x mas 2016

“Let it be an arms race,” Mr. Trump told MSNBC

Trump Makes Foray Onto Obama’s Turf

President-elect wades into foreign policy before taking office, setting up confrontation between outgoing and incoming administrations

By   Carol E. Lee and Peter NichoUpdated Dec. 23, 2016 7:20 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON—President-elect Donald Trump is upending the modern convention that the U.S. speaks with one voice on foreign affairs, plunging into some of the most sensitive national-security matters before he takes office.

Mr. Trump has launched a series of challenges to President Barack Obama’s policies on nuclear weapons, China and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, setting up a rare and increasingly public confrontation between outgoing and incoming administrations.

Mr. Obama on Friday brushed back pressure from Mr. Trump to block a United Nations Security Council resolution harshly criticizing the expansion of Israeli settlements. Mr. Trump on Thursday called on the administration to veto the resolution. But Mr. Obama instead chose to break from longstanding U.S. policy and allow it to pass.

“There’s one president at a time,” said Ben Rhodes, a deputy national-security adviser. He said the president believes “it’s important that the world understands who is speaking on behalf of the United States until Jan. 20.”

Mr. Trump took to  Twitter after the vote, saying: “As to the U.N., things will be different after Jan. 20th.”

While Mr. Obama’s move suggests it may be difficult to eclipse a sitting president who has said he intends to “run through the tape,” Mr. Trump’s policy pronouncements as president-elect could send mixed signals to America’s allies and partners overseas about who is in charge, experts and analysts said.

Mr. Trump signaled soon after the election that he planned to take a different posture during the transition, when he took a protocol-breaking phone call from the president of Taiwan.

The White House was caught off guard and fielded angry protests from Beijing.

Jon Alterman, a national-security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Mr. Trump appears to be using his transition to test the waters on some issues. “It feels to me partly like he’s just thinking out loud trying to imagine what a Trump foreign policy will be,” Mr. Alterman said.

Brian Katulis, a senior fellow focused on national-security issues at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, said Mr. Trump is deviating from a longstanding tradition that ensures “continuity” in foreign policy even when the presidency changes parties.

“What he’s signaled on a number of different fronts since his election demonstrates that he has an unorthodox and unconventional way of dealing with the world,” Mr. Katulis said.

“It’s deeply unsettling to a number of our longstanding partners.”

Ken Duberstein, a chief of staff under Republican President Ronald Reagan, countered, saying Mr. Trump’s approach could pay dividends. The president-elect is “basically signaling to the world the way he will conduct things once he is in fact president,” he said. “It’s reassuring to many of our allies and it is setting the stage for an understanding from our adversaries that there will be a new sheriff in town.”

Mr. Trump has just this week waded into two of the most hot-button foreign-policy issues, both raising the prospect of expanding America’s nuclear arsenal and, at the behest of Israel, pressuring Mr. Obama to veto the U.N. resolution.

Mr. Trump said Friday that he wouldn’t shrink from a nuclear-arms race, doubling down on his tweet a day earlier saying the U.S. needs to expand its nuclear capabilities. “Let it be an arms race,” Mr. Trump told MSNBC “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski. “We will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all.”

Mr. Trump’s top spokesman, Sean Spicer, later sought to play down the interview.

But Mr. Trump’s comments—which followed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s statement that Moscow needs to build up its military, including nuclear weapons—are reigniting concerns among critics that he lacks the temperament for the presidency.

“The words presidents speak or tweet or write can send armies marching and markets tumbling,” said David Axelrod, who was a longtime adviser to Mr. Obama and supported Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. “I think there was this hope or expectation that the weight of the presidency or the impending presidency would sober him and this is evidence that that’s not the case.”

Rep. Adam Schiff, the top ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence committee, expressed alarm at the casual tone Mr. Trump is using to discuss major changes to the nation’s defense posture and security policy.

“These opaque, oracular statements that are coming out of his Twitter account are the subject of multiple interpretations and they’re a dangerous thing to do as president-elect,” said
Mr. Schiff. “They could be a potentially catastrophic thing to do as president.”

Also on Friday, Mr. Trump released a letter he received from Mr. Putin, in which the Russian president says he hopes that “we will be able—by acting in a constructive and pragmatic
manner—to take real steps to restore the framework of bilateral cooperation in different areas as well as bring our level of collaboration on the international scene to a qualitatively new level.”

Mr. Trump responded to what he called “a very nice letter from Vladimir Putin” with a statement saying, “His thoughts are so correct. I hope both sides are able to live up to these thoughts, and we do not have to travel an alternate path.”

—Ben Kesling and Byron Tau contributed to this article.
 

