes little distinction between weaponized Saudi Wahabbism and what she would call ‘Islamic extremism’, but prefers the latter label. I’m on the fence trying to determine if she is truly that ignorant of Islam or is simply a religious bigot hiding some kind of strange right-wing Hindu anti-Muslim bias. She has never given any hint of understanding the complexity of the issues in the Middle East, which is most troubling. Fundamentalist Israeli-firster Christians in Congress seem to like her quite a bit.
Consider the peculiar title and stilted wording of her bill “Stop Arming Terrorists” The first thing I thought of is, why ‘Arming’? How about the more logical “Stop Supporting Terrorists”? How does Israel providing medical facilities and aid dedicated to treating al Nusra (= al Qaeda) differ from arming them? Gabbard has been the one careful to keep any language threatening to Israel from the bill. This makes me most suspicious of her motives. Some terrorist-supporters are more equal than others, I guess.
She has been branded ‘Israel Safe’ by Israeli-firsters in Congress and the MSM. She reliably toes the Israeli-firster party line when the issues involve Muslims. For instance, she is rather indifferent to the Palestinian issue and comes across as an apologist for the ‘poor Israelis’. And while I don’t think she would go as far as supporting starting a war with Iran, she remains deeply suspicious of them because they are ‘Islamic extremists’ after all.
For all her good points, I think Gabbard is part of what’s wrong with Congress. Although I would rather see a few hundred of her crafting laws rather than the current crop of traitors that call themselves members of Congress. Still, America should be able to do better than “Well, they’re not a neocon war monger…!”

Posted by: PavewayIV | Dec 15 2016 2:06 utc | 115

@113 DiD, ‘… just another saggy assed, cellulite encrusted, neoliberal-interventionist hack pol’
oh debs, you’ve become just another saggy assed, cellulite encrusted, twisted hack cynic. poor bastard.
disparaging anyone who gets up to take another shot. i hope you don’t poison the youngsters here … if there are any. if i were young i wouldn’t waste much time reading yet another of you gloomy jeremiads on the hopelessness of it all.
@114 pw4, ‘I think Gabbard is part of what’s wrong with Congress. …’
you’re in line to follow debs, pw4. there seems to be lots wrong with tg, there’s certainly everything wrong with the congress.
yet, it think it’s worth a shot to call their bluffs on issues like this. it costs nothing. if you catch them during the right convergence you might make them follow through.
you guys seem to be in a contest, see which one of you can be the one who can say ‘i told you so …’ first on tg. or other subjects
there’s no prize for being the first cynic to have opened his cancre and let it bleed.

Posted by: jfl | Dec 15 2016 2:34 utc | 116

@108 pw4
interested to know where you found the background in this particular bill … or did you make it up?

Posted by: jfl | Dec 15 2016 2:54 utc | 117

@jfl I cannot convince you because you will believe what your emotions tell you to believe despite as much logic against the supposition of anything good coming outta as evil a place as Washington DC has already been shown to be, being brought to bear.
I fucking well hope more young kids realise this now than realised it when we were young, when self-obsessed alcoholic creep Tom Hayden (once disparaged now but lauded by all pols since he died proving that the only good politician is a dead politician) claimed that “we have to fight the system from within, that is the only way to effect change”. Yeah change happened alright – whatever principles he or any of the ‘insiders’ had went straight out the door and the world ended up being run by greedy conscienceless neoliberal boomers who won’t give anyone the heat off their shit unless the recipient pays up front per kilojoule/hour.
Some of us pointed out at the time that the only change would be in the alleged ‘agents of change’ and we were called out using exactly the same cliches as you just emoted. I understand radical change scares you and makes you want to hide in the corner – fine do that, but radical change will occur much sooner than you imagine because right now, too many are getting too little.
The only call to be made is whether to get involved in it and try to ensure that the shove is in a direction that benefits all or to sit back do nothing and allow it to move in the direction of another mob of divisive assholes who line their own pockets and those of their ‘allies’.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Dec 15 2016 3:06 utc | 118

jfl@116 – I just made it up. Why do you ask?

Posted by: PavewayIV | Dec 15 2016 3:10 utc | 119

@77
glen ford has a good overview – according to me – of just what the dnc/cia/gop have done …
Corporate Democrats Stir Up War Fever Against Russia to Turn Election

