Russia Begins Operations in Syria: End Game for the US Empire?

[Laura]

27.04.2016 Author: F. William Engdahl
http://journal-neo.org/2016/04/27/how-nato-linked-think-tanks-control-eu-refugee-policy

How NATO-linked Think Tanks Control EU Refugee Policy

A flood of uncontrolled war refugees from Syria, Libya, Tunisia and other Islamic countries destabilized by Washington’s ‘Arab Spring’ Color Revolutions, has created the greatest social dislocation across the EU from Germany to Sweden to Croatia since the end of World War II. By now it has become clear to most that something quite sinister is afoot, something which threatens to destroy the social fabric of the very core of European civilization. What few realize is that the entire drama is being orchestrated, not by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, or by faceless EU bureaucrats of the Brussels EU Commission. It is being orchestrated by a cabal of NATO-linked think tanks.

Last October 8, 2015 amid the great stream of hundreds of thousands of refugees flooding into Germany from Syria, Tunisia, Libya and other lands, a newly self-confident German Chancellor Angela Merkel proclaimed on a popular German TV program, “I have a plan.” She took the occasion to take a sharp dig at coalition partner, Bavarian CSU head, Horst Seehofer, a stauch critic of Merkel’s open arms refugee position since spring 2015 that saw more than one million refugees enter Germany last year alone.

Since that point, with iron-hard resolve, the German Chancellor has defended the criminal Erdogan regime in Turkey, an essential partner in her “plan.”

Most of the world has looked on with astonishment as she ignored principles of free speech and decided to prosecute publicly a well-known German TV comedian, Jan Böhmermann, for his satirical remarks about the Turkish President. They were astonished as the symbol of European democracy, the German Chancellor, chose to ignore Erdogan’s imprisonment of opposition journalists ands his shutting of Turk opposition media as he proceeded with plans to establish a de facto dictatorship rule within Turkey. They were puzzled as Berlin’s government chose to ignore overwhelming proof that Erdogan and his family were materially aiding and abetting ISIS terrorists within Syria who were in fact creating the war refugee crisis. They were astonished to see her push through an EU committment to give Erdogan’s regime billions of euros to supposedly deal with the refugee flow from Turkish refugee camps across the border into EU neighbor land, Greece and beyond.

The Merkel Plan

All of those seemingly inexplicable actions from the once-pragmatic German leader appear to go back to her embrace of a 14-page document prepared by a network of pro-NATO think-tanks, brazenly titled “The Merkel Plan.”

What the newly-self-confident German Chancellor did not tell her hostess, Anne Will, or her viewers was that “her” plan was given to her just four days earlier, on October 4, in a document already titled The Merkel Plan, by a newly-created and obviously well-financed international think-tank called the European Stability Initiative or ESI. The ESI website showed that it had offices in Berlin, Brussels and in Istanbul, Turkey

Suspiciously, the authors of the ESI plan titled their plan as if it had come from the German Chancellor’s office and not from them. More suspicious is the contents of The Merkel Plan of ESI. In addition to already taking more than one million refugees in 2015, Germany should “agree to grant asylum to 500,000 Syrian refugees registered in Turkey over the coming 12 months.” In addition, “Germany should accept claims from Turkey…and provide safe transport to successful applicants…already registered with the Turkish authorities…” And finally, “Germany should agree to help Turkey obtain visa-free travel in 2016.”

That so-called Merkel Plan was a product of US and NATO-linked think tanks and of governments of NATO member countries or prospective members. The maxim “follow the money trail” is instructive in this case to see who really runs the EU today.

The ESI

The ESI came out of NATO-led efforts to transform South East Europe following the US-instigated war in Yugoslavia during the 1990’s that resulted in the Balkanization of the country and establishment of a major USA and NATO airbase, Camp Bond Steel in Kosovo.

Current ESI Chairman directly responsible for the final Merkel Plan document is Istanbul-based Austrian sociologist, Gerald Knaus. Knaus is also a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), and an Open Society Fellow.

Founded in London in 2007, the ECFR is an imitation of the influential New York Council on Foreign Relations, the think-tank created by the Rockefeller and JP Morgan bankers during the 1919 Versailles peace talks to coordinate an Anglo-American global foreign policy. Significantly, the creator and moneybags for the ECFR is American multi-billionaire and Color Revolution funder, George Soros. In virtually every US State Department-backed Color Revolution since the collapse of the Soviet Union, including in Serbia in 2000, in Ukraine, in Georgia, in China, in Brazil and in Russia, George Soros and offshoots of his Open Society Foundations have been in the shadows financing “democracy” NGOs and activists to install pro-Washington and pro-NATO regimes.

The select members, called Council Members or associates, of the London-based ECFR include ECFR co-chairman Joschka Fischer, former German Green Party Foreign Minister who arm-twisted his party into backing Bill Clinton’s illegal 1999 bombing of Serbia without UN Security Council backing.

Other members of the Council of Soros’ European Council on Foreign Relations think tank include former NATO Secretary General, Xavier Solana. It includes disgraced plaigarist and former German Defense Minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg; Annette Heuser, Executive Director Bertelsmann Stiftung in Washington DC; Wolfgang Ischinger, Chairman, Munich Security Conference; Cem Özdemir, chairman, Bündnis90/Die Grünen; Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, German Liberal Party (FDP) MP; Michael Stürmer, Chief Correspondent, Die Welt; Andre Wilkens, Director of Mercator Foundation; pederasty defender, Daniel Cohn-Bendit of the European Parliament. Cohn-Bendit, known as “Danny the Red” during the May, 1968 French student riots, was a member of the the autonomist group Revolutionärer Kampf (Revolutionary Struggle) in Rüsselsheim, Germany along with his close ally, now ECFR chairman, Joschka Fischer. The two went on to found the “realo” wing of the German Greens.

The Open Society Foundations is the network of tax-exempt “democracy-promoting” foundations created by George Soros on the collapse of the Soviet Union to promote “free market” pro-IMF market liberalization of former communist economies that opened the doors for the systematic plundering of invaluable mining and energy assets of those countries. Soros was a major financier of the liberal economic team of Boris Yeltsin including Harvard “Shock Therapy” economist, Jeffrey Sachs, and Yeltsin liberal adviser, Yegor Gaidar.

Already it becomes clear that the “Merkel Plan” is the Soros Plan in fact. But there is more if we wish to understand the darker agenda behind the plan.

The ESI Funders

The European Stability Initiative think-tank of Soros-tied Gerald Knaus is financed by an impressive list of donors. Their website lists them.

The list includes, in addition to Soros’ Open Society Foundations, the Soros-tied German Stiftung Mercator, and the Robert Bosch Stiftung. ESI funders also include European Commission. Then, curiously enough the funder list for The Merkel Plan includes an organization with the Orwellian name, The United States Institute of Peace.

