Sunday, September 22, 2013

Mortar shell lands into Russian Embassy in Syria, injures 3

Mortar shell lands into Russian Embassy in Syria, injures 3
Russian Embassy in the Syrian capital Damascus (file photo)
Russian Embassy in the Syrian capital Damascus (file photo)
Sun Sep 22, 2013 3:55PM GMT
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At least three people have been injured when a mortar shell struck the Russian Embassy in the Syrian capital Damascus amid ongoing clashes between government forces and the foreign-sponsored militant groups.


The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that at least three people working at the Embassy received injuries after the projectile landed in the compound of the diplomatic mission on Sunday, Russia’s state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported.

The statement noted that the employees’ injuries were non-life threatening, and an investigation into the incident is under way.

It did not say whether those hurt were Russian or local employees, but it added that the Embassy was looking into additional security measures after the attack.

Militants have targeted the Russian Embassy several times since the beginning of unrest in Syria two years ago.

Earlier this month, Russia’s Embassy in Damascus was also hit by a mortar shell. No casualties were reported.

On June 4, at least one civilian was killed and several others injured near the Russian Embassy in Damascus by shellfire from militants fighting against the Syrian government.

Two mortar shells hit al-Adawi area in Damascus. Opposition sources, however, claimed that five shells hit the area with some of them striking near the Russian Embassy.

Residents in the area said the mortars landed about 150 meters from the building that houses the Russian Embassy.

Two mortar shells fired by militants also landed in the nearby Barada Club Park in al-Faihaa, causing material damage only.

The Russian Embassy was damaged in February when a car bomb exploded nearby on a busy Damascus highway, killing 50 people.

No one was wounded in the Embassy, but the blast blew out windows in the building.

Syria has been gripped by deadly turmoil since 2011.

According to the United Nations, more than 100,000 people have been killed and millions of others displaced in the violence.

Reports indicate that Western powers and their regional allies -- especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey -- are supporting the militants operating inside the country.
Mortar shell lands into Russian Embassy in Syria, injures 3
Russian Embassy in the Syrian capital Damascus (file photo)
Russian Embassy in the Syrian capital Damascus (file photo)
Sun Sep 22, 2013 3:55PM GMT
0
0
 
0
 
Related Interviews:
At least three people have been injured when a mortar shell struck the Russian Embassy in the Syrian capital Damascus amid ongoing clashes between government forces and the foreign-sponsored militant groups.


The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that at least three people working at the Embassy received injuries after the projectile landed in the compound of the diplomatic mission on Sunday, Russia’s state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported.

The statement noted that the employees’ injuries were non-life threatening, and an investigation into the incident is under way.

It did not say whether those hurt were Russian or local employees, but it added that the Embassy was looking into additional security measures after the attack.

Militants have targeted the Russian Embassy several times since the beginning of unrest in Syria two years ago.

Earlier this month, Russia’s Embassy in Damascus was also hit by a mortar shell. No casualties were reported.

On June 4, at least one civilian was killed and several others injured near the Russian Embassy in Damascus by shellfire from militants fighting against the Syrian government.

Two mortar shells hit al-Adawi area in Damascus. Opposition sources, however, claimed that five shells hit the area with some of them striking near the Russian Embassy.

Residents in the area said the mortars landed about 150 meters from the building that houses the Russian Embassy.

Two mortar shells fired by militants also landed in the nearby Barada Club Park in al-Faihaa, causing material damage only.

The Russian Embassy was damaged in February when a car bomb exploded nearby on a busy Damascus highway, killing 50 people.

No one was wounded in the Embassy, but the blast blew out windows in the building.

Syria has been gripped by deadly turmoil since 2011.

According to the United Nations, more than 100,000 people have been killed and millions of others displaced in the violence.

Reports indicate that Western powers and their regional allies -- especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey -- are supporting the militants operating inside the country.

