RESAFA, Syria — American-backed Syrian opposition fighters were standing watch against Islamic State militants from atop a water tower earlier this month when they were shocked to face a barrage of mortar shells — not from militants, but from the Syrian army.

“We are fighting ISIS. They are fighting ISIS. Why are they fighting us?” Raad Abdullah Hamoud, 17, said as he stood at the foot of the remote desert tower. “This is what they’re doing now. Think what they’re going to do after ISIS is gone.”

YPG Commander Dilsoz Derek, 32, conferred with fighters after spotting what he believed to be Islamic State militants riding motorcycles near their base north of Dair Alzour in eastern Syria earlier this month.

“As Assad’s troops gain a foothold in Dair Alzour, (Deir ez-Zor) the crossroads of a strategic land corridor from Tehran to Beirut, U.S.-trained opposition fighters and allies nearby said they hope to take a stand with American backing, potentially drawing the U.S. into a long and costly conflict.”

 In recent weeks, an 80-mile stretch of the Euphrates River has served as a buffer zone — a so-called deconfliction line — between U.S.-backed opposition fighters and the Syrian government.

To the west of the river, some of Assad’s estimated 40,000 soldiers are fighting with support from allied militias, Russia and Iran. To the east, some of the 55,000 opposition forces are fighting with help from U.S. forces. The U.S.-backed coalition said it has about 500 troops in Syria, but experts estimate that has grown to include up to 1,500 Marines, Army Rangers and special forces, plus 1,000 contractors.

 U.S.-backed forces have largely focused on recapturing the Islamic State’s self-declared capital, Raqqa, while Assad’s forces and allies advanced on the militant stronghold of Dair Alzour to the southeast.

“The coalition mission is to defeat ISIS,” the coalition said. “We have no fight with Syrian or pro-regime forces as long as all forces adhere to the agreed-upon deconfliction line.”

But the Syrian government and its supporters have already made several forays across the buffer zone.

Last month, a Syrian fighter jet clashed with U.S.-backed forces south of Raqqa. Farther south, near the border with Jordan and Iraq, what appeared to be an Iranian-made drone attacked American advisers training Syrian opposition forces at a U.S. base in Tanf. That clash came soon after U.S. warplanes struck Iranian-backed Shiite militias approaching the base for the third time in as many weeks.

A U.S. coalition spokesman declined to say last week whether it would back Syrian opposition fighters should they confront Assad’s forces.

“Future operations depend on many different factors and we will not speculate on what the coalition or partner forces may do in the future,” the statement said.

 The largest opposition militia is the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, with about 25,000 troops, including Hamoud’s unit at the water tower. The militia’s political wing has been governing northeastern Syria since Assad’s government withdrew about four years ago, adopting the Marxist-inspired philosophy of Abdullah “Apo” Ocalan, whose image adorns not just YPG command posts but billboards and local squares.

Ocalan’s leadership could prove problematic for the U.S., particularly in its relations with Turkey. He was convicted of treason and sentenced to life in prison, and his Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, is considered a terrorist group by both Turkey and the U.S.

Furthermore, the US general talked about the creation of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in October 2015, and the evolution of the US-Kurdish alliance in Syria.

“The one that is most discussed, and most misunderstood is the evolution of our counterpart in Syria, the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces. Interestingly came about that name, at one point in time, I’ve dealt with them directly, I was on the formative stage of the relationship with these guys. They formally called themselves the YPG, who the Turks would say equated to the PKK. You are dealing with a terrorist enemy of mine, how you can do that to an ally,” he said.

“So, we literally played back to them: ‘You have got to change your brand. What do you want to call yourselves besides the YPG?’ With about a day’s notice they declared that they are the Syrian Democratic Forces, I thought it was a stroke of brilliance to put democracy in there somewhere. But it gave them a little bit of credibility,” General Thomas added.

Earlier this month, YPG military leaders on the front lines said eastern Syria should govern itself according to Ocalan’s principles, not be beholden to Turkey or Assad.

However, the US general says the Kurds could ‘help themselves’. “They still have branding challenge going forward, and the Turks remind us every day.  The first time Brett McGurk and I went out to this very old, cold guildhall in Kobani, right on the Turk border, we went in there, a bunch of somber technocrats and military people, and whose beaming face is looking down on us from the front of the guildhall but Ocalan,” he said.

“We said, ‘hey, that’s got to go. You cannot hold on to Ocalan and have any chance of legitimacy in the construct we’re in.  So, you either something different, or. And something that has a legitimacy” he said.

“And you saw part of it. So, Interesting part, we are to close to the problem, you got out there to give different perspective. They are doing something unique to every other surrogate we worked in last decade and their half. They are governing in their wake, they are providing a representative governance,” he said.

“The regime allies are trying to extend, to control as much as they can,” said YPG commander Daman Frat from his post north of Dair Alzour.“We need to coordinate with the coalition to do an advance before the regime comes.”

 He compared the situation outside Dair Alzour to Syria’s embattled northwestern border region of Afrin, where Turkey deployed added troops this month and shelled Kurdish fighters as tensions increased. The head of the Syrian YPG said the buildup amounted to a “declaration of war” and warned of coming clashes.

“If the coalition doesn’t help us now, the same thing will happen here,” Frat said — this time with the Syrian army, not Turkish, forces.

One Kurdish commander, Orkesh Serdam, has been encouraged to see the U.S. expanding its makeshift bases in eastern Syria,but said that doesn’t mean America is willing to take on Assad’s troops.

Recall this map? I've posted it and reposted it- Now here it is again! The US was so dismayed about the publishing of this map...  Gave a bit too much away?

“If the regime takes Dair Alzour, they will not stop there. They will go to Raqqa and Hasakah” to the north, he said. “I want America to help us fight in Dair Alzour.”

 To the west in Resafa, a remote desert village built around an ancient fortress, Zinar Kobani, the local YPG commander, also said he hopes he can count on U.S. support if his forces continue on their collision course with Assad’s army.

“It’s not part of our plan to attack the regime. But if someone comes to fight us, we will fight back,” said Kobani, 27.

For now, their red line is the water tower north of Resafa. If Assad’s forces try to pass it, closing the roughly five-mile dusty no man’s land in between, YPG troops will return fire.

They recently overheard military radio chatter suggesting an attack by Syrian forces in coming days. Soon after, Syrian troops closed the gap. So far, they haven’t tried to pass the tower.

Stupid Conspiracy Theorists- Ha Ha "Chemicals Making Frogs Gay"

 Sperm concentration has declined 50 percent in 40 years in three continents

“The quality of sperm from men in North America, Europe and Australia has declined dramatically over the past 40 years, with a 52.4 percent drop in sperm concentration, according to a study published Tuesday.

The research — the largest and most comprehensive look at the topic, involving data from 185 studies and 42,000 men around the world between 1973 and 2011 — appears to confirm fears that male reproductive health may be declining”

The analysis found drops only for men in Europe, North America and Australia and not for those in South America, Asia and Africa. Swan explained that this could mean that there's something specific to certain cultures or regions that affects sperm, but that it's also possible that there just isn't enough data yet to draw firm conclusions about the rest of the world. There have been far fewer sperm studies conducted in non-Western countries. (Some of the most recent ones have also noted a decline in aspects of sperm quality. A study published earlier this year about China's Hunan province found that 56 percent of sperm donations met the criteria for health in 2001 vs. only 18 percent in 2015.)

The most important data points in the new study involved sperm concentrations for what are known as “unselected” men who haven't yet proven they are fertile. These are men in the studies who are on the younger side and are not yet fathers or do not have partners who are pregnant. Researchers estimated that these men had an average sperm concentration of 99 million per milliliter in 1973 but that that had dropped to an average 47 million per milliliter in 2011.

That is a disturbing number given that, according to World Health Organization criteria, men with a sperm concentration of less than 40 million are considered to have an impaired chance of conceiving and those with a sperm concentration of less than 15 million per milliliter are unlikely to be able to have children.

These numbers mean “surprisingly higher proportions of men are falling into the infertile and sub fertile categories,” Swan said.

