Bharat Rakshak

hnair wrote:Austin, the arrest was appropriate for sovereignty reasons. But the latest song and dance is playing upto anti-Iranian interests in the west. And Iran is not as strong as say, India or China in soft-power, to play out this game

After the nucular sell-out, Iran should have broken out of that press conference to show "the latest thing from west that failed inside our borders". They do not seem to have an internal political need at this point.

Leith Abou Fadel ‏@leithfadel now2 minutes ago
Someone explain to ISIS fanboys that they don't need to buy Playboy magazines anymore. You can watch your goat ***** on @*****

Leith Abou Fadel ‏@leithfadel now47 seconds ago
I am asking the Tiger Forces to send these captured Playboy magazines to @ShamiWitness

Leith Abou Fadel ‏@leithfadel now38 seconds ago
LOL Tiger Forces captured a bunch of Playboy magazines in east Aleppo. Dear ISIS fanboys, isn't this haram?

Washington’s new & improved plan for Syria: ‘Sunni-stan, a safe zone for terrorists’
Published time: 14 Jan, 2016 15:00

The US and its allies want to chip off a piece of Syria and a piece of northern Iraq to create a kind of canton, which will ultimately be completely dependent on those powers that created it, says geopolitical analyst Patrick Henningsen.
Now, Washington is considering the Turkish government’s request to re-launch a US program to train so-called moderate rebels in Syria. If it’s approved this would be the third American training program attempted in Syria.

RT: The US has assisted in the training of so-called moderate rebels in the past - with mixed results. Do you think Washington has come up with a better strategy this time?

Patrick Henningsen: This is a war strategy at least for the Syrian people. I think the previous plan wasn’t so much embedded inside Syria. This proposal is basically deriving from a US military and foreign policy talking point that we have a problem of extremists leaving Syria and going through Turkey and traveling internationally. So that is the so-called problem in terms of a talking point. This was underlined by the recent bombing in Istanbul, which killed a number of Germans coincidentally.

The real problem is Turkey has never made any effort to secure its border, it is absolutely porous and terrorists are allowed to travel in and out of Turkey and have been since 2011. So this new policy is at worst to train Sunni fighters inside Syria, inside what they hope to become a safe zone. And what all this does is reinforce the status quo for Turkey. They don’t have to change any of their behavior, and the problems will continue because of it.

RT: Over the last few months, the US and Ankara have pledged to seal the Turkish border with Syria numerous times. But so far very little progress has been made on this. Is the task really that difficult?

PH: Well, you have to look at the big picture here, and there is a lot going on behind the scenes that doesn’t really get reported, or people aren’t connecting the dots. What you have here is a situation where the West and the coalition, including the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] countries specifically Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the others, as well, and Turkey and the whole NATO confab - they failed to remove President [Bashar] Assad, and they failed to collapse the country of Syria. In lieu of this, what they are doing now is just basically moving to take territory. And from this new territory, which will be a kind of a de facto Sunni state - and I am not just saying this, this is what John Bolton has said in a recent New York Times OPED before Christmas – is to create a Sunni state. This is what everyone is talking about in muffled tones in Washington right now: a new ‘Sunnistan’. It is not going to be a safe zone for the Syrian people; this is going to be a safe zone for terrorists. And if you look at the amnesty program that the Syrian government is doing right now, this would provide a place for the amnesty terrorists to go and flee, lay siege to Syria from a safe, internationally-recognized Sunni state. So this is what is going on behind the scenes between Washington, London, Paris, and Riyadh.

RT: Do you think the US has softened its stance on Bashar Assad?

PH: It has been politically convenient to sort of back off of what looks like a losing PR effort – and it has been an absolute loss for the West. They have been demonizing Assad for a number of years now, and his public approval rating within Syria is just getting higher and higher because the Syrian people are looking to him for real leadership, and it’s being shown. This is flying in the face of all the propaganda coming out of Washington and London.

