Podcasts about Free Syrian Army

Conflicted returns with another episode in our series on the Syrian Civil War, welcoming a new guest onto the show to tell us about her experiences of living life under ISIS in the city of Raqqa – Rania Ali. Rania tells us about her experiences growing up in Raqqa, and the city's rich history - a place of conflict throughout the centuries. As the Arab Spring protests began, Rania became involved, and she details the secretive nature of organizing protests under a repressive regime. She tells us about the development of the conflict in Syria, the impact of the Free Syrian Army's liberation of the city in 2013, telling us about her family's exodus from Raqqa, and the devastation upon their return. But a key memory for Rania in the conflict was the rise of ISIS. She tells us about the resilience and courage of her community, particularly the women who organized protests and resisted the extremist regime, despite the grave risks involved. We hear about her harrowing experiences living during the ISIS caliphate, the threats she faced, and her eventual escape from the city, alongside the thrilling and tragic stories of her friends. New Conflicted Season 5 episodes will be coming every two weeks, but if you want to have your Conflicted fix every single week, then you'll have to join our Conflicted Community. Subscribers will get bonus episodes every other week, and can also join our Conflicted Community chatroom, where you can interact with fellow dearest listeners, discuss episodes past and future, get exclusive messages from Thomas and Aimen, ask future Q&A questions and so much more. All the information you need to sign up to the Conflicted Community is on this link: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/  Conflicted is proudly made by Message Heard, a full-stack podcast production agency which uses its extensive expertise to make its own shows such as Conflicted, shows for commissioners such as the BBC, Spotify and Al Jazeera, and powerfully effective podcasts for other companies too. If you'd like to find out how we can help get your organisation's message heard, visit messageheard.com or drop an email to hello@messageheard.com! Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.comWhat the hell just happened in Syria? We asked one of the sharpest scholars on the subject to give us a primer. Aaron Zelin is a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, where he also directs the “Islamic State Worldwide Activity Map” project. He's also a visiting research scholar in the politics department at Brandeis and the founder of the website Jihadology. His first book is titled Your Sons Are At Your Service: Tunisia's Missionaries of Jihad, and his forthcoming book covers the history of Syrian jihadism. We talk about the entire history of Syria, as it faces what could be a turning point. For two clips of our convo — on the evil of the Assad dynasty, and the sudden fall of Bashar al-Assad — pop over to our YouTube page.Other topics: how Aaron's career was influenced by 9/11 at age 15; becoming an expert on jihadism; St. Paul at Damascus; the Ottoman Empire; the Arab Congress; Syria's independence from France after WWII; the subsequent coups; the Sunni majority in Syria; the rise of the Alawites; the Druze and Christians; the Kurds; the optimism in the ‘60s/‘70s for Arab liberalization; pan Arabism and Nasser; the Muslim Brotherhood; Hafez al-Assad coming to power in 1971; his son Bashar educated in the UK; how a former Nazi for real helped shape the regime; al-Qaeda and bin Laden; the Islamic State; “Baby It's Cold Outside”; the secret police of Syria; the 1982 massacre in Hama; Bashar coming to power in 2000 because of his older brother's early death; Bashar seen as nerdy and uncharismatic; the Damascus Spring; the Iraq War; the rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani; his imprisonment in Abu Ghraib; Zarqawi; the Arab Spring; civil war erupting in Syria in 2011; the Free Syrian Army; the Assad regime torturing kids; the refugee crisis; Russia getting bogged down in Ukraine; Hezbollah and Hamas decimated; Iran on the defense; how the Assad regime collapsed in ten days; and Golani's potential as a reformer.Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy (the first 102 are free in their entirety — subscribe to get everything else). Coming up: Brianna Wu on trans lives, Mary Matalin on our sick culture, Adam Kirsch on his book On Settler Colonialism, John Gray on the state of liberal democracy, Jon Rauch on his new book on “Christianity's Broken Bargain with Democracy,” Nick Denton on the evolution of new media, and Ross Douthat on how everyone should be religious. Please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com.

The fall of the Assad regime in Syria has not solved the country's massive humanitarian emergency, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) insisted on Thursday, with some two million sheltering in the northwest unable to go back to villages and cities shattered by 14 years of war.In an interview with UN News's Daniel Johnson, the agency's regional chief of communications and advocacy in the Middle East, Ammar Ammar, has been describing the dramatic scenes he saw, while on mission this week to Damascus, Aleppo, Hama and Homs.He began with an update on Tishreen Dam in northern Syria, scene of clashes between Kurdish groups of the Syrian Democratic Forces and pro-Turkish elements of the Free Syrian Army.

pWotD Episode 2775: Syrian civil war Welcome to Popular Wiki of the Day, spotlighting Wikipedia's most visited pages, giving you a peek into what the world is curious about today.With 186,659 views on Friday, 6 December 2024 our article of the day is Syrian civil war.The Syrian civil war is an ongoing multi-sided conflict in Syria involving various state-sponsored and non-state actors.In March 2011, popular discontent with the rule of Bashar al-Assad triggered large-scale protests and pro-democracy rallies across Syria, as part of the wider Arab Spring protests in the region. After months of crackdown by the government's security apparatus, various armed rebel groups such as the Free Syrian Army began forming across the country, marking the beginning of the Syrian insurgency. By mid-2012, the insurgency had escalated into a full-blown civil war.Rebel forces, receiving arms from NATO and Gulf Cooperation Council states, initially made significant advances against the government forces, who were receiving financial and military support from Iran and Russia. Rebels captured the regional capitals of Raqqa in 2013 and Idlib in 2015. Consequently, Iran and Russia launched separate military interventions in support of the Syrian government in 2014 and 2015 respectively, shifting the balance of the conflict. By late 2018, all rebel strongholds except parts of Idlib region had fallen to the government forces.In 2014, the Islamic State won many battles against both the rebel factions and the Syrian government. Combined with simultaneous success in Iraq, the group was able to seize control of large parts of Eastern Syria and Western Iraq, prompting the U. S.-led CJTF coalition to launch an aerial bombing campaign against it, while providing ground support and supplies to the Kurdish-majority Syrian Democratic Forces. Culminating in the Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor offensives, the Islamic State was territorially defeated by late 2017. In August 2016, Turkey launched a multi-pronged invasion of northern Syria, in response to the creation of Rojava, while also fighting the Islamic State and government forces in the process. Between the March 2020 Idlib ceasefire and late 2024, frontline fighting mostly subsided, but was characterized by regular skirmishes. Heavy fighting renewed with a major rebel offensive in the northwest led by Tahrir al-Sham in November 2024, during which Aleppo and Hama were seized. Southern rebels who had previously reconciled with the government subsequently launched their own offensive, capturing Daraa and Suwayda.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:44 UTC on Saturday, 7 December 2024.For the full current version of the article, see Syrian civil war on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Ivy.

A remarkable story with a remarkable artist. The kind of illustrator who walks into danger to tell people's stories through the power of his art.George Butler is an award-winning illustrator but has reinvented the role of the Artist Reporter drawing conflict zones, climate issues, humanitarian crisis and social issues for the news. His drawings are done in situ - in pen, ink and watercolour.In August 2012 George walked from Turkey across the border into Syria, where as a guest of the rebel Free Syrian Army, he drew the Civil War-damaged, small and empty town of Azaz.  A decade later he spent several days in the Metro in Kharkiv, Ukraine recording the lives of those that lived underground to avoid the Russian bombardment. These drawings can be seen in the National Archive at the V&A Museum.Over the last 15 years George has been commissioned to offer a deliberately slow alternative to the headlines. He attaches his drawings to the personal testimonies of those that he meets and records their resolve and resilience alongside the vulnerability of their situations. This has included in a Leprosy Clinic in Nepal, a militia in Yemen, the Mass Graves in Bucha, a caesarean-section in Afghanistan, the artisanal oil fields of Myanmar and most recently for the Guardian documenting the aftermath of the Earthquake in Turkey and Syria."We seem to have lost the art of the observational reporter with a sketchbook to photography, Butler's memorable images show that a closely observed drawing is not just worth a thousand words but hundreds of photographs." A A Gill--George Butler: https://www.georgebutler.org/Remember Also Me - Testimonies From The War: https://www.amazon.com/Ukraine-Remember-Also-Testimonies-War/dp/1536240435 --The Unlock Moment podcast is brought to you by Dr Gary Crotaz, PhD. Downloaded in over 115 countries. Sign up to The Unlock Moment newsletter at https://tinyurl.com/ywhdaazp Find out more at https://garycrotaz.com and https://theunlockmoment.com

On this Moats, George Galloway gives his take on how Israel killed its survivors, how ‘Golden Brown' sold UK gold at the bottom of the market. Macron refuses to accept the verdict of the French people plus Hollywood royalty gives Biden thumbs down and Hey Joe, where you going with that Zimmer in your hand?Being a dissident today is one of the most honourable positions we can hold in the UK and USA today, says über dissident Hekmat Abukhater who joins Moats for an interview about developments in Northern Syria (Al Qaeda, Free Syrian Army, National Army & Turkey) the US reaction and the mass surge of Syrian refugees in Turkey. Arron Mate joins later in the programme to talk about the 'Hannibal Directive' on October 7thHekmat Aboukhater: Syrian American Contributor for The Grayzone and Mint Press News and Host of Conversations with Dissidents - Twitter: https://x.com/whatthehekmat- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/haboukhater- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WhatTheHekmat/videosDevelopments in Northern Syria (Al Qaeda, Free Syrian Army, National Army & Turkey), US reaction, Syrian refugees in Turkey Aaron Maté: Journalist at The Grayzone and Co-host of The Useful Idiots Podcast- Twitter: https://x.com/aaronjmate- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aaronjmate- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aaronjmate- YouTube: https://youtube.com/@usefulidiots- Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/usefulidiots- Telegram: https://t.me/aaronjmate Become a MOATS Graduate at https://plus.acast.com/s/moatswithgorgegalloway. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Syrian Sunset by Howard Kaplan A sweeping novel of international intrigue about the Syrian Civil War, the failure of the West to save the Syrian people, and how that inaction against the Russian incursion in Syria emboldened Vladimir Putin to attack Ukraine. In 2012, President Obama declared that if Assad used chemical weapons in Syria, that would cross a red line. A year later, Assad murdered a thousand people in East Damascus with sarin, and the West did not respond. Soon after, the Russians vastly augmented their presence in Syria, built a huge air base to add to their warm water port on the Syrian Mediterranean and from those runways bombed the Free Syrian Army across the breadth of Syria. Based around these true events, THE SYRIAN SUNSET tells the tale of a fictional Syrian Military Intelligence general who wants a better Syria, and the events that led to the death of 500,000 civilians, 5 million people fleeing Syria, another 15 million being displaced internally.

“I talked as much about the National Basketball Association in Syria as I did about politics. Syrians felt so global and interested in everything. As a young backpacker, I don't know that I appreciated the historical moment that I was in.”  –Rolf Potts In this episode of Deviate, Rolf and Shaun talk about how they first came to know of Father Paolo and Deir Mar Musa monastery in Syria (3:00); the warm and hospitable experience of traveling in other parts of the country (10:00); Father Paolo's "interfaith dialogue" initiatives at Deir Mar Musa  (18:30); what happened to Father Paolo after the Syrian government cracked down on dissent and protest in 2011 (29:00); and how Father Paolo's monastery fostered interfaith dialogue over debate, and what his legacy is in Syria (43:00). Shaun O'Neill is the author of A Church of Islam: The Syrian Calling of Father Paolo Dall'Oglio. Notable Links: The strangers we meet on the road (Deviate episode) Paolo Dall'Oglio (Italian priest and peace activist) Deir Mar Musa (Christian monastery in Syria) 2011 Syrian uprising (phase of the Arab Spring) Sufism (mystic Islamic practice) Neuromancer, by William Gibson (novel) Tahrir Square (public area in Cairo) Hafez al-Assad (Syrian president from 1971-2000) Kurdish Syria (northeast part of the country) Alawites (ethnoreligious group) Interfaith dialogue (interaction between religious traditions) Desert Fathers (early Christian monks) Free Syrian Army (civil war faction) Daesh (militant Islamists in Syria and Iraq) Pope John Paul II (Catholic leader) Of Gods and Men (2010 film) Frans van der Lugt (Dutch priest killed in Syria) Syncretism (combining of different beliefs) The Deviate theme music comes from the title track of Cedar Van Tassel's 2017 album Lumber. Note: We don't host a “comments” section, but we're happy to hear your questions and insights via email, at deviate@rolfpotts.com.

In this week's episode, Alice interviews award-winning artist George Butler. George's art covers a huge range of topics, but he specialises in current affairs and his visual reportage from conflict zones like Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria has won plaudits from the likes of Jeremy Bowen and Michael Morpurgo. George's work often takes him to places which other people are trying to leave. In August 2012, for example, he walked from Turkey across the border into Syria where, as a guest of the Free Syrian Army, he set about drawing the impacts of the civil war on people and towns. Over the last decade he has been to refugee camps in Bekaa Valley (Lebanon), oil fields in Azerbaijan, to Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Mosul, and to Gaza with Oxfam, among many other places. His drawings have been published by the Times, the New York Times, the Guardian, BBC, CNN, Der Speigel, and a host of other media outlets; and they have also been exhibited at the Imperial War Museum North and the V&A museum, among other places. George has also recently published a book, Drawn Across Borders: True Stories of Migration, which tackles one of the many ripple effects of conflict and shines a spotlight on some of the humans behind the headlines.In the podcast, we talk about drawing as a dynamic process: one in which the artist invests time, and during which the people being drawn might come and go, shift position or mood, fade into the background or come into focus. George's drawings capture the rhythm of a place over several hours, enabling him to convey a context and set of experiences that are less easily observed through the fast shutter speed of a camera lens. Another aspect of drawing that George relishes is how approachable and unthreatening an artist often seems. While a cameraman's equipment might act as a barrier, a simple pad and pencil often gets people coming closer to look and ask questions, sparking conversations. Drawing on location involves listening to many different people and the stories they want to share; and what George hears then finds its way into the drawings as they develop. George reflects on the combination of aesthetics and storytelling in his reportage. While he strives to make his art beautiful, he sees little point in an attractive image which is not telling an interesting story – one that uncovers less visible, ignored or forgotten aspects of a conflict. One thing that motivates his work is the desire to round out our habits of visualising contemporary wars. We discuss the push and pull of media organisations and NGOs, who sometimes want an artist to focus on particular aspects of a conflict, and also the challenges that artists and photographers often face in deciding what is appropriate to depict in any given context. George clearly sees his drawings as fulfilling a documentary role, setting down a record for the future; but he is also interested in myth-busting, especially around migration, and his book Drawn Across Borders has been described as ‘a work of art, compassion and activism.'We hope you enjoy the episode! A blog with some of the images we discuss is available here, and more  images are available on George's website. For a version of our podcast with close captions, please use this link.  For more information about individuals and their projects, please visit the University of St Andrews Visualising War website. Music composed by Jonathan YoungSound mixing by Zofia Guertin

JOHN ROSSOMANDO, Senior Analyst of Defense Policy, Center for Security Policy, Former Senior Analyst, Counterterrorism at The Investigative Project on Terrorism, Former Senior Managing Editor, The Bulletin, Author, The Arab Spring Ruse, @JohnRossomando The Muslim Brotherhood was founded with the express intent of reestablishing the Islamic Caliphate John Rossomando talks about Muslim Brotherhood influence operations in the United States and how key operatives contacted notable U.S. government officials, such as Antony Blinken, William Burns, Samantha Power, Susan Rice, and Lloyd Austin Rossomando: The Brotherhood co-opted the language Americans had grown up with, i.e. democracy Presidential Directive 11: The Obama White House's alleged rationale for backing the Muslim Brotherhood in the Middle East The Obama administration, with the help of the Brotherhood, backed the Free Syrian Army, which in turn created a power vacuum in Syria, allowing Russia to swoop in and back the al-Assad regime Rossomando talks about the Biden administration's apparent inability to fire its top generals: “It's become who you're friends with”

This might be our most controversial episode, yet.   What is the relationship between the Assad regime and Syrian Kurds? How did Kurds react to the Syrian revolution? Why is it that a majority of Syrian Kurds came to prefer the YPG over the Free Syrian Army?   A lot of it has to do with societal attitudes that go back decades before the Syrian Revolution.   Peshmerge is a Syrian Kurd from Aleppo who participated in the 2011 protests and vehemently supported the Syrian Opposition. His opinion changed as the opposition gradually changed from a big tent movement to one dominated by racists and religious fundamentalism.   Music licensing: Come and Get It By Scott Holmes Creative Commons - Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott_Holmes/media-music-mix/come-and-get-it   Fragments by Nomyn https://soundcloud.com/nomyn Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: http://bit.ly/l-fragments Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/ndyyIhwojys   Genocide by Silent Carrion Creative Commons - attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international (cc by-nc-nd 4.0) https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Silent_Carrion/Suprematism_EP_III_Sol/Silent_Carrion_-_Suprematism_EP_III_Sol_-_01_Genocide

The Free Syrian Army, having been crushed by Russian airstrikes and abandoned by all its friends, struggles to defend its final stronghold, the very place where the war started all those years ago, Daraa Syria. With the war drawing to a close we learn who the victor or victors are, and what the future of post-war Syria will hold. The brutal 10 year civil war that has caused the deaths of over a half a million people and displaced over 10 million finally comes to an end. Support the show

Today we are joined by the commander of the United States Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare and School, Maj. General Patrick Roberson to discusses the lessons learned in Syria. A key theme is the complex nature of fighting in Syria, both to win the war on the ground, and to win the narrative battle. Also covered is the increasing Great Power Competition between the US, Russian and Iranian governments, each attempting to expand their influence in the region. The conversation is rounded out with MG Roberson contrasting Iraq, where SOF CA teams were not allowed by the local government, to Syria where SOF CA teams were welcomed by the Free Syrian Army.

