Facebook has constructed a modern day People’s Receiver for corporate-financier special interests – with alternatives omitted from the tuning dials, and lacking the technical ability to receive alternative information from outside Facebook’s carefully controlled information space. It is the modern day destruction of independent thought – an information cage many – like the German people during the 1930-40’s may not even realize they’re locked in.
While legitimate criticism is both necessary and justified, protest about human rights are wielded by hypocrites who only stand to compound the Philippines’ current crisis, not solve it.
It seems as if Turkey is attempting to explain why – within the buffer zone it is creating – numbers of militants are swelling without admitting that the entire purpose of the buffer zone in the first place is and always was to provide a sanctuary for Al Qaeda, ISIS, and other extremist forces inside Syria juast as Turkey has provided them sanctuary in Turkey for the last 5 years.
Lies. Everywhere. America, wake-up. The United States started to arm and support terrorist extremists, including Al-Qaeda, YEARS BEFORE Russia was involved in Syria. That’s right, America supports Al-Qaeda in the form of the Al-Nusra Front, which idiotically changed its name a few weeks back in an attempt to insert confusion and obfuscate this ugly, US-narrative busting fact. The United States and her allies have supported terrorists in an attempt to over-throw the popularly elected Syrian government for a set of geopolitical and economic reasons, and not because President Assad gassed his own people, more American propaganda; it was the terrorists that we support that were behind the major attack that almost lead to an American-lead invasion in 2013.
The humanitarian crisis in Aleppo is the product of America and allied nation war on Syria. This is an artificial “civil war” stirred-up by “colored revolution” technology. Most Americans don’t care one bit because Americans are the most propagandized people on planet earth. But you know all the Syrian refugees flooding in the Europe and flowing in America? Our so-called “leaders” benefit from this, too, because when terrorist strikes happen on our soil, which will happen, the problem our “leaders” caused will be used to take away our freedoms.
From day one Syria wasn’t about stopping a leader harming his own people. How many times are we going to fall for that line? It wasn’t about Russia expanding an empire; this started long before Russia was in this war. This isn’t about fighting terrorism because our “leaders” are using terrorists to fight “our” wars and now, we have the blood of about a half a million dead Syrians on our hands and if Hillary Clinton, the so-called “progressive” candidate who actually is one of the most outrageous warmongers to have ever run for POTUS, takes the White House, we are going to be told that the United States must invade Syria to prevent further killing by the government and her partner, Russia. Wake-up, America. Our “leaders” are lying to us, and most of the people in the media reporting on this story can’t tell a certain part of their anatomy from a hole in the ground. – Eric Dubin
Current bombing in Aleppo then, is not a “failure” for the US’ attempts to mediate a ceasefire, rather a failure for the US’ attempts to perpetuate a destructive war aimed toward achieving “regime change” merely under the guise of mediating a ceasefire.
Thailand faces an upcoming referendum regarding a new national charter meant to put the country back on track after over a decade of political conflict revolving around US-backed proxy Thaksin Shinawatra. Shinawatra and his foreign sponsors have increased pressure on the Thai government as the vote in early August nears.
The Western media has attempted to downplay the impact of the document’s release, claiming that subsequent investigations found the “many” of the allegations in the document “without basis” – even as the US and Saudi Arabia today openly arm and fund terrorists in Syria.
France helped turn Libya and Syria into hell holes. Tony Cartalucci addresses the blow-back harvest. The blow-back thesis is valid and complementary to false flag dynamics. Both occur. Related: Dear France: Necessary Step Towards Stopping This Insanity – Eric Dubin
TND Guest Contributor: Tony Cartalucci
US foreign policy in Asia Pacific has centered around the so-called “Pivot to Asia,” initially rolled out as an alleged means for the US to strengthen ties with Asia, but was incrementally revealed as the latest leg in a decades-long attempt to encircle and contain China by overrunning the socioeconomic and political sovereignty of its neighbors, thus maintaining what US policymakers themselves refer to as American “primacy over Asia.”
