veteranstoday--2020-09-13--Fetzer: On C-Span, Richard Gate leaves 9/11 truth in a time warp (Fake truth?)

VT References which coincide and include the Prager/Pommer study as well are published here : [ Editor ’ s note : Lenin observed , “ The best way to control the opposition is to lead it ” .
Richard Gage , the founder of Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth , was featured on C-SPAN on 1 August 2014 .
He was unable to explain who was responsible and why , and his answer to how it was done was already known to be hopelessly inadequate .
Perhaps that ’ s why he was chosen to appear . ]
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ operation to instill fear into the American people in order to manipulate them into supporting the political agenda of the Bush/Cheney administration ” – Jim Fetzer Everyone who ’ s committed to 9/11 Truth should welcome more coverage from C-SPAN .
Perhaps the greatest coverage to reach the public in the past was also from C-SPAN , when it covered the panel discussion of the American Scholars Conference , Los Angeles , 24-25 June 2006 .
But this one might be an exception .
We heard then about nano-thermite from Steve Jones , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And we heard it again from the founder of A & E911 .
But a major division has arisen between those who claim that nano-thermite can have blown the buildings apart and those who maintain that it isn ’ t even theoretically possible .
Recent intel dumps confirm the use of nukes and explain those small iron spheres as a consequence of the use of special ( iron jacketed ) high-tech nukes .
So what ’ s with Richard Gage and A & E911 that they are still promoting a theory that T. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in three articles published on 1 May 2011 , on 17 July 2011 and on 27 August 2011 ?
Why did Gage squander this precious opportunity to advance 9/11 Truth on C-SPAN by endorsing a provably false theory ?
Not only that , but there are three major questions in the public mind about 9/11 , which are these : We know the before and after of the World Trade Center in relation to 9/11 , so the answer to ( a ) is trivial .
But Richard Gage had no answer to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was asked it several times , and his answer to ( b ) was false and misleading .
Is this the best that Richard Gage and A & E911 can do ?
It was embarrassing when he was asked the all too obvious question and could not answer it .
[ Editor ’ s note : In retrospect , that may have been the point and why he rather than , say , the founder of Scholars for 9/11 Truth , was featured on C-SPAN . ]
A & E911 is not alone @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the who and the why , where Judy Wood and her DEW supporters adopt the very same stance .
But the American public has limited patience with those who can ’ t produce answers to such obvious questions , especially more than a decade after the event .
And that is why “ Operation Terror ” , Art Olivier ’ s reconstruction of the events of 9/11 , is a more powerful instrument for opening the mind to what may have happened than the appeal to an obscure causal mechanism–especially when it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ justifiable answers , but Richard Gage did not deliver them .
It was much worse than that , because the host had prepared to defeat any appeal he would make to “ thermite ” , using NIST as his authority and thereby begging the question , by assuming the position of NIST that is the position in doubt : Most Americans are too gullible to realize that this is citing the very source that Gage is disputing .
But it could have been worse .
He could have pointed out that Neils Harrit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , has estimated that it would have required “ hundreds of tons ” to do the job ( where Harrit has also offered the more precise calculation of from 29,000 metric tons to 143,000 metric tons for each tower ) or that the lab Christopher Bollyn has cited Los Alamos as his source for “ explosive nano-thermite ” told Gordon Duff “ they couldn ’ t produce anything smaller than 10 microns and it couldn ’ t blow a hole in a piece of paper ” .
If this had been an episode @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it might have made more sense where 9/11 Truth is caught in a time warp .
Richard Gage must know by now that nano-thermite can not live up to its capabilities as advanced by Steven Jones , Kevin Ryan , and others , who regard themselves as the custodians and only true practitioners of the scientific method in 9/11 research .
Nano-thermite ( or even “ thermite ” , which is the term Gage used ) has only 1/13 the explosive force of TNT and , whatever contribution it may have made to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not possibly have been responsible for blowing apart the Twin Towers .
As Denis Spitzer et al.
, “ Energetic nano-materials : Opportunities for enhanced performances ” , Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids ( 2010 ) , observes , given the crucial role of the rapid expansion of gases to perform work by explosives , states , “ Gas generating nano-thermites : Thermites are energetic materials , which do not release gaseous species when they decompose .
However , explosives can be blended in thermites to give them blasting properties ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with explosives , nano-thermites are non-explosive .
So Mark and I may have been overly generous .
Having published three articles explaining that nano-thermite can not have done it and to inform prominent researchers about this discovery , Mark wrote to Steven Jones , Richard Gage , and others .
Dwain Deets , the former Chief of Research Engineering and Director for Aeronautical Projects at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center , wrote to Mark and told him that he had listened to our interview on “ The Real Deal ” and said : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trimming back claims that overshoot the evidence.
” Dwain also sent a diagram illustrating certain detonation velocities as well as the sonic ( speed of sound ) velocities in various materials .
Thus , for a high explosive to significantly fragment a material , its detonation velocity must be equal to or greater than the speed of sound in that material .
This law requires a detonation velocity of at least 3,200 m/s to fragment concrete and 6,100 m/s to fragment steel , which is far beyond the highest recorded detonation velocity of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as no surprise when Richard Gage recommended “ Explosive Evidence ” , the A & E911 documentary about what happened to the World Trade Center , especially to WTC-7 .
Since it was published on 12 September 2012 , while Mark and I published our studies in May-August 2011 , A & E911 must have known that the theory they were presenting had already been shown to be indefensible on scientific grounds .
While nano-thermite proponents claim to be “ scientific ” , they violate the canons of science by not revising their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ become available .
Indeed , during The Midwest 9/11 Truth Conference , which was held in Urbana , IL , on 22 September 2013 , we presented “ Explosive Evidence ” as the first hour of the conference , where I advanced a critique of its limitations and shortcomings during the second hour as follows and explained why the currently available evidence now supports the conclusion that the Twin Towers were taken out using a sophisticated arrangement of micro or mini nukes , which appear to have been attached to the core columns @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had already been presented during The Vancouver Hearings , which were held there 15-17 June 2012 , including several presentations that supported the use of nukes on 9/11 , the most significant of which was made by Jeff Prager ( where Don Fox presented on his behalf ) .
Jeff explained that , in 2002 , he set out to prove that , on 9/11 , 19 Muslims had hijacked four planes and attacked us .
But by 2005 , he realized this was false , sold his business , left the US @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( See his 9/11 America Nuked . )
How it was done In “ Proof of Ternary Fission in New York City on 9/11″ he observes ( 1 ) that dust samples are the best evidence of what happened on 9/11 ; ( 2 ) that the USGS samples taken over a dozen locations show how various elements interacted prove that fission reaction ( s ) had taken place ; ( 3 ) that Multiple Myeloma in the general population at a rate of 3-9 incidents per 100,000 people , but the rate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ; ( 4 ) that other cancers relatively unusual cancers have appeared among the responders , including non-Hodgkins lymphoma , leukemia , thyroid , pancreatic , brain , prostate , esophageal and blood and plasma cancers ; and ( 5 ) that , as of March 2011 , no less than 1,003 first responders died from various cancers .
The elements found in the USGS dust samples provide a rather astonishing array of proof of nukes : Barium and Strontium : Neither of these elements should ever appear in building debris in these @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 400ppm for Barium and they never drop below 700ppm for Strontium and reach over 3000ppm for both in the dust sample taken at Broadway and John Streets .
Thorium and Uranium : These elements only exist in radioactive form .
Thorium is a radioactive element formed from Uranium by decay .
It ’ s very rare and should not be present in building rubble , ever .
So once again we have verifiable evidence that a nuclear fission event has taken place .
Lithium : With the presence of lithium we have compelling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to Thorium and Helium , with subsequent decay of the Helium into Lithium has taken place .
Lanthanum : Lanthanum is the next element in the disintegration pathway of the element Barium .
Yttrium : The next decay element after Strontium , which further confirms the presence of Barium .
Chromium : The presence of Chromium is one more “ tell tale ” signature of a nuclear detonation .
Tritium : A very rare element and should not be found at concentrations 55 times normal the basement of WTC-6 no less than 11 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ tell tale ” sign of nukes .
New research on the use of nukes has provided further confirmation , including studies by Don Fox , Dr. Ed Ward and Jeff Prager , show these elements occur in patterns of correlation that make the hypothesis virtually undeniable ( not that Steve Jones , Kevin Ryan and Richard Gage , among others , will not continue to deny it ) , where Gordon Duff has recently published that the actual number of New Yorkers who have incurred these unusual 9/11-related cancers has now increased @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is not a new issue .
In his analysis of “ The Pros and Cons of the Toronto Hearings ” , for example , which was published 20 September 2011 , Joshua Blakeney observed that Judge Richard Lee was concerned about Kevin Ryan ’ s appeals to nano-thermite and asked whether it had ever been used to demolish a building .
If there was even “ an embarrassing moment ” in the history of the 9/11 Truth movement , this must have been it .
So why was Richard Gage repeating the blunder @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bad enough ?
It is ironic that the nano-thermite theory , which was based on dust samples , has been superseded by new research based on more comprehensive dust samples , but that is characteristic of scientific research : the discovery of new data or of new alternatives can lead to the rejection of hypotheses previously accepted , to the acceptance of hypotheses previously rejected and to leaving others in suspense , which is characteristic not only of science specifically but of rationality of belief in general .
If the impossibility of nano-thermite @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Richard Gage , Steve Jones and Neils Harritt up the wall , questions that have arisen about the 9/11 crash sites and evidence suggests that all four of them were fabricated or faked ( albeit in different ways ) .
It was profoundly disturbing , therefore , when Richard Gage implied the 9/11 plane crashes were real , which contradicts the available evidence .
But we have documentary proof that Flights 11 ( North Tower ) and 77 ( Pentagon ) were not even scheduled that day , where FAA registration records show @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( Shanksville ) and 175 ( South Tower ) were not taken out of service ( “ deregistered ” ) until 28 September 2005 .
So how could planes that were not even in the air have crashed on 9/11 ?
and how could planes that crashed on 9/11 have still been in the air four years later ?
For many students of 9/11 , their brains shut off at the very idea , even though Pilots for 9/11 Truth have established that Flight 93 was in the air that day , but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , after it had allegedly crashed in Shanksville ; and that Flight 175 was also in the air that day , but that it was over Harrisburg and Pittsburgh , PA , long after it had purportedly hit the South Tower .
This means that the videos we have seen of the planes hitting the North and the South Towers involved some form of fakery , as I have repeatedly explained .
It won ’ t do to suggest that real planes of any kind–such as drones or special military aircraft–were used for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ no loss in velocity in violation of Newton ’ s third law .
And , as Jack White , a legendary student of JFK , who turned his attention to 9/11 , discovered , the engine component found at Church & Murray was under a steel scaffolding , sitting on a relatively undamaged sidewalk , and was the wrong make to have come from a Boeing 767 .
He also found FOX NEWS footage of men in FBI vests unloading something heavy from a white van , which would have come as sensational @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of this kind on C-SPAN : That no plane crashed in Shanksville should be apparent to anyone who has seen what a real plane crash looks like , such as the downing of the “ Malaysian 17 ” in Ukraine .
While that case is fascinating in its own right , the proof that we were mislead about the Pentagon extends from violation of laws of aerodynamics and physics entailed by the official flight trajectory to the more obvious consideration that the plane shown in the one frame that the Pentagon claims to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ compared to the image of a Boeing 757 ( properly sized for comparison ) was far too small to have been a Boeing 757 : Issues about the planes would be overwhelmingly more interesting to the public than talking about red-and-grey chips found in the dust , especially when–even if they were bona fide nano-thermite– can not possibly explain how the Twin Towers were destroyed .
That none of the 9/11 aircraft actually crashed and none of the passengers aboard them died is an entirely different matter , because it proves the entire @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fabrication .
Too many in the movement seem to forget that a half-dozen or more of the “ suicide hijackers ” turned up alive and well the following day .
Gage not only made none of the obvious points made here but implied that the 9/11 aircraft were real .
Either way , issues are raised about his competence or his integrity .
Who was responsible and why ?
More disturbing than his failure to discuss the planes that did not crash–and to imply that they were real–was his utter incapacity to answer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ why .
9/11 dates from the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990-91 , which left the military-industrial complex without a boogie man to pacify the American public with regard to the “ peace dividend ” it would never see and a new threat to keep the taxpayer ’ s billions coming into their coffers .
It involved collusion between the CIA , the Neo-Cons in the Department of Defense and the Mossad , where Israel would come out of 9/11 as “ the big winner ” .
During The Vancouver Hearings , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was an “ inside job.
” She served as the liaison between the CIA and Saddam Hussein , who was so eager to avoid war with the U.S. that he offered to purchase 1,000,000 cars per year for the next ten years .
If that was not enough , he said , make it the next twenty !
Imagine where the U.S. would be economically if we had only taken up his proposal ?
Instead , when Susan learned of plans to attack Iraq , she protested vigorously to President Bush .
For @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about her concerns over the injustice of it all , she was harassed , intimidated , imprisoned and tortured .
9/11 was conceived as an elaborate psychological operation to instill fear into the American people in order to manipulate them into supporting the political agenda of the Bush/Cheney administration , which included the invasion of several nations in the Middle East to bring about the creation of a new century of American domination of the world for the next 100 years .
The evidence supports the inference that 9/11 was a “ national @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the highest levels of the American government–the CIA , the NSA , the Pentagon and The White House .
It facilitated a reversal of US foreign policy and extraordinary constraints on the Constitution of the United States , which have dramatically increased the centralization of political power in the executive branch and dominating the legislative and judicial branches of government .
The creation of the Department of Homeland Security has been especially ominous , where DHS has now requisitioned more than 2 billion rounds of .40 caliber hollow point ammo , which is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ warfare under The Geneva Conventions .
Combined with more than 300 FEMA camps around the country , every American should be alarmed at the parallels with the rise of The Third Reich in Germany before WWII .
As a former Marine Corps officer , I am extremely apprehensive over the future of my country , which has been transformed from the most admired and respected nation in the world–along with our “ gallant ally ” ‘ in the Middle East , Israel–to being the most despised and reviled .
By 2014 , Richard @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which makes his silence about them all the more telling .
Jim Fetzer , a former Marine Corps officer , is McKnight Professor Emeritus at the University of Minnesota Duluth and the founder of Scholars for 9/11 Truth .
NOTE : This article originally appeared in Veterans Today in 2014 and was republished on an earlier blog of mine in 2015 .
It appears here on the 19th observance of the atrocities committed by Israel upon the United States–with a little help from its friends .
For more , see