When Trump was declared the winner, Clinton’s Big Tent — the de facto headquarters of the “truer and more fully explicit ruling class party” — panicked. The gyro went whacky. For multinational capital, the quest for worldwide full spectrum dominance is an existential issue; they must achieve it, or die. What they have shown over the past several weeks is that they are willing, and even eager, to bring down the whole edifice of U.S. social and political “checks and balances” — freedom of speech and other civil liberties — to sustain the momentum of their neoliberal offensive in the world.
The true hegemony of the ruling class consists of more than simply control of the “commanding heights” of the economy and positions of governmental power, but also of the authoritative political narrative. The “fake news” bugaboo is a Trojan Horse for speech and thought control, a ruse to reestablish the imperial narrative in all its domestic and international dimensions. It ain’t about “pizza-gate” — it’s about corporate global power. The mass of folks that are repelled and frightened by Donald Trump and his gang of generalissimos and billionaires may think that they are in a common struggle alongside Clinton and Jill Stein and much of Black leadership against “fascism” in the person of Trump, but the forces in Clinton’s Big Tent are fascists, too, of the global corporate, endless war and deepening austerity kind, who are now drawing up lists of who can speak and what subjects can properly be discussed. The same people that brought us the Mass Black Incarceration State and preventive detention without charge or trial, too big to jail, systematic Black urban displacement, Kill Lists, proxy jihadist wars and universal surveillance of humanity. The Democrats are emphatically not waging a fight against “fascism.” Instead, they have unleashed a war hysteria.
What is most shocking about the whole affair is that the orchestrators of this War Hysteria/Dump Trump campaign seem to be oblivious to the effect it will have on the people that voted for Trump, representing roughly half of the country. A recount is one thing, but Trump’s supporters will surely not accept the negation of their vote by Hamilton Electors or other machinations. The U.S. criminal justice (and now “Homeland Security”) systems were designed to contain, control and incarcerate the “Others” of society, mainly Black and brown people. If the whites of that political space called “Middle America” decide to burn the house down, there will be no stopping them. Most of the “first responders” are Trump people.
Are the orchestrators deliberately provoking a civil war, or have they lost their minds over the prospect of better relations with the Russians? I think it’s clearly the latter; they haven’t even begun to consider the mass blowback from Trumpland. But, December 19, the date for certification of the electoral vote, is almost upon us.
The election was, of course, stolen – in the usual manner, by Republican Americans.
The Democrats never mount a challenge when Jim Crow steals presidential elections. Denying Black people the franchise is kosher, under the gentlemen’s duopoly rules. But, when it comes to improving relations with Russians, the folks in Clinton’s Big Tent go Black Lives Matter on the election process: “Shut It Down!” they scream, “Shut It Down.”

… we’ll know on monday. death, devastation, destruction and deceit in the empire … ddd&d in the ‘homeland’. the brooms keep marching, underwater, emptying their buckets into the cistern at the bottom of the flood.

Posted by: jfl | Dec 15 2016 3:19 utc | 120

@118 pw4
because … it seemed so detailed … i thought you might have had it from someone or two actually involved with the various parties at the different stages of the process. your storytelling skills are really getting to be top notch. not to knock your story in any way … but you ought to label all your stories – as you often do … this one’s fakenews of the very first water, sans the label.

Posted by: jfl | Dec 15 2016 3:39 utc | 121

“All men who carried arms against the state MUST face justice. I’m sure every state would do the same.”
“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

Posted by: Michael | Dec 15 2016 4:05 utc | 122

Tulsi is my congressperson. I was surprised when she was elected, defeating a well known politician who outspent Tulsi by an enormous amount. And I am delighted at the positions she has taken re: Russia and Syria. I had grown used to most Hawaii democrats being warmongers, from Dan Inouye (on Vietnam, which – after it was over – he said he regretted) to Colleen Hanabusa (who supported the Hillary/Obama plan to bomb Syria).
If the rest of the Congress paid attention to reality as Tulsi does, USA would not be in the horrible situation it has created, attacking 7 different countries, and flooding the media with deceitful propaganda, droning civilians without even bothering to known who they actually are.
Furthermore, the demeaning comments about her personally are way out of line, she has done nothing to deserve them. She is doing her job, serving her constituents and her country.

Posted by: mauisurfer | Dec 15 2016 4:30 utc | 123

The Keystone Cops portrayal of one of the world’s most clinically efficient intelligence services is of a piece with the anti-Russian racism which has permeated the Democratic Party rhetoric for quite some time. Frankly nobody in what is vaguely their right mind would believe this narrative.
Pretty well all of us get phishing emails pretty routinely. Last year my bank phoned me up to check if I was really trying to buy a car with my credit card in St Petersburg. I don’t know what the DNC paid “Crowdstrike” for their narrative but they got a very poor return for their effort indeed. That the New York Times promotes it as any kind of evidence is a truly damning indictment of the mainstream media.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/

Posted by: mauisurfer | Dec 15 2016 4:48 utc | 124

Reuters said Aleppo residents were waiting inside their homes for the arrival of SAA, fearful of arrest, conscription or summary execution. Just when I thought the media cdn’t get any worse. Obviously a signal has gone out towards some purpose. Makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. creepy. Sounds for all the world like the windup to R2P.
–
ISIS has lots of fallen weapons to make recapture of Palmyra difficult, plus US can use those very weapons as the pretext for bombing– “to eliminate ISIS weapons.”
The Prof Lessig who says more than 20 electors are considering voting against Trump is just trying to create a bandwagon effect. It’ll never happen– not w/o serious bribery.
Rumors in Russia of the fall of an arch-villain: Chubais. He was co-author w Gaidar of Russian shock-therapy austerity.
Co-sposors of Gabbard’s “Stop Arming Terrorists” Bill: Reps. Peter Welch, a Democrat from Vermont; Barbara Lee, a Democrat from California; Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican from California; and Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky. Congratulations Tulsi lady.