How Russia, Iran and Turkey see the future of post-war Syria

How Russia, Iran and Turkey see the future of post-war Syria
December 22, 2016 Nikolai Litovkin, RBTH 

Russian observers say that the three countries have grown tired of the Syrian conflict and are now preparing to address the problem without waiting for the West and other regional actors.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has announced that specialists from Russia, Turkey and Iran are working on drafting a joint action plan for Aleppo following a meeting of the three nations’ defense ministers in Moscow on Dec. 20.

The final document of the meeting, the so-called Moscow declaration, will lay out urgent steps to promote a settlement of the civil war in Syria following the recapture of the country’s second largest city by government troops.

Despite their desire to put an end to the Syrian hostilities, each of the three actors has its own vision of how the crisis should be resolved and how a post-conflict Syria should look. It also appears, if Russian analysts are to be believed, that Syria's post-war future will become reality fairly soon.

“The hostilities will continue for about another year, after which the first signs of Syria's future state system will become visible,” Vladimir Yevseyev, a military expert and deputy director of the Moscow-based CIS Institute, told RBTH.

Yevseyev believes there will be a redistribution of political power between the offices of president and prime minister in Syria, making the latter a more influential figure. In addition, some of Syria's regions will gain more rights and autonomy, but the country is more likely to remain a republic than turn into a federation.

Russia's position

Moscow wants the situation in the region to stabilize, and also wishes to limit its involvement in the Syrian conflict, according to Russian experts.

“Russia is calling for elections to be held after the end of the crisis, and for the drafting of a road map to restore Syria,” said Yevseyev. “We will continue to involve [Syrian] settlements into the peace process, and to create corridors for the withdrawal of militants.”

Russian experts say that Moscow's primary objective is not only to achieve security in Syria but also to restore the country economically. On the other hand, Russia does not want to go it alone on this: It expects other nations to share the burden.

However, according to Yevseyev, there is also a certain self-interest in Russia’s ambitions for Syria, with the boosting of Moscow’s military presence in the region another priority.

“We also want to establish a foothold in the eastern portion of the Mediterranean,” he said. “We already have Khmeimim air base in Syria; in the future we will turn our naval supply and maintenance base at Tartus into a full-fledged navy base.”

Turkey's position

During the Moscow talks, Turkish Defense Minister Fikri Isik described the operation to take back eastern Aleppo from rebels opposed to Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad as having been “very successful”.

Nevertheless, a number of Russian experts are skeptical as to Turkey's contribution to the Aleppo offensive. Semyon Bagdasarov, director of the Center for the Study of the Middle East and Central Asia, said in an interview (in Russian) with the online news publication Vzglyad that pro-Turkish units had actually taken part in the defense of eastern Aleppo, and also that it was the Turkish military that had organized counter-strikes from the direction of Idlib and Homs, and had attempted to breach the government blockade around the city.

Bagdasarov enumerated Turkey's key objectives in the Syrian conflict: overthrowing Assad; setting up a Turkish-controlled quasi-state with its capital in eastern Aleppo; and also destroying the foothold established by the Syrian Kurds.

According to him, Moscow in principle is prepared for the emergence of a Kurdish quasi-state in Syria, but there are fears that such a state would be constantly at war with Damascus, “with all the associated problems that would entail”.

Not all Russian experts agree with this view. Prof. Sergei Druzhilovsky of the Department of Oriental Studies at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations told RBTH that Ankara's position has changed significantly in the past six months, since the failed coup in Turkey, and that the Turkish authorities have even found common ground with Iran, whose views used to be diametrically opposite.

“Al-Assad represents Syria's Alawite ethnic minority, which accounts for about 10 percent of the population, and there are 12 to 15 million Alawites residing on Turkish territory,” said Druzhilovsky. “Domestic conflicts have prompted [Turkish President] Recep Tayyip Erdogan to revise his policy on Syria, as well as on some parts of his own country's Shia population.”

Iran's position

Druzhilovsky believes it is important for Iran that Al-Assad retain his presidency: “Any other president is likely to change Syria's policy on Tehran dramatically,” he said.

Syria's attitude towards Israel is a sensitive issue for Iran, Nikolai Surkov, assistant professor at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations and an expert with the Russian International Affairs Council, told RBTH.

“Iran would like Syria to fight Israel, and to provide its territory for supplying arms to Hezbollah,” said Surkov. “Tehran's position is that any figure to replace Al-Assad should be prepared for maximum cooperation with Iran.”

Vladimir Yevseyev, however, does not believe that Iran will have any direct influence on Syria's future policy: “For the time being Iran remains Syria's economic sponsor; it plays but a secondary role militarily,” he said.

