RECENT VIDEO HAS EMERGED OF THE US DROPPING WHAT APPEARS TO BE TOXIC WHITE PHOSPHORUS MUNITIONS ON THE CITY.

The Syrian Arab Army has captured villages in Al-Raqqa Governorate for the first time since ISIS forced Syrian troops to abandon the region to terrorists in 2013.

Syria’s elite Tiger Forces have been making remarkable progress in the race to Raqqa while the United States is also trying to get a piece of the largely symbolic self-proclaimed capital of the so-called Islamic State.

Just as they had done in their Iraqi stronghold of Mosul, ISIS fighters in Raqqa have been fleeing the city with Deir ez-Zor being their primary destination.

This comes as the US planes have been filmed dropping what appears to be the illegal chemical weapon white phosphorus on the city.

According to Reuters, Russia has warned the U.S. not to attack Syrian-aligned troops again in the war-torn country. Reuters reports that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov relayed the message to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in a phone call on Saturday — a phone call the U.S. reportedly initiated.
“Lavrov expressed his categorical disagreement with the U.S. strikes on pro-government forces and called on him to take concrete measures to prevent similar incidents in future,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said, as reported by Reuters.The U.S. has struck pro-Syrian troops numerous times in recent weeks and just recently shot down a Syrian drone — blatant acts of war against a sovereign nation. A Russian general also claimed that the U.S. may even be colluding with ISIS, allowing them safe passage to leave Raqqa as the U.S. military besieges the Syrian city.

With increasing diplomatic and economic pressure from its Arab neighbors, Qatar’s national currency, the riyal, has reached its lowest exchange rate against the US dollar since 1998.
The Qatar Central Bank is currently trying to keep the riyal fixed at around 3.64 per dollar, but the Saudi-led boycott raises concerns that the regulator will have to weaken the currency.

“I don’t think there is any reason that people need to be concerned about what’s happening or any speculation on the Qatari riyal,” the Emirate’s finance minister, Ali Shareef Al Emadi, said in an interview with CNBC earlier this week.

“We have the assets and the security that we need. Our foreign assets and our foreign investment is more than 250 percent of our GDP. So we are very much comfortable. We know we can defend the currency or we can defend the economy,” he added.

The decision to ground all F-35 fighters at the Luke Air Force Base in Arizona was extended indefinitely, as special teams of experts struggled to figure out what caused multiple incidents of pilots reporting oxygen deprivation.
Brigadier General Brook Leonard, commander of the 56th Fighter Wing at Luke, suspended flight operations on Friday after reports of five “physiological incidents” since May 2. Flights were supposed to resume. Monday, but the ground stop remained in place.

Three American strategic nuclear-capable bombers are heading towards the border of the Russian Federation. On Friday morning, the aircraft left Fairford airbase in the UK and headed to the Russian border in the Baltic region.
It goes about two B-1B bombers and one B-52N bomber. The aircraft are said to carry out a routine mission in the Baltic. Several days ago, the bombers took part in training flights in the region.

The Russian International Affairs Council, a powerful Moscow-based think tank, estimates that there are four scenarios for resolving the ongoing diplomatic conflict between Qatar and other Arab and Muslim states. Written by renowned Middle East observer Vitaly Naumkin, the report outlines what Russia and its regional allies should be prepared for.

Under the first scenario, the parties resolve their differences as a result of mediation by regional and world powers. Doha will be forced to make some concessions, but will not be asked to sacrifice its key foreign policy initiatives, including friendly relations with Iran, and links to the Muslim Brotherhood.
The second scenario sees mediation efforts fail, and pressure on Qatar escalate. Amid threats of even more severe struggle, the emirate's leadership is forced to resign, and is replaced in a soft change of power scenario.

Recent acts of terror in Europe are the “new normal” — and surely coming soon to the United States, former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton ominously warned Sunday.

Evildoers have stepped up attacks on soft targets — such as London Bridge, Manchester Arena and Bastille Day in Nice — in the past 12 months, making a similar terrorist strike on American soil inevitable, Bratton told “The Cats Roundtable.”

“(European-style terror attacks are) going to be the new normal in our world,” Bratton told interviewer John Catsimatidis on AM 970. “The pace of terrorist attacks, certainly in Europe, has been increasing.” Bratton warned: “That type of attack is quite likely to occur in the United States at some point in time.”

President Trump is now doing the unthinkable – in his war on terror, he has resorted to the use of chemical weapons.

Multiple reports are confirming that a US-led Coalition used white phosphorus-loaded ammunition in heavily populated cities of Iraq and Syria. Thousands of civilians are known to be in the areas where the weapons were used according to The Washington Post.

Use of such weapons violates international humanitarian law due to the types of injuries it can cause when other weapons are available to do the job. While white phosphorus isn’t exactly outlawed by the Geneva Convention, it is still illegal to use in densely populated areas. And, here’s why:

“When a white phosphorus shell explodes, the chemical inside reacts with the air, creating a thick white cloud. When it comes in contact with flesh, it can maim and kill by burning to the bone.”

Israeli soldiers kill one Palestinian, injure ten others, in Gaza

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in a phone call Saturday with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, warned that Russia considers the recent US attacks on pro-government forces in southern Syria categorically unacceptable, and said the US must take steps to prevent any further clashes of this sort.

The US had multiple recent incidents in which they’ve attacked Shi’ite militia forces in southern Syria, accusing them of getting too close to a rebel base which has US personnel stationed in it. The indications, however, are that the Shi’ite militias in the region have been attacking ISIS and al-Qaeda forces, not the US-backed rebels at al-Tanf.

Authored by Daniel Lang via SHTFplan.com

It’s hard to appreciate the effect ISIS has had on ordinary Iraqis and Syrians who wanted nothing to do with the terror group.

There are cities in these countries that have been ruled by these monsters for several years. Monsters whose cruelty and depravity knows no bounds. Most people in the West can’t imagine what that must be like, because the vast majority of us have never lived under those conditions.

So what does happens to people who have been living under ISIS for so long?

Well, try to imagine what you would do if a bunch of lunatics had been running your community for several years. Imagine if they had cut you off from the outside world, tortured and killed family members and neighbors, sold female relatives into sexual slavery, and indoctrinated your children.

