NOTE: Pat Buchanan's article Establishment Panic: Ruling class fears the people won't accept its political legitimacy is at http://www.wnd.com/2016/10/an-establishment-in-panic-2/ (1) Hillary's War policy includes US attack on Russian airbase in Syria - Anshel Pfeffer (Haaretz) (2) Russian aerial defenses in Syria restrict the Israeli Air Force (Haaretz) (3) U.S. Rulers think they can win a Nuclear War - John Spritzler (4) Funny how all the architects of the Iraq War endorsed Hillary (5) Royal Air Force Pilots given the OK to shoot down Russian jets over Syria, in defense (6) NATO military build-up on Russia's borders (7) Neocons enacted 9/11 to bring chaos to MidEast, destroying enemies of Israel - Paul Craig Roberts (8) Erdogan complicates US plans for Syia, after US-backed Coup attempt - Israel Shamir (9) Soros' Avaaz mobilizes Americans abroard to vote for Hillary (1) Hillary's War policy includes US attack on Russian airbase in Syria - Anshel Pfeffer (Haaretz) http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/.premium-1.747305 Hillary’s War: Can a No-fly Zone Over Syria Work? If coordinated effectively, the move might save the lives of tens of thousands of civilians and create a new environment for a diplomatic solution. Anshel Pfeffer Oct 19, 2016 9:11 AM At the second presidential debate on Sunday, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton said: "I, when I was Secretary of State, advocated, and I advocate today, a no-fly zone and safe zone." And if it wasn’t clear she actually meant it, she added: "We need some leverage with the Russians, because they are not going to come to the negotiating table for a diplomatic resolution unless there is some leverage over them." What Clinton was advocating was a U.S.-led military intervention to stop Russian and Syrian warplanes bombing civilians in rebel-held areas like Aleppo, even if it meant clashing with Russia. That’s what a no-fly zone means. As secretary of state when the Syrian war began, Clinton knows all this perfectly well. She’s aware of all the implications. Perhaps she was taking such a position to create distance between herself and her Republic opponent Donald Trump, who’s in favor of the Assad regime remaining and takes the Kremlin’s line that in Syria "Russia is killing ISIS" rather than pulverizing civilians who just happen to live in rebel-held areas. [...] The first consideration is timing. The next president will be sworn in on January 20. Assuming it’s Clinton, she will already have an experienced national security team ready to take over and a clear idea of her foreign policy. Theoretically, she could choose to move very quickly. At the current rate of Russian bombing, little may remain by then of eastern Aleppo, and the quarter of a million people still there will have been killed or will have fled. [...] In Syria, there is no prospect of a Security Council resolution, as Russia, which has already vetoed five resolutions condemning the Assad regime, would undoubtedly veto a no-fly zone. There would also be legal issues, as the Assad regime is still the internationally recognized government and Russia’s forces are there at Assad’s invitation. To justify acting without UN backing, the administration would say that the Assad regime has lost any claim to be Syria’s legitimate government due to its war crimes and because it has lost control of most of Syria’s territory and the support of most of its people. To bolster those claims, it would seek the support of key allies to take part in a coalition enforcing the no-fly zone. The obvious candidates are the over 30 nations currently supporting Operation Inherent Resolve led by the United States already fighting the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. Of these nations, the key Western allies are Britain and France. [...] The third key ally would be Turkey [...] Sill, it’s unclear whether Turkey still holds to its pro-no-fly-zone positions. Following the failed coup in July, U.S.-Turkish relations have suffered a downturn as Ankara demands that Washington extradite Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, who it accuses of orchestrating the coup. Meanwhile, Turkey has drawn closer to Russia, with two recent meetings between presidents Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Vladimir Putin. [...] The Assad regime’s air force is in no condition to defy the USAF and other Western air forces with its handful of inferior MiG-21s and MiG-29s. Russia’s contingent is better-equipped of course but consists of only around 40 fixed-wing combat aircraft (and about 20 helicopters) all based at Khmeimim Air Base near Latakia. Most of these are ground-attack planes like the Sukhoi Su-25, poorly equipped to survive air-to-air encounters. According to most assessments, Russia has only about 10 dedicated air-superiority fighters in Syria – a mixture of Sukhoi Su-30 and Su-35s. These are Russia’s best fighters, comparable to Western F-15s, Typhoons and Rafales. But they would be outnumbered and without the massive array of support aircraft the American-led coalition would have. They thus would have little chance of resisting for more than a few hours. They would also be limited by the fact that their one base in the region – Khmeimin (the other Syrian air bases are too dilapidated to sustain advanced operations) – has a sole runway that can be disabled by an American airstrike. [...] A no-fly zone over Syria would "require war with Syria and Russia," Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned last month. In 2013, Clinton herself said in one of the emails hacked by the Russians and published by WikiLeaks that "to have a no-fly zone you have to take out all of the air defenses, many of which are located in populated areas. So our missiles, even if they are standoff missiles so we’re not putting our pilots at risk – you’re going to kill a lot of Syrians." While these eventualities must be taken into account, they don’t necessarily have to happen if rules of engagement are established and followed. The Russians and the Assad regime could simply decide not to send aircraft into the no-fly zone and avoid being shot down. And their anti-aircraft batteries could refrain from locking on to the coalition’s aircraft and avoid being attacked. Either way, if Russia responds in Syria or backs down, it will be humiliated. This may be the "leverage" Clinton spoke of that will force Moscow to agree to a cease-fire including an enforceable commitment to cease bombing civilian areas. But Russia could respond in an operation against Ukraine or in an ever bigger provocation against the West, against NATO members in the Baltic, or intensify its cyberattacks on the United State beyond its current hacking of the presidential election. Is diplomacy still possible to let Russia climb down before it obliterates Aleppo? If so, Kerry’s unceasing efforts have failed to find a way. Acting with impunity One of the main arguments against imposing a no-fly zone is that it could dangerously escalate into a confrontation between nuclear powers. The counterargument is that the West can’t let Russia leverage its nuclear capability and act with impunity anywhere, and that if diplomacy and sanctions have failed, the West must be prepared at some point to use its much stronger military. But where is that point? If the West failed to prevent Russia from attacking Georgia in 2008, from attacking Ukraine and occupying Crimea in 2014, and now won’t attack when Russia is killing thousands in Syria, where is that point? Russia, with its rapidly shrinking economy, is hardly in a position to open an all-out war with the United States simply to keep Assad in power. And if Putin actually is capable of doing so, all the more reason for blocking him sooner rather than later. But if successful in the air, what effect would a no-fly zone have on the ground? The casualty figures in Syria are hotly contested. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 3,915 civilians were killed in the first 12 months of Russia’s involvement in Syria. This is "only" 1 percent of around 400,000 killed, including fighters and civilians in five and a half years of war in Syria. But it doesn’t include those killed in the last few weeks in the bombing of Aleppo, and it includes only confirmed victims. So the actual number is likely to be much higher, especially when including people wounded and later dying due to a lack of medical care caused by Russia’s targeted bombing of medical centers. And there are the casualties caused throughout the war by Assad’s airstrikes, a number almost certainly in the tens of thousands. A no-fly zone would save the lives of tens of thousands more civilians who would be killed if the bombardments continued, but it wouldn’t end the fighting and bloodshed. To do so, the no-fly zone must indeed be used to create the leverage that would allow a more enforceable and stable cease-fire than the previous failed ones. Critics of a no-fly zone claim that it would create a vacuum on the ground that would let the Islamic State and other jihadi groups take control of Syria. This is an empty claim as ISIS is now on the back foot; many of its forces have been killed or retreated to strongholds around Raqqa and Mosul. A no-fly zone doesn’t have to mean diverting forces attacking the Islamic State as part of Operation Inherent Resolve. Neither is it a cover for "regime change" in Damascus. It’s true that before Russian warplanes arrived in Syria in September 2015, the Assad regime was on the brink of collapse. But while Russia’s operation hasn’t succeeded by any means in ending resistance to the regime, it has significantly weakened the rebel groups that have largely been on the defensive ever since. In the near future, and end to airstrikes on rebel-held areas won’t be enough to let the rebels threaten the regime, which in the last year has been reinforced by tens of thousands of Iranian-led Shi’ite-militia fighters. If Clinton is indeed serious about what she says and the United States and its allies imposed a no-fly zone effectively, the move might save the lives of tens of thousands of Syrian civilians and create a new environment for reaching a diplomatic solution. It could also be the move that finally checked Putin’s aggression in the region and elsewhere. Israel on the sidelines As in the past, Washington won’t be asking its closest ally in the Middle East to join a military coalition there. For all the changes in the region, Israel as an official member of a group of nations operating in an Arab country is still unthinkable. Israel would undoubtedly provide intelligence and other quiet technological cooperation, but overt collaboration would be too much for any "moderate" Arab countries in the coalition, even if they cooperate with Israel on other matters. Israel would also be wary of any open alliance with the coalition due to its successful coordination over the last year with Russia. Despite initial fears that the Russian presence would limit Israel’s own operations against Hezbollah, a series of meetings between Benjamin Netanyahu and Putin laid the foundations for an orderly "deconfliction" process between the countries’ militaries. While the United States will remain Israel’s most important strategic ally, this is one conflict that Israel will resolutely keep out of. For once, this is something all sides will be happy to agree on. (2) Russian aerial defenses in Syria restrict the Israeli Air Force (Haaretz) http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.748549 Without Effort, Russia Restricted the Strongest Air Force in the Middle East New Russian systems in Syria track every Israeli fighter right on takeoff, thus limiting operational freedom against Hezbollah ? Amos Harel Oct 23, 2016 9:02 AM Over the past few weeks, Russia has finished beefing up its aerial defenses in northern Syria. The Washington Post, after interviewing American experts, published a map last week showing the estimated radius of coverage of Russia’s S-300 and S-400 systems, which are bolstered by anti-aircraft missiles on ships in the port of Tartus. The 380-kilometer radius covers Lebanon, much of Turkey and Jordan, the eastern Mediterranean until out beyond Cyprus, a bit of Iraq, and Israel all the way to the northern Negev. The paper said the Pentagon isn’t sure whether, if necessary, it could penetrate these aerial defense systems, since the question hasn’t yet arisen. Presumably, America has electronic warfare systems capable of disrupting even dense anti-aircraft coverage. But the Post said Russia’s coverage limits Washington’s ability not only to launch air strikes on Syrian military targets, but also to create no-fly zones to protect civilians, an idea both U.S. presidential candidates say they support. Russia’s beefed-up deployment also affects Israel, which, according to foreign media reports, has launched numerous air strikes on arms convoys from Syria to Hezbollah in recent years. Based on the Washington Post’s map, an Israeli plane couldn’t take off from Tel Nof airbase without being tagged by Russian radar. Ever since it destroyed Syria’s anti-aircraft systems in 1982, Israel’s air force has enjoyed absolute aerial superiority (and therefore, almost complete freedom of action) on the northern front. But that effectively ended the moment Russia decided to beef up its aerial defenses around Tartus. Almost without effort, the Russians managed to restrict the strongest air force in the Middle East. The limitations aren’t just military, but also diplomatic. Israel and Russia have set up a mechanism to prevent clashes in Syrian airspace, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin four times over the last year to further that purpose. Having no other choice, Netanyahu has nurtured his Russian romance. But in reality, this romance is about as romantic as Donald Trump’s groping of women. It’s a romance to which Israel was forced to consent once the Russian bear decided to move into its backyard. [...] (3) U.S. Rulers think they can win a Nuclear War - John Spritzler http://newdemocracyworld.org/war/nuclear.html Why U.S. Rulers don't fear Nuclear WWIII with Russia by John Spritzler October 23, 2016 The United States government has escalated the Cold War against Russia: demonizing Putin as the new Hitler, imposing sanctions on Russian leaders, implementing aggressive NATO military expansion to Russia's border including installing an anti-ballistic missile "defense" that is actually a key component of an offensive nuclear strike, and threatening to impose a no-fly zone in Syria that would entail shooting down Russian aircraft. Many people have been warning that this American escalation of hostility against Russia alarmingly increases the likelihood of a U.S. war with Russia that would become a thermonuclear WWIII. Others say that the risk of thermonuclear war is not really anything to worry about because both U.S. and Russian leaders know that a nuclear war would result in Mutual Assured Destruction (M.A.D.)