‘Won’t allow change in JK’s demography’ Joint resistance leadership

DOMICILE CERTIFICATES ROW|

‘Won’t allow change in JK’s demography’
Joint resistance leadership calls for statewide protest on Friday; Says PDP working on anti-Kashmir, anti-Muslim agenda

GK NEWS NETWORK
Srinagar, Publish Date: Dec 21 2016 9:37PM | Updated Date: Dec 21 2016 9:37PM
DOMICILE CERTIFICATES ROW| ‘Won’t allow change in JK’s demography’
Stating that attempts to change demography of Jammu and Kashmir will be resisted tooth and nail, the joint resistance leadership on Wednesday hit out at ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) accusing it of resuming work on “its anti-Kashmir and anti-Muslim agenda.”

“Issuing domicile certificates to West Pakistan Refugees, court verdict challenging the sovereignty of Jammu Kashmir and allowing outside banks to confiscate and hold properties in Jammu & Kashmir are the issues of life and death for Kashmiris. PDP has again started working on its anti-Kashmir and anti-Muslim agenda but people of Jammu & Kashmir will not hesitate to offer any sacrifice to oppose such actions tooth and nail,” the joint resistance leadership - Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik - said in a statement appealing people for statewide protests on Friday.
“These are maneuvers to change the demography of Jammu and Kashmir. PDP has started showing its true colors by initiating the process of creeping slowly and deceitfully towards the Hindutva agenda of its coalition partner. We are not against the rehabilitation of these refugees and on humanitarian grounds we fully support their every demand and urge the government to facilitate them and provide them all the rights they are eligible to. India is a huge country with more than 30 states and if they are sincere, honest and feel the sufferings of these refugees they can settle them in any of their states, but settling them in a disputed land of Jammu and Kashmir will jeopardize and erode its historical and political contours, which is not acceptable to us at any cost,” they said.

“Yes-men of these imperialistic forces are mesmerized in their luxuries and have lost their wits as they are intoxicated under the influence of power and perks—but let us remind and caution these stooges not to put the valley to the flames of destruction and bloodshed, just to appease their coalition partners. By doing so they may be in good books of their masters but they can never stop themselves being consumed in these flames,” they said.

“We question these collaborators that how much blood they need to offer for remaining in power, how much pain and agony of the people will suffice there greedy mindset. History stands witness to the fact that traitors and tyrants had a very tragic and disgusting end and our present day stooges are no exemption,” they said. 

“We appeal the nation in general and visionary people in particular to nip these evils in the bud and if they are left unattended they grow to the monsters of cruelty and barbarism. Disputed nature of Jammu and Kashmir cannot be brushed aside by any judicial gimmicks. We appeal all the sects of the society including Ulamma, Imams, religious scholars, intellectuals, civil society, youth, traders and transporters to remain vigilant against these killing and crushing tactics of India.”

The joint leadership appealed to hold peaceful protests on Friday, 23 December, “to convey a clear message to India, its stooges and the whole world that we as a nation will fight such designs unanimously, willfully and honestly.”

The incarcerated chairman of Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) Shabir Ahmad Shah termed the government move to issue domicile certificates to West Pakistan Refugees (WPR) as a “well-planned conspiracy against the Muslim majority status of Jammu Kashmir.”

“By playing a major role in this regard, the PDP’s anti-Kashmir stance stands exposed,” a spokesman of the DFP, in a statement today, quoted Shabir Shah as saying.

“The issuing of domicile certificates to West Pakistan Refugees (WPR) is unacceptable. The people of the State will resist such move tooth and nail. This is a well-planned conspiracy of Saffron brigade and PDP. The Mehbooba Mufti-led government is so obsessed with power that it doesn’t consider even its consequences,” Shabir Shah said.

Dukhtaran-e-Millat said that granting domicile certificates to West Pakistan Refugees is a “deliberate attempt to change the Muslim character of disputed Jammu & Kashmir.”

A spokesperson of DeM said that “such decisions neither are nor will ever be acceptable to the people of Kashmir and that such evil designs would be fought tooth and nail.”

“This is the recognition of the apprehensions that were already raised by a number of scholars. Incarcerated chairperson of Muslim DeeniMahaz, Dr Muhammad Qasim also has mentioned about the same in his book Baang,” the spokesperson said.

“This is the start of a well thought out process that would be stopped only after making the WPRs the permanent residents of Jammu & Kashmir. These refugees should be settled in any part of India, not in Jammu & Kashmir.”

“In Jammu, under a well-planned strategy, more than six lakh Muslims were massacred and their properties were usurped by these refugees. We don’t consider the WPRs as permanent citizens of Jammu Kashmir, they should return their properties to their Muslim owners,” the statement said.
Hurriyat leader and Salvation Movement chairman, Zafar Akbar Bhat, also denounced the state’s move to issue domicile certificates to refugees from West Pakistan.