Some research reveals that the United States Institute of Peace has anything but a peace-loving background. The United States Institute of Peace is chaired by Stephen Hadley, former US National Security Council adviser during the neo-conservative war-waging Bush-Cheney administration. Its Board of Directors includes Ashton B. Carter, current Obama Administration neo-conservative hawkish Secretary of Defense; Secretary of State John Kerry; Major General Frederick M. Padilla, President of the US National Defense University. These are some very seasoned architects of the US Pentagon Full Spectrum Dominance strategy for world military domination.

The “Merkel Plan” authors at the European Stability Initative, in addition to the largesse of George Soros’ foundations, list as “core” funder, the German Marshall Fund of the United States. As I describe in my book, The Think Tanks, the German Marshall Fund is anything but German. With its seat in Washington, as I noted in the book, “It’s an American think tank with its headquarters in Washington, D.C. In point of fact, its agenda is the deconstruction of postwar Germany and more broadly of the sovereign states of the EU to fit them better into the Wall Street globalization agenda.”

The German Marshall Fund of Washington has been involved in the post-1990 USA agenda of regime change around the world in league with the US-funded National Endowment for Democracy, Soros Foundations, and the CIA front called USAID. As I describe it in the think tanks book, “The major focus of the German Marshall Fund according to its 2013 Annual Report was to support the US State Department agenda for so-called democracy-building operations in former communist countries in eastern and south-eastern Europe, from the Balkans to the Black Sea. Significantly their work included Ukraine. In most instances, they worked together with the USAID, widely identified as a CIA front with ties to the State Department, and the Stewart Mott Foundation which gives funds to the US Government-funded National Endowment for Democracy.”

Notably, the same Stewart Mott Foundation is also a funder of the ESI-authored Merkel Plan, as is the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

This all should give pause for reflection as to who and for what goals the Merkel-Erdogan deal for dealing with the EU refugee crisis is intended. Does the Rockefeller-Bush-Clinton faction in the United States intend to use it as a major social engineering experiment to create chaos and social conflict across the EU at the same time their NGOs such as the NED, Freedom House and the Soros Foundations are stirring things up in Syria and Libya and across the Islamic world? Is Germany, as former US presidential adviser and Rockefeller crony, Zbigniew Brzezinski called her, a “vassal” of US power in the post-1990 world? To date the evidence is pretty strong that that’s the case. The role of US and NATO-linked think tanks is central to get an understanding of how the Federal Republic of Germany and the European Union are actually controlled from behind the Atlantic curtain.

F. William Engdahl is strategic risk consultant and lecturer, he holds a degree in politics from Princeton University and is a best-selling author on oil and geopolitics, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”

 

[Laura]

Here is a link to the document, The Merkel Plan:
http://www.esiweb.org/pdf/ESI%20-%20The%20Merkel%20Plan%20-%20Compassion%20and%20Control%20-%204%20October%202015.pdf

 

[Cosmos]

I can't tell right now if she has any conscience or is sincere for gaining sovereignty.

I can't either, so I have a hard time thinking that there is any kind of conscience and sanity there, in what "she" does. Surely when one assumes that Merkel has any kind of conscience, even if it is a small one, then her position is indeed very straining and difficult, to say the least. That is assuming that there is a conscience of course, if that is not the case though, such a position is not that difficult. But I really dunno and that should tell us something, since I'm watching the developments fairly closely there every day.

But I can imagine that she must see where the wind is blowing. The global economy is about to finally officially die and the US will be on its knees when it happens. That's when you strike. If she resists the Empire now, what would it archive? False flags on German soil that will take lives. The far-right will take a stronger foothold and it may cost her position because of public opinion screaming for stronger anti-immigration/Muslim laws. Like always it's all about forbearance and the right timing.

But we can only hope I suppose. If so I hope Merkel is keeping a list of all the traitors. In the media, inside the government, the secret service etc.

Round them all up when it's the right moment. Give them a fair trail for all to witness and put them away for life.

Surely the German population will be in a shock. But that's irrelevant. As a leader it's your duty to tell your public when they are right but also when they are wrong.

I just sometimes think that the views on Merkel are way to romantic, especially when viewed from outside of the country. I just don't think, even if she has a conscience, that she can do much to counter the iron grips of the empire.

Just to give you short run down on what happended here in germany the last couple of weeks, in chronological order, so you guys might understand better why it is so difficult to figure out what exactly is happening here:

- April 22: Steinmeier (foreign minister of germany) says that germany should overcome the dumbness between russia and germany. He said: "It would be good to overcome the dumbness in that regard, right now. I can imagine that we make a serious-minded attempt to cooperate with russia in Libya". Further more he advocated to create conditions that russia can come back to the G8 by saying: "I'm deeply convinced that especially in difficult situations, one shouldn't engage in separation-politics":

https://de.sott.net/article/23519-Sprachlosigkeit-uberwinden-Steinmeiner-fordert-wieder-Annaherung-an-Russland

It is by far not the first time that such words come from Steinmeier and others in the german government. by the way.

-April 23: Merkel receives a peace award in Holland called "Four Freedoms Award" from the Roosevelt-Foundation:
https://de.sott.net/article/23537-Merkel-erhalt-Friedenspreis-Stirnrunzeln-allerorts-RT-Faktencheck

- April 24: Obama comes into the city of Hannover in germany, to discuss with Merkel TTIP and other stuff, while the day before, at least 30.000 people demonstrate in Hannover against TTIP:
https://de.sott.net/article/23556-Obama-und-Merkel-kommen-wegen-TTIP-nach-Hannover-90000-protestieren-auf-der-Strae-dagegen

PS: It is interesting to note that a lot of people in germany feel motivated to demonstrate against TTIP (remember also Berlin recently, with over 250 000 people) on the streets. It is interesting because most of them only feel motivated because they realize that their own "poor standard" of living is at risk, because of it. When it comes down to demonstrations for your own wellbeing and benefit, a lot of germans can gather and are motivated to demonstrate, while on topics of the wellbeing of others, almost nobody shows up. Go figure...

- April 27: A mainstream poll says that the majority of germans are for the annulment of the anti-russian sanctions:
https://de.sott.net/article/23636-Endlich-Mehrheit-der-Deutschen-will-Ende-der-Russland-Sanktionen

- April 29: Now also the vice-president of the BND (german secret service) has to leave his office prematurely. Already at the beginning of April germany got a new BND vice-president responsible for "military matters". That comes only weeks after the president of the BND had to leave office as well prematurely. And back in November "Norbert Steiner", also vice-president of the BND for "military matters" , had to leave office prematurely:

https://de.sott.net/article/23704-BND-Krise-Jetzt-muss-auch-der-Vize-Prasident-seinen-Posten-raumen-Was-geschieht-hier

So what is happening there? A lot of key players at the BND get replaced that are responsible for "military matters". I guess it has something to do in regards to russia.