Mortar shell hits Russian embassy compound in Damascus, injures 3

Mortar shell hits Russian embassy compound in Damascus, injures 3

22.09.2013 12:59
A mortar shell has hit the Russian embassy compound in the Syrian capital Damascus, injuring three people. The Russian Foreign Ministry and Syria’s authorities are taking measures to ensure additional security.
Christians United for Israel
Daily Alert
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
In-Depth Issues:

Syrian Army Defector: There Were Dozens of Chemical Attacks, Hizbullah Has Chemical Weapons - Phil Sands and Suha Maayeh (National-UAE)
    Brig.-Gen. Zaher Saket, a former commander of chemical warfare in the Syrian army's 5th division who defected, said poison gas had been used on 14 occasions while he was serving in the armed forces. He had been informed of 20 other times after his defection, he said.
    "If the regular army does not have the capacity to storm and destroy the Free Syrian Army, and is not capable of attacking a city or a village, the regime will use chemical weapons," he said.
    "Some of the chemical weapons shipments are already with Hizbullah," he added.





Report: Syria's Rebels Are Killing Assad's Soldiers by a Factor of 2 to 1 - Micah Zenko (Foreign Policy)
    The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) breaks down the Syrian deaths in the civil war as follows:
    Civilians 40,146, rebels 21,850, pro-regime soldiers and militia 45,469, Hizbullah 171, unidentified 2,726, total 110,371.




White House: Obama to Host Netanyahu on September 30 (AFP)
    Prime Minister Netanyahu will visit the White House on Sept. 30.
    White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama and Netanyahu would discuss final status talks with the Palestinians, Iran's nuclear challenge, Syria's civil war and the chemical weapons crisis.
    Before then, Obama will meet Palestinian President Abbas at the UN, Palestinian sources said.




U.S.-Led Sinai Peacekeepers under Siege as Egypt Battles Islamists - Inna Lazareva (Telegraph-UK)
    American-led peace-keeping troops in Sinai are living in a state of siege as fighting between the Egyptian army and militant Islamists threatens the viability of their mission.
    Conditions for the 1,660-strong team, including almost 700 Americans, who were put in place under the 1979 Camp David peace accord, have become "very tense and very dangerous," according to Egyptian sources. Other troops come from France, Italy, Australia and Canada.
    "They are sitting there like sitting ducks," Zalman Shoval, special envoy for the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, told the Daily Telegraph.
    See also Israeli Security Delegation in Cairo to Discuss Sinai (Ma'an News-PA)




