hey – get better soon b!
i can’t understand the relevance of facebook… craig murrays post today just makes me shake my head… i guess it is the social media thing, but really, there are a lot better ways to share with friends then thru a cia/nsa run opt..

Posted by: james | Apr 26 2018 16:37 utc | 3

@ 2 babyl-on… you can’t expect the uk watching russia pissing on the propaganda outlet they’ve paid good money for, to be thrilled to see or hear anything about that! there will be a typical knee jerk response from the west on this claiming russia is making a joke of the seriousness of the opcw… and on and on it goes, as the stomach turns…

Posted by: james | Apr 26 2018 16:39 utc | 5

@ james | Apr 26, 2018 12:37:01 PM | 3
If you talk about relevance you have to take into account how the masses behave. And then it makes sense what Craig Murray tells. Just look at the figures!

Posted by: Hansi Hausmeister | Apr 26 2018 16:45 utc | 7

b, please get better soon, and make sure to clean your doorknobs.

Posted by: WJ | Apr 26 2018 16:59 utc | 9

I’m not sure if anyone, here, recognizes what the geopolitical implications will be if peace is declared on the Korean peninsula.
That will be a massive, global shift that will take much of East Asia entirely out of the US sphere of influence.
Yes, the US & Japan will work hard to slow that shift; but the inevitable outcome is the liberation of Korea, Japanese isolation, and the ascension of Central Asia as a whole.

Posted by: Pacifica_Advocate | Apr 26 2018 17:18 utc | 11

The tiny president in france love violence and war, just like Napoleon:
Addressing US Congress, Macron backs neocolonial carve-up of Middle East
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/04/26/macr-a26.html

Posted by: Anon | Apr 26 2018 17:39 utc | 13

Get well soon, B. I hope you didn’t venture out to a local Zizzi’s to see if its cuisine is superior to their Salisbury establishment. 😉
Meanwhile, I watched a bit of Russia’s OPCW presentation a little earlier. The contrast between typically mendacious, bumptious Western officials and the Russians’ lucid, methodical approach cannot be overstated.
It’s not just the politicians, e.g. Putin vs. May, or UK Village Idiot Laureate Johnson vs. Lavrov– it’s the military and technical representatives too.
I haven’t seen the West’s reaction to this damning presentation, but I expect that the US and UK in particular will continue its depraved and (hopefully) doomed strategy of simply escalating their rank infoganda and “sticking to their story”.
So the “Mouths of Sauron” in the UK and US State Department, etc., will “return fire” by insisting that the White Helmets and their blatantly fake propaganda videos are genuine and legitimate, and that the testimony and evidence presented by the Russians is fabricated– even the string of first-hand witnesses will be dismissed as either impostors or victims of coercion.
La la how the life goes on…

Posted by: Ort | Apr 26 2018 18:18 utc | 15

@7 hansi – i know… people are funny… i read this morning “61% of the American people approve of the FUKUS missile strikes against the fictional chemical weapons target set in Syria.” i guess that sums up the level of stupidity of people.. alternatively, polls are a perfect propaganda tool to massage brains… most just fall for them without thinking of how those who think this way, aren’t really thinking at all! i hope i don’t come across as arrogant.. most people are busy with their day to day lives and don’t have time to look closely at world events, or the backdrop to them.. obviously that is not the case with readers of moa, but generally most people can’t be bothered getting past headline news..polls are perfect for manipulating people accordingly..
aside from asking ‘what would israel want here?’ i also like to ask ‘what would lockheed martin want here?’ these crazed zionists and military nuts can pay off the politicians and msm all they want for polls and on and on.. it isn’t going to work.. the people that really matter are the people who are paying close attention, or as taleb nassim says ‘have skin in the game’..

