John Oliver's bit on objecting to Trump's statements about Hillary and Obama being the founders of ISIS

Just watched John Oliver's bit on objecting to Trump's statements about Hillary and Obama being the founders of ISIS. As a USAF Staff Sergeant who follows the events, this is what I have to say. 

https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/4yj7fn/just_watched_john_olivers_bit_on_objecting_to/

For those that may be lost when Trump talks about Obama and Hillary being the founders of ISIL, here is a quick guide to what he is talking about.
Diplomatic cables were leaked in reference to the intentions of the U.S. government to overthrow the government of Syria, Bashar Al-Assad. The cables basically stated that the U.S. Intended to install a US-backed puppet-government in Syria and the Al-Assad could either step aside and let us do just that or that we would force him out. Bashar Al-Assad basically told the United States to go fuck themselves and thus began the financial and support campaigns for rebels in Syria on behalf of the U.S, foreign policy that we have conducted many times in the past.
Rewind...In 2005, former Army 4-star General Wesley Clark leaked, very publically, stated that shortly after 9/11 the Joint Chiefs of Staff planned the overthrow of 7 countries over the course of 5 years. What were those countries? Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, and Sudan. Think about what has happened in those countries over the last 16 years... Enter John McCain, the catalyst that was used to finance ISIS. Sound hard to believe? Go to Google and type in ‘John McCain ISIS.’ You will find a treasure trove of pictures of John McCain in the same room and posing with Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, one of the founding members of ISIS, in 2013 when McCain went to Syria to facilitate arms trades to rebel factions in Syria. There is also a massive amount of footage of John McCain stating he has friends in the rebellion in Syria and that he is in frequent contact with them. We provided cash, weapons, and various supplies to the rebel factions. We are still providing this aid to "moderate" rebel factions to this day, all of which are aligned and have treaties with ISIL. When Hillary Clinton is questioned, she will use to following excuses:

1. She is the head of the state department, her job is to serve the objectives of U.S. Foreign Policy, as directed by the President of the United States.
2. The parties supported were “freedom fighters” fight a oppressive regime. Any actions, such as beheadings, torture, extermination based on religion, was unknown and not condoned.
3. The regime mentioned used chemical weapons and violated laws of armed conflict(which will later be dispelled).

For those that think that sounds far fetched, here is a list of over 50 countries that the CIA worked to overthrow over the last 70 years. Just to set the record straight, this isn’t a conspiracy theory, these are countries that were were overthrown by the CIA’s Special Activity Division and is a part of history; not theory, not made up bullshit; this all actually happened and is openly admitted to by the United States government and has been documented by multiple reputable sources.
(This is hearsay) Supposedly the death of Chris Stevens in the Beghazi attacks were brought about because Ambassador Stevens was going to blow the Whistle on the head of the State Department, Hillary Clinton, for funneling weapons, supplies, and fighters in to Syria out of Libya, violating the Logan Act. The accusation implicating Hillary Clinton in the death of Chris Stevens is that sensitive information was purposely made available to local terrorist cells in Benghazi and Quick Reaction Forces were recalled when requests for support were made, thus facilitating the assassination of Chris Stevens and silencing his potential expose of Hillary Clinton.
(As mentioned previously)So what about this whole talk that the Syrian Government used chemical weapons against civilians and rebels? Well that information was found to have been altered by the United States media to garner support for war against Syria in 2013. The BBC was caught blantantly falisfying evidence and stated the Syrian government was responsible for the chemical weapon attacks. The MSM was forced to drop the narrative after multiple exposes revealed that the MSM altered the footage and blamed the Syrian Government when in fact it was the Free Syrian Army and Al-Nusra that launched the attacks, a rebel faction that was heavily funded and supplied by the United States Government. The U.N. even later made statements clearing the government of Syria and blamed rebel factions for the attacks.
When the government campaigned for war to support the al-Qaedia backed rebels, this is when we saw troops posting pictures in their uniforms with signs stating “I didn’t join the United States military to support al-qaeda in Syria.” After massive amounts of similar pictures and likely very stern statements being said, the United States was forced to drop the narrative all together to avoid a mass mutiny within the U.S. Military, though there exists some statements that "soft-coups" did occur within the Pentagon in 2015.
The purpose of funding these factions was that through US aid the rebels would overthrow Bashar Al-Assad and we could then install a puppet government.
All this information is public and evidence is readily available and ranges from high-ranking leakers to diplomatic cables to former members of the DoD coming forward admitting that the U.S. founded ISIS through funding rebels to overthrow the government of Syria.. CNN, Fox, and MSNBC wont be reporting this information. Why? These news sources are bought and paid for by the U.S. Government. Does that sound far fetched? Well, here is CNN, award winning reporter, Amber Lyon, stating that multiple governments pay CNN, and other news agencies, to report and fake news stories and highlight news stories that put governments in a positive light.
The narrative is now aimed to demonize Russia, the biggest country that is actively wiping out ISIS in Syria and is directly supporting the government of Syria. Why do we demonize Russia? There exists residual cold-war hatred of Russia and Russia has publically denounced the globalist objectives of the United States. Russia is also allied with Syria and since we are using rebel factions and ISIL to facilitate the removal of Bashar Al-Assad, the same people we claim to be against but are using to facilitate regime change, we are inherently against them.
Bombing of hospitals? Both sides did it. Why? Both sides are at the mercy of shitty intelligence objectives by blowing up the hospital of their enemies. Both the United States and Russia and have bombed hospitals. Only the United States had bombed schools full of children, as well, in multiple theaters of war, many times. And if you want to make the argument that somehow the United States is above other countries bombing the wrong targets, I have personally worked with contractors that were led to believe that their targets were valuable targets only to watch small children flee burning buildings after airstrikes.
It is important to note that what I have laid out transcends both republican and democratic parties and that what is happening today isn’t a democrat problem, nor a republican problem; it is a bad government and foreign policy problem that has been dictated at echelons above the government. Hillary Clinton is at the very tip of the spear and will continue the diplomatic objectives that were laid out under the Bush, continued by the Obama administration, and will lead us further down the path of war, the loss of our troops, and further drive us in to debt under the guise of spreading democracy and freedom.
This has to stop. The problems we face today were created by us to fuel the war-machine. Our economy prospers while millions suffer and our only effort in solving the problem is to throw more gas on the fire so that a select few politicians and corporations make financial gains. Stop Hillary. Elect Trump. Make the media transparent again.
Stay focused on this issue because what is happening in Syria will be the catalyst for future events. This is important extremely important, and my words cannot impart how significant the coming months will be in regards to Syria and the elections.

