NATO is harbouring the Islamic State

Click here to access article by Nafeez Ahmed from Insurge Intelligence.

Nevermind that under Erdogan, Turkey is the leading sponsor of the barbaric ‘Islamic State.’

We must not ask unpatriotic questions about Western foreign policy, or NATO for that matter.

We must not wonder about the pointless spectacle of airstrikes and Stazi-like police powers, given our shameless affair with Erdogan’s terror-regime, which funds and arms our very own enemy.

We must not question the motives of our elected leaders, who despite sitting on this information for years, still lie to us, flagrantly, even now, before the blood of 129 French citizens has even dried, pretending that they intend to “destroy” a band of psychopathic murdering scum, armed and funded from within the heart of NATO.
No, no, no. Life goes on. Business-as-usual must continue. Citizens must keep faith in the wisdom of The Security State.

I only have one problem with this essay: it repeats what is often alleged on many liberal websites/blogs:

Assad’s brutality and illegitimacy is beyond question — but until he had demonstrated his unwillingness to break with Russia and Iran, especially over their proposed pipeline project, US policy toward Assad had been ambivalent.

"Assad’s brutality and illegitimacy" is always "beyond question". Really? I've never seen any credible evidence furnished after this statement. The same allegation could be said with more confidence about any Western leader.

The Saudi Connection to Terror

Click here to access article by Daniel Lazare from ConsortiumNews.

How does ISIS pay for its operations? This is the key question as the war against the terror organization advances to a new level in the wake of the Paris atrocities. But the mainstream’s approved answer is part of the problem.

Using linked documents from mainstream corporate media, Lazare pokes holes in the Empire's explanations about ISIS. Most of these documents have been posted on this website previously. 

Notice one item about the funding of ISIS used by the author which he accessed from mainstream media has already been proven false. Bernhard from Moon of Alabama exposed this lie yesterday after viewing the video and finding Cyrillic characters on the targeting screen. 

I have found no video of U.S. hits on Islamic State oil tanker assemblies.

The U.S. PBS NewsHour did not find any either.

In their TV report yesterday about Islamic State financing and the claimed U.S. hits on oil trucks they used the videos Russia provided without revealing the source. You can see the Russian videos played within an interview with a U.S. military spokesperson at 2:22 min.

The Russian video was used by PBS, a government sponsored, tax-funded TV station, to propagate another lie to the American people that their government was seriously fighting ISIS. The government claim about destroying 116 oil tankers was picked up by all mainstream media.

I think that such mainstream media reports illustrate a profound insight about how the Empire's ruling classes are maintaining all the claimss about a "war on terror" and other assorted fictions. All they need to do is to fool most Americans all the time. So, does it really matter that a small minority of people like Bernhard and us who follow more credible online media see through their lies? I may be deluded, but I hope and pray that it matters. It is the only reason why I do this blog every day of the year for four to five hours.

“More Paris Puzzles”

Click here to access article by Paul Craig Roberts from OffGuardian. 

Dr Paul Craig Roberts questions the official narrative.

His questions along with many other of his questions about alleged terrorist events leads him to this conclusion:

Terrorism has been unleashed in the Western World, and it is the terrorism of Western governments against Western peoples.

Verging on Plutocracy? Getting Real About the Unelected Dictatorship

Click here to access article by Paul Street from CounterPunch. 

Street explains to all those duped left-liberals (cartoonist Ted Rall calls them "idiots") who are supporting Bernie Sanders that his role is to herd the many disaffected left-liberal sheep back into the Democratic Party corral so that they can later be forced into the slaughterhouse of capitalist ruling class elections.

“Black Lives Matter” Groups Hoping for a Big Payday

Click here to access article by Glen Ford from Black Agenda Report.

Ford explains how "Black Lives Matter" and associated groups are being induced into playing within the Democratic Party's play pen.

This week, the billionaires that fund the Democratic Party and its satellite organizations will decide which of the “Black Lives Matter” groups will get paid to lead the Black “movement.” The #BlackLivesMatter network and Campaign Zero are eminently qualified for funding, having “already been accorded the status and privileges of constituent Democratic Party organizations.” Who else will make the corporate cut?