The U.S. military used the expanded authority President Donald Trump granted to the Pentagon in March to strike a terrorist outpost in Somalia on Sunday, officials said.

Together with Somali partners, the Pentagon used a drone to target a command and control and logistics hub 185 miles southwest of Mogadishu — the nation’s capital — to kill multiple fighters with al-Shabab, a terrorist organization aligned with al-Qaeda, according to the Pentagon.

The outpost was described by a military official as a mid-level operation, not a high value target.

According to Pentagon Chief Spokeswoman Dana W. White, the bombing was in response to al-Shabab’s recent attacks on the Somali military and used the new authority the Department of Defense received from Trump.

Last Thursday, Congressman Dana Rohrabacher praised ISIS for coordinated terrorist attacks in Tehran which left 17 civilians dead - then suggested that the United States should support the terrorist organization in their endeavors to bring regime change to Iran, comparing the situation to working with Stalin's Russia to get Hitler.

Rohrabacher: Isn't it a good thing for us to have Untied States finally backing up Sunnis who will attack Hezbollah and the Shiite threat to us? Isn't that a good thing? And if so, maybe this is a Trump strategy of actually supporting one group against another considering that you have terrorist organizations.

Maybe it's a good idea to have radical Muslim terrorists fighting each other?

Dr. Asher: Having coordinated the economic warfare plan against the Islamic State, I would not condone an attack by the Islamic State. I would be determined to destroy them.

This could be the beginning of a new alignment that will elevate the Russian position in the region while diminishing the influence of the United States.

The new and seemingly prolonged row between Saudi Arabia and Qatar is having some curious and almost shocking knock-on effects.

The most interesting is that Syrian media has been reporting that attacks and even mobilisations from many Gulfi funded terrorists in Syria have declined.

Likewise, state-run Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera has suddenly discovered the extent of Saudi war crimes in Yemen after ignoring the story until last week when Qatar’s exit from the Saudi coalition was formalised.

But by far the most strange development thus far is the newfound Saudi love for the cause of Kurdish nationalism.

Luke Air Force Base in Arizona halted flights of its F-35 fighter jets on Friday after an increase in the number of pilots experiencing "hypoxia-like symptoms."

Five pilots have reported the symptoms since May 2, leading the base to cancel flying operations and review the concerns with pilots, the Air Force said. In each of the five instances, the pilots were able to use the aircraft's back-up oxygen system and land safely.

The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have joined the multi-Federal agency investigations into the largest psychiatric hospital chain owned by Universal Health Services (UHS). The agencies are “scrutinizing UHS’s billings to Tricare, the insurance plan for active military and their families,” according to the latest BuzzFeed News expose.[1] Rosalind Adams, an award-winning journalist with BuzzFeedNews, conducted an independent investigation into UHS saying that investigators have cited “troubling reports suggesting a pattern of quality of care issues” or “harm to patients” in some UHS facilities operating in a dozen states.

The Balkans may be about to explode – all over again. Yet with a twist; unlike 1999, NATO won’t get away with bombing a defenseless Belgrade for 78 days. A new generation of Russian missiles would easily prevent it.

President Rodrigo Duterte has said he was “not aware” US special forces had joined the battle to defeat Isis militants besieging a town in the southern Philippines.

Mr Duterte said he had “never approached America” for help and was “not aware of that until they arrived,” when he was asked about US support to fight the pro-Isis militants in Marawi City, on the island of Mindanao.

The cooperation between the longtime allies in the battle is significant because Mr Duterte, who came to power a year ago, has taken a hostile stance towards Washington and has vowed to eject US military trainers and advisers from his country.

Yesterday, Reuters broke a story calming that the US has agreed to a Philippine request to assist Philippines in the war against ISIS, a story confirmed by both a military spokesman for Philippines and the United States. The story has now been directly contradicted by Philippines President Duterte, also according to Reuters. Duterte claims that he “never approached U.S”.

Duterte further stated,

“I am not aware of that (any request for US assistance) until they (US forces) arrived”.

If those smart Ivy and Oxbridge-type guys and gals in the prestige media were telling us time and again that our societies were all fundamentally center-right collectives with a deep suspicion of government action (except, that is, when it came to making unceasing war on a world-wide scale) who was I, an obscure analyst of Iberian nationalisms and other sundry issues, to say anything about it?

The Air Force has grounded all F-35 Joint Strike Fighters at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, after pilots complained of hypoxia-related issues, officials said Friday.

"The 56th Fighter Wing at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, canceled local flying operations today for F-35A Lightning II aircraft due to a series of five incidents in which pilots have experienced hypoxia-like symptoms," Air Force spokesman Capt. Mark Graff said in an email.

A total of 48 aircraft and 49 pilots are affected by the temporary stand-down, according to Maj. Rebecca Heyse, a spokeswoman for the base.

"Flying operations are planned to resume Monday, June 12," she said in an email.

The incident is "limited to Luke" at this time, meaning other bases aren't affected by the order, Graff said.

As a reminder, Ashcroft was U.S. attorney general under President George W. Bush from February 2001 to February 2005, years in which US policies and laws were reshaped by the so-called war on terrorism that followed the 2001 al Qaeda attacks. Under Ashcroft the US spawned the "Patriot Act", trampling over civil rights everywhere, and made pervasive spying on virtually everyone the norm, courtesy of the NSA.

Perhaps relying on the assumption that Qatar can simply bribe its way again into America's good graces - recall Qatar give Bill Clinton a $1 million "present" for his Birthday, and was one of the biggest foreign "donors" of the Clinton Foundation even when Hillary was still at the State Department...

American Special Operations Forces have joined Philippine troops battling Daesh terrorists in a town in the southern Philippines.

The Philippine military said on Saturday that the US special forces would be providing “technical assistance” to the operations against Daesh in Marawi City on Mindanao Island and would not participate in the actual fighting there.

As ISIS moves across the world, conveniently popping up wherever America wants to touch down, the fact that the terrorist organization is an American creation is becoming more and more obvious to many people. Regardless, the news that ISIS recently managed not only to conduct terror attacks in the Philippines but was able to seize and occupy an entire city caught many people by surprise. Indeed, for those who are unaware of the nature and history of the terrorist organization and what role American imperialism plays in regards to its activity, the recent events in the Philippines no doubt have many Americans absolutely befuddled.