John Oliver's bit on objecting to Trump's statements about Hillary and Obama being the founders of ISIS

Just watched John Oliver's bit on objecting to Trump's statements about Hillary and Obama being the founders of ISIS. As a USAF Staff Sergeant who follows the events, this is what I have to say. 

https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/4yj7fn/just_watched_john_olivers_bit_on_objecting_to/

For those that may be lost when Trump talks about Obama and Hillary being the founders of ISIL, here is a quick guide to what he is talking about.
Diplomatic cables were leaked in reference to the intentions of the U.S. government to overthrow the government of Syria, Bashar Al-Assad. The cables basically stated that the U.S. Intended to install a US-backed puppet-government in Syria and the Al-Assad could either step aside and let us do just that or that we would force him out. Bashar Al-Assad basically told the United States to go fuck themselves and thus began the financial and support campaigns for rebels in Syria on behalf of the U.S, foreign policy that we have conducted many times in the past.
Rewind...In 2005, former Army 4-star General Wesley Clark leaked, very publically, stated that shortly after 9/11 the Joint Chiefs of Staff planned the overthrow of 7 countries over the course of 5 years. What were those countries? Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, and Sudan. Think about what has happened in those countries over the last 16 years... Enter John McCain, the catalyst that was used to finance ISIS. Sound hard to believe? Go to Google and type in ‘John McCain ISIS.’ You will find a treasure trove of pictures of John McCain in the same room and posing with Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, one of the founding members of ISIS, in 2013 when McCain went to Syria to facilitate arms trades to rebel factions in Syria. There is also a massive amount of footage of John McCain stating he has friends in the rebellion in Syria and that he is in frequent contact with them. We provided cash, weapons, and various supplies to the rebel factions. We are still providing this aid to "moderate" rebel factions to this day, all of which are aligned and have treaties with ISIL. When Hillary Clinton is questioned, she will use to following excuses:

1. She is the head of the state department, her job is to serve the objectives of U.S. Foreign Policy, as directed by the President of the United States.
2. The parties supported were “freedom fighters” fight a oppressive regime. Any actions, such as beheadings, torture, extermination based on religion, was unknown and not condoned.
3. The regime mentioned used chemical weapons and violated laws of armed conflict(which will later be dispelled).