March 2013, Raqqa. The Syrian revolution is in full swing. A crowd gathers around a statue of Hafez Al Assad in the centre of the city. The statue is of President Bashar Al Assad’s father, and much like the Assad regime has looked over this part of Syria for five decades. Though not for much longer. Activists and members of the Free Syrian Army chant Allahu Akbar, and fire at the statue as it is pulled down. The relic lies on its side, they climb on top of it - Raqqa is now the first provincial capital to fall to the revolution.But this was only the beginning. Darker times lay ahead. This is the story of Raqqa’s revolution , why it failed, and what has become of the city after ten years of war and revolution in Syria. On this week's Beyond the headlines host Gareth Browne, just back from Raqqa, looks at 10 years of conflict in Syria.

George Butler is an award-winning artist and illustrator who specialises in documenting reportage and current affairs in ink rather than with a camera. In 2012 he walked into Syria from Turkey where he started to capture the war-damaged town of Azaz as a guest of the rebel Free Syrian Army. Since then, his work has taken him to Afghanistan, Ghana, Yemen, Belarus and Myanmar, and in this episode George speaks about the extraordinary moments he has witnessed, the pressure to get his art ‘right' and how he struggles with the concept of bravery.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-adventure-podcast. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Michael is joined by Dr Keith Suter, Managing Director of the Global Directions Think Tank, regarding the Syrian civil war, the internal conflict between the Syrian army and the rebel groups composed by many heterogeneous branches, that commenced 10 years ago today.   The unrest in Syria, which began on 15 March 2011 as part of the wider 2011 Arab Spring protests, grew out of discontent with the Syrian government and escalated to an armed conflict after protests calling for Assad's removal were violently suppressed.   The war is being fought by several factions: the Syrian Armed Forces and its domestic and international allies, a loose alliance of mostly Sunni opposition rebel groups (such as the Free Syrian Army), Salafi jihadist groups (including al-Nusra Front and Tahrir al-Sham), the mixed Kurdish-Arab Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).   A number of foreign countries, such as Iran, Israel, Russia, Turkey, and the United States, have either directly involved themselves in the conflict or provided support to one or another faction.    Over the course of the war, a number of peace initiatives have been launched, including the March 2017 Geneva peace talks on Syria led by the United Nations, but fighting has continued. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I spoke with Francesco Saverio Leopardi of Ca'Foscari University of Venice about his recently released book 'The Palestinian Left and Its Decline: Loyal Opposition'. We go through the recent history of the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine, or PFLP, from 1982 to 2007. We go through its complicated role(s) in various Arab countries and even more complicated relationship with other Palestinian groups, especially the PLO, as well as some lessons to draw from this group's experience. As with all conversations I have, this one was intended to be broader than its specific topic. Hopefully by the end of this episode you will have a basic understanding of: the PFLP's history, tensions within the Arab left, the role of Israel and the Assad regime in destroying parts of the Arab left, and even a brief comparative analysis of the Egyptian communist movement and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). I even made a loose comparison between the experience of the PFLP and that of the Free Syrian Army just to challenge my guest, include a more comparative analysis in our conversation, and to let him expand on what he called 'the opposition-integration dilemma'. If you like what I do, please consider supporting this project with only 1$ a month on Patreon or on BuyMeACoffee.com. You can also do so directly on PayPal if you prefer. Patreon is for monthly, PayPal is for one-offs and BuyMeACoffee has both options. f you can't donate anything, you can still support this project by sharing with your friends and leaving a review wherever you get your podcasts! The Fire These Times is available on Apple Podcasts, Anchor, Breaker, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Radio Public, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Castro and RSS. Music by Tarabeat.

LOOSE TRANSCRIPTGood morning and welcome to another episode of Alternative News on 3CR, 855AM, 3CR Digital and streaming at 3CR.org.auThis show is produced by the Campaign for International Development and Disarmament on the stolden lands of the Wurundjeri people. Today we're going to look at Job Keeper by the numbers, some ideas for redirecting military spending to social spending and a quick look at sanctions on Syria.----Coronavirus at home----States are beginning to roll out the legislature to enforce the eviction moratorium which was proposed by the nation cabinet earlier this month.Victoria has put aside 500 million dollars to assist landlords during the pandemic. Renters in dire straits can apply to have $2000 given straight to their landlord as long as the renter has less than $5000 in savings and rent makes up at least 30% of their income.This is another example of the poor and marginalised not being allowed to have savings. This is something which disability activists have been bringing to our attention for a long time. It is now that "ordinary Australians" - apologies for the loaded and exclusionary term - are seeing the truth of the situation.Anecdotal reports of an increase in experienced racism from ethnically Asian people - check in on your mates, let them know you're paying attention.Trades Hall has launched wearerenters.org.au and the IWW-organised Rent Strike struggles along. wearerenters.org.au is collecting stories about renting during the time of COVID-19. These stories will be used to inform the approaches to the government from the union sector. So far the Victorian Trades Hall Council has sent a letter to Marlene Kairouz, the Victorian Minister for Consumer Affairs calling for immediate action to protect residential renters in Victoria. "We simply cannot expect all tenants to be able to negotiate a fair solution" in reducing their rent burden, VTHC Secretary Luke Hilakari writes, "Instead, agents should be brokering the waiving or reduction of rent where workers have lost income as a result of the current pandemic, advising tenants and landlords of the no eviction policy and assisting landlords to access mortgage relief."and members of our community.Îigrant workers, temporary visa holders and casuals who do not meet the current requirements for the Job Keeper payment are at the highest amount of risk in this time. "Having a home is a key to staying safe. It's time to make renters safe in their homes." Education Minister Dan Tehan told international students, “you are our friends, our classmates, our colleagues and members of our community.” Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said "We have a responsibility as a ciountry to look after our fellow Australian regardlerss of their age, regardless of their income, regardless of their background." This he says while a million casual workers are left out of Job Keeper and migrant workers are left out of Job Keeper AND Job Seeker. The "Australian" part of the quote is the important part. Frydenberg doesn't think that Australians have any obligation to people who work and pay tax here but don't enjoy the status of Australian citizen.Let's take Job Keeper: $1,500 / fornight BEFORE tax. $3k per month, roughly. The projected costs are $133bn. This works out to $18k per eligible recipient over the 6 month term. this is about 7.4 million workers. Currently there are 2.2mil workers missing out on JK. To provide JK for them, assuming none of them can access Job Seeker, which is not correct, but for the sake of the exercise we will calculate a higher figure than in reality, would cost a futher $40bil. For a estimated projected cost of $173bil we could provide JK to just under 10 million workers. Yes, this would mean the economy takes more of 'a hit' or whatever - but this money is social spending: the great majority of this money goes back into the economy in the form of subsistence spending - food, clothing, shelter etc. The people, as a whole, bear the brunt of this spending into the future and this increased cost is managed by whatever government is in power. The alternative is we have increased poverty, deprivation and division between the Australian "haves" and the migrant "have nots" in society.This division is imposed in economics by an uncaring ruling class. If we want some extra money let's scrap the expansion to the $1.1bil expansion to the Tindal Royal Australian Airforce base in the Northern Territory. This expansion only exists to appease the United States of America. We're paying for the US to house their strategic bombers in our country. Let's nix the $80bil submarine project. It is already subject to delays and the first submarines aren't projected to be delivered until 2035. Fifteen years of waiting for some war toys for the boys? War toys which are largely constructed and maintained in France by the French Naval Group? No, I think not. Let's have less poverty, less homelessness, less precarity in our communities RIGHT NOW. If we want a better Australia then the people inside Australia's borders must be accounted and provided for.When the depression hits, when our lives are shit for ten years because the ruling class couldn't push the desires of the market below the capacity for the state to accomodate its populace we won't be able to eat submarines or use them to bolster our economy. A $40b provision to provide JK to 2.2mil workers is a drop in the bucket of the response to coronavirus. This drop in the bucket feeds, waters and homes 2.2 million people, rather than , in the case of the submarines, representing 50% of the cost of the design and construction of 12 submarines by the French. The penny pinching must stop. Military expenditure must be shifted to social expenditure.I don't believe the cost of our national debt is greater than the cost of the impoverishment of our nation's working class. 10% of military spending should redirected to social spending. This is a demand which applies outside of crisis. During the current crisis we need more social spending, not more bombing platforms.If there is a "war" on coronavirus - if the essential workers are "heroes" then we need to stop imagining that we're also at a war with certain countries in West Asia - notably Iran. Obviously, we wouldn't be messing around sending our ships and aircraft to Gulfs in the middle east if we weren't obsessed with playing deputy sherrif for the United States of America. If Australia is a sovereign nation then we should be able to tell the US 'no'. A brief look at our history shows the ruling class of our country to be incapable of this.The idea of national security extends beyond the military interests of the state. National security should start with the interests of the people of a nation. The interests of the people of Australia are not the interests of the ruling class of Australia. Our interests do not lie in the purchase of F-35 Joint Strike fighter jets or murdering civilians in Afghanistan. Our interests lie in knowing that we have a stable roof over our heads during the pandemic. There cannot be a secure state if there are not secure people who reside under the state. If the people are insecure then why would they support the goals of the state?Please reflect on this in your own time.Refugee Action Collective Car Convoy fines and charges:CICD calls for the 26 $1652 fines for breaking stage 3 restrictions to be waived and the charges levelled against protest organiser Chris Breen to be dropped. The stage 3 restrictions imposed by the state are being enforced arbitrarily to shut down political activity by the people.Sinophobia and coronavirus:----Comments sections of social media - the people are enamoured with USA media,claims of "Wuhan" "CCP" and "China" virus. CICD members, as dedicated anti-imperialists, should push back against these claims. Anti-Chinese sentiment has no place in our analysis of our govts response to the virus. The speculation around the idea that the virus was manufactured and intentionally or unintentionally released are distractions.To conclude this segment I am proud to announce CICD's 'Clown of the week' The Committee for the Present Danger: ChinaThis cold-war era body has been resurrected by alt-right darling Steve Bannonand neo-con Frank Gaffney. This is one of the sources of the anti-Chinatalking points we're hearing from our governments."There is no hope of coexistence with China as long as the Communist Party governs the country. We seek China’s peaceful evolution into a nation that respects the rule of law and individual human rights, instead of threatening its own people, as well as others." (guiding principles) [clown noises throughout] China is a signatory to the covenant of economic human rights, whereas the USA, UK and Australia and the rest of the West are signatories to the covenant of civil and political human rights. The civil and political human rights covenant is good in that anyone can come on 3CR and insult the government over its lack of provision of afforable housing which has produced a homelessness crisis in the "lucky country". The economic covenant is good in that it provides homes. From the above quote we can see that this "independent and non-partisan" think tank which purports to take "no idological point of view" in fact will only rest when the CPC has been removed from power in the PRC. In short, this organisation is a regime-change proponent. War----In this time of global crisis the need for the end to war continues. On the 23rd of March the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for a global ceasefire.Continuing war will hinder the health response to the coronavirus and the economic recovery to the same. On the topic of war we turn toSanctions in the time of COVID-19----It is the CICD's position that sanctions are designed to promote the full extent of US foreign policy and on that basis all sanctions should be lifted, forever. During the time of COVID-19 this demand increases in necessity. The death-toll in Iran was 5,391 at the time of writing while the US blocks medical devices and equipment from getting to Iran. US Sanctions have exacerbated the impact of coronavirus on Iran.Sanctions of Venezuela are smashing the state's capacity to respond to coronavirus as oil prices plunge thanks to the US's fracking industry refusing to reduce production - another example of toxic US execptionalism.For the past 9 years the US, EU and a raft of other countries including Australia have imposed and increased the serveity of sanctions on Syria, ostensibly to force Bashar Al-Assad's hand and somehow have him dissolve the government of Syria. The sanctions are aimed at forcing regime change - as they are wherever they are applied. What sanctions actually do is impede aid and harm the populace of Syria. This immiserates the people and causes great social harm. Some of the generated unrest is levelled against the incumbent government, sure, we can see this in the membership of the Free Syrian Army as well as Al Nusra Front and ISIS. We must remember: the enemy of my enemy is not my friend and this applies to everyone. So, Al-Assad's enemies in Syria are not our friends here in Australia or the friends of the United States- they are, in many cases, terrorists who despise the West as well as the Syrian government.For clarity I want to add that Assad is no enemy to the people of Australia. The line that alleged rights violations can be addressed with sanctions is a political lie designed to deceive the naive. Embarrassingly the lie seems to be effective. CICD condemns the sanctions levelled against Syria.---[Presenter signs off]