Posted by: Penelope | Dec 15 2016 4:56 utc | 125

@ Yonatan | Dec 14, 2016 8:08:03 New Law Gives Brutish Govt Secret Backdoor To All Tech
@all Sweden tells municipalities to prepare for war — RT News
And is this Nutnyahoo visit a part of preparations to launch an assault against Russia through Caucasus that AngloZios have been having a wet dream about for so long? From the newly created Kurdish and Daesh statelets on the Syria/Iraq border of course.
Embarking on rare visit to Muslim countries, Netanyahu vaunts Israel’s popularity
Also to note regarding some recent news from Germany, including the burqa-affair in Saudi Barbaria – did you notice that during his last visit to EU Obama called Germany as US transatlantic strategic partner, not the UK…?

Posted by: ProPeace | Dec 15 2016 5:51 utc | 126

Here’s one to the outgoing POTUS, I remember reading about this on Voltairenet as well:
Obama allegedly nixed French ( Sarkozy ) and Saudi plan to bomb Assad’s palace to end his regime..

US President Obama recently vetoed a detailed Franco-Saudi plan for ending President Bashar Assad’s rule by means of a massive air strike against his palace that would at one fell swoop wipe him, his family and top leadership circle out, DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources report.
Their plan was for the presidential palace situated atop Mount Qassioun northeast of Damascus to be devastated by French warplanes taking off from the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier off Syria’s Mediterranean coast and Saudi and United Arab Emirates bombers flying in through Jordan.
They would bomb the palace for 12 hours in several sorties while at the same time American fighter jets launched from a US aircraft carrier cruising in the Mediterranean or Red Sea would shut down Syria’s air defenses, which are considered among the most sophisticated and densely-arrayed in the region.
US warplanes would also keep the Syrian Air Force grounded and prevented from repulsing the incoming bombers.
This plan was presented to President Obama separately by Nicolas Sarkozy before he was voted out of office and Saudi Defense Minister Prince Salman, who arrived at the White House on April 12 for a personal presentation. The prince maintained that there is no end in sight for the Syrian conflict; it would only spread and ignite the rest of the Middle East. The peril could only be rooted out at source by a single, sharp military strike that would remove Assad and his close clan for good. This would be the only acceptable kind of Western-Arab armed intervention in Syria and it had the added advantage of being effective without bringing foreign boots to Syrian soil.
In early May, Sarkozy was still trying to talk Obama around to the plan. He spent his last days in the Elysée Palace in long telephone conversations with the White House in which he drove home three points:
1. Because Assad has concentrated his family, top military command and intelligence chiefs at a single nerve center behind the fortified walls of the Qassioun Palace, the snake’s head can feasibly be cut off at one stroke.
The case of Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi was different because, unlike Assad, he never stayed long in one place and was constantly on the move.
2. Once that nerve center is destroyed, Syrian army and intelligence would be bereft of their sources of command. Their troops may remain in their bases and wait for news, while their officers may use the sudden political vacuum in Damascus to try and seize power. In either case, the Syrian military would be free of its orders to crush the anti-Assad revolt.
3. The French, Saudi and UAE air forces lack a central command center capable of coordinating a major combined air operation and therefore depend on the United States to provide this essential component. American military input is also vital for paralyzing Syria’s air defenses by applying its cyber warfare capabilities to disrupt the radar systems of Syria’s anti-air missile batteries.
Our Washington sources report that Obama consistently resisted repeated French and Saudi efforts to jump aboard their initiative.
The Saudi defense minister at one point in their conversation told the US president harshly that it was time for the Americans to stop talking and start acting. But Obama remained unmoved…

I guess things are looking a bit differently now… 🙂
Very good read on Sarcozy and “his family” (isn’t he in some sort of a trouble now, poor thing?):
Operation Sarkozy : how the CIA placed one of its agents at the presidency of the French Republic