For those that think that sounds far fetched, here is a list of over 50 countries that the CIA worked to overthrow over the last 70 years. Just to set the record straight, this isn’t a conspiracy theory, these are countries that were were overthrown by the CIA’s Special Activity Division and is a part of history; not theory, not made up bullshit; this all actually happened and is openly admitted to by the United States government and has been documented by multiple reputable sources.
(This is hearsay) Supposedly the death of Chris Stevens in the Beghazi attacks were brought about because Ambassador Stevens was going to blow the Whistle on the head of the State Department, Hillary Clinton, for funneling weapons, supplies, and fighters in to Syria out of Libya, violating the Logan Act. The accusation implicating Hillary Clinton in the death of Chris Stevens is that sensitive information was purposely made available to local terrorist cells in Benghazi and Quick Reaction Forces were recalled when requests for support were made, thus facilitating the assassination of Chris Stevens and silencing his potential expose of Hillary Clinton.
(As mentioned previously)So what about this whole talk that the Syrian Government used chemical weapons against civilians and rebels? Well that information was found to have been altered by the United States media to garner support for war against Syria in 2013. The BBC was caught blantantly falisfying evidence and stated the Syrian government was responsible for the chemical weapon attacks. The MSM was forced to drop the narrative after multiple exposes revealed that the MSM altered the footage and blamed the Syrian Government when in fact it was the Free Syrian Army and Al-Nusra that launched the attacks, a rebel faction that was heavily funded and supplied by the United States Government. The U.N. even later made statements clearing the government of Syria and blamed rebel factions for the attacks.
When the government campaigned for war to support the al-Qaedia backed rebels, this is when we saw troops posting pictures in their uniforms with signs stating “I didn’t join the United States military to support al-qaeda in Syria.” After massive amounts of similar pictures and likely very stern statements being said, the United States was forced to drop the narrative all together to avoid a mass mutiny within the U.S. Military, though there exists some statements that "soft-coups" did occur within the Pentagon in 2015.
The purpose of funding these factions was that through US aid the rebels would overthrow Bashar Al-Assad and we could then install a puppet government.
All this information is public and evidence is readily available and ranges from high-ranking leakers to diplomatic cables to former members of the DoD coming forward admitting that the U.S. founded ISIS through funding rebels to overthrow the government of Syria.. CNN, Fox, and MSNBC wont be reporting this information. Why? These news sources are bought and paid for by the U.S. Government. Does that sound far fetched? Well, here is CNN, award winning reporter, Amber Lyon, stating that multiple governments pay CNN, and other news agencies, to report and fake news stories and highlight news stories that put governments in a positive light.
The narrative is now aimed to demonize Russia, the biggest country that is actively wiping out ISIS in Syria and is directly supporting the government of Syria. Why do we demonize Russia? There exists residual cold-war hatred of Russia and Russia has publically denounced the globalist objectives of the United States. Russia is also allied with Syria and since we are using rebel factions and ISIL to facilitate the removal of Bashar Al-Assad, the same people we claim to be against but are using to facilitate regime change, we are inherently against them.
Bombing of hospitals? Both sides did it. Why? Both sides are at the mercy of shitty intelligence objectives by blowing up the hospital of their enemies. Both the United States and Russia and have bombed hospitals. Only the United States had bombed schools full of children, as well, in multiple theaters of war, many times. And if you want to make the argument that somehow the United States is above other countries bombing the wrong targets, I have personally worked with contractors that were led to believe that their targets were valuable targets only to watch small children flee burning buildings after airstrikes.
It is important to note that what I have laid out transcends both republican and democratic parties and that what is happening today isn’t a democrat problem, nor a republican problem; it is a bad government and foreign policy problem that has been dictated at echelons above the government. Hillary Clinton is at the very tip of the spear and will continue the diplomatic objectives that were laid out under the Bush, continued by the Obama administration, and will lead us further down the path of war, the loss of our troops, and further drive us in to debt under the guise of spreading democracy and freedom.
This has to stop. The problems we face today were created by us to fuel the war-machine. Our economy prospers while millions suffer and our only effort in solving the problem is to throw more gas on the fire so that a select few politicians and corporations make financial gains. Stop Hillary. Elect Trump. Make the media transparent again.
Stay focused on this issue because what is happening in Syria will be the catalyst for future events. This is important extremely important, and my words cannot impart how significant the coming months will be in regards to Syria and the elections.

Syria civil war: Physicians under fire

Health workers have resorted to moving care facilities into caves to protect from air strikes as their numbers shrink.

Clare Busch | | 

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/05/syria-civil-war-physicians-fire-160510112937192.html 

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Civil defence members carry a casualty after an air strike at a field hospital near Aleppo last month [Abdalrhman Ismail/Reuters]

Doctors and healthcare professionals in Syria have faced attacks for most of the five-year civil war. If conditions of a previous ceasefire are any indication, the strikes are likely to continue despite the precarious new truce in the north.
Providing healthcare in Syria means living under the constant threat of air bombardments, a lack of basic equipment, or an inability to provide patients with chronic disease the medicines they need.  
Media attention flared after an air strike on a medical facility operated by Reporter's Without Borders and the International Committee of the Red Cross killed 30 people last month.
But for doctors and other health workers in the country, such attacks on their care centres are nothing new.  
Syria's Yamadiya hospital in north Latakia - near the Syria-Turkey border - was being bombed while the United Nations still claimed the existence of a ceasefire. The first hit came on March 23 at about 11am when nearly 40 bombs rained down on the hospital, Dr Saira Murady told Al Jazeera.
Murady attributed the attacks to Syrian government forces. It was not possible to independently verify the claim.

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READ MORE: Al-Qaeda chief urges Syria rebel groups to unite

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Yamadiya hospital was originally a small tent facility established to help internally displaced people. The hospital staff moved into a school and expanded services to accommodate the increase in war refugees.
But the bombing continued even after the staff relocated hospital operations.
Dr Abu Ali sustained a broken arm and chest wounds in one such attack. The hospital and its remaining doctors, including Murady, now work out of a nearby cave in the hope of protecting patients and themselves. 
The attacks are not Murady's only concern. The violence has meant a dwindling number of physicians with advanced training in specific medical procedures, and hospitals have been forced to rely only on the doctors who remained inside Syria.
"We get used to working under bombs, but the hard part was bringing specialists in this area," said Murady, who began working at the hospital in 2013 as an emergency room physician.

