Friday, November 27, 2015

RNC Wages War on Trump as Abandoned Clinton Base Flee DNC to Vote for Trump


The Democratic Party, once the champion of women, children, working people, middle class and the elderly now has abandoned the very values that differentiated Democrats from Republicans. The two parties have morphed into a Fascist monolithic behemoth.  According to Vice President Henry Wallace’s “The Danger of AmericanFascism,”


Excerpt:


The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information. With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power….


Most American fascists are enthusiastically supporting the war effort. They are doing this even in those cases where they hope to have profitable connections with German chemical firms after the war ends. They are patriotic in time of war because it is to their interest to be so, but in time of peace they follow power and the dollar wherever they may lead…


They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.



The Republican Party has declared war on Donald Trump to destroy his Presidential ambitions. Today C-Span dedicated its 3 hour Washington Journal program to "political correctness." What's interesting about that is C-Span has been taken over by Right Wing Think tanks, many funded by the Koch Brothers like the Cato Institute as well as American Enterprise Institute, Heritage Foundation, The Federalist Society, etc. who support establishment candidates with millions of dollars.  From Mint Press:


Excerpt:


Jewish Republicans Line Up Against Donald Trump


At a recent board meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition, the big donors and high-powered operatives in the room went around the table to make sure they had someone supporting each potential Republican nominee.


Jeb Bush backers were easy to find. Supporters of Marco Rubio, too, were plentiful. Ted Cruz had friends there, as did Scott Walker, and even George Pataki and Lindsey Graham. The Republican Jewish elite have spread themselves wide across the GOP firmament.


Yet Donald Trump, who has topped 20% to lead all other Republicans in recent presidential primary polls, and who also leads the pack in both Iowa and New Hampshire, is a different story…


What is clear is that, despite his surge in the polls, the anti-immigration hard-liner has strikingly little support among prominent Republican Jewish donors, activists and consultants.


Many Republican Jewish leaders remain unwilling to speak about Trump. The RJC’s spokesman did not respond to a request to speak for this story; neither did former Republican National Committee chair Ken Mehlman, who is a member of the RJC’s board; former George W. Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer, also an RJC board member, or former Republican House majority leader Eric Cantor, who has been close to the group.


After the overthrow of the American government December 12, 2000 in which those prominent RJC members played a huge role, the two parties rigged the Primary process to ensure the candidates preselected by the DNC and RNC are the candidates. 


In the 2008 Democratic primary election the will of the voters was nullified by the “super delegates.”  According to the ballots cast in the 2008 primary where voters actually went into a voting booth and cast a ballot, Hillary Clinton was leading the DNC’s preselected candidate Barack Obama.  From The Caucus:



Excerpt:


Democratic Leaders Lean on Superdelegates


WASHINGTON – Hoping to bring the Democratic presidential nomination fight to an end, party leaders are intensifying their efforts to encourage remaining uncommitted superdelegates to make their choice public by the middle of next week.


In an interview Thursday on a San Francisco talk radio station, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, said he had spoken with Speaker Nancy Pelosi earlier in the day, and they had agreed to take steps to avoid a contest that extends into the convention in August


Both Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Reid have remained publicly neutral…   the two top lawmakers are evidently ready to exercise their influence with the approximately 200 members of Congress and the party elite who have yet to make their preference known publicly. Party officials say both Mr. Reid and Ms. Pelosi are also calling uncommitted superdelegates to press them for a resolution.


And how did Pelosi and Reid ensure the votes cast by the American people in the primaries did not select the Democratic candidate?  From The Caucus:


Excerpt:


7:45 p.m. | Rules Wrap Up: After a nearly 10-hour marathon meeting of the Democratic party’s rules committee, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton came away with a total of 24 more pledged delegates, but today’s decisions on the seating of Florida and Michigan delegates fell far short of what her campaign had hoped.


In a blow to Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy, the committee voted to restore the delegations of both Florida and Michigan at the party’s nominating convention, but gave each delegate only half a vote…


Minutes after the meeting ended, Mr. Ickes and another Clinton backer on the committee, Tina Flournoy… continued to register their strong objection to what they called the committee’s decision “to undercut its own rules in seating Michigan’s delegates without reflecting the votes of the people of Michigan.” They wrote:


The Committee awarded to Senator Obama not only the delegates won by Uncommitted, but four of the delegates won by Senator Clinton. This decision violates the bedrock principles of our democracy and our party.


We reserve the right to challenge this decision before the Credentials Committee and appeal for a fair allocation of Michigan’s delegates that actually reflect the votes as they were cast.


Given that history, I found this August 2015 article in Bloomberg very disturbing.  Remember this was written by Mark Halperin who along with John Heilemann wrote “Game Change” a propaganda piece that was made into an HBO movie about the 2008 election.  


Excerpt:


Clinton's Superdelegate Tipping Point


Mark Halperin and Jennifer Epstein, at Bloomberg Politics, report that Hillary Clinton’s campaign is claiming commitments from as many as 440 superdelegates, perhaps giving her an insurmountable lead in the race for the approximately 2,250 delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination.


There is both more and less to this story.


For starters, superdelegates are formally unpledged delegates to the Democratic National Convention who are chosen by position, not through votes in primaries and caucuses. The two big groups are elected officials (members of Congress, governors) and party officials.