Posted by: ProPeace | Dec 15 2016 6:07 utc | 127

Those fat pig Saudi monarchs, proxies of the Anglo/Zionist empire, are creating a human tragedy in two countries: Syria and Yemen.
While the surrounding Gulf States gorge on oil wealth, 21 million people in Yemen are threatened with famine because of the Saudi invasion there. 7.1 million Yemeni are already food-deprived and close to 350,000 children are on the brink of starvation. This is a man-made famine and genocide in the making engineered by the Anglo/Zionist empire through their Saudi proxy.
The U.S. is supplying Saudis with intelligence and sophisticated weaponry to bomb the Yemeni people who lived below the poverty line even before the conflict started there, because of the corrupt rule inflicted on them by the puppet dictator finally deposed by the Houthi.
This tragedy is being overshadowed by what’s happening in Syria. Syria is getting all the attention because the Zionist media and actual instigators of this war are bellowing and wailing that Assad and Russia are creating a human tragedy when really all the blame should be directed at Israel that was bent on regime change in Syria and who together with the U.S. sent operatives to stoke civil unrest inviting the Saudi rulers to unleash Wahhabi mercenaries, terrorists and killers on Syria.
And then that hag, Samantha Powers, dares to point a finger at Russia?
Thanks to Zionists who are obsessed with enslaving the Shia of Syria and Yemen to squash Iran’s influence we have tragedies in these two countries manufactured by the United Zionist States.
The breadth of U.S. hypocrisy at the Security Council is staggering.

Posted by: Circe | Dec 15 2016 7:58 utc | 128

In Lithuania mass media (bought and paid by the West) isnt just screaming bloody murder over “mass executions of civilians” by Assad, today they managed to top that – they say SAA is mass raping women and burning kids alive! I kid you not. I got a flash-back on Libya and fake pretext to R2P. It wont happen this time, Trump wont go for it, and US puppets in EU are too weak and gutless to face Russia in battlefield, so we will continue seeing convulsions among politicians and media.

Posted by: Harry | Dec 15 2016 9:08 utc | 129

#108, 116, 118, 120 PavewayIV, jfl
Thanks to the research of jfl we now know that PavewayIV creates fake news.
And what does fake news?
Spread like wildfire.
So with that textblock that PavewayIV just made up..
It already appears here (scroll to bottom)!:
https://gabbard.house.gov/news/press-releases/video-rep-tulsi-gabbard-introduces-legislation-stop-arming-terrorists

Posted by: From The Hague | Dec 15 2016 9:12 utc | 130

@126 pp, ‘… DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources report.’
maybe israel had a plan for obama to bomb assad & family that the cia vetoed … let the israelis do it, if they want it so bad?
if the cia had said ‘yeah, good idea, go ahead’ obama would have done it,

Posted by: jfl | Dec 15 2016 9:42 utc | 131

The Gulfies have the greatest interest in that their embedded mercs in East Aleppo are not identified/paraded.
Another point rarely mentioned is that most of the foreigners there would be in jail if they returned to their country.
Evacuation is now broadcasted live on al Mayadeen, the ‘rebels’ are burning everything they can (would be harsh to their masters that videos of all the nice equipments with serial numbers etc start going around)

Posted by: Mina | Dec 15 2016 9:54 utc | 132

@ jfl | Dec 14, 2016 7:35:31 PM | 107
When you get to your bottom line of ‘nothing from nothing …’ let’s find it has an effect of something.
Maybe now “Never vote for incumBENTs” may be becoming clear. Incumbents are in control of power becoming absolute. You know the refrain.

Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Dec 15 2016 10:46 utc | 133

The westerm MSM are only a tool (paid trolls pretending to be journalists). Western elites using them to achieve their goals. You read the MSM and you can see the true face of the elites. This is a very ugly, sociopathic face. It doesn’t make any sense to argue with them.

Posted by: msm means trolls | Dec 15 2016 11:10 utc | 134

jfl @ 107 says:
I sent a letter to my congressperson
…and will a boilerplate reply reinforce all of your wiggly feelings of having behaved with honor and dignity?
well, you’re right, like voting for Jill, it costs nothing. i mean, i understand that going down to the town square, or to the steps of the Capitol, making your rant, dousing yourself with gasoline, and lighting it up is kinda extreme and probably ain’t gonna make any difference either, but at least then i would know that your ‘principles’ are for real and not merely opportune.

Posted by: john | Dec 15 2016 12:02 utc | 135

I cannot believe that if a normal hostage as Cantlie existed he would not already have tried to commit suicide after all he’s seen or tried to escape. The only explanation is that he has another kind of ‘mission’.

Posted by: Mina | Dec 15 2016 13:31 utc | 136

@137 john ‘… i would know that your ‘principles’ are for real and not merely opportune.’
i’m afraid you’ve confused me with someone who cares what you think, john. you seem to be a nice enough guy, but hardly the arbiter of anything.

Posted by: jfl | Dec 15 2016 13:32 utc | 137

9-11 started the deluge of fake news we are inflicted with,which was only a trickle before.
Did the woman in Montana who was afraid of the wildlife that lives there think the fields were full of dental floss?sheesh.