As the Independent article “ISIS-Linked Militants Behead Police Chief And Take Priest And Churchgoers Hostage In Philippines City,” reported on May 24,

A Catholic priest and churchgoers have been taken hostage by Isis-linked militants attempting to seize control of a city in the Philippines, while the local police chief has been beheaded.

It is important to note which countries in the anti-Syria coalition are not part of the anti-Qatar coalition, specifically Turkey. The one thing Turkey and Qatar have in common besides funding and facilitating terrorists for the purpose of overthrowing the Syrian government, is support for the Muslim Brotherhood. After all, Turkey’s Erdogan has long supported the MB and has maintained close ties with them for years. Turkey is also currently debating the possibility of deploying Turkish troops to a base in Qatar.

So what we are seeing is, in part, an anti-Muslim Brotherhood coalition with the focus being placed on Qatar, the country which is seen as being perhaps the biggest patron of the organization.

The Iranian Element

“I don’t think anyone would survive such a conflict.”
— Vladimir Putin

South Korea’s national security adviser has said that Seoul will abide by its agreement with the US on deploying the controversial Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system (THAAD), as North Korea continues to pose “very serious and urgent threat.”

This statement follows North Korea’s claim that it has tested a new type of missile that could strike South Korean and US warships "at will" if attacked.

Four missiles were fired Thursday that traveled 125 miles before landing in the sea off North Korea’s east coast, according to South Korea national security head Chung Eui-yong.

"Stop funding, stop teaching hate, and stop the killing," US President Donald Trump said Friday during a news conference with the Romanian president after alleging that Doha has propped up Islamist extremists.

"No more funding," Trump emphasized. His comments come following the diplomatic row that erupted last week between Qatar and major Middle East powers like Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Mattis Aware of Steps Planned to Isolate Qatar - Pentagon
The "high level" of support — whether it be financial, logistical or moral — for terror groups originating in Doha must stop, the president said.

"I want to call on all of the nations to stop immediately supporting terrorism," Trump reiterated.

For quite some time, professor Iman Soleh and I discussed the link between the ‘old guard’ Southeast Asian (mainly Indonesians and Malaysians) jihadi cadres, so-called ‘Afghan alumni’, and the vanguard, a ‘new wave’, that which is now trying to destabilize, even destroy both Syria and the Philippines.

While the name ‘jihad’ itself has been used habitually and ‘liberally’ all over the Western mainstream media, it was clear to all of us at the table that behind the brutal combat as well as most of the horrors unleashed in such places like Syria and Philippines, hidden are the geopolitical interests of the West in general and of the United States in particular.

Professor Soleh has explained the latest ‘dynamics’:

No one who pays attention to the Korean Peninsula believes that there is an easy answer to the challenge of a nuclear North Korea. But finding solutions will become even harder if the problem is misdiagnosed.
The North’s leaders, starting with founder Kim Il-sung, appear to be eminently rational. His son, Kim Jong-il, wore platform shoes, had bouffant hair, donned oversized sunglasses and was particularly easy to caricature (think “Team America”). Nevertheless, Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il and descendent Kim Jong-un have skillfully wielded power, maintained control, deterred the United States and turned their small country into a Weltmacht of sorts.

The human cost has been great, but that’s no different than in the Soviet Union and People’s Republic of China. In those countries equally ruthless parties and leaders took control and made nations. The North’s political system is sui generis, but its participants act in an understandable and predictable fashion.

The United Nations said the organization is investigating airstrikes that took place on May 31 in Mosul. At the time, it was unclear whether they occurred or which forces were behind what was described as a “carpet bombing.” About 50-80 people were killed; 47 deaths were previously recorded. The U.N. also reported hundreds more Islamic State killings in recent weeks.

Conditions at the Khazir displacement camp near Mosul are deteriorating with summer coming on. Uncomfortable heat, increasing numbers of insects and reptiles, and an outbreak of scabies are making residents miserable and ill.

The United States criticized the upcoming Kurdish independence referendum as a distraction from more important issues such as the war against the Islamic State militants. Germany expressed concern that the referendum could worsen sectarian tension. Meanwhile, the Iraqi Turkoman Front (ITF), an umbrella group of political parties, rejected the referendum.

In what some speculate may be the beginning of the end for Daesh (ISIS), the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) entered Raqqa – Daesh’s Syrian stronghold – for the first time on Tuesday. SDF commander Rojda Felat told the AFP news agency that the group is “fighting street battles inside Raqqa now, and we have experience in urban warfare.” The advance came after heavy airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition, which killed more than 20 civilians trying to flee the offensive by boat.

The push for the U.S.-backed SDF to claim Raqqa from Daesh has been in the works for over seven months, having only been made possible by U.S.-led coalition air support, thousands of military advisers and deliveries of heavy weapons. While the U.S.-led coalition, particularly the U.S. itself, claims that this support is all for the common cause of eradicating Daesh, their plans for Raqqa following a Daesh defeat could make the future goal of a united Syria all but impossible to achieve.

Evidence suggests that one of the London attackers, Rachid Redouane, was part of the broad UK-backed covert strategy to oust Syria’s Assad, following his similar role in Libya in 2011.

It is distinctly possible that Redouane was trained by Qatar special forces in Libya in 2011, as part of a broad UK-approved covert operation. Indeed, it is possible that this training was presided over by UK and US ‘liaison’ officers.

The analysis below is based on mainstream media sources, all in the public domain.

Evidence suggests that one London attacker, Rachid Redouane, was part of the broad UK-backed covert strategy to oust Syria’s Assad, following his similar role in Libya in 2011.

The Telegraph reports that London attacker Rachid Redouane fought in the 2011 British/NATO war against Qaddafi – as did Salman Abedi, the Manchester bomber – and joined a militia which went on to send jihadist fighters to Syria. In Libya, he is believed to have fought with the Liwa al Ummah unit.[1]

Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania will play host to a huge military training exercise involving tens of thousands of troops – as tensions between NATO and Moscow are already running high.

In what commentators have dubbed a "clear escalation", moments ago Arab states including Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt and Bahrain, have released a list that designates 59 individuals and 12 entities in Qatar as terrorist. The complete list of those named includes Qataris, Jordanians, Egyptians, Kuwaitis, Libyans.