“There are numerous theories about what may be happening to sperm. Many scientists say the most sensitive period may be during the first trimester, when the developing fetus's reproductive system may be impacted by a mother smoking, stress she experienced or food she ate. Exposure to chemicals that can change hormone levels, known as endocrine disrupters, are among the issues being studied.

Over the life span, men are also exposed to a number of other things that could potentially influence sperm concentration: pesticides, lead, X-rays, stress and countless other factors.

Conflict Among Syrian Forces Could Draw US into Syrian Fight- PKK/YPG Rebrand to SDF

"Scientists are sucking carbon dioxide from the air with giant fans and preparing to release chemicals from a balloon to dim the sun's rays as part of a climate engineering push to cool the planet."

In the countryside near Zurich, Swiss company Climeworks began to suck greenhouse gases from thin air in May with giant fans and filters in a $23-million US project that it calls the world's first "commercial carbon dioxide capture plant."
Worldwide, "direct air capture" research by a handful of companies such as Climeworks has gained tens of millions of dollars in recent years from sources including governments, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and the European Space Agency (ESA).

 Climeworks reckons it now costs about $600 US to extract a tonne of carbon dioxide from the air, and the plant's full capacity due by the end of 2017 is only 900 tonnes a year. That's equivalent to the annual emissions of only 45 Americans.

Climeworks sells the gas, at a loss, to nearby greenhouses as a fertilizer to grow tomatoes and cucumbers. It has a partnership with the automaker Audi, which hopes to use carbon in greener fuels

Hysteria reigns as "CO2 levels cross 410 ppm " First Time In Human History

 Let’s talk about SEASONAL CO2 Fluctuations- A Natural Occurrence in the Real World
The Keeling Curve

 This shift between the fall and winter months to the spring and summer results in the sawtooth pattern known as the Keeling Curve measurement of atmospheric CO₂ such that every year there is a decline in CO₂ during months of terrestrial plant photosynthesis and an increase in CO₂ in months without large amounts of photosynthesis and with significant decomposition.

"And isolating carbon dioxide is complex, because the gas makes up just 0.04 per cent of the air"

"Pure carbon dioxide delivered by trucks, for use in greenhouses or to make drinks fizzy, costs up to about $300 US a tonne in Switzerland"

Riskier "geo-engineering" solutions could be a backstop, such as dimming the world's sunshine, dumping iron into the oceans to soak up carbon, or trying to create clouds.

Among new university research, a Harvard geo-engineering project into dimming sunlight to cool the planet set up in 2016 has raised $7.5 million US from private donors.

 Keith's team aims to release about one kilogram of sun-dimming material, perhaps calcium carbonate, from a high-altitude balloon above Arizona next year in a tiny experiment to see how it affects the microphysics of the stratosphere.

Some research has suggested that geo-engineering with sun-dimming chemicals, for instance, could affect global weather patterns and disrupt vital monsoons.

The most natural way to extract carbon from the air is to plant forests that absorb the gas as they grow, but that would divert vast tracts of land from farming. (Baloney)Another option is to build power plants that burn wood and bury the carbon dioxide released.

• Sperm concentration has declined 50 percent in 40 years in three continents

• Conflict Among Syrian Forces Could Draw US into Syrian Fight- PKK/YPG Rebrand to SDF

American defense officials said Friday that initial findings indicate that the destroyer USS Fitzgerald was likely at fault in her collision with the container ship ACX Crystal on June 17.

Defense officials told CNN and Reuters that the early results of the investigation show that the Fitzgerald was at fault, and that a loss of situational awareness was a primary factor in the collision.“There was not a lot that went right leading up to the crash. There were a string of errors, but they did a lot after the collision to save lives and the ship,” an official with knowledge of the inquiry told Reuters. He added that the investigators have already collected radar data from the time of the incident and testimony from the crew, and that it was unlikely that the initial conclusions would change. 

Two defense officials speaking with CNN confirmed this account. "They did nothing until the last second," one official said."A slew of things went wrong."Another Navy official said the crash "will wind up being our fault."

Officials say the US is exercising its right to investigate its ship and not share the information with Japan, even though the crash took place in Japanese territorial waters. This is allowed under the bilateral Status Of Forces Agreement (SOFA), and though Japan Coast Guard officials said they’re still considering cooperation with Washington, nothing has yet been confirmed.

The cause of the accident is also being investigated by experts from the Japan Transport Safety Board, and if there is no information forthcoming from the US officials may have to compile a report based only on the information they’ve gathered, according board spokesman Katsunori Takahashi. The spokesman pointed out that there have been other instances where Washington did not cooperate on an investigation.

• Geo-Engineering: Sucking up Carbon & Dimming the Sun to Cool Planet

• Sperm concentration has declined 50 percent in 40 years in three continents

• Conflict Among Syrian Forces Could Draw US into Syrian Fight- PKK/YPG Rebrand to SDF

Employees will be chipped at the 32M inaugural "chip party" hosted at their headquarters in River Falls, WI on August 1, 2017.

 Three Square Market (32M) is offering implanted chip technology to all of their employees on August 1st, 2017. Employees will be implanted with a RFID chip allowing them to make purchases in their break room micro market, open doors, login to computers, use the copy machine, etc.  This program, offered by 32M, is optional for all employees. The company is expecting over 50 staff members to be voluntarily chipped.  32M is partnering with BioHax International and Jowan Osterland, CEO, based out of Sweden.

RFID technology or Radio-Frequency Identification uses electromagnetic fields to identify electronically stored information. Often referred to as "chip" technology, this option has become very popular in the European marketplace. The chip implant uses near-field communications (NFC); the same technology used in contactless credit cards and mobile payments. A chip is implanted between the thumb and forefinger underneath the skin within seconds.

A micro market, also known as a break room market, has become a staple in the U.S. with over 20,000 locations and growing.  While in existence for over a decade in the American workplace, the international community began to embrace this only a few years ago.  A micro market is a mini convenience store located right in the employee break room using a self-checkout kiosk, similar to what is found at many major retailers.  Businesses see multiple benefits when adding a micro market to their location, such as increased employee morale and productivity. 32M entered this growing industry over four years ago and is rapidly growing in market share and believes this technology will help it continue this trajectory.

"We foresee the use of RFID technology to drive everything from making purchases in our office break room market, opening doors, use of copy machines, logging into our office computers, unlocking phones, sharing business cards, storing medical/health information, and used as payment at other RFID terminals.  Eventually, this technology will become standardized allowing you to use this as your passport, public transit, all purchasing opportunities, etc." commented 32M CEO, Todd Westby.


"When working with our operators over in Europe, we came across a company of chipped employees at BioHax International and the concept of using RFID with micro markets quickly grew," commented 32M VP of International Sales, Tony Danna.  "We see chip technology as the next evolution in payment systems, much like micro markets have steadily replaced vending machines. As a leader in micro market technology, it is important that 32M continues leading the way with advancements such as chip implants" added Mr. Westby.

"The international market place is wide-open and we believe that the future trajectory of total market share is going to be driven by who captures this arena first," said 32M COO Patrick McMullan.  "Europe is far more advanced in mobile and chip technology usage than the U.S. and we are thrilled with the growth opportunity this enhancement will bring to us.  Thanks to our market partners in Sweden, we met this innovative company and look forward to working with them to take our market share to another level."

32M is envisioning this technology to help it grow its other self-checkout businesses.  "We see this as another payment and identification option that not only can be used in our markets but our other self-checkout / self-service applications that we are now deploying which include convenience stores and fitness centers," added Mr. McMullan.