It is no surprise then that nations across Asia have responded negatively to the “Pivot.” What gains the US has made, have been made through coercion, political subversion, and even terrorism – and this is done in front of an increasingly geopolitically aware Asian population.
Yet despite this, the US appears to still be struggling against both Asia’s overall desire to cooperate among themselves, and their own “pivots” toward alternative centers of power, in Beijing, Moscow, and beyond.
Panicking Policymakers
Thailand’s English language newspaper, the Bangkok Post, has recently transformed its coverage almost entirely pro-Washington, London, and Brussels. It regularly posts op-eds lobbying for various US and European interests. A recent op-ed, published by regular Washington apologist Achara Ashayagachat, titled, “Despite gains, China still second fiddle to West, analysts say ,” claims:
Thai military rule may complicate and weaken Asean’s position in the international security setting, but the gestures made to date by the junta should not be seen as a shift from the western-allied camp to China, analysts caution.
Achara never qualifies why Thailand’s current government “complicates or weakens ASEAN’s position in the international security setting,” aside from implying that anything running contra to Washington’s interests, thus runs afoul of “international order.”
Achara attempts to conclude – based on several US-based analysts’ opinions – that several delayed deals between Thailand and China signifies a lack of any real shift from West to East for Bangkok. She also attempts to conclude that Thailand is increasingly becoming “isolated” as the US shifts its attention toward the governments and sociopolitical systems of the Philippines, Vietnam, and Myanmar.
However, in reality, the shift from West to East is not recent for Thailand, or many other nations in Southeast Asia. It has been gradual – in tandem with China’s growing influence and Beijing’s ability to provide equitable alternatives to US “free trade” and compromising military “partnerships.”
Indeed, large rail projects have been in negotiations between Thailand and China with several large deals remaining stalled. However, despite this, Thailand has made several smaller deals with China – deals it could not make with the United States even if it wanted to.
This includes the acquisition of 24 additional trains for Bangkok’s elevated mass transit system from China’s CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles. This would add to existing Chinese rolling stock already in use in Thailand.
The continued acquisition of Chinese weapon systems to replace aging US equipment continues as well. Despite rumors that Thailand was seeking to purchase Russian T-90s to replace its aging American tanks, it has decided instead to purchase MBT-3000 main battle tanks produced by China North Industries Corporation (NORINCO). These would be added to Thailand’s existing inventory of Chinese-made Type-85 Armored Fighting Vehicles which were purchased to replace aging US M113s.
Aside from China, Thailand is replacing American helicopters with Russian alternatives, which includes Mi-17s already seen flying over Bangkok where once US-made Blackhawks flew.
While Bangkok Post’s op-ed attempts to suggest these moves by Thailand’s government are meant to “bring back the US and EU,” in reality, they have been years in the making and they have already begun to transform Thailand’s infrastructure, economy, and military. It is the quantifiable, incremental uprooting of US and European influence in the region.
Additionally, and never mentioned in Achara’s op-ed, is the much contested tourism industry of Thailand – where the West has attempted to use its influence over public opinion to scare away Western tourism. In reality, however, this has been futile. For years, demographics have been shifting away from European and American tourists toward Chinese and Russian tourists. Signs in tourist areas once almost exclusively written in English and Japanese, now are also written in Chinese and Russian.
Despite these tangible realities, Western policymakers and pro-Western op-eds have attempted to portray this as recent and superficial. To understand this apparent detachment from reality, one must consider the source.
Consider the Source
The analysts Achara of the Bangkok Post cites are not primarily Thai, or Asian, but rather Americans. They include Tim Huxley of the International Institute of Strategic Studies – a Fortune 500-funded foreign policy think tank whose corporate sponsors include big-oil and some of the largest Western arms manufacturers on Earth. Also cited is Yun Sun of the Stimson Center – another Washington-based Fortune 500-funded policy think tank (.pdf).