- April 29: Rumors were most likely right, that Obama talked with Merkel about russia. Germany Will Deploy Troops in Lithuania to 'Contain' Russia:

http://sputniknews.com/europe/20160429/1038839911/germany-troops-lithuania.html
https://de.sott.net/article/23680-Absoluter-Wahnsinn-Merkel-stimmt-Obama-zu-Bundeswehreinsatz-gegen-Russland-in-Osteuropa

It follows the same pattern again. Parts of the german government talk seriously about coming closer to russia, building closer relations and stopping sanctions. But again what we can see there are just words followed up by little to no actual actions. Then shortly after, the actual actions seem to show that the german government does exactly the opposite, of what some there claim that they want in regards to russia.

All very confusing unless there is some kind of double game there and/or just different factions or games for power and/or blackmailing.

German SOTT saw that confusing trend a while ago and asked the question:

"Another Germanwings attempt at intimidation in the planing stages? Meeting with Putin is "very important" for Merkel and Steinmeier - Germany doesn't obey the US-diktat anymore? Doing the right thing for the wrong reasons?:

I think "Doing the right thing for the wrong reasons?" might be what we are witnessing here. The article explains what is meant by that phrase, by the way.

 

[goyacobol]

Here is a link to the document, The Merkel Plan:
http://www.esiweb.org/pdf/ESI%20-%20The%20Merkel%20Plan%20-%20Compassion%20and%20Control%20-%204%20October%202015.pdf

Laura,

Thank you for the actual "plan" PDF.

I don't know if it is really just Merkel's plan but someone definitely wants her name on it:

WHY GERMANY MUST ACT NOW
With European institutions offering piecemeal measures that do not add up to a coherent plan,
it is clear that German Chancellor Angela Merkel is the only leader in a position to take meaningful action.
Merkel won the respect of many Europeans for her compassionate leadership when this crisis erupted in late August. Now, compassion needs to be accompanied by a reassertion of control over Europe’s borders. Merkel and her political allies across Europe need to show that it is they,
and not the far-right, who can offer a real solution to the crisis.

And it is interesting how soon this plan was proposed with such detailed solutions (almost like problem/reaction/bingo solution):

Visa-free travel for Turkey:
The European Commission would commit to assessing early next year whether Turkey qualifies for visa-free travel with the EU.
If so, it would present a legislative proposal to that effect no later than June 2016. Since implementation of the EU-Turkey and Greece-Turkey readmission agreements and issues of asylum and migration are at the core of the visa liberalisation process, which was launched in December 2013, Turkey is certain to meet the main conditions if this scheme is implemented and the Syrian refugee crisis managed. Germany should indicateits political support for this.

The "think tanks" seem to always be planning ahead. :/

 

[bjorb]

[quote author= Laura]Even if she got on TV and told how she was being blackmailed by the West to do as she was told, it would be laughed off as just a temper tantrum and Merkel trying another ploy. [/quote]

Maybe if she could broadcast it globally with several other heads of states of the world it might have the right impact. But I don't know. Superb planning would be required.

As Martin Luther King said. — ''Those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war.''

If Merkel is of a good willing nature she has to connect and choose her allies wisely.

It also reminds me of of Putin saying in an interview that several people of position in power around the globe 'whispered' to him that they are under the American boot and are cheering for Russia.

Merkel isn't alone on this. But I doubt she is of the hero archetype if not completely the opposite.

 

[goyacobol]

Whether the analogy is a chessboard, pieces of a puzzle or a card game, I think it is premature to judge Merkel's motives yet.

Q: (L) Not only chaotic, but I think that you can be... I dunno how to explain it. Remember all the crap and chaos we went through with this police investigation, the fiscal audit, and all that? Everything was just chaotic then. It's like when you're in this disconnected state where you're trying to leave where you don't want to be, and you're trying to go to where you want to be, and you become suspended in between. You become a target. It's like a shooting gallery and you're just a turkey flying through.

(Data) A discontinuity.

(L) Yeah, it's a discontinuity. It's crazy. Am I onto something there?

A: Indeed!

Q: (L) Okay, is that enough on that?

(Perceval) Yes. I wanted to ask about the extent to which the US and the powers in that camp have been checkmated by Russia and Putin? They seem to be extremely quiet. All they can do is talk a lot of nonsense and throw silly accusations around...

A: Not checkmate just yet, but the queen is certainly in danger of being taken.

The Cs seem to prefer the chessboard analogy. I think there is a strong possibility that Merkel represents the queen as others have wondered:

Thanks Laura, The Chateau Crew... for that very informative session!!!

And from my analysis the Queen is Germany...

If Germany falls to the Russian side of the equation... almost all of Europe follows suit... (with a few exceptions...)

That is way the PTB are taking Preemptive actions directed against the actual German Establishment...

Just my two cents...

I suppose the queen's position is the most important part of the chess game. If taken from the opponent she may be seen an asset to the winner. If lost she may be the deciding factor in the game for the loser.

 

[angelburst29]

In the News, it's stated that Merkel has refused to give support to Steinmeier, for his bid for Presidency. Is Merkel thinking of running for President, herself?

The German chancellor has refused to give her support to German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in his bid to become Germany's next president, Der Spiegel reported.

Merkel Derails Steinmeier's Bid for German Presidency
http://sputniknews.com/europe/20160430/1038899668/merkel-steinmeier-german-president.html

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has refused to back German Foreign Minister and Social Democratic Party (SPD) member Frank-Walter Steinmeier as a candidate for the German presidency after current President Joachim Gauck's term in office ends next spring, Der Spiegel reported on Saturday.

According to the report, Merkel, who is head of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), has told SPD leader and Minister for Economic Affairs Sigmar Gabriel that she cannot afford to back an SPD candidate prior to Germany's federal elections in autumn 2017.

Gauck, 76, is set to make an announcement on his political future in early spring, and indications are that he will not run again.

Steinmeier, who has served as German Foreign Minister since 2013, has reportedly spoken privately of his interest in the office of president.

However, since no party has an absolute majority in the German Bundestag he would need the support of the CDU and its Bavarian sister party the CSU, with which the SDP is currently in a coalition government, to stand a chance of becoming President.

Kursky railway terminal in Moscow has been evacuated after a phone call to emergency services reporting an explosive device.

Moscow Train Station Evacuated After Bomb Threat
http://sputniknews.com/russia/20160430/1038901685/Moscow-Station-Evacuated-Bomb-Threat.html

According to media reports, an anonymous person called "102" emergency service and reported a planned bombing attack at Kursky railway terminal (Moscow Kurskaya railway station).

As a result, almost 1,000 people were evacuated from the terminal building. The station is being inspected by state security agencies, including explosive detection dogs team.

This is the third time the railway station was evacuated this month. It has been previously evacuated on April 11th and April 27th, after similar phone calls.

The identity of today's caller is still unknown.

