Al-Qaeda Cut Leaves 5 Million Thirsty In Damascus - Western Media Unconcerned
There is a humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Syria and the "western" media ignore it.
On December 22 al-Qaeda aligned Takfiris in the Wadi Barada valley shut down the main water supply for the Syrian capital Damascus. Since then the city and some 5-6 million living in and around it have to survive on emergency water distributions by the Syrian government. That is barely enough for people to drink - no washing, no showers and no water dependent production is possible.
This shut down is part of a wider, seemingly coordinated strategy to deprive all government held areas of utility supplies. Two days ago the Islamic State shut down a major water intake for Aleppo from the Euphrates. High voltage electricity masts on lines feeding Damascus have been destroyed and repair teams, unlike before, denied access. Gas supplies to parts of Damascus are also cut. A similar tactic was used by the Zionist terrorists of the Haganah who in 1947/48 poisoned and blew up the water mains and oil pipelines to Palestinian Haifa.
Wadi Barada is a river valley some 10 miles west of Damascus at the mountain range between Lebanon and Syria. It has been in the hands of local insurgents since 2012. The area was since loosely surrounded by Syrian government forces and their allies from Hizbullah.
Two springs in the area provide the water for Damascus which is treated locally and then pumped through pipelines into the city's distribution network. Since the early 1990s there is a low level conflict over the water diversion of the Barada river valley to the ever growing Damascus. The drought over the last years has intensified the problems. Local agriculture of the water rich valley had to cut back for lack of water as this was pumped into the city. But many families from the valley moved themselves into the city or have relatives living there.
The local rebels had kept the water running for the city. Al-Qaeda aligned groups have been in the area for some time. A propaganda video distributed by them and taken in the area showed (pic) the choreographed mass execution of Syrian government soldiers.
After the eastern part of the city of Aleppo was liberated by Syrian government forces, the local rebels and inhabitants in the Barada river valley were willing to reconcile with the Syrian government. But the al-Qaeda Takfiris disagreed and took over. The area is since under full al-Qaeda control and thereby outside of the recent ceasefire agreement.
On December 22 the water supply to Damascus was suddenly contaminated with diesel fuel and no longer consumable. A day later Syrian government forces started an operation to regain the area and to reconstitute the water supplies.
Photos and a video on social media (since inaccessible but I saw them when they appeared) showed the water treatment facility rigged with explosives. On Dec 27th the facility was blown up and partly destroyed.
Suddenly new organized "civil" media operations of, allegedly, locals in the area spread misinformation to "western" media. "There are 100,000 civilians under siege in Wadi Barada!" In reality the whole area once had, according to the last peacetime census, some 20,000 inhabitants. The White Helmets propaganda organization now also claims to be in the area. "The government had bombed the water treatment facility," the propaganda groups claimed.
That is a. not plausible and b. inconsistent with the pictures of the destroyed facility. These show a collapse of the main support booms of the roof but no shrapnel impact at all. A bomb breaking through the roof and exploding would surely have left pocket marks all over the place. The damage, in my judgement, occurred from well designed, controlled explosions inside the facility.
Some insurgents posted pictures of themselves proudly standing within the destroyed facility and making victory signs.
There is more such cheer-leading by insurgents on social media. Why when they claim that the government bombed the place?
On December 29 the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs issued an alarm about the water crisis:
The United Nations is alarmed that four million inhabitants in Damascus and surrounding areas have been cut off from the main water supply since 22 December. Two primary sources of drinking water- Wadi Barada and Ain-el-Fijah-which provide clean and safe water for 70 percent of the population in and around Damascus are not functioning, due to deliberate targeting resulting in the damaged infrastructure.
One of the two springs, Al-Feejeh, has now been retaken by the Syrian army. 1,300 civilians from Ain AlFeejeh, the nearby town with the treatment facility, have fled to the government held areas and were taken in by the Syrian Red Cross. The other spring and the treatment facility are still in Takfiri hands. The government has said that it will need some ten days to repair the system after the Syrian army has gained control of the facilities. That will still take some time.
Western media have hardly taken notice of the water crisis in Damascus and their coverage seems to actively avoid it. A search for Barada on the Washington Post website brings up one original piece from December 30 about the freshly negotiated ceasefire. The 6th paragraph says:
Airstrikes pounded opposition-held villages and towns in the strategically-important Barada Valley outside Damascus, activists said, prompting rebels to threaten to withdraw their compliance with a nationwide truce brokered by Russia and Turkey last week.
Then follow 16 paragraphs on other issues. Only at the very end of the piece comes this (mis-)information:
The Barada Valley is the primary source of water for the capital and its surrounding region. The government assault has coincided with a severe water shortage in Damascus since Dec. 22. Images from the valley’s Media Center indicate its Ain al-Fijeh spring and water processing facility have been destroyed in airstrikes. The government says rebels spoiled the water source with diesel fuel, forcing it to cut supplies to the capital.
On December 29 a piece by main WaPo anti-Syria propagandist Liz Sly did not mention the water crisis or the Barada valley at all.
The New York Times links a Reuters pieces about the UN alarm about the water crisis. But I find nothing in its own reporting that even mentions the water crisis. One piece on December 31 refers shortly to attacks on Wadi Baradi by government forces at its very end.
A Guardian search for Barada only comes up with a piece from today mixed from agency reports. The headlines say "Hundreds of Syrians flee as Assad's forces bomb Barada valley rebels". The piece itself says that they flee to the government side. In it the Syrian Observatory (MI-6) operation in Britain confirms that al-Qaeda rules the area which "Civil society organisations on the ground" deny. Only the very last of the 12 paragraph piece mentions the capital:
The Barada valley is the primary source of water for the capital and its surrounding region. The government assault has coincided with a severe water shortage in Damascus since 22 December. The government says rebels spoiled the water source with diesel fuel, forcing it to cut supplies to the capital.
Surely a few people "fleeing" (to the government side) "as Assad's forces bombs" are way more important than 5 million people in Damascus without access to water. That the treatment facility is destroyed seems also unimportant.
All the above papers have been extremely concerned about every scratch to any propaganda pimp who had claimed to be in then rebel held east-Aleppo. They now show no concern at all for 5 million Syrians in Damascus who have been without water for 10 days and will likely be so for the rest of the month.
Posted by b on January 2, 2017 at 19:42 UTC | Permalink
Paveway's theory about the Takfiri hitting utilities infrastructures post Aleppo is alas materialising..
Time for the SAA to clean up the East/West Ghouta pockets and other core Syria regions before tackling Idlib or the East..
Posted by: Lozion | Jan 2 2017 20:44 utc | 2
thanks b... this is obviously the latest propaganda push from those 'moderate' msm outlets.. syrian perspective had some comments up today on this topic..
"Hundreds of citizens fled the area of Waadi Baradaa where the terrorist vultures have been cutting off water to the capital after Nusra/Alqaeda vowed to kill all civilians who supported the government of Dr. Bashar Al-Assad. Now that almost all citizens have left the area and have taken up the offer of haven by the Syrian Red Crescent at Al-Rawdha Town, scores of Ahraar Al-Shaam terrorists have rejoined Nusra/Alqaeda after their own leaders approved the ceasefire arrangement brokered by Russia. The Syrian Army has been given the green light to exterminate these psychopaths."
@2 lozion.. yes.. that was a good 5 days ago too, so obviously prescient..
Posted by: james | Jan 2 2017 20:54 utc | 3
which once again proves that the new ceasefire is absolutely retarded.
You can't have peace until you excise the anti-humans from the region
Posted by: aaaa | Jan 2 2017 21:02 utc | 4
"The New York Times links a Reuters"
Their news should read, What's that lassie little timmy feel down the well.
Amerikas lame stream so-called corp. owned liberal media.
Thanks b
Posted by: jo6pac | Jan 2 2017 21:56 utc | 5
Damascus is what they call a fluviatile oasis. That is, the river Barada comes out of the Anti-Lebanon range, from where it derives its waters, passes by Damascus and then disappears in the desert in an internal delta, which is called the Ghouta. To note here that if the water supply of Damascus is poisoned, so will be that of the rebel hold-outs in the Eastern Ghouta. As they have less resources, it may be they who will collapse first.
It is a critical attack, and I expect immediate action. However drinking water can be trucked in from elsewhere - it's very common in the Middle East today, owing to the decline in the aquifers, and there are many trucks available.
Posted by: Laguerre | Jan 2 2017 22:02 utc | 6
In 1945 the allies started bombing Auschwitz and the railroads leading to it. Thousands, even millions died directly or through the diseases deliberately brought on. The zionists and the media they owned blamed Hitler then, and will blame Assad now.
Posted by: Kenny | Jan 2 2017 22:06 utc | 7
Some terrorist fans claim it was an airstrike that destroyed the spring (conveniently leaving out how they poisoned it, often disrupted the water flow in the past).
They refer to a video that was published by Al Jazeera. It says to show an attack on the building from the air. However, a closer look into it reveals that the building was not damaged by an airstrike/"barrel bomb"/mortar shell coming from SAA/SyAAF.
This Twitter thread exposes the lies that those terrorist fans are pushing right now.
Posted by: wrathofaton | Jan 2 2017 22:51 utc | 8
[email protected] - I'm reading that Barada river downstream from Wadi Barada is little but an open sewer for nine months of the year. No water from the three source mountain springs flows into the river. They were essentially 'capped' with concrete accumulators, with tunnels diverted directly into pipes that run to Damascus. At one time, some of the spring's water went to the river. The plan wasn't to divert all of it. With the recent years of drought, nothing went to the river from the springs.
Here is al Fijah when they don't divert the water to Damascus. Apparently, this is how it usually appears most of the year. The waterfall thing is an overflow that usually isn't needed. The specifics are sketchy, but it seems to me the head-choppers poisoned the tunnels in the accumulator, not the overflow or the river. Here's the pristine, mountain-spring-fed waters of the Barada as they flow through Damascus most of the year. Actually, that's probably just surface run-off and sewage.