Superdelegates were added in the 1980s …  Democrats were concerned that their new system didn’t place enough weight on electability, and believed a larger voice for politicians and formal party leaders would tilt the nomination in that direction.


In the event, the “supers” have never tilted the nomination; they always line up with the candidate who won the most delegates in the caucuses and primaries. That’s essentially what happened in 2008: Clinton had an early lead in superdelegates, but as Barack Obama started winning caucuses and primaries, he wound up picking up almost all the undecided supers and even some defectors from Clinton…



So basically it is the super delegates that choose the President of the United States.  Since Barack Obama was elected President, he has advanced the Republican agenda that no Republican could ever get passed.  And now, Hillary Clinton is defending the horrific Obama record and her base is fleeing to the only candidate that espouses their values, Donald Trump.  No one explains this better than Big Pink at Hillary is 44:


Excerpt:


Deathblows: #Trump2016 Versus #Hillary2016 On #ObamaCare, #ISIS, Immigration, Muslim Terrorists And The White Working Class


The second debate was a catastrophe for Hillary2016. In the wake of the Muslim Terrorist attack against the West in the city of light it was to be expected that Hillary Clinton would turn the events to her advantage but instead she immolated herself on issue after issue in order to protect Barack Obama…


In the second debate Hillary Clinton went out of her way to praise ObamaCare….


We now have this great accomplishment known as the Affordable Care Act. And– I don’t think we should have to be defending it amount [sic] Democrats. We ought to be working to improve it and prevent Republicans from both undermining it and even repealing it. [snip]


I– I think– I think as Democrats, we ought to proudly support the Affordable Care Act, improve it, and make it the model that we know it can be–….


Why in Heaven, Earth, or Hell, Hillary Clinton defends ObamaCare even the Almighty cannot explain.


Today, Bombshell: United Healthcare may exit individual insurance exchanges after 2016. Yes, that is the latest news from the ObamaCare that Hillary Clinton so defends:


Insurance giant UnitedHealth Group dealt a blow to the Affordable Care Act on Thursday when it warned that it may stop offering insurance plans to individuals through public exchanges established by the reform law….


More than half of the 23 non-profit insurance co-ops established under the ACA are shuttering by the end of this year, but UnitedHealth is the largest single insurance carrier in the U.S. United’s comments about the health of exchange-plan holders also runs counter to what was expected….


We wrote about this death spiral to ObamaCare back in 2009. It was easy to see. But Hillary Clinton continues to defend ObamaCare. We also warned repeatedly that deductibles were too damn high and made ObamaCare a killer. On the same day as the second debate, the New York Times published the truth about ObamaCare deductibles which Hillary either did not see or chose to ignore:




Many Say High Deductibles Make Their Health Law Insurance All but Useless [snip]


“The deductible, $3,000 a year, makes it impossible to actually go to the doctor,” said David R. Reines, 60, of Jefferson Township, N.J., a former hardware salesman with chronic knee pain. “We have insurance, but can’t afford to use it.” [snip]


In many states, more than half the plans offered for sale through HealthCare.gov, the federal online marketplace, have a deductible of $3,000 or more, a New York Times review has found. Those deductibles are causing concern among Democrats — and some Republican detractors of the health law, who once pushed high-deductible health plans in the belief that consumers would be more cost-conscious if they had more of a financial stake or skin in the game.


“We could not afford the deductible,” said Kevin Fanning, 59, who lives in North Texas, near Wichita Falls. “Basically I was paying for insurance I could not afford to use.”


He dropped his policy. [snip]


“Our deductible is so high, we practically pay for all of our medical expenses out of pocket,” said Wendy Kaplan, 50, of Evanston, Ill. “So our policy is really there for emergencies only, and basic wellness appointments.”


Her family of four pays premiums of $1,200 a month for coverage with an annual deductible of $12,700.


In Miami, the median deductible, according to HealthCare.gov, is $5,000. (Half of the plans are above the median, and half below it.) In Jackson, Miss., the comparable figure is $5,500. In Chicago, the median deductible is $3,400. In Phoenix, it is $4,000; in Houston and Des Moines, $3,000. [snip]


Mr. Fanning, the North Texan, said he and his wife had a policy with a monthly premium of about $500 and an annual deductible of about $10,000 after taking account of financial assistance. Their income is about $32,000 a year.


The Fannings dropped the policy in July after he had a one-night hospital stay and she had tests for kidney problems, and the bills started to roll in.


Josie Gibb of Albuquerque pays about $400 a month in premiums, after subsidies, for a silver-level insurance plan with a deductible of $6,000. “The deductible,” she said, “is so high that I have to pay for everything all year — visits with a gynecologist, a dermatologist, all blood work, all tests. It’s really just a catastrophic policy.”



Hillary Clinton defends this scam? You pay your premiums then you pay the deductibles and by then the insurance companies have done well but you haven’t. Only if you are very sick and squeeze the system dry is ObamaCare of any use to anyone. And Hillary Clinton defends what by any definition is a scam…?


“This will be an issue at least one more time in the 2016 election. It could absolutely still hurt Democrats,” said Robert Blendon, a professor of health policy and political analysis at the Harvard School of Public Health. “Polls about the Affordable Care Act have a considerable amount of middle-income people who say either the program has done nothing for them or actually hurt them.”


