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October 27, 2019
The MoA Week In Review – Open Thread 2019-62

Last week's posts at Moon of Alabama:

Related:
Final report on the Lion Air flight JT610 (pdf) – KNKT
Boeing Shaped a Law to Its Liking. Weeks Later, a 737 Max Crashed. – NY Times

Related:
The PKK Kurds have finally agreed to adhere to the Russian/Turkish agreement.
The U.S. says it killed Kenny – again. Kenny was hiding or traveling in Idleb near the Turkish border. Iraq, the PKK Kurds and Turkey all claim to have been involved. Some say the helicopters came from Erbil, Iraq, but SOHR says they came from Turkey which is way more likely. Trump thanks Russia, Syria, Iraq, Turkey and the Syrian Kurds for their cooperation. As Kenny al-Baghdadi is now dead is there still a need to 'protect the Syrian oil-fields from ISIS'?

The Russian Defense Ministry says it knows nothing of a strike, doubts that it happened.

EHSANI2 @EHSANI22 – 5:33 UTC · Oct 27, 2019
That #Baghdadi was killed in #Idlib will come as no surprise to Damascus who were long aware of much more extensive relations between #AlQaeda #Nusra and #ISIS. The reconciliation between the two groups started after ISIS suffered significant losses in Mosul.
Thread —>

Related:
Larry Johnson says that James Clapper and John Brennan set up a CIA task force to prevent Trump from winning the 2016 election. That is quite possible or even likely. There will be bureaucratic traces of it and some people will sing. Barr and Durham will find them. Where will it end? Well …

Matt Taibbi @mtaibbi – 23:26 UTC · Oct 25, 2019
LOL. Barack Obama is going to love this interview his former DIA James Clapper just gave to CNN about the Durham probe: “It’s frankly disconcerting to be investigated for having done… what we were told to do by the president of the United States.”
Clapper: Trump administration is sending us this message

Other issues:

Entertaining writings:
Hillary Clinton Spoils the Party – Jacob Bacharach, Truthdig
$500,000 of Russian Cheese, Wasted? – Matt Bivens
Little Russia-gate: The Tragic Comedy Of Journalism Has a Ukrainian Encore – Matt Bivens

Fake gas attacks:
Expert Panel Finds Gaping Plot Holes In OPCW Report On Alleged Syrian Chemical Attack – Caity Johnstone
Panel Criticizes ‘Unacceptable Practices’ in the OPCW’s investigation of the Alleged Chemical Attack in Douma, Syria on April 7th 2018 – Courage Found
OPCW Whistleblower Panel on the Douma attack of April 2018 – Wikileaks:

One of the Panel members was Dr José Bustani, the first Director-General of the OPCW, who concluded that: “The convincing evidence of irregular behaviour in the OPCW investigation of the alleged Douma chemical attack confirms doubts and suspicions I already had. I could make no sense of what I was reading in the international press. Even official reports of investigations seemed incoherent at best. The picture is certainly clearer now, although very disturbing”

Saving Lebanon:
US sanctions squeezing Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon AP – Oct 4
Syria is lost. Let’s save Lebanon. Ignatius, Washington Post – Oct 16
The Lebanese Fall – Hezbollah’s Latest Challenge – Ghassan Kadi, Saker blog – Oct 22
Lebanon’s shuttered banks bracing for dollar run – Asia Times – Oct 25

Chile:
The Price of Power – Kissinger, Nixon, and Chile – Seymour M. Hersh, Atlantic – Dec 1982

Assange:
Assange in Court – Craig Murray
“I Was Fired for Helping Julian Assange, and I Have No Regrets” – Jacobin Mag
Snowden reconsidered – Gilbert Doctorow

Funny end:
New Robot Makes Soldiers Obsolete (vid) – Bosstown Dynamics

Use as open thread …

Posted by b on October 27, 2019 at 14:16 UTC | Permalink
Comments

@197 & 201 Yes the story is out and Esper really did say ‘overwhelming force’ would be used against anyone, including SAA, who tries to stop them.
The Guardian goes into a bit more detail and mentions Conoco/Phillips as the operating company.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/oct/28/syria-us-troops-oil-fields-isis

Posted by: dh | Oct 28 2019 20:39 utc | 201

Pearls found in Twitter on “nationalism”…

“Nationalism” by Arthur Schopenhauer in “The Art of Insulting”
The salvation table of any poor devil who has nothing in the world to be proud of is to take pride in the nation to which he belongs; this comforts him so much that in gratitude he is willing to defend with hands and feet all the defects and disappointments characteristic of his nation.

https://twitter.com/tnthwh/status/1188873019076333568

If we humans were able to erase that artificial barrier of nationality, eliminating territorial borders and appreciate ourselves for what we are, inhabitants of the Earth, united by a natural bond, aware that we are interdependent, there would be no way we would be manipulated to crush our neighbor for the simple fact of being from a different location. There would be no way for us to swallow the xenophobic tale that foreigners represent a danger to our way of life and our customs, and therefore we must fight them – even to death in many cases-.
Paul Valèry once said: “War is a massacre between people who don’t know each other for the benefit of people who know each other, and don’t slaughter each other”

https://twitter.com/tnthwh/status/1188873019076333568

Posted by: Sasha | Oct 28 2019 20:44 utc | 202

A long article in Rueters on the re-rise of IS in Syria.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-baghdadi-future-analys/killing-the-leader-may-not-be-enough-to-stamp-out-islamic-state-idUSKBN1X7203
“In Syria, recruitment to groups such as Islamic State is encouraged by the killing of Sunnis by Syrian government forces backed by Iran and Russia.”
Leaders of all the vassal states are telling us the fight against ISIS must continue. Another article I read earlier had something about US convening a meeting where it will get the Vassal states to provide protection for the US oilfields in Syria (international force to ‘rebuild east Syria and keep isis down’).