Posted by: james | Apr 26 2018 18:28 utc | 17

Hope you get better very soon b. I’m not a dietist or so but maybe stick to yoghurt or something for a couple of days 🙂
Something completely different… the Syrian ambassador to China gave a nice interview recently and had this to say which many already know: (reaffirmation never hurts)
“Our friends here in China and in Russia tell us that we should not say this. Nevertheless, we do not respect the UN. It is controlled by many players, but in the end the master of puppets who pulls all the strings in the UN is the US.
[…]
So these are the major supporters of the terrorist groups in Syria: Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, France, Great Britain and the US. […]
Each one of them has its own terrorist groups. […] They are warlords. Their true doctrine and ideology is money. It depends on who is paying them.
They get their money from the Saudi Arabia and they follow Wahhabi model of Islam, which is not the model accepted by the majority of the Muslim people across the world.”

Posted by: xor | Apr 26 2018 18:48 utc | 19

@21 Nice….but it also means 35,000 US personnel and a lot of equipment with nothing much to do.

Posted by: dh | Apr 26 2018 18:59 utc | 21

Robert Fisk has a new piece on the Barzeh research centre. He’s trying quite hard to be equivocal but the overall impression is fairly damning of the Western spin machine. Early days, but it’s just possible that the Independent’s editorial policy may be starting to push back. Here’s hoping.
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/syria-air-strikes-america-research-centre-damascus-douma-chemical-weapons-gas-a8324316.html

Posted by: Cousin Jack | Apr 26 2018 19:06 utc | 23

@24 Is independent thinking permitted at the Independent? Fisk comes dangerously close. Of course he is careful to insert a few pokes at Arab dictators.

Posted by: dh | Apr 26 2018 19:17 utc | 25

@Ort
The other day at MofA I wanted to remark on Ort’s mentioning Building 7. I am led to believe it’s possible on this site to discuss 9/11, instead of shunting it away. It seems to be that b is probably open to this type of discussion. In contrast I was unable to have that discussion at CN. When I brought up any related question I was deleted and then put into the moderator’s hold position for every succeeding comment (whether 9/11 related or not), and delayed many hours or even days, which succeeded in taking me out of discussions. I am not at this time suggesting a discussion of 9/11 here. I do feel that were such a discussion to take place, a good starting point would simply be some important questions–as with Ort’s reference to Building 7.
My probe here is on what possible interest, should there be a discussion, what difficulties a discussion would present–these questions rather than initiating a discussion itself. I myself, as with others, have many, many questions. I also feel that the rot 9/11 represents needs to be cleared away if there is to be any progress to clearing off the corruption in the current US Establishment. Possibly, however, it is too late for the rot to be overcome, in which case 9/11 discussion only makes people more uncomfortable and angry. For a somewhat similar example, the Kennedy assassination is still not cleared up and remains under suspicions and is mostly speculative.
So again I probe here to see what you think . . . with appreciation.

Posted by: Sid2 | Apr 26 2018 19:37 utc | 27

Tom,
G7 Rhetoric would be laughable if it weren’t so deadly.
They’re shitting themselves right now at the prospect of cooperation btw divided Korea. They have agents provocateurs killing peasants in Nicaragua b/c the ppl there are generally happy with the Sandinista government.

Posted by: fastfreddy | Apr 26 2018 19:50 utc | 29

The Korean thaw is no problem for Trump only bonus. He can succeed by just going along and when it suits the USA to get all heated and belligerent you can bet they will. Right now it looks good for some even minute flow og betterment for people in the north.
Trump can start a colour revolution whenever it suits. His main game is protecting his majority in both congress and senate.
The USA also appears to have won in Armenia and that is HUGE as it is one of the essential pieces to block Russian gas pipelines.

Posted by: flamingo | Apr 26 2018 20:24 utc | 31

31 said:” What would a reunification on the Korean peninsula look like? ”
Maybe an expanded NATO. Just like when Gorbachev agreed to the German unification, on the condition that the West not encroach with NATO on the Russian borders. We all know how that turned out…

Posted by: ben | Apr 26 2018 20:50 utc | 33

b,
I am feeling the need to contribute to your site. I’d like to send via google wallet if that is okay, but if not convenient for you, Please post instructions. Almost anything except paypal would work for me. I thought you were going to leave the donate button on your homepage, but if it is there, it’s not visible in this browser.
Thanks,
b4real.

Posted by: b4real | Apr 26 2018 21:08 utc | 35

Syrian dirty war Backfires on International Media i like how elijah magnier refers to the msm – “Salafist Wahabist apologists”…. think i will use that too..