The Paris Attacks and the White Lives Matter Movement

Click here to access article by Ajamu Baraka from CounterPunch.

What the author doesn't mention in this otherwise brilliant essay is the concomitant rise of capitalism, a system created by early capitalists in search of riches which, in turn, gave them enormous power over the rest of humanity. They became so addicted to riches and power that they had no inhibitions about committing crimes against the rest of humanity who stood in their way, and they continue with this obsessive pursuit of wealth and power today--probably more than ever. This ruling class has, like all ruling classes, its own propagandists which Baraka erroneously refers to as a "class of intellectuals"--they are only a sub-class of the ruling capitalist class.

Eurocentric academicians, still a hegemonic force in the West, don’t historicize the “great” humanitarian theories of Europe and critically juxtapose the rise of those theories with the concrete practices of European powers. Those practices involved the systematic slaughter of millions of Indigenous people throughout the America’s and the African slave trade that made Europe fat and rich and allowed for the creation of a class of intellectuals freed-up from the struggle to earn a living and able to engage in the higher contemplations of life.

However, Eurocentric liberalism was never just confined to the academy. It became the hegemonic ideological force that embedded itself in the culture and collective consciousness of the Western project and with it the de-valuation of non-European life and culture. In other words, the white supremacist ideology and world-view, normalized and thus unrecognized by most, has become a form of psychopathology. 

The Rise of the Military Based Empire. Washington, “Military Workshop” of the World

Click here to access article by James Petras from Global Research.

This article is worthwhile reading because it offers a review and assessment of US imperialist policies and actions mostly beginning after the 9/11 tragedy. However, as an explanatory piece it is very inadequate. Of course Zionists have played a major role in shaping US policies to favor Israeli interests, but the retired sociology professor fails with his theory of competing factions to really explain anything. 

His theory demands an explanation of the appearance of "competing factions" which he doesn't provide. He also doesn't provide a single link to documentation. I guess the professor regards himself as an omniscient authority which all of us must defer to. To explain any single imperialist policy and/or action, he simply posits a faction. I counted numerous:

• Washington policy elite
• Zionist faction
• Washington militarists
•    In the Far East, the Navy and Air Force predominate.
•    In the Far East, the Navy and Air Force predominate.
•    In the Middle East and South Asia, the military (Army and Air Force) factions share power with the Zionist faction. Fundamentally the Zionist dictate policy on Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine and the militarists follow. Both factions overlapped in creating the debacle in Libya.
• traditional militarist wing of Washington’s elite
• Zionist faction among US militarist policymakers
• traditional business faction
• oil and business elite

He concludes with this statement which raises more questions:

[Zionists] push the US into wars for Israel, and once having destroyed “the enemy country” they leave a vacuum to be filled by chaos.  The American public provides the gold and blood for these misadventures and reaps nothing but domestic deterioration and greater international strife.

Surely he is not suggesting that if the US ruling class had reaped solid gains from their many imperialist adventures that the wars would have been justified. What he really explains is the powerful influence of domestic and Israeli Zionists on US foreign policies. But how did these Zionists attain such influence among the US capitalist ruling class? I think it is because they have served this class so well in terms of profit and power over the years, however I don't have the time develop that argument. Petras should be doing that.

Québec fights back against austerity

Click here to access article by Pete Dolack from Systemic Disorder.

We are supposed to accept austerity as being as natural as ocean tides. Or be demoralized by the power of the forces that continually press down on working people around the world. But there is an ongoing, organized fightback going on — in Québec.

A series of rolling strikes by public-sector employees and students throughout 2015 appear to be headed toward a provincial general strike in December. Haven’t heard of this? That is not because it is francophone workers and students are who are driving these actions but because there has been a near total blackout of this news in the North American corporate media.

Coverage of Russian Plane Bombing Shows What a Difference an Enemy Makes

Click here to access article by Jim Naureckas from Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting.

When the victims of terror come from an official enemy state, it’s clear that different media rules apply.

West Leverages Paris Attacks for Syria Endgame

Click here to access article by Tony Cartalucci from New Eastern Outlook.