--the annihilation of both nations (not to mention possibly the end of the human race)--and therefore they won't let nuclear war break out (i.e., "Move along, nothing to see here.") Some Russia experts living in the United States, in contrast, have warned [ http://thesaker.is/a-russian-warning/ ] that Russia has the nuclear capability of killing virtually the entire American population and that: "If there is going to be a war with Russia, then the United States will most certainly be destroyed, and most of us will end up dead." Russia's nuclear retaliatory ability is described in "How Russia is preparing for WWIII" [ http://thesaker.is/how-russia-is-preparing-for-wwiii/ ], in which the author writes of one Russian missile: "Take the Kalibr cruise-missile recently seen in the war in Syria. Did you know that it can be shot from a typical commerical container, like the ones you will find on trucks, trains or ships? Check out this excellent video [ at https://youtu.be/mbUU_9bOcnM ] which explains this. "Just remember that the Kalibr has a range of anywhere between 50km to 4000km and that it can carry a nuclear warhead. How hard would it be for Russia to deploy these cruise missiles right off the US coast in regular container ships? Or just keep a few containers in Cuba or Venezuela? This is a system which is so undetectable that the Russians could deploy it off the coast of Australia to hit the NSA station in Alice Springs if they wanted, and nobody would even see it coming. "The reality is that the notion that the US could trigger a war against Russia (or China for that matter) and not suffer the consequences on the US mainland is absolutely ridiculous." How, then, can one explain presumably rational (even if evil) people such as President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton engaging in warmongering against Russia that has no actual justification in International Law, when this warmongering might very well lead to thermonuclear war with Russia? WHY THEY DON'T FEAR NUCLEAR WWIII I think I know the explanation. It is provided by the following two articles, each of which is by the same two co-authors. In 2006 Foreign Affairs, the journal of the Council on Foreign Relations (whose honorary chairman is David Rockefeller) had an article titled "The Rise of U.S. Nuclear Primacy" by Keir A. Lieber and Daryl G. Press [ https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2006-03-01/rise-us-nuclear-primacy ]. The authors subsequently defended and elaborated on their 2006 article in a 2013 article in Strategic Studies Quarterly [ http://www18.georgetown.edu/data/people/kal25/publication-69263.pdf ] titled, "The New Era of Nuclear Weapons, Deterrence, and Conflict." Because it is more recent, I'll quote only from the 2013 article. The authors write: "First, technological innovation has dramatically improved the ability of states to launch "counterforce" attacks—that is, military strikes aimed at disarming an adversary by destroying its nuclear weapons. "Perhaps most surprising, pairing highly accurate delivery systems with nuclear weapons permits target strategies that would create virtually no radioactive fallout, hence, vastly reduced fatalities. For nuclear analysts weaned on two seeming truths of the Cold War era—that nuclear arsenals reliably deter attacks via the threat of retaliation, and that nuclear weapons use is tantamount to mass slaughter—the implications of the counterforce revolution should be jarring. "Most Cold War strategists—many of whom are still active in the nuclear analytical community today—came to instinctively associate nuclear weapons with stalemate and nuclear use with Armageddon. But nuclear weapons—like virtually all other weapons—have changed dramatically over the past four decades. Modern guidance systems permit nuclear planners to achieve "probabilities of damage" against hardened nuclear targets that were unheard of during the Cold War. And heightened accuracy also permits nontraditional targeting strategies that would further increase the effectiveness of counterforce strikes and greatly reduce casualties." Clearly the Russia experts cited above strongly disagree with the authors of the Foreign Affairs and Strategic Studies Quarterly articles. I do not claim to know who is right. But what I believe is not nearly as important as what the American ruling class and its agents, President Obama and Secretary of State [and likely soon-to-be President] Clinton believe. They apparently believe that the Foreign Affairs and Strategic Studies Quarterly articles are essentially correct--that a U.S. nuclear first strike against Russia will not lead to the mass slaughter of Americans (or even of Russians) since "technological innovation" now allows the U.S. to "accurately" destroy (remember Donald Rumsfeld's "surgical strikes" in Iraq?) Russia's nuclear weapons with "virtually no radioactive fallout" and "vastly reduced fatalities." This is why it is not unreasonable or far-fetched to worry that the American ruling class is deliberately aiming to get into a WWIII with Russia (and possibly its ally, China.) But what is the U.S. ruling class trying to achieve? WHY THE WARMONGERING AGAINST RUSSIA? One of the main U.S. foreign policy strategists is Zbigniew Brzezinski. David Rockefeller made Brzezinski the Executive Director of the Trilateral Commission, which is the sister to the Council on Foreign Relations for the U.S., Europe and Japan, when the two of them co-founded it in 1973. In his 2016 article, "Toward a Global Realignment," [ http://www.the-american-interest.com/2016/04/17/toward-a-global-realignment/ ] Brzezinski says: "Russia’s own future depends on its ability to become a major and influential nation-state that is part of a unifying Europe." About Europe, Brzezinski says in the same article: "The fourth verity is that Europe is not now and is not likely to become a global power. But it can play a constructive role in taking the lead in regard to transnational threats to global wellbeing and even human survival. Additionally, Europe is politically and culturally aligned with and supportive of core U.S. interests in the Middle East, and European steadfastness within NATO is essential to an eventually constructive resolution of the Russia-Ukraine crisis." In other words, in the new world order Europe shall remain under the economic and political hegemony of the United States ruling class, and Russia shall be a part of Europe. And since the Russian leaders today are not cooperating with this "Global Realignment" then some military force is called for; hence the warmongering. [...] John Spritzler http://newdemocracyworld.org http://www.pdrboston.org (4) Funny how all the architects of the Iraq War endorsed Hillary From: bronek <bronekc@me.com> Subject: Fwd: Funny how all the architects of the Iraq War endorsed Hillary Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2016 16:45:05 -0400 Architects of the illegal war against Iraq: Paul Wolfowitz, Robert Kagan, Douglas Feith, Michael Chertoff, Eliot A. Cohen, Max Boot, Michael Ledeen, John Podhoretz, Richard Perle, William Kristol, David Frum, Elliott Abrams, David Wurmser, Dov Zakhein, Marc Grossman, Alan Dershowitz. (5) Royal Air Force Pilots given the OK to shoot down Russian jets over Syria, in defense From: chris lancenet <chrislancenet@gmail.com> Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2016 07:12:34 +0900 Subject: Royal Air Force Pilots Ordered To Shoot Down "Hostile" Russian Jets Over Syria | Zero Hedge http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-13/royal-air-force-pilots-ordered-shoot-down-hostile-russian-jets-over-syria As the US officially enters the Yemen military campaign, the UK appears ready and willing to precipiate a catalytic event from which there is no going back. With relations between Russia and the West at post-Cold War lows and deteriorating fast, Royal Air Force (RAF) pilots have been given the go-ahead to shoot down Russian military jets when flying missions over Syria and Iraq, if they are endangered by them. The development comes with warnings that the UK and Russia are now "one step closer" to being at war, according to the Sunday Times. While the RAF's Tornado pilots have been instructed to avoid contact with Russian aircraft while engaged in missions for Operation Shader, the codename for the RAF's anti-Isis work in Iraq and Syria, their aircraft have been armed with air-to-air missiles and the pilots have been given the green light to defend themselves if they are threatened by Russian pilots. "The first thing a British pilot will do is to try to avoid a situation where an air-to-air attack is likely to occur — you avoid an area if there is Russian activity," an unidentified source from the UK's Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ) told the Sunday Times. "But if a pilot is fired on or believes he is about to be fired on, he can defend himself. We now