Russia completes development of the newest-generation missiles, invulnerable to the NATO weapons, and missile defense in particular, Evgeniy Serebrennikov, first deputy chairman of the Russian Federation Council on defense and security, reported.

Russia to deploy missiles invulnerable to NATO missile defense
http://www.pravdareport.com/news/russia/29-04-2016/134300-russia-0/

Serebrennikov explained that namely these missiles will be deployed first on the northern borders of Russia if Sweden joins the NATO.

The Senator pointed out that Russia will increase number of its Armed Forces too in this case. "The case is not only about military and technical measures, but also the quantitative ones. Russia will boost number of its Armed Forces on the northern and north-western borders, including the Northern Fleet, if Sweden joins the NATO," the Senator claimed. He added that it's an inevitable response to the NATO's aim to expand in close vicinity to the Russian borders.

As Pravda.Ru reported, Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, stated that Russia would respond with military technical measures on its northern borders in case Sweden decides to join the NATO. The NATO representative said that "Sweden didn't apply for the membership, but it's one of the most active, engaged and effective partners. We share the same values and challenges. We have been working side by side in operations under the NATO command, including Kosovo and Afghanistan. We appreciate our partnership, which makes the NATO and Sweden more secure."

 

[Voyageur]

Concerning the "Think-Tank" article by F. William Engdahl above that Laura cites; scary - had a look at the Soros backed 'The Merkel Plan', wow.

Somewhere today (maybe on SoTT) there was an article on how Russia was funding perhaps a billion in Syria's reconstruction. Now if there was any thinking in one of these think-tanks, reconstruction of what the West has allowed/participated in destroying in Syria, not to mention in Libya and Iraq, should occupy the neurons of the thinkers. Most displaced people would want to be reunited with a prosperous homeland of their birth - we owe it to them to give them this opportunity in an effort to fix what we have done rather than a continuation of this insane globalist modus operandi, yet that's not part of the 'plan'.

I see an article on Canada - 'Canada’s Defence Policy Review Prepares Major Expansion of Militarism and War' by Rodger Jordon of WSWS http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/04/29/cana-a29.html that paints a grim geopolitical picture of our silly country:

...The document, whose principal author was the Canadian Armed Forces’ high command, is aimed at laying the political groundwork for a massive expansion of militarism at home and abroad.

It makes clear the real significance of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s repeated declarations since coming to power last October that Canada “is back” on the world stage, and his pledge to re-engage with United Nations’ “peacekeeping” missions. This multilateralist, humanitarian rhetoric is aimed at legitimizing a vast escalation of Canadian military interventions on a global scale, including in cyber and outer space, while concealing their predatory purpose.

I know Canada is a little mouse compared to the elephant next door - so kind of insignificant and just as owned/blackmailed as other countries. That purpose of the plan here according to the article is to further link to the U.S. and NATO as they expand around Russia: "Ottawa is fully onboard with Washington’s key geostrategic offensives: threatening Russia in the Baltic, Eastern Europe, and the Black Sea {and the Arctic}; the current Mideast war, which is the continuation of a decades’ long drive to strengthen US dominance over the world’s most important oil-exporting region; and the anti-China “pivot” to Asia, which is aimed at encircling and preparing for war with Beijing."

Preparing for war with Beijing seems rather silly, as does war with Russia, yet they are sure ratcheting up tensions with their rhetoric and military movements - controlling oil is always in the cards.

 

[Cosmos]

In the News, it's stated that Merkel has refused to give support to Steinmeier, for his bid for Presidency. Is Merkel thinking of running for President, herself?

The German chancellor has refused to give her support to German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in his bid to become Germany's next president, Der Spiegel reported.

Merkel Derails Steinmeier's Bid for German Presidency
http://sputniknews.com/europe/20160430/1038899668/merkel-steinmeier-german-president.html

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has refused to back German Foreign Minister and Social Democratic Party (SPD) member Frank-Walter Steinmeier as a candidate for the German presidency after current President Joachim Gauck's term in office ends next spring, Der Spiegel reported on Saturday.

According to the report, Merkel, who is head of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), has told SPD leader and Minister for Economic Affairs Sigmar Gabriel that she cannot afford to back an SPD candidate prior to Germany's federal elections in autumn 2017.

Gauck, 76, is set to make an announcement on his political future in early spring, and indications are that he will not run again.

Steinmeier, who has served as German Foreign Minister since 2013, has reportedly spoken privately of his interest in the office of president.

However, since no party has an absolute majority in the German Bundestag he would need the support of the CDU and its Bavarian sister party the CSU, with which the SDP is currently in a coalition government, to stand a chance of becoming President.
[...]

Not only that. The are also rumors going around for a while now that Merkel is running for a third time to become chancellor again:

_http://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-merkel-idUSKCN0Q636920150801

What I find interesting is that all that nice talk towards russia out of the current administration comes mainly from Steinmeier who is the foreign minister of germany and thus should be directly under the hand or watch of Merkel. So what he says repeatedly for years now about Russia and Germany must be backed by her in some way. Otherwise he would have been replaced or criticized by her about that stance a long time ago, especially also because he is one of the big party members of the rivalling party, called SPD. I did not hear any reprimands from her towards Steinmeier in those years. In fact I did not hear any reprimands from the media and other high level political figures against what he says there over and over again. So I'm assuming what ever Steinmeier (and thus Merkel) are doing there, is part of the plan, and the establishment both in the media and in politics in germany (which is controlled by the US) has nothing against it, otherwise they would have started a campaign against Steinmeier, for what he says, a longer time ago. Did not happen.

 

[angelburst29]

In the News, it's stated that Merkel has refused to give support to Steinmeier, for his bid for Presidency. Is Merkel thinking of running for President, herself?

The German chancellor has refused to give her support to German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in his bid to become Germany's next president, Der Spiegel reported.

Merkel Derails Steinmeier's Bid for German Presidency
http://sputniknews.com/europe/20160430/1038899668/merkel-steinmeier-german-president.html

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has refused to back German Foreign Minister and Social Democratic Party (SPD) member Frank-Walter Steinmeier as a candidate for the German presidency after current President Joachim Gauck's term in office ends next spring, Der Spiegel reported on Saturday.

According to the report, Merkel, who is head of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), has told SPD leader and Minister for Economic Affairs Sigmar Gabriel that she cannot afford to back an SPD candidate prior to Germany's federal elections in autumn 2017.

[...]

Not only that. The are also rumors going around for a while now that Merkel is running for a third time to become chancellor again:

_http://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-merkel-idUSKCN0Q636920150801

Just wanted to note a small correction, Merkel succeeded to a third term on - Tue Dec 17, 2013 and will be seeking a fourth in 2017.

Germany's Merkel begins third term with focus on Europe
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-merkel-idUSBRE9BG0BL20131217

There are no term limits in Germany and the last CDU chancellor, Helmut Kohl, served for 16 years before losing his bid for a fifth term in 1998 to Gerhard Schroeder of the Social Democrats (SPD). Neither were as popular among voters as Merkel.