VT References which coincide and include the Prager/Pommer study as well are published here:
[ Editor’s note: Lenin observed, “The best way to control the opposition is to lead it”. Richard Gage, the founder of Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, was featured on C-SPAN on 1 August 2014. He was unable to explain who was responsible and why, and his answer to how it was done was already known to be hopelessly inadequate. Perhaps that’s why he was chosen to appear.]
“9/11 was conceived as an elaborate psychological operation to instill fear into the American people in order to manipulate them into supporting the political agenda of the Bush/Cheney administration” – Jim Fetzer
Everyone who’s committed to 9/11 Truth should welcome more coverage from C-SPAN. Perhaps the greatest coverage to reach the public in the past was also from C-SPAN, when it covered the panel discussion of the American Scholars Conference, Los Angeles, 24-25 June 2006. But this one might be an exception.
We heard then about nano-thermite from Steve Jones, Co-Chair of Scholars for 9/11 Truth. And we heard it again from the founder of A&E911. But a major division has arisen between those who claim that nano-thermite can have blown the buildings apart and those who maintain that it isn’t even theoretically possible. Recent intel dumps confirm the use of nukes and explain those small iron spheres as a consequence of the use of special (iron jacketed) high-tech nukes.
So what’s with Richard Gage and A&E911 that they are still promoting a theory that T. Mark Hightower and I proved was indefensible in three articles published on 1 May 2011, on 17 July 2011 and on 27 August 2011? Why did Gage squander this precious opportunity to advance 9/11 Truth on C-SPAN by endorsing a provably false theory?
The “big three” questions
Not only that, but there are three major questions in the public mind about 9/11, which are these:
(a) what happened on 9/11?
(b) how was it done?
(c) who was responsible and why?
We know the before and after of the World Trade Center in relation to 9/11, so the answer to (a) is trivial. But Richard Gage had no answer to (c), even though he was asked it several times, and his answer to (b) was false and misleading. Is this the best that Richard Gage and A&E911 can do? It was embarrassing when he was asked the all too obvious question and could not answer it. [Editor’s note: In retrospect, that may have been the point and why he rather than, say, the founder of Scholars for 9/11 Truth, was featured on C-SPAN.]
A&E911 is not alone in attempting to place the how ahead of the who and the why, where Judy Wood and her DEW supporters adopt the very same stance. But the American public has limited patience with those who can’t produce answers to such obvious questions, especially more than a decade after the event. And that is why “Operation Terror”, Art Olivier’s reconstruction of the events of 9/11, is a more powerful instrument for opening the mind to what may have happened than the appeal to an obscure causal mechanism–especially when it is misconceived.
All three questions have justifiable answers, but Richard Gage did not deliver them. It was much worse than that, because the host had prepared to defeat any appeal he would make to “thermite”, using NIST as his authority and thereby begging the question, by assuming the position of NIST that is the position in doubt:
Most Americans are too gullible to realize that this is citing the very source that Gage is disputing. But it could have been worse. He could have pointed out that Neils Harrit, a proponent of the nano-thermite hypothesis, has estimated that it would have required “hundreds of tons” to do the job (where Harrit has also offered the more precise calculation of from 29,000 metric tons to 143,000 metric tons for each tower) or that the lab Christopher Bollyn has cited Los Alamos as his source for “explosive nano-thermite” told Gordon Duff “they couldn’t produce anything smaller than 10 microns and it couldn’t blow a hole in a piece of paper”.
Why nano-thermite can’t cut it
If this had been an episode of “The Twilight Zone”, it might have made more sense where 9/11 Truth is caught in a time warp. Richard Gage must know by now that nano-thermite cannot live up to its capabilities as advanced by Steven Jones, Kevin Ryan, and others, who regard themselves as the custodians and only true practitioners of the scientific method in 9/11 research. Nano-thermite (or even “thermite”, which is the term Gage used) has only 1/13 the explosive force of TNT and, whatever contribution it may have made to the collapse of Building 7, cannot possibly have been responsible for blowing apart the Twin Towers.
As Denis Spitzer et al., “Energetic nano-materials: Opportunities for enhanced performances”, Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids (2010), observes, given the crucial role of the rapid expansion of gases to perform work by explosives, states, “Gas generating nano-thermites: Thermites are energetic materials, which do not release gaseous species when they decompose. However, explosives can be blended in thermites to give them blasting properties”, which implies that, unless supplemented with explosives, nano-thermites are non-explosive. So Mark and I may have been overly generous.
Having published three articles explaining that nano-thermite cannot have done it and to inform prominent researchers about this discovery, Mark wrote to Steven Jones, Richard Gage, and others. Dwain Deets, the former Chief of Research Engineering and Director for Aeronautical Projects at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, wrote to Mark and told him that he had listened to our interview on “The Real Deal” and said: “Excellent interview. A step toward trimming back claims that overshoot the evidence.”
Dwain also sent a diagram illustrating certain detonation velocities as well as the sonic (speed of sound) velocities in various materials. Thus, for a high explosive to significantly fragment a material, its detonation velocity must be equal to or greater than the speed of sound in that material. This law requires a detonation velocity of at least 3,200 m/s to fragment concrete and 6,100 m/s to fragment steel, which is far beyond the highest recorded detonation velocity of 895 m/s for nano-thermite.
“Explosive Evidence”
It came as no surprise when Richard Gage recommended “Explosive Evidence”, the A&E911 documentary about what happened to the World Trade Center, especially to WTC-7. Since it was published on 12 September 2012, while Mark and I published our studies in May-August 2011, A&E911 must have known that the theory they were presenting had already been shown to be indefensible on scientific grounds. While nano-thermite proponents claim to be “scientific”, they violate the canons of science by not revising their views when new evidence or new hypotheses become available.
Indeed, during The Midwest 9/11 Truth Conference, which was held in Urbana, IL, on 22 September 2013, we presented “Explosive Evidence” as the first hour of the conference, where I advanced a critique of its limitations and shortcomings during the second hour as follows and explained why the currently available evidence now supports the conclusion that the Twin Towers were taken out using a sophisticated arrangement of micro or mini nukes, which appear to have been attached to the core columns of each:
Indeed, ample substantiation had already been presented during The Vancouver Hearings, which were held there 15-17 June 2012, including several presentations that supported the use of nukes on 9/11, the most significant of which was made by Jeff Prager (where Don Fox presented on his behalf). Jeff explained that, in 2002, he set out to prove that, on 9/11, 19 Muslims had hijacked four planes and attacked us. But by 2005, he realized this was false, sold his business, left the US and began to investigate 9/11 full-time. (See his 9/11 America Nuked.)
How it was done
In “Proof of Ternary Fission in New York City on 9/11″ he observes (1) that dust samples are the best evidence of what happened on 9/11; (2) that the USGS samples taken over a dozen locations show how various elements interacted prove that fission reaction(s) had taken place; (3) that Multiple Myeloma in the general population at a rate of 3-9 incidents per 100,000 people, but the rate was 18 per 100,000 among first responders; (4) that other cancers relatively unusual cancers have appeared among the responders, including non-Hodgkins lymphoma, leukemia, thyroid, pancreatic, brain, prostate, esophageal and blood and plasma cancers; and (5) that, as of March 2011, no less than 1,003 first responders died from various cancers. The elements found in the USGS dust samples provide a rather astonishing array of proof of nukes:
Barium and Strontium: Neither of these elements should ever appear in building debris in these quantities. The levels never fall below 400ppm for Barium and they never drop below 700ppm for Strontium and reach over 3000ppm for both in the dust sample taken at Broadway and John Streets.
