OP-ED Greg Hunter WNW: ME War Coming, Economy Tanks Fed Hikes, Obama Care Implosion and Bailout

[kittyluvr]

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com WNW 218 12.4.15

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NcyA5WpyvaI

As terrible as the terror attack in San Bernardino, California, is it’s not really the big story. I know you have been seeing wall to wall coverage of this attack. I am sure some Democrats and the President would like this to be workplace violence, but let’s face it, it was a terror attack carried out by violent Islamic extremists. I am equally sure the President and some Democrats would like to use this as a way to have anti-gun legislation. Both of these views are delusional and out of touch with most Americans. Look no further than Black Friday gun sales. They broke records, and that was before this awful attack. Not all Muslims are bad, but the population is so big globally that if just 10% were radicalized, it would be 160 or 170 million people. This is the new asymmetrical warfare, and it will increase because conflict in the Middle East is increasing.

This brings us to the big story, and that is the increasing tensions mounting in Syria, and military assets and boots on the ground are converging there. Tensions between NATO and Russia have been mounting since Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet. Russia has been hitting ISIS oil facilities and cutting off their financing. Evidence shows Turkey has been buying the oil and financing ISIS. I said months ago that the Obama Administration was not serious about defeating ISIS because it was not cutting off its oil and bombing the wells it controls and uses to finance terror. Now we know why. The U.S. had to know who was buying the oil and, therefore, was complicit in financing the terror. Not only that, but Democrats and Republicans are both worried about what is going on. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is wondering if Turkey should even be in NATO after shooting down that Russian jet and how it is apparently backing ISIS. Meanwhile, House Democrat Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has questioned the wisdom of putting U.S. jets in a position to counter Russian jets on the Turkey/Syrian border and said it could lead the U.S. into a nuclear war with Russia. Retired General Wesley Clark pointed out how sticky this whole Middle East mess really is when he said, “Let’s be very clear: ISIS is not just a terrorist organization; it is a Sunni terrorist organization. That means it blocks and targets Shi’a. And that means it’s serving the interests of Turkey and Saudi Arabia – even as it poses a threat to them.”

Back home, Fed Head Janet Yellen is signaling an interest rate hike is in the cards for this year. The headline reads “Fed Chair Ready to Raise Rates at Own Pace.” What does that mean? Apparently, the stock market and bond markets think it means something bad because both tanked this week. Gregory Mannarino of TradersChoice.net called the stock market top in May, and it looks like he’s been right ever since. I don’t think we are going to see the Santa Clause rally this year. Meanwhile, the economy continues to sink. The latest bad news comes from imploding durable goods and factory orders.

Obama Care is being confirmed as the disaster I told you it would be. This huge Democrat lie of public policy is imploding. The so-called healthcare co-ops are dropping like flies. Now, Obama Care needs a bailout, and it doesn’t look the Republican Congress is going to come up with billions of dollars to keep this turkey of a healthcare plan afloat. It there is not taxpayer bailout, healthcare providers will go broke or pullout altogether. Democrats should be ashamed for lying and now asking for tax money to bail out their fraud on the American public.

Join Greg Hunter as he talks about these stories and more in the Weekly News Wrap-Up.

http://usawatchdog.com/middle-east-...s-fed-hikes-obama-care-implosion-and-bailout/

 

[China Connection]

Russia says it has proof Turkey involved in Islamic State oil trade

MOSCOW | By Maria Tsvetkova and Lidia Kelly

An undated still image taken from a video made available by the Russian Defence Ministry in Moscow, Russia December 2, 2015, shows the Turkish-Syrian border crossing. Russia's defence ministry officials displayed satellite images on Wednesday which they said showed columns...
Reuters/Russian Defence Ministry/Handout via Reuters

Read more at Reutershttp: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...GiDvOMaR1uL.97

Russia's defense ministry said on Wednesday it had proof that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and his family were benefiting from the illegal smuggling of oil from Islamic State-held territory in Syria and Iraq.

Moscow and Ankara have been locked in a war of words since last week when a Turkish air force jet shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian-Turkish border, the most serious incident between Russia and a NATO state in half a century.

