Copyright © 2016 - 2021, The Troy Press
Copyright © 2016 - 2021, The Troy Press
Copyright © 2016 - 2021, The Troy Press
Source
ISTANBUL: Turkish officials have inaugurated an undersea highway tunnel linking the European and Asian sides of Istanbul.
The Eurasia Tunnel, crossing the Bosporus Strait, was launched Tuesday even as the country was stunned by the assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey a day before.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey's decision not to cancel the launch was its "response to terror." He says "we cannot allow terrorism to take control of our agenda."
The 5.4-kilometer (3.4-mile) twin-deck tunnel is aimed at relieving congestion in the city. Officials say 120,000 vehicles a day are expected to use the tunnel.
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NOTE: TheTroyPress doesn't know for sure if this source's reporting is valid, but we suspect it may well be, and, if so, this deserves to be widely reported...
21st Century Wire
SPECIAL REPORT
DAMASCUS - According to two reports coming out of Aleppo today, at least 14 US Coalition military officers were captured this morning in an East Aleppo bunker by Syrian Special Forces.
This story was quietly leaked by Voltaire.net, who announced, "The Security Council is sitting in private on Friday, December 16, 2016 \- 2018, at 17:00 GMT, while NATO officers were arrested this morning by the Syrian Special Forces in a bunker in East Aleppo."
Fares Shehabi MP, a prominent Syrian Parliamentarian and head of Aleppo's Chamber of Commerce published the names of the Coalition officers on his Facebook page on the 15th December (emphasis added):
Mutaz Kanoğlu - Turkey
David Scott Winer - USA
David Shlomo Aram - Israel
Muhamad Tamimi - Qatar
Muhamad Ahmad Assabian - Saudi
Abd-el-Menham Fahd al Harij - Saudi
Islam Salam Ezzahran Al Hajlan - Saudi
Ahmed Ben Naoufel Al Darij - Saudi
Muhamad Hassan Al Sabihi - Saudi
Hamad Fahad Al Dousri - Saudi
Amjad Qassem Al Tiraoui - Jordan
Qassem Saad Al Shamry - Saudi
Ayman Qassem Al Thahalbi - Saudi
Mohamed Ech-Chafihi El Idrissi - Moroccan
Listen to Fares Shehabi's interview on the Sunday Wire radio show: 'Liberation Aleppo'
In addition to Voltaire.net, the other original report was provided by Damascus-based Syrian journalist Said Hilal Alcharifi. According to Alcharifi, captured "NATO" officers were from a number of member states including the US, France, Germany and Turkey, as well as Israel. Here is his statement (translated from French):
"Thanks to information received, Syrian authorities discovered the headquarters of high ranking western/NATO officers in the basement of an area in East Aleppo and have captured them alive. Some names have already been given to Syrian journalists, myself included. The nationalities are US, French, British, German, Israeli, Turkish, Saudi, Moroccan, Qatari etc. In light of their nationalities and their rank, I assure you that the Syrian government have a very important catch, which should enable them to direct negotiations with the countries that have tried to destroy them."
Although these initial reports describe the individuals in question as "NATO" officers, it's unlikely they would have been carrying NATO colors on a covert operation - and might be more accurately labeled as US Coalition officers. Note that early reports suggest that these are not standard 'street rebel' or jihadi terrorists but actual Coalition military personnel and field commanders.
SEE ALSO: The REAL Syria Civil Defence Exposes Fake 'White Helmets' as Terrorist-Linked Imposters
21WIRE also received unconfirmed reports yesterday that militants had fired a missile into the Ramousa area and then tried, unsuccessfully, to get cars out of East Aleppo. It's possible this incident could be related to today reports of captured western operatives.
This report from the Syrian Arab News Agency (emphasis added):
"The agreement on evacuating militants and weapons from the eastern neighborhoods of Aleppo city has been suspended after terrorist groups breached it, special sources told SANA correspondent in Aleppo.
The sources said that the suspension of the agreement will remain in place until obtaining guarantees that oblige the terrorist groups to abide by all the agreement's provisions, stressing on the Syrian side's full adherence to the agreement and its keenness to end the bloodshed and restore security and stability to the entire city of Aleppo."
Earlier, SANA reporter said that the terrorist groups have breached the agreement as they smuggled heavy weapons, including TOW missiles, heavy machineguns and kidnapped people via the buses and cars transporting terrorists and their families towards the southwestern countryside of Aleppo city.