Deadly attack hits hospital in Syria's Aleppo

Dr Bachir Tajaldin visits Yamadiya hospital every two weeks after leaving the area in 2012 out of concern for his family's safety. He linked the high number of amputations at Yamadiya hospital to the lack of specialists in vascular surgery.
"There's no replacement for this health staff. The normal situation when you lose a doctor or a nurse, there is a new generation of the health staff that have graduated from the universities and institutes. But now the hospitals are destroyed and universities are in government-controlled areas," said Tajaldin.
Dr Hasan al-Araj was the last cardiologist in Hama province. He worked out of a hospital built into the side of a mountain, but was killed in the second week of April when an ambulance he was riding in was bombed in an air strike, according to Syrian American Medical Society's Lobna Hassairi.
The organisation previously functioned as a networking group for Syrian doctors in the United States, but has transformed its focus to on-the-ground efforts since the start of the civil war. The medical society now has 106 facilities in eight Syrian provinces.
Hassairi shared a quotation from Araj after his death. In a blog post, when asked what he would say to the international community about medical professionals working in Syria, Araj wrote, "We need protection."
Mohamad Katoub is also concerned by the lack of medical specialists working in the country.
Katoub is an advocacy manager on behalf of hospitals and medical facilities in East Ghouta, near the capital Damascus. East Ghouta was the site of chemical attacks in 2013 which killed about 1,000 people.
Describing strikes on healthcare facilities as the main challenge to doctors, Katoub spoke about the difficulties of working with limited medical supplies in besieged areas.
Katoub said the chief of the intensive care unit at a hospital in East Ghouta instituted new standards after comparing supplies and equipment to the average number of patients admitted. Patients were limited to two litres of IV fluid a day, regardless of their needs.
"The doctor said no more than two litres. Even if he will die, we cannot spend more than two because the third litre will save another life," Katoub said.
The Syrian government is deliberately maintaining the scarcity of medical supplies, according to Elise Baker, research coordinator for Syria for Physicians for Human Rights.
"The few aid deliveries that are able to get through, the Syrian government is still stripping out medical aid," said Baker.
The group received information from field sources that the few supplies that do get through to besieged areas are often not usable. Baker's sources reported receiving expired medicines, defective syringes, or injectable drugs without the required syringes.
Shadi Martini's family owned a hospital in the main northern city of Aleppo, where he worked as a health administrator before the civil war started in March 2011. He is now on the board of Orient for Humanitarian Relief, an organisation that supports medical care in Syria and Turkey.

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READ MORE: Aleppo patients have nowhere to go

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A group of doctors he works with in Idlib province was also forced to move their field operations into a cave because of the repeated bombings. If the doctors and patients manage to survive barrages, there is still the issue of a scarcity of supplies.
"Once a month they will get a direct hit, so all the time we have to bring new equipment," Martini said.  
In one month, the ambulance network Martini oversees received 13 direct hits.
Martini said doctors and healthcare workers try to keep ambulances from being targeted from above by digging large holes in fields with lots of trees, so the vehicles can take cover when they come under fire.

Dozens killed in air strike on refugee camp near Idlib

Source: Al Jazeera

Army Captain sues Obama over ISIS fight

Published time: 5 May, 2016 04:26

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© Lucas Jackson / Reuters

An Army Captain is suing President Barack Obama, arguing that the war against Islamic State is illegal because it has not been authorized by Congress.

“Under the 1973 War Powers Resolution, when the President introduces United States armed forces into hostilities… he must either get approval from Congress within sixty day to continue the operation, in the form of a declaration of war… [the] President did not get Congress’s approval for his war against ISIS in Iraq or Syria… the war is therefore illegal,” said Captain Nathan Michael Smith, a military intelligence officer, in court documents filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday.
The court documents say that the 1973 War Powers Resolution was enacted by Congress to prevent presidential overreach and protect Congress’ right to vote on whether and when to go to war. The resolution was created after Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon escalated the war in Vietnam and extended it into Laos and Thailand as a general “war against communism.”
Captain Smith, 28, was commissioned in 2010 and deployed to Afghanistan for eight months in 2012. He is from a three-generation family of military officers and has been deployed in Kuwait with the Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve, which is the campaign against the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), since last fall.
“I joined the military in 2010 because I believe the US military is a force for good in the world… [like] everyone, I was taken aback when I saw ISIS sweep through Syria and Iraq, seizing city after city, town after town, with their beheadings and crucifixions, laying to waste all in their way. They are an army of butchers. Their savagery is sickening,” wrote Captain Smith in the court papers.
“When President Obama ordered airstrikes in Iraq in August 2014, and in Syria… I was ready for action… we were all cheering every airstrike and every setback for ISIS… I was also noticing that people at home were torn about whether President Obama should be carrying out this war… I began to wonder, ‘Is this the Administration’s war, or is it America’s war?’ …My conscience bothered me,” he added.
Obama administration officials, including Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, have repeatedly asserted that they have the legal authority to conduct the fight against Islamic State. The authority they are referring to was granted by Congress post-September 11, 2001, when it signed the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) authorizing then-President George W. Bush to wage war against those responsible for the September 11 attacks and the governments which harbored them. The 2002 AUMF authorized the war in Iraq.
The Army Times reported that the Pentagon is operating under the broad permission “in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism” against the United States, in its fight against IS.
Critics contend that stretches the 2001 agreement too far – a view shared by Captain Smith who said in court papers that the AUMF was issued against Al-Qaida, and “ISIS is in no way responsible for the September 11 attacks,” and therefore the president has “exceeded his authority.”
Smith argued that by providing support for an illegal war, he is violating his oath to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States,” noting that the President “had failed to publish an opinion prepared by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel or the White House Counsel to justify the war against ISIS… instead left it to Administration spokespersons to provide ad hoc and ever-shifting legal justifications for a military campaign that is constantly changing its strategic objectives and escalating its use of force.”
Those ad-hoc justifications have seen the campaign against Islamic State grow from airstrikes to deployed trainers to search-and-kill teams – and in late April to authorize 250 troops for ground operations in Syria.
Smith asks that the court declare that “the war against ISIS in Syria and Iraq violated the War Powers Resolution.”
A spokesman for the Justice Department declined to comment on the lawsuit.

