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U.S. Sanctions Syrian ‘Moderate Rebels’ It Had Previously Armed
In 2013 the CIA was handing out TOW anti-tank missiles to 'moderate rebel' groups who were fighting the government in Syria. These groups were allegedly 'vetted' before they receive money and weapons. Unfortunately 'vetting' was something the CIA had never been good at.
One of the groups that received such support was the Hamza Division:
Hamza Division (Forqat al-Hamza – فرقة الحمزة): An FSA-banner group composed of six substituent brigades that operate mostly in the environs of Inkhil, Daraa. The Hamza Division has received TOW ATGMs and it works under the supervision of the Daraa Military Council. They receives foreign support from Western and Arab state backers and are a member of the Southern Front coalition. The Southern Front has stated their commitment to a civil state, and have released a comprehensive political program in support of democratic reform. The Division came together with the Syria Revolutionaries Front and the 1st Artillery Regiment to create the 1st Army, which later disbanded. The Hamza Division continues using the 1st Army imagery alongside its own while the other former substituents do not. Social Media: YouTube; YouTube (older channel)
Hamza was later also supported by the Pentagon. Without such support the group would never have become a viable entity. Things got a bit complicated when militias armed by the Pentagon started to fight those armed by the CIA.
Later Hamza was sponsored by the Turkish state. This again made things a bit complicated:
Cont. reading: U.S. Sanctions Syrian ‘Moderate Rebels’ It Had Previously Armed
Ukraine Open Thread 2023-195
Only for news & views directly related to the Ukraine conflict.
The current open thread for other issues is here.
Please stick to the topic. Contribute facts. Do not attack other commentators.
Why This Ship Was Allowed To Leave Ukraine
The Ukrainian presidential office continues it accumulation of media victories which, unfortunately for Ukraine, do not reflect the facts on the ground.
A signature example comes in the form of widespread reports about a ship that a day ago left the port of Odessa:
Cargo Ship Travels From Port of Odesa in Test of Ukraine’s New Black Sea Corridor – NY Times
Kyiv is aiming to resume traffic to its seaports despite Russia’s threats to ships moving to and from Ukraine.
A civilian cargo ship that has been stuck in Odesa since the start of the war set off early Wednesday morning, becoming the first to venture out of the port into the turbulent waters of the Black Sea since Moscow threatened all ships moving to and from Ukraine.
The move is part of Ukrainian efforts to restore seaport traffic despite a de facto Russian blockade. Kyiv’s efforts to resume exports of grain and other goods raise the stakes for Ukraine’s allies, as an attack or other episode could draw other nations whose ships travel the waters into the conflict.
Establishing a safe path for the small number of internationally flagged ships stranded in Ukrainian ports for 18 months would mark a milestone, but Ukraine also hopes it will be a demonstration that Russia does not dominate the sea and that shipping to Ukrainian seaports can be resumed.
“The fact that the first ship left the port is a little victory for Ukraine,” said Andriy Klymenko, the director of the Institute for Strategic Black Sea Studies, a Ukrainian research organization. “Let the first one be a lucky one.”
The nearly 1,000-foot-long container ship Joseph Schulte, which flies under the flag of Hong Kong and has been stranded in Odesa since arriving there the day before Russia launched its full-scale invasion some 18 months ago, set a course to Istanbul using a corridor in Ukrainian territorial waters established by the Ukrainian ministry of infrastructure for civilian vessels.
In establishing the corridor, the Ukrainian navy said that it could assure ships safe passage through a maze of maritime mines they have installed to protect the Ukrainian coast. But it could offer no assurances of protection from Russian mines and warships.
Once they leave Ukrainian waters, ships would be able to chart a course to Turkey within the national waters of Romania and Bulgaria, which are members of NATO and under the alliance’s protection.
Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, a company with headquarters in Germany that owns the ship in partnership with a Chinese bank, said in a statement that all the crew was safe as it departed Ukraine with 2,000 containers full of goods on board. It is not clear exactly what the ship is carrying, but it was not designed to carry grain.
I happen to know a member of the Schulte family, which owns the management company, for a long time. I was told that the ships move out of Odessa was not the blockade run that Ukraine claims it was.
Joseph Schulte, IMO 9605243, under its former name
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The ship management company put out a statement that offered its thanks in an unusual diplomatic language:
Cont. reading: Why This Ship Was Allowed To Leave Ukraine
Open (Not Ukraine) Thread 194
News & views (not related to the war in Ukraine) …
Ukraine Open Thread 2023-193
Only for news & views directly related to the Ukraine conflict.
The current open thread for other issues is here.
Please stick to the topic. Contribute facts. Do not attack other commentators.
How Will Trump’s Fourth Indictment – And RFK Jr. – Influence The Election Season?