The announcement of a possible deployment of German troops to Lithuania for "containment" of Russia has made quite a stir in the media and the social networks in Germany.

"Forgetting history" German politicians on the NATO troop buildup on the Russian border
http://www.fort-russ.com/2016/04/forgetting-history-german-politicians.html

Sputnik Germany, April 30, 2016 - Translated from German by Tom Winter

The announcement of a possible deployment of German troops to Lithuania for "containment" of Russia has made quite a stir in the media and the social networks in Germany.

The opinions are often widely divergent. From the perspective of the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Berlin faces a dilemma. If Germany would refuse the deployment of troops, that would be a lack of solidarity towards the Baltic States. Should it agree, that would strain relations with Russia. However Deutsche Rundfunk [The German Radio] considers these plans quite sound: NATO must guarantee the "territorial integrity of the countries" that "feel unsafe" near Russia.

But this reason, that the states felt threatened by Russia, the Left-politician Gregor Gysi considers unconvincing. "First, it is not about feelings, but the question of whether a real threat exists. Second, these 250 soldiers would be in case of a real war more than superfluous," said Gysi on his Facebook page. To make his point even clearer, the politician thinks back on history: "Therefore, it is historically oblivious, and escalating, to send troops now to the Russian border"

The Member of Parliament Sahra Wagenknecht supported her party comrade: "Chancellor Angela Merkel is committing an irresponsible provocation, when she sends the Bundeswehr to the Russian border 75 years after the Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union." [for her press release, click]

In the comments on the Internet, many readers have aired their displeasure about the plan of the Federal Government.

"The border to Africa / Turkey / Syria is open, but the danger comes from Russia. Right! Just crazy," wrote one user in comments to the article in Die Welt.

Another reader, J89, pointed out that a NATO battalion constitutes no appreciable risk on the border with Russia: This is "symbolic politics." Other Internet users are unenthusiastic at the prospect of German soldiers in the direction of Russia. A sample:

So ends the Sputnik story. Here is the full text of Gregor Gysi's Facebook post:

The German government plans to involve up to 250 Bundeswehr soldiers in the beefing up of NATO's eastern flank on the border with Russia. I find the reasoning unconvincing that this was a sign for the eastern NATO members who felt threatened by Russia. First, it is not about feelings, but the question of whether a real threat exists. Second, these 250 soldiers would be in case of a real war more than superfluous. The populations of the eastern European countries also know this, so that a feeling of threat would not lessen. Incidentally, in history it's this way: it's not Russia invading Germany, but Germany invading Russia. On June 22, we have the 75th anniversary of the last attack by Germany. Therefore, it is history forgotten, and escalating, now to send troops to the Russian border.

Die LINKE [The Left Party] - New peace policy instead of NATO aggression

Wagenknecht press release on sending Bundeswehr troops to the Russian border
http://www.fort-russ.com/2016/04/wagenknecht-press-release-on-sending.html

"Chancellor Angela Merkel is committing an irresponsible provocation, when, 75 years after the attack on the Soviet Union, she is sending the Bundeswehr to the Russian border," said Sahra Wagenknecht, Chairman of DIE LINKE.

Wagenknecht further: "The federal government is playing with fire if they blindly support NATO's aggressive game. A permanent presence of NATO combat troops on the Russian border is contrary to the existing agreements with Russia.

EU eastward expansion and the NATO troop parades are poison for peace and stability in Europe. The deployment of combat units of the Bundeswehr to the Russian border threatens the vital interests of the German population. The German Bundestag must debate it."

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he would meet on May 4 Riyad Hijab, the General Coordinator of the Syrian opposition High Negotiations Committee delegation, and UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura to discuss Syria peace talks.

German FM to Meet HNC Head, UN Syria Envoy to Discuss Proximity Talks
http://sputniknews.com/politics/20160501/1038903946/syria-talks-hnc-germany.html

The latest round of the intra-Syria talks finished in Geneva earlier this week and saw HNC walking out over continuous fighting in Syria and a lack of progress on humanitarian issues.

"After five years of civil war and 300,000 dead, it remains important to get all the players to the table and keep them there," Steinmeier told the Welt am Sonntag, adding he would meet de Mistura and Hijab to "develop ideas for continuation of the Geneva peace talks."

Four delegations were taking part in the talks – the government delegation, HNC, the opposition group that formed following talks in Moscow, Cairo and Astana and the Hmeimim delegation of internal opposition.

 

[angelburst29]

Grenade Explosion Reported in Western Russia, Casualties Reported
http://sputniknews.com/russia/20160501/1038919345/russia-explosion-alleged-bomb.html

One person was killed and four more injured in an alleged explosion at a bus station in Russia's Leningradskaya Region, according to a RIA Novosti source. The details of the incident are unclear yet. Police officers are at the scene. According to local police, four people have been taken to the hospital.

And here:
Blast hits bus stop in Western Russia, 1 dead, 4 injured
https://www.rt.com/news/341532-russia-blast-bus-stop/

One person has been killed and four others injured in an explosion at a bus stop in a town in Western Russia, emergency services and law enforсement sources say.

"An unidentified explosive device has detonated at a bus stop in the town of Pasha, in the Volkhovsky district," a law enforcement source told TASS. "One person died instantly, and four more were wounded and taken to hospital."

The US's global lead in advanced weapons capabilities is shrinking as Russia and China move to close the gap, and "push the US out of areas on their front doorstep," writes Washington-based political newspaper The Hill.

US Worried That Military Advantage Over Russia, China Getting Ever Smaller
http://sputniknews.com/military/20160501/1038917202/us-military-technological.html

US foreign and defense policy strategists are alarmed, the paper writes, thanks to improving Russian and Chinese capabilities "to target US aircraft and ships, pushing the US military farther away from potential conflict zones and constraining its ability to use force in regions such as the Baltic Sea and the South China Sea."

Speaking to the newspaper, Mark Gunzinger, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, explained that after the end of the Cold War, the US military has "never really had to fight an enemy that had its own arsenal of precision-guided weapons."

Moreover, he added, in all its military campaigns since then, Washington "was able to use air bases and other bases located fairly close to the borders of an enemy because there wasn't that much of an air and missile threat to those bases." Now, unfortunately (for Washington), "that's changing."

Moscow and Beijing, The Hill notes, are now "improving their ballistic and cruise missile technologies and hoping to create what they call 'anti-access area-denial bubbles' where they can threaten US air and ground operations. Russia is in particular presenting a challenge to the US in the Baltics region, where it has recently been harassing US aircraft and ships."

Other advances by the two countries, according to Institute for the Study of War senior analyst Chris Harmer, include improved air-to-air capabilities, stealth, advanced aerodynamics, advanced air-to-air radars and weaponry, and improved air-to-ground weaponry.