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Oct 28 2019 20:49 utc | 203

@Posted by: sarz | Oct 28 2019 20:18 utc | 200
I continue to wonder to which hights you are able to get to continue looping the loop on making new promises with respect to Trump after the last ones got enough discredited, you come with new ones sounding even more incredible…
In my view, he is simply getting some cash to refinance his operations in the ME, a thing the most bovious to conclude after his four years record on asking fro money to everybody, including the Saudis and even risking the whole EU parternership by menace for more money to pay an alleged defense they do not need any more. in Europe once Communism erased by the US…..Most probably, USA, and the rest of the world for that matter, give him a damn. His comments on unprivileged people denote he hates poors and hates to be poor so much so as to obviate any moral obstacle ( in the case he would harbor any at starting point of this presidency…. his history shows he does not…)
How do you “interpret” the current “color revolution” in Lebanon, with the pro-US head of Lebanese Cetral bank menacing today that the country in in the brink of collapse and thus the “peaceful demonstrators” will not go home, as a last favor to his Zionist masters?

Posted by: Sasha | Oct 28 2019 21:03 utc | 204

https://www.rt.com/news/472065-us-deny-syria-oil-esper/
“Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said at a press conference on Monday that American mechanized forces have already deployed to protect oil fields in eastern Syria. The mission, on its surface, aims to keep these oil fields in the hands of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, Washington’s former allies in the fight against IS.”
Looks like US has already moved its mechanised forces in. Most likely crossed the border at the road that runs from the border down through the oilfield to the Euphrates and Green Village base, or the roadthat Runs from the border onto Ash Shaddadi base.

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Oct 28 2019 21:11 utc | 205

Clueless Joe @201: If it is actually Trump’s will …
And why wouldn’t it be, given his recent and past statements?
When I see statements like this I shake my head and wonder how people – many of whom are skeptical of government and politicians – can be so fooled. They really believed that a “populist outsider” could be elected.
They bought the Democracy Works! propaganda which says that simply voting will change things and only voting is needed (no need for protests or Movements, etc.).
The Obama Presidency should’ve been a cautionary tale (2008 Obama supporters were similarly taken in by his bogus promises of “Change You Can Believe In”). And it would’ve been if Americans could get out of their partisan fox holes long enough to steel a glance at the political landscape. But the duopoly and their MSM assets ensure that never happens.
Welcome to the rabbit hole.
Jackrabbit !!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Oct 28 2019 21:11 utc | 206

Clueless Joe
Taking the oil has been Trump’s long term position, going back at least to early in 2016 during the election campaign. And along with other statements about current moves, Trump has said “I have always said we should take the oil”.

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Oct 28 2019 21:24 utc | 207

US army on the way to Syria’s Deir Zor here

Posted by: Don Bacon | Oct 28 2019 21:35 utc | 208

After being abandoned by the US in NE Syria, and run to ask Assad and the Russians for protection, it´s the US promising them some money coming from the illegal smuggling Syrian oil in lands which they do not habitate and which do not belong to them, that they loose their asses running to accept this new promise by the US which, as every US promise will end in agua de borrajas, that is zilch in roman paladino…
That is another characteristic of Trotskyites, that they chnage of masters and principles so often, that in the end they get with nothing, out of play, and hated by everybody…and with enough reasons…
The deserved outcome for the illegal usurpers of Syrian oil in Deir Ezzor would be a rebellion in the “ISIS prisons” ( aka refigee camps…)which would pass over them all like a steamroller, in the same way they steamrolled Syria through almost a decade to then continue looting ….
The Kurds have lost any pretension of respectability and territorial claim in Syria…it seems that they try to imitate their other masters, the Israelis…

Posted by: Sasha | Oct 28 2019 21:48 utc | 209

There’s already more work-related deaths in Australia than in China (proportionally):
Graph: annual work-related deaths – Australia vs China, 2001-2015
And the gap is widening, since China’s work-related deaths numbers are plummeting, while Australia’s is more or less stagnant with tendency to fall since 2007.
Work-related deaths per population is a good indicator of workplace conditions.

Posted by: vk | Oct 28 2019 21:50 utc | 210

Previous post go through incomplete ( you can delete it, if you wish…)
Btw, that the SDF Kurds, have demonstrated being the whole piece of shit they are all the Trotskyites in the world have been, who, under the guise of an alleged pure marxist ideology, move only themselves by and for money.
After being abandoned by the US in NE Syria, and not losing a second to run to ask Assad and the Russians for protection, it´s the US promising them some money coming from the illegal smuggling of Syrian oil in lands which they do not habitate and which do not belong to them, for them losing their asses running to accept this new “promise” by the US which, as every US “promise” will end in agua de borrajas, that is zilch, in roman paladino…
And it is that that is another characteristic of Trotskyites, that they change of masters and principles so often, that in the end they get with nothing, out of play, and hated by everybody…and not without enough reasons…
The deserved outcome for the illegal usurpers of Syrian oil in Deir Ezzor would be a mass rebellion in the “ISIS prisons” ( aka refuvgee camps…)which would pass over them all like a steamroller, in the same way they steamrolled Syria and the Syrians through almost a decade to then continue looting ….Then all those 30000 ISIS escaped will be “taken care” by the Russian and Syrian armies..
The Kurds, at this point, have lost any pretension of respectability, of being in danger of slaughtering, and territorial claim in Syria…it seems that they try to imitate their other masters, the Israelis…who, Marxists, they are not…btw…

Posted by: Sasha | Oct 28 2019 21:57 utc | 211

Don Bacon 209
That is an odd convoy. Tankers, covered in trailers, empty trailers, loaded trailers.

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Oct 28 2019 22:00 utc | 212

@Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Oct 28 2019 22:00 utc | 213
Empty trailers to transport the stolen oil…what is odd in that?

Posted by: Sasha | Oct 28 2019 22:03 utc | 213

On the Barisha raid. Laguerre convinced me the sat veiw pics shown on google maps and marked as 2019 were older maps showing the first stage of construction of the compound.
Early morning video shows the rubble untouched, and also shows what looks to be a collapsed basement or tunnel. Video from later in the day show some of the rubble pushed back and tyre marks, most likely by a wheel loader. One video from a distance showed a wheel loader working apparently at the site.
From what I can make of it the building was hit by up to three missiles after the raid. There is one video of a low flying jet engined missile hitting what is claimed to be the site so I take it Tomahawks were used.
Russian presidential spokesman said Russian military had observed drones and planes in the area.
Trump waited some time after first reports from Idlib, so plenty of time for positive ID to be made after the raid.
Whether or not they got Baghdadi I don’t really care, but it does seem the raid took place.
As to if was was him or not – he was well past his use by date and a good trophy domestically for Trump to hang on his wall. Seems to have got the vassal states interested in ‘protecting’ the Syrian oilfields as well.