Thorium and Uranium: These elements only exist in radioactive form. Thorium is a radioactive element formed from Uranium by decay. It’s very rare and should not be present in building rubble, ever. So once again we have verifiable evidence that a nuclear fission event has taken place.
Lithium: With the presence of lithium we have compelling evidence that this fission pathway of Uranium to Thorium and Helium, with subsequent decay of the Helium into Lithium has taken place.
Lanthanum: Lanthanum is the next element in the disintegration pathway of the element Barium.
Yttrium: The next decay element after Strontium, which further confirms the presence of Barium.
Chromium: The presence of Chromium is one more “tell tale” signature of a nuclear detonation.
Tritium: A very rare element and should not be found at concentrations 55 times normal the basement of WTC-6 no less than 11 days after 9/11, which is another “tell tale” sign of nukes.
New research on the use of nukes has provided further confirmation, including studies by Don Fox, Dr. Ed Ward and Jeff Prager, show these elements occur in patterns of correlation that make the hypothesis virtually undeniable (not that Steve Jones, Kevin Ryan and Richard Gage, among others, will not continue to deny it), where Gordon Duff has recently published that the actual number of New Yorkers who have incurred these unusual 9/11-related cancers has now increased to more than 70,000.
And this is not a new issue. In his analysis of “The Pros and Cons of the Toronto Hearings”, for example, which was published 20 September 2011, Joshua Blakeney observed that Judge Richard Lee was concerned about Kevin Ryan’s appeals to nano-thermite and asked whether it had ever been used to demolish a building. If there was even “an embarrassing moment” in the history of the 9/11 Truth movement, this must have been it. So why was Richard Gage repeating the blunder on C-SPAN? Wasn’t once bad enough?
It is ironic that the nano-thermite theory, which was based on dust samples, has been superseded by new research based on more comprehensive dust samples, but that is characteristic of scientific research: the discovery of new data or of new alternatives can lead to the rejection of hypotheses previously accepted, to the acceptance of hypotheses previously rejected and to leaving others in suspense, which is characteristic not only of science specifically but of rationality of belief in general.
What about Planes/No Planes?
If the impossibility of nano-thermite having blown apart the Twin Towers drives Richard Gage, Steve Jones and Neils Harritt up the wall, questions that have arisen about the 9/11 crash sites and evidence suggests that all four of them were fabricated or faked (albeit in different ways). It was profoundly disturbing, therefore, when Richard Gage implied the 9/11 plane crashes were real, which contradicts the available evidence.
But we have documentary proof that Flights 11 (North Tower) and 77 (Pentagon) were not even scheduled that day, where FAA registration records show that the planes used for Flights 93 (Shanksville) and 175 (South Tower) were not taken out of service (“deregistered”) until 28 September 2005.
So how could planes that were not even in the air have crashed on 9/11? and how could planes that crashed on 9/11 have still been in the air four years later?
For many students of 9/11, their brains shut off at the very idea, even though Pilots for 9/11 Truth have established that Flight 93 was in the air that day, but that it was over Champaign-Urbana, IL, after it had allegedly crashed in Shanksville; and that Flight 175 was also in the air that day, but that it was over Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, PA, long after it had purportedly hit the South Tower. This means that the videos we have seen of the planes hitting the North and the South Towers involved some form of fakery, as I have repeatedly explained.
It won’t do to suggest that real planes of any kind–such as drones or special military aircraft–were used for that purpose, since their entry involved no loss in velocity in violation of Newton’s third law.
And, as Jack White, a legendary student of JFK, who turned his attention to 9/11, discovered, the engine component found at Church & Murray was under a steel scaffolding, sitting on a relatively undamaged sidewalk, and was the wrong make to have come from a Boeing 767. He also found FOX NEWS footage of men in FBI vests unloading something heavy from a white van, which would have come as sensational news, had Richard Gage made observations of this kind on C-SPAN:
That no plane crashed in Shanksville should be apparent to anyone who has seen what a real plane crash looks like, such as the downing of the “Malaysian 17” in Ukraine.
While that case is fascinating in its own right, the proof that we were mislead about the Pentagon extends from violation of laws of aerodynamics and physics entailed by the official flight trajectory to the more obvious consideration that the plane shown in the one frame that the Pentagon claims to show “the plane”, when compared to the image of a Boeing 757 (properly sized for comparison) was far too small to have been a Boeing 757:
Issues about the planes would be overwhelmingly more interesting to the public than talking about red-and-grey chips found in the dust, especially when–even if they were bona fide nano-thermite–cannot possibly explain how the Twin Towers were destroyed. That none of the 9/11 aircraft actually crashed and none of the passengers aboard them died is an entirely different matter, because it proves the entire “War on Terror” was a fabrication.
Too many in the movement seem to forget that a half-dozen or more of the “suicide hijackers” turned up alive and well the following day. Gage not only made none of the obvious points made here but implied that the 9/11 aircraft were real. Either way, issues are raised about his competence or his integrity.
Who was responsible and why?
More disturbing than his failure to discuss the planes that did not crash–and to imply that they were real–was his utter incapacity to answer simple, direct questions about who and why. 9/11 dates from the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990-91, which left the military-industrial complex without a boogie man to pacify the American public with regard to the “peace dividend” it would never see and a new threat to keep the taxpayer’s billions coming into their coffers. It involved collusion between the CIA, the Neo-Cons in the Department of Defense and the Mossad, where Israel would come out of 9/11 as “the big winner”.
During The Vancouver Hearings, Susan Lindauer revealed inside information that 9/11 was an “inside job.” She served as the liaison between the CIA and Saddam Hussein, who was so eager to avoid war with the U.S. that he offered to purchase 1,000,000 cars per year for the next ten years. If that was not enough, he said, make it the next twenty! Imagine where the U.S. would be economically if we had only taken up his proposal? Instead, when Susan learned of plans to attack Iraq, she protested vigorously to President Bush. For taking that step, for speaking out about her concerns over the injustice of it all, she was harassed, intimidated, imprisoned and tortured.
9/11 was conceived as an elaborate psychological operation to instill fear into the American people in order to manipulate them into supporting the political agenda of the Bush/Cheney administration, which included the invasion of several nations in the Middle East to bring about the creation of a new century of American domination of the world for the next 100 years.
The evidence supports the inference that 9/11 was a “national security event” which was authorized at the highest levels of the American government–the CIA, the NSA, the Pentagon and The White House.
It facilitated a reversal of US foreign policy and extraordinary constraints on the Constitution of the United States, which have dramatically increased the centralization of political power in the executive branch and dominating the legislative and judicial branches of government.
The creation of the Department of Homeland Security has been especially ominous, where DHS has now requisitioned more than 2 billion rounds of .40 caliber hollow point ammo, which is not even permissible in the conduct of warfare under The Geneva Conventions. Combined with more than 300 FEMA camps around the country, every American should be alarmed at the parallels with the rise of The Third Reich in Germany before WWII.
As a former Marine Corps officer, I am extremely apprehensive over the future of my country, which has been transformed from the most admired and respected nation in the world–along with our “gallant ally”‘ in the Middle East, Israel–to being the most despised and reviled. By 2014, Richard Gage should have known these things, which makes his silence about them all the more telling.
Jim Fetzer, a former Marine Corps officer, is McKnight Professor Emeritus at the University of Minnesota Duluth and the founder of Scholars for 9/11 Truth. NOTE: This article originally appeared in VT in 2014 and was republished on an earlier blog of mine in 2015. It appears here on the 19th observance of the atrocities committed by Israel upon the United States–with a little help from its friends. For more, see