have a situation where a single pilot, irrespective of nationality, can have a strategic impact on future events." Where things get tricky is the qualifier "if he believes he is about to be fired on" - since this makes open engagement a function of threat evaluation in real time during stressed conditions, the likelihood of an escalation that could result in two warplanes shooting at each other, just jumped significantly. The RAF Tornados aircraft will be armed with heat-seeking Advanced Short Range Air-to-Air Missiles (Asraams, also called AIM-132 missiles), the IBT adds. These weapons, which cost £200,000 each, have a longer range than other air-to-air missiles, allowing RAF pilots to shoot down enemy aircraft without being targeted themselves. Providing cover to the largely underreported, if substantial escalation, according to the Sunday Times report an appraisal carried out by UK defence officials said: "It took six days for Russia to strike any Isis targets at all. Their air strikes have included moderate opposition groups who have been fighting to defend their areas from Isis. Among the targets hit were three field hospitals." In the past 24 hours Russia's Defence Ministry said that it has continued its air strikes on IS positions in Hama, Idlib, Latakia and Raqqa. It reported that the attacks resulted in the "complete destruction" of "53 fortified areas and strong points with armament and military hardware", seven ammunition depots, four field camps of "terrorists", one command centre, and artillery and mortar batteries. Russia has countered that US airstrikes have failed to make much of an impact on ISIS targets, and as reported last month, a "mistaken" strike by the US coalition forces killed over 60 Syrian soldiers in a move Russia accused of being a provocation to war. The Sunday Times' report quoted a defence source as saying: "Up till now RAF Tornados have been equipped with 500lb satellite-guided bombs — there has been no or little air-to-air threat. But in the last week the situation has changed. We need to respond accordingly." But another source of the original story summarized the severity of the situation best when he said that "we need to protect our pilots but at the same time we're taking a step closer to war. It will only take one plane to be shot down in an air-to-air battle and the whole landscape will change." (6) NATO military build-up on Russia's borders http://www.reuters.com/article/us-nato-russia-idUSKCN12P31W Wed Oct 26, 2016 | 12:43pm EDT Britain, U.S. sending planes, troops to deter Russia in the east Belgium, October 26, 2016. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir By Robin Emmott and Phil Stewart | BRUSSELS Britain said on Wednesday it will send fighter jets to Romania next year and the United States promised troops, tanks and artillery to Poland in NATO's biggest military build-up on Russia's borders since the Cold War. Germany, Canada and other NATO allies also pledged forces at a defense ministers meeting in Brussels on the same day two Russian warships armed with cruise missiles entered the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Denmark, underscoring East-West tensions. In Madrid, the foreign ministry said Russia had withdrawn a request to refuel three warships in Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta after NATO allies said they could be used to target civilians in Syria. The ships were part of an eight-ship carrier battle group - including Russia's sole aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov - that is expected to join around 10 other Russian vessels already off the Syrian coast, diplomats said. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the troop contributions to a new 4,000-strong force in the Baltics and eastern Europe were a measured response to what the alliance believes are some 330,000 Russian troops stationed on Russia's western flank near Moscow. "This month alone, Russia has deployed nuclear-capable Iskander missiles to Kaliningrad and suspended a weapons-grade plutonium agreement with the United States," Stoltenberg said, also accusing Russia of continued support for rebels in Ukraine. Those ballistic missiles can hit targets across Poland and the Baltics, although NATO officials declined to say if Russia had moved nuclear warheads to Kaliningrad. NATO's aim is to make good on a July promise by NATO leaders to deter Russia in Europe's ex-Soviet states, after Moscow orchestrated the annexation of the Crimea peninsula in 2014. NATO's plan is to set up four battle groups with a total of some 4,000 troops from early next year, backed by a 40,000-strong rapid-reaction force, and if need be, follow-on forces. As part of that, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced a "battle-ready battalion task force" of about 900 soldiers would be sent to eastern Poland, as well as another, separate force equipped with tanks and other heavy equipment to move across eastern Europe. "It's a major sign of the U.S. commitment to strengthening deterrence here," Carter said. Britain's Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said Britain would send an 800-strong battalion to Estonia, supported by French and Danish troops, starting from May. The United States wants its troops in position by June. London is also sending Typhoon fighter aircraft to Romania to patrol around the Black Sea, partly in support of Turkey. "Although we are leaving the European Union, we will be doing more to help secure the eastern and southern flanks of NATO," Fallon said. SYRIAN SHADOW Others NATO allies joined the four battle groups led by the United States, Germany, Britain and Canada to go to Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. Canada said it was sending 450 troops to Latvia, joined by 140 military personnel from Italy. Germany said it was sending between 400 and 600 troops to Lithuania, with additional forces from the Netherlands, Norway, Belgium, Croatia and Luxembourg. Stoltenberg said allies' commitments would be "a clear demonstration of our transatlantic bond." Diplomats said it would also send a message to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has complained that European allies do not pay their way in the alliance. For the Kremlin, the U.S.-led alliance's plans are already too much given Russia's grievances at NATO's expansion eastwards, although Stoltenberg denied going too far. But NATO's troop announcements in the Baltic states and Poland were partly overshadowed by the dispute about whether Spain should refuel the Russian warships, which was later resolved by Moscow's decision to withdraw its request. NATO's tensions with Russia have been building since Crimea and the West's decision to impose retaliatory sanctions. But the breakdown of a U.S-Russia brokered ceasefire in Syria on Oct. 3, followed by U.S. accusations that Russia has used cyber attacks to disrupt the presidential election, have signaled a worsening of ties. Even before the break down of the Syrian ceasefire, Russian President Vladimir Putin suspended a treaty with Washington on cleaning up weapons-grade plutonium, signaling he was willing to use nuclear disarmament as a new bargaining chip in disputes with the United States over Ukraine and Syria. (Additional reporting by Sabine Siebold; Editing by Tom Heneghan) (7) Neocons enacted 9/11 to bring chaos to MidEast, destroying enemies of Israel - Paul Craig Roberts http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-real-humanitarian-crisis-is-not-aleppo-the-crisis-is-washington-loosing-its-isis-mercenaries/5551530 The Real Humanitarian Crisis Is Not Aleppo. The Crisis is Washington Loosing its ISIS Mercenaries By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts Global Research, October 18, 2016 Why do we hear only of the "humanitarian crisis in Aleppo" and not of the humanitarian crisis everywhere else in Syria where the evil that rules in Washington has unleashed its ISIL mercenaries to slaughter the Syrian