Another month brings another indictment of Donald Trump:
ATLANTA — Former president Donald Trump and 18 others were criminally charged in Georgia in connection with efforts to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in the state, according to an indictment made public late Monday night.
Trump was charged with 13 counts, including violating the state’s racketeering act, soliciting a public officer to violate their oath, conspiring to impersonate a public officer, conspiring to commit forgery in the first degree and conspiring to file false documents.
With so much alleged conspiring should we call all these indictments a conspiracy theory?
This indictment is again too wide and borders on, like the others against Trump, criminalizing the retelling of rumors and free speech.
Just consider this part:
COUNT 29 of 41
And the Grand Jurors aforesaid, in the name and behalf of the citizens of Georgia, do charge and accuse DONALD JOHN TRUMP with the offense of FALSE STATEMENTS AND WRITINGS, O.C.G.A. § 16-10-20, for the said accused, in the County of Fulton and State of Georgia, on or about the 2nd day of January 2021, knowingly, willfully, and unlawfully made at least one of the following false statements and representations to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Georgia Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs, and Georgia Secretary of State General Counsel Ryan Germany:
- That anywhere from 250,000 to 300,000 ballots were dropped mysteriously into the rolls in the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Georgia;
- That thousands of people attempted to vote in the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Georgia and were told they could not because a ballot had already been cast in their name;
- That 4,502 people voted in the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Georgia who were not on the voter registration list;
- That 904 people voted in the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Georgia who were registered at an address that was a post ofiice box;
- That Ruby Freeman was a professional vote scammer and a known political operative;
- That Ruby Freeman, her daughter, and others were responsible for fraudulently awarding at least 18,000 ballots to Joseph R. Biden at State Farm Arena in the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Georgia;
- That close to 5,000 dead people voted in the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Georgia;
- That 139% of people voted in the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Detroit;
- That 200,000 more votes were recorded than the number of people who voted in the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Pennsylvania;
- That thousands of dead people voted in the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Michigan;
- That Ruby Freeman stuffed the ballot boxes;
- That hundreds of thousands of ballots had been "dumped" into Fulton County and another county adjacent to Fulton County in the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Georgia;
- That he won the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Georgia by 400,000 votes;
said statements being within the jurisdiction of the Office of the Georgia Secretary of State and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, departments and agencies of state government, contrary to the laws of said State, the good order, peace and dignity thereof;
Even the Washington Post write-up finds that a bit too excessive:
Cont. reading: How Will Trump’s Fourth Indictment – And RFK Jr. – Influence The Election Season?
A Litany of Lies
by Arch Bungle
Lifted from an off-topic comment.
Being a catalogue of the lies I have imbibed through by means of torturous exposure to Anglo-American Newspapers and the rumor mills of Continental Europe.
See the examples below:
Cont. reading: A Litany of Lies
Newspaper Raids – “Exceedingly Rare”
It is always curious when an opener of a piece of news is contradicted by its content.
Raid of Small Kansas Newspaper Raises Free Press Concerns – NY Times
The search of Marion County Record’s office led to the seizure of computers, servers and cellphones of reporters and editors.
A small town in Kansas has become a battleground over the First Amendment, after the local police force and county sheriff’s deputies raided the office of The Marion County Record.
Raids of news organizations are exceedingly rare in the United States, with its long history of legal protections for journalists. …
Three paragraphs later …
The raid is one of several recent cases of local authorities taking aggressive actions against news organizations — some of which are part of a dwindling cohort left in their area to hold governments to account. And it fits a pattern of pressure being applied to local newsrooms. One recent example is the 2019 police raid of the home of Bryan Carmody, a freelance journalist in San Francisco, who was reporting on the death of Jeff Adachi, a longtime public defender.
There is now only a "dwindling cohort" of local newspapers but there are still "several recent cases" of such incidents. To me that contradicts the claim of those raids being "exceedingly rare". Would any decent writer really put it like that?
It seems to me that one of the editor of the piece, who probably hadn't read through it, attempted to put some aggrandizing "USA! USA! USA!" cheers into the opener. The propaganda effort failed for readers who read a bit more than the headline.
Ukraine Open Thread 2023-192
Only for news & views directly related to the Ukraine conflict.
The current open thread for other issues is here.
Please stick to the topic. Contribute facts. Do not attack other commentators.
The MoA Week In Review – (Not Ukraine) OT 2023-191
Last week's post on Moon of Alabama:
> Putting these findings together, what the esric surveys reveal is that the Tiananmen Square protest was by nature an anti-reform movement when urban residents panicked about the negative consequences of marketization. In a miracle of miracles, if there were free elections, the conservative anti-reform candidates probably would have won, and China would have returned to the centrally planned system where urban residents enjoyed a cradle-to-grave social safety net. <
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Other issues:
Cont. reading: The MoA Week In Review – (Not Ukraine) OT 2023-191
The Bidens’ Case Will Keep On Giving
The judicial case against Hunter Biden will stay alive.