Hurriyat Conference Jammu Kashmir (HCJK) leaders Shabir Ahmad Dar, Muhammad Iqbal Mir, Muhammad AshaanUntoo, Imtiyaz Ahmad Reshi and GulamNabi War termed the process of issuing domicile certificates to West Pakistan Refugees (WPRs) as a serious issue.

“This is aimed at changing the Muslim majority character of the state and diluting the Kashmir issue. This decision by the saffron forces is aimed at prolonging the Indian control in Jammu Kashmir. Those forces who are planning to facilitate the stay of Hindu migrants have some days back burned down the area where Rohangya Muslims  from Burma are residing causing the death of four innocents,” they said.
 
Tehreek-e-Mazahmat (TeM) chairman Bilal Sidiqee termed the issuance of domicile certificates to West Pakistan Refugees (WPRs) “as a ploy to alter the Muslim identity of Jammu and Kashmir.”
Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (R) Chairman Farooq Ahmad Dar alias BitaKarete in a statement said issuance of state subject certificate is “direct violation of special status of Jammu and Kashmir.”
“We take a pledge to oppose such move. We appeal people to resist the sinister move and give befitting reply to those who are hatching conspiracies to alter demographic status of state,” he said.

Statement of the PFLP on the 49th anniversary of its founding

Statement of the PFLP on the 49th anniversary of its founding
Dec 11 2016

Today, we mark the 49th anniversary of the founding of the Popular Front for the Liberation, founded on December 11, 1967 out of the impact of the defeat of June 5. The founding of the Front was an injection of a new hope out of the rubble of defeat, on an intellectual, political, and struggling level, to carry forward and raise the banner of the revolution, struggle, and national liberation movement against the Zionist project. On this path, tens of thousands of martyrs, prisoners, wounded, and strugglers, among the martyrs, the prisoners, and the wounded and strugglers of the Palestinian people, the Arab nation, and the international movements, have come forward. We salute them today with the highest regard and pride in them and their legendary sacrifices and heroism that have formed a historic and distinguished legacy and history of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Palestinian national movement overall.

In light of the ongoing international, regional and Arab situation and the negative repercussions, and amid ongoing weakness and division in the Palestinian internal situation, the Palestinian cause is at risk of liquidation, perhaps more now than ever before. Therefore, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine emphasizes and calls for the following:

First, the need for a serious, comprehensive national dialogue to review the entire Palestinian experience and develop a unified strategy for our national liberation movement. This includes the rebuilding of representative institutions and popular unions, especially the Palestine Liberation Organization, and the creation of the environment and infrastructure of internal democracy that is necessary to build and promote the values of collective national struggle. It is critical to support the steadfastness of the people with viable material support and concrete action, to affirm their roots in their land and attachment to national identity, and unity inside and outside Palestine, in the homeland and in exile and diaspora.

Second, the critical urgency to completely abandon the Oslo agreement and its unfair obligations and catastrophic consequences for Palestinian rights, struggles, national goals, and the overall liberation project. This requires an end to reliance on the path of negotiations and rejection of the pressure to return to that path. Instead, we must affirm the need for full implementation of the rights of the Palestinian people recognized by the United Nations. We reject any political initiatives aimed at imposing an alternative international reference to detract from the rights of the Palestinian people.
Third, the need to end Palestinian internal division and restore national unity without delay or procrastination, and without continuing to rely on international or regional powers whose interests are not in favor of our cause, our people, or our rights.

Fourth, the need to hold a unified Palestinian National Council under preparation by the preliminary leadership commission agreed upon in Cairo, and to reject any monopolistic call to convene the PNC in Ramallah. That path is only the further development of the intellectual, organizational and political methodology that has caused so much damage to the Palestinian movement and led it to the current dangerous impasse.

Fifth, the need to use all forms and methods of struggle in the context of the existential battle with the Zionist enemy. No form of struggle is a replacement for another.

Sixth, the necessity to support all acts of struggle and the mass movements which have become known as the Jerusalem intifada, and for all forces to provide an organizational and political incubator for the development of the popular struggle.

Seventh, the development of a comprehensive national plan to support the prisoners and their struggles in official and popular efforts in order to seek their freedom and raise their struggle for liberation at an international level. The PFLP raises its highest salutes and appreciation to all of the heroic prisoners who fought the battle of empty stomachs, including our comrade, the leader Bilal Kayed, and the two imprisoned brothers currently on hunger strike, Anas Shadid and Ahmad Abu Fara.

