October 24, 2015

Al-Qaeda leader in Syria is killed in Aleppo in a 'devastating blow' to terror group

Source: Daily Mail UK

It is believed he was killed in the Syrian capital of Aleppo.

The cause of his death has not yet been confirmed.

However, it is considered a devastating blow to the terror group's operations in the war torn Middle Eastern country.

Al-Nusra - or The Front for the Defence of the Syrian People - is considered the second most powerful jihadist group in Syria after the Islamic State



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3287566/Al-Qaeda-s-leader-Syria-Sheikh-Abu-Sulaiman-Al-Masri-killed-Aleppo.html

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Graphic Picture at the link

October 24, 2015

Jimmy Carter: A Five-Nation Plan to End the Syrian Crisis

I HAVE known Bashar al-Assad, the president of Syria, since he was a college student in London, and have spent many hours negotiating with him since he has been in office. This has often been at the request of the United States government during those many times when our ambassadors have been withdrawn from Damascus because of diplomatic disputes.

Bashar and his father, Hafez, had a policy of not speaking to anyone at the American Embassy during those periods of estrangement, but they would talk to me. I noticed that Bashar never referred to a subordinate for advice or information. His most persistent characteristic was stubbornness; it was almost psychologically impossible for him to change his mind — and certainly not when under pressure.

Before the revolution began in March 2011, Syria set a good example of harmonious relations among its many different ethnic and religious groups, including Arabs, Kurds, Greeks, Armenians and Assyrians who were Christians, Jews, Sunnis, Alawites and Shiites. The Assad family had ruled the country since 1970, and was very proud of this relative harmony among these diverse groups.

When protesters in Syria demanded long overdue reforms in the political system, President Assad saw this as an illegal revolutionary effort to overthrow his “legitimate” regime and erroneously decided to stamp it out by using unnecessary force. Because of many complex reasons, he was supported by his military forces, most Christians, Jews, Shiite Muslims, Alawites and others who feared a takeover by radical Sunni Muslims. The prospect for his overthrow was remote.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/26/opinion/jimmy-carter-a-five-nation-plan-to-end-the-syrian-crisis.html?_r=0

President Carter, you belong to a different era. Hearing your refreshing, peace centered message, is refreshing.

October 24, 2015

US and Russia discuss prospect of talks between Syrian leaders and opposition

Source: Guardian UK

The US secretary of state, John Kerry, and Russia’s foreign minister have spoken about holding talks between the Syrian government and the opposition.

In a telephone conversation on Saturday held at the request of Kerry, he and Sergei Lavrov also discussed enlisting other countries in the region to help push the political process forward, the Russian foreign ministry said.

Lavrov also appeared on Russian state TV on Saturday urging an intensification of efforts to find a political solution to the war. He said Moscow was ready to coordinate with the US in fighting terrorism in Syria.

He also said that Russia would be ready to help western-backed Free Syrian Army rebels if it knew their locations.


Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/24/russian-intervention-in-syria-a-gift-to-terrorists-says-gulf-council-leader

October 23, 2015

Learn to be dead for the day

Learn to be dead for the day: Suicidal people are locked into coffins in bizarre 'death experience' schools in South Korea where 40 people kill themselves every day




South Korea is facing a suicide crisis as a huge number of people are becoming depressed due to the pressures of modern life and killing themselves.

The sad statistic that 40 people kill themselves every day is blamed on the country’s hyper-competitive society where young people are under constant pressure to succeed while the middle-aged and elderly complain of ever-growing financial burdens.

But in a strange response to the country's growing suicide epidemic, bizarre 'death experience' schools are being set up to teach depressed pupils to appreciate life again, by showing them what it’s like to be dead.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3284587/Learn-dead-day-Suicidal-people-locked-coffins-bizarre-death-experience-schools-South-Korea-40-people-kill-day.html

No words....

October 23, 2015

Your next tinfoil hat will won’t be made of tinfoil.

A New Material Promises NSA-Proof Wallpaper

Your next tinfoil hat will won’t be made of tinfoil. A small company called Conductive Composites out of Utah has developed a flexible material — thin and tough enough for wallpaper or woven fabric — that can keep electronic emissions in and electromagnetic pulses out.

There are a few ways to snoop on electronic communications. You can hack into a networked or you can sniff out radio emissions. If you want to defend against the latter, you can enclose your electronic device or devices within a structure of electrically conductive, (probably metallic) material. The result is something like a force field. The conductive material distributes the electromagnetic energy away from the target in every direction — think of the *splat* you get when you hurl a tomato at a wall. These enclosures are sometimes called Faraday cages after the 18th-century British scientist who discovered electrolysis.

Today, Faraday cages are all over the place. In 2013, as the College of Cardinals convened to elect a new Pope, the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel was converted into a Faraday cage so that news of the election couldn’t leak out, no matter how hard the paparazzi tried, and how eager the cardinals were to tweet the proceedings. The military also uses Faraday cages for secure communications: Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities or SCIFs are Faraday cages. You’ll need to be in one to access the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communication System, or JWICS, the Defense Department’s top-secret internet.

Conductive Composites has created a method to layer nickel on carbon to form a material that’s light and moldable like plastic yet can disperse energy like a traditional metal cage.