That increases the possibility that Joe Biden will have to answer questions about his own corrupt dealings related to Hunter Biden's businesses.
On July 28 a crooked plea deal for Hunter Biden was nixed by a court.
As I explained it:
Yesterday Delaware US District Judge Maryellen Noreika nixed a plea deal negotiated between Hunter Biden attorney Chris Clark and the prosecutor team from Joe Biden's Department of Justice.
Hunter Biden is accused of two tax misdemeanors and wrongdoing in a gun case.
The deal was constructed in an unusual way that would have given Hunter Biden immunity over additional accusations of not having registered as a foreign agent under the FARA law.
The tax and gun cases were split and the judge would have only been given judicial oversight over the tax issue plea while the immunity part was hidden in the gun case plea deal, a diversion agreement, where the judicial oversight would have stayed with the prosecutor. The wide ranging immunity part would thus have been hidden from the public.
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The results of the dirty deal would have been very generous for Hunter but the judge didn't fall for the trick.
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The deal the prosecutors had agreed to was very unusual and smelled of influence from above.
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The prosecutors should be fired for offering an unprecedented sweetheart deal to the son of the sitting president and for trying to trick the court into agreeing with it.
The court sent the prosecutor and Hunter's lawyer back home to renegotiate the plea deal.
However, this week the prosecutor, one David C. Weiss, wrote back to the court that the negotiations have failed and that he intends to indict Hunter Biden.
At the same time Attorney General Merrick B. Garland has elevated Weiss to the status of special counsel. That is claimed to make him more independent. It also allows him to move the case from the local court and to indict Biden in different states:
Cont. reading: The Bidens’ Case Will Keep On Giving
Ukraine SitRep: The End Of The Counteroffensive
Western media have finally change course. They are now admitting that the much promoted Ukrainian counter-offensive has failed. In fact, the acknowledge that it never had a chance to win in the first place.
The Hill, the Washington Post and CNN now agree that the Ukrainian army will never achieve its aims.
That makes it difficult for the Biden administration to get Congress approval for $24 billion in additional 'aid' to Ukraine. It does not make sense to pay for a cause that is evidently lost.
The Polish President Duda has also acknowledged that the counter-offensive has failed. Relations between Warsaw and Kiev have gotten worse and Polish interests will not allow for more support or active intervention.
Nothing has come from the 'peace conference' which Saudi Arabia arranged on Ukraine's behalf.
Despite the onslaught of bad news the Ukrainian army is still trying to take Russian positions in the south and east of Ukraine. But it simply does not have enough in men and material to break through the lines.
Even if they would manage to get a local breakthrough there are not enough reserves to push for the necessary follow up. Just one of the NATO trained brigades has still been held back. All others have been mauled in their various deployment zones.
In the northeast around Kupyansk the Russians have started their own offensive which has the Ukrainians on the run. Ukraine has ordered the evacuation of the area:
A mandatory evacuation has been ordered for the Ukrainian city of Kupyansk and its surrounding areas, as Russia intensified shelling of Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region and claimed to have captured Ukrainian positions near the city on Thursday.
But Kupyansk is a Russian city and people refuse to leave.
The Russian campaign is slowly speeding up. As the Ukrainian Strana.news reports (machine translation):
Also in Ukraine, it is recorded that from Kupyansk to Bakhmut, Russia has increased the number of attacks.
"Over the past month, the total number of attacks in the Kupyansk, Limansky and Bakhmut directions has grown significantly. In July, during the week there were 6-6.5 thousand attacks, during the last week-9 thousand attacks, " – said the representative of the National Guard Ruslan Muzychuk.
According to him, the Russian Federation does not experience "shell hunger".
Aviation is also actively used, and over the past few weeks, more than 50 air attacks have been taking place every day, and sometimes more than 80.
That is bad news for the Ukrainian side which lacks the reserves to counter the Russian onslaught. There are also less weapons coming in from the West. F-16 fighter jets will be delayed for another nine months due to training issues. Tanks and other material are in short supply.
Strana also report of an interview with a knowledgeable Ukrainian soldier (machine translation):
Cont. reading: Ukraine SitRep: The End Of The Counteroffensive
Ukraine Open Thread 2023-190
Only for news & views directly related to the Ukraine conflict.
The current open thread for other issues is here.
Please stick to the topic. Contribute facts. Do not attack other commentators.
Open (Not Ukraine) Thread 189
News & views (not related to the war in Ukraine) …
World Bank Group Goes Woke
The World Bank Group is a global institution controlled by the U.S. government. It is supposed to lend low interest money to developing countries in need.