So they are not softening their stance at all. What they are doing now is regrouping. The interesting thing is that the deal that has been struck between Turkey, the US, and the Kurdish regional government – that new deal is really the bulwark of what we’re going to see with them trying to establish this new Sunni state. So they are going to try to chip off a piece of Syria and a piece of northern Iraq to create this kind of canton, if you will, which will ultimately be completely dependent on those powers who created it. They decry the mapmaking exercises after WWI, but yet the same powers are involved in redrawing the maps again in further benefit for the next generation.

...

Norway is preparing to send over 5,500 refugees who crossed into the country from Russia on bicycles last year back across the border by the same mode of transport.

Police districts across Norway have been ordered to gather up and repair bikes that were abandoned by incoming refugees near the Storskog border crossing last year, after Norwegian authorities refused to grant asylum to the refugees who entered from Russia.

Germany's right-wing AfD party surges to new high

“We asked that the bikes which were left behind or claimed by the police to be gathered up for use by the foreigners who will be returned to Russia,” Jan Erik Thomassen, a section head from Norway’s National Police Directorate, said. “I can understand that it feels a bit awkward and odd.”

Despite the Arctic conditions this time of year, a border agreement between Russia and Norway means that bicycles have become the only way for refugees to cross from one country to the other. The agreement bars people from crossing over the border on foot and bans drivers from ferrying people into the country in their cars without documents.

Most of the cycles were abandoned upon entry to Norway (AFP/Getty)

Norwegian authorities said they hope Russia will allow the refugees to re-enter its Russian territory by bus, which would reduce costs and provide safer passage for those making the journey. But Russia, which has remained hostile to refugees despite the influx of migrants into Europe last year, seems unlikely to comply.

Support for refugees in Germany plummeting amid far-right protests
Seven refugees 'thrown overboard' off coast of Italy fleeing Somalia
Germany sending hundreds of asylum seekers back to Austria every day
Angela Merkel says Europe is 'vulnerable' to the refugee crisis

Most of the refugees who travelled to Storskog through Russia’s Arctic city of Murmansk hail from Syria. Braving sub-zero temperatures in the hopes of receiving asylum in Norway, refugees say that travelling through Russia is a cheaper alternative than other means of getting to Europe.

“To be honest, it costs much less than going to Turkey and from Turkey getting on a small, small, boat to cross to Greece, and then from Greece to Europe itself,” one Syrian refugee crossing the border from Murmansk into Norway told ABC last November.

The situation was exacerbated further in November last year, when Norway announced that it would immediately expel asylum-seekers who had originated from Russia. Moscow answered with a tit-for-tat measure, and both countries have since sent refugees back and forth.

Despite over a 60 per cent rise in the number of applicants for asylum last year – including around 12,000 Syrians – Russia’s Federal Migration Service awarded refugee status to less than 9 per cent of the total applicants.


More than a million people landed on Europe’s shores last year, with most travelling through Turkey and disembarking on Greek islands just a short – but dangerous – hop across the Aegean Sea, which can cost refugees thousands of pounds, compared with the hundreds that refugees reportedly pay for bikes to take the route across Russia.

The EU’s top migration official warned that efforts to manage the refugee crisis are failing as more countries tighten border security.

Bus-load of refugees sent to Merkel’s office

An irate local politician in the southern German state of Bavaria has dispatched a bus filled with dozens of refugees on a seven-hour journey to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office in Berlin as a protest against her open-door policy.

A spokesman for Peter Dreier from the south-eastern town of Landshut said 31 refugees were voluntarily making the 340-mile trip to the capital.

A video on the website of the German newspaper Die Welt showed police officers shepherding dozens of men and women with bags on to a bus.

Mr Dreier appeared to be acting on a threat he made to Ms Merkel last year, critical of her policy on asylum-seekers. “If Germany is taking in one million refugees, mathematically that means 1,800 will come to my district. I will take them and if there are any more, I will send them to your office,” he said.