No boots on ground in Syria, but US troops wearing boots & on ground are there ‒ State Dept

Published time: 25 Apr, 2016 22:16

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Despite repeated promises to the contrary, US troops are in Syria, and the Pentagon has sent 250 more. But the State Department says those American soldiers wearing boots in Syria aren’t actually “boots on the ground.”

President Barack Obama confirmed plans to dramatically increase the American troop presence in Syria by deploying an additional 250 personnel, bringing the total to 300. He said the troops would help drive out Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).

Read more

More boots on the ground: Obama sends 250 more US troops to Syria

In 2013, Obama promised not to put any “American boots on the ground in Syria.”
The president repeated that claim in a September 2014 interview on ‘Meet the Press’.
“The notion that the United States should be putting boots on the ground, I think would be a profound mistake. And I want to be very clear and very explicit about that," Obama said on September 7, 2014.
Three days later, he reiterated that point in an address to the American people, promising that US troops would not fight in Syria.
On Monday, however, State Department spokesman John Kirby admitted that the US has boots on the ground in Syria… but that they are not there as boots on the ground.
Associated Press reporter Matt Lee pressed Kirby on the issue.
“For months and months and months, the mantra from the president and everyone else in the administration has been the no boots on the ground, and how…” Lee said.
“That is not true,” Kirby replied, cutting him off.
“What?” Lee exclaimed.
“It’s just not true, Matt. It’s just not true,” Kirby said. “I just flatly, absolutely disagree with you,” the spokesman said while pounding his fist on the podium.
RT’s Gayane Chichakyan then joined the fray.

“Within 24 hours, we have seen two headlines, one of them being, ‘President Obama rules out ground troops to Syria’ and he told the BBC…” she said. “And then, shortly after, ‘President Obama to deploy 250 more special forces troops to Syria.’”
“My question is, what is the difference between the troops that the president ruled out and the troops that he’s going to send to Syria?”
“You know, that’s actually an intelligent question. That’s a good question, and I appreciate that you asked it because it’s very relevant,” Kirby responded, explaining that the first set ‒ what most people think of as “boots on the ground” ‒ would be conventional ground troops who would participate in large combat. Instead, what the US is sending an additional 250 troops for advisory and assistance purposes, joining the 50 such special forces already there.

Obama considers moving US forces deeper into Syria, Iraq – reports

“There is a big difference between saying, ‘no boots on the ground’ ‒ we’ve all recognized since almost the outset that we’ve had US troops in Iraq, which are very much on the ground ‒ and the colloquial meaning of the term, which is what many people when they say ‘no boots on the ground’ are referring to,” Kirby said, “which is large-scale, intentionally combat ground troops engaged in combat operations that they themselves are conducting independently” of the country’s “indigenous forces.”
“That’s not happening, and that’s not gonna happen,” he said.
“You guys are getting way wrapped around the actual on the phrase ‘boots on the ground’,” Kirby added later, noting that, among other things American pilots are flying combat missions above Iraq and Syria.
Lee took up the mantle of questioning once again.
“Why didn’t the administration come out and say, ‘There will be no large-scale combat’ instead of saying ‘no boots on the ground’?” Lee asked. “These people, unless they’re not wearing boots, are boots on the ground!”
“Listen, on this point, I totally agree with you,” Kirby replied. “They are wearing boots, and they are on the ground. But that doesn’t mean that they are in large-scale ground combat operations!”
And around and around they went again.

Two Ways Hillary’s Private Email Operation Was Obviously Criminal

Posted on April 9, 2016 by Eric Zuesse.

Eric Zuesse, originally posted at strategic-culture.org

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2016/04/two-ways-hillarys-private-email-operation-obviously-criminal.html 

As I noted on March 10th, Hillary Clinton, and her aides who cooperated with her privatization of information from the U.S. Department of State, were violating:

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18 U.S. Code § 1519 – Destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in Federal investigations and bankruptcy

Current through Pub. L. 114-38. (See Public Laws for the current Congress.)

    US Code

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Whoever knowingly alters, destroys, mutilates, conceals, covers up, falsifies, or makes a false entry in any record, document, or tangible object with the intent to impede, obstruct, or influence the investigation or proper administration of any matter within the jurisdiction of any department or agency of the United States or any case filed under title 11, or in relation to or contemplation of any such matter or case, shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.

(Added Pub. L. 107–204, title VIII, § 802(a), July 30, 2002, 116 Stat. 800.)

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However, I’ve just now noticed that there’s also this, from the “U.S. Department of State Foreign Affairs Manual Volume 12 — Diplomatic Security”:

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18 U.S.C. 

Section 641. Public money, property or records 

Whoever embezzles, steals, purloins, or knowingly converts to his use, or the use of another, or without authority, sells, conveys or disposes of any record, voucher, money, or thing of value of the United States or of any department or agency thereof, or any property made or being made under contract for the United States or any department or agency thereof, …

Shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than ten years or both. …

Section 793. Gathering, transmitting or losing defense information …

(f) Whoever, being entrusted with or having lawful possession or control of any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, note, or information, relating to the national defense, (1) through gross negligence permits the same to be removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of his trust, or to be lost, stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, or (2) having knowledge that the same has been illegally removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of its trust, or lost, or stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, and fails to make prompt report of such loss, theft, abstraction, or destruction to his superior officer —  

Shall be fined not more than $10, 000 or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both. 