Four years ago, when Donald Trump was elected President, many of you were shocked. Many wondered, “Where did we go wrong?” Today, I interview author and journalist Max Blumenthal about his book Management of Savagery. Max painstakingly details the foreign policy decisions made during the cold war in the 1970s, and maps the ripple effects of these decisions that has lead us to this path of regime change wars, empire, Islamophobia and bloodstained episodes of blowback.Excerpt from Management of SavageryIsrael’s ISIS ConnectionWhile Washington’s Gulf-funded think tank experts spun out public relations for the allies of Al Qaeda, ISIS found defenders in Israel. At the Likud Party-linked Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, its director Efraim Inbar promoted the IslamicState in Syria as a boon to Israel’s strategic deterrence. In an op-ed entitled “The Destruction of Islamic State Is a Strategic Mistake,” Inbar argued, “The West should seek the further weakening of Islamic State, but not its destruction.”Instead, he insisted, it should exploit ISIS as a “useful tool” in the fight against Israel’s true enemy, Iran and its proxy, Hezbollah, which operates on Israeli frontiers from southern Lebanon. “A weak IS is, counterintuitively, preferable to a destroyed IS,” Inbar concluded. Inbar went on to argue for prolonging the conflict in Syria for as long as possible on the grounds that extended sectarian bloodshed would produce “positive change.”As bracing as it might have been, Inbar’s argument provided a perfect distillation of the Israeli government’s position on the Syrian civil war. “In Syria, if the choice is between Iran and the Islamic State, I choose the Islamic State,” Israel’s former defense minister, Moshe Ya’alon, bluntly stated in 2016. Eager to see an Iranian ally weakened from within and without, the Israeli army occasionally bombed in support of the rebels operating around the southern city of Quneitra and attacked Damascus several times.The end goal of the Israelis was to establish a buffer zone between itself and Hezbollah, with Sunni Islamists, including Al Qaeda affiliates, acting as its proxies. A rebel commander revealed to the US news outlet Al-Monitor,“The battle to capture Quneitra on Sept. 27 [2014] was preceded by coordination and communications between Abu Dardaa, a leader of Jabhat al-Nusra [Al Qaeda], and the Israeli army to pave the way for the attack.” Benjamin Netanyahu greeting injured Rebel FighterThe Israeli military-intelligence apparatus even funded its own unit of the Free Syrian Army, the Golan Knights. “Israel stood by our side in a heroic way,” Moatasem al-Golani, a spokesman for the Golan Knights, told the Wall Street Journal,“We wouldn’t have survived without Israel’s assistance.” In 2016, Israel established a liaison unit to support the efforts of the rebels in southern Syria, according to journalist Nour Samaha, “facilitating cross-border travel for residents into Israel, regular deliveries of food, clothing, construction equipment and educational materials, airstrikes on pro-government positions and the establishment of an Israeli-backed opposition faction in rebel-held southern Syria.”When journalist Bryan Bender visited top Israeli military officials in the occupied Golan Heights, he heard unapologetic arguments for supporting Al Qaeda and ISIS against the Syrian government, Iran and Hezbollah. “If I can be frank, the radical axis headed by Iran is more risky than the global jihad one,” said Army Brigadier General Ram Yavne, the head of the IDF’s Strategic Division. “It is much more knowledgeable, stronger, with a bigger arsenal.” When Bender asked another Israeli official if the United States should allow ISIS to maintain its caliphate in eastern Syria, he replied, “Why not?”While Israeli military honchos took satisfaction from the bloodshed of Syria’s civil war, ISIS commanders tiptoed around the Israeli military. During a public forum in Israel, the ever-candid former minister of defense, Ya’alon, revealed that an ISIS cell operating alongside the rebels in southern Syria had accidentally launched a mortar into Israeli-controlled territory. “On most occasions, firing comes from regions under the control of the regime,” Ya’alon commented. “But once the firing came from ISIS positions—and it immediately apologized.”Pushed by Israeli media to clarify his statement about ISIS formally apologizing to Israel—an open admission of an Israeli backchannel to the jihadists—Ya’alon refused further comment.In Washington, meanwhile, top officials in the Obama administration, including Hillary Clinton, kept their complaints about the channels of state support to ISIS and other jihadist rebel factions confined to private discussions. There was a lot to lose in venting their frustrations in public, including the massive donations their own political operations received from the very same sources.When Hillary Clinton left the State Department in late 2013, she immediately joined the board of the Clinton Foundation. The New York-based nonprofit touted its charitable good works around the world, from making AIDS medication more affordable to “working toward a world where more girls and women can achieve full participation in all aspects of life.” At the same time, the Clinton Foundation raked in between $10 and $25 million from the government of Saudi Arabia, and as much as $5 million from a front group called “Friends of Saudi Arabia.” Tens of millions more flowed into the Clinton foundation coffers from Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.All along, Clinton knew that the major donors to her family’s vehicle for charity and influence peddling—a key platform for her forthcoming presidential campaign—were propping up ISIS and Al Qaeda in Syria. In a 2014 email to her longtime political confidant John Podesta, Clinton singled out Qatar and Saudi Arabia as the principal benefactors of the Islamic State. “While this military/para-military operation is moving forward,” she wrote, citing Western and US intelligence sources, “we need to use our diplomatic and more traditional intelligence assets to bring pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups in the region.”Vice President Joseph Biden was even more explicit. Discussing the challenges facing America in Syria, he stated, “Our biggest problem is our allies.” Singling out Turkey and Saudi Arabia, Biden complained at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government in October 2014, “They were so determined to take down Assad and essentially have a proxy Sunni–Shia war; what did they do? They poured hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad. Except that the people who were being supplied were Al-Nusra and Al Qaeda and the extremist elements of jihadis coming from other parts of the world.”Biden’s candid comments were immediately labeled as a “gaffe” by the Washington Post’s Adam Taylor, who grumbled about the “worrying habit of lumping al-Qaeda’s al-Nusra Front in with Islamic State.” For daring to give credence to what was already widely known, Biden was forced to embark on the equivalent of an international apology tour the same month, issuing “a formal clarification” to Turkey’s Erdoğan and thanking Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister for his country’s supposed cooperation in the fight against ISIS. After Biden’s pathetic retreat, scarcely anyone in Washington, whether in government, the world of think tank experts, or in the press corps, dared to openly confront America’s core Middle Eastern allies for their backing of Al Qaeda and ISIS.Besides Saudi Arabia and Qatar, there was ample evidence that Turkey was taking a lead role in fueling Islamist militancy in Syria’s north. A leaked 2015 report from the Turkish Gendarmerie General Command found that lorries filled with heavy weapons had been sent by the Turkish intelligence services to resupply al-Nusra. “The trucks were carrying weapons and supplies to the al-Qaeda terror organization,” the report read. The government of Turkish president Erdoğan promptly banned all media coverage of the scandal and placed the soldiers who carried out the searches on trial for espionage.A twenty-nine-year-old Lebanese American named Serena Shim had been reporting on these developments on the Turkish border for Press TV, the Iranian government’s English language channel. She was among the first correspondents to cover the transfer of arms from the Incirlik US air base in Turkey to insurgents in Syria. Her sister, Fatmeh, told local media in her hometown of Detroit, Michigan, that Shim “caught [Turkish intelligence] bringing ISIS high-ranked members into Syria from Turkey into camps, which are supposed to be Syrian refugee camps.” Shim began to fear for her life, complaining that Turkish intelligence considered her a spy. “I’m hoping that nothing is going to happen, that it’s going to blow over,” she told Press TV, the Iranian network, on October 18.Turkey-backed FSA capture the city of Afrin in Syria.One day later, Shim died in a car accident. The story of her death was buried, with no acknowledgement from Reporters Without Borders or the Committee to Protect Journalists. American media scarcely covered it at all. Press TV said the car that she died in and its driver had disappeared. Her family never accepted the official version of events and has pressed in vain for an investigation….If you enjoyed this excerpt:Max Blumenthal is the host of the show Moderate Rebels and also the editor of The Gray Zone. Get full access to Historic.ly at historicly.substack.com/subscribe

In mid-Jan of this year, videos emerged of Syrian fighters inside Libya. They were quickly identified as members of the Free Syrian Army, a loose umbrella of local Syrian rebel militias, who now operate under the wing of Turkey's military, and have become a kind of de facto mercenary force on its behalf. But while the Syrians fight on Turkey's orders to defend Tripoli, many of those they are fighting against aren't actually Libyan either. They are Sudanese and Russian mercenaries who have been ordered to spearhead the offensive on Tripoli by Haftar. Al Bawaba spoke with Jalel Harchaoui, an analyst with the Netherlands-based Clingendael Institute, on how exactly the Libyan conflict mutated into the form it has taken, and how successive failures in the international community is enabling it to continue and expand.

In Episode 41 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg warns that the Turkish aggression in northern Syria holds the risk of an Arab-Kurdish ethnic war. But he recalls the inspiring moment in 2014 when the Kurds and Free Syrian Army were united in a common front against Assad and ISIS. This alliance was exploded by imperial intrigues. The FSA, under military pressure from Assad, accepted Turkish patronage—and Turkey is bent on destruction of the Kurdish autonomous zone. Now, under pressure from Turkey, the Kurds have made an alliance with Assad—who the Arab-led opposition have been fighting for eight brutal years. In the brief "ceasefire" now declared, it is urgent that progressives around the world raise a cry against the Turkish aggression—but with a single standard, also opposing the ongoing Russian and Assadist war crimes. Listen on SoundCloud, and support our podcast via Patreon. Production by Chris Rywalt We are asking listeners to donate just $1 per episode via Patreon. A total of $30 per episode would cover our costs for engineering and producing. We are currently up to $25. https://www.patreon.com/countervortex New episodes will be produced every two weeks. We need your support.

21WIRE's Patrick Henningsen joins host George Galloway in-studio for Episode #17 of "The Mother of All Talkshows" – discussing the latest in U.S. politics and global affairs, including the biggest story of the last week, Trump's decision to withdraw U.S. forces from northeastern Syria. You have to look back at previous administrations to find out where to start looking at this problem. There's an extraordinary continuity of foreign policy that goes from administration to administration. Donald Trump is threatening to upend the Syria project slightly but not completely. And if you look back at John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama – they helped to build the Free Syrian Army, to militarize them, and to send them weapons and support. Now, that job has changed. They're working for Turkey. George and Patrick discuss and take listener calls during the first hour of the program. Watch here: https://21w.co/moats-13Oct2019

21WIRE's Patrick Henningsen reporting from Beirut, Lebanon joins Fault Lines Radio hosts Garland Nixon and Lee Stranahan on Monday morning DC drive time: A lot of Americans are marinated in a set of mainstream media ‘facts’ — that somehow the Kurds have a nation-state located in Syria. They’re not even a majority in northeastern Syria, where the US is currently occupying alongside the so-called ‘Syrian Democratic Forces', that are basically Kurdish YPG militia who’ve been given a patch on their uniform that says ‘SDF’ and loads of weapons and money by the US. The Kurds wouldn’t be massacred by the Syrian government. That’s just preposterous. And they wouldn’t be massacred by ISIS, if the Syrian Army was allowed in with the Russians and also the Iranian militia and Hezbollah – who would pretty much wipe them out within about a month. This would also force the Kurdish separatists, if there are any real separatists there, to negotiate with Damascus and come to some sort of arrangement. That’s the reality on the ground. Turkey’s had a long-running plan of setting up ‘safe zones’ with the US in Syria, for refugees. It’s Turkey wanting to basically cleanse its hands of the refugee problem; when in fact, Turkey helped create the refugee problem by backing the so-called rebels in Syria since 2011. And they’re still using remnants of the Free Syrian Army as their shock troops in places like Afrin, Idlib and Jarabulus. So, Turkey is actually directly responsible for the proliferation of militants. They’ve also been implicated with letting ISIS traverse their border back and forth. Patrick also covers briefly the current situation in the UK with Boris Johnson and Brexit, as well as the latest on 'Ukrainegate' and the real election meddling that took place in 2016. *** Listen to Fault Lines Radio LIVE on Radio Sputnik: MON-FRI | 7-10 AM ET | 105.5 FM & 1390 AM in DC | CALL-IN: 202-521-1320 | Watch on twitter.com/FaultLinesRadio and YouTube This segment was clipped from the October 7, 2019 live broadcast: https://21w.co/faultlines-7Oct2019 

Daily News Brief for Monday, March 18th: *)Australian police raid homes near terrorist's hometown Australian counter-terrorism police have raided two homes with possible links to Friday's attacks in Christchurch. At least 50 people died in the terrorist attack on two mosques. The New Zealand police believe there was the only gunman. But they are working with Australian police to see whether he had support. New Zealand's prime minister says gun laws will be changed because of the attack. *)Ethiopia says crashed jet's black boxes show similarities to Lion Air disaster The crash of an Ethiopian Airlines plane that killed 157 people had "clear similarities" with the Lion Air crash in Indonesia last year. That's according to Ethiopia's transport ministry. It follows initial analysis of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 black boxes from the Ethiopia crash. One focus of the investigation is on the new flight control system in the MAX jets, and possible flaws. *)US denies it's leaving up to 1,000 troops in Syria The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the US plans to leave up to 1,000 troops in Syria following a pullout ordered by President Trump last year. However, the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff says the report is not true. The US has angered its NATO ally Turkey by backing the YPG terror group in Syria. *)Anniversary of Afrin's liberation from the PYD/PKK Staying with Syria, and it's been a year since Turkish troops and their allies freed Afrin from the PYD/PKK terror group. The PYD/PKK and YPG are different names for the same terror group. Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch with the Free Syrian Army in January last year to drive the YPG/PYD/PKK and Daesh from Afrin. And finally, *)104th anniversary of Canakkale Turkey is today marking the 104th anniversary of a key World War One victory. It's called Canakkale in Turkish, and Gallipoli by the allied forces the Ottoman Empire defeated in the 1915-16 battle. It was a key turning point in Turkey's history and played a role in the formation of the republic in 1923.

In Episode 23 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg notes the assassination of Raed Fares, a courageous voice of the civil resistance in besieged Idlib province, last remaining stronghold of the Syrian Revolution. The resistance in Idlib, which liberated the territory from the Bashar Assad regime in popular uprisings seven years ago, is now also resisting the jihadist forces in the province, expelling them from their self-governing towns and villages. Their hard-won zones of popular democracy face extermination if this last stronghold is invaded by Assad and his Russian backers. As Assad and Putin threaten Idlib, Trump's announced withdrawal of the 2,000 US troops embedded with Kurdish forces in Syria's northeast is a "green light" to Turkey to attack Rojava, the anarchist-inspired Kurdish autonomous zone. The two last pockets of democratic self-rule in Syria are each now gravely threatened. Yet with Turkey posing as protector of Idlib, the Arab revolutionary forces there have been pitted against the Kurds. The Free Syrian Army and Rojava Kurds were briefly allied against ISIS and Assad alike four years ago, before they were played against each other by imperial intrigues. Can this alliance be rebuilt, in repudiation of the foreign powers now seeking to carve up Syria? Or will the US withdrawal merely spark an Arab-Kurdish ethnic war in northern Syria? Weinberg calls for activists in the West to repudiate the imperial divide-and-rule stratagems, and demand the survival of liberated Idlib and Rojava alike. Listen on SoundCloud, and support our podcast via Patreon. Music: "Idlib (The Revolution Lives)" by Dylan Connor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5I9Bj2ouLk Production by Chris Rywalt We are asking listeners to donate just $1 per episode via Patreon. A total of $30 per episode would cover our costs for engineering and producing. We are currently up to $13. https://www.patreon.com/countervortex New episodes will be produced every two weeks. We need your support.

We discuss the latest news on religion and atheism in the past week. In order for us to be able to continue the Atheist Republic, we need your help. We think if we reach 100 patrons we'll finally be able to afford all our costs. Help us get there: https://www.patreon.com/atheistrepublic  Watch the video version of this episode on Youtube: https://youtu.be/me8Kp2JfVzk  1. The British singer, once-One Direction member, Zayn Malik, was the celebrity many Muslims especially Pakistani ones, liked to claim as their own because he had a father who was a Pakistani Muslim and his family appears to be Muslim. In an interview to British Vogue, Zayn was asked if he would call himself a Muslim. His reply was, "No, I wouldn't". Some of his fans are canceling him. 2. Pastor Jean Jacob Jeudy, a 48-year-old Texas pastor of the church Walk By Faith International Missionary, was arrested and charged with sexually assaulting a child. He blamed Satan for the charges. He said they are being made through the devil. He was booked Thursday into the El Paso County Jail on a bond totaling $30,000 and was released on bail later that day. 3. Kevin Stitt, an anti-vaxxer and a Republican businessman, got elected as Oklahoma's 28th governor. He beat Democrat Drew Edmondson by 12 points despite never having run for elected office before. He gives all the credit to God. 4. Before the rampage at a bar in Thousand Oaks, California, the mass shooter apparently posted about the uselessness of "hopes and prayers" on Facebook. Ian David Long, a 28-year-old former Marine who served Afghanistan, shot people at the Borderline Bar & Grill Wednesday night. This was his post on facebook: “I hope people call me insane… (laughing emojis).. wouldn’t that just be a big ball of irony? Yeah.. I’m insane, but the only thing you people do after these shootings is ‘hopes and prayers’.. or ‘keep you in my thoughts’… every time… and wonder why these keep happening…” His motives are still unknown. On the other news, a mother of the mass shooting victim said that she does not want prayers, she wants gun control. Her son, Telemachus Orfanos was a survivor of another mass shooting in Las Vegas. The mother's message was: “I hope to God no one sends me anymore prayers. I want gun control. No more guns!” – mother of shooting victim Telemachus Orfanos. She says he survived the #LasVegasShooting but did not survive the #ThousandOaksMassacre. 5. The Parkway Playhouse came to Mitchell High School in Bakersville to perform the Shakespeare play on Thursday. A group of parents and pastors were so offended about the presentation that they formed a prayer circle for the students. 6. In the 1990s, Rachelle “Shelley” Shannon shot and injured abortion provider Dr. George Tiller who was later assassinated. Rachelle also committed multiple acts of firebombing and acid attacks against abortion clinics. She was sentenced to more than two decades in prison but now she is free. 7. Friday morning President Donald Trump signed a presidential proclamation that will bar migrants who cross into the US illegally through the southern border from seeking asylum. This would ban migrants from applying for asylum outside of official ports of entry. The American Civil Liberties Union has already called the rule "illegal," and legal challenges are expected to follow. 8. This week the Trump administration issued final regulations that give "conscience protections" for employers that have "religious or moral objections" to providing employees birth control. Under the new rules, businesses, nonprofits, and religious groups have much more flexibility to withhold any form of contraception from their workers, a decision that would primarily affect women. 9. A video showing the brutal killing of a young Syrian girl by her own brother has been released online. She was killed to "bring back the honour" of her family. The video shows a young man, Bashar Bseis, holding a Kalashnikov rifle in hand, pointing at a young girl wearing a scarf and couching on the floor. "Make sure we can see both your faces," a voice orders him. His friend told him, "Go ahead, Bashar - cleanse your honour." Bashar then proceeds to shoot multiple bullets into his sister and watches her die. This was reportedly live streamed on Facebook. The girl had been killed after indiscreet pictures of her were posted on the social media site. Bashar is a member of the Free Syrian Army, with its own police and courts and might never be held to account. 10. In the United States, the fastest-growing religious affiliation is "no affiliation," and it is leading to a major crisis for religious leaders. The report cited a Pew Research poll which found that 36% of younger millennials identify as either atheist, agnostic, or "nothing in particular." The report found that the vast information available through the internet is leading many away from churches, and toward their own personal journeys of spiritual discovery.