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Oct 28 2019 22:38 utc | 214

Sasha
It is the mix of empty and loaded trailers that was odd. Unknown if the covered trailers and tankers were empty or full, perhaps the tankers were to cart oil out or perhaps fuel in.

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Oct 28 2019 22:42 utc | 215

@212 It’s not yet clear that the SDF agreed to this deal. If they did they just made themselves very, very, unpopular in Syria. They already have the Turks on their case.

Posted by: dh | Oct 28 2019 22:47 utc | 216

It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that the military actually knows what it is doing and would never do anything that doesn’t make sense.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Oct 28 2019 22:55 utc | 217

This is most certainly off topic to this thread dedicated to the off topic, but I just came across this E-book for which I was only initially interested in its Introduction by Charles Beard. But as is often the case when I read prose from that era, I got hooked and began reading Paxton Hibben’s The Peerless Leader, William Jennings Bryan, 1929–an author and historian I’d never heard of previously. For me, it was like taking a time machine into the past thanks to the eloquent prose and style of writing that’s now mostly vanished. I didn’t find what I thought I might in Beard’s Introduction, but I was rewarded for my curiosity with a look into the nature of Middle-America’s pre-1860 attitude, a bit of Lincoln’s bio, and Byran’s beginnings I’d never been exposed to previously. I read the intro and first chapter, and will certainly finish the book, but will now return to the investigation that led me to enquire about Beard’s possible content. My point aside from informing barflies of this excellent book being to also advise them on a way to escape from the mania of today by reading a work about the past that was produced during that past. Here’s a link to another such book, a time machine for the mind, that also has a very singular message in its introduction by F. York Powell who addresses the working classes for whom the book is written most importantly in the first several paragraphs that are just as meaningful today as they were 118 years ago when written.
So please, take an hour a day off and let your mind travel back to another time. The hour won’t be at all unproductive as knowledge will be gained while the spirit is uplifted and the mind entertained.

Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 28 2019 23:08 utc | 218

@Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Oct 28 2019 22:38 utc | 215
Guys do not scratch your heads any more trying ot understand the highly likely inexistent “Barisha raid”…..
Several Russians experts, including some senior Spetsnaz, analyze the operation and conclude that for many reason it is most probably a fake…In Spanish….you must translate…includes some interesting links…
Seven reasons why the elimination of Baghdad can be false
To add in the same venue, Mark Milley told the press present at the DoS presser today that they do not have video material available yet…
This when the Deltas film all their operations to be analyzed in Pentagon and be presented at Congress..as it is said in one of the debunking points by Russian experts….

Posted by: Sasha | Oct 28 2019 23:15 utc | 219

It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that the military actually knows what it is doing and would never do anything that doesn’t make sense.

@Posted by: Don Bacon | Oct 28 2019 22:55 utc | 218
LOL! That is a good one… Just came from SST where Lang is stating almost the same…he says that… “the US is not an evil country, we are only inept”
Now it must be called so…yeah…new language at full steam…I call it…

Posted by: Sasha | Oct 28 2019 23:19 utc | 220

VK @ 211:
That’s a great find regarding Matheus Silva’s research comparing workplace-related deaths in Australia and China. In Australia we definitely have a culture in which apprentices and young workers are subjected to hazing and/or sexual harassment by older workers on work sites, and many fatalities involving apprentices, women workers or workers from minority groups are caused in large part by a poisonous work culture of bullying.
On top of this, industries that rely heavily on imported (and often illegal) migrant labour such as the construction industry also have many fatalities.

Posted by: Jen | Oct 28 2019 23:28 utc | 221

Transporting oil with a flatbed trailer is challenging.

Posted by: William Gruff | Oct 28 2019 23:56 utc | 222

Late to the thread. My 2 cents:
#Baghdadi Another psyop just ended. Pre-electoral triumph for Trump a la Ben Laden for #Obama ..

Posted by: Lozion | Oct 29 2019 0:06 utc | 223

Transporting oil with a flatbed trailer is challenging.

Posted by: William Gruff | Oct 28 2019 23:56 utc | 223
Yeah…but not impossible…See for yourself…of course, the US makes everything a lo grande…and thus they will be using empty trailers…con un par!…what not after declaring to the four winds that they are going to “steal the oil”…and dfend it with “overwhelming force”…
ISIL finances bottom out as oil smuggling now ‘impossible’

Posted by: Sasha | Oct 29 2019 0:06 utc | 224

That info I posted earlier, in 2015 there were a thousand oil tanker trucks involved in the US-supervised ISIS oil business. Surely they won’t go back to that.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Oct 29 2019 0:22 utc | 225

Trump would have been over there doing the deed (with the dog) himself if it weren’t for those darn bone spurs.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Oct 29 2019 0:26 utc | 226

Lozion @224: Pre-electoral triumph for Trump
Nah, there’s still a FULL YEAR before the election.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Oct 29 2019 1:27 utc | 227

Below from a link at ZH about Boeing
https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/passengers-pray-and-swig-whisky-boeing-737-suffers-engine-failure-flying-florida
The lead off quote
”
A Swift Air Boeing 737-400, registration N420US, declared an air emergency about 30 minutes after takeoff from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on Oct. 22 after engine failure was detected. The pilots made a quick decision to return to Santo Domingo and safely landed the plane 40 minutes later, reported The Aviation Herald.
”
Maybe the financialization of Boeing has gone beyond the 737 MAX plane into others in the fleet….ya think?

Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 29 2019 1:42 utc | 228

Sasha
A raid took place. Too much info out video pics interviews. Whether it was baghdadi or not is another matter and probably doesn’t matter anyway. The vassal states are now more keen on protecting US oil in Syria.