Supposedly not so bleak in the winter months when surface water from melting snow and rain contribute enough to make it look like a river. East Ghouta still looks fairly green from the satellite imagery, so there must still be some decent ground water that far out.
When the Damascus Water Authority detected the diesel or whatever in the spring's pipes, they temporarily diverted all of it back out into the Barada in Damascus, so Ghouta did eventually get the polluted water. The Barada might be flowing now because the the head-choppers blew a section of the accumulator - to block the Damascus tunnels/pipes maybe?
I just saw news that al Fijah was liberated, so the government is at least able to work on the damage. Water soon, I hope, for Damascus. Some areas still have electricity rationed to a few hours a day because of the gas issues (power plants are gas-fired).
Posted by: PavewayIV | Jan 2 2017 22:51 utc | 9
That should have been Ein al Fijah - the city - was liberated. Regardless of who bombed the accumulator, it should not have affected the water supply. The facility at al Fijah spring is not a 'pumping station' - it's a gravity-fed accumulator. Sections of the roof fell into the main accumulator pool, but that shouldn't have blocked any tunnels or otherwise interfered with the water flow. If the tunnels were, in fact, blocked by the damage, then you can be almost certain that rebels blew the tunnels which then caused the roof to collapse.
Posted by: PavewayIV | Jan 2 2017 23:09 utc | 10
The head-choppers blew the supply pipe to Damascus this October and otherwise 'turned the water off' before negotiating some kind of deal with the Syrian government. From an obviously rebel-friendly source on 8 Oct 2016:
Assad Regime Signs Calm in Wadi Barada in Exchange of Supplying Water to Damascus
Posted by: PavewayIV | Jan 2 2017 23:16 utc | 11
@PavewayIV
There are news now that say Syrian Army couldn't hold their positions and retreated...
Posted by: wrathofaton | Jan 2 2017 23:24 utc | 12
While in general this is a superb site, and as usual there was a lot of good info in this latest piece, the notion that there is a 'drought' in Syria is simply false.
The Syrian government deliberately created a population explosion, banning all forms of birth control and propagandizing that having lots of kids (even if you couldn't afford to support them) was a patriotic duty, etc. The population doubled every eighteen years... until the water ran out and things fell apart.
http://globuspallidusxi.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-real-story-on-syria-forced.html
Now people who want to distract us from the bad effects of governments forcing population growth to a rate greater more than the people, left on their own, would have considered appropriate, are left finding excuses and distractions. 'Oh it's climate change'. Rubbish.
There is always weather, and it will always be erratic. Syria is a mostly arid plateau, it can support a reasonable number of people but it's not Bangladesh with the monsoons. The thing to note is this: as a rapidly growing population rapidly increased the demand for water, the water table fell precipitously... EVEN WHEN THE WEATHER WAS GOOD. This from wikipedia: "In the Mleita plain around the town of Al-Nabk in the Kalamoon Mountains north of Damascus, for example, the water table declined from 35 meter in 1984 to below 250 meter in 2009. Agriculture all but disappeared and the fertile valley was turned into a dusty wasteland." The weather was not, on average, especially bad during these years. It's just that trying to feed an exploding population with limited water doesn't work... and more people do NOT create more water just by their presence. Turning seawater into fresh water is very expensive, in terms of energy and capital, and using that for large-scale agriculture in a poorly-capitalized nation like Syria is PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE. And remember the zeroth law of economics: if it is physically impossible for something to happen, it won't happen, the marginal rate of taxation on capital gains be damned.
Sorry for the mini-rant, but I remain astonished at the almost total censorship of Syria's abusive pro-natalist population policy and its effects on the Syrian standard of living...
Posted by: TG | Jan 3 2017 0:02 utc | 13
@ Kenny | Jan 2, 2017 5:06:05 PM | 7
Historical fact or accuracy are clearly irrelevant to you ... take your medication.
@ TG | Jan 2, 2017 7:02:35 PM | 13
Transparent effort ... are you paid by the word count for that dross ?
Posted by: Outraged | Jan 3 2017 0:20 utc | 14
@PostedTG | Jan 2, 2017 7:02:35 PM | 13
Sorrie, find your comments unpalatable, rather put my money on b and MoAers here.
I have more to say later regarding water
Posted by: The Original Jack Smith | Jan 3 2017 0:31 utc | 15
''WESTERN MEDIA UNCONCERNED''! Dang this must be the understatement of the century!B did you just woke up?The western media sorry mean to say the presstitudes are and were in cahoots with the team chaos planned millions killed in MENA .The presstitudes are covered in the innocents blood and it couldn't be washed away.No wonder the new team is into 'twittering''?If anybody is buying the presstitudes stories about ,''the barrel bomber'' killing half a million Syrians or ''evil putin'' bombing Syria to the middle ages after everything is available in the internet, are these peeps not accomplice in the killings?...after all many rejoice in the 'muslim' blood splitting!
Posted by: Nur Adlina | Jan 3 2017 1:06 utc | 16
William R. Polk on drought in Syria
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=242150651
Posted by: mauisurfer | Jan 3 2017 1:09 utc | 17
Christian pseudo-civilisation, and its Jew-controlled MSM's disinterest in the plight of millions of Syrians in Damascus, should make people wonder if R2P was just an excuse to squeeze out some sincerely delivered crocodile tears?
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jan 3 2017 1:16 utc | 18
R2P was (and is) just an excuse to squeeze out some sincerely delivered crocodile tears
How would the majority of the general public ever become aware given the blanket MSM/Political induced and sustained coma re, actual reality/facts ? Alt-Media and those who are 'aware' are a small minority indeed ...
Posted by: Outraged | Jan 3 2017 1:25 utc | 19
@13 tg.. obviously population growth is all syrias (err, ummm, that evil dictator assad's) fault, lol.. the source you give has 1 follower.. i am surprised he has that many, lol.. i guess that is you!
Posted by: james | Jan 3 2017 1:28 utc | 20
b, 'A similar tactic was used by the Zionist terrorists of the Haganah who in 1947/48 poisoned and blew up the water mains and oil pipelines to Palestinian Haifa.'
more war crimes by USrael/Turkey/KSA/Qatar/GCC ... how is tee-rump going to forsake al-CIAduh in Syria and elsewhere in the MENA when Israel orders him not to do so?
i hope that al-CIAduh can be decisively defeated soon, and the reconstruction of Syria begun.
hoping for anything from the usa, no matter which seal is clapping his flippers and mouthing the bulbs of his horns at AIPAC direction is foolish : doing the same thing time after time hoping for a different result.
thanks for the links to polk, mauisurfer. i'll have a look.
Posted by: jfl | Jan 3 2017 1:28 utc | 21
It's probably time to stop using Fake War On Terror Fairy Tale language and to start referring to Al-Qaeda by the technically correct name which more accurately reflects its (Great Satan) origins.
Al-CIA-duh
It's not what one would call a well-kept secret that the CIA invented Al-Qaeda in the 1980s to make life uncomfortable for the Russian army in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jan 3 2017 1:48 utc | 22
Middle East Population - All Ages
South America ex Brasil - All Ages.
Graphs are from www.mortality-trends.org using WHO data.
Posted by: PavewayIV | Jan 3 2017 1:55 utc | 23
thanks PavewayIV
looks like syrian population has grown at a far lower rate
than most other arab nations
interesting how saudi population has grown at fastest rate and receives the most $ and weapons from usa of any muslim state
Posted by: mauisurfer | Jan 3 2017 2:07 utc | 24
@17 mauisurfer.. i am hit and miss with polks comments.. i liked this one from the bottom link you provided - near the bottom of the article as well..
"In Syria, we are engaged in arming, training and funding essentially the same people whom the new Egyptian regime is about to hang and whom we are considering bombing in Iraq. In Iraq, we are about to become engaged in supporting the regime we installed and which is the close ally of the Syrian and Iranian regimes that we have been trying for years to destroy; yet in Iran, we appear to be on the point of reversing our policy of destroying its government and seeking its help to defeat the insurgents in Iraq. And on and on." that's from june 2014.. clearly he sees how deranged usa foreign policy is.. i suppose one could imagine him having anticipated the past few years of obama insanity, which seems to be coming to a climax with it's russian hate propaganda here..
Posted by: james | Jan 3 2017 2:11 utc | 25
forgot to mention
15 of 19 hijackers on 911 were saudi
none were syrian
Nationality Number
Saudi Arabia
15
United Arab Emirates
2
Egypt
1
Lebanon
1
Posted by: mauisurfer | Jan 3 2017 2:14 utc | 26
[email protected] - I won't weigh in on global warming except to note that deniers central claim is that the data from this C02 vs Surface Temp chart had undergone repeated suspicious revisions to the raw data for the period prior to 1960. All those adjustments lowered the pre-1960 raw measurements (for a variety of very questionable scientific reasons) until they 'matched' the CO2 curve. I believe the raw data was about a half-degree higher pre-1960. If you move that section of the mean surface temp curve up, you see the periodic meso-fluctuation that have happened for the last few thousand years. The 'deniers' claim the raw data was simply massaged to fit a pre-defined outcome.
Personally, I trust the ice cores over Soros-funded scientists (but I'm kind of a whack-job about that).
Posted by: PavewayIV | Jan 3 2017 2:20 utc | 27
This is messed up, but predictable now that Al-Qaeda is clearly losing control of their territories (or is it "terror-tories"?). "Since we can't control it, we'll destroy things for everyone! Wah wah wah!"
Also predictable that the West cares nothing for the citizens of Syria. If they cared in the first place, they wouldn't have supported a foreign-led invasion of the country falsely called a civil war.