Erdogan responded by saying no one had the right to "slander" Turkey by accusing it of buying oil from Islamic State, and that he would stand down if such allegations were proven to be true. But speaking during a visit to Qatar, he also said he did not want relations with Moscow to worsen further.

At a briefing in Moscow, defense ministry officials displayed satellite images which they said showed columns of tanker trucks loading with oil at installations controlled by Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, and then crossing the border into neighboring Turkey.

The officials did not specify what direct evidence they had of the involvement of Erdogan and his family, an allegation that the Turkish president has vehemently denied.

"Turkey is the main consumer of the oil stolen from its rightful owners, Syria and Iraq. According to information we've received, the senior political leadership of the country - President Erdogan and his family - are involved in this criminal business," said Deputy Defence Minister Anatoly Antonov.

"Maybe I'm being too blunt, but one can only entrust control over this thieving business to one's closest associates."

"In the West, no one has asked questions about the fact that the Turkish president's son heads one of the biggest energy companies, or that his son-in-law has been appointed energy minister. What a marvelous family business!"

"The cynicism of the Turkish leadership knows no limits. Look what they're doing. They went into someone else's country, they are robbing it without compunction," Antonov said.

Erdogan last week denied that Turkey procures oil from anything other than legitimate sources.

The United States said it rejected the premise that the Turkish government was in league with the militants to smuggle oil. "We frankly see no evidence, none, to support such an accusation," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.

Erdogan has said Ankara is taking steps to prevent fuel smuggling, and he challenged anyone who accused his government of collaborating with Islamic State to prove their allegations.


On Tuesday, U.S. President Barack Obama said Turkey had made progress in sealing its border with Syria, but Islamic State was still exploiting gaps to bring in foreign fighters and sell oil.

WEAPONS FLOW

The Russian defense ministry also alleged that the same criminal networks which were smuggling oil into Turkey were also supplying weapons, equipment and training to Islamic State and other Islamist groups.

"According to our reliable intelligence data, Turkey has been carrying out such operations for a long period and on a regular basis. And most importantly, it does not plan to stop them," Sergei Rudskoy, deputy head of the Russian military's General Staff, told reporters.

The defense ministry said its surveillance revealed hundreds of tanker trucks gathering at Islamic State-controlled sites in Iraq and Syria to load up with oil, and it questioned why the U.S.-led coalition was not launching more air strikes on them.

"It's hard not to notice them," Rudskoy said of the lines of trucks shown on satellite images.

Russian officials said their country's bombing campaign had made a significant dent in Islamic State's ability to produce, refine and sell oil.

U.S. officials say coalition air strikes have destroyed hundreds of IS oil trucks while the Russian campaign has mainly targeted opponents of the Syrian government who are not from Islamic State, which is also known as ISIL.

"The irony of the Russians raising this concern is that there's plenty of evidence to indicate that the largest consumer of ISIL oil is actually Bashar al-Assad and his regime, a regime that only remains in place because it is being propped up by the Russians," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.

The State Department's Toner said U.S. information was that Islamic State was selling oil at the wellheads to middlemen who were involved in smuggling it across the frontier into Turkey.


SMUGGLING ROUTES

Russian officials described three main routes by which they said oil and oil products were smuggled from Islamic State territory into Turkey.

The ministry said the Western route took oil produced at fields near the Syrian city of Raqqa to the settlement of Azaz on the border with Turkey.

From there the columns of tanker trucks pass through the Turkish town of Reyhanli, the ministry said, citing what it said were satellite pictures of hundreds of such trucks moving through the border crossing without obstruction.

"There is no inspection of the vehicles carried out ... on the Turkish side," said Rudskoy.

Some of the smuggled cargoes go to the Turkish domestic market, while some is exported via the Turkish Mediterranean ports of Iskenderun and Dortyol, the ministry said.

Another main route for smuggled oil, according to the ministry, runs from Deir Ez-zour in Syria to the Syrian border crossing at Al-Qamishli. It said the trucks then took the crude for refining at the Turkish city of Batman.

A third route took oil from eastern Syria and western Iraq into the south-eastern corner of Turkey, the ministry said.

It said its satellite surveillance had captured hundreds of trucks crossing the border in that area back in the summer, and that since then there had been no reduction in the flow.