veteranstoday--2020-09-13--Reality Check: Is Trump a Stooge of Putin?

Donald Trump ’ s unorthodox approach to the conduct of diplomatic relations has been a persistent thorn in the side of America ’ s national security establishment for the last four years .
Like a typical American , he regards America ’ s allies , like Boris Johnson , Emmanuel Macron , Angela Merkel and Justin Trudeau , as subordinates beholden to him personally ; whereas he treats adversaries , such as Russian President Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un , as independent leaders deserving equal treatment and respect .
The conspiracy theories perpetuated by the establishment-controlled media that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ alleged Russian interference in America ’ s domestic politics are brazen fabrications .
Russian netizens indeed lent moral support to the Trump campaign in the run-up to the 2016 US presidential race but simply because they despised Hillary Clinton , who the Russians regarded as an interventionist hawk responsible for initiating proxy wars in Libya and Syria in 2011 as Obama ’ s secretary of state , and also because she was the wife of Bill Clinton who was responsible for the break-up of former Yugoslavia in the nineties .
Despite the alleged @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary by a margin of 2.87 million votes .
Had it not been for the archaic electoral college system and James Comey , then the director of FBI , opening last-minute investigation into Hillary Clinton using personal computers for official communications , Hillary was the favorite to win the elections .
According to Washington ’ s own intelligence estimates , three powers are currently vying for interference in upcoming presidential elections slated for November 3 .
Two of those , China and Iran , favor Joe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ China and cancelled Iran nuclear deal in May 2018 , whereas Russia allegedly supports Trump .
Trump is a conservative , and it ’ s a known empirical observation that conservatives typically are considerably more patriotic than liberals .
Collaborating with foreign powers to undermine one ’ s national interest doesn ’ t appeal to the conservative mindset .
Throughout its four-year tenure , the Trump administration has continued with the policy of its predecessors .
If anything , diplomatic relations between Washington and Moscow have significantly worsened during Trump ’ s tenure @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Trump administration has continued with the policy of its predecessor Obama administration .
In order to understand the backdrop of the proxy war in Syria , when Russia deployed its forces and military hardware to Syria in September 2015 , the militant proxies of Washington and its regional clients were on the verge of drawing a wedge between Damascus and the Alawite heartland of coastal Latakia , which could have led to the imminent downfall of the Bashar al-Assad government .
With the help of the Russian air power , the Syrian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s territory from the insurgents , excluding Idlib in the northwest occupied by the Turkish-backed militants and Deir al-Zor and the Kurdish-held areas in the east , thus inflicting a humiliating defeat on Washington and its regional clients .
Moreover , several momentous events have taken place in the Syrian theater of proxy wars and on the global stage that have further soured the diplomatic relations between Moscow and Washington .
On February 7 , 2018 , the US B-52 bombers and Apache helicopters struck a contingent of Syrian government troops and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ eastern Syria that reportedly [ 1 ] killed and wounded scores of Russian military contractors working for the Russian private security firm , the Wagner Group .
The survivors described the bombing as an absolute massacre , and Moscow lost more Russian nationals in one day than it had lost during its entire military campaign in support of the Syrian government since September 2015 .
Washington ’ s objective in striking Russian contractors was that the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces ( SDF ) – which is mainly comprised of Kurdish YPG @ @ @ @ @ @ @ control of some areas east of the Euphrates River to Deir al-Zor Military Council ( DMC ) , which was the Arab-led component of SDF , and had relocated several battalions of Kurdish YPG militias to Afrin and along Syria ’ s northern border with Turkey in order to defend the Kurdish-held areas against the onslaught of the Turkish armed forces and allied Syrian militant proxies during Ankara ’ s “ Operation Olive Branch ” in Syria ’ s northwest that lasted from January to March 2018 .
Syrian forces with the backing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ opportunity and crossed the Euphrates River to capture an oil refinery located to the east of the Euphrates River in the Kurdish-held area of Deir al-Zor .
The US Air Force responded with full force , knowing well the ragtag Arab component of SDF – mainly comprised of local Arab tribesmen and mercenaries to make the Kurdish-led SDF appear more representative and inclusive in outlook – was simply not a match for the superior training and arms of the Syrian troops and Russian military contractors , consequently causing a carnage in which scores @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Two months later , an alleged chemical weapons attack took place in Douma , Syria , on April 7 , 2018 , and Donald Trump ordered a cruise missile strike in Syria on April 14 , 2018 , in collaboration with the Theresa May government in the UK and the Emmanuel Macron administration in France .
The strike took place little over a year after a similar cruise missile strike on al-Shayrat airfield on April 6 , 2017 , after an alleged chemical weapons attack in Khan Sheikhoun , though both cruise missile @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were nothing more than a show of force .
But the fact that out of 105 total cruise missiles deployed in the April 14 , 2018 , strikes against a military research facility in the Barzeh district of Damascus and two alleged chemical weapons storage facilities in Homs , 85 were launched by the US , 12 by the French and 8 by the UK aircraft demonstrated the unified resolve of the Western powers against Russia .
It bears mentioning that the American air and missile strikes in Syria are not only illegal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unlawful according to the American laws .
While striking the Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria , Washington availed itself of the war on terror provisions in the US laws , known as the Authorization for the Use of Military Force ( AUMF ) , but those laws do not give the president the power to order strikes against the Syrian government targets without prior approval of the US Congress which has the sole authority to declare war .
The Intercept reported last year [ 2 ] that the Trump administration had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ government targets based on a “ top secret ” memorandum of the Office of Legal Counsel that even the US Congress couldn ’ t see .
Complying with the norms of transparency and the rule of law were never the strong points of the American democracy but the Trump administration has done away with even the pretense of accountability and checks and balances in the conduct of international relations .
Moreover , over the years , Israel has not only provided medical aid and material support to the militant groups battling Damascus – @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Syria Army ( FSA ) and al-Qaeda ’ s Syrian affiliate al-Nusra Front in Daraa and Quneitra bordering the Israel-occupied Golan Heights – but Israel ’ s air force has virtually played the role of the air force of Syrian militants and conducted hundreds of airstrikes in Syria during the eight-year conflict .
In an interview to New York Times [ 3 ] in January last year , Israel ’ s outgoing Chief of Staff Lt. General Gadi Eisenkot confessed that the Netanyahu government approved his shift in strategy in January 2017 to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , more than 200 Israeli airstrikes were launched against the Syrian targets in 2017 and 2018 , as revealed [ 4 ] by the Israeli Intelligence Minister Israel Katz in September 2018 .
In 2018 alone , Israel ’ s air force dropped 2,000 bombs in Syria .
The purpose of Israeli airstrikes in Syria has been to degrade Iran ’ s guided missile technology provided to Damascus and its Lebanon-based proxy , Hezbollah , which poses an existential threat to Israel ’ s regional security .
Though after Russia provided S-300 missile @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Russian surveillance aircraft was shot down by Syrian air defenses during an Israeli incursion into the Syrian airspace , on September 2018 , killing 15 Russians onboard , the Israeli airstrikes in Syria have been significantly scaled down .
Following the incident , though Israel has conducted occasional airstrikes in Daraa and Quneitra in southern Syria and Deir al-Zor in eastern Syria , Israeli airstrikes in northwest Syria , which is within the range of missile defense systems deployed at Hmeimim Air Base near coastal Latakia , have almost entirely ceased .
Taking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has conducted several airstrikes of its own on targets in Syria and Iraq and blamed them on Israel , which frequently mounts air and missile strikes against Iranian operatives and Hezbollah militia in Syria and Lebanon .
Besides the airstrikes on the missile storage facilities of Iran-backed militias in Iraq , it is suspected that the US air force was also behind an airstrike last year at the newly built Imam Ali military base in eastern Syria at al-Bukamal-Qaim border crossing alleged to be hosting the Iranian Quds Force operatives .
In the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Putin , he must be the most ingrate and treacherous stooge who has stabbed his benefactor in the back .
[ 1 ] Russian toll in Syria battle was 300 killed and wounded : [ 2 ] Donald Trump ordered Syria strike based on a secret legal justification even Congress can ’ t see : [ 3 ] An interview with Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot , Israel ’ s chief of staff : [ 4 ] Israel Katz : Israel conducted 200 airstrikes in Syria in 2017 and 2018 : Nauman Sadiq @ @ @ @ @ @ @ geopolitical analyst focused on the politics of Af-Pak and Middle East regions , neocolonialism and petro-imperialism .