 

[sToRmR1dR]

US seeking to help Israeli-Saudi mercenary war in Syria: Analyst

http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2016/05/01/463497/Saudi-Israel-Syria-Daesh-Assad-US-Bennett/

The United States, despite claims by its government officials, is not really looking to resolve the Syrian conflict and instead is seeking a way to boost the Saudi and Israeli-backed “mercenaries” that have been fighting to topple the legitimate Damascus government, says a former US army member.

Scott Bennett, a former US Army psychological warfare officer and counter terrorism analyst, called Kerry’s recent calls on the Syrian government to stop its attacks in the city of Aleppo as “the essence of hypocrisy,” adding that Washington is exploiting the Syria situation to “slip in” more military forces into the Arab country.

“So this is not about human tragedies or civilian deaths. This is about giving Saudi Arabia, America and Israel a chance to reestablish the lines that the Syrian Army and the Russian have turned into Swiss cheese,” he explained.

He said Obama should completely ignore Kerry if he is really looking forward to save more lives in Syria.

Bennett said the recent outcries among US politicians, who have started to speak out against US policies in Syria, keeps hopes for a peaceful end to the conflict alive.

A “splendid example” of this, he said, was Virginia Senator Dick Black’s recent tour to the Middle East that included stops in Syria and Lebanon.

Black’s realistic views about the years-long conflict, showed that American politicians could push for peace and stability, Bennett added.

After meeting with Syrian President Bahsar al-Assad in Damascus, Black said it would be "beneficial" for Washington to speak directly to Assad.

The US senator also emphasized that what is happening in Syria is far from disinformation practiced by some parties at the US administration.

“What Syria should also do in counter-acting this is to immediately flood the airwaves with information that Israel is sending in fighters into Syria; Saudi Arabia is sending fighters into Syria,” Bennett said.

This way people can stand up against the “mercenary operation” that Syria has been grappling with and has killed thousands of Syrians ever since it began in 2011, the analyst noted.

 

[angelburst29]

American writer and investigative historian, Eric Zuesse has commented on investigative journalist Seymour Hersh recent articles and has added commentary, exposing a clearer picture of the dynamics involved in Syria. Zuesse highlights that fact that after Libya was invaded and Gaddafi was assassinated, that the US Consulate in Benghazi Libya began operating a «rat line» for Gaddafi’s captured weapons into Syria through Turkey. Gaddafi possessed stockpiles of chemicals for creating Sarin and this arsenal was used in Syria - to blame Syrian President Bashar al-Assad - to ‘justify’ the US invading Syria. U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens was sacrificed as collateral damage, to hide Hillary's involvement.

As to the constant obsession of "Assad must go" - it is to enable - not only the Saudis’ Trans-Arabian Pipeline to be built, but also to build through Syria the Qatar-Turkey Gas Pipeline that the Thani royal family (friends of the Saudis) who own Qatar want also to be built there! It becomes clearer, as to why Israel refuses to give up "the Golan Heights" while Palmyra and Aleppo became major strongholds for the terrorist.


Seymour Hersh Says Hillary Approved Sending Libya’s Sarin to Syrian Rebels
http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2016/04/28/seymour-hersh-hillary-approved-sending-libya-sarin-syrian-rebels.html

The great investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, in two previous articles in the London Review of Books («Whose Sarin?» and «The Red Line and the Rat Line») has reported that the Obama Administration falsely blamed the government of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad for the sarin gas attack that Obama was trying to use as an excuse to invade Syria; and Hersh pointed to a report from British intelligence saying that the sarin that was used didn’t come from Assad’s stockpiles. a secret agreement in 2012 was reached between the Obama Administration and the leaders of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, to set up a sarin gas attack and blame it on Assad so that the US could invade and overthrow Assad. «By the terms of the agreement, funding came from Turkey, as well as Saudi Arabia and Qatar; the CIA, with the support of MI6, was responsible for getting arms from Gaddafi’s arsenals into Syria». Hersh didn’t say whether these «arms» included the precursor chemicals for making sarin which were stockpiled in Libya, but there have been multiple independent reports that Libya’s Gaddafi possessed such stockpiles, and also that the US Consulate in Benghazi Libya was operating a «rat line» for Gaddafi’s captured weapons into Syria through Turkey. So, Hersh isn’t the only reporter who has been covering this. Indeed, the investigative journalist Christoph Lehmann headlined on 7 October 2013, «Top US and Saudi Officials responsible for Chemical Weapons in Syria» and reported, on the basis of very different sources than Hersh used, that «Evidence leads directly to the White House, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey, CIA Director John Brennan, Saudi Intelligence Chief Prince Bandar, and Saudi Arabia´s Interior Ministry». And, as if that weren’t enough, even the definitive analysis of the evidence that was performed by two leading US analysts, the Lloyd-Postal report, concluded that, «The US Government’s Interpretation of the Technical Intelligence It Gathered Prior to and After the August 21 Attack CANNOT POSSIBLY BE CORRECT». Obama has clearly been lying.

However, now, for the first time, Hersh has implicated Hillary Clinton directly in this «rat line». In an interview with Alternet.org, Hersh was asked about the then-US-Secretary-of-State’s role in the Benghazi Libya US consulate’s operation to collect weapons from Libyan stockpiles and send them through Turkey into Syria for a set-up sarin-gas attack, to be blamed on Assad in order to ‘justify’ the US invading Syria, as the US had invaded Libya to eliminate Gaddafi. Hersh said: «That ambassador who was killed, he was known as a guy, from what I understand, as somebody, who would not get in the way of the CIA. As I wrote, on the day of the mission he was meeting with the CIA base chief and the shipping company. He was certainly involved, aware and witting of everything that was going on. And there’s no way somebody in that sensitive of a position is not talking to the boss, by some channel».

This was, in fact, the Syrian part of the State Department’s Libyan operation, Obama’s operation to set up an excuse for the US doing in Syria what they had already done in Libya.

The interviewer then asked: «In the book [Hersh’s The Killing of Osama bin Laden, just out] you quote a former intelligence official as saying that the White House rejected 35 target sets [for the planned US invasion of Syria] provided by the Joint Chiefs as being insufficiently painful to the Assad regime. (You note that the original targets included military sites only – nothing by way of civilian infrastructure.) Later the White House proposed a target list that included civilian infrastructure. What would the toll to civilians have been if the White House’s proposed strike had been carried out?»

Hersh responded by saying that the US tradition in that regard has long been to ignore civilian casualties; i.e., collateral damage of US attacks is okay or even desired (so as to terrorize the population into surrender) – not an ‘issue’, except, perhaps, for the PR people.

