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The Saker
A bird's eye view of the vineyard

offsite link Alternative Copy of thesaker.is site is available Thu May 25, 2023 14:38 | Ice-Saker-V6bKu3nz
Alternative site: https://thesaker.si/saker-a... Site was created using the downloads provided Regards Herb

offsite link The Saker blog is now frozen Tue Feb 28, 2023 23:55 | The Saker
Dear friends As I have previously announced, we are now “freezing” the blog.? We are also making archives of the blog available for free download in various formats (see below).?

offsite link What do you make of the Russia and China Partnership? Tue Feb 28, 2023 16:26 | The Saker
by Mr. Allen for the Saker blog Over the last few years, we hear leaders from both Russia and China pronouncing that they have formed a relationship where there are

offsite link Moveable Feast Cafe 2023/02/27 ? Open Thread Mon Feb 27, 2023 19:00 | cafe-uploader
2023/02/27 19:00:02Welcome to the ‘Moveable Feast Cafe’. The ‘Moveable Feast’ is an open thread where readers can post wide ranging observations, articles, rants, off topic and have animate discussions of

offsite link The stage is set for Hybrid World War III Mon Feb 27, 2023 15:50 | The Saker
Pepe Escobar for the Saker blog A powerful feeling rhythms your skin and drums up your soul as you?re immersed in a long walk under persistent snow flurries, pinpointed by

The Saker >>

Public Inquiry
Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005

offsite link RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail?supporter? Anthony

offsite link Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony

offsite link Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony

offsite link RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony

offsite link Waiting for SIPO Anthony

Public Inquiry >>

Human Rights in Ireland
Promoting Human Rights in Ireland

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link News Round-Up Sun Dec 15, 2024 01:02 | Will Jones
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Trial of Migrant Murder Suspect Will Take Twice as Long Because of Language Barrier Sat Dec 14, 2024 15:00 | Will Jones
The murder trial of an asylum seeker believed to have arrived in the U.K. on a small boat could take twice as long because he does not speak English, a court heard.
The post Trial of Migrant Murder Suspect Will Take Twice as Long Because of Language Barrier appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link BBC Accused of ?Gross Historical Ignorance? in Syria Reporting Sat Dec 14, 2024 13:00 | Will Jones
The BBC has been accused of "gross historical ignorance" after it said that Syria's Jews "want to believe they have a space now" following the collapse of Assad's Government at the hands of an Islamist insurgency.
The post BBC Accused of “Gross Historical Ignorance” in Syria Reporting appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Nutcracker Gets Woke Makeover With Suffragettes and Girl Boss Lead Sat Dec 14, 2024 11:00 | Will Jones
The Nutcracker has been given a woke makeover by the English National Ballet with the addition of Suffragettes and a girl boss lead character.
The post Nutcracker Gets Woke Makeover With Suffragettes and Girl Boss Lead appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link IPCC U-Turn as it Prepares to Start Blaming Humans for Bad Weather Sat Dec 14, 2024 09:00 | Chris Morrison
Up to now the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has largely held the line on not blaming 'extreme' weather on humans. But its latest press release suggests that is about to change, says Chris Morrison.
The post IPCC U-Turn as it Prepares to Start Blaming Humans for Bad Weather appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

international / anti-war / imperialism Saturday August 25, 2012 - 16:24 by pat c   text 27 comments (last - sunday september 16, 2012 - 12:59)   image 1 image
The US have turned down a Syrian offer of negotiations. Meanwhile France has joined with the US in threats to impose a No Fly Zone within Syria. Full text at link.

Fighting is intensifying in Syria and throughout the Near East, as US and NATO officials escalate threats against Syria after US President Barack Obama’s statement Monday night that Washington is planning for a US invasion of Syria. US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland dismissed Syrian Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil’s subsequent offer of talks, even though Jamil offered to discuss Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s resignation.

Jamil said that Assad’s resignation could be discussed during a “national dialogue,” as an external attempt to force a president’s ouster on the Syrian people would set a “very dangerous precedent.” It is hardly clear that the outcome of a “national dialogue” would be favorable to Washington, however, even assuming it could somehow be held in a country torn apart by a US proxy war. A January poll found 55 percent of Syrians support keeping Assad in office. ...

... read full story / add a comment
international / crime and justice Saturday August 25, 2012 - 13:08 by Jordan Shilton   text 3 comments (last - wednesday november 21, 2012 - 10:48)
The Oslo District Court returned a verdict this week finding Anders Behring Breivik guilty of murder over the twin July 2011 terrorist attacks in Norway that led to 77 deaths . The Islamophobe killer was found to be sane at the time of the attacks and sentenced to twenty-one years in prison . Jordan Shilton argues in WSWS today that the political establishment’s attempt to portray the killer as an insane “lone wolf” was part of a cover-up that started on the day the fascist was arrested. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Thursday August 23, 2012 - 13:44 by pat c   text 3 comments (last - saturday august 25, 2012 - 18:00)
The preparations are continuing. This morning on the BBC news it was revealed that Obama is the going to use the chemical weapons as an excuse to attack Syria. Hes afraid that they may fall into the hands of Al Qaeda if they are moved, the same Al Qaeda that he is using as a proxy in Syria! In this article prepartions for war are covered. Full text at link.