• USS Fitzgerald Was Likely At Fault in Collision with ACX Crystal

• Geo-Engineering: Sucking up Carbon & Dimming the Sun to Cool Planet

• Sperm concentration has declined 50 percent in 40 years in three continents

• Conflict Among Syrian Forces Could Draw US into Syrian Fight- PKK/YPG Rebrand to SDF

Nancy Scheper-Hughes is Chancellor’s Professor of Medical Anthropology at the University of California Berkeley, the founder of Organ Watch, and the author of scholarly books and articles on organ trafficking. She is the pundit mainstream media call upon when they need expert commentary on the topic.⁵
While Scheper-Hughes emphasizes that traffickers and procurers come from numerous nations and ethnicities, including Americans and Arabs, she is unflinchingly honest in speaking about the Israeli connection:
“Israel is at the top,” she states. “It has tentacles reaching out worldwide.”⁶
In a lecture last year sponsored by New York’s PBS 13 Forum, Scheper-Hughes explained that Israeli organ traffickers, “had and still have a pyramid system at work that’s awesome...they have brokers everywhere, bank accounts everywhere; they’ve got recruiters, they’ve got translators, they’ve got travel agents who set up the visas.”
Lest this sound simply like a successful international concern, it’s important to understand the nature of such a business.
As Scheper-Hughes describes it, organ trafficking consists of “paying the poor and the hungry to slowly dismantle their bodies.”

 (AhlulBayt News Agency) - The Damascus university medical doctor heading Medical Forensics department Dr. Hussein Nofal estimates that at least 18,000 Syrians have had organs removed during the war thus far.

 Last December another Israeli organ trafficker was arrested by Interpol police at the Istanbul airport. After forty days in Turkish custody, he was extradited back to Israel to face charges. The organ smuggler had made arrangements to tap the large destitute Syrian migrant population in Turkey to coordinate illegal organ surgeries with local doctors in small private hospitals. He already had charges against him for his illicit operations amongst impoverished organ donors in Kosovo, Azerbaijan and Sri Lanka from 2008-2014. He had also placed ads in Russian newspapers in search of potential donors. As is typical, no information or medical follow-up is ever given to donor victims who often suffer complications. For example one boy in Kosovo was paralyzed after his kidney removal.

A suspected Israeli organ trafficker who was wanted on an Interpol red notice has been arrested at Istanbul's Ataturk airport. A court has ordered that he be extradited to Israel

Boris Volfman was arrested at Istanbul's Ataturk airport on suspicion of organ trafficking and fraud after flying from Bangkok on Friday night, Turkey's Dogan news agency reported.

The Ukrainian-born Israeli citizen reportedly came to Turkey to harvest organs from desperate Syrian refugees, the daily Vatan newspaper reported.
A court on Saturday ordered his extradition to Israel after a 40-day arrest period.

• America’s “Train and Equip” Program in Syria: When Was Financing Actually Stopped?

• Three Square Market Microchips Employees Company-Wide

• USS Fitzgerald Was Likely At Fault in Collision with ACX Crystal

• Geo-Engineering: Sucking up Carbon & Dimming the Sun to Cool Planet

• Sperm concentration has declined 50 percent in 40 years in three continents

• Conflict Among Syrian Forces Could Draw US into Syrian Fight- PKK/YPG Rebrand to SDF

Kurdish groups and their allies in northern Syria gathered on Thursday in the country’s northwestern town of Rmelan and voted to divide the region into three federal administrative provinces.

The Council of Northern Syria Federal System, established last year, ratified the administrative division of the area after delineating new borders and giving new names to the three provinces.

In an online statement, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), of which the Kurdish YPG forces form a key component, said the Federal region of northern Syria would include the provinces of Al-Jazira, Al-Furat, and Afrin.

Hasaka and Qamishlo districts are in the country’s northeastern Al-Jazira province.
Al-Furat, the Arabic word for the Euphrates, is where Kobani and Gire Spi (Tal Abyad) are located, in the country’s north.

Additionally, the city of Raqqa, according to a senior Syrian Kurdish official, is expected to join the decentralized system of government being set up by Syrian Kurdish groups and their allies once it is freed from Islamic State (IS).

“We expect (this) because our project is for all Syria ... and Raqqa can be part of it," Saleh Muslim, the co-chair of the Syrian Kurdish PYD party, told Reuters in an earlier interview.

Before voting on the federal system last year, the PYD party and the YPG forces established a self-administrated system of governance, which spanned over the three cantons of Al-Jazira, Kobani, and Afrin.

The federal system project has undergone some changes over the past year, starting with its name, the "Democratic Federal System for Rojava-Northern Syria" chosen in March 2016 and then switched to the name "Democratic Federal System of Northern Syria" in December.

• Conflict Among Syrian Forces Could Draw US into Syrian Fight- PKK/YPG Rebrand to SDF

• KurdIShIS Redux- YPG/PKK 2nd Geographical Power in Syria

Removing the word Rojava, which stands for Western Kurdistan in Kurdish and refers to Syria’s Kurdish-held areas, sparked a wave of anger among various Kurdish groups in the diaspora.

But the Kurdish-led administration in the region may have removed it to gain more international support, and perhaps in anticipation of joining the mainly Arab provinces of Raqqa and Deir al-Zor in northern Syria.

This move can be evidenced by the US military support for the YPG and their Arab allies in the SDF as they launched the offensive to retake Raqqa from IS roughly two months ago

YPG/PKK/USA

The United States has increased its military support to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in a step to accelerate the anti-ISIS Raqqa campaign, military sources reported on Saturday.

A spokesman for the SDF confirmed to ARA News that a new convoy of US military support has arrived to SDF-held areas in Rojava-Northern Syria.
“100 vehicles carrying military equipment from the US-led coalition have entered Hasakah province in the past few days,” the source said.

Local sources told ARA News that a total of 180 US military vehicles have entered northern Syria in a week.

Soft Coup definition
Soft coups include actions of senior government or military officials refusing to carry out their roles in critical tasks, or otherwise acting in opposition to the letter or spirit of the law to diminish or remove de facto power from those who would otherwise legally wield it.

No Prime Minister in Pakistan’s 70-year history has served his or her full term. Friday’s decision by Pakistan’s supreme court to disqualify Nawaz Sharif upheld this grim tradition. Mr. Sharif, who stepped down as Pakistan’s Prime Minister on Friday, was hobbled by allegations of corruption ever since the Panama Papers leak in 2015 revealed his family’s ownership of at least three shell companies registered in the British Virgin Islands, a seeming involvement in deals worth US$25 million (AED92 million) and an expensive property portfolio in central London.

Nawaz Sharif

 The revelations sparked off frenzied protests (we’ll read about those a bit more, shortly) against Mr. Sharif and inaugurated a judicial inquiry into his family’s finances. The findings of the judicial investigation, carried out over a three-month period and published earlier this month, were damning even though their credibility was undermined by the fact that two of the authors of the report were also members of Pakistan’s powerful military intelligence agencies.

"Mr. Sharif was not afforded a trial nor, strictly speaking, was he found guilty of corruption. Rather, the supreme court declared him ineligible for office because it took the view that, in failing to disclose his assets, Mr Sharif had contravened the constitutional requirement for legislators to be 'sagacious, righteous, non-profligate, honest and truthful',"the newspaper continued.

"The Pakistani judiciary’s ability to truncate an elected prime minister’s time in office can be seen as an affirmation of constitutional democracy: the supreme court ruled on the constitutionality of the prime minister’s conduct, Mr. Sharif complied with its decision and quit, and Pakistan moved on.

"Such a view is comforting," the editorial said, "but it is also misleading. Mr. Sharif’s abrupt departure is bad news for Pakistan and for the region. Given its history of coups and ramshackle civilian governments, Pakistan desperately needs to establish a precedent of an uninterrupted full term in office by a democratically elected Prime Minister.

"It certainlydoes not augur well for Pakistan’s economy, which, having run up an unprecedented current account deficit of $32.6 billion last year, is at a critical juncture with the central bank attempting to manage the over-valued rupee.

"Pakistan’s relationship with India is another potential casualty.Although on the Pakistani right, Mr. Sharif was heavily invested in securing peace with India. Despite the deterioration of ties between Delhi and Islamabad, Mr. Sharif’s presence was a source of assurance. India cannot but feel demoralised by this development.

There is a widespread impression that Nawaz Sharif was removed from office by Pakistan's Supreme Court on the basis of evidence that he and members of his family illegally possessed huge unaccounted financial assets and properties in London and elsewhere.