The interviewer asked why Obama is so obsessed to replace Assad in Syria, since «The power vacuum that would ensue would open Syria up to all kinds of jihadi groups»; and Hersh replied that not only he, but the Joint Chiefs of Staff, «nobody could figure out why». He said, «Our policy has always been against him [Assad]. Period». This has actually been the case not only since the Party that Assad leads, the Ba’ath Party, was the subject of a shelved CIA coup-plot in 1957 to overthrow and replace it; but, actually, the CIA’s first coup had been not just planned but was carried out in 1949 in Syria, overthrowing there a democratically elected leader, in order to enable a pipeline for the Saudis’ oil to become built through Syria into the largest oil market, Europe; and, construction of the pipeline started the following year. But, there were then a succession of Syrian coups (domestic instead of by foreign powers – 1954, 1963, 1966, and, finally, in 1970), concluding in the accession to power of Hafez al-Assad during the 1970 coup. And, the Saudis' long-planned Trans-Arabia Pipeline has still not been built. The Saudi royal family, who own the world’s largest oil company, Aramco, don’t want to wait any longer. Obama is the first US President to have seriously tried to carry out their long-desired «regime change» in Syria, so as to enable not only the Saudis’ Trans-Arabian Pipeline to be built, but also to build through Syria the Qatar-Turkey Gas Pipeline that the Thani royal family (friends of the Saudis) who own Qatar want also to be built there. The US is allied with the Saud family (and with their friends, the royal families of Qatar, Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain, and Oman). Russia is allied with the leaders of Syria – as Russia had earlier been allied with Mossadegh in Iran, Arbenz in Guatemala, Allende in Chile, Hussein in Iraq, Gaddafi in Libya, and Yanukovych in Ukraine (all of whom except Syria’s Ba’ath Party, the US has successfully overthrown).

Hersh was wrong to say that «nobody could figure out why» Obama is obsessed with overthrowing Assad and his Ba’ath Party, even if nobody that he spoke with was willing to say why. They have all been hired to do a job, which didn’t change even when the Soviet Union ended and the Warsaw Pact was disbanded; and, anyone who has been at this job for as long as those people have, can pretty well figure out what the job actually is – even if Hersh can’t.

Hersh then said that Obama wanted to fill Syria with foreign jihadists to serve as the necessary ground forces for his planned aerial bombardment there, and, «if you wanted to go there and fight there in 2011-2013, ‘Go, go, go… overthrow Bashar!’ So, they actually pushed a lot of people [jihadists] to go. I don’t think they were paying for them but they certainly gave visas».

However, it’s not actually part of America’s deal with its allies the fundamentalist-Sunni Arabic royal families and the fundamentalist Sunni Erdogan of Turkey, for the US to supply the salaries (to be «paying for them», as Hersh put it there) to those fundamentalist Sunni jihadists – that’s instead the function of the Sauds and of their friends, the other Arab royals, and their friends, to do. (Those are the people who finance the terrorists to perpetrate attacks in the US, Europe, Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, India, Nigeria, etc. – i.e., anywhere except in their own countries.) And, Erdogan in Turkey mainly gives their jihadists just safe passage into Syria, and he takes part of the proceeds from the jihadists’ sales of stolen Syrian and Iraqi oil. But, they all work together as a team (with the jihadists sometimes killing each other in the process – that’s even part of the plan) – though each national leader has PR problems at home in order to fool his respective public into thinking that they’re against terrorists, and that only the ‘enemy’ is to blame. (Meanwhile, the aristocrats who supply the «salaries» of the jihadists, walk off with all the money.)

This way, US oil and gas companies will refine, and pipeline into Europe, the Sauds’ oil and the Thanis’ gas, and not only will Russia’s major oil-and-gas market become squeezed away by that, but Obama’s economic sanctions against Russia, plus the yet-further isolation of Russia (as well as of China and the rest of the BRICS countries) by excluding them from Obama’s three mega-trade-deals (TTIP, TPP & TISA), will place the US aristocracy firmly in control of the world, to dominate the 21st Century, as it has dominated ever since the end of WW II.

Then, came this question from Hersh: «Why does America do what it does? Why do we not say to the Russians, Let’s work together?» His interviewer immediately seconded that by repeating it, «So why don’t we work closer with Russia? It seems so rational». Hersh replied simply: «I don’t know». He didn’t venture so much as a guess – not even an educated one. But, when journalists who are as knowledgeable as he, don’t present some credible explanation, to challenge the obvious lies (which make no sense that accords with the blatantly contrary evidence those journalists know of against those lies) that come from people such as Barack Obama, aren’t they thereby – though passively – participating in the fraud, instead of contradicting and challenging it? Or, is the underlying assumption, there: The general public is going to be as deeply immersed in the background information here as I am, so that they don’t need me to bring it all together for them into a coherent (and fully documented) whole, which does make sense? Is that the underlying assumption? Because: if it is, it’s false.

Hersh’s journalism is among the best (after all: he went so far as to say, of Christopher Stephens, regarding Hillary Clinton, «there’s no way somebody in that sensitive of a position is not talking to the boss, by some channel»), but it’s certainly not good enough. However, it’s too good to be published any longer in places like the New Yorker. And the reporting by Christof Lehmann was better, and it was issued even earlier than Hersh’s; and it is good enough, because it named names, and it explained motivations, in an honest and forthright way, which is why Lehmann’s piece was published only on a Montenegrin site, and only online, not in a Western print medium, such as the New Yorker. The sites that are owned by members of the Western aristocracy don’t issue reports like that – journalism that’s good enough. They won’t inform the public when a US Secretary of State, and her boss the US President, are the persons actually behind a sarin gas attack they’re blaming on a foreign leader the US aristocrats and their allied foreign aristocrats are determined to topple and replace.

Is this really a democracy?

 

[angelburst29]

[Video] "White Helmets" Exposed as US UK Agents Embedded with Al Nusra and ISIS
http://www.fort-russ.com/2016/05/video-white-helmets-exposed-as-us-uk.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5k6hSS6xBTw

Investigative journalist, Vanessa Beeley gives an excellent summary and explanation of the 'White Helmets' organization, and with it gives us words that will no doubt bear some prescience in the weeks and months to come.

This organization is rightly considered to be the clean-up crew and public relations face to the west, for the activities of Wahhabi and Qutbist terrorist/invasion groups operating in Syria.

The US has admitted to funding this organization, and as well we know that they are funded through the UN's NGO structures.

The Russian reconciliation center in Syria said in an information bulletin it sent 3.5 metric tons (3.9 US tons) of humanitarian aid to the provinces of Aleppo and Damascus.

Russia's Syria Peace Center Sends 3.5 Tonnes of Aid to Aleppo, Damascus
http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20160502/1038932069/russian-humanitarian-aid-syria.html

According to the statement, a humanitarian aid convoy is currently being formed for Hama and Homs provinces.

As many as 3.5 tonnes of humanitarian supplies were passed on to the settlements of Balas in the Aleppo province and Muadhamiya in the Damascus province. Medical staff of the reconciliation center provided medical assistance to 42 locals," the Sunday statement, posted on the website of the Russian Defense Ministry, said.