Posted by: james | Apr 26 2018 21:14 utc | 37

Wow, Syria is going to wipeout the majority of the “Left”:
Chomsky Among “Progressives” Calling for US Military Involvement in Syria

Since most progressive figures would never publicly call for extending a U.S.-led military occupation, this petition shows that the war propaganda in Syria – particularly as it relates to the Kurds – has been highly effective in subverting the progressive anti-war left as it relates to the Syrian conflict.

How he’s going to explain supporting kidnappers, murders, drug dealers:
Kurdish PKK and YPG’s Hidden Notorious Crimes: Kidnapping, Murder, and Narcotics Trafficking
Ethnic cleaners:
PYD Leader Warns of War with Arab Settlers in Kurdish Areas
YPG hopes to ‘change the demographic map’ in Al-Hasakah
Thieves:
Assyrians, Armenians in Syria Protest Kurdish Confiscation of Property
Child soldier recruiters:
US: YPG still recruits child soldiers in Syria

Posted by: Tobin Paz | Apr 26 2018 21:37 utc | 39

thanks to karlof1 at 37: I’m not looking to start a new discussion here at this point, but glad to see this is a site where such discussion is possible . . . Thanks for this reply.

Posted by: Sid2 | Apr 26 2018 22:10 utc | 41

@31, Almand
I am not up to date with the debate but as you know, the german reunification was more like an annexation of the GDR.
On a political level: Erich Honecker and members of the National Defense Council of East Germany were prosecuted after reunion. Any connection to the work of the Ministry for State Security would make a career in politics, administration or education, after reunion, difficult or impossible (while my time in secondary school, years after reunion, at least 5 teachers were dismissed because of that).
Economical it was a buy out, in parts prepared by western intelligence before reunion and corruption of Treuhandanstalt. Virtually none of the eastern enterprises (VEB) survived. But preconditions in korea will be different i guess.
On a personal level: Because of structural problems, some people of lower class in east germany, still preserve a kind of nostalgia. But in general, capitalism has won minds fast and wide. Germany today has no left anymore.

Posted by: Lil Bub | Apr 26 2018 22:22 utc | 43

@ 42
Regarding Building 7 and 9-11, I bet you’ve read it, but in case not, The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration & 9/11by David Ray Griffin is very interesting.
@ 40 – Thanks for that link. Jeez. Even Chomsky. Who would have thought.
Thank you for making this place possible, B.

Posted by: roza shanina | Apr 26 2018 22:28 utc | 45

@ karlof1, mk, lysias–my question is really the same as lysias raises (#43)–i.e. discussion of why the resistance to discussion (not starting a new discussion at this time). At CN, hosted by the venerable Robert Parry, when I mentioned that 9/11, in my opinion, should be considered on a list of false flags I was restricted as described above. Is the reluctance due to how difficult, complex, sprawling, and complex such discussions are? I just don’t get it (as with lysias).

Posted by: Sid2 | Apr 26 2018 22:35 utc | 47

I was obliged to go to a wedding of Guardian readers, which filled me with great trepidation. The groom was working class and thanks to the trade unions and the Communist Party (where he had met most of the guests) had gone from a carpenter to the position of Deputy Director of a large further education college. He also has a lot of drive, it must be conceded. On the way he had traded in his left wing views for some right wing Blairism, the Economist, an anti-union stance, together with some staunch pro-Zionist views. Obviously, he and I only talk when we have to.
The Guardianistas were all pro-Corbyn, which made me realize that Corbyn is a very large umbrella. The groom’s family, still proudly old Labour I was happy to discover as I canvassed their views, wore suits and barricaded themselves in a corner of the room from the Guardianistas. Yes, class is still alive and well in 21st century Britain. One Guardian type did wear a suit, but a very baggy one with the obligatory crumpled T shirt just to make sure nobody would think he had caved in to convention, horror of horrors.
I decided to postpone my alcohol intake so as not to get drawn in to conversations with stupid people – stupid in the sense that james has outlined above.
Instead I went downstairs and outside where the smokers were (Guardianistas do not smoke). There, a family member and I met, as luck would have it, a Professor of Geology, a Doctor of Mechanical Engineering and a British army artillery Colonel, all of whom were half-smashed. While they discussed the fleetingness of life in comparison to rocks billions of years old, the Colonel and I headed into the pub to discuss other serious issues – he had been in Yugoslavia, Sierra Leone and Iraq. It’s all about money is what he kept repeating.