The defense ministry officials said the information they released on Wednesday was only part of the evidence they have in their possession, and that they would be releasing further intelligence in the next days and weeks.

(Additional reporting by Alexander Winning in Moscow and Lesley Wroughton and Doina Chiacu in Washington; writing by Christian Lowe; editing by Andrew Osborn, Giles Elgood and Philippa Fletcher)

 

[China Connection]

Sunni terrorist organization.


A study conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2010 and released January 2011 found that there are 1.62 billion Muslims around the world, and it is estimated over 75–90% are Sunni.
Sunni Islam - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunni_Islam


Islam: Why is the population of Shi'a Muslims in the world smaller than that of Sunnis?

Shi'is make up around 10-15% of the world's Muslim population. But the reason that they are relatively small compared to the Sunni population is because that's just how many people follow that particular creed.

There are many historical and religious factors you can look at, but there will always be multiple reasons for a particular religious sect to have as many followers as it does. It is similar to asking why Catholicism happens to have more adherents than Protestantism - it's just how the world worked out.


https://www.quora.com/Islam/Why-is-...lims-in-the-world-smaller-than-that-of-Sunnis

 

[China Connection]

Your Obama administration backs the Sunni terrorist organization that loves to kill Christians.

Putin backs the Shi'a Muslims who are not racing around killing Christians.


Now what could possibly go wrong in Syria with the U.S. backing one side but lying about it and Russia backing the other side?????????????

 

[China Connection]

Facts about the Syrian Refugees

By FactCheck.org
Posted on November 23, 2015


The Paris bombings and other recent terrorist attacks have given rise to a political debate within the United States about the Obama administration’s plan to admit Syrian refugees. But the facts about refugees are being distorted in some instances.

Here are some claims about the refugees — and the facts:

Sen. Ted Cruz says it’s “astonishing” that only 3 percent of Syrian refugees admitted to the United States so far are Christian. He’s right, but the refugees are referred to the United States by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Cruz also says 77 percent of the refugees “pouring into Europe right now” are young males. That’s inaccurate and misleading. There are more than 4.2 million refugees and only about 850,000 fled to Europe (62 percent of whom are men). A U.N. spokesman says those referred to the U.S. would be among those remaining in the Middle East, such as in Turkey and Jordan, and those refugees are largely women and children.
President Obama says the “overwhelming numbers” of Syrian refugees referred to the U.S. by the U.N. have been women and children. That’s true — 67 percent have been children under the age of 12 and women, according to State Department data.
Donald Trump suggested the government steers Syrian refugees to states with Republican governors. But nongovernmental agencies, such as World Relief and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, place the refugees, not the government, and those decisions are based on family ties, employment and other factors, not politics.
Trump, Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina repeatedly have claimed that the Obama administration plans to accept anywhere from 100,000 to 250,000 Syrian refugees. That’s false. By law, the administration can admit slightly more than 10,000 in fiscal year 2016, and no refugee commitments can be made beyond that.

What Religion Are the Syrian Refugees?

Cruz, a Republican candidate for president, has introduced the Terrorist Refugee Infiltration Prevention Act, which would bar the U.S. from accepting refugees from countries “containing terrorist-controlled territory,” specifically Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. The bill was introduced days after a series of deadly coordinated terrorist attacks in Paris by the terrorist group the Islamic State (or sometimes known as ISIS).

Cruz has said if the U.S. does admit Syrian refugees then it should only accept Christians.

In an interview on Fox News, Cruz criticized the Obama administration for admitting so few Syrian Christians.

Cruz, Nov. 19: And what’s astonishing among the Syrian refugees who’ve come to America — do you know that only 3 percent have been Christians? Why does the president get so angry at those of us who want to help provide a safe haven for Christians being persecuted, but he is not angry at ISIS terrorists.

Cruz is rounding up, but he is correct about the percentage of Christians among the Syrian refugees who have resettled in the United States.

A total of 2,290 Syrian refugees have arrived in the United States since fiscal year 2011, which is when the Syrian civil war began, through Nov. 20, according to the State Department’s Refugee Processing Center. Of those, only 62 were identified in the center’s database as Christian. That’s 2.7 percent, even though the Christian population in Syria is about 10 percent, according to the CIA World Factbook.