Posted by: WorldBLee | Jan 3 2017 2:38 utc | 28
@27 paveway.. i was giving that link @20 as it included world population growth charts, with one showing how it broke down via socio-economics too.. it challenged the content of the link @13 tg offered.
Posted by: james | Jan 3 2017 2:42 utc | 29
"A search for Barada on the Washington Post website"
Have you tried running that search on rt.com?
https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=inurl:rt.com+barada
"Western media"
& "partners"
.
Posted by: nobody | Jan 3 2017 2:44 utc | 30
PavewayIV @ 27 wrote
”I won't weigh in on global warming except to note that deniers central claim is that the data from this C02 vs Surface Temp chart had undergone repeated suspicious revisions to the raw data for the period prior to 1960. All those adjustments lowered the pre-1960 raw measurements (for a variety of very questionable scientific reasons) until they 'matched' the CO2”[.]
"Global warming" or the new meme "Climate Change" I am in the skeptic camp on the evidence. Proponents ignore important facts:
How The World Was Deceived About Global Warming & Climate Change- Dr. Tim Ball
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-08-04/dr-tim-ball-how-world-was-deceived-about-global-warming-climate-change
Dr. Ball notes the Malinkovitch Cycles.
~ ~ ~
Physicist who foresees global cooling says other scientists tried to ‘silence’ her
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/aug/10/physicist-who-foresees-global-cooling-says-other-s/
Posted by: likklemore | Jan 3 2017 3:06 utc | 31
The latest Reuters story has the so-called moderate rebels disavowing the ceasefire due to Syrian government military activity in the Wada Barada valley. No mention in the report about the Damascus water supply being sabotaged. Information ommission usually has a purpose; in this case it allows the "rebels" to stay outside of a peace process brokered by Russia / Iran/ Turkey, and removes al-Qaeda from a narrative featuring Syrian army and Hezbollah allies attacking civilians yet again.
Posted by: jayc | Jan 3 2017 3:24 utc | 32
@TG, Onn Wincker, cited in The so-called "Real Story", is an Israeli "scholar", according to Google. I can see why he might be anxious at the proliferation of pesky Ay-rabs. But where does he, or anyone, state that Assad outlawed contraception?
Posted by: ruralito | Jan 3 2017 3:31 utc | 33
The corporate media's pro terrorist propaganda campaign is truly despicable. I believe it constitutes material support. The editors and publishers should be prosecuted.
Posted by: Secret Agent | Jan 3 2017 3:37 utc | 34
@ jayc | Jan 2, 2017 10:24:13 PM | 32
No mention in the report about the Damascus water supply being sabotaged. Information ommission usually has a purpose; in this case it allows the "rebels" to stay outside of a peace process brokered by Russia / Iran/ Turkey, and removes al-Qaeda from a narrative featuring Syrian army and Hezbollah allies attacking civilians yet again.
Absolutely spot-on.
Precisely as b has detailed. Have been periodically monitoring articles in the English MSM across three continents, diverse ownerships, since Paveway IV posted the critical context and relevant detail re Wadi Barada well over a week ago ... none of the MSM have done so, occasionally a throw away mention, a few mere words, maybe even a short sentence, of 'water supply' without any explanation, context, description of massive civilian/human effects or responsibility/attribution for the water supply sabotage ... omission rules supreme amongst #FakeNews re the Empires campaigns and proxy forces, worldwide ... R2P my ass.
Posted by: Outraged | Jan 3 2017 3:50 utc | 35
Just noticed a piece by A.Mercouris in Duran on the ceasefire deal between Turkey and Russia. It is an excellent analysis. The ceasefire includes 50-60,000 moderate rebels. Seven organizations are listed and senior military officers from all of them agreed to the deal. Two these groups were ones the Russians insisted were terrorist organizations when negotiating with Kerry but it seems they gave into Erdogan's demands.
In any case if this ceasefire holds it will result in the demobilization of at least 50,000 fighters. That should a long way to bringing peace to Syria. But as Putin warned it is a very fragile deal and much can go wrong considering how deeply the CIA is embedded with those various groups.
Posted by: ToivoS | Jan 3 2017 4:31 utc | 36
34
The US "west" as an institution supports and backs terrorism. Political/inteligence/military/media.
A lot of scum has floated to the surface in the "west" and needs skimming off. will have to check out alibaba for industrial quality guillotines and pitchforks to process the scum that gets skimmed.
Posted by: Peter AU | Jan 3 2017 4:33 utc | 37
@9 the whole region is overpopulated far beyond carrying capacity - Israel included. You're railing at a mentality that's pervasive worldwide. Leaders all want pro-growth policies because it has a stimulative effect on economies, and provides enough soldiers to fight wars.
Tragedy
of
the
Commons
Posted by: aaaa | Jan 3 2017 4:38 utc | 38
I despise the headchopers as much as anyone, but cutting of a water supply doesn't strike me as something that would really concern them. Whereas going after infrastructure is part of the American way of war and might actually be considered an American signature. Ukrainians did the same thing in Donbass, no doubt under US direction.
I don't think cutting off the water supply has any military strategic significance, so it seems to be something that is done out of spite, same as Obama kicking out the Russian diplomats.
Just my two cents. I don't pretend to have any expertise on these matters.
@ Adalbrand | Jan 3, 2017 12:25:10 AM | 39
I despise the headchopers as much as anyone. A lead-in phrase, seeking to ingratiate with your intended audience ?
... cutting of a water supply doesn't strike me as something that would really concern them. Whereas going after infrastructure is part of the American way of war ... Your cognitive dissonance is alive and well, separated by only a full stop and a space between former and latter sentences ... ever heard of 'hearts & Minds', morale, will to endure, etc ?
The provision of a safe and reliable water supply for the metropolitan civilian population of ~5-6 million human beings, men, women & children, young & old, infirm or healthy, rich or poor, regardless of political or religious affiliation, if any, in and around the Syrian capital City of Damascus, is the very definition of infrastructure, tho you already knew that, didn't ya ? Disingenuous at the very least Alda ...
Posted by: Outraged | Jan 3 2017 5:41 utc | 40
The water problems in Syria and Iraq are to a large part not just a global warming problem but a consequence of Turkey's building of dams. I explained that in a piece some 18 month ago:
The Wars In Syria And Iraq Are Also Water Wars - More Will Come
But the governments of Syria and Iraq can do little to help their farmers. While there are agreements about a minimum waterflow between Turkey, Syria and Iraq there is no ways Syria and Iraq could actually press Turkey to deliver the agreed upon waterflow."Although current agreements between Syria and Turkey provide for 500 cubic meters per second, 46 percent of which goes to Iraq, summer flows can be far less. According to Jasim al Asadi, a hydrologist with Nature Iraq, by the time the Euphrates reaches Nasiriyah in Southern Iraq, a minimum of 90 cubic meters per second is required for municipal, industrial, and agricultural use. Sometimes, the flow can be as low as 18 cubic meters per second, so unsurprisingly the marshes are receding rapidly. Before major dam construction in the 1970s, the average flow in the Euphrates was about 720 cubic meters per second. Now it is about 260 as it enters Iraq."
Nearly two-third of the waterflow Iraq used to get is gone. There is no way to replace it. Moreover what little water is currently still flowing may soon be gone too:
"Turkish dams, of which there are over 140, have far more storage capacity than those downstream. And when the new Turkish dam projects are completed in the next few years, as much as 1.2 million additional hectares inside Turkey will be irrigated—an eightfold increase from today."
@41 b
The BBC of all places warned about this 16 years ago
"Suleyman Demirel, Turkey's former president - "Neither Syria nor Iraq can lay claim to Turkey's rivers any more than Ankara could claim their oil. This is a matter of sovereignty. We have a right to do anything we like"
For the Syrians and Iraqis, the political message was clear: if they chose to pursue policies disapproved of by Turkey, they risked losing their water supply."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/correspondent/958132.stm
Posted by: Bob | Jan 3 2017 8:15 utc | 42
[email protected] - You misunderstand Adalbrand's entire post. It's nice to point out how the water supply to Damascus constitutes infrastructure, but that's exactly what he/she meant. The point was that infrastructure attacks are more characteristic of something U.S. psychopaths would do vs. the head-choppers who are less inclined to do so.
[email protected] - It seems that way, but a significant part of the war has been control of resources. They are either an opportunity for extortion of cash by the rebels/head-choppers, a guarantee of security/non-aggression (as was the case in Wadi Barada) or a bargaining chip for getting the Syrian government to supply utilities to the rebel-held areas in exchange for oil/water/electricity to the government-held areas. That would be the intent in isolation. Taken together, the orchestration of such a wide array of simultaneous denial of utilities in government-held areas can't be entirely coincidental. I'll agree that the U.S. seems to be pulling the strings or at least encouraging the various groups to carry out these actions.
[email protected] - I think everyone is done beating you up on the 'natalist' theory. Population increases played a huge part (whether intentional or not). Climate change did play some part in the current Syrian crisis, however the Syria government compounded both problems many fold during a time when they could least afford it. I found the articles from Francesca de Châtel on her web site (or linked from there) to be well-written. This one suggests forced migration within Syria as a result of those policies contributed in part to the revolt.
9. Leaving the Land: The Impact of Long-term Water Mismanagement in Syria
It's from a publication by the Global Water Partnership, so it's bias is more pro-environment/bad government than an attack specifically on 'the Assad Regime'. Her articles DO seem to minimize the problems that the Turkish dams created (as described in [email protected] and his previous article), so take that for what it's worth.
[email protected] - "...There are news now that say Syrian Army couldn't hold their positions and retreated... Yes, I jumped the gun based on one account that seemed credible at the time. Seems like a pitched battle at this point. I'm actually surprised how the head-choppers can hold those little villages with such tenacity. You would think they would be sitting ducks in the valley, but 'owning' the high land to the north probably makes SAA advancement difficult.
[email protected] - Thanks for the links, but I regret bringing up climate change at all. It's one of those discussion-thread destroyers best left untouched here.