Posted by: Lochearn | Apr 26 2018 22:41 utc | 49

Good wishes to b. for a Speedy recovery.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
There are musings/speculations or just wishing and hoping that Russia will “within a month” upgrade Syria’s defences with S-300s.
First, this would have to change:

Ambassador hails Russian-Israeli coordination mechanism on Syria
TEL AVIV, April 25. /TASS/. The coordination mechanism on Syria established by the Russian and Israeli militaries, has been operating smoothly and not a single incident has happened so far, Russian Ambassador to Israel Alexander Shein said in an interview with the Ynet news outlet.”
We have a mechanism for coordinating our activities and provide information to each other as far as Syrian developments go, which involves the two countries’ defense ministries,” the ambassador said, adding that “there hasn’t been a single incident so far.”
Shein added that Russia always took Israel’s security interests and concerns into consideration. He said that Moscow, in turn, was concerned over the current state of relations between Israel and Iran, as the two countries continued to make accusations against one another. The Russian ambassador pointed out that Moscow could not but be worried over tensions between Iran and Israel as both were present in Syria and their disagreements could destabilize the situation in the Middle East.[.]

Really!!
“We have a mechanism for coordinating our activities and provide information to each other as far as Syrian developments go, which involves the two countries’ defense ministries,” the ambassador said, adding that “there hasn’t been a single incident so far.”
Now we know.
Quick. Where are the barf bags?

Posted by: Likklemore | Apr 26 2018 22:59 utc | 51

Sid2 @48
I can understand Craig Murray and Robert Parry to a certain degree because the subject 9/11 tends to attract not only serious people, but also loons, arm chair chief inspectors and also outright disinformation agents. And it’s hard to sort the wheat from the chaff. I can say that from a year-long experience.
I think it would do this blog no good to delve again into the details of this now 17 years old event. The actual crisis is, at the moment, more important. My 2 cents.

Posted by: mk | Apr 26 2018 23:03 utc | 53

Sid2, mk. Besides what mk says, I seem to recall Craig or one of his minders explaining it (some yrs ago) in terms of just the sheer volume of nothing-much posts on that thread.
For an idea of how it may have felt, the Al Hilli threads on Craig Murray’s blog are still very much active, yet mostly all they do is go on and on interminably about (admittedly peculiar) murders in the Rhone Alps and across the borders in Switzl & It. Incidentally, there is fascinating stuff there, very wide-ranging, if you have time to kill (oops) and you trawl through the first couple of years of posts on the Al Hillis (go to the earlier thread).

Posted by: Plod | Apr 26 2018 23:27 utc | 55

I thought western media had sunk as low as it could go until I seen the MSM articles on the witnesses from Douma that are appearing at the Hague.
The witnesses are termed ‘unidentified people’, even though the boy and the doctor, and perhaps several others appeared in the white helmet video and all witnesses are named.