Eighth, we call on the forces of Arab liberation to recapture the vision of their project and role, based on the seriousness of the current situation in the Arab region, to be free of internal conflicts, proxy wars, and sectarian divisions. This comes amid the accelerating normalization with the enemy by some Arab regimes as other Arab states disintegrate. The Palestinian struggle is at the heart of the Arab cause.

Ninth, we stand with our Arab peoples in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Egypt, and throughout the Arab world, to confront sectarianism and sectarian divisions and reactionary violence under the guise of religion, and we stand with the resistance to such forces.

Tenth, we urge the expansion of the international struggle alongside all forces for peace, justice, and liberation in the world, and all who stand with the struggle of the Arab and Palestinian peoples for freedom and liberation. In particular, we salute all of those involved in the campaigns for the boycott of the Zionist entity.

As it enters its fiftieth year, the PFLP will continue to struggle based on a clear vision and the premises upon which it was founded, on the Palestinian, Arab and international levels. We are marching toward victory on the path of revolution, in our national liberation struggle for justice and freedom.

Glory to the martyrs of the Palestinian people and the Front, and salutes to the founder George Habash and the leader Abu Ali Mustafa!

Freedom for the brave prisoners, for our imprisoned General Secretary Ahmad Sa’adat and all of the leaders of the prisoners’ movement!

Victory for the Palestinian People!

Political Bureau, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
 December 11, 2016

Was it possible to take the Russian ambassador’s killer alive?

 

Why wasn’t killer captured?

 

 

Was it possible to take the Russian ambassador’s killer alive?
December 21, 2016 Vladimir Vaschenko, Gazeta.ru 

It was possible not to kill the assassin of Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov, but take him alive, argue some Russian experts. This would have helped to shed light on the crime, including on who may have ordered the assassination. One Russian observer even believes that the killer was liquidated on purpose in order to complicate the investigation.

The assassination of Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov has been the top story for the Turkish press. Yet there is very little information on what the Turkish law-enforcement agents did to detain the killer.

It is known that at about 7:30 p.m. local time Karlov arrived at the Center of Modern Art in Ankara to participate in the opening of a photo exhibition. His speech had lasted for less than a minute when the killer, who was standing behind him, took a gun out of his pocket and crying "Allahu Akbar" shot Karlov in the back several times. In total the assassin fired 11 shots into the diplomat.

Afterwards, he cried out slogans about Aleppo and Syria for several minutes and shot at the ceiling and towards the scattered crowd.

Twenty-five minutes after the assassination, the killer was shot dead by members of Turkey's special units. The assassin was later named as 22-year-old Mevlut Mert Altintash, who for the last two years had served in a division of the local Interior Ministry special forces responsible for crowd control.
It was possible to take him alive

According to Boris Dolgov, senior scientific collaborator at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Middle East Institute, Karlov's assassination could have been either the act of a lone killer or a well-planned operation.

"I think it's strange that Altintas was killed. There was the possibility of taking him alive, then questioning him and getting him to tell the authorities who he was linked to," said Dolgov.

VIDEO

Why wasn’t killer captured?

Andrei Popov, a veteran of the Federal Security Service’s Alpha special unit and a reserve lieutenant colonel, analyzed the operation carried out on Altintas.

"It is always difficult to discuss an operation when you are not present on the site and far from the concrete circumstances surrounding it,” said Popov.

“However, it is obvious that by the time the Turkish special forces got involved, the ambassador's killer had already disclosed himself as the culprit. On the video that I saw it is also clear that the criminal did not prevent the people from leaving the building and did not try to take hostages. It was possible to take him alive."

Popov believes that this opportunity was not taken advantage of due to a disagreement among the Turkish law enforcement officers or to their unprofessionalism.

"In such cases the mechanism of detainment is already prepared: The object is shot in the right shoulder, which deprives him of the possibility to put up active resistance. Subsequently, he is detained,” he explained.

Popov added that he “did not rule out” that Altintas could have had accomplices in Turkey's special forces and security services who had “decided to eliminate him so that he wouldn't tell the investigators all the circumstances of the assassination.”

Meanwhile, on Dec. 20, 18 employees from Russia's Investigative Committee and Foreign Ministry arrived in Ankara. They will be investigating Karlov's assassination together with the Turkish law enforcement agents. According to the local press, the Russian ambassador's body was delivered to the Expert Forensic Institute in Ankara for examination and on Dec. 20 was flown to Moscow.

First published in Russian by Gazeta.ru

Russian Ambassador assassination video

IMF Chief Found Guilty of Corruption, Won't Punished

IMF Chief Christine Lagarde

IMF Chief Christine Lagarde Found Guilty of Corruption, Won’t Be Punished

By Jeremiah Jones
Global Research, December 20, 2016
Counter Current News 19 December 2016

Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), on Monday was found guilty of “negligence” for approving a massive government payout to business tycoon Bernard Tapie during her tenure as French finance minister.