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Matt Savoy of The Free Thought Project, one of the pages that was deleted by Facebook, and by Ford Fischer, the founder of the media startup News2Share.Facebook yesterday censored and deleted hundreds of pages from the website that the company deemed to be part of an entirely American effort to influence the public and to possibly swing votes in the upcoming midterm election. The problem is that the company also deleted dozens, perhaps hundreds, of legitimate pages, including many where progressives get their news. The decision calls into question the role that private companies play in a democratic system.We take a look at political races around the country in the runup to midterm elections in November. Jacqueline Luqman and Abdus Luqman, co-editors-in-chief of Luqman Nation, join the show. If the mainstream media is to be believed, Russian intelligence services, hackers, and internet trolls manipulated social media in 2016 while employees of the Trump campaign colluded with Russian spies to give the country Donald Trump as president. But in an exhaustive new article in Consortium News, Gareth Porter says that narrative simply isn’t true. He says that a report done by the New York Times, which is cited as the definitive piece on this issue, is fundamentally flawed and journalistically irresponsible. Brian and John speak with Gareth Porter. He is a historian, investigative journalist, and analyst specializing in U.S. national security policyAndrew Brunson, an American pastor who has been held by Turkish authorities for two years on terrorism charges, which he has steadfastly denied, was convicted in a Turkish court today, but then immediately sentenced to time served. He left Turkey immediately. Meanwhile, Turkish authorities investigating the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi told the Washington Post that they have video and audio evidence of Khashoggi being detained, tortured, murdered, and dismembered inside the Saudi Consulate. Dr. Gönül Tol, the founding director of The Middle East Institute’s Center for Turkish Studies, joins the show. Syrian rebels appear to be complying with an agreement with Turkey and Russia to withdraw heavy weapons from Idlib and the buffer zone along the Turkish border. The Free Syrian Army already has confirmed that it has withdrawn all tanks and heavy guns from Idlib, the last rebel-held bastion in Syria. Rick Sterling an investigative journalist and member of the Syria Solidarity Movement, joins Brian and John. It’s Friday! So we’ll look at the week’s worst, funniest, and most misleading headlines. Steve Patt, an independent journalist whose critiques of the mainstream media have been a feature of his blog Left I on the News, joins the show.

From Aleppo to Paris. A freelance journalist who posted a video of the evacuation of the Syrian city as Bashar al-Assad's forces took control of it recounts his journey from a war zone to the French capital. In December 2016 the government of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad agreed to a mass evacuation of Aleppo city, which had been under siege for months. The Free Syrian Army and other opposition groups were effectively squeezed out and the United Nations requested that remaining civilians and opposition fighters be allowed to leave. Before the official evacuation, freelance journalist Salah Alashkar posted from his Twitter feed a video of him with Aleppo in ruins behind him. In it he appealed for help for the city's residents, subjected to daily air raids at the hands of Syria’s allies, Russia and Iran. “You have to act now, please” he urged viewers. But nothing changed. A few days later he posted a video of the evacuation. In it he says: "We asked to live in a free and democratic country," the young, blond-haired journalist says, while watching people getting ready to leave. "In a country that is free for everyone. We asked for a free Syria. We asked to remove al-Assad. We don’t want Syria in Assad’s way. We want free Syria. No one supported us or even helped us. And as you can see we are being kicked out of our city. Out of Syria. I will go out of Aleppo …. I will go out of Syria, I don’t want to. I don’t want to leave. Then the camera turns sideways and one assumes Alashkar has left with the others. Fighting Assad Salah Alashkar is not his real name. He was born Karim Serjia, the name he used when he went to study banking at the University in Aleppo. But in 2011, when the first protests in Dar’aa were violently put down, he adopted the new name and joined the opposition fighting to rid Syria of Bashar al-Assad. “They are one family, Assad's family,” he explains in a café in Paris, the city he eventually came to after leaving Syria for Turkey. “They take everything we have …. in Syria you can't speak against all subjects. If you want to talk or [write] about wrong things Assad's family [has done]…you will die or you will [spend] all your life in a prison.” The protests in Dar’aa were violently put down by Assad's forces. Schoolchildren who wrote graffiti calling for freedom and criticising Assad’s family,  were reported by a security worker to officials, then arrested and tortured. The photo of 13-year-old Hamza al-Khateeb, who was tortured to death while in custody, eventually became the poster of the revolution. Wanting to take part in the revolt, Alashkar ("the blond one" in Arabic) left the world of banking and, along with his friends, started a production group “to show the people the revolution”. He hit the streets as a reporter. Ten days in jail In mid-2011 his life took a major turn, one he still hasn’t recovered from. While he was filming a protest on 17 August, “one security [worker] with Assad regime catch me”. Alashkar remained in prison for 10 days. When speaking about those days in prison, Alashkar says he doesn’t want to go into the details. "Horrible things” went on, he says. His family eventually paid a huge sum of money to have him released. “After that I can’t go back to my family house … every day I sleep in a new place. I go to my neighbours, my friends, sometimes I got to another city to sleep.” Because his name was now known to Assad’s forces, he would have been watched and probably rearrested if he went home, so Alashkar began his journey of working and living anywhere and everywhere to report on what was happening and to stay alive. Aleppo divided Eventually Aleppo city was split into two: the east under the Free Syrian Army opposition militias and the west under Assad’s forces. Alashkar’s family remained in the west and he continued to live in the east. “I don’t have [the] choice to come back to my family,” he explains, adding that he chose to continue fighting “to support the revolution”. There he began to work for media outlets such as Agence-France Presse, Qatar's Al-Jazeera, French TV company Arte and others, enabling him to buy necessities. But in 2016 food and other essentials started to become scarce. “Assad regime made a siege east of Aleppo, so at this time it’s not easy to have food and electricity.” During this time he reported on the “many families with many characters, some of [whom] die after”, he explains, struggling to control his emotions. His Twitter feed of this time shows video after video of him begging for help, asking the embassies of Russia and Iran to stop the bombing of east Aleppo. He shows  the ghostly looking city in ruins and the people struggling to maintain their daily routine. Revolution defeated Finally, in December 2016, the United Nations reached an evacuation deal with the Assad regime for all residents and fighters to leave east Aleppo. This was not the outcome people like Alashkar were hoping for. But he had no choice, he had to leave. Unlike the others, however, he couldn’t go to Idlib in northern Syria. “The situation is not good for me because I wrote many articles about radical people, so two kind[s] of people don’t like”, those being Assad’s forces and the Islamists. The only place he could go was outside of Syria. So he crossed into Turkey and, through the help of contacts and Reporters without Borders, was able to claim asylum here in France. “When I left Aleppo, I feeling…I am loser”, explains Alashkar, adding “I am sorry to say that, but the revolution lost.” Without the help of Russia or other allies, he feels, the Assad regime would have been toppled many years ago. But that was then and this is now. Today he finds himself alone in Paris, with his family spread across the Middle East, some still in Syria. Adapting to new culture Life in Paris is not easy for him. Adapting to a new culture and language is always a challenge, let alone when one arrives with no family or friends. “In Aleppo I have more friends, I know every neighbourhood," he points out. "I have my memories still in Aleppo ... I can't speak about all things; it's not all my subjects I can share with my new friends.” Nightmares echoing what he has seen and what he has experienced haunt him; but, with certainty in his voice, he insists that, although it will take time, he will be good again, one day. Having missed out on victory doesn’t mean he has hung up his boxing gloves. “If I have any chance to come back to make a new revolution, I will do [it],” he says. In the meantime he is working on a documentary, Four Lives, which tells his story and those of other characters he encountered during his time in the revolution. It recounts the numerous ways one loses oneself in such a situation. At the start of the revolution there was Karim, and now “the revolution name is Salah. So now I don't care about Karim. I believe Salah, because Salah shared the revolution.”

Mosca alla cabina di regia nel cambio di paradigma degli equilibri mondiali La Russia non consegnerà alla Siria gli S-300: lo ha annunciato Vladimir Kozhin, consigliere di Putin per l’aiuto ai paesi esteri. Thierry Meyssan commenta: “La Russia, che protegge lo spazio aereo, non desidera rendere l’esercito siriano responsabile della difesa dei siti iraniani presenti sul suo territorio”. Mosca non intende dunque farsi trascinare in un conflitto tra Iran e Israele. Meyssan scrive: “Secondo il modo di vedere della Russia, Israele è uno Stato internazionalmente riconosciuto, cui appartengono oltre un milione di cittadini giunti dall’ex Unione Sovietica. Ha diritto a difendersi, indipendentemente dal problema che pongono il furto dei territori palestinesi e l’attuale regime di apartheid. Al contrario, per l’Iran, Israele non è uno Stato, bensì un’entità illegittima che occupa la Palestina e ne opprime gli storici abitanti”. Nello stesso tempo, l’Iran, che in Iraq sta consolidando il corridoio sciita verso Hezbollah, è un alleato a cui deve la Russia molto in Siria. La complessità della situazione è evidente. I nuovi equilibri mondiali dipendono ora dalla saggezza e dalla pazienza con cui si muoverà Mosca, abituata a esaminare i fatti con lo sguardo acuto del lungo periodo.L’Ue preferisce il gas turco. Mosca e Cina guardano al futuro Ankara annuncia l’apertura del gasdottto trans-anatolico TANAP, che dal 12 giugno prossimo porterà il gas dell’Azerbaijan all’Europa, precisamente in Italia, passando per Turchia e Grecia senza attraversare la Russia. Il TANAP fa parte del Corridoio Sud approvato dalla Ue per attenuare la sua dipendenza energetica rispetto alle forniture russe. D’altrocanto, mentre Bruxelles preferisce Ankara a Mosca, quest’ultima riduce le sue forniture agli europei, privilegiando Pechino e l’Asia, cioè il futuro. Senza sottovalutare il fatto che Pechino, come riporta Maurizio Blondet, dopo che Trump ha stracciato l’accordo iraniano sul nucleare e ha ordinato ai satelliti europei di partecipare alle nuove sanzioni, ha aperto una nuova linea ferroviaria tra Teheran e Bayannur, in Mongolia. Pechino accorcia le distanze con i suoi vicini (risparmiando venti giorni rispetto al trasporto commerciale via mare), mentre gli occidentali, e gli europei, le accrescono.In Iraq si consolida il corridoio sciita Sabato 13 maggio si sono svolte le elezioni nazionali in Iraq che hanno visto la vittoria della coalizione sciita Sairoun, formata dal Partito comunista iracheno e i sadristi, movimento guidato dal leader Moqtada al-Sadr. Seconda la coalizione filo iraniana Fatah mentre la coalizione Nasr dell'ex premier Haider al-Abadi e' arrivata solo terza. Bassa l'affluenza al voto, con solo il 44,5% degli aventi diritto. Una fetta di astenuti che probabilmente rispecchia la disillusione dei sunniti. Il nuovo governo dovra' essere formato fra 90 giorni. L'alleanza fra forze sciite e comunisti non e' nuova nel paese. Ma oggi sta ad indicare che gli americani per restare in Iraq sono costretti a collaborare con le milizie sciite filo-iraniane che Israele bombarda in Siria. La Turchia si espande in Siria Nel silenzio generale, la Turchia continua la graduale annessione della provincia nord-occidentale della Siria, dalla città di Jarablus al distretto di Afrin, assieme al Free Syrian Army. Erdogan sta di fatto respingendo le forze curde dell'YPG e le truppe fedeli al governo siriano. Ottiene inoltre il controllo diretto di territori dove rimpatriare i profughi siriani in Turchia e i jihadisti cacciati dalla Ghouta Est e da Homs, che vanno a sostituire la popolazione curda cacciata dalle proprie case. Nelle scuole e' stato introdotto l'insegnamento del turco. Prossimo obiettivo Manbij.La Russia costruisce ponti Al volante di un camion Kamaz, ieri, martedi' 15 maggio, il presidente russo, Vladimir Putin, ha inaugurato il ponte sullo stretto di Kerch, che collega la Crimea con la regione di Krasnodar...sempre in Russia. E che con i suoi 19 km, ha superato il ponte Vasco da Gama sul fiume Tago, in Portogallo, diventando il piu' lungo di tutta la Russia e di tutta l'Europa. Nel Kamaz insieme a Putin, il direttore dei lavori, Aleksandr Ostrovskij; dietro, una colonna di veicoli da costruzione carichi di operai, che hanno reso possibile la realizzazione di quest'opera grandiosa, portata a termine ben sei mesi prima del previsto. In meno di tre anni, quindi, il ponte di Kerch è stato realizzato in condizioni di crisi economica, di sanzioni, di isolamento e di polemiche internazionali. La struttura permette il passaggio di grandi navi con un’altezza superiore a 35 metri, ha quattro corsie di marcia, pensate per il transito di 40 mila auto al giorno, e una sezione ferroviaria, in pratica un vero e proprio ponte parallelo, che sara' consegnato entro il 2019. Inoltre, di fronte alle minacce di sabotaggio provenienti dai nazionalisti ucraini, una brigata marina della Guardia Russa e una rete di idrofoni in grado di rilevare la presenza di terroristi subacquei garantiranno la sicurezza del ponte.Su Gaza scende in campo la stampa di regime A 70 anni dalla fondazione dello stato di Israele e dalla Nakba, la catastrofe del popolo palestinese, il Consiglio di Sicurezza dell'ONU, su proposta del Kuwait, ha convocato una riunione d'urgenza ieri martedi' 15 maggio, dopo che gli Stati Uniti hanno bloccato la richiesta di un'inchiesta indipendente e trasparente sui fatti di Gaza. La dichiarazione, che esprime "indignazione e dolore” non ha raggiunto l’unanimità. Mentre dura è la condanna verso Israele da parte del presidente francese Emmanel Macron, che in una telefonata di ieri a Netanyahu ha ribadito il diritto dei palestinesi alla protesta, la rappresentante USA Nikki Haley ha assicurato che nessuno "agirebbe con più moderazione di Israele”. Haley ha ripetuto le accuse formulate dalla Casa Bianca contro Hamas e ha incolpato la morte dei palestinesi sulle autorità di questo movimento palestinese. Proprio come ha fatto, in Italia, il Corriere della Sera. La Mogherini, da Bruxelles, si limita, per così dire, a invitare ambedue le parti alla moderazione. Nel frattempo si allargano le crepe fra Israele e parte del mondo arabo. In un crescendo di tensione, Erdogan ha definito Netanyahu “il capo di uno stato di Apartheid” e ha ordinato il ritiro dei diplomatici turchi da Israele, mentre Tel Aviv ha risposto ritirando il proprio ambasciatore da Ankara. Ma lo schiaffo principale arriva da Ryjad che non condivide la decisione americana di trasferire l'ambasciata a Gerusalemme e condanna le atrocita' commesse sui palestinesi. Re Salman ha convocato una riunione d'urgenza della Lega Araba per domani, giovedi' 17 maggio. Le criptovalute minaccia per il dollaro? Secondo il Presidente della Federal Reserve di St Louis James Bullard le criptomonete, ed in particolare il Bitcoin, potrebbero diventare una minaccia per l'egemonia del Dollaro. In una intervista concessa alla CNBC ai margini della conferenza Consensus 2018 di New Yorik ha inoltre espresso giudizi lusinghieri sulla tecnologia Blockchain e anche sulle cryptomonete in senso stretto. Infatti ha sostenuto che le cryptomonete potrebbero favorire gli scambi commerciali perchè aiutano ad abbattere i costi di transazione. Sulla tecnologia blockchain invece ha sostenuto che bisogna studiarla attentamente in tutte le sue applicazioni perchè consente di aumentare i livelli di trasparenza del mercato. Sempre a proposito dell'avanzata travolgente della tecnologia blockchain è da segnalare che la società americana REX Shares lancerà entro poche settimane un fondo di investimento per le società che utilizzano la Blockchain e che la contea di Seminole, in Florida, ha deciso di accettare i Bitcoin come mezzo di pagamento delle tasse. Un nuovo sistema finanziaio si sta imponendo minacciando il vecchio ordine incentrato sulle banche centrali.