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Apr 26 2018 23:29 utc | 57

911 and education.
IMO, given the propaganda and overall indoctrination of the Outlaw US Empire’s citizenry since 1945, it’s best to deal with the motive aspect first before getting into all the engineering and physics aspects which tend to be tedious. I discovered the facts and documents related to Operation Northwoods upon their release by the National Security Archive on 30 Apr 2001 and hastened to add them to materials I provide students regarding the Cold War’s Missile Crisis. I’d already known of the plot’s existence gleaned from reading other documents from that period. The big topic many were busy examining was the 2000 Judicial Coup, and the relevance of the Northwoods docs to later events between 1962 and 2001 had yet to be completely discerned. What was very clear was the determination of the military to murder US citizens to further Imperial aims and implied mindset that they would get away with it. Providing such knowledge to average citizens usually causes them to wake up. So, my associates in the History Department and about 30 students possessed knowledge of 911’s motive–to further justify the establishment of GHW Bush’s New World Order and its Clear Vision 2010 policy paper advocating the necessity to establish Full Spectrum Dominance, while ensuring the continuance of spending at least one trillion dollars annually on the military and the Outlaw US Empire it garrisons.
After shocking students with the Northwoods papers, I found it best to review all the many illegal actions of the Outlaw US Empire since the adoption of the UN Charter, and to review the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause. I then asked students how the CIA’s formation and subsequent illegalities and the deaths they caused could be justified under domestic law. Knowing what they now knew, how did they now view the federal government; is it credible; is the major media? But I was the only instructor teaching these materials and lacked tenure. California’s contrived budget crisis of 2002 solved the college’s headache over me since I was considered part time despite working full time hours, and the state pink-slipped all part time college employees at the end of the 2001-2002 year. I was never able to further modify my teaching approach to 911 since I was no longer working in classrooms. I tutored and taught privately until 2003 when we sold the San Jose house and moved to Oregon, which ended my attempts to teach about 911. The most informative 911 bumper sticker IMO is: Kerosene Can’t Melt Steel Beams.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 27 2018 0:16 utc | 59

Russia “will not allow” another US attack on Syria premised on a false flag event…
That’s a strong statement if accurate, and represents a tightening of the noose around US freedom of action in theatre.
https://www.rt.com/news/425256-russia-wont-allow-attack-syria/

Posted by: WJ | Apr 27 2018 0:35 utc | 61

Don’t miss this piece:
Another Beautiful Soul: Counterpunching the Global Assault on Dissent
I was recently alerted to Sonali Kolhatkar’s Truth Dig article, “Why Are Some on the Left Falling for Fake News on Syria?”, which Counterpunch found important enough to republish under the title, “The Left, Syria and Fake News.” Kolhatkar’s article was introduced to me as the work of a “beautiful soul.”
…
The beautiful soul is consumed with “philanthropic fantasies and sentimental phrases about fraternity”, Engels once remarked. They advocate “edifying humanism” and “generic, vague, moral appeals” not “concrete political action” to challenge “a specific social system”.* It’s not clear what Counterpunch is counterpunching, but in the case of Draitser and Kolhatkar, it’s certainly not US imperialism.
Beautiful souls appear not to recognize that the war in Syria is a concrete political struggle connected to a specific social system related to empire; it is the struggle of the United States to extend its dictatorship over all of the Arab world and of Arab nationalists in Damascus and their allies to counter US imperial designs. All the beautiful soul recognizes is that people are being killed, families are being uprooted, small children are being terrorized, and they wish it would all just end. They’re not for justice, or an end to oppression and the dictatorship of the United States, or for equality; they’re for the absence of conflict. And they don’t seem to particularly care how it’s brought about.
…
In any event, whatever left Kolhatkar is part of, is not a left that has much to do with challenging and overcoming a real world system of domination, oppression and exploitation. It’s a left whose goal is the absence of conflict, not the presence of justice; it’s for pious expressions of benevolence, not engagement with a real world struggle against dictatorship on an international level.
https://gowans.wordpress.com/2018/04/24/another-beautiful-soul-counterpunching-the-global-assault-on-dissent/

Posted by: Allen | Apr 27 2018 0:56 utc | 63

Perhaps the 9/11 conversation should be avoided to better preserve MoA’s reputation and credibility. Sites such as this that offer thoughtful “alternative” analyses have been and will be attacked on any and all grounds, including the views of commentators. There are those who would like to see MoA lightly dismissed as “The site of 9/11 Truthers.”

Posted by: zakukommander | Apr 27 2018 1:22 utc | 65

what Chomsky is doing now re. Syria should raise big questions about what his role has been for the left in the past.