But Cruz isn’t telling the whole story.

It’s important to note that the Syrian refugees are referred to the U.S. by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

From 2013 though Nov. 17, the U.N. says it has referred 22,427 Syrian refugees to the U.S. for “resettlement consideration.” The U.N. could not tell us how many of the 22,427 U.N. referrals were Christian, and the State Department did not know how many Christian Syrians may have been rejected by the U.S. But we know the U.S. is drawing from a limited pool of applicants provided by the U.N. from a predominately Muslim country.

So what religion are the Syrian refugees admitted to the U.S.?

The vast majority are Sunni Muslims, who make up 2,128, or 93 percent, of the Syrian refugees in the U.S. The Sunnis are about 74 percent of the Syrian population, according to the CIA, but “they tend to support the rebels and oppose the Assad regime, and Syrian Sunnis have been subject to ethnic cleansing at the hands of the Alawite minority in recent months,” as the Washington Post reported on Oct. 18, 2012.

This explains why Sunni Muslims are disproportionately represented among Syrian refugees in the U.S., Andrew Tabler, a Middle East expert at the Washington Institute, told us in an email.

Syrian President Bashar Hafez al-Assad’s regime is “made up of Alawites AND other minorities like Christians,” said Tabler, who wrote a 2011 book called “In the Lion’s Den: An Eyewitness Account of Washington’s Battle with Syria.”

“The reason why is that most refugees are not displaced because of ISIS, but as a result of bombardments by the Assad regime,” Tabler told us, explaining the large percentage of Sunnis who have been admitted to the U.S. from Syria. “The regime has attempted (but failed) to shoot them into submission. Those fleeing the fighting who are not with the regime have to run to neighboring countries for protection and become refugees. And some of them eventually apply to come to the U.S. as refugees.”

Kenneth Pollack, a former CIA military analyst in the Middle East who is now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, offered two other possible factors.

“In addition, much of the fighting has taken place in heavily Sunni areas (because most of the country is Sunni),” Pollack said. “Finally, much of the Sunni-controlled territory is controlled by ISIS, and nobody except absolute lunatics WANT to live under ISIS.”
What’s the Demographic Makeup of Refugees?

Both sides in the refugee dispute have been making seemingly contradictory claims about the age and gender of the Syrian refugees — portraying them either as young males who are potential terrorists, or women and children who are victims of the Syrian civil war.

Cruz, in an interview with radio host Glenn Beck on Nov. 18, said 77 percent of the Syrian refugees “pouring into Europe right now” are young males — a claim that others, including Ben Carson, have made. His number is too high, but more important, it’s misleading since the majority of refugees are not in Europe or trying to get to Europe. Instead, they remain in other Middle East nations, such as Turkey and Jordan.

Meanwhile, President Obama said the “overwhelming numbers” of Syrian refugees referred to the U.S. by the U.N. are children and women. That’s true, according to data provided by the State Department.

We will first look at Cruz’s comment. Cruz is referring only to 850,000 refugees and migrants — not all from Syria — who have tried to enter Europe by crossing the Mediterranean Sea. About 62 percent of them are men, according to the U.N., not 77 percent, as Cruz said.

More important, they are just a subset of the total Syrian refugee population of more than 4.2 million.

Chris Boian, a spokesman for the UNHCR, told us the refugees crossing into Europe are typically not registered with the U.N. and will not be referred to the U.S.

“It’s very important for people to know there’s a big, big difference between the relative chaotic scene we’ve seen played out in Europe and the resettlement process in the United States,” Boian said.

Boian said those registered with the U.N. and now living in countries such as Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan will be among those who will be referred to the U.S.

As we have written before, the U.N. says there are more than 4 million registered Syrian refugees. The U.N. also provides the demographic makeup of 2.1 million refugees who were registered by the UNHCR in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon. As of Nov. 17, those figures show that 70 percent are female (50.3 percent) and male children under 12 years old (19.7 percent).

Obama, for his part, said in remarks on Nov. 19 in the Philippines that the “overwhelming numbers who have been applying are children, women, families — themselves victims of terrorism.”

We asked the administration for a demographic breakdown of Syrian refugees who are seeking to resettle in the U.S., and it provided a chart that shows 23,826 total applicants — 15,937, or 67 percent, of whom are women (of all ages) and male children (age 0 to 11). Men (age 18 and older) accounted for 25.5 percent.