Mr Dreier represents the Freie Waehler, a loose grouping of politicians who campaign on mostly local issues.

They can withdraw from NPT, and go for weaponisation, should the situation arise. The nuclear genie is well and truly out of the bottle.

battle in the Latakia province, leading to “about 70” dead rebel fighters and no dead SAA soldiers in fighting. Per the reports, these ten robots included six “Platform-M” systems and four “Argo” robots, which were controlled from a Russian command post.

Singha wrote:i think all this news of chinese involvement in syria is fake.

they will come round later offering infra loans to prop up their civil engg sector overcapacity...and send 1000s of workers and few 100 security details.

The West, particularly France, considers Burkina Faso a key ally in the fight against al Qaeda.

habal wrote:5000 Chinese Elite forces have entered Syria.
http://www.wanttoknow.nl/nieuws/5-000-c ... egen-isis/

BEIJING: The United States (US) and Russia must not allow the conflict in Syria to develop into a full-blown proxy war, China's ruling Communist Party said Tuesday, chiding both Moscow and Washington for having an outdated Cold War mindset.In an editorial in its flagship People's Daily newspaper, the party also reiterated China's view that a negotiated political solution is the only way to end the conflict, setting Beijing apart from the US, which is backing the opposition, and Russia, whose forces are aiding Syrian President Bashar Assad.While the US and the former Soviet Union frequently used diplomatic, economic and military means to extend their influence in other nations, that thinking belonged to the last century, the paper said."However, the world has entered the 21st century and people's thinking should enter the 21st century as well," it said."People shouldn't allow the Syrian conflict to escalate into a full-scale proxy war, or lightly give up on efforts to find a political solution to the Syrian crisis and cannot permit the Syrian humanitarian disaster to continue."Early in the 4-year-old conflict, China was criticised by the US for joining with Russia in blocking outside intervention at the United Nations. Since then, China has largely remained aloof on the issue, although it has warned of Chinese Muslims joining in the fighting and urged the international community to do more to aid refugees.

The IS assault on government-held areas in the city began at dawn on Saturday, Syria's Local Coordination Committees (LCC) said.

A car bomb explosion was followed by a ground attack, the LCC said.
Government forces retaliated with air strikes and heavy artillery, the report said.
Russia said it had dropped aid to civilians caught up in the siege. There have also been reports of Russian airstrikes in the vicinity.
According to the Syrian observatory, IS now controls around 60% of the city.

The past century has seen countries make fateful military decisions, which revolved around black gold, but history warns that oil wars could be devastating for those who start them, defense analyst Michael Peck wrote for the National Interest.

Chaco War
one of the first oil wars took place in the mid-1930s. Known as the Chaco War, the conflict saw Bolivia and Paraguay engaged in a three-year-long struggle for control over the northern Gran Chaco region, believed to be rich in oil. The conflict is said to be the bloodiest Latin American war of the 20th century

Hitler's Stalingrad Gambit
When thinking about World War II, oil does not immediately spring to mind. Yet oil was one of the key factors behind Hitler's strategy for the Soviet Union.

Nazi Germany failed to defeat the USSR in a blitzkrieg offensive in 1941. By 1942, Hitler focused his limited resources on southern Russia to carry out Operation Braunschweig, which was aimed at crashing Soviet forces in Stalingrad and capturing oil fields in the Caucasus.

Germany's forces succeeded in reaching Stalingrad and capturing several oil fields. But the Nazi leadership wanted its Army to pursue both goals simultaneously. As a result, the months-long battle for Stalingrad ended in the destruction of Germany's 6th Army, which was also forced to withdraw from the Soviet oil-rich region. Moreover, the battle also marked a turning point in World War II.