Repeatedly the concerns cited by Americans quoted at the New York Times and the Boston Globe is that their insurance is not only worthless, but a drain on them. ObamaCare is a scam that takes money by force of law and delivers nothing but bills. Hillary Clinton defends and supports this???


Donald J. Trump promises to burn ObamaCare to the ground.


Big Pink is right, the people most hurt by the Affordable Care Act and all of Obama’s policies have been the middle class, working people, military families, elderly and the list goes on. More from Big Pink:


Please notice that the predominately white, working class and the middle classes are the ones hurt by ObamaCare. It is also the white working class that is disgusted by Barack Obama’s pro Muslim Terrorist policies. Policies which Hillary2016 adopts like a dog picks up fleas.


In October we noted that Donald Trump was walking away with the Clinton Coalition. Hillary2016, like Barack Obama has orphaned the winning Clinton Coalition. The Wall Street Journal confirms the flight of the white working class to Donald J. Trump:


Trump Rides a Blue-Collar Wave


Fifty-five percent of his supporters are white working-class.


The biggest surprise of the presidential election so far is the emergence and persistent strength of Donald Trump. [snip]


Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, 39% of the white working class backs Mr. Trump, twice his share of white college-educated voters. Fifty-five percent of his supporters are white working class


So the Fascist monolith that is the amalgam of the two-party system has pulled out all the stops to stop Trump.  Every attack against Trump has not only failed but has made his coalition stronger.  But the media thinks they have found a winner, the magic elixir to once and for all convince the American people they must abandon Trump, only the establishment can save them from themselves. 


CNN is leading the charge against Donald Trump and other news outlets are jumping on the bandwagon reporting that Trump mocked a handicapped reporter.




From The Guardian:


Excerpt:


New York Times slams 'outrageous' Donald Trump for mocking reporter's disability


The New York Times has criticised Donald Trump as “outrageous” after the Republican presidential front-runner mocked one of its reporters and appeared to imitate his disability.


In a speech to supporters on Tuesday night, Trump derided Serge Kovaleski – a reporter for the newspaper who has disputed Trump’s claim that “thousands” of Muslims in New Jersey celebrated the 9/11 attacks – while flailing and twisting his arms.


Kovaleski has arthrogryposis, a congenital condition that affects joint movement.


In 2001, he was a journalist at the Washington Post and one of the authors of a report cited by Trump in defence of his 9/11 claim. (The Washington Post has since added a disclaimer to the report, distancing it from the claims.)


And yet in 2006 Rush Limbaugh, whose show has right wing sponsors like the Heritage Foundation, mocked Michael J. Fox’s disability on the air and he was defended by a lot of the same “news” outlets piling on Trump, like Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News.


One thing that all the news outlet have failed to report on is the fact that there was footage of people in New Jersey cheering as the twin towers came down, but they were not Muslims as Trump has cited.  From Black Agenda Report:


Excerpt:


A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford


Israelis – Not Muslims – Cheered in Jersey City on 9/11


In debunking Donald Trump’s big lie about Jersey City Muslims celebrating the destruction of the World Trade Center, the corporate media have told an even bigger lie of omission. There was, indeed, shameless cheering on the banks of the Hudson River on 9/11. But it was by young Israelis, as was widely reported at the time. Fourteen years later, corporate media are covering up for Israel – which makes them even bigger liars than Trump.


 “By making only a partial correction of Donald Trump’s prevarication, the corporate media were telling their own lie about what happened on 9/11.”


The corporate media don’t like Donald Trump. They used to like him a lot; in fact, Big Business Media are responsible for making this minor multi-millionaire into a household name. But Trump is on their hit list, nowadays, because the Republican presidential candidate insists on telling his own lies, rather than sticking to the list of official lies parroted by corporate media every minute of every day.


Donald Trump told a really “HUGE” – as he would put it – lie when he claimed to have watched thousands of Muslims cheering in Jersey City, New Jersey, as the World Trade Center came down on 9/11. Every corporate news outlet in the country rushed to debunk Trump’s fictitious account. The Washington Post offered psychological theories for why Trump gets away with telling fantastic lies. The New York Times said there was no evidence that Jersey City Muslims cheered the destruction on 9/11. CNN said it never happened. And, they were right.


However, by making only a partial correction of Donald Trump’s prevarication, the corporate media were telling their own lie about what happened on 9/11. There was, in fact, celebration in Jersey City on that fateful morning, and the incident did, briefly, make a major news splash. But the people doing the cheering weren’t Muslims: they were five young Israelis in a white moving van, who were observed in Liberty Park ecstatically taking pictures of themselves framed against the smoking ruins of the Twin Towers.


As ABC News reported, the five were later arrested at gunpoint near the New Jersey Giants football stadium. Most U.S. intelligence sources believed the men were Israeli spies, and that their “moving company” was an Israeli intelligence cover. They were detained for a while, and then deported.


…Israelis celebrating 9/11 would have come up in any search to correct Donald Trump’s tall tale – but the corporate media kept that part of the story from the public. They censored their own correction of Donald Trump. So, who is the biggest liar? Trump, who lies to advance his own personal interests, or the U.S. corporate media, who lie to the people on behalf of the State of Israel, and Zionism.


Hmm, interesting isn’t it.  The media is lying to cover up the fact that Israeli’s were the ones cheering as the Twin Towers came down not Muslims as Trump has claimed and now the media is piling on Trump to destroy him.  And this comes just after the Mint Press reported that Jewish Republicans have conspired to destroy Trump.