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Oct 29 2019 3:00 utc | 229

In case you forget…..
During the invasion of Iraq, the murikkans condoned, even
instigated looting of museums, hospitals, libraries….., troops were specifically ordered, NOT to intervene.
When Iraqis complained to the local commandant, general
Tommy Frank, this is the reply…
.’IM sorry but our troops are stretched very thin at the moment,
our order is to protect a VIProperty,…the MInistry Of Oil’
https://rense.com/general37/enc.htm

Posted by: denk | Oct 29 2019 3:33 utc | 230

Caitlin Johnstone
“Whenever I write about oil as a primary motive for US imperialism, I always get a bunch of right-wingers objecting that that makes no sense because the US has plenty of oil, and that it’s really about freedom and democracy or communism or Zionism or pedovore cults or Illuminati or whatever. What they miss, in their squirming attempts to avoid cognitive dissonance, is that it’s not about having and consuming oil, it’s about controlling oil. Control what governments can and cannot access crucial resources, and you can control which governments thrive and which ones don’t.”
During the dollar hegemony, US interest was to ensure oil was sold for US dollars, not so much complete control of oil.
Trump apart from having US companies own and recieve rev enue from the oil is about this – “Control what governments can and cannot access crucial resources, and you can control which governments thrive and which ones don’t”

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Oct 29 2019 6:47 utc | 231

Just come across a video, this BBC bitch, in all earnest,grilled prez Xi with this…
‘Do you think the British people should feel comfortable their country is trading with such a nation which is,….
non-democratic, devoid of transparency and whose human rights record make us very uneasy…..???’
What fucking rubbish !
the Brits have no qualm dealing with India, Indonesia, Turkey,Saudi,Pinochet etc etc, all certified genocidists….and dont forget, fukus,[fuck US, US] themselves are the biggest coalition of killing in human history.
They think they have any biz wagging their blood drenched finger at anybody is really mind boggling !
[[[five liars]]] hypocrisy knows no bound !

Posted by: denk | Oct 29 2019 7:09 utc | 232

Corbett E 366 speaks to the deceptions…always a fun time along the parade route, the costumes, the faces, the great freak show and circus clown acts of Life at the Murkin Show – film at 11 – and don’t miss Bozo, Trumpy’s Clown Junta!
that;s all, folks…
dee dee dee.

Posted by: Walter | Oct 29 2019 12:07 utc | 233

I had hoped a corner had been turned in Syria. Perhaps so, but not, maybe, to a more stable and hopeful state. Situation along Turkish border very tense with the US still involved and Russia in the middle. Rumors that AA was nearly unleashed against a military aircraft, IED detonated near Russian police at border, continued clashes, primarily Turkish paramilitaries against others. Kurds supposed to be out now, but will Turkey agree that they are? Situation in Lebanon and Iraq becoming more critical rather than less. Trump under political threat with the inquiry with conflict within the US political establishment. Unrest in Algeria and Egypt also, in addition to problems in Cyprus between the Turks and Greeks.
Many opportunities for someone to do something really stupid, purposfully or by accident.

Posted by: the pessimist | Oct 29 2019 15:52 utc | 234

Forgot to mention Yemen. Then there is the rest of the world…

Posted by: the pessimist | Oct 29 2019 16:00 utc | 235

the pessimist @236–
Regarding Lebanon, the resignation of Hariri was long overdue as he’s a Saudi at heart and never put the interests of Lebanon first. Indeed, his entire family line worked against the Lebanese. Who gets tapped to form the next government will certainly be of interest, but whoever that is must be a Lebanese patriot first and foremost.

Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 29 2019 16:40 utc | 236

Global Times editorial as to why it was correct to bar Joshua Wong from becoming a candidate for election to Hong Kong’s government:
“How can Wong, a man who has used his full strength to attack the political system in Hong Kong and stood against the country by publicly relying on the political forces of the US and the West, have no shame to participate in the election in Hong Kong to become part of the political system?…
“There are rules for who can and can’t run in an election, and the most basic conditions for all candidates in the Hong Kong SAR is that they cannot undermine the legitimate relations between Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland, threaten the ‘one country, two systems’ principle, and pursue ‘Hong Kong independence’ in any form.”
Wong is what was once known as a Fire Eater–a fanatic having no care for what his ambitions would destroy or empathy for his victims, very much like an Outlaw US Empire Neocon.

Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 29 2019 17:19 utc | 237

Xi JIng PIng to the BBC bitch…..
‘Well I do not presume to tell the British people what to do with their ‘conscience’ ,[cough cough.]
But it so happens that I received many message from the Chinese people who demand to know…
‘Why’d we wanna do biz with the barbarians who have been raping the world for three centuries , in particular china.
Who even now are orchestrating another color rev in HK in broad daylight ????
Lemme tell you something honey,
Im starting to have second thought of this illicit affair already ‘
hehehehheheh

Posted by: denk | Oct 29 2019 17:28 utc | 238

@ karlof1 | Oct 28 2019 23:08 utc | 220
Thanks for your encomium for historical memories and the treasures that can be found there, adding dimension to knowledge and understanding.

Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Oct 29 2019 17:31 utc | 239

A heads up here totally unrelated to the Syria discussion…
Let Them Eat Cotton
William Engdahl reports that another ‘Frankenfood’ may soon be in our digestive tracts…this one mainly causes infertility…
The new ‘food’ approved for both animal and human consumption WITHOUT ANY INDEPENDENT TESTING BY THE AUTHORITIES…is the seed from the cotton plant…which contains a dangerous toxin…
The ‘geniuses’ behind this have supposedly modified the DNA of the cotton plant to reduce this toxin to ‘only’ three percent…
No actual medical testing or animal testing has been done…and it is unclear what the effects are going to be…since not only the toxin, but the genetic manipulation technique itself could cause all kinds of unforeseen effects in the human [and animal] body…
Very scary stuff what our ruling fascists in the west are doing with the very food we eat…

Posted by: flankerbandit | Oct 29 2019 17:41 utc | 240

What I wanna know is, when are they gunna git Joasama Al Biden?
(well, that’s what I heard?)