In short, the demographic breakdown of the Syrian refugees referred to the U.S. is virtually identical to that of the Syrian refugee population at large.

One last thing to consider: Not all 23,826 refugees referred to the U.S. will be admitted to the U.S. The Congressional Research Service says in a February 2015 report that the U.S. typically “aims to consider for resettlement at least half of the refugees” referred by the U.N.
Are Syrian Refugees Steered to Republican States?

Trump suggested the government steers Syrian refugees to states with Republican governors. That theory is not backed up by the data. And officials with groups that actually place the refugees — volunteer, nongovernmental agencies such as World Relief and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops — say placement decisions are based on family ties, employment and other factors, none of which include political considerations.

Trump made his claim during a radio interview on the “Laura Ingraham Show” on Nov. 17.

Trump, Nov. 17: They send them to the Republicans, not to the Democrats, you know, because they know the problems. In California, you have a Democrat as a governor. In Florida, you have Rick Scott [a Republican]. So you know they send them to the Republicans because you know why would we want to bother the Democrats? It’s just insane. Taking these people is absolutely insanity.

Data kept by the Refugee Processing Center show there have been 1,925 Syrian refugees relocated to the U.S. this calendar year (between Jan. 1, 2015, and Nov. 20, 2015). According to our tallies, nearly twice as many of them — 1,275 people — were placed in states with Republican governors than were placed in states with Democratic governors (650 refugees).

But there are also nearly twice as many states with Republican governors — 31 states have Republican governors; 18 have Democratic governors, and Alaska’s governor is an independent. On average, states with Republican governors had just over 41 Syrian refugees each compared with an average of just over 36 in states with Democratic governors. That’s not enough of a difference to suggest much of a trend.

Besides, officials who actually place refugees say Trump’s claim is unfounded. The way it works is that after the State Department has approved a refugee for resettlement in the U.S. — a process that can take up to two years — the refugee is referred to one of nine domestic resettlement agencies, each with a network of affiliates fanned across the country.

It is those resettlement agencies — which gather weekly — that make decisions about where to place new, incoming refugees.

The chief consideration is whether the refugee has family ties in the United States, said Matthew Soerens, a spokesman for World Relief, one of the nine resettlement agencies. If a refugee does, every effort is made to place that person near relatives. That is why, he said, larger numbers of Syrian refugees are placed in Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania and California, where there are small pockets of Syrian Americans.

Absent family ties in the U.S., Soerens said, the agencies try to relocate people where there are available jobs. Each of the nine resettlement agencies works with its network of affiliates spread across the country. In the case of World Relief, an evangelical organization, that network is often through evangelical church organizations.

“The idea that there’s some sort of conspiracy here [to relocate based on the politics of a state], that’s just not the case,” Soerens said. The politics of a state is simply not a consideration, he said.

Stacie Blake, director of government and community relations for the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, another one of the nine agencies that place refugees, said the goal is to find a “welcoming community.” And so consideration is given to factors such as affordable housing, “friendly” employers, medical needs and public transportation.

In her experience, has political consideration ever entered the equation?

“Never ever have I heard of it. Ever,” Blake said.
How Many Syrians Will Be Admitted?

The Obama administration is not preparing to accept anywhere close to 250,000, or even 100,000 Syrian refugees, as some candidates for president have claimed.

At the Sunshine Summit on Nov. 14, Carly Fiorina said she was “angry that President Obama unilaterally decides that we will accept in this nation a hundred thousand Syrian refugees.”

Carson’s super PAC released a TV ad on Nov. 17 with audio of Carson claiming that Obama said “I’m going to bring 100,000 people in here from Syria” by executive order.

And in October, Trump said he “heard” that the Obama administration plans to accept 200,000 Syrian refugees. Trump has since increased the figure. He told those attending a rally in Texas on Nov. 14 that “our president wants to take in 250,000 from Syria.”

Each of those figures is wrong.

During a press briefing on Sept. 10, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters that the president would direct his administration to prepare to accept at least 10,000 refugees from Syria in fiscal year 2016.