Is it any wonder that the White Middle Class are abandoning Hillary Clinton for Donald Trump?  Trump should dump the RNC and run as an independent, I have just the perfect campaign song for him.


By Patricia Baeten


Sunday, November 22, 2015

ISIS Who’s Your Daddy? Part II – Saudi Puppet Master vs. American JV Team



President John F. Kennedy said “Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan” by that standard one could say ISIS with its recent victorious terrorist attacks in France, has a thousand fathers.  Well at least 40 fathers according to the calculation of Russian President, Vladimir Putin.  From Mint Press:


Excerpt:


During the summit, “I provided examples based on our data on the financing of different Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) units by private individuals. This money, as we have established, comes from 40 countries and, there are some of the G20 members among them,” Putin told the journalists.


“I’ve shown our colleagues photos taken from space and from aircraft which clearly demonstrate the scale of the illegal trade in oil and petroleum products,” he said.


“The motorcade of refueling vehicles stretched for dozens of kilometers, so that from a height of 4,000 to 5,000 meters they stretch beyond the horizon,” Putin added, comparing the convoy to gas and oil pipeline systems.


Imagine that, the United States has been bombing ISIS in Syria for over a year, and ISIS still has refueling convoys stretching “beyond the horizon” in clear view from space.  And these aren’t just any junk heaps that ISIS has.  From Global Research:



Excerpt:


Where Does ISIS Get All Those Tanks, Weapons And Shiny New Toyota Trucks?


Yikes! Those evil, marauding terrorists from ISIS are still at large, but fear not: ISIS can’t escape from the U.S. and our allies for long. And when we get ’em, we’re going to kick their cartoonist/woman/gay/Christian-hating Jihadi butts from here until Sunday.


There’s just one problem. If we’re at war with ISIS, why do we keep supplying them with tanks, weapons, Humvees and shiny new Toyota trucks?  CNN reports:


“They’re hard to miss. Packed with ISIS fighters and heavy weapons, Toyota pickup trucks and SUV’s are featured prominently in ISIS propaganda videos.”


According to ABC, the U.S. Treasury Dept.’s Terror Financing unit has finally taken notice of the endless parades of shiny, new Toyota trucks starring in ISIS’s propaganda videos, and they’ve launched an investigation….


Toyota trucks aren’t all ISIS has managed to buy, capture or scavenge from us. In June, CNBC reported that so far we’ve accidentally furnished the Islamic State with at least $219.7 million worth of weapons, vehicles and other military supplies and gear — and that’s just the stuff we know about.


Based on various reports, CNBC came up with the following laundry list of supplies the U.S. has so kindly provided to ISIS so far.


2,300 Humvee armored vehicles at $70,000 each: $16 million

40 M1A1 Abram tanks at $4.3 million each: $172 million

52 M198 Howitzer mobile gun systems at $527,337 each: $2.7 million

74,000 Army machine guns at $4,000 each: $29 million

TOTAL: $219.7 MILLION in military weapons, vehicles, and other supplies and gear for ISIS.


How does the Islamic State get hold of all these U.S. weapons? We deliver them, either directly or through the tattered remnants of Iraq’s military. Jeremy Salt, a political analyst in Ankara, Turkey, gives RT.Com quite the scathing earful:


“Do you think the Islamic State’s advance would have been so successful without access to this U.S. military hardware…?


And one of our main allies in the illegal bombing and attacks on the sovereign nation of Syria is none other than Saudi Arabia.  That’s right, Saudi Arabia who also provided the funding for the terrorists who attacked the United States of America on September 11, 2001. 


But in the United States, we’re not allowed to see the 28 pages of the 9-11 report and those who have seen the 28 pages aren’t allowed to talk about it as 9-11 commission member, Senator Bob Graham found out.


Given the brutal attacks on France that took place on November 13, 2015 that we are told ISIS has claimed responsibility for, maybe we should see those 28 pages from the 9-11 report.  From LaRouche.com


Excerpt:


In the Wake of Paris:  Release the 28 Pages Now!


Nov. 17—On Jan. 7, 2015, just hours after terrorists staged an assault on the Paris offices of the satirical publication Charlie Hebdo and killed a dozen people, former U.S. Senator Bob Graham (D-Fla.) joined House of Representatives Members Walter Jones (R-N.C.), Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), and representatives of the 9/11 families, in a Capitol Hill press conference, convened to demand the immediate release of the 28-page chapter from the original 2002 Joint Congressional Inquiry into 9/11, which documented the role of the Saudi Royal Family in financing the hijackers….


Sen. Graham’s words are even more profound and timely today, in the wake of the Nov. 13 Paris massacres by Islamic State-allied butchers. Graham told the standing-room only crowd:


The Saudis know what they did. They are not persons who are unaware of the consequences of their government’s actions. Second, the Saudis know that we know what they did!


Sen. Graham was absolutely right on Jan. 7. His words now take on even greater significance, as the entire world is still in shock over the Friday events in Paris, and the prospect that it can happen again.


ISIS has already issued a new threat of similar blind terror attacks, this time targeting Washington, D.C. and other American cities. The Russian government, after a careful investigation, has concluded, as of Nov. 17, that the Metro Jet plane that blew up over Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, was downed by a terrorist bomb planted on board. ISIS has claimed credit for that atrocity, in which 224 people were killed. ISIS also took credit for a pair of suicide bombings in southern Beirut on Nov. 12, which killed and wounded hundreds of innocents….