British Airways Apologizes over "Palestinian Territories" Marker over Israel on In-Flight Map - Sebastian Salek (Independent-UK)
    British Airways has apologized for displaying an in-flight map with the words "Palestinian Territories" covering part of Israel on flights between Heathrow and Israel.
  News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
  • Former CIA Deputy: No Way Will Assad Give Up His Nerve Gas - Shane Harris
    "I think this is the Syrians playing for time," Michael Morell, the recently-retired deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency, told Foreign Policy. "I do not believe that they would seriously consider giving up their chemical weapons." "Be a skeptic that [Assad] is at all serious about this." "Chemical weapons are easy to hide and easy to move around," Morell said. (Foreign Policy)
        See also below Observations: Don't Hold Your Breath for Syrian Chemical Weapons to Be Destroyed - Ely Karmon (Ha'aretz)
  • Obama Wants to Test Iran Leader's Interest in Dialogue
    President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani appears to want to open a dialogue with the U.S. and that he is willing to test whether this is the case. Last weekend, Obama revealed he and Rouhani had exchanged letters about the U.S.-Iran standoff. "There is an opportunity here for diplomacy," Obama said. "And I hope the Iranians take advantage of it."  (VOA News)
  • West Lobbies UN Nuclear Meeting to Reject Arab Push on Israel - Fredrik Dahl
    The U.S. said on Tuesday an Arab push to single out Israel for criticism over its assumed nuclear arsenal would hurt diplomatic efforts to ban weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East. Arab states have proposed a resolution at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear agency, expressing concern about "Israeli nuclear capabilities."
        U.S. and Israeli officials have said a nuclear arms-free zone in the Middle East could not be a reality until there was broad Arab-Israeli peace and Iran curbed its nuclear program. The Arab resolution "does not advance our shared goal of progress toward a WMD-free zone in the Middle East," U.S. Ambassador Joseph Macmanus said. "Instead, it undermines efforts at constructive dialogue toward that common objective."  (Reuters)
  • Israeli General: Assad Could Survive in Syria for Years - Dan Williams
    Syrian President Assad could cling to power for years despite having lost overall control of his country, Maj.-Gen. Yair Golan, Israel's top commander on the frontier with Syria, told Yediot Ahronot on Wednesday. "I don't see any force toppling him tomorrow morning - though he deserves to pass from this world, and the quicker that happens, the better," Golan said. He added that Assad's army had suffered 15,000 fatalities, fired off 40-50% of its long-range missiles and seen some of its anti-aircraft batteries overrun by insurgents.
        Golan warned against exaggerating the threat from the radical Sunni jihadis who Israel estimates make up around 10% of those fighting Assad. "The Global Jihad is a bad enemy, but it is a relatively primitive enemy that does not enjoy the backing of a regional power."  (Reuters)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
  • Israel Cool to Reported Iranian Concession on Fordo - Boaz Bismuth
    In response to reports that Iranian President Rouhani is considering decommissioning the nuclear facility in Fordo, Strategic Affairs, Intelligence and International Relations Minister Yuval Steinitz told Army Radio Tuesday that it would do little to change Iran's nuclearization. "Most of the centrifuges are not there; without Fordo they might be able to produce 6, not 7, nuclear bombs."  (Israel Hayom)
  • IDF: No Safe Haven for Armed West Bank Gunmen - Ron Ben-Yishai
    For the third time over the past few weeks, IDF forces on Tuesday encountered armed and organized resistance during a nighttime operation to arrest terror suspects in Jenin. The IDF said the wanted terrorist, who was killed, was Hussam Sayeed al-Tubasi, an Islamic Jihad member and arms dealer who also threw explosive devices at IDF forces on a number of occasions.
        IDF Central Command head Maj.-Gen. Nitzan Alon warned that areas in refugee camps in Jenin, Kalandiya, and Nablus were becoming havens for Palestinian terrorists. "The principle according to which we reach terrorists everywhere is crucial," he said. "They want to limit our operational freedom, and we want to prevent this. We cannot allow a situation whereby the Palestinian terrorists have safe places where they can get organized and use as bases from which they leave to carry out terror attacks."
        He said the gunmen behind the attacks on Israeli soldiers were Tanzim and Islamic Jihad members who do not accept the authority of the PA regime in Ramallah. (Ynet News)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