Posted by: PavewayIV | Jan 3 2017 8:26 utc | 43
@ mauisurfer 26: You also forgot to mention that the Arab patsies officially accused - in the West - of the 11/9/01 atrocities in the US were in fact not the real perpetrators; just the chosen scapegoats. So what does it matter from which states in the Middle East they were supposed to have originated? The false-flag was the work of US/Israeli establishment-gangster criminals anyway.
Posted by: Rhisiart Gwilym | Jan 3 2017 8:37 utc | 44
b - It's always interesting to see who/what Twitter is promoting. Rather than using a default of reverse-chronological ordering of Tweets, Twitter helps us to know what's important with their 'Top' category. Now one would think that's based on number of re-tweets or likes, but SOHR tweets make it (at this writing) third from the top with 9 retweets and 3 likes, while others have hundreds. Here's a search on Twitter for 'damascus water'.
Posted by: PavewayIV | Jan 3 2017 8:42 utc | 45
Brad Hoff at SOFREP:
Syrian water wars: Damascus still without water as battle for springs enters endgame (subscription)
@ PavewayIV | Jan 3, 2017 3:26:47 AM | 43
Not at all.
Who created, funds, trains, equips, supplies, directs & provides political & geopolitical cover and protection for the 'moderate head-choppers', both directly, indirectly & via plausibly-deniable third parties ? Where does the funding (billions), media and resources come for the creation of the propaganda and its dissemination ? The US and its vassal state 'coalitions'.
It is a historical fact that the US has a predilection for actively destroying or denying access to civilian infrastructure in its conflicts throughout our entire history ... and what have the proxies, and the US coalition(sic) been doing all throughout Syria, not just Wadi Barada ... destroying infrastructure, when their not seizing & using such themselves (airfields), or their proxies are, as a ready resource, a source of financial extortion or simply denial. Bridges, plants, medical facilities, water supplies, electricity, communications, border control, etc.
The other aspect of denial of water supply (and other infrastructure) is political delegitimization of firstly always Assad and then the Syrian government/military, ie portrayed as failing to service, protect and provide for such a basic need as potable water, to millions, ie the Syrian people ... think back to General Shermans 'March to the Sea' during the Civil war... the same with Oil/Gas/heating fuel, etc. This is used as an adjunct to military campaigns and the ongoing current crap of R2P in order to achieve geopolitical policy goals. Ie Assad is so evil he lets his citizens die of thirst or from diseases due to non-potable water ... yeah, NO-FLY-ZONE, NOW !!! Absolute self-serving crap.
Alda is a dissembler. Much as the calls for a clash of religions/civilization, denouncement of all muslims as being part of a hate-based evil ideology ... recommending viewing FBI/CIA supported TV propaganda shows about imaginary evil-red-russian-spies-living-next-door-in-suburbia ... etc, bullshit.
Respectfully re-read his post again and parse it carefully.
According to Alda, the head-choppers supposedly would have no reason to seize/destroy/exploit infrastructure, but the 'Americans' do. No, they are effectively one and the same entity, the moderate head-choppers are the directed proxies, the utterly expendable, supposedly plausibly deniable foot soldiers, serving the current goals of the US. And when elements are not following US direction, or under its instruction, they are doing the same, towards the same goals, with instructions from Turkey, Saudia Arabia, Qatar et al.(false flag direction/command).
Respectfully.
Posted by: Outraged | Jan 3 2017 9:53 utc | 47
George Orwell had these thoughts in 'Notes on Nationalism' Just replace Nationalism with, 'the West' regarding Syria. "Indifference to Reality. All nationalists have the power of not seeing resemblances between similar sets of facts. A British Tory will defend self-determination in Europe and oppose it in India with no feeling of inconsistency. Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them, and there is almost no kind of outrage — torture, the use of hostages, forced labour, mass deportations, imprisonment without trial, forgery, assassination, the bombing of civilians — which does not change its moral colour when it is committed by ‘our’ side. The Liberal News Chronicle published, as an example of shocking barbarity, photographs of Russians hanged by the Germans, and then a year or two later published with warm approval almost exactly similar photographs of Germans hanged by the Russians(5). It is the same with historical events. History is thought of largely in nationalist terms, and such things as the Inquisition, the tortures of the Star Chamber, the exploits of the English buccaneers (Sir Francis Drake, for instance, who was given to sinking Spanish prisoners alive), the Reign of Terror, the heroes of the Mutiny blowing hundreds of Indians from the guns, or Cromwell's soldiers slashing Irishwomen's faces with razors, become morally neutral or even meritorious when it is felt that they were done in the ‘right’ cause. If one looks back over the past quarter of a century, one finds that there was hardly a single year when atrocity stories were not being reported from some part of the world; and yet in not one single case were these atrocities — in Spain, Russia, China, Hungary, Mexico, Amritsar, Smyrna — believed in and disapproved of by the English intelligentsia as a whole. Whether such deeds were reprehensible, or even whether they happened, was always decided according to political predilection.
The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them". http://orwell.ru/library/essays/nationalism/english/e_nat
Posted by: harrylaw | Jan 3 2017 9:57 utc | 48
@ harrylaw | Jan 3, 2017 4:57:08 AM | 48
Truth! ... horrendously sad ...
The War Prayer
by Mark Twain (only to be published after his death)
The War Prayer (Youtube) - by mark twain, animation ... powerful.
Posted by: Outraged | Jan 3 2017 10:14 utc | 49
@23 pw
i was intrigued by the numbers at your link and started to fool around with them, moved to wikipedia and got carried away ... fun facts to know and tell.
maybe someone else will find them interesting.
Posted by: jfl | Jan 3 2017 10:16 utc | 50
@26 maui
all of them - 9/11 patsies - run by mossad, is my guess.
Posted by: jfl | Jan 3 2017 10:18 utc | 51
French media starts the school year with barada, blind regime bombing of Barada etc...
they enjoyed a deserved holiday since the 22 december when it started. maybe the Qatari were off too?
Posted by: Mina | Jan 3 2017 10:26 utc | 52
Russia needs to stop pussyfooting around and kill all these terrorist mercenaries of the west. Until they do they'll move around and exist in one form or another in one country or another, such as we're seeing now as terror formations moving into Yemen. They commit atrocities as a weapon of terror and deserve no mercy. Do the whole world a favor, liquidate every last one of them.
Posted by: Michael McNulty | Jan 3 2017 11:36 utc | 53
Same as it ever was ... or is it, The times, they are a changin' ?
Russia ready to help Phillipines in fight vs terrorism, piracyRussian Navy Pacific Deputy Commander Rear Admiral Eduard Mikhailov (& Russian ships), in Manila for a goodwill visit, also foresees future multinational military exercises in the South China Sea involving the Philippines, Russia, China, and even Malaysia ...
Forgotten/Hidden history (purposely ?) - Empire - Philippine–American War 1899-1913
Damn, damn, damn the Filipinos,
Slant-eyed kakiack ladrones,
Underneath our starry flag,
Civilize 'em with a Krag,
And return us to our own beloved homes.
The Krag being the US army service rifle at the time, and 'Civilizing the Filipinos' was the slogan of the American president in that period, William Taft.
Philippine–American_War#American_atrocities
The Philippine American War-The Shocking Truth
(Youtube) 05Min29sec
The Philippine Insurrection (1899-1913) and the word ‘Boondocks’ | War and Etymology
(Youtube) 07Min36sec
Posted by: Outraged | Jan 3 2017 12:06 utc | 54
@outraged:
Everything we have been told about WWII are lies. Below is one small contradiction of the cognitive dissonance spewing from the worlds greatest tribe of liars.
From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monowitz_concentration_camp
Monowitz (also called Monowitz-Buna or Auschwitz III)
Monowitz/Buna-Werke bombed
Auschwitz I, II and III complex.
The Allies bombed the I.G. Farben factories at Monowitz four times, all of them during the last year of the war.
The first raid was conducted August 20, 1944 by 127 B-17 Flying Fortresses of the 15th U.S. Army Air Force based in Foggia Italy. The first bombing started at 10:32 p.m. and lasted for 28 minutes. A total of 1,336 500 lb. high explosive bombs were dropped from an altitude of between 26,000 and 29,000 feet.
On September 13, 1944 96 B-24 Liberators bombed Monowitz in an air raid that lasted 13 minutes.
The third attack occurred on December 18, 1944 by two B-17s and 47 B-24s, 436 500 lb. bombs were dropped.
The fourth and last attack was on December 26, 1944 by 95 B-24s; a total of 679 500 lb. bombs were dropped.
Posted by: Kenny | Jan 3 2017 12:08 utc | 55
@17 maui s
i think the 1st of the polk links is pretty weak - npr - but the second 2 look good. i'm reading them now ... but what strikes me immediately in the second is the recognition of 'climate change' and its role in Syria.
that role is much wider spread than Syria and will be recognized - as it has been by the neo-cons and the cia - as the occasion of stress, distress, and unrest. the neo-cons and the cia view that as a 'good thing', of course, something they can 'build' on ... that is, use as a spring board for more death, devastation and destruction.
christian parenti, michael parenti's son, has written Tropic of Chaos, in which he explores the implications of just this phenomenon.
Of course protocol i, chapter iii of the geneva conventions outlaws all of this ...
Articles 51 and 54 outlaw indiscriminate attacks on civilian populations, and destruction of food, water, and other materials needed for survival. Indiscriminate attacks include directly attacking civilian (non-military) targets, but also using technology such as biological weapons, nuclear weapons and land mines, whose scope of destruction cannot be limited.[6] A total war that does not distinguish between civilian and military targets is considered a war crime.Articles 56 and 53 outlaw attacks on dams, dikes, nuclear generating stations, and places of worship. The first three are "works and installations containing dangerous forces" and may be attacked but only in ways that do not threaten to release the dangerous forces (i.e., it is permissible to attempt to capture them but not to try to destroy them).