The four countries released the names in “light of their commitment to fighting terrorism, drying up their sources of funding, combating extremist ideology and its dissemination and working together to eradicate it and immunize communities,” according to a statement made available to Al Arabiya.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan broke his silence over the crisis engulfing his country’s closest Arab ally Qatar today, condemning the actions of the group of Gulf countries that cut off ties with the emirate over its alleged support for extremist groups and Iran. In a related move, Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has decided to fast-track bills to deploy Turkish forces in Qatar and train Qatari troops in its legislative agenda. Turkey is building a base in Qatar that will eventually host up to 10,000 troops under an accord in which Turkey pledged to defend the Gulf state.

Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region on Wednesday announced it would hold a referendum on independence, in a move the central government in Baghdad is likely to oppose strongly.

"I am pleased to announce that the date for the independence referendum has been set for Monday, Sept. 25, 2017," Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani said on Twitter.

Barzani's assistant Hemin Hawrami tweeted that voting would take place in the disputed region of Kirkuk and three other areas also claimed by the central government; Makhmour in the north, Sinjar in the northwest and Khanaqin in the east.

The president of Iraq's ruling Shi'ite coalition told Reuters in April it would oppose a Kurdish referendum. Ammar al-Hakim especially warned the Kurds against any move to annex oil-rich Kirkuk.

The referendum date was set after a meeting of Kurdish political parties chaired by Barzani, who heads the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

In 2015, US logistics coordinator Scott Darden was captured by Houthi forces in the Yemeni capital city of Sanaa, and held for six months before his release. During that time, he was presented purely as participating in helping the delivery of humanitarian aid into the country.

He did that, as part of his employment for New Orleans-based Transoceanic Development was overseeing the transportation of humanitarian aid to the nation, which in the midst of a Saudi invasion is struggling with a nascent famine. Today, however, the New York Times is reporting that his job also had him delivering shipments of war materiel to US special forces operating in Yemen.

Some officials were willing to confirm the broad details of this, but they and Darden himself were unwilling to provide specifics, citing its “highly classified” nature. This is fueling new calls within the House Armed Services Committee to exercise at least some oversight over what was being done.

After an audit from the Department of Defense revealed that the Pentagon couldn’t account for over $1 billion in weapons and equipment that was meant for fighters in Iraq, the question remains: Did ISIS gain $1 BILLION in weapons and equipment as a result?

The September 2016 audit was declassified after the human rights organization Amnesty International filed a Freedom of Information Act request. It revealed that the Pentagon “did not have accurate, up-to-date records on the quantity and location” of the majority of the equipment that was meant for the Iraqi Train & Equip Program.

The missing equipment came from the $1.6 billion budget Congress allocated for the program in 2015. The budget was approved in the name of fighting the Islamic State of Iraq & Syria—a group of militants that didn’t exist until nearly a decade after the United States invaded Iraq in 2003.

And the cold hard truth needs to come to light: the U.S. has illegally invaded Syria’s territory. The fact that the Syrian military cannot realistically drive the U.S. military out (especially while it is embroiled in numerous battles with ISIS and other radical guerrilla forces) does not constitute tacit acceptance of the U.S. military presence there. In fact, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has called the U.S. and its associated forces “invaders” numerous times because the U.S. has no legal basis to operate inside Syrian territory.

On top of this unwarranted invasion, the U.S. claims it has the right to defend itself from troops loyal to Syria’s current government. It also claims it has the right to defend forces that operate under the control of the U.S.-led coalition. This is not a new proposal under Donald Trump; Barack Obama authorized U.S. air power to defend the U.S.-trained fighting forces in Syria, even if that meant attacking Syrian government troops.

The father of the iconic "Syrian Ambulance boy," whose photograph was plastered all over the Western media as an excuse to overthrow Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, says he supports Assad and his son was used by the media "for the sake of propaganda."

From RT:

Omran Daqneesh was rescued from the rubble in the aftermath of a bombing in the rebel-held Qaterji district of Aleppo in August 2016. The controversial Syrian Civil Defense group, better known as the White Helmets soon released harrowing footage of Omran sitting in an ambulance chair.

The White Helmets group has a controversial reputation. While they are hailed as hero volunteers by the Western mainstream media, and even have an Academy Award-winning documentary about them, their reputation on the ground in Syria is much more sinister.

Syrian rebels from Eastern Lions and Ahmad al-Abdo Army formations – the elements of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) - state that they are «intensely» attacking Iranian-backed pro-government militias in the eastern Syrian desert in an operation dubbed «The Land is Ours». The forces’ strength is around four thousand. The main enemies are the Islamic State (IS), Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and Syrian government-allied forces. The operation is conducted near Syria’s borders with Iraq and Jordan. This time, the mission is to squeeze the SAA and its allies out from the desert areas.

Evidently, one of the goals pursued by the escalation of hostilities is to demonstrate that the armed opposition is a force to reckon with at a time the crisis management talks are held in Astana and Geneva. Obviously, this is an attempt to subvert the ongoing international peace efforts.

With Gulf tensions still rising, and culminating with last night's report on Arabia CNN that Qatar has put its armed forces on the highest military preparedness level, the small nation may be preparing to unveil its "Eastern pivot": moments ago Russia's RIA news agency reported that the Qatari foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani will Visit Moscow on Saturday where he will hold talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

"Negotiations will be held on Saturday," a Russian foreign ministry official said. However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Vladimir Putin does not yet plan to meet with al-Thani.

Even as the world's attention turns to the Comey testimony for the next few hours, the Qatar diplomatic crisis (where CNN's "report" of Russian hacking now appears long forgotten) continues, and moments ago a barrage of headlines from Qatar suggests that the small nation, which may or may not be preparing for military action, is happy to welcome the Turkish troops that will be arriving soon as reported yesterday, with its foreign minister stating that "we are not ready to surrender and will never compromise the independence of our foreign policy." Also, and perhaps even more critically, Qatar - whose foreign minister is set to fly to Moscow on Saturday - also announced that Iran is ready to help with food and that three of Iran's ports will be designated for use for Qatar.

From the wires:

QATAR FM SAYS IRAN SAID THEY ARE READY TO HELP QATAR WITH FOOD & 3 OF THEIR PORTS WILL BE DESIGNATED FOR QATAR: RTRS.