Posted by: Walter | Oct 29 2019 18:58 utc | 241

lankerbandit | Oct 29 2019 17:41 utc | 242
Not your fault but this is a very old story, some decades old. Cotton seed oil brings down the mobility of sperm cells. But it worked only with males that regularly had Chinese food. This is most likely what you called a dangerous toxin. My take: half-education and a short memory are more toxic than this compound.

Posted by: Hausmeister | Oct 29 2019 20:10 utc | 242

Impressive!

A Chilean orchestra gave an open-air performance of “El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido!” (“The people united will never be defeated”) in Santiago.
The song was written in 1973, only months before the violent coup by dictator Augusto Pinochet, who assumed power in September.

https://twitter.com/redfishstream/status/1188874318064668672
And you… start taking note…

Posted by: Sasha | Oct 29 2019 20:59 utc | 243

Paper Tiger Alert, “Every Single US East Coast Aircraft Carrier is Docked for Repairs.”
“The Navy’s dire shortage of drydocks was highlighted in a March report [link at original] the service made to Congress, which warned that in order to ‘avoid feast and famine cycles that erode both the repair industrial base and the underlying vendor supply base,’ Congress must provide ‘consistent funding matched to steady demand for work.'”
One would think that within a budget of $750Billion+ such funding would be available. But apparently so much of it goes to pay for the “grease” that little remains to actually perform the required work. So we’re left with a military budget second to none that provides for armed forces second to last.

Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 29 2019 21:21 utc | 244

Another whistleblower says Syria ‘chemical attack’ may have been staged – rare BBC interview (The Grayzone video, 2:52).

Posted by: S | Oct 30 2019 8:45 utc | 245

Ted Postol has resigned from the editorial board of Science and Global Security:

October 15, 2019
Editorial Board of Science and Global Security
Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs
Princeton University
Dear Members of the Editorial Board of Science and Global Security:
This letter is my formal resignation from the editorial board of Science and Global Security.
Your decision without explanation to not publish a carefully and comprehensively done scientific analysis where every technical question was addressed fundamentally contradicts the most basic goal to protect honest technical discussion that is the foundation for the advancement of science. This decision is icomprehensible and inconsistent with everything I have stood for in my career.
When the US government threatened the First Amendment by trying to make an incredible claim that a political magazine was publishing an article that would reveal the secret of the H-bomb, I was the first scientist to write an affidavit that questioned the fundamental science behind the government’s claim. At the end of that court confrontation, my affidavit turned out to have correctly negated every one of the claims that have been made by the government.
When the U.S. Air Force was promoting a dangerous and provocative way of basing the nuclear-armed MX ICBM, I provided the Chief of Naval Operations with an analysis that showed that the basing method could not work – this resulted in three of the five members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff voting against the Air Force idea.
As a professor at MIT I published analyses that was attacked by my own university’s leadership and a large donor to MIT, the Raytheon Corporation. That analysis showed the Patriot missile-defense had failed catastrophically in the Gulf War of 1991. At that time, everyone including the President of the United States incorrectly believed that Patriot had performed nearly perfectly. My work led to a Congressional investigation and the analyses of a colleague and I turned out to be correct even though initially no one believed it. That analysis was eventually published in Science and Global Security, even though it faced extreme pressures from outside the academic community.
In this case, as in the others, it is an anathema for me to be part of an organization that would, intentionally or not, seek to suppress or misrepresent valid scientific findings that have implications for international law and the future viability of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
I have no reason to believe ill-intent on the part of the editors of Science and Global Security. However, I do believe that their decision is totally wrong and untenable.
The editors have made a grievous mistake, as a journal of science, and as a journal that has the goal of providing sound science-based evidence to elucidate critical issues related to unresolved international security problems.
Although I do not believe ill-intent on the part of the editors, I do believe that I have not gotten the whole story behind this fiasco.
Sincerely, Ted
Theodore A. Postol
Professor Emeritus of Science, Technology, and
National Security Policy
Massachusetts Institute of technology

Posted by: S | Oct 30 2019 11:52 utc | 246

Apologies if this has appeared before, but here’s truth-teller George Galloway — “Baghdadi killed for the XX time” – here.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Oct 30 2019 14:46 utc | 247

@ S 248
Let’s provide some information to readers on why Postol resigned.
MIT professor Postol resigns from science journal in spat over article on Syria

An emeritus professor at the renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has angrily resigned from the board of a science journal after it declined to publish a paper he co-authored about a nerve agent attack in Syria.
The paper, entitled “Computational Forensic Analysis for the Chemical Weapons Attack at Khan Sheikhoun on April 4, 2017”, questioned the findings of a joint UN/OPCW investigation which concluded that the Assad regime had used sarin. According to the investigators the sarin had been released from a crater caused “by the impact of an aerial bomb travelling at high velocity”. This implicated the Syrian military as the perpetrator, because rebel fighters had no aircraft.
Based on computer analysis, however, Postol et al claimed the crater had not been caused by a chemical bomb dropped from the air but by an artillery rocket armed with a small explosive warhead. If correct, this could mean rebels caused the crater, since they did possess rockets.. .here

Posted by: Don Bacon | Oct 30 2019 14:58 utc | 248

The moment I learned about the looting of Chinese embassy by ‘rioters’, right after the fall of Bhagdad, I knew its a FF.
Any arm chair ‘analyst’ worth his salt can smell a rat a mile away, so far my gut feeling has never failed me.
In case you forget…..
The looting of Chinese embassy went on for four days , right under the nose of the murikkan patrols, go figure.
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2012/08/open-thread-2012-21.html?cid=6a00d8341c640e53ef01676957c112970b#comment-6a00d8341c640e53ef01676957c112970b

Posted by: denk | Oct 30 2019 17:03 utc | 249

Posted by: flankerbandit | Oct 28 2019 10:16 utc | 159
Please write that blog post about this you mentioned earlier in this comment thread!!! I really want to know more about your theory and research on this.