  • America, Syria and Israel - Martin Kramer
    Israelis got a preview this past week of what the Middle East would look like during a possible Iran crisis, and they didn't like what they saw. What Israelis found alarming was the way Mr. Obama shifted the burden of decision. Every one of his Syrian maneuvers was viewed as a dry run for his conduct in a likely future crisis over Iran's nuclear drive.
        Israelis always imagined they would go to Mr. Obama with a crucial piece of highly sensitive intelligence on Iranian progress, and he would make good on his promise to block Iran with a swift presidential decision. So his punt to Congress over what John Kerry called an "unbelievably small" strike left Israelis rubbing their eyes. If this is now standard operating procedure in Washington, can Israel afford to wait if action against Iran becomes urgent?
        The Syrian episode has shown how dead-set both Congress and U.S. public opinion are against U.S. military action in the Middle East. Bottom line: The chance that Israel may need to act first against Iran has gone up. The writer is president of Shalem College in Jerusalem. (Wall Street Journal)
  • Why Is Turkey Sheltering a Dangerous Hamas Operative? - Jonathan Schanzer
    Turkey, a member of NATO, is an important base of operations for at least one high-ranking member of the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Turkey currently serves as the home for Hamas operative Saleh al-Arouri, founder of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades in the West Bank. In 2011, Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan told a U.S. audience that Hamas was not a terrorist group, and he has repeatedly vowed to visit Gaza. Ankara has also provided Hamas with as much as $300 million in financial support.
        Veteran Israeli analyst of Palestinian affairs Ehud Yaari has noted that Turkey is allowing Arouri to direct efforts to rebuild Hamas' terrorism infrastructure in the West Bank. If Arouri really has, as Yaari writes, "taken sole control of the movement's activities in the West Bank," Turkey appears to have in effect taken over from Damascus and become Hamas' West Bank headquarters. To the letter of the law, Turkey could meet criteria as a state sponsor of terrorism. (Foreign Policy)
  • Is Sinai Exhausting the Egyptian Army or Besieging the Muslim Brotherhood? - Abdulrahman al-Rashed
    Egyptian defense minister and commander of the armed forces Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has mobilized the biggest number of troops the Sinai Peninsula has witnessed since the war in 1973. One of the factors that led to Egypt's losing control over Sinai during the Mubarak era is that he overlooked Hamas' smuggling operations and the digging of tunnels. Hamas has now seen Egyptian troops advance quickly in the Sinai and succeed in destroying tunnels.
        As a result, Hamas has stopped criticizing the current Egyptian government and ordered its leaders not to criticize Sisi and not to call what happened in Egypt a "coup." It even warned mosque preachers not to criticize Sisi or support the Brotherhood in public.
        Hamas' retreat from supporting the Brotherhood in Egypt, Sisi's adoption of an "iron fist" policy when confronting armed groups in Sinai, and the Brotherhood's failure to attain huge support from the Egyptians or from foreign parties are all factors that make the battle of governing Egypt proceed in one path. (Al Arabiya)
Observations: Don't Hold Your Breath for Syrian Chemical Weapons to Be Destroyed - Ely Karmon (Ha'aretz)
  • Since the outbreak of the civil war, Assad's chemical weapons have become the Alawite community's best insurance policy against the threat to their physical existence and to the survival of the regime. Therefore, I am skeptical that a Syria ruled by Assad and ever-conscious of the Alawite community's fragile future is ready to renounce its entire chemical arsenal.
  • The timetable of the plan seems completely unrealistic, calling for the destruction of chemical weapons by the first half of 2014. Even with a cease-fire to allow international inspectors to do their work, the process would take (in my evaluation) three to five years.
  • A secret military storage base of mustard gas in Jufra, Libya, was discovered after the fall of Gaddafi at the end of 2011. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), whose inspectors visited the country, gave Libya a deadline of April 2012 for the destruction of the chemicals. Today, in spite of ample technical and financial support from the U.S., Germany and Canada, the mustard gas is still there.
  • The successful eradication of Syria's chemical arsenal thus still seems like a distant reality. The international diplomacy surrounding the process means that Damascus has gained ample space and time to maneuver and sabotage its planned destruction.