The Supreme Court, however, removed Sharif from office exclusively on the basis of evidence provided by the JIT that he did not declare an amount of UAE Dirhams 10,000 (equivalent to Rs 1.7 Lakh) he received from a UAE Company, while filing his nomination papers for elections in 2013.

The Supreme Court used convoluted arguments, which have been questioned even by eminent Pakistani lawyers, to justify its decision. The court held that even though Sharif never received this money, he was bound to declare it as a "receivable"

The army reacted strongly. It sought and secured the sacking of Sharif's personal foreign policy adviser Tareq Fatemi for leaking information about these differences. Ensuring that Sharif does not return to power will be high on the army's agenda, which the judiciary evidently shares.

The army will seek to split Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League Partythrough its links with senior leaders like interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan. While Shahbaz Sharif has maintained a closer relationship with army generals than his elder brother Nawaz, the ISI will spare no effort to discredit and marginalise Nawaz.

 Moreover, in a situation where the main opposition Party, the PPP, is organizationally weak in even its strongholds in Sind and Southern Punjab, the mercurial and virulently anti-Indian Imran Khan, who has been a protege of the army, could emerge stronger than he is now.

Sharif, whom the Pakistan Supreme Court on Friday ousted in a blatant act of judicial activism, understood that only a stronger economy and semblance of peace at the border will give him the political legitimacy needed to stay in power for five years — a feat no other Pakistani prime minister has achieved. 

Under him, the economy was showing promising signs. He improved fiscal discipline, reduced poverty, put money in middle class's hands, and the stock market responded with enthusiasm. On 15 May, 2017, index provider MSCI announced that it was reclassifying Pakistan's status from lowly 'frontier' to more prestigious 'emerging market'.

One may assume that these positive changes would have strengthened Sharif's political hold and gave greater legitimacy to the civilian government. Surely the electorate would welcome these developments? They did, and that's the problem. Nawaz's Pakistan Muslim League (N) remain hugely popular in the influential Punjab province and the prime minister had total control over his party. Imran Khan was sniping at his heels but he wasn't a political heavyweight.

Historically, Pakistan's army and the Deep State have felt insecure during even brief interludes of civilian authority. They see Banquo's apparition in a popular prime minister. This arises out of their necessity to keep rent-seeking opportunities intact. For the army and Pakistan's intelligence establishment, animus against India and Afghanistan translate into massive pecuniary and political benefits.

 Sharif, who wanted to normalise democracy and solidify grip over power, made two cardinal errors. He responded to Modi's outreaches (swearing-in ceremony, Lahore stopover) and sought to limit the influence wielded by the security-intelligence network.

"The court held that even though Sharif never received this money, he was bound to declare it as a "receivable"

"This controversial decision has raised many questions about the future of democracy and how an elected Prime Minister can easily be sent home without getting an opportunity to defend his position on the particular point"

" Politicians often complain of being decorated with official titles but deprived of power. They will have to strengthen themselves through caliber and character. Rights are earned, they aren’t granted"

"Sharif is a popular leader. Whether his exit is for good remains to be seen. He will file a petition seeking review of the verdict. Let’s hope the court realizes this fact too. Else, the disqualification of a popular leader on a petty matter will haunt the court for years to come."

"Will this change or rather enhance the significance of Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan in Pakistan, who was one of the petitioners in the case?"

"Imran has channelized the anger of disaffected population; youth in particular."

"For Mr. Khan, 64, the moment was sweet. He had been the main petitioner before the court and fomented widespread street protests against Mr. Sharif, emerging as the strongest challenger to the former prime minister and his political legacy."

"But Mr. Khan’s path to victory in the next general election, set for mid-2018, is far from assured, according to analysts, including Moeed Yusuf, associate vice president of the Asia Center at the United States Institute of Peace, whose research and work centers on Pakistan.

Not until 2011 did Mr. Khan find himself center stage as he captured the public’s imagination and began drawing hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis to his political rallies. Most people in the audiences were educated, urban youths, disgruntled with the system and energized by Mr. Khan’s populist, anticorruption and anti-American message. The party also picked up vast support among the Pakistani expatriate community, and Mr. Khan’s supporters are dominant on social media."

Imran Kahn

"The country’s powerful generalsmight bereluctant to see Mr. Khan in power. Critics dismiss him as soft on militancy; some even ridicule him with the nickname “Taliban Khan.”"

"Mr. Khan has no experience with governing and has shown an aptitude more for street agitation than working with Parliament to bring about change.

“Enamored supporters say Mr. Khan is not corrupt like traditional politiciansand point to his philanthropic work as proof that he will do more good for the country”

"Mr. Khan too faces cases against him in the Supreme Court and the election commission, stemming from accusations of hiding assets and of foreign funding of his political party.

“How can I be disqualified?” he said in an interview. “I was never a public officeholder"

What Happened to the Money you Donated to IKF?

"The IRS was notified that the relationship of the Donor to the Donee was “NONE,” despite the fact that each of the grants were made to funds in Pakistan founded by Imran Khan and/or controlled by his political party, reveals AP investigation.
AP found out some not-so-transparent dealings by the United States’ branch of Imran Khan Foundation in the way they distributed your money which was collected as Flood Relief donations.

The Imran Khan Foundation (IKF) is a nonprofit corporation showing an address of 385 S Lemon Ave, Walnut CA 91789. IKF is a registered tax-exempt public charity under section 501 (c)(3) of the United States’ Internal Revenue Service Code. As such, contributions to the Imran Khan Foundation are tax deductible. Interestingly, the Board of Directors of the IKF are also close aides to Imran Khan’s political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)."

"AP investigation team obtained various documents from Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the US Treasury Department. The IRS form 990 for the Imran Khan Foundation from 2007-2014 were carefully evaluated. IRS Form 990 are all public documents per IRS code and they are required to be filed by each non-profit organization on a yearly basis. These documents can also be obtained from a publicly accessible database on the US Treasury Department.
The Mission Statement of IKF is very ambitious and ” its principal goal is to improve the quality of life for the unreached and underserved communities by ensuring access to basic services”.

 According to the IKF’s IRS Form 990s, obtained by AP investigative team, the organization raised funds in the United States and transferred those funds to relief efforts in Pakistan. The actual destination and use of these funds, however, is not always clear. Between 2007 and 2010, IKF transferred about $187,000 to Pakistan. The reported recipients were the Mianwali Development Trust, Namal Education Foundation, Pakistan Insaf Welfare Trust, and Swat Relief Fund PTI.

For each itemized overseas grant made by IKF, the IRS was notified that the relationship of the Donor to the Donee was “NONE,” despite the fact that each of the grants were made to funds in Pakistan founded by Imran Khan and/or controlled by his political party PTI. That’s not where the ambiguity ends, In 2010, presumably in response to the historic flooding in Pakistan, IKF reported revenue totaling $5,956,654. However, only $144,851 was reported in expenditures that year. This amounts to a major discrepancy."

"In 2011, IKF reported revenues of $793,903 with expenditures of $372,858 leaving $6,240,269 cash on hand at the end of 2011. It wasn’t until 2012, that IKF made a large financial transfer, this time in the amount of $5,501,205. That distribution was reported as having been made as an unspecified cash donation in Pakistan.

This is not conclusive of anything because we do not know how the funds were actually used in Pakistan; but the timing does raise questions given that PTI was in the midst of a national political campaign when $5.5 million in tax-free charitable funds were transferred from the US to Pakistan – especially given the IKF’s history of using funds for “relief efforts” tied to a political party.

At the end of 2014, the IKF showed a net worth of 1.87 million dollars.

 It is also worth mentioning that Imran Khan runs several charity organizations including but not limited to Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust and Imran Khan Cancer Appeal, UK."

PKK/YPG Ratifies Division of Annexed Northern Syria- More US weapons to Kurds

Salah Eldin Bilal referred to the de facto autonomous region of Syrian Kurdistan, also known as Rojava, originating in and consisting of three self-governing cantons in northern Syria, namely Afrin Canton, Jazira Canton and Kobanî Canton.