By Nauman Sadiq for VT Islamabad
Donald Trump’s unorthodox approach to the conduct of diplomatic relations has been a persistent thorn in the side of America’s national security establishment for the last four years. Like a typical American, he regards America’s allies, like Boris Johnson, Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel and Justin Trudeau, as subordinates beholden to him personally; whereas he treats adversaries, such as Russian President Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, as independent leaders deserving equal treatment and respect.
The conspiracy theories perpetuated by the establishment-controlled media that Trump is Putin’s stooge and alleged Russian interference in America’s domestic politics are brazen fabrications.
Russian netizens indeed lent moral support to the Trump campaign in the run-up to the 2016 US presidential race but simply because they despised Hillary Clinton, who the Russians regarded as an interventionist hawk responsible for initiating proxy wars in Libya and Syria in 2011 as Obama’s secretary of state, and also because she was the wife of Bill Clinton who was responsible for the break-up of former Yugoslavia in the nineties.
Despite the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US elections, Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary by a margin of 2.87 million votes. Had it not been for the archaic electoral college system and James Comey, then the director of FBI, opening last-minute investigation into Hillary Clinton using personal computers for official communications, Hillary was the favorite to win the elections.
According to Washington’s own intelligence estimates, three powers are currently vying for interference in upcoming presidential elections slated for November 3. Two of those, China and Iran, favor Joe Biden because Trump initiated trade war with China and cancelled Iran nuclear deal in May 2018, whereas Russia allegedly supports Trump.
Trump is a conservative, and it’s a known empirical observation that conservatives typically are considerably more patriotic than liberals. Collaborating with foreign powers to undermine one’s national interest doesn’t appeal to the conservative mindset. Throughout its four-year tenure, the Trump administration has continued with the policy of its predecessors. If anything, diplomatic relations between Washington and Moscow have significantly worsened during Trump’s tenure.
In Syria, for instance, the Trump administration has continued with the policy of its predecessor Obama administration. In order to understand the backdrop of the proxy war in Syria, when Russia deployed its forces and military hardware to Syria in September 2015, the militant proxies of Washington and its regional clients were on the verge of drawing a wedge between Damascus and the Alawite heartland of coastal Latakia, which could have led to the imminent downfall of the Bashar al-Assad government.
With the help of the Russian air power, the Syrian government has since reclaimed most of Syria’s territory from the insurgents, excluding Idlib in the northwest occupied by the Turkish-backed militants and Deir al-Zor and the Kurdish-held areas in the east, thus inflicting a humiliating defeat on Washington and its regional clients.
Moreover, several momentous events have taken place in the Syrian theater of proxy wars and on the global stage that have further soured the diplomatic relations between Moscow and Washington.
On February 7, 2018, the US B-52 bombers and Apache helicopters struck a contingent of Syrian government troops and allied forces in Deir al-Zor province of eastern Syria that reportedly [1] killed and wounded scores of Russian military contractors working for the Russian private security firm, the Wagner Group.
The survivors described the bombing as an absolute massacre, and Moscow lost more Russian nationals in one day than it had lost during its entire military campaign in support of the Syrian government since September 2015.
Washington’s objective in striking Russian contractors was that the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) – which is mainly comprised of Kurdish YPG militias – had reportedly handed over the control of some areas east of the Euphrates River to Deir al-Zor Military Council (DMC), which was the Arab-led component of SDF, and had relocated several battalions of Kurdish YPG militias to Afrin and along Syria’s northern border with Turkey in order to defend the Kurdish-held areas against the onslaught of the Turkish armed forces and allied Syrian militant proxies during Ankara’s “Operation Olive Branch” in Syria’s northwest that lasted from January to March 2018.
Syrian forces with the backing of Russian contractors took advantage of the opportunity and crossed the Euphrates River to capture an oil refinery located to the east of the Euphrates River in the Kurdish-held area of Deir al-Zor.
The US Air Force responded with full force, knowing well the ragtag Arab component of SDF – mainly comprised of local Arab tribesmen and mercenaries to make the Kurdish-led SDF appear more representative and inclusive in outlook – was simply not a match for the superior training and arms of the Syrian troops and Russian military contractors, consequently causing a carnage in which scores of Russian nationals lost their lives.
Two months later, an alleged chemical weapons attack took place in Douma, Syria, on April 7, 2018, and Donald Trump ordered a cruise missile strike in Syria on April 14, 2018, in collaboration with the Theresa May government in the UK and the Emmanuel Macron administration in France. The strike took place little over a year after a similar cruise missile strike on al-Shayrat airfield on April 6, 2017, after an alleged chemical weapons attack in Khan Sheikhoun, though both cruise missile strikes didn’t accomplish anything and were nothing more than a show of force.
But the fact that out of 105 total cruise missiles deployed in the April 14, 2018, strikes against a military research facility in the Barzeh district of Damascus and two alleged chemical weapons storage facilities in Homs, 85 were launched by the US, 12 by the French and 8 by the UK aircraft demonstrated the unified resolve of the Western powers against Russia.
It bears mentioning that the American air and missile strikes in Syria are not only illegal under the international law but are also unlawful according to the American laws. While striking the Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria, Washington availed itself of the war on terror provisions in the US laws, known as the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), but those laws do not give the president the power to order strikes against the Syrian government targets without prior approval of the US Congress which has the sole authority to declare war.
The Intercept reported last year [2] that the Trump administration had derived the authority to strike the Syrian government targets based on a “top secret” memorandum of the Office of Legal Counsel that even the US Congress couldn’t see. Complying with the norms of transparency and the rule of law were never the strong points of the American democracy but the Trump administration has done away with even the pretense of accountability and checks and balances in the conduct of international relations.
Moreover, over the years, Israel has not only provided medical aid and material support to the militant groups battling Damascus – particularly to various factions of the Free Syria Army (FSA) and al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate al-Nusra Front in Daraa and Quneitra bordering the Israel-occupied Golan Heights – but Israel’s air force has virtually played the role of the air force of Syrian militants and conducted hundreds of airstrikes in Syria during the eight-year conflict.
In an interview to New York Times [3] in January last year, Israel’s outgoing Chief of Staff Lt. General Gadi Eisenkot confessed that the Netanyahu government approved his shift in strategy in January 2017 to step up airstrikes in Syria. Consequently, more than 200 Israeli airstrikes were launched against the Syrian targets in 2017 and 2018, as revealed [4] by the Israeli Intelligence Minister Israel Katz in September 2018.
In 2018 alone, Israel’s air force dropped 2,000 bombs in Syria. The purpose of Israeli airstrikes in Syria has been to degrade Iran’s guided missile technology provided to Damascus and its Lebanon-based proxy, Hezbollah, which poses an existential threat to Israel’s regional security.
Though after Russia provided S-300 missile system to the Syrian military after a Russian surveillance aircraft was shot down by Syrian air defenses during an Israeli incursion into the Syrian airspace, on September 2018, killing 15 Russians onboard, the Israeli airstrikes in Syria have been significantly scaled down.
Following the incident, though Israel has conducted occasional airstrikes in Daraa and Quneitra in southern Syria and Deir al-Zor in eastern Syria, Israeli airstrikes in northwest Syria, which is within the range of missile defense systems deployed at Hmeimim Air Base near coastal Latakia, have almost entirely ceased.
Taking cover of the Israeli airstrikes, Washington has conducted several airstrikes of its own on targets in Syria and Iraq and blamed them on Israel, which frequently mounts air and missile strikes against Iranian operatives and Hezbollah militia in Syria and Lebanon.
Besides the airstrikes on the missile storage facilities of Iran-backed militias in Iraq, it is suspected that the US air force was also behind an airstrike last year at the newly built Imam Ali military base in eastern Syria at al-Bukamal-Qaim border crossing alleged to be hosting the Iranian Quds Force operatives. In the nutshell, if Trump is a stooge of Putin, he must be the most ingrate and treacherous stooge who has stabbed his benefactor in the back.
Citations:
[1] Russian toll in Syria battle was 300 killed and wounded:
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mideast-crisis-syria-russia-casualtie/russian-toll-in-syria-battle-was-300-killed-and-wounded-sources-idUKKCN1FZ2EI
[2] Donald Trump ordered Syria strike based on a secret legal justification even Congress can’t see:
https://theintercept.com/2018/04/14/donald-trump-ordered-syria-strike-based-on-a-secret-legal-justification-even-congress-cant-see/
[3] An interview with Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, Israel’s chief of staff:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/11/opinion/gadi-eisenkot-israel-iran-syria.html
[4] Israel Katz: Israel conducted 200 airstrikes in Syria in 2017 and 2018:
https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/benjamin-netanyahu-admits-israel-to-blame-for-damascus-strikes-1.812590
About the author:
Nauman Sadiq is an Islamabad-based attorney, columnist and geopolitical analyst focused on the politics of Af-Pak and Middle East regions, neocolonialism and petro-imperialism.


veteranstoday--2020-09-13--Russian Navy off the Syrian coast in massive show of force

A large number of Russian warships were recently tracked off the coasts of Syria and Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean region , the Russian publication Avia.Pro reported .
According to the online publication , “ experts are seriously concerned about the presence of at least 15 Russian warships and submarines off the coast of Syria .
This is the first time such a large military formation has been seen here , which raises suspicions about whether Russia plans to engage in a military special operation against jihadists using the navy .
In a photo shared on their site , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seen positioned between the island nation of Cyprus and nearby Syria , along with some ships north of Egypt and another near the central part of the Mediterranean .
According to the Telegram channel , Hunter Notes , “ one of the last to appear off the coast of Syria was the tanker of the Northern Fleet of the Russian Navy ‘ Akademik Pashin ’ ; boats , and , obviously , this is far from the final number of ships of the Russian Navy located in the eastern part of the Mediterranean @ @ @ @ @ @ @ comes at a time of increased tension between Turkey , Cyprus and Greece in the eastern Mediterranean , as the latter two countries have accused Ankara of encroaching on their territorial waters .

A large number of Russian warships were recently tracked off the coasts of Syria and Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean region, the Russian publication Avia.Pro reported.
According to the online publication, “experts are seriously concerned about the presence of at least 15 Russian warships and submarines off the coast of Syria. This is the first time such a large military formation has been seen here, which raises suspicions about whether Russia plans to engage in a military special operation against jihadists using the navy.
In a photo shared on their site, the 15 Russian warships and submarines can be seen positioned between the island nation of Cyprus and nearby Syria, along with some ships north of Egypt and another near the central part of the Mediterranean.
According to the Telegram channel, Hunter Notes, “one of the last to appear off the coast of Syria was the tanker of the Northern Fleet of the Russian Navy ‘Akademik Pashin’; boats, and, obviously, this is far from the final number of ships of the Russian Navy located in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea.”
This Russian naval buildup also comes at a time of increased tension between Turkey, Cyprus and Greece in the eastern Mediterranean, as the latter two countries have accused Ankara of encroaching on their territorial waters. Russia strengthens military base near US troops in northeast Syria: photo The Russian military has reportedly strengthened its presence at the Al-Qamishli Airbase in northeastern Syria, a new report said this week. According to Avia.Pro, the Russian Air Force moved a number of helicopters and a cargo plane to the Al-Qamishli Airbase recently, which comes only two weeks after a traffic incident with the U.S. military. “The Russian military is actively using the capabilities of its second airbase in Syria. So, according to satellite images, at the moment, on the territory of the military airfield in the city of Qamishli, there are at least four combat helicopters and one Il-76 military transport aircraft,” the Russian publication said. “According to some information, which could not be confirmed without satellite imagery, there are actually at least 6 rotorcraft at the Qamishli airbase, which are used to patrol the northern, northeastern and central parts of Syria, although earlier rotary-winged vehicles were seen only at the Khmeimim airbase,” they added. The Russian military has been using the Al-Qamishli Airbase since 2019, when an agreement was reached with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) inside the Al-Raqqa and Al-Hasakah governorates. It should be noted that the U.S. military also has a large presence in the Al-Hasakah Governorate, which makes the recent buildup by the Russian Armed Forces rather interesting at this juncture of the conflict. https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/large-number-of-russian-warships-deployed-between-syria-and-cyprus-photo/


veteranstoday--2020-09-13--A Gay Relationship between Roy Cohn and Donald Trump? Read on