    The writer is the Senior Research Scholar at the Institute for Counter-Terrorism at The Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya.

        See also Mission Impossible in Syria - Michael J. Totten
    From 1962 to 2011, the U.S. Army stored nearly four thousand tons of VX, Sarin, and mustard gas at the Umatilla Chemical Depot east of Portland, Oregon. In 1993 the U.S. signed a treaty forbidding the production, stockpiling, and use of chemical weapons, and in 2004 began destroying Oregon's stockpile. They did it by incinerating the chemical agents in a 2,700-degree furnace. It took them eight years.
        A plan is now being put together to rid Syria of its chemical weapons. I can only imagine how much more difficult the job will be in a Middle Eastern country that's ripping its own guts out while al-Qaeda and Hizbullah are loose and running wild. Color me more than a little bit skeptical. (World Affairs Journal)

    EU decision to lift Syrian oil sanctions boosts jihadist groups

    EU decision to lift Syrian oil sanctions boosts jihadist groups

    Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qaida affiliate, consolidates position as scramble for control of wells accelerates
    Link to video: Syria's makeshift oil refineries: 'It is like hell'
    The EU decision to lift Syrian oil sanctions to aid the opposition has accelerated a scramble for control over wells and pipelines in rebel-held areas and helped consolidate the grip of jihadist groups over the country's key resources.
    Jabhat al-Nusra, affiliated with al-Qaida and other extreme Islamist groups, control the majority of the oil wells in Deir Ezzor province, displacing local Sunni tribes, sometimes by force. They have also seized control of other fields from Kurdish groups further to the north-east, in al-Hasakah governorate.
    As opposition groups have turned their guns on each other in the battle over oil, water and agricultural land, military pressure on Bashar al-Assad's government from the north and east has eased off. In some areas, al-Nusra has struck deals with government forces to allow the transfer of crude across the front lines to the Mediterranean coast.
    Syria oil fire map Credit: Guardian graphics As a result of the rush to make quick money, open-air refineries have been set up in Deir Ezzor and al-Raqqa provinces. Crude is stored in ditches and heated in metal tanks by wood fires, shrouding the region with plumes of black smoke, exposing the local population to the dangers of the thick smog and the frequent explosions at the improvised plants.
    Heating oil, diesel and petrol is condensed in hoses running from the tanks through pools of water and sold across the north, as far as Aleppo. The remaining crude is shipped by road on tankers to Turkey.
    One leading opposition figure said: "The northern front hasn't just gone dormant; the northern front has gone commercial."
    The EU announced it was lifting its oil embargo in April to help the moderate opposition. The implementation regulations have yet to be issued so the decision has not taken effect, but regional experts say the announcement intensified the race for oil – a race the western-backed moderates lost.
    Joshua Landis, an expert on the region at the University of Oklahoma who runs the Syria Comment blog, said the EU decision on oil "sent a message that oil could come back online faster than most thought possible".
    "Whoever gets their hands on the oil, water and agriculture, holds Sunni Syria by the throat. At the moment, that's al-Nusra," Landis said. "Europe opening up the market for oil forced this issue. So the logical conclusion from this craziness is that Europe will be funding al-Qaida."
    Abu Albara, an al-Nusra fighter who spoke to the Guardian by telephone from Deir Ezzor, said: "Now, we can say that most of the oil wells are in the hands of the rebels, only a single oil facility in Hasakah is still under the control of [Kurdish fighters]. There are two other oil wells close to the Iraqi borders in the desert. The Iraqi army have surrounded them with tanks but we do not know what they are doing with them."
    A man walks at a makeshift oil refinery site A man walks at a makeshift oil refinery site in al-Mansoura village in al-Raqqa province. Photograph: Reuters The al-Nusra guerilla said the group was merely guarding the wells it captured, but the rival groups have accused the Islamists of asset-stripping them for quick money.
    "Jabhat al-Nusra is investing in the Syrian economy to reinforce its position in Syria and Iraq. Al-Nusra fighters are selling everything that falls into their hands from wheat, archaeological relics, factory equipment, oil drilling and imaging machines, cars, spare parts and crude oil," Abu Saif, a fighter with the Ahrar Brigade, linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, told the Guardian by phone from the Deir Ezzor area.
    "The Syrian regime itself is paying more than 150m Syrian lire [£1.4m] monthly to Jabhat al-Nusra to guarantee oil is kept pumping through two major oil pipelines in Banias and Latakia. Middlemen trusted by both sides are to facilitate the deal and transfer money to the organisation."
    A western diplomat watching the situation said: "We understand that in Deir Ezzor, it's a bit of a mix. Al-Nusra is there and there is sometimes co-operation with the regime for practical reasons. In some areas oil products are being given to the local communities, but there are clear dangers in these kinds of open-air refineries."
    The diplomat said the EU implementation regulation for the lifting of the oil embargo would include safeguard clauses that would give the western-backed opposition, the National Coalition, the power to authorise exports. But as things stand, the coalition and its allies hold very little of Syria's oil wealth in their hands.
    A former Syrian oil executive in the rebel-held areas said: "In the last few months, they seem to have figured a way to sell the oil supply across the lines from the rebels to government forces, through intermediaries trusted on both sides."
    The former executive said the oil trade had spawned a growing demand for oil tanker lorries, as a single shipment could earn a profit of up to $10,000 (£6,600). He added that al-Nusra and other jihadist groups were using much of the money to win hearts and minds in areas they have captured, such as al-Raqqa city, which fell in March.
    "If you look at what the money does in these places," he said, asking for his name not to be used because of the sensitivity of the issue. "It doesn't take a rocket scientist. You bring in flour, you repair the bakeries, so there are big smiles in the local community. It's an incredible marketing machine."
    In April, the head of the western-backed rebel Supreme Military Council, General Selim Idriss, pledged to create a force to secure the oilfields and other economic resources in Deir Ezzor, al-Hasakah and Raqqa provinces, but that force has yet to materialise and observers doubt Idriss has the money, manpower or weaponry to displace the jihadists.
    "Idriss probably felt he had to say that, to reassure the Europeans," Landis said. "But nobody takes such claims seriously. Where is he going to get 30,000 men from?"
    The only rivals to the power of the jihadists in the oil region are the Kurds in al-Hasakah, and the Sunni tribes around Deir Ezzor, who have found themselves increasingly marginalised by Islamic extremists.
    In one well-documented case, fighting broke out in the village of al-Musareb, near Deir Ezzor, between al-Nusra fighters and local tribesmen over ownership of an oil tanker. The al-Nusra commander, a Saudi called Qasura al-Jazrawi, was killed. As a reprisal, the jihadist group levelled much of the village and executed 50 of its residents.
    Apart from the latest round of conflict the oil rush has triggered, human rights campaigners have raised concerns about the health impact of the wildcat refining industry. Skin and breathing complaints have become common while there are reports of workers on the improvised oil fields, including children, being burned to death in accidents.
    An opposition activist in Hasakah, Salman Kurdi, said: "They refine oil by boiling it to very high temperatures by using gas cans, and most of the time, they blow up. It's killed many of the people who work there.
    "A month ago, an explosion happened in an oil well called Shadada, in the countryside south of here, and five people were killed. They dig a big hole and put lots of fire in it and gas to make it boiling. If you travel south to the countryside, you can spot the smoke rising every few kilometres."