(g) If two or more persons conspire to violate any of the foregoing provisions of this section, and one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy, each of the parties to such conspiracy, shall be subject to the punishment provided for the offense which is the object of such conspiracy. 

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Therefore, the question exists for U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and for her boss Barack Obama, to decide whether former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be prosecuted, and also whether her subordinates (such as Jake Sullivan) who followed her instructions on these matters, will be prosecuted.

Furthermore, though millions of voters in Democratic Party primaries have already decided that Ms. Clinton should become the next U.S. President, future voters (and the 718 Democratic National Convention superdelegates) will also need to decide whether Ms. Clinton should represent the Democratic Party in the upcoming 8 November 2016 U.S. Presidential election.

This political decision will have to be made regardless of whether the current U.S. President (who might possibly have authorized his Secretary of State to violate these laws) decides to prosecute her. He might decide not to (or to inform his employee, Loretta Lynch, not to), but then the voters in the United States will still need to decide whether a person such as Ms. Clinton, should become the next U.S. President. Voters might decide that the mere fact of non-prosecution means her innocence, and that what she did in this matter is therefore to be simply ignored. That would be only a political, not a criminal, decsion — no verdict which possesses legal standing regarding legal penalties for her actions — but if it’s made without regard to what she has done (again, regardless of whether she is legally charged for having done it), then those voters will bear the sole responsibility for what she has done. And that will be a responsibility to — and a judgment to be made by — only history. It won’t be for any court, anywhere. (After all: dead people cannot be prosecuted, no matter what they might actually have done. Only living persons bear vulnerability to legal process.)

Nor would the presence or absence of legal process against her (for what she did in this matter) have any bearing upon whether, or not, what she did in it was the worst thing that she has done. It clearly is not. She has, in fact, done many harmful things, some even worse than participating in the national decision to invade Iraq in 2003 — her most infamous decision, but one in which her participation wasn’t actually very important (because 77% of U.S. Senators voted for it — 27% more than needed). Far more important, for example, was her decision, as the U.S. Secretary of State, to retain in power the coup-regime that took over Honduras on 28 June 2009, and which turned Honduras into the nation with the world’s highest murder-rate and the worst narco-state (from which tens of thousands still flee each year, many to be sent back into Honduras and who become killed by the very same drug gangs from which they had fled).

Anyone who thinks that what Hillary Clinton did regarding her email is the worst thing she has done, is woefully ignorant of what she has done. However, though there are criminal laws regarding her email matter, there are probably none regarding the worst things that she has done. She has created hell not only in Honduras, but for millions of people in many countries. And there are no legal penalties, for any of that. But, for her email matter, there are — even if they might not be enforced in her particular case.

Thus, if Hillary Clinton becomes the Democratic Party’s nominee, the Presidential election could end up being delivered to whomever the Republican nominee might be, because there’s the very real possibility that Ms. Clinton could be indicted after the Democratic National Convention ends on July 28th and before the November 8th Presidential election.

—————

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of  They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of  CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.

US criminal oligarchy: top 20 Americans own more than bottom 50%, 0.1% own more than 90%; ~$30 TRILLION stored in ‘tax havens’

Posted on January 23, 2016 by Carl Herman

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2016/01/us-criminal-oligarchy-top-20-americans-bottom-50-0-1-90-30-trillion-stored-tax-havens.html

hat tip: John Hankey (creator of Dark Legacy, the best JFK assassination documentary I’ve seen)

US “leaders” in government, banking/finance, and media are obvious criminals that should be legally stopped by arrests for the following Emperor’s New Clothes obvious crimes:

• Unlawful and lie-began wars.
• Crimes Against Humanity for ongoing intentional policy of poverty that’s killed over 400 million human beings just since 1995 (~75% children; more deaths than from all wars in Earth’s recorded history).
• So-called “money” that is actually debt that creates accelerating and unpayable total debt. The .01% hide ~$30 trillion in tax havens while demanding public austerity.
• Destruction of nearly all rights lawfully guaranteed in the US Bill of Rights within the US Constitution, and in Orwellian inversion of limited government.
• “Covering the crimes” with lies by corporate media.

These crimes annually cost millions killed, billions harmed, and trillions looted, with recent history continuing literal centuries of US lie-began Wars of Aggression that involved nearly all families in two horrific global wars for colonial empire.

We can add the following economic data for public demand of arrests:

• We’ve already documented how the global so-called “elite” 1% are now wealthier than the 99% while ~30,000 children die daily from preventable poverty in gruesomely-slow agony.
• The US .1% own more than the bottom 90%.
• The top 20 Americans (.000006%) own more than the bottom 50%.

But wait, there’s more:

• The top three public benefits of monetary and banking reform would add ~$1,000,000 to every US household. The lies of omission and commission by US “leaders” with legal fiduciary responsibility to communicate full and transparent economic data to never advise Americans of these options is a massive crime causing damages in the trillions of dollars yearly.
• Our current system of creating what we use for money as debt has the so-called “developed” and “former” colonial nations $50 trillion in debt, and lying for public austerity rather than admit the option of monetary and banking reforms.