The terrorist attacks carried out in the heart of the French capital, either coincidentally or intentionally, have served as the perfect point of leverage for the West on the very eve of the so-called “Vienna talks” regarding Syria. [my link]

With its serendipitously strengthened hand and with France taking a more prominent role, the West is attempting to reassert not only its narrative, but its agenda regarding the ongoing conflict in Syria, an agenda that has – as of late – been derailed by Russia’s military intervention and recent gains made on the battlefield by Syrian military forces.

Cartlucci argues with solid evidence that the Empire is using the latest terrorist attack in Paris to continue the pursuit of its agenda to destabilize Syria as it has done for Libya (and Iraq), and to go on from there to destabilize other countries in the region--otherwise known as the "seven country strategy". 

Putin's 'Strategic Blunder' In Syria May Be A Boon For Investors

Click here to access article by Kenneth Rapoza from Forbes.

The capitalist devotion to profits above all else is illustrated in this piece posted on a major capitalist website. With a profit opportunity looking very promising, this blogger departs from the usual ruling class anti-Russian line to promote Russian stocks where he sees investors could make a "killing". It seems that the Russian entrance into the Syrian situation has been well received in Europe where talk is growing about ending Russian sanctions.

While January is likely too early to see the end of Russian sanctions, which began last year due to Moscow’s involvement in supporting separatists in east Ukraine, odds are high that Russia could see discussion on the rollback on sanctions soon. “Markets will discount that well before hand,” Signorelli says.

The Market Vectors Russia (RSX) exchange traded fund closed 3.9% higher on Monday as investors weigh this sentiment shift. In fact, Russian equities beat out the S&P 500, the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, and oil futures, all higher today.
 

The Physicians For Human Rights "Report" on "Aleppo" Is A Scam

Click here to access article by Bernhard from Moon of Alabama.

The author catches the NY Times, the "newspaper of record", sloppily using a propaganda piece to smear the Syrian government in support of the Empire's anti-Syrian policies.

TPP Fine Print: Biotech Seed Companies Win Again

Click here to access article by Ben Lilliston from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.

Big concerns about the deal’s impact on public health, workers, the environment and the legal rights of corporations are already being raised. A close look at the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) chapter shows how just a few lines in TPP can turn into a big win for an industry—in this case, the biotech seed industry.

After examining the details of the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) section of the TPP proposed agreement, Lilliston reaches this conclusion:

The TPP’s IPR chapter provides a glimpse into what this new mega free trade deal is all about. The chapter’s requirement that countries grant patent protection for multinational biotech seed companies has little to do with trade and nothing to do with respecting farmers’ innovations, their livelihoods or countries’ food security. It is about asserting, in a very raw way, corporate power over sovereign nations and the farmers who live there. 

TTIP: capitalism on steroids

Click here to access article by Mathilde Dahl from Revolutionary Socialism in the 21st Century (rs21) [Britain].  

Dahl contributes some new information about the proposed TTIP agreement and what is being done in Europe to oppose it.

It is clear that TTIP is not about trade – it’s about giving multinational corporations more power and it poses a massive threat to our democracy [sic].

But there is good news – the campaign against TTIP is growing and TTIP has become the most toxic acronym in Europe.

Who’s in Control? Obama or the generals?

Click here to access article by Finian Cunningham from RT. 

What we may be seeing in US policy is competing agendas. The diplomatic track appears to be favored by the White House and State Department as a more efficacious way of achieving regime change against the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad. But the Pentagon, and specifically the CIA, has its own militarist schemes, even if that means providing weapons to terror groups with much greater fire power and risking a proxy war with Russia.

The upshot is that US foreign policy is dangerously all over the place because of competing power players within Washington. The disturbing conclusion is that the American president and his State Department are simply not in control. It’s like watching a driver of an articulated truck whose grip on the wheel has no steering.

A deep, darker state within the official state is by no means a new concept to describe American government and its foreign policy. More than 50 years ago, President John F. Kennedy was so perplexed by CIA covert operations undermining him on Cuba and Vietnam that he declared he would “smash it into a thousand pieces.” That intention probably caused Kennedy his life at the hands of the deep state and its military-industrial complex.