    riminalized poor are swelling Britain's ‘labor camps’

    Beginning his working life in the aviation industry and trained by the BBC, Tony Gosling is a British land rights activist, historian & investigative radio journalist.
    Published time: September 20, 2013 08:51
    A general view shows a detail of Wormwood Scrubs prison in London (Reuters/Paul Hackett)
    A general view shows a detail of Wormwood Scrubs prison in London (Reuters/Paul Hackett)
    Click! Another notch on the ratchet turning the UK from civilization to fascism this week as Britain's Justice minister, Chris Grayling, announced ten year jail sentences for those who claim too much state benefit.
    The latest statistics from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) show that £1.3bn was fraudulently claimed in 2012/13. Tax Justice Network figures estimating tax fraud by the super-rich at £60bn, which is around 50 times greater, seem to have 'evaded' Grayling; as has the estimated five times greater figure of £10bn in unclaimed benefits.
    The sad fact is simply that tyrants are running the show and rather than pay their fair share they intend to squeeze the poor until the pips squeak.
    Most government legal aid has also been cut off this year while destitute squatters who manage to find a derelict or empty home to spend the night have also been turned into criminals for the first time in British history. Rather than the wealthy owner of the empty property having to pick up the eviction tab, now it's a job for the taxpayers and police.
    So who benefits from the unspeakable cruelty of criminalizing poverty and homelessness?
    At 15% Britain has more private prisons than anywhere else in Europe. This particular US policy of containment, where 2.4 million, one quarter of the world's 'criminals' are incarcerated, means the more people go to jail the bigger the bags of cash for cold-blooded private interests.
    This was illustrated in the US in 2009 when Pennsylvania Judges Mark A. Ciavarella & Judge Michael Conahan were discovered taking $2.6m from private prison firms and convicted of racketeering. The only surprise about that case was that they were caught and convicted. Those who gain from such backroom handshaking deals are more careful now. 