Posted by: paul | Apr 27 2018 1:31 utc | 67

A momentous handshake in Korea here.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 27 2018 1:35 utc | 69

@ karlof1 with the good description of my/our feelings about public/private finance on the other thread as well as nice definitions of some of the terms we throw around…..was my multiple globalists comment a bit of a stretch?…grin
And now I have forgotten what you have added to this thread but thanks for all. May I ask that you contact me through my web site for other Oregon news you might be interested in….thanks
Oh yeah, back to the karlof1 account of perfidy happening in the US and world wide in the 1940’s and 1950’s. I was alive at the time but very young when they changed the motto for the US from the original “E Pluribus Unum” to “In God We Trust”. It has always interested me what level of brainwashing must have occurred to make that a reality.
I am going to take poetic license with the terms in spite of karlof1’s example…grin
“E Pluribus Unum” = Together we can make better lives for ourselves
“In God We Trust” = Get in, sit down, shut up and hang on because someone else is driving

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 27 2018 1:41 utc | 71

@psycho #73:
Instills clarity…like an ice pick up the nostril. 🙂

Posted by: Dr. Wellington Yueh | Apr 27 2018 1:46 utc | 73

Myself, though, I think the 9/11 “truther” movement went wrong in succumbing to the natural but very dangerous impulse to supply an *alternative* narrative–and then multiple and competing narratives–for 9/11 instead of simply developing and repeating a negative critique of the “official” narrative. One does not need to have a worked out alternative theory of “what happened” on 9/11 to show that the “official” theory has all sorts of problems and inconsistencies. Note that 9/11 “truthers” are ridiculed not for questioning the truth of the official narrative, but for the positive claims propounded in their alternative narrative–and now narratives. This tells you quite a bit.

Posted by: WJ | Apr 27 2018 2:25 utc | 75

Lysias,
Craig Murray shut it down because the topic has a tendency to overwhelm every comments section in which it is brought up, thereby distracting from the main post. The topic of 9/11 also has the tendency to dilute the quality of a website’s regular commentary by attracting lots of non regular readers who are obsessed with the topic thereby leading them to all argue with each other. Everything else is drowned out. Indeed, were I working for the 77th brigade, and were tasked with delegitimizing the content or weakening the influence of a website like MofA, one strategy I would adopt would be to distract from b’s analysis of current military operations by continually raising the contentious spectre of past operations and events, 9/11 being chief among them. I am not accusing anybody in the comments section of being a member of the 77th brigade, but am just pointing out what should be already obvious to sociologically self-aware readers of this blog.

Posted by: WJ | Apr 27 2018 2:46 utc | 77

Pat Lang has very good post up on Jack Keane and AEI/Zionist long game for Syria. We’ve known this to be the plot, but the sheer explicitness of Keane’s pronouncement of it is worth attending to:
Toward the end of his discourse this morning, Keane, came to the crux of his argument. He said that a war is coming in which Iran, Hizbullah and the Syrian government will fight Israel and that the US must be in a position in Syria to defend Israel when that happens. Thus it is revealed that the source of Keane’s (and now DJT’s) thinking is simply Israel’s obsession with the hostility of the Gentile World to include all those Muslims surrounding them. In other words, Keane’s neocon pitch is based on Zionist fear.

Posted by: WJ | Apr 27 2018 3:33 utc | 79

I don’t like reading all this Zionist this and that in comments without proper social anthropological context.
By proper social anthropological context I mean discussing the clutch of monotheistic religions of the Western world along with the never discussed ongoing private ownership of the lifeblood of all western economic activity as the active Western myth/narrative.
I posit that the West thinks that it is fighting a mythological monotheistic religious war and the rest of the world thinks it is fighting against ongoing private ownership of the lifeblood of all global economic activity.
What are the proper terms for what I am describing karlof1?…grin…….new definition of obfuscation or just a long running historical example?

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 27 2018 4:21 utc | 81

A reporter for the Tampa Bay Times speaks with Sue Gordon, who is described as principal deputy director of the Office of National Intelligence.
http://www.tbo.com/news/military/macdill/Howard-Altman-Why-we-re-so-sure-Assad-is-to-blame-for-chemical-attacks_167665718
Assignation of guilt for the alleged chemical attack in Douma continues to be based on assumptions on Assad’s “intent and capabilities” and the White Helmets videos. Interesting to have such a weak response direct from a senior intelligence bureaucrat.
Her response gets even weaker when asked about claims the videos were faked: “It just doesn’t seem consistent with what the rebels would do.”