This is not done through an executive order, either. Each year, the president, after submitting a proposal to Congress, issues a determination on the number of refugees the country can accept for the fiscal year. The total set to be accepted from around the world in fiscal 2016 is 85,000.

Beyond the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, 2016, Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sept. 20 that the administration’s goal is to increase the maximum number of refugees accepted from around the world to 100,000 in fiscal 2017. But no decision has been made and won’t be made until next year.

So, over the next two fiscal years, it is possible that the U.S. will accept 185,000 total refugees from around the world, but not just from Syria.

— Eugene Kiely, Robert Farley and D’Angelo Gore


http://www.factcheck.org/2015/11/facts-about-the-syrian-refugees/

 

[China Connection]

So 93% of the Muslims the Obama government lets in are the same religion as ISIS.


Now do you think there might be a problem with this????????????????

 

[China Connection]

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Putin Hits West’s Rebels Instead of ISIS
A Russian general told U.S. officials to quit flying over Syria just before Moscow’s air force dropped bombs on Western-backed forces.

A Russian general asked the U.S. to remove its planes from Syrian airspace Wednesday, just hours before Russian airstrikes began there.

The Russian three-star general, who was part of the newly formed intelligence cell with Iraq, Iran, and the Syrian government, arrived in Baghdad at 9 a.m. local time and informed U.S. officials that Russian strikes would be starting imminently—and that the U.S. should refrain from conducting strikes and move any personnel out. The only notice the U.S. received about his visit was a phone call one hour earlier.

The Russian strikes were centered about the city of Homs, according to initial accounts in the local press and in social media. That’s significant, because Homs is not known to be an ISIS stronghold.

"The northern countryside of Hama has no presence of ISIS at all and is under the control of the Free Syrian Army," Major Jamil al-Saleh of the Free Syrian Army told Reuters. U.S. officials corroborated this account to The Daily Beast.

The FSA has receieved U.S.-made anti-tank missiles; the CIA and Pentagon have been recruiting FSA soldiers as proxies against ISIS.

“There is no Islamic State in this area,” another FSA commander told Reuters. “The Russians are applying great pressure on the revolution. This will strengthen terrorism, everyone will head toward extremism. Any support for Assad in this way is strengthening terrorism.”

Even Defense Secretary Ash Carter was forced to acknowledge to reporters that the Russian strikes “were in areas where there probably no [ISIS] forces.”

“What we have seen is strikes against Syrian opposition,” one U.S. defense official told AFP.

The Local Coordination Committees of Syria, opposition-linked on-the-ground monitors of the conflict, estimate that 36 people were killed in Homs alone, one of three largely ISIS-free provinces Russia bombed today. RIA Novosti denied Russian air strikes on Homs and said reports of civilian causalities were "part of an information war."
Vladimir Putin Calls Not Cooperating With Assad an 'Enormous Mistake'
Inform

The Daily Beast’s David Axe notes that Russian surface-to-air missiles and at least four Su-30 fighter jets are designed to attack other air forces, namely the U.S.’s, not lightly armed ground forces like rebels or ISIS.

The Russian defense ministry distributed video of today's airstrikes.
A Russian general told U.S. officials to quit flying over Syria just before Moscow’s air force dropped bombs on Western-backed forces.

As American officials scrambled to confirm the impact of the strikes, they conceded the operation was a rebuke of talks between President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin about deconfliction.
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“This bypasses legitimate discussion,” a senior defense official told The Daily Beast.

Indeed, just yesterday, the Pentagon said it had ordered staff and senior officials to begin such talks. U.S. officials believe fewer than 1,000 Russians have joined ISIS.

Secretary of State John Kerry told the United Nations on Wednesday that the U.S. would not oppose Russian strikes if they were “genuinely” intended to target ISIS, and he maintained the call for Assad to go. Kerry said ISIS cannot be defeated as long as Assad is in power.

American officials said they would not alter their activities in the region. And a spokesman for the military efforts against ISIS tweeted Wednesday morning that “US and coalition aircraft are currently conducting operations in Syria and Iraq.”

But despite the friction between Moscow and Washington—or perhaps, because of it—multiple American officials quietly welcomed Russian involvement in the conflict. As one U.S. officia told The Daily Beast, Putin is stepping into a “quagmire.”