The shock of the Paris attacks has forced the Obama Administration, for the moment at least, to abandon its hate campaign against Russia and President Putin, and at least formally accept the urgency of collaboration with Moscow to crush the Islamic State…


Had the full scope of the Saudi Monarchy’s bloody hands behind 9/11 come out at the time, no American President could have gotten away with the coddling of the Saudis that has been the hallmark of both the Bush and Obama Administrations, post-9/11. To this day, President Obama openly praises the Saudis for their role in the “coalition” fighting ISIS….



Odd isn’t it?  Why would the Obama Administration continue to demand that they won’t agree to any kind of peace agreement in Syria unless the elected President of Syria, Bashar Assad goes, which would leave a power vacuum in Syria.  That is something only Saudi Arabia is demanding.  Just seems odd, Obama’s Syria strategy doesn’t make any sense.  From The Atlantic:


Excerpt:


Saudi Arabia, for example, believes ISIS cannot be defeated unless Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is removed from power. Turkey has just convinced NATO nations that the war against ISIS can only be won if Turkey’s traditional Kurdish opponents are neutralized first. Israel sees only one way to defeat ISIS: destroy Iran’s nuclear program and clip its wings regionally….


Saudi Arabia proposes first dislodging President Assad in Syria, one of ISIS’s principal enemies, which will in turn strengthen the Islamic State. That may seem like a step backward, but fear not: There’s more.


The Saudis will then attack Yemen to defeat the Houthis, who are allied with Iran. This will distract Iran in its fight against ISIS. The Kingdom will also draw other Arab countries away from U.S.-led airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq so that these states can participate in Saudi-led strikes in Yemen. Where, you ask, does defeating ISIS fit into all this? You may have missed it: Please return to the start of this paragraph….


America’s strategy is substantially different from everyone else’s. President Barack Obama wants to defeat ISIS by not appearing to be the force defeating ISIS. This is a difficult task, particularly when your air force is the one carrying out most operations against ISIS targets.


But Obama is an astute strategist. His plan centers on supporting Kurdish factions as he also supports Turkey which is now attacking the Kurds while also supporting Saudi Arabia in its war in Yemen which upsets Iran whom U.S. forces are collaborating with in fighting ISIS in Iraq as he simultaneously yields to pressure from allies to weaken Assad in Syria which complicates things further with Iran which he pacifies by signing the nuclear deal upsetting America’s traditional friend Israel whose anger is absorbed with shipments of advanced weapons escalating the arms race in the region.


Jeebus, what a circle jerk and Obama is sending American troops in there to die, while Saudi Arabia and the other Arab states plan to abandon Obama’s JV team in Syria to obliterate Yemen.  From The Intercept:

Sana'a, a living museum, was declared a World Heritage City by the United Nations in 1986


Excerpt:


SHARDS OF BLUE, RED, AND GREEN stained glass, remnants of an intricate crescent window that is a 4,000-year-old Yemeni art form, glitter in the sunlight before crunching underfoot. Atop a mound of dust and mud stands the shell of an ancient tower-house, sliced in half like a cake by an airstrike.


In addition to the growing number of civilian casualties in the country’s seven-month-long war, U.S.-made bombs dropped by fighter jets from a Saudi Arabian-led coalition are pulverizing Yemen’s architectural history, often referred to as a living museum. These airstrikes are tearing villages apart, forcibly displacing thousands and erasing the country’s inimitable heritage, possibly in violation of international humanitarian law, according to the world heritage body, UNESCO….


Yemen’s time-honored homes are part of the country’s rich social fabric, embodying the culture of the families who have lived in them for centuries. The Middle East’s poorest nation is famous for constructing the world’s first skyscrapers, often up to 100 feet high, with as many as 11 stories designed to keep extended families and their livestock safely under one roof.


The violent assault on the country’s history over the past seven months began in March after a political power struggle between incumbent president Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi and Houthi rebels backed by soldiers loyal to the former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, descended into civil war.


But Yemen’s internal conflict has also landed the country’s 26 million people in the middle of the regional struggle between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran, already at loggerheads over the war in Syria….

The al-Hadi mosque in Saada City, Yemen, before the bombing on May


On May 8 the Saudi-led coalition declared Saada City, home to some 50,000 people, a “military zone,” which Human Rights Watch says is a clear violation of international humanitarian law, and gave civilians a few hours’ notice to leave.


Many of those who did not heed the coalition’s warning were forced to flee their homes by the ensuing airstrikes. The village of Rahban, on the outskirts of the city, was razed. It consisted entirely of historic, centuries-old multistory homes with thick rammed-earth walls, rainbow-colored stained-glass windows and hand-carved wooden doors. Timber joists that supported families for tens of generations now protrude from piles of rubble. More than 30 homes were wiped out.


Ibrahim al-Sabra, 23, and his relatives were one of more than 100 families who fled their homes to escape an apparently deliberate tactic of forced displacement of civilians that could amount to a war crime under Article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The bombardment that destroyed his home started just after 3 a.m. and killed two of al-Sabra’s cousins….