For Americans still zombiefied to “believe” in America, please embrace the reality that 40% of US children live at least one year of their lives in under-measured poverty, while oligarchs most responsible literally laugh in grandiose glee of the poverty they euphemise as “income inequality.” Please absorb this 1-minute reality check:

More game-changing economic data that confirm what we receive for economic leadership is literal criminal fraud:

• decaying infrastructure getting uglier from “deferred maintenance,”
• real unemployment near 25% with most families demanding both parents work longer and longer hours,
• real inflation well above official reports,
• US poverty of 20% among children, 40% for living at least a year in poverty,
• 72% of California students in schools with over half the children classified as “socio-economically disadvantaged,”
• a rigged-casino economy designed for “peak inequality,”
• “too big to fail” banks demand public subsidies (so-called “bailouts”) while gambling with over $200 TRILLION in derivatives,
• these “too big to fail/jail” banks deriving most of their income from subsidies and apparent market manipulations,
• Daily and never-ending Orwellian criminal-complicit lies of corporate media.
• US college Class of 2015 students average $35,000 in debt, with the total for 2015 graduates nearly $70 billion: more than ten times the amount from just 20 years ago. The average time to pay this debt is now 15 years (think paying until age 40).
• half of US 25-year-olds live with their parents, more than twice the number from 15 years ago.
• Over one million US college students are “Sugar babies”: selling sex as part-time employment. The UK has the same condition (here, here).
• 31% of US adjunct professors live in poverty.

6-minute video of wealth inequality in the US:

I could go on to literally ~100 areas of crucial concern; most showing obvious criminal acts requiring arrests to lawfully stop ongoing horrific damages and deaths.

We the People should be demanding obvious solutions:

• Arrests of .01% “leaders” for obvious crimes centering in war, money and lies (4-part series on arrests with videos).
• Leveraging a reclaimed media, continue arrests with generous plea bargains and Truth & Reconciliation for testimony, documentary evidence, and physical evidence to best put the “Big Picture” together in preparation to build the brighter future for all Earth’s inhabitants’ success.
• SOLUTIONS: the .01% with corporate media have suppressed solutions documented beginning with Benjamin Franklin how government can abundantly operate without taxes: monetary and credit reform allow the public to have near-instant prosperity: full-employment, zero public deficits and debt, the best infrastructure we can imagine, falling prices, and release of public TRILLIONS held in “rainy day” accounts. Full documentation here and here.

In just 90 seconds, former US Marine Ken O’Keefe powerfully states the “very obvious solutions” to US/UK/Israel unlawful Wars of Aggression: arrest the obvious criminal leaders (video starts at 20:51, then finishes this episode of Cross Talk):

**

Note: I make all factual assertions as a National Board Certified Teacher of US Government, Economics, and History, with all economics factual claims receiving zero refutation since I began writing in 2008among Advanced Placement Macroeconomics teachers on our discussion board, public audiences of these articles, and international conferences. I invite readers to empower their civic voices with the strongest comprehensive facts most important to building a brighter future. I challenge professionals, academics, and citizens to add their voices for the benefit of all Earth’s inhabitants.

**

Carl Herman is a National Board Certified Teacher of US Government, Economics, and History; also credentialed in Mathematics. He worked with both US political parties over 18 years and two UN Summits with the citizen’s lobby, RESULTS, for US domestic and foreign policy to end poverty. He can be reached at Carl_Herman@post.harvard.edu

Syria 4 Years On: Shocking Images Of A Post-US-Intervention Nation

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/17/2016 15:20 -0500
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-17/syria-4-years-shocking-images-post-us-intervention-nation
While US intervention in its various forms has likely been ongoing for decades, March 2011 is often cited as the start of foreign involvement in the Syrian Civil War (refering to political, military and operational support to parties involved in the ongoing conflict in Syria, as well as active foreign involvement).
Since then the nation has collapsed into chaos with an endless array of superlatives possible to describe the economic and civilian carnage that has ensued.
However, while a picture can paint a thousand words, these four shocking images describe a canvas of US foreign policy "success" that few in the mainstream media would be willing to expose...


Mission un-accomplished?

Israel warplanes strike near Syria airport: Report

Wed Nov 11, 2015 7:7PM

http://presstv.com/Detail/2015/11/11/437260/Syria-Israel-Damacus-Daesh-ISIS 

 

Israeli warplanes have struck targets near the international airport in the Syrian capital, Damascus, Syrian media says.
The reports said the attack happened Wednesday morning.
There were no immediate comments from the Syrian government on the issue.
In October, the Israeli military launched a number of artillery attacks against Syrian army posts in the Golan Heights.
Syria says Israel and its Western and regional allies are aiding Takfiri militant groups operating inside the Arab country.
The Syrian army has repeatedly seized huge quantities of Israeli-made weapons and advanced military equipment from the foreign-backed militants inside Syria.
The Tel Aviv regime has a long history of supporting militant groups against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over the past few years of turmoil in the Arab country.
Reports say Israel has set up field hospitals in the occupied Syrian territory of the Golan Heights for the treatment of injured militants.
Back in June, locals in the Golan intercepted an Israeli vehicle transporting two members of the al-Nusra Front terrorist group on the road between al-Sheikh Mountain and the village of Majdal Shams.
The foreign-sponsored conflict in Syria, which flared in March 2011, has thus far claimed the lives of more than 250,000 people and left over one million injured, according to the United Nations.
 