... but the usa has always, since dresden and ww ii at least, disregarded the 'rules' and purposefully waged war on civilians ... that's the primary mission of the usaf: blowing up dams in north korea, dropping agent orange in vietnam, as well as using 'depleted' uranium in iraq ... and certainly the usa and its minions will do so again in Syria.
the united states of america in the new american century is a rogue, war-criminal state, just as germany was in the third reich, and the usa needs to be recognized as such, and charged with its crimes, and brought to justice, just as germany was at nuremburg.
We must never forget that the record on which we judge these defendants is the record on which history will judge us tomorrow. To pass these defendants a poisoned chalice is to put it to our own lips as well.Nuremberg Tribunal.
Opening Address to the International Military Tribunal at the Nuremberg Trials (10 November 1945).
Posted by: jfl | Jan 3 2017 12:18 utc | 56
@ Kenny | Jan 3, 2017 7:08:39 AM | 55
OMG, you link to that! (your lies link!). Your bombload figures & dates, do NOT support your baseless deluded assertions re: ... even millions died directly or through the diseases deliberately brought on by allied bombing of the concentration camps in 1945. False!
Suggest you cease shitting and vomiting on the bar floor whilst pissing on the patrons with your Holocaust denial filth! Deluded, off your meds or purposely polluting the blog/thread ?
Posted by: Outraged | Jan 3 2017 12:22 utc | 57
[email protected] "The united states of america in the new american century is a rogue, war-criminal state, just as germany was in the third reich, and the usa needs to be recognized as such, and charged with its crimes, and brought to justice" Nice sentiments jlf, unfortunately the US will never be brought to justice with the present UN rules in place. Please read this article by Dr David Morrison on why this is so.. "Academic lawyers in their thousands may protest that taking military action against Iraq was illegal because it lacked proper authorisation by the Security Council, but it is of no consequence in the real world when there is no possibility of the UK, or its political leadership, being convicted for taking such action. It is meaningless to describe an action as illegal if there is no expectation that the perpetrator of the action will be convicted by a competent judicial body. In the real world, an action is legal unless a competent judicial body rules that it is illegal".
http://www.david-morrison.org.uk/iraq/ags-legal-advice.pdf
Posted by: harrylaw | Jan 3 2017 12:57 utc | 58
@17 maui s
the smoking gun from your second polk link ...
Four years of devastating drought beginning in 2006 caused at least 800,000 farmers to lose their entire livelihood and about 200,000 simply abandoned their lands, according to the Center for Climate & Security. In some areas, all agriculture ceased. In others, crop failures reached 75 percent. And generally as much as 85 percent of livestock died of thirst or hunger. Hundreds of thousands of Syria’s farmers gave up, abandoned their farms, and fled to the cities and towns in search of almost non-existent jobs and severely short food supplies. Outside observers including UN experts estimated that between 2 and 3 million of Syria’s 10 million rural inhabitants were reduced to “extreme poverty.”Survival was the key issue. The senior UN Food and Agriculture Organization representative in Syria turned to the USAID program for help. Terming the situation “a perfect storm,” in November 2008 he warned that Syria faced “social destruction.”
He noted that the Syrian minister of agriculture had
“stated publicly that [the] economic and social fallout from the drought was ‘beyond our capacity as a country to deal with.’”
His appeal fell on deaf ears: the USAID director commented that
“we question whether limited USG resources should be directed toward this appeal at this time,”
according to a cable obtained by WikiLeaks.
usaid, a condominium of the cia/pentagon/state department, did what it could to foster discord and strife ... devoted the 'limited USG resources' to funding, training, and arming al-CIA-duh ... the nobel peace prize laureate signed on for still more death, devastation ... this time in Syria ... and he continues today funding his ongoing war-crimes in the levant.
Posted by: jfl | Jan 3 2017 14:02 utc | 59
@58 harrylaw, 'Nice sentiments jlf, unfortunately the US will never be brought to justice with the present UN rules in place.'
your david morrison is ought but an apologist for war-criminals.
i note that he has apparently convinced you of the 'correctness' of his cause. his paymasters must feel their money was well-spent if he is so effortlessly effective.
Posted by: jfl | Jan 3 2017 14:06 utc | 60
[email protected] "your david morrison is ought but an apologist for war-criminals". You have obviously not read his article, if you had you would have seen this.. "It would be nice to see a future Tony Blair prosecuted by the ICC for the crime of aggression, but it’s not going to happen.Britain, and the other permanent members of the Security Council,which are immune from sanction by the Security Council or aggression,are not going to make their leaders liable to prosecution for the crime of aggression at the ICC". He is just telling it like it is, not how he wants it to be. In your opinion how is the US going to be made accountable within the present system, bearing in mind when Nicaragua took the US to the ICJ, Nicaragua won, but the US simply ignored the ruling?
Posted by: harrylaw | Jan 3 2017 14:58 utc | 61
As well as the US and the other 4 veto wielding powers being above International law for all time, as it was planned and intended to be by the framers of the United Nations, the US and UK who convinced Stalin of the merits of such a system when they pointed out that he too would have a veto. Here's what will happen if anyone tries to bring charges under the ICC against US personnel abroad.. "ASPA authorizes the U.S. president to use "all means necessary and appropriate to bring about the release of any U.S. or allied personnel being detained or imprisoned by, on behalf of, or at the request of the International Criminal Court." This authorization has led the act to be nicknamed The Hague Invasion Act,[3][4] because the freeing of U.S. citizens by force might be possible only through an invasion of The Hague, Netherlands, the seat of several international criminal courts and of the Dutch government". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Service-Members'_Protection_Act
Posted by: harrylaw | Jan 3 2017 15:47 utc | 62
One of the unfortunate by-products of the 5 veto wielding states power is that it applies to the friends of the 5 also. So that Israel and Saudi Arabia for instance can commit war crimes with impunity, confident [until told otherwise by 'the Don'] that the veto protects them also.
Posted by: harrylaw | Jan 3 2017 15:53 utc | 63
41
b, China is doing the same thing to Viet Nam and Cambodia with dams on the Mekong, but that's OK, because of Mao's Little Red Book. Both countries are being economically cratered by China hot money and privatization development, and millions displaced into terrible penury, but that's OK with MofA's. MLRB!!
AFA USArya's role in MENA and the Yinon Plan under the Trump 'Israel First' Regime, don't hope for improvement for Syria. Trump has no government experience, and can only appoint 3% of Mil.Gov.Fed 'directors' and a 'cabinet' to watch over a $3,4 TRILLION disappearing act by millions of Federal workers, who can't be terminated, and expect to retire on underfunded pensions for life, especially USArya's 1,000 Generals and 1,000 Admirals all looking for moar campaign ribbons, and war-profiteering lobbyist second careers.
Reagan, for example, tripled the national debt, and increased government spending by 60%, and enabled the Black Ops Bad Boys. Deal with that in visualizing a Trump 'Israel First' Regime. But we can't. We can't accept that Syria is a lost cause that Russia and Iran can't save, and that Ukraine is going to explode again (already has begun) and Russia can't reverse it, and that the Pentagon has an even bigger arms budget and needs to haul all those old ordnance piles out of 10,000s of rotting bunkers and start dropping them on the 3W, or that India is cratering and Venezuela is collapsing, or that US and EU are completely and utterly bankrupted, Japan is comatose, and China is red-hot radioactive upside down.
We just can't process reality anymore.
Really, at this point, what difference does it make? The Western world is moving into fantasmagorical thinking, Occulus Rift. The so-called industrialized kids have absolutely zero interest in politics, especially foreign countries they know or care nothing about. You can go ask them, US, EU, UK, AU, NZ, JP! You'll find, as you drop down from the 40's-somethings passing momentary teeth-clucking concern over world affairs, towards the 20's-somethings complete unconcern, an event-horizon moving invisibly with the speed of light into the future, perfectly represented by Trump's tweets, or any of our Pop Gods, or the joke streams on Reddit.
We are passing away! There is no bright future. We should be throwing chicken bones and reading tea leaves like Queequeg, sleeping on our coffins. Those of us here on MoA should be communing together over the Upanishads and the Book of the Dead. We should all be gigging on Fivrr, hand-crafting black poppies to pin onto the lapels of the corpses.
Posted by: chipnik | Jan 3 2017 16:28 utc | 64
@harrylaw, 'It is meaningless to describe an action as illegal if there is no expectation that the perpetrator of the action will be convicted by a competent judicial body. In the real world, an action is legal unless a competent judicial body rules that it is illegal".'
you're right, i haven't yet read your david morrison. i will do so.
but i don't have to do that to know that he is an apologist for power, your quote above makes that explicit, power and wealth make right: if the powers that are can avoid prosecution for a crime ... no crime has been committed. sheer casuistry. the jesuits shepherded their murderous patrons into heaven with such like.
Posted by: jfl | Jan 3 2017 16:47 utc | 65
@64 chipnik, "but that's OK with MofA's"
speak for yourself, mr nik. moa is not the landdestroyer.
your outlook is so bleak ... why do you so unrelentingly afflict the rest of us with it, in its thousands of variations on your one and only theme: nothing can be done. why? if nothing can be done? just jump, man. jump! jump! jump!
no! i got carried away there. don't jump! ... but do get some help.
Posted by: jfl | Jan 3 2017 17:00 utc | 66
@41 b.. some of us have tried to point that out here, but it generally falls on deaf ears... now it is about how assad removed the birth control pills - that evil man!
@47 outraged... i thought you misunderstood adalbrands comments @39 also.. to me they were essentially saying trying to destroy the water system would be something the usa would do, not something the headchoppers were as likely to think of.. now whether the 'moderate' folks the cia is directing did this, or it was isis, or al qaeda - it seems out of character for them.. that is what i think adalbrand was saying. my own take on this, is they are all equally malevolent in being able to do such a thing.. in other words, it's possible these monsters are working thru the cia, and just as possible they aren't..