The US Army is offering soldiers up to $90,000 in bonuses to re-join its ranks in an attempt to reverse the military downsizing that occurred during Barack Obama’s presidency.

The Centurion was the main British battle tank for around two decades following the Second World War and Israel had already placed orders for it before Eshkol’s trip.

By July 1965, Britain supplied Israel with more than 180 such tanks. Another 150 were transported between that month and May 1967.

They were not the only weapons that Britain gave Israel. Just one week before Eshkol’s government made a surprise attack against Egypt on 5 June 1967, a ship brimming with machine guns, tank shells and armored vehicles sailed to present-day Israel from the English port of Felixstowe. It was among a series of secret weapons deliveries.

In a recent broadcast, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes denounced the sordid attempts of 16 leading Democratic lawmakers who, under the influence of the Israeli lobby, are pushing to impose new economic sanctions on Iran, which is designed to sabotage Obama’s rapprochement with the Islamic Republic.

Although this condemnation of the Zionist lobby’s implacable warmongering is admirable, in the strictly confined discourse we see on the mainstream media presenters of this caliber refuse to state the obvious, which is that the United States has no right whatsoever to tell any country what to do on any matter, either foreign or domestic. Economic sanctions are an act of war, yet the US has imposed crippling economic sanctions on dozens of countries around the world, strangling the life out of them like a deadly python suffocating its victims.

The terrorists who rampaged across London on the night of 3 June were part of a wider extremist network closely monitored by MI5 for decades. The same network was heavily involved in recruiting Britons to fight with jihadist groups in Syria, Iraq and Libya.

Police have confirmed that Khuram Shazad Butt, Rachid Redouane and Youssef Zaghba were the three terrorists shot dead after participating in a brutal van and knife attack in the London Bridge area.

According to press reports, both Butt and Redouane were longstanding members of the proscribed extremist network formerly known as al-Muhajiroun. After 9/11, the group operated under different names such as Shariah4UK, Muslims4Crusades and Islam4UK. Originally founded by Lebanese firebrand, Omar Bakri Mohammed, who was banned from returning the UK after the 7/7 attacks, the network was later run by Bakri’s deputy, Anjem Choudary.

RED FLAGS, MISSED

The Trump administration, this week, appeared to take a potential step closer to backing efforts plotted by Saudi Arabia and the UAE to destabilize Iran; possibly topple its Islamic government; and force Qatar to fall into line with Gulf policies that target Iran, political Islam, and militants; with the appointment of a seasoned covert operations officer as head of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Iran operations.

Saudi support of militant groups in Pakistani Baluchistan that operate across the border in the Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchistan is abetted by a US policy.

While President Trump has personally claimed credit for the split between Qatar and the other Gulf Arab states, some US investigators are engaged in particularly wild speculation today, aiming to make the whole situation a plot carried out by Russian hackers.

A little over a week into the latest row, tensions between Qatar and other Gulf states is a hugely complicating factor for US foreign policy in the region, particularly since Qatar hosts the largest US military base in the Middle East. Qatar’s split is something that’s been an ongoing issue for years, based around differing views on the Arab Spring.

Fake news helped though, too, as while that row between Qatar and the Saudis has been a thing for years, this latest escalation centered around a report in the Qatar state media, right after President Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia to make hawkish speeches about Iran, quoted the Qatari Emir warning against seeking military confrontation toward Iran.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has given a series of interviews to renowned film director Oliver Stone, answering the questions on the most controversial issues of modern-day international politics. Talking on a possible military conflict between Russia and the United States, the Russian leader said that no one on Earth would survive it.

Putin said in an interview with US film director Oliver Stone that no one would survive if a war began between Russia and the United States.

"I think no one would survive [such a conflict]," Putin said answering a question if the United States would be dominant in a "hot war" with Russia. The part of the interview was partially released by the US Showtime TV channel.

Putin added that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is constantly looking for an enemy to justify its existence.

"There is no longer an Eastern Bloc, no more Soviet Union. Therefore, why does NATO keep existing? My impression is that in order to justify its existence, NATO has a need of an external foe, there is a constant search for the foe, or some acts of provocation to name someone as an adversary."

However, Putin said that the hope for normalization of the Russia-US relations still exists.

President Trump thrust himself into a bitter Persian Gulf dispute on Tuesday, taking credit for Saudi Arabia’s move to isolate its smaller neighbor, Qatar, and rattling his national security staff by upending a critical American strategic relationship.

In a series of tweets, Mr. Trump said his call for an end to the financing of radical groups had prompted Saudi Arabia and four other countries to act this week against Qatar, a tiny, energy-rich emirate that is arguably America’s most important military outpost in the Middle East.

“During my recent trip to the Middle East I stated that there can no longer be funding of Radical Ideology,” he wrote in a midmorning post. “Leaders pointed to Qatar — look!”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is turning the Senate toward passing tougher Iran sanctions, potentially renewing a fight over financial penalties against Russia.

The Kentucky Republican teed up a procedural vote for Wednesday on the Iran Destabilizing Activities Act. If lawmakers drag out debate on the legislation, a final vote could take place as late as Thursday evening.

In a world where defense budgets are astronomical and wars of occupation and destabilization never end, political leaders in the UK and in Europe want you to accept street-level terror as the new everyday normal. The attacks are unstoppable, they say, and the world must embrace this hopelessness with faith that the government is doing all it can to create a better, safer world. Run, hide, and call the authorities, for you are helpless in this reality, so they say. But who creates and sustains this reality?

It is very clear that the recent tension and blockade between Gulf States (lead by Saudi Arabia) and Qatar have absolutely nothing to do with terrorism, and everything to do with natural gas and energy dominance.

Zerohedge notes…

–as often happens, the official narrative is traditionally a convenient smokescreen from the real underlying tensions.

The real reason behind the diplomatic fallout may be far simpler, and once again has to do with a long-running and controversial topic, namely Qatar’s regional natural gas dominance.

*****

As a result of the tiny nation’s growing financial and political “independence”, its neighbors grew increasingly frustrated and concerned: “Qatar used to be a kind of Saudi vassal state, but it used the autonomy that its gas wealth created to carve out an independent role for itself,” said Jim Krane, energy research fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute, quoted by Bloomberg.