The destruction of historical sites and Shiite mosques is not unique to Yemen. One of Saudi Arabia’s coalition partners, Bahrain, demolished or vandalized at least 35 Shiite mosques during the country’s political uprising against minority Sunni rule in 2011, according to the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, all with Saudi backing. The Saudi Kingdom has shown very little, if any, regard for its own historical sites. The former director of the Mecca Hajj Research center previously stated that by 2008, more than 300 ancient sites had been destroyed in Mecca and Medina alone….


American and British support for the bombing campaign continues despite calls from human rights organizations to halt weapons supplies to the Saudi-led coalition in the wake of what Amnesty International called “damning evidence of war crimes.” Democratic members of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, however, managed to delay the latest planned transfer from the U.S. to Saudi Arabia of precision-guided weapons….


The world-famous Great Marib Dam was bombed for the first time in May. Dating back to the eighth century B.C., the dam was 50 feet high and 2,100 feet wide, almost twice the width of the Hoover Dam. It was a wonder of the ancient world, watering the region for 1,000 years. Marib was the capital of the Sabaean Kingdom, ruled by the Biblical Queen of Sheba. Last month the province became the latest front-line battleground for coalition troops and the Houthi forces…


A second ancient temple to the god of thunderstorms and rain, At har dhu-Qabd, was also mostly lost to the aerial assaults. The joint Italian-Yemeni team excavated and painstakingly restored both temples as part of a 25-year project that ran from 1990. The shrines were cultural treasures for the whole Arabian Peninsula….


A small museum housing the most precious finds from the team’s excavations was similarly reduced to piles of shattered stone in September, says Fedele. On September 17, Irina Bokova, director general of UNESCO, deplored “the senseless destruction of one of the richest cultures in the Arab region….”


Given the horrific attacks that have taken place in Paris, what is the response of American President Barack Obama and France’s President Francois Hollande?  From The Independent:



Excerpt:


Francois Hollande's 'war' with Isis won't stand in the way of France's arms deals with Saudi Arabia


…The country which lent its Sunni-Wahhabi creed to the Isis killers of Paris will care nothing for François Hollande’s huffing and puffing about war….


The Saudis are far too busy blowing up bits of Yemen in their crazed war against the Shia Houthis to worry about the Sunni-Wahhabi crazies of Isis. Their enemy remains America’s new best friend – Shia Iran – and they are as keen as ever to dethrone the Alawite-Shia President of Syria, even if Isis is in the front line against Bashar al-Assad.


They know that French foreign policy has favoured Saudi trade as fervently as it once opposed the Iranian nuclear agreement – and that billions of dollars’ worth of US military supplies will still flow to the kingdom despite their countrymen’s links to the cult which destroyed 129 lives in Paris…


It has largely stopped bombing Isis – surprise, surprise –but desperately needs more weapons after burning up its arms inventories on the poverty-stricken Yemenis. The proposed weapons deal – already approved by the US State Department – includes Boeing direct attack munitions and Paveway laser-guided bombs from Raytheon…


The Houthis, needless to say, still control a lot of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, even though the Iranian military assistance to them – much trumpeted by the Saudis – is mythical. Human rights groups have long accused the Saudis’ air strikes of indiscriminately killing civilians – the UN put the total civilian dead at 2,355, each one, of course, as precious as the 129 lives destroyed in Paris on Friday.


The Americans – and the French – would presumably like the Saudis to kill 2,355 members of Isis, but that is not to be. The US Congress has already permitted Obama to sell another 600 Patriot PAC-3 air defence rockets – putting £5.4bn in Lockheed Martin’s pocket…


As for France’s new emergency laws, they will bother neither the Saudis nor any other Arab nation. In a Middle East in which the local dictators, kings and emirs – almost all of them the West’s allies – regularly spy on their citizens, tape their telephones and torture their own people, no one is going to care if the new Hollande laws restrict the egalité or liberté of the people of France


And of far more interest to France will be its own lucrative arms deals with Saudi Arabia, where Hollande still hopes – forlornly, one might add – to supplant the US as the kingdom’s main arms supplier. He may think he’s “at war” with Isis – but the spiritual mentors of the so-called Caliphate will be left untouched.


Are there any sane voices in the world’s governments to stop the Saudi Puppet Masters against the JV team of the West? From Mint Press




Excerpt:


Jeremy Corbyn Calls For Sanctions Against Countries Funding ISIS, Including Saudi Arabia


“Surely a crucial way to help defeat Isil is to cut off its funding, its supply of arms, and its trade,” Corbyn said Wednesday.


The UK should be more proactive about imposing sanctions on banks and countries suspected of funding or supporting the militant group Isis, the leader of the Labour party has said.


Jeremy Corbyn told David Cameron to push for an economic crackdown with the rest of the European Union, claiming the terror group was being provided with “vital infrastructure”….


In the immediate aftermath of the Paris terror attacks Mr Corbyn had named Saudi Arabia as a country that was not doing all it could to fight the militant group.


He argued that “Saudi Arabia, maybe not at Government level, but certainly at aid-level, has been providing support to Isil”.


David Cameron replied to Mr Corbyn the UK was already playing a “leading role” in cutting off support…


Both Mr Cameron and Defence Secretary Michael Fallon have SAID THEY WOULD LIKE TO EXTEND BRITISH AIRSTRIKES IN IRAQ TO SYRIA, where Isis is also operating.

David Cameron receives a sash from King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia


Mr Corbyn in particular has said that SUCH AIRSTRIKES COULD SIMPLY BRING MORE “MAYHEM” and has called for a negotiated political solution to the conflict involving major regional players, including Iran and Turkey.