What ’ s a bisexual ?
Is it dating people like Epstein or Roy Cohn and then having sex with children as the New York courts imply ?
Do you hire models to accompany you around New York when you and Cohn or Epstein hit clubs or , as the photo below depicts , leave the girls behind when you don ’ t need them ?
VT interviewed a top New York model ( now a Trump appointee to a key position in government ) that accompanied Trump and Epstein until Melania came along .
It was $ 10k , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sign a non-disclosure and provide cover .
Along with models , there was a publicist that peddled stories about Trump ‘ grabbing pussies ’ and about being a ‘ man ’ s man , ’ but we now know what that really means .
The Epstein/Trump lawsuit says Trump made children wear rubber gloves when giving him a “ HJ ” but then why would Trump supposedly have unprotected sex with a porn star while married to Melania who thought it was all a joke ?
VT has more on Wexner as well @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a VT staffer took the call when Epstein called Wexner , crying that Wexner had married a woman .
Wexner gave huge amounts , may be billions , to Epstein .
All were part of the same club , Trump , Epstein , Wexner and the MAGA , not “ MEGA ” types , whose only common bond was love of Israel and a double or even triple lifestyle .
Roger Stone believes and has stated that Roy Cohn wasn ’ t really a homosexual , though few or none agree with Stone @ @ @ @ @ @ @ claimed he simply liked having sex with young men like Donald Trump .
You see , as a young man , from the photo above , onward , until his death from AIDS , Roy Cohn was the constant companion of Donald Trump .
Our sources say Trump hired publicists to spread rumors of his sexual conquests , women in this case , and that he often , in public , would sexually assault women , often in crowded New York clubs .
I have direct access to an insider here who had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Epstein , the accused pedophile who we believe was murdered to protect Donald Trump .
We have evidence that Epstein was in a 20 year plus homosexual relationship with a fashion billionaire who gave Epstein a private plane , a home worth over 70 million dollars , another home as well , and the money that made Epstein seem wealthy .
Behind this , it is alleged , was a CIA/Mossad homosexual blackmail ring ; and those stories are now all coming out .
What is less known is that Roy Cohn was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and “ the Donald ” were the “ gay blades ” of the New York club scene .
Sometimes , finding a title is the hardest thing about making a film .
For Matt Tyrnauer , on this occasion , it was the easiest .
“ Never before has a sitting president delivered a film title for me , ” he told me .
During the first month of Robert Mueller ’ s investigation into Donald Trump ’ s alleged corruption , in a moment of frustration with the legal and public-relations walls @ @ @ @ @ @ @ him , the president blurted something out to his White House advisers : “ Where ’ s my Roy Cohn ?
!
” Watching Tyrnauer ’ s new documentary about Cohn , which premieres in competition at Sundance today , it ’ s easy to pinpoint what a young Donald Trump was yearning for back in January 2018 : a ruthlessness that somehow came off as charming , a toughness punctuated with a wink at supporters and a jab at detractors , a commitment to getting one ’ s way no matter what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the notoriously malicious lawyer most infamous for helping Senator Joseph McCarthy carry out the Red Scare , see in Trump ?
“ I think he saw an up-and-comer , a tall , blond , handsome rich kid , to whom he was always attracted as a short and unattractive , albeit brilliant , frustrated person , ” explained Tyrnauer .
“ And he had a long track record of befriending the handsome scions of certain privileged families in the world that he inhabited.
” For Tyrnauer , a Vanity Fair contributing editor whose @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Emperor , Studio 54 , and Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood , Where ’ s My Roy Cohn ?
was born in two parts .

Introduction
What’s a bisexual? Is it dating people like Epstein or Roy Cohn and then having sex with children as the New York courts imply?
Do you hire models to accompany you around New York when you and Cohn or Epstein hit clubs or, as the photo below depicts, leave the girls behind when you don’t need them?
VT interviewed a top New York model (now a Trump appointee to a key position in government) that accompanied Trump and Epstein until Melania came along. It was $10k, not to sleep with Trump but to sign a non-disclosure and provide cover.
Along with models, there was a publicist that peddled stories about Trump ‘grabbing pussies’ and about being a ‘man’s man,’ but we now know what that really means.
The Epstein/Trump lawsuit says Trump made children wear rubber gloves when giving him a “HJ” but then why would Trump supposedly have unprotected sex with a porn star while married to Melania who thought it was all a joke? VT has more on Wexner as well, part of the same group and a VT staffer took the call when Epstein called Wexner, crying that Wexner had married a woman. Wexner gave huge amounts, may be billions, to Epstein. All were part of the same club, Trump, Epstein, Wexner and the MAGA, not “MEGA” types, whose only common bond was love of Israel and a double or even triple lifestyle. Roger Stone believes and has stated that Roy Cohn wasn’t really a homosexual, though few or none agree with Stone on this or much else. Stone claimed he simply liked having sex with young men like Donald Trump. You see, as a young man, from the photo above, onward, until his death from AIDS, Roy Cohn was the constant companion of Donald Trump. Our sources say Trump hired publicists to spread rumors of his sexual conquests, women in this case, and that he often, in public, would sexually assault women, often in crowded New York clubs. I have direct access to an insider here who had spent many an hour with Trump and Epstein, the accused pedophile who we believe was murdered to protect Donald Trump. We have evidence that Epstein was in a 20 year plus homosexual relationship with a fashion billionaire who gave Epstein a private plane, a home worth over 70 million dollars, another home as well, and the money that made Epstein seem wealthy. Behind this, it is alleged, was a CIA/Mossad homosexual blackmail ring; and those stories are now all coming out. What is less known is that Roy Cohn was accused of starting it all while he and “the Donald” were the “gay blades” of the New York club scene. …from Vanity Fair Sometimes, finding a title is the hardest thing about making a film. For Matt Tyrnauer, on this occasion, it was the easiest. “Never before has a sitting president delivered a film title for me,” he told me. During the first month of Robert Mueller’s investigation into Donald Trump’s alleged corruption, in a moment of frustration with the legal and public-relations walls that seemed to be closing in on him, the president blurted something out to his White House advisers: “Where’s my Roy Cohn?!” Watching Tyrnauer’s new documentary about Cohn, which premieres in competition at Sundance today, it’s easy to pinpoint what a young Donald Trump was yearning for back in January 2018: a ruthlessness that somehow came off as charming, a toughness punctuated with a wink at supporters and a jab at detractors, a commitment to getting one’s way no matter what. And what did Roy Cohn, the notoriously malicious lawyer most infamous for helping Senator Joseph McCarthy carry out the Red Scare, see in Trump? “I think he saw an up-and-comer, a tall, blond, handsome rich kid, to whom he was always attracted as a short and unattractive, albeit brilliant, frustrated person,” explained Tyrnauer. “And he had a long track record of befriending the handsome scions of certain privileged families in the world that he inhabited.” For Tyrnauer, a Vanity Fair contributing editor whose previous documentaries include Valentino: The Last Emperor, Studio 54, and Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood, Where’s My Roy Cohn? was born in two parts. Read more at Vanity Fair


veteranstoday--2020-09-13--COVIDGate: Trump’s Russian Spy Appointee to Choke off bad news from CDC has Imploded

Those who were throwing around the conspiracy theory that Trump was put in office to destroy the United States are now being taken seriously…finally VT : What we know : • With recent revelations from Bob Woodward , we know that Trump actually turned over “ managing ” all COVID information to Roger Stone and Michael Caputo , the people the FBI says ran RussiaGate .
• “ Leading from behind , ” Caputo choked off all needed data from state governments and media and threatened scientists ( blackmail ? )
• We are told foreign intelligence services , Turkey @ @ @ @ @ @ @ engineering the COVID disaster that has killed 197,421 as of this writing , using surveillance , cash and hit squads deployed throughout the US like the one that butchered Adnan Khashoggi .
• What we are asking is whether Roger Stone , Caputo or “ others ” took advantage of Trump ’ s infamously poor attention span to take charge and assure economic collapse and social upheaval on behalf of an organization seeking to profit on the weakening and destruction of the United States .
Daily Beast : Communications aides appointed by President @ @ @ @ @ @ @ scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and changing them to better align with the Commander in Chief ’ s sunny message that the United States is beating the coronavirus pandemic , Politico reports .
All of this being done by someone the FBI insists is a Russian spy , picked for his role by convicted felon Roger Stone .
Michael Caputo , a former Trump campaign officer and now the appointed assistant secretary for public affairs of the Department of Health and Human Services , and his deputies have repeatedly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s weekly Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports and reportedly altered them in several cases since April to lessen the seeming severity of COVID-19 .
Michael Raymon Caputo ( born March 24 , 1962 ) [ 2 ] is a Republican political strategist , and media consultant .
In April 2020 , Caputo was appointed as assistant secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services for public affairs .
[ 1 ] [ 3 ] He worked for the Reagan Administration with Oliver North , and later as director of media services on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Bush in the 1992 United States presidential election .
Caputo moved to Russia in 1994 , after the fall of the Soviet Union , and was an adviser to Boris Yeltsin .
He worked for Gazprom Media in 2000 where he worked on improving the image of Vladimir Putin in the U.S .
He moved back to the U.S. and founded a public relations company , and then moved to Ukraine to work on a candidate ’ s campaign for parliament .
After returning to the U.S. , Caputo was called by his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ him to move to Miami Beach , Florida , and then Caputo founded his media advising company Michael Caputo Public Relations .
[ 4 ] Caputo moved back to Europe in 2007 while advising a politician ’ s campaign for parliament in 2007 Ukrainian parliamentary election .
[ 4 ] ( A Candidate chosen by Russia ) Caputo was investigated by the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence as part of their investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election .
CDC scientists have fought Caputo and company but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sway over the reports , according to Politico .
Caputo and his aides have also attempted to delay and even halt the release of other reports entirely .
Dr. Paul Alexander , an adviser to Caputo , wrote in an August 8 email , “ CDC to me appears to be writing hit pieces on the administration.
” Trump has asserted multiple times that the new coronavirus will “ disappear ” and that the U.S. is “ rounding the corner ” on the pandemic despite nearly 200,000 American deaths from the virus and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ world .