Mosca alla cabina di regia nel cambio di paradigma degli equilibri mondiali La Russia non consegnerà alla Siria gli S-300: lo ha annunciato Vladimir Kozhin, consigliere di Putin per l’aiuto ai paesi esteri. Thierry Meyssan commenta: “La Russia, che protegge lo spazio aereo, non desidera rendere l’esercito siriano responsabile della difesa dei siti iraniani presenti sul suo territorio”. Mosca non intende dunque farsi trascinare in un conflitto tra Iran e Israele. Meyssan scrive: “Secondo il modo di vedere della Russia, Israele è uno Stato internazionalmente riconosciuto, cui appartengono oltre un milione di cittadini giunti dall’ex Unione Sovietica. Ha diritto a difendersi, indipendentemente dal problema che pongono il furto dei territori palestinesi e l’attuale regime di apartheid. Al contrario, per l’Iran, Israele non è uno Stato, bensì un’entità illegittima che occupa la Palestina e ne opprime gli storici abitanti”. Nello stesso tempo, l’Iran, che in Iraq sta consolidando il corridoio sciita verso Hezbollah, è un alleato a cui deve la Russia molto in Siria. La complessità della situazione è evidente. I nuovi equilibri mondiali dipendono ora dalla saggezza e dalla pazienza con cui si muoverà Mosca, abituata a esaminare i fatti con lo sguardo acuto del lungo periodo.L’Ue preferisce il gas turco. Mosca e Cina guardano al futuro Ankara annuncia l’apertura del gasdottto trans-anatolico TANAP, che dal 12 giugno prossimo porterà il gas dell’Azerbaijan all’Europa, precisamente in Italia, passando per Turchia e Grecia senza attraversare la Russia. Il TANAP fa parte del Corridoio Sud approvato dalla Ue per attenuare la sua dipendenza energetica rispetto alle forniture russe. D’altrocanto, mentre Bruxelles preferisce Ankara a Mosca, quest’ultima riduce le sue forniture agli europei, privilegiando Pechino e l’Asia, cioè il futuro. Senza sottovalutare il fatto che Pechino, come riporta Maurizio Blondet, dopo che Trump ha stracciato l’accordo iraniano sul nucleare e ha ordinato ai satelliti europei di partecipare alle nuove sanzioni, ha aperto una nuova linea ferroviaria tra Teheran e Bayannur, in Mongolia. Pechino accorcia le distanze con i suoi vicini (risparmiando venti giorni rispetto al trasporto commerciale via mare), mentre gli occidentali, e gli europei, le accrescono.In Iraq si consolida il corridoio sciita Sabato 13 maggio si sono svolte le elezioni nazionali in Iraq che hanno visto la vittoria della coalizione sciita Sairoun, formata dal Partito comunista iracheno e i sadristi, movimento guidato dal leader Moqtada al-Sadr. Seconda la coalizione filo iraniana Fatah mentre la coalizione Nasr dell'ex premier Haider al-Abadi e' arrivata solo terza. Bassa l'affluenza al voto, con solo il 44,5% degli aventi diritto. Una fetta di astenuti che probabilmente rispecchia la disillusione dei sunniti. Il nuovo governo dovra' essere formato fra 90 giorni. L'alleanza fra forze sciite e comunisti non e' nuova nel paese. Ma oggi sta ad indicare che gli americani per restare in Iraq sono costretti a collaborare con le milizie sciite filo-iraniane che Israele bombarda in Siria. La Turchia si espande in Siria Nel silenzio generale, la Turchia continua la graduale annessione della provincia nord-occidentale della Siria, dalla città di Jarablus al distretto di Afrin, assieme al Free Syrian Army. Erdogan sta di fatto respingendo le forze curde dell'YPG e le truppe fedeli al governo siriano. Ottiene inoltre il controllo diretto di territori dove rimpatriare i profughi siriani in Turchia e i jihadisti cacciati dalla Ghouta Est e da Homs, che vanno a sostituire la popolazione curda cacciata dalle proprie case. Nelle scuole e' stato introdotto l'insegnamento del turco. Prossimo obiettivo Manbij.La Russia costruisce ponti Al volante di un camion Kamaz, ieri, martedi' 15 maggio, il presidente russo, Vladimir Putin, ha inaugurato il ponte sullo stretto di Kerch, che collega la Crimea con la regione di Krasnodar...sempre in Russia. E che con i suoi 19 km, ha superato il ponte Vasco da Gama sul fiume Tago, in Portogallo, diventando il piu' lungo di tutta la Russia e di tutta l'Europa. Nel Kamaz insieme a Putin, il direttore dei lavori, Aleksandr Ostrovskij; dietro, una colonna di veicoli da costruzione carichi di operai, che hanno reso possibile la realizzazione di quest'opera grandiosa, portata a termine ben sei mesi prima del previsto. In meno di tre anni, quindi, il ponte di Kerch è stato realizzato in condizioni di crisi economica, di sanzioni, di isolamento e di polemiche internazionali. La struttura permette il passaggio di grandi navi con un’altezza superiore a 35 metri, ha quattro corsie di marcia, pensate per il transito di 40 mila auto al giorno, e una sezione ferroviaria, in pratica un vero e proprio ponte parallelo, che sara' consegnato entro il 2019. Inoltre, di fronte alle minacce di sabotaggio provenienti dai nazionalisti ucraini, una brigata marina della Guardia Russa e una rete di idrofoni in grado di rilevare la presenza di terroristi subacquei garantiranno la sicurezza del ponte.Su Gaza scende in campo la stampa di regime A 70 anni dalla fondazione dello stato di Israele e dalla Nakba, la catastrofe del popolo palestinese, il Consiglio di Sicurezza dell'ONU, su proposta del Kuwait, ha convocato una riunione d'urgenza ieri martedi' 15 maggio, dopo che gli Stati Uniti hanno bloccato la richiesta di un'inchiesta indipendente e trasparente sui fatti di Gaza. La dichiarazione, che esprime "indignazione e dolore” non ha raggiunto l’unanimità. Mentre dura è la condanna verso Israele da parte del presidente francese Emmanel Macron, che in una telefonata di ieri a Netanyahu ha ribadito il diritto dei palestinesi alla protesta, la rappresentante USA Nikki Haley ha assicurato che nessuno "agirebbe con più moderazione di Israele”. Haley ha ripetuto le accuse formulate dalla Casa Bianca contro Hamas e ha incolpato la morte dei palestinesi sulle autorità di questo movimento palestinese. Proprio come ha fatto, in Italia, il Corriere della Sera. La Mogherini, da Bruxelles, si limita, per così dire, a invitare ambedue le parti alla moderazione. Nel frattempo si allargano le crepe fra Israele e parte del mondo arabo. In un crescendo di tensione, Erdogan ha definito Netanyahu “il capo di uno stato di Apartheid” e ha ordinato il ritiro dei diplomatici turchi da Israele, mentre Tel Aviv ha risposto ritirando il proprio ambasciatore da Ankara. Ma lo schiaffo principale arriva da Ryjad che non condivide la decisione americana di trasferire l'ambasciata a Gerusalemme e condanna le atrocita' commesse sui palestinesi. Re Salman ha convocato una riunione d'urgenza della Lega Araba per domani, giovedi' 17 maggio. Le criptovalute minaccia per il dollaro? Secondo il Presidente della Federal Reserve di St Louis James Bullard le criptomonete, ed in particolare il Bitcoin, potrebbero diventare una minaccia per l'egemonia del Dollaro. In una intervista concessa alla CNBC ai margini della conferenza Consensus 2018 di New Yorik ha inoltre espresso giudizi lusinghieri sulla tecnologia Blockchain e anche sulle cryptomonete in senso stretto. Infatti ha sostenuto che le cryptomonete potrebbero favorire gli scambi commerciali perchè aiutano ad abbattere i costi di transazione. Sulla tecnologia blockchain invece ha sostenuto che bisogna studiarla attentamente in tutte le sue applicazioni perchè consente di aumentare i livelli di trasparenza del mercato. Sempre a proposito dell'avanzata travolgente della tecnologia blockchain è da segnalare che la società americana REX Shares lancerà entro poche settimane un fondo di investimento per le società che utilizzano la Blockchain e che la contea di Seminole, in Florida, ha deciso di accettare i Bitcoin come mezzo di pagamento delle tasse. Un nuovo sistema finanziaio si sta imponendo minacciando il vecchio ordine incentrato sulle banche centrali.

In this episode, CJ chats with Kassem Eid, who joined the Free Syrian Army after surviving a chemical weapons attack in his home town in 2013. He describes what it’s like living under the brutal Assad regime, and laments how pro-democracy Syrians feel betrayed by the international community.  Please help this podcast by pledging as little as $1/month here: www.patreon.com/channeltherage

Information obtained from Wikipedia and the Official Matthew Schrier website. Matthew B. Schrier is a Jewish American (former) photographer who escaped from al Qaeda. Schrier is from Deer Park, New York, and attended Hofstra University, where he was an English major who also studied film production. He entered Syria with the help of the Free Syrian Army. Schrier captured images of FSA rebels fighting forces of the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. In late December 2012, Schrier was captured by Jabhat al-Nusra, the Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria. He was among a collection of kidnapped American journalists held by Syrian jihadis. He strategically converted to Islam in March 2013 as a survival tactic to get better treatment, a tactic that ended up working.  In July 2013 Schrier became the first westerner to ever escape from al Qaeda.  His story has been covered by multiple media outlets and publications such as: National Geographic, 60 Minutes, the New York Times, FOX News, and CNN. Since returning home, Matthew has devoted himself to working with the US Military to educate American troops about survival after capture by extremists. His book "The Dawn Prayer (Or How to Survive in a Secret Syrian Terrorist Prison): A Memoir" was released April 2018. www.matthewschrier.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/themichaelcalderinshow/message

Hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola interview Jana Nakhal, who is a member of the central committee of the Lebanese Communist Party and an independent researcher. Nakhal recently traveled to Afrin in northwest Syria, which was recently occupied by Takfiri fighters backed by the Turkish army. They have looted, raped women, and targeted and killed Kurdish inhabitants, as well as others. In this interview, Khalek asks Nakhal to describe what she witnessed on her trip to Syria. She talks about how the Takfiri fighters are ex-ISIS or ex-Nusra fighters mobilizing under the banner of the Free Syrian Army. They hate the Kurds. She addresses the silence throughout the world as mass killing and destruction takes place in Afrin with the support of Turkish armed forces. Later in the interview, she outlines the position of the Lebanese Communist Party on Syria and speaks about her identity as someone who was born in Syria and how the LCP has no love for the Syrian regime, which has targeted, tortured, and killed LCP members.

7am intro and acknowledgement of country 702am News: Austin bomber - media neglects to label Mark Anthony Conditt a 'terrorist' because he is white. Palestinian woman Ahed Tamimi jailed for 8 months after slapping Israeli soldier in the face.710am Jacob and Zane Interview Mahmut Kahraman about the invasion and aerial bombing of the Kurdish democratic confederal province of Afrin in North Western Syria (but really it is part of what is historically Kurdistan). A kurdish cultural monument has been destroyed and around 500 civilians killed as Turkish flags and Free Syrian Army flags are placed throughout. An international day of solidarity is happening tomorrow (March 24).730am News: ACTU launches change the rules campaign745am  Jacob and Zane interview Lucho Riquelme from the Latin America Solidarity Network (LASNET) about the upcoming tour of Venezuelan activist Pacha Guzman.Pacha is a member of the Ezequiel Zamora Peasant National Front (FNCEZ) and the Revolutionary Current Bolivar Zamora (CRBZ), a tendency within the United Socialist Party of Venezuela and will be discussing the gains made by the revolutionary movement in Venezuela as well as the challenges faced.755am News: Conflict erupts on Melbourne waterfront between workers and Qube Ports8am activist calendar 8:10am Jacob and Zane interview Rebecca Langley about an upcoming tour of speakers from occupied West Papua. The speaking tour will focus on how Indonesian police and paramilitary units given training and material assistance by Australia have been directly responsible for violent repression and murders of West Papuan freedom fighters and community organisers.

In this episode, CJ speaks with Asaad Hanna, a Syrian activist, former political officer of the Free Syrian Army and media manager for the White Helmets. He not only describes the uninmaginable carnage and human suffering in besieged Eastern Ghouta, but also responds to those who have deploy conspiracy theories to smear aid workers and Syrian revolutionaries. Please help give voice to the voiceless by donating a small amount here: www.patreon.com/channeltherage

Interview with a member of the Youth Movement of Rojava This week, Bursts spoke with Şoreş Ronahi of the Youth Movement of Rojava (Yekîtiya Ciwanên Rojava), an autonomous movement within Tev-Dem, the movement for Democratic Confederalism in Rojava (located within Northern Syria).    Mr Ronahi speaks about the Turkish assaults, aided by ISIS/DAESH forces now flying the so-called Free Syrian Army flag, to attack defense forces and civilians in the Efrînê Canton (also spelled Afrin or Efrin elsewhere).  We talk about the political stance of the Turkish government as relates to Kurdish people within and without the borders of Turkey, with the Social Revolution in Rojava, the shifting U.S. relationship to the YPG & YPJ militias under the control of the PYD administration in Rojava, the Revolution's approaches to engaging and fighting patriarchy and ethnic hatred in Syria and the region and more. As a side note, although Rojava is not an explicitly anarchist project, it is an anti-nationalist, anti-state movement that holds as its pillars ecology, anti-capitalism & feminism and is in part inspired by American former Anarchist turned Communalist, Murray Bookchin. Beyond Bookchin's impact, Bursts personally feels that Rojava adds an IRL experiment in combat and revolutionary organizing that many anarchists have engaged in in the form of the International Revolutionary People's Guerrilla Forces, The Queer Insurrection and Liberation Army, within other elements of the International Freedom Batallions as well as in the PYD administered YPG & YPJ militias on the front lines fighting DAESH. The YPJ soldier that Şoreş mentioned at the end is Avesta Xabûr. For past episodes on #Rojava on this show, check out our conversations with Kurdish feminist Dilar Dirik (pt 1 & pt 2), our conversation with American anarchist Guy McGowan Steel Steward fighting with the YPG (pt 1 & pt 2) and our discussions with anarchist and writer, Paul Z. Simons after his study and visit to Rojava (pt 1, pt 2 & pt 3) The track finish with is Euphonik with the song Y.P.J. from their album, Inconnu Mais Reconnu II. Playlist

Turkish troops and the Free Syrian Army are continuing to advance on YPG positions in northern Syria, as Operation Olive Branch enters its fifth day. Is this the end of US led proxy wars? Peter Galbraith, a former US diplomat who advised the Kurds during negotiations on Iraq's Constitution, joins us from Paris. In Washington DC, Mark Kimmitt, a retired Brigadier General who served as a US spokesman during the Iraq War. Also in Washington we have Christine Fair, a security studies professor at Georgetown University. And in the studio we have Meryem Atlas, the editorial director for Turkish newspaper Daily Sabah.