Posted by: Per/Norway | Oct 30 2019 19:16 utc | 250

Posted by: Glenn Brown | Oct 28 2019 11:04 utc | 164
JC might be right, they have openly boasted that they create their own reality.
I cant say i see much difference in the 2 ruling parties in murca, a bird might have 2 wings but it only have 1 head.
Do you not suspect that the bs we are fed trough the narrative might be scripted and directed at all?
I must admit i dont know the answer, but i do not think JC`s theory sounds that unplausible tbh.

Posted by: Per/Norway | Oct 30 2019 19:23 utc | 251

Hausmeister…if you have some credible info on cotton seed being supposedly harmless, I would be interested in seeing it…
Frankly your statement sounds bizarre…if you are not concerned about US regulators increasingly being in the pockets of industry instead of working for the public welfare, you can be sure that I and many others certainly are…as we have seen with the FAA and increasingly the FDA…

Posted by: flankerbandit | Oct 30 2019 19:29 utc | 252

flankerbandit
Cottonseed has been fed to livestock in Australia for some time. As a supliment during drought and also I think in some feedlots.

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Oct 30 2019 19:51 utc | 253

Per…thanks for your interest…you can see quite a bit of material [with graphics] that I have written on this at the time…
Here is a list of those posts
There’s actually a couple more posts that didn’t come up in that list, starting from Sept 23…my first post was here…
I really just need to pull all of this together into a coherent article…[unfortunately busy with other stuff right now]…but as you can see there is quite a bit of material there, probably close to 10,000 words…

Posted by: flankerbandit | Oct 30 2019 19:51 utc | 254

flankerbandit
Apparently ruminants can break down gossypol. Found this in a pdf put out by DPI.
“Gossypol toxicity
Whole cottonseed can contain up to 1%
gossypol- a toxic dye in the kernel pigment
glands. While mature ruminants (eg cattle,
sheep) can break down some gossypol in the
rumen, it must NOT be fed to pigs, poultry or
horses. It should not be fed to weaned calves
less than 3-4 months old, although there are no
reports of calf losses when feeding cows with
young calves during joining.”

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Oct 30 2019 19:59 utc | 255

Erdogan’s jihadis look as though they will take Tell Tamr.
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/syrian-army-attempts-to-fend-off-turkish-backed-assault-on-key-town-in-northwest-al-hasakah/

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Oct 30 2019 20:27 utc | 256

flankerbandit Oct 30 2019 19:29 utc | 254
You are right. As it is old I have to look deep into my personal archives. But Peter AU 1 | Oct 30 2019 19:59 utc | 257 gives the right key word: gossypol.
„.if you are not concerned about US regulators increasingly being in the pockets of industry instead of working for the public welfare, you can be sure that I and many others certainly are…as we have seen with the FAA and increasingly the FDA…“
That is of course true but too harmless. In reality the whole industrialization of food intakes worldwide since long is one huge mass trial (experiment) which has never been licensed or permitted and it runs against a big wall of better knowledge. It does not affect only the USA. My remark about half education did not point to you in particular. Many substances that have great pharmagological value are toxic with the wrong amount and within the wrong frame. NOthing that one could not learn – if one would be only interested in it. 🙁
From this perspective even fructose is toxic.No, may be toxic.

Posted by: Hausmeister | Oct 30 2019 20:33 utc | 257

Cotton seed with its gossypol remind me of rape seed oil.
“Rapeseed oil is one of the oldest known vegetable oils, but historically was used in limited quantities due to high levels of erucic acid, which is damaging to cardiac muscle of animals, and glucosinolates, which made it less nutritious in animal feed.[17] Rapeseed oil can contain up to 54% erucic acid.[18] Food-grade canola oil derived from rapeseed cultivars, also known as rapeseed 00 oil, low erucic acid rapeseed oil, LEAR oil, and rapeseed canola-equivalent oil, has been generally recognized as safe by the United States Food and Drug Administration.[19] Canola oil is limited by government regulation to a maximum of 2% erucic acid by weight in the USA[19] and 5% in the EU,[20] with special regulations for infant food. These low levels of erucic acid are not believed to cause harm in human infants.[19][20]”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapeseed

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Oct 30 2019 20:33 utc | 258

Sasha #245
Th people United, bravo to you for that post.
On the topic of the video of the Al bagdadi killing, I suspect all video will be the same as the Skripal hoax or even the Epstein idiocy. We will be watching blank screens.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Oct 30 2019 20:52 utc | 259

Peter, it’s not just the gossypol…there is also the fact that we understand next to nothing about the effects of genetically modified organisms on human genes…
For instance this case of a biotech company that introduced a genetically modified mosquito to Brzil, in the expectation that it would reduce drastically mosquito numbers…
The opposite happened…and in fact a new and more vigorous strain of mosquitoes has resulted as they mated with the GMO ones…
Story here, based on a peer reviewed scientific journal paper…
The technique used for the gene modification of the cotton is new and not proven to be safe or effective…

…researcher Claire Robinson points out in an excellent analysis, the RNAi procedure for cotton is hardly proven to be safe. She notes scientific research that shows risks of GMO RNAi crops.
One study found that RNAi molecules in food plants can survive digestion and enter the body of the human or animal eating it, and even affect the gene expression of the human or animal with unpredictable side effects.

Posted by: flankerbandit | Oct 30 2019 21:02 utc | 260

QANTAS has scheduled 33 of its fleet of 70 Boeing 737 NG aircraft for immediate inspection for structural cracks. The problem is regarded as non-critical to safety.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/qantas-launches-inspection-blitz-after-cracks-found-on-boeing-737s-20191030-p535xo.html

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Oct 30 2019 21:41 utc | 261

flankerbandit
Do you have a link for the Claire Robinson piece.

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Oct 30 2019 22:02 utc | 262

Peter, no link to that study by Robinson…just the Engdahl piece that quotes from it.