We are told foreign intelligence services, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, aided Caputo into engineering the COVID disaster that has killed 197,421 as of this writing, using surveillance, cash and hit squads deployed throughout the US like the one that butchered Adnan Khashoggi.
What we are asking is whether Roger Stone, Caputo or “others” took advantage of Trump’s infamously poor attention span to take charge and assure economic collapse and social upheaval on behalf of an organization seeking to profit on the weakening and destruction of the United States.
Michael Caputo was on Putin’s payroll. That’s literally all you have to know about the man to know he is utter garbage. But also: https://t.co/RuHc3c8ccC — K. Louise Neufeld (@ninaandtito) September 12, 2020
Daily Beast: Communications aides appointed by President Donald Trump have been reviewing reports from scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and changing them to better align with the Commander in Chief’s sunny message that the United States is beating the coronavirus pandemic, Politico reports.
All of this being done by someone the FBI insists is a Russian spy, picked for his role by convicted felon Roger Stone.
EXCLUSIVE: Trump appointees interfered with CDC’s weekly reports on Covid-19 — and even tried to halt the reports altogether. https://t.co/Qau7yYZH0c — Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) September 12, 2020
🔥STONE🔥 Another day, yet another story about **yet another** member of Team🇷🇺Trump meeting w/#Russia.🙄 In May’16, Roger Stone (via Michael Caputo’s intro) met w/a #Russian🇷🇺who offered **damaging info about Hillary Clinton**‼#TrumpRussiahttps://t.co/gdZ5JaJuTw — Dr. Dena Grayson (@DrDenaGrayson) June 17, 2018
Michael Caputo, a former Trump campaign officer and now the appointed assistant secretary for public affairs of the Department of Health and Human Services, and his deputies have repeatedly requested pre-publication access to the CDC’s weekly Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports and reportedly altered them in several cases since April to lessen the seeming severity of COVID-19.
From Caputo’s Wikipedia:
Michael Raymon Caputo (born March 24, 1962)[2] is a Republican political strategist, and media consultant. In April 2020, Caputo was appointed as assistant secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services for public affairs.[1][3]
He worked for the Reagan Administration with Oliver North, and later as director of media services on the campaign for President George H.W. Bush in the 1992 United States presidential election.
Caputo moved to Russia in 1994, after the fall of the Soviet Union, and was an adviser to Boris Yeltsin. He worked for Gazprom Media in 2000 where he worked on improving the image of Vladimir Putin in the U.S. He moved back to the U.S. and founded a public relations company, and then moved to Ukraine to work on a candidate’s campaign for parliament.
After returning to the U.S., Caputo was called by his former mentor Roger Stone, who convinced him to move to Miami Beach, Florida, and then Caputo founded his media advising company Michael Caputo Public Relations.[4] Caputo moved back to Europe in 2007 while advising a politician’s campaign for parliament in 2007 Ukrainian parliamentary election.[4] (A Candidate chosen by Russia)
Caputo was investigated by the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence as part of their investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election.
Michael Caputo – Trump loyalist who once worked for Boris Yeltsin and did PR for a subsidiary of Russia's Gazprom, and is a longtime friend of Roger Stone and Paul Manafort, and who has never held a senior health care position is the new HHS spokespersonhttps://t.co/YOl3LY6yaO — Wendy Siegelman (@WendySiegelman) April 15, 2020
CDC scientists have fought Caputo and company but in recent weeks have allowed them increasing sway over the reports, according to Politico. Caputo and his aides have also attempted to delay and even halt the release of other reports entirely.
Caputo denied any collusion saying "We didn’t speak to Russians. We didn’t use Russian dressing" – Caputo lived Russia in the '90s and worked for an energy company with ties to Putin & has known Roger Stone since the 80's when Caputo was Stone's driverhttps://t.co/GYD6GbKjYW pic.twitter.com/e14nmoR7rP — Wendy Siegelman (@WendySiegelman) May 1, 2018
Dr. Paul Alexander, an adviser to Caputo, wrote in an August 8 email, “CDC to me appears to be writing hit pieces on the administration.” Trump has asserted multiple times that the new coronavirus will “disappear” and that the U.S. is “rounding the corner” on the pandemic despite nearly 200,000 American deaths from the virus and the highest number of cases in the world.


veteranstoday--2020-09-12--NEO – Erdogan brings his ‘Ottoman ambitions’ to the Middle East

by Salman Rafi Sheikh , …with New Eastern Outlook , …and the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences , a research institution for the study of the countries and cultures of Asia and North Africa .
[ Editor ’ s Note : The UAE has finally triggered Turkey into reacting publicly , versus the indirect methods Erdogan has preferred in the past , as it is easier to work both ends against the middle and still come out on top .
It is entertaining to hear Erdo whine about the UAE salaciously using the Palestinian cause @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Israel as a betrayal , when Erdogan has betrayed Turkey ’ s former relations with Syria by backing the opposition and then later even ISIS , in his ploy to reclaim NE Syria as his part of the Balkanization of Syria .
With friends like Erdo , who needs enemies ?
Of course this is nothing unusual .
Only last week , the Arab League jumped into the shame game by refusing to denounce the UAE for establishing relations with Israel , despite Bibi ’ s claim of still wanting to annex the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ below , Turkey ’ s relations have gone south from the days of letting Israeli pilots practice penetrating Iran ’ s airspace over similar terrain in Turkey .
Erdogan won ’ t allow Turkey to be left out of the game and has stepped up to support the Palestinian cause , in opposition to Israel ’ s dominant position .
That smells like another air deal from Erdo , as he can ’ t do much without Israel ’ s approval .
I feel that Erdo does nothing due to altruism .
This @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his crumbling economy and to distract from his growing opposition at home .
We saw how he sent some Turkish trainers to Libya , but used cannon fodder jihadis for combat there to not make the Turkish army unhappy , an army that has an almost zero death rate by avoiding combat like the plague .
The threat of EU sanctions that even mentioned Turkish shipping as the first blow made Erdogan agree to talks with Greece in a jiffy , a strong indication that he has his graft fingers deep into that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as it did not need two NATO countries having a shooting incident while it continues to put the squeeze on Russia ’ s western border .
Infighting at this time would be a great inconvenience .
Since the announcement of talks , we see Erdo playing this new flank card , by conning Hamas into thinking he will do something for them , even though Israel has the Gaza border totally under its control .
I fear this will get worse before it gets better… Jim W. Dean ] Jim 's Editor ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Jim 's work includes research , field trips , Heritage TV Legacy archiving & more .
Thanks for helping .
Click to donate > > When Turkey ’ s Erdogan recently hosted Hamas leaders , including the US-designated ‘ terrorist ’ and ‘ wanted ’ leaders of the Palestinian resistance , it did not ring bells in Jerusalem , Abu Dhabi or Riyadh .
On the contrary , Erdogan ’ s meeting illustrated how Turkey is planning to respond to the new regional configuration which puts Israel at the heart of the Middle @ @ @ @ @ @ @ new self-arrogated leader of the ‘ Arab world.
’ Turkey , as it stands , challenges Emirati ambitions .
There is no denying that Turkey , under Erdogan , has embarked on a journey to reclaim its ‘ Ottoman glory ’ , a return to the future where Turkey stands as the most powerful Muslim country .
Most of what Turkey is doing in Syria , Libya and the Mediterranean has officially a lot to do with re-establishing Turkish dominant presence in former Ottoman territories .
Now that the UAE has made a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ across the Muslim world and that there is already an expectation of other countries following suit and favoring a two-state solution , the situation has presented Erdogan with a rare opportunity to project Turkey as the new leader of the Palestinian resistance and thus launch his ‘ glory mission ’ from Africa ( in Libya ) to Palestine in the Middle East .
At the heart of Erdogan ’ s seemingly ‘ bold step ’ is a strategic calculation that the deal , which has US blessings , is aimed at changing regional @ @ @ @ @ @ @ against Turkish interests .
The new regional order that the deal promises has set , in Turkish calculation , Turkey as its main target .
For Turkey , the deal is a coming-together of its chief rival states .
Already , Turkey ’ s relations with Israel are sore .
While their commercial and economic ties are very good , their diplomatic ties are not .
While their military ties were once exceptional , today they are non-existent .
And while they still maintain diplomatic ties , in 2018 Turkey and Israel expelled @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have been at a rolling boil for years as Turkish President Erdogan continues to move further and further into his role as an Islamist leader .
As far as the UAE is concerned , Turkey considers it as one of the main sponsors of 2016 coup attempt .
Besides it , both the UAE and Israel support Kurdish militias , groups that Ankara has designated as ‘ terrorists ’ , waging a war on them in Syria .
Ankara ’ s reaction was , therefore , telling when it blatantly denounced the deal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the collective conscience of the region will ever forget and forgive the hypocritical behavior of the UAE , which is trying to depict the deal as a sacrifice for Palestine , when in reality it is a betrayal to the Palestinian cause for its own narrow interests.
” There is no denying that ‘ the Palestinian cause ’ remains a popular political subject in the Arab world , a seed that Erdogan is actively seeking to harness to his advantage .
As the latest survey reports suggest , an overwhelming majority of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Israel .
As opposed to 84 per cent in 2011 , about 87 percent opposed ties with Israel in 2018 .
For Erdogan , the mood is indicative of the growing anger in the Arab world both against Israel and the UAE .
Therefore , by championing ‘ the Palestinian cause ’ , he intends to channelize the anti-Israel energy towards the UAE and other Arab countries apparently willing to recognize Israel .
By doing so , Turkey aims to snub both the UAE ( as also Egypt and Saudi Arabia ) and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ against Turkey in Libya and even the Mediterranean .
While the UAE is supporting General Khalifa Haftar in Libya , Turkey supports the more Islamist Government of National Accord in Tripoli .
At the same time , Israel and the UAE ’ s ally Egypt have signed a maritime agreement with Greece and Cyprus aimed at freezing Turkey out of gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean .
Similarly , around the same time that the Israel-UAE deal was unveiled , Greece ’ s foreign minister met his Israeli counterpart Gabi Ashkenazi and Israeli @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Jerusalem also declared its solidarity with Greece .
It was then followed by a UAE announcement about four F-16 fighter jets that it had sent to Greece to take part in a military exercise with Greece .
A lot of concerted diplomatic action took place that signaled a new anti-Turkish alliance in the region .
In this context , Turkey ’ s move to rally the Palestinians around and even encourage an end to internal conflict between Hamas and Fatah to establish a ‘ united front ’ suggest a strong Turkish push @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its own domination in the Arab world , a goal that Erdogan considers is truly worth sacrificing everything for .
While the UAE-Israel deal aims to reconfigure the regional order , Turkey ’ s own moves are very much in accordance with Erdogan ’ s declared policy of making Turkey a ‘ super-power , a goal that inevitably involves an intense power struggle in the Middle East and even an encouragement of another ‘ Arab spring ’ that could blow away the deal , stamping Turkey as the only leader of the ‘ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ research-analyst of International Relations and Pakistan ’ s foreign and domestic affairs , exclusively for the online magazine “ New Eastern Outlook ” .