Japan's WWII lesson

The Empire of Japan decided to attack the US naval base at Pearl Harbor in December 1941 to prevent Washington from ruining Tokyo's plan to capture oil fields in the Dutch East Indies and Southeast Asia. Japan badly needed petroleum since the US, Tokyo's main oil supplier, and Europe introduced an oil embargo earlier that year.

Tokyo succeeded in taking the oil fields under control but was unable to ship oil back home since the US imposed a naval blockade of the islands and bombed Japanese waters.

"Attacking America was supposed to guarantee Japan unlimited oil, but instead it led to the destruction of the empire," Peck noted.

Iraq's Invasion of Kuwait

In 1991, Iraq invaded neighboring Kuwait, which at the time had approximately 10 percent of global oil reserves.

The decision to occupy the Arab country is believed to have been sparked by Baghdad's inability to repay the 100-billion-dollar debt incurred during the Iran–Iraq War. Kuwait's oil overproduction and Baghdad's ambition to capture the country's vast oil reserves have also been cited as a reason for the operation.

"The result was 500,000 US troops in Saudi Arabia, the American-led blitzkrieg of Desert Storm and the devastation of Iraqi military power. Iraq had previously been one of the major powers in the Arab world; Saddam Hussein's quest for oil left it broken and isolated," Peck observed.

9/11 False Flag; US invasion of Iraq; NATO/GCC/Israeli war to destroy Libya and Syria

habal wrote:It seems all those killed were sunnis. Should help hasten the inevitable demise of ISIS. Those daeshbags fleeing back to their countries should be caught, tried nuremburg style and quickly executed.

Wotsissain wrote:If oil is a central factor in the Levant Crisis, then why are oil prices so low and oil supply at peak levels?

9/11 False Flag; US invasion of Iraq; NATO/GCC/Israeli war to destroy Libya and Syria

Using 9/11 false flag as pretext, US invaded Iraq destroying its military, socio-economic fabric completely and responsible for killing millions many of them women and children. Later, a kangaroo court hanged Saddam Hussain, who for all his faults and brutality against his own people per the western narrative, kept the internal factions in control and let the country function by and large. However, as US exited Iraq, it handed off vast swathes of Iraqi territory in the control of extreme islamists terrorists who perpetuated (are still perpetuating) genocide against native yazidis and kurds.

By 2011, NATO/GCC/Israel extended this chaos into Libya and by 2011 killed Gaddafi throwing the country into civil war. Emboldened by this easy "success", NATO/GCC/Israel carried this further into Syria, which forms the gateway to sell Arab Oil into Europe via Turkey. Seeing the diabolical nature of the scheme and existing world order getting ripped apart, Russia came to the rescue of Syrian president Assad and prevented the fateful outcome. This Russian intervention delivered a devastating blow to plot of gobbling up oil resources and sealing the fate of the "gateway".

With Iran coming out of sanctions and enabling it to sell its oil in the international market, syrian gateway in doldrums, it is very likely that GCC, prime initiators of this crisis will meet the same fate of the earlier initiators of oil wars.

- GCC enticing Europeans with cheap oil so they welcome the GCC loot plan and enable dislodging of Russia as primary supplier.
- Iran coming up in the market and wants to ensure it has long term contracts in place to be able to sell its oil on a predictable basis
- The biggest consumer China going with Russians in big way cutting their share of supplies from GCC
- US domestic production increases driving lower crude imports from Middle-East
- In addition to the above supplier dynamic, the demand itself is dampened due to macro economic situation caused by slow down in China and lack of any signs of recovery in US and Europe.

Iran just issued a statement that they will produce 1 mbpd despite lower oil prices taking the GCC challenge head-on. So, the ball is firmly in GCC's court.

By 2011, NATO/GCC/Israel extended this chaos into Libya and by 2011 killed Gaddafi throwing the country into civil war. Emboldened by this easy "success", NATO/GCC/Israel carried this further into Syria, which forms the gateway to sell Arab Oil into Europe via Turkey.