US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived to Geneva for talks with UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported Sunday.

Kerry Arrives to Geneva for Talks With UN Special Envoy for Syria
http://sputniknews.com/politics/20160501/1038931038/kerry-geneva-syria-talks.html

Kerry is also set to meet Jordanian and Saudi Foreign Ministers Nasser Judeh and Adel Jubeir on Sunday and Monday respectively. All meeting will be held without presence of journalists.

The US State Department said in a Saturday statement that during his visit Kerry will review the ongoing cessation of hostilities in Syria as well as discuss other Syrian issues.

The US is reaping the fruits of its anti-Russian sanctions: it has accumulated the largest stockpile of dairy products in 30 years – in fact, there is so much cheese and butter in the US right now, it's unclear what the government will do with it.

In a Cheese Trap: US Reaps the Fruits of Its Anti-Russian Sanctions
http://sputniknews.com/world/20160501/1038923138/us-europe-cheese.html

“The US is sitting on more butter and cheese than it knows what to do with, and the Europeans are to blame,” says a Bloomberg report.

Exports from the European Union have climbed so far this year, it says, as the bloc's once-largest customer, Russia, banned trade in foodstuffs in retaliation for the sanctions.

Europe therefore stated looking for alternative markets such as Asia and the Middle East.

The US, in turn, has been snapping up cheese from Europe because of the cheap prices.

“European dairy products are so cheap right now that the US itself has become the new No. 1 customer for some products — imports of EU butter doubled last year and rose 17 percent for cheese, according to the European Commission,” the agency says.

All that excess supply is building up in US refrigerators, especially as American dairy production heads to a record this year.

"It's been difficult for them to export given the strong dollar, and they're sucking in imports," Kevin Bellamy, a global dairy market strategist at Rabobank International in Utrecht, Netherlands told Bloomberg. “Where the US has lost out on business, Europe has gained.”

That doesn't mean European dairy farmers are happy about the situation. Sinking milk princes in the EU have dropped to the lowest levels since 2010, and the low prices could put many dairy farmers out of business.

Russia's 2014 ban on most dairy products from the EU, the US, Australia and Norway has also disrupted diary prices.

American dairy farmers have also raised concerns about the influx of foreign dairy products driving down domestic prices and profits.

Whatever the solution, it isn't as simple as asking everyone to do their part and eat some cheddar, concludes another media source, the International Business Times.

 

[sToRmR1dR]

CIA Head Against Declassifying 9/11 Report Over Inaccurate Information

http://sputniknews.com/military/20160502/1038936372/cia-head-report-declassifying.html

Declassifying the 28 pages from the 9/11 Commission report would be a mistake as they contain inaccurate information which may be used to link Saudi Arabia to the terror attacks, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Brennan said.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Last week, Congressman Walter Jones told Sputnik that US lawmakers were to meet with Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper to discuss the declassification of 28 pages of the joint congressional report on the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

"I think there's a combination of things that are accurate and inaccurate [in the report]… I think the 9/11 Commission took that joint inquiry and those 28 pages or so and followed through on the investigation and then came out with a very clear judgment that there was no evidence that… Saudi government as an institution or Saudi officials or individuals had provided financial support to al Qaeda," Brennan said on Sunday as quoted by The Hill portal.

On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda suicide bombers hijacked four passenger planes in the United States, crashing two into New York's World Trade Center towers, another into the Pentagon and the fourth was sent in the direction of Washington D.C., presumably to attack the White House or the Capitol.

After the attacks, a joint congressional committee issued an investigative report published in 2002, with the exception of a 28-page chapter reportedly dealing with foreign financing of the terrorist attacks

CIA director: Don’t release '28 pages', they implicate Saudis

http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2016/05/01/463502/CIA-911-Saudi-Arabia/

John Brennan, the director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), has said that it would be a mistake to release the 28 classified pages from the 9/11 Commission report because they contain "un-vetted" information that could implicate Saudi Arabia in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

A number of former and current congressmen have called on the White House to declassify the document that sheds light on the Saudi royal family’s possible complicity in the 9/11 attacks.

They say it proves two Saudi nationals who were behind the September 11 incidents received support and assistance from Riyadh while in the United States.

In an interview with NBC News on Sunday, Brennan said, “This chapter was kept out because of concerns about sensitive methods, investigative actions, and the investigation of 9/11 was still underway in 2002.”

The CIA chief said releasing the 28-page classified document would give ammunition to those who want to tie the terrorist attacks to Saudi Arabia.

"I think there's a combination of things that are accurate and inaccurate [in the report]," Brennan said.

"I think the 9/11 Commission took that joint inquiry and those 28 pages or so and followed through on the investigation and then came out with a very clear judgment that there was no evidence that ... Saudi government as an institution or Saudi officials or individuals had provided financial support to al-Qaeda,” he claimed.

The September, 11, 2001 attacks, also known as the 9/11 attacks, were a series of strikes in the US which killed nearly 3,000 people and caused about $10 billion worth of property and infrastructure damage.

US officials assert that the attacks were carried out by 19 al-Qaeda terrorists – 15 of them were Saudi citizens -- but many independent researchers have raised questions about the official account.

They believe that rogue elements within the US government orchestrated the 9/11 attacks in order to accelerate the US war machine and advance the Zionist agenda.

Analysts argue that Saudi Arabia only played a minor role in 9/11, but the operation was essentially carried out by Israeli and American intelligence agencies to destroy the seven countries in five years, that were enemies or threats to the Zionist regime.

According to American political analyst Mark Gelnn, the media frenzy over Saudi Arabia’s possible role in the 9/11 attacks is aimed at distracting people from much deeper involvement of Israel as the truth would endanger its existence.

“I believe that the entire operation is one that is rooted in distracting people away from what the truly problematic elements are with regards to 9/11,” Glenn told Press TV last week. “And I believe this revolves all around Israel’s role in 9/11.”

“This entire operation that Saudi Arabia is being center-staged as the true subject of these 28 pages that have been kept hidden from the American people, this is just, as I said, an operation aimed at distracting people away from the more damning and problematic information where Israel is actually the centerpiece of the discussion,” the analyst stated.

“If the American people were to find out what happened and how Israel was directly involved in 9/11, it would obviously change the political landscape vis-à-vis America and her support for Israel” in such a radical way that would be considered an “existential threat” to the Tel Aviv regime, he added.

Former US Senator Bob Graham, however, says he believes the 28-page classified document shows the 9/11 hijackers were "substantially" supported by the Saudi government, as well as wealthy Saudi nationals.

"I think it is implausible to believe that 19 people, most of whom didn't speak English, most of whom had never been in the United States before, many of whom didn't have a high school education — could've carried out such a complicated task without some support from within the United States," Graham said in April.