Posted by: dahoit | Dec 15 2016 14:51 utc | 138

Aldabrand;I don’t think Russia(SU) had the bombers(at least in quantity)to do strategic bombing that the West did.
Their use of tanks with submachine gun soldiers and massed artillery worked out just as well,if not better.

Posted by: dahoit | Dec 15 2016 14:54 utc | 139

jfl @ 141 says:
i’m afraid you’ve confused me with someone who cares what you think,…
that’s funny, coming from someone who at any given moment owns anywhere from 10 to 25 percent of the 100 latest comments listed over in the righthand margin of the homepage…
knock ’em dead, bro, arbitrate away…..

Posted by: john | Dec 15 2016 15:01 utc | 140

@ 144, john
Luck you, getting a response from jUST fOR lAUGHS. For someone observing frequency, you might be mistaken for a numerate reader. Still your opinions matter as well.

Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Dec 15 2016 16:07 utc | 141

> Craig Murray, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan and a close associate of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, told Dailymail.com that he flew to Washington, D.C. for a clandestine hand-off with one of the email sources in September.
>
> ‘Neither of [the leaks] came from the Russians,’ said Murray in an interview with Dailymail.com on Tuesday. ‘The source had legal access to the information. The documents came from inside leaks, not hacks.’
>
> But Murray insisted that the DNC and Podesta emails published by Wikileaks did not come from the Russians, and were given to the whistleblowing group by Americans who had authorized access to the information.
>
> ‘Neither of [the leaks] came from the Russians,’ Murray said. ‘The source had legal access to the information. The documents came from inside leaks, not hacks.’
>
> He said the leakers were motivated by ‘disgust at the corruption of the Clinton Foundation and the tilting of the primary election playing field against Bernie Sanders.’
>
> Murray said he retrieved the package from a source during a clandestine meeting in a wooded area near American University, in northwest D.C. He said the individual he met with was not the original person who obtained the information, but an intermediary.
>

Posted by: mauisurfer | Dec 15 2016 16:11 utc | 142

> Murray said he was speaking out due to claims from intelligence officials that Wikileaks was given the documents by Russian hackers as part of an effort to help Donald Trump win the U.S. presidential election.
>
> ‘I don’t understand why the CIA would say the information came from Russian hackers when they must know that isn’t true,’ he said. ‘Regardless of whether the Russians hacked into the DNC, the documents Wikileaks published did not come from that.’
>
> ‘The Clinton camp has been able to project a neo-McCarthyist hysteria that Russia is responsible for everything,’ Assange told John Pilger during an interview in November.
>
> ‘Hillary Clinton has stated multiple times, falsely, that 17 US intelligence agencies had assessed that Russia was the source of our publications. That’s false – we can say that the Russian government is not the source.’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4034038/Ex-British-ambassador-WikiLeaks-operative-claims-Russia-did-NOT-provide-Clinton-emails-handed-D-C-park-intermediary-disgusted-Democratic-insiders.html

Posted by: mauisurfer | Dec 15 2016 16:12 utc | 143

Close to 100,000 civilians have fled East Aleppo and been processed by the government
https://www.newcoldwar.org/report-east-aleppo-dec-14-2016/

Posted by: Les | Dec 15 2016 16:16 utc | 144

hahah…. now that the MSM has shown soooo much concern for the East Aleppo djihadists and their families, are they going to follow them in Idlib and tell us how life is beautiful under sharia law?
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-38329461

Posted by: Mina | Dec 15 2016 16:32 utc | 145

It wouldn’t surprise me that there are voices of people trapped in the rubble. According to an RT reporter, there are now reports that the White Helmets staged rescue photo ops but did nothing for others once the videos had been completed. That’s why you see no more than a handful of people, mostly children, in these staged videos.

Posted by: Les | Dec 15 2016 16:41 utc | 146

when people think it is normal to keep orphan kids hostages of a war
https://twitter.com/bkamil1983/status/809439533259427840?lang=en

Posted by: Mina | Dec 15 2016 17:09 utc | 147

There is no hope of finding out what is really happening in Syria without going there in person
Syria brings ‘fake news’ to the United Nations