Yesterday US and NATO officials discussed plans for a US military invasion of Syria to bring down Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, after US President Barack Obama announced that the US was contemplating a direct attack on Syria at a press conference Monday night. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Tuesday August 21, 2012 - 13:29 by pat c
While one proxy war is going on in Syria, Dr Ismail Salami wtites on how the US is preparing to wage another proxy war on Iran through Israel. Dr Ismail also analyses the previous US proxy war when they Usefd Iraq to attack Iran. Full text at link.

The Israeli narrative of launching an attack on Iran's nuclear plants has been so overpoweringly hyped up and taken for granted by Israeli media that one achieves certitude that such an attack will happen and that Iran will sit idly in the manner of a befuddled, thunderstruck and petrified nation. Strangely, western and Israeli media aggrandize the military prowess of Israel to the skies and underestimate that of Iran.. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Sunday August 19, 2012 - 17:21 by pat c   text 2 comments (last - monday august 20, 2012 - 09:21)
Al Qaeda, the US lead contractor in its proxy war in Syria is causing the war to spill over into Lebanon and Al Qaedas campaign in Iraq is intensifying. Full text at link.

The intensifying proxy war in Syria is causing increased anxiety throughout the Middle East, where the specters of sectarian war and Western military intervention loom large. A series of kidnappings threatens to drag Lebanon deeper into the 17-month-long civil war in neighboring Syria, while 93 people were killed in Iraq on Thursday.

Al Qaeda’s role as a partner in a US-led Sunni sectarian war against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is apparently strengthening its operations in Iraq. Some 190 people were killed by Al Qaeda attacks in Iraq over the last two-and-a-half weeks.
... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Thursday August 16, 2012 - 11:18 by pat c
More evidence of Israeli plans for war against Iran. Full tyext at link.

A leaked memo that surfaced Wednesday provides a detailed blueprint for an unprovoked Israeli war against Iran. The publication of the memo coincides with multiple Israeli media reports indicating that such an attack may be imminent.

The memo was first published by US blogger and journalist Richard Silverstein and was subsequently picked up by the BBC and other media. Silverstein said that the document had been passed by a member of the Israel Defense Forces to a politician, and then on to him. He said it had been prepared for the eight-member Israeli Security Council as part of a bid by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak to convince other members of the government to support an early and unilateral Israeli strike. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Wednesday August 15, 2012 - 21:54 by pat c
Dave Lindorff writes on how sanctions are affecting the Iranian people, especially childrren. Is this going to be a rerun of Iraq? Full text at link.

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright should be a happy camper: Another campaign of sanctions and embargoes by the US is about to start killing children, this time in Iran.

Albright, as President Bill Clinton’s Secretary of State, when interviewed on CBS’s news magazine program “60 Minutes” back in 2000, was asked by reporter Lesley Stahl about reports that US sanctions on Iraq had led to the deaths of some 500,000 Iraqi children because of shortages of medicine and things like chlorine for treating water supplies. Stahl asked Albright if such a dreadful toll was “worth it.” Albright famously responded, “I think this is a very hard choice, but the price–we think the price is worth it.” ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Sunday August 12, 2012 - 12:35 by pat c   text 14 comments (last - tuesday august 21, 2012 - 10:29)
The threat level of Imperialist attack on Syria rises as the US and Turkey threaten to impose unilateral no-fly zones. Full text at link.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu are considering implementing no-fly zones for Syria after holding Saturday talks in Istanbul.. According to Reuters, Clinton said that Ankara and Washington need to plan ways to assist the rebels fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad – including possibly implementing a no-fly zone. ... read full story / add a comment
international / rights, freedoms and repression Saturday August 11, 2012 - 21:23 by pat c   text 5 comments (last - friday december 07, 2012 - 19:50)
The conditions under which Bradley Manning was held in didn't just originate with low level guards, the orders came from the top. But from Private to General they all collaborated in the maltreatment of Bradley Manning. Full text at link.