Posted by: flankerbandit | Oct 30 2019 22:10 utc | 263

Has Greta Thunberg said a word denouncing this?
https://twitter.com/descifraguerra/status/1189619520790581249
But then it is my diesel car and those of the rest of working people who need them so as to get to work what is ruining her infancy…

Posted by: Sasha | Oct 30 2019 22:38 utc | 264

flankerbandit
I run a search on one of the quoted sentences and found an interesting pdf pdf link
By John Fagan, PhD, Michael Antoniou, PhD, Claire Robinson, MPhil

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Oct 30 2019 22:53 utc | 265

The piece quoted is on page 195 of the pdf.
I have read some research where a plants genes were modified in a way that could also be done by selective breeding over a long period of time. That I thought was also termed GMO but it seems the definition of GMO is changes that cannot be done through breeding.
That is covered in “1.1 Myth: Genetic engineering is just an extension of natural breeding
Truth: Genetic engineering is different from natural breeding and poses special risks ..24”
“But GM is technically and conceptually different from natural breeding and poses different
risks. This fact is recognized in national and international laws and agreements on
genetically modified organisms (GMOs). For example, European law defines a GMO as
an organism in which “the genetic material has been altered in a way that does not occur
naturally by mating and/or natural recombination” and requires the risks of each GMO to be
assessed.1”

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Oct 30 2019 23:18 utc | 266

Since you talk about agriculture…
Too much for the Gulag and alleged Chinese labor camps for Uyghurs…Slavery never ended in the US….another fake story….

Prisoners in Louisiana picking cotton and growing crops, unpaid. Looks an awful lot like a traditional american institution but I can’t put my finger on it….

https://twitter.com/unabanned/status/1189304735528079360
Follow and precced an interesting thread about US prison system…including testimony by María Butina on having to eat food off the floor, fight with other inmates for food and not being allowed to use the bathroom for 16 hours and menaces of raping…
https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1188615492824645634
Dictator Maduro would not do better…

Posted by: Sasha | Oct 30 2019 23:51 utc | 267

Thanks for the link Peter…
I think we’re going to see a lot of unexpected blowback to human health with GMO as the corporations get more aggressive, while not actually understanding the science fully, nor the implications.
We note that Russia has banned GMOs altogether…a very smart move.

Posted by: flankerbandit | Oct 31 2019 1:10 utc | 268

I read awhile back China is getting into GMO. The crops specifically engineered for glyphosate I am very much against. Glyphosate serves as a labour saving devise rather than increasing yields. I am not sure what sort of mods China is interested in or using, but I take it they would be looking at disease resistance and heavier crops. I don’t judge the countries with high population densities on this issue as they are between a rock and a hard place when it comes to feeding the population.
It was a good thing Russia brought in laws against GMO. They have low population density and can grow more than they require without GMO. Russia though will have to look out for US bio warfare when it comes to farming, which I think they are doing. Australia should be he same, GMO free, but we follow whatever US does.

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Oct 31 2019 2:25 utc | 269

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-malaysia-politics-1mdb-jho-low/in-record-deal-u-s-to-recover-1-billion-from-malaysian-fugitive-jho-low-idUSKBN1X924V?il=0
“The U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday struck a deal to recoup $1 billion in funds allegedly looted from a Malaysian state investment fund by fugitive financier Jho Low, in a record capture for a U.S. anti-corruption probe.
U.S. authorities say about $4.5 billion were siphoned from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), founded in 2009 by then Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak.
Since 2016, the Justice Department, in the biggest ever case in its anti-kleptocracy program, has filed civil lawsuits seeking to seize about $1.7 billion in assets allegedly bought with stolen 1MDB funds.”
……..
US stealing (possibly) stolen funds. Malaysia made the mistake of convening a jury on Israel and Palestine.

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Oct 31 2019 5:12 utc | 270

indian punchline today is worth the read..
US intensifies geopolitical struggle over Syria

Posted by: james | Oct 31 2019 5:25 utc | 271

Below is a Reuters posting about Mike Pompeo presenting the public/private finance “dog whistle” at a Hudson Institute think tank gala dinner….the pot calling the kettle black.
”
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday stepped up recent U.S. rhetoric targeting China’s ruling Communist Party, saying Beijing was focused on international domination and needed to be confronted.
Pompeo made the remarks even as the Trump administration said it still expected to sign the first phase of deal to end a damaging trade war with China next month, despite Chile’s withdrawal on Wednesday as the host of an APEC summit where U.S. officials had hoped this would happen.
Pompeo said the United States had long cherished its friendship with the Chinese people, adding the Communist government was not the same thing as the people of China.
“They are reaching for and using methods that have created challenges for the United States and for the world and we collectively, all of us, need to confront these challenges … head on,” Pompeo said in an address to a gala dinner in New York of the conservative Hudson Institute think tank.
“It is no longer realistic to ignore the fundamental differences between our two systems, and the impact that … the differences in those systems have on American national security.”
”

Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 31 2019 9:48 utc | 272

257 gossypol details>
see “pubchem[dot]etc etc etc…”
IUPAC name:
7-(8-formyl-1,6,7-trihydroxy-3-methyl-5-propan-2-ylnaphthalen-2-yl)-2,3,8-trihydroxy-6-methyl-4-propan-2-ylnaphthalene-1-carbaldehyde
Not nice stuff. Term “gossypol” was heretofore not known to me. I did know from my youth, vaguely, that cotton-seed was toxic. I did not realize that the toxicity carried over into things they call “food-like substances”, which are offered for sale by corrupt agencies.
Many thanks fellas.
—————
Jho Low affair is cute….under the table you give a thief license to steal, then you make him a “fugitive” (Skirpal, Epstein, etc…all together…(BBC Prisoner Island? hehehe more possible 6 feet under there), then you steal what you permitted the mark to steal.
Sorta like supplying airplanes of dope to poor young men, curating a few and husbanding their “business”, then put them in jail or whatever, and steal their money… “a haircut”… cute. It’s as old as The Old Army Game.
Read “The Big Con”… brother Jho was played? You bet…

Posted by: Walter | Oct 31 2019 10:28 utc | 273

and dear brother Jeff the Epstein?
what a gem> “pathologist who actually conducted the autopsy, Dr Kristin Roman, also had trouble determining that Epstein hanged himself, and ruled that the manner of death was “pending.’’
“The autopsy did not support suicide,” said Dr Baden. “That’s what she put down. Then Dr Sampson changed it a week later to manner of death to suicide.” (telegraph, uk)
I fondly recall the scene in “Animal House” (search term “Animal House (7/10) Movie CLIP – Deltas on Trial (1978) HD ”
And recommend that clip as a sterling example of Ah-Murkin Just Us… apropos in dear Jeff’s instance, and generally, as our sister Maria Butina discovered in her own disillusion.