    A general view shows C wing at Wormwood Scrubs prison in London (Reuters/Paul Hackett)
    A general view shows C wing at Wormwood Scrubs prison in London (Reuters/Paul Hackett)
    In Victorian times the poor were sent to the workhouse: a state institution which was supposed to provide gainful employment and a roof over the head of the destitute. Charles Dickens portrayed the regime brilliantly in his 1839 classic Oliver Twist, but his lessons are being forgotten. If the present government gets their way the backbreaking days of the workhouse will be back.
    In 1900, during the Boer war, Britain had the dubious honor of creating the world's first concentration camps where 30,000 political prisoners, mostly families of the Afrikaans enemy, were killed.
    In the 1950s Kenya too, during the freedom struggles of the native Land and Freedom Army, 20,000 are estimated to have been killed. Nicknamed Mau-Mau by the dying British Empire, torture and labor camps were set up with summary capital punishment to eliminate political prisoners.
    Back home there were a couple of decades of respite after the bloodletting of World War Two before 1980s Thatcherism created a permanent pool of millions of unemployed in Britain and deunionization began.
    After 2000, economic migrants from an eastward expanding EU forced wages down even further. Mass mesmerism by the London media branded anyone who questioned the wisdom of driving down hard fought pay and conditions, as a racist.
    It became taboo to even question what has been arguably Britain's biggest wave of immigration since the Saxons in the 5th Century AD. From 55 million in 1970 the UK population has grown to the present 64 million.
    As if it were not enough for our 'owners', unencumbered by the interests of the majority, to force pay below survival level, bills are now increasing way above inflation while pay remains static, forcing millions into poverty whether in or out of work. It's miserable social engineering on a massive scale.

    Prison officers attend a meeting outside Birmingham prison in central England (Reuters/Darren Staples)
    Prison officers attend a meeting outside Birmingham prison in central England (Reuters/Darren Staples)
    So, like the loan shark firms, Britain's Prison Industrial Complex gawps longingly at the new underclass of desperate Untermenschen and licks its collective lips. The shameless generals in charge of this business battle group will have those contracts come hell or high water.
    Around 15% of Britain's prison population is presently behind private bars. According to the Howard League for Penal Reform, G4S and Serco jails are the worst.
    The world's biggest private security firm G4S, famous for the Olympics fiasco when the British Army had to be drafted in less than a month before the games, are suffering criminal investigation with Serco over their joint £50m government fraud.
    Serco's contract for managing Britain's nuclear weapons establishment at Aldermaston, amazingly, has carried on unperturbed. Are bored civil servants deliberately courting disaster to add a little excitement to their lives?
    Britain's National Association of Probation Officers, NAPO, who manage murderers, sex offenders, pedophiles, the country's most dangerous criminals, began opposition to their service being sold off this week. Likely bidders being known fraudsters G4S and Serco, the directors of which should, themselves, be behind bars.
    The privatization of the criminal justice system is a strategy of malice. It is about dehumanizing the people who most need society's help. The greedy simply scapegoating the weak. They're turning our cities into 'people farms' where only the fit deserve to survive, justice is ditched, and money is the only law in the human jungle.
    Back in the 1940s Nazi Germany perpetrators of 'crimes against the party' were worked to death in labor camps. Under the Claims Conference scheme companies that still existed after the war such as Volkswagen, whose slave laborers manufactured the V1 flying bomb, Porsche and Mercedes put their hands in their pockets, compensating the families of the concentration camp victims.
    One company though was peculiarly reluctant to contribute. The Quandt family employed 50,000 slave laborers during the war. They owned the Mauser gun firm and AFA which manufactured essential batteries for submarines, tanks, aircraft of the Nazi war machine.  

    A homeless woman from north Wales, sits huddled under a sleeping bag next to her dog in a shopping arcade near the Victoria rail station in central London (Reuters/Chris Helgren)
    A homeless woman from north Wales, sits huddled under a sleeping bag next to her dog in a shopping arcade near the Victoria rail station in central London (Reuters/Chris Helgren)
    At the end of the war, with marital ties to the Goebbels family and a tidy fortune, they sold up to buy a controlling share in the private car manufacturer Bayerische Motoren Werke or BMW. The family felt the money had been made elsewhere so exonerated them from paying reparations to the Claims Conference.
    Not all Germans agreed and on October 2007 an award winning documentary 'The Silence of The Quandts' appeared one night to a shocked nation. The surprise film was kept off TV schedules so as to avoid the billionaire Quandts getting an injunction to halt the broadcast. In most of the rest of the world, sadly, where the documentary has not been shown the BMW brand has survived intact.
    Several months ago I stopped to give some change to a rough-shaven Bristol beggar in his late twenties who, it turned out, was a skilled electrical worker, just released from prison. 'It can seem worse on the outside', he said, 'I left with nothing but the clothes I went in with and nowhere to go'. He went on to tell me about the prison labor he'd been doing for pennies an hour over his 12 month stretch: wiring up thousands of indicator stalks for BMW.
    The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