“If he wants to jump into that mess, good luck,” the official said, referencing that Russia had once before become bogged down fighting Islamic terrorism, in Afghanistan.

Sen. John McCain bashed the Obama administration hours after strikes began, saying its “decisions” and “non-decisions” have welcomed Russia into the Middle East in a way “we haven’t seen since 1973.”


http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/30/putin-orders-u-s-jets-out-of-syria.html

 

[China Connection]

Syria’s Sunni muslims need a homeland of their own
David Cameron must provide leadership to isolate Islamic State and remove its malignant influence



Syrian President Bashar Assad, centre, speaks with Syrian troops during his visit to the front line in the eastern Damascus district of Jobar in December 2014
Syrian Sunni's who are stuck between Assad's Shia regime and territory controlled by Isil have been left stateless Photo: SANA/AP

By Tim Collins

7:10PM BST 06 Oct 2015

Comments501 Comments

There is a strong likelihood that – within weeks – Parliament will vote on whether to join the bombing campaign in Syria against the murderous Islamic State (Isil). The Prime Minister can’t give us a date for this vote yet. As he argued, there is a need for a “greater consensus across the House of Commons for that action”. But make no mistake: the consensus is there, and it’s growing.

"For a sportsman to be accused of being too nice is to undermine his very purpose"

Recent history is of course a complicating factor. The last vote in Parliament in 2013 was strongly against bombing Syria, but crucially this was for bombing Assad’s regime. The next vote may be to bomb effectively in support of Assad against a greater evil. Ironically, this bombing would also be in support, among others, of a group wholly owned by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, namely Hizbollah – a group the new Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, calls “friends”.

There was a new twist last week from the Russians. With active support for Assad, they seek to defeat the rebellion against him – and that means hitting our allies, too. In conjunction with Assad and the Iranians, the Russians hope to force us into defeating the threat to both of Iran’s proxies, the Iraqi government and Assad’s regime. And that means destroying the US-trained Free Syrian Army, as well as the Kurds – who we in the UK are arming and training. Add to that the Turkish imperative to bomb the Kurds and one is left wondering: who is fighting Islamic State?

In all this chaos, Vladimir Putin is trying to grab the steering wheel. The reality is that today Assad’s people are still killing more Syrians than Isil – but it is a close thing. It is also clear from intelligence that the US air campaign against the terrorist group has been causing it to change.

While Iraqi Ba’athists remain in firm control and their officers command the majority of the military capability made up of lowly Sunni Arab tribal fighters, their degradation has meant foreign fighters – including British subjects – are rising to command appointments and influential posts. Those who have had contact with the group have identified the British Jihadists as militarily inept, yet by far the most bloodthirsty. These people are increasingly unpalatable to the vast majority of the Sunni tribes who populate Isil territory.

Although the majority of the Isil fighters are Sunni Arab tribal fighters, they are increasingly reluctantly so. Trapped between the Assad Shia regime and the Shia-dominated Iraqi regime, they are effectively stateless. This is a direct result of the invasion of Iraq in 2003. This was a situation that was bound to cause strife. It has handed Isil a constituency. They have driven out the Christians, Yazidis and Druze as well as other minorities, all in order to strengthen their grip.



Now we need a diplomatic effort in tandem with bombing to wrest that constituency back. The Sunni Arabs of the region need a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel, something to hope for if they are ever to rise up against Isil. The minorities need to believe they won’t be slaughtered if they return. The bottom line is that we need to give Syrian and Iraqi Sunni Arabs (as well as Christians, Kurds and Yazidis and others) a homeland free from the control of Iran and its proxies and rid of Isil – a safe place to return to. Hope for jobs, education and dignity. None of that is in Russia or Iran’s plan. It must be the war aim of ours. We have to grab the initiative.

That means carving out a new Arab homeland that is free from external control. Such an entity must take account of the needs and wishes of Turkey, Jordan and Saudi Arabia as well as the Russians, Iran and the Iranian proxies. This plan must be forced through for a just peace.

But will bombing help? There is no doubt we must degrade Isil’s military capability and we must eliminate those who are targeting the UK directly. But I believe that we must tackle Isil as part of a wider campaign to solve the bigger crisis, and to aid our allies – the Free Syrians and the Kurds. We must address the crisis that is generating the refugee wave and which is at the heart of the regional instability.