people? Why do we not hear about the humanitarian crisis in Yemen where the US and its Saudi Arabian vassal are slaughtering Yemeni women and children? Why don’t we hear about the humanitarian crisis in Libya where Washington destroyed a country leaving chaos in its place? Why don’t we hear about the humanitarian crisis in Iraq, ongoing now for 13 years, or the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan now 15 years old? The answer is that the crisis in Aleppo is the crisis of Washington losing its ISIL mercenaries to the Syrian army and Russian air force. The jihadists sent by Obama and the killer Hillary ("We came, we saw, he died") to destroy Syria are being themselves destroyed. The Obama regime and the Western presstitutes are trying to save the jihadists by covering them in the blanket of "humanitarian crisis." Such hypocrisy is standard fare for Washington. If the Obama regime gave a hoot about "humanitarian crisis," the Obama regime would not have orchestrated humanitarian crisis in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Yemen. We are in the middle of a presidential campaign in the US and no one has asked why the US is determined to overthrow a democratically elected Syrian government that is supported by the Syrian people. No one has asked why the White House Fool is empowered to remove the president of Syria by siccing US-supplied jihadists, which the presstitutes misrepresent as "moderate rebels," on the Syrian people. Washington, of course, has no acceptable answer to the question, and that is why the question is not asked. The answer to the question is that Washington’s strategy for destabilizing Iran and then the Muslim provinces of the Russian Federation, former Soviet central Asia, and the Muslim province of China is to replace stable governments with the chaos of jihadism. Iraq, Libya, and Syria had stable secular societies in which the government’s strong hand was used to prevent sectarian strife between Muslim sects. By overthrowing these secular governments and the current effort to overthrow Assad, Washington released the chaos of terrorism. There was no terrorism in the Middle East until Washington brought it there with invasions, bombings, and torture. Jihadists such as those that Washington used to overthrow Gaddafi appeared in Syria when the British Parliament and the Russian government blocked Obama’s planned invasion of Syria. As Washington was prevented from directly attacking Syria, Washington used mercenaries. The prostitutes that pretend to be an American media obliged Washington with the propaganda that the jihadist terrorists are Syrian democrats rebelling against "the Assad dictatorship." This transparant and blatant lie has been repeated so many times that it now is confused with truth. Syria has no connection whatsoever to Washington’s original justification for introducing violence into the Middle East. The original justification was 9/11 which was used to invade Afghanistan on the fabrication that the Taliban was shielding Osama bin Laden, the "mastermind," who at the time was dying of renal failure in a Pakistani hospital. Osama bin Laden was a CIA asset who was used against the Soviets in Afghanistan. He was not the perpetrator of 9/11. And most certainly, neither were the Taliban. But the Western presstitutes covered up for the Bush regime’s lie, and the public was deceived with the phrase that we must "defeat them abroad before they attack us at home." Of course, Muslims were not going to attack us at home. If Muslims are a threat, why does the US government keep bringing so many of them here as refugees from Washington’s wars against Muslims? 9/11 was the neoconservatives "new Pearl Harbor" that they wrote they needed in order to launch their wars in the Middle East. George W. Bush’s first Secretary of the Treasury said that the topic of Bush’s first cabinet meeting was the invasion of Iraq. This was prior to 9/11.  In other words, Washington’s wars in the Middle East were planned prior to 9/11. The neoconservatives are zionists. By reducing the Middle East to chaos they achieve both of their goals. They remove organized opposition to Israeli expansion, and they create jihadism that can be used to destabilize countries such as Russia, Iran, and China that are in the way of their exercise of unilateral power, which, they believe, the Soviet collapse bequeathed to the "indispensable nation," the USA. Osama bin Laden, the alleged 9/11 mastermind, was dying, not directing a terror war against the US from a cave in Afghanistan. The Taliban were focused on establishing their rule in Afghanistan, not on attacking the West. After blowing up weddings, funerals, and childrens’ soccer games, Washington moved on to Iraq. There was no sign of Iraqi beligerance toward the US. UN weapons inspectors said that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but Washington did not hear. The whores who comprise the American media helped the Bush regime create the image of a nuclear mushroom cloud going up over America if the US did not invade Iraq. Iraq had no nuclear weapons and everyone knew it, but facts were irrelevant. There was an agenda at work, an undeclared agenda. To advance its agenda that the government did not dare reveal, the government used fear. "We have to kill them over there before they kill us over here." So Iraq, a stable, progressive country was reduced to ruins. Libya was next. Gaddafi would not join Washington’s Africa Command. Moreover, China was developing the oil fields in eastern Libya. Washington was already troubled by Russia’s presence in the Mediterranean and did not want China there also. So Gaddafi had to go. Next Assad was set up with faked evidence that he had used chemical weapons against the rebellion that Washington had started. No one believed the transparant Washington lie, not even the British Parliament. Unable to find support to cover an invasion, Killary the Psychopath sent the jihadists Washington used to destroy Libya to overthrow Assad. The Russians, who until this point had been so naive and gullible as to trust Washington, finally figured out that the instability that Washington was brewing was directed at them. The Russian government decided that Syria was their red line and, at the request of the Syrian government, intervened against the Washington-supported jihadists. Washington is outraged and is now threatening to commit yet another criminal violation of the Nuremberg Standard with blatant aggression against Syria. Such an ill-advised step would bring Washington into military conflict with Russia and by implication with China. Before Europeans enable Washington to initiate such a dangerous conflict, they had best consider the warning from Sergey Karaganov, a member of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Foreign Policy and Defense council: "Russia will never again fight on its own territory. If NATO initiates an encroachment against a nuclear power like ourselves, NATO will be punished." That the government of the United States is criminally insane should frighten every person on earth. Killary-Hillary is commited to conflict with Russia. Regardless, Obama, the presstitutes, and the Democratic and Republican establishments are doing everything in their power to put into the Oval Office the person who will maximize conflict with Russia. The life of the planet is in the hands of the criminally insane. This is the real humanitarian crisis. Notes: Lt. General Michael Flynn, director of the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency stated in an interview that the creation of ISIS was "a willful Washington decision." See, for example: https://www.rt.com/usa/312050-dia-flynn-islamic-state/  Also: http://russia-insider.com/en/secret-pentagon-report-reveals-us-created-isis-tool-overthrow-syrias-president-assad/ri7364 The DIA warned that ISIS would result in a Salafist principality over parts of Iraq and Syria. http://www.judicialwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Pg.