I have yet to meet Kelly McEvers in real life, but I soon discovered both by listening to her podcast, Embedded and having a conversation with her that she's badass. Kelly McEvers is co-host of All Things Considered, NPR's award-winning afternoon newsmagazine. She hosts the program from NPR West in Culver City, California, with co-hosts Robert Siegel, Audie Cornish, and Ari Shapiro in NPR's Washington, D.C. headquarters.  McEvers was previously a national correspondent based at NPR West. Prior to that, McEvers ran NPR's Beirut bureau, where she earned a George Foster Peabody award, an Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia award, a Gracie award, and an Overseas Press Club mention for her 2012 coverage of the Syrian conflict. She recently made a radio documentary about being a war correspondent with renowned radio producer Jay Allison of Transom.org. In 2011, she traveled undercover to follow Arab uprisings in places where brutal crackdowns followed the early euphoria of protests. She has been tear-gassed in Bahrain; she has spent a night in a tent city with a Yemeni woman who would later share the Nobel Peace Prize; and she spent weeks inside Syria with anti-government rebels known as the Free Syrian Army. In Iraq, she covered the final withdrawal of U.S. troops and the political chaos that gripped the country afterward. Before arriving in Iraq in 2010, McEvers was one of the first Western correspondents to be based, full-time, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In 2008 and 2009, McEvers was part of a team that produced the award-winning "Working" series for American Public Media's business and finance show, Marketplace. She profiled a war fixer in Beirut, a smuggler in Dubai, a sex-worker in Baku, a pirate in the Strait of Malacca and a marriage broker in Vietnam. She previously covered the former Soviet Union and Southeast Asia as a freelancer for NPR and other outlets. She started her journalism career in 1997 at the Chicago Tribune, where she worked as a metro reporter and documented the lives of female gang members for the Sunday magazine. Her writing also has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, Foreign Policy, The New Republic, The New York Review of Books, The Washington Monthly, Slate and the San Francisco Chronicle. Her work has aired on This American Life, The World, and the BBC. She's taught radio and journalism in the U.S. and abroad. McEvers also hosts Embedded, which takes a story from the news and goes deep. What does it feel like for a father in El Salvador to lie to his daughter about the bodies he saw in the street that day? What does it feel like for a nurse from rural Indiana to shoot up a powerful prescription opioid? Embedded (EMBD) takes you to where it's all happening. She lives with her family in California, where she's still very bad at surfing.   To Connect with Kelly: * Twitter: @kellymcevers

Jacob L. Shapiro and Kamran Bokhari make sense of the numerous geopolitical developments that occurred in the world's most volatile region this week. Sign up for free updates on topics like this! Go here: hubs.ly/H06mXwR0 TRANSCRIPT: Jacob L. Shapiro: Hello everyone and welcome to another Geopolitical Futures podcast. I am joined this week by Kamran Bokhari, thanks for joining us Kamran. Kamran Bokhari: Good to be here. JLS: What we're going to do this week is we're going to try and sort out some of the mess that's been going on in the Middle East. It's been a very chaotic week in the Middle East and we thought we'd take a step back and try to explain it to listeners in about 30 or 40 minutes. It's a tall task but we'll see how we go. Kamran, I think the first thing that you might be able to help out with our listeners understanding is understanding a little bit more about the history of Qatar – the history of Qatar's relationships in the region, how it's always sort of been on the outside looking in – but what exactly Saudi Arabia, and the states that Saudi Arabia's convinced to go along with this diplomatic isolation of Qatar, are seeing that upsets them so much. KB: So ever since 1995, when the father of the current emir of Qatar took power, his name was Sheikh Hamad Al Thani, and he actually overthrew his father in '95 and ousted him and took power. Qatar has been on a strange trajectory. I say strange because it's not normal for the Arab world or more specifically the Persian Gulf Arab world, the Khaleejis, to behave in this way. I am referring to an openness for lack of a better term. I mean Al Jazeera was started by the current emir's father and it became sort of the standard bearer of 24/7 news in the Arab world. That made a lot of traditional Arab leaders, both Republican regimes and of course the monarchies, particularly Saudi Arabia, very, very uncomfortable because it was not the way that they had ran their political economies. There's no concept of having discourse. But to make matters worse this new regime post-1995 began with a very what I would call pragmatic approach to the region. It could afford to do because it is the world's largest LNG exporter, that brings in a lot of money. The population, those who are Qatari nationals, is very small – less than 300,000 people. In fact, there are more expats in that country, which is also true for a number of other GCC states. But in the case of Qatar, what happened is that this allowed for the regime to flirt with all sorts of radical political forces ranging from the Muslim Brotherhood to more radical elements along the Islamist spectrum. And even give air time to what we used to call secular left-wing Arab nationalists and it began a policy of opening to Iran, developing a relationship that was out of step with the GCC consensus, if you will. And steering towards an independent foreign policy. And a lot of people say, Qatar has been punching above its weight when it comes to foreign policy. It's a tiny, little state. But it's been trying to play major league geopolitics. That's a fair assessment. But I would say that the Qataris are cut from a different cloth if we are to compare them to the rest of the Arab regimes. JLS: Yes, although I think one thing that you perhaps left out was that there's a regional headquarters for U.S. Central Command in Qatar and that Qatar is for all intents and purposes it's sort of in the U.S. camp in the region, or generally has been. And that the U.S. has been able to use Qatar at times in order to have unofficial dialogue with some of these groups that are considered beyond the pale for normal political discourse, right? KB: Absolutely, that's important to note that when Qatar is reaching out to these unsavory characters, from the point of view of the region and the international community, it's not doing so in defiance of the West, it's doing so in concert with its great power ally, the United States. And mind you, that base at Al Udeid where the U.S. Central Command has a major hub in the region, in fact, the regional hub is based in Qatar of Central Command, and that happened after 9/11 and the decision of the United States government, the Bush administration, to pull out of Saudi Arabia. There was a huge base in Saudi Arabia, and Qatar offered space so it was just a minor relocation. At the same time, there are relations between the Qatari government and Israel. There are a lot of rumors about the nature of it. Nobody officially denies or rejects it. But it's well known that there's some form of relationship there. So, Qatar has been reaching out to all sorts of entities and Qatar is the one Arab state that also sees eye-to-eye with Turkey in the region. And so it's had a really diversified foreign policy portfolio. JLS: I want to bring it back to Turkey in a minute but I'll just ask one more thing about Qatar which is that you know you've pointed out that they've always been reaching out to these different groups and they've always had a more independent foreign policy. I think that one of the things that we were discussing internally was that it was very hard to read whether Qatar had simply done something that had gone too far beyond the pale for Saudi Arabia or whether this had sort of been planned for a while and that this is really more of a reflection of the Saudis weakening and not being willing to tolerate Qatar breaking ranks. I noticed recently that Qatar actually asked a lot of people from Hamas, who nominally are based in Qatar, to leave. And it seems like Qatar has actually done some things and has been very open to trying to solve of this diplomatic spat, especially in terms of the United States. So do you think that Qatar actually did something, that it flirted with Iran in a serious way, that both Saudi Arabia and even perhaps the United States didn't mind Saudi Arabia sort of dinging Qatar on the head and saying, nah, that's too far? Or do you think that this really has more to do with Saudi Arabia and Saudi Arabia trying to consolidate control at the diplomatic level in the same way that Saudi Arabia wasn't going to tolerate internal unrest in a country like Bahrain in 2011? KB: I think it's the latter. I don't see the Qataris doing anything new. The Iranian relationship has been there, there's more made out of it in terms of the public discourse than there is actually. The whole idea of support for Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, that's old stuff, that's been going along for a long time. I haven't seen anything fresh that would suggest that the Qataris crossed some sort of red line. I think it's a lingering dispute and if we go back to 2014, for the better part of that year, the Saudis and the Bahrainis and the UAE, they downgraded diplomatic relations in that year in the spring. And it was not until the fall that they had an agreement of sorts, which was never made public, but according to the reports Qatar had agreed to scale back its involvement with all these groups and not encourage them to where that damaged the interests of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE and others. And so, I think that that's a long-standing dispute and I think that now Saudi Arabia is getting desperate because things are not going well for Saudi Arabia. And the last thing it wants is one of its own GCC members doing things that undermine its collective efforts. So, number one, and I think this is foremost, is Iran. If you go back to the Trump visit that was like three weeks ago to Riyadh and there was a gala event attended not just by Middle Eastern leaders but also from the wider Muslim majority countries. It was very clear that Saudi Arabia had finally got the United States to where it wants to be. Remember that under the Obama administration, the Saudis had a terrible relationship with Washington. Under Trump, they know think that they now have Washington where they want it to be and they want to move forward in isolating Iran. And Qatari dealings with Iran really poke holes into the Saudi strategy. So, I think that this is a case of the Saudis not being able to take it anymore and saying you know enough is enough. If the Qataris are not behaving, we have to up the pressure to twist their arm. JLS: Yeah and I think this is a move that could really backfire on Saudi Arabia. You already see it backfiring a little bit in the sense that they were able to assemble an impressive coalition of countries in this diplomatic offensive against Qatar, but they have not really been able to extend the diplomatic offensive outside of its immediate vicinity and outside of those countries that are immediately dependent on it. And even some of the other GCC states have not gone along to the same extent that Saudi Arabia and the Emiratis and the others have gone to. But you bring up good points with Iran and Turkey and this is another reason why I think this might backfire on the Saudis, which is because if Qatar is looking at this and if Qatar is trying to establish some kind of independence of action, Saudi Arabia is really on a downward slope. Especially when you consider that oil prices right now are continuing to go down and that Saudi has basically proven ineffective in getting the price of oil to come back up and that really is the source of Saudi power. Qatar, as you said, has a close relationship with Turkey. Qatar as you also said also has a closer relationship with Iran than perhaps any of the other Arab countries in the region. You brought up the specific point of the fact that Qatar and Turkey have seen eye to eye for a while right now. I know that there's a lot of stuff there in terms of the political ideology that both Qatar and Turkey favor that you can shed some light on. So how about you go a little bit more in depth into how Turkey and Qatar see the region in the same way, and what is the way in which they've been trying to reshape the region, not just recently but for many years now? KB: From the point of view of the Qataris, they're not so much in ideological sync with the Islamists, they take a more pragmatic view. Unlike Egypt, unlike Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Arab states, the Qataris say, look, you know we can't dial the clock back. And what do I mean by that is that the Saudis are using tools that used to be effective back in the day, pre-Arab Spring, where there was no opposition of any sorts to the regimes in the region. And Qatar looks at that and says that thing, that tool kit, that approach is useless because it only makes matters worse. Qatar says, look, these forces, the Hamases of this world, the Muslim Brotherhoods of this world, they are a reality and we can't wish them away and we can't suppress them because it only makes matters worse and we need to somehow reach out to them in order for, and this is based on my conversations with Qatari officials over the years, their view is that these are realities and if we don't control them, if we just leave them to their own devices, then they will do things that will undermine the interests of the region and the security of the regimes. So it's sort of flipping the Saudi argument on its head. The Saudis say well you need to keep them under lock and key and that's the way to go. As far as Turkey is concerned, Turkey is more ideologically in tune with the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas because the ruling AKP party comes from an Islamist heritage although it's not an Islamist party, its roots lie in Islamism. So there's a meeting of minds. And Qatar realizes that it's a small country and the rest of the Arab states are not really getting it. And they realize that if there's going to be a counterweight to Iran, it's going to be Turkey. And the Qataris have accepted the fact that the Arabs do not have any intrinsic power of their own in the region and therefore they must piggyback on Turkey and hence that relationship. So it's a convergence of interests and ideas. JLS: Yeah, although I want to push back a little bit because I think you're right that Qatar reaches out to a lot of different groups that other countries in the region and most countries in the world wouldn't do business with, right? But I don't think when it comes to more Muslim Brotherhood-oriented groups that Qatar sees them sort of as redheaded stepchildren that it's going to let into Qatar. I think there, Qatar has actually more of an affinity to some of those groups and has used some of those groups in order to push Qatar's influence throughout the region, which is why I suggested that perhaps Turkey and Qatar see more eye to eye ideologically. Do you think I am taking that too far or would you agree with that assessment? KB: I think that your argument has some merit to it, and actually a lot of merit to it, but when I was saying ideologically I was meaning the ideology of the ruling family or the regime in Qatar. They're not Islamists. They don't share those ideologies. If you go to Qatar you know it's fairly Westernized and it's fairly open and so it's not necessarily Islamist but they see these actors as, what you just said, tools to pursue their foreign policy agenda, to be able to have influence. And in my conversations, I did feel that the Qataris really believe that there is no way around these actors. Qatar has sort of, in a self-styled manner, appropriated this task of bringing reconcilable – what they call reconcilable – Islamists to the mainstream. And so that's also a foreign policy offering that Doha sort of says that this what we can do for the world. And they find reception in circles in Washington. Back in 2013, the United States Department of Defense dealt with certain Islamist factions within the Syrian rebel landscape in order to find common ground because of the fear that we're not going to get secular Syrian nationalists under the banner of the Free Syrian Army. And that was mediated by Qatar. And if you look at the Taliban relationship, clearly that was very openly Qatar helping the United States deal with the Taliban. It didn't go too far because of other complications, but nonetheless, it's a great example of how Qatar is trying to say: this is our value proposition that we bring to this region and to great powers who are stakeholders in this region. JLS: Yes, although the flip side of that is it means Qatar is playing with fire. I mean I really, I was really struck by what you said that the ruling family is not Islamist. But that Qatar thinks of using the Islamist groups as tools in order to develop Qatar's power or to protect Qatar's position. I cannot think of a more secular entity that used Islamists that didn't have the Islamists come back to bite them in the end. We have seen over and over and over, whether it was the United States, whether it was Saudi Arabia, whether it was Turkey, it doesn't really matter if the country itself was Muslim or if it's Western or not. It's very, very difficult to control Islamist groups once they get going. So the idea that Qatar is going to be able to use these Islamist groups when they want to use them and is not going to face backlash from them, especially because Qatar is playing such a dual game and is really dealing with all sides. It seems to me that that's, I don't want to say shortsighted and I don't even say it's not going to work. I just can't think of another example of that actually working in the long term for a country's foreign policy. Can you come up with any examples? KB: I can't, and you are absolutely right. I mean this is almost like they are holding up and trying to balance two parallel universes. And it's difficult. But I think that, if we look at it geopolitically, from their point of view, they have no other choice. They have to do this and I think what gives them a bit of hope is that they're a small country. They have enough money to where people don't indulge in politics so this is not going to undermine them domestically anytime soon. But yes, for the region, this could all blow up in their face. And I actually believe that it will. Because there's just no way, given the scale of chaos in the region, that somehow the Qataris will be able to fine tune these Islamist proxies to where they will live in a Muslim democracy of sorts. I just don't see that happening. So you are absolutely right. I don't disagree with that. I was just trying to explain the perspective of the Qataris. JLS: Yeah, but that also explains the perspective of not just the Saudis but even the Emiratis and Bahrain and some of these other groups, for whom, they see Qatar messing around with the Islamists and are sort of asking themselves what on Earth are you doing? We've already seen what happens when we mess with these things and now is a time to close ranks and tighten up against this, not to invite them into our own space. But that's a good segue way into a second… KB: I just want to point out one thing and for our listeners, the UAE making this case is more genuine. But the Saudis accusing the Qataris of doing this is like the kettle calling the pot black or vice versa. The Saudis are still playing with this fire, so they don't have the argument. So yes, they are not with Hamas, they're not with the Muslim Brotherhood, but they are the biggest exporter of Salafism and jihadism on the planet. JLS: Yes, and it's a good segue way into you know sort of the other major developments that have been changing things in the Middle East this week, which is ISIS, which Saudi Arabia you know you can't directly prove that they had a role in helping ISIS develop, but certainly Saudi Arabia and some of the groups that it was funding and some of the things that it was doing when it was involved in Syria supporting different proxies, had a role in the Islamic State coming to the prominence that it has. But you know we saw two major things from the Islamic State this week. We saw, first of all, that the Islamic State is finally coming under some serious existential pressure in its self-declared caliphate. Raqqa has really been the capital and center and focal point of ISIS operations, but you've got the Syrian Democratic Forces, who are made up mostly of Syrian Kurds under the YPG group (there are so many acronyms here that it's sometimes hard to keep track of) but we'll say the SDF, those are the Syrian Kurds and they are U.S. backed, and then we've also seen, surprisingly, the Syrian army has been moving on multiple fronts to get closer to Raqqa. The result of all this is that the Islamic State's position in Raqqa is pretty weak and we've seen them pulling back and we've seen some relative successes for the U.S.-backed forces as they get closer to the city. That was one major development we saw this week. And then the other major development was really the unprecedented IS attack they claimed in Iran. So, I want to tackle both of those things. Maybe let's start with the second one first because I know you were looking at this very closely. Talk about why this is such a big deal and why this isn't just another ISIS terrorist attack in the region. What are the greater implications of ISIS hitting Iran the way that they did? KB: I would begin by saying that this is not something that ISIS just sort of said – oh, well I want to attack Iran tomorrow and let's do it. This is something that speaks to the sophistication, especially as an intelligence entity, of ISIS. The Islamic State has been cultivating these assets for a while, and not just in Iran. We see this happening in as far-flung areas as the Philippines as well. So this is something that's been in the works for a while. They've devoted a certain amount of resources to this project. I suspect that over the years that they've been based in Iraq and they've had proximity to Iran that they were cultivating this. And they saw an opening in Kurdistan, and I am talking about the Iranian province of Kurdistan, and there's more than one province where Iranian Kurds live and they're mostly Sunni and over the years what I've learned is that is Salafism and even jihadist ideology has made its way into the Iranian Kurdish community. And the Kurds are, there's an alienation that they feel, as an ethnic community as well, from Tehran and there is this sort of deep resentment that ISIS really exploited and was able to set up at least this cell. I suspect that this isn't just one cell. There are probably others that ISIS has in its tool kit and will activate at some point in the future, so this is not the last attack in Iran. But what is significant is that Iran is not an Arab state. One of the biggest sectors of the Iranian state is the security sector. There are multiple organizations that deal with security. You know in my visit to Iran, I noticed these guys working firsthand, and they're obsessed with security. They're obsessed with security because they fear Israeli penetration, U.S. penetration, Saudi penetration and so this is not an open, if you will, arena where ISIS could just jump in and say, you know, we're gonna send in suicide bombers. It had to do a lot of work to be able to penetrate that and that speaks to ISIS' capabilities and sophistication. As for the implications, I mean look, ISIS has gamed all of these things out. We tend to look in the open sources, when you read stuff there is this assumption that somehow these are all sort of disconnected attacks that are not linked to some strategic objective. And at Geopolitical Futures, that's what we talk about is, we can't look at events as sort of randomly taking place or taking place as some entity hates another entity. There is a strategic objective. The strategic objective of ISIS is to, a) survive, especially now that it's under pressure, that you just mentioned. You know it's in the process of losing Raqqa. It'll take a long time, but that process has begun. At the same time, so there's that threat but there's also an opportunity. The opportunity is that the sectarian temperature in the region is at an all-time high and this would explain the timing of this attack. ISIS would like nothing more than for Iran and Saudi Arabia to go at each other because, a) it gives them some form of respite. You know, they're not the focus, and it undermines the struggle against ISIS. And b) it creates more opportunity for ISIS to exploit. The more there's sectarianism, the more the Saudis go and fight with Iran and vice versa, the more space there is for ISIS to grow. So I think that this attack in Iran has very deep implications moving forward. JLS: Those are all good points and I want to draw special attention to one of the points you made and then ask you to play what you're saying forward a little bit. First thing, I just want to point out is that you were talking about the Iranian Kurds and how they had somehow been radicalized and there was a sense of disenchantment, or disenchantment is probably not even strong enough, but an antagonism with the current regime in Tehran. And I just want to point out that it's very difficult to speak of the Kurds as a monolith. I think often times people say the word the Kurds and they think of you know just all the Kurds in the Middle East and they're all the same. But we really have to think of in terms of – there are Kurds in Iran, there are Kurds in Iraq, there are Kurds in Syria, there are Kurds in Turkey. They have different religious affiliations, different ideological affiliations, sometimes are speaking different languages that are almost unintelligible to each other. So I try very hard in my writing and when I am speaking about these types of things to be very specific about when I am talking about the Kurds and I thought one of the things you did there was you brought up was just how complicated that situation is and that, of course, has relevance throughout the region. We saw that the Iraqi Kurds and the Kurdistan Regional Government are talking about an independence referendum and maybe we can get to that in a little bit. But you gave a really good explanation of why this is extremely important from Iran's perspective. But what do you think Iran is going to do? What response does this mean Iran is going to have to make? What is the next step for Iran both in terms of, you know, Qatar, which it had some sort of relationship with and it can certainly see this diplomatic offensive led by Saudi Arabia as a diplomatic move against Iran, and then second of all this move by ISIS. What are the practical concrete things that Iran is going to have to do to respond here in the next couple weeks? KB: With regards to Qatar, what we have is a situation where its own GCC allies, its fellow Arab states, have shunned Doha. And so Doha right now needs a lot of friends. The United States has not de-aligned from Qatar and joined the Saudi bandwagon, so that's good. It's forging some sort of a relationship today, the Qatari foreign minister is in Moscow, so there's a Russian angle to that as well. We've already talked about Turkey. At this stage, it wouldn't hurt, necessarily, for Qatar to reach out or benefit from Iranian assistance, but it has to be very careful. It doesn't want to do something with Iran or get too close, especially now, and give a bigger stick to the Saudis with which Riyadh can beat Doha. And so, I think from a Qatari point of view, it's essential that they strike a balance when it comes to Iran. Conversely the Iranians, this is a great opening. And they would like to exploit this to the extent that it is possible. But I think that the Iranians are no illusion as to their limitations. They know that – they'll milk this for whatever it's worth. But they're not under the illusion that somehow Qatar will join them and be part of their camp. That's actually taking it too far. I don't think that they can rely on Qatar. But from the Iranian point of view, so long as Qatar is at odds and defying Saudi Arabia, that's good enough. They don't need more from Qatar and they will milk that to the extent that it is possible. As far as ISIS is concerned, I think that there are two things here. One is that both of them will benefit ISIS, both moves that the Iranians make will benefit ISIS. First is that there is an imperative for the government, for the security establishment, to make sure that this doesn't happen again or at least begin to neutralize, before it grows. There's a sizeable Sunni population in Iran. It's not just the Kurds, there's a sizeable Turkmen population in the northeast near Turkmenistan and there are some of the Arabs, not a majority, but a minority of the Arabs in the oil-rich province of Khuzestan, the Ahwazi Arabs as they are called. They are, a minority of them and a significant one, are Sunnis as well. And then you have the big province in the southeast, that's Sistan and Baluchistan, and that province is majority Sunni and ethnically Baluch and already has a jihadist problem and there's cross-border terrorism that takes place where Baluch jihadist rebels go to Pakistan and then you know from there they have a sanctuary that they come in and they strike at the Iranian security forces. They've been pretty successful over the years in killing some very high-ranking IRGC commanders. So from Iran's point of view, this is a lot of vulnerability. So the Sunnis are suspect right now after what happened. I mean it's not easy and I've been to the Khomeini shrine and I can tell you that it's not something, it's not just a cake walk that you can get in there and do all this kind of stuff, let alone parliament. And so from the Iranian point of view, they feel very terrified right now because they used to think they're safe. And this is sort of really a wake-up call for them. So they're gonna go after the Sunnis. The more they go after the Sunnis, the more they are gonna create resentment, not just within their borders, but sectarian tensions are going to rise. And ISIS is going to say, see we told you, and they will have more recruits to go fight the “evil” Iranians and the “evil” Shiites. But at the same time, the Iranians do not think that this is ISIS alone. They deeply believe, at least their security establishment, and I saw a report yesterday where the Iranian intelligence minister was urging caution, saying, let's not jump to conclusions and let's not accuse the Saudis just yet. Let the investigation finish. But the security establishment and the hawks are convinced that there is, even though ISIS is involved, that there is a Saudi footprint in this attack and they'll give you evidence and they'll point to Saudi intent to undermine their country. And so they're gonna go after Saudi Arabia. They're gonna retaliate. It's horrible to predict another bombing, but if a bomb went off inside Saudi Arabia, I would not be surprised that it, you know, Iran somehow retaliated in that shape or form. I am not sure if it will. But I'm just saying that if it does that, then I wouldn't be surprised, because the Iranians, they're not going to just accept this. They have to retaliate and respond. The more they retaliate, they set into motion, they trigger a broader conflict. I am not saying the two sides are going to go to war, but it's going to an ugly proxy battle at least in the immediate future. JLS: In many ways, that proxy battle has already been going on. I think what you are talking about is going to be a real worsening of the situation and unfortunately, that's the way things are going in the Middle East right now. The last thing I want to touch on before we break is the Islamic State, because we've sort of been talking about them in a roundabout way when we talk about all these other issues, but for a long time, the Islamic State, and when I say long time I mean maybe the past two or three years, the Islamic State really has been the center of gravity I think in the Middle East. And I think one of the reasons we're seeing all of these things happening on the periphery is that the force of IS as the center of gravity is actually weakening because IS itself is actually weakening. Now I know that that doesn't mean that ISIS is going to disappear, but I think it does mean that the Islamic State as a strong territorial entity that can threaten some of the different states in the region from a conventional point of view, is actually weakening. So can you talk a little bit about what it means for the Islamic State to have come under such pressure at its capital in Raqqa and what Islamic State's activities are going to look like going forward? We know they're going to pull back a little bit and try and get strength in numbers and some strategic depth but ultimately they are outnumbered and they're outgunned. So they're probably going to have to go back to some tactics of blending back into the population and waiting really for a lot these sectarian dynamics that we're talking about right now to overwhelm the region once more so that they can take advantage of the power vacuum. KB: So I would compare what is happening to ISIS to what happened to the Taliban in Afghanistan after 9/11. They lost the cities, and for a while, they were an incoherent entity, but they weren't decimated or eliminated, they just were lying low. And they were slowly rebuilding themselves. And now they are at a point where – and I would say it's not just now, it's been the case all along, at least since 2003 – that they exist in ungoverned spaces outside the cities. See we have this perception that if you don't hold a city then you're not a serious player. That may be true at one level, but at another level, it just means that you are operating in an area where the good guys can't project power, at least not effectively, and you exist. So I think – I don't see necessarily just ISIS devolving into an insurgent movement or a terrorist organization – I think that the so-called caliphate is going to shift into a rural area. And this is not something that is a setback from an ISIS point of view, because I don't think that ISIS ever believed – I mean it's a serious player and they've been here before, it was not as big as what they have, I mean I'm talking about their holdings, but in Iraq, they have been driven out of cities before. They've been in the desert, in the rural areas, only to come back because the underlying political, economic, social circumstances really don't get addressed and its enemies start fighting with each other, providing the room for ISIS to once again revive itself. I think that it remains to be seen how quickly ISIS can be pushed out of Raqqa, pushed out of Deir al-Zour, into the desert. And even when it does go there, it's going to still have a space and the time to continue its activities, perhaps not as effectively as it has since Mosul. I think that ISIS knew this would come, ISIS did not believe that – you know, now they have Mosul, now they have Raqqa, now they have Deir al-Zour – that they're not going to see reversals. I think theirs is a very long game and they will go back and forth. And so I think that we need to be cautious when we talk about progress against ISIS. JLS: Is there anything that can be done to solve the underlying political and social circumstances that create ISIS and give ISIS fuel to continue running? KB: That would require the Iranians and the Saudis sitting at a table sharing drinks and having food, and you know that's not happening. So, if that's not happening, and I don't think that there's any power on Earth that can fix those underlying sectarian tensions. I mean if you just look at the Sunnis in Iraq. I mean, there's this big euphoria about how Mosul is no longer in ISIS hands. And I'm saying, well that is true and it is a victory and an important one. But I'm looking at a year, two years, three years down the line. The Sunnis are completely a shattered community in Iraq. They fight with each other. ISIS existed because there's no Sunni core, no Sunni mainstream in Iraq. Ωnd they're losing territory, especially now if the Kurds are moving towards independence, they'll lose territory to the Kurds. They have already lost ground to the Shiites. This is probably the first time, the price of removing ISIS from Mosul is Shiite control over Iraq's second largest city, which was majority Sunni and a majority of Sunnis and Kurds. Now you have a Shiite-dominated military force along with militias that are going to make sure that ISIS doesn't come back, and they're going to engage in some very brutal activities. And that's going to pour you know gasoline on the fire of sectarianism that's already burning. And that's, from an ISIS point of view, another opportunity to exploit and they're looking forward to it. And that's sort of the irony in all of this. JLS: Well it's not a hopeful note to end the week on but unfortunately, it's the reality. Thank you for joining us Kamran, and thank you, everyone, for listening. If you enjoyed this podcast, I encourage you to visit us at geopoliticalfutures.com. I also encourage you to email us with comments, critiques, suggestions for topics and anything else you want. You can just email us at comments@geopoliticalfutures.com. I'm Jacob Shapiro, I'm the director of analysis, and we'll see you out here next week.