“This should help calm all that they’re-only-in-it-for-themselves, anti-establishment feeling out there,” quipped Globe and Mail senior international correspondent Mark MacKinnon in response to the latest charge of government corruption.

Though Judge Martine Ract Madoux did not hand down a sentence for the managing director, the court said Largarde “should have done more” to prevent the €405m ($422m) payout, Bloomberg reports.

Tapie, a close associate and financial backer of former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, was awarded the payout in 2008.

AFP explains:

“An arbitration panel ordered the payout to Tapie in connection with his sale of sportswear company Adidas. The panel upheld Tapie’s claim that the Crédit Lyonnais bank had defrauded him by intentionally undervaluing Adidas at the time of the sale and that the state — as the bank’s principal shareholder—should compensate him.

“It was Lagarde who, in her role as French finance minister, ordered the case to be heard by an arbitration panel instead of proceeding through the regular courts.

“Critics say that Lagarde ensured Tapie received preferential treatment by referring the matter to arbitration as a quid pro quo for his financial support for Sarkozy during his 2007 presidential bid.”
Lagarde, who is traveling to Washington, D.C., was not present at Monday’s hearing in Paris, though she will likely appeal the decision. Reuters notes that the ruling could potentially trigger “a new leadership crisis at the International Monetary Fund after Lagarde’s predecessor Dominique Strauss Khan resigned in 2011 over a sex assault scandal.”

What’s more, the trial and surprise conviction will likely “reviv[e] concerns in France about high-level corruption,”the New York Times notes, “shining a spotlight on intimate ties between politicians and business people, and on the large sums that are sometimes used to grease the country’s political wheels.”

As many noted, Lagarde’s conviction capped off a year of intense political upheaval and establishment backlash across the globe.

GR Editor’s Note: Dominque Strauss Khan was framed in 2011. Lagarde was appointed to the position of Managing Director of the IMF (replacing Strauss Khan) a few days prior to a New York Court ruling which completely exonerated Dominique Strauss Khan on the basis of lack of evidence.

While Strauss Khan was dismissed following the 2011 scandal (despite the ruling of the New York court case which abandoned all charges again him) the financial scam involving Christine Lagarde was known to the French government. This however did not prevent her appointment to the IMF.  Needless to say, she retains her position at the IMF despite having been involved in a financial scam.

The original source of this article is Counter Current News
Copyright © Jeremiah Jones, Counter Current News, 2016

 

China Seizes U.S. Navy Drone in In South China Sea

Photo credit: NOEL CELIS/AFP/Getty Images

China Seizes U.S. Navy Drone in In South China Sea
By Emily Tamkin, Paul McLeary
December 16, 2016 - 2:38 pm
emily.tamkin@emilyctamkin

On Friday, amid U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s tough talk on Beijing, a Chinese navy ship snapped up an unarmed U.S. underwater drone just 50 miles from Subic Bay, in the Philippines.
The move represents a brazen effort to further stake out China’s unilateral sway over the South China Sea, coming hard on the heels of new revelations that Beijing has sent more advanced weapons to its fake islands in the region. It also seems a deliberate riposte after the top U.S. admiral in the Pacific redoubled American commitment to free and open navigation in the crucial waterway.

A U.S. defense official said Friday that a Chinese naval vessel grabbed the drone when it was operating with the oceanographic survey ship USNS Bowditch not far from the Philippine capital. The drone was only about 500 yards away from the unarmed U.S. ship when it was seized. Despite immediate protests by U.S. forces, the Chinese slipped away.

“It is ours, and it is clearly marked as ours and we would like it back,” Pentagon spokesman Jeff Davis told reporters at the Pentagon on Friday. “And we would like this not to happen again.”
The Navy has over one hundred such gliders that can be deployed for up to a month at a time, transmitting oceanic data back to ships and ground stations. In a statement, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook added that “China unlawfully seized” the ocean glider, which was “conducting routine operations in accordance with international law.”

The Bowditch was in contact with the Chinese Navy ship throughout the incident, but American requests to return the vessel was ignored, a defense official confirmed. “The [drone] is a sovereign immune vessel of the United States,” Cook added. “We call upon China to return our UUV immediately, and to comply with all of its obligations under international law.”

Seizing military goods belonging to another country in international waters is a particularly aggressive step, even for a country like Beijing, which rejects or systematically ignores huge chunks of international maritime law.