When Saddam Hussein came to power in 1979, he maintained this balance of power, even though the western encouraged and totally misguided war that Saddam Hussein waged on Iran helped to drive some Shi’a Muslims away from the more overtly anti-Iranian Sunni population.

Nevertheless, in spite of the pressures from the 1990 war on Iraq and a crippling western imposed sanctions regime in the 1990s, Iraq still managed to hold together against tremendous odds.

EU chiefs have agreed to dish out a whopping £43 million (€ 50 million) to fund a new African joint military force as part of a counter terrorism offensive.

In a bid to combat jihadist groups active in the Sahel region, the EU pledged to fund a force made up of troops from Mauritania, Mali, Chad, Burkina Faso and Niger – known as the Sahel G-5.

The force will also attempt to tackle trafficking networks and illegal migration in the region.

In the Mali capital Bamako, Federica Mogherini, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said: “Stability and development of the Sahel region are crucial not only for Africa but also for Europe.”

Abdoulaye Diop, Mali’s foreign minister, said on Monday the new force would have some 10,000 soldiers and police officers and would become operational by the end of the year.

Khuram Shazad Butt, one of the three London Bridge attackers, was allowed to work at Westminster Tube station, even after he featured in a TV documentary about British jihadists in which he prayed to a black flag in Regent’s Park.
He was also free to carry out Saturday’s atrocity despite working for a man accused of helping to train the 7/7 bombings ringleader, and being investigated by police and MI5, it has emerged.

The third terrorist behind the London Bridge attack has been named as Youssef Zaghba. It emerged he was arrested last year trying to reach Syria, yet was still able to get into the UK. Reports in the Italian media said Zaghba was stopped in Bologna. His mother is Italian and still lives there.

Butt, 27, from Barking, East London, was deemed “low priority” by the Metropolitan Police despite being reported to them at least twice. He had slipped down in priority because there was no intelligence he was planning an attack.

On June 8, 1967, an Israeli torpedo tore through the side of the unarmed American naval vessel USS Liberty, approximately a dozen miles off the Sinai coast. The ship, whose crew was under command of the National Security Agency, was intercepting communications at the height of the Six Day War when it came under direct Israeli aerial and naval assault.
Reverberations from the torpedo blast sent crewman Ernie Gallo flying across the radio research room where he was stationed. Gallo, a communications technician aboard the Liberty, found himself and his fellow shipmates in the midst of an attack that would leave 34 Americans dead and 171 wounded.

The real reason behind the diplomatic fallout may be far simpler, and once again has to do with a long-running and controversial topic, namely Qatar's regional natural gas dominance.

Recall that many have speculated (with evidence going back as far back as 2012) that one of the reasons for the long-running Syria proxy war was nothing more complex than competing gas pipelines, with Qatar eager to pass its own pipeline, connecting Europe to its vast natural gas deposits, however as that would put Gazprom's monopoly of European LNG supply in jeopardy, Russia had been firmly, and violently, against this strategy from the beginning and explains Putin's firm support of the Assad regime and the Kremlin's desire to prevent the replacement of the Syrian government with a puppet regime.

Fisk, who has been primarily based in Beirut, Lebanon, for nearly three decades, made the remarks in an article published by The Independent on Monday, following a deadly attack in central London.

On Saturday night, three attackers targeted the heart of London. Seven people were killed and 48 injured when the assailants in a white van mowed down pedestrians on London Bridge before stabbing a police officer and revelers in bars around Borough Market.

Addressing the British people on Sunday morning, May stressed the need for change, both in people’s tolerance of extremism and in the government’s counter-terrorism strategy.

She vowed to fight what she called the “evil ideology of Islamist extremism,” and declared “enough is enough.”

The scandal erupted last Thursday, when Turkey's foreign minister said it is not possible to allow German lawmakers to visit troops stationed at Turkey's Incirlik air base now, although he said Ankara may reconsider if it sees "positive steps" from Berlin. It was not immediately clear just what Turkey's "demands" or expectations, monetary or otherwise, were from Merkel for it to change its view. Ties between the NATO allies deteriorated sharply in the run-up to Turkey's April 16 referendum that handed President Tayyip Erdogan stronger presidential powers.

"We see that Germany supports everything that is against Turkey," Mevlut Cavusoglu told a news conference in Ankara last week. "Under these circumstances it is not possible for us to open Incirlik to German lawmakers right now ... If they take positive steps in the future we can reconsider."

Speaking over the weekend at a conference in Singapore, Defense Secretary James Mattis urged the world to “bear with” the US as they adjust to the election of a new president, insisting that the US remains committed to engaging in global intervention, and that it is “very deeply rooted in the American psyche.”

Mattis insisted the 20th century ended any idea of America not constantly intervening in the world, and that Americans knew it would be “a crummy world” if they weren’t constantly involved in other countries’ affairs.

The comments were mostly directed at an audience of US allies who don’t like President Trump, and while he tried to assure them that nothing with respect to US policy had changed, other officials said they had the sense that what Mattis was saying was far different that what Trump himself is saying.

The civilian death toll of the US air war against ISIS continues to soar today, with the latest US strikes against the ISIS capital city of Raqqa leveled a large apartment building in the residential area of the city, killing at least 43 civilians and wounding many others.
US airstrikes killing dozens of civilians in Iraq or Syria have been nearly daily occurrences at this point, as officials continue to escalate the rate of strikes to try to “pressure” ISIS, and end up killing a soaring number of innocent bystanders.

As usual, the US has not publicly commented on today strike, nor indeed have they yet commented on destroying a hospital yesterday in the same part of Raqqa. Such incidents rarely make it into the official Pentagon list of civilian casualties in the two nations, which is usually around 10% of the actual death toll as calculated by private NGOs.

Russia declared today its first test of a hypersonic missile, a year ahead of schedule. Defense analysts proclaimed the test made U.S. missile defense systems obsolete.

American missile defense has been a thorn in the side of the Kremlin since the days of Ronald Reagan’s SDI, or Strategic Defense Initiative. One could argue that SDI broke the back of the Soviet Union financially and technologically and forced Gorbachev to realize the U.S.S.R. could not beat America in a missile defense arms race.

The Russian international news site Sputnik suggested the missile, named Zircon, could be installed on Pyotr Veliky, the country’s nuclear-powered missile strike ship. Analysts stated the missile concept can fly at 4,600 miles per hour — that’s 6 times the speed of sound — and would be practically impervious to missile defense systems, reported The Independent.

