New fake ‘rescue’ scenes by White Helmets in Western media narrative on Syria

30 July 2018 — The Indicter

Stage & training scenes published as ‘real action’

White Helmets operatives training “recruits”, rehearsal stage fires and fake lifesaving …and how to pose in photographs and videos later distributed by pro-NATO press agencies as if were ‘real rescue’ imagery or footage.

By Marcello Ferrada de Noli

Professor Emeritus and The Indicter chief editor Continue reading

Statewatch 30 July 2018: Working for civil liberties in Europe since 1991

30 July 2018 — Statewatch

Dear Statewatchers,

Our civil liberties are continually under threat

We provide all our services free. We have just launched a new Observatory on the Creation of a centralised Justic & Home Affairs database “a point of no return:” This Observatory covers the so-called “interoperability” of EU JHA databases which in reality will create a centralised EU state database covering all existing and future JHA databases :http://www.statewatch.org/interoperability/eu-big-brother-database.htm

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Is Washington Planning a Pre-Emptive Strike on Iran? Selected Articles

29 July 2018 — Global Research News

‘Arab NATO’: Trump Pursuing Regional Alliance to Confront Iran

By The New Arab, July 29, 2018

Washington is trying to strengthen cooperation between the countries on various fronts including missile defence, military training and counter-terrorism, as well as boosting regional economic and diplomatic ties, four US and Arab officials told the news agency. Continue reading

Palestine News Links 28-29 July 2018

29 July 2018 — williambowles.info

Breaking the Gaza Blockade: Message From A Former Israeli Air Force Pilot
https://www.globalresearch.ca/breaking-the-gaza-blockade-message-from-a-former-israeli-air-force-pilot/5648942

How Labour’s Dreadful Antisemitism Debate Has to Change
http://novaramedia.com/2018/07/29/how-labours-dreadful-antisemitism-debate-has-to-change/
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NATO coordinates the evacuation of the White Helmets

28 July 2018 — VoltaireNet

The evacuation of the White Helmets which had been requested by the United Kingdom, was debated by the Summit of the Heads of State and the governing body of NATO on 11 June 2018.

In the final analysis, it was the Organization of the Atlantic Alliance that coordinated the evacuation of 422 White Helmets and their families with the help of Israel and Jordan, both of which have an office which is linked to Nato headquarters in Brussels.

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‘Shock and Awe’ Celebrates Reporters Who Got It Right By Gunar Olsen

28 July 2018 — FAIR

It’s now conventional for corporate media pundits and centrist politicians to acknowledge that their support for the US invasion of Iraq was misguided. Most excuse their pro-war record on the grounds that there was no available alternate narrative to the Bush administration’s claim that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. How could they have known any better?

But as FAIR has long noted (Extra!, 3–4/03), this “we were all wrong” narrative doesn’t hold up. There were, in fact, a few corporate journalists who got it right when everyone else was getting it wrong.

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'Shock and Awe' Celebrates Reporters Who Got It Right By Gunar Olsen

28 July 2018 — FAIR

It’s now conventional for corporate media pundits and centrist politicians to acknowledge that their support for the US invasion of Iraq was misguided. Most excuse their pro-war record on the grounds that there was no available alternate narrative to the Bush administration’s claim that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. How could they have known any better?

But as FAIR has long noted (Extra!, 3–4/03), this “we were all wrong” narrative doesn’t hold up. There were, in fact, a few corporate journalists who got it right when everyone else was getting it wrong.

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Ex-Obama Officials Shill, and Bill, for Big Tech’s Pentagon Deals

27 July 2018 — TRNN

As Google faced an internal employee revolt over its involvement in the Pentagon’s drone warfare program, the Obama-veteran firm WestExec stepped in to help. The case highlights the deep ties between the tech industry and government officials, says Yasha Levine, author of “Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet.” (Inc. transcript) Continue reading

The Utility of the RussiaGate Conspiracy By Alan MacLeod

27 July 2018 — FAIR Independent: Survey finds Hillary Clinton has ‘more than 99% chance’ of winning election over Donald Trump

The election of Donald Trump came as a shock to many (Independent, 11/5/16).