US terror-state invades Syria, uses chemical weapons, bombs hospitals, lies that Russia bombs hospitals

Posted on November 1, 2015 by Carl Herman

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/11/us-terror-state-invades-syria-uses-chemical-weapons-bombs-hospitals-lies-that-russia-bombs-hospitals.html 

The US is a government of dicts: rule by what is said/dictated rather than limited government under our Constitution.
President Obama has declared further US unlawful War of Aggression to invade Syria; in Orwellian inversion of all 16 previous promises of “no boots on the ground.” War law is crystal-clear in letter and intent: two treaties that armed attack is illegal unless under armed attack by another nation’s government.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh’s investigative writing was just verified that it was the US who conspired to kill over 1,400 Syrians with sarin gas in 2013. This mass-murder was a false flag event for the US to cause terror, blame a target, and then initiate an offensive military campaign propagandized as “helping innocent victims.” More analysis and video with Syria here, here.
Beware of a future false flag attack with US military killed by bombing to be blamed on Russia.
The latest US “official claim” is that Russia is bombing hospitals, but refuses to provide any evidence because of “national security.” Consider: why wouldn’t the US provide the names and locations of bombed hospitals unless this is a blatant lie? We know this is a lie of omission: failure to provide obvious and crucial information to support a factual claim.
Perhaps the US felt a dict-response was required from the US bombing a hospital in Afghanistan, destroying evidence with a tank, and following a history of such crimes. One historical case (page 9):

The US planning and execution of war in Iraq included the War Crime of targeting Iraq’s water system, which is expressly forbidden by the Geneva Convention for the protection of the civilian population. The documents proving the planning are from the US Defense Intelligence Agency, and state their understanding that destroying water sanitation would result in the deaths of thousands of civilians. After the US destroyed Iraq’s water purification plants, one of the documents planned propaganda to blame Saddam for not supplying clean water in Iraq (55). The UN reported that this US War Crime and preventing Iraq from importing essential supplies caused the deaths of over one million Iraqis, most of them children (56).

Consider this 2-minute video of US State Department spokesperson John Kirby refusing to provide evidence of official claims that Russia destroys hospitals. Watch his body language:

The Red Cross had no evidence of damaged hospitals. One would think that all potential hospitals could be contacted in Syria to prove US lies, as its population is 17 million (less than Southern California).
I’ve written articles revealing similar war propaganda from US corporate media:

When we now know that all claims for war with Iraq were known lies as they were told (and verbally explained here), and CNN provides similar innuendo for war on Iran by an unsourced alleged report with concerns of what might occur in the future allegedly stated by an unnamed US source reporting on an unnamed foreign source, this is propaganda and not news.

This latest act of Earth’s tragic-comedy is among literally ~100 areas of crucial concern the .01% do as usual business in Emperor’s New Clothes fashion anyone can verify who simply looks:

• Unlawful and lie-began wars,
• So-called “money” that is actually debt that creates accelerating and unpayable total debt.
• Destruction of nearly all rights lawfully guaranteed in the US Bill of Rights within the US Constitution, and in Orwellian inversion of limited government.
• “Covering the crimes” with lies by corporate media.

These crimes annually cost millions killed, billions harmed, and trillions looted, with recent history continuing literal centuries of US lie-began Wars of Aggression that involved your families in two horrific previous global wars.
The path forward as we build a critical mass of humans recognizing the Emperor’s New Clothes truth is to demand arrests and solutions, obviously:

1. ARRESTS: the first responsible action upon recognizing massive crimes that annually kill millions, harm billions, and loot trillions is to demand that law enforcement and military enact arrests of criminal leaders to stop the crimes and begin unwinding the truth of Earth’s tragic-comedy (four-part article series with videos on arrests as the obvious citizen response).
2. SOLUTIONS: the .01% with corporate media have suppressed solutions documented beginning with Benjamin Franklin how government can abundantly operate without taxes: monetary and credit reform allow the public to have near-instant prosperity: full-employment, zero public deficits and debt, the best infrastructure we can imagine, falling prices, and release of public TRILLIONS held in “rainy day” accounts. Full documentation here in this one area of obvious economic reforms.

Until these .01% “leaders” are stopped, all we’ll have is ongoing lies, crimes, and immense suffering.
**
Note: I make all factual assertions as a National Board Certified Teacher of US Government, Economics, and History, with all economics factual claims receiving zero refutation since I began writing in 2008 among Advanced Placement Macroeconomics teachers on our discussion board, public audiences of these articles, and international conferences. I invite readers to empower their civic voices with the strongest comprehensive facts most important to building a brighter future. I challenge professionals, academics, and citizens to add their voices for the benefit of all Earth’s inhabitants.
**
Carl Herman is a National Board Certified Teacher of US Government, Economics, and History; also credentialed in Mathematics. He worked with both US political parties over 18 years and two UN Summits with the citizen’s lobby, RESULTS, for US domestic and foreign policy to end poverty. He can be reached at Carl_Herman@post.harvard.edu
Note: Examiner.com has blocked public access to my articles on their site (and from other whistleblowers), so some links in my previous work are blocked. If you’d like to search for those articles other sites may have republished, use words from the article title within the blocked link. Or, go to http://archive.org/web/, paste the expired link into the box, click “Browse history,” then click onto the screenshots of that page for each time it was screen-shot and uploaded to webarchive. I’ll update as “hobby time” allows; including my earliest work from 2009 to 2011 (blocked author pages: here, here).