The reporter added that the terrorist groups fired shells and sniper bullets on the buses and ambulances at al-Ramousseh crossing, noting that the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) which are supervising the evacuation process had to withdraw all buses and cars from the crossing.
Over the past 24 hours, some 8079 terrorists and members of their families were evacuated via busses and ambulances from the neighborhoods of Salah-Eddin, al-Ansari, al-Mashhad and al-Zibdiyeh to the southwest countryside of Aleppo city"
If true, this latest news would also mean that both the Syrian and Russian governments would have additional leverage going forward in any bilateral negotiations with the US-led Coalition.
If, however, this story is kept under wraps by NATO member governments and is summarily blacked out by the US and European media outlets, then it might indicate that a deal has been struck, albeit behind the scenes, for the return of captured NATO operatives in exchange for other concessions.
If today's report from East Aleppo is accurate, this might also help explain the hysterical behavior by the US State Department and western UN officials who have been demanding "an immediate ceasefire" - despite the fact that 99% of East Aleppo has already been liberated by Syrian government forces.
The western establishment hysterical reactions to Al Nusra's defeat in Aleppo have included wild claims that the Syrian Army had 'unleashed death squads,' on its own residents in East Aleppo and were openly 'executing women and children in the street,' and 'burning children in the street,' as well what appear to be more fictional reports circulated in US media mainly by Michael Weiss of The Daily Beast via CNN, claiming that Syrian Army was committing "mass rape" against residents of East Aleppo. His article entitled, "Women in Aleppo Choose Suicide Over Rape, Rebels Report," made a number of outlandish claims including:
"Activists and rebels in the besieged city say mass executions have begun and children are burned alive as Assad's Iranian- and Russian-backed forces move in."
Not surprisingly, aside from unnamed "UN sources", Weiss claims to have received his information from none other than the discredited US and UK-financed pseudo 'NGO' known as the White Helmets.
SEE ALSO: Tulsi Gabbard Introduces Bill to Stop US Government Funding and Arming Jihadist Terrorists in Syria
Back in September, numerous reports suggested that a western command center located behind terrorist-held lines had been targeted and destroyed by a Russian missile strike. Prof Michel Chossudovsky wrote:
"The US and its allies had established a Field Operations Room in the Aleppo region integrated by intelligence personnel. Until it was targeted by a Russian missile attack on September 20, this "semi-secret" facility was operated by US, British, Israeli, Turkish, Saudi and Qatari intelligence personnel."
This report was neither admitted, nor was it denied by US Coalition sources at the time. However, one mainstream Israeli source, The Times of Israel, did report the incident.
For anyone who has been paying close attention to the Syrian Conflict, seeing NATO special forces or "contractors" working with 'rebel' or terrorist fighters inside of Syria is nothing unusual. Numerous reports have been filed of British soldiers assigned to fighting groups to help with training, strategy and logistics. In June 2016 \- 2018, The Telegraph admitted that British special forces were helping one rebel group, "… with logistics, like building defences to make the bunkers safe," said one 'rebel' fighter. Other reports, including the LA Times which detailed CIA operations used to arm militants, including Al Nusra Front (al Qaeda in Syria) who were the terrorist force in charge in East Aleppo. Other revelations of US covert involvement include The New York Times, and also information on US (NATO by another name only) covert operations provided to the Wall Street Journal.
South Front also notes:
"Earlier in December, SF already noted that the US despearate attempts to push a "diplomatic solution" in Aleppo could indicate that the Obama administration stalling for time to extricate US mercenaries and special service members from the Aleppo pocket:"
Source
Following yesterday's Ankara tragedy in which a 22-year-old Turkish off-duty police officers assassinated the Russian ambassador, Turkey found itself in a scapegoat vacuum, having nobody to blame: after all, following this summer's failed "coup", Erdogan allegedly purged all forces who were hostile to his administration, which would suggest the police officer was one of "Erdogan's people." That however quickly changed when this morning Turkey's pro-government media outlets and journalists promptly cast the blame for the cold-blooded murder on the US, and the faith-based Gulen movement whose cleric Fetullah Gulen has been granted refuge in rural Pennsylvania, for the murder of the Russian ambassador to Turkey by a police officer on Monday evening.