Posted by: ralphieboy | Dec 15 2016 17:18 utc | 148

There is only one way to fix the mess that the world finds itself in and the fix does not involve any scummy bottom feeding politician – anywhere. – Debsisdead @ 112.
The role of ppl like Gabbard, or Stein, is to play to to the public. A few, just a very few, rather minor figures are put front stage so that ppl can think, or say, hey! This officially-accredited-in the MSM / political sphere person is expressing my opinions, or he/she has some good ideas, or is (sorta) speaking the truth to power.
The figures are given ample MSM coverage to induce the feeling, the belief, that the US political system is somehow based on ‘diversity of opinion’, ‘democracy’, ‘fair dealing’ and so on. Ppl feel reassured, they can cheer Tulsi, and continue to adhere to the system. Meanwhile nothing changes, nothing at all, at all.
In any case, stopping funding terrorists is a totally empty proposal, it is even Orwellian (Violent terrorists out there! Sit in front of the TV! All news mandatory viewing!) as all depends on which group, entity, is labelled ‘terrorist’ or not, and who gets to decide that, and it ain’t Tulsi, as she herself proposes…:
Requiring the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to determine the individual and groups that should be considered terrorists, for the purposes of this bill, by determining: (a) the individuals and groups that are associated with, affiliated with, adherents to or cooperating with al-Qaeda, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, or ISIS; (b) the countries that are providing assistance covered in this bill to those individuals or groups.
21st cent. wire
The proposed bill is completely meaningless, but ‘sounds positive.’ Surprise. Actually, Gabbard going down this road shows she is part of the scheming hangers-on.
Reading further some posted similar – I’ll post this all the same.
Not mentioned (afaik), Tulsi is contra-Iran:
But Gabbard said Iran is now threatening U.S. allies and violating its international commitments.
http://www.civilbeat.org/2016/01/gabbard-wants-iran-missile-sanctions/
GOP, Dems reject Obama’s delay, call for Iran sanctions
quote… The bill is cosponsored by Reps. Jim Bridenstine, R-Okla.; John Delaney, D-Md.; Ted Deutch, D-Fla.; Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii; Juan Vargas, D-Calif.; and Joe Wilson, R-S.C. Read the bill here. / end quote.
Wash. Examiner
Tulsi is pushing exactly the same foreign policy as Trump. Say.

Posted by: Noirette | Dec 15 2016 17:22 utc | 149

@131 mina quote “most of the foreigners there would be in jail if they returned to their country.”
i thought saudi arabia let the prisoners out to go to syria? i thought that was standard procedure from them and qatar? no doubt they wouldn’t be allowed to wander the streets, let alone go for a visit to the local saudi arabian mcdonalds, lol…
there is no better way to see what a lying sack of shit the usa is, then in it’s support for the gulf countries dictators…

Posted by: james | Dec 15 2016 17:26 utc | 150

They have no morals or ethics, their only commandment is to grab more power and steal more wealth, so anything is possible in the coming weeks leading up to the possible change over to Trump.

Posted by: Göbek Nasıl Erir | Dec 15 2016 17:40 utc | 151

The nightly news actually showed civilians being helped by the Syrian government last night as they fled East Aleppo. They were reporting on the last remaining militants holding out.

Posted by: Les | Dec 15 2016 18:09 utc | 152

The absolutely incredible claim from the Central Intelligence Agency that Russian hackers somehow put Donald Trump over the top in the election is falling apart.
Both the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), which oversees all the U.S. intelligence agencies, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reject the CIA’s analysis.
And now Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) just said on Fox News Channel a few minutes ago that the Central Intelligence Agency is refusing to hand over whatever evidence it may have about Russian wrongdoing.
http://canadafreepress.com/article/cia-refuses-to-hand-over-so-called-proof-of-russian-hacking-to-help-trump

Posted by: ALberto | Dec 15 2016 18:26 utc | 153

b,
Am I banned? My two posts was did not shows up in
#Fakenews Alert: “China Flies Nuclear Bomber In Response To Trump’s Call …”

Posted by: Jack Smith | Dec 15 2016 18:29 utc | 154

Robert Fisk refutes the hypocrisy of Samantha Power & USA
So here we go again on the familiar semantic trail down which all critics of Syria’s enemies (and America) must tramp. Yup, Bashar is a dictator, his elections a farce, his militias killers, his army ruthless, his prisons so barbarous that Washington sent its captives there for a bit of brutal interrogation.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/samantha-power-un-us-ambassador-america-syria-aleppo-massacres-srebrenica-rwandan-genocide-bizarre-a7476556.html

Posted by: mauisurfer | Dec 15 2016 18:44 utc | 155

http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/fikraforum/view/the-aleppo-betrayal

Posted by: Mina | Dec 15 2016 18:44 utc | 156

December 15, 2016 YOU CANNOT MAKE THIS STUFF UP
Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp on Wednesday asked President-elect Donald Trump to investigate the Department of Homeland Security’s apparent attempt to hack his office’s computer system.
In a letter to Trump, Kemp asked that the president-elect to act once he is sworn in to office in January.
READ MORE: DHS says contractor making normal use of state site set off alarms; cyber expert questions that explanation.
Kemp said he is not satisfied with the response from current DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson.
http://www.ajc.com/news/state–regional-govt–politics/brian-kemp-seeks-donald-trump-aid-alleged-hacking/njzSSIpqHww8C9dcHlF1PP/

Posted by: ALberto | Dec 15 2016 18:53 utc | 157

The “intelligence community” recent claims has it coming close to having been complicit in a cover-up of Trump’s evil / perfidity … this stinks of usual Clintonian miscalculation … the one that brought us months and months of claims about Trump — minus evidence — which failed to win her the election…
These most recent claims add fire to the CIA/Clinton conspiracy theories while — in all ridiculousness — turning responsibility back onto themselves for failing to act … another CIA / Clinton blunder if anyone can count their fingers … with added bonus of again implicating Obama in further doing-nothing-ness.