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker is joined by Kandi Mossett of the Indigenous Environmental Network Project.As the Dakota Access Pipeline is set to become operational today, shocking revelations about spying by a private security firm called TigerSwan are showing the whole progressive movement the extent that corporate interests will go to protect their profits.Donald Trump is reportedly all set to pull the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement as the move is condemned across the world. What will it really take to save the planet from climate change? Kevin Zeese, the co-director of Popular Resistance, joins the show.The United States is stepping up its support for Free Syrian Army groups fighting in the country’s southeast. But is this latest intervention primarily a way of stepping up aggression against Iran? Catherine Shakdam, independent political analyst, joins Brian.

As the Syrian conflict enters its seventh year, almost half a million Syrians have been killed in the fighting, more than a million injured and nearly half the country's prewar population of 25 million have been displaced from their homes. What became known as the “Arab Spring” in 2011, toppled presidents of Tunisian, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and is ongoing. Peaceful protests also erupted in Syria, but the Syrian government, led by President Bashar al-Assad, responded to the protests by killing hundreds of demonstrators and imprisoning many more. In July 2011, defectors from the military announced the formation of the “Free Syrian Army”, a rebel group aiming to overthrow the government, and Syria began to slide into civil war. Since the Free Syrian Army formed, many new rebel groups have joined the fighting in Syria, including ISIL, Jabhat Fateh al Sham, Iran-backed Hezbollah, and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) dominated by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG). Arguable, foreign involvement has played a very large role in the Syrian hostilities and the speaker will give perspective to the many factors that have been at play in the Middle East over the past several decades and eventually contributing to the carnage in Syria, Palestine and Iraq specifically, and the region in general. Speaker: Mohammad Abushaban Mohammed Abushaban is a Palestinian Canadian who immigrated to Ottawa to pursue higher education and opportunity. He is a Computer Science graduate with many years of global experience in the Information Technology and Telecommunication field; most recently, having founded his own company in the UAE, before deciding to return to Canada in 2015. Through personal experience, Mr. Abushaban is intimately familiar with life under occupation and war, as well as the refugee and immigration experience from the Middle East region. It is these experiences which have lent themselves to his heavy involvement with the current Syrian refugees. In supporting and facilitating the entry of these soon-to-be Canadians into a new, bright, but sometimes challenging experience, Mr. Abushaban believes he is giving back to Canada a little of all which it continues to give him and his family. Moderator:   Martin Heavy Head Date: Thursday, May 11, 2017 Time: Noon - 1:30 PM (30 minutes each for presentation, lunch and Q & A) Location: Country Kitchen Catering (Lower level of The Keg) 1715 Mayor Magrath Dr. S Cost: $12.00 (includes lunch) or $2.00 (includes coffee/tea)

As the Syrian conflict enters its seventh year, almost half a million Syrians have been killed in the fighting, more than a million injured and nearly half the country's prewar population of 25 million have been displaced from their homes. What became known as the “Arab Spring” in 2011, toppled presidents of Tunisian, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and is ongoing. Peaceful protests also erupted in Syria, but the Syrian government, led by President Bashar al-Assad, responded to the protests by killing hundreds of demonstrators and imprisoning many more. In July 2011, defectors from the military announced the formation of the “Free Syrian Army”, a rebel group aiming to overthrow the government, and Syria began to slide into civil war. Since the Free Syrian Army formed, many new rebel groups have joined the fighting in Syria, including ISIL, Jabhat Fateh al Sham, Iran-backed Hezbollah, and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) dominated by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG). Arguable, foreign involvement has played a very large role in the Syrian hostilities and the speaker will give perspective to the many factors that have been at play in the Middle East over the past several decades and eventually contributing to the carnage in Syria, Palestine and Iraq specifically, and the region in general. Speaker: Mohammad Abushaban Mohammed Abushaban is a Palestinian Canadian who immigrated to Ottawa to pursue higher education and opportunity. He is a Computer Science graduate with many years of global experience in the Information Technology and Telecommunication field; most recently, having founded his own company in the UAE, before deciding to return to Canada in 2015. Through personal experience, Mr. Abushaban is intimately familiar with life under occupation and war, as well as the refugee and immigration experience from the Middle East region. It is these experiences which have lent themselves to his heavy involvement with the current Syrian refugees. In supporting and facilitating the entry of these soon-to-be Canadians into a new, bright, but sometimes challenging experience, Mr. Abushaban believes he is giving back to Canada a little of all which it continues to give him and his family. Moderator:   Martin Heavy Head Date: Thursday, May 11, 2017 Time: Noon - 1:30 PM (30 minutes each for presentation, lunch and Q & A) Location: Country Kitchen Catering (Lower level of The Keg) 1715 Mayor Magrath Dr. S Cost: $12.00 (includes lunch) or $2.00 (includes coffee/tea)