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It was destined to be an iconic image: a small girl holding a teddy bear in a white dress marked by blood splotches with the ruins of Aleppo behind her. However, it was also a set-up, shot hundreds of miles away in a different country, with help of a posing child and some paint.
Egypt's Interior Ministry has revealed on its Facebook page that it arrested a group of five people caught in the act of producing images purportedly depicting scenes of suffering in Aleppo that they had planned to pass off as real pictures from Syria.
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"[Jeff Bezos] recently secured a $600 million contract from the CIA. That's at least twice what Bezos paid for the Post this year. Bezos recently disclosed that the company's Web-services business is building a 'private cloud' for the CIA to use for its data needs."
As this occurred, a petition calling on the Washington Post to disclose its new ties to the CIA when reporting on the agency garnered 30,000 signatures. According to the RootsforAction petition:
"The Post often does reporting on CIA activities. The coverage should include full disclosure that the owner of the Washington Post is also the main owner of Amazon - and Amazon is now gaining huge profits directly from the CIA."
Robert McChesney of the Institute for Public Accuracy pointed out the glaring conflict of interest:
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On Dec. 1, a bipartisan bill proposed by Senators Bob Casey and Tim Scott, and supported by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) was passed unanimously through Senate. The "Antisemitism Awareness Act" deems criticisms of Israel as anti-semitic, and will be soon considered by the U.S. House of Representatives. If passed there, it would just await the president's signature before becoming law.
Jewish scholars and students, however, have come out to reject the bill, releasing statements addressed to the House and President Barack Obama, urging them to table it.
Organized by the advocacy group Jewish Voice for Peace, the scholars' statement has already been signed by academics from New York University, Penn State University, Brown University, Stanford University, UCLA and more.
"As scholars of Jewish studies, we strongly object to 'the Antisemitism Awareness Act' which is soon to be considered by the U.S. House of Representatives," the statement begins. "This bill would officially categorize as antisemitic 'demonization,' 'de-legitimation' and 'the use of double standard' regarding Israel. This intentionally vague definition is dangerously susceptible to manipulations, and threatens to further diminish freedom of speech and academic freedom on our campuses."
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After having left Syria, Bartlett took part in a press conference organized by the Syrian mission to the United Nations. After giving a brief statement about what she has observed in Syria and how she is aware firsthand of the Western media's deception in terms of coverage of the crisis, she was questioned by a Norwegian journalist, Christopher Rothenberg, who challenged her claims that the Western media was lying.
"You talk the corporate media, the Western media, the lies, and all of this. Could you explain what might be the agenda from us in the Western media and why we should lie," Rothenberg asked. "Why the international organizations on the ground should lie? Why we shouldn't believe all these absolutely documentable facts that we see from the ground? These hospitals being bombed. These civilians that are talking about the atrocities that they have been experiencing. How can you justify calling all of us liars?"
[And she then does just that.]
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Although most of the information in the press release isn't new - detailing the issue that only 10 percent of Gazans can safely drink the water piped into their homes - it contained a glaring omission. While the World Bank noted the aquifer's water level has plummeted due to overpumping because of population growth, it does not address the root cause of the water crisis: Israel's punitive military occupation of the region and its total control of Gaza's water supply.
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"All too often, there's been a fixation on finances and balance sheets," said Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette. "This fixation cost lives."
"The emergency manager law is fundamentally flawed because it takes away the people's right to vote and has remained unchanged since the Flint Water Crisis began," he continued. "Bill Schuette bringing charges against these emergency managers is ironic because he actually fought to preserve this undemocratic system of governing. Given that the only person emergency managers are answer to is the governor, we hope the investigation will continue to reach higher until everyone involved is brought to justice."
Nayyirah Shariff, director of the community coalition Flint Rising, echoed that disappointment.
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"The widespread adoption of encryption poses a real challenge to the law enforcement community and strong encryption is essential to both individual privacy and national security," their report reads. "A narrative that sets government agencies against private industry, or security interests against individual privacy, does not accurately reflect the complexity of the issue."
Amid its effort to find a way to secure data while also preserving access for authorities, the EWG at least argues that encryption should not be subverted for convenience.
"Congress should not weaken this vital technology because doing so works against the national interest," the report states. "However, it should not ignore and must address the legitimate concerns of the law enforcement and intelligence communities."
In other words, encryption should not be weakened, but there may be times when it should be weakened. So much for clarity of vision.
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