So what is the latest plans of the JV team against the Saudi Puppet Master?  Well let’s see what the captain of the JV team has to say.  From Huffington Post:  


Excerpt:


Obama: Russia needs a "strategic adjustment" on ISIS


KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - President Barack Obama said Sunday that the United States and its international partners "will not relent" in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and that the world would not accept the extremists' attacks on civilians in Paris and elsewhere as the "new normal."


"The most powerful tool we have is to say we are not afraid," Obama said…


The president also pressed Russian President Vladimir Putin to align himself with the U.S.-led coalition….


He called on Russia todrop its support for Assad…


Blah, blah, blah, yadda, yadda, yadda.  So the answer to “ISIS who’s your daddy?” is….



By Patricia Baeten

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

ISIS Who’s Your Daddy? Part I - Mesopotamia (Iraq)




At the G20 Summit Vladimir Putin shared Russian intelligence revealing financing for ISIS is coming from 40 countries including G20 members, begging the question “ISIS Who’s Your Daddy?”  From Mint Press:  

Excerpt:


Putin: ISIS Financed From 40 Countries, Including G20 Members


President Vladimir Putin says he’s shared Russian intelligence data on ISIS financing with his G20 colleagues: the terrorists appear to be financed from 40 countries, including some G20 member states.


During the summit, “I provided examples based on our data on the financing of different Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) units by private individuals. This money, as we have established, comes from 40 countries and, there are some of the G20 members among them,” Putin told the journalists.


Putin also spoke of the urgent need to curb the illegal oil trade by IS.


“I’ve shown our colleagues photos taken from space and from aircraft which clearly demonstrate the scale of the illegal trade in oil and petroleum products,” he said.


“The motorcade of refueling vehicles stretched for dozens of kilometers, so that from a height of 4,000 to 5,000 meters they stretch beyond the horizon,” Putin added, comparing the convoy to gas and oil pipeline systems….


 “We really need support from the US, European nations, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran,” the president added….


“We need to organize work specifically concentrated on the prevention of terrorist attacks and tackling terrorism on a global scale. We offered to cooperate [with the US] in anti-IS efforts. Unfortunately, our American partners refused. They just sent a written note and it says: ‘we reject your offer’, Putin said.


So the fact that the US has refused to work with Russia to eradicate ISIS begs the question, why?  Why would the US, who proclaims to be fighting ISIS, refuse to work with Russia and to share the US intelligence on the location of terrorists in Syria? 


It is worthwhile to start at the very beginning to understand the evolution of ISIS.  The beginning is the illegal War in Iraq waged by U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.  From a March 14, 2015 article in Global Research:


Excerpt:


Iraq, the Ultimate War Crime: Erasing the History of Mesopotamia. The Destruction of Nineveh


“The region of the world that the ancient Greeks called Mesopotamia (land between the rivers) … was a fount of civilization – a veritable crucible … cradle, womb of cultural progress … Here it was the first cities were born, writing began and the first codified legal systems were established. Here, through such ancient lands as Sumer, Akkad, Babylonia and Assyria that the vital cultural brew was stirred, the quite remarkable concoction from which Western civilization would emerge…”


From the day of the US-UK invasion that “fructifying richness”, societal, cultural, historic has been systematically, deliberately erased in one of the most devastating, despotic, desecrating, pulverizing cultural armageddons in history.


March 19th commemorates the twelfth anniversary of the destruction of that “crucible”, it’s wonders still unceasingly pillaged and destroyed.


When the National Museum was looted (10th - 12th April 2003) American troops stood by – whilst their colleagues diligently guarded the Oil Ministry.



As some of antiquity’s most sublime, wonders – fifteen thousand items – were looted, Donald Rumsfeld, demonstrably a cultural cretin, remarked: “stuff happens.”


The US military were given co-ordinates of all Iraq’s museums, monuments, archeological sites. “All of Iraq is an archeological treasure”, remarked an archeologist at the time. Yet the US troops led destruction’s way, creating a military base in Babylon (dating from c 2,300 BC) site of the Hanging Gardens. Ancient miracles were bulldozed to build a military helicopter landing pad.


They did the same next to the believed birthplace of Abraham, near Ur’s great Ziggurat. Ur dates from 3,800 BC but is recorded in written history from 26th century BC. War crimes of enormity.


After George W. Bush declared a “Crusade”, the (literally) crusading American soldiers entered predominately Muslim Iraq (as Afghanistan) WITH THOUSANDS OF GIVE-AWAY BIBLES, yet were clearly supremely ignorant that Babylon, as Ur, which they were destroying was sacrosanct in the three Abrahamic religions. Babylon is recorded in the Bible in the Books of Daniel, Isaiah and Jeremiah. Ur is recorded three times in Genesis and in Nehemiah.


The US soldiers’ criminal vandalism resulted in: “Babylon being rendered archeologically barren.” (Guardian, 8th June 2007.)  The: “courtyard of the 10th-century caravanserai* of Khan al-Raba was used for exploding captured weapons. One blast demolished the ancient roofs and felled many of the walls. The place is now a ruin.” Barbarians through the Ishtar Gate.