An order to submit WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning to harsh and allegedly illegal treatment in prison apparently came from the upper echelons of the Marine Corps. According to military e-mails released to Manning’s defense, a three-star general was the force behind the marching orders to hold Manning as a maximum-custody detainee under prevention-of-injury watch, or POI — orders that resulted in severe conditions at the Marine Corps brig in Quantico, Virginia, that left Manning isolated and repeatedly mistreated by his guards. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Thursday August 09, 2012 - 11:23 by pat c   text 2 comments (last - thursday august 16, 2012 - 08:39)   image 2 images
Mike McNair writes about the ongoing threats to Iran, the development of US military policy since the defeat in Iran and the relationship between US military adventures and economic crises over the last 30 years. Full text at link.

For some years now the USA and its allies have been carrying out a blockade, or siege warfare, against Iran, under the euphemistic name of ‘sanctions’. In July, the sanctions siege was significantly intensified and alongside it the US and Israel have been organising semi-clandestine sabotage operations (most notably the Stuxnet computer virus) and assassinations. ... read full story / add a comment
A Grafitos worker, April 2011. His overall reads, “Grafitos del Orinoco: Under Worker Control”. (Ewan Robertson)
international / anti-capitalism Wednesday August 08, 2012 - 19:51 by pat c   image 2 images
In this in-depth investigative analysis, Ewan Robertson evaluates the advances and setbacks of the worker control movement in Venezuela, and what Venezuela's experience in worker control means for the Bolivarian revolution and movements for radical social change worldwide. Full text at link.

The struggle for worker control in Grafitos began in early 2009, when the former boss refused to negotiate a new collective contract with the workers’ union and tried to close the factory, taking the machinery with him. In response, the workers began a factory occupation which lasted eight months. For economic reasons many workers had to abandon the struggle, with only 18 remaining in occupation when the Venezuelan government intervened in favour of the workers. The Venezuelan labour ministry released a “decree of temporary occupation for the reactivation of the company”, which in effect awarded the factory to the workers to manage as they saw fit. ...

... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Tuesday August 07, 2012 - 18:56 by pat c   text 1 comment (last - tuesday august 07, 2012 - 20:03)
Turkey is massacring Kurdish resistance fighters yet at the same time it is shedding crocodile tears over potential massacres in Aleppo. Its threat to invade Syria to deal with Kurds is a cover for a NATO invasion of Syria. Full text at link.

On the eve of an expected major offensive in Aleppo by the Syrian regime, Turkey has threatened to invade Syria, using the pretext of Kurdish groups seizing control of northern border areas. Such a move could pitch Ankara directly into war against Syria, after it has long sought to dictate events through control of the opposition Syrian National Congress and Free Syrian Army. This would be done with the full support of the United States. ... read full story / add a comment
Wade Michael Page
international / rights, freedoms and repression Monday August 06, 2012 - 21:38 by pat c   text 4 comments (last - friday august 10, 2012 - 21:16)   image 2 images   video 1 video file
Wade michael page, was ex-military and a neo-nazi.

Page fronted a white supremacist rock band called End Apathy, according to watchdog group the Southern Poverty Law Center. SPLC also determined that in 2000, Page attempted to purchase goods from the neo-Nazi group the National Alliance, described as America's then "most important hate group." In 2010, Page gave an interview to white-power website Label 56. Page wrote songs with titles like "Self Destruct" and "Usefull [sic] Idiots."

This part is interesting, a demoted drunken, obstreperous soldier appointed to psychological operations. Was it a real demotion or a psychological operation itself?

Page, 40, served in the Army from April 1992 through October 1998, during which he was demoted from sergeant to specialist. While in the Army Wade served in Ft. Bliss in Texas and at Ft. Bragg in North Carolina. Wade's job was as a Hawk missile system repairman, and he then became a psychological operations specialist, defense official confirmed to ABC news. ... read full story / add a comment
international / crime and justice Sunday August 05, 2012 - 19:51 by pat c
Reminds me of how Andreas Baader committed suicide in his prison cell by shooting himself in the back of the head. Full text at link.

A 21-year old man was fatally shot in the head while handcuffed in the back of a police car in Arkansas. The police claim it was a suicide but victim's family has a hard time believing it.

Chavis Carter was arrested by two officers for carrying marijuana, after being detained at a traffic stop last Saturday. The officers say they searched him twice before placing him in the back of a police car wearing “double locked” handcuffs.
Carter allegedly called his girlfriend while at the traffic stop, telling her he’d call later from jail.

But shortly thereafter, the young man was found slumped over in the back of the police car with a fatal gunshot wound to the head. The officers claim they were nowhere near the car when the gun was fired. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Saturday August 04, 2012 - 13:03 by pat c
The UN General Assembly has denounced Syria and blamed Assad for the fighting: “the first step in the cessation of violence has to be made by the Syrian authorities.” It denounced “the increasing use by the Syrian authorities of heavy weapons, including indiscriminate shelling from tanks and helicopters, and the failure to withdraw its troops and the heavy weapons to their barracks.” Thus they demand that the Syrian Government commit political suicide, by unilaterally disarming in the face of an international Islamist insurgency armed, financed, and organized by the US and its allies. Full text at link. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Friday August 03, 2012 - 13:23 by Yassamine Mather   text 4 comments (last - tuesday august 07, 2012 - 19:05)
Romney and Obama attempt to surpass each other in their threats against Iran and their obsequious support for Israel. Yassamine Mather looks at this, the effect of sanctions and how to respond to the CIA-funded Iran Tribunal. Full text at link.