@48 harrylaw.. yeah - nationalism sucks.. when you are put in jail for not waving a flag, or supporting the troops, and all the rest of the blather that goes with patriotism/nationalism - maybe those folks will recognize fascism when it reaches that point? i have no idea...
@64 chipnik.. that is true. and they are doing it with pakistan and india as well where they are supposed to adhere to a plan of sharing the water, but they aren't..
@66 jfl.. i think it is a personality quirk of chipniks.. some folks are lifelong devoted cynics - obviously more dark then the average person is able to imagine..
Posted by: james | Jan 3 2017 17:31 utc | 67
@63
I agree; the U.N. is rigged in favour of Zionists and their geopolitical view which coincides with Saudi Arabia's since Zionists want to ensure that Iran's influence is diffused in Yemen whatever war crimes are committed against the Shia there to crush them, but Zionists cry crocodile tears over Syria's Wahhabi rebels including al-Nusra and help patch them up when they're wounded.
Now they have Trump's unconditional veto at the U.N. and he'll ensure a pass for whatever the Lobby wants Congress to legislate. Just today Trump said he likes Senate Minority Leader and renown Zionist shill, Chuck Schumer, more than his fellow Republican leaders.:
http://thehill.com/homenews/312368-trump-told-schumer-he-likes-him-more-than-ryan-mcconnell
Posted by: Circe | Jan 3 2017 17:46 utc | 68
chipnik, if you don't do that already, you should write novels! what a style!!
Posted by: Mina | Jan 3 2017 18:13 utc | 69
chipnik, "...Here's your daily projectile vomit propaganda for the day from God's New Khazar Post."
Posted by: The Original Jack Smith | Jan 3 2017 18:34 utc | 70
On the climate issue facing the eastern Mediterranean, and its role in the Syrian conflict:
2016 NASA drought study
"A new NASA study finds that the recent drought that began in 1998 in the eastern Mediterranean Levant region, which comprises Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Turkey, is likely the worst drought of the past nine centuries."
However, California has been immersed in a similarly severe drought and yet civil war and international conflict hasn't broken out, as it has in Syria. So while the drought is real, and puts pressure on agricultural production, it can't be the main cause of conflict.
And on the population issue in Syria, recall the number of Iraqi refugees who flooded into Syria after the Iraq invasion and occupation? An extra million people puts additional pressure on resources in a small country like Syria; it's destabilizing for the EU as well - but it hasn't caused a European war, has it?. From wiki:
At the beginning of 2007, the UNHCR estimated that the number of Iraqi refugees in Syria was over 1.2 million. 80–90% of the Iraqi refugee population lives in the capital city of Damascus.
However, such pressures on the Syrian government did make it more susceptible to regime change games. The manner in which sectarian pro-democracy Arab Spring protests in Syria in 2011 were hijacked by radical Islamic groups financed by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the fact that the CIA and Turkey and Jordan began training and supplying fighters to overthrow Assad in 2011-2012 - that's the primary reason Syria descended into chaos and bloodshed.
Some of the first evidence of the U.S. State Department calling for a no-fly zone and NATO intervention in Syria dates to February 2012, from a Clinton advisor:
https://wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/emailid/23208
And more explicitly planned out, August 2012:
https://wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/emailid/7493
One year later, August 2013, the Ghouta sarin attacks took place, which were supposed to provide the rationale for that intervention:
https://consortiumnews.com/2016/08/31/when-putin-bailed-out-obama/
And on the CIA training camps in Jordan abutting Iraq and Syria (i.e. ISIS central):
https://levantreport.com/2015/09/18/isis-leader-omar-al-shishani...
This implies a massive covert operation that trained and armed all manner of groups dedicated to overthrowing Assad and installing a U.S.-friendly puppet regime in Damascus, run from 2012-2015 or so, which included the transfer of Libyan weapons from Gaddafi's arsenal and Saudi stockpiles to Syrian armed groups including Al Qaeda and ISIS groups.
I'd guess most people reading this blog are aware of these general issues but this narrative, while accurate, is unacceptable to the leading media outlets and their "official government sources".
And, to finally get to the point, this would also account for the media's refusal to cover terrorist attacks on civilian water supplies in Damascus, a war crime under international law, which could result in aid for the terrorist groups being cut off - i.e. see Rep. Tusli Gabbard and the "Stop Arming Terrrorists Act" introduced a few weeks ago.
Posted by: nonsense factory | Jan 3 2017 18:38 utc | 71
@ jfl | Jan 3, 2017 12:00:11 PM | 66
Happy New Year. At times we feel bleaks. My view moves on and gets a life..
BTW, how is Thailand? The military said no more coups that may bring relieves?
Chinese New Year (China - Spring Festival) just around the corner 28th Jan, 15-days in China and most SEA countries. Thailand has the most overseas Chinese in the world.
Posted by: The Original Jack Smith | Jan 3 2017 19:11 utc | 72
nonsense [email protected] - The U.S. has agitated for Muslim Brotherhood militant Salafi jihadists to take over Syria since 1956 (we didn't like the Arab socialism because it looked too much like Communism for some rednecks in Congress). The U.S.'s 1980s attempt was partially successful (Muslim Brotherhood militants took over Homs). The 2003 schemes targeting Assad were only the latest iteration of the U.S. pushing for radical Muslim Brotherhood elements to overthrow the Syrian government. And even the most ardent skeptic of such U.S. scheming can't deny the clear evidence in Wikileaks:
Julian Assange: US & Israel Planned To Overthrow Assad In 2006
Steven Gowan is publishing his book Washington's Long War on Syria this year. Here's some of his work on Off Guardian from October detailing U.S. designs on Syria for the last half a century:
The Revolutionary Distemper in Syria That Wasn’t
There is some reason to argue that the 'democracy protests' were not hijacked because there were none. The were all U.S. inspired Muslim Brotherhood organized protests to overthrow Assad - not for anything resembling 'democracy' but for a repressive, othodox Islmaic state as envisioned by the Salafists and Wahhabists. The entire scheme was merely billed as a pro-democracy movement by the PR firms hired by the U.S. and GCC. The U.S. was fully aware of and intended to foment a Salafist coup spearheaded by their Muslim Brotherhood lackeys. The intent was always to replace Syrian socialism with an iron-fisted government, but one still willing to sell out Syria to the west. The Muslim Brotherhood was hired for that, just like they were in Libya and Egypt (among other places).
Posted by: PavewayIV | Jan 3 2017 19:30 utc | 73
@ Outraged | Jan 2, 2017 7:20:30 PM | 14
What Kenny posted @7 was mostly correct:
"In 1945 the allies started bombing Auschwitz and the railroads leading to it. Thousands, even millions died directly or through the diseases deliberately brought on."
The incorrect part may be that bombing started in 1945: it likely started earlier.
In "The Fire" Jorg Friedrich reports:
"In the winter of 1943 - 1944, the Allies drafted plans to wage air war against Hitler's allies in southeastern Europe: . . .Sofia was given a rough time between Nov 1943 and April 1944 by British and American units, according to the method they used in Germany: day-night alternation, destruction of the water system, tearing up of residential blocks, and arson. . . . Air raid protection was minimal. Sofia lost several thousand residents."
Friedrich then discusses the massive citizen losses among other Axis populations in similar, or even more intense, air raids.
Then he discusses Auschwitz. Friedrich details the requests -- complete with lists of twenty sites to bomb-- conveyed from Chaim Weizmann and Moshe Shertok to Churchill, from Churchill to Anthony Eden, prompting Churchill's decision: "Get anything out of the Air Force you can and invoke me if necessary." RAF, however, was unwilling to risk the lives of British airmen "for no purpose;" moreover, RAF did not have visual capability to conduct such a raid, while USAF did -- they ran the day raids.
Friedrich writes:
"John J. McCloy in the Pentagon received four appeals to bomb the railway lines to Auschwitz. As his deputy noted, his answer was to "kill this." There never was a raid on this transportation objective nor were plans for it ever drafted. "
It is possible that Friedrich's research is incomplete and his conclusions premature.
The bombing- or not-bombing of Auschwitz has been a fertile field for Jew-vs-Jew and Jew-vs-FDR and Jew-vs-Allies recrimination. Most of these bicker-books agree that "the Allies consistently declined to directly bomb Auschwitz."
BUT the USAF dropped tons and tons of bombs on the industrial areas surrounding Auschwitz, a 35-mile radius with the camp at the center, with highly destructive bombing occurring within five miles of Auschwitz ground zero.
It is highly irrational to think anything other than that the communications, water, transport, electricity, etc. into and out of Auschwitz did not remain intact from the beginning of these intense and relentless air raids in ~Aug. 1944 and the capture of the camp by Soviet forces on 26 Jan 1945, causing the deaths of "Thousands, even millions . . . through the diseases deliberately brought on," as Kenny said.
At least eight important oil targets were clustered there within a rough half-circle, thirty-five miles in radius, with Auschwitz near the northeast end of the arc and Blechhammer near the northwest. Blechhammer was the main target—fleets of from 102 to 357 heavy bombers hit it on ten occasions between July 7 and November 20 [1944]—but it was not the only one. No fewer than six additional plants shook under the impact of tons of high explosives, including the industrial section of Auschwitz itself..On Sunday, August 20, late in the morning, 127 Flying Fortresses, escorted by 100 Mustang fighters, dropped 1,336 500-pound high-explosive bombs on the factory areas of Auschwitz, less than five miles to the east of the gas chambers. Conditions that day were nearly ideal for accurate visual bombing. The weather was excellent. Anti-aircraft fire and the 19 German fighter planes there were ineffective. Only one American bomber went down; no Mustangs were hit. All five bomber groups reported success in striking the target area.