"We are currently analyzing various variants under which the region could gain the recognition of the international community without appealing to the UN.We could take as an example the scenario of Moldavia [Transdniester], Abkhazia or South Ossetia," Bilal said at a news conference at Rossiya Segodnya news agency.

Another scenario could be a partial recognition of the region's autonomy, which could be then sealed by an international decision and a resolution, the way it happened with Kosovo, he said. However here the US and Turkey should play a certain role, which is not very clear at the moment.

In 2008, Albanian authorities unilaterally declared Kosovo to be independent from Serbia. Serbia, as well as Russia, objected the declaration, which violated Resolution 1244 of the UN Security Council (1999), which had reaffirmed the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia, including Kosovo and Metohija.
 
Serbian leaders repeatedly stated that they do not recognize the independence of the region.
According to different estimates, the independence of Kosovo has been recognized by 100 or 110 UN member states, including the US and the leading Western European countries. Serbian authorities previously refuted the claims of Pristina (the capital and largest city within Kosovo) that its independence had been recognized by Oman, Guinea Bissau and Uganda. There had also been reports that other states voluntarily revoked their recognition.

Israel and Kurdistan- same/same

 "It’s clear that Israel needs an independent strategy on Iran. And, though it may seem unexpected, it can find the potential for such a strategy in the Kurdish people’s fight for independence"

Lawrence of Kurdistan- Perhaps they'll make a big budget hollywood movie romanticizing his role in the massive death and displacement we've witnessed coming out of the region? A whitewash.

Brett McGurk spoke at the Middle East Institute on Thursday, discussing the fight against Daesh in Iraq and Syria. He then mentioned Al Qaeda's presence in Idlib. He asked how the leaders of Al Qaeda got into Idlib first, blamed some of their partners without giving any names, and then he said they would hold discussions about it with Turkey:

“Idlib province is the largest Al Qaeda safe haven since 9/11 ... This is a huge problem ... But we have to ask a question: Why and how is Ayman al Zawahiri’s [leader of Al Qaeda] deputy finding his way to Idlib province? Why is this happening? How are they getting there? They are not paratroopers … The approach by some of our partners to send in tens of thousands of tons of weapons and looking the other way as these foreign fighters come in to Syria may not have been the best approach. And Al Qaeda has taken full advantage of it. And Idlib now is a huge problem. It is an Al Qaeda safe haven right on the border of Turkey. So that’s something, obviously, we will be in very close discussions with the Turks on

OR: "The general public becoming aware that the US government was aiding and abetting the very terrorist organisations that – according to America itself – flew three planes into buildings in New York in 2001 is absolutely unacceptable for the war hawks in D.C"

Ollie Richardson"Kurdish militias such as the “Syrian Democratic Forces” (SDF) and the “People’s Protection Units” (YPG) present for Trump a much safer option to consolidate what is left, i.e. to occupy the northeast of the Syria. It’s a nice romantic story too"

"He never blamed or insinuated that the government of Turkey was a part of these networks. To the contrary, he stated we had to work with the government of Turkey to confront them," the official said.

“McGurk was reminded of both the fact that the root causes enabling terrorist organisations to find a foothold in Syria and Iraq could be eradicated only if the deeds and actions of all relevant actors do not contradict one another, and our expectation is that the Syria-based terrorist organisation PYD/YPG is not supported for whatever the reason may be.”

• PKK/YPG Ratifies Division of Annexed Northern Syria- More US weapons to Kurds

Kurdish groups and their allies in northern Syria gathered on Thursday in the country’s northwestern town of Rmelan and voted to divide the region into three federal administrative provinces.

 A spokesman for the SDF confirmed to ARA News that a new convoy of US military support has arrived to SDF-held areas in Rojava-Northern Syria.
“100 vehicles carrying military equipment from the US-led coalition have entered Hasakah province in the past few days,” the source said.

• KurdIShIS Redux- YPG/PKK 2nd Geographical Power in Syria

• US Increases Military Posts in Kurd Annexed Syria: Vindicated Again

• Kurdish Autonomy: Recognizing the Annexation of Syria

“The American motion picture is the greatest unconscious carrier of propaganda in the world to-day. It is a great distributor for ideas and opinions.  The motion picture can standardize the ideas and habits of a nation.” ( Edward Bernays 1928)      

Prestige 
    originates : Mid 17th century (in the sense 'illusion, conjuring trick'): from French, literally 'illusion, glamour', from late Latin praestigium 'illusion', from Latin praestigiae (plural) 'conjuring tricks'. The transference of meaning occurred by way of the sense 'dazzling influence, glamour', at first depreciatory.

"Not many people remember Al Gore’s 2007 book, The Assault on Reason. 

Then there’s the book jacket that talks about the “politics of fear” and an opening chapter that warns: “If leaders exploit public fears to herd people in directions they might not otherwise choose, then fear itself can quickly become a self-perpetuating and free-wheeling force that drains national will and weakens national character.”

 Fear, adds Al Gore the great climate fear-monger, can be promulgated using three techniques: repetition, misdirection and making the irregular seem regular.“By using these narrative tools alone, anyone with a loud platform can ratchet up public anxieties and fears, distorting public discourse and reason.”

Gore’s politics-of-fear warning in 2007 targeted George W. Bush for allegedly resorting to fear of terrorism to invade Iraq. Irony awareness is apparently not part of Gore’s personality.

 Chang fed Gore a flabby question about Canada that was bound to produce the following: “For me, Justin Trudeau is a breath of fresh air…He and his team were absolutely instrumental in helping us get the Paris agreement.” Funny, I thought Stephen Harper set the ground for Canada’s participation in the Paris agreement.

As a propaganda manual, Sequel uses a magazine-style format to fill readers with alarming images and claims. There are graphs and pictures of soaring carbon emissions and temperatures, hurricane deaths, famines, rising sea levels, drownings, forest fires, droughts and more. Typical statement: “We are now trapping as much extra heat energy in the atmosphere as would be released by 400,000 Hiroshima-class atomic bombs on the Earth’s surface every day.” Those few words of text appear over a giant colour photo of an iconic atomic bomb explosion spread across two full pages.
Another two-page photo spread hails Ontario for getting off coal, but makes no mention of the soaring hydro rates undermining the provincial economy

•  Ontario, Canada: Our Fatal Future! A Place to Live and Grow? Live Poor and Grow Broke.

"Occidental Petroleum Corporation (Occidental), headquartered in Houston, Texas, is one of the largest U.S. oil and gas companies, based on equity market capitalization"

Big Polluters (OIL) to reap the BENEFITS of climate deal

-Big energy and engineering companies will reap most profit from a climate deal due in December, as they use their financial and intellectual clout to grab low carbon subsidies
 -Utilities and oil companies, among the biggest polluters, are using their market awareness to stay ahead of a climate race, manoeuvring to own the most viable low-carbon technologies.
-In addition, they are a natural magnet for government incentives(not a surprise)

-CCS (carbon, capture and sequstration) is receiving billions of dollars but may take a decade to develop. It is popular with big corporates as a bolt-on to coal plants which may use depleted oil wells to store carbon dioxide

Geo-Engineering: Sucking up Carbon &Dimming the Sun to Cool Planet

Climeworks: "It has a partnership with the automaker Audi, which hopes to use carbon in greener fuels"

 Using Carbon in greener fuels? Whaaaat???? Aren't we already using carbon as fuel. Yes, we are!

"From 150 years ago- Toronto July 24 1867. It was 95 degrees F in the shade. That is 35 C. If it was 95 F in the shade you can believe it was 105-110 in the sun!

In 1867 the population of Toronto was a mere sliver of today's Toronto.
(for those interested: In 1867 Canada's entire population, approximately 3.1 million was slightly more then Toronto's is present day approx 2.8 million)
The city itself was nowhere near the giant heat island it is today.
And as you notice... no cars. No gas guzzling SUV's.
The industrial revolution had not begun.
The alleged carbon component of AGW had not been introduced.

So, how do you explain the 95 F or 35 C in the shade temperatures?"

150 Years Ago Toronto Sweltered- Today Temps are Below Normal

 Now, you might say I'm shooting the messenger. If that was only the case? He, Gore, is both the messenger and the beneficiary of the very agenda he is pushing.