“The existence of the Israeli state hung by a thread,” the country’s prime minister, Levi Eshkol, claimed two days after the war was over, “but the hopes of the Arab leaders to annihilate Israel were dashed.” Genocide, went the argument, had been prevented; another Holocaust of the Jews averted.

There is, however, a problem with this argument: it is complete fiction, a self-serving fantasy constructed after the event to justify a war of aggression and conquest. Don’t take my word for it: “The thesis according to which the danger of genocide hung over us in June 1967, and according to which Israel was fighting for her very physical survival, was nothing but a bluff which was born and bred after the war,” declared General Matituahu Peled, Chief of Logistical Command during the war and one of 12 members of Israel’s General Staff, in March 1972.

The longer U.S. troops remain in Iraq and Afghanistan, the greater the financial costs to the United States. Taken together, the cost of those wars could be as high as $6 trillion, including medical and disability care for vets and all their families and a host of other expenses such as rising interest charges on the debt that finances military operations.

The sobering analysis comes from a 2013 paper by Linda J. Bilmes of the Harvard Kennedy School, “The Financial Legacy of Iraq and Afghanistan: How Wartime Spending Decisions Will Constrain Future National Security Budgets.” Bilmes contends that the money spent on these wars since 2001 will “dominate future federal budgets for decades to come.”

In March 2011, Obama launched war on Syria, using ISIS, al-Nusra and other terrorists as imperial foot soldiers.

The aim then and now is destroying Syrian sovereignty, ousting Assad, replacing him with a pro-Western puppet, eliminating an Israeli rival, isolating Iran ahead of a similar scheme against its government, and claiming another US imperial trophy.

That’s what the war is all about, orchestrated by Hillary Clinton as secretary of state. There’s nothing civil about it – one of many Big Lies about what’s going on.

Russia’s good faith efforts to resolve things diplomatically are consistently undermined by Washington and its rogue allies – NATO, Turkey, the Saudis, Israel and others.

NATO’s announced escalated “fight against terrorism” beyond its current involvement in Syria and elsewhere, along with the enormous arms deal Trump arranged with Riyadh is bad news for hoped for Middle East peace.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said in no uncertain terms Saturday that North Korea presented a "clear and present danger," while also criticizing China for ratcheting up the tension over contested islands in the South China Sea.

His sharp words for both countries suggested he believed China would, out of self-interest, pressure North Korea to halt its nuclear and missile programs even as Washington pushes Beijing to change course in the South China Sea.

Speaking at an international security conference in Singapore, Mattis said the Trump administration was encouraged by China's renewed commitment to working with the U.S. and others to rid North Korea of its nuclear weapons. He also said he thought Beijing ultimately would see Kim Jong Un's regime as a liability rather than an asset.

Horrific conditions in Yemen continue to grow worse:

Cholera deaths in war-torn Yemen have surged into the hundreds, more than a quarter of Yemenis face famine, and parents are selling girls into marriage to buy food, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

Obama-era State Department officials engaged in what they are describing as an “intense,” behind-the-scenes campaign to prevent President Trump from normalization US relations with Russia shortly after he took office. The officials, who include former Obama Assistant Secretary of State Tom Malinowski, claim to have been the impetus behind the Senate resolution which aimed to forbid easing sanctions on Russia without Congressional permission.

Though President Trump made much of his intention to normalize ties with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign, he had publicly abandoned that proposal by the late-January, early-February period during which this effort supposedly happened, insisting he was holding off on sanctions relief on Russia for concessions.

The CIA has appointed Michael D’Andrea, who is colloquially known as “Ayatollah Mike,” as the new chief of their anti-Iran operations. D’Andrea had previously participated in the hunt for bin Laden, was said to be heavily involved in the CIA’s torture program against al-Qaeda detainees, and then oversaw the CIA drone war worldwide, with its huge death toll of both civilians and “suspects.”

As someone who oversaw torture and widespread killing by CIA forces, and is seen as a particularly aggressive figure, D’Andrea’s appointment to the Iran post is seen as a sign that the Trump Administration is taking a “hard line” toward Iran.

Exactly what a hard line toward Iran means, in the midst of repeated international confirmations that Iran is complying with its requirements under the P5+1 nuclear deal, is not clear, though Trump has repeatedly expressed opposition to the P5+1 deal, and may still be looking for an out.

NATO officials at a conference in Estonia are discussing the risks of cyberattacks, and talking up the possibility of invoking Article 5, an alliance-wide obligation for member nations to come to the military defense of the attacked nation, in the event of “certain” cyberattacks.

CyberProject Director Catherine Lotrionte said there would need to be a “legal threshold” for the triggering of Article 5, and that such an action would need to only be considered in the case of a “grave threat” which is also “current,” and not in retaliation for something that happened years ago.

A new Operation Inherent Resolve report has upped the official civilian death toll of the US-led aerial bombing campaign in Syria and Iraq by more than a third, confirming 484 civilian deaths – while activists claim the figure is several times higher.

“To date, based on information available, CJTF-OIR [Combined Joint Task Force] assesses that, it is more likely than not, at least 484 civilians have been unintentionally killed by Coalition strikes since the start of Operation Inherent Resolve,” a statement released on Friday reads.

The coalition analyzes each individual report and bases its official civilian death toll only on those it finds “credible.”

According to the coalition, in the period between August 2014 and April 2017, 21,035 airstrikes were carried out, which could be broken down into 44,330 separate engagements.

During the election campaign of 2008 before he was elected as the president, Barack Obama made an artificial distinction between the “just war” in Afghanistan and the unjust war in Iraq. In accordance with the flawed distinction, he pledged that he would withdraw American troops stationed in Iraq.

More to the point, however, when President Obama decided to withdraw American troops from the unjust war in Iraq, at the same time, he pledged that he would commit additional American troops and resources into the purportedly “just war” in Afghanistan. And consequently, the number of US troops in Afghanistan jumped from 30,000 during the Bush Administration to more than 100,000 during the supposedly “pacifist” Obama Administration.

Dangerous provocations between Russia and the West - similar to that of the Cold War period - are now taking place on Russia's border, yet nobody seems to be concerned as what the implications could be, author Martin Summers told RT.
Amid heightening tensions between Russia and the West, Vladimir Putin has again faced questions about hacking and influence over the upcoming election in Germany. It came as he met foreign journalists on the sidelines of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum.