-291-Pgs.-287-293-JW-v-DOD-and-State-14-812-DOD-Release-2015-04-10-final-version11.pdf   The warning went unheeded as the neoconservative Obama regime saw ISIS as a strategic asset to be used against Syria. (8) Erdogan complicates US plans for Syia, after US-backed Coup attempt - Israel Shamir From: "Israel Shamir adam@israelshamir.net [shamireaders]" Date: Sat, 29 Oct 2016 10:00:32 +0300 Subject: [shamireaders] Erdogan consolidates his power, by Israel Shamir http://www.globalresearch.ca/erdogan-consolidates-his-power/5553746 Erdogan Consolidates His Power ISRAEL SHAMIR OCTOBER 29, 2016 Turkey is restless. President Erdogan is consolidating his power, trying to get rid of Parliament’s bothersome interference. He intends to reformat Turkey into a presidential republic, assuming the powers of an American president. He wants to be a Caliph, the people in Istanbul jest, and call him "Sultan Erdogan". And the failed July coup has been used as the pretext for a huge purge in the power structure. However, the result may be better than many observers expect. That much I learned during my visit to Turkey, where I was given an opportunity to meet Turkish members of parliament, ministers and chief editors of the major mass media. I expected the failed coup belongs to history, but I was mistaken. Its shadow lays heavily on everyday events in the country. I was shown the debris in the parliament, where a bomb dropped by the putschists fell; there is a photo exhibition showing previous successful military coups with a horrible picture of President Menderes on the gallows. The Turkish coups weren’t vegetarian. The army intented to keep power for itself and for its NATO allies. The July coup caused death of 240 people, half of them killed at the Bosporus bridge in a confrontation with the army. It is not much compared with the successful coup in Egypt, where the victims were counted in the thousands; and where the army defeated the legitimately elected moderate-Islamist President Morsi. After the coup, Erdogan began the purge of Gulenists, or Fethullists, as they call the followers of Fethullah Gülen, the father of moderate Turkish political Islam and the creator of the vast school network reaching 160 countries. They were supposed to be the initiators of the coup. It is not really clear whether Gülen and his followers were behind the coup, but they are definitely enemies of Erdogan. The purge is not bloody but painful: the purged Gulenists aren’t shot, but they lose their jobs and often land in jail. Some seventy or eighty thousand men have been purged, 35,000 are imprisoned. They are judges, army officers, officials and many teachers. 500 persons have been purged from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, some of them refusing to return home when called back. The state of emergency had been declared right after the coup and it was extended a few days ago for an additional three months. Such emergency justice is notoriously blind: one judge died three months before the coup, but he still was purged for his participation in the coup. Some companies belonging to Gulenists had their assets confiscated, while their obligations and debts remained with their dispossessed owners. It is difficult to defend oneself against such moot accusations as Gulenism. The Turks answer with a salubrious joke referring to ‘blind justice’: "A blind man screws whomever he can catch". The government claims that the Gulenists formed a conspiratorial organisation called FETO, and described it as "a terrorist organisation." They compare it to Daesh (ISIS), to the Medellin Cartel and (surprise!) to the Jesuits. However, it is hard to comprehend in what way the Gulenists were terrorists. The worst thing they are accused of is fraudulently obtaining examination tickets for the civil service and thus securing good positions for their followers. This is surely not cricket, but hardly an act of terror. How can one unmask a Gulenist? This is not an easy task, but there are a few cues to revealing a crypto-Gulenist. Users of the ByLock messenger system are suspicious. This amateur messenger had been popular with Gülen followers and with some people implicated in the coup. One hundred fifty thousand users of ByLock are being screened. This messenger system had been hacked by the state security services some time ago, for it was very light on security. Afterwards, the plotters switched to the professional WhatsApp messenger. That one offered good security, but it was enough to seize a smartphone of one plotter to gain access to the rest. Another way to unmask a crypto-Gulenist is to locate the one dollar bill a follower of Gülen received from his guru. I was told by a member of parliament that a true Gulenist often sews his one dollar bill into his underwear, close to his skin. This idea has been pioneered by Lubawitscher Rebbe of the Chabad Hassids. The late Menachem Mendel Schneersohn also gave away dollar bills and even blessed vodka for his Hassids’ consumption. He conversed with God, and so did Gülen – according to his followers and adversaries. Hassids also tried to obtain influence, with considerable success – but they were never called "terrorists." Gülen had been, and remains a very powerful figure in the Turkic-speaking world, especially in the ex-USSR and China, from Tatarstan and Yakutia to Sinkiang (Xinjiang). Youths from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan studied in his schools as well. The Gülen movement had been considered the leading moderate pro-Western branch of political Islam. Practically all modern Islamists of Turkey passed through his schools. He was the most important ally of Erdogan in his uphill fight against the violently secular Kemalists who ruled Turkey until 2002. It is being said that the Kemalists were quite pro-American, but they refused to privatise public assets. Erdogan and Gülen were equally pro-American, and they accepted the idea of massive privatisation and sale of assets to American and other Western companies. Much of Turkish wealth is now in the foreign hands, and this is what inhibits Erdogan’s U-turn towards Russia. While Erdogan and Gülen were friends and partners, Gülen helped Erdogan cut the secular and all-powerful army generals down to size. His followers, well established in the legal branch of government, organised the Ergenikon affair. They had claimed to have discovered a vast ultra-nationalist terrorist conspiracy called Ergenikon and sent 43 generals and many politicians to jail. Erdogan was amazed by this feat of Gülen, amazed and frightened, as this old man from Pennsylvania apparently controlled the legal system of the Republic from police to attorneys to courts. Indeed Erdogan had good reason to be afraid. In 2013, Gülen demanded that Erdogan let him fill one hundred seats in the Parliament, and when he was refused, he unleashed his legal machine upon his old buddy. In December 2013 Gülen followers in the police and the attorney general office accused the Erdogan government ministers of corruption. Among the accused there was Bilal, Erdogan’s son, and personal friends of Erdogan. Instead of trying to refute the accusations and argue the cases in courts, Erdogan described the accusations as "an attempted coup." He went to people, traveled the country, appealed to the masses, and the masses supported him. He forced the police and the courts to close the cases, and began his de-Gulenisation of Turkey. For people brought up with the concept of Supremacy of Law, this feels like a travesty of the normal order of things. However, the Law is not better than the Legislative or the Executive, it is less democratic, it is less connected to an ordinary citizen, it is more connected to the real power of money. In the US, there is no Gülen or Gulenists, but the judges beginning in the Supreme Court can disregard the people’s will as we observed when they pushed for same-sex marriages or for the right of corporations to buy