It is mid-summer in an election year, so we should not be surprised by the hawkish statements regarding Iran coming from the US - not just from the Republican contender, Mitt Romney, but also the current US president. However, even when we take into account the timing, some of the statements Romney has just made in Jerusalem are more than worrying - and they have been matched by Barack Obama’s promises to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee on the despatch of bunker-buster bombs to the Gulf region.1

According to the Financial Times, in a keynote speech delivered in Jerusalem, Mitt Romney stated that the US has a “moral imperative” to stop Iran - the “most destabilising country in the world” - from developing nuclear weapons.2 Earlier in the day one of Romney’s advisors, Dan Senor, had said: “If Israel has to take action on its own, in order to stop Iran from developing that capability, the governor would respect that decision”.3 ... ... read full story / add a comment
Bahraini policemen arrest protestors during an anti-government demonstration in the village of Bani Jamrah, West of Manama, on August 2, 2012 (AFP Photo / Mohammed Al-Shaikh)
international / rights, freedoms and repression Friday August 03, 2012 - 12:54 by pat c   text 5 comments (last - friday october 05, 2012 - 23:41)   image 7 images
Where are the United Nations? Where are the EU sanctions? Why is repression ok in Bahrain? Full text at link.

Bahraini riot police have fired tear gas and stun grenades at hundreds of demonstrators attempting to block a highway. Frequent antigovernment protests have wracked the country since February 2011. Protesters and police clashed in several Shiite villages late Thursday and early Friday, witnesses told AFP. The recent protests are a move by Bahrain’s opposition to spark further street demonstrations in the country.

The ongoing uprising by the country’s Shiite majority, which claims systematic discrimination on the part of Bahrain’s Sunni monarchy, has weakened after multiple mass arrests. At least 50 people have been killed and many more detained since protests began 18 months ago. ... read full story / add a comment
devins.jpg
national / crime and justice Friday August 03, 2012 - 12:14 by lefty   text 2 comments (last - monday august 06, 2012 - 14:41)   image 1 image
Ooooops!...Judge Mary Devins, notorious judge in many cases against shell to sea activists, is finally seen for the right wing racist she is as she trips over her own bigoted remarks ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Tuesday July 31, 2012 - 12:04 by pat c   text 7 comments (last - saturday august 04, 2012 - 01:26)
Even US media groups like CNN are admitting that foreign jihadists, particularly Libyans, are flocking to Syria. Writing in the New York Times, Vali Nasr, Dean of the Johns Hopkins School of International Studies, warns that if Assad should fall from power, over 100 different opposition groups inside Syria would continue to fight for power with each other and with members of the Alawite, Shiite, Christian, and Druze religious minorities, threatening to turn Syria into “a larger version of Lebanon in the 1970s … There would be ethnic cleansing, refugee floods, humanitarian disasters and opportunities for Al Qaeda.” Full text at link.

The Gulf sheikhdoms, especially Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have supplied millions of dollars’ worth of weapons to the Syrian opposition and pledged to pay salaries to “rebel” fighters. While Washington has claimed that it is providing “non-lethal” supplies to the opposition, such as night vision glasses and communications equipment, teams of CIA operatives are acknowledged to be working inside Turkey to coordinate the distribution of money and arms to the various militant groups. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Friday July 27, 2012 - 20:34 by Yassamine Mathe   text 5 comments (last - monday july 30, 2012 - 12:35)
Yassamine Mather writes on the Sunni Islamist fundamentalist onslaught in Syria. An attack funded and backed by Imperialism. She analyses what has brought Syria to this situation and exposes the massacres carried out by the fundamentalists. Full text at link.

It may only be a matter of time before the Assad regime in Syria collapses and Sunni Islamist fundamentalists backed by the US/UK, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and others are in power in Damascus. If that happens, the Shia states of Iran and occupied Iraq, which have backed Bashar al-Assad, would have lost a close ally. ...

Non-Arab Iran remains Assad’s main ally, but Assad’s downfall would create an upheaval that would shift the balance of power in the region in favour of Iran’s enemies: the Sunni Gulf states (the main supporters of the Syrian opposition). Tehran’s Lebanese ally, Hezbollah, now the most powerful military and political force in Lebanon, would also be weakened. ... ... read full story / add a comment
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