As the Syrian conflict enters its seventh year, almost half a million Syrians have been killed in the fighting, more than a million injured and nearly half the country's prewar population of 25 million have been displaced from their homes. What became known as the “Arab Spring” in 2011, toppled presidents of Tunisian, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and is ongoing. Peaceful protests also erupted in Syria, but the Syrian government, led by President Bashar al-Assad, responded to the protests by killing hundreds of demonstrators and imprisoning many more. In July 2011, defectors from the military announced the formation of the “Free Syrian Army”, a rebel group aiming to overthrow the government, and Syria began to slide into civil war. Since the Free Syrian Army formed, many new rebel groups have joined the fighting in Syria, including ISIL, Jabhat Fateh al Sham, Iran-backed Hezbollah, and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) dominated by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG). Arguable, foreign involvement has played a very large role in the Syrian hostilities and the speaker will give perspective to the many factors that have been at play in the Middle East over the past several decades and eventually contributing to the carnage in Syria, Palestine and Iraq specifically, and the region in general. Speaker: Mohammad Abushaban Mohammed Abushaban is a Palestinian Canadian who immigrated to Ottawa to pursue higher education and opportunity. He is a Computer Science graduate with many years of global experience in the Information Technology and Telecommunication field; most recently, having founded his own company in the UAE, before deciding to return to Canada in 2015. Through personal experience, Mr. Abushaban is intimately familiar with life under occupation and war, as well as the refugee and immigration experience from the Middle East region. It is these experiences which have lent themselves to his heavy involvement with the current Syrian refugees. In supporting and facilitating the entry of these soon-to-be Canadians into a new, bright, but sometimes challenging experience, Mr. Abushaban believes he is giving back to Canada a little of all which it continues to give him and his family. Moderator:   Martin Heavy Head Date: Thursday, May 11, 2017 Time: Noon - 1:30 PM (30 minutes each for presentation, lunch and Q & A) Location: Country Kitchen Catering (Lower level of The Keg) 1715 Mayor Magrath Dr. S Cost: $12.00 (includes lunch) or $2.00 (includes coffee/tea)

Oscar nominated documentary filmmaker Evgeny Afineevsky (Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom) returns to the podcast to talk about his new HBO documentary Cries from Syria. Evegny details how Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad helped fuel radical groups like ISIS to force the Free Syrian Army to fight a war on two fronts and misdirect media attention toward ISIS instead of Assad’s own crimes. He shares evidence that Assad continues to use chemical weapons on his own people and bombs civilian neighborhoods, hospitals and schools in a deliberate campaign of terror. He tells some of the heartbreaking stories of the thousands of children who have become the innocent victims of the Syrian War and he debunks Vladimir Putin’s claim that Russia is helping to fight ISIS in Syria. Plus Evgeny’s thoughts on the murky Trump-Putin relationship. CRIES FROM SYRIA airs tonight Monday, March 13 at 10PM Eastern on HBO or you can view it whenever you want with a subscription to HBO NOW or HBO GO. For more information, visit www.HBO.com/documentaries. Follow Evgeny Afineevsky on Twitter at @evgeny_director and visit his production company at www.NewGenerationFilmsInc.com. Today's episode is sponsored by Stamps.com, Blue Apron, and GoDaddy. Visit www.Stamps.com and enter the promo code KICK for a 4 week Trial that includes postage and a digital scale. Try Blue Apron and get your first three meals free by visiting www.blueapron.com/kick.  Visit www.godaddy.com and enter our promo code "KICK30" to get 30% off a new domain.  Please subscribe to Kickass News on iTunes and take a moment to take our listener survey at www.podsurvey.com/KICK. And support the show by donating at www.gofundme.com/kickassnews. Visit www.kickassnews.com for more fun stuff.

Ben Swann show us how the news about Syria and Aleppo is mostly all FAKE NEWS Proof That Those Moderate Rebels in Syria are Really Jihadists   OGA note. I had a lot of consternation coming to grips that most if not all the "news" we hear and see about Syria and Aleppo is staged and Faked, but it truly is. Remember the little-wounded boy in the orange seat in the brand new sparkling clean ambulance we saw so many times, yep it was FAKE 0-00 well one week ago I told you that 0-01 national media is not giving you the 0-03 full story about what is happening in 0-05 Syria specifically that the Free Syrian 0-07 Army and the so-called Syrian rebels who 0-10 have now lost control of Eastern Aleppo 0-12 are not freedom fighters they are in 0-14 fact aligned with terror organizations 0-16 and while tens of thousands of you have 0-18 voiced their support some other media 0-20 are asking me where's the proof tonight 0-23 the proof in a reality check you won't 0-25 see anywhere else 0-28 well as i told you national media has 0-31 framed the fight in Syria and for Aleppo 0-33 as anti-assad rebels against Syrian 0-36 President Bashar al-assad what they do 0-38 not say is that throughout Syria there 0-40 are really only two groups fighting 0-42 against Assad Isis and al-qaeda in 0-45 fairness that is a crude assessment in 0-47 reality there are dozens of small 0-48 malicious and factions fighting Assad 0-50 the Free Syrian Army it's always been 0-52 made up of many different smaller groups 0-54 for the for the sake of explaining how 0-55 jihadis are actually the ones fighting 0-57 this on we're going to refer to the Free 0-59 Syrian Army here as if it is one group 1-01 the free syrian army was formed in july 1-04 of 2011 but within just one year there 1-07 were already widespread reports that 1-09 al-qaeda in Syria had infiltrated in 1-12 2012 i became the first reporter to 1-13 question President Obama directly about 1-15 the US Army a group that had members of 1-18 al-qaeda there's some concern about the 1-20 u.s. funding the a Syrian opposition 1-23 when there are a lot of reports that 1-24 al-qaeda is kind of heading up that 1-26 opposition 1-26 how do you justify the two well I share 1-29 that concern and so what we've done is 1-32 to say we will provide non-lethal 1-34 assistance to Syrian opposition 1-37 leadership that are committed to a 1-40 political transition committed to 1-43 a an observance of human rights while 1-47 there were non jihadist rebels in the 1-49 original free syrian army they did not 1-52 last long 1-53 one year later in 2013 the CIA began 1-55 delivering weapons to those Syrian 1-57 rebels the shipments began streaming 1-59 into the country over the past two weeks 2-00 along with separate deliveries by the 2-02 State Department of vehicles and other 2-04 gear a flow of material that marks a 2-06 major escalation of the u.s. role in 2-09 syria's civil war that was the 2-10 washington post in 2013 2-13 but things only got worse because while 2-14 the weapons were flowing in well so 2-16 we're jihadist and by sep tember of 2013 2-19 london-based global defense consultancy 2-21 group IHS Jane's reported that 10,000 of 2-25 the estimated 100,000 insurgent fighters 2-27 were linked to al-qaeda another thirty 2-29 to thirty-five thousand belong to 2-31 powerful factions that were fighting for 2-33 an Islamic state within a larger Middle 2-35 East Calif it stretching from the 2-37 Atlantic to the indian ocean now in 2-39 addition to that that report showed at 2-42 least a further thirty thousand 2-43 moderates belonging to groups that have 2-45 an Islamic character that means that by 2-48 late 2013 only 25 to 30,000 so-called 2-51 rebel fighters were part of secular 2-53 nationalist groups again that's 2-55 twenty-five to thirty percent of the 2-57 rebel force that could be considered 2-59 friendly to the west seventy to 3-01 seventy-five percent of forces against 3-03 Assad 2013george honest but that didn't 3-07 stop the u.s. from sending funding and 3-09 sending weapons and with some members of 3-11 Congress like Senator Rand Paul 3-12 insisting that these rebels were jihadis 3-14 by 2015 the u.s. committed five hundred 3-17 million dollars to find and train 3-19 moderate rebels instead by September a 3-22 major blow 3,000 of the few remaining 3-25 FSA fighters they defected from the 3-27 organization they proclaim their 3-29 allegiance to Isis those fighters belong 3-32 to multiple brigades that formed the 3-33 conglomeration of the FSA also in 2015 3-37 the Pentagon publicly admitted that an 3-39 additional 70 us train Syrian rebels 3-41 surrendered a weapon stockpile to 3-43 al-nusrah fighters from Division 30 they 3-45 surrendered to the al-qaida-affiliated 3-47 group after crossing into Syria over the 3-49 Turkish border and as for that 500 3-52 million dollar moderate rebel training 3-54 program 3-55 that was halted a week later when the 3-57 Pentagon admitted it had only trained 3-59 four or five fighters not 400 or four 4-02 thousand four or five and it was in 2015 4-06 when the International Business Times 4-08 reported that the moderate movement in 4-10 Syria could be officially considered 4-12 dead as of last week when the last us 4-14 back rebel faction disbanded its members 4-16 joining extremist groups such as the 4-18 nusrah front the al-qaeda option in the 4-20 country some of the men joined a group 4-22 called the Livan front a coalition of 4-24 rebel militias that also have ties to 4-27 al-qaeda and again that was 2015 and yet 4-30 through 2016 weapons and funding from 4-32 the West continued in September of this 4-34 year 2016 the u.s. delivered 3,000 tons 4-37 of weapons and ammo two fighters in 4-39 Syria including rocket launchers and 4-40 anti-tank guided weapon systems so what 4-43 you need to know it is a fact that since 4-45 2012 those so-called moderate rebels in 4-47 Syria have been absorbed into al Qaeda 4-50 groups or pledged allegiance to Isis and 4-53 for the past year the moderates they 4-56 have been gone so when media only calls 5-00 these groups freedom fighters and yet 5-02 these fighters have pledged themselves 5-03 to al-qaeda and to Isis the no make no 5-07 mistake they are not looking to make 5-09 Syria free they are looking to enslave 5-11 it as they have in so many other places 5-14 that's reality check let's talk about 5-16 that on twitter    

My guest this week is Christianne Boudreeau, mother of Damien Clairmont. On January 14th, 2014, Christianne’s 22 year old son was executed by the Free Syrian Army, as a terrorist member of the jihadist group – Islamic State (IS).  Listen to find out how this social change advocate turned shock, grief and horror into a powerful voice for targeted intervention … Read more about this episode...

Away from the sound of bombs and bullets, in the basement of a crumbling house in the besieged Syrian town of Darayya, is a secret library. It's home to thousands of books rescued from bombed-out buildings by local volunteers, who daily brave snipers and shells to fill it's shelves. In a town gripped by hunger and death after three years without food aid, Mike Thomson reveals how this literary sanctuary is proving a lifeline to a community shattered by war. Produced by Michael Gallagher and translated by Mariam El Khalaf.*Omar, the FSA soldier who was the last voice heard in this programme has been killed in fighting*(Photo: Omar Abu Anas, a Free Syrian Army soldier reads on the front line)

Russia's intervention in Syria caught the world by surprise. Moscow gave Washington just one hour's notice before it began its aerial bombardment. Russia claims its jets are attacking the so-called Islamic State. But reports suggest the Russian pilots are in fact targeting groups linked to the Free Syrian Army - the main opposition to Syria's President Assad, who is a Russian ally. It is the first time President Putin has deployed force beyond the borders of the former USSR and another dramatic step in his increasingly assertive foreign policy. But Josh Earnest, President Obama's press secretary, has described Russia's action as motivated by “weakness”. Is he right? Ambassador William Courtney of the Rand Corporation argues that the Middle East is the last place in the world where Russia can play a great power role, and that Syria is the last place in the Middle East where Russia can exert its power. Andrei Kolesnikov explains what he sees as Russia's weaknesses; a weak economy, declining living standards and a working age population that is deteriorating. Dr Andrei Korolev disagrees. While international isolation and a faltering economy may have forced Russia to adapt, he says, it has done so in ways that make it stronger such as by forming a new alliance with China. The Hudson Institute's Hannah Thoburn explains how a new politics is emerging. Russians are being asked to accept financial sacrifices in order to help return the country to its place as a global super power, and that so far its working. (Photo: President Putin at the UN General Assembly. Credit: Getty Images)

Christianne Boudreau joined the Roy Green Show to share the story of her son Damian Clairmont, who converted to Islam and joined ISIS. Damian was shot and killed by a Free Syrian Army unit which had captured his ISIS unit. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

http://www.wdeanshook.com      Updates are always free to download and share U.S. weapons for Free Syrian Army ended up with ISIS,  Robert Kennedy Jr.: We need laws to ‘punish global warming skeptics, Gov't Scientists: Higher West Coast Temps Due to Natural Causes, not 'Climate Change', Hillary, Panetta misleading about arms to rebels?  

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky published on Global Research, June 25, 2013 In the midst of pre-Geneva II talks on Syria Professor Michel Chossudovsky, Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization and Professor Emeritus at the University of Ottawa tells the Voice of Russia about the controversial role the Obama administration plays in the Syrian conflict and the possibility that the US Head of State not only cooperates with Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations but also supplies them with chemical weapons. In one of your recent articles you suggested that the chemical weapons accusations in Syria are fabricated. You said that “in a bitter irony, the evidence amply confirms that the chemical weapons are being used not by Syrian government forces but by the US supported Al Qaeda rebels.” Can you elaborate on this issue? If we look at various media reports, including CNN but it is also acknowledged in Israeli media, the rebels namely Al-Nusra are in possession of chemical weapons but moreover it is acknowledged that western forces are actually training Al-Nusra rebels in Jordan and Turkey and this is confirmed by a December 9 CNN report. We had subsequently the report of the United Nations independent mission which confirms that rebel forces are in possession of sarin nerve gas and the United Nations human rights investigators actually made a statement to that effect and refuted the accusations that government forces were in possession of chemical weapons. In fact what they said is that the rebels were in possession of chemical weapons. Then we also had a Turkish police report, which essentially confirmed these previous reports, the fact that the Al-Nusra terrorists who are supported by the Western military alliance, they were arrested with sarin gas in their possession. Regarding the issue of chemical weapons in Syria you have also said that “Obama has not only “Crossed the Red Line”, he is supporting Al Qaeda. He is a Liar and a Terrorist.” Other than the provision of chemical weapons to Syrian opposition, is there any other evidence to support the claim that Obama might be supporting Al-Qaeda? I think that we are beyond the issue as to whether Obama is supporting Al-Qaeda. John Kerry is directly in contacts with commanders, which are in link with Al-Qaeda rebels. We’ve got a fairly large documentation to the effect that weapons and money are being channeled to the rebels and that these rebels actually are on the US state department list of terrorist organizations. So, what I am saying essentially is that these Al-Qaeda affiliated organizations are not longer supported covertly by the CIA, they are supported overtly by the US president and the Secretary of State who is in touch with commanders of that terrorist force, in particular the main intermediary is a General Idriss who is with the Free Syrian Army and who is in constant contact with the rebels. But what I think we should understand is that Obama administration and its allies are harboring a terrorist organization which is on the state department list and that means that president Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry could under the US law be held responsible: And I quote the document of the state department “knowingly providing or attempting or conspiring to provide material support or resources to or engaging in transactions with Al-Nusra front” so that essentially what I am contending is that Obama is in violation of the Patriot Act, he is in violation of US anti-terrorist legislation and in fact the US government is in blatant violation of its own counter-terrorism legislation while waging a so-called war on terrorism. You can’t wage a war on terrorism and then provide support to the terrorists.

Die tweejaarlange burgeroorlog in Sirië het 'n vernietigende uitwerking op die inwoners van die land. Foeta Krige was by die Gift of the Givers se hospitaal in die noordelike dorpie Darkoush toe 'n soldaat van die Free Syrian Army 'n gewonde makker by die hospitaal afgelaai het. Die soldaat wou hom na die front neem om te gaan kyk hoe die gevegte plaasvind, maar die tolk het daarteen gewaarsku. Ali Abdul Alal verduidelik hoekom die mense in die land veg en hoekom dit so gevaarlik is.

Reporters worldwide - today: Ruth Sherlock on how the Free Syrian Army's losing support as people turn to the Islamists for help in getting by during difficult times. Wyre Davies on a plot still unfolding: he's in a bookshop in Tunis looking out on an unfinished revolution. Mark Mardell on how experience in the US military is helping to shape the new team around President Obama. Tom Esslemont on murder in Corsica -- old scores are being settled against a Mediterranean backdrop. And it's like a scene out of 'Spooks' as our Christian Fraser's taken, furtively, into the heart of one of Europe's biggest infrastructure projects. The producer is Tony Grant

While some Arab states are actively funding the Syrian opposition, the West has publicly refused to provide arms. The US, in particular, has been criticised for its reluctance to get involved beyond talks and diplomacy. Brian Sayers is a lobbyist for a US-based non-profit organisation. The Syrian Support Group has been given the green light by the US Treasury to raise money for the Free Syrian Army despite the fears that the FSA might have links to extremist groups in the region. The Syrian Support Group insists that the money raised will not get into the wrong hands. How can they be sure?(Image: Brian Sayers)