Posted by: jayc | Apr 27 2018 4:30 utc | 83

@ lysias 72
I was not trying to denigrate anyone. Just pointing out a reason to avoid the topic at this site. Interestingly, I just referred to 9/.11 in a coffeehouse community conversation. Some fellow was advocating his belief in the official US government line that 76 cruise missiles had successfully destroyed the three buildings at the Barzeh research center. I showed the group the most recent MoA article including pictures of the “before and after,” and asked why 76 cruise missiles damaged but failed to bring down three relatively modest structures, when on 9/11 a single plane was able to (twice!) turn a truly massive tower into a smoldering hole in the ground.

Posted by: zakukommander | Apr 27 2018 5:07 utc | 85

Have a look at this interview between the BBC’s Stephen Sackur and Fares Shehabi, MP for Aleppo. Sackur plays the BBC/FUKUS line beautifully and sets the poor Shehabi onto the edge of apoplexy!

Posted by: Bevin Kacon | Apr 27 2018 7:55 utc | 87

b, please get better soon, and make sure to clean your doorknobs.
Posted by: WJ | Apr 26, 2018 12:59:08 PM | 10
Ha!? I would rather learn how to open the door using your foot (not a bare foot, mind you). Cleaning the door handle may be OK, but this is not so simple. A chemical may permeate thin latex gloves and thicker gloves may be hard to take off without touching with a bare finger. The stuff is probably non-lethal, merely a trick to isolate the victim who later issues a statement that he/she will be secluded under the care of qualified agents of the government. Good bye, Moon of Alabama!
Under that theory, hire a professional cleaning service. If anything happens, they will not be isolated permanently.
[no my views, just some analogies]

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Apr 27 2018 8:02 utc | 89

Hoarsewhisperer
Not really an understatement imo, there is far too early to judge where this will lead – maybe nowhere. There are hawks in both countries, add to that neocons, america, media that will do its best to destroy this.

Posted by: Anon | Apr 27 2018 9:32 utc | 91

@92 — The Japanese must be quiet crapping themselves. Demographics on a national suicide plan; BoJ pumping the Yen like these was not tomorrow; competition from new ‘integrated’ (n)Korean workforce at peanut wages; and now just them and the offshore province of Taiwan hanging out there like Yankee dog’s nuts 10,000km from home base.

“We solemnly declare to our 80m Koreans and the world that there will no more war on the Korean peninsula and a new era of peace has begun,” North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean president Moon Jae-in said in a joint statement. “It is our urgent historic assignment to put an end to this current abnormal state of ceasefire and establish a peace regime.”

link

Posted by: imo | Apr 27 2018 10:32 utc | 93

Its laughable anyone can think Korea unification is a threat to the US . My lord, , people are getting dumber at an accelerated rate. No reunification occurs without the US permission. Any such reunification that is approved benefits the US.
What would be such a beneifit? A unified Korea against Russia. US bases are not contracted but simply expand North.
People, give up. Until you confront 9/11 you are babes in the woods. Trying to bite your own tail. Sad.

Posted by: Pft | Apr 27 2018 12:05 utc | 95

Syrian Forces Discover UK, German-Made Chemical Weapons Depot In Douma
https://muraselon.com/en/2018/04/syrian-forces-discover-uk-german-made-chemical-weapons-depot-in-douma/

Posted by: Allen | Apr 27 2018 12:50 utc | 97

17
Nonsense. KJU is a hereditary dictator of a starving, backward hillbilly nation living in a twilight zone gulag. It would be like Pakistan seeking rapproachment with India. Uhh, no thanks, homey. Or no, it would be like open borders between US and Mexico. Come on down, cousin! W and E Germany was an outlier in the history of rapproachment, so don’t use that one. The whole world has been beggared by hot fiat. Everyone is dead busted hillbilly broke. N and S Korea is the final scene in Titanic. My Healt Wirr Go On. Give me 5.341 won!

Posted by: Chipnik | Apr 27 2018 12:59 utc | 99