Clearly Achara’s sources are not objectively interested in discerning what is best for international peace and stability, and instead in serving the special interests that transparently fund and shape the policy they promote. It is clear then, why they would insist on a paradigm that still favors Western economic deals and Western “military cooperation” (arms deals).
These are the same such interests that seek to encircle and contain China to prevent it from marshaling its human and natural resources together with its own indigenous industry to pose as competitors vis-a-vis Western monopolies currently dominating the planet.
The rise of an independent China surrounded by a stable and cooperative Southeast Asia represents an inevitable loss of market shares for the corporate-financier interests that truly drive both Western foreign policy and shape the opinions of low-level functionaries like Achara and the rest of Bangkok Post’s editorial board.
Considering this context, it is clear that op-eds like Achara, lobbying for Washington’s corporate-funded think tanks, is aimed to make up lost ground among public opinion where the US has failed to make up in economic and military relations.
However, like America’s economic and military influence in the region, its influence over public opinion is also facing growing competition and complications. However, paying compromised “journalists” like Achara to constantly repeat untruths is perhaps so effortless that US policymakers see no harm in trying, even if it is not effective.
And it is between the lines of untruth repeated by Washington’s functionaries, that the rest of the world can begin to discern the truth and see the cracks in the facade of American “primacy over Asia” begin to show.
Tony Cartalucci, Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”. This work was published at the New Eastern Outlook and is reprinted with permission.
TND Guest Contributor: Tony Cartalucci
An engineered drama unfolds along the Turkish-Syrian border as terrorists armed and backed by a US-led coalition including NATO-member Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar allegedly battle both the self-proclaimed “Islamic State” (ISIS) and Syrian-backed “Syrian Democratic Forces” (SDF) near and around the Syrian city of Azaz.
Reuters in a recent article titled, “Islamic State advance near Turkish border, civilians trapped,” reports that:
Islamic State fighters captured territory from Syrian rebels near the Turkish border on Friday and inched closer to a town on a supply route for foreign-backed insurgents fighting the jihadists, a monitoring group said.
The hardline group has been fighting against rebels in the area for several months. The rebels, who are supplied via Turkey, last month staged a major push against Islamic State, but the group counter-attacked and beat them back.
Reuters, however, leaves out very crucial information – information that if concludes, would raise suspicions about the entire narrative alleged across Western media outlets like Reuters.
If rebels are being directly supplied across the Turkish-Syrian border by a multinational coalition, how is it possible that ISIS forces are somehow better equipped and able to overwhelm these forces? The length of any ISIS logistical line supporting its fighters in this alleged battle – if not also extending over the Turkish-Syrian border in the immediate vicinity of the fighting, must be hundreds of miles long and in itself an immense strain on ISIS’ fighting capacity.
It would be rather remarkable, in fact, unbelievable for ISIS to somehow not be being aided and abetted from directly across the Turkish-Syrian border where allegedly “foreign-backed insurgents” are allegedly receiving aid from nations like the US, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.
And in fact, ISIS, as well as Al Qaeda’s Al Nusra Front, are accused of receiving such aid via Turkey – most recently with the Russian General Staff accusing Al Nusra of receiving “daily arms shipments across the border from Turkey.”
Not Merely “Russian Propaganda”
While some will easily dismiss accusations of NATO involvement in arming, aiding, and abetting listed terrorist organizations amid the ongoing war in Syria as “Russian propaganda,” it should be noted that as early as 2007, Western journalists themselves had attempted to warn the public of an unfolding criminal conspiracy among Western special interests to do precisely this.
In the New Yorker’s 2007 article, “The Redirection Is the Administration’s new policy benefitting our enemies in the war on terrorism?,” Pulitzer Prize-winning veteran journalist Seymour Hersh would warn (emphasis added):
To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has coöperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.