Destruction has continued across Iraq by both occupation forces and the unchecked gangs and factions which flocked in with the invasion and due to the feckless abandonment of border controls by the US and UK – countries near paranoid about such controls on their own borders…


The absolute destruction of Mesopotamia, and wiping out the history of civilization was just the beginning of the establishment of a “New World Order” of thuggery.


A local source told Reuters valuables were looted then the city razed to the ground. One entrance to this haunting place was guarded until last week by human headed bulls and lions with hawk’s wings. These guardians prevailed through the region’s turmoils for nearly three thousand years, to be destroyed with all they watched over by terrorists spawned by Bush and Blair’s criminal invasion….


 “It’s a crime against Assyria, against Iraq, and against humanity. Destroy the past, and you control the future. The Nazis knew this, and the Khmer Rouge – and the Islamic State clearly understand it too.”


Two days later another of the world’s wonders, Hatra, was reported largely destroyed. Hatra was built circa 3rd or 2nd century BC, at the same time as the great Arab cities of Syria’s Palmyra, Petra (“rose red city half as old as time”) in Jordan and Lebanon’s Ba’albek. Hatra withstood repeated attacks by the Roman Empire to be defeated by those spawned by Bush and Blair’s actions…


The week before the destruction of Nimrud nearly 113,000 irreplaceable books and manuscripts in Mosul Library were burned by IS savages in what Irina Bokova, Director General of UNESCO, described as “CULTURAL CLEANSING” and: “One of the most devastating acts of destruction of library collections in human history.”(3) Some items were on a UNESCO rarities list.



Set alight in a pyre outside the library included Syriac books printed in Iraq’s first printing house; eighteenth century manuscripts; volumes from the Ottoman era (1534-1704 and 1831-1920.) Irreplaceable rarities – an astrolabe, an astronomical “computer” for calculating the timing of the positions of the sun and the stars, used in classical antiquity and the Golden Age of Islam also destroyed, as were superb sandglass creations.


Over a hundred personal libraries of notable families from Mosul held “over the last century” were also incinerated.


The library was then blown up…


Burning books sounds familiar.



Iraq, as Palestine, is being erased, with Libya, Syria and even the great pyramids of Egypt now threatened by the monsters Bush and Blair’s “Crusade” has created.


The US, UK, Canada and other countries have “military advisors” in Iraq. They are silent and inactive on these war crimes of the new Mongols….


So how was ISIS created?  How are they funded and trained?  Where was the Genesis of ISIS?


Curiously, in in 2005, former US Department of Justice lawyer, John Yoo, suggested that the US should go on the offensive against al-Qaeda, having “our intelligence agencies CREATE A FALSE TERRORIST ORGANIZATION. IT COULD HAVE ITS OWN WEBSITES, RECRUITMENT CENTERS, TRAINING CAMPS, AND FUNDRAISING OPERATIONS. It could launch fake terrorist operations and claim credit for real terrorist strikes, helping to sow confusion …


So who is this Bush Administration Justice Department lawyer, John Yoo and where is this man today? From Salon:



Excerpt:


John Yoo’s war crimes


Why is one of the central perpetrators of a systematic torture regime teaching at Berkeley law school and welcomed in our most respectable opinion venues?


…. As Jane Mayer reported two years ago in The New Yorker — in which she quoted former Navy General Counsel Alberto Mora as saying that “the memo espoused an extreme and virtually unlimited theory of the extent of the President’s Commander-in-Chief authority” — it was precisely Yoo’s torture-justifying theories, ultimately endorsed by Donald Rumsfeld, that were communicated to Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the commander of both Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib at the time of the most severe detainee abuses (the ones that are known).


…. Comporting with long-held stereotypes of two-bit tyrannies, we’re now a country that literally exempts our highest political officials from the rule of law, and have decided that there should be no consequences when they commit serious felonies.


John Yoo’s Memorandum, as intended, directly led to — caused — a whole series of war crimes at both Guantanamo and in Iraq. The reason such a relatively low-level DOJ official was able to issue such influential and extraordinary opinions was because he was working directly with, and at the behest of, the two most important legal officials in the administration: George Bush’s White House counsel, Alberto Gonzales, and Dick Cheney’s counsel (and current Chief of Staff) David Addington. Together, they deliberately created and authorized a regime of torture and other brutal interrogation methods that are, by all measures, very serious war crimes.



If writing memoranda authorizing torture — actions which then directly lead to the systematic commission of torture — doesn’t make one a war criminal in the U.S., what does? Here is what John Yoo is and what he did…


Yoo wasn’t just a law professor theorizing about the legalization of torture. He was a government official who, in concert with other government officials, set out to enable a brutal and systematic torture regime, and did so.  If this level of depraved criminality doesn’t remove one from the realm of respectability and mainstream seriousness — if not result in war crimes prosecution — then nothing does.


Is that why the Obama Administration refuses to work with Putin in eradicating ISIS?  Is the U.S. one of those 40 countries that is funding ISIS?  Did the U.S. Government take the advice of John Yoo and “have our intelligence agencies create a false terrorist organization, with its own websites, recruitment centers, training camps, and fundraising operations?”


Is ISIS taking credit for the Paris terrorist attacks part of John Yoo’s plan to “launch fake terrorist operations and claim credit for real terrorist strikes, helping to sow confusion ?”   ISIS who’s your Daddy?



By Patricia Baeten

Coming next:  ISIS Who’s Your Daddy?  Part II - Yemen