Last year the position of its president became controversial. David Malpass, a former Treasury official, was perceived as being ambiguous about the cause of climate change. In February he threw the towel:
The president of the World Bank will step down from his post in June, leaving the organisation almost a year before his term was due to end.
David Malpass announced his decision on social media, without providing a specific reason for his departure.
The pick of former US President Donald Trump, he has been criticised as a climate-change denier.
Last year, the White House rebuked him after he said he did not know if fossil fuels were driving climate change.
He later apologised for the remarks.
In June one Ajay Banga, a former CEO of Mastercard, was installed as the new president. He had worked as an outside adviser for the Obama administration and later for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Under Banga the World Bank Group has gone woke:
World Bank halts new lending to Uganda over anti-LGBTQ law
Cont. reading: World Bank Group Goes Woke
Ukraine Open Thread 2023-188
Only for news & views directly related to the Ukraine conflict.
The current open thread for other issues is here.
Please stick to the topic. Contribute facts. Do not attack other commentators.
A Donor Based Election System Can Not Be Fair
'Democracy Dies in Darkness' say the motto under the Washington Post logo.
But the headline and report below it demonstrate that whatever is sold as 'democracy' in the U.S. is not what people would generally perceive as a democratic system.
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Pence qualifies for GOP presidential debate after hitting donor threshold
If the elections are based on equality, and free and fair, why is there a 'donor threshold' for taking part in an election debate?
Mike Pence has attracted enough donors to qualify for the Republican Party’s first presidential debate in Milwaukee this month, a person familiar with the matter said, ending speculation that the former vice president might not be able to meet the requirement.
The Republican National Committee (RNC) requires candidates to attract 40,000 unique donors, with at least 200 individual donors each from 20 or more states or territories, among several criteria. Pence, who has struggled to gain traction as a presidential candidate, was at risk of not crossing that threshold before the Aug. 23 debate.
But he saw an uptick in donors since the latest indictment against former president Donald Trump last week, according to the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share information that hasn’t been released publicly. The indictment alleges that Trump sought to overturn the 2020 election, partly by pressuring Pence to interfere with the results.
Okay. It is at least not (solely) based the size of donations a candidate might attract, but on the number of donors and a certain geographic dispersion. But I find neither justifiable.
Why are donors required at all? A state financed system based on the number of votes a candidate attracts would be in general more just.
In a preelection process a system where the number of signatures from voters, instead of donations, would count as sufficient, would also be a better solution. The candidates would then have to make real political arguments instead of promising 'lower taxes' or other potential giveaways only to attract money.
The requirement of out of state donations is unfair to candidates who have a large home base in a large state with a big number of electors.
The system the Republican Party uses is also very vulnerable to manipulation:
While front-runners such as Trump and DeSantis appear to have easily qualified for the national debate, less popular candidates have turned to gimmicks to get enough donors.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum has offered $20 gift cards to the first 50,000 people who donate $1 to his campaign. And Miami Mayor Francis Suarez offered a chance to enter a raffle to win tickets to soccer star Lionel Messi’s debut with Inter Miami.
Candidates are spending their own or a big donor's money to attract less money. This only to be part of a TV debate.
It does not make any sense.
Democracy can not die in such a system because it is simply not there.
Quod Licet Iovi …
The BBC reported on August 22, 2022:
Taiwan: Two US warships sail through strait
Two US warships are passing through the Taiwan Strait, the US Navy has announced.
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Washington says its two guided-missile cruisers – the USS Antietam and the USS Chancellorsville – are demonstrating freedom of navigation through international waters.
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Beijing views such actions as provocative and maintains that the island of Taiwan is an integral part of Chinese territory.
On Sunday, its military said it was monitoring the two vessels' progress, maintaining a high alert, and was ready to defeat any provocation, Reuters news agency reports.
The US Navy said in a statement that the transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrated the "United States' commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific".
The WSJ on August 6, 2023:
Russia and China Sent Large Naval Patrol Near Alaska
A combined Russian and Chinese naval force patrolled near the coast of Alaska last week in what U.S. experts said appeared to be the largest such flotilla to approach American shores.
Eleven Russian and Chinese ships steamed close to the Aleutian Islands, according to U.S. officials. The ships, which never entered U.S. territorial waters and have since left, were shadowed by four U.S. destroyers and P-8 Poseidon aircraft.
“It is a historical first,” said Brent Sadler, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation and a retired Navy captain. “Given the context of the war in Ukraine and tensions around Taiwan, this move is highly provocative.”
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Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska, a Republican member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the patrol was a reminder that the U.S. has entered “a new era of authoritarian aggression” and applauded the robust U.S. response.
Ukraine Open Thread 2023-187
Only for news & views directly related to the Ukraine conflict.
The current open thread for other issues is here.
Please stick to the topic. Contribute facts. Do not attack other commentators.
The MoA Week In Review – (Not Ukraine) OT 2023-186
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