I am therefore focusing on the benefits to just one beneficiary of this anti-human agenda. 

Love for this planet has not resulted in a cut back in electricity consumption in the Gore household. Nor his jet setting. Which lives large, to my reading, in Gore's talkin' truth to power.

Gore is a great spin doctor. But he ain't walkin his talk. Charlatan

Carbon billionaire Al Gore

150 Years Ago Toronto Sweltered- Today Temps are Below Normal

Going back even further 

1930s – The Real Decade of Extreme Weather

In  my post titled Deadheading the Polish government Pt 2 it was stated :  “The first post (Deadheading the Polish government) contained background, a 'whose who' on the dead, and the many political ties of Poland. I will admit whole heartedly I can't rule out some kind of coup or mass assassination plot at this time.
One really never should. The number of important people on one plane, could have provided an opportunity to rid oneself of an impotent or uncooperative government in a cleaner manner then a military coup or colour revolution”

• Deadheading the Polish government 

 Lech Kaczynski, 60. Poland's president, a nationalist conservative who had been in office since 2005. A founder of the Law and Justice party, now in opposition, and the twin brother of its leader, former Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski.
_ Maria Kaczynska, 66, Poland's first lady; an economist and translator of English and French, had carried out charity work in her role as first lady. Her uncle was killed at Katyn.
_ Gen. Franciszek Gagor, 58. Army chief of staff since Feb. 2006. From 2004 to 2006, was Poland's representative at NATO in Brussels.
_ Gen. Andrzej Blasik, 47, head of the Air Force since 2007. Received professional military education in Montgomery, Alabama, in 2005.
_ Vice Admiral Andrzej Karweta, 51, Navy chief commander since November 2009. From 2002-2005 served at the Supreme Allied Command Atlantic, SACLANT in Norfolk, Virginia.
_ Gen. Tadeusz Buk, 49, land forces commander since Sept. 2009. Served in 2007 as commander of Polish troops in Iraq.
_ Slawomir Skrzypek, 46, president of the National Bank of Poland since 2007. A longtime colleague of Lech Kaczynski, served under him at Warsaw City Hall from 2002-5.
_ Aleksander Szczyglo, 46, head of the National Security Office, a former defense minister under Kaczynski's brother.
From this list, we can see the President is gone, the President of the National Bank is gone,
the head of the Army, Navy, Airforce, National Security etc., all gone.

• Deadheading the Polish government Pt 2
• Poland- A dispute with Bankers over Profits
• Poland- IMF loans and Radoslaw Sikorski does the US
• Poland: The largest & most important state on the NATO frontline

In his capacity as EU negotiator, Radosław Sikorski signed a crisis settlement agreement with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, in the evening of February 21, 2014. The following morning, the men he had secretly trained in Poland were about to take power.

Donald Tusk, former Polish PM, Presently President of the EU

EU President Donald Tusk on Thursday testified in Warsaw as a witness in an investigation into the 2010 jet crash in Russia that killed Poland's then president and 95 others.

Tusk, who was Poland's prime minister at the time of the crash, told reporters he "had no doubt" he was being targeted by his arch-rival in the current conservative populist government before questioning by Polish prosecutors.

The ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party leaderJaroslaw Kaczynski on Thursday told the Catholic-nationalist Trwam TV station that Tusk "has plenty to fear", adding that the crash probe "is one thing, but there are others".

Kaczynski also unleashed an emotional diatribe in parliament two weeks ago, accusing Tusk's former liberal Civic Platform (PO) party of being responsible for the Smolensk crash that claimed the life of his twin brother, then president Lech Kaczynski.
"Don't wipe your treacherous mouths with my late brother's name. You destroyed him, you murdered him, you are scoundrels," Jaroslaw Kaczynski told PO deputies.

He has long insisted that the 2010 crash was no accident and accuses Tusk of "moral responsibility" for the death of his brother.

Polish and Russian investigators found that pilot error, bad weather and poor air-traffic control were to blame for the accident.

"What we heard in parliament from Jaroslaw Kaczynski in an outburst of rage and anger points unequivocally to the intentions behind this matter, so I have no doubts here," Tusk told reporters before testifying Thursday.

- 'Political target' -

Grzegorz Schetyna, current head of Poland's Civic Platform (PO) opposition, told Polish media that "Tusk is today a political target for the PiS and the prosecutors who are openly fulfilling a political order."

"This is part of a series of measures targeting him (Tusk). Someone is really afraid of him," Schetyna said.

Prosecutors have saidTusk was due to testify Thursday regarding "public officials who failed to comply with obligations" concerning crash victim autopsies.

Tusk already testified for eight hours in the Polish capital in April as a witness in an investigation of two former military counter-intelligence chiefs accused of overstepping their duties in the initial investigation of the crash.

He was first summoned days after EU leaders gave him another term as president despite strong opposition from Poland.

After taking power in late 2015,the PiS launched a fresh probe into the 2010 crash that also killed a number of senior Polish officials and a commission of enquiry it controls suggested in April that an explosion likely caused the aircraft to break up in the air.

jamesApril 24, 2014 at 6:28 PM

http://smolenskcrash.eu/news-54-tnt-after-all.html#.U1my5toaySP

The airliner was refurbished by a company owned by Oleg Deripaska four months prior to the crash. I say crash but it actually exploded in mid air. The chief suspects are the 'usual' ones.
The main reason for it all was for control over the state owned central bank.

The crash occurred as the presidential delegation was heading to a commemoration in Russia's Katyn forest for thousands of Polish army officers killed by Soviet secret police in 1940 -- a massacre the Kremlin denied until 1990.

Prosecutors questioning of Tusk comes amid a high-stakes row between Warsaw and Brussels over rule of law concerns that could see the EU strip Poland of voting rights.

The European Union announced Saturday it had launched legal action against Poland's PiS government over a new court reforms that it fears will erode judicial independence.

Tusk said Thursday that the PiS law confirms that Jaroslaw Kaczynski is dreaming of a justice system that will answer to him."

Deir Ezzor Square

"Observers are focusing increasing attention on the coming battle for Deir Ezzor, which will come next after the battle for Raqqa, the latter having been launched by the Syrian Democratic Forces on June 6, 2017.
Deir Ezzor province is the second largest province of Syria in terms of area, after Homs.It occupies an important geographical position for all parties to the Syrian conflict, sharing a frontier with Iraq’s Anbar province, where border villages such as Rawa and al-Qaim, close to the Syrian town of al-Bukamal, are still under the control of the Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL, or Daesh). Deir Ezzor also borders on three provinces of Syria. It consists of three main regions: Deir Ezzor city, Al-Mayadeen and al-Bukamal. Its economy is largely based on rich agricultural lands, famous for their production of cotton and wheat, as well as oil and gas reserves. The province was the first in Syria to fall out of regime hands, apart from a section of Deir Ezzor city and its military airport. ISIS took control of the province in July 2014 after a bloody fight with Free Syrian Army (FSA) factions and al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, the Nusra Front.

The escalation towards a battle for Deir Ezzor began in April this year as the struggle for the Syrian desert started to become a military priority. The FSA in March launched an operation it dubbed “We Saddled the Horses to Cleanse the Hamad,” a reference to a vast area of Syria’s desert. The offensive aimed to open a corridor to eastern Qalamoun, which is under siege by regime forces and ISIS. FSA forces managed to take control of large areas of Syrian desert, stretching from the Damascus countryside to Suwaida in the southwest and including the eastern Qalamoun region in the Damascus countryside. In May, the regime and its allies began advancing in the desert from two axes, first from the Aliyaniyah area of Homs province and secondly from the south of Palmyra, meeting in the Ras al-Wa’r area on the Iraqi border. Ras al-Wa’r is around 30 km northeast of the Zakaf base recently set up by the international coalition against ISIS and its local ally, the Revolutionary Commandos Army (previously known as the New Syrian Army) as a forward base to protect the al-Tanaf base and for launching military operations towards Deir Ezzor. Regime-allied militias have cut off the road that would link Syrian opposition and coalition forces in the desert to Deir Ezzor, reducing their chances of advancing on the province.