    The 5 things you need to know from Hillary’s New York magazine interview

    Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sat down with New York magazine for her first extended interview since leaving the State Department at the end of last year.
    (Getty Images)
    (Getty Images)
    The entire piece — written by Joe Hagan — is worth checking out but here are five most newsworthy moments.
    * Hillary on 2016, part 1: “I’m both pragmatic and realistic. I think I have a pretty good idea of the political and governmental challenges that are facing our leaders, and I’ll do whatever I can from whatever position I find myself in to advocate for the values and the policies I think are right for the country. I will just continue to weigh what the factors are that would influence me making a decision one way or the other.”
    * Hillary on 2016, part 2: “I’m not in any hurry. I think it’s a serious decision, not to be made lightly, but it’s also not one that has to be made soon. This election is more than three years away, and I just don’t think it’s good for the country. It’s like when you meet somebody at a party and they look over your shoulder to see who else is there, and you want to talk to them about something that’s really important; in fact, maybe you came to the party to talk to that particular person, and they just want to know what’s next. I feel like that’s our political process right now. I just don’t think it is good.”
    * Chelsea Clinton as the new gatekeeper to her parents: “Chelsea’s arrival was a clear if unspoken critique of Doug Band, who’d long been Bill Clinton’s gatekeeper in his post-presidential life,” writes Hagan. “In Chelsea’s view, the foundation started by Band had become sprawling and inefficient, threatened by unchecked spending and conflicts of interest, an extension of her father’s woolly style.”
    * Unlike the 2008 campaign, Bill Clinton wasn’t a major factor at State: “Not a presence,” says a close State aide. “And I don’t mean that just literally. But not someone who was built into the system in any way. He had a very minimal presence in her time at the State Department.”
    Hillary on Bill and their “ordinary” life together: ”We get to be at home together a lot more now than we used to in the last few years. We have a great time; we laugh at our dogs; we watch stupid movies; we take long walks; we go for a swim. You know just ordinary, everyday pleasures.”

    French Muslim leader resigns after inviting pro-Israel Jewish lawmaker to event

    (JTA) — The co-founder of a French-Muslim advocacy group was forced to resign over the attendance of a Jewish, pro-Israel lawmaker at the group’s inaugural event. Farid Belkacemi, former vice president of the League for the Judicial Defense of Muslims, resigned because of the presence at the Sept. 16 inaugural event of Meyer Habib, a member of France’s National assembly and former vice president of the CRIF umbrella organization of French Jewish communities, according to a statement by the League. The attendance of Habib at the Paris venue was “incompatible...

    House of Representatives Listens to the American People on Obamacare

    House of Representatives Listens to the American People on Obamacare

    Today, a bipartisan majority in the House of Representatives voted to stop Obamacare while funding the government to prevent a shutdown. This is a powerful development for the cause of freedom, showing that our representatives are listening to the concerns of the American people about this unworkable, unfair, and unpopular health care law.
    When this partisan law was rammed through more than three years ago, its backers publicly stated they could not bother to read the legislation—or give the American people time to read the bill. “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what’s in it,” as the former Speaker of the House famously remarked.
    The people who passed Obamacare didn’t listen to the American people—because, as polling since Obamacare passed has demonstrated, the American people don’t like the law one bit. All the reasons people don’t like Obamacare are the same reasons we need to stop its implementation—to prevent premiums from going up; to prevent massive new tax hikes; and to prevent people from losing their health coverage, or losing their jobs altogether.
    Listening to the American people about stopping Obamacare should not be a partisan exercise. Real people have already been harmed by this misguided law. Every day brings new facts to light on how Obamacare will raise costs on struggling families, restrict access to doctors and plans they like, increase our debt, and damage our fragile economy. Congress should work together to protect American families from being hurt and instead work on commonsense reforms that expand health care choices and lower costs.
    Today, the House of Representatives voted to stop Obamacare because it listened to people across the country. Here’s hoping the Senate listens to the American people as well.
    Posted in Capitol Hill, Featured, Front Page, Obamacare [slideshow_deploy