Speaking about US missile systems now stationed in Alaska and South Korea, the Russian leader said, “They have elements in their ABM system in Alaska and now in South Korea. Do we have to look at this helplessly and do the same in Eastern Europe? Of course not. We contemplate our response to this challenge.”

Pentagon officials are reporting that they are hiking the US military “footpriint” as well as “combat power” in southern Syria in recent days, sending more troops into the area with a specific eye toward fighting against the Shi’ite militias that are trying to advance, hoping to connect Syrian government territory to the Iraqi border.

Shi’ite militias who had been involved in the Mosul invasion in Iraq have been making for the Syrian border, looking to help the Shi’ite militias inside Syria with fighting ISIS. The problem is that US-backed rebels are smack in the middle of these two sides, and the US has even targeted the militias inside syria to some extent to keep them away from the border region, accusing them of “threatening” the rebel territory.

After the Freddie Gray riots in 2015, Baltimore residents began noticing small planes circling the city. As reporters later uncovered, Baltimore Police had quietly begun using a "wide-area surveillance" system, which deploys Cessna planes to constantly record the movements of an entire metro area. Police never bothered to tell the public they were using the invasive technology, which had been developed by the U.S. Air Force to help soldiers fight in the Middle East.

Now Miami-Dade Police are quietly trying to deploy the same system. In a county document posted online Tuesday, MDPD revealed the force has applied for Department of Justice funds to begin using wide-area surveillance (WAS) tools throughout the county. In a move that echoes Baltimore's lack of disclosure to the public, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez has already applied for the grant — and the county is now asking commissioners to sign off on the act retroactively at its next meeting June 6.

The American guided missile destroyer USS Dewey was reported as having carried out a ‘freedom of navigation operation’ or FONOP in the South China Sea on May 24. According to the US Naval Institute the undertaking involved manoeuvres «within 12 nautical miles of Mischief Reef for about 90 minutes zig-zagging in the water near the installation. At one point during the operation, the ship’s crew conducted a man overboard drill».

Mischief Reef is 900 miles from the mainland of China, and 12,000 miles from the mainland of the United States. It has been built up by China from a sandy pile of rock into a habitable base and lies in the Spratly Island chain which is claimed by the Philippines and Vietnam, both members of the Association of South East Asian Nations, ASEAN.

As of late, the media has forgotten about tensions between Ukraine, NATO, and Russia. Crimea and the conflict in Eastern Ukraine have largely left the public’s awareness. However, that shouldn’t be the case, because this region is still a powder keg that could blow at any time. And if it does, it could easily result in another world war.

If you don’t think the situation in Ukraine could still explode into a wider conflict, take a look at what this member of Russia’s parliament recently said at an international security conference.

“On the issue of NATO expansion on our borders, at some point I heard from the Russian military — and I think they are right — If U.S. forces, NATO forces, are, were, in the Crimea, in eastern Ukraine, Russia is undefendable militarily in case of conflict without using nuclear weapons in the early stage of the conflict,” Russian parliamentarian Vyacheslav Alekseyevich Nikonov told attendees at the GLOBSEC 2017 forum in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Russia is ready to sell its S-400 air defense systems to Turkey, President Vladimir Putin said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). He added the issue was discussed earlier with his Turkish counterpart.

“We discussed the possibility of selling S-400s [to Turkey]. We are ready for this,” Putin said in answer to a question from a Turkish media reporter.

Speaking about cooperation between Moscow and Ankara in assembling the defense systems in Turkey, he said it depends on the readiness of local manufacturing industry.

“At the moment, we don't produce those systems abroad,” Putin added.

“We are ready to deliver these newest and most efficient systems. President [Recep Tayip] Erdogan and our countries’ militaries are aware of it.”

Many of the world's most powerful people are gathering for the annual meeting of the mysterious Bilderberg Group this week. Russia, the Trump administration and ‘The war on information’ are among key topics up for discussion.

The recent NATO summit took a decision to formally become a member of the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State (IS), in addition to its training mission in Iraq.

Despite all the speeches ringing alarm bells about the deadly threat coming from the IS – the mortal enemy of the West that vowed to fight it till it exists – the bloc’s combat ready forces are deploying…against Russia in the Eastern Europe! As a result, the alliance has seen no need to counter the IS plans to create a caliphate. It stubbornly turns a blind eye on the peril coming from the South.

Migrant flows are flooding the territories of European alliance members, terrorist acts are committed to kill citizens of the NATO member states, US and Turkish military are fighting the extremists on the ground but the bloc largely limits itself to words of condemnation while demonizing Russia – the country which says it does not want to provoke confrontation and calls for a dialogue!

This year’s event marks the 65th meeting of the infamously-secretive group which has met every year since 1954. Denis Healey, Joseph Retinger, David Rockefeller and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands were the group’s founders.

The group says the conference is “designed to foster dialogue between Europe and North America.” Each year it’s attended by people from the fields of politics, industry, finance, media and academia. About two thirds of the participants come from Europe and the rest from North America.

As well of some of Trump’s top brass, other attendees this year include Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, Republican senators Tom Cotton and Lindsey Graham, and Chinese Ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai.

Editors, and chief commentators, from several world famous publications including Bloomberg, The Economist, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera and the London Evening Standard will also be in attendance.

Kurdish fighters received small arms and vehicles from the US military in a war plan that has angered Turkey

A contingent of antiwar protesters in the hundreds, gathered Tuesday for a rally, at 11 a.m., at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. They were led by the president of the Veterans for Peace, Barry Ladendorf. They demanded a “stop to the endless war,” and a start to a genuine “peace-building movement.”

A coalition of about ten other antiwar, peace and justice organizations joined with the Veterans for Peace in the spirited demonstration. Nine speakers participated in the two-hour program, along with music provided by Pat Scanlon, the Fugs and others.

The speakers raised their voices about the endless U.S. related conflicts around the globe in Afghanistan, Iraq and in Syria. They put emphasis on the war drums beating daily for a conflict with North Korea, and also, thanks to the hawkish Neocons and our influential Military-Industrial Complex, a possible U.S. war, starting in 2017, with Iran.