The material also holds promise for a scalable defense against an electromagnetic pulse weapon. EMPs are a rising concern for the national security community, but not a new one. Soviet research into electromagnetic pulse weapons goes back to 1949, and active experimentation back to the 1970s. EMPs entered the public eye via the 2005 James Bond movie GoldenEye, in which an EMP caused massive blackouts and widespread fried electronics. Two years later, Army Lt. Gen. Robert Schweitzer testified before the House Joint Economic Committee that such weapons might help fulfill Sun Tzu’s dictum to conquer an enemy without fighting. “If you can take out the civilian economic infrastructure of a nation, then that nation, in addition to not being able to function internally, cannot deploy its military by air or sea, or supply them with any real effectiveness,” he said. Translation: EMPs offer all the victory at a fraction of the cost.

http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2015/10/new-material-promises-nsa-proof-wallpaper/123066/?oref=d-river

October 23, 2015

German TV show on US foreign policy in the Middle East.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=109_1445595463

It's funny for not the millions dead.

October 23, 2015

Russia ready to strike states endangering its Syria forces: report

Vladimir Putin told Bashar al-Assad during their meeting in Moscow that Russia was prepared to strike any country that provides man-portable air-defense systems to Syrian rebels, according to a Kuwaiti daily closely following Moscow’s military intervention on behalf of the Syrian regime.

“Russia used cruise missiles [against rebels] to confirm to all players on the ground in Syria that [Moscow] will target everyone who supplies extremists with missiles that affect Russian planes,” Al-Rai quoted Putin as saying during his Tuesday sit-down with Assad.

A close confidante of Assad—who spoke on condition of anonymity—also told Al-Rai that Putin had emphasised his readiness to retaliate against anyone threatening his country’s forces in Syria.

“Every state that supports the militants in a way that endangers Russian forces will be a legitimate target for us,” the Russian president allegedly said.

https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/NewsReports/566107-russia-ready-to-strike-states-endangering-its-syria-forces-report

Can't get more clear that that.

October 23, 2015

Putin, Citing Key Moment, Prods West to Cooperate on Syria

Source: NY Times

President Vladimir V. Putin on Thursday made his strongest pitch yet for cooperation between Washington and Moscow in Syria and beyond, calling it a crucial moment in East-West relations not unlike the end of the Cold War.

Speaking before a gathering of global experts on Russia, Mr. Putin also released a few details from his surprise meeting here with the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, on Tuesday, saying Mr. Assad said Damascus was willing to make common cause with the armed opponents as long as they were willing to fight the Islamic State.

Mr. Putin shared the stage in the southern resort town of Sochi with Ali Larijani, the speaker of the Parliament in Iran, which is allied with Russia in fighting in Syria. Both men rejected proposals for Syria’s partition, calling those a formula for endless warfare and dangerous gains by the militants.

The Russian leader seemed at times to be doubling down on his charm offensive toward Washington and the West, a critical part of his strategy of intervening in Syria in the first place, analysts have said. By changing the subject from the Ukraine crisis and playing peacemaker in Syria, many say, he aims to break out of the Western sanctions imposed over Ukraine at a time when low oil prices have walloped the Russian economy.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/23/world/europe/putin-citing-key-moment-prods-west-to-cooperate-on-syria.html?_r=0

October 23, 2015

Plans by U.S. to capture Islamic State’s capital already go awry

In this abandoned desert town on the front line of the war against the Islamic State in Raqqa, local fighters are fired up by announcements in Washington that the militants’ self-proclaimed capital is to be the next focus of the war.

But there is still no sign of the help the United States has delivered ostensibly for the use of the Arab groups fighting the Islamic State, nor is there any indication it will imminently arrive, calling into question whether there can be an offensive to capture Raqqa anytime soon.

Fifty tons of ammunition air­dropped by the U.S. military last week and intended for Arab groups has instead been claimed by the overall command of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, which is fighting alongside Arab units but overwhelmingly dominates their uneasy alliance, according to Kurdish and Arab commanders.

The question of whether Arab or Kurdish fighters get the weapons is crucial, in part because of Turkish sensitivities surrounding the United States’ burgeoning relationship with the Syrian Kurds. Turkey accuses the YPG of affiliation with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, designated a terrorist organization by Ankara and Washington, and has already lodged a complaint with the U.S. Embassy in Ankara that the YPG received the weapons intended for Arabs.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/us-plans-to-capture-the-islamic-states-capital-already-go-awry/2015/10/22/c07a7349-a53b-4beb-9f80-f0db02c647fd_story.html

October 23, 2015

US soldier killed freeing ISIS hostages in Iraq

Source: news.com.au

AN American Special Forces soldier was killed overnight in a military operation that rescued about 70 Kurdish hostages in northern Iraq, according to reports.

The special-ops soldier was the first American killed in ground combat with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

US and Kurdish commandos raided an Islamic State outpost in Hawija in Kirkuk provinc. The forces also captured some senior militants, Iraqi and US officials said.

“This operation was deliberately planned and launched after receiving information that the hostages faced imminent mass execution,” Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said, adding later that it appeared the hostages faced death “perhaps within hours” and that freed hostages told authorities that some had been executed at the prison recently, prior to the rescue.


Read more: http://www.news.com.au/world/middle-east/us-soldier-killed-freeing-isis-hostages-in-iraq/story-fnh81ifq-1227579269728