Hersh’s sources, which included former CIA agent Robert Baer, warned of an impending “cataclysmic conflict” being engineered between Sunni and Shia’a Muslims as part of this conspiracy. He predicted the necessity of Shia’a groups forming the front lines against sectarian genocide carried out by US and Saudi-backed extremists with the responsibility of protecting not only Shia’a Muslims, but also Christians and other ethnic minorities, falling upon groups like Hezbollah.
The Meaning Behind Border Chaos…
In hindsight, Hersh’s words now appear prophetic. Warnings of Western support of extremists in 2007 manifested as open warfare in 2011, and between the beginning of the war and now, an incremental revelation of US, Turkish, Saudi, and Qatari complicity in the rise and perpetuation of extremists like Al Nusra and the many terrorist organizations fighting along side it, including openly US-backed terrorist organizations like Ahrar Al-Sham and Jaysh al-Islam.
This begs the question as to whether or not ISIS’ departure from Al Nusra was more political than any actual strategic, organizational, or ideological schism. Rhetoric aside, examining the logistical necessities of ISIS’ current “war” with US-backed terrorists in northern Syria, it is clear that the group, along with Al Nusra, are receiving support from Turkish territory.
What is unfolding in northern Syria is yet another attempt by the US and its allies to create and exploit chaos, rather than stem it.
Continued support of extremists by either neglecting border security, or directly and intentionally supplying, arming, and otherwise supporting terrorist organizations ensures maximum violence, humanitarian catastrophe, and a continued pretext for further incursions by both US and Turkish forces along Syria’s borders in pursuit of long-desired “safe havens” where terrorist forces can better be protected and positioned to project their destruction deeper and more effectively into Syrian territory.
In reality, the chaos the US and its allies are citing as justification for further involvement in Syria’s conflict could easily be brought to an end simply by securing Turkey’s borders within Turkish territory. Turkish forces are arrayed along the border alongside US special forces, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and myriad of European and Persian Gulf military and intelligence assets. Failure to secure the border and cut off Al Nusra and ISIS’ supply lines is intentional.
Securing the Borders
For Syria, securing its own borders has been infinitely problematic. Attempts to approach and retake territory along the borders has been met not only by obviously Turkish-backed terrorist forces, but also by NATO-backed Turkish military provocations. Turkey regularly shells Syrian territory. Its aircraft and anti-aircraft systems have regularly been deployed along the border attempting to deter first Syrian, then Russian aircraft from targeting the streams of supplies being sent into Syrian territory to sustain terrorist groups including ISIS and Al Nusra.
Attempting to avoid a more direct and costly confrontation with Turkey has forced Syria and its allies to take a more indirect means of securing the borders, using SDF fighters to occupy and face off against Turkish and NATO forces without implicating Damascus directly.
Conversely, the use of these irregular forces has given NATO apparent leeway to make incursions of its own into Syrian territory – as they can claim they are not fighting Syrian forces, but merely “Kurdish terrorists.” While this chaffs directly with America’s alleged support of Kurdish groups elsewhere in the country, this is mitigated by a feigned political fallout between Washington and Ankara – despite US forces still graciously being hosted in Turkey and the two still clearly working in tandem toward the destruction of neighboring Syria.
A multinational peacekeeping force placed along Syria’s northern border or Syrian-Russian bases placed further north may force one of two moves by the US and its collaborators. Directly attacking peacekeepers or Syrian-Russian bases from Turkish territory risking a wider war, or using proxies in Turkish territory, but at the cost of further exposing Washington and Ankara’s hands in propping up and perpetuating Al Qaeda and ISIS.
Either option is fraught with complications and obstacles to overcome – perhaps even insurmountable obstacles. Additional covert resources supplied to SDF fighters along the Syrian-Turkish border could also be an attractive alternative. Syria and Russia could also work further on exposing the precise nature of Al Nusra and ISIS supply lines originating in Turkey – as well as in Jordan and through Iraq via Saudi Arabia directly.
Tony Cartalucci, Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”. This work was published at the New Eastern Outlook and is reprinted with permission.