“This is borderline unbelievable. It is hard to imagine what possible rationale Beijing is going to come up with,” said Gregory Poling, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. AMTI produced the new surveillance photos this week showing Chinese air-defense installations on disputed atolls. Poling said that given where the incident occurred, “there is no conceivable map” which could justify its behavior.

On Thursday, in Sydney, Australia, U.S. Pacific Commander Adm. Harry Harris said, “We will not allow a shared domain to be closed down unilaterally no matter how many bases are built on artificial features in the South China Sea.” That prompted a rejoinder from nationalist media in Beijing and Chinese government officials.

The drone incident also comes at a complicated time for U.S.-Philippine relations, especially regarding China. The election of anti-American Rodrigo Duterte as Philippine president this May has soured ties between Manila and Washington and postponed defense exercises. On Thursday, Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay said that the Philippines would no longer focus on the South China Sea in its relationship with China, essentially ceding terrain to Beijing just months after Manila won a landmark international arbitration case that pilloried China’s illegal behavior.

“The only way to move forward is to strengthen the other aspects of our relationship and also make sure that in the process, you are able to pursue confidence-building measures that will eventually allow you, in the future, to resolve your disputes peacefully,” he said, noting, “What will you do? Engage yourself in a war with China where there will be no winners? Nobody wants a war.”

The big hit to China’s reputation that everyone expected when it ignored the Hague ruling might come as a result of the drone snatching. Euan Graham, director of international studies at the Lowy Institute for International Policy, said on Twitter, “Stunt humiliates USN but hurts China’s reputation more. Does [Chinese Admiral] Wu Shengli want to command a rogue navy?”

It’s not the first time China has grabbed or threatened U.S. gear in the region. In the spring of 2001, a U.S. surveillance plane collided with a Chinese jet near Hainan; the plane and its crew were held for months. In 2009, the U.S. Navy said that Chinese vessels were harassing its surveillance ships. In 2011, Vietnam accused China of cutting survey ships’ cables. More recently, Chinese naval vessels and aircraft have in many instances practiced unsafe maneuvers, threatening on-sea or mid-air collisions.

China’ silence so far on the motives behind the drone episode make it even harder for experts to understand.

“If this was planned to send a message, you have to say something for the message to get out,” said Poling. “All of this is bizarre, even by Chinese standards.”

Source:FP

வட மாகாணசபை முடிவை எதிர்த்து பனங்கட்டிக் கொட்டு மீனவர் போராட்டம்

 

மன்னார் பனங்கட்டிக்கொட்டு மீனவர்கள் வீதியை மறித்து போராட்டம்

 

மன்னார் பனங்கட்டிக்கொட்டு மீனவர்கள் வீதியை மறித்து போராட்டம்
தென் கடல் பகுதியில் 'கட்டுவலைத் தொழிலை' மேற்கொண்டு வரும் மன்னார் பனங்கட்டிக்கொட்டு மற்றும் அயல் கிராம மீனவ ர்களின் கட்டு வலைகளை கடலில் இருந்து அகற்றுவதற்கான நடவடிக்கைகளை (இன்று) புதன்கிழமை மன்னார் கடற்தொழில் திணைக்களத்தின் உதவிப்பணிப்பாளர் மேற்கொண்ட நடவடிக்கைகளுக்கு எதிர்ப்புத்தெரிவித்து பனங்கட்டிக்கொட்டு கிராம மக்கள் இன்று புதன்கிழமை காலை 6.15 மணி முதல் வீதி மறியல் போராட்டத்தில் ஈடுபட்டனர்.

 

 

மன்னார் பிரதான பால வீதியில் இன்று காலை 6.15 மணியளவில் ஒன்று கூடிய நூற்றுக்கணக்கான மக்கள் வீதியை மறித்து ஆர்ப்பாட்டத்தில் ஈடுபட்டனர்.இதனால் காலை 6.15 மணிமுதல் மன்னாரில் இருந்து வெளிமாவட்டத்திற்கு செல்லும் போக்குவரத்துச் சேவைகள் பாதிக்கப்பட்டது.

 

அரச பேருந்துகளையும் இடைமறித்து தமது ஆர்ப்பாட்டத்தை முன்னெடுத்தனர்.