Sadly, President Obama has displayed a complete lack of leadership in the region. It is clear he is a follower, so there needs to be a leader. I look to David Cameron to step up. We need our other allies in Saudi and Turkey and Jordan to focus and back us up in confronting Assad and defeating Isil. That means accepting and backing a plan for a Sunni homeland. We need to agree demarcation lines with Russia and her ally Iran. That all will need British leadership.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...rias-Sunnis-need-a-homeland-of-their-own.html

 

[China Connection]

A lot meaning nearly all of the stuff in the Media is double talk.


Russia and Bashar Assad are supporting Shia Muslims and ISIS is Sunni so there you have it.

 

[marsh]

you might find these threads interesting
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...-is-flawed-and-lousy-By-Diana-Furchtgott-Roth

http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...-Admin-Gun-Running-Scheme-Armed-Islamic-State

 

[China Connection]

Shia and Sunni Muslims – do you know the difference?
Banner Icon Understand Islam Your Middle East’s Kulsoom Rizvi breaks down the difference between Shia and Sunni Muslims.

Politics, competition, influence and power fuel the current sectarian tensions between Shia and Sunni Muslims, the two main branches of Islam. The root of the hostility is a political question in itself: who is the legitimate successor to the Prophet Muhammed?

Both sects share common religious beliefs: the five pillars of Islam, the Quran and Prophet Muhammed being the last messenger of God. The differences lie mostly in the Shia and Sunni interpretation of the hadiths and sharia law on how Muslims should define and govern themselves. But for the most part, the religious differences are superficial. The conflict and violence is more about political power, where geo-politics intertwines with theology.

FOR CONTEXT The Shia-Sunni divide: Tunnel vision prevails

BAHRAIN
The majority sect in this small Gulf state is Shia. However, the government is dominated by a Sunni monarchy, military and ruling elite. Shia Muslims began protesting for equality and recognition in the 1970s after the British left. The most recent large-scale protests erupted in 2011. Bahrain and its friends in Saudi Arabia retaliated by clamping down on the opposition, killing civilians.



SYRIA
Syrian unrest began with protests against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in March 2011. The ruling elite in this war-torn country belongs to the Alawites, a minority offshoot of Shia Islam. The civil war has exposed underlying grievances between Shia and Sunni.

LEBANON
Lebanon has been relatively stable, but struggles to maintain a balance between its religious and ethnic sects. In the government, the President must be Christian, the prime minister is Sunni and the parliamentary speaker is Shia. Fighting has mostly been concentrated in the Sunni dominated North in small pockets near the Syrian border, with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah aiding and supporting Assad’s regime.

IRAN
The 1979 Iranian Revolution was key to empowering the Shia community. Iran sponsored and encouraged Shia uprisings in Saudi Arabia’s oil rich eastern province. Keeping Syria in power is vital to Iran’s strategic interests in the Middle East. Syria has been the route to sending people, money, and weapons to groups like Hezbollah, a Shia militant group created by Iran. For Iran, it is all about regional interests.

IRAQ
This is the heartland of the global Shia community. For a long time, the majority Shia Muslims were discriminated by the Sunni-dominated regime. After the 2003 war and fall of Saddam Hussein, Shia Muslims stepped into power, targeting Sunni Muslims through government death squads and torture. Sunnis responded with suicide attacks and bombings. The war has amplified tensions between the two, emphasizing growing nationalistic attitudes of Shia Muslims.

SAUDI ARABIA
Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia consistently feels challenged and threatened by Iran in the race for regional power. Iranians are neither Arab nor Sunni. Saudi Arabia fears Iran will stir unrest among the Shia Muslims living in the Gulf.

The information in this article is based on infographics published in a university project paper.

Note: This infographic is based on interviews with a number of Shia and Sunni scholars, experts and academics. This is a controversial and complex issue, with interpretations varying from country to country and person to person.

 

[Adino]

terrorists are not extremists they are fundamentalists and individual muslims may be willing to peacefully coexist w/ non muslim but islam itself does not

 

[China Connection]

Well we will see World War Three out of all this.