candidates. They are the Deep State, so their uprooting is not bad an idea. Yes, we want justice, but we want democracy, too. Once, the US judges were all elected, all connected to the people, but not anymore. In Turkey, Gülen had been too successful in promoting his people to legal positions; he had lost the people’s support. And the Turks were ready to forgive Erdogan even some very real corruption: they felt he cared for the people, while Gülen and his followersdid not. For the legal system, corruption is a crime, and a corrupt politician must go to jail. If a politician is not corrupt, he can be sentenced for an indecent proposal to a woman. Thus the legal system has the power to block any politician, to override the political democratic process. Erdogan succeeded in overriding the legal system. After his victory in December 2013, Erdogan accused Gülen and his followers of having created Ergenekon affair and arresting many innocent people. Generals and politicians regained freedom. In Ankara, I’ve met a leader of the Republican Kemalist parliamentary faction, Mustafa Ali Balbai. This handsome, wiry, muscular European-looking (as many Turks do) man did five years in jail for his alleged involvement in Ergenekon conspiracy. He was elected to parliament while still a prisoner, and lately had been freed. "Now the judges who sentenced me are in jail themselves", he said cheerfully. Did the Ergenekon plot exist at all? I asked the chief editor of CNN Turk, a powerful network, that played the key role in neutralisation of the July coup. "There was a core of a plot, a tiny core, and it was blown into a monster that it never was", he said. In other words, there was a conspiracy, but a conspiracy of judges and of security services, the most frequent sort of conspiracy. As for present purges of alleged Gulenists, one number tells a lot about its extent. The Ankara police had received forty thousand tips denouncing various Gulenists, I was told on my arrival to the capital of Turkey. Wives denounce unfaithful husbands, landlords denounce tenants who are in arrears. It became a universal accusation; naturally the police are not arresting everybody, but a lot of people have been called in for investigation. This campaign reminds of McCarthy’s campaign in the US, or the campaign against Trotskyites in the USSR of 1930s. For some people, the purge is not consistent enough. An editor of a small newspaper, let’s call him Mehmet, told me: "If they were to purge all followers of Gülen, they would have no party and no Parliament faction. All the party bosses and all ministers passed through Gülen’s network. They purge only small people, the big ones escape the purge." However, there is no doubt, Erdogan takes the purge very seriously, as he did the Ergenekon conspiracy purge five years ago. He does not want to have Gülen standing behind his back ready to plunge a dagger in, and he prefers to completely remove completely that network, extensive as it was. Erdogan says that the July coup was the second, while the previous one was the attempt to use police and court in December 2013 against him and his family. Turkey’s relations with Russia and with the US are directly connected with the story of the two coups. I visited Turkey right after Putin’s October 2016 visit, when the two leaders agreed to proceed with the very important gas pipeline, and completed the last, or the most recent stretch of their zigzagging relations. The Erdogan-Putin friendship suffered an unexpectedly strong setback in November 2015, when a Russian SU-24 jet was downed by an air-to-air missile fired by a Turkish jet over Syria. Relations were severed, Russian tourists ceased to arrive, Turkish vegetables lost their Russian market, oil and gas projects were shelved. In June 2016, there was another zigzag. Erdogan sent his apologies, and the relations turned better before the July coup. Possibly this step of Erdogan actually triggered the attempted coup. After the coup, it was roses all the way. In August, Erdogan visited Russia and met with Putin. This was his first trip abroad after the coup. And now, in October, Putin came to Istanbul and signaled that their relations were as cordial as ever. Even the gas pipeline project was signed, putting paid to the only leverage Kiev had on Moscow. The Gulenists were useful here, as well: the downing of the SU-24 has been attributed to them, though previously Ahmet Davutoglu, the Prime Minister, claimed he ordered it. On the other hand, Davutoglu was close to Gülen and even visited him in 2013, but then, Gülen was still a persona grata in Turkey. It was alleged Davutoglu was being groomed to assume power in case of the coup’s success. So why did Turkey turn to Russia and away from the US, its old senior partner? Mehmet, the editor, ascribes this move to Erdogan’s well-developed self-preservation instinct. It appears that the American administration decided to ditch the unruly Erdogan some time ago, and install Gülen’s man Ahmet Davutoglu in his stead. A leading American neocon expert on Turkey, Michael Rubin, had demanded Erdogan’s head for quite a while. In March 2016 he called for a coup, in August 2016 he said Erdogan should blame himself for the coup, and now in October he predicted, or rather called for another coup. The new putsch is expected on November 10 or thereabout, and it will begin with Erdogan’s assassination, it being said. Erdogan considers his partnership with Russia and friendship with Putin give him his only chance to survive politically. The Americans are upset by Erdogan’s attitude to the Syrian Kurds. The Turkish president cares about preserving Turkey, the rump state of the vast Ottoman empire intact, while the Americans prefer to dismantle Turkey altogether, and create a Great Kurdistan from the mainly Kurd-populated areas of Turkey, Iraq and Syria. The Americans would like the Syrian Kurds to unite their enclaves, but Erdogan does not agree and actually stopped their offensive. Now the battle for Mosul is a new point of disagreement. Turkey, says Erdogan, has certain rights on Mosul. The city and its area had been illegally seized by the British, the Turks say. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk tentatively agreed with Mosul being given to Iraq only in 1926, well after the Treaty of Lausanne (1923). And now Erdogan objects to Mosul being taken from the Daesh and transferred to the Kurds. The people of Mosul are also far from happy about the perspective of passing to Kurds or to the predominantly Shia government in Baghdad. In the struggle for Mosul and for Aleppo, in the battles between Kurdish enclaves in Syria, Erdogan goes against the will of the US. The problem is that there aren’t many important Turkish leaders who are ready to stand up to Washington. The Kemalist opposition and the Gulenist forces prefer to accept the American line, more or less. If Erdogan loses in a power struggle, Turkey may collapse into a civil war: between Turks and Kurds, between various Muslim movements and Kemalists. This was the purpose of the July coup, I was told by Ali Mustafa Balbai, the Republican MP. It is not an easy time, for sure. The Turkish lira went south. The agenda has been changed: once, Taksim square demonstrated against Erdogan, now they demonstrate against the overwhelming presence of Syrian and Iraqi refugees. Not only the European Right: Turkey also feels there are too many refugees. They are afraid the battle for Mosul will force the two millions inhabitants of that city into Turkey. And the demonstrators are different. It is ordinary people who demonstrate against the influx of Syrians, while the educated and Westernised Turks demonstrated against Erdogan. The latter are quite unhappy and discuss whether they have a future in Turkey. The political class is unhappy, too. They do not cherish the authoritarian rule of Sultan Erdogan. Gulenists are extremely displeased. The generals are still reassessing their positions after so many purges. And