by Salman Rafi Sheikh, …with New Eastern Outlook,…and the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a research institution for the study of the countries and cultures of Asia and North Africa.
Update: 09-13-20, 13:20 EST – Turkish seismic research vessel Oruc Reis, which has been at the heart of a simmering standoff between Greece and Turkey over gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean, has returned to a port in southern Turkey, a ship tracker shows. Good news here...JD.
[ Editor’s Note: The UAE has finally triggered Turkey into reacting publicly, versus the indirect methods Erdogan has preferred in the past, as it is easier to work both ends against the middle and still come out on top.
It is entertaining to hear Erdo whine about the UAE salaciously using the Palestinian cause as a bridge to establish relations with Israel as a betrayal, when Erdogan has betrayed Turkey’s former relations with Syria by backing the opposition and then later even ISIS, in his ploy to reclaim NE Syria as his part of the Balkanization of Syria.
With friends like Erdo, who needs enemies? Of course this is nothing unusual. Only last week, the Arab League jumped into the shame game by refusing to denounce the UAE for establishing relations with Israel, despite Bibi’s claim of still wanting to annex the West Bank.
As Rafi points out below, Turkey’s relations have gone south from the days of letting Israeli pilots practice penetrating Iran’s airspace over similar terrain in Turkey.
Erdogan won’t allow Turkey to be left out of the game and has stepped up to support the Palestinian cause, in opposition to Israel’s dominant position. That smells like another air deal from Erdo, as he can’t do much without Israel’s approval.
I feel that Erdo does nothing due to altruism. This show game is a front to hide his crumbling economy and to distract from his growing opposition at home. We saw how he sent some Turkish trainers to Libya, but used cannon fodder jihadis for combat there to not make the Turkish army unhappy, an army that has an almost zero death rate by avoiding combat like the plague.
The threat of EU sanctions that even mentioned Turkish shipping as the first blow made Erdogan agree to talks with Greece in a jiffy, a strong indication that he has his graft fingers deep into that industry.
NATO also weighed in, as it did not need two NATO countries having a shooting incident while it continues to put the squeeze on Russia’s western border. Infighting at this time would be a great inconvenience.
Since the announcement of talks, we see Erdo playing this new flank card, by conning Hamas into thinking he will do something for them, even though Israel has the Gaza border totally under its control. I fear this will get worse before it gets better… Jim W. Dean ]
Jim's Editor’s Notes are solely crowdfunded via PayPal
Jim's work includes research, field trips, Heritage TV Legacy archiving & more. Thanks for helping. Click to donate >>
Turkey has simmering political fires inside the countryUAE
– First published … September 09, 2020 –
When Turkey’s Erdogan recently hosted Hamas leaders, including the US-designated ‘terrorist’ and ‘wanted’ leaders of the Palestinian resistance, it did not ring bells in Jerusalem, Abu Dhabi or Riyadh.
On the contrary, Erdogan’s meeting illustrated how Turkey is planning to respond to the new regional configuration which puts Israel at the heart of the Middle East along with the UAE as the new self-arrogated leader of the ‘Arab world.’
Turkey, as it stands, challenges Emirati ambitions. There is no denying that Turkey, under Erdogan, has embarked on a journey to reclaim its ‘Ottoman glory’, a return to the future where Turkey stands as the most powerful Muslim country.
Most of what Turkey is doing in Syria, Libya and the Mediterranean has officially a lot to do with re-establishing Turkish dominant presence in former Ottoman territories.
Now that the UAE has made a deal with Israel, sending a shock-wave across the Muslim world and that there is already an expectation of other countries following suit and favoring a two-state solution, the situation has presented Erdogan with a rare opportunity to project Turkey as the new leader of the Palestinian resistance and thus launch his ‘glory mission’ from Africa (in Libya) to Palestine in the Middle East.
At the heart of Erdogan’s seemingly ‘bold step’ is a strategic calculation that the deal, which has US blessings, is aimed at changing regional scenario in a way that pushes back against Turkish interests. The new regional order that the deal promises has set, in Turkish calculation, Turkey as its main target. For Turkey, the deal is a coming-together of its chief rival states.
Already, Turkey’s relations with Israel are sore. While their commercial and economic ties are very good, their diplomatic ties are not. While their military ties were once exceptional, today they are non-existent.
And while they still maintain diplomatic ties, in 2018 Turkey and Israel expelled each other’s ambassadors. Tensions have been at a rolling boil for years as Turkish President Erdogan continues to move further and further into his role as an Islamist leader.
As far as the UAE is concerned, Turkey considers it as one of the main sponsors of 2016 coup attempt. Besides it, both the UAE and Israel support Kurdish militias, groups that Ankara has designated as ‘terrorists’, waging a war on them in Syria.
Ankara’s reaction was, therefore, telling when it blatantly denounced the deal, saying:
“Neither history nor the collective conscience of the region will ever forget and forgive the hypocritical behavior of the UAE, which is trying to depict the deal as a sacrifice for Palestine, when in reality it is a betrayal to the Palestinian cause for its own narrow interests.”
There is no denying that ‘the Palestinian cause’ remains a popular political subject in the Arab world, a seed that Erdogan is actively seeking to harness to his advantage. As the latest survey reports suggest, an overwhelming majority of the Arab world opposes any diplomatic recognition of Israel. As opposed to 84 per cent in 2011, about 87 percent opposed ties with Israel in 2018.
For Erdogan, the mood is indicative of the growing anger in the Arab world both against Israel and the UAE. Therefore, by championing ‘the Palestinian cause’, he intends to channelize the anti-Israel energy towards the UAE and other Arab countries apparently willing to recognize Israel.
By doing so, Turkey aims to snub both the UAE (as also Egypt and Saudi Arabia) and Israel, all of whom are positioned against Turkey in Libya and even the Mediterranean.
While the UAE is supporting General Khalifa Haftar in Libya, Turkey supports the more Islamist Government of National Accord in Tripoli. At the same time, Israel and the UAE’s ally Egypt have signed a maritime agreement with Greece and Cyprus aimed at freezing Turkey out of gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean.
Similarly, around the same time that the Israel-UAE deal was unveiled, Greece’s foreign minister met his Israeli counterpart Gabi Ashkenazi and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Just before, Jerusalem also declared its solidarity with Greece.
It was then followed by a UAE announcement about four F-16 fighter jets that it had sent to Greece to take part in a military exercise with Greece. A lot of concerted diplomatic action took place that signaled a new anti-Turkish alliance in the region.
In this context, Turkey’s move to rally the Palestinians around and even encourage an end to internal conflict between Hamas and Fatah to establish a ‘united front’ suggest a strong Turkish push towards effectively challenging its rivals and establishing its own domination in the Arab world, a goal that Erdogan considers is truly worth sacrificing everything for.
While the UAE-Israel deal aims to reconfigure the regional order, Turkey’s own moves are very much in accordance with Erdogan’s declared policy of making Turkey a ‘super-power, a goal that inevitably involves an intense power struggle in the Middle East and even an encouragement of another ‘Arab spring’ that could blow away the deal, stamping Turkey as the only leader of the ‘oppressed Muslims.’
Salman Rafi Sheikh, research-analyst of International Relations and Pakistan’s foreign and domestic affairs, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.


veteranstoday--2020-09-12--Fiery COVID Debate! Prof. Tony Hall vs. Kevin Barrett

In today ’ s False Flag Weekly News ( at the 48:50 mark ) I raised a question often posed by audience members : Is COVID a complete hoax ?
Or is it a scam based on a real , dangerous virus ?
I argued the latter .
The best evidence that COVID deaths are in six figures , I opined , is the data on “ excess deaths from all causes , ” according to which over 250,000 too many Americans have died this year .
Professor Tony Hall disagreed , citing reports that only 6 % of reported @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
I argued that he was misconstruing that report , and that we may reasonably assume that COVID was a leading factor in a great many of the more than 250,000 “ excess deaths from all causes.
” Tony excitedly disagreed .
Pretty soon things got hot enough to melt steel beams .
Despite vociferously disagreeing , we remain on friendly terms .
Are we allowed to have this kind of debate ?
Or will YouTube nuke my channel again on some ridiculous pretext—maybe they will disagree with Tony , or me , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or maybe they will claim I was impersonating Tony Hall and he was impersonating me .
We are living in interesting times , and we should be allowed to engage in spirited debates about what is really going on .
Unfortunately the big internet monopolies don ’ t seem to agree .
They need to be seized , nationalized , and run as transparent public utilities in full compliance with the First Amendment .

Watch False Flag Weekly News
In today’s False Flag Weekly News (at the 48:50 mark) I raised a question often posed by audience members: Is COVID a complete hoax? Or is it a scam based on a real, dangerous virus? I argued the latter. The best evidence that COVID deaths are in six figures, I opined, is the data on “excess deaths from all causes,” according to which over 250,000 too many Americans have died this year.
Professor Tony Hall disagreed, citing reports that only 6% of reported COVID deaths are deaths from COVID alone. I argued that he was misconstruing that report, and that we may reasonably assume that COVID was a leading factor in a great many of the more than 250,000 “excess deaths from all causes.” Tony excitedly disagreed. Pretty soon things got hot enough to melt steel beams.
Despite vociferously disagreeing, we remain on friendly terms. Are we allowed to have this kind of debate? Or will YouTube nuke my channel again on some ridiculous pretext—maybe they will disagree with Tony, or me, or Allan the producer about something, or maybe they will claim I was impersonating Tony Hall and he was impersonating me.
We are living in interesting times, and we should be allowed to engage in spirited debates about what is really going on. Unfortunately the big internet monopolies don’t seem to agree. They need to be seized, nationalized, and run as transparent public utilities in full compliance with the First Amendment. -Kevin Barrett, VT Editor
Dr. Kevin Barrett, a Ph.D. Arabist-Islamologist is one of America’s best-known critics of the War on Terror. He is the host of TRUTH JIHAD RADIO; a hard-driving weekly radio show funded by listener subscriptions at Substack and the weekly news roundup FALSE FLAG WEEKLY NEWS (FFWN). He also has appeared many times on Fox, CNN, PBS, and other broadcast outlets, and has inspired feature stories and op-eds in the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, the Chicago Tribune, and other leading publications. Dr. Barrett has taught at colleges and universities in San Francisco, Paris, and Wisconsin; where he ran for Congress in 2008. He currently works as a nonprofit organizer, author, and talk radio host. Archived Articles (2004-2016) www.truthjihad.com