Again on September 13, a force of heavy bombers rained destruction on the factory areas of Auschwitz. The 96 Liberators which struck encountered no German aircraft, but ground fire was heavy and brought three of the bombers down. As before, no attempt was made to hit the killing installations which stood about five miles to the west.
On December 18 and also on December 26, American bombers again struck Auschwitz as an industrial target.
Beginning in early July, then, air strikes in the area were extensive. For example, two days after the first raid on Auschwitz, 261 Flying Fortresses and Liberators bombed the Blechhammer and Odertal oil refineries. Many of them passed within forty miles of Auschwitz soon after leaving their targets. On August 27, another 350 heavy bombers struck Blechhammer. Two days after that, 218 heavies hit Moravska-Ostrava and Oderberg (Bohumin), both within forty-five miles of Auschwitz. Not long before, on August 7, heavy bombers had carried out attacks on both sides of Auschwitz on the same day: 357 had bombed Blechhammer, and 55 had hit Trzebinia, only thirteen miles northeast of Auschwitz. https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/why-auschwitz-was-never-bombed/
The zionists and the media they owned blamed Hitler then, and will blame Assad now.
Michael O'Hanlon, mouthpiece for Haim Saban's Brookings Institute, did just that, blame Assad, in an appearance on C Span's Washington Journal on 1 Jan 2017 https://www.c-span.org/video/?420590-5/washington-journal-michael-ohanlon-discusses-foreign-policy-hotspots-2017
"Assad dropped barrel bombs on Syrian civilians!! He must be removed from power!!"
---
Even the eggheads among us (or mostly the eggheads . . .) have been trained to recite: "Victors write the history," and also, "Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it."
Q.E.D.
Does anyone need any greater (or more tragic) proof that much of what we have been told about WWII and alleged holocaust was crass propaganda, and that the same bad acts that the propagandists concealed in the first instance by criminalizing full debate of that war, are being repeated by the same miscreants who committed them the first time.
Posted by: Croesus | Jan 3 2017 20:06 utc | 74
@73 Exactly. MENA's version of Latin American compradores dutifully answering to FUKUS orders, signing IMF loans and privatising anything worth a cent. Notice how all true democratic forces were co-opted during the Arab Spring and bumped in favor or salafi oriented parties, Ennhada in Tunisia and the MB in Egypt. I suspect it also explain why the FSA and other secular forces in Syria were never really meant to be properly armed and supported. Why would the US want a true democratic governmnent in Syria when an autocratic one is easier to control? Also gives insight into why Nusra et al raided many FSA arms depots txs to probable CIA leaks..
Posted by: Lozion | Jan 3 2017 20:16 utc | 75
@73 PavewayIV,
As I recall food prices were a factor in the early Arab Spring protests in 2011 across the entire Middle East, see this:
https://climateandsecurity.org/2012/02/29/syria-climate-change-drought-and-social-unrest/
Last January, it was reported that crop failures (particularly the Halaby pepper) just in the farming villages around the city of Aleppo, had led “200,000 rural villagers to leave for the cities.” In October 2010, the New York Times highlighted a UN estimate that 50,000 families migrated from rural areas just that year, “on top of the hundreds of thousands of people who fled in earlier years.” In context of Syrian cities coping with influxes of Iraqi refugees since the U.S. invasion in 2003, this has placed additional strains and tensions on an already stressed and disenfranchised population.
Food price protests don't equal civil war, however. The conversion to civil war and regime change efforts (as in Libya and Syria) required a lot of intervention from outside forces - and notice how in other cases, as in Bahrain, the U.S. helped the monarchies crush the protests. In particular see this Hillary Clinton email expessing alarm over reports the U.S. embassy in Bahrain was meeting with opposition leaders, in March 2011 (Bahrain donated $32 million to Clinton Foundation, unlike Gaddafi or Assad):
https://wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/emailid/24478
The Arab Spring thus seems to have started as an unexpected outbreak of populism in the region, which was largely either suppressed violently (Saudi Arabia and Bahrain), hijacked for regime change (Libya, Syria) or slowly subverted (Egypt). The claim that it was initially covertly engineered? Didn't that come later (sometimes within a few months)?
This article from Feb 2012 was prophetic on this:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2012/02/20/commentary/how-the-arab-spring-was-hijacked/
The main points all came true:
- The first is the way the Arab Spring movements are reopening traditional fault lines along sectarian and tribal divides and fomenting new internal ferment.
- A second trend has exposed a vein of religious extremism and promoted the ascendancy of Islamist influence, including in states that have seen regime change.
-The third trend is represented by the increasingly ugly regional geopolitics, which pits the “Sunni Crescent” led by Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates against the “Shiite Crescent” states — Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon
- A fourth trend is that the Arab Spring has become a springboard for playing great-power geopolitics.
I'd guess the Libya and Syria regime change efforts were more opportunistic than well-planned; the people in charge come across as short-sighted and reckless, just as during the Iraq invasion and occupation.
Posted by: nonsense factory | Jan 3 2017 20:21 utc | 76
@ Croesus | Jan 3, 2017 3:06:48 PM | 74
Bullshit! No matter the number of paragraphs you vomit up re your dross, it accomplishes NOTHING here.
In over ten years at the 'Whiskey Bar' and subsequently MOA, whenever serious goals are being kicked re the Empires propaganda, we suddenly get a flood of you Holocaust deniers and anti-conspiracy nutjobs ... well not actually, you're just 'instructed' to spout that crud ... classic Hasbara101, seeking to pollute the thread/blog.
The appearance of kenny & croesus (ProPornoT?) posts is in fact recognition/confirmation of the damage bernhard and similar sites do to the Empires propaganda. Well done b.
@ james | Jan 3, 2017 12:31:01 PM | 67
Respectfully, carefully parse Aldabrands post again. Read my off-the cuff posts in reply, then consider what b has just put up in a new thread, having spent time in preparation ... hm ?
Aldabrand asserts the head-choppers would have no interest in infrastructure, tho the US would, yet the head-choppers have, and do, and it's documented in Syria going back years ... and they act at the direction of the US or via third country false-flag command, following US direction, to achieve US goals.
Aldabrand alternately viciously and irrationally attacks islam (evil ?) and yet proffers cover for head-choopers by asserting infrastructure would'nt interest/concern them, contrary to the facts ?
Much like past posts on religion ... schizophrenic ... or about russian culture, and then recommending blatant targeted propaganda TV shows about mythical russian spies next door, supposedly in order to understand Russia/russians better ! oh, give me a break.
Demian/Aldabrand has been doing this for years, more subtle, less in your face, than the likes of Kenny or Croesus, however, it's all from the same song-sheet.
Cheers, my 2c is up.
Posted by: Outraged | Jan 4 2017 0:24 utc | 77
@TG comment# 13
Root causes of the Syrian conflict are overpopulation, (see mauisurfer | Jan 2, 2017 8:09:34 PM | 17), drought (1,2.3,4) , soil salinity (5) and water diversion by Turkey (6,7), which were exploited by the US (CIA) and salafist states (8,9) to create a civil war in Syria to depose Assad! Additional contributors were/are the failure of the Syria state to invest in modern irrigation methods (5); costs of refugee influx into Syria from the failed US conquest of Iraq (10); and more importantly the rejection of the salafist gas pipeline (11) through Syria fueled the conflict.
(1)Crops fail in Syria http://www.new-ag.info/en/country/profile.php?a=864
(2) Drought Aggravates Extreme Poverty in Syria http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2010/world/drought-aggravates-extreme-poverty-in-syria/
(3) Researchers Link Syrian Conflict to a Drought Made Worse by Climate Change http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/03/science/earth/study-links-syria-conflict-to-drought-caused-by-climate-change.html?_r=1
(4) How Climate Change Primed Syria for War https://climatecrocks.com/2013/09/05/how-climate-change-primed-syria-for-war/
(5) Agricultural Policy and Environment in Syria http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/y4890e/y4890e0d.htm
(6) TROUBLED WATERS IN RIVERS OF BLOOD
http://www.mideastnews.com/waterlaws.htm
(7) Dams and Politics in Turkey: Utilizing Water, Developing Conflict http://mepc.org/journal/middle-east-policy-archives/dams-and-politics-turkey-utilizing-water-developing-conflict
(8) How the 2008 Syrian Drought Fit US Geopolitical Plans in Middle East http://sputniknews.com/politics/20151110/1029880091/syrian-drought-us-obama-geopolitics-middle-east.html
(9) ‘Something is Going On’ – And It’s Worse Than You Thought http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2016/06/16/something-going- worse-thought/
(10) Iraqi refugees in Syria http://www.fmreview.org/sites/fmr/files/FMRdownloads/en/FMRpdfs/Iraq/08.pdf
(11) Syria: Ultimate Pipelineistan War http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/12/08/syria-ultimate-pipelineistan-war/
Posted by: Krollchem | Jan 4 2017 0:31 utc | 78
@77 outraged.. you're a thoughtful poster and i appreciate what you are saying here.. and i do agree that the new demian has a crazy religious concept too - as i see it anyway.. however he did caveat his post with the comment "Just my two cents. I don't pretend to have any expertise on these matters." @39.. lets let all that slide and move on.. i am happy to include everyone in the conversation on these topics, and don't claim to know that much myself. however i don't like the thread to get derailed with a conversation on religion either, so not sure where that puts me! cheers james
Posted by: james | Jan 4 2017 1:00 utc | 79
Ian [email protected] Reporting requires journalists - western MSM doesn't use them anymore. Too expansive and refuse to spew the party line.
This article was written in 2011 before Syria really got going, but the author - Nir Rosen - nails the dismal state of reporting in Iraq to a 't'. It served as the perfect crystal ball into western MSM reporting (or non-reporting) in Syria: A Critique of Reporting on the Middle East. Disclaimer: Nir Rosen has been accused at times of being an agent of Syria, American, Israel, Iran, Russia and the Lesser Futuna Islands - that's usually fairly good credentials for a real journalist.