 

 

இதன் போது மன்னார் பொலிஸ் அத்தியட்சகர் மற்றும் மன்னார் பொலிஸ் நிலைய பொறுப்பதிகாரி ஆகியோர் சம்பவ இடத்திற்கு வருகை தந்து வீதிமறியல் போராட்டத்தில் ஈடுபட்ட மக்களுடன் போச்சுவார்த்தை நடத்தினர்.எனினும் உரிய அதிகாரிகள் சம்பவ இடத்திற்கு வந்து தங்களுடன் போர்ச்சுவார்த்தை நடத்தி தென் கடல் பகுதியில் உள்ள 'கட்டுவலைகளை' அகற்ற மாட்டோம் என உறுதிமொழி வழங்க வேண்டும் என கோரிக்கை விடுத்ததோடு தொடர்ந்தும் வீதியை மறித்து ஆர்ப்பாட்டத்தில் ஈடுபட்டனர். இத னால் நீண்ட நேரம் போக்குவரத்துச் சேவைகள் பாதிக்கப்பட்டிருந்தது.

 

 

இந்தநிலையில் மன்னார் கடற்தொழில் திணைக்கள அதிகாரிகள் சம்பவ இடத்திற்கு வந்து மீனவர்களுடன் கலந்துரையாடினர். இத ன்போது வடமாகாண சபை உறுப்பினர் வைத்திய கலாநிதி ஜீ.குணசீலன் சம்பவ இடத்திற்கு வருகை தந்து ஆர்ப்பாட்டத்தில் ஈடு பட்ட மக்களுடன் கலந்துரையாடினார்.

 

இதன் போது பனங்கட்டிக்கொட்டு கிராமத்தைச் சேர்ந்த பல நூற்றுக்கணக்கான மீனவர்கள் கட்டுவலைத்தொழிலையே மேற்கொ ண்டு வருகின்றனர்.ஆராம்ப காலத்தில் மன்னார் சௌத்பார் தென்கடல் பகுதியில் இரும்புக் குழாய் மூலம் இவ் வலைகள் பாயப்ப ட்டிருந்தது.

 

 

இதனால் அயல் கிராம மீனவர்களின் படகுகளுக்கு சேதம் விளைவிக்கின்றது என்ற கேள்விக்கு அமைவாக இரும்புக்குழாய்கள் மூலம் பாயப்பட்ட வலைகள் இரும்பு பைப் இன்றி மிதவை மூலம் பாயப்பட்டு எந்த விதமான பாதிப்புக்களும் இன்றி நாங்கள் கட ற்தொழிலில் ஈடுபட்டு வந்தோம்.

 

இந்த நிலையில் தென் கடல் பகுதியில் பாய்ச்சப்பட்டுள்ள கட்டு வலைகள் அனைத்தையும் அகற்றுமாறு கடந்த மாதம் 9 ஆம் திகதி மன்னார் கடற்தொழில் திணைக்கள உதவிப்பணிப்பாளர் கடிதம் அனுப்பியுள்ளார்.

 

இந்தநிலையில் இன்றைய தினம்(21) குறித்த தென் கடல் பகுதியில் உள்ள கட்டு வலைகளை அகற்ற மன்னார் கடற்தொழில் திணை க்கள உதவிப்பணிப்பாளர் நடவடிக்கைகளை மேற்கொண்ட நிலையிலே நாங்கள் நீதி கோரி வீதி மறியல் போராட்டத்தில் ஈடுபட்ட தாக மக்கள் தெரிவித்தனர்.

 

 

இந்த நிலையில் வருகை தந்த பொலிஸ் அதிகாரிகள் கடற்தொழில் திணைக்கள அதிகாரிகளுடன் மேற்கொண்ட பேச்சுவார்த்தை யின் காரணமாக கடலில் உள்ள கட்டு வலைகள் அகற்றப்படாது என கடற்தொழில் திணைக்கள அதிகாரிகள் தெரிவித்தனர்.

 

இன்று(21) மாலை இவ்விடயம் தொடர்பில் கொழும்பில் இருந்து வருகை தரும் உயர் அதிகாரிகளுடன் பேச்சுவார்த்தை மேற்கொ ள்ளப்பட்டு இறுதி முடிவுகள் மேற்கொள்ளப்படும் என தெரிவிக்கப்பட்டது.

 

இந்த நிலையில் வீதிமறியல் கைவிடப்பட்டது.பின் குறித்த கிராம மக்கள் மன்னார் மாவட்டச் செயலகத்திற்கு சென்று கடற்தொ ழில் நீரியல் வளத்துறை அமைச்சர் மஹிந்த அமரவீர அவர்களுக்கு வழங்கப்பட வேண்டிய மகஜரை மாவட்ட அரசாங்க அதிபர் எம்.வை.எஸ்.தேசப்பிரியவிடம் கையளித்தனர்.

 

வீதி மறியல் போராட்டத்தின் காரணமாக காலை 6.30 மணி முதல் 7.40 மணிவரையில் போக்குவரத்துக்கள் தடைப்பட்டிருந்தமை குறிப்பிடத்தக்கது.

 

நன்றி: செய்தி புகைப்படங்கள் உதயன்