The only option for FSA forces in the desert after regime forces cut off the route was the recent American suggestion to the Revolutionary Commandos Army that it move some of its forces to another coalition base in the al-Shadadi area of Hasakeh province, north-east of Deir Ezzor, where the Elite Force (the military wing of political group Syria’s Tomorrow Movement) are based, under the command of Sheikh Ahmad al-Jarba. These forces have fought pitched battles in the western , especially northwestern Deir Ezzor countryside, where the Elite Force advanced in coordination with the SDF and seized the Abu Khashab and Jarawan areas of the province’s northwest with air support from the coalition.

FSA forces are still rejecting this suggestion as they would be forced to enter Deir Ezzor in coordination with the SDF. However, the FSA and the Elite Force have very few personnel, who could not possibly be sufficient to start the battle for Deir Ezzor given Turkey’s flat refusal to allow Euphrates Shield forces to take part in such a fateful battle (because Turkey’s priority is securing its own border). This leaves the FSA with two options: either agree to work with the SDF or allow the SDF to enter Deir Ezzor alone"

"It makes sense to rule out the possibility of regime forces taking complete control of Deir Ezzor, especially in light of American military policy in eastern Syria, where Washington has found itself forced to escalate against regime and allied forces. American air strikes have not prevented the regime and its allies from advancing as far as the Iraqi border. At the same time, the United States seems to have the strategic goal of scaling back Iranian clout in Syria as much as possible"

"Washington is also aware of the great distance separating the SDF from Deir Ezzor, while regime forces are now on the edges of the strategically vital city of Sukhna on the Palmyra-Deir Ezzor road after taking control of the Dibsan, Al-Dali’a, Al-Fahda and Al-Zamla oil fields, among others. Sukhna, 100 km from Deir Ezzor, sits in a rough area of hills and valleys where it makes sense for ISIS to embed itself and defend the area, ambush troops, and inflict major losses on regime forces"

"Furthermore, the United States has barred regime forces and Iranian militias from advancing on areas it sees as sensitive, especially those along the Iraqi border, while regime forces could be allowed to make incursions into the depths of the desert and, in all likelihood, take over the Shamiyya side of the desert. The Shamiyya side is the area west of Deir Ezzor city and south of Raqqa city. The regime’s success seems more secure after its recent rapid advance, with the backing of its allies, south of Raqqa city, taking advantage of ISIS forces’ focus on battle for Raqqa. This advance puts the regime 60 km from Deir Ezzor city, and could provide the chance for the regime to break ISIS’ siege on the Deir Ezzor military airport. However, it would take a significant effort for the regime to reach the airport before the battle for Raqqa is over."

US Airstrikes Hit Syrian Arab Army to Support ISIS - Intentionally! 62 dead, 100's injured.

"US-led coalition jets have bombed Syrian government forces’ positions near the eastern city of Deir ez-Zor, killing 62 troops and "paving the way" for Islamic State militants, the Syrian Army General Command told the state television.

 "Immediately after the airstrike by coalition planes, Islamic State militants launched their offensive. Fierce fighting with the terrorists is currently underway in the area of the airport where for a long a time humanitarian aid for civilians was parachuted,” Konashenkov said"

"The Syrian regime knows very well that its chances of taking full control of Deir Ezzor province are next to zero, but it will not stop its troops from advancing everywhere possible, exploiting the long front it shares with ISIS in south-eastern Aleppo, eastern Hama, and eastern and southern Homs. It will also take advantage of the fact the SDF is busy with the battle for Raqqa. Thus, regime forces over the past two months made advances in southeastern Aleppo, southern Raqqa province and north of Palmyra.

This leaves the SDF as the United States’ most likely ally in the battle for Deir Ezzor, for many reasons; first and foremost, the experience its troops have gained in dealing with the coalition, its aircraft, and its military tactics. SDF-held areas in the eastern Raqqa countryside and southern Hasaka province are the group’s closest strongholds to ISIS in Deir Ezzor. The area separating the SDF and ISIS in northern and western Deir Ezzor is a flat landscape free of rugged terrain, which allows coalition aircraft to carry out strikes against any IS forces in the area. The SDF can be expected to make rapid gains in this area until they reach Deir Ezzor and the other major cities along the Euphrates river.

The United States will make major efforts to persuade FSA forces in the Syrian desert to join the SDF in the fight for Deir Ezzor because it knows it needs an Arab force among its allies in this battle, especially given that the vast majority of these FSA troops in the region originate from Deir Ezzor, a region dominated by tribes that will not accept a new governing structure, especially one run by non-Arabs (and specifically Kurds).

But it is likely these FSA factions will join the SDF, hoping to roll back the influence of the Kurdish-majority force in Deir Ezzor due to the sensitivities between Kurds and Arabs in the eastern area, which ISIS has sought for years to exacerbate—on top of SDF abuses in the fight for Raqqa. More importantly, the FSA and the tribes, all of which are Sunnis, fear that Iraq’s Shiite-dominated Popular Mobilization Units will enter Deir Ezzor, which would be a nightmare come true for the province’s residents. That fear has grown with the creation of a Syrian PMU battalion in Hasakeh, which the Syrian regime announced in coordination with the Ukaidat and Bakara tribes following a deal to form a tribal force to fight ISIS. That coincided with the publication of pictures of tribal notables in Hasakeh, including Hassan Mohammad Al-Muslat and Abdulhamid Al-Kandah, alongside a Shia leader. The people of Deir Ezzor also fear forced conscription of young men by the SDF.

The scenarios are many and increasingly complicated. Exactly how the battle for Deir Ezzor will play out is not clear, due to America’s unpredictable policy on managing the conflict in Syria, which is drawn up by military minds at the Pentagon and has yet to give serious thought to anything beyond military affairs and how to military defeat ISIS in the shortest time possible. On top of that, there are hidden divisions between the Pentagon, a new keystone power in the south, and the Military Operations Center (MOC) that is partly run by the CIA. The Pentagon relies on the Revolutionary Commandos Army as its main ally, while the CIA works mostly with the remaining factions of the FSA.

The Russian’s, for their part, have not show clear indication of their intent yet.The Russians are focusing their attention on securing their airports and their vast stocks of military equipment around Damascus, including at the al-Sin, al-Damir, Khalkhala, Maraj, Rahil, al-Nasariya and al-Mazze air bases and Damascus International Airport. However, they have allowed their agents—regime forces and Iranian-backed militias (Hezbollah, Al-Nukhaba, Al-Fatimiyoun Al-Afghan, Al-Zaynabiyoun, Pakistani fighters)—to conduct raids deep into the Syrian desert for the first time since the start of the Syrian revolution, as well as seizing oil and gas fields. But the Russian response to American air strikes on a convoy of its regime and militia allies in the Syrian desert did not go beyond a diplomatic response, doing little more than save Moscow’s face with its allies, who had sustained a painful blow.

• EU President Donald Tusk Testifies, Again, On Polish Government Plane Crash Coup

• Blistering Heat Wave Ontario, Canada !!!!

The Pentagon is considering a plan that allows the U.S. military to conduct airstrikes on ISIS in the Philippines, two defense officials told NBC News.

The authority to strike ISIS targets as part of collective self-defense could be granted as part of an official military operation that may be named as early as Tuesday, said the officials. The strikes would likely be conducted by armed drones.

There is a small U.S. military presence on the ground supporting the counter-ISIS fight, called Joint Special Operations Task Force Trident.

If approved, the U.S. military would be able to conduct strikes against ISIS targets in the Philippines that could be a threat to allies in the region, which would includethe Philippine forces battling ISIS on the ground in the country's southern islands.

 Last month, the vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs endorsed the idea of naming the mission in the Philippines, saying that naming it would provide more funding.

"In every case where we see the resurgence of terror networks," said Gen. Paul Selva in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, "particularly in the fragile areas of the southern Philippines, I think it's worth considering whether or not we reinstate a named operation, not only to provide for the resources that are required, but to give the Pacific Command commander and the field commanders in the Philippines the kinds of authorities they need to work with indigenous Philippine forces to actually help them be successful in that battle space."