Because of its deep cover, it is very difficult to unravel the details of this fascist "deep state". However here is my general interpretation based on 60 years as an activist and a student of political events related to US policies. 

Since end of WWII the fascist "deep state" has gradually taken control of the US behind a facade of "democratic" governance which is the formal mechanisms of government. (They clearly demonstrated their ascendancy with the Kennedy assassination and with several others that followed.) The latter provides essentially the public relations cover for the fascist deep state. Their actions are what is reported in corporate media, while the hidden capitalist deep state is in actual control of policies and actions which are all decided in secret. Beyond this framework things get a lot more speculative as to the details, especially how policies are mediated within the deep state. But what is clear is that government officials under this arrangement are subservient to the deep state apparatus. Cunningham points out the contrast between the policies of what he views as a bifurcated government, but in reality there is no bifurcation. There is only a public relations facade covering over a fascist deep state. Furthermore, I do not believe that the deep state is controlled by generals, although there may be some among the directorate of the deep state. The overwhelming majority are from major financial institutions and Wall Street in general.

But, make no mistake by believing that the deep state relies completely on their facade to control the American populace. It's just that they have had so much success with manipulating, deceiving, distracting, dumbing-down, and confusing Americans with their control of all institutions (media, education, and entertainment) that they do not see any reason to dispense with this facade. They decided long ago not to rely completely on it by constructing an elaborate police state apparatus (militarized police forces that function with impunity) complete with laws that, should they decide to fully implement them, will legally support such an overt fascist state. 

Washington Refines Its False Flag Operations

Click here to access article by Paul Craig Roberts from Information Clearing House.

Washington and its French vassal have refined how they conduct their false flag operations. With the Charlie Hebdo operation, they knew to immediately set the story in stone in order to avoid any questions from the print and TV media and in order to use the set story to take the place of an investigation. 

Russian Airliner brought down by Bomb: FSB Chief Bortnikov

Click here to access article by Christof Lehmann from nsnbc international. 

The Russian Kogalmavia (Metrojet) Airbus 321 on Flight KGL9268 that crashed in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula on October 31 was blown up by a homemade explosive device, said the Chief of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Alexander Bortnikov. 

Some Questions for Obama and His Gang

Click here to access article by Christopher Black from New Eastern Outlook. (Addendum added at 5 PM Seattle time.)

...the plan is always the same, and never changes, to dominate, to control or to destroy.

Many think they are lucky if they can just stay out of your way but we know better. We know that no one is safe from your criminality and depravity.

This Canadian international human rights lawyer sees a pattern of the use of terrorists both in general to further Empire goals of world hegemony, and in particular to justify the Empire's army, NATO, to take control of the war in Syria.

You and your fellow conspirators plan to amplify this propaganda to hysterical levels to generate overwhelming fear in your domestic populations in order to justify a large scale war against Syria where your proxy forces are being defeated by the combined arms of Russian air power and the fighting spirit and skills of the Syrian Arab Army. This has been achieved with the attack in Paris. The sudden flow of refugees into Europe is being used for the same purpose.

No doubt we can expect similar attacks in other NATO capitals. It does not matter to you if you use the misery of millions fleeing war and poverty to justify your plans for war or Russian children returning from happy days on the beach, or people enjoying a concert or football match in Paris. All deaths are the same to you. And so, when we ask who murdered those children, who murdered those Parisians, are you surprised if we turn our heads your way?

The only criticism I have with this view is that Obama has relatively little to do with these crimes--he is being used by the "deep state" (see this, this, and this) like many of the terrorists. That does not excuse Obama because he knows far more about the deep state that do ordinary terrorists. But it illustrates how one who has been deeply immersed in ruling class capitalist culture and socialized accordingly can participate in such crimes against humanity.

Gearoid O Colmain: 'ISIS is a creation of the United States'

The following 2:14m video from RT features a commentary by Colmain, of the latest Paris terrorist incident. By perusing various websites, I learned that Colmain was born in Ireland, is now based in France where he is known as a political analyst and columnist for various media outlets.