To the shock of many, Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential elections, becoming the 45th president of the United States. Not least shocked were corporate media, and the political establishment more generally; the Princeton Election Consortium confidently predicted an over 99 percent chance of a Clinton victory, while MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow (10/17/16) said it could be a “Goldwater-style landslide.”

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“Political Madness” and the Real Axis of Evil: US-NATO-Israel: selected Articles

26 July 2018 — Global Research News

Assad: “Israel Has exhausted Our Patience and Iran Will Stay in Syria as Long as Is Needed”

By Elijah J. Magnier, July 26, 2018

The Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has communicated to the Russian leadership that “Israel has exhausted our patience” … “Israeli jets will be a legitimate target for our defence systems if Tel Aviv doesn’t cease its provocation and stop targeting our military positions and jets”. According to decision makers, “Assad has no intention of asking Iran and its allies to leave the Levant as long as any Syrian territory is occupied”. Assad has included the Golan Heights in ‘all occupied Syrian territories’, as well as the north of Syria where the Turkish and the US forces, unlike the those of Iran, are present without the consent of the Syrian government. Continue reading

The Sanctification of NATO By Gregory Shupak

26 July 2018 — FAIR

Guardian: Europe Must Come Together

To the Guardian (7/10/18), NATO “ushered in a democratic, liberal world order.”

Claims that US President Donald Trump is undermining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) by criticizing some of its members and having a cordial meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin have sent establishment media into a frenzy to sanctify NATO as a force for peace and democracy.

A Guardian editorial (7/10/18) asserted:

The NATO alliance has helped mold the modern world and ushered in a democratic, liberal world order characterized by open trade and open societies, which after the collapse of the Soviet Union needed only to be lightly defended. This in turn contributed greatly to American peace and prosperity.

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Jeff Bezos’ Paper Tells You Not to Worry About Those Billionaires by Dean Baker

26 July 2018 — FAIR

WaPo: In the age of inequality, Goldman’s CEO offers an unexpected lesson

Washington Post

Just when you thought economic commentary in the Washington Post couldn’t get any more insipid, Roger Lowenstein proves otherwise. In a business section “perspective” (7/20/18), he tells readers:

But what if inequality is the wrong metric. Herewith a modest proposition: economic inequality is not the best yardstick. What we should be paying attention to is social mobility.

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Cuba’s New Draft Constitution: Institutionalizing Revolution and Reversing Personalization

25 July 2018 — TRNN

Cuba’s National Assembly passed a new draft constitution, to replace its existing Soviet-era constitution via national referendum in a few months. Many changes are in the works, including the recognition of private property and gay marriage. But will it mean real change? We discuss the constitution with Prof. Liz Dore and James Early (inc. transcript) Continue reading

Fried fish, collard greens and brown rice with lots of black pepper By William Bowles

26 July 2018

I ‘lost’ this essay, that is to say, it vanished into the morass of my hard disk until, quite by chance, I ‘rediscovered’ it. Written for Carol’s funeral celebration by her friends in NYC, it needs no further explanation. WB

A memory of Carol By William Bowles 

20 October 2013

Carol blank

It’s a freezing cold night in Brooklyn and I’ve not long been in New York. It’s November or maybe it was December 1975 and I’m on my way to meet Carol for the very first time. My friend Valerie Wilmer gave me some names of people she thought I’d should meet when I got to New York. Amongst them was Carol and Rajah Blank.

So I get off the subway at Marcy Avenue which is in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn and pretty much a wasteland of abandoned factories and burned out brownstones and walk down Broadway toward the East River, past a steak house called Peter Luger’s, frequented by gangsters and cops (if you can spot the difference). But in that desolate and abandoned section of Brooklyn, the wide street outside the solid brick-faced building is incongruously lined with a row of long, black Cadillacs. A single neon sign on one end of the building is the only indication that it’s a restaurant. Welcome to New York.

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