Regarding Reuters wire service coverage of Wadi Barada and the Damascus water crisis, you'll note the two lead Reuters 'correspondents' are not even in Syra: "Reporting by Lisa Barrington in Beirut and Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman" It's a new kind of long-distance fake journalism for Syria: you just have SOHR on speed-dial.
Posted by: PavewayIV | Jan 4 2017 2:07 utc | 80
Does anyone need any greater (or more tragic) proof that much of what we have been told about WWII and alleged holocaust was crass propaganda.
Posted by: Croesus | Jan 3, 2017 3:06:48 PM | 74
I'd say there is still plenty of room for debate re: WW2 - espcially considering those using the holocaust as defence have been committing the same atrocity ever since. They've overused that card, less people are buying.
RE: WW2, there is no need to look any further than to find out what entities initially funded the Nazi party to power (on historical record from Nuremburg trials) in order for Germany to take an aggressive stance towards Russia (which was outside of their sphere of financial influence under Stalin.)
What these entities did not calculate was Hitler discovering the secret hidden in plain sight - a sovereign nation does not need to go into debt. After he discovered that, Russia was forgotton, Hitler in the centre of Europe HAD to be stopped.
I say, 'wake the fuck up and think a little.' How did Germany go from a nation on it's knees, mired in war debt, poverty stricken, crippled, from WWI to the greatest military power in history in a small matter of years? 0% unemployment, autobahns...how was all this achieved? Would love someone to explain that one to me.
Russia, Saddam, Gaddafi sadly fell. Iran continues to give the big fuck you though, which is great viewing. What's so wrong with wanting to free a nation from financial slavery in the form of debt...?
Assad surviving and reclaiming a whole Syria will be one against the playbooks. Long live Syria!!
Posted by: MadMax2 | Jan 4 2017 2:30 utc | 81
@69 mina,
well, a thomas pynchon he's not but chipnik does write well, and when he allows his outlook to broaden a bit he's a joy to read. no accounting for taste i guess, but that's mine.
@72 ojs
on thailand ... a couple of links from ppt ...
Mass Surveillance and the Militarization of Cyberspace in Post-Coup Thailand
New Social Media and Politics in Thailand: The Emergence of Fascist Vigilante Groups on Facebook
'no more coups' are invariably the words spouted by the uniforms just before they do ... coup. they've just moved the date for elections back another year. they've done that every year since their coup of 2014. they're working on a 20 year plan. think of thailand as malaysia and bangkok as singapore, without the official severance, and you won't be far wrong. the privileged minority in bkk think of thailand as their fief, presently covered by squatting thais ... but it's all theirs, no problem.
have a gander at Thai Government expenditure by region and population - 2012.
they seem bent on turning yingluck into evita.
Posted by: jfl | Jan 4 2017 2:44 utc | 82
Curiously, I've seen no reports of this story in the local Oz MSM Selective Virtual TV News.
Nor have I seen any mention of it on CCTV. However, "something" has been regularly making some of my daily recordings of SBS's CCTV broadcast become unplayable early in the recording. There's a still frame which freezes up the playback resulting in a long pause before the TV dumps the HD and resets to TV mode. This (inserted glitch problem) doesn't, and never has, happened with any other recordings of TV content.
SBS failed to air its regular, early am Tuesday, Russia Today broadcast on January 3, 2017, suggesting that the King of Oz (the US Ambassador) told his vassal, Malcolm Turnbull, to tell SBS to refrain from doing so.
Last night's CCTV recording glitch occurred about 11 minutes in from the start, during the Haftar Visits Russia story (but, luckily, too late to skip the crux of the story).
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jan 5 2017 4:07 utc | 83
@ MadMax2 | Jan 3, 2017 9:30:55 PM | 82
How did Nazi Germany finance itself during WW2? (History StackExchange)
They produced a large amount of war material during 1939-1945, but how was this production financed? What were Germany's revenue streams that enabled them to purchase and transport the raw materials of war and pay the workers? I doubt they were exporting goods during the war, so any revenue was likely internal to the country. Given the Depression was still going on in 1939, how did they pay for the war? ...A. I think the Great Depression was quite irrelevant for Germany in 1939 similarly to for other countries that took measures at state regulation.
As for the income, Germany was a well-developed industrial country with advanced technology. It was a pioneering country at chemistry, electrical engineering, machine-tool construction, railroads and transportation, metallurgy and mining. Its industry was known for exceptional quality.
Germany had extensive exports, which did not stop throughout the war mostly through the neutral countries.
With the German conquests German firms earned numerous advantages that maximized their income:
- They replaced or adsorbed the local businesses in many occupied countries
- They earned the ability to use cheap forced labour of the conquered peoplesAlso prior to the war any strikes were outlawed in Germany so that the firms could operate without risking with workers' protests.
Germany heavily relied on various forms of forced labour not only of conquered peoples but also of the domestic population. For example any worker knew that once he is fired, he would be sent to the front which meant possible death. Once you rely on forced labour, you do not need to care about money any more. Germany was really short only of foreign currency for buying materials abroad.
Also many categories of workers and farmers were paid with pseudo-money (occupation marks, ghetto money, camp money, "Ukrainian" and "Polish" money, Soviet banknotes) to minimize the need to use Reichsmark. These "currencies" could not be used outside of certain area and only could be used to buy basic things.
Also, Operation Bernhard used slave labor to produce counterfeit British and US currency, then used for foreign purchases and pay for foreign agents - Operation_Bernhard...
The recent book Hitler's Beneficiaries: Plunder, Racial War, and the Nazi Welfare State by Götz Aly offers a new and very important look at this question. It is the subject of an ongoing academic debate but many of the factual findings seem to be indisputable, if I understand correctly (haven't read it but read very detailed reviews).
UPDT: Very brief summary: The Nazis borrowed prodigious sums to finance the re-armament of Germany, the Autobahns and the social benefits the Germans received. "Fortunately", at the very moment the chips were due to fall and they would have had to face insolvency, they started the war and turned it into a great expopriation scheme. That the Nazis looted all Europe and made it pay and work for the war machine is quite well-known; Ali goes into great detail showing the mechanics of the process and showing that the German was effort was to a large degree a financial pyramid, where the conquered countries and the murdered Jews were looted to pay off the deficits the Nazis had kept accruing. He posits that the common German people were quite aware of this, grosso modo, and claims that this partly explains the tenacity with which the Germans fought to the bitter end (a claim that may not immediately follow from his economic data, as other factors, e.g. ideology, are involved). One detail for example: they herded hundreds of thousands of Russians to work as labourers, industrial workers and domestic help in Germany; they were ostensibly paid (very low) salaries - but these salaries were stashed into a fund which nobody ever saw. Another example: the Germans paid for goods in the countries they conquered (at least in the East) with "occupation marks" - an artificial currency whose exchange rate they loaded heavily in their own favour.
...
I remember a neat magic trick done with German bonds issues too, however, can't seem to locate the right source ...
Disclaimer: Economics is NOT my field of expertise in any way whatsoever ... YMMV
Posted by: Outraged | Jan 5 2017 5:35 utc | 84
@outraged 85
Great first link. Many thanks. We can today's financially crippled Greece (if Greece had a powerhouse industrial sector + had just come off 2nd best in a war with Europe less than 10 yrs previous)...how could Greece even contemplate another war in the coming decade...? Wall St. That's how. Always willing to tame a punt, as it ever was.
The following quote doesn't appear in too many textbooks, simply because it's implications directly threaten the slave-creating debt-money system we are born into.
"...We were not foolish enough to try to make a currency [backed by] gold of which we had none, but for every mark that was issued we required the equivalent of a mark's worth of work done or goods produced. . . .we laugh at the time our national financiers held the view that the value of a currency is regulated by the gold and securities lying in the vaults of a state bank..."
- Adolf Hitler, quoted in "Hitler's Monetary System," www.rense.com citing C. C. Veith, Citadels of Chaos (Meador, 1949)
Hitler created his own money with an age old ploy that is the essence in a nations battle for true sovereignty and power. All he did was put a price on human labour, instead of having a price dictated to him by a bank vault. If I was one of the 3 million desperate, starving Germans prior to Hitlers rise to Fuhrer, I would have fought...i probably would not have cared how my belly was filled.
This link says everything regarding his fiscal policy after being funded to power by Wall St.
THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX:
HOW A BANKRUPT GERMANY SOLVED ITS INFRASTRUCTURE PROBLEMS
By Ellen Brown
Trump should take note. Though, I think he's aware of the difference between a U.S. Treasury note and a Federal Reserve Note (greenback).
Posted by: MadMax2 | Jan 5 2017 15:52 utc | 85
@86 - Correction: 1st paragraph, 3rd sentence
We can imagine today's financially crippled Greece
Posted by: MadMax2 | Jan 5 2017 16:13 utc | 86
chipnik 64
*China is doing the same thing to Viet Nam and Cambodia with dams on the Mekong, but that's OK, because of Mao's Little Red Book. Both countries are being economically cratered by China hot money and privatization development, and millions displaced into terrible penury, but that's OK with MofA's. MLRB!!*
in case you havent noticed, we'r talking about 'supreme international crimes' here !
Nuremburg trial....
chief American prosecutor, Robert Jackson
* a war of aggression "is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.*
Posted by: denk | Jan 6 2017 4:24 utc | 87
The comments to this entry are closed.
"Western Media Unconcerned"
Yeah. So, western media might appear to be concerned if they could blame it on someone (preferably Russia). But western media has been unconcerned about so many things, it seems odd to point out this transgression. If their owners don't care, the media types don't care.
Then again, without this blog ... would anybody know enough to care? That is why B is critical (as in important) to the world.
Posted by: rg the lg | Jan 2 2017 20:37 utc | 1