Posted by: Susan Sunflower | Dec 15 2016 18:54 utc | 158

1 The Bush Administration declared its formal commitment to the invasion of Iraq just ten days after taking office, on January 30, 2001. This was seven months prior to the terrorism events of 9/11. (Planning for an attack on Afghanistan was underway later in the spring.)
2 Also in January Mr. Bush appointed Vice President Cheney to chair a “National Energy Policy Development Group.” By early February the Group was studying maps of Iraqi oil fields, pipelines, refineries, tanker terminals, and undeveloped exploration blocks.
9 His duplicity was appalling: three times prior to 9/11 President Bush had rejected a standing offer from the Taliban to surrender bin Laden. Immediately after the attacks he would do so twice more.
on October 12, 2000 the U.S.S. Cole was bombed in Aden harbor, killing 17 American sailors.
Some people in the lame-duck Clinton Administration wanted immediately to “bomb the hell out of Afghanistan.” But the State Department first dispatched Mr. Kabir Mohabbat, a U.S. citizen but a native Afghani, to arrange a meeting with the Taliban.
The parties met November 2, 2000 in the Sheraton Hotel in Frankfurt, Germany. Ambassador William Milam was the U.S. negotiator. To avoid a massive retaliatory bombing, the Taliban eventually offered the unconditional surrender of Osama bin Laden. Or, alternatively, they offered to arrange his execution by targeting him for a U.S. missile.[i]
During its first weeks in office, then, the Bush Administration programmed the invasion of Iraq, with its oil fields in the crosshairs. Still on the president’s desk, however, was the Taliban’s offer to surrender Osama bin Laden.
Kabbir Mohabbat was retained as a consultant to the National Security Council, but received no immediate assignment. Instead he was given a copy of a letter the Administration had sent to the Taliban: the new government was still “settling in,” and wished to postpone the handover.[vi]
This was the first refusal of the Bush Administration to take custody of Osama bin Laden. There would be four more, two prior to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and two more immediately thereafter.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/12/15/george-w-bushs-criminal-wars-of-aggression-a-detailed-history/

Posted by: mauisurfer | Dec 15 2016 18:55 utc | 159

“Kill Lists, proxy jihadist …” Posted by: jfl | Dec 14, 2016 10:19:45 PM | 119
I was mentally slow when I have read it. Why jfl exhorts us to kill Lists, does he mean Lister? You can see how a proxy jihadist looks like back in his liar. But do not take law into your hands!

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Dec 15 2016 18:57 utc | 160

Clash Of The Titans! Democracy Now Create #Fakenews?
Kenneth Roth executive director of Human Rights Watch and Stephen Cohen debates two parts in Democracy Now: Slaughter or Liberation? and What’s Next for U.S.-Russia Relations?
Briefly, I never trust KR but follow SC on the web. Both videos with txt. You got to stomach KR lies and fake to hear Cohen excellent rebuttals. BTW, I never like Democracy Now nor the New Nation and Katrina vanden Heuvel. Democracy Now is DNC’s NeoLiberal mouthpiece and support The White Helmets.
https://democracynow.org/2016/12/14/slaughter_or_liberation_a_debate_on
https://democracynow.org/2016/12/14/whats_next_for_us_russia_relations

Posted by: Jack Smith | Dec 15 2016 21:00 utc | 161

Journalists must be able to witness the war
http://rudaw.net/english/opinion/15122016
Rudaw is some kind of Kurdish media group. What is funny is their insistence on real journalism from the Iraqi war zone. Did they insist the same from Syria? It looks like some of their main stories are pushing for Kurdistan independence.

Posted by: Curtis | Dec 15 2016 22:20 utc | 162

kilo verme yolları adlı yazımızda üst sıralara çıkmak için bişiler ypıozzayıflama yöntemleri yazımızda ise insanlara nasıl kilo verebileceklerini zayıflayabileceklerini anlatoyoruz.
göbek nasıl erir yazımızda ise göbek eritme ile ilgili önerilerde bulunarak insanlatın sağlıklı bir şekildr zayıflamalamalaraını sağlammaya çalışı
yoruz. Nasıl iyi yapıoz mu

Posted by: Bidobi | Dec 15 2016 22:39 utc | 163

@121, @118 pw4 ‘… this one’s fakenews of the very first water, sans the label.’
i don’t mean that you are pushing this as more than it is, but that the fakenews machine could flood the media with it as real, fakenews … it’s at least as believable as most of the stuff that surfaces … your usual reference to tinfoil hats and outright speculation are much appreciated. i think your speculations are good approximations of what’s actually going/gone down, in many cases.