Posted by: Walter | Oct 31 2019 11:28 utc | 274

james @273: Thanks for the Bhadrakumar link, it beggars description, it does. No idea what is going to happen, but I don’t think it’s going to be pretty. Maybe Putin will pull something clever out of his hat? And what is Erdogan going to do?

Posted by: Bemildred | Oct 31 2019 12:46 utc | 275

@Posted by: Walter | Oct 31 2019 11:28 utc | 276
Last on Epstein points at being “suicided” by others…as points out the fact that he had the Hyoid bone broken…something impossible to happen by hanging…Some Spanish analysts tretaed the issue past Sunday on TV….

Posted by: Sasha | Oct 31 2019 13:59 utc | 276

Any explanaton on why my two post intents on posting two articles, answering uncle tungsten on the Al Baghdadi alleged raid, have been wiped out?
I took my time translating the two articles ( one in part, the other in its whole, as has no waste….)in the first post intent…the second intent I posted the links to the two articles with only a brief introduction …as i have usually done whenever my posts have been wiped out in previous ocassions….
One of the articles was leaving Trump with his ass in the air with respect to the alleged raid…
That these posts, and som others, are wiped out makes one wonders whether there is a pro-Trump bias amongst the moderation team of this site…all the more when so many trolling stuff goes through all the time…at least that is the conclusion I get to…

Posted by: Sasha | Oct 31 2019 15:14 utc | 277

thanks bemildred! we will have to continue to wait and see!

Posted by: james | Oct 31 2019 15:58 utc | 278

So about the situation in Syria…
Southfront reports that the Syrian govt has called on the SDF fighters to join the SAA…but this has been rejected by the SDF leadership…
In particular the SDF chief Mazloum Abdi…who is still to clinging to the US apron strings like a total fool…[recently he went on western news shows to talk about how his fighters stole Baghdadi’s underwear prior to the alleged raid…]
So clearly the Pentagon move to try to stay in the Syrian oil patch depends on keeping at least some faction of the SDF on board…
But there are many problems with this…first one is that Turkey is going to distance itself even more from the US orbit and into deeper partnership with Russia…as noted here by a legit scholar and expert…
The second problem is that the Kurds don’t own that oil patch to the south…it is Arab tribes there and they have their own axe to grind with the Kurds…

Arab fighters and tribes who accepted Kurds in leadership since they had American support and key cities in north.
Many of those Arabs are already switching and joining the Syrian Army. “Securing” oil for benefit of the Kurds is likely to antagonize the Arab fighters and tribes in the region.

That from a Syrian-American banker and financial analyst who visits the region frequently and writes for the influential geopolitical analysis blog, Syria Comment…published on zero hedge…
Here’s Why Trump’s “Secure Syria’s Oil” Plan Will Prove Practically Impossible
As I have already noted, this is a quite stupid enterprise that Trump has acquiesced to in the face of huge pressure from the establishment that wants to remain in Syria [and other places] forever…
I will give my own opinion here that this Mazloum Abdi character is clearly betting on the wrong horse…the Turks are demanding that the US hand him over since he is actually listed on an Interpol Red Notice [he is the adopted son of Abdullah Occalan, the PKK leader who is in jail in Turkey…
He is also pissing off the Syrian government and all the millions of Syrians that support that government, by continuing to put a stick in the spokes of the SAR and the inevitable political process that will lead to peace and a unified Syria, since all the major players want that…Russia, Iran and Turkey…
The US is not now, nor has ever really been a major player in Syria…it’s grip was always tenuous on that northeast territory, and now it has lost the bulk of it…including most importantly the border…
So even from a military perspective it is quite insane…how do you expect to sit inside a country’s territory, when you no longer have access to the border…?
This is just one more example of the delusional character that characterizes Sodom on the Potomac…
The Russians by contrast play the long game…they don’t need to do anything now but wait for the inevitable internal contradictions of this scheme to fall apart…
For instance, we see in the north that the Kurds are pitching in with the SAA to fight the Turks and their proxies [who are breaching the Sochi agreement by attacking the SAA south of the border town of Ras Al Ayn…the SAA has a right to be there according to the agreement…
In very plain terms, the Kurds can thank the Russians and the SAR for retaining much of their heartland along the Turkish border…two thirds in fact, since the Turkeish plan was to take the entire 450 km stretch…they only got one third of that…
Plus the Kurds have retained, again thanks to Russia and SAR their key cities of Manbij and Kobane…
Now this Mazloum character thinks he’s going to prevail on ordinary Kurds to throw all that away and mov south into Arab tribal lands as Trump proposes…how fucking crazy is that…?
From where I sit I don’t see this US puppet retaining any legitimacy among the Kurds, since their hearland is to the north, which has been securd by the Sochi agreement…
[A a sidebar we note that Al Masdar reports that SAA held Tel Tamr was about tp fall to Turkish militias has proved false…I have long suspected Al Masdar as not reliable]

Posted by: flankerbandit | Oct 31 2019 17:02 utc | 279

flankerbandit #280

I have long suspected Al Masdar as not reliable

Too right. Once were journalists but shrunken now.
You are so right about the treacherous Mazloum Abdi, he would absolutely sell out his comrades for a few greenbacks and a moment of fame. Occalan is a spent force and his ‘son’ an opportunist shit. Such is the fate of the deeply tribal and insular Kurds. You would think Abdi has been listening to and believing tales of glory from his handlers in the IDF and his loony paymaster in the US army.
Michael Hastings would have done a great story on these global war criminals. I would like to see Abdi interviewed in the same style as Ahmad Shah Massoud.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Nov 7 2019 2:23 utc | 280

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