China and the Philippines were planning to build four artificial islands.
The four new artificial islands appear to be planned around Davao. They will be developed for mixed-use, business and residential purposes along the coastline under a P39-billion reclamation project that city government plans to undertake with a major private developer.
The joint venture agreement was signed by the city government and Mega Harbour Port and Development Inc. last month.
“There will be no relocation because President Duterte does not want to remove the people in the area,” said Councilor Danilo Dayanghirang, chair of the city council’s committee on finance and ways and means.

A Chinese state-owned company said to have been involved in Beijing’s island-building in the South China Sea signed a deal to construct islands in a mega project in Davao.
CCCC Dredging will create four artificial islands totalling 208 hectares of reclaimed land in Davao, the port city on the southern island of Mindanao where Duterte was mayor.

Beijing’s South China Sea land reclamation work has reportedly resulted in 2,900 acres of land reclaimed over a period of roughly 20 months, from early 2014 to August 2015. Here, perspective is important: of the other countries to reclaim land in the South China Sea, Vietnam has reclaimed 80 acres, Malaysia has reclaimed 70, the Philippines has reclaimed 14 and Taiwan has reclaimed approximately eight over various length of time. China has managed to create more than 17 times more land in 20 months than all of the other claimants combined over the past 40 years, accounting for 95 percent of all artificial land in the Spratlys.

The main driving force of China’s reclamation has been a fleet of new dredgers, including the technologically advanced self-propelled cutter-suction dredger (CSD) Tianjing, which is capable of dredging and reclaiming land at a rate of 4,500 cubic meters an hour. These dredgers simply did not exist 15 years ago, yet now China can deploy dozens of them simultaneously in the South China Sea.

China’s largest accomplishment in dredge-building came in 2010, with the launching of Tianjing, China’s first self-propelled CSD, and also Asia’s largest self-propelled CSD and the world’s third largest.

This 120-meter-long ship can dredge up to 4,500 m3/h, more than 100,000 m3 of material a day, at a maximum depth of 30 meters, and travel at speeds of up to 12 knots. Tianjing also boasts a total installed power of 25,760 kilowatts. However, while the large CSD certainly represents a Chinese technological breakthrough, it was not solely the product of Chinese design, but rather the cooperative efforts of SJTU and Vosta LMG, a German company that also built the Ursa, a 115 meter-long self-propelled CSD

Dredging ship- Huge

Rodrigo Duterte

As I have noted before, the idea of jointly exploring and exploiting resources is not new to the Sino-Philippine relationship (See: “The Danger of Duterte’s South China Sea Approach”). Indeed, Chinese interlocutors are fond of reminding observers that former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping had wisely proposed this formulation to the Philippine government as early as the 1980s, including during a meeting with then-Philippine President Corazon Aquino back in 1988.
There is also no surprise as to why the idea of China-Philippines joint development continues to be periodically resurrected despite the challenges it has confronted, including under the current Duterte government. Simply put, it does offer immediate opportunities that can be seized for both sides.

For the Philippines, it would finally give it a way to secure its energy needs. These needs are especially dire as the Malampaya gas field – which supplies nearly a third of the electricity demand of Luzon, the country’s largest island – will run out in a decade or so,and Manila has been unable to pursue new sources such as in Reed Bank (Recto Bank) unilaterally due to Chinese opposition. Though Duterte has a rather shaky relationship with the truth, his suggestion that Chinese President Xi Jinping had threatened war if the Philippines exploited resources unilaterally tracks with official Chinese rhetoric, which Wang Yi repeated this week.

More broadly, as part of the warming of Sino-Philippine ties underway since Duterte came to office, the Duterte government hopes it could also lead to more Chinese investments into the Philippines to boost the economy, whether these be in a bilateral form or as part of wider initiatives like the much-ballyhooed Belt and Road Initiative (See: “The Real Trouble With China’s Belt and Road”).

For China, in addition to capitalizing on the dramatic turnaround in its ties with a U.S. treaty ally, it also offers a way for Beijing to maintain its uncompromising stance that it still has sovereignty over most of the South China Sea at other claimants’ expense while also securing a partner as well as a market for resource exploitation.

 More generally, in China’s eyes, it would also add some credence to the idea– or, as I’ve termed it, the illusion – that there is indeed a cooling down period at play in the South China Sea, which allows Beijing greater room to restrict what other claimants, non-claimants, and other extraregional actors do to counteract its own moves in the South China Sea.

 But the trouble with China-Philippines joint development in the South China Sea is not that these immediate opportunities do not exist for these respective parties. Rather, it is that these immediate opportunities mask, and are outweighed by, the massive risks related to the past, current context, and near future, and the Duterte government has not done near enough to prove otherwise.

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USS Fitzgerald Was Likely At Fault in Collision with ACX Crystal

The Australian navy says it has found the missing U.S. aircraft that crashed into the sea Saturday off Australia's east coast.

Australian Defense Minister Marise Payne said in a statement the submerged aircraft was located "shortly after" Royal Australian Navy survey ship HMAS Melville arrived in Shoalwater Bay.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Navy divers are working with the crew of the Melville at the crash site and are using remotely operated underwater vehicles.

The aircraft had been launched from the USS Bonhomme Richard assault ship and was involved in routine operations when it crashed.

Twenty-three people aboard the MV-22 Osprey were rescued, but three Marines remained missing.

The U.S. military launched a search and rescue effort for the missing Marines, but eventually changed that operation to a recovery effort in coordination with Australian defense forces. The families of the missing Marines were notified.

The aircraft was in Australia after completing a joint U.S.-Australian military training exercise at least two weeks ago in Shoalwater Bay. The biennial exercise involved some 30,000 troops and 200 aircraft. Australian troops are among U.S.-led coalition forces fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Marine Corps did not say what caused the crash, but indicated it is under investigation.

The Osprey is designed to take off like a helicopter and rotate its propellers to fly like a plane. Its development was almost cancelled after 23 marines were killed during a flight test in 2000. The U.S. military grounded its Osprey fleet in Japan last December after one of them crash-landed into the sea, injuring all five crew members on board.

The Osprey is built by Boeing Company and Textron Inc.'s Bell Helicopter division.

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Hydro One Ltd. reported a lower second-quarter profit as revenue fell compared with a year ago, reflecting the impact of milder weather and a delay in a rate decision.

The owner of Ontario’s largest electricity distribution system says milder weather during the quarter ended June 30 resulted in less demand during peak pricing periods.

Revenue fell 11.3 per cent to $1.37-billion while revenue excluding purchased power slipped 2.8 per cent to $722-million.

Net income for the Hydro One shareholders dropped to $117-million, or 20 cents per diluted share, compared with $152-million or 25 cents per diluted share a year ago.

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From Earlier 

• Australia Finds Missing US Aircraft off it’s East Coast.

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US May Strike “ISIS” in the Philippines, TOMORROW. China/Philippines Joint Resource Exploration.

Abu Adam al Australi

An Australian jihadist in Syria has issued a propaganda video urging attacks on the Philippines.

Mounir Raad, now known as Abu Adam al-Australia, also urges Islamic State supporters to use petrol, nail guns and trucks to target civilians in Australia.

The former Melbourne resident is seem among the rubble of Raqqa as the net closes in on IS in the Middle East.

Raad calls on Muslims in Australia to join the fight in the Philippines and attacks the Australian government for assisting in the Marawi conflict against his ‘brothers’.

“As for those of you who can’t make it to this battle [in Syria] … in particular to the Mujahideen [holy warriors] in Australia, then you should go aid your brothers in the fight against the crusader government of the Philippines,” he said.

Today (Tuesday, August 8) it was announced that the Australian government is donating about 800 million pesos to help rebuild the war-torn Islamic city of Marawi.

 Addressing the camera, Raad said: “The Australian government has already pledged to help and assist, so where is your pledge to Allah and Muslim, where is your pledge to Allah and Muslim?

• Australia Finds Missing US Aircraft off it’s East Coast.

 The 5 eyes are sure busy these days...

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