the long-standing dispute between the secular and religious populations goes on unabated. While the US has a definite idea which way should Turkey should go, its competitor, Russia, just does not care about Turkish internal politics. Or about anybody’s else internal politics. The Americans under Obama, and presumably even more under Clinton are likely to interfere; to impose their rules from swimming suits to same-sex marriages. The Russians do not interfere. This is their tradition since the times immemorial. They did not interfere into private life of Uzbeks and Tajiks, and Chechens, and Finns, and Poles. That’s why inside Russia one can find areas ruled by Muslim law, by Buddhist tradition and even by sheer polytheist custom. For the Russians, Erdogan is a valuable partner, and they let him – and other Turks – decide whether they should have a parliamentary or a presidential republic and whether girls should go in a scarf or without. You may be sure the Russians will not teach them what to do in their private life. This is a big advantage of having the Russians for allies. We shall see whether having such good allies is enough in order to survive. Much is hanging upon the US elections: Erdogan was furious when Ms. Clinton referred to Kurd ambitions. But then, the whole world waits for the decision of the American people. Israel Shamir can be reached at adam@israelshamir.net This article was first published at The Unz Review. (9) Soros' Avaaz mobilizes Americans abroard to vote for Hillary https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/global_text_aus_blast_1/?bCyVgdb&signup=1&cl=10892690532&v=82907/> Texting Trump goodbye Emma Ruby-Sachs - Avaaz <avaaz@avaaz.org> Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2016 15:57:56 -0400 Young Americans believe in climate change and are strongly against Trump, but they don't vote. Now there's a killer plan for us to reach them and make sure they turn up, by simply texting! Dear friends, Trump wants to tear up the Paris climate deal, and that's just the start of his horrifying plans! But now there's a way we can all help stop him, just by texting. Polls show that young Americans believe in climate change and are strongly against Trump. But experts warn that this group is the least likely to vote. Now there’s a killer plan to reach them through a medium they love: text messages! If thousands of us around the world text these young voters urging them to get to the polls, we could help ensure Trump loses in a landslide. Texting American voters from overseas is easy, free and it's already working! Click below to learn more about joining the team and trying this amazing tool provided by progressive group NextGen Climate: <https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/global_text_aus_blast_1/?bCyVgdb&signup=1&cl=10892690532&v=82907/> Sign up to learn more! Trump and the racist, sexist, anti-climate, isolationist message he peddles is a threat to the entire world, to everything we fight for as a community. And connecting with young Americans who also care about saving our planet, and ensuring they have all the information they need to vote, can be enough to secure a vote against Trump. Tests show that one of us can make a voting plan with 30 people who share our values in just an hour -- there's no get out the vote program anywhere that has that kind of success rate! You’ll get everything you need to jump right in through progressive group NextGen Climate -- a thorough training, a community, a support team in a chat room, and a contact list when you’re ready to get started. And because the tool doesn't use any text messages on your plan -- you send them through a web page -- you can recruit tons and tons of people at no extra cost. We’ve worked together for weeks to help every American abroad vote in this election, and it’s brought in thousands of new voters to swing state races -- helping to keep Trump far away from the White House. Now we can use this new tool to multiple our impact on election day. Excited to get started together! Emma, Rewan, Adam, Andrew, Joseph and the Avaaz US elections team Soros' Avaaz signature campaign Subject: Avaaz is out of control From: Ricken Patel - Avaaz <avaaz@avaaz.org> Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2016 21:18:47 -0400 Dear Avaazers, Amidst all the darknesses of our world, Avaaz's light is shining brightly -- we've had 4 huge wins in the past few weeks! - We WON governments agreeing to protect 30% of our oceans!! - We ENDED the career of Brazil's corruption king!! - We helped CREATE the world's largest marine reserve in the Pacific!! - We finally STOPPED Monsanto's mega-plant in Argentina for good!! In just a few weeks, while we've also been flat out on stopping Trump! This movement is getting out of control -- in a good way. Let's keep it up! Here's more on each win: A global goal to protect 30% of our oceans!  Everyone thought our demand of 30% was crazy, except the scientists. But armed with the voices of a million Avaazers, our community stepped into the negotiations and out-maneuvered major blockers like Japan. By standing with Palau, meeting directly with key swing countries, and winning press to our side WE WON big … with 89% of the vote! The Head of the Palau delegation said - "We were heartened to have 1 million Avaaz members from around the world stand with us." Taking down Brazil’s corruption king  Insiders and even journalists warned us that Congress President Eduardo Cunha was too powerful to oust. But we refused to be cowed -- over 1.3 million of us demanded a national Ethics Committee vote to fire Cunha. And when his allies rallied to block the vote we hit back -- delivering our petition directly to Congress, flooding key swing voters with phone calls, direct messages and on social media, including focusing on officials shielding Cunha. He was forced to resign and then barred from running for office for eight years! And just today, he was arrested!! Anti-corruption champion MP Chico Alencar told us: "If it hadn't been for public pressure, we wouldn’t have won. I want to thank and congratulate you." Creating the largest protected area on earth, ever  Our oceans are in serious trouble, so when we heard that President Obama was weighing whether to create a *giant* marine reserve in Hawaii, a million of us signed a petition and thousands wrote messages. To further tip Obama’s decision we delivered our messages to key meetings, organised colourful protests with kids that helped win over the press, and worked to remove other blockers from Obama’s path. In days the President signed the reserve into law. The Director of the Global Ocean Legacy project, Matt Rand, said the "1.3 million people who signed and the tens of thousands that sent messages had their voices heard at the White House, and were a big part of getting this done." Adios, Monsanto!  Chemical Giant Monsanto had locked in a high-level deal to build a mega factory in Argentina - but local communities decided to fight it, so we joined forces. Together we went door-to-door, ran polls showing massive local opposition, helped elect a city council opposed to the deal, met Monsanto in court, and amplified the local movement with a million voices worldwide. Monsanto was forced to abandon the project. Local Malvinas organizer Celina Molina said: "Today we celebrate the victory of our long battle we shared with the global movement Avaaz.... Monsanto has only one option: to go back home." [...] Avaaz is a 44-million-person global campaign network that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people shape global decision-making. ("Avaaz" means "voice" or "song" in many languages.) Avaaz members live in every nation of the world; our team is spread across 18 countries on 6 continents and operates in 17 languages. Learn about some of Avaaz's biggest campaigns https://www.avaaz.org/en/ -- Peter Myers website: http://mailstar.net/index.html |
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