Colmain has no doubts that US Empire agents are ultimately behind the recent terrorist incident and briefly explains why.

The ‘Black Friday’ Horror in Paris: It May Have Been a Staged, False-Flag Operation…

Click here to access article from The Burning Blogger of Bedlam.

Already people are noticing mysterious commonalities among terrorist events and some anomalies connected with the latest terrorist event in Paris that defy common sense. This blogger from London is one of the first to identify some of these and to raise important questions as to the reality of this event.

How Saudi & Gulf Money Fuels Terrorism

Click here to access article by Daniel Lazare from Mint Press News. 

With the death toll in the Paris terror attacks still rising, French President Hollande is condemning an “act of war” by the Islamic State, but the underlying reality is that France’s rich friends in the Persian Gulf are key accomplices in the mayhem.

Putin Names And Shames Obama Into Bombing IS Oil Smugglers

Click here to access article by Bernhard from Moon of Alabama.

The U.S. claims it wants to hit the Islamic State but in one year of bombing it never really touched one of its biggest sources of income. Hundreds of oil tanker trucks are waiting every day at IS distribution points to smuggle oil to Turkey and elsewhere. Only one such distribution point was ever bombed and that attack was  by the Iraqi air force.

Now the Russian President Putin played some "name and shame" at the G-20 meeting in Turkey and, lo and behold, the problem gets solved.

Kerry’s counterproductive Syria strategy (with addendum)

Click here to access article by Michael E. O'Hanlon from Brookings.

I have read a number of credible articles providing evidence that the recent terrorist incident in Paris was aided and abetted by sociopathic Empire agents--but, for what purpose? I thought I'd consult an Empire source for an explanation. This posted article offers what appears to be a reasonable and more cool-headed approach, with "humanitarianism" thrown in, to deal with terrorism. Note especially these two paragraphs:

I have written elsewhere, and in the blog post below, about my own recommendations for how to ramp up our role in both Syria and Iraq, in alliance with indigenous forces, NATO allies, and Middle East partners as well. That ramped-up involvement should include more U.S., NATO, and Gulf Cooperation Council special forces on the ground in both countries, to conduct raids and better orchestrate aerial attacks, but especially to accelerate training of Syrian moderate fighters and the Iraqi army (and to facilitate provision of humanitarian relief in places within Syria as well). It should include creative use of no-fly zones to hasten creation of conditions for a confederal settlement in Syria--targeting not airplanes in the air, but Syrian (not Russian) airfields and aircraft on the ground that have previously ignored our demands to stop bombing innocent Syrian populations. [my emphasis]

Most of all, for this weekend, it should lead John Kerry and Barack Obama, in their foreign travels, not to pursue the failed logic of the current Syria peace talks but to explore a confederal model and seek buy-in from as many key players and allies as possible. Our military strategy needs to begin with a solid and realistic political framework. In Syria in particular, we lack that at present.

This appears to be the Empire's answer to the recent Russian involvement and their attacks on terrorist armies operating in Syria. This also lends support to Cartalucci's (and others) understanding of the Paris attack and the Empire's motivation to aid their terrorist armies operating in Syria in an attempt to rescue them from Russian attacks.

Here we see Patrick Henningsen, blogger at 21st Century Wire, who essentially expresses the same view in this 12:58m video interview from RT. 

  

What Preceded The Islamic State Attacks In France - Some Links (Updated)

Click here to access article by Bernhard from Moon of Alabama.

Although the author provides links to the history preceding this latest terrorist incident in Paris, he focuses mostly on France's contribution to ISIS. The French capitalist directors are really only a subsection of the US-led Empire that is trying to sow chaos and destabilization in the Middle East and North Africa in order to establish more Empire friendly regimes who will take orders from Empire directors. 

Also we must keep in mind the high level of sophistication that characterized this event and many past events related to ISIS. To be sure, there are a considerable number of desperate people in the Middle East who have participated in these terrorist events, but this blogger has always found credible evidence of false-flag characteristics which suggests that Empire directors are simply using, training, and equipping these desperate people for their own nefarious ends.