Posted by: jfl | Dec 16 2016 0:46 utc | 164

167 Jack Smith
Thanks for that. I enjoyed and would recommend.
Worth watching for the familiar State Dept/Corporate MSM stench of effortless superiority that surrounds everything that Roth says in response to Cohen.
“Let’s get back to reality here…” Roth says, after Cohen had raised many well-reasoned, sane, contrary points of view to the narrative Roth was spinning. Cohen may as well have been better served in deep conversation with a 80kg piece of granite.
By the end, Cohen was in a different class. Cohen lost his rag a little in the closing stages as Roth refused to engage in kind to how Cohen was receiving Roth.
For those familiar with the dark arts of Roth you can guess, of course, that he was unable to take the blinkers off…tunnel vision…a devoted servant to the establishment narrative on the Syria/Russian boogeyman.

Posted by: MadMax2 | Dec 16 2016 7:56 utc | 165

Pure denial. MSM worldview is in jeopardy. It’s so painful to them that any new that get them distracted from that threat is welcomed in the way a very thirsty person would welcome a drop of water. Those news are distracting them from the big issue. Allepo is free. That distraction allows them to consider that nothing is lost. They keep on believing in their worldview. If that disappears, it would be horrendous. They’re protecting their “safe zone”

Posted by: DidierF | Dec 16 2016 14:10 utc | 166

An explosion rocked a southeastern neighbourhood of Syria’s capital on Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Britain-based monitor said it was unclear what had caused the blast in the Midan district of Damascus but that some people may have been wounded.
Syrian state television said a young girl aged about nine blew herself up inside the station and showed blurred images of what looked like a blackened girl’s head in a blanket.
A witness in the area of the blast told Reuters a young girl entered the police station and, after asking to go to the toilet, blew herself up.
=====
Moderates?
PS. There is a claim that the bomb installed on a girl was activated by remote control. There is also a pretty gruesome pic on Twitter.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Dec 16 2016 16:30 utc | 167

graphic pic of what remains of a teen suicide bomber who just detonated a bomb in Damascus on maytham956 twitter
you understand the French had to turn off the light of Eiffel tower to show their solidarity with the terrorists kicked off of Aleppo.
they are just freaked out that the same happens here. so let’s call it blackmail.

Posted by: Mina | Dec 16 2016 16:40 utc | 168

..like this one
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-38343124

Posted by: Mina | Dec 16 2016 16:46 utc | 169

I have become a regular listener to the John Batchelor-Stephen Cohen interviews since 2014, when the US set up the coup in Kiev. Cohen is a scholar and also provides many personal insights into life and politics in Russia.
The rabidly pro-Clinton blurbs I get via email from the Nation provide a rather stark contrast to Cohen’s clear condemnations of the neo-McCarthyism originating from Hillary and friends. Given that Cohen’s wife is the editor of the Nation, I have to think that Cohen has been spending his nights sleeping on the couch as of late.

Posted by: Perimetr | Dec 16 2016 18:57 utc | 170

About @173, @174, @175 etc.
One effect of long wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria etc. is that thousands of people become literally deranged. You have huge stresses and total reversal of human norms. Damage to societies is so enormous that a talk about “liberty” is actually sick.
From Wikipedia:
In Leviathan, Hobbes set out his doctrine of the foundation of states and legitimate governments and creating an objective science of morality. This gave rise to social contract theory. Leviathan was written during the English Civil War; much of the book is occupied with demonstrating the necessity of a strong central authority to avoid the evil of discord and civil war.
Beginning from a mechanistic understanding of human beings and their passions, Hobbes postulates what life would be like without government, a condition which he calls the state of nature. In that state, each person would have a right, or license, to everything in the world. This, Hobbes argues, would lead to a “war of all against all” (bellum omnium contra omnes). The description contains what has been called one of the best known passages in English philosophy, which describes the natural state humankind would be in, were it not for political community.
Back to Piotr: Hobbes wrote political theory, but as he lived through a civil war, he wrote on the basis of actual experience. I would additionally observe that the war madness affects not only the actual participants and victims but also those who “participate vicariously” through the media or groupthink rituals in think tanks, agencies etc. Some victims should be given counseling and be carefully separated from positions of responsibility (I would also take away their firearm permits, but in USA this is just not done).

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Dec 16 2016 19:53 utc | 171

The Security Council meets in secret after the arrest of NATO officers in Aleppo

The Security Council meets in secret, Friday 16 December 2016 at 17.00 universal time – NATO officers were arrested this morning by Syrian Special Forces in a bunker in East Aleppo.

Posted by: ProPeace | Dec 17 2016 9:59 utc | 172

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